#but yeah we also really need to meet people in the area. and a furry con is like

[hooved]

i wanna go to anthrocon sooooo bad but i'm worried i won't be able to save up enough money for it 😔

[huffle-dork]

Long Live the King

Chapter 11: Returning Home

Read Fantasy Masks | Read Swapboys | Read the first FM adventure | Other Multiverse Adventures | Read on AO3

When the sun comes up the next day- it seems after doing their duties that everyone had fallen asleep at one point. For long enough for everyone to be awaken by the sound of something ruffling through their bags. That area is shrouded in shadows- so its hard to make out what the thing is. It looks like it could be humanoid... it turns as it hears people rising up and its pupils are reflective, slightly glowing in the dim light of the forest like some kind of animal.

Jackie wakes up first. He sees the creature and gasps, grabbing his swords which are nearby even when he sleeps. "Hey!" 

The shout wakes everyone else up. 

Marvin bolts upright and pulls some light from his amulet, shining it on the humanoid figure.

The creature jumps and scrambles back at the shout - then seems to hiss as the light hits it. 

Bro scrambles to sit up and grabs his sword, looking around frantically. 

Jackieboy grabs his knife- then sees who the light is hitting and snorts, going to roll over sleepily. "Ah itsjus' Alt-" 

It is Alt. He's been caught red-handed. He's holding a bit of food in his good hand, his mouth filled with half chewed food. He looks like a raccoon that got caught raiding a trash can. He swallows quickly, his face red, "...S-sorry i was really hungry- didn't wanna wake you-" 

"ALT!!" Henny yells in excitement and hurries over to hug him, "Oh you are awake and alright!! I am so relieved!" 

"Ahhh! Henny! ow- careful!" Alt squirms then weakly glitches out of the hug. He looks a bit faint after doing that but he does smile sheepishly at the others. 

Jackie relaxes. "Elders and Sisters, Alt, you scared us. Since when do your eyes glow like that?" 

"They're not really glowing, they're reflecting light," Marvin says. "Like a cat. Or some other nocturnal animal. I'm sure they did it before, we just didn't notice."

Alt grumbles as he finishes the last thing he stole, "They've done this since Mag turned me into a tiger for a month-" 

"It scares me at home too sometimes," Bro laughs. 

Alt pouts then he slowly laughs too, "Sometimes i look in the mirror and scare myself.”

Chase laughs. "We're glad that you're okay, Alt. So glad. But... really, you could have woken us up." 

Alt fidgets with his clothes- really missing his masks. He hadn't, being with the King but now- the eyes on him are a bit much. "...you all were sleeping so peacefully and after yesterday... i didn't expect you to wake up so soon..." 

"I'm a light sleeper," Jackie says. "It's the warrior training. You have to be ready for whenever." 

"And Jackie is loud enough to wake anyone up," Henrik adds jokingly. 

You need food for your recovery, don't you? Jameson asks. That would explain... this. He indicates the whole situation with the food bag. 

Alt looks to Jameson and smiles, "Uh yeah that- and also .... I was just really really hungry..." 

"How are you feeling?" Henrik asks. 

Alt looks back at Henrik and laughs, "still not the best but... at least I'm awake. It'll probably take a bit for my magic to get back up... and you know- my arm and chest still hurt." He then panics slightly and looks around, "Wait where are-?!" Alt spots a furry face pop up from where the King is still tied up and Mag glares at Alt and hisses- even if he can't hear it. Alt's eyes widen in surprise. "...holy shit.... i... i actually managed to do that???" 

The others follow Alt's gaze to Magnificent and Aneirin. "Y-yea... you don't remember?" Marvin asks. "I suppose you were really low on energy, after all... You said it was temporary." 

Alt shudders as he meets the King's eye and quickly looks away. He laughs, shaking his head, "Honestly? A-After seeing Jack I... kinda thought everything afterwards was a dream..." He grips at his bad arm gently and swallows. 

Henny sees the slight distress on Alt's face and goes to sit by him, lightly touching his knee. "Hey stürmisch... you did that for a good reason. You are not like him." 

Alt closes his eyes shut tightly for a second, but quickly opens them back up and nods. "Y-Yeah..." 

"The other me is right, Alt," Henrik whispers. "You are different."

Alt blinks at Henrik's whispers and then his face softens. He smiles, "... thanks. ...I need to hear that sometimes."

Aneirin opens one eye--he was sleeping just as soundly as the others--and glares at Alt. 

"Don't worry about him... too much," Chase says. "Marvin silenced him so he can't use commands. And I think it's hard to cast spells when you're tied up." 

Alt glances back at the King and can't help but shudder more. "... what can we do about the King...? The second we let him go h-he'll..." 

"We, um..." Jackie coughs. "I know this isn't really the honorable thing to do, but... we sort of decided to just leave him here." 

"... no no that's... that's good. Fuck him." Alt mutters, glaring at the King. "... He can stand to rot here for a bit." 

He'll get out eventually, Jameson says. So don't worry about J-A-C-K. He spells out the name. Clearly, he's not familiar enough with the true King to give him a name sign. 

"I think the Wyldwood is too afraid of him to do anything, honestly," Marvin mutters. 

"We'll be back for him," Chase says quietly. He looks uncertain about this course of action, but doesn't protest it. 

"Alt, how is your memory?" Dr. J asks quietly.

"Oh- it's back." Alt says simply. 

Jackieboy stops pretending to sleep and sits up, his hair all fluffed up wildly, "WHAT?! Just like that??" 

The fantasy guys laugh at how blunt Alt is.

Alt laughs then shrugs, "I dunno how- All I know that when I was with Jack... I wasn't confused about our world anymore." He hums in thought and looks up, "Maybe it's cuz I went through the King's mind- who already knew mine. And being there just... fixed the gaps. Or- maybe the Elders helped more than I thought, it just came slower." He shrugs again, "All I know is- I'm back. No more confusion- no more weird-ass knight talk."

"No, that would make sense, actually," Chase says. "In one of my dream conversations with Jack, he said that he learned how to use his enchanter powers to help people who are going through tough times. Like... help ease their heightened emotions, a-and treat the mind like how doctors treat the body. Sort of like what JJ does, actually, now that I think about it." He nods at JJ. 

JJ looks beyond flattered. He holds onto his watch- seeming to be comtemplating something. Henny brings him into a side hug.

"So while you were in there, Jack was able to finish what the Elders started, I suppose," Jackie sums up.

Alt smiles, "Yeah... that sounds about right. A joint effort." He looks at Aneirin with a neutral expression before turning to the others, "...He's gonna be a great King someday."

"I think so too," Chase agrees. 

Aneirin's expression twists into something ugly and he looks away from the others. Magnificent bares his fangs at the others.

"I suppose we have to bring Magnificent with us, if we're going to move," Marvin says.

Alt makes a face. "I mean... I'm sure I got some kind of spell to... I dunno- make a cage for him?" 

"Like we're bringing him to the vet?" Bro laughs. Alt laughs too. 

"Are we going to move?" Marvin asks the others.

"Well not right away," Chase says. "It's still fairly dark." 

"And yet, we're awake," Jackie points out. 

If we're all awake we might as well eat, Jameson says.

Henny brightens up and claps his hands together, "Yes! Let us eat! We can finally all enjoy a meal together like we wanted!!"

Jackie grins. "Alright, everyone gets their own food, then. Try not to touch the fruit unless you have to. And I don't think Alt should have any, given he had two in such a short time frame." 

Alt pouts at being told he can't have the fruit but then sighs, "Yeah- that's fair. Though... I'm okay, I think." 

"You know, it's strange, these fruits that the others cut into haven't wilted around the cuts at all," Chase mutters. "That's not normal." 

"We're in the Wyldwood, nothing is normal," Marvin says. "And Alt? If you don't have a spell like that, I do." 

"Why do you have a spell to carry cats in bags?" Henrik asks. 

Marvin picks up Draco. "Because when I first got a familiar I thought it would be helpful to carry him everywhere. Didn't realize that he would follow me wherever unless I ordered him not to. But that could be his fault, since he wanders around so much."

Alt grins and laughs, nodding to Marvin, "Brilliant. Maybe I should learn something like that for Glitches-" 

"She already gets in your backpack just fine, though-" Bro comments, getting to his feet. 

"...touché-" Alt giggles then slowly blushes, looking down at the food, "...I hope I left enough... I didn't try to eat too much."

"IIIII don't think you need to worry about that," Jackie says, pulling out two fruits--five fruits--ten fruits. 

When did you grab that much?! Jameson asks, surprised. 

Jackie shrugs. "I thought they would come in handy." 

Jackieboy bursts into laughter. "That was a smart move! Toss me one?" Henny and Dr. J giggle too. Bro shakes his head with a smile. 

Jackie grins and tosses Jackieboy one of the fruits. "I advise not eating it down to the pit, apparently that will make you feverish. And it looks like the fruit won't rot quickly so we don't have to worry about that."

Jackieboy grins and goes to spit his fruit in half, giving the other half to Bro. Henny soon does the same and shares some with Dr. J. 

"Is your Ghlishes alright, Alt?" Marvin asks. "You didn't leave her suddenly like last time, did you?"

Alt blinks at Marvin and then smiles. "She's okay. We prepared this time. She's being watched by some of our friends- same with Henny's dog." 

"Don't lie Alt! You can say that your booooyfriend is watching them!" Jackieboy shouts. 

Alt turns bright red, and then yells back at him. "I'm not lying! Jack was also helping! And Stacy too! Why don't you tease Chase about that huh?!" 

"Cuz he doesn't get as embarrassed as you!" Jackieboy grins.

Henrik rolls his eyes at Jackieboy's teasing. "That teasing attitude goes beyond worlds, it seems," he mutters. "Alt, they were all acting the same way about me and my partner Vsevna on our way here." 

"Oh yeaaaaa, Alt never met Vsevna!" Jackie gasps. "He never saw how red your face gets around him!" 

"See?" Henrik says. 

"Vsevna should have come with us," Chase says. "His expertise might've come in handy... and he would've cheered Henrik up right away." 

"See?" Henrik rolls his eyes.

Alt blinks and then brightens up, "Oh! I remember- they were teasing us both so much last time! you got together with your crush too?" He seems genuinely happy to hear Henrik say he has a partner. "If we can, I would love to meet him. And I won't tease ya- promise." He grins.

Henrik chuckles. "I think he would like you. He would at least be very interested in your ghlishing. But for now, we have to continue into the Wyldwood." 

"Alt doesn't know about that, I think," Jackie says. 

"Oh. Right." Chase nods. "We came into the Wyldwood to find you, but we also came here on a... quest, I guess. The Horned Elder One has guided us here. Apparently there's something that could help with..." He glances at Aneirin, still tied up. "I don't want to be too detailed right now, but it will help with the possession if we see it."

Alt tilts his head and then looks back at the King too. He frowns, then lowers his voice to a whisper, "... don't you think he'll try to stop you? You're right- he won't stay trapped there forever if we leave him. But... I think he'd also hunt you all down through the woods to find this place. If he knows this could lead to his downfall- he'll be hot on your trial the second he can be." He then thinks, "I mean... if the Horned Elder is helping... then maybe but... I don't know. Don't you guys think its too risky to go looking for this while the King is still in the Wyldwood? The only other way I can see that working is if we can somehow get him back to Suilthair but... I-I know how far away that is now..."

"It's very far," Marvin confirms. "Most magic doorways couldn't reach there. In fact, no doorways are supposed to, but we have seen the King summon large doorways across vast distances." 

Chase hesitates. "I... you have a point... But what? Are we supposed to drag him to our camp?" 

"I don't think the camp would be prepared for him," Jackie mutters. "We weren't expecting to keep prisoners there, much less prisoners who can influence people's minds." 

His range extends to all of Suilthair, if he gets even near the camp he would be able to change people's attitudes and such, Jameson says, making sure the King can't see his hands. 

"Ugh. It's difficult," Jackie says. "There are..." Henrik hesitates. "You can adjust the recipes for pain relief tonics to make tonics that will keep people asleep, or unable to move. But I do not have supplies for that with me. We would have to take him back to camp for that." 

Aneirin tilts his head, keeping his face still. He can't quite hear what they're saying with how they're all mumbling, but they're clearly discussing him. Hmm…

"No you're right we can't take him back to camp," Bro says gravelly, "We'd risk him getting the other phantoms..." 

Alt shudders at this thought. "Ugh- I should have tried to turn that fucker into a cat too-" Alt growls. "There's gotta be some kind of spell I can use... but I'm still kinda drained." 

"I know this sounds messed up but- what if we just like- break his legs?" Jackieboy suggests. 

"Jackie!" Dr. J gasps, horrified. 

"What?? Then he couldn't chase after you! He's still human... ish. Spirit piloting a human but- still human. Like Mag- if we broke his legs then-" 

"Dude, even if he's evil that's not cool-" Bro says, shaking his head. "Feel like that goes against- a hero oath or something. Plus- that's still someone's body. Jack would have to deal with that."

Marvin raises his eyebrows, looking like he's considering Jackieboy's suggestion. Chase leans over and punches him in the arm. "Ow! What the fuck?!" 

"Bro is right, we can't do that to Jack," Chase says. "It feels like... like we're getting close to that vision coming true. Which means that the spirit might be pushed out soon. And then Jack would be left with that." 

Not to mention that the King was physically fine in my vision, Jameson says. Changing that might prevent it from coming true. And I haven't seen any other way of defeating him. 

"We should not try to alter the future that way," Henny says with a nod to Jameson. "And... kindness gets repaid back. Even if that awful spirit does not deserve it... it is kind to Jack. Who needs that kindness." 

"yeah yeah-" Jackieboy grumbles. 

"So we're really just going to leave him," Jackie mutters. "Well. If there's anything we can do to delay him, we should do it." 

"What? Is leaving him tied to a tree and without any weapons not enough to delay him?" Henrik drawls. 

"I dunno... he's scarily powerful," Alt mutters, gripping his arm. "I have no doubt he can just- lightning himself free or something. I dunno why he hasn't yet in all honesty." 

"Oh!" Marvin suddenly perks up. "I forgot to mention this last night. But I searched the King's belongings while he was knocked out and I was tying him up. And look at this." He reaches into his bag and pulls out... a white mask in the shape of a cat's face. But not just any cat. One with stripes.

The other swaps gasp in delight at seeing the mask but it takes Alt a second to look. But, when he does his eyes widen and he goes to gently take the mask from Marvin. He feels tears in his eyes and he laughs, "...I... I thought he left it back in Suilthair...! I... I never thought I'd see it again..."

Marvin smiles a bit. "I'm surprised he took it with him as well. I can only guess that he wanted to be sure it wouldn't somehow find its way back to you." 

He loves to be in control, Jameson says. I agree, the only way he could have felt sure that you wouldn't see it was to keep it on him, out of sight. He chuckles silently. Of course, that was deflected to him. 

"As all his plans will be eventually," Henrik agrees. 

Alt runs his thumbs over the mask, smiling wetly. "Yeah I guess... It would have given me my memories back..." 

"As for why he hasn't, uh, 'lightning himself' free yet," Marvin continues. "Even his power, strange as it is, needs to recharge. He must be running low." 

Aneirin glares at Marvin as he says this--not willing to admit how right his guess is.

Alt pauses, feeling the weight of all the days stuck under their control fall on him again. He shuts his eyes and curls up, hugging the mask to his chest. 

"...Alt? Are you okay?" Dr. J asks. 

Alt nods, "Y-Yeah m'fine... just... n-need a minute..." 

Bro watches this and can already guess what his brother is feeling. He walks over then plops down next to Alt, opening his arm behind him. Alt is still for a moment before falling slightly against Bro- and the older brother wraps him up in a one armed hug.

The fantasy guys stay quiet, for their part. This feels like a private moment. Jameson is the first to speak. 

It's... difficult, he says. I know. But you have your friends, Alt. 

Jackie nods. "And us, if you need us."

Alt looks up with red-rimmed eyes and nods, "I know... it just... sucks. I lost days just... being the little thing they pushed around." He laughs bitterly, "...I was so excited to come back here and just... got dealt this shit..." 

Bro feels for Alt and leans his head against his, "... we had hoped things would be better when we got here... but it wasn't. And we didn't think Mag would know..." He looks angry as he glares at the King and Mag, "... but it wasn't fair what they did to you." 

"They will both get what they deserve, Alt," Henny says quietly. 

"We won't let our bastard get away with anything for much longer," Jackie promises. "And your bastard--well, he's a cat for now. Even if it's temporary, that's something he deserves." 

Alt laughs, "Yeah. It is." He glares at Mag, "I'd keep him trapped for a whole month if I could. Maybe longer." 

People like them never win in the end, Jameson says. I know it's hard to remember that. But it's true. And it's not your fault that you got pushed around like that. It's hard enough to resist the King on his own, much less combined with someone else. Trust me, I know. 

Marvin puts a hand on Jameson's shoulder supportively. With his other, he nudges Draco towards Alt. The cat looks at him, comically annoyed, but walks over as he suggested. Clearly, Marvin's picked up that fluffy cats are good for comfort. 

Alt listens to Jameson and looks at him sympathetically. He smiles sadly. "... it's the same way with Mag. A-At least... for me." He pulls up his sleeve to hide his purple marks on his wrist. Bro hugs Alt tighter. 

Speaking of Mag though- while everyone is distracted with Alt, Mag has pushed himself up and is studying the rope tying up Aneirin. He reaches up and tries to see if he can cut through. But, it's way too thick- and it seems like Mag gets scared of pulling out his claws. His tail flicks in annoyance as he curses Alt over and over in his head, angrily stomping around and then tearing at the ground to get out his anger.

Aneirin watches Mag try, curious. He nods, acknowledging his effort. Not thanking him. Totally not thanking him. He doesn't thank people. Not genuinely like this would be.

Mag snorts and watches the King for a second before nodding himself then plopping back to the ground, tail flicking in anger. Not much else he can do.

Alt blinks as Draco approaches him then smiles and offers him his hand to sniff. 

Draco sniffs Alt's hand, then curls up against him. 

"If you ask me... I think that Magnificent is a little afraid of you, Alt," Marvin says, keeping his voice too quiet for the temporarily-feline magician to hear. "I mean, look at what you can do when you set your mind to it. That thunderbird form of yours is powerful, and your normal form isn't too far behind, from my perspective. He wants to control you so that you won't turn against him. And he seems the type to turn fear into anger." 

Alt blinks in surprise and then chuckles, “…I always wondered if that might be the case…” 

Dr. J nods, “He is the type to act out in anger, especially when afraid. I think it might be one of the only emotions he can still feel.” 

Henrik raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure about all this, Marvin?" 

"No. But I am him, in some way, aren't I?" Marvin pauses, not wanting to share too much. "I don't think Magnificent would admit it to himself. But if I was him, that's how I would be feeling." 

“Even if he was Marvin once, you are not Magnificent.” Jackieboy says firmly to Marvin. “You’re nothing like him. Just like Alt is nothing like that fucking bastard King. And I would know.” He does smile a bit, though it is somewhat sad. “…you remind me of what he once was. When he was good.” 

Marvin blinks. “Hah. Thank you.” He smiles a little. “Glad to hear someone thinks I’m good.” 

Jackie glances at him. “Just because you were a bastard for a while doesn’t mean I never thought you weren’t good.” 

“You sure?” Henrik mutters. 

“This isn’t the time, Schneep.” 

“Alt was a bit of a bastard too- but he’s a good guy- even if he doesn’t believe it sometimes.” Jackie says with a smile. 

Alt flushes and looks away, hiding his face behind his mask without putting it on.

"Even if that's not true about Magnificent, I think you could be stronger than him, Alt," Chase says. "With practice, you know?"

Alt’s eyes burn with determination, gripping his hands into fists. “One day, I will be stronger than him. I’m gonna make sure I am.”

I believe in you, Alt, Jameson says, smiling. You’re very strong and determined.

Alt smiles, “…thanks.” 

Bro sighs and looks around at everyone, “So what’s the plan? We gotta find a way to make sure that bastard doesn’t follow you.” 

Alt thinks on this and then perks up and looks around for his bag. He pulls out a couple orange berries. “…the King told me these sap your energy… do you think we might be able to use them somehow…?” 

“…maybe?” Marvin says slowly. 

“That sounds good in idea, but I don’t think it’ll be easy,” Jackie adds. “He’s likely to bite our fingers off if we try feeding him.” 

Aneirin is glaring at them in a way that suggests he absolutely would.

“I don’t wanna get bitten by a mad king- pretty sure that’s how like- werewolves are made,” Jackieboy half jokes. “Nobody wants to become a were-bastard.” 

“Right-“ Alt chuckles, “Guess it wouldn’t be easy to make like- a sleep potion from unknown magic fruit-“ 

“We’ll try,” Chase says. “That sounds better than just waiting for him to follow.” 

“If we are going to do something like that, we should take care of Magnificent first,” Henrik says. “He seems protective of the King. Have you ever seen a cat honestly try to fight a person? Scratches everywhere.”

The swaps all glance at Magnificent, who’s staring at them with furious eyes and a lashing tail. 

“Oh! I think I can help!” Henny says, grabbing his recovered pocket watch, “Now that he is smaller- I think it will be easier for me to pause him! That way you can do the spell to get him trapped!”

Marvin grins. "If you think you can, you can try whenever you want." He grabs his amulet, its glow increasing. "I'll react as soon as you do." 

Henny grins and then gets to his feet. He heads over to Mag and then smirks, his eyes glowing teal. "Do not worry, Magnificent! This will not hurt a bit~" He then waves a hand over Mag. Mag tries to react but the spell catches him in mid rage, his mouth open in an almost comical yowl.

Marvin reacts quickly, flinging his magic at the frozen Magnificent. Light wraps around him, forming an outline of a box. It then solidifies into something that looks a lot like a modern cat carrier, just made of different materials. White canvas covers a wireframe box, with mesh windows on the sides and top to see inside. The bottom is solid wood with soft fabric on the inside, and there are two cloth handles. Marvin lets out a breath. “Glad I could remember the spell,” he says. 

Henny flips up his hand to un-pause Mag. Mag looks around the makeshift box and then starts yowling in anger, battering against the box. Once Henny sees that he starts to spell up again. "Mein gott- calm yourself, katzchen!" 

"Meanwhile... Maybe I could try something," Henrik says slowly. "Here, give me those fruit and berries. It will not change the problem of giving it to Aneirin, but at the very least, if we distill it, it might help. Water would be easier to give him than solid food."

Alt blinks and then grins, handing the berries to Henrik. "Here- lemme see if I got any spells saved that can help." He pats down his pockets and curses, "Right- fucking prick stole my things. Marvin, where's the King's shit? I think he has my phone-" 

“What was it, Alt? Oh yes.” Marvin moves back over to his bag and starts pulling stuff out. The King’s circlet, the seax, and a small bag on a string. “Here, check in there.” Marvin tosses the bag to Alt. If he checks inside, he’ll see a handful of coins and colorful stones, a square of white cloth, a signet ring—and his phone and the TRVLR. 

Alt catches the bag and grins, "Thanks dude." He looks inside and tilts his head at the white cloth. Wonder what that is? 

Jackie also leans close and looks into the King’s bag. “Oh, a royal signet ring. A lot of money. And a handkerchief—oh. I think that’s used for wiping blades.”

"Ah that makes sense," Alt mumbles to Jackie as he explains. He's gotta focus on the task at hand though. He brightens as he sees his phone. And then exclaims as he sees the TRVLR, holding it out. "Oh yes!! I was wondering where they fucking kept this!" 

Dr. J blinks, "Oh! The TRVLR!" 

"Yes! I was worried fucking Mag did something else to it!" Alt grins. He holds both devices out and powers them up. The phone takes a second but is able to turn on, even if its like at 30%. He can't do much with it here anyways- but, he saved a bunch of his spell pages on his camera roll which he quickly looks through, searching for a spell.

Marvin picks up the cat box and brings it over to the rest of the group. Draco looks at Mag inside and paws at the mesh. It’s almost like he’s teasing him. 

“Ooo, your devices!” Henrik says, leaning forward in interest. “That is your alphabet, yes? How strange. It is all so… regular. I hear that they are making devices for regular writing like that back in Alterde. Called, ah… pr-presses? Because they press in the letters?” 

"Oh! Like a printing press!" Henny says excitedly, "I know of those!"

"Oh right- guess a lot of materials are still handwritten here." Dr. J muses.

Alt grins, "Yeah- we actually have machines now that write for us. In a sense- They make everything all even looking." 

Indeed, everything is written still, Jameson says. It would be helpful to have something that could write for you. I would certainly love that. 

Marvin chuckles. "Yes, that would make everything easy, wouldn't it, Jair?" 

"Not to mention how expensive books are because of how long they take to make," Chase mutters. "I'd like to actually have one, one day." 

"Oh- If only we could find a book written in your language. I would gladly bring you one," Dr. J says with a smile, "Books are quite affordable in our world." 

"If only that memory spell made me and Alt fluent in Glasish," Bro snickers.

"I don't think your brain has room for all of that-" Jackieboy teases. Bro pushes him over and they both laugh. 

After a bit Alt finds what he's looking for and grins, getting to his feet. "Okay- I dunno how well this will work on the King. But, considering Mag is a cat- we can at least stop him from freaking out." He kneels down by the box and then meets Mag's eyes. He waves a hand over the box and whispers "Codail". 

Particles of blue-green magic fall into the box and after a quick sign for Henny to release the pause spell again, Mag falls over into a little ball, fast asleep. 

"ah- thank you Alt, I was getting sore." Henny says. 

"Sore?" Jackieboy raises an eyebrow. 

"Yes! Using magic for a long period is... sore on the mind?" Henny makes a thinking face. "I do not know how else to phrase it."

The guys look impressed as Alt makes Mag fall asleep. 

"That would be very helpful," Marvin says. "I wonder if I could learn a spell like that. And yes, Henny, I agree. Sore on the mind. Like holding up a weight for too long." 

Alt grins, "I don't see why not! It's just a simple word spell for me- but I dunno, s'probably different here."

Jackie is looking at the King thoughtfully. "You know... we know that he can sleep, since Chase sees Jack in dreams," he says slowly. "So I don't know if the spirit will be affected, but maybe the body will be..." Aneirin's eyes widen slightly but he tries to keep his worry hidden.

At Jackie's thought, Alt looks back the King with an unreadable expression. "... He did need to sleep." His expression darkens as he starts to stride over to the King. He knew Mag would be too strong to be affected by a spell like this normally- but... Jack's body was human. "...Marvin- you might need to drop the silence spell."

Marvin looks at Alt, expression serious. "Alright. You should work fast, then, because he's going to try to command you as soon as he can." Aneirin sits up straight, eyes sharp.

Alt nods and in a blink, he's glitched right in front of the King. He acts fast, putting a hand over the King's mouth as magic blooms bright on the other. He looks to Marvin and nods.

Jackie notices what Alt and Marvin are doing. He stiffens, grabbing his sword just in case. 

Marvin nods back. Glowing bits of white light flicker into vision in the area affected by the silence spell--and then as they disappear, sound rushes back. 

Aneirin is immediately trying to speak, his voice muffled by Alt. There's a faint hint of enchantment but without understanding the words it can't do much.

Alt's eyes glow bright blue as he pushes the King's head back and then does the sleep spell again, growling out, "Codail." Probably with more malice then he should use but- just being near the King made his blood boil.

Aneirin's eyes flash with hatred--and then they close and he slumps against the tree. For a split second, Alt swears he hears a whispered {good luck} before the King falls asleep entirely. 

The group pauses for a moment, tense, as Alt does this. And then when the King fall asleep they all breathe a collective sigh of relief and return to the conversation. Alt steps back from the King, breathing heavily for a second before he snorts and glitches back over to the others.

"Next time we see each other the visitors should plan to bring books," Henrik says. "I know there are lesson books for reading. I used them when learning Glasish back in home." 

"Oh that would be brilliant!" Dr. J says, clapping his hands together. 

”We could teach you English too!" Henny beams. 

"I would love to learn your language," Henrik gushes. "I think I am very good at learning them." 

Me too! Jameson says, grinning. Clearly I cannot speak it but I'd love to read it.

"English is complicated but! I think all of us would be good teachers!" Henny grins. 

Dr. J smiles kindly, "We could also teach you our version of handspeak- me and Henrik use it often." 

Henny nods, "The others learned for us too!" 

"I remember when Bro appeared he tried to speak in hands to us, but we didn't understand it," Jackie says, chuckling. "It looked very strange." 

"I thought it could be universal-" Bro says with slightly flushed cheeks. "Then again- hard to find anyone who knows it in our own world. Schools should really teach it more." 

“I agree, more people should learn handspeak," Chase continues. "I learned it because Amabel wasn't learning to talk quickly so I thought that maybe physical speaking would help. She still uses it sometimes even though she can be very talkative now." 

Dr. J smiles knowingly, "Ah... I was like that as a child. Maybe not in the same way- but I was non-verbal often. That's how I learned." 

"All of that sounds fun," Chase says, smiling. "Learning doesn't usually seem fun to me, maybe being from different worlds makes it more interesting."

Jackieboy grins at Chase, "Dude- same. Never thought I'd have as much fun learning here as I did. S'probably cuz its just so different!" 

Chase laughs. "Exactly. I didn't have nearly as much fun learning to read--no offense, Henrik." 

"None taken." Henrik shrugs.  

Alt seems almost- sad. Listening to the others talk about returning. ...he's not sure they can. Not if Mag would be doing everything he can to follow them. He can't risk something like this happening again... He gathers up the TRVLR and tries to check on its damages. 

The TRVLR's screen flickers oddly for a second, a couple purple pixels at first, then a handful of red ones. But then it clears up. 

WARNING 

Latency Detected 

This unit is having difficulty connecting to the universal database. This is for one or more of the following reasons: 

-A Ripple is happening 

-Current location is too far from unit's home universe -Current location does not have the technical capabilities of helping connection 

Please take this into account when jumping. 

It's the same latency warning from last time. Better be careful when tapping the universe you want to jump to. 

Alt's eyebrows knit together in worry at seeing the screen flickering a bit then sighs as it seems to clear up. He nods. At least now they know their own universe code now. He carefully scrolls to find their favorites. "...we should probably leave soon."

"...so- guess we're about to split up again then..." Bro says, trying to school his expression but his voice gives himself away. 

"Alt missed out on so many things though!" Henny says. 

Dr. J sighs, "Yes but... we have delayed our friends long enough. We can't be selfish... they need to get on this quest. They have a kingdom to save after all." 

"...I dunno how long the spell will last but... hopefully it'll give you guys some time." Alt mumbles.

"Thank you, Alt," Marvin says, smiling. "We really appreciate it." 

"It 'sucks' that you missed out on so much," Chase says. "I'm so sorry that you got stuck with those bastards." He gives a glance to the sleeping King. 

We'll find a way to come visit you! Jameson says. Or you can come back whenever you want. 

"I think that time goes faster in our world than yours," Henrik says. "So maybe by the time you want to return, we will have everything already sorted." 

Alt smiles sadly at them and nods, "Y-Yeah..." He looks down and lets his expression fall for a second. 

But, Bro notices. Bro comes over and pats Alt on the shoulder, "Hey... if the time thing is true- even if Mag tries to follow us again- this spirit will be gone! He'll be out of his depths again. I'm sure we can take him- or figure out a way to stop him entirely. We got time, baby bro... We can ask Blaise for some safe guards or- I dunno something. Magic can do lots of things, right?" 

Alt blinks at Bro and then slowly smiles. "...Yeah. You're right." He turns back to the others and smiles, "I gotta come back to meet this Vsenva guy anyways, right?" 

"Maybe next time we could bring Oliver!" Jackieboy grins. 

Alt blushes. 

"Vsevna would love to meet you, Alt," Henrik says. "And I would love to meet your partner as well. He sounds like a nice guy." 

"Make sure you all have your old clothes packed in your bags," Jackie says. "Is there anything else you want to bring?" 

"Oh! I'm wondering something, actually." Marvin hands them one of the fruits. "There's a seed in that. Maybe you can plant it and grow magic fruit in your world? Or maybe not. It's possible that it won't work outside of the Wyldwood." 

"If you try, you should probably keep it in a pot or something so that it doesn't grow out of control," Chase says. "Amabel has told me that people planting strange plants and letting them run wild can really affect the, uh... circle of life, I think it's called. The environment." 

Dr. J takes the fruit and then beams, "Oh! That will be a very fun experiment. Maybe we can take it to Alt's mentor- she might know how to help it grow!" 

"I'm sure it'll be helpful to have magical healing fruit if you can make it grow," Marvin says, grinning. "But do be careful. No overindulgence."

"Oh Oh! May we keep our masks??" Henny asks, holding his hedgehog one to his chest. "I do not want to take if you need them but! It is soooo cute!"

Jackie laughs. "Of course you guys can take the masks! Alt took his last time. Think of them as keepsakes." 

"Yay!" Henny says, hugging his mask. "When I look at it, I will think of all the great friends we made here!" 

"So... you're all going to leave now, then?" Chase asks. 

Don't forget the cat, Jameson adds.

"...we should..." Alt says, standing up. "You guys have a lot on your plate. And honestly... I'm tired." Alt laughs, "I'm not sure how much more adventuring I could take..." 

"We should really get you seen by a doctor, Alt," Dr. J says, "You're still very injured." 

"Yeah yeah..." Alt mutters, clearly not excited about that. 

Jackieboy stretches and gets to his feet. "Yeahhh we do have lives to get back to... and despite the peril- not a bad time." He smiles. "We'll all see each other again." 

Bro grins, "Definitely." He grabs the box with Mag and lugs it onto one of his shoulders. "We'll be back to see the kingdom how its supposed to be!" He gestures to the others- "Grab your bags, lads." 

The others do so and then stand in a semi circle, adjusting and double checking they have everything. 

"Motherfucker- bastards have my jacket-" Alt mutters, closing up his bag. 

"Eh- you have like 3 of those now, Alt," Bro laughs.

Alt makes a face. "That one was the softest though..." 

"I'm sure the others will get soft again with enough wearing in, Alt." Dr. J chuckles. 

"If we find your jacket, Alt, we'll keep it safe for you," Chase promises.

Alt chuckles, "Thanks, man." 

Henny looks back at the fantasy boys, "... can we all get a hug before we leave??" He asks, his expression pleading.

The guys all smile. "Of course!" Jackie laughs, and immediately goes in for the hug. Chase follows, then Jameson, then Henrik. Marvin lingers back for a moment before joining in. "I'm not much for hugs, but this is a special occasion," he says, grinning. 

Henny excitedly pulls as many of them in as he can. Jackieboy follows, then Dr. J. Alt also hesitates but then, Bro puts the box down long enough to scoop Alt and give everyone a big super hug. 

Everyone laughs. 

The swaps all step back and form their circle again. Bro picking up the box and the others all linking hands. Alt double checks the TRVLR, making sure its not lagging and on the right universe. He smiles and then looks back at the others. "Until next time, then. Good luck." 

The others all shout out goodbyes and cyas as Alt hits the jump button.

"Until next time!" Jackie shouts, waving. 

"We'll see you then!" Chase adds. 

Good luck to you too! Jameson says. 

"We will miss you!" Henrik adds. 

"Farewell." Marvin smiles. 

And then the visitors all disappear at once. 

The guys stare at the spot where they were for a moment, taking in their sudden absence. Until Draco starts pawing at Marvin's leg. 

"I think he wants us to move on," Chase says, noticing that. 

"Yea, I hear you, boy, don't be so impatient," Marvin says, looking down at him. 

We do need to move fast, though, Jameson says. Alt's magic cannot last for long if he's left this world. He looks pointedly at the King. 

"Yea." Jackie nods. "I guess we go on now." 

"To return to our own quest, then," Henrik says, nodding as well. 

Chase looks at the King. "We'll find a way," he says quietly. 

And with that, they continue on their trek through the Wyldwood, determined to find some way to save their kingdom.

◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈━◈

The fall between worlds lingers for a little longer than usual. Alt feels the TRVLR in his hand get a little bit warmer, as the green stars in the Space In-Between flicker for a bit. And they all... jolt slightly. Like they're floating in a still water pond that suddenly ripples. And then, suddenly, they are back in their own world. Right where they left.

Alt's eyes widen as the change happens- Bro tightens his grip on him. But, then they're home. Right in the middle of the Brodys' living room. 

Alt gasps like he just broke the surface after being underwater. He looks down anxiously at the TRVLR, knitting his eyebrows together. 

Bro sighs and flops down onto their couch. "Ah! Home!!" 

"Don't get too comfy, Chase," Dr. J shakes his head, "After we all clean up and get dressed- we're taking Alt to the hospital." 

"Whattt! C'mon Jay!" Bro protests. 

"You said he broke his arm and his ribs! That needs proper treatment!" 

"It was partially healed by magic fruit!" 

"It should still be checked!!" 

Jackieboy rolls his eyes and looks around for a charger. "I'mma charge my phone and check in with everyone. You all start without me." 

Henny notices Alt stock still, still clutching the TRVLR. He walks over and places a hand on his shoulder. "Alt? Are you alright?" 

Alt startles slightly and then turns to smile at Henny, "Y-Yeah... Yeah. Fine." He pockets the device then grabs the box with Mag. "Immmm gonna get this dumped into the warehouse district before the spell breaks and Mag kills us!" 

Dr. J turns to him, "Alt! You better come back straight away because we'r-" 

"OKAYGOTTAGOBYE-" Alt says as he disappears into glitches. 

Dr. J watches him go and then sighs, rubbing his forehead. "You all are a handful..." 

"But ya love usss~" Jackieboy grins. 

JJ smiles and chuckles, "Unfortunately, Yes. I do." 

Alt deposits the box outside where he last knew Mag's warehouse to be. He almost wants to stop by to see the panthers but... not a good idea. He takes the time to take the TRVLR back out and study it.

 ... the transition was really really weird. He's never seen that before... he hopes its okay. As dangerous as these trips can be... he doesn't want to give up on them yet. But for now... Jay was right. He had a lot to recover from. He looks down at the sleeping form of his foe- kicks the box for good measure and flips it off as he heads back to his friends. 

[dancingthesambaa]

The Smell of Plum Blossom Tea Ch 17

Summary: Just like a butterfly wing, a single act of kindness can change the course of the future, it certainly did for MK as a black furred monkey put out a hand towards him.

Rating: Teen and up

Chapter 17: Can You Feel The Love Tonight~

“Pass some of that Okra.”

“Here you go.”

“Why is this so spicy?!”

“Well it is the spicy plate, if you can’t handle the heat then you should have gotten the other plate.”

“No, just this one specifically is damn spicy!”

“Red made some of them.”

“It’s not my fault that your taste isn’t refined enough.”

“Come over here and say that!”

“No fighting at the table,” Macaque said as he watched Bohai try to stand up from his seat, while Red was smirking at him.

“Won’t be much of a fight,” the demon prince mocked.

“You little-” his mouth was then stuffed with green beans.

“Just eat some veggies and calm yourself,” Sheng cracked a grin as they put some green beans in their mouth.

The jellyfish demon moodily just chewed on his food in silence.

“Children, all of them,” Mei said as she set down the bowl of Okra Ahmed passed her.

“So have you heard about the rumors about Yakimoto,” Yanyu leaned into MK.

“Yakimoto? The head of the Neurology department?”

“That’s the one.”

“What about her?”

“Well recently I have heard from a friend of mine, who heard from the janitor, who had heard from a physician of that department, that he had heard that she had been having little outings with her lovely secretary of hers,” she whispered loudly.

“Wait, doesn't she have a husband?” His eyes widened.

“Yes she does, but she’s always complaining about the whole ordeal being set up as an arranged marriage by both of their parents-”

“That’s still a thing?”

“Apparently, the two see each other as siblings.”

“Really?!”

“Totally, in fact, there have been whispers that her husband also has a special man as well.”

“Shut up, tell me more,” he stuffed the Tofu in his mouth as Yanyu began to talk all about the man at the flower shop a couple of blocks down from Pigsy noodles.

“Is it always this loud,” Wukong smiled as he watched the table filled with little chaos.

“Like you wouldn’t believe it,” he said as he ate. “Just be glad this isn’t a holiday dinner then it really would be chaotic. Especially with everyone else that would join in,” he remembered last new year when they finally dragged Pigsy to close down the shop for one night to enjoy the holiday. It was a mad scene of chaos and energy as all of them were raving like mad lunatics even before the food came out, Ahmed and Sandy were barely able to stop Sheng, Daiyu, Tang, and Mei from setting off fireworks right next to some containers of peanut oil. And that was after MK and Mei had already demolished the kitchen with Yanyu siblings looking for the moon cakes.

“Everyone else?” He questioned as he noticed the slight smile on his friend's face.

“Oh don’t worry, stick around long enough and you’ll meet them face to face rather than watching them creepily from the distance” he shook himself out of memories.

The Monkey Sage paused, then he smiled widely, “I can’t wait then.”

“Okay, now can we learn how the hell you met Shun!” Mei exclaimed as everyone settled down in the living room. “Cause, I’m surprised you didn’t smell the crazy off of him at first sight.”

“It’s always the quiet ones that get you,” Daiyu muttered. “He seemed alright, but he was just hiding his batshit craziness.

“Right, I mean that just goes to show doc always had terrible taste in partners,” Yanyu nodded.

“Partners” Monkey King emphasized, “as in more than one.”

“Oh yeah, he has quite the number of people after his plump ass,” Minsheng smirked as they tried to smack Mac on the ass when he passed by him, but he winced when a black tail wrapped around his hand and flipped him over.

“No,” the simian deadpanned and was about to sit down next to Ahmed when Wukong pulled him over and sat him down beside him.

“Seems like you're quite popular then,” he joked and wrapped his arm around him.

“Not really popularity wise, but more of him simply having bad taste,” Sheng teased.

“I mean you're not wrong,” he shrugged as he sank into Wukong’s side.

“But how?!” Mei whined once more.

“Tell us!” MK soon joined her as he laid on Red lap.

“I’m quite interested to hear this as well,” the prince asked as well.

“Pleasseee,” Wukong batted his eyes

“Fine, fine, I’ll bite,” he rolled his eyes. “It’s not that interesting how we met, in fact, it was pretty normal.”

“What was it?”

“Amid a territory brawl over a section of land out in the Azurite Forest.”

“…okay I think we have two very different definitions

of normal,” Mei deadpanned.

“Probably, anyways I was sitting high in the tree watching these assholes argue-”

“I told you that past the Vivion Treeline was our territory and yet you dare go past that line and defy us!”

“Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you send your minions down and scavenge in our territory first!”

“You have no proof of any trespassing that happened!”

“Are you saying my own lies to my face?! HA! Now that’s a laugh to even think about, no I trust them long before I will even think about breathing in your direction!”

“I suppose it’s best you lay down and suffocate cause there is no way in hell that my boys lied to me!”

“Now ain’t that a lie!”

“That’s rich coming from you!”

“Sheesh, of course I would happen to stumble upon this right when I have to get some Fuchsia berries,” Macaque grumbled as he watched the argument from above. “Damn idiots.”

“I happen to agree,” Mac barely flinched when a calm voice called out and saw from the tree to the right of him was a gray lemur with a black and white striped tail. “I too have some important items that I need to procure, but these heathens happen to be in my way.”

“Only found in this forest,” the simian said.

“Unfortunately yes the Inada spiritual root is only grown here, if it was elsewhere I would have already turned back and away from this nonsense,” he scrunched his nose in distaste.

“I feel ya on that, the berries that I need happen to be for an elixir for the spiritual development of the 8th degree. One of my clients needs it after her body is close to breaking down due to her organs inability to support her fire breath,” he sighed as he looked down at the argument once more and noted that it would soon turn into an all out brawl.

“You're talking about the Firaga Restoration Elixir,” the lemur had a glint in his eyes. “Not many physicians know of that and even less have the ability to make it.”

“Made it a few times before…how about we help each other out?” He tapped his chin as an idea came to him.

“Go on.”

“Our items are pretty much in the same area, if we can sneak around and past the tree line then it would be homestretch from then on cause I am quickly picking up that most of the demons from each tribe are here.”

“Hmm, sounds adequate though do you believe to be capable enough to pass them undetected,” he turned to look at the monkey only to blink when he saw he wasn’t there anymore.

“Now where did he-”

“Is this good enough for you,” the lemur’s tail quickly shot towards the voice, but it was stopped by a hand. “Sorry, did I scare ya,” Macaque grinned as he held onto the furry tail.

The lemur blinked a few times before a smile grew, “It would appear that you have.”

“Well let’s get moving and the name is Macaque,” he let go of the tail, but the tail didn’t let go as it instead kept almost a loose grip around Mac's hand.

“I’m Shun,” the lemur purred as he stepped forward until their bodies were pressed together and he leaned down until they were nose to nose. “It will be a pleasure working with you.” And like he wasn’t even there, he quickly stepped back and began to move above the treetops of where the fight had commenced.

Macaque stood still for a brief moment before a fierce blush took over his face and he silently followed Shun. If both tree climbers happened to take glances at one another throughout the trip, no one would affirm anything.

“Like I said, horrible taste in partners,” Yanyu stated once more.

“Yeah, like you let him all up in your space and didn’t say a word, clearly bad,” Mei nodded.

“Like seriously, who would just go up and invade someone's personal bubble like that, totally rude,” MK joined in.

“You should have kicked his ass when he did that Mango, you have done it before,” Wukong said as he nonchalantly dragged him to his lap and rested his chin on Mac’s shoulder. “Don’t let anyone near you unless you want to.”

Everyone, barring Macaque and Wukong were either subtly or straight out eyeing Wukong, who was still cuddled up next to the black simian. They can practically taste the hypocrisy going on here.

“Okay I get it,” he put his hands up in mock surrender. “Don’t need to gang up on me like that.”

“So what happened after that?” MK asked.

“Well the rest is history, he began to hang around my place a lot more and next thing I knew we were going on dates with each other,” he shrugged his shoulders.

“Here’s what I don’t get,” Daiyu perked up, “did he ever ask you out?”

“Of cou-…” he stopped mid sentence as he thought it over then he furrowed his brow, “actually, now that I think about it, no. He never did. We were just eating out one day at a restaurant and proclaimed it to be a date.”

“Pops/Doc/Mango/Dude really,” Mei, Yanyu, Wukong, and Minsheng all groaned as the rabbit demon continued, “you really should have known something was up after that.”

“I really didn’t,” he rubbed the back of his head as he remembered he was taken aback by his statement but went with it as he did have a small crush on him back then.

“Just be glad you weren’t around to see Hui,” Ahmed said, receiving a wounded look from Macaque.

“Kitty, I thought you were on my side!”

“I am…just not when it comes to your choice of partners.”

“Even Mufasa here knows that she was batshit insane,” Bohai deadpanned, “nice and hilarious, but holy shit was she insane.”

“She wasn’t that-”

“Did you forget that she was a raging alcoholic scorpion that had the desire to go up to not only to the Celestial Realm and raid their alcohol supply, but to go down under all the way to Yama realm and claim the title of all the ten kings and live in luxury,” Minsheng bluntly stated.

“Just not Yama crown, because she stated that she didn’t want to do all of that work, not because it was suicidal to try to fight him,” Daiyu continued. She loves to fight as much as her siblings, but even she knew better than to pick a fight with one of the big boys on top, or in this case, down below.

“And I’m not even gonna mention that when she was in her drunken rage, she had the tendency to poison others with her tails when they stood opposed or even just breathed near her,” Bohai finished.

“…” Macaque said nothing as he just leaned closer to the other monkey, who happily complied with his actions as he further tightened his arm around him and silently rubbed his thumb on his shoulder.

“So much bad taste in partners, so much,” the bluenette put her head in her hands.

“I’m starting to see your point,” the pigtailed adult agreed as she glanced at the scene with a curious look.

“At least we don’t have to worry about that anymore, what I’m a bit curious about is how all of you guys met MK here,” Wukong tried to subtly move on from the conversation of Macaque’s romantic relationship. If he had to hear about yet another demon he dated, he might actually lose his mind.

“Oh let me!” MK eagerly began, “well I remember that I was sleeping when I heard Daiyu yell out.”

“Because of course it was her,” the bluenette said.

“And I walk into the room and-” as MK enthusiastically told the story, Wukong had quietly taken out the red rubber band holding his hair in a ponytail and gazed at the silky black fur cascaded down his back. And before he knew it, his fingers were entangled in Mac’s fluffy fur as the other simian sighed at the soft touches.

“Been a long time since you did this,” Mac purred as he relaxed into the grooming.

“Well it’s about time we pick it back up, besides no one is better at grooming than a monkey,” he purred, but he paused as he quietly had thought and delicately asked, “speaking of monkeys, do you want to visit the ones back at Flower Fruit?”

Mac's eyes widened as he almost instantly turned his head, but was stopped by hands, “Are you serious?”

“I mean they have missed you a whole lot,” he tried to nonchalantly say, “especially since they smelt you on the kid and was practically begging me to bring your ass over.”

“They are still demanding little shits huh,” he gave a small huff.

“The one thing that hasn’t changed.”

“…yeah I would like that,” he smiled up at him.

“Cool, cool,” he couldn’t stop his tail from excitedly wagging behind him, but he instead tried to stall it by looking at the fluffy fur once more as another purr came through. It’s not his fault he couldn’t stop it from emerging from his long time crush response and his fascination with his long fur.

“You really do have such a long fur, why’d you grow it out anyways, not that I’m complaining.”

“I dunno, I just forgot to cut it short and when I finally noticed I decided to just keep it,” he shrugged.

“Well I’m glad you did, it looks amazing on you,” Wukong said as he looked down to meet Macaque’s eyes and promptly realizing what he said, he quickly averted his gaze and nervously laughed, “Or you know, it looks good.”

“Ah, umm thanks,” the doctor said as he felt the faint blush on his cheeks.

The sage monkey was about to say something else when he noticed that a few eyes were on him and he quickly went back to his grooming session. While making completely sure that his eyes didn’t even go towards anywhere in their direction.

The traffic light trio saw the scene and they all shared a glance at one another, but opted to say nothing as the story continued and the two monkeys, in everyone's eyes, began to cuddle up together.

“Where is he?” Red huffed as he sat on the opposite side of Mei at one of the arcade booths. “Usually he’s the first one here.”

“I know he was helping Pigsy out with a large Party order, but that should have been done by now,” Mei shrugged as she took another sip of her drink.

“Well he should hurry it up else I will-”

“What’s up, party dudes!” An energetic voice cried out that instantly made Mei spit out her drink.

“Oh hell no!” She stood up as she grabbed her dagger and was inwardly cursing herself about leaving her sword at home, “I’m not about to deal with you a second time! Not today Satan!”

“Should I be concerned?” Red raised an eyebrow as he looked at MK, who was for some reason wearing a pink visor, blue headphones and an atrocious cheetah print outfit. “Cause this whole look right here is very concerning.”

“No need to worry hot stuff,” MK said as he wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Not here to do any lasting damage, unless you're into that,” he winked.

“W-w-what?!” A small burst of flame erupted from his head.

“I don’t trust that for a second,” the Dragon successor hissed as she still held her dagger up.

“I swearsies doll.”

“Wha-no stay focused,” she faltered but shook it off, “That is rich coming from the disembodied attachment of my friend who can just poof in and out without consequences of your actions.”

“Disembodied?” Red, still under the clone arm, confusedly said.

“Touché,” he pointed a finger, “but for real, I’m just here to deliver a message from the big boss himself.”

“Talk,” she demanded as she slightly lowered her weapon at that.

“BB will be late due to a crazy ass bitch on the block doin her usual bitch in and be all complainin about her food order being all wrong and demanding that they hand it over for free.”

“Oh,” Mei's eyebrow raised. “Bet that didn’t go over well.”

“No it did not my lovely Empress, cause next thing they knew the bitch was calling up the rest of her posse upon BB and Big Bad Boss and now she is yellin her ass about about some scam they be tryin to pull on them all.”

“I’m starting to see where this is head,” she sheathed her blade when she said that, though she did have a light blush of confusion over the nickname.

“Your thoughts be right as the next thing anyone knows, everyone is brawling with each other so hard that even some of the people on the street just up and joined in.”

“So MK got mixed up in that, but why didn’t he just text us that,” the Bull successor asked as he finally recognized that this was a clone and not the real MK.

“Cause Triple B ordered Double B to not get the food ruined under any circumstances my sweet King so now BB is hauling ass all around the town as the Karen Gang chase after his ass,” Portay MK smirked as he saw the prince blush.

“Karen Gang,” she snorted at the nickname, “Does he need any help, cause I will be more than happy to bust a few heads for him.”

“I as well.”

“Aww ain’t the both of you just a bundle of sweetness, makes me want to give you both a big ol kiss,” he flirted once more.

“Just show us!” At this point both teenagers had either a small or large flush on their faces.

“Alright Alright, I’ll show ya,” he said as he quickly made his way out of the arcade and to the streets with them both following. “But I won’t stop~ Someone got to help Double B get the ball rollin and I guess it will have to be me. This will be so much fun,” he muttered.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing my Sugar hearts!” He smiled at their groans of embarrassment.

“Is he always like this?!”

“I met him once and that was when he had me tied up during a never ending party, which I still can’t fully remember due to all the sugar and caffeine I inhaled.”

“The WHAT?!”

“Oh yeah, that was a ride.”

“Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve been here, huh,” Macaque mused as he and MK climbed up the mountain.

“Right, you lived here before,” MK said as they climbed up the steps. “What was it like back then?”

“Honestly, at first it looks and feels the same, every time that I breathe I can still smell the crisp pine air and the heavy mineral undertones that I still smell on Monkey King,” he took a deep breath. “This place really brings back some memories.”

“Good ones?” The doctor to be said with a bit of hope as they finally reached the top.

“Yeah, good ones,” he stopped as his ears pricked up at an incoming sound. “That screech,” he whispered.

“Huh?” MK looked to his Dad, only to be bombarded with the most ear piercing noise.

SCREEEEEECCCCCCHHHHHH

Then, almost out of nowhere, a hoard of monkeys all popped out and practically flew towards the black simian.

“What the-!” MK was startled by the sudden attack and was about to step forward to his Dad only to pause at the sight of multiple monkeys, all of them screeching in delight, clinging onto him as the demon joyfully nuzzled them back.

“I missed you guys too,” he purred as he felt many cuddles underneath his chin, on his back, upon his arms, even on top of his head. He really missed these idiots.

“Awwww,” the adult cooed at the adorable sight.

“Man, that was faster than I was expecting,” the student turned and saw his mentor standing right behind him. “One moment they were playing and the next thing I know they all began to run off. I swear their smell has gotten better over these years.”

“So that’s why they could smell Dad on me that time.”

“You got it,” he finger gunned him as he walked up to the pile of monkeys. “So it seems this is one-”

“HISSSSSSS!” All the monkeys clinging onto Macaque hissed at their idiotic king.

“Yeah, I deserved that,” he deadpanned as he plopped himself onto the pile, with MK following suit. “But I promise we won’t be so stupid again.”

“Ooo oo,” a female monkey crossed her arms as she sat on the monkey doctor's head.

“King honor,” he raised his hand.

“Ooo,” she nodded and gave him a flick on the nose before snuggling back on top of the head.

“She really hasn't changed one bit,” Mac snorted at her antics.

“Nope, but she is still as bossy as ever,” he smiled and gave her a scratch on her head.

“Especially when she forced me to drink water,” MK piped up, “she literally forced it down my throat after one of the sessions. I didn’t think you could drown via water bottle, but when there's a monkey there's a way.”

“Yeah, sounds like her,” both monkeys said.

The sun was beginning to set as MK and the rest of the tribe were all playing out in the mountains in an extreme game of hide and seek. Extreme as in they all will literally yeet themself off the tallest rock just so they won’t get found, the first couple of times MK played this he had to stop his heart from trying to run out of his chest, but he slowly found himself enjoying throwing himself off like a rabid maniac. Is there something wrong with all of them? Maybe, but no one can deny that it is really fun.

“I swear, their IQ always seems to decrease when they play these games,” Mac muttered as he watched his child vault himself off of a rock just so the seeker wouldn’t catch him.

“Didn’t you think of this?” Wukong hummed as he smirked when he saw his student delicately land on one of the boulders below.

“Yep and I still don’t know if I regret it.”

“I mean you did worse,” he coyly smirked.

“You don’t want to talk about dumbass ideas with me Mr. ‘Let’s just ambush the trailing cart of a tired ass deity that would happily shank up on our sleep.’” He snarked back.

“Says the one who thought it would be a good idea to toss me in the water, forgetting that my stone ass can’t swim!” He shot back, they were playing around and Macaque had the jump of him and tossed him in the river. The black simian paused at what he just did and immediately panicked and dived down after him.

“You should really think about losing a few pounds, you were heavy,” he mocked and then got promptly tackled by the other monkey.

“I’ll show you heavy, how’d you like that mushroom brain,” he teased as he began to wrestle him.

“Says you rock for brains,” he shot back as he tried to get the upper hand. This went on for a few minutes as both monkeys playfully began to wrestle each other on the ground. It ended when Wukong managed to pin him down while holding his hands above his head and wrapping his tail firmly around the others.

“HA! I win!”

“Yeah, yeah,” he huffed after he tried to get out after a few attempts. “Don’t get such a big head about it.”

“Aww, but you know it only does good things to my ego~,” he teased as he leaned down.

“No it doesn’t, simply it’s truly terrible.”

“It does!”

“Does not!”

“Does!”

“Does not!

“Does!”

“Does not!”

“Does!”

“Does!”

“Does not! Damnit!” He cursed at the trickery.

“How do you fall for it every single time,” he openly laughed.

Wukong was about to refute when he saw just how close to each other they were and sucked in a breath. He can feel his chest against his own with each breath of air, he can see the faintest shimmer of violet deep within his golden eyes, he can feel his nose touching the soft button nose of his partner.

Macaque obviously heard the intake of breath, no super hearing necessary, and was about to ask when he too stopped short. It could be from the fact that their noses were so close to each other that he could feel his warm breath, the way he could feel the muscle very clearly against his own fur, or even how his golden eyes seem to be extra bright today that he can’t. Stop. Looking.

Neither pair noticed a pair of human eyes locking onto them with a curious expression on his face as he slowly backed up.

Either way, all of those reasons are very much valid in both of their minds as a familiar silence filled the air and it felt oh so good as they just almost blend together as one. This wasn’t the usual safe cuddles that both were adjusted to, no this was something long in the making, that this was something that was more than the friend standpoint that they anchored themselves down on and refuse to step off. This was something even more than love, but the word itself is the only thing that fits what they feel for the other, and they instinctively knew that there is something more between them, something devastatingly eternal.

There can be more if they just make that step off the cliff and into the unknown air.

But not today, no not today.

Instead, Macaque put his foot back down to that safe cliff and latched on tightly as cleared his throat. “You want to get off me anytime, I kinda want to feel my bones sometime,” he managed to say. He can’t take that step, he knows he’s a coward when it comes to admitting that he actually loves Wukong, but they just became friends once more after their stupid separation and he refuses to do anything that jeopardizes it.

“Right, my bad,” he said with a fake smile plastered on as he got off him and sat beside him. He can see the air and he can feel his feet wanting to make that leap into the foggy air and see how far the two can go, but he will push down that impulse. He wants this so badly, for centuries (no matter how hard he tries to deny it) he wants to admit that he loves Macaque, but he will keep his mouth shut. His impulsiveness has already done enough damage as it is, no need to add the emotional turmoil on top of all the other shit he did to his friend.

The two of them sat in silence once more as they sat side by side to each other, totally ignoring the small moment between.

“So…what are you doing for the Lunar New Year?” Wukong asked in an effort to get rid of the silence.

“Well this year, we’re gonna spend it in the city with the others this time around. Everyone brings some food, usually, I bring the moon cakes as I have the extra hands and you can never have too many.” Ever since he had met Yanyu, who had dragged him to his first Lunar year with her family in the city, it had become somewhat of a tradition to go to the city every two years and spend time together. “What are you doing?”

“Oh you know, just gonna chill on the mountain with good food and watch the fireworks,” he nonchalantly said.

“Just by yourself,” he questioningly asked. If there was one of the many things he knew about Wukong, it was that he hated being alone on any occasion. He knew it stemmed from his own weird beginnings and his unawareness of the societal norms at the start, but it all went downhill after he was trapped in the mountain with only the bitch ass spirits keeping guard, he could only sneak in so many times before one of the guards noticed something amiss, unfortunately. (Though he quite happily stopped by when Wukong was finally free and he had quite the playtime with them, he still can’t help but grin at the sound of their screams. It was truly music to his ears.)

“Yeah,” he shrugged. It wasn’t anything new, ever since his friends have…gone, he couldn’t quite bring himself to spend the holiday with anyone other than the tribe from time to time. It just doesn’t feel right anymore…it doesn’t feel like he has the right anymore.

“Yeah, no. Your ass is coming with me to the festival,” Mac deadpanned.

“What?!” He turned his head so hard that he could almost hear his neck snap.

“You. Are. Spending. The. Festival. With. Us.” He slowly emphasized each word as if he couldn’t understand it. “Got it.”

“But-but-”

“We’re not talking about your ass here, but you are coming.”

“I don’t want to intrude, it will probably be really weird,” he tried to rebuttal.

“The group has almost twenty people and then those people will sometimes bring their friends along, the more the merrier.”

“What about how I look, cause no offense, but I don’t want to be mowed down in a frenzy to get an autograph or a picture or something!”

“We both know you have a human disguise, hell I sometimes use my own from time to time.”

“But-”

“Wukong,” he grabbed his shoulders. “You are going to come to the Lunar Festival with us.”

The monkey opened his mouth once more, but sighed and sagged his shoulder. “When have you become so demanding.”

“I learned that from you,” he smirked.

“Pfft, nahh you have always been a demanding shit even before me,” he chuckled as he laid his head on Mac's shoulder. “Yeah, I’ll join you guys.”

“Great, but if it does get too much just come grab me and we can bail to one of the rooftops,” he shifted and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

He smiled into his shoulder, “I wouldn’t mind that buttt I wouldn’t mind trying one of the moon cakes, especially if you make some with peaches in them.”

The doctor fondly rolled his eyes, “I’ll make some peach candy mooncakes for you dumbass.”

“Yes!”

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Heya V ❤

Could I please get some nice fluff with Etho and Tango? I'll leave it up to you if you want to write 3rd life of hermitcraft, but could you please include Pineapple pizza or Side Kit? Thank you very much.

i love writing pets but not as much as i love writing for you <3

spoilers for the latest episodes

…

Etho sighs as he sits atop the castle, swinging his legs. His back has started hurting; residual pain left over from the arrow Scar killed him with. The sight of his still half burnt castle is starting to depress him. And now his cat has gone missing. All in all, he’s not having a great day.

“Hello hello?” comes a familiar voice.

Etho sighs quietly. As much as he loves his friend, he’s not in the mood to talk to him right now. So he stays silent.

Tango frowns, looking around the interior of the castle and almost ending up falling right through an unpatched hole. “Whoa! Etho, bro, if you’re here, you really need to do some patching up.”

“I’m not in the mood to talk, Tango,” Etho says from his perch. “Sorry.”

Tango looks up and spots him. “Hey. You doing okay?”

“Fine. I just don’t want to talk to anyone right now.”

“Really? Well, that’s okay; I’m just here to return something to you.”

The lump under Tango’s vest starts to make a noise, as if on cue.

Etho frowns. “What-?”

Tango unzips his vest to reveal a furry black and white head. “Here,” he says, taking the cat out. “I found her wandering around near my cow area. She nearly triggered one of my traps.”

Etho gasps. “Piney!”

He jumps down from the tower and scoops up Pineapple Pizza, his missing cat, in his arms. Beaming widely, he tickles her under the chin, almost crying at the contented look on her face as she stretches her neck out in response. “Oh my gosh, I missed her so much. Thank you, Tango.”

Tango smiles back. “No problem. Oh, you haven’t seen Zeddy anywhere, have you?”

“Huh?” Etho frowns at him. “Who’s Zeddy?”

“My dog. I named him Zedaph 2 but I ended up shortening it to Zeddy. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“Oh, I see. No, sorry, I haven’t. You want me to help look for him?”

“Would you?” says Tango gratefully. “I’d appreciate that. The only place I haven’t looked is near the desert, and I think that’s probably where he is. I took him with me the last time I went to the desert but I might’ve forgotten him there and I’ve been too nervous to go back.”

“The desert, huh?” Etho says. “Sure, let’s check it out. I doubt Grian and Scar will attack both of us.”

“Great!”

On the way to the desert, Tango glances sideways at Etho and finds him still cuddling his cat. “How ARE you doing, Etho? I know it’s been a rough day for you.”

“Honestly, being reunited with Piney has absolutely saved today. Before you turned up, I was really sad. Scar not only took my second life but he also took my castle. I didn’t feel like I had a lot left after that.”

“Don’t you have your alliance with Dogwarts?” asks Tango carefully. “I mean, you had, like, five people on your doorsteps right after you died, who then went with you to get your stuff back. That’s a pretty strong alliance.”

Etho nods slowly. “I guess so. I just… I dunno, I never feel like people are gonna stay allies with me for long.”

“Why? Everyone wants to be allies with you, Etho.”

“Uh huh, and that’s the problem,” Etho responds. “Everyone’s got such high expectations of me when I just want to go where the chaos takes me. I like Dogwarts because Ren is powerful and joining the Red Army has been extremely fun so far. But I almost feel trapped in that one alliance. Know what I mean?”

“Actually, no,” says Tango wryly, “because I have the opposite problem. I never cemented myself strongly in an alliance the way you have and now I’m ending up kinda playing for both teams, which is starting to become a real disadvantage. If you get me.”

“Kinda. Seems like we both have different strategies and neither of them are working super well at the moment.”

Tango chuckles. “Uh huh.”

As they step into the desert, Etho glances across the terrain and spots a small white shape sitting a little way off to the left. “Oh! Is that him?”

Tango follows his gaze and his heart leaps. “Zeddy!”

He takes off running towards his dog, who spots him within seconds and dashes to meet him. Tango scoops Zeddy up in his arms and cuddles him tightly. “Oh, I missed you, boy! I’m sorry for leaving you here all by yourself!”

Zeddy barks happily.

In Etho’s arms, Pineapple hisses. Etho laughs. “Ooh, you don’t like the big scary dog, do you, girl? Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you. Will you, Zeddy?”

Zeddy responds to this by leaning over and licking Pineapple in the face, causing her to hiss again and glance up at Etho as if saying are you seeing this?

Etho laughs again and strokes Pineapple’s head. “He won’t hurt you, girl.”

Tango sighs happily. “Ah, thanks, Etho. Thanks for coming with me.”

“No problem. Thanks for returning Piney to me. You wanna take them for a little walk round the swamp?”

“Yeah!” Tango smiles. “Sounds great.”

[twstwonderlandstuff]

Sleep depravity

You feel like shit.

Flashback

Ahaha, the new year! A time for fun and festivities! Surely, that’s what YOU’RE going to be doing, right?

Wrong.

Well, I mean right, but it’s not fun by what most of NRC calls as. So imagine this, right, you’re sitting in yo damn class doing your damn shit when suddenly, your classmate whispers to you from behind.

“Hey.” You nudge an elbow, to show that you’re listening. 

“You should watch ‘Tales of the Seven Lords’. It’s a really good series.” You nod in thanks at the recommendation and your classmate retreats back to his seat. 

And the day goes on as usual: Running around campus doing your part-time jobs, occasionally talking to your friends and seniors, feeding Grim, appreciating how fine everybody looks today- pardon me.

So now, it’s bedtime and you’re there listening to Grim talk as you do your homework. Then, he says: “Oh yeah, someone said something about a recommendation, right?”

“Right, I forgot about that.” You nod, finishing your homework in time. “We should check that out to watch for New Years. It’s in a few days.” You sigh, bouncing your leg. 

See, unlike from where you’re from, NRC has a different curriculum, where the OFFICIAL tests come out somewhere in the 3rd and 9th month of the year, not the 6th and the 12th, so this is just cooldown time for you to kind of chill and relax. 

“Right, holidays~~~ We don’t need to listen to Vargas anymore!” Grim hums cheerfully, and you nod. He’s already loud and super annoying every time he meets a slightly muscular kid, but add THAT with him rambling about safety protocols? Nah, man, ya can’t.

"Ah yes, the holidays where everyone goes home and leaves us here to wail and stay all alone with nobody- I mean I got you but you know- nobody and probably have to clean the school.” You take a deep breath. “Lovely.”

"That annoying guy is going to do something like that...” Grim complains, rolling over to flop on your stomach. “I don’t wanna!”

“Same...” You reply lazily, fist bumping Grim’s paw. “Hahah... hah...”

Despite your complaining, you feel a little giddy. I mean, come on, you get the FUCK around the school, all day by yourselves! What’s not to love about that? And the series is sure to keep you entertained.

Flashback end.

‘That was a terrible, terrible thing to think about.’ You thought blearily, thoughts swirling around your head as Grim falls asleep on you, *heetos and dorr*tos all over your body, making you feel sticky and gross. 

It’s now the actual new years, where everybody’s gone home and like you predicted, Crowley did assign you to tasks- fucking bird, so you and Grim’s ass didn’t do what he told you. Fucking hell, the school’s been functioning DAMN well without you, surely the tasks not THAT big of a deal, right?

After goofing around for a few days, you’re getting bored, so you drag your lazy self to Sam’s store (where his friends from the other side are tending it for him) and rent out a DVD- Crowley didn’t gift you a phone, unfortunately (but still fixed that old TV set??? Man’s got some weird priorities)

You bring this news to Grim, who immediately begs and whines for you to open and watch the show. So you did.

The first episode, you were intrigued, but only a little bit. The same went for the 2nd and 3rd episode. You’re about to call it a lame series when you hit... the 4th episode.

It was a wild ride of emotions and wow... that scene where Henry helps the king really brought you and Grim to tears. 

You were hooked. Or in other words, you were fucked. Fucked because now, you can’t THINK of anything BUT the series, which forces you to stay at home and watch the entire god-damn thing and now its 2 days after that.

At... you blearily open your eyes and notice the cracks of light shining through the curtain. “Oh god...” At somewhere around 8 am in the morning.

“Fucking hell... I’ve gone and fucked up my sleep schedule... shit...” And for some reason, tears began running down your eyes. What the fuck? Are you THAT tired that’d you’d cry over your SLEEP SCHEDULE?

Yes. Yes, you are.

You hear a knock at the door. “Oh my fucking god.” You curse, rolling down the uneven wooden floors, wincing as you get splinters. You lethargically stand up  and open the door and look up to see...

HEARTSLABYUL

Someone 5 cm taller then you- oh screw off, you’re 145 cm, its okay to be pissed, you know?

“Happy new year, prefect-” You interrupt him.

“Oh.. you’re cute!” You grin gleefully, pinching the red hair’s cheeks.

“U-unhand me at once!” The guy with red hair shouted, forcibly taking your hands away. “Or its off with your head!”

"What, you’re gonna- you’re gonna tie me up~?” You tease, punching the guy’s shoulder. “That’s kinky dude... like tone down the horny ya know...”

2 guys with red-orange hair and other with blue starts laughing loudly in the background and you laugh too.

The guy with red hair STARTS turning red- oh my fucking god, people can turn red?

“OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!” And a collar winds up around your neck.

“Eh????” You ask, lightly tugging at the collar. “What the fackin hell is this shit? Y’all really out here puttin’ collars and shit on people... in the middle of the day too... wow...”  You mutter, slipping into a country accent.

Flash! You hear a snap of a camera and turn to look at another person with a feather duster on his head- why does he have a feather duster- you know what, its cute, and you like it. You reach up and begin petting it, effectively blocking the phone he’s holding.

“Eto, prefect? You’re kinda- woah!” You look at him with a glazy eyes from those 2 days of non stop watching.

"Are you a...” You ponder, biting your lip as you blink repeatedly. “Are you... a fuck boy?”

(“CATER’S A FUCK- CATER’S F-FUCK- AHAHAHAHA-” Ace wheezes in the background as Deuce starts laughing harder, neither of them caring that they have collars on their first day back.)

Fuck boy has a bewildered look on his face, but before you could see his reaction, another hand goes to tug you back. You look up and... is that... is that lettuce, you see? No no way, it... it kinda looks like broccoli, though..

“Let’s get you to bed, prefect.” The broccoli tells you firmly, but like hell are you listening to a broccoli! Fuck man, you got higher standards then that, come on!

“No! I’m not listening to a broccoli!” You duck, effectively pulling out of his grasp and ran inside to wherever room you’re in and slam it shut. “YOU’RE NEVER GETTING ME, BROCCOLI MAN!!!”

(”Bro---brocoll-” This time, it’s Deuce’s time to collectively pound weakly at the dirt, one hand holding onto Ace’s shoulder as he looses it.)

Eventually, you slump on the ground and slowly... you don’t hear the brocolli’s voice anymore.. which is good (but like, why does his voice sound so... sexy??? Like, why??? It doesn’t make any... sense...)

---

Ace and Deuce finish from their laughing stock, having to hold on to the third years to get up from their position. “We’ll go check on the prefect.” Deuce tried to say, a snort or two making its way to the sentence.

“HAH- KINKY- KINKY FUCK BOY BROCCOLI--- AHAHAHAHAHA-” Ace was still loosing it as he walked inside, a tear streaking down his face. “I love the prefect so fucking much.”

Laughter bubbles up against Deuce’s throat as he walks in. “F...Fuck...boy...”

“W-where is the prefect, anyway?” They immediately see you, slumped against the hallway, snoozing away. With their strong powers, they gently lift and place you on the sofa, amidst all the gunk and shit that’s piled up.

“Ew, what were they even doing?” Ace cringes, looking at the mess. “It smells like shit.”

“They’re watching ‘Tales of the Seven Lords’- oh.” Deuce nods, in extreme understanding. He too, has pulled all-nighters with his gang to watch this series... oh how they cried like mad.

“Oh, that show... it’s bad. I don’t like it.”

“What?!” Deuce swiftly turns around. “But its really good!”

“No, it’s not, what? You got some poor taste, Juice.”

“It’s Deuce, not Juice! And you’re the one with poor taste!”

They bicker all the way, until they’re lovingly threatened by Riddle to NOT say a word, or its way more then off with your head, got it~?

SAVANACLAW

An extremely good-looking lion man- lion man, the fuck???- who lazily looks around at your dorm. Behind him is an EVEN better looking man, this one with a very fluffy tail and BEEG ears and BEEG body and my god, wow... he also sexy- like, sexier then lion man.

“Furry?” You mutter, your eyes falling onto another boy with animal-like ears and tail, except he’s shorter then the two, but his eyes seem to have more light in them.

“Happy New Year, prefect~!” He cheers on, his small tail wagging- oh that is cute oh my fuck- oh shit-

“...what the fuck? Why the fuck are there furries?” You gasp in alarm, running your hands through your hair in a frantic manner. “HAVE I MISSED A FUCKING GENERATION OF FURRIES?!”

“NONONONO NO NO NO THERE’S NO FUCKING WAY- NO-” You scream, falling onto the floor and grabbing a piece of your hair.

A shadow seems to loom over you, and you can feel something fluffy- or maybe that’s just you. “Prefect, are you okay- not like I’m worried, or anything, but...?” That line seems like something you’ve heard, but from where?

“Has the herbivore lost their mind?” Sexy lion man can be heard asking in the back, his voice quickly slipping into a yawn.

“Are ya worried, Leona?” The smaller guy teases, a ‘shi shi shi’ going past his lips.

“Tch.”

Well they seem like good friends- nice.

“I’m fine-” You look up and BAM WOAH WHAT IS THAT- SOMEONE’S PANTS AREA THING NOPE-

“I’M NOT FINE FUCKKKKKKK!” You scream back. The guy jumps back.

“Prefect, are you possessed?”

“By this stage? I might as well fucking be- HAH!” And you snort at that- it’s not even funny, you moron. “Oh, and also sexy lion man- yeah I’m talking to you, yeah you-” You point at said man. “I’m not a herbivore, okay? Like, I’m not a vegan (NO OFFENSE TO THE VEGANS OUT THERE), umm...” You slip into a dramatic accent where everything becomes more pronounced.

“I’m a fucking omnivore, and if you wanna like, insult me, please do it right. Thanks.” You pose, your hands making a heart shape, before slumping onto strong boy’s arms.

“Pfft- AHAHAHAH-” And Ruggie’s gone and lost his shit, because what’d you expect, right?

Leona looks surprised, before becoming very irritated, dragging Ruggie by the scruff/neck and walking away, leaving Jack to deal with you.

His seniors out of earshot and eyeshot, he glances at your sleeping form, which was nuzzling up to him, sighing in bliss as the warmth surrounds you.

He lets out a snicker despite his best efforts not too. Goodness, you surprise him every day.

He easily brings you inside with a princess carry, making sure to respectfully touch only your legs and you back to support you.

He glances at your sleeping form- what on earth were you doing that could keep you up so late, anyways? Oh, he finds out by passing through the living room, TV still on.

He finds your bedroom and lays you down there, not bothering to bring Grim inside- just kidding, he absolutely brings Grim in because he knows how much you love each other, but you didn’t hear that from me~

He glances at your form again and brushes some hair out of your face. The steady rise and fall of your chest eases him. Maybe he should stay here, just in case you wake up and act like THAT again and that’s something he’s sure a lot of people aren’t ready to witness.

He takes a chair and sits in front of you, once again having his eyes trained on you, seeing he has nowhere to look at.

A content smile passes your lips, and he smiles at that. What kind of dreams are you having, he wonders? (Little did he know its about him)

Wait.

If he’s waiting for you like this, isn’t that what you usually do for friends?! He stands up immediately, regretting his actions just as fast as he notices you squirm, sighing in relief as you settle back down onto your dazed state again.

“Happy New Year, prefect. Let’s make more memories together.” He mutters lowly, far too low for you to hear but somehow, you smile at just the right moment.

He leaves quickly, a red blush adorning his cheeks. No, that does NOT make him happy in the slightest! His tail isn’t wagging, his ears aren’t red, you’re lying!

Right?

Wrong.

Yeah, right.

Oh, god damn you and making him so confused!

OCTAVINELLE

An incredibly good-looking gent, with a smile on his face that doesn’t look as nice as it should. And look, he’s got a fedora! That speaks fancy~

“Happy New Year, pre-” You take the fedora and slap it onto your head, to the surprise and subsequent irritation of this man.

Or octopus. Honestly, they radiate the same vibe, so you wouldn’t know.

Then, you began doing the Orange Justice (cringe) as you hum- “Mhph, then you break it down! Down! Down! High! Down!”

“Is shrimpy-chan okay?” Oh what the fuck he’s so tall- THERE’S ANOTHER ONE YOU’RE SEEING THINGS-

“Oya oya.” HE HAS ARA-ARA ENERGY OH MY GOD YOU CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS- NONONONONO-

“Ara ara? Ara ara ara~ ara ARA!” You reply in kind, switching to a weird boogie as you sing offkey about a song.

“Under the sea~~~ under the sea~~ something, something, du do do do, under the sea~ under the grass, and till they fall~ ahhhh!!!” You grab the gent’s hands and drag him to you, paying very close attention to your feet as you attempt to tap dance.

The gent splutters indigation, so you leave him be and focus on your feet.

“Ne, that sounds fun!” The 1st double says, following you to dance- except he’s doing way better then you.

“Wha- how the fuck- that’s good! How the fackkkk... fuck... fucking... fucking fucking wop wop!” You giggle, trying to imitate his dance.

“Hehe, shrimpy’s funny when they’re tired!” Double 1 says, grabbing your waist as you shout in fright.

“Jade, maybe we should-”

“Let them be, Azul.”

Upon closer inspection, you realize that this ‘Jade’ has resonating vibes with Sebastian from Black Butler- wait, is this the twin cliche?! Where there’s the crazy one and the other’s the sane one?! But then again, he has that scary smile on his face... hmm, maybe that theory should be left alone.

You, still Double 1′s arms, shout: “Come on butler man! Join us!!!”

“Butler... are you referring to me?” He sounds surprised.

“Yeee! Come on dude,let’s vibeeee-” You stop mumbling and began singing again. “Oh oh, I’m a rebel just for kicks now! OWAH!!!”

“Owah~~” Double 1 joins, and Jade with a grin, joins in. “Owah~”

“...owah...” The gent also joins, albeit in a softer tone.

“What else, shrimp- eh??? They’re asleep!” Floyd pouts as he gazes at your non-moving body. “No fun.”

“Oya, maybe we should bring them back to their couch. It looks like a nice place to be.” Jade remarks, looking at the pile of chips and snacks on the floor. Floyd shruges, dropping you with a thud, but you don’t seem to wake up. Jade picks you up for Floyd and brings you to the couch.

Azul cringes at the sight of messy chips. “It’s giving me heartburn just looking at it.”

“Don’t lie, Azul. We saw you eating the same thing yesterday~” Floyd teases, a wide grin placate on his face.

“...I could’ve sworn nobody saw me! How...” Azul mumbles to himself, a red flush on his face.

“They’re asleep. We should leave them be.” Jade suggests, walking back to the group.

Azul nods. “There’s nothing I can make a deal about, anyway. And, the benevolent sea witch wouldn’t agree with that, wouldn’t she?”

"Yeah! Goodnight, shrimpy!” Still, you don’t reply, but Floyd looks happy enough since he hoists Azul up from his stand and walks out with him, princess style.

“F-floyd, put me down!”

“Nah, Jade looked really happy holding Shrimpy, so I’ll do the same to you~”

“Floyd!”

Jade walks behind them, watching as they have their fun.

Did I really look that happy? He glances back at your living room and gives a rare, sincere smile to the dimly lit room.

“Goodnight, prefect. I hope to get along with you better.” He whispers to himself, before closing the door gently behind and catching up to his brother.

SCARABIA

Sunshine??? in the form of a... homo sapient???? and a snake??? why the fuck-???

“Happy New Year, prefect! I brought you some food, a few blankets and oh!” The sunshine greets, giving you things, which you don’t have the strength to take, but nod as thanks anyways. He hands you a carpet, incredibly soft, 100% quality. “A carpet- eh, prefect?! Are you okay?!” The sunshine fusses, grabbing your cheeks in worry.

You melt, easing into the touch. “I’m okay now.” You lazily reply, giving him a slow wink. “Haha, get it? Cause- cause you’re here, and you’re the sun, and you’re cute, so like... haha? No?” You don’t let him reply as you sigh and nod, taking his hands of your cheeks. “Alright.”

The sunshine grins at your attempt. “I don’t really know what you mean, but thanks!” Oh my god he’s so cute-

“...hopefully, these things can dress up your broken- er, rustic house.” The snake replies, watching your behavior with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

You son of a bitch-

“Look, snake-man. No no no no, look at me. Watashi no eyes, you look at eyes- you see my eyes?” You stalk towards the snake, squinting at the bright sun (2 suns) as you trudge towards him. “Y-you see? Yeah, these eyes have tried their FUCKING best to fix up this dorm, so please, bro, please don’t like, mock it cuz like-- it’s really fucking hard- and you know why?!”

“Why?” The sunshine questions, just as you hope (but for some reason, the snake has backed away and is guarding the sunshine. You wonder why.)

“Lemme tell you why- lemme tell you why. So, this bird-man bitch boy I don’t fucking know, right-” The snake sort of laughs at this description as sunshine nods. “This guy, right, leaves ALL this SHIT to me- like BITCH, did you see the fucking state of this... I don’t know, um, SHACK?!” You point aggressively at the house. “Yeah man, it was SHIT! Like, there were holes, rats on the ground, and there were a insects everywhere...” Oho, snake seems to tense up at this, walking towards sunshine in a scared manner.

“The wood was rotting, it smelled like mold... the couches were moldy, the BED was moldy... it was... it was FUCKING shit mate, like the fuck?! You expect me to clean up that shit in what, like...” You bring up your fingers, not even counting. “Three fucking days? Like what the fucking hell, bitch? I’d like to- to- to know what the fuck crossed his mind, like the fuck, you know?”

“That seems hard, prefect. Do you want us to help?” The sunshine offers, but the snake interjects, saying: “Kalim (oh, so his name is Kalim, huh? Cute name for a cute guy!), how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t-”

“But it looks like they’re having a really hard time!” Kalim argues, pouting and looking at you pitifully, and you give the snake a woeful mourning face. The snake glares at you, before sighing heavily. Ah, damn, you feel kind of bad.

“Nah, it’s okay sunshine, I can handle it. Oh, by the way, have ya seen my baby?” You say nonchalantly, describing your feline friend.

“Baby?” The snake pales. “You have a baby?!”

“Prefect, why do you have a baby?” The sunshine panics too, eyes widening, forgetting the nickname you gave him.

“Yeah, I do! Wanna see-” Slump! You fall onto the ground before you can finish your sentence, leaning across the snake’s legs.

“Oh... they’re probably talking about Grim...” Jamil realizes, sighing in relief at the thought.

“Oh yeah, that’s probably it! Hehe, we think alike, Jamil!” Kalim grins, much to the chagrin of Jamil.

“Yeah, yeah, we do. Now come on-” Jamil lifts up your body, princess style and grunts. “Help me open the door.”

“Sure thing!” Kalim hums, opening the door. “What do you think they were doing, looking so tired?”

Jamil shrugs, walking inside ASAP, first giving the dorm a quick sweep with his eyes- he isn’t quite sure how to feel about the bugs you said. They pass by the living room and upon seeing the disarray, nod in understanding.

“Kalim, can you clean it while I put the prefect back in their room?” Kalim nods and gets to work, rolling up his sleeves.

Jamil smiles, nodding as he walks towards your bedroom, opening it with his foot. Surprisingly, it looks WAY cleaner then your living room- you really did stay up all night to watch whatever show was on, huh? The bed isn’t even creased.

Jamil sets you down gently, and you immediately roll to the side, sighing in comfort. He watches as the crumbs of snacks fall onto the bed, and thanks the graces that its not Kalim’s, or his bed that got the food spilled, phew.

Speaking of Kalim, how is he faring? Jamil walks back to the living room, fully expecting to see Kalim get distracted, but much to his ACTUAL surprise, the room is a quarter cleaned. The crisps are thrown in the trash bin and the blankets are folded up, albeit not neatly.

Jamil smiles, a little bit proud of Kalim. “Kalim?”

“Here. Shh, not so loud. Grim’s sleeping.” Kalim whispers back, waving from the kitchen. “I’m trying to clean the dishes, but...”

“Here, let me teach you.” And so, they two do their best to help clean the living room until it’s up to Jamil’s standard.

“I bet they’ll feel surprised when they wake up!” Kalim giggles, happy that it’s clean.

“I hope so, it’ll be a waste if we did all this and they didn’t notice.” Jamil frowns, crossing his arms, satisfied. “I’m sure they liked the gifts, Kalim?”

“Really?! I didn’t go overboard, right?!” Kalim worries, looking at Jamil in concern.

“You always do.” Was Jamil’s snide remark.

“Jamil!” Kalim pouts, and Jamil nods.

“It’s true.”

“Aww... I thought I really... aww...” Kalim shakes his head, cheering up immediately. “There’s always next time! Let’s visit Heartslabyul next, Jamil!”

“Let’s go.” And Kalim rushes out, shouting a ‘Happy New Year!’ to the dorm, despite his previous warning. Jamil says nothing, echoing his behavior as they walk out.

(And it’s true. After 14 hours or so, you wake up, walked towards the living room, and cried the SHIT out of your eyes. It really was nice to see, you know?)

DIASOMNIA

 You can’t distinguish who the fuck this person is, but they’re definitely tall. 

“Who the fucking hell??? Is so fucking tall?” You ask in a whisper. “Hello?”

“Don’t talk to Malleus-sama that way, human!” A guy that looks similar to a cucumber yells. 

“Shut up, my guy. Oh shit, sorry I probably sound really fucking rude hah.” You snort, pinching the nose of your bridge. “Um, what can I do for you? Or something?”

“You look pale.” A softer voice comments. You turn to look at him and oh fucking HELL he looks so... soft??? Princely???

“Woah.” You breathe, grabbing his face. He quickly pushes you off, but you don’t mind. “What the fuck... Your face??? Is?? Nice???” 

“Thank... you...?” He says strangely, stepping away. “Da- LIlia-sama, I think we should leave. ___ doesn’t seem to feel well.”

“Nonsense, ___’s fine. It’s probably just lack of sleep.” You let out a bark at that. 

“Hah, lack of sleep. More like lack of heat!” You giggle at that- why did you giggle at that it literally makes no sense. You turn to look at this ‘Lilia’ person and holy shit, is that a d i l f ?

“...Dilf?” You mutter, stetching out your hand to touch this short emo man. “Emo???”

“What is a dlif?” Emo man’s face contorts into confusion, one that is not often seen in his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that phrase...”

“Dad’s I’d Like to Fuck, because damn bro, you look- you look like you raised hot kids and set them on a frying pan do you get me, cuz like you’re also sexy? I don’t... yeah.” You nod  heavily at your sentence. 

Emo man and prince-looking guy’s face contorts into a grin and a horrified look respectively. Tall man seems to have the same face as prince-looking guy, while Cucumber just... freezes. 

“Are y’all okay??? You know what, I don’t- I don’t have- I’m not- I’m- I’VE GOT THE APPLE BOTTOM JEANS, BOOTS- BUTTS- BUTTS WITH THE FURRR, THE WHOLE CLUB WAS LOOKING AT HER~” You break out into a song, changing your voice to a country accent. 

“SHE TOOK THE FLOOR AND GOT THE JEANS AND WENT LOW LOW LOW low low low low...” You sync in with the music, going lower to the beat until you lay your body on the ground and slowly lose sight (or blurry shapes) in front of you.

You don’t know what happens next, but you do know that someone’s riding a small cow. With big horns. And hair? With the bit of consciousness you have left, you reach up to touch the cow horns. 

“Sick...” You mutter, and your hands fall slack on the small cow’s horns and you finally fall into well-deserved sleep.

EXTRA

“Lilia.”

"SEE SILVER, I TOLD YOU THAT PEOPLE WOULD-”

“I DON’T NEED TO HEAR IT, DAD!”

“NONE OF US DO!”

“Lilia.”

“I- I’M A DILF- I- I’M A DILF- HAH, I’M- OW OW OW... ow.. my back... oh, yes... Malleus?”

“I’m bringing the human inside.”

“Sure..- argh, ow ow ow... Silver, Sebek, come help me!”

“Yes, old man...”

“...”

“Pfft... a dilf... a dilf....” Malleus snickers at your naming choices, lighting up candles that you’ve strategically set. Once the lights are on, he can’t help but squint at the messiness of your dorm. He walks past the living room and opens your simple bedroom door, placing you on your bed. You don’t seem to be unbetrubed, but you squeezing something in the air. Ah, perhaps you’re looking for the cat? 

Poof! Grim instantly nuzzles into you, and you both sign at the warm heat between you. Malleus smiles at the sight and leans closer to you, and whispers: “Happy New Year, child of man. Let’s make more memories together.” He gazes at your simple room, and his eyes falls at your bedside table. He smiles fondly at the picture on your bedside table. It’s you, Grim and him in Ramshackle’s living room, you making flower crown as you bitch on about physics, Grim agreeing and complaining as well. 

He gives you a small pet on the head and disappears in neon butterflies. 

“Shall we go?”

“Oh, young whisperer, you’re back. I take it ___ is back in their bedroom?”

A smile blooms on Malleus’ face. “Yes, now let’s go.”

“Dilf.. dilf...”

“I can’t... dilf... I can’t.. no...”

*

I don’t fucking know what this is

I just thought--- lilia... is a dad.... and he sexy

and memes... and i created this fic

please enjoy it

[geekywritings]

JUNGKOOK X READER PART 2 - Is this real life or am I in a drama?

Part 2 of my little Jungkook x Reader story. For all who need a recap of Part 1: You are a young vet, just trying to make your way home from work when suddenly Jungkook falls right into your car, taking refuge from a group of sasaengs. You give him a ride home and he exchanges contact details with you, promising to stay in touch.

The prompt for part 2 is: “It’s pouring rain, why are you here?”

For the next few days, all you could think about was that meeting. It still seemed so very surreal. And you didn’t even dare tell anyone about the incident, because who would really believe you? Even your best friends and work colleagues would just raise and eyebrow and shake their heads most likely. Such things simply didn’t happen to people. They were part of k-drama scripts or popular web toons and after a week, you did start to wonder if it had all been some kind of strange dream.

But exactly that evening, when you had just come out of the shower to enjoy a cup of tea and a new episode of your favourite show, your phone beeped with a new Kakao Talk message. You gave your phone a lazy glance and then almost dropped your mug when you saw it was from none other than Jungkook.

JK: “I’m sorry for the late reply, Miss Vet. Things got kinda hectic. But I have not forgotten my promise. I still owe you that thank you.”

You had to reread that message a few times and for a second you wondered if it was a scam perhaps, but who else would now about that event but him? For a second you wondered what to answer before typing:

Y/N: “No problem. You are an idol after all. And you did already thank me.”

It took only a few seconds until his answer popped up.

JK: “It still doesn’t feel like enough.”

Wow, did he know how cool that sounded? 

Y/N: “You don’t have to worry. Really. I’m glad I could help.”

This time he took a bit longer to reply.

JK: “Do you like flowers?”

Y/N: “Yes of course. Who doesn’t?”

JK: “Which ones are your favourites?”

That one was harder to answer. You liked quite a few and just named them all, allowing him to make the final choice.

JK: “Great. Can I send them to your workplace? I don’t think florists deliver late in the evening.”

It was sweet that he was so dead set on sending you flowers as a proper thank you and while part of you was delighted, the other part wondered how to explain the bouquet to your colleagues at the vet office. Still, you typed in your adress and sent it out. 

From then on you thought the conversation would end, but apparently Jungkook was in a talkative mood. He revealed that he had a free evening and was just relaxing on the couch with a good meal, before asking you what you were up to. You told him about the drama and he suggested watching at the same time, sharing comments through text. 

You had never done anything like it before, least of all with a stranger, but Jungkook seemed so nice and it didn’t feel so intimidating to write with an idol over messages. And after the first few shared comments, you actually started to really enjoy it. You two ended up talking throughout the entire episode, which was almost an hour long and then even half an hour on top until Jungkook announced that he was heading to bed. Noticing the time, you realized it was time to hit the pillows yourself. 

But as you laid there in your bed, you kept reading through the chat history, as if making sure it was still real. Especially that “Goog Night” with the cute little emoji brought a smile to your face, before you finally turned off the night light.

____

For the next two weeks, he kept writing texts every other day. Sometimes it was just a random “How are you?” or a comment to your recently posted Kakao Story that he didn’t dare post publicly. But sometimes he would ask if you were watching that drama again to share comments in real time. It had become kind of a ritual when the third week started and a day without his messages felt weird. You still couldn’t tell anyone about it, but your friends and colleagues did start noticing your smiles and your eager grabs for the phone. But whenever they teased, you just said it was some guy online. Their would never believe the truth and you didn’t want to put Jungkook in trouble either. You had seen how crazy his fans could be, so the last thing he needed was your chats to become the topic of online gossip. Besides, it was kind of exhilarating to have a secret like that. At this point, you had already totally forgotten about the flowers.

During the fourth week of knowing Jungkook, you were staying late at the clinic, taking your regular night shift to take care of your little patients. You had just made your rounds, giving all the animals their medicine and checking on their bandages, before sitting down in the reception area, in case of emergencies coming in. But it was a super quiet evening, so you took out your phone. Almost on cue, a message popped up: “Finished work?”

Y/N: “Nope, having a night shift today.”

JK: “Oh, sounds tough.”

Y/N: “Not really. It’s quiet tonight.”

Nothing came after that and you put the phone away again, turning your head to the entry, the glassdoor giving you a perfect view of the rain shower outside. It really was coming down hard today. Bored, you took another round visiting your furry patients, giving them an extra round of cuddles. Suddenly the sound of the door tore through the hallway and you were quick to place the cat with the broken paw down to go and check on the new arrival.

You were utterly stunned to see Jungkook standing in the half opened door, dripping wet and with a huge bouquet of your favourite flowers in hand. 

“It’s pouring rain! Why are you here?!”, you exclaimed, approaching him with a shake of your head. 

“Well, florists dont deliver at this hour.”, he said cheekily with a shrug. “So I came personally.” 

He held out the dripping bouquet to you, which you took gratefully, enjoying the heavy fragrance of the flowers.

“You really shouldn’t have, but thank you. They are gorgeous.”, you said, sending him a smile, before inviting him to the staff room. 

“Let me make you a tea and grab you a towel.”

“You got coffee instead?”, he asked, running a hand through his hair. It had changed color, you noticed, though you also instantly thought that you prefered it black. 

A few minutes later you came back with a small towel and a steaming cup of coffee, taking a seat across from him at the small table. The entire room was tiny, but it was enough for the team.

“So this is where you work, huh?”

“Yeah, it’s a good place. It has nice people and I like how we truly take our time for each patient.”, you explained. You knew that not every clinic was like that, having done internships elsewhere during your studies. 

“Aren’t you busy though?”, it was now your turn to ask him a question.

“I am most nights, but we do get our time off as well.”, Jungkook replied. “Our agency is a good place too.” You nodded, having read up a bit about Big Hit since your meeting with one of their idols. You also realized that you did know and enjoy quite a few of BTS’ songs, even though you had never been able to put a face to them. Now you enjoyed them even more.

“Do you want a tour?”, you asked, after a minute of silence fell between you, during which Jungkook tried to dry his hair. He agreed with a nod, before following you around. There wasn’t much to show, but he did spend some time in the patient rooms, giving the animals some pets and cuddles. He was good with them, you notcied and they seemed to like him in return.

“You have two cats at home, right?”, he asked, his hand still stroking a fat tabby, who was at the clinic because of stomach problems. The owner insisted something was wrong with him, even though you had determined that he just needed a change in food and a consistent diet. 

“Yeah, Mr. Paws and Pogi.”, you replied. “I got them both from here, when the owners didn’t want them anymore.”

Jungkook’s eyes snapped to you, one of his eyebrows raised. “People do that?”

“Sometimes, unfortunately. Mr. Paws has a missing paw, ironically. We had to amputate it and the owner thought his cat would need special treatment because of it. And Pogi just needs regular medication and special food.” Small things really, but some owners just couldn’t handle it. 

“I saw pictures of them and I never notcied the missing paw.”, Jungkook said.

“I don’t make a point of making it the focus on pictures.” 

You ended the tour back in the staff room, where Jungkook took his coffee for a few sips, the drink instantly helping to warm him up. 

“I have to miss our drama this friday.”, he suddenly announced. “So you have to give me detailed updates or at least a good summary.”

“You could just watch the rerun online.”, you suggested.

“It’s no fun alone. So unless you can wait a day for the new episode...”

“I make no promises, since the last episode ended on a cliffhanger.. but I’ll try to be patient.” He smiled at your humor, but you were serous. The show was more enjoyable with him. 

“How did you get here?”, you eventually asked.

“I took a cab, but told them to let me out in front of a restaurant nearby. From there I walked.” In the pouring rain no less. Probably so the cab driver wouldn’t tell where he went. It was a clever ruse, but it was a shame that it was even necessary. 

“Need a ride home?”, you asked. “I think I’m not a bad driver and I have some minor experience with idol passengers.”

His smile grew even wider at that. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“But I do stil have to work for an hour before I can take my break.”, you said, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“Just a break? What time do you go home?”

“This is just like a hospital with normal night shifts. Usually they are covered by our senior staff, but because some are on holiday, the task falls to me. So today, I’m staying till 7am. But I get the next day off.”, you explained. Those almost 24 hour shifts were draining, but rare, so you didn’t mind them at all. 

“Oh, I think I will need loads of coffee to make it until 7am...”, he said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I might as well keep you company. That will be the perfect way to show my gratitude.”

“You really don’t have you...”; you started. 

“I have a free day tomorrow as well, so I don’t mind.”, he insisted casually. “Besides, we get a chance to talk about that drama in person. It’s easier than typing.”

You still didn’t get why he wanted to stay. Somehow you could not imagine that it was because he simply started to enjoy your company through your online talks.

For almost the whole night, you just talked and drank copious amounts of coffee. He followed you on your patrol rounds, helping you with minor tasks whenever he could. And although it was strange, it was the best night shift ever. Most of the time, it didn’t feel like you were hanging out with an idol, but just with a really nice guy. A really handsome one at that. 

“This is nice.”, Jungkook said, voicing what you had been thinking. “But I do need another coffee.”

“You could also just take a nap.”, you offered. “I’ll wake you before it’s time to go.” It was already 4 am at this point. 

He seemed to think about the offer. “Ok, but we will grab some breakfast together to make up for lost time.”

Did he really feel like he owed you all this time? You weren’t quite sure what to answer, so you just nodded and went to grab him a blanket. There was a small sofa in the staff room specifically for the nightshift or patients who could not see blood. 

“Goodnight, Jungkook.”

“Goodnight, Y/N”

Hearing it live was so much better than reading his text you decided. And with a smile you made yourself another coffee to last the remaining hours. 

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird, “My human.”

You guys requested some more LFIL stuff, so I have brought it. Lots of Fluff, I hope. So please enjoy. Also based on a couple ideas given to me by the Discord server :)

“Where are we going.”

“You’ll see.”

“I feel like this is becoming our thing.”

“What?”

“Dragging the other to some sort of event and not saying literally anything about it beforehand.” Sunny hummed deep in her chest and Adam just rolled his eyes, looking around at the dark city awash with eternal night.

“Why Noctopolis of all the places. I mean we have a week off and you want to spend your vacation days in the literal dump of the galaxy?”

She huffed and rolled her eyes, “Please, you love it here. It's like any tradeworld from any sci-fi movie ever.”

That shut him up, and she could see the slow grin pass over his face.

Finally she shrugged, “Look, I just thought it would be nice to… go somewhere where we could relax, not have to worry about hiding.”

“I think there are a few nice beachfront planets we could have done that on.”

“Not with the tourism.” She shot back 

A gust of sour wind kicked up through the bustling night streets tugging at Adam’s jacket and rippling the blue of his shirt like ripples across a pond. He adjusted his eyepatch as she led him through a maze of back alleys and tall buildings.

They took a rickety lift down into the gorge where the ever-present red mist billowed and glowed below them in patterns that undulated and wired.

They stepped off into another shallow rift, and followed a narrow street down into another side alley, where Sunny stopped.

Trash and little bits of paper blew around them where they stood in front of a peeling red door.

Adam raised an eyebrow at Sunny, “Ah, beautiful. A lovely vacation spot, I would like to move here and retire.”

“Smartass.” She mumbled at him before knocking on the red door.

There was a long pause while they waited, Adam tapping his foot against concrete below before the door opened a crack and a single human eye peered out at them. The distant echo of music thudded up through the room echoing off the walls.

“What do you want?”

“I’m A friend of Adam.”

Adam frowned and raised an eyebrow as the door shut suddenly and there was a rattling on the other side as if a chain was being released.

He glanced at Sunny but she only shook her head.

The door opened, and a woman with short buzzed black hair stepped into the doorway, invisible tattoos glowing under the blacklight.

As her eyes fell on him, he watched as her eyebrows raised, single eyebrow stud glittering in the light, “You weren’t kidding. Then her stern face broke into a smile, “Come on in. Any ‘friend of Adam’s is a friend of mine’.”

Adam followed along behind Sunny as the music grew louder, “Is that a code for something…. Is this a code? I am very confused.”

He was a lot less confused a minute later when they stepped out into the main room, a large spacious area with multiple stories. A room off to one side had bright flashing lights, and emanated with the sound of drums. Then there was a bar and couches and pool tables and TVs.

It was less of a club or a bar and more like some sort of clubhouse. The bar seemed to be serving food. On the second floor there were more couches, and some rooms that led off into other rooms.

But what really gave it away was the people.

Aliens and humans.

Aliens and humans holding hands and often cuddled up together on the couches.

He shot Sunny a look.

She just shook her head at him, and together they walked over to the bar.

Just off to their side a human was busily and delicately helping a Finnari to put on some sort of dark shaded glasses.

“That better, hun?’

“Yeah…. Yeah, that's better.” the Finnari hugged the woman, “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for>”

“I know you can change how warm you are, and I’m sorry I have to wear the glasses….”

She just laughed and kissed the top of his head.

Adam cleared his throat awkwardly and tugged at the collar of his shirt.

They made it to the bar before anyone recognized them.

“Admiral!” He winced and turned around running into a familiar face at the bar, a familiar green mohawk and a small blue finnari.

Adam frowned, “I thought you were living on the Tesraki homeworld now.”

“We lease an apartment there for business, but we prefer it here…. So tell me, what are you guys doing here.”

He glanced at Sunny, “That’s what I’d like to know.”

She took a seat, “Just relaxing. It is our vacation after all.

Mohawk eyed them a little as Adam sat down reluctantly.

“Drinks on the house then.”

Beside him, the little Finnari waddled over handing up a cup of cucumber juice for Sunny.

The man looked at Adam,”Pick your poison.”

Adam shrugged, “Something girly and brightly colored that tastes good. If I’m going to get drunk it better be worth it.”

Mohawk grinned and got to work.

Another couple wandered over to the bar talking and laughing sliding into seats next to Adam and Sunny.

The human recognized him instantly and grabbed his hand to shake, “Admiral, Vir. I can’t believe you’re here! I can’t believe I get to meet you…. I…. well me and Hasan.” He turned to look over his shoulder at the large, silver Drev sitting next to him, “We owe you so much, the entire community owes you so much.”

Adam blinked, “I…. Well I mean…. I only did what anyone would….”

The man shook his head and waved a hand at him, no no, only you could do what you did and only you DID what you could.”

Adam shrugged not entirely sure what to say before…. “May I…. ask you a question.”

“Anything.”

“Friend of Adam. What does that mean?”

The man waved his hand, “Oh, it’s just a little coad we have for someone who is LFIL, you know so that we don’t have to say it out loud to someone we aren’t sure about.”

“Oh, I see.” he glanced back at the silver Drev listening quietly from behind, “And i’m assuming you are some sort of Kung Fu master…. Dating a Drev and all.”

“Official battle partners , actually.”

Adam raised an eyebrow, “You mean you’ve challenged-”

“Challenged him to the right of unarmed combat. Yes I did. You sure know a lot about Drev culture.”

“You forget, I am Sentinel of a Drev clan, and I spent a couple months training with one of the clans on Anin.:

The man grinned, “But yes to answer your question. I am a…. Sort of well known here on Noctropolis…. MMA fighter, though I also dabble in the use of medieval weapons.”

“Adam only had a little trouble believing that this overly talkative man could probably kick him six ways to sunday, but it seemed strange with his strong but silent type Drev partner who seemed just happy to listen and sip at his juice.

The Bar tender came back with a pink smoothie that Adam was sure had so much rum in it he wasn’t going to be able to feel his legs tomorrow, but it tasted pretty good and it included a crazy straw, so he was happy enough.

The man he had just been speaking to grabbed him by the hand and dragged him to his feet, “Come on, you need to come meet the others, they will be so excited to see you.”

He was tugged to his feet and went only a little hesitantly.

Sunny fell back and began talking with the silver Drev rapid fire.

He was dragged across the open floor to where a group of them was sitting around a low table.

A woman in a nicely recessed suit was sitting with her chin on her hands staring intently at the board.

A few rolls of the dice, and the little black-furred Tesraki stood feet on the table and pointed at her, “HA I win, eat your heart out sweetheart.”

“Not fair, if you hadn’t put hotels on the boardwalk, i would OWN your furry ass.”

The Tesraki waggled his ears at her 

Adam couldn't help but bark out a laugh, “Are you playing monopoly…. Isn’t that dangerous to play if you want your relationship in tact?”

The Tesraki turned to look at him, walked across the table and then fell back into the arms of the wall dressed woman, looking rather smug as she wrapped her arms around him, “Not likely, human.” He patted the woman’s cheek, “my muse is one of the shrewdest business minds this side of the galaxy, and nothing is more attractive than pitting one financial mind against another.”

She stroked the fur on the top of his head.

Adam smiled but shook his head, looking around the room to where the others were staring at him.

He  leared his throat, “uh….hi…. Sorry to intrude we just….”

That is when the cheers started up and he was pulled into the group with the others. He shook a bunch of hands before things settled back down. 

A finnari and a human were curled up across the circle. 

Silver drev and his battle partner were holding hands just to their right, and Adam was feeling a little more than awkward sitting, back straight hands clasped politely before him like he was sitting at church.

“Forgive me for asking, Admiral. I know it might be a sensitive subject, but everyone here in the clubhouse know each other, and we…. Well we have been wondering for a while. Well, we know you are supportive of us, of course, but we wonder if maybe you have other…. Reasons.” They glanced at Sunny

He felt his neck turn red, and tried to cover it by pulling his jacket up.

He glanced at Sunny and she leaned in to speak to him, “I think you should tell them.”

HE frowned at her.

“Just hear me out before you shoot it down. “I know you're stressed trying to keep it secret, and these people have a code of conduct. They won’t tell anyone. I just think it would be good to get it off our chests for once to people who will finally understand.”

He could see her point of course, but still. He wasn’t sure. Just thinking about saying it oud-loud was causing his chest to tighten up a bit. He had been fighting to hide this for a while now, and it was sort of just habit.

The group stared at him.

Hopeful expressions almost. 

They were waiting for him.

But how was it that despite being with Sunny, he didn’t feel like one of them. The guilt was enough to galvanise him into action. He cleared his throat and sat up “well, not when I made the speech to the GA, no….”

They seemed to wilt.

“But,”

They all lifted their heads in anticipation, “I….. Sunny and I are….. Dating.”

The word fell from his lips like a led weight. His head felt suddenly light, and the room around them burst into sound and color as the group of them rose to their feet cheering. Someone slapped him on the back. 

He could barely hear.

“Feels good doesn’t it, to finally say something to people who understand. DRINKS FOR EVERYONE!”

The group was smiling and laughing, “Come on, you don’t have to hide here.:

“Hold her hand!”

“Yeah.”

He caved, even though his hand was shaky and slick with sweat.

More cheering 

He felt as if he was drunk, or drugged. As if he had stepped out of himself. Inside his stomach churned and swarmed with insects.

“Kiss her.” Someone else urged.

The group laughed, but took up the call. Blushing like red as a cherry he leaned up and gave her a quick kiss on the bheek before sitting back down.

Thanks for them, they sensed his nervousness and backed off.

Sunny hummed with pleasure.

He still felt lightheaded.

He could hear them talking but wasn’t sure what about.

Eventually Sunny got up with one of the other drev, and the two of them stepped over to a circle on the floor to have a friendly contest with spears.

Adam was left alone.

The partner of the Drev Sunny was fighting came to sit next to him looking over at the circle, “Pretty amazing aren't they….. Beautiful.”

He nodded lethargically before, “Can I…. make a confession?”

The group was interested and leaned in, he felt their eyes on him. He rubbed the back of his neck, “I… I really do…. Thank you all for… the encouragement but…. well . I have to admit that I….I’ve never really…. Felt like one of you.”

They seemed surprised but were interested to listen.

“What do you mean?”

“I…. well…. This is going to sound strange, but I’m not….. Actually…. Attracted to aliens.”

They stared at him confused.

He sighed and shook his head, “It's… complicated.”

“We’re listening.”

“I…. it's not the fact that she’s a Drev….. I would love Sunny if she were a Tesraki, or a Finnari, or a human. I’m not attracted to Drev as a hole, but Sunny….just Sunny. That’s it she’s the only one.”

There was silence for a moment, and for a second he thought he had offended them, but then.

“Aww, that’s so sweet.”

“I understand.”

“Yeah I can see that, but either way you are more than welcome here.”

He was surprised, and after that little exchange, he relaxed a little and smiled, taking a sip of his pink smoothie using his crazy straw.

Sunny was right, it did feel a little better to get off his chest.

And for Sunny, things felt better as well. Finally she had someone she could share with about humans. At one point the aliens and humans split off into groups, the humans living on nostalgic childhood games meant to cause pain.

Sunny sat with the others.

“And the mood swings with humans.” Someone was saying.

“Tell me about it. They go from angry to cuddly to horny in about two seconds flat.”

Sunny snorted, “Can’t say I’ve seen the last one, but the first two, yeah it's a bit of a roller coaster. No wonder they’re always exhausted.”

“Really, you’ve never seen the third one.”

“Adam is a bit…. Shy I think, It’ll probably take him a while.”

“Well you are in for a surprise when he does. Humans are a bit insane.”

One of the Drev huffed, “That’s a good thing I’d say.”

The group laughed and then, “Ok but does anyone else’s human get angry when they are hungry?”

A chorus of yesses.

Sunny sighed, “Oh yes, when your human is 6,2 and 210 lbs and often forgets to eat because he’s so busy. It is a common occurrence. Then he will try to argue with me when I go to feed him that he doesn't have time and he's stressed, and I tell him that he will feel better when he eats, but NO I’m the crazy one.”

One of the Tesraki smiled, “I find there are a few ways to remedy this. Number one, is that I have stashed snacks in all the vehicles and locations that we own. Barring that, I make it a habit to hide currency in her pockets so when she randomly finds a credit it makes her day. She doesn’t know I do this.”

Sunny smiled, “I have a friend who is a doctor, and he once made me read a paper about a human scientist Pavlov, who talked about conditioning, that if you associate certain stimuli with others you can cause a specific reaction. So I make sure to play this one very specific song when we spend time together or cuddle or something, so when he’s stressed  I discreetly turn it on,and either he relaxes or he comes to me for comfort.”

The group ohed at her genius and she felt rather smug.

That was until loud laughter rang out across the room, and the group of them turned to see humans standing on the bar… or specifically one human standing on the bar dancing stupidly.

She sighed, “yep, that one is mine.”

It was good to see him loosen up at little though and he was more than happy to be dragged around by her. She even forced him to come dance with her, and some of the others joined in. Flashing lights and bodies pressed tight together in a semi darkness. Aliens and humans.

All that while the humans were slowly getting drunker.

Thought that all lead to an impromptu karaoke session with most of the humans singing horrible off tune in their drunken state.

Interesting how humans could suddenly become so bad at speaking when drunk.

Adam did pretty well though for someone who got dared to sing Burning Love, which he did pretty well despite sounding absolutely nothing like Elvis -- though to be honest, Sunny wasn’t a big fan of Elvis anyway and preferred Adam’s version. But that might also have been for the eye contact he held with her on occasion, allowing her to think maybe the song was for her.

A fact that made her secretly very happy.

Adam got more socially confident when he was drunk.

It seemed odd to her that he could be such an extroverted person who was very charismatic some times, but in other situations he could barely string two words together.

Either way, looking around at other people’s humans she couldn't help but be a bit smug. Yeah sure their humans were fit, but her human was the best. In her opinion, he had the brightest UV stripes, the prettiest eyes, and the nicest smile. Not to mention that she would bet money he could win in a fight against the other humans . 

Unbeknownst to her, a similar conversation was happening across the room with the humans, accept it was out loud.

“I mean she’s fine, my boy is the best.”

Adam snorted, “Please, gold eyes and carapace the color of blue lightning. You can’t compete.”

“Mine is taller..”

“Mine is more huggable. The perfect height ratio, but have fun bringing a step stool around with you.”

“Don’t need one when he can pick me up.”

“She can pick me up too, so your point is irrelevant.”

He leaned back against the table, his voice slightly slurred as he stared across the room at her, where she was standing, demonstrating some sort of spear move to one of the other Drev.

His voice grew serious, “No woman, no Drev, no alien can compete with the sheer power, and grace. She is a phenomenal warrior, loyal…. Everything that is perfect.”

There was a pause, and then they all burst into a fit of drunken giggling.

By the end of the night most of the humans were passed out, or close to it. And the sober aliens walked over to collect their fallen human from the scattered bodies.

Someone ave Sunny a key, “Rooms upstairs.”

She nodded and thanked the bartender as she reached down and hoisted Adam up with her lower arms under his. He was probably going to have an intense hangover tomorrow, but now he looked rather peaceful in his sleep.

She waved at the other Drev doing the same thing to their humans. Occasionally helping one of the FInnari or Tesraki with a human that was too heavy.

She went upstairs and flopped him down on a bed. He didn’t wake up, but smiled in his sleep. She crawled up to lay next to him. She was glad that he had been able to relax. She had hoped finally admitting it to someone would help.

To be fair, she needed it too.

More than most could know.

[ad1thi]

2020 fic recs!! [Part 1]

this idea was stolen from @iam93percentstardust cuz i just,,,thought that this year was absolute shit and it would be nice to make a fic rec list of fics from this year that helped me through it. this will be over a range of fandoms and ships, but all fics were written this year. 

fics are ordered by the month they were published. ive tried to keep to five fics per month, but this is not obviously all the fics ive read that month - i just didn’t want to make this insanely long. 

im releasing the first half of this on the 1st of December, and the second half on the 1st of January 2021 - because otherwise it would just get so long (and also so i will actually have fics for December)

happy reading!! hopefully you find fics on this you haven’t read yet

***

January

The cat is mighty dignified (until the dog comes by): @five-wow

Steve and Danny find them on the pillow in the corner of the dining area, where Eddie is on his side, ass half on the floor because the pillow is more cat-sized than lab-sized, and Pickles is nestled between Eddie’s front legs, essentially being spooned and looking very I-got-the-cream about it. Pickles’ head is tucked into the crook of Eddie’s neck and Eddie’s head slots perfectly on top of Mr. Pickles’, like a furry jigsaw puzzle.

“They’re cuddling,” Steve points out, unnecessarily.

Or: There is a love story unfolding under the McGarrett roof.

Captain ‘Socialist Rage Muffin’ America: @baffledkingcomposinghallelujah

It takes three months of dating Steve Rogers for Tony to understand why Aunt Peggy once shot at him in sheer frustration.

Alternately titled, Honey, I committed treason again.

The Best Laid Plans (Of Mice and Men): @arboreal-elm-ash-oak

His Dark Materials AU

It was Annalise who noticed their small visitor first.

“Tony,” the spider daemon said softly, skittering up the collar of his dress shirt, two of her eight legs resting delicately against his cheek, “Don’t startle them, but I believe we have a guest. Look, by the coffee table.”

Fourteen Million to One: @tunastorks

Six months after Thanos, six months after Tony’s death, six months after Steve returns to his own timeline, Tony Stark turns up on their doorstep.

Brewed Awakening: @iam93percentstardust

Two years after he comes out of the ice, Steve is drifting through life. On his teammate's recommendation, he decides to go back to school where he meets the grandson of an old friend. He finds happiness with Tony but Steve won't be in Boston forever and someone is out to hurt the Starks. Will Steve and Tony be able to reach their happily ever after?

February

the young, the reckless and the foolish: @bruciewayne

In most universes, they don't know each other, not in the slightest, or they hate each other, in a way that's perfectly logical for anyone who were to find themselves in a similar situation.

In this one, they've known each other since they were four years old and naively idealistic.

This is them over the years, against the odds.

a giant sign: @areiton

“Think you can get him to open the weapons division up again?” his CO asks, his voice hungry and Rhodey laughs because this--

“No. Tony hung up his weapons.”

“That’s not what the suit says,” his CO objects, and Rhodey shrugs.

Tony has always had rules, rules he expects the entire world to live by.

And then there was Rhodey, slipping under them.

my heart is driftwood, floating down your coast: @nethandrake

Tonight, there’s a stranger in his backseat. That’s not unusual.

He’s also sad. That’s not unusual either.

What is unusual is that the stranger is silent.

(One night, a stranger enters Steve's taxi. Nothing is the same again.)

Just A Cold: @/delighted 

There’s a new text waiting for him. It’s from Steve of course, and it’s vaguely threatening as most messages from Steve are these days. Still Danny ignores it, and now he’s really playing with fire. Maybe it’ll burn the cold out of him.

Or, Danny’s sick, and Steve can’t stay away. The usual comfort fluff. With a little cameo from a gently meddling Grace.

An Unexpected Guide: @/Rachel500

Danny Williams has hidden his Guide status to keep being a detective, but his time of hiding is up when he unexpectedly finds his Sentinel, Steve McGarrett in the midst of a tragedy.

March

Why don’t we (Collide the spaces that divide us): @five-wow

When they finally catch sight of each other again through the milling crowds, they’re both a little worse for wear. Danny’s left side is covered in glitter and every time he brushes a hand over his hair, more blue and purple confetti rains down. Steve is- Well, Steve is randomly shirtless, which is all things considered not excessively remarkable, but he’s also covered in smudges of colorful paint and has a very nicely printed bloodred lipstick kiss mark on his cheek.

“What did you do?” Danny asks, because it looks like Steve had a lot more fun than he did.

Or: Steve and Danny accidentally end up in the middle of something entirely new.

A Little Unsteady: @finduilasclln 

Written for the Tumblr prompt meme : "Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

Tony lashes out at Bucky for eating his dessert. Only, it really isn't about the dessert.

a national treasure: @starklysteve

Steve isn't looking for an apple and Tony decides his passion is to inspire young souls. -x- OR: the AU where Tony is a Youtuber and Steve is Captain America and somehow they still save the world together.

April

cycle through: @ambivalentmarvel

Twenty-five years ago, Tony Stark disappeared from his family home a month after the tragic deaths of his parents, Howard and Maria Stark, leaving a billion-dollar tech conglomerate without an heir and the world wondering what happened.

Twenty-three years ago, HYDRA gained another super soldier.

Ten years ago, Peter Parker’s parents died in what is ruled as a home invasion gone wrong but he knows was murder, plain and simple, because he spoke to the killer.

And in the present, Project Insight fails, and the Iron Soldier pays the price.

FOREVER-LOVE YOU-I: @/Eudoxia

Tony Stark is twenty-one when he loses his voice. It shouldn't matter, but in a world where the first words your Soulmate says to you are marked on your skin, it can be pretty damn annoying.

Especially for Tony's soulmate.

--

Companion piece to my fic Thumb, Index, and Pinky Extended. This is Steve's POV, with a few extra scenes, as a treat.

(Edit: Sorry if you guys get multiple notifications for this. I just realized (about two hours after posting it) that I fucked up the grammar in the title and I HAD to fix it. YOLO, I guess.)

come build a home out of me: @maguna-stxrk

Steve clears his throat.

“What if I went with you?” he asks nonchalantly, like his heart isn’t threatening to beat out of his ribcage.

Tony blinks a few times, looking at Steve, his mouth ajar. “As a— As my date?”

“Yeah.” Steve nods, feeling a little breathless.

“You don’t mind?” Tony furrows his eyebrows.

“I don’t. In fact, you can just tell them I’m your boyfriend. I’m sure they’ll back off, wouldn’t they?”

What.

“I— Huh?” Tony stares at him, brown eyes blown wide open.

What. What. What.

“Huh? Uh, I mean— You know, that way people will see that you have definitely moved on. Monica will see that you have moved on. Right?” Steve smiles, hoping that it masks his inner panic, because what?

Steve Rogers, what have you done?

i don’t have a choice (but i’d still choose you): @nethandrake

There’s a name inked onto his chest, a name written in an all-too familiar scrawl. And it’s— It’s—

Steve doesn’t realize his body is quaking until he’s tracing the tattoo with a shaky finger.

Because of course that is the name etched into the skin. Like a brand, a reminder for everything he has done. An appropriate retribution.

Anthony Edward Stark.

(When Thanos snaps half of the universe away, he unknowingly leaves the other half with soulmarks.)

ua haʻalele ʻoe iaʻu (a ua hoʻomālamalama ʻoe iaʻu): @just-fandomthings

"The truth is, I was shot in the chest and nearly died, and not even three days after I was released from the hospital, you up and left-- and of those two, I'm not sure which one hurt me worse!"

(Coda to 10x22 because come on, we all need a better ending than the one given to us.)

Title loosely translates to: "You left me in the dark (you lit me up)" -- inspired by the brilliant song "Say You Won't Let Go" by James Arthur

May

A Piece Of The Past: @hddnone

It had been so many years since Bucky had gone undercover in the Stark family's mob, he thought he'd gotten away clean.

Then Tony Stark slid into the seat across from him at his breakfast diner, and Bucky's boss has a new case for him.

the privilege of loving you: @starklysteve

“Why won’t you let me touch you?”

It’s a desperate plea, half-shouted and half-whispered, Steve’s voice cracking at the end. Tony stops in his tracks, halfway to the stairs. He doesn’t dare to turn back, and he really doesn’t want to fight, or to leave, to spend the last month of his life away from his husband and their son. But Steve can’t know, can he?

-x-

Or: Tony has palladium poisoning, but he doesn't tell Steve and Peter

your pillow feels so soft now (but still you must advance): @firebrands

When Bruce is 13, he decides to go to boarding school. It's an opportunity for him to learn about other people, and how to interact with them.

Bruce has the misfortune of meeting Tony Stark upon his arrival in Roxbury. Bruce is moving into his room, and Tony opens the door of his room to watch. He looks a bit younger than Bruce, hair wild and eyes bright. Bruce has never seen a boy like him before—handsome and confident.

Bruce doesn’t like it.

IMPORTANT: This fic has them meeting at 14, then progresses slowly until they’re 17. Includes underage drinking and kissing.

This is set before Bruce becomes Batman and Tony becomes Iron Man and I have no explanation as to how or why they just DO Canonically, Bruce is 17 when he finishes school and goes around the world to train, so we're sticking with that

The Real MVP: @sword-and-stars (part of a series)

[“I have saved this Tuesday!” Sokka announces, rattling the bag upon reentry.

Zuko doesn’t even look up from his phone as he deadpans, “It’s Thursday.”

Okay, so Sokka is still having trouble getting his days right without checking. At least he’s gone back to sleeping at night! Going to bed at night is way easier when you have a cute, cuddly boyfriend who starts falling asleep around eleven o’clock. It also helps that he and Zuko are on solid gold butt-touching terms.

It’s been a while since Sokka has been on butt-touching terms with someone and it’s amazing.]

Or,

Sokka knows a guy, gets laid, and introduces Zuko to the merits of an afternoon delight.

When is a bed not a bed? (When you’re not in it): @riotwritesthings

There’s a tiny safe house, with one tiny window and one tiny couch.

And one tiny little bed.

June

Nice Fingers: @anthonyed

A single compliment given by Tony stirs Bucky restless until he caves in and asks him out on a date.

With Steve’s help of course (whether he likes it or not).

The Darkest Touch: @starkrogerrs

This is the story of how Steve finds that it has been ordained that he is to marry a monster he cannot resist aka the God of Love himself, Tony.

It's Cupid x Psyche retold, but with thrice the amount of porn.

The Night Shift:  @weethreequarter

Welcome to the Emergency Department of San Antonio General where Dr. Tony Stark joins the team fresh from his most recent tour in Afghanistan and - much to the consternation of the other staff - strikes up an instant rapport with Nurse Steve Rogers. Meanwhile, new resident Bruce Banner refuses to give up on his patient, and Dr. Sharon Carter learns something from her own patients. Throw in a pissed off hospital administrator, Clint using the coffee pot as a mug again, and a major car crash and you have, well, just another night shift.

Wind Beneath My Wings: @iam93percentstardust

Sam first meets Tony Stark in 2005 when he joins the EXO-7 Falcon program.

In jest: @/apathyinreverie

“No, babe,” Danny shakes his head with a grin. “If the apocalypse were to go down while I’m elsewhere for some godforsaken reason, then you stay put and I’m coming to wherever you are.” His grin widens. “And I expect you to have cleared any aliens or zombies or whatever else might be messing with us off the island and to have set up a nice, comfortable military dictatorship for us to rule over by the time I get back.”

It’s a joke.

Of course it’s a joke.

Until it isn’t.

(A the-day-after-tomorrow-style apocalypse AU, where the world decides to end right when Danny is visiting one of the other islands with Grace. Because, of course, it does.)

[cherripeach]

Chapter 4

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it. 

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it.Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Prologue 8-10: hurricane katrina more like hurricane tortilla

Chapter Summary: Everyone in this school needs their hearing checked.

Warning:  Curse words, jokes about death, slight violence, fire,

Words: 4.3k

Relationships: developing but future twstxreader

While you normally say “Sleep is for the weak,” this is not what you meant. And honestly you want to be weak compared to the literal 7 minutes of sleep you got. Everything felt off, and it wasn’t like your regular sleep schedule was great anyway.  All you did the entire night was make up scenarios in your head and contemplate both life and exploring the campus more. However, by the time you decided to go find the tallest tower (just to see it dude), all three ghosts were floating above you close to your ceiling. 

You whispered as to not wake up the sleeping cat that needs to stop taking up the bed, “Yo, not cool dude.”

The ghosts just winked at you and proceeded to try and scare the cat out of his slumber by reminding him about cleaning the school, but Grim seemed more like a teenager than you when he responded with a wish of “five more minutes.” 

The ghosts did not find this at all amusing, so they continued and even tried to make a morbid joke:

“Laze about too long and you’ll never wake up!” The smaller one started the joke. 

“Just like us!” And the largest one ended it.

The ghost's appearance frightened the cat causing the little demon to spring from under the covers and frantically run around the room basically accomplishing nothing. The ghosts, however, did not find this appealing and turned to you.

The tallest one spoke to you, “Are you all going to be living here? You’re gonna get pranked.”

Nodding your head, you agreed to the wonderful idea, but with a twist, “See dude I know you wanna prank us, but I would love to help all of you prank others.” You paused for a second and put your hand on your chin. “I’ve never had ghost friends and I really wanna know what you guys can do..” 

Grim was the exact opposite and continued to scream at the ghosts, but you just nodded your head at your brilliant idea and thought of all of your plans that you could get away with ghost friends. 

Right at this moment, the oh so gracious headmaster appeared out of thin air and greeted you, “Good morning, you two. Did you sleep well?”

Grim apparently did not, which peeved you off because you were the one up all night, so you just responded with, “Yeah the best sleep I’ve had since I was conceived…”

You knew the headmaster would not understand sarcasm, but honestly why is he even in your room in the early morning without knocking? The world will never know. And with a small world from him you zoned him out. At least until he mentioned cleaning the Main Street of the Campus. Once he stopped his speech his eyes flew to yours to wait for an answer.

“Sure, headmaster, but what am I supposed to use and where is this “Main Street”??” He never explained anything to you. I mean even if you listen when you try, the man tells you nothing. 

Here he goes trying to not explain anything to you, “I'm counting on you. You have permission to have lunch in the school cafeteria. Take care of your work enthusiastically.” He yeeted out of here just like your world did to you. 

“Ughhh, at least we get lunch…” You sighed into the unknown hoping someone would save you from this.  

“Tsk... No way I'm doing any cleaning. I wanna go to class, and bang! Boom boom boom! Use a bunch of awesome magic.” There was no use speaking to either of the two children of the school. 

“Dude, please, let’s just go and get this over with. Got it?” The cat just muttered in response to your reasoning, and you took that as a sign that he listened and that was the best you were ever gonna get from him. 

You got yourself together and decided that since nothing was gonna go your way, why act like it was. Your ideal belief made you not even look at yourself in a mirror, but just pull up the hood you had on from yesterday and grab some of the cleaning supplies that you found in the dorm. 

You and Grim headed out, and you waved a goodbye at the ghosts and blew a kiss at them because it is for the homies. 

Grim did end up abandoning you for a while to go find some “great tuna” for him to snack on. 

While walking out of the dorm and into the normal path of the school you encountered some odd people, and you actually considered yourself to be odd so these people were like the weirdest of the weirdos. One was a really jacked up on steroids furry, another was this pair of twins who everyone was avoiding and had weird anime twin hair which was the same hairstyle but parted differently or something, and you even saw an adorable boy, which is not considered weird, but he looked incredibly peeved at the rocks that he was kicking. Their outfits were all similar, but you did notice that there was a slight color difference between all the different people. 

Since life is not going your way and probably never will, you decided that the next person who you saw that you did not already see before you would ask directions from. The one problem with that is that the dude had a very sus vibe. He had on like a hat that was from like the 1800’s, but he did not have any other terrible features. He was rather breathtaking if you thought about it, but his eyes moved all around the crowd walking to get somewhere, and that gave you enough stalker vibes. His blonde hair in the bob was very cute, and maybe a little bit attractive, but his fashion sense was eccentric. Honestly, he was just eccentric. However, weighing your options, he is mostly approachable, and besides who isn't afraid of everyone they meet. 

You strided up to the man with as much confidence as a supermodel has. The male’s eyes swiftly darted to your form once you changed directions just making everything more awkward. Confusion spread through his face, but you kept on walking and stumbling and even lifted your hand for a small wave to him. The male did observe you just like you did him and found that you would not be a threat at least not that much and allowed your approach. 

Once you were within a distance where both of you could hear one another, he spoke, “Well, well, well, is there anyway I can help you, canard?” The man gently smiled at you, and damn you were hooked, but the man totally watched you stumble around wondering who to turn to, so this was just a cute situation. 

“Um, you see, I don’t know where the main street is..Could you help me?”  This man was actually making you nervous, but you put it all to how charming he was. 

“Oui, who would I be to not help un petit canard.” His hand went to his chest, and while with the headmaster and most of the others on this campus would piss you off if they did it, the male in front of you actually made you feel a little reassured. 

Your mind paused for a second to finally realize, ‘It’s been five minutes and I already have a slight crush… wow.’ 

The male waved his hand to motion for you to follow him as his grin just grew and he turned around, and you in your confused glory stumbled after him. He slowed his footsteps to allow you to both match him and keep up with him in the long run, and he began to make conversation with you.

“You must be the magicless student, oui?” As gentle as he looked when he lightly smiled and closed his eyes, he also had an air of danger floating around him. You wanted to trust him but also didn’t. 

“Yeah, dude...don’t know why I’m here either, and I can’t leave. Nothing seems to be going my way.” You shook your head and sighed deeply, but you were just happy that someone would listen.

“Poor petit canard, it would be my honor to help you with any of your problems,” he’s really good. He’s probably the best person you have met since the sun because he actually seems a little nice. 

“Thanks a lot. With all of the assholes and weirdos here, I didn’t exactly expect someone who would care about me.” You placed your gaze on the ground where you watched your feet and his walk while your lips turned up slightly, but you did think that this guy was weird enough for making you feel embarrassed and his whole odd vibe.

“It is no problem, petit canard, but I would recommend giving a chance to the people here,” he halted his speech and steps for a second just to land in front of you and to turn around causing his gaze to meet yours while you slowly looked up at him, “No one is like they seem.” His eyes did those weird anime think where a light shines over them for a second. 

“What?” Your mouth gaped open in visible shock at the man before you. 

At least until he twisted back around with the wind giving his jacket a flutter, “We have arrived, canard. Do have a nice day, oui?”  With a bow of his hat, the blonde hair man was out. 

“You know what, that is probably gonna be the most normal person I will meet at this school,” you thought for a second recognizing that you forgot about the dude from last night, “either him or the silver haired sleeping beauty.” You chuckled to yourself. 

You began to scan your surroundings which consisted of seven different statues and a long path leading up to the school one way and out the gate another. Many trees also decorated the area outside the path. 

And from this you determined that you would need the broom and washcloth you brought, but a rake would be appreciated. 

You groaned out to announce your displeasure and got started on cleaning up the place, and that is when Grim showed up to begin complaining that he had to pay for the tuna and that no one would give it to him for free. He even said that someone even threatened to kick him out of the school, but that did not surprise you. You just threw a cloth at him and told him to go scrub the statues.

He did his job for a good ten minutes without mouthing off at any of the students walking on the street getting ready to start school, but he did turn to you while washing the statue of the Queen of Hearts from the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland. 

“Hey, servant,” the cat peered up at you with big doe eyes, “What’s with all these statues? All seven of them look pretty scary,” the cat gazed up at the statue he was cleaning again, “This granny looks especially snobby.”

You just giggled at his statement, but a male with red orange hair and a red heart on his face came up to you too, and he was puzzled, “You don’t know about the Queen of Hearts?”

Grim gawked back at the male, “Queen of Hearts? Is she important?” 

“Grim, no one is important unless someone makes them important, so logically speaking no.” You just had to cut in with an idea about society that you just thought about.

The male with the heart on his cheek had something to say and started going on and on about how amazing she was as a queen. You just ignored him and went to work because you have heard of her and all that she was before, but Grim was captivated and started basically worshiping the words that came out of the male’s mouth. Grim even added in comments about the Queen here and there, but then Grim asked, “By the way, who are you?” and that caught your attention from cleaning. 

“I’m Ace, a fresh-faced first year. Nice to meetcha~” Ace winked at the two of you.

But you had to open your mouth, “Who calls themselves a fresh-faced first year. That’s basically saying you're fresh meat.” You raised an eyebrow while asserting your belief. 

However, neither of the boys listened to you. 

“I’m Grim, a genius who’ll become the greatest magician.” Grim just had to introduce himself; he even introduced you and called you both a dimwit and a servant which did not surprise you. 

Ace turned to you and in your eyes tried to compliment you, “You’ve got an odd sounding name.” 

“Thanks I guess, dude, but why are you here?” He had to be leaving for class soon, but he was just sticking to you two. His introduction confused you about his personality because after all the people you have met only three of them had been slightly nice and even then, all of them were odd. This guy had to be hiding something, and you think it might be something to do about his personality. 

“What are you talking about? I’m just here to help you two. I don’t mean to cause any trouble.” Ace responded.

‘So he wanted to cause trouble,’ was your immediate reaction. 

Ace then turned back to Grim who started a conversation about Scar from Lion King. All that was in your head was “Be Prepared” the villain song in the movie while you watched the two discuss who Scar was and what happened in the movie. But Ace never mentions his death or how he betrayed those who helped him. From your understanding, there was a serious misconception about villains at this school. Now that you thought about it they must clearly respect and reverence them because they had statues of some of the worst Disney villains. And throughout your debate, those two started to talk about Ursula from The Little Mermaid, but Ace referred to her as “The Sea Witch.” Nothing was similar really from the interpretations of the story in your world or this other world’s interpretations. 

While you will admit that some of the villains were not as bad as they could have been and that they were not total villains because most times the main characters and heroes of the stories were total pretentious assholes who knew nothing of ruling a kingdom or anything, romanticizing villains is a little wrong. Moana, though, an absolute queen. Cinderella also deserved better. 

The two visited every statue from Jafar from Aladdin to the ‘Evil Queen’ which they called the ‘Beautiful Queen’ from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Hades from Hercules but the entire storyline was off because in greek mythology Hades wasn’t even the villain behind the story but whatever. The two finally gathered their stuff next to Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, so you followed the two along because this was the last one and you needed to observe Ace, “the fresh meat,” more. 

Grim asked the question about the statue, “And the last one, with the horns?” 

Ace went on about her too, “That is the Witch of Thorns from the Magic Mountains. Noble and elegant, even within the Seven, she is top class in magic and curses! She can summon lightning and storms, cover an entire country in thorns, her magic is on a whole other level. There was even a time she transformed into a huge dragon!” You just nodded along at his speech. 

Grim even contributed again, “Ooh! A dragon! All monsters look up to them!” Grim looked so overjoyed for having someone to tell him about the villains; he’s just your idiotic cat sibling. 

“They’re all so cool!”  There had to be a moment where Ace showed his true self but he hasn’t done it, “Unlike a certain raccoon.” And there it is!!

Grim backed up in alarm from the kid and switched his gaze quickly to you in panic. He was an incredibly trusting cat which made you feel pretty bad for him.

Ace ignored the communication between you and Grim and like a proper villain presented his monologue to you two, “Pfft... Ahaha! I can't bear it anymore! Ahahahaha! Aren't you the guys who went crazy at the entrance ceremony? You were summoned by the Dark Mirror even though you can't use magic, and you, a monster, weren't called but still trespassed. Yeahhh, it took everything I had not to lose it at the ceremony.” His laugh sounded like a fart trying to come out but was halted by the butt cheek and the fabric of the pants so really not cute. 

Grim shifted his attention back to “fresh meat” and gawked at him, “Whaaa!? You're a rude one!”

Since you wanted to find more about this kid before you beat him up, you gave him a second to explain himself.

“And now you aren't allowed in and got regulated to be a janitor? Haha, how lame.” Is this kid kidding? Grim even agrees with you after his noises of distress and disagreement with the kid, but the kid kept going, “On top of that, you don't even know about the Great Seven. How ignorant can you be? As I recommend you go back to kindergarten before coming to Night Raven College.”

You just shook your head at the boy ready to step in once he finished his little speech.

“I thought I'd just mess with you a bit, but you really blew my expectations away. Unlike you two, I actually have classes to attend. Keep this school squeaky clean, you two~” The boy whistled at you two and waved at you and walked away.

At least he tried to before his collar was in your hands and your eyes were right in front of yours. 

“Y’know I’ll give you some praise because you are the most pretentious fuck I have met at this school,” You let go of his collar and knocked his feet a little to make sure he would fall to the ground, “ And what are you like five. All of your jabs at us are literally terrible, but that’s not even the worst of it. You must be so bored of your life or have such a small dick that making fun of people supposedly weaker than you, just gets you off. I never get people like you who belittle and tease others. Is it fun kid, huh, to make jokes to basically another kid when you just know how they are gonna react? ”

Ace sat on the ground stunned by your comments acting like a helpless child who just got yelled at with his red flushed cheeks and his balled up hands by his side. At that point, you realized that there was a crowd gathering around your little spat, and Ace’s cheeks and embarrassment was probably due to getting yelled at by the magicless student who became the janitor. 

However, Grim did not process that you were already lecturing the kid before he blew flames at the two of you.

“Are you kidding me GriM? I’m right here!” Normally fight or flight would respond to his action, but yours was not working causing you to stay in the same spot while some of the flames got closer. 

The kid was running away screaming stuff like “Nope not today” and “why,” but after he stood all the way up and walked a couple footsteps his collar was in your hand again. 

“Not happening, pipsqueak. You’re gonna pay for your actions.” You pulled him around to make sure he could hear you and see the mess of people running around behind you and the cat still trying to blow fire at the two of you.

Grim even started yelling, only making the flames worse and more rowdy, “It's what you get for making fun of me! I'm gonna light up that fire-head of yours!” Grim even smirked to make his point and pointed at the boy still in your hold.

This immature boy was not able to read the atmosphere and stood up to the fire breathing cat, “Fire-head, huh?Heeeeee. You've really got guts picking a fight with me. You too. I'll turn you into a puffy, little toy-poodle!” 

You slapped him on the back of the head for that causing his head to go forward and his hand to grab where you slapped. But Grim kept on shooting fire.

At least until Ace managed to get out of your hold by twisting and wiggling so much. Once he left he ran over to join in Grim and have a fight, and it just seemed like these past couple of days nothing would go your way. 

Ace took out the pen thing you saw yesterday and pointed in directly with a light coming out of it at Grim causing wind to go everywhere blowing the fire. More people also began to crowd around the two and murmurs and gossip broke out everywhere, but all you could pay attention to was stopping them. 

That didn't work out. 

The two kept on spitting insults at each other and magic, and once you got close you grabbed Ace by the ear pulling on it causing him to slightly turn from the fight. You tried to lecture Ace in that moment to tell him to stop, but Ace was far too focused on the cat in front of him and ended up grabbing your wrist, throwing it off his ear, and then shoving you right on your hands and butt into the cement where some flames were. 

All in all basically getting roasted alive was a solid 3/10, but you are sure some people got pictures and videos of it. Since you did get out of those flames in a split second and ‘Stop, Drop, and Roll’ which surprisingly worked, all you ended up with is some burns on the palm of your hands and the back of your calves. And since everything was pissing you off today you also found out that the cult-like cloak you were wearing is fireproof.

Grim got more enraged the more the fight went on and finally had enough, “Eat that!” 

A great amount of flames appeared darted toward Ace, but Ace had other plans, “And I just change my trajectory with the wind like… that!” The wind sent the flames hurtling to the statue of the Queen of Hearts causing the statue to be engulfed into flames.

And your only thought was, ‘This school needs to offer a physics class even a basic math class if all these magicians are as bad at predicting as this one.’

The two children were panicking and running in circles with their stupid tails between their legs screaming at each other and blaming each other. You just wanted to get this over with because you knew that you would be in trouble even though you can’t control anyone or threaten anyone because you are magicless. Grim is also a wild cat, and cats never listen. 

Right as Ace tried to reason with Grim the headmaster showed up, but that only caused two to overreact in fear of him and run away from him and the problem both of them caused. 

Neither escaped of course because they both got whipped which made you think what were the laws regarding teachers and children because you know that whips mostly were not allowed at school and not to be used on children. 

Nevermind that because the lovely headmaster with his gorgeous top hap and magnificent cape started another lecture, “This is my Lash of Love! It'll be another hundred years before you can outrun me!I told you just yesterday to 'not cause any trouble', didn't I?Then you go and char the statues of the Great Seven!I very much would like to see you expelled.” 

You could not wait to be let out and with a blank voice you let out, “Honestly, please let me out. I’ll take the streets over this.” 

No one heard you or at least no one seemed to. 

“Assholes,'' you grit your teeth ready to bear with another problem the headmaster gave you. 

Ace did not agree with you and screeched out, “Wait! Not that!” He whined like the baby he is. 

The headmaster could only make your day worse by turning to you who by the way is still covered in burns and had a look of pure defeat on your face and address, “And you, this is not how you supervise Grim.”

You just exhaled and promised to yourself that while getting expelled and kicked out of this school sounded great, living on the streets did not (Even if it did for the tiniest second there), so you nodded and smiled as best as your strained face from anger could take. 

The headmaster thought that was enough and turned to Ace asking, “My goodness.. You, what's your grade and name?”

Ace actually replied, most likely in fear, “Ace Trappola, first year.”

The gracious headmaster was pleased, “Then, Trappola, Grim, and you as punishment, I order the three of you to wash 100 window around campus!” He bounced his head probably affirming to himself that he chose the proper punishment after he pointed at you. 

Grim did not agree, “Nyaaa!? It's all cause this joker was making fun of us!”

Ace also did not, “Eeeh!? Me too?”

You silently sympathized with the headmaster for having to deal with so many children because he could only respond undoubtedly, “Most definitely! After school, meet in the cafeteria. Understood?” 

The two children groaned in disapproval but went with it.

And Grim stated something that you couldn't agree more with,“Nothing but misery since yesterday!!”

Your only response to the entire situation was to fall onto the cement again and try not to cry because a bad bitch doesn’t. 

~~~~~

Hahaha...I can't with myself. I tried to make this short, but it's the longest one so far. Thank you so much for reading everything, and I hope you have a great day!

[channydraws]

The Warlock and the Witch

In a world of spells and mischief, there lies a Boss Monster who works hard as a professor and the tales of Boss Monsters possessing incredible fire magic. He worked hard, trained hard, using most of his childhood to master his magic for good yet this made his social skills come out pretty rough as he seems full of himself and quite strict. Even then there is much warmth to this Boss Monster who was given the title of “Warlock of Flames” teaching creatures how to use fire magic.

In this hour in the middle of the night, he was looking for ingredients for something that may be useful for his cooking. After all, what use of fire magic if one only knows how to use it to bring destruction and mayhem. As fire can be used to help bring warmth in the cold, bring comfort in the dark, and make food all the tastier. That last bit made him giggle and uses one of his paws to fix his hat.

“Ah, cooked mushrooms sounds good right now. Mushroom soup maybe for today's meal...-”

He felt his ears twitch as he heard something moving in the bushes, sounded a little different than what the average creature that one may normally find in the forest. His eyes narrow as he looks upon the bushes.

“Come out from there. I know someone is there!”

There was not a sound, it was as if whatever it is doesn't believe his words, making him bring up a fireball above his paw.

“If you do not come out, then you may face some burning.”

With that threat out of his mouth the sound of the bushes moving about was heard and there his grey eyes saw a small humanoid figure wearing...

“A witch? No, not just that-”

“What do you want? Is it a crime to roam about the forest at night now?!”

“No, Hmm?!”

There was a loud roar, sounded like it was behind the witch. Most likely they accidentally disturb the creature as they roam about the forest at night or rather, this creature may have thought them as their prey.

“Run to me witch, now!”

“You don't need to tell me that!”

“. . .Get down, right now!”

The witch jumps down out of the way with mushrooms following out of their pockets as the tiger jumps out of the bushes, the Warlock throws the fireball at it. Causing it to be hit by flames directly at its head and it falls in the middle of its jump right behind the witch as it cries in pain, dying as it was consumed up by flames. It was just a snap of a finger where those cries stopped and it's movement ceased. The Warlock slowly walks up to the Witch and bought a paw out to them while the flames themselves died down.

“Are you okay?” He said with a neutral tone and expression.

The witch looks up to him, their red eyes meeting those lifeless grey ones as if telling one that he holds much knowledge but even with knowledge... something was missing that caused those eyes to be what they are. The witch was about to grab his paw but then moves their hand away, picking themselves up as if being stubborn of accepting help. They started to brush the dirt and dust of off them and then pick up their hat.

“I didn't need the help.”

“I was correct, you are also human. It is rare for me to spot a human in this forest.

“What was your first clue?”

“Your skin.”

“I wasn't being serious with that question! Why do you even care?”

“It's interesting, I thought I knew everything that is about this forest and here you are.” He said as he looks upon the mushrooms that got all dirty up from the ground they landed on.

“Were you looking for ingredients?”

“. . .Yes”

“For what?”

“I wanted to figure something out with them.”

“There are plenty that mushrooms could do. Sadly, all I know to do with them is to make food.

“Food?! You can do more with certain mushrooms! You could even make medicine!”

“. . .Medicine, isn't really my... forte.”

He felt their red eyes looking upon him, his white furry face, and those paws they saw of his reminded them of monsters like Toriel or Asriel.

“Do you know Toriel?” The human asked.

“Ah, I... Do... But, we're not directly related. I'm from a late Dreemurr family that has passed away. I'm the only one left of my “Dreemurr” family. I live alone in these forests, a little cottage that is a little hard to spot. Unless you know the signs.”

“That's weird, you're weird.”

“I could say the same about you, human.”

“It's Witchi!”

“Huh?”

“My name! It's Witchi!”

“Witchi?”

“Before you say anything dumb. It's Ichi but mom thought it would be cute if it was like wit-chi instead because she was-”

“Your mother was THAT human witch I presume.”

“You know?”

“. . . Gossip has a way of spreading quickly. I only learn of this news once it was too late and when I was of older age. It's not something that people stop talking about. Now, this leads me to ask. Who do you live with?”

“. . .”

“Do you not have someone living with you, what about your fath-”

“Do not even mention him.”

“ . . .Ah, sorry. . .” He spoke softly as he looks upon their red eyes that were staring at him, eyes that hold flames of anger, perhaps of revenge.

“Regardless of your living condition, do you mind coming with me to my cottage?”

“Why should I come with you?”

“Well, I cannot just eat that roasted animal all by myself and cooked lion meat is pretty good therefore it would be a shame to have it go to waste if I cannot finish it.”

“Hmm. . . Fine.”

As they answered they saw the Warlock pickup the lion using both of his paws. “Stick close.” He said as he started heading to his home.

As the witch followed the Boss Monster they will take notice of them looking at the tree, grass, and other little details while explaining to them why he is doing so. Like the fungi on the tree points to the direction of the cottage, the burn marks around the tree was those he made to help make sure to remind him he was going to the right track and some of the grass was shorter than the ones deeper in the forest telling him home was close by. Soon, it was there the Witch saw the small cottage made out of stone with a single-window and chimney. By the side were a little building, a stump, a stack of wood, and an ax that was used to cut the wood in half.

“We are here, sorry if it wasn't what you expected. I'm a simple creature with a simple life, with simple wants and needs.”

As he walks up to his door he realized it would be rather hard for him to turn the knob of the door to open it.

“Witchi, could you open my door, please. I don't want to drop the animal and it would save us time.”

“Uh, yeah, sure.” They said as they turn the knob and open the door.

“Go ahead, you can enter first.”

“. . .Alright.”

As Witchi enters the house, they could see the single large room. It had a fireplace, a round wooden table at the center, a few tool stools which can be used as chairs, a little section for doing laundry, a little section for storing food, a section for cooking which was close to the fireplace, two smaller rooms one of those being a small bedroom. All and all it was a simple home with the basic needs to live.

The Warlock enters his home and spoke. “Sorry if it isn't much, I'm just that simple of a creature.”

With that said he placed the burned creature near the cooking area. Taking out some sharp tools as he starts taking bits and pieces out of the tiger.

“Could you bring me some of my stone bowls, I can place our share into each of them. I know some ways to make it taste even better.”

The witch looks about the food area just to see a few wooden bowls on a counter, grabbing them and passing them to the Warlock who had a sharp fork and knife, pulling out the good meat bits and places them in the bowls. It wasn't a pretty sight but hey, at least the tiger was already dead and cooked. It would be some time until both of their bowls were filled.

“Go ahead and take a seat. I'll bring you your food.”

Taking their bowls he uses his magical flames to heat up the bowls and what was inside them. Going to one of the counters he takes out some spices and starts mixing it with the meat. It would be only a moment until he walks over to the table and places the bowl of meat in front of Witchi while placing one where he was be sitting. A seat across from the witch.

“Why are you doing all this?”

He heard the Witch ask the question. It really had no reason to. Just some company was enough to warrant it.

“I'm just a lonely warlock, all I do is teach students and go back home. Not many people care about my company. After all, my “Dreemurr” family is all but gone. Who wants to spend time with an old creature like me and what's worse is I won't age anymore until I have children. Well, I look slightly young, I'm a young adult at the very least haha.”

He gives a quiet laugh as if to hide his loneliness as he looks upon the human taking a bit out of the tiger meat. Seems like it was pretty good, had a good spice to it. Seems like this Warlock had some experience in cooking.

“This is really good, I didn't expect meat like a tiger could be this tasty.”

“Ah! I'm glad you like it. With spices and the right ingredients you can make something that tastes alright into something that could make one's mouth water.”

“Soooo, You're all alone?”

“For the most part. Just me, the students I see as the academy and whatever lies in the forest until I return to my little cottage here. I don't get many visitors besides the occasion small animal that comes to ask me for some food.”

He took a bite out of the meat, giving a soft sigh with his peaceful life.

“Why did you tell me about how to get to your place?”

“I thought if you want to visit someone you can come to visit me. I'll be happy to have your company once and awhile Witchi.”

“Me, give you company? You are strange. I am no one special especially for some warlock like yourself.”

The Warlock places his bowl down as he looks upon the witch.

“Not true, I see greatness within you. A fire in your eyes that reflects your soul.”

“. . .”

“You may be silent and unaware of your potential but I see it. Even if your eyes show anger, sadness about what has happened in your life. You are strong, strong to keep moving forward, and keeping the flames of your soul lit up bright.”

As he spoke he saw the human standing up from their seat. “Thank you for the food, I-”

“Wait! Hear me out!” He said as he raised his paw up gesturing to hold on. The human just stares at him, keeping still. Watching as the same paw went to his hat.

“I've been looking for someone to be my pupil. Yet, none of those students I have has no fire in their hearts. No passion at all and just content with doing what they have now. You, You want to do something more! You're the only one I have said this to so...”

He slowly takes off his hat, revealing a hornless white goat with grey eyes that seem rather dull. “Would you be my pupil in my arts of flames?”

Witchi stares at him intensely thinking about his proposal. They looked like someone they knew and yet there were differences that were apparent. “I'm not sure fire magic is something I need to know. I don't want to hurt people even if I want-.”

“No, no, no! Understand that fire isn't just about destruction, it can be a source of light as well. It brings warmth, it can help light a dark path to help you or others and most importantly you need a way to defend yourself. What fire is depends on the user, without fire we as a civilization would be nothing and blinded by the darkness.”

“. . .What's your name?”

“My name?”

“Yes, your name. What is it?”

“. . .My mother named me Asriel. My parents were not very creative with naming. I normally just call myself the Warlock of Flames the title I've earned. I. . . Didn't have many friends, I used up all of my childhood to master my fire magic. . .”

The witch took another moment to think, Asriel... Just like the one they knew. How old was he to share the same name and surname? Yet, his eyes bothered them. . .So dull, was that because of this loneliness. If they become his pupil maybe that would help him. Learn fire while befriending someone who has no friends, no family. Perhaps that was a reason good enough to. Even then, it wasn't something they would admit straight up.

“Asriel, Warlock of flames. I. . . I decided to be your pupil.”

They could see those grey eyes shine just a little as if a flame sparked in them. Then a smile was seen.

“I am happy to hear that, Witchi. My pupil! Tonight, we will have a lovely meal and I will walk you home if you wish. When you visit me, I will be happy to start your lessons.”

"Okay, Teacher."

With that marked the beginning of their friendship, a lonely mentally old man making his first friend and pupil in the ways of the flame. Now, his future doesn't seem all so lonely anymore. Perhaps because the teachings were of fire perhaps it made the witch think. Maybe in some situations, that fire can help bring others closer like sharing a campfire and telling stories. Regardless. . .Learning fire may be useful during their adventures. Who knows, perhaps even a witch can teach a warlock some new tricks.

THE END

___________

The Warlock of flames now has children on his hands.

Again, this story is very good Seth!

[flyingkiki]

The Screaming Bunny (2/?)

A day late, but Happy Halloween. You asked for a Halloween treat, so here it is. Enjoy!

~

Halloween was a terrible time to go out. The streets were packed with people dressed up as drunk monsters, superheroes, sexy costumes of whatever possible, and terrible imitations of the Gotham criminals and their ragtag gangs. Also, sexy Joker costumes, ugh. Petty crimes also saw a spike on this night in Gotham, though it was nothing the GCPD or Batman and Robin couldn’t handle on their own.

Admittedly, Tim should be out on patrol right now or perhaps working on those new business acquisition reports for WE. There are a million other things he should be doing right now – like monitoring criminal activities tonight or keeping an eye out on anyone dressed like an Arkham Criminal. He should be also reading a new book, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, because Human Resource has been getting on his case to finish the book.

There are honestly a million other things Tim should be doing right now. He definitely should not be squeezing through a packed crowd of sweat, latex, leather, and lace.

But here he was at The Screaming Bunny. In that stupid domino mask. Again.

The private club had sent out an email to all its members of tonight’s “Spooks and Spanks” event. He shouldn’t be here but Tim would be lying if he said that he was not intrigued after the interesting run-in last month.

The club was packed tonight, drawing a crowd dressed in virtually anything or nothing. A couple of bloodied nurses in uniforms too tight to pass hospital standards scurried past Tim and disappeared around the corner. Tim carefully maneuvered his way through the club and towards the bar, hopeful to get a drink.

Soft techno music filled the club and allowed people in the lounge area to either dance or talk to each other. Club policy allowed for alcoholic drinks only by the bar and common area, Tim learned. Alcoholic drinks, and drunk members for that matter, were not allowed in any of the pleasure chambers or dungeons.

Yes, Tim made an effort to go through the club’s policies.

“Hey, what can I get you?” a topless bartender appeared, dressed nothing but a pair of extremely tight police shorts with a pair of handcuffs dangling from his belt.

“Just a scotch,” Tim replied, this time unfazed by the display of nakedness (or the potential violations of health codes by the lack of clothes). He paid for the drink as it slid across the counter and thanked the guy.

Picking up his drink, Tim pushed himself away from the bar and idly surveyed the scene in front of him. Save for the general nakedness, and the occasional grunts and whipping noises that drifted through the room, the club seemed very much like any other Halloween party tonight. A woman dressed in stockings from head to toe walked past him, roughly tugging along a man in nothing but boxers and a latex mask over his head. Tim blinked at the sight and took a sip of his drink, a few stray thoughts flittering through his mind but he quickly squashed these.

There were a couple of tables and lounge chairs in the corners of the room, Tim thought it would be best perhaps to hang out in the back for a while and let the whole party scene sink in. Tonight was the first time he was here as an actual patron and not tailing a criminal. Dodging a couple of plastic horns and demon wings, Tim easily slid through the standing crowd and spotted an empty spot on the couch next to a couple of purple and pink furry monsters (monsters? Tim wasn’t all too sure).

Sliding past a group of men in lingerie, Tim made a beeline for the lounge area. He immediately stopped in his tracks however and quickly spotted why he came tonight. Or why his curiosity peeked in the first place. His grip tightened around his scotch glass and something in his chest fluttered.

Over the crowd of lace, latex, leather, nakedness, and fake blood, purple eyes caught his own. Tim swallowed and felt his breath catch.

From across the room, Raven – Rachel – stared at Tim for a millisecond before turning her attention back to the couple covered in body paint seated across of her.  He watched her chuckle and talk to the couple before her eyes slid back to him and he swore her lips quirked just a little bit. He felt heat rush to his face as he took in her appearance, her pale skin and black hair stood out against the white of her impossibly tight leather corset. And, oh, was that a little halo over her head?

Should he go over? Tim found himself momentarily fumble. Of course he should. Wasn’t this why he came back? Because he was curious? Because he wanted – Tim blinked and caught his thoughts as Raven waved him over.

Oh god.

“You’re back,” Raven said to him once he finally approached their table. She offered him a playful smile and her purple eyes danced in the dim lights. She tilted her head and leaned back just a little bit as she eyed him with that amused smile of hers. “Why don’t you join us?” she asked, scooting down the leather sofa to make room for him in their little corner of the lounge area.

“Sure,” Tim felt a rush of emotions run down his back at the invitation – and that smile – and sat down next to her, leaving respectable room between them. Trying not to focus too much on an intriguingly amused Raven (why was she so amused? He needed to know), he placed his scotch glass on the small glass table and offered the other two women a smile. “Hello.”

“This is Tracy and Lady X,” Raven introduced, pointing at a small redheaded woman in a skimpy Super Mario costume with a dog collar and a blonde woman in complete leopard body paint. Raven gracefully pointed at each woman with her drink in her hand. Tilting her head towards Tim, she eyed him in mild amusement. “And this is…” she trailed off.

“Red,” Tim supplied smoothly and smiled at the two women. “Nice to meet you,”

“Red,” Raven repeated with an amused lilt in her voice before hiding her smile into her mojito glass. She leaned into the sofa, looking impossibly comfortable and blissfully ignoring how surreal everything truly was – Tim and her in club filled with naked people. It just felt surreal. He swallowed.

“So what are you supposed to be?” asked Tracy curiously, leaning forward just a little bit and eyeing Tim’s costume skeptically.

Tim felt his neck and cheeks burn at the attention. He had not put much thought into wearing any particular costume tonight – because what does one wear to a private BDSM club Halloween party really? “Ah, a random biker?” he replied, chuckling softly. He hoped his jeans and the leather vest he was wearing passed those standards.

Tracy chuckled with him and offered him a sympathetic smile. “Good try,”

“Random Biker Red,” Raven hummed next to him barely audible over the noise. He caught her staring at him, that amused smile never really disappearing. Tim swallowed and caught her eye briefly before reaching for his drink.

“How did you guys meet?” asked Lady X curiously. “I don’t think I’ve seen you around before,”

“He’s a new bunny,” Raven easily supplied and Tim felt his inside twist lightly at the word bunny. There it was again and he fought every urge not to openly stare at Raven. “I just bumped into him a few weeks ago,” she said.

“Ohh,” Tracy leaned forward just a little bit, her eyes sparkling in clear mischief. “Is he going to be your dom, Rachel?”

Tim coughed loudly into his drink at her words and he was sure Raven felt his spike of emotions as she shot him a quick glance. Dom? As in – holy shit. He blinked and tried to ignore how loudly his heart beat in his ears. He ignored the hot jolt than ran through him. “I – ugh, her what?”

Raven rolled eyes at Tracy and sent Tim an amused smile. “Easy. He’s new, Tracy,”

Ignoring Raven, the woman dressed up like a very sexy Mario brother leaned over their glass table and whispered very loudly. “She’s looking for a dom or a switch, just so you know,”

“Oh,” breathed Tim and his gaze involuntarily turned to Raven, who quirked her lips lightly in response. Well, was that information Tim needed? He wasn’t sure. But will he store this information for later? Yes. He inhaled softy as his stomach flopped and stray thoughts flittered through his head. He silently wondered if Dick knew about all of this – Dick would kick is his ass if he knew he was here with Raven.

“So you were saying about your plans?” Raven turned her attention back to the couple across of them. Crossing her legs, Tim’s heart jumped at the sight of thigh-high white stockings, Raven comfortably leaned back into the sofa and eyed her friends. If she could sense his keyed up emotions, she displayed no indication. “Are you expanding your studio or not?”

“Oh, yeah. Like I said we hit a few snags when we opened one of the old walls and discovered that the piping needed replacing. Most of the pipes are ancient like Gotham,” Tracy made a face and took a hearty swig from her cosmopolitan. “I’m talking to some contractors to see what can be done,”

Raven frowned. “Didn’t they tell you about the piping issue when they sold you the adjacent complex?”

Lady X rolled her eyes and leaned back into her seat with a sigh of exasperation. Some of her silver bracelets clinked as she moved around. “They did but we didn’t expect that it’d be that bad.” She shrugged and sent Tim an annoyed look. “Some of these brokers are just lying assholes, you know,”

Tim blinked trying to catch up with the conversation. Admittedly he was a bit miffed at the normalcy of the conversation on renovation work in the middle of a BDSM club. But then again, what did he expect to hear tonight? “I’m sorry, I’m not following?” he blinked and offered them an apologetic smile.

“Tracy owns an art studio,” Raven explained and took a tiny sip from her mojito. “They’re expanding the studio but hit some snags along the way,”

Tim nodded. “You’re an artist? That’s amazing,” he said. Tracy blushed at the praise while Lady X seemed to beam with pride. Leaning forward over the table just a little bit, she grinned at Tim.

“She painted all of this,” she said and waved a perfectly manicured hand over her body. “Such a talented artist, my little pet is,” she practically purred and sent Tracy a fond smile.

Tim blinked and ignored the pet endearment. Briefly glancing at Raven, he shared an amused smile with her, and looked at the intricate leopard body paint on the woman’s body. He nodded and smiled at them. “That’s really beautiful,” he said.

“Thanks,” Tracy beamed. She fiddled with her empty cosmopolitan glass. “So yeah, I’m trying to get something arranged with a few contractors to fix the old piping. We tore down a few walls to open up the space and discovered the piping was rusty and not up to building code. We need that fixed before we can proceed with expansion renovations of the annex building,”

“You could also go after the guys who sold you the place. If they were not totally upfront with the issues of the complex you’re getting, maybe there’s something that could be done?” suggested Tim. And he immediately went into details of some legal remedies they could take.

“Oh wow. Okay,” Tracy nodded and released a deep breath. “That sounds like something we could do,”

Tim took a sip of the last of his scotch and offered her a smile. “Talk to your lawyer to figure something out,”

Lady X sent Raven a look and her black eyes sparkled mischievously under the dim orange lights. “Looks like your new friend is pretty useful,” she said.

Raven chuckled and shrugged. “Looks like it,” she said playfully and the two shared a smile.

A man dressed in nothing but black appeared next to their table suddenly. The words ‘Dungeon Monitor’ were written across a bright orange sash he wore. “The St. Andrew’s Cross is ready for you, Lady X,” he said before turning around and heading back to the pleasure areas.

“Wonderful,” Lady X clapped her hands and stood up. “Come, my pet,” Tim watched as Lady X bent over just a little bit and hooked one of her fingers through the large silver hoop that hung from Tracy’s collar. She tugged the woman into a standing position and gently pulled her away from their table. “You’ll come watch us?” she asked them over her shoulder.

“Watch?” Tim breathed, his brain catching up with what that truly meant.

Raven smiled and shrugged at the woman. “We’ll try to catch up. Enjoy,”

The woman in leopard body paint shrugged with a smile. “Your loss,” she said before roughly tugging Tracy through the crowd.

Tim watched them disappear around the corner and into one of the pleasure corners, or dungeons, he wasn’t all too sure. They were likely the same – and did they just invite them to watch them? He stared at the corner for a second too long.

“Curious?”

Raven’s voice brought him back from his thoughts and Tim turned back to Raven, and finally, finally¸ got a better look at her as she turned her full attention towards him and shifted in her seat to face him. She was dressed in a plain leather white corset and tiny white booty shorts that really left nothing to the imagination. He was sure he stared a second too long, as Raven tilted her head expectantly and the corners of her eyes crinkled just a little bit in amusement.

“Oh,” Tim breathed and felt his ears ring just a little bit. He watched her shift gracefully in her seat and folded one of her legs under her as she faced him. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. He swallowed nervously and surveyed the crowd of naked people around them. “I’m honestly not sure why I came back,”

Raven shrugged and idly took a sip from her mojito. “That’s okay. It’s a lot to take in,” she said. She offered him a small smile. “It’s nice you’re back though,”

Something stirred inside of him and Tim smiled lightly. “Yeah?”

Raven tilted her head lightly and her eyes shone under the dim lights. They could hear the loud cracks of a whip through the air, and Tim watched her gaze slip over his shoulder. Her lips curled just a tiny bit. He swallowed as a thought crossed his mind – did she want that? He felt heart jump into his throat at the stray thought and watched a languid smile grow on her lips as her attention turned back to him. “How do you like it so far?” she asked as she propped her left elbow on the back of the sofa and dropped her chin into her hand, eyeing him in amusement.

“I got good company,” Tim chuckled as Raven snorted softly. He absently fiddled with his glass before placing it on the table. “I’m surprised how normal conversations are here,”

“What? The building expansions? What did you think we’d talk about here?” Raven asked teasingly. She watched Tim look around briefly and take in the people milling around the lounge area. “I don’t know,” he replied as he turned back to Raven.

Raven smiled assuringly. “Clubs like these are close to any other club. What makes places like these special is the level of trust and respect that goes into these places and among the patrons. You come here as yourself, you can explore and enjoy what you like – with appropriate safety limits – and there’s no judgement. Just as safe space for being yourself. With the level of trust and respect that goes into places like these, you’d be surprised how much safer they are compared to your regular clubs,” she said. She looked around briefly before turning back to Tim. “Consent is important here.”

“I noticed that,” said Tim, nodding his head in agreement. He did see how vastly more respectful the crowd was here compared to any other club he had been too. He turned his attention back to her, taking in how comfortable, and alluring, she looked. “So, I’m a Random Biker, what are you?” he asked playfully.

Raven laughed, a sound he was growing to quite like hearing, and titled her head making the little plastic halo dance over her head. “I thought it’d be funny to dress like an angel, all things considering,” she said.

“You make a pretty impressive angel,” he said before he could really think it through. They both paused, ambient techno music falling over them, and they shared a look. Tim watched as Raven’s lips lifted into a small, pleasant smile.

“Were you able to have a look around?” she asked suddenly.

Tim shook his head. “No, when I saw you three I just about arrived.”

“Well then,” Raven breathed and offered him a mysterious smile. The ambient techno music shifted into a louder dance beat and the crowd cheered. “You’re not busy tonight, finally,” she began and leaned into his space just a little bit. He could faintly smell her lavender perfume. “Let’s go have a look around tonight.”

He watched her gracefully stand up and Tim was sure his breath caught in his throat as she stood before him in nothing but her leather corset. He knew it was impolite to stare, but – she was a sight. It was mindboggling to see such a different side of Raven from all the years he had known her – and he would be lying to say he was thirsty to see this side of her more.

As a muted groan drifted through the air and the two shared a look, and Tim admitted that yes, he was curious. So damn curious – he was Tim Drake after all.

“Sure,” he said. He stood up next to her and Raven beamed, bending over and picking up something discarded on the table. A thin riding crop.

Despite her strappy heels, Raven barely came up to his chin. She tilted her head up just a little bit and Tim watched as the shadows of some of the spider decorations danced across her collarbones and cheeks. He held his breath. She held the riding crop in her hands and smiled. “Great, let’s make sure you have fun tonight,” she told him softly.

Tim desperately wanted to know what that meant.

[fallen029]

So Soon

She was doing her makeup.

Early that morning.

She was standing in Laxus Dreyar's bathroom, leaning over the sink as she did her makeup while the man himself strode into the bathroom, mostly unconcerned with her presence it seemed as, slipping passed her, he only had one thing to grumble at her.

"Didn't fuckin' use all the hot water, did you?" he questioned gruffly. "Demon?"

And she only hummed in reply, not a true answer, but enough of one it seemed as he only took to muttering under his breath as, after turning the faucet for the shower, he began to strip down.

It was all so casual.

Perhaps too casual.

Mirajane wasn't certain when it got like that. It felt rather sudden as she considered it that day, watching the man in the mirror as he stood there for a moment, nude, and shivering before he stepped into the shower stall. When he felt her eyes, he glanced over his shoulder with his typical void gaze.

"Can never be too clean," he remarked to the woman with a raising of one eyebrow. "If you wanted to slide right back outta those clothes-"

"I have to get to the guildhall," she told him with a shake of her head and a refocusing back onto her own reflection. "I'm already late."

"Late." He snorted as he moved to step into the stall. Speaking louder now, as his voice was deadened by the falling water, he remarked, "Sun ain't even up yet."

"It will be in ten minutes," she assured him, "and by then I need to have the doors open and get started on breakfast prep."

"Why?"

He was like a toddler at times, rather than a grown man, purposely acting aloof. Mirajane would love to be annoyed by this, but if anything, it was more personality infringement on his part because, well, it wasn't like she didn't do her fair share of it.

"Because," she practically sang as, standing back, she looked over her reflection carefully, "it's my job, dragon."

"What do you think's gonna happen, huh?" he griped. "Old geezer ain't ever gonna fire you. None of those peons at the hall are going to complain at you."

"It's still," she insisted, "my job."

"So breakfast is late," he kept up. "What's the worst that happens then?"

"Uh, people who are counting on me to feed them are let down," she reminded. "And put behind schedule."

"Fuck their schedules. Fuck them."

"Why do you have such a foul mouth so early?"

"Because I want ya to get in the fuckin' shower with me."

"It's not good, Lax," she called over the falling water, "to get worked up over things that were never going to happen in the first place?"

"Do what?" he questioned, as if he suddenly couldn't make out her words, and maybe he couldn't, but Mirajane didn't find she much wanted to play into him any longer. Or, even if she did, that she was officially out of time to do so.

Though she might not have crossed the wrought iron gates at the exact moment she ascribed to, Mirajane was at the hall in plenty of that day to begin her daily tasks. There were floors and dishes to be scrubbed, mugs and silverware to be polished, bacon to be fried and eggs to be scrambled, as well as some meat to roast for the dinner crowd that evening. The pool area needed new towels and the bath house needed a to be mopped. There were new jobs to tack up and plenty of drinks to be served, as well as idle conversations to begin and the Master to contend with.

Her day was packed.

It always was.

But her mind seemed out of sorts that day and as she struggled through beginning each of those tasks with strong intent on following through with them, but she was hardly to noon when she noted her sister stroll in with the Salamander and Happy, all three laughing over something and no doubt hoping to have something stiff to drink and warm to eat, but instead, Mirajane gifted them only with concern.

"Sick?" Lisanna questioned as her joy was sucked right out of her. "But you never get sick."

"Stay away from me," Natsu told her as he tossed the fabric of his shirt up over his nose. "I can't get sick right now. Not with S-Class right around the corner."

"What's wrong, Mira?" Happy questioned as he fluttered by in concern, but did toss his furry paws over his own face, not hoping to catch any of her germs. "Do you have a fever?"

"No," she was quick to say, not one prone to lies, but also fearful of being caught in one. "I just, well… I feel...unwell. Just unwell."

"Pregnant unwell?" Happy asked hopefully and Natsu made a face at the implication from beneath makeshift mask while Lisanna only eyed her sister carefully.

"N-No," Mirajane insisted with a frown. But then, as the Exceed seemed to flutter more with excitement, she tilted her own head in thought. "Well-"

"Mira, if you're sick," her sister interrupted their pipe dreaming, "then you should go home. Here, I'll take over for you, okay?"

"Well," she sighed as she moved then to begin untying her apron. "If you think so."

"I," Lisanna kept up, "insist."

"Okay." Mira even braved (or at least had trouble containing) a smile. "Well, you're going to need to go into Master's office in about half an hour and give him his afternoon medicine."

"Alright."

"And run the bar."

"Of course."

"And check the meat that is roasting as well as get the dishes from the breakfast rush at least somewhat taken care of and, oh, Kinana isn't scheduled to come in for another three hours, and you still have to get the rest of the jobs cycled out on the board, mop the bath house, start the laundry from both it and the pool, and-"

"And," Happy took over, "I need a fish."

"And get happy a fish," Mirajane finished with a confident nod.

It wasn't quite what Lisanna had written all over her face, but she nodded anyways and Mirajane felt awful, truly she did, but as she left the hall that day, feigning fatigue and a slight bit of nausea, the woman actually had never been better.

"What are you doing here?" was the greeting from her boyfriend when, after politely knocking at the man's door (though they'd exchanged keys, she always sought to respect his boundaries...mostly; at least the ones she'd like returned back to her), it was opened to reveal a dressed slayer with just the hint of a snarl still placed on his face. He hadn't been expecting her, or anyone no doubt, and was not pleased that his personal time was potentially being disturbed. "Is everything okay? Forget something?"

"I'm," she told him simply, "sick."

"Then why the hell did you come here?"

His tone was annoyed and, much like his counterpart, he moved to bury his nose and mouth beneath the neckline of his shirt, but unlike the steps backwards Natsu had taken, Laxus was moving to drag the barmaid into his apartment. She giggled, somewhat amused by his actions, but allowing herself to be tugged along.

"Not really, dragon," she assured the grumbling man as he shut the apartment door behind her. "It's just what I told them."

"Told who?" he questioned as his nose came peeking back out from beneath his t-shirt.

"Lisanna and Happy. And Natsu." Then she tilted her head back and tapped a finger against her chin. "Well, I'm not sure they thought I was sick, rightly, but pregnant, at least."

"Yeah well- Pregnant?" Laxus did take his steps backwards from her then, nearly falling over a pair of boots he kept by the door. "Are you serious woman?"

"No," she told him honestly. "Dragon. I hardly ever am. You know that."

They had a moment then, between the two of them, where he only stared incrediously at his girlfriend and she smiled warmly up at him, watching his chest jump as he tried to regulate his breathing once more.

"So," he began slowly, "you're not pregnant."

"Not that I know of. And I'm rather in tune with myself."

"And," he kept up, "you're not sick."

"Again, not that I know of."

"Then...why are you here? Mira? During the workday?"

It was her turn to be at least somewhat bashful as, though Mirajane was a naturally rather open person, it was hard at times for her, with men she was so heavily interested in. Especially when it was a draining a love interest as Laxus had been for her as of late. It had felt so whirlwind, only months before, when the pair started to infrequently see one another, but the last few weeks had been quite serious and exclusivity had been tossed around, even, to the seeming acceptance of both parties and…

And…

"I just wanted to be with you. For longer. Laxus." She felt her cheeks heat up in a way they typically didn't. "If that's okay. I mean, if you're busy-"

"I just had to get up early and go to the market," he informed her plainly. "Then this evening I have tentative plans to meet up with Bickslow and Freed for drinks, but-"

"O-Oh, well-"

'If my woman's sick though," he cut her off rather definitively, "then0"

"You don't have to-"

"I'll hang out with them tomorrow night." He closed the gap between them then, not truly smiling, but certainly not looking as glum as he usually did. "I'll run out, tell them something came up, snag us some takeout for dinner-"

"Think you're up for me staying the night again?" she questioned as her hands pressed firmly against his chest and Laxus only loomed over her, his grin more noticeable as she stared up into it.

"Of course," he agreed softly, reaching out with one hand gently run a thumb over her warm, rosy cheek. As she giggled, he added, "But I dunno if you should."

"Why not?"

"I mean," Laxus reminded, "it is, apparently, so hard for you to leave me."

"So hard."

"And I don't want you to skip out on work again tomorrow, just for my sake."

"Of course not."

"So-"

"So," she reasoned, "I guess tomorrow when you get up to hop in the shower, it's going to be with the intention of joining me down at the hall, right?"

"What?"

"Bright and early?"

"Demon-"

"If you get up early enough," she enticed, "I might even let you join mine, dragon."

There was a glint in his eyes then as, leaning down, he rested his forehead against hers and furthered the stakes, "We get up early enough, that nice big bath house up at the guild will be all empty."

"That's true," Mira agreed. "I'll have the women's side all to myself and you'll have the men's-"

"Demon-"

"I just didn't expect to like you this much," she admitted to him softly and, as the blush returned, she had to fall forwards some, so that she could hide her words into his chest. "Laxus. So soon. But I really do."

He took a moment, the slayer did, shocked a bit, maybe, before laughing some as he bowed his head even more and wrapped his arms tightly around the woman.

"Yeah, well," he whispered, "I guess I must be something, you skipping out on your precious guildhall for me."

"Just this once," she promised and she meant it as she finally broke away from him some. A smile returning to her lips, she said, "So I guess we better use this day to our advantage, huh?"

"Yeah." Laxus hand came up again, just to brush a fingertip or two across her soft pale skin. "I guess we better."

[kurt-nightcrawler]

I’ve got a boyfriend

Request: could you possibly do a warden x reader where she’s like super sweet and innocent (has like nature/healing powers and in this au avengers are there) anyways the Avengers visit the mansion and peter meets reader and is like all heart eyes and she’s super sweet and he mistakes it as she likes him too and then warren returns from a mission or somethin and she’s happy and is like pitching him up and peter realizes and the avengers are like it’s okay kid and warren is all smug and like yeah mine. also with that warren x reader ft. peter request. bc she’s so in tune with nature and herself can her eyes kinda be like a mood ring and shift with her feelings. so it’s like a warm green or yellow for happiness and so peters like yeah she likes me but then when she’s with warren he watches them shift to like a soft pink. like literal heart eyes and warren teasers her a bit (in a good way)

Word Count: 2.3k

Peter swung over to the Avenger’s headquarters on a Saturday. He always did this. 

“What’s on the agenda for today?” He asked Karen.

“Mr. Stark wants you to join the Avengers to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”

“Xavier’s? Where—  What is that?”

“It’s a boarding school in New Salem.” Karen didn’t say anything else, leaving Peter with lots of questions. 

-

“Why are we going to a boarding school? What’s at Xavier’s?”

 Steve and Bucky chuckled at his curiosity.

“This isn’t like any other boarding school… It’s like Area 51.” Tony said.

“Didn’t you buy Area 51?” Bruce asked.

“That’s beside the point. We’re going here to talk to The man himself, Xavier.” 

Peter still had a lot of questions, but he had no idea where to start. Area 51 the boarding school? Is that where Carol’s Kree friend’s kids went to school? Peter took his phone out of his pocket and texted Ned. 

PETER: What is Xavier's school for gifted youngsters?

NED: It’s some boarding school for really smart kids. Trey from Bio tried to get in but didn’t pass the exam. Why?

PETER: Mr. Stark is taking me there. He and a couple of other Avengers are like, visiting or something. Idk.

NED: DUDE! You gotta tell me everything when u get back! I bet there are tons of really hot nerd girls there!!

Peter snorted to himself. Of course, Ned would think of girls. 

But there was some truth in his statement. There probably would be tons of smart girls there. But Tony described it as Area 51… 

NED: If you can get a girl’s number from Xaiver’s we’d be super cool. 

PETER: Yeah. But Mr. Stark called it Area 51 the school. What if it’s full of aliens?

NED: Okay? And? Technically Princess Leia is an alien. 

PETER: She’s also fictional.

NED: And? You’re seventeen and never been kissed before. You don’t have room to be picky.

PETER: You’ve never been kissed either!! 

NED: Shhhhhhh This is about u, not me

PETER: *eye roll emoji*

Peter turned his phone off and gazed out the window. He saw trees. The trees eventually started to die down and the car slowed down. They came to a set of gates and a sign that said Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.

Once entering through the gates, Tony drove around and parked the car. Peter could see glimpses of the school grounds. He saw a few students and at first glance, they didn’t look like aliens. But Kree could shapeshift. Maybe they just shifted to blend in. 

Then he saw a kid with a tail.

Maybe not. “I thought this was a school for aliens.”

Everyone stared at him blankly. 

“Aliens?! Kid, we didn’t mean that literally. When I said Area 51, I meant it’s kinda secret. Not that it’s full of aliens.” 

“Oh.” Peter felt rather foolish. “So it’s just a normal boarding school?” 

“No.” Bucky slammed the car door shut. “It’s a school for mutants.” 

“Mutants? But like, I thought they were kind of a myth. I mean besides Magento and Mystique, but they were around in like, the 70s.”

“And they’re still around. Let’s hope Erik isn’t here. I don’t want any trouble like last time.” Steve said the last part while staring Tony down. 

“It’s not my fault he can control metal and I’m Iron Man!” 

Peter was super confused. Didn’t Magento try to kill the president? Was he evil?

Bucky killed a president, but he’s not inherently evil. I need to give Magento a chance. I need to give everyone at the school a chance. Maybe make some new friends— flex on Flash that my girlfriend has superpowers or something. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?

They walked up a few stairs out front and opened the doors leading inside. 

-

“Oh wow. Wow.” The building was old looking but had a few modern touches here and there. Every room was bustling with people— mutants, going about their lives. 

Peter saw all kinds of mutants and he had only been inside for a few minutes! 

“Oh wow, Mr. Stark… Where’s uh… Professor… Professor... uh—“

“Professor Xavier’s in his office.” 

The Avengers turned to look at the speaker. She had vines wrapped around her legs and arms, along with some flowers and leaves scattered in her hair, and her eyes were a bright yellow color. 

“Thanks, kid. We know where his office is.” 

She nodded, “No problem.” 

Tony glanced at Peter’s slightly pink cheeks and back at the plant girl. “Do you wanna come with us or are you sticking with Mother Nature?” 

“I can show you around if you want.” Everyone looked at Peter, anticipating an answer. 

“Yeah, sure. I’ll catch up with you guys later.” 

“Alright, have fun. And don’t forget to be safe!” 

Peter blushed again, trying to ignore Tony’s teasing remarks, already figuring out he liked the plant girl. 

-

“My name is (Y/N) by the way.” 

“(Y/N), Hi. I’m Peter. Peter Parker.” 

She smiled, “What’s your mutation, Peter Parker?” 

“Oh um, I don’t— well it’s not a mutation, but, when I was fourteen I got bit by a radioactive spider and I got spider abilities.” 

“Spider abilities?”

He nodded, “I’m uh, really strong and I stick to things. Plus I have this like weird sixth sense sort of, like a spider-sense.” 

“You’re strong and sticky?” Peter nodded, a little flustered. (Y/N) laughed. Peter laughed with her. “I’m sorry, but that’s a hilarious description.” 

“I mean— yeah, yeah… What can you do?”

“Oh! I’m really in tune with nature. I can manipulate plants, and my eyes change color based on my mood. Red is angry, blue is calm, green is happy, yellow is excited— there’s more, but those are the most common.” 

Her eyes are green and yellow right now. That means she’s happy and excited— they haven’t changed since we met. Maybe she’s into me. Oh my god! What if she’s into me? She might be into me. Play it cool Pete, play it cool. “That’s really neat!”

(Y/N) nodded, “Yeah. It’s fun, I guess. Kinda annoying sometimes but nothing awful.” 

“I know what you mean. One time my algebra textbook got stuck to my arm and it wouldn’t come off. I had to like, sleep and shower with it on all day.” (Y/N) laughed at Peter’s retelling of his sticky situation. 

“That must have sucked!”

“It did. Eventually, I got it to come off, but it was annoying to sleep with.” 

“Oh god, I can imagine. Sometimes I fall asleep and a fully grown watermelon or pumpkin is next to me in bed.” 

Peter almost snorted, but he held it back. “Free food, I guess.” 

“Yeah— a nice perk.” 

-

The two wandered aimlessly around the mansion, talking about everything— freshman, classes at their schools, hobbies, friends— everything. 

Peter was going to ask for her number. Maybe ask to see her outside of the mansion. Possibly on a date… If he wasn’t too nervous.

“Could I… get your number?” Peter held his phone in his hands tightly.

“Yeah! Yeah, totally!” (Y/N) recited her number while Peter typed it in his contacts. He shot her a message. 

“I texted you. So you have my number now.” 

“Cool thanks.” Peter felt his phone vibrate in his hands and he glanced down at it.

Mr. Stark: How’s it going with Mother Nature?

Peter: Great! I got her number. I might try to ask her out on a date. Will I be free on Friday?

Mr. Stark: You don’t usually come over on Fridays.

Peter mentally shrugged. Tony was right, Peter usually didn’t go to the Avengers HQ on Fridays. 

Mr. Stark: We’re gonna be leaving soon. I’ll let you know when.

Peter: Ok

(Y/N) was also on her phone. “Sorry! Mr. Stark texted me. I don’t want you to feel like I’m ignoring you or anything.”

“You’re fine. Jubilee was just messaging me.”

“About what?” 

Her focus went back to the screen. She gasped. “Oh my god! We have to go downstairs, come on!” (Y/N) grabbed Peter’s hand and sprinted down the halls. 

“Where are we going?” He asked.

“The Jet hanger downstairs. They’re back!” 

Peter frowned and furrowed his brows as they went down the stairs. “Who’s back?”

“The X-Men.” 

-

Peter was about 99% sure he shouldn’t have been downstairs. If the school had a level of secrecy to it, why would he be allowed to know all this stuff? To see the X-Men and their jet and training room and everything.

Then again, he was an Avenger.

(Y/N) and Peter weren’t the only ones in the hanger watching the black jet land. Professor Xavier and the other Avengers were there, along with a few other students Peter didn’t recognize. 

The jet doors opened and people started walking out. The first one was a young guy, no older than Peter, with brown hair, a blue suit, and a red visor on. Next was a blonde woman in a white bodysuit that was styled almost like a dress. She looked familiar, but Peter couldn’t remember why. Wit the blonde woman was a big, furry, blue man. He had on a suit similar to the boy from before, minus the visor. Finally, two more boys came out. One had silver hair, goggles, and his suit was a metallic ice blue with a white lightning bolt on it. 

The last guy had lines all over his face and giant, metal, wings. 

Peter turned to (Y/N) to ask who everyone was, but she was gone. 

“WARREN!” She engulfed the winged boy in a bone-crushing hug. 

Peter squinted his eyes a little in confusion. (Y/N) didn’t mention a Warren. Who was Warren? A friend? Her brother maybe even?

“Hey, baby. I missed you.” Warren placed a kiss on (Y/N)’s forehead. 

“Aww no love for me?” The silver-haired guy whined.

“Piss off Pete.” (Y/N) laughed. 

“By the way! There’s someone I want you guys to meet… This is Peter, and he’s an Avenger.”

“You’re an Avenger? My sister is an Avenger! Wanda, you know her—“

“Yeah, Wanda is really nice.” Peter was trying to take both the guys in and figure out (Y/N)’s relationship with the blonde.

Then Peter noticed it. Her eye color. It hadn’t changed all day, she was happy and excited to meet Peter. He thought maybe she was into him— but now…

Her eyes were pink. What does pink mean? 

“And this is my boyfriend, Warren.” 

Peter felt his heart drop, or maybe break. He wasn’t sure, but he felt his world get flipped upside down. (Y/N) has a boyfriend?! 

“Nice to meet you.” Warren and Peter shook hands. He tried not to seem too dazed. 

“You too… (Y/N) didn’t say she had a boyfriend…” Peter noticed the silver Peter was gone but didn’t press on the matter.

“Oh?” Warren rose his eyebrows and looked at (Y/N). “Trying to keep me all to yourself?” He teased.

“Maybe… You don’t know…” Warren chuckled and kissed the top of her head again. 

“Hey, Angel! We’re gonna do a write up with Beast and shower.” 

Warren rolled his eyes, “I’ll join you later Cyclops.”

“Mystique said now.” 

Warren huffed, “I’ll be back in like an hour, baby.” He pecked her lips before leaving. “Nice to meet you, Peter.”

 “You too…?”

Tony and the others walked over to Peter and (Y/N). “How’d you like the school, kid?”

“It was really cool. I like it here. It’s almost like a college campus or something.” Peter was still too focused on the fact (Y/N) had a boyfriend. A really cool, attractive, powerful, mutant, boyfriend. Peter couldn’t compete even if he wanted to!

-

Everyone walked back to the main entrance room. Peter walked slightly behind the group. (Y/N) asked Bucky questions about his arm. “Does it weigh a lot? Warren’s wings do. His posture isn’t great because of them.” 

Mr. Stark walked slowly to meet up with Peter’s pace. 

“Why’re you down? Sad we’re leaving?”

“No,” Peter mumbled. “It’s not important.” 

“Did someone say something to you? (Y/N)’s boyfriend? I can kill him if you want. I know his dad.” 

“I just… I didn’t know, (Y/N) had a boyfriend. I thought maybe she was into me, I guess. Most girls don’t like me and she said her eye color changes based on her mood and she was excited the whole time we hung out, but I guess it’s like that for everyone.”

Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. “I’m sorry, Peter… There’ll be other girls though.”

He nodded, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine. Just kinda sucks.” 

“I get it.”

-

“I’m gonna bake some brownies. I know Warren and Peter really like them and they’re probably hungry. Do you want to stay and have some?”

“Thank you for the offer, (Y/N),” Steve said. “But we really have to get going.”

She shrugged a little. “Alright, maybe next time. It was so great to meet all of you! You’re all really cool. Tell Wanda, Peter said hi.” 

“Will do.” 

They were all about to get in the car and go. 

“Bye Peter! I had a lot of fun today. If you’re ever in the area text me. We should really hang out sometime.” (Y/N) hugged him, and Peter hugged back, trying not to seem sweaty due to nerves.

“Yeah, definitely… Bye.”

The Avengers got in the car and drove away.

-

“I love you, but sometimes you’re a little oblivious.”

“Am not!” (Y/N) scolded her boyfriend. 

“Peter was definitely into you. He almost passed out when you said I was your boyfriend.”

(Y/N) poured flour into a bowl starting her brownies, “He was probably just intimidated by your wings.” Peter doesn’t like me… Right?

Warren kissed the top of her head before walking over to the fridge to get a drink. “You’re cute when in denial.” 

“Shut up!” She joked.

[unbealevable]

SNOW DAY ➝ ROOMIES.

TAGGING ➝ Fat Amy, Chloe Beale, Beca Mitchell.

LOCATION ➝ Beca, Chloe and Amy’s apartment.

TIME FRAME ➝ 2/3, early afternoon.

WARNINGS ➝ None.

NOTES ➝ Roommate snow day.

CHLOE

​Taking the weather into consideration, Chloe probably should not have even made the journey to her internship today. There would’ve been no repercussions for her if she hadn’t—hardly anyone else bothered to show up, after all—but always eager to please, she’d gone ahead and made the effort regardless. It really did not surprise her that they’d decided to close up shop early, though. The snow, already a thick blanket on the ground, really was coming down, so the sooner she made it back to the apartment, the better.

Following a quick stop at Rocco’s to pick up the order Beca had called in (she’d been on her way there already; she knew Beca), Chloe trudged through the heavy snowfall and to their building, unceremoniously shaking herself off like a particularly wet dog the moment she made it to shelter. Taking Beca’s ‘be quite’ order very seriously, she switched from walking to tiptoeing once she reached their door, letting herself into the apartment as quietly as possible, though greeted Beca with a bright smile, before pretending to zip her mouth shut.

Their bag of food rustled loudly as she set it down on the counter, with Chloe flashing Beca an apologetic look over her shoulder, before shrugging off her jacket to reveal her cartoon animal printed scrubs, fortunately dry of snow. Not wanting to disturb Beca’s work call, Chloe hovered in the kitchen area, glancing somewhat helplessly between Beca and the bag of food until she caught Beca’s eye. ‘What do I do?’ she mouthed.

BECA

As much as Beca’s job had been sucking balls lately, she was beyond grateful her boss was cool with her working from home when it snowed. Beca never really did well in extreme temperatures in general–she bitched about the sticky southern heat throughout college, and NYC summers were just as bad if not worse, thanks to the city stench. Winters were a different animal altogether. So on mornings like today, she slept an extra 45 minutes, shuffled to the coffee maker, and “dressed” for the day.

Which meant that when Chloe returned home, she’d find Beca with her hair and makeup done, wearing a nice button-down shirt and a blazer… with checkered pajama pants and fuzzy socks. (Chloe’s fuzzy socks. Whatever, her feet were cold and they just happened to be nearby.) Headphones secured over her ears, she sat Indian-style at the foot of their bed with her laptop propped onto a foldable tray at the appropriate height, eyes flickering toward the door on instinct when Chloe shuffled inside.

Ugh, Rocco’s smelled so freaking good. Beca’s stomach rumbled. At Chloe’s shrug, Beca held up a quick ‘one second’ pointer finger offscreen, flashing a pained sort of smile at her laptop screen. “Yep, got it! I’m with you, Sharon. We’re tooootally gonna crush it with this one. I’ll send the suggested changes to you by end-of-day Friday.” With a nerdy two-finger salute, Beca signed off and closed her laptop, setting her headphones on top. Then she very ungracefully groaned as she flopped backwards onto their still unmade bed, dramatically throwing her forearm over her eyes. “I seriously can’t stand that bitch.”

CHLOE

Thankful that Beca’s work call seemed to be wrapping up, Chloe’s almost-panic dissipated quickly, until she was leaning back against the kitchen counter with a quick nod. She pulled her lips inward to keep herself from openly giggling at Beca’s dorky salute toward her laptop, then pushed herself upright again as the call came to an end. “But you saluted her,” she teased, quickly grabbing a couple plates, then the bag of food to bring it over to their unmade bed. “What’d she do?” she hummed, kicking off her snow-covered shoes—she’d do something with them later; right now she wanted food.

Scooting around the heap that was a flopped back Beca as she climbed onto their bed, Chloe shuffled to a comfortable position, legs crossing the same way as Beca’s as she set down their lunch things. “You know Rocco’s is going to make you feel so much better. Even if you do look super grumpy right now.” Her nose wrinkled as she studied Beca’s body language, though she quickly offered over a plate, then got to work on digging into the bag to pull out their respective meals. “I guess at least you didn’t have to walk through the snow today, right?”

AMY

Looking out the window of the apartment she woke up in, Amy realized sleeping over at - wait, what’s his name again? - place might have been the wrong decision. She looked out over an outstretched white blanket and dreaded the journey home already. She briefly wondered if her roommates would be staying home today.

Walking already was not Amy’s favorite activity. Walking is snow is even worse. After what’s his face jumped in the shower, she made quick work of getting dressed and got out of the apartment before he was even done. The ground was slippery but Amy tried to hurry and get home as soon as possible. Luckily, the trip back to Brooklyn went smoothly and as she walked into the Starbucks around the corner of their apartment building, she shot a quick text to the roommates groupchat asking is they’re home.

Happy to have made it back to the apartment building in one piece, Amy climbed the stairs huffing and puffing while holding a tray with 3 cups of steaming hot coffee and a bag of pastries. She opens the apartment door and finds Beca and Chloe chatting in the apartment. „what’s up, pitches!” She quickly closes the door behind her to keep out the cold, kicks of her shoes and hands them their coffee. „As always Butter Pecan for you, Red. And BM, coffee black, like your soul.”

BECA

"She's just..." Beca puffed out a hard breath. "She either dismisses my ideas entirely, or when she likes what I've got to offer she tries to pass it off as her own idea to the execs. She keeps putting me on these shitty projects that are almost impossible to make better. I mean I love a challenge, but..." She winced, shaking her head. No need to get into 'Lil' Pimp Lo'. Especially on her lunch break.

She forced herself to sit up when Chloe joined her, smiling as the scent of her favorite lunch wafted toward her like a goddamn cartoon pie in a window sill. "Yeah, thanks for picking it up. And you're right, at least I didn't have to deal with a horrific commute today. How was your morning? Meet any new furry friends?" 

 After inhaling her nacho platter, Beca insisted on cleaning up the bags and washing the dishes. She made a move to stand when Amy burst inside. "Dude, is that coffee? You're a mind reader." That was... sort of like a greeting, Beca. Close enough. "Where've you been, Ames? Should I even bother asking?" Beca cast a knowing smirk at Chloe before making her way into the kitchen, setting her coffee on the counter while she got to work cleaning off their lunch plates.

CHLOE

Chloe's nose wrinkled as she listened to Beca's complaints. It wasn't a new thing, Beca seeming unhappy where her job was concerned, but it also wasn't Chloe place to comment, so she simply nodded along and let her vent. "She tries to take your ideas because you're so good at what you do," Chloe pointed out, offering up an encouraging smile, though it twisted into something a little more mischievous then, "Maybe we should prank call her." Her brows rose and fell playfully.

Pleased that lunch seemed to be something of a pick-me-up, Chloe nodded her head in acknowledgment, plating up her own food. "Mm, not really," she shrugged, reaching over to steal a nacho. "It's weird, those little things people bring their pets in for always somehow manage to be resolved at home when the weather's like this. Funny how that works!"

Although she liked to help out, Chloe wasn't going to argue, so while Beca took care of cleaning up afterwards, Chloe quickly changed out of her scrubs and into something more comfortable. She was mid-pulling her sweater on when the door opened, with her glancing over to flash Amy a bright smile. "Coffee," she said in an almost dreamy tone, instantly floating over to accept the cup. "Did you know you're an angel?" Chloe winked, pulling the warm drink close to her chest as she tugged her hair from beneath her sweater with her free hand. While she shot Beca the same knowing look, Chloe stayed quiet, eyeing Amy in anticipation of a likely wild response.

AMY

“Well...” she started while considering wether to give her roommates the full story or not. “Yesterday I was performing Fat Amy Winehouse at Times Square. This guy kept coming back like every hour and at first I thought it was really annoying. He didn’t say anything. Just stood there, watching.” She paused briefly to take a sip of coffee and open the bag of pastries.

She took a bite of a cinnamon bun and continued: “after seeing him for the third time I decided to talk to him. I mean, he was a hot piece and I was surprised to hear he had an Australian accent as well. Anyway, long story short; he asked me out, I didn’t have anything better to do so here we are... ” she shrugged.

Amy decides to keep the story at that and to not tell her roommates about the feeling she’s had the entire time, that the guy looked oddly familiar. It didn’t matter anymore anyway. She was home now and honestly didn’t even remember the dudes name.

“What have you guys been up too? Taking a snow day or working from home?” She looked between her two roommates and noticed Beca had obviously been working.

“You know, if you want... I could work from home too. Let me just get out my...”

BECA

Beca listened to Amy's latest adventure while she focused on washing the few dishes they'd used for lunch, all while keeping her eyes trained on the sink and definitely not on Chloe changing her clothes behind her. "Sounds like you've got yourself a groupie," she teased, setting the dishes in the drying rack and plucking the dish towel to dry off her hands. "I'm working from home, Chloe left early." Beca snagged the coffee back from the counter and curled back up on her spot in bed. "Maybe I'll take the rest of the day off. No meetings this afternoon so it doesn't matter much." She wasn't on any active tight deadlines and it wasn't like she'd get much accomplished with both Chloe and Amy home anyway.

CHLOE

Amy's adventures always provided a lot of entertainment, so Chloe sipped happily on her coffee as she listened to her regail them of her latest one. "So you stayed at his place?" Chloe questioned, brows rising and falling suggestively. "Is he cute?" Still only half-changed, she set her coffee cup down on the nearest available space—a difficult find in their cramped shoebox apartment—then got to work on tugging off her scrub pants without regard for her roommates. Surely they were used to her by now.

"Bec, you totes should take the rest of the day off," Chloe nodded enthusiastically. "Especially if Amy's gonna sing for us." She flashed a bright grin toward Amy, plucking a pair of black leggings from their not-quite-closet, before pausing with something of a gasp. "Oh, wait! Guess who I ran into this morning." Without giving either a chance to actually guess, she continued with raised brows, one foot in the leggings. "Aubrey. She's living in the city, too."

AMY

"Yeah shortstack, take the day off. We should hang out!" Amy said while standing up to go change her clothes.

On her way to her side of the room, Amy heard Chloe mention running into Aubrey. She turned on the spot and returned back to her previous position on the kitchen chair and picked her coffee back up to listen to Chloe’s story of her encounter with Aubrey.

"Wait, are you saying that you didn’t know Aubrey lived in the city too? How is that even possible? Isn’t she your best friend?”

BECA

Beca sighed. "Fine, why not?" It wasn't like she'd be able to concentrate much with one roommate home, let alone both. Besides, she rarely used her sick time and was long overdue for some time off.

Noting Amy pointedly avoided Chloe's question about the guy--she figured she probably didn't want to talk about him, which was cool--her gaze snapped back to Chloe. "Oh, for real? Yeah, that's... super weird. I guess she's been really busy to not drop you a text at least, huh?"

CHLOE

It hadn't passed Chloe by that it was incredibly weird that Aubrey hadn't stayed in touch—maybe she should've tried a little harder herself or something—so she wrinkled her nose in response to both of her roommates. "Yeah, I don't know. She seems to be doing super well, though," she offered, pushing a bright smile to her lips to replace the sadder one that really wanted to be there.

Wanting to change the topic from what a bad friend she must've been, Chloe retrieved her coffee cup again, bouncing toward she and Beca's bed and gracefully plopping down. "So what should we do? We're never all home during the day like this."

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs, “Reunited.”

Just tying up some loose ends, also see the post I made right before this about a stupid story that happened to me while writing this. It is kind of funny :) 

The day was hot, very hot, and the sun beat down on fort harmony with merciless intent. Over the tarmac, the sweltering heat caused little mirrages, as puddles of water to appear and then vanish down the runway. 

The heat was oppressive enough that no birds sang, and even the roaring of the engines had been dulled by a day that none of the en were willing to venture out of the air cooled airplane hangers.

Only one figure remained outside staring up at the blue sky and the oppressive sun beaming down upon her.

Waffles limped over the hot pavement, the tarmac burning the delicate pads of her feet, but if she stopped walking it would only hurt even more.

Her tail drooped towards the ground,

It was so hot.

She made it across the tarmac and down to the little shaded area where someone had set up a discarded cardboard box and a bowl of water.

Her feet continued to ache, and she licked at them with her long, pink, tongue though that only brought momentary relief from the burns.

Across the tarmac two men watched her form the open hanger door. It wasn’t that they hadn’t tried to get her to come inside, they had, it was just that she wouldn't, and no amount of cajoling or bribing her had worked. THey felt bad of course, but there was nothing much else they could do.

One of the men felt bad enough to brave the heat and bring over a bag of ice which he pressed onto her paws for a time before having to return to his work.

Waffles laid her head down and closed her eyes ears drooping.

So hot 

Overhead an engine sounded. It was a familiar noise by now,and only one of her eyes cracked open to watch the shuttle descend from the sky and come to land on the scouring earth. She closed her eyes again, listening to the distant sounds as the shuttle doors open, and human voices swelled up around her.

It was then that she was hit with the smell.

IThe heat washed over her face and straight up into her nose with a smell she had been waiting for for months now. 

She shot to her feet ears up nose lifted.

Her tail began to wag 

And despite the heat of the burning tarmac, she raced across the open space yipping and barking and whining for all she was worth

***

Adam stepped out of the shuttle into a sheer wall of heat. It was like being punched in the face by the sun. The borrowed flight suit he now wore was immediately sweltering and he fanned himself with one hand already beginning to pant.

Behind him Sunny and the other stepped down onto the tarmac.

Sunny Immediately yelped and sprung back into the shuttle

Adam couldn’t help but laugh, but that was when a high pitched whining noise reached his ears. A whining barking, yipping noise that immediately had him turning towards the sound eyes wide.

It started out as a small shape barely distinguishable from the sand and grass to the side of the tarmac, and then, as it raced towards him it coalesced into a furry bullet.

“Watffles!” He shouted, taking a few steps down from the ramp as she raced up, and leaped into the air.

He caught her mid arc staggering back a few steps as she attacked his face was the kind of love that could only be bestowed by man's best friend. She whined and whimpered and her tail wagged and her body wriggled so hard he had a tough time holding onto her. 

“Hey pretty girl!”

Wavvles whimpered and barked some more licking his face and the side of his head repeatedly to the point where his hair was damp.

He laughed and held her to his chest, her tail thudding against his side and back.

She didn’t seem very inclined to get down, and the Tarmac was so hot he worried about her paws burning. So instead he held her like a large baby in his arms, and once she was finally done licking his face, she rested her head against his neck and chest nuzzling every now and against at his chin just to remind him she was there.

Not that he could forget an 80 lb German Shepherd.

Behind him the others were laughing and awing.

Ramirez had videoed the whole thing, and continued to video as they made their way across the tarmac and too one of the hangers. Waffles didn’t seem to have any intention of getting down.

Finally they stepped into the hanger, and reluctantly he set her back on the floor, though she insisted on sitting on his feet every time he came to a stop.

Across the room there was a clamouring of voices, and A group of at least five people came charging across the room.

His family hugged him so hard, he thought he was going to crack a rib, and he laughed right along with them as they stammered out nar incoherent sentences.

Eventually his mother pulled back wiping her eyes on hand resting on his cheek the other on his shoulder, “Boy, you need a shave.”

He smiled, “Yeah, can't say there are many razors in a wormhole.”

“I knew it, I knew it. Our baby brother is invincible.” David announced, slapping him on the back so hard he nearly stumbled forward.

Waffles looked up at him her tial thudding against the floor, her tongue lolling form her mouth

“Where were you!”

“Not sure if I am allowed to say just yet, but i'll tell you when I know what I am allowed to say. Let's just start by saying that it wasn’t pleasant, but it’s a great story, ad it involves  miraculous escape planned and executed by yours truly in a fantastic manor.”

HIs mother sighed, “At least you came back wit hall your body parts in tact this time.”

She turned her head to look down and smiled, “Dr. Krill we are so glad you made it back too. We were devastated to hear that you had gone missing as well.”

The doctors saved a polite hand, “No matter.”

She gave him a very light hug anyway, careful to avoid crushing him or something, which he seemed to enjoy despite himself.

Thomas crossed his arms, “Hey, is anyone gonna thank me for bringing him back in one piece?”

Martha sighed and grabbed him up in a hug, “Thank you for bringing yourself home in one piece.” She pulled back, “ How was the war.”

HE grinned, “It was awesome, we mounted a revolution.”

She shook her head, “I can’t take you anywhere because you're either discovering extraterrestrial life or overthrowing corrupt governments.”

Thomas grinned, “Plus I think this has finally made me realize what I want to do with my life.”

Adam smiled as he watched his brother, this was arguably the happiest he had ever seen thomas: who was known for his sullen nature and moodiness. Life hadn’t been easy on him, and he had jumped and bounced from one thing to another in between relapses.

“Oh, and what is that?”

He motioned back to where the rest of the group was standing, “Well I was talking to Ramirez and Maverick and I…. I think joining the marines would be good for me.” He got a slap on the back from their father, who seemed more than pleased with the idea.

Martha assigned, “Of course I should  have seen that coming.” She smile, “I am proud of you. Just try not to overthrown anymore empires while you’re at it.”

He grinned, “No promises.

Adam got hugged a few more times after that seeing as no one was really willing to believe that he was alive.

Even the men he didn’t know from around base stopped by to shake his hand and tell him how glad they were that he was back.

The UNSC sorely missed him.

At some point Krill insisted on doctoring him, and dragged him back into the medical bay where he did all he docterly things, blood pressure temperature pulse. Sunny stood in the corner with both sets of arms crossed over her chest.

He might have asked her to wait in the hall, but he had a feeling that that request wouldn’t go down so well, so he let it go.

Krill examined the three large gashes on his chest and where they had healed over into large, livid puckered red scars.

“Hmm, I could probably fix this. WIth a consultation from a plastic surgeon.” He muttered 

Adam waved him off, ‘It’s alright Krill, I think they look kind of badass, sort of a tarzan king of the jungle sort of vibe.”

Krill glowered at him, “Well one of these days you are just going to have to pick ONE vibe, because space cyborg pirate Tarzan is getting to be a bit of a mouthful.”

Adam laughed.

Sunny harumphed glowering angrily at the new scars.

Krill turned to look down at the ones on his upper forearms, which hadn’t scarred up yet, but where still in the process of being scabbed over, “And what are these.”

“Er…. I had to get the attention of the keepers, and that was the only way to do it without them heightening security on me.”

Sunny’s fists clenched even further.

Krill flipped over his hand, which was still raw and red, “Let me guess”

Adam shrugged sheepishly, “Well you know how it is.”

He turned his head to look at Sunny and quickly looked away as her stare bored a hole in his forehead.

At the end of the medical bay, the door slid open and a soldier stepped inside hurrying over to offer him a set of ACUs and a pair of boots, “These should fit sir, the brass will be here in half and hour, and will meet with you in the war room… I… mean the conference room !A.” He turned on his heels and walked out, big boots clomping on the tile as he went.

Adam changed quickly and managed to hunt down a razor in enough time to get a quick shave in before meeting with his superiors. He didn’t understand why other men wanted a beard so much, it was really nothing to be happy about, and it made his face itch. Felt so much better when the thing was finally gone and he was free.

Sunny was a little miffed when she had to wait out in the hall as he and waffles stepped into the conference room, which he could immediately see why they called the warm room. It was less like a conference room and more like mission control. The room was large, lined on all sides with massive monitors which cast pale blue light down onto the large, elongated table with its holographic touch screen.

As soon as he walked in an entire room of officers stood from their seats.

“Commander!”

“Its good to see you, son.”

“We thought you were dead.”

“Earth is going to be happy to hear you’re alive.” He smiled and greeted the others with a firm handshake despite how tired he was, “It takes more than a wormhole to take a human out.” He said taking the seat offered to him near the head of the table.

Admiral Kelly had broken from her usual serious demeanor into a smile, “We are glad to have you back, Commandr. A lot has happened since you left.”

“Can I get a quick summary?”

“Well we learned that the balck hole, or I suppose wormhole now that we know, was created in part by the burg working with the voiceless kree. The voiceless have long been in conflict with the voiced and allied with the burg to turn our ire against the voiced. However, they pose no significant threat without burg technology and so we focused mostly on the burg. Your ship was of course, in pieces, but nearly all you crew survived as they were picked up by other ships in the near vicinity. You were pronounced MIA as was Dr. Krill. ONly three on your ship didn’t make it, and one of our ships was permanently crippled with over 50 casualties and 100 additional injuries.”

HE grimaced, but held back on the guilt for a moment.

“After that battle, the GA came to council, and war was declared on the burg. We sent in the GA armada and over 1000 shock troopers on to the face of the planet. While there a small team comprised mostly of your old crew discovered that the burg king was being imprisoned in a cavern below the throne room and allied with him to replace the queen with a successor.”

He had heard that part of the story , but it didn’t cease to amaze him.”

“Beyond that it was actually quite simple.”

“And my ship?”

“We will get to that in a moment, commander, but now its your turn.”

He nodded and sighed hand to his head, “Where to begin. Of course you know I initiated the shatter protocol when it seemed there was no possible escape for my crew. I stayed behind to initiate assuming, like you, it was a black hole. However, when I didn’t die and was shot out to some unknown location, it appeared as if it was a wormhole instead. I managed to crashland the command deck on the planet below, which was habitable. It was an alien world, but seemed rather…. Jurassic…. In nature. I managed to salvage the emergency kits from under one of the crew seats and survived for a week or two on the beach well fed and warm, however,while I was out in an attempt to boost a radio signal, I ran into some sort of alien creature which attacked me. The wounds I received were pretty bad, but I managed to kill it. I was losing blood fast and probably wouldnt have survived if the Omnidroids-”

“Wait, I’m sorry, the WHAT!”

“Sorry, sir, The omnidroids are what I nicknamed them because they look like something form an old movie. Think large ball with five big stumpy legs and a tiny head on toop.”

They nodded and he continued.

“Anyway, I ran into a group of them, and they helped with my sounds. I couldn’t understand them, and I am pretty sure their speech is in a much lower register because it was like listening to whales talk. Anyway, they brought me aboard one of their ships, and kept me there for a day or two. When we landed I was let out into an enclosure of some sort, turned out to be some kind of alien zoo.”

They stared at him.

He stared back.

“Your kidding?”

“No time for joking, commander.”

He shook his head, “I am not joking. I am serious, the enclosure that I was in had perfect temperature plenty of water and lots of food, but I could see other alien creatures outside the window and above me, just looking at me. Drones came in every now and again to feed me or clean the pen.”

They staired in silent awe.

“Anyway, from there I concluded it was likely they didn’t know I was sentient, so I determined that escape was possible if I let them think that. I started trying to figure out if I was being watched, and their response time if i was. Once tht was done I picked an appropriate time to escape, and used the iron eye armor I still had one from meeting with the Kree and pried open the bars before setting all of the other creatures loose. I found Dr. Krill on my way out, and we hijacked a shuttle.”

“How did you know how to get back?”

He shook his head, “I didn’t. But that was when the space dragon showed up.”

They stared at him again.

He held up his hands, “ I swear I am not making any of this up. That is exactly what happened It created some sort of wormhole and I ended up in the middle of a burg battle in space.”

“So there is an entire alien society separate from the one we already have.”

“It seems so?”

“And the shuttle?”

“It was handed over to GA scientists for examination and potentially reverse engineering.”

They nodded.

He waited for them to say anything else before.

“So…. my crew is safe but my ship?”

They shook their heads, “Is gone,” THey held up a hand to cut him off, “However it was actually a  stroke of good fortune as we have been building new ships for the fleet over the past few years, and one of them was close to completion. So, using the scraps leftover from your ship we were able to finish the job.” They leaned forward, “Commander, despite any issues we have had with your commanding in the past, we have determined that to judge you by the standards of the old military was a faux pax on our part. Space is new, and requires something from men that it hasn’t required before.”

He waited to see where this was going.

“The new armada will be nearly five times the size of the old. The captains as they are now will be promoted to fleet commanders and will be over their own unit of ships. The ship that the harbinger was recycled to make, is twice as big as your old ship with room for over 1000 crew members. It has the latest in alien and human technology and is the most advanced space vessel humanity has ever seen.”

It was an important reminder at this point not to pee himself out of excitement, so he kept his face stony, though he wanted nothing more than to jump around like a little girl squealing.

“However, since the captains would be promoted to fleet commander, that means that you will have to be promoted against as well.”

He paused.

“I… but I haven't been commander for all that long.”

“The UNSC fleet is growing at a rapid rate, and to keep up with it, we are going to have to adapt rapidly as well.”

“So, commander, do you accept?”

He paused and looked down at his hands, “I’m not moving to a desk job, sir.”

“No, no you won't. But you will be commanding a larger ship and thousands more people. Do you think you can handle that? He paused again looking down at his hands thoughtfully.

“Yes, I think I can.” 

[adarlingwrites]

Absolution

Summary:

noun: formal release from guilt, obligation, or punishment

The Capital Wasteland lauded the Lone Wanderer as a hero, a Messiah, a savior who’s willing to give her life for the Good Fight. Beyond the legends, the propaganda, and the mythification that surrounded her legacy, there is only one person who knew her bare soul. She gave him his absolution, and now he will fight for hers.

VI

September 19, 2277. It’s been two days since the incident. I still can’t figure out my mistress’ motivations for helping me with that sorry excuse of a trial. Perhaps she’s protecting her 2000 cap investment, but she took the money back from Ahzrukhal’s body when I shot him. Letting me be apprehended by the people would certainly mean losing an asset, but she can always hire other mercenaries to take my place as her bodyguard. Whichever is it, I don’t know. Things had calmed down in Underworld. Barrows decided that the Ninth Circle should be repurposed as an assembly area. Carol invited my mistress and I for lunch, and Greta said the food was on the house. Percy spent hours listening to Carol’s stories while I ate my meal in peace. I appreciated being able to sit down and eat. Ahzrukhal never granted me such a thing. By the time we left Carol’s Place, Percy was blushing and smiling ear-to-ear from the stories and compliments the ghoulette told her. Carol stood in the doorway, an arm around Greta, as she watched us leave for Megaton, mentioning something about saying hi to someone named Gob. Miss said that we are going to her house in Megaton. On the way, we made a detour to a scrapyard, the sun almost setting. “Hey, Charon, could you help me look for a handbrake?” Percy asks, bent over a fallen motorcycle that she’s stripping for parts, and I set my sight on the horizon, watching for threats and actively avoiding looking at her. “My contract entitles you to combat services. I’m afraid you have to look for it yourself,” I tell her, unmoving from my spot. I still refuse to look at her. “Please? Two pairs of eyes are better than one,” she asks. That word again. Please. I realize she’s not issuing a command. She’s asking me a favor. I see a pleading expression on her face, and I roll my eyes.

Grumbling as I marched over to help her look, I got on my knees next to her to look for the damn thing. When she laughed at my frustration, I finally allowed myself to look at her. Snowflake chopped my mistress’ dark hair to a very short bob, no longer the combat hazard that it used to be. When I tore away my eyes from her and started to really look for the item she mentioned, I found one just lying a few feet from us, and held it out to her with a flat expression. She looks at me, laughs, and tucks the handbrake safely in her sack of scrap. “Oops. Didn’t see that just there, sorry.” “Your eyesight could put us at a disadvantage in combat, mistr-.” Percy gives me that look again. I realize my mistake. “Miss.” Laughing and shrugging me off, she stands up and shakes the dirt off her knees. “Okay, maybe I can tolerate ‘miss’, Mr. Dreamboat. I still prefer Percy, though.” I can’t help but grumble and groan in exasperation, but the jokes are better than what I experienced from past employers when I unintentionally disobey an order. Far better. “I will endeavor to adjust to your preferences, Percy.” “Thank you. I appreciate the effort, big guy,” she replies, moving on to rummage through a toolbox next to an old, decrepit car. “It’s hard to unlearn all the habits you picked up from your previous employers, so don’t sweat it. I’m giving you a wide room for error. You are allowed to make mistakes, unless it gets one or both of us killed, of course.” “I shall do my best not to commit such errors, miss.” Then, I heard a laugh bubble from her throat again. “A skin mag? Really?” she mutters, perusing a pornographic pre-war magazine hidden underneath the tools. She looks over her shoulder and sees me waiting for her, and she seems almost bashful. “N-not that I was planning on keeping it,” she stutters, tossing the magazine aside. “What my employers do in their spare time isn’t my business.” Percy pauses, then throws her head back, laughing in relief. “Finally, I’m in good company,” she said, breezing past me to pick up and tuck the magazine in her pack. She goes back to rummaging through the toolbox with an embarrassed smile.

Then, we both hear it. Gunfire, and barks. Percy immediately drops what she’s doing and runs towards the noise.

Cursing, I followed close by, and a raider was shooting at a dog. A scavenger lies dead on the ground, the dog’s former master I presume, and another raider, with teeth marks on his neck. Not wanting to waste ammo on a lone raider, Percy retrieves her baseball bat from her pack and gives the raider a hard smack on the head, and the dog lunges in for the kill, sinking its teeth in the raider’s neck. I didn’t even have to move a muscle.

Then, the dog sidles over, whimpering, a gash on its side. My mistress immediately falls to her knees and pets the animal. “Charon. Charon are you seeing this? It’s a dog! An actual dog!”

I was confused by her enthusiastic reaction, then I remember that she’s from a vault. She probably saw them only in pictures. “Hi boy. You’re okay,” she coos at the mutt, running her small hands on its head and giving it a good pet.

“You lost your friend, did you boy?” The dog whines at her, almost as if it can understand the words she’s saying. “Hey, I lost my dad too. I’m still looking for him.”

At her remark, the dog licks her face. “Huh. Well aren’t you smart? I think I should call you... Dogmeat. Like that dog from an old sci-fi flick. Do you like that, boy?”

Dogmeat slobbers on Percy’s face even more. Then, he bounds towards me, sniffs me, and decides that my hand is worth slobbering on.

“Charon, I think he likes you too,” Percy coos, and the edge of my lip twitches upward. I let go of my inhibitions and pet the dog’s furry head.

“C’mon, let’s get home.”

Eyes were on us when we arrived in Megaton. The sheriff, a man called Lucas Simms, went over to greet my mistress, and asked about me and the dog. Percy tells him that we are her new friends. Simms tipped his hat at me, told me that I am welcome as long as I treat Megaton’s people right, then went on his way. Seems like a decent enough man.

Percy dug in her satchel for the key to her house, and when the door swung open, we were greeted by one of those old Mr. Handy robots from before the war. My mistress dumps her sack of junk near the door. The dog gives the robot a curious sniff before moving on and settling at my mistress’ feet.

“Well, this is home. It’s not much, but it’s a place to sleep in. What do you think?”

There’s a salvaged couch and a busted pre-war television set in the living room, a stove in the kitchen, and school lockers repurposed as storage. A shelf holds her cutlery and there is a lone sink near the fridge. No toilets or showers. The stairs don’t have any safety railings, but thankfully the area above has some. I’ve seen houses in a more sorry state, but the house had no windows nor other exits. Still very much a hazard.

“C’mon, don’t be shy, big guy. You’ll be living here with me until we sort your contract out,” Percy asks, sitting on the couch and kicking her boots off.

“I don’t like the look of this place.”

“Yeah I- huh?” Percy looks at me with wide eyes. I realize that I have been too blunt and insulted the house of the girl who patched me up after being ambushed by super mutants.

Dammit.

“There is only one entry and exit point. It’s unsafe in case of an emergency, such as a fire, or a home invasion,” I tell her and cross my arms, not daring to meet her eyes.

To my surprise, she nods. “Yeah. It freaks me out. I still haven’t asked Moira to help me drill windows.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“It’s still adequate shelter,” I tell her, but she moves on.

“Follow me,” she tells me, climbing up the stairs. There were two rooms, one that didn’t have a door on the left, and a smaller one with a door on the right. “I use the room on the right to store things, but you can have it. I’ll move the things tomorrow.. I think there’s also a spare mattress inside,” Percy tells me, opening the door, and some items come spilling out.

A bedroom? Under Ahzrukhal’s employ, I didn’t even have a bed. I didn’t even get sleep.

“Miss Percy, this isn’t necessary.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am trained to go without sleep. Providing me with a room would only be a waste of your resources.”

The mistress looks at me in disbelief. “Wait, are you saying that Ahzrukhal didn’t let you sleep? You just stand in that corner all night?”

“...yes. I only leave for meals and to relieve myself.”

Percy does it again, that gesture where she raises her hands in frustration. “Christ, no wonder you’re so grumpy. Just take the damn room, Charon. It'll give both you and me some privacy, and you’ll get some sleep.”

I didn’t get privacy from my previous employers too, save for the times I needed to piss or shit. My head is light from all the things Percy is granting me, but I’m still grateful.

“I- yes, miss. Thank you.”

Thanking Percy felt foreign on my lips. My employers never did anything for me to be thankful for. I can’t help but feel suspicious of this girl, but her smile hides no malice behind it. It’s baffling, but I decided that I still like being under her employ.

“Don’t sweat it. I’ll be right back. Just need to fetch some groceries and disinfectant for my suture kit from the store. I need to boil those tools soon...”

“I’ll accompany you,” I tell her, but she shakes her head. “I’ll be fine Charon. Now go on, make yourself at home. You can clean up in the sink then get some sleep.”

I nodded. As soon as the door shut, I walked to the sink and undressed. I can’t even remember the last time I took a sink bath. Then, I changed into a sleeveless white undershirt and gray boxers… the only spare clothes I own. I go in my room, turn on the lamp on a table in my room, and see everything in my room. There’s an assortment of junk, weapons, and armor.

Then, I see it. Power armor with a white paint job. The letters “USA” with a serial number next to it.

The straw that broke the brahmin’s back.

??? ??, ????

I flinch from a burst of snow, the metal of my armor feels frozen to the touch. The side has been cracked open, red staining the snow. My blood. I touch it and it stains my gloved hand. A .308 round tore through the metal. A pair of hands drag me to safety and I hear my orders from the radio. Get back up. Get back up or risk being taken prisoner. I can’t disobey an order.

Scrambling to my feet, I pick up my rifle. My legs drag me to the sniper’s nest, squadmates covering me, and I can taste iron in my mouth. I do not stop. I have been trained to withstand this. I looked for the tell-tale silver-white reflection, and when I saw it, I opened fire. The sniper uncloaks and lies bleeding face-first, broken on the floor. I see the red star on the nape of his armor, and he rolls on his back, and attempts to reach for the 10 mm on his hip, and I kick it away. He’s begging in a language I can’t understand, but I pay no attention to it. The only thing that matters is my orders. Aiming for the head, I shot him, and the helmet broke into pieces.

At the sound of my gun firing, I look at the soldier and see that there weren't any chunks of gore underneath his shattered helmet. Instead, I was looking at a woman’s face. The body wasn’t a man’s either; the sniper’s breasts heaved as she breathed rapidly, dark eyes wild. She’s underneath me, back pressed against the dirt, and I feel heat on my back.

It’s Percy.

“Charon.”

Every damn muscle in my body hurt like hell, and my head feels like it’s been split open. I look at my hands, rough and peeling, with no bloodstains. A small hand was on my bicep, and I heard the whine of a dog.

“Oh, thank God,” I hear a person gasp. It’s my mistress’ voice.

“Percy. What day is it?”

“It’s September 20, Charon.”

“What year?”

“2277.”

I let out a shaky exhale. My mistress beckons me, and I follow her wordlessly. Percy leads me to the couch, and we sit on the opposite ends of it. Dogmeat follows us too, putting his head on my lap. A look of worry is etched on Percy’s face. “That’s some nightmare, big guy.”

Just great. The first sleep I had in fuck knows how long, and I get a nightmare.

“Do you mind telling me about it?”

My jaw hardens. “If conversation is your order to me, I shall converse with you.”

“Hey, it’s not an order. If you don’t trust me enough to tell me yet, I understand.”

Relief floods through me. I grunted in acknowledgment. My mistress stands up and heads to the kitchen, and comes back with a plate of food. Broiled mirelurk cakes. “Um, here. I made these last night and reheated them. Please, eat with me.”

My eyes wander to my mistress. Her short hair is tousled, her eyes are still heavy with sleep, her face is clean, and she wears nothing but a black shirt and gray boyshorts. Now she’s serving me breakfast.

I think about the domesticity of the scene and decide to say nothing about it.

We finish our meal in peace, and she gets up to put the dishes in the sink. I busy myself with stripping and cleaning my shotgun, and my mistress busies herself with a book. Dogmeat eats his breakfast on a dog dish that Percy bought last night. It was a comfortable silence.

Then, she broke it.

“I need to say something,” she starts, looking at me with a firm expression. “Remember when I said that I was studying to be a doctor in the vault?”

I nod at her, and she clears her throat. “Part of my training is psychiatry. It's... how do I put it… the study of the health of the human mind. So, aside from keeping you physically healthy, I can also help with that.”

I let my mistress continue. An anxious look is on her face.

“And uh, I know the theory behind most of it, but I have no experiences providing those services to a patient yet. I need to properly diagnose you, but, you were screaming and saying some things in your sleep. I don’t think that what you experienced is a regular nightmare, big guy.”

I blink at her a few times.

“Charon, I think you were experiencing a traumatic recall.”