#despite it being quarter to eight i am just now getting to actually sit down and relax

[turigirl]

calm* again sorry for being mentally ill

[theimprobabledreamersworld]

A Time Of Magic Chapter Two.

This AU is so much fun to write! And I'm glad people are enjoying it so far 💜 Here is the next chapter!

Taglist: @psychedelicships @jwillowwolf @lost-in-thought-20 @red-imeanblue @writerwithtoomanyships @spicycreativity (Hope this is okay, Spicy- just thought this would be the easiest way to keep you up to date!)

If you would like to be added to this taglist- let me know! 😊

Summary: ‘Virgil needs a hand to hold, a voice to guide, someone that might help him find a purpose for his gifts. There is no one else I can turn to Logan. Only you.’

Virgil's second day in Camelot is even more eventful than the first. Can he get through it without getting into danger, or trouble?

Tags: Mild language, threat, death mention, weapons, food. Merlin/Human/Fantasy AU.

Word Count: 3,047

Read on Ao3!

Chapter Two: A Dark Warning.

'In a time of magic, the destiny of the mythical land of Camelot rests on the shoulders of a young warlock. His name… Virgil.’

Virgil heard the bells ring out within the castle walls and sat bolt upright. As it chimed six times, he realised how early he fell asleep yesterday. He needed to go and apologise to Logan for not being a very good guest. He closed his eyes and listened to see if Logan was awake. Luckily he could hear bottles bubbling and the sound of Logan humming a tune, so he got dressed and headed out of his room. He looked around, but Logan was nowhere to be seen, Virgil frowned in confusion since his bed was freshly made, but where could he have gone?

“Logan? Are you here?” He called out into the seemingly empty room. He jumped as he looked up and saw Logan perched on a ladder re-organising a bookshelf up a small balcony.

“Ah, Virgil! You’re up early. Good mor-“ His chipper greeting was cut short by an excruciatingly loud snapping sound as the ladder Logan was standing on caved in and he was sent flying backwards over the banister, hurtling towards an unforgiving floor.

Virgil acted immediately, without a word his eyes began to glow a rich, deep purple. Logan was suddenly moving in slow motion, buying Virgil more time. He frantically began to search around the room to find something, anything that could cushion the fall. His eyes glowed one more time and he dragged Logan’s bed across the room, he sighed in relief knowing it would be okay. Virgil smiled as he blinked and let the scene run in real time. Logan cried out before landing in a crumpled heap onto the bed . He stared in shock for a moment before patting himself over, relieved that he was not injured. Logan leapt up and stared at Virgil in fascination.

“How… did you do that??” He stared at Virgil, almost looking right into his soul. There were no words, Virgil just stammered trying to desperately come up with an answer that didn’t sound completely crazy.

“Did you express the incantation in your mind?” Virgil was trying not to panic, he knew that Logan wasn’t angry with him, and he certainly wasn’t going to tell Uther about his magic… but he couldn’t explain why he could do everything he does, it just… happens.

“Where did you study?” Logan’s last question stunned him into silence. Study? You can study magic? Virgil had never heard of that before. He took a deep breath and finally got an answer in before Logan’s next question.

“I… I was just born this way.” His voice was timid, and Logan continued to stare at him, stunned at the unexpected answer. Hunith was right, Logan thought. Virgil really was a gifted boy. He glanced over at the open letter on his desk surrounded by vials and strange looking chemicals.

‘Virgil needs a hand to hold, a voice to guide, someone that might help him find a purpose for his gifts. There is no one else I can turn to Logan. Only you.’

Logan sighed, believing his word to be the truth. He put a hand on Virgil’s shoulder gesturing for him to sit down at the table for breakfast. He walked away before returning with a delicate bowl of fresh berries and Virgil began eating them enthusiastically. He smiled with gratitude and when Logan sat down with his own bowl, his face had a serious expression on it, and Virgil couldn’t help but panic slightly.

“While I am completely and utterly fascinated by your powers. I need not remind you that you will need to be incredibly careful, especially while you are in the castle grounds. If anyone was to catch you, you would be executed without a second thought.” Logan’s voice was laced with worry, but Virgil couldn’t stop a bitter laugh escaping from his mouth.

“Believe me, Logan. I am well aware. I watched it with my own eyes yesterday.” Logan’s eyes widened ever so slightly, but he shook it off and just nodded sympathetically. He knew that he wouldn’t have been able to keep it from Virgil, but he hoped that he could have explained it to him in his own way. Virgil had only been part of Logan’s life for roughly one day, but it already felt like he was the son he never had, he couldn’t stand the thought of losing him already. He made a silent vow that if anything ever happened, Logan would try to protect Virgil in every way he could, no matter the cost to himself. Enough of that now though, he needed to create a distraction.

“Well, as you’re up. You can help me with my rounds! I have several draughts and medicines that need to be delivered to people who live in the castle grounds. They are all labelled, and I’ve put in a map with their quarters marked out. Make sure you tell Mr. Duill to not drink the vial's contents in one go… he tends to do that.” Virgil was nodding along in agreement as Logan began pottering around adding liquids to different bottles while watching them bubble and change colour. Virgil grabbed the basket and headed out, it would give him a good chance to finally acclimatise to just how large this castle was.

“Oh and Virgil. Stay out of trouble.” Logan called out as the door slowly came to a close.

Virgil took his time wandering around the castle, he explored the different passageways and climbed multiple staircases to look out at the town. Virgil stared in awe at some of the stained glass windows and the stories that were being told within the glass. He was surprised that he managed to find everyone on the list considering how much time he had just spent procrastinating. As he reached the final door of Mr. Duill, he remembered what Logan had told him as he knocked loudly. The man swung the door open violently and Virgil guided his hand to the medicine. He heard a pop of the cork on the vial as he turned to the man.

“Oh, Logan said don’t drink it all at on-” but it was too late. The man drank the small vial’s liquid vigorously like it was a tankard of mead and Virgil just stared at him in disbelief.

“I’m sure it’s fine.” The man looked at him confused and Virgil just smiled as the man closed the door in his face. He sighed and slowly wandered down a corridor.

It was only eight in the morning, but Virgil was already exhausted. He sat down in one of the corners of the castle to take a breather. Despite the constant coming and going of the castle staff, it was actually quite peaceful. It must have been about an hour later when the same bugles from yesterday began to ring out across the courtyard, and Virgil felt his heart beat rapidly increase. ‘Not again.’ He ran out and sighed in relief when there was no stage and chopping block greeting him. Many people began to flock around facing the balcony as the King, Uther strolled out, that same smug look on his face. The feeling of dread was indescribable.

“As I announced yesterday. Twenty years ago today, we banished the Great Dragon from Camelot and lived in peace, free from the evils of magic. We also executed one more sorcerer who deceived you all and committed evil acts in Camelot. Because of this; I have decided to declare not one day of celebration, but three days. Preparations will begin shortly and there will be a grand feast in the castle tomorrow evening, everyone is invited. Let the festivities begin.” He clapped his hands together and everyone began to cheer at the news. Even Virgil couldn’t help but feel excited, it would be great to see inside the Great Hall.

A horrific wail shattered the joy instantly and Virgil looked around trying to find where it was coming from. A window opened and Logan looked down on the courtyard searching for the noise too. Even Uther showed a hint of concern. The crowd parted and there was a woman standing, staring at Uther with tears streaming down her face, the sorrow in her eyes was apparent. She was hunched over, wrinkles covered her face and her skin was sagged. Blonde, wire-like hair blew around her and the brown torn dress she was wearing accentuated how thin she truly was. She cried once more, and Virgil immediately felt sympathy for this woman even though he wasn’t sure why.

“There is only one evil in Camelot, Uther Pendragon, and it is not magic. It is you! I promise you that by the end of these celebrations, you will be shedding more tears than me. An eye for an eye... A son for a son.” Virgil’s eyes widened as he realised that she meant every single word. She must be Peter Robert Sclator’s mother, the executed man from the previous morning. He had to admit, he couldn’t blame her for being heartbroken… but threatening a King like Uther Pendragon was a terrible mistake. He looked up and was surprised to see fear pass through Uther’s eyes too.

“Seize her! She cannot be allowed to leave.” He roared while pointing down at the woman. Several guards attempted to approach her but she let out a shrill scream and they were thrown backwards onto the ground. She grasped a necklace securely fastened around her neck and her voice broke into a low and vicious tone.

‘Uranun caripe baglen ol. Gemeganza de-noan chiis gosaa. Zamicmage oleol ag-sapah arphe. Oresa ethamz taa tabegisoroch.’ Her arms were thrown backwards as she levitated off the ground and began to disappear. A harsh wind surrounded her body and lashed at anyone who attempted to come closer. As the final fragments of her ragged dress faded from view, Virgil smirked ever so slightly at the fact that she had left Uther looking powerless, but he recognised that incantation. It was Old Magic. Worse than that, it was Dark Magic. This woman was dangerous and she wanted revenge, he hoped he wouldn’t have to intervene… but if she harmed anyone, especially if any harm came to Logan, he would have to protect them, even if it cost him his life.

Uther stormed inside the castle, and Virgil glanced up to see the same window open with the same face timidly looking out. His eyes filled with worry. They looked at each other for just a moment, before the man looked away and he reluctantly closed the window carefully due to the cracks made by anger during the execution. He looked over to the next set of windows and saw an equally worried expression on Logan’s face too. Did he know her?

Virgil ran back to Logan’s quarters, and nearly collided into him in the process. Logan put his arms on Virgil’s shoulders, it immediately helped him calm down. They sat down and Logan waited patiently for questions.

“Who is she, Logan? Why is Uther afraid of her?” Logan put his hand on his head looking for his glasses, but he realised they weren’t there. So he sighed and ran a hand through his hair instead.

“Her name is Mary. She used to be something called a High Priestess of the Old Religion. They were incredibly powerful, and during the Great War… Uther was powerless against them to begin with. Only brute force allowed Uther to win, so she has many reasons to hate him with every bone in her body, but executing her son… that was the final straw.”

Virgil nodded, he could understand how Mary felt. He started to try and formulate plans in his head about how he could fight her if he needed to.

“I know what you’re thinking. You cannot face her, Virgil. We have not even discovered how your powers work. It’s too dangerous.” Virgil nodded again, he was right. It would be too reckless, he couldn’t risk being caught. He smiled, a silent promise was made between the two of them.

“Is there anything else I can do to help you today?” He had to admit that he enjoyed running errands for Logan, it gave him a chance to be nosy and look at areas of the castle others are not allowed to.

“No. Everything is done for today, but thank you for the offer. How about you have another wander around the castle? Have you seen the training grounds yet?” Virgil shook his head and listened as Logan gave him directions. He stood up and waved as Logan as he headed out the door once again. He walked down the now familiar corridor and walked towards a spiral staircase he must have missed this morning. Before he walked down, he peaked over the wall to check that he was definitely going the right way this time, he didn’t want another incident like yesterday. Virgil could clearly see the training grounds below him, and as he looked closer, his blood began to boil.

There were a group of knights, roughly Virgil’s age crowding around a young serving boy. One in particular dressed in a loose red shirt with silver armour on his shoulders and brown trousers with what looked like new brown shoes was spearheading the entire event.

“Where is the target?” The leader demanded.

“Over there, sir.” The boy pointed to the large target timidly, while the leader raised his arm in front of his eyes dramatically blocking the sun.

“It can’t be there… The sun is in my eyes.” The boy who was clearly used to being treated like rotten fruit just sighed and he walked over to move the target by picking it up. The guy smirked and turned to the others while saying he’ll teach him a lesson. As he was handed some daggers by one of the entourage, Virgil decided that he had had enough and stormed down the staircase to the training grounds. When he got there, the serving boy was running around with the target in front of him, desperately trying to avoid being hit. The guy kept throwing dagger after dagger at the target while the others laughed at the boy’s expense. As the seventh dagger hit the centre, the boy tripped and the target rolled away with a loud clatter. Virgil put his foot on it, before taking a deep breath and letting a fake smile grace his lips.

“Hey. Come on now, that’s enough… You’ve had your fun, my friend.” The leader looked at the others and pointed a thumb at Virgil like he had grown a second head.

“Do I know you?” He swaggered over until he was standing directly in front of Virgil. Virgil had to bite the inside of his cheek to avoid showing his disdain for the arrogance in this guy’s voice.

“Oh, I’m Virgil.” He held his hand out for the man to shake, but he just looked at it in disgust before rolling his eyes.

“So I don’t know you… and yet you called me… friend?” The guy paused waiting for an answer to his audacity. Virgil knew that he should have just walked away at that point, but he was too riled up, and this man needed to be taken down a peg or two.

“That was my mistake…”

“Yeah, it was.” The man thought he had won, and Virgil knew he was going to regret the next words that came out of his mouth… but this guy was a pompous prick, and he deserved it.

“Yeah… I’ve never had a friend who could be such an ass.” He mustered all the sarcasm he could and poured it into every word. The guy stopped short, and Virgil winced as he realised that he had absolutely gone too far. When the guy began to chuckle and readjust the armour on his shoulders, Virgil gulped, but he had gone this far... so he needed to roll with it and hope that he would give up soon.

“Tell me, Virgil… Do you know how to walk on your knees?” He was getting in Virgil’s face now, his arrogance really was overpowering.

“No.”

“Would you like me to show you?” He took a step towards Virgil and he stepped back so he couldn’t be grabbed unexpectantly.

“I wouldn’t if I were you.” Virgil shook his head, he shouldn’t be making threats but he couldn’t contain his irritation any longer. The guy laughed loudly in his face, and his entourage joined in boosting the guy’s ego even more.

“Really? What are you going to do to me?” He held his arms out in an antagonising fashion, encouraging Virgil to make the first move. He had to clench his fists to ground himself, Virgil knew he couldn’t attack this guy, not if he wanted to live.

“Oh you have no idea.” Virgil muttered with a smirk.

“Come on, hit me! Weakling.” That was it. Virgil saw red and lunged at the guy, but he misjudged the distance between the two of them. There were gasps from spectators as the guy grabbed Virgil’s arm and twisted it harshly behind his back.

“I could have you thrown in jail for that.” The guy spoke directly into Virgil’s ear as he tried to free himself from the grasp.

“Who do you think you are? The King?!” Virgil shouted mockingly. Who did this guy think he was anyway?

“No… but I’m his son… Prince Roman.” Roman called for guards and pushed Virgil into their path. They bowed at the Prince before grabbing Virgil’s arms to restrain him. They dragged him through the castle and down a broken staircase leading to darkness.

The walls constantly dripped with water and the smell was repulsive. The guards opened a heavy metal door and shoved Virgil unceremoniously onto the straw floor before slamming the door shut behind them. He got up and shook the metal bars before angrily kicking them. He’s only been here two days, and he’s already made an enemy within the monarchy. Virgil sighed, he knew he wouldn’t get out today, so he took off his jacket and wrapped it around his shoulders before trying to sleep.

As the sun set and darkness seeped in, Virgil was sound asleep, but a low growling voice began to call out.

“Virgil… Virgil… VIRGIL.”

He shocked himself awake as his eyes glowed purple, he looked around frantically but there was no one there.

Who was calling out to him?

[gothighunicorntolerance]

Planet Earth is blue

In a sudden urge of spontaneity, Logan joins a crew of aliens

AO3

Two

Logan looked down at the black water below him. It would be so easy. Just put his feet on the other side of the railing. Then push off. Just a moment of falling before he hit the water. It would be a far enough drop that he would likely die on impact. Then he might finally be able to relax in his last moments of free fall. He had no one- no family who cared about him, no friends to speak of. Not since he’d been outed, anyways. 

    There was nothing for him, so why couldn’t he do it? Just step over the railing, that was all he had to do to end it. Maybe it was the weight of his backpack holding him on the safer side of the bridge, on the empty stretch of road, filled with everything he owned- his phone, a change of clothes, his favorite book, and a wad of cash, decorated with a single pride pin.

    Logan kept staring into the water. What he was looking for, he didn’t know. Maybe a sign? But if it was a sign he was looking for, he found it.

    A flashing light reflected off the water below, and Logan looked up, startled. There was… something moving across the sky. Logan was no pilot or professional astronomer, but he knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t a plane or star. It looked like a bright disk, and it was getting closer. Logan stepped away from the railing- he didn’t want to have to explain himself if someone saw. 

    Suddenly the light came to a stop above him, and it began to descend, growing brighter. Logan shielded his eyes as the thing came down on the bridge. What was that thing? 

    He took a step back as the glowing faded, and Logan could make out what looked like to be some kind of- a spacecraft? 

    If Logan had been in his right mind (which he definitely was not, considering what he had been through in the past twenty four hours), he might have fished his phone out of his pocket and called someone, maybe the emergency services number, or at least started recording what was happening. But Logan was absolutely not in his right mind, so instead he just watched open-mouthed as the side of the ship began to open and a humanoid figure stepped out. 

    Well, Logan said humanoid, because he had no idea who- or what- he was actually looking at. There were four limbs and a head, he knew, but past that? 

    There were eight tentacle-like appendages sprouting for its- their? Back, each moving independently. Another figure stepped out of the craft with the same limb arrangement as the first figure- four limbs, a head, and tentacles. 

    They looked at each other and spoke in a language Logan had never heard before, and then looked around the bridge. 

    Logan shrunk back as the two creatures looked directly at him, and though it could have been his imagination, Logan swore the two of them let out a scream, though Logan heard mangled grunts. 

    Their shouts must have alerted whatever else was in that ship, as two more figures spilled out onto the roadway in front of Logan. 

    This time, it was Logan who screamed. 

    The tallest figure ran towards Logan, all six of its arms outstretched. 

    Wait- six? Logan didn’t have time to marvel at the biological diversity that had landed on earth before the shortest thing to come out of the ship said something in a croaking language, reminiscent of a frog, and the six-armed man-person-alien-thing skidded to a halt right in front of Logan and responded with a series of hisses, looking back and forth between Logan and the not-quite-humans still standing by the ship. 

    The shortest one began to move towards Logan, and it seemed like they not only had a language like a frog- they looked like one, too, albeit one that stood on two legs, wore clothing, and had glasses. The frog-person reached a webbed hand to grab Six-Arms and pull him back.

    But Logan was quicker, and grabbed Frog-Person (an easy task, despite Logan having never been athletic at all, considering Frog-Person weighed about as much as a regular earth frog. 

    Logan, still being in his not-right mind, did something that Right Minded Logan would have never even considered: he did something impulsive. 

    “Take me with you,” Logan said, his grip still around Frog-Person. He had no idea if Six-Arms or any of the Tentacle-Men could understand him, but Logan believed his point had gotten across the language barrier, as Frog-Person looked at Six-Arms who looked at Tentacles One and Two, who looked at each other and shrugged. 

    Six-Arms reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a metal device that looked similar to a hearing aid, and handed it to Logan. 

    He looked hesitantly at the device before putting Frog-Person down and sticking the thing in his ear. If he died, he died. 

    As the thing settled into his ear, it felt for a split second as if Logan had a bucket of water dumped over his head before the sensation faded, and he found he could now understand Six-Arms.

    “That was incredibly rude, you know,” Six-Arms said, frowning (did non-human things frown?). “Despite what I tell him, I actually enjoy having Patton around.”

    “You speak English?” Logan asked, suddenly not nearly as afraid as he had been. 

    “Yes, I took English immersion class in an earth school,” Six-Arms rolled his eyes, which Logan now noticed were two different colors with slit pupils. “No, this is a translator. It knows what language you speak, and then it translates mine into yours, so you can understand me.”

    “Oh. What is your language, then?” 

    “Your language, English you called it? Doesn’t have a word for it. So to you, it would sound like hissing.”

    Logan nodded. “My name is Logan, and I want to come with you.”

    “Right to the point? I’ll have to converse with my, ah, crew. Crew?” Six-Arms turned to look at the other aliens (that was what they were, right?) who, after a moment of looking at each other, shrugged and nodded. 

    “Alright!” Six-Arms clapped. “Welcome aboard the Silver Serpent!” Six-Arms put two of his arms on Logan’s back and led him to the ramp from the road to the ship’s doorway. “Everyone, this is Logan. Introduce yourselves.”

    The ones with tentacles- which now in the light, Logan could see they were green and red, and the red ones were more like elephant trunks- both waved (Logan noticed they had seven fingers on each hand). 

    “Roman,” the red one said.

    “That’s my brother. I’m Remus,” the green one smiled. 

    “Hello! I’m Patton,” Frog-Person held out a webbed hand for Logan to shake. 

    “Greetings, Patton. I, ah, apologize about earlier,” Logan said with a sheepish blush. 

“Oh, no worries! It was quite a sudden meeting!” Patton’s laugh sounded like the frog that had constantly croaked outside Logan’s window crossed with a warbling of a bird. An odd sound, but somehow pleasant. 

“And I am Janus, captain of the Silver Serpent.”

So Six-Arms had a name! Three of Janus’s hands helped Logan up the ramp, and it was only then that Logan realized that in addition to six arms, Janus had a long scaly tail the same color as the scales spread across his face. “I’ve never had a human on my crew, so I hope everything is sufficient for you. Though if you need more oxygen on the ship, just tell Virgil, he’ll fix it.”

“Virgil? Who’s that?” Logan asked, though as soon as he set foot on the ship he got his answer. At first glance, it seemed like a tall human sat in a chair at the front, though it became clear that instead of two human legs, there instead sprouted eight spider-like limbs from Virgil’s torso. 

“This is Virgil,” Janus said. “Virgil, have you met our newest crew member Logan?”

“Hi, Logan,” Virgil said, blinking all eight of his pitch black eyes.

“Hello,” Logan waved nervously. Virgil just gave a fanged grin in response and turned back around to whatever he was doing at the front of the ship. 

Logan looked around the ship in awe. The inside was much bigger than it looked, and Logan briefly wondered if Doctor Who technology had actually happened on different planets. The front of the ship where Virgil sat had eight large chairs facing the same direction out the window, and looking to his left, Logan could see what looked like living quarters. 

Janus led him down that way while Roman, Remus, and Patton went to sit with Virgil. 

“Do humans sleep? Is that a thing? If so, I hope what we have here is sufficient for you,” Janus opened a door with one of his hany hands and with another hand gestured around. It wasn’t large, but it definitely beat what Logan had in his too small apartment that likely did not come close to meeting OSHA standards. 

“Yes, humans sleep,” Logan found himself thinking about how other species got rest- or did they even need it? 

In the corner of the room there was furniture reminiscent of a bed and nightstand, though the ‘mattress’ was definitely not made of cotton, and the nightstand was yet another foregin material. The floor didn’t look or feel carpeted, but it was even softer than any rug Logan could buy.

“This is- this is perfect. Thank you, Janus.” Logan walked over to the bed and set his bag on the floor. 

Janus nodded, “I will let you rest and adjust. I believe there are very few humans in space. In fact, you might be one of the only ones. So get some sleep, and when you’re ready, the cafeteria is down the hall.”

Logan nodded and sat on the bed, almost sinking down into it. Whatever it was made of, it was the softest thing Logan had ever slept on. He fell almost immediately into a dreamless sleep, staying awake only long enough to place his glasses on the nightstand. 

When he woke, he found that he had gotten the most rest he had in awhile. Putting his glasses on and tiptoeing over to the door, Logan pressed an ear to the cold metal, listening for the others on the ship. They had seemed nice, but now that Logan was in space- actually in space!!- he wanted to stay alive to see as much as he could. Satisfied that there was no shouting or whatever other unpleasant noises aliens made, he opened the door and followed directions to where Janus had said the cafeteria would be. 

Sure enough, all five other crew mates sat at an oddly shaped table, eating… something.

It looked like a cross between oatmeal and toast, neither of which Logan found particularly appetizing (unless the toast had jelly on it, of course), yet the smell was somewhat nice. 

The aliens (should Logan keep referring to them as that? He was, after all, in space, so it was really him that was the alien, wasn’t it?) looked up from their meal and greeted him. 

“Logan! Hi!” Patton waved. 

“Logan. How did you sleep?” Janus stood.

“Very well, thank you,” Logan replied, now realizing that his hair must look like a mess and hastily trying to tame his bed head. 

“Here,” Janus handed Logan a bowl of the foodstuff with a spoon with his middle left arm, which Logan accepted hesitantly. “I know it doesn’t look great, but trust me. You’ll be fine. I don’t know what it will taste like to you, but I do know that it’s very nutritious.”

Logan furrowed his eyebrows as he sat down. “Alright,” Logan picked up the spoon and took a bite. 

Eyes widening, he realized that it tasted exactly like strawberry Crofter’s.

“Woah,” Logan looked at Janus. “What is this?”

Janus chuckled. “Would you like the simple version or the scientific one?”

“Scientific, please.” 

“Well, it’s a dehydrated compound of vegetation native to a planet in the Andromeda galaxy, specifically engineered to taste like whatever you find most pleasant, as well as being high in nutrients, which makes it ideal for long journeys.”

Logan nodded, taking another bite. “So...where is it, exactly, that we’re going?”

“Well!” Janus clapped all six of his hands together. “That’s what we were discussing. So, ah, Logan, I probably should have briefed you on this before we left your planet, but you see, we aren’t exactly the most, shall we say, legal group of travelers.”

“So- so you’re space criminals?”

“More or less,” Janus gestured. 

Logan thought for a minute. “Alright then.”

“Is that it? “Alright then?””

“Well, I will finally be fulfilling the popular slang saying of ‘be gay, do crime,’ so yes. Alright then. Although, I am curious. What are the laws in space? How do you break them? What are the punishments? What kind of crimes do you all commit? Tax fraud? Embezzlement? Murder? Or- does tax fraud even exist outside of earth? Are there even taxes in space?”

“Well, you seem very excited about the prospect of crime, which is a little surprising, but-”

Janus was cut off by Remus jumping up on the table and pointing to Logan. “I like this one!”

Patton, Roman, and Virgil nodded in agreement. 

“Well, Logan,” Patton grinned. “You know why we only steal donuts?”

“What?”

“Because the case is full of holes.”

“Oh my gosh,” Logan groaned. “I am genuinely asking what kind of crimes I’m getting into. Janus, what kind of crime?”

“Smuggling, mostly,” Janus put a hand up to stop another pun from Patton. “There are a bunch of laws about what you can have and how you can get it, so we tend to… shall we say, help people bypass paperwork.”

Logan nodded. “As long as there’s nothing on here that will kill me, I am absolutely for it. Governments are shit, quite honestly.”

The members of the Silver Serpent nodded in agreement as they finished their food. 

“I’ll give you the grand tour,” Janus stood up and offered a hand to Logan. 

Janus showed him the engine room, the navigation center, the sleeping quarters, and the medical bay, though any hidden doorways or false floors were carefully avoided. “A need to know basis,” Janus explained. 

It took a few days of being on the ship for Logan to really understand where he was. Space! With aliens!

One of his big fantasies as a child was going to the moon, but now? Now, he had not only seen the moon’s craters out the window, but he was also outside of his galaxy. He was away from earth, away from his parents, away from all the problems he had on earth of unemployment and poverty and homophobia and transphobia. 

But here on the ship? The only problems he had were the loud clacking of Virgil’s spider-y legs on the hard metal floor or the slime secreted off Remus’s tentacle appendages. These minor inconveniences were a huge step up from earth. 

[thelordofdarkreunion]

Magnificent Scoundrels: Welcome Aboard

I was going to write a second part of “The Team”, but it ended up being extremely long-winded and boring, so I decided on this instead.  Hope you like it.  

Despite his apparent oddness, it must be said that Drake didn’t waste any time.  Already, he had a job for the team, now called the Magnificent Scoundrels at his insistence.  They were to rendezvous around a planet on the outer edges of Drake’s home galaxy, where he would inform them the rest of the details.  For those who did not own their own starships, accommodations were provided by the members of the team who did.  Jack Cooper, who was introduced as the lone military-looking man at the back of the room, would be traveling with Drake, as Drake’s ship, called the Apocalypse, was the only one with enough room to transport Cooper’s Titan, a monstrous twenty foot tall piloted robot designed to crush anything it would possibly face.  The elaborate-uniformed man, as it turned out, was a commissar (Author’s note: Commissar definition- a political or morale officer) attached to an entire regiment of soldiers.  The only ship that was equipped to fit an entire military regiment inside was Adam Vir’s, and as such, Commissar Ciaphas Cain and the Valhallan 597th of the Imperial Guard were put aboard his ship, the Omen.  Master Chief was a singular person and thus did not require much room, and so Kirk volunteered to transport him aboard the Enterprise.  And so, it was now that welcomes were issued, people and supplies were loaded, and mooring lines were cast off, figuratively speaking.  

Aboard the Omen

Adam Vir sighed contentedly as he settled into his command chair.  It was good to be back on board his ship, and definitely good to get away from maniacal mercenaries and people who he wasn't sure were hallucinations or not.  Speaking of which, he glanced around his shoulder.  Commissar Cain and the commanding officer of the regiment, Colonel Kasteen, were standing ramrod straight, hands behind their backs, at the back area of the bridge, apparently wanting to see takeoff.  Cain’s elaborate uniform was drawing rushed glancines from the bridge crew, several who gawked at the newcomers before Vir snapped at them to get back at their stations.  Sighing again, this time in annoyance at his crew’s lack of social skills, he stood up, put on his best diplomatic smile, and walked towards the duo, arm outstretched.  

“Commissar Cain, Colonel Kasteen, I trust your soldiers have made themselves comfortable.”  Kasteen looked bewildered at the outstretched hand for a moment, then shook it and gave a rather sickly smile.  

“Er, yes they have, Admiral.”  Her grip noticeably weakened as Sunny, the ship’s eight foot tall four-armed Drev weapons officer brushed past.  “All the Guardsmen are secured for warp jump.”  Vir nodded appreciatively.

“Excellent.”  He then turned and shook Cain’s hand, which on second glance, had several cold metal prosthetic fingers.  Cain had a warm smile plastered on his face as he shook Adam’s hand.

“A pleasure meeting you, Admiral Vir.”  His smile grew larger, and Adam couldn’t help but smile back in genuine amusement.  

“And a pleasure meeting you, Commissar Cain.”  He turned back to the bridge crew.  “When are we ready to jump?” he asked.  

“Three minutes, sir, came the reply from his first mate.  

“Excellent,” he replied.  Kasteen cleared her throat behind him.

“Admiral, would you like the Guardsmen to their battle stations?” she asked.  Vir turned around in puzzlement.  

“Battle stations?  Why?”

“Well, some Imperial Captains like the Guardsmen and naval provosts at battle stations when in warp transition.”

“Uh, no.  Don’t bother.  Alright, all hands prepare for jump!”  Little did he know, but this was to be the first, and smallest, of many misunderstandings to come.  

Aboard the Apocalypse

Already, and astoundingly for someone who had never seen a Titan before, Drake and his crew had already stashed Jack Cooper’s Titan, BT-7274 into the cargo hold, and were preparing for takeoff.  Currently, Drake was leading Cooper through the labyrinth passages of the Apocalypse, headed towards the cabins closest to the bridge where Jack was to have his quarters, Cooper’s measured military stride contrasting remarkably to Drake’s confident swagger.  They passed through the well-lit uniformly grey hallways of the ship, and as they went, Drake flippantly introduced passing crew members.

“And, of course, there’s Maria, very handy with a knife, laughs like a chipmunk when excited.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true.”  Jack nodded at a disgruntled looking Maria as Drake continued his grand tour without pause.  

“There’s Ziwazzi, a Gunleron, who keeps pretending he’s tough, but he’s actually quote sweet; was kicked out of his planet’s premiere military school for stealing an actually astonishingly impressive amount of stuff.”

“Hey!  Captain!” replied an offending looking reptilian alien.

“Ziwazzi, you ought to know me by now,”  Drake turned to Cooper, “I am a firm believer that when meeting someone new, you should know their best and worst traits.  For instance, I am a rather nice person if you get to know me, have an excellent taste in fine arts, and donate a lot of the money I make to help orphans, but I am a shameless thief, a pyromaniac, and a massive playboy.  See?  Now you know everything you need to know about me.”  He spun on his heel dramatically and continued walking.  “If you ever need advice on fine arts or romance, I’m your guy.  Don’t hesitate to ask.”  They passed through more identical hallways and into the crew’s cabin section.  A door popped open and a woman stepped out from the cabin beyond, holding two dresses in her hands.

“Er, Captain, uh, I was wondering...well, you give good fashion advice-”

“Blue dress.  It highlights your eyes perfectly, is made of light synthetic silk with a cooling texture, so it will be more comfortable than the cotton one, and Jackson likes blue better, so it’ll be better for your date,” replied Drake without pause.  The woman turned bright red.

“How did you know that Jackson and I were-”

“Please.  I’m the Captain.  I know everything that happens on this ship.  I won’t tell anyone, though, unless it threatens security, everyone already knows, or you want me to.  Have a nice night.”  Cooper hurried to keep up as Drake started down the hallway again.  They reached another section of the ship before Drake stopped abruptly, almost making Cooper bump into him.  “And here, finally, is your cabin,” Drake gestured with a dramatic flourish.  “Pleasant dreams, try not to die.”  And, just as quickly as he had led Jack there, Drake vanished.  

Aboard the Enterprise 

John-117, more commonly referred to as “Master Chief”, was currently sitting in his new quarters aboard Captain Kirk’s ship, the Enterprise.  His helmet was on, of course, and a data pad, which the crew had called a “first contact package”, was in his armored hands.  It contained all the information regarding the species and governments within Kirk’s home galaxy.  Master Chief had found Kirk and the entire crew to be most agreeable.  They were all friendly, helpful, and normal, especially compared to the oddly uniformed commissar and the slightly looney Drake.  It was refreshing, really.  He hoped that this group, which he had been ordered to join to gain a better picture of the new galaxies, wouldn’t take up too much of his time.  It was, in the end, his job to prevent the collection of hostile aliens known as the Covenant from overwhelming humanity.  But such thoughts could wait.  He busied himself in the pad, learning as much as possible about his new reality.   

One Week Later

Aboard the Enterprise

It had been probably the best space voyage that Master Chief had ever experienced, although that wasn't saying much.  Most of the time, if he was in space, he was killing Covenant or on his way to kill Covenant.  But this...this was positively relaxing.  He had little to do, as the crew kept the ship running smoothly.  He spent most of his time reading up on the history of the various new galaxies that had appeared seemingly overnight next to his own.  The first contact package from Kirk was exhausted, and now he was perusing through an absolutely massive information report compiled by Drake.  Curiously enough, many of the files there were from official government sources and marked “classified”, several of which he recognized as top secret from his home universe.  He did wonder where Drake had gotten his hands on those.  Or perhaps, it was better not to know.  Speaking of which, he started to consider:  how was everyone else on the different ships of this makeshift fleet doing?

Aboard the Apocalypse

Jack Cooper stared, shell-shocked, at the wall of his cabin.  The past week had been probably, no, scratch that, most definitely, the most bizarre he’d ever witnessed.  The strangeness of it all was such that he had been like this, staring at a slate grey wall, contemplating life, for the past five hours.  Inevitably, the weirdness of the voyage all boiled down to one individual: Thomas Drake.  The man was, to put it exceptionally mildly, eccentric.  It had started on the tour, and only gotten worse on the first day of the tour; Drake had given Cooper free reign of the ship, and thus, like any other over curious human would, he had decided to unobtrusively explore, starting, of course, with the bridge.  It unfortunately coincided with Drake’s arrival to the command deck of said bridge, which was herald by several disco balls dropping from the ceiling, the playing of an altogether too cheerful tune for the time of the morning, and Drake himself disco-dancing his way through the bridge.  And, while Drake was actually quite a good dancer, it was much too strange for Jack.  Regrettably enough, though, it turned out that this was Drake’s morning routine.  A song, completely random, was chosen, and Drake would enter the bridge every morning with his characteristic dramatic flourish.  The second day Drake was to enter the bridge to a military march, his hands clasped behind his back, while he waved to a non-existent crowd as if he was in a parade, much to the delight of the bridge crew and the bemusement of Cooper.  The day after that he quite literally waltzed into the bridge to the symphonic melodies of some classical song that Jack was sure he had heard before, but could not put a finger on.  Drake had sat in his command chair and grinned at Cooper.

“Like it?” he asked.

“Uh, yeah.  Your dancing is..quite impressive.”  Drake gave a strange, wheezing laugh at this.

“My dancing is quite impressive, yet my habits are quite strange.  Yes, yes, don’t be surprised,” he dismissed Jack’s glance and him with a wave, “I can see it in your eyes.  You’ve never seen anyone do this before.  ‘Why?’  I’m sure you’re wondering,”  Drake leaned forward on his chair, “The answer is quite simple.  Because I can.”  Cooper was about to interject, wanting to ask a question along the lines of “But why though”, before the ship itself was wracked by a massive force, causing several panels above the crew’s control stations to spew sparks.  

“What the hell was that?” asked Cooper.  Drake leaned back in his chair, unconcerned, and waved a hand dismissively.

“Something exploded.  It’s probably fine.”

“Probably?  What do you mean probably?  And shouldn’t that not happen, though?  I mean, I’m not an expert on spaceships, but isn’t stuff blowing up on your ship not a good thing?”  Drake shrugged.

“Eh, it’s fine.  If it were really a problem, the alarms would go off.”  As if on cue, the ship's alarm system started flashing red and emitting an ear-piercing shriek.  “Alriiight, now it’s a problem,” Drake said with a sigh.  “And I was just getting comfortable.”  He grabbed some sort of portable communication device and walked briskly for the door.  “Richter, what the hell happened?”

“Try and guess,” came the voice on the other end.

“Muelka?” asked Drake as he and Cooper half jogged through the hallways to the wails of the alarm.

“Yep.”

“I should have known,” replied Drake with a sigh.  They traveled through several more decks of the ship, going at an uncomfortable half-walk, half-jog, and finally reached an open area in one of the lower decks where several crew members were hosing down tiny fires with foam suppressant.  The area held quite a lot of what appeared to be chemistry equipment, and what looked like but Jack fervently hoped were not bombs.  One of the countertops, identical to several others throughout the room, was a scorched mess, with blasted and melted shards of glass scattering the floor around it.  And, in the middle of all the chaos stood a sheepish-looking woman with frazzled hair wearing some sort of protective apron, and an average-looking brown haired man with a scar across his forehead, who was currently busy staring at the destruction around him.  

“Right.  What the hell happened?” asked Drake briskly.  The man answered.

“Muelka was mixing chemicals, again, and they exploded, again, and the resulting shockwave loosened some wires and set off the alarm system.”

“Sorry, Captain,” the woman muttered.  Drake rubbed his forehead.

“Muelka, while I do love your work, you need to take better safety precautions.  You’re on censure, again, until I come up with something else.”

And, while it was gratifying to Jack that Drake did have control of his crew, his rather flippant attitude was something he was slightly concerned about.  But, the main point was Drake's overwhelming oddness.  At lunch, just the other day, Cooper had the misfortune to be at the mess hall at the same time as Drake.  Due to the nature of the Apocalypse being a mercenary ship and having many different alien species on board, the food served at the mess was much more numerous and varied in nature than any military ship.  However, Drake was simply not eating a typical meal, or for that matter, any form of unrecognizable food.  Instead, he had a plastic container filled with cheese spread, the type one usually puts on crackers.  However, Drake was not most people, and so he was eating the cheese spread plain.  By itself.  With a spoon.  Wonderful.  The worst part was that Drake then proceeded to get a bottle of aerosol cheese and spray that on top of his other cheese, creating some sort of cheese soup.  Honestly, Jack found Thomas Drake more concerning than the aliens, which was a feat considering that aliens did not exist in his home galaxy, and these were the first he’d ever met.  He sighed to himself.  This was going to be a long ride.

Aboard the Omen

Admiral Adam Vir sighed and tiredly rubbed his forehead.  The last week had been extremely taxing, even more so than the time where he was forced to bring a civilian tour group on board the ship.  Hell, it was probably worse than the first time he met aliens, which involved miscommunications, lots of treats, and eventually him rolling over like a dog.  It was complicated.  But back to the matter at hand.  The last three days (or was it?  He seemed to be losing count) were filled with nothing but tension and problems.  The first, and least concerning, was that all the alcohol on board the ship seemed to be mysteriously vanishing.  

Even the drinks smuggled in by the marines that he conveniently (for them) overlooked were somehow gone, spirited away from their hiding places by an invisible force.  But, by far worse, was the hostility between the Valhallan soldiers and the crew of the Omen.  The Imperial Guardsmen were intensely xenophobic and openly belligerent to all aliens on board the ship, so much so that that many members of the non-aggressive races would flee at the sight or sound of an Imperial infantryman.  It also very much did not help that said infantry always seemed to travel in packs, which just seemed to escalate the tensions.  

The third problem was that the human members of the crew were not immune to this either.  The Imperials seemed to regard them as traitors of sorts, and whenever human crewmembers walked by, Valhallan mutterings of “heretic” or “Gue’vesa” could often be heard.  The only ones the regular Imperial rank and file respected were himself, as he was the captain, and the engineers.  A group of Guardsmen had gone to the engineering department, predictably sneering at anyone who crossed their path, only to be put in their place by the furious head of the engineering department, Nairobi.   Ever since that particular incident, any members of the engineering crew were either avoided by the guardsmen or were given grudging, but respectful, nods.  Adam had originally thought the Imperials might get along well with the Marines, seeing as they both shared the bond of being human combat soldiers, and so had organized a joint training exercise for both groups.  It had gone...well...horribly.  The Marines loathed the Imperials for treating the other crew members so poorly, and the Imperials despised the Marines for harboring and living alongside aliens.  Both groups were now furiously competing to see which was better.  Drinking contests, arm wrestling, combat training, weapon skills, you name it, there was an extremely nasty competition going on between the two rival groups of soldiers.  There were several fights, most notably between Maverick, the Marines chaplain, and Magot, a Corporal in the Guard.  That particular fight had seen the spectators get involved, and two Omen crew members, one Marine, and three Valhallans were sent to the infirmary with critical injuries, several of which might have been life threatening if not for the ship’s two excellent doctors.  The only reason that no one had died immediately in that fight was because Ciaphas Cain had interfered, attempting to pull people off one another, and, when that didn’t work, firing his pistol into the ceiling, which resulted in an immediate secession of hostilities.  Adam didn’t care much about the damage done to the mess hall ceiling, which could be repaired, but he was very much fed up with the entire situation.  In fact, come to think of it, the only thing that prevented the two sides from outright trying to kill each other was the fact the Valhallans had enough respect for Cain and the two battalion commanders, Kasteen and Broklaw, to obey them no matter what, and that the Marines had enough respect for him even though the Imperials were threatening their crewmates.  Speaking of Cain, Adam really did wish he would come out of his office more.  At the beginning of the voyage, Adam had given Cain a personal quarters, which had been promptly transformed into a combination living quarters and Commissar’s office.  The problem was that Cain always seemed to be holed up inside, and to get inside, one had to cross Jurgen, the Commissar’s malodorous aide.  Jugen was always extremely polite and to the point, traits to be commended, but his personal hygiene was terrible, and many would rather just skip seeing the Commissar rather than wait near him.  To Adam, though, there seemed to be something fundamentally wrong about Jurgen, although what he couldn’t really lay a finger on.  Jurgen did have terrible body odor and rather bad psoriasis, but that didn’t seem to be the problem.  The problem was that whenever Adam got close to Jurgen, an odd, creeping, chilling sensation would occur.  There was nothing specific about Jurgen that made Adam feel this way, and that was probably the most creepy thing about it.  But, for whatever reason it was, Cain’s callers never wanted to stay around long enough near Juren to actually get into his office.  The only two people allowed to go straight inside were Adam and his first lieutenant, Simone, but they were so busy running the ship and trying to prevent the Marines from murdering the Valhallans in their sleep that they rarely got the opportunity.  But, in the end, he felt as if he had no choice but to meet with Cain to sort out this problem.  And so, he and Simone walked through the decks of the Omen, the aliens skittering in front of them until they realized they were no Imperials, until they reached the lower decks and the quarters of Ciaphas Cain.

Cain looked up from his paperwork as Jurgen ushered Vir and Simone in.  Truth be told, he wasn’t really doing any paperwork, but appearances had to be maintained.  They were, inevitably, here to talk about the mess hall fight and the general situation.  Well, they didn’t really need to know that instead of heroically trying to pull people apart, he had been stuck in the middle and was trying to pull people off of him.  But they didn’t need to know that.  He was forging a reputation with these new people, and it wouldn’t do to seem cowardly.  And, of course, it wouldn’t do to insult the aliens, possibly treacherous xenos that they were, as, if he did, he would probably get shot in the back by one.  And, above all else, Ciaphas Cain wanted to not die.  

The Admiral and his first mate sat at the two chairs across his desk, ones that had been provided by themselves.  

“Admiral.  Lieutenant.  A pleasure to see you.  What brings you here today?”  He knew, obviously, but pleasantries had to be observed.  

  “Why we’re here is because your troops are way out of line!  It is completely unacceptable and against regulations to insult someone based upon species.  You-”

“Simone-” said Vir in a warning tone.

“That’s perfectly alright,” responded Cain, who flashed a smile that would have charmed a fish out of water.  “I believe, after reading all the reports,” which was a lie, but they didn’t need to know that he was pulling all of this out of his ass, “that what we have there is a failure to communicate.  I’m sure you’d understand, Admiral Vir, as your reputation for dealing with aliens and different cultures is legendary.”  Well, he did know that Adam Vir was the first to make contact with non-humans, and was quite good at dealing with them.  And, of course, flattery never hurt.  “You see, where I come from, every single alien race believes it is their divine right to rule the galaxy, and will try to kill you on sight.  Consequently, it is a part of our society to kill any alien on sight, before they kill you.”  Simone and Adam looked stunned.  

“Every...every race wishes to...eradicate you?”  

“Yes,”  replied Cain.  “That’s why we have the imperial guard.  Of course, I am but a humble Commissar.  It’s the soldiers who do the real heavy lifting.”  Modest hero; a strategy that most people fell for, and these two seemed to be no different.

“That’s disturbing.”  

“Well, we seemed to have misjudged you, but we still have a problem,” said Vir.  “How do we prevent our respective soldiers from killing each other?”

“Well-”

“I-I have an idea,” said Simone.  Both Vir and Cain looked at her with surprise.  “I can captain the ship, and you two can switch places.  You’re both good leaders, and if you can explain to each other’s soldiers why we should not fight, then we have a chance.”

“That’s actually a very good idea,” responded Vir.

“I concur,” replied Cain.  No, I most bloody well do not concur with that frakkin’ idea.  I would prefer my head un-squished by ten-foot tall four-armed aliens, thank you very much.  But, it’s the only way that we have a chance at not ending this voyage with people dead.

“So, it’s settled, then.  You are in command of the ship, Simone.  I will take control-”

“Er, my apologies, Admiral, but I believe you misunderstand,” said Cain smoothly.  “I am not the commander of the regiment.  I am merely an adviser and moral officer, although I do hold some sway.  So, before we switch places, Admiral, what should I know about the...Drev and Marines?”  

“Well...uh, the Marines are typical human soldiers, I guess.  The Drev are a warrior culture who place a high emphasis on personal combat.  Otherwise, they’re not that different from us.  And your troops?”

“Valhalla is an ice world, and thus soldiers from that planet are very comfortable in cold temperatures.  I should also inform you, that you are now acting Commissar.  You are in charge of discipline, morale, and combat effectiveness of the regiment.  You reserve the right to take any necessary steps to restore order, including summary execution.  You have the full authority of the Commissariat until otherwise dismissed by me.  The Emperor Protects,” recited Cain, as if he was quoting something.

“Alright.  Wait, you have the authority to execute your soldiers?”

“Yes.  Although, only a foolish Commissar will do so unless absolutely necessary.”

“Uh, that’s...alarming, to say the least.  Anyway, let’s get to it, before more people get hurt.”

That’s that.  If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, or concerns, feel free to ask.  

[concussed-to-pieces]

The Mettle Of A Man; Part Ten

Fandom: Fallout (4)

Pairing: Eventual Paladin Danse/Female Sole Survivor

Rating: Holy shit M.

AN: Enjoy!

Part One: ArcJet

Part Two: The Prydwen

Part Three: Orders

Part Four: Finding Brandis

Part Five: Weston Water And Oberland

Part Six: Meeting Preston And Matthew

Part Seven: Radstag And Radstorm

Part Eight: The Return To Sanctuary Hills

Part Nine: Domestic Ruminations

[!TRIGGER WARNING!: This installment contains mentions of dubious medical procedures. Stay safe!]

Saying that she was in over her head would imply that, at some juncture, she had not been. Backhand couldn't recall a time when she hadn't been struggling to reach the damn surface. 

  There was so much. An entire underground compound, sprawling and winding like a rabbit warren, filled with synths and the scientists who seemed to style themselves as their betters. 

  Shaun had been the worst part about it all, if she was honest. The knowledge that it hadn't been ten years she had lost, but sixty ...and the now-elderly Shaun's bemusement at her emotional response to the child synth he had been leading her across the Commonwealth with was like a slap in the face. 

  The fact that he had the gall to suggest that she should take over the Institute once he had passed on was infuriating in its own right. Vega wanted nothing to do with any of this. She obliged him to the bare minimum. He wouldn't permit her to leave until she fully took in ' the wonders of the Institute ', everything that 'he' had built, so it was with a reluctant heart that Backhand agreed to think about the choice.

  She didn't hate the Institute. It was odd to realize that, but at the end of the day what she truly hated was the way Shaun had continued to hoard all of the advancements they had made. The lives that could have been saved, the differences he could have made in the Commonwealth-!

  Time passed strangely away from the reign of celestial bodies, simply separated into 'work cycles'. 

  Vega apparently spent the entirety of her first work cycle after arrival watching synths be created, the woman observing perfect bodies emerging disoriented from their vat of red liquid. The scientists overseeing the operation, after briefly introducing themselves, all but ignored her. For that she was grateful, because the process was equal parts fascinating and horrifying in its minutiae. 

  "Hello." One newly-formed synth said, sounding dazed when they addressed her. "I'm...new here?"

  She wanted to cry at how confused the synth looked, she wanted to cry because she knew the life they would have down here. She didn't even have the chance to offer them a word of encouragement before they were spirited away to be properly calibrated.

  Shaun came across her in the Robotics lab, her arms wrapped around her knees as she just... stared . "Ah, Mother. You will tax yourself mentally if you keep this up." Her son, who was now older than her by over forty years, scolded her in that insincere, saccharine manner. Backhand was reminded of Nate every time she heard Shaun speak. Even though he couldn't possibly have any memories of his father, his patronizing tone reeked of the casual superiority Nate had displayed in and out of the courtroom. "I have brought one of our coursers to escort you back to your room, Mother. If you would please cooperate with him."

  "Hello ma'am." The courser intoned as she looked up. "I am X6-88. It is an honor to meet the woman who helped to create Father." He was tall and dark-skinned with narrow shoulders, his body wholly sheathed in the courser uniform to mask whatever bulk he might have. He wore mirrored sunglasses, even down here. 

  Backhand thought of the courser she had to kill to tear the chip out of it and her heart dropped. X6 must know about the courser. What if they had been friends? She hesitated on that thought. Were the synths down here even permitted to form those sorts of attachments? Curie, Sturges and Nick were her only real exposure to non-hostile synths, and all of them had their own personalities, likes and dislikes. Well, Sturges wasn't entirely certain as to whether he was a synth or not, but he believed he was and that was good enough for Vega. Did synths who were still under Institute programming actually have the capacity to create those bonds with one another?

  "X6-88 is one of our finest coursers. Due to your combat history and... affinity for getting into scuffles, I assumed being in the presence of another combat-minded individual would help to put you at ease." Shaun's shrug was almost uncouth , as if he didn't particularly believe the words coming out of his own mouth. Backhand knew that the real reason he was giving a courser babysitter duty was because he didn't trust her not to meddle where she shouldn't. "The majority of the Institute is dedicated to much more lofty goals than synth retention, but why wear out the wrench with a job the hammer can perform?"

  Backhand slowly got to her feet. "Very kind of you to think of my needs." She remarked, praying her voice wasn't too flat. She had yet to get used to how Shaun spoke to the synths. Or rather, how he spoke around them. Despite his insistence that they call him Father, the elderly man treated them like objects. Tools , or furniture items. These were living, breathing, thinking beings, reduced down to nothing more than careless analogies of hammer, wrench and screwdriver. It was heartbreaking. 

  Shaun simply inclined his head, the smile on his face more of a simper. "X6, I expect you to treat my mother with the utmost courtesy. She is, after all, the future of the Institute. During the work cycles following her rest, please escort her around the facility." 

  "Of course, Father." X6 replied immediately, his face and tone entirely devoid of emotion. "If you'll follow me, ma'am."

  Backhand obediently followed X6 back out of the manufacturing laboratory, quickening her steps so she could keep up with the courser. He seemed to realize his legs were longer than hers a split second before she drew up alongside him, the synth slowing abruptly. Backhand ended up in front of him by half a step, chuckling a little as she paused and then fell in beside him.

  "Sorry, my fault." She apologized. 

  X6-88 was silent for a moment, and then muttered, "that is foolish, ma'am. Why would you be sorry about something you have no control over?" Backhand hummed, trying to think of a way to explain. X6 quickly tacked on, "not that I'm questioning you, ma'am. I know questions are unwelcome."

  Vega tilted her head, giving the man a confused look. "Unwelcome?"

  "Father has instructed us not to ask questions. He says they will disrupt you settling in." The courser answered bluntly. 

  Backhand laughed, but the noise had no humor. "I've been disrupted for months , X6-88. You can ask me whatever you like."

  "How did you do it?" X6-88 whirled on her, his tone and posture suddenly hostile. "Z2-47 was incredibly skilled. Deadly. Effective. And yet you killed him."

  Backhand nodded slowly, and she heard X6's gloves squeak with how hard he clenched his fists. 

  " How ." The courser demanded.

  "I...I don't know if I'll be able to explain it in a way you can understand." Backhand replied quietly. "Was Z2 one of your friends?"

  "I-!" X6 jerked to a halt, seeming to realize that he had raised his voice. "My apologies if I have given you the wrong impression, ma'am. I merely sought to...find the weakness you must have exploited." He practically growled through his teeth, "I meant no offense."

  "No no, you didn't offend me at all." Vega said sincerely, nearly putting her hand on his arm in a comforting manner before she reined herself in. "It's just not a conversation I would want other people to hear. Um, is my room…?"

  "We only have a short ways to go. You will explain it to me there?" X6-88 asked curtly.

  "I'll do my level best." The longest seconds in the history of man slipped by as the courser studied her from behind those sunglasses. "It's not that I doubt your intelligence or anything, I'd be an idiot to doubt your intelligence." Vega tried to elaborate after the silence grew uncomfortable. "I just don't know if I'll be able to...get the story to make sense."

  "You are allowed to do as you please, ma'am." X6 said, his voice back to that monotone. 

  Backhand shook her head ruefully. "Never mind. C'mon, before somebody gets uptight that you're looming over me."

  The courser took a hearty step back at that, his brow furrowing. "It was not my intention to make you uncomfortable, ma'am." 

  "X6, I was in the army. You're going to have to do a lot more than that to make me uncomfortable. I'm more concerned about what someone might do to you . You know, if they think you're trying to threaten me."

  X6-88 was silent for the remainder of the walk to her quarters, which turned out to be just as sterile as everywhere else. Backhand felt extremely awkward, afraid that she would get dirt on the pristine white furniture.

  She settled gingerly into one of the chairs, gesturing to indicate that X6 should sit as well. He did so after a moment, perched on the very edge of the chair and leaning towards her. 

  Vega clasped her hands in her lap. "X6, has there ever been anyone in your life that you wanted to protect?"

  The courser responded without hesitation. "G5-19." Backhand squinted, trying to figure out why she knew that particular--oh. Oh . But X6 wasn't done. "They were efficient at performing their tasks. Helpful. Useful. An asset to the Institute." He tilted his head at her. "And weak. Poor at combat."

  "You would have done anything to keep them safe?"

  "I did everything that I could." X6-88 said sharply. "I was ineffective in the end, however."

  "Take that feeling and multiply it tenfold, and that's how I felt about Shaun. I knew that I would do everything I could to get my child back. Even if it meant I would have to take down an Institute murder machine." Backhand explained. "There was nothing to exploit, I promise. Just a sad mom's desperation to find her son. Z2-47 gave as good as he got." 

  "I find it very difficult to believe that you employed no underhanded tactics." X6 remarked. "G5 was taken via the use of a pulse grenade, so I assume you must have used something similar."

  "A pulse grenade?" Backhand asked incredulously. "Who the hell were you fighting? "

  "It was a group of raiders that found one of our salvage teams. I was away on another assignment, so I was not physically present." X6's hands gripped down on his thighs. "Had I been there, I assure you things would have played out differently." He muttered.

  "Oh no." Backhand felt a rush of sorrow, and then felt ridiculous. Untold hours ago, she had been standing in Sanctuary Hills, certain that the relay would do absolutely nothing and she would be back to square one. And yet here she was, inside the Institute, listening to a courser talking about losing someone. 

  "I am under the impression that the raiders must have tortured and killed her. Even if she did not die immediately, there is no possibility that someone as weak as her survived on the surface for very long." If Backhand didn't know better, she would have sworn that he sounded grieved. "I asked to be spinally recalibrated and have her memory removed from my processes but my request was denied."

  "Why would you want to-"

  "G5-19 is a distraction." X6-88 growled. "As a courser, I am not permitted distractions."

  "But they denied your request." Backhand repeated.

  "Correct, ma'am."

  "I don't understand why they would say you can't have distractions but then also refuse to remove them." The woman mused, resting her chin in her hand as she thought. "What's the spinal calibration process like?"

  "All synthetic cerebrospinal fluid is drained from the body, wiped of signature and then reinserted via a series of lumbar, thoracic and cervical injections." X6-88 elaborated curtly. "Posture is also corrected during the procedure, as the vertebrae must be properly aligned in order for the fluid to redistribute as intended."

  Vega got a little queasy at his description. "I'm going to assume this isn't a painless undertaking?"

  "It is extremely painful." X6's tone was flat, giving no indication of his feelings on the matter. 

  "But you would have gone through that, just to-"

  "I am an effective instrument of the Institute. If I remove distractions, I am even more effective." X6 interrupted her. "G5-19's memory does not make me more effective. Therefore it is useless to cling to it. I made the mistake of mentioning how distracting I found their memory, and Dr. Ayo wished to study the effects over a period of time. So my request was denied." The leather of his uniform made a soft noise as he shifted in the seat. "I do not prefer one over the other, but if I am not as sharp as possible, there is always an enemy willing to exploit that crack in my armor."

  Vega extended a hand and the courser stared down at it blankly. "May I?" The young woman asked, deliberately keeping her voice even and soft. X6 glanced at her over the tops of those impregnable sunglasses and Backhand was startled to see that his eyes were in fact a light, steely gray.

  "Why?" The synth queried.

  "I'm a tactile person. A lot of times I feel like it's easier to make my point if I'm connected to the person I'm speaking with."

  "I am a tactile learner as well," was all he said in reply. X6-88 didn't move, warily watching her. 

  Backhand relented after a moment, clasping her hands in her lap once more. "I just want you to know that sometimes memories aren't a bad thing, or a distraction. Like with me. Memories were all I had to get me here." She explained pragmatically. "They were my sole, driving force. I was going to get my baby back."

  "Now that you're here, and you can see all the wonders of the Institute firsthand, was it worth it?" X6-88 asked sharply. "Or would it have been better if you woke up without recollection, just another nameless Vault dweller? Can you honestly say you're better off having been reunited with your son?" He challenged her, " especially since you were under the impression that he was still a child via the ruse facilitated by Kellogg and S9-23?"

  Backhand, reeling from the courser's impromptu interrogation, nearly missed the flicker of confusion that twisted his features. She tried to formulate a response, wondering all the while why he was so bent out of shape over her being tricked.

  "I...I meant no offense, ma'am." He said slowly before she could reply. "I am not supposed to ask questions. Why would I ask so many?" He seemed troubled, muttering about needing a full calibration as, " this is getting out of hand ."

  "Look," Backhand said finally, corralling her thoughts into some semblance of order. "I can admit that I don't have all the answers. Despite what every human down here says, we're not actually all-knowing beings. But if you have questions, questions that other people can't or won't answer, I can always take a crack at 'em." She offered.

  "Ma'am, are you implying that our brilliant minds may be keeping information from me?" X6-88 said, a slight uptick in his tone indicating his incredulity.

  Vega held up her hands in an attempt to appease the courser. "Whoa whoa, I'm not saying anything like that. I'm just saying that if you feel like you're not getting the full story, you can ask me. After all, I'm a wellspring of firsthand pre-war knowledge." Her smile turned wry as she recalled Danse's words to her. "A relic, if you will."

  …

  X6-88's first question opened as a statement, oddly enough. "You do not like it down here." The courser observed as he watched her. 

  He had been like a dubiously-benevolent shadow throughout her stay, the work cycles ticking away as she soaked up the Institute's fluorescent ambiance like a sponge. "You're right." Backhand replied. No use denying it . "I don't."

  "Why not?" 

  She leaned silently on the railing overlooking the atrium for several long minutes. "I don't feel like I deserve it, I guess." She admitted softly. "I'm not made for a place like this. Hell, I didn't even feel like I deserved my spot in the Vault. Only reason I went was because of Shaun."

  "You would have died were it not for the obligation you felt towards your offspring?"

  "Well, when you put it like that …" Backhand chuckled sadly. "In a way, yes."

  "Explain."

  "I'm not a good person, X6. Back in the war, I...there's stuff I'm not proud of. I let people goad me into doing things that were out of character for me." She tried to keep it simple, a little less messy than her piecemeal recollections. "I didn't deserve to have a baby. I didn't deserve to have that second chance, that life outside the military." She stared off into space, her eyes unfocused. "I had no one else to love, so I poured all of the affection I had into caring for Shaun. I didn't have a lot after the divorce, but we had a house and food."

  "Divorce?" X6-88 sounded curious. "What were you divorced from?"

  "My husband. Shaun's father."

  "Oh, Progenitor Nathan." X6 mused. "Father has no memory of him."

  "He wouldn't. Nate wanted nothing to do with him." Vega murmured. 

  "I cannot fault him. Infants are highly unsettling." The courser said bluntly, making Backhand burst out laughing. "Ma'am, please attempt to control yourself." 

  "Of course, of course. I'm sorry, X6. I just...the way that you said it, and you being what you are, I couldn't keep my composure." The woman wheezed, grinning up at him. 

  "I'm afraid I don't understand your amusement, ma'am."

  "Well you're this deadly killing machine and yet something so innocent is something you find unnerving." 

  "I am...unused to their noise." X6-88 explained. "They are shrill. Their hunger cries are akin to torture."

  " Oh ." Backhand didn't bother trying to hide her smile. "I guess that would be a problem for you. Back before the war, there were kids everywhere . More chances for people to uh, get used to their racket."

  "That sounds like a nightmare." 

  " Everything about pre-war sounds like a nightmare to you." Backhand retorted petulantly.

  "You are correct, ma'am." X6-88's mouth curved up ever so slightly at the left corner. If she hadn't been watching, she would have missed it. "Children and heights are loathsome to me and from what I learned via browsing archival data, the pre-war world was rife with tall buildings and wailing infants." He cocked his head to look at Backhand over his sunglasses, his expression downright human . "Mankind's ivory towers and dreams of the future did them very little good."

  Backhand suddenly took note of the death grip the courser had on the railing of the balcony. 

  "G5-19 enjoyed children. She was very weak." X6 remarked reluctantly, like the words were being dragged out of him. "I still don't know what she was doing on surface detail. She had never expressed any interest in the surface. She was a simple maintenance synth."

  "I notice that you refer to her as 'she'. The rest of the coursers just call the other synths 'unit'." Backhand pointed out.

  "Another fault of the memories I am plagued by. Speech processor issues. I assign gender due to some form of...error in how I perceived her." X6 shrugged. "Doctor Ayo does not believe it is detrimental for the time being." 

  "Do you think it's because she was a real person to you?" Yikes, too direct , Backhand realized as X6-88 stiffened up. "I mean, because you got to know her. She obviously had some kind of personality that left an impression on you." She tried to amend. The courser was already in turmoil over the memories he didn't want to keep, it wasn't her place to pry.

  "She was weak." X6 seemed to default to that as a descriptor for his... friend , his brow furrowed. Backhand resigned herself to that being the end of the conversation, and then, "she was weak like you are, ma'am."

  "Like me?" The woman asked, surprised. "I don't think I understand."

  X6-88 nodded, his stony expression far from encouraging. "She wanted to help, even if it was detrimental to her. Constantly working. Truthfully, her disregard for the work cycles was what put us in touch in the first place. I was sent to find her when several jobs turned up as incomplete and I located her in a supply closet, fast asleep." He sighed heavily. "I was supposed to reprimand her and send her for recalibration. I still don't understand why I didn't. I even lied and said that I did." 

  The honesty of his admission was unsurprising to Vega; all the synths in the Institute seemed to have very few qualms about telling the truth. She imagined that must be part of their programming, so the scientists could maintain their grip on the synths that vastly outnumbered them.

  "She asked to be transferred from Facilities to Bioscience. She wanted to help, even after her request was denied. She spent all of her free time in Bioscience." His gloves squeaked on the metal bannister. "Then one day I came back from an assignment and she was...gone." He actually sounded pained now, the most emotion she had heard out of him yet. "It was a break in my routine and I do not cope well with such interruptions."

  Translation: I'm sad and I'm not allowed to be , Backhand theorized privately.

  "I would greatly appreciate it if you would not do the same." The courser said abruptly, turning to face her. "Take care of yourself, ma'am. You are, after all, the future of the Institute."

  "X6-"

  "I am being given a new assignment in the following work cycle and will no longer be responsible for you. So I will reiterate my suggestion to you." He said sternly. "Take care of yourself."

  Backhand didn't have the heart to tell the synth that a suggestion and an order were two different things. "Alright." She replied. "I'll do my best, if you promise to do the same. And I...I hope that someday you'll find that friend of yours."

  "Doubtful. But I appreciate the sentiment, ma'am." X6 inclined his head, and then departed. 

  …

  With X6 out in the field, Vega felt like she could finally get down to business. She had a veritable laundry list of to-dos, and she had no idea how long she had even been down here for. 

  There was sneaking into the old branch of Bioscience for the serum to cure Virgil. It was surprisingly simple despite the security measures, to the point where Backhand was almost suspicious .

  Then there was the holotape Sturges had given her to scan the Institute network, easily managed. " I'll be makin' copies of it. I imagine my boy Johnny D. will be mighty interested in what the suits have been up to, and then of course one for your friends in the Brotherhood ." He had informed her right before she had relayed, pressing the tape into her hands. 

  Next there was a bit of a...pet project. X6 had mentioned that his friend (alive and well, unbeknownst to him, functioning as Curie's new body) had expressed no real interest in the surface to the courser, and yet had somehow ended up on a salvage patrol. That sounded like a scheme. A well-meaning scheme. It was possible that there was a scientist sympathetic to the plight of the more self-aware synths.

  Her gentle inquiries put her back in touch with a scientist by the name of Doctor Alan Binet, whom she had met during the first work cycle she spent in the Institute. He worked in Robotics, supervising the creation of synths from the ground up.

  He was delighted to exposit upon his theories of synth cognitive capabilities. The good doctor had apparently witnessed synths experiencing REM sleep, and that fueled him to study their behavior even closer than before. Because if they could dream, why couldn't they have a soul as well?

  But strangely, he seemed adamant in the stance that he would never release the synths to the surface, stating that it was a living hellscape. Backhand couldn't exactly refute his claims either.

  Vega left Robotics stumped and defeated. If not the man who was performing social experiments with the synths, then who?

  She left it alone for the time being, moving on to her last, arguably most important objective. 

  Convincing one Doctor Madison Li to take up her Brotherhood mantle once more.

Part Eleven

[finallyaniguana]

Watch The Eyes: a tour of revelation [12]

[11]    masterpost     ao3     [13]

Dick was looking at his watch at quarter past eight, standing outside of the classes hotel. The bus was due to leave at 8:30 am for a tour of WE staring at 9:15 am. The manor was very quiet that morning. Usually Damian was up and ready to go talking to Alfred in the kitchen but he must have missed him.

Tim was business as usual though. Wandering zombie like towards the coffee pot. They had tried to get him to stop his incredible caffeine intake a few times and everytime they realized just how inventive and sneaky he could be. Taking it directly out of his hand may lead to all the files being remotely deleted off your phone. Or just plain being punched in the neck (he was aiming for your face but he can't see without that caffeine). He was very clever at getting what he wanted. No wonder Bruce trusted him to act as CEO despite his age.

But Dick was the most personable out of all of Bruce's children. So here he was ready to lead this tour rather than an actual WE tour guide. It was important to Bruce that they be directly involved with the class they were sponsoring rather than just being a distant benefactor.

Not that Dick minded. He loved to spend time at home with his family and if that meant leading some teenagers around for a fee days, so be it.

He could see Caline in the lobby of the hotel, obviously waiting on the students to be finished with their complementary breakfast. They started to arrive in the lobby one after another some looking more awake than others. The Italian girl he remembered from yesterday was hanging tightly to the arm of a bespectacled girl with curly auburn hair. He saw that she looked a little worried. She suddenly turned to the one clinging to her arm. She said something he couldn't hear and the girl released her. The girl turned and ran to the elevator, going up. About ten minutes later, she came back with a dark haired girl, looking a tad bit disheveled, but ready to go.

Satisfied that she had everyone, Mlle. Bustier waved an arm and directed the class outside. They all followed, the afformentioned girl reclaimed her position clinging to her friend, all but shoving the other out of the way.

Dick shook his head at the sight. He remembered high school.

Caline smiled at the sight of their tour guide waiting outside for them.

"Okay, Max, Alix, Kim, Lila, Nino, Adrien, Sabrina, Mylene, Chloe, Juleka, Ivan, Nathaniel, Rose, Alya and... oh, what happened to Marinette?" she frowned.

A few of the students looked around at each other. Clearly they didn't see her. The blond boy looked like he was about to go back in to look for her when she made her appearance.

"Right here Mlle. Bustier! Sorry, I dropped my purse in the lobby," she looked apologetic.

The teacher gave a small chuckle before finally facing Richard with a smile.

"That's everyone!"

"Great! Now if we can all get on the bus, we'll head over for our tour of Wayne Enterprises," he said.

The students boarded, some more excited than others. Rose was bouncing in her seat. She and Juleka sat behind Lila and Alya. Lila was taking this time to fill the sweet girl's head with more lies about her supposed influential soulmate. With continued glances over at Richard, she started her story.

"I was texting my dear Damian all night, so I'm so sorry if I fall asleep in the seat Alya!" Lila said sweetly.

"That's okay! I can't blame you for wanting to talk to your soulmate," Alya assured.

"He invited me over tonight for dinner! I can't wait to see him after all this time," she stared dreamily out the window.

Marinette tried to hide her gag. Luckily only Alix noticed who in turn had to hide her smirk behind her fist. Kim, sitting next to Alix, noticed and gave her a sharp poke to the side, which of course started a poke war. Marinette rolled her eyes at her friend's competitive nature.

"We may just have to forgo our deal to wait until we graduate. Thank you all for being so supportive of me," Lila started to tear up, despite her dry eyes.

"I can't believe you're soulmates with Damian Wayne!" Rose exclaimed.

That got Dick's attention. How would she have figured out his identity so quickly? He gave a small glance back at the girl who spoke. She was quite short with blonde hair and blue eyes. He gathered that Damian's soulmate had blue eyes. But this girl wasn't the one claiming the bond and she seemed pretty attached to the tall girl she was sitting next to. So Dick looked to the seat in front of her to the girl with the glasses and the one that was hanging on her. Neither of them had blue eyes. He turned back around, disappointed and hoping he wouldn't have to confront the girl about her extravagant lie.

'Would it be petty to call out a child?' he thought. 'She'll be joining Damian's year tomorrow. If I don't say anything, he definitely will. Oo, maybe I should intervene before he does?'

Dick ultimately decided to monitor quietly and unless she said something that put a bad light on anyone in his family, he wouldn't say anything. He frowned to himself.

Finally the bus arrived at WE, pulling up to the side walk. He led everyone inside and checked in at the main desk, collecting a pass that would allow him to show the children different and more exclusive wings of the building. He brought up a bright smile he first directed at the teacher, who returned his smile, before turning and facing the teenagers in front of him. Their chatter died out slowly.

"I hope you all wore comfortable shoes for walking. At the end of the tour you will be given a pass for a complementary lunch. Alright! Let's get started."

Before Richard could even take the first step of the tour, his phone started to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket and frowned. Eyes lighting up with recognition, he swiped to answer.

"Baby Bird?"

Marinette choked and whipped her head around to face the tour guide. She couldn't hear what "Baby Bird" was saying but Richard looked absolutely bewildered before starting to smile.

"Sure, but why not ask Alfred?- How you getting there?- Okay, I'll give them a call and let B know."

He shook his head as he put his phone back in his pocket.

"Sorry everyone! My little brother woke up late this morning. I'm going to give his school a call real quick."

He took a few steps away to make his call while Marinette strained to hear what he was saying over her pounding heart. When that failed she tried to read his lips. A skill she did not have.

'So they are brothers. Wait, no. Come on, Marinette. What is the chance of it being that easy?'

Marinette slumped down next to Adrien who tapped her shoulder, concerned.

She tried to give him a reassuring smile but she could tell it fell short. He gave her a suspicious smile in return.

Richard soon returned from his call and beckoned for them to follow him. From the lobby and ground floor, he told them about the history of the company. They got to learn a bit about Bruce Wayne's parents and the branches of the company they were a big part of or that were dedicated in their names. It was all very interesting and normally Mari would be listening with rapt attention. But she was distracted, paying too much attention to the speaker himself than the words he was saying.

Eventually she had to stop denying the obvious. She didn't spend more than fifteen minutes in Nightwing's company. But he was unmistakable. The easy way he moved, the tone and timbre of his voice. This man fought crime at night. Their tour guide midnights as a vigilante. When she came to that conclusion, she spent the rest of the tour looking anywhere but his face.

'Richard. Richard what?'

It seemed her new goal of the day was to figure that out.

By the time they got to the cafeteria for lunch, Marinette had learned practically nothing about the Wayne building or the company. Her classmates were filing in past their guide who was passing off little slips of blue paper. She internally cringed. As she passed by and gingerly took her paper from his hands he said,

"Show these to the cashier after getting your food. Okay, everyone! I'll be nearby if anyone has follow up questions. Don't hesitate to ask."

Adrien grabbed her shoulder lightly. She jumped and looked at her friend.

"Come on, let's go get something to eat. I know you missed breakfast," he smiled.

Her face flushed at the memory. Her phone decided enough was enough and died halfway through the night. So no alarm and Marinette did not have the forethought to schedule a wake up call the the front desk. So she slept straight through Mlle. Bustier knocking on everyone's doors due to her late night. It wasn't until Alya finally arrived, banging on the door that she actually became aware of her surroundings. She had to rush to get ready, barely having time to brush her hair. She had to tie up her hair on the bus. It was good that she had laid out her outfit the night before or she would have been in an even worse time crunch.

They made their way through the line, following Nino's footsteps, who was following Alya's steps in turn. Once they had turned in their lunch tickets and sat down Marinette started to look around for their teacher. She was hoping Mlle Bustier could tell her a bit more about Richard without being obvious. She finally spotted her over by the register, where she had just finished walking through the line. Marinette stood.

"Mari?"

She looked down at Adrien's questioning eyes. Giving him a weak smile, she patted his shoulder.

"I'll be right back."

Mlle. Bustier chose to sit at the edge of the room so she could keep an eye on as many of her kids as possible. She saw Marinette coming and she lifted her face to greet the class president.

"Yes, Marinette? Do you need something?" she asked pleasantly.

"I just have a quick question?"

"Was that a question?" Caline asked.

Marinette backpedaled and shook her head.

"No, no... that wasn't it."

"Okay, then what is it?"

"I was just wondering..." she trailed off, only continuing when the teacher raised an eyebrow at her deflective tone. "if you knew Monsieur Richard's last name?"

Blinking in confusion, she stared at the girl standing before her. Eventually she shook her head.

"I met him at the same time you did. You'll have to ask him."

Marinette cursed mentally. Looks like if she wanted answers she'd have to be direct. Something she was not good at. (Something her soulmate was very good at.)

"Well. Thank you anyway." she looked back at the far table she left Adrien at.

He waved.

She did not wave back.

Instead she continued scanning the room for Richard. He was seated a few tables away from Lila's little group. That was where Alya and Nino ended up as well, but her eyes just skipped over them in favor of the suspected vigilante.

A wave of calm confidence and what felt almost like anger came over her and she marched toward him. Lila noticed her walk and followed her gaze to the Wayne employee who was sitting next to a younger man, a laptop open in front of him. Her eyes narrowed imperceptibly.

When Marinette finally passed by, she loudly began to spin a new lie, or a continuation of an older lie. When the shorter girl kept walking, paying no attention to the liar, her eyes narrowed further. The girls sitting around her pleaded for her to keep talking so she did, putting Dupain-Cheng on the back burner.

Dick looked up, startled, when one of the girls from the tour group planted her feet right next to him at his table. Tim barely glanced over from his precious coffee.

He looked at her stony expression, kind of nervous. He had no idea what he did wrong.

"I have a question," she said in English.

Her voice did not match her expression. It was soft and he got the impression she rarely had negative things to say. The French accent certainly helped her case.

"Yes, Miss...?"

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," she supplied.

Tim finally decided to start paying attention.

"The class president?" he asked blearily.

"Oui- I mean, yes."

Dick called back her attention with a head bob.

"What is your question?" he asked.

Tim leaned in a bit to hear over the din of the cafeteria. Her face steeled and her took a deep breath.

"What is your last name?"

He looked a bit reluctant to say, more surprised than anything else, but she did not waver.

"Grayson," he said at last.

Her expression tinged with surprise before she nodded.

"The eldest," was all she said before she thanked him with a sweetness that came out of nowhere and walking away.

"What was that about?" Tim asked around a sip of his coffee.

Dick gave a small shrug before looking down at his food. So she knew his name. He only hoped this revelation did not cause any waves of students suddenly excited to talk to him. He wasn't that worried about it. He was used to attention because of the Wayne influence. But the girl did not gravitate toward the big group of students a few tables down. Instead she walked further down, sitting next to the blond boy who looked at her expectantly. She waved him off.

"Almost reminded you of someone right up until the end, wouldn't you say?"

"What?" Dick looked at his younger brother.

Tim rolled his eyes and knocked back the rest of his drink.

"By the way, Damian's soulmate must be a great influence on him already."

"What makes you say that?"

"He said please. Twice."

Tim stared down at his empty cup. A few beats of silence passed and he smiled like someone just let him in on an inside joke. He stood up quickly and Dick jolted with surprise.

"I have an idea," Tim said before grabbing his laptop and heading out of the room.

Well okay then.

taglist: (CLOSED)

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[youarejesting]

Femme: 46

Pairing: BTS - OT7 x Reader, GDragon x Bigbang, Erik Nam, Hyuna x Dawn, Black Pink x Female oc, TXT x robot oc, Got7 x Female oc Rating: Mature Length: 3.3k Warnings: impreg kink, preg kink, three some, orgy, scent kink, masturbation, public masturbation? (in a bathroom stall), oral (F & M receiving), orgasm denial, butt plug, vibrating couples cock rings, leisurely blow job, voyeurism , exhibitionism, mishap with water breaking, Yoongi music producer & baby inducer, cock cages, little bit of dirty talk, little bit of Dom/Sub but nothing serious, Jungkook cries but like because he wants to cum. Big dick joon Announcement: WE ARE BACK!!! NEW CHAPTER! Smut Beta: @taetaewonderland​ Beta: I was dumb and posted before it was finished bing read. I am face palming.

Recap: Your Femme Diaries Channel had been such a success you started a reality TV show from home. Yoongi helps Kyungju deal with girl troubles after a girl stole his milk at school. Hoseok takes Huimang to visit his parents which gives you time to yourself. Taking the Van for a drive you get pulled over for speeding when you vomit on the officer’s shoes, you are taken into the police station suspected of being drunk. Namjoon who was at the station working on a case notices you in the cell and comes to your rescue. You find out you are having a girl and Namjoon is excited. Yoongi avoids you not wanting to be the one to induce the labor again, they all place bets on whether he will or not. 

For your honeymoon, Yoongi gets his payback. Kim Mirae is born. Kyungju finishes first grade. The BTS & BigBang families go on tour. Eric and TXT go to university and the GOT7 boys finally are accepted for a Femme. The Frozen Spoon has two stores with more planned. The BlackPink girls got their Degree’s three of them joining the Femme project, one of which found matches immediately, and the fourth applied for their own Femme.

You were sitting on the front porch resting the tour had gone so well you were working on so many little things a Femme diaries book, that could be translated into every language so woman and men from every country had a sort of manual. There was an app where you could access everything and search topics and be lead to your videos or forums if it was topics you hadn’t covered in videos. 

 The boys were working really hard in their jobs Namjoon as his work was case based spent the most time at home beside Yoongi who worked from home and rarely left his studio. 

The boys had grown up a little each nearing their mid thirties as were you and they aged like a fine wine. Seokjin had experimented with different beards over the two years after the tour. 

Kyungju was eight years old and a music producer like his father, he looked so much like him but he smiled more which warmed his father's heart. Jeongsan was now seven years old and was in love with music as well not exactly the producing process but the listening he had a few troubles like issues with certain smells but also auditory trouble he hated when it got quiet. He learnt how to play Basketball from Yoongi and was on a team though his team was yet to play a real match.

Jae hwan and Jae Eun were two rascals, at age four they both got up to mischief and knew how to play their parents like puppets well all of them except Yoongi. He wasn’t fooled by no one. They were surprisingly humble despite the luxury brands their father bought them. They actually preferred the cheaper brands that had their favorite cartoon characters on them much to their fathers dismay. They hated getting their photos taken as they wanted to be like their older brother Kyungju.

Huimang hit three and three quarters running. He was constantly nagging his older brothers and Jae Eun to play with him. He was happy to do anything, listen to music with Kyungju, Basketball with Jeongsan. He liked to play in the backyard with the twins when they would play fair, that is the two were a unit and used it against the others. But he was also happy with his younger sister watching cartoons.

Mirae was three years old just getting out of her terrible twos and a testament to the break you deserved after having six kids. She was a messy child, and loved to dig up the flowers in your garden much to your dismay. She had a love for fruit and when her daddy jimin would dance with her in his arms around the lounge room. There was so much happening you were happy if you didn’t have any more children. 

That was until one day you heard Seokjin confess that he wanted to have a chance to be a dad. He didn’t know you had heard him and you pondered on these thoughts on the back porch in the morning sun. He had been drunk when he spoke these words and you knew he wouldn’t say something like that out of the blue without thinking it over thoroughly. He was getting older and the oldest out of the family dynamic and you frowned.

You would be happy to make his dream come true but this was a family and you thought it would be best to bring it up with everyone to get their opinions. You knew Yoongi was against having any more children he was already run ragged by the half dozen you had already.

You walked across the house passing Namjoon watching his Ryan from the cartoon Kakao with Mirae and Huimang. Kissing each of their heads as you passed frowning when you got to Mirae. “Baby you have Jam in your hair” Namjoon turned and laughed assuring you he would have them bathed and dressed before their day nap. You sighed, everyone was at work but you had asked for the day off as you wanted to process your thoughts.

You reached the in-home studio and rang the small doorbell and the door opened to show a tired Yoongi, he was growing a small amount of stubble on his chin. Which made him look more mature and made you heart swell at the thought of all your years together. 

“Is something wrong, Kitten?” He raised an eyebrow letting you into his studio. Bringing your hand up to his cheek and pressing a kiss to his lips. He hummed his voice seemed impossibly low as if as he aged it got richer. He sat with you on the couch and you bit your lip and sighed.

“I wanted to ask you something?” You said softly running your hand over his chest massaging the muscles across his chest. It was actually a tip you heard from Hoseok, that chest massages were great for proud creatures like cats and the two of you loved to give him these little chest massages because they made him feel at ease.

“Mmm… What do you want to ask?” He hummed, laying his head in your lap letting your hands wander over his clothed chest and work the muscles under your thumbs.

“Seokjin was drunk the other day and he said something that stuck with me”

“What did he say this time?” He opened his eyes checking you weren’t upset by something the eldest had said while in a drunken stupor. “I can hit him for you?”

“No, It wasn’t bad. It is just, he is getting old and he wants what all of you boys got, I am sure Jimin feels the same way. He wants to be a dad” You whispered and felt the tension increase in Yoongi’s chest.

“Tell him he can have Kyungju” Yoongi sighed

“Don’t you dare even joke that you want to give away your son, Yoongi” You breathed and he sighed “You love him so much all of you love your children just as you love the other children. I know you would turn the world upside down for any of those babies”

“But they all are toilet trained now and you want to start again!” he whined

“Look Yoongi, I am not going to do it unless everyone is on board, so I am not telling you we are having another, I am asking you if you will let Jimin and Jin have their own flesh and blood children they will love like you love your son” You sighed “Please just tell me you will  consider this for Jin and Jimin”

“Fine I will think about it” He sighed seemingly softer.” He laid there and hummed “I do miss you all swollen he turned to your stomach which was soft. You were thankful to Jungkook for helping you remove the baby weight but there was a certain softness that wouldn’t go away. 

Yoongi sighed sitting at the dinner table about one week later looking around at the big family he had that made his heart warm and looked at you as you Jeongsan cut his food. “Okay, I think I could be happy with two more” He smiled softly.

“Well why didn’t you say so” Seokjin grinned and placed some of his food from his own plate onto Yoongi’s. Making Yoongi sigh happily, Why had he ever thought to deny this man from having his own child.

Jimin was currently grinning at the two youngest making them giggle as he made funny noises with Jungkook trying to get the two to eat their veggies. Yoongi let his hand fall onto Jimin’s Thigh and gave it a squeeze in approval, Jimin wasn’t phased but seemed content with the physical affection.

You asked each of them individually and they agreed Namjoon seemed the most excited. So leading Seokjin and Jimin to the shower you were ready to break the news to them. As the words escaped your mouth the two started cheering, hugging you with everything they had. They paused looking at one another and Seokjin said “May the best man win”

Jimin who was in front of you pressed you against Seokjin, pushing the two of you backward until his hyung hit the wall. Seokjin pinned between you and the wall and you pinned between Seokjin and Jimin the former groaned, his growing erection pressing against your back.

Nipping at your bottom lip, Jimin’s tongue found its way into your mouth. He pulled away from the kiss to look you in the eye and you noticed the acquiescent look within them. You raised an eyebrow at Jimin wondering why he looked like he was giving Mirae his ice cream when she dropped hers. 

Jimin was selfless and it wasn’t hard to figure out what it meant. Grabbing his face in your hands you kissed him trying to show him how much you loved him. The kiss was wet from the warm water raining over the three of you. Your lips slipped from his and slid down to his jaw along the length of his neck and you kissed his chest over the strong beat of his heart.

Lifting you to wrap your legs around him, Jimin reached behind you to secure Seokjin’s cock in his hand, giving it a few pumps, before positioning his hyung at your entrance.

“There is no competition Hyung. You have waited the longest. I want you to have a baby first” Jimin smiled over your shoulder and lowered you until you were stuffed full. Jimin pressed his smooth chest against yours pressing his lips to Seokjin’s over your shoulder. “I will help you get a baby Hyung”

It wasn't instant. You had spent six months trying before you made an appointment at the fertility clinic and they did a few quick initial tests and the first test was a simple pregnancy test just to check and it came back positive which made your head spin. You made an appointment to follow up and make sure everything was going okay as the time progressed.

You didn’t want to let anyone know just yet as you always wanted to make sure that you had passed the dangerous time frame. So you spent your time relaxing and working, Seokjin was under the impression that in three months you were going to get artificially inseminated but you hadn’t told him that you were already pregnant.

It was the Hotel Christmas party and you all went along and Jimin seemed to notice you switching your alcoholic drinks for water and juice. The way you shifted in your seat rubbing your back and taking slow breaths when they placed a particularly smelly dinner. “Hey Princess can you help me with my jacket there is a thread that is digging into my neck and I want to get some fresh air”

You nodded thankful for his keen eyes, the table turned to see you leave some of them grinning thinking you two had run off to canoodle in the bathroom. The bathroom was a god sent, the clean scent of soap was what you needed to get rid of the rancid fish smell from the dinner. Jimin rubbed your back and grinned at you from the mirror.

“You are pregnant aren’t you princess?” You noticed the strange look in his eyes, his pupils dilated and lips wet from his eager tongue. He shifted on his feet and your eyes fell to the tent in his dress pants. Eyes flickering back to his where he was smirking and he stepped forward, hands slipping around your waist palms sliding affectionately over your soft tummy and up to your currently swollen breasts. “They are tender, aren’t they?”

“Yes” You whined as he massaged and played with them sadistically loving to see you whine and cry out. He didn’t want to hurt you but he liked to push you close to the border of pleasure or pain. He had taken a few steps over the line with your consent and it was some of the best pleasure you had ever experienced. 

He took your hand pulling you into a stall where he closed the toilet seat and sat down lifting your dress over his head. His forehead gently pressed against your stomach, his nose pressed to your heated core. He unfastened his belt and you heard the clatter of the buckle and the pull of the zip and he was busy pumping himself in his hand fiercely, his hot breath hitting your rapidly soaking your panties.

“You are so sexy full of hyungs baby” He breathed, you were holding the walls of the stall, his hand pressed to the small of your back so he could press himself closer to you. You felt the vibrations of his moan through his nose; his mouth fell open as he cried out against you.

He cleaned himself up and gingerly exited from under your dress his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. You grinned kissing him happily.

It seemed Jimin’s pregnancy kink was insatiable. He liked the way your scent changed when you were pregnant. Jungkook also noticed and approached you one afternoon. Between Jimin and Jungkook you were kept busy, truly appreciating when they would do things for you like; massaging your feet or massaging you in general while they helped each other with their own desires.

Hoseok noticed next as usual, Kyungju called you out after him which surprised you but it seemed your son knew your cues of pregnancy as he had watched you with all his younger siblings. “You were given the all clear Seokjin was ready driving you in the van to the fertility clinic nervous, but when you were given the ultrasound and he saw the baby he got quiet”

“You are pregnant” He seemed sad you didn’t understand what the issue was until he asked the doctor.

“Have you done the paternity test with our DNA samples.

“Yes, You are Kim Seokjin, correct?” Seokjin nodded and he smiled “You are the father congratulations”

“When I came in for the initial appointment I was pregnant with a baby and you were the only one I was with, the other boys were abstaining” You breathed as his hand fell on top your belly rubbing the tiny bump. “I wanted to wait until the baby wasn’t in the danger stage. I would have hated telling you and then losing the baby. You would have been so upset my love”

You saw the way his lips were contorting in a weird purse that he did when he was trying to hold back his laughter but as the watery look in his eyes overflowed into a river of tears and he couldn’t hold back the cry as he hugged you telling you he loved you. It was after his five minute break down that he sniffed and playfully asked.

“Am I still handsome when I cry Darling?”

“The most handsome, my love” You chuckled kissing his red tipped nose and he laughed.

You went to see the TXT boy’s they had just finished their degrees and you were going to surprise them at their graduation ceremony. They were all going into their fields together and finally applied for a Femme, After being rejected over five times they were approached by Femme bot, Femme industries was the umbrella company and their bots were to provide companion ship for those who are eligible for a Femme.

The boys were hesitant and decided to wait because they didn’t know how to feel about a robot being their destined partner.

You were four months pregnant and going on tour accompanied by the TXT boys who had worked on their own careers. They had taken courses in university that enhanced the quality of their content on social media platforms. 

You were filming the tour as you were doing a movie about your lives where you recreated some scenes. So here you were in a pod once more on set in a hospital gown. You recreated the scenes and grinned and you then had a replica of your apartment, everyone was trying to recreate the nervousness you had felt when you were all so young. It was cute seeing everyone all dressed in their old style clothes and their hair and beards cut and trimmed until they looked like their old selves and you were given a wig and a little bit of makeup as well. 

Between recreated scenes were scenes from your videos that you had made all those years ago and also some behind the scenes interviews where you all sat on a couch and explained what you had thought and felt at the time. It was absolutely adorable talking about how little and shy they were and hearing them talk about you as well.

It was when everyone was packing up for the night, Taehyung grabbed

your hand and dragged you from the dressing room and through the sets until he arrived at the first set and opened the pod and you threw your head back and laughed realizing what he wanted to do.

He pressed his large palm to your mouth and shushed you. With a growl he commanded you to get into the pod and he climbed in with you. It was tight, there was no room for movement so he was quick to lower you onto his thick dick before laying you against him and closing the lid behind you.

You were laying against him as he kissed you slowly and he was barely able to move his hips pressed against your A-spot. He was able to just gently rub the head of his cock against it repeatedly causing you static-like pleasure to buzz through your tummy and thighs.

He was moaning in your ear about how sexy you were. His hand wedges between you, his thumb rubbing your clit, loving how you twitched and tightened around him. The pod started to get sweaty and you were feeling absolutely euphoric as he stimulated the deepest parts of you.

After some serious grinding deep inside you he came, bursting like a water balloon painting your walls he made you cum hard and you cried out against his chest your orgasm was powerful. 

You were six months now and the filming was over but you were going straight into another tour. You were happy as the tour began. You announced you were pregnant and the older of your children joined you on some of your stages and had a few funny words. Huimang and Jeongsan did a little dance performance and the crowd were cooing at how cute they were. 

By the time you were settled back home after the tour, you were back to managing the Frozen Spoon. Your body remembered pregnancy well as you seemed to have had every symptom in the book. Perhaps you were stronger now with all the work you had been doing over the years with Jungkook.

Because you made it to full term and were now a few days over. That is how they found you dancing in the living room trying to get things moving. “I want this baby to come out, I am hot and my stomach is huge. If it grows anymore I am going to bust at the seems”

“Let’s try Yoongi,” Hoseok grinned, walking you to the in-home studio and they barged in, Hoseok’s hands on your shoulders waddling you through the doorway until you were in the middle of the room. 

“No, No, No!” He said falling out of his chair and backing up on his bottom across the floor until he hit the wall. “Get her out of here, I have precious equipment”

“Come on, Yoongi, I am overdue and I want freedom” You rubbed your belly “I am so fat and I want to have the baby soon and inducing labour is the most painful thing in the world”

“You wouldn’t know you have never been induced” He sighed waving his hands around “Alright back out of the studio slowly and I will help you. Just for god sakes not in here”

You were laying in the huge lounge propped up against Hoseok’s chest and he laughed at Yoongi’s mock reluctance. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Jimin said, licking his lips and taking small steps forward. 

“Sit” Yoongi commanded him and he lowered himself onto his knees, you hummed at the interaction between the two. He looks at you with a sense of hesitancy and leans in to give you a slow kiss. 

You grab him by the hair and tried to coax his confidence out, it eventually works and he is ravishing your mouth. His tongue and teeth abusing your soft petal pink lips. He pulled back and got to work removing you overalls. It seemed you couldn’t stand having anything around your hips or waist so you had practically lived in long baggy overalls for the past month or two. 

Jimin was hard watching Yoongi caress your belly and thighs, they all sat watching anticipating. Hoseok held your hands in his intertwining your fingers and holding them out from your body. 

Taehyung and Jungkook who had been sitting on Seokjin and Namjoon respectively started to squirm in their laps. Grinding their asses against their Hyungs looking for relief. The two older males finding themselves gently caressing their younger counterparts over their pants. 

Jimin turned hearing the tenor moans and cries behind him and the soft sweet sound you were making, he was conflicted of where he should look whilst simultaneously feeling left out. 

He ran around to your other side so he only had to look in one direction to see everyone but that didn’t help him feel untouched. 

Yoongi and Hoseok’s eyes were wandering similarly. They would travel along the expanse of your body then on towards Jimin who was rocking his hips against the air, his pants straining more with each passing second. They would then flicker their gaze to the rest of the maknae line who were turning so soft. Yoongi leaned down between your legs, his eyes connecting to Jimin’s and giving him a gummy grin. He didn’t dare look away from Jimin, Because he knew how much the young man loved his eye contact in the bedroom. Jimin was such a sensual creature he didn’t need to be touched to feel and experience pleasure. Sometimes he got off just by watching.

So Yoongi held his gaze and with every swipe of his tongue Jimin would keen for him and the room would grow heavier with the weight of Jimin’s sexual desires. Hoseok took your joined hands and placed them against Jimin’s crouch causing him to thrust his hips forward into your conjoined hands and let out an aching cry. 

When Jimin looked away and down at his crotch, Yoongi stopped making you whine and Jimin looked up at you to see what he had missed. You were looking down at Yoongi and Jimin’s eyes followed yours until they locked onto Yoongi’s once more and the pale producer got back to work.

You were ready to come but nothing with Yoongi came easy. He kept getting you right to the edge but never letting you over completely. Hoseok had removed Jimin from his pants and was using your tangled hands to provide him with the necessary friction. 

Jungkook was effectively distracted by Namjoon’s big hand wrapped around his cock. A Thick butt plug nestled between his cheeks. “You like this Baby boy? You like it when your hyung takes care of you?” 

“Ah yes” he said, receiving a firm squeeze, his head spinning at the tight feeling. He seemed to realize his mistake “Yes sir”

“Look how much you are leaking, what would everyone say if they knew how much this turned you on?” He said harshly, running the flat of his palm against the head of Jungkook’s penis, the boy cried and squirmed harder against Namjoon’s length.

“You can’t come unless I say you can?” He said and continued pumping him furiously squeezing the head and watching Jungkook press his knees together and cry and shake trying to prevent himself from cumming.

Taehyung was in a whole other level of torture, instead of having to hold back a powerful orgasm he was trying to spur it on. Seokjin was leisurely stroking Taehyung with one hand while his other hand was between their bodies slowly caressing his own cock. Taehyung didn’t care for the older males' delayed gratification methods and was practically rutting in his hand. “Hyung” he moaned desperately.

“No this is about my pregnant wife not you”

“Our pregnant wife” Namjoon corrected. Seokjin rolled his eyes, feeling Taehyung’s hand brush past his trying to touch himself. Using his free hand Seokjin grabbed Taehyung by his hair and pulled his head back to speak directly into his ear. 

“Who is older, me or you?”

“You”

“Who is in charge, me or you?”

“You are in charge you grandpa” Taehyung huffed “I am sick of slow, I didn’t know you had gotten that old that you couldn’t even Jerk me off properly hyung. You should be careful you must be getting frail.”

Seokjin pushed Taehyung over the arm of the chair and pulled his lounge pants down to expose his ass, where he firmly spanked him telling him that he would not be disrespected like that. Taehyung moaned happy he had riled him up expecting him now to try and prove a point and get him off quickly. But the plan backfired. 

“Get on your knees facing me,” Seokjin commanded and he quickly scrambled to the floor, “spread them and put your hands on my thighs.”

Taehyung spread his knees apart feeling the tightness in his muscle that wasn’t particularly flexible.

“Well go ahead” Seokjin lazily looked down at him, Taehyung took the older gentleman’s thick member into his mouth and began bobbing his head furiously hoping to send him over the edge quickly. A firm hand in his hair stopped this quickly and guided him slowly back and forth sliding him across his tongue. Taehyung was leisurely caressing the underside of Seokjin’s Penis with his tongue.

Looking up at him to see his eyes were on you, he was nervous about the idea of the baby coming today. Taehyung relaxed his throat and let the hot appendage in his mouth slide further back until the thick head brushed the walls of his throat where he swallowed a little uncomfortably at the thickness. Seokjin’s hips thrust forward on reflex, making Taehyung moan.

Taehyung continued this slowly, deepthroating Seokjin’s cock until he suddenly spilled his seed into Taehyung’s throat. He pulled back to swallow the sticky substance that had started to gush out of Seokjin but as he pulled back he continued cumming hard in Taehyung’s mouth. Filling it with hot white liquid. When Taehyung looked up he saw Namjoon with his free hand firmly squeezing the back of Seokjin’s neck encouraging him to cum.

Jungkook was begging Namjoon to let him cum, he was sticky and making the most illicit wet sounds in Namjoon’s hand. Namjoon part way through watching Taehyung suck off the oldest in the family, removing himself from his pants he was wearing a cock ring that had his dick looking fierce and deliciously thick. He had taken a matching cock ring from his pocket and placed it around Jungkook’s sensitive cock. Watching him whine as he situated it in place. Namjoon had stopped for about thirty seconds at a time to let Jungkook recollect himself. He didn’t want him to come too soon and end his fun.

Jungkook was not silent at all; he was the loudest in the room, begging and crying in response to Namjoon’s questions and ministrations. Taking the youngest in his hand once more he smirked leaning into his ear. “You think I don’t notice the way you watch me Kookie, the way you blatantly look at my package when you think I am not looking. What do you want to do, huh? You want to sit on my cock? Or perhaps you want to suck it. Do you want me to fill you up, I have been saving it all for you”

“Please I want to cum?” Jungkook cried fat tears falling onto his thighs and Namjoon  sighed carefully removing the butt plug and lifting the boy onto his hard length. Jungkook lowered himself whimpering and clenching around Namjoon’s swollen erection.

Namjoon wrapped his arms around Jungkook’s thin waist and rocked the younger boy against him. The blood that filled Jungkook’s painfully stiff member had it bouncing against his lower stomach 

Namjoon hadn’t told the poor maknae that the cock rings were actually a part of a set designed for couples and had a remote that when you turned the dial they began to vibrate at different settings. So without warning Namjoon turned it on, setting it to a rapid pulse and matching the rhythm with his hips.

Jungkook is no longer coherent, emitting high pitched cries and cumming hard over his chest and thighs, tears pouring down his face as his body writhed in pleasure. Namjoon followed soon after spilling inside the young man.

Yoongi must have taken pity on you letting you come. He watched you hesitantly waiting for your waters to break and when it didn’t he raised an eyebrow. “It seems it didn't work” He smiled his hand reaching out and gently holding your swollen midsection. He felt your stomach muscles tighten under his palm as he caressed the exposed flesh.

You were sure this was a contraction and you knew it took a while between the initial contractions and active labor, something you had learnt from your previous pregnancies and birthing experience. 

What you didn’t expect was for you to cramp up again and a warm sensation between your legs. “Oh my god, her waters actually just broke” Hoseok said excitedly, he was ready to see the new baby.

All other activities ceased and everyone got down to business, who was going to pick the kids up from school, who was going to the hospital. Where the bags are what they needed to pack, thought everything was mostly already packed. Once the plan was complete you and the boys raced around to grab your things. Not before Hoseok grabbed Jimin and Taehyung both who hadn’t had a single orgasm and secured a cock cage to each of them with a grin.

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CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN | PART EIGHT | PART NINE | PART TEN | PART ELEVEN | PART TWELVE | PART THIRTEEN | PART FOURTEEN Summary: Armitage Hux finds himself strangely fascinated by you, a Resistance fighter and pilot, even though he knows he shouldn’t. You know that there’s much more to him than you see on the surface. Pairing: female!Reader x Armitage Hux Fandom: Star Wars Word Count: 2938 Warnings: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER SPOILERS, tooth rotting fluff. A/N: And here we have it: the final part of Rebel! I’m sort of screaming internally (and a little externally) right now as I’m writing this, about to hit the post button and have this out for the world to see. But I truly hope this final part does this fic justice for you all and I had such a blast writing it. Thank you for being so patient in waiting for this final part. It’s a month tomorrow since I started writing this fic so to be finishing it now is a really nice full circle. Thank you so very much to everyone who’s read this fic, whether one part or all of them, over the past month, and to anyone reading in the future. The love I’ve received from this fic still surprises me every day and I am so grateful for it all. You really are all the best readers out there and I appreciate you all so very much. I hope you enjoy this final part just as you did the others, and thank you for reading, liking, reblogging, messaging and reviewing this story! Read it on Ao3 here.

It’s a little bit of a rocky landing thanks to the mild wind and steady drizzle, but both you and Armitage are grateful for the feeling of the ground under your feet when you finally set the ship down on Arkanis.

You knew that the others had thought it a little silly, the both of you packing up your things and jetting back off to Arkanis only a week and a half after leaving in the first place. But they had, at least, been happy for you. They’d understood that, while Ajan Kloss had been home for a while, it was time for the both of you to stretch your legs a little. That even though you’d soon be making a sort of home for yourselves on Arkanis, it wasn’t home either, because somehow, you’d managed to find a home with each other.

It’s kind of funny to the both of you – the ex First Order General and the Resistance pilot making a home with one another. All born of a chance meeting and your offer of a hand.

When you’d both walked out of the forest hand in hand, you’d expected everyone’s jaws to drop, but instead they’d fixed you with looks of amusement and understanding. Poe had grinned, had said “I knew it all along” and Rey and Rose had hugged both of you and said, with breaths of relief, “Finally!”. Finn had returned from his travels just in time to see you both, and had to have Poe explain what he’d missed, though he had soon wrapped you in a hug and given Armitage a firm handshake afterwards. It had been overwhelming, and slightly amusing at times, but Armitage had taken comfort in having you by his side.

In his stupidity, he didn’t.

The fact that he had nearly left without a proper goodbye haunted him daily, though he was coming to terms with it as the days went by. Because you knew things about himself that he’d never intended you to know now, and instead of pushing you apart as he’d expected it to, it had brought you closer. It had prompted the realisation between the both of you that what happened on Arkanis was no accident. That the feelings you had were, in no way, only friendship. They were more – they were so much more.

They were strange in the best way.

Armitage had moved back into your quarters that night, though he’d refused to sleep on the floor again (something about sleeping on a bed for a week being much more comfortable) and you’d both worked it out so that you could fit another small bed inside your small enough already quarters. And when you’d fallen asleep, Armitage had watched you for a minute with a smile on his face.

The thought of how lonely he would feel had he left the letter and taken the TIE fighter away and to wherever the galaxy led him filled him up and drained him until he finally fell asleep himself. And he woke the next morning to your smile and truly doubted there had ever been a more joyful moment in his entire life – though perhaps he was wrong because the moment the day before when he had been able to share his first kiss with you slightly won that battle.

You’d taken his hand again as you’d walked to breakfast. Had joked about him running away, and he’d laughed. He’d actually laughed with you and meant it. Gone were the days of the rules and regulation of the First Order. That life was a fleeting memory now, and here were the days when Armitage finally started to feel as if he belonged somewhere and was genuinely wanted for the first time in his life.

He had been the one, two days later, to suggest Arkanis, despite the fact that Ajan Kloss was a comfortable base for him. He’d seen you itching to go back. He’d seen the look on your face when it was time to leave last time – and while some of that may have been because of his sour attitude, he knew that much of it was because you didn’t want to go. But unlike last time, he wanted to help the people there, even if they weren’t willing to accept his help. He’d thought about it in depth and realised that he had help to give. He had advice to share. He told himself several times a day that he was no longer going to allow himself to think of himself as a hindrance.  He’d never thought he had help to give, but he was wrong.

You’d seemed confused when he first mentioned it, but he’d soon explained his reason, and you’d grown to understand. But with Ajan Kloss starting to feel like a proper base again, and now with Finn being back and everything starting to fall into a comfortable rhythm, you were still uneasy about the idea.

Armitage had seen that. He’d paused, looked around Ajan Kloss, then met your eyes again and spoke with utter confidence that “I truly believe that the only home I know is you.” That it didn’t matter which planet he was on as long as you were on that planet alongside him.

Then your plans had been set in motion.

Several days later, you’d been hugging everyone goodbye – or rather, see you later, but not too much later. Poe had been surprisingly happy to let you go. He’d wrapped you in a bear hug, pressed a kiss to your cheek and told you to be safe. And then he’d wrapped Armitage, much to his surprise, in a similar hug and told him to stay safe too.

It had sent Armitage into a spin of shock that he could barely knock himself out of until ten minutes into the flight to Arkanis. He’d turned to you with a soft laugh and said “Did you see him hug me?” to which you’d replied with a “No, I must have missed it. Tell me about it” and he’d launched into the story with joyful detail. You smiled the whole way through.

–

By the time the two of you settle the ship on Arkanis and venture out into the city, your hands entwined, the rain has stopped entirely and you can’t help but smile as you see a peep of sun through a passing cloud above the city. For a planet that is nearly constantly covered in rain, the sun is a rare but welcome sight.

You squeeze Armitage’s hand. “I think that’s a sign that we’re meant to be here.”

“If you say anything along the lines of our presence bringing the sun to the always rainy Arkanis, I may just walk back to the ship and fly back to Ajan Kloss right this moment,” he hums, though he smiles a little as he says it.

“Nuh-uh, not our presence,” you shake your head. “Just yours.”

He playfully rolls his eyes as you finally set foot in the city. Markets similar to the ones you and Armitage had attended on the day he had become offended by a local and wandered off – the day after the almost kiss – are in full swing despite the rain that had been falling only minutes earlier.

The mere memory of that day forces you to pull him to a stop, lean up and peck his lips.

It’s impossible for him not to smile after that, and he gives your hand a squeeze in return just before you flash him a grin and then start to pull him in the direction of a particularly interesting stall run by a woman with very purple skin.

Moments later, you’re both holding some sort of breakfast pastry and sitting down on a slightly wet seat, watching the morning in Arkanis stumble by. It feels strange to be back here, he notices, as he eats his pastry. The last time he’d been here, he’d felt unwanted. Unworthy of being on this planet despite it being the place he’d lived and had been born. He’d had no connection to the planet whatsoever, but somehow that connection had become you.

There were a lot of things that had been you and only you.

His mind was still spinning from the kiss back on Ajan Kloss – and the many kisses afterwards. You’d predicted the future in saying it would be strange, and it was, because you’d first and foremost forged a friendship before diving into uncharted territory with feelings that certainly weren’t platonic. But Armitage had been surprised by how quickly he’d settled into a sort of pattern. Certain things still confused him, still made him feel funny inside, made his stomach do uncomfortable flips, but other things brought butterflies and feelings of joy that he had never experienced in any of his time in the First Order.

He hadn’t realised how much life he was missing out on.

Had he stayed, he would be dead. He wouldn’t be sitting on Arkanis, with you by his side, eating a surprisingly tasty pastry, watching the world go by in front of his eyes. Watching the galaxy start anew – and he was a part of it. He was part of the reason they were even allowed that luxury. He tried not to let that get to his head.

It was easier now than he thought it would be.

General Hux would have allowed it. Armitage Hux was not as lenient.

“So,” he spoke after swallowing a mouthful, “what’s our plan of action?”

“I was thinking we start slow. We’ve got plenty of time. We’re not on a schedule like we were last time we were here. We can spend as much time here as we want to. And I don’t know about you, but I am not sleeping on that ship for more than a night. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find a place to put us up for a while. I made some friends last time. If we find them, maybe they could point us in the right direction.”

Armitage chuckled. It had been a rather uncomfortable few nights. “That sounds like a good plan,” he agreed. “You’re glad to be here? You think my idea was a good one? You didn’t seem too thrilled when I first suggested it.”

You meet his eyes. “I’m glad to be here. You just surprised me. After what happened, I assumed you’d want to stay away a little longer. But I’m glad we’re here, I am. You said you wanted to help. And I know you can help, so I’m here to let you. We’re going to help the people here that need it, and I’m also thrilled that it’s just going to be you and me for a little while.”

“What, you didn’t like Rose, Rey, Poe and Finn peeking over our shoulders?”

“That wasn’t one of my favourite things about announcing our relationship, no.”

He pauses, then gives a small laugh of disbelief.

“What is it?”

“I’d never thought of it like that– I used to hear gossip all the time when I was a General, about people getting into relationships, officers and other lower ranks, and thought it was all just completely silly. And now I am one of those people who has found themself in one of them,” he shakes his head, but he’s smiling. “There was never anybody in the First Order that caught my eye, and I was never looking. I had more important things to worry about. But I suppose the Resistance was always calling to me in that aspect.”

You lean into his side a little. “I didn’t expect you to be a man who believes in fate.”

“Not fate,” he says. “I don’t think it’s fate. But it’s just… right. It feels right. It wouldn’t have felt right before now. It wasn’t like when I saw you for the first time that I knew you were the one. I just noticed your dirty boots and, well, how happy you looked. I think I envied you in some way, though I didn’t realise it back then.” He pauses once more. “I’m not used to things feeling like they’re falling into place.”

“It won’t feel like that forever,” you pipe up. “I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but…”

Armitage snorts, and then surprises you by wrapping an arm around you.

“But let’s enjoy it while it lasts.”

–

The day passes in a whirlwind of quickly shared kisses and laughter.

Neither of you make an awful lot of progress in the aspect of helping people, and for most of the day you wander the markets, eat too much food and embrace the surprising sun of Arkanis – a nice surprise considering Ajan Kloss had been blanketed in a near constant cover of humid and uncomfortable rain all week.

Armitage’s hand nearly never leaves your own.

He’s found that holding your hand is one of his favourite things to do. It almost acts as an anchor, to keep his wandering mind grounded in reality. And it reminds him that he is alive, and you are alive beside him.

You wander the streets and the alleys for hours and take the time to explore the city you’d never really gotten to explore last time you were here. It feels like months ago, but in reality it was only a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago when you were both entirely different people, and when Armitage couldn’t kiss you whenever he wanted.

Now, he could. He would lie if he said he wasn’t smug about the fact.

The sky is starting to darken in shades bright pinks and muted purples when you both make your way back up to the ship – you’d forgotten all about getting accommodation in the city and had decided to spend one night on the ship, for the sake of old times, and head down again to find a place in the city the next morning.

It feels like deja vu for you both to be sat back on the ramp of the ship, watching the sunset this time, without the same awkwardness surrounding you as it had last time you were in this position. It hadn’t started off that way, but it had ended that way. With Armitage realising the extent of his feelings, and now he knows them inside and out – or so he thinks he does.

And his day in general… he revels in the fact that it’s a better day than he’d had last time. A day without being kicked out of a bar and landing in a puddle. A day without sharing in your heartbreaking past. A day without being ashamed of his presence impacting badly on you. And instead, a day full of happiness and laughter and a feeling he’d expected he’d never feel again when he was here last.

Nobody here, at least nobody that he had noticed, had looked at him the same way that they had looked at him last time. He smiled at the thought.

“It seems what you said last time was true,” he began quietly. “Soon enough, things will change, and the First Order will just be a bad memory. And I’ll be free to live the life I want to without fear of others judging me for it.” He looks down at you sat beside him. “Would it be wrong of me to thank you for that today?”

“I think you only have yourself to thank, Armitage,” you nudge him gently. “I might have helped a little bit… but today, that was all you. And it was very nice to see that side of you. You said last time you were here that you didn’t think you’d ever be able to make a home for yourself on Arkanis. What do you say now?”

“If Arkanis were to have me, I think I’d find it a rather agreeable place to live. So long as you are with me, of course. I could never live here alone.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Is that you saying you want to stay here?”

He shrugs a shoulder. “I think we have a little more work to do before we find a place to call home – whether it’s here or Ajan Kloss or… Jakku? No, not Jakku,” he shudders. “But wherever you are.”

You smile at the thought as you look out at the sunset. “I never thought I’d be back here with you.”

“No?”

“No. I thought you’d be too mad at the memory to ever come back.”

“Little did you know.”

“Little did I know.”

You look up and meet his eyes again to find him already looking at you.

Armitage smiles softly, his eyes full of adoration and love and every good thing he’s ever seen. “I think I’ll get right to the point this time, like I should have done the first time,” he hums, and leans towards you. “May I kiss you?”

You scrunch up your nose. “Ehhh– I hate to tell you this, but… maybe not?”

He fixes you with a glare, and it’s impossible for you to stop smiling at the look on his face. And then his lips are on yours again, and it’s just like how that day should have gone – how much time and drama and energy it would have saved you both… but neither of you would have it another way.

And as the sun sets, nobody disturbs either of you, neither of you hesitate to take comfort in each others embrace, and both of you fall happily into the blissful promise of forever.

–

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[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 84

Somehow I managed to get this chapter written, despite a pinched nerve that left me, essentially, on bed rest for two days.  I keep telling myself I need to make a buffer of chapters, but my life has decided not to cooperate...

I hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy. Where I live, we are currently under a stay-at-home order, and my company (essential) finally got us up and running to work from home this past week. So I at least have that, and I’m aware how fortunate I am for that.

As always, my inbox and ask box are wide open, so feel free to drop me a line.  I love interacting with people on a normal basis.

Somewhat more disturbed than usual, I left Xiomara’s office with Charly in tow.  I was about to let her know she was okay to head home when I realized I didn’t really have a choice - Xio made it very clear that I needed an escort with me at all times.  Conor was still at work, Tyche stayed behind with my fellow Councillor, and Maverick was likely off work but at home.  Charly, however, was right here and one look at her face let me know she was taking her new duties seriously.

“I can call GK,” I tried in vain.

“Nope.” She popped the ‘p’ emphatically. “I have a job to do, and ulterior motives. Ninja grandma isn’t taking my spot.” I arched a brow in inquiry, and wasn’t left disappointed. “Ma’am. Suspected cult leader? Attempted viking overlord? And this person clearly has it in for you? Do the guys know? Does Derek know? Hell, does Arthur know?”

“Why do I feel like Arthur outranks my actual partners in that list?”

“He was a warlord, and apparently your bestie in a past life? Stop stalling and talk. Start at freaking cult leader?”

“Alleged.”

“Sophia Michelle, I swear to - “

“That’s not my middle name.”

“And that’s not the point!”

Well, I tried. With a sigh, I surrendered to the inevitable.  “A bunch of people have been acting suspiciously lately, all over the Ark.  Anti-social, darting eyes, hushed whispers, all that stuff.  Tyche and I thought it was just us, until Noah and I were walking one day and a group of them just plowed into us.”  I stopped and ran a hand through my hair anxiously. “If it had happened even a week earlier, I would have just shrugged it off and been done.  The issue was this.” I tapped my temple emphatically.  “Tyche insisted that I get the proximity update to my implant, to avoid being triggered by people walking into me.”

“Well, yeah, that makes sense,” she shrugged brightly.  “Not like I didn’t notice… I can’t exactly sneak up and hug you anymore.” She scowled comically.

I let a small smile creep onto my face before continuing. “Right. Well, this was a group of about eight people.  They either all ignored the alert, or somehow turned it off.  We - well, Derek and Zach - are still trying to figure out which it was. Either way, it was a cause for concern, so a bunch of us brought it to Xiomara. We suspected it might be a cult, so Grey was also consulted.  They agreed there was a possibility, but pointed out we need inside information. Jokull Bjornson, recipient of your feral tendencies, is our best guess for the leader if it is a cult. So, Xio said she would look into it, but essentially told me that anyone associated with me would be out of the loop.”

“So why is Tyche…?”

“I don’t knowwww!” I whined in frustration.  “And it’s not like she can tell me, so I can’t exactly ask, because I don’t want her to feel bad, right?”

“Ugh, that sucks,” she agreed.  “And you have no idea why this guy hates your kidneys?”

“Eyeah, as far as that goes? You know as much as I do, and I know that isn’t much right now.”

She shrugged before bouncing on her toes. “Don’t worry.  I’ll talk to Coffee, he’ll probably agree to shadow you some of the time.  And it would be from a distance, so you wouldn’t feel like a kid being walked to kindergarten.” When I looked at her, skeptical, she shrugged again. “He likes you.”

“He’s spoken maybe four words to me,” I pointed out.

“And yet, you understand him.  That means he likes you.”

My mind reeling, we made the rest of the way to my quarters with small talk.  However, when we arrived, Charly refused to head home until she saw Maverick and the door closed behind me.  I swear, I get confronted once…

“Why did Charly look like an attack marten?”

Nuggets. “There was an incident today,” I groaned before peeking up at the ceiling. “Miys? Were you recording in Xiomara Kalloe’s office between 1800 and 1900 subjective ship time?”

“I was not, Wisdom.”

Figures.  Special ops of whatever flavor Xio had been did not lend well to being surveilled.  “Okay, thank you.” I looked back at Maverick.  “I don’t want to explain this again, so give me a second.  I was recording, because I knew this would happen.”  After some fidgeting to isolate the conversation in Xio’s office, I flicked the file over to Maverick.  “It’s audio only, but it at least saves me some time.”  I left him to watch it while I wandered into the food prep area for a drink.

I managed to swallow my second sip of wine before an angry shout came from the living room. “What the hell!?” was followed by Maverick striding into the kitchen and checking me over. “Were you hit? Did he fucking touch you?”

My arm was tangled in my shirt before I was able to stop him. “Mav… Maverick.. Babe! Stop! I swear, I’m fine.  Even Charly is fine - “

“Charly being fine is Coffee’s concern - “

“But we are both okay,” I finished.  “I swear, he didn’t even touch me.  Charly shoved me out of the way before he could.”

“I’m gonna - I need to get Conor, we’re gonna kill - “

“Listen to the rest of the recording,” I begged.  “He didn’t just walk away, I promise.”

After a couple of deep breaths and another glance to make sure I was okay, Maverick nodded. “I’m going to play this entire thing when Conor is home, probably after securing him to something that is bolted to the deck.”

“Well, that’s one way to keep him from flying off the handle,” I mused.

“Uh huh,” he replied sardonically, not even a bit fooled by what I was implying. “I don’t think even that is going to distract him.”

“It was worth a shot.”

“I think French toast has a better chance.”

“Gotcha.  French toast and lots of restraints.”  

That got a laugh out of Maverick, and he finally let go of my shoulders.  While he shot a message to our third to skip the overtime, I started getting ingredients together for a hearty breakfast-for-dinner meal.  We managed to time it just right, so the main dish came out of the oven just as Conor was finishing his shower.

Any hope that we even partially fooled him was dashed right after he sat down and saw the spread.  First he grinned, then got serious, and one glance at the broiled tomatoes gave it away.  “Neither of you like those,” Conor pointed to the offending dish with a whine. “Something bad happened, didn’t it?”  He glanced at our expressions before sighing and filling his plate.  “Alright, what gives? Another plague?  Ship stalled in space? Lost forever in subspace or whatever?”

“Something happened today,” I ventured carefully.  “I sent Maverick a recording, and he can play it if you want…”

To his credit, Conor held up one hand while he shoveled a piece of French toast into his mouth as fast as he could chew, quickly followed by one fried egg and two pieces of sausage. Finally, he nodded. “Okay. Got enough to make sure I’m not reacting on an empty stomach.”

“I just ask that you listen to the entire recording, no matter how bad it is at the beginning?”

He sighed again, held up his hand, chugged a glass of milk.  “Okay. I will do everything in my power to sit right here and not touch anything fragile or talk until I hear the whole thing.”

I really couldn’t ask for more than that, so I nodded to Maverick. Once he pulled up the audio recording, we sat tensely until it finished.  The only sounds outside of the record were Conor grinding his teeth and both men clenching their hands tightly enough to pop the joints.  Their expressions were a kaleidoscope of emotions, finally settling on determination when they heard Xiomara insist that I have an escort until further notice.

Snagging seconds of everything, Conor nodded to Maverick. “Us, Tyche, apparently Charly.. You think that Farro bloke?”

“He would,” Maverick agreed, digging into his own now-cold plate of food.  “Don’t forget Grandma Kim.” Conor pointed emphatically with his fork at the suggestion.

“Wait, what are you two doing?” I sputtered.  “Putting together a hit squad?”

“Ach, no,” Conor dismissed my suggestion.  “Escort detail.  If we wanted to take the fucker out, we’d leave it to Tyche and Farro and be done.”

“Not you?” I was so confused.

Maverick shook his head, gesturing with one finger between the two men. “We would feel guilty and regret it, probably the rest of our lives.  Those two, especially with someone who is endangering you again?  Probably would sleep better the night they did it.”

Conor nodded enthusiastically. “But I’m rather fond of your sister, and the Farro fella is alright I guess, so I’d hate to see them sedated and popped out an airlock at FTL speeds.”

“Oh,” I replied dumbly. I expected to have to calm them down, not to see them make such merciless decisions so quickly. “Um. In that case.  Charly said she’d talk to Coffee about shadowing me some of the time?”

I jumped when Conor hit the table with one hand. “See, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! We’ll keep you safe, Sophie… Aw, shit…” He jumped up and knocked the chair over as I dissolved into tears.

My eyes were closed so tightly that I actually lashed out as arms circled around me.  It was only when a smooth cheek pressed against my own that my body recognized it was Maverick and surrendered to protection.  Vaguely, I could hear Conor speaking, but just enough to register that it wasn’t directed at me, so the words just didn’t register as important.

When I finally calmed down, I was curled tightly in a ball on a soft surface, black hair obstructing my vision.  Maverick’s voice was speaking, an almost-chant that was soothing me. “I’m right here. I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re safe. I’m right here…”  I realized he was rubbing me briskly, alternating between my arms and my legs.

With a sniff, I lifted my head.  “I’m sorry,” I started.

He shushed me. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he assured me.  “It was a tense situation, and you expected one of us to get angry, so when Conor hit the table, your body didn’t realize it was a cheer and not anger.  You just heard someone you expected to be angry hitting something. It’s okay.”

“Conor…?” I started to ask, not able to make the words go.

“Not mad,” a voice from the door assured me.  When I wormed my way to see his face, Conor was sitting on the floor, back against the door frame.  “As soon as I saw your face collapse, I realized what I did.  I’m sorry, Sophie.  But I swear I’m not mad. Or upset, or disappointed, or any of those things that your mind is trying to over-pick at.  I just feel like an idiot, that’s all.”

“You’re not a idiot,” I insisted.

He grinned. “And you’ll defend me to your dying day, I think. But I should have been more mindful, and I will be. I swear. No loud noises when Sophie’s nervous - it isn’t a huge request.  I can leave the room, just like when I’m mad, right?”  That grin never lost its sunny nature, and I knew he meant it.

He stood to come over, and I felt Maverick’s arms tighten around me. “You upset her again, I’m going to knock your lights out,” a voice warned over my shoulder.

“I’d let you do it, mate,” Conor replied sincerely, holding out his hand.  I reached for it, but he merely squeezed my fingers before reaching further.

He wanted Maverick’s permission, I realized. Not just mine.  Tension flooded what I now realized was our bedroom before Maverick finally took Conor’s hand.  “I mean it,” he insisted with a warning tone.  “Do better, or I’m going to knock you out every time you, personally, upset her.”

“Someone should,” Conor agreed sincerely.

“Violence is not the way to handle this,” I sniffed. “There’s a learning curve, but it’s pretty steep with all the anxiety on the ship right now.” Wriggling so I could see them both, I tried to muster a stern look. “Episodes like this are going to happen. We’re just going to have to learn, together, how to navigate them.”

“Still, no loud noises when Sophie’s nervous.”

Maverick nodded. “That definitely seems like a good starting point.”

I couldn’t exactly argue with that.

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[give-seconds]

I Loved You

Sorry that took so long! I wasn’t feeling very myself, and then my family went on vacation, and oh my gosh I was so much busier than I thought I would be. 

But I want to say that I got a lot of the ideas for this chapter from Day6′s How Can I Say. If you haven’t heard this song, I highly recommend it. It’s about falling out of love, and they do a beautiful job of describing what it is like to fall out of love with someone you want to or do (in a more friendly way) love.

--Part V

You know you need to talk to him, but you don’t know which point to start with. You need to talk about how you’re going to break the news to your parents, how to cancel the wedding plans that have already been put into motion, and who stays at the flat and who moves out.

This is all that occupies your mind as you’re standing at the door, trying to calm down enough to open it. It’s funny really, the fact that you’re scared to go into your own home. Well, it’s just a house now. Not a home.

Shaking your head, you reach into your bag to grab the key. Stop being so weird, just get it over with.

“Jeno?” You call, unlocking the door and poking your head in.

“Y/n, I’m in the kitchen.”

You nod your head, taking a deep breath as you close the door behind you. No turning back.

Jeno looks over at you from the table, averting his eyes as you make your way to sit across from him. “Thanks for coming so fast.”

“Of course, I’m the one who called you after all.” You attempt to add some humor to your voice, to add some normalcy to the conversation. It sounds more forced than you ever thought would be possible with him.

His smile is light. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

You nod your head, averting your eyes to anywhere but in front of you. Oh, that’s right. Your -his- ring is still on the table, mocking you. It is, after all, marking the beginning of when it all ended. 

“So, we have a lot to talk about. How do you want to go about canceling the wed-”

“How are you?”

“I- I’m still making sense of it, but I’m okay.”

He sighs, smiling sadly at you. It wasn't an annoyed sigh, one you would give a loved one who’s talking badly about themselves. It’s one you’ve given many times to Jeno himself. “It’s okay, y/n, I can take it. Tell me how you really feel.”

“What if that is how I feel?” Your voice is void of any humor, you mean it seriously.

“But it isn’t. You can’t expect me to believe that.”

You attempt a laugh “Well I don’t know what to tell you Jeno- that is the best I can come up with right now. Plus, you know I hate making things about me. I’ve already told two different people how I feel, and that’s one more person than my liking.”

He nods his head, eyes looking around the room. “But I’m not one of those people, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.”

“I don’t need your help, there isn’t anything you could help me with. I just have to come to terms with the fact that you have never and could never love me like I love you.”

You’re shocked by your own words, and from the audible intake of breath from Jeno, he feels the same. You really hadn’t meant to be so direct, you have to word things carefully when you’re in this kind of a situation. But the want to not be the bigger person, to just take the easy way out, is starting to become the bigger voice in your head. You’re just tired.

“You’re right,” he states quietly. “I can never love you in the way you love me, and I’m so sorry for leading you on for as long as I did. That was wrong of me, but I just couldn’t bring myself to tell you. I just- you understand, don’t you?”

“I can see it from your perspective, I really can.” And you do, you can see how hard this must be. You can’t say you would’ve done any better; if you’re being honest you don’t know what you would’ve done in his place.

“But at the same time, did I ever make you feel like you couldn’t tell me? I mean, I’ve tried so hard to make it known to everyone that I’m not a judgmental person. So yes, I understand how hard this would be to tell your fiancée. But I don’t understand how hard it is to tell me, y/n l/n. Why didn’t you tell me sooner Jeno? I just don’t- I can’t understand that part.”

“All of that is true, you are the least judgmental person I know. But you overlooked one detail, I do love you y/n.” He’s looking at you now, meeting your eyes. “So when you ask me why it was so hard to tell you, y/n l/n, that I can’t love you like you want me to, you have to consider that I had to gather the courage to tell you that no matter the amount of love I had for you, I couldn’t feel the butterflies all the books talk about. That I found it so much easier to breathe when you were gone, and that every time we were together, it would kill me inside because you  always looked so happy to be with me.”

He closes his eyes, taking a shaky breath in. When he opens his eyes, his voice is shaky and his eyes are teary. “How was I supposed to tell you that for the past two weeks I was waking up every day hoping that you would hate me? That as much as I wanted to hate me, I was too scared to tell you the truth?”

“Jeno-”

“So the reason I couldn’t tell you any of that is because as much as I wanted you to hate me, I didn’t want you to leave me. How could I tell all that to the woman I love? Because I do love you, y/n. I thought I told you to never forget that.”

By the end of his confession, he’s crying. You feel your heart break a little more, and you almost feel bad for the things you said. But you’re not sorry. As much as you just want to tell him it’ll be okay, you know you can’t. You wouldn’t feel good about leaving it like that, there wouldn’t be closure for either of you.

“I think we both know that it’s not me who you love. And that’s okay, it really is. Just please, stop lying to me. It- it hurts too much.”

“Weren’t you listening? I do you love-”

“You don’t.” You don’t like the sharpness to your voice. It isn’t how you’re supposed to sound with him. “You like my brother, and that’s completely fine. There’s nothing either of us can do about it.”

He just looks at you, his stare so sad and hollow. You’ve only seen Jeno cry around four times, and you’d say it was on the same level of heartbreaking for you as the line of work you’re in. You’ve become immune to Jaemin when he cries; he used to do it a lot. But Jeno is different; it’s always hard to look at him when he cries. It actually makes you feel something, actually makes you feel guilty.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, looking down at the ring. “That was harsh. I just -I don’t know how to go about this. My whole life I have tried so hard to be the understanding one, but for just this once I don’t want to be understanding. That’s probably why my job fits me so well, why I haven’t left despite how sad it can be. Just for once, I want to be the one who just has to say what’s wrong and have someone else fix it for me.”

“And that’s fair - you shouldn’t have to be the one to fix everything all the time. So how about we switch roles? You tell me what you’re feeling, and I’ll try and offer my best solution.”

You look up at him, at his red eyes, and fight the urge to laugh at yourself as the realization hits you. It was dumb to think I could be the one who just listens, who only does a quarter of the work. He’s not the problem here - I am.

“I think we both know I’m really the only one who can offer a solution. I mean, let's talk about what’s wrong here: we’re in the wrong relationship with the wrong people. Or, I guess for a more accurate statement: one of us is with the wrong person and the other one is with the right person.”

“I’m sorry-”

“Would you stop apologizing?” you snap, before taking a deep breath. You let out a soft chuckle, recognizing the habit as one of your own. “I want to tell you a story.”

He looks up at you, wiping his face. He looks surprised to say the least; this isn’t what he had been expecting when you had called him. “Um, okay.”

“When my mom was in high school, she was best friends with this girl. And if I am remembering right, this girl had some troubles at home - she and her mom didn’t really get along. But they were close because she was the first friend my mom made after she had moved to Wonju. And you know, they didn’t have text. So my mom and her friend would write each other letters and stick them in each other’s mailboxes.”

“And sometimes, the girl would never write them back. I remember my mom said she had written eight letters, the last one asking if she was okay. Oh, and I guess I should say they didn’t attend the same school because her friend was homeschooled. But anyways, my mom had written those letters along with calling her house phone. But no matter what, her friend didn’t answer her. My mom said she was worried, up until she saw her leave her house to go hang out with other friends.”

“But to get to the good part when she and my mom finally did get to talk, my mom forgave her after her friend said she had been having a hard time. My mom had thought everything was going to be normal again, but then her friend ignored her again.”

“No offense,” he started quietly, making sure you had finished your story. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“I know it isn’t even close to the same situation, but I think what happens next is around the same thing.”

Jeno nods his head, chewing his bottom lip before asking “And what happened next?”

“Well, my mom stopped trying so hard. She knew things were falling apart and she didn’t want to prolong the experience. So, she stopped writing letters and waited until her friend would write them first. Eventually, they just went their separate ways.”

“And that means for us?“

“That means,” you repeat, sighing as you run your hand through your hair. “We take a break from each other, just like how my mom and her friend did. I mean, isn’t that what normal couples do when they break up?”

“Do you - do you think we’ll ever be able to be friends again?”

You smile, looking down at your hands. You had thought about this a lot on the walk here, whether or not you could bring yourself to look at him as a friend. You love him, you really do. As cliché as it is, you can’t imagine not loving him.

“I hope so. I really like you Jeno. But honestly, I don’t know how long it’ll take. You broke my heart, not that it’s really your fault, but you did. However, you mean too much to me and my brother for me to completely cut you out of my life.”

“I’ll do anything y/n, you and Jaemin are important to me too.” He shifts his eyes down to the table, to the ring. He smiles sadly, whispering “More than you could ever know.”

--

He wants to ask about Jaemin and whether or not you’ve talked to him yet, whether things are okay between you two, whether Jaemin blames him for anything. But that’s probably a subject that he isn’t allowed to ask.

“You know,” you start, and Jeno can see you rubbing the skin on your ring finger. He looks away from the ring in favor of the end of the table. “I don’t know what I’m going to tell my parents. Because I want to respect your privacy and I understand if you don’t want me telling them. But how do you think we should go about canceling this?”

He nods his head. His mother is going to be so sad. She loves you; it’s no secret that she always wanted a daughter. The fact that her face always lit up around Christmas when she had the opportunity to shop for his female cousins was evidence enough of that. At least she has Moonhee Noona.

“I don’t know, but do we have to talk about this now? I don’t want to add unnecessary stress to your life.” That, and I don’t want to do this right now. As always, Lee Jeno selfish until the very end.

“Oh, I’d definitely prefer to do it right now, I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough to do this later. I know I said that you mean a lot to me, and you do. But like I said, I think we just need some time apart.” Your eyes are cast downward and  they’re slightly watery. This is something Jeno doesn’t see a lot, but always hates.

“Oh - oh yeah totally. Um, we can tell them that I changed my mind about getting married, that I need some time to figure some things out about myself before I can get married. That is the truth after all.”

You nod your head, taking in a shaky breath. “Yeah, that sounds good. Thank you for - just thank you. I guess it’s good we never got around to deciding the flowers huh?”

He huffs out a laugh, smiling softly at how your usual playfulness hasn’t disappeared completely. “Yeah, I guess so. Let me take care of everything else. don’t worry about it.”

“That isn’t fair - let me help you. I don’t mind, really.”

You probably didn't mind, but there was something off. The tone of your voice, your overall behavior, just seems tired. You look fine, probably better than he did. He had had a hard time falling asleep, all the different scenarios had him thinking into the early hours of the morning. But you looked nice, like you had slept well.

But you seemed tired, more so than he looked. He knows it’s his fault, so the least he can do is offer to lessen your workload. It’s the right thing to do - it’s the least he can do.

He shakes his head. “No, let me. You planned most of it, so it’s only fair that I cancel it.” That, and if I wasn’t causing the issue here there wouldn’t be anything to cancel.

You look up to meet his eyes, holding his stare as you scan his face. Sighing, you nod your head breaking the eye contact to stare at the wall behind him. “Okay, but if you need any help, you can ask me.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“One last thing, and then I’ll stop asking you all these questions. But do you want to stay here until you can find your own place? Or how do you want to do that?” Your tone is soft, maybe hesitant.

“What do you want?”

“I - um - I don’t really care. I don’t want to make it one of those ‘I don’t care, whatever you want’ debates.” You rub your hands together under the table. “I really just want this all to get sorted out as soon as possible.”

Oh, your tone isn’t hesitant, it’s anxious. “I’ll stay at Jaehyun Hyung’s house. This is your house.”

You nod your head. “I’m hoping to stay at YangYang’s again, I’m making a thank you dish for his roommate who is letting me sleep in his room. So if you want, you can use today to get all your things. You can call people over to have them help you get all your stuff or you can get what you think you’ll need and just come by later for more things over time.”

“I’ll try and get everything today, but knowing me I’ll forget plenty of things. You’re okay with me coming around to get anything I forget?”

“Of course.”

Jeno had gotten pretty decent at reading you over the years. And this is something he had seen you do to plenty of other people. Where you hesitate before agreeing to something, something you hope won’t actually happen. He had thought about this a lot, wondered how many times you had done it to him before he was able to recognize the signs.

“Okay, then I think everything is settled.”

“Yeah, just give me a call if you think of anything else,” He says, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. “And I’ll do the same, if I can’t figure something out, I mean.”

You nod your head, taking a deep breath.

The conversation is over, you both know that. Yet, neither of you make a move to get up. He knows you want to get away from him, knows it is probably too suffocating to be in the same room as him for right now.

So it was safe to say that he was confused as to why you aren’t jumping at the chance to get away from him. Not that he was complaining. He may not be able to look at without feeling an immense sense of guilt, but being around you still felt okay to him. It still felt easy to some degree.

“Okay.” You stand up, picking up the chair so it doesn’t scrape against the floor. “I guess I’ll see you later?”

He gets up after you, following you to the door. “Yeah, I’ll have most - if not all - of my stuff gone by the time you get back from work tomorrow. I’ll um - I’ll leave my key on the counter.”

You nod your head, standing by the door, back towards him. This is it, this is the last memory I am going to have in our house. The last memory I am going to have of us together for a long time.

“I just - I just have one more thing to say. And this is really hard for me to say, but it’s really important.” You keep your back turned to him. “I know you make Jaemin happy, and he makes you happy. I’m not going to ask you to give each that up, he’s my brother and his happiness is my happiness. All I ask is that you wait a while, give me some time to… to get over myself. I want you two to work something out, if you are both still interested in each other, and not think about me. I want you two to be happy.”

Jeno is speechless, how can you still be the bigger person in this situation? You had just told him that you were tired of being the bigger person, that you wanted to be on the receiving end of that for once. Yet here you are, being the better person until the end. That is something he has always admired about your family, especially you and Jaemin.

“I - I will, I promise.”

You bring a hand to your face, and he assumes you’re wiping a tear. “Goodbye Jeno.”

“Bye y/n.”

---

And that’s the end! Thank you to everyone who has supported this series. This was my first time writing something like this, so I really appreciate everyone who has read this. I really can’t explain how thankful I am that there were people to read my story when it was posted, it means so much to me. So again, thank you to everyone who has read this series. 

Thank you to @mozartwasajungkookstan @dearyongs and @staymoarmyzen who read over and helped me edit. And thank you to @bunny-doyounq and @jinxouls who helped me with the first part and helped me to properly get excited about this idea. 

Taglist: @jnctzen @etaerealboy

Masterlist | Main Masterlist

Part 4

[amarabliss]

Galahdian Dreams - 15 (Nyx Ulric/Reader)

Synopsis: Your father was the king of Insomnia. He was good and just. You never thought you’d meet anyone like him after he was taken from the world. Your Uncle Regis, has taken the throne and followed through on your father’s plans. It was good to see the city in capable hands.

Enter Nyx Ulric, refugee, Glaive, fighter…how is it he can see all your secrets? He knows how to set you off and he’s promised to not let you go…(AU for sure, Regis wasn’t supposed to take the throne, and our lovely Nyx has more of a past then we thought…)

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven  Part Twelve  Part Thirteen  Part Fourteen

** Warning there is a Character Death in this chapter**

You pen scratched against the paper as you finished pushing through reports and request from the out-laying towns to the west. You happy to say there were less this week then the weeks prior, it meant something was changing…

You stopped looking out the small window in your office. It wasn’t enough change though…Three weeks had passed since you’d spoke to the council. Help had been sent a week later, yet no one returned.

The reports were mixed messaged. Some said they needed everyone there…others said the assistance was crucial…none said anything about casualties.

You took a deep breath in through your nose before turning back to the work. You still cried…you couldn’t help it after a while. You felt split in two, especially since your last few hours with Nyx.

You were pretty sure you knew what he was going to say that day. You reached up playing with the bead around your neck again.  You’d been thinking about it a lot actually and how you wanted to respond…then you’d start feeling guilty cause you were dreaming when he was fighting.

You let out frustrated sigh setting the pen down running a hand over your face. You’d been working since early morning, perhaps it was time for a break.

You walked out locking the door behind you taking in a deep breath as the realization once again settled on you that you were helping your uncle run the country. How strange…you’d accomplished a lot in such a short time.

“There you are…” You cringed hearing the snobbish voice approaching behind you, “I didn’t realize I’d be chasing you down everywhere.”

“Prince Ravus…” You turned looking at him as your jaw clenched noticing he was no longer in his mourning colors. He’d been here for a month with Luna as guest during the occupation of Tenebrae and insisted on hounding you for an audience, “Do you need something?”

“I was hoping to spend the day with you. I have it all planned out. You should go change into to something less suffocating.” Ravus smirked at you as he reached out to take hold of your chin.

You didn’t give him a chance to touch you moving around him, “Your grace, I’m too busy to play your games. Perhaps you can call ahead next time and see if I’m available…”

You felt him try to grab your arm and instantly you became defensive, “Y/N, I demand…”

“Do not touch me!” You hissed at him as you tore your arm away from him finally feeling a breaking point. He always tried to touch without your permission. It was always possessive and demeaning, “We are not friends. We are not companions, and I will not be handled like-like a toy to be played with.”

“Why are you being like this? I’m only trying to help you!” His voice rose as he stepped toward you once again.

“Help me?” You stared up at him as your fist balled up, your voice low in a hushed tone, “You have never once tried to help me…you only want me because of what it will do for your status. Poor little Ravus…just a prince…not an oracle, not the heir to the throne…”

What happened next wasn’t so surprising, though it hurt none the less and the stars you were seeing made you dizzy. However, your delight out-weighed the sting in your check as you lifted your head seeing your cousin throwing Ravus up against the wall the shimmers of his warp disappearing behind him, “Touch my cousin again and see what happens?”

“Noct…” You resisted reaching up to touch your cheek. You didn’t want to give Ravus the satisfaction knowing you were in pain, “he’s not worth it.”

You heard running approaching as the trio caught up to their prince. Noctis stared at Ravus a moment longer before letting him go. Ravus readjusted himself as the others came to a halt, “Someone will hear about this…”

“Funny…I think it will backfire on you.” Noct glared at him, “Evidence points that you’re in the wrong here…”

“You weren’t here…you don’t know what was said…” Ravus threatened glancing over to you, “And you’re to proud to see unrest fall within these walls…”

You stared at him shaking your head before you spoke, “Ravus, I have complete authority of who may stay with in these walls. I asked Luna here, only if she felt comfortable leaving her country…I only have to be friends with Luna to ensure things continue between our country…do you see where you lay on the list of important people I care about? If you don’t, let me point it out to you. It’s exceedingly lower then Niflheim soldiers at the moment…”

Ravus growled and took a step toward you, “You need to learn your place in the world…”

The trio and Noct stepped between him and you, glaring daggers at him. You took a deep breath in, “I know my place Ravus…It’s time you learned yours. Now your welcome to stay here as long as you respect everyone and follow our laws. Is that understood?”

Gladio glared at him before he spoke, “Hey, she asked you a question?”

Ravus snarled before walking away. Noctis made a move to stop him but you caught him just in time shaking your head watching him walk away, “Thank you for that…it could’ve been much worse.”

“I wish you would let me teach him a lesson.” Noctis reached up looking at your face frowning as you winced away, “Come on…we need to get someone to look at that.”

“I’ll be alright…some ice and make up does wonders…” You told him forcing a smile before looking at them all, “What are you all doing here?”

“We came to visit you.” Ignis smiled a little despite the worry in his eyes. He held a basket up full of goodies, “We thought you might need a break.”

You looked at all of them feeling touched, “And I think I know the perfect spot to go…”

A couple hours later and a good lunch in your stomach, you smiled listening to Prompto as he took pictures from the crystal room’s balcony, “This is such an amazing view! You can practically see the whole city!”

“Don’t get to close to the edge…” Ignis chided a little before beginning to walk over to him.

“Stop moving…” Gladio growled at you.

“I don’t need help!” You snapped at him swiping the bag of ice he went and found, “You’re supposed to be pestering Noctis not me…”

“Yeah…well…old habits die hard.” He sighed sitting back on his feet looking over to Noctis and Prompto posing for a selfie, “Believe it or not…I miss you.”

“You do?” You looked surprised as you placed the ice against your cheek.

“Yeah…I didn’t have to worry about fan girls and the public so much.” He smirked at you before it turned into a sincere smile, “But really I just miss my friend.”

“Oh…” You reached over squeezing his arm. You had been neglecting everyone lately. You’d have to change that, “I’m always around if you need me…”

“I know…but just like when you were going to be queen…you always have something planned and going on.” He chuckled, “Don’t get me wrong…I’m happy to see you working again. You’re doing a great job.”

“Thank you…I’m actually hoping to get your help aga-” You stopped as you heard your name being called from the entryway. You looked over seeing Drautos running in. Your heart nearly stopped as you let the ice drop from your hand.

This was a moment you had thought about over and over. It played out two ways…one…was happy, the other, heart wrenching. Either way you had to know the answer to question you were about to ask…

“What’s happened?” You asked him as he stopped in front of you.

He stared down into your eyes before he smiled, “He’s home…they’re all home…”

Your eyes widened as you took off running everyone calling after you as you stepped into the elevator. You pressed the floor you needed making the door shut before anyone else could join you. You leaned against the back of the elevator as tears just started pooling down your cheeks.

You watched the numbers and as soon as the door pinged you rushed out past two soldiers. The yelped as you pushed by, you called back, “Sorry!”

“I…ma’am?” They started following you worry in their eyes, “Is something wrong?”

“No!” You smiled back at them, “Not at all…have a good day!”

You laughed a little as they both stopped looking at each other confused before you ducked into the locker room Nyx had taken you to so long ago. You skidded over to his locker quickly undoing the lock before pulling out clothes you had stashed there after he left.

If Drautos knew you’d been sneaking out once or twice a week you’d be a dead woman for sure…after today your secret was probably done for. It didn’t matter though…you needed to see him. You pulled on Nyx’s ball cap after you zipped up your sweater before shoving your other clothes inside shutting the locker.

You slowly stepped out making sure the coast was clear before heading toward the gate. You could feel the giddiness rising in you the closer you got, but it was quickly dashed when you saw Drautos standing there waiting with a car.

He rolled his eyes as he shook his head opening the car door, “Ma’am…”

You sighed looking at him before you got in, “Can you blame me?”

“Without a doubt, one hundred percent. I would lose two jobs, if anything happens to you.” He told you as you settled into the seat, he shut the door going to the driver’s side, “But for the record…I am excited too…”

You smiled at him as he drove you to the Refugee quarter, it still needed a better name. You wanted to wait for Nyx’s input on the matter. Drautos instructed you to keep the hat on and to stay close to him when he parked.

As you stepped out you could see a large crowd gathering. You looked at Drautos, “Is this normal?”

“I don’t know…I imagine everyone is excited to see everyone?” He told you as you both moved toward the crowd. Everyone was whispering. You glanced at Drautos again seeing his face fall a little as he peered over the crowd, “Oh no…”

You heard a loud wail as everyone bowed their head. Your head snapped back feeling your gut wrench at the noise. You recognized it…you experienced it…loss… You swallowed down your emotions whispering to Drautos, “Who?”

He looked down at you struggling with a well of emotions himself, “…Pelna…”

You shut your eyes bowing your head as you put a hand over you mouth to try and stifle the cry. He’d been so welcoming to you. So, kind, and compassionate. He’d answered all your questions and encouraged you when you needed it.

And Nyx…oh god Nyx…he’d loved him like a brother. Always spoke of how his progress was going and how much he enjoyed seeing Pelna advance. He was going to be a mess…

“What can I do?” You looked at Drautos once you composed yourself, “There has to be something…it’s why no one is doing anything, right?”

“…he needs…a sky burial…” Drautos shut his eyes speaking quietly, “It’s difficult to get in and out of the city…and we can’t burn the body here.”

“Let me handle it…” You told him taking out your phone, “Just tell me when and I’ll get it done…”

“Ma’am…” He put his hand over yours getting your attention.

“I have to do something…Everyone in this city has a right to practice how they wish…this just one more difference. I bury my family in a giant tomb outside the city walls…why should it be hard for your people to practice your beliefs?” Your eyes watered before he nodded slowly allowing you to step away.

It took you several minutes, but you managed to get the west gate open. You walked back over but couldn’t see Drautos anywhere. You frowned as someone looked over to your eyes widening a little. They tapped the next person’s shoulder and it suddenly became a ripple effect as everyone parted to let you through.

This isn’t what you expected but everyone seemed to be urging you forward. When you came to the center you saw a casket in the back of a truck. You paused staring at it for a moment before you saw Nyx standing a few paces away holding onto an older woman as Drautos consoled the man beside her.

You stood there unsure of what to do. You felt like you were intruding…you felt like you had no place here. Your eyes flicked back over to the coffin as a tear fell down your cheek. You looked around seeing all the men and women who had just returned.

All of them looked beaten and weary. Yet, they still stood waiting to bid their comrade a proper farewell. Finally, Drautos saw you waving you over, “Ma’am…This is Mr. Kahara…”

You looked at him seeing where Pelna got his kind eyes. You teared up before taking his outstretched hand, “Sir…I am so sorry for your loss…”

He nodded before letting go of your hand. You could see the pain in his face as he struggled to speak, “Pelna…he always spoke of how kind you were. Then we all got to experience it here in the ward…he died fighting for the future you’re building for us…Please don’t let him down.”

You felt a heavy weight fall into your stomach as he moved to pull his wife from Nyx’s arms. You looked over to him as he let go. His face was blank as he turned to Drautos, “Where do we go?”

Drautos looked to you for the answer. You swallowed before you answered, “The west gate…I figured the cliffs you took me to…I’m sorry if…”

“That’ll be fine…” Nyx moved away from you as he crawled into the back of the truck with the casket putting a hand on it.

“Captain…” You whispered watching Nyx.

“He’ll be alright in time. He was close with Pelna…” Drautos put a hand on your shoulder, “Will you walk with us?”

“Of course…” You nodded as everyone proceeded to follow the truck. The walk was long, but every soldier followed behind it. You hung your head a little as you listened to them start to sing a song. A lament of some kind.

It spoke of traveling far away from home, never turning around, never making any plans. There would be a place at the end of the road where all would be good. Home was with you and good enough, for tomorrow was never guaranteed.

You cried…you cried hard and silently soaking in their pain. Knowing it all to well as Nyx sang those final words before lighting the body on fire with his hand, “This is not a farewell…just a goodbye…”

Drautos asked if you wanted to return with everyone at some point and you couldn’t pull yourself away. The song haunted you, and the way Nyx had just looked past you…you were worried. Drautos sighed understanding remaining with you as well.

Finally, when the embers began to fade away you watched Nyx reach in pouring a bit of the ash into a bag. Every soldier followed suit before turning and heading back to the city, until Nyx was left alone at the pyre.

Drautos stepped away from you walking up to him. They spoke quietly for a long time before they both turned walking back to you.

Nyx stared at you for a moment before he spoke, “I…”

You shook your head reaching out taking his hand in yours, “I’m so sorry…”

He sniffed as he struggled for a moment before he pulled you to him. He hugged you tightly as he started to shake in your arms…soon sobs followed as he buried his face into your neck. You shut your eyes letting your tears fall silently as you rubbed his back in soothing circles.

After some time, he pulled away looking down at you. His eyes were red and face puffy as he spoke, “Thank you…for being here…”

“Of course…” You nodded a little watching him taking in a deep breath, “I’ll do whatever I can.”

“Let’s get you home to rest.” Drautos put a hand on his shoulder as he started for the truck everyone left behind.

“Right…” Nyx whispered as he started to take a few steps before he began to collapse.

“Titus!’ You shouted catching him crumbling under his weight as you fell to the ground, “Nyx…Nyx! Open your eyes…Nyx please…”

“Please…please don’t leave me…”

Nyx’s eyes opened looking at an unfamiliar view. He was supposed to be in a tent…wait…no…that’s wrong…where was he? He sat up grunting a little bit as he threw his feet of the side of the bed he was in. He looked at his wrapped arm before feeling his ribs, also wrapped.

He knew he was hurt he, he just had better things to deal with then medical attention. He looked around seeing clean walls of a bedroom. He stood up slowly as the door opened letting Drautos inside. His mentor gave him a relieved smile, “Oh good…you can walk…”

“Where are we?” Nyx frowned a little.

“Your place.” Drautos told him with a small smile, “Wanted to give you the grand tour the right way, but…situation changed that…”

“M-my place?” Nyx stared at him as everything started to catch up to him, “Right…right…the construction…”

“Far from your mind, I know.” Drautos nodded before sighing, “Kinda like the three broken rips and fractured arm…”

“I had more important things to worry about.” Nyx glared at him a little watching him raise his hands surrendering.

“I know…all the same…you need your rest now.” Drautos told him sighing, “Though you should probably show Y/N, that you’re alright first…”

“She’s here?” Nyx felt a bit of panic fall over him.

“Yeah, she’s sleeping on your couch right now. She didn’t want to leave without knowing you were alright.” Drautos told him before nodding at him to follow.

Nyx carefully hobbled his way down the small hallway passing a kitchenette that led to a small living area. He leaned against the wall when he saw you curled up on the couch sleeping. He made a face finally seeing the bruise on your face, “What happened to her?”

Drautos took in a deep breath, “Apparently there was an altercation…I didn’t have time to press her or anyone for information. When she found out you were back, she rushed to see you…”

Nyx shook his head as he spoke quietly, “She shouldn’t worry about me.”

“But she does…and you’re lucky for it. Just be thankful…” Drautos told him as he moved to the front door, “I’ll be downstairs waiting for her in the car…take your time.”

Nyx waited for him to leave before he walked over taking a seat on the arm of the couch. He watched you for moment taking in deep restful breaths. You had tear stains on your face probably caused by him. He didn’t deserve you, yet here you were…and astrals above he was grateful.

Carefully he reached down pushing your hair behind your ear. In a fluid motion he gently traced your face coaxing you awake slowly. He smiled when your beautiful eyes opened looking up to him as he whispered, “Hi…”

“Hi…” You repeated back to him before reaching up catching his hand as you sat up. You placed it on your face leaning into his touch.

He choked up shaking his head, “I’m sorry…”

“No, Nyx…you don’t have to explain…” You interrupted him, “I can’t…even fathom…”

“You’re too understanding…” He moved off the arm sitting next to you letting his forehead rest against yours as his other hand came up to your face. He wished it wasn’t wrapped, he wanted to feel your skin when he touched you, “It’s okay to be mad at me…I am…”

“I’m not…I’m worried, but I’m not mad…” You shook your head staring into his eyes, “I just…just tell me what you need…”

He shut his eyes before he kissed your forehead pulling you into his chest. He tensed when you fell against his rips, but the pain subsided and he relaxed feeling you against him, “You…I just need you.”

“I can do that.” He could hear the smile in your voice. No doubt that it was small and worried.

He sat there with his eyes shut just feeling you pressed against him. He allowed the weight to push him far away from the thoughts he’d been thinking since packing up from the front. He knew he’d have to deal with them eventually, but for now he just wanted to just be with you.

He took in several breaths until his breathing began to match yours. Your rhythmic rising and falling washing over him like peace.

“Nyx?” He heard you speak quietly. He gave you a squeeze and a soft ‘hm’ to tell you he heard you, “…never mind…”

He cracked his eyes open seeing you staring up at him. It took him by surprise actually, most women just curled up in his embrace, but of course you weren’t most women, “What is it?”

“I’m…” You seemed to be a little bit hesitant to say what you wanted to say, “I’m…happy you’re here…”

He felt his nose tickle understanding then you were trying to be sensitive, “…thank you…I’m happy to…I’m happy to be near you…”

You frowned a little before nodding a little, “You should be laying down…you’re pretty banged up.”

“I am…laying down…sorta…” He smiled a little holding you tightly to make sure you didn’t move reaching up to your cheek frowning, “I’m more concerned about this honestly…”

You sighed leaning into his touch, “It was a misunderstanding between a guest at the Citadel…”

“I hope you responded in kind.” He felt his brow come together.

“Noctis did actually…followed up by his posse…and political threats.” You smirked a little, “Spoiled petty princes don’t scare me.”

“Hey, I resemble that remark…” He smiled as you chuckled a little.

“That’s a lie… You’re a spoiled petty king.” You smiled at him as you leaned up toward him.

His eyes shut as your lips met his. Damn…damn this felt good and it was just a kiss. His arms wrapped around your waist drawing you closer to him as he slipped his arms behind your legs. In one smooth motion he scooped you up laying you back against the couch as he parted looking down your face.

His eyes flicked down to the small chain you wore around your neck, the bead from his hair on it. His picked it up gently before he whispered, “You still have it…”

“Of course…it kept you near me…” You stared up into his eyes as smiling at him before reaching up taking his face in your hands whispering, “I missed you…so much…everyday was…”

He didn’t want to hear it. He lived it while he was away, dreaming of you night after night. Talking with Titus, asking after you…he missed you desperately. His lips locked with yours craving the same exhilaration he’d felt moments ago.

He found it letting his hands settle on your hips, slowly drifting them up. He felt you shiver as his thumbs grazed the skin under the sweater you were wearing. Your fingers laced into his hair tugging gently sending small electric sensations down the back of his neck.

You both froze as an obnoxious ringtone sounded off. He watched you reach into your pocket pulling out your phone as he licked his lips trying to calm down. Your face became serious as you started to sit up.

He helped you slightly as you answered, “Uncle?”

Nyx waited keeping quiet as your hand wiped over your face. You nodded slowly, “I understand…no…I will…attempt to provide him something to…”

You were cut off and your face looked shocked. Nyx felt every nerve in his body go on high alert as you stood up, “I will not…No I refuse…because he attacked me after…No. No! What I do with my time is just that…mine! I will not waste it on some insolent little prick who thinks he can get ahead by bedding me…”

“Fine, I’ll come see you now.” You spat out angrily , “I won’t be bullied…”

Nyx stood up as you listened to the other end. He knew who this ‘prick’ was now, and he didn’t like what he was hearing. Something would have to be done.

“You can’t…you can’t be serious…” You spoke quietly looking up to Nyx horrified, “I won’t do it.”

You listened for a moment longer before the call ended. Nyx frowned having a suspicion of what was going on, “I won’t let him take you from me…”

“Nyx…” You teared up as he pulled you into a tight hug, “why can’t we just be left alone?”

“Don’t worry…” He kissed your forehead as he rubbed your shoulders, “I’ll take care of it…”

[raja-myna]

yesterday is long since lost

FINALLY got this thing done!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25070434

Anakin – and he is Anakin, even if that name feels a little bit like putting on a shirt he had thought he had outgrown – knows that he’s messing up. When he first realized what had happened, that he really had come back, he had been grateful that his body had collapsed under the weight of his future memories, leaving his subconscious mind to slowly make the connections and let him wake up again. He had thought he was prepared for it, when he shook off the last of the sleepy haze. The phrase ‘rude awakening’ turned out to fit almost too well.

The two weeks that it had taken for his body and mind to acclimatize to each other proves itself to be so far from enough. He’s jittery, uncomfortable in his own body (and it’s his body again, more flesh than metal, inescapable marks of betrayal (but whose was it really? Not Obi-Wan’s, he knows now, and that thought cuts impossibly deeper than ever) erased) with its lack of aches and pains, and reflexes that no longer match flesh limbs.

Rex knows something is up, but military discipline keeps him from asking, at least for now. Ahsoka knows something’s up, but she’s still too relieved that he’s okay (and hah, if only she knew) to push.

He thanks the Force that Obi-Wan isn’t here, because even though they’d made some sort of peace at Anakin’s funeral pyre and after that, he doesn’t know how he would react to seeing his former Master with them both alive again. Obi-Wan also likely wouldn’t hesitate to call him out on his poodoo. Oh, he’d be diplomatic, and he likely wouldn’t push if Anakin reacted badly, but Anakin still isn’t sure he could take that.

When they had been dead there hadn’t been much to do but make peace. Now, alive and with the Clone Wars barely halfway through, Anakin is realizing that a lot of their peace had come from the fact that nothing they could have done would have affected anything in the end. That calm understanding that had come with being one with the Force is gone as well, and Anakin’s love for and rage at his old Master are dueling for prominence. His guilt wants to land on the side of his love, but his anger has always run hot. He fears seeing Obi-Wan, for he truly cannot tell whether he’ll be angry, snappish and rude, or if he’ll want to fall to his knees and cry.

There’s enough of Anakin wanting to cry as it is.

It had been hard, seeing Ahsoka, seeing Rex when he first woke up and truly getting hit with how he had failed them. But they had been the lucky ones, in that awful future. They had gotten away.

Seeing Coric in the medbay, seeing Kix… that had been worse. Kix had been gone before Anakin Fell and Order 66 was executed, they hadn’t even found a body. Coric had died two years later, two years of living not unlike a battle droid covered in flesh, with only the barest glimpses of the man he really was underneath the weight of orders and grief he wasn’t allowed to understand.

Grief that none of the clones were allowed to understand.

(Vader had seen Bly. He had seen Shocker. He had seen Cody.)

(He had seen all those who had eaten their blasters as the chips died, never actually intended to survive past usage – just like the clones themselves.)

Vader hadn’t cared, or at least tried to tell himself that he didn’t. Anakin does care. And Force, but it hurts.

The first day Anakin just avoids everyone, using Kix’s orders of rest as an excuse. Facing everyone is… something no amount of preparation could help him with, a punch to the gut and a knock to the head that leaves him reeling. The effort it takes to not simply flee for his quarters actually leaves him winded when he finally reaches the corridor, enters the room, closes the door behind himself and locks himself in.

There’s something wrong with him. Anakin is not reacting the way he should – the way he ought to, having seen so many ghosts in so short a time. His mind is a mess.

Meditation does not come easy.

He forces himself into it, in an attempt to reconcile the different parts of himself. He is Anakin, jedi general, student, teacher, husband, lover, twenty years old and so arrogant. He is Vader, sith apprentice, failure, world-weary, beaten down, a monster shackled to a madman… a father, in the end.

He is Ani, slave boy, who cares so much and loves so deeply but doesn’t know how to handle it, never learned how to grow it, only hoard.

(If you love something, let it go.)

(He let Luke go, in the end. Let his son choose his own path and…)

I am a jedi, like my father before me.

Sleep doesn’t come at all.

Vader has spent literal decades hating his past, weak self, disgusted with the man who couldn’t even save the single most important person left in his life, who had lost everyone else along the line. Past-(present-?)Anakin is horrified by what he became, by what his future self allowed himself to be twisted into. Ani doesn’t understand, doesn’t want to understand how it could have even happened.

It’s a good thing self-hatred is nothing new to him, he thinks, because that is the common point that finally allows him to reconcile the different facets of himself.

That’s kind of sad.

It’s also awfully appropriate, in a twisted sense.

 The second day he tries to play at normalcy and heads to the bridge. Ahsoka tracks him down when he’s alone during a quiet moment and hugs him until he stops trying to make her let go. Her relief broadcasts in the Force and their bond alike. Anakin… lets himself hold her, and heal, just a bit. Then Kix finds them and sends him back to bed. It’s enough to make Ahsoka laugh and think everything’s back to normal. Anakin lets her believe it.

He heads back to his bunk, and since Kix is a suspicious one, wise to the ways of his jedi, Anakin has company the entire way.

“Forty-eight hours of rest,” says Kix dryly, “and a visit to medical. Neither of these has been completed, and you’re still obviously tired. Get some more sleep, sir, or I can’t clear you.”

“How about just the visit to medical?” Anakin tries to bargain.

“Sir, I know disasters tend to strike like clockwork around here, but please. Nothing will happen if you just get some more rest.”

And despite Kix all but punching fate in the face and yelling ‘come get me’, nothing does happen. Anakin meditates some more and actually manages to grab a nap as well.

When he wakes up it’s shipboard afternoon. He heads down to the hangar, and instead of attempting to work on the Twilight like he planned to, he finds himself drawn into a discussion with three of the troopers (Lyn died on Umbara, Bell was lost on Mandalore, while Flipper had marched on the temple and not died until after more than five years of atrocities in the name of the Empire).

He failed them. The thought hovers in his mind even as he gets more involved in the debate. He failed them like he failed all his men, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan. Like he failed his mother. Like he failed Padmé. Like he almost failed Luke, like he did fail him several times.

The storm of emotions is like a vibroblade to the gut and Anakin claws desperately at it, keeping it from showing either on his face or in the Force. He almost pulls away again, until Bell’s words cut through him like shards of glass.

“-but not this time!”

Bell punctuates his words by punching the air. They’re talking about marksmanship contests now, but Anakin cannot fully restrain how deeply it hits him. His expression must twitch, because Bell turns to him, eyes wide with feigned upset.

“You think I can’t, General?”

Flipper nudges him. “The General simply knows better than to put his credits up on the word of such an… unreliable source.” The grin is contagious, and Anakin finds himself smiling as well, grounding himself in their gentle teasing and free-flowing affection.

His failures feel further away and, desperate to keep that feeling, he does what he always did best – jump without looking. “Well, maybe I can help make it less unreliable.”

“Sir?”

Anakin’s mouth really ran away with him this time, but something tells him that this is good. A comfortable warmth that sits in his gut, the Force whispering in his ear, Bell’s disbelieving – but growing – excitement. “You’re off duty. I have some spare time. There are several training halls available.”

Not this time. He failed them all then, but not this time.

It is with a strange sort of budding contentment that he puts Bell and several other clones through their paces in a training hall. He’s doing something, changing something, and it’s such a tiny difference but it’s a difference. Anakin can’t do a lot from here, not yet, but this – being with the men, helping them – is something he can do.

For the first time since he woke up, Anakin feels like he’s doing something right.

Nearly an hour after they began, Anakin catches sight of Rex by the door. The expression on his face is one part amusement, one part ‘I know what you’re doing’ and about five parts exasperation. It’s familiar despite the years, comforting, and Anakin laughs before he can even register the urge to.

The next moment he freezes because – how long has it been? He catches himself almost immediately and excuses himself from the practice session. They can continue without him anyway.

By the door, Rex’s amusement sharpens into instant hyper-awareness. Anakin starts running through the excuses he’d hoped wouldn’t be necessary.

Rex’s care for his jedi is something Anakin has been in turns awed, perplexed and humbled by. Now, his worry is just as humbling, but it is also troublesome. In the end, Anakin finds himself released to medbay only because Rex too is still shaky after his coma. None of them are fully back to normal, so Anakin’s issues are easier to hide.

They won’t always be, but Anakin will get better at hiding, too.

He runs into Ahsoka again in the hallway and she immediately attaches herself to his side. The last time he had seen her in that other time flashes in his mind – tall, strong, grieving – and he rests his hand on her montrals, his tiny, beloved padawan who the galaxy has barely even started to break yet.

She’s here.

She is here and he hasn’t lost her, not to his own madness nor her iron-clad conviction that he’s gone forever.

The poisonous thinking that came with the Dark Side is still haunting him, and for a moment he wants to drag her even closer, make sure she could never leave – and then the thought leaves him sick, his hand drops down to squeeze her shoulder and then he lets go.

She follows him to the medbay, where Kix clears Anakin. The clone is clearly reluctant, going by the grumbling, but Anakin is free to return to duty. As such, he is free to check out exactly when it is he has returned to.

The answer… staggers him. It’s the early days of the war, that much had already been obvious in the many presences that had been long gone, but… so many of the bad things haven’t happened yet, so many things he can change, disasters he can undo, lives he can save –

Sidious.

And even though he knows he can’t just rush in, the scene plays out in Anakin’s mind. Since he’d learned about Luke, Vader had ever entertained the thought of killing his Master. And even before that, before Padmé and Obi-Wan and Mustafar, Sidious’ survival had never counted in Anakin’s plans. More than once he had tortured himself with what-ifs… and now he has the chance to make them come true.

Still, striding up to the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and attempting to cut him down, for all that it would be satisfying, would more likely end with Anakin fleeing from the Coruscant Security Forces with his task still not accomplished more than anything else.

It’s nothing but wishful thinking and Anakin waves it away.

A quick talk with Yularen confirms that they’re heading back to Coruscant. They’re still six days out, at current velocity, something Yularen relays with an apologetic look, since Anakin tends to be eager to get planetside. In this case though, it means there’s only six days to prepare for seeing the temple again, seeing Padmé, seeing – Force, seeing the younglings.

“Master?”

Ahsoka’s voice pulls him out of those dark musings.

“Yeah, Snips?” The nickname rolls off his tongue with reflexive ease, and it is not until it already lingers in the air that he realizes how much it grounds him.

“Is everything all right?”

He could lie. She would see through it, and either let it be or keep digging until she thought she had found out every little detail.

“No.” Ahsoka stops dead and he turns to look back at her, her big eyes even wider than usual at his uncharacteristic honesty concerning his own state. “But it’s getting better.” How can it not?

“…If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

The ringing silence that follows is belied by Ahsoka’s slow reach for him through their bond, and Anakin’s hesitant reach back, to meet her halfway. Ahsoka smiles at the contact and runs ahead. They’ve ended up by the mess hall and, though it’s still relatively early, there’s more than enough people moving around, grabbing an early meal.

“Glad to see you’re doing well, General!”

Anakin looks up to see Echo. The young ARC trooper has raised a hand to wave a greeting, precariously balancing his rations tray with only one hand. Smile tugging at his lips, Anakin raises his own hand in response. Another fate he would hopefully be able to change. Echo didn’t deserve what had happened to him.

Realization comes a second too late.

Echo slides down on the bench by Anakin and Ahsoka, and Fives sneaks up only half a step behind him. Ahsoka immediately vaults over the table and seats herself opposite Echo.

“Going to join us, General?” asks Fives. Anakin almost chokes. For an instant, Fives has all Anakin’s attention, but just as quick, Anakin turns away.

“Sorry.” he says choppily. “Sorry, I- I have something- I need to- I’m sorry. Later?”

He whirls around and practically flees the hall.

Fives. Oh, Force, Fives.

Anakin hears a hesitant “Is… something wrong?” from Echo, but escapes before he can hear Ahsoka’s response. Yes, something’s wrong. Something he’d managed to avoid thinking of entirely, but that he now can’t escape.

You died for the knowledge that might have saved everything and I didn’t believe you.

Fives had been – is – one of his men and that alone would be enough guilt to drown in but… that isn’t all.

Anakin firmly blocks the thoughts from his mind, refusing to wander down that old path of what-if. He had entertained enough of them, after Fives’… death. Even more after Echo had been found. So much more, in stolen moments with Padmé and occasionally Sabé or Rabé as well, staying up late nights with more alcohol than was probably advisable.

Force.

Three hallways down, Anakin finally stops, leans against the wall, and covers his face with his hands. He slowly sinks down, ending up sitting and pulling his knees close so he can hide in them instead of in his palms.

Smooth, Anakin. The internal reprimand takes on Obi-Wan’s voice, which is almost a step too far. Anakin’s eyes sting.

Eventually Anakin manages to gather himself enough that he can paste the mask back on. He can’t quite push the thoughts back into the box where he hadn’t even known that he’d stored them, however, and from that point on he can’t decide whether to run from Fives out of shame or never let him out of sight again. Over the coming days the result of the impulses leaves Anakin looking like a shy adolescent from a holo-drama, constantly keeping track of Fives, but ducking around corners, hiding behind bulkheads, and on one occasion, making a Force-assisted leap up a staircase (accidentally sparking a game of tag with Ahsoka, but he managed to make it look deliberate, so he counts it as a win) to avoid the clone.

Whatever explanation Ahsoka had given the two ARC troopers must have been unsatisfying however, because suddenly it seems like Fives is everywhere. Anakin tries to distract himself, mingling with the troops, burying himself in the Twilight, catching upon the present, but whenever he senses Fives just a little too close, he’s running again.

Anakin fears he will keep running for a long time.

[lookatthestarrynight]

Laughter is the Best Medicine - Chapter Seven

Poe Dameron/Doctor!OFC: Poe Dameron has joined the Resistance at the request of General Leia Organa, and he’s finally arrived on the Echo of Hope, the Resistance’s floating base of operations. While on board, he meets the Medical Director of the Resistance and... falls in love? We’ll see.

I’ve also posted this on AO3. Check my masterlist to see what I write for. Please only like, don’t reblog.  Hope you enjoy, let me know what you think!

Warning: allusions to smut. 1238 words.

It had been a half a week since Ovanis, and half a week since my med-bay breakdown and kiss with Poe. I’d only seen him twice since then, as the General was keeping him very busy with Black Squadron business that I was not on the need-to-know list for – despite being of equivalent rank with the Commander or General (depending on who you asked), and despite being a de facto member of the Black Squadron entourage.

           Right now, though, I was regretting many of the life decisions I’d made up to this point – entirely because I had been convinced to join Shana in her room for a sleepover. A preposterous idea, really, but she’d insisted from the moment she heard I’d kissed Poe, and apparently wanted all the details. I have neglected to inform her that we have kissed several times since then, purely to avoid further interrogation.

           And so, I was sitting on a blanket, on the hard floor of her room, with my regulation pillow in my lap, listening to her and Ilia gossip about the other hot new relationship on base – Snap and Karé.

           “Oh—and did you hear? He took her up in his X-wing and they had a picnic on the other side of base,” Shana turned to be, “Does Poe do that?”

           I stared at her. “They are literally both pilots.”

           “But, does Poe do that?”

           “I have seen him twice this week, Shana. He’s busy.”

           “Yea, but would he?” Ilia chimed in.

           I huffed. “I am not a pilot – he shouldn’t.”

           “But would he?”

           “Oh, for stars sake – ask him yourself why don’t you?”

           “To your point – he’s been busy, so I can’t.”

           I stared at them in disbelief. “Alright, that’s it. I’m leaving.” I stood up, hugging my pillow to my chest and grabbing the blanket I had been sitting on and heading for the door.

           “Oh, come on, there’s no need for that, Hera.”

           I opened the door.

           “Hera! You promised.”

           I huffed and turned to look at them. “This time next week. No questions about Poe, or I’m leaving again.”

           Shana and Ilia sighed. “Fine. But you’d better do it.”

           I nodded and stepped out of the room – and straight into someone’s chest. The door behind me closed.

           “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see—” I paused when I looked up, right into Poe’s face.

           He grinned. “Apology accepted, Doc,” he glanced down at the pillow and blanket and my arms, “What’re those for?”

           I sighed. “A failed sleepover.”

           He hummed, wrapping his arm around my waist and guiding me down the hall. “Wanna join me for a successful sleepover? My quarters?”

           “So, you’re not going to judge me for the sleepover thing?”

           “I literally just asked you to do another one, Hera.”

           “Right. Well, I dunno if—”

           “Oh, don’t tell me you’re gonna say no to me now – I was getting all excited.”

           I huffed, looking over to him. He was smiling. “Well, I—”

           “Please?” he paused, “Although, if you really don’t want to—”

           “Yes.”

           “What?”

           “I’ll join you for your silly sleepover.”

           He laughed, stopping in front of the door I presumed to be his. He punched in the code, and the door opened, revealing BB-8 in the middle of room.

           Poe let go of me and stepped inside, kneeling in the floor in front of his droid to greet him. I stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure of what to do.

           He glanced at me. “Well, don’t just stand there—make yourself at home.” He stood up, guiding BB-8 to his charging station and helping him get situated.

           Quietly, I dumped my blanket and pillow on the end of his bed and plopped down next to them, watching Poe as he fished things out of his drawers and disappeared into the refresher. A minute later, he stuck his head out, gesturing behind him:

           “You need anything from in here?”

           I shook my head.

           “Alrighty – I’ll just be a minute, sweetheart.”

           I nodded, blushing at the nickname, and laid back on the mattress to stare at the ceiling. His room was covered in trinkets and papers and knick-knacks and posters. His desk chair had a colored blanket on it, and more blankets were stacked on top of the dresser. The mirror had beads and charms and necklaces strung all over it, and medallions had been hung up on the peg next to it. My quarters, compared to his, was rather plain – there wasn’t any particular reason for me to keep around trinkets or things from my early childhood on Taris or school years on Hosnian Prime. My father spent all of his time in the Senate, so I never had the childhood adventures that Poe’s room seemed to innately imply. I was pulled out of my thoughts, though, when he emerged from the refresher, dressed for sleep.

           “Whatcha thinking?” he asked as he walked towards me.

           “Just admiring the room.”

           He nodded, laying down next to me on his side, his head propped on his arm. “Anything in particular you like?”

           “The colors.”

           He laughed at that, glancing around his room. “I guess there’s a lot of them. I presume your room doesn’t look like this then?”

           I snorted. “Nope. I’ve got Tarisian purple stuff from my dad and his senatorial stints, some stuff from the Medical Academy on Hosnian, a few things here and there from friends over the years. It’s kinda monochrome in there, to be honest. I never saw the point in having so much stuff, I guess.”

           He nodded. “So, a Senator’s daughter, huh?”

           “Yep. That’s how I met the General for the first time, actually.”

           “Really?”

           “Yeah. I was probably five or six, maybe, and she came through the Senate to speak with everyone, and she’d brought her son with her, too. She’d said something about how this was the last time she’d have him around for a while, I think. Anyways, fond memories. My dad really liked her, back then.”

           “Liked?”

           “He’s not so fond of the Resistance. Or the First Order, really.”

           Poe hummed in acknowledgement. “So, the General has a son?”

           I shrugged. “I dunno, he was probably eight or nine when we met. Seemed nice… a little shy. Not sure what happened to him, though. Never saw him again after that.”

           Poe nodded. “Well, enough talk. What d’you wanna do to pass the time?”

           “Uh, I don’t know. You have any ideas?”

           He pushed himself up, configuring our bodies so that he was holding himself above me. “I have a few ideas,” he said with a smirk.

           “Am I going to like these ideas?”

           “Oh, I don’t know. You might.” He leaned down over me a little bit, pecking my nose and pulling back up again.

           “Was this your plan all along?”

           He shook his head, “No, actually. Thought of it while you were going on about the rooms.”

           I nodded. “Well… I guess I’m not opposed.”

           He smiled, eyes shimmering with that look again. “Wonderful. Better get to it then.” He leaned down, pressing his lips to mine. His left hand drifted down my side, to rest on my hip bone, and he shifted a little, bracing his knees on either side of my legs. I smiled against his lips, and he pulled away slowly, pupils blown wide.

           “You sure?” he muttered, his mouth inches from mine.

           “Oh, I’m sure, sweetheart.”

           He grinned.

[raindrops-on-the-roof]

major fanfic progress update! please check here for updates on ALL wips!

hey everyone! this may be a bit of a long one, so i’ll post the tl;dr here and then continue on under the cut! these are all as of the 28th of May 2020!

posted: it's nothing: currently completed. if there's more carmen/gray content in the next season you betcha I'm gonna update it though! hash for updates: its nothing

here is something to believe in: on temporary hiatus while I work out where I want the direction of the plot to go. i try to post progress with the hash: histbi

unposted: red threads, golden chains: Phoenix Wright! a wrightworth-centric eight-chapter analysis of the original game (with artistic liberty involved, of course!). hash: red threads golden chains

You can lead a horse to Water: Fire Emblem: Three houses! a half-finished claudeleth drabble focusing on Byleth's thoughts of Garreg Mach. not sure how far it'll extend yet; we'll see. hash on tumblr: horse to water

Jump into the Fog: Overwatch! a multichap Symmrat fanfic based around the overwatch recall (cause there isn't enough of those!). title is shamelessly stolen from The Wombats and the legendary vargrimar and nezkah. hash for this: jitf!

more information on all of these under the cut! 

Extended version!

it’s nothing: currently completed at about 8k words!  i originally intended to leave it open ended at chp 3 for next season (which is confirmed!! hooray!!) but I eventually succumbed to y'all asking for more haha. not sure the direction i would take other than that though, and i feel like the ending suits the rush of it!

here is something to believe in: on temporary hiatus at around 30k words! i know this is disappointing to a lot of you but i honestly wrote most of those words in a spur of inspiration without any thought as to how it would work lmao. i need some time to work out what the plot will be so that my writing has direction and you guys aren’t left disappointed. the other thing is that chapters are currently spanning a half day at a time and i cannot continue that considering the game spans several years! so i need to plan that out too. would appreciate any advice/assistance! i’m also still looking for anyone interested in betaing it! please pm me if you are :D

red threads, golden chains: currently sitting in my doc at about 20k words. i started this fic almost a year ago as a guilty pleasure during my last year at school (which is mostly why it didn’t get finished) but it is almost completed! i think only another 5k words max before it’s edited and posted which is super exciting! it’s likely going to be about eight chapters, posted weekly. keep an eye on the hash for updates! here is a taster (i haven’t written the description yet lmao): 

“Edgeworth glares at him again and Phoenix remembers when they were on the same side. He supposes that it had never been intentional to chase Edgeworth, but that was just how things ended up: he doesn’t think he’s thankful for Dahlia, exactly, but almost certainly without her he never would’ve met Mia the way he did.

The more he thinks about it, the more he thanks his lucky stars that he fell into her lap and reconsidered that day - the day Miles defended him in class and seared himself into Phoenix’s memory. From that day, Miles showed him he wasn’t and never would be alone.

Until the incident, of course.

He left, and never explained why. He left Phoenix behind, and though that view is childish and he knows it, he can’t help but feel the cold space he left behind, tugging at his very being for years and years.”

look forward to it!

You can lead a horse to Water: it’s a oneshot; currently about a quarter done at around 1.5k. Claudeleth/Bylaude is probably in my top fire emblem ships so i just HAD to write something for it after the feels of this fic and ESPECIALLY this fic! the stunning poetry inspired me so much; just read these lines: ‘He wonders in-between breaths “If she could see me now, would she hate me?”.

Yet what he says is “If I need to shut up, then make me.”

And what he thinks is “If this is a nightmare, then wake me.”’ SPECTACULAR! unfortunately the fic is orphaned, but still, please go read it!

songs such as Charlie by Mallrat and Apricot Princess by Rex Orange County also inspired this! no clue when it’ll be up, but i’m not letting go of it. here’s a taste:

“The first time Byleth saw Claude, it was like something clicked.

Not visibly and hardly mentally, of course - but in her heart, despite its determination not to beat, something almost shifted, like it realised its perpetual emotionless state was unsustainable and impossible against his charming smiles.

Except, his smiles weren’t charming; they were razor-sharp, pointy and pointed, and it would take a long time before that changed, unfortunately.”

watch this space for more updates!

Jump into the Fog: the plans are currently at about 6k lmao! i am very excited for this fic cause it’ll be my first fully planned one! i have the overarching plot and all the characters planned out (everyone will be there, even Echo!) and am just writing the seperate character arc plots and finishing up the ideas for individual missions and such! here is the summary:

“Through no fault of her own, Symmetra finds out of Vishkar’s wrongdoing. Not knowing who to trust and having nowhere to go, she follows the last person on Earth she wanted to see to somewhere that can help her; Overwatch.

His health quickly deteriorating, Junkrat resigns himself to his shortened lifespan and decides to go out with a bang. Recalling a doctor who saved countless lives from his youth, Roadhog doesn’t take that lying down, and the ensuing hunt places them at Overwatch’s door.”

timeline placement: takes past after two weeks after the Paris mission shown in the Overwatch two release video. easy to assume after the events of the Christmas of year one of the recall. Baptiste’s betrayal of Talon brought a year earlier. Junkrat and Roadhog in Australia for Christmas, Lucio’s record released after Vishkar left Rio in November of that year. hence, this takes place in early Jan.

at the moment the planned ships are 100% symmrat, gency and bunnyribbit, and am considering the rest of the characters’ ships. i am also trying to make it as scientifically viable as possible! no cheesing here, i did my research into radiation poisioning lmao. Satya actually gets her friend *cough* Baptiste *cough* to disconnect her arm as she flees from Vishkar! the people present at the Overwatch base when they arrive (a week between them) are the people shown in Zero Hour, minus Genji (which will be explained!)

I’m SO excited for this fic, but I have no idea when it will be ready to post lol. I will likely try to finish other things before starting writing it (namely horse to water and red threads, golden chains and maybe even histbi), so the plans may sit dormant for some time. will be putting out a call for betas when i start writing!

thank you for reading, everyone! stay safe out there!

[marvelous-writer]

#100 on fic prompts?

100. “You can only suffer through my whining for so long until you get up and make me a sandwich.”

Tony still didn’t know how he got here, stuck on the couch with his feet propped up on the long chaise, two pillows underneath his leg that was wrapped up in an obnoxious red and yellow cast, colors that were chosen by his five year old daughter.

He always use to get injured whenever he was in the suit but ever since he retired from being Iron Man and settled into this provincial life he’s made for himself… it’s been pretty dull and painfully uneventful.

That is until he tripped over his own two feet and fell down a flight of stairs in his own home.

Thankfully, Happy had been there yesterday afternoon when it happened and Pepper was out with Morgan shopping. The last thing he’d ever want is for his daughter to be traumatized from the sight of her old man being peeled off from the floor by Happy with a horrifyingly not normal shape to his right leg.

A trip to the ER and multiple x-rays and scans later discovered that it was a clean break, not bad but definitely not good. The doctor estimated the recovery time to be six to eight weeks and it was an absolute miracle he didn’t need surgery, which he was immensely thankful for.

He just wasn’t feeling so thankful now, however, and being trapped on the couch certainly wasn’t helping him.

“I seriously feel like I’m going insane.” Tony said, staring blankly at the TV on the wall as it played yet another episode of MythBusters.

He heard a sigh beside him, causing him to tilt his head, taking in Peter’s slightly amused expression as he watched the show.

“What am I going to do for six weeks? I have projects that I need to get to in the lab and I was supposed to bring Morgan horseback riding next Friday.” Tony complained, earning another sigh from the kid.

“And I already told you that I’m fine with going with her and Pepper. And if you’re talking about building Morgan that electric sled for the winter, Pepper already said no, like twice.”

“Yeah, but I know you’d get a kick out of using it.” Tony threw him a grin.

Peter smiled and shook his head, choosing not to answer to that, which was a complete dead giveaway. Tony could only imagine the fun the two of them would have on those things when the winter came, zipping around the yard on their electric sleds, sliding down those steep hills amongst their thirty acres of property.

Was he trying to bribe the kid into letting him get off the couch? Yes. Yes indeed because Tony was surely to lose his mind before the end of the day.

Pepper had to go to work, Happy bringing her, and Rhodey was away on an Avengers mission, and Pepper had brought Morgan to work with her so he wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of anyone but himself, plus he wasn’t exactly in the condition to. So, that was how Peter showed up a few hours earlier right before Pepper left, given strict instructions of keeping Tony off his leg and not letting him do anything stupid.

So basically he was on house arrest.

Tony let out an annoyed sigh and crossed his arms over his chest, focusing back on the TV.

“You’re pouting.” Peter pointed out.

“Am not.”

“Yes you are.”

Tony half-heartedly glared over at him before dropping his arms at his sides, letting his head fall back against the pillows he was propped up against. Of all the forms of torture he’s been through, being trapped on the couch seemed like the worst of them all right now. He always needed to move around and work, whether it be tinker in the garage, fix something around the house, or even whip up something relatively edible in the kitchen.

“Yeah, well just be grateful that you have that super fast healing ability of yours. A break like this would be healed in at least three or four days for you. I don’t suppose you could share any of it with your old man?” Tony asked, rolling his head to the side towards Peter, who just smirked at his comment.

“I would if I could.” He said. “And it actually took me two days the last time.” He smirked.

Tony closed his eyes, trying to get the memory of Peter in the medbay after a particularly bad patroll that had gone south when he ran out of web fluid mid swing. “Yeah don’t remind me. I still get nightmares about that.”

“Sorry.” Peter softly said, sounding guilty.

The room went silent for a few minutes, except for the TV. Rain was lightly tapping against the windows outside, giving the atmosphere a slightly relaxed vibe despite his anxiety clawing away at his chest.

“Gerald should probably be in with it raining…” Tony said as he began to push himself up, only for a firm hand to gently push him back to the couch.

“I’ll go bring him in if he’s not. Just stay here and don’t move.” Peter said as he stood up from the couch, already making his way over to the front door, picking his jacket up from the rack and slipping his sneakers on.

“But-”

“Nope! No buts. I’ll be back in a second.” Peter told him as he opened the door, turning around with a finger pointed at him. “Stay.”

Tony’s face scrunched up in displeasure at that. “Did you really just tell me to stay? I’m not a dog, kid.”

Peter rolled his eyes with a smile before he stepped out on the front porch and closed the door behind himself, leaving Tony alone in the living room.

He blew out a breath through his mouth, folding his arms over his chest as he sat there. It wasn’t even a few moments later when the front door opened again and Peter walked in, his jacket completely soaked.

“He was already in there so I closed the door a bit.” Peter told him as he toed his shoes off as he peeled his jacket off, hanging it back up on the coat rack.

“Thanks.”

Peter hummed in response as he made his way back over and settled on the couch beside him, tucking against Tony’s side without any warning, earning a soft chuckle from him. He wrapped an arm around the kid’s shoulders, his lips pulling into a small smile as he breathed in the kid’s vanilla shampoo scented hair.

“Do you need anything?” Peter asked after a few moments of peaceful silence passed by as they listened to the rain.

“I need off of this couch, like yesterday.”

Peter breathed out a laugh into his shoulder.

“I’m not kidding. I need to get up and move around. I’ll even use the crutches, just like the doctor told me to.”

“Pepper gave me strict instructions to make sure you stayed off your feet, the only exception being the bathroom.”

“You practically carried me to the bathroom the last time I asked.”

“Just following orders.” Peter mumbled into his side and Tony could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

“Yeah, sure you were. Sure.” Tony grumbled, running a hand through the teen’s curls.

They stayed like that for some time after that, switching from the Discovery Channel to Hallmark, where one of the new June Weddings movies was playing. It was no secret that Peter enjoyed watching Hallmark movies because May and him always seemed to watch the movie marathons around Christmas time, as well as Thanksgiving. And May’s obsession had bled over to Pepper becoming obsessed when the two had their weekly phone calls. Ever since, they’ve had the Hallmark channel favorited on their television network, alongside Tony’s subscription of American Heroes.

“Why can’t she see that this guy’s a complete dick?” Tony asked, raising a hand towards the TV. “Just look at him. Why take a lady out on a date if you can’t take a minute to stop looking at your phone?”

“Seriously.” Peter agreed next to him, still leaning against him.

They were about a quarter into the movie when Tony glanced at the clock on the wall, seeing that it was well past noon time.

“You hungry? When was the last time you ate?” Tony asked, tilting his head down to look at the kid.

“Uh, since Happy picked me up from the apartment this morning I guess? But yeah, I could eat. What do you want?”

“I’m thinkingsandwiches.” Tony said as he began to sit up more so he could swing his casted leg over the side of the couch, feeling the limb pulsate with a dull ache, despite him being on some hefty pain meds.

Peter put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “Nuhuh. Sit down. I’ll go make it.”

“Kid. I really don’t need you doing everything for me. I’ve broken a lot more bones before, some that were a lot worse than this. And this... is nothing.” Tony gestured to his casted leg. “C’mon just let me up.” He said as he tried to take the kid’s hand off but he wouldn’t budge.

He looked over at him, lip pulled to the side with an eyebrow raised, only to find Peter with a determined expression on his face, starting at him in a silent warning, which was a bit uncharacteristic of the kid. Was this him being overprotective or something? Was a sixteen year old seriously mother henning him right now?

Tony stared at him for a few more moments before giving in, letting out a defeated sigh, slumping back against the couch. “You can only suffer through my whining for so long until you get up and make me a sandwich.” He said, meeting the kid’s eyes once again.

Peter smiled and stood up from the couch, helping him by lifting his good leg back onto the chaise, as well as adjusting the pillows his broken leg was elevated on.

“Turkey and cheese?” Peter called over his shoulder as he walked towards the kitchen to the refrigerator.

“Smoked ham, too please.” Tony begrudgingly answered from his spot on the couch.

When Peter came back in the living room with the sandwiches and their beverages, he handed Tony his plate before resuming his spot curled up beside him, digging into one of his two sandwiches. Tony smiled to himself as he stole a few glances over at the kid throughout the remainder of the movie. While he wouldn’t admit it to anyone, maybe being confined to the couch wasn’t such a bad thing, especially if it meant he got to spend some quality one-on-one time with his kid.

[missjanjie]

Branjie Fic | Bad Girls Club (1/?)

Title: Bad Girls Club Summary:  Los Angeles' new program, the Juvenile Female Rehabilitation Program (JFRP) was created with the purpose of taking at-risk girls in the county and send them to a summer-long program located where a sleepaway camp once stood. There, they will take classes in ethics, behavior, and other courses to help mold these young minds. Brooke Lynn and Vanessa have been sent there for wildly different reasons, but with the same result - a clean permanent record. Being roomed together, the pair might find an unlikely alliance (and maybe more) in each other. Word Count: ~2.5k Relationship: Branjie (Brooke Lynn Hytes/Vanessa Vanjie Mateo) Rating: E (for later chapters)

Read on AO3

------

“Hytes.” The woman’s beady eyes scanned the list over her reading glasses. “Room 208.” She used her pen to point down the hall before walking off to direct the next girl that walked through the door.

Brooke Lynn had only walked about six feet before she heard a room down the hall blasting Rihanna. She looked up when she’d reached the source. 208. Fantastic. Not that she had anything against the singer, but it was eight in the morning and she just was not in the mood to deal with it. Her first instinct was to storm in and shut the music off, but then she remembered where she was.

Most, if not all, of the girls here had some sort of criminal record – she doubted her situation was a common one, being a first-time offender being promised no more than a slap on the wrist once all was said and done. And she knew why – she was rich, white, had a well-connected family… This must have been what Martha Stewart felt like when she went to prison, she mused. Her hand hovered over the doorknob. Should she knock? This was her room too, after all. Besides, whoever was in there probably wouldn’t hear it over the music, so she let herself in, the door shutting behind her.

The room itself was maybe a square foot or two larger than a college dorm, comfortable, but far from roomy and accommodating. It had been re-purposed from the sleepaway camp that preceded it, and it did manage to maintain a woodsy aesthetic. Everything was clean, almost too clean – as if they weren’t supposed to touch anything. Though her roommate’s side already seemed well-lived in, as Brooke noticed when she finally allowed herself to look over towards her.

On the right side of the room, the other inhabitant hadn’t even looked up when she’d walked in. When Brooke’s gaze drifted towards her, she stopped in her tracks. She had wavy, chestnut-brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail, bronze skin that even looked soft to the touch, and as she painted her nails, her tongue was pressed between her lips – soft lips that made Brooke wonder what they’d feel like if—

The music cut off in the middle of ‘Disturbia.’ “Are you my roommate or do you work here?” the girl asked, yanking Brooke from her silent assessment.

“Roommate.” Brooke blushed and moved with her luggage to the other side of the room. “My name’s Brooke Lynn,” she introduced.

“Vanessa. Miss Vanjie if you’re nasty,” she laughed at herself before blowing on her nails and admiring her handiwork. Once done, she sat upright and looked her over. “You lost or something? I think cheer camp’s down the road.” Despite her comments, there wasn’t any malice in her tone.

Brooke looked down, rubbing her arm awkwardly. “No, no. I’ve been… Sentenced to charm school instead of ‘conventional punishment’ just like you, more or less.” She had no idea what Vanessa was actually in for, but the absolute nonchalant attitude she had made it clear that she wasn’t the same anxious, uncertain, ‘just slipped up’ type.

Vanessa snorted in laughter. “For what? Some white people shit like…” She was drawing a blank. “Tax evasion?”

Brooke covered her mouth as she giggled. “No, no, nothing like that.” She looked down, fiddling with her hair. “A guy kept hitting on my friend at work. When she finally outright rejected him, he got her fired. So… I slashed his tires.” She didn’t regret what she had done, but everyone from her parents to teachers acted like she had lost her mind whenever she told the story.

But not Vanessa. No, she was smiling at her, nodding her head in approval. “Shit, that’s pretty badass for someone that looks like Elle Woods,” she mused.

“Hey, Elle Woods is badass!” Brooke retorted. “But…thanks, I think. What about you – what sort of wild felony did you commit that makes you such an authority?”

Vanessa rolled her eyes and lay back down. “I got busted with a quarter ounce and a fake.” Before Brooke could ask, she clarified, “Weed and a fake ID. But I’m a ‘repeat offender’ and ‘general nuisance’,” she huffed, irritated. It wasn’t her fault – it was just how she liked to have fun. She wasn’t hurting anyone.

“And now we’re here. The great equalizer of the system,” Brooke mused as she started to unpack.

“Yo, don’t pretend for a second like the system treats us equal just ‘cause we roommates, got it? You can’t pretend they gonna look at us and treat us the same. We can sit and kiki and braid each other’s hair or whatever, but you know damn well we going home to two real different lives.” Vanessa had rolled onto her side as she spoke, bearing a piercing glare that contrasted her relaxed position.

Brooke stared at the ground and cleared her throat. “You’re absolutely right, and I’m sorry.” So much for making a good first impression she thought, and silently went back to moving her clothes into their respective drawers.

After a deep, reluctant sigh, Vanessa got up and sat next to Brooke instead. “It’s okay. I don’t want us to get off on a bad start. There’s gonna be a lot of crazy bitches in this program, might be nice to have someone in your corner, you know?”

Still a bit red in the face, Brooke Lynn faced her, tucking a few blonde strands behind her ear. “I couldn’t agree more.” A smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she felt a weight lift off of her chest. “Allies?” She extended her hand out.

Vanessa chuckled and shook her hand. “Sure, allies.” She tilted her head, studying Brooke’s hand for a moment. “You got short nails,” she remarked. “Is that a personal preference or—”

“Yes, I’m a lesbian, Vanessa,” Brooke laughed softly.

“Duly noted.”

------

It was the first night at the JFRP, and all two hundred girls had been funneled into the mess hall for dinner. This room was the most obvious remainder of the site’s days as a sleepaway camp, leaving it just endearing enough to make them forget where they were, if only for a meal. Brooke Lynn had just taken her plate of uniformly unappetizing dinner and searched aimlessly for a seat. There didn’t seem to be a spot for her to sit in.

Vanessa noticed this and, after going back and forth for a moment, took pity on her. “Yo, roomie, over here!” The smile and relief on the blonde’s face was just enough to keep her from regretting the decision.

The other girls, her friend, A’keria and two other girls – Yvie and Scarlet – if she remembered correctly, at the table had hardly acknowledged Brooke directly, rather exclusively to each other through unsubtle whispering – mostly speculation that Vanessa was only tolerating Brooke’s presence because ‘she looked like a Barbie doll’ and ‘hey, if she’s flexible enough…’

“Would all of y’all shut the fuck up? Crazy asses.” Vanessa had whirled around to snap at them, glaring pointedly.

Yvie’s brow rose and a smirk hit her lips. “Thou doth protest too much,” she chided.

“Don’t even care enough to ask what you mean.” She rolled her eyes.

“What’s going on?” Brooke asked, looking up from her tray and towards the other four girls, having been fading in and out of paying attention.

Vanessa turned, angling herself between Brooke and the other girls to intercept. “Nothing, they just being stupid, don’t pay them bitches no mind,” she assured, spending the rest of the meal making sure the two conversations didn’t overlap.

Luck was with her, as they got through dinner without Brooke Lynn catching on to the adjacent gossip. But whatever luck she had immediately dissipated when they returned to their room. Vanessa’s bed was stripped bare and there was a note taped to the frame. Apparently, there had been reports of mold on the beds and each of them were inspected during dinner. While Brooke hadn’t been affected, she was stuck without a bed for the night. “This is bullshit,” she muttered. “What the fuck am I supposed to do now?”

“You can share with me,” Brooke offered with a shrug and a small smile. “I know it’s a little tight, but I don’t mind if you don’t.” In fact, she reallydidn’t mind, but she swore it was coming from a kind place and not a sexual one.

And Vanessa wasn’t sure how to make heads or tails of it either – but she sure as hell wasn’t about to sleep on the floor. “You sure? ‘Cause that does sound like the best option here,” she admitted, sitting down on the unaffected bed.

“Of course, it’s the least I could do.” Brooke got up and grabbed her toothbrush and pajamas. “I’ll be right back,” she said and went down the hall to the bathroom.

It had only taken Vanessa a minute to get changed, leaving her alone on Brooke’s bed, which in and of itself didn’t mean anything, but the temptation to snoop was starting to grow. A little peek couldn’t hurt, right? All she took was a quick look through the top drawer – just enough for her to be impressed by the fact that Brooke appeared to own half of a Victoria’s Secret catalog. She had thought she’d spotted something else as well, but she heard footsteps down the hall and slammed the drawer shut, avoiding getting caught by the skin of her teeth.

Brooke got under the covers after she set her belongings down. “I’m gonna turn in now, just make yourself comfortable.” She rolled over and closed her eyes.

------

Despite having fallen asleep facing the wall, Brooke had awoken to find herself spooning Vanessa from behind, her face buried into her thick mane that smelled faintly of vanilla and cinnamon. Her smaller body felt so warm and soft against her own and god, if she could only just lay there a little longer…

The default iPhone alarm had just become Brooke’s least favorite sound in the world. Having to untangle herself from a barely awake Vanessa caused her damn near real pain. “Class is in an hour,” she mumbled to her bed companion as she pushed herself to a sitting position and rubbed her eyes.

Vanessa rolled onto her stomach and groaned into the pillow. “Shouldn’t have to wake up at eight in the fucking morning in the summer,” she muttered.

“This is still a punishment,” Brooke reminded her as she carefully navigated around her to get out of bed and dress for the day.

Vanessa rolled her eyes as she pulled herself together. “This is still a punishment,” she mocked under her breath as she ran a brush through her hair. She threw her bag over her shoulder and shoved her hands into her pockets before they walked – not together, but in tandem – to the main building.

In front of the building were a few tables, milk crates full of paper bags on each of them. ‘Breakfast’ was written in marker and taped to the front of each crate and each girl took a bag as they went inside.

There were about ten minutes of just chatting while eating their single-serve packages of cereal and dubiously ripe oranges. The teacher had entered in the midst of breakfast, and even when everyone had settled down, there was an air of confusion around her presence.

Considering the circumstances, everyone had expected someone gruff and serious – maybe a cop or a warden or something. Instead, they had a tall, cheerful woman that stepped right out of a Disney cartoon.

“Good morning, ladies. My name is Ms. West and I’ll be your behavioral modification instructor for the duration of this program,” she greeted and wrote her name on the board. “I will say, I am surprised to see some familiar faces here, but no matter, you’re all equal in my eyes.”

Brooke sunk into her seat, wishing now more than ever that she was anywhere but in this classroom. She dropped her gaze to the desk, pointedly avoiding eye contact with the teacher.

Vanessa, sitting a row over, waved her hand to get Brooke’s attention and mouthed ‘what’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ Brooke mouthed, shaking her head and then huddling herself over the syllabus when it made its way down the line to her.

The rest of the introductory class had gone in one ear and out the other. Brooke Lynn’s mind felt cloudy, as if it’d slipped into a sea of fog that filled up her head and only threatened to escape through the mist in her eyes. Her cheeks burned red, fueled by the rapid beating of her heart. This was the last thing she had wanted, the one thing she didn’t have any sort of plan for.

“I’m surprised to see you here, Brooke Lynn,” Nina said when she started towards the exit. “This isn’t your scene at all, what happened?”

“I messed up.” She shrugged and put her hands on her hips. “I did something I wasn’t supposed to, and now I’m paying the price.” She sighed and looked down. “Please don’t let this get out back home, I’ve been keeping it a secret.”

Nina nodded. “I’ve never broken a promise to you before,” she assured, then tilted her head. “You should get going, your friend’s waiting for you.” She used her head to gesture back towards the rows of desks.

Brooke’s brows knit forward before she turned around and saw Vanessa lingering, sitting up on one of the desks and swinging her legs. “Oh, yeah… Come on, Vanjie. We should go.” She pressed her lips into a fine line and briskly walked out of the class, inadvertently making it difficult for the shorter girl to catch up.

“Okay, now will you tell me what the fuck is going on?” Vanessa asked, out of breath.

“Nina – Ms. West – is a teacher at the school I go to. And it’s…well, it’s the type of school you probably think I go to.” She chuckled dryly. “She’s like a mentor to me, I really respect her. I feel like I’m letting her down by being here, and gossip spreads so fast…”

“But you aren’t here ‘cause of some stupid shit. You’re here for standing up for your friend. I bet that’d get you a lot of street cred in whatever fancy-ass private school you go to,” Vanessa offered with a soft smile.

Brooke sighed and shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. Where I’m from, ‘street cred’ is a mark against you. You have to be as close to the norm as possible. Coming out caused enough drama, I don’t need this on me too,” she explained. “So, I just have to be as boring as possible.”

Vanessa let out a soft laugh. “I don’t care what you do back home, but there’s no way I’m letting you be lame here.”

“Is that a threat or a promise?”

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see, babe.”