#did i just take the first little guy i saw and decided to shelter him. surely i did

[aryshacore]

you know that post about missing the people we saw in our dreams bc we will most likely never see them again ? that's today's mood. in last night's dream i had a little brother and i've kept thinking about him all day </3 i remember that all i wanted was to protect him & for us to be happy together oughhhhh where are you my baby

[xveenusx]

You

Paring(s): JJ maybank x fem!reader

Summary: Request- John b's little sister grew up with JJ. Both boys are protective of her but when John B and Sarah leave on the boat, she only has JJ. She realizes she has feelings for him, not knowing he feels the same.

Authors note: I decided I could give you guys a sprinkle of fluff and slight smut after the last two pieces! This takes place at the beginning of season 2 where they believe Sarah and John b are dead.

Also, someone complained about the length of my pieces. I know they’re long but it’s just my writing style. I like for the readers to feel what the main character is feeling. If the length bothers you, then don’t read it!

_______________

Angry.

That’s how I felt.

At myself. At my dad. At John B.

When we first lost our dad, it didn’t feel real. I waited outside on the steps of the chateu hoping to see him come back on his boat. Suddenly, hours turned to days which turned into months and the hope that filled my chest shrank bit by bit until I no longer sat outside.

Instead, John B and I did what we could. After successfully evading CPS, we decided it was best to lay low. That was the thing about us, we always managed to make the best out of a shitty situation because let’s face it, being born on the cut was shitty situation after shitty situation.

Unfortunately, it felt like the stress had finally caught up to me. Being surrounded by unfamiliar people caused a bitter sense of panic to fill my very core. My anxiety had amplified tenfold as the once out going girl became completely sheltered.

It was safer that way. At least, if I isolated myself, losing someone else won’t hurt as bad as this. Because as long as I had my brother, everything else was manageable.

Losing my dad was tough, almost impossible but at least I had John B.

Until, I didn’t.

It didn’t hit me until I saw the boat capsize with my brother and Sarah in it. I was truly an orphan, in every sense of the word.

My knees had given out as every emotion crashed into my body like a violent tsunami. A silent scream leaving my body as I could no longer hold myself up.

Familiar arms caught me just as I was about to hit the floor, the rain pounded into my skin like thousands of needles. As I drew in a sharp breath, my voice impossible to find, a delicate smell of sex wax and salt filled my nose.

JJ.

“Please breathe. I need you to take a b-breath,” He pleaded, his voice shook in obvious grief. He had just lost his brother too.

I couldn’t seem to do what he was asking. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing for this nightmare to end, but thought after thought slammed into my head repeatedly. My chest squeezed tightly, so tight that I began to claw at it, desperate to relieve the tension.

Yet, nothing seemed to work. I could see him now, his image blurred due to the tears falling from my eyes. His mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear anything.

My fingers slowly started to cramp due to the lack of oxygen from my inability to calm down. The tidal wave known as anxiety pulled me deep, my vision slowly becoming black before my unconscious body falls limp in the arms of my brother’s best friend.

_________

I hated this sign.

My eyes glared at the makeshift headstone my friends made for Sarah and John B that was carved into the tree.

It served as another reminder that my brother left me.

I’ve become close friends with anger and sadness.

Our friends tried to give me a sense of stability and normalcy, one that I’ve been lacking since the moment our dad died. Kie always stopped by bringing left overs from her parent’s restaurant. Pope would help me with my homework and go over scholarship options. I knew he was trying to help me plan for the future, but we both knew he was the only one that could really get out. I welcomed the distraction and tried to enjoy the small bubble I’ve created for myself.

And then, there was JJ.

JJ was special.

He all but moved in to the chateau, never leaving me alone in my thoughts for too long. He took up a serving job at some kook club to feed us and always brought me with him. I would sit in a small corner throughout, his shifts and enjoy his company.

In a way, I think it was for him just as much as it was for me. We had both bonded over the loss of my brother and it caused an invisible string to tether us together in a way that almost felt intimate.

I blew out a breath.

Standing up, I wiped off the dirt from my thighs and flexed my hands. JJ was on his way to pick me up and take me to the annual bonfire here on the island.

When he asked me, my first reaction was an immediate no. I had avoided going near large groups of people since they believed my brother to be a murder, therefore, making me guilty by association. Just the thought of surrounding myself around those people made my skin itch.

But I also knew that we were both desperate to feel the closest thing to normal that we could find.

What he didn’t know was that feeling of normalcy could only be achieved when he was with me. Breathing was easier when he was with me, living was easier.

The familiar sound of a bike engine caused my stomach to flutter with nerves.

“You ready?”

Inhaling deeply, I turned around to see JJ leaning against his bike looking every bit as handsome as the first time I laid eyes on him. He was grinning, something he reserved just for me, with a toothpick on one side.

If he was here, then I’d be able to do anything.

“I go where you go.”

JJ’s blue eyes shined at my words. He shot me his infamous smirk that nearly caused the butterflies in my stomach to erupt.

“You got that right. Get on the bike, let’s get the fuck out of here.”

My brain was my biggest enemy. It had a tendency to disrupt whatever sense of peace I had and destroy it with every self sabotaging thought I’ve ever had.

In this case, my brain wanted to know just how many girls sat there before me.

Noticing my hesitation, JJ raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. “What’s up?”

“I just don’t want to get cooties from all the girls you let on this thing.”

He rolled his eyes. “Get your ass on the bike.”

My feet moved towards the bike as I mumbled under my breath. Stopping in front of him, JJ brushes some loose strands of my hair out of my face before grabbing the helmet that was on the seat.

I reached for it but JJ shoved my hands away, shooting me a flat look. Huffing, I stood there as JJ placed the helmet on my head, tightening the strap under my chin.

“Why do I have to wear a helmet and you don’t?”

“Because you matter.” His response was immediate.

Speechless, I said nothing more as he continued with the unnecessary pampering before he finally let me on the bike. Revving the engine, JJ kicks up the stand before reaching behind and grabbing my arm, settling it around his waist. He tapped my thigh twice to signal we were going and we took off.

I clung to his body, watching as the greenery blurred into one large mass, my thoughts doing the same.

You matter.

You matter.

You matter.

But what did that mean? What did it mean to him? What did I mean to him?

Because, I knew exactly what he meant to me.

There were small moments we shared. Our eye contact would stay on each other for a beat too long or his hands would linger just a minute longer than normal.

I knew, at least for me, our friendship had reached a very blurred line. My feelings for him seemed to consume me but I couldn’t tell how he felt. No one ever could, JJ didn’t let them.

He would say things like this that would completely throw me out of the loop. So we settled into a routine, one that resembled a relationship yet we weren’t in one.

The familiar cackle of the fire and shouts of excitement signaled that we were close to the party. Unease leaked into my bloodstream as I flexed my fingers into JJ’s shirt, the nerves sky rocketing.

JJ parked next to some truck but my focus was broken. My eyes jumped all over, taking in the scene all while trying to remind myself to breathe. People were shot gunning while others were playing beer pong, kooks and pouges alike.

Everyone was laughing and smiling, but it all seemed foreign to me. This was what I used to do, when things weren’t as complicated and dark as they were now. It felt almost wrong to go dancing and drinking when my life was in shambles.

A small touch to my wrist pulled me out of my thoughts as I turned to face JJ. A look of concern painted his face as he pressed his fingers against my wrist, checking my pulse.

“JJ, I’m fine.” I said exasperated but secretly, I adored how he took care of me. It made me feel like to him, I was different than all the other girls.

I just couldn’t decipher if he took care of me out of obligation to John B or because he actually cared for me.

He picked up this habit after I passed out in his arms. JJ always brushed his fingers against the inside of my wrist, just to double check that I wasn’t going to pass out again.

My anxiety was yet another monster I had to tackle after I lost John B and JJ was the only one that could calm me down. He weighed me down like an anchor.

“Look at me,” he demanded, his fingers lifting my chin causing my eyes to meet his.

His gaze ran over every inch of my face before a small satisfied smile played his lips.

“Do you believe me now?”

JJ shot me a wink, before cupping my face gently. “I’ll be back with tequila, don’t move.”

A small laugh left my mouth. “JJ, I don’t hang out with anyone else.”

“I’m all you can handle anyways, baby.”

My stomach dipped at the term of endearment. Laughing it off, I shooed him away and within seconds people were calling out his name, tugging him into their groups.

He seemed relax—happy even—to be surrounded by familiar people that I’m sure made him feel normal. I wanted him to have that, god, did I want him to have that.

So I ignored the nausea that nipped at my throat and spent the next five minutes looking around, hoping to spot Pope or Kie with no luck.

JJ deserved some time that didn’t involve watching me.

Only, I didn’t expect him to disappear for the rest of the night.

Hours later, I pushed passed the sweaty, overheated bodies as the bass of the music trembled through the air rattling my chest. The mass of bodies caused a layer of sweat to cover my body the further I went into the crowd. Intense rap music was being blasted instantly getting a reaction by the drug induced people around me.

Just by a simple sweep of the overcrowded property, I gave it a solid half hour before the cops showed up.

A large figure stumbled into me, beer sloshing onto my top. I gasped, stepping back slightly wincing at the cold liquid dripping down my stomach.

"Sorry," He slurred before stumbling back into the mosh pit of raging teens.

A familiar laugh rang out and almost immediately my body reacted to it. It was odd. After years of hearing his voice and his laugh, you would think I'd have gotten used to it by now, but no.

The effect he had on my body left me stunned.

My eyes were drawn to him instantly. I blocked everything else out.

His head was tilted back as he belted out another laugh. JJ was leaning against a wall with a hand holding a beer bottle loosely and the other moving as he spoke animatedly to the group that surrounded him.

His sun touched skin complimented his bright blue orbs that shined with a child-like wonder. JJ’s golden colored locks were thick and fell into a messy heap on his head, loose strands brushing against his forehead.

The black cut muscle tee he wore displayed every muscle as he continued to move his arms to accompany his storytelling.

JJ Maybank was a sight for sore eyes.

He was still talking rapidly when he glanced up and locked eyes with mine. JJ’s ocean eyes shined as he shot me a megawatt smile nearly sending me to my knees. He stopped mid-conversation and motioned for me to come over, his eyes once again gleaming with a unspoken level of affection.

I remained frozen. Sometimes this happened. I got overwhelmed by just how much I needed him.

JJ managed to knock me off my feet a solid five times a day. Each time welcomed even more than the last.

He bit his lip, stopping a smile as he bid his friends goodbye and began walking over to where I stood, running a hand through his hair messily.

I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say when a manicured hand rested itself on his stomach, stopping him in his tracks.

“Haven’t see you in awhile. Where ya been?”

Stacey Williams had this thing about her.

What it was, I couldn’t say, but it was enough for JJ to keep going back for more. She was the only other girl in his life that he gave a fraction of his attention to.

That fact alone made me nervous.

Just walk away, JJ. Please just walk away.

Instead, he took a seat next to her and shot her smile that was reserved for me.

People stumble between us, blocking my view but I could still hear them conversing.

“You know me, Steis. I’m here, I’m there. Just doin’ me.”

She let out a giggle causing me to roll my eyes. He’s really not that funny.

“You haven’t been answering my calls. I figured, tonight you could come over and we could talk.”

My stomach tied itself in knots at the silence on his end. It was almost like he was contemplating going.

“I -I can’t tonight. I came with John b’s sister.”

I winced. That’s all I was to him?

I could see Stacey lean forward and slip her hand along the open slit of his muscle tee. “She follows you around like a lost puppy, JJ. It’s almost sad if it wasn’t so weird.”

I saw him shake his head. “It’s not like that, we’re both just dealing with everything the best way we can.”

Stacey rolled her eyes before she took a sip of her drink, “JJ, your hot but please tell me you’re not that blind. The girl is basically in love with you.”

Judging by the way JJ froze, I now knew that I misjudged every interaction we’ve had to this point. He didn’t even notice how I felt.

“What-I mean-no. She’s just a girl that needs help. I mean, come on. She’s just John B’s sister.”

The only thing more humiliating than finding out the person you want doesn’t want you, is finding out they were only there for you because of an obligation.

I wasn’t special to him. I was just John B’s little sister.

I think another part of me died right there, because yet again, I have lost another person I loved.

But this time, he wasn’t gone, no—he was right in front of me, but he might as well have been a million miles away or six feet under.

Eavesdropping is the quickest way to a broken heart. Words not meant for your ears strike your heart in a brutal assault until nothing remained.

Finally, the crowd that separated us moved and I stood there stupidly staring at him.

Feeling the weight of my gaze, JJ turned his head and his eyes widened before settling into a look of guilt.

I tore my gaze off of him and looked at her. The smug smile she wore told me she intended for me to hear what he had said.

My face heated, and I glanced down at the drink in my hand. How could I be so fucking stupid?

Ignoring the sickening twists in my stomach, I tossed back the strong liquor in my cup. The burning trail the tequila left is the feeling I decided to focus on.

Spinning around, my eyes searched for another cooler, desperate to keep the burning feeling going.

“Shit-Wait,” I could hear JJ shouting for me but I kept moving.

Finding a handle of tequila, I flicked the top off and took a pull. The bitter burn fell over my body with a fuzzy warmth.

JJ knocks the bottle out of my hand.

“What the fuck is your problem?”

“Since when do you drink like that?” He asked.

“Go away, JJ. I don’t need you to babysit me anymore.”

“Listen, if this is about what I said-“

“You’re free, JJ,” my voice trembled with pain,” You don’t need to waste any more of your time on me.”

I grabbed a red solo cup, sniffing the contents, and just as I was about to chug it back, his hand slaps it out of my own.

“Will you stop fucking drinking that-“ JJ’s baby blues narrowed as he growled at me.

“What are you, my dad? You’re taking this baby sitting gig a little too seriously.”

It was, then I noticed how many eyes were on us. The music was still blasting, but no one was dancing.

My breathing picked up at the sudden attention. I dug my nails into the palm of my hand to distract my body from the ever growing panic that plagued my body.

JJ’s eye clock in on my nervous tic causing his glare to soften. A figure approaching pulled my focus off of him.

Topper strides over with a drink in his hand and a lazy smile. “Hey man-“

“Top, your wearing sandals bro. Step off.”

“I’m just saying man, she doesn’t want to talk to you.”

JJ’s eyes darkened as a threatening smile slowly graced his lips. “Wanna run that by me again?”

“I forgot that you pouges are missing a couple brain cells,” Topper lolled his head to the side and shot me a wink, “Since you’re clearly a bit slow, I’ll spell it out for you. She. Doesn’t. Want. To. Talk. To. You.”

“I dont remember you being this cocky with a gun to your head.” The words were spoken softly but the threat was clear.

A storm brewed in JJ’s eyes as the bright blue was replaced by something much darker.

My heart jumped at his tone and the look in his eyes made me swallow hard. Disgust filled me as heat began to build between my legs forcing me to press my thighs together.

Hands up on surrender, Topper shot me a look before heading back to his friends. JJ’s eyes stayed on him for a beat ensuring that he wouldn’t come back.

When he was satisfied, JJ moved towards me in quick strides making me yelp in surprise.

His ring covered hand grasped my upper arm and tugged me back to his bike. I shrugged out of his hold and crossed my arms across my chest, hoping it’ll keep a safe distance between the two of us.

I couldn’t think clearly when he was close.

“Listen-“

“No thanks.”

“If you would just-“

“Go away.”

“Can you please stop acting-“

“Why don’t you go back to Stacy? I’m sure she’d find this conversation enlightening.” I spat, shoving his reaching hands away.

“I dont want to talk to Sta-“

“Are you sure? You seemed to have a lot to say be-“

“Jesus Christ, would you just shut up?” JJ shouted with his hands in his hair.

My mouth opened and closed in shock.

“You’re the most frustrating person on this fucking island.” He growled, shaking his head in false amusement.

“Then why are you still talking to me?”

“Because it’s you.”

Throwing my hands up in defeat, I let out a bleak laugh. “What does that even mean? Stop pretending you care. Stop pretending to be my-“

“I wasn’t pretending.” He shook his head, the blue orbs pleading for me to understand,”Stacey was just saying shit to get a reaction-“

“She wasn’t wrong.”

He stopped talking and stared at me, almost confused.

My body trembled slightly with nerves as I prepared to finally expose every bit of my heart to the blue eyed boy in front of me.

“What she said—about how I feel about you. She was right. Anybody with two fucking eyes can see how I feel about you, except for you.”

I furiously wiped my eyes stop the tears from falling. I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry.

“But now I know you only see me as John B’s little sister. It’s just humiliating that you chose to say that to Stacey instead of me.”

I was going to throw up. My stomach churned and swayed but I swallowed down the urge.

JJ let out a harsh sound, “I feel fucking guilty, okay? I feel guilty that I don’t see you the way I should. John B was my best friend and now I’m falling for his sister? It’s eating at me.”

“Then leave-“

“Shut up,” He snapped. “You’ve already got to say what you wanted. It’s my turn.”

My throat tightened as I braced myself for his confession.

“I look at you and I have to stop myself from kissing you even though it’s all I can think about.”

His eye contact seared into my very soul. I could feel it pierce my pounding heart.

“So you aren’t the only one that feels something.”

My heart was in my throat as I processed his words.

“But you said-“

“I lied.” He cut me off with a shrug and advanced towards me, clearly fed up with the distance I placed between us.

In a last ditched effort, I put up my hands to stop him in his tracks. I needed to think. I needed to breathe.

“Don’t touch me.” The plea itself was weak at best.

At the sound of my sob, JJ ignores my demand, and shoves my hands away, despite my weak attempt to keep him out of my space.

Instantly, his fingers curl themselves along my wrist and take note of my pulse. He let out a distressed sound from what I can only assume is the pounding of my pulse and whispers soothing words.

Taking in gulps of air, he slowly counts me down to a manageable pace of breathing. My shaking slowly begins to subside and my very focus is just on him.

Resting his forehead on mine, JJ whispers pleadingly, “Please stop crying.”

Another kiss lands on my nose. “I’m sorry.”

His request along with his sweet pleadings, causes my defenses to crumble down. Another sob tears from my chest as I relax into his embrace.

“I didn’t mean it.” He muttered, brushing my tears away with his thumb.

“Then why did you say it?” My words were soft, barely a whisper.

“Because she’s not important enough to know how I feel.”

Our eyes were glued to each other, a deep unknown longing singeing us together.

“You said I was just some girl.”

JJ tilted my head up, his fingers trailing softly along my bottom lip, “I meant my girl.”

“I have a lot of baggage,” I gave him one more shot at leaving.

“Good thing I have a truck.”

“But she-“

He shook his head, leaning down so there’s just a sliver of space between our lips, so close that we were inhaling each others breaths.

“You’re the only one I want.”

JJ bent down, his arms circling themselves directly below my ass, and picked me up causing me to shout out in surprise.

My hands curled onto each of his arms, my stomach fluttering at the flex of his muscles. He set me on the seat of the bike, his large calloused hands gripped my upper thighs tightly sending a wave of heat right to my core.

JJ’s half lidded eyes dart between my gaze and my lips. “Tell me to stop.”

The words never crossed my lips.

He let out a sound of satisfaction, tugging my legs open to stand in between them.

His ring covered fingers danced along the strands of my hair before nesting themselves at the root, gripping the nape tightly, "You’re mine.”

Heat instantly swarmed my belly as I drastically tried to collect my thoughts. My lips trembled as he hovered over me, his figure towering over my small frame.

JJ swiped his tongue along my parted lips before biting gently. Instantly, my body jolted forward and we were chest to chest, perfectly aligned.

My grip on his biceps tightened as I tremble with anticipation.

Finally, he pressed his lips to mine, slowly guiding our kiss. Gripping my hair tighter, he tilts my head sliding his tongue inside.

A small whimper escaped my lips causing a groan to erupt from him. Almost lazily, he pulled back slightly and pulled my bottom lip into his, sucking softly.

White hot lust seared itself into my blood. I let out a whine and pushed myself up, pressing my lips to his, desperate for another taste of JJ.

My blood was pounding in my ears as I tugged him closer. Almost lazily, I teased his mouth open and slid my tongue inside. Humming with desire, I gently sucked on his tongue causing him to flex his grip on my thighs.

JJ pulled back giving me the opportunity to catch my breath. His fingertips left a heated trail along my face as he caressed every inch.

He shook his head, laughing to himself softly,” It’s you. It’s always been you.”

______________

I love sassy JJ. Sorry for the delayed upload, I got into a car accident and am just now starting to get better:)

Please let me know what you think!! Next piece will be yummy smut with Rafe

[hiwelcometothemonstersancturary]

And that's how you begin to heal (and stop Catnap and Mommy Long Legs from killing each other at the hospital)

You were hurt. Not just emotionally, of course, you were pretty much dead inside for more than ten years at this point, but you were physically what anyone could only describe as "devastated". Your back ached with carrying the grabpack around for the last four days or so, you had broken three bones in your right hand, your arms and legs had almost been torn off at least twice, and, of course, the nasty cut from almost getting impaled.

Frankly, it was a surprise that you didn't just collapse the moment the first ambulance arrived. But if you did, then your newfound kids would have panicked, and the Prototype would have been really, really mad if there was another conflict just when you all thought this nightmare was finally over.

You were gently cradling Poppy in your lap when you saw the ambulance lights in the horizon. You had tried to prepare yourself for this moment since the end of the confrontation with the Prototype, but your heart was still almost breaking out of your body with how fast it was beating. And yet, you kept a calm exterior. Comforted an anxious Dogday, let Bunzo also take shelter in your lap, much to Poppy's dismay, even tried to distract Mommy Long Legs with a joke or two.

The cops arrived first. You had put yourself between them and the group of toys, trembling from head to toe. You didn't exactly know what exactly they were going to do, but Catnap's sudden apparition behind you made some of them shiver.

You calmed down the big feline as you approached the authorities. "These guys were trapped inside the factory", you calmly communicated. "Playtime Co. made them as experiments. They're organic, very hurt, and starving. Please put your guns away unless you want to startle any of those kids".

The man you that approached you had his eyes glued on the group, who, in turn, was staring back. Your thoughts went racing to the idea of Mommy Long Legs deciding to attack them in order to protect you or herself, and you immediately just gave him the bag full of paperwork you had found on your journey. He stared at the first paper, then quickly looked at the others, then simply said:

"What the actual fuck did Playtime got themselves into...?"

"Maybe try to leave a bucket close to you. Some of the things they did won't be good for your stomach".

The cop ignored you. Then the ambulances arrived, and all hell broke lose as your last remains of sanity and calmness fought a war in order to not die from the idea of any of the toys you had just rescued ending up attacking a doctor. You came back to the group, gently begged them to be patient and to please trust the humans dressed up like doctors, and to please remember these ones were there to help, not hurt, and to please stick to each other.

Then a mini huggy tried to bite a nurse. You called out for the little guy, who simply shrugged and approached Kissy Missy, headbonking her and begging to be close to her as the strange humans surrounded you.

An hour and a half later and everyone was at the hospital, trembling and anxious, and you were stuck with Catnap and Mommy Long Legs.

"C'mon, big boy", you called for the feline. "You can do it. Just let the nurse help you!"

Catnap hissed, loud and angrily, at both you and the man with the lotion for burn treatment. Long Legs was sitting close by, eye twitching and a smirk on her face as she watched the two of you.

"Why not?!"

"I can survive. I felt worse", he told you, eyes never leaving the nurse. "Now leave".

"Theo, weren't you the one who told the Prototype it was time for us to live instead of just survive?"

Catnap then looked straight at you, looking very unhappy. The growled again before, finally, offering one of his paws for the nurse.

"Don't try to pull any tricks. I know all of them".

"Like playing dead?", Long Legs chuckled. "Like what you did to me?!"

"And now, look at where we are. I have merely lost part of my ear. You, on the other hand..."

You sighed as Long Legs got up from her chair, hand on her missing arm: "Are you sad because Mommy scared you? Booh, booh, Mommy is so scary, Prototype! Please, help me destroy Mommy!"

"I learned how to hunt. You learned how to throw a tantrum".

"And Mommy never had to call Daddy for help when she was hunting!"

"If you two keep on like this I'll undergo cardiac arrest"

The two toys stopped hissing at each other to instead stare at you with wide eyes. You made a "hmph" sound, pointing at your own bandaged chest in order to further prove the point.

"See? I'm all hurt in there! If you two don't let the nurses and doctors treat you, then I'll be the guy needing treatment".

"No, no, nononono!", Long Legs dramatically gestured a half "X" sign with her single arm, quickly going back to just sitting on her chair instead of being all spread out. "You'll see how much of an excellent patient Mommy is, don't worry! I'll show you a good example!"

"...", said Catnap, growling quietly to himself as the nurse was finally able to treat him. "... I remember you going into disiciplinary confinement more times than I ever did".

"W h a t ?", Long Legs asked.

Catnap stared at the window, tail anxiously twisting. You merely melted in your own chair, staring at the serum next to you as it was slowly trying to make your body feel better again. The nurse kept on with his job, and the TV kept on playing an episode of Pingu.

They even had disciplinary confinement, uh?, you thought, not impressed in the slightest, the memory of having to hold Long Legs in your arms so she would let the doctor examine her passing through your mind.

Catnap and MLL were now staring at the TV, little Pingu entertaining them. Poppy was asleep in another room with Bunzo, Kissy and Huggy, while both Miss Delight and Dogday were undergoing more serious medical procedures for their "conditions". The other toys were being examined, and, if everything went well, would soon return to you. And Prototype was doing his job back at the factory at making sure no one would find the how tos of transforming a person into a toy...

You closed your eyes, feeling true relief for the first time in your life.

Maybe, just maybe, after all of this was said and done, you could all live together as one big family. That was what Poppy suggested, at least, and the other toys seemed happy with the idea. And also maybe, also just maybe...

You could finally feel free from all this guilt

---

Oh, dear, this was harder to write than I thought, but it was a blast! I didn't proofread anything but I'm open for more requests regarding my own take on "Angel saves everyone"! And if you enjoyed this, please check out my commission info - it's all in my pinned post at ! garcavisconde! Thank you! <3

[writer-in-theory]

A Cat Named Eddie — part one

part one part two part three

--

Steve didn't mean to adopt a cat.

The little guy was sitting on the back patio by the pool, just staring. He was a black cat, perched on the ledge of the pool.

"Where did you come from?" Steve asked when the cat didn't spook. It just watched him, head tilting to the side a little when he got closer. There was no collar on it, nothing to signify that he belonged to anyone. He was dirty enough to suggest he was a stray and too thin around his middle. "Do you have anyone to take care of you?"

The cat blinked.

"Yeah, me either," Steve chuckled gently, reaching out to pet his head. The cat was apprehensive at first, pulling his head back and staring at Steve with wide yellow eyes. "Right, we gotta get to know each other first. Well come on, it's warmer inside, and I have food."

Steve wasn't sure if the cat would listen, but he seemed okay enough with the idea to follow Steve inside the house after all. He stayed close by Steve's ankles, not quite touching. "Food, food," Steve hissed, beginning to open up every cabinet for something that might be cat-friendly. "Oh! Cats eat fish, right? You want some tuna?"

Another blink.

"That looks like a yes to me, big guy," Steve laughed, decided to plate up a portion of a can of tuna.

The cat dug in immediately, even being so enthusiastic about the food that he let Steve sit down beside him and pet along his back. After the food was gone, the cat walked over and plopped down on the ground beside Steve, paw reaching out to grab onto his hand.

"Oh, more love?" Steve obliged, scratching at the cat's ear until he heard a gentle purr coming from it. "See, it's not so bad. You can trust me."

This was silly. What he should be doing is taking it to the nearest shelter, letting them know that it was sitting outside without any sign of belonging to anyone. He shouldn't be feeding it, petting it, oh, letting its sweet little head rest on his thigh while it slept—

"Guess I better get some supplies tomorrow, huh? You wanna stick around here?" Steve sighed, a smile worming its way onto his face as the cat relaxed against him. "You can stay. We'll take care of each other. Now you just need a name."

--

Eddie's pretty sure he's going crazy.

It starts with pretty innocuous questions from the kids when Steve comes to pick them up from D&D night. "Hey, how's Eddie doing?" Max asked when Steve got out of his car, standing by the open driver's side door as if to signal he needed to take off quickly.

It's odd that Max would ask Steve that when Eddie was standing right there, but he doesn't question it.

"Steve! Is Eddie settling in okay?" That's Dustin. It's been weird after the Upside Down, having been cleared of the murder charges but still not welcomed back into the hearts of the Hawkins people (though he's not sure he ever really had a spot there to begin with). It's nice for the kids to be worried about him, but again, Steve Harrington doesn't really seem like the most knowledgeable party in the room. Sometimes, though, it's easier not to ask questions and go with it, especially with this band of hooligans.

"Did you see Steve with Eddie yesterday? He was dancing around with him, it was the sweetest thing."

Eddie didn't know if Nancy saw something that he didn't, but he's fairly certain he did not get to dance with Steve yesterday. The thought alone had him curling a bit of his hair around his finger, eyes staring at the table distractedly. The thought of having that strong body pressed against his, so close he could feel Steve's heart beating as quickly as his own, hands wrapped up in each other as they swung to whatever gentle music Steve liked to play when everyone was around.

He wished.

But it's the day he walks into Family Video and overhears Robin's conversation with Steve that does it.

"Have you gotten Eddie to sit in your lap yet?"

What.

Eddie ducks behind one of the shelves before they can see him, determined to hear what Steve has to say about it. He wouldn't call it eavesdropping, per say, especially since the conversation is about him. He has a right to hear!

"No, he'll always sit right next to me instead," Steve sighs dramatically, and Eddie can practically envision the way Steve must be draped over the center counter. "I tried to pick him up yesterday and the little fucker bit me."

Now there's a thought. Eddie could think of a few things he'd like to bite o—

"But he did sleep in bed with me! Slept right on my chest until I fell asleep. I call that progress."

Now that's just cruel. Did Steve know how many nights he'd idly thought about the same thing? How many times he'd laid on his thin pillow and wished it was Steve's fucking ex-jock pecs holding him up? Was it all some joke, a way to tease Eddie after finding out about his crush on him?

Shit, that was it. Steve wouldn't do that, right?

Except.

Except Eddie can vividly remember the day when Carol Perkins and Tommy Hagan got together, and Steve had been so relentless in his teasing that even Eddie felt some amount of sympathy for the pair. That ended the second the two turned their anger toward the freaks and geeks of the school, of course, but it had existed for a brief moment if only because of Steve Harrington's ability to hurt when he wanted to.

Well two could play at that game. If Steve thought this was funny, spreading rumors and rubbing it in Eddie's face that he couldn't have him, well, he'd show him just what he was missing.

Eddie's heart races as he grabs the nearest movie case, sidling up to the counter and trying to act like he wasn't bothered by anything he'd heard.

"Hey, Harrington," Eddie smirks, dropping the case onto the counter in a move that he hopes screamed cool, cool, cool.

Steve raises an eyebrow, grabbing the movie and beginning to process of letting him rent it. "Can't Buy Me Love? Didn't think you were the RomCom kind of guy."

"I'm not," Eddie laughs. This could not be more perfect. He hasn't seen the movie, but he's overheard Nancy telling the plot of it to Robin in an attempt to get a date out of her. The universe must be on his side for once, urging him to remind Steve that he wasn't the only person who knew how to hurt. "My date insisted. I don't really get it though. Why Dempsey would give up everything for the pretty popular one is above me."

"It's a cheesy movie, but the plot has some p—"

"I mean they're all the same anyway. Perfect little airheads using daddy's money to make friends. Sure Amanda Peterson's character has the looks, but what else does she have, really?"

Steve stands stock-still, hazel eyes focused intently on the movie case. He seems so unbothered by the whole thing, carrying on with grabbing the cash Eddie'd slid over the counter.

"I mean, she's a perfect representation of all those sporty types, isn't she? She expects any freak out there to just want her because she's cool, like we can't all see right through the bullshit." That one felt like shards on Eddie's tongue, remembering the night Steve had told him about the Halloween party, about the public humiliation he's suffered and all the heartbreak that came after. Still, nothing could hurt quite so bad as hearing Steve mocking him, telling everyone they knew that Eddie was doing all of these things he could only dream of doing. It was a sick joke, one that deserved only the best retaliation.

Eddie could only relish in the shocked look on Steve's face, one he's sure matched his own when he heard Eddie and lap in the same sentence. "I'm sure it'll still be a decent movie though," Eddie finishes with a little smile, picking the case back up.

Steve hadn't stopped staring. His lips finally close back together, eyebrows drawn tightly as he considers Eddie. "Have a fun date then, Munson," Steve says, and Eddie nods his agreeance.

"Have a fun night too, Harrington."

He doesn't stop at Robin's loud shout of indignation. He doesn't stop for anything, continuing to his van until he can no longer see Steve's face.

--

( i'm so sorry part two coming soon )

[cultofdixon]

Let me help, sunshine

Daryl Dixon • She/Her Pronouns • Your anxiety toward your own self worth because of what’s happen to you, makes it hard to be a part of certain things. But he’s so in love with you that you never had to worry. • ANGST/SFW • TW: Injuries / Limping / Canon Violence

Requested by: Anon

It feels like a fever dream. The good.

Y/N stood outside the burning prison holding herself as she shook from the blasts that forced her out of the bed she almost died in. The force from the blast also knocked her on her side, resulting in injury…

She’s been limping trying to find another from her group, or really shelter for that matter.

This feels like the start of the outbreak all over again. Struggling to walk through the destroyed earth and being mistaken as the undead. One too many accidents happened because of such.

The Claimers found her alone before Daryl joined them, even before Rick killed one of their own. He didn’t know Y/N was a part of them because their paths never crossed, and then again Y/N wasn’t…free. She was controlled that entire time, even when Daryl ended up with them.

He was relieved to find her alive. Relieved on an astronomical level…but it wasn’t a happy reunion. The two of them…

Daryl tried to check on her when he first saw she was with them. But this Len or Lenny guy blocked his way and glared at the archer.

“She’s been claimed, buddy”

The archer of course didn’t know what that meant but given her tense posture and the injuries that looked fresh, this group was one of the messed up ones. Or at least this guy that said such.

Their leader explained the rules. Whatever you see that you want, you say “claimed” then no one can do anything about it. Daryl instantly questioned why it was used on a person and was met with obvious looks that made his skin crawl.

“He won’t do nothin’ around us.” Joe laughs leading the way and the group started to walk.

Daryl wasn’t going to leave her and didn’t want to fight anyone in case they’d inflict anything on Y/N. Because little does she know…

When this group started to move and Y/N slowly faded into the back of the group, Daryl looked to the one who “claimed” her and given he wasn’t forcing her back beside him. He took that as his chance to talk to her in hopes no one notices.

But before he got a word in—-

“I’m glad you’re alive” Y/N whispers to Daryl as both felt that reassuring warmth grow in their chest, relieved that the other is still standing.

“Are you okay?” He whispers as she didn’t say a word but shook her head. She looks like a wreck. “You understand this claim nonsense?”

“I know if I just touched your arm, I will meet the short end of that stick”

Daryl wanted to help her given she seemed to be having trouble walking. But this situation with the Claimers only escalated.

This Len guy that claimed her, wanted to get rid of Daryl and decided to use their rules against him. Though it backfired on the guy and the leader in a way, preferred Daryl in their group. But when Len met the other end of a bolt…that brought up an uncomfortable situation.

“Can we claim what was his?” One of the Claimers stated and Daryl instantly stepped in front of Y/N covering her.

“Claimed.” He states and glared at those who even had the thought, which was most of them. Joe laughs a bit to himself and to Daryl’s eagerness.

“She’s yours, man. Even if she is kind of a dud” Joe continued to laugh and every fiber of Daryl’s being wanted to snap him in half, but given she doesn’t have to worry about any of them laying a hand on her. He could check their injuries at the next break they take.

But the next break happened in the middle of a road…where they were met with those who killed one of their own…that happened to be their family. Daryl did his best to intervene, even Y/N.

Then of course, violence was the only answer there.

It happened fast.

Rick taking out Joe, Michonne going after the Claimer keeping her down and the two going for the one on Carl. Daryl took out one of the Claimers on him as Y/N took down the other on the archer.

But the remaining Claimer knocked Y/N onto the ground, pinning her and the painful scream that ripped out of her when he applied all his weight on her already bad leg…triggered Daryl to full on football tackle this man off of Y/N and boy did he meet his maker.

Daryl went to check on Y/N but she wasn’t letting anyone touch her in the moment. He kept a respectable distance when they recuperated for the night and Y/N held onto herself for most of her avoiding eye contact from everybody. She was really wishing they didn’t lose the prison in that moment. Then she wouldn’t have succumbed to all the pain from the illness to her leg causing a lot of discomfort.

“Have you been with this group since the fall of the prison?” Michonne asked Y/N as she shook her head struggling to catch up to her pace when they walked to this ‘Terminus’ place. “Did you see anyone when you woke up? From the illness…”

“I heard Glenn, but I wasn’t quick enough to getting out. He wasn’t there anymore when I got out so there’s hope that he’s still alive”

“And knowing Maggie, she’s probably lookin’ for him” Michonne reassures whatever ounce of anxiety courses in Y/N’s mind when it came to the living status of their family.

Daryl glances back every once in a while to check on Y/N, making sure she was still behind them. She was getting slower and slower the more they walked endlessly.

And that only got worse after Terminus, and after the hospital…

The group was walking endlessly to a shelter that they have no idea exists. Everyone followed Rick’s lead and didn’t question it, but everyone was exhausted. Depressed. Mourning. It was just too much to deal with. Every break they took felt like it wasn’t enough and Y/N didn’t want to share anything on her mind when it came to her physical well-being. Meaning every thought of “just another five minutes” got shoved down and she found herself dragging her injured leg to avoid limping and stepping on it at times causing the sharp pain to radiate.

Her family took notice of the times she end up in the back and those who didn’t want to face the pain they endured mentally, they would stick with her and talk about it. She couldn’t just walk away, not that she would either. It was difficult to push her pain aside, literally.

“Why is he always looking back here…” Y/N whispers, catching Carol’s attention to look ahead noticing Daryl checking on them every now and then.

“You are always at the back. He’s checking on you. Making sure you’re still with us” Hm…

“It’s just…the deadpan look” Y/N shivered slightly a bit tense. “He’s a bit intimidating…and mysterious. But he’s kinda been like that always…just a bit more protective ever since reuniting…”

Carol may not know about what happened from the prison to terminus regarding her friends. But she knew why Daryl would be protective of Y/N.

The walking became rougher the more their group grew tired and dehydrated…Y/N started to think about staying behind. Because the stops didn’t last long but she found herself taking a while to get back up. Least her wounds weren’t bleeding anymore. The bruises lingered. Main thing being the limp and swelling…

Daryl couldn’t help the anxious feeling he got when the group started to pick back up after they had a break to look around their surroundings for food and water. He checked the group around him and then to the back…

No Y/N.

He didn’t want to rile anybody up and make everyone freak out, so he did his usual check around the group until he got to the back and once no one was looking he started to track back. It didn’t take long for him to find Y/N still sitting at the last spot they took a break at, she just thought it would be easier on them if she disappeared.

“Daryl…” Y/N frowns watching him kneel down to her noticing how bad her leg was and mentally beating himself up for not taking care of it sooner. A lot happened, there wasn’t a big enough window to take care of it. “You shouldn’t be here”

“Oh yeah? And you should?” His anger spilled into his tone with a hint of regret. “Why didn’t yea holler for anyone? Or me?”

“Thought it be easier…” Daryl gave her that same deadpan look that made Y/N now sigh because of the situation. “For me to just. Not hold y’all back”

“That ain’t right. Ain’t right one bit” Daryl scoffs trying to help Y/N up but she smacked his hands away for a moment. “Y/N.”

“Daryl just go. Seriously.” She frowns. “I don’t want to hold anyone back. That’s why I just told a few of y’all that I’ll catch up…”

“But you weren’t. And yea didn’t even tell me that. Since yea knew I would argue…well I’m gonna fucking argue” He sets his crossbow down turning himself around and patting his shoulders for her arms.

Y/N was confused. Confused as to why he cared so much. But she complied as she was too exhausted to try and defend her point in any way. What even was there to defend? She didn’t want to be the burden that she currently was and didn’t want to hold the group back. Daryl got that but every fiber of his being would scream if she wasn’t with them.

The retired sheriff gained suspicion when both Daryl and Y/N weren’t around him. But when he turned toward the back he saw the two. Daryl carried Y/N on his back as she had his crossbow on hers. He sighed a bit relieved before continuing further.

All this walking…made the suspicion thing of water magically appearing, very appealing.

“You think it’s poisoned?” Carol questions Rick as he shrugs, still not trusting it though.

“Someone is watching us”

“So we shouldn’t trust it” Sasha states watching Eugene instantly go for a bottle and the moment he opened it, Abraham smacked it out of his hand. “Seriously?”

“What?! Someone has to test it for poison”

“Should’ve been me” Y/N scoffs. “I doubt imma last much longer on this leg”

“Stop.” Daryl couldn’t help but be upset by such as he blocked her from going over to it. Even if she wasn’t going to.

Then a miracle happened, or a coincidence, whichever you believe in…when the rain started to pour. Few started to open the bottles, empty them and fill it with the rain. Others enjoyed the downpour…and those who’ve lost took it all in

Y/N still kept close to Daryl, this time for warmth but she felt uneasy…nothing changed with the physical feeling but something pained her chest as she looks up at Daryl noticing the sadness that radiated from his blank expression. She took a chance by gently interlocking her fingers with his as he instantly brought his attention to their hands before looking at her.

“I’m gonna be okay, Dixon. I have you”

Her words struck him down, while the rain actually made her fall down from slipping. A small laugh was shared even if that drew more worry from Daryl’s end.

The two have been close and the time from the Claimers to the barn being told about this new place that they could call home brought them closer. Now the group was being evaluated to be helpful around the community, they took their chances with it. With caution of course.

“How’s your leg?” Maggie asks Y/N once she got settled on the couch, after being told to stay out by both Daryl and Rick.

“The surgeon guy they have said I won’t lose it but I have to stop walking on it”

“And yea better listen” Daryl was quick to add bringing himself to the window behind the couch sticking close. Maggie let out a small laugh to his response but she knew he cared for Y/N.

It’s been a day and a half with being in this new community and Daryl kept to himself for the most part. Sticking outside on the porch of Carol’s on the side that connects to Rick’s. He would look in the window every now and then to check on Y/N making sure she stayed put. She slept for the most part given she didn’t let herself sleep when with the Claimers and during the illness she was afraid to. Finally not dealing with any threat she thought it would be okay and she was being taken care of so nothing to worry about.

Reg, Deanna’s husband, made his way over to the Grimes’ residence when most of them were out and Daryl instantly shot up from the porch when he got to the steps.

“Heard y’all had someone with a bum leg. Thought I’d bring these over” He states pointing out the crutches in hand. “We found them a while ago but knew Pete didn’t want your person using them immediately.”

“Thanks.”

“You gonna give them to…?”

“Y/N.” Daryl brought himself to the Grimes side and took the crutches as Reg smiles in his direction when he didn’t return it back. “Her name is Y/N”

“She’s important to yea, huh? I can tell” Reg smiles with a laugh followed as Daryl felt a twitch of a smile that he did his best to hide.

“I uh. Better get these to her…”

“If you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to ask” Reg adds while taking his leave as Daryl watches him go to make sure he was gone before going inside the house.

The man always manages to sneak up on everybody, but to his surprise Y/N wasn’t asleep and gave him a smile the second he walked in.

“You shower yet?” She smirks listening to him scoff instantly. “Carol made me ask next time you came in to check in on me”

“You know I’ve been checking on yea?”

“You are sneaky, but not that sneaky” Y/N smiles bringing her legs off the couch patting the space next to her. Daryl approached at first because of the discomfort that grew on her face when she moved her leg, but then sat with her when she relaxed once more. “Those for me?”

“Nah they’re for me” Daryl jokes, a bad one, but it got a small laugh from Y/N. “The swelling down?”

“Yes. Not completely but enough to move around I guess…” She carefully brought her leg onto the coffee table showing Daryl as his worry poured out of him but in his own way. His eyes said everything. “Daryl, can I ask you something?”

“Mhm”

“Why…why were you so upset when I told you to leave me behind? I didn’t…if this place never came, I wouldn’t have wanted to be a burden to you all”

“And I can’t live in a world without you” Daryl without any hesitation admits a hidden feeling that Y/N, of course, didn’t connect that at all by everything he’s done. But it made sense…

“Daryl…”

“I wanted to go back in, when that son of a bitch attacked the prison…but Beth dragged me out. Tellin’ me you’re still alive. I believed her, but I was angry” Daryl frowns keeping his eyes onto his hands as he messes with a loose thread at the hem of his shirt. “I would’ve been angry forever if I let yea die in there…then those fuckers had yea. Hurt yea…and thank fuck they met their end, for ever laying a hand on you. But it just got worse and you were hurting the entire time that I just. I just needed to control one thing just for a moment…to keep you around…so I’d understand if yea don’t feel the same way or anythin’. But I’ll always do my best to keep yea around. For everybody, for myself, and for you.”

The immediate silence gave mixed signals to Daryl but before he could even have the thought of getting up and giving her space. Y/N gently brought her hand to his, letting him carefully take hers.

“I know you’re serious about your feelings…Im a bit…taken back…because I’ve never been a first choice or whatever. I’m not the best at explaining my feelings”

“Neither am I” His thumb rubs circles against her hand feeling her squeeze his hand while a soft giggle escapes her lips.

“Yeah, but at least you said something” Y/N smiles warmly. “Because let’s be real. Rick or Carol or Maggie—-literally anyone in our group. Would’ve probably had to lock us in a room together to get one of us to say something…if my anxiety of being locked in places didn’t kick in” he hums for a quick response taking in her words.

“I thought I scared yea. That’s why I didn’t say nothin’ sooner”

“Mm. You are intimidating, but I was more afraid of being rejected more than anything”

“So…”

“It’s mutual, Dixon” Y/N continues to smile leaning into his space pressing her lips against his cheek as his eyes closed to impact, and he found himself leaning toward her when she pulled away. “We’ll take it slow, Daryl. But to reassure you…I’m yours and no one will change my mind”

Daryl exhales finally letting that weight of possible rejection go as he turned entirely toward her releasing her hand and gently brushing the loose hair out of the way of her beautiful face. Admiring every feature for a moment.

“Will you let me finally help yea, sunshine?”

And so she did.

It took a few days to get used to walking without the help of crutches or her family hovering whenever they got the chance. Y/N was given a pantry job like Olivia which made it easier for Rick’s plans and Daryl got close with Aaron so he’s been planning a run with him while also building a bike. Which lifted his spirits when in this place, beside her of course.

“Hey!”

Daryl quickly turns to the voice after turning his bike on and tried to fight back the smile that succeeded in shinning through when Y/N made her way over to him without too much of a struggle.

“Hey…how’re yea feelin’?”

“Better. Going on a test run?”

“Yeah, ain’t letting yea on it until I know it won’t fling yea off without me knowing”

“So considerate” She laughs followed by a smile. “Be safe. Can’t have you limping”

“Mhm. I will…and even if shit happened, I know I’ve got yea”

[rosinaparker]

hii I've read your blogs and they are literally perfect, but I have a request could you do a han x f!reader smut ? Feel free to say no, thank you <3★

THANK YOU 😭 this will be my first time writing smut please bare with me😞

Rainy day huh?

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: fluff, smut, friends to lovers

𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: best friend!Han Jisung x f!reader

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: swearing, fingering, messy making out

𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: there's a thunderstorm outside and you don't have an umbrella. luckily your best friends apartment complex was near and you decide to go dry off at his place..but things escalate after the tension between you two finally snaps.

It was poring outside, my clothes drenched as i ran around for shelter. A small shop was still open at this hour, currently 10pm. I open my phone, looking at my location seems like I'm near Hannies place, i should go and dry off at his! I thought.

i went off to find his apartment. its been a while since i've seen him, he has been really busy with work and producing new songs for the album. though i must admit, it's been hard hanging out with him. why? because i might've catched feelings for that dork.

i enter the building, quickly running up the stairs. i fix my hair before ringing the doorbell. the door opens slightly, revealing a messy haired jisung, His facial expression immediately changing as he saw me "hey, its pouring outside. mind if i come in?" i shot him a smile. "of course! how did you even end up around here?" he chuckled letting me in and taking my wet jacket off. "i was on a meeting with my boss, nothing special" he listened with a smile plastered on his face "need some new clothes?" I nod shyly to which he laughs "no need to be shy baby, it's not your first time changing into my clothes" he winked. why did he make it sound so dirty?! "dont make it sound like that. i only changed into your clothes once because of that one sleepover" i scoff, following him into his bedroom. "yeah, whatever you say. here have these" he threw me some sweatpants and a black hoodie. He quickly left the room, letting me change in peace.

After changing i went to the kitchen, where Jisung was waiting. "thanks for the spare clothes hannie", he shot me a sweet smile, turning back to what he was doing. curiously i sneaked up behind him "cooking?" i asked, making him jump a little "yeah, or at least trying to. the rain and coldness probably got you hungry" he stirred the ramen up. "how sweet of you" i pat his shoulder. he made us each a cup of ramen, leaning onto the counter together. "so, how have you been?" he asks slurping his noodles. "oh uhm, i've been okay" I avoid his eyes. He sighed suddenly "okay i'm gonna stop acting oblivious. why have you been avoiding me?" he got straight to the point huh? "i'm sorry, i didn't mean to come off like that. i didn't want to disturb you since this past month was pretty rough for you and the guys" I quietly explain putting the ramen on the counter and turning myself to him "You really got me worried. i thought you didn't want to spent time anymore" he chuckled, repeating my moves, leaving the noodles and turning to me. "i missed you", he whispers, looking me deep in the eyes. god, my stomach was twisting "i missed you too.." i stutter out making him chuckle "oh yeah? the way I missed you or the way friends would miss each other?" he came closer. What? was he confessing? what is happening?! "i, uh what?-" I mumble out, taken aback "sorry, was i too straightforward?", he sighs "i just..realized it's hard without you around" He spoke softly, melting my heart. "forget it. i dont know what i'm saying-" i pulled him in for a hug "no, no. I like you too. just a bit unexpected" i stare into his eyes. "please tell me i can kiss you.." he huffed putting his hands on my waist, i only giggled pulling him in for a kiss. the kiss was soft yet passionate, i guess we were both longing for this. It went back and worth, the oxygen leaving both our lungs. Jisung signaled for me to jump onto the counter, which i gladly did. our tongues fighting for dominance but there was no use for that, he was sliding his hand under my shirt, caressing my spine absolutely dominating me. i sighed into the kiss. His other hand stroked my thigh. we parted "do tell if i go to far baby" he went back in, pulling me closer to his growing crotch. he untucked the strings on the sweatpants slowly taking them off my legs which i allow. he looked down, noticing that i didn't have panties on "oh? Naughty aren't we?" my cheeks flush as he said that "they were wet from the rain.." I look away embarrassed. he slowly stroke a line, making me whine. i tug on his shirt, pulling him into a kiss. he gently rubbed my clit taking in any sounds i made. As we were messily making out, he pushed a finger in. i immediatly moaned into the kiss, pulling away and covering my mouth. he pushed my hand away from my mouth, placing it on his shoulder "let me hear you" he carefully put another one in. i bit my lip, tears forming in my eyes "hurts?" i shake my head looking up at him. he shot me a smirk going in to place kisses on my neck. he sped up, the lewd sound turning us both even more on. i started shaking, about to finish "hannie, please a little more" I plead into his ear. He gladly kept the speed up making me release onto his fingers with a last loud moan. he kissed me as i was coming down my high. "we should do that more often, huh?" he narrowed his eyes at me. unfortunately his phone started ringing. he gently pulled out of me, whining at the loss of contact. he picked up "yeah? okay be there in 10." he kissed me once more on the lips ending the call. "gotta go to the studio. Chan needs me." he caressed my hair "you should stay over tonight though..its still raining" he grinned, i only rolled my eyes "i'm gonna take a shower, don't take too long with chan"

-Rose✩ (Holy fuck what just happened)

[5eraphim]

Just saw ur lovely request are open once again,but I want to see some headcanons between zed and maynard when you- a former mercenary that left the war- comes back to check on the team- only to be terrified and creeped out by the surroundings.

And upon exploring inside- you find yourself to get lost upon the building..and when you saw a resemblance of your old teammate; engineer you couldn't help but be relieved..in a hurry you went over to him- and began to ramble and talk to him in worry..however you noticed something was off by the way he acts..he doesn't seem to know you..he seems surprised.. and when you call him dell- he even chuckles as if he finds it funny..

He offers you to go somewhere else- saying it's not safe- being lost and naive- you follow- making him actually lead you deeper inside.

You used to work here- why did this place suddenly became complex for you to wander around?

But then suddenly an another engineer appears and you panicked, raising your only weapon up towards them, but the engineer beside you stops you- taking the gun away from you.

You became confused- telling him there's an enemy right in front of you and he just laughs. You hear the supposed enemy engineer ask who you are- calling the engineer you first met- maynard and you became more confused and panicked as you realizes that this guy wasn't the same engineer you worked with.. and well.. this rambling could go even further with them trapping you inside the conagher slaughter house.

I 100% forgot you wanted this "headcanons" style, and drafted the entire oneshot before I Realized. I hope that's alright with you! Thank you so much for the request, I really hope you enjoy.

Title: Where He Once Stood

Characters: Maynard and Zed (Emesis Blue)

Rating: M (MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, GO PLAY OUTSIDE)

Content Warnings: Reader is gender neutral, x reader, implied forced intimacy, power imbalance, deceptive abduction, slight amnesia, yandere

Word Count: 3.7k

MASTER LIST

TIP JAR

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." (Jeremiah 8:20)

"Even blood washes out, or you can fill your mouth with things that hide the taste." Sophie MacKintosh, Excerpt from "Cursed Bread"

You thought you knew your way around this place; you'd been around these parts plenty of times before. Sure, some years had passed, but that didn't explain how utterly lost you felt wandering Dustbowl. You ditched the war ages ago to find your own way in life, and you were content with that. It wasn't until recently that you decided you wanted to catch up with your closest friend from your time serving, Dell. 

As a Sniper, you didn't interact much with the Engineer, but it wasn't your time on the battlefield you remembered fondly. It was his warmth and kindness at the end of the day, how excited you would get meeting up with him and the rest of the team for breakfast every day, despite knowing the grim work in store for you later in the day, and all the other moments of levity during such a dark time in your life. He was a good man, much too good to be stuck fighting the war.

The flashlight's beam did little to cut through the intense darkness overhead, and you could tell rain was due any minute now. You expected navigation would be tricky, but this was absolutely futile. The longer you wandered, the more your brain fog intensified, making you feel like a small child lost in the dark looking for their mother, jumping at shadows and fearing the sound of wind whipping overhead was the voices of ghosts.

Mindlessly, you fiddled with the strap securing your rifle to your body. Passing by a reflective window, you did a double take, catching your reflection. Looking down, you realized you were in your old Sniper's uniform. You could've sworn you came here dressed in civilian clothes when you departed, but frustratingly, you couldn't remember for sure.

In the distance, thunder rumbled, the storm was closing in, and you needed to find your way to proper shelter. Feeling a light rain against your face, you picked up the pace, trying to find any signs of life nearby, and to your immense relief, after rounding what felt like the hundredth nondescript dark corner, you spotted a light on, and could just make out the blurry details of Dell's old workshop. Running closer, you smiled, seeing the silhouette of someone inside tinkering away. It just had to be Dell!

As you sped closer and got a better look at the workshop, annoyed slightly by the fogged glass obscuring your vision keeping you from seeing inside, but you were too excited to see him again to care much.

Knocking on the door, you yelled, "Dell, open up!"

Watching a silhouette draw closer to the door, you were confused as he stalled for a moment, "Dell, will you let me in! It's freezing out here!"

The door creaked open, and Dell stood stiffly, without hesitating; you wrapped both arms around him, hugging as close as you could, almost sobbing with happiness after finally finding a familiar face around here.

"It's good to see you again! I missed you so much!"

Awkwardly, he patted your back and returned the hug before pulling away, staring at you with an almost blank look. "Sniper?"

Forcing a smile, you tried to ignore how uneasy he was acting, "C'mon Dell, it's me- we fought together for years. Don't tell me you've forgotten already?"

With an odd look on his face, he nodded, a strange smile spread across his face, "Course I remember ya, that's right- it's me, your ol' buddy Dell. It's been a while since I saw your face- whatcha doin' 'round here?"

He was acting weird, but it had been so long since he'd seen you face to face, and you didn't want to say anything. As he let you inside, you couldn't ignore the mess around the workshop. Dell could get buried in his work more than anyone you knew, but he was never so sloppy before. Beer cans littered tables, cigarettes piled over in ashtrays, and countless grease stains streaked across the tables and walls. You had to force yourself to keep from recoiling at the smell of stale air and debris. Seeing your old comrade out of uniform was odd, even if he still dawned the hard hat and goggles. Did he get taller after the war? You wondered but didn't want to ask out loud.

He noticed your staring, even if you were too meek to say anything definitive. With a hearty laugh, he pulled you into a crushing bear hug, "Good to see ya again, partner. It's been awful quiet 'round these parts lately."

You wanted to pull up a chair and catch up, but you couldn't forget the nightmarish terrain you crossed to get here. Pushing away from the hug, biting your lower lip nervously, you spoke, "Dell, I think something's up. We gotta get out of here."

Dell didn't seem to notice how bleak things were outside his shop. "This ol' place? I've been living under this roof since day one… It ain't been that long since you ditched the war." He gave you a cheeky smile, "Don't tell me you've already forgotten this place."

He was right. Objectively, you were fighting in the war just a few years ago, and there was no reason for you to have already forgotten so much. It didn't make any sense. Too insecure about the bizarre amnesia and brain fog to confess to either, you didn't respond, watching Dell cautiously nodding. Dell sighed, "I'm a might busy now, but I can walk with you for a while; I reckon I can take one night off. Help ya outta here an' all."

Stepping away a bit, you expected Dell to lead you back outside, but to your surprise, he drew further into the workshop, bringing you to the door attaching the shop to the rest of the warehouse. He opened the door, holding it open for you as you paced onward. It didn't make sense to you that this could be the way out, but Dell was your friend, and you trusted him. And it wasn't like you had any better ideas.

The two of you shuffled forward in a slightly awkward silence, you couldn't ignore how different everything looked from how you remembered it. How could everything have fallen into disrepair so fast? Windows were shattered, and walls were fractured by massive cracks, it was like the place had been abandoned for at least a decade. Things were run down, broken, and you tried not to consider the possibility you'd somehow stumbled onto enemy territory. You reasoned it was only a matter of time before you saw something you remembered, and if it were the enemy base, surely you'd have gotten yourself shot by now.

Dell broke the silence, "You came all this way to see me. You still talkin' with the others? Any idea how they're holdin' up?"

He sounded so disinterested; it was hard to imagine someone like him hadn't kept up with the others back home, if there was one person to be "a friend to all", it was Dell."I'm not so sure, actually. It's been getting quieter and quieter on their end… I just- I uh, really wanted to come and see you before you went silent too…"

Dell looked over his shoulder to smile at you, but this was an expression you'd never seen from him before. "Well, aren't you just the sweetest thing." Something was seriously off with him, but you couldn't put your finger on it.

You were so unsettled you didn't know how to respond, keeping your head down and hands mindlessly fumbling with your gun strap, trying to hold onto the hope this would all be over soon.

"To get outta here, we're gonna cross someone who don't take kindly to trespassers. But hold my hand, and I promise I'll getcha through." He extended his un-gloved hand for you to take, a kind gesture, but not one you were too thrilled to accept.

Raising an eyebrow, you responded, "If it's just one guy, I think I can defend myself just fine." As you spoke, you tapped the tip of the rifle strapped to your back with your fingernail. 

Dell looked like he was trying to stifle a laugh, "Buddy, don't wanna do that, trust me. Ya ain't gonna win a quick draw against him." Once again, he extended his hand palm-up for you to take, which you reluctantly accepted. To your slight relief, Dell's hands were at least as warm as you remembered. It wasn't much, but you found it comforting.

You were thankful Dell didn't try to rush. Matching your feeble pace and walking close enough beside, you could almost feel his hip pressed against your own. "Is it Spy? Is he still around?" 

Dell snickered, "Nope."

You continued walking by his side for a while without saying anything. Listening to the sound of your own footsteps against the creaking floor, trying to ignore the other noises of the house. The rain pattering against the windows, which rattled in the wind. Even creepier, you couldn't ignore the unidentifiable sounds from below the floorboards, sounding almost like someone moaning in pain. You could've sworn you could hear whispers coming from behind the dark corners, but you knew there was no way anyone else was around. Inner reason told you it was just your mind playing tricks on you, but you couldn't help but whip your head toward the voices to catch someone there, but no one ever was.

If Dell could hear the moans of pain or the hushed voices, he didn't say anything. As you walked, he ran his thumb in soft, slow circles against the back of your hand to try and comfort you. He hummed a little under his breath as though trying to minimize the creepiness of the place.

When you were about to ask how much longer until you found a way out, Dell stopped at another door. Remarkably sturdy looking and well-maintained compared to the shabbiness of the rest of the house. Given how heavy and industrial it appeared, it hardly resembled a door, looking more like the entrance to a bank vault. "This is it. He's right in 'ere. Don't let him scare ya. He's all bark and no bite… Sort of."

You were too tense to ask precisely what he meant by that, giving him a single nod in response, pressing your lips together into a hard line, tightening your grip against his hand. Stealing your resolve with a deep breath, you had no idea what lay in wait behind the door, but you were ready to tackle it head-on if it meant getting out. Pulling a tarnished silver key from his top pocket, Dell unlatched the door, stealing a quick glance your way before pushing the heavy door open. 

You weren't ready to see what was behind that door, let alone confront him. The sight of another Engineer covered in fresh blood, chunks of carnage clinging to his overalls, and cleaning his tools, which were just as drenched in gore as he was, made you lock up with fear. The smell of carnage and motor oil almost made you wretch, and it took all your strength to keep from covering your eyes or screaming. 

Two Engineers at the same base was confusing enough, but seeing one of them drenched in blood off the battlefield made you even more horrified. They both looked so much like Dell, but you knew with a sinking realization neither of these men were the Engie you knew and cared for. The other Engineer looked up at his twin, only then noticing he wasn't alone. "Who the hell is that?"

He shot up from his seat, ready to dart in your direction. Instinctively, you drew your weapon and were prepared to aim at the other Engineer. Your hands shook badly, and you knew you'd miss him if you tried to fire, even at such a close range. 

Before you could even raise the crosshairs to your eye, you felt a heavy hand on your shoulder, pulling you protectively closer to his body, effortlessly yanking you from your weak stance, speaking in a louder but not quite aggressive voice. "Hey, easy there- don't do anything stupid now. We're just here to talk."

You weren't sure if he was talking to you or the other Engineer, but thankfully, he stopped where he was, keeping one hand planted on the gun attached to his belt. "Don't do anything stupid? Maynard! What the hell are you doin' bringin' someone up here!?"

Confusion slowly began to dwarf your fear. Keeping a tight hold on your gun, you lowered it a little more, whispering under your breath, glancing at the man beside you out of the corner of your eye, "Maynard?"

Despite the hostile situation, he grinned and winked, "Charmed to make your acquaintance, partner."

The other Engineer was far less amused. "Maynard, answer me! You got a hell of a lotta explainin' to do, brother!" It was too dark to see his face, as though you could even really see him under the hard hat and glasses, but his voice was more than enough to make you go stunned and silent.

All rational was gone. You could only think about getting out of this awful place. You tried to turn on your heel and break from Maynard's grip, but he was even stronger than he looked, keeping you effortlessly pinned in place.

A pair of bulky arms hugged you from behind, wrapping around your belly, pulling you securely against a chest broader than you remembered Dell's being. You felt the hairs on the back of your neck prickle as you were forced to fully realize how close the stranger was and how far away from safety you were. 

Sure, you were scared before, but Dell was your best friend, and you'd follow him anywhere, but this wasn't Dell, and now you were in the clutches of something much more nefarious than you had expected.

Leaning close to whisper in your ear, you heard the stranger speak, "You weren't runnin' away on me now, were you? You wouldn't leave me all alone in here, would ya, darlin'? And here I thought we were getting along so well." His hug from behind tightened noticeably as he hissed that last part into your ear, crushing the air from your lungs. Your eyes widened, watching the other Engineer stalking closer. He looked so much like Dell, but you knew this wasn't him, the similarities making him all the more terrifying. The other Engineer didn't once take his hand from his gun, but at least he wasn't yelling anymore. "The hell are you doing here? Just who the hell-"

Maynard raised one hand to silence the other Engineer, who complied through grit teeth, and you could only imagine the enraged look on his face under his goggles. 

"Relax, Zed, this one is harmless-"

Zed fumed, "Don't tell me to relax, you lazy bastard! You bring a surprise visitor this deep into the house with a gun pointed at my head! And you want me to relax!?"

You paled, listening to Zed confirm what you'd feared all along. You weren't being led the way out. You were following blindly even deeper into enemy territory, brought all the way into his den without even trying to fight back. You couldn't even call it your old base anymore. Where you stood now was his turf. Any pathetic, fleeting hope of escaping this bizarre place vanished the instant the words left Zed's mouth. Tears of hopelessness stung your eyes, threatening to spill as you heard Maynard's deep, unsettling laughter rumbling behind you. Too scared to move much on your own, you managed to buck forward suddenly, wriggling free as his arm detached from around you, forcing you to support yourself with shaking knees, holding your rifle to your chest with white knuckles, breathing rapidly. 

Maynard took a half-step away and smiled reassuringly before extending a hand your way. In a faux-soothing voice, though with a note of condescension, as though he were speaking to a small child, "You heard the man. Hand it over." 

The mere sight of Zed standing close by, staring you down with complete vitriol, made you hesitate. Your situation was hopeless; anyone could see that trying to hold onto your gun would likely give you more trouble than anything else, but still, you were too scared out of your mind to think clearly. 

Seconds passed like hours as Maynard stared at you with that creepy smile, "Don'tcha want this all over with? Just hand me the gun, buddy. That's all ya gotta do." You looked back between Zed and Maynard like a hunted animal.

"C'mon now, Don't make me take it from you," Maynard warned, sounding a little too excited to enforce his own threat. Swallowing the lump in your throat, with unsteady hands, you complied, turning over your only means of defense to the stranger. Your sniper rifle was more than a gun. It was an extension of yourself, and handing it away felt like a severe betrayal.

Without a second thought, the Texan smiled, accepting your weapon into his own hands, holding the thing carefully in his hands, and seeming to admire the firearm before smashing it into the cement wall beside him. The sound of metal against cement rang out like a gunshot, making you yelp, watching your precious gun get smashed to pieces. 

Maynard took a few more good swings against the wall before dropping the battered rifle to the ground, giving it a steel-toed stomp for good measure, beaming at the sound of metal breaking apart and shattering beneath his foot. 

Maynard looked at Zed with an almost chipper smile, "See, gun's gone now. I told ya that one's harness, didn't I?" Unable to look away, you stared down at your poor gun, not even flinching as Maynard slung an arm around your shoulders, pulling you back into his chest.

Zed appeared unphased by the brutal display, nodding at the sight of the broken weapon, at last moving his hand from his holster, crossing his arms over his chest. "I see. But I wanna know why you brought a hostage all the way up here. I know we got more than enough room in the bunkers-"

Maynard interrupted, squeezing you a little tighter, "Not a hostage. A guest, this one's an old friend of Dell's." Turning his head to face you, uncomfortably close, Maynard asked, "Dell ever mentioned he had brothers to ya before?"

You winced hearing his name. You didn't want to upset your captors more than they were, but you honestly had no idea what was happening, so you shook your head.

Maynard sighed, "Looks like our baby brother didn't spend much time missin' the folks back home. Typical youngest sibling', he thinks just cuz he's the golden child, he can leave the rest of us behind."

You were almost too scared to ask; you just had to know. "Dell is still alive… Isn't he?"

Maynard frowned, "Well, he ain't come our way in a long time. But I know he's out there. He'll be back soon… An' I know you'll be good an' help welcome him home, won'tcha?" While he spoke, his fingers began to drum over your shoulder, playing with the fabric of your shirt between his fingertips. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Zed watching you like a hawk, not moving from his position several paces away, likely still ready to blow your head off at a moment's notice.

Trying your hardest not to let him see how his touch made you shudder, you mumbled, "How long? How much longer till he's back?"

Maynard sighed, shrugging, "Well, tough to say for sure. We've been waitin' on a visit for ages now, but ya never know with him."

Your face fell, and your head dropped forward, not wanting to give Maynard the satisfaction of seeing you cry. Ruffling the top of your head with his gloved hand, he muttered, "Hey now, don't cry, it won't be so bad. We'll keep you nice and safe. I always did like a little company around here."

Maynard looked past you to talk to Zed, "Just give us a few. I'll get 'em settled in and be back to work."

Zed huffed but didn't say anything to stop his brother, allowing him to walk past where he stood to the hallways connecting personal quarters to the den. As he passed the threshold out of the den, Maynard laughed a little to himself, "Yeah, sorry 'bout him. He's always a lil' cranky 'round strangers."

If that was Zed being cranky, you didn't want to know what he looked like when he was really pissed. It wasn't long until Maynard stopped at another doorway at the end of the hall, which creaked harshly when pushed open. 

So this was where he was leading you all along, his bedroom. Somewhere so deep in the heart of the house, you didn't have a prayer of finding your own way out. You let Maynard lead you to his bed. He sat you down on the blanket, drinking in the scared look on your face with great satisfaction. 

"I gotta take care of a few more things, but I want ya to stay here; keep the bed nice and warm for me. I'll be back before ya know it."

You didn't say anything, too disgusted to even look him in the eye, but you could hear him chuckling at your adorable stubbornness, "What's the matter, partner? Got nothing to say?"

Still refusing to look at him, you mumbled. "You were never going to take me home. You lied to me."

Using his human hand, Maynard brushed the side of your cheek with the pad of his thumb, curling his other hand beneath your chin to tilt your head up to look at him.

"I promised to get you outta the workshop. I never promised to take ya home. But hey, it's gonna be ok, darlin', Don'tcha see? You are home now."

Biting your lower lip to keep from sobbing, you could feel your face trembling to keep the tears in, "This can't be real. This has gotta be a dream…"

Maynard leaned down to kiss your head, muttering, "Ya really think this is all some dream, huh? That's cute. Go on and hold onto that hope while ya can. Ya ain't gonna have much hope left after I've had my way with ya."

[artiststarme]

No Steves Allowed!

Okay guys, I decided to the DnD one first today but I'll probably end up posting the parent fic today too. I've never actually played DnD so if this doesn't make sense, let me know! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments.

~*~*~*~

Eddie wasn’t a big fan of rules, or setting boundaries, or partaking in any form of mass conformity. When he made his DnD club, he wanted it to be a safe space for all the outsiders and outcasts to relax and enjoy their high school years. (And join his DnD campaigns so he could torture them but that was neither here nor there). However, there was one rule that was non-negotiable and grounds for immediate character damage and death. 

There was to be no mention of Steve Harrington. 

It didn’t matter if he was your partner in chemistry for a project or if you were complaining about his crony bumping into you in the hall, no one was allowed to mention him by name or otherwise as soon as Eddie stepped into the drama room. This confused the original Hellfire members as well as their successors but everyone conceded eventually. Especially when mentions of Steve brought about the painful and horrific deaths of their characters. 

Gareth, the little shit that he is, tempted the rule the most, even still. Even after all of the characters he’s lost (one named Stephen that was beheaded by a griffin carrying a blade from a fallen half-elf soldier and several others that tried to work the name ‘Steve’ into a background story), he still liked to poke the bear at least once a campaign. 

“Galahad, it’s your play. What course of action will you take to persuade the innkeeper into allowing you and your friends a place of slumber for the night?” Eddie asked him, his voice firm and powerful as he enveloped his Dungeon Master persona. 

He already regretted giving him the chance to speak after he saw a slow smirk spread across his face. “Well, dear Dungeon Master, I think I’m going to go back to the bar and collect my friend Stephen Nicehair. Then I’ll use his looks and luscious locks to seduce the innkeeper into giving us beds.”

Eddie could feel his left eye twitching in annoyance. ‘Stephen Nicehair’? That’s the best Gareth could do?

“As you turn around to go back to the bar, you hear the innkeeper release a battle cry. He drops the pillows in his hands to reveal a cursed dagger with an obsidian blade. The previously friendly man plunges the dagger into your chest without hesitation and twists it in your heart to deliver maximum pain. Roll damage.”

Gareth sighed but rolled his dice, “six.”

“As the life fades out of your eyes, the innkeeper leans in closer to your face and whispers, ‘no one tries to outsmart me in my inn’. You die just as you lived… Pathetically. Galahad the Bad is now dead, existing on the floor of the inn in a pool of blood with the dagger still protruding from his rib cage. Your party is now cursed by the Goddess of Death because your blood was spilled on the cursed obsidian blade. ‘Til next time, boys.”

The entire Party was silent for a moment in shock until Dustin loudly erupted. “What the hell was that?! The innkeeper? Eddie, he’s an NPC that was supposed to offer us shelter after saving the town, what the fuck?”

Jeff shook his head at him and patted Dustin’s shoulder, “hey man, Eddie really doesn’t like it when people break his rules. It’s better not to question the consequences.”

“What rules?” He turned to Eddie to point an accusing finger at him. “You said that you hated rules because they forced conformity onto people outside the mold. And all he did was say he was going to get his friend Stephen to help!”

Eddie’s eyes flashed dangerously as he leaned in closer to Dustin. “Roll for initiative and persuasion.”

“Eddie-” 

“Roll Henderson!” He screamed. 

Dustin sighed brattily but rolled the dice as directed, “fourteen for initiative and ten for persuasion with my modifier.”

Eddie grinned at him maniacally. “Elric steps up to the innkeeper to try and appease him of his anger only for the man to pull another dagger from his cloak and slice it across Elric’s neck. You can feel the warmth of the blood spill down your front and feel some of the traitorous liquid bubble into your mouth and through your lips. You can’t breathe and can only gurgle a single question. What do you ask?”

“I ask him why he killed me!” Dustin said, a mixture of alarm, shock, and outrage in his voice. 

Eddie leaned in close to him, the evil glint in his eye still fully present and terrifying. He switches his cadence to match the hoarse voice of the innkeeper and says, “‘You can’t speak of Stephen or any of his aliases and stay in the world of the living.’ Elric falls to the ground and bleeds out all over the floor. The innkeeper steps over your useless body and says to your Party, ‘It’s a no to the shelter, take the bodies of your compatriots and leave or face the same fate.’”

Mike looks pissed and Lucas looks shocked at the turn this relatively happy session took. Meanwhile, Jeff and Grant were busy alternating their glares between Gareth and Eddie. Dustin just looked flabbergasted that his bard was murdered so callously by what he thought would be an innocent NPC.

“Alright, let’s pause there for now and we’ll pick it up next week. Some of you have new characters to make. Also, as a reminder to the senior members and a precaution for the new members, there will be absolutely no mention of Steve Harrington. Thank you, you’re adjourned.” Eddie spoke and waved them off. 

“What? But Steve-”

“I said adjourned, Henderson!” And from that moment on, Steve wasn’t mentioned at Hellfire. The kids slipped up here and there, especially given their hero worship of the guy but no one said his name aloud again in fear of losing another character. But then Eddie experienced the Spring Break from hell, found out that Steve Harrington was actually a pretty good guy, and started dating him.

The rule posed a problem once Eddie was finally able to talk Steve into joining a one-shot campaign. It took months of dating and illicit promises to get Steve to make a character, honorably named Steeb Munsington, and sit down with all of Hellfire to play. 

“So how’s this supposed to work? Are we just ignoring Steeb the entire campaign?” Lucas asked him.

“What why? Why are you ignoring me? Did I do something?” Steve looked adorably alarmed and glanced concernedly between Lucas and Eddie. 

Lucas patted his hand from his seat next to him. “Eddie has a rule about bringing you up during a session. If we mention you, our character gets serious hit points. No offense man, but I’m not taking that chance.”

Steve turned to Eddie with a hurt look. Oh shit, he had to fix this quick. 

“Obviously it’s void now! Obviously guys, shut up.” He turned to Steve. “Don’t worry Stevie, that was a joke.”

“Oh was it a joke when you murdered Elric the Bard for questioning Galahad’s unfair demise?!”

“Henderson, shut your mouth right now or you can kiss Kalston the Killer goodbye right now.” When he opened his mouth to argue, Eddie cut him off again. “The rule is clearly void now! I only had the rule in the first place so you guys wouldn’t be able to tease me about my crush on Steve. Now we’re dating so it’s fine. The rule has been discredited, no more capital punishment for mentioning his name.”

“You’re dating?!” Dustin screamed in shock. Eddie sent a panicked glance at Steve who was glaring at him with his arms crossed over his chest. He wouldn’t be getting any help from him. 

“You’re gay?” Mike muttered in bafflement. Wow, nothing got past that kid. 

“You murdered eleven of my characters because of a crush?” Gareth shrieked, his face turning red in anger.

Will stared at the two of them in shock while the rest of the Party raised their voices in uproar. He was completely frozen while insults and accusations were thrown, thankfully more due to the fact that Eddie had gone on a rampage as DM rather than them being gay. How were they not focusing on the gay comment?

“Not just a crush anymore, he’s been my boyfriend for months! And if you had stopped violating my rule, they wouldn’t have died! Anyways, let’s let bygones be bygones and move along with our campaign. We only have eight hours to get this done today before the sheep have curfew.” Eddie clapped his hands and grinned. 

Jeff shook his head at him and Grant muttered angrily under his breath. Gareth, though, exploded. “You murdered a shit ton of my characters for even saying words that sounded like Steve! And now you just want us to move along because you’re dating the guy now! Congratulations by the way, we all noticed you seemed happier lately. Steve, if you hurt him, I’ll kill you like he killed all of my characters for even saying your name. What the fuck, Eddie?!” 

“Jesus Christ, it was a long time ago! If you drop this, I’ll give everyone extra XP to start, okay? Double.” Gareth was still glaring at him. “Triple.”

“Fine but deep down, I’m still pissed off.” Gareth muttered. 

“Noted, now let’s start. Stevie, I can help you out if you need it. Steeb is going to do great, I’m sure. I’m not above torturing my friends when it comes to you, okay?”

“Eddie!” Everyone besides him and Steve yelled. Ah yes, this was going to be a good gameday indeed. 

Permanent tag list: @doubleb11 @nburkhardt @zerokrox-blog @newtstabber @i-less-than-three-you @carlyv @pyrohonk @straight4joekeery @trippypancakes @conversesweetheart @estrellami-1 @suddenlyinlove @yikes-a-bee @swimmingbirdrunningrock @perseus-notjackson @anaibis @merricatty @maya-custodios-dionach @grtwdsmwhr @manda-panda-monium @lumoschild @goodolefashionedloverboi @mentallyundone @awkwardgravity1

[appeypie]

Did you ever post that Komalink essay that was in your head

I saw you're one post and how you said Zora royalty crush on Link and I might be converted to that ship now 🤭

sorry this took me so much time to answer anon but I WILL GLADLY SHARE IT!!!!

my long awaited KOMALINK TRUTHER ESSAY!!

To start, I adore the parallels between these two... they're both coming of age in their respective cultures! and having a rough time of it, it seems..

They're both very close with their grandmas, though sadly Komali's has passed away... they both have sisters, too!! (or, for Komali, a sister figure. Medli acts very maternal and caring towards him throughout the game, even commenting on watching him grow up saying something to the effect of, "he's grown into a fine young rito, is this how a mother feels?")

Between the coming of age stories, the alive and deceased grandmas, the little and big sisters... they both mirror each other perfectly!!

Of course Komali is going through some major anxiety issues, understandably. link is able to help him through it, which is very sweet to see :)

Before and after finishing dragon roost cavern. I just love the insight this NPC gives us! after Link inspires the confidence in him, he gets so happy!!

At first it's easy to see it as him just simply looking up to link, and I'm sure it started that way, but it starts leaning into crush territory...!

.. EVERY conversation?!?!

Komali's name comes from "hikikomori" in Japanese, which refers to severe social reclusiveness. he seems to be a very sheltered boy who wouldn't have very many friends off island... so who could he be talking about hmm ??? who's the one guy we know he likes off island...? who he wont shut up about....????

There's also this dialogue from a random Rito NPC (sadly I don't have the game caps, but here's it from a text dump):

(If it's too hard to read, it says:

"We used to have such nice breezes blowing through here... Now the air is crazy. I'm positive the strange winds are a result of the wind god's anger. See, there's an important shrine below here that got broken...and now we're paying the price. What cursed luck...

We Rito cannot live without the wind. Before we take to the skies, we always go down and visit the wind god's shrine. That's the way it's always been.")

The Rito and the wind are intertwined... very fitting that the prince would fall for someone who could control it 🥺

And Yes !! LOZ has a pattern of having the Zora princesses fall in love with link...

Since the Zora evolved into the Rito in WW, they decided to mix it up and make it the prince!

We're at the point of this post where I'm out of Ship 'Evidence' and I'm now just throwing images from my files at you. I love this one at the end of the game where Komali is the first one to greet them coming back from what was left of Hyrule (also very exciting for baby me, who was a huge Komali fan)

Link just stares at him...

I also adore how this is the only ship I know where you get TWO!! Height differences. Hard to get a pic of them standing next to each other pre-Valoo scale, but you get the idea

Of course we don't fully know how Link feels about him, but I like to think he was a bit annoyed with him at first (as Komali was with him)... Like why couldn't this guy just suck it up and do what had to be done? It's what Link had to do for his family. But he realized Komali had gone through a huge loss, and his Dad was a little absent. He has this huge sense of duty placed over him, and not much support. Then once he got his confidence back, he was able to really shine! Link could see that!

I feel like I might be missing something, but that's the gist of why I love them so much! Foils that grow to deeply appreciate each other :) cute little themes like royalty falling for Link & the Rito's ties to the wind. they make me so happy. they don't get the attention they deserve tbh

[lets-try-some-writing]

hi hi i really enjoy your writings, and always look forward to what you post! i'd like to request a scenario where optimus crashes and is stranded on a random planet and has to revert back to his wild base coding to survive, the local creatures saw this feral cybertronian and decided yea this guy's one of us now.

What an excellent request! Time for some more feral Optimus! It has been far too long since I had the chance to write about him just being a wild little gremlin.

Not According to Plan

It wasn't exactly his plan to get sent spiraling off course on his way back to Cybertron, but then again, Optimus wasn't really expecting to be brought back to life and pitted against the Fallen either. There really wasn't much he could have done when his transport back to Cybertron got intercepted by rouge pirates, forcing him and all others on board to rush toward the escape pods as the ship's engine was damaged, threatening to explode. But considering his luck, he really should have known that something like a stray meteor hitting his pod was a viable possibility.

He was quickly sent hurtling away from Cybertron and toward a rather unassuming planet to the far end of Cybertronian space. All he could do was leave a signal trail and set up his beacon to give others a vague idea of where he had been sent careening off to. It only took him around a day and a half to crash land onto the surface of the planet. And another half a day to climb out of the wreckage, drag his beacon out into the open, and get a good look around.

It rapidly became obvious to Optimus that the world he had landed on was once a colony world from Cybertron's golden age. He could see the remnants of old Cybertronian inspired structures, abandoned mines, and of course after accidentally stepping on it... he could see the sad remains of a bot long dead, once infected by the rust plague. Upon learning this, it dawned on Optimus just how slagged his situation was. Even with a beacon and a signal trail leading directly to his location, next to no ship would dare come anywhere near. Planets like the one he had landed on had long since been written of as dead, quarantined, an unsuitable for habitation by most technologically advanced species. Unless a bot had a death wish, they wouldn't bother coming to his location, even if he was the Prime. At most they would sent a drone to pick up the Matrix from his corpse after his life signal puttered out.

While there was still a solid chance that one of his former team would take the risk anyway and come pick him up, Optimus could predict that even in that instance, help would still be a long way off. And so settling in for the long haul, Optimus got to work.

The first thing he did was shut off all nonessential systems. Everything from his high maintenance battle protocols to his extra sensors were shut off, leaving only his base systems in operation. His initial observations pointed to some energon being present, but with his huge frame, operating at optimal levels at all times was an excellent way to die of starvation. And so after shutting off his nonessential systems, Optimus went about tearing his pod apart, using what he could to construct a simple base. The end result was a small hovel, only just big enough for him to hide away from the elements in. It felt more like a cave than anything else, but Optimus made do, he had lived in worse conditions.

Once shelter was taken care of, Optimus spent the next several days running off his reserves, scouting for sources of energon and potential threats. He found a few energon deposits, but they were small, and likely would do nothing to keep Optimus alive with his bulky build. Thankfully threats for a mech of his size seemed to be near nonexistent, at least animal wise. But still he did not stray far from his shelter, worried that something would come and attack him, breaking the suffocating silence of the seemingly dead world. The territorial hazards were not nearly as bad as Cybertron, merely irritating. Huge dust storms and acid rain regularly scoured the landscape, often leading Optimus to sit it out wherever he could but ultimately being more of a pain than an actual threat to a warmachine like Optimus.

Time passed quickly on the near silent world filled with the corpses of the dead. The nearby energon deposits were exhausted within weeks, leading Optimus to abandon his shelter and instead take up a more nomadic lifestyle. His frame and his mentality also swiftly shifted to match his circumstances, the Matrix quieting its prodding as there was nothing for him to protect. And without the Matrix hounding him at all hours or a whole world to care for, Optimus was left with only his thoughts and instincts. By the time month four of his time on the dead world rolled around, Optimus had completely returned to his wild state. With no need for complex thought, morality, or anything else beyond the natural drive to survive, there was nothing stopping him from falling back into his previous state before his integration into society.

He looked completely wild. Without plentiful energon his frame slimmed down drastically, giving away most of his raw power for speed, endurance, stealth, and heightened sensory capabilities. His armor deteriorated with the constant abuse from the weather and lack of energon, becoming a dull gray largely matching the landscape. His traits normally kept dormant by the Matrix reemerged, fangs, claws, and more jagged armor growing in as time passed. Biolights also started to emerge on his frame, allowing him to have greater visibility on the dark world.

He travelled around the surface of the dead world, no thoughts beside his next meal and the desire for a pack occupying his processors... that was until around month six when he came across the first signs of intelligent life on the world. He found a small bot around double the size of a human with a nasty wound on its leg. To Optimus it looked like a sparkling, and with fatherly instincts and his desire for a pack being so strong he couldn't help but pick up the bot and take it with him on his travels. The bot was of course not pleased, flailing, screaming, and panicking in its native tongue for days as Optimus nursed it back to health and did his best to take care of it as he would a sparkling.

After around a week the bot calmed and seemed to sense that Optimus had no desire to hurt it, only to care for it. The bot and Optimus bonded over the course of a handful of weeks, the bot coming to see that despite Optimus's monstrous size, he was a gentle giant. And so with a great deal of effort on its part, the bot managed to convey to Optimus its desire to take him to another location. Optimus eventually understood, despite being feral, and was led deep into the cave systems beneath the world's surface. It was there that he was met with a whole tribe of bots much like the one he had taken in.

There were some difficulties after his initial arrival, but the bot managed to calm its fellow tribesman and prove that Optimus was no threat. And while the tribe had issues with the idea of feeding a mech of Optimus's size at first, after the bot proved that Optimus could hunt for himself, most other complained cleared up. As for the Prime, all he saw was even more parentless sparklings and so immediately came to see the tribe as part of his pack, and therefore under his protection. And soon enough a tender alliance was formed.

Optimus became a member of the tribe, serving as a powerful guardian and warding off the far larger animals living in the caves. He would hunt the huge worms that tunneled in the caves, bringing them back to the tribe who always celebrated and drained the energon from the creatures. He would travel across the surface with the bot he had originally rescued to collect old relics from the surface (Optimus would later come to learn that the bot he had rescued was a historian, hence its reason for being on the surface at all). Optimus would also help the tribe move things, like huge rocks and other obstructions from the tunnels to give the tribe access to places previously unavailable to them. And when not working, Optimus lay on the ground in the tribe's small village, playing with the sparklings who were barely the size of his digit. He loved to hum to the sparklings, allowing the rumble of his frame and the warmth of his spark to comfort them.

By the time Optimus had been stranded for a year on the deserted world, he had become a centerpiece in the tribe. He was their guardian, their protector, their gentle giant. And despite only operating on instinct, Optimus began to pick up the language of his adopted pack, learning that the name he had been given was [Star-sent-Savior}. He learned of the tribe's struggles with providing for themselves and collecting energon with so many creatures of the deep. He learned of the hardships they faced travelling across the surface to collect relics from their past, of which they knew little. And lastly he learned of how rare sparklings were due to how few managed to be collected from the hotspots on the surface before they died.

Despite not having the mental processing capability to understand the deeper meaning of anything said to him, Optimus could comprehend the basic idea. And as he went about making the lives of the tribesman easier, saving sparklings from the surface, retrieving relics, and hunting. He came to be heralded as a god-like entity, hence his name [Star-sent-Savior]. When all was said and done, the tribesman accepted him fully and carefully painted his armor in glittering shades of blue, weaving tales describing his heroics and making murals on his plating portraying his glory. The sparklings loved him and recharged against his side every night, leading Optimus to hum to them and curl around them as he would his own sparklings. The older tribesman made him a space in their village, carving out a den in one of the walls of the tunnels for him to rest in when the day was done. And the bot that Optimus rescued first came to him each day, reading to him and telling him of the history of its kind, leaning against him and speaking of all that came to mind. All the while Optimus listened quietly, only the low rumbling of his frame giving an indication of his state.

Two years after being stranded, a sign of help finally seemed to appear.

Bumblebee, his team, and Ratchet had arrived on the planet's surface in response to Optimus's total radio silence and beacon. They scoured the surface, following his life signal until they arrived at the entrance to the tunnels. They entered and followed the signal, expecting to find Optimus in stasis in some dark corner or hiding out near an energon deposit. They certainly didn't expect a very feral, very protective, and very angry Prime to be guarding a whole tribe numbering around a hundred small bots. And they most certainly were not prepared to be attacked on site, only for the Prime to stop after few attacks as he seemed to recognize them.

With Optimus refusing to separate from his tribe and the tribe refusing to let their guardian be taken from them, Bumblebee, his team, and Ratchet were left with quite a debacle. And so began to long process of returning Optimus to awareness in order to reason with him, all while attempting diplomacy with the tribe to figure out how they survived the rust plague.

[vilandel]

Night of Vows

Summary She kissed him again, more deeply this time, smiling as she felt him giving in to the kiss. As they parted, she poked his cheek and said with a smirk, “Consider this a vow I just made.”

A/N Since @f-oighear was so kind to recommend this particular oneshot here, I've decided to share it with you on Tumblr as well. Thank you, dear Oighear 💘 It is one of my first oneshots for Black Clover and about Nozessa. And most importantly, I created my Clover Kingdom wedding vows thanks to this fic and now, I use them always when I have to write a wedding in one of my stories. I'm actually very proud of them and I hope you will like those vows^^

Ao3 link

♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣♣

“It’s still snowing.“

Vanessa sighed deeply, defeated, as she looked again out of the little window. The biggest snowflakes she ever saw were still falling from the sky. It was basically impossible to go out and join the others, not to mention that both of them won’t be found for a while.

Nozel didn’t answer, still sitting in front of the fireplace, watching the flames. He seemed thoughtful. Not more than usually, but knowing him, he was clearly thinking about their situation and was trying to figure ways out.

For reasons only known by himself, the Wizard King had decided to organize more joint missions between squads and the Black Bulls, Silver Eagles and Blue Roses already did three missions together since. It was an odd mix and the teamwork was just becoming better, but they still made it work, surprisingly.

Only this time, all three captains were coming too. And it was a more dangerous mission, some rather powerful bandits with a leader who possessed very strong snow magic, who took an entire town in the Forsaken Realm as hostage. He managed a rather impressive snowstorm spell, which separated the knights. Vanessa only knew that Nozel managed to fight this man and maybe even defeated him, since the storm weakened. She might remember seeing Asta caught the guy, before they were separated.

But the snow didn’t stop, there was no way to find the others and so they took shelter in an abandoned hut, luckily still intact. After managing to make a fire – Nozel seemed to have learned some surviving basics during the last few weeks – all they did was waiting.

Vanessa sighed. That wasn’t really the alone time she imagined having with her boyfriend. Secret boyfriend, that is. A royal, not to mention a Head of House, with a witch, was for most nobles considered as an inappropriate match. And this was still a rather polite description. These past few weeks, Vanessa learned many things about the reality within royal and noble circles, she heard more harsh descriptions.

She turned to her boyfriend again. Nozel still didn’t say anything, just watching the fire. If she didn’t know him any better, Vanessa would have thought that he was still stunned to have make fire by himself. Noelle had reacted the same way, after all. But Vanessa just instinctually knew that something was bothering him.

“Do you know who the leader of bandits was? He seemed very strong and his beef against higher ups looked a lot like obsession.“

Actually, she wasn’t particularly interested in that topic, but honestly, she would take any conversation at this point, just to bring him out of his frozen glare. She was sick of the wait and silence.

Nozel finally turned to her, a puzzled expression in his eyes. “Yami didn’t tell you?“

“No, he just said it was a joint mission and that there will be a battle. That’s all. Since he didn’t need more to motivate Asta, Luck and Magna, he probably thought he didn’t need to say more.”

“Why am I not surprised?”, Nozel sighed, but not nearly as annoyed as he would be when it comes to Yami. He just sounded so… tired and Vanessa didn’t really like the sound of it.

“This man is actually a bastard from an old and very well-respected noble house. Like any bastard, he was thrown away and considered less. Well, I don’t know the details, but apparently, he came to the conclusion that since he was basically banished from his father’s house, he must be fated for something great, better than anyone and he made some kind of vow to prove it, which turned into obsession.”

“I agree that this bastard situation is unfair, but why using this as an excuse to hurt other people, especially those in the Forsaken Realm? I mean, captain Vangeance and Luck are also bastards with noble lineage and they aren’t full of grudge against nobility.”

“The Wizard King told us that this bastard considers himself better than anyone, better than commoners, peasants and nobles in general, better than his family and royalty especially. He seems also to be a very stubborn man, decided to fulfil his vow at any cost. The sad irony is, he became exactly like his father who abandoned him…“

Vanessa sighed heavily. She had heard from Finral and Noelle stories about bastards with noble lineage, who were holding grudges against their noble family to an unhealthy degree, hiding behind the unfairness of their situation to hurt others.

The complex and rather corrupt reality of nobility with the Clover Kingdom was unfair to say the least and could make a lot of people suffer. Not only bastards and peasants, but also people who weren’t outcasted. Vanessa never knew anything about this until after she and Nozel started dating. She was very naïve back then and sometimes, now that she’s more concious about this reality, she still wished she was.

Vanessa moved from her place to sit besides Nozel. Slowly her hand slid in his. He didn’t back away. Holding her hand tightly. This was really reassuring.

They had this discussion about status and rumours quiet at the beginning of their relationship. First, Vanessa didn’t understand why he wanted to keep their relationship a secret. She really thought that Nozel was ashamed of her. But that wasn’t the case…

She learned how her relationship would be viewed within royalty and nobility, how rumours could hurt more than they should. She learned that love doesn’t have a place for most of those people. It wasn’t a pleasant lesson, but the worst part was to witness how the other two royal Heads of House treated Nozel.

Vanessa clenched a fist while remembering. She’d been hidden, none of those two knew about hers and Nozels relationship. But it made her so, so angry. To hear them talk to him like this, their disgust hidden behind so-called concern, their secret joy to have him struggle with his House, the contradictions in every second sentence… it made her went on edge and if she had listened to herself, she wouldn’t have hesitated to put this gaudy king and this close-minded Vermillion prince in their place (how did the Head of Vermillion managed to have at least five likable grandchildren, honestly?).

But Nozel did asked her to not try anything. He told her that he was used to it and if she tried to scold them, it would put more difficulties not only on him, but also on her and maybe put their future together at risk. A risk Nozel wasn’t ready to take.

Which also meant, even though he never talked about it yet, he was seriously thinking about having a future with her. And this meant much more to Vanessa than she thought it would.

She always had been more to enjoy the present, to not worry about the future. Unlike Nozel, who had this habit of overthinking things really far ahead. Vanessa had asked him to at least try to stop and he really did try. But even she had to admit that it wasn’t wrong to think at least a bit about their future.

Their love was deep, truer than anything what Vanessa had known before. Which was a surprise, considering that they come from different circles, that many things would normally separate them. And still, even though she couldn’t yet see herself as a princess, as a lady Silva, she could very easily see herself growing old with Nozel. A nice thought…

If she forgot what difficulties may lie ahead of them.

Vanessa put a hand on Nozels shoulder. “Honey, I know the situation is rather, well, irritating, as you would put it. But we won’t be in this hut forever, the others will find us. And, if you’re worry about Yami teasing-“

“That’s not what I’m worrying about.“

Nozel stood suddenly up, starting pacing around the hut. “It has nothing to do with the mission.”

“Then what is it?”, Vanessa asked.

Nozel was now looking at her, almost defeated. Now, this was worrying Vanessa. She didn’t like when he had something like defeat in his eyes. He was good at hiding it, but she’d learned to look beyond his cold mask.

He sighed.

“My father knows about us.”

Just at this moment, the wind began to howl, like it just waited for this moment.

Vanessas mind went blank. His father? The very father none of all four Silva siblings liked to talk about? But wasn’t he supposed to be out of the country or something like this?

She didn’t know much about this man, neither Nozel nor Noelle were eager to talk about him. Heck, even Solid and Nebra seemed to resent him, which said a lot. All Vanessa knew was that he wasn’t there for any of his children birth and neither when Acier Silva passed away, he was late at his wife’s burial and that he was rather a taboo subject for the Silva siblings.

So… how much of bad news was it that this man knows about her and Nozel? And since when was he back, anyway?

Nozel didn’t let her time to ask questions. He just took a deep breath before he continued, “I still have no idea how and when he learned about us. His return was rather incognito, so none of my siblings knows that he’s back. For now. Knowing him, he would love a rather pompous ceremony for his official return. And I know a good bunch of royals and nobles who would do this for him.“

Nozel sounded so bitter. Usually, he never sounded this bitter, not even about Yami.

“A good bunch of royals and nobles. Even the other two royal Heads?” Vanessa asked slowly.

“My father is very good at… well, bootlicking. You know our king. He lives for homages to himself. As for the Head of House Vermillion, he knows that my father and I aren’t on good terms. So, he uses it against me, for various reasons and no matter the possible contradictions. He’s doing this since I became Head of House, actually.”

Vanessa clenched a fist. She hated how her boyfriend was treated like. Before they started dating, she never would have thought that other royals would think so little of him, hiding their disrespect behind concern. It was so… she didn’t have any words for it. She came to think that this might be one of the reasons why Nozel kept his emotions behind a cold mask. Honestly, Vanessa came to admire him about how he managed to deal with those subtle insults in such a calm way, most of the time.

“How did your father learn… about us?”

“I told you, I have no idea. His return wasn’t official. None of my siblings knows that he’s back, only very few servants. He came directly to me. And unusually for him, he went direct to the point.”

Nozel paused, sitting down of the huts lone bed. They really were lucky that it even had some clean sheets.

Vanessa waited. Mostly because she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know what to think. Until now, only the Wizard King and Nero knew about their relationship. And Marx. None of them would’ve ever spilled the beans. It was such a shock that someone new would know about them. Someone who didn’t seemed very pleased about their relationship.

She didn’t know what the Witch Queen would say and honestly, Vanessa rather wouldn’t care or think about her opinion. She knew the Bulls would be shocked, especially Noelle and let’s not forget the other two siblings. Nebra and Solid might not be very pleased at best, but well, Vanessa could live with that. But what about a person she only heard about? A man she never met, on which she never heard any good things and not so much in general? Vanessa didn’t like that she had no idea.

Nozel sighed deeply, before he continued, “My father wasn’t happy about our… relationship. Well, he had quite a less polite way to describe it. The words he used to describe you were horrendous and I snapped. Very much at the beginning.”

Vanessa saw him clenching his fists. Nozel might seemed calm right now, but it was clear as crystal for her that he was very much on edge about the conversation with his father. She sighed. She could very well imagine which kind of insults her boyfriend had to listened to. Oh, Vanessa was used to, but she knows Nozel. When someone insults her, he could be more terrific than the other Black Bull and that’s saying something.

“I tried very hard to explain despite my anger, but he wouldn’t listen. He was very much upset about the scandal it could bring upon him, for starters.”

“Upon him? Not the House?”

“He claimed that he was upset about House Silva as well, but, honestly, I didn’t believe him at all. He married into the House, but even then, he could have cared. Which he didn’t. If he really did care, he would had helped my mother with her duties as Head, he would have been here during her last weeks, he would have helped Nebra, Solid, Noelle and me with our duties and also other things, he would have… done so many things actually, now that I think about it. But he didn’t. He always found reasons to slip away from… work. Paperwork that is, the duties from behind the scenes, as my mother called them.”

Something like fondness past through his eyes. Vanessa couldn’t help but smile. She loved the look Nozel had when talked about his mother.

“But the duties of showing, of presentation, all of this… he loves it. I remember how he dragged me and my siblings to all those… events. Despite how mother pleaded to wait, we were all rather young. But he wanted it. To show himself. We were barely tools for his glory. And for him to stand right in the light, no one of us had to step out of the way. He always had this mindset. Even after my mother died, even after he was mostly out of the country.”

She never heard her boyfriend talk this much about his father. It was strange. After all, none of the Silva siblings liked talking about him and Nozel even less so. But looking at her boyfriend, it seemed to Vanessa that he needed to get it out of his chest. She could only imagine how his discussion with his father went and he won’t show much, but she knew, she just knew, that he needed to let it out.

Vanessa stood up and reached for Nozels hand, squeezing it softly. He squeezed back. She hoped she could comfort him. With a nod, she invited him to continue.

“My relationship with you… for him, it was me stepping out the way. Again.”

“Again?”

“I don’t know when it began, when was the first time I upset him. As far as I can remember, he always seemed… well, unhappy with me. He was already mad at me for not kicking Noelle out of House Silva.”

“But… why?”, Vanessa asked, genuinely shocked, not able to put it in words. She knew by now that Nozel never kicked Noelle out of the family, even if it had looked that way. But it only looked that way. Vanessa had recently learned that to kick someone out of a Royal House, a hearing was needed. And given Nozels true affection for his sister, despite everything that happened, Noelle never really was at risk to be banished from the Silvas.

“In all honesty, I never understand it either. I don’t think I want to. But that wasn’t the only thing about me he’s upset with. He always seemed disappointed with me. But our relationship seems to be the worst for him.”

Nozel stopped, hesitating to tell more. Vanessa could see many emotions in his eyes, anger, disgust, pain, altogether. Even hesitation. She let out a deep sigh, let go of his hand and went in front of him, putting her hands on both sides on his face, forcing him to look at her.

“Honey, please, let it out. I’m not blind, I can see that you need it. Don’t worry about me, about what your father said about me. What he thinks is not what you think and his views on us won’t affect what we feel for each other. Now, tell me what happened.”

For a moment, Nozel just looked at her, with surprise and even admiration in his eyes. He kissed her forehead first, before continuing.

“My father tried to be calm, but he failed to do so. He was furious, practically scolding me for… well, he said forsleeping with a witch. He dismissed the fact that you’re a Magic Knight, who already served the kingdom countlessly. The words he used to describe you… sorry, but I can’t bring it over myself to say them out loud. I snapped, counting down all the things I reproached him for many years. Never had it been so hard for me to not attack anyone. I could barely hold myself back. I told my father that I love you, but he dismissed that. For him, as for many nobles and royals, love is just a foolish thing. Royals don’t love is a very common motto. Marriages are for alliances, power, glory. Love has nothing to do with it. I feel so stupid for having believed that once. For my father, love is even a childish thing.”

“But… What about your mother? She did love him, right? At least, that’s how I understood it.”

“She did. But he never loved her back. Deep down she might already have known it, given how much love and affection she gave me and my siblings all her life. Although I don’t think my mother realized it at the beginning. But I remember that after Solids birth, she looked sadder and more resigned when a talk was about my father. I think that back then, she began to realize that her love for him was one-sided. And she might have accepted it fully when she was expecting Noelle.”

Sadness and anger flashed through Nozels eyes. Vanessa slid her hand again in his, feeling his grip tighten.

“I don’t know how long we kept fighting. Not long I believe, but for me it was like hours. My father kept going on all the things I apparently made him upset with. I learned a few more things, even. My magic even disappointed him.”

“What? Why? Why would he be disappointed about your magic?”

“Honestly, I have again no idea and I haven't been in the mood to ask. He basically told me that he didn’t want four children to begin with. But since I didn’t inherit his attribute, he wanted others, who would inherit it. He claims to have a strong aversion against metal attributes, but he didn’t explain why. I don’t even know if it’s true or if he came up with this just to try to humiliate me.”

“But this is not fair! Why should he be disappointed that you didn’t get his magic attribute? You have a great magic, you can use it in so many ways and skills, it’s so sophisticated! I… I can’t understand! Well… I knew that your father wasn’t a very nice person, but I didn’t expect that he…”

Vanessa had no words to properly describe how furious she was against Nozels father. She never met him and the few things she heard about this man didn’t make him really sympathetic, but this!

She already knew he was rather harsh towards Noelle, even though neither her nor Nozel would give her details. But she genuinely hasn’t thought that he would also be this harsh towards Nozel as well. What he just told her sounded familiar. Not only because it sounded pretty similar to what the other two royal heads would reproach him. But this disappointment about everything Nozel did or was, even things he couldn’t help it. The father being upset that his son wasn’t perfect, that his son didn’t meet his expectations… It sounded similar to her own situation with her own mother. Vanessa didn’t like it, at all. Even though the Witch Queen never screamed or got loud about her disappointment.

Was the Silva father even upset about Nebra and Solid as well? With what Vanessa heard, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Nebra has mist magic, which isn’t one of the stronger attributes. As for Solid, Vanessa couldn’t think of anything, but why wouldn’t the father find something as well to be upset with his other son?

She never met the man, never wants to either and if, only to put him in his place. The father of the Silva siblings sounded like an arrogant jerk.

Her angry thoughts were interrupted when two hands cupped her face. Nozel looked at her with determination.

“Vanessa, I know you’re angry, but please calm down. I don’t care what my father thinks about me. I stopped caring about it a long time ago. I was angrier about how dared to talk about you. He didn’t care that I love you, he didn’t care to understand. At the end, I couldn’t take it anymore. I basically told him that… well… no matter what he says or does, I’d rather die in celibacy than marrying a woman who isn’t you. In fact, I basically made a vow to marry you.”

Silence followed his words. A silence during which they just stared at each other. Vanessa tried to realize what he just said.

Suddenly, Nozel blushed heavily and he let go of her, hurrying to the huts window. Vanessa just turned to him, confused but also feeling another emotion she couldn’t quiet describe.

“I… well… After that, my father basically was trying some menaces, but I couldn’t take him seriously. He acted like he was the Head of House, which he isn’t. He was married to a Silva, he was never born into House Silva and he never really cared about it. I… well… I made position perfectly clear. He quit soon after, but it’s only a matter of time before his return becomes official.”

Nozel stopped. He seemed so unsure, which worried Vanessa a bit. But at the same time, he was flushed and that was always adorable.

Vanessa went to him, taking his hand. She had to comfort him about his jerk of a father. But she also needed to talk with him about that vow he mentioned. After all, she was still trying to realize his words.

“Your father might have a pretty positive reputation within royals and nobles, he might be an excellent bootlicker. But I don’t think his influence might be this strong that he could take the power to force his will upon you and your siblings.”

“I wish I could be as certain as you are. But… what if he-“

“You could fill all four kingdoms in bottles with what ifs. I’m not saying we shouldn’t care at all. But whatever your father tries to do, we’re going to face it together. We’re together in this, Nozel. Never forget that.”

Nozel just looked at her. Surprised of course, he was lightly blushing again. But there was also gratitude and love in his eyes. Gosh, he was so cute behind that cold mask.

Vanessa took his other hand and looked firmly into his eyes. “Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?”

“The vow you made during the fight with your father. To… marry me. Did you really mean it?”

Nozel blushed even more, but he tried very hard to not look away from her. Vanessa wouldn’t have let him anyway. A few moments past, but they seemed like hours while she waited.

“I… I meant it.”

He only looked down after his answer. But he didn’t let go of her hands.

Relief and happiness flew through her. He really meant it. Never would Vanessa have thought how much this would mean to her until now. It was still surprising, as she already thought about it, but not that much.

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? What for?”

“I shouldn’t have made such a decision without your consent.”

Vanessa couldn’t help but chuckle. Why did he always feel so responsible?

“I don’t blame you. Given the circumstances. And it is cute.”

“Cute?”

“You really should learn how to take compliments. But seriously, honey, you shouldn’t be sorry. Why would you feel guilty, anyway?”

Nozel just looked at her, slightly frowning, like he didn’t understand what she was meaning.

“Well… I shouldn’t have taken such a decision all by myself, especially in overwhelming anger. It concerns you as well. Besides, our situation is… complex. Any wrong steps could be used against us and there are some risks I’m not sure I’m ready to take.”

Vanessa sighed, half amused, half annoyed. There was his strategic chess-brain again. Always thinking very forward. Sometimes it was useful, but honestly, his overthinking could exhaust him so many times it was almost hurtful to watch. Nozel promised her he would try to restrain his overthinking, but he would struggle from time to time. Old habits die hard.

“Is that really all what worries you? Honey, you promised me-“

“That’s not all! Actually… I’m also scared.”

Vanessa blinked. She didn’t expect that.

“Scared? Of what?”

“That… I would put you back in a cage. Status and duties can be like chains and I… I don’t want you to be a… prisoner. Again.”

Nozels eyes went down, his posture almost looking like defeat. But Vanessa firmed her grip on his hands. In fact, his words touched her very deep in the heart.

After they were dating for quite some time, both had been comfortable enough with the other to talk about some secret subjects of their pasts. Nozel told her about this curse he had gotten after his mother was defeated and cursed by Megicula. Vanessa, on the other hand, found herself brave enough to tell him about the cage were her mother kept her as a prisoner, in order to obtain that spell to control Fate. She remembered very well how shocked her boyfriend was, the compassion he showed, his concern…

Her story impressed him so much. Vanessa totally understood why he was afraid that he would put her in another cage if they may marry. Nozel was a much more caring man than he let himself be viewed.

Vanessa put a small kiss on his lips, which made Nozel looking back at her, slightly confused.

“Nozel, I understand that you fear this for me. But I just know that you would never put me intentionally in a cage. And even if it would happen unintentionally, I know you would do anything in your power to get me out. I love my freedom, but this also mean I’m free to choose what I want. I admit, I have yet difficulties to imagine myself as a royal princess, as a lady Silva.”

Nozel just nodded, sad and understanding, but Vanessa wasn’t finished, “But I believe it will come with time. Because on the other hand, I have no problem to imagine myself growing old with you. I chose to be with you, with all the difficulties that comes with the situation. And… I want to help you with your burden. You carried your duties and responsibilities as Head of House alone for far too long, if you ask me. I won’t let you alone anymore with this.”

She kissed him again, more deeply this time, smiling as she felt him giving in to the kiss. As they parted, she poked his cheek and said with a smirk, “Consider this a vow I just made.”

Nozel blushed again a bit and Vanessa couldn’t help but giggle. She loved seeing him all flustered.

“How did I deserve you?”

“I don’t know, honey. How did I deserve you?”

This time, the captain of the Silver Eagles let out a small chuckle. This made Vanessa happy. She loved seeing him smile and this was the first time since the start of the mission that Nozel actually smiled.

For a while, they just hold each other tightly without saying anything. The only noises came from the fire and the wind outside.

Finally, Nozel spoke again, “So, um, you… you wouldn’t mind?”

“Marry you? No, I wouldn’t mind. I still need get used to it, but more to the thought of being a royal lady, princess or whatever rather than being your wife. That is actually rather easy to imagine.”

Nozel smiled softly. But when he spoke again, his tone was serious, “It’s still a difficult situation. I don’t trust my father with whatever he’ll try to do. Not to mention other… aspects. It might take a while before we can get… married.”

And now he was blushing again. Seemed that Nozel too still needed to get used to the thought. Vanessa chuckled again. It was such a sight to see different emotions on Nozels face, once you looked beyond his cold mask. She would have loved to tell the Bulls this. But well, they wouldn’t believe her (except maybe Nero, she knows already about their relationship, after all). In that case, she would show them, once her relationship with Nozel would be out of secrecy.

The stood in silence, holding each other. After a while, Vanessa turned her head towards the window. It was still snowing, not strong, but it was already night. The rest of the Black Bulls, Silver Eagles and Blue Roses might have found shelter as well. They might have been separated into groups as well. Waiting for the falling snow to stop. The enemy has been defeated and caught, after all. Maybe it was better to just call it a night and to regroup with the others the next day.

Vanessa couldn’t help but smile. An entire night, alone with Nozel… how could she say no?

“I fear we might only regroup with the others tomorrow. It’s late and it would be foolish to go out right now.”

Nozel seemed a bit annoyed. Must be that captain side of him, that side who preferred that everything should be settled efficiently in a short period of time. Vanessa grinned. She knew just what to do to convince him that their situation wasn’t so bad after all.

She teased his upper lip with her mouth, caressing very slowly over his chest, feeling his muscles under the fabric of his clothes.

He wasn’t buff, but she knew now that despite the multiple layers of clothes and despite Yamis teased assumption, her boyfriend of a captain was actually muscular. Slender and lean, but he still has muscles. Another surprise for her when she fell for him. Buff men were supposed to be her type. But she still fell for Nozel and she with time she found that this was one of the best things that happened to her. At the end, Vanessa just decided that she had a new type and Nozel was the only one who fit it.

She knew he was blushing again, but he was still caressing slowly her hips. Vanessa looked at the bed. Well, it wasn’t as big as Nozels bed in the Silva palace. She was so used to his bed by now that she actually began to find her own, back at the Black Bull base, rather small. But it was still bigger than this one here. But still, even being not a king size bed and without silky sheets, but it still looked warm and comfy.

Vanessa noticed that one of the sheets were white. White… white like a…

An idea just plopped in her head. Oh, it was innocent and childish, but after their discussion, it seemed like a good idea. For her at least, from a general point of view, it may be stupid. But she really wanted to do it. And if it could help her boyfriend to relax a bit, even better!

Vanessa immediately took Nozels hand and dragged him to the bed, sit on it, took the white bedsheet and draped it over her head like a veil.

“Vanessa, what are you doing?”

She could see that Nozel was confused, slightly frowning. But he still sat down on the bed as well.

“Sorry if my idea seems rather childish, honey, but… okay, it is childish. But I thought, after our discussion, I know it may take a while before we could marry and since I still need to get used to this thought, so we might have a little rehearsal, kinda? Just to see how it feels.”

Nozel was still looking at her with confusion and now he was blushing. Again. Vanessa giggled. She might have broken her own record of making him blush a lot of time, this night.

“Pretty please, honey. I promise it won’t kill you. And we’re alone, no one’s witnessing a new hidden childish side of yours.”

Vanessa was now making puppy eyes. She knew Nozel couldn’t resist them. Which is why she’s only doing them on rare occasions. After all, she would have the feeling of using him if she did that trick more often.

Nozel sighed, but Vanessa could see a small smile appearing on his lips. Definetly a win, he was already starting relax a bit.

“Besides… Call me stupid, but I don’t really know how, well, weddings work. I know the basics, what it has, but details? No idea. I’ve never been to a wedding, I have no idea about the differences between noble weddings and commoner weddings, if the priest says the vows or the groom and bride.”

It was true. Vanessa never witnessed a wedding. She had never been invited to one and none of the Bulls was married or close too. Well, except Finral, but he was still engaged, there was still no date for the wedding. And for the other Bulls, marriage wasn’t in anybody’s future plans for now. It was a little frustrating, now that she thinks about it.

“First of all, you’re not stupid.”

Nozel had took her hands in his, as he looked at her. He was still flustered, but the confusion was gone. There was now determination in his eyes and tenderness. A glance which made Vanessa blushing.

“Second, noble weddings are rather complex and royal ones even more. I might teach you the details, but not yet, sadly. I don’t know all of them by heart. Most things are unnecessary complicated.”

“Like so many things within royalty, I bet.”

“You won your bet.”

Both chuckled, before Nozel continued, “At least, I can help you learn the royal wedding vows. They’re different from the classic ones for nobles and maybe even commoners. It’s the groom who speaks first, then the bride. And you have to look me in the eyes while saying the vows.”

“That looking in the eyes thing, is it also part of the procedure?”

“Normally yes. It’s to show that you mean your promise told in the vows. But since most royal weddings are arranged ones, groom and bride usually don’t look into each other’s eyes. Probably because they think if they don’t look into their spouse’s eyes, they won’t be bound by their promises.”

Nozel sighed and Vanessa did it too. Since she started dating her boyfriend of a prince, she had learned that cheating scandals were not so uncommon within royal and noble circles, with bastards as one of the consequences. Well, given that kinda the majority of those marriages weren’t coming out of love, it wasn’t really a surprise.

But that wasn’t for her. Neither for her boyfriend. She loves him, he loves her. And whenever they finally could get married, this would be their reason.

Vanessa looked up as Nozel hold her hands firmly, his gaze all on her. The determination in his eyes made her heart race.

“Faith. Hope. Love. By the three leaves of the Clover, I, Nozel Silva, take thee, Vanessa Enoteca, as my wedded wife. I will have Faith in thee, with thy life and trust thee mine. I will have Hope, helping thee to all hardships and happiness of life. I will Love thee, cherish thee in sickness and in health, be it forever.”

Those were beautiful wedding vows. Such a shame that today,  they were used more for arranged marriages. Vanessa hoped now to say them without hesitation. She took a deep breath and looked into Nozels eyes.

“Faith. Hope. Love. By the three leaves of the Clover, I, Vanessa Enoteca, take thee, Nozel Silva, as my wedded husband. I will have Faith in thee, with thy life and trust thee mine. I will have Hope, helping thee to all hardships and happiness of life. I will Love thee, cherish thee in sickness and in health, be it forever.”

In the end, that wasn’t difficult at all.

Vanessa smiled at Nozel, who smiled back. He was happy, finally. Gosh, he was so beautiful when he smiled.

She couldn’t admire him for long, though he leaned towards her, kissing her deeply. Vanessa kissed him back, pulling him closer to her. Were kisses also part in arranged weddings? Surely not this passionate. She would ask Nozel later. For now, she had other plans for the night.

As they parted, Vanessa fell back on the bed, pulling Nozel towards her.

“Ready for the wedding night, husband of mine?”

He chuckled, before kissing her again. She couldn’t help but smile against is soft lips. It felt so much like Heaven.

They didn’t know when they could really get married. Or what the father of the Silva siblings would try to separate them. They didn’t know what other difficulties would lie before them, who and what would fight their relationship.

But they were together, they would face those hardships and fight those hurtful rules within royal and noble circles.

Tonight, that little wedding rehearsal might also be a vow for Nozel and Vanessa to not give up.

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA - Episode 3: Omashu (2/3)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

Starting the Gaang's POV storyline with Katara working on her waterbending was really nice - getting a little down time just like we get at the beginning of the animated episodes is always welcome when they can work it into the timeframe. We see Katara's skills growing, but having her classic trouble with the water whip - the same form she struggled with in The Waterbending Scroll episode. I like that Aang is trying to help her in his sweet and optimistic way, but he doesn't fully understand the mental block Katara has and she'll need another method of overcoming that block than what Aang provided in the first episode. It's so sweet and a great character moment as Aang blames himself for Katara's failure - he doesn't want her to feel bad about not being a master yet and tries to alleviate her struggle with some humor. We get the cute moment with Sokka bringing back supplies too, mirrored by Momo and it really feels just like the light-hearted beginnings of the animated episodes.

This is continued as we see Aang's excitement at seeing 'another airbender' and realizing they're heading in the direction of Omashu - he's so excited to share info about the city with Katara and Sokka, his joy is infectious - and his open naivete as he asks the 'cart guy' "What makes you think we're outsiders?" while they're in very color-coded clothing in an Earth Nation city is adorable. No idea how some people missed the whole first parts of the Gaang's episodes where they're all just hanging out and bonding.

I like us seeing Zhao sneaking his way into the authority position in his relationship with Zuko - instead of the brash, overbearing Zhao of the animated series, here, he's more subtle and it's harder to go directly against him as all his suggestions seem reasonable. Zuko, of course, doesn't want to allow anyone else to capture the Avatar therefore taking away his one chance of going home. I love how the scene with Zuko refusing to let Lieutenant Jee talk bad about Zhao - it so clearly shows how he values honor and not abandoning the values of the Fire Nation 'even out here'. He may have been banished, but he's desperate to cling to the order that makes him a part of his home - giving that up would be fully accepting he's no longer Fire Nation royalty - at the moment, his whole identity.

For Aang in this episode, we do miss where he gets to reminisce about the airbenders and be upset at the changes to the temple like he did in the animated episode that included Teo and the Mechanist - though I do think there's still room to bring that back in a later season as Omashu has been taken and they might show up again as refugees that took shelter in the Air Temple. You got hints of Aang being upset at how the world has changed in the Warriors episode with him not understanding why people wouldn't be open and welcoming and with how Omashu is now, but I think his real issues with the way the war has changed the world will come up in the next two seasons. I saw them drawing from different things for Aang's part here. Aang's journey pulled from his last bit from the Kyoshi Island animated episode where he decides that instead of running, he was going to do what he could to help. In this episode, he starts taking steps to stop running away and deal with threats to average people rather than focusing on the bigger picture stuff like getting to the Northern Water Tribe and learning waterbending. He's still figuring out what the world is like now and finding ways to help 'one person at a time'. He also gets to see people ready and willing to fight - like Teo and his desire to attack.

While it could be nice to see Aang taking the lead in battle strategy like he does in the animated episode, I like that it's Teo who brings up the idea that with Aang, they have air power - which the Fire Nation doesn't have. After all, Aang is a pacifist and not really wanting to strike directly at the enemy yet - but Teo has had years of resentment and pain due to the fire nation and it makes sense that that's his first thought when he meets Aang.  It does seem a bit odd in the animated version how ready Aang is to go to war, create battle strategies, and kill fire nation soldiers (because knocking them off mountains is 100% killing them, like, let's not pretend it's not). I get that he's angry and defending the Air Temple, but I think it was smart to avoid that level of violence from Aang so soon. I know he attacks fire benders a lot, but his actions in the animated episode felt more like outright war than just little skirmishes. It's a small aspect, but I can see why the writers of the live-action didn’t feel like that storyline was crucial to the plot or character development just yet - rather, focusing on what little things Aang can do wherever he goes to help people is the point they're making right now.

With Azula's addition - plus the introduction of Mai and Tylee - I know some people are worried about how that'll square with how Azula makes her team in season 2. I think it can still work out pretty much the same (if that's the route they choose) as it's likely Ozai sends Azula out alone like before and it's only later that she forms her team. So we can still have Mai and her family take over Omashu (as Azula took it at the end of this season) and Tylee could just stay in the capitol - there's nothing to say she isn't currently in the circus - she could just enjoy spending her time off with her old childhood (younger childhood) friends. So no, I don't think including them here was 'plot destroying fan service'. Also, what's with the criticism that she knows how to shoot a bow and arrow? She's a warrior - brutal and efficient. She can use her damn hair pin to cement herself to a cliff face - what makes you think she doesn't have mad skills with tons of weapons? There's nothing in canon (that I can remember) that says that firebenders using weapons is looked down upon, so not sure what the problem is here.

Seeing all the actors and how YOUNG they are, I'm totally cool with the writers skimping on most of the romances - Sokka being the oldest makes sense that his romances become things, but everyone else is a literal child. I can see in like, two years Zuko and Mai being cute together, maybe Aang and Katara (though that age gap is huge for the actors), but right now, all I can see are babies. Canon accurate, but just like with Azula, Mai was NOT drawn as a child - she looked waaaay older - like full on adult older.

Since we're speaking on the Fire Nation, right now: I love the choice for Iroh getting captured by protecting Zuko instead of him just getting caught sitting in a hot spring - it adds way more depth to both Iroh and his relationship with Zuko - plus, it's the first time in the live-action we ever see Iroh firebend. His first display of power is in a bid to draw the attention to him so that he can be punished instead of Zuko and I felt that was just super impactful. I think he did this because Zuko's ponytail would identify him as Fire Nation pretty quickly - and with all the guards, they could spot and take them down - Iroh sacrificed himself not pointlessly, but to draw every eye to him. Also love the detail - that they repeat next episode - that Iroh's firebending is POWERFUL! His fire blasts are SO much bigger than any we've seen - even with Ozai, we haven't seen the sheer magnitude of his bending even if we saw it reflected in Azula's eyes. Like the paralleling of the brothers here where we see the kind of power they have

[floralcavern]

Gay OCs backstory 1/3

This was originally going to be 1/2, but then I saw how long this was getting so decided to split it up as to not torture myself! 👍

These OCs are in the same universe as my aroace OC here!

2/3

Damian held on to his umbrella tightly. Rain poured all around, covering the streets and cars. Bugs skittered around the grass as they tried to find somewhere safe to hide. 

Damian really should be skittering off as well if he didn’t want to be late to his first day of 9th grade at a new school. But how could he when there was a stray cat getting soaked in the rain. 

The cat, a cute little calico, curled in a box and only sheltered because of his umbrella. But he couldn’t leave the umbrella here. He can’t show up on the first day dripping wet. That would be so embarrassing. 

The rain was so loud he didn’t even notice the footsteps approaching. 

“안녕. What are you doing?”

Damian jumped, startled and he turned to see a boy standing behind him. The boy was wearing the same uniform as him, as well even a red tie, meaning he was also in 9th grade.

“Oh, I, uh, th-this cat, it.. uh..”

The boy stepped forward. “¡Ay qué lindoooo! How’d this little guy wind up all alone?”

“I, uh.. don’t know. But if I leave now, he’s gonna get drenched..”

“Hm..” the boy thinks before giving Damian a mischievous smile. Something told Damian this was a face he made a lot. It just looked natural on him. 

“Take my umbrella!” He said, shoving it into his arms. “Huh?! Wait, what?!”

“I have to run! Promised a friend I’d grab something at the convenience store for him! See ya!”

Before Damian had a chance to even get a word out, the boy was running off into the void of raindrops and fog, leaving him with two umbrellas. 

He looked at the cat. “Did you see that?!” He exclaimed. The cat just yawned in response. 

He gripped his umbrella handle before leaning it against the cat’s box. He looked up at the boy’s umbrella. Damian’s was just a plain black one, but this one was covered in red, white, and green raindrop patterns with a black background.

He sighed and began to feel really guilty about now having some stranger’s umbrella while he now has to go to school in the rain. 

He decided he would return it to him if he sees him at school. He ventured on and headed to the school. 

Once he arrived, the classroom was already full of students, some he recognized from middle school, and some were completely new faces. 

He looked around to see if he could find that boy. But he didn’t see him anywhere. Damian took a spot near the back and sighed, watching as the boys in his class were already clumping together and laughing and having fun. He wishes he was able to interact with guys his age like that. 

Damian felt his breath get caught in his throat when the boy from before came in the classroom, dripping water all over the floor. 

“Dude, Cameron!” exclaimed one of the boys. “Did you not read the weather report?”

Cameron laughed and held up a bottle of orange juice. “Ah, well, I didn’t forget to get you your OJ!”

Everyone immediately flocked to Cameron. He had that aura, that smile that made people want to be near him. Even Damian, loner that he was, desperately wanted to jump from his chair and introduce himself and be his friend.

The boys dark eyes turned to Damian and his smile lit up. “Cat boy!”

Everyone snickered. “Cat boy? Damian, something you wanna tell us?” said one of the boys. 

Damian clenched his fists. “Don’t say it like that..” he murmured to Cameron. 

“Sorry! Oh! 만나서 반가워! I’m Cameron Garcia! It’s good to meet you!”

He stared at the boy’s hand before eventually shaking it. “Damian Lincoln…” 

“Cameron!” The smiling boy’s friends called. “Cmon, get a seat next to us!”

“Oh! Right!” Cameron turned to Damian with a cheeky smile. “See ya later!”

“W-wait!” Damian tried, but the boy already walked off. Guess I’ll have to return the umbrella after school..

Cameron and all the other boys chatted loudly, attempting to throw crumpled up papers into the trash can until the teacher came in. 

“We’re going to start off the year with some icebreakers!” She wrote a couple of questions on the board, like ‘what’s your favorite show?’, ‘do you prefer chocolate or vanilla?’  

“Go into groups of 4!” Kids immediately began to group up with their friends, laughing excitedly, leaving Damian with no group. 

The teacher went up to him. “Looks like we’ll have to put you in a group.”

Noooooo… he felt his inner self cry out. Being forced to group with another group of friends by the teacher is by far the most awkward and embarrassing thing ever. 

“Hmm.. go group with Audra, Lenni, Cameron, and Izzy.”

Damian felt like combusting at that very moment from embarrassment. And when the cute boy looked over at him and smiled.. ugh, Damian could’ve dropped dead from a heart attack right then and there from how attractive he was. 

He pulled up and chair and awkwardly sat next to Lenni. He only knew Lenni and Audra. Cameron and Izzy were new. 

“I’ll start!” Cameron said happily. “I’m Cameron Garcia! I just moved from Canada. But before that, I lived in South Korea! And before that, I lived in Colombia! So I speak English, Spanish, French, and Korean. But I rarely speak French, since neither of my parents do.”

Everyone nodded and smiled. Cameron had this energy about him. This laugh that was infectious and made you want to lean against his shoulder as you caught your breath as tears of joy sprung to your eyes. 

He gestured to the girl next to him. “This is my cousin, Izzy!” He nudged her. “Go onnnnn.”

She sighed and sat up. Damian noticed the way Lenni sat up slightly when she got ready to speak. Oh. He thinks she’s attractive.. Damian realized. He never really.. noticed that. 

“I’m Izzy Yun. Unlike my cousin,” she gestures to Cameron, “I haven’t traveled around much. I only live just on the outskirts of this town, about 20 minutes away. I play softball and sometimes volleyball.”

Everyone nodded and then they looked at Audra. Damian sucked in a slight breath. Audra was his ex girlfriend (if you even count dating in 8th grade as actual dating). She broke up with him because he “didn’t act like he actually liked her.” Which was unfair! He did! She was really nice and he liked hanging out with her. 

“I’m Audra Bennett. I’m part of the dance team and I’m part of a band.”

“That’s so cool!” Cameron said, leaning toward her slightly, which caused Damian jump and interrupt Lenni before he got to introduce himself, which is very out of character for Damian, as he would much prefer to go last. 

“I’m Damian Lincoln! I-I.. I um.. I like to code..”

Cameron smiled brightly. “Really? Like videogames?”

“Well.. sometimes.. but also things like hacking..”

“Woah, hacking?” Lenni asked. 

Damian laughed nervously. “Not the kind you’re thinking of. More like.. being able to play Doom on a device definitely not made for that, like a Nokia or something.”

“That’s so cool!” Cameron said, leaning toward him. “You’ll have to show me some time!”

Something about being the person Cameron leaned toward made Damian feel good. Really good. Special and important almost… Maybe even giddy..

“Y-ya, well.. if you have an old device, maybe I can repurpose it for you.. Maybe invite me over…” he said shyly, realizing his tone almost came off flirty.

What was that tone?! He thought, panicked. 

Cameron seemed to pick up on it as well, his eyebrows raising and slowly smirked. “Ok? You can come to my house and we can look for something.. I’m sure there’s something in my room.”

Lenni cleared his throat. “Anyways… I’m Lenni Belle. I enjoy to make movies and study film production.”

“Ohh!” Cameron said. “You wanna be a big time Hollywood producer?”

“Ehhh,” Lenni said, shrugging. “I wanna be more of an indie producer. Hollywood is awful. Not getting tangled in that.”

Cameron laughed. “Understandable!”

Damian awkwardly looked off to the side. He tried to think of something to say to Cameron. To get to keep talking to him. He perked up and reached under his desk. 

“By the way Cameron. Here’s your umbrella back.”

“Huh? Oh thanks! But keep it! At least for now!”

“H-huh? Why?”

“I’m guessing you left your umbrella with that cat? Well, if it’s not still there after school, you can keep my umbrella!”

“Oh.. wait.. does that mean you’ll walk with me?”

“Ya! And after that, you can come to my house! Like we talked about a minute ago!”

“O-oh..! Ok!” Damian said, quickly straightening up, his eyes shining.

Damian glanced over when he felt a glare on him and spotted Audra staring daggers into him. 

Awkward.. he thought. But why would it be awkward? Does she just think Cameron is attractive and upset that he’s not looking at her?

Damian thought about getting Cameron to look at Audra. Seeing as how he had hurt Audra in 8th grade, albeit unintentional, so the least he could do is try and set her up with the cute charismatic boy..

But..

The idea of that made his blood boil. He liked this attention Cameron was giving him. He liked being the one Cameron was talking to and staring at.. Ya, maybe it was selfish, but.. but..

Damian has never had a friend! And he wasn’t going to lose the opportunity to get closer to Cameron… and become friends with him!

The teacher clapped her hands, interrupting Damian and Cameron’s conversation. 

“Ok, kids. Let get back to class!”

Damian pouted slightly and glanced at Cameron, who also seemed mildly disappointed. 

“Remember, we’re going to meet up after school. Meet me at my locker. My number is 214.”

Damian’s eyes widened slightly and he smiled. “Ya. All right! Will do!”

Of course, since he had something to look forward to after school, the school day felt like it went on forever. What really made it worse was that Damian had no other classes with Cameron. 

He did, however, have several classes with Cameron’s cousin, Izzy. 

Izzy was.. intimidating. She had this delinquent like aura about her. Yet, according to the whispers he hears from his classmates, she was ‘hot’. And Damian could recognize that she was pretty. But, other than that.. he just couldn’t see what everyone was so excited about. 

“Pst. Hey,” Izzy whispered. “Can I borrow a pen?”

“Oh.. sure..” he said, handing it to her. 

“Thanks..” 

There was a moment of silence before she said again, “Do you think I’m attractive?”

Damian’s eyes widened and he blushed in embarrassment. “Wh-what?! I mean, you’re not unattractive, but, I-“

“Look. Just answer honestly.”

“…I. I mean, you’re pretty but.. I’m not attracted to you…”

She stared at him for a long while before letting out a sigh of relief. “Finally.. Can I get your number?”

“W-what?!”

“I’m not hitting on you. I just.. need someone who isn’t going to be weird about me. Plus, if you’re going to be friends with Cameron, I wanna make sure you’re good. Especially since he seems very fond with you already..”

Cameron looks down, hating how red his face was. Someone was fond of him? Very fond of him? And it’s Cameron? Could Cameron perhaps.. be a potential best friend?

Him and Izzy exchanged numbers and the school day eventually came to an end. 

Ok, locker 214.. There it is!

Standing at the locker was Cameron, his black hair having been neatly combed back, unlike what it was like that morning, soaking wet and messy. 

Cameron glanced over and his entire face lit up. As if Damian was the greatest thing Cameron had laid his eyes on. Damian felt like he was.. important. 

“Damian!” he calls out, snapping him from his trance. 

“Heh, Cameron..!”

Cameron closed his locker door and skipped over to him. “Ready to go?”

“Y-ya! Mhm..!”

“Great!” Without warning, Cameron interlocked his arm with Damian’s. 

“O-oh!” he exclaimed in surprise. 

“This ok?”

“Y-ya! Of course!”

“Great! Let’s go find that cat!”

 He was ready to follow Cameron, but was not ready when Cameron grabbed Damian by the hand to walk side by side with him. 

Part of Damian knew he was freaking out. This was nothing. Cameron was clearly just a very friendly person. But the other part of him felt like he was on fire. 

He didn’t even remember the entire walk, or what Cameron was saying, focusing only on how sweaty his palms were and how soft Cameron’s hands felt. In the blink of the eye, Cameron came to a stop. 

“We’re here!”

Damian looked around, then at Cameron, then at the cat, then at their hands before quickly pulling away. 

“Looks like my umbrella is still here..” Damian murmured. 

“Ya! Lucky us!” Cameron said as he picked up Damian’s umbrella and handing it to him. 

“Ya.. lucky.. uh, and here’s your umbrella back..”

“Thanks! Now, cmon. Let’s head to my house!”

“O-ok!” he said. Cameron reached out to take his hand again, but Damian instinctively jerked his hand away. 

“Oh. Sorry, did that make you uncomfortable?” Cameron asked. 

“N-no! Just. Instinct. I’m guessing you’re just a touchy person?”

Cameron stared at Damian intently, as if he was trying to read his mind. “Yessssss… I am.”

“Ok.. well.. ya, you can hold my hand. If you want.”

Cameron smiled and took his hand. 

“So, hacking?” Cameron said. “What got you into that?”

“Oh, uh. It’s gonna sound pretty bad..”

“I won’t judge! As long as you’re not stealing people’s private information. Oh! Are you hacking government information!?”

“Ummmm.. no. I’m not that good. I mostly started to get into hacking to use cheat codes in games. Haaaa..”

“Seriously? I heard people like that tend to be annoying.”

“Well, more like.. weapons that don’t actually exist in the game.. or entering in areas that can’t be entered.”

“Really? You’ve gotta show me some time!”

“M-maybe! What kind of games do you like?”

“Oh! Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing..”

“Oh, I don’t play those kinds of games, so I don’t know any cheat codes. I mostly play games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, Just Cause, Red Dead Redemption..”

“Really? I figured a quiet and shy guy like you would also like comfort games!”

He laughed. “Guess I’m the embodiment of the ‘suspicious quiet kid’ stereotypes.. E-Except I’m not actually violent or anything! I swear!!”

“I know..” Cameron said, stopping in front of a house painted pastel blue with white pillars and a front yard patio. It was the picturesque white picket fence home. “I can tell. You’re a good guy, Damian..” Cameron looked at him for a moment before quickly turning and opening the door. “Cmon inside. Just be sure to take off your shoes.”

“Right..” he said awkwardly. He took a step inside and removed his shoes at the front. He was weirdly excited to be here. 

The house was warm and smelled like vanilla and a campfire, so, very comforting. 

A woman came out of the kitchen, taking off a pair of oven mitts. “Cameron! 왜 나한테 친구를 데려온다고 말하지 않았어?”

Cameron smiled nervously. “미안해! 너한테 문자 보내는 걸 깜빡했어!” He turned to Damian. “Damian, this is my mom!”

Damian jumped slightly. “I, uh, um.. nice to meet you, ma’am..”

She stared at him for a few seconds before sighing. “Just don’t be loud or messy while you’re here..”

“Yes! Of course!”

Cameron turned to Damian again, smiling brightly and grabbed his arm. “Cmon! My room is upstairs!”

Cameron dragged Damian upstairs. There was only one bedroom up there. It was closed and had an Olivia Rodrigo poster hung up. 

Cameron opened the door. “Welcome to my humble abode!”

Damian took a step inside and looked around. 

There was a shelf covered almost entirely with different candles, a desk with colored pencils and crumbled paper crowding the top, and next to his bed was a cage with.. with a..

“A guinea pig!” Damian exclaimed. 

Cameron smiled widely. “Yep!” He opened the cage and gently took the animal into his arms. “This is Hams!”

“Hams?! That is such a cute name!”

“I know! You wanna hold him?”

“Can I?!”

“Of course!”

Cameron handed him the creature and Damian looked down at it with sparkling eyes. 

“Oh.. my.. gosh.. He’s so.. so…”

“I know!” Cameron exclaimed, cutting him off. “You keep holding him while I look for something!”

Damian slowly nodded, not looking away from Hams as he slowly leaned down to sit on the bed. 

Cameron looked around his room before digging into his closet. He exclaims “aha!” as he pulls out a dusty, old calculator. 

“Do you think you could do something with this?” Cameron asked. 

“Hmm..” Damian looked at the calculator as he handed Hams back to Cameron begrudgingly, who put him back in his cage.

“Ya, I probably could. If you could, what game would you want to play?”

“Stardew Valley!” Cameron said immediately. 

“Hm.. I’ll.. see what I can do.”

“Yay!! Thank you, Damian!” Cameron exclaimed, clasping Damian’s hands. 

“Oh, I, um.. ya, no problem..” it felt like his voice had suddenly left him. 

“Say, you said you’ve never played Animal Crossing? How about we play together?”

“Huh? Really?”

“Ya! You can make a new island on my Switch!”

“S-Seriously? That’s.. so nice of you..”

Cameron gets up to retrieve his Switch from his drawer. 

“You like the joy-cons? They’re brand new!”

“Oh, ya. They’re nice..”

“Thanks! Now, lay down with me!” he said, jumping onto the bed and laying down. 

Damian hesitated, but eventually decided to not give in to the nervousness and laid next to him. 

“What do you want to name your island?” Cameron asks, bumping his shoulder against Damian’s. 

“Huh..? Oh, um.. Piltover?”

“Piltover… where have I heard that?”

“Don’t.. think about it.”

“All right!”

He typed in the name and handed him the switch. “Now make your character!”

Damian looked at the customizing options. Usually games like this didn’t have many skin tone options. The darkest ones were still way too light. But this game surprised him with how many skin tone options there were. And one of the hairstyles even had locks, like him (though, he did wish there were more than just that one hairstyle..)

“Yay! You made your character!” Cameron exclaimed. “Now let’s start playing!”

Cameron leaned against Damian’s shoulder as he played. 

The two talked about nothing yet couldn’t keep their mouths closed. It was weird. Damian was terrible at talking, yet Cameron seemed to draw the words right out of him. 

There was a knock at the door and it creaked open, Cameron’s mother standing at the doorway. 

“아, 카메론. 여기는 엉망이야. 어쨌든, 점점 어두워지고 있어. 네 친구는 집에 가야 해.”

Cameron looked perturbed. “그는 조금 더 머무를 수 없어요, 엄마?”

She seemed to glower at him and let out a sigh of defeat. 

“What is it?” Damian asked, confused. 

“My mom said you have to go home.”

“Oh. Well.. I’ll see you at school tomorrow?”

“Ya. Lemme walk you to the door.”

They climbed out of the bed and walked to the doorway, Damian putting on his tennis shoes and Cameron leaning against the wall, watching him. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Damian.”

Damian nodded and pushed his glasses up. “Ya.. see ya.”

Right before Damian stepped out, though, Cameron pulled him in for a hug, which severely confused him. 

Damian left after that, walking home as his mind replayed the day’s events. He’s never had someone be so kind to him.. someone who.. wants to be his friend. It was.. kind of exhilarating!

He felt a bit of a pep in his step as he arrived to his house where he saw his parents standing, waiting for him with disapproving glares. 

“Where were you?!” His mother exclaimed. 

“I t-texted you that I was going to a friend’s..”

“Yes, but you gave no information! Who the friend was, where he lived, how long you’ve known him! If I had known you would be gone for so long, I would’ve said no! You missed grandma’s Bible study!”

“She has those, like.. every other day.. is it really so bad if I missed one..?”

His mom grabbed him by the ear. “Go to your room right now! I don’t wanna hear you say anything like that again!”

“Ow, ow! I’m sorry!” She let go of him and he walked inside, rubbing his sore ear. “I’m sorry…” he says again, only this time to himself. 

He goes up to his room and collapses into bed, exhausted. He sees a book on his nightstand and he reaches for it. 

Oh. he thought. The year book from last year must’ve come in.

Dawnward Prep. His old middle school. That place was his personal hell. 

He opened to his class photos and saw himself and he immediately cringed. He always looked so bad in school photos. Though the camera’s lighting in this one certainly wasn't doing him or any of his old classmates any favors. 

He sighed and rubbed his thumb on the picture before closing it and throwing it onto the floor absentmindedly as he laid on his back. 

Cameron.. his mind drifted to him. He’s never had someone invite him to hang out after school. And never in a million years did he expect someone funny and popular like him to invite him.. it almost felt too good to be true.

Usually he found games like Animal Crossing to be boring, yet that was the most fun he’s ever had playing any game. Ever! 

This all felt new. And exciting. But also kind of terrifying. 

He tightly closed his eyes and tried not to think of the scary ideas that may try to come into his head. 

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the calculator. He really wanted to impress Cameron. And if something as simple as this was enough to make him think that he was cool.. he was going to do it!

…

By the next day, Cameron came over to Damian’s desk, slamming his hands against it. “Lincoln!”

Damian jumped and nearly fell out of his chair. “I, uh-! G-Garcia?!”

Cameron burst out laughing. “Sorry, Damian! I just wanted to see how’d you react!”

“Oh.. I thought you were mad at me or something!”

“No, of course not!”

Damian smiled crookedly as his nerves died down from the scare. 

“Well.. um.. I can probably come to your house today.. for the game thing..”

Cameron let out a loud gasp. “You already hacked it?!”

“Y..Ya!”

“So cool! Ya, you can absolutely come over today!”

Damian smiled shyly. “Great!”

Cameron smiled back at him and looked to the side when the bell rang. “Aww man. Well. I’ll see you later, then?”

“Ya. See you!”

Cameron walked to his desk and Damian stared at him from afar. 

At lunch, Damian was tempted to go and sit next to Cameron, but Cameron was surrounded by so many people. People who either thought Damian was weird and just didn’t know he existed. And the idea of butting into their friend group made him want to collapse like a startled goat. So, instead, he sat at a table by himself, the only other person there was one girl. Lisa Xiè. 

Damian knew her in middle school. An intensely feared girl. Not because she’s a delinquent or a fighter. No. She is worse. She’s a teacher’s pet. One of the biggest rule followers Damian’s ever met. When she was given the position of hall-monitor, she acted like the dictator of the school. And not to mention when she became student council vice president..

Even though Damian was a relatively good student, she still managed to find things to get him in trouble for, whether it be his shirt was untucked or his locker had papers falling out of it. 

Because of her attitude, she also didn’t have many friends, so while he might find her frustrating, they had a sense of solidarity on being lonely. So, he was the only one she seemed to allow to sit at her lunch table, glaring at anyone else who may dare try to come forth. 

Once the school day came to an end, Damian stood at his locker, bouncing up and down on his heels excitedly as he waited for Cameron. 

He saw the dark haired boy coming toward him, waving in greeting. 

“Damian!” he exclaimed happily and Damian smiled back. 

“I texted my dad that I’m going to your house,” he lied. What he really told him was that he was going to the library. “Let’s go!”

Cameron took his hand and dragged him, a skipping with every step. “Let’s!”

They arrived at Cameron’s house, Cameron skipping and hopping happily. Damian was quick to take off his shoes and follow Cameron to his room. 

“Hello Mrs. Garcia!” Damian said as they walked past the kitchen.  

“Oh, hello Damian!” she said, smiling at him. “Do you two boys want snacks?”

Damian was a bit surprised. She seemed to be in a better mood than last time he saw her. 

“No thanks, mom!” Cameron said. “We’ll be fine!”

“Ok. Just remember, no eating in your room.”

“I know!” he said before dragging Damian to his room. 

“Ok, can you show me?” he asked. 

Damian smiled awkwardly. Cameron was so enthusiastic. It was nice and all, but also a bit overwhelming. Or maybe Damian was just overreacting..

Damian took out the Ti-84 Plus CE calculator and sat down at Cameron’s computer. 

Cameron hovered over Damian’s shoulder, watching intently as Damian installed the program. 

He laughed a bit awkwardly as he worked, murmuring, “It’s really not as interesting or cool as you’re making it seem..”

Cameron looked down at him with such a simple look as the simple words of, “It’s plenty interesting because you’re interesting,” came from his mouth. 

Damian’s hand froze on the mouse and he choked out a laughed and quickly tried to clear his throat, sweating bullets. 

“Oh wow..” he murmurs. “That’s.. really, really sweet, Cameron..”

He stares at the screen, his and Cameron’s reflection staring back at him. 

He quickly got back to work and eventually finished, pulling up the program on the calculator before handing it to Cameron. 

“Um.. knock yourself out..” he says with a crooked smile. 

Wow.. the way Cameron’s face lit up. He looked as if someone just handed him a bar of gold or something actually precious and good. 

Cameron squealed as he played on the calculator. “I can woo Elliott on here!”

Damian knew nothing about Stardew Valley, so he had no idea was Cameron was talking about, but he watched as Cameron collapsed onto the bed, staring with shining eyes at the calculator, and Cameron’s rambling just sounded like music. He made him happy. He brought him this joy. And that made Damian feel like he was king of the world. 

Damian stood up from the swivel chair and laid next to Cameron. 

“Can I watch you play?”

“Mhm!”

Damian glanced at the screen. “You said you were going to woo someone?”

“Ya! Elliott!”

“Oh? It’s a romance game?”

“Romance is part of it.”

“I see.. so, where is she?”

“She?”

“Ya. Elliott?”

Cameron snorted and shook his head. “Uhhh.. no.”

“Huh?”

“No.”

“No what?” Damian asked, confused. 

He pointed to a character. The small screen made it a little hard to tell what they looked like, but then he realized. 

“A guy?!”

“Ya!”

“You’re going after a guy character?!”

“Um.. ya?” He then gave Damian and hard look. “Got a problem with that?”

“N-no!” Damian said, but found himself inching away from Cameron, suddenly aware of their closeness. “I just.. I didn’t know you were..”

“Into guys?”

“..Ya.”

“Well, I’m omnisexual. But.. ya.”

Damian slowly nodded and choked out an echo, “Omnisexual…”

Cameron nodded, trying to smile but it slowly faded. “Why are you reacting like this?”

“Like what?!”

“All.. weird! Ugh, don’t tell me you’re one of those straight people who automatically thinks a gay person is thirsting after you.”

“N-no!!” he said, blushing even harder and nearly falling off the bed. But all that went through his mind is Wait, does that mean he doesn’t have a crush on me? and for some reason, that made him really disappointed. 

Cameron sighs. “Please stop being so weird about this.”

“Weird?! Pffff! I-I’m not being weird!” Craaaaap, I’m definitely being weird.

Cameron gave him a serious look, and Damian had a feeling that was rare for him. 

He sighs and sit up straight. “I’m sorry.. I promise, it really doesn’t bother me. It just caught me off guard..”

Cameron looked at him silently for a good 15 seconds before nudging him. “Hey.. I still want to be your friend..”

“And I want to be yours!” he said, almost immediately. 

Cameron smiles at him and Damian stares at him before smiling back. 

“Wanna keep playing the game?”

He nodded. “Ya..”

Cameron moved a little closer to Damian and the 2 looked at the game and continued to play. 

Maybe this was the start of Damian’s first, really friendship.. his first, true connection..

[cidylee]

Welcome to the Future - Kicho x Y/N (Ikémen Sengoku)

Here is my entry for A Series of Firsts hosted by @aquagirl1978. I'm super nervous to post it because it's the first time I'm writing a fanfiction and English is not my first language. Also, I know only a little about Kicho. I've only read a few of his birthday events available on the Enslig server. So, expect it to be out of character.

Prompt: First look

Pairing: Kicho x Y/N (but consider it a self-insert)

Word Count: 1628

There are really few spoilers from his route. I think we all already know where he has been and when.

The story takes place in the present day. A university student travels to Japan for her master degree. She visits Honno-Ji temple. There is a thunderstorm and she finds... a man?

The wind is blowing through my hair, bringing with it a light scent of greenery, reminiscent of the few threes around. I can also smell the scent of wet wood and wet stone. The sky is grey. Not a grey that conveys sadness, just an old plain boring grey, perfect for the boring days.

I’m so stupid. So, so, so stupid. What did I decided to do my master’s degree on Dazai Osamu? I’m studying French literature not Japanese literature. At least, since it’s only a master’s degree, not a doctorate degree, I could write my mémoire based on translations. My university allows it. The thing is, French and Japanese are incredibly different. Reading Osamu Dazai in French is not the same thing as reading him in Japanese. I want to respect the creator’s work, so I told myself I would learn Japanese and visit Japan. Such a good idea. A degree that should take two years to finish has been extended to at least four years. I am already twenty-six-year-old. After my university studies, I’ll need to find a job.

I’m dumb. Even a lifetime won’t be enough to fully understand Osamu Dazai’s work. Will I ever be able to read his novels in their original language? Scrap that. I will never obtain my degree.

I sigh as I walk through Honno-Ji’s main entrance. As an international student, I get to visit a lot of places. I am quite pleased to be able to explore Kyoto. I mean, a trip to Japan is not complete without some sightseeing through Kyoto, right? Though, for some reason, a friend of mine recommended me to go to Honno-Ji temple. It’s not that I lack culture, but... I didn’t know what that temple was. I never saw it passed on travel guide. Oda Nobunaga was a name I’ve never heard before. Yet, here I am, about to pay my respect to that guy.

There are few people around. They are talking or looking at their phone. Yeah, nobody cares about Oda Nobunaga.

Suddenly, the surroundings are darkening. Well, I guess it’s going to rain. A lightning tears the sky, creating a root-like pattern. Seconds later, the thunder resonates in the air. The people around are quick to get up from their seat and find shelter under the roofs. Once they are safe from the rain and the thunder, people resume talking and looking at their phone. The storm seems to worsen. Light and electricity are spreading in the sky. Thunder is deafening. I hear a shrill noise in my head, like a powerful ringing. I cover my ears with my hands.

The rain splattering against the ground. The blinding lights. The roaring of the thunder. The heat and the dampness. The tense atmosphere I seem to be the only one feeling. It’s too much. I’m out of breath. My legs are trembling. My heart is about to burst out of my chest. My blood is boiling. I’m about to faint.

The next moment, a lightning strikes the memorial. The ground vibrates under my feet, and I collapse. All eyes are converging where the lightning struck. There, I see a man, lying down. What the… What is he doing?

People around are screaming, pointing at his direction, but nobody goes to help him. I understand. Even if I could move, I wouldn’t risk my life.

Soon, there is no more lightning and thunder. After a while, the sky is clearing up and I can see the sun above. The few people disperse, and I find myself alone in Honno-Ji memorial with a man only meters away. Is he unconscious? He didn’t run away when the storm was raging. I… I don’t want. I don’t want to go look after him, ask him if he’s fine, if he needs some help… I’m not good at that.

Despite my reluctance, I find the courage to look after him. I get up while holding myself against the wall, then walk in direction of the man, my heart still beating fast. Cautious, I lean over him. The man is soaked. His eyes are close, but his chest is slowly rising and falling. He wears a kimono, way too open in the chest area. His black hair falls on his face. He is unconscious, yet he looks irritated.

OK, time to wake him up. I kneel next to him and shake his body. Soon enough, his eyes flutter open. Well, that was easy. It means he is not seriously injured. The man stares at me with green orbs. I can’t help but notice the bags under his eyes. They give him an annoyed look. He’s still quite attractive. His jaw is sharp, his neck long and he possesses an elegant flair to him. I don’t think I’ve met a guy as handsome as him before. Now, what do I do?

"Hello?" I said in a broken Japanese. "Are you alright? Do you need help?"

The man stares at me, confused and more irritated. That’s it. He didn’t understand a word I said. I try again:

"Are you hurt somewhere? What is your name? Should I take you to the hospital?

The man stares at me for a while, and I feel more nervous. He scoffs at me and says something. What… what it is? That’s… I understood nothing. I look at his clothes again. He wears a kimono and the way he is speaking is weird, it is not the Japanese I usually hear on the streets. We are in a temple. The man is handsome… He must be an actor acting the role of a Japanese of the ancient times! He is certainly taking his role seriously. If I were him, I would’ve break character the moment the thunderstorm started. He even kept acting when I woke him up. That’s what I call talent and dedication.

"You’re an actor, right? You’re good, but I don’t think you need to keep acting. I just want to make sure you’re alright. Can you, maybe, answer me in modern Japanese? Please? If you tell me you are alright, I promise to let you alone."

The man scoffs again. He is talking again and… something mysterious happens. I hear him talking to me in Japanese, yet I understand him as if he were speaking to me in my native language.

"Your Japanese is horrible to the ears." He smirks, and I hate him. He’s not wrong, though. "You’re not from here."

"Of course, I’m not from here! It’s written all over my face and body. Do I look Japanese to you? Arg… Anyway, are you not supposed to be an actor for the Honno-Ji temple? If so, shouldn’t you be a bit nicer to the visitors? I was worried about you!"

The man’s gaze darkens. He is not smiling anymore. He scans the surroundings, and he looks confused. "An actor?" he repeats.

"Come on! Don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m not dumb to the point of not knowing there was some sort of actors back in… the old days."

He frowns. "Where are we? What is this place? It’s terrible. Whatever you are wearing is distasteful for a woman… or just any human being."

Geez… That man is something else. "We are at Honno-Ji temple, where Oda Nobunaga died… hum… many years ago."

The man appears to be even more confused. Then, he puts one hand on my neck and forces me to look at him right in the eyes. The effect is immediate. I lower my gaze to his lips. He seems to notice as he sighs, but he doesn’t comment about it. "You said Oda Nobunaga is dead?"

"Yeah… He died some 450 years ago, or so my friend told me."

The man’s eyes widen. What is going on? My heart’s rate hasn’t slowed down since the end of the thunderstorm. I can only keep staring at his lips, his neck and chest. Did he hit his head that badly? He looks like he really doesn’t know what is going on. I should take him to the hospital.

The man has now a serious expression. "Introduce yourself. What is your name? What year are you born? Where do you come from? What year is it?" His voice is commanding, and I see no problem to answering his questions. "I’m Y/N. I was born in 1992. We are now in 2018. I’m from Canada."

I didn’t think he could look more surprised, yet he seems even more dumbfounded. "Canada?" At the end of the 16th century, Canada had already been discovered for some decades. Either the information had not yet reach Japan at that time, or Japan didn’t know Canada by that name. "It’s a far away land. Now, would you tell me who you are?"

The man answers a few seconds later. "My name is Kicho. I am a vassal of Oda Nobunaga." he murmurs. I nod, then I grab my phone, searching for "Kicho". Oh, OK. That guy definitely hit his head. Kicho is a woman, and she is Nobunaga’s wife. "Sorry, but Internet is telling me Kicho is Nobunaga’s wife. She is also known as Nohime." "Nohime?" repeats the man calling himself Kicho. He then stands up and grabs me by the wrist. I am forced to get up with him. "Y/N, you are coming with me. You will show me around and will explain to me everything about this place, and about Canada too." His gaze is piercing, and I feel compelled to obey, but I am not afraid.

"But first, we need to find you new clothes. You can’t go flashing your tits like that."

Kicho’s eyes widen, then he frowns. "Flashing my what? My… tits?"

[lake-archive]

Escort In The Rain

AO3 Link

Fandom: Show By Rock

Series: Rocking Together

Characters: Ann (OC), Shu☆Zo

Pairing: Shuann (Shu☆Zo/Ann)

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

Ann had not agreed to this, they really didn’t. And yet Ole had been insistent about it. Actually he had just decided for them on a whim. “Ann… You’re joining my new band.” A literal quote, their uncle’s exact words.

“Your new band? What are you talking about?” They had asked him as this was the last thing they had expected from his mouth.

“I want to form a new band.” Ole responded rather bluntly however, a little coldly. Though that was due to his constant default stoic expression. “And you will take part in it.”

“As… A manager you—”

“A band member.”

They flinched for a good moment hearing this. A what!? Not to mention their eyes… “But I can’t even play an instrument!” They protested, hoping that it would convince him yet he seemed to be stubborn. As always to be honest…

“Didn’t you play metallophone before?”

“Well… Yes but anyone–”

“That will do.”

“No band has a metallophone player! Isn’t that a little–”

“It will do. Besides, it would make the band stick out, wouldn’t it?”

They understood it. Once someone had caught Ole’s eye he would not rest. Even in his younger years he was apparently known to be like this. Once in the sight of his claws there was no escape and one will have to give in, like a cat on the prowl. Truly a stubborn fellow. So when they heard of an upcoming audition they weren’t all that surprised. Then again, only those who Ole deems ‘interesting’ would even pass, probably. And what his definition of interesting was… Who knew. Of course it was made sure to advertise these auditions and once the day came the ones attending would have to be evaluated. And for the preparations Ann had to also come face to face with the CEO of the label Ole had picked for the band… Who knew eggs could be CEOs these days though. Not a bad thing, the egg got his own appeal going on. Just a bit of a surprise. And it wouldn’t change the fact that they had to be present no matter what, at the audition. 

And they planned to be on time, going right after lectures. Yet on their way to the location it had started to rain. They searched their bag yet then remembered… They had forgotten their umbrella at home! So they got shelter quickly, waiting for the rain to calm down yet it did not much to their dismay. They let out a light, sad howl from their mouth as their ears drooped at that point, arms crossed. Rain, the last thing they needed. And to their own dismay they just had to forget it now of all days. Should they text Ole and let him know that they might be late? He should understand, given both have a disdain for rain. Though his reasons were different. Ann didn’t like to get wet overall. Ole hated to get dirty. And rain counted here. Then again, maybe he would tell them to suck it up today. But running through the rain, that was— 

Yet they were interrupted by a sudden honk, having them nearly fall over as a result. It was loud, maybe a little too loud for their ears. At first they thought that it was nothing but random honking. However, when taking a glance to the side they saw a… Long ass limo approaching? And it didn’t stop for a good few seconds. They took a step back out of shock before this limo came to a halt. Honestly they almost thought that it would keep going and going for at least a minute. But someone had mercy on them it seemed. Yet they were more than surprised that it had stopped in front of them to begin with. However, their expression would switch when seeing who it was.

The window had rolled down and the presence was almost sparkling. A familiar blonde with brown animal ears and fancy clothing showed himself, even wearing sunglasses. When he turned to them he had some smirk on his face. Honestly, they didn’t even need to guess twice who this guy was, they knew better than anyone. But why was he wearing sunglasses when it was raining? Actually… Why was he bothering with sunglasses when the sun was never shining in Midi City!? There was no need!

And yet he took them off in rather flashy fashion, smirk not fading. “What a nice surprise to see you here Ann–Chan~” He added rather cheerful.

“Sh… Shu!? Why did you stop!?” They asked, trying to keep calm when seeing him… And now of all times too… 

“Oh, no reason. I just saw you here from afar and thought of greeting you.” He responded, though sounding a little calmer than at first, even smiling in such fashion. “Waiting for the rain to stop?”

Was it that obvi— Wait, of course it was. The two knew another after all. “Yeah, pretty much.” They replied, though a little hesitant sounding.

“It might be a while before it stops. Want me to bring you home?”

“Firstly, there is no need in any way.” Why would he still help them was the question? That was a little irritating… “Secondly, I’m not headed home right now.”

This had Shu caught off guard apparently, looking at Ann that way, as if this was an alien thing for them to do! Well, in a sense it was… But… “Is that so? An appointment?”

They nodded, though hesitantly. “Kind o—”

Yet before even being able to finish that sentence they saw the door open in one swoop with Shu having probably the brightest smile on his face right now. What didn’t help was that they saw his tail moving as if… Excited!? No way, right? But even then… “Allow me to take you there! Come on in~”

“W… Wait a moment, you don’t even know—”

“You don’t want to be late, do you?”

“Don’t you have somewhere to be? I’ll just wai—”

“I’m a bit ahead of schedule, I have some time. Now come on in before I drag you in there~” He would interrupt, smiling yet sounding so insistent. Wait though, drag!? No way he would, right?

“I… Don’t want to hold anything back. You just—” But before they could protest they found their wrist suddenly grabbed by his hand and before knowing it they were shoved right inside the limo, in the massive seat right next to him. “Woha! Wait a minute!”

“Stop worrying so much, alright? I said it’s fine~” He countered while that grin on his face did not fade away in any way. And his tail was just wagging quicker!? What’s going on!? “Just tell me where you have to go and you’ll be there in no time!”

“B… But…” Ah, the two were sitting so close! In fact he had lifted himself a bit forward and was eyeing them all excited. They had to shift their gaze to not completely lose it. Has this man any idea what he’s doing to them like that!? Talk about being a handful! But he won’t let them out either, much to their own dismay. So did they have a choice? Not really probably. So they would only become redder at the thought… Ugh, their head is spinning already. They didn’t understand this at all! It was so hard to keep calm around him! 

“You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone, promise!”

“Ugh… I get it ok!? FIne, I’ll tell you! But only because it will take ages if I stay here and won’t tell you! I’m just getting this over with!” Their exact words, yes, hoping that it would cause something… But it didn’t, not really at least. Because when they turned their gaze back for a moment they still saw that overly excited expression. What was his deal!? Ugh… This was exhausting. Especially since it sent them all sorts of signals. He just can’t help it, can he? No matter when or where, Shu always manages to turn them into some sort of mess… Seriously, that guy sometimes.

Previous Chapter - Masterlist - Next Chapter

[eriquin]

Cat's in the Cradle, Part 3

Eddie gets out of the trailer park and starts walking.

(master post)

Hawkins was in shambles and no one paid attention to Eddie as he wandered down the street. The earthquake had cut sharp gouges through the center of town, and everyone was panicking about it. On every block, he saw people loading up their cars with all their valuables and driving away. But he also saw people packing up tools and medical supplies and heading towards the fires. It was a pretty even split.

He made his way into a playground just so he could sit down on one of the benches. He wasn’t sure when the sun had risen but he felt like he’d been walking all night. The bench was cold, so he tucked his legs up into his jacket and curled up. He had only put his head down on his backpack for a second before someone was shaking him. 

“Hey, kid,” the man said. “Come on, wake up.” 

Eddie sat up quickly and rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled. The man wasn’t wearing a uniform or anything, but he had an air of authority to him anyway. Eddie pulled his bag in front of him like a shield.

“Where are your parents, kid?” he asked. “What’s your name?” 

Improve instincts kicked in. “Teddy, sir. Theodore Gamgee.” The first name was pulled from an old memory and alias. The last name had him hoping this man didn’t read a lot of fantasy. “Ma and Pa are home in Alabama, sir. Sent me to visit my cousins.” 

“So what are you doing out here? Where are your cousins?” 

Eddie couldn’t help tense up. He was going to have to think of plausible cousins for himself real fast. “Just arrived yesterday, sir. Tried to call ‘em, but no one answered. Then there was the... the...” He looked past the man towards the smoke coming from the center of town. 

“Oh hell, you must’ve gotten here right before the earthquake. You poor kid.” The man crouched down and put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Who are your cousins? Maybe I know them.” 

Eddie bit his lip. “The Mayfields?” He knew Max’s mom still went by Hargrove, so this guy was unlikely to recognize the name. Add in the fact that the trailer park was trashed and vacant. “In, uh, Forest Hills? ‘Cept I don’t know how to get there.” 

The man rubbed his chin and looked in the direction of the trailer park. This was a little bit of a test to see if he was honest. “Sorry to say this, son, but Forest Hills got hit pretty hard in the earthquake. Your cousins will probably be taking shelter down at the high school. That’s where they’ve got everyone set up.” And he passed.

Eddie got up and put his backpack on. He looked in the same direction the man was, then back at the smoke. “Thank you, sir. An’ where’s the high school?” 

He got up and pointed in the right direction. “It’s that way. I’m about to head over there with some donations.” He jerked his hand towards his pickup, the back of which was filled with boxes. “You want a ride?” 

Would the little lost boy persona he’d conjured up trust this guy enough to get in a truck with him? Eddie wasn’t sure, but he figured that if something went fishy it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to duck and roll out of a moving vehicle. And he’d been walking for a long time already and was tired and hungry. He accepted and climbed into the passenger seat. 

For once, things worked out for him. As soon as the truck stopped in the high school parking lot, he ditched the man and ran for the building. Surely, Wayne would be here somewhere. But the gymnasium was full of people and he was so short now. He wandered between groups looking for his uncle’s silver beard and balding head. No luck. He did a couple more circuits of everyone before deciding that Wayne definitely wasn’t anywhere in the room. There were a couple of plastic chairs with line of sight to the front doors. Eddie sat in one and put his backpack under his feet and watched as people filed in. He wasn’t the only one keeping watch. He wasn’t even the youngest, though most of the kids here were with at least one adult. 

He dozed off again after a while and woke with a start, wondering if he’d missed his uncle. The room was still buzzing with noise, and he picked up his bag and started another round of checking on faces. A lot of people were milling around a bulletin board filled with missing persons posters. They were grumbling about something and someone was scribbling on one of the posters. Eddie snuck around the crowd to see what they were doing and got a clear view once they stepped out of the way. He heard a mutter of the word ‘Freak’ and saw devil horns scribbled over his own little black-and-white picture. It hurt more than it should have, probably because he knew that Wayne must have put the poster up. Eddie covered his mouth and turned away. 

A forty-something woman with a bob haircut patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry, hon,” she said gently. “Even with everything, we’re still keeping an eye out for him. You’re safe here.” 

Eddie flinched and ducked away from her. He pushed past a couple more people and ran through the crowd until he got to the men’s room and shut himself inside a stall. He forgot how thirteen-year-old him would cry at the drop of a hat. He hadn’t missed the wild ride of pubescent hormones fucking with his emotions. 

It wasn’t just that, though. He could admit it to himself. He’d spent the last few days on the most nauseatingly horrific roller coaster ride, but at least he’d quickly gotten some backup in the form of a group of people who seemed to know what they were doing. Now the world was ending, his friends thought he was dead, and he was completely untethered from anything solid. He had no idea what was going to become of him. He had to check in on Wayne, somehow, but after that he also had to get back to Dustin and let him know what had happened. He just didn’t know how to do it.

He left the stall and washed his face and thought. Wayne wasn’t in the shelter, but Wayne had been there to put up a poster. His uncle was a stubborn son of a bitch, in his own words, and he knew he’d come back to check on that poster and put up a fresh one. They weren’t going to kick a kid his age out of the shelter. Hell, no one had even asked him any questions yet. They had a food table set up and just kept handing out soup and sandwiches to whoever wanted them. He could probably even snag a cot and get some sleep that night. 

With a plan in mind, Eddie left the bathroom and focused on getting through the night.