#don't think i succeeded since it's been a while since i practiced that but hey

[lemonduckisnowawake]

What if I theologized hanahaki? What then? Like if hanahaki was a symbol of unrequited love that desperately wants to be requited? Because God so loves us enough to want to be with us but also loves us enough to hold back lest His holiness turn us to ash because the flowers have become so embedded in us. So what if the flowers are a sign of our own rejection of God and the desperate craving we all have deep inside for Him...but also our way of melding with something that needs to go and thus being unable to be saved from it because we made it us in a sense? Like...

...

There’s a new wave of people who claim to be without the Flower Rot, also known as Hanahaki and Hua Bing.

These people claim that, without surgery, they have managed to completely remove the Rot. When asked what had caused this, one woman who wished to remain anonymous told the reporters, “It was…God, I guess. But He was also a man. He just…said that because the Rot’s too rooted in us, even if we wanted God we’d just burn with the flowers. But the only way’s to have His love take it away. So He said He’d take Rot and fade because He was a man, then come back because He’s God, and give us love to remove the Rot because He’s both.”

Her explanation aligns with similar ones from other witnesses with the Rot gone. They claim that the risk of fading with the removal of the flowers was taken by a man. But that His Godliness also signified that He could “grant His love” to permanently dispel the Rot.

As a refresher, it is quite unclear why the Rot suddenly began to manifest inside our lungs millennia ago. The most common legend is a tale of how humanity and God once lived in harmony in a garden. However, one day, man rejected God and told Him they could create a garden of their own. Though He offered a chance to repent from their rejection, having told them previously that such an endeavour would bring death upon them, they refused to acknowledge their wrong and were thus severed from His power and acceptance.

The proud declaration of humanity was not a nonsense claim, as they indeed found they could produce beautiful plant life for a garden.

However, that came with the cost of death, for these flowers grew inside them and were expelled through bloody coughs and sneezes.

Such is the duality of this universal Rot—a sign of divine rejection, some say, or a sign of our own ability to create beauty made more glorious through our own sacrifice, as others say. Of course, there are others who say this Rot is more complicated than simply a sign of our glory or a rejection from the divine, but those claims as much less popular.

In recent times, science has discovered that this Rot is simply a natural and inborn function of our body. “In fact, it’s inaccurate to call such a natural part of human experience a rot,” Doctor Kinuyo Yahagi of Hanahaki Research Association said, showing a bloodied purple iris of hers. “Yes, it is unpleasant but it is a fact of life, just like death and hunger and blood.” She then gave an animated explanation how there was a particular genetic wiring within our lungs linked to the brain’s rejection and affection chemicals. If the two are stirred in such a way, a pathway is made from the brain to the lungs triggering the genetic code and causing flowers to bloom.

“It can be removed by surgery,” a surgeon from the local medical center said. “However, studies have shown it is risky as it can affect your ability to love and process rejection, so it’s up to the patient to take the risk or not.”

Activists have cried that a difficulty in loving is not a sign of deteriorating humanity, and that those who choose the surgery are still acceptable.

“Hanahaki or not, we all still die, right?” a video of one academic debate records a professor speaking to one of the new Rot-less people.

The Rot-less person—a professor as well—nods thoughtfully. “Yes, but now, my death becomes a death without the disease signalling our separation from the divine, which is no true death at all.”

The ethics of removing the Flower Rot surgically still are debated, though much support for it has arisen in the past few decades. Research into these new rot-less people has also steadily increased, all done with the utmost legal and ethical restrictions to the volunteer’s rights.

“Hopefully, we’ll get to the bottom of this and find a better way to remove the disease,” Dr. Yahagi’s co-worker who wished to remain anonymous said. “Natural or not, it is still unpleasant. Why continue with something that is now proven to not be inevitable?”

[misc-obeyme]

Helllooo!! How are youu? For the drabbles, can i request solomon + apron? Thank you and have a nice day! I love you!! 🫶

Hey there, anon! Tee hee, I love you too~

Okay well I had multiple ideas about how this could go, but I ended up with something a little suggestive... I couldn't help it lol.

Thank you for participating!

COZY COMFORTS EVENT

GN!MC x Solomon with prompt apron

Warnings: none

It had been a long day and you were ready to come home. You were hungry and you thought about what you might make for dinner as you shrugged out of your coat and shoes. You made your way to the kitchen, but stopped in your tracks when you heard humming coming from that direction.

"No," you whispered to yourself. "Don't tell me…"

You crept slowly to the doorway. You wanted to see if Solomon was actually cooking in there or if it was a false alarm. You had to know if you needed to make a quick retreat and act like you hadn't been home at all.

You peeked around the edge of the doorway and had to bite your lip to prevent yourself from making a noise.

He was definitely cooking, which was certainly bad.

But far more distracting was the fact that he was wearing your apron.

There wasn't anything particularly unusual about the apron itself. It was a practical thing that you had purchased long ago, simple and functional. It wasn't that odd for him to be wearing it, since you didn't allow him one of his own.

Except that Solomon also seemed to have lost his shirt.

From where you were standing, you were looking at his back. His skin was covered in pact marks and you could see his body moving beneath them as he stirred something in a pot.

It was all you could do to prevent yourself from sneaking up behind him and kissing the nape of his neck. You wanted to run your fingers through his hair and across every mark you could see. You were grateful he still seemed to be wearing his pants.

But you had lingered too long in the kitchen doorway. Solomon turned and saw you. For a moment, the two of you stared at each other. Then Solomon grinned.

"MC!" he exclaimed. "Perfect timing! I was just finishing this soup! You must be hungry. Why don't you come have some?"

You smiled at him and came into the kitchen. You walked over and tugged on the apron.

"What happened to your shirt, Solomon?" you asked.

Solomon looked down at himself as though he had forgotten about it. "Oh, I spilled sauce on it earlier. I figured it would be better to just leave it off for now."

"You're supposed to put the apron on before you spill on yourself," you said.

Solomon chuckled. "I know, but I was so eager to get started that I forgot."

You ran a hand up his bare arm, fingertips lingering on a pact mark on his bicep. You were pleased to hear his breath catch. You stepped in even closer and put your other hand on his waist, settled halfway on his skin and halfway on the apron tie.

"MC," he said and the low roughness of his voice indicated your ploy was succeeding. "The food-"

You interrupted him with a kiss. You had effectively distracted him from the soup still on the stove. With any luck, it would burn and even Solomon would have to admit it was inedible.

You couldn't help smiling into the kiss as his arms closed around you. While you didn't want him cooking, you could think of other reasons to have him wear your apron again.

cozy comforts | masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[burnin0akleaves]

Hey! Sorry for popping in as anon, I'm genuinely not sure if some of the things I'm going to say are going to be nice, and I am a coward. But this is regarding you quitting to post in the RA fandom. If you consider my opinion on this as unwanted/unnecessary, do not feel obliged to reply. (Though I honestly think you never feel like that anyway)

I first saw your art when I joined the RA tag a while ago, and I thought to myself: 'Huh. Nice art, not my cup of tea though.' Since then, you have changed my mind. Your obsession with TRR Will and repeated posting about it not only has changed my thoughts on your art (I've really grown to like it) but also on the character of Will himself. I was on Reddit during that massive TRR Will hate phase and some of these posts had really tainted my view. You changed that and I am so grateful for that. Not seeing your art anymore will be sad, but I suppose my own lack of interaction is to blame for that. I made my bed so now I sleep in it. Your reaction to stop posting is justified and understandable, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss seeing your TRR Will on my dash.

Who knows what the RA movie (if it ever does come out) will do to this fandom, but I hope that new faces might get things swinging enough again for you to rejoin the fandom. Lastly, I have to say that for me, you've been a legend in this fandom, and will continue to be one, even if you focus on other things from now on.

Well hello there, this was unexpected. First of all thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to write to me! The reception to that post has been overwhelmingly positive even though it hasn't been up for that long and it makes me feel very glad I finally pushed myself to write that official goodbye message.

I don't know who you are and I don't really have any guesses, your message implies you didn't interact with my posts a lot so maybe I saw you around only a few times (?), but you have no idea how much this means to me. Throughout most of my time in the fandom my main goal was always to change people's minds about TRR and more specifically, TRR Will. I've heard that I succeeded many times and honestly, that was one of the biggest reasons I could keep myself so pumped up about a book series I read all the way back when I was in middle school (<- an adult saying this)

Seeing people go from "Cool post, not my thing though." to "Well I can kind of see what you mean when you say it like that." to "I agree, this does sound pretty good!" was both my biggest source of pride and motivator here. Hearing you say I changed your mind just now has the same effect on me, it almost makes me want to rush to my computer to draw or write about Will.

Also, extremely bold of you to say you didn't like my art at first motherfucker /j

Speaking seriously though, my art style practically grew here. When I first joined the fandom I was NOT good; hell, I can't look past anything before July of last year still. Maybe it was just me improving artistically that helped you warm up to my stuff more. I really really hope the new artists have that kind of experience too! You get obsessed with a little guy and then your brain decides to level up as fast as possible. TRR Will is that little guy for me.

Your last words are so, so kind. The way you speak about me here in general is extremely kind. I'm glad I was able to leave a good impression. And you're right, maybe all I need is a break and when I come back this space will feel more fitting again.

Like I said, I still have lots of connections to this fandom via others. I'm still technically helping out with the Gathering stuff, so maybe I'll work on doing a prompt or two still! I'm also a mod in the NSFW server and I love that place, I'm not leaving it anytime soon. If more TRR books come out you can bet I won't be able to shut up about them anyway, if I don't make at least one post then assume I'm dead.

What I'm trying to say is, I'll be around! Our paths will cross again.

PS: The entirety of the RA subreddit can suck my dick. I'm gatekeeping older, experienced Will from all of them. None of them deserve him.

[marinerainbow]

Hey! So while I was reading your Popshine/JessicaxRoger Switcheroo AU I was listening to that Steven Universe Song- Its Over Isn't It (And just a precurser- i havent seen this show i just like the song and am just taking context clues from it). And I've been stewing on it since, and can't stop thinking about a Shiny x Poppy x Psycho love triangle with this plot! Lots of angst ahead, I warn you 😅

Like, imagine both Psycho and Shiny are in love with Poppy and she cares deeply for the both of them too. Shiny can make a joke of this, playfully argue with Psycho any time he's around and bother him as much as she can- because she doesnt think she'll actually lose Pops to him but his presence does annoy her. Her heart is, inevitably, broken when in the end Poppy chooses him.

I was fine with the men-

Who come into her life now and again.

I was fine, cuz I knew,

That they didn't really matter until you.

I was fine when you came, and we fought like it was all some silly game.

Over her- who she's choose-

After all those years, I never thought I'd lose.

Poppy and Psycho then have the twins, and Shiny fades into the background (as much as she can, I mean. Poppy still loves her and wants to be friends of course)- until Poppy dies. I'm not sure how, considering she is a toon of course, but it was definitely tragic.

Now Shiny has to help Psycho take care of the twins because he can't do it alone (She certainly knows it), and she needs to keep the last bit of Poppy left over, safe.

Of course you're welcome to ignore this if you want! Just thought I should tell you since it's about your OC's 😅

AWSTTHJOLNJTESDU7JHTEDF ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME CRY!?!? WELL YOU SUCCEEDED-

Ok ok ok. Before I get into my response to this, I've got some headcannons for this little AU. So. Poppy is dead. Psycho is not only mourning the sudden loss of his wife, but he's also a father now. He's got two kids he has to figure out how to raise through the depression. This would be hard on anybody. But on someone as mentally unstable as Psycho?? Holy. Shit. He's gonna need a lot of help. Shiny knows this, and although she and Psycho aren't friends thanks to their little love rivalry (I like to imagine she and Psycho could get along on their own. Maybe not be best friends, but it's Shiny's whole damn job description to get along with everyone she meets. If they didn't love the same woman, she could have made an acquaintance with Psycho work), she steps in whenever she can. Being more than just the Godmother Poppy asked her to be for the kids; at this point, the twins are practically her own, too. And she's the closest they have to a mother figure in their lives.

In fact, I think in this storyline, Shiny would have offered to take Psycho's position in the Toon Patrol. Those kids need a parent who won't get pulled away because of a new job. Or could easily be killed on said job either. And Psycho needs to be able to focus on his children full time now that it's just the three of them. Sure, if he does die too, the twins will be under her care, but Shiny isn't going to deprive them of the father they need now. Not to mention that this is around the 60's-70's; burlesque clubs aren't very popular now. Not as much as they were in her time anyway. Shiny needs a new job. And hey, she already had one foot in the criminal life with her moonshine business. Why not kill two birds with one stone? (Sometimes Psycho does have to get called for a job that only he can do, though he is still mostly a stay at home dad.)

So to the twins in this storyline, Shiny is not just their cool aunt. She's involved in so much of their lives. Going to school functions with Psycho to support all three of them, celebrating holidays all the time with them, and just generally making sure he doesn't screw up as a dad. She and Psycho here don't necassarily like each other, but she's short of moving in with them from becoming a complete member of their household. It's partially due to her legal status as a godmother, and she herself has grown an attachment to Poppy's children. And it hurts her so much more because this is the family of the woman she loved, and the other man.

Because she's trying her best to be the stability this family needs, Shiny never got to really mourn Poppy's death and, as such, hasn't been able to truly move on. She feels like she can't truly talk about her position about this to anyone since she has to be strong for the kids. But eventually, bottled emotions have to come out one way or another. Why not let them come out in song?

Also, after our convo, I'm making widower gardener Psycho canon in this AU :)

Warnings for: past character death, angst, plenty of cursing, a lot of crying. Also emotional singing (I don't care if it may come out as cringy- if I can't animatic Shiny singing this song, then I'm gonna write it!)

~

January 2, 1973

"Goodnight, Shiny."

"G'night, you little rascals. Don't forget to bite the bed bugs back for me!"

The two children giggled, Percival letting out a "That's gross!" around his laughter, before their father gently nose nudged them both towards the hallway. The twins gave him and their godmother one final hug before making their way to the back of the house to do as they were silently told how they could behave so well despite being raised by two hooligans, Shiny had no clue. It must be Poppy's influence. Usually Psycho didn't pay much mind to bedtimes, though it was late on an already long day. They all needed rest...

The grin on Shiny's face finally fell, only after Psycho glanced briefly towards her- telling the old dancer in his own way to go home now, before following his children. Now it was just her alone standing in the seemingly empty living room. It had been a long day for them all. Especially for the kids...

'Another birthday come and gone...'

visiting the grave of a woman that they didn't even know, but were supposed to. That would be scary and thought-provoking for anybody. No matter how old or young they were. Who knew what kind of shit was going through Penny and Percy's heads whenever they saw their mothers name on a tombstone?

But at least, they had as good of a support system they could get. All Penny and Percy needed to worry about now was what story their father would tell them tonight, and how many sheep they'd have to count to fall asleep. But they were getting older, too. And someday, they would lose the innocence that came with childhood...

Shiny's fists clenched, and an ugly frown tugged at her lips, choosing to glare at the floorboards as if they somehow spoke ill about her. Every year, this day was so damn hard for her. At least on the twins' birthday, she could distract herself with Penny and Percy's happy demeanor and what the day is supposed to be about. But on Poppy's birthday, all anybody could think of was how their friend was no longer with them to celebrate with.

The weasel woman growled a little before silently storming towards the front door, trying so hard to ignore the pain in her heart. She had to leave and go home anyway, but she also needed some fresh air. It was the only thing that could help her now- or at least that was what she could hope.

The former dancer's paw hovered over the doorknob in hesitation when she heard the familiar pitter patter of rain drops hitting the roof. Before she even stepped outside, 'Of course. Of course, it's going to be raining tonight.' If she were religious, she would have taken this as a sign that even the universe was sorrowful on this day. didn't bother with thoughts like that. They brought no reassurance or comfort to her despite so many people telling her it would.

Shiny just barely managed to not slam the door behind her before sinking down onto the porch steps. The night air was chilly, causing the rain to feel ice cold on her skin, not that Shiny cared at the moment. And the lamp across the street had gone out again. Shiny hadn't bothered turning on the porch light; it would just draw more attention towards her. More so than a wrech sitting on someone else's porch in the rain in the middle of the neighborhood would. At least the people around here knew to mind their own business.

That was one of the things Poppy liked about this place when they went house hunting; it was a valuable perk for anybody married to unlawful citizens. The perk for Shiny was that her house was just a few blocks away, and she could have visited Poppy and the kids more often...

"Fuck!" She roughly rubbed her eyes, trying desperately to get rid of the now familiar stinging before the floodgates started. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck. Why? Why? Why did it have to be so damn hard just to think of that woman's name? To think about a future that would never be reality now? She knew why, but why!?

Shiny sucked in a long, overdue breath and heaved it out before slumping over in defeat. Her elbows were resting on her knees, but they hardly supported her it felt like, as she hung her head. If she closed her eyes, she knew that Poppy's grave would be all that she'd see, so Shiny settled for just staring into the wet, muddy ground. Her voice was so soft, so fragile, she would have wondered if she actually said anything if she wasn't focusing on other things, "Why did it have to be you?"

God. So much had changed over the years. It was hard to believe they all had come this far. How much they all had changed. Sure, Smartass still had his gang, and the rest of the boys were still in it. But everything was different. And it wasn't just Psycho becoming a father and widower. She was different...

So much had changed. Nothing was the same. Or ever will be again... She couldn't even remember the last time she sang. Singing and dancing used to be one of Shiny's favorite forms of expression; it had been more than just a way to make money to her. But there wasn't a need for it now. She worked in the night under a very different career now. What point was there in singing anymore?

Shiny ran a paw through her hair it had grown longer over the years. She simply hadn't bothered to cut it anymore. She couldn't see the point in it nowadays before tilting her head to the left to look at the poppies lining the house. She was careful, despite her broiling emotions and shaky paw, when she reached towards the one closest to her and grazed her fingers over the petals. It was actually Percy's idea to plant the poppy flowers, 'so mom can be home' he had said. Just more proof that the little kit thought about things a lot more than kids his age should. Of course, planting your mothers namesake to try to keep her close wasn't how it worked, but who would care? Certainly not his father. Or her.

'You always loved my singing.' The thought wormed its way into Shiny's head before she could stop it. But now that it was there, she just... Couldn't fathom the energy to force it away. Not while she was out here alone, on her sweethearts birthday, with the cold rain and breeze as her band for the night, 'And I loved to sing for you... I'd give anything to sing for you again...'

But Poppy wasn't there to hear her sing anymore. It was no longer the same. Shiny had always thought that she sang for herself, which was partially true. But she found out the hard way too that she also needed someone to offer her voice to- something to sing about. But what?

...

"I was fine... With the men... Who would come into her life now and again..." It had been years since she had found it in herself to sing anything. Let alone whatever was on her mind. She somehow already knew what she was going to sing about before the words even left her lips, but right now, she couldn't care less, "I was fine... Cause I knew, that they didn't really matter... Until you." Her eyes narrowed into a spiteful glare, as she thought about that damn weasel inside the house now. She wanted to think of him as a homewrecker in all honesty. Though how could she when Poppy had never loved her the she had hoped she would?

A shaky breath, to try to calm her raging nerves. It was futile, but it was either try or just go all out and bat shit crazy in the rain. Shiny focused back on the flower, thinking back to all the stupid things Psycho and Shiny used to do to compete, "I was fine. When you came, and we fought like it was all some silly game... Over her."

Another crack in her voice. Another breath, "Who'd she choose..."

Shutting her eyes tightly, Shiny managed to tear her gaze away from the flower bed and lift her chin towards the cloudy night sky. Though it wasn't in pride, "After all those years, I never thought I'd lose..."

"It's over, isn't it?" It was, wasn't it? "Isn't it?" Now that she was never coming back, "Isn't it over?" After leaving behind so much, "You won. And she chose you. And she loved you. And she's gone..."

Only one thought crossed her mind as a droplet that wasn't from the current weather slipped down her cheek; if their silly little game was over now... "It's over, isn't it? Why can't I move on?"

~

Penelope felt restless, sitting upright in her bed and watching the rain pattering against her window intently, rather than laying down and trying to sleep. She always loved the rain. As long as she could remember. She especially loved it when it was a heavy downpour.

Though she was scared that mom's poppies would get ruined. Thankfully, dad was already on it, and had left real quick to make sure the garden had shelter for the night, "Percy?"

She didn't look her brothers way, but she could still hear the sleepy muddle in his voice. She didn't know how he was able to hunker diwn to bed so quickly, "Yeah?"

"Do you think mom liked the rain too?" Dad and unkle Wheezy had mentioned that their mother wasn't too fond of thunder a few times, but thunder and lightning were different... Maybe she had something in common with mom.

Finally tearing her gaze away from the window, Penelope looked over to the other side of the room, where Percival, in his own bed, was. The little weasel rubbed his eyes and blinked them into focus before he shrugged, "Maybe... Dad likes the rain, and they did a lot together. So she probably did."

"Yeah. That's right..."

Penny nodded, though Percival noticed how she looked to be frowning. He sighed, knowing exactly what she was thinking. It was something they both thought about, especially on days like this. How everyone they knew got to know their mother... Except each other.

Wordlessly, the kit crawled out of his bed and walked over to his sisters side of the room. He did hop on the bed with her, but he did reach over to hug her, which she returned silently. Neither of them spoke a word. They were young, but they still knew each other best.

"... I'm gonna get a glass of water." Penny decided after a moment, pulling away from the sibling embrace and sliding off of her bed easily. Percy decided to follow her. It sounded like they could use a drink- as their unkle Smarty would say.

The trip to the kitchen was relatively short. It wasn't even too bad when they had to get creative to reach the glasses in the cupboard; usually, dad got the cups down for them, but he wasn't around. So Penny just climbed onto the counter like she had seen dad do sometimes and passed down her brother the cups. They had done this trick a lot, much to their family's detriment.

Percival could only hear the rain pouring down onto the roof. Though he was reminded that he wasn't the twin that inherited their mothers hearing when Penelopes ears twitched and tilted towards a direction. He followed confusedly after her when she started walking towards the front door, "What is it?"

The rabbit child's ears were pointed toward the door, before her bright blue eyes widened, and she hopped onto the couch closest to the front window. Percy followed suit, searching for whatever it was that she heard. When he saw the familiar figure sitting on the porch, his eyebrows shot up to his forehead, "Shiny?"

"She was supposed to go home, right?"

The two shared a look. Silently asking the other the same question; listen? Or go back to bed?

...

In that secret language only siblings could understand, the two agree to creep back towards the front door and crack it open. Just a tad; not enough for Shiny to hear them, buy enough for them to listen to what she was saying.

Or rather, singing, "Shiny can sing??"

"Shh!"

Lucky for the twins, the rain was loud enough in Shiny's ears to block out any other sound. Honestly it was a wonder she hadn't gone deaf from countless night in the past dancing along loud bands... Her heart ache might have had a hand in her lack of focus now, too.

The weasel gritted her teeth and tugged at some hair strands- which was getting wetter by the minute. Including her clothes and fur. But she just couldn't give a damn now. Besides, it allowed her to pretend that the tears streaming down her cheeks were just raindrops, "Who am I now in this world without her!? Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her..."

Poppy was always naive; she always wanted and hoped for the best in this wretched world. But that didn't mean she was dumb. Poppy had faced her own suffering in her life, and she always looked out for the people around her, no matter how awful they truly were. The way she treated her criminal friends, how she treated her, was proof of that. Shiny knew that she could always trust the rabbit because of it. And that was what made Poppy stand out to her out of everyone in her life, and what she had loved the most about her.

But nowadays... She still loved Poppy, and she loved the twins. But sometimes, Shiny wondered what would have happened if she had tried to discourage Poppy from more of the choices she had made. Would it have been worth being more controlling if it meant Poppy would be alive now?

The singer shook her head at that, knowing in her heart that that kind of thinking was wrong. Besides, it's not like it would change anything, so what was the point? "What does it matter? It's already done. Now I've got to be there for her kin..."

From the front door, Penny and Perry couldn't believe their ears, and even shared a look. As if they had to verify with the other that what they were hearing was really real. Their aunt had always told them that she and their mother were close, but she never said anything about this. She never looked this sorrowful talking about their mom. She was always so cheery and strong; had she been hiding this from them all along? "Percy...?"

Their shared thoughts stopped in their tracks when Percy noticed Shiny standing up from the porch, and quickly gestured to his sister. The kits ducked behind the door, just in case she had planned on going back inside, or was about to glance behind her. They stayed there, holding their breaths, until they heard their godmother's voice again. Louder, almost yelling, and more strained this time. Like she was cracking under the weight of what she said next, "It's over, isn't it!? Isn't it!? Isn't it over!?"

They both flinched from their hiding spots, feeling the pain that Shiny carried through her voice. They slowly peeked back outside once they deemed it safe, and could see Shiny now stood up from the porch and off the steps, standing fully in the pouring rain now. It was hard to see with how dark it was, but it looked like she was trembling even. All Penny and Percy could do was continue to listen. It was all they knew what to do now.

The weasel felt like she was going to crack under the weight of all her pent-up emotions. Her breath huffing out all shaky and fists clenched so tight by her sides. She felt so weak right now, on her own, but all she wanted was to scream and shout and punch a pillow. Or better yet, a wall. Her vision felt blurry, and not just because of the tears in her eyes, and she wasn't even thinking about all of the painful memories like before. Right now, even though it felt so hard to do, all she could do was take in one long breath, and scream into the sky with all the heartbreak that she had pushed down all these years, "You won, and she chose you! And she loved you! Now she's gone!"

...

That's it. There was no turning back now. She couldn't take it back now. Or fault the ears of anyone who may have been listening. Blinking away raindrops and tears, as if that final scream had taken her voice, all Shiny could manage now was a soft, pained tune, "It's over, isn't it? Why can't I move on...?"

Quiet sobs escaped her lips as her head fell, now staring at the muddy ground. Her shoulders shook with her crying, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her arms around herself, trying to find some way to find warmth and comfort now, "It's over, isn't it? Why can't I move on?"

Letting out everything she had locked away didn't help in the slightest; all it left was cold emptiness. At least, that's what it felt like now. At least no one was here to see her like this...

"Shiny?"

Her eyes grew wide, and a gasp escaped her before she whipped back around towards the doorway. Seeing the two she had hoped would never see this side of her was bad enough, but seeing the utter confusion and worry on the twins' faces, worry they shouldn't have to feel for her, made her heart sink even further than it had. How much did they hear? "O-Oh! Hey, guys... Shouldn't you be asleep...?"

Usually, the kids would have some witty excuse, or at least what they thought was clever, and act innocent. It would make Shiny laugh every time before she called them out on their mischief and sent them back on the right path- doing whatever it was they were supposed to be doing. But now? Stepping fully outside and onto the porch in their pajamas, Penny and Percy didn't answer her. At least not with words. Though the many questions that they didn't ask- or didn't even know where to start- were clear as day in their wide, sad eyes.

They heard it all. Or at least enough. Enough where she couldn't make up a lie to distract them. Not that that would have stopped them. They were persistent little kits.

And now, because she couldn't keep a damn lid on herself, wasn't strong enough to keep it together, Shiny had no choice but to reveal the complete truth, "... I... Kids, I..."

But where does one even start?

~

I really wanted to add Psycho's reaction as well. But I couldn't figure out how to write it in while making it flow with the story. I'm kinda afraid that adding the twins in this already jumbled the flow of the drabble a bit- but I haven't written them yet, and wanted to try 😅

He is in the backyard, so I don't know if he could even hear her sorrow... Though maybe he came back inside last minute?

But anyways! I hope you like this answer, and I apologize for taking so long XD let me know what you think! ^^

[kookie-doughs]

Your Voice

Oikawa Tooru X Reader

-In a world where only a few people has a soulmate, and they are burdened with a disability until they meet their other half.

Chapter 19: Comforting Presence

Italic signed, Bold written

The entire team were in cahoots. No one found out about Oikawa's incident. Not the coach, no students, not even you.

They figured, if the coach finds out it'll be trouble for him. And volleyball was the only thing keeping him together.

His entire personality had changed. His flirty side, his friendliness, even stupidity. All gone. He was practically a robot.

He's stopped going to Iwaizumi's to walk to school with you, all he does is go to school and practice.

You of course began noticing it.

None of the boys seemed to care which surprises you. But then again you didn't know what happened.

You'd occasionally see the 3rd years try to cheer him up but he'd brush them away.

You were beginning to miss him and his antics.

It hurt your heart looking at him. He looked broken and unkempt.

It hurts you so much seeing the man you like like this.

You haven't talked to him since valentine. He was drifting from you.

Right now you were in class, trying to figure out how to approach him. How would you talk to him? What would you say?

Hey, you've been highkey ghosting me since valentines did something happen?

It was stupid. Planning this is stupid. But you don't know whay to do.

With the 3rd years the three boys have been trying to figure out how to help the boy. They thought finding his soulmate would be easy but they were dead wrong.

There are over 150 students part of the soulmate program excluding lost of taste. And so far they've only ruled out 21 girls and 10 boys before giving up.

Really the boys should do their research. They assume since he's talked around the deaf and they don't hear him, they can't be the soulmate.

The relief on Iwaizumi's side when he found that out, lmao

Oikawa had been much more of a romantic as people took. He was saving himself for his true love. Playfully flirting here and there but never really pulled through anything. Many tried none succeeded. He's had temporary flirting flings but that's it.

Today he's come to a realization though. Since he wasn't ever going to find her. Who is he saving himself for?

While the other boys were distracted he left them and went ahead.

Your classes was done. You went to the gym to get ready for the practice coming up. You wanted to watch the warm ups, instead of refilling bottles.

When you got to the gym you saw the locker room door close. Assuming it was the boys, you ran and knocked.

After a few seconds you opened the door. There you saw an unfamiliar girl being pinned by Oikawa.

Your heart ached. You lips quivering, you wanted to say something.

They weren't doing something. Yet...

Neither took notice at you, the smirk on the girl's face was proud as Oikawa's face inched closer.

Tears were forming, you didn't want to see this. And the thought of knowing this happening hurt.

"Oikawa..." You called out. You coughed.

The man froze and the girl finally took looked. She looked at your trembling state. You were on the verge of crying, as if you were cheated on.

Oikawa turned to you. When he saw you he got a hold of himself. What was he doing? He bit his lower lip.

He punched the locker behind the girl and walked away towards one of the bathroom stall.

The girl looked at him and you. Her mouth agape, "This is all your fault!" She screamed at you.

"If it weren't for your meddling desperate for attention, ugly face, I WOULD'VE BEEN OIKAWA'S GIRLFRIEND!"

Oikawa must've shouted because the girl flinched. She glared at you then ran away.

You went to the bathroom stalls, knocked at the doors looking for him. When one of the doors got a knock back.

You took out a paper.

"Can I come in?"

After a while, he opened the door.

You saw him soaked in his uniform. The water was running and he sat curled up under it.

You didn't think twice getting wet. You went beside him and gave him a hug.

By the occasional trembling you could tell he was crying.

You were both soaked and he rested his head against you.

You ran your fingers through his hair. Looking at his state had your heart broken.

That was until he looked at you. Your face inches apart, you both stared at each other in disbelief with the proximity.

If you weren't deaf you'd probably hear his head beating. He did yours.

Your face both flushed. And his hand snaked to the back of your head.

A minute ago he was about to kiss another now he wants you?

You both got closer, your heart and stomach doing flips. I was really about to happen...

Or was it.

He suddenly pushed you away and looked at the other side of the door face redder than as he was about to kiss you.

"I- I'm here!" He yelled.

Someone came in and you flushed.

He looked at you and cleared his throat.

"I'll let you know when theyre out."

You looked away from him and nodded.

Why did they come at that time...

Previous | Masterlist | Next

Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @the-sander-fander @wormonastringonastick @rukia-uchiha-98

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 4: WE PLAY TAG WITH SCORPIONS

"Relax Will," Nico finally said casually enough while Percy ungracefully balanced on one foot. "If what they said bothered me, I'd tell them." As much as it still surprised him Will did it at all, Percy would never stop seeing him as a kid if Will kept this up.

Percy cautiously put his foot down instead of pretending he was a flamingo and began his cautious walk to get the book from Alex.

Will wasn't so sure, Nico spent to much time bottling up everything, the guy was like a pincushion for everybody else to put their problems in.

Percy was wandering back over to his seat with the book like the instance had already left his mind, and he shared why as he read the new chapter title with a wince for getting five minute glimpses into the next thing he'd be dealing with. "Haven't I had enough of these things?" He groaned, waving his hand around so the old scar of his last interaction with a scorpion would have been on display if it was still there. "I really hope I'm not it!"

"I bet they're cheaters anyways," Alex sniffed.

"It does seem a little unfair to you, playing against someone with so many extra legs," Magnus agreed, trying his hardest to mind wave away the obvious deadly aspects of this game like a champ. He was almost succeeding. "Hopefully you don't try playing jax with ambidextrous people too."

"His brother played fetch with a hellhound earlier that week," Thalia needlessly reminded. "It's good to see him branching out, trying new games."

"How do you think ISpy with a cyclops would go?" Jason grinned. "Is his vision better than yours because his brain doesn't have to filter twice as much?"

Percy groaned loudly and started reading.

The next morning there was a lot of excitement at breakfast.

"I didn't realize your dreams were such high class news," Thalia snickered.

"Obviously we all got super excited hearing Nico's alive," Will said as dramatically as possible.

"It's probably because they all heard Quintus beat Percy's butt in sword practice and are all a flutter about it," Jason chuckled.

Percy kept reading loudly over them, knowing full well they wouldn't take the hint.

Apparently around three in the morning an Aethiopian drakon had been spotted at the borders of camp. I was so exhausted I slept right through the noise.

"I will never get over dragon or drakon attacks being normal," Magnus sighed.

"And I will never get used to their eyes," Will agreed, those disturbing, yellow, soleless slits.

The magical boundaries had kept the monster out, but it prowled the hills, looking for weak spots in our defenses, and it didn't seem anxious to go away until Lee Fletcher from Apollo's cabin led a couple of his siblings in pursuit. After a few dozen arrows lodged in the chinks of the drakon's armor, it got the message and withdrew.

"It's still out there," Lee warned us during announcements. "Twenty arrows in its hide, and we just made it mad. The thing was thirty feet long and bright green. It's eyes—" he shuddered.

"You did well, Lee," Chiron patted him on the shoulder. "Everyone stay alert, but stay calm. This has happened before."

"Exactly how many times have you guys been attacked by dragons?" Alex asked with intrigue.

"Hey, that's my line," Jason smirked.

"More than enough," Will assured them both. "We have one of those, It's Been Blank Days Since Our Last Attack, signs up on the side of the Big House. Last I saw it, I think it was 37, but Gavin forgets to erase those sometimes."

Magnus looked ready to go into a corner and pray for his sanity to stay intact.

"Aye," Quintus said from the head table. "And it will happen again. More and more frequently."

The campers murmured among themselves.

Everyone knew the rumors: Luke and his army of monsters were planning an invasion of the camp. Most of us expected it to happen this summer, but no one knew how or when. It didn't help that our attendance was down. We only had about eighty campers. Three years ago, when I'd started, there had been more than a hundred. Some had died. Some had joined Luke. Some had just disappeared.

Will shifted around restlessly in place. Names didn't always have a face attached anymore, and visa versa. There had just been to many to keep track of, and most hadn't bothered to try. The jumble got confusing, sickening if he tried to think of them all to long.

"You okay?" Nico asked quietly beside him.

"Not really," he admitted restlessly. Percy wasn't a year around camper to know the half of it.

Nico considered for a moment, but absolutely nothing had freaked out Will yet, this probably wouldn't. "There's a list in my dad's realm, of all those who have passed through camp. Would you want to see it?"

"Yeah!" Will grinned. It was an expression Nico was getting used to seeing. He should probably stop that.

"This is a good reason for new war games," Quintus continued, a glint in his eyes. "We'll see how you all do with that tonight."

"Which will involve scorpions, and tagging," Percy needlessly reminded, but they hadn't been there to see how the excitement from Quintus had made them all a bit uneasy.

"I'm imagining you with a can of spray paint and it's going to be disastrous and awesome," Thalia snickered.

"Yes..." Chiron said. "Well, enough announcements. Let us bless this meal and eat." He raised his goblet. "To the gods."

We all raised our glasses and repeated the blessing.

Tyson and I took our plates to the bronze brazier and scraped a portion of our food into the flames. I hoped the gods liked raisin toast and Froot Loops.

"I bet it's Mr. D's favorite," Nico smirked.

Percy sniffed, "He doesn't get a sacrifice, he's right there."

"Do his kids come up and just dump their portion of food onto his plate?" Magnus asked with interest.

"It's meant to be a general offering to all the gods, we try to avoid playing favorites," Will corrected. "Nobody wants Zeus showing up complaining Dionysus's punishment isn't going well if that happened."

Percy shivered at just the thought.

"Poseidon," I said.

"What?" Percy grinned at all the blank looks as he instantly disregarded what Will said. "It's my sacrifice, and my dad is usually the only god I regularly think about, let alone like."

Will still flinched like he expected to hear a clap of thunder in the distance for Percy's usual insolence.

Then I whispered, "Help me with Nico, and Luke, and Grover's problem..."

There was so much to worry about I could've stood there all morning, but I headed back to the table.

"The last time you were at that brazier, you got what you asked for," Jason reminded confidently. "You asked for help, and I'm not sure I believe in the coincidence you got a baby Cyclops for a brother that same school year."

"Yeah," Percy agreed just a little more hopefully than usual. It was true, his dad might be cryptic and long distance to the extreme, but he'd yet really let Percy down.

Once everyone was eating, Chiron and Grover came over to visit. Grover was bleary-eyed. His shirt was inside out. He slid his plate onto the table and slumped next to me.

"Grover needs a nap," Will said with absolute confidence.

"It doesn't sound like he even woke up first," Magnus said in concern.

"Fingers crossed Percy doesn't greet him by telling him how awful he looks," Jason muttered.

Tyson shifted uncomfortably. "I will go...um...polish my fish ponies."

He lumbered off, leaving his breakfast half-eaten.

Percy not-so-subtly readjusted the book and would later deny to anyone who asked the plate had been clean when it was whisked away.

Chiron tried for a smile. He probably wanted to look reassuring, but in centaur form he towered over me, casting a shadow across the table. "Well, Percy, how did you sleep?"

"Uh, fine." I wondered why he asked that. Was it possible he knew something about the weird Iris-message I'd gotten?

"Chiron doesn't know about every Iris Message in and out of camp does he?" Alex demanded. "That's a weird invasion of privacy."

"Can't blame him for keeping an eye on communications," Will uneasily reminded, though it hadn't stopped the spy by any means. It shut up Alex though, for now.

"I brought Grover over," Chiron said, "because I thought you two might want to, ah, discuss matters. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some Irismessages to send. I'll see you later in the day." He gave Grover a meaningful look, then trotted out of the pavilion.

"Subtle as a kick to the face," Thalia snorted.

"What's he talking about?" I asked Grover.

Grover chewed his eggs. I could tell he was distracted, because he bit the tines of his fork and chewed those down, too.

"Mixing dessert and breakfast, that's a new one," Alex snorted.

"Nobody can ever accuse these guys of not getting enough of, anything in their system," Magnus agreed.

"He wants you to convince me," he mumbled.

Percy wasn't the only one who shifted his weight around uncomfortably. Why was this all suddenly so important and everybody was gung-ho to talk about the thing clearly terrifying Grover?!

Somebody else slid next to me on the bench: Annabeth.

Percy gazed blearily down at that sentence like he suddenly needed glasses.

"Sometimes I think Annabeth went out of her way to break the rules for you," Will laughed at his dumbstruck expression. "She couldn't have come to you before breakfast or right after, no, she had to do this now."

"Sounds like our girl, why sit on something that needs doing," Thalia agreed with pride.

"I'll tell you what it's about," she said. "The Labyrinth."

"A fancy maze?" Magnus asked.

"It's not a hedge maze is it?" Alex asked with equal parts concern and intrigue.

It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying, because everybody in the dining pavilion was stealing glances at us and whispering. And Annabeth was right next to me. I mean right next to me.

Thalia slammed their beanbags together, then threw her arm over his shoulder and pressed right into his side like they all needed a demonstration, though Annabeth had never had such a shit-eating grin on her face, and Percy certainly hadn't shoved her back away with a roll of his eyes.

"You're not supposed to be here," I said.

"And a good morning to you too," Will sniffed.

"We need to talk," she insisted.

"But the rules..."

She knew as well as I did that campers weren't allowed to switch tables.

Satyrs were different. They weren't really demigods. But the half-bloods had to sit with their cabins. I wasn't even sure what the punishment was for switching tables. I'd never seen it happen. If Mr. D had been here, he probably would've strangled Annabeth with magical grapevines or something, but Mr. D wasn't here. Chiron had already left the pavilion.

"Now I'm just imagining Athena showing up and lecturing you and her on proper etiquette," Magnus shivered.

"Or Zeus finally having an excuse to throw a thunderbolt at you Poseidon couldn't get mad about," Jason said uneasily.

Quintus looked over and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything.

"Nice, you got a cool teacher at least," Alex grinned.

"Look," Annabeth said, "Grover is in trouble. There's only one way we can figure to help him. It's the Labyrinth. That's what Clarisse and I have been investigating."

"Cool!" Jason blurted like somebody was waving a new dictionary under his nose. "What is that!" They certainly said Labyrinth like it was 'a thing' in the same way they did Mount Olympus.

"Bet you Percy's going to have to have it explained to him," Thalia smirked.

Percy stuck his tongue out at the pair, even knowing he couldn't argue the point.

I shifted my weight, trying to think clearly.

Her hair had still been damp from a morning shower. It had smelled like lemons, a fresh, crisp scent not to pungent. The ocean breeze always came in heavily and had been wiping her blonde hair into his face, and he kept absently brushing at nothing in here now.

"You mean the maze where they kept the Minotaur, back in the old days?"

"You say that like it's a casual thing people should know about," Magnus reminded.

"I'd offer you my old Latin notes from class, but I think Grover ate them on that bus ride," Percy shrugged. "Basically there was this king, and he pissed off my dad, something to do with a bull I think, and so he cursed his wife to fall in love with a bull, feel free to-"

"Ewww," Magnus was already happily telling him.

"Yeah, that." Percy nodded, "old Greek myths are full of that response. So, he now had a half-bull child as an heir, and he stuck him in the Labyrinth, which was supposed to be the greatest and most complicated maze ever or something and his whole kingdom feared him for it." He finished, feeling rather proud even knowing he'd forgotten plenty of details didn't stop him from giving a very superior look at Thalia and Jason for actually being the one to explain that for a change.

"It's moments like this I really get how you got that C on your test," Thalia shook her head affectionately. He got the highlights anyways.

"C+," he robustly insisted. "Best grade of my life!"

"Exactly," Annabeth said.

"So...it's not under the king's palace in Crete anymore," I guessed. "The Labyrinth is under some building in America."

See? It only took me a few years to figure things out. I knew that important places moved around with Western Civilization, like Mount Olympus being over the Empire State building, and the Underworld entrance being in Los Angeles. I was feeling pretty proud of myself.

"This is the part where Annabeth calls him an idiot?" Jason asked Thalia casually.

"This is the part where Annabeth calls him an idiot," Thalia nodded.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Under a building? Please, Percy. The Labyrinth is huge. It wouldn't fit under a single city, much less a single building."

"Close enough," they snickered together.

I thought about my dream of Nico at the River Styx. "So...is the Labyrinth part of the Underworld?"

"No." Annabeth frowned. "Well, there may be passages from the Labyrinth down into the Underworld. I'm not sure.

Nico's smile was answer enough, and they all had to repress a collective shiver just how many layers were usually under their feet ready to kill them.

But the Underworld is way, way down. The Labyrinth is right under the surface of the mortal world, kind of like a second skin.

"It's a sewer system?" Alex asked in disgust.

"You are not entirely wrong on that assessment, people tend to shit themselves frequently down there," Nico nodded.

It's been growing for thousands of years, lacing its way under Western cities, connecting everything together underground. You can get anywhere through the Labyrinth."

"Technically anybody can walk anywhere, they don't need a maze to do it, just plenty of time," Magnus said uneasily, clearly knowing he was missing something.

"It's a Mist thing," Will shook his head as he cautioned. "You could walk in at New York, take a right, and pop out at Albuquerque in five minutes, or you could wander in one side of North Texas and pop out on the Mexican border and be gone for a month. There is zero rhyme or reason to it unless you have a guide."

"I'm guessing breadcrumbs won't do you much good down there," Alex, as usual, sounded way to intrigued about something so obviously deadly. Thalia contemplated the Norse kids curiously, and then eyed Jason. They were, different. Did the Mist affect them the same way it did them? Would they need Rachel as a guide?

"If you don't get lost," Grover muttered. "And die a horrible death."

"Technically you can do that anywhere," Nico shrugged.

"What's the most boring place you've heard of someone dying in?" Alex asked as if this were a matter of life and death.

Nico hesitated to answer. He was the one who had said something, Alex maybe wasn't just asking this of him because he was the Death kid...hopefully. He had to think about it for a moment before he offered, "pillow factory? I thought the ghost was kidding about that one."

There was no interrogation, no screaming and shivering he spoke to ghosts. Alex threw his head back and laughed, and Nico couldn't help but smile along. It was still so weird he was treated, normally down here. If Percy hadn't kept reading when he subsided into giggles with his own surprised chuckle, Nico was pretty sure he could have just kept talking about all the strange things he'd said to ghosts over the years and nobody would have batted an eye.

"Grover, there has to be a way," Annabeth said. I got the feeling they'd had this conversation before.

Percy grumbled for a moment, trying not to feel left out this had all been going on without him. The alternative was having to give up time with his mom though while listening to an apparently circular argument, so nothing of this sounded like a win.

"Clarisse lived."

"Barely!" Grover said. "And the other guy—"

"He was driven insane. He didn't die."

"And we have Annabeth, for the technicality win," Magnus groaned as he rubbed his eyes. His cousin really needed to work on her encouragement skills.

"I think she's got the right spirit, all societies have their niche place for the crazies," Jason grinned.

Thalia and Percy exchanged equally concerned and curious looks what on Earth was in Jason's past none of them had a clue about.

"Oh, joy." Grover's lower lip quivered. "That makes me feel much better."

"Whoa," I said. "Back up. What's this about Clarisse and a crazy guy?"

"I assume any guy around Clarisse goes crazy in a not to short period of time," Percy said fairly.

Will made a noise of discomfort in the back of his throat only Nico heard. Something in Nico ticked, a dormant idea he hadn't acted on in...years. He watched Will in concern, he wanted to ask what about that had caused something unpleasant in his mind. Like a normal person might do if they noticed their friend was upset.

Annabeth glanced over toward the Ares table. Clarisse was watching us like she knew what we were talking about, but then she fixed her eyes on her breakfast plate.

"Last year," Annabeth said, lowering her voice, "Clarisse went on a mission for Chiron."

"I remember," I said. "It was secret."

"You only remember because it was secret," Jason rolled his eyes.

"If we tried to keep your homework a secret from you, you might ace it," Thalia smacked the side of her head.

"Don't hold your breath," he scoffed at her.

Annabeth nodded. Despite how serious she was acting, I was happy she wasn't mad at me anymore. And I kind of liked the fact that she'd broken the rules to come sit next to me.

"Magnus, I think Percy has a crush on your cousin," Alex informed him in a grand voice of announcing top news.

"I'm not the one you need to break that news to," Magnus snorted as Percy wavered back and forth in front of them of dreamy, smiling dope and a giant question mark for a face as his brain seemed at war with himself over this.

"It was secret," Annabeth agreed, "because she found Chris Rodriguez."

"That guy from Luke's ship?" Jason easily recalled. He wasn't even a camper, but the sting of betrayal and the gut-punching understanding of why there were other half-bloods on Luke's side was still vivid in his mind.

Will flinched like Jason had slapped him. Chris would loathe that's how he'd be remembered by these guys when all was said and done. Clarisse might decapitate Jason if he ever said that around them. None of which came close to how much that hurt him to think about. Had Luke known he was sending his own half-brother off to die and not even cared?

"The guy from the Hermes cabin?" I remembered him from two years ago.

We'd eavesdropped on Chris Rodriguez aboard Luke's ship, the Princess Andromeda. Chris was one of the half-bloods who'd abandoned camp and joined the Titan Army.

Percy wished his own brain would stop giving discount flashbacks. Having to live through it once had been enough, twice was going to cause his head to cave in. The third blips of looking back felt like salt in the wound, a feeling he wasn't sure he'd experienced outside of this.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Last summer he just appeared in Phoenix, Arizona, near Clarisse's mom's house."

"I have, so many questions," Jason admitted. Clarisse was a year around Camper, how had her mom contacted her to tell her this? Why did it feel so on point the desert was her home? What the heck were the odds of that?

"You won't be getting many answers," Percy already said in exasperation. If he ever got one answer out of anybody he considered it a success.

"What do you mean he just appeared?"

"He was wandering around the desert, in a hundred and twenty degrees, in full Greek armor, babbling about string."

"None of that makes anybody inherently crazy," Alex sniffed. "People have their own hobbies."

"I think I'll stick to skateboarding," Percy said.

"String," I said.

"He'd been driven completely insane. Clarisse brought him back to her mom's house so the mortals wouldn't institutionalize him. She tried to nurse him back to health. Chiron came out and interviewed him, but it wasn't much good. The only thing they got out of him: Luke's men have been exploring the Labyrinth."

The feeling of sandpaper being rubbed over their face would have hurt less. Wasn't Luke's whole argument the gods didn't care about their kids enough? And then here was this guy, who'd apparently been driven mad and abandoned by whatever Luke was up to.

Percy's anger was trying to shake loose inside him at it all. The last three times he'd faced Luke, he hadn't been able to do a thing to him. He owed Luke a good ass kicking just for the principle of his stupid, defective army all being hypocrites and monsters!

I shivered, though I wasn't exactly sure why.

"The idea of being out of your mind, alone, in a desert, is enough to make anyone shiver," Will assured.

"Let alone the string," Jason added dubiously.

Poor Chris...he hadn't been a bad guy. What could've driven him mad? I looked at Grover, who was chewing up the rest of his fork.

"I can see how that would make someone a little confused about the world," Magnus raised his hand in agreement. He'd never seen it in person and it made his brain hurt a little to imagine it, as well as his jaw.

Percy snickered at the doofus, breaking a bit of the tension.

"Okay," I asked. "Why were they exploring the Labyrinth?"

"We weren't sure," Annabeth said. "That's why Clarisse went on a scouting expedition. Chiron kept things hushed up because he didn't want anyone panicking. He got me involved because...well, the Labyrinth has always been one of my favorite subjects. The architecture involved—" Her expression turned a little dreamy. "The builder, Daedalus, was a genius.

"I think I found Annabeth's role model," Magnus snorted.

The troubled look on Nico's face practically telegraphed the message that wasn't going to stay a great thing.

But the point is, the Labyrinth has entrances everywhere. If Luke could figure out how to navigate it, he could move his army around with incredible speed."

"Except it's a maze, right?"

"Full of horrible traps," Grover agreed. "Dead ends. Illusions. Psychotic goat-killing monsters."

"What was that last one?" Thalia grinned.

"Illusions, very tricky, but some mortals can pull those off," Percy said innocently.

"Surely he meant the dead ends. I guess he's not a fan of cul-de-sacs." Jason smirked, before they burst out laughing.

"But not if you had Ariadne's string," Annabeth said. "In the old days, Ariadne's string guided Theseus out of the maze. It was a navigation instrument of some kind, invented by Daedalus. And Chris Rodriguez was mumbling about string."

"So Luke is trying to find Ariadne's string," I said. "Why? What's he planning?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I don't know. I thought maybe he wanted to invade camp through the maze, but that doesn't make any sense. The closest entrances Clarisse found were in Manhattan, which wouldn't help Luke get past our borders.

"She just said there are entrances all over the place," Jason protested. "My first thought would be this camp having a backdoor."

Percy shivered, and Will tried his best to laugh off, "right, yeah, kids just fall off the face of Camp in one spot and we never noticed." Which did nothing to erase the dubious looks he got as that seemed exactly what was happening around there.

Clarisse explored a little way into the tunnels, but...it was very dangerous. She had some close calls. I researched everything I could find about Daedalus. I'm afraid it didn't help much. I don't understand exactly what Luke's planning, but I do know this: the Labyrinth might be the key to Grover's problem."

It took a second for their brains to rewire back to what had started this conversation.

"How could a god be lost in a maze?" Magnus shook his head. "Let alone a nature god? Mazes are, um, natural. Kind of?"

"But this maze isn't," Alex reminded with interest. "Annabeth said Daedalus made it? Some powerful Greek architect that made his own living, deadly maze. If a nature god got sucked in that, it would explain why nobody ever found him."

"How did the Minotaur get out though?" Jason frowned.

"Monsters don't respawn where they're most popular," Nico shook his head. "He was killed by Theseus in the Labyrinth, when he came back out of Tartarus, he could have wound up anywhere."

Percy was getting a bull sized headache trying to follow along with them like his mind was trapped in its own maze of where one thought ended and another began that wouldn't make any sense.

I blinked. "You think Pan is underground?"

"It would explain why he's been impossible to find."

Grover shuddered. "Satyrs hate going underground. No searcher would ever try going in that place. No flowers. No sunshine. No coffee shops!"

"That just sounds like a regular Tuesday at a the dentists office." Magnus shrugged. Everything there was plastic and fake. Even if he was right, the others still gave him a strange look for it.

"Proving my point," Alex said in exasperation. "Obviously nobody's found him in the place they haven't looked yet!"

"But," Annabeth said, "the Labyrinth can lead you almost anywhere. It reads your thoughts. It was designed to fool you, trick you and kill you; but if you can make the Labyrinth work for you—"

"It could lead you to the wild god," I said.

"I can't do it." Grover hugged his stomach. "Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up my silverware."

"I can't even blame him after his time as a betrothed," Percy said, but his mind was a blank on any other way for him.

"Whatever happened about Cloudcroft?" Jason wheedled. "Maybe there's an entrance there and Grover's just got to get a shovel to help Pan get out?"

"Or he was just passing under there lost and could be in Connecticut by the time that pig showed up," Percy said with only the vaguest of confidence that's how that place worked.

"Grover, it may be your last chance," Annabeth said. "The council is serious. One week or you learn to tap dance!"

"At least he wouldn't have to buy those expensive shoes," Magnus grinned weakly. "His hooves probably pass as those in the Mist more often than not."

"I really hope the Mist works on me just so I can experience that life," Alex chuckled.

Over at the head table, Quintus cleared his throat. I got the feeling he didn't want to make a scene, but Annabeth was really pushing it, sitting at my table so long.

Thalia shook her head affectionately at her little sister. She'd always been doing her own thing no matter what anybody wanted of her, and if she hadn't said her peace, Quintus would have had to use Mrs. O'Leary to drag her away.

"We'll talk later," Annabeth squeezed my arm a little too hard. "Convince him, will you?"

She returned to the Athena table, ignoring all the people who were staring at her.

"The girls a bit of an icon for that," Alex grinned.

Magnus had a troubling moment realizing how well Alex and Annabeth might get along and what chaos that would bring.

Grover buried his head in his hands. "I can't do it, Percy. My searcher's license. Pan. I'm going to lose it all. I'll have to start a puppet theater."

"A tap dancing puppet theater," Will looked pretty interested. "Think he'd still consider that nowadays?"

"I feel like that falls into plan L no matter how this worked out for him," Percy shrugged.

"Don't say that! We'll figure something out."

He looked at me teary-eyed. "Percy, you're my best friend. You've seen me underground. In that Cyclops's cave. Do you really think I could..."

His voice faltered. I remembered the Sea of Monsters, when he'd been stuck in a Cyclops's cave. He'd never liked underground places to begin with, but now Grover really hated them. Cyclopes gave him the creeps, too. Even Tyson...Grover tried to hide it, but Grover and I could sort of read each other's emotions because of this empathy link between us. I knew how he felt. Grover was terrified of the big guy.

"I have to leave," Grover said miserably. "Juniper's waiting for me. It's a good thing she finds cowards attractive."

"See, now was that so hard," Percy at least finally felt a sense of relief even as miserable as he'd been watching Grover abjectly go off. "Finally, an explanation!"

"All it took was Annabeth breaking the rules and Grover nearly throwing up silverware," Will shrugged, "it's no wonder they were putting it off.

After he was gone, I looked over at Quintus. He nodded gravely, like we were sharing some dark secret. Then he went back to cutting his sausage with a dagger.

"I seriously need this guy's backstory," Jason muttered. That really wasn't even in the top one hundred weirdest things they'd yet heard someone doing in these books, but the guy still struck him as odd the more he was mentioned around camp.

In the afternoon, I went down to the Pegasus stables to visit my friend Blackjack.

Yo, boss! He capered around in his stall, his black wings buffeting the air.

Ya bring me some sugar cubes?

"You know those aren't good for you, Blackjack."

Yeah, so you brought me some, huh?

I smiled and fed him a handful.

"Percy, the other pegasus are going to think you have a favorite," Thalia tried and failed at a scold.

"I love all of them equally," Percy said at once, before he blushed and even glanced at his hand like he was hoping their names were written down there before he gave it up and loudly kept reading.

Blackjack and I went back a long way. I sort of helped rescue him from Luke's demon cruise ship a few years ago,

"Your memory sure likes to exaggerate just how little you were involved in that," Nico smirked. "Last time you swore you had practically nothing to do with it, now you're saying you sort of helped."

"I don't know what you're talking about, you said the same thing twice," Percy insisted with a straight face.

Will fought hard to hide a laugh behind his hand and he failed miserably as he said, "he's probably going to go back to camp and tell everybody how he only mildly tried to kill us accidentally a few times."

"You say that like it's a lie," Percy insisted around a guilty wince.

and ever since, he insisted on repaying me with favors.

So we got any quests coming up? Blackjack asked. I'm ready to fly, boss!

I patted his nose. "Not sure, man. Everybody keeps talking about underground mazes."

Blackjack whinnied nervously. Nuh-uh. Not for this horse! You aint gonna be crazy enough to go in no maze, boss. Are ya? You'll end up in the glue factory!

"You may be right, Blackjack. We'll see."

"Such concern for your own life and that of glue factories," Jason shook his head. "Tell me again how you've lived this long?"

"If you want to go back and reread them, more power to you," Percy said in exasperation, only sort of proving Jason's point Percy's own mortality seemed like a blip to him.

Blackjack crunched down his sugar cubes. He shook his mane like he was having a sugar seizure. Whoa! Good stuff! Well, boss, you come to your senses and want to fly somewhere, just give a whistle. Ole Blackjack and his buddies, we'll stampede anybody for ya!

Alex sighed with envy like he was over there imagining what he'd do with a group of pegasi who would stampede anybody on a whistle.

...Actually, they all knew that's exactly what he was doing. The real question was who the first victim would be.

I told him I'd keep it in mind. Then a group of younger campers came into the stables to start their riding lessons, and I decided it was time to leave. I had a bad feeling I wasn't going to see Blackjack for a long time.

"I hate your bad feelings," Jason decided. "They're usually right."

"And they don't even come in handy since they can't be more specific," Percy agreed.

That night after dinner, Quintus had us suit up in combat armor like we were getting ready for capture the flag, but the mood among the campers was a lot more serious. Sometime during the day the crates in the arena had disappeared, and I had a feeling whatever was in them had been emptied into the woods.

"And we missed the glorious details of how that happened," Alex sighed. "Did somebody get a forklift? Did somebody get Mrs. O'Leary into a harness and drag them off? What's a scorpion's natural predator?"

"Um, owls," Magnus said, barely missing a beat.

"Did somebody dress up as a giant owl and chase the scorpions into the forest?" Alex concluded with the ASL gesture for thank you at him.

"I guess we were all distracted in arts and crafts to ask," Percy chuckled.

"The chapter title kind of ruined the big surprise they were scorpions," Will looked a little pouty about spoilers.

"Better than dreading they were something worse, like dragons," Magnus shook his head.

"That's because you haven't seen the scorpions yet," Thalia muttered.

"Right," Quintus said, standing on the head dining table. "Gather 'round."

He was dressed in black leather and bronze. In the torchlight, his gray hair made him look like a ghost.

Nico couldn't help a small laugh of surprise at Percy casually mentioning that, and he didn't even make it sound like a bad thing.

Percy gave him a hesitant grin that still screamed of awkwardness.

Mrs. O'Leary bounded happily around him, foraging for dinner scraps.

"How all ghosts should be depicted, with their loving, lifelong companions," Will grinned.

"You will be in teams of two," Quintus announced. When everybody started talking and trying to grab their friends, he yelled: "Which have already been chosen!"

"And here I thought he was fun," Alex huffed.

"Please tell me he isn't going to be one of those guys to pair up people who hate each other just to work on teamwork," Magnus agreed with distaste.

Jason was bouncing up and down in his seat like he'd partner with a scorpion to kill other scorpions to get the game going.

"AWWWWW!" everybody complained.

"Your goal is simple: collect the gold laurels without dying. The wreath is wrapped in a silk package, tied to the back of one of the monsters. There are six monsters. Each has a silk package. Only one holds the laurels. You must find the wreath before the other teams. And, of course...you will have to slay the monster to get it, and stay alive."

"You know what would be a better way to stay alive," Magnus said pragmatically. "Not going into a forest with giant scorpions!"

"But then you'd have even less chance of survival if you faced one outside of camp," Will reminded patiently.

Magnus looked stumped, and then very displeased about it.

The crowd started murmuring excitedly. The task sounded pretty straightforward. Hey, we'd all slain monsters before. That's what we trained for.

"I will now announce your partners," Quintus said. "There will be no trading. No switching. No complaining."

"Aroooof!" Mrs. O'Leary buried her face in a plate of pizza.

"I wish I was attacked by her when I complained," Alex snickered.

"With pizza breath," Nico nodded.

Quintus produced a big scroll and started reading off names. Beckendorf would be with Silena Beauregard, which Beckendorf looked pretty happy about.

"I'm now wondering if this whole Quintus choosing the partner's thing was done just to stop a war from breaking out over that," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"I think he just did it for that weirdly fascinating, brain-melting team up," Percy offered, the oddity that children of Hephaestus and Aphrodite were working together after all the awkwardness of their parent's mere existence easily trumped the ants crawling around in his brain for anything else he should have been thinking of this moment.

The Stoll brothers, Travis and Connor, would be together. No surprise. They did everything together.

"So they should be split up," Magnus raised a brow like Will had done this himself. "Better real-world practice in case they're not joined at the hip."

"You are not wrong," Will nodded, deciding against mentioning he would have volunteered in a heartbeat. He'd been with Katie though, and that had been a very fun, romantic, deadly trip while it lasted. He'd only been able to delude himself it was intentional on her part until she started regaling him with questions of what Connor might think of this or that and he'd wanted to feed her to a scorpion himself by the end of the night. He'd healed her broken ankle without to much of a fuss though.

Clarisse was with Lee Fletcher from the Apollo cabin—melee and ranged combat combined, they would be a tough combo to beat.

"If they work together and don't kill each other," Nico pointed out with only mild concern.

"Don't underestimate Clarisse's willingness to win partnered with anyone," Will chuckled, he'd had seven teams in the infirmary that night from this pair alone.

Quintus kept rattling off the names until he said, "Percy Jackson with Annabeth Chase."

"Nice." I grinned at Annabeth.

"Your armor is crooked" was her only comment, and she redid my straps for me.

The burst of laughter around the room turned Percy's sigh into a reluctant chuckle of his own. She'd practically sat on his lap at breakfast and was right back to this by nightfall. He touched his face again where her hair had been whipping around and wondered if she'd given him whiplash.

"Grover Underwood," Quintus said, "with Tyson."

"Why are they playing at all?" Magnus asked in surprise. "The satyrs haven't been mentioned doing so before, and Tyson is kind of a guest, right?"

"Camp spirit?" Thalia shrugged, "same reason the Hunters play when we visit."

"Shhh," Jason shushed them and leaned forward eagerly in his seat, his mind full of every detail he'd collected on who had the best chances of winning this.

Grover just about jumped out of his goat fur. "What? B-but—"

"No, no," Tyson whimpered. "Must be a mistake. Goat boy—"

"No complaining!" Quintus ordered.

Alex mimicked a hellhound bark to emphasize the point. He did a weirdly good impression of one too. All he was missing was the pizza face.

"Get with your partner. You have two minutes to prepare!"

Tyson and Grover both looked at me pleadingly. I tried to give them an encouraging nod, and gestured that they should move together. Tyson sneezed. Grover started chewing nervously on his wooden club.

"They'll be fine," Annabeth said. "Come on. Let's worry about how we're going to stay alive."

"Are you sure she didn't say win?" Alex mock-cleaned out his ears.

"She could have said how to stay astrive, it was pretty windy," Percy shrugged.

It was still light when we got into the woods, but the shadows from the trees made it feel like midnight. It was cold, too, even in summer. Annabeth and I found tracks almost immediately—scuttling marks made by something with a lot of legs. We began to follow the trail.

Magnus sighed and repressed the urge to wonder if he was the only sane one who thought that was still a bad idea.

We jumped a creek and heard some twigs snapping nearby. We crouched behind a boulder, but it was only the Stoll brothers tripping through the woods and cursing. Their dad was the god of thieves, but they were about as stealthy as buffaloes.

"We all have our strengths," Will said cheerfully. "They have the best sleight of hand and can pick any lock you give them, plus the best traps you can think of."

"They'll just break anything coming in and out of the store they're stealing from," Percy rolled her eyes, "I always thought that was on purpose."

Once the Stolls had passed, we forged deeper into the west woods where the monsters were wilder. We were standing on a ledge overlooking a marshy pond when Annabeth tensed. "This is where we stopped looking."

It took me a second to realize what she meant. Last winter, when we'd given up hope of finding him, Grover, Annabeth, and I had stood on this rock, and I'd convinced them not to tell Chiron the truth: that Nico was a son of Hades. At the time it seemed the right thing to do. I wanted to protect his identity. I wanted to be the one to find him and make things right for what had happened to his sister. Now, six months later, I hadn't even come close to finding him. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

Nico started tapping his foot uneasily on the ground, like he still expected it to give way beneath him anywhere he stayed to long. The fact that he'd ever crossed Percy's mind had been more than he'd ever thought to ask for at this point.

"I saw him last night," I said.

Annabeth knit her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

I told her about the Iris-message. When I was done, she stared into the shadows of the woods. "He's summoning the dead? That's not good."

"What did you expect him to do with his sudden abundance of free time, go to Vegas?" Alex snorted. "He's coming into his own powers just like Percy now rescues sea life."

"He shouldn't have been doing it alone," Percy insisted. "He should have been at camp figuring it all out."

"You kept his secret for a reason Percy, he wouldn't be able to practice all of his strengths there like you can freely do," Alex challenged.

Nico was pressed fully back into his seat and wishing the conversation about him would stop now! He gave Will a pleading look and even a nudge, waving his hand for him to do his thing this time, and he happily obliged. "You guys are trying to distract from who won and I won't let you!"

They broke off while still giving each other grumpy side eyes. Nico gave him a relieved smile and mouthed thanks, while personally thinking it was kind of cool he could activate Will's ability to do that without a word.

"The ghost was giving him bad advice," I said. "Telling him to take revenge."

"Yeah...spirits are never good advisers they've got their own agendas. Old grudges. And they resent the living."

"And she's an expert on this?" Jason asked more for clarification than trying to disagree.

"She's done her research," but there wasn't a lot of confidence in Thalia's answer. The Hunters interacted with spirits sparsely, the dead had a concerning tendency to pop up on ancient ground where the oldest monsters liked to roam. As far as she knew Annabeth had even less hands-on experience.

"He's going to come after me," I said. "The spirit mentioned a maze."

She nodded. "That settles it. We have to figure out the Labyrinth."

"Oh, so that's what settled it?" Will asked with his arm casually over the back of the couch again. "Not the thought of finding Grover's lifelong ambition, the Great God Pan, not the threat of how Luke might use the Labyrinth to get into camp. No, it was figuring out what Nico was doing with spirits in the Labyrinth. I always wondered what the tipping point was."

"We have got to work on your sarcasm Will, it needs more," Nico waved his fingers around for emphasis while trying his hardest not to blush.

Will was just smiling casually as he said, "who said I was being sarcastic?"

Nico seemed struck dumb, and Percy once again felt like a miserable failure as he looked at this guy who always seemed in awe anybody even bothered to talk to him.

"Maybe," I said uncomfortably. "But who sent the Iris-message? If Nico didn't know I was there—"

A branch snapped in the woods.

"Stupid, convenient, branches," Jason huffed. He'd have liked a chance to theorize on that!

Dry leaves rustled. Something large was moving in the trees, just beyond the ridge.

"That's not the Stoll brothers," Annabeth whispered.

Together we drew our swords.

We got to Zeus's Fist, a huge pile of boulders in the middle of the west woods. It was a natural landmark where campers often rendezvoused on hunting expeditions, but now there was nobody around.

"Over there," Annabeth whispered.

"No, wait," I said. "Behind us."

It was weird. Scuttling noises seemed to be coming from several different directions.

"A pack of wolves can change the tones of their howls to give the impression that there are more around than there really are," Jason grinned. "I don't suppose scorpions can do something similar," he finished with a snicker.

"You sound way to excited over there about random facts more than us almost dying," but Percy was shaking his head with a smile all the same for him and his not really useful 'advice.'

We were circling the boulders, our swords drawn, when someone right behind us said, "Hi."

Alex mock startled in his seat, hand waves and all, and then rubbed his chest. "Geez, might as well have shouted boo at us."

"I wouldn't discount a monster being there just because it starts with hello," Percy said, but he was studying the book with slightly less trepidation than before.

We whirled around, and the tree nymph Juniper yelped.

"That's such a pretty name," Magnus grinned. "What's a juniper?"

"A tree," Percy shrugged.

Thalia smacked him and said, "a coniferous tree, the female plants produce berry-like cones-"

"Okay Lieutenant of Greenpeace," Percy groaned.

"Put those down!" she protested. "Dryads don't like sharp blades, okay?"

"Then she should stay away from her own needle leaves," Will shook his head, he'd had one to many instances of kids trying to pluck the berries and realizing to late why that was a bad idea even before the nymph popped out.

"Juniper," Annabeth exhaled. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here."

I lowered my sword. "In the boulders?"

Percy could feel the strange looks he was getting, and looked around to ask, "what? Wouldn't it be weirder if I knew where her tree was?"

"Fair," Thalia snorted, "but you're still an idiot."

She pointed toward the edge of the clearing. "In the juniper. Duh."

It made sense, and I felt kind of stupid. I'd been hanging around dryads for years, but I never really talked to them much. I knew they couldn't go very far away from their tree, which was the source of life. But I didn't know much else.

"Are you guys busy?" Juniper asked.

"Well," I said, "we're in the middle of this game against a bunch of monsters and we're trying not to die."

"We're not busy," Annabeth said.

"Sums it all up, yeah," Magnus rolled his eyes. He felt like it would take an act of setting Grover on fire for any of these guys to admit what an emergency was.

"What's wrong, Juniper?"

Junper sniffled. She wiped her silky sleeve under her eyes. "It's Grover. He seems so distraught. All year he's been out looking for Pan. And every time he comes back, it's worse. I thought maybe, at first, he was seeing another tree."

"Took this boy how long to get with a lovely girl?" Alex shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure his grandaddy goat had plenty of good advice on how to treat um right."

"No," Annabeth said as Juniper started crying. "I'm sure that's not it."

"He had a crush on a blueberry bush once," Juniper said miserably.

"We've all had that crush," Will said saintly. "It fades when we meet the real apple of our eye."

Nico mock-gagged over the sofa. "Please tell me you came up with that on the spot, because I might really throw up if you've been saving that line for Katie."

"I did just come up with that, yes," he smoothly lied.

"Juniper," Annabeth said, "Grover would never even look at another tree. He's just stressed out about his searcher's license."

"He can't go underground!" she protested. "You can't let him."

Annabeth looked uncomfortable. "It might be the only way to help him; if we just knew where to start."

"Ah." Juniper wiped a green tear off her cheek. "About that..."

Another rustle in the woods, and Juniper yelled, "Hide!"

Jason was tapping his temple like he hoped it was glitching. "Really? Now we're being teased by a tree? Is it really so impossible for anybody to actually say what they showed up to say?"

"I'm kind of on Juniper's side, she clearly had some stress to get out about Grover first, it was just bad timing," Magnus sympathized.

Before I could ask why, she went poof into green mist.

Annabeth and I turned. Coming out of the woods was a glistening amber insect, ten feet long, with jagged pincers, an armored tail, and a stinger as long as my sword. A scorpion.

"Remember Percy, the scorpions are It, and you do not want to get tagged," Alex grinned.

"I'll keep that in mind man," he promised.

 Tied to its back was a red silk package.

"Don't you just love it when the monsters come to you," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Speak for yourself," Will shivered, that stupid scorpion had given him a heart attack and Katie had broken her ankle pushing him out of the way. They would have been toast if Beckendorf and Silena hadn't shown up.

"One of us gets behind it," Annabeth said, as the thing clattered toward us. "Cuts off its tail while the other distracts it in front."

"I'll take point," I said. "You've got the invisibility hat."

She nodded. We'd fought together so many times we knew each other's moves. We could do this, easy.

"Jinxed."

Percy sighed and didn't bother to glare at any of them, but man did he wish his gut would, for once, stop telling him they were right.

But it all went wrong when the other two scorpions appeared from the woods.

"I think we should start splashing holy water at you or something," Magnus was looking him up and down in concern. "How can anyone's luck be this bad?"

"Not until the Pope can turn the whole ocean," Percy rolled his eyes, but he was considering wearing a horseshoe on his head or something for the time being. This really was a new low, even for him.

"Three?" Annabeth said. "That's not possible!

"Not probable," Jason shook his head. "You guys define what's possible."

"Look Jason, it's your favorite number," Percy huffed, resisting the urge to smack him over the head with the book. Why did everybody need to keep reminding him he was lucky to be alive and Annabeth might not be?!

The whole woods, and half the monsters come at us?"

I swallowed. One, we could take. Two, with a little luck. Three? Doubtful.

The scorpions scurried toward us, whipping their barbed tails like they'd come here just to kill us.

"That, or this was their secret meeting place to swap the winning laurels and you rudely interrupted," Alex offered.

"Either way doesn't help," Percy sighed.

Annabeth and I put our backs against the nearest boulder.

"Climb?" I said.

"No time," she said.

She was right. The scorpions were already surrounding us. They were so close I could see their hideous mouths foaming, anticipating a nice juicy meal of demigods.

Nico scratched at his nose, feigning disinterest on Percy and Annabeth saving the day again with another amazing plan to kill the monsters, as he instead wondered if he could find a monster to ask what they'd taste like.

"Look out!" Annabeth parried away a stinger with the flat of her blade. I stabbed with Riptide, but the scorpion backed out of range. We clambered sideways along the boulders, but the scorpions followed us. I slashed at another one, but going on the offensive was too dangerous. If I went for the body, the tail stabbed downward. If I went for the tail, the thing's pincers came from either side and tried to grab me. All we could do was defend, and we wouldn't be able to keep that up for very long.

"Tactical retreat time," Thalia was tapping an arrow on her knee. She knew everything worked out fine, and yet she'd still never like the idea of these two being pinned down against the odds.

"Tactical retreat time," Jason repeated, flipping his coin between his fingers and highly frustrated the win was right in their grasp if they could just have a moment to breathe and plan.

I took another step sideways, and suddenly there was nothing behind me.

It was a crack between two of the largest boulders, something I'd passed by a million times, but...

"In here," I said.

Annabeth sliced at a scorpion then looked at me like I was crazy. "In there? It's too narrow."

"I'll cover you. Go!"

She ducked behind me and started squeezing between the two boulders.

Then she yelped and grabbed my armor straps,

"It's a good thing she straightened those out for me," Percy muttered, adjusting his shoulder like some part of him still expected to feel her weight taking her with him.

and suddenly I was tumbling into a pit that hadn't been there a moment before. I could see the scorpions above us, the purple evening sky and the trees, and then the hole shut like the lens of a camera, and we were in complete darkness.

Nico studied Percy like he was looking for the lie, even knowing he'd never done such a thing through his memories, or probably ever. He'd never realized this is how Percy found the Labyrinth, the same way he had. 

He'd been running back to this stupid moment where he'd first let everyone down and Zoe had come in and taken the flag away, the one landmark he'd known that he should have realized Percy would come looking for him at.

He'd just never thought Percy had bothered until now. He'd sat on cold stone for who knew how long, thinking the rock was hollow somehow and screaming for help with no answer until the whispers had started in his ear.

Percy had gotten out though, of course he had, with the help of Annabeth most likely and they'd come right back to camp as conquering heroes. While he'd fallen right into the ploy of others.

"Nico, you okay?" Will sadly now recognized that look on Nico's face of unfavorable memories cropping up.

He just grunted in answer, because the truth was no, not really. He was already sick of hearing about this place, and Percy had only been in there for a sentence.

Our breathing echoed against stone. It was wet and cold. I was sitting on a bumpy floor that seemed to be made of bricks.

"Bricks, underground?" Magnus repeated. "I don't know what's worse, somebody went and made a fort down there, or this maze is even freakier than I first thought it was."

"I'm sorry if you were just imagining dirt tunnels," Thalia shook her head, and yet wished he could keep that ignorance.

I lifted Riptide. The faint glow of the blade was just enough to illuminate Annabeth's frightened face and the mossy stone walls on either side of us.

"Wh-where are we?" Annabeth said.

"Safe from the scorpions, anyway," I tried to sound calm, but I was freaking out. The crack between the boulders couldn't have led into a cave. I would've known if there was a cave here; I was sure of it.

"Why are you so confident of that?" Will chuckled nervously. "I've lived at camp for years and I don't claim to know every secret there."

"You just need more confidence Will, it'll come to you," Percy shrugged.

"Hopefully it doesn't come with scorpions," Nico muttered, his usual fascination with all things Percy didn't seem to find this moment as intriguing for some reason.

It was like the ground had opened up and swallowed us. All I could think of was the fissure in the dining room pavilion, where those skeletons had been consumed last summer winter. I wondered if the same thing had happened to us.

"No, no, then you would have fallen much, much farther," Nico politely informed. He wasn't sure where he sent them, considering he'd had no control over what he was doing, but he was confident it was Tartarus or oblivion in general.

"Well that's one relief out of the way," Percy grinned, and actually seemed to mean it to Nico's surprise.

I lifted my sword again for light.

"It's a long room," I muttered.

Annabeth gripped my arm. "It's not a room. It's a corridor."

She was right. The darkness felt...emptier in front of us. There was a warm breeze, like in subway tunnels, only it felt older, more dangerous somehow.

Alex breathed in deeply like he was trying to get just a hint of that now. "Cool."

"Speak for yourself," Percy was squirming in his seat again and made the warding off evil gesture even if he knew it would do no good here or down there.

I started forward, but Annabeth stopped me.

"As she should!" Thalia groaned into her hands. "Why would your first response to be go exploring when nobody has any idea where you are!"

She knew the answer to her own question though, she was just as impulsive as him and would have been right beside him. Annabeth would have had to dig her heels in and tell them both to stop. She just didn't want to admit that while Percy grinned sheepishly and without surprise for his own idiocy.

"Don't take another step," she warned. "We need to find the exit."

She sounded really scared now.

"It's okay," I promised. "It's right—"

I looked up and realized I couldn't see where we'd fallen in. The ceiling was solid stone. The corridor seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions.

Magnus's mouth was open in a silent scream now.

"It seals you in? It's a tomb?" Alex confirmed.

"It certainly doesn't seem keen on letting you back out unless you know what you're doing," Jason frowned at this turn of events. "I don't suppose it'll accept shoestrings in the meantime for the unprepared?"

Percy fidgeted with the pages and resisted the urge to tie everybody's shoes together instead of continuing. Annabeth was at the end of this, he had to keep reminding himself. She was trapped in there now, and he sure wanted to find out how at least she got out of this even if his stupid help attracted something worse!

Annabeth's hand slipped into mine.

Percy exhaled in relief, his hand drifted to his side, only to still close over nothing. He glanced over like he still expected her to be there, just like always, it was a reflex he didn't think he'd ever drop as he clasped his hand stubbornly back around the book to finish.

Under different circumstances I would've been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where she was. It was about the only thing I was sure of.

"Is this a specific thing with you two?" Jason asked with nothing but affection in his tone. "First Charon's boat, now this, do you two mutually decide to be underground to hold hands?"

"I mean, I wouldn't be that picky, but I can't blame her if that's when she needs it," Percy grinned with only a faint hint of a blush.

"Two steps back," she advised.

We stepped backward together like we were in a minefield.

"Close enough," Thalia muttered. For all they knew, they could be.

"Okay," she said. "Help me examine the walls."

"What for?"

"The mark of Daedalus," she said, as if that was supposed to make sense.

"Uh, okay. What kind of—"

"Got it!" she said with relief. She set her hand on the wall and pressed against a tiny fissure, which began to glow blue. A Greek symbol appeared:

"Um," Percy paused to tell the others, "it looks like a triangle."

Magnus finally figured out how to close his mouth, and he sounded really short of breath like he had been screaming that whole time. "Great, something else I probably need to learn, the Greek alphabet."

"Hopefully it comes with a catchy song too," Alex grinned.

Jason still insisted he wanted to see the symbol in person before Percy could continue like he didn't know what a triangle looked like.

∆,

the Ancient Greek Delta.

The roof slid open and we saw night sky, stars blazing. It was a lot darker than it should've been. Metal ladder rungs appeared in the side of the wall, leading up, and I could hear people yelling our names.

"Percy! Annabeth!" Tyson's voice bellowed the loudest, but others were calling out too.

"Why would they be looking for you guys already, it hasn't been a whole five minutes," Magnus cocked his head to the side.

"Labyrinth logic, better get used to it now," Thalia reminded.

I looked nervously at Annabeth. Then we began to climb.

We made our way around the rocks and ran into Clarisse and a bunch of other campers carrying torches.

"Did they start an angry mob without you?" Alex asked with the usual twitching lips. "Are they on their way to get revenge on some neighbor camp because they TP'd you?"

"I've always been great at inviting myself along on the important things if so," Percy easily grinned at that, though the haunting memory of that place still lingered. He'd been grateful to be out after a whole breath, and he was asking Grover to go in there for untold time? This was going to be one hell of a quest.

"Where have you two been?" Clarisse demanded. "We've been looking forever."

"But we were gone only a few minutes," I said.

Chiron trotted up, followed by Tyson and Grover.

"Percy!" Tyson said. "You are okay?"

"We're fine," I said. "We fell in a hole."

The others looked at me skeptically, then at Annabeth.

"Hey!" Percy yelped.

"I mean, I'd need some context too, and she's the obvious choice," Will chuckled. Those two had no idea how freaked out everybody had been when the conch shell blew for the winner, and Annabeth and Percy didn't show up.

The laughter had died, the camp went deadly silent like they were all waiting for a blood-curdling scream to signal that imminent attack. Clarisse hadn't even taken her laurels off her head before she snatched a tiki-torch out of a brazier and stomped back in. Quintus had gone off promising to find Mrs. O'Leary to help.

Chiron had immediately launched up search parties, and the deja vu of it all when Percy had gone missing a week ago left him feeling ill. Poor Annabeth, still with no clue they'd found him again.

"Honest!" I said. "There were three scorpions after us, so we ran and hid in the rocks. But we were only gone a minute."

"You've been missing for almost an hour," Chiron said. "The game is over."

"Yeah," Grover muttered. "We would've won, but a Cyclops sat on me."

"Was an accident!" Tyson protested, and then he sneezed.

"I need details of that," Alex launched an accusing finger at Will like he was intentionally holding out on them.

"Wasn't around for it," he said regretfully, "from what I understand though, Grover could smell the laurels and knew which scorpion to attack, but then he got caught in one of the Stoll's traps, hoisted into a net. So all his fur started raining down on Tyson, and bless him he still tried to cut him down while sneezing his eye out, and even though he did the scorpion came scampering over with a javelin where its leg used to be and instead of going for the package Tyson fell on Grover and Lee and Clarisse swooped in for the win. It made for a great story." He finished with wistful old regret a story he'd never want to stop telling. It had been Lee's last game at camp, a victory he and Clarisse had only gotten a week to brag about.

There was a communal laugh for a moment at that array of badass misfortune at least.

Jason's eyes were gleaming with interest like he really did want to get a pen and write all of this down. "Hope they team up again, sounds like they'd make a great pair if we can get Tyson some allergy medicine, and maybe a funny hat. Hopefully, it'll lower Grover's fear of him just a bit."

"One of those rainbow hats with the fan on the top, yeah," Percy chuckled in agreement.

Clarisse was wearing the gold laurels, but she didn't even brag about winning them, which wasn't like her. "A hole?" she said suspiciously.

"Looking for something new to shove your head into?" But Nico was purely joking, he knew she took the safety of their camp seriously.

Annabeth took a deep breath. She looked around at the other campers.

"Chiron...maybe we should talk about this at the Big House."

"There were some kids around," Will needlessly answered the unasked, like he wasn't a kid himself. Most of them had been kept up for the search, but he knew at least the youngest shouldn't be around to hear whatever horrors these two had found.

Clarisse gasped. "You found it, didn't you?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "I—Yeah. Yeah, we did."

A bunch of campers started asking questions, looking about as confused as I was,

Percy felt the eye rolls in the room and grumbled he'd still been distracted about Clarisse not doing a victory dance.

but Chiron raised his hand for silence. "Tonight is not the right time, and this is not the right place." He stared at boulders as if he'd just noticed how dangerous they were. "All of you, back to your cabins. Get some sleep. A game well played, but curfew is past!"

There was a lot of mumbling and complaints, but the campers drifted off, talking among themselves and giving me suspicious looks.

"This explains a lot," Clarisse said. "It explains what Luke is after."

"Wait a second," I said. "What do you mean? What did we find?"

Annabeth turned toward me, her eyes dark with worry. "An entrance to the Labyrinth. An invasion route straight into the heart of the camp."

"Did you really need her to spell that out for you?" Jason asked. At least he sounded like a concerned teacher asking why he hadn't studied the material rather than Gabe asking why he was a moron.

Thalia reached for the book to cut off whatever snide remark Percy had for that. "He was still getting used to the Labyrinth existing, cut him some slack."

"Thanks," Percy muttered to her.

She gave him a wink as she flipped to the next chapter. It was nice, even if he didn't have his girlfriend in here to call him an idiot in person, to at least have a friend around to make sure he never felt too much like an idiot no matter how many times she filled in the roll.

[fizzyphan]

hiiiiii

oh no, was it because it was so close to the holidays that people didn't sign up? but hey at least now u get more time to prepare for the auditions in jan! u can become adelaide over the holidays!! alsoooo what's ur favourite musical/play and have u been able to catch a live show of it?

that's amazing that u guys did a gift exchange! i love mugs they're vvvv cute i always have to be physically stopped before purchasing mugs that i don't need because i'm not a huge hot beverage person anyway. a couple years ago i was watching gogglebox with my friend and there's a sibling duo on that show who have the weirdest cutest mug collection and i'm so jealous of them.

exactly like doing one small thing and succeeding on the first go and my ego will be boosted forever hehe! i've never played mini golf or actual golf, is it fun? 👀

last year's top songs are all bangers!! i was obsessed with heartbreak girl for some time and would listen to it on repeat. i know u said rainbow kitten were ur top artist! wrapped this year was so weird for me because my top artists didn't have my top songs 💀 stick season is an amazing song even after being overplayed i'm still not sick of it. also northern attitude with hozier was one of the best things to ever happen to me!

i'm so glad u got to see them and won the ticket wars for them!! do they tour often? who's ur favourite member and what's ur favourite song by them 👀

stopppp i'm so jealous of ur sister that's literally a dream!! sadly they never toured in my country so i never got to see 1d live :(

ooh that's nice that u guys are planning to have a girls day out! are u pleased with all the gifts u have bought so far? and yes coffee while running errands is so so important <3 what's ur favourite thing about christmas?

i've had a good week so far and i love talking to u too!! 💗

- s

heyhey!! my weeks been packed sorry, but im here to respond now!!

yeah probably, we had like 11 people? i think, hopefully more people will have signed up by January! more time to practice is good though!!

my favorite show since i was 4 years old has been Newsies! unfortunately ive never seen it in person, ive only seen one full show in person and it was a production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Shakespeare festival in my home town a couple months ago! all the songs were written originally for this specific production and it was so amazing! the set was incredible especially because it was a roofless theatre!

same!! i have waaayy to many mugs lol, i recently got gifted two Halloween hello kitty mugs and a Christmas hello kitty mug by my grandma! hello kitty is my favorite so i use them very often!!!

i love mini golf! i usually play with my mom and sister! the one we go to is actually Christmas themed all year round hehe, you should play sometime! its especially fun with competitive friends!

wrapped was a little off this year for some reason its weird lol, but i agree i can listen to any noah kahan song on repeat!! especially with Hozier, i love him too!

they do tour pretty often, kpop groups tend to tour very frequently! im pretty much an ot5 but i would say my favorite is probably beomgyu! my favorite song is definitely Loser=Lover, but i love all their songs! that one does hold a special place in my heart tho!

i know right! i wouldve killed to see that if i was old enough at the time lol!

thankfully i got all my shopping done in time and im very satisfied with what i got for everyone this year! im super excited for Christmas!! what are you excited for this holiday? im super curious about other peoples traditions and favorites!

ooh thats hard! my top favorites are probably watching The Holiday on Christmas eve and eating fettuccine every year, matching Christmas pajamas, and driving to see Christmas lights through the neighborhood!!

im glad your week was good! mines been good too! kinda hectic but good!! hope you're day has been amazing!! ❣️

[radiance1]

That last part makes me think.

Now, what if and hear me out on this one. What if one of the shield's core designs, one of the core traits of it is that it pulls from whatever is inside of it?

You could say that whoever made it, maybe one person who actually had brains decided that, hey. What if instead of using outward power supplies we just use, well.

The Hydra itself?

Maybe their idea got shot down and the scientist, being a petty motherfucker, decided to do all that shit anyways in secret and succeeded at doing do as well. Maybe you could even say that before he got properly finish and then show the higher up that it works he got kicked out of the GIW and, being a petty little shit.

Decides to finish and employ it without the GIW even knowing what it actually is.

Why am I saying this? Because this would put the GIW in a massive amount of hot water because 1. They don't have any sort of weapon that could actually bring this massive dragon to heel in the case it becomes a threat and 2. The only thing that actively keeps it contained was made and deployed by a fired scientist.

But anyways back to the shield-

Me thinks that it was passively absorbing power from the ennead and slowly getting stronger over time, enough so that it doesn't break immediately under their continuously applied force after they woke up and try to get out. Only for that trait that sucks the power of the Hydra?

Yea it actives another one of its core traits.

Maybe every attack that hits it kinda... runs along the surface of it? And then kinda just integrates into the shield because its power is getting sucked into its surface to power the shield itself while the other trait passively sucks out energy from the Hydra?

I don't think it's enough to kill or force the Hydra into its core, but both traits active at the same does actually put some strain on the ennead.

Right right okay bouncing over to the GIW now.

What if they take credit for making the shield even though they didn't actually? Like, this is the only thing keeping them out of the deeper parts of hot water so they claim that they've made it and that yea, they could do something about this just give them some time you know?

Meanwhile internally they are sweating major bullets because what they hell are they supposed to do in this situation? Yea they've been making weapons, but they know full well that none of them can actually bring the Hydra to heel like how the rest of the government wants it too. They can claim the merit for creating the shield but can't actually put that into practice because they don't know how to make another on, and they can't even find the origin of said shield to try and reverse engineer it.

(You know this would make it so much funnier if the scientist decided one of their last middle fingers to the GIW was to place the shield inside of Amity Park instead of anywhere outside of it.)

And since they can't find it anywhere outside, they just decided to leave it alone because ain't nobody stepping a foot in there anymore after it woke up.

(Also yea I think they probably used the shield to discreetly pull out some ghosts. But the thing is they never actually cared about the shield because it was-at the time- weaker than an average ghost shield and only started caring a while later when it stopped the massive Hydra in its tracks. But now they can't actually do anything unless they want to risk being utterly obliterated by said Hydra)

How would the magical heroes view the Hydra?

Probably very, very magical. Like, more than one magical signature tied together and covered in death, and they would most definitely see it as some kind of experiment of the like. Like, 9 different magical signatures, all of which were tied together by and covered in death and is extremely angry and trying to escape?

Yea, that was probably something man made. Something man made that is incredibly, incredibly angry.

Maybe they could mistake its anger over anger of its existence and wanting to find their 'creator' to kill out of vengeance instead of, you know, being trapped and becoming increasingly annoyed that the thing you could've and should've broken rather easily just gives you the middle finger by not breaking.

Ahem anyways.

I won't lie, them having a one large core would be something actually. But then also being split apart is also a good one. Like, giant core and you peer inside would be various elementals somehow co-existing in harmony and then the being split apart would mean that it would give some credit to the man-made abomination theory.

Prompt 203

Another Hydra prompt! Because I am enjoying the designs I’ve made lol. And perhaps it’s a bit inspired by @radiance1 ‘s different dragon prompts too. 

So they’ve succeeded! They’ve managed to combine their powers- with a bit of shapeshifting helped along by so many ghost allies- and become a giant duck-you dragon! Well, originally they were going to do something else, but they couldn’t agree on an animal, so dragon it was! 

And how mighty they are! They’re giant, absolutely massive- dwarfing the couple of skyscrapers still in Amity. Damages via ghost attacks and general sparring made it where people really didn’t want to rebuild those types of buildings. 

But anyway, dragon! Them! They’re absolutely stunning! And did they mention powerful? Because boy oh boy, are they powerful. The GIW’s guns do practically nothing against their combined might, and barriers shatter before them! 

The uh, issue is that they erm… can’t turn back. Which is fine, they’ve all sort of outlived most of their generation- thank you possessions and ecto-contamination, it’s just a tiny bit of an adjustment. But really it’s not too bad, and someone needs to stop the GIW from trying to poke their heads into Amity. Like it’s been a solid couple of generations, it’s time to stop, thanks. 

Actually they’ve been a bit quiet. Meh, that surely isn’t a problem. Probably. Honestly they’re all going to use the opportunity to sprawl out where the school yard once was, their favorite place to sun their scales. Huh. Usually more people are around now that they think about it- or really, as Paulina points out, sharpening her fangs on one of the rocks. 

…

How long had they been sleeping, because it couldn’t have been that long. One of them was always awake, they slept in shifts after all! Yet there are things missing now as they patrol the skies, both Wes and Tucker pointing out specific buildings that the others didn’t particularly notice usually that now lay empty. 

Hm. 

Oh. That is a… strong barrier there. A really strong barrier actually. Pfft, they can take it! They’ve shredded every barrier together before- Ow. 

…

Okay this might be a bit of a problem. Shit. 

You want a general size reference? :P

[hyunsuks-beanie]

It'll Always Be You

Lee Felix × reader; angst, but with a fluffy ending; 2923 words; lovers to exes and back

A/N So Felix has me feeling all sorts of things today, bc of how good he looked during the performance. So here's a scenario for our Sunshine!

"Here's your order and have a nice day," you smile to the female customer in front of you, before handing a pack of cookies to her child. Once the leave, you let out a sigh and look at your best friend who's cleaning the counter next to you. "All done for today!," you exclaim, to which your friend looks up and smiles, before taking off and folding her apron. "So, what are your plans for tonight?," she asks, making you give her a knowing look. She to her eyes before saying, "How long are you gonna stay cooped up inside your house? The break up was two years ago for heaven's sake, you need to start living your life again." "Hey, I am living my life, it's just that, unlike you, I am not interested in going out and meeting new people every day. I meet enough strangers while working here, so there's no need to go clubbing daily," you shrug.

When all she does in reply is pout, you chuckle and say, "Okay, how about we go for a movie tomorrow? My treat." Her face lights up at that, and she gives you a tight hug before saying, "I really want to meet your ex once though, just so I can break his nose." You giggle "Oh he's dead and gone."

Oh, if only you knew.

Once you send your friend off, you start tidying up your little bakery up. This was the place that helped you get over your breakup, which had been messy to say the least. You had immersed yourself fully in your work, because you knew it was one thing that would never hurt you or break your trust.

You sigh lovingly at the memories of setting up and running your bakery, turning your back against the front door. And just as you are reminiscing you hear the door open, causing you to turn. The moment you do so, however, you regret it, because standing there, staring at you wide-eyed, is your ex, otherwise known as Stray Kids' Lee Felix. You both continue to stare at each other for a while, before he finally breaks the silence (and your trance) by whispering, "Y/N."

You clear your throat, and say, "I'm sorry, but we're closed for the day." He rushes to the and hurriedly replies, "Please, it's rather urgent. My friend Hyunjin is really craving some blueberry pie, and he refuses fo join practice before I bring him what he wants." "I told you, I'm sorry, but I can't help you today. You can come back tomorrow though," you say, not looking into his eyes. "Please Y/N, Chan hyung is getting really angry, he's gonna ground me along with Hyunjin," Felix reasons, and you find yourself giving in to his pleading eyes and pouty lips.

"Fine, wait a minute," you say, making him crack a smile. Boy have you missed that smile of his, you think, before mentally slapping yourself for still not being able to resist him, even though he broke your heart to pieces when he broke up with you over the phone two years ago, telling you that he could no longer do long distance with you being all the way in Australia. It wasn't the breakup that hurt you though, it was the fact that he had found someone better and closer to him, or so he said.

Little did you know, though, that the company had he had never really found anyone else, that he didn't want to find anyone else. The company had made him lie to you when they came to know he was secretly dating. He tried to put up a fight, but the company started threatening him about the group facing consequences. He knew you'd see right through him if he told you the truth, so he had to lie to you in order to make you hate him, just so you could move on in life. He meant well, but he never knew he hurt you so bad that you'd give up on dating and love altogether.

"Here you go," you say while handing him his parcel. He thanks you, while contemplating if he should make small talk. Mustering up the courage, he asks, "How have you been?", while looking down. "Fine," you reply, "Congrats on the comeback." His head snaps up at that, as he says, "I didn't know you knew I had a comeback," "It was all over the news, Felix. Stray Kids are really making it big," you swallow before adding, "Your partner must be really proud of you," complete with a fake smile plastered on your face.

Felix winces at your words, not knowing what to say. In the end, he settles with, "How long have you been running this bakery?" "Since about a month after we broke up." When he gives you a confused expression, you sigh and add, "I was kinda already about to move to Seoul when you told me that you had found someone else. I was gonna surprise you, but you ended up surprising me instead."

"Y/N, I-I never knew. I'm so sorry, I-," he says, but you cut him off. "I-I t-think you should leave," you say, with tears threatening to spill. "Let me explain, please. I swear I'll come clean, please, just give me a chance." "No Felix, I can't give you any chance, you blew it up when you hurt me so bad that it made scared of ever loving again. Please.....j-just go," you say, shutting your eyes close. Dejected, he turns around to leave, but not before saying, "I'm sorry," one more time. Once he leaves, you sink down to the floor, crying. "Why did you have to ruin me so bad?," You whisper.

You don't, however, notice that just outside the door, Felix too, is crying hysterically as he gets into his car.

Upon reaching the JYP building, Felix rushes to the washroom to try and dry his eyes and hide any signs that he's been crying. "I still love you. I never stopped, but gosh, why did I have to be such an idiot to let you go? And that too, in the worst way possible?," he says to his reflection in the mirror, thinking back to your broken expression. Slamming his fist against the sink, he curses at himself.

Once he's finally sobered up a little, Felix goes back to the practice room to give Hyunjin his pie. Though he has half a mind to just call in sick and go home and weep, he knows the group needs him. "Here you go, Hyun," he forces a smile onto his face when Hyunjin thanks him. Chan notices his slumped shoulders, but shrugs it off as tiredness. "Now that everyone is satisfied, can we get back to practice?," he asks. Once all the boys agree, rehearsals begin again, but Felix can't find it in himself to focus. He keeps making mistakes, which finally results in Chan stopping the music, grabbing his hand, and taking him out the practice room and to his studio.

"What is it, Lix? You've been distracted ever since you came back from the bakery. Come on, I know something is bothering you, it isn't like you to lose focus. Tell me what it is," Chan says, sternly but gently, his concern for the younger boy evident. "It's nothing, hyung. I'm just tired," Felix tries to evade the question, but Chan presses on. "I'm not buying that, and I'm not gonna have you distracted during performances or practices, either. I can't risk you injuring yourself or any of the boys, so I'm saying again. Spit. It. Out. Leader's orders."

Felix sighs, running a hand through his hair. After a pause, he finally says, "I saw Y/N today. The bakery, it is owned by them." Chan's eyes go wide at this, since he's the only one who knows the circumstances under which you both broke up, and is also the only one who knows about how much Felix regrets letting you go, in the worst possible way. "What happened? Were they....rude to you? Or did they do something?" "What? No hyung, they were nothing but nice to me. We made small talk, and they told me that they were planning to surprise me by moving to Seoul, when I broke up with them. I hurt them so bad that they are scared of ever loving again," Felix says, taking shaky breaths between sentences as tears welled up in his eyes again.

"I messed up so bad hyung, you know I still love them. They're the nicest, most perfect, most lovable person I've ever known, and I damaged them so badly, gosh I feel so guilty," he breaks down again, causing Chan to wrap his arms around him, giving him a shoulder to cry on. Once Felix calms down, Chan says, "You know what you have to do now, right?" "What do you mean?"

"You say you still love them. You say you're guilty. But instead of telling these things to me, you need to tell this to them. Apologize to them, tell them the whole story. Tell them there was never anyone else, and that it's always been them. You didn't fight for them back then, because you were worried for us. But you can fight for them now, because we got your back. Win them back, Lix. Make up for your mistake."

"B-but hyung, why would they ever want to take me back again? I've been nothing but a jerk to them." "Well, in that case, you can't blame them. But they deserve to at least know the truth. They deserve to know that your intentions were not wrong. If they choose to walk away after that, they will at least have had gotten closure. Who knows, it might help them muster the courage to go out and love again. You owe this to them, Lix."

Chan succeeded in knocking some sense into Felix, as the next day, the younger boy found himself in front of your bakery, preparing a long speech explaining why he did what he did to you. He's so engrossed in his thoughts that he doesn't notice your best friend walk out the bakery and stand next to him. "Uhm, are you okay?," she asks, surprising him. "O-oh, uh-uhm, yeah," says Felix, while noticing her uniform, that's identical to yours. "Do you work with Y/N?" "Yeah, we're friends and partners, and on most days, we work together. But they called in sick today, and told me they'd cover the evening shift. How do you know them though?"

To this, Felix finds himself at a loss for words, but he figures if he's gonna come clean to you, he needs an ally. And what better person than your best friend? So he takes down his mask slightly, making your friend gasp in response. "You Felix from Stray Kids! What are you doing here?" "I-I came here to meet Y/N. We broke up two years ago due to a mistake I made, but I need to explain things to them. They deserve to know the truth." He looks up to see your friend glaring at him, as she says, "That was you? You broke my best friend's heart? How could you? I'm not letting you anywhere near them, you jerk"

"Please, just give me 5 minutes, and I'll explain everything to you. Then you can decide if I deserve one more chance." When your friend doesn't say anything, Felix launches into his own version of things, explaining himself and his actions. Once he's done, your friend is still glaring at him, but he notices a smile tugging at her lips.

"You have been nothing but a complete and utter jerk to them. And honestly, you deserve to get your ass kicked by them. But I know that they still love you, and the way you are repenting what you did tells me that you love them too. So I give you my blessing. They'll be here in the evening at 6, be here before then." Felix hugs her super tight at that, with the biggest smile plastered on his face while thanking her. She adds, "But if you hurt them again, I swear I'm gonna murder you with my own two hands." "It won't come to that, I promise."

Felix arrives at the bakery at 10 minutes to six, and the moment he enters, your friend shoves him into the kitchen, asking him to stay there till you come. Once she leaves, he starts pacing up and down, raking his hand nervously through his hair. He tries to prepare what he is going to say, but gives up when he realizes that it would all go out the window when he sees you.

Meanwhile, the moment you step inside the bakery, your friend pretends to be busy setting stuff up on the counter, and asks you to bring in some things from the kitchen. Unassuming, you start walking towards the kitchen doors, when she notices your swollen eyes and exclaimed "Babe, have you been crying?" You muster up a fake smile and tell him that it's just you not feeling well, but unknown to you, Felix heard your friend, and guilt washes over him again. But he doesn't have time to wallow in it, as soon after, you step in.

The way your expression morphs into one of pure sadness breaks his heart into a million pieces, and when you say, "What more do you want from me?" while holding back tears, it takes everything in him to stop from falling to his knees and begging forgiveness. He tries to speak, but you hold up a finger, indicating you aren't finished. "Now that you've found me again, was it not enough for you to have me admit that what you did to me made me stop believing in love? Do you even want to rub it in my face by telling me how happy your are with your partner? If that is so, then please, just get lost, I'm begging you."

Tears are now streaming down your face, and Felix finds himself saying, "Just please. Let me explain. You deserve to know the truth and my feelings and intentions. If after that, you want me to leave, I swear, you will never have to see me again." You can't look at him, but when you don't reply, he says, "I promise that this is the real truth behind what I did. Please hear me out. I lied when I said I had found someone else. There is no 'someone else,' and there never will be one. The only person I've loved, the only person I still love, is you. It'll always be you."

"The company made me break up with you, and threatened me that the group will face consequences if I didn't do as they had asked. I that that if I outright told you the real reason, it would hurt you. And so, I decided to lie to you in order to make you hate me, even if it broke my heart. But never did I ever think that it would damage you so badly, and I know I've been stupid, but I can't help but ask for you to forgive me, and give me one last chance. I know I've been a total jerk to you, and even now, I'm being nothing but selfish, but I just want you to know that I still love you. I'll understand if you want nothing to do with me, and I'll walk away forever. But you deserved to get closure, and I hope that if you do choose to give up on me, you will now be able to love again, and trust again."

By the time he stops talking, the both of you are sobbing hard. You ask him, "Are you done?" When he nods, you say, "You say that you will walk away if I choose to give up on you. But do you really think I'll be able to give up on you? If I couldn't stop loving you even when you broke up with me in the cruelest way possible, what makes you think I'll stop loving you now that I know that you went through the same pain as me? You knew what the truth was, and you still had to hide it. I can only imagine how hurtful that must have been, Felix. I hate myself for believing your stupid lie, for ever doubting the love you had for me. I'm sorry, and I forgive you."

Felix looks up at you, surprised. It takes him some time to process your words, and when he does, he asks you, "What does that mean....for us?" To this, you shyly reply, "Well, I never stopped loving you, and if you didn't either, then should we give us another try?" Felix smiles the brightest he has in ages, as he slowly comes closer to you. Cupping your face, he wipes off your tears, as you proceed to do the same. "I promise I'll never let you go again," he says softly. You giggle and say, "You'd do well to keep that promise," before biting your lip.

"Is it okay if I kiss you?," he asks. You nod in response, causing him to gently place his lips on yours. And for the first time in a while, you feel like you're home.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝑫𝒐𝒘𝒏 (𝑪𝒉𝒐𝒊 𝑺𝒂𝒏) 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐢 𝐒𝐚𝐧 (𝐀𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐳)/ 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 (𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞)

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐬𝐭, 𝐅𝐥𝐮𝐟𝐟, 𝐒𝐦𝐮𝐭, 𝐍𝐨𝐧-𝐈𝐝𝐨𝐥! 𝐀𝐔

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞/ 𝐭𝐨𝐱𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩, 𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭, 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐱 (𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧)

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟓.𝟓𝐊

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: 𝐅𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥 𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝, 𝐒𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬.

𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲: 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧, 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐝 𝐉𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐭 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐬

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Taking the milkshake glasses off the counter and making sure the space was throughly wiped down and sanitized, San's eyes looked up when the familiar midnight blue Nissan sedan, whose model he'd never given a damn to memorize, parked in front of the restaurant, signaling the arrival of the person working the closing shift that day. His heart practically somersaulted when he caught glimpse of the soft, silky [insert color] hair stepping out of the vehicle, the owner such pretty hair owning an equally beautiful face. While his heart pounded, his stomach turned sick when he saw the driver come out as well, going over to where she was, whispering a goodbye in her ear. To anyone passing by, it'd look like a normal couple, a boyfriend bringing his girlfriend to work and giving her a kiss, no doubt promising to pick her up later.

But San knew better.

His eyes always caught on to the way she stepped back slightly, her arm folding across her body when his hand reached out to caress it, his fingers no doubt gripping down harshly on her skin. She didn't kiss him back, she just allowed him to place his lips momentarily on hers before patting her cheek lightly with his palm and soon going back to his vehicle and driving away. He watched her take a deep breath before she felt ready to go inside and start her shift.

"Hey Y/N!" He did his usual friendly and warm way of greeting her, his smiling eyes and dimples putting a genuine smile on her own somber countenance.

"Hi San. How's it been?" She inquired as she punched her number in.

Shrugging his shoulders, he sighed.

"Same as almost every Wednesday. Dead, boring and mostly the regulars or just travelers."

She shook her head, already mentalizing herself that it'd be another day spent cleaning what's already clean and over stocking the merchant just to pass time. She went inside the office to put on her uniform shirt and apron. San in no way ever peeked in to see her cause he was a pervert, he respected her and would never allow himself to think of any inappropriate scenarios involving her. However, he would always sneak a tiny glance every now and then for one particular reason. Tilting his head slightly so he could see through the tiny cracked door, he watched her take off her denim jacket and felt his grip tighten on the glass cup he was currently drying when he spotted some purple blotches on her bicep. He immediately looked away as he did not want to get angry in front of her. He hastily put the cup back in the shelf under the counter, throwing the rag onto the marble counter in a rather aggressive manner.

"Ok San, tell me what needs to be finished."

Coming out in full uniform and hair held up with her usual choice of a colored scrunchie, this day choosing yellow, Y/N looked at her coworker and waited for him to give her a task.

"Nothing really except wait on customers. I already stocked the fridge and pulled out the stuff needed from the freezer."

He was always doing that, doing not only his side workload but also hers, which more often than not had her pouting at him.

"So I'll just be bored to death?" She huffed.

Chuckling, San stepped closer to her, making sure to keep an elbow distance from her, knowing she tended to get apprehensive when someone came to close to her than she was comfortable with.

"Not really. There's plenty of things to amuse yourself with. Besides.......maybe now you won't hurt yourself so much from lifting heavy objects..."

His tone lowered involuntarily at that last part. He knew very well the bruises weren't cause she'd accidentally hit herself on the railings in the back because she lost her balance carrying stuff in and out of the freezer. She herself tensed up a little at his words.

"Oh right......heh.....clumsy me right?" She tried to plaster an unfazed smile on her face, only succeeding about halfway.

Unable to control his movements, San's hand reached out to tuck some of the hair slipping out of her ponytail behind her ear. It hurt him to no end when she flinched slightly at his movement, he could feel her tensing up when his fingers made contact with her temple. As he squinted his eyes, he could make out the uneven patch of concealer and powder on the area close to her hairline, a tiny hue of reddish purple peeking slightly through. She relaxed when he finally retreated his hand.

"Just try to be careful and take care of yourself. I don't like seeing you get hurt."

She probably didn't know, or maybe she did, he was painfully obvious when it came to her, that he meant what he said in more ways than one.

"You too....see you San."

Once more, he held himself back from blurting out everything that was kept in his chest, instead opting for giving her a farewell and going out to the parking lot to get inside his red 1989 Ford f150 and drive over to his friend's house, the bunch of them waiting for him to complete his shift and come over to their place.

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"Aish seriously San, just forget about her. Plenty of fish in the sea." One of the pair of giants told him as he chugged back the remnants in his bottle.

"And you have a lot of fish waiting for you to reel in your rod so they can bite right in." His friend sitting next to him wiggled his eyebrows at him.

"Stop you guys." San pushed the blonde away.

"Mingi and Wooyoung are right though San. You have girls and guys lined up all willing to drop their pants for you at anytime. Lucky bastard." Yunho, the other half of the giant squad chuckled lowly.

"I don't want any of them though... you guys don't understand." San looked down at the floor.

The other blonde haired male in the room, Yeosang, rolled his eyes at him, unable to understand his infatuation for the girl.

"You've been pining for her since high school. When are you going to let her go? She chose and still chooses to this day Lee Taeyong."

Slamming his fist on the table, San angrily looked at him.

"Don't fucking mention that asshole's name near me!"

Everyone grew quiet, the members who were bordering on getting tipsy suddenly sobering completely up as if there was absolutely no drop of alcohol in their system. San was usually a very friendly and sweet person, but he was also sensitive and emotional, and lately he'd manifest it through anger and rage, and it was truly terrifying to them. But they knew he had reasons for lashing out like that. They knew his hatred for Taeyong, not just for being able to score the girl he'd been in love with for ages, San would have stayed content and wholeheartedly happy had she'd been loved and cared for like she deserved to be. But instead, he had to watch as she was constantly belittled and sometimes shoved hardly into the ground, landing her scraped knees or bruised palms. He could only imagine what went on behind closed doors.

"San......you have to accept reality, all of us do whether we like it or not. Her friends aren't blind to what's happening to her. Teacher's at university aren't either, they've all tried approaching her about it.....she won't listen to anyone." Yunho decided to finally say what everyone was thinking.

"She doesn't deserve it! It's toxic and sick!" He cried out in desperation.

"But ultimately it's her choice........ you can't force her to get help or leave if she doesn't want to. She's been with him for years."

Unwilling to hear anymore, San quickly picked up his leather jacket and stormed out the house. He drove the streets like a mad man, his fist hitting the steering wheel every time he stopped at a red light. He would have continued his angry drive back to his place had he not spotted an all too familiar denim jacket walking on the road. Slowing down the truck, he pulled closer to the right side and stopped right in front of the figure trembling in the cold night air.

"Y/N?" He rolled down his window so she wouldn't be startled by some stranger suddenly pulling up next to her.

"Oh! Hey San!" She said through chattering teeth.

"You're walking home all alone?" He could not believe this.

"Uh....yeah! My boyfriend got caught up at work....didn't want to bother him so I'm walking home...it's not that far!" She tried to sound reassuring, but he could see right through her.

"You want a ride?" He offered.

She hesitated for a moment, wondering if it'd be a good idea or not.

"Hey it's ok. I'm not going to kidnap you or anything. I'll just drive you straight home. We don't even have to talk if you don't want. Just you, me and some old jams playing on the radio all right?"

Unable to resist that dimple smile that always made her feel fuzzy inside, she allowed him to open the door for her from the inside. After giving him her address, she found he stayed true to his word and just drove in silence the entire time. She was kinda thankful for it. She was tired after her shift, exhausted from walking and from how late it was, and more than anything, she felt like she was going to spill tears any minute if she even got out a single word. She felt worn out, her head resting on the window, eyes opening and closing as tiredness began to overtake her. She only awoke when she felt a light hand caress her cheek. In other circumstances, she would have immediately swatted the hand away and pushed the face near her own as far away as possible. But she didn't do that, she felt strangely safe and protected by the male next to her as he brushed some hair off her face.

"We're here. Safe and sound just like I promised."

Safe.........

For some reason she felt anything but safe as she looked at the house in front of her.

"Thanks San." She smiled weakly at him as she began taking off her seat belt.

"Call me if you ever need a ride. I mean it. I don't want you catching a cold...or-or worse..." He admitted.

"Thank you, really. Good night. I'll see you tomorrow."

She took slow steps to the front door, San didn't drive away until he confirmed she was inside. With a heavy heart, he drove away back to his place, unaware that the girl he dropped off was watching through the peephole his departure, still staying there moments after he had disappeared from sight. She sighed despondently as she dropped her bag onto the floor, slumping her body onto the couch as it was useless to try to go sleep in the bedroom given the pornographic moans and thumping noises coming from inside it. Wouldn't be the first or last time she came home to such sounds. She simply curled up into a fetus position, falling asleep in the usual way:

Tears falling out of the corners of her eyes.

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"What do you mean she's not coming?"

San nervously gulped as his boss told him Y/N's boyfriend called to say she had a little accident and couldn't go in that day. He knew it was bullshit and he was going to find out what really happened. After going to classes the next day, he actively searched around campus for any signs of her or Taeyong. After asking around, a girl motioned to the football field, saying that's where they'd often go to at times. San squinted his eyes as he looked all over for them, finally spotting them near the bleachers. His fist tightened as he watched Taeyong once again put his filthy hands on Y/N, shoving her to the ground, making her land face first, her palms outstretched and scraping against the grass under her. He watched as Taeyong simply walked away, leaving her there, not caring about if she was seriously injured or not. Unable to hide any longer, San sauntered over to her, his arms picking her up from the ground.

"Y/N it's me!"

He didn't mean to shout at her, but having her scream and cover her head protectively gave him no other option. He nearly began crying himself when she lifted her head, her eyes full of fear and panic.

"Oh! It's you San! Sorry for that!"

As she stood up, she began dusting the dirt off, ignoring the throbbing pain in her ankle. Faking a smile, she giggled nervously.

"Clumsy me again, tripping on some-"

"Y/N stop lying to yourself. I saw everything."

Her face darkened at his words, her eyes becoming glued to the floor as she avoided his gaze like she did the others. She hated seeing their pitiful stares and shameful eyes, she believed San probably had the same look as well. She couldn't be more wrong as his eyes just looked at her in despair and agony.

"Why? Why do you put up with it? Why do you stay with him? Why do you torture yourself like this?.....

Why do you love him?"

He asked that last question more to himself than her. Y/N crossed her right arm over her chest, her hand clutching her left bicep as she gently massaged the muscle there. San knew it was the same bruised arm he had seen a few days ago, it was probably even more battered up than the last time he saw it.

"I can't......I don't know....."

Seeing her struggling to form words, San opted for gently hovering his hands around her, maneuvering and ushering her to sit on the bleachers without ever laying a single finger on her. Opening his backpack, he took out the mini first aid kit his older friend, Seonghwa, had given him, actually deciding to put it to use for once.

"I'm going to clean these scrapes ok?"

He looked at her and waited til she gave him permission to touch her. She did not flinch away at all when he began wiping off the dirt and blood accumulated on her knee or hands, only momentarily when he applied the disinfectant spray on her wounds.

"Sorry." He apologized.

"It's fine.......I'm used to hurting...." She finally admitted.

He wanted to speak up again, but found it hard to find the right words. He focused on applying ointment on her wounds and bandaging them up nicely.

"How long has he pushed you around?" He needed to know.

"Started 3 months after we became official.....but even before that, he'd often tease me and what not........ it doesn't hurt ....." She lied once more.

"The Y/N I knew never lied even to save her life. Sad how someone like him managed to change that." He finished wrapping the gauze around her knee.

"I haven't changed at-"

"Yes you have." He interrupted once again.

"The Y/N from then was a cheerful, happy ray of sunshine known for her bubbly personality and kindness to others. She loved going out with friends and hated staying indoors for too long. She was always honest and ready to help anyone in need, especially cute abandoned animals, she was a real softie for them."

She chuckled softly at his words, not denying any of it.

"I still am soft for them." She corrected him.

"But you're no longer happy. You're sad, somber and being in pain all because of an asshole who doesn't deserve you.......he doesn't deserve your love."

Although she heard him and wanted to believe his words, her mind blocked out such reasoning.

"But he does love me.......he swears it....every time it happens, he apologizes and promises-"

"It's all lies Y/N! He doesn't love you! If he loved you he wouldn't hurt you physically and emotionally. He wouldn't be the reason why you're only a shell of the person you used to be. He doesn't love you and he'll never love you..."

She let his words sink, trying to digest what he was saying.

"I know because I've loved you for so long and I'd never even think about putting you through half of what he has."

She whipped her head up at his words, seeing the earnest and emotion in his eyes as he finally confessed what was in his heart.

"San......" She was left speechless.

He teared up, scoffing at himself as a dry smile formed on his face.

"You have no idea how much it hurts seeing you be in pain and not able to do anything about it. Having you flinch at my touch when all I want is to comfort and hold you."

Without thinking, he cupped her cheeks, thumbs wiping away the tears that began falling down her eyes.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself Y/N. You can't spend the rest of your life living in fear and chained to someone who just wants to make you suffer. You can't allow someone to take away your joy and peace of mind. You shouldn't be afraid to be free and enjoy life. You deserve to be happy and loved."

He used his last bit of self control he had and stopped himself when he leaned his face too close to hers, his nose brushing against hers, expecting her to shiver away from his touch, but instead she seemed to wait for his next move. Knowing he'd never forgive himself for it, he pulled back, leaving her disappointed and himself in agony.

"Please take care..."

Taking off his leather jacket, he placed it on her back, fanning out the sleeves so it'd cover her shoulders. Then he turned around and began walking away from her, shoulders slumped down and heart aching to go back and just take her away for good. But he resolved himself not to. Not until she specifically asked him to.

When Y/N finally got back to her place, Taeyong wasn't there. He was probably spending the night at one of his side chick's place, no doubt getting buzzed and high out of his mind. Her soft bed no longer comforted her, so instead she slid down and sat on the floor, hugging her knees and occasionally running a finger through the fabric of San's jacket. His scent was still on it and every time she inhaled it, it had a soothing and calming effect on her mind and heart that soon helped her tense body relax until she felt sleepy. It took a lot of effort, but she climbed into her bed, not bothering to cover herself with the blanket or change into more comfortable and less confining clothes.

San's jacket was the only comforting thing at that moment......

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Nudging him with his elbow, Yeosang whispered to the male next to him the presence of the girl that was slowly approaching them. Always reacting to anything related to her, San turned his head and smiled softly when he saw Y/N walking up to him.

"Hey." He greeted her.

"Hi.....I came to return this. Thanks for letting me borrow it." She held out his leather jacket, neatly folded and visible clean.

"Oh Y/N, you really didn't need to go that far." San became shy at her gesture, and worried about if she washed it cause he had forgotten to and it disgusted her.

"Don't say that. It's the least I can do for all you've done..."

She looked up at his eyes as she said that, her heart fluttering when he rested his hand on top of hers when he tried to take back his treasured article of clothing, letting it stay there for a moment, his fingers giving her hand a light squeeze. His friend behind him looked back and forth between the both of them, confused by what was going on and internally gagging at their mushy scene.

"I wanted to say thank-"

"Y/N!"

The voice calling out for her roared in her ears, sending her into a panic mode as she pulled away immediately from his physical contact. San noticed the way her body tensed up and her eyes became afraid. His own eyes narrowed at the icy blue haired man strutting up to them, a chilling smile on his manga like visuals.

"Hey baby, I've been looking all over for you. What were you doing?" He asked in a concerning tone, face bearing down on hers rather uncomfortably.

"I- I was j-just giving San back this.." She stammered as she gestured to the jacket in her hand.

Letting out a barely audible scoff, Taeyong gripped the jacket, prying it off her delicate fingers before tossing it back to San.

"Thanks bud."

San glared at him, resisting the urge to throw a punch to his face. Seeing him unresponsive, Taeyong just shrugged and suspiciously wrapped an arm around Y/N.

"Come on babe. Let's go back home."

His fingers dug into her skin, applying very painful pressure to her bruise, an occasional whimper coming out of her mouth as they walked across the football field. San's jaw tightened as he watched Taeyong lean in and whispered something in her ear, no doubt some degrading words judging by the way she cowered beneath him.

"San just let it go." Yeosang's voice said.

"I can't Yeosang. Every time I see him even breathe near her.......I feel like combusting." He grunted in frustration as his friend tried to calm him down.

"Taeyong, please stop. It really hurts." Y/N cried out, her fingers prying his hand off her aching arm.

"Shut up you little bitch. How dare you go talk to that punk? Making me look bad and having me talk to that low life." He cringed in disgust.

"I was only thanking him for lending me-"

"So what? Were you going to lend yourself to him too? Is that what you were going over to him for?"

She instantly shook her head.

"What?! No!"

"Yeah right. I bet you already whored yourself out to him...didn't you?!"

Not caring that there was still people nearby, Taeyong harshly yanked her by her hair before tossing her onto the ground, catching the attention of everyone around, including San and Yeosang.

"Fucking whore." He spat at her.

"Don't." Yeosang held his hand out when he saw San taking a step forward.

"But I can't-"

Yeosang kept an arm around him to keep him in place.

"Don't get involved. You'll only make things worse."

San looked back at the scene, his heart breaking seeing Y/N once again on the floor, trembling like a frightened kitten who had no protection. When she looked up, he saw tears already brimming down her face.

"Get up. We're going home." Taeyong sternly commanded, turning to walk away as usual.

"No."

He stopped dead in his tracks at her refusal.

"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

Not knowing how or where she got the strength from, Y/N got up and faced him with determination.

"I've finally had enough."

Both San and Yeosang were shocked at hearing her words, one of them more incredulous than anything and the other proud of her for finally standing up for herself. Taeyong too was put out of sorts seeing her be so bold.

"Haha, real funny baby. Now let's go home." He walked closer to her, reaching out to yank her arm, but she slapped it away.

"No! I told you! I've had it! It's over!" She declared.

Sensing he was really losing his power and control over her, Taeyong lunged at her, fist held up in the air.

"Listen here you-"

Y/N covered her face, stepping back when he came close to her. She opened her eyes and uncovered herself when she felt someone suddenly step in front of her, their hand blocking Taeyong's fist from even approaching her.

"Stay out of this Choi." Taeyong grunted.

"She told you it's over Taeyong."

San easily pushed him away single handedly, making him stumble backwards.

"Now leave and never bother her again."

Not giving up yet, Taeyong looked back at Y/N menacingly.

"And do tell me Y/N? If it's over, where are you going to live now?" He taunted her.

Realizing he was right, she almost felt defeated until San spoke up again.

"She's going to live with me." He firmly answered.

"I fucking knew it. You were being a whore with him."

Unable to hold himself back anymore, San swung hard, fist colliding with Taeyong's face, sending him falling down against the floor. Y/N covered her mouth as she gasped sharply when San picked Taeyong back up from his collar, shaking him fiercely.

"Call her that one more time! I dare you to!" He warned him as he got ready to take another swing.

"San stop!" He felt Yeosang intervene once again, holding his elbow with his hands.

"Yeosang! Just let me-"

"Stop for Y/N's sake, she's already seen and lived enough violence, I really don't think she needs to see any more." Yeosang tilted his head to the Y/N who had already began backing as far away as possible.

Realizing his friend was right, San begrudgingly let go of his most hated rival.

"Try to come near her again and I will end you."

With those final words, he went over to where Y/N was, his face softening up when he looked at her. He held out his hand to her and waited for her response. He felt happy when she finally reached out and allowed him to guide her out to the parking lot, and thankful that he decided to park somewhere where there weren't a lot of people.

"You all right?" He finally spoke up when they were finally inside his truck

"Uh...yeah...actually...I'm fine.... can you believe I actually did it?"

Although she sounded enthusiastic, he heard the crack in her voice and her nervous laughter wasn't helping her case. Instead of turning the car on, he shifted to his right to look at her. He watched as the smile left her face, her fidgeting hands suddenly shake uncontrollably and her laughter suddenly turned to her hyperventilating. Knowing what was happening, San immediately pulled her into an embrace for the very first time in his life, holding her tightly, hands running through her hair as she began breaking down, sobbing violently, finally releasing all the pent up pain and suffering she had been bottling up for years.

San himself wanted to cry, but he didn't for her sake. He just let her cry her eyes out. It took a little over 10 minutes, but finally she started to calm down.

"Thank you....for everything."

Kissing her forehead, he poked her nose and smiled at her.

"Don't mention it. Let's get you somewhere warm now."

He made sure to play soothing music for her on the ride to his house. He noticed how once again she was drifting off to sleep and simply allowed her rest, knowing she was probably exhausted not only from crying so much but also from standing up to her abusive ex boyfriend moments ago. That certainly took a lot of energy and strength from her part and he was proud of her.

It was already dark when they got home, the brooding and cloudy day shortening the daylight and making it night at such an early hour. San gently picked up Y/N and got her out of the car, carrying her sleeping figure bridal style inside his house. It was small, but at least it was cozy and would be safe for her. Peeling back the covers from his bed, he carefully laid her down on it before tucking her in. When he made sure she'd be comfortable, he turned to leave the room, deciding it'd be better for him to sleep on the couch, not wanting to overstep any boundaries or have her freak out. He barely got to the door when he heard a tiny and hushed whisper of his name.

"San?"

He immediately looked over to see what she needed.

"Could.....could you please sleep by my side?.... I'd feel more safe that way..."

She didn't want to admit it right then, but it had been so long since she'd slept in someone's arms and she really craved physical affection from him. Happy to oblige, San went over and got into bed with her.

"Are you going to be ok if I wrap my arm around you?" He asked for permission first.

"Please just hold me." She begged as she cuddled up next to him, her face burying inside his chest.

He wasted no time in throwing his arm around her, his delicate fingers drawing soothing circles on her arm.

"Don't be afraid. You're safe now and you're going to be all right. I'm here and I'll protect you."

ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.

More than a year passed. It was a long and arduous process. At first Y/N didn't want to go through it, but San kept insisting she get therapy. After promising to accompany her and staying by her, she finally gave up and started seeing a psychologist. It wasn't easy, for neither of them. It was painful for her to finally speak up about all the abuse she endured for years and it was equally torturous for San to hear the rest of the untold story. It truly sickened him that one day he nearly busted Taeyong's face when he met him outside the school, but was ultimately held back once more by one of his friends. Besides his main priority was helping Y/N, helping her to properly function again and to bring a little more joy into her life, even going out to adopt a cat for her, naming her Byeol. She became their cute little baby, even if she was a total, well, cat at times and didn't want to cuddle.

"That's ok. I know a cat willing to cuddle me." Y/N chuckled.

San looked around confused.

"Wait! You got another cat? Where is- Oh! You meant me." He blushed hard when she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her body next to his as she snuggled next to him on the couch.

San did not hope for and did not expect Y/N to ever return his feelings, he was satisfied with her just being out of that horrible situation and being able to help her. Never did he dream she'd ever accept to be his and especially not ever cross his mind that he'd ever be able to actually claim her as his own.

But here she was, looking so beautiful underneath his body, wearing nothing but his leather jacket as he rolled his hips against hers. His fingers were laced with hers as his lips pulled apart from hers so he could look at her.

"Fuck...you're so damn pretty."

He leaned back in to place open mouth kisses on her jaw that traveled down to her neck. Although he nibbled occasionally, he made sure not to leave any marks on her soft and delicate skin.

"San...." She breathed out heavily, her hands breaking from his grasp to run through his black hair, paying close attention to the faded green streaks near his bangs.

"Oh god- please repeat that a little more." He groaned, loving the way she called out his name with such lust.

One of his hands traveled down her sides to cup one of her thighs, lifting her leg so he could hit deeper inside her. Feeling him at a whole new angle had Y/N gripping his muscly arms, her panting now becoming more erratic as she began clenching around him.

"San-" She called out again.

He chuckled slightly, hips snapping up to thrust just a little harder in her.

"Go ahead beautiful. Cum all over me, I want to feel you."

Hearing his low and suddenly husky voice urging her on, she let out a tiny whimper, her legs wrapping around his waist, using it as leverage to ride out her high. Her nails raked themselves into his back, her body pressed as close as it could be against his.

"Oh my god!" He gasped out as he twitched inside of her, his cum coating her walls, leaving her feeling full and complete.

He collapsed on top of her, his labored breathing occasionally resulting in a little choke as he tried to compose himself. When he finally came to, he brushed his lips against her temple.

"I love you so much."

She smiled at him as he adjusted the jacket that enveloped her, a real genuine smile.

"I love you too Sannie."

Giving her a tiny peck, he began sliding the jacket off.

"Let's get you out of this. It's probably too hot to be wearing it anymore."

She huffed and pouted.

"Baby no. I love wearing it. It feels like it's hugging me." She grabbed it and wrapped it around her more tightly.

"You know what else wants to hug you? My arms. So take off the jacket and let me snuggle you love."

ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı.ılı.lıllılı.ıllı

[arson-404]

Hello! @bubblyani inspired me to make this!

Truth | 01

Warnings: 18+, lime, blood, death, murder, suicide, depression

Fandom: Lucifer

Pronouns used for reader: she/her (reader is also AFAB)

Enjoy, loves. <3

"Please? It'll be so much fun!"

Your friend said, putting an emphasis on 'fun'.

You sighed, rubbing the bridge of your nose. "Fine, but if either of us gets kidnapped at this club, it's not my fault."

"Oh my God, you're so dramatic."

"It's my talent. When are we going? I have work to do today." You asked, fumbling with a shirt that was on the floor of your bedroom.

"Does eleven o'clock work?"

You glanced over to the clock, reading the time.

7 PM.

You'd be done with work at around eight-thirty.

Thinking for a moment, you reluctantly agreed. "Okay. LUX, right?"

"Yay! Yeah, the owner's super hot. And so is one of the bartenders. Maya? Macie? Something with an 'a' and 'm'."

"Gosh, you thirst over everyone."

"You would, too, if you saw them! Which you will. Well, I don't know if the bartender will be there, but—"

You two talked a while, until you had to do your at-home work.

You liked working at home because you didn't really like going out to work for countless hours, but sometimes it was nice to let loose.

Like at this club you were going to go to, which you were kind of nervous about.

Your mind gave you flashbacks of one night when you just turned twenty-one and went to a club with your friends, Hørizon was the name.

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The sounds of booming music made it's way to your ears, your head pounding.

"Five shots of whiskey over here!"

"Um, I- I don't think I ca..." Too drunk, you couldn't even finish your sentence, as you wobbled a bit in your seat.

A minute later, a whiskey shot was in front of you — too drunk and tempted, you grabbed the small glass, gulping it down.

Delilah's friend, Tina, paid for the drinks.

The burning sensation in your throat didn't affect you much after the many shots you took before.

Your head turned to your best friend, Delilah, -which you had just met a few weeks ago at this time-, who was selecting the first contact in her phone to call, since she was a little too drunk to dial a number manually.

"Heeeeeyy, Fionaa, we're at a club." She slurred her words a bit, giggling. You could hear the faint voice from the phone.

"Oh my God, are you drunk?" Delilah only giggled in response, too drunk to make a coherent response. "Okay, I'm assuming you're at that one club you went to last week, right?" "Mmmhm!" "Are you with anyone else?" "Errr... like, my friends."

You could practically feel Delilah's friend pinch her nose. "How many?" "Uhhh... one... two... four..." She paused. "Fourth!" She said, giggling, adding a -th to the word she meant to say.

"Alright. You're lucky you're my... friend."

And then you blacked out, waking up at Delilah's apartment on the couch, others on the floor or sharing the couch with you.

You still remember that awful hangover you had afterwards.

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You chuckled at the memory, stretching a bit. After finishing an essay for your boss, revising and editing it, you glanced at the clock, checking the time.

8:51 PM.

It was definitely past 8:30, but you weren't going until eleven.

You had time to pick out your outfit, relax, and do some housework if you wanted to -which you didn't want to-.

Standing up, leaving the chair you'd been glued to for almost two hours, you sighed, making your way to the closet.

You rummaged through it, and after a little, you found an outfit you liked.

Humming, you put it on your bed, along with your extra wallet (which had less money than your normal wallet, so when you went to the club, you wouldn't lose a bunch of money from being robbed or losing it) and some water to put in Delilah's car to sober up after the club.

You checked your phone before putting it on your charger.

Footsteps padded against the floor as you made your way to the couch to watch some of your favorite show, 'The Good Doctor'.

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'Some' turned into almost three hours.

And now you had eleven minutes to get ready.

You rushed to the bathroom to do your makeup — not like anyone would see it, anyway. But you liked doing your makeup, not because you were insecure, but because you just liked trying new styles.

And you really liked eyeliner.

(Reference picture, I think it's Niki Nihachu, but I'm not sure.)

After you were done, you shoved the makeup into your container in the bathroom, hastily going to your room, fumbling with the clothing to put it on.

After about five minutes, you succeeded, and grabbed your phone from the charger, opening your messaging app up.

You

Hey, you ready?

Seen at 10:57 PM.

Lilah 💖

yep. i'm already headed there.

Seen at 10:57 PM.

You

Don't text while driving.

Seen at 10:57 PM.

And don't respond to this.

Seen at 10:58 PM.

You turned off your phone, putting it in your pocket, grabbing your stuff, your wallet shoved in your other pocket, two bottles of water in the other hand.

A few minutes later, your door opened to reveal your friend in a clubbing outfit, her curly black hair mostly laying on her right shoulder.

She had a see-through black top with another top under it, the same color.

Delilah had a black bag, the actual bag part laying on her right hip, the strap on her left shoulder.

She had a black skirt-shorts with a red and black plaid flannel tied around her waist.

The beautiful woman also had long, black, high heeled boots, going up to under her knees, but short enough to walk.

Her tattoos were slightly visible on the lower thighs.

(What I based her off of. Not sure who this is!)

"If I wasn't planning on making a move on that bartender — if she's there, I would try to date you, oh my God, you're gorgeous." Her lips formed a flirtatious, but platonic joke.

"Oh my gosh, you're definitely prettier, what the hell do you mean?" You smiled, winking.

"Alright, you've convinced me, I'm prettier." She said, shrugging her shoulders. You let out a playful pout, "Damn, I'm so broken."

"Whatever, you'll get over it. Let's go!" She smiled, tugging your arm, taking the water bottles and putting it in her bag so you could lock the door.

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Soon, you both arrived at the fancy, famous club called LUX.

Excitedly, your friend, Delilah, got in line with you, figuratively jumping up and down with joy.

"Oh my God, you'll love it here, Y/n. All of the men, women, and enbys are definitely gonna hit on you, bae."

"Assuming I'd be confident enough to let them approach me."

She rolled her eyes, chuckling.

You both got closer and closer to the doors of the provocative strip club, you both paid your halves when you finally approached the doors.

Stepping into the building, you both smiled. 'This time, I won't drink as much.' You promised yourself.

Oh, how promises break.

Immediately, Delilah went to the bar — partly for the drinks, but mostly because she saw a particular bartender.

Giggling at the absurdity of her actions, you went to a couch, not drunk enough to have confidence to talk to people or dance — not that most of them would remember, considering how many had drinks in their hands.

You fiddled with a silver ring you had bought about a month ago, which laid on your index finger.

"Why, hello! I've never seen you here before! I would remember a face like yours." A velvet voice was heard, oddly close to you.

'Wait, are they talking to me?'

You whipped your head up, mouth parted a little.

There stood a tall, dark haired man with dark eyes, a black suit with a slightly visible white shirt under it, black, shiny shoes on his feet.

You swallowed. "Hello..."

You should've gotten drunk beforehand.

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Hello, everyone! I have no clue how drinking or hangovers work, or strip clubs, since I'm 18, but I hope it's not too far off. 🖤

Sorry it took so long to get to Lucifer, it's more of an introduction to some characters in this chapter.

Also, Delilah is bisexual, and goes by she/they.

The reader is possibly bi-curious, it depends on your view of the reader. <33

Delilah may have a lil' crush on Maze and just thinks Lucifer is hot, haha

[mistaeq]

The Jobros: Finding out their s/o is Pregnant with Twins

TW // none

Original Request: Can you do the jojo's reaction to their s/o being pregnant with twins after a long time of trying? You can find this here.

The sweet @serenityblaze44 asked for this same prompt with the Jobros, so... here it is! <3

WORD COUNT: 2.6k

ROBERT E. O. SPEEDWAGON

As soon as you tell him, his eyes widen, like a cat who saw his favourite toy. It's almost as if he was a kid, and you were telling him that Santa was gonna bring him his favourite gift ever. No wonder, he'll be speechless for some seconds. Not only one baby, but two? This sounds all the way like a dream becoming reality. Living in the street like he did years ago, he could only dream about having a family.

You've been trying so hard to have a baby, you both felt ready, and after all the danger he went through along with Jonathan, Robert wants to settle down and have a family, finally starting something serious. But you had a lot of problems with getting pregnant, and he was losing his hope. Until you told him you were expecting a baby. And now, you were telling him they were two, two angels of his growing in your stomach. This feels crazy.

Speedwagon won't force you and won't get angry, if you don't feel like you'd like something like this, but he'd love to name one of the twins Jonathan or William if there's at least a boy and Erina if there's at least a girl. These people mattered so much in his life, and would be the happiest if he could bring these names with him forever. If you don't like the idea, he will respectfully accept it, and he's open and ready to hear your own ideas, too!

He wants everything to be completely organized, when the twins will come to the world. Every parent buys furniture and clothing for their baby, even before the birth, it's a pretty common thing. But Robert more or less behaved like Joseph buying stuff for Shizuka with Josuke's money. Speedwagon almost bought an entire baby store out of happiness and excitement. He's enthusiast and nervous. Bear with this loving gentleman.

"What do you mean I don't have to buy six cribs for the babies? What their two ones break and we need to change it?" he groans, handing you a bag, you looking at him with questioning eyes. "Nevermind... y/n, will you hold these fifty pacifiers for me while I get the twenty pairs of baby shoes out of the car?"

Speedwagon can't keep the news to himself. He'll call Erina before everyone else, and then all his friends, like immediately, to tell them the good news. He looks calm and rational, but he spent most of his life in London's street, and few years won't erase his loud and impulsive attitude. It's probably a good thing, after all. Even gentlemen can be excited. A little sudden, but hearing it makes Erina so happy, she'll be like an aunt for your kids!

He would enjoy reading books to your stomach during your pregnancy. He would have done it even if they weren't twins, but he claims that being them two, he'll need to work twice the amount he did before to teach them stories and literature. Robert is an amazing man, but still a too grown baby, he'll never stop his ideas about how to teach the children something. He just thinks about what he'd like to do or hear if he was a child.

CAESAR ANTONIO ZEPPELI

He stops practicing with his hamon for some seconds as soon as you tell him. Funny, he was so focused on his training that he swore he started hearing things. You didn't just tell him that the baby bubble growing in your stomach are in reality two baby bubbles. He... oh, forget it Caesar, you must have dreamt it. But you're right next to him, and almost immediately repeat what you just told him, making him realize what he heard is true.

It takes a while for the italian boy to realize it, but when he finally does, you can tell he's happy. Mamma mia. The adrenaline and excitemente in his body won't stop flowing, this is why, when Caesar will hug you, pick you up and jump around, hamon bubbles will still be coming out of his fingertips, and you find it the cutest thing ever. It's the physical proof of how happy you make him, there's no way to deny it. Family is all he ever wanted, over his flirting habit. You're the right one for him and he knows.

Prepare your kids and your stomach to get a whole load of opera music during your pregnancy. Caesar is a great lover of opera, and will care about his kids to be as informed on it and respectful of the genre. Either he'll put on some of it, of he'll straight up sing it for you and your future children. His singing voice isn't actually so bad, you notice, and this is how he earns the task of singing them the lullabies when they'll come to the world.

"Hey! What do you mean I get to sing them the lullabies... I'm good at opera... not baby songs..." he whines, almost sounding like a baby himself. "Fine... but at one condition. You change the diapers and I sing the lullabies. Take it or leave it."

He cares a lot about his family's traditions to go on. Being the flamboyant italian he is, Caesar prides himself on the love for his close family and relatives. He doesn't have a huge request for you, but he cares about what he's gonna ask. The father-to-be would be happy, if one of the twins is a boy, to give him Antonio as a second name. Like his own second name, and his grandpa's too. He secretly hopes the twins are a boy and a girl, he's always wanted a baby princess.

The young Zeppeli will grow twice more protective and caring of you. This translates in him not letting Joseph get closer to you than three meters away. This is how you learn to speak even louder to talk with people. Your loving boy will always be in front of you to keep you safe. You appreciate it, but sometimes he's exaggerated.

He'll probably beg you on his knees, for you to allow him to teach the children how to master the hamon technique when they'll grow up. You can't really deny it, sometimes it's useful. During your pregnancy, Caesar and his calming waves helped you coping with pregnancy pains and cramps, massaging your belly and leaving some bubbles around to soothe and distract you. Oh, your caring italian love.

NORIAKI KAKYOIN

When you told him the good news, his heart exploded with happiness and excitement. However, Noriaki is known for being a pretty calm boy, and he tried his best to keep calm after your words, too. You had to tell him to let go and don't worry about wanting to hug you, or pick you up and kiss you, or even cry, if he felt like letting it all out.

Before you even got pregnant, Kakyoin and you had been trying every single way on Earth to have a baby. Take count of your most fertile phase, buy a lot of pregnancy tests, using different positions, praying, making rituals, crying and asking Siri, in tears, why Noriaki couldn't manage to get you pregnant. Did those ways work so well that you got twice more pregnant than you expected? Nevermind, all you know is that you and your loving cherry boy are gonna have two beautiful babies.

"Listen... why do you think I can't get my baby pregnant? We've been trying every single way... do you have any advice?" as soon as Siri answered, Kakyoin's eyes widened, and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, don't give me the 'Sorry, I'm not sure what you said' treatment!"

One of his first thoughts, is that there's a small - but now it's higher because the babies are two - percentage of chances your babies might be stand users. Yes, it's not the highest percentage ever, but it's still there, and Kakyoin is pretty afraid of it. Stand users' lives are never calm and quiet, he had the occasion to prove this himself. They often go towards almost deadly experiences. He's gotta be a good dad and protect his children.

Hierophant Green is overjoyed! Noriaki and his stand worked hard, to create some decorations for the babies' room with emeralds. Green is a neutral color, since you don't know whether the twins will be boys, girls, or both. Still, you don't think colors like pink and blue are gendered, that's some stereotypical bullshit. But you had the luck of having green decorations, perfect for anyone, from Hierophant's power.

Kakyoin secretly hopes that at least one of the babies, no matter whether it's a boy or a girl, will have his hair color or hair noodle. Think about it, wouldn't it be funny, cute and incredibly special to have a small version of your husband/boyfriend walking around the house? Oh god, what if they're identical twins? Three Noriakis? Oh my.

Even if this might embarrass him a little, you'll often get to see his parents during your pregnancy. First of all, to give them the good news about the baby being in reality two babies, and second of all because mrs. Kakyoin would be on cloud nine, getting the chance to give you some parenting advice. That's also how you get to know some interesting information and curiosities about your man's childhood. The cutest things ever. But this... is another story.

NIJIMURA OKUYASU

Okuyasu.exe has stopped working. What do you mean two babies? He thought the shocking news were finished, after the pregnancy announcement. He's gonna ask you a billion times, on the verge of tears, if you're joking or messing with him, knowing how much these news matter to his heart. When he gets you're serious, Okuyasu just lets go and cries. He feels so damn happy.

He learnt to hate your period as much as you, honestly. Because everytime you got it, it meant another month in which he had failed in getting you pregnant had passed, and this made him feel useless and disappointing. You never thought anything like this about him, but making him understand this is pretty difficult, he wouldn't have forgiven himself until he succeeded. You wanted a baby and Okuyasu wanted so too, so he would have given it to you, no matter what.

"Oi... did you... you know, bleed this month already?" Okuyasu asked, with the eyes of someone who was afraid of asking. But you shook your head. "This is good, love... but let's not get our hopes up, shall we, y/n?"

He doesn't really have any special requests or ideas for your babies' names. Or better, he does have one, but will never tell you, as he thinks for sure that you'll never agree with doing it. Okuyasu would have liked the kanji "兆" ("chou": trillion) to be in at least one of your babies' names, to remember his brother. But your boy is pretty sure you'd hate it, and he'd never suggest this. You'll probably feel there's something he's not telling you and find out anyway.

Expecting two babies is tiring, and you'll need to rest a lot. Okuyasu would like to join you and hold you in your sleep, but he also wants to be awake to take care of you, get you something to eat or drink, or put in order his messy house to make it look at least decent for when the babies will come. This is why, while you take your naps, he works around the house and lets The Hand cuddle with you. It's always him, after all. He feels the way you hold his stand.

This leads to the father-to-be being often pretty tired, too. He overworks himself. At night, when he finally joins you in your bed, happens to fall asleep in a matter of seconds, wearing his ordinary clothes instead of his pajamas. You can tell he's gonna be a good dad. Some mornings during your pregnancy, if you happened to wake up before him, you'd quietly turn off his alarm clock for him to rest more.

Okuyasu's dad is on cloud nine too, as his family is going to get larger. Mansaku totally wants to take a photo with you two and his grandchildren, as soon as they'll be born. He accepted you and behaves with you the same caring way he does towards his son. He's changed in a better man, despite his appearance. But the first person Okuyasu told the good news to, was Keicho. He purposely went on his grave, because he knew his brother would have been proud.

BRUNO BUCCIARATI

You tell him the good news while he's working. Not only it'll make his day better, but it'll also hopefully get his mind off of that giant bunch of papers on his desk, for once. The capo suddenly stops, moving his gaze towards your eyes, then your stomach, then your eyes again. You'll have to repeat, or he'll be sure he's imagined what you said because of the too much time spent working. But there's no joke or dream, you're pregnant with twins.

Screw all the papers and all the work that's left. He's gonna get you in a so tight and warm embrace of his, and never let go. Libeccio's for dinner that night? Guaranteed. He's usually a calm man, but whatever is related to his family, gets celebrated. When you announced your pregnancy, you had a dinner with the whole gang at the restaurant, but this time Bruno would rather have something more personal and private with you. Make the dinner romantic.

When you were still trying to have a baby, Bucciarati was the one who managed not to lost his temper when every attempt of yours resulted in a negative pregnancy test. But when you weren't around, I won't say he cried, but was pretty close. He was afraid of not being able to give you what you wanted, and usually ranted about this with Abbacchio. Bruno wanted to be the shoulder you could cry on, and couldn't breakdown too.

You both decided to wait some time before telling the gang about the baby being in reality two babies. They were still excited for your pregnancy itself, Mista and Narancia above everyone, and giving another shocking news would have probably brought the peace to say arrivederci. They still managed to get you confess, the look in Bruno's expressive eyes was too happy not to notice.

Just like Giorno would do, Bruno wouldn't be happy if his two angels ended up being involved in Passione's business. He totally will let the gang around his babies, as he trusts them, but during your pregnancy you both decided that the one of you taking care of the babies on a certain day, wouldn't even think of getting close to Passione's headquarters with the children. And you agreed with Bucciarati, for your little ones' safety.

"You'll agree with me that our children's safety is the most important thing, tesoro mio..." Bruno murmured, caressing your cheek. "Let's not bring them close to this place ever, I beg you. I'm sure you'll understand."

He would enjoy talking and interacting with his babies by laying his head on your stomach, kissing it and listening to them moving in the last weeks of your pregnancy. Sticky Fingers is in love with you too, and Bruno won't ever lose the chance to close you in a cuddle sandwich between his body and his stand's to make you feel protected and let you know how proud of you he is. Bucciarati will be a special dad, indeed.

[ceoofuwu]

𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐃𝐎𝐖𝐍 ;; 𝘬𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘢 𝘦𝘪𝘫𝘪𝘳𝘰 𝘹 𝘧.𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒: 𝟏.𝟏𝐤

𝐀/𝐍: so this was supposed to be published on Kiri’s bday but, apparently, the writer’s block and my idiotic procrastination wouldn’t simply allow it... anyway, I hope you enjoy my comeback huhuhuuu!<33

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒: you hate to leave your boyfriend unattended and allow his mood to crumble, but especially today...

𝐓.𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒: F L U F F F F F

"What's all that commotion about?" You asked as you entered the living room, where some of your classmates were.

You weren't sure what they were on about but, whatever it was, Kirishima didn't seem too content or uplifted about it. But you weren't letting anything ruin his mood.

Not at a day like this.

"Y/n...!"

"Is this your fault, blondie?" You demanded, eyes narrowing to a deadly glare towards a calmly seated Bakugo, as you took your own seat beside your boyfriend.

"How many times do I have to tell you to fucking stop calling me THAT, idiot?!" Bakugo protested, his anger naturally taking over his features.

"WHO DID YOU CALL AN IDIOT YOU--"

"Hey! Can you please calm down?! There's no reason to fight at a time like this!!" the redhead interrupted in his attempt to cool things down, yet also managing to gain your attention.

"Everything's fine. No one is to be blamed, we were just talking about... manly... stuff..." he explained, clearly not willing to get into too much detail.

You giggled and lightly pinched his cheek in response, "You and your manliness..."

"You shouldn't try to make me throw up, really." Bakugo commented upon rolling his eyes in irritation.

"Cell phones exist for a reason, Bakugo..." Denki mumbled without raising his gaze from the phone screen, giving the example of indifference for the other blonde.

Bakugo responded with a murderous look, while you shifted yours to Kirishima. You truly felt like you had to cheer him up somehow, so you dived in his welcoming embrace and buried your face in his chest, taking in all the wonderful, manly smell of his.

"What now?" your pitiful, innocent eyes met his crimson ones, struggling -- and probably succeeding -- to show him what you needed and consequently forcing a light shade of red to make an appearance to his cheeks.

One arm was suddenly wrapped around your fragile form, while another went to your soft hair and gently started to stroke it. His moves were filled with fondness and his built body was so welcoming, what with the warmth it emanated and all this incredibly magnetic aroma... your eyelids were beginning to feel too heavy for you, as you were listening to his steady heart beat and were concentrated to the way his chest rose and fell...

You thought you were in your bed, securely tucked under the sheets, especially when Kirishima placed a loving kiss on the crown of your head. You even forgot the others were there, as your boyfriend lulled you to sleep and your entire form was practically melting on his.

All that, until a certain someone decided to speak up.

"Did she really come all the way here just to sleep? Tsk, she's an idiot all right..."

"You're just jealous, like everyone." Kirishima retorted, not pausing any of his actions for a second.

"Everyone would want a girl like Y/n..." Sero admitted with a little blush on his cheeks, that unfortunately, you couldn't have seen.

You were thankful that you could feel the chuckle that emerged from Kirishima.

Several minutes of silence passed, which really impressed you, but since your purpose for coming was indeed not simply falling asleep and you were curious to see if the others were actually gone or simply maintained the peace and quiet, you made the decision to timidly open your eyes and speak.

"What's the time?"

"It's nearly midnight... the others went to sleep almost an hour ago..."

So I had actually been sleeping?!

"How long was I asleep?"

"Long enough..." Kirishima said with a yawn, his eyes clearly set to fall shut at any given moment. You genuinely felt bad that you had made him wait so long and lose his sleep for nothing basically.

"Kiri..." you almost whined, earning the redhead's attention, "I'm sorry..."

"You don't have to--"

"The original reason for my coming here was because..." You bit your lower lip, before offering him a sincere, love-filled look, "...I wanted to make sure that I'd be the first to wish you a happy birthday..." you confessed as your naive orbs locked with his surprised ones.

Strong arms were tightly folded around you, securing you enough as to ensure you could never escape. A familiar warmth was embracing you, flooding your senses with a feeling of acceptance and pure love. The most beautiful hug in the world, a hug the spoke of admiration, respect, love without conditions and limits.

"I love you."

DING!

You turned to look at the screen of your smart phone, as the notification sound resounded in the empty room.

00:00 PM.

"Happy Birthday, Kirishima baby".

If only you could feel how he felt upon hearing that simple yet meaningful phrase coming from your lips. How his heart almost jumped out of his chest as his veins pumped with adrenaline and his mind flooded with all the love he held for you. How he thought that you were no human but a god-sent angel, a blessing in disguise and at the same time, a goddess in front of his two red, adoration-filled orbs.

Of course you couldn't know, but you could certainly get an idea, a small fragment of what he experienced, when he grabbed you by your delicate face and kissed you with all the passion he was practically drowning in.

That moment felt so precious to you that you didn't even care about his sharp teeth acting a little uncomfortably to the passionate lip-lock. Because that moment was different; both your hands were needier than usual, searching feverishly for the warmness in each other, your lips and tongues dancing and exploring with insatiable hunger, your bodies aching for one another to the point it was hard to breathe.

And when you felt Kirishima's pointy teeth grazing the crook of your neck, and his hungry lips trailing endless paths of kisses, you couldn't contain the inappropriate sounds emerging from your vocals.

"Do... do you want to go to my dorm?" your boyfriend asked while still holding you in his arms, his expression still as naive as possible.

"Do you want to...?"

"Only if you are ready, Y/n." he replied firmly, honestly not caring at all if your response was coming out negative.

You were. Besides, you had already discussed this a lot of times, not only with Kirishima but also with your friends, and one thing you could agree on was that it's not something one can plan. If you felt ready, you should proceed and not double think anything.

With a curt nod, you swallowed and answered:

"I'm ready."

Without a second thought, the red-haired hero picked you up in his arms and carried you to his dorm. Needless to say, Kirishima had received the best birthday gift he would have ever wished for...

Hope you enjoyed! Leave a heart, comment, reblog! 💕

[ssa-thotchnerr]

Don’t Let Me Drown

Anonymous asked:

maybe a Hotch angst with his daughter being kidnapped by unsub, and he decides to drown her because he knows that she’s afraid of water and can’t swim? Maybe no happy ending? Thank you so much!

word count: 2.2k words of pure ANGST

warnings: drowning, major character death, grief, angst to the max, sad!hotch, kinda shifty writing ngl

a/n: anon, you are EVIL! I love it though. Yeah, this is pretty sad cause Hotch is really sad 😭😭😭 anyway I feel like this is really shit so if yall could give some feedback, I would really appreciate it!

—

"Shut up!"

You winced as you were harshly hit over the head by your kidnapper. He slammed the back door of the van shut, causing you to flinch back in fear. He'd just tied your arms back, not wanting to risk you trying to scratch his eye out once more, since you'd nearly succeeded the first time over. You didn't care that you were full on crying, the kind of crying that shook your entire body painfully.

The kind of crying that suggested fear.

You didn't even remember what happened, one minute you were walking home from school, the next you were in some strangers van with your arms lashed behind your back painfully tight. He wasn't too bothered about you knowing his name of what he looked like, you knew what that meant. You knew why he didn't care about you knowing who he was, what he was going to do to anyone else he could get his hands on.

You knew he was gonna kill you.

The sheer thought made you whimper. You didn't want to die, not like this. Not in fear, not without saying goodbye to your dad, your little brother, your friends. You didn't want to be murdered, not be a case that JJ would be given one morning and be pinned up on a wall. Taking in a deep breath, you attempted to steady out your breathing, there was no way you were going down without at least trying to negotiate your way out of here.

"Please, let-let me go, I won't tell anyone, I-I promise," You said, looking up at the man as he slid the door of the van open. "You-you don't wanna do this." You tried your hardest not to stutter, but your nerves were at an all time high, you couldn't help it. He laughed as he reached forward and snatched you towards him, causing you to scream. "Let me go! Please!" You cried as he picked you up.

"Shut up, brat!" He snarled, throwing you onto the ground. Looking around, you realised you were at the lake near Quantico, meaning that if your dad and his team were working on this case already, you at least had a chance.

Right?

Pulling out your phone that he'd taken from your pocket, he grinned as he took a picture of you. You shook your head and let out an angry huff, your chest heaving with each and every breath you took. The Unsub smiled at you maliciously as he put your phone up to his ear.

"Poor baby, just wanting her daddy to come and save her, huh?" You sniffled as you looked up at him, an angry look on your face as your eyebrows were furrowed. "Well, how about I left you speak to your dad one more time, a final goodbye?" You felt your stomach drop.

Final goodbye?

You started to tug desperately at the rope lashing your arms to your side, fear overtaking your rational side as you realised where you were. You were by a river, you couldn't swim, and this guy appeared to know and have something against your dad.

"Hello, is this SSA Hotchner?"

—

Hotch let out a frustrated sigh as your phone went to voicemail once more. He'd tried calling you about 7 times, and every time he tried, it rang out to voicemail. Hotch knew that your phone was always on, after all, you were a modern day teenager, didn't all of them have their phones on all the time?

"Still nothing?" Derek asked. Hotch shook his head as he looked up at his colleague, trying to hide the complete and under distress he was feeling at the moment. But Derek had been working with Hotch for years, and he knew his usually stoic boss better than Hotch thought he did. "Hey, it's alright. We'll get her home, Y/N's a smart kid." Derek assured him.

"I know she's a smart kid, but she's still a child, she'll be scared," Hotch said. As much as he didn't want to think about it, he knew there was a possibility you were already dead. He hated that he thought of that, that you died scared, possibly painfully. Hotch had never answered his phone quicker than when your name flashed up on the screen. "Y/N-" Hotch was prepared to ground you until you graduated high school just for worrying him so much.

"Hello, is this SSA Hotchner?"

That wasn't you.

"Where's Y/N?" Hotch asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Derek looked out to the bullpen, seeing that the whole team, Minus Rossi and Emily, was there, he signalled to Hotch, who nodded as Derek left him.

"You'll be able to find Y/N at Lake Ridge," He answered.

"Help me! Dad!" You were crying. Hotch couldn't help but to do the same thing, he stood up, he didn't want to feel like it was a hopeless situation anymore. The line went silent for a minute, making Hotch freeze on the spot.

There was a scream.

The line went dead.

-

It was cold.

So, so cold.

But you found that after a while, it wasn't cold anymore. It almost felt comforting, that if you went just that little bit deeper, you would be able to get warmer, and warmer, and warmer. And it became just that, so comforting in fact, you found that you were drifting away from consciousness.

This was it.

And that was it.

Hotch practically dove out of the car as Derek pulled up, running out and getting right into the lake. He knew you couldn't swim. Everything he did, went against everything he was told to do. Don't rush into things, make sure the coast is clear, all of that was not to be ignored, but given the circumstances, Hotch wasn't much caring about what the law said. Yes, he was an FBI agent, but he was your father first.

Dear God, he hoped he still was your father.

The team watched from the shore as Hotch disappeared under the water, all of their hearts practically beating out of their chests. You were the first BAU Baby, the female embodiment of your father, something that Hotch would endlessly brag to Haley about when she’d visit the BAU with you. You’d always listen to Reid list of facts that there was no way a child your age could understand, Penelope would always be aware of your presence before hand and have a plushie ready for you so she could keep her coined title of being your favourite. They'd watched you grow up to the 16 year old they knew and loved, and they were praying that the last time they saw you, wasn't the last that they saw you alive.

"I called an ambulance just as we left, it should be here soon," Spencer said, still keeping his eyes on where Hotch had disappeared. It was a tense atmosphere, and with every passing second, the outcome of the situation became more and more bleak. After what felt like hours, Hotch resurfaced with you, unconscious in his arms.

“Oh my God,” JJ whispered, looking around at the team to see their reactions. Everyone was simply in shock. Hotch waded through the water, placing you on the ground and kneeling beside you. The whole team rushed to your side, Reid at your neck to feel for a pulse.

His stomach dropped when he felt nothing.

“Damn it, Y/N, wake up,” Hotch said, starting compressions on your chest. JJ was holding your hand, Derek was waiting on the ambulance. They’d completely forgotten about the UnSub, they were hoping that you could make it out of this alive to tell them about your captor. You had to make it out of this, you’d lost too much in the past years, surely you’d be allowed to not lose your life too? Your dad switched to mouth to mouth, but nothing appeared to be working. “Come on, honey, don’t leave me.” Hotch was desperate, his voice breaking as he spoke. Everyone was starting to feel sick, it was like watching Hotch grieve over Haley all over again, just 10x worse this time around.

You were still a child.

Throughout everything your dad tried, you remained completely unresponsive. Hotch knew that you were gone, but he didn’t want to think about it.

“Hotch,” He looked up at his colleagues, who were all looking at him with sympathy. None of them wanted to say anything, it would make everything real, make it hurt ten times worse. To Hotch, it felt like being dragged kicking and screaming into a nightmare, as he sat there, his oldest daughters body in his arms. Up until now, he had praying that he wouldn’t be planning another funeral, no, not for you. He didn’t want to be thinking about what he would be saying to everyone coming to the aforementioned funeral, about how he would have to use the past tense while speaking about you.

Hotch finally broke down.

JJ, Spencer and Derek left Hotch for a bit, this wasn’t exactly their time to be grieving. They hadn’t just lost their child, killed by their worst fear. To make things worse?

The ambulances arrived.

-

No one could say that they were particularly surprised when the unit chief stepped back for a bit. They all understood, how could they not? They didn’t even want to think about how Hotch was feeling, how he was dealing with the silence that now on,y came with a one child household. Everyone had went to your funeral, it was the first time anyone had seen Hotch since that day. Everyone had taken turns at going to check on him, and right now it was Emily and Derek’s turn.

“Hey,” Emily said, smiling sympathetically at Hotch as the front door opened. Hotch smiled back, both Emily and Derek knew that it was a fake smile, but the gesture was appreciated. “How are things?” She asked him.

“Alright, I guess,” Hotch answered vaguely. “Me and Jack cleared out some stuff from her room, he took her record player and all of her vinyls, he’d been begging for them for years,�� He said, a real, genuine smile coming to his face.

“That’s good, man,” Derek said. “Is there anything you wanna talk about?” Derek asked. Hotch shook his head. It still hurt to talk about you, it was still too deep of a wound to mention. The thought he found himself mulling over often was what did he say if people asked him about his kids? He would surely have to mention you, right?

The only thing he could conjure up was; “I lost my daughter, but I have a son.”

He lost his daughter.

It hurt.

It really fucking hurt.

-

Later that night, Hotch had left Jack alone downstairs for a few hours while he finished some stuff in your room. Once coming downstairs, he paused as he saw you on the screen of the TV. He recognised the video, it was your 5th birthday party, Jack being only a baby at the time. Jack was still young, but old enough the know what had had happened to his older sister.

“Hey, what’s this?” Hotch asked. Jack paused it and looked up at his dad, wiping the tears away from his eyes. Hotch had noticed that Jack hadn’t cried yet, and he knew that different people grieved differently. He knew from experience.

“I found it, it had her name on it and I just wanted to see her again,” Jack said, trying his hardest to keep back the sob that was aching to escape. Hotch sensed this was coming, he knew his son.

“It’s alright to cry, Jack, she is-was your sister, you’re allowed to be upset,” Hotch said, the correction hurting more than the previous ones did. Jack shook his head, and the dam broke, he burst into tears. Hotch put his arm around Jack, pulling him close as he finally broke down. “I know it hurts.” He assured him.

“I just miss her,” Jack whispered, wiping his eyes.

“I know, I miss her too.”

—

Taglist

@snarky--starky @averyhotchner @snowangle1994 @pepperonysmcu @yeojiins @mollbt

[gryffindor-jedi]

The Night Fox - Chapter 2

Based on @royalhandmaidens Vigilante Commander Fox theory. The story will eventually lead into Foxiyo and a happy au.

Sorry for the really long delay. Also, this chapter doesn't have any Night Fox scenes because there's some important background plot, but the vigilante shall return in the next chapter!

Prologue • Chapter 1

Summary: The Night Fox takes a hiatus, and Fox's life is turned upside down, maybe for the better.

Word count: 1374 words

Two weeks after getting the special armor, which Fox stored in a secure vault, where he looked at it at least once a day but never took it outside the safe, the lower levels of Coruscant had changed dramatically. For more than a week now, there were hardly any kidnappings, street fights, or anything even slightly disorderly. Illegal activity seemed to have disappeared altogether, which should have been a cause for jubilation. Yet, something kept nagging at him, and for the first time after the Chuchi incident, Fox was unable to sleep. He hadn't seen the Pantoran senator since that nightly encounter, mostly because the Senate was apparently handling more urgent matters. Not being in command of the Coruscant Guard should have bothered him, but Fox just felt free. Until today. The lack of nighttime activity was making him feel restless, and that night, Fox started pacing and kept on pacing in the barracks.

“How long have you been up?” Thorn asked.

“Uhm… That depends on when you woke up.” Fox said looking up, startled. Judging by Thorn's expression, he guessed that he had paced the entire night.

“Kriffing show-off! Lousy amateur!” Stone cried out angrily.

“Are you all right?” Thorn asked, his tone surprisingly kind.

“Oh, hey! It's nothing, nothing, just the same stupid Holonet hero that's been on the headlines for almost two weeks now.” Stone answered, slightly abashed.

“Don't be embarrassed Stone, these articles are maddening!” Thire interjected. “I know it shouldn't be bothering me, but this is just so ridiculous. Some Night Fox saves some young girl from being kidnapped, and that girl just happens to be the daughter of Senator Orn Free Taa's aide's brother. Listen to this: The Night Fox has succeeded where the Coruscant Guard has failed. If a single man can stop something so horrendous in one night, then what has the entire Coruscant Guard been doing?”

Fox swallowed, and pressed his hands to his face. He had only announced his chosen name twice – once to a Twi'lek mother and daughter, and to Senator Chuchi. The girl and the woman had seemed very sweet, and he knew that saving the child had been the right thing to do. But what was the right thing to do now? The main reason the Coruscant Guard was unable to prevent these incidents was because their main duty was to escort senators and other high-level officials and dignitaries, which was an infuriating and tiring job. If the Holonet was using the Night Fox as an anti-clone mascot, then something needed to be done. Just as Fox opened his mouth to tell Thorn about the Night Fox, Rys rushed in.

“Commander Fox… Senator Chuchi… needs… you… to come in… for a hearing” panted Rys, out of breath.

“What!” Thorn stood straight up. “If this is a practical joke that you and Jek thought up, then you'll—”

“It's all right.” Fox patted Thorn's shoulder. “I'll be fine. Besides, the vacation was starting to bore me.”

Fox dashed out, putting all his energy into running and not thinking about the charges.

——————————————————————————

“Commander Fox, over here!” Senator Chuchi was waving.

“Where's the hearing? I came as soon as I got the message.” Fox asked, his heart thudding, and his palms clammy.

“The hearing, well, it didn't happen. Basically, what happened was more of a statement by a single senator, who claimed that the Coruscant Guard is not doing enough. So, a vote for a change of management was held, and well, I don't know how to say this, but you have been ordered to temporarily leave the Coruscant Guard headquarters, and relinquish your armor and weapons, by the order of the Supreme Chancellor.” Senator Chuchi said, her voice trembling. “I am so sorry, Fox. They didn't even give me a chance to present my argument.”

Fox just stood silently. He had just lost the closest thing he had to a home. What was he going to do?

“Senators Amidala and Organa have arranged for you to stay at an apartment, with meals delivered to you, until your temporary leave period is over.” Senator Chuchi continued, barely holding back tears.

“Senator Chuchi, Commander Fox, I have good news, great news actually!” Senator Amidala was strolling towards them. “The charges of treason against Commander Fox have been dismissed!”

“Wait, did you just say that the charges have been dismissed?” Fox asked, still stunned.

“Yes. Apparently, the senators believe that a clone is too unintelligent and weak to commit treason. While I don't agree with their reasoning, this means that in six months, you will be reinstated in the Coruscant Guard, with your original rank.” Senator Amidala beamed. “However, you will still need to relinquish your armor and weapons for the time being.”

“I guess I'll go tell Thorn the good news.” Fox let himself chuckle. What a relief! “Although, after six months under Thorn's command, I wonder what shape the Guard will be in, or if it will even exist.”

“Senator Chuchi will pick you up in her speeder and take you to your apartment, after her Senatorial duties are finished.” said Senator Amidala, a mischievous smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

“Sounds good, but I don't want to bother her.” Fox said, his happiness slightly fading.

“Don't worry, it won't be a bother. Your apartment is very close to hers.” Senator Amidala said firmly, in a tone that stopped any further discussion.

——————————————————————————

“Well, looks like I'm in charge now.” Thorn said, haughtily. “You must all obey me!”

“Cut it out, Thorn.” Fox smiled.

“Or else what, He Who Is No Longer Commander? What can you do?” Thire teased.

“Well, you'll see, in about six months.” Fox replied, in an ominous tone.

Stone started laughing, and soon Thorn and Thire were as well. Fox finished pulling off his armor, and gave it to Thorn.

“I'll keep this safe for you.” Thorn assured him. “I'll put it in the vault, unless you would like to?”

“I'd better put it in myself. I am the only one who knows the combination.” Fox said with another smile.

“I know the combination. I just have a tendency to forget it!” Thorn shouted at Fox, as the latter walked towards the vault.

Fox opened the vault, and after checking to see that no one was looking, gently removed the armor that Riyo Chuchi had given him. He placed the armor in his small knapsack, and put his own armor into the vault. He stood there for a few moments, trying to wrap his mind around what had happened.

“I'm here to pick up Commander Fox.” Senator Chuchi was talking to the other troopers. He should probably get to her speeder before someone, probably Thire, says something.

“You sly rascal!” teased Thire. “See you in six months!”

Struggling to keep his face from turning red, and silently cursing, Fox entered the speeder.

——————————————————————————

The apartment was very nice, far nicer than the barracks.

“I hope you like it!” said Senator Chuchi, with an awkward smile. “Here's a comlink to call me, anytime.”

“Thank you very much, Senator.” Fox replied, barely opening his mouth, lest he smile and make a fool of himself.

“Call me Riyo.” said Senator Chuchi, no Riyo, cheerfully. “Good night!”

“Good night!” Fox responded, with a soft smile.

“I hate it when Padméand Mon are right.” Riyo muttered, mentally saving Fox's smile in her memory permanently.

Fox continued smiling, and found an excellent place to hide his knapsack. The food on the table was so much better than any ration bar, the civilian clothing in the closet was comfortable, and the bed was incredibly cozy as well.

He was going to give the Night Fox a night off. So much had happened, and he wanted to analyze every moment. No, he wanted to replay everything that Riyo had said and did. Maybe it wasn't on the same scale as saving innocent civilians from violent criminals, but it still made him smile, and that was enough, at least for tonight.

Tag list: @penguinkiwi, @kris-styx

(send an ask to be added, since I'm having a hard time keeping track based on tags and comments)

[coinofstone]

5x12 The Diamond of the Day pt 1

Final two episodes! Big finale! Why am I making myself cry in the middle of the afternoon! Both eps in this post.

I do love that they made Arthur a sore loser

Enter treacherous white woman #2. Srsly it was lazy writing when they did it for Mordred, it's worse now with Gwaine.

I do love the actual Round Table war room discussion but a) why isn't Merlin seated at the round table and b) why does Leon have so much goddamn faith in Camelot's walls? Like??? You literally said the same thing last year and yet Camelot *did* fall when Agravaine brought an army through the tunnels!

Poor Aithusa. Kid's had a rough life.

I do love Arthur responding to Merlin presenting him with all his supplies ready - which he prepared without his magic mind you - with suspicion 😂

But then he calls Merlin a coward and it's sad

Katie has such a great voice. That entire thing in the cave from her taunting to her laughter to the spell, it just just beautifully played.

Whole ass battle to prepare for and Arthur is just walking around moping cuz Merlin isn't there

So, Merlin's father-vision telling him he's magic itself and he just needs to believe in himself to get his magic going again, does this mean he *didn't* need to go to the cave to get it back? Cuz it seems like he needed to recharge in the cave itself, his injuries were healed when he woke up. That seems like magic cave stuff to me.

Also that "always have been and always will be" - I'm taking to mean 'always have been' in the sense that since he's 'magic itself' even before he was born, his magic existed in other, intangible forms, like we are all stardust etc. But now that he is, he will always be, aka he will not die.

Arthur waking up with his wife in his arms and Merlin's name on his lips, jumping out of bed to act on dream-info.

Balinor telling Merlin to trust in what will be.... like bitch that is literally not how this ends.

5x13 The Diamond of the day pt 2

You know that gif of the cat knocking everything off the table? That's literally Merlin shooting lightning at everyone from his perch on the ridge.

I have a lot of snarky things to say about Merlin coming out of the cave in full Dragoon gear and riding a horse instead of teleporting like the other witches but I'ma keep that to myself.

Mordred is a bitch and Aithusa has terrible aim. At least Aithusa's loyalty to Morgana makes sense.

Arthur said oh shit I'm magic - oh wait no it's that old man again

He also straight up "No! Bad dragon!"-ed Aithusa

Y'know, for all I've watched this episode and screamed about Arthur's death, I don't think I've ever focused on the exact moment he gets stabbed before.

Mordred catches him from behind and he meets it, no fault there. But as soon as he realizes his assailant is the knight who turned on him and joined Morgana, what does he do? HE LOWERS HIS FUCKING SWORD

He leaves himself wide fucking open and vulnerable and Mordred seizes the opportunity. I understand wanting the moment of recognition for Arthur, but on what planet is a trained warrior going to drop his sword mid-attack because he recognizes his attacker as a dude who only just recently decided to forsake him? It's soooooo dumb

There was a whole sequence a few episodes back where Mordred and Arthur are sparring, the point of it was to show that Mordred has become a skilled swordsman. So what exactly was the point in having Mordred run Arthur through as soon as Arthur idiotically lets his guard down? This should've been a meticulously choreographed sword fight, with Mordred getting the upper hand and sticking Arthur properly. Not this nonsense. Look at Arthur's FACE! Oh, Mordred... 👉👈 do you maybe wanna be friends again- STAB ... guess not

Uther's been rolling in his grave but he's taking an extra tumble watching Arthur forget all his skills and training in that moment.

I do appreciate Arthur getting Mordred back though. Like that moment of merciless anger followed by the hurt and regret playing on Arthur's face, warring with surety and responsibility. It was good.

I've rewatched the big confession scene about 16 times just now.

I don't quite understand why Merlin took Arthur to the woods to begin with. Instead of bringing him to the med tent in the battlefield or back to Camelot. What was the reason?

Merlin saying it feels strange (to use magic freely in front of Arthur) and him just going 'yeah' completely deadpan makes me laugh every time.

I really feel like Arthur's head should be elevated at a further incline if he's going to be fed.

Gaius refusing to outright expose Merlin as the sorcerer but nonetheless letting Gwen figure it out on her own warms my heart.

My God Arthur is sitting there dying, feeling betrayed about his best friend 'lying' to him, and still he can't stop himself from looking at Merlin's mouth.

Percival summoned MUSCLE POWER

Hey um random but why does Gwaine even know where Merlin and Arthur are headed? Why would Gaius tell him?

Arthur looks at Merlin so lovingly after he's killed Morgana 😭😭

And now he's literally grabbing at the man's hand 😭 "just hold me, please"

That's gotta be the gayest death scene in television history. If you can watch that without thinking Arthur puts his hand on the back of Merlin's head because some part of him wants to bring him down for a kiss, or that "just hold me, please" is in any way shape or form a 'bros' thing, and certainly not at all an intentional mirror/callback to Isolde dying in Tristan's arms, then I'm afraid you are what we professionals refer to as a dumb-as-nails fucknugget, more commonly phrased as 'willfully ignorant'.

"All that you have dreamt of building has come to pass" yeah except for the whole, y'know, magic still being illegal thing.

I've said this before, but, while I'm sure there was a determined intention to have Arthur die in his armor, probably in some kind of attempt to make sure the audience knows he's died a warrior's death, I *really* think it was kinda stupid that Merlin never removed it, despite Arthur being weak, despite the fact that there was something like five days between him getting stabbed and him actually dying, despite that for the duration of that time they were traveling or hiding out. Merlin managed to produce a cloak to put on Arthur, why did he need the full armor on that whole time? Like even if they left the chainmail on, those plates on his shoulder were just getting in the way, and it looked quite uncomfortable.

Also not for nothing but Lancelot got like, every flower in the forest surrounding lush verdant greens in his death boat, Arthur gets a bunch of sticks.

It suddenly occurs to me, watching this now, that the reason Leon/Percival is such a common side pairing in Merthur fics, is because these two motherfuckers are the only original Knights of the Round Table to survive the series. 🤦‍♀️ I dunno how I failed to notice that before now. My stupidity amazes me.

I'm *really* glad they decided to do this scene with Gwen wearing the Pendragon red dress instead of the black mourning dress. Yes she looks fabulous in it but it's more the symbolism than the 'reality' - with Gwen wearing her house's colors it represents a continuation rather than a finality. Camelot will go on, Gwen will undoubtedly end the war on magic and with Morgana dead (and frankly, I think by now she already brought about the death of all the angry incel type rulers in Albion) there stands to reason her reign will begin with a period of peace, possibly longer than Arthur's. We kind of have to assume that the 'time the poets speak of' is, inevitably, Gwen's reign - which only came about through Arthur's death. It's a little bit toooo subtle in my opinion, but at the same time, I understand the need for the focus on Merlin and Arthur - after all, this show was their journey - not leaving much time to focus on Gwen and Camelot in the aftermath of Arthur's death.

I will just say, the first time I watched this that fucking truck scared the ever living shit out of me. I also just immediately, viscerally hated that scene and declared it invalid - but I think it was because the truck made me jump out of my skin. It has since grown on me, particularly once I started reading 'Arthur Returns' fic.

Everything beyond this point is post-series spec and headcanon, so if that's not your jam you can exit safe in the knowledge that as usual, if there's anything worth commenting on in the S5 extras, I will create a separate post!

For those interested, my go-to post-series fic is We Begin Again by katherynefromphilly I fully headcanon this series as the continuation of the series.

I have a lot of thoughts about Gwen and Merlin post-Camlann.

For one, poor fucking Gwen. She's lost her father, her brother, and her husband, all by what, age 30? That's rough. And who knows what happened to her mom, that was pre-series and I don't think it was ever mentioned.

Merlin, dear god poor Merlin. First of all, I just wanna say straight off that my instinctive headcanon about Merlin was that he never returned to Camelot. I couldn't really say why exactly. I just don't think he could stand being there after Arthur's death. But practically speaking, Merlin's still got Aithusa to deal with, that dragon needs some godsdamned house training asap. He's still the last Dragonlord, it's reasonable to assume he'd immediately take that on considering Aithusa is partially responsible for Arthur's death (the sword Mordred killed Arthur with, only succeeded in killing Arthur because it had been forged in Aithusa's fire-breath) so he's either going to attempt to train the bad behaviors out of Aithusa, or...well...

The only thing is, I do not believe Merlin would abandon Gwen, or Gaius. So my hc is inherently flawed. I do think Merlin probably spend a couple months with his mum, and I do think he ultimately settled near lake Avalon waiting for Arthur's return.

But I do wonder, what must their relationship have been like? Gwen, surely, would've sought his guidance in establishing laws governing the use of magic. And surely, peace cannot last indefinitely, so Merlin absolutely would've defended Camelot and protected Gwen. There's just no way he could've completely turned his back on them, but I doubt he could bear living in Camelot. And Gwen is both strong and practical enough to get on without him there 24/7, even though I'm sure she'd miss him.

I also think she would've found love again. Whether with Leon, as many people hc, or someone else not in the series.

ANYWAY.

Thanks to everyone who came on this journey with me. I will post comments on the extras if I have anything worth saying - and I think I'll do a master post linking all these episode posts after I clean them up once I get time to sit at a computer and do so. Until then! 💙💚

(Gif source) (h/t @shut-up-merlin)