#either stop hiding like a coward or block me and move on

[tankshaw]

FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN PUSSY

[coolfire333]

Trying so hard not to get soured on a certain fandom (as well as being online in general) but god it is so hard when your first real taste of online recognition comes with your works being used to hurt other people.

I cannot understand why you (saying "you" not at anyone reading this because I've since blocked this person) would go against my boundaries and try to be all sneaky behind my back showing my writing to people who are not allowed to read it in the slightest and expect to not only get away with it but to expect that I wouldn't be devastated on finding out that this happened.

And to top it all off with something unrelated but in the same fandom, recently I had someone anonymously tell me "keep yourself safe :)" on one of my fics (implying "kys" with the letters) over a literal work of fiction that I wrote FOR FUN and only put out there for people online to read because an online friend liked it and I thought others might enjoy reading it too.

First of all, say that off anon to my face in full writing instead of hiding behind your computer and your doublespeak like a coward and secondly and more importantly, go outside and touch grass until you realize you are incapable of being a normal and decent person until you stop telling people to kill themselves over creating art you don't personally enjoy.

I don't know what offended you about my works but there is literally nothing harmful (and nothing controversial imo either????) about the things I am writing so just close the tab and move on if you're that worked up about it.

I'm trying to get back into writing again because it is a passion of mine but jesus christ if you people aren't normal about it and go behind my back with MY art for malicious purposes and/or tell me to kill myself over it again I'm literally going to crawl into a hole in the ground and never be seen online ever again

[steppedladder]

a friendly match

[Technoblade shifts carefully on his feet. He’d never admit it, but the “disguise” Skeppy gifted to him threw off his sense of balance, to the point that he had to reteach himself how to fight with an unfamiliar weapon. He’s not the most maneuverable in the orchard his opponent forced him into, either, the stony ground and low, apple-burdened branches a bad fit for his build. In any case, he can’t afford to lose focus now.

Banter’s not off the table, though. Technoblade pitches his voice into the trees, where his opponent hides (coward), voicing a few of his thoughts. “I feel like we know each other from somewhere, yeah. Though I feel like I’d recognize a slippery guy like you at Hypixel.” He turns slowly, keeping his back to one of the old orchard’s trees, trying to pinpoint the sound of a bow drawing.

TapL’s reply jingles downward. “I’m a bit of an UHC guy myself!” he says, and Technoblade hears his bow relax from the complete opposite direction. No fair. “I’ve won my fair share of tournaments too!” TapL adds, cheekily.

The voice came from behind Technoblade this time. Gee, he thinks. I wonder how.

Wait. Would this mean... “So one of the Hypixel gods picked you out for a quest?” Technoblade asks.

“Well...” TapL says. The rustling branches stop, as if he’s embarrassed. “Not that many have actually contacted me.”

“What?! Why?” With the number of Hypixel gods there are, winning a tournament is practically a guarantee that someone will take notice of you. If that’s not the case...

TapL’s voice pitches back up, crystal clear, from somewhere behind him. “Oh, don’t worry!” he assures, and Technoblade leaps back to avoid TapL’s trajectory as he suddenly leaps down from the canopy. “It’s not as bad as it seems!” Technoblade gets a brief glimpse of a roiling mass of colors and forms that makes his head spin, then barely manages to block a sword strike, diamond against enchanted diamond, because the figure who leapt down from the trees isn’t TapL. It’s himself.

His double — who Technoblade now realizes, glancing at his glittering golden earrings, must be TapL — disengages with a graceful leap back, balancing with Technoblade’s long limbs as if he’s had them his whole life. TapL rests his copied sword, plain diamond, on his palm, and raises his eyebrows. “Cool, right?”

Technoblade tunes out TapL’s commentary (“Oh wow your eyesight is terrible”) and shifts his grip on his sword. This kind of power... “Anyone?”

“Anyone!” TapL confirms cheerfully, earrings glittering as he twirls his copied sword by the handle. It seems lighter than it should be. “Well, except gods,” he stipulates, the mess of colors and shapes engulfing his body as he returns to his typical form.

Technoblade recovers from his shock with a huff. “Lame,” he says, moving into a ready stance.

“And that fancy sword of yours, incidentally,” TapL adds, hurrying to dodge Technoblade’s sword strike — “Congrats, by the way!” — and catch the hilt in the crook of his knife. In a single movement, he disarms Technoblade and throws a weakness potion at his head.

Technoblade covers his mouth too late, and the potion’s effects set in almost immediately. “Ugh,” he says, over the wave of artificial fatigue. “What for?”

“Why,” TapL says sweetly, diamond knife at Technoblade’s throat. “the Quest, of course!”

(hot tears and a shadowy figure, brilliant flames consuming everything of his except the clothes on his back)

Technoblade shivers. The potion must be getting to him, he thinks, staring down the dully shining blade.

He slumps in defeat. “Aw, what the heck,” he says. TapL radiates smugness.

“Heh. 10 to 8!” he crows, allowing Technoblade back into a sitting position as he twirls his blade.

“GG, GG.” Technoblade’s head spins, so he takes off his glasses to rub at his eyes. “Urgh. Got any milk?”

“Sure.” TapL hands him a flask. Tusks become inconvenient when drinking from a typical mouthpiece, and Technoblade awkwardly tries not to spill anything. A few drops run down his chin anyway. Oops.

TapL’s voice drifts, weirdly flat, from somewhere to his left. “‘s a real nice sword.”

“Yeah?” Technoblade coughs. He drank too fast. “Thanks.”

Back turned to Techno, TapL’s grip on the hilt of the sword trembles.

(After their match, TapL gets an idea. “Y’know, I could probably teach you...”

Hmm. Needs salt, Philza thinks to himself. It’s Will’s turn to cook dinner, and he tends to under-season. Philza turns toward the fire. “Hey Will, can y-”

Philza chokes and nearly spills his food down his shirt as three Wilburs, all tending to the pot, look up in unison. “Yes?” they chime, and Philza’s soul leaves his body.) fin. ]

[slytherinsnekxvii]

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

[technowoah]

Can I request a prompt #37 with Karl Jacobs? I love your writing btw :)

Ring(s)

The four times Karl tried to propose and the one time he actually did.

- Karl Jacobs x gen!neutral reader!

- Prompts: 37) "Are you proposing?!"

⚠︎ swearing, fluff, angst if you squint and a rushed ending. I didn't proofread either

an// TYSM FOR LIKING MY WORK 😭ALSO Thanks for requesting and sorry this came out so late! Hope you enjoy :)

To say that Karl loved you was an understatement. He adored you and practically worshipped the ground you stood on. He is so respectful, which is a major upgrade from your other boyfriends, and loves you for who you are. You didn't have to put on a facadè at all during the 3 years you two have dated.

This love wasn't a one way thing. You loved him just as much, or even more, than he did. Everything he did you supported, you were always cheering him on from wherever you were. You were here for the good and the bad, and he was too. You two never shyed away from admiting your love and support. You could write a essay on each thing you love about Karl.

The idea of marriage came up during a late night dinner at Denny's. The idea came so naturally to you, so it surprised Karl that you didn't tense up. Karl was tense when bringing up the topic of marriage, so when you said "Yeah, I wanna get married to you one day." so casually it caught him off gaurd.

You two had already talked about marriage time and time again, but this time Karl wanted to take the initiative. He was ready to get married and since the marriage talk was just a few months ago it was fresh in his mind. Karl could vividly imagine you walking down the aisle towards him looking angelic. He could see everything now and he wanted those daydreams to become a reality. He wanted to physically feel your hands against his as you two say "I do" to one another.

He couldn't stop thinking about settling down in a nice house with you. Karl already bought a ring for you and always has it with him. Now he justs needs to figure out how to tell you.

1st proposal: Fireworks

"THIS IS THE MOST EXPENSIVE FIREWORK IN THE ENTIRE WORLD-"

You blocked out Jimmy's yelling as you sat in a lawn chair in the middle of the woods. Karl had invited you to a MrBeast video shoot because he thought it would be a great early 4th of July. It was late at night and slightly cool outside, so you were wearing a MrBeast hoodie Karl was wearing earlier. You zoned out as the boys talked to the camera over and over again, taking multiple shots.

You found yourself looking at Karl most of the time you sat there and you always caught his gaze towards you. Every time you caught him looking at you, you sent him a small wave or blow him a kiss and every time he sent a shy wave back or sent a more exaggerated kiss back.

During halfway through the shooting you begrudgingly had to move your lawn chair further and further away from your original spot. Karl always checked up on you before and after each firework set were blown up. He has been acting fidgety around you and you didnt know why. When you tried to confront him about it he would always turn away and go back to the boys without a glance back, and his hands in his pockets.

You loved watching the guys play with so many different types of fireworks, this was a great 4th of July for you, but you wished that Karl was sitting next to you feeling the bliss that you were.

You were currently sitting behind bulletproof glass while the guys had a control panel on their lap. Karl kept sending glances towards you and you looked at him and smiled whishing he was next to you and not over by the guys. You knew it was selfish, but he invited you here.

Karl kept bouncing his leg, he kept his hand in his pocket which held the ring. He kept sending glances towards you, knowing he should be on one knee right about now. Jimmy was about to fire off the last rocket of the night and Karl couldn't seem to go over and ask you to marry him. He knew he was hilding himself back which made him hate himself. You deserved a good night and he hoped you enjoyed the fireworks, but he knew on the ride back he would have to apologize.

He stayed with the boys as they went to go see the fireworks they would be setting off soon. Once they came back they were all about to press the button to set off the expensive fireworks they counted down from 5 and he looked towards you. You were standing up with your arms crossed, hopefully shielding yourself from the cold, and looking towards the fireworks that were going to burst. They finally pressed the button the fireworks went off.

Each burst of light in the air sent a glow onto your smiling face. Karl sent a somber glace and marveled in how the explosion of the fireworks sent a beautiful glow around you.

This wasnt the right time. Next time.

2nd proposal: Donuts

"Im sorry for last night." Karl apologized as you both took a seat at a booth by the window at the small coffee and donut shop.

This was supposed to be an apology for the last failed proposal. Instead of spending time with you, he kept his distance which was the opposite of what he really wanted to do. This was a way to spend much needed time with eachother, but this was also another attempt at a proposal.

Karl wanted to hide the ring in the middle of a donut so when you inevitably look at it when he hands it to you, you'll see the ring and then he'll propose right there. To him it seemed flawless.

You never wanted a huge proposal. You didnt want that much attention on you when your future significant other would propose. Something simple would be the ideal proposal and you've hinted that many times to Karl and right now he was listening. There were only two other couples in the small diner because others were picking up donuts and leaving. If he decided to get down on one knee it would cause a scene.

You stayed silent for a moment looking at Karl before deciding to speak.

"It's no problem. Please dont stress out about it." You smiled softly and he smiled back at you. "I mean the fireworks were beautiful, but you all were screaming too much."

You both laughed as you both recalled that night in the desert.

"Yeah I just didn't..I didn't really talk to you all night. I feel bad." Karl said fiddling with his hands.

"Its in the past Karl. And I still know you love me." You reached out to grab both of his hands and hold his cool hands in yours.

"I do love you." He whispered for only you to hear leaving both of you smiling ear to ear.

"What kind of donuts you want?" Karl asked looking into your eyes carefully.

You thought about it for a while before speaking up. "I'll keep it simple. Icing with sprinkles. Surprise me with the icing color!" You exclaimed while letting go of his hands for a second.

Once you two let go of eachothers hands he immediately went to his pocket and played with the velvet box. He nodded his head and without a word he stood up to meet the cashier behind the display box of donuts. He ordered only one donut as you said with orange icing this time.

He paid for the food and stayed at the counter where he paid. Karl looked back to see if you were paying attention to him only to see you looking out the window at the people passing by. Karl smiled at the sight knowing he really wants to marry you one day and then he looked down at the glistening ring inside of the box.

Karl was supposed to put the ring in the middle of the donut that was laying alone on a napkin on the counter. He started to think of the possibilities of what could happen. What if you didn't see the ring and crumble the ring with the napkin and throw it away? What if you accidentally put the ring in your mouth? What if you weren't hungry anymore?

He looked over again to where you were looking at him giving him the same smile you gave during the fireworks. Karl sighed and once again closed the box with the ring. He was a coward and he knew that.

Karl picked up the donut from the counter and made his way over to you.

"Here's your donut with sprinkles and orange icing!" Karl exclaimed putting emphasis on the 'orange' part.

"Thanks babe!" You smiled as he sat down across from you. "Wait, you didn't get anything for yourself?"

Karl sighed again for what seemed like the 100th time today and put on a smile. "I ended up not being as hungry as I thought I was."

"Well I could always share!" You started to eat your donut as Karl ended up looking outside.

Unbeknownst to you he was thinking of another way to propose without himself getting in his own head.

He'll find a time.

3rd proposal: Livestream

"Chat! As you can see I have my significant other here with me!" Karl exclaimed to his Twitch following.

You were sat next to him in another one of his office chairs with a blanket across your lap. You loved to join Karl's streams, the last couple of time you two played minecraft, gang beats, played on the nitendo switch for a while, but this time he didn't tell you what games you two would be playing. Karl just told you to come over tonight and ended up asking to join him for a stream last minute.

Now you are here next to him as Karl glows with excitement as he streams to his growing followers. You loved how he interacted with his fans and had a genuine connection with them, but sometimes that strong connection can, and has led to some nights where you had to stay the night and comfort him from his inner demons and the internet. Those nights made you love him even more, the vulnerability he gave to you made you comfortable with him.

It seems like the more time you spend eith him the more you want to officially get married. You didn't want to rush him because you soon figured out for yourself that there is no rush to express your love, which you two do everyday day. You two can get eloped in Vegas and you'll be happy, as long as you can spend the rest of your life with the man you love.

Karl kept sending glances towards you throughout the stream hoping you were having fun with the chill, q and a stream. Again he wanted to propose to you tonight during the stream. He loved showing your relationship whenever he could and whenever you would allow him to. His community also loved you the moment you became his significant other, so hopefully this will be a beautiful moment.

You talked to his chat as he contemplated, again, about whether to propose tonight. It wasn't infront of people, it was infront of a screen and it would be on Twitter in less than a week. This would be a good moment, but then again he wanted this moment to be between you two and he couldn't find the right time nor the right "moment".

As the stream continues you ended up wrapping yourself fully in the blanket and lying your head on his shoulder. You both cuddled eachother while you two answered questions. Karl kissed the top of your head and finally collected all of his thoughts.

He didn't need to propose to officially claim his love to you. Karl knew you both loved eachother to the ends of the Earth and back. There's no need for ceremony and the one day he will propose, he know it will come naturally. There is no need to force it, and now he wont.

Only time will tell.

4th proposal: spongebob

"Are you ready, kids?

Aye, aye, Captain!

I can't hear you!

Aye, aye, captain!

Oh!"

The TV illuminated the comfortable, dark room you two were in. You were lying on the couch with Karl with the blanket you had while streaming. It was late at night after the stream and you two ended up watching re-runs of spongebob. Karl sang along to the theme song softly while you hummed along. This was the 4th episode you both watched this night and it was a great way to end the week.

"Do you want to stay over tonight?" Karl asked softly with tiredness in his voice.

"Of couse. Im too tired to move, so thanks for offering." You chuckled.

"You're welcome here anytime." Karl yawned and squeezed your sides. "Do you want popcorn?"

"Hell yeah." You got off of Karl as he walked to the kitchen.

He put the bag into the microwave and leaned back onto the kitchen counter as he waited. Karl looked over to the side and saw a empty vase which was next to the velvet box he was carrying with him this whole week. He shook his head and laughed to himself before getting the popcorn out of the microwave, dumping it in a bowl and walking back to see you taking up the whole couch.

"Move over or I'll sit on you." Karl said standing above her.

"Is that a promise?" You teased.

"Okay then!" He turned around and began to slowly and dramatically fake sitting ontop of you.

You began to laugh and try to push him off of you. You successfully got him to sit down and returned to your previous position, but this time with popcorn.

"I love you, you know that?" You hummed into his chest.

"Yeah, and I love you more."

"I love you most."

"I love you mostest." Karl laughed.

"That's not a word." You smiled.

"I love you so much I made up a word for ya." Karl kissed you head and you hugged him tighter.

"You know what?" Karl chuckled. "I love you so much that I tried to propose to you 3 times this week."

Karl finished and you sat up from your spot looking surprised. Karl sat up as well thinking he made a mistake telling you. He was abkut to apologize, but you beat him to speak.

"Oh my gosh!" You exhaled.

"Look, I'm sorr-"

"Are you proposing?!" You exclaimed with a smile on your face.

"Huh-?"

Karl was surprised just like you were before. He remembered that he wanted the Maybe this was the moment he needed this week.

Karl grabbed both of your hands and caressed them both, looking into your eyes. "I was planning to all week. But now I think this is a good moment. So Y/N? Will you marry me?"

"Of course I will!" You enveloped him into a tight hug and peppered his face with kisses. He finally found his moment and he couldn't be happier.

"You said you tried to propose three other times?" You questioned. "When was that?"

"Its a long story."

[invisibleanonymousmonsters]

Civilian

Character: Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Summary: Jason Todd is used to saving the innocent. But he’s not used to them saving him. 

Word Count: 3,100 – One Shot

“Fuck me,” Jason groaned as he stumbled across the rooftops.

How he was able to even walk right now was beyond him.

He had Slade on the ropes. Just one more punch to put him off balance and Jason would’ve shoved a knife into his jugular and be done with him. But Slade had a few more tricks up his sleeve and decided to flee instead of finish a losing battle, so he ran like a coward. 

It left Jason utterly irritated and with a huge gash in his side, amongst other various injuries. 

He could’ve called one his “friends” or someone in his “family.” But he was stubborn. He wanted to be stronger than that. He wanted to prove that he didn’t need any of them. He was better than that. He was the best. And he’d risk bleeding out to prove it to them – or really…himself.

But his body wasn’t on the same page.

And it finally had enough.

Jason stumbled to his knees on a rooftop. He groaned as his vision became hazy.

His helmet had a protective system in place so no one could take it off if he was unconscious. They’d get a nice little shock if they tried. His identity would be safe even if someone stumbled upon his injured body… or corpse.

Jason managed to roll onto his back and was met with the smoggy Gotham sky.

“Get the fuck up,” he told himself aloud.

He blinked, trying to straighten and clear his vision.

But it was useless.

The last thing Jason remember seeing was the Bat signal reflecting off of the cloudy sky. Somewhere in the city, there was more crime to fight and he’d just be another asshole who thought he could put a stop to it.

Dying didn’t scare Jason anymore. He’d done it once before, and he could do it again. What did it matter now anyway?

But Jason didn’t die.

He woke up on a couch. Well, if one could even call it that. His 6’4 frame could barely fit on the thing. His legs were hanging off the end, not able to comfortably fit on the thing.

His head felt like it was having the worse hangover of his life. When he opened his eyes, he blinked at the incoming sunlight. Then he realized he wasn’t looking through the programming of his Red Hood helmet.

Then he touched his face to realize that his backup domino mask had also been removed, leaving his identity exposed. 

His eyes widened in slight panic as he looked around.

He appeared to be a in a small apartment – normal, no threats detected.

Then Jason looked down to realize he wasn’t in his uniform. In fact, his chest was bare and he was only in his black briefs. His autopsy scars on full display.

But just half a foot away from him, his clothes were neatly folded into a pile on the edge of the coffee table. His two guns were sitting right next to them.

Whoever had brought him here clearly didn’t see him as a threat. Stupid on their part. There were about two dozen other weapons hiding in the crevices of his clothes too.

But the more concerning thing was that Jason didn’t have a single wound on his body. The giant gash to his side that had made him faint and nearly die from blood loss was nowhere to be found. After all these years, Jason was still figuring out the side effects from being dumped into the Lazarus pit. But this couldn’t be related, could it?

Suddenly there was the sound of the apartment door opening.

On instinct alone, Jason shot up, grabbed one of his guns, and found his target.

What he wasn’t expecting to find was a beautiful woman, probably only just a little bit younger than him, standing with a coffees in a carrier tray and a bag in the other hand. She had earbuds in, further disorienting her from such a welcome. Her eyes went wide and the rest of her body was completely frozen.

After a few seconds, she slowly tugged her headphones out.

“Is the gun really necessary?” She asked.

But Jason could tell from her body language that she was scared.

“Who the hell are you?”

She had enough courage to glare at his tone. “I’m the person who saved your life, asshole.”

“Yeah? And how exactly did you do that?”

She seemed to be getting less scared and more angry with every sentence Jason said.

“If you put the fucking gun down, I’ll tell you.”

Jason hesitated before finally putting it down. Then his behavior caught up to him. Here was this stranger, who was clearly innocent and had helped him…and his first thought was to point a gun at the poor thing.

“Sorry,” he finally gasped. “It’s…a habit.”

She just eyed him, neither rejecting or accepting his apology.

She sat on the love seat opposite of the couch that he’d taken over.

With an innocent look, she slowly put a coffee cup on the table and the bag.

“I’m not much of a cook… so I picked up breakfast. It’s just a black coffee. I figured you didn’t like anything fancy.” 

“T-Thank you,” he stuttered out, trying his best not to sound harsh.

Those words were strange coming out of his mouth. And Jason couldn’t figure out if it was because he’d completely lost his manners or there wasn’t anything someone had done for him lately that warranted any sort of thanks.

“I’m sorry about taking off your clothes,” she suddenly said. “I would’ve given you something. But…well…I don’t have anything even close to your size. Even my oversized clothing wouldn’t have fit.”

Jason was about to tell her it was OK, but she continued.

“Not that I would’ve even been able to put it on you. I hardly got your clothes off.”

Jason smirked at that. “Speaking of which, how the hell did you get my helmet off.”

“Yeah…I managed to get you to come to for a minute or so.” Then she shifted in her seat, clutching her coffee tighter as if it was a security blanket. “I honestly just asked you very nicely. I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone what you looked like. You were kind of just…a zombie or something and…took it off.”

Then he took her stature in. Jason knew he was a big guy. He was bigger than the majority of men. He’d only met a few women in his life that were taller than him, and they were all either Amazons or aliens.

This young woman was neither of those things.

“How did you get me off that roof?”

She laughed, seeing that he was trying to add it up in his head. “I’m definitely no Superman. My neighbor doesn’t have any other hobbies besides going to the gym. He owed me a favor.” Then her eyes widened. “Don’t worry, he didn’t see you without your helmet. He’s also sworn to secrecy.”

Jason shrugged. “It’s fine if he did. I can just kill him later.”

He saw her whole body tense up at that.

“Relax. I’m kidding.”

Her tension was released, but she didn’t find his joke very funny.

Then her eyes locked to the floor.

Jason took this chance to study her. 

Her hair was a bit of a mess. But there was still a halo around it as the sun shined from behind her. Her jeans were a bit baggy, but purposely so. She was wearing a band t-shirt that was so worn that there were a few holes in it.

Jason had to acknowledge that she was beautiful. But he had made note of that as soon as he’d pointed a gun at her.

“I ended last night with a life-threatening injury…amongst other things,” Jason said as he looked down at his body. “I woke up with not even a scratch on me. So why don’t you tell me how the hell that’s possible?”

She finally raised her gaze from the floor to him. Then she swallowed and clenched her jaw. It was clear she had been hoping for a scenario where Jason didn’t ask any questions, where he would just give his thanks and move on.

But she wasn’t that lucky. 

“Hey,” he said gently. “You’ve seen my face. You know who I am now. Whatever it is you’re scared to tell me, we’ll be even.”

She stared at him a bit longer before taking in a shaky breath. “I…umm…can do this thing.”

“Uh huh,” he encouraged.

“I can heal people by…umm…touching them?”

Jason sat back, letting the information settle. “Huh,” he said with small nod.

“I saved your life,” she told him. “All I ask in return is that you keep my secret.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” he told her.

She nodded nervously, but didn’t seem fully convinced.

“What’s your name?” He asked her softly.

She looked unsure if she should tell him.

“I’m Jason. Jason Todd.” He offered to even the playing field.

She tilted her head, probably because she heard that name before. Everyone in Gotham had at some point. The tragic death of Bruce Wayne’s second adopted son. And then the dead son who had somehow come back, his death misidentified. There were hundreds of rumors about what really happened. But they all sounded ridiculous to her.

“Y/N,” she finally told him.

“Thank you for saving my life, Y/N.” He scratched the back of his neck. “But I have to ask why you did.”

After all, the neighborhood she lived in was weary of Gotham’s vigilantes. Some believed they were keeping them safe, while others thought they were just making things worse. It led to a general distrust of the masked heroes.

“They say the Red Hood used to be Robin,” she told him quietly.

“I don’t pay attention to what people say…”

Y/N leaned forward. “But is it true? Were you Robin back then?”

Jason ground his teeth together. “That was a lifetime ago.”

She watched him for a minute, working out whether she wanted to share something or not. 

“When I was a little girl, I was at the bank with my mom when a robbery went down. Things went bad and quick. They panicked, decided a little girl was the best hostage to grab. We barely got a few blocks away before Batman intervened. I was terrified, even of him. But Robin was with him…and he could tell I was scared. He wasn’t that much older than me, but he was so much braver. He held my hand until the police came. But even then I wouldn’t let go of him. So, he stayed with me until my mom got there.” She took in a deep and shaky breath. “It meant a lot to me.”

Jason controlled his expression, but he knew what she was talking about. He remembered that night. How he did was beyond him. But it didn’t feel long ago. He remembered thinking the little girl was pretty. 

Jason didn’t have a lot of friends back then. He came from the streets but lived in a mansion. He couldn’t figure out who he was back then. And it was hard to relate to other children. 

Back then, it was the most intimate interaction he had with someone his age. 

“Would you still have saved me last night even if I hadn’t been Robin?” 

This was all Y/N would get in terms of Jason admitting that he had been Robin that night.

Y/N shrugged and nodded. Then she cleared her throat. “The only thing saving this shit hole of a city is people doing the right thing.”

Jason stood.

The motion startled Y/N and she followed his action without even meaning to.

Now that he was standing on his own two feet, she truly understood just how absolutely massive he was. She was by no means short and she still felt like she was looking at a giant.

However, Jason misread her gawking for something else. “You don’t have to be scared of me, kid. I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her quietly.

“I’m not scared of you,” she said as her face suddenly felt hot.

Y/N didn’t know what she had expected to see under that red helmet last night. But she definitely wasn’t expecting a man handsome enough to be a model.

But then her brow scrunched, “And I’m not a kid.” Jason smiled – like, genuinely smiled. The muscles on his face forgot what that felt like.

He eyed the band t-shirt she was wearing: Fleetwood Mac – the Rumors album, to be precise.

“You’ve got good taste in music,” Jason complimented.

“Thank you,” Y/N mumbled.

A new tension filled the air.

Something neither of them have felt in awhile – if at all.

Y/N cleared her throat again, starting to feel too close to this large and beautiful man who was only standing in his briefs.

“You can use the shower if you want.”

Jason smirked. “Thanks, but I should get out of your hair. You’ve already done enough for me.”

He took a step toward her, realizing that he seemed to like seeing her reaction to his presence.

She stayed in place, but shifted her weight.

Jason lowered his head a bit. “Your secret is safe with me, Y/N. Thank you again…you saved my life.”

——————

Y/N and Jason couldn’t stop thinking about one another since that morning.

Jason had trust issues. And because of those trust issues, he learned not to rely on others. He refused to be anything besides independent. But those flaws were also the reason it was so hard for him to get close to anyone. He kept people at a distance so he could never be rejected or get his heart broken. It was problematic, but that was how he survived.

But Y/N had shown him kindness and then expected absolutely nothing in return. She just hoped he wouldn’t shoot her brains out when he finally came to.

Meanwhile, Y/N couldn’t remember the last time a man looked at her the way Jason had. Just thinking about the looks he gave her caused goosebumps to shiver across her skin. She’d seen the scars across his skin and knew he’d lived a rough life. And that wasn’t even including the scars his mind and heart held. She wondered who was the last person to help him or to just show him that they cared whether he lived or died.

It had been a few weeks and Y/N still couldn’t get Jason Todd out of her mind. Even now, as she sat on the rooftop of her building once again, eating a pizza she’d just picked up and washing it down with cheap red wine.

She almost spilled said wine all over herself when she jumped from the sound of someone dropping onto the roof from behind her.

Y/N whipped around to see Red Hood walking steadily toward her.

“Sorry. I tried to be loud so I wouldn’t scare you.” His voice sounded different from the helmet distorting it.

“Well, most people use doors and stairs…so I think the effort is pretty useless.”

Jason ignored her joke and pulled out a thick envelope that had been tucked on the inside of his leather jacket. 

He handed it to her.

Y/N was confused, but took it from his grasp anyway.

She opened it to find two tickets to see Fleetwood Mac on their reunion tour at Gotham City Stadium.

Her gaze shot up to Jason’s and then she did a double take at the tickets, making sure she wasn’t seeing things.

“How - What - Why?” She finally sputtered out the right question.

Jason just shrugged. “I owed you.”

“T-This is too much. I can’t accept this. These tickets must’ve cost a fortune,” she told him as she tried to hand the envelop back to him.

But he wasn’t having it and simply shook his head.

Y/N knew they cost a fortune because she had looked up tickets. Her heart had broken when she saw how far out of her budget the lowest prices were.

“Take them, Y/N. Please.”

She knew there was no point in arguing.

But she slowly looked up at him. “Would…ummm… Would you like to go with me?”

Jason blinked at the offer. “Seriously?”

Y/N laughed at his surprise. “Yeah, I mean, clearly you’re a fan, too.” Then she shrugged, now self conscious that she’d been too forward. “I don’t know. When was the last time you did something fun?”

Jason was shocked at how right she was.

“Oh, my God!” Y/N suddenly yelped.

Jason immediately jumped into action, grabbing both of his guns and stepping to Y/N in a protective stance.

“Jason, you’re bleeding!” She cried out, not realizing that he had just used his body as a human shield for her to defend an attack that wasn’t even happening.

He relaxed and followed her gaze to his forearm – the small patch of skin between his gloves and the rolled up sleeve of his leather jacket. He had been sliced by a knife. He probably needed to clean it before it got infected and stitch it up. 

“Y/N, it’s just a scratch.”

“Shut up,” she snapped. “Come here.”

Then he let her dragged him to the two fold-out chairs she kept on the roof.

Jason realized suddenly that he didn’t mind being bossed around by this woman. In fact, he kind of enjoyed it.

Without asking for permission, Y/N put her palm over his cut.

Jason watched as he felt a comforting warmth wash over the area of skin that she was touching. Within seconds, his cut was completely gone.

Y/N gave it a satisfied smile. No matter how many injuries she healed, the pride and relief never went away.

“You’re fucking amazing, you know that?” Jason was relieved his helmet hid the dumbstruck look that was surely on his face. 

Y/N didn’t seem to take the compliment very well and slightly folded into herself.

“So, will you?” She changed the subject quickly.

“Will I what?” But as Jason asked for clarification, he knew that he’d probably do anything Y/N would ask of him.

“Will you go to the concert with me?”

He nodded.

The nonverbal answer was enough for Y/N because she gave him a beaming smile.

In that moment, Jason wondered how he could ever push Y/N away like he had done with everyone else in his life. 

And for once, he allowed himself to feel happy.

Maybe he could keep letting himself be happy, as long as it included Y/N. 

---------------------------

Really, really loving writing for Jason Todd. I was a little exhausted with Marvel fandom.  Let me know what you think!

[kaepop-trash]

Of Snakes and Lions Ch-13

Rated: Smut

Pairing: JaehyunxReader

Summary: Your new term at Hogwarts starts with more drama then you intended. You didn’t expect your oldest friend to have feelings for you, but you didn’t expect to have feelings for a Gryffindor jock either.

(A/N): This chapter is seriously dedicated to everyone who waited literal years for an update. I’m sorry and I love you.

It was the middle of the night when she walked around the grounds. Her palms sweat heavily in the chill winter air from nervousness. She was definitely risking being caught again but she couldn't stay inside her room a second longer. 

It was when she passed the quidditch ground that she truly regretted her late night rendezvous. A quick sound of a zoom above her made her heart pick up dangerously and she just pulled the hood of her jacket tighter and walked away as fast as possible. When she thought she gained a certain distance she heard the broom swish by above her again, this time making her yelp. She turned away and decided she would go back inside after all.

“It’s just me, stop running.” A voice spoke right behind, making her gasp before she stopped in her path.

“Yuta! Stop doing that!” She turned around and he laughed, coming down and leaping off his broom.

“I just thought I saw you from the top, your red hair is so hard to miss.” Yuta grinned and she scoffed.

“Hansol isn’t back yet.” She groaned and Yuta stepped back a little amused.

“I saw him come in a while back, what does he have to do with that?” He pointed at her head.

“He did it. And I don't know how to reverse whatever spell he used.” She groaned and Yuta looked amused.

“Why is Hansol magically changing your hair and what problem do you have with it?” He asked and she sighed.

“He thinks I'm being childish because I won't talk to Jaehyun. Because we fought, because we did stupid shit during the Christmas break.” She grimaced but Yuta didn't seem surprised.

“Why won't you talk to him? Did he do something?” He asked instead and she groaned.

“Yes.” This time he seemed surprised, eyes wide and she clicked her tongue and looked away, “No..” She sighed. Yuta's brows crunched in confusion.

“Make up your mind.”

“I don't know, okay? I guess it could be my fault.” She looked away from him when he raised his brow.

“Could be your fault?” He asked and she groaned.

“Maybe it is. Whatever. No one asked him to just leave.” She mumbled, then deciding that she didn't need to do this she turned away. “Whatever,” She scoffed. “I'm going inside. Have fun flying.” She turned away quickly and Yuta stopped her, his short chuckles annoying her.

“Oh my god! You like him!” Yuta grinned and she swatted his shoulder.

“No you like him.” She mumbled.

“I wouldn't mind." He shrugged before clicking his tongue, "But I'm not the person throwing their grump around since they came back from home. Hansol is right.” Yuta said and she shook her head.

“No. Just drop it.” She shrugged away from his hand on her shoulder.

“(Y/N)–” He sighed.

“No. I've already done the thing where I try with someone who wants to run away from me. It's human nature to make mistakes but I don't want to repeat mine.” Her eyes sparkled.

“He's not Doyoung.” Yuta's voice softened.

“You don't know that! Even Doyoung was nice before he thought my face made him sick. I can't do that to myself again, I have pride.” She shrugged his second attempt at putting his hand on her shoulder away and walked towards the castle, Yuta decided his friend needed company, following at a safe distance.

“Change the damn hair back!” (Y/N) demanded without as soon as she walked into Hansol's room.

“No.” Hansol said while unpacking without looking up. She looked at him with irritated disbelief and groaned. Yuta walked up behind her, thoroughly amused by this exchange.

“Hi Hansol.” Yuta said with a wave and Hansol looked up, offering him a grin.

“No don't 'Hi Hansol’ him. Tell him to change my hair.” She turned to him with furrowed brows.

“Hansol change (Y/N)'s hair back.” Yuta turned to him with a smirk.

“Okay.” Hansol said easily. She turned to him, dripping with exasperation.

“Are you being serious right now?” She asked incredulously. 

Hansol turned to her, his easy smile turning back to a straight face, “No.” He took out another pile from his suitcase while she resisted the human urge to choke him.

“Do you think when Dumbledore’s army liberated us, that they would see a day when a Slytherin was being tortured by a Badger? Where are my rights!” She turned back to Hansol with a death glare but he seemed unfazed.

“Go talk to him.” Hansol said in return, resolute.

“There's nothing to talk about.” She crossed her arms in front of her and turned away from him, her voice dropping it's ferocity.

“You can't let him make a decision without knowing your side of things completely.” Hansol sighed but she didn't turn back.

“He should have waited then.” She mumbled but the room was cozy enough for it to be heard.

“You're the one who didn't tell him, you coward!” He threw a neatly folded t-shirt at her and she caught it and threw it back.

“Why do you care so much? Can't you just let this go? It's not like I need to do any of this. I'll survive. It's just feelings.” She groaned, before a thought crossed her mind and  her back deflated, “I don't see him dying to talk to me, he probably didn't even feel the need to tell his friends. Then he wants me to tell the world. I know what it's like, you know." She let out a pained laugh, "Deep inside somewhere, all of you boys just want everything on your terms." She sucked a breath in, realising that wasn't fair, but her pride didn’t let her apologise. 

She let out a shaky breath, her voice coming out smaller, "I'll survive without this, just change my hair the fuck back so I'm not stared down by everyone walking down the corridor.” She seemed irrefutable this time.

“But that's just because you look good with that. Plus, you do that hilarious thing where you try to hide it so intentionally that it is more obvious. Don't blame the choice of colour.” Yuta offered and she rolled her eyes at him.

“I'm serious! Look at yourself.” He pointed at the mirror on the wardrobe, “I'd let you step on me.” Yuta said and she laughed.

“What have you been doing this break?” She asked—  his words so muggle-like that she was caught off guard, he winked in response, making her chuckle.

“Keep it. You can do what you like, but he's not wrong.” Hansol offered and she turned to him with a raised brow, before turning to the mirror in scrutiny.

She turned back to Hansol, “Change. It. Back.” Her voice came out strained.

“No.” Hansol closed his empty suitcase.

“I’m going to murder you and make sure nobody ever finds your body, Ji Hansol.” She breathed out and left, closing the door with a loud bang.

Her cheek was squashed against her palm as her eyes kept scanning over the words on the page. After a moment, her cheek felt cramped and instead of sitting up she lay her head on the desk, her hair splayed over her arm like a silk fan as she continued to stare at the words on the page.

“Thinking about the heartbreaker?” Yuta's voice spoke into her ear and she rolled her eyes.

“No broken hearts around here, moron.” She said with a bored voice and Yuta chuckled.

“Oh? Not even the person's currently staring at you from across the study hall? He looks a little heartbroken to me.” Yuta said with a whispered voice closer to her before sitting up and waving his hands, “Sicheng! Come sit with us?” Yuta said loudly and she sat up and turned to glare at Yuta.

“One day Nakamoto, one day you'll be in a situation you would rather avoid. And I'll be there, making sure that is the last thing you get.” She glared at him, closing her book with a loud bang.

Sicheng walked up to the table with solitary footsteps. She risked a momentary glance— Jaehyun sat at the table across the aisle alone, not following his friend. She caught his eyes, he looked away when their eyes met. She decided to turn back to her book.

“How was your Christmas?” Sicheng asked cheerfully as he sat with his books, Yuta smiled at him and nodded before shifting his gaze to the lone guy across the aisle, he raised his chin and decided to speak up; (Y/N) ducked her head back into her book before he did.

“Is there a reason you won't sit with us?” Yuta raised his voice, speaking to Jaehyun. He looked up and turned a thoughtful eye at Yuta before turning to see her, when her eyes didn't lift from her book he flexed his jaw, vexed by her disregard. He got up wordlessly and walked over, sliding into the seat.

“Of course there isn't.” He said, eyes fixed on her. 

Yuta grinned, “I think it's a great idea if we study together. Sicheng and (Y/N) are nerds and I'm sure you have mastered the art of quick learning as have I.” Yuta told Jaehyun.

She tapped on Yuta's shoulder smiling in a way that he knew wasn't amiable.

“So move, I can sit with Sicheng and we can do the studying.” She said and Yuta huffed.

"You're supposed to help us." He pouted, earning her best irritated frown.

"Why? How will that benefit me in any way?" She shot at him.

Yuta clicked his teeth and shook his head, "Altruism is a gift in itself." He went to pet her head but his hand stopped midway, an invisible spell blocking it.

"Who said I was altruistic. I'm selfish to the core Nakamoto. Keep your hand to yourself." His hand flew to his cheek but Yuta stopped it with his own magic, "Oh look, you seem to pay attention to something in class after all." She gave him a smile, before turning away with a roll of her eye.

"What's happening?" Sicheng asked, confused.

"Oh don't you know?" (Y/N) turned to him, tilting her head to the side. "That's odd isn't it? That out of the four of us you're the one left in the dark." She finally turned to look at Jaehyun. "And it's me who's embarrassed?" She gave him a glare. When his response was a confused frown she rolled her eyes, "Fucking boys." She mumbled, shutting her book so loudly that an owl in the corner of the ceiling flew away with a loud squawk making Sicheng drop his wand on the floor. She gave Jaehyun a last look, dripping with indignation before getting up and walking out.

"You messed up, dude." Yuta turned to Jaehyun after the door banged loudly from her departure. Jaehyun turned back to him with a frown, "I was talking your side on this till now." Yuta shrugged.

"What?" Jaehyun snapped. Yuta just shrugged but his eyes told Jaehyun what he needed to know. "She said she didn't want people to know. Now I'm at fault for doing exactly that?" Jaehyun spat, clearly angry. "Am I supposed to apologise now?" He asked with a scoff.

"No. You're supposed to understand her. You can't leave her mid fight, she doesn't do well with latent tension. She doesn't want an apology, she wants to know you care enough to argue and not walk away. I really did think you would be better than–" Yuta stopped, "it's not my place.” He sighed, “I'm not the one you should be having this conversation with." Yuta seemed colder suddenly, "I have to go check on my friend." He stood up, giving Sicheng a wave and Jaehyun a nod before walking out of the room.

"What's going on?" Sicheng asked after Yuta walked out of the hall. Jaehyun didn’t turn back for a moment, staring at the door.

"Her hair–" There was a wistful longing in Jaehyun's voice.

"What about it?" Sicheng asked, his voice more perplexed.

"It's nice." He lamented, earning a scoff from his friend.

"This crush of yours is getting out of hand." Sicheng chuckled, Jaehyun turned to him with a straight face. When Sicheng was none the wiser, Jaehyun raised a brow.

"Oh!" Sicheng said a little surprised, "Oh." He sat back, "Wow, good for you. She's definitely out of your league." Sicheng patted his back.

"Yeah." Jaehyun mumbled, nestling his cheek in his elbow and lying on the table. Jaehyun groaned, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"Uhh You should go talk to her." Sicheng tried to help his best friend. "Whatever the problem is, go be your charming self and apologise." He gave him a thumbs up.

"My feelings were hurt too, you know?” His voice came out an indignated mumble, lips pouting. “And no one seems to care about that all that much. Maybe I shouldn't have left her alone, but I've liked her for a year and she acts like I'm being reckless if I want to tell people. What does she mean people ruin things?" He frowned to himself, "And then I'm wrong because I didn't tell you?" Someone clicked their tongue from across the room and shushed him with a glare. Jaehyun continued softer, "What was I going to say? 'Hey guys guess what? Finally told (Y/N) I liked her, she liked me but didn't want to tell people, so I guess that ended before it started.’ Maybe I embarrass her because I'm not smart like Kim Doyoung." Jaehyun's voice faltered, like he finally caught up with the reason for his irritation. Groaning more dramatically this time, he squinted at his own confession before turning his head away from his friend, hiding his reddening cheeks.

“Jaehyun–” Sicheng sighed.

“Whatever.” He mumbled again, “I’ll get over it.” 

It was too late at night when Taeyong happened to find a stray light still shining on the edges of the common room. Upon getting closer to inspect, it turned out to be (Y/N) with wires hanging from both ears, earphones, she had called them once. She looked out the mossy glass at the depths of the lake. His eyes traced her silhouette, noting how forlorn she looked. When he put a hand on her shoulder she jumped, an audible gasp echoing from the empty room.

“By the Gods, why on earth are you trying to terrify the soul out of me.” She pushed back his hand with an irritated scowl.

“It’s late. You can’t be in the common room.”His eyes drifted to her hand, “Especially not with prohibited items.” He looked up at her, confused by the frown that seemed to persist.

“I couldn’t tell it was late, our windows don’t exactly give away the time of day.” She pointed at the glass absent-mindedly before pausing to take a sigh. There was a flash of something on her face, fleeting and pained, before the frown adorned her features again, “You should be asleep too.” She mumbled while fixing her skirt.

Taeyong’s eyes followed the movement, catching a sight of skin on her thigh between her skirt and winter socks. He averted his gaze with a shake of his head, mentally chastising himself. She stood up with a final brush of her skirt, meeting Taeyong’s eyes. He stood to close, and when he made no move to push back her frown deepened.

“(Y/N)—” He began to speak.

“Move back Taeyong, I’m not in the mood to listen to you about the consequences of breaking rules. There are no consequences if I’m not caught. Now move.” Her last words came out slightly uncomfortable but Taeyong took a deep breath.

“(Y/N) there’s something I’ve always wanted to tell you. Something I should have said a long time ago.” He looked into her eyes affectionately, only to see panic in hers. Suddenly, in the moment Taeyong realised that she knew. She knew exactly how he felt about her and the thought of him confessing made her panic. He put a stray foot back, trying to look for even the smallest hint of anticipation in her face. Instead all he saw was dread.

“Taeyong.” She said softly, regretfully.

No no no. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go at all. This was Taeyong’s worst nightmare, ruining a life long friendship over this. Taeyong suddenly wished this was one of his nightmares, but he just stood there and nothing changed.

“There you are, (Y/N)!” A voice made Taeyong startle back. “Your cat has been clawing on my door for an hour now.” He turned to find Yuta giving him a gaze filled with so much pity that it made him feel sick. This had to be a nightmare, the mortification he felt could have been from no other source. Even Yuta knew. Both of his closest friends could see him pine over (Y/N) for years. He took more steps back.

“I have to take a round of the floor.” He spoke to the carpet, his voice unbelievably still. He left before either of them could say anything.

Taeyong slowly walked up the stairs that led him out of the basement with his wand in hand, a bright light at the end. He tried not to think about it, her face as she realised what he was going to say. His jaw set tight, maybe it was because of his curse. She would be friends with someone like him, out of pity like the kind he saw in Yuta’s face. Taeyong stopped on a step, his face contorting as he felt a lump in his throat. Maybe that’s what the curse really is, not the hair or nightmares but the way he would never really fit in anywhere. Only a creature to be pitied.

When Taeyong rounded the corner to the two towers, he saw a figure blend into the shadows in the corner. He flicked his wand, glaring at the boy who stood in front of him.

“Damn. I forgot that you’re actually a competent wizard.” Doyoung grinned bitterly, his back against the wall. Taeyong looked at the paintings behind Doyoung, glaring at him. Some of them held their noses dramatically.

Taeyong turned back to Doyoung with irritation, “Have you been drinking, Kim Doyoung?” Doyoung just shrugged defiantly, a short chuckling leaving his lips.

Taeyong clenched his jaws, “You can be expelled if I tell someone. The groundskeeper could have seen you.”

“The groundskeeper wouldn’t have caught my spell.” Doyoung waved his hand dismissively, “What do you really want, Taeyong? Drinking is an open secret here. If you tattle on me, there has to be a list of names you give up with mine.” He scoffed, trying to get his back off the wall but tumbling on his heel. “Just leave me alone.” Doyoung sighed, leaning back against the wall.

“And what if I don’t?” Taeyong crossed his arms in front of his chest, “What if I choose to give your name only? The rest are bygones and you’re standing in front of me right now. Drunk out of your mind.” An odd rush went through Taeyong as he said those words, looking down from his nose at Doyoung’s flushed face. The menacing eyes Doyoung gave him only heightened the sensation.

“Oh you’re enjoying that aren’t you?” Doyoung narrowed his gaze. In the distance, the clock tower chimed one. “So many of the students, and a few teachers wonder if the hat put you in the wrong house." Doyoung scoffed when he saw Taeyong's eyes widen slightly, "But look at you now, Lee Taeyong. You were born for it.” 

“Shut up!” Taeyong’s voice echoed against the walls. A few paintings winced, others watched with keen eyes. “I’m doing the job I was selected to do. You’re out of rooms after curfew and you’re drunk. It would be wrong for me to not report you.” He lowered his voice till he sounded impassive.

Taeyong bit his lips when Doyoung didn’t seem fazed by his threats, “You’re the last person to lecture me about my behaviour. I know what you are," He paused, a surprising amount of menace growing in his chest. "What you did to (Y/N).” Doyoung looked up at him so fast that Taeyong thought his neck might crack. He heard a painting gasp.

“You.” Doyoung pointed at Taeyong, his eyes bloodshot, “Know nothing.” He took a deep breath, his fury visibly dissipating to a cruel twist of his lips. “She still chose me over you, you know? Twice.” Doyoung laughed when Taeyong tried to hide his shock. “What? You thought I didn’t know?" His bitter, cruel laugh got louder. "You stupid cuck!” The way he spat the word at Taeyong made him angry even without understanding what the word meant.

“Stop it.” Taeyong heard his jaw crack from biting down so hard.

“You think she didn’t know? Always tip toeing around you because she didn’t want to hurt your poor, weak heart.” Doyoung stood back on his feet, steadier this time from the use of magic no doubt, walking up close to Taeyong and wordlessly daring him to step back. “Is that why you’re trying to use your meaningless title on me right now?” He raised his brow at Taeyong. “Because you’re the one she smiles at and pities and I was the one who she found irresistible enough to crawl back to?” Taeyong heard the crack before he realised that his knuckles connected with Doyoung’s jaw. He lay on the floor in a clumsy heap. When he turned around, he spat blood out of his mouth. He looked up at Taeyong without any remorse.

“I deserve her indifference to me after what I did. Her indifference to you is something you can’t change.” He splayed out on the floor, his laugh echoing against the walls and inside Taeyong’s head.

Kill him. A voice whispered in his ears, making Taeyong turn to the direction to find nothing. They’ll think he got drunk and fell from the stairs. He turned again, looking at the painting, but they looked as confused as he felt. Do it. Kill him. Taeyong put his hands on his ears but the words kept ringing in his skull.

“You’re hair.” Doyoung’s voice came through the words in his head. Taeyong looked down at him to find his head up and staring at him with horror, “It’s turning black.” He said again. Taeyong caught his reflection on the glass of a picture on the wall, catching the black slowly bleed down from his scalp.

KILL HIM! The sound echoed so loudly in his head that he was sure the whole castle heard it.

“Did you hear that?” Taeyong asked Doyoung with desperation; but Doyoung just looked at him like he was mad. 

Taeyong felt like he was going mad.

“What’s wrong with you?” Doyoung looked at him like he was a freak of nature.

Push him down the stairs. No one will know. The voice came back with a whisper. Taeyong turned away frantically, running down the stairs till he disappeared into the castle’s shadows.

[that--unusual-person]

How would the pillarman react to there female s/o being terrafyed of big storms. Maybe they were involved in a tornado when they were little. Maybe she hides from the storms in a clausit and they can't find her so they have to look for her.

It's just my opinion but I'd say some of them would be mad at her for hiding and not answering them but then understand and comfert her. But that's just my headcannon.

Kars

- A big crash above sent you into a fearful frenzy, scurrying to find cover from the storm raging outside.

- It was nasty outside with hail banging on the windows threatening to shatter them and enter.

-  Kars wasn’t fazed by this storm, having experienced much worst in his time roaming the Earth.

- But when he finds you aren’t anywhere around while the power goes out, he becomes annoyed when you suddenly started to hide.  He wasn’t in the mood for hiding and seek.

- As he looked around the house he was impressed to find you hiding in a closet sitting with your knees close to your chest and hands over your ears.  Kars was ready to pull you out irritated with your hiding before a flash outside was followed by a big bang causing you to hide more letting out a whimper of fear.  Kars wasn’t sure why you were hiding before but it seems obvious now, and so, he closes the closet door, leaving you in the dark once again.

- You hear him leave the room for a few minutes before seeing the door open again.

- Kars returns with a blanket and ushers you to stand up.

- The closet is way too small to fit both of you so he has you sitting on his lap with the blanket wrapped around both of you.  Closing the closet door from the dangers outside Kars pulls you closer to him offering as much comfort for you as possible.

- Suddenly you see small flickers of light illuminate the closet.  The sight reminding you of the morning sun shining through a window creating small colors of light, or stained windows at a church with the morning sun giving light.  It amazes you to see how luminescent Kars’s light mode can be, distracting you from the storm, only hearing the faint beating of the rain outside to add to the atmosphere of the situation.

- “How foolish.  Humans being afraid of such weather.  But, it cannot be helped I suppose, so for now until this storm ends I will comfort you the best I can.”

Esidisi

- He quickly noticed how cowardice you became after a small rumble of thunder erupted from the sky.

- Esidisi smirked at your jumping as the rain picked up and the flashed of lightning became more frequent.

- As the storm continued he would joke at your behavior thinking you were playing around with him.  You tried telling him it wasn’t funny but he assumed otherwise and continued.

- It wasn’t until a crack of thunder burst your ears that you broke into tears covering your ears trying to shield yourself away from the noise.  He saw you change immediately and quickly stopped whipping you with cruel jokes, internally regretting teasing you.

- He watched you sob until you suddenly shot out of the room surprising him.  Giving chase he follows you noting you’re still covering your ears so his apologies couldn’t be heard over the rain and your crying.

- Esidisi was dammed now, he lost you some way before hearing sniffling from a nearby door, as he opened the door slowly to peek in, you were hiding behind the coats hung up trying your best to stay hidden.  You wanted to disappear and he could feel it.

- Slowly he enters the closet and gently pulls you close to his body.  Despite the teasing he did to you, you cling onto him hoping he’ll shield any sight or sound of the storm.  You feel his hands over your ears as your arms wrap around his neck leaning into him more, his palms are warm against your head and the size of them compared to your head is almost enough to make you laugh.

- Instead, you’re met with almost near silence as he completely cancels your ability to hear.  Thankful that Esidisi understands your fear, you continue to cuddle with him until the storm ends.

- “You know, when Wamuu and Santana were mear children, Santana would hate the sound of thunder.  In fact… I think he hated noise in general, so I made it my duty as a caretaker to comfort him… and now I shall do the same to you.  I’ll protect you from the storm, little flame.”

Wamuu

- Wamuu loved storms, he has always been fascinated by the way the wind is controlled by the storms and change of weather.  He also finds it perfect for training in hard weather.

- He would so much as get excited and start to talk to you about it, about stories of how his masters would train him in hurricane-like storms, and winds as strong as tornados.

- You wouldn’t show how scared or uncomfortable you are about hearing his stories about great storms and instead did your best to stay interested, not wanting to be rude.

- Sadly, your kindness broke when the first strike of lightning touched down some miles away, causing you to cover your ears as quickly as possible squeezing your eyes shut before the thunder could strike.

- It was loud and big enough to shake the house, surprising Wamuu, causing his gaze to shift to the window to gaze at the incoming black clouds.  He was about to boast to you, turning back in your direction, finding nothing but an empty seat.

- He goes off to find you as the storm get’s worst.  He doesn’t understand why you would hide all of a sudden.  After a while he continues to open every door he can find, even the ones where you obviously wouldn’t be able to fit in.

- Wamuu was looking so quickly he opened the broom closet and closed it again only to open it once more after closing finding you huddled into the corner, jumping at his presence.

- You had tears streaming down your rosy cheeks from how frightened you are and your arms are wrapped around you as you frighteningly stare up at Wamuu.

- It breaks his heart seeing you like this, it reminds him of a stray cat caught in a storm with no shelter, frightened by the thought of getting wet.  Then, he understands why you’re so afraid.

- Wamuu mentally facepalms, scolding himself about how foolish he was to not realize any sooner.  The closet couldn’t fit his body’s mass so he settles for sitting in its doorway, blocking out any of the lightning’s light shining through the window from touching you.

- He reaches his arms out to you pulling you into a tight hug while stroking your back as you both continue to ride out the storm in each other’s presence.

- “I have fought many storms in the past, many to the point I have mastered my own.  But I promise never to cause such fear to sprout within you.  The great Wamuu will make sure of it.”

Santana

- He hates storms.  From the hulling rain beating down on the roof above your heads to the annoyingly loud crashes of thunder breaking the once already broken silence and peace.

- Covering his ears when a sound so great to bother him he’d wince in annoyance knowing there will be another one to strike back and follow once again.

- It doesn’t take him long to also see how you react to the storm, watching the fear in your eyes and movements as you coward away, making him sigh.

- After another crack of thunder breaks his thoughts he watches you rush out of the room.  Curious, he listens over the rain and wind at your movements, listening to you rush upstairs, open a door and slam it shut.

- Slowly Santana follows you to your location.  You have hidden in the closet away from the sounds.  He thinks it’s cowardice and foolish move knowing it will be useless, but the thought of it seemed appealing to him.

- So without a second thought and to your fearful surprise he opens the door, squeezes in with no problem, and sits beside you while shutting the door.

- Santana glances over at you seeing you still covering your ears.  Suddenly he picks you up and places you between his legs.  He then takes your hands from your ears and places them on his own while his hands cover yours.

- The silence he gives you is welcoming but you aren’t sure how well you’re blocking the sounds of the storm for him.  Either way, Santana would endure the irritation of the sounds while you don’t have to fear them.

- “Don’t focus on the storm.  Focus on me.”

“To get to the center where peace lies, you must battle through the harsh battle of the storm surrounding it.” - Von

[thaliagrayce]

okay so i know this post didn’t take off w y’all as much as it did with me, but i wrote a thing about it anyway because the concept wouldn’t leave me alone. i had fun :)

---

The gods wanted to kill Jason. The grownups never told him why, but he could see it was true in the glances he got and the extra kindness from the people wandering the streets, like sugary words would make him forget that he wasn’t allowed to leave New Rome. The gods wanted to kill Jason and that made him scary, but his dad was the biggest and most powerful god, which made him good and worth keeping around. Or maybe it made him scarier? Jason couldn’t tell, the grownups didn’t say.

When he was with Lupa, she never held her words back around him. She told him he never should’ve been born and so that’s why he was in trouble. She said his dad made a mistake. She also said that Jason was her favorite human pup, and that he was the one thing his dad had done right recently.

She was honest, but that didn’t make her less confusing. At least she talked to him like a person.

“Oh, Jason, not so close to the river!” The nice lady that ran the bakery down the block grabbed Jason’s wrist, pulling him back from the Little Tiber. He hadn’t even been that close, he’d just seen a pretty yellow flower growing a few feet from the banks. He’d wanted to pick it.

“But the flower,” he told the nice lady, pointing at it. Surely, if she understood that he wasn’t going to fall in the river, she’d let him go.

“Oh,” she said. She smiled at him, but it looked a little pinched. “How about I go get it for you?” She let go of his wrist, but moved between him and the river before he could even think about getting the flower himself. She picked it quickly and brought it back, crouching in front of him and tucking it behind his ear. Her hand lingered by the side of his face.

“There. That’s a really pretty one!” She smiled at him again, but he could still see something other than happiness. “Next time you want something that close to the river, go get someone to help you, alright? You know it’s not safe for you to go close to water.”

He nodded. He’d been told. The gods wanted to kill him, and water was dangerous. Underground was dangerous. The world outside of New Rome was so dangerous he wasn’t allowed to go out, even if he had grownups with him. He was going to start his training soon, and if he trained hard enough and got tough enough, maybe he could go as far as the borders in a few years.

Lupa was outside and Lupa drank from rivers and Lupa said he would be fine as long as he was brave, but the grownups here didn’t listen when he said that. They picked his flowers for him and smiled with fear.

---

Bobby had a broken arm and Gwen was exhausted almost to the point of collapse and it was Jason’s fault because the gods had a grudge against him, specifically. This was supposed to be a fairly minor quest. It was the first time he had been allowed to leave New Rome, and apparently the monsters hadn’t liked that. He crouched low in front of his friends and bared his teeth at the monster in front of them, brain scrambling for any solution that might let them out of this situation alive. He’d worked so hard for this, he’d been training for years to be good enough to survive in the outside world. He wasn’t about to let a monster—even if it was one of the furies themselves—prove him incapable.

“Where is it?” the thing snarled at him. She’d been saying that a lot. The fury had been tracking them for miles and they had almost made it back to camp when she caught up with them, demanding Jason stop and fight her. Jason specifically, even though this wasn’t even his quest, even though he was the youngest on the team.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Jason could feel the frustration in his chest. He gestured behind his back, desperately hoping Gwen remembered the hand signs they had been drilling lately. She was older than him, but he had been in the legion longer and he wasn’t sure if she’d had enough training for it to be second-nature in an intense situation like this. Take Bobby to the tunnel. Retreat. We’re so close, I’ll distract her.

“You and that Jackson boy think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Me and who? “If you tell me where it is, I might find a nice, light punishment for you—almost no fire involved!”

Jason bit back a snarl, something that he had recently realized most people—people who had spent less time with Lupa—didn’t have to do nearly as much. He readjusted his grip on his sword, which had been slipping. It wasn’t much use trying to reason with monsters, but if it bought his friends more time…

“Whatever it is you’re looking for, I don’t have it.”  He kept his voice as even as he could, hoping he sounded mature and steady instead of somewhere around ten years old and scared enough that he could feel the tears lurking just beneath his adrenaline. “Why don’t you leave my friends and I alone and go looking for it somewhere else.”

She narrowed her eyes at him and brandished her leathery whip. Tiny tongues of flame danced up the length of it, and he could see them reflected in her eyes as she took a step closer.

“How about this, son of Jupiter. Why don’t you—”

She cut herself off suddenly, narrowing her eyes and cocking her head to the side. Her face took on a distant expression, and Jason used the temporary distraction to cut a glance to Gwen and Bobby. Gwen looked back to him, mystefied, but Bobby’s eyes were tightly shut as he clutched his arm. Jason took a step back and made a much more obvious gesture toward the tunnel, to which Gwen nodded.

The fury blinked slowly and scowled, coming out of whatever trance had taken her over.

“It’s your lucky day, godspawn. You were telling the truth.” Jason gritted his teeth. “We’ve found the culprit, and I have more important things to do.” With one last dramatic crack of her whip, she dissolved in flames, leaving the three of them alone on a hillside not far from the Caldecott Tunnel.

Bobby whimpered. Jason flipped his sword back into a coin and slipped it into his pocket, hands shaking slightly now that the danger had passed. He could feel the tears from earlier pressing up, but what kind of son of Jupiter would cry in front of his companions? Even now, as the youngest in this team of three, age twelve at the most, they looked to him for direction. He swallowed thickly and pulled Bobby’s non-broken arm around his shoulders, taking his weight off of Gwen and allowing her a much needed break. She nodded at him, grateful.

The gods wanted to kill him, but they hadn’t succeeded yet. He was only getting stronger as he grew. His first quest had been successful, despite all the monsters they had thrown at him.The gods wanted to kill him, but Jason had people to protect now, friends that he needed to get to safety. A home and a family, even if he didn’t quite feel like he belonged in either.

The gods wanted to kill him, but Jason wasn’t going to die.

---

It was because his father had broken an oath, apparently. There was a reason that Jason had never met anyone like himself, and that reason was every war in the history of humanity. Demigods born of the Big Three gods were too powerful and too prone to argument. Jupiter wasn’t supposed to have children, but here Jason was, and the other gods were angry about that. They wanted to punish Jupiter for his mistake.

Lupa said that there had been others like him, demigods that never found her. That they had been killed for the sin of being alive, been overrun by the worst monsters available. That Jason had done well to fight and train as hard as he had been. Lupa was not exactly the comforting type, but Jason still felt much more at ease around her than back at camp. Lupa didn’t hold back, and she didn’t look at him like his father’s power defined him. He was just another demigod pup to her.

Well. He was her favorite, but that wasn’t because of his father.

He broke out of his thoughts, where he had been staring out of the ruins of the Wolf House, and brought his attention back to Lupa. She looked completely unconcerned about the information she had given him.

“That’s why everyone was so cautious about water, isn’t it. Neptune must be angry about the broken promise.”

Lupa blinked at him, a confirmation. I doubt that the cowards in charge can keep their leash on you for much longer. You are capable of defending yourself.

That was why he was there, actually. After all, he’d fought and killed the Trojan Sea Monster in his last quest—what worse could the ocean throw at him? After an encounter with a fury proved ineffective, what could the underworld send? The first thing Jason had done with permission to leave New Rome was visit the only place that had ever felt like home.

Lupa’s pack didn’t look to him for orders, or come to him with difficult questions, or ask him when he would petition for praetorship. They wrestled him into the dirt and mocked him for cooking his meat before he ate it and told him the truth about so many things in his life that people tried to hide. Wolves don’t care if a truth was ugly. Truth was truth.

He watched two wolves tumble over each other, playfully bearing their fangs and growling in a way that meant “friend” instead of “back off”. It had been a long time ago, but some of his earliest memories were those teeth and that tone of growling. It had taken a lot of effort to stop trying to bite people he liked when he got to New Rome.

“Will it ever stop? The attacks?”

How should I know? Lupa got up from where she had been laying. As long as you are strong, it doesn’t matter.

Jason watched as she lumbered over to the two playing wolves, jumping into the middle of their game and immediately establishing herself as the wolf in charge.

The problem was, Jason wasn’t sure he wanted to be strong. He would be, he had to be in order to survive, but he thought ahead to a life of constant vigilance and constant training, of a life lived within the ranks of the legion for his own survival.

He was tired, but what other choice was there?

---

There was a partial prophecy in the Sibylline Books. They didn’t have the full wording, because the books had burned with Rome, but one of the fragments concerned him. Jason had taken to staring at the place where it had been carved into the floor of the temple to Jupiter. He passed it on the way to give tribute to his father, and it always made the back of his neck prickle.

Written, it didn’t make much sense, but it called to him nevertheless.

A half-blood of the eldest gods

Shall reach sixteen again—

And see the wo—

The hero’s soul, curse—

A single choice shall end—

Olympus to preserve or raze

Had it come to pass already? Jason didn’t think so, Octavian had become obsessed with these bits of verse lately. He would have been crowing his theories to the entire legion if he’d thought he solved one of the ancient prophecies.

There’s no saying that it hadn’t already come to pass, but Jason was still nervous. Nobody else brought the prophecy up, but Krios loomed. The titan’s seat of power was growing in the west, and the legion was preparing for war. If anything in his lifetime was going to possibly raze Olympus, it wold be soon. If this prophecy was going to happen within this lifetime, it was going to happen soon—Jason was the only demigod in New Rome it could possibly apply to. The other gods had kept their pact. Jason was the only child of the Big Three.

The problem was, he had no idea how old he was. He didn’t think he’d reached sixteen once, let alone again, but nobody could be sure without knowing his birthday. He could realistically be anywhere between fourteen and sixteen, so maybe he didn’t have to worry about it.

Then again, if he was already sixteen, maybe he was due for a second sixteenth birthday soon. If that prophecy was about him. It could be any day now. It might or might not be about him and it might or might not bring about the downfall of Olympus and it might or might not be happening today, or tomorrow, or the day after that.

Jason trained harder.

---

He wasn’t alone. There was a boy at camp now who said he was an ambassador of Pluto, that he was Pluto’s son, that he had brought his sister—another child of Pluto, another demigod like Jason—to train here. How was that possible? The Big Three were forbidden from having children, and yet.

Hazel’s wide eyes and the way she gripped a sword told Jason right off that she was new to this world, but Nico had a sword hanging off of his belt, blacker than any metal Jason had ever seen before and scratched with heavy use. As Jason watched, Nico took it out and moved it slowly, a demonstration for his sister. Jason could see the years of training behind it. Nico didn’t use a style that Jason was familiar with, but his motions were clearly practiced. For a moment, he glanced at where Jason and Reyna stood side by side, observing the children of Pluto. It was only a moment, though, before he went back to gently correcting his sister’s grip, smiling when she got it right, murmuring praise too soft for Jason to pick up.

All his life, Jason had been respected, admired, and feared in equal measure. The gods had wanted to kill him, but he had proven unkillable. He had faced a fury, felled the Trojan Sea Monster, and toppled the throne of Krios. He had been raised on a shield after the battle at Mount Tam, but he had been raised on a pedestal even before that—he’d been separated from his fellow demigods because of his parentage and the power he never asked for. He’d had more attention than he’d ever wanted since he first came here.

The Ambassador of Pluto gave the impression that he was unimpressed when he had first met Jason. He hadn’t even reacted when Jason was introduced as the son of Jupiter.

Frankly, it was a rush. Jason had never wanted to get to know someone so badly before. He wanted to ask Nico how he survived out there on his own, wanted to ask how he trained, how freedom felt.

He had to warn both of them about the prophecy. Jason wasn’t alone anymore, and if he died before his sixteenth birthday— his second sixteenth birthday? Was he already sixteen?—one of them would inherit. It wouldn’t be a fun conversation, but Jason was more and more sure by the day that this prophecy was about their generation. The peace of the world was so fragile right now.

He would do it in the morning. Nico usually stayed for a few days before disappearing again, and Jason didn’t want to interrupt his time with his sister. He would take the two of them to his father’s temple in the morning, show them the fragment of prophecy on the floor. Maybe Nico knew more about it, with how often he was around his father.

Jason would find out tomorrow.

---

He woke up on a school bus somewhere warm and dry with a prickling on the back of his neck that said he shouldn’t be here. The outside world was dangerous, and he had to be vigilant. He had to prepare.

Outside of where, he didn’t know. Vigilant against what, he didn’t know.

He was running out of time on a clock he couldn’t read, and he was afraid.

[fangirlyah]

✦kind queen of narnia - Edmund Pevensie x Reader

summary: a new prophecy for the narnia’s kingdom. a new member joining the kings and queens. but...who is it? 

warnings: cursing

word count: 3,597

a/n: mi first edmund one shot, i’m so happy! 

according to the books the ages of the characters should be different, but in this one-shot their ages will be those agreed by wikipedia reasoning with the actors’ age in the year of recording of the second film (it is an approximation):

Peter - 20

Susan - 17

Edmund - 15/16

Lucy - 12

Prince Caspian - 26

narnia, what a place. 

anyone from england would look at y/n and the pevensie brothers in horror if they were told about this beautiful world full of fairytale creatures and landscapes. 

they would probably be frightened if they were told that all narnians were preparing to face the telmarines; it would be their second battle in defence of their beloved lands. 

they would also worry if they were told that there were prophecies dictating the fate of the teenagers. 

the pevensies had been in narnia for a long time. they had grown up and reached adulthood there while time in england had barely passed. their first visit to the dream place had been when edmund was just ten years old and as the prophecy dictated he had betrayed his brother and sisters and then recomposed himself to follow the right path as a faithful ruler of narnia and become king edmund, the just. 

when edmund was twenty years old in the narnian world, a gryphon passed over him and dropped a neatly rolled papyrus. 

when his time on this earth comes to an end

a damsel with the purity of water and the sweetness of honey will get her start 

if you listen well, attachment will flourish 

if you listen badly, there will be pain 

she is made to avoid pain in all

she is made to bring back peace 

that doesn't even rhyme, he thought, and it doesn't make sense either. 

even though the prophecy that had just arrived at his whereabouts was revealed to his brother and sisters, none of them understood, what girl was it talking about? 

everything took on colour, when a thin figure collapsed against lucy at the train station. 

"oh no! i'm so sorry, sweetheart" a girl of about sixteen years of age, apologized sincerely to the little girl who had been moved abruptly by the teenage girl's body. "i thought i was missing my train and i got terribly scared" the y/h/c outlined a sweet smile.

"there is no reason to apologise, we all make mistakes...my name is lucy and these are my brothers and my sister" the little girl stretched out her hand to shake it with y/n’s, while the other pointed behind her to three teenagers in uniform. 

a pretty girl with striking eyes introduced herself as susan, while another slim blond boy said his name was peter. the third was immersed in his search for the train's arrival time, so he did not notice the conversation in front of him, the signs on the station walls  seemed to be more interesting. "he is edmund...sorry he is half a fool" as he heard his name, the raven-haired boy looked up to meet a beautiful and delicate girl laughing at the comment his sister had made. 

"my name is y/n, it is a pleasure to meet you" her gaze travelled through each member of the family leaving them with a smile; when it was edmund's turn her smile did not come down even though the one he showed her was hasty and if she had not been paying attention she would have missed it. 

"where were you about to leave in such a hurry?" peter asked as the five of them move away due to some guards passing at full speed by their side, being all cornered against the wall the best decision they made was to take a seat, side by side, on a bench. 

"my parents live in the countryside of england, and because of my school I haven't seen them for a long time so I didn't want to miss my train" y/n explained feeling the look of all the them. 

"we were on our way there too! we must visit professor kirke, we haven't seen him for a long time" 

that was their first meeting, the first meeting of many. y/n and the pevensies developed the closest and most faithful friendship in the world. they spent all their holidays enjoying the countryside together and when school resumed, they took several trains and walked several blocks just to see each other almost every week. 

and although their meetings were frequent edmund did not always seem pleased by her presence. the months passed and although y/n began to develop a crush on the freckle boy he seemed to ignore her every move. even when she bought his favourite sweets to share with everyone or when she would sneak a compliment on his attire on some special occasion. y/n was good at hiding her feelings so only susan knew and she hoped it would stay that way. 

it was not until the five of them were waiting for their train to leave for their respective boarding school that the action began. 

the train they were to board disappeared and with it the whole station around them, leaving lucy, peter, edmund, susan and y/n standing on a paradise beach. 

the brothers began to walk towards the white sand, leaving the cave where they had landed, followed by a shocked y/n 

"where are we?” when lucy heard y/n's voice she looked at her sister with a smile and then started to run, getting rid of their school uniforms. 

"come on, y/n!" peter shouted as he dipped his feet into the clear water.  

she did not resist and followed her friends, leaving a few clothes to play in the water. 

edmund saw her laughing, with her wet hair, in the sun and remembered how in love he was with the girl he ignored so much. 

"what is it?" asked peter as he saw his brother stop having fun; edmund couldn't admit that the sight of y/n had knocked him out so he had to improvise.

"where do you suppose that we are? 

"it's pretty obvious, isn't it? we are in narnia” by this time, the girls had stopped their water fight and were paying attention to the boys. 

"well...i don't remember any ruins in narnia”

"narnia?! you must be joking?!" y/n exclaimed. 

"yes, narnia" peter said, looking at her as if nothing was happening. 

"but...narnia...the narnia you told me as a story from when you were children?"

"they are not stories..."

with that, the brothers began to tour the meadows where, 1300 years ago, cair paravel was located. where now only ruins remained of what had been their home. 

the surprise of y/n was not erased and even less so when they found the prophecy that dictated their destiny. 

"edmund! this was the prophecy that appeared to you” susan was right but edmund did not want y/n to know that for some magical reason the prophecy had come to HIS hands. 

"what? a prophecy about me?" y/n posed her body next to peter who had the paper in his hands. 

"no one enters narnia without a purpose" the little pevensie sister explained.

"there is no way i can be this girl! i have no talent, i am not so-" 

peter interrupted her by placing his hands on the girl's thin shoulders. 

"you may think so, but narnia and its magic is more powerful than ourselves and our supposed abilities" 

edmund had to swallow hard not to go and take the girl from his brother's arms. he had no right to take her away. edmund did not know how to approach her so their contact was minimal, to the misfortune of both of them. 

those days continued peacefully and then chaos erupted throughout the kingdom. 

aslan disappeared and newcomer caspian caused maximum tension. 

although the pevensie, caspian, and trumpkin had taken it upon themselves to make her aware of what was going on around her, she was still afraid. she had many people trusting her actions and that they would return the peace. 

she had always been a leader and narnia was no exception. y/n was equal to peter and caspian in decision making as she was cunning and quick in making decisions but when it came to attacking came her weakness. there was no feeling inside her body that would leave her conscience clear if she killed or injured any human or creature. 

although edmund kept his countenance neutral when it came to her, his heart melted whenever she mentioned her lack of courage to hold a weapon and go on the attack. 

"y/n, you coming?" caspian turned on his axis before leaving for the battle on the castle of miraz. 

"i can help with maps, plans and strategies but with this...i can't, sorry”  

edmund had heard several creatures criticize the girl's lack of courage to confront a hand-to-hand fight; and he could not help but think that he maybe was disappointed by her attitude too.

"why is she here if she can't even pick up a weapon, of any kind, without shaking?" the freckled boy would adjust his armor before going into battle. 

"don't be mean, edmund. she is too good to go out and kill someone" his older sister tried to talk some sense into him, especially because before edmund entered the room where susan was, y/n had retired just a few seconds before but susan knew that she was not far enough not to hear their conversation; and hear the boy who she liked talk so badly about her would not be a nice moment.

"or she's too much of a coward" was a fact, y/n was listening to the whole conversation, as she felt her heart breaking.  

"if she bothers you so much that she doesn't fight, show her. you are the best at using the sword in combat in all of narnia" 

"I won't" at the end of the day he wasn't so brave after all. 

now it was y/n who ignored him. whether in meetings or in their free time, she did not even give him a glance and he noticed. because edmund was very attentive to what she was doing or not doing, so it was not difficult for him to see her practicing with prince caspian her fighting, on the beach, more than one afternoon while he went for his walks.

it hurt him but he knew that her distancing was his fault.  

caspian did not question the reason for the girl's drastic change, he only offered to help her and she accepted. 

they spent hours covered in sweat and sand but she did not seem to mind, she wanted to prove a point to edmund and herself. her days were divided into training, alone or with others, and creating plans and strategies. her rest was almost non-existent and her tired figure was beginning to show. her breakfasts were short and quick like any other meal of the day. she ate with her head down and conversed with anyone but edmund. 

one cool night edmund tried to sleep in his large room but the sound of a sword moving and colliding with a shield prevented him from doing so. from the high window it was impossible for him to decipher where it came from but he assumed that it meant no danger as none of the guards seemed alert; but he still descended in search of the owner of the sound. 

when he entered the courtyard below his room he saw her. covered in sweat and with her sword in her hand as she moved abruptly against an armament tied to a tree. edmund found y/n’s invention very ingenious and was even more surprised to see her move almost perfectly, it seemed almost natural to her.  

"what are you doing here at this hour?" after minutes of watching her from a few meters away, the younger pevensie brother approached. 

"I could ask you the same thing" y/n did not even move her eyes, she just approached the tree to accommodate the armor tied with leather. 

"I was trying to sleep but an unbearable noise woke me up, Ijust wanted to know who was causing it...now I know" 

“I didn't know it was so annoying" edmund still couldn't see her face.'' I'll stop now..." 

gently, despite being preparing to go out and kill men and creatures, she put her sword in its compartment hanging from her hip, and then dried her face with a wet piece of cloth.

"why are you doing this anyway?" 

"some people don't believe me strong enough to fulfill the prophecy...they think I'm a coward" y/n looked into his eyes for the first time and edmund understood what she meant. 

"you should stop. you look exhausted, besides I didn't-" 

"keep it to yourself..." already when she had passed the freckle boy's body petrified in the garden, y/n continue "and it seems that it is never enough, so yes. if I need to keep practicing"  

edmund knew that she was absolutely right. before she started her daily combat lessons, she gave everything she had from what she could. she had taken risks and was adapting to being the future queen of a place, which until a while ago, was completely unknown for her. 

y/n would not admit it but that night she cried like never before. she did not know exactly if it was tiredness, confusion, sadness or that she was heartbroken. but whatever the right choice was, that night she fainted in a tearful dream without managing to take off her sweaty clothes. 

the next morning she appeared at breakfast as if nothing had happened. clean and unpolluted in a freshly washed and ironed dress that accentuated every attribute she had. lucy had heard her crying and was dying to ask what was so terrifying that made her cry like that, but seeing her serious countenance when y/n saw her brother sitting at the table, despite her young age, lucy easily put it together. 

after preventing jadis, the white witch, return to narnia. caspian and his allies had no choice but to confront the troops of miraz in front of the altozano. meanwhile, lucy and susan were leaving in search of aslan. y/n did not go with them. she remained at the site of the battle.

when everyone was out ready to fight, so was she. edmund had seen her keep medical supplies anywhere in the armour she found space with the intention of helping any wounded being she might encounter. he felt extremely guilty; she did not want to be there and should not have been. she could have quietly stayed in the shelter ready to help anyone who came looking for a hand but he had pressed her with words he did not even feel. 

to gain time the camp became a personal battle between peter and miraz. both begin to fight to the death. both armies gathered around the stone platform where the two men were fighting hand to hand. edmund looked at y/n who was standing next to a centaur with her perfectly placed weaponry; her serious countenance hid any doubt or fear that her brain was processing. 

although the elder pevensie managed to have a dying miraz in front of him, peter did not kill him.

"you are too much of a coward to take a life, king peter?" miraz, despite being on his knees almost dead, kept on fighting.

"it's not mine to take" 

with that said, the blond man stepped back to give the sword to y/n; who looked at them perplexed. she understood that she must do so to fulfill the prophecy. she had all eyes on her and her trembling hands that took the sword and stood before the wounded man. 

edmund saw tears welling up in her beautiful eyes as she looked down at miraz. y/n placed the tip of the sword on the man's neck with her chest rising and falling violently. 

the freckled boy wanted to run towards her to hug and kiss all her nerves and fears away but he couldn't. 

as the seconds passed and the girl did not move from her place, a laugh was heard in the telmarine’s army and that was the limit.

edmund gently approached the girl and placed his hands on top of the sword taking it out of her hands 

"let go, it's okay" he whispered as, with the help of his hands, he pushed her back to where she was before. 

by that point the tears had already come out of her eyes and at that moment she felt like a real coward. she felt the disappointed looks despite her head being down and the tall stature of edmund in front of her limiting her view. 

"stupid girl, this is not the girl of the prophecy! she is just an idio-" 

when edmund wanted to turn around and finish the work that peter had started, an arrow pierced miraz’s chest and chaos began. 

despite her blurred vision, y/n remained on the battlefield. she had escaped from edmund's side when the war cries were first heard. 

although she did not use her sword she was fast enough to escape the attacks and manage to help those wounded in the meadows. 

the two armies were facing each other in battle and when the narnians were about to lose, lucy found aslan. the lion awakened the narnian trees, allowing them to come to the aid of the narnian army. 

amidst the screams and sounds of colliding swords, aslan called out to the water god, who drowns much of the telmarine army. 

and the war is over.

in the midst of the destruction, everyone begins to celebrate with smiles on their faces despite the large number of narnians lost in battle, there was cause for celebration. 

the pevensies had met aslan and on the seashore, they were enjoying a good chat. 

"where is y/n y/l?" asked aslan curiously "she fulfilled the prophecy perfectly" 

"but she was not who killed miraz, it was caspian who had to see the kingdom free" trumpkin seemed upset and the desire to kick his little figure flourished in edmund. 

"you don't need to kill someone to restore peace and help your people" 

with that said, edmund began to look for her with his eyes...and found her. sitting on a stone, passing a natural ointment on a faun’s arm. 

at that moment the boy understood that y/n should not learn to fight and use weapons to save narnia. with her kindness, intelligence and healing skills it was more than enough. he wanted to tell her. he wanted to tell her what an idiot he had been in wanting to force her to do something she was not even meant to do. 

without saying a word edmund ran off in her direction. 

when y/n saw him quickly approaching her, she stood up from her place and watched him as he arrived and took her arm to walk into the forest. 

"I know what you are going to say and I am sorry..." as soon as the boy slowed down his pace the two faced each other in the middle of the forest lighted by rays of sunshine piercing the tree leaves. they were less than a metre away and yet edmund wanted to be even closer "I know you are disappointed in me, I know you all are... but i could not, ok?! I just could not! I cannot be queen of narnia with this attitude, I did not make it. I did not fulfill the prophecy and now-" 

edmund took his face with both hands and brought it close to him, silencing her hasty and nervous speech; in less than a second both were immersed in a deep kiss that y/n took a few seconds to reciprocate due to her surprise. her hands travelled to his chest covered by the narnian battle uniform as his hands caress her cheeks softly.

the kiss was quick but sweet, as if they were frustrated romantics who had not been able to kiss each other for centuries. 

when the kiss broke both chests went up and down as if they had finished running a marathon, but despite this they could not let go. now edmund's arms were wrapped around her and her arms caressed his neck as they looked at each other. 

"you saved narnia without the need to kill anyone, you earned narnia without using force if not kindness" 

"you're not disappointed?" a slight surprise occupied the boy’s body. 

"all your training and you coming out to fight today, was because of me?" 

"I just...just wanted to be enough for you" y/n was sincere, there was no need to lie. 

"the conversation you heard between susan and me was a mistake, I would never be disappointed in you and you are far, far away from being a coward and you proved that from the minute you set foot in this kingdom" 

she rested her forehead on his as a response. 

"I am so in love with you" he sighed realizing the chill that ran through the girl's body. 

"today is your lucky day king edmund, because i am more in love with you" a small laugh broke out from both of them. 

"impossible" 

with that said, they both joined in another kiss. this time a slow one. they had all the time in the world.

after all they were king and queen of narnia, no one could rush them.

[stillebesat]

A Mini’s Pep Talk

December Drabbles Day 7 Sanders Sides: Roman, Mini-Virgil (not Virgil himself just a mini version of him)  Blurb: It shouldn’t surprise Roman, at this point, that on top of an already no good really really bad day he ends up getting attacked by another Side’s Mini-Me while looking for his own. (Takes place after SVS Redux) Fic Type: Hurt/Comfort, Mindscape!AU, Mini-Me!AU, Overall Fic Warnings: Negative Self Talk, Small Injury mention  Taglist in Reblog.

It was no use. Roman exhaled, cautiously pulling open the door to his room a crack so he could peer outside. He’d ransacked his bedroom a good dozen times and his Mini-Me was nowhere to be found.

Just. Perfect.

The grand cherry on top after an already bad day.

We love you. 

Roman hunched his shoulders, well aware that his appearance with his pjs and messed up hair was hardly Princely as he slipped outside and tip-toed past the Others’ rooms. 

“Kingsley.” He hissed, wary of waking up everyone else as he moved down the stairs, phone in hand to act like a flashlight as he shone it over the darkened living room looking for his Mini-Me. “I really really don’t have the energy for this!” 

Of all the days--nights for the scaredy-cat to get it into his head to grow a spine, did he really have to do so at 4 am after Roman had been awake since six trying to get something worthwhile completed after yesterday’s--

We love you. 

He growled, running a hand through his hair before dropping to his knees to peer underneath the couches for the tiny figure dressed in red. “Why do you do this to me?” Surely, the others didn’t have this much trouble with their own mini-selfs. 

If they had mini-selfs to deal with. 

At this point, with all the stupid mistakes he kept making, all the lies he kept believing, it wouldn’t surprise Roman to discover that he was the only Side broken enough to have a mini version of himself manifest as a companion to him. 

A mini version that, despite being scared of his own shadow most days, had decided to leave the safety of Roman’s room and vanish. 

We love you. 

Roman sat up with a shaky sigh, scrubbing a hand over his face to ensure no betraying tears had left his eyes as he looked around the living room, searching for likely spots for his pocket sized self to hide in. “Kingsley.” He called out softly, without much hope of receiving an answer. 

He should just face the facts.

Logan would love that. 

Roman made a face as he pushed numbly to his feet, moving to the kitchen to check the lower cabinets. 

Fact. Kingsley was a scaredy-cat. 

Fact. Kingsley wasn’t in his room.

Fact. Roman had been denounced as a bad guy.

Roman clenched his hands, breath hitching as he turned to the fridge. 

Fact. Kingsley was scared of villains.

Fact. Kingsley was nowhere to be found.

Fact. Kingsley didn’t want Roman to find him.

Perhaps...perhaps it was for the best for his mini-self to have left. He--He deserved a-a better--better Si--

I thought I was your hero. 

Roman grimaced, slumping against the fridge, grabbing onto the top edge to keep him from collapsing to the ground. “Kingsley.” He choked out, closing his eyes. No. It was probably for the best. To..to end things here. “I’m sorry.” 

He didn’t even know how he’d wronged the little guy. But obviously he’d screwed up. Again. Some more. He’d add it to the list. Because obviously Kingsley had heard how much like Remus Roman truly was. How much of a villain he could be.

He’d probably feared for his life and fled. 

“Geez. Stop with the waterworks.” An unfamiliar voice said, just before something sharp stabbed his fingers.

Roman yelped, jerking his hand away from the top of the fridge as he stumbled backwards only to stupidly trip over his own feet and send himself crashing to the tile floor with a loud thud. 

He groaned, closing his eyes. Well, there went being quiet. 

There was a flutter of feathers before a light weight landed on his chest, stalking up to his chin and poking him. “Knights are supposed to not give up without a fight. What’s wrong with you?” The voice demanded.

Roman made a face. What was wrong with him? Where to start? The fact that he was so pathetic that he’d been scared by someone else’s Mini-Me? 

He tilted his head to glare at the tiny person on his chest, only to freeze, heart skipping a beat at seeing a familiar patchwork jacket and dark eye shadow under the eyes. 

A Mini Virgil.

Great. He let his head fall back with a soft thunk on the cold tile, mentally cursing as he ran his thumb over his sore finger tips. “Did you stab me with a toothpick?” 

“No, I bit you.” Mini V retorted jumping up onto Roman’s face, landing on his nose, brilliant white wings flashing in the light of his phone as he kept them half spread. “You honestly think I could stab your fingers all at the same time with a single toothpick?” 

Well...no. “You can’t exactly bite them all at the same time either.” He said, failing to keep the growl from his voice, glaring up at the Mini. “And as you’ve already noticed.” Why did Virgil’s Mini have wings? Kingsley had nothing like that. “I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. So sorry for not thinking it through. Try Logan next time.”  

The wings fluttered as Mini V narrowed his eyes. “He’s not the one sobbing in the kitchen in the middle of the night.” 

“Yes, I’m a pathetic excuse for a Side, you don’t need to tell me twice.” Roman shot back, raising his hand palm up towards the Mini. “Get off my face before I sneeze you off.” 

V gave the hand a look of disgust before he jumped, wings beating in the air to keep him hovering in place as Roman pushed up onto one elbow. “What is wrong with you? Knights don’t--”

Oh, for the love of Crofters! He didn’t need another person telling him off. “I’m not a Knight!” He interrupted shoving to his feet. “I’m not a Prince. I’m not a Hero.” He spread his arms wide, a bitter smile on his lips as Mini V backed up a good foot from him, eyes wide. “I’m a freaking Nobody who has no place here because no matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter what choice I pick to try and help Thomas achieve his dreams, it’s always the wrong choice because the bloody RULES KEEP CHANGING!” He yelled, jabbing a finger at the Mini.

V visibly swallowed, wings fluttering as fast as a hummingbird’s. “Roman?” He whispered, a faint squeak to the end of his voice. 

And there he was. Messing things up again. Being the freaking evil twin. Roman slumped, feeling the weight of a mountain settling on his shoulders. “Just--just forget it.” He turned from the frozen Mini, chest twisting with a hollow ache from how he’d just gone off on the little guy. He didn’t deserve that. Especially not for their first meeting. 

Though maybe it was par for the course...considering how awful he’d been to Virgil for most of their lives--it wasn’t like his Mini would have a high opinion of him anyways. 

Roman exhaled, closing his eyes as he crossed his arms. Coward. He couldn’t even face the Mini like a true man. “I’m sorry. You didn’t--I shouldn’t have...gone off like that.” 

If anything it proved that locking himself up in his room for the foreseeable future was the best course of action. 

Especially since yesterday’s debacle with Deci--Janus had already proved that he was a screw up through and through. 

Wrong was Right. Right was Wrong. 

Be Mean to Anxiety because he’s a Bad Guy. 

No. Be Nice to Virgil because he’s actually a Good Guy. 

Be Nice To Deceit because if Virgil was a Good Guy then Deceit could be a Good Guy too despite acting like a Bad Guy. 

No. Be Mean to Deceit because Deceit is Bad. 

No wait, be Nice to freaking Janus because Deceit isn’t actually the Bad Guy after all. 

No. Now Roman was the Bad Guy. Dece-Janus the Hero of the day.

His darkest fear come true. 

It was all topsy-turvy and Roman had been wound up so much through it all that he no longer knew which way was up.

If there was even an up in the first place.  

“Hey.” 

Roman hunched his shoulders, ducking his head as V darted in front of him to block his path out of the kitchen. “It’d probably be best to go back to Virge if you want a True Knight.” He muttered, avoiding eye contact. “I’m not--” 

“Dude!” 

Roman flinched, breath hitching as the Mini landed on his shoulder, wing brushing his cheek before a warm hand grabbed onto his earlobe and tugged hard enough he had to tilt his head to avoid getting it torn off.  

“I will say this as many times as you need to hear it to get rid of whatever earworm is tunneling through your mind right now.” V hissed. “You. Are. Creativity. If you don’t like who you are now, then Change.”

“Change?” Roman repeated like the concept was foreign to him as he eyed the Mini from the corner of his eye. It wasn’t. He just-- 

V huffed, tugging Roman’s ear one more time before he jumped off his shoulder to hover in front of his face. “No one said you had to stick to one role your entire life, Roman.” He gestured towards the staircase. “If that were the case, Virgiepoo wouldn’t have had his little Acceptance Arc with you guys.” 

No, they would still be enemies. Anxiety the Villain. Though really with how awful he’d been to Virge--Roman grimaced. “Yes, but--” 

“But nothing.” V tapped his nose, leaning forward until Roman had to take a step back or else go cross-eyed. “You’re not a hero? Fine. You’re not a prince? Fine. You’re not a Knight--well that sucks because they’re rather cool--”

Roman couldn’t help but smile a little bit at that. They were cool. It was why he’d been one for so long.

V smiled back, shrugging a shoulder. “But whatever. It’s Fine. You get to decide how you want to be you.” 

Roman huffed a near laugh, leaning against the wall as he ran a hand through his hair. “You make it sound so easy.” But he’d been Prince Roman for...well ever. Could he ever be thought of as anything else?

“I do. It’s not. Trust me.” V fluttered his wings wide, drifting closer. “You’re not the only Side still figuring himself out, Ro, even if it feels like you are right now. Thomas is constantly growing and changing. It would be silly if his Sides remained stagnant when he’s in motion.” 

It was silly. None of them were exactly the same Side they had been when they first started to interact with Thomas. It was just--he’d been the same Prince Roman for--well ever. He lowered his head, taking a slow breath. “What if…” He swallowed, forcing himself to look up. “What if they don’t like the changes I choose to make? What if they want me to stay the Prince and I can’t--”

“Then screw them.” V said, holding up his middle fingers. “And in the words of our dearest PatteyCake, I will physically fight them.” He threw a couple of air punches. “For not accepting you for who you want to be when you’ve tried so hard to accept them.” 

Well then. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards as a flicker of warmth seemed to grow in his chest. It was nice to know he has one person in his corner. Though he wouldn’t bank on it lasting too long. Not with his current track record. But for now..after the day he’d had....it was a nice feeling. “Do you always lurk around in the dark waiting to give pep talks?” He asked, pushing away from the wall. 

V did a lazy loop in the air before landing on his shoulder, making himself comfortable as Roman climbed the stairs back to his room. “Only to people I like.” 

[ibijau]

gonna blame this on @robininthelabyrinth who suggested a dark AU where the Jin win, and Jin Zixuan has two pretty concubines as his prize. I ended up doing something a litte different, where instead the Jin side with the Wen at the start of the war, but hopefully it’s still fun :) 

also on AO3

Standing beside Wen Xu, Jin Zixuan tries to figure out where he's met the two young men they've just captured. A task made difficult by the weather (it has been raining for days now, and their new prisoners are caked in mud, especially after being pushed face first into the dirt road by Wen Xu) and the falling darkness (Wen Xu likes to attack at dusk or during the night, when others are tired and less wary). But Jin Zixuan knows them. He's almost sure he knows them. They certainly seem to know him. The tall one turned pale upon first spotting him, though that was his only reaction, and the shorter one won't stop glancing at him with barely restrained hatred. He looks almost familiar too, with his delicate face. They've met, Jin Zixuan knows they've met.

His attention is mostly on the tall man though. After all, even though their clothes are of equally poor quality, the taller young man is the one who showed some skill with martial art, and his speech betrays a higher level of education. He must be a rogue cultivator, and one of the good ones at that, since he managed to give them trouble without a spiritual weapon.

Where on earth has Jin Zixuan met him before?

“So, will you not join the glorious armies of Qishan Wen?” Wen Xu insists after his usually speech. “Hey, Zixuan, why don't you say something to convince them, hm? Earn your keep.”

Jin Zixuan flushes at being addresses this way. Normally, he hates how informal Wen Xu is with him, acting as if they were old friends, all because Jin Zixuan's father is a coward without morals. This time though, he lets it glide. Upon hearing his name, the taller prisoner looks up toward him and in that position, the rain washes off enough of the mud for Jin Zixuan to finally realise who it is in front of them. It knocks the breath out of him. This, definitely, could change the course of the war.

Jin Zixuan crosses his arms on his chest, and pretends to closely inspect the two men kneeling in the mud.

“If they don't join us, can I have that one to play with?” he asks, nodding toward the taller man. “He looks like he'd make a fun pet.”

The young man stares at him with disbelief, while Wen Xu, predictably, bursts out laughing.

“Zixuan, don't you already have a few whores with you? If you keep falling for every pretty face you see, your house if going to end up too full, and they'll start turning on each others.”

Jin Zixuan shrugs dismissively, the way he's seen his father do countless times. “If there's a fight, I'll get rid of both the winner and the loser, and replace them with someone prettier. But I like that one. He's got a face that's made to swallow cocks.”

Wen Xu laughs again. It's lucky that it's him with Jin Zixuan, and not his horrid little brother. Neither brothers are interested in men, but Wen Chao likes to be a pest who'd want his share of the fun before letting Jin Zixuan have what he wants. Wen Xu, by contrast, doesn't really care for the pleasures of the flesh, and has enough political awareness to give Jin Zixuan some face. He knows that if Jin Guangshan hadn't sided with the Wen so immediately after the destruction of the Lotus Piers, the Wen might be facing more opposition than they are at the moment.

“Zixuan, if you want him so much, then have him,” Wen Xu generously offers, gesturing toward the prisoners. “Or do you want both perhaps? Hm? The other one is somewhat pretty as well. If you don't grab him, I'm tempted of putting him in a dress and playing a prank on ChaoChao.”

Jin Zixuan shivers, and glances at the other young man. He knows he's seen him somewhere, but even now he can't figure out where. Is saving him worth the risk of ruining everything else? Is he important enough? If Jin Zixuan does nothing, if Wen Xu does play such a prank, that young man is sure to die. Wen Chao never takes well to being made a fool of, especially by his brother, and he tends to take out his anger on whoever is less susceptible to fight back. He also likes to make others bear witness to his fits of anger, especially Jin Zixuan who just doesn't do well with torture.

He can't save everyone. It'd be too dangerous. The Wens aren't stupid, and they don't trust him, not when Jin Zixuan sided against Wen Chao during the reeducation camp, before he went home to a father who'd taken the easy choice. And it is so important to save the taller man, Jin Zixuan knows, so he should take this small victory while he can and be satisfied with that.

But there's just something about the other one too. Jin Zixuan knows that face.

“You know, he would look pretty in a dress,” Jin Zixuan agrees, his heart beating so fast he feels as if he might be sick. “Too pretty to be wasted on your brother. He's not a cultivator anyway, is he?”

Wen Xu bends down and grabs they young man's wrist, inspecting his pulse for a moment before letting go and shaking his head.

“No, not at all. But aren't you scared to bring pretty faces into your home? Your whores might get tempted to do something stupid.”

“Heimei will keep them in check,” Jin Zixuan retorts. “She's too smart to mess around, and too mean to let others have fun if she can't.”

Heimei will also absolutely kick his ass about taking such a risk, if this turned out to have been a wrong move. At least, after getting over the sheer joy that should accompany the reveal of the taller prisoner. Hopefully, that should be enough to placate a little his moody concubine.

“Zixuan, you need to stop fucking people who could kill you in your sleep,” Wen Xu jokes. “Ah, I'm tired of this... sure, you can have them both, but tomorrow you're helping me interrogate those Lans we captured the other day.”

Clenching his teeth and forcing a smile, Jin Zixuan nods. He hates interrogations. He hates, also, that Wen Xu is convinced he's doing him a favour by making him help. Apparently, Wen Xu wants to help him become less sensitive, since he finds that Jin Zixuan has been too sheltered in his life, just because Jin Zixuan hasn't been watching his father torture people for fun since he was five.

Considering what other things Jin Zixuan has borne witness too, though... neither of them have great fathers, really.

With the matter of what to do with their prisoners settled, their group leaves the road. Jin Zixuan personally blocks the spiritual energy of the taller man who throws him a cold look for it, and they all head back to their headquarters in a nearby small town. Wen Xu chats the entire time, either to complain against the weather or to guess what their enemies' next move might be. It's a relief when they arrive in front of the house Jin Zixuan claimed for himself and they have to separate. Wen Xu's company is like poisoned wine: it's best to avoid it entirely, or only have a very small quantity otherwise.

Once inside, Jin Zixuan orders that a bath be drawn for himself in his personal quarters. Then, after a moment of reflection, he asks for a second one so that his new pets can get clean as well. The housekeeper offers to have them prepared for his pleasure and sent to him once they are more presentable, but Jin Zixuan refuses.

“It'll be fun to make them wash each other,” he says in the tone of voice his father uses sometimes, the one that always makes others uncomfortable. He's getting good at using it too. “But bring some clean clothes, and scented oils. I don't think Heimei will want to share. See if you can find a dress that could fit this one,” he adds, pointing at the smaller man whose face, under the mud, is black with restrained rage. “And make sure we aren't disturbed.”

The housekeeper bows to him and goes to give orders. While Jin Zixuan checks the news with other servants the Wens gave him, his prisoners are taken away to his quarters. Since there's no urgent business requiring his attention, Jin Zixuan is soon free to follow them.

The house he's living in used to belong to a rich merchant who ran away when the war broke so close to his home. Being abandoned, it was seized by the Wens and then offered to Jin Zixuan, while Wen Xu claimed for himself the local magistrate's manor. It was intended as an insult, a reminder of their sect's respective positions, maybe even a jab at Lanling Jin's inglorious origin. Jin Zixuan took it all in stride, because this house is bigger than the magistrate's, and his personal quarter well isolated from the servants' who are all loyal to the Wens.

It is an odd contrast to see those two muddy young men wearing robes of rough linen in the middle of Jin Zixuan's opulent room, where everything is gilded with gold or made of precious wood. Jin Zixuan pretends to ignore them while servants come in with bathtubs that get filled with hot water. He kicks off his shoes and lounges on a sofa to watch the proceeding, and waits.

He doesn't have to wait very long.

The first tub is only just filled up when someone wrapped in delicately embroidered silks storms into the room. Although the person's face is mostly hidden behind a veil, there's no hiding their anger.

“Are you trying to replace me?” Heimei shrieks in such a high voice that everyone present winces. “How many concubines do you need? Aren't I enough?”

“You are everything I could need, my little flower,” Jin Zixuan awkwardly replied. “I just thought it'd be fun to have new toys in the house. We captured those two men and since they're pretty enough, I figured it might be fun to watch them play with each other while my little summer fruit is seated on my lap. Don't you want that?”

“Don't presume to what I want!” Heimei explodes, before quickly glancing at the two men. Too quickly, in fact, to get a real look at their face. “They're dirty!” Heimei gasps. “They're going to ruin the floor! And you're ruining the sofa!”

“Then maybe my pretty little peach should help me out of these wet clothes,” Jin Zixuan suggests, as flirty as he can make himself to be. He's not very good at that, and can see the servants rolling their eyes, but the second tub is nearly full now. “Heimei, MeiMei, my sweet, my tender girl, be good and undress me.”

Heimei, of course, refuses, puts on a show about being unloved and discarded. Jin Zixuan is forced to rise from his seat to take Heimei in his arms, petting her hair, squeezing her waist, even letting his hands on her ass, all while professing that she is his one true love who he will marry as a second wife when the time comes. Heimei complains and whines but redirect his hands toward her chest so he can grope her there, and she's starting to untie his robes when the servants finally leave for good, careful to close the door behind them. There are silencing talismans engraved on the wood which only worked when the doors are fully closed, and nobody wants to hear what sometimes happens in this room.

As soon as they are alone, Jin Zixuan pushes Heimei away from himself, which Heimei understands to mean their usual comedy isn't needed anymore.

“Zixuan, what the fuck?” Heimei hisses in a deeper voice than before. “We agreed to lay low for a little bit!”

“I couldn't let them fall into Wen Xu's hands,” Jin Zixuan retorts, before walking to the two puzzled men, and bowing before the taller one. “Lan gongzi, please forgive me for speaking of you in such a manner before. I hope you understand the circumstances left me no choice.”

Lan Xichen's eyes open wide, as if he really hoped he hadn't been discovered. Truthfully, it was a close thing. Without his ribbon and his elegant white robes, Lan Xichen looks like a completely different person. Still, he's lucky that Wen Xu is somewhat bad with faces, or this could have gone bad.

“What do you mean, Lan gongzi?” Heimei gasps, rushing closer. After taking a longer look at Lan Xichen, Heimei gasps again, sobs, and falls into his arms. “Xichen-gege! You're alive, you're alive!”

More puzzled than before, Lan Xichen kindly allows this outburst of emotion from an apparent stranger. He awkwardly pats Heimei's back before trading a glance first with his companion who shrugs, then with Jin Zixuan who pinches Heimei's arm.

“You still have your veil on, remove it or you'll just creep him out.”

Heimei slaps away his hand, but pulls back enough to remove the tear drenched veil. It is Lan Xichen's turn to gasp in surprise.

“Huaisang? What are you doing here?”

Nie Huaisang nods grimly.

“Zixuan managed to find me before the Wen and helped me hide,” he explains, wiping away his tears. “I've been here with him since then, but we couldn't exactly let anyone know. We're on the wrong side of this war after all.”

Lan Xichen nods slowly, before turning his eyes to Jin Zixuan. His expression is a little less cold and disgusted now, though that's not saying much. Jin Zixuan knows how little liked he is by those on the other side of the Sunshot Campaign, and he cannot blame them. Without his father's support, the Qishan Wen might not be doing so well.

Without Lanling Jin's help, the Unclean Realm might not have fallen. Nie Mingjue might still be alive, leading this war the way everyone knows he's been preparing to do for years. Instead, what's left of Qinghe Nie is led by a far less talented cousin, and though the allied sects are doing their best, it's doubtful that they'll last much longer.

“I thought you were...” Lan Xichen starts saying, his voice trembling with emotion as he looks back at Nie Huaisang. He then catches himself, and gets back in control, speaking again with more calm. “Huaisang, you were assumed to have died in Qinghe. I am so glad this rumour was wrong. But I must wonder then... how much more lies have been spread about Jin gongzi?”

“It depends what you've heard,” Nie Huaisang says, coming closer to Lan Xichen and taking his arm the way he likes to do with friends. “We've been so busy trying to convince the Wen that he's really on their side, we haven't really had time to wonder what everyone else thinks of him.”

Lan Xichen nods, perhaps understanding how delicate their position has been these last three months. Or maybe it is just that Jin Zixuan's reputation is too awful to be mentioned by someone of the elegant Lan sect. Lan Xichen's companion ends up being the one to explain it, and it isn't pleasant to hear.

“People say that Jin gongzi is a murderer and a rapist,” the young man says quite bluntly. “They say he has killed many people even outside of battle, that he collects men and women as concubines. It is said that he even captured his former fiancée after she had already lost all her family, and refuses to give her to his mother who wishes to return her to her grandmother. Instead he uses her as a whore, and lets the Wen have their way with her in exchange for favours to him.”

The blood drains from Jin Zixuan's face at that accusation. He had expected something bad, but not to such a degree.

“Jiang Yanli's virtue is untouched!” he exclaims. “She's living here too, and I've convinced Wen Xu that she isn't to be touched because I want to use her as a tool to claim Yunmeng Jiang's territories when this is over. I would have preferred to let her return to her grandmother, but I'm half sure my father would have either claimed her for himself or sent her directly to Wen Ruohan to prove his good faith. You can meet her later, if you like, and see for yourself she's been treated as well as she could be, under the circumstances.”

After losing so much, Jiang Yanli is quite miserable these days, of course. She's the last survivor of her sect, of her family. Meishan Yu is taking part in the war, apparently, but they're not a particularly big clan, and Wen Chao has been targetting them particularly, in case they secretly harbour some Jiang survivors. Wen Xu once drunkenly told Jin Zixuan that although his brother swore to his father that he fulfilled his mission perfectly, he actually never found the corpse of Jiang Wanyin, so the young man could very well be still alive and plotting his revenge.

After hearing this, Jin Zixuan had hesitated to share the news with Jiang Yanli. In the end, he didn't. With the way the war is going, even if Jiang Cheng is still alive right now, he's unlikely to survive much longer, and Jiang Yanli would just end up having to grieve a second time.

“So you are on our side, Jin gongzi?” Lan Xichen asks.

“I would be if I could,” Jin Zixuan says. “I cannot go directly against my father, as I hope you will understand. But I do not like associating with evil people, so I try to act according to my convictions whenever possible. It has become harder lately. The Wen don't want to insult my father by pushing me to the side, for fear he'll change sides, but they've also figured out I am a rather poor general and never lead my troupes to any satisfying victories, so they don't involve me in anything important.”

It's not that he loses his battles. He can't afford that. But Wen Xu is always complaining that he's failing to capture enough prisoners, that so many escape while returning to their headquarters, that he's always picking too many to become his personal playthings. Nie Huaisang and him had just decided that he would try to be a little less obvious in his lack of cooperation, at least for a few weeks, if only because to continue like this would endanger the people he's already rescued. They still haven't figured out how to set these people free, but now, with Lan Xichen there, it becomes more urgent than ever. If he's discovered in Jin Zixuan's custody, it's all over.

“That you're trying at all is to your credit,” Lan Xichen says, more kindly that Jin Zixuan thinks he deserves when he's still had to kill people, where there are so many victims of the Wen he couldn't save. “I am grateful to you for helping me, Jin gongzi. I fear, though, that I must ask you to help me some more. Meng Yao and I really cannot be absent too long. Our side has lost too much already, if I appear to have disappeared again, I fear our allies will lose courage.”

The name Meng Yao startles Jin Zixuan who stares at Lan Xichen's companion with mild horror. He remembers a banquet for one of his birthdays, where his father was told a certain Meng Yao wanted to see him who carried a token. He remembers, also, his mother's anger, and later Jin Zixun laughing as he described that Meng Yao being thrown down some stairs like the bastard he was.

Jin Zixuan remembers all this. Judging by the barely contained heat in his eyes, so does his half-brother.

His father would be furious at him for having taken risks to save what he would consider one of his most shameful bastards, but Jin Zixuan has long stopped caring what his father thinks of him. He doesn't even read his letters anymore, since they're nothing but demands for Jiang Yanli to be sent to Lanling, and threats of punishment if he remains so incompetent as a general.

“It's going to be hard to release you,” Jin Zixuan says. “We'll think about it tomorrow, when Jiang Yanli joins us.” It was her, after all, who told him to disguised Nie Huaisang as a woman and present him as his capricious concubine, stating it would just seem like he's adopting the Wen's habits. “For now, please have a bath, eat something, and rest. You both look like you need it.”

“It has been a rough few days,” Lan Xichen confirms, bowing politely. “Thank you for your hospitality and your help, Jin gongzi.”

Jin Zixuan bows back, uncomfortable with a gratefulness he's really not sure he deserves. He then leaves that part of the room so Lan Xichen and Meng Yao can have a little privacy. Nie Huaisang looks as if he might stay and chat with them as they bathe, shameless as always, but Jin Zixuan drags him away.

Even if they've just been saved, even if they're grateful, he wouldn't be surprised if the two young men didn't fully trust them yet, not with the reputation he apparently has now. It's better to give them a chance to talk alone if they want, to show that he trusts them.

“This is going to be a mess,” Nie Huaisang remarks as they sit by a window to wait for their guests to be presentable. “You won't be able to stay neutral much longer, Zixuan.”

Jin Zixuan nods. If he's honest, it's a relief that he'll be forced to really pick a side after weeks of kissing ass and pretending the Wen siblings don't make him want to puke every time they say something.

He doesn't like the idea of going against his own father, but Jin Zixuan has betrayed his own values too long already.

And if he must die doing what's right... at least, he'll be in good company.

[fallenrepublick]

What if Kit Fisto was sent to kill an Sith you know like maul who was trained & tossed aside by Sidious. Kit gets there, a lightsaber battle ensues wounding the former Sith apprentice so she makes a run for it. Kit races to catch up & complete his mission to eliminate the threat but when he gets there she is on the ground bleeding & crying. She knows this is the end & realizes all she ever did was what she was raised to do, she was a gentle soul ripped from her moms arms & trained to kill-

I have finally written a fic oh my god it took for fuckin ever

Warnings: Just combat stuff and death talk

It wasn’t exactly an “in and out” sort of assignment. And it certainly wasn’t one that he would have liked to have on any normal day. But the Council had decided that the target hiding out on his home planet was enough to send the Jedi that was best designed to traverse the terrain.

That proved to be a stupid decision, though, because he knew the water, not the land. What’s more, he may have taken the assignment in good humor, as he did with most other things, but the implications of the goal rubbed him the wrong way. The end of the mission sounded rather finite, and the idea of attempting to gain information instead of outright killing whoever this was had never even been brought up in the briefing. Nevertheless, he had resolved himself to at least try, since there wasn’t much use in cutting off the head of a Hydra anyways.

Not much had changed from the last time he was here, save for a few additions to the terrain that obviously happens when nature is left to its own devices. There hadn’t been any images or holograms of you at all, and the best descriptions available were from rattled witnesses too shaken out of their own minds to provide anything useful. But it isn’t like Kit had to use his vision for this mission.

No, he already knew you were there. Somewhere across the terrain, he could sense a faint glimmer of your presence, the residual anger of yet another outburst pulsing energy through the Force. And he was following it, almost religiously, feeling it grow ever more saturated as he stepped in its direction, and he wondered if you might feel it, too.

And what he found at the end of the trail was no beast, no monster set loose by evil, prime for slaying returning a prize as many seemed to think it so. Instead what he saw was a human, curled onto the floor, anger still emanating off, but shaky, transitioning itself into weak, painful fear. It made him hesitate, though he knew it shouldn’t, and he wondered for a moment if what the Council had sent him to do was the right choice. After all, they hadn’t really known what the truth was.

But the feeling quickly subsided, for when you sensed him, the danger all but spiked, and you were running at him, the red blade of your lightsaber ignited in a flash. He reflexively blocked you with his own saber, pushing against you with all the power in the world, rebuilding the defenses he had brought down on your behalf. Your eyes held nothing but rage in them, and as much as Kit wanted to believe he saw regret somewhere behind it, the fact of the matter was it didn’t matter. You had to be eliminated at any cost.

So he shoved you back, where you slid across the slick floor, having to stabilize yourself before returning to the fight. He in turn entered a more ready stance, preparing for your next blow. So you obliged, running to him once more, yet aiming for his legs, searching to cut him off at the knees, preventing his escape or evasion. But he was quick, leaping to the side before your attack could land, attempting a strike to your abdomen, which you also blocked, green and red light clashing together, illuminating the plant life that surrounded your battle.

Perhaps it was what happened after that which had been the cause of your downfall from the beginning. He took you by surprise.

Stunning you with a blow to the stomach, he spun and left a slash below your ribcage. Though it was shallow enough, the contact burned worse than a flame, and you fell back, scrambling to your knees and pulling yourself into the brush, trying to find a way to somewhere, anywhere you would be safe.

Clipping his saber to his belt, Kit’s eyes lingered in the spot that you had disappeared into, and he followed, not wanting to lose you too thoroughly, even if it was unlikely you’d get very far. As he trekked, in the back of his mind lingered the image from before your first attack, of you coiled against yourself like a frightened child, an anger that had been forced into you for so long finally showing the weakness it posed to you. And he wondered if what he did, what he was still doing, was right.

He paused mid-step. It wasn’t through the Force that he felt it, but rather, he heard it. Soft sobs just too powerful to muffle completely and whimpers that hit his ears sharper than any he’d heard in a long time. And when he pulled back a group of vines, he found you on the ground, back leaning on a tree trunk and a hand pressed down onto the wound he had given you. Tears were flowing freely out of the corners of your eyes, but your teeth were clenched and your free hand was trying to block the noises you were making, to no avail.

So he took a step forward, and your head snapped up, expression shifting from that of pain to fear and resting on contempt for the figure before you. Removing the hand from your mouth, you began pulling yourself backwards, wanting to slide as far away from him as possible, keeping the existing distance a priority over comfort.

“Please,” he said, holding his hand up and crouching down to your level. “Let me help you. It doesn’t have to end here.”

“And why not?” You shot back, yet pausing in your path. “Why shouldn’t you just let it end here? Don’t be a fucking coward and just finish the mission. End the killing with killing and at least give me the decency of going out against a real Jedi.”

His eyes remained steady, watching you as your body became shakier and heavier to your waning power. “You didn’t make this decision. None of this was your choice and none of it was your fault. If we hurry, we can heal your wound and you’ll live to see another day.”

Your vision was growing blurry, but you stayed vigilant, watching every move the Jedi made. “And if I don’t accept? They’ll find me either way, figure out I failed at killing you.” You shook your head as if trying to shake out intrusive thoughts from your mind. “No, I’d be better off dead… where they won’t find me… where I might see my mother again…”

Kit krept closer to you, keeping a steady pace as if approaching a wild animal. You didn’t move back further. “And if I promise to shield you? Does that make any difference for you?” He offered a small smile, at least to indicate the truth in his question.

And you stopped to consider. In the official sense, no, it did not. You would most likely die either way, whether your master came to kill you, or you were saved by this Jedi and died of something else. It was the time that changed things. And the person who was offering it to you. He was a comforting presence at that, and what’s more, you found yourself easily trusting him more than you ever trusted your master. Whatever you did, it wasn’t enough to stop you from nodding your head, slowly, almost regrettably.

Knowing the state you were in, he slid up next to you, curling an arm carefully beneath your legs and another behind your back, lifting you off of the ground. And soon enough, you were being carried back to a Jedi’s ship, losing consciousness to the beating of a heart guided by the light.

[whosaskingwrites]

A Thousand Times (Osamu x Reader)

A/n: I'm gonna be real this took so long because I just didn't know what to do? And then I started a various! Haikyu x reader. But I got this done finally so if you've been waiting for this one here it is. Also I just really like putting Osamu through the ringer huh? I'm so sorry bby. And Forget You beat out Unrequited for top one-shot recently!

WARNINGS: Angst. There's one mention of assault as well. Told from third person Osamu p.o.v

Date: Friday November 6th, 2020

Details: 5 pages 1,800 words

Theme: Star Tears- The victim cries tiny star-shaped tears. They are extremely painful and eventually cause the victim to go blind. They produce a dim glow and make a light 'Tinkling' sound when they hit the ground. The blindness can be cured if the person the victim loves makes a statement of love and means it.

Angst Masterlist

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

There were so many other ways this was supposed to go. He thought while he looked at her. She stood twirling around the white dress catching the light and sparkling. She was beautiful to him and of course someone else thought so or else they wouldn't be here right now.

But here they were. 'Maybe' he thought if he hadn't been a coward then it would have been him dancing with her in a suit while she wore a white gown. It would have been him telling her he loved her. It would have been him calling her Mrs. Miya as they danced. Maybe he should have told her the day of their first date. While he helped her pick an outfit she had been panicked.

"Calm down Y/n," She scoffed in response "Calm down? Samu you and I both know I've never been on a date before. And now I'm going on one with my childhood best friend!" He watched her his heart rate picking up as she held up different clothes in the mirror.

"It's not that big of a deal y'know? He's known you pretty much your whole life," He stated feeling uncomfortable helping her. Maybe making her more nervous would be a better idea so she'd cancel and they could spend the day together. "I guess you're right but still! It's different now!" She stated. "Okay just...Treat it normally and you'll be fine,"

She went into the closet coming out in a cute outfit that fit her b/t figure just right. "Alright Samu I'm off. Wish me luck!" He waved by as she ran out the door a bright smile on her face and excitement in her eyes. He stood heading back to his own house with slow steps.

Arriving home he closed the door to his room intent on hiding away from everyone. He laid down staring at the ceiling as the familiar burning sensation built up behind his eyes.

"Fuck," he mumbled when he heard it the soft twinkle of a star tear and the pale glow that lit up a small area around his bed. More of them fell sparking pain in his eyes and across his face. The pain followed the trail left behind by the glowing stars and despite his best efforts to shove his palm into his eyes and stop the tears it didn't work.

"You know I didn't even think they liked each other!" Osamu tuned into her moms voice and then he heard his own mother speak and he sighed. "I know! I always thought she'd end up with Osamu not...," He tuned out knowing what they were talking about. He didn't need to listen anymore.

"Samu what's wrong with ya?" Atsumu was looking at him with judgement. His arms were crossed in front of him clearly upset and honestly he didn't blame Atsumu. "Nothing's wrong with me," He answered him. "Bullshit," His own eyes narrowed at his brother "I just don't like it okay?" Atsumu rolled his eyes "I told you you wouldnt," Atsumu voiced.

"Osamu," He looked to the right his eyes meeting the blank pair of Kita's. "Kita," he answered back watching Kita gesture with his hand. He stood following Kita outside throwing one last glance over his shoulder at Y/n as she danced around with Aran her dress sparking like freshly fallen snow.

"What is it Kita?" He asked when the two of them were outside. "You have to let her go Osamu," Kita voiced quietly. "I cant let her go," He said back. "Osamu...You shouldn't love her...Not when it causes this," Kita gestured to his face where the star tears were already prevalent. 

"And you especially shouldn't love her now that she just got married," Kita sent him a pointed look. "I would go blind over and over if it meant I could love her," He answered the male staring forward. The wind softly brushed them causing their hair to flutter. "Osamu...We all know we didn't expect it to go this far...but he loves her so you have to let her go," They heard a series of dull thumps against the ground turning they saw Atsumu jogging over.

"Hey what are you two doing out here?" Atsumu stopped as he got closer a wide smile decorating his face. "Oh we were just catching some air y'know," Kita easily responded handing Osamu his handkerchief as he stepped infront of him, blocking him from Atsumu's view. He wiped his eyes quickly hiding the star tears before they could give him away.

"Shouldn't you be inside Tsumu?" He voiced at his brother while said male hummed. "Ah they don't need me in there right now. Sakusa’s getting drunk and Bokuto’s dancing with Y/n," He flinched at the last part of the sentence. Though Atsumu never seemed to notice "Isn't Bokuto drunk? Are you sure they should be dancing?" Atsumu shrugged at Kita's question. "I think they'll be fine," Atsumu adjusted the sleeves of his button up with a hum as if he was truly thinking it over.

"You know maybe I should go-," "There you are!" The group looked past Atsumu. Y/n was there a bright smile on her face her hands were wrapped into the skirt of her wedding dress. Her head was tilted to the side eyes crinkling in pure mirth. "Hey what are you doin' out here?" Atsumu asked turning to face her. "Ah Bokuto passed out Akaashi and Hinata are sitting him down now. But I think the party is wrapping up soon," she giggled it was a light sound and God did Osamu love it.

"Alright we'll be back over soon. Kita can you bring the lovely bride back to the party?" Atsumu asked with a small smile. "Alright ya flirt," Y/n said with a laugh taking Kita's arm as they walked back. Atsumu sighed as he sat down. "So...I know you're upset about this...," Atsumu started off quietly.

"Im not upset Tsumu...I had my chance and I blew it," He voiced. Atsumu sighed as he stood up heading back to the party. "Hey Tsumu," He said looking at his brothers back. Atsumu turned back facing him with a questioning look. "You told me that if at any point I wanted her you'd back off...I know that deals off the table now so just...don't hurt her okay?" 

Atsumu shook his head "Im not going to hurt her Samu...She's everything to me," He raised a hand up to push his hair back the light from a nearby lamppost reflected off his ring. "You didn't even like her at first," He scoffed.

"Look Samu we all know you like her!" Atsumu claimed with an eye roll. "No i don't. You're just being stupid," He denied quickly just like every other time. "Alright fine Samu. I'll give you a deal," he rolled his eyes at his brothers provocation. "What?" He asked "You either ask her out by the end of the week or I do," Atsumu challenged.

He scrunched his nose in distaste "You don't even like her why would you ask her out?" He asked. "To spur you on. If you tell me to back off at any point I will y'know?" Atsumu said. "So you're just gonna string along our childhood best friend for this?" He asked incredulously. "No she'll get over it," Atsumu shrugged. "No. I'm not letting you string her along," He stated.

"You're right I didn't," Atsumu hummed in agreement. "But I love her now and that's what matters," He stared off into the distance with a smile. "You remember the day I told her I loved her? It was an accident too," he laughed.

They were playing at nationals. Atsumu and him were third years now and Y/n was watching from the stands. She wore Atsumu's jersey and everytime they looked at her she made a face at them before trying to get away from the guy next to her. Atsumu glared at the guy mumbling something under his breath "Let's finish this game," he angrily said. Sending one last glare at the man.

They finished the game with a service ace from Atsumu and as soon as the whistle blew Y/n raced down to the court the strange guy following her. She showed up on court with a smile "Tsumu!" He turned and on instinct Atsumu smiled as well. "Y/n," she hugged Atsumu while his nose crinkled. "Babe I'm all sweaty!" She pulled away placing a kiss on his cheek. "Dont care! I'll be outside okay?" She said skipping off.

Only five minutes later they were leaving the building looking for Y/n. Only for the team to pause as they spotted her. She stood trying to get away and the stranger that was in the stands with her was harshly gripping her wrist. "Come on baby I just wanna show you a good time!" "No thank you!" Atsumu moved first separating the two while grabbing the collar of the man. 

Osamu grabbed Y/n holding her close to him while she held on just as tightly. "Hey! Why are you putting your hands on my girl!" Atsumu yelled. He wasn't paying attention too busy trying to sooth Y/n the handprint already forming on her wrist. "You're okay," he whispered into her hair line.

"Y/n," He was thrown back into reality then remembering that no he wasn't the one dating Y/n. "Tsumu," He let go of her watching her throw herself at Atsumu and he held on to her just as tightly. "Fuck you alright babe?" He said catching her arm and seeing the bruise. "Im okay now," she smiled at him. He didn't know what his brother was thinking in that moment but he just watched Atsumu kiss her and pull away. "Im glad you're okay...I love you Y/n," she gasped then and smiled again. "I love you too Tsumu,"

"I remember," he got up following his brother into the party he stood off to the side watching them as Kita and Suna came over. Atsumu reached Y/n and kissed her Atsumu's voice carrying as tears started to drip down his face. "Ready to go Mrs. Y/n Miya?" She laughed taking his arm. "Of course Mr. Atsumu Miya," and as they walked out the last image he could see was Atsumu and Y/n looking at each other matching smiles on their faces.

Her dress sparkled next to the black suit Atsumu was wearing. They were holding hands matching rings sparkling on their hands. His vision faded until it was just black but despise that he smiled.

"Take care of her okay Tsumu?"

___________________________________________

TAGLIST: @wonhomarshmallow

[the-chick-of-the-air]

Meet Me In The Woods

Summary: Jude and Cardan’s first meeting as children. One shot. Rated G

Jude was running as quickly as her short legs could carry her through the strange and terrifying fields and wooded areas of this weird place- Efham? What had that mean green monster called it again? She didn’t care, all she knew was she wanted out and back home, back to her mother and father-

But they were no more. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that. She missed them so much but couldn’t quite wrap her head around the fact that they were gone. She felt that if she ran fast and far enough away, she could run right back into her mother’s arms.

She hadn’t stuck around long enough to listen to the pretty lady with shiny hair tell them about this place. As soon as…Maddy? Maden? What was that monster’s name? As soon as he had ushered them off the strange ponies and into the big house, Jude immediately began searching for a way out. She herd something about princes and princesses and how they shouldn’t eat anything offered to them, but after that she had split.

She would go back for Vivi and Taryn once she found a way out. Then they could go back home and…well, they would figure the rest out later...

Meanwhile, a young, dark haired prince was fleeing from a murder scene.

Cardan was running as fast as he could through the grasslands of his home and into the wooded area near Hollow Hall. Dain had murdered a mortal and was going to blame it on him. His father would never listen. Even if they couldn’t lie, Dain had orchestrated it in such a way that he could say Cardan’s arrow had embedded itself into that human. He wouldn’t even be able to say the words “It wasn’t me!” before his father cast some punishment upon him.

So he ran.

Like a coward.

A relatively safe coward, though.

He wasn’t sure what he would do, where he would go. His mother had vanished and his father must have hated him, his siblings couldn’t care less whether he lived or died. He wasn’t exactly safe anywhere, even as a prince.

He just needed to get somewhere he could stop and think. Somewhere he could calm down enough to garner the courage needed to face his cruel family. Somewhere-

His thought process was brutally cut off as he collided with someone coming from the opposite direction. There was enough force behind the action that they were both sent sprawling to the ground in heaps of breathless fabric and tense muscles.

He would have told off whoever dare run into a prince of Elfhame, but he was panting and crying, and he had just been framed for a murder he didn’t commit and he really didn’t feel like throwing up that cruel front he used to get attention. He just wanted a break.

Jude lay, stunned, on the ground, trying to catch her breath as she gazed up at the star-dotted sky through tear filled eyes. Of course this would happen. Of course someone would interrupt her great escape. As if the fear of trying to run at all wasn’t bad enough in the first place, now she had to fear being dragged back to that horrible house, kicking and screaming. That monster killed her parents, she dreaded to think what he would do to her if she made him mad.

Sniffling brought her attention to the present. She hadn’t even thought to look at who she’d run into- just immediately assumed it was one of the big scary… things she saw around the house, sent to come take her back. But she was surprised when she sat up and was met with the sight of a boy, not much older then her, sitting there with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Jude’s first instinct was to get up and start running again, this boy scared her. He didn’t look like her, or any of the other kids she’d seen when she went to school. He had dark hair and darker eyes. Pointy ears- just like Vivi’s- and…was that a tail? What was this place?

The boy wiped the tears from his pale cheeks with a fist before regarding her with curiosity.

For some reason, Jude felt the need to stay seated. He was crying too. Maybe the fall had hurt him? Or maybe he was running too.

Cardan had finally turned to his assailant, only to find it was no assassin. It was another child. A mortal child. Cardan felt like he was going to be sick.

He noted, as he wiped his tears away that she was also crying. Had she been hurt when they collided? Her hair was shiny and full, and she looked completely aware of her surroundings. Maybe she had been glamoured and woke up somehow? If that was the case, then she needed to get back to her station before she was found and…

There was that sick feeling again.

Jude opened her mouth, intending to say something, anything, to get her out of this strange creature’s sights and back on the run.

She did not expect the first thing out of her mouth to be, “I won’t eat anything.”

The boy looked a bit stunned at this. He titled his head. Obviously that wasn’t what he expected her to say either.

Or maybe he didn’t speak English? Jude tried again.

“I said,” she started, drawing out the words so he would understand, “I. Won’t. Eat. Anything. You. Give. Me.” For some reason that’s what stuck with her out of the pretty lady’s welcome speech.

Cardan rose an eyebrow, why was she speaking like that? “I heard you the first time.”

Jude started. Oh. So he did understand. He sounded funny though, that same strange way of talking that monster and the pretty lady at the house had. It just made Jude want to cry more. Nothing was normal here.

“Who are you?” Cardan asked when she stayed silent.

Jude sniffed and raised her chin, “Jude Duarte.”

Well he had never heard of the name Duarte before. And she obviously wasn’t faerie. If her looks hadn’t already given that away, then her total willingness to give up full name would have.

She shocked him when she asked, “Who are you?” didn’t she know that already?

Cardan scowled, that now familiar instinct to block everyone out with hate flaring up again, “Cardan Greenbriar. Prince of Elfhame.”

Jude shook her head, completely ignoring his tone, “This place is weird.”

Affronted, Cardan barked the first thing that popped up in his head, “You’re weird.”

“No you are!” she shot back with a glare, “Everyone here is. That monster has green skin and that lady had white hair, and you have a tail and pointy ears like my sister.” She took a breath, “Everyone looks so scary.” She gripped her knees and drew them into her chest. She wanted to block out everything that was scaring her right now.

Cardan could agree with that at least. The folk were either beautiful or ugly. No in between. No ordinary, not like the girl in front of him.

Jude.

The name sounded strange, sounded mortal. He supposed he must have sounded strange to her. He sighed and said, “Yes, it can be.” He thought of Balekin and his evil grins. Of Dain and his wicked ways. Of his own father and the inability to love him like he loved his siblings. Even of General Madoc, always wearing a blood-drenched cap to important meetings. For the mortal’s sake, he hoped she never had to meet him.

Jude sniffed again, “Why…why were you crying?”

Cardan stiffened. He couldn’t tell her. It was complicated and bloody, and she looked really scared. No need to further petrify her. He shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. What about you?”

Jude had no qualms about dishing out what had happened, “The green monster killed my mom and dad. Then he took me and my sisters here. I was trying to go back.”

Green monster? Cardan assumed she was talking about one of the Goblin-Folk. Maybe a redcap…there was no way…

Before he could ask if it was Madoc that stole her, someone was calling out from the woods.

“Jude! Where did you go?”

Jude sighed, “That’s Vivi.” She stood and sent him one last glare, “Don’t tell anyone you saw me here.”

And then she was off, running towards whoever Vivi was. Cardan balked, who was this harebrained mortal to tell him what to do?

He growled and stood, noting that his tail was twitching nervously. Thinking of Jude’s mortification with the thing, and his own inability to hide his true emotions when it was out, he pouted and tucked it into his breeches.

He wasn’t sure what else to do. Nothing he did would convince his father that he had never and would never hurt a mortal. The only thing he could do was face his punishment with the grace of a prince. Rolling his small shoulders, he turned back to the palace and disappeared into the night.

~.~

The next day a revel was held as per usual. Cardan was forced to attend, even though he would much rather be up in his room studying or packing. After he had gotten back to the palace, his father had been unhappy with him. Predictably, he hadn’t listened to a word Cardan had to say and simply told him to prepare his things for packing. He would be moving to Hollow Hall with Balekin to be taught how to behave as a proper prince. Though he would still be attending school with the other Gentry.

Now, here he was, being forced to put on a fake smile as if to say “Don’t worry! Everything is fine within the royal family. You can completely trust our judgment on everything!” his only source of comfort- no matter how minor- were his friends. Nicasia was staying above water to uphold peace between the Undersea and Elfhame land. Valerian had no one better to spend his time with and Locke was always in the mood for fun. Despite his usual meddling, he could get Cardan to lighten up every so often.

Cardan stood at the dais with his family whilst guests were introduced. The young prince had little interest in this until General Madoc stepped forward.

With three young girls in tow.

As though they had been trained overnight, the three bowed alongside Madoc before straightening and going back to staring around in wonder.

Cardan locked eyes with Jude Duarte.

Or at least, he thought it was Jude. Next to her was an exact copy, the two girls were completely identical. Twins, Cardan recalled the term. Extremely rare in faerie, but still possible. Still, seeing it up close was strange. He absently wondered if it was like being two halves of one person, or the same person but doubled.

“General.” Eldred regarded Madoc, “I see you have brought company.”

Madoc nodded, “My daughters. Once hidden away in the mortal realm with their mother. Now where they belong.”

“One of them, at least.” The High King stated, eyeing the one that wasn’t a twin. Vivi, Cardan remembered Jude calling her.

She glared back and Cardan mused that he liked her. Liked Jude as well, if he were being honest- which he had no choice in being.

Madoc nodded solemnly, “My wife was… unfaithful. We thought she had died with my unborn child nine years ago in the estate fire. I recently found out she had in fact staged her death and escaped to the mortal realm with her new lover. Justin. The blacksmith if you recall?”

Eldred nodded, following along with the interesting tale. Cardan’s curiosity was piqued as well.

“They had offspring,” He gestured to the twins, “Taryn and Jude. When I found my wife, I… righted matters.”

“You killed them.” Vivi cut in, her tone like acid. Madoc winced.

“I knew the children could not be without a home, so I have taken them in. I plead they take their rightful place among the Gentry, and be granted the right to an education here in the palace alongside the other children.”

The High King nodded, not willing to reject a request from his general so simple as this. “Of course, they will train right alongside my own son, Cardan. The youngest of his siblings and still in school.” He waved the prince forward and Cardan had to comply.

“Say hello.” Eldred ordered, masking it with a light tone. Cardan inwardly cringed. This was meant to disgrace him, putting him on display in front of the General’s bastard offspring. He locked eyes with who he hopped was Jude (He was probably right, he got an icy glare in return) and nodded his head.

“Hello.”

Eldred smiled and removed the hand he had placed on Cardan’s shoulder, “I hope you’ll get along. Now please, enjoy the festivities.”

Madoc nodded and turned from the royal family, ushering the three girls along. Jude sent a glare back at them. She hated it here and no amount of nice words would change that.

Cardan watched them go with a strange feeling setting into his chest, not quite sadness…loneliness, maybe? Perhaps in a different world, they could have all been friends.

As they mixed with the crowd, a single name rang through the young prince’s head to a curious little melody.

Jude.

~.~

Years later, the High King and High Queen lay together under a large tree.

Cardan gently ran his fingers through his wife’s full and shiny hair. Quietly he asked, “Do you know what’s special about this place, love?”

Jude pretended to think about it, placing her fingers to her chin in mock thought, “Hmm…this is where our favorite type of flower grows best?” She giggled as her husband tugged a lock of her hair. After a moment she whispered against his chest, “Of course I remember. It’s where I met my greatest enemy!”

Cardan stuck out his bottom lip in a pout. She was playing dirty now…

Swiftly, Jude kissed the pout away. When she pulled back, she traced the fine point of his ear, saying, “It’s where I first met the love of my life.”

Let me know what you guys think!

Tag list:

(Please let me know if you would like to be added to my tag list!)

@woodsbeyond1 @cardan-greenbriar-tcp @thewickedkings @aneurwin @snusbandxknifewife @jurdanhell @andromeddea @dressedindustandshadows @thesirenwashere

[psychemeanscure]

PART 21

Everything happened so fast. It was just Jang Taeyoung being wasted with the amount of alcohol he can be after a wrecking voice message he received from her to later getting delirious of her own image he always adored for. The next thing his assistant could only remember, was that they already backing up their boss of knocking out each man of the Alcaziar’s son, Zilo.

Yes, they’re currently in a chase to get the two-faced young dimwit indeed. Going ever possible place it could gone. And they did. Its warehouse of drugs. Jang Taeyoung holding a steel bar in its right hand, the other’s in pocket then he’s good to go with another battle. Walking boringly to the next pack, he spoke.

“Were you the last batch?”        

Lee tried to stop his boss for a reason, just to be interjected by Jae. “Don’t dare.”

“What?! He’s not thinking straight, Jae. We need to stop him before it gets worse!?”

Truly. They might just be ordinary subordinate who only follow the orders been ask to them, yet they were still human after all. Over the years of working with the great troubleshooter, they knew they also learn to care for him. So for Lee to witness the extent of his boss’ moves until today is too much not to pry.

Or better well said, being acquainted with a woman named Sung Eunyoung is dangerous more than what he expected it to be. He’s aware. Rather they all aware of its affection to her, but how can’t he worry when high officials were already involved. Given that his boss was in the bridge of being observed due to being investigated she caused even. They shouldn’t risk his safety!

“Jae!”

Another call he needed to his co-subordinate. “We can’t.”

Only to get debated once again. “The f*ck?”

His complain, but a recall for Jae. Remembering every bit, a Jang Taeyoung perceived when he himself tried to stop him as well. In its penthouse, in front of its own portrait. He knew, his boss is ready to risk everything.

The way Jang Taeyoung pushes the invisible button of his portrait revealing his secret revolver, a still wrapped blue gum, and cd tapes he left hidden over the years. A remembrance of his failed past. The SIESTA project which was once his writer self’s work to greed.

Tucking the gun on his holster while handing the gum and tapes to his assistant. He commanded. “Send this to Manager.”

By the mere mention of it, Jae instantly got alerted. He doesn’t even need to ask further for he already understand what that was. The Manager. Its former Russian boss who has a knack of not giving up pursuing his boss’ blue gum experiment that even after its exit with the gang, its interest didn’t end. Yet, Jang Taeyoung never gives in to that. Despite the continuous offer his former boss bestow for him, none until today.

He never been for he knew it was unsuccessful itself. He cannot manage of showing it again. Not even his Sung Eunyoung who almost knew about it. The reason why it’s been covered with satin cloth all the while as his hasty flexes halts her the moment she was about to touch his portrait. But if it’s his failure the only choice to keep her safe, so be it.

“Boss, isn’t it better if we should see things first before doing---“

“There ain’t something to see already, Jae.”

“But boss, you know the consequences---“

“Can’t you see this isn’t about me anymore?!”

He finally erupted. Sighing to calm himself, he faced his assistant once again. “He’s the only one who can help us. So just do what I told you to do so. You know what I meant about it, aren’t you?”

Hearing his last sentence somehow relieve his assistant as a proposal begins to form from its mouth. “If that’s the case, then we should ask for extra troop for you, bo--“

“I don’t need one. She’s much important.”

Responding a groan, Jae disagreed. “Boss, we can’t get you in dang---“  

“Another word Jae, and I might just kill you as well.”

And just like that, he surrendered and comprehend his boss’ request instead. And just as today they had no choice but to watch him fighting without braking.

Tapping Lee’s shoulder, he reminded. “We can no longer stop him, Bud. He’s already unstoppable. Accomplish or not, we’re only left with one choice and that is to protect who’s important to him at all cost. That’s all he wants.”  

Huffing with heavy breath with one-man punch to enemy’s underling, “F*ck this.” He follows. As in just a snap, they became their boss’ support system.

~

“Boss, saw the Alcaziar!”

A shout from one of his men, Jang firmly retorted. “Where?”

Pointing out the area, his men answered. “Along the hallway, upper right.”

That with one swift move, he tags along sprinting to the opposite side contradicting its path until he did. He reached him as he pointed his already loaded revolver at the back of its head. No doubt, the young Alcaziar is finally captured.

Welcomed by its mocking smiling face as it turns to face him, hands in the air. “Bang, little brother.” His reciprocated mockery even. As the act-like embarrassed Alcaziar answers. “Eish… Fine. I’m busted.”

For it was also too fast for Jang to drag him in a scattered gambling room, being beaten in some of his trivial parts. “Now, dimwit. It’s either you tell me where your delusional father is, or be dead instead. Your choice.”  

Wiping out some dust from his black suit, he threatened. Just to receive the snickering laugh of the young Spaniard, looking up to him, drained. “As if I had a choice either.” Its own hopeless answer as Jang Taeyoung starts to click his heels to sit by a near table with checker chips on it. Unmoved from the pity situation of the other. Picking one piece of chip as he pictures it like chess pieces before opening a theoretical talk.

“You play chess, Zilo?”

“I am. Why?”

As delighted Jang smirk. “So will you believe if I say why queen and knights are best partners in chess then?”

Confused Zilo questioned. “Shouldn’t it be the king and queen on a throne, though?”

Rubbing the texture of the checker chip, he retorted. “That’s the luxury of monarch, dimwit. Unfortunately, we’re talking boards where all I can see is a king who only proves himself useless in it. Hiding between his towers and pawn fences while lazily waiting for its queen’s pride and brave knight’s outcome. You got the sense, Zilo?”

Narrowing eyes starts to retract. “A give and take blabber getting the privilege which should have been given to queen and knights, you saying? Pathetic.” 

“Exactly. Makes sense, right.”

“Right. So what do they call each other? Comrades ready to reach supremacy? Great.”

As the amused chuckle came after Jang, “That’s how they’re made to be a perfect team! And you know what’s more fascinating?”

“What?”

Walking over to the young Alcaziar again, he bent. “It was when a queen’s in danger, the knight cannot be much angrier than slaughter and unforgiving.” Face leveled, as he begins to tap his revolver to its cheek itching to pull its trigger.

“So spill now young Alcaziar before this knight in front you become a stallion you can’t hardly imagine.”

His knowing verdict, only yet to be responded by a beaming smirk, urging its next word. “Too bad, brother. That’s just also the irony of chess you’re perceiving of.” Pausing to surround its eyes around the room, security agents flock to corner Jang and his men with guns. “You forgot the prankster bishop who hides in surprise behind the pawns.”  

“What will you do now, knight? The fences are already after you.”

Recognizing they are owned by filthy back up officials they have, he can only awe in sarcasm. Manically laughing like they were just joking around, gaping orbs following the surprise sight, mannish arms resting from his crouched knees. Cold Jang Taeyoung finally advents.

“Know what, dimwit?”

“What?”

“That for some time I actually thought of you as one. A younger brother I never had.”

Zilo was lying if it didn’t warm him for it obviously did as his once smirking face easily vanish just like that. Looking up to already standing older brother he never had as well. It’s too late.

Gazing to multiple guns pointing at him, he complains. “Eish… F*cking law makers.” Before he went back to look down Zilo. “I guess I misjudge you then.” Pulling out his revolver once again, he left one last word.

“Let’s play the game if given the chance, yeah? Who knows.”

And with a starting blow from the enemy’s agents, the imprudent chaos has begun. Together with his men, Jang knocks every underling that goes on his way. Series of bullets heard and wasted, lifeless bodies lying on the grime of floors, stinks of blood spread on endlessly from the dirty four walls. As all he could think of, is to chase the straightway escape of the young Alcaziar who has been escorted from the start.

But he was too late. They were already far for his reach. The youngster’s car freely drives from the buzzing path of sinners for cursing is the only thing that can pass his anger.

Before another gunshot was heard. For it was his stooping body covered with blood he saw. “We got him!” as a voice unfamiliar to him speaks out. The pain is bearable though like they intentionally miss to shot the most vital part of him as it didn’t take him long to know the reason why as another flocks of underling came rushing after, ready to take him down. He fights back. Even if his body isn’t cooperating this time.

How a simple stretch of his legs he flawlessly does, is lost. How hasty blocks became his wrecking bricks. And how his keen reflexes of dodges demote to novice. He hates it! He’s not usually a person who easily get strained with a mere shot. F*ck, he got the worst even!  

It seems like they implanted something from the bullet fired to him which lead him to be weak. Whatever it is, he’s f*cking screwed up! “Tss. These f*cking cowards.” His hell of grumbles the moment they were ask to stop their countless attacks. With his once perfect face busted and once well-built figure turns into qualmish leaf. They successfully take advantage of his current wimps indeed.  

Surely as he was fighting them alone, actually. How can he get help even when his men have their own fight meters afar from his? A much more number than he partakes.    

Pressing his gushing stomach while holding any possible thing that can give him strength which turns out to be edges of wooden recycling bins. He looks up to the scumbag that caused him then. Veeros Alcaziar, bending to face the aggrieved him. “Hey, young lad.” Its unabashed greeting. “How was the show, eh?” its next word as he can only grunt trying to grab its collar by the hand that was once holding the edge of the bins. Only for him to end up gripped lousily instead.

“W-where. Where did you bring Sung Eunyoung!”

Regaining a remaining strength, he has. He enraged. And the latter just confidently tapping his downgrade shoulder. “Don’t worry, young man. You’ll meet each other soon.” Its lunatic response as he begins to get drowsy. Medicine perhaps takes its effect.                                

“You know what you missed about the king, Lad?”

‘So he’s there all along.’ He thought.

Leaning its head towards his ear, the geezer whispered.

“It’s his manipulative intelligence.”

Then a Jang Taeyoung, finally passed out.

~

“Wake up. Jang Taeyoung, wake up!”

For there it is. The voice he had searched like years. Heard by his own lobes.