#even though Logan tried to warn him ahead of time | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

vclvetfleur · 2 years ago

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Obedient Chapter 7

roman roy x fem! reader

Summary: Roman begs y/n to go to a retreat with him.

Warnings: Logan Roy, implied ED, Kendall being a dead beat father

Word Count : 4.8K

Notes: This by far was my favorite chapter to write so far into the series

Chapter 7: French bread

You had got Roman’s order, getting him some breakfast too as you walked into the building. You walked through see Kendall turning the corner. You waved at him despite all the things in your hand. You had worn one of your new outfits today and Kendall took immediate notice to it. “Uh- wow, look at you.” He laughed. You twirled around to show off the details of the new outfit you pulled together. “No more $40 white button up.” He was energetic for the morning. But Kendall was always up early. He went to the gym at 6 am and then got his own green smoothies before work. Roman took notice of this and tried to start working out but gave up after a couple of months. He only kept his trainer for a couple of months because he was nice to look at, but he didn’t even work out most of their sessions.

“No more $15 white button up.” You corrected him, putting an emphasis on the price. Kendall didn’t even know you could buy something for $15. His smoothie was just $1.49 short of how much your shirt costed. And he only got one add on put into it.

You heard a loud repeated banging, seeing Roman trying to get your attention. He put his hands up and shook his head at you essentially asking you ‘what the fuck?’. You said your goodbyes to Kendall before rushing into Roman’s office. “Heeeeeey boss. I got you a little something.” You sang as you waved the breakfast sandwich that was wrapped up in white paper and a bag in his face. He looked up as if you were an absolute nutcase. You set it down, with his coffee before waiting for a smart ass comment. Or at least a compliment.

He looked up at you after a brief moment of not looking at you. “What the fuck are you standing there for? Are you breaking the news about my parents’ divorce or something?” He questioned you. You would be madder, but it was too creative. You just went quiet before sitting down in your usual spot. You looked over at his desk, looking at what he was looking at. He barely even had anything open on his computer. It was just that opening page of when you opened up Chrome.

“You okay? Are you sad I didn’t text you all day yesterday?” You began questioning him. He shook his head no before opening the bag and undoing the wrapping of his sandwich. He checked what was in it before deciding if it was good enough to put into his body. You think this was the first time he actually ate in front of you. Not a snack, but an actual meal. He usually just had small snack that he had maybe once or twice a day. But never an actual meal. Even at the restaurant. He ordered food, just didn’t eat it. You never really thought about it though.

“I know I tell you to shut up all the time, but it’s kind of unsettling so can you please talk?” You begged. You didn’t enjoy the quietness. It wasn’t like Roman. It felt wrong.

In reality, Roman wasn’t mad, he just felt unseen. His insecurities got the best of him and watching you practically glow around Kendall rather than your usual routine with him. He felt unseen; pushed aside for his better older brother.

“Alright, so uh-fucking what did my emails say?” He turned around to face you, eating the sandwich you had gotten him

“Weeeeell, your dad is trying to close the Pierce deal.” You began. Roman groaned, putting his face in his hands, laying back. It’s not that he didn’t agree with the deal, but he had no way of even getting to them. They didn’t like him, and he didn’t seem to enjoy them entirely either. His siblings have been working the deal a lot better than them. Kendall was a lot more charismatic and Shiv, who had just started, was already ahead of them based off of Nan. One of his hands dropped as the other dragging up his face, trying to think of what to do. It’s a deal Logan has been trying to do for a while now. Logan has been in touch with their network CEO, Rhea. They had taken a liking to one another. And by liking, they were having an affair. And Rhea had been working over timing because of it to get Logan to get a chance to set up a meeting to discussion the terms and what would it take to sell. And Rhea finally established a meeting with the two families to meet.

“Well-uh-fuck what does- what’s the next step? What else did it say?” Roman asked. You just read it over and he saw just the simple writing of ‘Pierce deal tomorrow. Don’t fuck it up.’

You didn’t know how to tell him. You just looked up at Roman, not sure how to phrase it.

“Uh- just he said don’t fuck it up.” You ripped the band aid. It barely seemed to affect Roman. He was trying to prove to his dad he was ready for the CEO position. He had been going on useless fucking trips for his management training, which he had just finished about a week before you had gotten hired. But now Shiv worked here. Or at least she thinks she does. She acted like it. After a trip out in one of their summer homes, Logan offered the position to not just Roman but Shiv too. All just a ploy to make Shiv quit her job in politics and join Logan as a new pawn to play whenever things got too tough for Kendall or Roman to play mind game with their male investors.

“That’s it? What the fuck is the Pierce deal tomorrow? What the fuck is he even-?” He asked frustrated about the lack of details. He never knew what was ever really happening. He went through his phone to see what was happening tomorrow and you did too. You just texted Jess about it. Apparently, there was a family trip that was going to happen at one of Nans houses. Everyone in the family would be there apparently to make them look stable. Even Connor and his paid girlfriend.

“Uh Rome, so tomorrow you and your family are going to Nan’s tomorrow for some kind of retreat.” You filled him in. Roman seemed displeased. He finally remembered about it, but wasn’t sure if it was even going to do a single fucking thing for him.

“Uh-fuck- fine okay. Can you come with me?” He asked you. You didn’t know how to respond, just staring at him as his eyes pleaded with you. They looked like they belong to a sad little puppy. They seemed so desperate. As if he really needed you with him. He couldn’t believe he could do this retreat without you there with him. “Come on- fucking-uh please.” He tried to get the word out as best as possible.

“Alright Rome, I’ll come with tomorrow. Don’t worry.” You offered a gentle smile. You checked for the time that it was going to happen, seeing you both had to be with the family by 10 am tomorrow to come to Nan’s together as if you were truly this happy stable normal family, despite it being further from the truth. But after Kendall’s last couple of stunts for the last couple of months, Logan was really trying to push media coverage on the entire family, posing photoshoots and ‘therapy’ for the only bases being on some magazine.

“Fuck! That means Connors gonna be in the city tonight.” Roman found another thing to be upset about. Roman mainly punched down at Connor because if Roman wasn’t the punching bag, then Connor was. Cause no matter how desperate and sad Roman was, Connor was the forgotten and less involved sibling. Nothing he did for Logan, or the others mattered. He had no say in anything based off of the fact he wasn’t involved. But because of the pushing and shoving the family did to Connors ego, he decided to run for president. Yup. From lonely farmer in wherever fucking state that did nothing all day to president of the United States. Despite not ever having a job his entire life; now he wanted the most important job in the country.

“I met Connor the night of the party by the way, why didn’t you tell me you had another brother?” You asked.

“I don’t. He’s adopted.” Roman lied, but you gave him an annoyed look before he gave you the right answer. “Fuck-fine- he’s my half-brother. His mom went fucking crazy, and dad sent him away to school. Even so, I didn’t grow up with him. I was still shitty my pants by the time he was in college.” Roman admitted. You appreciated the honesty from Roman. You decided to not make him too uncomfortable, editing your notes down. You just decided to keep things that were more important to give him a light enough day before you went into your day with him.

You made plans to meet with Roman by 9 am at his apartment to get ready for the trip. He said he really needed to support. Which was huge for Roman to say since he never willing telling people that kind of stuff.

That evening you spent the entire night trying to set up for the trip. You had to. You were going to be around Logan for most of the day. Along with other high status people. Luckily, you’d have Jess and Roman and Kendall there to calm your nerves. You just planned on staying with Jess for most of it. But something told you Roman was going to need you a lot. You got up early enough in the morning to get ready and pick something nice, but casual enough. This was a chance to really show off. You picked a vintage Chanel dress that you had bought at a vintage boutique in Soho 2 days ago with Jess. You accessorized before checking the time. Fuck. You grabbed what you thought you’d need. Your purse that had spare makeup, a hairbrush, your work iPad, a charger and a portable battery, a spare toothbrush, perfume, your wallet and keys and snack bars in case you or anyone got hungry. You were constantly ready for disaster now that you work with the Roy’s. You packed to make sure you were not forgot anything essential. Your rushed out and tried to make it to Roman’s as soon as possible, but you were gonna be a bit later than 9 like you promised him. You sent him a text to let him know.

You knocked on his door before letting yourself in. He had unlocked it for you. You got him coffee to make up for being late and croissant.

“Hey Rome, you here?” you shouted. You heard him call up from upstairs as you tried to follow his voice. He had already gotten dressed and ready but needed help deciding on sun glasses. They both honestly looked the same to you. You just picked whatever before reminding him of his breakfast.

“Well fucking look at you- “He laughed. You weren’t sure if he was mocking or complimenting you. You looked down at your outfit and up at him worried.

“Is it too much?” You were now anxious. You didn’t want to be over dressed, but you wanted to leave a good impression. Roman didn’t care how ‘much’ it seemed. He liked it but was never able to give a compliment that didn’t also sound like an insult or mocking or sexual misconduct.

“I mean- you look hot.” He shrugged, taking a bite of his croissant. You smacked his arm, him retreating away from you. “Hey! You were asking for it!” He protested.

“Screw you, fucking idiot.” You rolled your eyes. He mocked, putting his hand up and mimicked your voice as his hand closed together.

“Come on. Don’t be so uptight now.” He sat on the edge of his bed, pulling black shoes on. “I mean, you, me, in my bedroom. We have less than half an hour if you wanna bang one out.” He suggested. You chose to ignore his advances to you. But in honest, you would pounce on him immediately if you could. The idea of your bodies on top of one another before having to act professional in a car full of people with the knowledge of what you did earlier was so appealing to you. It felt wrong, but it was just a fantasy anyways. You and Roman were never going to go there.

“Does this still count as work place harassment?” You asked before getting a text from Jess telling you that you had 5 minutes till the car was pulling up to pick you and Roman up. Shiv and Tom were first before picking up Logan, Connor then Roman. There was going to be a morning debrief before going to Nans. Rhea would be joining too. You pulled Roman off his bed, telling him you both had to go. “Come on, we have half an hour.” Roman whined before you showed him the time. You apparently didn’t. You left with him beside you as the car had just pulled up. Roman got in first before you followed. Kendall sat with Shiv and Tom up front with Jess behind him. You sat with Jess and Roman had to sit beside you. Connor decided to just go to Logans early enough, not wanting to cause any inconveniences.

“Hey fuckers, so what’s the move on with this fucking deal?” Roman made his entrance in the car before sitting. “You both brought your assistance? You both are really not capable of doing anything at all?” Shiv judged Roman. You just sat quietly, sipping your drink. You knew it wasn’t a jab at you whatsoever. Jess knew not to. It was more of a tactic to make her brothers feel insecure.

“Just admit you want one and fucking get one.” Roman fired back. “If I didn’t then I wouldn’t of gotten a fucking baguette…” “croissant” you corrected him. “Whatever, some fucking French bread and coffee. Maybe if you did, you’d be less of a fucking bitch.” Roman teased. It caught you off guard definitely. You looked over at Jess, she seemed unfazed by it. Shiv scrunched her face up and rushed her body quickly towards Roman to make him flinch. His hands came up quickly to protect his body before relaxing. “Ha-ha. Fucking good one.” Roman said sarcastically.

The ride was short, like most of their rides throughout the city. Logans house was only a few blocks away from Romans. You stayed behind with Jess as the siblings went ahead of you.

“What was that about?” You asked Jess. “He just called her a bitch?” Jess shrugged it off. “Romans said worse.” Jess was right. That’s why everyone had such low expectations of him.

You both went in about your mornings as Jess had to run to make calls with certain people and do Kendall’s errand before having to break the news to Rava that Kendall wasn’t picking his kids up today. Rava was livid to say the very least, calling Kendall immediately after. Today was Kendall’s day with the kids and he decided to talk Rava into letting him to take another day with them. This was the fourth time in a row.

You walked into the apartment being welcomed by a slender tanned older woman. “Hello ma chérie.” She greeted Jess, giving her a hug. Jess had gotten to know Marcia for a while now. Marcia was truly one of the only people in the family who was careful and sweet. “And this is?” She asked. “Hi, I’m Roman’s assistant. Y/n.” You smiled, giving a hand out to greet her. She put her hands over yours and smiled at your warmly. It felt almost motherly. It warmed your heart a bit. “Do you girls want anything?” She offered. “Uh- I can get it myself. I can get you something though.” You offered, but her hand went up in protest.

“No my darling, I have people for that. Don’t worry.” She tried to comfort your nerves. She knew how scared you were just by looking at you. She could read anyone easily. “You look wonderful by the way.” She was inflating your ego. Your shoulders went up, your smile growing.

“Y/n.” Roman called. He waved you down. You apologize to Marcia and Jess before going to Roman.

“Huh?” You whispered to him.

“So, what about the offer from earlier? My dad has camera around so we could get it on film.” Roman whispered back, a humored look on his face.

“You’re a fucking asshole.” You talked in your normal tone.

“Okay okay. Uh- fuck. I’m gonna actually need you for something though.” He tried to get you to not walk away, grabbing your wrist and forearm. You raised your eyebrows, a way of asking what it was that he exactly needed from you. “You went to college for this shit, right? I need you to look shit up on Nan and just give me whatever notes you can.” He tried to reason. He needed to find a way to connect to the old hag. You agreed before he led you into the meeting. Jess sat behind Kendall, deciding to take notes for Kendall as well.

It was a long hour of planning and organizing a strategy of who had to play to what part. It was like watching a coach talking to a football team, but just about some news outlet. It got interrupted multiple times with Roman making off comment jokes and Shiv and him arguing. During the meeting you were able to dig up enough on everyone to make sure Roman had enough to slither his way into this deal.

You broke off into different cars, telling Roman your notes, going over them multiple times.

Your cars stopped at a landing pad, watching as two men were waiting for you all. You looked behind them to see 2 helicopters on the landing pad. Your head shot to Roman, panicking almost immediately. “A fucking helicopter? I thought we were fucking going to their place just by car.” Roman just seemed to laugh at you. You had no choice, but to go with them. You strapped in as you asked the pilot multiple times if this was the correct way to do it. You went over it with them probably 10 times before asking how safe everything was. Kendall tried to reassure you it was safe, with Jess just trying to talk to you about her first experience and how it wasn’t that bad. You nodded, taking deep breathes. The propellors began to make a loud whooshing sound, causing you to grab onto Romans forearm for a sense of safety.

“Would you relax? It’s fucking 10 minutes.” Roman tried to put up his attitude as if he had an issue with you holding onto him, but he didn’t. He found that you were the only one who he felt comfortable enough to let hold or touch him. He put his glasses on with his free hand before leaning his head on his hand, hiding a smile behind his fingers and they mostly covered his mouth.

Before you knew it you all had landed right after Logan’s helicopter did. You undid your seat belts as fast as possibly, trying to get off as soon as you could. Logan had just gotten out with Marcia and Shiv. Everyone just followed his lead. He tried to pose the family as stable as the Pierces seemed to be. Which you honestly doubted now that you’ve been spending time with the Roy family.

Nan introduced herself to Logan and they both played their roles perfectly. Logan played the happy and proud dad part so well that you even believed him. Everyone was then formally introduced as they tried to network and find something to desperately talk about. But the only ones that truly mattered were Rhea, Logan and Nan.

You just stood back with Jess, knowing you had no part in this. You had no say in any deal. You didn’t even need to speak to any of them. You were just here for Roman’s sanity.

The house was soon filled, but the party was kept in one room. “Jesus this is fucking pretentious.” You whispered to Jess.

“This is not even the most pretentious part of the night. Watch.” Jess giggled. You just went through your notes with Jess quietly to compare and see if you both had missed anything. Nan interrupted the talking to introduce some stupid bullshit product they had made to get more money. You just joined despite not even having a glass in your hand like everyone before going back to Jess. Whatever the fuck the product was, Logan took a blow from it.

Everyone took this as a way to push some kind of project. Even Connor as he just went on and on about politics. Some others took this to boost their own egos. Or insult the other.

You felt a hand on the small of your back, your body jumping and turning around quickly to see Nan. Logan had his eyes dead set on you from afar.

“Oh hi.” You tried to say in a cheery tone, unsure of why she was even acknowledging you.

“I never seen you around before.” She commented. She had been dealing with this deal for a while, so she had gotten associated with everyone about 2-3 weeks ago. “Oh here, let me get you a drink.” She offered, grabbing a drink off one of her servers tray table. You thanked her quietly before taking a sip only on the bases you needed to. You didn’t like whiskey, but you needed to play a role.

“Oh uh- yeah, I got hired recently. Oh wow-“you said after taking a sip, taking another sip. You took theatre in high school and one or two classes in college. “I understand why this deserved a speech.” You lied. It was disgusting.

“Stop, you’re too cute.” She chuckled. “Who are you in association with?” You didn’t understand. She was asking what your position was and who exactly did you work for. You looked around before finally looking back at Nan. “I-uh-I just do basic stuff for Roman. He wanted to have someone help him around since he started with taking more responsibilities at the company to help manage things around for him. I’m just his assistant. But I just graduated so you know everything from classes are still fresh in my memory.” You were panicked. She just tried to relax your nerves as she seemed to be comforting you. She had the same eyes that Marcia had given you, except more authentic. Like she actually gave a fuck.

“Well the best knowledge you’ll ever get is from experience.” She gave you a tip. You nodded, taking another sip only on the basis of you wanted to calm your nerves down.

“I’m just lucky to have the opportunity to work for the company. It’s truly been an experience for me.” You tried to inflate the company ego. “They’ve really treated me like family here.” You lied. You didn’t even speak to half of the family until today. You still haven’t had an interact with Shiv. You got berated by Logan not even a couple days ago.

“See, and that’s what I always look for.” Nan told Rhea to your face. “None of these other people will tell me anything authentic y’know cause they have more to lose, but you. Thank you. Truly.” She put her hands on each side of your arm. “I will wanna hear your input later on my dear.” She assured me before walking off. You were in complete shock. You assumed you would be invisible today. Roman rushed to you with an amused look.

“Hey, you okay?” He asked. Nan was barely away from the both of you. She took another mental note that despite me being just an assistant, the younger son of the father in the company, my employer, had just tried to check on me. She believed you. You nodded, downing the drink.

“Yeah-I’ll be fine. Just unexpected.” You mumbled, Roman let out a breathe, trying to reassure you it was fine. “It’s gonna be alright.” He tried to reassure her. It probably wasn’t and Roman knew that. She was trying to psych you out and find a reason not to make the deal. But you gave her no reason to. You made her think Logan was more genuine than she thought he was, even if those expectations of Logan were so low for her.

Jess tried to remind you it wasn’t anything serious. You were at a dinner. Sometimes the investors talked to Jess or ignored her. It depended if they saw assistants as people or not. And Nan, despite being massively rich, did consider others.

But she has heard rumors about Logan. She wanted to see how one of his employees had felt. Not in a super direct way, but subtle enough to get hints. Until the very end I guess.

Rhea gathered everyone slowly to bring them into a private room to discuss the game plan once again. Once the door shut, Logan began to interrogate everyone on what they had apparently done wrong. First Shiv on making jokes about Marks PhD and then the entire room for not getting along and going with the original plan. Kendall tried to shush Connor as Connor tried to stand his own ground. “And Romulus, when you laugh, please do it at the same volume as everyone else. We didn’t get you at a hyena farm.” Logan was out to get everyone in the room. “Not even to follow up with the possible end of this fucking deal. What did Nan say to you?” He then stared at you. You couldn’t tell if someone was behind you, looking around before Logan had one more outburst. “Fucking you. The one dresses as if she’s ready for a fucking runway show.” That was a harsh blow.

“Uh-well..” you tried to start trying to remember exactly what was said. “Go on.” He was impatient. His tone was extremely mocking.

“She just asked who I was, what I did. I told her I just started and I’m just helping out Roman.” You tried to be quick not to upset Logan. “Exactly what did you say?” He was really scary like this. You nodded, trying to recount everything.

“Just that uh- well Roman was taking on more responsibilities and dealt with his work usually himself, but now with all the work, he needed an assistant. And that I just finished school. She kind of told me school wasn’t as good as actually working so I told her I’m getting good experience and that you all treat me like a family.” You tried to get every detail of what you’ve said right.

“Oh really? Rhea?” He asked her, knowing she had been with you. Thank fucking whatever the fuck, Rhea confirmed your story. “Nan seems to enjoy her, Logan. She said she trusted her.” She tried to reason. You had no idea why Nan seemed to trust you though. You looked at Logan, trying to keep a relaxed stature to yourself. Jess was right behind you, rubbing your back to comfort you. She knew you were probably internally having a panic attack. “Nan said she can’t trust anyone else since they’re either 1. Your kids, 2. Someone you’ve known for 30+ years or 3. they’ve known the family too long.” She explained.

“Okay… fine... You, try to butter up Nan more, you too Pinky. Fucking act as if she’s your grandma at Thanksgiving fucking dinner.” He gave you a role. You looked at Jess, but she couldn’t tell you anything in all honesty. She usually avoided talking to investors or people like Nan for this very reason. She didn’t want to be involved. “And Jess, you fix Shiv’s mess.” He appointed her a job. Shiv’s ego took a blow, trying to argue she could just apologize. “No cause apparently a fucking assistant who runs around getting coffee for my idiot children can do a better fucking job than my actual children.” Did this mean Logan appreciated what you did? Is this his way of saying you did a good job? You didn’t see the appeal of it.

Shiv scoffed before leaving the room. “Well, fuck.” Jess whispered to you. You nodded, agreeing with her.

Notes: If you hadn't seen my other post, just like the show, everyone is going to be an awful person moment and have at least one scene of them being the absolute worst. even OC.

Chapter 8

#roman roy #succession #succession hbo #hbo succession #roman roy fanfic #roman roy x reader #roman roy x you #succession fanfic #kendall roy #shiv roy #siobhan roy #tom wambsgans #greg hirsch #cousin greg #connor roy #logan roy

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blueberrypancakesworld · 1 year ago

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Chapter 11 - Training and recruitment

warning : tiny comfort

masterlist, next chapter

Summary : Months after Jean's death Bobby didn't know what was going on with John but he had to get stronger to bring him back...but what if John doesn't want to go back?

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Weeks and months had passed since the escape in the underground bunker, months had passed and weeks had passed in which they had mourned Jean.

Weeks and months in which they had time to shed tears, to mourn their friend and mentor. It was a time in which they not only grew but also became something, they became new X-Men and formed a team.

A team that trained, a team that had to train because they could sense that the mood on three sides was becoming more and more tense.

The humans were afraid and became more aggressive, the mutants were advised by Charles at the school to defend themselves and keep the peace on the orders of their professor.

As well as the group around Magneto a whisper in the underground which one felt however that mutants were there but to what extent was not yet clear.

But most of all it was a time when Bobby missed him, missed the fire and it felt like his ice was only getting colder and colder. It was a time when he set himself a goal, he would get John back, he would get John back to himself, he would get him back to the X-Men.

He would make him realize that he regretted his actions, that he was sorry for not being honest with Rouge. He would bring him back and fix everything...but for that he would have to become stronger with himself and his team. But that's exactly what he did in the adaptive training hall, where an apocalyptic scenario could be seen.

A ruined scorched city, broken cars, overturned buildings and metal seemed to be everywhere, it was hot, soot hung in the air and bullets were constantly shooting at him and the group under Logan and Storm's leadership. The group his friends and the group he had to rely on.

A scenario that even though it was training filled him with uncertainty, the fire felt like John was still with him with every flame, every explosion he put out and hid together.

He kept running with Kitty, trying to find points, making ice wall after ice wall with his hands and bringing projectiles to the ground.

Since the point with John on the plane, he had tried to teach Rouge as gently as possible, which had not only ended in a fight but also a conflict that was still slightly tense. Because while she resented him for not breaking up with her sooner, he still wanted to be friends with her.

But it seemed like this exercise was making him more and more tense. Vibration rippled through the ground beside them as Bobby shielded himself and Kitty with an ice wall before shouting, ,,Come on!" and letting the girl go ahead to protect them.

They had to take out that damn robot but how if they just had to run? Questions and guesses and speculation that were interrupted when they heard the missiles fly again. ,,Bobby, watch out!" Kitty shouted, pointing at one of the missiles coming towards them.

With a quick movement, the ice escaped his hands and brought the rocket to the ground at the last moment, but he hadn't reckoned with a second one that followed just seconds later.

,,Attention!" his partner shouted before he could react, he felt her hands on him and the tingling sensation as the rocket passed through them and went up behind them.

Slowly detaching himself from her, he was about to thank her, but didn't see the look of contempt on Rouge's face before Storm's shout brought them all to a point.

If this doesn't end soon, he thought, ready to make another wall to protect them at any moment, but instead he saw Logan have another "idea" and throw Colossus into the air.

,,We're fucking team Logan," he heard Storm mutter again and the woman who could manipulate the weather was already heading for the exit. Logan made short work of the robot within a few minutes and the robot's head hit the ground in front of them with a loud bang.

,,Well then, free time," said the strong one with a Russian accent and followed the team leader, which was returned by Kitty, who gave Bobby a thankful smile.

He felt himself looking at the fire for a moment, the flames lingering on the ground until the simulation ended and all he could see were the steel metal plates.

,,All good, Bobby?" Logan asked, clutching his cigar between his lips as they both headed for the exit, to which he replied with a ,,Sure, training is exhausting," which Logan dismissed with a skeptical nod, not wanting to interfere in the teenagers' affairs.

Strictly speaking, they weren't teenagers, he was 19 and an adult according to the law and Rouge was 18 and an adult, so why was Logan still treating them all like that?

A question he couldn't finish thinking when he saw Rouge waiting for him in the corridor. But her look told the Cyrokinesian that it meant trouble. ,,I have no problem with you being gay Bobby really...but Kitty what was that about?" the gothic girl said and gave him a questioning look as they both walked slowly through the corridors.

A sigh escaped his lips and he knew something like this was coming. ,,She saved me from the racket, that's all. Really Rouge you know-" he wanted to finish his sentence but he could already feel the painful slap on his skin that she had gotten from Logan's power.

It still bothered her that she couldn't hold her friends for more than a few seconds and he saw how it bothered her more and more every day.

,,John...I know John's the only one and yet Bobby it's been months," she replied and even though they both knew the subject they were broaching was a sensitive one, it was a subject that had more of a future than Jean not being given up by Scott.

Now it was the ice creator's turn to give her a cold bite as they stepped outside into the courtyard and sat down under the tree as they had done then and Bobby could only grin bitterly.

It still hurt and with each passing day he seemed to feel John's kiss and warmth less and less. ,,I know Rouge I know how unlikely it is we're on two sides and yet you didn't leave Logan behind either," he argued and saw her nod, she would do anything for her father figure, probably follow him to his death and she could understand that it was hard.

Before the two of them became quiet, they looked up at the sky, where clouds were forming for a long time even though it was supposed to be sunny.

He briefly felt a hand on his, a squeeze from his girlfriend, a sign that she was still there for him before he nodded and closed his eyes, searching in the darkness for the flame that haunted him every night...searching again for John, trying to find him even if he wasn't a telepath the idea was nice.........the idea would be nice not to be in this miserable city the mutant thought to himself as his footsteps stopped through the dark alleys.

The fog wavered lightly over the ground and the moon only half peeked out from behind the clouds that had been hanging over the city for days and weeks. It was an atmosphere better than the friendly talk at the school, and yet that atmosphere meant trouble.

He kept one hand out of his pocket to have access to the flamethrowers on his wrists at all times. They had more power and stamina than the flamethrower in his pocket but sacrifices had to be made and this was a small one.

,,Where's the damn place," he muttered, having already passed countless postmortem homeless, lost mutants and the odd battered half-dead. He had to find the church where a meeting was to be held and that was all the information he had.

Playing with the cap of his zipo lighter in his trouser pocket and letting the click sound again and again, he was just coming back to one of the main streets when a bright poster caught the corner of his eye.

Walking to the wooden post on which numerous faded and old notes and signs were hanging, he saw the yellow slip. ,,Bingo," he said and was about to reach for his cell phone when he paused and looked over the note.

An older one was slightly faded, but the large X clearly showed him where and from whom the note came. Even now you're still following me...Bobby he thought contemptuously and tore the note off before looking at the crumpled X before he burned it to dust with ease and the gray fine mass slid to the ground from his hand.

He was no X-Men he had never been one they had never wanted him to begin with, an outsider among outsiders and he would not come back not for his "friends" and not...not for Bobby either.

With one last scornful look, suppressing the memory of his past, he pulled out his cell phone and called Magneto, who was waiting for him before answering. ,,I've got the location, we're ready to go," he said, sending his location to the older man before glancing at the church across the street with the note in his hand, which had clearly seen better days before he looked over at it and disappeared behind the large wooden doors with one last look behind him at the dark surroundings.

As soon as he entered, the smell of old damp wood, metal and dust hit him, something that was not necessarily pleasant, but he knew this smell of decay like the orphanage, like his home, and he tried to push this memory to the back of his mind, he had not thought about it for a long time and would not do so now. With a watchful, observant gaze, he remained at the back of the gathering, looking at the lost mutants and figures.

Disdain and hocmut lay in his dark eyes as he continued to play with his fire train and listen to the boring speech of naivety of the orator mutant who still believed in humans.

,,Stupid idiot" he mumbled and crumpled the yellow piece of paper before crushing it on the ground, he was here with Magneto to finally be a god, he was here to fulfill his destiny, he was here to be what he was meant to be and not to talk to humans.

After a few minutes he heard the door open again and he exchanged a look with Magneto as he rode in beside him. ,,That's enough shut up!" he shouted, making the speaker flinch as he moved him aside with a simple warning look to allow his new teacher and leader to take his place. He knew the words that overdraft power knew very well and would probably never have joined otherwise.

However, he saw the determination in the eyes of some of the members before with the words, ,,Follow me for a new age" they set off again he felt his anticipation for the fight for more of a purpose. ,,Hey, and what can you do?" he heard a male voice and saw amguy and three women standing with them.

Prowling punks as he would have categorized them, but when one suddenly got spikes that were not only deadly but also poisonous and the other suddenly flashed back and forth, he knew it could be interesting. ,,I can burn you and turn you to ash," he warned and saw the surprised expressions on the four of them before Erik stood in front of him and started talking to them.

Apparently they had found their first allies, it would only be a matter of time before the others and eventually everyone else joined in...and those who didn't would suffer the consequences.

,,We're going to get an old friend," Magneto decided and John knew when he meant the shapeshifter Mystique who was captured after she was supposed to provide documents on mutants for Erik.

,,And make everything a little more interesting," he said, seeing the smirk on the older man's lips before they stepped out of the church and back into the open air of dark New York. John felt the tingle in his body, the tingle of his mutation he could hardly wait to use his fire again it was time to put his past behind him once and for all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#x men 3 #x men #john allerdyce #bobby drake #john x bobby #allerdrake #bobby x john

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icy-cold-bitch-latte · 2 years ago

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How the Sides would comfort a trans reader who's feeling dysphoric

A/N: this is gender neutral so it can be read by any of my fellow trans peeps who's dysphoria has got them feeling down ✌✌

Warnings: talk of dysphoria, Remus in general lol

Patton

Patton gives you all the hugs, kisses and cuddles ever in order to cheer you up

He's very proud that you decided to tell him how you feel rather than bottling it up because he knows from personal experience that repressing your emotions does nothing but makes things worse

He's not the best at cooking but if you have a favorite go to comfort food that makes you feel better then for you he'll definitely try

He ends up wrapping you up in a ton of blankets and pillows and just lays with you on the couch for awhile

Roman

At first, Roman vows to vanquish the beast that's upsetting you...until he realizes it's not a physical threat you're facing, but a mental one

He tries to take your mind off it by telling you stories of his daring adventures, or by putting on your favorite Disney movie, whichever you prefer

He'll call you an enormous plethora of gender affirming pet names until you're basically begging him to stop, and even then he still refuses until you cave and admit what he always believed, that you're perfect in every way

Logan

Logan uses logistics to combat your insecurities by reassuring you that nobody has the power to tell you what gender you are or aren't, regardless of how you present

He makes to sure look up plenty of coping mechanisms and suggestions for how to deal with dysphoria ahead of time so he has ample knowledge and understanding for how to make you feel better

Not the best at comforting you if you happen to get emotional but he might give you a hug or something if it's clear you need one

Virgil

As a conscious being made up of anxiety, Virgil notices your panic and distress as soon as he sets foot in the same room as you (that's probably what urged him to seek you out in the first place tbh)

When you panic, he panics, but he tries to keep it together so you won't notice and get even more upset

He has several tried and true methods that always work to calm people down, so once that happens and you can explain to him what's up he understands almost immediately

If you want to talk about it, great, if not he's content to just listen to music with you and hang out until you feel better

Janus

You being upset, especially over a topic that's so serious, is not something Janus takes lightly

It may appear as though he doesn't care all that much at first due to his stoic expressions, but that's just because he's trying to think of the right thing to say

He may be the literal physical embodiment of deceit, but if you're upset he'll try his best to be honest with you about how much he cares

Brings out all six of his arms so you can have the most amount of cuddles and physical affection all at once

Remus

Remus's comforting skills leave a lot to be desired, so unless you can deal with him making the most random outrageous sex jokes in an effort to cheer you up it's probably best that you just spend some time alone for a bit

He's incredibly clingy however so it won't be long before he comes begging to you for attention, on literal hands and knees might I add

If you do let him stay with you when you're upset you should make it clear to him you're not in any sort of mood to deal with his shenanigans

He'll actually listen for once and the two of you end up pranking the other sides together until you eventually get bored and decide to watch some horror movies instead

Sanders Sides masterlist | 🏷 taglist: @iloveentrapta @feralwenis

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lily-janus · 2 years ago

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Brothers, am I right?

Summary: a classic fight between a hero and a villain takes a rather... interesting turn.

Pairings: platonic Loceit, platonic Analogical

Warnings: guns, weapons, death mentions, violence (not very destcrictive), rivalry, blood mention.

Word count: 3,185

For day 2 of @loceitweek Masks/Chalk.

This is a fun superhero AU I felt like writing^^ hope you enjoy!

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

Logan has fought many villains ever since he decided to use his powers for the greater good, in order to honor the memory of his late father.

But Logan won't be exaggerating when he said that Deceit was the worse one by far.

It's not that he was more powerful or smarter than his past enemies. No, he met Deceit at his best for the most part in those regards. What made him the worse villain Logan ever fought was simple, he could figuratively get under Logan's skin with nothing more than a single sentence.

It drove Logan crazy! They don't even know anything about each other's true identity and personal lives! And yet, it always seems as though Deceit can read him like Logan would easily read a book.

But, this time, Logan was determined not to let his sneaky way with words distract him. This time, Logan can't afford the mess up.

Because Deceit has decided to mess with forces he doesn't seem to understand, and Logan was the only one who can stop him.

It all started when he got an emergency signal from his - what would movies like to call - 'man in the chair', his scientist friend, Virgil.

He always helped Logan with either, figuring out his rival's next moves, making him useful gadgets, or simply just being a good friend and company to be around.

Logan always had a great appreciation for his intelligence and the brilliant way he tackled problems which allowed him to create some of the most unique weapons Logan has ever seen.

…just don't tell him any of that, every time Logan does it makes him uncomfortable even though these were merely facts.

Logan tasked Virgil with figuring out Deceit's next move, hoping he could finally be a few steps ahead of the sneaky villain.

So, when he got the emergency signal from him, he wasted no time and rushed towards their secret base fo find out what Virgil discovered.

"I received your signal, what is he planning to do?" Logan asked as soon as he stepped out of the elevator and caught sight of his friend.

Virgil was pacing and fidgeting with his lab coat, all signs of his clear distress, it must be bad then.

Upon hearing Logan's voice, Virgil froze in place and turned to look at him, biting his bottom lip idly. "It's… it's bad Logan, really really bad. I… I don't think anyone even tried something like that before… there's no telling what-"

"Virgil." Logan cut him off gently when he noticed Virgil started mattering to himself and spiraling deeper into his panic. "Slow down and tell me what you learned."

Virgil nodded, taking a deep breath, "somehow… Deceit found a way to take away powers… you know, turn them off."

Logan took his time to process that, it was the last thing he'd expected to hear from Virgil… and he wasn't sure how to respond.

"...how exactly is he planning to do that?" Logan settled on at the end.

Virgil went to his computer and typed a bit before projecting an image through the projector.

It looked like plans for some sort of weapon. "A machine that turns off powers?" Logan asked, just to be sure.

Virgil nodded, "it seems to be some kind of laser ray that alters the neurons in your body." He explained.

"Do we know what will happen for someone with powers if those would get taken away like that?" Logan asked next, as he examined closely the plans Virgil was projecting onto the wall.

"Yes… in theory at least. As I said, it's never been so much as experimented, all we have are scientific assumptions." Virgil said, starting to pace again to burn some of his nervous energy. "People with powers, like you, Logan. Their bodies work differently than those without. Studies show that the very basics of functions in your bodies rely on the powers you were born with." He stopped for a bit, letting that sink in a little.

"So taking the powers away, or turning them off…" Logan pieced it together out loud

"Could very much have the same effect as losing blood, or a heart… it could mean death, Logan." Virgil finished for him, and the gravity of the situation was finally fully realized for Logan.

Logan swallowed, "I have to stop him, do we know if he completed the weapon yet?"

Virgil shook his head with a grimace, "we don't know for sure where he is in the process of making this weapon, but I did manage to find out where he's building it. You're gonna have to sneak in there and destroy it before he gets a chance to use it." He explained.

Logan nodded, he was fairly certain that Deceit didn't know… or didn't care about what kind of damage his machine can cause, and it was up to Logan alone to make sure it doesn't get used. He can do this… he has to.

"Okay, send me the coordinates and I'll be on my way-" he started saying, but Virgil cut him off with a light chuckle.

"Hold your horses there, mister Save-The-Day, you're not seriously about to go to the snake's lair unarmed, are you?" Virgil said with slight amusement.

Logan blushed in embarrassment, how could he forget something as basic as taking a weapon to a fight?

"...right, of course, that was… what I was about to say as well." Logan said in hopes of keeping his compuser.

Virgil rolled his eyes, "sure you did, Specs. Anyway, I prepared your usual weapon belt," Virgil walked to a table a few feet away from them with various devices and lifted a belt with Logan's most preferable choice of weapons and handed it to him. "And take this, my newest invention, it should paralyze anyone within 10 feet of the user for about 30 minutes. It should give you enough time to destroy the machine if you were to get caught."

Virgil threw him what looked like a clicker of some kind, he raised an eyebrow at Virgil, "should? Are you using me as your figurative lab rat again?"

Virgil shrugged, "how else am I going to test my newest weapons? You don't want me using innocent people and get arrested, do you?"

Logan knew by now that Virgil was just being sarcastic, but the mental image still bothered him a little. "Fair point, thank you, Virgil, I couldn't ask for a better friend." Logan offered him a slight smile.

Virgil fidgeted in place uncomfortably, blushing, "...just don't die, okay?"

"I don't think I would be given much choice in the matter-"

"Logan!" Virgil protested.

"Okay, sorry, I won't die today, I promise to do everything in my power to prevent that." Logan relented and he could see the relief in Virgil as his shoulders slumped and he nodded.

"Good… good luck out there… and punch that snake in the face for me!" Virgil called after him as he left.

…

He arrived at the location Virgil sent him and saw an abandoned warehouse.

Cautiously, he moved inside, being wary of traps or cameras Deceit might have installed.

His powers allowed him to hear others thoughts as well as moving things with his mind and turning invisible, which was what he did now in case someone was watching the place.

There was nothing in the first floor, as far as Logan could tell, so he went up the stairs to the next. They were a bit squeaky, though, and Logan looked around frantically, hoping no one noticed.

When nothing happened, he continued on his way.

Now this floor looked more like Logan expected, different tools and machinery scattered about on tables, and when he reached the center, there was a large object covered in a white sheet.

Watching his steps and looking around carefully, Logan walked closer to what seemed to be the machine Virgil was telling him about.

Something felt off, though, it was too easy and obvious, it felt more like…

He stepped back at just the right moment before a net shot from the ground where he'd been standing and hang in the air.

A trap.

"Aww, you're no fun, I almost had you." He heard a familiar, sleek voice and turned around to find Deceit smirking at him.

He was wearing his usual yellow, snake skin, suit, with his mask that covered his entire face and only left the mouth, nose and eyes exposed. Half of the mask had scales in it, while the other was plain yellow.

"Deceit, this time you went too far." Logan hissed.

Deceit clicked his tongue, shaking his head, "oh Logic, Logic, Logic. That is what you always say. You really need to learn what fun means." He chuckled, walking slowly closer to Logan.

"I know what fun means, Deceit, it does not include hurting and killing people." Logan said angrily in response, "this machine that you're building can do irreversible damadge! Did you think about that? Or do you not really care?"

Deceit shrugged, "people die all the time anyway, so why aren't I allowed to have some fun out of it huh? Tell me." He smiled a sinister smile.

Logan growled in frustration, "you're not listening!"

"Well you're not captivating your audience." He rolled his eyes, "really, Teach, it's like you're not even trying to sound convincing."

Logan shook his, trying to get Deceit out of his head, trying to focus on his mission. Get in, destroy the machine, get out.

He turned invisible again and dashed towards the machine, pulling out his laser gun from his belt and preparing to shoot it at the device under the sheet.

But, as his first shot hit it… it vanished into smoke, together with the tables with tools.

An illusion.

But, by the time he turned around to face Deceit again, it was too late. Deceit had already pulled out his own gun and was pointing it directly at him.

"Surely you don't think I'm stupid enough to leave my toys laying around where every hero can walts in and ruin them?" Deceit said, amused.

Logan wanted to hit himself, of course he wouldn't… such a foolish oversight in his part, it was too obvious for someone as sneaky.

"Now, be a good boy and drop your gun if you please." Deceit drawled, sounding a lot more satisfied by the situation than Logan would have liked.

Gritting his teeth, Logan let go of his laser gun and kicked it towards Deceit, this was not looking good for him, he needs a new plan. But Deceit made it so hard for him to think!

"There we go, now that's much better, isn't it?" Deceit snikered, continuing to mock Logan.

Logan closed his eyes. This was it, he was about to break his promise to Virgil, he was going to die.

"Take off your mask." Deceit ordered instead of shooting.

Logan opened his eyes slowly to stare in surprise at the villain in front of him, "what?"

Deceit rolled his eyes, "I know you heard me, c'mon, you might not be the brightest but surely you're not deaf too?" He raised an eyebrow.

Logan swallowed, trying to figure out Deceit's objective here. "W-why?"

"I believe I'm the one with the gun here, I ask the questions, Logic. Take it off." Deceit said, sounding impatient.

Seeing no other choice, Logan grabbed the edges of his mask and slowly pulled it off, being careful around his glasses.

He didn't understand the situation, what could Deceit gain from this? Deceit never did anything if it wasn't in his own best interests. But only seeing Logan's face won't reveal his true identity. Not right away at least… unless they know each other without knowing it… could Deceit have found out something about Logan's true identity?

No… that's impossible… right?

Deceit drew a shaky breath as Logan tossed his mask aside.

"Impossible…" he mattered to himself, "how is this possible?" His hands started to shake around his gun, "L-Logan?" He asked with a sob.

Logan frowned, "do I… know you?" He tried hard to recognize Deceit's voice from his civilian life but nothing came to mind… What's going on here?

"You don't remember… of course you don't, they loved playing with our minds since we were kids…" Deceit continue to matter nonsense and Logan tried desperately to make sense of it.

Who's they? Play with our minds? His parents had mind manipulation powers but they'd never… would they?

"What are you talking about? W-who are you?" Logan asked, confused. Deceit was acting… strange, could this just be another one of his tricks? But for what? He already had Logan unarmed and unmasked, why would he need to trick him?

Deceit moved his hand and Logan flinched, thinking he's going to shoot him after all. But all he did was remove his own mask.

Underneath was a massive scar covering the left side of his face, one of his eyes were green while the other was chocolate brown, and he was looking at Logan with such longing and sadness that had Logan frozen to the spot.

"My name is Janus, I got kidnapped 15 years ago and was presumed dead ever since… I didn't think I had any family left… I barely escaped and have just been trying to survive ever since." Dece- Janus, explained, then lowered his gun with a sigh. "Logan… I'm your brother."

Logan shook his head frantically, "that's not possible, I'm an only child." He insisted, none of it made sense!

Janus let out an empty chuckle, shaking his head, "no, Logan, don't you get it? Our parents erased your memories of me." He countered, "they arranged for me to get kidnapped! They never approved of me, they thought my powers were too villainous, they were afraid of me…" he trailed off with another sigh, "who am I kidding? You're not going to believe a word I say…" he covered his face with his hand.

Logan thought briefly about escaping, Janus wasn't pointing his gun at him anymore and he was clearly deranged… but, a spark of curiosity at this strange behavior kept him where he was. Plus… there was something familiar about Janus… something he couldn't explain.

"...can you prove it?" Logan asked after a while of consideration.

Janus removed his hand from his face and stared at Logan with a spark of hope in his mismatched eyes, "what?"

"Can you prove we're related? …that you're my brother?" He couldn't believe he was asking that but, as crazy as Janus' story sounds… what kind of scientist would he be if he didn't at least test it out?

"Is our resemblance not enough?"

Ah, there's a familiar tone from the guy he's been fighting for the past few months, joking.

But Logan looked closely anyway, there wasn't anything he found to be very similar about their features and the massive scar on half of Janus' face wasn't helping…. But, his eyes.

One of them an earthy green, like Logan's… like his mother. And the other… the other a warm, chocolaty brown… like Logan's dad.

"No… it's a start though." Logan said as he continued to inspect the man in front of him, "anything more?"

Janus laughed lightly, shaking his head, "always so serious…" he thought for a moment, "well, I know you were always way too smart for your own good, you have a weird and pretty entertaining habit of taking things too literally, Agatha Christie is your favorite author… should I continue?"

Logan swallowed, shaking his head, "you could have learned that from Virgil somehow, tell me something only my brother would know and maybe I'll take your story into consideration." He tried desperately to keep his composure but the possibility of him having a long lost brother was… bothersome.

Janus sighed, "well, how about this then, I know that, deep down, you never wanted to be a hero."

The words seemed to hit Logan like a punch to his gut and he tensed, looking wide eyed at Janus. "N-no… you're wrong! I chose this path I-"

"Did you? Or did our parents make you think that this was the only path you can choose? I know you, Logan. We would often talk about it. You expressed to me your desire to simply live your life, instead of carrying the world's weight on your shoulders… you don't believe in heroes and villains, you never did." Janus insisted, walking slowly closer as he talked.

Logan was frozen to the spot… he never told anyone that… there's no way Janus could have found out… could he have simply guessed it? No, it's too accurate for a guess… but how?

"I… never told anyone… not even Virgil… how did you.." the words got stuck in his throat, this can't be true! But at the same time… it has to be true to make sense…

He didn't realize how close Janus got until he felt the light touch of his hand on his shoulder, Janus was smiling softly at him. "I missed you so much, Logan."

Logan pulled away slightly, just enough so he could feel like he could breathe again. "Hold on a moment… what about all this?" He gestured towards Janus' costume and where they were right now, "the damage you caused? The people you hurt?"

Janus raised an eyebrow, "name one person I actually killed or hurt beyond recovery. I told you, I'm just trying to survive, I'm supposed to be dead so can't really have a job, being a hero doesn't really pay and brings too much attention… The villain act was the only thing I could think of, it also helped a bit with the boredom." He laughed slightly, shrugging.

Logan narrowed his eyes, "and what about the weapon you're building?"

Janus waved dismissively, "a ruse to get you here, fed Virgil some incorrect information, wasn't hard. You were gaining on me too much and I just wanted to know who you are to get some advantage… didn't expect you to be my little brother though…" he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I see…" was all Logan can think of saying before he went quiet again.

"Does that mean… you believe me now?" Janus asked, looking hesitant but hopeful. "Can we stop fighting each other and go back to being brothers?"

Logan drew a shaky breath, "I… I don't know… I guess it's a start-" he was cut off by Janus crushing him with a hug, something Logan is not usually a fan of, but he found the embrace oddly familiar and found himself melting into it.

"I missed you… Logan, my little genius, I won't leave you again, I promise." Janus whispered softly in his ear, still refusing to let go.

"I think… I think I missed you too, in a way." Logan said, surprised at how true those words felt. My little genius… just like his father used to call him…

They stayed like that for a long while, neither wanting to let go ever again.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fanfic #loceitweek2023 #day 2 chalk/masks #Lily writes #cw gun mention #cw weapon #cw blood mention #tw death mention #cw violence #platonic loceit #platonic analogical #ts logan #ts janus #ts virgil

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hbosucc · 1 year ago

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Greg Hirsch x Reader: Chapter 8

Link to previous chapter (18+ only, minors dni!) here.

This chapter is kind of part two to the previous one; it picks up right after the last one ended.

Content Warnings, same as always:

Sexual Content (only mentioned in this chapter, no explicit scenes, but it's still an 18+ chapter)

Swearing

Alcohol consumption

Mention of drug use

Maybe fluff towards the end??

That's all! I'm having a really weird, difficult time irl right now, and posting these is something fun to look forward to. So, if you're reading, thank you:) xoxoxo

Chapter 8: Meeting the Fam, Part II

Back in the main room, I craned my head to look for Greg. I spotted him at the bar and had to stop myself from breaking into a run. He glanced up and met my eyes as I approached him, his smile disappearing as he saw the traces of unease I hadn’t been able to wipe from my face.

“Hey, are you okay? I just saw your text.” He asked, taking my hand as I reached him.

“Yeah, no, I’m fine.” I gave my best attempt at a smile, looking over my shoulder, then back up at him.

“Are you sure? I was looking for you for, like, a while.” He looked concerned, which almost made me start crying again.

“I’m sure.” I squeezed his hand. “What did Kendall want?”

“Just, like, family drama, which is also work drama, like usual.” Greg sighed. “They really can’t chill out, even for one night.”

“God, that sucks.” I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” Greg lowered his voice. “You’re kind of…I don’t know, something feels different?”

“I’m…” I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked up at him. “I just did coke, Greg.”

“Oh, oh.” Greg’s eyebrows went up. “Okay, gotcha. No, that makes sense. Um.”

“I know.” I nodded. “There was this really nice girl I met in the bathroom, and she asked me if I wanted a bump, and I said sure, why not.” I felt bad lying to him, but Tom’s warning from earlier about ruining Greg’s career rang through my mind. Tom was a prick, but there was still something that felt dangerous about him. And as much as I hated Waystar, I did not want to be responsible for Greg getting fired.

“Oh, I see.” Greg nodded. “That’s cool, I mean, I don’t care that you did it—I mean, I’ve done it before, too, just so you know—I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Thank you.” I lowered my voice. “I’m wondering if it was cut with something weird, though, and that’s why I was feeling so sick at first. I’m okay now, though, I think.”

“Are you sure? I mean, we can totally blow this off, and, like, head home, if you’re not feeling well.”

“Really?” I asked, looking up at him.

“Yeah, totally.” He nodded. “I think Logan’s supposed to be giving a speech at some point, but I don’t really need to stay for that.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.” I leaned against him, glancing out over the crowd. I saw that Tom had reappeared across the room and was now talking to his wife. His eyes met mine for a moment, a smile tugging up the corner of his lips.

“Do you want to just go back to my place? I mean, it’s closer, and you haven’t been over yet.”

“Yeah, we can do that.” I ripped my gaze away, meeting Greg’s eyes again, giving him a more successful smile this time. I really was interested to see his apartment.

“Okay, cool. I’ll call the driver if you go get our coats? Meet you out there?”

“Okay.” I nodded, taking his coat check ticket and heading for the exit, keeping my gaze straight ahead, my shoulders back.

I got our coats and stepped out into the frigid air, wrapping mine around myself and trying not to shiver. My legs were mostly bare, and I shifted from foot to foot, trying to warm myself. I felt my phone vibrate and I pulled it out to see a text from an unsaved number.

Remember what I told you.

My fingers shook as I tried to think of how to respond, if I should at all, and I knew it wasn’t just from the cold. I wasn’t surprised that Tom had been able to find my number—not really. I put the phone back in my pocket, wrapping my coat tighter around myself. I was about to head back inside to wait for Greg, the cold outweighing my fear of running into Tom yet again, but then I saw Greg heading towards me. The car pulled up, and the driver came around to open the door for us.

In the warmth of the car, I still shivered, scooting closer to Greg and laying my chin on his shoulder. He squeezed my thigh, then interlocked his fingers with mine.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Do you want me to turn up the heat more, or anything?” He asked softly, brushing some of my hair back from my face.

“No, it’s okay. I’m warming up now.” I smiled. “I’m excited to finally see your place.”

“I am, too! It’s kind of crazy. I don’t know if I told you, but Kendall, who you met tonight, actually owns the place, and he’s kind of just, like, letting me live there right now.”

“Really?” I asked. “That’s really cool of him.”

“I know, right?” He went on to tell me the story of how he hadn’t been able to believe it at first, that he’d thought Kendall had been playing a joke on him. Given the initial impressions I’d gotten of his family members, that didn’t surprise me.

We pulled up to his building and he helped me out, leading the way inside, then up in the building’s elevator, almost to the top floor. When the door slid open to reveal his apartment, I was surprised at its size, despite how he’d already described it to me. It had the tallest ceilings I’d ever seen in an NYC apartment—or any apartment, anywhere, really.

“Jesus, this is incredible.” I breathed, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over the lit-up city.

“It is. I still can’t believe I get to live here sometimes. Like, I keep waiting for him to kick me out.” He let out a nervous laugh.

“That’s kinda fucked up.” I turned to face him, leaning against the glass.

“Yeah, it is.” He sighed, coming over to me. “Hey, did anyone…did any of them say anything, like, weird to you? I mean, I saw that Tom was with you at the bar while Kendall and I were talking, and then, like, the next time I looked over, you were both gone.”

I closed my eyes, leaning into his chest. I didn’t want to lie to him. The truth swirled around inside of me, and I felt a wave of nausea as the mix of no food, lots of alcohol, and two lines caught up with me.

“I’m going to throw up,” I choked out, realizing I didn’t know where his bathroom was.

“Oh, fuck, okay, it’s this way.” He read my mind, pulling me down a hallway and into a bathroom, flipping the light on. I bent over the toilet, making it just in time for my guts to upend themselves, spilling the evening’s overpriced g&t’s into the bowl.

Another wave came up, and then everything was out, nothing left inside of me. I felt Greg’s hands in my hair, smoothing it back from my face. I spit into the toilet and closed the lid, flushing and propping up my head, unable to look up at him.

“I’m sorry.” I croaked. “You didn’t have to—you didn’t have to stay.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” He said, rubbing my back slowly. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m—I’m fine now.” I pushed myself up and stood shakily, looking at myself in the mirror. My makeup was streaked down my face, my hair mussed, my eyes red and teary. “Fuck.”

“Do you need to throw up more, or do you want to go lie down?”

“I think I’m done. Do you have, like, mouthwash or anything?” I asked, leaning on the counter, my head in my hands.

“Yeah, I’ll go get some. Be right back.” I heard him pad down the hall and open another door. I spat into the sink and turned on the tap, rinsing my mouth with water while I waited. How much did I need to tell him? How much could I tell him?

“Here,” He reappeared in the doorway, handing me a bottle of Listerine.

“Thanks,” I took a big swig, swishing it around between my teeth for a minute, until it stung my gums, then spat the minty foam and rinsed it down the drain.

“Do you want, like, one of my shirts to wear to bed?” He looked like he wanted to reach out and touch me, but hesitated.

“That would be great, yeah.” I nodded. He led us down the hall to his bedroom, which was just as big as I’d imagined it would be, having seen the rest of the apartment. “You don’t have any makeup wipes, do you?”

“No, sorry.” He shook his head, rummaging through his drawers. He pulled out a white t-shirt and handed it over.

“That’s okay. Can you help me with the zipper?” I turned around, and he pulled the zipper down so I could slide the dress off of my body. I shuddered as I remembered how Tom had done the same thing just hours before. I unhooked my bra quickly, pulling the t-shirt on to cover myself.

“Y/n.” He took my hands in his. “Please just tell me what’s wrong.”

“I…” I started, swallowing, closing my eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. I opened my eyes and looked up at him, into his searching gaze. “Tom was being, like, kind of weird.”

“How—how so?” He sat down on the bed, pulling me to him.

“When you weren’t around he…he was just…I don’t know, like, weirdly interested in me, I guess.” I bit my lip. “But I was worried because if I told you anything, and he found out, he said he’d…” I was still too high, and having to deal with conflict felt incredibly overwhelming, and I collapsed, sniffling into his chest.

“Fucking Tom, oh my God.” He sighed, pulling me onto his lap.

“Please don’t let him know I even said—said anything.” I whispered, another sob coming out.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay.” He wrapped his arms around me. “I’m not scared of Tom, okay? You don’t need to worry. Whatever he said he’d do to me, don’t worry about it.

“Did he…” Greg trailed off, and I looked up at him. “Did he do anything to you?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Almost, but no. He said he was, like, just joking with me or something.”

He ran a hand over my hair, reaching down to wipe my tears with his thumb. “God, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have…I should’ve realized he would do something tonight.”

“It’s not your fault.” I whispered, swiping at my face. “I’m gonna go wash my face, okay? Be right back.”

I got up and went back to the bathroom, cleaning off my face the best I could with soap and water—I knew it wasn’t great for my skin, but it was probably better than sleeping in a full face of makeup. I padded back to the bedroom and found him sitting in the same spot, on his phone.

“You’re not texting him, are you?” I balked in the doorway.

“Hey, come here.” He opened his arms, and I allowed myself to be wrapped in them once more. “I don’t want you to worry about Tom. He’s a dick, yeah, but he’s kind of…like, on the outs with the fam right now. He’s impotent, okay? I’m not worried about him.”

“If you’re sure…” I swallowed.

“I’m sure.” He laid back against the pillows, pulling me down with him. “I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

“It’s not your fault.” I said again, burying my face in his chest.

“Is there anything I can do? To make you feel better?” He ran a hand over my hair, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

“I don’t think so. I’m okay.” I whispered. I wished I could just go to sleep, but I was still too wired from the coke. It was going to be a very long night.

“You don’t want me to kill him, or anything?” He asked, and I giggled, trying to stifle the noise with my hand. “What, you don’t think I can put out a hit on him?”

“Not really.” I said, pressing my lips together, but more laughter spilled out, and he joined in, still holding me close.

“You don’t want me to have the mob take him out?” He teased, and I shook my head, giving him a kiss.

“No, if you’re going to kill him, I want you to do it yourself.” I rubbed my nose against his. He’d succeeded in making me feel better, at least for the moment.

“Well, whatever you want.” He pressed another kiss to my lips, and I let myself melt into him before pulling back. “Do you want to go to bed?”

I shook my head. “I’m kind of tired, but I’m not going to be able to sleep for a while.”

“Do you want to watch a show or something, then?” He asked, rolling over to grab a remote from his nightstand.

“Sure.” I sat up as he scrolled through some options, landing on something light and stupid, pressing play on a random episode.

“Are you hungry at all?” He asked. “I have, like, cereal, and probably some chips and stuff.”

“No, I’m okay.” I smiled. His place was such a bachelor pad. “Thank you, though. You’re the sweetest.”

“Nah, I’m not.” He protested, but I could see that he was pleased.

“You are, too.” I kissed his cheek, moving down to his neck.

“For real, though, do you need anything?” He looked at me, our eyes locking in the dim light coming from the TV screen. It might’ve been the fact that I was high, but it felt like he was looking straight into me, reading my mind.

“No, no, I’m…I’m good.” I whispered. “Just need you here, with me. That’s all.”

“Okay.” He breathed out, pulling me closer to him once again, our limbs wrapping around each other, my ear pressed to his chest. I could hear his heartbeat, thumping away, and relaxed into the sound. I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while yet, but that was okay, as long as I could stay with him, just like this.

#hbo succession #succession #succession fanfic #succession imagine #greg hirsch #greg hirsch x reader #succession x reader #x reader #gregory hirsch

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ejsandfarkleslovebot · 2 months ago

Text

Big Time Live

Andi couldn't believe it that she and the boys are scheduled to preform live on TV. She has always wanted to sing live on TV so this was a dream come true for her. But she hated the fact they had to wake up early. She wasn't a morning person and the thought of dragging herself out of bed before the sun had even risen made her groan inwardly. Yet, the excitement of the opportunity overshadowed her reluctance to wake up early.

Andi, Katie, Jennifer who is Kendall's and Katie's mom, and the boys are currently at the place where the boys would preform. Andi noticed that her set up for her performance was beside their set up.

"Can you believe this?" James asks. "We're preforming on live TV." He said excitedly, his voice filled with excitement.

"Are you sure?" Andi yawns. "I'm not even fully awake yet so I could be dreaming. Ow!" She rubs the spot on her arm where Carlos pinched. "Carlos!"

"What?" Carlos looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. "I pinched you to help you make sure you aren't dreaming."

"Thanks," Andi sighs. "I guess."

Logan groans. "Can you believe it's five am?"

Kendall yawns. "Why do early morning shows have to shoot so early in the morning?"

"Why'd you have to yawn?" Andi questions, looking at him with a small glare after she yawns again. "Great, you made me yawn."

Kendall chuckles. "Sorry."

"I hope I don't regret waking up this early." Andi complains, leaning on James as they walked towards their set up. "I just want to go back to sleep."

James chuckles and kisses her forehead, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to help steady her since she was practically leaning on him. "You'll be fine. I'd expected you to be more excited. You get to sing your song on live TV today. And you get to watch us preform. How cool is that?"

"Very," Andi smiles a little though it fell a few moments later as another yawn left her. "You know what else is cool? Sleeping. Oh, how I wish I was asleep right now." She whined, resting her head on James's shoulder. She was still a bit sleepy and wasn't sure if she was going to survive until it was her turn to preform. She'd need a lot of caffeine.

Andi's friends chuckled at her sleepy antics, understanding her struggle but also sharing in her excitement for the day ahead. They knew that once she hit the stage, all traces of sleepiness would vanish, replaced by her trademark energy and enthusiasm.

James shakes his head. "You are something else, Andi."

"Yeah, well, I'm not fully awake yet. Ow!" She glares at Carlos, who had just pinched her again. "Okay, that's it! If anyone else tries to pinch me again, I will pinch back."

"Ooh, I'm so scared." Carlos said sarcastically, grinning at her.

"You should be." Andi warned, though there was a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. She had to admit, their playful banter was helping to wake her up, even if she was still longing for her bed.

Kendall goes to push his mom off her shoulder since she was still asleep. "Don't wake her." Katie stops him while she plays her Nintendo DS. "She hasn't had her eight hours of sleep yet."

Kendall nods and pats his mom's head. "Andi and Big Time Rush. Huge Fan." The group looks over at a red haired woman who walked over to them. "I'm Jane Kennedy, the producer, and welcome to 'A.M. L.A.'. LA's number one morning show."

Jane giggles and gestures for them to follow her. "Come on." They follow Jane over to where she points at a man who was reading a script while drinking coffee. "That is LA's number one morning host, Miles Bainbridge, warming up LA's number one teleprompter."

"No, I'm pretty sure Los Angeles is just one word." Miles said.

"Come on." The group follows Jane again to a room that had a chair, a couch, a tv, and a table full of food. "This is the green room where you can relax, eat,"

Carlos, James, and Logan immediately rush over to the table of food and Kendall was quick to follow after he set his mom on the couch. Andi followed the boys to the food table because it was early and she hasn't ate breakfast yet. Andi started eating the granola bar she grabbed from the table, looking at the person Jane just gestured to. "And meet our other guests like actor environmentalist Ed Begley Jr."

"Hey, guys." Ed greets, standing up. "I'm here to promote my new line of environmental friendly-"

"Keep it fresh for the show, Ed." Jane interrupted him. Ed nodded and sat back down.

Jane turns to Andi and the boys with a smile. "Yeah. We are so excited to have Andi and BTR at 'A.M. L.A.', and I just know that our three million viewers will be excited too." Another woman came into the room holding a clipboard and wearing a headpiece hands the clipboard to Jane.

"Well," Kendall smiles. "We are very excited to be here."

"Yeah, the show's running long." Jane notices, handing the clipboard to the woman. She looks at Andi and the boys, who all look at her with wide eyes at what she says next. "You guys are cut."

Jane points at Kendall's mom. "Wake up mommy and get out."

When she and the other woman leaves the room, Ed looks at Andi and the boys. "Harsh."

Andi looked over at James, furrowing her eyebrows and growing concerned for him at seeing he's not blinking. Kendall waved a hand in front of James' face, trying to bring him out of his state of shock.

Kendall looks at Andi with panic. "What just happened?"

Andi shakes her head and frowns. "One minute my dream came true and next minute it was crushed." James pointed at her in a sign of agreement.

"The official term is you got bumped." Ed told them.

"Leave me out of this." Katie speaks up. "I'm on level twelve of 'Castle Bashers', and I have to get my four knights to the ring of fire." She grinned as she continued to play her game.

Andi and the boys quickly run out of the room and catch up with Jane. "What do you mean 'cut'?" Logan questioned.

Jane turns to face each of them. "It means I have to cut time from my show, and you were in it."

James nervously laughs. "Wait, but being on live TV is number seven on my list of things to do before I'm twenty."

Andi, Carlos, Kendall, and Logan looks at him weirdly. Logan shakes his head. "You don't have a list."

James takes his list out of his pocket to prove it, speaking dramatically. "Oh, I have a list."

"Look, you just said you were excited to have us." Carlos pointed out.

Jane nods. "I'm a producer. I lie. And my show is seven minutes and seven seconds too long." She shoves the schedule to Logan. "And LA needs their traffic, weather, stock reports, celebrity interviews, and cooking tips. What they don't need to see is a wannabe singer and a stupid boy band."

Andi and the boys look at her with offense and James even gasped. "Ouch." Andi muttered. She may have only known the boys for a few months, but they were more than a stupid boy band to her. They were her friends and family, and she wasn't going to let some producer talk about them that way. She wouldn't let that producer talk badly about her either, not when they had worked so hard to get here. She was determined to stand up for them, even if she had a slight fear of confrontation.

"The boys aren't a stupid boy band!" Andi defends them. "Okay...Maybe sometimes they do dumb things, but they're a talented group of guys who have worked hard to get where they are. And I'm not a wannabe singer, okay? I'm a hardworking performer who has put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into my craft, and I won't let anyone take that away from me. Especially not some arrogant producer who thinks she can just cut us from the show without even giving us a chance." Andi's voice was filled with determination as she spoke, her eyes flashing with defiance. She wasn't going to let anyone belittle her or the boys, not when they had come so far and worked so hard to achieve their dreams.

Jane raises an eyebrow at Andi's outburst, clearly taken aback by her boldness. "Well, aren't you feisty," She says, her tone laced with sarcasm. "But I'm afraid my decision is final. You're cut from the show, end of story."

Andi crosses her arms over her chest, refusing to back down. "No, it's not the end of the story," She retorts defiantly. "We deserve to be on that stage just as much as anyone else, and we're not going to let you push us around. We'll find a way to make our voices heard, with or without your precious TV show."

Jane rolls her eyes, clearly unimpressed by Andi's defiance. "Good luck with that," She says dismissively, turning to leave. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up. The show must go on, with or without you." She then turned and left the group.

"I did not get up at five am to be treated like this!" Kendall exclaimed out of frustration, clearly upset about this just like his friends. Andi, Carlos, James, and Logan nodded in agreement.

Andi's heart ached for the boys. They were all so disappointed, and it broke her heart to see them like this. They had worked so hard to get to this point, and now it felt like all their dreams were slipping through their fingers. But they had to figure out a way to fix this.

****

Andi and the boys surround Jane after looking at the schedule and finding out what set she was at. "So, um, we looked at the schedule..." Kendall started.

Logan lays the schedule on the moveable podium Jane stood in front of. "And if you trim just a little time from the weather, the chef dude's weekend recipe, the market update, and cut one Hollywood minute..."

"You'll have time for Andi and Big Time Rush." Carlos finished.

James gets out his list. "And I can check 'live TV face time' off my list."

"This is good." Jane comments. "No, this-this works." She smiles a bit. "I think I owe you guys an apology."

At first Andi believed her, then she remembered Jane saying that she lies and she had a bad feeling Jane was currently lying to them. "Follow me." Jane tells them, gesturing Andi and the boys to follow. "I'm gonna tell the director to make these changes right now."

"I feel like you're lying." Andi commented, narrowing her eyes at Jane. She wasn't entirely sure what it was, but something told her that Jane wasn't being entirely honest.

Her comment goes ignored as Jane leads them to a door that had a 'special waiting room' sign on it. "But I need for you guys to wait in our special waiting room."

The boys were first to go out the door, but before she follows them Andi turns to Jane. "Yeah," Andi nods. "You're totally lying."

Jane smirks. "Yep." Andi gasped when Jane pushed her out the door, closing it behind her. She stumbled a little, but thankfully Kendall had reached over to help steady her. Her heart fluttered at his touch as his hands rested on her hips for a second.

"Thanks." She muttered, a blush tinting her cheeks.

He grins. "No problem." He removed his hands from her and she immediately missed the contact.

"Get out of my face," Andi and the boys turn around when they hear Jane's voice on the intercom. "You stupid singing teens."

"Of course," Kendall said. "You realize..."

"This means war." Andi and the boys spoke in unison dramatically.After Kendall texted Katie to come and open the door since it was locked, it only took a few moments for Katie to get there and open the door. "I thought I told you to leave me out of this." Katie sighs. Andi chuckles a bit at seeing she was still playing her game. "I have to defeat the she-beast before she destroys the dwarf people."

Andi and the boys apologize and tell her thank you as they quickly run inside. As they get back inside they each wear blue bandanas, sunglasses, and Carlos even had on his helmet. "Okay," Kendall speaks. "Operation 'Cut time from 'A.M L.A.' so Andi and Big Time Rush can preform on tv' is under way."

Andi shakes her head at the operation name. Logan looks at Kendall with raised eyebrows. "That's a really long operation name."

"Ooh, how about something like 'Operation Winter Blitz'." Carlos suggested.

Andi nods. "That would work if it was winter."

"Just move out." Kendall told them and they each quickly ran off different ways.

Logan grabs a nearby laptop and after James connects the laptop to the teleprompter the two meet Andi, Carlos, and Kendall in a nearby storage room. "We're in." Logan smiles when the teleprompter showed up on the laptop screen. "The teleprompter is ours."

Carlos points at him. "Give us a good intro."

Andi smiles at the introduction Logan gave them. "Also joining us live in the studio celebrity environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., and a musical performance by the greatest female singer in the history of the world, Andi, and right after will be a musical performance by the greatest band in the history of the world, Big Time Rush."

From her place beside Carlos, Andi looks at the door when James walks into the storage room, closing the door behind him. He smirks. "Being the greatest band in the history of the world," He shows his list and checks it off. "Check."

James then goes to sit on the floor beside Andi while Kendall says, "Now to shave some time off morning update."

Thanks to Logan's fast typing skills he managed to make the teleprompter speed through the morning updates, but Andi honestly felt bad for Miles since he is having to say it this fast.

Andi and the boys scream when the door suddenly bursts open revealing an angry Jane. "Hey, there...You." Kendall nervously smiled.

Jane glares at each of them, pulling out the blue cord that connected the laptop their using to the teleprompter. Andi and the boys stand up, looking at Jane with nervous smiles. "So..." Andi drags out the word, looking at Jane with a small smile. "Good news! You're gonna have enough time for us to perform on the show."

Jane pulls out her walkie-talkie, ordering security to get Andi and the boys. "We should run." Logan realized, looking scared.

Andi grimaces as she nods in agreement. "Yeah, I think you're right."

Andi and the boys run out of the storage room and end up running past the green room where Katie, Mrs. Knight, and Ed are still at while they tried to run away from the security guards that are chasing after them. At one point Andi and the boys end up at the traffic set.

Andi lowered the sunglasses she wore, furrowing her eyebrows as she glances at the camera crew for the traffic set, wondering how they got there. When Kendall grabbed her arm and when she heardthe boys let out a small scream, she knew that the security guards were catching up to them. She looked at the guy telling the traffic reports with an apologetic expression before she quickly followed the boys.

Finally they close a door behind them, thinking that they were safe. They were wrong when the door a few feet in front of them opens revealing the security guards. "Retreat!" Andi and the boys shout, trying to open the door again only to find out it's locked.

"It's locked." Logan sighed as they turned back to the security guards.

"We've got the perps." The security guard in front said into his walkie-talkie. "Are we authorized to use force?"

Andi and the boys look at the security guards with fear when they hear Jane reply with, "Absolutely."

Andi glares at the walkie-talkie. "How rude."

Andi looks at James who stood beside her when he looks through his small notebook that he had his list in. "Get beat up by security guards?" He laughs nervously, looking back at the security guards. "Nope, not on my list."

Andi scoots closer to the boys when the security guards get closer to them. "Logan, options, now." Kendall demanded.

"Well, there's five of us, and three of them," Logan points out. "But their huge, so..."

Andi looks at him with wide eyes. "We're dead?"

"We might be." Logan agrees, looking just as panicked as Andi felt. "But I was actually gonna say we should scream."

"Yeah, okay." Andi replied and screamed along with the boys out of fear and panic. This wasn't how she thought this morning was going to happen. She didn't wake up this morning just for it to end with her and her boys getting beaten up by security guards.

They stop screaming and look at the three security guards with confusion when they started twitching. The three security guards then fell to the floor revealing Katie who saved Andi and the boys with the help of two tasers.

"Katie?" The five of them asked, looking at Katie with surprise. They didn't expect her to suddenly show up and take the security guards or but they were beyond thankful she did that.

Katie drops the tasers onto the ground, looking at the five teens with an annoyed expression. "Thanks." She takes her Nintendo DS out of her back pocket. "I was just about to beat the castle guards so I can get to the final boss level."

Andi looks at her with an apologetic expression while apologizing along with the boys. Before Katie leaves, Kendall stops her. "Oh, Katie. Could you keep mom asleep? She doesn't need to see any of this, right?"

Katie sighs and walks away. "But," Logan looks at Kendall with confusion. "Seriously, where'd she get that taser, man?"

Kendall shakes his head, his eyebrows furrowed with confusion. "I don't know."

****

Andi and the boys are now dressed up in different costumes. Why? Andi has no idea, but she just went along with it. Carlos was dressed as a police officer, Logan was dressed as a pharaoh, and James was dressed as a fisherman. Andi wasn't for sure what Kendall was supposed to be dressed as but what he had on reminded her of Abraham Lincoln. For her costumes she was dressed as Ed Begley Jr's assistant who was going to help him present his new environmental line of items.

Once the show was live James went on the nearby stairs, using the fishing pol that was with his fisherman costume to take away Ed's win-powered spinning tie rack. While Ed and Miles were distracted Logan took Ed's soy mulch energy drink and drank it all. Andi got on the bike that was going to power the toaster and started peddling when she heard Ed and Miles talking about the toaster.

She flipped her hair that she used to cover her face over to smirk at Jane while waving at her. Jane gasped, looking at her with wide eyes. Andi faced downward, fixing her hair so it was covering her face again before Miles and Ed looked back at her. She sped fast enough so that the bike was unconnected and drove right towards the Hollywood minute background, knocking it over.

Andi gets up, fixing her hair that was all over her face. "I'm good." She said to everyone, smirking when Jane let out a scream. Andi could tell Jane was even more angry by the expression on her face. Andi rubs the top of her head, wincing a bit. "Kinda wish I borrowed Carols' helmet though." She then realized she was on camera and she sheepishly smiled at it, awkwardly waving at it before she scrambled to get out of frame and change out of the outfit.

After taking the blue jumpsuit she wore over her clothes she went back to where the boys were now around Jane.

"You will never preform on my show!" Jane exclaims. She brings out her walkie-talkie. "Security! I need security!"

"We should run again." Logan spoke, looking at Andi and the boys with wide eyes and each of them immediately agreed.

The boys threw off the rest of their costumes they had on while the five of them ran back to the green room where they saw Jennifer was asleep. Andi and the boys were quick to stay quiet when Jennifer lifts her head off the pillow and they let out a sigh of relief when she laid her head back down, continuing to sleep.

Andi looks at Katie when she speaks and noticed she's still playing her Nintendo DS. "You know that producer lady is going to have every security guard on the lot after you."

Kendall looks at Katie with a pleading expression. "Not if my baby sister, whom I love, creates a distraction."

Andi and the boys then repeat 'please', looking at Katie with pleading expressions. Katie closed her Nintendo DS, looking at them with an annoyed expression again.

****

Andi and the boys were now in the room beneath the set where chef Hollandaise is shooting his segment. Kendall stood on a latter, using a saw to cut a circle around where Hollandaise is standing.

"Sorry, Chef," Kendall apologizes. "But we have to cut this segment short."

Logan grabs Andi's arm, pulling her back when Chef Hollandaise falls through, landing near where she was standing a moment ago. Andi looks at him with a relieved smile. "Thanks." He let go of her arm and nodded in response, looking back at her with a smile.

A worried expression forms on Andi's face as she looks down at Chef Hollandaise. "Should we be worried about him?"

Logan and James shake their heads. "He'll be fine."

Carlos takes the apron and the chef hat from Chef Hollandaise and climbs up the later, taking Chef Hollandaise's place. Andi and Kendall get back to the room they are shooting each segment just in time for the financial update. Andi got a blank cue card along with a black marker and writes down what they want Miles to say. She handed it to Kendall who stands in front of the camera, showing Miles what to say next.

Miles smiles. "And here's the financial report with new correspondent Logan."

Jane looks over to her left, her eyes widening at seeing Kendall. "What?!" She exclaimed and Kendall quickly threw the cue card down before he runs off.

Logan climbs through the whole he just cut with the saw, coughing because of the saw dust. He then looks at the camera with a smile. "Today I recommend buying stock in Begley's Own Green Products. The tasers are excellent." He catches the energy drink that James threw to him from below him. He smiles at the camera again. "The energy drinks...Really work. And his organic saws can cut through the toughest studio floors."

Jane gets a small paper bag from someone and starts to breath into the paper bag to help calm her down. "Now over to James Diamond with the weather." Logan gestured over to where James is at the weather set up area.

"Do we really need a weather report?" James questions, throwing the finger pointer he held away. "It's LA. It's gonna be bright and sunny all year long." He takes his sunglasses out and puts them on. He gets his list out of his pocket and checks off something. He grins. "Be a weather man...Check!"

"Go back to Miles!" Jane head into her headpiece. "Back to Miles!"

The cameraman moves the camera back to where Miles' set up is. Miles was sitting beside Carlos, eating the fishsticks Carlos had made. "These are really excellent, Chef Carlos." Miles complimented and Carlos smiled brightly in response.

"Oh, I'm gonna put my feet up too." Miles grinned, putting his feet up on the desk just like how Carlos was sitting. Jane then ordered every security guard the KULA lot to destroy Andi and Big Time Rush.

"This just in." Miles speaks while he gets an update through the earpiece he's wearing. "Every security guard on the KULA lot is currently involved in a low-speed chase."

"Sweet!" Carlos and Miles exclaims. Carlos points at the camera. "Let's go live."

A.M L.A. then shows Katie driving while playing her Nintendo DS being chased by every security guard. "Do you want me to go to commercial?" Miles asks Jane. He furrows his eyebrows and mimics the way Jane was pulling a her hair angrily. "What does this mean?"

Carlos' eyes grow wide at seeing three security guards heading after him. He pats Miles on the shoulder as he gets up. "Gotta go."

A few minutes later Miles is standing in front of his desk, looking at the camera with an awkward smile when he realized they were live again. "Oh, are we back?"

Jane furrows her eyebrows, turning to a nearby assistant and grabs his shoulders, shaking him angrily. "Why are we back? We don't have anymore segments!"

"We're seven minutes and seven seconds short." The assistant told her. Jane shoved him away roughly, crying as she laid her head on the moveable podium in front of her.

Andi and the boys step in front of her. "Oh, if only there was something that could be done to fill in that time." Kendall pretended to sound sad, holding the schedule in front of him. Andi and the boys then pretended to think.

Jane stops crying, looking at the teens with a glare. "Never!" She pushes the podium to the side. "Do you hear me? I'd rather have seven minutes and seven seconds of dead air and to get fired than to lose to you!"

Andi's eyes grow wide when Jane grabs two tasers, pointing them at her and the boys. Andi was quick to take a step behind the boys so they were hiding her while the boys try to hide themselves. "As long as I'm standing here, oh, Andi and Big Time Rush will never preform on live TV!"

Just when Andi thought Jane was going to taser them, Katie drives into the room, knocking Jane to the floor. "I did it!" Katie happily exclaims. "I defeated the evil she-beast!"

"Yeah, you did." Andi snickers, trying to hold back a laugh as she and the boys walked away from Jane and towards Katie. "And just in time, too."

Andi looks back at Jane when she heard Jane groan in pain. Katie grimaces at seeing Jane on the floor and looks at Andi and the boys. "I was playing while driving again, wasn't I?"

Andi and the boys nod. "Yep."

"Miles." The assistant walked back over, showing him a cue card. Andi quickly heads over to where her set up is at and got ready to sing.

"Ooh! Words to read." Miles smiles. "Let's give it up for Andi with her new hit single, Make It Shine!"

Once Andi was done with her performance Miles introduced Big Time Rush and the boys sang their song ''Till I Forget About You'.

At the end of the boy's performance the boys gesture Andi over since she was standing off to the side. Andi smiles and goes over to stand beside them. They congratulated each other while Miles stood beside them.

"This just in." Miles smiles at the camera that faced each of them. "Andi and Big Time Rush rocks!"

"And we are out!" The assistant director called out.

Miles then shakes each of their hands as he congratulates them. "Preform on live TV?" James said excitedly, getting out his list to check it off. Andi, Carlos, Kendall, and Logan point at him with smiles on their faces. "Check!" They exclaimed the same thing along with James.

Andi was practically buzzing with excitement and happiness as the boys continued to congratulate each other. Her first TV appearance and singing live with the boys went perfect and she was ecstatic. It took a lot longer and was more complicated to actually be able to sing on live TV, but the ending result was worth the trouble.

"Hey, guys."

Andi looks over with wide eyes at seeing Jennifer standing behind Kendall and Carlos. Kendall lets out a startled gasp, not expecting her to be up yet. Andi shares a panicked expression with the boys when Jennifer asks, "Um, did I miss anything?"

Miles shakes his head. "No."

"Nope." Everyone else agreed. They all silently agreed it was best to not let her know what she really missed out on while she was gone. and the boys exchanged relieved glances, glad to have avoided Jennifer catching onto the chaos that had just unfolded. As Jennifer walked away, the tension in the room seemed to dissipate, replaced by a sense of accomplishment and relief.

Andi grins at the boys, feeling a rush of gratitude for their teamwork and resilience throughout the wild ordeal. "Well, that was something, huh?" She pouts. "And I still never got my morning coffee." She groaned dramatically, leaning onto Kendall.

Kendall chuckles, smiling fondly at her as he ran a hand through his hair. "Coffee sounds like a good idea right about now. Let's go grab some."

Andi's eyes lit up at the suggestion, her exhaustion momentarily forgotten in the prospect of a much-needed caffeine boost. The rest of the boys nodded in agreement, their faces still flushed with the excitement of their successful performance. Andi followed them out of the studio, feeling a sense of camaraderie and accomplishment wash over her.

As they made their way to the nearest coffee shop, Andi couldn't help but feel grateful for the bonds they had formed through their shared experiences. Despite the challenges they faced, they had come out on top, stronger and more united than ever.

#bigtimerush #friendship #band #singing #coffee #livetv #earlymorning #ruderproducer

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malewifegradyruewen · 2 years ago

Text

An Untitled Original Work, Part 10

previous | next | masterpost

trigger warnings: none, ask to tag

word count: 1358

It wasn’t uncommon for Leo to be confused, but this was a whole new level of confusion. Girls were...complicated, at least for him. Even though two of his best friends were girls, he’d never been able to figure them out like Andre had been able to. He always seemed one step ahead of Leo. It might have something to do with the fact that Andre had two older sisters, while Leo had no sisters or even female cousins. Either way, it was a bit embarrassing for Leo, not that he cared at this point. If his friends didn’t know of his struggles with reading between the lines by now, they had bigger problems than Leo’s constant state of confusion.

At least he’d always been able to understand guys. Or at least, he had. Physical education that morning had been strange. Leo had tried to talk to Andre, but he’d been distant and dismissive. Instead of waiting for Leo in the locker room, he’d rushed and made his way to the far side of the gym, opposite of where the two usually stood and waited for class to start. The whole class had been like that.

Leo wasn’t sure what was going on, but he attributed it to Andre being preoccupied by his speech for Public Speaking the following class, or maybe distracted thinking about how his older sister had gotten engaged over the weekend, or something, anything, that could possibly explain his sudden distance.

However, Leo wasn’t the only person who noticed Andre’s strange mood.

Benji Pittman was someone Leo had known his whole life, but hadn’t spoken more than a dozen words to since they were partners on a project in sixth grade. That is, until Benji came up behind Leo in the hallway and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Hey, Leo, can I talk to you for a hot sec?” he asked when Leo turned around.

Leo wasn’t sure what to say. His friend group had stopped talking to the Pittman twins when Logan and Benji started dating. He knew if Gina was here, he wouldn’t have stopped walking, but something had made him stop. Plus, he was curious as to what Benji had to say that was so urgent it needed to be said now, between classes. “Uh, sure.”

“Cool. You and Andre are friends, right? I noticed he wasn’t hanging out with you in gym, and I know one time doesn’t mean much, but, well, that’s kinda happening with me too. Logan’s flaked on me twice this week and she doesn’t stop texting during lunch, which is out of the ordinary for her, and I think I know why.”

Leo nodded, but before he could open his mouth to say anything, Benji continued.

“You’re friends with Sammie Mckinney, yeah? She and I are in the same chem, with Logan and Gina. Of course, tensions between those two have always been high, but it’s worse than it’s ever been, and it’s only been since Sammie came here.”

The bell for the start of next class rang, and Leo started walking away from Benji.

“Look, I don’t know what me or Andre have to do with any of that, but we’re late for class now, so I should probably-”

“Dude, you don’t get it. Come on, I promise this makes sense. You just gotta listen. Please.” Benji seemed almost upset, or maybe just desperate. Either way, Leo knew that he should at least hear him out. If nothing else, it gave him more to talk to Mally about later.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s go to the library and you can finish telling me.”

Benji agreed, and the two boys turned and started heading for the library, careful to avoid walking past the Economics class they were skipping. Once they got there, they headed to a table in a quiet corner.

Luckily for Leo, he didn’t see anyone he knew well enough to question why he wasn’t in class. When they sat down, he pulled out his laptop and a notebook to at least give the illusion he was doing something productive.

“Okay, so let me recap,” he said as Benji opened his laptop. “You think there’s a reason that Andre’s being weird, and it has to do with Sammie, which is why Logan is also being weird?”

“Yeah. So back to the chem stuff, tensions are super high, and I know that Logan and Gina don’t talk anymore, and by extension your friend group and me and Ellison don’t talk. I thought that meant Sammie too, because I kinda assumed you guys filled her in on all the drama, but she keeps coming over to our lab table to talk to Logan and vice versa, and Logan keeps texting Sammie. I know for a fact, because I’ve seen her notifications, plus she’s mentioned that she’s talking to Sammie a couple times.”

Leo listened intently as Benji explained all of this. “But what does this have to do with Andre? And what’s the issue with Sammie making friends?”

“It’s more than that,” Benji said in a more serious tone. “Logan hasn’t been calling me babe as much recently, which I’m not really complaining about, because I never liked that too much anyways, but it’s out of character for her. I asked Ellison what she was doing this weekend, ‘cause we were thinking about going hiking or something, and she said that Logan and Sammie were gonna hang out on Saturday and she might meet up with them. Don’t you see? El has always said that Logan says stuff that’s out of the ordinary for her. She’s suspected for a long time that Logan might be gay. Of course we don’t know for sure, and I kinda selfishly hope she’s not, because I really do like her, but my personal feelings are besides the point. The point is, I’m pretty sure they like each other, and we know how that ended last time.”

Leo nodded. The last time that had happened was over Benji, and it had set in motion the events that caused the rift between the former friends. At least, that was the story they’d all come to acknowledge, even though it certainly wasn’t the whole story. Leo barely knew what the real story was, not that he cared. He’d made up his mind about the situation long ago.

“So you’re saying that Gina likes Sammie, and Logan likes Sammie, and Sammie likes both of them, maybe, but Logan still has a boyfriend” – Leo gestured to Benji– “and it’s starting to play out just like last time?” he clarified.

“Basically, yeah. If we don’t do something, poor Sammie’s gonna get trapped in the middle of the biggest girl fight we’ve ever seen.”

“Still don’t know what any of this has to do with Andre.”

Benji hesitated. “Andre is just trying to follow along with this whole mess, same as us.”

Leo could tell there was more to it than that. “No, what’s actually going on?”

“He’s friends with Gina and Sammie too, isn’t he? That’s all there is to it,” Benji insisted.

Leo may have been the most oblivious of his friend group, but he wasn’t totally stupid. He knew there was something Benji wasn’t telling him. He also knew that he couldn’t push his luck. Benji had already said a lot, more than he’d expected. If this was to be some sort of partnership, he couldn’t push the issue too much now.

“Okay,” he conceded. “But why are you telling me?”

“I don’t want anything to go down between Gina and Logan, and don't think you want that either. The thing is, Gina and I still aren’t on speaking terms, and I don’t know Andre that well, so I can’t do anything without you and Mally. I need your help, and if you don’t want shit to go down, you need me.”

Benji stared at Leo, almost daring him to accept. He hadn’t said anything wrong, per se, but it was still a lot to process.

The boys sat in silence for a long minute before Leo said, “Okay. What do we do first?”

#jolie's shitty writing

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delimeful · 4 years ago

Text

my virtues uncounted (6)

warnings: panic attack, fear, arguing

there will probably be an epilogue after this, but we're nearing the end of this story! :)

Virgil floated into consciousness with surprisingly little pain, considering the last thing he remembered was bleeding out from a stab wound.

He wasn’t entirely sure how the others’ returned after discorporating-- they weren’t much in the habit of randomly sharing vulnerabilities-- but for him, it was always rushed, his reformation slapdash at best. It was probably part of being Anxiety: he couldn’t stand the idea of being ‘out of it’ for long, not when anything could be happening to Thomas with his influence muted.

So, he would come back to himself with whatever injury that killed him barely knitted back together, and grit his teeth and bear it for the next few weeks while it slowly healed. One of his recurring nightmares was the Light Sides finding out about it, using it to keep him out of commission to ‘help’ Thomas. It seemed… less likely, after meeting them.

Meeting them. Right. He’d done that.

A low thrum of panic in his gut chased the lingering sleepiness from him, and he pushed himself into a sitting position as quickly as he dared, figuring that he might as well test the boundaries of his lack of stab wound pain before he snuck over to check that the core parts of Thomas had all made it through okay. Or before he encountered Remus again.

The first thing he registered was that there wasn’t any pain, none at all.

The second thing was that everything was proportionally huge around him.

The third thing was that these absolutely were not the Dark Side commons.

His heart rate spiked immediately as he whipped his head around, staring at what could only be the Light Side common area. He’d only caught a glimpse of it before, with the whole ‘bleeding out’ thing, and it looked impossibly different from where he stood on the living room table. Now that he was paying attention, he could feel the way Thomas was so much closer here than in the Subconscious, like the difference between shallow water and the depths.

He shook himself. Now wasn’t the time to get caught up in how much easier core Sides had it. There were bigger things to worry about, literally. He hadn’t discorporated, he was in the Conscious part of the mind, and he was tiny-- through no doing of his own.

Oh. They wanted revenge.

Virgil kicked away the assortment of tiny blankets around him and got to his feet, blood rushing in his ears. He’d been an asshole to them while they were stuck in the Subconscious, so they were returning the favor. Why else would they have healed him and turned him pocket-sized? It was the only explanation that made sense.

The commons were just shy of completely disorienting while empty, so he certainly wasn’t going to stick around for something as overwhelming as a Side to appear. He hurried to the edge of the table, eyeing the drop with no little trepidation. Was he lighter like this, or would he land heavily on the carpet below and break half his bones?

He shouldn’t risk it. No point in doing half the work for his captors.

If he could get a running start to the other end of the table, he might be able to make the jump to the couch, though. From there… maybe pushing a pillow to the ground. Could he even move a pillow at this size?

Another shudder worked its way through him, something small and terrified in the back of his mind shrieking at the way everything around him had changed. Had this been how the others had felt? He shook his head, stepping back from the edge and turning to face the other end of the table. He couldn’t freak out yet. Not until he was safe.

There was a distant phone alarm, the generic sort that Thomas had come to resent after using it for his morning alarm for months on end. Virgil felt a chill of foreboding pass over him, and a heartbeat later, he heard the telltale woosh of one of the core Sides rising up next to the table.

Their shadow fell over Virgil, impossibly large, and he bolted.

There was a voice, but he couldn’t pick out the words past the blood rushing in his ears, his own breathing, and the panicked rush of thoughts that came with picking flight. He focused on the jump ahead instead, the length of table ahead of him growing shorter and shorter until he was nearly to the edge, muscles tensed to leap.

The light around him being blocked out was the only warning he got before his view of the world was suddenly cut off. Half a second later, his momentum was halted by a collision with something soft, warm, and alive. He recoiled as sharply as he could, but there were already what could only be fingers curling around him, his stomach dropping as he was lifted clear off the table’s surface, his center of gravity shifting against his will.

If he hadn’t been panicking before, he certainly was now, his breaths coming shallow and shaky, barely bringing in any air as black spots started to dot his vision.

He was in someone’s hand. They could do anything to him, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop it, would probably deserve it, but it would hurt and couldn’t they have just let him discorporate--

The low, calm voice that had been rumbling in the background paused for a moment, and then they were moving again, his nausea growing as everything moved too fast around him, like a car someone else was driving but a hundred times worse.

And then, abruptly, there was solid ground under his feet again. The hand opened around him.

Virgil dropped to his hands and knees immediately, pressing his forehead against the table to both quell his dizziness and find something to ground himself. He was hyperaware of the warmth emanating from the hand that still bracketed him on one side, like a shield or a threat.

The Side was still talking, though Virgil still couldn’t quite parse the words. Despite his incoherence, the hand didn’t even twitch, no underlying threat to whatever it was they were saying to him. His breathing settled a bit despite himself. The implied promise that they weren’t going to outright attack him shouldn’t have been so reassuring, but it was.

His head slightly clearer, he slowly pushed himself back up to sit back on his heels, looking up to see who had found him.

It was undoubtedly Logan, though he’d never seen those glasses and tie at such a warped scale before. He could have figured it out earlier, if he’d just been listening; neither Roman nor Patton tended to be so carefully enunciated with their words.

Logan’s words, right. He was counting, which confused Virgil for a moment-- was this an experiment? Something to see how long the local idiot spent caught up in a panic attack when he was supposed to be a survival instinct-- until he caught on to the way Logan’s chest rose and fell along with the numbers. A breathing exercise.

He was kind of surprised, in that pleasant ‘pessimist-proven-wrong’ sort of way, but it figured that the Sides up here would offer even their captive literal time to breathe. He let himself follow along with the pattern for a few more moments before clearing his throat roughly and forcing himself to speak.

“Hey.”

Logan paused, looking down at him. “Hello.”

There was a short, slightly awkward pause, in which Logan seemed to flounder while Virgil refused to apologize for being kidnapped and reduced to doll size, even if he’d just had a completely image-ruining breakdown over it.

“Are you alright?” Logan finally settled on, his gaze piercing as it swept over him as though searching for injuries. “I apologize for not warning you, but I needed to stop you from recklessly endangering yourself. I didn’t intend for my actions to trigger a panic attack.”

“Yeah, who would freak out over some little old thing like being picked up by a giant hand,” Virgil snapped back sharply, his sarcasm coming out a little less biting than usual after such a draining attack. “It’s not like I’m the embodiment of Anxiety or anything.”

“You are Anxiety, though.” Logan shifted, the motion jarring his hand slightly, and Virgil barely managed to contain his flinch. “And as such, I’m surprised that you would entertain the idea of unnecessarily trying to fling yourself off of a considerable height at your size.”

Virgil squinted at him, trying to figure out if he was serious. “Unnecessarily?”

“Clearly? I cannot imagine why your first solution would be to attempt something so risky, though it’s possible I’m missing some vital context,” Logan replied, his face scrunching up slightly in confusion. “Perhaps the others--,” he lifted a hand.

“Wait!” A surge of panic forced Virgil to his feet, but it was too late. The summons registered, and Creativity and Morality wasted virtually no time in rising up, both of them instantly looking to him instead of Logan.

“Anxiety!” they both cried, and they didn’t sound mad, but that didn’t really mean anything, did it?

They crowded forward, and Virgil couldn’t keep himself rigid this time, his whole body jerking back and bumping into Logan’s hand.The mixed signals-- hide versus get away-- left him frozen, cowering under that pitiful defense.

“Anxiety?” Patton tried, and the concern in his voice was enough to convince him to look up and meet the other Side’s gaze. “Are you okay, kiddo?”

“I’m stuck in a room with three giants, what do you think?” he spat automatically, his shoulders hunching up like they could protect him.

Patton’s mouth twisted in a sympathetic sort of way, and he moved to sit, scrunching his body down slightly so that he was more-or-less level with the table. “It’s all kind of overwhelming, huh?”

With a simple glance from the moral Side, Roman followed suit and Logan settled back on his heels, having already been kneeling. Virgil stared between the three of them, his skin prickling with nerves.

Behind him, Logan’s hand moved. Virgil immediately crouched, ducking his head down and lifting his arms in an ineffective attempt to ward off whatever was happening. There was a beat of silence, and when he glanced up, he found that Logan had simply retracted his hand, apparently convinced that Virgil wasn’t planning on a repeat of his escape attempt. Or that the three huge Sides surrounding Anxiety was enough of a cage in itself.

“We’re not going to hurt you, Jack and the Beanstalker,” Roman lied, doing an impressive job of sounding confused and harmless. “You’re not in the Subconscious anymore.”

A bitter laugh bubbled up in Virgil, one that he didn’t bother to stifle. “Yeah, right. I’m not an idiot, Princey. Remus got you all twisted up over what he did and I was an asshole and now you’re paying the favor forward, I get it. You don’t have to lie about it.”

The three of them exchanged complicated glances, ones that admittedly looked more upset and horrified than conspiring, but Virgil refused to buy the act.

“We’re not lying to you!” Roman insisted, making Virgil scoff. Patton’s face started to take on that kicked-puppy cast, and Virgil averted his gaze, feeling hot anger bubble up in him at Patton’s involvement. How was any of this right and moral?

“I live with Deceit, you’re not going to fool me. Just get whatever you’re going to do to me over with,” he forced out, grimacing when his voice wobbled slightly at the end.

“Anxiety.” Logan leaned forwards, meeting his gaze with utmost seriousness. “Perhaps it will help if you understand our motives for your current state. Can you tell me how much you remember from our escape?”

“Remus found us and turned me into a pincushion,” Virgil deadpanned, a hand moving to settle over his gut. He knew now that he probably hadn’t discorporated, but he could still barely believe that there was no pain there. Core Sides could just do that? “And then you three decided to turn me pincushion-sized, I guess. How is that not revenge?”

“It was to save your life!” Roman cried dramatically, looking very put-out. “And to keep you from going back to the Subconscious and my brother, y’know, the guy who was tormenting us for fun!”

“To save my-- we can’t die!” Virgil snarled, pushing his complex feelings about Remus down in favor of twisting the fabric of his hoodie in his hands. “You trapped me up here, no room, no powers, no height, and you expected me to be grateful?!”

“We weren’t trying to trap you,” Patton interjected, looking between him and Roman worriedly. “And we aren’t going to hurt you, I promise.”

Roman, who had drawn himself up in outraged offense, visibly deflated. “Patton’s right. You know he wouldn’t lie to you about something like this.”

Virgil hesitated despite himself.

“The problem of your current stature is one that we know how to fix,” Logan took the opportunity to add, fiddling with his tie. “Once you summon your room to this level of the mind, you will be able to find security and power within it, and we won’t bother you while you recover your lost energy.”

“Woah, woah,” Virgil held his hands up to stall further explanation, feeling thrown off. “Who said anything about putting my room up here?”

Roman raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “What, you want to be that size around a vengeful Remus?”

“I wouldn’t be this size if you hadn’t meddled!” Virgil snapped, scowling fiercely

“We weren’t going to just let you die,” Patton burst out, looking downright distraught. “You saved us. You didn’t want to rise up and you knew it would make your friends upset, but you did it anyhow. It wouldn’t be right, to just… not try to save you back!”

Virgil gaped for a moment, his next prepared retort completely upended. “No, I… that’s my job. Of course I did that. You don’t owe me for it.”

“Anxiety, Roman prevented your discorporation because he wanted to help you. Not to repay a perceived debt,” Logan informed him, his words stiff but genuine.

Roman shot Logan a look, heaving a dramatic sigh before turning back to Virgil. “All of us wanted to help, Gloomy B. Jones. Who wouldn’t choose to revive a party member who nearly perished heroically on a quest?”

In what universe was Roman calling him a hero? Inside his hoodie pocket, Virgil pinched himself, his confusion rising when everything refused to turn out to be a dream. Even a terrible plot twist like that would be more understandable to him than whatever was happening right now.

For that matter, they couldn’t really be implying what he thought they were implying.

“You really want me to pull my room up here. And be a… a core Side.”

Looking from face to face, he found no trace of anger or mockery, only earnestness. A genuine offer. He shook his head, his heart somehow racing even harder.

“What about when I have to do the other part of my job? The part you guys all hate me for?” he reminded them harshly. “I bet you won’t be so keen on my presence then.” He could easily imagine how well that would go over. Could a Side be cast out from both parts of the mind?

Patton shuffled forward a bit, his hands flapping like he wanted to reach out reassuringly but knew that Virgil would absolutely lose his shit if he even tried. “It’s like you said, kiddo. You want to keep Thomas safe, and we want that, too!”

“You’ve more than proven yourself willing to compromise when it counts,” Logan said, and then added wryly, “Statistically, the three of us already spend a fair amount of our time arguing before we come to a decision anyways.”

“Seriously?” Virgil asked, and Logan gestured to the necktie emphatically.

“That’s right! You may be as contrary as your jittery little heart desires, and you’ll still be in excellent company,” Roman piped up, gesturing to himself magnanimously. After a moment, he let the posturing fade into something more serious. “Anxiety, we don’t have to agree on everything for you to deserve better. Won’t you at least give us a chance?”

Virgil scrubbed his hands through his hair roughly, turning away despite his misgivings. Apart from that first incident with Logan, they hadn’t grabbed him, hadn’t even touched him despite knowing that he couldn’t do anything to stop them. At some point between that first disastrous meeting and now, they’d stopped treating him like an enemy.

He’d have to go back down there and explain at some point, but he couldn’t deny that the idea of not being repressed was one that seemed almost too good to be true. Deceit wouldn’t be happy, but maybe this would be the proof they all needed, that separating the Sides and hiding some of them from Thomas wasn’t working as well as they pretended it did.

It could be an opportunity. It could be… good.

“Alright,” he said, turning back to where they’d all been waiting, “I’ll pull my room up. I’ll-- I’ll try. That’s the best you’re going to get.”

And as the others cheered or smiled victoriously, he felt like maybe it was worth a shot after all.

#sanders sides #sanders sides g/t #sanders sides fic #ts virgil #ts logan #ts roman #ts patton #remus and janus are mentioned #g/t #mvu #my virtues uncounted #my writing #writing

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remuscore · 3 years ago

Text

Little Corvid

hehehe little bastard Virgil time >:) oh yeah, requested by @sablesides

Warnings: fucking none this is nice. At the very most, one mention of food.

___________

Patton blinked his eyes open slowly as he woke. Pillows and blankets thrown all over from how much Patton moved in his sleep. He shifted on his back and stretched his arms up, his wings stretching out as well at his sides. He flicked off the blanket still clinging to his wing and relaxed again. He was exhausted, but he needed to get breakfast ready for the others. He might just make them all cereal and orange juice if he felt lazy enough.

He reached out to grab his glasses, but his palm hit the empty end table instead.

Patton frowned. He sat up, paying no mind to his wings shaking out sleep behind him, and looked over at his end table. His glasses were missing. Patton’s frown deepened and he looked around through all the dust particles that glowed with the morning sun shining on them. He had to squint, but in the mess of his room, he’d never be able to find his glasses without help. He was as blind as a grandpa's bat!

Pouting in defeat, Patton climbed out of his nest of pillows and blankets. He stretched out his back again now that he was standing, arms up high and back arched. His wings reached as far as they could go behind him, trembling slightly with effort. When Patton relaxed again, they folded against his shoulders and tucked themselves in. Patton loved to have his wings closer to his shoulders. That way he could nuzzle his face against the softness of his feathers any time he wanted. It made him happy.

He stumbled and tripped over the mess on his floor as he made it to the door, opening it and stepping into the hall. He was about to head over to Logan’s door, but it opened before he could even move to do so. Logan stepped out, glasses missing as well. He was smoothing his tie between two fingers, the clip missing from it also. Logan noticed Patton with a harsh squint― his vision was even worse than Patton’s― and opened his mouth to speak, but both of them looked away from each other as another door opened.

Roman blinked at the other two, face suddenly going red. His wings came in front of him to wrap around his bare torso, the blush on his face even redder against the pure white of his feathers.

“Uh―” Roman said inelegantly, flush darkening. “Have you seen my shirt?”

Both of them shook their heads, Patton laughing in amusement and making Roman glare at him. “No, sorry. Have you seen our glasses?”

“And my tie clip?” Logan added. Right after he said that though, his face changed to recognition and he rolled his eyes, sighing. “Nevermind, I know where our stuff is.”

Patton’s and Roman’s faces also changed to the same look. Patton laughed and shook his head kindly. They all turned down the hall. Logan had one of his wings against the wall to feel where he was going. Patton extended his own in front of his friend to help guide him and Logan nodded in thanks. Roman strides ahead of them quickly and was already knocking on the door.

“Virgil, that’s enough!” the Prince shouted through the door. He stomped his foot and whined, wings shaking out his frustration. They were wrapped around his arms now instead of all the way around him, but there was still an obvious discomfort with him being shirtless in front of them. “Give us back our stuff! This was cute once!”

“I still think it’s cute,” Patton said. Roman and Logan both glared at him and he giggled. “It’s very cute.”

“It was cute when he was taking my earrings, but my shirt?” Roman scoffed in offense and bang his fist against the door again. “Virgil!”

“Go away!”

Roman scoffed high again. “No, I will not! You cannot just take my royal garbs! Those are expensive and priceless!”

“We don’t have any need for currency. This is cheap shit at best.”

“You’ll wrinkle it!”

Virgil opened the door and Patton couldn’t help the little shout of glee when he saw him.

Virgil was wearing Patton’s glasses which was already the best thing Patton has ever seen in his life. He had his arms wrapped around Roman’s shirt, hugging it closely. Logan’s glasses were sitting on top of his head and his tie clip was in his hair. There was also the gold clasp from Janus’ cape connecting his hoodie together and Remus’ shirt behind Roman’s. Virgil was glaring down at Roman, challenging to take his findings. Roman narrowed his eyes and snatched his shirt back, smacking Virgil with his wings when he sharply turned around to his room. Virgil’s black wings now had small white fuzz sitting on them. He tried shaking them off, but that just caused some of his own loose feathers to flutter off and around them.

Logan pushed past Patton and grabbed his things from Virgil, grumbling to himself about corvids always stealing anything that gleams. He shoved his glasses back over his nose where they belonged and clipped his tie. He hesitated in front of Virgil for a moment before taking away Janus’ and Remus’ things too, heading back down the hall to return their things. Virgil had groaned and tried reaching back towards them, but Logan was already gone.

Patton was still smiling. He was much less annoyed by Virgil’s antics than the others. He wouldn’t say it was annoying at all actually. Virgil just liked to collect. It was so sweet and kind in Patton’s opinion.

He stepped towards Virgil and saw his glasses more clearly. He awed and Virgil scowled. The raven took off the glasses and shoved them roughly onto Patton’s face, his ever moving wings shifting and flapping again in embarrassment, more feather dancing around them before falling to the floor. He slammed the door shut as Patton gained his sight back.

“Oh, Kiddo!” Patton laughed. “It’s okay! I really think it’s cute! It shows you care and you look so adorable with all our things―”

“I don’t care! I just like the shiny shit.”

“It’s still cute! Don’t swear though.”

#remuscore #patton sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #virgil sanders #fic #winged au

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sleepless-stories · 3 years ago

Text

Falling Through AUs || 1

Denial Of the End

AO3 Link

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

@sandersidesbigbang

Summary: The TS Star Shield is in distress, they’re approaching an anomaly that is threatening to pull their ship in. Though before they can evacuate with the rest of their crew, Roman, Remus, Janus, Logan, Virgil, and Patton become trapped inside due to safety protocols. It’s believed that this is their end.

Warnings: Talk of Death, Panic/Fear

Beta Read By: @dragonsaphirareads

Check out the cool art apart of this fic from @windowsillwren art @pompomqt art

_____________________________________

“This is Captain Prince calling an urgent distress call from the TS Stars Shield… someone please come in.” Roman pleaded into the mic for what felt like the hundredth time as he sent out their coordinates, head hung low as only static came in through the communicator.

Sirens blared throughout the ship warning everyone of their situation. Fear of the unknown filling everyone, what was their situation? What was going on? Nobody was trained for this. Nobody trained for their imminent demise.

Logan looked over at Roman before looking back at the window showing what was in front of them or rather, what wasn’t in front of them. Beyond the window as the dark and empty vacuum of space, not even a star shone around them as the darkness was pulling them in closer.

Virgil ran into the command room panicked looking at them, “What’s going on?” he demanded. He was out of breath as he walked over closer to the only two in the room.

Logan looked over and got up from his seat. “We’re not even completely sure, but it’s not looking good. We can’t see anything and whatever is in front of us, we’re getting closer to it. There's not enough time to turn around.” Logan was trying his best to convey the situation, though even now as emotion and panic tried to invade his senses he remained calm… as calm as one could seem at least from the outside.

Virgil nodded, taking a deep breath, “The rest of the crew is in the process of evacuation with Patton and Remus’ help.”

“Good… good… Captain Prince has been calling out for distress.” Logan replied, glancing towards where Roman was still calling out for help and sending out their final logs. Where Roman sat in his chair, begging for help, with no responses.

“But… There's not enough time, is there?” Virgil whispered, his tone hopeless as the full weight of everything hit him.

“No, there’s not… and it seems we’re out here on our own.” Logan sighed defeated. Shaking his head he turned around sitting down in his chair, maybe he could do something. Surely there were some things he didn’t notice, maybe the situation wasn’t as bad as it seemed. He just had to keep checking everything… when they knew nothing. He just needed to keep monitoring and running simulations, even if none were conclusive and all of them told him the same thing… he refused to believe it though.

Virgil looked around the room and stepped over to Logan sitting down next to him.

“You should head to the escape ships.” Logan told him, looking at his monitor. Trying to see if there was at least anything he could do. Seeing if there wasn’t anything he already hadn’t tried.

Virgil reached over, putting an arm on Logan’s arm to try to ground him. “You should be heading there too… but I know you won’t, I’m staying till the rest of you leave and till Patton and Remus call for all of us when the last escape ship is ready, and everyone knows that Roman won’t leave till everyone is off and safe.” Virgil whispered looking back at Roman.

Logan nodded, taking a deep breath and squeezed his hand. “Of course.”

Roman looked over at them, “Where is Janus?” he asked, distressed. He hadn’t seen him since the first alarms went off warning them of something ahead.

Virgil looked over at Roman, “He went to the archives… to see if there's anything down there that could help us figure out this thing in the paper logs.”

Roman nodded a bit, taking a deep breath, “Call down to him, and get him up here now.”

Virgil nodded quickly and went over to comms calling down to archives.

“Janus? Deceit? Check in.”

There was a moment of silence, painfully quiet silence, before an annoyed Janus came to the comm.

“Virgil… What is it that you want? I’m busy trying to fucking figure all this out.”

“Roman wants you in the command room.”

“You can tell that freaking Prince to-”

Virgil disconnected and put his head against the wall. “He’ll be here soon…”

Roman nodded and sighed, sending out another distress call.

None of them had been answered… yet. They were too far away and whatever was ahead of them was disrupting all signals. But he needed to hold out hope.

But no help was going to come for them. It was hopeless, everyone knew under all of their denial.

Virgil went over to a screen Logan was staring at before starting to pace anxiously. They were running out of time, and nobody knew anything… Even the thought of being able to escape the ship and somehow get away safely, it seemed like a fleeting hope.

The command doors opened up and everyone looked over, as Patton walked in quickly. He paused after coming out of the doors looking around at everyone sadly. “All crew has been evacuated off of the ship and are leaving in the escape pods now. Um, Captain Duke staying till everyone’s safely off then he’ll be coming back.”

Logan looked over and nodded, “Then… we all go?”

“Yes.” Patton nodded with a soft smile, trying to reassure everyone. Though the smile was filled with uneasiness, nothing about their situation could be helped by a simple smile. Patton noticed Virgil’s panic and quickly went over and put his hands on Virgil’s shoulders, “Could you take a deep breath? Just calm down. The oxygen isn’t running out any time soon. We’re ok for right now… and in just a short while we’ll be safely out of here.”

Virgil paused his pacing and looked at Patton, nothing about his words helped calm him, he simply took a deep breath nodding. Ignoring the lies and fear behind Patton's words. But he knew he couldn’t have a panic attack now.

“Good… that's good. Now just keep doing that.” Patton said and rubbed his shoulders softly, then turned to Roman, “Where’s Janus?”

“Right here… gosh all of you are so incessant, where’s Janus, Janus do this, Janus come here. Just calm down. The emergency here isn’t me being away.” Janus told them a bit out of breath as he stepped inside the room. “I assume everyone is here now and the rest of the crew left?”

“Well everyone but Remus is here, we’re waiting for him to come back.” Patton replied, nodding.

Janus nodded and walked over to Logan glancing at the readings on his screen, another inconclusive reading. “All I could guess is what we’re currently close to is some sort of blackhole… though-”

“Your findings aren’t conclusive?” Logan asked, glancing at him.

“Correct.” Janus sighed looking down as he put a folder down and sat down next to Logan.

“That’s what I’ve speculated so far also. I haven’t yet figured out any other theories. There is very little to work off of.” Logan rambled typing away frantically at his computer, he couldn’t let his fears get to him.

Janus nodded and stood up from the chair before quickly gripping onto it, falling off balance.

The whole cabin jolted and shook, feeling like hitting turbulence in a plane. If only it was that.

Remus fell through the doors when the room shook “What the hell was that,” he yelled, quickly jumping up from where he fell.

Just after Remus got up the cabin doors slammed shut, a click sounding after they shut, locking everyone in the command center in. The lights turned off plunging them into darkness before red light flooded the room flashing on and off, conveying urgency.

The jolt had activated one of the ship's many safety protocols. Locking down the ship to protect passengers, to keep everyone safe in case the ship's structural integrity was impaired.

Remus quickly looked at the door, banging on it. He tried sticking his fingers between the seam of the two doors attempting to pry it open, to no avail.

“Guys… we aren’t going to be able to escape,” Remus whispered looking over at everyone. “We’re locked in…”

Virgil looked down at the floor holding tighter to Patton. it wasn’t like he was suffocating though, there was still enough oxygen in the room. But he couldn’t breathe… It was such a small place.

Patton pulled Virgil close to himself, “Hey, take a deep breath, we’re all going to get out.” his voice relentlessly hopeful… idiotically hopeful.

Virgil shook his head, closing his eyes, “No…. we’re going to die…” all hope gone, he accepted their situation.

This was their end.

“No we aren't,” Roman told them all with determination in his tone. He got up from his seat and went over to the window at the front of the cabin, looking at what lay ahead, looking out into the darkness.

Logan walked over to his side looking out. “We can’t know that when we’re not sure what this is,” he whispered.

Roman just kept looking ahead, not listening to Logan.

The ship suddenly jolted forward again, whatever was beyond them was pulling them in more.

Roman grabbed onto Logan trying to stay up and not fall from the force.

Remus grabbed onto the back of the captain's chair to not fall and sat down. He ripped the communicator from its place sending out one last call of distress. He wasn’t giving up, not yet.

There was no response, they were alone.

Janus stared at the monitor and looked over at Roman and Logan, “We’re out of time…” he whispered. There was no time to figure out what this is, no time to figure a way out, no time to solve it. Time had run out.

Roman quickly went over and sat down in a seat next to Remus. “We can’t give up,” he announced, determined, glancing over at Remus. Even though it was inevitable… he wasn’t afraid, not next to his brother and those he saw as family. He felt calm knowing they were all here together.

Remus sighed softly looking up, “Why can’t we just walk out of here?” He mumbled. He refused to believe this was their end, after everything… this couldn’t be it! This was probably just some nightmare and he’d wake up somewhere… safe.

Patton pulled Virgil to sit down with him next to Janus. “Everything will be ok though… right? Central command will get our distress calls. They’ll come save us.” he asked, desperate and still hoping help would come, not letting go of the idea they’d all be saved. Though everyone else had given up already.

“No Patton… I don’t think they will.” Virgil sighed, putting a hand on his arm looking out at the window. He knew they were all alone out here, all alone at the end of the universe.

Logan stood there in front of the window, staring out beyond them, into the darkness.

They were out of time.

Nobody was coming for them.

The ship jolted forward once more before the room was suddenly flooded in bright white light.

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5-falsehoods-phonated · 4 years ago

Text

You Don’t Own Me (You Don’t Even Know Me)

Chapter 1

Summary: As the son of a Baron, Roman Sanders always knew that when he married, it would be due to a political arrangement rather than true love. Still, when he is sent away to marry an older, more powerful Earl, he is determined to make the best of his situation. Despite the Earl's indifference towards him, Roman forges ahead and prepares to become the best husband he can possibly be, making new friends along the way. But when his fiancé's demeanor turns from cold to cruel, Roman must shift all of his focus to survival, and find a way out of his marriage before it's too late.

Ships: Logince (Logan x Roman) Moxiety (Virgil x Patton)

Content Warnings: arranged marriage, abuse, attempted sexual assault, murder, poisoning, character death, hurt/comfort, angst

Word Count: 2604

Read on AO3: here!

Cowritten with @ironwoman359 masterlist

False masterlist

As the son of the Baron of Falkirk, Roman Sanders always knew that when he married, it would be due to a political arrangement. There was a small part of him that mourned the loss of the chance to meet a beautiful stranger and fall hopelessly in love, like the characters in the fairytales that his nanny read to him as a child. But those fantasies were just that, fairytales. The fanciful whims of a child had no place in Roman’s life now that he had come of age. His marriage was to serve one purpose: to elevate his family.

And Roman had been training for that purpose his entire life.

Barely a month had passed since Roman’s twentieth birthday when he was called into his father’s study. He knew that whatever the reason for his summons, it must be important, as his father hated more than anything to be interrupted in his work. Roman knocked twice on the familiar, thick oak doors, and held his breath until he heard his father’s muffled answer from within.

“Come in.”

Roman stepped inside, and was surprised to see his mother and older brother already in the room, seated opposite his father’s old mahogany desk. As he entered, his father stood, gesturing to an empty chair that sat beside his mother.

“Have a seat, son.”

Roman sat.

“I have good news,” his father continued. “As you have now reached the proper age, one of my primary interests has been to find an appropriate arrangement for your marriage.”

Roman’s heartbeat quickened, and he forced himself to remain calm, folding his hands in his lap. This was it. This was the moment that he’d been preparing for nearly all of his life; the moment that would shape his entire future.

“There were many factors to consider,” his father said, stepping around the desk to stand beside his wife. “It was not an easy decision. However, your mother and I have entered an agreement that we believe will be very profitable, for you and for the family.”

Roman nodded. His father was a shrewd negotiator; he was sure that, whatever the terms of the engagement were, the Sanders family would not lose more than what it stood to gain.

“So, you’ve reached a decision then, Father?” he asked, taking a deep breath and willing his expression to remain neutral.

“I have,” his father agreed. “You are to be wed to the Earl of Asberg, Lord Garret Howard. I have just received a message from his footman: they arrived at the Fireside Inn late this afternoon. Tomorrow, they will come to the manor to bring you to Lord Howard’s estate to begin the engagement period.”

Roman bit back a gasp, his eyes growing wide.

“Lord Howard?” he repeated. “I was not even aware the earl was looking for a suitor.”

“For many years, he was not,” Roman’s mother spoke up. “His youth was spent primarily securing the political and financial status of his late father’s estate. Only recently has he turned his attention to more social matters.”

“Your dowry aside, the connections we will gain through this marriage will be of an immense benefit to us,” said Roman’s father. “I know you know your duty son; I trust you will make us proud.”

“I will, Father,” Roman said, getting to his feet. His father held out a hand, and Roman shook it firmly, doing his best to ignore the butterflies in his stomach. “Thank you.”

His mother and brother stood as well, and Roman let his mother pull him into a quick hug and plant a kiss on his cheek.

“Congratulations dear,” she said as she pulled away, a proud smile on her face. “I know you’ll do just wonderfully.”

“Thank you, Mother,” he said, squeezing her hand, and then his brother was in front of him.

“Congrats, Ro,” he said quietly.

“Thanks, Remy,” Roman whispered, and when they shook hands, Roman hoped Remy didn’t notice the slight tremble in his grip.

“The carriage will arrive at eight o’clock tomorrow morning,” Roman’s father declared. “I’ve already instructed the maids to pack your clothing. Whatever other preparations you need, I suggest you make them now.”

“I will. Thank you, Father,” Roman said again, bowing his head slightly to his family.

He left the study, walking through the halls of the manor as though walking through a dream. He reached his quarters, and it was only after he shut the door behind him that he realized he very well might never walk the path from the study to his room again. He sat on the edge of his bed, his formal posture falling from his shoulders like a forgotten shawl now that he was alone.

True to his father’s words, a trunk lay open at the foot of his bed, his shirts and trousers and suits all carefully folded and placed inside by the maid. Another, smaller trunk had been placed beside it, no doubt for Roman to fill with whatever else he wished to bring with him to his fiance’s estate.

His fiance…

Sun, moon, and stars, he was engaged. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know it was coming; he was the youngest of his parents’ three children, after all. As the oldest son, Remington would inherit the title Baron of Falkirk and all the duties that came with it, while Roman and Remus would be married into other families to increase the Sanders’ political influence. So Roman had always known that he was destined to leave the family manor.

That didn’t necessarily mean he was ready to.

He sighed, sweeping his eyes around his room. What would he even take with him? A single evening was hardly enough time for him to consider all that he owned and decide what to bring on a permanent move halfway across the country. Should he bring his books, his star charts, his journals and quills? Or would he be able to find suitable replacements for them all at Lord Howard’s estate? Would he even have time to indulge in his hobbies as the husband of an earl? If only he’d had more than a day’s notice of his departure, then he’d have time to think!

A light knock on the door pulled Roman from his thoughts, and he straightened instantly.

“Who is it?” he called.

“It’s me, Roman,” came the answer, and Roman relaxed at the sound of his brother’s voice.

“Come on in, Rem.”

Remy stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and giving Roman what was probably meant to be a smile, but came out more like a grimace.

“So, it’s finally time,” he said, and Roman rolled his eyes.

“No need to sound like I’m on my deathbed, Remy. It’s just an engagement, we all knew this was coming.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Remy sighed, plopping down on the bed next to Roman and leaning back against the headboard. “Still...I had sort of hoped you’d end up somewhere decently close by. Gremont, for instance, I know Lady Lishan has a daughter who’s eligible. Or maybe Ravenhold. Then you could at least visit. Asberg is…”

“Far,” Roman agreed.

He’d been trying not to think about it. Asberg was at least four days away by carriage, maybe longer depending on the weather, and Roman had never been so far away from home unaccompanied in his life.

“Hey though, the wedding’s only six months away. I’ll get to see you then! And who knows, maybe I’ll be able to come visit for the harvest festival next year...or you could come visit me!”

“Only if you serve coffee,” Remy joked, and Roman laughed, the tension in the room easing just a bit.

“Help me pack?” Roman asked. “I can’t figure out if I should bring everything or nothing.”

“Hmm…” Remy sat up and scanned the room. “My advice? Bring only what you think you can’t live without.”

Roman hesitated, then looked up at his brother.

“You?” he suggested. He tried to shoot Remy a playful smirk, but he could feel the corners of his mouth wobbling, and he knew from the sad smile on his brother’s face that Remy didn’t buy it.

“I wish, Ro-bro,” Remy said, nudging their shoulders together. “But I think one son running away from home is enough of a scandal for Father to deal with.”

“That’s fair, I suppose,” Roman said, looking down and fiddling with his fingers in his lap. “What...what do you think Remus would say? If he were here to see me off?”

“Honestly?” Remy looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then snorted. “He wouldn’t say anything, he’d just lock you in the bedroom and throw away the key to make you stay. Or kidnap you and hide you somewhere so that the wedding had to be cancelled altogether.”

“You’re probably right,” Roman said. He chuckled, but the laugh felt hollow, like a piece of it was missing...gone forever and irreplaceable, just like his brother. “Did...did I ever tell you that he came to see me, the night he left?” he asked quietly.

“No,” Remy answered. “But I had a feeling that he did.”

“He asked me to go with him,” Roman said. “To leave you and Mother and Father and everything we’d ever known, to go chasing ‘freedom’ and ‘adventure,’ like we were children again.” He shook his head, closing his fingers into fists. “I told him I couldn’t.”

“I think he knew that,” Remy said. “But I...I also think he felt he had to at least ask you for himself. I don’t think he’d really believe that you wanted to stay unless he heard you say it.”

“And I did want to stay,” Roman insisted. “I begged him to stay. But he wouldn’t listen, and he left, and now it’s been three years and I have to leave you and Mother and Father and everything I’ve ever known anyway, except now I’ll be alone.” Roman looked up at Remy, his eyes shining with un-shed tears. “What if...what if I made the wrong choice?”

Remy pulled him closer, hooking his chin over Roman’s head like he did when they were small and Roman would trip in the garden and scrape his knee.

“I can’t answer that for you, Ro-bro,” he murmured. “That’s something you have to figure out. But for what it’s worth...I’m glad you stayed. It- it would have been even harder, I think, to lose both of you.”

“You’re losing me now,” Roman whispered, but Remy shook his head.

“No,” he said vehemently. “I’m not. You said it yourself, Roman, the wedding’s only in six months. And Asberg may be far, but it’s not like it's across the ocean or anything. We’ll still be able to see each other once in a while. Remus…” Remy sighed, and tightened his grip around Roman’s shoulders. “Remus left us for himself. You’re leaving us for the family. That’s the difference.”

“Yeah...I know,” Roman said, sniffling a little and nestling deeper into his brother’s hold. “I’m still gonna miss you though.”

“I’ll miss you too, Ro-bro,” Remy said, dropping a kiss into Roman’s hair. “I’ll miss you too.”

Remy eventually left Roman to pack, and the rest of the night passed in a blur. Roman finally decided what to bring with him (his used notebooks and journals, his collection of star charts, and an old cloak that the maid hadn’t packed because it was torn, but that Roman couldn’t bear to part with) and what to leave behind (unused sketchbooks, his set of inks and quills, and the ancient paint set that he hadn’t touched in almost a year), but when he lay down to try and get some rest, sleep evaded him. He tossed and turned for what felt like hours, unable to stop his thoughts from racing. Morning arrived far too soon for his liking, and before he’d really processed what was happening, he was standing at the bottom of the front steps of the manor with his family, waiting for the carriage to arrive.

"Now Roman, remember," his father said, and Roman looked up at him. "Lord Howard oversees an estate far larger than our own. Whatever duties you are expected to perform, they will be on a scale far greater than what you are accustomed to here."

"He may look to you to aid him in business, but he may also expect you to oversee more of the social obligations. He has dealings with many different families, after all," Roman's mother added, and Roman nodded.

"Politics is never just about numbers," he recited, and his father's lips twitched in a small smile.

"That's right, son. Remember all that we've taught you, and you'll do fine."

A carriage pulled in at the end of the manor's drive, and Roman took a deep breath.

"Remember to write!" his mother said, pressing a kiss to his cheek and giving his shoulder a squeeze.

Roman placed a hand over hers, then shot Remy a lopsided smile.

"Any last words for me, Rem?"

Remy smirked, and ruffled Roman's hair.

"If you let Earlship go to your head, I’ll cut you out of the estate when I take over."

"Honestly, Remington," their mother said, rolling her eyes, and Remy winked at Roman.

The carriage reached them then, and Roman quickly moved to fix his hair. A footman hopped down from a seat on the rear, and bowed to Roman's father.

"Good morning," he said as he straightened. "I come on behalf of my Lord Garret Howard, Earl of Asberg, to deliver a dowry payment to Lord Phillip Sanders, Baron of Falkirk, and to collect his lordship's fiance, Lord Roman Sanders."

"Thank you, sir," said Roman's father, nodding to the footman. "Our family is honored by this union. May I present my son, Roman."

Roman inclined his head to the servant, who bowed again, quick and low.

"A pleasure, my lord. Allow me to gather your things."

Roman's luggage was loaded onto the back of the carriage, and Roman tried not to think about the large trunk that was unloaded and left at his father's feet. He hadn't been told the amount of his dowry, and he didn't want to know. For some reason, it made him feel strange to think about money being given to his family in return for his hand; it made it seem more like he'd been bought, when that wasn't the case!

“Well,” he said when everything was ready to go. “I guess this is it.”

“Safe journey, son,” his father said, laying a hand on his shoulder. “Make us proud.”

Roman swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded. He gave his family as strong a smile as he could muster, then he stepped into the carriage and the footman closed the door behind him. Roman drew the curtains back from the window and peered behind them as the carriage pulled away from his home. Remy and his mother were both waving, and even his father raised his hand briefly in farewell. Roman watched them grow smaller and smaller, and then the carriage turned out of the grounds and he couldn’t see them anymore. The manor that had been his entire world for the past twenty years shrank into the distance, until it was nothing but a speck on the horizon.

Roman finally turned around so he was facing the direction the carriage was traveling. His father’s words echoed in his mind, and he took a deep breath.

Don’t worry, father, he thought. I’ll make you proud. I’ll make our whole family proud.

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#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #roman sanders #remy sanders #logan sanders #sanders sides au #you dont own me #ydom

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kieraelieson · 4 years ago

Text

Three Times Patton Got Lost in a Market

Thomas was walking through the old store with his mom, careful to hold her hand while they shopped.

“Oh, look! There’s a wind chime! It’s just like the nice neighbor lady!” Patton said.

Thomas stopped to look, and his mom stopped too, looking at something else across the aisle.

“It isn’t exactly the same,” Logan said. “Hers has a hummingbird on top, but this one has a butterfly.”

“And anyway, this one has prettier colors when the light hits it,” Roman added.

“Oooh, the red really is pretty, Roman!” Patton said excitedly. “And the purple, and the yellow!”

“It’s exactly the colors of the most beautiful rainbow reflecting back from a pot of gold,” Roman said dreamily.

“Mom!” Virgil suddenly shrieked, alerting them all to the fact that Thomas’s mom was no longer beside them.

Instantly, there was a pandemonium of overlapping voices, all very confusing, and Virgil at the front screaming.

“Quiet!” Patton yelled, as loud as he could, and then felt a little like crying. He didn’t like yelling, but this was important!

“But we have to find Mom!”

“We should run after her!”

“If we yell someone will hear!”

“Listen to me!” Patton yelled again. “Remember what Mom said? If we get lost in the store we stay put, and if we see an employee then we ask them to call mom for us.”

Virgil bit down hard on his sleeves, and Patton took his silence for agreement.

“That is indeed what Thomas was told,” Logan admitted.

“I still think we should go find her!” Roman protested, though less pointedly than before.

Thomas plopped down on the floor.

“Ok. That settles it, we’re waiting for mom,” Patton said. “Let’s look for more pretty things while she comes to get us. Roman, what else can you see around us that looks like a rainbow?”

Roman grumpily crossed his arms. “There’s a rainbow on the lawn decoration.”

“Very good!” Patton said. “Logan, can you see anything that’s science-accurate?”

“Science-accurate is a very vague phrase, but I suppose you could be intending to direct me to the collection of decorative barometers.”

“Oooh~ yes, the water swan neck thingies~” Roman said.

Logan launched into an explanation of barometers, most of which Patton didn’t understand.

He checked on Virgil, who was scanning the aisle they were in over and over again, and chewing holes in his poor sleeves.

“She’ll be here in just a minute, don’t worry,” Patton said gently.

Virgil nodded slightly, but didn’t stop checking the ends of the aisle and staring down each person that passed.

And then his eyes went wide. Patton turned to look.

“Mom!”

“Thomas, I thought I lost you for a minute there! Stay close, ok?”

Thomas took his mother’s hand and nodded.

Patton let out a sigh of relief. They weren’t lost anymore.

••^*^••

Thomas was a bit worried about high school, and especially the test coming up, and Logan and Virgil were mostly helping him with that. But now he had to go to the store for groceries. And Roman was exhausted after being all excited over the play and was sound asleep.

So Patton was helping shop!

He smiled confidently, prompting Thomas to look at the list again. He needed to get the ingredients for tacos, and some bread, milk, eggs, and ice cream. Yum!

Now what all went into tacos?

There was meat, and sour cream, and little shredded lettuce, and cheese, and taco shells, or was he supposed to get soft tortillas?

Patton considered, wandering into the store towards the food. Maybe both? Yeah. Both. Oh! And there was the bread! That would probably have tortillas near it!

Patton hummed happily, finding the bread that looked the same as what mom had been getting, noting the brand name. Nature’s Own. Huh.

Now tortillas… what kind did they normally get?

He finally just picked the one that had blue on the label.

Virgil popped up, startling him for a moment, especially with his intense frown. “People are staring. We’re taking too long near the bread, and your humming is gonna make people think Thomas is weird.”

“Oh, it’s alright!” Patton said cheerfully, glad he hadn’t dropped the tortillas. “I didn’t get in anyone’s way, and they haven’t said anything yet about thinking Thomas is weird.”

“Yeah…” Virgil glared at the people milling around and shopping. “Well they could. Just… keep it quiet.”

“Will do!” Patton grinned, and Virgil sunk back out.

Next he had to find… well, next he had to find the next thing. Should he keep walking and hope to see them, or should he seek each one out? He’d stumbled upon the bread, surely he would stumble across the rest.

Patton hummed happily and kept walking, skipping along beside the cart as Thomas pushed it. Thomas must really be out of it, poor guy. But Patton could help him cheer up!

Pretty soon, they had almost everything! Except for taco seasoning. And Patton wasn’t sure if they were supposed to get the kind that was in packets, or the actual spices. And he also wasn’t sure whether he should look in the spices area or the Mexican food area. Or where those areas were.

Surely they’d passed those special Mexican drinks a while back. But where?

Patton encouraged Thomas to turn around and go back, but after several aisles he still couldn’t find anything he was looking for. He turned back around, and then again.

“Perhaps… I need to go from one end all the way to the other…”

Virgil popped up again, rather grumpy looking, but not as much as earlier. “That’s gonna take too long. We’re already late, and Mom is gonna need Thomas home son so she can make dinner.”

Patton sighed. “Ok. Logan, help please, I’m lost.”

Logan popped up, looked around, and then pointed. “That aisle.”

“But how do you know?” Patton asked.

“There’s a sign above it.”

Patton looked up. “Oh. Yeah.” He chuckled. “I should’ve thought to look for signs. Thanks, Logan!”

“You’re welcome. However I do suggest we attempt to make our trip home expedient. I’ll need Virgil’s full attention and assistance to prepare adequately for the test.”

“Will do!” Patton said, already spurring Thomas towards the aisle.

••^*^••

“I have created the ultimate maze!” Roman said excitedly. “It is called Infinite IKEA!”

Patton clapped excitedly, and even Logan gave a single clap.

“I really don’t see the point—“

“The point is a race, Emo Nightmare, and the winner gets to pick which old reruns Thomas watches tonight.”

Virgil tried to pretend he was still disinterested, but Patton could tell he was excited. “So what would we have to do to win the race?”

Roman grinned. “I’ve hidden a copy of each of our logos in the store somewhere, except for mine, which Logan hid by sinking in and placing it in a random place, so he doesn’t know the layout of the store yet. You have to find your own logo, and then exit the store!”

Oh, so that was why Logan had a bump on his head. He’d probably tried to rise up too close to a shelf. Ouch.

“Everybody ready! Set! Go!”

They all rushed into the store. Patton looked around excitedly, getting more excited to see that the store was full of items that came from houses where Thomas had lived or visited. He ran to the section of beds and flopped onto the biggest one.

He let out a comfy sigh, looking up at the roof which, rather than being metal supports and too-bright lights, was intricately painted with something that glowed.

It was amazing.

“You did a really great job, Roman,” Patton said, even though Roman was probably running ahead to win the race— oh! This was a race!

He jumped up and started walking, looking around for his heart with glasses.

After the bed section, where he wished he could stay and flip onto each one, he wandered into the lamps and chandeliers section. That was beautiful. He was still dazzled and in awe walking out. It even had that massive one Thomas had seen in the one hotel once.

And then came books, where Logan was!

“Hi, Logan!”

“Ah, greetings Patton.” Logan was looking through the books, just as captivated as Patton had been by the beds.

“Find your logo yet?”

“Not yet. I’m not overly concerned with winning, and Roman has certainly made this an interesting place to browse.”

“Mhmm!” Patton looked around. “Where are the kids books, I want to see if the Winnie the Pooh book is still chewed on or if Roman made it brand new.”

“That way, two shelves down,” Logan said, rather distracted by a book he’d picked off of the shelf.

“Thank you!”

Patton found the children’s section, and then found the book. It was still chewed on the corners. He smiled, and flipped through the thick cardboard pages. Thomas had loved this book.

And then, when he opened the last page, his logo fell out.

“Awww, look!” He picked it up, and found that it was a sticker. He promptly stuck the sticker to his chest and put the book back. Now all he had to do was find his way out!

He wandered into the next section, which was all dark and purples and blues and blacks and everything cozily packed together.

There was even a sign warning him away from certain aisles, because there would be spiders, and Patton was very glad Roman had thought of that.

And then he remembered the sunglasses stand sitting at the beginning of the lights aisle. That was probably for Virgil. Roman had been so thoughtful in building this! Patton hoped Roman would win. He certainly deserved the prize after putting all this together.

There was a whole section of Disney, all the movies, and posters, and any Disney themed toys and figurines, and even cardboard cut outs! It was lovely and chaotic and colorful, and it bridged Virgil’s section with Roman’s very well.

Roman had every single picture Thomas had ever seen, which was so many pictures!! Patton looked in awe until he realized that the paintbrushes weren’t just for show, some of them had been used. There was a little black cat in the corner of one painting, and a little V, and the paintbrush was in a cup of black water.

Patton found a picture of a field of flowers, and picked up the paintbrush, dabbing a bit of pink onto the picture. It turned instead into exactly the kind of flower Patton had been envisioning! He smiled wide and painted another, and another, and another, and each one turned out beautiful!

He ran to another painting and gave a little boy in the background a balloon and a smile. And then he gave the lady sitting in a rocking chair a baby to hold.

He finally had to stop himself. He could stay here forever, but he probably should get to the end of the store so he wouldn’t worry the others.

He got to the end of Roman’s section, only to find a massive blanket fort. He kept himself from exploring, and passed through, coming out at… the beds again?

Ohhhhh, right. It was a race and a maze.

Patton flopped down on the bed Thomas had grown up with, wrapping up in the blanket. He let out a happy sigh.

“Logan! Roman! Virgil! I’m lost! But I’m also gonna stay lost!”

Roman rose up and leaned against the footboard, a pleased smile on his face. “Enjoying the store?”

“I’m loving it!” Patton said happily, sitting up. “You did a really good job!”

Roman glowed. “I guess I’ll have to leave it up for you to wander in then. Once Virgil finds the exit I’ll put it somewhere more obvious so you can get out once you’re done.”

“Oh, did you and Logan already get out? Who won?”

“Logan, but only by a few minutes. He hid my logo in a hard place! How was I supposed to guess he’d put it under the makeup stash?”

Patton chuckled. “Wait, I didn’t see that.”

“It’s in Virgil’s section, in one of the spider aisles. I can un-spider it for you if you want.”

“Well, let Virgil have his fun first, but I’d really like that.” Patton smiled. He could have fun in here for a long time. “You did an amazing job with the paintings too! I loved those!”

Roman puffed up happily. “I did, didn’t I?”

There was a distant, triumphant, “Ha! I made it! Wait, Princey beat me? Aww.”

Patton giggled.

Roman patted his shoulder. “Have fun.”

“I will!” Patton said happily, eyeing the blanket fort which he now had time to explore.

—————

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#my own work #sanders sides #sanders sides spoilers #virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders

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