#freelancer was so rushed I'm sorry

[hammerhead-jpg]

The redacted doodles pt3 are done!!

(but this time more as bust shots instead of head shots)

Here ya go

@the-stars-that-line-the-sky @morgansplace @everything-redacted-and-others @deezbignutz @vampiriceclipse

[mysunshinetemptress]

I’m sorry

Alexia Putellas x reader

Not strong enough part 2

Warnings: ehhhhhh

As you finished your heartfelt words, a heavy silence hung in the air. Alexia looked at you, her expression shifting from anger to a mix of surprise and realization. The weight of your words seemed to settle on her shoulders, and for a moment, it felt like time had come to a standstill.

She hesitated, the fiery intensity in her eyes dimming. "Y/n, I... I didn't realize... I didn't understand," she stammered, her voice softer now. But you had already made up your mind, the pain of constant comparisons and belittlement becoming too much to bear.

You zipped up your bag, your movements steady, and headed towards the door. "I need time to figure things out, Ale. Maybe we both do," you said calmly, looking into her eyes one last time before stepping out into the night.

A year had passed, a whirlwind year filled with nerves and a newfound sense of self. You'd quit your accounting job, a bold move fuelled by the bitter taste of Alexia's words. Following a suppressed passion, you began painting again, sketching again, falling back in love with art again. Your talent blossomed, your designs vibrant and imbued with a quiet strength. Freelance gigs trickled in, then flowed abundantly. Your apartment, once sterile and beige, became a reflection of your creativity - bold colours, quirky furniture, and walls plastered with your artwork.

Life wasn't perfect, but it was undeniably yours. You were thriving, a quiet confidence radiating from you. The ache for Alexia had dulled to a distant memory.

Still you hadn't expected the air to get caught in your lungs when you saw her. Alexia. Here at your gallery, a forced smile plastered on her face. Her eyes darted around the room, a flicker of desperation replacing the usual arrogance. As you mingled with guests, she edged towards you, her face a mask of unease. Alexia, her once-golden glow dimmed by a weary tiredness. The memory of her hurtful words a distant echo.

Suddenly, a hand tapped your shoulder. You turned, surprised to see Alexia standing so awkwardly behind you. Her once fiery gaze was dimmed, replaced by a flicker of something that resembled… regret.

"They're incredible," she mumbled, gesturing towards your photos.

You offered a polite smile, the years of therapy showing their worth. "Thank you, Alexia." Alexia couldn't help but wince still at the use of her full name.

"Can we... talk?" she pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper.

Hesitantly, you led her to a deserted corner.

"I..." Alexia started, then stopped. Finally, the words tumbled out in a rush. "I was an idiot. A complete and utter one. You were right. I never saw you, not really. All I saw was a reflection of Jenni, a way to fill a void. But you, Y/N, you were a light in my darkness, the one who loved me for me, even when I didn't deserve it."

Tears welled up in her eyes, a stark contrast to the icy queen she used to be and you couldn't help the surprised expression that graced you features for a second at the sight. "I miss you," she confessed, her voice cracking. "I miss your smile, your quiet strength, the way you believed in me even when I doubted myself."

You listened, a million emotions swirling within you. The anger had subsided, replaced by a deep sense of peace.

"Alexia," you began gently, "I saw your work," she continued, her voice dropping to a whisper. "It's incredible, Y/N. You're incredible."

A flicker of warmth sparked in your chest, a remnant of the love you once held. But it was quickly extinguished.

"I'm happy," you said, your voice firm. "Here, with this. I don't need to be anyone's trophy, Alexia, I don't need to be your trophy, I'm enough now, and i've realised i've always been enough"

Alexia's eyes welled up. "I know," she choked out. "I see it now. And I miss you. God, how I miss you."

You shook your head, a sad smile playing on your lips. "Missing someone doesn't mean they're the right fit for you, Alexia. We both needed to grow in different directions."

You sighed tears welling in your own eyes now "You needed to learn to love yourself without me or Jenni, and I needed to find myself, my own voice. What we had was beautiful in its own way, but it wasn't meant to last."

The truth hung heavy in the air. Alexia, finally seeing you for who you truly were, an independent, talented woman, was a sight that would have ached you a year ago. Now, it was a mere footnote in the grand story of your life.

A tear escaped, tracing a glistening path down her cheek. "Is there any chance...?" she started, hope flickering in her eyes.

You considered it for a moment. The anger was gone, replaced by a quiet understanding.

The silence stretched, heavy with unspoken possibilities. You looked at the painting to your left your eyes catching your favourite painting, a testament to your resilience still Alexia's mark had been left on it a small crown on the top left corner, blended so well that only you knew it was there. The future stretched before you, open and bright. A small, hopeful smile touched your lips.

"Maybe," you finally said. "But not today. Today, I celebrate my success."

Disappointment clouded her features, but there was also a flicker of understanding and hope.

As you turned to rejoin your friends, her voice stopped you. "Y/N," Alexia called out, her voice raw with emotion. "Thank you. For everything. And for showing me what I lost."

You offered a small smile, a silent promise of maybe hanging in the air she just had to be patient. You walked away, leaving Alexia with the echoes of your laughter and the realisation that sometimes, an angel can be worth more, mean more than any god. You had found your voice, your wings, and you were ready to soar. The world was vast, brimming with possibilities, and you, the once-disappointment girlfriend, were finally ready to claim your place in it.

[robin-evry]

HII i'm loving your works omg! could i ask you to make a bronya!yuu or silverwolf!yuu? (you can choose just one if you want). take care or yourself and do your work at your time, no need to rush! :D

I decided to do two but sorry if bronya is so short , aww thank you.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐒𝐈𝐋𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐎𝐋𝐅!𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓🐺👾

A member of the Stellaron Hunters and a genius hacker. She sees the universe as a massive immersive simulation game and has fun with it. She's mastered the skill known as "aether editing," which can be used to tamper with the data of reality.

Silver wolf!yuu is rarely known in nrc, they prefer to stay behind the scenes only a few students know about their existence.

Rarely appear in public, mostly using their holograms to go to school. It's pretty rare to see them actually outside of the ramshackle dorm.

Has a habit of disappearing and appearing, imagine your standing there and suddenly a hologram or game particles appear and silver wolf!yuu appear beside you.

Every time Crowley manages to piss them off, silver wolf!yuu would choose an area to vandalize at school, and some students manage to learn when you take a photo of it you can get a hidden message from silver wolf!yuu about Crowley.

silver wolf!yuu has a habit of collecting data about students, they have a database about their past, quirks, strength and weakness.

A very famous gamer in twst known to beat unbeatable levels of any game in twst and they use a fake alias. They hear about idia ranting towards Ortho about their game persona and find it funny. And join many game tournaments and win them easily and they gained money for this.

The ignihyde dorm is their second home, the dorm has good wifi for gaming. And manage to get close to idia and Ortho and talk about games with each other.

Their uniform has technology imbued to it. allowing them to access and project holographic screens on command. These are mainly used for quick data checks, sending encrypted messages, or pulling up maps and files in real-time without needing a handheld device.

They possessed a higher advanced technology than anything in twst. Also they use their aether hacking to change the ramshackle to their liking.

In battle, they would dominate due to having a lot hex on their side, they can hack into reality and get in the students file and remove the overblot. Or use it to discover and apply weakness towards the enemy.

They also have a mysterious job, operated as a freelancer, known for taking on jobs that require skill, secrecy, and the ability to circumvent the most complex security systems. Their reputation was built on their expertise in digital infiltration, information gathering, and high-stakes hacking, often working for those willing to pay for their skills without asking too many questions. most of their clients seem to be suspicious or not morally good.

Notorious for being a phone addict always playing their game outside or inside of class and when they were asked a question they immediately answered it correctly.

They also have a talent of engineering zoning out imagining about creating new tech ideas, mods and strategies for games.

𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐅 𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐀!𝐘𝐔𝐔 𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓 ❄️🌬️

Heir apparent to the Supreme Guardian of Belobog. She possesses pride befitting of a princess, but also the determination and integrity of a soldier.

Bronya!yuu is the embodiment of what a leader and an heir should be. Their charisma is able to encourage people and lead them towards the right path.

As well a dignified soldier bronya!yuu may look weak but are by far one of the most efficient in hand to hand combat, able to pin down a student who is bigger than them.

Has a tendency to reminisce about their mother and would just sit there and reminisce about them and grim would always be there to comfort them.

An expert marksman, rook and them once a week have a contest with each other who ever is the better marksman.

They are by far one of vil favorite, they are dignified, elegant and strong like a soldier and a princess should be, they also inspired epel to be more like them he admired them and have lessons with him where they tutor him.

They are patient and calm in the heeds of battle always believing as being one in harmony they could work together and forge a more successful path, as well being the back bone of a battle planning and helping them behind the scenes by shooting at the enemy

Them and Lilia would usually trade military tactics to each other over a cup of tea and also discussing other topics

They usually get burned out and they don't know when to rest, since they always have to keep a princess like dignity many of the first years notice and comfort them during hard times.

Bronya!yuu abilities allow them to enhance their comrade ability extremely towards its potential, as well to summon winter soldiers to help them but it takes a lot of energy.

Have a love and interest in history, usually seen in the library studying about twst long history and enjoy talking about them to their friends.

As well being a top student, always studying and getting good grades without any issue and always be respectful towards people

By far have a good reputation at school for being a capable leader, many students admire their discipline, while others have some sort of a sense of rivalry with them.

[makeitmingi]

Cause Baby You're My Muse [Chapter 23]

Genre: Romance, Idol!AU, Music, Slight angst

Pairing: Mingi x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Producer!Reader, IdolLyricist!Mingi, IdolProducer!Hongjoong, Idol!Seonghwa, Idol!Yunho, Idol!Wooyoung, Idol!San, Idol!Yeosang, Idol!Jongho, cameo(s) by other celebrities

Summary: You always preferred producing underground, having an unknown face and governed by your own rules. But when you start freelancing for idol groups, you say goodbye to your lone wolf lifestyle as you learn to work with idol producers and lyricists.

Word count: 3.2K

"Hmmm..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Your staring is distracting me."

"You're just beautiful."

"Come on, Mings. Be serious." You lifted your leg to lightly kick his thigh. Mingi had told Hongjoong he was going to your place to "work" with you on the new song since he had some lyrics for it. But of course, Mingi was getting distracted by you and that led you to be distracted by him as well.

"Oww, stop with your violence, woman." Mingi swatted your ankle away from him. Now, he was just leaning his head against his hand as he stared at you lovingly.

"Stop staring at me. You're making me feel self conscious." You met his eyes, using two fingers to push his forehead.

"There's nothing for you to feel conscious about." Mingi said in a dreamy tone.

"Now you're speaking nonsense." You scoffed, turning back to your work on the computer. But suddenly, you felt arms around you and you yelped as you were lifted up. Mingi set you down on his lap.

"There. That's better." He nodded proudly in approval.

"How are you going to work like this, might I ask?" You turned to him. He rested his chin on your shoulder, arms reaching around you to pick up his pen.

"See? It's not that hard, baby." He chuckled. You rolled your eyes but didn't protest, continuing to mix the piece of instrumental music that Maddox had sent to you. Even if you acted like you didn't, you liked being close to Mingi.

"Wow, I can just feel all the lyrics coming to me already." Mingi gasped in exaggeration.

"I'm done with you, Song Mingi." You squirmed but Mingi dropped his pen to wrap his arms around your waist more firmly.

"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry, we'll do work. Just don't go, okay?" Mingi coaxed. You gave him a warning look but settled back into his lap comfortably before typing away on your computer.

"Mings..." Your fingers stopped moving on the keyboard, hovering over the keys.

"Yes, my baby?" Mingi hummed.

"Does anyone know? Have you told anyone?" You asked. Mingi placed his pen down, this time gently holding your waist to turn you around so you faced him.

"Yunho knows. But I didn't tell him, he deduced it himself. That boy... He's known me for too long and knows too much about me. He knew about my feelings for you before I did. I trust him not to tell anyone." Mingi said, his fingers interlocking behind your back to support you so you wouldn't fall..

"Okay. If you trust him, I do too. And I know Yunho is a good friend." You smiled.

"He is. I trust him with my life." He pressed his forehead against yours. You reached up to caress his cheek, making Mingi inch forward just a little to kiss you.

"We won't tell anyone else until we're ready. There's no rush." Holding your hand, he kissed your knuckles.

I'm just so happy to finally be able to call you mine. That's all that matter to me right now." Mingi whispered as he hugged you. You chuckled as your cheek pressed against his shoulder.

"I'm yours too, you know that right?" He asked.

"Yes, along with many other Atinys out there." You pulled away, a mischievous smile on your face as you teased him.

"You know that's different." It was now his turn to roll his eyes. After you gave him another quick peck, you turned back around to face the desk to finish your work. With the songs for the next Ateez album confirmed, there were deadlines to meet.

"Once the lyrics are in and the instrumental is approved, we can start the actual song recording. I'm excited, I've never actually been there for the live recording part before." You said.

"Really? But you've been a part of so many hit songs." Mingi blinked in surprise at your words.

"Yeah but that's companies buying beats, melodies, instrumentals off me. This time, I'm really a part of the whole process." You shrugged.

"It'll be a new experience for sure." He patted your head.

"I know you guys are just as chaotic and loud in the studio. Eden already warned me." You scoffed. But secretly, you were used to it and wouldn't have it any other way.

"Wait, let me find some food." You stood up and walked out of the studio to the kitchen.

You hoped chewing on some food would keep you more focused. But let's be honest, the reason why you couldn't focus was because of the 1.84m male that is glued to you at the hip. That very male shuffled out a few minutes after you, leaning over your taller frame as you cut some fruit.

"You're always towering over me." You scoffed.

"But I like it this way." He placed his chin on the top of your head for emphasis. His entire body wrapped around yours, embracing you in his warmth and scent.

"What snacks do you want? I got some in the cupboard there. Or you can have some of Haneul's snacks." You said.

"No, I don't want to face her wrath." Mingi chuckled.

"She's 5..." You tilted your head back to look up at him. Mingi shrugged but went to the cupboard to get a box of crackers. You placed the sliced fruit into the bowl to make some sort of fruit mix.

"Can I have a seaweed popcorn too, please?" You asked, taking out a tray and small bowls.

"Sure, baby. Let me do it." Mingi opened the small bag for you, emptying the snacks into their own bowls.

"Let's go." Mingi held the tray in one hand and the other held your hand to go back to the studio. Back you were on Mingi's lap as you worked. Mingi had a soft smile as he watched you focus on your work. The slight frown on your face showed how serious you were.

"Something's not right." You went to your shelf to take your metronome. Mingi respectfully remained quiet as you wore your headphones, exposing one ear to hear the metronome.

You tapped your finger lightly over the mouse, closing your eyes to visualise the instrumental at the different layers.

"A HA!" You yelled, making Mingi yelp.

"You could have given me a heart attack!" Mingi placed a hand over his racing heart.

"Your heart is healthy and fine." You tapped his chest before quickly going the point where you found the error in case you lost it. You pulled up the layer to make the edit.

"Solved it?" He asked.

"I hope so." You put your headphones back on and played the track from the start. As the song played to the end, you had a satisfied smile on your face. Now, you could schedule the recording with all the Ateez members. You opened the chat page and sent out the recording dates.

'Oh, there will be extra recording sessions too. Hongjoong and Jongho for adlibs, Seonghwa and Yunho for back up harmonisation. - Prod. Indigo'

'How about a week from now? - Wooyoung'

'Sounds good. We'll dedicate half a day to the recording. Do the solo recordings then the group parts. - Joong'

'Seonghwa hyung is gaming beside me. He just said he's good three days after the group recording. I'm good on that day as well if you can make it? - Yuyu'

'That's good with me. - Prod. Indigo'

'Seonghwa hyung! Stop playing your game and reply Indigo yourself! - San'

'Anyway, Indi. Jongho is recording now. When he is done, I'll get his schedule and get back to you for the adlib recording dates. - Joong'

"Looks like we're going to be busier once we start the actual recording sessions." You sighed as you booked the recording studio and blocked out the dates in your calendar. Mingi hummed in agreement, glancing at all the coloured blocks on your calendar.

"That means we're not going to be able to have many chances to hang out." You looked at him.

"Don't worry about that, baby. Hmm? We'll still see each other. And I've said before, you shouldn't have to stress about us." Mingi brushed your hair back.

"As long as you're taking care of yourself, I'm content. That's all I want." He added.

"You too. Don't overwork and always camp at your studio." You put your arms around his neck.

"Coming from you?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You know I thought we were having a moment and you just ruined it." You scoffed and retracted your arms. But Mingi stopped you by abruptly standing up, carrying you with him. You instinctively wrapped your arms and legs around him as you squealed, worried that you could fall.

"I won't drop you, baby." Mingi laughed. He supported you with his hands under your thighs.

"I'm still scared." You said as you clutched onto him. That was when Mingi suddenly jumped, acting like he was going to drop you, making you shriek in fear.

"MINGI!" You cried out.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, baby." Mingi put you down with a cheeky smile on his face to say that he wasn't sorry at all.

"You're not sorry at all, Song Mingi." You glared at him, storming away from him.

"No, no. I'm really sorry." Mingi chased after you. When he finally caught you, you were on the phone with Wooyoung. Apparently he found out Mingi was "working" at your house and was upset the invitation was extended to him.

"We're just going over some lyrics." You chuckled. Mingi rolled his eyes at how dramatic Wooyoung was. But that didn't stop him from pulling you to him, burying his face in the crook of your neck.

"Don't let him come." Mingi whispered. The warmth of his breath against your ear made you shiver.

"N-Next time, I promise, Wooyoung." You spoke into the phone.

"Wooyoung, stop disturbing us. We're trying to work." Mingi snatched the phone from you. You could hear Wooyoung's outraged yelling but Mingi just hung up on him.

"Mings! That wasn't very nice." You scolded with wide eyes. Now you were worried Wooyoung might suspect something.

"Whatever." Mingi looked away from you, not feeling guilty at all. You moved yours arms off him and stretched your limbs.

"Are you still angry with me?" He asked but you just shot him a look and walked away. His eyes followed you as you went to lie down on your bed to rest.

"Come on, baby. Don't be angry anymore, please? I was just playing. Your reaction was too cute." He whined. Mingi's hands planted beside your head as he hovered over you to try and get your attention. All the while, Mingi maintained his smile as he looked down at you. He leaned down to try and kiss you but you blocked him.

"I'm going to nap." You stated.

"I like that plan." Mingi stole a kiss before gently laying himself down over you, resting his head on your chest like always.

It was hard to remain angry at a person like Mingi. Or maybe it was just because you had feelings for him and knew that you couldn't stay angry at him.

"You're lucky I love you." You whispered with a scoff, reaching down to hold Mingi's hand. He knew you thought he had fallen asleep but Mingi couldn't help the smile at your words.

'Love' or saying 'I love you' was still something you and Mingi had yet to really say to each other directly.

DING DONG DING DONG

You and Mingi got up to the sound of the frantic doorbell. Mingi kept you behind him as he slowly appraoched the door. He turned back to ensure that his whole body was shielding you, just in case there was danger behind the door.

"Open up!" At the familiar voice, you and Mingi relaxed, letting out sighs of relief. Mingi ran his hand through his hair to get rid of his bed hair while you ran to the bathroom.

"What are you guys doing here?" You heard Mingi open the door.

"Where's Indigo?" They all ignored him, pushing him aside to enter your home.

"She's in the bathroom." Mingi informed coolly. He noticed that the boys all had bags of food and drinks with them. They spread it out on the coffee table.

"Hey, everyone. What are you all doing here?" You blinked as you came out, wiping your wet hands with a tissue.

"We thought we could celebrate now since we don't have schedules tomorrow. We got food and drinks." Seonghwa explained. He wrapped his arms around you to hug you and you did hug him back but shot Mingi a shocked look. Mingi shrugged, completely unaware of this sudden surprise visit to your house.

"I told you we should have called before coming, hyungs. We just self invited ourselves to her house, all 7 of us." Jongho facepalmed while shaking his head.

"It's okay. I didn't have a chance to clean up though." You rubbed the back of your neck.

"Your house is already so clean." Yeosang assured.

"Luckily you guys brought food. I would be worried if you came over for dinner and my fridge isn't stocked." You chuckled, looking at the large amount of food they had brought with them.

"I missed you!" Wooyoung hugged you, rubbing his cheek against your lovingly.

"You just saw me two days ago." You laughed. Mingi glared at his group member, feeling uncomfortable with how close and long Wooyoung was holding you. He had never felt like this before, especially to someone that's practically his brother.

"Uh, Mingi. Could you help me take the plastics out?" Yunho cleared his throat, noticing how Mingi was staring.

"Sure." Mingi grumbled and went to his best friend.

"Your jealousy is really obvious." Yunho whispered softly. Mingi looked at Yunho, he didn't agree or deny it. He did his task and went to get rid of the trash.

"Can I get some plates and cutlery?" Mingi asked you. You stepped away from Wooyoung and San to help him in the kitchen.

"Here you go." You handed it to him.

Of course Mingi knew where everything was in your house but he was supposed to act like it was his 'second/ third' time coming over so he couldn't act like he could take things on his own.

"Indigo, ready for a live version of that Wanteez episode you like?" Jongho laghed, pulling out the soju bottles. San cringed while Yeosang had a worried look on his face. No doubt, he was one of the ones that remembered the events of that night. The other person being Yunho.

"I thought Mingi was sober... Guess he wasn't." You chuckled, taking out some shot glasses.

"I know how to act sober." Mingi corrected. Once you had everything, you sat down together. You tried to make it look like a coincidence that you sat beside Mingi by 'wanting to sit with Seonghwa'.

"Glasses up!" Yunho said.

"Indigo should make the toast." San suggested. Everyone turned to you as you tried to find the words to say.

"I don't know what you say during a toast... But thank you for all your hard work in producing the track and working with me. This is just the start of our rewarding journey. To us!"

"To Indigo!" The boys and you clinked shot glasses. You downed the alcohol in one shot.

"Let's go, Indigo!" Jongho said in English, making everyone laugh. He refilled your glass like how he constantly does with Mingi.

"Yah, don't go too fast and pressure her into drinking more. We've barely even got the chance to start eating." Mingi scolded. Thankfully, Seonghwa nodded in agreement so it didn't look like Mingi was being too protective of you.

"We're ready to pass out here." Seonghwa chuckled.

"Sure. But I don't think I have enough blankets for everyone though." You giggled.

"When you're blacked out drunk, having a blanket would be the least of your problems." Wooyoung pointed out. You took some rose tteokbokki in your plate to eat.

"Eat more, drink more!" Hongjoong said as he took a chicken wing. With you drinking, Mingi drank slower. He wanted to make sure you were okay and be sober if he had to take care of you after.

"Indigo's the one trying to get Hongjoong hyung drunk." Yunho pointed, laughing as you filling Hongjoong's glass.

"What?! Don't accuse me, Yuyu!" You glared in feign offense from his accusation.

"Indigo, don't regret it when they start singing. It'll be too late by then." Yeosang warned. You giggled as clinked glasses with Wooyoung to take another drink. With everyone getting slightly intoxicated, they didn't notice that Mingi was periodically adding food to your plate.

"Make sure you eat too." Mingi told you. You nodded obediently and ate. Seonghwa put a glove on to make the mini rice balls for everyone. He put one in your mouth.

"It's good." You covered your mouth as you chewed.

"You eat so well~" Seonghwa had a slightly crooked smile on as he patted your head with a clean hand.

"He's gone." Wooyoung stifled a laugh with his hand.

"Don't speak such nonsense, Jung Wooyoung. I'm fine. Refill my glass." Seonghwa held out his glass. Jongho gladly refilled the shot glass, all the way to the top.

"Stop giving him so much." Yunho slapped the maknae's shoulder. Yeosang sighed as he took more food to eat. San, who was being quiet, slowly chewed on his rice cake. He reminded you of a sloth, making you giggle.

"What's so funny?" Mingi leaned down.

"San's chewing the tteokbokki like a cute sloth." You giggled. The red faced male had a distant look on his face as he ate.

"I want a seaweed roll." You pointed. Mingi picked it up and dipped it into the spicy rice cake sauce before feeding it to you. He wiped the sauce at the corner of your lips.

"Thank you." You smiled as you chewed.

"You're welcome." Mingi smiled back. You were slightly tipsy as well that made you have this dazed look. Mingi thought you were adorable.

"Yeosang, are you not going to drink?" Hongjoong asked as he took a shot. Yeosang shook his head.

"I already had three, that's enough for me. Someone needs to remain sober to take care of you guys." Yeosang raised an eyebrow.

"Fine by me." Hongjoong shrugged. That meant he could let loose and drink too, without needing to keep an eye on the others. He refilled his glass to take another shot, reaching over to refill Seonghwa and your glass to.

"To our favourite child." Hongjoong toasted with you and Seonghwa, both having your arms around each other happily.

"To our best child." Seonghwa added, nodding in agreement.

"HEY!" There were protests coming from the others in the room despite being influenced by alcohol. But it was ignored as the three of you shared the toast and downed the shot.

~

Series Masterlist

[marksbear]

Hi! I'm not sure if your request are still open but if they are could i ask for yandere Steven Grant x male reader who also is yandere? Or just the reader that is yandere i don't really mind. But i don't have any specific idea other than Steven showing his yandere side to y/n, and y/n is shocked at first but than returns the same yandere affection (?) But more passionately than Steven? And maybe that leads to smut? But if you don't want to write this i don't mind! It's just an idea that's been bugging me for a while now. Thank you for reading!

I hope you're doing well !

I wrote this with inspiration from Bones and all and You. So this is some lovely dovey, DARK kinky shit ❤

A/n: This has to be one of the most jaw dropping shit I ever wrote.

Warning! REALLY DARK, blood kink, bloody sex, blood as lube, protective and obsessive reader and Steven, sadistic reader, murder, alcohol, semi public sex( idk if in a room in a party is public or not.) delusional Steven, breeding kink crying kink forgot what its called in English

H/t= Hair type, H/c= hair color, E/c= eye color

SUB YANDERE STEVEN GRANT X DOM YANDERE MALE READER

Steven stands afar holding a cup of tea watching his crush interact with others. Steven didn't even know how he got invited to his co-worker house party, but he wasn't complaining since Y/n was here.

Y/n stood out from the group of people he was talking to. He had H/t with H/c that makes his hair look even more beautiful with e/c that completes his beautiful face. He even had the smallest scar on his left cheek from mostly he got as a kid. Steven noticed everything about his crush. How he would crack his fingers when talking to a stranger or even how he'd sometimes wink at someone on accident.

He loved every small detail and big one about Y/n.

Even though Y/n and him only met a few times Steven was still in love.They had exchanged names and what they did for a living when they had met.

Y/n worked as a freelancer. But he was different from any freelancer sure he did the standard jobs to get by, but he knew people and people knew him. Hell it was even rumored that he worked with Tony Stark for a couple jobs. Sadly though Y/n never stayed in the same place he traveled a lot, but it seems that he might actually stay at London.

What got Steven out of his thoughts as he watched a woman flirt with Y/n shamelessly. It was most likely the alcohol speaking for her, but Steven didn't care. Steven clenched his cup with anger as he watches.

The woman follows Y/n around like a lost puppy no doubt making Y/n irritated. Steven lets out a sigh before turning his attention away from Y/n momentarily.

Steven begins to wonder around the partying enjoying himself, but sadly it is ruined by someone accidentally bumping into him knocking his drink out of his hand in the process and getting on on his shirt.

"Oh god. Maddie see what you did!" A voice rings out catching Steven's attention. Steven felt time slow down as him and his long term crush made eye contact. "Steven! Fuck man i'm sorry about her. Cmon follow me Steven." Y/n says taking Steven's hand dragging him upstairs as Maddie follows.

Y/n looks for empty rooms so he can properly talk to Steven and help him with his shirt. Finally Y/n finds one and pulls Steven inside with Maddie rushing inside.

The room muffles all the screaming and music from outside. Maddie shakily sits on the bed while Steven stands in the middle of the room awkwardly.

"Steven could you take your shirt off. I'm going to see if I can wash off the stain." Steven nervously does what he's told watching Y/n take his shirt and walk inside the bathroom. Steven stares at Y/n thinking to himself not noticing Maddie approaching him.

"Not to bust your bubble man. But you have no chance with him. Y/n L/n is a black bottomless pit. Don't fall in love with him, you'll just end up like his ex-boyfriend Darren missing for months..." Maddie says taking another sip of her beer. Steven glares at the woman.

"I bet he killed him. I heard they had a nasty fight before Darren went missing. Don't trust him. Hes a evil son of a bitch that thinks he rules the world. He's also a insane maniac."

After those words fall from her mouth Steven could only see red. He didn't know what took over his body as he tackled the woman on the floor and began to punch her and smash her head against the floor repeatedly. Steven couldn't hear anything he could hear muffled shouting from Y/n, but he couldn't make out the words. Time went slow as Maddie's once beautiful face began to get ruined from blood. Blood begins to get everywhere, splashing onto Steven's body and face.

Steven didn't know how long he's been punching the woman only snapping out of his trance once he's pushed onto the ground by Y/n.

Time begins to speed up going back to its original speed. "Maddie! Oh god Madison." Y/n says looking down at her bloodied body. Y/n moves his hand to her cheeks shaking her. "Madison-- dear g-god please say something!" Y/n chokes out watching blood ooze out of her mouth.

"Y/n! I-I didn't mean to! I just blacked out okay! I-I" "Shut up Steven! You- you killed her. You fucking killed her Steven!" Y/n blurts out cutting Steven off.

Y/n and Steven were on the floor both of them covered in blood staring at each other. Y/n's body trembled in fear and anger not knowing what to do next.

"Why...Why did you do it?" Y/n lays Maddie's lifeless body back down giving Steven his full attention.

Steven stayed quiet.

"Huh!?! Why the hell did you kill her!" Y/n shouts staring down Steven.

"Because of you! She was talking bad about you! She called you a killer and an insane maniac! And the things she said weren't true because I know you Y/n! I-I watch and learn from you and I know you aren't the things she says. You're far from being a black bottomless pit. I did it for you Y/n! I killed her for you and only you!" Steven nervously blurts out.

Y/n stared at Steven. Y/n honestly didn't listen to anything he was saying besides the fact Steven said "I killed her for you." Those words burned into Y/n's mind causing a sadistic smile to slowly crawl onto his face.

"You did it for me? You killed her for me Steven. Say it again. That you'd killed her for me." Y/n says standing up from the pool of blood he was kneeling in. Y/n walks to Steven slowly. Steven noticed Y/n's eyes shined with dark intent.

Y/n doesn't bother to wipe the blood from his hands as he cups Steven's cheeks pulling his head up making him look him in the eyes. "I killed her for you Y/n..." Steven says. Y/n crouches down to Steven staring down at him.

"Y'know Steven. I always wanted someone to share the same feelings I had. Willing to kill someone for me. Or me killing someone for them. I love it. I love how you have been stalking me for the past few weeks. I love how you've been watching me the whole time during the party." Y/n says before adding. "I've been waiting for someone to share my entire life with Steven. And i'm glad that someone is you. Your entire body and your thoughts belong to me. You would only need me from now on Steven. Anything that's yours is mine. Your entire being is mine and mine only."

Steven couldn't believe his ears. Steven smiles brightly staring up at Y/n fully in a trance. If Y/n was a witch he had Steven fully in his spell. Y/n finally presses a deep kiss on Steven's lips. Steven quickly melts into the kiss wrapping his arms around Y/n's shoulders.

The blood of Steven's face rubs onto Y/n's own. As they makeout time begins to slow down for them. Y/n stripping out of his bloodied clothes as Steven begins to unbuckle his pants pulling them down alongside his boxers throwing them somewhere in the room.

Steven couldn't keep his hands off of Y/n. His hands roam across his back and chest as he sits in his lap. Y/n couldn't keep to himself either. He kissed and licked Steven's neck and bloodied face. They grind their hard cocks into each other humping each other. Y/n soon begins to grow bored of the foreplay and begins to move to the large puddle of blood, before slowly flipping the position laying Steven down in the blood.

Nothing ever looked so beautiful than both their bodies covered in blood. Steven looked up at Y/n looking into his hungry eyes. Y/n even looked a bit scary.

Y/n spreads Steven's legs open before using his free hand to slowly jerk Stevens cock. He gives it a few lazily strokes before jerking it off properly. "Are you okay with me prepping you like this?" Y/n asks gesturing to his blood covered fingers. Steven enthusiastically nods his head yes. Y/n begins to kiss Steven distracting him as he pushes one finger inside of his hole. Steven's body looked beautiful. He wasn't exactly covered in blood, but just the right amount to make his body shine.

Y/n moves his finger in and out using his other busy hand faster. Steven's body arch and wiggles around as Y/n pleasures him. Small light moans escape his lips.

Soon enough Y/n begins to add another digit fingering Steven at a faster pace. Y/n begins to curl and twist his fingers even grazing Steven's prostate as he finger fucks him deeper. Y/n's fingers begin to touch unfamiliar places to Steven causing him to let out loud moans and whimpers.

Steven's cock begins to leak precum and twitch. Even his cock veins begin to show as his cock throbs in Y/n's hand. Steven's hips begin to sink down into Y/n's fingers moving them up and down.

Once Steven is prepped enough to Y/n's liking he pulls his fingers out slowly. "Y/n~ Please g-go back inside! please please~" Steven begs watching Y/n cover his hand in blood before jerking off his own cock.

"Sorry our first time wasn't in a better place. Next time i'll do something special for the both of us." Y/n says before lining up his cock to Steven's entrance. After Steven takes a few deep breathes Y/n moves inside Steven.

"S-so big!~ fuck! You're so big!" Steven moans out already feeling so full from the tip. Y/n smirks to himself before moving deeper inside inch by inch. Once Y/n was only halfway inside Steven cums hard onto himself landing on his blood covered stomach and chest. Y/n watches as Steven cries and moans as he cums. Y/n takes the opportunity to thrust himself fully inside Steven.

Steven's mouth hangs open as he moans and cries as Y/n thrust in and out of him mercilessly. Steven couldn't bare to look Y/n in the eyes turning his head away. Y/n grabs Steven's legs hooking them over his shoulder before holding his thighs fucking Steven deeply.

Y/n's thrust is like an animal in his rut. His thrust is rough and fast no doubt causing Steven to walk with a limp.

The floor squeaked beneath them. Y/n fucked harder and harder throwing his head back in the process for a while. Steven's hole and prostate was getting abused by Y/n. Steven's walls tightened around Y/n causing him to go faster for pleasure. Steven could swear he heard Y/n growl as he fucks him like he was just some worthless toy.

Y/n grip of Steven's thighs tighten trying to keep Steven still as he drills his cock inside him. Y/n begins to hit Steven's prostate repeatedly. Steven's legs begin to feel like jello. They trembled and shook.

Loud and wet skin slapping filled the room alongside moans and cries. If the party went quiet and paused the music no doubt everyone in the house could hear what was going down upstairs. "Y-Y/n!~ slow down! fuck~ AhhHh~ please slow down~" Steven moans out knowing full and well he doesn't want Y/n to slow down. In fact Y/n just picks up the speed of his thrust. Steven's eyes begin to roll up as his moans begin to sound pornographic. Steven finally begins to feel Y/n twitch inside him.

"Cum inside me! breed me Y/n! Please get me pregnant s-so we can start a family together!" Steven blurts out with a loud moan.

Y/n's thrust slows down and begins to get sloppily as he feels his peak nearing. With a few more thrust Y/n cums deep inside painting his walls white. Y/n begins to thrust lazily calming down from his high before pulling out. Y/n drops Steven's legs off his shoulders but holds them up watching cum ooze out of Steven's over used hole and gets into the pool of blood.

"Even though I love the look of you covered in cum and blood we gotta get cleaned up. And about the whole thing about the body and the blood don't worry your pretty little head about it, I got it all covered alright?" Y/n says knowing full and well Steven's too much in a bliss to understand him.

Y/n begins to get up from the bed and walks to the bathroom and starts some bath water. Y/n finds some clean towels for both of them and gets everything ready. Y/n walks out and walks around the bedroom opening closets and dressers for clothes.

"I found some clothes for us!" Y/n shouts before putting them in the bathroom by the rest of the towels and everything.

Y/n walks over to Steven before picking him up bridal style walking him to the bathroom and setting him down in the bath. Y/n joins him after.

"What are we gonna do?" Steven nervously mumbles out. "Don't worry Steven. I'll take care of everything alright, I just need you to love me~" Y/n flirts with a wink.

"Besides Steven... No one is going to stop us from living our new life."

THE END

[crimsonhydrangeavn]

Hi! I absolutely loved the demo of your game—it was amazing! I'm excited to see more of it. I have two questions: First, how would Garret or Teagan react if they were in a room full of yanderes with y/n? Second, I hope this doesn't come across the wrong way, but I'm genuinely curious—how long does it usually take to release a new episode? I'm really looking forward to continuing the game, and I appreciate all the hard work you put into it. I hope I'm not rushing anyone, and I'm truly sorry if it comes off that way. Thank you so much for reading!

Thank you so much for your ask! I'll go ahead and answer your second question first before moving onto the first one! lol

I wanted to start off by thanking you for asking your question in a kind and respectful way, I completely understand where you're coming from and I don't take any offense to it what so ever!

I know I really appreciate transparency when it comes to games/ things I'm a fan of, so I want to do what I can to make sure I'm as honest and upfront with you all as possible.

So I went through my logs and did the math. Day 1 took me about 6 months from start to finish and Day 2 took me almost a full year from start to finish. That being said, Day 1 was 11k words and Day 2 was 24.5k words total. So given the fact that Day 2 was more than twice as long as Day 1, I can see why it took double the time as Day 1. (That and I learned how to add animation into Renpy and spent a little over a month going down that rabbit hole and making a few animations for the game. I also spent some time refining Day 1 while working on Day 2 so that probably made the Day 2 release take longer than it would have otherwise)

The reason why it takes as long as it does is because I'm making this game entirely by myself. That includes the script, all of the art assets, the programming, the audio, and not to mention all of the social media, and patreon content.

On top of that I also have a pretty steady stream of freelance work that usually equals to about 30-50 hours a week. I've burnt myself out in the past and I'm trying to keep a sustainable pace where I'm making progress on CHVN but I'm also enjoying life and taking breaks as needed.

That being said, I do post monthly game updates on my patreon to discuss what I've finished that month, what I have left, and what the current word count is. ( ATM it's longer than Day 1 and I still have a lot planned haha)

I also think it's worth mentioning that this is my first game and I'm learning how to do everything from scratch. My background is in the visual arts so programming and audio stuff is completely foreign to me. That being said, I'm stubborn as hell and for better or for worse once I put my mind to something, I'll get it done one way or another.

Hopefully that answers your question! Once I finish up the script portion of Day 3, I can give a better estimate of how long it'll take me, but until then I really have no idea when the actual release date will be.

Now, onto the easier/ fun part of your question! lol

Garret would play nice at first, however he would make sure that he was never more than a step away from your side. He doesn't trust anyone to behave themselves around you, especially if they're anything like him.

Teagan on the other hand would immediately try to get you to leave the room. They don't deal well with competition and would want to remove you from the situation asap. If you refused/ couldn't leave with them, then they would make sure to talk shit about all of the other Yandere's and taint your view of them. While it would put an obvious target on their own back, at least they'd know you wouldn't talk to or go off with them out of your own free will.

Thank you again for all of your support! I really appreciate it and I can only hope that the next update is worth the wait!

[bearbait-adventures]

RvB Pacific Rim AU: Day 3 @rvbrarepairweekdos

Where the AI are all Jaegars, and the Freelancers are all pilots.

Think about it. The inevitable closeness that comes from being inside someone else's head the compatibility testing. The potential for hurt of losing a partner.

Maybe Freelancer is experimenting with AI to remove the need for a second pilot, but it goes wrong. Maybe that's what happened to Washington. Epsilon ultimately failed and left the neural load all on Washington's brain, leaving him with brain damage and then removed from the program, demoted. Caboose is the only pilot on record for defeating a Kiaju while solo-piloting a Jaeger. At least, that's what the files said. Washington has read all of it. Most of it was redacted, however. It's probably a bunch of top secret nonsense anyway. Washington's convinced, though. If anyone can get him back in the cockpit again. It has to be Michael J. Caboose. Caboose at first glance, well he looks impressive. He's built like a tank, it got Washington's hopes up... And then Caboose spoke and any hopes Wash had in the man, died right there. At first anyway...

Washington is terrified, his training simulation has hit scarily close to home and his mind is spinning, spiraling, he can't make sense of it. He's chasing the rabbit in his own mind, what's left of Epsilon's memories leading him on a chase that never ends. he can vaguely make out someone talking to him people shouting orders around him, but it's like he's in a fishbowl. He can't make it out, it's just echoing sound. Nonsense. Something big, a body, a person moves everyone else away.

Initializing neural handshake. Handshake in 3... 2... 1. Washington hasn't drifted with another living person in a very long time. He usually chooses to train with "Sarah" the brain in a jar, she's less volatile no real or fresh emotions. So when the drift shifts to include this new person. There's a rush, like jumping out of a plane stomach swirling adrenaline as the two minds become one. And then it's calm. Suddenly. Everything is still. A wide ocean in front of him reflecting the moon and stars above. He can't explain it but he just 'knows' the ocean is deep and he 'knows' that it's covering something. Something that he should never uncover. A deep sorrow. Handshake Successful! 100% and holding. "Hello, Agent Washingtub." He feels the big man. He's covering him, he's protecting him. Relief floods his body like he's never felt before. like Caboose is holding the world up around him. "Hello, Caboose." Washington can feel the smile, He can feel how happy he just made Caboose with something as simple as a grateful hello. "You were... Chasing the bunny... You know... You shouldn't do that... You could scare it away." Caboose chides him in a way only he can. "I'm sorry, Caboose. I won't chase the rabbi- bunny again. And Caboose?" "Yes, Agent Washingtub?" "Thank you. Michael." "You are... Very welcome... David."

[igotanidea]

Date gone wrong : Jason Todd x plussize!fem!reader pt 1

@jasontoddsthickbabe - here you go :D

summary: being bigger girl is not always easy. Especially when it comes to the dating and relationships. However, they say that there are plenty fish in the sea, so maybe some people are just to stubborn to realise they are looking in all the wrong places,

This can be read as a story preceding to my other plussize!fem ff: Beneath and Snickers and Hoodies

Warning: mention of past trauma and eating disorder.

Clarification: I have nothing against make-up, dresses, woman's magazines and girls who are feminine. I'm just creating reader as more of a tomboy, because I seriously believe we need more representation of such.

***

„What are you doing?”

„Thinking.”

„You sure you are not worrying?”

“Yes, Dick, I am pretty sure I am not.”

“You got that face you know. “

“What face?”

“The face you do when you are worried” he grinned, making her roll her eyes

“You are unbelievable….”

“I know. Now come on, if there’s anything you want to share with your best friend….”

“On second thought there may be one thing.” She tapped her chin “and you may be right , I may want to share with my best friend.”

“Well then….”

“I’m gonna go find Tim. Have you seen him around?”

“That is so not fair!” Dick rushed right after her, not wanting to miss any of the gossip that she may tell Tim. After all, he was the oldest brother, and her oldest friend, it was his dutyto take care of Y/N.

***

Before Y/N started working in tech department of Gotham’s press and met Dick, she was a freelancer for a woman’s magazine. Now, thinking back it was the worst time of her life. She was never really interested in all those articles like  “12 make up tricks to make your eyes look bigger” or “10 ways to make a man fall for you” Ugh! This was just too objectifying – was it really the purpose of a girl to play pretend just to catch attention?  But she was newly graduated and needed money to keep herself afloat, so the best option to have any income was to adjust to the realities. And that meant accepting the open slot and cut down on her ambition. Just a bit and just for the time being.

“One year” she was telling herself “you have to stick here one year, get a name for yourself and then you will be able to choose any other newspaper to work for.”

Biting the bullet she was writing all those silly news and gossips, counting the days to the desired promotion and submitting to the wishes and whims of her boss. The editor was not the person to discuss with, she always knew better what would turn out to be popular, and when one day she called Y/N into her office, the girl knew there was a task for her. Arguably the one she would not like.

“I’m sorry, boss, you want me to do what?”  she raised an eyebrow involuntarily, but quickly realized it was not professional. She was the newbie, with no power to bargain, treated rather like a coffee delivery and courier than a real journalist. If she was to act even a bit too cocky with the boss that would end with her on the street.

“I’m pretty sure you heard me the first time, but I’ll repeat it for you. I need you to go to ten different dates with ten different boys found on dating app and write a reporting on it. “

“But….”

“No buts.” The boss cut her off “you got two weeks and I want to see it on my desk.”

“Two weeks?” that would mean she would be forced to go out almost every night “But…..”

“You can go now, Y/n. Good luck.”

This was like a nightmare coming alive. Y/N did not have good experiences with men or with dates or with that whole relationship stuff. Maybe it was partially because of her childhood issues. She never felt wanted or accepted for who she was. Her father practically did not care about her, only willing to acknowledge her presence when he was in need of help or feeling lonely enough to settle for her in the absence of someone better. Not exactly a role model. Y/N did not have any male friends in school as well, to focused on being an A grade student to please her strict mother. Burdened with pressures and expectations from everyone, herself included, she got dragged into eating disorder that left her a bit bigger than her friends. At some point it felt like food was her way to suppress all the emotions, good and bad. Instead of letting her feelings out she was drowning them by sticking food in her mouth and stomach. It was shameful and embarrassing and the more she tried to hide this sick self-defense mechanism the worse it got.  Finally, after a lot of hard work she dealt with it, but her weight and curves stayed in place. She was still bigger.   

On good days, the outlook and weight never bothered her, she was just doing her own things, not caring who thought what about her, but on the bad days – she didn’t even want to leave the house and show herself. On those days she watched comedies and sitcoms that would lift her spirits and help her regain some confidence. But not with men. Her sarcastic and a bit harsh attitude alongside with emotional unavailability was not helping either. There were countless times when she heard from her mother, grandmother, aunts and cousins that she should be sweeter, lighter, feminine ….. All those words made her laugh inside. To hell with those comments. She was not going to be the men pleaser, and if that meant being alone then so be it.

But now, the task to come was bringing back all her insecurities. Again. So instead of treating it like a cruel joke from the boss (since at first she believed it was assigned to her only to mock her) she started thinking about it more like a job.  Involuntarily she created a fake account on the app and started her work. Maybe this would turn out to be a good social experiment.

***

“Hey Tim, can I have a minute of your time….” Y/N asked noticing the middle Wayne seated on the couch with some newspaper in his hands  “what are you reading…..? Oh, shit……” she hissed realizing the article Tim was so engaged in.

“Y/N?” the boy raised head and his eyes landed straight on her face “You did work for this magazine in the past, right?”

“I…. um…. Yes” there was no point in lying. Knowing Tim, he already got everything figured out.

“And you had one very particular nick you used for your articles, right?”

“Yeah, I…..”

“I am sorry.” Tim put the paper down and stood up to hug his friend. Y/N just stood frozen for a second not sure what to do, but after a few seconds reciprocated his embrace “you did not deserve any of it.”

“It’s in the past, Tim. I haven’t really thought about it in a long time.”

“Still. You did not ….”

“Mhm, you said it” she cut him off “and thank you for that. But what interests me the most here is how the hell did you find this outdated magazine?”

“I…..” Tim hesitated  and scratched his head

“Oh, you were spying on me.” She smirked

“That’s not the word I would use, but…. Look, you have been sad lately and Steph suggested….”

“So she was involved in this as well, great. I guess I should have known it from the beginning.”

“Don’t be mad at me, Y/N.”

“I am not.” she assured “I just need you to keep it to yourself, all right? Can’t risk your brothers finding it and…..”

“Finding what?” Dick peeked through an open door with a shit eating grin on his face

“NOTHING!”

“Oh you two are hiding something.” He muttered coming closer to the sofa. Predicting his next moves, Y/N quickly reached for the magazine, grabbed it and started running the other way but before she was able to escape Jason stood in her way and she ended up crashing into his chest.

“Auch!” she yelled, the paper falling from her hands, while Jason’s arm grabbed her securing her before hitting the ground.  Too close, too damn close.

“What the hell is going on here?” he asked, eyes switching between Tim, who just shrugged, Dick who quickly throw himself to gather the magazine and Y/N who wriggled out of his embrace, being the first to grab the paper.

“Come on, Y/N. Don’t be like that. Show me what is it.” Dick hissed, while Y/N hid behind Jay using him as a shield. “Don’t be a kid.”

“I am not the only one who’s acting like one! This is mine!”

“And yet, you let Tim read it!”

“In her defense, she didn’t know about it.” Tim chimed in

“Irrelevant. If Tim knows, we all knows.”

“Is that how it works now?”

“Pretty sure it was always like that.”

“I wonder why the hell do I even came here in the first place” Jason sighed and without any effort grabbed Y/N from behind, snatching that damn paper off her hands. “And you claim I am the crazy one here.”

“Give it back!” she struggled against his arms, but he did not let go. Just one of them was enough to keep her in place.

“What even is it? 10 dates that went wrong? Wait, did you write it?”

“Please…..” she whispered “please, give it back to me…..” her eyes were so pleading that it almost, almost got Jason wavering. He wondered why. Y/N just seemed to have strange effect on him and he wasn’t sure whether he liked it or not.

“I…..”

“Hey, Y/N. Relax. It’s just some funny article of yours, right. Nothing to be ashamed of. Or worried. Or…..” Dick opened the article, clearly ready to read it out loud “Y/N? Are you all right?” she was sobbing now and that was an unexpected view.

“You know what. I’m done fighting with you. Read ahead, but it’s not a funny little article.”

“Y/n….” Jason looked at her carefully. He recognized that look in her eyes. It was the same as he had when after coming back from the dead and dealing with all the shit in Gotham he still felt not wanted. Like a piece of trash. Clearly, just the title from the past brought some bad memories in her.

“I’ll be fine.” she took a step back “like I said, read ahead. Just…. not with me here” turning on her heels she rushed out of the living room.

“Tim?” Dick glanced at his younger brother.

“I’ll check on her. And just a word of advice to you two – prepare for some additional trauma after this.”

***

Date number  1 – he showed up late using some lame excuses about having an important job and being a really big fish. For the whole night he was talking about himself, not asking a single thing about me. After an hour of his monologue I excused myself into the bathroom to catch a breath and when I came back found him flirting with the sexy looking girl on the other table. “What, can’t blame me for being attracted to a good looking girl, for a change.

Date number 3 – he seemed like a nice guy. Came right on time, focused on me (perhaps a bit too much, not caring about personal distance), saying that he enjoyed my company. He paid for the meal. But when I started thinking that maybe, maybe he was a good one, the situation turned around. Despite my clear “no”, his hands were all over me, definitely in the places they should not. “come on, honey, you know no one else would want you. You’re just not the kind of girl to be desirable.” I used my pepper spray on him and got away, chased by his yells that I was a bitch

Date number 5 – “You should have posted your profile picture on the side. I wouldn’t have to waste my time if I knew you looked like this”

Date number 8 – “I believe man are far superior to woman. We are just stronger, tougher, smarter. Oh, and you probably did not know this, but color red is believed to be attracting to you, girls. I had plenty of woman falling to my knees just because I was wearing it.”

“Jason?” despite the seriousness dripping from the article Dick could not help a laugh

“What? That’s not why I chose to be Red Hood and you know it!”

 “Maybe that is why you are just staring at me with those dumb, pretty eyes without a single word.” I was staring, but definitely not because I was enamored by his behavior.

Date number 10 –Honestly, I was planning to skip it, but much to my surprise my date found me. “You must be Y/N” he smiled approaching the table “I knew it from the second I saw you sitting here all alone.”

“Did you?” I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, sipping on my drink.

“Mhm. You are smart girl. And those are rarely wanted. If you were pretty however….”

Ok, that was the end of that joke of a date.

So, to sum it all up, I am pretty sure finding yourself a good partner is a challenge I was not able to tackle. But if you follow all the rules and guidance we prepare for you in our magazine your chances for meeting your price charming are rising significantly. Go check our tips for weight loss and new trends in make up for the spring……

Dick voice broke at the ending, not capable of finishing.

“Poor Y/n” he sighed “she’s been though a lot.”

“She shouldn’t have searched on the Internet. “ Jason scoffed but clenched his fists. “She should have known better.”

“It was for a job.” Dick pointed out “she would never come up with something like this on her own and you know it.”

“How much time ago was it written?”

“Three years ago, why….? Jason! Jason! what the hell are you planning on doing?!”

“Making it right.” The younger brother muttered walking out of the room, grabbing his helmet on the way.

“Don’t you dare! Jason!” now Dick really felt like it was his responsibility to make sure his brother won't do anything stupid.

to be continued

@pinksirensong

[ponyosfrogg]

INBETWEEN (PT 3)

Summary: You wake up, completely under the effect of your dream about comic characters, just to find out a new character has been added to DCU? Or has she always been there?

Pairing: Tim Drake x Reader

Author's Note: Gosh, sorry for taking some time. This chapter was a pain in the ass, all i wanted was to write about sweet moments but god 😶‍🌫️ sorry about the typos, I'll fix them as soon as i can i promise, hope you like it my loves! thank you so much for the support! 💗

Warning: Some of the themes and contents written in this fic might be upsetting for some of the readers, read at your own risk. Some parts have strong language.

As you woke up with a throbbing pain in your head, you couldn't help but wonder if this would be a issue every time you tried to wake up normally. Frustrated, you cautiously opened your eyes, preparing for the brightness. The light made everything appear blurry, so you tried shading your eyes with your hands, but it didn't help much. Suddenly, a silhouette rushed towards you.

"You got me so worried! I can't believe you didn't took your medicine's today! I'm so angry at you" A slap out of worry hit your arm and made you more awake and more aware of your surroundings. You were in your house, with your best friend beside your bed. She must've taken you to your bed since the last thing you can recall was washing some dishes. The slippery and weird feeling in your hand was just proof. "And so glad that you're okay." Amber hugged your laying body with compassionate behavior.

You reposition yourself on the bed and lay your back on the bedstand now facing your best friend who was sitting next to you on your bed. You were in your room. Your real room.

"Are you okay? You're very quiet." With her voice you tried to collect your thoughts in one place. So you had a dream about comic characters? God, you must've been going through some shit because you rarely even dream. Maybe you were in need to feel some family support? Or you just read a lot of them last night.

"Yeah, I'm okay no worries. I just had the weirdest dream ever. I'm sorry about worrying you I'll be more careful about my medicine." but you were so sure that you took all of them today. Why would your heart react in such a way. You found yourself questioning yourself once again, falling into a familiar pattern of self-doubt and second-guessing.

"Oh I can't wait to hear about it but first i have to tell you something." She must've done something she thought was necessary but not necessarily the best idea. "I called Nate." Yes, just as you guessed. Amber must've seen the shift in your reaction and started to get panicky. "Don't blame me! I got so worried and waited for one hour but you didn't wake up so i had to call him, i didn't know what to do. he said he's on his way to come here now. Could be here any moment now." She got up from the bed and started to walk around the room in a panicking way.

But you weren't focusing on her anymore, just hearing Nate's name made your heart flutter a little bit. He was your ex. You had been inseparable from your childhood and at some point it turned into a beautiful relationship. Nate was an ambitious student who wanted to have nothing more than a wife and a job. You on the other hand, you like the possibilities life could offer you. You never had something on your mind you were just going around wherever life takes you. Spontaneous trips to places you'd like to visit, working freelance and getting paid whenever you're in need of some money, reading books and comics whenever you're free. You were a kind of woman who would post something dumb on an afternoon during weekdays which would make all of your working friends question your sanity. So it's safe to say that you guys were completely opposites.

And whoever said opposites attract, they were wrong as fuck. You needed someone to think like you. It was hard to maintain the relationship when both of your needs were completely opposite, beside your characters. You guys broke up two months ago or something like that. you weren't keeping the count.

Although it was hard to not to think about him, you always thought you made the right decision about him. You wouldn't want to keep him from living his life, and you wouldn't want him to keep you from living your life either. It was the right decision. But why were you feeling nauseous right now?

"It's okay, we were going to see each other at some point anyway." You tried to smile in a relaxing way and you must have been successful since she gave you another big hug. She was one of the kindest soul you had a chance to meet on this earth. She had beautiful ginger curly hair with a lot of freckles on her face. She had this beautiful smile that made your day better whenever you saw her. She was just the most adorable person you could ever hope for and you were glad she was your friend, your best friend to be exact.

"Okay, I'll leave you alone and give you some privacy for you to change your clothes." You rolled your eyes at her words. Yeah, you took back whatever you said about her, she was devious. "I'm not going to all doll-up for Nate, Amber." She giggled at the annoyance at your voice while she was leaving the room.

You looked around your room. How could something feel so familiar yet so strange. You felt an unexplainable feeling on your chest. It wasn't about your heart, something was different. Maybe the dream affected you more than you could admit.

As you gazed around, your attention was suddenly drawn to the batfamily poster hanging on the wall behind your desk. It was an old favorite, something you had put up about three years ago. It included all of the batfamily members. Yet, this time, there was something different about it, or rather, someone.

You rushed to get a closer look, your eyes widening in surprise. Among the familiar faces of Bruce, Jason, Dick, and Damian, there was a new addition—a girl standing beside Damian. Who was she? And why the fuck she looked like you.

"Amber?" You yelled from your room, hoping her to hear. Her voice echoed back a response, and you called out again, "What did you do to my poster?"

You heard her quick footsteps and then Amber entered your room, her expression showing annoyance at being summoned. She glanced at the poster you were holding in your hand. "It looks perfectly normal to me. I didn't touch it."

You rolled your eyes, feeling annoyed more and a bit frustrated. "I mean, who's the new character next to Damian?"

Amber looked at you as if you had said the most absurd thing you could ever say. "Are you serious right now? Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Listen, i need to go out. I know that you're kind of excited and anxious to meet Nate and you don't want to be alone but i have to go." You turned around and saw she already dressed up. You were speechless.

"Wait, what? Are you going out? Are you going to leave me alone with Nate and excuse me but what the fuck is happening right now! Who is this girl."

She didn't say anything and left the room, leaving you without any further explanation.

You reached over your laptop and opened it. Yes, something weird was going on and you were determined to find it and what would be a better way than google. You pull your soft, white chair and sit on it while you are waiting for your laptop to be open. When it got open, you typed the batfamily and searched for it.

After like three minutes, you saw the name Viperia, even though you read a lot of comics and familiar with almost every character at that point you've never heard of her so you typed 'Viperia' on a different tab. To your surprise, there were numerous posts and messages about this character. She appeared at the same time as Damian in comics. She was snarky, cocky and definitely a pain in the ass but somehow she literally had her own fan-base. You saw a lot of websites made in the honor of her, a lot of fanarts and literally thousands of fan fiction. But how come you've never heard about her and why did she literally look like you.

"Yeah, this must be a fucking dream."

When you heard a knock from the door, you remembered you were expecting Nate. Fuck, you already have forgotten about him coming. You pulled yourself together and promised to check this after you're done with Nate. Right now you have to focus on him.

You must have been so lost on your research, you didn't realize Amber already left the house. You opened the door and you saw Nate's bright face.

Seeing him make a lot of emotions rushing to you. There was longing in your heart, you were longing for his presence. There was some kind of disappointment. You were disappointed in him, he could've made this thing go further but he didn't. He chose to give up on you and you chose to give up on your relationship.

When you break up with someone, seeing them changing does have an effect on you. You expect them to be the same but you don't realize people tend to change every now and then, especially after going through a painful break-up. You felt sad but you felt you didn't have any right to be sad, after you were the who cut the cords of that relationship. You chose your path to leave him. It was painful for you but you knew that if you didn't, it would be more painful in the future. But somehow right that moment you were looking at a completely different guy. He had a bright smile on his face just like he always does but somehow it was different, it was full of confidence. His eyes were shining like two little stars. He was radiating some kind of sunshine energy that you became addicted once. And seeing him make all of these things rush through your mind.

He had a white shirt on him, which made him look very... professional? But in a pretty way. His partly long hair was slicked back nicely. You can see his newly grow beard that he probably is going to shave tomorrow morning. Even though he looked almost the same as two months ago you realized he changed, he's much better now. He's better off without you or maybe you were just that lonely who was considering going back to her ex just because you hated being alone or a narcissist who thinks everyone is in love with her.

"Hello." His stern voice made you startled since you were, once again, wandering on your mind. "Hello, how rude I am. Come in." you stepped backwards for him to enter the house. He was looking around when you closed the wooden door and turned at him.

"You guys made some changes on this apartment huh? It looks prettier." You smile at the compliment. Always too nice.

"Yes, it was time to get rid of some old stuff." Then you realized this was not an appropriate sentence to say since it's only been two months after the break up.

You cleaned your throat and talked again: "Take a seat I'll prepare us some coffee." When you were rushing to the kitchen, you heard his footsteps right behind you. "You never really learn do you? I'm literally here for your heart and you are offering me coffee? Way to go." You laughed at his point.

It was nice to be around him. He had such a charm that could make you feel comfortable all the time. There wasn't any awkward silence around him. It was always joyful, happy and full of smiles. He was like a home for you once. Now he was just a stranger you perfectly know.

"Well, old habits die hard." At that point you literally wanted to punch yourself on your face. There were millions of words in English and somehow you always chose the one that made you sound like a heartless person.

When you were preparing the coffee he sat on a chair beside the window. It was raining again. There was no lightning or storm but just plain rain. It was the fourth day today and the weird thing is, it was middle of the fucking summer, July to be exact.

"So, your heart?" When you put on his mug, (which was adorable by the way. It was dark red with little white hearts on it.) on the little coffee table in front of him. You sat right in front of him. "Yes, I think Amber is overreacting. I'm perfectly fine." He looked at you with his brown eyes, completely scanning your body. It's like, he was trying to find evidence of you being okay. But in reality he was actually thinking about how much he missed you. He missed being around you, your presence, your voice, your scent and everything about you. He missed hearing your stupid theories about comics, he missed talking about ordinary stuff under the stars on a hill that he would take you every saturday, he missed you making him laugh so hard that he would cry, he missed you. Simply you, being you.

"Still, i think you should come to the hospital and let me examine you over there since I didn't bring a lot of stuff." You nod, perfectly aware of the fact that you simply wouldn't do something like that. You knew something was different. You experienced a lot of seizures like that and it was different and since you already took your medicine, you wouldn't bother to go again. If there's something, that would mean more medicine. But you were sure that was not the case.

Your mind went to Damian's sister again. How could this be possible. She looked exactly like you and you were wondering how she can appear on your poster. It was there for three years now and you would've noticed at some point right? Viperia... Even the name sounds so made up, you still were trying to convince yourself that you actually imagined that person. But then again, Amber said she's been there for some time. Maybe she also hallucinated.

You tried to pull your attention back on the guy sitting in front of you. Viperia was the future you problem, right now you had Nate in front of you.

"You look tired." When he stated the obvious fact you simply smiled. "Yes, it's been a long day." More like two days in one. "And I'm kind of anxious maybe that's why."

He directly looked into your eyes with such a compassionate look. If he could make your pain go away, he would in a heartbeat. It was so weird to part your ways even though you love that person. But growing up meant realizing it's important have someone who has the same mindset as you and about that, you guys were not the best. 'Love can start something but it wouldn't make something keep going.' Your mother used to say this sentence a lot whenever she and your dad argued.

He reached over your hand that was on uour your lap. When he touched you, you could feel the vibrations going around your body. It was dumb to think that you were over him but when it's you, you can never be sure and you knew that all to well.

"You know that I'm here right? It doesn't matter what time is it, if you call, I'll come." He said almost whispering. His hand traces its way through your face. Cupping one of your cheeks. No, that wasn't good. You could feel that every cell of yours longing for him but that wasn't a good idea.

"I think you should go."

He looked at you for five seconds with a disappointed look on his face. He could tell that you were uncomfortable and he didn't want to keep doing whatever he was doing. Then he take his hand off your face and stood up. "Yes, I think I should go. Thank you for the coffee. I think tomorrow morning you should visit the hospital just in case." You nodded and said 'thank you' while he was taking his stuff and going to door.

"Goodnight." He was the one who smiled as an answer this time.

As soon as you closed the door, you released the breath you didn't even you were holding until that point.

You went into your room after sitting back of the door for some time, collecting your thoughts about Nate. You needed something to take your mind off from Nate and you decided to keep researching about Viperia.

Two hours later, your mind was almost going to explode from all the information you found about her.

She was the sixth child of Batman, not a sister but twin of Damian. Raised by Bruce but also Talia too. Her name was the same as yours but she was using Viperia as an alias, which was a venomous snake. She was skilled at martial arts and she was a great assassin, maybe even better than Damian. She was quite popular with her rage and snarky comments just like Damian. She was getting along with almost every family member except Tim and you didn't find anything relating to that topic. On some fandom base sites, there were a lot of theories about them dating secretly 'why else they wouldn't even once mention about her relationship with Tim' they wrote. 'Tim never even refers to her as his sister.' You searched so deep that you even had came across a smut writing between her and Alfred which made you a little bit of uncomfortable and also scared.

You started to think how could you miss this character or did she literally appear out to nowhere in three hours?

The creator was releasing new chapters on that comic series in every two weeks. 'Batman's Daughter' was the title. It was covering the whole background starting from the birth which was crazy but useful also, since you learned that Talia literally put her in Lazarus Pit whenever she had some kind of blade cuts on the age of fucking three. No wonder that girl was total nuts but of course fun to read.

When you were doing your research your laptop's notification sound made you startled. Maybe you didn't have any resemblance with her since she could literally murder without even flinching and you were, well, getting startled from a notification sound.

It was an e-mail.

You took your laptop and stood up from the chair you've been sitting for some time now. Since you also started to get sleepy it was a good idea to going to your bed and read your mail over there.

You sat on your soft green colored sheets and opened your mail, you didn't know the person who sent you the mail. There was literally no name or anything. Just an attachment and a word on the subject part which was 'read :)'

You clicked on the attachment, even though you knew you shouldn't since it was a mail from someone unknown and you might even download a fucking virus on your laptop but however something inside of you was couraging you to open it.

It was a comic on a pdf format but it was more like a work in progress. Some parts were still empty.

The Doom of Batfamily?

That was enough for your curiosity to take over, so you started reading.

It was starting with Bruce talking with his family about some unusual murders on the city. He was suspecting someone from the League of Assassins since the murder weapon was a sword. But turns out it was Viperia who is getting more and more insane everyday because of the Lazarus pit. But it didn't even stop there, she was getting involved with some villains to trap her family one by one and killing them all, she was thinking they were on her way.

You were horrified. It was very graphical and the sketches literally showed everything explicitly. In the end, she was literally standing on all of their dead bodies, laughing histerically.

You close the laptop immediately and closed your eyes, trying once again to collect your thoughts. Everything seemed so messy right now and you didn't know what to do. Why Viperia appeared out of nowhere, Who was the sender of the mail, why is she killing all of her family, what the fuck is going on.

"Fuck, no."

Without resisting more, you give yourself in the sweet arms of sleep. You could try to solve that problem tomorrow, you needed some sleep now.

After like two minutes of sleeping you opened your eyes involuntarily since, well, you only closed them for two minutes.

"It took you long enough."

With this voice, you got scared again.

"I didn't know you like sleeping this much it's literally noon time now, wake up so we can go to my favorite cafe to have some breakfast and then feed the ducks."

You watched him in horror.

"Hey, haven't you missed your beloved brother?"

"Damian?"

[azucar-skull]

ROTLOU - Mikey Oneshot

It's here!!!!!!! I told myself not to do this but if I have to suffer so do you!

Here's Mikey portraying as Sarah from TLOU. The story follows the HBO script to a T cuz I'm lazy and fuck you-- djdjghdfkgh

Genre: Horror

Word Count: 9073

TWs: Blood, gore, character death, gun violence, PTSD, panic attack, all the bad shit

ROTLOU Masterpost

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

Mikey arises in the morning, wind gently flowing through the curtains of his bedroom window. Sunlight spills onto his face as his eyes flutter open at the sound of a car revving up and driving off, a dog barking after it.

Mikey glances around his room, decorated in personality and art supplies before he cautiously peers at the digital clock on his nightstand. 7:08 am.

Mikey springs out of bed, following the sounds of Leo’s alarm clock going off that Leo often slept past. He hurries over to Leo’s bedroom door and knocks alertingly.

“Alarm.”, Mikey calls out. He hears a soft grunt from inside. “Alarm!”

“I’m up, I’m up.”, Leo stirs past the door. Good. He has to get up for work soon.

Mikey and his brothers have grown quite a lot. The brothers are in their 20s by now, the days of the Kraang invasion are over. The days of mutants and yokai hiding from the human world are over too. And while it would be nice to confide in the solace of their old lair, the brothers found it difficult to stay after Splinter’s passing. They moved out towards the calm northeast side of New York in the Astoria district. They got a house, right next to April’s elderly parents. And the brothers themselves have all gotten new jobs, for now is a time of peace and there is no need for ninja stuff anymore. As much as Mikey misses the action, this was nice.

Donnie and Mikey have been doing their own kind of freelance work. Mikey with his art, and Donnie with his tech and repairs. Donnie’s also picked up a fascination for survivalist prepping, the other brothers have grown concerned but don’t bother to pry. Dealing with an alien invasion and near end-of-the-world will leave a permanent mark on you. Mikey has been indulging into his craft, scrapping for enough money to enroll in an art school. He’s been making some good progress. As for Raph and Leo, they became contractors. Helping with constructions and such, especially given their muscle. They always seem to be busy, rushing out in the morning and returning home worn and tired late in the night.

But not today. It’s Leo’s birthday. And Mikey wanted to do something special for him. Mikey makes his way downstairs to the kitchen and turns on the radio as he starts up on breakfast. He cracks a few eggs into the pan, scrambling and frying them up as Donnie steps into the kitchen and starts brewing himself coffee. Mikey pauses his egg frying to search the cabinets for the pancake mix.

…At least…it should be there. But as Mikey searches, there’s no bright blue pancake box to be found. Right on cue, Leo heads down the stairs, buckling his belt buckle.

“Where’s the pancake mix?”, Mikey asks, not looking away from the cabinets, in a tone that implies Leo was supposed to buy some during their last grocery run.

“Oh, was I…”, Leo stirs, still waking up. “...Yeah, I was. Sorry.”

“I was gonna make you birthday pancakes.”, Mikey sighs. He mutters under his breath as he forgets the pancakes and grabs the orange juice from the fridge, “I swear…”

“You know I don’t really like pancakes.”, Leo hums as he pours himself some of the coffee that Donnie brewed.

Mikey scoffs a laugh. “I know you don’t like them. It was for my benefit.”, he smirks as he pours a glass of orange juice. 

Mikey turns to Leo with the orange juice as Leo turns to him with his coffee. Mikey glances at Leo’s mug before insisting.

“Vitamin C.”, he points out.

Leo begrudgingly nods, taking the glass as Mikey heads back to his eggs that he’s abandoned on the stove for the last 5 minutes. Leo winces at the bright taste of the juice and goes back to his coffee.

“You, uh, get your homework done?”, Leo asks.

Mikey rolls his eyes with a wry smile as he turns to Leo. Of course, he has. He’s always been. Taking up GE classes at the local community college as he works on building his art portfolio. Mikey doesn’t get why his older brothers still feel the need to baby him. He shakes his head, turning back to the eggs.

“Fractions?”, Leo adds. It gets a chuckle out of Mikey. Leo smiles back at the sound of his little brother’s laughter.

Mikey finishes the eggs, dishing them out at the dining table where Donnie is already seated, sipping his coffee and scrolling through his phone. Mikey and Leo sit down beside him, eating their breakfast.

“How old are you again?”, Mikey turns to Leo.

“26.”, Leo answers through bits of his eggs.

“Gonna have to wear diapers soon.”

“Who says I don’t already?”

Mikey hums, nodding at Leo. On the inside, Mikey suppresses a chuckle. It’s how the two have developed their playful banter these days, ragging each other on. Leo picks at something in his teeth. He glances down at it on his finger.

“Shell.”

“Calcium.”, Mikey smiles wide, his mouth full of scrambled eggs. Donnie winces in disgust.

“Lovely.”, the softshell comments.

Then the sound of large footsteps make their way in through the door. Raph. Leo glances at the sound’s direction.

“Is there enough for Raph?”

“Well, there would have been…”, Mikey draws. Raph usually heads out early in the morning to go work out at the gym in lieu of having a dojo readily available anymore.

Raph smiles as he strides into the kitchen, playfully nudging Leo’s shoulder. “Ayy! You’re still alive, you old fucker.”, he taunts, making his way to the fridge.

“Aw, he loves you.”, Donnie snarks with a smile.

“He’s dependent on me, it’s not the same.”, Leo mumbles.

“I think it’s the same.”

“It’s definitely the same.”, Raph adds, grabbing a plate and glancing at the empty pan on the stove. He spins around to Mikey. “I thought we was havin’ pancakes.”

Mikey snickers as Leo pauses his chewing and glances up at the oldest. He shrugs.

“We’ll pick you something up on the road.” Then he adds, “Concrete guys gonna be there?”

Raph hums, heading for the fridge, “Yeah, they said maybe.”

“Maybe? We can’t frame until we pour. We’re not getting paid until we frame.”

Raph grabs some leftover wings, sniffing it to see if it’s still good. “Well, we could bring someone else on, get the job done faster.”

Leo immediately shakes his head, turning back to his food. “No, no. I’m not splitting this job. I barely wanna split it with you.” He looks back up. “We could work a double.”

Mikey pauses, glancing over at the slider. “Literally? Today?”, he hisses.

“I know. I’d be done by nine.”, Leo assures before turning to Raph. “By nine, right?”

Raph glances at Leo, then at Mikey. “...Yeah.”

Not convinced by Raph’s answer, Mikey brings his pleading eyes over to Leo who picks up on it quickly.

“I’ll bring back a cake.”, he nods. “I promise.”

Mikey sighs, turning back to his food and keeps eating. The silence in the room allows the radio to be overheard. Music no longer playing, but instead a news report.

“...continued disturbances in Jakarta, but are advising US citizens…”

Leo ponders at the report, sipping his coffee. “Jakarta. Where is that, Middle East?”

Raph hums, thinking. “Doesn’ ring a bell. It’s definitely a country. Or maybe part of Asia?”

Donnie scoffs. “Jakarta isn’t a country. Being a part of Asia isn’t mutually exclusive with being a country, and in fact, it’s the capital of Indonesia.”

Raph chuckles at his genius younger brother. “Shit. Hope for us yet.”

On cue, the microwave beeps, signaling Raph’s food is ready. Leo stirs, clasping his hand at a wrist watch that isn’t there and digs into his pockets for his phone to check the time.

“Finish up quick, we’ll drop you off.”, Leo says, getting up and bringing his dishes to the sink.

“I’m still eating my eggshells.”, Mikey retorts.

“You got seven minutes.”

“Your t-shirt’s inside out.”

Leo glances down at his shirt, noticing the inseams sticking out. He sighs in defeat, hurrying off as he tugs off his shirt.

“Shit…”

Raph chuckles, chewing on his chicken wings. He smiles and shakes his head, turning to Mikey and Donnie.

“He’s losin’ it.”

Mikey laughs at Raph’s banter as Donnie shakes his head. The brothers finish their food and hurry off to get ready for the day. Mikey runs up to his room and grabs his bag to head to his classes. He glances down the stairway to make sure his brothers don’t notice as he dips into Leo’s room. He turns off the fan that’s always running and digs through the drawers. He brings out Leo’s favorite watch, a watch that’s been broken for a long while. Then he grabs some of the cash from Leo’s drawers. Mikey would pay to repair it himself, if only his freelancing gig has been merciful. No one wants to commission art from him. He sighs at the thought, ignoring his own self-doubts as he sets the cash down on the table. Then his eyes set on Leo’s pocket knife that’s kept in the drawers. Mikey opens up the blade, seeing the beautiful engravings, running his finger across it. Mikey is pulled out of his trance at the sound of a car honking.

“Mikey!”, Leo beckons from outside.

Mikey quick tucks the knife back in the drawer, grabbing the cash and watch and slips them into his pocket as he hurries out of the house. As he heads out the door, he hears a familiar friendly voice call over.

“Hey, neighbor!”, old Kirby O’Neil smiles. He sits on the lawn in front of his house with his very elderly mother in law in her wheelchair beside him.

“Oh, hi.”, Mikey smiles politely.

Kirby nods, turning to force feed his mother in law, referred by everyone as Nana, some biscuits he had on a plate. The old woman is barely there anymore, staring off into the distance.

“Uh, Carol was asking after you, since you haven’t been over in a while.”, Kirby says.

Now, Mikey loves April’s parents. They’re the sweetest. But his politeness does have its limits and Mikey would like to allot time for his art instead. He turns to Leo, who’s packing up the back of the pick-up truck with equipment, for support. But Leo gives Mikey a stern look.

“Make ‘em happy.”, he mutters.

Mikey sighs, forcing a smile as he turns back to Kirby. “I could come by after class. But just for like…a little bit?”

“Oh, she’ll take whatcha got.”, Kirby chuckles. “Y’all can bake, whatever. Speakin’ of…we got a lotta extra here.”, Kirby turns and picks up the plate of biscuits. “Y’all—y’all want some biscuits?”

Mikey smirks, thinking of a way to rag Leo. “Leo, you love biscuits.”, he smiles at his brother.

Leo stirs, glancing at the conversation. Kirby carefully helps Nana wipe a crumb off her face and poke it back in her mouth. Leo winces in disgust.

“...I do.”, Leo drawls. “But I’m on Atkins.”

“On what now?”, Kirby asks.

“It’s uh— You know what? We gotta run, but Mikey will be by later. He’ll stay as long as you want.”, Leo smiles. “Tell you all about Atkins.”

“Great! I’ll let Carol know.”, Kirby grins.

Mikey scoffs at his brother and the smooth playoff he just pulled. The brothers start to pile into the truck. He shakes his head with a grin as Leo opens the door for him.

“Solid.”, is all he says as he climbs into the backseat with Raph. Leo and Donnie taking the front seats.

Donnie sits up in the driver’s, buckling his seatbelt with a lit cigarette in his mouth. “Can’t tell you how exciting it was listening to that fucking conversation.”, he drawls.

“Put that out.”, Leo snarks.

Donnie rolls his eyes as he puts out the cigarette and tosses it. “Happy birthday to you.”

The truck starts, driving off. Just a normal mundane September day.

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

Mikey sits in his English 101 class, listening to the professor’s lectures as he goes over his notes. Bored out of his mind, he starts doodling on the edge of the pages. He pauses his doodling when he notices a light reflecting onto his hand. He glances at the reflective light before looking up at the culprit.

A student in the row in front of him, adjacent to the right. They’re wearing a shiny metallic bracelet on their wrist. The student doesn’t look like they are paying much attention to the lecture. Staring blankly at the front, their writing hand still and pressing the pen against their notebook that the ink begins to pool. Their bracelet wrist twitching rhythmically, reflecting light off of it.

Mikey stares with curiosity before suddenly the dismissal bell rings and all train of thoughts leave him. He hastily tucks his notes away and gets up to leave with the rush of the other students, ignoring the professor shouting out the homework among all the rush.

Mikey hurries out off campus to the bus stop before it can leave without him. He steps in, paying the fee and riding the bus to a part of town he doesn’t visit much. But he knows where he’s going, noting the clockwork repair shop as he crosses the street. There’s a large crowd of people off to the side, enjoying their meals from the surrounding food trucks and picnic tables. 

He smiles at the man behind the counter, a radio softly playing music in a language Mikey doesn’t know. He asks the man to take a look at the watch. The man pries the watch open, looking at the gears for a few minutes as Mikey asks how much the repair is.

“...Twenty.”, the man says.

“That’s it?”

The man smiles, looking up at Mikey. “Okay, thirty.”

Mikey grins at the man’s joke. “Twenty’s good.”, he says as he digs through his backpack for the money and sets it on the counter.

“It’s a spring. I’ll do it right now.”

Mikey nods, swinging his backpack over his shoulders as he looks around the shop. Eyeing the peculiar clocks on display. He hears sirens rush past, but it’s nothing abnormal from the bustling sounds of the city. He stirs a bit at the sound of a wailing fire truck following close behind but pays no mind. Doesn’t even notice the SWAT car tailing them as well. The man sighs.

“All day, I swear.”, he mutters.

Suddenly, a woman appears past the beaded curtains. She looks as if she’s seen a ghost, glancing between the man and Mikey.

“We’re closing.”, the woman says, rushing to the door to flip the sign.

“Huh?”, the man turns to her.

She says something in Arabic before continuing. “We’re done for today.”

“It’s 3:15, we close at 7.”, the man gestures to one of the many clocks.

The woman hisses at him in Arabic again. She turns to Mikey, gently ushering him out the door. “I’m very sorry. He cannot finish.”

“I’m already finished!”

The woman shouts at the man in Arabic again as the man puts the watch in a box and hands it to her. The woman shoves the box into Mikey’s hands and escorts him to the door. “You should go home.”, she warns.

Mikey steps out the door as the woman shuts it behind him, quickly closing all the shutters in a hurry. As he turns back to the street, he notices a strange emptiness. The crowd of people by the food trucks are gone, some things left behind in a hurry. It is an eerie sight from the once bustling city just a few minutes ago.

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

Mikey heads back home and hurries over to his neighbors, feeling a bit more relaxed when he is greeted by Carol’s kind smile.

“There you are, sweetie.”

“Sorry.”, Mikey smiles.

“I was getting worried.”

“I was getting something for my brother.”

Mikey steps inside, taking in the old grandma-aesthetic of the place. A familiar creature bounds up to him, chirping delightfully. Mikey crouches down to pet them.

“Hi, Mayhem.”, he smiles, greeting the yokai creature. But his mind is still filled with worry. He turns back to Carol.

“Hey, is everything okay? Like, on the news?”, he asks.

“Like what, hon?”

“Well, n-no, there was just…a lot of police and stuff on the road today.”

“Well, that’s true every day, innit?”, Carol turns to him. “People out there need to get right with Jesus. 3 nails, plus 1 cross, equals 4-given.” She pushes past the barn doors into the kitchen as Mikey leans in. “I was thinking we could make some cookies.”

“Chocolate chip?”

“Raisin.”, Carol grins excitedly, picking up a baking tray.

Mikey makes a face as he pauses in the doorway. Not a look of disgust, but not a polite smile either.

Mikey and Carol bake the cookies together, the box turtle working on his homework at the dining table as the cookies bake. Carol tries to feed her old mother, muttering some comments as she walks past to take the cookies out of the oven. Mikey pauses his homework, sighing and glancing around the house. He gets up and heads to the living room and peruses the shelf full of DVDs. 

“You wanna give me a hand?”, Carol calls out.

“Be right there!”, Mikey calls back as he continues searching the shelf. Perhaps he can find a movie for him and his brothers to watch tonight. Something Leo would like for his birthday.

He hears a small croaking behind him, probably just Nana. Mikey’s still surprised she’s even still kicking. Perhaps she’ll break the record for oldest person alive.

Breaking his train of thought, he spots something that he knows Leo would enjoy. Curtis and Viper 2. He picks the DVD case off the shelf, glancing at it for a moment before heading back to the kitchen.

“Hey, Mrs. O’Neil? Could I borrow this?”, he asks, showing the movie to her.

Carol puts on her glasses as she glances over the cover. “Yeah, sure. It’s one of Kirby’s.”

Mikey quickly thinks of an excuse to leave. “You know what? My brothers are gonna be back real soon. I should go.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, you’re taking some cookies.”

Mikey packs his bag, stuffing the DVD and cookies inside as he heads out to leave. But then he hears Mayhem whining. He glances over to see the yokai sitting and tilting their head at Nana. Maybe she’s finally reached her limit afterall. Though, Mayhem’s reaction is strange.

Mikey heads out the door to go back to his place when he hears rumbling from overhead. There’s no thick clouds or signs of thunder, but Mikey’s curiosity is answered when a fleet of jets zip by, heading somewhere. That’s odd. Maybe there’s some kind of air show happening?

Mikey can’t think of another reason why military jets like that are here.

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

It’s getting late and Mikey’s getting annoyed. Flipping through a magazine on the couch in his pajamas as his brothers’ dinners get cold. The TV quietly plays the news, some report about violent attacks happening in the city and some sort of…street drug? Mikey’s not really paying attention. Soon he hears the sounds of keys and the door opening. Raph and Leo walk in, Donnie nowhere to be found and is probably at some bar again. Mikey sighs as his two older brothers enter.

“You locked the door for once.”, Raph mumbles. “Good job.”

“Yeah.”, Mikey hums, turning the TV off.

Leo slouches onto the couch beside the youngest, worn out and exhausted.

“It’s 10.”, Mikey spat.

“I know.”, Leo sighs. “They…gave us the wrong size for the headers… That doesn’t mean anything to you, I’m sorry.”

“Where’s the cake?”

Leo sighs again, ragged and tired. “Shit…”

“C’mon, man…”, Mikey whines.

“I’ll get us one tomorrow.”

“Swear, or you don’t get your present.”

Leo perks up. “You got me a present?”

“Swear.”

“On my life.”, Leo blinks.

Mikey smiles cheekily as he digs behind the couch pillow to bring out the box. Raph sits down in the chair next to the two, sighing with exhaustion as well. Mikey hands the box to Leo who hums and presses his lips in amusement.

“Wow.”, he drawls. Then he opens the lid. And stops. Staring.

Mikey grins warmly. “Fixed it for you.”

Leo takes the watch, glancing at it. Then his brows furrow as he places the watch against his tympana. He looks more concerned.

“Did you?”

“What?!”, Mikey’s smile drops as he reaches for the watch.

“I don’t hear anything…”

The watch is fine, ticking away. Mikey sighs in relief and relaxes, Leo and Raph chuckling back. Mikey scoffs.

“That was lame. You’re lame.”

“Yeah, I know.”, Leo smiles, looking proudly at the watch. “Where’d you get the money for this?”

“Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs.”

Raph chuckles. “Better than what we do.”

“It was only $20, which I stole from you.”, Mikey explains. Leo turns to him with suspicion. “I could’ve stolen 60, but I put the change back because I’m an honest thief.” Leo hums, relaxing. “Besides, it’s the thought that counts. And you were never gonna do it for yourself, so…”

Leo stares at him for a moment, Mikey can see the thoughts swirling in his mind. He turns back to his watch, fixing it on his wrist. “Thank you.”, he murmurs softly.

Mikey smiles, full of warmth for his brother. Then he remembers. “Oh! There’s one more.”, he says, digging in the couch cushions again. His smile widens more when Leo practically snatches it out of his hands, Raph leading in as well.

“Borrowed it from the O’Neils.”, Mikey says.

“Ohhh, this is the one with the deleted scenes.”, Raph drawls.

“Yeah, imagine how bad those have to be.”, Mikey nods, tapping Leo’s shoulder. “C’mon, pop it in. While it’s still your birthday.”

Leo gets up and puts the movie in before sitting back down on the couch, Mikey snuggling in close.

“Don’t fall asleep.”, Leo mutters.

“Course I won’t. It’s too riveting.”, Mikey teases, wrapping his arms around Leo and leaning against his plastron.

The movie plays, the night getting late. Mikey’s eyes start to droop. He knows he promised Leo he wouldn’t fall asleep but…

It wouldn’t hurt to shut his eyes for a bit.

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

There’s a rumbling. Low and quiet. But it gets louder and louder. Mikey stirs in his sleep, annoyed to be woken up. Sirens start wailing. Then suddenly…there’s a dull boom. Mikey snaps his eyes open and looks around. …How did he get in his room? Did one of his brothers put him to bed? Another dull boom, dogs barking, car alarms going off. Mikey glances at the clock, 2:16 am. 

There’s light flickering through the window and before Mikey knows it, the house starts rattling against a helicopter flying low overhead. Mikey gets up, now more worried. Thoughts begin swarming in his head, thoughts from earlier in the day and all the little signs he’s noticed. Is New York under attack again? Are there villains afoot? A war?

Mikey steps out of his bedroom, heading for his brothers’ rooms. “Raph? Leo? Donnie?”

He searches their rooms, but he’s home alone. Where did his brothers go? Did Donnie get himself in trouble again at the bar? Where are they at this hour? The house rattles again, more helicopters, more jets, more dull booms in the distance.

“Guys?!”, Mikey calls out again, ignoring the strain in his voice as he rushes down the stairs. He needs his brothers. He needs to find out what is happening.

The house is still empty. There’s a car screeching outside as it speeds off in a hurry. Mikey quickly glances around before reaching for the TV remote and turning it on, hoping that there’s something on the news to explain what is going on. But he is met with a droning beep and an automatic security system showing some white text on the black screen.

“Stay indoors. Law enforcement and emergency services are in the area and will be in contact with further instructions.”, the TV repeats in a loop.

An overwhelming sense of dread floods through Mikey’s veins before suddenly there’s a loud bang on the sliding glass door. Mikey screams as he jumps, turning to he sound. There, Mayhem is pressed against the glass, shrilling with worry. Mikey heads up to the front door where Mayhem runs up to him, whimpering and getting behind him as if to shield themself.

“Shh, shh…”, Mikey hushes, crouching down. “Easy. Easy, Mayhem. What are you doing out here, little guy?”

Mikey glances around at the empty street. He gets up, searching around for any clues. Mayhem shrills in warning but doesn’t dare to follow Mikey. Mikey looks up and sees another helicopter flying low overhead, searching for something. Mikey does his best to push down his fears, trying to think rationally on what to do next. He decides his next course of action should be tending to the panicked yokai still screeching after him.

He picks up Mayhem, stroking their head gently as he walks over to the O’Neil’s house.

“Come on, Mayhem. Let’s get you home.”, Mikey hushes. Maybe he could stick with the neighbors until his brothers get back.

Yet Mayhem is hesitant, whimpering and whining before climbing out of Mikey’s arms and jumps off, running away. Mikey calls for them, trying to grab them but only manages to grab the collar before it slinks off the yokai. Mikey has no choice but to head to the O’Neils and tell them what happened. Hoping they would have some answers about what’s going on.

Yet when Mikey approaches the house, he notices the door is wide open. The rug leading to the door is all scrunched up and a dog leash lies abandoned on the ground. Was Carol going to take Mayhem on a walk? No…something else happened here. Mikey steps in the house, looking around carefully.

“...Mrs. O’Neil?”, he calls out.

No response.

Mikey hears faint clanking coming from the kitchen. The sense of dread pools in his stomach, knotting and twisting with fear. But he must push forward. He’s a ninja! He’s just…out of touch. That’s all. No biggie.

Mikey cautiously approaches the kitchen, setting Mayhem’s collar down. He hears another boom in the distance, a car alarm going off. He whips around to it, afraid someone or…something will jump out to attack him. Mikey takes a shaky breath as his vision blurs from tears forming in his eyes. He approaches the kitchen again, mustering the courage to keep going.

“M-Mrs. O’Neil…?”

He opens the barn doors. Then nearly falls when his shoes slip on something. Something wet. Shining and deep deep deep red.

Mikey’s eyes grow wide as there’s a horrendous change in the atmosphere. The copper scent is strong and foul. His eyes naturally follow the large thick trail of blood to…to Mr. O’Neil. Propped up against the fridge, frozen in terror and staring wide-eyed at Mikey with plea.

“...help me.”, the man whispers.

Kirby’s tank top was covered in blood, bleeding profusely from his shoulder. The man looked in shock, unwilling to move. Mikey felt the same as his jaw dropped, stepping closer to the old man. Kirby flicked his eyes over to the side. And Mikey’s eyes followed.

There on the ground, Carol’s body lays lifeless. And…And Nana…she’s hunched over, digging her teeth into her daughter’s neck. Nana’s breathing was raspy and uneven. The elderly woman slowly pried her teeth away to look up at Mikey, and he almost threw up at what he saw. Vines. Orange life-like vines, like roots. Curling and stretching. Becoming entangled in Carol’s neck wound. Mikey gulped dryly, pushing down the bile that threatened to rise up his throat.

Nana’s breathing gets more frantic, hungry. She staggers to a stand with strength her old frail body never had before. Mikey instinctively felt himself walking backwards towards the barn doors. Then the old woman screams, charging at Mikey with unnatural speed and flailing her arms. Mikey takes that cue to run.

He runs as fast as he can out the door, frantically trying to think of a plan. He needs his brothers, his weapon, something!

As he runs out the door, his vision floods with headlights as a truck screeches to a stop in front of him. His brothers. Mikey feels a wave of relief wash over him that dissipates just as fast when he senses the urgency in his brothers’ voices.

“Get in the truck! Right now!!!”, Leo yells as he jumps out the passenger seat and runs over to Mikey, grabbing his arm. “Move!”

Leo’s holding a wrench like it’s a weapon. Similarly, Raph has a bat and Donnie…is that a police rifle—

A deep seated screech comes from the O’Neil’s house. Nana comes stumbling out before her back gives way and snaps, tumbling down the steps. There’s a tense pause for a moment. Then suddenly, her head snaps back up and she’s crawling. Scrambling for the brothers and screaming wildly. Then she gets up into a stand, sprinting.

Donnie aims his rifle as Raph draws the bat back. “What are we doing, Leo?!”, Donnie shouts.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Leo winds up the wrench and swings across the old woman’s face as she tries to attack him. His face full of rage and Mikey has never seen before. He looks bloodthirsty. And Nana…sweet old Nana…she’s…

Leo’s face drops when he looks into Mikey’s fearful eyes. He quickly drops the wrench and hurries up to his little brother, cupping his face in his large calloused hands.

“...y-you killed her…”, Mikey mutters as tears drop down his face.

“Mikey, I’m sorry.”, Leo hushes, pulling his brother in close.

“Guys, we gotta go.”, Raph calls out, hearing the sirens in the distance.

Leo nods, quickly pulling back from the hug to cup Mikey’s face again and leaning in to get his full attention.

“Mikey, listen to me. It’s not just the O’Neils. But we’re gonna be brave,” the leader assures, “and we’re going to get out of this—”

A big bright light of explosions erupts across the street. Mikey whines as Leo quickly wraps his arms back around his little brother as if to shield him. Donnie and Raph quickly get back in the truck.

“Hey, let’s go! Come on!”, Raph beckons.

“Get in.”, Leo ushers as he pushes Mikey into the back seat with Donnie before heading for the passenger’s seat. 

“Boys?!”, a woman’s voice calls out across the street. Their other neighbor, Denise, hurrying out in her pajamas with a flashlight in hand.

“DENISE YOU GET BACK INSIDE THE HOUSE!”, Leo demands with such vigor and urgency, it makes Mikey flinch. “YOU LOCK YOUR DOORS! NOW!!!”

“C’mon, c’mon, get in!”, Raph calls for his brother, starting up the truck.

Leo quickly gets in as Raph screeches the car around in a U-turn around the cul-de-sac. As the truck turns around, the brothers all hear a croaking groan as the O’Neils (who should be dead) come stumbling out of their house.

“Seatbelts on. Hold on.”, Raph warns.

Raph charges forward with no regard for the elderly couple. The couple that was once so kind to them, surprisingly taking it pretty well when April introduced the mutant turtle brothers to them, now being rammed over and left for dead on the street.

“Jesus Christ, boys!”, Mikey hears Denise gripe as she hurries to check on Kirby lying on the ground. More distance explosions ring out, illuminating Carol as she charges for Denise, ripping her apart. Donnie grabs Mikey’s shoulders and pulls him back around from staring out the back window.

“You take 70—”, Leo guides.

“71, I know.”, Raph spats.

A flock of police cars speed by them at the intersection as the truck turns the opposite direction. After much silence, collecting his thoughts, Mikey finally finds the voice he needs to speak again past the quivering of his lips.

“Guys—”

“We don’t know.”, Leo answers right away.

“They’re saying it’s a virus.”, Donnie supplies. “Some kind of parasite.”

“Is it from some villains?”, Mikey asks, cautious.

“We don’t…know.”, Leo presses.

“Are we sick?”

“No. Of course not.”, Raph assures.

“Why did things blow up?”

His question is unanswered as Leo sighs with frustration, fiddling with the radio.

“No cellphone. No radio.”, he mutters. “A minute ago, the newsman wouldn’t shut up.”

“How do you know?”, Mikey presses for answers again.

“What?”

“How do you know we’re not sick?”

Leo turns to him when he hears the way Mikey’s voice starts to falter. Donnie picks up the question for him.

“They’re saying it’s mostly people in the city.”, the genius of the 4 explains. “That’s why they got the highway blocked off.”

Mikey doesn’t feel too convinced. He just watched the world fall apart all over again. He’s growing tired of being the optimist when it’s nothing but disaster after disaster ever since the turtles were tots. Mikey glances up and sees fire in the distance. A whole house just being burned down into nothing and no firefighters tending to it.

“God…it’s Jimmy’s place.”, Leo comments. The kind farmer who would sometimes share his harvest with the brothers. Mikey liked him. Liked exploring new recipes with him. And now…

Mikey stares at the fiery glow in thought, pondering the events that have happened. Wondering where it all went so wrong.

“...The O’Neils would take Nana into the city.”, he reasons. “To the hospital for stuff.”

“That’s right, they would. That’s probably why.”, Leo nods from up front.

“But…you’d have to go a lot…right?”

Raph glances at Mikey’s tearful face from the rear view mirror. “We’re fine. Trust me.”

“...alright…”, Mikey mutters softly, almost inaudibly.

Sirens ring out, louder and louder. Mikey doesn’t know how much longer he can stand that noise. Or if he’ll even be able to hear it so nonchalantly any more. The brothers have all been on edge over the years, but to ignore the sounds of shrilling children and sirens and gunfire…you can’t come back from that. Even the sudden barking sound of laughter from a passerby is enough to make Mikey jolt.

The brothers come across a family on the side of the road, their car broken down. The father shouts at them, waving his arms wildly for help. Raph slows down the truck. Leo snaps his head at him.

“What are you doing?!”, he hisses.

“They got a kid, Leo.”, Raph gripes.

“We’ve got our own family too. Keep driving.”

“We could put them in the back…”, Mikey supplies. But no one hears him. The father shouts more frantically as the truck passes by them, pleading. Mikey stares at the family through the back window, his eyes pooling up with tears once more.

“...Somebody else will come along.”, Leo mutters.

To see his brothers acting like this…it makes Mikey’s heart shatter. They’re supposed to be heroes. They’re supposed to help everyone in need. What’s changing? Why is everything changing?!

Mikey cries, unable to hold back his fears anymore. Donnie wraps his arm around Mikey’s shoulder and pulls him away from the window, tugging him close in a hug. Mikey sobs harder as he leans into Donnie’s embrace. Raph and Leo glance at each other from the front, a look that says they’re both sorry and racked with guilt. Donnie hushes, murmuring words of comfort as he rubs Mikey’s shoulder up and down. Then Mikey feels something being pressed into his hand.

Leo’s pocket knife. How did Donnie get this? Mikey sniffles, unsheathing the blade and glossing over the beautiful engraving. He looks up at Donnie who gives him a soft reassuring smile. The softshell clasps the knife closed into Mikey’s hand, and the youngest slips it into his pocket.

As the truck continues to drive, the rushing sound of cars honking fills the air. The horizon unveils dead stop traffic packed to the brim on the freeway.

“Fuck! Everybody had the same fucking idea!”, Leo gripes.

Raph slams the horn several times as a few cars try to abort the freeway before they get trapped. “I can’t get through this! Fuck!”

“Alright, alright. Let’s think it through, we’ll think it through.”, Leo stammers. “Alright, take the field. We’ll cut across and pick up on the…on the west side.”

“Yeahyeahyeahyeah. West, west, alright. Alright, hang on.”, Raph babbles, jerking the car a hard right.

As the truck begins to traverse the bumpy grass terrain, a few cars follow as well. Everyone panicking and trying to find somewhere safe from all this chaos. But they get up over the hill to reveal the freeway blocked off by military.

“Shit! Fucking army.”, Leo hisses under his breath.

“Isn’t that good?”, Mikey points out.

“It’s good for them,”, Raph gripes. “But that’s the highway we’re tryin’ to get to.”

A few cars speed past the truck, still determined to find safety. Leo sighs, quickly trying to come up with another plan.

“Alright, keep moving. Head north.”, he suggests.

Raph shakes his head, “Could be a lot of people…”

“Well, we can’t go south…we can’t go east, we can’t go west. Where the hell else are we supposed to go?”

Raph doesn’t answer, biting his lip as he gets lost in thought. Leo loses his patience.

“Raph, come on!”

Raph shakes his head again, slamming on the gas and steering a hard right. The horizon now shows a town in the distance, illuminated by their lights. Leo nods.

“Yeah…Yeah I know that place. This can work.”

“Yeah? But then what?”, Raph asks.

“I don’t know. Detroit. Then Canada. Just far, far as we can.”, the slider insists. “How much gas?”

Raph glances down at it. “Three-quarter tank.”

“Go through town. Then up and cut across Rochester, 90 to Buffalo. Past the border. Then we’re out.”

It sounds like a solid plan. Solid enough, at least. No one is in the mood to argue when Raph and Leo are ready to start grabbing each other by the throat. But a spiraling thought enters Mikey’s mind. Something that makes his blood run cold.

“...Maybe it’s everywhere.”, he speaks up. “Maybe there’s nowhere to go.”

No one answers that, afraid to admit the truth. Then suddenly there is a screeching rumbling noise overhead. Raph snaps his head up at it.

“What the fuck?!”

The noise gets louder and louder still. Donnie flinches, pressing his goggles against his tympanas to block out the noise. Mikey turns to the back window as sees a fleet of commercial planes rushing in for emergency landings, trying to get to somewhere safe. Up ahead, a swarm of cop cars zip by, people running around to seek shelter.

“Son of a bitch, we gotta go around.”, Leo mutters.

“Grab somethin’!”, Raph calls to his brothers.

Without much chance to react, the truck swerves right through an alleyway. Mikey latches on to Donnie’s arm and Donnie holds him in return. The sound of screams and terror fill the air. Another turn, and it’s like they’re in a maze. Cars zig-zagging around any space they can find to navigate the chaos and get away. People running around, alone yet together in their fears.

“Alright, keep going. Keep going.”, Leo assures. But then he hears tires screeching to the left. “SHIT! RAPH!!!”

Another car slams on its brakes to avoid hitting the truck, honking at them. Yet Raph presses the gas more and keeps driving. But he slows down quickly when a swarm of people rush out of a store, some of them grabbing each other and ripping each other apart. Like what…Like what the O’Neils did to Denise.

“Raph, you can’t stop here.”, Leo waves his arm out.

Raph gestures his arm to the crowd. “I can’t drive through ‘em all—”

“Are you serious?! Just keep going!!!”

Raph pushes forward but then suddenly glass shatters. The theater up ahead on the right. Windows broken down as people flood out. Screaming in a panic, screaming with insanity and intent to rip each other open. The crowd blocks the street.

“Go go go.”, Leo mutters. Then his voice rises in urgency. “Back, back, back, BACK, BACK!!”

“Raph’s tryin’!!!”

Raph puts the car in reverse, turning around to look out the back window. He sends a comforting smile to the two younger brothers in the back before focusing on saving his family. 

“Raph, go faster! We gotta go!”, Leo urges.

“Leo, I’m tryin’! There’s nowhere to fuckin’ go!”

“Find an alley!”

“What alley?!”

People run from the scene, hurrying to get out of the way. Two men are wrestling each other in the middle of the street, tossing and turning. Out from the sky, a plane screeches. Tilting and tilting and tilting. The A team is still arguing with each other.

“There’s people everywhere!”

“Roll the fuck over them! We gotta get off this street now!”

“That’s what I’m tryin’ to do, Leo!”

“We’re going to be okay. Just keep driving.”

Mikey still watches the plane closely. Watches as it gets bigger and brighter in view. The panicked civilians take notice too. Mikey whips his head up to the front.

“Guys?!”, he calls out over their bickering.

The two snap their heads up at the plane, realizing the disaster before it even strikes. The brothers become overwhelmed with fear.

“Holy…shit…”, Raph hisses.

“Move…”, Leo beckons. “Move!!!”

The plane heads for the ground, the crowd of people now starting to run the opposite direction as the truck shifts forward again. A few of the people are stopped and tackled to the ground by the sick and insane. Then suddenly the plane nosedives into the ground and explodes into a bright burst of light. Mikey ducks down into Donnie’s arms as the two huddle close together. The force of the impact sending sharp debris to fly at bullet speed for miles. A shrapnel of blades from the plane’s jets crash into the back window and the truck swerves before tumbling over. Mikey screams as he’s crashed against the ceiling.

Then everything goes black.

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

All sound is muffled. Lights are a blur. Mikey barely stirs at the sirens and gunshots ringing out all around. Barely notices what’s happening as his head spins. He hears someone shuffling around the now upside down truck, reaching out for his torso and shaking him.

“Mikey…”, Leo calls out. “Mikey!”

Mikey jolts, his attention coming back quick as sounds flood his tympanas. Leo sighs with the smallest ounce of relief.

“Stay right there. Don’t move.”, Leo orders. He turns around to the driver’s seat. “Raph, you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.”, Raph grunts.

“Donnie?”

“Could be better.”, Donnie groans as he crawls out the broken window. “Anyone injured?”

Mikey’s breathing picks up as he starts to remember what’s going on. Despite all that, he leans back and turns around to the shattered back window and peers out into the street. No one was running anymore. Just bodies, a bunch of dead bodies in the street. Fire surrounding the terrain. One…monster was tearing into one of the corpses, stuffing the organs into its face like they haven’t eaten in years.

“Mikey…”, Leo calls to him, grabbing his leg in a bid for his attention. Mikey turns to him. “Don’t look. You look at me, okay?”

Leo helps Mikey move his legs that are twisted underneath (overneath?) the car seats. He winces, holding back tears. He didn’t realize how much pain he is in.

“I’m sorry, hermano, I know, I know.”, Leo soothes. He reaches forward to scoop his baby brother up. “Come here. Put your arms around me.”

Mikey sobs from the pain. As much as he hates being babied by his older brothers, there were some moments, like this one, where he just doesn’t care. He wants them to worry and coddle him. To let them shield him from the traumas and hide away. Just riding out the waves until they wash over.

“Come here, come here.”, Leo ushers as he pulls Mikey in close, choking back tears of his own. “I got you. I got— I got you. I got you.”

Leo drags Mikey out the broken window that Donnie escaped from as the softshell is now on the other side of the truck, helping Raph get out as well. Leo goes to set Mikey down on the ground to which Mikey’s loose and twisted ankle flops. Mikey whines, grasping Leo’s shoulder to keep the weight off of it. Leo takes notice of his pain.

“Are you okay?”

“Mm-mm.”, Mikey shakes his head.

“Are you okay?”, Leo presses again for an answer.

“My ankle.”

“Alright, okay.”, Leo nods, hoisting Mikey up a bit more.

“We gotta get off the street!”, Donnie calls out, reading his rifle.

Suddenly a police car speeds over to them and crashes right into the truck that they were just in moments ago and the engines explode into flames. Leo glances at Mikey for the smallest moment before turning to the flames.

“Donnie?! Raph!!”, he yells.

Framed through the fire, Leo and Mikey could see the others searching around before spotting them. 

“Head to the river! We’ll find a way!”, Raph calls out.

Leo hesitates for a moment and rightfully so. Mikey doesn’t want them to get separated either. They need to stick together.

“Get him outta here, Leo! Go!”

Without leaving room to argue, Raph and Donnie take off running. Leo turns back to Mikey, hoisting him up still.

“W-We can’t leave them!”, Mikey begs.

“They’ll be fine. Can you run?”, Leo asks.

Mikey glances down at his legs, slightly annoyed as if Leo’s already forgotten that his ankle is fucking broken.

“N-no.”

Leo heaves a sigh. Not a moment’s hesitation and he sweeps Mikey off his feet, cradling his little brother close to his plastron. Mikey hates the way he trembles like a leaf in his big brother’s arms.

“You keep your eyes on me.”, Leo demands in a serious tone.

“O-okay.”, Mikey breathes.

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“And don’t look anywhere else.”

“No.”

“Alright.”

Mikey wraps his arms around Leo’s neck and ducks his head into his brother’s plastron as Leo holds onto him tighter. Thank pizza supreme for their mutant strength. Leo has no trouble as he runs down the alley, looking for a way out. Mikey peers over Leo’s shoulders for a moment at the fiery crash behind them before ducking his head back down, trying to keep his panicked breathing in check before it makes things worse. But he can’t help the hitches in his voice. The two turn the corner.

And it was a mistake.

Bodies all around, each being torn into by a monster. Some of the corpses are still alive, staring wide eyed and gazes piercing into Mikey’s soul the same way Kirby did. Leo nudges Mikey’s head, making him tear his eyes away. The box turtle obliges, staring down and not daring to look anywhere else. He feels Leo start stumbling back. And then full on sprinting, turning around. Mikey’s eyes glance up for a moment to see one of the monsters standing up and charging after them.

Leo kicks the nearest door in and hurries through as the monster shouts and chases them down. The two duck into a mom-n-pop diner as Leo sprints down the corridor. The monster stumbles over a cart with no regard to itself or its surroundings, solely focused on its target and nothing else. Mikey gasps in fear, frantically grabbing on to Leo’s shirt to hang on tighter. The monster jumps up off a booth to grab them but Leo is faster. The monster collapses onto the ground yet wastes no time getting back up again.

Leo makes his way through the kitchen now, heading for the exit. The monster crashes into a wall of glasses and plates beside them, slowing it down just enough for the brothers to escape. Leo kicks down the exit and sprints across the open field as the monster charges towards them. Mikey whines in fear, clutching his arms around Leo for dear life. The monster is quickly gaining speed. Closer and closer and closer—

BANG!!

The monster falls to the ground with a thud like a ragdoll and Leo stutters to a stop, staring at the damn thing to make sure it’s dead. Mikey heaves as he ducks into Leo’s shoulders, struggling to catch his breath.

“It’s okay, baby brother. You’re safe.”, Leo hushes, holding him closer.

He turns around to keep walking before a light shines over him.

“Don’t move!”

Mikey turns to the light, seeing a soldier point his rifle at them. There’s other military nearby.

“M-My brother’s hurt!”, Leo calls out. “His ankle—”

“Stop right there!”, the soldier commands.

Leo takes a step back, softening his voice. “...Okay. Take it easy. We’re not sick!”

The soldier lowers his weapon, pressing into his walkie. “I got two civilians by the river, one of ‘em injured.” The radio beeps. “Ankle.”

Finally they’re safe. They’re going to be okay. They’re going to make it out of this mess. Mikey breathes, turning to Leo.

“W-w-what about Raph and Donnie?”, his voice quivers.

“We’re going to get you somewhere safe first.”, Leo soothes. “Then we’ll go back for them, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry, repeat?”, the soldier speaks to the radio as if offended. The two snap their heads over to him, Leo stepping closer. The soldier immediately points his rifle up again. “Hey! No one told you to move!”, he warns. Then back to the radio. “Yes, sir.”

A pause.

“Yes, sir.”

And then another. The soldier lowers his rifle.

“...Yes, sir.”

With resolve, the rifle aims at the two again. They don’t even need mind meld to know what’s about to happen. Mikey clings to Leo tighter as Leo starts to step back, shaking his head.

“We’re not sick.”, he pleads. 

The soldier approaches slowly.

“Sir…”

Slowly…

“WE’RE NOT SICK!!!”, Leo screams as he turns around but it’s too late. Rapid shots are and Mikey shrills as the two collapse to the ground, Mikey tumbling away from Leo’s arms.

Mikey gasps and sputters, before he knows it, he’s coughing up blood. His breathing kicks up as his heart races, a burning pain on his side sputtering blood everywhere. He puts his hands on it in a feeble attempt to stop the bleeding but it hurts.

The soldier slowly approaches his brother and Mikey is rendered useless to stop him. Leo turns, putting his hands up.

“I’m sorry.”, the soldier says with an infliction in his tone.

“Please, don’t.”, Leo begs.

A loud gunshot is fired and the soldier collapses to the ground. Raph and Donnie approach with Donnie’s rifle still aimed at the soldier. Leo gets up, lifting his shirt to see that the bullet grazed him in his side. But the older brothers’ eyes are not on him. They’re on Mikey.

“...Oh God…”, Raph breathes.

Mikey tries to get his voice to work but he can’t. He doesn’t have to though, Leo spins around and stares at him too. The medic of the group scrambles over to his little brother.

“Oh no…No, no. No.”, he mutters, shushing Mikey as he approaches. “Okay…You’re okay. Y-You’re okay, move your hand, baby brother. Move your hand.”

Mikey does, gulping as he tries to catch his breath. But he could see it on Leo’s face, he doesn’t have much time left, does he? He could feel himself getting weak. He becomes more panicked. He doesn’t want to go. He doesn’t want to die. He can’t die! Not like this! 

Without a moment’s hesitation, Leo swoops in to pick him up and it hurts like all fucking hell. Like Mikey’s on fire from the inside out. The youngest screams, pushing Leo back instinctively to stop the pain.

“I know, baby boy, I know, I know I know I know.”, Leo babbles. “I know it hurts.”

Mikey glances down, whining as he sees the blood spilling out of him more and more, taking his life with it. Leo presses his hands against Mikey’s wounds.

“Alright. Don’t look down, look up, look up.”, Leo urges. “Come on, Mikey. You’re okay, you’re okay.” His voice crumbles a bit as Mikey pushes him back more. It hurts so bad, he can’t take it anymore.

“I know I know I know I know, baby boy, I know I know.”, Leo babbles again as he becomes covered in his brother’s blood. “I know this hurts. You’re going to be okay. Alright…Mikey…Mikey, Mikey, listen to me.”

Mikey gasps for air that keeps leaving his lungs. He’s becoming tired. He feels the world start to spin, his brother’s voice echoing.

“I gotta get you up, okay?”, Leo urges sternly. “I gotta get you up.” Mikey shakes his head in despair but he knows he’s not getting his way. “Alright? Now, come on. You come on. I know, Mikey.”

Mikey screams in agony as Leo lifts him upright. The box turtle digging his nails into the slider. Trying to resist.

“No, no. I know I know I know I know I know I know.”, Leo repeats again like a broken record, his voice rising in pained urgency as he turns to the older brothers. “DONNIE! RAPH! HELP ME!!!”

Mikey gasps for air once more…but then he stops. All surrounding light fading. All surrounding sound fading. Himself...fading...

.

.

.

The older brothers stare down at the two. Raph already wailing in tears as Donnie stares back at his twin with despair.

“...Leo…”, he murmurs.

Leo pays them no mind, turning back to the youngest. “Come on, baby boy. I gotta get you up. C-Come on.”, he mutters.

But he feels the way Mikey’s body goes limp in his arms, his own dropping down as his head flops back. Eyes blank and slightly closed. He tries to ignore it as he tugs Mikey’s legs closer to scoop him up. Leo’s eyes water without his consent, sniffling and crying.

“Come on, we’ll get up. Come on, baby boy…”, he heaves. “C-....Come on… come— …Please…”

But he knows it. They all know it. Leo wraps his arms around Mikey’s body, rocking him back and forth as if to soothe the aching soul inside. He cradles his little baby brother in close, rocking and rocking and rocking. For he knows. Mikey is just…

Gone.

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

Deadass started crying after writing this and stormed over to my little brother with no context like, "Don't you ever fucking die on me, got it?"

This new AU has me in a chokehold. Dw, it doesn't mean FCAU is not getting any love. I'm finishing that fuck. Plus, there's nothing new and crazy to add to this AU. It follows the exact same script as the show/game. I will be tweaking a few things tho which I'll discuss later. For now. Cry with me. =')

Reblogging helps artists! Same thing applies to writing!

[archiveoftara]

Hi! Can I get a request? The reader is a freelance agent but she is friends with Lockwood and Co. If a case is dangerous or so, they call each other for backup just in case. One day, the Lockwood and Co and reader are in an old house and the person who owns the house, lied to them and told them that the house is stable but while on the second floor, the floor collapsed and the reader falls through and she goes unconscious. She wakes up in to the hospital and Lockwood is there. And rest can be up to you. Thanks.

White Lies

Hii. Sorry for the extreme delay. I was not in the right headspace. I'm sorry if the story is a bit cringe. I tried my best to finish it as fast as I could. Anyways, hope you like it!! Do let me know in the comments

Word count: 1125

"Are we at the right place?"

I stood in front of an old two storey house which reminds me of some Victorian period drama. I heard Lockwood say.

"83 downhill road? yes, we are."

Slowly I made my way into the house, keeping my wits together. One must stay alert when it comes to deal with a visitor, especially a nasty one. I close my eyes, tuning into the surroundings.

"So the owner said a visitor has been bothering them for a while. They didn't know it was haunted till they moved in." George explained.

"Heard anything, y/n?" Lockwood asked.

"Nothing, yet." I take a quick glance outside, golden lights slowly disappearing under the dark shadow. "We better find ourselves a ghost."

I knew Lockwood from the fencing classes. We were like two peas in a pod and during the training we promised each other to work together in an agency.

Sadly, circumstances led us to our separate ways. Until one rainy day, I found him standing at my threshold. From that day, we back each other up. Whenever he needs more help, he rings me up. The more, the merrier.

"How's the temperature George?" Lockwood's enquiry broke my train of thoughts.

"Normal."

"Let me look around" I took a step forward.

"Be careful" Lucy said.

"I'll go with you. We'll go upstairs meanwhile you guys look around here. Let's meet there after fifteen minutes." Lockwood points at the hall.

I kept my hand on the hilt of the sword, ready to strike the visitor at any moment. Lockwood was just a few steps behind me, looking for any ghoulish substance.

I raised my hand to stop him "I think I heard something...someone's walking..it knows we're here."I heard a sound of metal drawn, while I tightly grabbed my rapier.

A faint light started to build up in front of my eyes before I realise I fell on the ground.

Shit

"Are you alright?" Lockwood gives me a hand.

"I'm fine. It's getting strong."

Lockwood fights the visitor while I try to regain my position. I join him shortly.

With a final slash, I kept the visitor at bay. It disappeared. For now.

"We have to find the source quickly. It must be somewhere in here."

"GEORGE, LUCY. WE FOUND THE SOURCE."

Lockwood gave me a confused look.

"What? You don't really ask for help anyway." Before he could say anything, Lucy and George joins us.

"Where is it?" George pants.

"Somewhere in here. The man disappeared in one of those doors." I pointed at the furthest door.

Turns out, the room was a library. The visitor was an author who died in there and the source was his writing pen.

Luckily, Lucy secured the source just in time. It was already getting dawn. We all settled in the kitchen to have some tea.

My hand fell on my wrist when I found my bracelet was gone. It's my lucky bracelet.

"I have to go upstairs, I think I dropped my bracelet there." I didn't wait for anyone to respond and rush to look for it. Everyone knows how precious it was to me.

I stepped on the landing of second floor when I heard a crack. I didn't pay attention, might be some broken window or something. I found a shiny bracelet peeking through the carpet.

"Ah ha! There you are."

Suddenly, everything went black.

..................................................................................

Bright

Bright

Where am I?

My eyes hurt someone please turn off the light.

"Oh my god she's waking up."

"Someone call the doctor."

"Y/n?"

I look at the person who called my name.

"...where am I?"

"Are you alright?"

"Who are you?"

Lockwood's pov

"Who are you?"

She doesn't remember me... It felt like my whole world shattered in front of my eyes.

Y/n has been in coma for two months.  The owner of the house lied to us. The house was haunted AND unstable. I already sued him.

His mistake costed me almost losing y/n.

"We're your friends. I'm Lucy, that's George and Lockwood. Don't you remember us?" Lucy mumbled.

"Um..hehe..hahaha." she broke into a hearty laugh.

"You guys should have seen your faces. Oh god..Ouch my head hurts."

The audacity of this girl to get on my nerves even after waking up from a coma.

"Well looks like someone's doing fine after the accident." George snorted.

"What accident?"

"You fell-"

"You fell from the stairs." I gave a quick look to Lucy. She doesn't need to know.

"Oh.."

George and Lucy gave me a confused look but didn't say anything.

We took y/n to Portland Row first, she still needs rest and I want to take care of her (not because I'm head over heels for her), she lives alone and she needs people around her so she can recover faster.

Y/n was asleep in Lucy's room while the rest of us were in the kitchen.

"Why didn't you tell her?" George ask.

"And scare her? She doesn't need to know that a whole ass house fell on her and sent her to a coma for two months. She's already been through a lot, George. It will only cause her more pain."

I heard someone clear their throat, I looked up to find Y/n standing at the door. She had her signature poker face which is more terrifying than a ghost.

"Can I talk to you for a minute Lockwood? Alone?"

George gave me a light pat on my shoulder while Lucy gave a sympathetic smile. 

I gesture y/n to sit beside me. She took it, silently.

"How much did you hear?"

"Pretty much everything."

"I'm sorry."

"You should've told me. I'm not that same vulnerable kid you met in the academy, anymore. I can take care of myself."

"I almost lost you."

"But I'm here. I'm fine." She held my hand against her cheek. "see?"

I lean onto her warmth "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you."

"Stop blaming yourself. It must have been so hard for you too. I'm sorry for being reckless."

"Hey, it's my job to be reckless."

She chuckled at my response. I gently brush a strand of hair from her face. "I missed you."

She puts her forehead against mine, longingly looking at my eyes "I missed you too. Please don't lie to me again."

"I won't." I gently kiss her forehead. I pull her closer to me. I feel her leaning on my shoulder and going to the dreamland.

I will tell thousand white lies just to keep you safe, I'm sorry.

[heaven-s-black-box]

What We Do- North x Fem!Freelancer!Reader

Return to File

Recovery date: August 12th, 2023

Description: politely requesting a north x reader where reader has been reckless on a mission and north is understandably concerned

Notes: This entry was recovered in conjunction with an anonymous researcher, we thank them for their contribution.

Word count: 1 262

Back to directory

"Wyoming!" Wash yelled over the comms.

"Someone check on him.”

Carolina, Wash, and York were up on the second level of the warehouse, just barely catching sight as Wyoming took a shot to the chest. They were working on opening the big warehouse doors so that team B could get to the extraction point.

"I'm alive,” he groaned, “ just in alot of pain"

"I'll be there in a second."

"North,” South yelled over the gun fire, “don't let your girlfriend do anything stupid!"

The twins were just outside the big doors, trying to clear up the extraction point for 479er.

Back inside the warehouse, Y/N ducked out from behind her cover to scan the area. She was pinned down with Florida just across and down from where Wyoming had been shooting, and was now braced against the wall.

"Michigan, do not move," Carolina warned over the comms.

"He needs medical attention, Florida, cover me."

Darting out from behind a stack of crates, Y/N slid up to another crate. Still just out of reach of Wyoming.

"Michigan," North's voice snapped, "stay where you are. You can't help him if you get shot!"

Rolling her eyes, Y/N looked back out the way she'd come, narrowly missing a bullet. Florida took aim, and there was a shout as one of the assailants was taken out. He gave Y/N a thumbs up, and she made room for him to join her at the new crate.

Y/N waved at Wyoming, motioning for him to make room for her, and he awkwardly shuffled over.

"Okay, here it goes."

“Doors open!” York yelled just before a bullet hit the control panel, stopping the door a bit more than a foot off the ground. Carolina whipped around to take the attacker out as the other two ducked.

"Michigan!" A few different voices yelled over the comms as she jumped out and forward towards Wyoming's hiding spot.

Through the comms, everyone heard a yelp followed by silence.

"Michigan?"

"Michigan!"

"Don’t worry, Michigan is fine... her helmet not so much," Florida responded.

The team on the second floor took a staff access out to the landing pad, finding South waving down 479er while North slipped under the door. There were a few shots before Florida slipped under the door, half dragging Wyoming, followed by North and Michigan.

A heavy breeze rushed across the platform as the Pelican settled down for them to load up.

“Michigan, you okay?”

Y/N frowned under her helmet, her ears still ringing from the shot and her helmet's sound system half broken. North had his arm wrapped around her to guide her with her fractured vision. He tapped her side and pointed at Carolina who was waving at them.

“Michigan?”

“So-” Y/N’s voice crackled as the speaker in her helmet gave out. With a sigh, she unclasped her helmet and tucked it under her arm as the team loaded into the pelican. “Sorry. Broken helmet, ringing ears, couldn’t hear shit.”

“Ya, well, you’re lucky you can still hear at all. What were you thinking?” Carolina snapped.

“Everyone good back there?” 479er called.

Even through the helmet, Y/N could feel the glare Carolina was giving her as she moved up to the cockpit.

“Wyoming’s still gonna need a med team!”

“And you’re getting one too!”

“God damn it.”

---

“How’s he doing?”

“Hm?” Y/N hummed as the doctor took off the blood pressure cuff.

She turned over her shoulder to find York entering the med bay. He was out of armor by now and in a t-shirt and sweatpants, Y/N was still in her under suit. The downside to being sent straight to med bay.

“Wyoming.”

“Oh, he’s good, just sleeping. Doctor said he’ll be back within a week, armor lock’s a life saver. Also the bullet missed anything important.”

“That’s good. That’s good,” he nodded. “North’s beating the shit out of some targets in the training room.”

Y/N looked up from putting her armor back on.

“I didn’t… you mean shooting the shit out of targets?”

“No… No, I said what I said.”

Neither of them said anything as Y/N finished putting her armor back on, minus the helmet.

“I guess I’ll stop by on my way to my room.”

“Please do,” York leaned towards her as she passed by, “I think he’s waiting.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Y/N mumbled as York continued over to see Wyoming.

When she finally reached the training room she found North doing the hand to hand training against the targets, without his armor. She stopped just inside, taking a quick look up at the viewing deck. It, unfortunately, wasn’t empty.

As North turned to hit another target, he caught sight of Michigan and stumbled in his flow.

“FILISS, end program.”

“Ending hand to hand combat training simulation.”

Y/N sent him a small wave before stepping back out of the training room to wait for him. She didn’t have to wait for long as North jogged out, coming to an abrupt halt when he noticed her leaning against the wall just beside the door.

“All clear?”

“I told you I was fine.”

“Ya, so did Wyoming, and he’s out of commission for a week,” North said as they started walking toward the bunks.

Y/N linked her hands behind her back and stepped a little closer to North to bump shoulders. He looked down at her and sighed, the apologetic look in her eyes slowly sapping his remaining annoyance.

“Don’t do that again.”

“North,” Y/N sighed, “he was injured. If I hadn’t gone over there he’d probably be out for longer than a week.”

“And if you’d been shot too? It was too risky, not only would Wyoming have been without a medic but Florida would have been completely alone in there if team A hadn’t opened the door.”

“Jeez, even the director didn’t chew me out this bad.”

“I’m sure he was more worried about your suit than you,” he grumbled.

There was a lul in the conversation as they came up to Michigan’s door. North was about to say goodbye when Y/N cleared her throat and spoke.

“I uh… I’m a bit sore.”

“Really?” North chuckled, raising a brow.

“You wanna finish this conversation on record or in private?” Y/N hissed. “Plus I need help changing a bandage on my back,” she finished saying at a normal level.

“Well, I guess I can help.”

As soon as the door closed behind them, North’s arm circled around her waist and pulled her back into his chest. He dropped his head to her shoulder and sighed.

“I mean it… don’t do that again.”

“We have this conversation every time,” Y/N reached up and ran a gloved hand through North’s hair. “And everytime I tell you the same thing.”

“You joined this fight to save people, even if it costs you your life.”

There was a click as Y/N began unlatching pieces of her armor with North helping her. It was quiet as he helped her change into her sleepwear, not that she really needed it. As she pulled her shirt over her head, he kissed the nape of her neck.

“Just… be a little more careful. I was serious about what could have gone wrong earlier, but I- I don’t think I could keep doing this if I lost you.”

Y/N turned in North’s hold, running her hands up his arms to cup his face.

“Sure you could, because that's what we do.”

[undobutton]

Hello!!! anon here, can I request some gn!freelancer x lasko fluff? I'd like to see a confession kind of thing, but anything is fine, I'd love to see what you write !

— 🩹 anon

warnings: Mentions of anxiety, barely proofread, ooc Lasko and Freelacer

genre: Fluffy!

characters: Lasko, and Freelancer!

synopsis: Lasko finally decides to do something about his feelings for you by asking you out to lunch!

a/n: Okay, I have something to confess... I haven't listened to freelencer. Or like any of the D.A.M.N crew's audios.. I plan to! I really wanna but I don't have the time rn. So I apologize deeply if anyone is ooc and I will probably rewrite this after I listen to the playlists. Also hii 🩹anon! I hope this lives up to your expectations and I'm so sorry this took so long!

Lasko isn't oblivious. He know that his feelings for you are returned its just.. What if you say no anyhow? Like sure there's no real reason that you wouldn't agree to at least having lunch with him, y'know since that's nothing new. But anxiety never needed any logic to take hold.

Currently hes pacing around his room like a mad man, mumbling every now and then. His phone is tossed on his bed upside down with your response. He texted you about lunch, nothing more. Nothing less. (What even is less than lunch?) Now hes to scared to get it and look at your reply. He could ask someone to look at it for him, but he'd need to use his phone to call someone.

Frustrated, Lasko sits on his bed and runs a (kinda sweaty) hand through his hair before floping back onto the mattress.

"It's not that big of a deal." He says shakily, trying to reassure himself. A few moments pass and he sits up and grabs his phone in one go.

"Alright. three... two... o-one.. Go." He reads your text

"Lunch sounds fine! What time??"

He lets out a sigh and laughs at himself.

~~~~

Two days later you're sat outside at a nearby cafe scrolling through memes on some social media site. Waiting for Lasko, hes only three minutes late. Normally, you're the one being waited on, but there's a first time for everything.

Lasko comes running, catching your attention with his panicked flurry of emotions. He catches your eye and smiles nervously. After awkwardly rushing past a few other tables and nearly knocking over someones drink, he takes his seat across from you. Wasting no time before bursting into a million apologies.

"I'm so- I'm so sorry I was- Well there was a squirrel and- and sorry I'm late. You should have seen the size of it though. The squirrel I mean. It was just- were you, were you waiting long? Sorry I-"

"Lasko it's fine! It's fine. Did you get a picture of the squirrel?" You ask, putting your phone down with a smile.

He nods and pulls out his phone, calming down a bit.

~~~

Lunch goes by fine. You're both full and heading towards the parking lot. The whole way there Lasko's been even more nervous than usual. Fidgeting and rambling and stuttering up a storm. You're just about to ask if he's alright when he just stops walking all together.

Running a hand through his hair, Lasko looks over at you. He'd been avoiding eye contact this whole time but his eyes find your face now. The suns starting to dip down casting a warm glow on both of you and the sidewalk is surprisingly empty for a Thursday afternoon. He sighs shakily and smiles at you.

"Okay so I didn't just wanna have lunch today- wait no that sounds. I well- No lunch was great I don't need anything else I- I'm full and even if- like you don't owe me anything! Okay okay let me start over uhm I- Lunch?" He ..asks?

A giggle escapes you and he shakes his head.

"No its fine Lasko, start again if you want. I'm all ears!" You grin encouragingly

He takes a breath "I really liked lunch... It was fun and- and You look good. No wait like- you look very good." He blushes but keeps going. "And you look very good... often, m-most times and I uhmm appreciate it? Well you're not doing it for me I know its just- I -I. Gosh. I like you." He says quickly.

You blink a few times.

"Like a lot- I like you a lot romantically.. I said it! I- I did it!" He looks at you and smiles nervously. You crush him in a hug.

"I like you too Lasko, a lot. Romantically" You tease kissing his cheek.

He huffs playfully and pulls away from the hug.

"So.. what do we do now?"

reblogs appreciated!! <3

[maddie-van-fleet]

Love Through The Lens

--------------------------February 6th-------------------------------------

Multiple part series// this will contain graphic scenes, so it is 18+, MINORS DNI.

note: so so so sorry that it has been so long since my last post! life got super crazy there for a bit and i did not want to rush a post! so, that being said here is a short chapter I wrote, but I promise that the next chapter will be a long one! it is worth the wait! and it will be 18+!

Also!! Don't forget that I do have a playlist for this fic, so feel free to check that out and listen along as you read! It is a mixture of very pop or romantic songs because that is the vibe i wanted to give with this!

Summary: It was always your dream to be a concert photographer, and you had finally landed yourself a reputable status as a freelancer. Life, though, takes a turn when you land a job for Greta. The plan was to do the job, in and out, nothing more, but things get quite complicated when you start to develop feelings for a certain guitarist.

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

Chapter 5

It was the second show in Nashville. It, also, could be the last time you see the boys. There had been talks of staying on full time, but you still didn't know if the boys were ready to have you around that much, though you hoped you could stay.

Now, you find yourself fixing the settings on your camera as you sit in the boys dressing room. Each doing their own thing: Josh doing vocal warm ups, Sam drinking a glass of bourbon, Danny was fixing his hair and adding rhinestones, and Jake.....he was sitting in the corner, just staring into space.

Looking around, you smile just happy to have them back in you life. Your adjusting the lighting settings on your camera, remembering that your photos from yesterday were a bit too dark. Scrolling through your photos, you smile as you come across a photo of Jake. His head is tilted back, eyes closed, with the fire and pyro going off in the back. You tried to hide it, but the other boys noticed as you let out a sharp gasp. Josh quickly looked over to you with a curious glance, "You okay Y/N?", he asked as he walked over. You slammed the camera face down into your lap at an attempt to hide what had gotten you so flustered, but of course Josh knew you all too well. Walking around the back of the couch, he smirked as he grabbed the camera from your lap. "Josh wai--" , his smirk turned into a wide glance as he looked at the screen, and you felt embarrassment wash over your body and heat rising to your face. "Ohhhh I see. Ya know Y/N, why is it you never react like that to photos of me? We ARE twins ya know.", this causes Sam and Danny to giggle, and you can't help yourself as your eyes slowly look over Jake. Hearing Josh's comment, he quickly glanced up realizing he was the topic of the conversation. Josh walked towards him, "I mean you do look pretty good Jake, but I don't know if it was worthy of that reaction", he showed the screen to him letting him see. For a second, Jake seemed to enjoy the attention, letting a small smile grace his face, but only for a second before he pushed the camera away and rolled his eyes.

Despite your conversation with him yesterday, it stung. Yeah, he had said he just needed time and you planned to give that to him, but you were finding the whole 'cold shoulder' act very hard to handle. You stood, walking over to grab your camera, while thinking of any excuse to get out of the room. "H-hey, I will see you guys later....i'm g-gonna go...get ready for the show", you headed quickly for the door as the other boys said bye. You sent one last glance over towards Jake as you started to open the door, and you walked out seeing him staring at the wall, not even acknowledging you.

-----------3rd person---------

As the door closed, Josh turns around and lets out a sigh, "Jake ...she's trying. You know that right?' He walks over to him, leaning against the counter. Jake stands up, crossing his arms, "I know Josh but ...I can't just act like nothing happened...I just need time, and she knows that". Josh nods his head, "okay, it just... she seemed really taken aback just then. Just try not to be so blunt okay? She isn't used to that from you". Jake grabs a bottle of water, looking at Josh showing his annoyance, "If it makes you feel better, i will try. I can't make any promises though. I just-- I need fresh air".

Jake walks out of the room quickly leaving no time for any side remarks from his brothers.

As Jake closes the door, Sam and Danny decide to speak up for the first time since everything happened, " Okay we really need to fix this. I can't handle all the tension" Danny says standing from his spot on the couch. Sam nods agreeing as he says, "Yea it's exhausting....we really need to make a plan to get them alone". Josh lets out a heavy sigh, looking up at the ceiling as he tries to brainstorm a idea. A few minutes goes by, and it finally hits him. He claps his hands together loudly, startling the other 2 guys. "I GOT IT! Tonight is the last show for Nashville right? So.. what if we hit the bars?" he asks looking back and forth, excited about his suggestion. Sam nods his head, agreeing, "Yea that could work! It wouldn't seem unusual since it is a tradition anyways", and Danny adds in, "That could work, but the question is...how do we get Y/N to go?"

Josh walks over, " Well, lets just invite her as a friend. It would be good if we want to rekindle things with her anyways. Then, we can try to get her and Jake alone at some points. Hopefully they will be able to at least have a normal conversation".

----------back to normal pov------

As you close the door to the dressing room you feel tears immediately fill your eyes. You understood why Jake needed time, and he deserves it, but it doesn’t stop the ache you feel when he looks at you so coldly. It feels as if the conversation yesterday didn’t even happen, and that you’re going on with him still hating you. Luckily though, it’s time for the show. You head to the photo pit and get ready to snap photos, prepping while the crew gets the boys equipment ready to go.

The show goes just about the same as the first, the photos looks so amazing, and are even more vibrant after the settings had been adjusted. It was about the time when you should be leaving the pit but once again the conversation with Jake enters the back of your mind. He was upset ….but he DID ask you to stay for at least some of the show. You stand there in a mental battle before you decide to just stay for a few songs. Every song is just as amazing as you can imagine, some of which you had heard all those years before. The boys truly did belong on that stage. They just looked so amazing up there, like it was their home.

It went by fast with you and Jake having a few moments looking at each other, but not anything crazy. And so before the encore you decided to head backstage and pack up your stuff. You head to the side stage and start packing the SD cards into an envelope, so that you can hand it to the manager before leaving. This is it. These photos will determine if you get to stay with the boys on the tour, or if you have to go home.

You stand there taking in what could be the last few moments with the boys, and realize they’re about to get off stage, so you head back to the dressing room, leaving the envelope there knowing the boys will take a look at it first before giving it to Julie. You contemplate saying bye to the boys but you knew you’d see them in a couple days when they made their decision. You swiftly exit the room, and turn to head toward the back door, seeing that Julie had said she’d have a ride waiting for you out back. You quickly text her thanks before going to open the door, but just as you did someone tugs on your elbow.

In the chaos, you hadn’t realized the music had stopped meaning the show was over, so when you turned to see Sammy it caught you off guard. “Hey where are you going? Are you already leaving?” he asked softly, a frown on his face. You nodded slightly, “yea…I figured with everything I-I’d just head out until you guys decided …about me staying…” , you look down at your feet, fidgeting your fingers anxiously. Sammy chuckles, and pulls you into a hug as he says , “Y/N…we told you…we forgive you.. why don’t you come out with us tonight?”. You already begin getting nervous thinking about being Jake that long with his current feelings about the whole thing. Sammy can read you like a book, though, as he says, “It would be good for us …to help reconnect. You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.”

Sammy had been the most apprehensive one in this whole situation, so it felt nice seeing him open up again. So you gave in, “okay Sammy. Anything for you”. He chuckled before pulling you back into the dressing room, to wait until they had all gotten changed.

Ten minutes later, all the boys had showered, changed, and headed toward the back door to get in the car. You followed quietly behind before realizing there were 2 suv's, and so you ran beside Sammy hoping he would save you. That hope soon fell through as just as you caught up to him, you saw him hold the door open, Jake sliding in first and he signaled with his eyes for you to hop in beside him. "Sammy..." you whispered while glaring at him, but he didn't let it phase him as he quickly responded, "The other car is already full, and it's just to get there, then you can ignore him for all I care. " Letting out a sigh you climb in next to Jake, trying your best not to sit too close. Every hair on your body was sticking up right now from how nervous you felt, and the anxiety was rising in your stomach to the point where you felt nauseous. Sammy climbed in beside you, and as soon as the door was closes you moved as close to him as subtly as you could (though that wasn't much). Catching a glance over at Jake, you see him looking straight out the window, not seeming to be bothered by your presence. While that should be comforting in a way, since it was better than getting an attitude, it still hurt more. It felt as though your heart was slowly ripping in two, and again you felt a rise in your anxiety knowing that Jake wasn't going to budge anytime soon. You felt the signs of an attack coming on, but did not want to give Jake yet another reason to find you insanely weird, and so you took deep breathes as much as you could without giving it away too much. Sammy, though, truly was always the best as being able to tell when you're about to have an attack, as he looked over at you and grabbed your hand. He leaned down by your ear so only you could hear, "Are you alright? I-I didn't mean to trigger you....I just wanted to help." You grab his hand, that was now stroking your arm to calm you down, and you hold it tightly in yours as you say "I'm okay Sam...I promise. thank you." and you lean your head onto his shoulder, closing your eyes, just trying to wish the pain in your chest away long enough to survive the rest of the way to the bar.

[makeitmingi]

Cause Baby You're My Muse [Chapter 18]

Genre: Romance, Idol!AU, Music, Slight angst

Pairing: Mingi x Reader (y/n)

Characters: Producer!Reader, IdolLyricist!Mingi, IdolProducer!Hongjoong, Idol!Seonghwa, Idol!Yunho, Idol!Wooyoung, Idol!San, Idol!Yeosang, Idol!Jongho, cameo(s) by other celebrities

Summary: You always preferred producing underground, having an unknown face and governed by your own rules. But when you start freelancing for idol groups, you say goodbye to your lone wolf lifestyle as you learn to work with idol producers and lyricists.

Word count: 3.3K

Chapter warning(s): Mentions of anxiety, panic attacks, crying, psychological vulnerability and alcohol consumption.

The boys didn't say anything when you and Mingi arrived at the dorm. Maybe they didn't want to bombard Mingi, knowing he was going through a lot. Or maybe they noticed that your eyes were red, showing that you had cried as well. Whatever the reason was, they didn't pry or question.

"Where's Haneul?" You asked, turning to them after you saw Mingi enter his room.

"She's sleeping on my bed." Hongjoong informed. You just had to see her so you went into the room, leaning over her sleeping figure. With a soft smile, you inhaled her scent and kissed her head.

"I hope she didn't give you too much trouble." You told the others.

"No way, she's a great kid. No trouble at all." Wooyoung hugged you. You smiled and wrapped your arms around him.

"I'm sorry to the rest of you for just dropping her off here like that." You bowed to the others, who might have found it strange that a random kid showed up.

"Don't apologise. You did it so you could go support Mingi hyung." Jongho reasoned.

"I don't know if Hongjoong and Wooyoung told you about her..." You looked to the two. Wooyoung and Hongjoong shook their heads.

"We didn't think that it was appropriate for us to say anything. Or rather, we didn't know what you wanted us to share." Hongjoong explained. At this point, you guessed that the rest at least knew that Hongjoong and Wooyoung knew about Haneul before them.

"I-Is she your child?" San raised his hand to ask before you could tell them. You choked, not expecting that from him. Yunho used his hand to cover San's mouth.

"No, Haneul is not my child. She's a child under my care and she has been since she was born 4 years ago." You started.

"But she doesn't live with you? How did you meet her?" Yeosang asked.

"She's actually my cousin. I wasn't going to let her parents put her up for adoption but I'm not qualified to adopt her. So she stays at an orphanage outside of the city." You said.

"Orphanage?"

"Yeah. The lady there helps me take care of her. I send the money to make sure she is well taken care of and that she goes to school. In return, she doesn't get adopted..." You said.

"Can she do that? To have a child there that is not adoptable?" Seonghwa tilted his head.

"No... So I'm grateful that she is doing this for me. That's why when she was going to the hospital and another government representative was coming, Wooyoung rushed down to help me pick her up. She's been staying with me temporarily, that's why I had to start working from home." You explained.

The boys all listened to you intently as you told them about Haneul and how Hongjoong has been working with you in your home and Wooyoung helping you care for Haneul.

"It's cute. Haneul is my sister's name." San smiled softly. You nodded, happy to share that coincidence with San.

"Wow, it must not have been easy doing all that on your own." Yunho said.

"Everything I do, it's all for her. At the end, knowing she benefit from it, makes everything worth it." You smiled. They all nodded in agreement, understanding you.

"She's a great kid."

"You raised her well." The boys all complimented. You felt your cheeks heat up, thankful your mask covered your embarrassment.

"It's late, I shouldn't impose on you guys anymore. I'm sure you've all had a tiring day." You bowed.

"Why don't you stay the night? Come on, Indigo, you should know that you're not imposing on us at all. We're all family here. And you also dealt with a lot today." Seonghwa held your hand with a soft smile on his face.

"Besides, it's late and Hanuel's asleep. It won't be easy to go back, having to carry her on your own. It's might not be safe." Hongjoong added, backing the oldest up. You contemplated it for a while.

"But I don't want to take any of your beds." You sighed. Plus, you knew if you took Hongjoong's bed with Haneul, Seonghwa might not sleep in the same room.

"Just take my bed with Haneul, I usually sleep on the couch anyway." Hongjoong insisted.

"I'll stay in the room with you if you're unfamiliar." Seonghwa smiled. You nodded, glad that you weren't chasing him out of his own room.

After everyone went to bed, you went to Mingi's room. He was still awake, laying on his bed as he scrolled on his phone absentmindedly. But he sat up when he saw you.

"Can I come in?" You asked.

"Of course." He nodded. You stepped into his space, closing the door behind you. Mingi looked at you, you were in Wooyoung's clothes, sweats and a big shirt. He slid to the side of the bed to let his legs dangle off the edge. He patted the space next to him and you climbed into the bed.

"Please don't treat me like I'm fragile..." Mingi said, letting his head fall onto his shoulder.

"I won't. I just wanted to see if you were okay." You whispered. It was selfish to say but you were doing this for yourself, to ease whatever feeling you had in your chest.

"I will be..."

"I know the spiralling darkness doesn't go away so easily but I'll be here with you to chase it away. The others too." You replied.

"You know, I always want to take care of people, to be accepted by them. But somehow, it always ends up with them taking care of me." Mingi sighed.

"You don't have to take care of them for them to accept you, Mings. They'll accept you for who you are, the real person that you are. There's nothing wrong with needing care from other people." You reached up to stroke his head.

"Look at me. All 8 of you took care of me when you barely even knew me. I never knew what it was like to be cared for before I met all of you. Which is honestly pathetic, right?" You chuckled bitterly.

"Don't say that. You're not pathetic." Mingi lifted his head, turning to you with a frown.

"Thanks, Mings." You laughed.

"It's not your fault..." Mingi argued. He didn't need to finish his sentence for you to know what he was going to say 'it's not your fault that your parents didn't care'.

"We're your family now. And we care about you. I care about you." Mingi stated firmly.

"And while I appreciate that greatly. There's still a fear I'm feeling. I don't want to get used to all this." You said.

The reality is that Ateez are idols that are growing in popularity. They're going to have to prioritise their careers over everything else, it was normal. They aren't always going to be around. Plus, you're not from KQ. One day, you'll leave and go back to working underground or with other companies.

"I know that fear, the fear that the future will change and that we're not ready to face that change. But we won't change, Indigo. Ever." Mingi squeezed your hand.

"Goodnight, Mings." You patted his head. But before he could let you go, Mingi placed a kiss on your forehead.

"Goodnight." He wished. You walked out to see one of the dining area lights on. Yunho sat there, eyes glancing over at you as you emerged from Mingi's room. The sofa area was dark as Hongjoong slept.

"Yuyu, you're still up?" You asked.

"Couldn't sleep. Is he okay?" Yunho asked back, not even reacting to you being without your mask. You nodded, knowing 'he' was Mingi.

"Sit." He gestured for you to take the seat on the bench next to him. He had a glass with ice and soju in front of him.

"Can I pour you a drink?" Yunho held the soju bottle up. You usually wouldn't drink but you felt like you needed one so you held the spare glass up for him to fill.

"Cheers." You and him clinked your shot glass with his taller glass before downing the bitter alcohol. He reached over to fill your shot glass again. The two of you just sat there in silence until Yunho let out a long, deep sigh.

"You know, I'm glad Mingi has you now too. To be there for him." Yunho said, sipping his soju.

"Mingi doesn't express himself well. I know what he's thinking and feeling because I've known him for so long. But he always finds it hard to connect with people." He continued.

"You're a good friend, Yuyu. No... you're a good brother." You corrected yourself, drinking your shot.

"We rely on each other as best friends but there's always more I want to do for him. I just never know how." Yunho said.

"I don't think you need to do more or feel like you need to do more. I'm sure Mingi is grateful just for you being there with him. He got this far thanks to you. You brought him out of his shell."

"Thanks for saying that..." Yunho smiled softly.

"You shoulder a lot on your own. It must be tiring." You turned to him. You know that Yunho always maintains a happy smile and positivity around his members. He never really lets himself get angry with anyone. He's always attentive to how the members are feeling and knows how to care for them.

"I hate seeing him like that, knowing I can't get rid of the darkness." Yunho confessed, taking another sip of alcohol. You hugged Yunho to comfort him.

"They all mean the world to me." He pressed his eyes into your shoulder.

With moments like this, you really see the vulnerability that each member had. The self that they hide behind their guarded walls. They all had their own share of darkness that they hide from each other.

"But now, Mingi has you to rely on too. It's good that he trusts you to open his heart." Yunho said.

"Yuyu..." You were feeling conflicted.

"I'm not saying it just to put pressure on you. Call me selfish and self centered but knowing he has another person to share his feelings with takes a weight off my shoulders. I want him to be able to lean on other people too." Yunho lifted his head to meet your eyes. You shook your head, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"You're not selfish or self centered. You're far from." You denied. Yunho was too precious and compassionate to be selfish or self centered. You couldn't even fathom someone seeing him as such.

Yunho didn't say anything else, lifting his glass to finish the remaining contents. You did the same, downing whatever was in your glass.

"You must have been scared when you heard that Mingi was missing." Yunho spoke.

"I was... He was fine when we spoke on the phone so when Hongjoong called. I thought something happened to him." You felt the wave of emotions again as you remembered.

"I know..." Yunho hugged you this time, holding you. You clenched the material of your pants, willing yourself not to cry again.

"That feeling... I've never experienced anything like it before. It wasn't just fear and worry... I didn't know how to react, I didn't know what was going on. I didn't even think that it was his anxiety." You choked, swallowing your sob.

"Shh... Don't remember it." He whispered.

"All I thought was, did someone hurt him? Was he hurt somewhere? Where was he?" You cried, letting the overwhelming emotions take over.

Yunho continued to hold you tightly yet gently to comfort you. He was worried that you would give yourself a panic attack, remembering and recounting the events of the day.

"It's okay. He's okay." Yunho assuringly repeated, rubbing your back as he hushed you.

"Sorry. I wasn't going to cry again." You wiped the few strays tears that managed to spill with your fingers.

"No, it's okay." Yunho took a tissue to gently wipe your eyes.

"When Mingi starts getting in his head, he can spiral quite quickly. His anxiety attacks hit hard." Yunho explained with grim expression.

From the way he spoke, you knew that Yunho must have been there and seen through many of Mingi's panic attacks and anxiety episodes. You can't even begin to imagine what that must be like, to see your best friend, a brother, go through that. And not be able to do anything about it.

"When it started happening, we were all scared. There was a point where he couldn't even step onto the stage. And we thought that was it, his career as an idol was over." Yunho gulped.

"But he got better with the support from all of you." You said.

You and Yunho shared that moment, only going to bed before the sun rose. You climbed into bed with Haneul, careful not to wake Seonghwa.

"Bunny shape!" Haneul's loud giggling was what woke you. You sat up, looking to see Seonghwa's bed empty and Haneul gone.

"Haneul?" You scratched your head, coming out.

"Indigo!" Yeosang's eyes widened when he saw you, dropping the television remote in his hand. He immediately held his hand ups in front of your face. You blinked, stepping back at him suddenly pushing you back into the room.

"Y-Yeosang! What's wrong?"

"Go, go." He walked you back into Seonghwa and Hongjoong's room, ignoring your protests and questions.

"Indigo! You're not wearing your mask! Did you forget that you're not at home? Stay here, I'll get you one." Yeosang asked, brows creasing together in worry.

"Yeosang, it's okay." You held onto his arm as you laughed, realising what he was panicking about.

"It's fine. Thank you." You smiled softly. Seeing you actually smile for the first time at him made Yeosang smile too.

It made you melt. It showed how the boys actually respected and cared about your preferences and privacy. But you trust them, they know about Haneul so what's wrong with knowing your face?

"Good morning." You stepped out to the kitchen. All the boys in the kitchen froze, eyes widening.

"Unnie!" Haneul was the only one that greeted you brightly.

"We're making pancakes. I helped!" She grinned from her spot on the stool next to Seonghwa and Wooyoung. Wooyoung continued flipping the pancakes, not phased by the shock like the others. You walked over to give Haneul a hug, leaning over to pat her butt lovingly while she giggled.

"You smell like old soju." Wooyoung crinkled his nose, making you punch his arm. You went to wash up and brush your teeth. Since you didn't have a comb, you just used your fingers.

"Why are you not shocked, Jung Wooyoung?" Seonghwa jabbed the younger's side.

"You've seen her without her mask before?" San asked.

"Yeah. When I first went to pick Haneul up and she told me everything." Wooyoung shrugged. That was when Jongho noticed how unphased Yunho was as well.

"Yunho hyung, you know too?" The maknae asked the taller male. Yunho nodded slowly.

"I saw last night." He informed, not giving anything else away or what you guys talked about. He turned back to the bacon that he was cooking in his own pan. Mingi was the last to enter the kitchen, yawning tiredly and leaning on his best friend.

"What's everyone talking about?" Mingi asked as he noticed how everyone was acting weird.

"You'll see..." Hongjoong sipped his juice. He took a yoghurt out and offered one to Haneul to eat. Mingi frowned, tilting his head in confusion at the captain's words.

"Oh, Mings. You're awake." You came to the kitchen.

"Mhmm..." Mingi nodded.

"Wait! You know too?!" Yunho turned to look at his best friend with a betrayed look on his face.

"Know what?"

"You know what Indigo looks like without her mask." Yunho further explained. Mingi looked at you then back at Yunho before nodding his head in confirmation.

"He was the first to know. He knew before me." Wooyoung revealed. You knew he was referring to the incident at song camp where you let it slip that Mingi has seen you without your mask. You sighed, going to Haneul, who was still entranced by the pancakes Seonghwa was flipping. She held her yoghurt tube out to you.

"Thanks, baby. But I'm good. Go ahead and enjoy it." You smiled as you wiped the yoghurt off her lips.

"Actually, Mingi knew from Day 1. Like the day I entered KQ, he knew what I looked like under my mask when he entered my studio, thinking I was Hongjoong." You chuckled.

"Yah! Mingi ah, how could you just intrude?" The scolding voices started as all 7 heads whipped to Mingi, who held his hands up.

"It was an accident! You said you forgave me!" Mingi whined in a yell.

"Oppas are silly." Haneul giggled. You laughed, nodding in agreement. After the pancakes, Seonghwa made a big batch of scrambled eggs for everyone.

"This one is mine. Seonghwa oppa tried to make it a bunny." Haneul pointed at the plate while she giggled. It didn't really look like a bunny but you knew Haneul was being nice and she appreciated the effort Seonghwa put into it.

"Seonghwa omma." Wooyoung corrected, making Seonghwa kick him.

"Yah, no violence in front of the kid. Indigo won't like that Haneul thinks it's okay to go around hitting people." Wooyoung deflected the oldest's kick.

"Judging by how Indigo punched you earlier, I think she's fine." Yeosang chuckled. You shrugged but nodded.

"Can I have another yoghurt too, unnie?" Haneul turned to you, pointing at Hongjoong who was taking another yoghurt tube from the fridge.

"But we're going to eat pancakes and other breakfast foods soon. If you're still hungry after, you can have another yoghurt." You said, glaring at Hongjoong. He pouted, slowly putting the yoghurt back.

"Have to set a good example, hyung." Jongho teased. Hongjoong grabbed Jongho by the collar.

"Haneul, this is Mingi oppa." You carried her onto your lap for her to meet Mingi, realising she met everyone except Mingi yesterday. Mingi gave a tiny wave. Haneul tilted her head, frowning slightly as she focused on Mingi. Mingi grew awkward under the 4 year old's analytical stare.

"Hakuna matata!" Haneul suddenly yelled, pointing at Mingi. Now it was time for you to be the confused one. Mingi nodded but looked up at you, also not understanding what was going on.

"Ah! Because she watched 'Wave'." Wooyoung snapped his fingers.

"Oh yeah... You remember him from the video, baby?" You asked. Haneul nodded her head excitedly.

"So smart." Mingi smiled, ruffling her hair. Haneul was immediately distracted by the accessories on Mingi's hands. She toyed with the rings and bracelets.

"Time for breakfast. Everyone in your sit." Hongjoong and Seonghwa said. Everyone helped to bring the plates and food to the table.

"Come, Haneul. You can sit with me." Jongho said. She ran over excitedly and he lifted Haneul onto his lap to sit. You were surprise at how close Jongho was with Haneul, unaware he was a fan of kids.

"Where's my bunny pancake?" Haneul looked around.

"There you go." Seonghwa handed her the plate.

"Thank you for the food." She chimed, making everyone praise her. Haneul was fine without you. You saw Jongho cutting the pancake up for her to eat. San gave her some eggs and fruit too, making sure she wasn't just pancakes drowned in syrup.

You smiled seeing her with the boys. It was like your two worlds meeting and getting along, telling you that everything was going to be fine.

~

Series Masterlist

[loominggaia]

Most embarrassing reason FGG goes to hospital

God, just imagine the crap Dr. Che puts up with from these idiots... Whenever he sees a Freelance Good Guy sitting in his lobby, you know he's bracing himself for some wild shit.

Evan: Ate something he shouldn't have in his werewolf form. Or shoved something up his ass he shouldn't have in his human form. Either way, there's an entire butternut squash stuck in his colon. Dr. Che doesn't care how it happened, he just knows it must be removed...

Lukas: Suicide attempt, which is quite bleak but I'm including it anyway, because he was very ashamed of himself afterwards.

Glenvar: Somehow got a hook pierced through his ear while fishing. Also got drunk and tried to do a backflip off his roof. Almost died of alcohol poisoning several times. Let a UTI escalate into sepsis. Starts fights with his crewmen and gets his ass kicked all the time. Self-injures when he's upset and sometimes goes a little too far...Honestly just take your pick, because he's a frequent flyer to the clinic.

Alaine: Keeps banging random dudes without a condom because "they'll pay more!", and gets weird infections because of it. Her vagina contains bacteria species unknown to modern science. Has also concussed herself by getting drunk and falling off tables, like, way more times than you'd believe. Has overdosed on various party-drugs a few times.

Jeimos: Shows up at the clinic at least once a month because they think they're having a heart attack. It's always an anxiety attack, but they figure it's better to be safe than sorry. Dr. Che just sends them home with some chill pills and they feel very silly afterwards.

Isaac: Evan told him not to eat laying down, but Isaac ignored him and then almost choked to death on a partinut. Got scraped up and burned in an anthousai attack after letting a nymph seduce him into its lair. Nearly lost his big toe when Shadow stepped on it with her talon. Dr. Che has removed countless objects from Isaac's nose over the years: marbles, rocks, acorns, pencils...you name it, this kid has put it in his nostril at least once.

Linde: Got pregnant after a one-night-stand with a guy in college, rushed to a clinic to abort the baby out of shame. Accidentally fell asleep outside once and got a fierce sunburn, which hospitalized her due to her albinism. She looked like a lobster for weeks afterwards.

Balthazaar: Got really sick after he drank ancient wine he found in a dusty old tomb.

Skel: He's so afraid of germs that he refuses to set foot in a clinic unless he's literally dying. He once thought he was dying when he had a kidney stone. He dragged himself to Dr. Che's house on his hands and knees in the middle of a rainy night, crying like a baby. Not his proudest moment.

Javaan: Got his wiener stuck in a tree stump. Or a piece of furniture. Or a person. It's different every time, but Dr. Che knows it's gonna be a long damn day whenever a mercenary bursts into his clinic and yells, "Hey doc, Javaan did the thing again!"

Elska: Elska doesn't go to the hospital. She sends bitches to the hospital.

Mr. Ocean: Regularly gets fishing hooks stuck in his lip. Guess how.

Zeffer: The most embarrassing reason he was in the clinic wasn't due to any illness, but the fact that he was stealing blood donations from it. Hey, a vampire's gotta drink!

Meanwhile, Dr. Che:

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost