#fun fact I drew all that with a pen I found on a school floor

[bread-is-my-life]

Hey *crashes out*

[thereisnochillinsideme]

The rain, Akaashi Keiji part two

I'm sorry it's been such a long time I've just had some stuff going on but here it is, part two. I also think @bakudummy asked to be tagged, if you didn't ask me to I'm sorry please tell me I'll take it off anyway enjoy! Akaashi was currently locked in a debate between himself and himself. While one side was telling him that it would be fine if he visited [Name] and Takahashi in normal clothing while the other was telling him that they weren’t close enough and that he was required to wear a three-piece suit. The first side then argued back that they might think he’s rude if he showed up for a cup of hot chocolate in formal wear. In the end, he decided that after picking [Name] and her cake off the street and getting her to Takahashi’s apartment, what he wore probably mattered the least to either of them right now and settled on a cotton T-shirt. He made his way out of his apartment and knocked on the door to his right, which was opened by Takahashi. He hadn’t usually seen her like this. She had changed out of the pencil skirt she so usually wore to work and was currently in a sweater and leggings. She also looked surprised to see Akaashi in anything but his work wear. She let him in and went back to the stove, where the milk for the hot chocolate was bubbling on the stove. He saw [Name] spread out on an armchair, now changed out of her wet clothes. She saw him and immediately perked up, changing her position to see him better. He took a seat on the couch across from her. She gave him a smile and immediately began speaking to him.

“Stoneface-san! Feeling better?”

“Yes, much better. How about you?”

She smiled. “I’m doing great! I got my cake, I got to meet you, I got to see Yo-chan, and now she’s making me hot chocolate!”

Akaashi smiled at the childlike elation she had at the situation she was in. She was an optimist to the bone.

He was a bit jealous of her, though he didn’t realize it. He was jealous of people like her. They didn’t have a care in the world, complete confidence in themselves. And people like him or Takahashi were following them around making sure nothing happened to them because, jaded and anxious as they were, they didn’t want that optimism to fade. It gave them strength too. It reminded him of the former captain of his high school volleyball team. Bokuto-san’s confidence was a force to be reckoned with and now there he was, playing professionally on a world stage.

Takahashi walked over with two mugs of hot chocolate, setting them on the coffee table that separated him and [Name]. [Name]’s smile grew wider upon seeing the drink and she happily picked it up and immediately took a big sip.

Immediately she started coughing.

“Ah barned mah tahnge.” She said, with her tongue hanging out.

Takahashi and Akaashi started laughing in unison as [Name] also began laughing with her tongue still hanging out.

“Why are you laughing? You burned your tongue?” Akaashi asked through chuckles.

“It is funny,” [Name] said through sips of cold water to soothe her tongue.

Time was spent happily drinking hot chocolate while [Name] told them jokes and stories.

Putting down his mug, Akaashi looked at [Name].

“[Name]-san, I’ve been meaning to ask your full name, as I didn’t get it when I met you.”

[Name] smiled. “[Last Name] [Name]”

Akaashi did a double take. “I’ve been calling you by your first name this whole time? That’s incredibly disrespectful as we don’t know each other well”

“It’s fine, Stoneface-san. I’ve never liked using my surname as it puts a formality barrier between me and who I’m talking to. Please use my first name.”

Akaashi nodded in acceptance. “So [Name], what do you do for work?”

She winked. “If I told you it would be no fun. It’s your job to guess. Your hint is that I’m in the creative field.” After many consecutive wrong guesses, [Name] changed the subject and started telling them what had happened to her at the train station that morning. As they laughed, Akaashi began to realize how much fun he was having.

It had been a long time since he had done anything like this. He maintained a strictly professional relationship with his coworkers and Bokuto-san was not free most of the time with having gone professional. He would come by and have a drink with Akaashi ever so often, but Bokuto-san usually found himself leaving early to spend more time with Shoyo. Akaashi didn’t mind that he was branching out and he knew that their adult life was definitely going to impact their friendship. However, it was not after he lost them that he realized just how much he cherished the carefree days on the volleyball team, how he would chase Bokuto-san around with an umbrella to stop him from getting wet in the rain.

It was probably why he spent so many late nights at work, trying to quiet his mind by occupying it. His high school friends were all busy with their own lives, he felt he should be as well.

“Stoneface-san?” He heard

He snapped out of his daze and saw [Name] staring at him, slightly concerned.

“Are you okay? Your stare was really blank and you didn’t laugh when I told you about when I threw a squid tentacle at the guy who came to collect my taxes.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I’m just feeling a bit tired. I also have some work due tomorrow, so do you mind if I take my leave?”

Takahashi looked at him, obviously concerned, but trying to hide it. “Yes of course, I’ll show you to the door.”

She walked him over to the door of the apartment and opened it, letting him go through.

“Thank you for looking after [Name] today, I’m sorry if she was a bit of an inconvenience. It was nice to have you both over, we should do it again sometime.”

Akaashi nodded, thanked her, and went inside his own apartment.

He didn’t mean to leave so abruptly, but he wasn’t lying, he did have work.

He made his way to the small desk by the window of his apartment and sat down, picking up the large, stapled sheet of paper by his window.

Today, his work was a bit more enjoyable than usual. He was editing one of his more favorite comics that was published in his magazine. Asuma no Sekai was a comic set in a demon world, with the main character being an incredibly lazy demon who preferred eating cake to doing her job. The crazy schemes she pulled to get out of doing her job were sometimes more work than doing the actual job and always made the reader laugh. Editing it was a more favorable part of Akaashi’s week and it never failed to lift his mood. The author was Sakurai Daisuke. He had never met the author in person as he usually sent someone else to pick up his manuscript, but he looked forward to meeting someone who was such a good mangaka.

After spending a couple hours reading, laughing, and editing the work, Akaashi went to bed as he had work the next morning.

[Name] had left on the first train that morning and though Akaashi was slightly mournful that he didn’t get to say goodbye, he continued on with his day like normal.

As the week went by, [Name] occupied Akaashi’s thoughts slightly more than a normal person would. He would pass by the cake shops in his area and wonder if she would enjoy the one in the display window. He was confused by why he was thinking about her so often, but chalked it up to the fact that there were a lot of cake shops in his area.

Later that week, on an afternoon while he was home, Akaashi got a call from his employee, Okomoto Chiyo. She sounded extremely distressed.

“Akaashi-san! I’m so so sorry to bother you!”

“It’s okay, what do you need?”

“My wife is sick and I’m home taking care of her. I was supposed to pick up Sakurai-san’s manuscript today, but Nanako’s been throwing up all day and I can’t afford to leave her now. Do you mind picking it up?”

Akaashi was slightly annoyed, as he had just gotten home. However, he knew that he couldn’t possibly ask his employee to leave her sick wife.

“It’s completely okay. May I have Sakurai-san’s address? At least I can finally meet him.”

“It’s xxx-xxx on the other side of the city. The train will be able to get you there really fast. Sakurai-san should have completed her manuscript by now.”

“Her?” Akaashi was confused

“Sakurai Daisuke is a pen-name. The author is female. She picked a male name to sound more ambiguous.”

“Oh, that comes as a bit of a surprise.”

“Thank you so much for doing this, Akaashi-san! I am forever grateful to you.”

“It’s no problem.”

Akaashi looked out his window and toward the train station which was a couple blocks away. It was raining.

As he turned, his eyes fell on a now-dry neon yellow umbrella. He must have forgotten to give it back to [Name].

He picked up the umbrella, put on a long brown coat, and ran out his apartment door.

He was able to make it onto the train last minute, sitting on the seat in relief. As the train moved along, he thought about what the author might be like.

Thinking about it now, it was fairly obvious that this author wasn’t like most of the male authors Akaashi’s company had published.

There was barely any fan service in the series and the author made sure to write her female characters just as realistic and flawed as her male characters. Most of the male authors drew one woman with an unrealistic body and made her show up every now and then to rip her clothes off and leave. Sakurai-san’s female characters had personalities and all different body shapes, some bigger or smaller, darker or lighter, more like the women he would see in the real world.

The train announced his stop and he walked out, looking at the paper where he jotted down the address.

He navigated his way through the twists and turns until he finally got to the apartment building.

He entered and went to the specified floor and found the correct door.

As he raised his hand to knock, Akaashi suddenly felt a bit nervous to meet this author who he borderline idolized, especially when he found out he was wrong about her gender the whole time.

Nevertheless, his hand tapped lightly on the door twice and he heard footsteps rush to open it.

What he saw behind the door was definitely not what he expected.

[Name] was peeking out, wearing a large animal onesie, holding a plate of cake with a plastic fork.

“Stoneface-san?"

[gravelyhumerus]

Criminal Minds College AU - Chapter 6

Title: “I may just take your breath away”

Relationship: Jemily

Summary:

The team takes on trivia. Emily strips in front of JJ. It's quite an evening for all.

Slow-burn Jemily college AU where they live across the hall and despite all odds, the universe pushes them together. AKA they’re silly gay babies who pine after each other for months.

Read it on AO3

Tumblr:  One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, (bonus scene), Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty, Epilogue

“Come on, Jayje,” Penelope whined. “It’ll be good for you to go out.” 

“I’m sick,” JJ said, fake coughing. “And I need to get a head start on my project for my new media course. It’s worth forty percent.”

“Bullshit.” Penelope said, “I know for a fact that that isn’t due for two weeks. Tonight is NOT the make or break point in that assignment for you.” 

JJ sighed. 

“You need to get out. See the world. Do more than just play soccer, work out and do homework. You’ve been hiding since your break up. It’s not healthy.”

She had told herself she would stop avoiding Emily after she had figured out what her feelings were. Despite JJ’s realization that it was a genuine crush, that JJ truly liked Emily, JJ needed to also be sure that she wasn’t simply rebounding onto someone nearby. 

Someone pretty and smart and kind and who lived right across the hall.

“It’s trivia night JJ,” Penelope said, “and we have Spencer on our team it’ll be fun.” 

JJ sighed, looked up from where she lay on her bed. 

“Fine.”

“Make yourself pretty, you know who will be there,” Penelope replied, turning back to her make-up mirror to finish applying her purple lipstick. 

“Yeah thanks for that,” JJ said sarcastically, “I saw what you did there.”

“Who, me?” she feigned innocence. 

JJ changed from a plain t-shirt to a tighter, low cut long sleeved blue shirt. She then took her hair out of a ponytail, brushing it out before tucking it carefully behind her ears. On principle, she huffed the entire time, so that Penelope would know that she wasn’t happy about the situation, despite the butterflies in her stomach at the idea of seeing Emily again. 

She took care to apply some eyeshadow, some blush and a pink lip gloss that tastes like strawberries. There was something intimidating about Emily. She looked so… put together. With Will, he never really noticed, or cared, if she wore makeup, but Emily definitely would. 

God. This was stressful. Is this what liking girls was like? If it was, JJ was not sure she was cut out for it. 

At least she was going to be on home territory, as trivia was their thing, something that Penelope and JJ had been doing since their floor was forced into going back in first year.  

JJ was working hard at learning to relax a bit. Between maintaining her grades, soccer, and her new job editing press releases for the student government, she was already being pulled in multiple directions. A night out would be fun, she reminded herself. 

She tried to quell her nerves at going out with Emily. It wasn’t a date or anything. Just friends hanging out. JJ’s friends and Emily’s friends. Penelope’s meddling was further tying her to the girl across the hall by blending their friend groups. 

While half of her mind wanted this to happen, wanted to see Emily all the time and have an excuse to see her, smell her, hear her laugh…. JJ frowned as she realized that her crush complicated everything. Emily was already across the hall, and if she admitted her feelings, and they weren’t reciprocated, she would run into her all the time. Now, with Derek Morgan befriending Penelope and Spencer, and all of them going out together, JJ’s silly crush could send ripples across more than just her own life. 

JJ ran her hands through her hair, worrying about the possible ways she could fuck this up. She did not entertain the possibility that Emily could possibly like her back. First of all, she had no idea if she was straight or not. JJ didn’t even know how to tell. 

JJ glanced over to Penelope, who was finishing up her makeup sitting at her desk, looking into a small mirror on the desk. JJ knew Penelope was queer, as her roommate was not shy about it whatsoever. In her mug full of pens was a pride flag from last year’s pride parade. It was in June, so JJ had been back in Pennsylvania then, but she remembered seeing the joy on Penelope’s face in the photos she posted on Instagram. Penelope wasn’t the person she knew that identified as queer. In fact, Spence had recently told them that he was bi. It wasn’t like JJ was not aware of the community, she thought she was just supporting LGBT+ issues on principal, and for her friends. 

She hadn’t considered that when, in her politics class in high school, she was viciously debating on gay marriage for someone like herself. The topics always felt distant. Like something that affected someone else. She was so certain in her heterosexuality that she had joked about it to Penelope earlier in their friendship. 

The token straight friend, she had said. So much for that. 

“Pen,” JJ said, trying to force a neutral tone to her voice, and failing. “How did you know you weren’t straight?”

Penelope turned and simply stared at her for a long moment before giggling and saying: “Are you finally realizing you have a crush on Emily Prentiss?” 

JJ sat up in her chair. 

“What?” 

“Aw darlin’,” Penelope said to her, tilting her head, ”You barely talked about your break up. You were too busy literally running from your feelings for her ever since you ran into her at the library. I had to finally ask her out for you.”

“I–” JJ stuttered. “I talked about my break up.”

“So to answer your question,” Penelope said, matter-of-factly, “I realized when I had my first crush on a girl, just like you’re doing now. Don’t worry about it too much, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”

JJ’s jaw had dropped. 

“Babe, you came home one night babbling about how she taught you French,” Penelope giggled, “You might as well have held up a sign.”

JJ buried her face in her hands. 

“Oh god,” JJ said. “Am I gay? What am I?”

Penelope walked over and tossed her arm around JJ’s shoulders, pulling her into a hug. 

“Aww baby’s first girl crush,” she cooed, “So happy to witness it first hand. You might be gay! Or bi, or something else. Don’t worry too much about the terminology right now.”

Unfortunately, JJ was worrying too much. About not just the terminology. 

Even if Emily was gay, or bi or whatever, she wouldn’t like someone like JJ. She was always a bit of a tomboy, barely knowing how to do make up and dressing like she was going to practise most days. JJ always felt a bit awkward when she dressed up, feeling most at home in joggers and a hoodie. 

Emily, on the other hand, was all elegant with her pretty black hair, her perfect eyeliner and the way she always looked out together when she went out. Moreover, Emily was cool. She listened to music on vinyl and her bookshelf was filled with classic novels and smoked cigarettes. She lived in multiple countries, spoke more languages than JJ hoped to ever learn.

Emily’s mom was an ambassador. She had a nanny growing up. She had a single room and was paying out-of-state tuition. Well, her mom was probably paying her tuition. 

JJ could only afford to be here because she was on a soccer scholarship, and barely had enough money to cover her caffeine addiction. The surprise small stipend from her new student government job was probably the thing keeping JJ from applying for a job off campus. 

Emily would never like someone like JJ, she thought. 

After checking herself in the mirror one final time, she looked at the time. 6:54. Emily and her friends would be there soon, and if JJ knew Spencer well, he would be showing up in just under a minute. 

There was a knock at the door. She was right. 

“Hi guys!” He said, entering their dorm room and taking his customary seat on the very edge of JJ’s bed. “Am I dressed properly? I wasn’t sure what to wear to a bar.”

He was wearing a button up, with a beige sweater vest over top, with slacks and converse to complete the outfit. 

“Aw Spence,” JJ said. “You look great, I promise.”

“Remind me to take you to the mall to get some party clothes,” Penelope quipped. 

“Those were two contradicting statements,” he complained. 

Once Penelope had finished adding rhinestones to her makeup look, they opened the door to find Emily flanked by two boys, waiting in the hall. 

Derek Morgan, JJ recognized, but the other one JJ hadn’t met before. 

“Hello all!” Penelope called out from inside their room. 

“Hi Derek, Emily,” JJ said politely, “I’m not sure we’ve met–“

She reached her hand out to shake the new boy’s hand. He was tall, with a shock of black hair and a serious expression on his face. 

“I’m Jennifer, but my friends call me JJ.”

“Nice to meet you,” the boy said with a small—almost non-existent—smile, shaking her hand with a firm, confident grip. “I’m Aaron Hotchner.”

“His friends call him Hotch,” Derek piped up punching his shoulder in a friendly way. 

“He’s pre-law,” Emily informed her, “we have a bunch of classes together.”

“I do not have that much experience with trivia,” Aaron admits, rubbing his shoulder and feigning injury. 

“No need!” Penelope says, rounding up on the group, “Spencer here is basically a genius. You’re just a warm body.”

“I just have an eidetic memory!” He said, piping up from in the room. 

With introductions complete, they headed to the small pub just off campus. It was a squat brick building tucked between a restaurant and an old book store. It had a nice back patio in the warmer months, and each Monday was trivia night. 

Just inside, the bouncer drew big xs on their hands to indicate that they were underage, which were all promptly wiped off once they were inside and found a table. The atmosphere inside was relaxed, the staff not really caring if people were drinking underage on a Monday night if they didn’t cause trouble.

JJ loved this bar. It was old, with exposed brick walls and large wooden rafters over their heads. The ceilings were low and the bar was packed and loud, making the place feel cozy, yet not quite claustrophobic. On weekdays, it was mostly locals or upper year students, as their peers were more likely to try to drink underage on the weekends. The crowd was quite a few younger adults, with the occasional older couple or group of middle aged women having a girls night. 

They found a table big enough for their group by just to the right of the bar, tucked out of sight, far from the bouncers. The six of them squeezing tight onto the rustic booth and shrugging off their coats.  

Trivia started at 7:30 pm, so they still had time to get settled and acquire some drinks. JJ was squished between Penelope and Emily’s friend Aaron, who was explaining that he played forward on the men’s hockey team. JJ knew he seemed familiar, realizing that she and he had probably crossed paths at athletics functions. 

“Did you guys rub the marker off your hand?” Spencer asked, too loudly, receiving a chorus of shushing in response.

“Dude,” Derek laughed, “Not so loud you’re gonna get us kicked out!”

“What do you mean?” He asked, the classic Reid obliviousness shining through. 

Emily tossed a casual arm around his shoulders. 

“You see,” she said, “we would like to drink this thing called alcohol tonight. If we have an x on our hands, we don’t get served.”

She pointed to the x on his hand. 

“Speaking of which,” Aaron said, standing up, “I’m grabbing a beer, who’s with me?” 

“Me!” Emily jumped up, with Derek on her heels, “What are you guys drinking? This rounds on me!”

JJ balked, drinks here were expensive. Did Emily actually want to buy them drinks? Or was she simply being nice. JJ should say no. 

“Vodka cran, por favour!” Penelope responded before JJ could politely decline. “JJ drinks beer, and Reid will take a soda.”

“What kind of beer?”

“Whatever’s on tap,” JJ said sheepishly, feeling guilty about someone spending money on her. At the same time, with JJ’s baby face, there was little chance the bartender would buy that she was already 21.

“Root beer please!” Spencer called out after her, though Emily had already turned around, following the boys over to lean against the bar. 

The bartender, a gorgeous young woman with shoulder length brown hair was serving Emily, leaning over the bar. Her eyes were rapt with attention as Emily ordered, even giving her a once over before she left to make their drinks. 

Emily seemed to flirt back, but JJ could not hear what she said, the two women going back and forth for a few moments, their attention hardly broken by the other patrons. 

JJ felt jealousy flare in her stomach. 

As Emily’s fingers grasped the glass, the other girl’s hands lingered, and JJ watched the bartender wink at Emily before turning towards the other patrons. Emily had a cropped tank top, with a plaid shirt on top. Her tight jeans gripped her long legs, and her heeled boots gave an extra inch or so to her already impressive height. She looked hot. The bartender clearly saw it too.

She tried to push back that jealousy. She had no right to be possessive, Emily and she weren’t dating, or anything, they were friends. New friends.   

“Your girlfriend is so good to us!” Penelope cooed, breaking JJ out of her thoughts. 

JJ felt a blush spread across her face. 

“She’s not my girlfriend,” she sputtered. 

“Have you told her you like her yet?” Spencer asked. 

“Guys,” JJ exclaimed, “this is not the time. She’s right there.”

“She has not,” Penelope replied. “Even though it’s so obvious that Emily likes her back.”

“Pen!” JJ said as she buried her face in her hands. 

“Spencer you wouldn’t believe it!” she continued, unheeded, “Emily brought her cookies to the game!”

“She was just being nice!” JJ said, peeking out from between her fingers. 

“She didn’t give me any cookies,” Spencer pointed out. “And we spent almost three hours in class together.”

As he said that, Derek, Aaron and Emily returned with not only alcohol, but also nachos and fries for the table. JJ, too polite to protest when being offered food, and who had the appetite of an athlete, dug in. She took a guilty sip of her beer, and felt Emily’s eyes on her. 

Did Emily like her back? That couldn’t be true. JJ was just… Jennifer. JJ. No one special. Not like Emily. JJ decided not to linger on that thought, it wasn’t like JJ would risk their friendship by admitting she had feelings anyways. 

“You know,” Spencer said between mouthfuls, “I’ve never done trivia before, but I’ve been told I’d be good at it.

“No shit, kid,” Derek replied, talking through a mouthful of nachos, “You talk like a textbook.”

Spencer looked like he was unsure whether or not to take that as a compliment. 

“What are the topics?” Emily asked. 

“They don’t tell you until you get here,” Penelope replied, “Someone should be by with papers and pencils. 

As if summoned, a tall girl with short black hair came by, dropping off a pencil and a paper, split into four quadrants with ten blanks on each page. 

“Who wants to write?” JJ asked, looking around the table. 

Hotch was busy scanning the page for the topics: science, television, sports and music, and he didn’t realize the activity going on around him. Everyone, including Reid somehow, (Derek helped him) had stuck their finger to the tip of their nose, the official sign for ‘not it.’

He looked up, seeing the fingers and without comment he grabed the pencil.

“It’s for the best,” Emily said, “My handwriting is illegible.”

“Can vouch for that,” Derek laughed, “It’s like half cursive half something inhuman.”

Emily punched his shoulder and took another drink. 

“So how does this normally work?” Hotch asked, gesturing towards her paper with the pencil.

“Question, two minutes to write down your answer, no phones,” Penelope replied, “Then we swap with a nearby team to mark it! And so on for four rounds.”

“There’s prizes,” JJ added. “Whoever gets the most right in the end wins, we hand in the sheets to the MC to enter.”

“Sweet,” Derek said. 

“We need a name,” JJ said, looking up. 

“The twinkies,” Emily blurted. 

“The… twinkies?” Hotch repeated, incredulously. 

“I don’t know,” Emily muttered, “I panicked.”

The group burst into laughter, which Emily laughed along with. She was a good sport. 

“Let’s get Quizzical,” Penelope offered. 

“I don’t get it,” Spencer said. 

“Quiz me, daddy,” Penelope tried again, winking at Derek. 

“Settle down now, little lady,” Derek said, laughing. 

“We’re not doing that,” JJ laughed. 

She wasn’t sure who looked more horrified at the idea, Spencer or Hotch. 

“Counter intelligence,” Derek proposed instead, it has a nice ring to it and works with the trivia premise. 

“That’s funny,” Penelope said. “And seems ok for the prudish ones amongst us.”

Hotch wrote that down on their page. 

“Hello everyone,” the MC said through a microphone as the music quieted, a hush fell over the bar, with everyone listening to the women speak. “My name is Tara and I’ll be your MC tonight.”

Tara was beautiful, with curled hair tucked behind her ears and a friendly smile, she was tall, wearing high heels making her stand tall over the seated audience. JJ thought she might be a student, as she looked a bit familiar. 

“Hi Tara!” Someone yelled out from the other side of the bar. 

Tara chucked, “Hello Dave. Welcome all to Trivia Night at O’Keefe’s, we have brand-new questions and prizes for you. Are you excited?”

The audience whooped, Hotch pulled the paper close to him and readied his writing hand, taking a quick swig of his beer to prepare himself. 

“We’re going to start off with some science questions,” the MC said.

The group looked expectantly at Spencer, who looked slightly nervous. 

“First question,” Tara announced, “We’ll start by looking outside of our planet, at the others in our solar system. Scientists have long been able to calculate the masses of most planets, including Earth. It has taken longer to measure the masses of Venus and Mercury, primarily because these two planets lack what?”

“Moons, obviously,” Spencer said, too loudly. Other groups clearly overheard, writing the answer down on their cards.

“Reid,” Penelope scolded, “You’re on our team. Whisper please.”

“Sorry,” he murmured, taking a sip of his soda through a small straw. 

“Question two: of what material is a rhinoceros horn made?”

“Bone?” Derek whispered to them, “They look boney.”

“That’s actually a common misconception,” Reid replied, “They’re actually composed of keratin, which is essentially hair.”

“Huh,” Derek tilted his beer in acknowledgement. Hotch wrote that down. 

“How many hearts do octopuses have?”

“Three!” Emily hisses, before Spencer has the chance.

“Nice one,” Hotch murmured back to her.

“I like cephalopods,” Emily said, as explanation. 

JJ desperately wanted to comment on that, but the game moved too quickly. 

The next few questions were rapid fire, covering everything from the speed of a sneeze, to the surface area of the lungs, to the oxygen in the atmosphere, to which letters from the alphabet were missing from the periodic table (the answer was J and Q.)

JJ perked up when she heard the last question: “What are people who study or collect butterflies called?”

“Lepidopterists!” She said, triumphantly before the MC even listed the options.

Everyone looked at her, surprised about her beating even Reid to the punch.

“I- uh,” JJ stammered, “I collected butterflies as a kid.”

JJ caught Emily smiling at that. She looked away, embarrassed. 

Next was music, which, between Hotch and his impressive understanding of dad rock and Penelope’s encyclopedic knowledge of current pop music, and Derek’s well-rounded passion for all genres, they did fine. Reid pouted, as his eidetic memory doesn’t quite work for things he hasn’t read. 

JJ, unfortunately, was not any help. JJ liked music, but she did not bother memorizing facts about writers or sampling or anything like that. She just liked listening to it. 

After that was sports, and that topic went by quickly with JJ, Derek and Hotch answering the questions with a high degree of confidence. 

Hotch, who was already writing aggressively and getting into it, wrote more and more excitedly, and on the second to last sports question—about the composition of a baseball—he snapped the lead off the pencil right off. 

This caused sheer chaos. 

With no writing utensil, one more answer to write down, they scrambled. JJ shrugged helplessly, typically known as the mom friend in her group, she felt bad that she had nothing to offer. After a moment, Penelope discovered a fluffy pink gel pen she found at the bottom of her purse. 

“Is the ink pink, too?” Hotch asked, raising an eyebrow. 

He tried writing. The ink was pink and sparkly. 

“Yes, sir,” Penelope replied. 

“Did you just call me ‘sir’?”

“I don’t know what came over me.”

During the brief intermission between Sports and Television, somehow the Salem witch trials came up in conversation. (It was actually because Penelope had mentioned the Blair Witch Project and Spencer misheard, but that’s neither here nor there). 

“She was four?” JJ demanded, “That doesn’t seem right.”

“Oh I read about this,” Penelope said, “Dorothy something, she was accused of witchcraft alongside her mother.”

“Dorothy Good, also referred to as Dorcas Good, was only four years old when she was arrested in 1692. According to her accusers, she had allegedly bitten them on their arms. She was actually placed in jail and interrogated by Salem officials where they took the fact that she had a pet snake as proof that she was a witch, as the snake would serve the role of her animal familiar.”

“She was a child,” JJ said, horrified.

“Yup,” Spencer replied, unfazed. JJ frowned but continued writing. 

The last one was television, which was very clearly Penelope’s favourite. 

“Friends ended in May 2004 after how many seasons?”

“Oh I know that one,” Hotch said, “Seven.”

Hotch wrote that down in pink ink, the fuzzy pom-pom danced as he wrote.  

“Amy Poehler, Rob Lowe and Chris Pratt worked together on which US comedy series?”

“Parks and Rec,” Penelope said, “Parks and Recreation, God, I should rewatch that. Such amazing girl-power vibes in that one.”

“What were the names of the two government agents played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in the 1993-2002 series X-Files?”

“Special Agent Fox Mulder and Dr. Dana Scully,” Emily said with a smile. 

“Wait, you too Prentiss?” Derek said. “Nerding out with Reid tonight.”

“Guilty as charged,” Emily said, “What can I say, I’m a sucker for Gillian Anderson.”

JJ’s mind stuck on that comment. Was she simply a fan of the acting? Or was she implying some sort of attraction to the actress. JJ did not ask. Her mind was wandering for too long, all while looking at Emily, that she missed the next question. 

Whatever it was, Hotch was informing her that the answer was ‘72 survivors’. 

Questions about Saturday Night Live, The Office, Scooby-Doo and a few old-timey shows that they didn’t recognize followed. 

“The last question for the night!” Tara announced, “It’s been lovely being your MC for tonight. I hope you all had as much fun as I did. You ready?”

The crowd cheered.

“Ok this one’s for all the nerds out there: what sci-fi series premiered in 1966?”

“Star Trek: The Original Series,” Reid hissed, struggling to keep his voice down. “Which was the beginning of a franchise that has now lasted over fifty years, spanning nine television series, thirteen films and assorted shorts, video games and novels.”

“Ok Mr. Spock,” Emily laughed, “Thank you for your brain.”

“Spock’s Brain is actually one of the best episodes in the Original Series,” he replied, JJ couldn’t tell if he had made a joke or was simply spouting another fact. 

As trivia wrapped up, and the scores were being tallied, the bar roared back to life, with music booming and the attendees milling about near the bar, back at the darts and grouping around the tables.

She found herself chatting with Hotch and Penelope, about some question they were unsure about, but her eyes were fixed on Emily and Derek. Derek had a hand in the small of Emily’s back, guiding her past the crowd near the bar. 

JJ wondered if there was really something more there, despite Penelope’s encouragement of her crush on Emily. Maybe she was already into Derek? He was very affectionate with all of his friends, especially Penelope, so maybe it was nothing. But still, Emily seemed to be reciprocating. 

But the hand didn’t leave, it held her close, almost protectively, something a boyfriend would do. 

JJ turned away, pushing the thoughts away and slamming the last of her third beer, scanning for where Spencer had run off to after the game wrapped up. He was seated with two other people at a table near the back, talking excitedly at them while they looked at him with rapt attention. Out of curiosity, she wandered over.

Maybe she can hang out with Spence as she banished the strange feelings of jealousy burning in her chest.  

“Return to tomorrow?” the girl asked Spencer, leaning over the table in excitement.  

“Return to tomorrow, season two, production number fifty-one,” Reid replied, “An alien named Sargon takes over Kirk’s body while two others take over Spock and Dr. Mulhall.”

JJ frowned, she had no idea what he was talking about, but recognized that it seemed like the plot of an episode of Star Trek.

“Alien races appearing?”

“Trick question, a race is never identified. Sargon is a disembodied mind?”

“Dr. McCoy quote?”

He looked stumped for a moment. 

“Five, four, three, two-”

“I will not peddle flesh, I’m a physician!” He concludes enthusiastically. 

This all appeared to be an extension of his trivia game. JJ was happy that he was making friends, despite him worrying that he wouldn’t fit in at a bar, he seemed to have found his people. 

JJ gave him an affectionate pat on his shoulder before passing, on her way to the dart board. With Reid occupied, Derek and Emily flirting at the bar and Hotch and Penelope hitting it off, JJ decided to show some random boys up.

It would make her feel better.

There was a pair already at the board, tossing the darts fairly inaccurately. JJ asked if she could join, batting her eyelashes in a way she knew would grab their attention quickly. 

They immediately welcomed her in, handing her some darts. She hit the nineteen, twenty and dead centre in quick succession. The rush of the game kept away her earlier feelings of jealousy, centering her in the moment and her goal.

The boys were floored. JJ was good at darts. 

She played three rounds, slamming them each time easily. Amateurs. They were drunk, aggressive with their throwing, all force no finesse. Typical men.

After the third round, they left for the bar, offering to grab her a drink to celebrate her win, she followed close by, knowing better than to leave a drink unattended, but also not passing up the opportunity to drink for free when it was a silly boy paying. 

Maybe she should rebound after her break up and sleep with a random man. She looked at the man in front of her, he was tall, with dark hair and hazel eyes, wearing a tight fitting white shirt. His companion had sandy brown hair and dark eyes, but neither of them were stirring anything in JJ’s heart. Both were objectively attractive, but neither were the beautiful brunette that lived across the hall. 

JJ accepted her drink graciously, knowing she had to fill another few minutes of small talk before it was appropriate for her to rejoin her friends. 

The one boy was telling her about darts, in detail, despite the fact that she had informed him that she did know how to play, and had just beat him at the game. 

“Can I steal JJ from you guys for a sec?” She felt a hand on her bicep and Emily’s sweet voice in her ear.

JJ turned and the taller girl was next to her, her hand resting lightly on her bare arm, feeling electricity where their skin touched. 

“Uh, yeah,” the brown haired boy said, JJ didn’t remember his name, “Of course.”

JJ smiled apologetically before allowing herself to be led away.

“Thought you could use an out,” Emily whispered in her ear, “You looked bored.”

“Thank you,” JJ replied. “I was.”

They stopped further down the bar, standing close, with Emily looking down at her, their hips brushing each other. JJ could smell her perfume over the ambient smell of alcohol, bar food and the old building. 

“Men,” Emily laughed, “Am I right?”

They laughed. JJ wasn’t sure exactly what she meant but she thought she got the gist. JJ gulped down a sip of her drink, a vodka soda that the boy had chosen for her. 

“Speaking of, are you and Derek, uh,” JJ asked, nervously, “A thing?”

Emily’s eyes widened, and her lips tugged into a smile, she began to laugh. 

“Derek Morgan?” She guffawed, “Absolutely not, that boy is like my brother. Oh my god, JJ you thought we were together?”

JJ felt herself sigh a breath of relief, hoping that it was not visible on her face.

“I just saw how he was at the bar,” JJ explained, “I just assumed.”

“Oh that,” Emily smiled, “I asked him to basically pretend to be my boyfriend, a beard if you will. Keeps guys hands from wandering.”

JJ frowned, that she could empathize with. 

“But no, we’re very much just friends.”

JJ looked over to their table: Derek, Hotch and Penelope were currently playing a game that seemed to consist of tossing coins into Reid’s empty soda can. 

There was a comfortable silence for a moment, both girls listened to the music, standing closely, closer than they needed to. 

Emily ordered them another round, and by that point JJ had given up protesting, realizing that this is just what Emily did. 

Grabbing their drinks, Emily handed JJ’s to her. They smiled and raised their glasses in cheers. 

“To new and old friends,” Emily said, “and to us winning at trivia!”

“I can drink to that!” 

Both accidentally raised their arms too enthusiastically, their glasses crashed together. Emily’s grip slipped and the glass went tumbling out of her hand, right onto JJ. She was suddenly damp and sticky, the liquid soaking through JJ’s thin shirt. 

“Oh my god,” Emily gasped, “I’m so sorry.” 

“Shit,” JJ gasped, putting her own drink down onto the bar and stepping back. “It’s ok, it was both of our faults.” 

“Let’s get you to the bathroom,” Emily said, with a hand pressed to the small of her back, leading her away from the bar. As an afterthought, Emily grabbed JJ’s drink and carried it with them.

A few people gave her concerned glances, one patron offering her a small napkin that did basically nothing. JJ wasn’t mad, it was fully an accident, but now she was just desperate to dry off. 

Now, JJ was acutely aware of Emily’s hand on her lower back. Warm and firm, it guided her into the bathroom. 

As soon as the door shut, the silence made JJ’s ears ring. Emily had turned to the paper towel dispenser, yanking probably four feet of it off and bunching it up before handing it to JJ.

It was a small bathroom basically just the room, one sink and no hand dryer, much to JJ’s sadness.

JJ hoisted herself up onto the counter, taking the paper towel from Emily, patting her shirt hopelessly. The alcohol soaking into the cotton and leaving the shirt a noticeably darker blue. JJ sighed. 

“I’m such a klutz,” Emily said apologetically. “My mom always was on my case for it.”

“It’s not your fault, Em,” JJ said, “it was an accident.”

Emily grabbed more paper towels, moving closer and helping her, patting on the shirt, over her stomach. 

JJ held her breath, realizing that Emily was so close. JJ could look up, see Emily’s face, looking concentrated, with her perfect red lips right there. Her strong hands were carefully dabbing at her shirt, fussing over JJ in a way that made her heart skip a beat. Emily’s collarbones led down to her chest, visible with her low cut chest. JJ felt herself blush, looking up to the ceiling, feeling embarrassed at these thoughts. 

JJ’s top hadn’t changed much, besides it feeling a bit less damp, it still showed the liquid clear as day. 

“This is doing just about nothing,” JJ sighed, clearing her throat. “Maybe I should just go home. It’s getting late anyways.”

“Nonsense,” Emily said. “You can wear this.”

JJ’s jaw dropped as Emily shrugged her plaid shirt off her shoulders, revealing her tank top underneath and handed it to her. JJ took it, dumbly, closing her mouth but saying nothing. 

Emily turned around, clicking the lock on the door, and leaning her shoulder against it, just in case. She took a sip out of JJ’s glass, casually, as if JJ was not about to take her shirt off behind her. 

Emily’s back was to her, but JJ sat, frozen, holding this new shirt in her hand. JJ pulled her wet shirt off, very aware of being naked in front of Emily. Well, shirtless, with her white bra visible, but still feeling incredibly naked. 

She quickly buttoned up the plaid shirt, it was oversized and a warm grey with hints of green and navy, feeling very incredibly soft. 

Warm and dry, JJ felt the shirt envelop her in what felt like a hug. A hug from Emily. 

JJ hopped off the counter and smoothed out her new shirt, Emily’s shirt. JJ folded up her wet shirt and held it in her left hand. The other girl turned and looked JJ up and down, with an unreadable expression on her face. 

“You look good,” Emily commented. 

“Thank you,” JJ managed. 

They stared at each other, for a moment, the room filling with a tension that made her shiver. The music thumped from the other room, but JJ’s heartbeat was deafening. She had accidentally stripped a layer off of Emily, and desperately wanted to take more off of her. Emily’s black tank was riding up, revealing a small strip of her stomach above her high waisted jeans. Emily’s face was flushed from the alcohol, her pale skin becoming pink on her cheeks and nose. JJ thought back to that morning when she had caught Emily in her PJs, of what she knew was under her shirt. This too hugged her curves, revealing hints about what lay beneath. 

“We better get back,” JJ found herself whispering. 

The bathroom was small, so the two of them were packed together in the tiny space. Emily suddenly leaned forward, closing the distance between them, reaching her hands out towards JJ. 

JJ’s heart raced, unsure what to expect. Was Emily going to kiss her? No. Why would she? Oh my god what if she was? 

Emily’s hand carefully fixed her collar, tugging on it slightly. 

“There,” Emily whispered, “you’re perfect.”  

JJ closed her eyes at the feeling of Emily’s hands on her. Sighing slightly. 

She chastised herself for being silly. Emily was just fixing her collar. Being a good friend. 

“Let’s get back,” JJ said. 

“If we have to,” Emily replied. JJ tried not to read into that too much.  

They returned to their table, squeezing back in tightly with their overcrowded group of friends. They were in a heated debate about the Zodiac killer. Neither girl knew how the conversation got there, but Emily immediately joined the conversation. 

After a few minutes, and after quite a few sly looks from Penelope, the MC tapped on the mic, gaining the audience's attention. 

“We officially have a winner!” Tara announced, “With 36 points, it’s Counter Intelligence!”

Their table erupted in cheers. They had won! There were a flurry of high fives, hugs and fist bumps in their celebration. 

Tara, the MC came over to their table to congratulate them. She told them that they had beat out the second place by one point. 

“Impressive work everyone,” Tara said, “that’s close to a high score, and these were hard questions.”

“We have a great team,” Penelope said with a grin. 

“I can tell,” Tara replied. “Are you all going to come back next week? It’s Halloween themed!”

They looked at each other, then nodded at her. It was a plan. 

“See you then!” Tara said. 

She gave them their prizes, which were mugs with the bars logo printed in white on the green mugs. She would treasure it. 

JJ finds herself yawning, catching the eye of Emily, who said: “we better get JJ to bed, looks like she’s fading.”

Please, JJ thought sleepily, resting her drunk head on her hand, take me to bed.

Sitting down, JJ’s five or so drinks had hit her hard, and she dreaded standing up and risking stumbling. She was drunk. JJ wasn’t a light weight, but over their time at the bar, she had gotten quite a bit of alcohol into her system. 

“Come on, sweetheart,” JJ could feel Penelope grab her arm and hoist her up. JJ leaned on her, feeling a warm affection for her friend in the moment. 

Together, they walked home in the cold night air. Laughing, chatting and walking together amicably, all holding their prizes in hand. JJ leaned into Penelope’s side, feeling warm despite the chill of the air. Something felt incredibly right about that moment, those people. 

She didn’t want it to end. 

They went their separate ways from Hotch once they got to campus, bidding him farewell, not before Penelope added him to a group chat titled “The Team 🕺” in reference to their trivia playing. Hotch promised he’d join them all again next week. 

Once they climbed the stairs to their floor, Reid continued up to his room and the four of them found themselves trying to quietly return to their rooms without getting caught by the RA. 

Despite being served for the entire night, if they got caught drinking underage they would get in a lot of shit, especially Derek and JJ on their athletic scholarships. 

Muffled whispers and giggling filled the air as they walked through the common room.

Derek hugged them all goodbye—he seemed to be a hugger JJ surmised—and went to his room down the hall. 

“Oh!” JJ said, spinning to face Emily in the hall. Penelope had already entered their dorm, with the door closing behind her. “I can give your shirt back tomorrow! I can… er… wash it for you. It probably smells like beer now.”

Emily gazed at her, from over her shoulder as she unlocked her door, looking JJ up and down.

“Keep it,” she said. “It looks good on you.”

JJ would swear she saw Emily wink at her, but couldn’t be sure. 

Emily disappeared into her dorm room, and JJ went into hers. 

She slept with the shirt folded neatly next to her pillow, the smell of Emily’s perfume filling her senses as she dreamt. 

[hwajin]

College

Genre: Fluff, Suggestive

Word Count: 1.3k

Note: i need to write those earlier than on the due day omg, i hope you still like this tho, enjoy☃️

Sitting in front of your books, the words inside them not making any sense to you whatsoever, you swore you could have started crying this very moment. College was truly testing your patience at this point. With teachers expecting more and more from you every day, with your classmates who didn't seem to be able to get their part of the work done you really didn't know how much longer you could take this clownery. Just as you shut the poor book close and threw it across the room in a very frustrated manner, Seungmin stepped into the room, eyes following the flying object silently as it landed on the floor in the living room. His head turned to look at you, your face buried in your hands, gripping onto your own hair harshly in an attempt to distress you in some kind of way. He didn't like seeing you like this, hated it, in fact, so he always wanted to do his best very to help you out. It was quite a mystery for him how school and studying was such a hard thing for you to do, considering his good grades and ability to remember everything from the first read. That was the main reason he didn't really believe your struggles at first, figuring you only wanted his attention and that you were a lazy person, but as time went on, he happened to be a witness of moments like this quite often, where you burst out in anger and sadness because of your studies. He understood that this wasn't as easy for you as it was for him so he started to feel compassionate.

Seungmin stepped closer to the kitchen table you were sitting at, dragging out the chair next to you and sitting down on it. Your head shot up at the sounds. You haven't even noticed your boyfriend creeping up on you, making you slightly scared and flustered due to the state you were in. You knew it was okay if Seungmin saw you like this. You knew the only thing he wanted was to help you, but you couldn't avoid feeling slightly ashamed whenever he had to explain the same thing over and over for you, again and again, only for you to not understand it once more. You felt guilty for distracting him from his own work, you knew that he was okay with it, though.

"What is it, let me see.", he said in a soft voice, immediately calming you down. The tears that were about to stream down your face disappeared slowly, your face softened and your eyes found Seungmin's. He always had this effect on you, and you were incredibly thankful for it. His brown, dog - like eyes stared into your soul, waiting for an answer so he could start helping you out of your problems.

"Math. As always.", you finally said, sounding guilty. Seungmin's thumb drew circles across your palm, nodding slightly. He stood up from where he was seated and walked over to the book you have thrown into the other room only moments before. You smiled shyly as Seungmin sat back down next to you, placing the book which - you were convinced - was produced in hell, on the table before locking eyes with you again.

"Next time just call me, stop throwing your books around the house."

Seungmin sounded kind of annoyed to anyone who didn't know better. But you did, thankfully. He was only worried about you, on top of that he wasn't the person to pour out his feelings just like that. He expressed his love through actions more than through words, and you grew to love exactly that about him.

"Okay, what's the page. Let me see what you don't get, I'll try to help you.", Seungmin said calmly. You shot him a thankful smile, opening the book on the page you were struggling with. Seungmin's careful eyes read the tasks, you could see the little cogs in his head turning as he tried to figure out a solution to the problem.

Seungmin looked hot like this.

You didn't want to go there, but your drained mind took over you quickly. His brows were slightly furrowed together, creating a slight crease between them. His eyes were soft, yet full of concentration as he read the words over and over, with a pen between his teeth, nibbling on it lightly. Your eyes were suddenly really fixated on his mouth, concentrating on how he bit down on the pen rather than the actual problem Seungmin was about to explain to you.

Your boyfriend suddenly sat up straight, finding your eyes quickly. You flinched a little at his sudden action, realizing only how drawn in you were by him and it made you blush, slightly.

"Okay, I have it."

His words were sure, confident, like he truly understood what he was about to explain to you. You admired his intelligence, and for some reason you got riled up even more. God, you really needed a break, your brain surely wasn't working properly anymore.

Seungmin started to describe you step by step what you had to do to solve the issue, calmly and slowly so, to make sure you got everything. You, on the other hand, nodded and pretended to be the good student he thought you were, but your eyes went over to his features, his eyes, his jaw which moved so deliciously as he talked, his messy hair, his neck that looked oh so kissable. Out of an instinct you leaned closer and placed your lips on the said body part, causing Seungmin to lean back and look at you, confused. You gave him a quick smile before leaning even closer, pecking his neck once again.

"Y/N, concentrate, I'm trying to help you here."

Seungmin said while placing his hands on your shoulders, shoving you away from his figure slightly in an attempt to stop you from going any further. As you looked back into his eyes you noticed that he couldn't hide his longing for you as much as he tried, though, which made you smile quite proudly. You wondered if Seungmin would give in to his wantings, but his eyes looked back at the book demandingly, signaling you to quit the games, concentrate on the problem and get to do the fun later. You sighed out loud, earning an eye roll from Seungmin.

"I've been doing this for too long, my brain is not working. I just...", you stood up while waiting to finish your sentence to emphasise it, "...need a little break."

As you said that you swung one leg over Seungmin's both ones, sitting down on his lap and straddling his waist.

You could feel him stiffen up at your actions and blushing slightly. Your hands found his hair quickly, running your fingers through it as you saw Seungmin closing his eyes at your touch in what could be relaxation.

"Y/N...", he brought out, voice breathy, eyes still closed.

You hummed at him as if you expected an answer from him. It didn't come quickly, though, as he melted under your touch, but he eventually opened his eyes, now hooded, and looked straight at you.

"We really shouldn't be doing this. I need to help you so you pass your exams.", he said. Seungmin himself didn't quite believe his words, his voice sounding reluctant above anything. You responded with another hum, leaning down and kissing his lips passionately. He gave in to your touch fast, instantly moving his lips in sync with yours. You poked out your tongue slightly to ask for permission for more, Seungmin conceding quickly as he opened his mouth for you. His hands were roaming around every single part of your body, leaving nothing untouched, until stopping his movements at your bottom. You moaned a little bit at the touch, making Seungmin smile against your lips sneakily. The boy beneath you suddenly stopped all his acts, leaving you empty, left with nothing. He looked up at you with puppy eyes, giving your bum a light squeeze, which made you jump just a little. He smirked at that.

"Let's move this to our bedroom.", he said in a husky voice before picking you up as if you weighed nothing, anticipation making your mind dizzy. The books on the table were long forgotten.

[pluto-art]

Syncytium - Chapter 3

Title: Syncytium - Chapter 3 - Sodium Bicarbonate Words: 7,115 Rating: T

Fan Fiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13712482/3/Syncytium

As always, I recommend the fan fiction version, which includes all italics. Other than that, enjoy the full story below the cut!

September 16th, 1993 - 11:48 PM

Two little feet raced pitter-patter down a chatter-filled hallway in A.C.M.E. Arts & Sciences, its occupant laden with pen and petition, eagerly calling out to any hapless individual that came her way as that ever-present tam-o-shanter bounced atop her head.

"Signatures! Come put down your signatures! Sign the petition! Bring baseball back to A.C.M.E.!" Olivia called out, her little jingle ringing in its thick Scottish accent down the corridor and bouncing off the walls. "Baseball for all! Hear you shout! Let them know or we'll strike out!"

Like a fuzzy brown bullet she shot through the school, passing students and teachers, janitors and gym instructors, nearly running into the wall on two occasions, and receiving a sharp reprimand of "Watch it!" or "Land sakes!" from those whose book pages and scarves she ruffled on her flight down the hallways.

"Let your voice be heard! Put your name down! Have a- OOF!"

Olivia gasped as she landed on the hard, linoleum floor, having been knocked back by something tall and firm. She shook her head and looked up... and up... and up, into the stern face of Basil, teacher of Advanced Science and Deduction. Even for a mouse he was rather lanky, towering above Globetrotter and practically a giant to Olivia. The only other mouse in the school who reached his height was Pinky. He glared at her, one eyebrow cocked in silent judgement as he peered down from above, a great slab of papers cradled snugly against his side.

"Oh...," Olivia mumbled, gulping as she quickly stood up, face scrunching, and shook off her clothes, her little tam-o-shanter and petition laying very sorrowfully at her feet.

Basil sighed.

"Young lady," he began, bending down to pick up her hat and place it securely back on her head. "This is the third time this week we've met under unnecessarily chaotic circumstances and it's become... rather an interference in my daily schedule. Would you kindly keep harnessed certain frivolities at play, Miss Flabbergast?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Basil," Olivia muttered shyly, and not unkindly. "I'll be more careful."

She picked her clipboard with petition up off the floor, a little embarrassed.

"Sign my petition...?" she ventured, holding up the paper for Basil to see. He bent down to get a closer look at it.

"What's this for?" he asked.

"It's for a baseball stadium!"

"Baseball stadium?"

"Yes!" Olivia said, nodding excitedly. "So we can get sports back to the school!"

"Sports?" Basil nipped, practically spitting out the word as though it was a nasty slur. "Miss Flim-Flam, the last thing this university of science and culture needs is a bunch of dimwitted degenerates galloping about chasing after a ball. You'd do better to abandon the whole matter, in my opinion."

Olivia hung her head.

"But I doubt it will amount to anything," he continued, picking lint off his cardigan in a snooty fashion. "The most you could hope for is ten signatures, at least. Continue on your hapless venture if you must."

"Really?!"

"Yeeees yes yes. Now, run along."

"Thank you, Mr. Basil! I'll get more than ten. You'll see!"

"Jolly good," Basil replied curtly, sarcastically, pausing to flick a piece of dirt off Olivia's jacket. "Good day to you."

Olivia watched him as he went, his long shoes snapping click, click, click against the floor. She drew out a long breath of utter relief. Basil was fairer than Globetrotter. Anyone was fairer than Globetrotter. However, he still could get a bit cross when rubbed the wrong way, and it certainly wasn't the first time she'd gotten on his irritable side. She'd have to be more careful.

And so, as she continued her trek down the school hallways, calling out as she went (a bit more quietly this time), she jogged rather than sprinted, slipping between passerby with an "Excuse me" or "Pardon" and taking extra precaution not to bump into any more teachers, especially Globetrotter...

"Petition! Come you all and sign! Redefine!"

Maisy tossed Olivia an annoyed glance as she ran past, huffing a little and flipping back her hair as she dug through her locker.

"Since when did the principle allow kids to run around the school? I didn't think he'd be cool with that," she muttered.

Next to her, a chocolate-furred mouse leaned against his adjacent locker, deep in silent conversation as he texted rapidly on his phone.

"Why do you care?" he asked, not looking up at her.

"I dunno. It's just... This is like... a high-profile university, right? There shouldn't be any kids."

"We're kids."

"Um... Excuse me. I'm like... nineteen."

"Yeah. That's young, Maisy."

"Whatever," she spat, flicking her hair back again as she found what she was looking for: a red pencil with yellow flower print slapped all over it.

"Olivia is Flaversham's daughter," Gadget spoke from across the hall at her own locker, snapping her bulbous goggles atop her head as a matter-of-fact. "Everyone knows that." Tillie nodded next to her.

"Okay, but, like...," Maisy continued, pulling out a journal and tucking it under her arm, "... he works. When does he have time to watch her? He just lets her run around the school?"

"Well, isn't Mrs. Judson her nanny?" Tillie offered helpfully, albeit rather quietly. "I think that-"

Several students sprinted by. Tillie paused to let them pass before continuing.

"I think that she watches her in the nurse's office most of the day and lets her run errands."

"Yeah, but-," Maisy began, before being cut off herself as another batch of students trundled by, and then another. "But that doesn't give her leave to just-" More students. "To just run around whenever she-" Even more students. By this point, she could barely even see Gadget and Tillie. "Oh my gosh! I hate not having neighboring lockers!"

"It's lunchtime, Maisy," the male mouse said beside her, closing his phone with a sharp snap. "We should get going."

"Ugh. Fine. I'm starving anyway."

And so off they went, quartet heading for the cafeteria at the prompt hour of 12:00 PM, taking care not to bump into anyone as they entered the huge room.

Unlike the rest of the school, this area was terribly outdated. Or, rather, it had none of the classiness that the majority of the facility offered. Far from being dressed up in a mahogany coat, with comfortable seating, double-pane windows, and classical music that pumped itself like oxygen through the more casual areas of the building, the cafeteria resembled nothing less than something vomited out of an 80s shopping mall. The blue and purple paneling; the flashing neon food signs; the Whitney Houston music trapped perpetually within the speakers. It had it all. Students called it "The Flashback" or "The Blot", depending on who you talked to. The space had been heavily renovated a decade ago in an attempt to reflect the aesthetic at the time, and if the principal in office hadn't been ousted at the time for his radical ways the facility may very well have looked quite different by this point. As it stood, the cafeteria was an eye sore for some, a breath of fresh air for others, and it was a popular spot in which to congregate. If nothing else, the music was a relief. There was only so much Chopin one could take.

Chatter filled the dining area as the quartet entered. Already the tables were filling up, the smell of pizza and dumplings heavy in the air. Once upon a time, the food had reflected the decor: posh, healthy, and expensive. And then, of course, the cafeteria had been renovated, and with it the menu. No one had ever bothered to change the hot dogs back to ham; the grilled cheese back to caviar. Lemon sherbet tasted much better than shitake, and the students liked it that way.

"Think they're gonna have the jelly sauce again today?" Gadget asked, standing up on tip-toe to peer over at the food counter.

"Ew. Gosh. I hope not. That stuff is gro- HO MY GOSH," gasped Maisy.

"What?" Gadget asked, looking around, eyes wide. She hoped another wasp hadn't broken into the cafeteria again. Two had welcomed themselves in in the last week and she didn't think she could handle the stress another day.

"He's here," Maisy stressed, clutching at her heart and grabbing hold of Gadget's shoulder rather tightly.

Tillie and Gadget followed her gaze all the way across the floor to the food bar. There stood Pinky, dressed today in lab pants and a blue and gray striped shirt whose sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. Had it not been for the ridiculously long white lab pants that spilled over his shoes, Gadget thought he might have looked rather fetching. As it stood, though, he didn't. Maisy thought otherwise.

"Ugh. He's so hot."

"So hot he melts your brains?" the male mouse quipped, back to texting on his phone.

Maisy shot him a nasty look. Tillie didn't even notice.

"Wow. Clam chowder special," she mused, completely serious as she stared, astonished, at the counter.

"You're focusing on the food?!" Maisy exclaimed, flabbergasted. Tillie remained oblivious.

"Oh, I hope Mrs. Brisby isn't too early today. I rather like lunch break...," Tillie mused, loosening her shawl a little.

"But you also like her classes," said Gadget, smiling.

"I do. They're fun."

"Learning about weeds is fun?" asked Maisy.

"Agriculture is more interesting than you think it would be! You should try it sometime. It's fun!"

"Tillie, the only fun thing about this school is the lunch break."

The dark-furred he mouse with them rolled his eyes, his hands in his pockets.

"Seriously, Maisy? Not even the Chemistry class is interesting?" he mentioned, incredulous.

"Okay, well, that is a little bit interesting..."

The he mouse sighed.

"You're incredible. Our parents are paying good money for this school. You should be grateful. Come on. Let's stake a seat."

A few tables down, a gaggle of mice, moles, and a rat or two sat, chattering loudly. One of them, a black-haired mouse in a frilly, once-piece dress, sash around the middle and dark hair tied up in a bun, stood up in her chair and waved in their direction.

"Maaaaaaisy, girl! Come on! We've been waiting for you!"

"GIIIIRL! I was just about to ditch these losers! Gimme a sec!" Maisy called back, beaming. "Sorry, guys. I gotta go."

"Wha-..? But I thought we were gonna-" the male mouse began, taken aback.

"Sorry, Dex. I forgot I'd promised Marvell I'd be here at noon. We'll catch up later, I promise. Okay?"

"Yeah. Sure...," Dex shrugged dejectedly.

"Thanks, Dex. Bye, y'all!" said Maisy, and she ran off to join the loquacious group.

"Bye, loser!" Gadget joked back, shaking her head. "Airhead."

"Remind me why we hang out with her again?" Tillie asked, as the remaining three headed for the food bar.

Gadget shrugged.

"She's been my friend since middle school. I'd feel weird just ditching her."

"You wouldn't be missing much," Dex muttered, although there was a hesitancy in his voice.

Gadget threw him a sideways glance as she grabbed a tray, Tillie and Dex following suit.

"You know that's not true, Dex. She's a bit into herself, but you know she loves you."

Dex shrugged.

One by one, a steady line of students at the bar filed past the counter, picking off a box of salad here, a cup of macaroni there. Things reached a stand still at the chili bowl. Dex and Gadget stood up on tip-toe for a couple seconds, flattened back out on their feet, stared at each other, and rolled their eyes, sniggering. But of course...

The hold up, as per the norm, was Pip, one of the restaurant hands and the only chipmunk in the entire school. He was terribly chatty, not to mention contentious if you dared complain about any aspect of the food. Either something was wrong and he needed to comment on it, or someone he recognized as a friend had just crossed his path. Judging by the chipper tone of his voice, Gadget guessed it was the latter today.

"So what's with this petition? Lemme see that paper, sister!"

And he whipped from someone's hand a petite clipboard entrusted with several sheets of lined paper. He read through it quickly, nose almost touching the paper.

Gadget, Dex, and Tillie peered around the crowd ahead of them to see who had handed him the paper. Oh. Naturally.

There stood Olivia, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet as Pip perused her petition, a wide, expectant smile on her face. Was there no place she wouldn't invade?

"Hmmm," Pip mused, tapping his foot a mile a minute as his keen eyes roved over the paper one more time. "Weeeeeeell, I don't usually sign these things, buuuuut... baseball sounds like a worthy cause. Ya' got a pen?"

"Here you go!" Olivia squeaked happily, extracting from the inside of her coat pocket a blue pen and offering it to Pip. He took it swiftly and signed the petition just as fast.

"Just make sure you get me a position as umpire!" Pip said, handing her back the petition and pen.

"Oh, I will! Thank you!"

"Say, uhhhh... how many signatures you got on that thing so far?"

"Twenty-three!"

"Heeeeeey. That's not bad!"

"Come on, Pip!" a student piped up, brows furrowed.

"Yeah, we've got class!" a girl vole squeaked from behind the trio.

"All right, all right already! Sheesh!" Pip nipped back, rolling his eyes. "Hey. You keep gettin' those John Hancocks, okay?" he said, winking at Olivia.

"Um... Okay!"

And with that, she was off, not even bothering to grab an apple or a cracker, something that others cast glances at her for. Olivia passing up an opportunity to nab some food? She must mean business...

"She's so cute," Gadget mused, watching Olivia sprint around, on the hunt for more signatures, as she moved up a couple steps in line.

"Yeah," Dex said, arms folded. "She's a trip." Despite himself, he smiled after her. Little kids amused him sometimes, even if they could be a bit pesky underfoot.

As more students spilled into the cafeteria, fingers pointed, some quite shamelessly, in the direction of the food bar. Dex followed the invisible lines to a spot some paces behind them in line. But of course. They were all directed at the new teacher, Ronald Pinkus. The girls seemed particularly smitten, giggling and whispering and acting, in Dex's mind, perfectly idiotic. In fact, come to think of it, as he looked about the room, most of the girls were in deep conversation, their eyes trained on the same subject in the room, including Maisy's group. He shook his head. This was a university, not a middle school. Daftness came in all ages, he supposed.

"What?" Gadget queried, taking notice of the furrowed brow and the folded arms.

"Nothing," Dex muttered, shuffling forward a few paces as the line moved ahead. Both he and Gadget grabbed a plate of chocolate cake.

Gadget looked back at the new teacher and snickered.

"Don't let it get to you."

"She's just as bad as everyone else."

"Who? Maisy?"

"Yeah..."

Gadget shrugged.

"It's probably just a phase. Next week she'll fall for Basil again or someone."

Trays full, they set off to find a table. Tillie waved at them from a corner. They headed towards her.

"I dunno. I kinda...," Dex began, then stopped as they reached the table, sitting down with their trays. Tillie was already deep in her bowl of clam chowder.

"You what?" Gadget asked as she pulled her chair up.

"It's... whatever."

"What?"

Dex picked up his spoon, swirled it around in his own bowl of clam chowder, then set it down. Screw it. He grabbed his fork and dug into the chocolate cake instead.

"I miss when we used to hang out more."

"What are we talking about now?" Tillie asked, only half-interested.

No one said anything right away. Gadget picked at her sunflower seed salad for a minute, then spoke.

"You're her brother. She'll come back around eventually."

Dex shrugged again. He was about to shove another large piece of chocolate cake into his mouth when something lightly bumped his elbow. He turned and looked down. It was Olivia.

"Sign my petition?" she asked, her little whiskers upturned in a wide smile.

Dex couldn't help but mirror that infectious grin. In the distance, something... someone... caught his eye. It was Maisy. She frowned at him and shook her head. Dex frowned back. He took the clipboard and pen from Olivia's outstretched paws.

"You know what? Sure, kid. Baseball, right?"

"Uh-huh! We're going to have a mascot again, too! I hope..."

He handed her back the clipboard and pen and ruffled her hair, or, rather, the top of her tam-o-shanter.

"Break a leg, kid."

"Thank you!" she beamed, and off she went.

Dex smiled. In the background, Maisy shook her head. Dex snapped his fingers and winked, finger-gunning her. She rolled her eyes and went back to talking to her friends.

"Ugh. He's such a tease," complained Maisy to her company, twirling a strand of her long, golden hair as she sipped soda through a straw.

"He just cares about other people. Heck, I signed her petition," the black-furred mouse said. "How come you never hang out with your brother anymore? He's been lookin' kinda sad..."

"He's not even my real brother, Marvell. He's just my half-brother. You know that. Do we look like we're related?"

"But y'all used to be so close! What happened?"

Maisy shrugged.

"I dunno. We just... shifted."

"Don't you mean 'drifted'?" offered up a boy rat next to her.

"Whatever," Maisy shrugged. "Anyway, what do you guys think of him?" she smirked, jerking her head in the direction of Pinky still in line at the food bar.

All at the table turned their heads to look at him. He seemed to be picking out quite an odd assortment of foods: a hot dog, two cups of custard, and several pieces of cheese - just cheese. Every person that passed him a "hello" he greeted with a chipper "Good morning!", and his attitude towards the servers was polite and enthusiastic. Those around him couldn't seem to keep the smiles off their faces. Even the students generally known to be more reserved or stuck up couldn't help but throw him a curious glance. He was, for lack of a better term, "sunshine-y".

The boy rat popped several corn puffs in his mouth, his dry expression unchanged.

"He's kind of a twink, isn't he?"

Maisy slapped him on the shoulder playfully.

"He is not!"

"Dude. Come on..."

"He's not that young," Marvell said, filing her nails as another of their group, a white mouse in a red shirt and with a yellow sash tied about his neck, came and sat down beside her, a cup full of fizzy raspberry water tottering dangerously on the edge of his tray. "He is kinda cute, though..."

The white mouse set down his tray carefully... but not carefully enough. Slip went the cup, the mouse grabbing it before its contents could spill out entirely.

"AH!" Marvell yelped, jumping a little. "Stuart, that's the second time this week!"

"Oh, dear. I'm so sorry, Marvell!" the little mouse said, apologizing profusely as he skittered off towards the food bar. "I'll go get some napkins!"

"Awww, man. I just washed this," lamented Marvell, picking up a corner of her frilly blue frock, now tainted with fizz. "Well... At least it's just water. I can work with this, right? Looks kinda... sassy?"

The boy rat sat up, the better to look at Marvell's new fashion statement. The water had painted the rounded edges of one side of the dress. It could have passed for an interesting pattern if one squinted hard enough.

"Yeah, sure. You could pass it off as the new look," he suggested, smiling.

"Hm," Marvell replied, smirking as she sat back down, ringing out the dress edge.

Maisy didn't seem the least bit phased.

"I think he's kinda hot," she said, eyelashes fluttering as she sipped at her soda noisily.

"Hotter than Globetrotter?" sniggered the boy rat.

"Okay, Globetrotter's in his own league. Okay? I can never compete with that."

"Ummm...," Marvell mumbled, covering her mouth in a vain attempt to hide her embarrassed smile as she pointed to a figure behind Maisy's back.

"What?" Maisy asked, craning around slightly to look before swiftly turning back 'round in her seat again, shoulder hunched as she visibly blushed. "Oh my gosh," she whispered, burying her face in her hands.

The boy rat beside her could barely hide his laughter as Globetrotter walked past them, his nose deep in a very thick, very red, and very heavy-looking book. Had he actually been paying attention to their conversation Maisy might have had more reason to involuntarily add a bit of color to her cheeks. As it stood, however, he had not, and so continued towards the bar, oblivious to the fact that he was now fifth in line behind Pinky.

"That's astounding!" Pinky exclaimed, tray of food all but forgotten as he leaned across a glass awning in front of him, totally invested in Pip's latest story. "But... how were you able to keep the syrup layer from separating?"

"Oh, that's easy!" Pip replied, and on and on he went.

Two students ahead of Pinky peered back, interested. Others behind him simply chuckled... or tapped their foot impatiently. To Globetrotter it was complete gibberish. The culinary arts was a branch he rarely dabbled in unless absolutely necessary. Although I do make a mean rigatoni, he thought to himself before shaking his head disgustedly. Where the heck did that come from? He was supposed to be engulfed in Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus, but, as it stood, he found his attention inexplicably pulled towards a much... lesser subject. It was unfathomable how anyone could be so intrigued by such mundane topics as the properties of pancakes and how effectively one might prepare them, but the fanaticism with which his coworker now described it was almost... infectious. Nevertheless, Globetrotter frowned as he checked his watch. 12:18 PM. They were wasting precious time. He was wasting his precious time.

"Will you move along already!" he called out, voice peppered with vexation. "I've got class in twenty-seven minutes!"

"Oh! So sorry!" Pinky called back, paws quickly grabbing hold of his tray once more. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Pip. Good luck with your pancakes!"

"Same to you, my good man!" Pip squeaked back. "What a pleasant fellow," he muttered to himself, smiling as Pinky walked off towards the refreshments bar, laden with food.

Globetrotter huffed and moved forward, grabbing a single bowl of fruit and a cup of cottage cheese on his way down. As he passed the pasta section, he paused, reached out a hesitant paw towards a plate of spaghetti, then quickly snapped it back, sighing and frowning sadly as he moved on to the refreshments, grabbing a banana on his way over and angrily slapping it down on his tray.

He stopped beside Pinky, who was humming and pouring himself some English Breakfast tea. Globetrotter huffed again. Flavored water - a poor man's excuse for caffeine. How anyone could drink that stuff was beyond him. He went for the coffee, pulled down the carafe lever... and grumbled. Empty.

"Is there any place in this building that can afford a mouse a decent cup of coffee?!" he whined, popping his empty cup back onto the others.

"Oh, that's a shame there, isn't it? Have you tried the tea, Brain?" Pinky offered helpfully, as he popped a lid on his own steaming cup.

"I refuse to bow my knee to such a lowbrow form of refreshment," Globetrotter bit back, picking up his tray. "And it's Brian, you nincompoop."

"Well, how do you know you don't like it if you don't try it? Poit!" Pinky replied, unfazed by the retort.

"If I liked it I'd drink it. Good day to you."

And off he went, choosing a spot as far back in the room as possible, Pinky sadly watching him as he picked out a table devoid of occupants. Pinky looked back at the empty coffee cup, a light whimper escaping him as he stared at it dolefully. He turned back to focus on Globetrotter, who was once more lost in his big red book. Students who sat nearby gave him as wide of a berth as they could. Pinky's ears drooped. What a sad little man, he thought. But it wasn't long before they perked back up again. Why, yes. Of course! Beaming, he set his tray down at an occupied table ("Watch this for me, will you?"), and rushed out of the cafeteria, leaving several students at the table to stare after him, puzzled.

Flip. Globetrotter turned a page of his massive tome, popping a grape in his mouth and crunching down on it satisfactorily. Flip, flip, flip. He looked to his right. A girl mouse sat nearby, also buried in a book. A huge pink bow sat atop her head. He recognized her. She was one of his students. Teresa, her name was, if he recalled correctly. She was one of his brighter subjects, but struggled with the occasional mathematical theory. As it was, her nose practically brushed the pages of a book that Globetrotter recognized by sight alone: Calculus by Gilbert Strang. Teresa sighed deeply, her unironed brow effectively relaying her frustration. She looked up... and jumped a little as she noticed Globetrotter staring at her, a light pink almost the exact color of her bow kissing her cheeks. Globetrotter slowly ducked back into his own texts, his peripheral vision catching Teresa shifting her seat over a notch in embarrassment.

A paw reached out to grab for his coffee, and he looked up when it touched nothing. Right. No coffee... Sighing, he popped another grape in his mouth, biting into it rather harder than necessary. Nearby, at another table, several students whispered.

"Did you find out what he teaches?" a girl vole asked, her question laced with ardor.

"Yup. He teaches Trozology," replied a male rat next to her, a pair of thick headphones hung about his neck.

"What the heck is that?" voiced another female rodent at their table, a cream-furred mouse decked out in purple - purple shirt; purple pants; purple socks; purple everything.

"I dunno," the rat shrugged. "Sounds kinda cool, though."

Globetrotter frowned. His ears twitched as tinkling laughter echoed from another table beside him.

"I knooooooow. He's so cute!" chuckled a rosy pink-eared mouse. She spoke in a barely-contained whisper along with the rest of her group, all of which sported bulky backpacks laid out on their table and decorated with all sorts of patches, stickers, and keychains. "I hope I can get a spot in his class!"

"I think he still has slots open!" one of her friends, a field rat, spoke up. "As far as I know, though, no one's actually signed up."

"Whyyyyyy? He's adorable! I'm gonna sign up just so I can stare at that face every day," a girl hamster said.

"What if you don't even like the class?" the second friend spoiled. "Maybe it's a dud. And we don't really have time in our schedules for another course..."

They all paused sadly and contemplatively at this. Then the first girl perked up.

"Well, I guess we'll get him all to ourselves then. If no one else likes the class then we'll stay just for the teacher!"

"Yeah, until every other girl does the same thing. You know we're not the only ones with the hots for him," the hamster said, taking a swig from her soda bottle.

"Well, then I guess we'll just have to fight for him," smiled the rat nonchalantly as she picked at her nails.

"Fight for him?!" yelped the other girls, covering their mouths at their loudness. "Oh my gosh. Seriously?!"

"Yeah! Anyone who comes up, we'll tell 'em to meet us at the park at two. No knives. Just like... nail clippers and hair curlers or something..."

"No no! Wait! We tell them to meet us at the baseball stadium!" offered the hamster, soda pop forgotten.

"You mean the one Olivia's petitioning?" the girl mouse asked. "It's not even built yet!"

"Yeah, but when it is we can tell them to meet there!"

"Winner gets dibs. They get to call first date," said the rat.

"And the loser has to pay for the dinner tab."

"Yeah!"

"Oh my gosh, you guys are so funny," the mouse chuckled.

They all laughed gaily.

Globetrotter's frown deepened, his mouth hanging open, another grape suspended in mid-air. Was Pinkus really... that popular? He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the conversations now swimming about his consciousness, when yet another light exchange, a distant one this time, caught his ears.

"... thinking of actually dropping Globetrotter's class to take that Ronald guy's one. It's just as many credits. Probably way more fun."

Globetrotter gulped. He tried reading a sentence in his book, only to find that he kept gracing the same words over and over and over again. Blast it. He couldn't concentrate. He plopped the book down on the table and went to devouring his cottage cheese, all around him oblivious to the private war going on in his mind.

Why do you care what they think? They're kids. They're idiots.

Yes, and have you forgotten what happened when Basil came to the school two years ago? They went gah-gah over him, too.

They didn't all abandon my class!

Nooooo, but half of them did. And Basil taught a required course at the time. Same as yours. They all went for his. He was much more interesting than you.

That's neither here nor there! I'm still employed, aren't I? My class is still sought after.

For now, and only because it's required. This new guy is significantly more popular. What if his class becomes required? What if it's worse than before? What if you become... old hat?

"No!" Globetrotter yelled, out loud. Half the cafeteria paused to stare at him. He sunk in his seat a little. How embarrassing...

In mock resoluteness, he grabbed the book before him and went back to reading. But he was only truly pretending to read, the bright crimson covers a pathetic excuse for a hole in which the frightened mouse hid.

The truth was that, despite his behavior being anything but amicable, his notorious reputation in the school had garnered him something akin to a celebrity status over the years. The course was required, certainly, even though he wasn't the only teacher who taught it, but the struggle to survive the rigorous schedule and harsh grading system he doled out had become a flat out challenge to the students. How long could you last? Would you manage to nab the ever elusive 'A' during a semester? One pupil even became famous for handing out "I Survived Globetrotter's Class" t-shirts. They hated the teacher, but reveled in the challenge. It was something that Globetrotter became ironically comfortable with over the years. Being notorious was better than not being noticed at all. He couldn't abide the thought of being second fiddle; of falling into obscurity. He'd never had reason to be concerned about it for seventeen years, even during Basil's "reign", but now...? Now he had legitimate competition. In all his years at A.C.M.E. Arts & Sciences, he'd never known an instructor so heavily discussed, so quixotic, so beloved, even on the very first day of his employment. Pinky was new and different, in all the wrong ways to him, yet in all the right ways to the students. And it terrified him.

On a sudden whim, he whipped out a pen from his inside jacket pocket and wrote feverishly on a napkin in front of him. He didn't see the tall figure approach him.

"Hello, Brain!"

Globetrotter practically leapt out of his skin.

"AH! Wh-... You..! Don't... do that!" he remarked, hastily stuffing the napkin and pen back into his coat pocket. He clutched at his heart, taking deep breaths as he rested his head in his palm.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Brain!" poor Pinky replied, resting a hand on Globetrotter's back comfortingly. Globetrotter shrugged it off, literally.

"And don't touch me! I just... h-had this... p-pressed," Globetrotter snapped, still catching his breath. "Who knows where your... paws have... been..."

"Oh, well, they haven't been far, Brain. They're always at my side! Ha-ha!"

Globetrotter cocked an eyebrow up at him, speechless. There was no way anyone could be this inordinately stupid.

"Mind if I join you?" Pinky asked, all innocence, that perpetually sunny smile never leaving his face.

"As I matter, of fact, I-"

"Oh, thank you!" Pinky initiated, grabbing a chair and pulling it close up to Globetrotter. Too close for his comfort. Apparently, personal space was something of a foreign concept to this character. "You know, I don't usually eat in public. Don't want to miss The Brady Bunch, you know? Hm hm. But it's rather nice out here! I might come and sit with you more often."

Heaven forbid, Globetrotter thought, ears reddening.

"Would you kindly refrain from mentioning that abomination of a tv show in my presence? It sickens me. And I don't appreciate your unnaturally close proximity."

"Come again?" Pinky asked, cocking his head.

"Move," Globetrotter said, managing, with difficulty, to push Pinky and the chair he sat in over an inch.

"Well, you could have just asked," Pinky chuckled, still smiling. He complied, scooting his chair a couple more inches away from Brain.

"Thank you," bit Globetrotter, turning away from Pinky and directing his attention back to the giant tome in front of him. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like a little privacy."

"Oh, but, I came to give you something!" Pinky exclaimed, and Globetrotter, despite himself, shiftily looked over as the lanky mouse dug in his pants pocket for... something. "A-ha! Here ya' go!"

And he handed him... a teabag? No. Not a teabag. It was too big to be a teabag.

Globetrotter took it from him tentatively, two fingers holding it away from his body as if it might explode.

"What is it?"

"Chicory root! I just thought that, well, when you couldn't find any coffee it reminded me of my mum. She used to be a big coffee drinker, too. She stopped recently, but she still missed the taste. Chicory root tastes a lot like coffee, only better! M-Maybe you'd like it, too?" Pinky offered helpfully, a tinge of shyness peppering his smile.

Globetrotter looked up at Pinky, nonplussed... and a wee bit confused. No one ever gave him anything; not unless he directly asked for it. To be fair, no one was ever bold enough to even attempt to show him much kindness, seeing as the result was often times a sharp reply and a sinister glare. This newcomer obviously hadn't learned the rules yet.

"Teachers... don't usually give me gifts," Globetrotter admitted. "Not unless I ask for them." Nevertheless, he pocketed the chicory root.

"Perhaps that's because you don't ask nicely, Brain? People give you lots of things when you're nice to them!"

It wasn't so much the statement itself, but the boldness of its deliverance that took Globetrotter aback.

"Sooooo... you're saying... I should be nice... to get rewards?"

"Oh, no, Brain! That would be taking advantage! You should be nice to people, 'cause, well, it's nice! And then they're nice to you! Don't you like making people happy?"

"No."

"Not even a little bit?"

"No one has ever given me reason to."

"Well, maybe they would if you showed them a little smile!"

And he actually stuck two fingers up against Globetrotter's cheeks, pushing up on each side in an attempt to draw something close to a grin on his drooping face.

"Ohhhhhhh. There's that smile, Brain!"

"Would you get off?!" Globetrotter blasted, waving his arms around as he flung Pinky off of him. "I told you not to touch me!"

His cheeks and ears burned red at the sound of laughter nearby. Some of the students had been watching and were now drowning in a hushed fit of giggles. Naturally...

"You dimwit. If you're still sitting in that chair in five seconds, I shall personally have to harm you," threatened Globetrotter, cheeks reddening worse than ever as his paws balled into fists.

"Do I get a prize if I leave in four?" Pinky smirked.

"One..."

"Or maybe I'll get one if I stay longer! It pays to be persistent sometimes, Brain."

"Two..."

"You know, you're rather funny when your ears turn red. Nya-ha-ha!"

"FOUR...!"

"Going, Brain!"

And with that, he was off, picking his food up off his tray to take back to his room, giggling to himself and humming, of all things, "Camptown Races" as he headed for the doors. One of the teachers, a Dr. Dawson, smiled at Pinky as he walked past him. And Dr. Dawson... Oh, have mercy. Dr. Dawson started singing along with him.

"I say. I do recognize that tune, young man!" Dawson said, grinning warmly. "Camptown ladies sing this song! Doo-dah! Doo-dah!"

"Camptown race-track five miles long! Oh, doo-da day!" Pinky sung back, beaming.

Others joined in. Still others. Soon, almost the entire cafeteria, minus Globetrotter and a few stragglers, was decked out in song.

"Gwine to run all night! Gwine to run all day! Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag! Somebody bet on the bay!"

And with that, everyone burst out into hearty laughter, Pinky's wail the loudest of all. He and Dr. Dawson exchanged a friendly word or two, shook hands, and with that, Pinky departed, leaving a trail of chuckles behind.

Globetrotter blinked, his mouth hanging slightly open again. Whatever had happened was... terrifying. This bloke didn't just have an effect on the students, but on the whole school. Even the teachers were getting involved! It was official. This needed to end. He had to be stopped...

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Pinky was still humming "Camptown Races" all the way back to his classroom. He'd just reached the door when a little someone came pitter-pattering down the hallway after him.

"Mr. Pinky! Mr. Pinky!" she called, hat bobbing wildly up and down on her ruffled, furry head.

"Hello, Olivia!" Pinky said, grinning from ear to ear.

"That was amazing!" she gasped, panting. "Mrs. Judson said she could hear you from the nurses' office. She was singing with you!"

They both giggled at this.

"Well, tell Mrs. Judson that Mr. Pinky is glad she enjoyed the song!" Pinky said.

"Oh, I will! I will! By the way, umm... do you have any more classes planned?" Olivia asked, tucking her paws behind her and rocking back and forth, the pink cheeks only complementing her humble posture. She looked awfully cute.

"Hmmmmm. Will you be here tomorrow?"

"Is that a Friday?"

"I think so."

"Yes! Yes, I will!"

"2:00 PM sharp tomorrow, little lady," Pinky said, winking at her.

"2:00 PM sharp, Mr. Pinky!" Olivia repeated, saluting him. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

And off she trotted.

"Oh! Olivia!" Pinky called.

Olivia stopped and turned around, her mouth in a curious little 'o' shape. Pulling a hand out of his pocket, Pinky tossed her a bag of crisps. She caught it with a trained paw.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, popping open the bag and tossing a chip in her mouth as she ran off and around a corner.

"Olivia!" Pinky called again, a hand to his mouth.

"Hm?" she queried, popping her head around the corner.

"How many signatures?!"

"Thirty-seven!"

"Woo-hoo!"

"Woo woo!" she called back, before flying off once more.

Pinky smiled, giggling to himself, as he turned the door handle and disappeared inside.

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

Author's Notes:

- Marvell is an original character created by a friend of mine who goes by the cognomen of "Geeky". You can find her lovely art and cute character on Twitter at: GeekyBlackGirl

- Flip phones weren't exactly in wide use in '93, but I cheated here for convenience's sake and story purposes.

- The book that Teresa was reading, as well as the book Globetrotter carried around with him, are actual published works. Stochastic calculus is, apparently, a very advanced form of the subject. Brain considers it light reading.

- Your typical volcano science project is partially composed of baking soda, which, in turn, is made up of sodium bicarbonate. The whole thing is a reference to Globetrotter's explosive personality, and how he views the current predicament as such: one big problem on the verge of erupting and destroying his position if he doesn't do something... and fast.

- Globetrotter going for the cottage cheese and fruit, while sadly eschewing the pasta, is due to the fact that, in this story, he has terrible bowel and diarrhea issues. He's been told by his doctor to avoid certain foods, but finds this... a struggle at times. I dunno why I decided to give him this problem, other than the fact that it amuses me. Lol.

- Olivia is a lot of fun to write. :)

[ifanfictionella]

I have a crush on the cute guitarist in you’re band (1)

Fandom: Voltron legendary defender                                                                       Ship:Romelle x Allura                                                                                               Words:3451 

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

<p>After their third round of starbucks latte trips and second round of trailing around the bookstores of the mall all three friends found themselves in pidges dormroom studying. Shay had sprawled herself across the single bed along with a few open books, the rock nerd was the only one who didn’t actually live in this room. </p>

<p>The room was romelle and pidges. </p>

<p>Said short nerd was sitting at her desk with one headphone in looking at what looked like some sciency stuff. She had cursed at her laptop so many times that romelle had started to question if pidge actually like her so called ‘baby’</p>

<p>That left romelle, she wasn’t technically studying.</p>

<p>There was nothing to study.</p>

<p>Romelle was an art student so often when her friends were doing school work she would be using that free time to get her book, and often her clothes, covered in paint. </p>

<p>She often opted to have the floor rather than using her bed to do artwork, even when she was sketching she just couldn’t risk anything rubbing off onto her covers. In the background romelle had let her soft music playlist play which pared with the low hum of pidges laptop, the occasional chudder made all three of them jump.</p>

<p>The setting sun of the night seemed to paired nicely with the fairy lights romelle had insisted that they put up, it was the perfect type of evening to be studying to. The library was often too crowded and the lights were too bright meaning studying was rather hard, the coffee shops were too busy and people would often stop to talk to them which would be highly distracting. </p>

<p>Romelle and Shay both jumped when pidge groaned and closed her note book, closed her laptop and put the pen down. “Ya know girls, it is a friday night and we could actually be doing something fun” </p>

<p>“What do you suggest?” Shay asked, raising her eyebrow whilst looking up from her books for one of the first times that evening. “And would we need to change clothing?”</p>

<p>“Well I mean keith's band is taking part in one of those indie concerts” she said sitting sideways on her chair playing with a strewn pen, she glanced at it from a side angle before looking at the two of them “I did promise him we would maybe swing by to watch and support” </p>

<p>Romelle turned to look at Shay, romelle shrugged at her which left the decision up to Shay. It had been a while since romelle had gone out to something at night, much less something on a friday night </p>

<p>Wow such an exciting college student</p>

<p>“Would it be ok if Hunk tagged along?” shay said raising her eyebrow, pidge shrugged before nodding at her </p>

<p>After that interaction Shay had left to get changed in her own dorm room. </p>

<p>“You ok with her bringing Hunk?” romelle asked as she went through her wardrobe looking at all of her tops really not having a clue what she wanted to wear. </p>

<p>“Yeah sure” pidge replied, sounding like she was biting her tongue “Just bring my ex boyfriend along to a concert where my current boyfriend is playing , that won’t be awkward” there was a huge amount of sarcasm behind that statement. That earnt a slight chuckle from romelle as she picked out a band shirt she had picked up from a local thrift shop</p>

<p>“Keith and hunk seem pretty chill though” she replied pressing it up against her body before reaching for a pair of jeans that she thought would look cute. </p>

<p>“You wouldn’t get it, you don’t feel the awkwardness when we go on double dates” pidge replied as she slid one of keiths jackets on her body. Romelle had put her jeans and shirt on by now and turned to look at pidge. She had decided to not change her earrings or the scarf headband she had been wearing all day, her curled hair would do fine.</p>

<p> Romelle shrugged at her “Me and you’re brother talk like we’re still best friends” she said picking up the hoodie that had been laid on the floor under her bed for a week now, she sniffed it and decided it still smelt ok enough to wear out </p>

<p>“That’s different, he came out as gay” she said, kind of dead pan whilst looking down at her phone “We all knew, admit it” </p>

<p>She had to sigh and simply nod in response, besides shiro was good to him. She was just happy to have him in her life as a best friend. There was a knock at the door which made both girls turn towards the door</p>

<p>“It’s open” Pidge called before going back to texting someone, presumably keith </p>

<p>“Lance decided to tag too '' Shay said with a slight groan, He winked at romelle earning an eye roll from her. It meant nothing flirty, lance was highly taken and romelle would never go for him anyway.</p>

<p>“Wanting to boo mullet and cheer for lotor?” romelle asked, folding her arms and raising her eyebrow at him with a slight smirk. </p>

<p>“I will stomp on your foot If i hear any cat calls coming from you” Pidge said, looking up having the same smirk on her face that romelle had. This earned an eye roll from lance before he put his hands in the air </p>

<p>“While me and you’re boo will never see eye to eye,I want to support the band” he said lowering his hands and putting them in his pockets “Besides my cousin just joined the band, you notice her straight away” </p>

<p>Romelle looked up at the mention of a new member, the two other members had never really brought up the fact that they were gaining a new member. </p>

<p>"shouldn't we get going then?" Shay said, jumping into the conversation whilst holding hunks hand.</p>

<p>He seemed out of it today </p>

<p>"yeah yeah, let's get going" pidge said trying to push them out the door, romelle simply rolled her eyes smiling taking her key from the hook and locking the door behind them. </p>

<p>---- </p>

<p>They took a short cut she was not aware of and they ended up at the main park of the town, the gazebo had been set up with a backstage area and band equipment. </p>

<p>Most of the bands romelle had not heard of, she really only knew about midnight dragons, Keith's band. </p>

<p>"here seems like a good spot” pidge said</p>

<p>“It only took the gremlin pushing past most of the taller people to find it” lance whispered to romelle which made her laugh slightly, shay simply rolled her eyes at pidge before going to stand with hunk and sip from her iced latte. The other three stood a tad bit away from the couple, pidge was texting someone while lance went scouting around for some sort of drinks bit</p>

<p>“Hows veronica?” Romelle asked looking up at the cuban boy which made him stop and turn to look at her again. He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged slightly at her </p>

<p>“Well we have kinda be talking though she is still ignoring me because of lotor” he sighed and looked down at the floor, he kicked at a rock that was near his feet before looking back up “It’s whatever you know, older siblings are protective to an annoying extent”</p>

<p>“I would assume Bandor would say the same about me” she said before shrugging herself “You and Lotor still up for meeting up for coffee on sunday” </p>

<p>“Oh duh, we both love our catch up sessions' ' he said forming a smile on his face scratching at the back of the neck, Romelle noticed a large ish dark mark on his neck which made her smirk slightly before shaking her head.</p>

<p>“Highlight of my week”<br /> The sound of some announcer coming on made the two turn towards the stage area, romelle couldn’t quite hear the man talking, mainly because she was admiring his british accent and orange mustache. What she did understand was when he announced that pidge had dragged them to a battle of the bands, romelle turned to pidge and gave her a slight glare. </p>

<p>It was some band named pastel galaxies up first, their music really was not romelles vibe and she found herself reaching for her phone throughout a few of their songs. </p>

<p>Known on her luck, Keith's band was going to be the last act to perform. </p>

<p>Thankfully she was wrong </p>

<p>Midnight dragons came out straight after, the familiar faces of Keith and lotor caught her eye. Keith had dropped his guitar and was rocking his new piercings, no matter what he wore he seemed to wear it well. Lotor as always was borrowing some aspects of keiths wardrobe but the eyeliner was all his as was the hairstyle. </p>

<p>“Mullets looking emo as ever” Lance said with his arms folded, romelle elbowed him in the arm and laughed slightly </p>

<p>“You will eventually give it up that you had a crush on him in highschool” she asked raising her eyebrow slightly</p>

<p>Lance may have said something but Romelle wasn’t paying attention, her eyes were immediately drawn to the new girl. She was absolutely beautiful. </p>

<p>She had the prettiest eyes and her skin was tanned and the bleached blonde, almost silver , hair fell around her head perfectly. Her long pastel  t-shirt tucked into her skinny black jeans just drew romelles attention to her amazing figure</p>

<p>Holy shit</p>

<p>“Yo! Romelle” Lance called making her jump and turn to look at him “You’re pretty red, see something you like?” He was smirking at that point with his arms folded </p>

<p>“Bite me mclain” </p>

<p>She ignored him for the rest of the band's set, she couldn’t place any of the songs that were played that night. She was just so entranced by watching the guitarist play and laugh and just enjoy life while performing. Her hair seemed to fall out of the high ponytail while she was jumping to the final song. </p>

<p>And with that their bit was over, the girl looked down directly at her group and gave a smile before looking at the crowd. </p>

<p>Romelles face completely flushed after that.</p>

<p>“Thank you for coming out, enjoy the rest of the show” Lotor said beating keith to the microphone, all three of them bowed before going back stage </p>

<p>“That my guy” lance said before doing some sort of wolf whistle, pidge came up to the two of them after that. Shay and hunk had left a few songs ago- something about all the coffee not agreeing with shay. </p>

<p>“We should go see them” she suggested already tugging on lances hoodie in the direction of the backstage area “Besides I want to finally meet the new girl”</p>

<p>“I don’t need much convincing to see my boy” Lance said allowing himself to be dragged in the direction. Romelle  just rolled her eyes at lance before walking ahead. </p>

<p>She had to push past a few people and certainly lost pidge way behind her, she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going and bumped into someone who practically towered over. She looked up at the butch woman and was practically falling over herself trying to appilogise </p>

<p>“Watch where you’re going next time” </p>

<p>Wow she had a rough deep voice</p>

<p>“zathrid, It’s not her fault” Another voice said jumping in, it belonged to a rather cute looking girl, she had pink hair and big hoop earrings in “Sorry about her, we’ve both had a rough week with college, it’s our final year” the girl held her hand out </p>

<p>“I’ve got that to come, I’m only a first year,” Romelle replied, taking the girl's hand before walking away from the two- she had wanted to introduce herself but she also really wanted to get out of that situation.</p>

<p>She breathed a sigh of relief when she got to the edge of the crowd, she looked up and could see Keith and Lotor having a smoke break which got her to smile. She turned back and could see pidge had climbed on top of lances shoulders, the two were already making their way through the crowd. </p>

<p>When they got to her pidge jumped down and walked over to keith and lotor, romelle and lance watched as she snuggled into keith's side. The three of them talked for about a minute before she motioned towards romelle and lance, romelle gave an awkward wave at the two while lance winked at lotor. </p>

<p>“Oh come on are you two afraid of a bit of smoke” Keith called before taking a drag from his cigarette. </p>

<p>“My body is a temple kogane” lance called back as the two walked forward towards them “The only bad exception I let in is your hot drummer” he then looked over at lotor and slipped his hand into his pocket. </p>

<p>“Yieks” pidge responded with a slight smirk directed at lance “So who’s your guitarist?”</p>

<p>“Weirdly,” Lotor started discarding his cigarette into a water bucket “That would be an ex of mine, before I came out we were just experimenting” </p>

<p>“So what you’re saying is, I turned you gay” A new british voice said, the girl from before walked out from the stage area with a guitar case held on her back. She folded her arms and smirked at lotor </p>

<p>“More like I relised that, we’re both just too gay to be straight”</p>

<p>So she's into girls?</p>

<p>Shit why is her heart going so fast </p>

<p>“You took most of the gay, lets not forget that”</p>

<p>“Allura, this is pidge” keith said motioning the girl under his arm “That's lance” he said pointing at lance before he turned to look at romelle “And she’s romelle”</p>

<p>“The token single” lotor added which made romelle roll her eyes </p>

<p>“I’m just too good for anyone at our college” she responded before laughing slightly “But seriously, I don’t meet enough people”</p>

<p>“I dropped out of college, i much prefer the working life” allura said rolling her shoulders backwards “What do you study?”</p>

<p>“Can’t you tell, she’s an art student” Lance said motioning to what she was wearing making romelle roll her eyes again </p>

<p>“That’s a stereotype lance”</p>

<p>“Aww cute,I drew from time to time- just when i'm having a bad day really” Allura said rubbing her arm before getting an idea “Come with me for a sec,I’ll show you my sketch journal”</p>

<p>So she's one of those girls? </p>

<p>“Uh sure” Romelle replied following the girl, romelle quickly caught up to her- there wasn’t any security at events like this due to the bands not being huge or mainstream enough to have people trying to harass them. The female dressing room wasn’t in use at the moment so there wasn’t any issue of bumping into people. Allura reached into her bag and pulled out a leather bound book along with her phone. </p>

<p>“Sorry if they are kind of bad, i'm just a hobbyist” she said, passing the book to romelle. She looked at the book and felt it underneath her fingers for a second or two before opening it. </p>

<p>While it wasn’t the sort of stuff she was used to seeing in sketchbooks but the composition of the pages were amazing. She assumed the journal was more like a feelings book rather than some sort of art book</p>

<p>“Those are really cool, I love the way you have all of the pages layed out, that’s something I have been struggling with for a while so I think how you’ve done it is pretty cool” she said closing the book and passing it back to allura “I’d love to talk to you more about your journaling”</p>

<p>Allura looked at her for a second or two before processing what she had said and nodding, she got out a post it note from what looked like a diary and gave it to her. Romelle looked at the neon pink piece of paper with the cutesy handwriting. </p>

<p>Romelle quickly put the number in her phone and saved the contact </p>

<p>---------------------------------------------------</p>

<p>“So what did you and allura talk about?” Lance asked, smirking at her as they walked back to the college site, he was holding a disposable cup of coffee that Lotor had bought him before he and Keith had gone back to their shared apartment. </p>

<p>“Just art” she shrugged</p>

<p>“Is that code for something”</p>

<p>“No we just talked about art, wheres pidge anyway”</p>

<p>“Spending the night with keith” </p>

<p>Romelle nodded “Wanna sleep over then?” </p>

<p>“As long as I can do you’re makeup again”</p>

<p>They both got out their student ID to scan at the door and then walked to the dorm building. Romelle got her keys out and opened the door, turned the lights on and put her bag down. Her coffee had gone cold by now so she took it to the sink and tipped it out, she quickly got herself into something she could sleep in before lance got to her room. </p>

<p>“Sharp shooter has arrived” He said opening her door, he was quite clearly wearing one of lotors shirts with a pair of shorts underneath<br /> “Make up is in the same place as always, I’m making hot cocoa”</p>

<p>“You know the way to my heart ro ro” he laughed sitting down on pidges bed and leaning back into her fort of pillows for a second or two before getting up and going to her cupboard. She didn’t have too big of a collection of makeup, she mainly only wore the basics everyday and only wore eye shadow when they went out for a proper night out. </p>

<p>Lance still knew way too much about makeup to make her look good.</p>

<p>Romelle brought the cup to him and put it on the nightstand, she kept hers in her hand so she could lightly sip at it while lance was taking breaks with make up. She got her laptop set up and found movie on netflix that they could just leave in the background</p>

<p>After having been watched so many times lance could recite the lines but it was the perfect background movie.</p>

<p>“You are doing one of the worst jobs hiding that hickey by the way” romelle said as lance started getting out her make up and putting it in the order he was going to use it in</p>

<p>“What hickey” He asked playing dumb opening up her primer and putting it on the cotton pad “I have no idea what you are talking about”</p>

<p>“It’s a huge purple mark on your neck, no matter how much concealer you put on it, I can see it” She said with a slight smirk, she didn’t want to move her face too much. Lance had complained to her before that if she moved her face when doing makeup it would crease and stuff. </p>

<p>“Fine we had a hot make-out session” he sighed focusing more on the makeup than her for a second “One thing led to another and … well you know the rest”</p>

<p>Romelle simply giggled at him “As long as you had fun, I guess”  she shrugged </p>

<p>“What about you and that allura girl, I saw the way you looked at her”</p>

<p>“I mean I just got her number, we just met I don’t think anything is going to happen straight away”</p>

<p>“Wow her number already, player”</p>

<p>“Oh hush hush.’” </p>

<p>“Im serious, that’s really good for you”</p>

<p>“Wow thanks”</p>

<p>When he had finally done her make-up they watched the end of the movie,took a few pictures with the make up and then lance dropped off the sleep. Romelle smiled at him and put the blanket over him before going to take the make-up off her face. </p>

<p>Once It was all off she walked back into the main room bit and checked her phone </p>

<p>Allura ❤️<br /> Hey It’s the girl from the concert, keith gave me the number, this is romelle right </p>

<p>Romelle looked down at her phone and smiled slightly, as if that girl had actually sought out her and her contact details- It’s probably just so they can talk about art but still that brought a slight smile to her </p>

<p>Hey! Yeah it’s romelle, how you doing after the concert you killed it BTW</p>

<p>She wasn’t expecting a quick response so she shut her laptop down and put her earphones in to listen to some music. She brushed her teeth, got a glass of water and got into bed </p>

<p>Allura ❤️<br /> Awwwwwwwww!!!! Thanks, I was kinda nervous TBH, I just moved to the area and keith herd me playing</p>

<p>Oh He’s my neighbour LOL that’s how we met</p>

<p>Romelle smiled preparing herself to probably stay up most of the night talking to this girl- probably not a bad thing</p>

[mollymauk-teafleak]

Widomauk Week 2019

Day 3- Tarot

Coincidentally, also a modern au! Because thats just kind of what I like to write

(Discussion of sex)

The day had been one of those achingly rare ones, the ones that were empty of any work, any responsibilities, any duties. A day where Caleb had been entirely at his own mercy with no classes or papers due in anytime soon. Just a long, yawning day for him to fill with whatever he liked.

Not long ago, the idea of a day like that would have set his nerves jangling and shrieking like alarm bells. He’d once hated having nothing to do, nothing to keep his hands busy and his mind from straying to places he didn’t want it to go. A year ago, upon finding himself in a position like this, he would have either scavenged some classwork or studying to do, desperately clawing for an assigned purpose, or sunk into a depression that he might not have got himself out of for a week.

But things were different now, so different that Caleb had to wonder sometimes if he’d woken up as someone entirely new one day and just not realised it. Someone who smiled and slept more than three hours a night, someone who talked with others and only spent a few days with a roiling stomach ache brought on by anxiety. And even then, when he did feel like that, he would simply go and tell one of his friends and they would sit with him and help him remember that it would only ever be temporary.

And then one of his friends had become something more, something he’d truly never thought he’d ever have.

On his one, rare day off, Mollymauk had woken him well past sunrise with gentle kisses pressed to the nape of his neck and arms wrapping around his middle. Sleepy, gentle sex had followed without neither of them having to say a word, only giggling and trading a good morning back and forth once the two of them were panting, rumpled and sweating slightly. A late breakfast, kisses that tasted of chocolate and coffee on the threadbare second hand couch, a shared shower that went about the way you’d expect, a movie down at the theatre that neither of them particularly wanted to see but still managed to laugh all the way through by whispering comments to each other, all this went by with no effort at all. Not a single second did Caleb spend as prey to his own thoughts, worrying about things he should be doing or why there wasn’t anything he should be doing. The day was warm and bright for the verge of winter, Mollymauk’s hand was in his own and there was no reason to be afraid.

Now the long, warm day had turned into a chilly dusk that felt like it had no end, just a cool purple haze the two of them had sunken into like flies in amber. The thick curtains in Molly’s room kept out the worst of the cold that came along with the settling night while not losing the thick, orange light of the sunset. It made the whole room, with its deep purples and dark blues and gold highlighting, come to life with some strange ethereal warmth like they were in the sunset itself.

Caleb lay sprawled on Molly’s bed with one of his pillows propping up his chin. Every so often he’d bury his nose in it and inhale as deep as he possibly could, smelling his boyfriend’s cologne and the mango shampoo he’d been favouring lately and the lavender oil he rubbed onto his horns before bed. Just as Mollymauk was half a hundred colours, he was half a hundred scents as well and Caleb was determined to memorise them all.

Molly was sat on the floor, his battered old keyboard across his knees, scratching idly at the marker pen scrawling he’d done and redone over and over so he’d know which key was which note. His journal was open and some notes were scratched into it but they were the first few hesitant steps into unknown ground, nothing that was really at a good, solid run yet. He was picking some little riffs out here and there but most of it was a lot of frowning and scrawling in his books. Caleb knew Molly’s process by now, it would be a lot of this, a lot of huffing and fussing and smoking joints and melodrama until he worked the song out of his system. But Caleb always got the sense that Molly rather liked this part, he liked playing the tortured artist. And in the end the song would be wonderful, his usual mix of bittersweet and esoteric and otherworldly. . Molly just didn’t seem to remember that part right now.

“You need to take a break,” Caleb observed from the pillow.

“Why?” Molly craned his neck back to look at him upside down, “Because everything I’ve ever written sucks ass and my dreams of being a musician are completely futile?”

Caleb tried to hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were twitching upwards, “No. Don’t put your writer’s block’s words in my mouth.”

“It’s true,” Molly grumbled, turning back to the keyboard and walking his fingers across it to make a frustrated, discordant tune.

Caleb shuffled forward enough that he could kiss the top of Molly’s head. His hair had been getting very long lately, growing out of the undercut he used to keep it in. He’d spoken wistfully the other night of having hair right down to his waist.

“You’re trying to force it and it’s getting you all knotted up,” he observed sagely, “It’s like when I learn a new spell, happens every time. You get so frustrated when it doesn’t work after a hundred times but once you let go of that and turn away from it, it takes hold.”

Molly grunted, leaning back into his embrace, “Quit being so wise or you’re gonna make me admit you’re right.”

Caleb laughed at that, reaching down to bat the keyboard off his knees, “Come up here with me. A watched pot never boils and all that.”

“Sounds like a good way to burn my apartment down,” Molly hummed but he clambered up on his bed all the same.

For a little while all they did was enjoy their closeness, Molly’s hands on Caleb’s waist, Caleb’s face resting in the crook of Molly’s neck. He could remember a time when he’d flinch away from any kind of touch like this, like if anyone’s fingertips so much as brushed him, they’d see he wasn’t really there and the illusion would be broken. But since they’d found each other, he’d become a glutton for it, for feeling someone else’s hair tickling his nose, hearing a soft, gentle breath in his ear.

Until Molly broke apart, eyes shining in that way they did when he’d seized on a potentially wonderful, potentially destructive idea.

“Let’s play a card game to pass the time!”

Caleb tilted his head, “I kind of thought we were working our way towards a different activity…”

“Oh, we’ll fuck, don’t worry,” Molly laid a soothing hand on his boyfriend’s arm, “But this will make it even more fun!”

Caleb leaned back, curiosity sparked. Molly’s homebrewed card games were usually amazing and usually involved the revealing of scandalous secrets.

And after Molly had eagerly withdrawn his favourite tarot deck from his desk drawer and explained the rules, in a tone that made it sound like he was definitely making this up on the spot, Caleb saw that this one would be no different.

A question on the deck. Players withdrew two cards. Lower value card meant you had to answer the question. And from the way his red eyes narrowed and his tail lashed, Caleb knew the nature of those questions.

“Sounds fun,” he grinned, lying back on the pillows, letting the oversized shirt he was wearing ride up just a little. Two could play at that game.

“Nice easy one to start off with,” Molly declared, setting the cards, neatly shuffled, between them on Caleb’s discarded book like an island in the inky sea of his bedsheets, “Who was your first?”

Caleb snorted, “You already know that.”

“Hence why it’s easy,” Molly retorted, stretching out with an effortless laziness. He was wearing one of Caleb’s shirts as well, with boxer shorts that barely qualified as such given how small they were, showing off majority of his long tattooed legs.

“Okay, okay…”

Caleb drew the second card, Molly drew the sixth. He grinned wickedly as he showed off The Lovers.

“Appropriate,” Caleb smirked, “Alright. As you well know, my first was my roommate from boarding school when I was seventeen. Percy.”

“Come on, you can’t be that stingy with the details!”

Caleb huffed out a laugh, “There aren’t really that many! Pretty standard missionary under his blanket in bed, terrified the whole time that we’d get caught. It was the time after in the library that’s really good…”

“Wait, what?” Molly sat bolt upright, eyes shining, “Spill it!”

Caleb merely shrugged with exaggerated innocence, sliding his card back into the deck, “Not part of the question, is it?”

“Asshole!” Molly declared, surging forward into the next round with renewed eagerness, “Next question, where’s the wildest place you’ve ever had sex?”

“Don’t I ever get to pick the question?”

“I have decided no, on the grounds that you are an asshole.”

Caleb chortled when Molly drew the sixth and he drew the eighteenth.

The tiefling shrugged carelessly, “It’s fine. Weirdest place I’ve ever had sex…probably in the bathroom of the pizza place on Sixth street.”

Caleb had to splutter a little at that, “No way, really? And you go back there?”

“I never said I got caught,” Molly points out, wagging his finger, “And when the hot half elf you’re seeing takes you out dancing with a vibrating plug in you, you’ll have sex anywhere, believe me.”

“We are never going back there…”

“Why? It’s got the best pizza.”

They traded back and forth like this for a while, until their throats were raspy from laughing and their jaws sore from grinning. Caleb quickly realised his stories were never going to be as exciting or varied as Mollymauk’s but he did get to tell him the story of the time he sucked Percy’s dick in the book stacks of their school’s library. That had made Molly fidget and purr excitedly, pressing his thighs together as his ears picked up.

The two of them were teetering on the edge of scattering the cards to the floor and making a new story to tell later but Caleb was desperate to get at least one question in. Finally, Molly relented, admitting that the library study was good enough to earn him the right.

Caleb’s hand hovered over the deck, fingers twitching as he thought. What was the one thing he wanted to know more than anything?

Eventually what came out of his mouth was, “What does sex feel like? With the person you’re with now, I mean.”

Mollymauk blinked, his smile softening. He took a card gladly.

On the count of three, they turned them over and then burst out in bewildered laughter. They both held card number six. Though Caleb’s had a clearly different design from the other cards in the deck, they both held some image of two people entwined in each other, two sets of Lovers.

“This is what you get for having an addiction to buying tarot cards, I guess,” Molly shrugged helplessly.

“And for never keeping your stuff neat,” Caleb added, tucking some hair behind his ear, “You go first, though. Because it was my question.”

Molly nodded, thinking for a while, choosing his words carefully. He’d been fidgeting all the way through the game but now he was still, not even his tail twitching in its usual restless way. He looked out of the window as he thought, out into the nearly night.

The stars were coming out, one by one, finding their way through the sunset.

“Having sex with you feels like…it feels like I’ve finally found something I didn’t even know I was looking for. Something that was missing with everyone before. There’s just this piece of it finally in place, its whole, it’s complete…and that’s how I know you’re the man I want to spend the rest of my life with.”

Caleb took a deep breath. He had to get through his answer quickly before he either burst into tears or pinned Mollymauk to the bed or both.

“Being with you makes me realise I deserve to be happy. Because you look at me and you touch me and you kiss me and…and even the parts of me that are small and sad and broken can’t deny how much you love me. And if that’s true then I must deserve it. I must deserve you.”

Molly’s hand had slid into his own after just a few words, holding tight like an anchor. Then it was his lips, as soon as the words left him. The pillows rushed up to meet them as Molly’s tail wrapped around his leg and his mouth found its way past the shirt he wore to the flushed, prickling skin underneath.

The cards fell to the floor, as unnoticed and unremarked as night finally taking hold outside. They forgot the game and left the points not noted, leaving their paper lovers to their own carefully inked embraces.  

It had been a very, very good day.

[grantfieldgrove]

Your friends want you to fail.

It’s true.

It’s true and it sucks.

But the sooner you realize this, the better off you’ll be. You can set yourself on the course for success while leaving them behind.

That’s exactly what your friends don’t want, but you have the capability to make it happen.

I’m not trying to be negative, but I’ve learned this the hard way.

Let me back up a bit.

Ten years ago I was working a dead end job at a grocery store. I hated it. The pay was crap. The work was crap. Most of the customers were crap. But I had friends!

I was miserable. I had a temper, I was angry about everything. I was bitter that I worked this job I didn’t like when I knew I should be doing better. I was all over social media, posting about everything, even belittling people I didn’t even know by snapping pictures of them and posting them, then enjoying a laugh at their expense.

That’s bottom of the barrel, self-esteem wise.

I would fight with people who held different political beliefs than me, different opinions about religion, or even movies. I was the loud mouth Fred Flintstone type, but I always got laughs. At least some.

It didn’t take long after my son was born to realize that something wasn’t quite right with him. He was extremely delayed and obviously autistic. I blew it off and didn’t believe it, making excuses as to why he was so behind.

We had to enroll him in a special school at age 2. The bitterness grew.

One day I decided to buy an iPad. Just because.

I took it home, unboxed it, and sat on my floor to play with it. But instead of playing games, I started writing.

I literally started writing a novel out of nowhere. It was a hoot. I started carrying a little notebook around work, thinking of plot points. It was great, because when you carry a notebook and pen around while working, people assume you’re working really hard!

Before I knew it, I had a book. I didn’t know what the hell to do with it, but I had one.

I found out you can self-publish books on Amazon, so that’s exactly what I did. I gave it a once or twice over, figured out how to format it, and it was published. And wow, did it have a lot of typos. The story was good, though. Some people bought it and it actually got good reviews. Some friends even bought it, though I doubt many of them read it. But still, it felt good. So I started the second book and finished it in record time. This one was even funnier and I liked it a lot, although, once again, I skimped on the editing.

Shortly before the release of that book, I had a falling out with most of my friends. I had planned a big party in Las Vegas, everyone was going to attend, but it was just a disaster. We had a suite at the Aria, but none of my friends even stayed in the hotel. Not a problem, but they stayed way down the strip at Paris. Then got so drunk at the pool, not a single person showed up. So yeah, I was pissed. And the party wasn’t just for fun, it was a special occasion for my wife. And every one of them let me down. So that’s that. We left first thing in the morning, leaving them all in the dust.

Nothing was really the same after that.

All of this is just specific backstory that doesn’t pertain to you, but the basic elements could. The moral of the story remains the same.

Cut to ten years after I first sat down to write that novel. I now have 11 books, including the first ever murder mystery series for kids, which even, somehow, became the runner up for some award I already forgot the name of. Three of my books have been produced into audiobooks and two have advanced to the semi finals in an Amazon-sponsored fiction contest where out of 10,000, 400 advanced. I’ve gotten positive reviews from Kirkus, and a few other publications.

These are facts that I am proud of. I share these from time to time on social media, although I am still not comfortable with talking about myself.

But, now my friends don’t buy my books. Maybe one or two, not even my “Facebook friends” who were on board at the beginning. The last book published is my favorite. I’m so happy with it and proud of it. I literally tried to give away copies to people I know. I didn’t have a single taker.

I would promote the book being free on Kindle during a particular day or weekend, or whatever, and not a single person would respond to it. I tried to give away Audible audiobooks. Not a single taker.

It’s so bizarre.

Why?

I could understand if the books were garbage. There are a lot of genuinely bad books out there, especially since self publishing has gotten so popular and easy to do. But my books aren’t those books.

I started a small publishing services company, just as a side job to help people out. People who were lost like me when I first started.

My friends didn’t care.

Granted, it’s not very exciting, and with the emergence of “multi-level marketing,” starting a business isn’t that impressive, apparently. (Remind me to tell you about this amazing magical wrap thing! Kidding.)

One thing I forgot to mention earlier, is that I went without Facebook for about a year and a half. I hated it. I hated the fakeness of it. And I was bitter. Bitter that I was trying to better my life, to branch out from a dead end job and try to make something of myself, and I never got any good feedback from it.

My son is severely autistic, he’s ten now and still completely non-verbal. We don’t have a typical life. We have to adapt to whatever life throws at us, and that’s what I was trying to do. My son hated when I had to go to work. He didn’t understand why I had to leave, often in the middle of the night. So I tried to change things.

And still I got nothing. So, bye bye Facebook. Good riddance.

It was weird at first. I still had this urge to let everyone know what I was doing. Like, them knowing would someone validate me doing it. If your Facebook friends don’t know what you do, are you really even doing it?

While I’m typing this, my Facebook is back. But there is a reason. Over the summer, while I was doodling on my iPad, I had an idea. I could put these things on tshirts. I would totally wear them.

So I looked it into. I saw that the possibilities were seemingly endless. Why stop at tshirts when you can make leggings? Why stop at leggings when you can make backpacks?

It goes on like this.

So I went all in. And I mean, ALL IN!

I had quit my job at the supermarket a few months prior. I had enough money to survive for a while while I explored new paths. So I sunk everything into this little venture. I was going to make horror related clothes. The horror market is severely underused. There are, of course, some major players in the horror game, but they all had to start at the bottom, too. So I went for it. I made a website. I made an Instagram and a Facebook. And after a week of the site being up, I made a sale. And then another sale.

Turning a profit is tricky, though. I needed word of mouth. I needed friends.

So I got back on my personal Facebook page after a year and a half, and let everyone know what I had been up to while I was gone.

It landed with a thud.

Nobody cared.

In the time I was gone I had a kid’s book, and novel, and this clothing company all launch.

I got nothing.

I started booking comic cons and would post pictures.

Nothing.

I have a little booth downtown, with all my stuff displayed, where you can walk in, buy something, and help support me and my family, by buying small, staying local.

I’ve had one friend visit it.

One.

It’s been there for six months.

I posted a few pictures of horror-celebrities wearing or showing off something I created.

Nothing.

I drew posters for a few events, movie screenings, even a stage play. I posted them. The most recent one I posted got 6 likes.

I have 590 Facebook friends and 6 of them liked a poster I did for a Scream 2 screening.

I have a family member whose daughter wanted “something Michael Myers” for Christmas. I have tons of Myers stuff. Stuff I poured my heart and soul into. Stuff you can’t find anywhere else.

This person did not buy from me. She bought a generic Myers t-shirt from a major store and probably spent more than she would have with me.

Right now, through luck and hopefully hard work, my work is in the processing of being officially licensed. Which means, with a little more work and a whole lot more hustle, it could end up in stores like Hot Topic, etc.

And then what?

I don’t know. I like to daydream. And I would like someone to be proud of it, someone who doesn’t live with me.

But, there comes a time when you have to let that go. Your friends won’t be proud of you. They will belittle you. They will find something to nitpick about what you’re doing.

And it sucks.

Strangers will support you. Your friends will not.

The sooner you know this, the better. You can delete your personal Facebook, you can shrug your shoulders at all the people holding you back and making you feel bad about leaving your comfort zone and taking a risk.

There is no law that you must remain friends with the people you were once friends with. Cut em loose.

This is about you. It’s about your dreams. Your life. Not theirs.

If they don’t want to follow you on your journey or cheer you on, cut them loose. Release that anchor from around your neck and push full-speed ahead.

You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish when you stop worrying about what so-called friends think and start realizing that no matter what you do, there will be someone who admires you and looks up to you, just as you’ve looked up to someone else when you started your self-fulfilling journey.

Be the person you would want to look up to.

You can do it.

Start today.

Two months ago I had to attend a wedding where all of these people would be, all these “friends.”

All I heard were complaints. Whoever we struck up a conversation with, complained.

Complain complain complain.

I understood what was wrong.

We didn’t complain. My wife and I, we only told positive stories.

Our complaining days are over. We’ve moved on. We seemed out the positives from our lives and choose to focus on that.

All this did was draw out more complaining from the wedding guests.

So tone deaf and these people we’ve left behind, they were complaining about students (the teachers we knew) that are very similar to our son.

Like, really?! This is our life. You go home at 3. We live with this. And we still don’t complain.

So far back these people are, I had to hear outdated and cringeworthy jokes, I had to hear casual sexual harassment, breasts referred to as fun bags, in front of the girl they were talking to, and the groom’s nieces. They still use the R word to describe anything, despite knowing my son is extreme special needs.

Once you realize that you don’t want to live in the world these people still inhabit, the sooner you can progress to where you want to be.

You’ll never be happier leaving them, and their outdated thinking, and their complaints, and everything else that makes you miserable to hear about, behind.

And you can do it.

You can do it right now!

Log out of Facebook and get to work.

Find people to look up to and follow them. Do your own thing. People will begin to follow you.

I’m not saying it will be easy. I’m just giving you a heads up of what’s to come.

You can sidestep it completely.

You just need to realize that your friends want you to fail.

Prove them wrong.

Don’t even tell them.

Start now.

Go.

[marshmallow-phd]

The Experiments: Bonus Chapter

(gif not mine)

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Experiment AU

Pairing: Fem!Reader x Exo (????)

Summary: You were a med school graduate who just wanted to help research cures for the world. Instead, what you got was a dream job at EXO Applied Sciences. That is, until you discover the secrets of Level Sixty-Six and the nine inhabitants that are stored down there….

Warning: Slight mentions of torture. Very minimum description. 

A/N: Yixing was our winner for round one of the bonus chapters! His was interesting to write, I’ll say that. Hop you enjoy it!

Read the main story here!

It was happening again. He couldn’t bring himself to care. All his concentration was on not showing any sort of reaction. That’s what really got them off. Each slice into his skin burned the millions of individual nerves, ripping them apart as they all screamed in pain. He breathed in and out of his nose, keeping his eyes on the ground.

The guards snickered as they passed the knife back and forth between them. Even the orderly was taking pleasure in the show. His laughter was loud and uncontained, mocking as it slipped passed the cracks of the cell door. No matter how many times they tortured him, no matter how bad it got, he couldn’t let his brothers hear him scream.

His best option was to keep his eyes trained on the concrete and just let his mind wander. Blood trickled down his naked torso, tickling at his sensitive skin. The steel-enforced ropes dug into his wrists, just adding to the pain. Sometimes, he wished he didn’t have the power to heal. He wished the wounds wouldn’t close up and he’d be allowed to just bleed out there on the floor. At least then, he’d be at some sort of peace.

But that peace wouldn’t come. His cells stitched themselves back together at inhuman speed, completely unaware of his desires.

The door slide open and he wondered if the orderly decided to join in. With a twang, the knife fell to the floor and barely audible gasps escaped from the guards.

“Tell, me, did you have orders to do this? Or did you think you could just get away with this?”

A woman’s voice?

He looked up momentarily, just enough to get a peek at the newcomer. She wasn’t imposing, but the two guards cowered at her entrance, one’s hands visibly shaking in his peripheral. Should he count himself lucky that they were discovered? At least the torture was done for the day. He couldn’t remember if he was scheduled for more tests, but he was thankful for the interruption no less.

“You’d better say one way or the other, or I’ll make sure this goes on record. How do you think Dr. Wang is going to feel about this?”

“Th-there were no orders, Ma’am,” one of the guards stuttered. Funny, how easily they’re frightened. It’s a female doctor obviously younger than them, but she held an authority over them. Held their livelihood in her hands. Just a small taste of their own medicine.

“Oh, really? Then why did you think this was okay?”

He frowned. Her wording confused him. It was like the mere act of cutting him was disgusting to her, rather than the fact that they were caught or possibly messing with test results. Who was this girl?

“We were just bored,” the other guard whimpered. Bored. Yes, he could see how wandering the halls, free to look around and see the world, could be so boring. No one had ever tried to break into the facility, as far as he knew. The action the guards ever saw was if Jongin ever tried to escape or if Minseok was fighting back again. Those occurrences were rarer now, as they’d all resigned to their fate. However, that didn’t stop his little brother from trying. The guards had complained about his latest run during their previous session.

The female scoffed. “Bored? Well, then I guess the next time I’m bored, I’ll just tie you to a chair and see where the fun is in stabbing you over and over again. Does that sound like a fair deal?”

Slicing. Not stabbing. But the point was the same.

“Please, ma’am–”

“Save it. From now on, stay away from all the subjects. If I catch you back here, I’ll fill out every single incident form I need to in order to get you fired. Got it?”

His ears perked up. Never again? Was he really now safe from their knives and taunts? If that was true, then he could endure the rest. He could sleep easier knowing he wouldn’t be subjected to their sadistic tendencies. But would they listen to her?

Tripping over their heavy boots, the guards ran from the room, taking their favorite toy with them. When it was just the two of them left in the room, the female knelt down in front of him, making quick work of his binds. Even when he was free, he didn’t move. She might have stopped the cutting, but she was a doctor, evident by her long white coat. The years had taught him that they were the enemy. He wouldn’t hurt her, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t be ready.

“Are you okay?”

His whole system froze. Never had anyone asked him that. No one besides his brothers. It was always the pain scale or what sensations he was having. Never simply how he was.

“My name is (y/n),” she whispered. It was a nice voice. Calming. He wanted to hear just a little more. “I’m a doctor here. I know it might not mean much with what I just said, but I’m sorry. Something like that isn’t supposed to happen. And I promise it won’t ever happen again.”

She understood. She understood that he wouldn’t see her as someone to trust immediately, no matter what her previous actions might suggest. She was smart. But he was never one to harbor hate. Never could bring himself to lash out like some of the others.

He looked up the doctor meeting her eyes. They were soft, open and full of pity. She meant what she said.

“Are you here to take me for more tests?”

She shook her head, a small smile pulling at one corner of her mouth. “No. I’m more interested in what’s in here.” She gently rapped her knuckles on his temple. “There’s no poking or prodding involved.”

He frowned. As the quiet, unresponsive one, the staff often sneered nasty insults his way about him lacking in intelligence. That his head was empty and he shouldn’t have been entered into the program anyway. It wasn’t true, what they said about his intellect. He knew that. But words are sometimes sharper than a knife.

“Everyone says there’s nothing up there.”

The doctor tilted her head to the side, studying him. “Now, I doubt that. I think there’s a whole a treasure trove up there that’s just waiting to be found.”

He tried to fight it, but kindness was his weakness. Genuine, un-scheming kindness was something he hadn’t seen in a long time. She was like a ray of light sneaking in through this hell hole. If he couldn’t talk to his brothers, then he at least could talk to her.

“Why don’t we both sit on the floor and start our session there, hm?” she suggested.

He nodded and as she stood back, he slid out of the chair without hesitation, crossing his legs under him as she did the same across from him.

“Now,” she opened the notebook she had thrown to the floor to untie him and placed it in her lap, readying her pencil, “why don’t we start with your real name?”

“Yixing.”

Her smiled grew, making his own lips mirror the reaction.

“I like that name. It suits you.” She tilted her head the other way, studying him again. ���You’re more gentle than the others.”

Unsure of how to respond, Yixing kept silent.

“You didn’t fight back.”

It was simply a statement, but it was as if she was summing him up in that small sentence. Not questioning why he didn’t, not saying that he should have. He could easily have thrown the guards against the walls when they tried to restrain him. But he didn’t. He didn’t want to be what everyone called him, he didn’t want to prove them right. He wasn’t a monster. But that was only part of the reason.

“If they stay occupied with me, than they won’t move on to my brothers.”

The small smile slipped from her face. Her shoulders visibly slumped as her eyes left his face, concentrating instead on the pen in her hand.

“You all care for each other so much,” she said softly. “It’s… incredible. The bond you all share. Everyone so far has been concerned for everyone else.” She looked back up at him. “You know, I’m almost jealous.”

This admittance confused him. He was in no position to be envied. “Jealous?”

The pen slipped from her hand, realizing her mistake. “Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that! I – uh, I just meant the love you all have for one another. To have people you’re close to like that; where you would take on pain and brutality so they didn’t have to. That’s what I meant.”

Yixing actually felt sorry for her. The longing in her voice was something he was very familiar with. He didn’t remember much from before he was brought here, but he did remember feeling lonely. He remembered not belonging and having no one to turn to. At first, he had trouble connecting with the others who seemed to grow close very quickly. But over time, they drew him in and kept him close. His family.

“Do you not have a family?” he asked.

She nodded. “I do. I have my parents. Unfortunately, I’m an only child. I have a few other close relatives, grandparents, an aunt and uncle. I don’t see them much. They all live in another province. I call my parents when I can, but it’s hard to find something to talk to them about most days. I’m not exactly allowed to divulge my work to outsiders. I love them, but there’s just some sort of disconnect. Ever since–” she stopped.

Yixing waited patiently, not wanting to pry into something she obviously didn’t want to talk about.

“Ever since I was a teenager,” she finished.

“What about friends?”

“I’m not the best at making friends,” she admitted. “Not really since… I was a teenager.”

There it was again. A flash of sadness at a memory. Yixing was curious as to what could have happened to affect her so deeply, but he held his tongue. She was the doctor here, not him. She was supposed to be prying into his life, seeing things through his eyes, not the other way around.

“What about you?” she inquired.

Yixing shrugged. “I was scared, waking up here. I was scared of the others as well. But soon, they helped me. They became my friends. And then my brothers. I hope that one day, we can all be together again.”

The smile was back on her face, if marred by sympathy. “I hope so, too.”

“And I think maybe,” he took a deep breath, looking her in the eye to let her know that he was serious, “you’ll make friends soon. I believe we could be your friends.”

[gloomycherub-mysterious]

Cuphead {Don’t Deals With The Devil & The Delicious Last Course} Canons x OCs:

Thaila A. Rousseaux Le Fukuyama Full-Names: “Lady Thaila A. {Adorabella} Rousseaux Le Fukuyama” Nicknames/or Also-Known-As: “Thai”, “Tee”, “Small Lady”, “Tee-Tee”, “Ginger”, “Red-Head”, “Kid”, “Kiddie”, “Kiddo”, “Kitten”, “Kitty”, “Ms. Fukuyama”, “Doll”, “Baby-Doll”, “Sia” and “Doll-Face” Physical-Ages/or True-Ages: *6 ½-12 y/o

D.O.B./Zodiac/Gemstones/or Animals: *October 25th, 1935, *Scorpio, *Tourmaline/ *Opal and *White Rabbit Blood-Types: O Signature/or Code-Colors/or Fav. Colors: *Cherry-Blossom Pink, *Hot-Pink, *Magenta, *Heart-Red, *Kings Gold, *Sunshine-Yellow, White, *Baby-Pink, *Bright Red, *Raspberry-Pink, *Tangerine Orange and *Rose White Talents/or Hobbies: *She’s can do cooking and baking when she’s in the kitchen but she good at designing clothes and jewelries especially sewing and knitting in her day. *Likes to read comics and manga books, playing video games or going to arcade stations, eating and gambling for money and goods but in her free time she’s really very good at drawing and painting as well eventually drawing manga and comic sketches. *She’s can sing and dancing but she’s great in playing different kind of musical instruments.

Personality/Characteristics/ BIO: “Isn’t she’s the cuteness thing you ever seen? This’s Thaila Adorabella Rousseaux Le Fukuyama but her friends and the others calls her “Thai” for her short name or nickname of course. She’s had a childish heart for a little girl in the age of 6 ½, she’s enjoying reading fictions with Polly and anything fun that included the bond. Thai’s gentle, kind-and-warmhearted, sociable, loving and smart and very creativity and artistic girl yet secretive, greedy, sassy-mouthed, stubborn, cryptic and excitement and playfulness for little one like herself. She’s can be little anti-sociable and come across cold as ice and mean but she’s very sweet, helpful and so cute like little button when she comes around. In the Teletimer City, she’s always goes to her favorite shops and stores like candy store, sweet shop, the shopping mall and toy store and arcade stations too when gets her allowances and her big bonuses from her boss who’s the owner of newspaper businesses and even her bosses as well. Thai loves anything cute which includes stuffed toy animals and fluffy kittens and puppies, she also loves anything sweet which includes all sorts of desserts and cakes, especially chocolate and marshmallows. She’s also cheeriness, very sensitive and emotional and optimism from her but when it comes to bitterness and brutal way, she’s heck scary if something bad happens to what is good to her. Lives a biggest and largest apartment with more room spaces by herself but her buddies to come and stayed with as her roomies. A well-known and clever when she’s needs for speed of her strength but bit ditzy and clumsy for herself, sometimes she’s can do athletic and gymnastic skill with her fellow-classmates and her friends especially cooking class, sewing and knitting skill class, music class and fashion class in her elementary school even sometime getting bullied and teased by older kids but her buds got her back. In way she’s can be greedy, spoiled, mocking and mostly selfish and mean but she’s funny, friendliness, independence and most adorable sweetheart can be.”

11 Fun-Facts About Thaila’s:

*She’s a little 3 ��-year-old street mouse and little orphanage child without a guardians to take care of her.

She’s living a biggest and old abandoned apartment calls “Orphanage’s Apartment” in the 3rd floor.

Got job of newspaper girl who’s selling newspapers and comic strips, a small cooker and baker helper and doing sewing and designing clothing and stuffs.

Always gambling in the big casinos in her hometown to get money even she’s got small and big bonuses from her works.

Thai’s family and her relatives were very-very extremely and outrageous richest and wealthiest family and the luckiest peoples on earth. She’s got her great-great-great grandmother’s lost golden heart-shaped locket with string pearl necklace with diamonds and emeralds when she’s found in the big casino.

Thai’s got crush on a boy name Drew.

She’s inspired by Darla Dimple, Angelica Pickles, Brittany and Elenaor Miller, Hanazuki, Annie, Marie Anne, Usagi Tuskino, Chibiusa Tuskino, Bubble and Suzie Carmichael.

She’s eating her little lollipop when going on her duties in the town to sells the comic strips and newspapers. Even sometimes small bags of cookies or fudges too.

Collecting lost and old pencils and broken pens to fixed and new by her scincetist friend Dr. Robert, especially toys, radios and gameboys too.

She’s three pets, one is light cream furred Persain kitten named Tiddle, three turtles named Snappy, Tappy and Dappy and one white fureed bunny name Whisker.

Hates being yelling at or hitting or getting beating by her adoptive step family.

And here the below is my another Cuphead Canons x Ocs characters. Their names are Lucida M. {Madelene} & Lucania M. {Marlena} De Mie Meriwether aka The Meriwether Twins. And their going to be in today or tomorrow. I hope you like my art and sketches. Please fav my art and texting about my art in the comment. See ya 👋🏿 😁

[camkablam]

Of Wands and Bubbled Cupcakes

(14th birthday present to @lunarthemooncake . Happy Birthday, Lunar!)

In total honesty, Toni had little idea as to how he started hanging around a fourth year. He was fairly certain Ariza had been the one to introduce them, but beyond that he had no idea; she’d simply shown up one day and hadn’t left. Not that Toni wanted her to leave. He liked having her around, even if some of the other students thought a friendship between a seventh year and a fourth year was strange.

Another thing Toni didn’t care about.

Something he did find himself caring about quite a bit was the fact that Ariza, his girlfriend, had already graduated Hogwarts and hadn’t returned with him and Lunar this year. She was working at a little store in Diagon Alley, something both Toni and Lunar had helped her set up over the summer. It was just down the road from the little bookstore Rainy had deemed her own.

With both Rainy and Ariza gone, things were considerably quiet. Of course, Toni spent the better half of his free time writing letters and sending owls back and forth with Ariza, sometimes Rainy- something Lunar also did, although not as much.

The school year had hardly started- they were only just finishing week two- and yet Toni already found himself being a little miserable. He kept making to ask if he could hold a hand or peck a cheek that wasn’t there, only to falter a second later as he realised she wasn’t there. Sure, their relationship had started off long distance and had been that way for years before she transferred to Hogwarts, and even before that she always returned to America for the summers- same with Lunar. She’d just come over to England a few days earlier to see Ariza before she and Toni jumped on the Hogwarts Express.

He missed her.

But he definitely hadn’t meant to forget Lunar’s birthday.

He’d been sitting at the Ravenclaw table during breakfast, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he spread jam across his slice of toast and waiting for an owl to come with a new letter. He must have been particularly tired (staying up all night to read will do that to you), because it took him a moment to realise Lunar had slipped into the seat across from him and was helping herself to some pasties.

Her bright yellow tie clearly stated her as a Hufflepuff, but sitting at each other's tables had been something Toni and his friends- the majority of which were from different houses- had done regularly. Ariza herself had been a Hufflepuff, as was Rainy. Gommie had been a Gryffindor and Red a Slytherin, although Gommie had been pulled from Hogwarts and now attended Ilvermorny. Toni wasn’t sure what happened to Red. Maybe he moved back to France, attending Beauxbatons, or was in Ilvermorny with Gommie.

That aside, it wasn’t uncommon to see students sitting at different house tables during meals so they could be with their friends anymore. Toni found the fact that it had, at first, seemed like some sort of unspoken rule to only ever sit at your own house table ridiculous. They’d certainly gotten themselves a few odd stares when they’d first started doing it.

Not that any of that really mattered anymore. Especially considering Lunar had taken to watching him somewhat expectantly.

“You want coffee?”

“Coffee,” Toni echoed, “Coffee sounds wonderful.”

She poured a cup for him and passed it over a platter of bacon and eggs. He accepted it with a grateful smile and took a sip at the steaming liquid.

“So, uh… anything planned today?”

“Not really,” Toni shrugged, “I mean, I should probably get started on that Transfiguration assignment. What ‘bout you?”

Lunar blinked up at him, fork frozen in her hand. Then, abruptly uncertain, she bit her lip and her eyes darted to the side. “Um… I dunno. Maybe I’ll do some more writing for The Lodge.”

“Can’t wait to read it,” said Toni, biting into his toast, “Not sure how much reading I’ll be able to do this year, what with my NEWTS and all.”

“Yeah,” Lunar muttered, her eyes trailing down to her untouched plate, “Exams suck.”

Toni did exactly what he said he would- well, after messing about for a good bit, but he did get to that Transfiguration assignment. Not before checking the Owlry about twelve times, because Ariza had yet to send a letter that day. Maybe the bird had been forced to take a detour or had been caught in a storm.

Whatever the reason, the letter wasn’t here. He spotted Lunar in the library a few times, and she even sat across from him and started to scribble on a piece of parchment without a saying a word. It must have been around dinner time that he lost track of where she was, and around dinner time that he finally got that letter.

Silly things, silly things. How things were at the shop. How her brother was going to be visiting for a week. How she and Rainy went out to lunch yesterday. This new book she was reading. How her games were coming.

He froze near the end.

Wish Lunar a happy birthday for me.

He hadn’t meant to forget. He honestly, truly hadn’t. He could make an excuse and say that his calendar had been torn to bits during the first week (which it had), but it certainly wasn’t good enough. The thing was he’d forgotten, point blank, and it didn’t take much to make him feel like a crappy person to begin with.

But Lunar was nowhere to be found. He tried asking a few Hufflepuffs- some girls he knew shared a dorm with her- to see if she was in the dormitories or the common room, but they came back a few moments later to tell him she wasn’t. He tried to Ravenclaw common room next, because Lunar somehow always seemed to be able to figure out the riddles (he absently wondered if she either had superpowers or had somehow managed to get Google to work at Hogwarts) and frequently popped in herself if she was looking for him or just wanted to browse through the common rooms expanse personal library. It took him a good fifteen minutes of pure frustration to figure out the doors stupid riddle (he sometimes wondered why the heck hack he was a Ravenclaw), only for it to be a total waste of time upon discovering that the common room was practically bare.

He checked the kitchens. The halls. The classrooms. The grounds. The library. The Great Hall. But she might as well have never been there to begin with.

Curfew drew nearer and nearer, and Toni made it just in time to get some Hufflepuffs to see if she was in the common room or dormitories again, but, just as last time, they came back and told him she wasn’t there. That they hadn’t seen her since before lunch.

He stayed out past curfew. The lights flickered and dimmed to the point that they might as well have not been lit at all. Shadows drew lengthy figures along the walls and floors. He kept expecting something to jump out at him; be it a monster or a professor.

There were a few close calls. He was able to duck behind a pillar, a statue, around the corner or into a classroom mere seconds before they could spot him, and it always left his heart pumping so loud he was almost certain they’d be able to hear. He drew his wand and cast a few cloaking spells, that unpleasant sensation of an egg being cracked on his head and trailing down the back of his neck making an appearance. He wasn’t the best at this particular spell; he just hoped he’d be able to find Lunar before any of the professors (or monsters) could find him.

He wasn’t sure when he decided to go up to the Astronomy Tower, but he soon found himself mounting the spiralling staircase up to the top after a particularly close call with a certain cat. His feet had started hurting an hour or so ago, and exhaustion weighed heavily on his shoulders. When he reached the top of the blasted staircase, he tilted on his feet and almost went tumbling back down them again. He was thankfully able to grab the bannister before that could happen; he’d rather not have to explain to Professor McGonagall or Professor Flitwick why he was up in the Astronomy in the middle of the night. Or climb back up said stairs again if he’s somehow not caught or his bones don’t get broken too badly.

Toni tried the door that would lead to the circular room where their lessons took place and, to his surprise, the handle submitted and it swung open. He faltered in the doorway, peering into the shadows. There was no one there. The telescopes and moon charts were all packed away, the desks pressed up against the far wall and the chairs seated on top of them. But then his eyes found the small figure leaning against the railings on the other side of the classroom, looking up at the stars, and he almost fell back down the stairs again in his relief.

It was, without a doubt, Lunar. She had a notebook open in front of her, balancing precariously on the bannister, the only thing stopping it from falling all the way down to the grounds being her own hand gripping its corner. She was twirling a pen in her other hand- quills were fun and all, but after a while they became a bit tedious, especially when you’re a writer and random ideas pop into your head that needs to be written down immediately before you forget them- and she wasn’t star gazing as he’d originally assumed; her eyes were glazed in deep thought.

She didn’t come out of it as he shut the door behind him, nor as he made his way over. In fact, he got as far as leaning against the railing directly beside her before she blinked the glaze from her eyes and looked up. To her, it must have been as though he’d appeared out of thin air; she jerked, pen dropping from her fingers to clatter against the cool floor (thankfully not the grounds below). Her notebook wobbled dangerously, and would have likely tipped over the edge had Toni not reached out and steadied it.

“Hey,” he muttered. Lunar gaped up at him for a moment, still seemingly coming to terms with his newfound powers of teleportation, before releasing an almost shaky breath and returning to the bannister.

“Where the heck did you come from?” she asked in a quiet mumble; her eyes darted over to the clock mounted in the shadows on the far wall, “It’s past curfew.”

“I came from my mother,” Toni informed her, “And I could point out the same to you.”

“I didn’t realise it was that late,” Lunar declared. Toni rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, and you daydream up here often.”

Lunar bit her lip, tapping her finger against the bannister. Toni flipped her notebook shut and handed it back; the girl accepted it with a tiny, thankful smile and tucked it into one of the pockets of her robes.

“How come you aren’t in bed?” she asked, after a moment. Toni shrugged.

“Was looking for you,” he glanced at her, “Why aren’t you in bed?”

“Because I’m a vampire.”

Toni snorted, “Fair.”

They sat in silence for a moment, staring up at the dark sky of sparkling stars. Then Toni shoved his hand into his pocket and pulled out a glistening bubble about the size of his hand. There was something inside it.

“What is that?” Lunar asked. In answer, Toni pulled out his wand and tapped the tip against the bubble, causing it to pop. He held it out to her.

“Happy Birthday.”

It was a chocolate cupcake, purple frosting swirled on the top. Lunar accepted it tentatively; Toni sent her a somewhat forced but no less apologetic smile.

“I, uh… I’m sorry I forgot.”

She blinked, then huffed a small laugh, “It’s fine. Thanks.”

“It’s not fine,” Toni insisted, smile slipping, “I’ve known you for years and I forgot your birthday.”

“What do you want me to say, then?”

“I- I dunno,” the boy frowned, running his fingers through his short hair, “Just… not that it’s fine. ‘Cause it isn’t. I guess just that you… forgive me or something. But I want you to know that it isn’t fine; I know I probably hurt you, and even if I didn’t, it’s not okay.”

“Alright,” said Lunar, holding up a hand as though to stop him, “Alright, I forgive you. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”

Toni’s shoulders slumped in relief, and he sighed, “Okay. Thank you.”

Lunar smiled at him, then turned her attention to the cupcake, “Where did you even get this?”

“The kitchens,” Toni admitted, “Those house elves are adorable, honestly. Like hairless cats.”

The girl snorted, “I can’t believe you just compared them to hairless cats.”

“Well, they are,” Toni huffed, “Like, everyone thinks they’re a bit creepy looking but they’re actually adorable. You know?”

“Whatever you say, Toni.”

He smiled at her. It turned a little sheepish. “I, ah… didn’t know what flavour of cupcake you liked, so I…”

He reached into his pockets again and pulled out another bubbled cupcake. Then another. And another. And another. The floor was quickly covered in bubbled cupcakes. Lunar looked torn between laughing her guts out and hiding her face in horror.

“Oh dear Merlin,” she breathed, covering the smile threatening to take over her face, “What- How did you- Why?”

“Well, I’d originally wanted to get you a cake,” explained Toni, still emptying his pockets of bubbled cupcakes, “But then I realised I didn’t know what flavour you’d like. So I asked them to just make me a cupcake of every flavour. It didn’t really occur to me that there’s a heck of a lot of cupcake flavours out there.”

“Oh my god.”

“Also,” Toni continued, tossing yet another bubbled cupcake into the ever growing pile around their feet, “Now that I think about it, I don’t really know how I would’ve been able to carry a cake around. It wouldn’t fit in my pockets.”

“How are these fitting in your pockets?”

“I have no idea. I might’ve been an expansion spell on them. Would explain why I keep losing my pens.”

That earned him a disbelieving laugh. Toni pulled out one last bubbled cupcake, ruffled around in all his pockets to make sure that truly was the last one, before standing back and observing the giant pile of bubbled cupcakes surrounding them.

“Huh,” he muttered, then turned to look at Lunar, “You know, some of these are bound to be really interesting. I mean, one’s Dark Chocolate Bacon. And another’s, like, Parsnip and Maple Syrup or something.”

Lunar’s eyes bulged, “Seriously?”

“Yup. I think one of them’s Beer and Sauerkraut Fudge.”

“Beer? Beer?”

Toni nodded, “Beer.”

“With fudge?”

“With fudge.”

“That sounds disgusting.”

Toni grinned, “I guess we’ll find out, huh?”

Lunar shook her head, unable to smile her own smile, “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love me.”

She sighed, “I do.”

“I think there’s a spicy one too.”

Lunar raised an eyebrow at him, “A spicy cupcake?”

“Yeah, like, Mango Chilli or something.”

“Ariza would like that.”

The boy chuckled, “She would, yeah. Wonder what one Rainy would like.”

“Maybe we can send each of them one.”

“That’s a great idea!” Toni exclaimed, eyes sparking, “I mean, I love cupcakes, and I’m pretty sure you do too, but I don’t think all these’ll get eaten before they go off even if it’s the two of us.”

Lunar chuckled, shaking her head, “Yeah, that’s… that’s a lot of cupcakes.”

“Most certainly.”

The girl chuckled again, looking up to smile at him. But then that smile slipped, before falling entirely, the joy draining from her face at a startling rate. Her eyes had become almost desperate. “Please don’t go.”

Toni blinked, staring down at her, startled, “What? Where am I going?”

“You’re leaving,” Lunar clarified, “Hogwarts, I mean. This is your last year.”

“Oh,” he muttered, blinking again, “I… yeah. It… it is.”

“Rainy and Ariza have already left,” Lunar continued, not looking at him now, “And- And sure, I’ve got other friends here, but… I’m gonna miss you guys.”

“Lunar,” said Toni, taking a step forward and reaching out to grip her shoulder, “We’ve still got a whole year together. And it’s not like we’re going to stop being friends or anything. And we’ll write, just like how we’ve been writing Ariza and Rainy.”

“But it won’t be the same,” the girl sighed, rubbing her forehead as though to hold back a headache, “You guys’ll be living somewhere in London or Diagon Alley and I’ll be up here in Scotland through the school year and then over in America during the summer. You can’t tell me that we won’t start to drift apart. We can’t even text for the majority of the year.”

“Yeah, I’ve always wondered how Rainy got her headphones to work here,” Toni muttered, before shaking his head and returning to the matter at hand, “But you know what, Lunar? Just because we’re not together every day doesn’t mean we’ll drift apart. I mean, I hardly even talk to my twin anymore, but that doesn’t stop us from being brothers, right?”

Lunar sighed, “I guess.”

Toni squeezed her shoulder a little tighter, “Hey, Riza and I picked an apartment with two rooms for a reason, you know. You will always be welcome there, be it for the Christmas holidays or during the summer or even if you decide to sneak away for whatever reason during the school year.”

She looked up at him, a tiny smile lifting her lips, “That sounds great.”

“And it’s not like we’re going to be staying in England forever,” Toni continued, “Well, we’re still debating over it, but I’m still good for moving to Canada once you’ve finished school.”

Lunar laughed, before stepping closer and wrapping him in a hug, burying her face into his chest. Toni immediately returned it.

“I love you,” she mumbled, “You and everyone else.”

He smiled into her hair, “Love you too, Lunar. Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks.”

They hugged in silence for a moment. Then Toni, without pulling away, spoke again.

“We should probably do something about these cupcakes.”

The girl laughed, “Uh, yeah, we probably should. And get back to our dorms before any of the professors find us.”

“Or worse. Filch.”

Lunar pulled a face, “He gives me the creeps.”

“He gives everyone the creeps.”

“Very true.”

They finally pulled apart, turning to regard the bubbled cupcakes again. Toni tucked his hands into his seemingly endless pockets and flapped them.

“Help me get these back in before he finds us, please.”

“Great idea,” said Lunar; then, seeming to realise she was still holding the chocolate cupcake, bit into it, “This is good.”

“Oh, by the way,” Toni said, as they got on their knees and began to scoop the bubbled cupcakes off the floor to shove into their pockets, “Ariza says Happy Birthday too.”

Lunar smiled.

“Good to know.”

Characters: @toni4eyes, @lunarthemooncake, @arizaluca (mentioned) and @raintagwasalreadytaken (mentioned)

[swandrabbles]

Marauders Drabbles!

1)

              “Please try to persuade him to come, for my sake.”

              Remus frowned deeply as he looked at Sirius. Sirius who had spent most of the past week alternating between bouts of fury, and dissolving into the carpet in fits of inconsolable sadness. Remus dragged his fingers through his hair, effectively adding to the already out of control mess that it was.

              “Sirius, maybe you should just apologize to him.” Remus said after a moments contemplation.

              “I can’t.”

              “Why can’t you?”

              Sirius sat up from where he had been slumped over on his bed, fixing his eyes on Remus with such intensity, Remus wanted to check his chest for the hole that was probably being bore through it.

              “Because it was his stupid fault!” Sirius snapped, crossing his arms. In the three years they had been at Hogwarts, James and Sirius had only had two fights. One first year over James having accidentally broken Sirius’ favorite quill, and now. Though if Remus recalled the facts straight, this was most definitely Sirius’ fault.

              “Sirius, I’m not sure that purposefully dumping pumpkin juice down the back of Lily’s robes was his fault.” Remus took a chance and sat on the bed beside Sirius, his feet not quite touching the floor.

              “It is too his fault. How was I to know that James likes her.” Sirius muttered. “Why does he like her! She’s stuffy and rude and calls him names and won’t even talk to him.” Sirius brooded.

              “I’m not sure why…is that what this is all about?” Remus wanted to laugh. “You dumped juice on her because you found out that James likes her?”

              “No.” Sirius muttered, but his ears had gone pink. He looked away from Remus pointedly.

              Remus smiled sympathetically, lightly touching Sirius on the shoulder. “Why are you so mad that James has a crush?”

              “Because what if he doesn’t want to be friends with us anymore, because she doesn’t like me.” Sirius looked at Remus, fear somewhere behind his steely gaze.

              “Oh Sirius.” Remus let his hands fall to his lap. “I don’t think that would ever happen…” Remus wasn’t honestly so sure, but he understood Sirius’ fear. Understood what it was like to be left behind, to fear seeing the backs of those who he cared about.

              “I hope you’re right.” Sirius whispered.

    2)

                She opened her handbag and tipped the contents onto the floor.

              Three lip colors. A handful of change, A sadly dilapidated mint, and six Polaroid pictures. Lily’s eyes widened. She had completely forgotten she’d stuck them in the bag that had ended up lost in a box at the back of her closet. She fingered the smudgy white back, reading the date scribbled in Remus’ normally careful pen.

              “May 21st, 1977.” She grinned and flipped it over. A much younger version of herself smiled as she wiggled up under James’ arm. Sirius was planting a kiss on Remus who looked utterly embarrassed, though he was smiling. James was trying to hold the Camera at an angle to get all four of them in the frame. They’d been on a group date out to Hogsmead shortly before graduating. Remus had insisted they go one last time as students, and it had been one of the best nights of Seventh year.

              “Mom?”

              Lily startled, then smiled. “In here, Harry!”

              A moment later her Son’s face poked around the door to the closet. At thirteen he looked so much like James did, just as gangly, just as unkempt. James kept saying that Harry would grow into his ears, after all, his father had eventually.

              “Why are you in the closet?” Harry came in, plopping down next to her.

              “Just going through some old boxes.” Lily said, smiling and holding up the photos. “Finding some fun little bits and bobs.”

              “Should you be doing that? Dad said not to left anything heavy.” Harry frowned. Lily snorted, rolling her eyes.

              “You and your father both. Merlin’s beard.” She set her hand on her eight month pregnant belly. “Your sister is happy to stay put, and I haven’t been lifting anything, prefect’s honor.” Lily held up her fingers together.

              “Doesn’t that only work if you are actively a prefect?” Harry grinned. “And Remus and Sirius are here. Remus is pretty excited about something, wouldn’t tell me what though.” Harry muttered. Lily laughed.

              “Well, we had better go find out, I’m sure they’d like to see these old photos. Help me up?” She gave him a wide-eyed look. “I made the mistake of sitting.”

              Harry stood and helped Lily to her feet. She handed him the photos and he glanced through them.

              “Wow. You guys were so young.” He grinned.

              “We were, but you know…I just don’t feel like much has changed.” She laughed. “I think we’ll always be a little young at heart.”

 3)

              They found his diary under his bed.

              James looked at Sirius, who looked at James. The pair were silent for nearly a solid minute.

              “Well…I mean. That is probably the best source of information we’ll get.” James said in a hushed tone.

              “Yeah but…what if it’s booby trapped or something.” Sirius whispered back, staring at the leatherbound journal.

              “Do you really think it would be, after how many clues we had to follow to get it?” James frowned, looking down at the scrap of parchment in his fingers.

              It had started as an innocent enough adventure. Sirius and James had stumbled across an old classroom that hadn’t been used in a fear years while attempting to skirt past Filtch, had gone rummaging through a few desks, and had found what looked like a clue. That clue had led to another, and another, and over the course of three weeks, the pair had chased about the castle.

              Now they were looking at the fruits of their labors.

              “We should take it, before the seventh years get back from class.” Sirius decided, and reached out, snatching the journal from where it had landed with a dull thud from the hidden compartment under the bed.

              Nothing happened.

              James looked at Sirius. Sirius looked back at James.

              Then they both bolted.

              Once safely away from the dorm for the Gryffindor Seventh years, and back in their respective dorm, James shut the door and looked at the book held tightly in Sirius’ fingers. He bit his lower lip in apprehension. “I can’t believe it was that close the entire time.”

              “Me either.” Sirius whispered.

              “We should open it.” James muttered.

              “We should.” Sirius agreed.

                Dear Future Mischief Makers,

                             Hullo and Hullo. We see that you have located our legacy. Our treasure. Our most valuable and prized collection of brilliant ideas, as transposed to page in this book. It is with our greatest pleasure that we present you, O! most worthy seekers of the pranking arts, with a guide to the Prewett Way. A guide for all those who desire debauchery, jolly good chortling, or possible detention.

              We hope that this book, now in your very dedicated hands, provides aide to all your young mischievous way. Inside are the recipes to devastate your enemies, seek vengeance on your comrades, or just cause general chaos.

              With great power comes great responsibility and so on.

              Fabian and Gideon Prewett.

 4)

                The kiss reminded him of potions lessons in school, when if the right two ingredients were put together, they’d explode.

              Fabian clutched at the front of Caradoc’s robes, his heart hammering in his ribs like a bird trying to take flight. He was afraid to open his eyes. Afraid to step back, or look at Caradoc and see what his face was doing.

              And then a hand was cupping his cheek.

              This was no place to be kissing. In the forest, shrouded by darkness, illuminated by the silver of moonlight shifting across their skin. Somewhere out there, death eaters were waiting. Waiting for the chance to obliterate them. Fabian needed to leave, to let Caradoc go, but the idea seemed impossible.

              He pulled back enough to glance at Caradoc’s face. His eyes were closed. His profile was sharp and handsome a mix of shadow on shadow.

              “What took you so long.” He murmured at last, his voice a deep rumble in his chest.

              “Fear.” Fabian whispered. “Fear of losing you.”

              “You’ll never loose me.” Caradoc said quietly.

              Somewhere a mile or so to there left, shouting could be heard. Fabian’s pulse quickened, the heat of passion freezing solid in his veins. He was still afraid, but now for a very different reason.

              “You can’t stay here.” Caradoc’s tone was terse, fearful.

              “I’m not leaving you.” Fabian drew his wand. “I’m tried of standing on the sidelines while you and Gideon fight.”      

              Caradoc eyed him with a sort of warmth that made Fabian’s cheeks suffuse with red. He held his wand up.

              “Now, let’s get rid of these bloody bastards so I can strip that shirt of you.”

              It was Caradoc’s turn to blush. Even in the darkness, Fabian was gratified with the darkening of his already deeply tanned skin.

              “Easy now, Prewett. I don’t want your brother’s wand in my face.” He teased, his chuckle deep.

              “He’ll have to deal with it.” Fabian huffed.

              At that moment, a curse whizzed passed them and their words were cut off as three death eaters burst from the shadows.

              “Hand it over, Dearborn.” One voice said. Though the mask obscured his face, Fabian swore he knew it. He wasn’t sure from who, but the sneering tone was too familiar.

              “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Caradoc side idly. Fabian couldn’t believe how calm he sounded. Collected, unshaken. Fabian knew Caradoc was terrified, but now he could have been having a conversation about the weather.

              “The map. We knew you have it. Hand it over, or we will kill you.” The sneering voice said again.

              “I am under the impression that you will kill me either way.” Caradoc shrugged.

              There was silence, and then, without a moment more to think, the clearing lit up with spellfire.

 5)

              He opened the door to find her standing there, crying.

              “Lily?” James’ voice came out funny as he spoke. Lily startled and stumbled back into the desk. She tried to wipe her eyes, but it was no use, the tears just kept going, streaking her freckled cheeks.

              “Oh James-“ She choked.

              James had seen Lily in many situations, in many moods. He’d even seen her cry before. In all six years they’d been to school together he had seen her in a great many ways. This however, was different. Her sorrow was so intense he was sure he’d be able to reach out and run his fingers through it like water.

              “What’s happened?” He shut the classroom door behind him, reached out to her without thinking, touching her shoulder.

              “It’s Severus-“ She choked, not pulling away. “I know we don’t…we haven’t…I had no idea how bad it had gotten…”

              James wasn’t able to follow. He knew that since the Fight in fifth year when Snape had publicly humiliated Lily they hadn’t spoken much, but he had no idea what would upset her so terribly.

              “Lily…” James’ voice went low, gentle and steady. He pulled his folded kerchief to press gently under her eyes. He was still not sure how he hadn’t been given a black eye. “I’m not sure I’m following, but I’ll listen if you tell me.”

              “I can’t-“ She choked. “I can’t—I know you, James. I know what you’ll do. I can’t…I can’t let you do it-“

              “Lily, what has he done?” James’ tone went stern, firm. Lily looked at him with shinning, brimmed green eyes.

              “Promise me. Promise me you won’t run off and tell.” She whispered, her voice hoarse.

              James didn’t want to make that promise. He was sure whatever it was, he wouldn’t want to keep that promise. He then remembered all the times Lily had turned a blind eye for him and his friends. For Remus.

              “I promise.” James said, taking her hands in his. “I give you my word.”

              “The boy they found….the one all cut up who nearly died. It was Severus.” She whispered. She pulled a hand from James and brought for a book. A potions book. She opened it to a spell incantation.

              “I remember him working on spells, inventing them…but this.”

              James read the description, the outcome. It was identical to the attack. Lily choked on a sob.

              “I know I need to turn this over, James. I know. I…he’ll be expelled. I know I should hate him but I-“

              James looked at Lily, then took the book. He hurried to the back of the classroom and opened one of the least attended cupboards and hid the book deeply within, behind stacks of musty, dusted covers. He shut the cupboard and looked to lily a little wildly, his heart pounding.

              “I gave you my word. If you decide to report it, I’ll support you, go with you…but…” James knew they were covering something terrible, but he understood. He wasn’t sure how, but he got what Lily was so torn about.

              As much as he hated Snape, he had been Lily’s friend since childhood.

              He couldn’t imagine what all of this was doing to her.

              “Thank you.” She whispered to him, and then fled the room.

 6)  Broken Angel – Boyce Avenue

 Remus pressed his fingers to the glass. The freezing cold pierced his fingertips as he did, the frost melting under his heat. He wanted to put his fist through the glass. Feel it rip his skin open like his memories were ripping out his heart.

The silence of the flat sprawled out behind him. The single worn table, the bed in the corner. The dust in the sills.

It didn’t matter how much time passed. It didn’t matter how hard he tried to forget, to move on, he couldn’t seem to.

Remus pressed his palm flat against the glass and let the shockwave of freezing cold rattle his wrist up into his elbow. He wondered if this was how it felt to be always surrounded by dementors. He wondered if Sirius, in Azkaban remembered anything about him.

Even ten years later, Remus wasn’t sure he believed what Dumbledore had told him in that single letter. He had been there as Sirius walked out the door that night.

‘I’m worried about James and Lily. I want to go check on them.’

“Why.” Remus whispered. “Why, Sirius? Why weren’t you honest with me…”

Remus didn’t know what he was meant to believe anymore. Nothing seemed right.

He pulled away from the window and turned to face his flat. Maybe he needed to demand answers. He’d tried before, but maybe…maybe he would go to the Potter house. In all the ten years he’d been wandering, he’d never been there.

Maybe it was time.

  7)

              The entrance to the tunnel was his only way out.

              Remus glanced up at it and sighed. He wondered just how many of these dead secret passageways there were. So far he and Sirius had stumbled across a good number and he was sorely tired of getting stuck in them.

              “You okay, Moony!” Sirius’ voice echoed down to him. “That sounded painful.”

              “Oh, I’m fine-bugger-“ Remus wriggled around to get himself to a standing position in the narrow space. He ran his fingers over the wall behind him. Odd. It didn’t feel like rock or dirt. “Sirius, there’s something down here. A door, I think.”

              “Is there room for me?” Sirius stuck his head into the hole, his face shadowed and the light from above like a halo around him.

              “No! Hang on-“ Remus managed to tug out his wand in the cramped space and he held it up barely three inches from his nose. “Lumos!”

              The light nearly blinded him as he filled the small space. Sure enough, there was a door. Though how on earth he was meant to open it was beyond him. It certainly couldn’t swing backward, even if he wasn’t in the way. There was no room at all. He also didn’t see a handle, or a keyhole of any kind.

              “There’s a great bloody door down here!” Remus called up to Sirius. He turned the light and saw now the footholds to get out. “I don’t think I can open it.”

              “What’s on the door!” Sirius called back down.

              Remus scowled. It was hard to look at something nearly four inches from his face. He looked it up and down. There were patterns carved into the metal. Old and carefully done. Remus traced a finger along them and then blinked. “It’s a phoenix.” He said, but not loud enough for Sirius to hear. He stuffed his wand and turned to the handholds.

              When he popped out, Sirius was looking at him excitedly. “It’s an etching of a phoenix on the door. Reckon we’ll need a phoenix feather to get in.” He looked at Sirius, the energy of him illuminated against the sunlight of Spring. March had the air fragrant and warm.

              “Well, we do know who has one of those.” Sirius smirked and Remus shook his head.

              “No. We aren’t doing that. I don’t know what is behind that door, but I’d wager it’s nothing we need on a map. Especially with how old the door looked.”

              “You’re no fun.” Sirius snorted, but dropped the hatch that had been buried for who knows how long before they’d unearthed it.

 8)

              As he fell, he waited for the world to shatter.

              His knees hit the floor, the wood crashing into skin, crashing into bone. Sound ceased in his ears. He knew somewhere above him, somewhere in the distance Gideon was talking to him. He felt the hands on his shoulders, someone trying to get his attention.

              His eyes were on the ring in his hands, pressed to his palm, searing into his skin.

              The ring that matched the one on his own fingers.

              “Fabian-“ Gideon’s voice wavered in and out. “Give this to you—died a hero—I’m sorry—”

              Fabian had never felt time stand still. He’d read it in metaphor, heard it spoken in moments so grand that you wanted them forever, but never had he experienced it until now.

              Fabian’s world was still. His heart couldn’t beat. His breath couldn’t come. His ears were ringing, his eyes were burning. The moment hung in suspension.

              He drug in a breath, and everything sped up. The scream that ripped out of his throat tore open the earth and swallowed him whole. He crumpled, bent double on the floor as he clutched the ring to his chest. Clutched the only thing that kept him from falling to pieces, bursting apart. Each sob that wracked him tore open his heart again and again. Gideon’s hands on his shoulders did nothing. Gideon’s arms around him were foreign.

              “No-“ He choked out. “No-no—no—” He shoved at Gideon, looking at him with a face so streaked with tears, framed by his crudely shorn hair, buttery curls now tangled from his fingers digging at them. He was the picture of desperate grief.

              “You’re lying.” He choked.

              “Fabian-“

              “You’re lying! Tell me you are lying! Tell me!” He screamed, punching at Gideon, kicking.

              “Fabian, I am so sorry-“  Gideon grappled with Fabian, clutching him. “I’m so sorry-“

              Gideon’s expression broke. Tears filled his eyes and Fabian felt the would lurch. He dissolved into tears against Gideon’s chest.

              I’m so sorry, Fabian.

 9)

              He sat her down, and held her close, before telling her the terrible news. He ran his fingers through her beautiful red hair, kissing her temple.

              “They didn’t have the yellow paint.” He said solemnly.

              Lily pulled back, eyeing James squarely. “Are you serious?”

              “Well no, if he were here though, he’d probably muddy the carpet-“

              “James!” Lily rolled her eyes and punched his arm. “We need to get this nursery painted! How are they still out of the Buttercream color?” Lily crossed her arms with a huff, though the effort was disrupted by the large ball of a belly under her over-sized t-shirt. His oversized t-shirt. He thought fondly, she does look rather magnificent, all red and glowing and irritated.

              “Remus had a suggestion though, so. I am kicking you out.” James grinned.

              “What?” Lily gawked at him.

              “Remus will be here in ten minutes to get you. He’s taking you shopping in town, and I am taking over.”

              James stood and pulled Lily to her feet.

              “James—James no. I will not let you just—this isn’t time for jokes-“ Lily tried to wriggle away.

              James stopped, taking her cheeks between her palms and mushing them together so her lips puckered and he kissed them. “Shush.”

              Remus arrived to a helpless shrug from Lily, and he chuckled. He winked at James conspiratorially as they headed out the door.

              Ten minutes after they were out the door, Padfoot came through it, paint gear in hands. “Alright Prongs! My Good man, we have a Godson to prepare for!” He declared, and tromped off for the nursery.

                Lily sighed. “James Potter. Is the bandana really needed?” Lily groped out, blind from the fabric over her eyes, as James led her to the room.

              “Oh yes. Are you ready, Evans?” He chuckled. Holding her shoulders gently and kissing the top of her head.

              “Yes yes—take this off me—”

              James did.

              Lily opened her eyes and just stared. The room was painted Lavender. There were pawprints in a trail around the wall just above the baseboard. The bassinette was set up in the corner, and over the top painted in white against the lavender was a doe, a stag and a fawn. Beautiful black silhouette trees framed them and the doors to the closet. The changing table had a wolf and a dog done in white surrounded by the same trees.

              “Oh James.” She breathed. “It’s beautiful.”

              “Sorry it’s not yellow.” He grinned.

              Lily turned and tugged him into a kiss.

              “I think I’ll live.”

[serensama]

To Realise

A mini celebration for 2000 followers! Thanks Everyone!!!! A Soulmate AU where they only realise they are Soulmates when they say/read/hear each other’s names out loud followed by an immediate overflowing of emotion sparking inside of them. Instant realisation.

Yoosung:

-       He was already running late. This was not the first impression he wanted to give to everyone! He was in University! He was intelligent! He knew how to set a simple alarm!

-       … in theory yes, in practise… not so much… hence the lateness…

-       It also didn’t help that he couldn’t remember which lecture theatre he was meant to be in- which meant he had to stop and scan for his name at each door on the floor… four down three to go…

-       Kim Yoosung… Kim Yoosung… Kim… nope not that room!

-       When he got to the final room (because of course it had to be the final room) he managed to find his name… but his eyes were mysteriously drawn to another name, his mouth wrapping itself around the syllables before he knew what he was doing…

-       “M… MC?”

-       His heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest, his knees went wobbly and his head felt light and fuzzy, yet so damn clear at the same time. Yoosung stilled himself, bracing his arms against the doorframe to insure he wouldn’t fall flat on his face.

-       What was happening to him?

-       He had never felt this way before- was he coming down with something? He touched the back of his hand against his forehead and sure enough he was warm and sweaty.

-       Though, granted, it could have been because he had been running for the last fifteen minutes and trying not to burst out crying because he was going to be late- not because he was sick and dying.

-       His stomach fluttered and his mouth ran dry… no, he must be getting sick. Maybe he shouldn’t have eaten that pizza that was left over… from three days ago. He really needed to start cooking more.

-       Yoosung clamped his eyes shut and forced himself to breathe deeply, he could get through this. It was only one hour. He could do this.

-       Opening the door, the newly blonde haired student waltzed into the theatre only to have the entire room turn to face him.

-       Great. He must have been later than he thought he was.

-       Only to have them all shrug and continue on with their conversations.

-       Yoosung turned to his left to where their professor was meant to be standing, only to see it empty- the teacher was late? He wasn’t the last one to class? Finally! He managed to catch a break!

-       Running a hand through his sweat soaked hair and laughing as he wiped his palm on his jeans, Yoosung shook his head at how stupid he was to worry so much… besides, chiding himself made it easier to forget the uneasy feeling coursing through his veins.

-       It wasn’t a bad sensation, just… different. Good. Like little bubbles of pure emotion streaming through his blood. Why he felt happy and excited and nervous all at the same time…  he didn’t know. Weirdest case of food poisoning he ever had that was for sure-

-       He began to scan the rows of seats for the easiest spot to slip into and found one close to the middle just on the aisle without anyone sitting in between him and the girl on the other side, the really pretty girl laughing with her friends…

-       Yoosung pressed his blunt nails into the flesh of his palm to wake himself up from his unintentional staring. He took in a bolstering breath and psyched himself up just so he could sit down, it’s not like the cute girl had noticed him or his existence or anything. It would be fine.

-       Edging into the chair and adjusting the fold up side table he began to unpack his books and pens, only for his latest guide for LOLOL to slip out from between his textbooks.

-       The girl next to him caught sight of the bright colours from the side of her eye and turned around, her eyes focused on the cover of the magazine before they shot up to look him in the eye.

-       She was stunning. And she looked disgusted with him.

-       “Tsk, another one of those computer geeks who do nothing but sit in their dark little apartments and fall in love with fictional characters,” she sneered as her friends cackled behind her… clearly none of them had grown up any since graduating from high school. Yoosung sighed and was about to shyly excuse himself when-

-       “Yeah, that’s right! We sit in our apartments and fall in love with fictional characters who still have far more depth and strength of character in one pixel than you could ever have in your entire being… Girl- did you regress into your 7th grade form over the holidays after graduating- it’s cool if you did, I’d like to study you for my psychology lab- I’ll entitle it, ‘Dumb bitch, scared and out of her league, forgets how to act like a decent human being.’ Know what? Just leave- you’re not appreciated here- we wouldn’t want to infect you with our geekiness.”

-       Yoosung turned around to see a girl with big earphones and an even bigger hoodie sitting forward giving the first (not so cute anymore) girl the most menacing glare he had ever seen, bar the ones his mother wielded.

-       The group of girls huffed and tried to retort under their breaths before packing up and moving rows.

-       Headphones girl clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as she made up her mind; she slung her cross-body bag over her shoulder as she clambered over the seats to sit next to Yoosung. The girl slightly winded from her almost-argument and her repositioning, offered the blonde boy a crooked grin- one he returned without hesitation.

-       “So… LOLOL boy- you gonna let me look at that guide? I was meaning to pick one up today after class but since you have one right here…” she eluded as she quirked one eyebrow up to test if he caught her drift. He did. He handed her the guide.

-       “H-hey… thanks for before… I didn’t know what I should say, if I should say anything at all-” “No sweat LOLOL boy-” “Hahah are you going to call me that forever?” he asked, laughing as he rubbed the back of his neck.

-       The girl eyed him critically from behind the pages of the guide.

“Pretty much, yes.”

Yoosung chuckled as he twirled his pen through the tips of his fingers, happy to feel the earlier wash of illness and emotion wane into nothing but a sense of peace and calm. “Well, can I at least have a name to call you? Butt-Kicking Classmate is kind of a mouthful.” “And yet so apt-” “Yes I understand this but-”

-       “MC. My name is MC.”

The waning was nothing but the calm before the storm, the eye of the tornado- and Yoosung was the poor cow stuck up 1000 feet in the air and she… she was the tornado. The boy sat back as he burnt up, his cheeks flaring as he bit his lip to not shout out from the sheer heat that he endured. Why did this happen every time he heard her name? Or said her name? Or even thought of her name? It was infuriating! “What should I call you if not LOL-” “Yoosung. Kim… Kim Yoosung.”

-       He had heard a soft gasp from behind the pages of the guide and he didn’t miss the way her hands trembled, or how wide her eyes had become. Slowly but steadily, MC drew the magazine down past her chin until her entire face was visible to him… that fluttering in his stomach, that fuzzy but clear feeling- it all came rushing back one hundred-fold.

-       “Yoosung… Kim… you say?” she asked, her once confident voice all but whispered.

-       He had never heard his name sound so beautiful.

-       “Yes, Yoosung Kim…” he confirmed with the smallest of nods of his head, watching as she swallowed some saliva and captivated in the way her throat moved as she did so. He was entranced by the way her mouth seemed to want to do a thousand different things, smile, talk, laugh, scream… so damn expressive.

-       MC clicked her tongue once more as she was wont to do when she made an important decision and put the guide back down on his desk before leaning forward, completely invading his personal space. Not that he was complaining. In fact… she could invade it more. It didn’t seem close enough.

-       “Yoosung Kim… I’ve been looking for you, for a long time,” she smiled, her warm hand resting atop his, a flash of electricity passing through their touch. “You have? Why? I’m just me, little old Yoosung…”

-       She threw her head back and laughed and to him it sounded like bells chiming.

-       “Yes, you are little old Yoosung, but from today - you are my little old Yoosung…” she pointed out as her pointer finger booped him firmly on the tip of his nose. “Well if I’m yours, th-then you’re mine!” he answered his chest puffing out slightly- why had he said that? When did he become so damn brazen? Was he going crazy?

“Hahaha, duh! If you’re my Soulmate then I’m your Soulmate- so of course I’m yours!”

“….. Soul… soul what?”

-       His parents had never told him anything about Soulmates, didn’t prepare him for what was to come. He was hit by a truck and completely floored.

-       The truck was named MC. He didn’t want to get up.

-       “Care to explain?”

-       MC stared at him completely dumbfounded, her mouth agape and her eyes even wider than before. She inhaled and nodded, resigning herself to the fact that the love of her life was completely innocent and that she did indeed have to teach him everything.

-       It was going to be so much fun.

-       “You see when a man and a woman love each other very much-” “MC I KNOW ABOUT SEX I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SOULMATES!” he hissed loud enough for the two rows surrounding them to snigger at. “Sex? Who said anything about sex? Geez, I say soulmate and you’re already trying to get into my pants-” “MC!” he whined, his amethyst eyes large and pleading. Of course, she acquiesced.

-       “Forever Yoosung. It means that you and me, until death do us part, no matter what… it’s me and you.”

-       He took a moment to process this, that he had literally no choice in who he fell in love with- that fate intervened and made sure that he had someone to love and someone to love him in return for the rest of his life… it was just so much to take in…

-       MC entwined her fingers with his when she noticed what she assumed was struggle painted on his face. This, he was going to have this, forever.

-       It didn’t matter that he had just met the girl, that he knew nothing about her- his body knew before he did. He already loved her.

-       He smiled and squeezed her hand back.

-       “Okay… I think I’m okay with that.”

Zen:

-       His first motion picture…

-       He was beside himself. He couldn’t believe that his agent had managed to get him this part! It was meant for a more well-known leading man and an unknown actress but they had fallen in love with how well he had read for the part and how well his headshots looked against the actress’s.  

-       He hadn’t been told who they had chosen, it wasn’t like it really mattered at the end of the day- the girl was an unknown, fresh faced and new in the show business role. She had never acted a day in her life but the casting director had seen her on the street and she had just the aesthetic he was after- it was just pure dumb luck that she was natural at acting.

-       He had planned to talk to her at the read through but she had lost her voice and couldn’t attend… it wasn’t until they were both there for the first physical run through of the scenes that they actually met…

-       “Oh hi! You must be-” “Yeah! You’re the actress playing MC right?-”

-       He didn’t get to finish his sentence, nor did she.

-       She was whisked off to fit some costumes and he… he couldn’t breathe.

-       The moment he said MC, his lips started to tingle and an odd buzzing sound rang in his ears. His cheeks felt flushed and his heart beat raced. He couldn’t understand… he had said that name more than a thousand times whilst reading the script, not once did he ever feel that way. It must have been her. Seeing her and her face must have just solidified his character’s feelings inside him of course. That must be what it was.

-       When she finally returned and they shook hands he could have sworn that he felt his own heartbeat beating in time with hers, palm to palm, one solid beat.

-       Damn it he needed to focus and not get too lost into the character… his character was the love-sick fool not him! He was a professional! He had only met this girl! He-he

-       … she had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen in his life.

-       FOCUS!

-       He had to thank whatever it was running through his system because he had never felt more “on” than at that moment. Every line he delivered to her felt authentic and organic, like he truly meant it. Looking around it was obvious that everyone else on set agreed, absolutely transfixed on the couple centre stage.

-       He could feel every word she was saying to him like it was scripture; that every word of love and devotion that she spoke had the power to let him walk on air… and god he really wanted to try.

-       …

-       He must have been a better actor than even he gave himself credit for, making himself believe that he was already half in love with the woman in front of him…

-       He didn’t even want to stop rehearsing until the Director had called out three times for them to finish up, he was just a ball of energy and wanted nothing more than to release that through this amazing acting he and this actress were performing, he didn’t want to lose momentum.

-       He didn’t want to lose what he was feeling…

-       “H-Hey! MC! Did you want to go and get some lunch with me?” he had asked before realising that he had called her by her character’s name. He felt the blood flood his cheeks as he forced himself not to slap himself or just die from embarrassment. He couldn’t be that far gone into this role to already be thinking of her as her character… this is how idiots fall in love with co-stars… “I’m so sorry, habit, I didn’t mean to call you MC-”

“And why not? It’s my name too,” she smiled as she rested her hand on his bicep, the muscle there twitching instinctively under her touch.

-       Shit.

-       Zen was no fool. He knew what this meant. He knew, deep down, that he wasn’t that good of an actor to fool himself- damn it- he was already half in love.

-       The only half evidently. She seemed completely unaffected… unless… had she said his name yet? No, she hadn’t. Only his character’s name!

-       “How silly of me! All this time I’ve never introduced myself properly! Hello MC, my name is Zen, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he beamed offering his hand out to her.  

-       Please

-       She smiled and took his hand and laughed as he flipped it over to kiss the back of hers.

-       “Oh! Hahah- wow! Um… yes, yes it’s lovely to meet you too Zen… Zen.”

-       He watched in rapt fascination as her fingers curled around his almost painfully, how her eyes widened and how her jaw fell and closed but fell back down- as if she were trying to desperately find the words… or simply remember how to talk.

-       “So… it’s true what they say…” he trailed off as he drew her closer with a simple tug of her hand still within his, “About when you meet your other half…”

Swallowing deeply and finally blinking her burning eyes MC shook her head and took a step back, though, she did not withdraw her hand. “What do they say?” she asked her voice trembling as much as her body was.

“That when you finally say your Soulmate’s name- nothing else in the world sounds as beautiful. That nothing else tastes as nice as the name of your Soulmate on your tongue. That the mere thought of their name is enough to bring tears to your eyes…”

-       She stared at him completely astonished by the ardent proclamations of this- stranger-

-       “No one says that,” she whispered as she licked her lips subconsciously her eyes fixated on his, content on watching him worry at the plump flesh. “Not out loud…” “They should… So- um… lunch?” she asked finally pulling away and bringing her hand to her chest, her other hand cradling it almost tenderly, her fingers tracing the still- warm parts of her skin that he had held.

-       They talked about anything that came to mind, their pasts, their dreams, their favourite food and their mutual aversion to cats. “A cat scratched my face when I was three and although I think they’re beautiful, I just… I just can’t.”

-       Soulmates were made to be a perfect fit after all…  

-       Once they got back on set the tension between the two was so thick it was practically humming- everyone could see that something had happened over lunch.

-       During a pivotal scene, where they were about to finally separate ways forever and part with a kiss…  

-       MC was looking at Zen, tears brimming in her eyes –geez what a talent- merely four lines away from their kiss and-

-       … and she dropped her script and crossed the stage to kiss him. Completely unscripted. Completely inappropriate.

-       It was perfect.

-       “-But Director, they’re not meant to kiss yet-”

“Shhh… she’s absolutely right! The character wouldn’t be able to wait, she wouldn’t want to waste a moment with talk when these two people are all about action! Have the scriptwriters add it right away-”

-       Zen smirked as they continued to share their first kiss with more than fifty random people around them. He didn’t care, the Director was right. They didn’t want to waste another moment- and suddenly- Zen didn’t mind being one of those idiot actors who fell in love with his co-star.

-       “Okay guys we get the point, we should probably move on… guys?… guys?!”

Jaehee:

-       It wasn’t particularly easy being kicked out by your Uncle and Aunt… she didn’t have anyone… and she didn’t want to touch what little was left of her inheritance from her parents so- she figured it would be better if she found a part time job.

-       That way her mind would be occupied at all times and she could indeed earn some money.

-       Besides… working with coffee wasn’t a bad thing. Being a barista wasn’t a bad thing, even if it did mean she was practically drooling at every order she made, she figured there would be worse cons to a job… like being a slave to a tyrant who overworked you and never appreciated you- she shuddered. She never wanted to end up like that!

-       It was a particularly busy day being the first weeks of winter, everyone would run in just wanting a cup of something warm to hold to help them heat up against the chill in the air, the poor brunette was already run off her feet. She was barely even looking at the customers in the eyes as she pushed their orders across the counter.

-       Wiping the sweat off her brow with the back of her arm, Jaehee took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Soon. Her own break would be soon. Just the next order to do and she would be free for 30 glorious minutes.

-       Pulling the last ticket off the machine so she could read her colleague’s sloppy writing a little easier, she memorised the order and proceeded to make it perfectly. Pouring it out into the large cup Jaehee took the receipt again to make sure she got the customer’s name right- MC…

-       She nearly spilt the drink all over herself.

-       That name. She’d seen it a thousand times before. Written it a thousand times before.

-       But this time- this person’s name… it made her heart skip a beat. It made her heart feel full and happier than it had for the longest time. It made her want to laugh and cry at the same time. It made her think of a home, a real one with her and this MC.

-       All from a name.

-       Jaehee finished writing the name down on the cup neatly and carefully put the pen down. She licked her lips and inhaled and called out in a voice she hoped didn’t shake too much, “MC?!”

-       “Oh here!?”

-       Jaehee looked up to see an angel in a trench coat and beanie. Her skin kissed with cold, nose and cheeks rosy and eyes bright. Such beauty right in front of her. “Um… may I please have my order um… Jae-Jaehee?”

-       The two women looked at each other from either side of the counter, the noise and hustle and bustle of the small coffee shop completely going unnoticed by them.

-       Jaehee pushed the cup to the middle of the bench only to be met in the middle by MC’s hand, her gloved fingers wrapping themselves around her quivering digits.

-       “I… this is…” she stammered unable to look away from the other woman’s eyes, her own honeyed irises large with disbelief.

-       She couldn’t be that lucky… to meet them… to meet her so early in life…

-       “It is,” MC answered her pink cheeks turning red as her lips curled into a stunning smile.

-       “B-but I don’t believe in-” “I’m standing right here.”

“Nothing good ever happens to me-” “Right in front of you.” “I have a break now-” “Let’s have a coffee.”

-       For the first time since she started working there, Jaehee took her break front of house… with a customer no less… and no one batted an eye when 30 minutes turned to an hour. Then an hour into an hour and a half- the girl had never smiled like she did right then; who were they to take that away from her?

-       They did however yell at her when she accidentally kept writing and calling out MC’s name for every order for the next day.

Jumin:

-       Soulmates? Preposterous. His father had spent his entire adult life looking for his soulmate, convinced that every pretty woman who batted their eyelashes at him and feigned to feel a strong connection to him (his money) was the one. This obsession with finding his Soulmate leading their family to shame and their company to ruin.

-       Well. Not. Him.

-       He didn’t believe in such nonsense. Not once did he find a woman worth spending time with let alone believing them capable to be the other perfect half of your soul. That would be the day.

-       All throughout high school he had one vapid girl after another clawing at him to say their name, hoping that he would feel the twinge in his heart and for butterflies to zoom out of his butt or some ridiculous notion like that. By the first month of school he refused to call any girl by their name and insisted on labelling everyone “Hey you there” or “Female student in front of me.”  

-       By the time he entered university, word had gotten out that Jumin Han just hated the idea of anyone being in love- because who would so vehemently refuse to even try to find their Soulmate? Who would look down on others just for trying to find a little piece of happiness? He was just an angry, lonely man.

-       Not that they were entirely wrong on that assessment… but not entirely right either.

-       Though, he didn’t let something like public opinion of him falter his course or his ideas- Jumin never thought much of other people’s talking of subjects they had no idea about. He took great pleasure it picking apart their arguments and making them sound like fools.

-       Probably why he made such an excellent debater, Captain of the team in fact.

-       In his final year of University, they were finally pitted against their rival school; not once in all the years he had been on the team had he had the chance to face off with the national champions- he was always called off to sit in with his father’s meetings or off sick; but not this time. This time he would meet them, crush them and reclaim the title for his school.

-       He had tried every avenue to find out what they could about their new Captain but everyone was on lockdown, no one would talk and all means of electronically hacking their systems to find out who they were, were completely barred. He didn’t want to cheat, it would sully his victory- no he just wanted to be prepared. Know their history, their grades and whatnot- let it never be said that Jumin Han didn’t do his homework.

-       The day of the debate arrived and sure enough familiar faces lined the opposite team- except one. A pretty girl he supposed, hardly what he would call imposing with her sweet smile and her intermittent waves to the crowd in front of them. Hardly Captain material, he’d be surprised if she was first chair… but wait- what was she doing sitting in the Captain’s chair?

-       Good Lord.

-       This was going to be too easy.

-       Jumin barely heard the announcer listing off his teammates but he paused when he heard her name. It cut through him like a hot knife through butter, seared onto his brain.

-       MC.

-       He felt nauseous, a cold sweat forming on his upper lip as his steel grey eyes raked over her smaller form.

-       She looked just as shaken as he did; her hands ringing together ripping the tissues trapped between her fingers.

-       He thought he was going to faint- what was this feeling? He mouthed her name and the feeling of illness slipped away only to be replaced with a wash of warmth? A silly tingling in his blood that seemed to be singing her name in his ears. His mouth was dry and his throat on fire, his palms lined with a sheen of sweat and his heart beating in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what was going on, he didn’t understand.

-       He watched as MC calmed herself all the while keeping her gaze focused on him, her cheeks burning up the longer she stared. She ran her tongue along her lower lip and he had never been so charmed by a muscle in his life.

-       Jumin she mouthed, maybe to him, maybe to herself- he didn’t know- what he did notice however was the way her hand clutched at her blazer just above where her heart would be. She didn’t look like she was in pain but she wasn’t exactly the same grinning woman he had seen moments earlier.

-       Indeed, it seemed that Jumin could barely tear his eyes off her, he couldn’t pay attention to his teammates, he couldn’t take notes- he could only focus on her. Just how far had he fallen? Over hearing a name and seeing a pretty face? Get it together Jumin!

-       Except he couldn’t. Every time he tried to rebut an argument he would instinctively look back at the opposite team and his eyes locked onto hers and he’d be lost. Each time he’d make any headway with his points he’d want to say her name instead, and of course, everything came out all tongue tied.

-       Thankfully for him, her performance wasn’t much better, she was a blushing mess but still- a coherent blushing mess.

-       Jumin’s university went home empty handed that year after all.

-       But not Jumin, not this time.

-       He wouldn’t lose twice in one day.

-       “Hello there, good performance today.”

“You too.”

“I’m Jumin Han-” “I know. I’m MC-”

“I heard, yes.”

-       Her teammates were calling for her to hurry up and get on the bus and she was about to call back to them but was cut off by the suddenly confident opposing Captain, “Please go on ahead- I will take MC home.” They looked at her and she in turn looked up to him and shook her head at his cavalier and brash assumption. He was just lucky it was the correct one. “It’s fine guys, you heard what Jumin said- he’s going to take me home.”

-       The silence in the auditorium was deafening. Jumin never spoke a girl’s first name and he certainly never let someone who just met him call him by his first name… unless…

-       Jumin fiddled with the cufflinks in his sleeves trying to buy time before he had to speak again. MC picked at imaginary lint at her skirt in hopes that the man would continue his initiative.

-       “I… I don’t know how any of this works… in fact until about an hour ago I was certain it was all a farce,” he admitted his eyes firmly fastened on her right shoulder, “but if… if it’s really what it seems like is it- what it feels like it is- I would like the chance to understand it all. Understand everything about you.”

-       MC smiled, even if she wasn’t his Soulmate, after that heartfelt speech, she would have bribed the stars themselves to realign just so she could be. “I don’t know how this works either- my mother told me it might happen one day, to just pray it would just happen before I got married to someone else who I thought was my Soulmate… is it… I mean… you felt it too? When you heard my name?” she questioned her eyebrows arching up as high as they would go. “The pull? The need to keep saying my name over and over again? Tell me it just wasn’t me.”

-       Jumin’s lips quirked to the side in an amused smirk, this girl was adorable. She could have asked to have his heart out on a platter and he’d have freely offered it, but all she required was the confirmation of his budding feelings from him.

-       Just too easy.

-       “I did. I feel it now. I have no choice but to believe in all this-” “Prove it.”

“Uh…how?”

“Scream my name out into the audience, let everyone hear it! Let everyone hear the name on the tip of your tongue, the name that your heart beats to now!” she goaded him, an excited grin on her face.

-       Jumin stared at her in shock- again another easy request… he didn’t care what people thought of him after all. Shrugging nonchalantly Jumin opened his mouth to swallow a gulp of air more than ready to scream out her name-

-       Only to have two delicate hands cover his mouth and a giggle that was not his own reverberating on his chest.

“Damn it! I didn’t think you’d actually do it! You’re crazy! I believe it, I believe you!” she guffawed, burying her face against him, her body heat and laughter seeping into him and offering a warmth that he had never felt before.

-       He liked it.

-       He wanted more.

-       “So… perhaps it wouldn’t be out of line for me to ask you out to dinner?” he asked looking down at the crown of her head. “O-Of course not!” “Tonight?”

-       The tentative slip of her hand in his was answer enough for him.

Saeyoung:

-       He was a good, diligent worker and that was all that mattered to the Agency.

-       He barely ate, he barely slept, barely did anything but exist and work.

-       The perfect agent.

-       Then they brought her in.

-       606.

-       Quiet and withdrawn but brilliant. She could code almost as well as he did and she could hack into places faster and without a trace better than him. She slept less than him. Ate less than him. Was less than him.

-       She wasn’t going to survive, she would burn out and become useless to the Agency and she would have to be disposed of.

-       … and even as far as he had come, as low as he had gone… that didn’t sit right with him. He chose this life, but someone that hollow did not. Someone that broken had been torn away from a good life, a happy life.

-       He imagined her having younger siblings who missed her, parents who searched the streets with her picture in hand begging for information, friends who no longer spoke to each other because the memory of her haunted them.

-       He wasn’t going to let the agency steal a life that didn’t belong to them.

-       It all started with innocent emails; just him asking how she was, sending her funny jokes or pictures, bantering and bitching about work in such a way that no one would be able to crack down on them for… make her smile. Make her strong. Don’t let her break.

-       606 soon became the life of the office… which didn’t say much because it was literally just him, her and Vanderwood in the small room. She was laughing and smiling and radiating joy- her work improved… the Agency was very happy.

-       707. Stay back tonight. Help me with an assignment?

-       Of course, 606, whatever you need.

-       That night when Vanderwood had finally gone past his threshold of exhaustion, the older man peeled himself off the chair and bid “the children” goodnight.

-       She kept typing, she kept on finishing her work for another 20 minutes as he sat there dumbfounded as to why she had asked him to stay back when all she was doing was literally more work. That was what tomorrow was for!

-       He was about to pack up and leave when she threw him a piece of paper.

I’m leaving. Tonight. Come with me.

-       He looked back up at her, there was nothing on her face to discern that she even sent him the message- or even blinked. “So… you in?”

-       Of course, 606, whatever you need.

-       He nodded. She kept typing.

“Come and see me in my room then?”

-       Aahhh, so that’s how she was going to hide it- she was going to pretend they were going to sleep together. That was something he often found weird in the Agency- they didn’t care or discourage the formation of relationships between agents- probably believed if you got attached they could always use the partner as insurance or worse, incentive. “Yeah, I’ll meet you in there.”

-       When he arrived she was in full combat gear, she was ready to fight her way out if needed. They went over the plan over and over again, whispering directly into each other’s ears so that not even the bugs in their rooms could pick up what they were saying. Also with occasional moan or shudder it seemed like they were just making out.

-       Her room was just above the route the laundry trucks would ride out from and she had managed to make contact with one of her friends from the outside- come midnight she, they, would jump down and escape this hell hole. They only had one chance to do this- the other agents on duty would notice a paused truck and would respond immediately.

-       The clock ticked by and before they knew it, it was 11:59 and the faint rumble of an engine could be heard, the soft hiss of the brakes beneath her window.

-       “In case I die,” she uttered, her face stoic and unmoving, “I want you to know- my name, it’s not 606. They wanted me to forget but I will never forget. My name is MC.”

-       It was like a punch to his chest, the sound of her name. It ignited something in him that he never thought he would have the chance to feel, to experience. Not there. To find her there amongst all the sin and evil that they do, he knew how to spot a miracle when God sent one.

-       “You’re not going to die MC, I promise,” he replied as he held her to him in a bone crushing embrace, “I promise.”

“Your name, 707- if I die, I want to know your-” “Didn’t I just say that you weren’t going to die MC?” he chuckled as her helped out of the window, “I, Saeyoung Choi, promise you.”

-       The look on her face as she said his name would have been enough to take him to his grave. To see her face light up with joy and surprise as if someone had turned on a light inside of her, that would be one of his most treasured memories.

-       His sharp ears caught the sounds of rushed footsteps down the hall.

-       He pushed her roughly before she was ready and heard a loud snap of something when she fell onto the truck. MC was bowed forward, holding onto her right foot that had landed awkwardly and bent inwardly- her face contorted into silent screams.

-       Saeyoung made the sign of the cross as he backed away from the window to do a run up. God please- I just found her- don’t take her away from me.

-       He landed beside her, coiling his arms around her protectively as he laid her down to see the damage to her ankle- it was bad but nothing that some doctor couldn’t fix.

-       He beamed down at her, cupping her face tenderly…

-       As he tried desperately to ignore the barrage of agents chasing after the both of them.

-       Saeyoung gently caressed her features with his fingers, desperate to feel everything under his touch, etch it into his mind.

-       “You lie down here and keep safe okay? I’m going to go and hold them off-” “No! You can’t do that! They’ll torture you to death!” she cried sitting up, screaming out in pain as she accidentally moved her foot. He shushed her, looking forward to see that they were nearly clear of the base… she was so close to being free. “Shh, shhh- it’s okay MC. It’ll be okay. I promise,” he reassured her, his eyes crinkling so much that little droplets of tears dotted his auburn lashes. “No it won’t be-” “I’ll find you. I promise. I’ll find you.”

“Saeyoung!”

-       He jumped off the truck and refused to allow himself to look back at her- if he did, he would never be able to leave her side.

-       MC ignored the searing pain rushing up her leg to twist her body to watch her Soulmate’s noble sacrifice. One man, two, twelve men on him… he had no chance.

-       “Saeyoung!” she croaked, her voice stifled by her despair.

-       You promised…

-       707: WAIT

        Yoosung: Why?                 Zen:??         707: Think someone entered the chat room;;

        Jumin: MC…?

-       Saeyoung smiled to himself as he traced the location and turned on the camera.

-       Promised I would find you.

  Saeran:

-       He had been searching for months under her orders. Months and no one was right. He was about to give up hope, that he would have to send in one of their own to infiltrate the damned RFA… but then she appeared.

-       Like a gust of wind on a scorching day or the breath of air coursing through starved lungs- she blew into his life and turned it upside down.

-       He would follow her and watch her from afar. He would tap in and listen to her conversations- not because he was interested in what she was saying- he just wanted to hear her voice.

-       Her friend was laughing on the other line, “Oh… MC… you’re too much!”

-       Saeran fell to the floor, his knees smarting from the hard concrete. No- NO!

-       He crawled underneath his desk and curled up into a tight ball, his arms hugging his knees as he lightly rocked back and forth. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, made him jittery and on edge. No- he was warned against this. Was told that if he ever felt this that it was wrong, that he should only love the Saviour and their cause. That the call of someone else was evil, that it was the work of the corrupted

-       But he was already corrupted, no matter how many times they drugged him and made him try to forget- he knew he was… but MC-

-       She was perfect, absolutely perfect.

-       Unfortunately, the Saviour agreed.

-       It was hard to have something of your own in Mint Eye, something private, something sacred.

-       He had to get her back.

-       They had sent her to infiltrate an organisation full of desperate and lonely people- the most kind and innocent person sent into a den of wolves to feast upon. He had to save her.

-       He was frantic, he sent her conflicting messages- wanting to scare her away from Mint Eye but wanting her to stay away from them- especially Saeyoung. If any of them saw even half of what he saw in her… they would steal her away.

-       Finally the Saviour said it was time to claim their prize back, that since he was so good he could take her for himself- keep her safe himself. He was so happy. But when he got to the apartment, as he scaled the building and broke through the window to reach her… she was not as happy to see him.

-       She was screaming. She was backing away from him. She was afraid.

-       He couldn’t think straight- this wasn’t right. She was supposed to be happy to see him, to come with him willingly. Wasn’t that what Soulmates were about? The moment he knew her name-

-       That was it… he knew her name but she didn’t know his… to her he was…

-       “I’m from Paradise. You don’t know this but you were invited too… I know it took some time for me to come for you… now let’s go together… you look scared, don’t be. I won’t hurt you… endless parties, overflowing love, joy without pain… I’ll save you… You invited someone? Maybe… Luciel Choi?”

“MC- Are you hurt?” “I-I’m fine!” “I… I don’t know who you are… but let go of her!”

-       No. Not Luciel. The actor. The pretty one. Of course she would fall for the pretty one.

-       “No.” She’s mine. She’s meant for me.

“If you don’t, I’ll have to use force to protect my girl.” I don’t want to do this. “You move a single inch, you see this switch here? I’ll press it.” I won’t.

“What do you want?!”

-       The truth then.

-       “To escape this place safely with the RFA planner… If you don’t want to activate the bomb you better stay still. Just watch as I take… “your girl” and disappear.”

-       The pain in his arm paled in comparison to the ache in his heart when she pulled away from him to run into the arms of another man. Away from him. Always away.

-       Never his.

-       Meant to be his.

-       “My name… My name was Saeran.”

V:

-       It was the school for the rich and gifted.

-       Some more rich and others more gifted.

-       Most loved it there. Some merely tolerated it.

-       One person hated it.

-       Brought in through a scholarship to show how the school was “giving back to the community”, bringing in the charity case and parade them around like their latest trophy.

-       Well this trophy didn’t like the case she was put in. She didn’t like the people who thought they could polish her up and make her shine to their standards. She didn’t like them at all.

-       Especially those that shone the brightest- it hurt to look at them, like the sun- blindingly beautiful but dangerous.

-       None shone more so than V.

-       Pfft.

-       Who the hell named their child V? What pretentious jackass does that?

-       Wasn’t it enough that he went strutting around with his best friend, waving and talking to the more common folk? Wasn’t it too much that he went around taking photos of people and landscapes and saying pompous things like “everything is beautiful and everything is art?” Wasn’t it over the top that he had the gall to act all sweet and kind and look like some sort of bronzed Greek God? WASN’T IT?!

-       MC breathed in trying to calm herself. For the better part of the last six months she had spent it running, hiding and keeping her distance from him. He seemed hell bent on seeking her out and trying to talk to her- well she wanted nothing from him! No help! No charity! No pity! Just to be left alone.

-       During a study period, she was cornered by none other than that trust fund kid’s best friend, super-mega trust fund kid the first, Jumin Han.

-       He chose the desk right next to hers although almost every other desk was available, which only meant he wanted to speak to her.

-       “Why do you hate V?” he asked so bluntly she was surprised by it. She sat up from her prone position laying along the desk and twisted slightly to face the man to her left. She propped her head on her hand and gave him a long, pointed stare.  

-       “I… I don’t know. I just do. From his perfect hair to his perfect persona to, god even his name pisses me off! V! There are just some people that you’re not meant to get along with and he and I are obviously not meant to be besties,” she huffed as she rested the front of her torso back down against the desk, resting her chin atop her crossed arms.

-       “I told him,” he clicked his tongue as he shook his head ruefully, crossing his arms like a disappointed adult to a child… or small pet. “I told Jihyun that you were certifiable. Who hates someone just because of what they can see? Without even getting to know them?”

-       Her fingers dug into the worn wood of the table beneath her.

-       Jihyun… now that was… that was a name she liked. Her breath escaped her lungs as she whirled around so fast she almost lost balance on her seat. That name made her feel soft and fuzzy and loved- she had never even met him and she was already in love with him. Jihyun, a good and noble man who wanted nothing more than to love and care for the woman he loved and to be loved and cared for in return. A man who would make them such horrible breakfasts on Sunday when they were married that they would inevitably go out and eat at a restaurant- yet he never stopped trying. Because he loved her and one day he wanted to get it right. A man who would stay in and read the paper to her as she lay in between his legs and slept on his chest- he wouldn’t even move at all for fear she’d wake or be disturbed.

-       She loved that name.

-       Her heart beat faster and suddenly she couldn’t control her extremities, her legs were bouncing up and down in excitement and her hands unsure of where to place themselves, every place awkward compared to the thought of her hands being linked with his. It didn’t feel right- to be on her own, not now she knew his name.

-       “Who?” she meekly asked the ebony haired prince next to her. He was fiddling with a loose thread on his blazer sleeve, pulling at the strand until it came out completely. “Jumin- who?” she repeated hoping that her insistence would be enough to show him how important it was for her to know who this man was.

-       He gave her a perplexed look, thoughtful eyes glided over her form as if he were trying to ascertain whether she was joking or not. His eyes widened and his mouth pressed into a thin line when he quickly realised that she wasn’t asking in jest, she was completely serious.

“Jihyun… Jihyun Kim is V’s real name. The man you so ardently hated?” he answered, his mouth twitching up into a wry smile.

-       Damn it.

-       MC violently pushed herself back from the desk with both hands before she started running to the last place she had seen V- Jihyun. He was entering the dark room just as she was heading to the study hall. The light was on meaning he was developing something… she should be patient…

-       … but all those months… all those wasted months- how could he forgive her? She didn’t know but she had to try!

-       The light flicked off and she knocked, waiting for him to call out that it was okay and that she could come it. She slowly opened the door and closed it behind her.

-       Less than five steps away was Jihyun, pulling down some developed photos.

-       He was right. Everything was beautiful. Everything was art.

-       He was art.

-       And she was just some dumb pedestrian trying to look at the piece and critique it without having all the history and facts behind it, not knowing the mastery it took to create it. The love that went into it. Fool.

-       He turned to her and she swore that the blue of his eyes was just that little bit bluer, the tone of his hair that much deeper and his lips, full and perfect and so ready for her to kiss she couldn’t believe there was ever a time she wanted to slap his smile off. Now she’d do anything to keep it there forever.

-       What’s in a name? Everything. What did Shakespeare know?

-       “I… I’m so sorry,” she cried, prostrating herself in a deep bow.

-       Startled, V set aside his print and pulled the bowing woman up and forced her to look at him. “What for? I’m not aware of anything you’ve done that would warrant an apology,” he replied good naturedly, his kind smile warming her to her bones. “I have been terrible to you and only because… for some unknown reason- I couldn’t stand your name. What it stood for, what you seemingly stood for,” she confessed, her cheeks burning under the harsh lights.

-       V reached behind her and turned on the dark room red lights once again- to save her from embarrassment.

-       “I know- it’s okay MC, you don’t have to explain. I know my name is the problem,” he admitted with a careless shrug. MC gawked at him, how could he know? How could he possibly know?! “I’ve known since the first day when I felt the bond but you did nothing but run away from me- I knew that my name was faulty and that although you may be my Soulmate- that I simply was not yours.”

-       All this time, he thought he was the problem. That she didn’t love him because his name was faulty, that he was faulty.

-       Her heart shattered and she bit her lip to stop herself from crying. She almost ruined this man, she continued to pile hurt upon hurt on him and now there she was telling her how much she loved him… well… that was what she wanted to do, whether or not she could do it not was the other question.

-       “No… I… I was just stupid. I thought your name was V, not Jihyun. There was nothing wrong with your name- there is nothing wrong with you. I… just, wanted to let you know that. You’re amazing. You’re perfect and I want to get to know you, just as you are.”

-       Even in the dark, the brightness from his smile could be seen.

-       “You do?” the hope in his voice evident, taking the first steps to close the gap between them. “I do. I want the chance to know the real Jihyun,” she beamed. “I would love nothing more than that, MC,” he replied, encircling his arms around her body. -       Well what do you know, they were a perfect fit.

[captain-zajjy]

Solstice, Chapter 27 - A Final Fantasy XV Story

Pairing: Ignis x Female Original Character

AO3 | Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

The last week had passed as though Valeria was living in a dream; only the constant darkness, the poverty, and the rumbling in her stomach indicated otherwise. It didn’t matter. None of it did. After all these years, Ignis was hers, and she was his, and they were together in a way that she’d once thought impossible.

The unspoken tension that had always existed between them, that sadness for things that could never be, was gone, obliterated - replaced with a very juvenile awkwardness and embarrassment as they explored each others’ bodies and began to define just exactly what ‘together’ meant for the pair of them.

For the next few hours, however, together would have to wait - Cor Leonis had summoned them to his office so they could report the strange daemons they’d encountered at Fort Vaullerey to some scientist.

“She’s a bit eccentric,” Ignis had said of the researcher. “Well, perhaps more than a bit.”

Valeria and Ignis made the now-familiar journey to the high school-turned-Hunter HQ, and up the stairs to the second floor. In the corner outside the stairwell, Valeria spied Prompto chatting with a young woman in coveralls who seemed to hang on his every (numerous) word. As soon as he caught sight of them, he quickly said his goodbyes and fell into step with Ignis and Valeria.

“Was than Sandy? Wait, no...Cindy?” Valeria asked.

“Nah,” Prompto said. “Just a fellow chocobo enthusiast. Hey, we should start a fan club!” Prompto jabbed her with a pointy elbow. “What do you say?”

“Typically, I don’t think real-life animals have ‘fan’ clubs,” Ignis said.

“Well, then, we’ll be the first,” Prompto said.

Valeria gave him a bemused smile. “We’ll see.”

“Oh, hey.” Prompto paused to dig into his pockets. “Check it out!” Several brass cylinders sat atop his palm.

“Bullets?” Valeria asked.

“Yup!”

Valeria tilted her head. “Okay...”

“They’re not normal bullets. Look.” He held up one of the items in question. “Rubber bullets. For training. The Marshal says we can’t train with live rounds.”

“For good reason,” Ignis said under his breath.

Valeria wasn’t entirely sure what Prompto wanted from her. “That’s cool, I guess.”

Prompto tapped her on the arm. “Training for you. It’ll be fun, right?”

“Ah, that's a generous offer,” Ignis said.

“Oh, I...” Valeria frowned. “I don’t want to be a Hunter or anything.”

“I know,” Prompto chirped. “Just like, self-defense, that kinda thing.”

“Well...” Valeria looked between Ignis and Prompto, both offering her encouraging smiles. “Sure, I guess. Thanks.”

“Alright!” Prompto pumped his fist in the air. “Chocobo fan club meeting, then target practice. Sweet.”

Before Valeria could object, they were at the door of Cor Leonis’s office, and Prompto raised his hand.

“Knock, Prompto,” Ignis said.

“I was gonna!” Prompto said defensively. “Tell him, Val.”

“He was,” Valeria admitted.

“You’re learning,” Ignis replied. “Excellent.”

“‘You’re learning,’” Prompto muttered under his breath, his attempt at Ignis’s accent almost laughably poor. After he made a loud show of knocking, Cor opened the door and let them in.

Ignis insisted Valeria take the only seat, electing to stand behind her chair, while Prompto leaned on the wall next to them.

“Is Gladio not here?” Ignis asked.

“He’s under the weather,” Cor replied with a frown. “According to Iris.”

“Nothing serious, I hope,” Ignis said.

“Nothing Cup Noodles can’t cure, I bet,” Prompto replied.

The other occupant of the room was a woman wearing large glasses, her dark, frizzy hair tucked beneath a crumpled bucket hat. She was scribbling furiously on a torn piece of notebook paper, seemingly oblivious to the conversation around them - and Cor’s multiple attempts at clearing his throat.

When she finally set her pen down, she looked up and exclaimed, “Oh,” as if just now noticing their presence.

“Professor Sania Yeagre,” Cor announced.

“Formerly of Duscae University, currently head of the Daemon Research Department of Lestallum,” Sania added. She listed her credentials flatly, like one simply stating a fact, rather than a boast.

Valeria’s eyebrows shot up. “There’s a Daemon Research Department?”

“There will be,” Sania replied. “As soon as I get some research assistants. Speaking of, are you-”

“A pity, we’re all terribly busy,” Ignis quickly interjected. He then let out a small cough, as if to say, trust me.

So rather than question it further, Valeria rose offered her hand in greeting. “Valeria Soleil,” she said. “Former vice-president of a company that no longer exists.”

Sania merely acknowledged her with a nod, then her gaze slid between Ignis and Prompto. “So, that friend of yours really was the Prince. What a shame,” she lamented. “He was a great research assistant.”

“To the matter at hand,” Cor interjected, clearly eager to get this over with. “The daemons you encountered at Fort Vaullerey.”

“Yes,” Ignis said. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Do you ever stop?” Prompto asked.

“About that encounter,” Ignis clarified. “I have a theory, if I may.” He told the story backwards, beginning with the daemon mass they’d fought in the hangar, and ending with the blood they’d found outside on the pavement.

“I believe that the daemons inside the building attacked that individual, then dragged him outside to share with their fellows. I’ve never seen something like that before.” Ignis rested his chin between his thumb and forefinger. “In the past, they gathered in groups, but it was never coordinated. And they certainly did not...share.”

“Coordination...” Sania muttered under her breath, her gaze a million miles away. “...assimilation...the groups...the virus...yes!” She slammed her hand down so hard on Cor’s desk that Valeria jumped. “It wasn’t sharing,” Sania said, like it was all suddenly, painfully obvious. “It was anabolism.”

“A-what-a-what now?” Prompto asked.

“The synthesis of a complex structure from simpler ones,” Sania said. “Yes, of course!”

“You’re saying the daemons took that person, not to kill or consume, but to...become one of them?” Ignis ventured. “That level of intelligence...”

“Is unprecedented.” Sania’s dark eyes were gleaming with excitement, entirely opposite of the horror that Valeria felt.

“Because of the Imperial experiments?” Cor asked.

“Maybe.” Sania shrugged. “Maybe it’s evolution. Adaptation. Fascinating, isn’t it?” No, Valeria thought. Not at all. “Nature always finds a way to survive.”

“Nothing about daemons are natural,” Ignis said. “They’re a curse.”

Sania dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “That’s just religious hogwash. The Starscourge is like any other organism - its only objectives are to reproduce and survive. Hmm...” That faraway gleam was back in her eyes. Sania turned back to her notebook paper, and began to jot something down as she mumbled to herself.

After a loud cough, Ignis finally said, “Is there anything else you wish to ask?” Sania only acknowledged the question with a flick of her wrist.

“I think we are done here,” Valeria said to Ignis. The two of them and Prompto attempted to bid the scientist farewell, and then returned to the hallway.

“Hey, can I-” Prompto’s eyes darted between Ignis and Valeria. “Can I talk to you guys about something?”

“Of course, Prompto,” Ignis replied. Valeria nodded.

Prompto drew them both over to the same corner next to the stairs where Valeria had spotted him earlier; idly, she wondered if this spot was Prompto’s office.

“Iggy,” Prompto began, shifting from foot to foot. “The first time we were at the Fort - was that stuff there? The cages and...and the other stuff.”

“The experiments, you mean,” Ignis said.

“Yeah. Your memory’s better than mine, so...” Prompto’s big blue eyes were looking up at Ignis expectantly, almost pleading.

“No,” Ignis replied with a frown. “Such things were not present during our first foray into the Fort.”

“Dammit,” Prompto muttered. “Why though? Why now?”

Valeria nodded. “You’re right. Before the Darkness, all their research made sense - it was evil and cruel, but it made sense. They were trying to conquer Lucis. But now...what’s the point?”

Ignis idly tapped his cane against the floor as he considered her question. “Why, indeed. I believe there are two possibilities. The first,” he held up his index finger, “is that, Imperials being as they are, had orders to conduct their research prior to the Darkness, and simply continued with their tasks as they awaited further instructions.”

“Well, that’s definitely possible, knowing the Niffs,” Valeria said. “I don’t think they even take bathroom breaks without getting three forms of approval.”

Prompto laughed nervously as Ignis continued. “The second, and more troubling possibility,” he said as he raised his second finger alongside the first, “is that these are new orders. But from whom?”

“...Ardyn?” Prompto ventured, his mouth twisting in a snarl around the name.

“Ardyn?” Valeria interjected. “Who's that?”

“The Imperial Chancellor,” Ignis supplied, then shook his head. “And I don’t think so. If he wanted to rule, he could have easily seized power from the Emperor years ago. Everything about his behavior seems to indicate he prefers to work from the shadows and manipulate those in charge.”

“But the Emperor’s dead,” Prompto insisted. “And the...the h-head scientist, the High Commander-”

“Caligo Ulldor’s dead?” Valeria interjected. Good riddance, she thought.

Prompto gave her a quizzical look. “No. Ravus was the High Commander.”

“Ulldor.” She felt Ignis’s grip tighten on her arm for just a second. “How do you know that name?”

“They...” Valeria closed her eyes, quelling the phantom feeling of pain erupting along the side of her face. “They said Lord Ravus got moved to some other position and Ulldor was in charge, back in Insomnia. They paraded him around on a stage and everything.” Valeria wanted to tell Ignis the whole truth - she really did - but not with Prompto there.

“Hmm.” Ignis furrowed his brows. “Well, I don’t know what’s become of Ulldor. But Lord Ravus is decidedly deceased.”

Valeria frowned. Ignis had been so certain that if they removed the men at the top, the Empire would crumble. It was one time where she hated being right.

“The Emperor was pretty old,” she said. “I’m sure he had children, maybe even grandchildren, nieces, nephews...”

“Imperial inheritance is not strictly patrilineal,” Ignis explained. “But your point still stands. There are certainly people still amongst the living who would be deemed fit to succeed the Emperor.”

“So the Empire’s still out there?” Prompto whispered, looking vaguely distraught. “Still trying to take over everything?”

“I said it was a possibility,” Ignis clarified, his voice gentle. “Don’t trouble yourself, Prompto. Whatever comes our way, we shall endure it.”

“I know, I...” Prompto looked down at the floor, scuffing the toe of his boot on the tile. “I just don’t want more people to die.”

“No one does,” Valeria offered, although there was a short list of exceptions she had to that statement, starting with one Caligo Ulldor.

“Shall we check in on Gladio on our way home?” Ignis asked, obviously trying to change the subject.

“Huh?” Prompto looked up. “Gladio? He’s probably just hungover.”

Ignis clucked his tongue. “I would expect he’s ailing with something more serious if it kept him from his duty.”

“Nah, dude. Have you tried the stuff he’s been drinking lately?” When Ignis shook his head, Prompto wrinkled his nose. “He tried to give me some last time I was over there. It smelled like the stuff you used to use to clean our wounds.”

“Oh, dear,” Ignis muttered. As the supply of legitimate liquor in the city rapidly dwindled, Valeria had heard of people improvising all sorts of questionable methods to produce alcohol; it wasn’t at all surprising that these ‘homebrews’ left imbibers feeling seriously ill.

“Like I said,” Prompto went on. “Nothing some Cup Noodles can’t cure. And probably a lot of hurling. Anyway,” he stretched his arms overhead, “I gotta go help with breaking in the new recruits. Can you believe it? Me - in charge. See ya!”

In his apartment’s tiny kitchen, Ignis stood facing the sink, drying the evening’s dishes and cutlery with a towel before putting them away in the cabinets to his right. Behind him, a pair of arms encircled his waist, a head leaned against his back.

“My compliments to the chef,” Valeria said.

Ignis smiled, at both the physical contact and that statement. “Rationing is making it difficult, but he is doing the best he can.” He’d finally resumed using the stove and oven for cooking; Valeria helped by keeping an eye on things and ensuring he didn’t inadvertently set anything on fire. It had been weeks since Ignis had actually gone to bed feeling full - the rations were enough to keep them from starving, but little more than that.

Valeria squeezed his sides. “Like I said - my compliments.”

“You have my thanks.” Ignis placed the final glass back in the cupboard and turned around to face her. “Not just for the compliments. For...for everything.” He wished he could better articulate his gratitude for all she had done for him in this dark time, for all the happiness and comfort her presence had brought him.

Ignis’s fingertips walked up her arms to rove the planes of her face, and he tried to connect the shapes he was feeling to his memory of her appearance. The majority of the time, he viewed his blindness as a hindrance, a source of frustration and sometimes embarrassment, an obstacle that he simply had to find a new way to overcome. But right now, feeling her smile and knowing he was unable to see it, that he would never be able to look upon her beautiful face or see his affection for her reflected in her eyes - the only way to describe that was loss, a loss he grieved ardently. He tried to take comfort in his memories so as not to dwell on the sadness of it all.

The muscles of her mouth and eyebrows twitched beneath Ignis’s fingers, like she was growing confused or irritated with him.

“Permit me a few more moments to admire your face,” he implored. He felt her cheeks grow hot, and he chuckled. “Why are you blushing?”

“I don’t know.” Valeria’s eyelashes fluttered against his skin. “I guess I haven’t felt pretty in a long time.”

That admission seemed so absurd to him that Ignis nearly laughed out loud, but stopped himself, knowing she wasn’t joking. “Why ever not?”

Valeria sighed and leaned into his palm, placing her own hand atop his. “Being ordered around, corralled into tents, constantly on the run - it made me feel...” She trailed off as she searched for the right word.

“Like an animal?” Ignis supplied.

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “Like an animal.”

“And now?” he asked softly. “Do you still feel as if you’re in a cage?”

“No.” Ignis felt her smile once more. “I feel safe here. Protected.”

He couldn’t help the way his back straightened at that statement, the way his shoulders and chest suddenly felt a bit broader. “Good,” he said, leaning down to plant a kiss on her forehead. “I am glad to hear it.”

Valeria took Ignis by the hand, leading him over to the couch in the center of the room. “What are you going to tell the others?” she asked. “About us.”

“Nothing,” Ignis replied. “It’s none of their business.”

Valeria laughed. “Somehow, I doubt Prompto gets that.”

“He doesn’t,” Ignis said. “He can find someone else through whom to live vicariously.”

It’s my life. Mine. Such a simple sentiment, yet one Ignis had forgotten through the years, trying to live up to his uncle’s expectations, trying to do his best to serve crown and country. He had always endeavored to prove that he wasn’t like his late father, a wastrel and a fop, whose frivolous spending had driven the already-waning House of Scientia into debt, and whose reckless folly had driven himself and his young wife into the side of a mountain during a late-night snowstorm. Your father was born with every advantage, Ignis’s uncle had once said to him. And, one-by-one, he squandered them all.

So, Ignis had kept his head down. He did as he was told, respected his betters, and always put others’ needs before his own. And, most of the time, he derived a real satisfaction from that, but somewhere along the way, Ignis’s own wants and needs had been lost. Uncovering them now was a work-in-progress, both frightening and exhilarating in turns.

“What are you thinking about, Iggy?” Valeria asked.

“My parents,” he admitted.

“Oh.” Her tone suggested she hadn’t been expecting such an answer. “Well,” she put a hand on his arm, “I’m sure they’d be proud of you.”

Ignis inclined his head. “I’d like to hope so. And you...” He straightened his neck. “Your mother would be as well.”

Valeria paused. “I don’t know,” she said quietly. “I can’t help but think if she were here now, she’d already have all of Lestallum running like some well-oiled machine.”

He shook his head. “Your mother was certainly a formidable woman, but I somehow doubt that.”

“I don’t know, I...” Valeria sighed. “I always felt like a knockoff. Like if anyone looked too close, they could tell that I was just a phony, trying to be like her. Like I was never good enough.”

“Nonsense.” Ignis slung his arm around her shoulder and pressed a kiss onto the crown of her head. “You’re one-of-a-kind.”

“Flatterer.” Before he knew it, Valeria shifted and was straddling his lap, her hands on his lapels pulling him in for a kiss. A kiss which inevitably deepened until their tongues were intertwined and Ignis’s heart was pounding, thinking he had never tasted anything half so sweet.

Physically, their relationship hadn’t progressed past this stage, that even a child would consider innocuous and tame. Valeria made him feel fumbling and bumbling, like he was all hands, like his legs were always in the way; with her, he remained in a stunted state of adolescence, that bewildered boy standing on her mother’s porch after his first kiss.

Awkwardness aside, Ignis’s old-fashioned sensibilities dictated that there was a proper order to things, the correct way to formally woo and court a woman - and it didn’t involve jumping into bed with her the first moment one felt a stirring in his loins.

He felt more than a stirring now. It was almost embarrassing how quickly Ignis, master of self-control, roused at her touch, her mouth on his. Nearly a decade of longing was distilled into a tightness in his chest and in his trousers, one she absolutely had to be aware of by now.

When Valeria twisted her hips, relieving the pressure on his aching crotch, Ignis fell back on old habits and apologized.

“For what?” She laughed against his mouth. “Being attracted to me?”

“Er...” Here she was, leaving him tongue-tied once more. “For...well, for prodding you, I suppose.” Ignis knew his face had gone beet red. Specs...you’re a moron.

Again, she laughed and kissed the bridge of his nose. “I, um...” Her voice had suddenly grown quiet, almost shy. “I could, um...”

He felt her fingers on his belt buckle and swallowed hard. “Wait.” He grabbed her hands. “Allow.... Please allow me to reciprocate, first.”

Ignis didn’t even care that that sentence didn’t make sense. All he could think was, this is happening, as she allowed his fingers to explore the slim, smooth planes of her bare thighs, as her fingers curled in the back of his hair. This is actually happening. Buzzing filled his ears as his hand slid beneath her skirt, grazing the fabric of her underwear.

Beep-bzz.

Dear Gods, Ignis thought, feeling Valeria’s breath hitch against his face. I may not last long enough for her to reciprocate.

Beep-bzz. Beep-bzz.

He paused. That sound wasn’t the blood rushing in his ears. It was coming from across the room.

“Is...” Ignis had to cough to keep his voice from cracking. “Is that your phone?”

“W-what?” Valeria whispered in his ear. The beeps immediately followed by a buzzing vibration sounded once more. “Dammit,” she muttered. “No one ever calls me. Why now?”

Why now, indeed, Ignis lamented. Aloud, he said, “It could be EXINERIS with another task for you.”

And, because they were both still learning how to be selfish and how to say ‘no’ to their betters, Valeria slid off Ignis’s lap with a sigh of frustration, while Ignis couldn’t help but groan. If nothing was done about this, he was going to be miserably sore in the morning.

He heard her snatch up the phone. “Three missed calls,” she said. “I don’t recognize this number. Oh!” The phone buzzed again. “It’s a message.” She walked back to Ignis as she read.

“‘Hi, pumpkin. I just made it to Lestallum. Can you come get me down at the gate?’”

“‘Pumpkin?’” Ignis chuckled, bemused. “Who in the world calls you ‘pumpkin?’”

Next to him, Valeria froze. “My dad.”

[boleynambition]

Love Letters to Bucky

FIRST FIC IN A WHILE! 

Summary:  The reader decides to do something nice for Bucky and writes a series of cute letters for him. At first, the letters were friendly, but as time progresses and she writes more letters, she discovers that she is in love with the super soldier.

Fluffy/kinda cute/kinda angsty

Reader x Bucky Barnes

You can also find it here!

You admired Bucky as he sat in a corner writing in a notebook. It had become a bad habit now, to notice everything the super soldier did. You moved closer to Steve to ask him about the content of the notebooks and you couldn't help but feel a bit sad after he explained how Bucky would write everything he could remember. You imagined the awful collection of stories Bucky must have written on those pages. You left the tower still thinking about those notebooks, especially how it must be torture to read those memories. You stopped at a small store that was on the way to your apartment and bought some stationary. Pen in hand, you sat on your kitchen table and wrote “TO BUCKY” on the first blank piece of paper. Maybe it was time to give the ex-assassin something better to read.

Dearest Bucky,

I hope that it doesn't bother you that Steve told me why you keep so many notebooks. I understand the obsession with revisiting the past, especially when it was stolen, but I am afraid of the things that you may be telling yourself there so I will begin this little project with this:

YOU ARE A GOOD MAN, BUCKY.

I believe that we are not our actions, but our thoughts. You made have done horrible things before Steve found you, and you may these actions define you, let me assure you they do not. There is not one evil thought in you, Bucky. These are things that you did, not who you are, and more importantly, not who you will be. I have faith in you, my metal arm comrade. Even if sometimes I'm the only one (well, Steve will always have faith in you too, but saying I was the only one felt more dramatic)

You signed your name and decorated the letter with Captain America stickers.

You wrote him a letter every day after work, even if there wasn't anything too important or interesting to report. Most of the times your letters consisted of funny anecdotes about the team, the shows you watched, what you imagined the 40’s were like, especially the old school horror movies you loved to watch and asked Bucky if he remembers seeing the movies when they first came out.

You moron! Yes, I am extremely furious at you, James Buchanan Barnes! When Captain America commands you stay with the group, you obey the freaking command and stay with the group!

I guess I am overreacting. You did save that kid after all. I just don't want anything to happen to you.

I care about you.

We are friends...We could be best friends if you accepted my invitations to come watch Doctor Who. I know that you're a huge nerd, so don't act like you wouldn't love the show. If I find out that you have been secretly watching it without me...Well, I can't think of a punishment bad enough right now, but I assure you it will something big and horrible!

You signed your name and drew a TARDIS on the page.

You found yourself in the middle of a Supernatural marathon when you wrote the next letter.

Dear Bucky,

Here I am watching one of the best shows on TV, another one that you refuse to watch with me, what's with you and my shows? I have excellent taste! Fine, maybe it was a mistake to ask you to watch Real Housewives with me, but but but guilty pleasure! Don't judge me!

You should dress up as Castiel for Halloween! I could be Dean and Steve can be Sam. You already have the blue eyes, dark hair and can't understand most pop culture references. Do you own a trenchcoat? Remind me to buy a trenchcoat.

Then again, Castiel has been tortured, killed, brainwashed into hurting his best friend, used as a vessel to bring monsters into the world, has lost his memories, and some other horrible things. Maybe he is not the best character for you to watch.

In his defense, he thought he was saving the world so don't be too harsh on my angel.

Let's just skip Supernatural for now and watch Doctor Who. You will say yes to me, Barnes! I already got you to sit through the eight Harry Potter movies. I don't understand why you pretend you don't love to spend time with me. I'm a joy to be around.

You signed your name and decorated the page with angel wings and symbols from Supernatural.

You were almost out of pages, meaning it was time to start thinking about how to deliver them. The letters were intended to be friendly, just you talking about random things to make him laugh, but after the third letter asking him to spend time with you, you started to realize that it was you who craved his company. After attending one of Tony's parties and spending the whole evening with Bucky, you were sure that your feelings towards him were more than just friendly. You decided to let him know through the letters.

Bucky,

I still can't believe that you laughed at that Captain America sex joke. I didn't even want to tell it! I understand why Tony loves it, but I never thought you would consider it funny. Fun fact, that was how Tony and I became friends, he heard me tell the joke to some other SHIELD agents and he asked me if I knew more Avengers jokes. We bonded over a Google search. I know you are not too fond of Tony, but he's pretty awesome once you get to know him better.

The only reason why I'm talking about Tony is that he thinks I got a crush on you.

And I'm beginning to think that he's right. I can't get the sound of your laugh out of my head and every time I think about it. It makes me immensely happy that I can make you laugh. I love seeing you happy. Would you be happy if we were together? Could I make you happy?

I just woke up from dreaming that you love me. We were in bed and you kissed the top of my head. I’m hopeful that one day it would be true. I’m dying to tell you each and every day that I love you. Why am I doing this to myself? More importantly, why am I waiting to tell you all this? How could he tell before I did? I'm thinking way too much about what Tony said.

P.S. You asked me today why I'm mad at Tony and I said because he's a jerk. Would you like to know why I said that? He knows! He absolutely knows how I feel about you so he's teasing me about it! I now see why you don’t like Tony that much. The bastard kept saying that he would be more than happy to finance the wedding. Can you believe that? He thinks I got a good chance. He even started planning the wedding! I’m not saying I hated all the ideas, but I simply refuse to walk down the aisle to the wedding march. I would like something a little less traditional. Stupid Tony! Now I’m picturing it! I don’t even have the groom. I’m going to throw something heavy at him tomorrow. Do you think Steve would lend me his shield?

You signed your name and for the first time, you didn't decorate the page.

You didn't write for two weeks. The next entry was just six words:

I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU.

The feeling became evident after a date. You have met him through a friend and on paper he was everything you have ever wanted; he was tall, green eyed, and dirty blonde. How many times had you asked the universe to send you Dean Winchester? And here you were with his tie-wearing doppelganger! He turned the charm and all you do was politely smile and nod your head without really listening to his words. You threw yourself on your couch when you arrived home. You sighed. You had just told the perfect guy you weren't interested.

Bucky,  

I had a date today. I don't know why I'm telling you this. The empty bottle of wine on the floor is probably to blame. He was nice, and cordial and gorgeous... And I felt nothing for him.

The thing is, he is not who I want. I tried to not to compare him to you. I wanted to give him a fighting chance because I don't know if I should let myself continue to be in love with you. But neither he nor anyone will be able to erase these feelings from my heart. I won’t be dissuaded from not loving you, not by you nor logic. I refuse to listen to reason. This idea of us won’t leave my mind, not even when it’s too painful to sustain.

Do you even want to be with someone? I know we haven't discussed it and I don't want to bring it up out of fear of you saying no or saying yes but with someone else.

You know what? I love you enough that even if you said you wanted to be with someone else, although it would break my heart, I would support you fully. I just want you to be happy, even if that means seeing you with someone else.

Stupid alcohol begs me to tell you how much I wish you were mine. I would do anything for you. Ask me to stop watching my favorite shows. Ask me to stop reading my favorite books. Ask me to quit listening to my favorite music. I don’t join them as I use to. How can I read love stories without picturing us? To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting this. I tried to fight it, but it is stronger than me.

I know I said I could see you with someone else, but to be honest, it would make me envious.

I would resent the hands that got to touch you.

I would resent the lips that had the privilege to touch yours.

I would resent the skin you kissed.

You would worship the fortunate girl while I let the love I have for you turn me into a bitter shell of myself because I wouldn't be able to fight for you if that meant causing you distress. I would have to seal away any plead my heart would have to confess my ardent desire for you.

I just hope you pick someone who deserves you because you are amazing! You deserve someone who sees all the great things you have to offer, comforts you when you need it and loves the painful memories away. I don’t a clue on where you are, probably far away from here, yet, I keep imagining you knock on my door.

You fell asleep on the couch and without finishing the letter.

Bucky and Steve had been away on a mission for a month. You were currently at the zoo with Clint and Natasha since they were tired of you sulking around the tower. The penguins splashed around in front of you while you divided your attention between writing Bucky's letter and them. This was the last page of the stationary. You had brought the box with all the letters to the zoo.

You noticed Natasha reading over your shoulder.

You smiled at her, "I need a huge favor."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, "Let me guess, you want me to give the box to Bucky?"

"You're so smart, Nat. And, beautiful. Did I mention that you're my favorite person ever?" you replied.

"Just finish the letter and I'll make sure Bucky gets them," she said before walking away to let you finish writing.

Dear Bucky,

I haven’t seen you in a month. I haven’t been able to breathe for a month. Would it be a cliché to say that I feel like a zombie? You wouldn’t recognize if you saw me now. I feel as my soul is gone. I have no desire to do anything. I miss you. I implore you don’t take these kinds of missions again.

However, I had a wonderful day today hanging out with Clint and Nat. The weather is perfect and the zoo is amazing! I wish you were here.

This is my last letter and Natasha has promised to deliver these words to you. I hope the last couple of pages weren't as difficult to read as they were to write. Actually, that's a lie. I didn't have any trouble writing any of the letters. Putting how much I love you into words was the easy part; you are an excellent source of inspiration, Bucky!

Would it be wrong of me to actually let you read these words? I'm telling you right now that I have decided not to run away from these feelings. If you decide that you would like to give us a chance, but you can't right now, then I will wait for you.

Maybe it was a mistake to have let myself fall so deeply in love with you. But this fear of rejection will not stop me! I will not let the impossibility ruin me.

I have decided that I’m probably being selfish, Bucky. Nevertheless, I need you to know how I feel about you and I will deal with the consequences whatever they may be.

I love you.

Bucky knocked on your door on your day off. You opened the door to the super soldier outside your door, holding the box you had given to Natasha before leaving the zoo.

"I didn't know you were back," you said.

"We came back yesterday," he said not looking at you. "Doll, I can't keep these. I'm sorry."

You didn't know what to say so you took the box from him, "not even the funny ones?" you tried to smile.

He shook his head, "I'm sorry. I just don't feel the same."

You took a deep breath, "that's fine, Bucky. I meant it when I said I would still be your friend."

He nodded and you closed your door without inviting him in. He stood outside your door for a few seconds before walking away. He arrived at the tower and went straight to his room. He opened the box he had hid in his closet containing the copy of all your letters. He sat on his bed and reread the letter where you confessed you loved him. Bucky knew he wasn't enough for you. It broke his heart to do, but he loved you enough to let you go. He knew you were probably hurt right now, but he was sure you will find someone who deserved you and that you will love that someone. Bucky was sure that day will break his heart all over again. At least he will always have the letters.

[high5nerd]

Alone Together---Chap. Fourteen

I thought it would be hilarious to take the girls out on a mini weekend vacation right in the middle of a blizzard. They've been cooped up in the house for too long, to the point Alice was finding entertainment by spiking her coffee.

Their faces when I told them we're going on a trip was priceless.

"Wait...where?" Sadie asked with her mouth full of Rice Krispies.

"We're going to New Zealand. Camping, hiking, all that good fun. You have been moping for too long and it's making me want to mope around." I said, shaking a finger at her.

Alice sat down across from me, still groggy since it was morning and her auburn hair messy from sleep. Her coffee sloshed around in her reindeer mug, almost spilling onto her left hand. She looked at me through squinted eyes from the light of the kitchen, causing me to grin at her appearance.

"What? Do I look like the Loch Ness monster?" she asked.

"More like a nightmare." I snickered, and she whacked my arm at the name calling.

Sadie almost snorted out milk from her nose, and then agreed with me, causing her sister to glare at her.

"I'll pour coffee into your cereal."

"I'll spit it into your cup."

"You can go from motherly one minute to sisterly the next," I rolled my eyes at their bickering.

"How can we go to New Zealand when we're in the middle of a blizzard?" Sadie asked as she stirred her cereal to turn the milk brown.

I grinned, "You still have that snowglobe North gave you?"

Sadie immediately beamed and nodded. Alice gave a confused look to Sadie and then to myself. Just seeing the look of confusion on Alice's face on how we could even possibly get there was hysterical. I love surprising people.

As Sadie ran to go retrieve the snow globe, I explained to Alice how the contraption works. Alice seemed to think I was kidding, but she ended up getting herself ready by finding her wallet and dressing warmly.

Sadie would not stop bouncing around in excitement, her arms holding a bag with her bathing suit and some activities like a book of hers and a couple of pens to bring along.

"We can go to the beach and run all over the hills and-!" she rushed, nearly dropping the crystal globe in her hand.

"Sadie, just throw it. The sooner you do that the sooner we get to have fun from this snow."

The view where we ended up was beautiful, and unlike the dark blizzard that occurred back home this place had the sun high in the sky, bearing down warmness that made Alice shed off her jacket and gloves. We stood in a clearing far away from any city or town life, surrounded by the forest. Sadie drew in a happy sigh as the wind rustled the green leaves up above, beams of light shedding through thick branches and draping curtains of leaves and willow branches.

"It's beautiful…" Alice murmured, not noticing Sadie giggle and run off in one direction.

I smiled, about to open my mouth and comment that her own beauty couldn't match the forest, but then Sadie tripped on a tree root, falling flat on her stomach. Alice heard her yelp, and immediately drew in a fearful breath.

"Sadie?!" Alice asked, and I could see her body battling with her mind whether to stay put or run over to see if her sister broke anything.

"I'm okay!" Sadie looked back, holding up her sneaker, "My shoelace came undone!"

"Idiot." Alice rolled her eyes, heaving a big sigh of relief.

Sure enough, Sadie found a burbling creek close to the clearing, the floor of it covered in smooth pebbles. Sadie was changed into her yellow and white floral bathing suit and splashing around in the creek, scaring away fishes and jumping from rock to rock.

Alice and I sat on a fallen log near the creek, her pants rolled up so she could dip her feet into the cool and calming water. She had a peaceful smile on her face, and that made me feel a lot better than seeing her look bored back home.

Sadie lifted up a rock and grinned, "Pitch! Look how big this one is!" she called.

I nodded, "That's impressive. You could put it on the bank to dry and then paint it with the paints you brought if you wanted to."

I heard Alice giggle at Sadie's shocked face that quickly broke out into a wild grin, "You're a genius!" And with that, tossed the giant rock onto the bank and began searching for more smooth rocks to paint on.

"Darn right I am." I muttered so only Alice could hear, and she laughed at my playful jab. Her laugh always made me smile.

"Thanks for bringing us here. We really needed a break from the snow." Alice said, looking at her hands that gripped the log so she wouldn't fall off.

"It's nothing." Was all I could say while looking at my feet in the water. I looked over at Alice's feet. They were much smaller than mine, and her toes were so tiny. A scar ran along the ball of her left foot to her big toe, a paler shade than her normal skin color.

Alice noticed my staring and smirked, "Got it while running in the woods, back before Sadie was born. I was an idiot and didn't listen to Dad's warning about being barefoot, and I ended up cutting it from either a rock or a branch, I can't recall. Sadie actually thinks I stepped on a sword while fighting the monsters under her bed."

I snorted at that, "She actually believes that?"

Alice grinned and shrugged her shoulders lightheartedly, "Cause I told her that when she was six."

That made me laugh, and that caused Sadie to look over at us in curiosity before continuing to try grabbing fish that sped by her still ankles.

"Does she know that the monster under the bed was probably me?"

"If it was, you would recall getting hit multiple times with a softball bat," Alice rolled her eyes, "Sadie stole my bat and woke up the entire house with her banging….I think that was just an excuse to get some stress out."

I noticed Alice's pause there when she returned her gaze to the scar on her foot, the water rippled around her toes and her ankles.

"...What happened? What do you mean by stress?" I asked, taking her hand in mine.

She gave a small smile as her fingers laced with mine like knitting, and said softly, "She made the mistake of telling kids at school that she was friends with the Sandman. The kids in her grade thought it was interesting and such, but the word got out to the older kids in the school and they pushed her around and tormented her for it. She didn't tell our parents anything until the school called…"

I waited, knowing where this was going.

"Sadie threw a punch at a sixth grader, and gave him a black eye. Even his own eye was red…" Alice looked up at Sadie's form bending over to peer at a turtle, "that was the only time she's ever hurt anyone. She would never even hurt a spider. But because the older kids have power in the school, she lost friends. They thought she was strange."

"Kind of like your story you told me." I said, removing my hand from hers and gently touching her shoulder.

Alice sighed, a sigh that meant the conversation was over and the event was back in the past.

"Yep!" She smiled, "So I guess that's what also makes us closer, right?"

I smiled, and kissed her forehead. She grinned, and without a warning gently pushed my chest, causing me to fall off the log and splash behind it. I spluttered out water, rubbing my face to get water out of my eyes. She laughed, her white smile glimmering in the sunlight and her hair looked like fire. She looked like a human phoenix….which in a sense, she was.

I grinned evilly, and before she could notice my hand creeping towards her, yanked her in as well so she fell on top of me, her legs straddling my waist. Alice gasped, her clothes immediately getting wet along with the ends of her hair.

I laughed at her expression and tucked a strand of wet hair behind her ear, her laugh half muffled from my ears being submerged in water. Alice quickly kissed my nose, but once she pulled back I pulled her back in to kiss her. We still smiled through our kiss, and Alice was holding back giggles as her arms wrapped around my shoulders.

"You guys better not be foolin' around back there! I don't want this water getting contaminated by love cooties!" Sadie called from the bankside.

I almost choked on water when I laughed even harder at that, and the fact that Alice was blushing like mad was making it harder to restrain myself to just a chuckle.

Sadie was back at the campsite in her tent, fast asleep while Alice and I walked along the creek, listening to the soft babble and tiny splishes against rocks and branches that gently caressed the surface. The moonlight shone brilliantly on the water, making the water sparkle and gleam with the additional starlight. Alice and I held hands tightly as we walked downwards towards the bed of rock that Sadie was near before. It was just us enjoying the silence.

Alice cast a look up at the moon, and whispered out, "Is he watching us right now?"

I looked up with her, noticing the moon was full. No words whispered through the air, so I assumed he wasn't watching us. Maybe focusing on his other spirit 'children'. I squeezed her hand reassuringly, thinking she was scared of the thought of being watched.

"Not sure. Doubtful...there are many of us he watches over."

"How many?" she asked, looking at me with wonder.

I smirked, and twirled her in a circle before pulling her close, her back pressed against my chest, "Probably more than a hundred. Every personification and entity you can think of exists…"

Alice softly laughed, her hands tightening around my fingers, "I can think of a lot."

I grinned and gently tugged at her hips, making her laugh before turning around. She saw me heading in a different direction, and her smile faded in curiousity.

"Pitch?"

"Follow me," I beckoned her close, "There's something I want to show you."

We had to carefully step over slippery rocks and fallen logs, even scrape by leafless bushes before stumbling upon a pool of water, so crystal clear it envied the Caribbean seas. Giant ferns scattered along the edge of the pool here and there, and there was a waterfall leaking out from a pile of rocks that had moss dotted around it. Flowers bloomed fully, their petals not even closed due to the moonlight.

"Whoa…" Alice breathed, stepping forward as if in a trance.

"It's called the Pool of Reveries. Some old spirits come here to meditate to regain sense of who they are and what they once were. I thought of sharing it with you...well...cause…."

I couldn't say it. My words got caught in my throat. What was intended as an informative statement turned into something sappy, and you know fairly well I'm not a very sappy person. I hate sappy.

Alice caught my stumble and she knew my struggle to keep myself looking older...more, I don't know, unaffected by the entire concept of love and such. Boogeyman-material, let's call it that. She came closer to me, her chest almost against mine and her neck craned upwards. I knew she was teasing me.

"Because?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in a playful manner. I huffed and looked away.

"You know why." I muttered, but felt Alice's body against mine and her breath on my neck.

"I want you to say it." Alice whispered, her hands barely grazing up my chest. That caused me to shiver. I needed those hands right then and there, without our clothes on. In the water. Making love until dawn.

"I…" my breath shook, "I love you...and I want you in my life...you mean the world to me...more than anyone else."

As if I had anyone else besides her. But it was true. I'd rather have her than a thousand friends, or even a large family or connections I once lost back in time. She was all I needed, and saying that to her under the full moon made a great weight lift from my shoulders. I felt an emotion similar to the feeling of success, hope and love...all mixed into one. How a being like me was capable of finding this love, not even I knew.

"I love you too, Pitch. A whole lot…" Alice kissed me gently before pulling away, "And I want you in my life, too."

"We're even, fair and square." I grinned, and that made her laugh as she closed her eyes, our foreheads touching in peace.

...Until we heard crying.

At first I thought it was just in my mind. It started out soft, almost unnoticeable to the ear. By the time I recognized the sound, I thought it came from Alice. We shared confused looks, thinking one of us was making that noise. Alice was fine, not a single tear was shed from her chocolate-colored eyes, and she looked just as curious as me to where the sound of crying was coming from.

It wasn't soft, gentle crying. It was sobbing. In pain sobbing. Alice and I immediately felt the world crash around us. What was once a state of just us, enveloped in our own love turned into sheer panic. Sadie. That's all we could think. It had to be her. Something was happening when we were gone. The light of the moon seemed to vanish quickly, and it took me a second to realize the reason it vanished was because we were running towards Sadie's crying.

"How long were we out there?" Alice asked, and I could sense her fear in her question as she ran close to my side.

I honestly didn't know. I knew it was a long period of time, and we both assumed Sadie would be fine by herself near the tents, sleeping soundly near the crackling fire. Maybe she rolled too close to it and accidentally touched the flames? Maybe she got scared of being alone? I didn't sense any fear in Sadie's direction, only from Alice and myself.

"A long time. I just hope-" but the sight before me cut me dead off.

Sadie was crumpled to the ground in agony, sobbing hysterically at ghostly images of those who bullied her and teachers that looked down upon her, and they whispered hateful and demeaning words to the ten year old. Tears stained her cheeks, so much her face was red.

And the girl in the blue dress happily skipping around her and laughing…

Was Misery.

Anger filled up inside me. This little brat had the audacity to hurt a child that I would consider something close to a daughter? For so long I've suffered the same way Sadie has, and nothing would stop me from what I was going to do to Misery for harming her.

"You're so pathetic, it's laughable!" Misery giggled, patting Sadie's head. Sadie shirked away from her freezing cold, clammy touch, and bit her hand to hold back a scream of agony.

Time slowed down, when Misery looked up. Her smile turned horrified when she noticed I was sprinting towards her. With an angry scream, I blasted her with my nightmare sand, sending her careening backwards towards the trunk of a sturdy tree. Alice was shouting, but I couldn't listen.

I wanted Misery dead.

She targeted me for years, drove me insane, and now she was going to target those who I loved most. Seeing Sadie bend over like that in defeat...broke me. I've seen Alice in her worst, and Misery wasn't even there to cause that. I hated seeing them suffer, and now I have someone to take it out on.

My feelings got the better of me. When I slammed Misery's body into the tree, she made no noise. She just wore a horrified expression at my audacity to harm another spirit. It wasn't against the rules to hurt another one, but...she was in the form of a child. An old spirit like her that used to look like a hag took the form of an innocent child, thinking that image would protect her. But it didn't in this case. Even if she looked like Sadie's age, I still pummelled her into the tree. I heard the bark crack, and that loud noise echoed throughout the forest.

"PITCH, STOP!" Alice screamed.

That got me out of my stupor. I didn't realize what I was doing...I was making it worse. God, so much more worse. The two people I love witnessed me hurt another being...even if my mind said she deserved it, it was no excuse. It wasn't valid.

I looked back and saw Alice and Sadie's scared expressions, feeling my heart break into tiny pieces. That's all I could do...was make people fearful. Scared. Terrified…

"Let her go, Pitch." Alice whispered out, holding onto Sadie like a lifeline, "She's gotten her punishment."

"You don't understand!" I shouted, glaring back at Misery who was fucking brave enough to give an innocent smile, "This little rodent has been making me miserable for centuries, targeting me to the point I cave in to insanity. Now she's targeting those I love and she's going to pay for it!"

"Kill me and you'll kiss your sorry immortal life goodbye. Not like you had one anyways." Misery said before a nightmare wrapped around her throat and lifted her into the air.

"I'd rather have none than see you exist." I hissed at her.

Sadie started whimpering again, and quickly turned away from the sight of a girl her age being strangled in the air.

"Pitch, I get it! She deserves it, but doing this won't solve anything. You're better than this."

"No you're not." Misery choked out.

"Don't listen to her!" Sadie shouted, glaring at Misery, "She's just jealous because no one cares about her!"

Misery's smug face fell, and her eyes looked over at Sadie. I looked back, too. I wasn't expecting her to be standing in front of Alice as if she was the one worth protecting. The nightmare I controlled gently let Misery back down, but she made no move.

"What did you say?" she asked, her voice quivering.

"You're jealous of Pitch because he's finally gotten something you never had. You only were around him because he had nothing like you, and you're mad at him because now he has what you've always wanted." Sadie said, stepping closer.

"Sadie, get back to Alice. Now." I said sternly, but Sadie ignored me.

"That's not it at all!" Misery stamped her foot, "I like making people miserable! That's why I'm here! Not like you have a purpose here on Earth."

"YOU LITTLE-!" I heard Alice scream, but she made no move to lunge at her like I did before.

Sadie shook like a leaf at her sister's ferocious tongue, but continued to talk to Misery. I couldn't help but feel a smirk tug at my cheeks. Sadie was guilt tripping her.

"You lie but you know I'm right. You're just mad because you never got what you wanted. You're selfish. You're self-centered. The people who bullied me were, too. You're just like them."

"No I'm not! I'm...I'm miserable like you are!" Misery's bluish tears started dripping down her cheeks, "He...he just got what he deserved!"

"No he didn't."

"He's a monster! All he does is make people be afraid of things that you wouldn't understand. He's just a freak that will never be loved, nor cared about!"

I was about to spit a curse at Misery when I heard Sadie whisper out, "...Really?"

I turned to look at her, surprised that this little ten year old found her voice. She was standing up to her. Alice looked surprised too, even hopeful. For so long Sadie was put down, and now she was standing firm. She was strong.

"Go look in a mirror." Sadie said coolly.

Ouch. That was a fatal blow, especially to someone like Misery. Misery's body quivered at the verbal rock Sadie threw at her, her lower lip trembled. With a last raging breath, she shouted at me.

"I never want to see you again!"

And like that, she was gone. Her body turned into mist, as if she melted into the darkness.

There was a cold silence between the three of us. I could only look from where Misery once stood to Sadie's face, who looked just as shocked as I did at her own bravery. Alice glanced between us, her mouth open as if words wanted to spew forth but nothing came.

"Sadie..." Alice said, touching her shoulder.

Sadie let out a long breath, one of relief. But even releasing that tension didn't make her any better. I saw it in her eyes. Immediately, I reacted when I saw her legs give out, wobbling like a puppet doll's.

I ran over and caught her, hearing her try to hold back more tears. Alice started panicking, but I quickly calmed her down before she could freak out and possibly worry Sadie even more.

"Get the container of hot water and make her hot chocolate, she needs something warm. I'll sit her by the fire." I said, standing up.

"What's wrong with her?" Alice asked, her voice still frantic as she hurried over to the fire pit.

"Misery's own work is ten times as worse as just feeling misery on its own. To the point it causes depression...I should know." I murmured, holding Sadie close. Her nervous breathing subsided a bit, and I could still feel her sad heart beat.

You would know by now I'm not well educated in the comforting area of life, but like I said before, seeing Sadie suffer the same way I did made me know what to do. When I dealt with that, I knew I wanted at least a person to hear me talk or be surrounded in warmth instead of coldness...a feeling inflicted by Misery to make it stay longer inside the person's soul. Misery's work was so strong and long lasting, I've seen humans hurt themselves due to it, do anything radical and fatal to make the emotional pain go away. I couldn't risk that now.

Alice watched me gently sit Sadie down near the fire, and I grabbed a nearby sleeping bag and wrapped it around her.

"How bad do you feel?" I asked, touching her head.

"I feel like I'm worthless…" Sadie's voice wavered, "...like she was right."

I heard Alice mutter, Well Misery could go fuck herself. Good thing Sadie didn't hear that. I knew Alice was protective of her sister, so seeing how conflicted and angry she was for the safety and love of her baby sister was welcomed greatly. Just...not those choice of words.

"Misery is a liar, and she tells people that to make them feel bad. She's heartless and cruel, which you are not. Not one bit. You hear?" I said, sitting next to her.

"But-" Sadie started as she accepted the mug of hot chocolate from Alice.

"I can list five traits of you right off the bat. You're fun, compassionate, brave, smart, and very important to those around you." I said sternly so she could hear my honesty.

Sadie blinked, and looked up at me. I wasn't sure if she was understanding what I meant by important, but then I saw the glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Sadie, you're the one thing that's meant a lot to me since our parents died. You kept me in reality and you kept giving me faith that things will get better. You're really important to me." Alice said, sitting next to her and rubbing her back.

"You're the reason your sister and I are together as one, so I have that to thank you for." I said with a smile.

Sadie rolled her eyes and smirked into her cup, "You wouldn't do it yourself, I had to help you somehow."

Alice and I smiled at that, which made Sadie sit up a little straighter. She looked between us, her eyes getting brighter.

By now Sadie was saying things quietly, things she knew that proved her importance to others, "I'm important to Gramma because she loves me. I'm important to Lucy because we're best friends since kindergarten, and Mom and Dad say I'm important because they called me their Little Angel. Right?"

Alice kissed the top of her head, "Exactly. You feeling better yet?"

Sadie slowly nodded, but then looked at me. "Why would Misery come and find us?"

I pursed my lips tight, not really wanting to answer that. This was partially my fault from the beginning. What was intended as a vacation from the cold up north turned into a horrible nightmare.

"I know that look, Pitch," Alice warned, "Don't you dare go blaming yourself now. This isn't your fault."

"If I hadn't brought you two here none of this would've happened." I shot back, and Alice furrowed her brows, completely disagreeing with me.

"But I wouldn't have gone swimming! I had fun today. Besides this...I had fun!" Sadie protested.

I sadly smiled, ruffling her hair gently. "I know...I just don't like seeing you two suffer because of me."

"We aren't." Alice said, albeit dangerously, to the point I thought we would have an argument.

That made me instantly silent. I did not want to anger Alice, especially after she witnessed her little sister in agony at the hands of Misery.

"What matters is that it's over...And we're safe. She's gone for good, and she'll no longer bother you anymore." Alice said, cupping her hand to my face.

I guess she was right...now that Misery had sworn she never wanted to see me again, I was free. I no longer would deal with the inner turmoil, insanity and utter sadness that her powers would plague me with. The cloud of depression I dealt with for so long could finally disappear, like I've always wanted. I could finally walk without dread of running into her again, and not fear of her hurting my loved ones…

"You're free, Pitch." Sadie said, beaming.

I'm...I'm free.