#good bottle — bad bottle — and a final problem: are you a great man or a good one? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tanniefm · 2 years ago

Text

all to you | jjk (m)

summary - why work on a boring school project when you could fuck your cute bestfriend?!

pairing - sub!jungkook x dom!reader (f)

genre - friends to lovers, pwp

word count - 2.6k

song inspo - all to you by sabrina claudio.

warnings - dry humping, dirty talk, praise, pet names, cumming in pants (EEEE), breast play, reader is described as squishy and squeezable so if you don’t like that my bad

a/n - i just desperately needed whiny koo. badly. also hey lol it’s been a while

♪°•°∞°•°♪°•°∞°•°♪°•°∞°•°♪°•°∞°•°♪♪°•°∞°•°♪°•°

You're gonna fail this class. Who the fuck even needs calculus anyway? You huff and continue to throw a silent temper tantrum while writing down equations that don't even make sense to you. You look over at your friend, Jungkook to see if he thinks anything of what the professor was saying makes sense, only to see him diligently writing in his notebook and seeming to retain every bit of information the man bellows out to the class. You chuckle to yourself, your Kookie, always hard at work.

You and Jungkook have been friends since you were kids. He's always been a little meek and quiet, a complete juxtaposition from your talkative and loud manner. You had found him cute, even back in elementary school. His bunny smile and his big doe eyes made you melt every time you looked at him. Being neighbors, naturally, you both were constantly around each other. He was content with listening to you talk your head off while he listened intently and nodded along. You two complement each other. Anytime either of you had a problem, the other was always there to give support. Your favorite thing to do though was tease him. Seeing his pretty face burn scarlet and shyly bite his lip after complimenting him gave you a strange sense of satisfaction. It seemed as though no one could get him so flustered but you. Of course, you tried not to dwell on it, but it's not like it wasn't there.

You watched the clock obsessively, desperately waiting for it to strike 4. You smiled once it did and quickly gathered your stuff to meet Jungkook by the door where he always waited for you. Calculus is your last class of the day so he waits for you to pack up to walk back to the dorms together. As you start down the road to your building, you turn and finally ask him what the fuck you're supposed to be doing for class.

“Oh, we have a test next Monday. It's on Convergence and Divergence, remember?” he asks. No, you do not, but you're sure you wrote down some notes somewhere so maybe that'll count for something.

“I do not have the attention span for this shit I swear. Every time he speaks I automatically zone out,” you groan. He giggles and shakes his head.

“I’ll help you study, don't worry,” Your dorm building comes into view as you keep your pace on the sidewalk.

“Great! My roommate won't be home for another couple of hours so we can get started at mine.” you smile.

You take out your key and unlock the door and walk into the living room to set both of your bags on the kitchen table. Jungkook gets his laptop and notebook and sits on the couch. He found doing your work out here is more productive than in your bedroom since you tend to get a little lazy when you're in the comfort of your room. You've argued with him about this plenty of times before, even though you're very aware he's right.

“You want anything to drink? Eat? I think I might have some ramen in the pantry,” you yell from the kitchen.

“Nah I'm good, thanks!” he yells back. His face illuminates from his screen as he starts looking up the test review your professor sent out for the class.

You come back with a bottle of water and your sweatshirt in your hands. Oh. You took it off. Ok, that's fine - Jungkook thinks to himself - the tight tank top you're wearing that seems to accentuate your boobs and curves perfectly is completely fine. He's fine, just focus on the google doc, JK. He tucks his bottom lip between his teeth and stares wide-eyed at his screen.

“Oh shit, I still need to get the stuff for Tae’s party, hold on,” you whip out your phone and search for the text Taehyung sent you about all the different types of snacks and alcohol he wanted.

“Oh no you don't need to do that, I'll get them it's fine!” he rushes to grab his phone and open his notes app. Tae had sent the list of errands he wanted to the group chat and hadn't given anyone a specific job on who needed to buy what. You had said you’d get some of them, but it seems Jungkook had the same intention.

“Kook, I can get them, it's whatever. Just let me look for what he said he needed,” you argue. He attempts to disagree again but you snatch his phone from his hands before he can get a word out.

“Hey, give it back!” he yelps. You cackle mischievously and turn away from him as he tries to grab his phone from your hands.

“____! Give me my phone!” he whines. He sets his computer on the coffee table and tries to wrestle it from your grasp again. Just as he lunges for his phone, you put your hand on his firm chest and push him back onto the couch. You climb on top of him and straddle his waist.

“What are you gonna do about it? Why don't you just take it, hm?” you look down at him and freeze. His lips are in a soft pout and he gives you the best puppy eyes he can muster.

“Please ____? Just give it back, please?” he whines softly. Your breath hitches as you realize the position you're in. Your best friend is under you begging for his phone while you are staring down at him and straddling his tiny waist. His hands had clasped onto your hips and he absentmindedly squeezed them. Fuck he looks so good like this. Jungkook doesn't know what to focus on. The view of you on top of him like this is something he'll be fisting his dick to for weeks. He bets if he leaned up right now he'd be at the perfect level to kiss you. Maybe even kiss your pretty tits that are seemingly calling for him to suck bruises into. He can feel his jeans tighten as his eyes dart everywhere but your eyes and his face starts to turn pink. You mistake his flustered look for being uncomfortable and immediately attempt to apologize and shift off of him. As you make your move, however, you hear him gasp loudly. His grip on your hips tightens further and his face darkens to a bright red.

“Oh my god I'm so sorry did I hurt you?” you rush out. He looks like a deer in headlights. Maybe you went too far?

“N-no. M’ ok,” he says in a small voice. You furrow your brows in concern and take his face in your hands.

“Are you sure? You're burning up, babe.” you rub your thumbs across his cheekbones as he stares starry-eyed at you. He offhandedly thinks you might've been an angel in your past life. He smiles gently and nods in your hands. He musters the courage to start rubbing his hands up and down your waist slowly. You feel so soft. He wants to hold you like this forever. However, his dick is starting to strain in response to the worried tone you're taking on. He'll never admit it out loud, but he loves how concerned you get over him. It makes him feel needed and special.

“I'm fine, ____, promise.” He hopes you can see past his white lie for once. Unfortunately for him, it's just then that you start to feel something press against your leggings.

“Jungkook...are you...?” you say slowly. His eyes widen as his entire body stiffens. Fuck fuck you felt him. Oh god, now you're gonna think he's a fucking weirdo that can't control his hormones. He should've never come over. Now you're gonna hate him forever! You notice his eyes start to well up and immediately try to comfort him.

“No! No baby it's ok! I'm not mad or grossed out please no tears you know I don't like seeing my pretty boy sad.” Without thinking, you softly kiss his forehead. He stares at you in awe and sniffles. Your pretty boy. The words swirl through poor Jungkook’s head on repeat. Did you mean it? Is he really yours? Did you really think he was pretty? Do you think about him the way he thinks about you?

“Y-yours? I'm...yours?” he mumbled. His watery eyes are looking at you like you're the center of the universe. Although you didn't mean for the words to slip, you didn't want to watch doubt cloud his eyes if you were to take them back. So you lean down and smile softly. “Mhm, mine. Always mine,” you see him glance down at your lips the closer you get to him. He starts to close his eyes and you giggle quietly at how cute he looks awaiting your kiss. You brush your lips against his and lean back teasingly. He whines and chases after you.

“You wanna kiss me, baby? Hm?” you smirk as you watch his eyes flutter open and give you a pleading look. “Yes, please. Wanna kiss,” he frowns. You notice his lisp is starting to show as you cause his brain to turn to mush. You like him like this. All whiny and pliant just for you. Your pretty boy. You guide his lips towards yours and caress your hands along his chest. All the sports he's been doing must be paying off since you swear you can feel every muscle in him tense. His tongue shyly comes out to twist against your own which causes you to sigh blissfully into his mouth. Your fingers brush over his nipples and you feel him gasp.

“Oh? Are your little nipples sensitive, baby? You want me to touch them?” he whimpers and nods. “Words, sweetie. You need to tell me you want me,” you say pointedly. For some reason, he feels like you're talking about more than just touching his nipples.

“Yes ____. Please touch me…I want you,” he says bashfully. You smile and praise him for being so polite, which in turn rewards you with a toothy grin and a cute nose scrunch. You peck his nose before you resume your little make-out session. Your fingers brush over his nipples once more but this time start to circle them slowly. His hips buck as he lets out a small moan that you swallow. Your hands sneak under his shirt to touch them more directly. You slide your hands up his muscular plane and return them to his pebbled peaks. He starts to whine consistently which only makes you wetter. God, he sounds so fucking pretty. Why didn’t you think to do this sooner? You direct your kisses to his jaw and work your way down his neck. You gently suck on his pulse point and it sends him into a full-body shiver. You giggle and tug at the hem of his shirt. He quickly obliges, tugging it off and diving back into you to continue kissing. He thinks kissing you has got to be his favorite feeling in the entire world now. Your lips are so soft and plump, the vanilla-scented gloss you put on smears across his smaller lips, making him feel dizzy and uncomfortably hard. His hands start to squeeze your hips again. They feel so soft and cushy, he loves how squeezable you are. He wonders if your cunt feels just as soft. Fuck he needs you so bad. He starts to rub himself against your clothed center as you slowly take off your tank top.

Seeing your boobs squeezed into your bra has him drooling. This has to be a dream come true. “Can I take that off too?” he says whilst completely honed in on your breasts. You laugh and nod, god could he get any cuter? He reaches around and clumsily fumbles with the hooks. He’s so horny he can’t even think straight. He already knows his boxers are drenched with how much precum his dick is producing. Once your breasts are freed, he takes a moment to fully take you in and the situation he’s found himself in. His favorite person in the world is grinding on his lap, half nude, and looking at him warmly. He’s definitely fucking dreaming.

He shyly dives his head into your neck and trails soft kisses down towards your chest. The closer he gets to your nipples, the harder he sucks. He wants to leave his mark, anything to prove that this is truly happening. Your weight on top of him and his hands feeling your soft skin is the only thing grounding him at the moment. You grab his ebony locks and guide him to where you want his mouth. As sweet as he’s being, you’re feeling just as needy for him. You grind a little faster which causes him to moan loudly against your nipple. His hand moves from your hips to play with the neglected one. His other hand encourages you to continue your pace on his swollen shaft. Back and forth, back and forth. This is pure bliss for Jungkook.

Your living room is filled with the noises of pleasure. Anyone unlucky enough to be your neighbor will know that not a single studying tactic is being used right now. But you can’t find it in you to care. All you care about is hearing Jungkook moan as loud as he wants as he orgasms. You briefly consider giving him more than this. Maybe wrapping your lips around his pulsing tip, or even sitting on him directly with no fabric in between. The thought of getting him to ruin his pants is too good to pass up though. You can imagine how embarrassed he might become, but it’s ok, you’ll clean him up. At this you smirk and put your full weight on him, snapping your hips to gain speed.

He gasps and his eyes widen. Why are you going so fast? At this rate, he’ll… “____ wait! I’m gonna-hngg-I’m not gonna last if you keep going!” You shush him gently and keep your pace. You need to see him crumble under you. He throws his head back as his hips can’t help but thrust into yours. His mouth opens and spills every sound he’s been trying to quiet down. He’s never felt this good in his life. His hand could never compare to this feeling. You lean down and whisper in his, “You gonna cum baby? Cmon Kookie, be a good boy and cum for me. Want you to ruin these pants.” He moans loudly and nods his head rapidly. He lifts his head to look at you as his eyes start to water. “I-I’m-fuck! I can’t! Please don’t stop,” he chokes out. Curses slip profusely from his lips as his moans rise in octave. Until finally, the dam breaks. He spills into his soiled boxers as tears stream down his face and confessions of his love for you leave his mouth. Your body shakes with your own climax and smile bigger than you ever have, you had a feeling he’d be the type to profess his love whilst cumming. He’s such a sweet boy. You tug at the back of his neck to slot your lips onto his.

“You’re so fucking perfect,” he pants into the kiss. You both can’t stop smiling, this is everything you’ve ever wanted. You pull back with a line of spit still connecting you two. “I love you too, you know. So much,” you say as you gaze into his black orbs. He’s gorgeous, he has the same thought as he holds you close. His phone suddenly pings from your side. Damn, you had forgotten all about that thing. A message that makes you both simultaneously cackle and blush appears on the screen.

Tae:

“Hey so I got the stuff for the party, let me know when ya’ll are done fucking or wtv and come over 😒”

#jungkook x reader smut #jungkook fluff #jeon jungkook fic #jungkook smut #jungkook fic #sub!jungkook #sub!jungkook x dom!reader #bts smut #bts fic #jeon jungkook smut

3K notes · View notes

peaxhygirl · 4 months ago

Text

𝙰𝚁𝙼𝙰𝙽𝙳𝙾 𝙰𝚁𝙴𝚃𝙰𝚂 𝚇 𝙵𝙴𝙼𝙰𝙻𝙴 𝚁𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙴𝚁 - 𝚅𝙸𝙲𝙴 (3)

: ̗̀➛𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝙱𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙺 𝚏𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝙾𝙲

: ̗̀➛𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚢: Armando and Raven are sent into the headquarters of their target but while there, things take a shift regarding their current relationship.

: ̗̀➛𝙰��: Hey friends!! Thanks for all the support, this is long I'm so sorry. Requests are also open so drop some!!

It turns out that being cool with Armando means not speaking to him. They’d been in Puerto Rico for three days doing no-contact surveillance. Strictly stake-outs and distant gathering of intel.

Raven and Armando hadn’t spoken to each other once.

They practically avoided each other, both having their own separate reasons but all in all, it made for a rather tense environment for everyone involved. However, tonight that didn’t matter, they were finally going into the club owned by Nigel Kahhliq. Turns out the big bad wolf really was in Puerto Rico, and he held a large monopoly here. His main attraction being Casa Bella. A nightclub that garnered major business from locals and tourists. If shit was going down, that was for sure the headquarters of it all.

And guess which two lucky people got to actually go in and make contact.

The neon strobe lights bounced off the walls of the packed club. Bodies pressed together as people maneuvered through the junction of those dancing wildly and others who were just standing around. Raven was stationed against the bar; Armando was somewhere roaming around the crowded place. He split from her the moment they walked in. She understood he was possibly still upset with her, but this was a mission for Christ sakes, a little communication goes a long way when you're in a king pin's den.

Despite her frustration, she was at least happy she looked great. She'd gotten with Kelly to perfect her look for the night. Being the only women on the team created a bond between the two. Her golden hair was bone straight instead of holding its usual curls. Her body clad in a backless mini dress, a high slit traveled up her thigh exposing her tattooed skin. She certainly looked the part of a woman out for a good night. Hell, it took an hour to do her makeup, so she better.

"Hello beautiful, what are you drinking tonight?" Raven who was scouring the crowd eyes snapped over to the man who approached her.

He was a sleezeball.

Either way, she was playing a roll, so she flashed a smile despite her internal eyeroll. "I'm a lemon drop girl, you buying?" She took a quick once over of his body noticing the flashy jewelry and expensive clothes he wore. He was clearly apart of whatever was happening in this club. "Hm, you sure you don't want something a little stronger?" He smirked, holding up a bottle of already opened Don Julio.

The fuck?? No way was she drinking out of that open bottle. He could have a whole pharmacy in there for all she knew.

Her brown eyes darted around for Armando who was again, nowhere in fucking sight. "Hey, you don't hear me talking to you. Do you want the drink or not?" The man stepped forward. Not enough to be boldly aggressive, but enough for Raven to sense the impending tension. "No, thank you though. I'm not really an out of the bottle type of girl." The man laughed. "Look, sweetheart, don't be a prude. Just take a sip." He began to pull the cork from the bottle stepping closer.

Before Raven could respond and promptly tell him to fuck off, she felt a muscular arm wrap around her shoulders. "¿Tenemos un problema, mami?"

Armando stood beside her, a protective pull gluing her to this body. "Nah, we don't have s problem man." The sleaze ball responded. "I wasn't talking to you. I asked her. Is there something I need to handle here, baby."

Raven glanced up to Armando, her high heels somewhat closed the height difference between them, but he was still taller. "No, he was just leaving, right?" Her eyes averted back to the male. A taunting smirk present on her glossed lips watching him began to retreat.

The sleaze ball, who was now not so tough quickly denied there being an arising issue. Armando hadn't once looked away from the male, shooting daggers at him the entire time he held Raven close. Even when he pulled her in a bit further to place a kiss atop her head.

"La próxima vez que mi señora te diga que no, la respuesta es jodidamente no." He spat at the man who simply ticked his jaw and walked away.

After the man walked away, Armando pulled Raven on to the crowded dance floor. "What was that ab-- what are you doing?" Her brows furrowed when the male turned to her, pulling her in whispering into her ear. "If we're gonna be a couple we need to look the part. Plus, I think that fucker works close with Nigel, I need you to scope out the scene for me, little blackbird." He graced with her new nickname.

What the hell was going on here??? Since when was he talking to her all of a sudden, and since when did he smell so fucking good.

Raven didn't respond, only nodding. Armando slowly turned her around, pulling her hips flush against his as they began to dance to the rhythmic music. Armando couldn't deny that Raven looked amazing. Her face was beautiful, but God damn her body was amazing. Looking down, he had a clear view of her ample breasts that his palms were itching to squeeze.

Speaking of his hands, they were caressing her exposed thighs, slowly sliding up until he felt the curative of her thighs and ass meeting. Raven's hips rotated backwards, while his moved forward. Their bodies moving in unison to give the illusion that they were two people who were madly lusting after each other.

"Look at this shit here." Marcus spoke as the team watched the monitors from outside the club.

Meanwhile, Raven was doing her best to ignore the intense throbbing between her legs. This man was engulfing her. From his intoxicating scent to the feel of his soft yet firm hands sliding along her body. One of those hands now being situated loosely around her neck as he titled her head back whispering to her. "You know little one, you sure are a firey one." She could feel him smirking against her hear, she could also feel him sporting major wood against her ass but hey, that would be discussed at a later time.

"Are we here on a mission or are we here to chit chat about our butting personalities." Her attempt to shoot back at him was semi successful. Even with the loud blaring music, there was still a very audible tone of yearning in her voice. "Raven. Look up at the balcony and take note of what you see." How he was able hold such a focused and serious tone in this moment, she hadn't the slightest idea, but she did her best to follow his orders. Somehow, she managed to fight through her lustful haze and stared up. They were right, the sleaze ball was positioned on the highest balcony with Nigel. They whispered back and forth to each other, seeming as if things were heated.

Throughout all of this, Armando nor Raven had stopped their sensual; dance. Raven took note of every little detail she could make out, including the others around them. They'd clearly sensed someone staring because they both turned to focus their sights from above on the young "couple" who were practically fucking on the dance floor. I mean literally, Armando danced as if he wanted to bend Raven over right then and there and move her thong to the side.

Raven quickly averted her eyes; but Armando took this moment to kick it up a notch. While one hand was still stationed around her neck, the other slid up the front of her dress to give her right breast a nice squeeze.

"Did she just moan?" He thought to himself as she pushed back further into him.

Turning her around, they met each other with two pairs of big brown eyes. One of Armando's hands found its way to her slender waist, while the other trailed up her back to the nape of her neck. Yes, they were playing a role in this club, but oh was it a role they were both enjoying.

Maybe a little too much.

Armando's warm breath brushed against her ear when he leaned down to speak to her once more. "I know how we can get more information on him, let's get back to the others...but first." He cut himself off as he took a small fist full of her hair, tugging on it gently so that she'd be forced to stay in place. This alone made Raven want to melt into him. "Don't you ever call me a drug dealer again, I'm more than that. From now on, we respect each other. Do you understand me?" His accented thickened at the assertion in his voice.

Fuck, was she getting a glimpse of the Armando everyone had once been so afraid of? This entire night he'd shown a level of aggression she'd never seen from him. She'd be lying if she said it wasn't a major turn on. Afarid that her next works would come out as another embarrassing moan, she opted to simply nod. Acknowledging that she'd heard him loud and clear.

When they broke apart, he still held her hand to lead her out of the club. Raven however was still in a bit of a haze. What had just happened between her and the man she swore hated her?

𝚃𝚁𝙰𝙽𝚂𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂

Tenemos un problema, mami? - Do we have a problem, mama?

La próxima vez que mi señora te diga que no, la respuesta es jodidamente no - The next time my lady tells you no, the answer is fucking no.

#armando aretas #armando x reader #armando aretas lawry #armando aretas fanfic #bad boys #bad boys ride or die #bad boys universe #jacob scipio #vice!reader #vice series #exucse any typos I'm sorry in advance

112 notes · View notes

cosyvelvetorchid · 15 days ago

Text

I finally finished my fix-it fic.

Read on Ao3 or below 🩶

**********

Tommy walked towards his door; his body feeling heavy. Every movement his body had made in the roughly 48 hours since he’d broken up with Evan felt like he was fighting through a river of molasses.

He’d called Tommy a few times—each call ignored. He couldn’t speak to Evan; couldn’t hear his voice. He knew that hearing it he’d immediately begin to believe he’d made the wrong decision.

But it was the right decision. Evan didn’t feel that way now but he would.

Eventually.

But now there was knocking on his door. It was stupid, really, to think that Evan wouldn’t turn up at his house when his calls were being ignored. If there was one thing he knew about Evan it was that he was relentless when it came to someone he wanted.

Tommy stopped with his hand on the door knob and took a breath before he opened it. It wasn’t Evan.

“Eddie. I didn’t expect-“

Suddenly Tommy found himself standing 6 feet back with a searing pain radiating from his jaw to his right temple.

“What the fuck, Eddie?!” He yelled, rubbing his face.

“That was for breaking my best friends heart,” he said crossing the threshold into Tommys house. “And these-“ he held up a 6 pack of beer “-are for us while you talk.” He walked towards Tommys living room.

“Eddie, I don’t want-“

“It’s not a request Kinard.” He called back, sitting down on Tommy’s sofa. Tommy stood for a moment counting his teeth with his tongue to make sure he hadn’t lost any. When he was satisfied he still had the same number as before, he closed the door and followed Eddie into the living room.

Eddie held up an already opened bottle of beer which Tommy took and sat down on the other end of the sofa. Eddie sipped his own then turned his body to face Tommy.

“Talk.”

“What happened to you not playing interference? You were pretty dead set on that when Evan and I started dating.”

“That kind of goes out the window when your best friend is crying on your sofa.

Pain shot through Tommy’s heart. He’d known he’d hurt Evan, even if it was for the greater good, but he’d somehow convinced himself that Evan wouldn’t be affected too badly.

“I’m sorry.” He said. His voice was quiet; meek almost.

“Why did you do it? I thought things were good between you.”

“They were.”

“But you thought that they wouldn’t be?”

“I’ve been down this road before, Eddie—it always ends the same way.” He told Eddie.

“So you’re a psychic now?”

“I don’t need to be a psychic to know that someone so new to this, like Evan, would eventually realise that I’m not the man for him once the newness and excitement wears off.”

Eddie scoffed. “Wow. I can’t believe in 6 months you didn’t learn anything about Buck.” He shook his head.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tommy asked. He knew plenty about Evan—he wasn’t exactly a secretive person. Every thought and feeling Evan had poured out of him with ease. It was actually something that Tommy was equally in awe and jealous of.

“We all joke about Buck being a golden retriever and a yapping over sharer, but that guy does nothing by halves. He’s all in with everything he does. He feels hard, and he’s not afraid to show it—good or bad. Does he rush into things sometimes? Sure. Does it often blow back in his face? Unfortunately. But it’s never stopped him putting his heart into everything he does, over and over again.”

Tommy knew all of this about Evan but that was part of the problem. At least, what he feared the problem would be in the future. Being all in sounds great on paper, and he couldn’t deny that it did feel wonderful having someone being in to him as much as Evan was. Is. But when you’re all in you ignore the problems in your relationship that will inevitably crop up and then eventually it would all come to a head and everyone gets their heart broken.

“I know, Eddie.”

“Do you?” He said, his tone clearly showing he didn’t believe Tommy.

“It was the right thing to do for him. He’ll see that eventually.”

“Bullshit.” Eddie snapped. “This was not about Buck—you broke up with him because you’re a coward.”

“Fuck you.” Tommy threw back immediately.

“Come on, man! You can lie to yourself all you want but we both know this is you being scared of your feelings for him.”

“Eddie-“

“Did I ever tell you about when Christopher was born?” Eddie interrupted.

“You were on tour, right?”

Eddie shook his head. “No, actually I’d finished my tour. I made it back for Christopher’s birth by the skin of my teeth. Shannon was literally about to start pushing when I walked in the room.” He said with a half laugh. “The first few days were a blur. We were so wrapped up in that new parent fog that nothing could have hurt us. But then they got released from the hospital and I took them home and it suddenly hit me—I was a father. It terrified the shit out of me. A week later I signed up for another tour.” He put down the empty beer bottle and opened up a new one.

“Shannon was pissed. And for the longest time I couldn’t understand why. I had a wife and a kid to support and sure I could have still stayed in the army and been home, but the bump in pay from being overseas would really help.” He sipped his beer and sighed. “And that’s what I spent the next two years telling myself. Two years of leaving Shannon alone to take care of a kid—a kid with a disability—I told myself that I was doing the right thing; providing for my family. But it took me coming home and Shannon leaving for me to realise that it wasn’t about providing—I was running away from the responsibility. I was scared of not being a good enough husband or father. And instead of doing the grown up thing and talking to my wife about it, I ran. The damage I did to our marriage, the hurt I caused Shannon.. those are things I will always regret.”

Tommy put his bottle down on the coffee table and ran his hands through his hair.

“Evan is.. I’ve never met anybody like him. He’s.. he’s incredible. He’s warm and kind and thoughtful and I.. don’t deserve someone like him.”

He wasn’t good enough. And that was the crux of the issue. His biggest fear was one day Evan would wake up and realise that Tommy was not the hero he put on a pedestal, but a 40 year old man with a lifetime of trauma. A stubborn and scared man who didn’t deserve someone’s reverence. Least of all someone as wonderful as Evan.

“Do you love him?”

“What?” Tommy said quickly turning to face him.

“It’s a simple question, Tommy.”

Tommy knew the answer. He hadn’t wanted to admit it to himself; most of the time trying to convince himself that what he was feeling was just infatuation. But god damn Eddie fucking Diaz coming over and forcing him to realise the truth.

He didn’t answer Eddie, just looked at him and sighed, picking up another bottle of beer. Eddie quickly grabbed it out of his hand.

“What are you doing?”

“You shouldn’t drink anymore because you’re driving.”

“Driving where?” He asked confused.

“You know where.” He said.

“Eddie, I don’t think-“

“Tommy.” He said firmly. “It’s so fucking obvious how you feel about him, and everyone with eyes can see how Buck feels about you. You both may not have actually said it, but neither of you can deny it. I get why you ended things, I really do, and you can tell yourself it’s for the best, but you and I both know that that’s bullshit. Sure, things might not work out in the future, who knows, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. I’d give anything to go back and change what I did. Every day I find myself wondering if I’d have stayed would Shannon and I have stayed together? Because if we had, we probably would have still been in Texas and she wouldn’t have been hit by that car and Christopher would still have his mother.”

“You can’t blame yourself for her death, Eddie.” Tommy tried reassuring him.

“But I do, Tommy. All the decisions that I made because I was convinced I knew best, all ended up with Shannon being on that crosswalk that day.” He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. “Look I’m not saying it’s the same and that somehow one of you is gonna end up dead if you stay broken up. All I’m saying is don’t let my regrets be yours. Don’t let your fear keep you away from something, someone, that could be the greatest thing to ever happen to you.”

Realisation hit Tommy like a freight train and he practically jumped up; the adrenaline that was suddenly shooting through him making it impossible to sit.

“I am such a fucking idiot.” He ran his hands over his face and crouched down. No, that wasn’t the correct position either and he stood up again.

“Uh—huh.” Eddie said smugly, sipping his beer.

“What-what do I do?”

“You know what you need to do.” Eddie gestured towards the door.

“Now? It’s almost midnight.” He argued.

“Did you have any other pressing matters?”

Tommy quickly left the room and grabbed his keys from the bowl by the door and his jacket from the bannister. But before he opened his front door he walked back into the living room.

“What if.. what if he doesn’t..” he couldn’t say the words out loud. 30 minutes ago he was sure of the decision he’d made 2 days ago, and now there was the smallest bit of hope in his heart that maybe he could make things right—he couldn’t bare the thought of that hope dying.

“I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

“You can’t be certain he’ll want to see me.” Tommy argued.

Eddie laughed “You and I may know Evan in different ways, but I do know him. And hell, even if I’m wrong—at least you’ll know you tried.”

Tommy nodded and took a deep breath before walking back to the door.

“Go get him, tiger.”

Tommy couldn’t remember any of the 30 minute drive to Evan’s building. Every scenario was running through his mind over and over. Evan greeting him with a smile at the door, Evan slamming the door in his face, Evan punching him in the face, Evan wrapping his arms around him in relief.. none of them felt like the one that was going to happen.

He didn’t know.

He stood outside Buck’s door for longer than he knew. Lifting his hand up to knock then lowering it again before stepping back. He was scared; terrified.

But that was what got him in this position in the first place. His own stupid fear.

“Get it together, Tommy.” He whispered to himself before stepping forward and knocking on the door.

Given the late hour he’d assumed Evan would be in bed so he’d expected to have a few moments to prepare himself for.. well, he didn’t know what exactly. So when the door opened within seconds he actually jumped. What was more of a shock to his heart, however, was Evan’s face.

His eyes were glassy and red rimmed. His face was puffy and his nose red. The ache in Tommy’s heart was physical.

“Why are you here?” Buck said plainly. His voice was hoarse.

“Can we talk?”

“Is there anything left for you to say? I thought you said everything the other night.”

“Evan, I-“

“Oh, so it’s Evan, now?” He said, his voice having an edge of venom.

“Please.” Tommy pleaded. Buck simply walked away leaving the door open. Tommy took that as approval to walk in. Buck took a beer from the fridge and opened it and leant against the sink. He didn’t offer one to Tommy.

Tommy stood on the spot the other side of the kitchen island suddenly devoid of words.

“What happened to your face?” Buck asked gesturing with his beer bottle to welt on Tommy’s jaw that was beginning to show subtle purple hints.

“Had a run in with Eddie’s fist.” He told him. Bucks eyes went wide for a second before his brows pulled together in a frown.

“You saw Eddie?”

“He saw me. Turned up at my place an hour ago. I left him there to come here.” Buck looked at him waiting for him to say more. “He, uh, made me realise something things.”

“Like what?”

“That I’m a fucking idiot. And a coward.”

“I’m not arguing.” Buck said flatly.

Tommy took a deep breath.

“Evan, you told me that you were the guy Abby dated after me, and then you sat in front of me and gave me this speech about what I’ve done for you as a queer man as if I’m some kind of gay hero, and then you asked me to move in with you. It was all just so.. I’m not a hero, Evan. I’ve screwed up more times than I’d like to admit. I’ve hurt people in ways that I don’t think I’ll ever stop hating myself for. For the longest time I believed that nothing good would ever happen for me—and I accepted that because I deserved it.” He walked around the island but still kept some distance between them.

“And then one day Howie called and asked me for a crazy favour and suddenly I’m looking at you. I knew immediately that you were more than just this gorgeous guy getting into my helicopter, but I told myself that that was ridiculous. Then you called me for the tour of the station and seeing your face light up as I showed you around.. but I told myself that it couldn’t happen. And then you went and maimed Eddie and the next thing I’m here and all i could do was kiss you. What I felt right there was something I thought I’d never get to feel. This.. feeling in my heart that I knew would forever be there.” He tried to swallow away the emotion rising in his throat. He knew if he opened that box that he wouldn’t be able to continue. And he needed to continue. He took a step closer to Buck who shifted in his stance but didn’t move away.

“You’ve told me more than once that you have this tendency to rush ahead with things, so when you asked me to move in I thought that that was what that was. I’ve been happier than I have in a long time over these last 6 months with you but that fear that something would go wrong and I’d get hurt again was still there. And I got scared. I’ve been with guys before who have put me on a pedestal because they were new to their sexuality and then there always came a time when the rose tinted glasses came off and they realised I’m not the big hero they thought I was and.. and they were gone and I was left to pick up the pieces.”

Buck stood up straight and faced Tommy. Tears had begun pooling in his eyes.

“Can I speak now?” He asked and Tommy nodded.

“I was wrong to ask you to move in—that was too soon, I get that now. There were a whole host of other ways I could have told you how I felt and I picked the wrong one. All I was trying to do was let know how serious I was about you. About us. Because you’re not as unreadable as you think, Tommy. I knew that being with me was risk for you and that you were probably scared that I might one day figure out I need to explore my sexuality more, and I just wanted to let you know that I didn’t need to do that. That you were the one for me.” He wiped away a tear that had escaped his eye.

“I told you about people leaving me and how hard thats been for me. How every time it made it harder to trust people. You made me trust you, Tommy. You made me.. you made me love you and-and the first sign of something difficult for you and you do exactly the same thing everyone else has done!” His voice was louder than either of them expected and more tears had fallen down his cheeks.

Tommy had no hope of stopping his own eyes from welling up seeing Evan like this. His words, his shaking voice, his beautiful face awash with pain. Pain that he caused.

“I know that we have had vastly different experiences of coming out. For you it was painful and sad and even though you pretend that it doesn’t still bother you, I know that it does. And I know that my experience was a privilege to have—to have people in my life who didn’t care, who didn’t judge me or love me any less, and I hate that you didn’t get to experience it the way that I did, but.. that’s not on me. And it wasn’t fair to put your insecurities because of your experiences onto me and assume that I’m going to handle it the way that you did, or had to.”

It frustrated Tommy when others thought Evan was dumb—he was far from it. He wasn’t just smart and incredibly perceptive, he was also really damn good at reading people; understanding people without them saying all that much. Tommy had never been much of an open book—his father had taught him to keep his feelings to himself because that’s what real men do—but he had been far more open with Evan than with anybody else he’d dated. Even so, he still kept some things close to the vest; didn’t always open up in a way that Evan wished that he would.

But Evan didn’t always need him to talk about how he was feeling because he could often read Tommy like a book. It impressed and equally scared him.

“I just can’t for the life of me understand why you didn’t just say no to moving in. Why you couldn’t have just said that it was too soon for you; that you weren’t ready. You decided that we would go at my pace and at any point you could have sat me down and told me you needed to slow down. Instead, you just bailed.”

Tommy took another step closer. “I know. I know and I can’t explain just how much I wish I had done that.”

“Evan I..” He stepped closer again until he could reach out and touch Buck, although he resisted doing that. “I wish, god you have no idea how much I wish I could take back what I did to you. I have let fear dictate my life for too long and I don’t want to do that anymore. So let me make it clear to you now so that there is no doubt in your mind. Evan, you are without doubt the best thing that has ever happened to me. Breaking up with you is something I will spend the rest of my life regretting doing, because I love you. I’m in love with you, and if you let me, if you can find it in your heart to give me a second chance, I swear to god I will do everything that I can possibly do to show you how sorry I am.”

His own tears had fallen now and he didn’t care. Evan needed to know—to see—what he meant to him and how sorry he was.

“How-“ Buck rubbed his eyes of more tears and sniffed “how do I know that the next problem we have that you won’t run again? Because I can’t do this again, Tommy I can’t-“

Tommy gave in to himself and closed the distance between them, taking Bucks face into his hands.

“Evan, I swear to god, I will never run from you again. You are the most incredible man I have ever met and losing you, even for only 2 days, was more painful than I ever thought it could be. I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you and earning back your trust if you’ll let me.”

Bucks hands found their way to Tommy’s waist like a magnet. They always did.

“I love you, Evan.” He reached up with his thumbs and softly wiped away tears from Bucks cheek.

“I love you too.”

The words had barely left Bucks lips before Tommy’s were on his. Buck immediately pressed into the kiss. It was hasty and almost uncoordinated; both trying to make up for lost time. It had only been for 2 days but felt like an eternity to both of them.

Both of them were crying but neither cared. They needed each other. Needed to touch and feel and taste and consume.

Tommy breathed in slowly; inhaled the familiar scent of Evan’s shampoo from his head nestled between Tommys jaw and shoulder. He relished the feeling of Evan’s finger tips holding onto Tommy’s chest once again. The sound of his breathing, the feeling of their legs entangled while their naked bodies were pressed against each others.. all things he’d loved in the past six months that he realised that he’d taken for granted.

The only sound in bucks bedroom was their breathing. There was still a thousand things Tommy wanted to say but didn’t want to ruin the moment.

“I missed you.” Buck mumbled into Tommys chest. Tommy squeezed him tighter in his arms.

“I missed you too, Evan.” He kissed the top of his head.

“Will you promise me something?”

“Anything.” Tommy said.

“Please don’t ever call me Buck again.” He said it with such sadness in his voice it pushed Tommy to the brink of tears again.

“You will always be Evan to me.” He told him. “My Evan.”

He felt Buck smile against his skin before he lifted his head and stretched his body up to pressed a kiss to Tommy’s lips. Tommy hummed into it. His he’d missed kissing Evan.

Buck released the kiss and looked at Tommy.

“We, uh, really should talk about what happens now.”

“Yeah.” Tommy agreed. Buck shifted back to his side of the bed but kept a hand low and fingers intertwined with Tommy’s.

“So.. what do you want?” Buck asked. “With us.”

“I want a future with you—a long one. But.. I need things to slow down a bit.” Tommy told him honestly.

“I’m sorry that I asked you to move in.”

“No. No, you don’t have to apologise for that.” Tommy said lifting Bucks hand up to his mouth to kiss his knuckles.

“Yes, I do. Tommy, I was so.. I’ve loved every minute being with you, and I got so caught up in you letting me set the pace that I didn’t stop to check in that you were comfortable.”

“No, Evan—I should have put my big boy pants on and told you that I needed to slow down a bit.”

Buck huffed a small laugh. “I guess we were both idiots in that department then.”

“I guess so.” Tommy agreed. “And for the record, when the time comes where we’re both ready to live together, I’m not moving in here.” Buck looked at him confused. “I have a house, remember? With a gym and a garage and a yard—you would absolutely be moving in with me.”

“Yeah I kinda didn’t think that part through either.” Buck said. “I was just so focussed on letting you know that you were it for me that I didn’t really stop to think of the details.”

Warmth and fondness spread through Tommy hearing that. They loved each other and, now that he’d taken his head out of his ass, Tommy could admit he wanted a future with Evan as much as Evan wanted one with him. But hearing Evan say they he was “it” for him was somehow not as scary as it would have been 2 days ago.

“I’m it for you, huh?” He said pulling Buck closer. He came willingly because he always did. But there was something behind his soft smile. “What is it?”

“You are. You are it for me, Tommy, and-and I’m in this if you’re are, but.. but it’s going to take some time for me to fully trust that you won’t walk away again.” His eyes were as earnest as they always were. Tommy slid a gently hand along Bucks face, nestling his fingers in the hair in the back of his head.

“I know. As long it takes, I’ll be here proving to you every day how completely I’m in this with you because.. because you’re it for me too.”

“Yeah?” Buck asked clearly trying to hold back a smile.

“Yeah. It’s scary to say, but you’re the love of my life Evan Buckley, and I will spend every day of my life proving that to you if you’ll let me.”

Buck answered with his lips on Tommy’s and for the first time in 51 hours his body finally relaxed.

He was back where he belonged.

**********

@paigewinchester67 You wanted a tag 🩶

#911 abc #911 #911onabc #tommy kinard #bucktommy #911 buck #evan buckley #buck x tommy #evan buck buckely #bucktommy fic #bucktommy fix #bucktommy fix it fix #tevan fic #tevan fix

44 notes · View notes

therantsofawriterrr · 3 months ago

Text

The Umbrella Academy Final Season: My Version

Part Seven: The Side Effects Of A Smelly Kombucha

Overview: During the road trip, the gang encounters problems. Five gets to know Clementine a little bit more.

TW: mature language, throwing up but it's not shown explicitly for the amount of time the show showed it, idek if it's that explicit tbh. Anyway also some body pain and all that stuff is mentioned i think, do tell me if i missed anything! Pairings in the chapter: Mostly Five x OC A/N: hello, I'm back with another part, I'm really sorry that i added the throwing up part, but at least it's not as bad as it was in the show??? Or maybe it was, but like. I needed to like, show that reaction to the marigold, other than the ones alr mentioned. Coz it's literally like, changing their bodies. So. Um. Anyway. Sorry.

Masterlist

It was only a matter of time before the song Baby Shark started grating on people's ears.

"God!" Viktor said, holding his head in his hands. "Will you please turn that song off?"

I can't, it's stuck," Diego replied.

Allison rolled her eyes as Klaus vibed to the song. Clementine's head was lolling a bit as she slept and she laid her head back in the seat, closing her eyes and finally getting the sleep she needed.

One hour later, the car rolled down the highway, Five looked at Diego, wondering how he was so calm with the song playing in the background like that, as Ben's stomach started gurgling again.

Three hours later, Luther, trying really hard not to move one muscle because it made his whole body ache snapped, "Diego, will you change that song?"

Allison was in a deep slumber, Clementine was going in and out of sleep, Viktor had his hands on his ears, Five, Ben and Lila were clutching at their stomachs.

"I can't!" Diego said exasperatedly.

Klaus took out a bottle from his bag and it woke Clementine up from her slumber , making her groan and she slapped a hand to her mouth and nose as Lila said, "Oh my god, that smells rancid."

"What?" Klaus asked in disbelief. "You don't like my kale-kiwi-carrot-cabbage kombucha?"

"Don't get me wrong, man," Clementine said, her words muffled behind her hand. "I love all of those but separately."

"Yeah, well, it's good for the soul and great for the bowels," Klaus explained.

"Diego?" Five called out softly. "Maybe, uh, maybe pull over."

"Can't," Diego replied straightforwardly, turning to him. "We're making good time."

"Um. Please listen to him," Clementine agreed meekly. "Don't wanna get your vehicle dirty."

"Yeah. I'm gonna hurl," Five said weakly.

"Can you pull over? I need to pee," Lila said.

Diego looked at her reflection in the rear view mirror, "All right. Heads up. Here."

He held out the pee bottle for Lila to use, making Klaus retract, sipping on his kombucha.

"You know what it is," Diego said as Lila disgustingly exclaimed, "Not the pee bottle!"

"Right," Diego agreed. "Use it."

He threw it back, making everyone protest in disgust.

"Pull over, man," Five pleaded.

"We are sticking to the itinerary," Diego announced.

"Five, open the window," Luther requested, his stomach rumbling. Ben seconded the notion and Five weakly turned to open it.

Just as he was cranking the window handle, it broke in his hand, and stared at it in surprise.

"What the- Did you just break the window, man!?" Diego yelled, taking the handle in his hand and causing the van to swerve.

"Hey, you spilled my kombucha!" Klaus yelled back angrily.

"Ok, I'm really sorry for this!" Clementine shouted and lifted a hand.

Diego returned his eyes to the road to see a horde of pedestrians crossing the street and stepped on the brake, screeching the vehicle to a stop.

Five, Lila, Ben, Luther and Clementine exited the vehicle and went to different spots to retch out the contents of their stomach. Diego soon followed, trying to support his wife, as well as do his own thing.

Allison woke up from her deep sleep to see the vehicle empty except for Klaus. "What happened?"

"Oh, yeah, I think it's the reappearance of the marigold in their bloods. Causing some reactions in their bodies, I guess."

"Well, why isn't anything happening to us, then?" She asked.

Klaus shrugged and got out another bottle of his kombucha, and opening it triggered Allison's gag reflex.

"Oh, Christ it's not the marigold, you idiot," she muttered before exiting.

Klaus just gave another shrug and continued to drink his healthy drink, not understanding the fact that it was in fact, the drink that was making them retch.

About fifteen minutes later, all of them returned to the vehicle and the first thing Luther did upon doing so, was to snatch Klaus's bag and throw away his kombuchas.

"Hey, what are you doing!?" He asked.

"No more kombuchas, Klaus, please," Ben pleaded and Klaus agreed.

Many hours later, at night, Clementine was the one sitting awake in the passenger seat at night, as everyone took turns to sleep behind the backseat.

Diego slapped himself to keep himself awake, turning back to look at everyone sleeping. He stared at Lila for a split second, before turning back to look at the road.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Clementine said softly, sounding truly apologetic.

Diego gave her a side glance, to see her lent back in her seat with her feet on the dashboard, that too after asking for permission. "What do you mean?"

She turned her head to the side to look at him. "The pedestrians. They weren't real."

He only gave her a confused look before she said, "My power is making up illusions. It's actually way more complicated than that, but, in short, yeah."

"So if I'd hit them, I'd just have gone through them?"

"Well, not exactly. See, I make illusions in a more... physical state. Like, um. It would've been a physical hit for you, but it still wouldn't have been real."

"Huh. That's weird," Diego said.

"Tell me about it," Clementine replied with a sigh.

"What year were you born in?" He asked inquisitively.

"1989. Just like the rest of you."

"You should be in your thirties then. Like the rest of us."

"Five's not in his thirties."

"He's a special case, so to speak."

"Well, if you put it like that," Clementine said, sitting up straight. "I'm a special case too."

Diego gave her a surprised look filled with curiosity, making her chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm a 63 year old soul stuck in a 22 year old body."

"Fuck," he said, setting his elbow on the car windowsill and rubbing at his forehead. "So, what, were you stuck in the future with Five? Wait. Are you Delores?"

"What? No. Delores was just someone he imagined because of his desperation. I was stuck in a... a different apocalypse, so to speak. Stuck in it for 13 years, and then the Commission found me. Worked there for about 31 years."

"Damn. Can't believe you managed to work in that shithole for that long," Diego murmured. "I couldn't even sit through their beginning presentation."

She chuckled again, cracking her neck. "Yeah, it got boring for me too. After about... two years."

He scoffed in disbelief as they fell silent, Diego thinking about what he heard Clementine just trying not to sleep, her eyes fluttering close.

One hour later, Clementine woke to see the sky streaked in beautiful sunrise colors. She stretched and turned to the side, blinking in surprise after seeing Five at the wheel.

"Diego wanted a break," he said.

She nodded in understanding, stretching her arms with a soft groan when Five asked, "So, did you remember everything or...?"

"Oh, yeah," she affirmed.

"So, you were just pulling my leg when you were always teasing me about being a step ahead of me?"

"Yup," she replied cheerfully. "It was revenge for the time back at the Commission. God, you were an egoistic asshole back then."

He scoffed, running a hand through his hair to pull the strands off his eyes. "I heard you went rogue back then."

"I did," she confirmed. "It was around the time you got your folks to the 60s. I kind of got the motivation to save one of my people."

"Did you?"

"I don't know. Don't think so."

"Why?"

She turned back to look out the window, a faraway look in her eyes.

"She didn't really want to be saved."

Five heaved a heavy sigh at that, as a numbing memory flashed in Clementine's mind.

"Mom. You'll be able to grow old, away from all this," Clementine said, with an encouraging smile.

"And what, make a life for myself again? No, thanks. You kill your father, and then you vanish for 13 years-"

"31," Clementine interjected softly.

"What?" Her mother asked with a confused look on her face.

"It's been 31 years since I left," she repeated, her knuckles pale because of her grip on the handle of her briefcase.

"So, what are you saying that you're 58?"

"Yes. I work for this company that's based on time, alright? That's how I'm here right now. Now, can you please just open the suitcase and get to a safe timeline?"

"I would rather die," was the answering snarl.

"Oh my god, don't you get it? You did die, Mom! I was stuck in the aftermath of this for 13 years! And then I came back, 27 years ago to stop it, but nobody believed me. I've watched you die once. Don't make me watch it again."

"Well, then, get out! Nobody's asking you to stay!"

Clementine scoffed as tears welled in her eyes, placing the second briefcase on the floor.

"What're you keeping that here for?"

"I don't have any use for it. Plus, you might change your mind. Just put a random year, and a random number beside it. You'll be safe, then."

And with that Clementine opened the briefcase and blipped out, leaving her mother to her own.

Clementine sighed as she shook her head, looking at the road. "How much time till we reach?"

"About two hours, give or take," Five answered.

She let out another tired groan. "God, we better get something in this town or else I'm gonna kill Sy myself."

"What's the deal with this guy, anyway? Why're you so worried about him?" Five asked.

"He's just this... sweet, sad man whose daughter went missing years ago. He's very gullible when it comes to that, so... I don't know. I've just been helping him. Kinda."

"I thought you didn't like old people," Five pointed out from the conversation they'd had years ago when they were partnered up on a mission.

"Okay, again. I don't like the vast majority of the d people because they're assholes. They keep bringing up their times and how they lived life back in the old ages when it clearly doesn't apply to the modern one. That said, there are a few badass old people who move on with the times. Those old people, I like," Clementine concluded. "Also, Sy's like 52. So, he's not old."

"How's 52 not old?" He asked incredulously.

"Dude old is, in corporate terms, 60s, but according to me old is when a person starts their old age. 50 to 70 is middle aged."

"Huh. Guess we're middle aged then."

"Yeah, I guess," Clementine said, before laughing softly. "God, that's weird. In people's eyes we're just young people who've just started adulting, whereas we've literally lived half our lives."

"Half of our shitty lives," Five corrected.

"What are you guys yapping about?" Lila asked sleepily, turning around into another uncomfortable position. "Shut up."

They promptly did, choosing to stay silent for the rest of the ride. Five couldn't help but feel nice about finally knowing that his only acquaintance at the Commission actually knew who he was since the start.

He'd almost forgotten about her, but then, the moment he'd seen her in the CIA building, he had known that other than his family, she would be another one of the known people that he could rely on. He'd smiled with glee the first time she'd made a snarky remark regarding the number of cases he'd solved.

Even now, he was happy that she was here travelling with them. Oddly enough, he knew that she'd get along perfectly with his family.

Likes, comments and reblogs are highly appreciated!!! Tysm for reading❤️🩷💜

TUA taglist: @auxiliarydetective if anyone wants to be added, do lemme know!!!

#the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy s4 #the umbrella academy season 4 #tua #tua s4 spoilers #tua season 4 spoilers #tua s4 #tua season 4 #umbrella academy season 4 #umbrella academy #the hargreeves #fix it fic #fix it fanfiction

19 notes · View notes

ishouldbedoinghw · 3 months ago

Text

You Can't Erase Me

One Piece fanfic, part 10: Calico Jack

Previous parts are in my pinned masterlist.

A woman enslaved by the celestial dragons is found by a man with red hair. Angst and comedy ensues.

A/N: Y'all know the drill. This chapter is the one that inspired this entire story. I was driving and listening to this song when a great idea that I really hope doesn't suck exploded into my head. Also I finally got a new computer since I've been working a couple of jobs this summer before moving back to college.

Also I would like to preface this chapter by saying this has a good bit of dancing described in it. The only experience I have with dancing is country western swing dancing and white person line dancing. It might be bad. Dead dove do not eat.

TW: Bad descriptions of dancing and music, thirsting over a vampire, alcohol consumption, drunkenness, Shanks

The first swig from Maria's bottle was, frankly put, fucking terrible. This was the crap Shanks was always chugging?

As I spluttered, trying my best to hand back the bottle before I dropped it, Maria and her friend were giggling behind polite hands.

"Never had liquor before? Traveling with Red-Hair? And I'd bet money on you being almost ten years older than the two of us."

Almost ten years? How young were these girls? How old was I?

"Listen, I had some health problems, alright? And how old do you think-"

Maria's hands shot up in surrender. "Sorry, didn't mean anything by it, we didn't know."

Her friend, still slightly giggling, took the bottle from me and took a swig herself.

"Look, this stuff is cheap, so it isn't about tasting it, you've gotta just let it be nasty and focus on what it's doing to you." She handed it back to me, her long nails curled around the bottle neck.

It tasted just as nasty the second time, but at least I was prepared for it. I swallowed it quickly, doing my best to keep a straight face.

As Maria took the bottle back to hide it away, her friend started to study me, clicking her tongue occasionally. My face burned a bit at being studied again, and it made me wonder if I really looked as good as I felt.

"Maria, you really don't miss, do you?" She laughed, and started to head back down the hall, seemingly satisfied. "Let the newbie know what her big job is tonight, and have her watch during the first couple of songs, so she at least doesn't go in blind."

"Yeah, yeah," Maria called back, shaking her head. "A control freak, that one."

Fiddling with the lace on my corset, I watched Maria finish adjusting herself in the mirror. After she seemed satisfied, she beckoned me to follow her as she went down the hallway after her friend.

"So- what is it that I have to do, exactly?" I ask, nervously gripping my skirt, trying to adjust to walking in it.

"So, every week we have a night where we do the Calico Jack- one of the older, tougher girls is picked to find someone in the crowd to dance with to a song about running off with a pirate." She stopped to adjust a strap on one of her shoes, and I almost run into her. "I personally don't see the appeal in it, and neither does Delilah, but it always brings in a big crowd of rowdy men who pay plenty money to drink and feed their egos if the girl picks 'em."

"That's why we get a grown woman to do it, too- in case a fight breaks out over who gets picked, the dancer doesn't get hurt." She continues. "We try to stay away from the really wild ones- we had a big ginger muscleheaded prick get upset a while back, his blonde boy-toy or whatever had to drag him out."

My mouth had gone quite dry at this point, though whether it was from the liquor or my nerves I wasn't quite sure. I had to dance with a stranger? Hell, I don't think I'd ever danced before. My plans for tonight were to maybe dance with Benn, and then to just listen to something other than the crew's terrible singing. And yet, here I was, painted as a doll ad about to be strung up like a puppet because of some old woman I didn't even know.

"Do I-?"

"Yes, you have to do it, I'd like to keep my room and my nice-paying job, thank you very much." Maria was trying to sound confident and relaxed, but I could see the sweat starting to bead on her neck and face. "Listen, no one would question it if you just picked Red-Hair, and you'd likely avoid a fight that way too, no one would argue that he's handsome and powerful."

I started to argue about calling Shanks anything other than annoying, but I stopped myself- I couldn't deny she had a point. No one would recognize me as the girl he came with, and he was powerful enough to avoid confrontation with someone else. Shit, she might've just given me an easy way out of this mess. I would just get the one dance over with and-

"Of course, before that dance, you've gotta join the rest of the tavern dancers since we're short one."

Of course.

She shoved me, clearly seeing my face. "Listen, it really isn't as bad as it sounds. For whatever reason, the boss has faith in you. She doesn't just drag random strangers out of the crowd- well, at least not all the time." She said with a laugh.

As we neared the end of the hallway, I was expected to be met with some kind of music, or lights like before. Instead, the dance hall was dark and quiet, with only the light hum of hushed conversation. Maria was gripping my shoulder, and I could see her straining to get a glimpse of something off to our right. I tried to follow her gaze, but all I could get was dim outlines of figures, and the flash of something shiny reflecting the dim light of the hallway.

As Maria's grip tightened, chills shot through my body. A whisper from the right made the room a silent vacuum, and I strained to hear the words.

"Hickory, oak, pine and weed-" A small flame flickered in the distance, lighting up the face of the old woman who'd woken me up. Delilah. Her voice was softer, yet somehow stronger when she was singing. Perhaps it was the lack of grouch. A drum was the only instrument playing, only hitting one note to make a beat.

"Bury my heart underneath these trees-" My body froze, waiting for the adverse reaction I'd had when Emily had been preforming.

"And when a southern wind comes to raise my soul-" She drew out the last note in a slight vibrado, and I found myself wondering how the hell I knew that.

"Spread my spirit like a flock of crows." I saw the flash again, and as I focused, I could make out someone holding a guitar, a sleek, slim version of the one Yassopp owned but couldn't play.

"'Cause I loved ya for too long, I loved ya for too long," Her voice was getting stronger, and louder, the den-den mushi in front of her picking up more sound.

"I loved ya for too long-" She held the last note in a vibrado again, holding it out until she was nearly whispering again. Her voice was admittedly beautiful, if not a bit haunting.

"Old heat of a raging fire, Come and light my eyes Summer's kiss through electric wire- But I'll never die-"

The stage lights all came on at once, showing off just how massive it was. A full band stood to the left of Delilah, while a handful of the girls I'd seen earlier were standing to the right, all with their own den-den mushi. On the same beat, as Delilah shifted to a full belt on the end of "die," the girls burst into operatic backup vocals, and the band started playing at top volume. The drum continued at a slightly faster pace, and the guitar strummed at a slow, steady pace to match it, contrasting the passionate voices of Delilah and her choir.

"Sycamore, ash, moss and loam Wrap your roots all around my bones And when they come for me When they call my name Cast my shadow from a bellow's flame-"

Chills ran up my spine, and my heart seemed to seize in my chest. I panicked, thinking I would pass out again, but my breath remained steady, and my mind clear. What the hell was going on?

"Cause I loved ya for too long I loved ya for too long I loved ya for too long So let the storm come-"

My body trembled, my mouth was dry once again, and the back of my neck was coated in a sheen of sweat. My heart was pounding against my ribs, my eyes watered, and I wanted to scream.

"Old heat of a raging fire Come and light my eyes Summer's kiss through electric wire But I'll never die I will never die You can bury my body but I'll never die-"

It was the best thing I could ever remember experiencing. Like a piece of me I'd been searching for ever since I woke up on that damned ship had finally come back.

I loved music. I've always loved music. I could feel it in the depths of my soul, in every bone in my body.

My entire life, I have always loved music.

The way Delilah ripped through the vocals was a storm tearing through the fields of my mind. Every sound I could make out on that stage rocked me to my core.

Watching Delilah's passion was almost as good as listening to it. Her eyes seemed to be gleaming like fire, and she spit out every word as if she had lived through the song over and over again, like she'd truly meant all of it. I'd believe it if they said she was an immortal deity from her stage presence alone.

Her boots stomping caught my attention as she transitioned to the bridge. All instruments but the drum had stopped playing again, and I could hear the thunder of voices in the crowd join her.

"In the dead of night I'm gonna loose these chains Mmm, I'm gonna run and run and run and run and run I'm gonna run and run and run and run Coming for you again Oh, coming for you again-"

The instrumental that followed blew me away once again. I never knew someone could make the instrument Roux purposefully hid from Yassopp sound so damn beautiful. Leading up to the last run of the chorus, Delilah was screaming her vocals, and a new chill ran through my body.

I need to do that one day.

All I wanted, with my entire being, was to be singing these songs with as much passion as she did, in the hopes I could feel something other than fear, anger, or shame.

As Delilah sang the final chorus, she spread her arms, letting her large coat that had been hanging over her shoulders fall to the ground. She was surprisingly muscular for her age, and-

Holy shit, she didn't have any hands.

Her arms ended at the wrists, and were webbed in a messy array of scars. The crowd screamed at the reveal, whether out of fear or something else, I couldn't quite tell.

Maria started to cheer at my side, startling me. She started shaking my arm and bouncing up and down, still yelling her ass off. I didn't pay much attention to it, distracted by Delilah's performance. It wasn't that her lack of hands was a shock in itself; I'd seen where Shanks had lost his plenty. I simply wondered how in the world she'd slapped me so effectively earlier.

"You ready?" Maria yells in my ear, her voice fuzzy with all the noise.

"Ready for wh-" And she shoved me in the direction of the stage as the room grew dark again. I flailed about and stumbled a bit, before one of the male dancers, a dark-haired, freckled young man, caught my arm.

"Newbie, right? You know the Mull River Shuffle, yeah?" He hooks his arm in mine, pulling me to the opposite side of the now empty dance floor.

"The fucking what-"

"Yeah, Maria said you might not, don't worry, you just gotta follow my lead. You dance some, yeah?"

"No-"

The guitar starts a faster rhythm than before, and the lights flash on again, making my vision spotty. My partner squeezes my arm, catching my attention before he starts moving around the floor with the other dancers in a wide circle. The more we moved, the slower and dizzier I felt we were moving. The steps I took to mirror his were clumsy, and my neck burned in shame at how stupid I likely looked.

"You know, Maria failed to mention she got you drunk as hell." What?

"I'm not-"

"Not even the clutziest of kids are so unsure of where their own damn foot is. You're thinking way too hard, you've gotta trust yourself. The liquor is supposed to take away fear, not grace."

I'm not sure why I giggled, and as we paused to turn and move the opposite direction, my body still felt it was moving around.

"I'm about to spin you towards the middle, don't puke." He was irritated now, and I felt terrible. He hadn't asked for a shitty partner tonight, yet here I was. I just let him sling my body around, and I grew a bit lightheaded at the speed.

"That wasn't half bad, think you can go faster?" The relief that flooded me was almost overwhelming, and I couldn't help but giggle again. I'm not sure why the little phrase had made me so happy.

Trust yourself.

The words rang in my ear as the tempo of the song picked up again, and the group of dancers split down the middle, my partner shoving me gently to line up opposite him.

As everyone stepped toward the middle again to meet their partners, I did the same; although I was half a stride behind them. My partner made up for the time, quickly spinning us around and pushing me in the direction he'd come from.

The more I relaxed, and the more I let myself move and spin and step to the music, the more fun I let myself have. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when Shanks had made me leave the ship, but I had to admit to myself that I was actually having a great time.

"Told you, just let go." He was smiling at me now, and I couldn't help but excitedly smile back.

"You know, I've never danced as far back as I can remember." I wasn't sure why it felt so good just to talk for the hell of it.

"Yeah, I could kind of tell that when we started."

I giggled again, then had to catch my breath as he spun me around again.

"Yeah, I don't think I've ever had so much fun."

It was his turn to laugh then, before we split into two lines again. He didn't have to push or pull me this time, and I was able to keep up with the pace of the rest of the line.

As the song ended, he pulled me over to Maria, who was still standing off to the side of the stage.

"You've got to stop giving me the drunk ones, man." He elbows Maria in the ribs, and she laughs, shoving him away.

"It looks like she got the hang of it by the end, be grateful she didn't vomit on you or something, Zutsu," she said, reaching over to fix my skirt.

"We've got Rove and Go next, you know that one?" Zutsu asks. "I'm not sure where the hell you came from, but I don't know anyone that doesn't know the Rove."

For some odd reason, I felt I did know the song, like it was some common knowledge that was ridiculous not to remember.

"Maybe? I'm not sure-"

"Good enough, maybe it'll jog your memory when you hear it." He pulled me back to the dance floor, into a line of dancers that snaked through the entire hall. "Listen, I usually take the lead on this one, but we'll stick to the back to keep you comfortable."

And keep me from embarrassing you. I couldn't even bring myself to be upset, Maria made it sound like the quality of performances were held in high regard by everyone here.

The tempo of this song started much faster than the last, the drums kicking in at full volume, followed by a fiddle that was one of the sweetest sounds I'd ever heard.

It was the first line of the song that sent a cold shock down my spine, and made sweat cling to my face.

Why shouldn’t she go she’s only ninety?

Delilah held out the last note of the line, and my skin grew clammy. I knew this song. I was sure I'd known this song almost as long as I had loved music itself. My hand shook in Zutsu's, and he squeezed it, muttering, "Don't puke yet," as he started stomping his feet on beat with the rest of the dancers. As if they had a mind of their own, my feet did the same.

I know the dance. I could remember every movement to the dance Zutsu was about to lead me through. I could hear it in my head, to the rhythm of the song, in counts of four.

Stomp, shuffle, stomp, shuffle-

Scoot back, back, back-

Away from your partner, back to your partner-

Holy shit.

"Look at you, you do know this one." Zutsu says, loosening his grip on my hand.

I wanted to cry, puke, and laugh all at once. I used to dance. I had to have grown up dancing. To my disappointment, I couldn't remember any more dances offhand, but it did little to stifle my excitement.

Every step, every dip, and every spin made my heart feel as it were flying through the sky over the bright ocean, free as a wild bird. I was addicted to the dizziness, the breathlessness, and the feeling of my body moving with the music. This, right here, was something I'd been born to do. I felt it in my soul the same way I'd felt when I heard Delilah sing. My body, mind, and spirit felt at peace, and I felt like I had some kind of purpose other than being the crew's fragile pet.

"Hey-" Zutsu's voice cut through my thoughts. "During the bridge, when the fiddle goes crazy, we don't keep in line, we'll split off and start two-stepping around the audience, try to get them to dance, yeah?"

"Oh- alright, got it," I said quickly. Relief swept through me as I realized I knew exactly what he was talking about. Two-stepping with a partner was one of the most basic skills I'd learned when I was just a kid- how I knew that, I had no idea. I couldn't picture memories so much as feel it, my mind trying to grasp some physical evidence that wasn't there.

Zutsu pulled me to face him, and he kept his back in the direction we traveled as we kept a fast paced two-step. I fell into the rhythm he set easily, and almost wept at how at home it all felt: the fast pace, the grip he had on my hand, and even the burning in my right calf and left hip.

"You had to have been holding out on me before," Zutsu laughed, guiding me in an impromptu spin that had a small part of the audience cheering. "You dance as naturally as you breathe when you know what the hell you're doing."

I giggled back, heart soaring at the compliment. It made me want to try more, to do something other than-

"You wanna try swing dancing some?" He asks, as if he read my mind.

I nodded eagerly, my heart pounding again as I recall the term, knowing exactly what he meant.

He pushed me out and away from him, before pulling me back in. I knew the steps by heart, I could feel them in my feet and fingers as I ducked under his arms and spun behind him, before twisting around as he caged me in his arms. He spun me around as fast as I could twice, before finishing with a dramatic dip, my "hair" nearly touching the floor.

"Please tell me you're sticking around after tonight, you're the first partner I've had that could move so damn fast."

I clicked my tongue, looking up at him with a twinge of disappointment. "I'm honestly sorry, but I'm just passing through with a group of- with a crew," I finished hastily.

He raised a brow. "Red-Haired Pirates, right? I'm pretty sure I saw you come in on the captain's arm."

I grimaced at the notion my disguise hadn't worked as well as I'd hoped. "I- yeah," I muttered weakly, sheepishly looking at the floor.

"Don't sweat the whole Emily thing," he shrugged, and did his best to wipe a few droplets of sweat from his cheek. "I only knew it was you because I've been staring you in the face, and I was close by when they dragged you backstage. No one in the audience will be able to tell." He poked me playfully. "Not even your Calico Jack of the night."

I groaned at the mention of that stupid dance. "Why do I-"

"Please don't get me booted from this place by answering that honestly. I'd hate to say anything untoward about my boss and her- interesting notions."

I decided not to press the issue, and to take comfort in the fact that Shanks was here for me to make an easy pick. I was also itching with curiosity to hear every song of the night, and to see if I could recall any more dances.

I wasn't sure my legs could take another step as the song finally ended. Zutsu made sure I took a long swig of water and sat down for a minute before disappearing backstage, leaving me with a very bouncy and tipsy Maria.

"That was- burp- incredible!" she shouted, throwing an arm around me. "No offense, but I thought it'd all go to shit."

I grimaced, choosing to focus on the compliment. "Yeah, thanks."

"You knowwww- the next dance is allll yours," she giggled, then nearly knocked me over trying to wave at one of her friends.

My mouth went dry. Already? I thought I'd have a couple more dances to get more comfortable, maybe figure out something simple to start the song with.

"Don't even sweat it, baby, you'll do great." She fixes one of the stray curls stuck in the top of my corset. "Plus, you look great, so it won't even matter."

Her reassurance did little to ease the nausea building in my gut.

---

I'll never forget the song that echoed through the room next. It wasn't anything spectacular, like the operatic section of the first performance. It was just a small tradition in a dance hall that would one day outlive me. But one moment in that song changed my life forever.

The Calico Jack song was an old ballad about a young lady running from her abusive marriage to live on the sea after meeting a handsome pirate in a tavern.

Of course, the only thing I knew at the time was that I had walk around at least once in the room, and pick a partner before the first chorus of the song started playing.

"It was a borin' Evenin' Down at the tavern My husband left for sea again And I was sick of waitin'-"

The song started, and I could feel my heart in my throat as I started my walk around the room.

All you have to do is walk once around and then to Shanks.

My steps felt too loud, the room was too big, and I was moving too fast, not really paying attention to who was actually there.

Look up, look up, look up, look up-

I tried to convince the crowd that I was looking, studying for the most eligible one there. I couldn't convince myself into thinking I was giving a good performance, however. My heartbeat grew louder as the audience cheered when I walked by, and I gave a weak smile, trying to look like I knew what the hell I was doing.

"Sick of drinkin' And thinkin' And questioning my measure Then suddenly A breeze came through the door-"

And then I caught a glimpse of him.

The most beautiful man I could ever think up in my head was sitting on the outermost edge of the crowd, sipping a glass of wine. He had a feathered hat that hung low over his face, but it wasn't enough to conceal his eyes- bright gold, with rings of orange, the strangest eyes I'd ever seen. His hair and beard were nearly black, but against his pale skin I could see the slightest tinge of brown. He was all sharp angles; high cheekbones, a sharp jawline and nose, even his facial hair was shaved into neat lines.

"He was smilin' Blindin' The pirate, Jack Rackham He tipped his hat and that was that I was in love with him-"

I would've liked to say that the great golden sword leaning on the table was what I saw next, but I couldn't. His large coat was ornate and expensive-looking; it was also completely open, his torso completely bare, save for a large golden cross hanging from his neck. Damn. That's all I could think- damn. He was, with no other way to put it, absolutely gorgeous.

And the little, nagging, tempting thought that I both curse and thank God for to this day wouldn't hush in my head. Ask him to dance.

And I wanted to. So, so, badly did I want to walk right up with all the confidence in the world and ask him to dance with me. It felt as if my entire body was burning at the prospect of even looking at him again.

"Oi, over here, Spooky!" Shanks was in front of me now, grinning and waving like the idiot he was. I mustered a weak smile back, quickening my pace and trying to ignore the feeling that the entire room was watching my every move.

Benn had to reach over and keep Shanks from standing to pull me into a hug, which I thanked him for with a polite smile. Yasopp was trying his best to make me lose my composure with stupid faces, and I was failing miserably at keeping my lips from twitching.

Maria was giving me a cheerful thumbs up, Zutsu and her blonde friend, whose name I really needed to learn, by her side as I passed around a second time. This round, I couldn't help but look for the beautiful man. Half of me hoped he wasn't there, and I wouldn't have to worry about getting up the courage to ask him anything, but the other half would have been crushed if he was gone.

He was still there, still sipping from his wine glass, in the exact same position as before, and still as devastatingly gorgeous.

Ask him, you'll regret it if you don't.

Yeah, sure, and embarrass myself to pieces if he refuses me.

I paused for an instant, hearing what sounded like the first line of the pre-chorus from Delilah. Shit shit shit shit shit-

I had to hurry along, or I'd make a fool of myself regardless of who I picked.

Shanks. I'll just go to Shanks. Maybe Benn, if he's too drunk.

But my feet carried me, trembling, to the man sipping his wine.

"Calico Jack Calico Jack I've never met a man here looking like that-"

Still trembling, I held out my hand. His eyes seemed to cut into me like knives, and he didn't move.

But neither did I.

The room had gone silent, and all I could hear was Delilah's voice and the band. Beads of sweat gathered on my forehead, and my hand faltered slightly. I did my best to give a polite smile to him, praying he would hurry up and either refuse me or take my hand.

"Calico Jack You've met your match Calico Jack Won't you give me my heart back-"

I started to turn away, ready to just ask Shanks, or piss myself, whichever came first, before I felt it.

His hand wasn't particularly warm, and it was rough with calluses that I presumed were from the giant sword sitting beside him. His touch was tentative for a split second, before committing and fully grabbing it before standing.

Damn, he was tall. I was eye-level with his collarbone, and was trying my best not to gawk at the chest below it when he gingerly grabbed my waist. I jumped at first, forgetting why I'd come up to him in the first place.

"Your friends have been trying to get you to back away since they saw you looking this way. Should you have listened?"

As bored as his tone sounded, his voice melted me like butter. Fuck. This was embarrassing.

"I just- it felt right to ask you," I blabbered, trying to avoid eye contact with him.

He let out a hmf before stepping closer toward me. I snapped out of my trance at the proximity, and hurriedly stepped out toward the dance floor, pulling him with me. Maria and the rest of the dancers were in my peripheral, all looking as if I'd died in front of them.

Was it so hard to believe I could get a good-looking stranger to dance with me? I'd thought that at least Maria had some faith in me.

We settled into a fast-paced rotating two-step, and as we passed around the room, the audience grew rowdy again. I hadn't realized my decision had held so much weight here, but perhaps the little custom meant more to people here than I realized.

I dared to look back up at his face, and instantly started to sweat again as his gazed pierced through me. Shit, he was even more beautiful up close. He'd taken the lead in the dance now, and surprisingly, held himself with the grace of an experienced dancer. Judging by his looks, I could have guessed he'd waltzed or something fancy like that at some point in his life, but he didn't seem the type to be in a dark, noisy place like this. Nor did he seem to be the type to take part in dancing recreationally as a whole.

Too nervous to say anything directly to him, I offered him my best version of a pleasant smile. He remained stoic, but I could have sworn I saw the corner of his mouth prick up.

I was trying my damnest to ignore the lovely shape of his lips when he asked, "What's your name?" it was a piss-poor, stiff attempt at being polite, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

"Jett."

"How lively."

I hummed in response, unsure of what to say.

"Your first dance tonight was... interesting to watch."

Oh, that was mortifying. My face burned, and I could feel my palms growing sweaty.

"I, uh, I'm new here, I hadn't danced in a while, and-"

"You were drunk?" The corner of his lip was quirked up again, just barely noticeable.

"Yeah, but-"

"And now-"

"There's no need for you to be an asshole," I muttered, my embarrassment reaching my tongue before common sense could hold it.

He gave the impression that not many people stood up to him with the way his brows furrowed just slightly. Thankfully for me, he also seemed to want to keep his composure.

He liked being in control.

Perhaps it was the lingering effects of alcohol that made me gather the courage, but that one slip in his stoic expression made me determined to make him crack.

Perhaps a small part of me wanted to see him really smile.

"So- you've been watching me tonight?"

"Don't flatter yourself."

"That didn't answer the question."

"Please, if I wanted to watch someone drunkenly stumble about, I wouldn't have come all the way here." He was trying so hard to stay grumpy, it was laughable.

As controlled as his expression was, he had one fatal tell- those pretty eyes. And they seemed to like to shift the slightest bit down every now and then before looking me in the face again. There.

"You know, you might think my dancing is subpar, but you certainly don't mind peeking at my-"

His grip tightened on my waist, although his face remained neutral. Leaning down, the brim of his hat grazed my temple.

"You are the last one who can make any comments about any sort of inappropriate glances, dear." As he withdrew, he brushed a stray curl over my shoulder.

I hated that he was right, and his touching wasn't doing much to help my case.

Neither was that very open coat that revealed a little more of his waist each time stepped with his right foot. What was somehow more impressive was that he was completely unfazed by dancing. I was sweating and aching, and a few annoying bits of my "hair" kept sticking to the back of my neck.

As thrilled as I was at the chance to dance with such a handsome man, I couldn't help but think it was such a pity he turned out to be so glum. Witty, certainly, but still a bit sour. To be fair, I also couldn't judge him based on his attitude, as I also wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows.

We were actually quite alike, I found, as the dance ended, and the two of us were promptly pulled aside by a very loud ginger man. It seemed the both of us were equally as annoyed by him.

"Oi, Hawkeyes, I didn't know you had that in you," Shanks was slightly slurring his words, but still remained perfectly upright.

Hawkeyes? Oh, shit-

I'd just danced with the world's strongest swordsman, a fucking warlord, Dracule "Hawkeyes" Mihawk.

#mihawk #one piece #slow burn #mihawk x reader #red haired shanks #straw hat pirates

15 notes · View notes

neondiamond · 1 year ago

Text

🌈 Recently Read Fics - June 2023 🌈

These are all the amazing fics I read over the past month (from shortest to longest). Don’t forget to leave kudos and comments to show the authors your appreciation if you read any of these! 🩷

🌈 you can see my heart burning in the distance by @hershelsue (923, G)

Harry and Louis are an opposites attract couple. Harry wakes up at the crack of dawn to go to his law firm job, while Louis is just getting home from his DJ gigs. They make it work.

🌈 All This Time by @allwaswell16 (1k, T)

Louis Tomlinson had been best friends with flower shop owner Gemma Styles for years. It wasn't until she suggested he date her alpha brother that he ever thought of Harry that way. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea...

🌈 Completely Oblivious by @itsnotreal (1k, G)

an interaction with a stranger helps these two finally figure their shit out.

🌈 the sweetness of your words knows no bounds in making my heart leap by @bottomhaztoplou (1k, M)

At the end of his heat, Harry writes a letter.

At the beginning of his rut, Louis writes one back.

🌈 we will get another day (to begin again) by @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed (1k, T)

“There’s a ton of health benefits to it, look.”

Zayn gives Liam an unimpressed stare. He doesn’t even acknowledge the phone in his hand. “I don’t care if it makes me immortal, Leeyum, I’m not going to take a freaking ice bath at six in the morning.”

🌈 time can always heal you by @larriescompass (2k, G)

harry catches a fever, louis takes care of him.

🌈 Ask Him by @fxckingprincesspark (2k, T)

When Lewis Capaldi gets pressed for information on who he's dating, he admits it... he's been seeing Niall Horan. The only problem? He jokes so much that no one believes him.

🌈 routine surveillance by @disgruntledkittenface (2k, E)

Harry’s training period for the Bureau consists of routine surveillance. One night, it becomes a little less routine.

🌈 Harry, That Kills People by @londonfoginacup (2k, T)

If there’s one thing that Harry hates, it’s getting his clothes dirty.

If there’s one other thing that Harry hates, it’s murder.

Unfortunately, right here and right now, Harry’s clothes are dirty, and he’s murdered someone. So. It’s not a great day.

“Ugh,” says Harry. “Yeargh. Bleh.”

🌈 Write You A Song by @all-these-larrythings (6k, G)

Harry’s new flat is great but the acoustics are even better. They’re so good in fact that his daily shower concerts start to entertain an audience besides his shampoo bottle.

🌈 The Way to My Heart by @ladyaj-13 (6k, T)

Louis' having a bit of a dry spell, until he bumps into an attractive alpha in the supermarket and leaves with his number. It was a hard bump. Very... muscular.

The only problem is, said alpha asks Louis to cook for him - which is not exactly his skill set.

🌈 Hold Me Tight (Or Don’t) by @hellolovers13 (13k, E)

Falling in love with Louis is easy enough.

Separating Louis from the singer persona Harry has been a fan of for years, however, is not.

But she's not the only one making assumptions.

🌈 what’s left of my halo’s black by @loveislarryislove (22k, E)

A year after a devastating breakup, Louis is still trying to put himself back together - but getting over a breakup is hard when you work as a wedding planner. Thankfully, his coworker Harry is the most supportive friend Louis could ask for. But Harry has some secrets of his own, and they send Louis' world spinning off its axis all over again.

🌈 somewhere in between and not at all by @greeneyesfriedrice (24k, E)

Harry is new to NYC and discovers something about himself, and Louis is there for him. Always.

🌈 Bitter Ends Turn Sweet by @allwaswell16 (30k, E)

It had been four years since Harry first heard the song his ex wrote about him and far longer since they broke up. He forgave Louis long ago, and now his life was focused on his career, his family, and especially his son, Max. But Louis was back in Chicago, after all this time, and he’s not an easy man to ignore.

🌈 Some Records Turnin’ by @ireallysawanangel (49k, E)

Harry is a soft alpha who owns a record store and Louis is a closeted singer omega masquerading as an alpha who randomly stumbles into Harry’s store.

🌈 another dream but always you by @nobodymoves (60k, M)

Harry is a Dreamwalker; he has the ability to visit people in their dreams and help put them on the right path. He's assigned to Louis, who's struggling after the break-up of his band. It's an unusual assignment from the beginning; Harry has a crush on Louis, and Louis's subconscious immediately decides Harry is the love of his life. When Dreamers cast Harry as their love interest, he can usually redirect them, but Louis is insistent on being Harry's boyfriend, and despite knowing they have no future, Harry wants to keep up the charade.

#28th appreciation #fic rec #monthly recs #hlcreators #trackinghome #tracksintheam #trackinghappily

80 notes · View notes

pep-rambles · 8 months ago

Note

Hey, I saw your lucifer swiftie playlist...the thing is it is not available in my country...so I can't even see which songs are in that playlist... I've thinking whether or not to ask but...if it isn't much of a hassle, can I know which songs are in his swiftie playlist?

1-19 Just songs I think he'd vibe to with no real personal context

Hey Stephen

The Man

Stay Beautiful

Marjorie

Better Than Revenge

Mad Woman

You Need to Calm Down

Love Story

Holy Ground

Fearless

Cardigan

August

Betty

Mine

Clara Bow

The Last Great American Dynasty

You Belong With Me

Miss Americana

Illicit Affairs

20-21 Brief Early Luclilith/Adam’sApple/Eden Polycule (whatever your vibe) section

But Daddy I Love Him

Guilty As Sin?

22-24 Songs For Charlie

Never Grow Up

Robin

Safe And Sound

25-36 His fall/ Depression

Nothing New

I Hate it Here

Would've, Could've, Should've

Castles Crumbling

Mirrorball

Dear Reader

The Archer

You're On Your Own Kid

This is Me Trying

It’s Time to Go

Anti-Hero

The Prophecy

37-72 Lilith leaving

All Too Well (10 minute version)

Dancing With Our Hands Tied

A Perfectly Good Heart

loml

My Tears Ricochet

Say Don't Go

Tolerate It

Cruel Summer

Down Bad

Getaway Car

The Story of Us

Forever and Always (Piano version)

Haunted

Hits Different

Champagne Problems

You're Losing Me

Breathe

Death By a Thousand Cuts

Red

Cold a You

Last Kiss

Coney Island

The Moment I Knew

Mr. Perfectly Fine

Now That We Don't Talk

I Look in People’s Windows

You All Over Me

Sad Beautiful Tragic

Don't You

Happiness

All You to Do Was Stay

Exile

Right Where You Left Me

Maroon

Evermore

Is it Over Now?

72-110 RadioApple shenanigans

Gorgeous

Sparks Fly

Glitch

I Can See You

Labyrinth

Untouchable

Enchanted

The Other Side of the Door

Blank Space

ME!

Message In A Bottle

I Think He Knows

Long Story Short

Electric Touch

Wildest Dreams

Snow On The Beach

Willow

Daylight

Begin Again

Treacherous

Cowboy Like Me

Don't Blame Me

State of Grace

Style

Cornelia Street

End Game

Everything Has Changed

...Ready For It

Mastermind

So It Goes...

Out Of The Woods

Ours

King of My Heart

The Albatross

Paris

Hoax

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

False God

110-116 Finally standing up to Heaven and empowering Hell

Bad Blood

I Bet You Think About Me

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me

Look What You Made Me Do

Karma

Long Live

#Lucifer Is a Swiftie #long post

9 notes · View notes

philcoulsonismyhero · 3 months ago

Text

Man, I'd missed DnD. My flatmate got a group together and we had our fourth session tonight and it feels like we're really properly getting into the swing of it and it's So much fun.

My character, Benjamin Larkwright, is a war wizard who was a magically-trained soldier as a young man and then a watchman for about a decade before quitting to take up his magic again and become an adventurer, and playing a mystery adventure as an ex-cop who keeps forgetting about his magic and solving problems like a detective is Really fun. I'm getting to mess around with all the crime drama tropes that I love while Also being a wizard, it's Great.

A couple of stand-out moments from this last session included getting to do the Hot Fuzz fence jumping thing, where the loxodon paladin just walked through the garden wall and Benjamin, on principle, vaulted a bit of still-intact wall aaand managed to roll an 8, land badly on his bad ankle and nearly faceplant in the street. The other wizard who, despite being a nerd and unathletic, is also 17 and limber managed to get over the wall with no trouble and got waved off from helping him up with a cranky "I've got a bad ankle, it's fine, I'm old, leave me alone." (He's like 45ish.)

We'd also earlier been to talk to the local sheriff about the epidemic of missing people we'd been hired to investigate (by his sister, it turned out, who thought he wasn't doing enough about it), and I got to play Benjamin going from marching in all judgemental and dragging this guy's curtains open in the face of his dreadful hangover and pointedly shifting the bottles off his desk to put down the list of missings we got from his sister, to leaving with a gentle word about hangover cures and all his missing person files and a promise to deal with whatever hold the villain has over him that he couldn't tell us about but had clearly caused an extended breakdown and is preventing him from investigating properly himself. (Kidnapped wife and son, we later worked out, who are among the people going missing around this Highly Suspicious Casino that appeared in town six months ago.)

The best moment, though was when I finally got to catch the other wizard out on the gems she stole from a bag in the mail car when we were searching the train to the town for Weird Shit. She'd managed to do it while the rest of the party were all out on the platform tidying up the mess from our fight with a gargoyle that had also been sent in the post via the train, so none of us had any reason to even suspect she'd nicked them. But then we were investigating a weird magical effect outside the temple we were in, and Abigail goes and pulls out these gems right in front of Benjamin's nose to see if they react to the magical field. He recognises them from before, asks her where she got them from, and she lies to his face that they were something she inherited from his wizard grandfather. So, two sessions after the theft, I finally get to insight check her, with my +5 insight vs her +0 deception, and I roll a 21. Which, upon realising that there's nothing she can roll to beat that, causes me, out of character, delighted, to exclaim "ha! Get insighted, crime child!"

Which was apparently the highlight of the session to the DM and everyone else and got me an inspiration as the culmination of a bunch of good ex-policeman roleplaying, which was delightful. (Got a good grade in DnD, which is both normal to want and possible to achieve.) The player of the other wizard now desperately wants me to draw a very pleased-with-himself Benjamin looming over a cowering Abigail pointing and exclaiming "Get insighted, Crime Child!", he was that amused by it, and honestly I might later when I'm less busy.

In-universe, Benjamin just gave her The Look, though, and said "alright, I'll believe you", with them both knowing Full Well that he doesn't. It was then followed up by him dashing (so Detect Magic didn't run out) over to the temple down the street to check if the magic field effect was also unable to penetrate the inside of that temple, and passing Abigail who tried to follow him on the way back, much slower on her "weak nerd legs" and pestering her into jogging the whole way back again while Benjamin made it very clear without outright saying that the jogging was her penance for the petty crime. (He's not a watchman anymore and he's not her dad so he's just going to mess with the kid in the hope that it makes her think twice the next time she gets the urge to be sticky-fingered with potentially dangerous magical items. And also for his own amusement, tbh.)

It was all very funny, I'm having a great time being the (metaphorical, he's aroace) straight guy to the rest of the party's hijinks and also occasionally indulging in my own. We ended the session thoroughly convinced that all roads lead to the Suspect Casino, having tugged on every investigative thread to Benjamin's satisfaction (and everyone else's), and he snapped his suspiciously-police-looking notebook shut and said "On that, Droozh, we are in complete agreement." to the loxodon paladin's declaration that he thinks now is Definitely the time to march into the casino and demand to know what the hell is going on. And yes, Droozh has wanted to do that since we arrived in town and the place seemed a bit sus from the whole 'got sent a gargoyle in the post' thing, but now we can march in and start cracking skulls in an Informed and Well Considered manner, having a better idea of what we're up against.

I love DnD, I've missed it.

#yes yes i know playing a policeman...#but i like investigator characters and it's part of a whole commentary thing with his character #on dehumanising jobs and how you Actually go about helping people #when you have power that they don't #being a watchman was a holding pattern job for benjamin after his whole life was destroyed by war #a continuation of the 'being a soldier is how you serve your country' thing his parents believed in #and choosing to quit and take up his magic again was the first positive choice he'd made in twenty years #but also he's a trained watchman who still cared about being good at his job #even though he was miserable the whole time and not admitting it to himself #so he still solves his problems as a policeman #if the campaign lasts long enough maybe he'll start learning how to be a wizard #but in the meantime i've watched too many crime dramas and i'm making that the dm's problem #by playing an extremely nosy bugger who writes everything down #(she knew i would be it's all good)#i didn't decide benjamin was a notebook guy ahead of time but he sure is now #cue a great many hot fuzz jokes which we're all leaning into #and i definitely have to draw something about eventually #dungeons and dragons #benjamin larkwright #personal stuff

4 notes · View notes

livelovesimallways · 2 years ago

Text

"Prayed Up....." 🎵

(Previous)

(Previous following Dana's story)

Moses and I finally arrived home a couple of days ago after an amazing honeymoon. We spent nearly three months traveling, relaxing and enjoying the best parts of what make us...us. After taking some time for ourselves, letting our friends and family know we were back became top priority. While I reached out on my end, Moses was reluctant to do the same. He says he wants to, "protect his peace", which leads me to believe something serious is going on. Although I fully understand where he is coming from, avoiding things never helps. I just hope that, "protecting his peace", doesn't make a situation worse or leave people in the dark.

Later on that day.....

"So hold on...Let me get this straight...Sean was messing around with that Julia chick outside of Dana's rules? Deanna found out and told her?"

"Basically..."

"Damn...I wonder why she didn't tell me? It seemed like everything was going well. She even sent me their finished wedding plan." *sounding confused*

"Maybe it is for her. She probably feels like what's done is done. Shit, my moms used to get like that whenever my father got caught."

"Humph...I remember having those days myself. You're probably right. Now I feel terrible. Dana isn't the type to come crying about her problems either. She'll tell you, but won't get emotional about it. She keeps a lot bottled up."

"Yeah she's a good ass person too. She don't deserve that shit." *looks down then shakes his head*

"So was this why you were avoiding calls?"

"I mean it's part of it. Sean's been like my brother since high school, but him still doing dumb shit just ain't sittin right with me. I thought he was makin progress but, that ain't the case. I don't know if I want to be around all that. Too much potential to have me in some shit."

"In some shit like?...."

"Being put on the spot to cover, or getting questioned over something he did."

"But that only happened once right?" *narrows her eyes*

"You really want me to answer that? Shit, we both know not to ask questions we really don't want the answers to. You're gonna feel obligated to tell her and neither one of us is trying to stir up past things. She knows what kind of dude she has. Obviously we want better for her, but she's sticking beside him. There's no need to dig."

*sighs* "Fine...I'll leave it alone. What's done in the dark always comes to light anyway, so..." *her phone starts ringing, cutting her off* "Oh look, it's Nica, another person you've been avoiding. I'll put it on speaker."

A Few Days Later.......

"I'm just not understanding why you won't tell your sister you're pregnant? Like, I know it's not ideal, but you're in a good place. You're starting your career at that tech giant and you can stay here as long as you want. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Trust me, I've seen worse. The train wreck that is my father is a great example, and he's a multi-millionaire. You have a village: your sister, me and my family. You just have to embrace it. "

"Look...Mimi I get you're trying to help, but please leave it alone. That's not why..." *get choked up*

"Then what is it? I'm here for you, seriously..."

*whispers* "Fuck...."

"Damn...Umm...I didn't mean to upset you. You don't have to..."

"No, I do. Just please don't judge until you hear everything. The reason why I'm scared to tell her is because it's Sean's baby..." *tells her their entire history*

"Whew...That's a lot." *pauses for a few seconds* "Sleeping with your sister's man is foul as fuck, Dee. I get the whole college and first love thing before they met, but she's the one with him now...Has been for the past what, six years? And now a baby? You have to tell her before she marries this man."

"I know...I will..."

"This is crazy but, as much as I want to rant, I feel bad for you. He's manipulated this entire situation since you were eighteen. He was twenty-four and he knew to take advantage of your naivety. Now he says he loves you? He's full of shit and is using that as a way to keep you quiet and around." *pauses in thought* "Shit!..."

"What's wrong?"

"Remember a few days ago you were throwing up a lot?"

"Yeah?..."

"Well, I got scared and called Nica for advice. She had a rough first trimester so I figured she could help. I told her it was for you."

"Do you think she told anyone?" *extra concerned*

"I mean, it's possible, but that was a few days ago. I feel like if your sister knew she would've been knocking on the door. I'm gonna call Nica and check. But regardless, Dana's gonna find out sooner or later. You can't hide a baby bump and Sean's family has some strong genes. When the baby comes out looking like him..."

"Girl!...I get it. Can you please just call your sister for me? I'll figure it out from there."

To Be Continued......

#black sims #black simblr #sims story #teeleah #moses #deanna #mimi #IYLIML #the weekend

27 notes · View notes

nitrateglow · 6 months ago

Text

Thoughts on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)

Time for another episode of "Nitrateglow didn't think the panned movie was that bad"... though this one isn't necessarily great either.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was MGM's attempt to remake an old hit. In 1921, under the banner of Metro, the original Four Horsemen was a zeitgeist hit and catapulted Rudolph Valentino to superstardom. It was a lightning in a bottle kind of film, a movie about the horrors of World War I released a few years after the end of that conflict.

The basic plot, because it's late and I'm tired: A lusty Argentine patriarch has two daughters, one married to a German and the other married to a Frenchman. The old man prefers the French part of his family, which causes issues even before WWI rears its ugly head and the two families are drawn into the conflict. The focus is on Julio, the son of the Frenchman. He likes partying, has an affair with a married French woman, and is apolitical, until he isn't because drama. Then he becomes a self-sacrificing hero because personal problems aren't worth a hill of beans in this crazy world.

(That sounded bad, but it's just because I'm sleep deprived. The movie is actually very good and worth watching, I promise. It was directed by Rex Ingram, one of the strongest directors of the 1920s, and it has one of Valentino's best performances too. But crap, I'm supposed to be talking about the remake!!)

Now MGM was thinking about remaking this film as early as the 1940s, but once their 1959 remake of Ben-Hur became a smash hit, they were eager to see what other old blockbusters they could dust off. Four Horsemen was pushed into production, its time period shoved from WWI to WWII, and Vicente Minnelli put behind the camera.

Minnelli wanted to keep the WWI setting, but he was ignored. To be honest, the WWII setting isn't too problematic. The heart of the Four Horsemen story is the family drama and how events outside the family threaten to tear it asunder. Also, you still have Julio's arc from apolitical partyboy to self-sacrificing hero, so the spirit of the original is intact.

This movie isn't bad screenplay-wise due to those strong thematic cores. And Minnelli's visuals are rich as always. I particularly liked the surrealistic flourishes, like the superimposition of the four horsemen over key scenes. A bit campy, perhaps, but whatever, I liked it. And the Andre Previn score is just outstanding: epic, rousing, and romantic.

youtube

However, what brings the movie down is the casting of the lovers. Glenn Ford, good an actor as he is, is just wrong for the part. He's 46 playing a role made famous by Valentino at 26, and he's lacking in the charming impetuousness that would make the character credible. (Apparently, Alain Delon was considered but he wasn't famous enough for MGM's liking.) Ingrid Thulin is okay but not exceptional, her performance marred by lack of chemistry with Ford and some obvious dubbing over of her lines by Angela Lansbury doing a French accent. These characters should break my heart but they don't have enough passion to make me care.

It's a decent movie, but not a lost gem. And sorry, I can't help but compare it to the silent film in my head. Between the famous tango scene (not replicated in the remake-- for the best, really) and the finale in the massive graveyard, the mourners lost in a sea of white crosses... God, there's just nothing as memorable in this new version, save for the music.

#the four horsemen of the apocalypse #the four horsemen of the apocalypse 1962 #thoughts #Youtube

4 notes · View notes

thechloediary · 1 year ago

Text

osaoi - hurt/comfort (2230 words)

>> dialogue prompt: “despite what you think, i am completely capable of taking care of myself!”

tooru doesn’t get it. it’s not as if he’s never been with someone before (even though he’s not sure that those times can be qualified as relationships since they were mostly just friends with benefits situations). he doesn’t really have any dating experience and he’s never been in love with anyone before so he doesn’t really have any situations to use as comparison; but still, something about his current relationship ticks him off.

he’s used to doing things himself, he’s never needed anybody's help. he knows how to cook, how to clean, how to do taxes, and every other thing that one needs to do during their life.

but ever since he’s with osamu, the latter almost always does everything for him. well, he’s a chef, so the cooking part was expected, but everything else wasn’t – not that tooru expected him to not know how to do anything but cooking of course.

he’s always known that osamu is a capable man and that he doesn’t seem to need anyone else either. but that’s precisely where it becomes a problem. what if this was a bad idea? they’ve been friends for a very long time before they decided to get together – what if they shouldn’t have? what if they should have stayed friends?

tooru is sure he likes the other – more than likes, if he’s being honest with himself – but what if they just don’t click? maybe they are compatible as friends but not as lovers. maybe they’re too independent to be able to work well together.

he hasn’t said anything to osamu about how he feels because he doesn’t want to make the other feel bad, it isn’t his goal at all. but because of that, he’s just been bottling up all his negative emotions, and he knows that it isn’t ideal either.

he knows osamu is doing this because he likes doing so, it’s been evident from the beginning that osamu’s main love language is act of service – among others – so he should feel grateful. and he is; he swears he is.

but somehow he can’t help but doubt himself as well. what if osamu does this because he doesn’t think i can? it’s always at night that those thoughts occupy his mind, and he can never shut them up.

he is used to people thinking he can’t do something, and he’s always proved them wrong. but this is different. this is not just people, it’s osamu. his boyfriend. he doesn’t want his boyfriend to think he's an incompetent – especially since it’s not true.

but again, he doesn’t voice any of his thoughts. he guesses that he just needs time to adjust to this new relationship status. it’s his longest relationship ever – even though they’ve been together for only six months – so maybe he just doesn’t know how to act when being in a relationship and osamu is just being normal? maybe he is the one acting weird? he hadn’t thought of that before. osamu does have more experience than him in the dating field after all, so maybe tooru should just get used to it.

—

he didn’t get used to it. and, as expected, everything he’s bottled up since the beginning of their relationship finally explodes.

it’s friday night and they’re both tired from their week but they still decide to spend the evening and night together as usual. they don’t live together yet since their relationship is still somewhat recent, but they always spend the weekend together at one of their apartments in order to recharge from their past week and prepare for the start of a new one.

today hasn’t been great. tooru has been in a bad mood ever since he woke up and he can’t really explain why. he doesn’t know what is wrong but he still feels wrong. he’s been irritable during the whole day, he just needs to relax. he just wants to enjoy his friday evening with his boyfriend, they could cuddle on the couch while watching a movie and that would be perfect. but before that he wants a bath, he thinks it’ll be good to help him relax.

“hi babes,” osamu greets him as tooru enters his apartment.

“hi,” he replies before kissing his boyfriend softly.

“are ya hungry? i was about to start makin’ dinner.”

“yeah but i’m exhausted so i’ll take a bath first. i won’t be long though so you can still cook while i’m in the bathroom don’t worry.” he smiles as he starts to make his way to the bathroom.

osamu stops him by grabbing his wrist. “are ya okay?” he asks, his brows furrowed in concern.

“yeah don’t worry. i’m just tired.”

he can still see worry in osamu’s eyes but the latter doesn’t add anything else to it. “okay. let me prepare the bath for you.” he announces as he walks past tooru to make his way to the bathroom.

“i can do it.”

“that’s fine, let me.”

“samu. i can do it.”

maybe he used a harder tone than he thought, because osamu stops in his tracks to look at him weirdly. and that’s just the last straw, he doesn’t know why it happens now and especially over something that stupid, but he can’t stop himself before the words are out of his mouth.

“despite what you think, i am completely capable of taking care of myself!” he snaps.

osamu seems taken aback by his sudden outburst. he’s looking at tooru wide-eyed and with confusion written all over his face. but there’s something else too.

even though osamu is very good at hiding his emotions when he wants to, tooru has been able to learn how to read the other thanks to all the time they’ve spent together. and he’s sure that osamu is hurt right now. hurt because of him.

“tooru–”

he doesn’t let him finish his sentence before he rushes to the bathroom and locks himself in. once he’s sat in his bath, he cries silently.

he knows he shouldn’t have snapped at osamu who was just being nice. tooru is tired and osamu just wanted to run him a bath, there’s literally nothing wrong with that situation.

he knows he’s entirely at fault for what just happened and that osamu didn’t deserve that reaction. he knows he shouldn’t have taken his irritability on his boyfriend.

he knows all of this.

and he knows he hurt him. that’s probably the worst thing. osamu’s confused and hurtful expression is still imprinted on his eyes, he can’t unsee it. he should have acted intelligently and just told osamu that he wasn’t in the mood to talk – he’s pretty sure that the latter would have understood and let it go. or on the contrary he could have told osamu that they need to talk, because he knew that he’d eventually snap if they don’t.

well he did snap; and it happened in the worst way possible. he doesn’t know how to make it better without hurting osamu even more.

—

after god knows how much time, he finally gets out of his bath and almost scares himself when he sees his reflection in the mirror. his eyes are way too red for the excuse of just being tired to be believable, so he hopes the excuse of the shampoo in the eyes will be enough. he doesn’t want to worry osamu even more.

once he’s comfortable in his sweats and (osamu’s) large shirt, he goes out of the bathroom and is immediately hit by the delicious smell of osamu’s cooking. he sheepishly makes his way to the kitchen and feels a little ping at his heart when he sees that osamu dressed the table entirely for them two.

he didn’t expect osamu to wait for him. he thought the grey-haired man would be mad at him, that he would have already eaten when tooru took his bath. ‘you don’t deserve him’ rings loudly in his head.

none of them talk as they sit down and start eating. the atmosphere has never been as heavy and uncomfortable as it is now. when he can no longer bear the awkward silence, he clears his throat before apologizing.

“i’m sor–”

he doesn’t have time to finish before osamu interrupts him. “i never once thought that you’re not capable of taking care of yourself.”

what?

“i… i don’t understand why you said that. i get that i made you mad, but i don’t understand how. please tell me and i promise i’ll stop.” he almost pleads and it breaks tooru’s heart.

how can osamu say that when tooru is clearly the one at fault? he can’t believe he managed to get such a sweet boyfriend. he decides that osamu deserves nothing but raw honesty, so tooru decides to just pour his heart out and see where it leads them.

“please stop,” he reaches forward and puts his hand on osamu’s. he sighs in relief internally when the other doesn’t push him away. “i’m sorry. i shouldn’t have snapped at you when you were just trying to be nice.”

“i–”

“samu, please let me speak.” he interrupts him but still using a soft tone. osamu makes a gesture as if to say that he’s locking his mouth and tooru almost snorts fondly at the action before remembering their current conversation.

he takes a deep breath before locking eyes with the grey-haired man across from him. “you know this is my first real relationship, right?” osamu just nods in response, tooru keeps going. “i know this isn’t an excuse but i guess i’m just not used to having someone do everything for me? you– you do everything, samu. everything.” he winces at the end of his sentence, hoping that he doesn’t irritate osamu, but the other man just tilts his head on the side like a puppy, looking at him expectantly as if waiting for him to continue with his explanation; so he does. “you cook – not that i’m complaining, your food is a blessing – you do the dishes, you clean not only yours but also my apartment, you run my baths, you do everything, samu.” he repeats, insisting, in an attempt for osamu to maybe understand his perspective.

osamu is frowning when tooru studies his face. he closes his eyes to gather his thoughts before opening his mouth again. “i– ugh god why is this so complicated to explain. all my life i’ve been doing everything by myself, and ever since we’re together i don’t do anything anymore. i– i guess i kinda thought you do everything because you think i can’t do it.”

upon hearing that, osamu finally interrupts him. “that’s not why. i never thought that, tooru. you forget that we’ve been friends for a long time before getting together, i know how you used to do everything by yourself. i just thought that maybe you’d like it if, for once, someone would do those things for you.” a blush appears on his face as he looks away sheepishly. “i guess i was wrong. i’m sorry if you felt as if i was suffocating you.”

osamu said that last part so quietly and shyly that tooru feels tears gathering behind his eyes. he quickly closes his eyes again in an attempt to avoid crying.

“no! please don’t say that!” he exclaims. “that’s not what i meant, i promise. i don’t find you suffocating. oh my god i’m so sorry!” he rambles.

osamu raises his head to look him in the eyes as if to see if he’s telling the truth or not. tooru can’t see anything except the unshed tears in his boyfriend’s eyes. he never wants to see this sight again.

“i guess i’d just like for us to share the chores, you know? or even do some together. like… i know i’m no competition to a chef like you, but i like cooking. and i’d like it if we could maybe cook together sometimes?” he asks timidly as he feels his face heating up.

osamu, on the other hand, seems to completely lighten up at that. “you’d really like that?” he asks excitedly, stars in his eyes.

tooru can’t help the fond laugh that escapes his mouth. “yeah. yeah i’d like that a lot.” he replies, smiling fondly. and then, just for good measure, he adds with a more serious tone. “i’m sorry again, samu.”

the grey-haired man just smiles at him and squeezes his hand before releasing it to get up. he makes his way to the other side of the table where tooru is sitting and opens his arms. tooru wastes no time and immediately launches himself in his boyfriend’s embrace.

he feels osamu kissing his temple and he sighs happily, tightening his grip around the other man’s middle as he smiles in his neck.

“i love you, samu.” he realizes then that it’s the first time he’s said it aloud, but he can’t even find it in himself to be embarrassed. it felt so natural to say.

he feels osamu’s smile against his head. “i love ya too.” he says before kissing his temple once again.

they stay like that for some time, just hugging in the kitchen.

“i guess it’s good we had that conversation today,” osamu breaks the silence with a somewhat smug tone. “now we can move in together without any worries.”

tooru chokes on air.

// end.

#haikyuu #haikyuu fanfiction #osaoi #oiosa #oikawa tooru #miya osamu #tooru oikawa #osamu miya

7 notes · View notes

dangerdazee · 7 months ago

Note

what do u think chapa would be doing when df ended? something with bose idk

i wasn't sure if you meant this as in after the show ended or after the team came to an end, so i just went with both lol

post show finale:

well ofc it's heavily implied at the end that Danger Force continue crime fighting, taking over as the primary heroes of Swellview.

and they should still have at least another year of high school left! i'm not sure if they were finishing middle school when DF started or starting high school when DF started... but either way they should have at least a year left. if they were in their last year of middle school, they'd still have two years of high school. if they were starting high school, they'd have one year left.

it's kinda hard for me to think about what their lives might look like now though. i mean, they no longer have Ray or Schwoz. there's a new level of responsibility on them.

honestly i feel like Chapa probably struggles handling it all, prioritizes Danger Force, and ends up not doing well in school. i don't think it's a Henry situation or anything though. she'll graduate, Mika will make sure of that.

you mentioned Bose, so thinking about her friendship with Bose... hm. in season 3, Bose starts talking about his birth dad a lot more. he also seems a less like the cheery boy we met in season 5 of Henry Danger, yknow? he seems a bit more down. i feel like those two correlate: the uptick in his mentions of his birth dad and his less cheery demeanor. it seems like he started thinking about his family life a lot more than he used to and that's affecting him. i could definitely see Chapa being someone he talks to about all of that. i feel like she would listen to him well and be able make sense of things he says. she's kind of a shoulder to lean on, someone who helps him to not bottle it up in his own mind. gotta love their friendship. (he does what she does lol)

post danger force retirement:

we saw what happened when she wasn't being pushed to the good side. she went to the bad side. between seasons 2 and 3, she became a criminal.

that honestly surprises me. bc idk how some of the other DF kids let that slide. i know everyone is scared of her, but when it comes to something serious, they will confront her and stand their ground. and i feel like Chapa turning to a life of crime is something they'd be trying to keep her from??

so i think that's where she naturally goes to after DF calls it quits, but i don't think her friends would just sit by and let it happen this time. they would at least try to keep her from it. try to keep her occupied, try full-on confrontation, whatever method.

she definitely kept any gum balls she had left in her container lol. she even tried to keep them when Ray made them all turn in their gum in Power Problems, so no doubt in my mind that she brought home all the red gum she had this time. she probably tries to save it, but she might pop a bubble every once in a while. for the memories, yknow?

i can't think of much Bose-centric to add, really. they're still friends. they're still Chapa and Bose. they miss seeing each other as often as they used to. but of course that applies to Mika and Miles with Chapa and Bose just as much and vice versa. at this point, they're all out of school and not meeting up at the Man's Nest every day anymore. life takes over and they just can't see each other as often. i definitely think there would be some planned DF meetup days where they all plan a time to hang out for a while, but i could also see Chapa and Bose spending time together on their own. it's great to be with all your friends, but sometimes there's one friend you end up spending a little extra time with cause you just have that extra-time kind of connection, and i think they definitely have that kind of friendship.

also, i feel like DF had some almost-breakup moments before they actually ended it. times when tension got too high and people said things they shouldn't have and conflict got too much and whatever evil they were battling was too much stress on them and suddenly they're on the verge of ending DF. it never actually happened though. not entirely, at least. maybe they got really close and maybe even they all separated for a day, but it never lasted.

#dangerverse #danger force #chapa de silva #bose o'brien #mika macklin #miles macklin

3 notes · View notes

halothenthehorns · 1 year ago

Text

Chapter 8: TYSON LEADS A JAILBREAK

Jason squinted down at the new chapter title like there was Mist obscuring it. The words made less sense the longer he stared. "Tyson leads, Tyson leads a- Percy what the hell did you get him into?"

"Tyson leads a what?" Alex demanded, looking very close to strangling Jason already for even hinting at teasing him.

Thalia leaned over his shoulder to finish, "Tyson Leads a Jailbreak? Yeah, no, I'm on Jason's side, you're a bad influence on that kid. Do we need to have another custody battle?"

"Tyson beat up cows and Canadians just fine without me telling him to do so," Percy crossed his arms, he looked almost proud as he leveled a look at Thalia. "I'm sure whatever this is was a great moment in history, revolutionary, and my little brother is helping, erm, the masses not be oppressed anymore or something. And I will bribe a jury to keep him full-time Thalia!"

"Because that's the right way to win a kid," Will stage whispered while Nico snickered in surprise beside him.

Thalia and Percy began actually bickering who would be a better influence on him though, and Magnus looked on in concern for several moments. "I think I liked it better when Percy kept rolling his eyes and wanted to ignore the chapter titles," he admitted to Alex.

"Are you kidding? This is world class entertainment! If we play our cards right, we might start World War III right here!" Alex was definitely placing bets in his head.

Jason finally had to give an almighty throat clearing and a stern look at the pair. He was pretty good at that when he shut off those questions and actually tried to be serious, like he had experience getting wily kids together. "No offense Thalia, but I think Percy wins by default, Tyson's old enough to get a say and he's going to pick Percy."

Percy not-so-silently cheered. "Now, on with the show?"

"Fine," Thalia huffed, "but I still insist nature spirits don't count and Artemis would consider letting me train him."

"Get your own little brother," Percy smirked before sticking his tongue out at her.

Thalia smiled like a good sport as her secret little brother she hadn't told anybody about finally started reading and she fought back tears for everything she'd done wrong regarding him. She was starting to get worried if she kept this bottled up much longer she'd do something drastic, like try to bathe a cat just to get some kind of battle out of her system.

She knew she should tell Percy at least, he wouldn't bat an eye at the multitude of problems that would arise when he found out she planned on murdering a god for what they'd done, but she wanted to give her friend a chance to breathe first. Get his memories back, actually have a chance at some normalcy back at camp with Annabeth before he got into this while she figured out details, so until then, she'd wait.

The good news: the left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns.

"I'd actually prefer it if there were though, if something big is chasing me," Magnus said skittishly. "If you're smaller, you can take the turns that'll slow whatever's chasing you down."

"But we could also look over our shoulder and be vaguely comforted we couldn't see it yet instead of thinking it's just behind that corner," Percy said in his attempt at a wise voice.

"Yeah, man, that's, that's not better than an actual good reason," Magnus frowned in concern how this guy was alive, as usual.

The bad news; it was a dead end.

"The kind of news that trumps any good news anyways," Thalia said in fair compensation, to which neither of them disagreed.

After sprinting a hundred yards, we ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked our path. Behind us, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Something—definitely not human—was on our tail.

"Tyson," I said, "can you—"

"Yes!" He slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!"

"Grover's sure asking a lot of him right then," Alex pouted, "multitasking ain't that easy."

"And Tyson's not even ADHD," Percy agreed.

The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room and we dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth said.

"Bossy, bossy," Alex huffed one more time.

"Someone's got to give the orders in those kinds of situations or everyone would run around in chaos," Jason reminded.

Alex was more of a deadly, solo, ninja assassin though if he'd ever stop wearing the brightest stinking colors, so nobody was surprised when he rolled his eyes at Jason.

We all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed.

"Teamwork makes the dream work though," Alex laughingly approved. "I knew you guys could move any problem if you just put enough brute force into it."

"If Alex suggests we just throw rocks at the next monster to kill it, I want you all as witnesses to prove it was justified to see I threw a rock at him first to prove why that wouldn't work," Percy chuckled.

Thalia flicked him in the forehead and fought off a laugh. "See, this is why Tyson should hang around me more, he gets all his violent ideas from you!"

"I resemble that remark," Percy agreed casually.

"I'm assuming he doesn't actually mean resent?" Magnus muttered.

"He does not," Alex agreed without concern.

Whatever was chasing us wailed in frustration as we heaved the rock back into placed and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," I said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

I turned. We were in a twenty-foot-square cement room and the opposite wall was covered with metal bars. We'd tunneled straight into a cell.

Will let out a long, tragic whistle. "What in Hades did that mortal do to deserve getting a cell next to a literal hellish pit? Can you imagine that poor inmate lying awake at night, hearing any number of things through that wall, and yet being so desperate to escape and chance going in?"

"Or, on the flip side, monsters keep getting into just that cell to eat whoever's in there and going back to the labyrinth, so the prison just accepts that as the black hole cell and throws the ones in there they hope will vanish," Alex offered.

"Is it possible? Did Percy finally stumble across a place you're not going to try to vacation to?" Magnus asked him with a smidge of hope.

"Are you nuts? This is easily in the top five places I need to know every detail of!" Alex looked at him in hurt he'd assume otherwise.

"Yeah, should have seen that coming," Magnus sighed in resignation. The real question would be what would Alex get arrested for to get sent there.

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge.

"Confirmed, Annabeth does not have super strength," Jason nodded to himself like he was compiling a mental list.

"Was that really something you were holding out for?" Percy asked with mild curiosity.

"Can't automatically disqualify it after she held the sky so long. I'm now marking that as strength of character," Jason shrugged.

Through the bars we could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard—at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"A prison," I said. "Maybe Tyson can break—"

"Shh," said Grover. "Listen."

"I would almost rather not, though," Magnus admitted. He'd had to imagine all the time what prison sounded like and wasn't looking for any more descriptors.

"It, uh, it wasn't," but Percy didn't know how to answer that, other than just saying it sounded very weird. Like someone was trying to speak with construction equipment.

Somewhere above us, deep sobbing echoed through the building. There was another sound, too—a raspy voice muttering something that I couldn't make out. The words were strange, like rocks in a tumbler.

"What's that language?" I whispered.

Tyson's eye widened. "Can't be."

"I never considered Tyson might know a second language and that's why he's so minimal in English," Alex said in fascination.

"Do monsters get their own language?" Magnus asked awkwardly. What the heck was going on? Were they even in a mortal prison, or had the labyrinth dumped them out in some hellish monster prison?

"As far as I know, it's a pretty universal kill Percy Jackson language," Percy shrugged, but the look of intense surprise on Tyson's face made him nowhere near downplaying something was up.

"What?" I asked.

He grabbed two bars on our cell door and bent them wide enough for even a Cyclops to slip through.

"So is Tyson jailbreaking himself? That's not something anybody can be upset about," Will was only mock confused, but the slight notes of dread in his voice weren't fake. He was not looking forward to Kampê being described in vivid detail. He still had nightmares about her.

"Wait!" Grover called.

But Tyson wasn't about to wait. We ran after him.

"No easy task I imagine," Jason mock saluted him.

"Yeah, he's weirdly fast, must be all that peanut butter," Percy agreed.

The prison was dark, only a few dim fluorescent lights flickering above.

"I don't think it's an active prison?" Magnus said in surprise. Surely somebody else would have been spotted by now. That just made it creepier though, now he was wondering when the vengeful spirits were going to show up. He still hadn't ruled out monsters were lurking about and the cells were just for show.

"I know this place," Annabeth told me. "This is Alcatraz."

"Fascinating," Alex yelped.

"Growing less surprised by the second the labyrinth dropped you off there," Nico muttered while fiddling with his figurine.

"You mean that island near San Francisco?"

She nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

"What the hell do they sell in that gift shop?" Magnus spluttered.

"I swear if it's jumpsuits and space food I'll move in," Alex snickered.

It didn't seem possible that we could've popped out of the Labyrinth on the other side of the country,

"Like, seriously, where was this magic path the last two bloody times you needed it," Jason agreed with Percy's very put out look.

"I'm sure if we tried to take the exact same route we'd end up popping out in the South Poll," Percy grumbled at all of his luck.

but Annabeth had been living in San Francisco all year, keeping an eye on Mount Tamalpais just across the bay. She probably knew what she was talking about.

"I just assume that in general," Will nodded. "If she started babbling on about brain surgery or rocket science I'd take her at word."

Nico repressed the urge to gag that literally everybody but him was in love with this girl.

"Freeze," Grover warned.

But Tyson kept going. Grover grabbed his arm and pulled him back with all his strength.

"Did that cause a sequel of the flying shoes?" Thalia asked in concern and admiration at Grover trying so hard. He was all heart, a true protector, even with someone he wasn't fond of.

"He would have fallen if Tyson hadn't actually stopped to catch him," Percy agreed. "I think it would have been easier to pull on the anchor of a cruise ship, but that's Grover for you."

"Stop, Tyson!" he whispered. "Can't you see it?"

I looked where he was pointing, and my stomach did a somersault. On the second-floor balcony, across the courtyard, was a monster more horrible than anything I'd ever seen before.

"Which is really saying a lot when you've met, how many monsters now?" Magnus preemptively put his hand on his stomach to hold it in place for what he might be about to hear.

"Not even a fraction of all of them," Thalia shook her head in sorrow she couldn't promise this would get any better over time.

It was sort of like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up. But instead of a horse's lower body, it had the body of a dragon—at least twenty feet long, black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs looked like they were tangled in vines, but then I realized they were sprouting snakes, hundreds of vipers darting around, constantly looking for something to bite. The woman's hair was also made of snakes, like Medusa's. Weirdest of all, around her waist, where the woman part met the dragon part, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of animals—a vicious wolf, a bear, a lion, as if she were wearing a belt of ever-changing creatures. I got the feeling I was looking at something half formed, a monster so old it was from the beginning of time, before shapes had been fully defined.

"That is the coolest stinking thing I've ever heard of," Alex said slowly, clearly savoring each word.

"How, do you kill, that?" Magnus looked sickened such a thing like shapes even existed now.

"She's how I'd have imagined the mother of all monsters if you hadn't described Echidna already," Jason admitted. "A little bit of everything."

"You guys have no idea how lucky you are just to be hearing about this thing," Percy sighed. She was the kind of monster that made him fleetingly wonder if he was going to wet himself and not care if he'd feel that liquid.

Will's breath came out sharp, the sounds of screams and the smell of that poison and the looks of fright and pain still on faces covered in shrouds coming all to easily back to mind as he fought off a shiver. Nico placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, waiting to be shrugged off, or for Will to scream in fright at the death kid touching him right now.

To his surprise, the opposite happened. Will relaxed under his touch, one last shake of his head, and then he smiled at him. It was a small, tired one, but he mouthed thank you like he'd needed that moment to be grounded. Nico slowly drew his hand back all the same, examining it carefully to make sure he hadn't grabbed a skeleton hand by mistake just in case. Nope. There was that scar on the pad of his thumb from the first time he'd handled his sword. It had been real.

"It's her," Tyson whimpered.

"Get down!" Grover said.

We crouched in the shadows, but the monster wasn't paying us any attention. It seemed to be talking to someone inside a cell on the second floor. That's where the sobbing was coming from. The dragon woman said something in her weird rumbling language.

"What's she saying?" I muttered. "What's that language?"

"The tongue of the old times." Tyson shivered. "What Mother Earth spoke to Titans and...her other children. Before the gods."

"You understand it?" I asked. "Can you translate?"

Tyson closed his eyes and began to speak in a horrible, raspy woman's voice. "You will work for the master or suffer."

"Is Tyson a human translator? Cyclops translator?" Jason asked, always pleasantly surprised to find out more things no matter how persistent that nagging voice in his head was still saying all this time later this wasn't normal.

Percy was clearly puzzled by the question, obviously never having asked, so Nico offered, "as far as I know it ties into that whole voice mimicry they can do. If the person whose voice they plucked it from can speak it, so can they."

"That is so stinking cool!" Jason and Percy both cheered.

Annabeth shuddered. "I hate it when he does that."

Percy looked chagrined while Thalia gave him an understanding nod. Annabeth was allowed to be excused from thinking that was cool after what she'd been through, and Percy had a tendency to forget because Tyson was his daily Cyclops reminder instead of her nightmares.

Like all Cyclopes, Tyson had superhuman hearing and an uncanny ability to mimic voices. It was almost like he entered a trance when he spoke in other voices.

"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice.

He switched to the monster's voice: "Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson faltered when he said that name. I'd never heard him break character when he was mimicking somebody, but he let out a strangled gulp.

Then he continued in the monster's voice. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

"You've only seen him do that once," Thalia gave him a bit of a judgmental eyebrow. "I'm actually quite pleased to know they can be shocked out of doing that trance." Much like Annabeth, she found that distasteful even being used on their side considering it had once been done to her.

"Who's Briares?" Jason cut into the uneasy silence that followed. "I, um, didn't realize Tyson had other friends besides you." A prison isn't the nicest place to have a sleepover, but it was even more awkward to realize Tyson might have been homeless before when there might have been some monster friend with plenty of space he could have been staying.

"I have no idea," Percy didn't sound to thrilled about the idea either. Prison break, the chapter title had promised, like Briares was stuck there and Tyson was going to help get him out. What the heck was a monster so old and powerful going to be like he needed help?

The dragon lady tromped toward the stairwell, vipers hissing around her legs like grass skirts. She spread wings that I hadn't noticed before—huge bat wings she kept folded against her dragon back. She leaped off the catwalk and soared across the courtyard. We crouched lower in the shadows.

A hot sulfurous wind blasted my face as the monster flew over. Then she disappeared around the corner.

"H-h-horrible," Grover said. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson murmured. "Kampê."

"Like a canopy?" Magnus was sure he'd heard wrong. "That sounds way to relaxing and nice to be translated right."

"I'm not making it up!" Jason promised.

"Who?" I asked.

Tyson swallowed. "Every Cyclops knows about her. Stories about her scare us when we're babies. She was our jailer in the bad years."

Percy frowned and swallowed a tight throat. He'd never asked about Tyson's mom, how long he'd been homeless before they found each other. Like with Annabeth, Percy worried it wasn't the best circumstances.

That bit also made him a tad grateful his mom never tried to give him bedtime stories, he was to restless a child. He vaguely recalled her singing her favorite songs to him instead, and wondered if he could get a recording sometime so Tyson could fall asleep listening to that instead of stories about the worst jailer of all time.

Annabeth nodded. "I remember now. When the Titans ruled, they imprisoned Gaea and Ouranos's earlier children—the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires."

"Can they not just be called heck-spawn? That's so much easier to pronounce," Percy sighed.

"Oh come on Percy, it's not that bad after you learned in school how to pronounce deoxyribonucleic acid," Will said bracingly.

"And now you're putting way to much faith in my education," Percy scoffed.

"The Heka-what?" I asked.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," she said. "They called them that because...well, they had a hundred hands.

"The Greeks really didn't go out of their way to get creative with these names huh?" Alex said tragically.

"I'm, um, not complaining. Better than calling them the toe-to-head devourers or something," Magnus was definitely not wrapping his head around that right though. Were all the hands going to sprout out of his arms? Was he going to be a giant hand made of hands? Did that mean they were all thumbs and clumsy?

They were elder brothers of the Cyclopes."

"Looks like Percy's got some competition!" Magnus chuckled.

"Bet I'll win!" Percy said at once.

"It's okay guys, Tyson can have all the big siblings he wants, no need to fuss," Thalia mock playacted just because she was really tired of this being discussed.

Percy opened his mouth, a challenge on his tongue Thalia was just trying to move on from this because she didn't think she'd win, but he really saw her. The exhaustion in her eyes, the way she held herself like they were discussing Luke. Something about Tyson was really bothering her right now, and like Annabeth, he did forget her bad experience with them. So he quickly waved Jason on, but he kept watching her, and noticed how she didn't quite seem to want to watch Jason either.

"Very powerful," Tyson said. "Wonderful! As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains!"

"Cool," I said. "Unless you're a mountain."

"Might be cool for the mountains," Alex grinned. "I quite admire monsters that can break me."

"Only you Alex," Percy told him without surprise.

"Kampê was the jailer," he said. "She worked for Kronos. She kept our brothers locked up in Tartarus, tortured them always, until Zeus came. He killed Kampê and freed Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Ones to help fight against the Titans in the big war."

"And now Kampê is back," I said.

"Bad," Tyson summed up.

"I swear we could just plaster that as the chapter title and it would always be relevant," Nico muttered.

"So who's in that cell?" I asked. "You said a name—"

"Briares!" Tyson perked up. "He is a Hundred-Handed One. They are as tall as the sky and—"

"Yeah," I said. "They break mountains."

I looked up at the cells above us, wondering how something as tall as the sky could fit in a tiny cell, and why he was crying.

"Hopefully it's just a minor inconvenience, like his warden forgot to put a mint on his pillow," Jason said with an odd look at Percy. It seemed pretty obvious anybody would be crying to be in these circumstances. They were all holding it together by willpower and sarcasm.

"I guess we should check it out," Annabeth said, "before Kampê comes back."

"And that's why the child of wisdom is leading this charge," Alex snorted. "I'd rather wait until Kampê came back to do this properly!"

"You would," Nico said, never entirely sure how much Alex was kidding about that.

As we approached the cell, the weeping got louder.

"Do you expect noises to get quieter the closer you get to them?" Will asked in concern.

"I don't know, I've never tried being quiet at anything," Percy shrugged.

When I first saw the creature inside, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. He was human-size and his skin was very pale, the color of milk. He wore a loincloth like a big diaper. His feet seemed too big for his body, with cracked dirty toenails, eight toes on each foot. But the top half of his body was the weird part. He made Janus look downright normal. His chest sprouted more arms than I could count, in rows, all around his body. The arms looked like normal arms, but there were so many of them, all tangled together, that his chest looked kind of like a forkful of spaghetti somebody had twirled together. Several of his hands were covering his face as he sobbed.

"That guy, is very cool," Alex instantly decided.

"Helps he might not kill you upon first meeting you," Magnus agreed, though he was still reserving a scream for that in case they got double-crossed.

"Either the sky isn't as tall as it used to be," I muttered, "or he's short."

"Mist manipulation?" Jason offered awkwardly.

"Or he didn't get Ouranos's genes," Percy snorted.

Thalia rolled her eyes at the pair of them again, so at least that was still normal.

Tyson didn't pay any attention. He fell to his knees.

"Briares!" he called.

The sobbing stopped.

"Great Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson said. "Help us!"

Briars looked up. His face was long and sad, with a crooked nose and bad teeth. He had deep brown eyes—I mean completely brown with no whites or black pupils, like eyes formed out of clay.

Jason gave an impressed whistle.

"That's what impressed you?" Percy yelped. "You weren't even phased by the arms, but his eyes?"

"Eyes are the window to the soul Percy, and that just sounded cooler than spaghetti arms," he chuckled. His blue eyes flashed a familiar, cocky kind of way when he mocked him that nagged at Percy's mind for a moment.

"Run while you can, Cyclops," Briares said miserably. "I cannot even help myself."

"Yeah, why is that exactly?" Magnus stage whispered. "He doesn't exactly sound pinned down."

"Sometimes your head can be prison enough," Nico murmured sullenly. If Magnus hadn't seen his lips move, he wouldn't have been entirely sure he spoke at all. Magnus swallowed a sharp, bitter feeling on his tongue of understanding and didn't press farther.

"Sounds to me like he just needs a helping hand," Percy said casually and then even laughed at his own pun, so the others just rolled their eyes at him and moved on.

"You are a Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson insisted. "You can do anything!"

Briars wiped his nose with five or six hands. Several others were fidgeting with little pieces of metal and wood from a broken bed, the way Tyson always played with spare parts. It was amazing to watch. The hands seemed to have a mind of their own. They built a toy boat out of wood, then disassembled it just as fast. Other hands were scratching at the cement floor for no apparent reason. Others were playing rock, paper, scissors. A few others were making ducky and doggie shadow puppets against the wall.

"I feel like trying to watch him sign would give me a headache," Magnus seemed fascinated how he was able to function all of those fingers at once. He did good to walk and have a conversation without tripping.

"Like trying to listen to a song at mock ten speed, he'd just bang out everything at once," Alex agreed, but he sounded more impressed. He was probably imagining punching 98 people at once and giving himself a high-five.

"I cannot," Briares moaned. "Kampê is back! The Titans will rise and throw us back into Tartarus."

"Put on your brave face!" Tyson said.

Immediately Briares's face morphed into something else. Same brown eyes, but otherwise totally different features. He had an upturned nose, arched eyebrows, and a weird smile, like he was trying to act brave. But then his face turned back to what it had been before.

"Does every part of his body just go nuts?" Percy half laughed half asked. "Do his ears change out to bionics?"

Thalia smacked him on his ear to shush him.

"No good," he said. "My scared face keeps coming back."

"How did you do that?" I asked.

Annabeth elbowed me. "Don't be rude. The Hundred-Handed Ones all have fifty different faces."

"I don't think ignorance should be called rude," Will said fairly.

"It is if you ask to see all fifty faces at once," Alex said with a very disappointed face of his own he knew he shouldn't and yet very much wanted to.

"Must make it hard to get a yearbook picture," I said.

Thalia laughed against her will and agreed, "a face a mother doesn't have to love, she could just tell him to change it to another!" Then kept snickering at her own joke.

Percy sighed in relief, it was kind of depressing watching her try to be all responsible and lieutenant-y. He was already worried the Hunt was going to make her boring and stiff.

Tyson was still entranced. "It will be okay, Briares! We will help you! Can I have your autograph?"

"Does he have an autograph book?" Alex asked in surprise.

"I think we found his celebrity crush," Magnus grinned.

"My question is, can you get one of those on Alcatraz island? I'm still not sure what to expect in that gift shop," Will chuckled.

Briares sniffled. "Do you have one hundred pens?"

"I only keep up with one because it's magic!" Percy looked traumatized at the idea of collecting all of those.

"His hands move independently of each other though," Nico frowned at the odd question.

"Maybe each would want to write their own autograph," Will said, an odd bit of disappointment in his voice nobody got because he hadn't gotten an autograph when it was available.

"Guys," Grover interrupted. "We have to get out of here. Kampê will be back. She'll sense us sooner or later."

"Break the bars," Annabeth said.

"Yes!" Tyson said, smiling proudly. "Briares can do it. He is very strong. Stronger than Cyclopes, even!

"That's, pretty strong," Magnus agreed, but with a weary kind of frown. How much stronger than Tyson could you be without tipping the terrifying scales?

Alex was no more impressed, because if Briares could break out of there, then surely he would have by now.

Watch!"

Briares whimpered. A dozen of his hands started playing patty-cake, but none of them made any attempt to break the bars.

"This is just sad," Jason frowned. How long had this guy been a prisoner already?

Alex tangled up a few strands of hair in his fingers and gave a painful tug. The memory, the feeling of how hard it was to walk out a door wasn't something he'd had to think about in a few years, but then he'd been kicked out. He hadn't gone back in.

Hopefully, it wouldn't take Briares that to get such a forceful freedom.

"If he's so strong," I said, "why is he stuck in jail?"

Annabeth ribbed me again. "He's terrified," she whispered. "Kampê had imprisoned him in Tartarus for thousands of years. How would you feel?"

Percy couldn't imagine it. Even at his worst moments with smelly Gabe he'd had his mom, or being underground in that Labyrinth, he'd been with his friends. He'd been able to move, have a sense of freedom, know that he could leave if he'd ever wanted to even if it wasn't something he'd ever consider.

The Hundred-Handed One covered his face again.

"Briares?" Tyson asked. "What...what is wrong? Show us your great strength!"

"Tyson," Annabeth said, "I think you'd better break the bars."

Tyson's smile melted slowly.

"I will break the bars," he repeated. He grabbed the cell door and ripped it off its hinges like it was made of wet clay.

Alex made a noise of appreciation. He knew Tyson would enjoy doing that with him.

"Come on, Briares," Annabeth said. "Let's get you out of here."

She held out her hand. For a second, Briares's face morphed to a hopeful expression. Several of his arms reached out, but twice as many slapped them away.

"I've heard of people fighting with themselves, but geez, this is ridiculous," Thalia said with grudging admiration for how much control Briares must have over himself. He could defeat any enemy if she could find him twenty-five bows.

"I cannot," he said. "She will punish me."

"It's all right," Annabeth promised. "You fought the Titans before, and you won, remember?"

"I remember the war." Briares's face morphed again—furrowed brow and a pouting mouth. His brooding face, I guess.

"I think Briares is going to be a great influence on you," Jason said in a very unhelpful tone to Percy. "Maybe seeing someone actively change their face around will help you figure out what an angry face is."

"Fat chance it'll do any good," Percy scoffed.

"Lightning shook the world. We threw many rocks. The Titans and the monsters almost won. Now they are getting strong again. Kampê said so."

"Don't listen to her," I said. "Come on!"

He didn't move. I knew Grover was right. We didn't have much time before Kampê returned. But I couldn't just leave him here. Tyson would cry for weeks.

"Yeah, that's why you shouldn't just abandon someone," Will sighed while rubbing at his forehead.

"I think this is a great, helpful tool to learn," Nico grinned. "All we have to do to win any fight is tell Percy it'll make someone cry if we don't."

"We shall achieve this quest or it'll make us all cry!" Percy said in a triumphant tone, even hefting an invisible sword. Then he lowered it and gave them a spectacular eye roll. "Nah, doesn't have a good ring to it."

"One game of rock, paper, scissors," I blurted out. "If I win, you come with us. If I lose, we'll leave you in jail."

"That should have been the chapter title," Magnus busted out laughing in surprise. "I Win Rock, Paper, Scissors a Hundred Times."

"Thanks for the confidence," Percy grinned, though he suspected they were all going to call him a cheat.

Annabeth looked at me like I was crazy.

"There's a face he could never forget," Jason clearly wasn't going to let that joke go.

"It's my favorite one," Percy agreed fondly.

Briares's face morphed to doubtful. "I always win rock, paper, scissors."

"Why? Can he read hands better than Magnus?" Alex asked suspiciously.

"I'm not a palm reader," Magnus frowned.

"Shush, you know what I meant," Alex waved his fingers concerningly close to his nose, exposing the dried in clay still in the folds of his skin Magnus had shamelessly been watching when he thought he could get away with it.

"Then let's do it!" I pounded my fist in my palm three times.

Briares did the same with all one hundred hands, which sounded like an army marching three steps forward. He came up with a whole avalanche of rocks, a classroom set of scissors, and enough paper to make a fleet of airplanes.

"He cheated!" Will yelped. "He still has to only pick one!"

"Game sounds a tad more interesting though if you used both hands," Nico grinned. "Bit more of a strategy involved."

"This guy could play a whole game of chess by himself and not use half his hands," Will grudgingly agreed. "Somebody's got to make it a challenge."

"Then he came to the right place," Percy cracked his knuckles in delight.

"I told you," he said sadly. "I always—" His face morphed to confusion. "What is that you made?"

"A gun," I told him, showing him my finger gun. It was a trick Paul Blofis had pulled on me, but I wasn't going to tell him that.

"Percy, you cheated too," Will groaned in disappointment.

"And kids shouldn't play with guns, Paul is a terrible influence," Thalia rolled her eyes at Will to make him hear how ridiculous he was being.

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. What was he supposed to say? He should have used a sword instead?

"A gun beats anything."

"That's not fair."

"I didn't say anything about fair. Kampê's not going to be fair if we hang around. She's going to blame you for ripping off the bars. Now come on!"

"You're being a manipulative little shit," Thalia said approvingly. "You don't get enough credit for being able to do that."

"Annabeth gets all the good credit, I'm just the sidekick," Percy reminded cheerfully.

Briares sniffled. "Demigods are cheaters." But he slowly rose to his feet and followed us out of the cell.

"Not a great lesson I'd want to instill in him," Magnus said uneasily. The last thing Percy needed was this guy as a powerful enemy, and making all future generations of demigods his enemy.

"I saved his life, he can call me a sore loser and a poopoo head too if he and Tyson want to hide under a blanket and laugh about me," Percy shrugged.

I started to feel hopeful.

"And then all hell broke lose," Jason said with such calm confidence, nobody even realized that hadn't been in the book.

All we had to do was get downstairs and find the Labyrinth entrance. But then Tyson froze.

On the ground floor right below, Kampê was snarling at us.

"Is run the right word there?" Magnus tried hard not to whimper.

"Better than freeze?" Alex shrugged.

Percy was making a strangled kind of noise that wasn't a word at all, his eyes large enough he resembled a deep sea fish.

"The other way," I said.

"Unless Tyson wants her autograph too, then you might stop," Thalia shivered.

"Nope, sorry, I'd have to make the tough call on that and tell him no," Percy said only a tad frantically.

We bolted down the catwalk. This time Briares was happy to follow us. In fact he sprinted out front, a hundred arms waving in panic.

"Oh, good to know that's all it took," Jason yelped in something close to betrayal, but he also had half a mind to lash a rope to one of his arms and hang on for the free ride, so he wasn't that offended.

Behind us, I heard the sound of giant wings as Kampê took to the air.

"Is now a good time to discuss how exactly it's possible for dragons to take flight?" Alex asked critically. "Especially the European ones which are all heavy-armored tanky beasts, and you cannot tell me she's gliding in there."

"You know Alex," Percy tried to say as casually as possible, "I think we should shelve that, and save it for a quiet time when we've just dodged our own near death experience, not in the middle of one."

"Duly noted," Alex nodded.

She hissed and growled in her ancient language, but I didn't need a translation to know she was planning to kill us.

"I'm sure Tyson's feelings won't be to hurt," Jason snorted.

We scrambled down the stairs, through a corridor, and past a guard's station—out into another block of prison cells.

"Left," Annabeth said. "I remember this from the tour."

"I'd trust any direction that wasn't backwards," Will promised faintly.

We burst outside and found ourselves in the prison yard, ringed by security towers and barbed wire. After being inside for so long, the daylight almost blinded me.

Magnus winced along with him, because he didn't usually experience that very harshly, or he got over it weirdly quickly. He'd never considered that of any use outside of just hanging around making sure Hearth or Blitz didn't bump into anything, now he realized he might have been able to take in the area a split second faster than someone like Percy or Annabeth.

Tourists were milling around, taking pictures. The wind whipped cold off the bay. In the south, San Francisco gleamed all white and beautiful, but in the north, over Mount Tamalpais, huge storm clouds swirled.

The whole sky seemed like a black top spinning from the mountain where Atlas was imprisoned, and where the Titan palace of Mount Othrys was rising anew. It was hard to believe the tourists couldn't see the supernatural storm brewing, but they didn't give any hint that anything was wrong.

"Still want that picture-perfect moment Will?" Nico asked mildly.

"Ever notice how nobody takes pictures of hard times?" Will asked with a sad smile. "Maybe I would, do a before and after thing."

"You're insane," Nico chuckled with growing affection for his particular insanity.

"It's even worse," Annabeth said, gazing to the north. "The storms have been bad all year, but that—"

"Keep moving," Briares wailed. "She is behind us!"

"And you guys keep telling me I have bad timing," Alex said in exasperation. "At least I didn't want to stop and talk about the scenery!"

"You're trying to tell us you wouldn't stop and smell the roses while a dragon canopy is behind you?" Jason asked in disbelief.

"Roses are so cliché," he scoffed like that was actually an answer before waving him on.

We ran to the far end of the yard, as far from the cellblock as possible.

"Kampê's too big to get through the doors," I said hopefully.

Then the wall exploded.

Thalia's smile looked painful as she tried to smother a laugh, and was failing. "Okay, next, I want you to say, I don't want a million dollars!"

"It doesn't work like that, I've tried," Percy promised through a grit-tooth smile.

Tourists screamed as Kampê appeared from the dust and rubble, her wings spread out as wide as the yard. She was holding two swords—long bronze scimitars that glowed with a weird greenish aura, boiling wisps of vapor that smelled sour and hot even across the yard.

"Poison!" Grover yelped. "Don't let those things touch you or..."

"Or we'll die?" I guessed.

"Well...after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes."

"Because of course the giant every-monster gets poisonous swords! What next, a propeller hat? A backpack full or restores?" Magnus looked exhausted for Percy even hearing of this unstoppable beast.

Percy wondered when the heck his life had turned into something that made a horror movie sound bland. It didn't sound great when he decided always.

"Let's avoid the swords," I decided.

"That is possibly the wisest thing you've ever said," Thalia said, clearly impressed.

"You and Grover putting that one good brain cell to use at the right time," Jason snorted.

"Briares, fight!" Tyson urged. "Grow to full size!"

Instead, Briares looked like he was trying to shrink even smaller. He appeared to be wearing his absolutely terrified face.

"I'm very disappointed you haven't continued describing all these new features," Alex pouted. "Did he have a button nose? A wide forehead? Dimples?"

"You know, I really didn't think about it much," Percy grinned, "like Jason said, it was all in the eyes."

"Ha!" Jason gave a barking laugh before falling off into snickers for a solid minute before he could keep going while Percy stared on, pleased with himself he'd gotten him to laugh so hard. Jason definitely needed to stop thinking and counting so much and have a little more fun.

Kampê thundered toward us on her dragon legs, hundreds of snakes slithering around her body.

For a second I thought about drawing Riptide and facing her,

"And you have two great guys to help you throw rocks at this monster and everything," Alex smirked right at Percy.

He took in a deep breath and raised his hand at the giant white boulder still sitting in the middle of the room from where he'd nearly caved in the roof.

It didn't move, and after several silent moments of everybody watching blankly, Percy shrugged. "See, told you it wouldn't work."

"You weren't really trying at all, were you?" Alex asked tragically, as if actually offended Percy hadn't thrown a rock at him to really nail his point.

"My attention is a little split, try again later," Percy rolled his eyes.

Alex sniffed, he knew a dismissal when he heard one. "I remember what ADHD stands for you know," he grumbled, but Percy was back to staring at the book and chewing on the cap of his pen.

but my heart crawled into my throat. Then Annabeth said what I was thinking: "Run."

That was the end of the debate.

"I want you to remember this moment if you ever think of joining that particular club at Goode High," Nico told him conversationally enough. He hadn't even been in awe this time Percy had run like a sensible person or taken charge. He was just a guy running for his life like anyone.

"Yeah Nico, this is for sure the first thing I want coming to my mind joining any club," Percy gave him a bewildered frown.

There was no fighting this thing. We ran through the jail yard and out the gates of the prison, the monster right behind us. Mortals screamed and ran. Emergency sirens began to blare. We hit the wharf just as a tour boat was unloading. The new group of visitors froze as they saw us charging toward them, followed by a mob of frightened tourists, followed by...I don't know what they saw through the Mist, but it could not have been good.

"Stampeding elephant," Alex offered.

"Raining men?" Magnus asked.

"A very angry woman throwing snakes at people out of a bazooka," Jason said with a little to much confidence, his mind offering a weirdly specific image of seeing someone on the news talk about this...

"The boat?" Grover asked.

"Too slow," Tyson said.

"Not with Percy driving it!" Will yelped.

"I wasn't going to argue with Tyson, who knew if she was just getting started," Percy shook his head sharply. He hadn't exactly sat around and clocked his ability to move a boat faster than every monster.

"Back into the maze. Only chance."

"We need a diversion," Annabeth said.

Tyson ripped a metal lamppost out of the ground. "I will distract Kampê. You run ahead."

"I'll help you," I said.

"No," Tyson said. "You go. Poison will hurt Cyclopes. A lot of pain. But it won't kill."

"Are you sure?"

"Go, brother. I will meet you inside."

"It was never hard to guess who Tyson took the best influence from," Thalia chuckled, handing him a mock stack of documents. "I concede the case, you now have both kids all to yourself."

Percy gave her a tragic look as he mock-hugged them to his chest and pleaded, "you won't even offer child support?"

"Ha, ha, ha," she chuckled as she gave him a light push. Hopefully this would finally get him to let go of that stupid joke, and besides, she'd meant it anyways. How could she not admire the hero he'd been to Tyson the instant they met? It was who he always was.

I hated the idea. I'd almost lost Tyson once before, and I didn't want to ever risk that again. But there was no time to argue, and I had no better idea.

"Sometimes the best idea is blind trust," Jason agreed gently.

Percy wasn't sure he liked it when he heard Jason saying stuff like that, and not because he disagreed. It just sounded exhausting, like how Chiron sometimes sounded so old. Jason was his age, he shouldn't know all that.

Annabeth, Grover, and I each took one of Briares's hands and dragged him toward the concession stands while Tyson bellowed, lowered his pole, and charged Kampê like a jousting knight.

"Getting medieval times up in here," Alex grinned. "I told you to get Tyson a cyclops-sized horse Percy, this would have been perfect!"

"I bet Rainbow would come around if we'd had time to call," Percy agreed.

She'd been glaring at Briares, but Tyson got her attention as soon as he nailed her in the chest with the pole, pushing her back into the wall. She shrieked and slashed with her swords, slicing the pole to shreds. Poison dripped in pools all around her, sizzling into the cement.

Tyson jumped back as Kampê's hair lashed and hissed, and the vipers around her legs darted their tongues in every direction. A lion popped out of the weird half-formed faces around her waist and roared.

As we sprinted for the cellblocks, the last thing I saw was Tyson picking up a Dippin' Dots stand and throwing it at Kampê. Ice cream and poison exploded everywhere, all the little snakes in Kampê's hair dotted with tuttifrutti.

Percy couldn't describe the dread that filled him if he wanted to. He would have learned to run backwards or started a jousting tournament or anything if he'd thought it would help in that moment.

But he trusted Tyson. He said he was going to meet him and so he clenched his fist tight enough he could have held a hundred hands and told himself to get a move on, this is what Tyson needed from him right now. The ocean had been roaring in his ears like a cheer from their dad.

He didn't seem to realize, as usual, he was really causing the ocean to begin stirring around them.

We dashed back into the jail yard.

"Can't make it," Briares huffed.

"Tyson is risking his life to help you!" I yelled at him. "You will make it."

As we reached the door of the cellblock, I heard an angry roar. I glanced back and saw Tyson running toward us at full speed, Kampê right behind him. She was plastered in ice cream and T-shirts. One of the bear heads on her waist was now wearing a pair of crooked plastic Alcatraz sunglasses.

"I cannot believe Rachel isn't here to help me get a visual on this," Alex groaned. "You think Oceanus will let us take souvenirs when we're done, because I will fight someone for that paragraph to exist so I can make a sculpture of it!"

"I'm sure you can just rip out a page and stuff it in your shoe," Percy told him, letting himself be temporarily distracted. People were in his room. Vulnerable friends who he couldn't blast away. "In fact, I'll be starting a fire underwater soon enough to burn all these, so get your picks while you can." Like he wanted anybody else to suffer the nightmare that was his life when this was done.

"Hurry!" Annabeth said, like I needed to be told that.

"She's just a good leader like that, making sure you're all on the same page," Jason snickered.

"I'll shove that page up your nose, see if you can finish it then," but Percy couldn't help but force a laugh. He needed to hear Tyson was okay more than jokes right now.

We finally found the cell where we'd come in, but the back wall was completely smooth—no sign of a boulder or anything.

"Look for the mark!" Annabeth said.

"There!" Grover touched a tiny scratch, and it became a Greek . The mark of Daedalus glowed blue, and the stone wall grinded open.

Too slowly.

Tyson was coming through the cellblock, Kampê's swords lashing out behind him, slicing indiscriminately through cell bars and stone walls.

I pushed Briares inside the maze, then Annabeth and Grover.

"You can do it!" I told Tyson. But immediately I knew he couldn't. Kampê was gaining. She raised her swords.

Percy moved on reflex. He was flinging only in his mind, but the water reacted around him.

CRASH!

There was now a hole punched into the door at least, instead of someone's skull. Perfectly shaped for someone to fit their head through like they wanted to be Janus for Halloween. Percy's arm was still flung out like a follow-through on a hoop until Thalia gently stood up and grabbed him, lowering him back into his seat as he stuttered for unneeded air while Jason calmly finished like a cannon hadn't just gone off.

I need a distraction—something big. I slapped my wristwatch and it spiraled into a bronze shield.

Desperately, I threw it at the monster's face.

SMACK! The shield hit her in the face and she faltered just long enough for Tyson to dive past me into the maze.

Percy rubbed the empty space where that watch used to be with the smallest of regret. Tyson was alive, and he'd make him an even better watch with their new, even more deadly adventures on it when he got back.

I was right behind him. Kampê charged, but she was too late. The stone door closed and its magic sealed us in. I could feel the whole tunnel shake as Kampê pounded against it, roaring furiously. We didn't stick around to play knock, knock with her, though.

"Talk about one of the greatest punchlines of all time," Thalia said faintly. That had been close. Way to close.

"Would anybody begrudge me making one up for that though?" Alex grinned. "I bet nobody will see it coming."

"You go right ahead Alex, like we can stop you," Will chuckled.

We raced into the darkness, and for the first time (and the last) I was glad to be back in the Labyrinth.

"Someone needed to bring a photographer on these trips to commemorate all the happy times you keep glossing over," Jason said as he began to hand the book over. "I can't believe nobody commemorated that first and last time in one moment!"

"That's what we have you for Jason," Magnus smirked as he took the book. "You're our bookkeeper."

"That would have been much funnier if he was about to start his turn," Alex frowned at him. "Work on your timing Magnus."

"I'll get right on that," he agreed. Half of him wanted to sit in a daze and wonder if Alex had some implications of that, but his fingers were already grazing along for the next chapter. Was it to much to hope this quest would go a tad easier now that they had Briares on their side?

#pjo #percy jackson #thalia grace #jason grace #alex fierro #magnus chase #nico di angelo #will solace #percabeth #fierrochase #solangelo #battle of the labyrinth #HDYSG #reading the books #fanfiction

6 notes · View notes