#gotta have eyes for the rubber ninja

[yo-yo-yoshiko]

Threw on Ninnin in the hopes that a rewatch would fade into the background while i'm drawing but it was only effective until approx episode 9 when Kinji moseyed on up.

[tinkabelle24]

To Build a Home

Chapter 6: Choice

A/N: Fun fact, part of this chapter was inspired by a particular scene in one of my favourite TV shows - Outlander.

TW! Self-harm (interpreted).

Masterlist / Chapter 5

---

After taking a moment to emotionally prepare herself, Val followed Raph back downstairs, past the living room (grabbing her purse along the way), then finally through a pair of heavy sliding doors.

She was immediately met with rows upon rows of various weapons, a few of which she recognised, lining all four walls. Exercise equipment was stacked neatly to the side, as well as a table of wooden practice weapons. Rubber matting covered most of the concrete floor.

“We call this the Dojo,” Raph remarked as the brunette wandered about the room. “I’m sure you can guess what we do, here.”

“Yeah...” Val replied absentmindedly. There was so much to look at. She was especially intrigued by the familiar pair of pronged blades displayed just above eye level. “What are these called?”

“Sai,” the terrapin answered, now standing by her side. “They’re mine.”

Reaching for one of the weapons, Raph lifted it from its display. Val watched in awe as he proceeded skilfully flipping it back and forth between his fingers. The demonstration lasted a moment or two before he offered it to her, hilt-first.

Val's gaze lingered over the Sai a little longer, before finally accepting it. It was heavier than it looked.

“You weren’t kidding,” she breathed, admiring the blade; it was so well kept she could see her reflection in it. “So, you guys really are Ninjas?”

Raph chuckled. “I told ya it was a lot.”

“How long for?”

“Our whole lives, really. Gotta have somethin’ to busy the mind while stuck down here.”

"Is that why you knit, as well?" Val enquired with a smirk.

"You're hilarious."

"No, really," she laughed. "I commend you for persevering. I wouldn’t have the patience for it."

"It ain't that hard once ya get used to it," Raph explained. "Eventually it just becomes muscle memory."

"I'll take your word for it... I prefer to garden; I get to eat what I make."

"You'd get along well with Don, then. He has a hydro-whatchamacallit garden in his lab."

"A hydro-ponic garden, you mean?" Val corrected, amused.

"Yeah, that."

The pair shared a chuckle before Raph finally decided to crack the whip.

"Right, let's get a wriggle on. Can I pinch that pocketknife off ya?"

Val nodded, returning the Sai, before digging into her purse to retrieve her pocketknife. As Raph inspected it, the brunette took the time to shed her scarf and jacket, putting them aside neatly along with her purse. She then retrieved a claw clip to pull her hair out of her face.

"Normally, we practice with wooden weapons, but I wanna do this one thing first. Can I have your hand?"

The terrapin closed the distance between them, pressing the handle of the unsheathed blade into her palm. As she grasped it, he used his own hands to apply pressure to her grip.

They were as rough, calloused and... safe, as she remembered.

"Ya gotta keep a firm hold on this," Raph instructed firmly. "I disarmed ya in a millisecond, half dead."

"I wasn't ready for you to come outta nowhere-"

"The threat ain't gonna care whether you're ready or not," he countered. "In a life-or-death situation, you do not wanna lose this. Be aware of your surroundings at all times."

The terrapin then tilted the blade toward himself. “Always direct the blade away from you, to avoid hurtin' yourself; you’re also less likely to be disarmed.”

“Got it,” Val nodded, but she was struggling to maintain focus; she realised they'd attracted an audience.

Mikey was the first to trickle in, followed by Leo, Donnie, April, and finally Casey. She could feel them scrutinising her, especially Leo, who stood closest.

“Hey, don’t worry about them,” Raph reassured, finally catching her gaze. “Eyes on me, alright?”

Val took a deep, unsteady breath, and nodded.

With that, the red-banded terrapin let go, allowing Val to put away the knife. He then retrieved a similar sized practice blade from the table, before returning to her.

"When a fight escalates to usin' weapons, ya wanna immobilise the threat as quickly as possible. Whereabouts on the body could ya inflict significant damage?"

"...The throat?" Val tentatively offered.

"You'd think so, but their arms would be free to block ya at any time. Instead..." Raph reached for her wrist, turning it upward so her forearm was exposed. “Can ya make a fist for me?”

She obliged.

He then proceeded making a dragging motion with the 'blade' from her wrist to her elbow, and she had to make a conscious effort not to jerk away; it felt a little too much like something else...

Sensing her discomfort, Raph immediately paused. "You okay-?"

"Yeah," Val replied quickly. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"...You sure-?"

"I'm sure. It's okay. Please, keep going."

“Okay... So, what you wanna do is try to destroy as much of this soft tissue as possible. Get right in there...” With one eye trained on her face, he then performed the same motion crosswise. “This'll render your opponent unable to clench their fist, so they can’t grab hold of you.”

“You can also go for the axillary artery, here,” he gently pressed against her inner tricep. “Use your other hand to brace against their shoulder, then drag as far down as you can.”

“Jesus,” Val shuddered, struggling to banish the image of shredded muscle and tendons from her mind. “Remind me not to get on your bad side...”

Raph chuckled. “Yeah, it ain’t pretty,” he quipped, releasing her wrist. “But it’s better than bein’ dead.”

Next, the terrapin turned the blade on himself. “Aim for the groin, just below the pelvis – into the femoral artery. Don’t even bother tryna go above the abdomen, cos ya could end up losin’ ya knife between the ribs. Same rules apply: stab, then drag. Another thing...”

Val's curious gaze followed him as he approached from behind, lifting his hands to just above her middle. “I’m gonna put my hands on your back – that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.”

Fuck...

“If someone's on top'a you, go for the soft spot just below the ribcage, where the kidneys are. Feel that?”

“Yep.”

She could feel his breath against the back of her neck as he gently prodded her waist. Out the corner of her eye, she spotted Mikey’s grin widen.

In...and out...

"There’s ya target. In...and up. They’ll drop like a stone.”

“What about hand-to-hand combat?” Leo interjected as the pair separated. “How do you expect her to defend herself if she loses the weapon, or doesn’t have one? What if her opponent is armed? Also, she shouldn’t be using deadly force if it isn’t absolutely necessary.”

“Obviously, we ain't finished yet,” Raph sneered. “Would ya rather Val learns how to use her own weapon right off the bat, or afterwards, when it could be too late?”

He used my nickname...

“Alright, fair point,” the blue-banded terrapin conceded. “So, am I right in assuming you’ll also be teaching her basic, nonlethal self-defence? It’d also be helpful for her to practice on someone without a shell; you know, since she’ll likely be going up against her own kind.”

Val glanced anxiously between the brothers; the tension was so thick it could've been cut with a knife.

Thankfully, April intervened, breezing past Leo to join them on the mat.

“Shove over,” she hissed, attempting to shoo Raph away. “It’s my turn.”

The red-banded terrapin turned to Val expectantly. “It’s fine,” she reassured, with a soft smile.

“Nothin’ like a bit'a girl-on-girl action, amirite boys?” Casey quipped, earning a swift elbow to the ribs from Raph.

“Ignore him,” April rolled her eyes. “He’s being gross.”

At Val's request, the women began by going over Raph’s demonstration, so she could practice the moves herself. She caught the red-banded terrapin sneaking a triumphant smirk Leo’s way.

There’s definitely something going on between those two...

They also attempted a variety of disarming techniques, with April as the victim and Val the perpetrator. Once the latter was confident she had the moves down, they swapped places.

"Would you like to try something a little more intense?" April asked. "Or just continue with this?"

Val winced when she finally checked the time. "I've actually gotta get back..." If she left now, she may be able to squeeze in about five hours of sleep before she had to be up for work. "Sorry. Early start, tomorrow."

"I'll drive you home," Leo offered, earning a wary side glance from Raph.

Val failed to stifle her surprise. "Uh..."

Raph attempted interjecting but was promptly halted. For a second there, Val was convinced he'd start throwing hands, until Leo leaned into him to speak.

She couldn't hear the conversation, but it appeared Leo was ultimately successful in convincing Raph to back down.

The blue-banded terrapin then turned to Val. "Are you alright with that?"

After a moment or two of hesitation, the brunette finally nodded. "Sure."

This should be interesting...

April pulled Val into another hug. "I'll see you again, yeah? You have my number? Text or call whenever."

Donnie and Casey both shook her hand, while Mikey gave a hug so tight it just about knocked the wind out of her.

"Don't be a stranger."

"Yep," was all she could manage.

"Personal space, Mikey. Jeez..." Raph chided, and the orange-banded terrapin quickly released her.

"It's all good," Val chuckled breathlessly. "My own brother does that to me. Calls me 'short ass' cos he's nearly as tall as me. He's ten, by the way..."

"Better watch out," Casey quipped. "Soon he'll be usin' your head as an armrest." He then attempted to do just that on an unamused Raph.

Another elbow to the ribs.

Then came time to say goodbye to the red-banded terrapin. Val initially went to shake his hand but changed her mind last minute, instead leaning in for a hug. She stupidly tilted her head the same direction he did, leading to a brief but incredibly awkward staring match.

"Sorry," she tittered, correcting herself.

"Don't worry about it," Raph reassured. "Seeya later, Val."

With that, Val gathered her belongings and followed Leo out the door.

---

Neither spoke to the other for the first few minutes. Val kept her hands firmly in her lap, nervously toying with the tassels on her scarf. She contemplated initiating a conversation, but what could she say?

"Thank you," was the first thing that came to mind. "...For having me; it was nice meeting your family."

Leo glanced at her with a half-smile. "You're welcome," he murmured, before returning his attention to the road.

Silence.

Val was eager to know the unspoken thoughts that seemed to perpetually swirl about inside his head. She could tell he had so much more to say but was holding back. Why, she had no idea.

She wished he would just come out and say it.

"I was hoping we could talk?" Leo finally asked, as the truck rolled to a stop in front of Val's apartment. "Not here, though. Would it be alright if I met you at your apartment? It's safer, that's all."

Looks like she'll be getting some answers, after all.

"Okay."

---

Leo was already at her window by the time she arrived. She quickly let him in.

"Would you like a drink?" She asked, setting her kettle on the stove to boil.

"Uh, sure."

"Tea? Coffee?"

"Tea's fine. Thank you."

Val watched as Leo wandered about her apartment, examining what little decor she had. "They're my siblings," she remarked, when he paused in front of the picture frame atop her drawers.

"Cute kids... You all look so alike."

"Yeah," Val chuckled softly. "Though they were blessed with their dad's gorgeous olive skin. Lucky... Milk or sugar?"

"Neither, thank you... Would you like to sit?" Leo gestured to the dining table just as Val settled against the counter.

It's gonna be one of those conversations, is it?

"Oh, sure."

"I wanna apologise," he began, once they'd both taken a seat. His now contrite gaze never left hers. "I haven't been fair to you... It's not in my nature to be this mistrustful- I... I had Donnie pull up your... p-public record."

"Oh..." was all Val could manage, once his words registered. She suspected as much; it still hurt to know he didn't trust her enough to ask her directly. She understood, to a degree; she was essentially a stranger to him. Still...

She couldn't help but wonder about the dirt he managed to dig up on her...

"So... What do you know about me, then?" Val asked, once she finally found her voice. "Is it just you who knows?"

"Donnie didn't stick around long once he'd gotten me access, so, I guess I'm the only one... I haven't a clue what Raph knows. He's told me you've met before but won't say anything else..."

"Did you know about my siblings?"

"Yes."

"My mom?"

"...Yes."

"Dad?"

"No, nothing. He wasn't listed on your birth certificate..."

"...What else?"

Leo began shaking his head. "We don't need to-"

"No," Val interrupted sharply. "You wanted to know, didn't you? The least you can do is tell me how far you dug."

After a long, shaky breath, the blue-banded terrapin reluctantly continued.

"I know you were born in Baltimore then moved to Philly, where your half-siblings were born... You went to several different schools in both cities... You were in foster care for a while, when you were thirteen... You were in and out of hospital at fourteen... You moved to New York at fifteen, dropped out of school the same year then started working full-time... That's about it, I think."

Her childhood wasn't something Val particularly enjoyed talking about, so she often avoided details when asked. What little she's disclosed though, she often worried whether the recipient thought she was just rattling off another episode of 'Days of our Lives'.

Because that was what her life felt like sometimes - a poorly-written soap opera.

Though she suspected he was being vague, it'd be safe (and rather sad) to assume this person - this stranger - now knew more about her than even Molly - her best friend, whom she knows she can trust...

"Why didn't you ask me?" Val demanded. "I would've answered any questions you had. Instead, you went behind my back..? Why? I've done nothing to you."

"In no way am I attempting to excuse myself," Leo insisted gently. "The only explanation I have is... i-it's my duty to protect my family. What's left of it, that is... I didn't wanna risk losing anybody else... Yeah, I could've asked you, but I didn't. I made a mistake... For that, I'm truly sorry..."

Silence fell over the pair, again. Val lowered her gaze to her untouched mug of tea. It'd gone cold. What time was it? Four hours of sleep left...

"I get it," she empathized, after allowing herself a moment to cool off. "You've no idea how much I get it... I'm like a second mom to those kids. I have no idea what I'd do if something were to happen to them..."

"Then why risk it?" Leo probed. "Like I said, we have enemies. We aren't really the sort of family one would wanna get mixed up with..."

This question gave Val pause. She'd not yet considered the potential ramifications regarding her family in her pursuit of the Turtles. Now that she was, the more conflicted she felt...

"If you really wanna do this," he continued, pulling her from her thought spiral. "Then I've one condition - you learn to defend yourself, cos we won't always be around to help you. Sadly, that's our reality... Raph's a good teacher; you'll be in capable hands... The ball's in your court."

---

After driving Raph to near insanity with their incessant teasing, the others finally retired to their rooms, allowing the terrapin to ruminate in relative peace.

It'd been over an hour since Leo and Val left, with no word yet from the former. He did say he'd talk to her, so Raph tried keeping that notion at the forefront of his mind. The not knowing still unnerved him...

The meeting went well, he felt.

Val appeared to enjoy herself and got along swimmingly with most of the group. April was already talking about inviting her over for cocktails. He didn't think she'd have any trouble; she had an effortless charm about her.

Raph just about leapt out of his seat at the sound of metal grinding against concrete - the door. In trudged his eldest brother, looking rather frazzled.

Something happened.

"She get home alright?" Raph asked as Leo approached. "Did you talk to her?"

"Yep," the leader replied, barely acknowledging his younger brother. "I'm sure you'll be pleased to know she gave me a thorough dressing down..."

"Good, you deserved it," Raph sneered. Leo shot him a warning look as he attempted retreating to his room, but the red-banded terrapin stopped him. "What was that about, earlier?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific, Raph."

"You undermined me, in front'a everyone," Raph bit out. "We literally just started and you were goin' on like Val should be further along than she is... What the hell's wrong with you?"

"Make sure Valerie gets her own shell-cell, so she has our numbers," Leo instructed, completely disregarding his brother's question. "She's your responsibility - don't let her down."

Raph blinked at him, incredulous. "Did you even hear a word I just said?!" He exclaimed as Leo brushed past him, heading toward the staircase.

"Hey, I'm talkin' to you... Leo!"

I'm so sick of this...

"...Why don’t you talk to me anymore?!"

Leo neither stopped nor looked back when he answered, "Cos I've nothing left to say."

---

Masterlist / Chapter 7

@android-cap-007 @miss-andromeda @happymoonangel

[thelostmagicians]

Season 2: Episode 6

Pairings: Eventual Steve Harrington x Reader (slowburn)

Warnings: Slight violence, profanity, the usual

Author’s Note: This is more of a filler chapter and most of the script is based of the actually episode. Netflix pls don’t sue me lol. The next few chapters will focus more on Atlas and her past so that should be fun to write!

____________________________________________

“What the hell do we do now? I’m so dead, so so so dead,” Dustin panicked, frantically waving his arms.

Steve remained stoic, a hand curling under his chin while the other rested on his hip. He stared at the trap door deep in thought, hoping for an idea that could get them out of this dilemma.

“You said Dart ate your cat, right?” Atlas broke the silence as she rose her head to look at Dustin for confirmation.

Dustin nodded remorsefully.

“What if we lure it and trap it again so we can kill it,” Atlas suggested.

“I only had the one cat —“

“She doesn’t mean with the cat, dingus, she means with meat,” interjected Steve.

Atlas nodded in agreement, “We can go to the butcher or something, buy some meat, and lure it somewhere and then kill it. It should be simple enough, it’s three against a baby right?”

Both boys looked at her with fear and awe. Steve clapped his hands together and led him to his car, this time Dustin beat Atlas for shotgun. __

Atlas had two layers of rubber gloves and it still didn’t help her with the disgust she felt when she threw pieces of raw meat on the ground. She winced every time she heard a quiet plop and a few droplets of blood splattered on her boots.

“So let me get this straight, you kept something that you knew was probably dangerous to impress a girl you just met?” Steve’s voice broke the tense silence.

“Alright, that's grossly simplifying things,” Dustin defended.

“I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?”

“An inter-dimensional slug, because it’s awesome?”

Atlas huffed out a quiet laugh as she peeked back to witness the brotherly back and forth between Steve and Dustin.

“Well even if she thought it was cool, which she didn’t, I… I don’t know… I just feel like you’re trying way too hard.”

“Well not everyone can have your perfect hair, alright?”

“It’s not about the hair man, the key with girls is just.. just acting like you don’t care.”

“Even if you do?”

“Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts.”

Atlas scoffed loudly and yelled out, “That’s terrible advice” as she continued throwing the meat.

“Then what?” Dustin proceeded to ignore her warning.

“You just wait until, uh.. until you feel it,” Steve awkwardly stammered.

“Feel what?”

“It’s like before it’s gonna storm you know? You can’t see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh… electricity, you know?

“Oh like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere…”

“No, no, no, no, no. Like a… like a sexual electricity.”

“Oh”

“You feel that and then you make your move.”

“So that’s when you kiss her”

No whoa, whoa. Slow down Romeo.”

“Sorry.”

“Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a… I don’t know, like a lion.

“Mmm.”

“But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthily, like a… like a ninja.”

“What type is Nancy?”

“Nancy’s different. She’s different than the other girls.”

“Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess.”

Yeah. Yeah, she is.”

Atlas rolled her eyes at this, glad that she was a few spaces ahead so her actions went unnoticed by the boys. “Of course Nancy Wheeler is different. She’s fucking perfect,” Atlas murmured out angrily. She had no reason to hate the Wheeler girl, but seeing the way Steve talked about her, seeing the things he did for had the evil green monster, dubbed jealousy, clawing to get out.

“But this girl’s special, too, you know. It’s just, like something about her,” Dustin spoke again.

“You’re not falling in love with this girl, are you?”

“Uh, no. No.”

Okay, good. Don’t. She’s only gonna break your heart, and you’re way too young for that shit.”

Dustin looked down dejectedly as he lightly swung the bucket back and forth.

“Faberge,” Steve whispered, “It’s Faberge Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair’s damp… not wet. When it’s damp. You do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray”

Dustin grinned at him, “Farrah Fawcett spray?”

“Yeah, Farrah Fawcett.”

“You tell anyone I just told you that and your ass is grass. You’re dead Henderson. Do you understand?”

Atlas laughed loudly at this, peering around her shoulder, “I’m not scared of you Steve Harrington, what are you gonna threaten me with.”

Steve shot her an amused grin, as he blamed his faint pink cheeks on the October chill. __

After what seemed like miles Dustin led them to an abandoned junkyard, filled with rusty cars and a broken school bus.

“Oh yeah this will do,” Steve affirmed with a nod, “This will do just fine. Good call dude.”

Dustin smiled, his cheeks shining from the slight praise.

Atlas walked around gathering large pieces of scrap and leaned them on the bus, “This would be a good look out spot, seems safe enough.”

Steve nodded in agreement and started helping when they heard two voices speak up.

Lucas Sinclair and a redhead girl. Dustin grabbed Lucas’s jacket leading him behind a car. They talked too quietly for anyone to hear, but she could see the frustration in Dustin’s eyes. She quickly glanced at the redhead who looked around awkwardly and came to the conclusion that this was the girl Dustin liked. She waved the young girl over, as Steve left to find more scraps.

“I’m Max.”

“People call me Atlas, but you can call me whatever,” she shrugged indifferently.

Both girls worked together barricading the windows with metal sheets when they heard a loud Clank.

“Hey! Dickheads, How come the only people helping me out are Atlas and this random girl?” Steve banged part of fence on the car the young boys hid behind, interrupting the intense conversation between Dustin and Lucas. “We lose light in 40 minutes. Let’s go. Let’s go, I said!”

40 minutes later all five of them clamored into the bus awaiting the next move.

[beemers-hell]

Do you have any advice on how to design outfits for madcom characters? Or like…in general….

Thisll be long, so for anyone else interested, answers under the cut!

Generally, when I design outfits, I usually keep something like 2 - 3 things in mind that makes it easier for me to figure out what I wanna do:

1) What is this character's personality like?

2) What is this character's personal interests/tastes like?

3) [usually an extra thing] How overboard are they likely to go when putting outfits together?

So like, for an example, (normal) Eb:

Her base outfit is exploding with color, which I think is reflective of her very bright and bubbly personality. The main color is pink which is her favorite color, and she's the type of person that wears her interests on her sleeves, so to say. Extra details like the multi colored front pockets of her jacket, rubber shoulder strips, the star shaped knee tears, and the upside down stars on her shoes are just little touches that I either think look cool/think she'd think are cool/are symbolically important to her. For example, the front pockets being different colors reflects the fact that she has heterochromia and her right eye was blue!

How i came up with the basic parts of her outfit- a jacket, denim pants, and tennis shoes- was influenced by what she was made for when I initially designed her. She started off as a Creepypasta oc, so I was influenced by charas like Jeff the Killer and Ticci Toby- kids who wear pretty casual clothing on the regular- and her design evolved and gained their little quirks from there.

However, I also employ different tactics when I design different outfits for my charas! Again, normal Eb as an example:

So like, theres A LOT more detail in these designs, and thats cause 1) they're not her regular one so I don't have to draw them often and 2) eb is the type of person that LOVES customizing everything she has and using every bit of decor she can, so the excessive details like the tons of hairpins, jewlery, and face stickers fits with her.

Then there's also stuff like her having mismatched socks, jeans that are torn to absolute hell and back, a color pallete thats mostly dark but is accented by pink; Ebs aesthetics are very much a mix of stuff in the realm of shit like scenecore, grunge, and the early 2000s.

So if I wanna design something for her, all I really gotta do is look up sources that show off what the fashion of those styles/those times/that aeshtetic usually consist of, pick out what articles of clothing i think would go good together, and then come up with extra details once I've put it together.

Now, when it came to Eb's madcom design:

So, the aesthetic of MC is pretty much exclusively grayscale, say for specific instances of color being used mostly to make things pop, like the red of hanks goggles or Tricky being like, the only chara with color lmfao. And also, a lot of what charas in the series seems to consist of either everyday wear with combat centric stuff added on, or just full on insane battle shit like whatever the fucks going on with Hank's ninja get up and belts.

When I designed Eb, I kept all of that in mind: Her aesthetics, and what the general aesthetic of MC is- thus we get some stuff carried over from her normal design, as well as other outfits I made for her previously, and then incorporated them around the general idea of "punk kid that has to fight a buncha dudes a lot" and there we go. As well as the color pop thing, the pink helps particular parts of her design stand out and adds just thay bit of extra personality to her overall.

Forgive me for the word vomit on this, I figire going into excessive detail is more helpful than just giving a broad set of suggestions lol. I hope this is helpful!

[milkytheholy1]

HC 21: Ballerina s/o

Request: could you do ht ROTTMNT x ballerina reader?

TMNT masterlist

Ultimate masterlist

Raph:

Practise, practise, practise.

At least, that's all Raph saw you do.

Don't get me wrong, Raph loved watching you train, to see you so dedicated to your craft.

He could relate, always working out, constantly training for the next fight.

He even did sit-ups every day!

Well, used to.

He often found himself zoning out when you practised in the lair, it wasn't necessarily his fault, it was just that the sombre music you played made his eyes fall shut.

He was always slightly jealous of how quiet and precise you could be with your movements.

He would keep telling you you'd make a great ninja.

But he knew your passion was dance and the thought of scurrying in the shadows didn't seem ideal.

In the end, Raph was always proud of your dance skills and was behind you no matter what you chose to do.

Leo:

Leo likes to think of himself as a man...well turtle who can do anything.

So, of course, he tries to get in on the action.

He'll watch you do a move then try to copy it.

Emphasis on try.

He just can't seem to point his toes like you can and he can't get his leg as straight as yours without cracking.

He also doesn't really like the music you dance to, it's too depressing and sad.

He knows your movements would flow better if you let your body relax against a more upbeat tune.

But your teacher told you to dance to this song and you've made up your mind, so what can he do?

He'll encourage you from the sidelines, often racking his brain for some puns or just nicknames to call you.

"Lookin' gooood, twinkle toes."

From the moment he's said it, you know you've been doomed as twinkle toes for the rest of your life.

And on a more obvious note, he absolutely loves the outfit.

Donnie:

Donnie appreciated fine art more than his brothers.

Seeing how he was the most intelligent out of the bunch, he chose to indulge in more classical acts.

Does he actually enjoy these finer things?

That's up for debate.

He likes playing classical music in his times of triumph, which makes him feel 'powerful'.

And he also likes instruments like the violin or the harp.

But most of all he loves his ballerina s/o.

He's, of course, read all he can on the art of dance just so he can offer some bits of advice when you're in a rut.

Unlike his brothers he doesn't mind the music you have to dance to, he says that it compliments the movements you make.

Likes to watch you practise and dance when he's stressed out, helps him calm down and feel at peace.

Would be caught dead if you caught him learning moves from a YouTube video.

Mikey:

Loves everything about dance so when you rock up in a tutu he can't control himself.

You have to understand that Mikey is basically a rubber ball, the boy is ecstatic all the time and very bouncy.

He doesn't quite understand ballet but he likes the 'fluffy skirt'.

Just like Leo, and secretly like Donnie, Mikey tries to keep up with you.

And he does pretty well at it, more so than his older brothers.

But the music, oh my god the music, it has to go.

How do you expect him to dance to this garbage?

Ignoring your complaints and whines, he whips out his boombox and presses play.

He knows you're meant to be doing ballet but he can't help but pull you into his arms as you dance.

"You gotta let loose, (Y/N)! Let the music control you!"

Yeeeaah, sometimes you don't practise at the lair cause you'll know Mikey will turn it into an impromptu disco.

[kbstories]

Signification

sig·ni·fi·ca·tion (n.) The process of assigning meaning to something.

Captain and First Mate, two years later.

(Or: Zoro adores his captain a lot, the sequel)

Tags: Reunions, Nakamaship, Late Night Conversations, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Cuddling (!)

Read Chapter 1 here. Set in Wano. Spoiler warning for the First Act of Wano.

***

The night must be scratching the midnight mark when the ambient noise of the Wasteland finally falls silent. Within Tsuru’s tea house, all that can be heard is Tama’s breathing, soft and even in her slumber, and the quiet sound of cloth on metal.

One by one, Roronoa Zoro cleans his swords, hands in constant motion and mind calm. The girl is at his back, the only entrance straight ahead.

Little has changed in the past hour.

Shusui is the last to go, its black blade speckled with blood and residue bits of straw. In the dim light afforded by the lamp next to him, Zoro’s eye runs along the sharpened edge with precision. No scratches, no tears, no damage whatsoever.

Zoro’s mouth twitches upwards. Good.

The blade sings under his care as it accepts the oil and the gentle swipe of fabric that follows it. Zoro doesn’t have to ponder each individual step – his body has executed these very same movements for most of his life – but being mindful of it… helps, on days both good and bad.

Beside him, a door slides open with the whisper of paper on wood. Shuffling steps come closer, straw against straw. Today has been an excellent day.

“Still asleep”, Zoro reports without looking up from his task. “Fever’s getting better, too.”

A hand settles on his shoulder; it’s warm, fitting the mountains and valleys of Zoro’s muscles like it always belongs there. After a bit of shuffling, a back nudges his own.

Zoro smiles and continues. He’s almost done.

“That tea really worked, huh? I’m glad.”

Leaning against Zoro, Luffy isn’t much of a weight but significant still. He sounds exhausted, now that it’s just the two of them.

“Yeah. Still, Chopper should take a look.” A beat. Zoro hums. “…Wherever he is right now.”

A huff of breath, the kind that precedes a smile. “He’s safe, don’t worry. Sanji’s with him and the others.”

Zoro sheathes Shusui and sets it aside. Hm. Luffy’s head comes to rest against his right shoulder, his hair feathering across Zoro’s skin. It’s crusty with dried salt and carries the scent of the sea.

“You’re really not gonna ask, are ya?”

Jackass. “He’s here. ‘s all I need to know.”

Luffy snickers, as he always does.

“Stubborn. Well, there’s no need to fuss. Sanji apologized and everything. He made that sea king rice stuff, you know the one?” Zoro does. Luffy’s stomach growls. “So yummy…”

Fantasizing about food won’t do them much good. Zoro lets his head knock against Luffy’s (carefully, although his captain is rubber and there’s no real need to). I’m not fussing, he doesn’t say.

They have bigger fish to fry than their moronic cook. It’s… good to know he’s back, regardless.

Luffy hums under his breath, sounding sleepier by the minute. “How’s everyone? You guys got here okay?”

“Yeah, we’re good. Got a bit cramped in Traffy’s submarine but we managed.” An amused chuckle falls from Zoro’s mouth. “Turns out the Hearts are just a bunch of dorks. Strong and loyal but… I don’t know what I expected, with a captain that cynical.”

“Hah! Traffy’s a dork, too.”

“True.”

They share a grin, quick and easy. Personally, Zoro can’t wait for the two captains to meet again; seeing Law so full of himself and not a perpetual hair’s breadth away from strangling someone was pretty boring, all things considered.

Then Luffy exhales a sigh, content. “He’s got his crew back, though. That’s good.”

And perhaps it’s because they haven’t seen each other in weeks, haven’t had time to sit like this and exist for a while – Zoro hears a touch of melancholy in there, too, and sympathy twists at his core.

“Let’s find the others tomorrow, ‘kay? Without, uh, wrecking Kin’emon’s plan.”

Luffy nods against Zoro’s shoulder, a gentle motion. “Mhmm.”

The night ticks on. The need to move builds slowly, a numb tingling that crawls up his legs like a colony of ants, and yet Zoro sits patiently. Luffy is quiet for a while, dozes off, startles himself awake again.

“It’s past midnight”, Zoro tells him.

Luffy mumbles something resembling an affirmative. Zoro raises a brow, even though the other can’t see it. Who’s the stubborn one now?

“Go to sleep, Captain. I’m on first watch, remember?”

“No… Wanna talk t’Zoro.”

Zoro sighs and he doesn’t fight the way those words that curl themselves around his heart, warm and safe. Luffy could do terrifying things with that sweet-talking of his: a downright absurd thought, given the guy can barely tell manipulation from truth even when his life depends on it.

“I’m not going anywhere, idiot. Let’s talk in the morning.”

Nothing.

“Luffy.”

“Mmm?”

“I mean it.”

A long, whiny exhale. “Fine but you gotta come with me.”

“Sure”, Zoro nods. He blinks. “Wait, what do y–?”

And just like that, Luffy’s up and wrapping an arm multiple times around Zoro’s waist. Before he can as much as squawk, Zoro is lifted effortlessly as if he’s a lazy, overgrown dog – he has to pick up his legs so they don’t drag noisily across the tatami mat floor and oh, mutiny is suddenly such an appealing concept. Zoro hisses, “Luffy”, low and indignant; Luffy’s laugh is hushed, breathed right against his ear–

My swords, it’s a stray thought, an important one if he’s to do his duty properly. Zoro pats Luffy’s hand with some urgency. One rubber-stretched grab later, the swords are clutched safely against his chest.

A few feet from where Tama’s sleeping off her fever, two neatly-folded futons wait to be claimed; Zoro is deposited on one of them (which immediately topples under his weight, only his quick reflexes preventing an ungraceful fall). He witnesses Luffy destroy Tsuru’s hard work by half-heartedly spreading his own mattress-and-duvet combination, burrowing into the covers like a hog through forest ground.

With one final huff, Luffy stills. Sleepy, half-lidded eyes shine in the dark.

“…Zoro?”

Scratching his neck, Zoro sets out to fix his own futon. He folds it out against Luffy’s, quiet hands working to smooth out the ruffles and tuck in the edges there as he goes. Carefully, Zoro reaches into the pile of blankets that is Luffy to pull out the hat that’s been haplessly smooshed in the process. It’s placed on the very edge of Luffy’s bed, within easy reach.

Eyes closed, Luffy makes a pleased noise and snuggles into his pillow. Zoro huffs fondly and ruffles his hair.

“I’m right here. Rest.”

Luffy drops off to sleep a moment after and so Zoro settles in for the night, pillow propped against a nearby wall next to his swords and a blanket thrown over his crossed legs.

*

The sky lightens with the tender touches of dawn and Zoro shifts, pulls away from deep meditation to hear the change in Luffy’s breathing. Snoring is followed by a sudden snort and drowsy mumbling.

Monkey D. Luffy always wakes with the sun, no matter over which horizon it rises.

Just in time, too, with how heavy Zoro’s lids feel every time he blinks. Suppressing a yawn, he rolls his neck and stretches his back, and his spine pops between his shoulders. The last remnant of battle along with the satisfying ache in his arms and hands – it’s been a while since Zoro got to draw a sword and mean it.

Tama is still snoozing and thus Zoro doesn’t bother to get on his feet properly. Half-shuffling, half-crawling, he leans over the crown of Luffy’s head. “Oi.”

“Huh?” Luffy glances up through tousled strands. His grin is immediate, a little crinkled with sleep. “Oh. My turn!”

Mhm, Zoro makes around a small smile.

It’s been awhile since it was just them and nobody else yet this routine is still familiar: Luffy grabs his hat and hops to his feet, going from slumber to fully awake in seconds, and Zoro takes his place, choosing Luffy’s pre-warmed futon over his own. He has about a minute to get comfortable before – oof – Luffy throws himself against his side, arms crossed and elbows digging into Zoro’s ribs and midriff respectively.

“Captain”, Zoro grumbles.

“Uncomfortable?”

“… No.”

Luffy chuckles. “Zoro’s going easy on me.”

“Don’t get used to it.”

“Missed ya too”, Luffy sing-songs, and Zoro doesn’t have to look to know he’s grinning, the cheeky bastard.

After that, Luffy keeps himself busy, tinkering with Zoro’s earrings for a moment before he turns to the back of Zoro’s hand to doodle mindless circles with his finger. Breath by breath, Zoro finds himself slipping closer and closer to sleep.

“Ace was here, y’know?”

Luffy says it in such a casual, pensive way, like it’s just like the other tidbits of information Zoro missed out on. Zoro’s eye opens. He’s wide awake.

“He and his crew reached Wano, years ago. Tama told me. People were starving then too and Ace helped them.”

There’s something fragile about this, about the morning light barely starting to spill into the room and the loving way Luffy speaks of his brother. Something precious, and nothing in the world could bring Zoro to interrupt Luffy now.

“Tama wants to sail to sea, did you know that?” Round and round, Luffy draws invisible lines on Zoro’s skin. “Ace promised he’d come back and take her along when she’s older. And a ninja! That’s important.”

The mental image of sweet Tama as a ruthless ninja is a little out there but who is Zoro to judge? She’s certainly brave enough for it but–

Oh, Ace. Quietly, Zoro wonders how old he was at the time. If he, too, was barely past seventeen when started leaving a trail of reckless promises in the hopes of living another day.

It’s then that Luffy pauses, his chest moving against Zoro’s with the slow breath he inhales. Zoro breathes with him, bracing for impact.

“But… Ace is gone. I told her, and she got angry with me.” Walking the line of that old heartache, Luffy laughs and doesn’t break. “She said I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s better this way, I think.”

Finally, Luffy’s hand stills. Calmly, Zoro offers him his palm instead; Luffy continues with an amused huff, tracing along the deep creases and old scars there.

“What do you think, Zoro? About Tama.”

Years, they have known each other. For Luffy, there’s a great many things Zoro is willing to indulge in – here, at the break of a new day and with the life of a child hanging in the balance, Luffy isn’t asking for indulgence.

Thus Zoro says, “Ace was right”, voice a little raspy this long into his watch. “Children don’t belong at sea.”

Luffy hums and mumbles, “Yeah.” He doesn’t sound particularly surprised. “I want to help them, Zoro. The people of this town, this country. Nobody deserves to cry over bean soup.”

And oh, the anger that seethes within Zoro wells up at that, patiently waiting to be unleashed – an ice-blue fire that burns at his core, fed by the notion of a land poisoned to its very rivers and all the injustices he’s witnessed.

“We will”, he promises his captain, because Ace’s family is Luffy’s family and that makes Tama theirs. It’s how it’s always been. “We’ll get that shitty cook to throw ‘em a feast after, too.”

Luffy nods enthusiastically. “A big one!”

Zoro chuckles. Yawning, he turns into his pillow, eye sliding shut. “With lots of sake.”

With the sound of Luffy’s laughter in the air, he finally allows himself to drift off. That morning, Zoro’s dreams are filled with the smiles of his crew and Sunny's full sails, a new horizon coming ever-closer.

[the-gray-ghosty]

LLoyd dyes his hair/sibling fluff

so I have seen the idea where LLoyd dyes his hair, and decided i’d write about it but with some sibling fluff added in. (Mostly Lloyd, Nya, and Skylar.) Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Skylar’s POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What colors do you want?” Skylar asks Lloyd, looking at all of the options of hair dye.

“I think that sky blue is pretty,” Nya says, pointing at the light blue dye on the shelf,  

“But you can do whatever you want.” Nya says with a kind smile. 

Lloyd picks up the blue she brought up and puts it in the basket Skylar is holding. He then grabs a green bottle from the shelf and looks at it. 

“I like this one, it's bright.” Lloyd says as he looks at the girls. “What do you think?” 

“I think it's great!” Skylar says as she puts it in the basket. She loves the color green on Lloyd, and is glad he is also going for blue. It will look pretty damn cool. 

“Now we need gloves and a shower cap. I'll get the cap, you guys want to go find the gloves?” Skylar asks the two ninjas. They both nod and walk away. Skylar laughs to herself as she sees the clock on the wall of the convenience store they are at. It reads 12:34am. Nya and Skylar were having a sleepover when they had both woken up to screaming coming from Lloyd's room. They rushed in and found him having a terrible nightmare. Nya woke him up and tried to calm him down, for he often has mental breakdowns after nightmares this bad. After they calmed him down Nya whispered to her how they should distract him and Skylar mentioned hair-dying. That's how they ended up here. She wasn’t upset though. She would do Anything for Lloyd, especially after he saved her (and carried her halfway across Ninjago) during their fight with the colossus. 

She turns the corner to see Lloyd and Nya physically wrestling for a bag. It’s a  neon pink shower cap. Lloyd looks up from where he is laying on the ground and quickly jumps up, muttering something about stupid pink shower caps. 

“You gotta help me Skylar,” he says breathlessly while Nya stands in triumph behind him. 

“Nya wants me to wear a pink shower cap and I really don't want to.” he starts to smile, then laughs. Skylar knows that he really doesn't care, it's more for fun and his pride. 

“Awwww I think you would look beautiful in it Lloyd, and that's 2 out of 3 votes so sorry bud.” she says with a shit-eating grin. Lloyd laughs and puts the cap in the basket.  They walk up to the counter, passing the candy aisle. Skylar pretends to not notice when Lloyd gets a handful of candy bars into the basket, smiling like a little kid. He kinda is a little kid, she thinks sadly, remembering the tea. 

The dude at the counter looks half asleep, and surprised they are there, which is weird because Lloyd and Nya fighting for the cap was definitely not quiet. 

They walk out into the dark street with their bags, and Skylar slightly shivers from the crisp air. Lloyd hands her his sweatshirt, which she realizes isn't his sweatshirt as she puts it on. 

“Is this Coles?” she asks, pointing to the symbol of earth on the back. 

“Yea, I took it from him.” Lloyd says with a smug grin. 

“He has very comfy hoodies.” Nya adds on. “I steal his sweatpants too.”

Both laugh at that, and  Skylar giggles. 

Lloyd and Nya create their power dragons and Skylar jumps on the dragon with Lloyd, and they fly for about 15 minutes up to the monastery.

~~~~~~~~time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~nobody’s POV~~~~~~~~~~~~

After they sneaked back into the monastery they settled in Nya’s bedroom/bathroom. They all know Nya has the biggest bathroom so that’s where it would be best to dye Lloyd’s hair. 

“I'm so excited!” Lloyd exclaims happily while setting up the dyes on the counter. He adds-

“I’ve always wanted to dye my hair!” and Nya rubs his golden locks and snorts.

“What do you think Kai’s reaction will be? And Wu, and everyone else?” she asks the two others smiling. Lloyd and Skylar start laughing, both imagining everyone’s reactions. 

Nya then claps her hands together and dramatically exclaims;

“Well Lloyd, you ready to become beautiful?” 

“I'm already beautiful, but hell yea!” Skylar snorts at that response from the green ninja. 

Skylar squeezes each bottle of dye (green and blue) into their seperate bowls while Nya makes Lloyd sit in the big chair in front of the mirror and she starts sectioning off his hair. 

“I guess after this the boys won't be able to call you Rapunzel anymore.”

 Nya laughs at Skylar’s comment and shakes her head. 

“The boys and their dumb nicknames, I swear.” she mutters, snickering. 

Skylar turns on Nya’s music speaker and turns on auto-play for some background sound, then walks over and helps Nya section off Lloyd's hair. 

~~~~~~~~~~time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Too late to turn back now, green-bean.” Nya states excitedly as she starts dying his hair. Nya was painting with the green dye while Skylar was painting with the blue dye. They had bought gloves and rubber bands at the store also, the bands were around sections telling each girl where to dye what color. 

Lloyd slightly clears his throat and starts talking to the girls;

“To be honest, I'm really excited. I have been wanting a change for a while, and this is so fun! It's also...it's really nice of you guys to do this for me. I know it's really late, and...thanks.”

“Aww Lloyd you are so sweet! I would give you a hug but my hands are kind of covered in blue so you will get hugged later.'' Skylar says with a laugh. Nya nods in harmony. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~time skip~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ready to rinse it out?” 

“Hell yes!” Lloyd cries as he jumps up off the chair and runs over to the bathtub, where he turns on the water. It's been an hour of sitting, waiting for the dye to sink in. Nya walks over and scrubs the back of his head. There is soooo much dye coming out of his hair, running into the tub. 

“FSM this better not stain my bathtub.” Nya mutters. Lloyd chitters at that. 

After about 15 minutes of Lloyd rinsing off his hair, he sits back into the chair and Skylar grabs the blow dryer.

Skylar combs and dries his hair, and Nya sits on the counter and watches. Lloyd is faced away from the mirror because he insisted it had to be a surprise.

“Whether it's a good surprise or a bad surprise, I don't know” he says with a laugh and a huge smile on his face. 

It’s now about 3:30am, and it's a surprise none of the other ninjas have woken up. They aren't really being that quiet, Lloyd thinks, listening to the Katy Perry coming out of the speaker. 

“And...we’re done!” Skylar exclaims as Nya and Lloyd cheer. 

“Are you ready to see your hair?” 

“Heck yes!” Lloyd declared and spun the chair around. 

“WOAH THIS IS SO AWESOME!!” Lloyd jumps up and runs his hands through his now green and blue hair. 

“I LOVE IT!!” he cries out as he snatches both Skylar and Nya in a hug. 

“Thank you both, you are amazing; the best sisters I could ever ask for.” Skylar beams with happiness at that comment, and Nya giggles. 

“Well I don't know about any of you, but I am dead tired,” Nya starts to say, watching Lloyd play with his new colored hair. 

“Do you guys wanna hit the sack?” 

Skylar nods and turns off the lights in the bathroom. 

“We can clean up tomorrow.'' Lloyd tittered at that and started walking to the door. 

Nya jumps up. “Wait, why don't you sleep in here with us?” 

Lloyd turns to face her as Skylar adds; 

“Yes we have a mattress in the closet, here let me-” she jumps up and runs into the closet, pulling out a foam mattress and some blankets. Lloyd absolutely beams. 

“Thanks guys, this means so much” he states as he lays down on the make-shift bed, knowing that he wont have any more nightmares tonight. 

“Honestly though I can’t wait for everyone's reactions, we will have to make a plan tomorrow to show them.'' Skylar says while giggling. “Goodnight guys.” She hears 2 responses and falls asleep. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~morning, 9am~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~Lloyd’s POV~~~~~~~

Lloyd wakes up to giggling and realizes he isn't in his own bed. He panics, then remembers what happened last night. He rolls over and sees his sisters laying on Nya’s bed watching TV. 

“Morning girls! He cheerfully exclaims as they both jump, neither had noticed he was awake. 

Nya sits up and smiles at the boy with colored hair. 

“I'm sooooo excited to show the team!” Nya says quickly, and Skylar and Lloyd both laugh in agreement. 

“We need to make a plan, are they all awake yet?” he asks the girls.

“Yes, they are all awake. Zane came up and asked us if you wanted to play videogames with them but we refused. We told him you were still sleeping.'' Skylar tells Lloyd as he stands up and stretches. 

“They are all in the video game room, even Wu.-” Skylar gasps. “What if Nya and I went down and watched them play, totally normal right? Then you come down and just sit down next to us, like nothing is wrong? You know how they get with videogames, we should see how long it takes them to notice!” Lloyd snorts and starts laughing at this idea. 

“Hell yes, that is what we are doing.” 

Both Nya and Skylar have huge grins on their faces as they walk downstairs and sit on the farthest away couch from the couch the other ninja are on in the gaming room. A couple of the guys say good morning, (Cole, Zane and Jay) but none of the others really notice they are there.

That's when chaos starts. When Lloyd walks in.

It was fine when he first walked in, saying good morning. He walks in front of the other boy’s couch and goes to sit with Nya. Cole is the first to notice. He doubles back, staring at Lloyd, then bursts out laughing. Zane and Jay turn to see what he is laughing at and see it. Zane isn't fazed, just says;

“Cool look!” While Jay on the other hand jumps up and runs to Lloyd, grabbing a handful of his now green/blue hair, saying

“OH MY GoSH THIS IS SO COOL! WHEN DID YOU DO THIS???” to which Nya responds with;

“Last night.” with a smug grin and Skylar nods. 

Wu had just put a hand on his forehead and looked either disappointed or trying not to smile. Actually, Lloyd thought, he looked both. 

That’s when Kai ran over, and saw. He looks like he’s about to pass out. That's what makes Lloyd lose it. The look on Kai’s face of confusion. He is laughing so hard there are tears in his eyes and the girls are giggling as well.

After the chaos slows down, Lloyd answers the big questions; 

“We did it last night, around 3am I think.” he responds, looking at Nya for confirmation, she nods, saying that yes it was around 3am. That's when Jay noticed something. 

“Wait, green and blue? That's my color! Does that mean I'm your favorite brother?” Kai then jumps up and retorts; “Obviously I'm his favorite brother.”  The two start bickering, but not meanly, more like brotherly-arguing. 

Lloyd steps in and stops the argument by saying

“Actually if the blue stands for anyone here it's Nya.” Nya beams and looks at the boys with a look that says “Ha Ha Ha I Win!” Lloyd snickers.  

Lloyd gets many more nicknames from his brothers after dying his hair, but he loves how colorful it is. And a few months after it wore out, he went to his sisters for help dying it again, this time pink.

[steveshcrringtons]

Holding Out For a Hero - Pt. 2

pairing: Steve Harrington x OC (Kat Henderson) eventually

warning(s): uhhhh….none I think. I guess language 

Word count: 3157

Author’s Note: I’m so completely in love with this pairing. It took forever, but I finally got around to writing part 2! I hope everyone likes it like I do. 

tagging: @billy--hargroves​

Summary: Kat Henderson gets sucked into the world of the interdimensional once again because of her little brother. However, this time she’s also got to deal with none other than Steve “The Hair” Harrington.    

How Kat ended up walking with Dustin and Steve on a railroad track, laying down pieces of meat for Dustin’s pet Demogogon to come eat was beyond her. It was one of the strangest things she had ever had to experience, and that was including the fact that she had made conversation willingly with Steve. She and Steve had never been ones to willingly talk to each other, and that was hard to do since she was best friends with his sister, Charlie, but they tried to not cross their paths. Kat hadn’t spoken to Steve since Tina’s Halloween party when she followed him out after his fight with Nancy. It was the first time that Kat had ever willingly crossed her path with Steve, and it came back to bite her in the ass once she spoke negatively about Nancy. Who would’ve thought that even after the look of heartbreak she put on that boy’s face that he’d still defend her honorably. He went off on her that night, and Kat decided that she wasn’t going to stick her neck out for Steve Harrington ever again.

“Alright, so let me get this straight,” Steve started, breaking Kat from her thoughts as the three walked down the tracks, “You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl...who you just met?” He finished, throwing down some meat on the ground.

“Alright, that’s grossly oversimplifying things.” Dustin defended.

Kat could see where her brother was coming from in wanting to use Dart to impress this girl. She would’ve thought it was sweet if the thing hadn’t eaten their cat.

“I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?” Steve questioned.

Kat rolled her eyes at the question. He clearly wasn’t understanding the reasoning behind why Dustin wanted to keep Dart.

“An interdimensional slug? Because it’s awesome.” Dustin answered causing Kat to smirk slightly as she threw down a few pieces of meat.

“Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn’t. I-I just...I don’t know. I feel like you’re trying way too hard.” Steve stated.

Kat clenched her jaw as her eyes snapped over to the back of Steve’s head, her eyes narrowing into a glare as she stared at his stupid head of hair.

“Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?” Dustin sassed.

Kat frowned, her eyes moving to her brother before looking down at the ground. She could hear the disappointment laced in her brother’s voice as he spoke to Steve. She really felt for her brother. She could understand that it wasn’t easy for him to talk to girls, he had never really been comfortable doing so, and she really wished she could help, but she knew that he’d never go to his big sister for help in that department.

“It’s not about the hair, man. The key with girls is just...acting like you don’t care.” Steve explained.

Kat’s head nearly snapped off her body as she lifted it to look at Steve, “Excuse me?” She asked, confused.

“Even if you do?” Dustin asked, ignoring Kat’s comment as if she wasn’t even there.

“Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts.”

Kat scoffed at his words, “Yeah, how well did that work out with Nancy?” She mumbled, knowing that Steve would hear her.

She raised her eyebrows at him when he turned around to send her a glare. She could feel the anger behind his eyes as he looked at her. Good. Stop teaching my brother things that aren’t true.

“Then what?” Dustin asked, turning Steve’s attention back to him.

“You just wait until, uh…” He turned around to drop some meat on the ground, his eyes locking with Kat’s for a moment, “Until you feel it.” He finished as he turned back around.

“Feel what?”

“It’s like before it’s gonna storm, you know? You can’t see it, but you can feel like this, uh, electricity, you know?” He tried to explain.

“Oh my God. Harrington, no.” Kat groaned, knowing the direction in which he was headed.

“Oh, like in the electromagnetic field, when the clouds in the atmosphere--” Dustin rambled, causing Kat to giggle at his innocence.

“No, no, no, no, no. Like a...like a sexual electricity.” Steve explained.

“Oh.” Dustin replied.

“Harrington!” Kat yelled angrily.

Dustin turned around to look at his sister, “Shush, Kat.”

Steve smirked over his shoulder at Kat before speaking, “Yeah, Kitty Kat. It’s guy talk.”

Kat glared at both of them before angrily throwing a chunk of meat down on the tracks. She grumbled to herself as they continued walking, Dustin and Steve going back to the conversation like Kat wasn’t even there.

“You feel that, and then you make your move.” Steve finished, pointing a rubber gloved finger at Dustin.

“So, that’s when you kiss her?” Dustin asked curiously.

Kat had to bite her tongue to keep her mouth shut. She could tell how curious Dustin was about these things. Since their dad wasn’t in the picture anymore, Dustin didn’t really have an older male role model to look up to and ask questions to. Kat tried to be there as much as she could to help him with things he needed, but she knew there were just some things he wasn’t going to ask her and needed to talk to another guy for. She just wished that it wasn’t Harrington.

“No, whoa whoa. Slow down, Romeo. Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a...I don’t know, like a lion.” Steve explained, Dustin practically hanging on his every word, “But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a...like a ninja.”

Dustin was silent for a moment before he spoke again, “What type is Nancy?”

Kat’s ears perked up slightly before she turned her attention to Steve, waiting to hear his response,

“Nancy’s different. She’s different than the other girls.” Steve stated.

Kat scoffed again lightly before shaking her head. She could clearly hear the hurt in his voice as he spoke before she sighed. She couldn’t believe that even still, knowing that she had pretty much gone off with Jonathan after she dumped Steve, he would still talk about her like she was so amazing.

“Yeah, she seems pretty special, I guess.” Dustin stated.

“Yeah. Yeah, she is.” Steve replied.

Kat rolled her eyes, “That’s a hell of a way to phrase it.” She grumbled as she tossed a piece of meat to the ground, shaking her head.

“But this girl’s special too, you know. It’s just, like, something about her.” Dustin spoke.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, hey, hey.” Steve put his hand up at Dustin’s shoulder, stopping him from continuing.

“What?” Dustin asked.

Kat came to a stop standing beside the two as she listened to what Steve was about to say, knowing that it wasn’t going to be anything that she was going to like.

“You’re not falling in love with this girl, are you?” Steve asked.

“Uh, no. No.” Dustin stated, nervously.

“Okay, good. Don’t.”

“I won’t.”

“She’s only going to break your heart, and you’re too young for that shit.” Steve said, almost sadly, as he started walking again.

When he finished his sentence, he briefly looked over at Kat, and she was able to see the look of hurt on his face before he turned back away and looked at the ground. She wanted to feel for him, but her mind drifted to the Halloween party, and she remembered how he went off on her for trying to help, and she quickly shook off the feeling before continuing down the path.

The three of them walked in silence for a few moments, tossing meat down as they did so before Steve spoke once more.

“Fabergè.” He stated.

“What?” Dustin asked.

Steve pointed a finger to his hair, “It’s Fabergè Organics. Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair is damp, it’s not wet, okay? When it’s damp, you do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray.”

Kat stifled a giggle when he mentioned the spray. She knew that he had to put a lot of effort into his hair for it to look like that every day, but she didn’t know the extent to which it went.

“Farrah Fawcett spray?” She managed to get out with a small giggle.

“Yeah, Farrah Fawcett.” Steve stopped walking, turning toward her and Dustin, “You tell anyone I just told you that, and your ass is grass. You’re dead, Hendersons, do you understand?” He asked looking between the siblings.

“Yup.” Dustin replied, nodding his head.

“Aye, aye, Captain.” Kat stated with another giggle as she gave him a mock salute.

***

The three finally made it to the junkyard where the plan was going to be executed. Kat went off instantly to put down her bucket of meat, tired of carrying it so far, leaving Steve to talk to Dustin. Eventually, Lucas showed up with some red haired girl that Kat didn’t know. However, by the expression on Dustin’s face at her showing up with Lucas, it was clear that this was the girl that he had been trying to impress. She started to get to work barricading the bus after she introduced herself to Max. The girl seemed quiet, but nice, and Kat could see what Dustin saw in her.

A loud bang, cut Kat from her thoughts as she turned to where it had come from to see Steve yelling at Dustin and Lucas,

“Hey, dickheads! How come the only one helping me is this random girl and Kat?” He questioned angrily, “Come on, we lose light in forty minutes!” He ordered causing Dustin and Lucas to grumble and yell back at him.

Kat rolled her eyes before she continued on her course of barricading the bus, trying to ignore the fact that it was the first time in a long time that Steve hadn’t called her Kitty Kat.

***

The darkness of night had come faster than Kat was anticipating, and she couldn’t help the anxious feeling in her chest at what was to come...if it even came at all. She was sitting across from Steve on the bus, watching as he played with his lighter. Dustin was pacing next to her, making her nerves higher than they already were.

“So you really fought one of these things before?” Max asked quietly, looking at Steve from her seat. Steve nodded in response as he flicked his lighter closed again, “And you’re like, totally 100% sure it wasn’t a bear?”

“Shit. Don’t be an idiot. Okay? It wasn’t a bear.” Dustin snapped. Kat and Steve both turned their heads to look at Dustin, slightly shocked, “Why are you even here if you don’t believe us? Just go home.”

“Dustin!” Kat scolded angrily.

Max shook her head as she stood up from her seat, going to the ladder, “Geesh. Someone’s cranky. Past your bedtime?” She muttered as she climbed the ladder, joining Lucas on top of the bus.

“That’s good. Just show her you don’t care.” Steve praised.

“Shut your damn mouth, Harrington. You will not praise my brother for acting like an asshole.” Kat snapped.

“I don’t care.” Dustin stated. Steve winked in response, “Why are you winking, Steve? Stop.”

Kat could have slapped Steve if she was close enough. She couldn’t believe Dustin would act like that, Steve’s advice or not. She knew he had a small temper sometimes, but he never acted this way before. She was broken from her thoughts by a loud growling before she hurried to the other side of the bus to look out the window with Steve and Dustin.

“You see him?” Dustin asked.

“No.” Kat and Steve replied at the same time.

“Lucas, what’s going on?!” Dustin yelled.

“Hold on!” Lucas replied, “I’ve got eyes! Ten o’clock! Ten o’clock!”

Kat’s eyes searched around for where Lucas was talking about before her eyes landed on something in the fog, and she was able to see it plain as day. Her heart was beating a million miles a minute, and she felt like she couldn’t breathe. She froze as she watched it near the pile of meat,

“He’s not taking the bait.” Kat stated.

“Why is he not taking the bait?” Steve asked Dustin.

“Maybe he’s not hungry.”

“Maybe he’s sick of cow.”

There was a pause from Steve before he stood back, drawing Kat and Dustin’s attention. Kat’s heart was pounding in her ears as she registered what was happening.

“Steve? Steve, what are you doing?” Dustin asked.

Kat hurried over to him, grabbing his hand to stop him from moving, “Harrington, don’t you even think about it.” She managed to ignore the tingling in her hand as she grabbed his, “You’re not going out there.”

His eyes drifted down to their hands before he lifted them and put his free hand on Kat’s arm, “I’ll be okay.” He stated before he pulled his hand free and looked over at Dustin, “Just get ready.” He instructed as he tossed the lighter to the younger Henderson as he grabbed his bat, walking out the bus door.

“Harrington!” Kat whisper yelled as she followed him to the door, “Harrington, no!”

Kat was breathing heavily as he eased his way off the bus, Dustin closing the door behind him. She was glued to the window, watching him hesitantly walk through the grass. She was clutching onto the seat so hard, she thought her nails were going to break through the padding. When he whistled, she gripped it harder.

“Come on, Buddy.” Steve called, whistling more.

Max climbed down the ladder, standing in between Dustin and Kat, “What’s he doing?” She asked.

“Expanding the menu.” Dustin replied.

“Come on. Dinner time. Human tastes better than cat, I promise.” Steve encouraged as he looked toward the Demodog.

“He’s insane.” Max stated as she stared out the window.

“He’s awesome.” Dustin corrected.

“No, he’s suicidal.” Kat commented, her eyes never leaving Steve.

After a moment of silence, Lucas started to shout from the top of the bus, “Steve! Watch out!”

“A little busy here!” Steve called back.

Kat’s heart was in her throat as she looked around to see what Lucas was yelling about. Her eyes were quick to land on more Demodogs coming up from behind Steve.

“Three o’clock! Three o’clock!” Lucas shouted.

Dustin sprinted toward the door yelling for Steve and to abort. He opened the bus, calling him back. Kat was quick to yell out the window,

“Come on, Harrington! Get your ass back here!” She yelled.

One of the Demodogs started making noises, causing Steve’s attention to turn to it. It’s face opened up and it started charging at Steve. Kat let out a small scream as she watched. The Demodog lunged at him, and he rolled onto the hood of a car before he set himself and swung his nail bat, connecting with another. Everyone called for him to come back to the bus. Kat was quick to move the kids out of the danger zone as he ran toward the door. Once he was in, she closed the door before the creature hit it. Dustin yelled as everyone clamored backwards.

Kat quickly grab a hold of Steve, checking him everywhere to make sure he was okay, “Are you okay? Did you get hurt?” She asked quickly.

“I’m okay, Henderson.” He stated as he moved her out of the way to barricade the door as Max started yelling.

“Okay, are those things rabid or something?!” She yelled.

They all screamed as the bus was shaken by one of the monsters before another was able to get its arm through the door and start to try to get inside. Kat quickly ushered the kids to the back area of the bus while Steve took care of the one at the front,

“Everyone get behind me!” Kat yelled, making sure the kids were safe.

Dustin started to call into his headset for backup, but Kat knew it was no use. They hadn’t answered in the past day, nobody was going to answer now. Kat stood next to Max at the back of the bus before there was a loud banging above them, as if something was walking on top of the bus. They all looked up to see one of the Demodogs putting itself in their line of sight. It opened its face and let out a loud growl before Max and Kat both screamed.

“Out of the way! Out of the way!” Steve shouted as he pushed the two of them along with Dustin and Lucas back away from the opening, “You want some? Come get this!” He shouted, ready to strike if needed.

The monster suddenly stopped before looking off in the distance and taking off, shaking the bus once more as it left. Everyone was silent before they rushed to the front, slowly opening the door with Steve leading the group. In the distance, there were two remaining creatures running off to follow the rest. Kat stayed behind, ready to grab the kids if needed.

“What happened?” Lucas asked as he crept down the stairs.

“I don’t know.” Max replied.

“Steve scared them off.” Dustin suggested.

“No.” Steve stated before he turned, bat on his shoulder, “No way. They’re going somewhere.” He answered.

That was all Kat needed to push her way through the three children before making her way over to Steve. The sound of the slap was loud enough to know exactly what happened before anyone registered what had happened.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Kat screamed at him.

He had dropped the bat from his shoulder before he reached a hand up to touch the cheek her hand connected with, “What the hell, Katherine?!”

Kat was so angry, it didn’t even click in her head that he had called her by her full name. She was furious, but mostly she was scared.

“You could’ve been killed!” She yelled, pushing him slightly, “You’re not a hero, Steve!” She was fully aware that she was making a scene in front of the kids, but she couldn’t help it. He had scared her half to death, and she needed him to know that he was a dumbass for what he did.

“Careful, Kat, it’s starting to sound like you care.” Steve stated, a small smirk on his face.

Kat clenched her jaw before scoffing and shaking her head as she backed away from him. She couldn’t believe him right now. She walked over to her brother to try and calm herself down. They had bigger things to deal with right now; bigger things she needed to be worried about. The last thing she needed to worry about was Steve Harrington.

Show him that you don’t care.

Because she didn’t. Katherine Henderson definitely did not care about Steve Harrington.  

[harveywritings92]

Bedfellows ch 2

The following is a non profit fan based story,  Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment .

 please support the official release.

_

 I gain no profit from this nor do I own anything other then OCs  and whatever sprouts from my imagination. Thanks for reading! 

--

That morning Vex was awoken the to sound of someone banging on her door, She looked around groggily Genji was gone she did have to checked the feeds on her computer to know so was the car he must went back to base. She cleared her sore throat as her body woke up "Just a sec." She called out was feeling not as shitty then she was yesterday.

the joints in her legs popped in protest as Vex got up from her futon and went to her frontdoor only to find it locked...Vex cocked a brow she was seriously impressed, Genji didn't even trip the alarm! She's gotta ask the cyborg how he does that! she unfastened the locks and found a police officer standing there. "Yes?" the brunette said eyeing the cop nervously wondering why they were here for?

"Ma'am are you the owner the residence?"

"Yes, what's this about?"

"Well, Maybe you can answer that, considering there are three injured men that claimed a "demon" attacked them on your property."

"....I'm sorry?"

Vex said bemused as she looked at the cop like he just said the sky had turn green and grass was blue, pretty much said that she had no idea what he was talking about! she went on to explain that she was sick last night and still was today, and there was no way she would attack anyone for no reason... then she went cold and a curdling feeling settled in her stomach when she recalled when Genji had disappeared and the screaming... Could he have? The cop seem notice her inner turmoil. but before he could interrogate her farther his omnic partner came from Vex's backyard.

"Ey, Roy think I found the Demon." they said sarcastically the human cop or Roy and Vex look at each other as they followed after it, What the silver eyed girl saw in that backyard could only be described as a war zone it was a literal bloody mess and more confusing to the short woman was the alarming amount of power tools scattered around the yard.

"Those aren't mine..." She said warily as the omnic held up an rusted old TV antenna with a black shredded tarp stuck to it, then pointed at a dead raccoon. "I think our 'Victims" were actually the bad guys, they must've tried to break in." they pointed at the broken fence and the scratches on Vex's back door. "Then this fell off the roof startling the men who startled family of raccoons, which caused all this..."

The bot explained then found a switch blade in the grass which also, matched the injuries on the men, the human cop seem skeptical until Vex spoke up "Out of curiosity, was one of these men obese with greasy blond hair, wearing a sweat stained blue tracksuit, and smelled like stale beer and rotten milk?" The brunette asked with a sniffle the cops didn't even need to answer; the look of disdain on the human officer's face pretty said enough.

"That sicko has been stalking and sexually harassing me since I first moved here!" she huffed obviously disgusted and borderline freaking out that Derek had tried to break into her home; planning to to do god knows to her! she remembered the way the way he looked at the night before and felt bile rise from her throat. Vex went pale broke out into a cold sweat her body felt like it was on fire all of the sudden, before either cop asked if she was okay she threw up into her miserable excuse of vegetable garden, the omnic officer tossed the antenna aside and started rubbing the sick girl's back. "He tried approaching me last night.." the sick girl croaked. "My friend scared him off, I thought that was the end of it.." she wince feeling a headache coming on, the officers could tell this woman was in no way a threat a breeze could knock her over right now.

The cops then asked Vex if she wanted to press charges but, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself refused, Besides just by looking at the carnage in her backyard told her Genji did enough damage to teach that drunken pervert not to bother her again, The cops finally left letting Vex go back to bed. she spent most of the day taking cough medicine, sleeping and watching internet videos...and worrying how Genji was coping without her, hopefully they had mission to keep him occupied so he didn't have to be alone.

At the OW base

Unbeknownst the silver eyed brunette; Genji had stolen one of her hoodies and was using it like a pillow case, it helped that it smelled like his friend, but it wasn't the same. Over the past two months he'd grown accustomed to the feel of warmth and the security of a second heartbeat next to him, Genji sighed he felt lonely without hearing the breathing soft and little mumbles Vex made when she was in a deep sleep.

It gave the black haired cyborg assurance that he had someone there cling to when the dread of deafening solitude was too much to handle, But alas he can't control how the human body works. so, he'd have to make due until Vex was better... Needless to say, Genji did not have a good night, he'd sleep for a few minutes than wake up, rinse and repeat.

The next week he was standoffish and cranky, everyone could sense it and avoided the cyborg more so then usual, except for that annoying group of his 'admirers' they tried pushing themselves on him and offering to keep him warmer better then Vex could, He'd turn them off by having Mcree read off a list of ridiculous demands he and Vex had written. 

It was around 10 am on Tuesday when Genji was the middle of training when he heard commander Reyes walk into the training room with a familiar short figure wandering behind him talking to the intimidating commander. "So, I have to saturate the soil twice a day?" She asked Reyes nodded taking a sip of his coffee, The short woman paused and thought this over " Huh,That's why my tomatoes haven't been coming in." the brunette muttered before locking eyes with a certain cyborg.

Vex, her sudden presence nearly caused Genji to take a couple bullets to the face! they were rubber bullets. but still... Ouch! He manage to snap back into focus to deflect the rest with his sword before, dashing forward flipping over obstacles and pining his opponent down, He then sheathed his weapon and bowed to a very unimpressed Mcree, much to Vex's astonishment the brunette has meditated and done yoga with her edgy sleep buddy, but Vex has never actually seen Genji train before.

She stared at the scene both impressed and incredulously as Mcree teased and accused the ninja about showing off in front of his girlfriend" the cyborg ignored him and approached the short brunette, he silently rested his palm against her forehead feeling her temperature his bionics let out steam the intense glare in his eyes softened a little "You look better..."  he said somewhat briskly very aware that Reyes and Jesse were watching, "I feel better..." Vex said curtly as her lips formed a thin line she seemed angry.

Genji felt his artificial stomach sink wondering if he had done something to upset her? He turned to commander Reyes who just gave him a little nod as he chatted with Jesse over his strategies, at that the ninja grabbed Vex's arm and escorted her out of the training room. While Mcree shook his head at the twosome in disbelief. "I just don't get em' Boss, how does Shimada sleep next to that almost every night and not tap it?" The cowboy bellowed envy lacing his tone "I know he has the equipment for it!" *And it's bigger than mine...* 

He hissed throwing his hands in the air in exasperation Commander Reyes shook his head at the younger man's antics. "Jesse, men can be friends with women without adding benefits to the mix." the Latin man said matter-o-factly just as Mcree pointed a finger at the commander's face and yelled "Blasphemy" in a demonic voice before Reyes threatened to break his hand if he ever pointed at him again! then ordered the cowboy to drop and give him twenty!

Meanwhile

Genji had led Vex to small secluded part of the base where they could talk in private. Before the cyborg could even get a word out the brunette blurted out "You got the cops called on me!" he gawked at her bemused before recalling the incident in the backyard. "oh..S-sorry." he stammered out the words felt foreign to him it had been a while since the cyborg had to apologize to someone. Then he asked what happened Vex pretty gave him the sum up, cops showed up took her out back showed her the war zone that was her backyard." 

The Omnic deputy theorized Derek and his buddies were hopped up on alcohol and drugs, got spooked by an old TV antenna falling off her roof which woke up a family of raccoons; chaos broke out and they put themselves in the hospital. She asked if it was Derek and had panic attack and threw up then, then the human cop explained how the perv kept making passes and jeering at female hospital staff and tried to grope a female officer who was sent to take their statement, so he wasn't going to be a problem for a while.

Genji grimaced behind his mask he wanted to ask why didn't she pressed charges or ask for protection, then he recalled why they called her neighborhood the Gallows; It was run by the Scarecrow Kings a gang with old saying 'Get caught squealing and you get hanged' It didn't even have to involve the the gang in anyway; they heard you went to the police for some reason or another? suddenly accidents happen and outsiders were no exception. 

Vex knew this, and the last thing she wanted to do was piss off the SCK. They've been a thorn in Over/Blackwatch's side for while now too...There have actually been rumors of mole working in BW feeding info to the gang, But so far any leads of said mole have come up empty...

"Have there been any other problems?" 

"Aside from your creepy fan club giving me the stink eye?"

"..." he gave her stern look clearly not in tolerating mood today, the brunette resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"No."

Vex huffed Genji seemed to relax before gesturing for the silver eyed woman to follow him, she complied the cyborg led her to an elevator causing the woman to cock a brow. "So, where are you taking me exactly?" She asked warily as she stepped inside the elevator with Genji who shifted awkwardly on his feet as it started up. "Dr. Ziegler has asking about you, won't stop badgering me bring you around." He huffed Vex didn't missed how tired he sounded or the bags under his eyes. Maybe after meeting miss Ziegler she'll see if Genji is up for a power nap?

Needless to say the duo certainly turned a lot a heads anyone who was wandering or just in the hallway stopped what they were doing and stared a the abnormal twosome, Blackwatch's homicidal 'Tin-man' toddling around with the rumored silver-eyed janitor! now that was something to gawked at! some started whispering amongst themselves, It took one icy red glare shot by said cyborg caused their unwanted audience to disperse and go back to what they were doing.

When they reached the med-bay Angela was just finishing up a setting up a large machine Vex assumed was used to examine Genji her assumptions were proven correct as a holographic model and graph of said cyborg started up in a T-pose while the blonde doctor was busy. looking down at a chart unaware of the tag-along the ninja had brought in with him. "Alright Genji everything's set up you can ju-" her blue eyes finally looked up from the chart and locked on to a person who certainly wasn't Genji, it took a moment for Angela to realize who she was staring at before noticing her original patient, the blond just pointed at Vex then at Genji as if having mental conversation with the ninja who face-palmed and sighed loudly. "Yes." Confirming that he had brought the friend he had told her about.

"Oh, It's so nice to finally meet you..." 

"Vex."

"Vex...you have silver eyes."

"So I've been told..."

After a few minutes of watching Angela hook Genji up to the machine waiting for it to finish scanning him, Vex started having an inkling that this wasn't just a courtesy call, and may have been a double check-up set by a certain ninja, considering Dr. Ziegler would try to subtly ask how she was feeling, shining a small light in her eyes, after few of this Vex gave the the OK for the medic to just do check to cause this was just embarrassing them both. "So, those are your natural eyes?" Angel still hung up on the short brunettes eye color. "Yeah, mutation I inherited from...[sigh] my father." she hissed out the word venomously, malice for the man wasn't lost on Genji and Angela. 

The doctor cleared her throat pick up a small syringe"I'm going to draw a blood sample if that alright?" Vex shrugged pulling her sleeve up. "I don't mind, but you may need a tougher needle then that." the blond looked confused but shrugged and used the one in her hand, brought it up to Vex's arm and it wouldn't go in, Angela pressed down a bit and the needle seem to go in this time; she pulled the piston back, but nothing came out...the blond's brow furrowed and she pulled the syringe away and blanched the needle was bent! as Vex let out a sigh.

"Told ya, you'd need a tougher needle." When she said this Genji's heart-rate spike up wondering what was going on? as Angela was blocking his view she moved giving him a view of the bent needle as the blond grabbed another larger syringe, this time it did it's job Angela drew a blood sample and brought up another machined she explain it was used to make sure there were no diseases or problems with Vex's blood. it should be done analyzing in a couple minutes, then turned her attention back to Genji the sync-unit had finished the body scan. 

"Okay, Genji everything thing seems to be functioning alright, you limbs are responding and your reaction time is getting quicker ...by the way your heart spiked a moment, were you worried about Vex just now?" the cyborg glared at her then averted eyes to the wall, Angela snicker he must've forgot he was still hooked up to the scanner because his temperature spiked too.

As she was unhooking Genji from his restraints and the Sync-unitm Vex's blood work came back, Angela nearly fainted when she saw the results that was impossible! according to these Vex's health states were abnormal, almost enhanced was like Morrison and Reyes, but then she checked again realized this wasn't science, there was no trace of surgical implants or biochemical-reinforcements. Her near superhuman abilities were all natural born traits. 

She briefly glanced Vex out of the corner of her, the silver eyed girl smirked and winked at the flabbergasted doctor, Before Genji's voice brought her back to earth "Is there something wrong?" Genji asked gruffly his red eyes were looking up at Vex's lab work bemused then at Angela.

the medic composed herself quickly then finished un hooking the cyborg. "Nothing in fact she's in perfect health!" She chirped leaving the ninja skeptical, until Vex interjected. "It's fine Gen, if I was sick it'd be hard to miss trust me." she hopped off the examination table, As the ninja still gave Angela a suspicious glance before leaving with Vex, Angela calmly reminded him of his next check-up and wave them off and as soon as the door shut the medic's smile dropped as she calmly turned her comm on and called. "Commander Morrison, is there something you'd like to tell me?" she inquired sternly.

later 

Vex was mopping the floors she hummed a tune, knowing exactly what Angela was doing right now, calling Morrison demanding an explanation why someone with Vex's abilities was working as janitor of all things?! It sucked she wanted to out right tell somebody why she was really working for Blackwatch, but if she wanted to catch who's leaking info the Scarcrows she gonna have to be as cunning as them, She'll admit it was impressive how the mole was able get in so easily, she or he must've hacked or used enhancement to boost their stats a tad enough to give them leverage in the recruitment program...

Vex was brought out of her thoughts by someone dumping their soda and yogurt on her nice clean floor! She looked up and saw Blondie and her gaggle of turkey necks giggling at her. "Whoops better clean that up toilet-scrubber." the Cheeto sneered before walking off laughing along with her group, Vex let out a frustrated grumble she could not wait for this job to be over! Just so she can punch that bitch in her fake plastic fucking nose.   

The brunette sighed and got to clean the mess up when she noticed something unusual, the door to the tactical server room was open! Vex swallowed as she quietly pushed her cart and mop to the side, started walking towards the open door as she got closer she reached for one of her throwing knives, only someone to call out to her, She saw Jesse walking up to her causing the short woman to backtrack. "Oh, uh.. Jesse what do you need?" the cowboy scratched the back of his head kind of uncomfortable.

"I heard Shimada took you to see Mercy, I thought you was still sick or something?" now any normal girl would giggle knowing a cute guy like Jesse was worried about them, unfortunately he's really not her type. "Genji was just being concerned, wanted to make sure I wasn't coming in cos' I was bored." she explained to Mcree who seemed genuinely surprised that Shimada actually showed an emotion other than anger. "So, what are you doing now?" the cowboy asked the silver eyed woman gave him a blank stare and slowly looked down. 

He followed her and blanched seeing muddy foot prints trailing behind him along with the soda/yogurt puddle she still had yet to clean...Mcree swallowed and look back at Vex to see her smiling very sweetly and she said. "Trying to control my bloodlust.~"  She beamed causing Mcree to shudder as he muttered an apology and scurried away. 

Vex's smile was gone as soon as Mcree left she looked back to the TS room to see it now closed, the silver eyed woman cussed under her breath, She missed them! Vex took a deep breath and returned to her original task and got to mopping the hall....Again.              

[aweebwrites]

A Wild Brown Ninja Appears! (Side-Effect AU)

“The brown ninja has arrived!” Dareth announced as he stepped into the ninja's base.

“Fair warning, Jay's in a mood so don't touch anything metallic we might have missed.” Lloyd says as he dualed with a training bot, reminding himself not to actually destroy it this time.

“Gotcha.” Dareth says then swaggered himself upstairs.

Upon arrival, he came across most of the ninja hanging around the living space with Jay curled up against Sensei Garmadon, electricity arcing around him as said Sensei spoke quietly to him. He would have been concerned if he didn't know that Garmadon is able to resist certain levels of electricity.

“That bad, huh?” He says to Zane who was the closest and the Nindroid only nodded.

They tend to hover when one of them were having a particularly bad episode. Dareth smirked. He thinks he can help.

“Step aside and let Grandmaster Dareth show you how it's done.” He says, swaggering over but Cole intercepted.

“We appreciate it but this one isn't like the other episodes he's had. It's best you let Sensei G handle thus.” He says, and just then, a small bolt of lightning lashed out, striking the spot next to Dareth's foot and burning the rubber coating on the ground, making him yelp. “See?”

“Nonsense! It barely grazed me.” Dareth says, brushing it off, despite his perfectly manicured hair now up on end. “Watch this: I ran into Mr. Borg on the way here and he gave me something to deliver to a certain ninja~” They watched as Jay stiffened at the mention of his technological idol before whipping his head around to look at the package Dareth was holding up.

“Is that for me?” Jay asked hopefully, doe eyes so big and opened that they would have let him have it, even if it wasn't theirs.

“Sure is.” Dareth says, walking over and handing it to the blue ninja. “It hasn't been released as yet and he mentioned something about wanting to see how his favourite ninja likes it first.” He says and while Cyrus didn't actually say that part, it was worth seeing the big grin on the formerly glum ninja's face.

“I can't wait to see what it is! I bet it's really cool like everything Mr. Borg makes! I remember that time he released the-”

“Maybe you should try opening it first.” Garmadon suggested with a light chuckle and Jay smiled at him sheepishly before opening the package.

“Woah, what's this?” He says, taking out the goggle like item.

“It comes with instructions.” Garmadon says, lifting the sheet from the box and Zane took his cue.

While the Sensei's weren't completely out of the know with technology, Mr. Borg's instructions on anything he sends to them could only be understood by Jay, Nya or himself.

“It's called a virtual reality headset and is a gaming hardware that allows for more interactive game play.” Zane says, reading the sheetas Jay put on the headset then gasped once he managed to turn it on.

“Woah! This is so cool!” He says excitedly, sparking with electricity.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you. You might fry it.” Kai says with a small smile, the overall mood much lighter now that he was his excitable self again.

“It’s fine. Mr. Borg says he anticipated Jay's electrical output in this particular design and planned accordingly. It will actually charge it. He would really need to try to destroy it.” Zane says, handing Jay the controllers.

Half an hour later and Jay got the hang of it with Zane's help, rattling off a commentary of how awesome it was and how it felt as if he was actually in the game. Everyone was just glad he was ok again.

“You truly saved the day, brown ninja.” Garmadon says, placing a hand on his shoulder after he combed his hair.

“Of course I did. It's what I do.” Dareth says with a smirk that soon changed into a smile. “You should thank Mr. Borg. He's the one who made the thing and found me to begin with.” He shrugged.

“Already on it.” Nya says, using the television to phone Mr. Borg who answered a few seconds later.

“Ah, Ninja. So good to see you. I see Jay has gotten my package.” Cyrus says from his office with Pixal by his side and Jay perked up at the sound of his idol's voice, slipping off the headset.

“Mr. Borg! Thanks so much! It's totally awesome and the graphics are epic not to mention how totally 3D it is like the game is all around me and I can turn around see…” Jay began rambling and they all smiled at him.

“Pixal. It's been a while. How are things?” Lloyd asked as Mr. Borg pitched in a few extras on the makeups of the headset to Jay.

“Well. We had planned to send all of them at once but Jay's was the only one that was completed and the sudden surge of electricity we picked up from your location suggested we seen his earlier.” She told them and they nodded.

“That's fine. You guys didn't have to though.” Lloyd says with a smile.

“BUT.” Kai says, dropping down next to Lloyd and wrapping an arm around his neck. “But since you're offering, we'll gladly accept.” He says and Lloyd rolled his eyes but chuckled.

“I’m home.” They all looked across at Sensei Wu as he came up the stairs fully with several bags in hand.

“Sensei W! Great to see you!” Dareth says, pulling him into a hug.

“Dareth. Good to see you too.” Wu says as the ninja perked up.

“Is that Chen's?” Cole says, sniffing out aroma of food.

“Considering he tried to kidnap Zane… shouldn't we stay away from his brand?” Lloyd asked as Wu set the bags down.

“His daughter runs the business after figuring out how shallow he really is. Chen himself and Clouse along with his entire cult are having a nice long stay in Kryptarium prison.” Garmadon says with a small smirk as he sat Jay down and set his new toys aside as he continued to talk Cyrus' ears off but he doesn't seem to mind at all.

“Settle down children. Time for lunch.” Wu says, handing out cartons of food.

“Hey! I'm not a kid!” Cole huffed, arms crossed.

“Of course not.” Wu says and Cole nods, totally pouting.

Dareth looked at them all conversing happily and decided it was time for him to take his leave.

“I should-”

“Here you go Dareth. You still like puffy potstickers, correct?” Wu says, offering him a carton and Dareth beamed.

“Do I!” He says, accepting his carton and joining in.

They never fail to make him feel like a part of the family.

________________

(Yooo. I got hit with 13 hours of sleep and woke up wondering what year it was. That aside, Dareth's here! And Cyrus too! PIXAL! I'll have to post another part with a little visit from her but in case anyone hasn't realised as yet, there's no shipping in this one. I don't mind ships at all but this au is about family. Anywho, I need to see if I can get something else posted tonight so I gotta type quick. Weeb awaaaayyyyy!)

[lloydskywalkers]

terrorize y’all’s neighborhood

I can’t write short fics, you guys. I tried. 

Anyways, I know DOTD is the canon Ninjago-Halloween-equivalent thing, but I wanted to write about the ninja having a normal holiday, because in what world would Lloyd not love an opportunity to dress up and eat all the candy he wants?

(And the title is completely stolen from Thriller. Completely.)

Hope you guys are having a great holiday!

"Kai."

"Kai, look."

Kai rolls his eyes, glancing skyward briefly before turning.

Sure enough, Lloyd is holding a bloodied, rubber eyeball up to his own tightly closed one, his face screwed up in a grotesque expression. "Agh, my eye fell out!"

Kai leans one arm against the shopping cart, the other on his hip. "What did I tell you about picking stuff up we aren't gonna buy?" he says, even as he suppresses a snort.

Lloyd's expression falls, and he sticks his tongue out at him. "You're not fun," he grouses.

"I'm lots of fun," Kai says. "I'm just trying not to raise the Green Ninja to be a corrupt child criminal who steals bloody eyeballs from Walmart."

"I'm not stealing," Lloyd protests. "Look, I got it from the Halloween section, it's right there!"

Kai looks up and realizes that he has, indeed, made the crucial error of wandering into the Halloween section with Lloyd in tow, when they're only supposed to be getting a few groceries.

"Oops," he mutters.

"Oooh, look at all the fake blood they have…"

Kai quickly makes to drag Lloyd away before he's forever swallowed by aisles of plastic skeletons and cheap ghoul masks. "C'mon, bud, we've still gotta get stuff for meals," he says, as he tugs a reluctant Lloyd toward the food aisles. "We can't all eat rubber eyeballs for dinner."

"Aw, but they have so much cool stuff," Lloyd pouts, watching the Halloween aisle disappear forlornly. "What's the point of Halloween if you guys aren't even gonna let me celebrate it?"

Kai is only half-listening what Lloyd is saying, too intent on the scrawled shopping list he's got in his hand. He brings it closer to his face, squinting. Why do they keep letting Nya write the shopping lists? Her hand-writing is terrible, they should just appoint Zane as secretary from now on.

"-and that's why Halloween is clearly the best holiday in the entire world," Lloyd is still rattling on. "It's way better than those other dumb holidays, kris-ness, or whatever-"

"You mean Christmas?" Kai gapes at him. He shakes his head. "Boy, we're gonna have to change your mind on that one…"

Lloyd shakes his head. "Halloween is definitely the best, because you get to dress up and scare people, but most importantly you get-" He stops abruptly, eyes going wide as Kai desperately tries to drag them to the next aisle.

"Candy, Kai, can we stop, please, please please-"

"Lloyd, I told you, we're only here for groceries."

Lloyd groans, hanging off the shopping cart as Kai struggles to push it forward, kicking at Lloyd with his leg. "Just some of the mini snickers bars? The ones with little ghosts on them?"

"Lloyd-"

"I'll die without them."

"You've been hanging out with Jay too much," Kai huffs, dragging Lloyd up by his arm. "Look, if you're good, maybe I'll buy you a candy bar at the check-out."

Lloyd brightens immediately at that. "Okay!" He says. "What's next? Do we need cereal? 'Cause the cereal's right here. Can we get Froot Loops?"

Kai rolls his eyes, but he can't help but grin at Lloyd's enthusiasm as he practically tears down the aisle, the sleeves of Jay's old hoodie (that's still way too large for him) flopping over his hands again as he does.

The grin slides off his face as Kai glances back down at the shopping list, highly conscious of the tiny numbers Nya's scrawled at the bottom of the page. Those are painfully legible. He drags a hand over his face. They're not scrapped for money, per say, but after everything - the loss of basically all their belongings on the Bounty to the Devourer, the cost of keeping up with rent - they really do need to be keeping an eye on things, financially. They aren't terrible, but it reminds Kai uncannily of the days he spent struggling to support himself and Nya on the blacksmith shop.

It also means he can't buy Lloyd anything he wants - not even cheap little bloody eyeballs.

Kai glances over the list again, chewing on the inside of his cheek. They can't not get ibuprofen, that's a big no-go. Basic medical supplies are a must, obviously, and he can't skimp on the milk or Zane'll kill him. They could maybe skip the anxiety meds this time, but then Kai would feel awful if anyone had trouble-

"What's wrong?" Lloyd says, craning his head over Kai's arm. "Do we not have enough money? Do you owe some to somebody? Are we in trouble with the mob?"

"Are we - what?" Kai blinks. "The mob - no, Lloyd, geez. How do you even know about that?"

"Gene had an uncle in it! He said they would go yank people off the street, then they would like, steal their kidneys an' stuff if they couldn't pay you back," Lloyd says, gleefully.

Kai stares at him, mentally despairing. He finally decides to let this particular one go. "No, Lloyd," he sighs, wearily. "We're not in trouble with the mob. We're just…a little tight on stuff, right now."

Kai winces. How is he supposed to explain their financial woes to a kid? "Sorry kiddo, we probably won't be able to get those snickers today."

"It's okay," Lloyd says, with surprising nonchalance. "I know we're not super rich or anything. Stuff cost a lot. Before I was with you guys, back when I was on my own, I would try to buy food and stuff, sometimes? But it cost so much. Who even has that much money, anyways?"

Kai winces even harder, feeling the same frustrating mix of pained anger he does whenever Lloyd brings up his childhood thus far.

"-anyways, the point is, I totally get why people become bank robbers, because imagine if you had that much money, you could buy, like, so much candy-!"

"And that's our cue to check out," Kai says, a hand on Lloyd's back as he ushers him past the employee eyeing them suspiciously. "Didn't I say we were trying not to turn you into a corrupt child criminal?" he hisses.

"It was just a joke! You're never fun, geez-"

They get through the check-out line mercifully quick, and Kai's total ends up being slightly under budget, so he caves and buys them a snickers bar to split. Lloyd is seemingly pacified, so Kai decides it's a good time to bring something back up.

"Anyways, back to the whole 'we're tyrants who won't let you celebrate Halloween' thing," Kai says, as they pile the now-bagged groceries back into the shopping cart. "Where'd you get that idea? We're obviously going to celebrate. You can even go trick-or-treating with the other kids in Ninjago City, if you want. Or we can hit up Jamanaki, or Cole's hometown, I guess."

Whatever place is safest at the moment, Kai decides, as they head out of the store.

Lloyd, to his surprise, doesn't exactly look thrilled with that idea. "I dunno," he says, dully. "I don't really wanna hang out with the other kids. Can we just watch scary movies at the apartment?"

"What's wrong with the other kids?" Kai says, frowning. Lloyd isn't usually shy - maybe a little quiet around new people, but he's definitely not one to shy away from any opportunity to get candy, regardless of who's around.

Lloyd shrugs, looking down as he toes a scuff on the linoleum floor. "There's nothing wrong with them," he mutters. "It's more kinda...me."

Kai blinks, coming to a halt. "What?"

Lloyd gives a jerky little shrug. He grins up at him, a toothy one that shows his slightly too-sharp teeth, his red eyes flashing. "'Cause I'm the spawn of evil, duh, they all fear me!"

He says it brightly, still grinning fiercely, but Kai catches the slight waver in his voice, the fake edge in his smile.

Oh. Kai's heart twists.

He opens his mouth to give a rebuttal, fully prepared to insist to Lloyd that nobody even notices those things - and stops. Kai hesitates, thinking back to their trip in the store so far. You'd think, living in a place where literal snake people ran around constantly, red eyes wouldn't draw much attention. But living in a place where Garmadon is relatively well-known…

There'd been that shopper passing by who had done a double-take at Lloyd, her eyes quickly skirting away from his. Kai had shot her a death glare, and Lloyd thankfully hadn't noticed, but…still.

Kai's jaw tightens, and he feels about ready to bare his own teeth.

"You just…you just gotta show 'em it's nothing," he opts instead, trying to sound encouraging. Cole is usually much better at this positivity stuff. Or Zane. Or Jay, really, just anyone other than Kai. "Just be yourself," he finally says. "Once they actually meet you, they'll like you, no sweat."

"Just be yourself? What kind of stupid advice is that?" Lloyd glares. "You didn't even like me when you met me."

"Wha- that's not true," Kai says, frowning. "I-"

"You guys hung me from a roof!"

Kai cringes. "Ah, yeah…um….look, in hindsight, that was super uncool-"

"And then you all hated me for like, a month, until you found out I was the Green Ninja-"

"Hey, woah, now that's not true," Kai says, grabbing Lloyd's shoulders firmly, forcing him to look at him. "We definitely liked you before then, and you know it. But c'mon, Lloyd - you acted like a total brat, you know that, right?"

Lloyd huffs, but he nods, looking sour. "Yeah, yeah," he mutters. His expression falls a bit. "But…you guys are different. No one else has ever liked me. All the kids at Darkley's hated my guts."

Kai is dying, just a bit, on the inside. Like the I-Need-To-Light-Someone-On-Fire-For-This kind of dying, the kind where he goes out and does something stupid-

"Except for maybe Brad," Lloyd mutters, hand on his chin. "I think he sorta liked me, a little bit…"

Kai finally cuts in, his voice only mildly venomous. "Well, the kids at Darkley's were all little assholes-"

"Nya says you're not supposed to use that word," Lloyd says, suddenly very serious. He'd taken his "language learned at Darkley's is not acceptable language if you want dessert tonight" lecture very seriously, it appears.

Kai huffs. "Okay, those little jerks - they don't know what they're talking about. They're a bunch of brainless rock heads."

Lloyd gives a slightly happier giggle at that. "Like Cole?"

Kai gives him a side eye. "Be nice."

"Cole is way cooler than anyone at Darkley's, anyways," Lloyd amends.

"How about this," Kai says. "We all go trick-or-treating together, so if anyone decides to mess with you, I light them on fire."

Lloyd lights up brighter than the flashing electronic pumpkins next to them, and Kai mentally congratulates himself.

"For real?" Lloyd says. "You'll dress up and everything?"

"Cross my heart," Kai draws an x across his chest. "Now hop on," he says, patting the shopping cart handle. "I'll run and push us across the parking lot."

Lloyd whoops, hopping up on the cart.

"Okay," he says, as Kai puts one foot up. "I lied. You're sometimes fun."

"Oh, just sometimes, huh," Kai grins.

"On weekends, and holidays, and-"

Kai never does learn when else he's fun, because Lloyd is too busy laughing as they careen down the parking lot, shopping cart rattling loudly in their wake.

******

Nya thinks them all trick-or-treating a great idea, and she claims that she can make fake blood all on her own - so by the time Zane agrees with her, nobody stands a snowball's chance in hell of saying no to that particular team-up of puppy eyes.

Cole tries arguing that they don't have costumes, until Jay wickedly reminds him that they've still got the pirate outfits from the whole thing with Captain Soto and his men - but by that point, Cole isn't resisting much anyways. Lloyd's excitement is infectious, and it's fun to celebrate holidays with a family this big.

It's something none of them are quite used to, but it's welcome nonetheless.

"We're only sticking to this neighborhood, okay?" Cole tells them, for the hundredth time. "It'll gonna be crowded enough that I doubt anyone will notice it's us, and they're running a haunted house in the middle, so-"

"A haunted house?" Lloyd says, looking up from where he's finishing off the blood splatters on his own costume. "Can I take back what I said about Ninjago City being lame? This is awesome."

Lloyd, economically, has decided to as a ghost, which only requires Nya's old bedsheet, eyeholes, and a good deal of homemade fake blood splattered over it.

"I've gotta be a scary ghost," Lloyd tells Jay, seriously. "The more blood, the better."

"You got it, kid," Jay says, who's getting pretty liberal with the blood himself.

"You're a pirate, Jay, not a zombie," Zane says, ducking the drops of red paint that go flying.

"A zombie pirate," Kai offers.

"A zirate," Jay grins. Cole groans.

Nya's the last to dress up, and she's ended up going as a vampire, to Lloyd's eternal delight.

"You look like me!" he says excitedly, as Nya gives him a sharp-toothed grin.

"Yup," she says, running her tongue over the plastic fangs and making a face. "They feel kinda weird, because they're just lame fakes, but they look super cool, right?"

Lloyd's own fangs (which is a generous term) are tiny in comparison, of course, so they really look absolutely nothing like each other, but the megawatt grin he's got on - Nya's playing the long game here, and Kai has to respect her for that.

This means he's gotta get those snickers bars with the little ghosts on them later, though.

******

Trick-or-treating ends up being a lot more fun than Kai had been expecting - then again, he's never really been himself that he can remember, so maybe it's a new experience for all of them.

Well, except Jay and Cole. They're both far too invested in making sure they hit every single house possible.

Kai grins as he watches them head back from their latest house - Lloyd makes the cutest little terror of a ghost he's ever seen, swamped in the sheet as he is. Albeit a very bloody ghost, fake blood dripped gruesomely all over him. But he seems happy enough, flapping his sheet-covered arms around at anyone who dares get near them.

Well, he had been. Lloyd had discovered, much to his dismay, that it's almost impossible to eat candy with a sheet draped over his face - though there were an amusing few minutes where he had tried vainly to shove several Starbursts through the eyeholes at once. He's finally given up and shoved the sheet back over his head, where it drapes over him like a very bloody cape as he surveys his bag of candy. He's beaten them all by a ridiculously large margin, but that's just because they're all suckers who are slipping half their own candy into his bag the entire night.

"Hey, you got any chocolate you wanna share?" Cole says, reaching his hand toward Lloyd's bag.

Lloyd opens his mouth and snaps his teeth together. "I'll bite you," he threatens. "Like a shark."

"Ooh, Lloyd the Fangfish," Cole pretends to shudder. "Watch out, he's got rabies."

"I do not," Lloyd huffs, but he grudgingly hands Cole one of his Kit-Kats.

"Don't eat too much in one go," Zane reminds him. "You don't want to make yourself sick."

"Aw, c'mon Zane, it's Halloween," Jay says, through a mouthful of his own candy. "Lighten up."

"Hey, Zane can't help being such a mom," Kai says, slinging his arm around him. Zane shrugs at him good-naturedly, not hard enough to actually shake him off. "One of us has to be."

Zane rolls his eyes long-sufferingly. The moon dips behind a cluster of clouds, darkening the streets a bit, and Kai's about to suggest they head home - when a voice echoes across the street.

"Lloyd - hey, Lloyd!"

Lloyd's head snaps up. "Brad?" he says, almost incredulously, as the boy runs up to them, tugging on the hood of his own costume.

Kai stiffens, and he's distinctly aware of Nya giving the kid the stink-eye where she stands off to the side. Sure, Lloyd kind-of made-up with his friends after they lured them all to Darkley's and tried to re-evil-brainwash him, but years of being demon brats don't just go away (look at Lloyd). That, and Lloyd's words from earlier are still pretty fresh in his mind.

Kai narrows his own eyes. Lloyd can handle himself against one little tyke, but just in case…Kai isn't too opposed to shoving some kids in a trash can tonight.

Lloyd and Brad have gone quiet, carefully eyeing each other. Kai holds his breath as they size each other up. Brad was the one Lloyd said might have liked him, right? Maybe this can work in his favor, then. If Lloyd can just be chill for five seconds, then maybe-

"Your fake blood is lame," Lloyd finally says. Nya smacks a hand against her head.

Apparently, it's the right thing to say when you're an ex-evil hellion of a kid, though, because Brad immediately relaxes, jutting his lip out in a half-pouting scowl.

"Is not. Where'd you get yours, anyways?" He gives the ninja a wide-eyed glance. "Did you get it from somebody they killed?" he whispers.

Zane sputters as Cole claps a hand over his mouth, holding back snickers. Lloyd rolls his eyes.

"Nah, they'd never actually kill somebody. They're good guys, remember? Nya - that's Nya, by the way! - she made it."

"Cool," Brad says, looking a little less nervous. "Hey, Gene's over at the playground - wanna help scare him? We still owe him for the fake spider thing, right?"

"Oh - uh, yeah, obviously," Lloyd says, and Kai almost snorts at the gleam in his eye. Gee, you spend all this time trying to reform a kid.

The two fall into easy conversation - mostly plotting an unfortunate Gene's demise - as if they'd never been strained at all, and Kai watches as Lloyd runs off with him to the other kids, feeling a little abandoned and a lot protective.

"Just one little hair," he says to Nya. "I'll just singe one off."

"Kai, he's his friend, look," Nya sighs, gesturing at Lloyd and Brad where they're now tearing around the playground with several other kids (who are, no doubt, equal hellions). "They're just having fun."

"Yeah, well, I don't trust 'em."

"Well, Lloyd can always blast them across town with an energy burst, if they give him any trouble," Jay says, tossing a chocolate bar at Cole.

Zane frowns at him. "That's…not exactly the use of power we should be teaching him."

"What, you don't want Lloyd to protect himself from bullies?"

Zane considers the point. "Perhaps, if the situation called for it…"

"Great!" Jay stands up, linking his arm with Zane. "Then who's up for the haunted house with me?"

Cole takes a step back. "Nuh-uh, you know how I am with creepy houses. I don't do that kind of stuff-"

"You do with us!" Nya says cheerfully, grabbing one arm while Kai wrestles the other. Cole sputters indignantly as they drag him along. "Come on, let's see if Lloyd and his little demon gang wanna join."

******

"Welp!" Jay throws the door open with unnecessary dramatics as they pile back into the apartment. "We're banned for life. I hope you guys are happy."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who drop-kicked the chainsaw actor," Kai mutters.

Cole flushes. "I'm a ninja, I can't help it - it was reflex!""

"Was the high-pitched screaming reflex?" Jay says. Cole elbows him in the gut, and Jay snatches the candy bar from his hand in retaliation. Cole gives an indignant yelp.

"Hey! That was my last chocolate bar!"

Nya roll her eyes as she squeezes past Jay, who's loudly chewing Cole's candy bar in his face. Lloyd totters in behind her, half-buried in the pile of candy he's amassed in his bag. He's giggling manically, and the look in his eyes is genuinely more terrifying than anything Kai's ever seen.

"Pace yourself on that candy, alright?" Kai says, eyeing him. "I don't wanna wake up to you puking your guts out tonight."

"Nuh-uh," Lloyd says, through a mouthful of taffy. "I don' ge' sick from candy. S'impossible."

"That's what you said the last time," Cole says, snatching the bag from Lloyd's hand and ignoring his cry of displeasure. "That's enough for tonight. You can eat yourself sick again in the morning."

Nya strides by them, falling onto the couch next to Kai with a a thwump. Kai watches in amusement as she rubs a hand across her eye, smearing mascara and eyeliner across her cheek in a raccoon-like smudge. Nya notices his stare, glancing at her hand and huffing.

"Remind me not to wear costume makeup again," she mutters, as Kai snorts. "At least I didn't ruin it for the picture."

She digs into her bag, pulling out a slightly-rumpled but still glossy photograph.

"Not that it matters," Nya continues. "This is the worst picture of us I've ever seen." She makes a face, staring at the picture the workers at the haunted house had snapped of them before they went in.

Kai shifts on the couch so he's looking over Nya's shoulder, squinting at the photo. "Is that supposed to be Zane?" he says, pointing at the blurry figure on the right.

"May…be?" Nya says. "At least you turned out alright."

Kai grins at where he's taking up half the picture, Lloyd wrapped in a chokehold around his neck that could be considered a hug if generous, both of them grinning wildly.

"Someone's gotta bring the beautiful," Kai says. He looks up to where Lloyd is being accosted by Cole, having somehow gotten his hands on yet another chocolate bar.

"Lloyd, I said that's enough. Lloyd, don't - no! Stop!"

Lloyd's hand stills, the chocolate bar hovering inches from his mouth.

"Put it down," Cole hisses. The chocolate bar moves half an inch closer. "Lloyd! No!"

Lloyd shoves the chocolate in his mouth before Cole can blink. "Lloyd!"

Lloyd springs from the chair, cackling wildly as he runs. Cole tears after him, seething. "I'll use you as a toothbrush for the Ultradragon, you pint-sized punk-"

"I'm surprised Sensei Wu hasn't come in and killed us yet," Jay says, flopping down on the rug below Kai and Nya, fumbling with the remote.

"He went out for the evening," Zane says. "Which means you can scream as loudly as you want over the movie."

Jay chucks a wrapper at Zane's head. He snatches it easily, tossing it back at Jay. Their worn TV finally flickers to life just as Cole and Lloyd finally wind down, Lloyd looking a lot less gleeful with his decision.

"O-oh, too much candy," Lloyd moans, clambering onto the couch next to Kai.

"You puke on me, I'm tossing you off the roof," Kai says, but he wraps an arm around him nonetheless, pulling Lloyd against his side.

"No you won't," Lloyd yawns, eyelids already fluttering as the movie starts. "You'd miss me too much. Wouldn't ever have any fun without me."

"Oh, I wouldn't?"

"Nope. I gotta…keep you from getting boring."

"No worries on that one," Kai says, grinning. He bites back his own yawn, settling further into the couch as Lloyd nods off, curling up against his side. "No worries at all."

Lloyd is soundly asleep against his side in seconds, snoring softly. Kai's getting all sorts of looks from Jay and Cole, but he masterfully ignores them - for now. Nya's taken to nodding off on his other side, so he's kinda sibling-sandwiched at the moment. Upsetting them isn't worth putting Jay in a headlock tonight.

"Here," Nya suddenly whispers over the movie, waving the picture up at him from where she's using his shoulder as a pillow. "Wanna put it in your modeling portfolio?"

Kai maturely sticks his tongue out at her, but he still snatches the picture. "Nah, but I'll keep it as a reminder of what massive dorks you all are."

They settle back to watching the movie, and he glances at the picture again. It's a pretty cute one - not that he's gonna admit that. It's a keeper, at least. They really don't have a lot of pictures of their team, and hardly any at all with Lloyd and his disaster-haired self.

Ah well. He can take more later. They've got plenty of time.

[thattimdrakeguy]

A few scratches on his face and a bandage on his nose (a Batman one if you were curious) Timmy Drake looked close to laying on the ground. His lungs breathing in deeply and breathing out just as hard. He looked around him like he was expecting something, something, somewhere, at any given time, and he was all out of Batarangs. All he had was his brains, and his staff. Some other cyber-ninja stuff too but it was starting to spark from malfunctions.

Next to him floating in the air was his best friend Conner Kent, clone of Superman and his arch-energy Lex Luthor, LUTHOR, not Luger, he is not a 90s WWE superstar with a mullet, and shame on you for thinkings so, who looked prepped up and unbothered. Although it always does help when you’re bulletproof*. He had his hands behind his head and hovered like he was resting in a hammock on the beaches of hawaii.

The two of them were in a murky swamp. Dark at night and a mysterious myst all around. Guck was on the buttom of the Boy Wonder’s ninja toe’d shoes, but noticeably nothing on Superboy (must’ve been the floating). Unbothered as could be, and like he tends to do he opened his mouth for some highly worthy face palming material.

*Thanks to his tactile telekinesis.

“Are you kidding me? We’re not fine!” spouted Timmy face palming himself as one would expect. His cape retracted after one of the enemies of this story tried grabbing at it. His staff on stun mode like a Star Trek phaser, or at least that’s how he explained it, because he wasn’t gonna break his no-kill vow, especially not now, he was not gonna set that staff to kill. He held it up like a spear he was going to throw.

Rolling his eyes, the half-kryptonian clone patted the Boy Wonder on the back. “Relax, Wonderboy, it’s gonna be okay. Just chill out, this isn’t life or or other thing or nothing. So just like … not be tense, and stuff. Ya know? Just chuck a few birdarangs or something. (Is that what you call those?).”

“I’m out of those!”

“Out of Birdarangs-- Batarangs? Birda-bata-rangs?” he itched the back of his head and coughed into his fist “Umm … outta rangs?”

“Yes, I’m out of birdarangs!”

“(Oh, so that’s what you call those.)”

“And this is technically a life or death scenario, Conner! We can get bazapped at any moment!” the Boy Wonder turned around in a full circle in a bizarre battle pose, waiting for any strikes at any angle, at any time. He was prepared.

Finally putting his feet on the ground and putting his hands on his hips he yawned. “Nah, not really. Such an over-statement, and what happened to the no name rule?” he stuck out his tongue as he stretched his back. Would’ve thought they were playing in an arcade of some kind.

“Coooooonnnnnnneeeeeeeeer, SHUSH!” his nerves her pointed and jagged as he began to hear something. Something from the cold distance, being able to hear it from past the murky disgusting looking trees. Into the distance that only appeared to be a black void from where the boys were standing.

Not pleased with Robin’s words his hands on his hips turned to fists on his hips in a quick moment of sass-back, the classic game the two teenage heroes loved to engage in “Hey! Don’t gotta be rude, Batboy. I’m just trying to enjoy myself while we’re here.”

Snapping his whole body towards Superboy and back like a rubber band he put his finger on his lips for only a nanosecond before returning to battle positions “Nonono, not like that!” he that uses that same finger to point to the direction he heard it. “There’s something over there! Something … probably super nasty.” he engaged into his battle pose once again. As impractical as it probably was.

Cupping his ear in an attempt to hear the supposed nearby sound, Conner heard nothing, nothing at all. It felt as barren as could be besides a faint whisper “Pshhhh, there’s nothing over there!” he rolled his head and crossed his arms. He was starting to feel like how Tim normally does “and that pose by the way? Totally battle inappropriate. Batman would be pissed if he seen that form. If this was like, the olympics of battle poses, I’d rate that a 2 out of 10, and those 2 points are just for being my best friend, cuz you sure didn’t earn them the easy way, and you’d just be lucky I’m a bias friend.”

Trying not to let his friend get on his nerves the Wayne boy started to approach the sound, allowing it to get louder and louder. The Gotham sidekick appeared to be imitating a crab by how far apart his legs were spread and how he was walking sideways.

Crickets were getting louder, and there was a sound Timmy couldn’t quite put his fingers on. A rustling sound of some sorts. Then it hit him like a freight train, but that’s only because the flying fly creature snatched him right out from under his feet, grabbing him by the collar. “Superboy, help!”

Flying to the rescue with a swift punch and a quick grab, Conner Kent the Local Smallville student shined as the former Hero of Hawaii, making quick work of the fly creature and picking up his best friend from out below it. “Dude, you’re really not on your a-game right now are you?”

“Hey, shush! At least I heard that thing, what happened to your super hearing!” the 5ft 4 teeny teen was being held like he was on a honeymoon with his hypothetical husband.

Emotionally hurt, Tim could just feel Conner cringing from his own comeback “Low blow, Timmy. I can’t help it doesn’t work here! ‘Least I didn’t try using a big stick to try and whack the fly with. The heck are these things anyway?”

“I … dunno. Some kind of Brundle fly looking thing.”

Pausing for a moment as he hovered over a large chasm to try and understand that his friend as spoken “Brundle … fly? Dude, what the heck is a Brundle Fly, you can’t keep popping these science terms on me. I don’t know every fly ever.”

Sighing before responding, Tim crossed his arms as he stayed cozy in Superboy’s arms “It’s from The Fly!”

“Yeah yeah, I gathered that, but what fly?”

“Jeff Goldblum!”

“Dude, don’t be a total jerk-wad to Goldblum.”

Face-palming yet again, Timmy couldn’t believe his nerd ears “It’s a movie! Jeff Goldblum? The Fly? Scary movie? Jeff Goldblum has the teleporter thingy and a fly goes in and stuff, and then becomes a fly!”

“Sounds gross.” Conner said as he finally continued his flight towards safety.

“Oh trust me it is. Had to watch it with Nightwing, first time I tried by myself I had nightmares.”

“Really? Figured after Man-Bat you’d be used to trash like that.”

“That’s what Babs told me …” blushing from embarrassment he only looked inwards towards Superboy’s chest. Enjoying the ride over top the chasm of what looked like an endless abyss. Feeling the light breeze of motion hit his chubby red cheeks. Then, because of course there’s a ‘then’, Timmy boy heard the sound again. The screeching sound of the Brundle Flies. “Oh no, dude, watch out! They’re coming!”

Having a hard time comprehending what Timmy could be talking about he didn’t take any direct action “Umm, be more specific if you want me to actually understand what you’re talking about”.

WHAM -- the two boys have been struck. Nothing to grab onto, and Tim had fallen out of Conner’s arms and down into the chasm, seeing the green-toned sky with musty gray clouds turn to black in an instant. With his best pal Conner Kent falling in close behind him. Letting out only a large high pitch squeal of fear before it all turned black. Falling into the darkness of the chasm, unable to return back. For a very good, if frustrating reason.

With his eyes close and heavy breathing, Tim was okay, don’t you worry, he was just breathing heavily as he kept his hands on his knees trying out a breathing exercise Cass had taught him. “That, totally, bombed.” he spoke, in a calm squeaky tone, his voice cracking after each word. Opening his eyes to see the bright red glowing letters say ‘GAME OVER.’

Taking off his headset he saw Conner with it already taken off, not a scratch on him in any shape or form, looking mighty pissed off at him. “You’re telling me. That was your fault 100%.”

Feeling offended Tim put his hand to his chest as if he was checking the damage on his pride “What? No way! If you just used your super heari--”

“It’s VR, Timmy! There is no way for my super hearing to work in a video game! It’s all in the game! Use your bird-brain, man.”

[shortend]

Scooby-Doo meets the TMNT

So, I've decided my new dream is to write and direct a direct to DVD “Scooby-Doo meets the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” movie featuring the original 80's turtles. The Gang heads to New York for sightseeing and get interrupted by mutants committing crimes. While trying to apprehend the suspects they end up crossing paths with the TMNT who were also responding. They all head to the sewer lair to regroup and share their findings.

VELMA: Those aren't masks, are they?

LEONARDO: Nope.

DONATELLO: Say, she's good. Solid deductive reasoning.

RAPHAEL: What gave it away, the lack of foam rubber or the beautifully articulated mouths? Even Henson can't build 'em like this.

VELMA: I need a moment.

FRED: There will be time for that later. First we need to figure out--

Fred tries to put a comforting hand on Velma's shoulder and is startled by her abrupt scream.

VELMA: (Screaming) I need a moment!

Fred freezes, withdraws his hand, and silently mouths “Okay” as he takes a step back and gives Velma her space.

Wide angle of the whole cast. Velma turns her back to the camera and puts her hands on her hips. Everyone stands awkwardly, trying not to stare but unsure of exactly what to do. Most of them are fidgety or visibly uncomfortable with the silence. After a moment of slow breathing and some neck stretches, Velma turns back to the group.

VELMA: Okay, you were saying?

----

Fred and Leonardo both try to take charge and struggle for dominance. Master Splinter suggests they track down the Shredder, because obviously.

----

MICHAELANGELO: Hey, dudes. While the fearless leaders over there hash out the deets, what say we partake of some major deliciousness of the pizza variety.

SHAGGY: Like, if we ever say no to an offer like that, we were probably replaced by impostors as some sort of devious master plan to take over the world. Lead the way.

SCOOBY-DOO: Reah!

MICHAELANGELO: You're in luck, dudes. The kitchen is totally stocked so take your pick. We got fresh pizza, frozen pizza, do-it-yourself pizza, leftover pizza, room-temperature pizza, week-old pizza, pizza we don't remember ordering, gummie pizzas, pizzas with gummies, pizza sandwiches, English muffin pizzas, breakfast pizzas, which are basically pepperoni pancakes, oooooorrrrr...

Michaelangelo gestures to the immense wall-sized pizza oven with pride.

MICHAELANGELO: We could use the patent-pending Dona-langelo Mega-Delux Hyper Oven X to bake our own giant pizza and use other pizzas as toppings! Donatello made it himself to my exact specifications. Big. And awesome.

Shaggy and Scooby look unimpressed and stand with their arms crossed in judgment.

SHAGGY: Like, okay, so I know what you were going for, Michaelangelo, but if you had this thing over here, why didn't you just lead with that? As if there were any other option. Kind of wasting our time.

SCOOBY-DOO: Reah. We're burning dayright.

ALL: When we could be cooking pizza!

MICHAELANGELO: Hey, Donatello! It's supervision time, bud!

DONATELLO: Just a quick warning in advance. This is a delicate prototype and it still has a few bugs to work out. At any point in the process either it or the pizzas could become sentient and try to destroy humanity, so have these books on ethics and moral philosophy at the ready just in case.

*Hi-jinks*

----

APRIL: Go get 'em, guys!

DAPHNE: Aren't you coming?

APRIL: What? Of course not! Not when there's a hot scoop like this. I gotta get to the office and fetch my cameraman.

DAPHNE: Cameraman? As in... television camera man? As in... television?

DAPHNE: Let's split up, gang. I'll go with April to the news station. You guys all go do that other thing you were talking about that’s also important. Go get 'em!

----

DAPHNE: So, is this how things usually go? The guys stumble onto something, tell you, you consult your contacts on the force, confirm your sources, alert the media, they disregard your seemingly outlandish claims despite overwhelming evidence, and then you jump into the fray at the last minute to help the turtles save the day?

APRIL: In times like this usually Vern and I, that's my cameraman, just circle the city in the helicopter or the van and wait for something to explode, or a giant monster to show up. Ooo! Or portals to other dimensions! Those are always popular. Sometimes we get footage, sometimes we don't. Then I just wait for the guys to stumble across something else. Most of the time it's the other way around.

DAPHNE: You stumble onto a case during one of your investigations, but it's too time sensitive to go to the police so you contact your vigilante allies and kick down doors together until you reach the heart of the matter?

APRIL: Wow, you make journalism sound so... empowering! Is it really like that where you're from?

DAPHNE: Not exactly. Just in movies and stuff.

APRIL: I see. I don't really have time for that sort of thing. I'm usually just going from one place to the next. I tend to do fluff pieces for events in the city. Then something goes horribly awry, I get kidnapped, and wait for the guys to rescue me.

DAPHNE: That sounds... I'm trying to think of a polite way to say this... taxing?

APRIL: It's a living. I mean, it should be. Most of the time my footage gets lost or destroyed. But every so often things go my way and I get my job back. I'm so lucky rent is cheap in New York.

DAPHNE: Oh, honey. You need a Daphne Blake career makeover.

APRIL: Oh, wow! What's that?

DAPHNE: Let's find out. Together.

APRIL: No, I mean, I think that's the Technodrome sending something from another dimension! What a story!

DAPHNE: Jeepers! I bet everyone else is already there. We’d better hurry.

APRIL: Not without my cameraman.

DAPHNE: Okay, but, what if there's something we can do to help?

APRIL: We aren't the story, we just sensationalize it. That’s how we help.

----

SHREDDER: Oh, so I see you’ve arrived to spoil my little plan. If only I had anticipated such an event after countless decades of almost ritualistic losses I've faced at your hands. If only I had something up my sleeves... like this!

A killer robot steps through the portal and falls flat on its face.

SHREDDER: Oh. Would you look at that. My backup plan didn't even get off the ground. I just. I don't even... Rocksteady, Bebop: Throw yourselves at them for a moment while I reflect on my life.

ROCKSTEADY: With pleasure.

BEBOP: Yeah. And casual disregard for our own safety and wellbeing.

KRANG:(Communicator) Shredder! Haven't you dealt with these interlopers ye-- are you crying!?

SHREDDER: No. I just... went a little overboard with the helmet polish this morning. I wanted to look nice.

KRANG:(Communicator) (Sighing) Look, I know things have been hard for you. Things haven't gone your way since... ever... but you're not alone.

SHREDDER: Really?

KRANG:(Communicator) Of course. Ever since I met you nothing has gone my way either, but there's something my dear Grandmama Krang use to tell me whenever I was feeling down. She used to say, “Krang, don't let hardship eat away at you. Amass an army. Strike out at the unsuspecting masses, and enslave them to do your bidding and worship you as a god!” I will never forget those words, and neither should you! Now suck it up, dummy, and slay my enemies! Bwaaaarb!

----

SHREDDER: You thought it was me sending those mutants in to steal random junk? Oh, that's rich.

LEONARDO: But, isn't that what you do?

RAPHAEL: That and get confused for a kitchen utensil?

SHREDDER: I've been out of mutagen for ages! Come to the Technodrome and take a look for yourselves. I've got nothing to hide. I was going up to the surface to investigate for myself where these creatures were coming from just in case someone else had discovered some mutagen that I could then steal, create an army with, and send them out to steal things I need to enact my plans for global domination. I've done nothing wrong.

VELMA: Well, if the subterranean mobile base trapped in another dimension wasn't a dead giveaway I can see why you were suspect number one now.

FRED: But if it wasn't the Shredder...?

LEONARDO: Then we need to find the real monster behind these monsters.

FRED: Nice.

LEONARDO: Thanks.

----

LEONARDO: Oh no! Scooby-Doo and Shaggy been turned into mutants!

MICHAELANGELO: Hey, dudes, how 'bout instead of demolishing the city, we all chill for a sec-amundo and gorge ourselves on some toasty pizza while the brainy bunch find you a cure?

Mutant Shaggy and Mutant Scooby savagely destroy the pizza parlor.

MICHAELANGELO: Those bros... are not... my bros.

----

MICHAELANGELO: Velma! Wait up!

VELMA: What is it, Michaelangelo?

MICHAELANGELO: The others have it all wrong! Those two dudes just now were not mutants!

VELMA: How do you mean?

MICHAELANGELO: I mean, like, well they could be.

VELMA: Your contradictions aren't helpful, Michaelangelo. Either they are or they aren't.

MICHAELANGELO: What I mean is, those dudes might be mutants, but those dudes are definitely not Shaggy and Scooby-Doo as mutants.

VELMA: Jinkies! Now I'm intrigued. Go on.

MICHAELANGELO: It was something they said earlier.

SHAGGY:(Flashback) Like, if we ever say no to an offer like that, we were probably replaced by impostors as some sort of devious master plan to take over the world.

MICHAELANGELO: But when I offered them some delicious slice-age, they totally did a number on the pizza parlor!

VELMA: That...

Velma takes off her glasses and rubs at her eyes. She has had a long day of dealing with mutants and inter-dimensional travel.

VELMA: That's not typically something I would consider hard evidence, but you're also not wrong. Even as terrifying mutants hellbent on the destruction of mankind, Scooby and Shaggy would've made sure they had scavenged the restaurant before destroying it.

----

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. I have actual work to do.

----

BONUS

IRMA: Do you have new friends? Are any of them cute? Are they single? Never mind. Answer the first two. I can take care of the rest.

APRIL: Not now, Irma.

DAPHNE: Is she okay?

APRIL: She’s always been that way. C’mon! We have work to do.

DAPHNE: Okay. (Shouting down the hall to Irma) Bye! Get help! I’m worried about you!

[iphoenixrising]

Dr!Tim Drabble: Robin

Well, Babes. You both must have fucking read my mind and shit because really. I kind of started this to be such a teaser when BOOP I got this ask and my fucking heart here. You’re right on the same page when it comes to Dr!Tim getting the real Robin experience, yeah? Lol. So, just a note. B’s bad guy persona is Matches. The dude with the epic porn ‘stache. Dick’s persona is Robbie Malone, which is pretty obscure and I looked it up on a good wiki to make sure.

HOWEVER *ahem* An incredible artist @kaciart did a thing here: http://thingsfortwwings.tumblr.com/post/55338349568/kaciart-it-was-never-made-clear-whether-tim-knew. Which helped the muse.

So… so there’s that. XD Hope it's as good.

**

The Robin in Gotham that night is just a little bit taller. Not by much. He's hesitant, a newbie to the vigilante game, and even if he's got a grapple on his belt, he only uses it once. Only a drunk or two catch him strafing across rooftops, the flicker of yellow, red, and green against the lamplight.

The rest of the city is asleep. As luck would have it, he stumbles on some baddies with a leg up on him, tossing a pellet in the right spot with knockout gas to make carrying him through the night that much easier. When Robin comes to, the blurry residual clears and behind the whiteouts, his vision is sharp. Being handcuffed in a crummy warehouse in the Narrows is not really the way he'd hoped to spend his first real experience in the tunic.

(And if he embarrasses the name, a certain little demon will probably eviscerate him.

"I allow you one night–"

"To my credit, I really thought those ninjas would go down easier."

"May I remind you–"

"I know, I know. It's not one of my hobbies. No more almost getting killed under your name, I promise.")

But a single dim bulb hangs with enough away to reveal the long, lean line of muscle still half in shadows watching him from behind whiteouts.

"Been a real pain in my nut, Robin." Is more dangerous behind the synths, more casual when the Red Hood, notorious enforcer for the Black Mask, straightens up and starts to move forward. "Gettin' in my fucking business means I gotta make an example outta ya, so’s no one else thinks they can stop the trade, you feel me?" Robin's eyes narrow but his pulse is picking up, his muscles tighten against the ropes.

“Or,” he tries with a bravado he doesn’t necessarily feel, “you could cut this chase short and let me take you in so you don’t make it worse for yourself.”

The sound is probably a snort but the synths make it hard to decipher.

“Mmhm, an’ any other damn day, ya might be right. But since I know the Bat is outta town, and the rest a’ yer little cape n’ cowl crew are busy, n’ yer own yer own, little birdy. Even fucking better, I got me an old friend in Gotham t’night, and I gotta say–” the way Hood moves, hips swaying, something of a swagger, all indications the vigilante has a plan, makes Robin catch a breath with what the hell else?

“Ya might be in over yer head.”

And oh God.

He’s in for it.

(Teasing his boyfriends can have some interesting results, so even with the plan they’d had for him tonight, there were so many things they hadn’t told him.)

Because the shift in the shadows and the crimson slash is just what the bad guy ordered, and the man coming out of the shadows to stand beside Hood is nothing short of mouth-wateringly dangerous– all done in sharp black and red.

Something in Robin’s abdomen goes unbearably tight when Renegade puts the intense focus of those whiteouts right on him, folds his arms over his chest, and his tongue darts out to lick his lips.

Even while he might be melting into a puddle of oh God, please, please, I’ve been a bad Robin, he can maneuver his hands well enough to get into the green gloves for the small lockpick set he’d completely kyped out of B’s utility belt the last time they’d had a little snatch n’ stitch. Since he’s completely used to working with fine instruments wearing gloves, working the small end into the handcuffs is easier than he’d originally calculated.

(So much win going on right now.)

“So nice to know you’ve got friends in town, Hood. I hope you have an itinerary to show him the sights. Robinson Park is really nice this time of year.” He tries to keep the banter, give himself time he needs to work the cuffs.

(Still, watching them walk toward him like a fucking bad ass wet dream is really making the night look up regardless of how things are going to go from here.)

“Too much mouth on ya, Robin,” and the flex of hips and thighs, the glint off the gun in Hood’s hand, the feral-looking smirk on Renegade’s face make him take a pause to work his fingers into the back of the utility belt, bite down on his lower lip to try and get–

Yes.

“Looks like we need to shut him up, Hood,” is Renegade’s deep response, that tone rolling around in the abandoned warehouse, makes a shiver work up his spine.

Which causes him to drop the pellet he’d been holding, the little ball rolling right under his chair.

Fuck. That’s bad.

He tries to think fast, using his weight to throw his chair back, out of the way of the little blast and following plumes of smoke. It’s really nothing more than dumb luck that the chair is probably older than all of them and pretty much breaks into kindling on impact.

It’s even luckier that the small blast is inconsequential but the smoke screen gives him the opportunity to wiggle enough to get his cuffed wrists down far enough to get his feet over them so at least his hands are bound in the front.

Rolling to his feet, he tries to duck away from the chair in the thick smoke, cape hitting him in the back of the ankles, and fucking right, he didn’t even lose the lockpick.

(“Damn. Good one, Baby Bird. Didn’t see that shit coming.”

“This is going to be much better than we thought, Jay.”

“Fuck right, Dickie, now we gedda chase.”

And with that little revelation, Robin is thinking, looking around at the high windows, making plans.)

He flips one of the few bat-a-rangs in his utility belt, awkwardly holding it up to throw with his bound hands. He manages throw far enough to knock it into an empty crate further down than where he’s hiding, but it draws the attention of the “baddies” coming through the dissipating smoke after him.

It does the job and he sees the outline of Hood and Renegade change course, closer to the sound.

“You’re only making it harder on yourself, Robin,” Renegade purrs low, his footsteps not even making a sound when he shares a side-eye with Hood and moves around to take the back for the element of surprise.

“When we catch ya,” Hood is cooing through the synths, popping the clip out of his .45 to make sure again he’s toting blanks (the one in his boot has the rubber rounds should things get dicey and they need ta make with the real crime fighting) before he circles around the smoky pile of old pallets and crates laying in dusty ruin, “we ain’t gonna be nice ‘bout it, you feel me, Robin? Gonna make ya one sorry lil’ bird.”

(But he totally hears, “gonna fuck ya until ya scream for it, Baby. Gonna make ya come ‘til ya can’t even stand up no more.”)

The handcuffs finally pop as the two bad guys jump in their planned strike, coming down on a whole lotta empty pallets with only a bat-a-rang there for them to stare at.

“Little motherfucker,” is all he needs to hear, shoving the handcuffs in his belt (in case he needs to have a plan) and pulling the grapple while his pulse throbs in his mouth and his adrenaline kicks up a notch. He’s got to shoot and reel himself in before they get to him, got to get out the upper windows and climb to the roof, got to at least get a few buildings over before they catch him.

(And he completely has a new appreciation for the reinforced jocks they wear under the suits because the things is literally killing him right now.)

The bang makes him flinch regardless, and with that, the jig is completely up. Two heads swivel toward the sound, trace the line up to the window sill where the hook sinks deep, and the shadow of the cape flares out like wings as the grapple pulls Robin from the ground and away.

“Fuck this is gettin’ good,” Hood breathes out, already pulling his own, watching the flex of Timmy’s thighs in those fucking tights and his ass outlined in Robin Red.

The window breaks with his momentum, and Robin pauses on the broken sill long enough to grin widely down at them, “I really need to be on my way, but we should do this again sometime!”

The cap flaps around the green tights and black boots as Robin scales the ancient fire escape and disappears out of sight.

Renegade puts a hand on his wrist, stills Hood from raising the grapple for the ole’ point-n-shoot. “Let him get a little bit of distance, Jay. He’s putting a hell of a lot into this.”

“Big Wing,” and even with the whiteouts on both sides, he knows how dark Dickies eyes are, is pretty sure his are just as dark. “ we’re gonna destroy that ass, you feel me?”

“You know we are. Damn, he looks cute in that suit.”

“Cute? Nah, ain’t where I’m at right now, yeah? Motherfucking sexy is ‘bout what I’m feelin’.”

“Fuckable, sure, but wow, he wears it so well.”

“Don’t tell Demon. That little shit won’t never let this happen again.”

“Right. We play it out with our boyfriend, fuck him on a safe rooftop, then take him home for a soak in the tub and cuddle-palooza.”

“You better fuckin’ add pancakes ta that list, Dickie. I like seein’ ‘im all full n’ sleepy after we fucked ‘im but good.”

“Done and done.”

In a smooth move, Hood raises the grapple again and loops his free arm around Renegade’s waist, pulling his Baby Boy right into his body.

The two vigilantes pause in the moment, and Renegade raises both hands quick, hits the right spot on the back of the helmet to release the catch, pulls the damn thing off so they can have just a second–

And anyone looking in the dilapidated warehouse down by Dixon Docks in that exact moment would be scandalized to see the Red Hood and Renegade writhing against one another, caught up in the taste of one another, just a tease before the grapple starts to reel.

**

Robin is panting with the effort, tries not to get tangled in his cape, tries to keep his eyes open to everything around him with the sharp vision he gets behind the whiteouts.

Luckily for him, he’s shaking off the residual of the sedative and this area of the city is one so absolutely familiar, he already knows he’s got an edge.

The same spots from those days when he was a kid with a camera, hiding while he followed the flying vigilantes are obviously still there, could still give him a place to duck if he thinks his pursuers are getting too close. If Dick and Jay had really been paying those old photographs in the shoebox enough attention, they’d probably be able to pick out the majority of his hidey-holes and make this game come to a quick and abrupt end (he’s hoping they don’t because he’s really, really enjoying this).

But, he’s already evaded them three times and he’s still too damn far from his apartment to believe he’s anywhere near home free.

Which is why he’s wasting time ducked down between two massive air conditioning units on the Mylar building instead of in Renegade and Hood’s path. A few feet away is an old bridge the maintenance crew used to get up to the next roof, giving him an out to use the grapple for a swing and give himself away.

He waits until the shadows recede and he can’t see either of them before he darts out and takes the bridge at a run, making a leap that immediately gets his adrenaline back up.

His chest is heaving a little because the climb is about a bitch.

A hard jerk on the suspension bridge takes him by surprise as both “villains” land it on either side of him, effectively boxing him in.

Well, fuck.

He pulls the grapple since, you know, the jig is up, but an escrima stick knocks the damn thing from his hand, and no amount of time he’s spent in the gym or hard-core parkour is going to get him out of this little sitch.

(Dammit. Trapped.)

Renegade clicks his tongue, “tsk, tsk, Robin. Nice try, but you should have tried to stay ahead of us. That might have gotten you home free.” And the two start advancing on him, getting closer. Robin looks from one to the other, bites down on his lower lip–

Until the plan pops into his head.

“Gonna enjoy this, little bird,” Hood drawls out, “after the run ya gave us.”

Panting, Robin tries to make the move subtle enough to miss, back up just a step, tries to make it look like he’s searching for a way out when he looks over the bridge and all the way down.

The action works because both villains jump for him at the same time, trying to keep him from throwing himself over, and it gives Robin just enough of a chance to let his knees give out from under him and fake fall to the wobbly bridge so Renegade can careen over his head at the same time Hood smacks into him, landing the two in a heap right at Robin’s feet.

The knock of Hood’s helmet against Renegade’s forehead gives him a crucial moment to slam the handcuffs he’d kept down on the Red Hood’s left wrist and Renegade’s right one, pushing the sides closed to cuff the two together.

(Oh fuck is he winning here.)

He’s already moving back while they untangle themselves and stare at their cuffed wrists before slowly, ever so slowly, turning to him.

“Well, damn.” And if he didn’t know better, he’d say Hood was, well, impressed.

(I have other hobbies, asshole, remember?)

“The surprises keep coming,” Renegade already climbing to his feet is grinning widely, Hood following in a smooth motion. “Too bad it isn’t going to save you, you know.”

“I just need to keep you two on–”

When he would have finished off the banter portion with on your toes, what he gets is the terrible sighing sound breaking the night, followed right by a sharp twang that is all too fucking familiar.

(Why do bridges have a tendency to break while he’s on them? Seriously now?)

His whole body jerks up, head turning to the sight of the old bridge coming apart and falling from under him, making him gasp in hard enough to hurt, making his knees knock, making a hard reality of Oh God, not again.

But cuffed arms brace under his and the bang of grapples firing shakes him out of breath-stealing panic, Hood and Renegade working in tandem to send the three of them flying through the night while the bridge crumbles to Gotham’s dirty sidewalk below.

Effortlessly, the villains land them on the Mylar, setting the three of them down in the shadows where one side of the building keeps it absolutely hidden away.

“Holy shit,” Robin pants out, held up between Hood and Renegade, his chest heaving under the tunic. “That...was not part of the plan.”

“Good to know,” Renegade lays his forehead against the base of Robin’s neck, exhaling slowly, moving his free hand down to push the cape out from between their bodies, to twist it around his hand for the next step.

“I’ll fuckin’ say,” Hood deactivates the helmet and tosses it down, moves a step closer to sandwich Robin between the two of them. With just a dom, his eyes are dark blue without the flecks of jade which means he’s probably still riding a little bit of the adrenaline from the almost-oops.

Robin looks up and over when Hood holds up his cuffed hand and arches a brow. “Still, ya gonna have ta work on them plans, Rob, if ya wanna get the better of us, yeah? This ain’t bad, but that don’t mean–”

And Robin gasps when his gloves wrists are gathered up by the cuffed hands, pulled over his head to stretch his body taunt.

Renegade is leaning down to talk against his ear, growling low and so fucking dangerous, “–you’re going to get away this time. Sorry, little bird. Looks like we win.”

**

Apparently things like capes are weapons and should not be used against him.

Or...well, maybe he’s going to re-think that since his wrists are bound together tight before they even worked the tunic open.

Renegade is keeping Robin’s bound arms down with a knee and a gloved hand over his mouth to make sure the noises are nice and quiet, kept between just the three of them. Hood had picked the cuffs in approximately two seconds to give them both a chance to get to work on making sure the young vigilante knew he was fucking around with the real deal.

The utility belt came off, lying just out of reach and Robin’s thighs spread open with less fight than anticipated.

The struggling, the writhing against Hood’s crotch, the straining muscle and taunt hold is just this side of perfect. For a little show, Hood pulls out a wickedly sharp knife, the glint dull in the night, leans down over Robin’s body and slides the sharp end of the blade right over the base of his throat, bare now that his cape is gone.

(But even though Timmy’s is half-assed struggling, he ain’t scared. No fear in those eyes, yeah?)

“Better be a good little bird, Rob. I like ta keep m’ implements nice n’ sharp. Don’t wanna make me slip by accident.”

Renegade’s hand on the younger vigilante’s mouth pulls so the head tilts back, eyes looking up. “I’ve known Hood for a long time, kid. You don’t want to see the master at work.”

When the struggling stops and the only thing Robin is doing is panting against Renegade’s hand, the sharp edge eases up slightly, slides down his chest, the tip fitting right under the tunic’s laces.

“Atta boy. Make it easier on yerself. Ain’t nobody gonna find ya, so don’t gotta have it rough unless ya wanna.”

“He might like it that way, Hood.” The first lace gives without hesitation. “Maybe we should go a little hard on him to find out.”

The second lace.

“But lookit how cute he is, Baby Boy. Gonna show ‘im just how things gotta go down on our side a’ the law, ain’t we? That don’t mean we gotta get nasty ‘bout it long as he behaves himself.”

The third.

Finally, the two villains are finally getting a little skin, and a gloved hands runs down Robin’s collar bone, moves to thumb and tweak until the little nub under is tight.

The hand on Robin’s mouth tightens down when the moan cuts through the stillness.

“He needs to learn, Hood. He can’t mess with business and get away without paying the price.” The thumb on Robin’s face moves over the domino and the whiteouts slide down, showing half-mast eyes, darkening by degrees.

“Mmhm. That’s the thing ‘bout Gotham, ain’t it?” And the hands moving down, pull hard, rip the tunic until there’s nothing in his path except the tights and reinforced jock. “Always got consequences, Rob, and you? You ain’t any different.”

The telltale tremble in his thighs makes the Red Hood grin wide and white (don’t be breaking character yet, Baby Bird. We gotta whole lotta play still left), and he’s nothing but a nasty bastard when he runs both hands up the inside of those thighs, grips tight to make sure there’s gonna be bruises there tomorrow.

Since he and Dickie pretty much engineered this whole thing (and made a suit with strategized weaknesses), the tights give under his hands, ripping open from the waist to the knee. He hands a sizeable strip to Renegade and leans down over Robin’s body, giving a little bit of distraction while his partner in crime moves just long enough to tie the strip in their little vigilante’s mouth.

“Much better.” He palms the grapple in his freed hand, and pulls out the line, throws the hook to catch on the lip of the roof and wrap the other end to keep Robin from going anywhere. Renegade pulls off the head piece, is in just a domino so he can flick the catch of his suit and pull it down to bare a tantalizing v-ee of his chest.

With the suit ripped away, helpless to whatever they planned to do to him on a roof in the middle of Gotham, Robin is gagged and panting, his chest stuttering with it, going pink down his collarbone and upper chest.

(Fingers slide into one of his bound hand, and the metal ball gives a soft jingle. All he has to do is drop it if he needs to stop, all he has to do is give the signal. He’s in control, he’s in control, he’s in control–)

And the feel of Hood’s gloves on his hip bone, tearing the strap on the reinforced jock makes his hips twitch, makes him unconsciously arch into the touch even when his hard cock springs up into the cool Gotham air.

“That’s smart kid. This’ll go easier for you if you try to enjoy it.” Renegade palms the vial in his suit and holds it up where the can both see it, smirks at the muffled noise right beside his thigh.

Hood grins back at him and pops the lid, dribbles lube on his fingers and lifts one of Robin’s calves for Renegade to hold. He hoists the other, runs his slick fingers over Robin’s balls, tugs a little, slides his forefinger up the underside of the vigilante’s straining cock, just a tease.

Getting his suit down far enough with one hand, Renegade shakes Robin’s leg, palms the side of his face to turn him, gets a load of those eyes, “My partner here is going to give you the fuck of a lifetime. And you? Are going to suck me while he does it.”

The jock is gone, and Robin gasps in hard through his nose, those eyes rolling over the length, teeth biting down on the gag in his mouth. He watches, mesmerized, as the gloved hand strokes himself, makes himself harder, gives Robin a preview to what he’s about to get.

When Hood spreads him open wider, slick and blunt finger sliding in, moving fast and hard, making Robin’s spine arch while he watches Renegade jerk off right in front of his face, mouth watering for it, his cock aching, his body clenching when one finger becomes two, and the desperation for more is starting to take over.

Pulling against the zip line isn’t doing anything for him because he can’t move, is caught between them, is already making noises with his body anticipating Hood (Jay) making him utterly senseless while he sucks Renegade’s thick cock to the fucking base.

(This is the best thing to ever happen.)

A jerk of his hips and a third finger slides in, gives him only a few thrusts against his spot, just enough for Hood to smirk and finally pull out.

“Gonna keep ya nice n’ tight fer me, Robin,” and while he’s been prepping the vigilante, he’d pulled himself out, lubed himself up to press right against the prize waiting for him. “But don’t worry. Since yer being a good, little bird, we’ll make sure you get yers.”

And Robin throws his head back, body arching in a clean line as well as he can with his legs caught and hands restrained. His fist tightens on the bell, keening through his gag as Hood pushes in, gives a few slow back-and-forths until he’s balls deep with a long moan.

“Lookit you taking all of his dick on the first go,” Renegade purrs down at him, and thumbs the gag out of his mouth, puts a finger over his lips. “Good for you, little bird. Now you’re going to give me mine. Don’t make me have to tell you to be very good.”

Renegade pulls with fingers on his jaw, and Robin opens up without a fight, taking the wide head in, moaning around it. Hood finally gets the point that he’s sure he isn’t going to come immediately when he moves, changing his hold to fit the bend of Robin’s knee and hoist his hips up higher, makes sure he’s in as far as he can possibly go (just the way Timmy likes it), then pulls back, starts up a few slow-n’-easies before he picks up the pace.

And Robin’s eyes are fluttering behind the domino, sliding his tongue around Renegade’s cock, leaning closer when he can take more, when he can take it deeper--

And suck.

“Holy–” and the villain’s hips twitch, a gloved hand threading into his hair, holds him still as hips twitch and fuck his mouth in shallow thrusts. “Fuck, know what you’re doing, don’t you Robin? Ah, you’re going to love my cock by the time we’re done with you.”

“Ya kiddin’ me, Baby Boy? Fuck him and you’ll be in love with his ass. Like a fucking vice.” And Hood leans over Robin’s body to get a better view of Renegade’s hips twitching, cock sliding in and out of his mouth, of Robin’s cheeks hollowing, of his jaw moving, of the tight nubs they’re both absently working.

In a calculated move, Renegade gives Hood a wink, and they both draw back, leave just the tip in him, gets a low noise for the effort, and fuck back into him with a vengeance.

“That’s right, little birdie. Found yer sweet spot, yeah?” And the strokes inside him are long and firm and fast, his spot abused by each one, making the pressure in his belly start to burn.

Renegade keeps up with a smooth, steady pace, sliding over his tongue, spilling pre-come in his throat, staring down as he pants, watching Robin take every fucking inch.

He’s moaning around the width in his mouth, in his throat, trying to suck, trying to scream while his cock throbs and the R still partly on his chest gleams in the night.

Hood’s balls slapping against his ass, and Renegade panting, groaning out above him, and a gloved hands fists him at the base, starts stroking him in time with the hits to his spot.

And the rhythm is driving, pound, rushing, his pulse racing in his ears, struggling to get a breath, but it’s all toomuchmoremoremore that he can’t think past the need to come, whimpering in his throat when he can, and trying to move his hips up into the fist pumping him and down into the pound thrusts driving him closer and closer to the edge.

“That’s right, give it up, Robin,” Renegade pants, groans down at him, working his hips, fucking into that throat, “you’re gonna take everything we give you, and when you go back to the Bat, you’ll remember just what you get when you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Hood draws back to fuck in hard, tightening his hand down and speed up. “We’re gonna make sure this lessons sticks, Baby Boy. Fill ‘im up good, make sure he knows what happens ta bad little birdies.”

Robin screams around Renegade’s cock when fingers tease the tip of him and hips ground into deep, trying to move but he’s helplessly caught.

When Renegade leans down over him, talks low and feral, fucking into his mouth with fast, hard jerks, getting harder against his tongue, when it’s those blue eyes with the haze of need and want, (when it’s Dick talking to him), when the words, “come for us, baby,” are breathed so soft and fond, his body lets go, the knot of tension exploding, sending tingling pleasure from his ass to his cock to his nipples and spreads out until his eyes are rolling back in his head and all he can do is suck Renegade’s come down his throat while the pleasure loops around and keeps him going.

“Fuck, baby,” (Is Jay instead of��) Hood yells to the night sky, Robin’s body milking him, tightening down so hard, so fast, so wet, that he comes with a jolt, burying himself deep to fill the vigilante up.

And while Gotham remains completely serene at this time of night, three (two, technically) caped crusaders are laying out on the roof of the Mylar building in a tangle of limbs, panting, and weak, and so amazingly sated.

Boneless and content not to move another inch in his life, Tim manages to slide a gloved hand out of the knot made from the cape, and wipe his mouth, absently keeping track of his heart rate.

Dick is curled around his upper body, idly running fingers through his hair, the Renegade costume zipped half-way up his chest so he doesn’t get a whole lot of roof rash. On his other side, Jay has a heavy arm over his bare hips, a leg thrown over his and the Kevlar feels just as good on bare skin as it always does.

“That? Was fucking amazing,” he murmers, drowsy, shivering slightly now that he realizes he’s pretty much naked on a roof in the middle of the city after being fucked out of his mind, and somehow--

This is his life.

So it’s good when his vigilante boyfriends recover enough to maybe get them the hell off this roof before people like, office staff start coming into the Mylar’s upper floors for work.

Dawn is riding the horizon when he’s pulled to his feet and wrapped in Robin’s cape, rocking a toga to cover the torn suit and tunic, and carried off by his vigilante boyfriends so he can be absolutely lazy and just let Dick then Jay take him flying.

He has to make his body work when maneuvering through the window with shaky legs. Jay gives the helmet a toss in pretty much the direction of the kitchen table before picking Tim up by the back of his thighs, and let their doctor squawk but still flops his upper body flops over Jay’s shoulder.

Dick has the Renegade suit hanging off his hips, moving around the kitchen bare-chested with a domino, making coffee that is desperately, desperately needed.

“I’ll be there in a sec! I was promised cuddles, Jay, and I expect you two to deliver.”

“Bath first, Big Wing. Gotta let Timmy take a soak. Getcha ass in here so’s we can wash ‘im but good.” The abrupt smack and corresponding yelp from the path down the hall toward the direction of the bathroom makes Dick smirk and quickly scoop the grounds in while trying to get a glove off with his teeth.

“‘Sides, we might need ta give Sweets one more go ‘round, you feel me here, Dickie?”

“Wh-what?! How do you even expect me to get hard right now?!”

The bath is running in Tim’s massive tub (the real benefit to the apartment after all), and the sounds of Kevlar and Nomac sliding off of skin a soft sight when Dick comes to join them.

“You know, Timmy,” is a followed up by a very Dick Grayson smile, all full of bedroom eyes and promise, “we do have our ways.”

So if the tub sloshes over, and the neighbors complain about the noise this time of day (again), if maybe there might be...another suit buried in the back of their closet a few days later, if maybe he takes more detours when his boys are on the job and he can have time to scout hiding places and perfectly sized niches, when he can calculate more routes and moves.

He’s going to say, it’s always good to have a plan because of things like bleeding vigilantes—you know, on my fire escape. But in reality, it’s because now that he’s worn the tunic, flown through Gotham, and he’s pretty damn sure he’s got enough skill to make them work a hell of a lot harder–

Next time.

[majesty-madness]

Kakashi’s Family: Book 2 (Kakashi’s fate)

18-A New Life

Before she knew it, Kana was surrounded by the bright lights of the village hospital, being rushed toward the front desk.

"We need help!" Kurenai called out, drawing the attention of a few medics.

"What's wrong?" A female medic asked as she approached Kurenai, a fellow medic also stepping closer.

"She's been poisoned and she's in labor." Kurenai frantically answered back.

The medic ninja's eyes widened upon learning this bit of information. "Alright. I'm gonna need a stretcher over here!" The ninja exclaimed and in a matter of seconds several ninja came rushing out with a stretcher.

The medic ninja helped place Kana on top of the stretcher and swiftly pushed her out of the room towards the back of the hospital. Kakashi attempted to follow the medic ninjas but was stopped by someone else.

"I'm sorry but I can't let you go with them." A medic ninja said.

Kakashi looked down to the small medic ninja in disbelief. "She's my wife, I have to be there with her."

The medic ninja gave him a sympathetic expression. "I truly am sorry but they need the space to be able to work and you need treatment. You're wounded." The ninja apologized again.

Kakashi looked away from the medic in front of him and watched as his wife was, once again, being taken away. But this time, he was willing to let her go because if he wasn't he would most likely lose her.

________

Oh how she wished for all of the pain to stop however, she knew that the law of nature was not going to grant her that wish anytime soon.

Of course not. When had life ever been so generous. Not a time Kana could remember right off the top of her head.

Just then, Kana got a strong urge to push and this was definitely the time to do it. Now that she was finally in a hospital and all.

"I-I...need to push. I need to push." Kana announced to the nurses and doctors in the room.

The head female doctor stood in front of Kana as she slipped on her last thin rubber glove. "Alright, when I count to three I want you push okay?"

Kana nodded weakly. The doctor began to count. "One...two...th-"

The doctor was just about to list off three when Kana abruptly interrupted. "WAIT! Wait!" She paused, taking in a sharp inhale of oxygen. "I-I want Kakashi. Get Kakashi."

The doctor stood there bewildered for a moment. "What?! No. No! You need to push now! If you wait any longer than you already have then-" She was interrupted again.

"PLEASE! He's the father! I need him to be here! He promised!" Kana desperately pleaded. She wasn't sure if it was from the agony or from her emotional state but soon tears were streaming down her face.

The doctor thought for a second before letting out a grumbled sigh and pointed to one of the nurses. "Go find Kakashi! And do it now!" She ordered.

The nurse ran out of Kana's temporary room and made a made dash for the front desk.

"Nurse, I want you to prepare for the poison extraction process. Once this baby comes out, we need to act fast." The doctor ordered again, causing one nurse to nod and start preparing for the worse that had yet to come.

Just like the head doctor had ordered, the nurse rushed down the halls of the hospital and sped right to the front desk.

"What room is Kakashi Hatake in?!" The medic ninja asked the receptionist while several pants followed.

"U-uh....K-kakashi is in...uh...room...108." The receptionist stammered as he pointed to another hallway, to his right.

As the nurse that had stopped Kakashi from following after Kana, had wrapped the final bandage on Kakashi's wounds, someone burst through the room door. Startling the nurse, him, and even Kakashi's friends that had been in the room with him.

"Kakashi?!"

"Yes?" Kakashi tersely answered.

"Your wife is asking for you. She wants you to be there when the baby is born!" The medic panted out as her heart pounded against her chest.

In a matter of seconds, Kakashi dashed out the room and followed the medic ninja. As did his friends.

When they approached Kana's room, it was clear that she was in quite a bit of pain. Her sharp gasps, breathy moans, and sobs could be heard from beyond the door.

Kakashi's heart ached for her.

The nurse turned to face the extra party, "I'm sorry but I can't let anyone beside the father to enter the room." She said gesturing to Kakashi in the midst of her sentence.

Kurenai spoke. "Don't worry we'll be right out here, Kakashi. In case you need us." She reassured, her lips forming the slightest of smiles.

Kakashi gave Kurenai a nod of approval before entering Kana's room.

Even though her mind was clouded, she didn't fail to notice her beloved walk through that door.

"Kakashi!"

"Kana!"

The silver haired shinobi rushed over to his wife and embraced her, well as much as he could with the hospital bed in his way.

Kana gripped onto Kakashi's shirt so tightly, her knuckles turned white and her hands became almost numb. "It hurts, Kakashi. It hurts so much." Kana cried into his shirt.

Kakashi kissed her head loving. "I know. I know it hurts. But you're going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay but right now, you've gotta do what they tell you okay? For the baby." He cooed, carding his fingers through her bright blonde hair.

"Can you do that for me, Kana?"

There was a long pause as Kana let out small whimpers, and inhaled and exhaled sharply, each one more difficult than that the last.

However, she finally answered. Biting her lip in a grimace, Kana nodded her head. She slowly let go of her grip from Kakashi's shirt as she settled back onto the hospital bed while Kakashi gripped her hand tenderly with both of his bandaged ones.

"Alright. Now again, when I count to three I want you to push." The doctor repeated her words from earlier.

"Okay..." Kana breathed out harshly.

"Okay. One...two...three!"

All of Kana's muscles tense up as she focused her energy on trying to force her baby out. It was one of the most excruciating moments in her life and not because of the baby.

Or at least not just because of the baby.

When Kana tensed her muscles she was hit with a pain that was too overwhelming to rationalize. Her entire body was covered in different waves of pain, it was like being stabbed from the inside with no exterior wounds. Certain places would hurt more than others but when using real effort, everything hurt.

Kana cried out then let out a gasp as she took in a breath after not doing so while pushing.

"Push in one...two...Three!" The doctor ordered again while keeping a watchful eye on the baby's status at this point.

"Argh!" Kana let out a strangled sob as her voice increased in volume, painting a very clear picture for the friends who were anxiously waiting outside.

When Kana would voice how much she hurt, Kakashi's heart went out to her. In all of the time that he had known her, he had never once seen Kana in so much pain that she cried out like this. Of course, he had seen people injured and had listened to their moans of discomfort but to hear, his wife of all people, be in this level of agony really, really broke his heart.

After the second hard push, Kana relaxed a tad bit while trying to regulate her breathing. She was becoming lightheaded, sweat dripping down her temples causing strands of her hair to stick to her head.

"You're doing great, just one more push. One more push." The doctor reassured, a smile forming under her mask. "One....two....THREE!"

"ARGH!" Kana let loose one final scream in a desperate attempt to finish this once and for all. And she finish it she did.

A sudden baby's cry was the only sound that filled the room. Kana relaxed herself whole body against the hospital bed as she searched frantically for the figure of her baby.

The head doctor held the baby in her arms looking down at it with endearing eyes. "It's a girl."

Kakashi's lip quivered. "A girl?" He rhetorically asked, tears welling up at the base of his eyes, even his sharingan eye.

Despite being in a sickening amount of pain, Kana still had the spirit to smile. To grin even. She couldn't believe it, finally, her baby was here.

Unfortunately, the happy moment was short lived when the monitor tracking Kana's vitals went haywire, alarms going off on the screen.

The doctor realised that she needed to act fast. This was the final battle.

She swiftly handed the baby off to another nurse. "Go, take care of her and I'll take care of mama here."

The nurse nodded and quickly made her way out of the room.

Kakashi abruptly stood up from where he had been sitting beside his wife. "What's wrong? Is she alright?" He anxiously questioned as his own choice of words sent chills down his spine.

The doctor rushed over to Kakashi and respectfully pushed him toward the door. "I'm sorry but I can't let you stay any longer. We need the space to treat your wife. She is under a lot of pressure from the poison." She explained, forcing Kakashi out of the room and then closing the door in his face. No rudeness intended.

Kurenai, Gai, and Asuma were quick to rush to Kakashi's side.

"What's going on?" Asuma asked.

"Is Kana alright?" Gai then shortly asked.

"Where's the baby?" Kurenai followed right after Gau.

Kakashi let his gaze finally shift from the door to face his friends. "They are treating Kana now." He answered lowly, his expression fearful.

Kurenai bobbed her head in acknowledgment to the underlying meaning of what Kakashi just said.

"I see." She uttered.

It was clear to all of them that Kakashi was not entirely sure about Kana's condition or even about his baby's condition. So even though he hadn't provided them with a one-hundred percent response that answered their sensitive questions, they understood not to press the matter any further. The situation was already stressful enough for Kakashi.

He been kidnapped. Tortured. His wife had been kidnapped and poisoned. His baby could very well be under the effects of that very poison and his wife was currently fighting for her life.

There was officially nothing he could do but wait and hope. Hope for a miracle. Hope that his wife and child would return to him safely.

________

It was insufferable. The waiting. The anticipation. Every moment that passed just seemed to put Kakashi more and more on edge. He didn't pace back and forth or twiddle his thumbs to pass the time. No. He sat in the hallway, falling deep into his own thoughts.

Was his baby okay?

Was his wife okay? Or at the very least alive?

He didn't know.

Fuck! This was killing him. Why was this taking so long? Why wouldn't they let him know any bit of information about Kana how was? Was he already too late?

Kakashi gritted his teeth in frustration when Kurenai interrupted him from his endless worry.

"Kakashi?"

The bandaged shinobi stood up from his chair to see the head doctor standing just a few feet away.

"It's alright. She's fine." The doctor immediately mentioned, sensing Kakashi's intense concern.

Kakashi, and his friends, let out a collective sigh of relief when learning that Kana was alive.

"We were able to successfully extract the poison from her body. Though it was an unknown toxin, we managed to quickly create a remedy. She's resting right now but you are more than welcome to go and see her." The doctor gestured toward the door of Kana's room with a kind smile on her face.

Kakashi nodded. "Thank you." He then entered the room to see Kana lying asleep on the hospital bed. He couldn't blame her, if fact he was quite tired himself.

After approaching the bedside, Kakashi just stood there observing every one of Kana's features.

He had always thought she was beautiful no matter what but had she always looked so gorgeous? Even though she looked completely exhausted, she still represented beauty itself.

Kakashi gently grasped Kana's hand in his own and chuckled at the fact that her hand fit so perfectly in his.

"Kakashi?"

Being so distracted by her delicate hands, Kakashi hadn't noticed Kana's eyes on him.

He smiled. "Hey." The silver haired ninja leaned over and brought Kana into a loving embrace. "How do you feel?"

Kana slowly raised her hand to pat his shoulder. Since she felt as if her body was drained of all its energy, right now she could only muster simple gestures and such. "Tired." Kana simply answered causing Kakashi to laugh quietly.

He pulled away and kissed her head tenderly. "I'm so glad you're okay."

Kana smiled this time. "I'm so glad you're okay." She looked him up and down, noticing the clear bandages. "More or less." She joked.

"Excuse me?" A fellow nurse called out.

The husband and wife looked over to the nurse standing in the doorway while cradling something in her arms.

The nurse smiled. "Would you like to see your baby?"

Kana and Kakashi exchanged knowing expressions. Then Kana held up her hands in welcome. "Yes please."

The nurse walked over to Kana, as Kakashi stepped aside for a moment to give the nurse space while she headed the baby to the tired young woman. The nurse then bowed and took her leave.

"Look at her." Was the first thing Kana said while tears were subconsciously rolled down her cheeks. "She's so beautiful."

Kakashi sat on the edge of the hospital bed, taking in the scene before him. His wife, and his baby were alive and well. Able to live happy lives.

"Our bundle of joy." Kakashi commented earning a genuine grin from Kana.

"Yeah. Our bundle of joy. Our baby girl." Kana cried while also keeping that grin glued to her face.

"That's right." Kakashi leaned down, pulling his dark mask down from his face, and passionately pressed his lips against his wife's. "Our baby girl." He empathized, his smile growing ever bigger, stretching from ear to ear.

"I love you, Kakashi. I love you so much." Kana stated as if he wasn't aware of that fact. But he was.

"I love you too, Kana. I love you both so much." He wrapped one arm around Kana's shoulder and pulled her head into his side as he lifted his other hand to softly caress his daughter's fragile scalp.

Finally. Finally, they had defeated their most powerful enemy yet and managed to make it through to the other side. Not completely unscathed but made it nonetheless.

Kakashi had his wife and daughter back and Kana had her husband. They could put all the past few frightening days of their lives behind them and could focus on the creation right before them. Their daughter. And what better ray sunshine than their own child. Kaiya Hatake.

[cheneyq]

The UpsideDownWhat? - Part 4 - (Steve Harrington xx)

THIS IS NOW A SERIES !! I’LL BE UPDATING WHEN I GET A CHANCE!!

Parts - One - Two - Three - Four - Five - Six - Seven - Eight - Nine - Ten

Short Description – In this chapter the reader meets Lucas and Max, they talk relationships with Dustin and the reader finds out the big secret behind Steve’s perfect hair.

Pairing - Steve + reader

Warnings - Swearing + Sexual remarks and scenes (Smut – Not this chapter) + Violence

(A/n) - This is my first attempt of writing an imagine series. If you could comment at the end of this or just send me a message to tell me if it is good and if you want to find out the readers reaction when seeing the demodog for the first time.

Words - 2029

I DO REQUESTS!!!!! - Fandoms mainly include: Stranger things + Supernatural + Dexter + Vampire Diaries + The Originals + Teen Wolf + Tru Blood etc. (I do A lot more, just didn’t want to type everyone.)

“My God, this is disgusting.” You said, scrunching up your nose. You were busy helping Steve and Dustin cut up the big pieces of meat into smaller chunks, why you decided to do this in the woods out of Steve’s car still confuses you. You couldn’t help but stare at Steve. Watching him focus on not cutting his fingers. “Dustin! This is Lucas. Do you copy? Dustin?” a voice came out of nowhere, giving you a fright. “Well, well, well, look who it is.” Dustin replied, speaking into the mouth/earpiece he had on. You sighed in relief when you threw the last piece of meat into the bucket. Steve pulled out a gasoline tank and you frowned, staring at him. He just shrugged. You did not know gasoline was going to be involved.

“Sorry, man.” The voice spoke again. “My stupid sister turned it off.” Steve made eye contact with you, offering a small smile, you returned it. “Well, when you were having sister problems, Dart grew again.” Dustin said calmly. “He escaped, and I'm pretty sure he’s a baby Demogorgon.” You grabbed the other bat out of Steve’s trunk, this one was full metal. “Wait, what?” Dustin’s friend asked. “I’ll explain later. Just meet me, Steve and (Y/n) at the old junkyard.” Steve slowly took the bat out of your hands, you didn’t even realise that you were staring at it. In your head you imagined killing this alien thing and impressing everyone, you knew it would probably not happen, but a girl can dream.

“Steve?” the voice asked, sounding confused. “And bring your binoculars and wrist rocket.” You frowned at the words that came out of his mouth. “What's a wrist rocket.” You whispered at Steve, he shrugged. “Steve Harrington?” The voice questioned once more. Steve now held both the bats and a bucket of meat in one hand and, gripping the bats with his arm, he closed the trunk of the car. “All right, let’s go.” He said. Dustin ignored the question once more, “Just be there, stat. Over and out.” The voice didn’t say anything after that. “Let me help you.” You offered, taking the bats out from under his arm and turning him around, you stuck it into his backpack.

 “Who was that?” You asked Dustin as you zipped the bag closed. “Lucas, one of my friends.” You nodded. “Okay so what's the plan again?” Steve walked in front, Dustin in the middle and you at the back. “Well, basically just leave a trail of meat behind us, following us to the junkyard.” You nodded, and for a second questioned your mental health. Were you mentally prepared to do this? Probably not. You weren’t very mentally stable when it came to stuff scaring you, but then again you were also glad that you were here with Steve and not Nancy.

“I wanted Max to see it” Dustin said, telling us about the story how he wanted to impress the new girl by showing her Dart. “Okay, so let me get this straight.” Steve started. “You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who… who you just met?” Steve seemed confused, but you understood. You saw Dustin roll his eyes, “all right, that is grossly oversimplifying things.” He defended himself. “I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyways?” You looked at Steve who seemed confused. “An inter-dimensional slug?” Dustin questioned, Steve nodded. “Because it’s awesome.” You chimed in, causing Dustin to turn around and smile at you, “Thank you!” He exclaimed. “See, she gets it.”

Steve pulled his face, “Well even if she thought it was cool, which she didn’t, I … I just…” Steve examined his bucket, looking deep in thought. “I don’t know. I just feel like you're trying too hard, man.” Your head snapped towards him. “Steve.” You hissed, chucking a piece of meat towards him, missing his arm by a few inches. “What?” Steve asked. “Well not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?” Dustin mumbled, sounding down which caused you to glare at Steve again. Steve grunted, “It’s not about the hair, man.” You snorted.

 “Oh, it’s totally about the hair, man.” You said, chuckling at yourself for imitating the way he said ‘man’. “The key with girls is just… acting like you don’t care.” This time the piece of meat stuck to the front of Steve’s shirt. “Stop teaching him wrong.” You said, trying to get Steve to shut up. “Even if you do care?” Dustin questioned, ignoring your protest of Steve teaching him wrongly. “Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts.” Steve said cheekily and winked at you, which caused you to roll your eyes. “Then what?” Dustin seemed very interested in what Steve was saying. “You just wait until, uh…” Steve looked at a loss for words, which caused him to look at you for help.

“Until you feel it.” You said with a small smile, remembering the first time you felt it with Steve. “Feel what?” Dustin questioned. You tried to explain the feeling. “It’s like before it’s gonna storm, you know?” Steve looked at you confused, so did Dustin. “You can't see it, but you can feel it. Like this, uh…” You looked around searching for the right word. “Electricity, you know?” Dustin half nodded, “Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere-” Dustin started but Steve cut him off. “No, no, no, no, no. Like a… Like a sexual electricity.” You don’t know why but you smiled when Steve said that. So did he.

 “Oh.” Dustin said. “You feel that and then you make your move.” Steve once again winked at you. “so, that’s when you kiss her?” Your heart melted at Dustin’s innocence. “No, whoa, whoa. Slow down, Romeo.” Steve said, raising his hands. You laughed. “Sorry.” Dustin muttered. “Sure, okay, some girls, yeah, they want you to be aggressive. You know, strong, hot and heavy, like a…” “Like a lion.” You added, helping Steve. He stared at you for a second. “But others, you gotta be slow, you gotta be stealthy, like a… like a ninja.” You laughed again, rolling your eyes at his choice of words.

 “What type is (Y/n).” Dustin asked, as if you weren’t literally walking behind him. Steve glanced at you, a blush creeping over his face. “(Y/n) is different. She’s different than the other girls.” Your heart was pounding, and your entire body felt flushed at his words. “Yeah, she seems pretty special,” Dustin turned and looked at you with a small smile. “I guess.” He added. Steve nodded, “Yeah. Yeah she is.” You remembered for a second that you had to drop the meat out of the bucket, so you grabbed a hand full, cringing when it stuck to your yellow rubber glove.

“But this girl’s special, too, you know. It’s just, like, something about her.” Dustin mumbled, causing you to smile, you loved young love. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey.” Steve said. “What?” Dustin asked. “You're not falling in love with this girl, are you?” All three of you stopped when Steve asked that.

 You looked down at Dustin, waiting for his answer. “Uh, no. No.” Dustin shook his head and you glared at him, you could tell that he was lying. “Okay, good. Don’t.” You punched Steve’s shoulder. “I won’t.” Dustin answered, which made you mad. “And why shouldn’t he?” Steve looked away, “She’s only going to break his heart, and he’s way too young for that shit.” You don’t know why, but something about that sentence made you think he was talking about Nancy, cause it sure as hell wasn’t you. You fell silent, so did Dustin. Steve tried to make eye contact with you, but for some reason you just didn’t want to look at him at this moment. How could he say stuff like that after having such an intimate night with you?

 “Fabergé.” Steve said suddenly, causing you to frown, both you and Dustin looked up at him. “What?” You asked at the same time. Steve stayed quiet as he walked forward, suddenly he pointed at his hair. “It’s Fabergé organics.” Steve looked back, as if to catch your reaction. “Use the shampoo and conditioner, and when your hair’s damp… It’s not wet, okay? When it’s damp…” Dustin nodded. “Damp.” He repeated. “You do four puffs of the Farrah Fawcett spray.” You snorted. Steve’s head snapped back to glare at you, you just pretended that you didn’t do anything. “Farrah Fawcett spray?” Dustin asked, amusement clear in his voice. “Yeah, Farrah Fawcett.” You always knew that Steve used stuff for his hair, just not that he used Farrah Fawcett.

Suddenly Steve stopped walking and looked down at Dustin, “You tell anyone I just told you that and your ass is grass. You're dead, Henderson. Do you understand?” Dustin just nodded. “Yup.” Steve turned towards you and you raised your hands. “We understand.” You said before he could say anything. He sighed. “But Farrah Fawcett, really?” You asked. “I mean, she’s hot.” Steve said, Dustin nodded in agreement. “Yeah she is.” You just rolled your eyes, deciding that it’s funny. You were definitely going to have to ask Steve about that heart break comment later, but for now you wanted to focus on finding Dart.

After what feels like hours you finally walk in to the junkyard, there were old abandoned cars everywhere and a big yellow school bus. Steve nodded, then sighed. “Oh yeah. Yeah, this will do.” He said. Staring at the open grounds. “This will do just fine.” He added, putting his sunglasses back on. “Good call dude.” Dustin smiled at Steve’s appreciation. We walked forwards, still dropping chunks of meat on to the ground until we reached the centre of the yard. “We should dump the rest of the bucket here.” Steve nodded in agreement. “Yeah, like leave a trail and when he gets here he’ll find the rest of it.”

 Suddenly someone yelled, “I said medium-well!” and you turned your head to see a boy and a girl walking towards you, the boy pushing a bike. When he saw you guys looking he waved? “Who’s that?” you and Steve asked at the same time. You looked at the girl, she was very pretty with red hair. She had her arms crossed over her chest while making her way over, you looked back at Dustin and his whole body looked down. Realisation hit you. “Is that her?” You whispered but Dustin ignored you. “Hi, I'm Lucas, and this is Max.” Lucas said and greeted you, he looked at Steve and said, “Steve.” Then turned around. “We have got to talk.” Dustin said and grabbed Lucas’s arm, pulling him to a broken down red car and bending down next to it to chat. Max stood there awkwardly.

 Steve then went on to explain what you guys should do and where to hide. You ended up taking broken pieces of scrap metal and piling them up against the school bus, like building a fort. A drop of sweat trickled down the side of your face, you tried to wipe it away before Steve saw, but he already did. You gave him a shrug and a small smile and went on to grab more metal to pile on. Steve was sweating slightly as well.

You watched as he picked up an old scrap chair and walk over to the red car, suddenly he slammed it against the trunk, causing the two younger boys to get a fright and turn around to stare at Steve. “Hey! Dickheads! How come the only people helping me is my girlfriend and this random girl.” You couldn’t help but laugh. “We lose light in forty minutes. Let’s go.” The boys stared at him, confused for a second. “Let’s go, I said!” he raised his voice and the boys jumped up, looking irritated. “All right, asshole! God!” Dustin yelled. “Okay! Stupid.” Lucas yelled at them same time. You cracked a smile, Steve walked over to you and planted a quick kiss to the side of your forehead. You couldn’t help but love this boy.

PART 5???

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