#had to check the book and yes Luke was angry at the fact that he was given a quest that had been done before | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nicknellie · 4 years ago

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Anonymous requested: It would be really cool if you could do a library AU! Maybe one of them works at a library and they keep running into each other or something.

I have been unbelievably excited to write this one, I’m so happy I’ve finally got around to it! This is where my mind went as soon as I read the prompt, I really hope you enjoy it! (If anyone wants to suggest a prompt for a part 2 I’d be more than happy to do that once I reopen requests.)

Featuring he/they Willie because I really need to include that headcanon in my writing more often. Willie’s pronouns alternate throughout.

Books on Boards

Usually it was Reggie whose excuses began with “In my defence…”

“In my defence, I couldn’t see where I was going… In my defence, I forgot water and electricity don’t mix… In my defence, if Luke didn’t want to be shot with a Nerf gun then he shouldn’t have been standing in my way…”

Sometimes it was Luke.

“In my defence, no one told me not to… In my defence, I didn’t realise it could go this horribly wrong… In my defence, I did try to do it properly and I don’t know how it blew up…”

On rare occasion, it was Julie.

“In my defence, I was a little lost in my own head… In my defence, I’m terrible at comebacks… In my defence, I have an extremely annoying boyfriend and he was trying to talk to me about our new setlist the whole time which was very distracting…”

But it was never Alex.

Until now.

“In my defence,” Alex began, raising a hand and talking over Julie, Luke, and Reggie’s shouts, “I have to go to the library a lot. I’m an English major and it’s where all the books are!”

“But you don’t need to be at the library for five hours a day,” Luke countered.

Alex sighed. He had a point, and Alex had no excuse this time. Well, that wasn’t strictly true – his excuse was an adorable library assistant who just so happened to be very friendly to Alex and, by some miracle, worked whenever Alex needed to study. But he couldn’t just admit that to his friends, each of whom was staring at him with flat disbelief.

The assistant’s name was Willie and he was simply wonderful. The first time Alex had met him had been right at the start of his first semester – he had never been to the university’s library before and it was bigger than the one at Alexandria, so he was unbelievably lost. Alex had half-convinced himself that he would be stuck there forever, doomed to wander between the shelves looking for the section he needed, eventually becoming a ghost and haunting the place, still trying to locate his books.

Enter Willie. They had scared Alex half to death – in Alex’s defence, he hadn’t expected to be knocked off his feet by someone on a skateboard in the middle of a library the size of Buckingham Palace. And yet, he had landed on the floor, flat on his face and winded, understandably startled. As he scrambled to his feet, he heard his assailant exclaim, “Aw… you dinged my board!”

Alex had started to berate him but stopped in his tracks when he looked at the guy and realised that he had been knocked to the floor by a literal angel. His long dark hair was majestically swept to one side and tucked behind his ear, his soft eyes were sparkling, and he had a lopsided smile on his face despite the fact that Alex had been shouting at him just a second earlier (well, whisper-shouting at him �� they were in a library, after all).

“Sorry,” they had said, picking up their board. “I didn’t see you there. Books were in the way.” He had pointed to a heap of books now strewn across the floor, some splayed open, some with ripped pages. Alex realised that he had been carrying the books stacked up in front of him, skating along with them.

“Oh!” Alex exclaimed, bending down to help pick the books up. “No, sorry, it’s fine. I was just stood there. I’m a little lost, no problem, my fault.”

Together they had stacked the books back up, and Willie heaved the stack onto a nearby table before introducing himself. Alex did the same, shaking Willie’s hand and trying to ignore the butterflies in his stomach – he couldn’t let himself get distracted by a cute guy with a skateboard, not while he still had all his books to find in the labyrinthine library.

“So,” Willie had said conversationally, leaning back against the table. “You said you were lost? Anything specific you need to find?”

Alex dug around in his fanny pack before pulling out the list he’d scribbled down. “Yeah, all of these. Do you know where they are?”

“I’d be a pretty terrible librarian if I didn’t,” Willie chuckled. At Alex’s bewildered look, he had raised an eyebrow and said, “I’m not a terrible librarian. I’m actually really good at it. I mean, I don’t usually knock over customers, but these things happen.”

“Oh,” Alex said, clocking on too late. It made sense – of course that was why Willie had been carrying so many books, he was a librarian. Alex didn’t know how he hadn’t guessed before. “Right, I get it, because of the books and the… Right, okay. What about the, uh… the skateboard?”

Willie had picked up their board, smiled at it fondly. “It helps me get around faster. This place is huge, man, you don’t seriously expect me to walk around it all day? Anyway, come with me, I’ll take you to those books.”

That had been five weeks ago.

It wasn’t Alex’s fault that Willie was incredibly cute. It wasn’t Alex’s fault that Willie’s shifts happened to perfectly align with his studying time. But he couldn’t deny that it was his fault that he had stayed there for hours on end every day since, talking to Willie about everything and nothing. And it was also his fault that he had done that very same thing today, checked his watch and seen that he was an hour late for band practise, and kept talking to Willie anyway.

Usually, Alex thought about consequences, but he had been having so much fun talking to Willie that day that he hadn’t considered them. Now those consequences had caught up with him in the form of one very angry rock band.

“Alex,” Luke said imploringly, “you’ve got to get your head in the game! We have a load of gigs coming up, really important ones–”

“We do?” Reggie interrupted, looking baffled. “I thought we’ve got that one at the old folks’ home and then that’s it for, like, a month?”

Luke waved him away. “That’s not the point. These gigs are just as important as any big ones. Dude, we’ve got to build up our repertoire so that we can start playing bigger venues, but that’s not going to happen if our drummer is too caught up in his studies!”

Alex inwardly sighed with relief. At least Luke thought the reason he was staying at the library so often was because he was working hard, not because he was talking to Willie. He would have preferred his tiny little crush on Willie stayed secret for a little longer; whenever Luke found out that Alex or Reggie liked someone, he became unbearable.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if Julie had other ideas.

She huffed an incredulous laugh, saying, “You seriously think he’s staying late because he’s studying?”

Luke nodded, confused, as Reggie gestured to Alex and said, “Of course he is, what other reason could there be?”

“Yeah,” Alex agreed, nodding. He knew that the hitch in his voice was unconvincing – in his defence, he’d never been a good liar. “What other reason could there be?”

Julie raised a challenging eyebrow, but the smirk on her face told Alex that she knew she had already won. “Alex, can I just ask, who was working at the library today?”

Alex cleared his throat and tried for nonchalance when he said, “Willie.”

“You mean the good-looking skater-boy history major, right?” Julie said slyly.

Alex shrugged. “Yeah. I guess he is those things.”

Julie nodded slowly. Luke and Reggie were watching the interaction carefully, though it didn’t seem like the realisation had dawned on either of them yet.

“And who was working last Friday when you didn’t arrive back here until almost ten p.m.?” Julie asked.

“Willie,” Alex said under his breath, avoiding eye contact.

“Right,” Julie replied. “And what about Tuesday when you missed three lectures and were smiling too much to even care about how much that’ll drop your grade?”

Alex scowled and didn’t say anything. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know the answer, and judging by the ‘O’ shape Reggie’s mouth was making and the wide grin that had made itself at home on Luke’s face, they had figured it out too.

“Bro,” Luke said excitedly, “you’ve got a crush on Willie!”

“No,” Alex spluttered, “no, I do not. We just happen to get on really well and he’s always working when I need to study.”

“But he is the reason you’re always there, isn’t he?” Reggie prompted.

Alex shrugged. “I guess,” he mumbled.

Luke leapt up, clamped his hands onto Alex’s shoulders and jumped up and down like an over-excited puppy. The ecstatic smile on Luke’s face didn’t quite make up for how annoying it was.

“Dude,” he said emphatically, “you’ve gotta ask him out!”

“Don’t be silly,” Alex said, shaking his head, “it’s not like that.”

“It’s like that,” Julie, Luke and Reggie chorused. Alex just rolled his eyes.

“Look, Alex,” Julie said. He looked past Luke to her, but only because in situations like this she tended to be the voice of reason. “I actually agree with Luke.”

Apparently, that day she was taking a break from being the voice of reason.

Alex opened his mouth to protest, but Julie interrupted him. “Hear me out. No matter what you say, you’re clearly head over heels for this guy. And it is distracting you – we’re two hours into rehearsal and you haven’t even set up your kit. If you ask him out and he says yes then you can hang out with him at other times as boyfriends, not when you’re meant to be spending time with us. If he says no, you can get him out of your mind and move on, getting your mind back on the band. What’s the worst that can happen?”

Again, Alex tried to respond, but this time Reggie and Luke both yelled over him.

“No!” Reggie shouted. “We agreed never to ask him that question again!”

“Have you forgotten last time?” Luke questioned furiously. “That was the longest three hours of my life!”

Julie held her hands up. “Sorry, sorry, it slipped my mind.”

“Okay,” Alex said, ignoring them and deciding to get the conversation back on track. “Even if I did do that, there’s so many things that could go wrong. I don’t know if he’s into guys, and if he says no for any reason at all then I can never go back to the library.”

Luke shook his head. “Dude, Willie’s the head of the university’s LGBTQ+ Society and he introduces himself as ‘Willie, he/they, gay’ at the start of each session.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been a couple of times. Hey, wait, we should all go, it’s actually super chill and–”

“It sounds great, Luke, but we’ll talk about it later,” Julie said, easily calming him as he started getting over-excited again. “Right now we have other things to focus on. Alex, if Luke’s right then Willie is definitely into guys. And from the way you’ve gushed about him and your conversations without realising it, I’d say he definitely has a thing for you. And he seems cool – I’m sure even if he said no then he’d act completely normally around you.”

“Yeah,” Reggie agreed, “the guy doesn’t find anything awkward. Last week I was looking through a book for my psychology class and just as I flicked to a… questionable page, he came up behind me. He just laughed it off and then offered to sign it out for me once I was done looking through it.”

Alex thought about it for a moment. It sounded too good to be true. Luke said that Willie was into guys, Julie said they might like Alex, Reggie said that they’d be cool with it no matter what… Good things like this didn’t happen to Alex too often.

“I’ll think about it,” he said. The others sighed, Reggie throwing up his hands with exasperation. “I will! I’ll think. But we should get to rehearsing.”

Almost two and a half hours later than they should have, the band finally set up their instruments and Alex counted them in.

He was at the library. Again. He was always at the library these days, just this time he really did need to be working. He had a big assessment coming up and needed to cram some last-minute studying in.

It would have been a lot easier if he hadn’t been trying to avoid Willie the entire time.

In Alex’s defence, it felt like the most reasonable option. Sure, he could see Willie and ask him out, but if Willie rejected him then he wasn’t sure he’d ever live it down despite his friends’ reassurances. He could have seen Willie and not asked him out, but then he’d be living in constant wonder of what could happen. So he had elected to do the sensible thing and just not see them at all.

It had been going well for the most part. His legs were beginning to ache from springing himself behind bookcases whenever he caught a glimpse of Willie, but it was worth it. Besides – he needed to focus, and an angelic librarian wasn’t about to help him do that.

He made his fatal error when trying to exit the library.

He had been so caught up in scanning the surrounding area for Willie that he hadn’t been looking ahead, or down at the floor. He heard the shout of, “Watch out!” too late.

Alex stepped forward, his foot landed on a skateboard, and he was sent flying down to the ground, landing hard on his coccyx. Pain shot up his back and he let out an agonised groan which earned him a “Shhhh!” from a tired-looking student sat at the nearest table.

“Alex,” came the same voice who had shouted the warning, the voice Alex now recognised as Willie’s. So much for avoiding him. Willie came and crouched down beside Alex where he was still laying on the floor, leaning over him, looking concerned. “Hey, Alex, you alright? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left my board lying there, I was only restocking that shelf.”

Groaning, Alex eased himself into a sitting position. Willie sat back, still looking worried.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Alex lied. His coccyx was killing him. “It’s fine. I won’t sue or demand you get fired or anything.”

Willie chuckled lightly and then held out his hand. Alex took it automatically and was a little startled when Willie began pulling him to his feet – maybe it was the shock, but he had thought the hand holding was them simply having a moment. But no, of course it was too good to be true. Willie let go of his hand the moment they were both stood and then bent to pick up his board.

“I hadn’t seen you,” Willie said. “Where’ve you been hiding?”

Alex shrugged. “Oh, nowhere. Just… doing my English work. In the quiet area.”

Nodding, Willie replied with something that made Alex’s blood run cold.

“That’s cool. It’s just that I was just talking to Luke a minute ago and he said there was something you wanted to ask me?”

Eyes wide, jaw open in shock, Alex looked behind Willie to where they had pointed. Sure enough, standing by the end of a nearby bookcase with his nose in a book (which he was clearly not reading because it was upside down) was Luke. He gave Alex a nervous wave when he saw him looking.

Trying not to sound murderous, Alex said, “Yeah. There was something.”

He realised too late that hadn’t been what he was planning to say.

“Yeah? What is it?” Willie asked with a smile.

Alex’s eyes darted from Willie to Luke and back again, then up to the ceiling and around the library for inspiration, and then they landed on his own wrist and the rainbow bracelet wrapped around it.

“I – well, we, me and my friends – we were wondering if there would be any space for us to join the LGBTQ+ Society. Luke mentioned you’re the head so I figured there’s no one better to ask than you. Right?”

Willie blinked, face faltering for just a moment. Alex tried not to panic – had he said the wrong thing, had he somehow offended Willie? But the look was gone quick enough for Alex to convince himself he’d imagined it, replaced by his radiant smile.

“Yeah, the more the merrier,” he said. But then he cleared his throat and added, “You’re sure that’s it?”

Swallowing nervously, Alex cast another glance to Luke who had given up the pretence of reading and was now urgently gesturing at Willie, making kissy faces, and mouthing words Alex couldn’t understand – but he got the message.

“Okay, no, there was one more thing,” he said quietly.

Willie tucked his hair behind his ear and Alex’s eyes caught momentarily on his earring.

“I was wondering,” he began, slow but steady, “if you would… by any chance… And you can say no, I won’t be offended! It’s just, I would really like to go on a date with you. And if you would like to go on a date with me then I think we should. Do that. Go on a date. Together. If you want?”

As awkward as it felt, Alex maintained eye contact – he was glad he did, because a moment later Willie’s face split in a beautiful grin that didn’t look mocking or apologetic, it looked genuinely happy.

“Yes,” Willie said, laughing quietly. “Yes, I do want that.”

Alex sighed with relief. “Thank god. I’m going to kill Luke.”

“Don’t,” Willie said, shaking his head. “I can’t have you getting arrested before I get to go on a date with you.”

“What about after the date?” Alex joked.

“Yeah, man, that’s fine.” Willie laughed but after a moment their expression softened. “I’m really glad you asked. I was going to, but I wasn’t sure if you’d say yes.”

Alex scratched at the back of his head. “Yeah. That’s the same reason it took me so long to do the actual asking.”

“Well,” said Willie, “that doesn’t matter now. Does Friday work for you?”

Alex’s only form of a social life was hanging out with the band, and his plans for Friday consisted largely of sitting in his and Reggie’s shared dorm room, eating cold pizza and watching reruns of Friends.

“Yeah,” he said coolly, “I can probably make it work. Might have to reschedule some stuff, but it’ll be worth it.”

Clearly not believing him but polite enough not to call him out, Willie laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Great. My shift finishes at five that day, I’ll let you be a gentleman and pick me up. I’ve got to get back to work, but I’ll catch you then, Alex.”

“See you,” Alex said.

Willie walked away and was seamlessly replaced by Luke, who gripped Alex’s arms and shook him up and down. “Bro! You got a date with Willie! You can thank me later.”

Alex left the library, Luke trailing behind him. “I’m not thanking you,” he said, fighting a smile.

“Why not? I got him to come talk to you!”

“You didn’t ask him out, I did that. There’s nothing to thank you for.”

“That is where you’re very much wrong because…”

As Luke went on for a solid ten minutes about why Alex and Willie finally agreeing to go on a date was actually all down to him, Alex zoned out and let himself be happy. He had a date with Willie, the angelic librarian, the good-looking skater-boy history major. He couldn’t believe his luck.

When they arrived back at the studio, Julie smirked and said, “You’re grinning like an idiot, Alex.”

“In my defence,” he returned, “I'm going on a date with Willie.”

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nochiquinn · 3 years ago

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lovm watch party 3: we draw it

"what goes into a chunky monkey" "my mouth" "...wait"

I want tom nook pants

"have you never crossed your animals"

junior mints are the only correct answer

"are junior mints underage? is that creepy?"

"we love you twitch chat" false

fuck you playback error

we do this EVERY WEEK why are you LIKE THIS

the entire commentary is become robots

okay there we go, we are unrobot

let me hear ashley's scratch recording

dvd extras WHEN

dead cosplayer cosplay!

how. how did y'all not realize that was bread. it's clearly bread.

"he was renting it"

Inverted Banana

"this is a Nuts Pan"

thank you for referencing the EXTREMELY PERSISTENT GORE

run it through an instagram filter

exandria's two moons and five suns

dfjsdkl the chest hair

"this was more graphic the first time" HOW

marisha and laura burp soundcloud library

it's called SCANBO not PLANBO

3D roof!

"is it infuriating to have to animate rain AND fire AND a fight with magic all at the same time"

"[rory mcann] talks and you're just like 'yes, that's it'"

Edgelord and Chonky

travis has their names on a paper to read them off properly, bless

oh that early keyleth is Cute

still wish she was taller than vax

"make sure it's legal"

she did look kind of 14-ish in the first design

"sam and travis, you wrote this episode together, who let this happen"

"lots more potions and lots more singing" it WAS almost a musical

love animatic!vedmire

just a big angry face

mica: "how could I ever think you guys would lower yourself to poop jokes??"

ashley looks so cozy

"I know math and numbers real goodly" mood

twitch chat: "why no burt reynolds esq" links them to the wikipedia article for copyright infringement

I have my notepad positioned to cover twitch chat but not the group camera and I don't feel like moving it for the in-between

"he loves going outdoors and murdering things"

"maybe for an artbook" 👀

The Girl

hair-down pike!!

man I wish I could play sims

I don't have the computer

"do you wanna see the basement?" "WHAT'S IN THE BASEMENT??"

"irONIC"

aaand I refresh to make the bitch work...

aaand everyone becomes a robot...

sam leaning forward to talk to loftis is very endearing to me

"aren't there dice hidden everywhere" "literally everywhere"

everybody hyping keyleth AS THEY SHOULD

"matt mercer cameo as...a jerk."

"he's just the most evil humpty dumpty"

brb gonna be a tiger

oh I ws RIGHT they changed it for the show

okay but I would watch a ghibli critrole

pls can you imagine keyleth's stuff in ghibli style

"diaphragm diaphragm DIAPHRAGM"

one million points to bertrand dinesco?"

tracie thoms was not in fact the original joanne from rent, that was Fredi Walker

yes call out the transformations

"sorry I punched your character in the head"

"Liam's gonna solve EVERYTHING"

"fitting that a book is liam's end"

love that they react to the show as strongly as we do as the audience

sam's reaction is my reaction

"that window was begging for someone to go through it"

oh! I know that show!

okay I know OF that show

Little Trauma Stripe

"your character's dumb"

"how many hours ago did you get married"

bye luke

"he would do this in real life"

"it's all pot smoke"

god I love pike's face in this episode

"don't cry. I said don't cry"

ashley just being bewildered by the process of animation is adorable and a mood

quyen dance!!

"vox machina needs a nap"

"can anyone give them a blankie???"

I had to check on my kid but I assume I was correct about what ashley wanted to do with pike

"if you're strong in your friendship and strong in your faith you're gonna be great"

"how would you utilize [cloud control]?" "dicks and balls"

"chief artist of dicks and balls specifically"

I loved pulled-out shots of buildings and areas we only ever see pieces of

laser sauna

and refresh...

and robots...

samuel

"if I'm her I don't know if I touch that book"

"also then your husband is a hot vampire"

"long-haired sylas is so hot"

"she cuts his hair every morning. it's a couples thing they do."

joaquim dos santos??

"lead on voltron" this is atla erasure

"oh look it's my daughter! look, she's fine!"

"do they just flop around like fish?"

still love cass' judo flip

arthur casually incriminating his team

"archie still hasn't been able to wipe his nose"

CRASS SAILOR I can't believe I forgot to call that out in my recap

one unit of melee

the Many Zombies was very nice, I appreciated it

"it looks gross! good job!"

the scratches on the lenses

"whose fingerprints are those on the lenses. so we can steal their identity."

"we went to quebec and they were like 'get the fuck out'"

"my wife screamed"

"HE SAID THE NAME"

taliesin has been doing this speech in his head for six years, he has plenty of practice

honestly I would have loved liam and marisha to both be in this one bc I miss liam making googoo eyes

"if it's not stupid don't try it"

"this might be reaching critical mass" y'think

god these animatics are so nice

marisha also not picking up on vax flirting, oh my god

"for fucking ever. like forty episodes."

ashley: I didn't realize that was a thing you could do but also I don't know why you couldn't

"none of this is appropriate right now!"

"there's a right way and a wrong way, and I'm not gonna tell you which one THIS is" "but I AM gonna walk away and let you think about it"

arthur being so hype about gilmore's shop

sam: alright I'll sing

"we only have one more of these" cries

GREY

#the legend of vox machina #lovmtag #critical role #spoilers #crititag #liveblog #reaction post

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thewidowsghost · 3 years ago

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The Daughter of the Sea - Chapter 6

(Y/n)'s POV

Once I get over the fact that my brother's Latin teacher was half horse, we have a nice tour.

We pass by the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudge each other. One points to the Minotaur horn Percy is carrying. Another says, "It's them."

Most of the campers are older than me. Their satyr friends are bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD t-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I'm not normally shy, but the way they are staring at me and Percy makes me uncomfortable. I feel as though they want us to do a flip or something.

I look back at the farmhouse. It's bigger than I'd realized - four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I'm checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something catches my eyes, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I get a distinct impression that I'm being watched.

"What's up there?" I ask Chiron.

He looks to where I'm pointing and his smile fades, "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?" Percy asks.

"No," he says with finality. "Not a single living thing."

I get the feeling that he's being truthful, but I am also sure something had moved that curtain.

As we get closer, I realize how huge the forest is. It takes up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron says, "The woods are stocked if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" Percy asks. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you have your own swords and shields?"

"My own - ?" Percy is cut off.

"No," Chiron interupts. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do for you, Percy, and a size three for you, (Y/n). I'll visit the armory later."

Finally, Chiron shows us the cabins. There are twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They are arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on each side. And they are, without a doubt the most bizarre number above the door.

Except for the fact that each has a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they lock absolutely nothing alike. Number Nine has smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number Four has tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seems to be made of solid gold, which gleams so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all face a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the center of the field is a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it is a warm afternoon, the hearth smolders. A girl, maybe nine years old is tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. I wave at the girl and she looks surprised, as though no one acknowledged her often, and waves back with a smile.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, look like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin One is the biggest and bulkiest of the twelve. Its polished bronze doors shimmer like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seem to streak across them. Cabin Two is more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls are covered with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" Percy guesses.

"Correct," Chiron says.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

I stop in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It isn't high and mighty like Cabin One, but low and solid. The outer walls are of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashells and coral as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peek inside the open doorway and Chiron says, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he can pull me back, I catch the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glow like abalone. There are six empty bunks with silk sheets turned down, but there is no sign anyone had ever slept there. The place feels so sad and lonely, I am glad when Chiron puts his hand on my shoulder and says, "Come along, (Y/n)."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red—a real nasty paint job as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on Percy and gives him an evil sneer.

"Oh, look," Chiron says as we approach Cabin Eleven. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The blond girl I'd met at the Big House is reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven. When we reach her, she looks me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drool.

I try to see what she was reading, but I can't make out the title. Then I realize the title isn't even English. The letters look Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There are pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.

"Annabeth," Chiron says, "I have Masters' Archery class at noon. Would you take Percy and (Y/n) from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin Eleven," Chiron tells us, gesturing towards the doorway. "Make yourself at home."

Out of all the cabins, Eleven looks the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. the threshold is worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway is a caduceus.

Inside, it is packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags are spread all over the floor. It looks like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

Chiron doesn't go in. The door is too low for him. But when the campers see him, they all stand and bow respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron says. "Good luck, Percy, (Y/n). I'll see the two of you at dinner."

He gallops away towards the archery range.

Percy's POV

We stand in the doorway, looking at the kids. They aren't bowing anymore. They are staring at us, sizing us up. I know this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Well?" Annabeth prompts. "Go on."

So naturally, I trip coming in the door, and (Y/n) grabs my upper arm, straightening me up. There are some snickers from the campers, but none of them say anything.

Annabeth announces, "Percy and (Y/n) Jackson, meet Cabin Eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asks.

I don't know what to say, but Annabeth says, "Undetermined."

Everyone groans.

A guy who is a little older than the rest comes forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy, (Y/n). You can have those two spots on the floor, right over there."

The guy was about nineteen, and he looks pretty cool. He's tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wears an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance is a thick white scar that runs from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth says, and her voice sounds different somehow. I glance over and swear she's blushing, but after a moment she sees me looking, and her expression hardens again. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" (Y/n) asks, looking rather curious.

"You're undetermined," Luke explains. "They don't know what cabin to put you in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

I look around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing me as if they are waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

"How long will I be here?" I ask.

"Good question," Luke replies. "Until you're determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laugh and (Y/n) facepalms.

"Come on," Annabeth tells us. "I'll show you the volleyball court."

"We've already seen it."

"Come on."

Annabeth grabs my wrist and drags me outside. I can hear the kids of Cabin Eleven laughing behind me and (Y/n) waves good-bye shyly.

When we are a few feet away, Annabeth says, "Jackson, you have to do better than that?"

"What?"

She rolls her eyes and mumbles under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you two were the ones."

"What's your problem?" I'm getting angry now, (Y/n) watching us cautiously. "All I know is, we kill some bull guy -"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth tells me. "You know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

I shake my head. "Look, if the thing we fought is really the Minotaur, the same one in the stories . . ."

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So..."

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"Percy," (Y/n) says calmly. "I think what Annabeth is saying, is that monsters eventually reform."

Annabeth nods and I think about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword—"

"The Fur...I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep," Annabeth answers and (Y/n) suppresses a laugh.

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glances nervously at the ground as if she expects it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sound whiny, even to myself, but right then I don't care. "Why do we have to stay in Cabin Eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

I point to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turns pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or...your parent."

She stares at me, waiting for me to get it.

"Our mother is Sally Jackson," (Y/n) says softly. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, (Y/n). But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead," I say simply. "We never knew him."

Annabeth sighs. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not."

"Then how can you say -"

"Because I know the two of you. You wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about us.

"No?" She raises an eyebrow. "I bet you moved around from school to school. I bet you were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How -"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

I try to swallow my embarrassment. "What does that have to do with anything?"

(Y/n)'s POV

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD—you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course, the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like...you went through the same thing?"

"Most of the kids here did. If you weren't like us, you couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar."

"The food and drink we were giving you to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You're both half-bloods."

A half-blood.

I am reeling with so many questions I don't know where to start.

Then a husky voice yells, "Well! Two newbies!"

I look over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin is sauntering towards us. She has three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean-looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighs. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl says. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

"Erre es korakas!" Annabeth says, which I somehow understand is Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I have a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounds. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse says, but her eye twitches. Perhaps she isn't so sure she can follow through on ht threat. She turns towards me, then she looks at Percy. "Who are these's runts?"

"Percy and (Y/n) Jackson," Annabeth says, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Aries."

Percy blinks. "Like . . . the war god?"

Clarisse sneers. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," Percy says, seemingly recovering his 'wits'. "It explains the bad smell."

Long story short, Percy made the toilets explode.

Yeah, I said it. He made the toilets explode . . .

Word Count: 2455 words

#percy jackson x sister reader #reader insert #fem reader #female reader #percy jackson and the olympians reader insert

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operationcavill · 4 years ago

Text

Professionals - August Walker

August Walker is hired by Parker Industries to protect the companies most important assets; Mr. Stephen Parker himself and his workaholic, do-it-all executive assistant.

Y/N is ending her work day by clearing up yet another misunderstanding with a hotel security guard, “I think I need to have someone keep an eye on Mr. Walker, perhaps keep him in line.”

“No one can keep an eye on Walker, Y/N. He’s the best. That’s why you hired him.” The man on the other line laughs.

“I understand but if he is going to be a part of this team, he will have to learn to uphold a certain demeanor. There will be no threats to paparazzi, there will be no altercations unless there is some sort of threat to you, and there will certainly be absolutely back talk to anyone on this team. Walker was hired as head of security, he is not in charge.”

A voice comes from behind her, “And who’s in charge?”

Y/N swings her chair towards the door, bidding her boss goodbye on the phone, “Other than Mr. Parker, I am.”

August has landed himself in quite the situation. He was professional, always about the job, but with her he can’t help himself, he likes to play. “So, I’ll be reporting to you, right?”

“Yes, each evening I’ll send you a schedule and I expect your notes on security the following morning.” She hands him a laptop, “This is yours. Do not lose it. Luke is our best techie, he’ll set you all up this evening. He has blue hair, can’t miss him. Any questions?”

“To insure I cover everything at each location, I’ll need personal information about staff and most importantly, you and Mr. Parker”

“I can assure you, you have all you need in the files.”

"Medical, both physical and psychological?” He raises an eyebrow.

“You have full access to background checks, medical history, and emergency contacts.”

“Alright, I assume you’ll send out an itinerary?”

Y/N taps her finger on her phone, “Mhmm. Arrive no later than 8:30 AM, please. I will meet you and Mr. Parker here, then we’re off to the airport.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Ok, Well, we’re all finished up,” She stands, throwing her bag over her shoulder, “See you tomorrow, Mr. Walker.”

He nods, “Tomorrow.”

August is professional. He’s very one track while on the job; if it does not pertain to the job, then it simply does not matter. Y/N, however, was quite the distraction. Yes, he is here for her protection, that is part of the job but her attitude, her constant emailing or note taking, and her fucking necklace she plays with all the time, were all things he couldn’t escape from.

He watches her tap her foot as she types away on her keyboard, periodically looking out of the jet window, “Does she ever take a break?”

Mr. Parker quietly laughs, “When there’s business to be done, she get’s it done. Y/N has been a busy bee since she was a little girl.”

“You’ve known her that long?”

Parker nearly chokes on his tea, “Mr. Walker, Y/N is my niece.”

He blinks slowly, “That is not in the files she gave me.”

“I’m not surprised. She doesn’t want people to think her career was handed to her. She refused any and all recommendations I wanted to send to schools or internships when she was just getting started, it drove us all mad. She’s stubborn and absolutely genius. You’ll get used to that stubbornness eventually.”

“Interesting.”

“Indeed, a pain in the ass, but she’s the best there is. If you need something done, you go to Y/N.”

August remained tight lipped for the rest of the flight. He barely says a word as they arrive at the Parker estate. Y/N greets every single maid, groundskeeper, and security member with a hug and a smile. She grew up here, no doubt another fact she kept out of her file. He watches her lead the staff into a room filled with paintings and books, perhaps a study, and address them casually.

“Now, I know Annie has said that you won’t be needed during this stay but you guys deserve an explanation,” She gives August a quick look before continuing, “Steve made a deal with a development team and it seems to have upset other companies.” She notices the confused looks and clears her throat, “Since that deal became public, we’ve been put in a position where Mr. Walker, is here to make sure everything is safe. I can’t keep you all here if there is any threat to your safety,” Y/N seems genuinely upset. He wonders if she’s always like this.

Annie, an older woman, sits down beside Y/N and pats her leg, “We know that, Gin Gin.” Gin Gin? Annie get’s up and walks toward August, “You keep our girl safe.”

His face softens as he looks at Y/N and back to Annie, “I can assure you, she’ll be ok.”

She stops for a moment before poking his arm, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

He uncrosses his arms, and follows Annie, “Now, I have my own rules, Mr. Walker.” Before he can say anything she begins, “You will treat her will the upmost respect. You treat her like a lady, you hear me? I don’t care what tricks you have up your sleeve, I raised that girl and I will not have anyone, in anyway, hurt her feelings.”

He gives Annie a confused look, “I dont think you understand, Ma’am. I’m simply head of security.”

She rolls her eyes, no doubt where Y/N learned it, “I don’t care what your job is. I know that look.” Annie walks away and disappears into another room.

When he returns to the study, he sees that everyone has disbursed expect for a small boy. Contrary to his cold demeanor, he’s always had a soft spot with children, “Who are you?”

“I’m August. Who are you?” The little boy tilts his head and kicks his feet.

“August is when I start kindergarten. I’m Joey.” He has no idea where this child came from or who he belongs to but he didn’t just pop up out of nowhere.

“Who are you here with?” Joey smiles and hops of the couch and starts running.

He watches Joey run to Y/N and jump into her arms, “I see you’ve met my Joey.” She gives him a raspberry on his cheek and laughs with him but notices Augusts shock, “Calm down, He’s my brothers boy. His nanny brought him by so I could see him.” He simply nods, giving the boy a brief smile.

“Is he your boyfriend?” August’s face goes back to shock.

“No, he’s here to watch the house.”

“Oh,” He looks at August, “I don’t like your mustache.”

Y/n can’t help by laugh and without hesitation, August blurts out, “Well, I don’t like yours.”

Joey laughs, “I don’t have a mustache!”

“Are you sure?” Joey nods and August gets closer to him, “Then what’s that?”

“What?” Joey touches his face.

“That,” August pokes above his lip, “right there,” then he wiggles his finger fast on Joey’s mouth, making the little boy scream with laughter.

Y/N looks at him, not understanding how someone can be so cold to others but so warm to a child. She puts him down, “Come on, Joe. Let’s go find everyone.”

Joey turns back to and gives August’s legs a hug, “Bye, Mr. August.”

He pats Joey on the head, “See you later, Joey,” and he see’s Y/N smile at him for the first time, a genuine smile.

He waits until Joey has left to question Y/N on her reason for excluding her relation to Parker. He knocks on her door and is surprised to see her inches shorter. He was expecting to be eye to eye with her, not eye to, well, forehead. He lowers his head slightly, "Why didn’t you disclose your relationship to Parker?”

Y/N gestures him to come in, “It wasn’t necessary.”

“It is absolutely necessary. He’s your uncle.” He wants to correct her for rolling her eyes, but he quickly shakes the thought.

She puts things in a small briefcase and closes her computer, “Yes, but in this setting he is my employer.”

“Any other secret family members? Is the chauffeur your cousin?” August couldn’t help but be frustrated, and when he’s frustrated he become incredibly sarcastic.

“I’d like to remind you that everything you need to know is available in that handy dandy laptop I gave you.”

“I’m serious. I need to know about any relationships, past, present, good or bad.”

She crosses her arms, “I like to keep my personal life and my professional life as separate as I can.”

He rests his hands on the table and leans forward, “Listen, Gin Gin; I respect the fact that you’re a ball busting business woman, but you hired me to keep things quiet and safe. I’m here to protect you and your uncle, and that means I have to know personal details.”

“Do not call me that. I have no current relationships. You have the names of my brother, and my close friends.” Y/N uncrosses her arms and puts her hair in a pony tail. Not now August.

"Past relationships?”

“Why?” She glares at him.

He returns the glare, “It’s helpful.”

“That’s vague,” she fiddles with a stray hair that won’t stay in place.

“Are there any past relationships that could interfere with your uncle’s safety or the integrity of his business?” She’s silent for far too long, “ Hello, am I talking to the walls?”

Y/N bites her lip, and mumbles, “Jack Wayne.”

His eyebrows raise, knowing damn well what she said, “What’s that, now?”

“I said Jack Wayne,” He can’t comprehend her timidness around the name.

August sarcastically laughs as he clasps his hands together, “Wayne Pharmaceuticals, Jack Wayne?” She nods, “You don’t think the fact that you were involved with a rival company was important?”

“It was before the company made this deal.” She can feel his eyes on her, “I didn’t want to talk about it.”

Her eyes meet his and he looks angry, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to talk about it.”

She stands right in front of him and puts on her ‘business woman’ face, “You do not need to know or have the right to know every single aspect of my life.”

Now, it’s his turn to roll his eyes, “Any other billionaire CEOs you’ve been ‘involved’ with?”

Now she look looks angry, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, have you slept with any other rival philanthropists?”

Y/N Scoffs, “Get out!”

Her voice raising doesn’t phase him, “Don’t shout at me.”

“Don’t insult me. Get out of my room, Walker.” She shoves him out the door.

He puts his foot in the doorway, “You’re a brat, you know that?”

Y/N rolls her eyes, “And you’re a dick! Move your foot.”

| Read Part 2 | Read Part 3 |

[Tagged: If you’d like to be tagged, just shoot me a message or ask!]

@igotkatiepowers @xxxkatxo @lunedelorient @heartfelt-pen @omgkatinka @viking-raider @summersong69 @hell1129-blog @lilzebub @mansaaay @henryobsessed @harrysthiccthighss @cavillshmavill

#my posts #text #henry cavill x you #august walker #august walker au #henry cavill au #henry cavill one shot #august walker x you

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lloydskywalkers · 4 years ago

Text

planetary go

me: hey this would be a great time to actually do some of that oc development I’ve been planning for the last two years

also me: lloyd has no good very bad spiderman day

i’ve had this in my drafts for...over a year now, i think?? it’s entirely self-indulgent and i was very much committed to never posting it ever, but it’s oc day, so. maybe i will leave it up for five minutes before hiding it again gdhjkfg

(for background, the oc is Rachel, who’s Brad’s friend from school and a useless nerd, and one day i’ll actually take the ideas i have for her further, but today she’s just a kid who got her hands on an axe)

In theory, bringing Lloyd on their school’s annual planetarium field trip sounded like a great idea. Brad’s been trying to get Lloyd to hang out with them in a normal setting for forever now, and he knows that, as much as Rachel secretly enjoys waving at Lloyd during life-or-death situations because deep down she’s an adrenaline maniac, he also knows she’s been wanting to have five minutes of peace and normality with him as well.

As for Lloyd, Brad’s pretty sure he doesn’t even know what that is, but there’s always time for a learning curve.

Plus, Lloyd deserves it. As soon as Brad managed to get wind that the only education his friend’s had is Darkley’s — which is a tragedy, honestly — he’d started scheming a way to sneak Lloyd into his school. Only for the fun stuff, of course — he’s not about to subject Lloyd to the horrors of Pre-Cal, or AP Physics.

A field trip, though, is perfect. All the fun parts of school, without the actual busy work or potentially anxiety-inducing memories of school hallways. Sure, the planetarium their school insists on visiting is boring as it gets, but it’s still better than math class. It’s a full hour-long bus ride away, too, which means that by the time the teachers or the ninja catch wind what’s happened, they’ll be home free.

(Well, Brad thinks so. If Lloyd didn’t end up clearing this trip with the ninja and snuck out instead, he’s not sure their school bus is up to outrunning a bunch of dragons. It’d be funny to watch, though.)

The point is, it had been a great idea, until Rachel went and fell asleep in the first five minutes. Which would’ve been fine, except Lloyd took one look at her and decided that he liked the idea of being asleep too, so now Brad’s lost two friends to naps, and he kinda needs them awake, because hour-long bus rides are boring.

He eyes the two where they’re sleeping in disdain. Some friends they are. He contemplates shoving them both off the school seats for a second, and watching them sprawl all over the floor like a pair of idiots, but he decides against it. Lloyd’s packing a little too much power, and he’s seen Rachel when she’s angry. Also, he watched the news report this morning, and he knows the kind of night Lloyd had. Brad’s still trying to figure out how he doesn’t have ugly bruising all up the left side of his face, much less a decent night’s sleep.

Nah, he’ll let them sleep for now. He can read Lloyd’s comics in the meantime, since he doesn’t have school books. Brad can be nice, when he wants to. Not that it’s going to make up for the hour long bus ride on his own, but he can suck it up this once, he supposes.

If only that had been the worst of his problems today.

*********

“This is a terrible plan.”

“What do you mean?” Brad’s eyebrows furrow. “This was your plan.”

“Well, yeah, okay, fine, but I mean—” Rachel shrinks in her seat, still rubbing sleep from her eyes as she glances around at her classmates on the bus warily. “I didn’t really think it through,” she mutters.

Brad rolls his eyes. “Kai’s not gonna find out, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Oh, it’s not Kai I’m worried about,” Rachel scoffs. “I figured that out. Lloyd was right, Kai’s just a big softie. It’s Nya you gotta worry about.”

Brad scoffs. “Wimp.”

“Fine, you can face her down when she comes at us with all the wrath of god for hijacking Lloyd for the day.”

Lloyd shifts guiltily where he’s crammed in the seat between them, jacket hood pulled over his head, as it that’s gonna hide who he is. “I don’t have to come, guys.”

“Yes, you do,” Brad immediately responds.

“We want you to come,” Rachel says, emphatically.

“You can’t just ditch us, you’re the only exciting part of this dumb field trip,” Brad adds. “Plus, it’s like, way too late to back out now. We’re ten minutes from the planetarium, you should’ve spoken up earlier.”

“You deserve a normal day out,” Rachel steamrolls over Brad. “You’re coming.”

“Okay,” Lloyd says, still unsure as he glances around. He’s starting to wonder how, exactly, he managed to sleep through the better part of this trip. The West Ninjago High school bus is chaos incarnate, the high school students crammed in the seats all chattering loudly and occasionally chucking everything from straws to entire notebooks at each other.

Maybe he should get his reflexes checked, he thinks dully. Then again, it’s not like the school bus is an immediate threat. It’s pretty nice, actually — a lot nicer than the buses they used to have at school the guys taught at, at least.

“We do need to work on your disguise, though,” Rachel mutters, surveying his outfit. Lloyd tugs anxiously on the school jacket Brad lent him, the dark blue fabric scratchy and uncomfortable. Luckily, Brad and Rachel’s school doesn’t require a uniform, so his casual outfit blends in just fine. The jacket’s just a field trip requirement.

Why he’s crashing their field trip, he’s yet to figure out, but they’d made it sound fun, and he hadn’t had anything better to do today, so Lloyd Garmadon’s now Brad’s distant cousin from Metallonia. They haven’t decided on his fake name yet, because Rachel wants to use Luke Skywalker, and while Lloyd isn’t great at going undercover, he’s not that bad.

“Here,” Rachel says, rifling through her backpack. She pulls out a pair of glasses, unfolding them and handing them off to him. “The lenses are fake, don’t worry.”

Lloyd stares at the glasses in his hands. “This is my disguise?”

“Yeah,” Brad nods. “Like Clark Kent.”

“Clark Kent has the most obvious disguise ever.”

“Yeah, but no one ever finds him out.”

“Because it’s the comics. This is my life. Something’s gonna go wrong.”

Rachel doesn’t seem to share his concerns, pushing the glasses toward his face. “Just put them on?”

Lloyd sighs, complying. He slides the glasses on, frowning at the unfamiliar weight. “There,” he grumbles. “How do I look?"

Brad snorts, but he gives him a thumbs up. Rachel turns a weird color and coughs quickly, before saying what Lloyd’s pretty sure is “they’re alright”.

He’ll take it.

“So I’m good to go?” he asks, glancing at the teacher up front anxiously.

Brad and Rachel stare at him. Lloyd isn’t a fan of the looks on their faces.

“Well, you’re gonna have to…talk with your mouth closed a little more,” Brad winces. “The uh, the teeth.”

Lloyd shuts his mouth tightly. Right. His genetics.

“And um…” Rachel bites her lip. “Is there any way you could, like…turn the brightness down?”

Lloyd frowns. “The what?”

“The uh—“ Rachel gestures to her own dark brown eyes. “The eyes.”

Lloyd folds his arms, glaring at them. “This is part-human discrimination.”

“It is not—“

“Yeah, the only part we’d discriminate you for is the lame part—“

“We’re just trying to make sure no one figures out you’re a big ninja celebrity!”

Rachel immediately claps a hand over her mouth, her eyes wide. Lloyd sinks lower into his seat, and Brad cringes.

“Sorry,” Rachel whispers.

Fortunately, no one else seems to have overheard, or they simply just don’t care. Lloyd straightens up a bit, still wary, but he uncrosses his arms.

“Yeah, I get it,” he sighs. He closes his eyes, focuses briefly on the thrumming power that’s always in his veins, then opens them.

Rachel looks guilty, and Brad snorts.

“They’re, um, they’re red now.”

Lloyd bites back a curse. “Darn it.”

By the time they reach the planetarium, Lloyd’s finally got his eyes to stay a color Rachel says could be normal, and Brad says is lame. Lloyd’s eyes are itching, and he’s starting to have seconds thoughts about this, because the kids in the seat across from him are giving him weird looks.

“D’you think they recognize me?” he asks Rachel under his breath, pulling his hood back up over his head.

Rachel looks over, and her lips pinch. “I don’t think so,” she says. She gets a weird look on her face. “I think they just…like you.”

“Like me?” Lloyd frowns. “They don’t even know me. I haven’t even said one word to them.”

Rachel stares at him, the weird look replaced by a blank one. “Lloyd.”

“Yeah?” he blinks.

“Never mind,” Rachel sighs, and Brad snickers. “Hey, we’re here.”

Lloyd’s stomach does a little flip, which is ridiculous, because he’s faced things ten thousand times more terrifying than a field trip. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s got a miserable track record with disguises, and really just acting in general?

Yeah, that could be it, Lloyd thinks. He never could pull off accents, unless you wanted like, an Oni one, which was useless anyways, because any Oni would probably just kill him for being a blood traitor on the spot, and anyone else who heard it would go running for the hills, or lock him up, or—

“—c’mon, Lloyd, we’re going!”

Lloyd snaps back as Brad shoves at him, forcing him out of the seat and into the aisle. He stumbles in with the other high schoolers crammed in the bus, all fighting to get to the front exit first, and is immediately onset by claustrophobia.

“Move it, people, come on—” Rachel shoulders her way past him, shoving the people in front of them until they’re stumbling forward, gradually thinning up the crowd. “I hate this bus,” she grumbles beneath her breath. “It’s like a mosh pit, but without any of the fun."

“I can start kicking kneecaps in,” Brad offers.

Rachel glances back at him, unimpressed. Lloyd considers it briefly, before quickly schooling his expression into “unimpressed” as well. Brad deflates.

Rachel finally gets them out by sheer value of being taller than most of the other kids, and Lloyd can’t help but be grateful as she tugs him in front of her, letting him escape the bus first. This last about half a second, because he immediately comes face-to-face with their teacher.

“Uh. Hi,” Lloyd says, weakly, as the teacher frowns at him.

“I don’t remember you,” he mutters glancing down at his clipboard, where he’s been checking off students. “Do you sit toward the back?”

“Ah, no, sorry, he’s with us!” Rachel says quickly, coming to his rescue. “He’s a visitor, just checking out the school, y’know?”

The teacher narrows his eyes. “Is that so,” he says, and Lloyd shrinks under his gaze. “And you’re who, now?”

“He’s my cousin,” Brad answers for him. “Luh — Floyd. Floyd…Calrissian?”

Rachel makes a muffled sound of agonized exasperation. Lloyd has to violently stifle the urge to stomp on Brad’s foot.

“Yeah, Floyd,” Brad nods, steamrolling ahead. “He lives out of city, in, um…“

“Ignacia,” Lloyd says, seizing on the name.

“Ignacia, yeah!” Brad snaps his fingers. “You know how it is there, real small town. He’s checking out schools here, so I thought I’d…bring him along…for the day.”

The teacher stares at them all for a beat, then shakes his head, looking uninterested. “You’re supposed to check him in, you know, but we’re already here. Nothing for it now. Keep an eye on him, Tudabone. Miss Lennox, you keep an eye on them both.”

“Yes, sir,” Rachel says, ignoring the face Brad’s making. “Thanks, sir.”

She seizes both their arms, dragging them away before Brad can make any kind of undoubtedly snarky remark. Lloyd’s too relieved to be out of the teacher’s stare to complain about being manhandled — he hadn’t realized how much he didn’t like teachers. Real good to know that he’s scarred for life thanks to Darkley’s, apparently.

“I thought you were gonna be from Metallonia,” Rachel hisses at him as they pass through the sliding doors, interrupting his train of thought.

Lloyd bristles. “I blanked, okay? It was the first thing I could think of on the spot. At least I did better than Brad.” He glares at him. “Lafloyd? That’s my name now?”

“It’s better than whatever you could come up with,” Brad shoots.

“Really?” Rachel turns on Brad. “‘Cause — Floyd Calrissian? Seriously? And you gave me heck for wanting to call him Luke.”

“Whatever, Miss Lennox, snooty teacher’s pet—”

“Oh, just ‘cause I didn’t spray-paint the teacher’s lounge—”

“Hey, here’s a fun idea, why don’t you drop it.” Lloyd glares at them both, immediately silencing them. Rachel makes a face, but her cheeks darken, and Brad glances at the floor. Lloyd watches his sneakers on the linoleum, where bright colored solar systems have been inlaid in fun little patterns.

“Lafloyd is a funny nickname,” Rachel suddenly remarks, quietly.

Lloyd stares at her, hoping it conveys the utter, crushing betrayal. Rachel just grins brightly back at him.

“Lafloyd Calrissian, from Metallnacia,” Brad snickers, and Lloyd feels a headache coming on.

At least it’s not Lloydkins, he tries to convince himself. Floyd is not the most awful option here. It could be worse.

*********

The planetarium is actually pretty cool, more so than Brad was selling it as when he termed it “the most boring school trip conceived”. The domed, dark room is quiet and comfortable, and Lloyd could go for a really long nap in here, if time permitted. But then the ceiling lights up in constellations and the teacher starts introducing some visiting Serpentine professor, and Lloyd figures taking another nap would probably be rude. He’s here to hang out with Brad and Rachel, after all, he can’t sleep through the whole thing.

Plus, astronomy is fun, now that he’s getting to actually learn about it from a nice planetarium seat, as opposed to hurtling through space on a nindroid spaceship in a desperate attempt to stop the Overlord from ending the world.

Not that it’s going to stop him from bragging about it.

“I’ve been on an asteroid,” Lloyd remarks under his breathe, as the professor starts detailing the orbital paths of comets. “It’s not as cool as it sounds.”

Rachel chokes where she’s sitting beside him, coughing out what might be a laugh. Brad stares at him, before casting his eyes to the ceiling digging his hands in his hair. “Of course you have,” he mutters. “Why not. Been to six different realms, what’s one asteroid?”

“You’ve been to other realms?!” Rachel hisses, looking equal parts flabbergasted and wildly interested. “Which ones? What were they like? Did you make it to that one that’s supposed to have fire-breathing dogs?”

“Shh!”

All three of them shrink in their seats as the teacher hushes them. Lloyd swaps looks with Brad, who’s already smirking at the familiarity.

Lloyd grins back, a bubble of happiness rising in his chest. His recently-rebuilt friendship with Brad has been slow-going at best — mostly because of how busy Lloyd’s schedule always is — and he’s been quietly fearing that the bridge their friendship was built on might’ve been a little too burned to build back. That there’s too much distance between them now, with how different their lives are.

It’s nice to proven wrong, he thinks. In fact, this entire field trip thing was a good idea, in hindsight. He’s having a pretty good—

The back door slams open with an almighty crash, and several shrieks ring out as a frazzled, deranged-looking man in a stained lab coat stands highlighted in the doorway, one accusing finger pointed toward the Serpentine lecturer.

“And you thought you could escape me, you halfwit snake.”

—oh for crying out loud.

“You,” the lecturer says, his face paling as he takes a noticeable step back. “You’re supposed to be in prison.”

“It didn’t agree with me,” the man cackles, his expression manic under the spiraling lights of the solar system. Brad and Rachel’s classmates are rooted to their seats, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes like some terrible soap opera. Their teacher’s kind of just gaping at the entire thing, like he can’t believe this is happening. Lloyd can completely sympathize.

“Should we call the police?” Brad whispers uncertainly, his eyes wide.

“No way, the police are useless,” Rachel hisses back. “Lloyd, use your zappy power-thing.”

The crazy guy continues before Lloyd can form a response. “So you’ve regressed to teaching now, have you? How the mighty have fallen.” A leer drags up the corners of his mouth, and Lloyd’s hair stands on end. Nope, he doesn’t like that—

“Luckily for you, I perfected the serum even without your help,” the guy continues, and the lecturer makes a strangled sound of horror as he pulls out a syringe. “Or unluckily for you, I should say."

The deranged man then grins, looking entirely too unhinged, and Lloyd’s stomach drops. He’s on his feet before his brain can catch up, ignoring Brad and Rachel’s yelps of alarm as instinct wired into his limbs drives him towards the guy before he can do anything, because Lloyd knows that look and he’s definitely going to do something—

“This is the turning point, old friend,” Crazy Guy hisses. “Now, no one will ignore me, ever again!”

He raises his hand, the syringe glinting in the dim lights of the planetarium. Lloyd puts on a burst of speed, mere yards from the guy, if he can just—

“Lloyd, wait!”

The man slams the needle into his arm, injecting the vivid purple right into his bloodstream. Lloyd reaches him just as the last of the liquid’s draining, launching himself from the top of one of the seats as a student screams, and kicks the syringe into an arching spiral away from his arm.

Oh, mistake. Big mistake. The guys gives a loud shriek, and the slight change in air pressure is all the warning Lloyd gets.

He whips back around to the students, eyes wide as he screams a warning. “Get down—!”

There’s a spectacular purple flash, and Lloyd goes flying, hurtling backward and smashing through an entire row of seats. This wouldn’t be so bad, except then his head cracks against something entirely too solid, and Lloyd’s vision goes out in bright, incredibly painful fireworks.

On second thought, this was a bad idea, is his last conscious thought, before the fireworks go dark.

*********

Lloyd jolts back into awareness to a throbbing pain in his head, and a feeling similar to someone trying to tear his arms off. He moans, blinking hazily as sound filters back in with consciousness, the unfortunately familiar sound of panicked screaming and destruction filling his ears.

That’s a bad sign, he thinks dizzily.

“Oh, thank FSM — he’s waking up! Lloyd, Lloyd, can you hear me?”

Brad finishes this last statement by yelling it in his face, and Lloyd flinches back, his head pounding.

“Stop that, you’re hurting him!”

He registers that as Rachel’s voice, coming from near his left side. He cracks his eyes back open, trying to get his bearings, and realizes that he’s being dragged forward. The pressure on his arms must be Rachel and Brad’s grip where they’ve got them slung over their own shoulders, they’re hauling him away from — from what?

“The crazy scientist guy lost it,” Rachel explains, her breath coming in sharp pants. “I think he’s got some big grudge against the lecturer, or something? Like, really intense drama—”

“That’s not the point!” Brad hisses. “He just turned himself into a freaky lizard monster, how are you not focusing on that?”

“Details are important!” Rachel snaps back, flinching as something explodes from behind them.

Lloyd blinks again, trying to get his dazed brain to work with him again. His first thought is, I didn’t know I was Spider-Man.

His second thought is that he needs to get with the program, now.

“Where’d’e go,” Lloyd slurs out as he yanks his arms from their hold, stumbling briefly before he finds his balance. He wavers as a searing pain slices through his head, and he grits his teeth, pressing a hand to his temple as he takes quick inventory. Other than his head, everything else seems to be in working order, he finds with relief.

Which is a really good thing, because it sounds like mutated science guy is about to try and start snacking on high school students like popcorn shrimp.

“He’s still back in the show room, but — Lloyd, you need to sit down,” Rachel says, her hands flitting toward his head anxiously.

“Yeah, you hit your head bad,” Brad echoes, his eyes wide. “I mean, the crack was epic, but you were passed out for like, ten minutes or so, which is bad.”

“M’fine,” Lloyd waves them off, blinking in an attempt to get the room to stop spinning. “Everything’s gonna be fine. Here,” he shoves his phone into Brad’s hand. “Call the guys if I’m not back in fifteen, okay?”

Brad and Rachel stare at him like he’s lost his mind, their eyes wide and faces pale. Which is rude, they could at least try and have some confidence.

“Lloyd—”

“I got this,” he says, and gives them a thumbs-up. Or he’s pretty sure he does, his vision is still doing that weird wobbling thing again. “I do this like, every day, guys. Just get somewhere safe, okay?”

Before either of them can protest, Lloyd takes off sprinting back to the show room, where the worst of the roaring is coming from. He grinds his teeth as another chorus of screams ring out, green light already flashing at his fingertips.

No luck. He’s got no luck at all.

*********

“We’re so dead.”

Rachel doesn’t even respond. She’s just standing there, rooted to the floor while their classmates run screaming past them for the doors, her fists clenched.

“His team’s totally gonna kill us,” Brad continues, trying to stifle mounting panic. “Kai’s gonna roast me alive. We’re gonna die.”

Rachel still doesn’t answer, staring after where Lloyd disappeared, her jaw working.

Brad shakes his head, flinching as another roar echoes from the back. “Let’s go.” They should probably at least honor Lloyd’s final wishes, he thinks, dizzily.

Rachel shakes her head. Brad’s stomach begins to sink.

“Rae, come on,” he implores. “We gotta go, Lloyd said—”

“No,” Rachel cuts over him, and Brad’s stomach finishes sinking right to his shoes. There’s something dangerously stubborn in her eyes. “We can’t just abandon him,” she continues. “Friends don’t leave other friends to fight crazy mutant lizard monsters on their own.”

Brad gapes at her. “Uh, yeah they do, if one friend is a super-powered ninja, and the other two are just average joes!”

Rachel whirls on him, and his sputtering dies in face of her glare. “Brad, it’s just Lloyd, all on his own! And he’s already concussed, he needs our help!”

“What help?” Brad throws his arms out, helplessly. “What are we even supposed to do?! We don’t! Have! Powers!”

A high-pitched explosion echoes from the back, as if to emphasize his point.

“Didn’t you go to a school for evil masterminds?” Rachel snaps back, and Brad flinches. “Use your brain, come up with something!”

Brad sputters at her, but she’s darting off before he can reply, fiddling with something on the wall. Brad fists his hands in his hair in frustration, trying to formulate an explanation that while he did, of course, go to a school for evil kids, he never actually got to the part where they taught him how to fight, much less defeat giant mutated lizards, and he has no idea what to do about it. If they were going to be of any help to Lloyd, they needed to make sure they weren’t giant liabilities, first off, and then they’d have to find out what the scientist had actually done to himself, and if there was a way to reverse it.

“And we’re gonna have to — holy FSM, is that an axe?”

“Yup,” Rachel says, testing the weight and swinging it briefly. “It is.”

“Where did you get an axe?!”

“From the glass box for fires and emergencies, duh.” She swings it again for emphasis, then nods in satisfaction. Brad jumps a foot back.

“Don’t you want to be a doctor?” he yelps. “What happened to ‘do no harm’?”

“That thing is trying to eat Lloyd,” she snaps. “So yeah, I’m gonna do some harm. Are you coming or not?”

Another explosion goes off from the halls inside the planetarium, and two of the kids on the basketball team run by screaming. Rachel blows her breath out, sets her jaw, hoists the axe and takes off after the high-pitched sound of Lloyd’s powers.

Brad looks at the exit, then back at the hallway of doom. He brings his foot down hard, and groans. “I — you — gah, we’re so gonna die.”

He grabs the fire extinguisher and heads after his friends.

*********

On the bright side of things, Lloyd’s managed to get all the high schoolers and their dumbstruck teacher out of the show room, and hopefully they’re now running to safety. He got the poor lecturer out too, even if it was a ridiculously close call and he’s gonna look like a rabid lizard attacked his right shoulder the next two weeks. Now the only ones duking it out in the room are Lloyd and Mr. Crazy Lizard Guy, so the chances of collateral have gone down, at least.

On the significantly less bright side, Lloyd might actually be losing this fight. He’s not sure, because the room’s pretty dark and the only real light is from some distant solar system the ceiling’s still whirling them through — which is really not helping with his headache, or spinning vision — but the fact that Lloyd, trained ninja that he is, hasn’t already obliterated this desk-job half-insane scientist is a bad sign.

As it turns out, fighting half-concussed just isn’t Lloyd’s strongest point. Which is dumb, because you’d think that by now, he’d at least be used to it.

“Infuriating child, why won’t you die—!”

Lloyd yelps, twisting aside as the mutated lizard-guy takes another swipe at him, razor-sharp claws whistling through the air where his head just was. Lloyd powers up a burst of green to retaliate, only to look back up and find that there are now three lizard monsters swimming in his vision, warping and swaying like snakes.

He shakes his head, desperately trying to re-focus, but it’s a fatal hesitation. The next swipe lands solidly against his side, and Lloyd cries out in alarm as he’s sent flying again, slamming into the auditorium seats before tumbling to the floor.

“Ow,” he coughs into the carpet, propping himself up with his arms and trying not to throw up. He’s going to feel this tomorrow — and look it too, probably. Man, the others are gonna kill him—

Scaled claws suddenly slam into the floor next to him, and Lloyd yelps, flinching back and craning his head upwards.

“Next time, know your place,” Crazy Guy hisses through jagged teeth, eyes flashing in deadly intent. Lloyd’s brain slams into panicked instinct, and he grasps at his powers, preparing to blast the entire room—

Thwack.

Lloyd stares with dinner-plate-sized eyes as Rachel appears from nowhere, swinging an axe straight into the mutated man’s raised arm with a wild shriek and a startling amount of force.

“Go to hell, you maniac—!”

Her next hit finds a shoulder, and before Lloyd can blink the guy’s scaly right arm is gashed open, his mouth open in an agonized howl as he staggers back. Rachel’s eyes are wild as she gasps heavily, brandishing the axe like a baseball player gearing up to swing. Lloyd manages to gape for a good three seconds before someone’s hands are pulling him to his feet, dragging him back.

“Move, move you moron!” Brad’s yelling, as he slings Lloyd’s arm around his shoulder and retreats. It takes Lloyd another second to realize he’s not yelling at him.

Rachel is still staring at the monster, her face pale and axe held aloft, frozen by shock. Or terror, either one’s fair game.

Lloyd snaps himself out of it, shrugging off Brad as the world swims again. He darts forward, grabs Rachel by the hand and pulls. He snags Brad as they go, hauling tail away from the still-howling scientist and throwing them behind the control podium at the back of the room, just barely sliding in behind them and out of lizard guy’s sight.

“We’re gonna die,” Brad gasps, his dark hair a frazzled mess. “It’s been real nice knowing you guys, we had a good run—”

“We are not gonna die,” Lloyd hisses, blinking black dots from his vision, That’s probably a bad sign. He shakes his head, fixing them both with a glare. “What are you guys doing?! I told you to get somewhere safe!”

“What, and let you die?” Rachel whispers back hotly, her hands still shaking around the axe she’s clutching, an odd green liquid dripping from the blade that Lloyd doesn’t wanna think about right now. “You were getting trashed out there!”

“No I wasn’t!” Lloyd defends. “I was just—”

“You think you can stop me?!” Crazy Guy’s voice roars across the room, and Lloyd pulls Brad and Rachel closer to him, ducking down lower. “Insignificant children, you’ll be the first to fall to my reign!”

“Wow, he’s really gone off the deep end,” Brad mutters, as if that, of all things, has jolted him from his ‘we’re gonna die’ mindset.

“I told you, huge grudge,” Rachel murmurs back.

Lloyd briefly wonders just how, exactly, he managed to end up with two utterly insane people as friends, then remembers who he is.

“Okay,” he breathes, pressing a hand to his throbbing head again and squeezing his eyes shut. “Plan. Need a plan. Um.”

“We got one,” Brad offers, exchanging looks with Rachel. “Uh, sort of.”

Lloyd looks between the two of them, trying to ignore how they suddenly blur into four of them.

Rachel makes a face. “Brad’s going to hack the light system and we’re going to get really, really annoying.”

Lloyd stares at them. “Absolutely not.”

Brad and Rachel glare back stubbornly, the planetarium lights dancing over their faces, their expressions set in shaky determination as the lizard guy continues to tear the room apart, searching for them. Lloyd’s hit by another vicious wave of anxiety. Brad and Rachel aren’t his team. They’re just — they’re just people, his friends, maybe, but civilians, he can’t ask them to—

“It’ll be fine,” Rachel assures him, the effect somewhat ruined by the manic way she’s clutching her axe. “I’ll be your eyes, so you’ll actually know where to shoot.”

“You can throw that axe at him, too,” Brad mutters, eyeing it warily.

Lloyd shakes his head. “No. No way, it’s too dangerous. You guys are gonna run, and I’m going to take care of him myself, because it’s my job.”

Brad and Rachel have those glares on again. “Sorry, Lloyd,” Brad says, with a burst of confidence Lloyd really wishes didn’t exist. “This isn’t Darkley’s. Friends don’t bail on each other. Also, you’re obviously gonna die if we don’t help out. No offense.”

Lloyd puffs his cheeks up with air, then slowly blows his breath out. This is an awful idea.

But he’s to the point where he’d admit that he’s concussed to Nya, and that means he needs all the help he can get.

“Okay,” he sighs, heavily. “Okay, but one rule — you are all staying far behind me.”

*********

Rachel breaks the rule in the first five seconds, but it’s only to stop Lloyd’s skull from getting banged up any further, so he’ll let it slide for the time being.

Also, he’s too busy trying to listen to her harried shouts over Crazy Guy’s enraged screaming to be mad at her now.

“Five — no, six o’clock!” she shrieks at him, tugging on his shoulder to move them out of the way. “Six o’clock, ten feet!”

Screwing his eyes shut against the dizzying lights, Lloyd hurls a streaking ball of energy where Rachel’s told him, and is rewarded with a screeching cry of pain.

“Nice!” Lloyd winces as Rachel yells directly in his ear. “Sorry, sorry — you hit him dead on!”

“Please tell me he’s down.”

“Uh, I think he might — oh, nope, he’s getting back up, but he looks a little dizz—yyyy duck, duck!”

Lloyd grabs for Rachel’s hand and pulls her down with him, sending them both sprawling across the floor as a something large whistles overhead.

“He’s tearing up the seats and throwing them at us,” Rachel pants, sounding indignant. She’s got a death grip on his hand, which might hurt if she wasn’t shaking like she’d shotgunned energy drinks.

Lloyd gets it, even if his adrenaline high of terror is more because he still can’t see straight.

He can see enough to tell that the lights of the planetarium are still going berserk above them, flashing from panel to panel and lighting up the dark room in a dizzying kaleidoscope of changing skies. It’d be super cool if it wasn’t one) really disorienting, and two) taking place while a mutated monster of doom tries to murder high schoolers.

“Guys, get up!” Brad’s scream echoes from the control podium, where he’s spinning them through Ninjago’s nearest satellites now. Lloyd feels the floor vibrating a second before the lizard monster comes barreling toward them, screeching in fury. Rachel sucks in a sharp breath of horror, and Lloyd’s stomach drops as he runs into another row of chairs. Reacting half on instinct, he grasps Rachel by the arm, pulls her close, and gasps out a ‘hold on’ — then, briefly siphoning the green power — tosses her straight up in the air, soaring inches from the ceiling.

Lloyd barely registers Brad swearing in shock as Rachel screams, but he’s too busy counting the seconds as the lizard monster charges him.

One, two—

Lloyd sidesteps, wind whistling past him as he narrowly avoids being pummeled again—

Three, four—

Lloyd sends two screeching bursts of energy into the monster’s back, a howl of pain missing with a sizzling sound as he goes flying across the room—

Five—

Lloyd skids back into place, and throws his arms out just in time to catch Rachel as she comes screaming back down.

“Sorry,” he pants, carefully setting her on her feet. She’s rattling in place like a wind-up toy now, but Lloyd can just see her giving him a shaky thumbs-up through his spinning vision.

“L-little more warning, next time,” she gasps, sounding winded. “Would be nice.”

Lloyd feels a flash of guilt bubble up, followed by a helpless burst of frustration. She shouldn’t be anywhere remotely near this kind of situation, neither her or Brad — they’re his normal friends, he’s supposed to go on dumb boring field trips with them, not blow up half a planetarium in a fight for their lives.

Rachel suddenly goes rigid, then grabs his shoulders and pulls him back. “He’s up!” she yelps. “He’s coming, he’s rushing us—”

Lloyd can see that, through the dizzying lights of the nearest solar system. “Get behind me!” he orders, just in time to get sent flying by a torn-up chair the guy’s chucked at them.

A litany of curses streams through his brain as both him and Rachel cry out, and Lloyd barely has the sense of mind to wrap himself around her before they slam back into the floor, rolling several feet before Lloyd’s head slams right against the stairs with another solid crack.

So many aspirin, he thinks faintly, as the world pulses in and out in dizzying flashes of white. Gonna need so many aspirin tonight.

“—et up, Lloyd, come on—”

That’s Rachel’s voice, a vaguely functioning part of his brain notes. She sounds upset, all scared and worried, which is…that’s bad, right? Lloyd’s not sure, there are like, five of her all up in his face right now—

A roar sounds closely behind her, and Rachel’s expressions spasms in panic. Lloyd’s vision finally solidifies just in time fore her to throw herself over him, and panic screeches everything back into awareness, but it’s too late because the lizard monster’s right on top of them—

Another solid crack rings out across the room, but this time it’s not Lloyd’s head. Crazy Guy howls in pain as he staggers back, clutching his head where the fire extinguisher struck his temple. Lloyd stares blankly as Rachel shakily lifts her head, before Brad’s suddenly in front of them, grabbing them both by the arms and struggling to haul them up.

“Get up!” he yells, dark eyes wide but glinting in determination. “Don’t just lay there, you’re the green ninja, come on!”

“Shu’up,” Lloyd slurs, but Brad’s words are enough to cut through the hazy film inside his head. He staggers to his feet, highly conscious of Brad and Rachel supporting both arms. This is beyond humiliating, what kind of—

“Children.” The guttural hiss has all three of them freezing in place, hair standing on end as lizard-like eyes pin them in place, glinting yellow in the flashing lights. “All of you, infuriating bugs to be crushed beneath my feet. Your deaths will be the first in my new reign—”

Irritating monologuing aside, Lloyd can’t help but be grateful for the way the guy pauses to detail their deaths, because it gives him a split, beautiful second of clarity to finally send a concussive blast of green hurtling dead on. There’s a high-pitched shriek as it sends him flying, hurtling across the room and smashing into the bottom edge of the planetarium screen with a blinding burst of sparks.

“Now that’s more like it!” Brad crows, watching as the lizard guy flops to the floor. “That’s what you get for messing with us, you ugly—”

The lizard guy pushes himself to his feet, briefly swaying dizzily before turning furious, burning eyes on them.

Brad swallows. “Did I say ugly? Actually—”

Lloyd’s already gearing up for another round, green sparks lighting on his fingers as Rachel brings her axe up again — when an ominous cracking sounds from above them. Lloyd glances up, the frantic flashing of the cracking planetarium screen nearly blinding him, and his eyes go wide.

“Get down!” he cries, pulling Brad and Rachel and diving beneath the control podium. And not a moment too soon, because in the next second the entire planetarium screen comes crashing down with an exploding screech, large chunks of mangled ceiling smashing down on the guy, pinning him firmly in place.

Lloyd, firmly crushed between Brad and Rachel, but otherwise spared any further head trauma by the solid control panel sheltering them, gives a shuddering exhale of relief.

“Well,” Rachel finally says, with a shaky laugh. “You probably won’t have to worry about boring field trips here anymore, Brad.”

Brad makes a pained, weary sound of exhaustion, and simply buries his face in Lloyd’s shoulder.

*********

Lloyd’s used to the after-battle adrenaline crash, for the most part. Brad and Rachel, as it turns out, are not. Five minutes after the paramedics have stopped fussing over them, leaving all three wrapped in the ugliest orange shock blankets Lloyd’s ever seen, there’s a sudden weight on both of his shoulders. Lloyd blinks, his head swiveling to where Brad and Rachel are snoring on either side of him, then sighs, staring upwards. At least they’re warm, he tells himself, even though it’s starting to get hot under the shock blanket.

Despite the screaming sirens all around him and the frantic voices of the students, Lloyd’s almost tempted to drift off himself. With the loss of adrenaline, his head’s really starting to hurt by now, and the flashing lights of the ambulance aren’t helping his headache in the slightest. He’s just deciding that dozing off with his friends is a good idea, when a familiar sigh has him yanking his eyes open.

Lloyd immediately wants to close them again. Kai and Nya are standing in front of him, arms crossed in identical expressions of disappointment, though it’s tinged mild amusement.

“Hi,” he croaks. He glances between Brad and Rachel, still snoring peacefully against his shoulders. Traitors. “Um. You got my text, then?”

Nya gives him a careful, judging look. “A month. You’re grounded for a month, at least.”

“Oh, come on,” Lloyd moans. “I was living my teenage years. Having a normal day.”

Kai snorts loudly, glancing back at the smoke still rising from the planetarium. “Totally normal teenage stuff, huh.”

Lloyd drops his head back, squeezing his eyes shut. “S’not fair,” he moans. “It’s not my fault trouble’s always following me.”

Nya’s expression eases up, and she shakes her head, uncrossing her arms. “Hey, we’ll have a normal evening back at home, okay?” She eyes Brad and Rachel, her lips quirking in amusement. “You can have a sleepover with your friends, or something. I’ll braid your hair.”

While the idea of anyone going remotely near his head sounds awful right now, Lloyd can’t help but smile back.

“Sounds like a plan,” he yawns. Anything to get them out of this parking lot. At least he knows what he’s missing out on with school, now.

Really, he doesn’t get the hype.

#ninjago oc day #ninjago #the physical agony...of posting something with my oc...#i would say at least lloyd's having fun but. he's not gdbnjfg #my fic

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hotchley · 4 years ago

Note

mortch having a girl, specifically hotch coming home after a bad case to see derek-with glasses ofc- holding their babygirl while reading hotch’s high school play script

Grace I am in love with your brain and I need you to write this properly, but for now, enjoy this little drabble... thing whatever, we’re going with it (and I hope you liked the other mortch headcanons!!)

the best thing they ever did

I don’t know what else to call it and all of the songs I’ve been listening to are sad and look... either of them with a daughter is just the best thing and yeah so please be gentle

Also where in canon is this? Fuck if I know, Tara and Luke are on the team but Derek left and Jack is a teen and Hotch is retiring in a few months and like Mr Scratch the episode did happen but not the shit after?? but that’s not that important just go with it

read on ao3! (I cannot believe I am doing this)

tw: vague crimes against children, the slightest implication of child abuse

Cases with children were always hard. But cases with children, when he had two at home and Derek wasn’t there to ground him or make everything better by simply holding his hand and drawing circles were awful.

So awful that he just wanted to bury his head in the lumpy pillow at the hotel and scream. He missed feeling Derek’s arms around him as he slept, and he missed falling asleep on his shoulder, and he missed the scent of his shower gel.

He just missed Derek. And Jack. And their little girl. He couldn’t believe he had a daughter. He had always wanted to give Jack a little sibling, but his own failures had meant that never happened.

Until it did. Just in a completely different way to what he was expecting. He lost Haley to George Foyet, yes, but he gained a new family that he thought he would never find. And he knew Haley, wherever she was, was at peace, watching over him and the loves of his life with pride and happiness.

In the end, they saved the children. Their lives would never be the same and this would stay with them forever, but they would, with the right support, recover and flourish.

He used to tell the team that saving a victim was the best thing they could do because he needed them to carry on having faith in what they did and not start doubting whether or not they made a difference because they did.

But he too had wondered whether or not it was worth it. When he thought of everything Foyet had put him through, had his life really been worth saving?

And then he saw Jack. Jack who would always miss his mother and the person she had been to him, the woman he remembered, but Jack that looked at Derek and called him Papa without feeling guilty. Jack that sometimes got angry and threw tantrums but was every bit the boy Haley had raised.

And he knew that it was all worth it. As he thought of Derek- good and kind and beautiful Derek that had stuck with him through everything and held him after Mr Scratch had forced him to see his family die- he smiled.

Derek Morgan was the best man he knew. And every single day, every single moment, he considered himself lucky to call him his husband. He knew how difficult it was for Derek to wave goodbye each morning, knowing first-hand the horrors of the job. But Aaron only had to do a few more months before the Bureau would give him his pension.

And when that day came, he was going to retire and join Derek at the local community college, where they would teach the next generation of lawyers. Together. Like they were meant to. Because even before they had fallen in love- unwillingly and resentfully realised that actually, they did care about each other a lot- they had been partners.

But before then, he would carry on with the BAU, writing reports until his eyes started to hurt and he has to fight back tears every time he looks at the photos. This time though, his desk was suspiciously void of paperwork that wasn’t absolutely essential to the case.

When he looked into the bullpen, Emily and Luke’s piles seemed significantly bigger. Tara and Spencer also had larger piles, but those were decreasing at an incredibly fast rate.

He smiled to himself and pulled his phone out to text Derek that he would be home sooner than expected. But as he gazed at his lock screen- subconsciously counting down the days till he could change it to the family photo- he decided he would surprise them instead.

With the knowledge that he would soon be home and in the arms of his loved one, the paperwork was slightly more bearable. It was still brutal and heartbreaking and he kept needing to pause to stop himself from sobbing, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

Derek’s presence had always been more than a light, but still.

He finished before anyone else of the team, but he didn’t feel guilty leaving. They didn’t need him to hold their hands anymore. They hadn’t for a while, but Derek’s departure after the birth of their daughter- their beautiful daughter- had driven the point home.

It was why he was going to be able to leave without any regrets.

It was dark when he unlocked the front door to their home. Home. He thought he had lost that after Haley left. He never thought he would find it in Derek, but he would never stop feeling grateful that he got a second chance at a family. A second chance at being happy.

All the lights downstairs were off, so he assumed they had all gone to sleep. He checked Jack’s room and saw that he was peacefully asleep. Maybe it was the case, or the nostalgia that came with leaving, or maybe he was just a better man than his father was, but the sight of him sleeping without stirring or being haunted by nightmares bought on a wave of emotion so overwhelming he had to hold the door handle.

With every passing day, Jack looked more and more like his mother. Once upon a time, it would’ve been like a dagger to Aaron’s heart, but now it just made him smile with a fondness he hadn’t realised he was capable of.

Even though Jack wasn’t a child anymore- he was almost as tall as Hotch- he still found himself quietly entering to press a soft kiss to his forehead. He closed the door properly as he left, knowing his son would appreciate the thought in the morning.

The door to the nursery was also closed. Either she was sleeping, or Derek was still awake with her. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was the second. Derek loved their daughter the way he did everything in his life: with passion, the utmost care and his entire soul.

He hesitated in the doorway of their bedroom, wanting to enjoy the sight for just a moment.

Derek, in nothing but a thin t-shirt and pair of shorts, clearly ready for bed, and glasses that he somewhat resented wearing because it reminded him that he was getting older, holding their daughter in his arms. He held her like she was the world.

And in some ways, she was.

Aaron smiled at the two of them. And then he heard what Derek was saying.

The book in front of him was not the storybook Haley had bought Jack when he was a baby. Nor was it one of the many gifts they’d received from the team.

It was the script for the Pirates of Penzance. The same one Hotch had scribbled his notes all over, so he would know exactly where he was meant to stand and when he was meant to enter and leave. He wanted to be offended, but he couldn’t help but smile.

Theatre had been the start of his and Haley’s love story. He loved that Derek was so willing to celebrate it.

“I hope you’re doing the voices right,” he quipped, as Derek started to recite the first of Pirate Number Four’s two lines.

Derek turned and Aaron was still so taken aback by how stunning he was that whatever he was going to say died on his lips. He smiled slightly, trying to not give away how much the case had affected him.

“I thought you could use something good today. Em told me what happened. Do you want to talk about it?”

Not today. Tomorrow he would, but tonight he was going to love his daughter and fall asleep in Derek’s arms. So he shook his head and went over to the two of them.

His daughter babbled and smiled at him, wrapping her little hand around his finger.

“Hello darling,” he cooed. “Did Papa make you stay up for me? Or did you do that yourself?”

Derek laughed, a joyous and warming sound. “She did that herself. In fact, she almost woke Jack up with her screaming. I think she knew her daddy would be home today. Didn’t you?”

Aaron smiled as she carried on smiling at the two of them. “Thank you for staying up. I know I’m back earlier than usual, but it’s still late.”

“You don’t need to thank me,” Derek said, still rocking the baby in his arms. She was a beautiful baby. And one day, she would be an amazing, strong and vulnerable woman. But for now, she was his little girl.

“I know. But I want to,” Aaron said in response. “Did she really almost wake up Jack?”

“Yep. She wanted to be held, and then I thought I would read to her, and I remember getting this out for Jack earlier. It just felt right. Haley had so many lines, how she remembered all of them is beyond me.”

“She was ethereal on that stage,” he said. But thinking of Haley didn’t hurt now. It hadn’t for a while. JJ had been right. He was happy.

“I’m going to change out of this suit,” he said, after a few moments of silence passed. Derek nodded, not even moving to put her back in her crib. When Aaron returned wearing Derek’s old pyjamas, he was still rocking her gently.

“You’ve never looked quite so beautiful as you do when you hold her,” he confessed quietly.

Derek smiled, passing her over. “And you never look as relaxed as you do when she’s in your arms.”

He laughed, then responded with: “Gas.”

Derek rolled his eyes in that fond way he always did, but he laughed along nonetheless. And when Aaron’s eyes started to droop, he took the now sleeping baby from his arms and went to the nursey.

As he set her down, he brushed his lips across her forehead, wishing her a peaceful sleep.

“Goodnight, Penelope Haley Hotchner-Morgan. Have the sweetest dreams,” he said, leaving the door slightly open so some of the light could get in.

Aaron had fallen asleep in the few minutes he had been gone for, on top of the duvet and with his feet dangling off the end of the bed. Derek smiled at his sleeping figure from the door, wondering how anyone could look so sweet as they slept.

Derek moved him to be under the covers, having done it enough times to know how to do it without waking him up. When Aaron’s breathing remained even, he breathed a sigh of relief and climbed in on the other side.

As if he just knew, Aaron rolled over, burying his head in Derek’s neck as he wrapped his arms around his husband, feeling like home was perfect once more.

#criminal minds #criminal minds fic #mortch #derek morgan #aaron hotchner #tw implied child abuse #tw implied crimes against children

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jokertrap-ran · 4 years ago

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(未定事件簿) EVENT! 「四季如夏」 [Tears of Themis] EVENT: Xia Yan Birthday 2020- Luke All Year-Round Translations (11.20: Out-of-print Gift)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Will also be filed under Xia Yan’s tag #Tears of a PI *The tracking tag for ALL Event Stories will go under: #Tears of an Event

11.01 / 11.11 / 11.20 / 11.27 / 12.05 Messages / Investigations / Call

Location: Second-hand Bookstore

I had already mentally prepared myself and my wallet for the hunt for the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", but...

It didn't matter if it was online or offline, within the country or overseas; I had tried almost every available method out there, only to still turn up empty.

In the end, I held onto a glimmer of hope as I walked into the oldest Second-hand Bookstore in Stellis City.

MC: Hello, may I ask if this shop has the First Edition of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”?

The old man paused in his re-organizing of the books upon hearing the book’s title.

Old Man: Sorry, but this shop doesn’t sell books that are out-of-print.

His cold answer pretty much declared my failure.

Maybe it was because my face of disappointment was much too “sorrowful”, for the old man seemed a little sorry.

Old Man: There are many complete collections of Sherlock Holmes all over the market, so why are you specifically looking for the First Print Edition of it?

MC: I want to buy this book as a gift for a very important person of mine. He’s a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast and has always longed to own a copy of this book since he was little.

MC: We didn't meet each other for 8 years after that, due to various reasons. But now that he's back, I want to fulfil that wish of his.

Old Man: He's probably not the same person you knew anymore, since he disappeared for 8 years.

Old Man: Even if he's back now, you no longer have to bother about any of his wishes.

MC: Wait. Are you...?

He sounded a little… Peeved? That made me a little confused.

Old Man: He disappeared for such a long time, yet you’re not angry?

MC: Haha, so that was what you meant. We didn't split up because of something like a childish spat.

He probably misunderstood this to be something similar to the plot of some movie out there, where the person leaves without saying so much as a goodbye.

MC: Even though I was mad when he disappeared on me like that and swore never to care about him ever again...

MC: I still ended up worrying about him in the end, telling myself that it doesn't matter even if he doesn't contact me anymore, so long as he's safe and sound.

MC: Time that has already passed cannot be repeated, but upon meeting him again, I realized that...

MC: There were no barriers between us; it was almost as if we were never separated.

Old Man: ……

Old Man: You are very lucky.

MC: Huh?

Old Man: I do, coincidentally, happen to own a copy of the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in my special collection.

MC: Really? Could you let me have it…?

A flicker of sadness crossed his features upon hearing my request.

MC: Oh, I’m sorry. It must be of some special significance to you since it's part of your special collection.

The situation at hand wasn't exactly fitting to discuss monetary business, so I hesitated for a while, carefully wording what I had to say.

MC: Sir, I'm sincerely seeking this set of books. So please, just tell me if there's anything I have to do if that's your price, no matter what it may be.

He stared at me for a good while before shaking his head with a sigh.

Old Man: The fact that you're willing to offer that much means that you're already aware that there is no other copy of the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" in Stellis City, other than mine.

MC: Yes, you're right. I've already tried all there is to try, and you're pretty much my last hope here.

MC: I've dragged many friends into my search for these books through various channels, and I've also put up a request online that I was looking for them.

MC: But… I haven't gotten any good news even up till now.

MC: I've visited almost all of the Bookstores in Stellis City, and your shop's last one I'm visiting.

MC: Many people have told me that if I can't find it here, then these books really aren't circulating in the market anymore.

Old Man: Then what did you plan on doing?

MC: Huh?

Old Man: What did you plan to do, if this store of mine really didn't have said book?

▷ Choice: I'll give him my promise first

MC: I think I'll probably give him a promise.

MC: He loves Sherlock Holmes so much, so the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" should be an irreplaceable gift for him.

MC: If I can't realize this wish of his, this year, then I'll just promise him...

▷ Choice: Change presents

MC: If I can't find this set of books this year, then I'll just have to buy a different present for him.

MC: But I'll never give up on finding this set of books!

MC: He loves Sherlock Holmes so much, so the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" should be an irreplaceable gift for him.

MC: Next year, the year after that, no matter how many years it takes; I'll definitely find this particular set of books and gift them to him one day.

MC: Maybe he'll be even more surprised then.

He was stunned upon hearing what I had to say, only giving a smile once he'd recovered.

But his smile gave me an odd sense of sadness…

Old Man: You youngsters have nothing short to say; that's great.

Old Man: Life's so long, you'll definitely have enough time for your pursuit. It's just like...

Old Man: Never being able to reach the end…

Old Man: I might not end up like how I am today, if I was as determined as you back in the day.

MC: Sir, you...

Old Man: You really want this set of books?

MC: Yes, I very much do.

Old Man: ...I'm getting on in age, so I tire easily after just organizing the books for a while. Help me sort out a couple of boxes of second-hand books, and that set of books will be your reward.

MC: Okay, I'll get started on it immediately.

Under his supervision, I ended up sorting through old books for an entire afternoon in the old bookstore.

Every old book had to be disinfected, checked over for damage and labelled, before being placed into their designated bookshelves. Books that have missing pages or big areas of staining had to be specially singled out and put aside, to await fixing or cleaning.

Finally, I finished sorting through all the books before the sun went down the hills. It was at this moment that the old man brought out a set of books.

Old Man: You've worked hard, young lady. Here, this is the First Edition of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" that you wanted.

He solemnly handed me the books. Touching it's hardcover, I could see that the old man really cherished it.

MC: Sir, I should really still pay you for how much it's worth out on the market.

MC: It might be of poor taste for me to be saying this, but I feel kind of bad just taking one of your treasured books away like that...

Old Man: There's nothing to feel bad about. Books are only valuable when in the hands of those that cherish them.

Old Man: There's no need to think so much about it. I don't like reading "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" to begin with; it's just that she was the one who liked it...

Old Man: I kept this book only for the sake of giving it to her, but she never once came back after she left, so the book has lost its prospective owner.

MC: Her?

Must be someone of importance to him...

MC: What if she comes back? After you give this to me…

Old Man: I'm telling you to take it, so just take it. Even if she does return, the distance wedged between us now cannot be closed just over a mere set of books.

Old Man: Enough. You're one lucky lady, so hurry and take the books and get going.

MC: ……

He didn't wait for me to reply, ushering me out of the Bookstore…

Looking back to the door of the Bookstore, I could only wish for this world to have more successful relationships like the one between Xia Yan and I, and fewer regrets that come with “the more you want something, the harder it is to get”.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Xia Yan: Boss? Why are you closing shop this early?

Old Man: You again! You're late. That set of books has already been sold off.

Xia Yan: What!? But didn't you say that you were saving that book for your first love? Didn't you say that you wouldn't sell it no matter what?

Old Man: The book's mine, I can sell it if I want to!

Xia Yan: Yes, yes, of course. Then what are you going to do if your lover comes back?

Old Man: None of your business.

Xia Yan: You can at least tell me why you sold this set of books to someone else, right? Besides, I won’t lose out to anyone on the issue of sincerity.

Old Man: From what I see, you’re going to buy it back from the person who bought it, no?

Xia Yan: Hehe, you’ve completely seen through me.

Old Man: I suggest you give it up, that young lady bought it as a gift for someone important.

Old Man: Judging from her attitude, I’ll say she definitely won’t be re-selling it, no matter what.

Xia Yan: Haa… Looks like that set of books and I are destined to meet, but not fated to be.

Old Man: You wouldn’t have to suffer the disappointment if you’d just thought that from the start.

Xia Yan: Enough about the books for now. You still up for chess today, Boss?

Old Man: The book’s already sold, so why are would you still accompany me for a game of chess?

Xia Yan: Books are books, and chess is chess; the two of them have no relation to each other.

Old Man: So, you’re saying that you’ll still come by to play chess with me in the future?

Xia Yan: That’s for sure. You’re the only one in the entirety of Stellis City to make me willingly accept my defeat.

Old Man: Heh, I’ve lived for so long, but this old man has yet to lose.

Xia Yan: Can’t say the same for the future to come.

Old Man: You talk a great deal of rubbish, youngster.

Xia Yan: Weren’t you the one who taught me that chess is like war, and that we should never show hints of weakness even when we’re on the losing side?

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Previous Part: (11.11: Warm Gloves) | Next Part: (11.27: Sweet, sweet Cake)

#Tears of Themis #Xia Yan #Translations #Otome #Mihoyo #未定事件簿 #夏彦 #四季如夏 #Luke All Year Round #Xia Yan 2020 Birthday #Tears of a PI #Tears of an Event

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crownedbyluke · 5 years ago

Text

Long Road Ahead (Chapter Fourteen)

Estelle Finley has been friends with Ashton Irwin and Luke Hemmings for three years. When the boys bring her along on a jam-packed road trip to Cape Cod with the rest of the band, their adventures are just beginning. Through long hours driving, exploring cities, and hidden secrets, something more is bound to happen on this journey. How will this road trip change Estelle’s friendship with the friends she’s come to love so dearly?

Word Count: 2,190

{Chapter One} {Chapter Two} {Chapter Three} {Chapter Four}{Chapter Five} {Chapter Six} {Chapter Seven} {Chapter Eight} {Chapter Nine} {Chapter Ten} {Chapter Eleven} {Chapter Twelve} {Chapter Thirteen}

The morning had gone by fast, neither myself or Estelle really talking about what going to this event meant. I had put all of our stuff in the car before she came out of the house. I knew she wanted to drive, but wouldn’t ask, so I had given her the keys without hesitation. We were about a half hour in and still hadn’t talked. The soft sounds of Khalid’s “Young, Dumb, and Broke” played through the speakers. My eyes watched as trees and water went by. I had no idea what to say to her to ease the tension between us.

“I need to tell you something,” she said suddenly.

I looked over at her, noticing her tightened grip on the steering wheel. It was now or never then.

“What’s up?” I asked cautiously.

“There’s an actual reason why we can’t be together,” she said.

The tension she had in her body transferred to mine. My shoulders almost hurt from how tight my muscles were. I had intentions of this trip being the way Estelle would realize how well we work as a couple. With her words though, I had a feeling that wouldn’t be happening. I gulped.

“What is it?” I asked.

“When we were in South Carolina, there were pictures taken of me and Ashton. My, uh, dad saw them and called me. Then, there were more from New York, he saw them and called that night. He threatened to ruin your career and take away my chances of getting my new house if I kept seeing you,” she said.

It sounded like she released a breath of relief from saying it out loud. My mind was racing as I tried to process the information. So it had nothing to do with our friendship?

“We can’t be together because of your dad?” I asked so I was understanding her correctly.

“Luke, he threatened your career,” she repeated.

I nodded, still processing. Although I understood, it felt unfair. A relationship was meant for the two people involved and no one else. It wasn’t her fault, but I was angry. Why should her dad get to dictate what she does or who she sees? My eyes drifted back out the window. The faint sounds of “Like I Can” by Sam Smith started to fill my ears. My hand shot out and turned the music off.

“Luke?” she asked.

I felt her eyes on me, boring holes into my head.

“It’s fine,” I lied.

There was a bite to my words that I hadn’t meant to be there.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah. We’ll say we’re just friends at the gallery,” I said.

“Okay,” she said, a slight waiver in her voice.

She turned into the parking lot of the hotel I booked. We slowly got out and checked in.

“Here are you keys Mr. Hemmings,” the concierge said.

I led her to the elevators. We went up to one of the highest floors in silence. At her room, I handed her what she brought along and her key.

“I’ll leave you to get ready,” I said, turning to go to my separate room.

“Luke, my father doesn’t change the fact that I have feelings for you,” she blurted out.

The side of my mouth turned up slightly at her words.

“I’ll come knock when it’s time to go,” I said, not turning around.

I closed the door behind me, sliding down to the floor. My eyes closed, the feeling of defeat washing over me. Nothing was going to plan. I pulled out my phone, dialing the restaurant I made reservations at.

“Yes, I’d like to cancel rooftop reservations for Hemmings.”

➢➢➢

I adjusted the tie as I looked in the mirror. Crystal insisted on the gold one being perfect for whatever Estelle picked out. With a sigh, I grabbed my key car and headed over to knock on her door. The sound almost echoed throughout the empty hallway. After a few moments, the door opened. All of the air left my lungs as I looked at her. She had her hair down in small waves and just the lightest touch of makeup. The dress fit her perfectly like it was made for her. I met her eyes, seeing the nervousness in them.

“You’re breathtaking,” I said finally.

She laughed a little. I extended my arm for her to take. When she took a step, I saw the slit of her dress and the slight peek of skin. My heart was pounding out of my chest. We walked together through the lobby, a smile plastered on my face. People stared at Estelle and I knew that if I wasn’t walking with her, I’d be doing the same thing. She was lighting up every room she walked in and I felt so lucky to be the person who she was walking with. The limo driver greeted us before opening the door. I let Estelle slide in first before following after her. It felt incredibly warm inside once the door closed.

“Are you okay? Your cheeks are a little red,” she said.

I shook my head and took a deep breath.

“Yeah. Sorry,” I said.

I needed to calm down before we got there or the press would for sure be noticing the slight bulge in my pants.

“Why the limo?” she asked.

“Oh, um, I wanted you to have a good time and we are going to a formal event so it’s only right,” I said.

“Well, thank you. You look very,” she paused, looking me up and down, “handsome.”

I smiled, grateful she wasn’t teasing me.

“It’s nothing compared to the work of art you are,” I said.

Her cheeks flushed. I watched as she pushed a piece of hair out of her face. The limo slowed as we arrived.

“Ready?” I asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she said with a smile.

The door opened and I got out first. Without hesitation, I held my hand out for Estelle. The second she stood next to me, the cameras were flashing. Between the photographers calling my name and trying to lead her towards the entrance, I forgot about everything. We posed for pictures and then a few reporters stopped us. We gave the typical just friends answer. I was basically on autopilot until one reporter was more interested in Estelle than me.

“Ms. Finley, it’s an honor to see you out tonight,” the reporter said.

“Thank you. It is so nice to be out instead of the usual routine of work,” she said smoothly.

“How is your father?”

“It is so thoughtful of you to ask! He is very busy working on a new project,” she said.

“Are you allowed to share any details?” the reporter continued.

“Only a few. He’s producing the adaptation of a popular book right now. Very hush, hush. You know how the entertainment industry works,” Estelle said, giving the reporter a wink.

“Which one?”

“Now spilling those details would get me in trouble. If you’ll excuse us, I’m really excited to see the art,” she said before turning away.

I held my confusion in as we entered the gallery. Estelle accepted a champagne flute she was offered and handed me one. We started a slow first lap of the spacious gallery.

“Care to explain?” I whispered.

“Later,” she replied.

We mingled a little, giving some smiles and engaging in polite small talk. After the third lap, I looked over at her. She was still giving a performance of whoever her dad told people she was. It seemed like it was wearing her out. Another couple gave us a matching pair of smiles as they passed.

“Do you want to go?” I asked quietly.

“Please,” she said, giving me a desperate look.

I led her towards the back where I had seen the back exit. The stairwell let out right by the parking thankfully. I knocked on our limo’s window, seemingly waking up our driver. He unlocked the doors, letting us get in ourselves. Estelle sighed as she lifted her feet onto the other seat.

“Producer huh?” I asked as we started moving.

“And director when the project’s right,” she said, apparently doing an impression of her dad.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Do you go around telling people you meet that you’re a rockstar?” she asked.

“Well, no, but-”

“But what? You let them figure it out? Tell them when you’re ready? Maybe even wait until their face shows up in the press?” she asked, cutting me off.

“Sometimes, but I tell them before three years of friendship goes by,” I retorted.

“Okay, well, let’s try this, shall we? Luke, my dad is a movie and TV producer and director that likes to tell the world his daughter works for the company and not that she’s a teacher. Would you also like to know about the time in college when someone that I thought was my friend took pictures of me at a party and sold them to the paparazzi which almost got me sent out of the country for the rest of school?” she said, annoyance and hurt in her voice.

“I didn’t know,” I said, looking away from her.

“Because I didn’t want you to. I didn’t want you to think of me differently or even pity me. I didn’t want the two people that seemed to be genuinely good in my life to think less of me for being Lance Finley’s only daughter that he can’t even tell the truth about,” she said.

We pulled up to the hotel. There was so much more I wanted to say than what I had. I helped her get out and then she walked away from me, not waiting. It was a walk of independence meant to showcase that she wasn’t just someone’s daughter. My feet forced me to try to catch up with her, barely making it into the elevator with her.

“I don’t think of you differently,” I said.

“Tell that to your face,” she said.

“If you’re referring to the fact that I can’t stop looking at you, it’s because you are the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen and I’m madly in love with you,” I said.

The elevator opened, letting us out to walk to our separate rooms. I wanted so badly for her to turn around or reach for me, but our lives weren’t a fairytale. The sound of her door closing rang in my ears.

➢➢➢

I was half asleep when a knock on the door echoed through my room. Groggily, I got up and opened the door. A room service attendant was standing there was a cart.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“Yes! Here is the hot fudge sundae you ordered,” he said, lifting the cover.

He was staring at me and I saw the look of realization start to come over his face. I quickly took the sundae and gave him a five dollar tip. Thankfully, he walked back to the elevator. I heard a soft giggle, making me look down the hall. Estelle was standing in her pajamas, trying not to laugh at me.

“So this was you then?” I asked.

She nodded before closing her door to walk over to me.

“Since when do you not like sundaes?” she asked.

“Oh, I do. I don’t love random sundaes showing up at my door though,” I said, moving so she could walk in.

“Shame. I guess I’ll have to take it off your hands then,” she said, reaching for the bowl.

“Never said I wasn’t going to eat it!” I laughed, holding it out of her reach.

Estelle stumbled, catching herself on my chest. Her citrus perfume took over my senses. One of my hands came down to rest on the small of her back. She hummed happily. It was hard to tell if she was drunk or just genuinely happy to be close to me again after all of the fighting. I reached and put the sundae down on the bedside table. She had taken her makeup off and tied her hair into a low ponytail. Even without all of the bells and whistles, she was gorgeous. The sudden change in demeanor was concerning, but if anything, I wanted to enjoy this moment in case I didn’t get another.

“Why’d you send me a sundae?” I asked, bringing my other arm around her.

“Wanted to apologize,” she mumbled.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“It’s okay, little dove,” I said, cautiously bringing my hand to her cheek.

The nickname rolled off my tongue before I could stop it.

“I hate not being able to say you’re mine,” she said as her eyes met mine.

“I’m your’s?” I asked hopefully.

“I love you Lu.”

I swiftly connected my lips to hers. Nothing else mattered right now besides her. Screw whatever anyone else decided or what people would think. I waited too long to have her be mine and I’m done not having her. Let the world rain down fire if it had to, Estelle was mine.

A.N.: We are going places. Full warning, there is some sad stuff ahead and I am so sorry.

tags: @bbycal @emptysanity @floraldawg @cakesunflower @tommossoccer

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athingthatwantsvirginia · 5 years ago

Text

An Alice Man

PART FIVE OF THE DO YOU SEE HER FACE? SERIES

Pairing: Jess Mariano x Original Character (Ella Stevens)

Warnings: mentions of death, plentiful pop culture references

Word Count: 4.2K

Summary: On a catastrophic afternoon, Ella confronts Jess about his evasive behavior. Later, the annual basket sale disrupts a weekend shift at the diner.

At first, she thought nothing of it. The snubs, when he would look away from her just as he caught her eyes, refusal to hold a conversation disguised as being busy. After all, she didn’t need Jess. She got plenty of social interaction at school and at work, but there was something suspicious in the sudden turnaround of their banter. The cold shoulder was getting old. Her patience finally wore thin on a stormy Monday. February had warmed at an unexpected rate, and the rain rather than snow had begun to fall the week before. Ella suspected another wave of snow would move in before the winter was really over, or she hoped it would. A fire of annoyance was brewing in her stomach as she jogged the distance from Stars Hollow High to the diner, having forgotten her umbrella in the morning. She had only her leather jacket, and had opted to shield her messenger bag instead of her hair in order to save her homework.

With damp hair and her dark eye makeup running a little under her eyes, she stormed into the diner. To add insult to injury, she had slipped on the gravelly slush on the way, and her jeans had torn at the knee. The edges of the ripped denim were tinged red, her skin scraped. She hung her sopping bag and coat from the hanger near the door. They dripped rainwater on the tile floor and she sighed internally. She would definitely have to mop later. Before anyone could say a word, she retreated to the kitchen and tried to ring her hair out. She ran some napkins under her eyes, and they came away dark with eyeshadow and mascara. There was no mirror in the kitchen, but she had a pretty good idea of what she looked like. The words “drowned rat” came to mind, and her rosebud lips were set in a tight, tense line.

Heaving a sigh, she tied her apron around her hips, nearly slipping again in her black clogs. She ignored the stinging in her knee and came around the counter. Rain always slowed business, and there were only a few people in the diner. Lorelai and Rory sat at the counter, Luke speaking with them, while Jess read Naked Lunch on the stool he had stolen and put near the door to the kitchen. He hadn’t looked up or acknowledged her when she brushed past him.

“Um, Ella?” Lorelai asked when she saw the girl.

Grabbing a pencil and a pad to shove into her pocket, Ella finally felt as though the rushed adrenaline was fading in her. “Hey, guys, what’s up?”

“Got caught in the rain, huh?” Rory surmised, eyeing her curiously, warily.

Ella furrowed her brows at their strange looks, and how Luke was averting his gaze from her. “Yep. I forgot my umbrella, I fell down on Main, I probably bombed my chem test, I lost my calc textbook and didn’t find it until I spent twenty minutes going through the entire math wing after class, and Jess still has my copy of Jane Eyre,” she enumerated her grievances, caught up in her rant, pointing an angry finger towards Jess on her last note.

On a normal day, she would have swallowed down her irritation and put on a fake sunshiney demeanor. But with virtually only Rory and Lorelai in the diner, she had ended up spewing out all her frustration. She didn’t mention the fight she’d had with her dad in the morning, though. That could wait for the next movie night in the Gilmore house.

Jess looked up once, lazily, at the sound of his name, and then went back to his reading.

“Okay, honey, I’m sorry, but it’s gonna get worse before it gets better,” Lorelai said, trying to placate her. Sometimes, Ella could get wound as tight as Rory, though always for different reasons.

“What?”

“The shirt situation is not lookin’ so good right now,” Lorelai informed her. Luke had begun puttering with the cash register, checked out from the conversation.

Ella looked down at her shirt and immediately flushed scarlet. She’d worn a white long-sleeve with a black outline of Lou Reed’s face. With the saturation from the rain, the white cotton had become almost entirely see-through and her black bra was completely visible.

“You have got to be kidding,” she said softly to herself, burying her face in her hands.

Again, Jess looked up at the noise and assessed the situation, sputtering something between a sound of surprise and a chuckle when he saw what had happened. Ella arched an eyebrow at him, then switched from thinking mode to acting mode. She grabbed Jess by his sleeve and began dragging him towards the store room.

“Jesus! What-” he began, but she cut him off as they made it into the back.

“What the hell is your problem?!” she exclaimed, crossing her arms over her chest self-consciously.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said dejectedly, avoiding eye contact.

“Really, tough guy? You don’t know?” Ella asked, forcing him to meet her gaze. “Look, I know we’re not best friends. In fact, we barely even count as coworkers! And honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck if you ever talk to me again. But, I want my books and my records back! And the next time you wanna hide a black eye from Luke, I wouldn’t count on me helping you!”

“Eleanor, I-”

“Don’t Eleanor me, Jess,” she scoffed.

Jess cast his eyes down at his black boots, and Ella was surprised to find him looking squirmy.

“Luke told me, alright?” he said after a long pause, finally facing her.

“Told you what?” she demanded.

“About your mom and your dad and why you work here,” he blurted out, trying to maintain his hard exterior though embarrassment crawled beneath his skin.

Biting the inside of her cheek, Ella brought a hand to her necklace and let out another long, frustrated sigh. “Alright. Yes, my mom’s dead and my dad’s not winning any parenting awards. What does that have to do with you morphing into a jackass the last few weeks? More of a jackass than normal?”

“The entire town hates me. And I don’t care. But I figured it would be better for you not to have to deal with-”

“Yeah right,” she mumbled, glancing back at the door to the diner, hoping no one could hear them but knowing everyone probably could. “Luke told you to stay away from me, didn’t he?”

“No, he-”

“Don’t bullshit me, Jess.”

“Alright, fine, yes. But I get it.”

Running a hand through her hair, Ella tried to quiet the emotions swarming around within her. “Well, I’m flattered you’ve decided to give me so much choice in the matter.”

“I-”

“Y’know, I’m pretty sick of everyone assuming I’m some scared little girl who needs protecting!” she fumed, speaking with her hands. “Because, guess what, I got dealt a bad hand. And I made it through almost entirely on my own. I’m almost eighteen years old, and I get to choose what I do and who I hang out with! Alright?”

Ella shot him an expectant look. Jess crossed his arms and sighed, nodding in acknowledgment.

“Great! And, just so we’re clear, I’m plenty smart enough to avoid your dumbass antics on my own!”

Her face was set in determination, posture rigid. Redness warmed her skin, her hazel eyes alight with fire. Jess waited a beat, to see whether or not she had finished. After a moment, it seemed like her speech was over. Heaving a breath, Ella fiddled with her blonde waves once more, trying to calm her nerves, remembering again what a shitty day she’d had. But at least she knew what was up with Jess. She knew she would have to assure Luke of her safety at some point, but she had to calm down first. Ever since her mother had died, he, along with Lorelai, had begun looking out for her. It was appreciated, but coupled with the concern of the rest of the town, she, at times, felt suffocated. Especially considering none of those people had to come home with her and face the daily trash of the Stevens household. They didn’t have to listen to her father fucking his new girlfriend in the middle of the night and walk past the old photographs of her mother the next morning. Not even if they continued dropping off random pity casseroles.

Finally, Jess broke the charged silence. “Do you want me to grab you a shirt from upstairs?”

Swallowing thickly, Ella nodded. She wrapped her arms more tightly around her middle. “Please.”

“When I get back, if you want, I can give you my full Jane Eyre review,” he said, his regular smirk returning.

Ella’s muscles relaxed, and she felt relief flood her system, though her voice still held a pronounced bite. “Well, it took you fucking long enough!”

. . .

Wiping down the main counter, Ella still fumed beneath her surface. Her blood had cooled about Jess. With everything he had on his record already, she could understand him not wanting to piss Luke off. Well, not piss him off more than the moderate amount he did on a daily basis. But then there was Luke and Lorelai. It made sense for them to team up as her surrogate guardians in the wake of her mother’s death considering how completely in love with each other they were. But Ella never had any interest in talking about what happened, and she would be lying if she said she wasn’t insulted to be treated like an aimless toddler. The moment her mother died, everyone started seeing her like the little girl in overalls and blonde pigtails she once was.

Heart beating nervously against her ribs, Ella glanced suspiciously from side to side. It was past nine, closing time, and Jess was in the back washing up the last of the dishes. Luke was unplugging the equipment behind the counter. Ella cleared her throat anxiously.

“Um, Luke?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you tell Jess to stay away from me?” she asked pointedly, having stopped her circular movements of the dish towel in her hand.

Luke froze, facing away from her. She saw his shoulders tense beneath his red flannel. After a beat, he turned back to her and crossed his arms. Leaning against the back counter, he took on an all-knowing stance. However, Ella could not help but think he gave off a less emotionally intelligent vibe than he was going for.

“I just don’t want him getting you into trouble,” he began warily.

She raised her eyebrows, mirroring his stance. Jess’s grey thermal shirt hung loosely on her frame, the sleeves rolled up in bunches to her elbows. Her hair, tied back loosely in a low ponytail, had finally dried. And she’d salvaged her eye makeup in the bathroom with the help of paper towels and sink water. But still, her body was tired from the trials of the day. Monday was usually upsetting, but only very rarely so disastrous.

“Did it ever occur to you that I can keep myself out of trouble?” she asked, subtle hostility dripping from her tone.

“Ella-”

“No, really, am I so helpless that I can’t avoid gnome-stealing?” she asked seriously, maintaining constant eye contact.

Luke mulled it over in her head, then nodded his head, conceding. “Okay, I’m sorry. I was just worried.”

She sighed. In spite of her mood, a small, kind smile crossed Ella’s lips. “Really, Luke, you don’t have to worry. I’m not even friends with that jackass. I’m just educating him in quality literature and vinyl collecting. He has no taste.”

Matching her smile, Luke nodded again and went back to work. “Okay, just don’t let him bother you.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

. . .

Tossing a dull pencil behind her furiously, Ella growled slightly. She retrieved a second pencil from the bun in her hair, underlining another phrase. The streets of Stars Hollow were slick from a cool morning drizzle, leftover fall leaves, shades of gold and orange, stuck to the asphalt. Biting her lip in concentration, she only let up when she began to taste coppery blood. She was glad for the silence in the diner. The annotations alone were enough to make her brain feel like it was going to implode. Even the mid-morning regulars were occupied, as the entire town stood on the grassy square facing the gazebo. The annual basket sale was underway, the meals for sale ranging from Lorelai’s inedible ruffage to Sookie’s impeccable lunch.

“Y’know you’re gonna end up takin’ someone’s eye out,” Jess drawled, hunched over his own book on a stool near the register.

“Thanks for the warning,” she deadpanned back.

Sighing, Jess saved his place in his book and tossed it on the back counter. “Why don’t you take a break? You’ve been at that for like three hours.”

“No can do,” she said, still not taking her eyes from the text in her hands.

Jess scoffed. “What are you up to anyway?”

Ella groaned at his persistence, finally shutting her book with a snap! “It’s for my spring paper. I’m comparing the modernist depiction of Catholicism in Portrait of the Artist and Death Comes for the Archbishop.”

“I thought you loved James Joyce? A very misguided preference, by the way.”

“I do,” she snapped, her tone wary. “But he’s just one half of the paper. I’m reading Cather right now and I fucking hate it.”

“Sorry to hear that. It’s tragic,” Jess said flatly.

“Bite me.”

Just as they were both getting back into the groove of their reading, Lane burst through the door with a frantic look. She bumped into a few tables on her way to the counter, the metal legs screeching against the tile floor. Ella eyed her in slight amusement and concern.

“Where’s the fire, Lane?” she asked.

“Okay, Ella, I need you to take a deep breath before I tell you this,” Lane began in a sugary voice, refusing to make eye contact.

Ella narrowed her gaze. “Why?”

Jess looked up curiously.

“I really think you should-”

“Lane,” Ella said, dropping her book and pencil, trying to keep her tone even though her heart was in the throat. “Just spit it out. I can take it.”

“Miss Patty made you a basket and they’re about it to bid on it,” Lane said in a rush, taking a step back in preparation for the outburst she knew would follow. She was correct.

“What?” Ella exclaimed, immediately scurrying out from behind the counter and busting through the diner doors. Before leaving completely, she called out in the direction of the stock room, where Luke was doing inventory: “I’m taking my fifteen!”

His interest piqued, Jess hopped down from his stool and followed. Throwing on his jacket and stuffing his hands in his pockets, a smirk formed on his lips at Ella’s irritation. She had her arms wrapped tightly around her middle as she jogged to the square, stopping at the edge of the large crowd where she found Miss Patty. A damp chill blew in the spring air.

“Patty, did you make me a basket?” Ella asked the woman in the drapey velvet outfit.

Blowing a stream of blue smoke from her dark red lips, Patty nodded and laughed. “Of course, dear. I think it’s about time for the summer of your youth.”

Ella shut her eyes for a moment, collecting her anxious words. “I appreciate the concern but I don’t need any help-”

“And, next up, we’ve got this beautiful little basket for everyone’s favorite waitress, Ella Stevens!” Taylor announced from his podium in the gazebo, readying his gavel for the impending bids.

“Trust me. You’ll thank me later, doll,” Miss Patty winked, a knowing smile spread over her made-up face.

Sighing heavily, Ella turned to face the gazebo and felt a mix of panic and frustration churning in her stomach. She looked around for Lane, a desperate search for a friendly face, but Lane had already found the cousin who had bought her basket. Ella knew all about the plot to share the basket with Henry, the boy Lane had met at the Chilton party. She would have been happier for her friend if their method of dating didn’t involve such an insulting town tradition. Instead of Lane, she found only Jess standing beside her, failing to hide his laughter. She rolled her eyes at him, face flushing scarlet when Taylor announced the first bid.

“We’ll start at five dollars!”

“Fuck me,” she growled under her breath.

“Language, Eleanor,” Jess mocked from her right side. But then, he raised an arm and shouted: “Ten dollars!”

“What the hell, Mariano?” she hissed, trying to grab his arm and lower it.

Taylor acknowledged Jess’s bid and waited for another taker to show a hand for fifteen dollars. After a beat of silence, Ella felt the heat on her face growing. She felt as though the entire town had eyes on her. Mercifully, there was little bidding. After a few more random bids from a couple boys she only vaguely recognized from school, Taylor struck his gavel on the podium, and a meager amount of applause sounded. Ella tried to catch Jess’s attention to chew him out as he walked up to retrieve the basket, but he ignored her attempts at engagement.

“And sold for thirty dollars to the nice young hoodlum in the back!”

Strolling back to Ella, Jess could already see the frustrated crease between her brows. She had her arms crossed over her chest defiantly, and he nodded his head for her to accompany him as he began the short walk back to the diner.

“Jess, what-”

“Shall we?” he asked, finally casting her an expectant glance.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, stepping in front of him and putting a hand on his chest.

“Let’s go eat. You should probably grab your jacket first, though,” he reasoned, the smirk never leaving his face.

Slowly, the tension began to leave her figure and her expression cooled off. Her eyes widened in surprise, a bit of confusion, and she laughed nervously. “I’m working. So are you.”

“Really? Because I think I just saw Lorelai run in there and turned the sign closed.”

Over her shoulder, Ella saw Lorelai pushing Luke from the front door, pleading with him to bid on her basket. And when the sign was in view again, she saw it indeed read Closed. Scoffing in disbelief, Ella tucked a wild piece of hair behind her ear.

“I really think it’s time to solve the mystery of whatever Miss Patty thought your suitor would like for lunch. I’m starving. Aren’t you?” Jess gestured to the basket and his smirk turned to a smile.

Shaking her head self consciously, Ella turned a glance down to her black converse for a moment before looking back at Jess. “Alright, but we need to be back for the dinner shift.”

“Good,” Jess said quickly, brushing past her to the diner. “C’mon, we don’t have all day.”

. . .

Afternoon light glimmered off the lake as Ella and Jess walked down the dock. Birds chirped from somewhere off in the surrounding woods, and Ella took in a deep breath of the clean nature. Out on the dock, the pine permeated the air pleasantly. Though the breeze was cool, the sun shone down and warmed her face as she glanced up to the clouds passing across the pristine blue sky. It struck Ella how long it had been since she had really enjoyed the weather. The thought almost made her embarrassed, such a simple perk of life she had been ignoring. So often it felt as though she viewed her reality through window panes, only the room changing around her. She was reminded of Emily Dickinson, watching the world change around her and experiencing it all through only her imagination and her poetry. There was such a bittersweet beauty to the thought, and it painfully struck the small part of Ella’s heart reserved only for private wishes.

“Earth to Eleanor,” Jess said, waving a hand in front of her face. “Jeez, what’s on your mind?”

She smiled and shook her head at herself, following Jess’s lead as he sat down on the edge of the dock, placing the basket in between the two of them. “Emily Dickinson.”

Jess rolled his eyes. “Has anyone ever told you how wildly unpredictable you are?”

“All the time.”

Chuckling, Jess poised his hands over the basket lid, eyebrows raised expectantly. “Ready, Nancy Drew?”

“That I am. Which Hardy Boy are you? Just so we’re clear on this metaphor,” she said with mock gravity.

“I think I’m a Frank,” Jess answered.

Ella nodded. “Yeah. I agree.”

Slowly, dramatically, Jess pulled back the lid of the basket, a fake sunflower garnishing the top. Frankly, though, it had been one of the least tacky baskets of the entire bunch. Inside, they found pastries. Tons and tons of pastries. Just from the sweet and yeasty smell, so familiar, Ella knew they were made by Fran at Weston’s bakery. They were assorted danishes. Jess tentatively pushed them aside to see if there was anything else, but the danishes were it. As the realization came over both of them, Ella erupted in laughter.

“Okay, seriously, what the hell?” Jess asked through his own breathy chuckles. He watched as Ella threw her head back, her blonde hair glinting in the sunlight, gripping her stomach as she laughed.

Catching her breath, Ella shook her head knowingly. “I have zero explanation for this. She means well.”

Jess snorted. “Clearly.”

They both took a danish each, the crinkling of wax paper as they began eating the only sound besides the gentle lapping of the water against the dock and the chirping birds. Ella opted for an apple, while Jess took a cherry.

“So, why does Miss Patty think you need a basket anyway?” Jess broke the ice again after a moment of comfortable silence, both their gazes trained on the greenish-clear water before them. Across the expanse of the lake, there were only pine trees, the spring grass was just beginning to come back in patches below them.

Ella rolled her eyes and grimaced. “She thinks I need someone to ‘share my youthful body with while it lasts.’”

“Wow."

“I know. Patty’s always meddling, but I’m not big on the dating thing.”

Something indecipherable passed across Jess’s face for a moment at her words, but Ella barely noticed it. She swallowed down the last of her danish.

“And you hate the basket thing?” he asked through crumbs.

“It’s just so fucking sexist. Parading the women of Stars Hollow around, literally giving them away to the highest bidder. I know it’s tradition, but it’s such bullshit,” she said, speaking with her hands as her passion mounted.

Jess nodded, and Ella was surprised to see how earnest he looked. “Yeah, it is very...Henry VIII. Isn’t it?”

“Totally. I’ve tried to bring it up at town meetings. But old habits die hard, apparently.”

“That they do.”

“Why’d you do it?”

“Excuse me?”

She gestured to the basket between them. “Why’d you buy my basket?”

Jess shrugged. “I don’t know. Heat of the moment. You seemed pretty pissed. Thought I’d save you from those other assholes who were bidding.”

“I don’t need any saving,” she remarked pointedly, though she then shot him a benevolent look. “But thank you.”

“Duly noted and you’re welcome. If it makes you feel any better, it wasn’t my intention to support an antiquated, patriarchal mating ritual,” he said, almost sheepishly.

She hummed in acknowledgement, watching two birds chase each other through the trees across the lake. They were two cardinals, bright red against the muted greenish brown landscape.

“I just didn’t want you to have to spend a picnic with a baseball player. They’re mindless,” he joked, tilting his head at her. “Does that make you feel any better?”

“Marginally.” She smiled, taking another deep breath of the fresh air. She tugged her black corduroy jacket a little tighter around herself, clearing her throat and stealing a glance at Jess. “Y’know, you could be like this all the time if you tried.”

“Like what?”

“Not a dick,” she said bluntly, raising her eyebrows.

Jess laughed evasively. “Well, I’m glad you see me in such a positive light.”

“Look, I’m not trying to…” she trailed off, sensing his discomfort. “One day, you’re beating the hell out of Peter Smith and torturing Luke. And then, you’re buying my basket to rescue me from a stale afternoon with the Stars Hollow High catcher. You’re getting to be quite an inconsistent jackass. It’s just...curiouser and curiouser.”

Scoffing, he tossed her a knowing look, the backhanded insult rolling off him like water. He knew it wasn’t exactly meant as a slight, but more as a question. “Well, I’ve got to keep you on your toes. Y’know, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

A wide grin crossed her face, her hazel eyes lighting up. “I never pegged you as an Alice man.”

“Well, I think we’ve established I’m full of surprises.”

#jess mariano imagines #jess mariano imagine #jess mariano one shot #jess mariano one shots #jess mariano #jess #mariano #gilmore girls #jess mariano x oc #gilmore girls fanfiction #gilmore girls imagines #jess mariano x original character #luke danes #lorelai gilmore #rory gilmore #lane kim #original character #original character stories

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traincat · 5 years ago

Note

not to be dumb on main, but I’ve only rly seen the mcu and not read many comics and I was wondering if you could tell me the reasons you ship spideytorch? Esp bc it’s spideytorch week

I can do that, especially in light of it being Spideytorch week. (I can even tie it into the first two days of @spideytorchweek‘s themes because I’m brilliant like that.) If you’re coming from a mostly MCU background, what you need to know about Spider-Man comics is that, by in large, they’re a very different animal, especially in terms of Peter’s personality and supporting cast. Unlike in the MCU, he doesn’t have a best friend in high school – there is a Ned Leeds in comics, but he’s a reporter for the Bugle who functions as Peter’s rival for the affections of his first girlfriend, Bugle secretary Betty Brant, and Peter wouldn’t meet Harry Osborn or become friends with Flash Thompson until he entered college. If Peter does have a male friend he’s close to during this point, for the relative value of “friend”, it’s Johnny Storm.

Peter and Johnny first meet in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This is partially because the Fantastic Four’s brief appearance in the issue were used promote this new superhero book. One thing you have to understand at this point is that the Fantastic Four were wildly popular at their debut, and featuring them in the first solo Spider-Man story was a surefire way to get people to pick up the book. What this ending up cementing was a long and storied in-universe connection between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Peter’s served as an Avenger in 616, but he’s family to the Fantastic Four.

Not that Peter and Johnny got along at first.

(Amazing Spider-Man #1)

(Amazing Spider-Man #8)

(Strange Tales Annual #2) There was some pretty extreme pigtail pulling going on at first from Peter towards Johnny.

This is one of the premier friendships – developing at this point as it is – in Marvel comics. It basically predates all of the other big ones: Captain America and Iron Man, Luke Cage and Danny Rand, any other big Spider-Man friendship. This came first. There’s a lot of reasons for that – team ups between the Human Torch, who at this point was big enough to have his own run on Strange Tales in addition to the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, an instant hit with fans, was good for the sales on both books, and the relationship made sense and was organic because both characters were teenagers who were the same age, who had gained powers in fantastic accidents, and who both had personalities suited to a banter-filled rapport filled with fun bickering.

In spite or maybe because of that early bickering, though, it quickly becomes apparent that Johnny really respects and admires Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #18)

Peter Parker, on the other hand, who Johnny’s at the time girlfriend Dorrie Evans thinks is just so polite and gentlemanly? Peter Parker, Johnny doesn’t like so much at this point.

(Amazing Spider-Man #21) And here we have the beginning of our identity porn, practically a staple when it comes to superhero ships. This kind of dynamic between Johnny and Spider-Man/Peter Parker would continue up until Peter revealed his identity to Johnny in the middle of a crisis, having to silently trust him to understand:

(Spider-Man/Human Torch #5)

So you’ve got this amazingly long history, and from the beginning the shippy tropes are piling on – Johnny saying he could understand if his girlfriend fell for Spider-Man, Peter and Johnny having their own special meeting place, and then there’s the fact that Johnny gets kidnapped to use as bait for Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #19)

Fast forward a bit. After the death of Gwen Stacy, who Peter was very much in love with and who he was seriously talking about marriage with, Peter unsurprisingly falls into a dark mood. One of the bright spots for him? Building the Spider-Mobile, which he’d been hired by an automotive company to drive, with Johnny:

(ASM #130)

In an updated version of this story in Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (they even had their own team up comic!), Peter speaks to Gwen’s ghost-slash-memory, and says that when he’s with Johnny he feels like he’s “her” Peter again, the best version of himself:

“And for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t feel like I’m putting on act, or going through the motions. Suddenly, I’m Spidey again. No, I’m Peter again. Your Peter.” Considering Peter was head over heels in love with Gwen and planned to spend the rest of his life with her, that’s one hell of a romantic statement.

Couple this with the fact that, in and out of the mask, Johnny’s consistently one of the best people at calming Peter down and making him take a step back. That might not sound too impressive if you’re not familiar with comics Peter, but in comics, when he’s angry and upset, he has a tendency to verbally lash out at people he loves and isolate himself. It’s generally not a good idea to get in the middle of one of his fights, either – think like inserting yourself into the fight when your dog’s trying to fight another dog. Your dog might love you, but there’s still a very good chance you’re gonna get bit. Johnny’s success record here is unmatched.

(ASM #591)

(Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #5)

Then there’s the fact that Peter clearly feels protective of Johnny. (Though, to be fair, 616 Peter feels very protective about everyone he loves.) When Johnny lost his powers and was on a self-destructive bender, Peter teamed up with Johnny’s other best friend, Wyatt Wingfoot, to snap him out of it:

(Fantastic Four v5 #12) Look at that hand on Johnny’s stomach, steadying him on the building’s ledge. Also look how pretty Johnny is – the real question is, why isn’t he shipped more?

Peter also spent served as Johnny’s personal taxi afterwards:

(Fantastic Four #642)

When the Red Skull recently possessed Johnny and failed to make Johnny hurt his teammates, he taunted Peter by threatening to kill Johnny in front of him, a threat to which Peter violently reacted:

(Uncanny Avengers #20)

So there you have your hurt/comfort, the second trope at play here. (Also, Johnny is a champion damsel of the Marvel universe. I once tried to average out how much he faints and came out with something like 1 out of every 3 issues in the early Fantastic Four days. If you like your hurt/comfort, Johnny Storm is right here, collapsing all the time and getting kidnapped by giant gorillas at least three, one time of which – Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 – Peter has to save him.)

There’s a million other factors that play into “reasons why I ship them” here – they canonically consider themselves family. They have an established tradition to meet up every Christmas morning at the Statue of Liberty. When Johnny died (he got better) he left a video will instructing that his place on the team be left to Peter and saying that “we all love you”:

(ASM #657)

They lived together when Johnny was recovered alive for a short period of time, during which Johnny cooked Peter breakfast in nothing but his underwear and a saucy apron, yes, really:

(FF #17 – there are word bubbles here in the finished issue, but they just distract from the rest of this, honestly.) And when Johnny’s family disappeared and Peter found himself unexpectedly a millionaire (long story), he bought the Baxter Building to keep it safe for Johnny. They’ve mentioned having movie nights in canon. Whether or not anyone ships them, it’s hard to deny in canon that they love each other, and that they have a bond forged over decades and decades worth of canon. They’re incredibly close, to the point where, when Peter’s identity was wiped from the minds of just about everyone on the planet, Johnny was one of the few people (along with Felicia Hardy, Peter’s ex-girlfriend) who knew that he used to know who Spider-Man was, and the loss of that knowledge hurt him deeply. They’ve fought together, they’ve saved each other lives, they’ve celebrated holidays together, and they’ve propped each other when the other needed it. It’s a ship with so much history it’s honestly hard to sum them up quickly or efficiently – honestly, they have more history and more reasons to ship them than, I would say, at least 80% of other popular ships and I mean ships in general, not just Marvel ships. It’s pretty amazing to have a relationship in canon that has endured the test of so many years and still remained incredibly relevant to each character. If you’re interested in checking out some more comics featuring them, I have a big long in depth reclist here!

Also, Johnny once slept naked in Peter’s bed:

(Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man #1)

Just platonic best friend things. You’re welcome.

#peter parker #johnny storm #marvel comics #spideytorch #losers who deserve each other #traincat talks comics #long post/

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agameforgoodchristians · 4 years ago

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#ProdigalSonsMatter vs #AllSonsMatter: On Why we Need to be More Thoughtful About How we Deploy the Bible

This is a bit of a departure.

We already have a Card Talk written about the Story of the Prodigal Son (which you can read here), so this isn’t another one. Not exactly.

We are returning to this passage of Scripture because it came up recently in a way that made us reexamine the theology and message of the story. And that came from an unlikely source: a tweet.

No, not a tweet from the orange dumpster fire, the cheeto-in-chief. It’s not incendiary, or racist, or homophobic, or transphobic, or in praise of oppressive capitalistic regimes, or propping up the patriarchy, or using the Bible to beat anyone someone the unholy wielder may choose. For once, it’s the exact opposite (OH HAPPY DAY)!

We loved the tweet when we saw it. But then we thought about it. And then thought about it some more. And well, you know how it goes:

Here’s the tweet:

The father was waiting there with a big sign: #ProdigalSonsMatter When the older brother saw it, he was angry, wouldn’t attend the party, and moped around with his own sign: #AllSonsMatter Father: “Dude. It’s not about you right now.”

— Jay K. Elemenopy (@jaylperry) June 4, 2020

So what in the world could our problem be with that?! Well, look at the result.

As quickly as one person can reply

that was so perfect in every way I'm thinking of just making it my next sermon. Just that tweet. Nothing else. 'Nuff said.

— Perspicacious Ægis (@ZAmmi) June 4, 2020

some asshat can reply :

On the other hand, the prodigal son didn't come back punching servants, and burning his father's house.

— Josiah Caleb Roberts (@ironwright17) June 4, 2020

Jay—the initial tweeter— is being an ally and using his platform to get the message out there to people in his sphere of influence. He is equating this passage from the Gospel According to Luke with the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and the racist (yes, we said it, RACIST) reply of #AllLivesMatter. He’s using the Bible to make an analogy.

Jay is boldly and lovingly spreading that message to everyone—even, and especially to the asshats—that speaking up for the lives of Black people does not mean having less love, care, or concern for all lives. But “right now” we’re talking about vulnerable lives. And there are many who, “right now,” need to understand that “it’s not about you.” We get that. We appreciate that. We love that. However, asshatery persist and inappropriately don their haberdashery with vigor.

The asshat in question responded by taking up the same analogy and used it to equate the “prodigal son”—the Blacks whose lives matter— with how he views those currently in the streets demonstrating against the murder of those same Black lives: as lawless and violent rioters. And by the rules of the analogy set up in the initial tweet, he can do that validly.

All analogies break down eventually.

When dealing with a Biblical text, if the passage itself is not advocating a certain point, when someone stretches it for the sake of a point, even a good one, the analogy breaks down pretty dang fast.

Jay’s point highlights the fact that a movement is specifically about one group, not everyone. There wouldn’t be a movement if it were about everyone. The movement happens because one group needs protection, rights, recognition, or some of the civil goods that have been denied or limited. This is a good point. This is a great point. AND it’s biblical. We have no issue with Jay or his point. But the story of the prodigal son doesn’t communicate that point at its core. And that’s the danger of using it in this way.

As we know all too well, there is a danger in using the Bible as a proof-text or an illustration in this way. It is something we at A Game for Good Christians try to be very very very carefully about when we are writing our (normal) Card Talks.

So bear with us as we role-play for a moment. We’re going to dive into the mostly empty mind of an asshat, and run this analogy to its logical extent. And since we are a hell of a lot smarter than a one who wears his hat atop his anus holder, we can do a lot more damage.

Be disgusted and see our point…

{Inside the Asshat Mind}

Yeah this tweet makes sense. As long as we admit that those people (you know the ones I mean) put themselves in this position in the first place, just like the prodigal son!

They had a good thing going, but they couldn’t be satisfied with what they had. Always bitching about something. So they run away and steal, just like they do. And what happens next? You know. Living their urban lifestyle: crack and malt liquor and rap music and guns and all that monkey sex. And then when things go bad, what do they do? Run to the government for a handout! “Please sir, can I have some more. I need a bailout! Where’s my welfare check?! I need to feed my 18 babies by 7 different daddies!” Those people have no concept of taking no personal responsibility for their actions. Always blaming other folks for the mess they got themselves in. Always looking to how people supposedly treated them unfairly in the past.

And look at that older brother: he went and did everything right! He got up in the morning, went to work, did he part. His fair share. More than his fair share since that brother of his left. And he never got no thanks from no one. But he never complained. Nope. Never complained. And he never ran off and lived like an animal chasing his every desire. No sir. So yeah, he had every right to be pissed off when he dad started acting like a socialist in his own home! But he’s the one everyone talks bad about. He gets no respect.

But the story did end in the right way: the father admits that everything left belongs to the older brother. The upstanding citizen. The one who did all the work, made all the real contributions in the world.

I will give the younger brother some credit though. When he came to his senses, he didn’t put on no airs. No sir. He recognized how his kind ain’t as good as the rest of us. That boy was honest: said he would be better off as a slave.

(Pardon us while we change out of this skin and take a shower. Being inside an asshat’s mind is emotionally taxing, even for so short a time.)

This is the danger of using the Bible for analogies and illustrations without thinking things through.

The Bible is complex and nuanced. Every story has layers that have left people of all faiths and no faith arguing over for centuries. It cannot, easily, be reduced to a meme or sound byte, which we would all do well to remember—us too—because asshats have access to the same book.

But what do we know: we made this game and you probably think we’re going to Hell.

#Prodigal son #Memes #Black Lives Matter #Asshats #d #Analogies #Racism

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ladyvader23 · 5 years ago

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The Honeymoon

This work is gifted to @jainadurron for the Secret Santa Han and Leia exchange hosted by @hanleiasecretsanta! Thanks for the opportunity to write something a bit different and hope you enjoy! Merry ficmas! ^_^

~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“We’re about to revert outta hyperspace.”

Leia looked up from her datapad, blinking at her husband. She sat curled up on their bed in the cabin of the Falcon, passing the time of hyperspace by going over reports for her upcoming meetings. As usual, once she started working, time seemed to slip away from her, so focused was she. The eight hour hyperspace journey to Cato Neimoidia seemed like nothing but an hour to her. Han always teased her that he could walk an angry nexu in front of her, and she wouldn’t notice if she was engrossed in her work. She had to admit he had a point. So, she didn’t mention how quickly time had passed for her and simply nodded, standing to stretch before joining him in piloting the Falcon.

But she got quite the surprise when she helped him with the reversion sequence. Huh. It wasn’t Cato Neimoidia that appeared in the viewport after all. Instead, a planet covered in mostly water appeared. What? Leia’s brows knit together, and she immediately began checking the coordinates. “I told you we should have brought one of the droids or Chewie.” Leia said somewhat irritably, shaking her head in exasperation. “Your calculations were totally off, Han. We’re at Spira, not…”

“I know.” Han replied smuggly, shooting her his familiar over-confident grin. “We’re exactly where we need to be Sweetheart.”

Her eyes narrowed, turning slowly in her seat to face her husband while he transmitted their landing codes. “We are? What do you mean by that? What did you do?!”

“What did I do?!” Han asked, mock offended, a wounded look on his handsome face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He waved his hand dismissively and actually tsked at his wife, causing her to arch her eyebrows in surprise.

Leia rolled her eyes and huffed, gesturing impatiently at the viewport where Spira could clearly be seen. “Oh really?”

“Really.” Han nodded with feral grin. “I’d certainly never imply that the meeting on Cato Neimoidia was a week earlier than it actually was so that I could surprise you with a romantic vacation alone...just for two...to Spira.”

His words registered in her brain, slowly.

“Vacation?” She echoed.

“You got it, Sweetheart.” He smiled to himself like he’d won the Millenium Falcon from Lando all over again. “It wasn’t easy, y’know. I had to convince so many people on the Council to go along with it…”

She didn’t even want to know what he’d done to manage that…

“Then, I had to make sure Winter was able to watch the kids for two weeks instead of just one, and of course, I also had to make sure the Noghri were fully aware of my plans while also trying to get them to not let it slip to you...Then I let Luke know so that…”

“Luke knew about this, too?” Leia interrupted, stunned at the lengths Han had gone to on this little endeavor. “Did everyone know except me about this vacation?”

Han shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyone who might be affected in some way, yeah.”

She stared at him, then turned to look at the planet, then once again back at him. “Why?” She was more than a little confused here. What in the galaxy could have motivated him to pull such a stunt?

Now he looked a little sheepish. “Well...it’s not often you get a break Leia. It’s not often we get a break. And we didn’t get to have much of a honeymoon really, since everything was so busy…”

“It’s still busy.” She was the Chief of State. Her entire life was the definition of busy. To go on vacation, especially leading up to the conference on Cato Neimoidia… “I don’t know if we have time for this Han. If we’ve got an extra week before the conference…”

“No.” Han gave her a stern look and held up a hand to forestall her next argument. “Like I said. When have we ever gone on a vacation where something hasn’t gone wrong? Especially alone?”

She tried to think of even one such instance...just one...and came up empty. He was right. Something had always gone wrong. Every. Single.Time. That seemed to be the case most of their entire relationship, actually.

“Don’t you think it would be nice, just this once, Babe, to have a vacation where nothing goes wrong?” Han asked. “You deserve it. We deserve it. The kids are being looked after, and they have plenty of security. The Council knows you’re on vacation and, by the way, you do actually have earned time off, y'know. Even Mothma took a vacation every once in a while when she was in charge. So, why can’t we, huh?”

She hated to admit it, but he was right. And, she’d actually never been to Spira, but she’d heard of it’s white sand beaches, temperate climate, and abundance of water sports. If she was honest with herself, it sounded absolutely divine. And when would she ever have this chance again? Probably not for quite a long time. She certainly wouldn’t spare the time to set up something like this for herself, and Han had gone to so much trouble...just the fact that he’d done so was admittedly sweet of him…

And when he looked at her the way he currently was, with pleading hazel eyes and a pout, how could she say no? He was just too damn sexy, and just one look in his eyes and all her objections fled.

“Alright. Just this once. And nothing will go wrong, right? You're positive?”

He grinned in triumph, reveling in his victory as he turned back to focusing on the landing sequence. “Don’t you worry, Sweetheart. I’ve made sure nothing can go wrong.”

Smirking, she just shook her head, "I've got a feeling something will go wrong."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Naturally, something went wrong.

“What do you mean, you don’t have a room ready for us?” Han hissed at the front desk clerk, as light green female Rodian rechecked the hotel system. “I have a confirmation number and everything!”

“Yes, Mr. Solo, I see that you booked the honeymoon suite, but for some reason, your reservation didn’t process correctly, and the room isn’t ready…” She replied, nervously.

He let out an annoyed huff, reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose. Leia, thankfully, hadn’t come with him to check in. She was still outside, grabbing them some sweet treats from a stand along the beach.

“Just...tell me it’s still available.”

The Rodian winced. “Well. A honeymoon suite is available, yes...just not the one you picked...and it won’t be available until later this afternoon…”

He’d picked the premier suite. The one that was supposedly themed, with its own jacuzzi that used purple passion flower scented water and had the best view of the ocean in the entire hotel. He figured girls liked that sort of thing.

Granted, Leia wasn’t usually one to expect gestures like that from him, but he’d wanted to make this special for her, for them. Especially now that they actually had the credits to pay for something like this. He’d meant it when he said they deserved a nice vacation. They’d given up so much for the galaxy...surely the galaxy could give them a week without causing too much chaos.

Apparently not.

“What’s the difference between the room I picked and the one that’s available?”

“Well, the one that’s available still has a beach view, it just also has a port side view. Still beautiful, but if there’s a lot of pleasure barges docked it can look a little cluttered.” Okay, they could probably deal with that. “And there is a jacuzzi, yes, but it’s not as large and the water isn’t automatically scented. You’d have to do it yourself.”

He had no idea how to do that. What, did he just throw a bunch of flower petals in the water and mix it around? Maybe Leia knew how to do it, but he really didn’t want to make her work at all. By the end of this trip, he wanted her to be completely relaxed, and to him, mixing petal water sounded like more stress than it was worth.

“I’ll figure it out.” He finally relented. He would need to make sure Chewie and Luke never heard about this, but he’d figure it out. “But I expect something for all the trouble. My wife is the Chief of State. She’s Leia Organa Solo. This should never have happened.”

The Rodian made a gagging noise of horror and started stuttering. “P-Perhaps w-we could m-move the current residents of the premier suite…”

“No, it wouldn’t make her happy to know I kicked someone else out of their room.” If it was just him on the other hand… “But...I don’t know, can you maybe throw in something special? I mean, this is the hotel's error, after all...Not mine."

The Rodian hesitated, then checked her datapad. “We could send up some champagne and comp a dinner at our nicest restaurant?”

He mulled it over. “Can you also comp a large bouquet of flowers?”

The Rodian checked her system again. “Yes, I believe we can swing that.”

“Then it’s a deal.”

He explained to the clerk exactly what he wanted. When he finished, the Rodian nodded. “Yes, Sir. The room and your order should be ready this afternoon. Again, I'm so sorry for the trouble, Mr. Solo.”

He waved her off and headed back into the lobby just as Leia entered the building. Her long dark hair was uncharacteristically loose and flowing around her shoulders. Already it looked like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. “I found shrimpi cups.” She announced, holding one out to him. “We can eat it in our room. Then maybe, if you don’t have things planned, we could go for a walk on the beach?”

He accepted it from her. “I have a better idea. Why don’t we eat it on the beach?”

She glanced at their bags at their feet. “But…”

He waved down the attention of a service droid nearby. “The droid will take care of it.” He assured her, then as the droid came closer he turned around and whispered, “As soon as the room for Leia and Han Solo is ready, put these bags in there.” The droid made a displeased bleep, but he raised his brows expectantly. “We are not going to carry our bags around all day because your hotel messed up on our accommodations.”

“What was that, Han?” Leia called.

“Nothing!” He threw her a reassuring smile even as he handed the bags off to the droid. Thankfully, the droid took it with little more than an annoyed bleep.

He approached his wife again, huge grin in place, holding out his arm towards her. “Shall we?”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Eating on the beach ended up being the perfect activity. She’d been a little suspicious at Han’s strange behavior in the hotel lobby, but the lovely white sand beaches and cool, salty breeze put her mind at ease. The island they were on wasn’t as populated as some of the others on Spira, apparently, so there weren’t as many people wandering the beach. The water was calm, so much so that it looked more like they were on the shore of a giant glass lake than an ocean. Sand crabs darted about their feet, and they both kicked their shoes off and walked hand-in-hand, barefoot in the soft, velvety shoreline, water tickling their toes.

And it felt as if each step lifted away another worry or stress from her shoulders. It got even better when Han led her to a secluded section of the beach with a spa. “Really?” She asked skeptically.

“What?” Han shrugged. “I thought it would be nice.”

“It will be, but I didn’t exactly think of you as being someone who liked strangers touching your body.”

“Well...do you like massages?”

She didn’t mention that she used to love getting them on Alderaan as a teenager. She hadn’t had one since before the war, though. “Yes.”

“Then it’ll be fine. Who knows, maybe I’ll like it.”

“Wait, you’ve never gotten a massage?”

“Like you said, the idea of strangers touching my body like that didn’t appeal to me. I’m not against it,” he added, “So...Maybe I’ll try it and never be able to live without it again.”

They approached the counter and Leia picked up a pamphlet listing options and packages.

“I like the sound of that.” She grinned. “So, I’ll be the one to choose what we get.”

“Choose away, Princess.” He motioned with his hand, dipping his head slightly in deference.

And that was how they each ended up with a hot stone massage on a soft table, side by side, under a gazebo overlooking the ocean, the lovely scent of tropical flowers wafting in the air...and contented smiles on both their faces.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“Oh Han, they’re beautiful!” Leia smiled as she took in the large bouquet of flowers that had been artfully arranged in a crystal vase on the nightstand. Inwardly, Han breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good. “Purple passion flowers, everlilies, rojos and blue blossoms…Do you have any idea how expensive this arrangement was?”

Kriff. No. He didn’t. The flowers were free from the hotel, but he wasn’t going to tell Leia that. Doing so would mean he’d have to admit something went wrong on their perfect vacation, and he wasn’t willing to do that. “Of course. I had to pay for them, didn’t I?” He approached her and took her hands in his own, rubbing his calloused fingers gently over her own.

She smiled softly. “I guess that’s true. I’m just surprised, is all. This size arrangement costs the equivalent of several days pay of a navy officer’s salary.”

Seriously? Who knew fresh flowers were so damn expensive? He didn’t understand it. They would just die before the end of the week. But his wife seemed pleased with it, and if she was happy, he was happy. 'Nuff said.

She pulled away and approached the open air balcony, white curtains softly blowing in the breeze. She leaned against the stone ledge, taking in a deep breath as he approached from behind, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her flush against him. From this close, she still smelled of the lavender oils the masseuse used during their massage. “You really outdid yourself this time, Honey.” She said softly, leaning back against him.

Thankfully, the hotel front desk clerk hadn’t been wrong. The room did have a beautiful view, with the harbor full of boats of all sizes and shapes, with a sunset of reds, oranges, pinks, and golds backdropping a never ending ocean. If he hadn’t originally purchased the room that was advertised as the best view in the hotel, he wouldn’t have known the difference.

“I’m glad you’re happy.” He said, planting a sweet kiss on top of her head. “Are you happy?”

“Of course.” She turned around, to see his eyebrows raised in doubt.

“Really? It’s a little more work to make sure it all fit together…”

She sighed and shook her head. “If you’d just told me you wanted to go on a vacation, I could have helped you plan it.”

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?” He grinned, then snapped his fingers.“Oh! I also have stuff to make one of those fancy baths for you.”

Leia raised her brows. “Fancy baths?”

“Yeah. Y’know. With the flower water or whatever. You, uh, wouldn’t happen to know how to make it all nice and smelly, would you?”

Her lips twitched. A sign she was attempting to hold back laughter. “You run hot water in the tub and place the petals in the water, if it’s petals. If it’s just a salt, then you also just dump that in the hot water and let it dissolve.”

“You can do that with salt?” He asked, and this time she did laugh. “Well, I didn’t know! I’m a smuggler, for kriff's sake! You’ve seen the inside of the Falcon…”

“Hmm...I’ve seen the outside, too.” She grinned at him.

“...and she may not be pretty, but she’s got it where it counts!” He huffed. “Alright. I...ah, just thought it would be nice to have a hot bath. That's all.” He flushed and shrugged, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck nervously.

The smile that spread over her face turned sultry. “Oh?”

“Yeah. And I’m going to go draw it up.”

“You know, I could do it since I’ve done it before…”

“No, no.” He shook his head, already backing away towards the master bath. “You’re on vacation, Sweetheart. I got this.”

Amused, she crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back against the balcony railing. “I almost want to watch you do this.”

“There’ll be nothing to see since I’ve got this. No worries. This is me we're talking about.” He assured her, ignoring her incredulous look, before turning around to set about his objective. He entered the master bath and firmly shut the door behind him. He'd show her. He was a man of many talents. How hard could it be?

Technically, it wasn’t. He approached the massive marble jacuzzi tub, turned on the water, and set it to the perfect warm temperature. Then, as it ran, he found the bowl of flower petals waiting on the bathroom counter and dumped them in, then watched as the water ran over the plants. Sure enough, purple color began to bleach from the petals into the water. So far, so good.

Satisfied, he nodded and grabbed a bottle of scented bubble bath and dumped the entire container full of soap in the water. After all, the more bubbles the better, he figured, and the bottle wasn’t very big at all anyway.

Big mistake.

At first, it looked to be shaping up to be a perfect flowery bubble bath for two. Mentally, he went about imagining him and Leia in the tub...getting rather creative, and he couldn't help the wolfish grin that spread on his face at such imagery. Then, as more water poured into the purple soapy mixture, the bubbles grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger with no signs of stopping.

Oh no.

Satisfaction turned to uncertainty which quickly turned into horror, and he cursed as he grabbed a towel and began trying to scoop bubbles out, trying to dump them in the double sinks in the vanity. It didn’t work. The bubbles just kept foaming, reaching higher and higher, climbing the marble walls.

Oh shit.

“Is everything alright…? Oh. Force.” Han turned around in horror at Leia’s voice...and the movement caused him to lose his balance on the edge of the tub and slip and fall backward into the mess of water, petals and bubbles, disappearing completely from view in the huge mounds of bubbles.

When he emerged, spluttering, his vision, his nose, his mouth were full of bubbles, and as he sucked in air, he managed to inhale a mouth full of soap and a stray petal or two. He spat it out and worked to clear his vision just in time to see Leia sit delicately on the edge of the tub, laughing uproariously his predicament. “Oh yes, I definitely should have been watching you. What, did you pour the entire bottle in the tub?”

He pointed at her vehemently, even as he hoped the mess he made hid the flush on his cheeks. “We will never speak of this again.”

Leia snorted, still chuckling and shaking her head, reaching over to turn off the water. “I’m sure Chewie would love to hear how you attempted to draw a bath and instead filled the bathroom with a mountain of bubbles in an attempt to wash all the walls, I guess.”

“Leia!”

“But you know,” she smiled that sultry smile again, her eyes twinkling, and a second later she swung her legs into the bath, clothes and all, and joined him. The water and bubbles slushed over the sides once more, as she approached him, wrapping her arms over his shoulders...and turned on a switch behind him. The water began to bubble around them as the jets turned on, causing the bubbles to foam even worse. "There are advantages to being so scrupulously clean."

“Uh...I don’t think we’re getting our security deposit back.” He said, eyes locked with his wife’s. This wasn’t exactly how he’d imagined their time in the bath, but…

She leaned closer until their lips were just centimeters apart, their breath mingling. “I think, whatever happens on this honeymoon, stays on this honeymoon.”

He breathed out in relief, grinning, and kissed her deeply in answer. He was glad his wife was in total agreement with him on that.

By the next morning, he figured that, despite his apparent inability to put together a fancy bath, their bath time turned out much better than he imagined.

But they were definitely not getting that deposit back.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ ~

She had to admit, Han could still surprise her, and he still proved daily that he wasn’t just a 'no good smuggler.' By the Force, he was so much more than that. General. Lover. Husband. Father. Pilot. Best Friend. And, apparently, pretty kriffing decent when it came to planning honeymoons.

She was definitely impressed.

The rest of their week alone had been full of fun activities. Plenty of motosurfing; he’d had to teach her how to do that, and once she managed to get up on the board, she didn’t ever want to stop, much to her husband's amusement. They’d gone paddling in secluded lagoons, diving with schools of colorful fish in coral reefs, swimming in crystal clear lakes they found hiding in deserted caves, and island hopping where they had plenty of alone time on a small, white sand beach, undisturbed by any others, where they'd enjoyed a lovely picnic full of a veritable smorgasbord of delectable goodies, all packed for them by a helpful hotel concierge - complements of the Master Chef in the hotel's classiest restaurant.

Those alone times had especially made the whole trip worth it.

They lounged on the cushioned bench of the balcony on their last night there, watching the full moon reflected off the relatively calm water of the ocean, listening to the peaceful sound of the ebbing tide. She swirled a glass of red, dry wine (at thirty nine degrees, Han teased when he’d handed it to her) in her hand absently, every once in a while taking a small sip from it. Around her waist, Han snaked an arm and held her close, and she leaned her back against the warmth of his chest. A light weight blanket was draped over both of them, as a gentle breeze wafted the salty scent of the sea around them.

Now this was pure bliss.

“Well.” She said softly, almost as though she were afraid to break the still silence of the night, “I don’t know about you, but I haven’t felt this relaxed since...since before I even joined the Senate.”

Han softly whistled. “No wonder you’re so uptight, Sweetheart.” She tensed, the mood partially broken as she turned to chew him out, and he quickly added, “I’m only teasing, of course. Really, I’m glad. We deserved this.” He kissed her tenderly, and the tension left her shoulders, as she savored the taste and feel of him.

“You were right.” She admitted when he pulled away, far too soon for her liking. “Maybe we should do this vacation thing more often.”

“Wait, what was that? Do my ears deceive me?”

“What?”

“You said I was right.”

She shook her head, rolling her eyes. “Don’t get used to it.”

“Oh no, I’m going to savor this moment, Princess.” He took a deep breath. “Oh yeah. That feels great. I’m going to tell Chewie you finally admitted it. And Luke, as well.” Honestly, his look was so smug right now.

“Ah, ah!” She grinned, shaking her head, “What happens on this honeymoon stays on this honeymoon! Remember?”

Han pouted. “Well...I’m sure not everything…”

“Nope. Everything.” She reiterated before turning back to the view with a pleasured sigh. “Maybe next time we should bring the kids.”

“To...a honeymoon?”

“No, nerf herder, on vacation.”

“Erm. As much as I love them, that doesn’t sound very relaxing to me.”

“But it would be good to bond with them, I’m sure.” At his grimace, she snorted. “Alright. Maybe when they’re a little older and not so prone to disobeying their parents.”

“Now, I like the sound of that.”

They sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying one another’s company. Then, Han asked, more timid than she’d ever heard him, “Leia. Can I ask you something?”

She raised a brow. She’d never heard him sound so hesitant. “Anything.”

He didn’t say anything right away, not meeting her eyes. “Do you...think your...I mean, what do you think...you know…”

“Spit it out.”

He huffed. “Do you think your parents would have approved of...us?”

She blinked in surprise. Again. He never failed to surprise her. She didn’t have to have the Force to know he didn’t mean her biological parents. “You’ve waited three kids and how many years of marriage to ask me that? I didn’t even think you cared about that.”

“Well...I mean, I would've married you anyway regardless, but...sure. They’re you’re family. Our family. That’s important.”

She stared at him. “Even now? Even though they...even though you’ll never get to meet them?”

“Even now.”

Leia blew out a breath, then looked back at the calm water as she seriously considered. “Well. They definitely would have objected to us marrying.”

“Yeah?” He didn’t sound offended, or even all that surprised.

“Yeah, but I don’t think that means they wouldn’t have liked you personally. There’s just certain expectations of royals.”

“Outdated expectations, if you ask me.”

“I agree, obviously.” she managed a small smile. “And I don’t think they would have stopped us if that’s what I really wanted.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Naturally.” She thought some more, matching her parents' personalities up with what they’d told her during her teenage years. “You probably would have charmed my mother.”

“I always charm the ladies. That’s not a big surprise.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, laser brain.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re not that charming. You just have an insane amount of luck and persistence.”

“And it doesn’t hurt that I’m devilishly handsome, right?” He teased, wolfish grin in place.

No. It definitely didn’t hurt. Not at all. But she made no comment on that. No sense in swelling his ego any more than it already was. “My father definitely would have objected to you. Actually, he and I might have butted heads over my dating you. He might've said, What does a twenty-nine-year old smuggler from Corellia want with a nineteen-year-old princess from Alderaan? And he wouldn’t have been wrong.”

“My intentions were always pure…”

“Uh huh.” She grinned. “Sure they were. But, after we got married and had the twins, he would've softened up. Especially over the twins. They would have worked their charismatic magic on him, and he would have been putty in their little hands. Then I think he’d probably have become your best friend.”

“It’s always the grandkids that get the in-laws to relax. Especially the father-in-laws.” Han laughed.

“That they do.” She agreed and then turned to him. “Did that answer your question?”

“Depends. You didn’t say any of that just to make me feel better, did ya?” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“Never.” She shook her head, leaned in and kissed him again, longer this time. Deeper.

When they pulled away, Han asked, “Would you do it again? If you woke up tomorrow and had the option of going back and doing it all over again, would you change anything or would you keep things the same?”

“Wow. You’ve got a lot of hard hitting questions tonight, don't you. I feel like I’m being interviewed for a holovid.” But she knew he was serious, so again she treated the question with the seriousness it deserved, taking a few minutes to mull over all they'd seen and been through. “I wish there were things during the war I could change, yes...just so that not so many good, innocent people died.”

“Including your parents?”

She nodded. “Especially them. Especially my home planet.” As it usually did, speaking about Alderaan caused her heart to constrict in her chest, but like she normally did with those feelings, she pushed it aside and moved on. “But if changing things meant losing you?”

She paused.

She was always one to put duty first. She'd been raised as a royal princess. Duty before self-interests came with the title and was second nature to her way of being. She’d made judgement calls during the Rebellion that put the good of the group above the good of the individual repeatedly. Hell, her decision to do just that on the Death Star had led to her home and family being destroyed in front of her own eyes.

But would she give up Han?

He was her life partner. Her soulmate. Her equal. He supported her just as much as she supported him. Even when he didn’t agree, he was there for her. He accepted her as she was, flaws and all, just as she accepted him. There were so many things she couldn’t have done alone that she was able to accomplish because they had each other’s backs. Han had become her other half, without her consciously realizing it. Without him, her life was bleaker...and of course, far less interesting.

“No.” Han’s brows shot up in surprise, but she didn’t find herself particularly shocked by her answer. “I’ve given up so much in my life for Alderaan, for the Rebellion, for the galaxy. But you...I don’t want to give you up. Not ever by choice.”

He blinked at her. “Really?”

It was too dark to tell, but she thought his voice hitched as though he were getting choked up, something her husband almost never did.

“Really.” She promised, smiling up at him softly, tenderly, but no less affirmatively.

He stared at her, as though memorizing her, or the moment they were in. “I love you, Leia.”

She grinned. “I know.”

Then his lips were on hers, but this time they were hot and fierce, as though her words had opened a floodgate of emotion he could no longer contain. She wrapped her arms around his neck, climbing into his lap as she kissed him back with as much fervor as she could muster.

“What do you say we take this to the bedroom?” Han asked between kisses, his voice a deep husky whisper.

“That’s my favorite question you've asked, by far.” She replied back just as breathlessly. Han made a pleased sounding growl deep in his throat, and moments later she was whisked up into his strong arms, being carried back into their private bedchamber, her soft laughter sweet music to his ears.

No. She couldn't - and wouldn’t - give this man up. Not ever. And she thanked the Force, the stars, and anything else that would listen to her, that they’d found one another in the vastness of the galaxy.

Because their love was fated. It was destiny.

It was the will of the Force.

And for Leia, that was the best reason of all to indulge in this very special second honeymoon.

#han and leia #extended universe #non disney canon #star wars #fanfic #romance #fluff #hanleiasecretsanta #merry ficmas!#First real long han and leia work #what cuties #han needs lessons on how to bubble bath #leia needs more vacation #gift work

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