#he also hates flying because of air sickness and will trip over his own feet when walking

[thatkidwholikesthunderbirds]

Hello, I would like to make a statement:

Owl Brains.

That is all.

[theladyofdeath]

I’ll Be Seeing You {1}

Nesta x Cassian, 1940′s AU

Collaboration with @snelbz​

Summary: After Cassian gets injured in the war, he’s taken to a war camp to be cared for until he gains enough strength to return to his battalion. While he’s there, he falls for a nurse that couldn’t care less about his title and doesn’t put up with his bullshit. Once he’s healed and the years pass by, he finds that there’s only one thing he wants to remember from the war, and she’s only a letter away. 

Trigger Warnings: war

A/N: FINALLY. Shelby and I have been writing away (both at this one, and the one she will begin posting later this week). We’ve been so excited to share, and hope you all like it.

Chapters will be posted every Monday. 

Word Count: 3745

IBSY Masterlist

Shelby’s Masterlist 

Tara’s Masterlist  

September 1940, The Winter Court

It was cold.

It was cold and Cassian couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a full night’s sleep. He was bleary eyed in the midday sun, which did little to warm the frigid air as he walked, one hand braced on the gun hanging from his shoulder.

He idly wondered where Rhys and Az had been deployed to, if they’d ended up in one of the milder courts, or if they were as unlucky as he was, patrolling the borders of Winter.

If they were in one of the warmer courts, he hated them.

Loved them, missed them, hoped they were safe.

But he hated them, nonetheless.

Alongside his fellow soldiers, Cassian continued on, marching through the snow from the night before. It had been a wicked storm, one Cassian wasn’t certain they wouldn’t make it through. But they did, through some miracle their fires remained burning all night long, snow and all.

“Perk up, Nazari,” the soldier beside him grinned. “At least it’s above freezing today.”

“It’s at least ten below freezing,” Cassian said, snorting. 

The soldier's grin just widened and he kept marching on. At least someone was happy to be there.

He’d stopped learning anything aside from his fellow soldiers' names after the first couple of months. After losing someone he’d grown close to for what felt like the hundredth time, it was easier that way.

Andras, the golden haired man, continued on. “We’ve only got another ten miles before we meet up with the seventeenth battalion. Rumor has it they got a resupply in rations last month.”

There was too much to unpack in that statement for Cassian to waste his energy and warmth responding.

Only another ten miles made him want to wring Andras’s neck. They’d been moving since dawn and had only covered seven miles. At the rate they were moving now, they’d likely have to make camp again in volatile unclaimed territory.

He also knew a resupply of rations was unlikely. He hadn’t heard of any of the courts sending out any aid, because none had any to spare. So it was likely that rumors were all Andras had heard, and rumors they would stay. And if they somehow were true, Cassian was sure that the seventeenth battalion had probably gone through them themselves, not concerned with any forces coming to meet up with them.

He knew his legion wouldn’t have cared.

But this was war. Every man for himself, even if f they were fighting for a common goal.

Peace.

Peace seemed far away as the sound of rapid gunshots went off in the distance.

Someone screamed, and then an explosion went off up ahead, sending smoke and bodies flying into the air.

At first, Cassian’s body locked up but then his training kicked in. He fell into formation.

As he hurried behind Andras, Cassian took pity on one of the younger guys. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen, and this was most likely his first attack. He looked terrified, completely frozen.

“Move!” Cassian yelled, and the kid’s eyes connected with his, then he was finally moving, fumbling for his gun.

Cassian wished him the best but didn’t think about it long. He couldn’t. This was war. He had to remain focused.

The sound of the canon roared and before they had time to think, the cannonball landed just up ahead. Close enough for Cassian’s ears to ring.

He looked around, trying to locate the enemy.

He raised his gun.

His ears we’re still ringing and he couldn’t place where the shots were coming from, just saw man after man in his battalion go down. But Andras surged ahead and Cassian followed behind, trusting the instincts of his fellow soldier.

“Into the trees,” he called, knowing they wouldn’t offer much cover, but they wouldn’t be as exposed as they were on the open road.

Andras’s quick nod was his only reply and they pushed, but not before white hot pain shot down Cassian’s arm.

He cried out, still barely able to hear himself over the high-pitched ringing in his head, but he didn’t go down. He knew the only thing that awaited him if he did was death.

They’d been split up, separated and disoriented, just like the enemy had wanted them.

Cassian pressed a hand to his arm, hoping he’d just been grazed, but when he looked down, he knew that wasn’t the case. He was lucky he was still able to use his arm, with how much blood was pouring from the wound. He leaned against a tree as they made it deep into the cover.

“Fuck, man, you’re hit,” Andras muttered, not even pausing to consider before tearing into his own small med kit and tying a tourniquet above the wound on Cassian’s arm.

It took every ounce of willpower in him not to snap something like “No shit,” back at the man, but knew it would be a waste of energy.

“This should hold you over,” Andras yelled, above the screaming, the gunshots, the sound of the cannon. “You good?”

“I’m good,” Cassian promised, even though he wasn’t sure it was the truth. He was certain that he was running off adrenaline. There was a bullet in him, after all.

Bullet and all, he raised his gun and looked toward the hillside.

He could see the enemy, dressed in black. They looked like ants, being so far away, but Cassian took his aim, nonetheless. 

He aimed.

He fired.

He repeated the process.

The others near him did the same.

The battle was in full force.

Gunshots echoed and the men around Cassian went down. It was no use, really. The enemy was stronger, and far more confident. 

“Fuck,” Cassian muttered when he ran out of bullets. As he was reloading, a scream echoed from beside him, and Cassian looked down. “Andras? Andras!” He fell to his knees and took the soldier’s face into his hands. “Hey. Hey! Stay with me.” A crimson stain appeared on his uniform, just over his chest. 

The man coughed, blood spraying his chin and Cassian knew death lingered around them.

Granted, it was a constant shadow over all of Prythian.

He watched the light leave the man’s usually bright, laughing eyes, watched as they dimmed and stared unseeing to the canopy of trees above.

He didn’t have time for sadness, didn’t have time for grief. He picked up Andras’s gun, slinging it over his shoulder and grabbed his ammunition.

“We’ve got to move,” Cassian called back to the soldiers around him. “Deeper into the trees and head south. Try to get to the Autumn border.”

He held rank above the men, but not by much. Enough that they listened to his orders and did as they were told.

If they could just get to Autumn, they’d be back in friendly territory. He dared a look back as they retreated.

The number of bodies left bleeding in the snow made him sick to his stomach. How many men were still breathing and how many had passed on into the darkness?

A blanket of white, splattered with red. 

Cassian tried not to panic, but they were outnumbered. “Move!” he yelled, but with every second that passed, another body fell. He pushed down that panic, and moved forward.

He had only taken a few steps before a searing pain hit his back, just below his shoulder. Cassian landed facedown in the snow, and this time, he was unable to move. 

A burning sensation began to spread, and that panic that he had pushed down began to resurface. 

He heard someone yell for him, heard someone call his name, but it sounded far away, too far away. Someone was holding him, but Cassian felt nothing, nothing but that burning in his back. Darkness clouded his vision, and as much as he told his feet to keep moving, as much as he told himself to get back up and keep going, he couldn’t move. 

Time moved slowly. 

Cassian felt like this is what it was like to die.

And, surprisingly, once that panic began to fade, he was no longer afraid.

An explosion sounded nearby, and Cassian’s body was thrown.

In the snow, in the heart of the Winter Court, the darkness took over, and Cassian was gone.

*

There had been an ambush.

That was all that they were told as bloodied and battered men were hauled into the med camp just over the Autumn border.

Nesta Archeron’s eyes were wide as she took in some of the injuries.

Blood. There was so much blood.

She’d had to tend to a few of the men as they passed through, but most of the fighting had been deeper into the territory. She hadn’t seen the violence of all out bloodshed.

The screaming of a man whose arm was hanging in tattered ribbons broke her from the haze she’d settled in. She looked around the tent at the dozens of men and wondered if the other nurses tents were filling as quickly as hers.

“Madja,” she breathed, surprised to find her voice gravely. “Who should I—?”

“Anyone,” the head nurse snapped, pressing a wad of bandages to a wound in a man’s chest. “Just pick one.”

She nodded and tied her hair back, hurrying across the tent.

The bloody man was unconscious, covered in burns and mud, but the young soldier who brought him in still stood beside him. She asked, “What are his injuries?”

The young man was a stammering mess. “He— He took at least two shots to the ba-back, one to the arm.” She was about to reach for him, to turn him over and inspect his back but he added, “And then we tripped a land mine on the trek over.” Nesta went still. “He wasn’t in the direct path of the explosion but he was in the radius. I think— I think he was thrown, but I’m not sure. I helped carry him in after that.”

Nesta only hesitated for a moment before nodding, tight lipped. “Thank you. Help me turn him over.”

The young soldier nodded, helping Nesta flip him onto his stomach. She could see where he had been shot. Crimson stains coated his uniform. Without another word, Nesta began to cut the fabric.

First things first: remove the bullets.

Nesta cleansed his wounds, then went to work. They had very limited surgical equipment, but Nesta had gotten used to using what they had since she arrived in the recent weeks. The young soldier remained as Nesta removed the bullets from her patient’s back and arm, and once that was complete, she checked his vitals.

His pulse was steady enough, although it was slower than it should have been. He had a fever, most likely due to infection of the bullet wounds. Considering he was out, there was no way to check for any sort of head injury, but if he had been thrown due to an explosion, Nesta had no doubt that he did.

She could only hope that he would wake up soon so that she could examine him further.

“What’s his name?” Nesta asked the young soldier that continued to stand by his bedside.

“Corporal Cassian Nazari, ma’am,” he answered. 

Nesta nodded. “Thank you.” She wrote his name on the sheet of paper on the clipboard hanging from his bed. 

“Should I— What should I do?” He asked, swallowing hard. “Do I help or—?”

She looked at him, nearly shaking in the medical tent. “What’s your name?”

“Isaac, ma’am. Private Isaac Hale,” he replied, and it was the first thing he’d said that he sounded confident in.

“Do you have any medical training, Private Hale?” She asked, firmly, but not unkindly.

“No, ma’am,” he admitted.

She nodded. “Then go be with your men. Your presence is appreciated, but we need the space to work.”

He accepted the dismissal, nodding, and hurried out of the tent.

Nesta looked back down at her patient and reached for one of the damp rags. She needed to get him cleaned up so she could fully assess his injuries. He was still out cold, so she whispered, “Sorry, Corporal Nazari, but this is probably going to hurt.”

After re-drenching the rag in alcohol, Nesta was cleaning the gunshot wounds, carefully but quickly. At one point, Corporal Nazari stirred, which she assumed was due to the horrid stinging of the alcohol against an open wound, but Nesta took it as a good sign.

He was responsive.

He was alive. 

Once his wounds were cleaned, she flipped him back onto his back and checked his pulse, once again.

Slow, but steady. 

She had stitched and bandaged him up, so the blood loss had been minimized. Nesta made a note to check on him in half an hour and wiped her hands on her apron, continuing on.

Cassian Nazari was not the only soldier that had gotten caught in an explosion. In fact, there were men far worse off than him. Madja was assisting a man who had his leg nearly blown off, and although Nesta had a tolerance for such things, she looked away.

War on the frontlines was not easy.

But being a nurse, seeing what the frontlines did to soldiers, was not easy, either.

It was nearly two hours later, the sun beginning to set and lamps being lit inside the med tent, before Nesta made her way back to check on the corporal. One of her fellow nurses had cleaned him off as much as they could and underneath all the mud and gore, she found that his face, despite being battered and burnt and bruised, was…handsome. Ignoring that handsome face, she gave him a full once over, finding burns on his entire left side, four cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder and a broken bone in his forearm. He was also probably concussed, but until he woke up, that couldn’t be confirmed.

Not the worst injuries he could have gotten by far, but the number of them would keep him down for a while. He was lucky he hadn’t been closer to the blast when the mine had gone off.

Quickly, but efficiently, she set the bones in his arm, and popped his shoulder back into place, before wrapping his arm and slinging it around his neck.

The injury to his back worried her. One of those bullets had been very close and she wasn’t sure if any damage had been done to his spine. Again, they’d have to wait until he was awake to see just how bad it was, but until then, she elected to check for response in one of the few ways she knew how.

Carefully tugging off one of his boots, she ran a finger along the inside of his foot, tickling gently. His knee jerked slightly and she breathed a sigh of relief at the quick response and movement.

A raspy voice whispered, “That’s the strangest version of foreplay I’ve ever seen, but I’m open to trying anything once.”

Nesta’s eyes were immediately on his face and one of his was barely cracked open and trained on her. The other was swollen shut.

She hurried to the head of the small bed he laid in. “Corporal Nazari, how are you feeling?”

“Who are you?” He asked, and even though his voice was quiet, it sounded like the man had been gargling gravel.

“Nesta Archeron, sir,” she breathed. “You’re in the med camp of the twenty-sixth legion.”

His eye fell shut again and he rasped, “Autumn?”

She nodded, but then voiced her words. “Yes. There was an ambush—.” She paused, realizing she didn’t have much information for him. He had been there. He probably knew better than she did. 

He sighed, grimly. “How many of us were brought in?”

Nesta looked around. Nearly all of the beds were full. “About twenty of you so far. Your men are still scoping the valley now that the ambush has cleared.” 

He stayed quiet for a moment. “Casualties?”

Nesta cleared her throat. “I’ve yet to hear an update.”

His eyes remained shut as he said, “Okay. Thank you.” 

“Can I get you anything?” she asked.

“How long until I’m on my feet again?” he asked, in answer.

Nesta looked over his body, wondering if he’d make another snide, inappropriate remark. “Now that you’re awake, I’d like to examine you further.”

Cassian nodded, and tried to sit himself up, but hissed the moment his palms hit the cot, and he put pressure on them. 

“Your ulna is broken, don’t put pressure on it,” she explained. He probably hadn’t even noticed that it was wrapped, considering his eyes could hardly open and he hadn’t really taken a moment to take in his surroundings. She assumed that the entirety of his body hurt. “You also have four cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and some severe third degree burns. The bullet wounds have been cleansed, but…” 

Cassian looked at her. “But?” 

“A bullet just missed your spine.”

“Okay,” he said, slowly. “And that means?”

“That means that I need to see how your body has reacted,” she said, simply, and helped him into a sitting position. At this point, she had learned to ignore the horrid smells that came from soldiers. She wondered when the last time he’d been given the luxury to shower. She made a mental note to offer to help clean him up when she was finished with her examination. “First, we’ll check for a concussion.” 

He nodded, slowly.

“Do you have a headache?” she asked.

Cassian looked at her, and blinked. “Seriously? Look at me. Every inch of my body aches.” 

Her lips thinned but she gave him a curt nod. “What about nausea? Dizziness?” She lit a candle and held it up. “Sensitive to light?”

His eyes, already barely open to slits, closed further as he tried to turn away. “Let’s say yes to all of the above.”

She nodded, leaving the candle burning, but setting it down atop the small table beside the infirmary bed. “You’re going to to rest for the remainder of the day, after we get you cleaned up. Tomorrow, we’ll further look at your back, make a plan based on that, and go from there.”

She could tell he wanted to argue, to say they needed to begin treatment now, but his eyes were so weary. They were still glazed.

“I can get you something for the pain,” she offered.

He didn’t answer her, just asked a question of his own. “What’s your name?”

Nesta pursed her lips to suppress her laughter. “You’ve already asked me that, corporal.” 

Cassian looked up at her. “No, I didn’t.”

Nesta didn’t bother to correct him as she subtly shook her head. Concussion, indeed. “My name is Nesta Archeron. I’m a nurse.”

“I’d hope so,” he grumbled. “If you’re not a nurse, I’m afraid for my health.”

“Rest assured, I’m a nurse,” she promised. “I’ve got the certificate to prove it.”

“Were you a nurse before the war?” Cassian asked.

A lot of nurses were volunteers, with very limited training. They were tossed into battle with as little experience as the soldiers.

“I was in school for it,” she answered, simply. “Only in my second year.”

“And you stopped going to school?” He pushed. “To come here?”

“You ask a lot of questions, Corporal.”

She was ringing out the rag in a warm-ish bowl of water on the table when he spoke.

“Just trying to figure out why someone as beautiful as an angel would be willing to be dropped into pure hell with people like us.”

Nesta froze from where she’d been about to wipe down his neck and shoulder. She didn’t look at his face as she began to carefully clean the bits of burned skin. “I’m just trying to do my duty. To protect my village, and to keep my sisters from getting it into their heads that they need to join the war.”

“You must be the oldest,” he replied, hissing as she cleaned out a wound.

“I am. One of my sisters is twenty-one and the other just turned eighteen.”

“My brothers are somewhere on a battlefield.” His words were quiet, eyes distant, even as they didn’t look at her. “But I have no clue where.”

She needed to stop talking, needed to stop telling this soldier about herself and her family. He was just as likely to heal under her care and go back out and get blown up as he was to die from infection in these festering camps. “I’ll be right back, corporal.”

She tossed the rag back into the bowl, the blood staining the water pink and hurried to the large cabinet where the medications were stored. She poured water into a mug from one of the clean pitchers and mixed in a healthy dose of the powder indicated for pain relief. Carrying it back to his bed, she helped him prop up slightly. “Drink this, please.”

He did as he was told and she watched as the powder took hold.

“Trying to knock me out so I stop asking questions?” He asked, as he drank from the glass.

“Just trying to ease the pain,” she answered, simply, and helped him lay back down.

Putting that wet cloth back in the bowl, she dabbed it on Cassian’s brow, cleaning off the dried blood.

“It will do you well to get some sleep,” Nesta said. “When you wake up, I’ll get you something to eat. A new shipment should arrive soon from our neighboring camp.” 

In response, Cassian’s stomach rumbled and he was grateful for the news. “Can I ask you just one more question?”

Nesta hesitated, but nodded as she continued to wipe off the blood.

“Will you always be the one tending to me?” He asked, with a yawn.

Nesta took the emptied glass from him and said, “We are a team here, but you are in my section. We typically divide to stay organized, unless there is an emergency we will work together to save the life, to do what we can. As for rotational check ups, I will most likely be your primary caregiver, yes.”

She looked down at him and his eyes were closed, his breathing even. She shook her head, already being able to tell this corporal was a handful. 

After dropping the rag in the bowl, she began to walk away, but before she could go she heard him say, “Good.” 

[shutupanddance]

hi bestie here with another request

could i get a josh lyman x reader where the reader is socially awkward or anxious and josh helps her chill out during an event? idk if that makes sense

This is so cute!! Absolutely hon!!

- You hate parties. And any social event, really. Which is a problem if you work at the Whitehouse, but you’d managed to avoid them with “family emergencies” and “dentist appointments” thus far.

- But Leo’s sick of your game. He tells you that you have to be at this party. Dammit.

- Josh knows that you hate being social. He’s pretty sure he’s watched you make fake strangling motions at Whitehouse visitors when they turn their back. But he’s also so excited to see you all dressed up (and also secretly imagining himself wooing you and sweeping you off your feet).

- You’re not sure why Josh has been in such a good mood all day, but you’re feeling much the opposite. Still, you try to convince yourself that it’ll be fun.

- It was not fun.

- You get to the party, and even though you’re feeling beautiful, you don’t feel comfortable. There are just so many people here, and some of them are staring at you… you want to go home.

- Josh happens to be one of the people staring at you. He cannot get over how gorgeous you look. But then, he realizes how uncomfortable you are, and hatches a plan.

Let’s be honest here, Josh isn’t a fan of looking like an idiot, even if it’s for the team. But, for you, he’ll make an exception. He was bored anyway.

- You’re so relieved when you see Josh walking towards you, that you don’t notice the two glasses of champagne in his hands. Until they go flying through the air.

Josh seems to trip on air just a few feet in front of you, arms flailing, shoes squeaking across tile, and the champagne goes everywhere. On your dress, on his tuxe, and all over the floor.

- You managed to catch him, you’re not sure how. But he immediately springs up and starts apologizing to you, and to everyone. They’re all staring.

“I guess we’ll have to change out of our party clothes!” He announces loudly.  You’re still in shock as he drags you away.

“Josh, I don’t have any other clothes,” you begin, but he shrugs it off.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

It’s as he’s handing you a change of his own clothes that you realized what just happened.

Josh just spilled champagne over your clothes so that you can’t return to the party. Because who could return to a Whitehouse party in someone else’s sweats and hoodie?

- Josh is looking at you with the most dopey grin on his face that you’ve ever seen.

- You laugh, and throw your arms around his shoulders. You kiss him on the cheek. No words need to be said. His whole face lights up.

- You change into Josh’s clothes, and because he’s now “incapacitated” as well (you’re sure he has a nicer change of clothes somewhere that he could use to return to the party, but he denies it), Josh offers to pull out an old cassette tape from his office. It’s one of your favorite movies.

- You spend the night laughing hysterically. And Josh, even though he just publicly humiliated himself, is the happiest he’s ever been. Because he’s watching you giggle and giggle and worm your way into the couch in your office, all with his clothes on. 

You’re even more beautiful this way, without the flashy dress and the makeup (which you had removed). He’s glad he pulled that charade, to say the least.

- Leo is not impressed, however. He makes you go to the next ball, and the next gala, and the next dinner, but if you’re being honest, you don’t mind them as much anymore. Josh’s fall made you feel so much more comfortable, and even if it didn’t, he’s practically glued to your side at every event.

- So, you spend most of your time gossiping with Josh, dancing with Josh, or strategically avoiding people with Josh. It’s great, because people will come up and talk to him, but leave you alone for the most part. And you just get to spend time with your best friend.

- Besides, it’s never a bad thing when, before you walk into each event, he kisses your forehead and reminds you how beautiful you are. That’s a perk for sure.

[jaskiersvalley]

CW major character injury (beartrap)

Splitting up for winter seemed like the most sensible idea. Geralt would head north with Ciri and, at his insistence at not leaving his muse, Jaskier. Meanwhile Regis would lead the others south, down to Touissant for a bit of downtime. Privately Geralt also hoped their infuriatingly stubborn Nilfgaardian shadow would opt to head for the warmer climates and leave them alone. It wasn't even that Geralt was worried about the man following them. Over the weeks it had become abundantly clear that he was trying to help in his own way, even fighting off a stray bandit or two to keep their tail clean. Rather, Geralt simply couldn't be bothered to exert the energy to get to know yet another person and it was another mouth to feed. Given his rather solitary nature, the fact he was travelling with a ragtag bunch was already quite exhausting.

As luck would have it, Geralt ended up with the Nilfgaardian trailing after them, heading steadily north. The weather got colder and sometimes Geralt caught the whiff of another camp fire, creeping a little closer as it that small lessening of distance would give their tail a smidgeon more warmth. It was pathetic and Geralt was more than a little pissed off. Still, at least the trip up to Kaer Morhen would lose him. Nobody was foolish enough to try and reach the old keep alone, even Witchers succumbed to the trail, a human by himself stood no chance. So either their foolhardy idiot would find shelter for the winter in the surrounding villages or he would perish.

They were at the bottom of the mountain, one last night to get some rest before they braved the slopes. Jaskier and Ciri definitely needed sleep and to give their bodies a break. Geralt was content to meditate, keeping them safe. In the distance he could hear their Nilfgaardian make camp, daring to stray as close as he ever had. Frustrated, Geralt found himself wishing that a bear would appear and deal with the annoyance for him. Alas, he couldn't hear or smell a bear in the region despite the villages mentioning that there had been some bears sighted earlier in the year. Thankfully the local hunters had taken care of them. Lost in thought, Geralt almost didn't register the sound of something snapping shut before a pained cry echoed in the forest. Immediately he was up, sword in hand while Jaskier was on his feet too, looking around in the darkness.

In the distance Geralt could hear pained hitches of breath plus a few agonised grunts. Whatever had happened, it wasn't the swift death he'd wished on the Nilfgaardian. There wasn't anyone or anything else in the vicinity so whatever had happened, the idiot did to himself. Probably stabbed himself with an arrow in the dark. Despite all his ill-wishes, Geralt couldn't bring himself to ignore someone in trouble.

"It's the Nilfgaardian. He's in trouble."

There wasn't any argument when he set off, Jaskier and Ciri behind him, treading carefully, a flaming torch lighting their way. Geralt almost wished they hadn't had the torch because then he wouldn't have had to see the scene in front of him in full colour. The Nilfgaardian was on the ground at the edge of a small clearing where he'd obviously planned on making camp. However, the stench of blood around him suggested that something hadn't gone according to plan. Walking up to him, Geralt watched as the man realised he wasn't alone and jerked upright. A beartrap kept him rooted though. His hands were bloody, even worse, his palms had been cut open from where he'd obviously tried to pry the metal from his leg. What struck Geralt though was just how young the man looked. Wide blue eyes stared up from shock paled skin, lips almost white enough to be missed. Only slightly older than Ciri, probably about twenty, Geralt couldn't fathom why someone so young was so desperate.

"You'll need to keep still while we get this off," Geralt said, crouching down. The young man tried to scramble away but aside from leaning back, he couldn't go anywhere. "Why don't we help with the pain a bit?" Hand raised, Geralt prepared to cast axii. Before he could, a rock connected with the man's temple and knocked him out cold as Jaskier stood behind him, hand wrapped around the lightly bloodied rock.

"That will keep him still and out of it," he declared. "It was the kindest thing."

"Or you could have let me use axii to keep him calm." Geralt tipped the man's head to the side to check how badly the rock had split his skin. It was going to give him quite the bruise, possibly a black eye and one hell of a headache. Still, it did made life easier and Geralt pried the trap off. It had snapped in bone deep, probably even broke his leg. Humans were fragile like that and the trap was meant for a bear. Sighing, Geralt looked around the miserable excuse of a half made camp. It screamed of skills learned on the fly, for the sole purpose of survival rather than something practiced in safety before being put into reality. "Grab his things. We'll head up to Kaer Morhen tomorrow and take him with us."

They had more in the way of bandages with them and, while the man was unconscious, Geralt did his best to clean the wounds, splint the leg and bandage it as well as the cuts on his hands. There wasn't much to be done for the headache of the future though.

In the morning Geralt roused from his meditation to find a pair of blue eyes staring at him.

"You going to make an example of me and kill me?" The accent was harsh despite the soft voice. It wasn't what Geralt had expected coming out of the man's mouth.

"Yeah, I wasted all the bandages on you just for that. Name's Geralt."

"Cahir Mawr Dyrryn aep Ceallach."

"Quite the mouthful. Cahir alright with you?" The nod was answer enough and Geralt set about getting breakfast ready. It was only thanks to the events of the previous night that he kept an eye out for more beartraps and avoided falling victim to one himself. He set it off with a stick and winced as it splintered under the metal jaws.

Despite their best efforts, by the time they'd loaded Cahir onto the cart strapped to Roach, his cheeks were flushed with fever and Geralt could smell the sickness on him. The valiant effort to get to know his new travelling companions better was foiled by the way Cahir kept drifting off, a combination of sickness and from the hit to the head. When he woke, it was only Jaskier's quick grab to the back of his shirt that kept Cahir on the cart as he threw up over the side.

It wasn't looking good. The first night they stopped, Geralt helped rebandage Cahir's injured leg. As the cloth fell away, it became amply evident that infection had thoroughly set in. The cuts were an angry red without defined edges to the inflammation while the wounds themselves were puckered with puss.

"It's fine," Cahir tried to reassure with a wobbly smile. "I've survived worse." Which may have been true but he'd probably also been in a place with better medical supplies. The gnarly scar below his collarbone and through to his back attested to his words but Geralt didn't think it was caused by an old, rusty beartrap. If they didn't make it to Kaer Morhen soon then no amount of surviving worse injuries was going to mean anything.

Come next morning Cahir was no longer quite so chirpy. He was still and silent on the cart, Ciri sat next to him and sometimes gesturing for Geralt to look, worried that Cahir had stopped breathing. He hadn't but his deathly pale complexion wasn't giving Geralt much hope. They were still at least a day and a half out from Kaer Morhen, maybe even two because of the additional weight on the cart.

A fever peaked and fell in cycles, each time Geralt hoped it would be the last but, before long, he reached to feel Cahir's skin and winced at how hot to the touch it felt once more.

By the time they made it up to Kaer Morhen, Geralt feared it would be just a corpse for a funeral pyre that they'd be dragging in. By some miracle it wasn't. With Eskel's help he pulled Cahir off the cart, floppy as unresponsive as he was, there was still air in his lungs and an erratic heartbeat in his chest.

"What did you bring us this time?" Lambert teased before getting a better look and his grin turned into a frown. "Well shit. I'll get Vesemir."

It took three days before Cahir was declared out of immediate danger. Geralt spent a lot of it down in the infirmary, sitting next to him. The others could start Ciri's training and Jaskier was no doubt pleased to get to spend time with Eskel again. It left Geralt in the quiet, watching over someone who he had convinced himself he hated. But this wasn't the person he'd conjured up in his mind. Barely older than Jaskier had been when they met, Cahir didn't look like he had any youthful optimism or naivety.

"I'm sorry." Geralt murmured, watching as Cahir slept, breath a little less thready. He should have been better. Shouldn't have judged, not when he was on the other end of so much of it himself.

By the time Cahir roused, everyone had settled into their winter routine. Ciri trained most days, reading tomes Vesemir left her when it got too cold for the outside obstacle course. It left Geralt free to sit with Cahir, watching as glazed eyes opened, unseeing. The worst thing was, not once did Cahir cry out for someone or reach for an invisible source of comfort. In all his years Geralt rarely found someone so lonely. Even Lambert, in his training days, had called out for his mother and, of late, for Aiden. It was a struggle to believe Cahir had nobody.

"Why?" The first word from cracked dry lips and Geralt jumped. He grabbed a wet rag and dabbed it against Cahir's lips, squeezing a little water into his mouth.

"Why what?" There were a lot of questions Cahir could have and Geralt wasn't a mind reader. He startled when a weak hand clasped around his wrist, keeping his hand close. It felt all too natural to take the rag in his other hand so he could cup Cahir's sunken cheek.

"You stayed."

Something told Geralt this wasn't something Cahir had encountered before and it broke his heart. Why nobody would stick around for him was baffling. Even a Witcher had more people looking out for him, he was certain. He cleared his throat, trying to think about why he stayed. It was true, he had no reason to. "I wanted to."

The soft 'oh' from Cahir pulled at something in his chest. He let Cahir tangle their fingers together shyly, looking up at him from the infirmary bed with so much awe and gratitude, Geralt didn't know what to do with it. So he sat back down into his chair and kept holding Cahir's hand. There was a lot of talking, of getting to know each other in their future. But, for now, Geralt was content to offer whatever comfort he could, vowing to be better than all those who had come before him.

[thelovelylolly]

Savior (Part 2)

Part 1

Summary : You and Obi-Wan started a secret relationship after your first interaction in your penthouse. You two flew between your planet and Coruscaunt to visit each other. But as the war picks up, you and Obi-Wan start to drift apart until one day everything went downhill. The jedi were killed and so you assumed Obi-Wan was dead, grieving him privately. But when the Empire plans on blowing your planet to shreds, you are sent away. What happens when you crash land on Tatoonie?

Warnings : Very lightly mentioned adult themes, typical star wars violence and (sadly) death, angst (?), and kind of a happy ending

Note : Thank you to @lilbabyhoneypot​ for the story idea! Hopefully this is a good ending! Sorry if this isn’t what you expected.

Your relationship with Obi-Wan was so amazing, but it had to be a secret. At first, it was hard to keep up making excuses to travel to Coruscaunt for your father but once he retired and gave the throne to you, it was easier. Of course, you requested Obi-Wan and his apprentice to attend your coronation. You and Obi-Wan “celebrated” later that evening.

You allowed him to continue to call you ‘princess’ since you were obsessed with him calling you that. Obi-Wan didn’t mind at all. You spent a lot of your time in Coruscant, for Obi and for political reasons, so after a long day, Obi-Wan would walk into your penthouse and collapse onto the couch. He would call you over and you almost always had tea ready to go. It was just a peaceful, quiet relationship.

But all good things must change.

Obi-Wan was always hopping planet to planet, fighting battles with his clone squadron. You sent him short holo-videos of yourself to cheer him up, which he treasured. He sent you videos as well, but they were short and inconsistent. You didn’t mind, but you missed him so much. 

Obi-Wan was currently on Utapau, hopefully defeating General Grevious and getting very very close to ending the war. You were excited because after the war, you could relax a bit. Get a break from all the politics. The only thing that bothered you was when Obi-Wan left. Usually, he would spend the night before with you, doing whatever you wanted. In the morning, you two would eat breakfast together with tea (of course) then he was off on his mission. But this time, he just sent you a message when he was on his was to Utapau. It was eating at you, was he trying to distance himself from you? Did he start to lose feelings?

Standing on your balcony, you took a breath of crisp Coruscant air to try to clear your mind. It was night time, which meant lights were on everywhere. Your eyes were watching speeders zoom by below you when something unusual caught you eye. You shifted your gaze to the jedi temple and saw smoke escaping it. In a panic, you quickly grabbed your red cloak and raced down to your speeder in the garage, speeding off to the temple.

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

You parked your speeder on a small dock, getting out to walk into the temple. But you were stopped by clones. “What’s going on? What happened?” You asked.

“The jedi have been declared enemies of the republic, you need to leave, ma’am.” One clone explained. Suddenly, a young padawan jumped over them and started to deflect the blaster shots with his lightsaber. You watched in horror as the padawan got shot in the abdomen multiple times. 

“No!” You exclaimed, crouching down and pulling the dying child into your lap. You watched as life slowly escaped the padawan, his eyes staying open as his took his last breath. You sighed sadly and closed his eyes, laying him down gently. You stood back up. “What have you done?! He was a child! Where are the other padawans?” You yelled.

“General Skywalker took care of them.”

“Anakin....what? No...”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” The clone paused for a moment to aim his blaster at you, along with the others. “It’s time for you to leave.”

You nodded and quickly went back into your speeder, taking off. 

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

You had called Bail Organa to your penthouse since he also went to the jedi temple. You sat on your couch, you mind going into dark territory since you thought Obi-Wan was dead. “Bail, we need to get the senate to stop this.” You spoke up.

“No, we need to find any surviving Jedi to see what they want to do. I think the Chancellor ordered this to happen.” Senator Organa replied, sitting down next to you.

“I don’t think any survived.”

“Were you close to any of them? I noticed you always requested Obi-Wan to be your jedi guard.”

“Promise not to tell?” Bail nodded in reply. “Me and Obi-Wan have a secret relationship, but with the clones turning on the jedi, I don’t think he survived. His own apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, killed younglings at the jedi temple.”

It went silent, the only noise being the busy city outside. “Return to your planet, I’ll do what I can here. You need to be there in case someone or something wants to attack.” Bail said, breaking the silent.

You both stood up, embracing each other, then Bail left. You began to pack up your things. Before you left, you wrote a quick note in case Obi-Wan did survive and came looking for you. Then you boarded your usual ship and went home to your planet.

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

Years passed and the Empire rose to power. Bail Organa didn’t contact you, but the sith lord Darth Vader did. He forced you to put your planet under imperial rule, which basically meant you were just a puppet for Vader. You were sick of it. 

You laid awake in your large bed at night, moon light slipping in through a window. You stared at your ceiling, your covers feeling cold. You were haunted by things. Obi-Wan being presumed dead, that padawan dying in your arms, watching the temple burn and hearing of the Empire rising. Your bed felt empty without Obi-Wan next to you, but you didn’t know what else you could do except try to move on and serve your planet. You father had passed due to age which left you alone. Alone in a galaxy that seemingly hated you.

The next day, Darth Vader himself decided to visit the planet. Usually, it was a high ranking imperial but this time, Vader wanted to come. You were dressed in one of your usual extravagant dresses, your crowing sitting on your head. You kept your chin up, you weren’t intimidated by a sith lord. “Darth Vader, what brings you to my planet?”

“I came to check in on things, some of my men have heard of protests against the Empire here.” Vader replied.

You crossed your legs and leaned back. “I haven’t heard of such things, I’m sure my people are obedient to me, their ruler.” 

“Must I remind you that the Empire rules this planet.”

“I’m not useless, Vader. It’s my planet, the throne is my birth right, you can’t change that.”

“I suggest you don’t speak like that. I know how you used to act in the senate, Obi-Wan used to support it, didn’t he?”

You shot up from your throne from the name of your old lover. “You shall not speak of Obi-Wan to me. Leave. Now.” You ordered. Darth Vader simply turned around and started to walk out, but stopped to talk to a imperial that was apart of your council on your planet.

“Ready the Death Star. We will destroy the planet tomorrow.” And with that, Lord Vader left. You looked beside you at your advisors, confused.

That night, you met with your council (minus any imperials) to discuss how to avoid people’s death. They decided that you would leave first, then they would start evacuations of everyone else. You were to pack that night then depart at first light. So that’s what you did.

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

You and a few other higher ups boarded a ship and were to be flown to a different planet that wasn’t on the Empire’s radar. It was supposed to be a easy and safe trip. Key words : supposed to be.

You were flying over a sandy planet when imperial tie fighters began to shoot at your ship. “We’re going to have to crash land, your majesty!” The captain yelled. 

You were shoved into a safe room while everyone else braced for impact. The safe room was essentially a escape pod in case the ship crashed, which was going to happen. But due to the impact, you blacked out.

When you woke up, you slipped out of the little pod to be met with so much sand and sun. You looked around for anyone else but saw the ship covered in black smoke. You couldn’t bring yourself to go look for anyone, you already lost so much. You didn’t know how long you were out but you decided to start walking. To where, you didn’t know, you just needed to make some sort of progress. You flipped up your brown cloak’s hood and started to walk in the hot sand.

It had to be hours since you started walking and you saw nothing. It was hard to walk since you were in a simple dress. You felt like someone was watching you while you walked by a small group of mountains, but you couldn’t bother to investigate. The heat was overbearing and you felt dehydrated, your steps became slower and you felt like your feet were on fire. You couldn’t keep going so you just let you body take the wheel. Your body hit the sand as your vision blurred. You slowly closed your eyes, accepting the worse.

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

You opened your eyes but you weren’t in the desert anymore. You were in a sandy little house, on someone’s bed. Your head hurt, causing you to groan and close your eyes again. You heard someone walk in and over to you. “I brought you something to drink, hopefully it’ll help.” A voice said, helping you sit up and drink a cool liquid, most likely water.

You easily drank the entire cup. “You are lucky you fell where you did, anywhere else you sand people would probably take you. What are you doing out in the desert, princess?”

Princess.

Your eyes shot open and there in front of you was Obi-Wan, well and alive. His hair and beard had grown a little bit with a few bits of white mixed in. His eyes were just as gentle as the last time you saw them. You quickly pulled Obi-Wan in for a hug, which he gladly returned. You two held each tight and close. 

“Obi, I missed you so much. I thought you were dead. Bail Organa didn’t contact me after the jedi temple was burnt down and I left. I-” Obi-Wan cut you off by kissing you. It was sweet and deep and passionate. You tilted your head to deepen the kiss, but after a few moments you two had to separate for air.

“You didn’t answer my question. What are you doing on Tatoonie, princess?” Obi-Wan asked.

“The Empire destroyed my planet, or at least planed to. My council decided it was best if me and a few other higher ups escaped. But we were shot down and crashed down here, I was the only one who survived. Why didn’t you contact me?” 

“Because the empire would come looking for me. Padme gave birth to twin’s so be and Senator Organa each took one into hiding from Anakin. I gave his son to the Lars who live not too far away. But Anakin turned to the dark side and was the reason all of this happened.” 

“Wait what? I thought Anakin died. Darth Vader told me that when I asked about him.”

“Oh dear, Anakin became Darth Vader. I- I watched him burn on Mustafar. It scars me to this day.” Obi-Wan sounded like he was on the verge of crying. “I thought- I thought I lost you in the chaos. Bail told me you were sent back to your planet but we didn’t know if you were safe. I’ve been so alone for so long.”

You cupped Obi-Wan’s cheek in your hand. “Obi, I’m so sorry. It looks like I don’t have anywhere else to go, maybe now we could continue our relationship now. I love you so much, I don’t want you to feel alone.” 

Obi-Wan gave you another kiss then a hug. “Thank you.” He said, muffled by him putting his face in the crook of your neck. 

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

After that, you and Obi started to a have a peaceful life. You and him were able to openly have a relationship, even though there wasn’t anyone to show off to. Sure, both of you had those nights where you had nightmares or stayed up crying, but you had each other now. Sometimes it would lead to you falling asleep in each others arms, other times it would lead to other things. Even with the empire ruling the galaxy, as long as you had Obi-Wan, you would be fine.

“Hey, Obi?”

“Yes?”

“You do know I love you, right?”

“Yes, I do. I love you, too, princess.”

[wherearemyglassesbro]

How did each character get their vision in your Genshin Impact AU?

YEAHHH BABEY LETS GOOOO!!!

Some key terms so everyone can be included even if they haven’t played Genshin!

Visions: “The one thing that is known for certain is that Visions are conduits for their associated elements. However, the means by which Visions allow their wielders to harness elemental energy, and what is exchanged for this power, is a mystery.... When a god has deemed a person worthy of a Vision, there are two ways they can receive it: A new Vision appears before them in the blink of an eye, or an old Vision from a now-deceased person can be reawakened by resonating with someone else. It is also suggested that an active Vision can be abandoned and taken up by another person, but how exactly that works is unknown.” -the Genshin Wiki

Mondstadt: modeled after Germany

Liyue: modeled after China

Knights of favonious: an organization of knights within Mondstat, they act as peacekeepers! Helpful people!!

Hilichurls and Ruin Guards: common enemies found in the wild

Abyss Order: an organization of evil, fuzzy mages

The Fatui: all you really need to know about them is that they’re also an evil organization but...humans not monsters

Cryo: ice, Anemo: air(I realize I forgot this in the last post oops!), Geo: rock, Pyro: fire, Electro: lightning, Hydro: water, Dendro: nature

——————————————

Arthur(Dendro): Arthur never thought he’d get a vision. His oldest brother, Alastair, got a Pyro vison when he was 10. And his youngest brother Peter got an Anemo vision when he was 7. Arthur waited and waited and was totally convinced that he’d be visionless. But that’s fine! Plenty of people don’t have visions. His own parents and uncles didn’t even have visions! When Arthur left home at 17 to go to Mondstat to study, his travels were extremely lonely. He had to walk the whole way there, living with just the clothes on his back and a rickity tent to sleep in. He lost motivation about halfway through his trip, breaking down crying beside a big, mossy rock. The Dendro Archon pitied him and slipped a vision into his hand while he rubbed his face. The moss from the rock settled around his shoulders to hug him...And he was just...overcome with joyful sobs. The fact that the Dendro Archon had so much faith in him??? Wow...That’s what kept him going all the way to Mondstat, trudging up the stone steps to collapse on the smooth stairs of the Knights of Favonious’s Headquarters. He’s worked for them since then, receiving tutoring and now working full time as a translator :) since he received his vision, he’s grown leaves out of his head and his freckles turned green. He was born with snake eyes :)

Alfred(Pyro): Alfred and Matthew got their visions the same day. The two were allowed to go adventuring by their parents. They could go anywhere they want as long as they got home bedore dinner time! Alfred, the more energetic of the two, would always run ahead and drag Matt around to new, interesting outside their city. They often went to play on nearby ancient ruins, digging up old artifacts and playing with broken swords they found in the dirt. But one day, they stumbled upon a ruin guard. The machine sat, covered in vines. They assumed it was no longer in service and Matt climbed on top of it to try to pry the head open but uhhh it came to life and literally tried to kill them. It threw the twins hard against a wall and it crumbled, falling on top of them. The gods saw what happened and froze time for a few seconds to place visions into their hands. Alfred woke up very scared but this new power...was reassuring. He realized the gods were on their side! That was the best day of his life. He still goes on adventures! That day inspired him to keep going and to help others :)

Matthew(Anemo): Matthew received his vision at the same time as Alfred. The two were in a great deal of danger and the gods really did take pity upon them. But the Pyro Archon did not think that Matthew would be a good candidate for a Pyro vision. So the Anemo Archon stepped in and bestowed an Anemo vision upon the older twin. Matt was quite literally blown away by his own newfound ability to wield the wind. Together, the twins were able to create a fire tornado which blew the ruin guard off its feet, giving them enough time to sprint away. The slow, rusty beast unable to follow. That day was pretty traumatic for Matt because....he almost died....But hes grown so much since then. The twins were only 12 when they got their visions. He still has no desire for hand to hand combat, that’s why he practices alchemy :)

Francis(Hydro): I find every excuse to bring Jeanne into my AUs just to give Francis some spicy trauma (that’s a joke please don’t come at me). Francis was visionless but Jeanne was gifted her Vision from the Hydro Archon when she was 10. Jeanne was noble, loyal, helpful and kind. The Hydro Archon thought she was worthy of their power! Jeanne got very sick when she was 12 and her condition worsened until she peacefully passed when she was 15. Francis was ruined by her death. Her parents have him her vison. It died with her but carrying it with him and hearing the little bell on the end jingle was comforting. The following year, on the anniversary of her death, he sat under the moonlight singing her favorite song. The Hydro Archon’s heart broke for him and as he sang, they deactivated the vision. Francis cradled it in his hands and cried, his tears dripping down his face to collect in a small floating pool over the ground. In her honor, he learned to artfully wield water, having it swirl around him and his crew while they performed. Even though he knows the Hydro Archon brought it back for him, he likes to believe that Jeanne is providing him with strength and support from beyond :’)

Ivan(Cryo): Ivan has been a nomad almost his entire life. He travels all around to study hilichurls and their way of life. He’s lived with tribes of hilichurls, learned to write and speak their language, learned their style of finger paintings and carvings, cooked with them...Hes participated in almost all aspects of hilichurl life and in return, he provides them with plenty of boar meat and protection. He lived with a tribe in Dragonspine, the coldest area in all of Mondstat, and despite frostbite nipping at his fingers, he’d still go out of his way to hunt for the tribe. While hunting, he saw a saw a dull blue blinking under the snow. He stuck his hand down there and found a woman who had frozen to death. Her ghost greeted him and assured him that she wouldn’t hurt him. She explained that she’d been missing for years and thanked him for finally finding her. She gave him her Cryo vision and he went down the mountain to get others to come back with him to retrieve her so she could be properly buried at the Church of Mondstat where she belonged. Now Ivan can shatter ice at his own will, the woman had been very weak with her vison but he built it up to be stronger and work with his own style of fighting and living. When he lives with tribes in warmer areas, he makes popsicles for the hilichurls so they can cool down :D

Yao(Dendro): Yao grew up waaaay outside of Liyue Harbor. He wasn’t rich but he wasn’t poor. His grandparents had a silk flower farm where they just grew tons of silk flowers, even making their own perfumes too. Yao’s parents inhereted the land when they got married and intended for Yao to carry on the legacy of the Wang family perfumery but the Fatui seized the land and kicked the Wang family off of it. His grandparents passed and his parents retired to Qingce Village to live out the rest of their years peacefully. They offered for Yao to come but he refused, wanting to return their name to its rightful glory! He worked in many shops as a delivery boy, cleaned the streets, took commissions for deliveries outside of Liyue Harbor. He worked HARD in order to buy a shop right in the center of the city. The Dendro Archon admired his perseverance despite him being so young! And while he slept, he reactivated Yao’s grandmother’s Dendro vision, leaving it on the pillow next to his head. Yao nearly passed out when he woke up and saw it!! It was the surprise of a lifetime! He ran as fast as he could until he was out of the city, standing on one of the rocky hills overlooking Liyue Harbor. He held his grandma’s jade polearm in his hands and slammed it into the rocks, screaming joyfully as they split and vines rose up around him, flying every which and cracking like whips! He’d learn to control the power passed down to him and make his grandparents proud :’)

Kiku(Electro): Kiku’s father is a badass. He lost his eye in battle and keeps his vision orb in his eye socket. So he has one, normal brown eye and one bright purple eye with the Electro symbol in it. If that isn’t intimidating....I don’t know what would be. Kiku always wanted to be like him, his father is his role model. He doesn’t have a mom so his dad raised him to be a badass but...a more subtle badass. Kiku’s family was apparently full of Electro vision wielders so he hoped he would get one too! His father told him about his uncles and grandparents having Electro visions and how they worked together as an unstoppable team! The way Kiku earned his vision...Was not what he had in mind. He worked as a patrol soldier when he was 18, making sure the border of his country was safe. He and 12 others were approached by Fatui guards and pretty much....slaughtered. Kiku’s close friend had gotten his Vision when he was 8 after inheriting it from his great grandmother. It was apparent that his friend wouldn’t make it. After a tearful goodbye, his friend passed his Vision onto him. Kiku wears his vision proudly, a symbol of eternal trust and friendship. Kiku now works with the Fatui, profiting of off their greed more than even they know. He hates them but by working with them, he’s keeping the locals safe.

Lovino(Pyro): Lovi’s story is kinda sad. Grandpa Roma’s vision was meant to be his because he’s the first born grandson but the vision rejected him. It never turned on. Lovino became so frustrated that he passed it over to Feli...And it came to life within a week. Lovino felt betrayed, angry and resentful towards his brother. It wasn’t fair!!! How could this happen? So instead, Lovi rejected the Hydro Archon and built a shrine for the Pyro Archon. He made offerings of flowers, stew, chili peppers, wine, anything he could get his hands on. He sat in saunas to develop a tolerance for heat and trained until he was almos passed out. He prayed and did everything he could to get the Pyro Archons attention but still, he didn’t get a vision. By now, Feli had his own vision for three years and was mastering archery. Lovino had enough. He gathered twigs and weeds, stomping out into a clearing “Hey! I know you can hear me! What do I have to do to prove myself to you? I’ve done everything I can! Are you too afraid to give it to me? Huh??? Pussy! Fucking let me-“ uh oh. Now the Pyro Archon was mad. They decided to give him a chance, they could always take it away or kill him if he failed. The vision appeared in his palm and the weeds in his hands burst into flames. He screamed in agony, his arms on fire now. He kept off of a nearby cliff down into the ocean to put out the flames....but he had it. A vision...He’s been ruthless since then. Owning a flower shop and kicking ruin guards asses when they stomp around in the flower fields

Feliciano(Hydro): Feli has always felt guilty about his vision. It was meant to be Lovino’s but it awakened for him instead. He trained when Lovi wasn’t around, everything he did was subtle and quiet because every glimpse of his vision angered his brother. Feli didn’t want that, he wanted them to be close again :( he got lonely when his brother was gone and sound talk to his Vision the way he used to talk to Grandpa Roma. He’s grateful that he received his grandpas vison though!! It was very powerful when it was with Roma but with Feli, it’s significantly weaker because he just doesn’t have the same battle experience. He doesn’t even want it anyway. He is a peaceful guy who enjoys archery and singing in the church choir :) he has no desire for violence the way his brother does.

Ludwig(Geo): Ludwig inherited his fathers vision. He’s still alive but after losing an arm while on knight duty, he retired and gave his vision to Ludwig. The vision easily accepted Lud as its new owner, glowing brightly every time he touched it. The Geo Archon likes strong, loyal and intelligent people and Lud perfectly fits those preferences. Lud was 18 when he got his father’s vision so by now he had already been a knight in training for the knights of favonious! After intense training and an obscene amount of testing, he became a full blown knight capable of fighting monsters when need be. He’s very respected by the civilians of Mondstat and truly makes his father proud.

Gilbert(Pyro): Gilbert has broken many laws in his time and breaking into a very dangerous ruin was probably the best thing he ever did. He found tons of crispy, burnt skeletons in there and lots of fire flowers who spat sparks at him as he walked by. In a bigger flower...He saw a glint and thought ‘Aw yeah!! There’s a gemstone in there! That’s gonna be worth so much money!!!’ So he stuck his hand right into the smoldering flower, getting 4th degree burns as he ripped an ancient vision out of it. The thing had to be centuries old. It’s gold casing was bent and covered in dried blood both Gil’s and whoever else had owned it before. When the vison came to life in his hand, he could feel tbe the energy within was very old... it was later determined that it was likely one of the first batch of visions gifted to the human race by the Archons! Historians tried to buy it from him. It for once, Gil set his greed aside and kept the vison for himself! The vision radiated happy energy at that so he assumed that it was happy he kept it

Please ignore the spelling errors or I will barf 🙂

[bundleofyarrow]

Chapter 8 - Motostoke is here!

it took me a while but finally chapter 8 is finished! so much happens, and hopefully there’s enough surprise in there for you all <3 you finally arrive in Motostoke and there’s barely enough time to make it to the opening ceremony! here is the link to read it on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29087343/chapters/71401200 but you can also read it below the cut! would absolutely love any and all feedback <3

Motostoke

The entrance to Motostoke was a grand, brick-lined staircase, like a bridge into a fortress. It’s intimidating. Coming closer to the steps, you realize how this feels like a gate to the rest of Galar, and you’ve been contained to a little tiny pocket this entire time. Your thumbs graze the straps of your bag hanging from your shoulders as you contemplate this. Things are going to get more serious from now on, aren’t they?

A chill runs up your arms, the cool morning air brushing past you. The sun hasn’t yet peeked over the cliffs of the Wild Area, casting sleepy shadows across the field.

“We’ve made it!”

Milo clearly is used to being awake right at dawn, and has gently ushered you from your sleeping bag while it was still dark and along the walls until you reached the stairs of Motostoke. Most of your Pokemon were too sleepy to do the walk, only Wooloo, Milo’s Pokemon, and the wild Pancham followed along with you. Wooloo refused to not walk pressed up against your legs, and not being particularly agile this early in the morning, tripped you at a pretty consistent rate. Instead of saying something to the Wooloo, Milo instead opted for you to hang onto his arm.

But here you are, literally steps away from civilization. You take out your phone to text Leon that you arrived, and he quickly replies that he’s getting Charizard to come retrieve you.

Your mind was preoccupied wishing for a warm shower when you hear some shuffling behind you. Turning, you see Pancham kicking her feet a bit. Wooloo turns with you, and decides to sleepily trot over to her. You crouch down in front of her, not feeling particularly coherent, but knowing you should say something.

“It was so sweet of you to join us for some camping. Did you enjoy yourself?” You offer you hand, and she brushes her check against it, nodding. “I can tell you made friends with my Pokemon, right Wooloo?”

Wooloo nuzzles against Pancham, making her eyes glisten. From your periphery, you notice Milo intently watching your exchange, keeping quiet. Reaching to one of your bag pockets, you fish out a Pokeball, and show it to her.

“I won’t force you to come with me, but if you want, you join .” Your eyes still squint in tiredness, but you’re able to muster a genuine smile for Pancham.

The Pokemon takes the device into her paws, staring at it for a bit. She stares across the lake, probably back to where you found her. Wooloo gives an encouraging baaah, nudging Pancham. You gesture to the knob. “Just press that button, but only if you want.”

With a few more moments of contemplation, a bright flash of light envelops Pancham and she enters the Pokeball. There aren’t many more movements, and it clicks into place. You’re quick to let her back out, giving her a hug. “Welcome to the team!”

You stand as Wooloo takes over hugging duties, and Pancham looks happy. You look over to Milo, who has a more serious look on his face than you were expecting. His brow is scrunched and it looks like he is really considering something.

“Everything okay, Milo?”

He jumps a bit, clearly lost in thought. Milo blinks a few times and presses his lips together, like he’s steeling himself for something. You didn’t notice it before, but he was clasping an envelope in his hand. First, he whispers your name, then quickly shakes his head and steps closer to you.

“I know this is sudden but-” You notice he’s turning red. “I have to hurry ‘n meet Nessa for somethin’. I hate rushin’ off like this, but, I could also use a favor.” He offers the envelope, which you assume inside is a letter, to you. “You’re goin’ to the openin’ ceremony, right? If you’re gettin’ there early, can you give this to the person at the front desk?”

You take the letter from him, flipping it over to notice green stamp in the shape of a leaf. “Sure, of course! It’s the least I can do for all the help you’ve given me. I’ll make sure to arrive early.” You pocket it safely. “I guess this is goodbye?”

He gives you a quick nod. “For now, I’m sure we’ll see each other soon!” Milo begins to move backwards towards the stairs, waving. He really seems to want to run off, turning and scaling the steps towards the city, his Pokemon floating around him and making sounds as if they were chiding him. It was much like how it happened over at Route 1, breezing into and out of your life. You wish you were able to get his number, or any other sort of contact. You make a mental note to visit Turffield, once you learn where it is.

Returning your Pokemon to their Pokeballs, you begin to climb the steps. Ambient noise of both the river and the city ease into your senses as you progress upwards. You hear what you come to see are large rotating gears and streams of steam leaking into the sky above. A feeling of excitement rises from your chest as you finally make it to the top, taking in the view of a bustling city. It’s such a contrast to the quiet of Postwick and Wedgehurst and the utter remoteness of the Wild Area. People mill about on the bridge crossing the river and in the distance more dense crowds hustle to their destinations.

The sound of your name breaks your reverie, and in the middle distance you see someone sprinting towards you. You barely have the time to react before Leon nearly crashes into you, pulling you into a big bear hug. Shocked, you gently place your hands on his back. Behind him you see onlookers starting and Charizard making his way over.

“You’re here! Thank Arceus you’re actually alright.”

Smiling, you close your eyes and give him a proper friendly squeeze. “I promised, didn’t I?” Your face was pressed into his shoulder, and you can feel his heart beating from presumably his run over.

“I know but… I just had to see you myself to believe it.” Leon pulls away, and begins to realize the closeness of your bodies before letting go quickly. “Sorry- didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay, Leon.” You smile softly as you both tear up.

A huff comes from behind him, and Leon makes room for Charizard to say hello. You pet him, but you can’t help but notice people are gawking a bit.

“Shall we get out of here?”

You nod enthusiastically. “Please, I need to shower so badly!”

“I wasn’t going to say that out loud, but-” Leon’s cut short by you poking him in the side in retaliation. When he reacts strongly, you do it a few more times. “Stop! That’s my type weakness!” Who would have known the Champion of Galar was ticklish?

Rolling your eyes and petting Charizard one more time, the three of you crossed the bridge into Motostoke proper. However it became clear navigating through the city wouldn’t be as straight forward as you thought. Leon was attracting a constant influx of fans, probably because more trainers and sports fans are in the city than usual because of the ceremony. You could tell that it pained him turn down autographs and selfies, he would only stop and do a few at a time before apologizing.

“Sorry everyone, I have to get her back to the hotel.” This drew more curiosity your way. You weren’t sure how you felt about the attention. “But after the opening ceremony, there will be plenty of Champion Time!” He strikes that dramatic pose of his and the crowds cheers. Leon nods at Charizard. “Lead the way, mate!”

Charizard takes off and Leon runs after him, leaving you to scramble keeping up. Every once in a while Leon would look back over his shoulder at you, as if checking that you were actually there still with him.

Motostoke was characterized by its red bricks and industrial metal, giving you the feeling that even though this was a city, it was full of working class folk and had more of a big town vibe. You noticed people in what looks like mining overalls, and plenty of off-duty watt traders. There were more second-hand stores and plant nurseries than anything fancy. It was an interesting contrast with the trendy stores on the main thoroughfare in the center of the city. But there was still plenty of motion, much more than you usually see in Alolan cities. The train cruised through the city at timed intervals, and large flying Pokemon you’ve never seen before pick up and drop off passengers in compact cars. You tried to remember some stores for visiting later before you got on the moving platform that brought you to the second level of the city.

“Woah, this is so cool!”

Leon couldn’t help but smirk at your reaction. He’s been focused on making his way through the crowd after Charizard, waving at people who call out his name, signing a shirt or two along the way, but trying not to get too distracted.

“I used to ride this all the time as kid whenever my family visited. Mum would yell at me for pressing the button too many times, said it made her motion sick.”

Charizard shook his head, leading the two of you off the platform. You see crowds lining up to enter a large building, with intermittent cheering and Pokemon cries. In particular, there was a loud group of fans in black and pink yelling the loudest for a particular challenger they had banners for. Galar… really takes this gym challenge seriously, doesn’t it? There was even a figure dancing around in what you assumed to be a Pokeball costume, handing out Pokeballs to everyone and encouraging children to enter the challenge when they were older.

“That’s Motostoke Stadium, where the opening ceremony is. I’ll be able to get us through when we come back.” Leon scans the situation before Charizard huffs again for him to follow. He could tell Leon was prone to getting sucked into crowds of adoring fans if left to his own devices for too long.

The Budew Drop Inn wasn’t too far away, a straight shot from the stadium. You notice trainers leaving it heading towards where you just came from.

“The League put us all up here, so if they are running late, we might run into Hop and Gloria! Unlikely though, Hop was probably bouncing all night.” He chuckles to himself as you both enter.

Indeed, moving through the lobby you don’t spot any familiar faces though, of course, the young trainers are reacting to Leon. You also feel like they are reacting to you, not knowing who you are or why you’re with Leon. Their eyes begin to feel like weights pressed on your body, and you couldn’t be happier when the elevator doors closed and it was just you, Leon, and Charizard. There’s something comforting about the low hum of the machinery lifting you upwards.

“I’m so glad you’re safe.”

You turn to Leon, surprised. It seems like you’ve had enough time to process your encounter with danger in the Dappled Grove, but it must still fresh for him. He’s leaning back with arms crossed over his chest, looking over to you… wistfully?

“Sorry Leon. I just… wasn’t thinking right.”

Charizard seems to busy himself looking at the elevator controls as the two of you talked in hushed tones.

“I don’t know what came over me. I shouldn’t have been so rude to you.” You lock eyes with his golden gaze. “Do you think you can ever forgive me?”

His expression softens, maybe even looks a bit sad.

“Of course I do. I was acting all weird around you, because… because…” Charizard casts Leon a look, and he gulps, looking incredibly flustered.

There’s a chime, and the elevator doors open. Trainers file in, recognizing the famous duo. Trying to talk with Leon prompts him to grab your sleeve and lead you onto the floor instead of finishing what he was going to say. You hear Charizard exhale a disapproving grunt.

Soon you were in the room you saw through the phone, seeing a scattering of Sonia’s and Leon’s things all over. Both probably are a bit of a mess. Leon flops back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling.

“Okay, I’ll take a quick shower and change into something fresh.” You set your bag down in a corner, grabbed what you needed from it, and slipped into the bathroom. Everything felt both strange and familiar, not having things like running water and electricity for the past few days almost made you feel like you regressed in some way. But the moment you stepped into the heated spray, you felt all the discomfort in your body melt away. The film of sweat and dirt on your skin finally washed off with a good scrub, and the steam smelled of your body wash, honey with a range of floral notes.

Reaching out of the shower to grab something for you hair, you catch conversation through the thin wall. It sounds like Leon is talking his Charizard.

“Don’t give me that look.”

You hear Charizard give an exasperated sigh.

“I’m just waiting for the right moment!”

What is Leon talking about? You can hear him groan.

“Arceus- Raihan’s right, I have zero game.”

You begin to feel a bit guilty eavesdropping, so you return to your shower. You guess he might be talking about Sonia, and imagine there’s a lot to catch up with once you all get some time to yourselves.

Eventually you get through the motions of your shower and exit it, feeling better. You’ll never take a functioning bathroom for granted ever again. Quickly slipping into clean clothes and leaving the bathroom, you look into the mirror and attempt to, in vain, tidy up your hair. You hear Leon rising from the nearby bed and leaning on the threshold to the vanity area. He sounds like he’s going to say something, but hesitates. You can see him in the reflection of the mirror, and he’s tapping the sides of his face with his hands for some reason.

“Is something wrong Leon?” You’re applying a quick amount of lotion before hurrying to slip on shoes that aren’t caked in mud and grass.

“O-oh nothing! Just wanted to be ready to leave soon.” He coughs a bit, strangely at the same time Charizard makes some noises.

“Okay okay, I’m almost done.” Reaching for your phone in your bag, you remember your promise to Milo and grab the letter to slip it into your back pocket. “Alright, I’m all set to go!”

“Let’s go!” Leon is quick to throw open the door and lead everyone out of the room.

Soon you all exit the hotel and Charizard leads you down the path to the stadium. Crowds clogged the streets and blocked the path forward. You easily got jostled by hyped up sports fans, especially ones that noticed Leon and his Charizard. And considering how much they stuck out like a sore thumb, a long shock of purple hair over a cape with a flame orange companion, that was everyone within a mile. Fans tried to get in some Champion Time and mostly saw you as an obstacle in the way of getting a moment with Leon. It’s not long that you lose sight of the two as you’re pushed back and away from them.

You call out Leon’s name, but all you can do is hear him try to calm down excitable fans. It must be tough having to put up an image constantly, and needing to cater to fans whenever he steps outside. He seems to enjoy though, at least, that’s what you see from the outside. Leon seems at his best when he’s among his fans, talking to them about Pokemon battles and striking poses. All the times you see him in private he seems off, maybe because you don’t treat him like a champion. You’re not really that interested in becoming The Best or getting his autograph. No desire to fight him and become champion yourself. Maybe it was selfish of you to basically ignore that Leon was The Champion of Galar, not putting much importance into it, because that makes up for so much of who he is.

A hand appears from the crowd and grabs yours. You try to stammer out a sound of surprise, but you’re pulled in as some of the fan part to make room. Soon enough you see the arm belongs to Leon, and you can’t help but notice how well-muscled it is. You fingers instinctively tighten and his rougher palm brushes up against your softer skin. Warmth creeps into your face as you lock eyes with Leon, who looks both determined and concerned.

“Hold on tight, we’re just going to push through!” He doesn’t seem to notice your reaction at all, and turns to move through the crowd.

Leon politely tells people to move aside, or that he’ll sign their grandma’s Alcremie’s Pokeball some other time, trying to stay a cheerful champion but getting more forward when fans don’t listen. You’re definitely noticing the amount of eyes on you, and wonder if the flashing you’re seeing is your anxiety or Rotom Phones. You feel Leon’s grip tighten as he begins to shoulder through people to get to the front doors of the stadium.

What look like event coordinators are trying to corral people into orderly lines and only let some in at a time. They stiffen a bit when they see Leon suddenly among the people they are trying to hold back.

“Ch-champion Leon!! What are you doing out here? Oleana has been looking for you!”

He puts back on that Champion Smile. “Sorry, I got a little lost on the way! You know me.”

The staff let out an exasperated sigh, then look over to you, eyes trailing from your face, to your hand being held by Leon’s, and back to your face.

“And who’s this?”

Leon suddenly becomes very aware of holding your and drops it.

“A f-friend! Sitting with me.”

He quickly waves and moves past them, signaling you to follow. When you enter past the doors you both arrive in what looks to be the lobby of the stadium. Is there you notice the front desk, and remember what Milo told you.

“Leon, one second, I need to deliver something to the front desk.” You beckon them to follow over as he and Charizard were about to go off in a different direction. Mercifully, there’s no one else needing to take up the attendant’s time, so you hope this goes quickly. “Excuse me, is this front desk?”

The man behind the counter looks up from the computer he’s typing on and nods. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I was asked to deliver this letter to you.” You take out Milo’s letter and give it to him. Leon sees it and his eyebrows scrunch in confusion. You must have forgotten to mention it to him in the rush of everything. “Hopefully everything’s all there.”

Business done, you turn to Leon. “Alright, that’s all! Ready to go? I’m so excited to see Hop and Gloria out there!”

You’re about to step away when you hear your name being called. Confused, you turn back to the man at the front desk, who is reading the letter that was in the envelope. “I’m sorry, how did you know my name?”

“It’s right here.” He shows you the letter, but you don’t understand why it would be there. “It’s an Endorsement Letter for the Gym Challenge. And not just any endorsement.” He points down to the messy signature at the bottom of all the writing. “This is from Milo, Turffield’s very own Gym Leader.”

It takes a couple seconds for you to notice your mouth is hanging open.

“Milo is a WHAT!?”

~*~*~*~

There he is on the big screen. Kind but goofy grin, messy peach hair, noticeably jacked silhouette. That’s Milo alright, and he’s waving to the entire stadium in an outfit you haven’t seen him in before, along with the other Galarian gym leaders wearing similar ones. And not only that… right next to him is a face you recognize. The model Nessa. Milo’s girlfriend Nessa.

You’re standing in a locker room with other Gym Challengers watching the screens of what’s going on out on the stadium pitch. The man at the front desk hurried you away from a confounded Leon, grabbing a uniform that looked your size, and escorted you to the room where new challengers would be waiting. And here you are now, wearing the numbers 168, standing between Hop and Gloria. The look on their faces when you appeared was priceless, but now they were mostly excited for you be there.

It is a mystery as to why Milo endorsed you to do the Gym Challenge, especially when you said you weren’t really interested. Pokemon battles don’t excite you, and you aren’t looking to beat Leon and become the next Champion. And he never mentioned that he was a gym leader the entire time you were with him! You suppose that you never asked, but isn’t it pertinent information for when you’re handing near-strangers letters of endorsements for the biggest sporting event in the nation!?

Everything was still processing through your mind when the event coordinators began to herd all the new challenges out of the locker rooms and into the tunnel that led towards the field. The noise from the crowd was overwhelming, thumping in your chest where your heart should be. A wave of anxiety churns through your torso as it hits you what is happening. This entire time you were confused about how you arrived at this point, but now you’re being asked to take your own steps forward. Hop is dragging Gloria forward who in turn pulls you closer to the pitch, only letting go once you arrive and see the crowds cheering.

How did you get here? You didn’t even want to be here. And now everyone sees you, both with their eyes and cameras, and it’s like there’s no turning back. You can’t run.

They eventually line you all up to go and shake hands with the gym leaders. Milo is first, and your heart beats faster as you approach him. Eventually, you’re in his periphery, and if you didn’t know any better, you would say he was beginning to stutter and turn a shade redder. Maybe that was just the effect of the stadium lighting.

Eventually, it’s your turn. You step in front of him and see that his emerald eyes are downcast and his face his completely red. He grasps your hand, but doesn’t really shake it. It’s almost as if he’s looking for an apology.

“Q-quite the surprise, huh…?” He’s able to get out at least that much, though you barely heard him over the din of the stadium.

“Milo, what is going on??”

You can’t continue the conversation because of the flow of the line, you’re quickly nudged over to face the next leader:

Nessa.

Shaking your hand, she looks you dead-set in the eye. You can’t help but notice how elegant she is, even in the sportswear. She leans in closer to you.

“Interesting.”

That wasn’t what you were expecting to hear from her. You notice Milo looking over to the both of you from the corner of his eyes.

“Make sure to beat Milo, I want to know what he sees in you.”

And with that, the line forces you to move on to the attractive older man next to her. You continue down the line, shaking hands with all the gym leaders, and only when you near the end do you see that Leon has also joined the gym leaders in the event. When you arrive in front of him, he gives you a look. You don’t know what it means, but instead of shaking your hand, he gives you a quick hug. You feel his warm breath on your neck as he whispers into your ear:

“Wait for me in the lobby.”

And with that, he sends you off with the rest of the line, back to his Champion smile and handshakes.

~*~*~*~

After being forced through some photoshoots with the League’s PR people, you change out of your uniform and head back out to the lobby with Gloria and Hop. The three of you chat before you’re approached by Leon, and by his side is a fashionable-looking man in a business suit.

“Congratulations again! You all looked great in your jerseys.” Leon high-fives the kids, and direct a small smile your way. “I wanted to introduce you all to Chairman Rose, he’s the head of the League!”

The chairman waves his hand in modesty. “It’s good to meet you all! I was curious to see who was able to get the Champion’s endorsement.” He then looks over to you. “And Gym Leader Milo’s! Very unusual and rare indeed.”

There is something about the chairman that makes you nervous. All that you know of him is from TV and passing talk, and it makes him seem almost god-like. At the vary least, the patron of all of Galar. He sees the Dynamax bands on the kids’ wrists and brings a hand to his chin.

“If you all have those, you must have been guided here by the light of he Wishing Stars… Auspicious indeed.” Rose turns to Leon. “I must be off, and I���m sure you have to get to things as well.” And with a friendly nod, he departs.

Leon crosses his hands over his chest with a smile. “That’s the Chairman for you, he’s always pushing himself for Galar’s sake! I learn so much from him.”

“And I’m going to push myself too! Just you watch, Leon!” Hop thrusts a finger at his brother. “I will be the next Champion of Galar! C’mon Gloria, we need to hurry to Turffield and get our first badge!”

Hop bolts off to the exit, and Gloria is shaking her head. “It turns out not matter how fast he runs off, no matter how long I take, he’s waiting for me.” Gloria is either just observant or already a fine manipulator of men. She comes over to hug you, squeezing tight. “I’m so happy my cousin is coming on this journey too! It makes it less lonely.”

“You always have my number, feel free to call if you’re ever in trouble, okay? ” Your eyes look up to Leon. “I have Pokemon now, that means I can help people.”

Leon returns an expression of curiosity, uncrossing his arms and smoothing his beard in thought.

Gloria pulls away from you. “Okay, I better follow Hop before he gets into trouble. I hope to see you in Turffield!” With a shy wave to Leon, she’s off through the doors.

The lobby is actually pretty quiet since most of the crowd of fans were moved out of the building as the challengers changed and were given instruction on what they needed to do. You were given a tour of the map of Galar, seeing the order of the gym you had to challenge before competing in the Champion Cup at Wyndon. You learned that the first gym you were to visit is Turffield Stadium’s. Milo said he was from Turffield so you imagined he would be there. You were hoping to see him out here in this lobby, but he must have slipped out some other way.

“Leon, I’m sorry, I had no idea what was in that letter!” This is the first time you’ve been able to speak with him one-on-one since you were suddenly pulled into the opening ceremony. “I told Milo I wasn’t interested in the gym challenge, so I have no idea why he did that. I almost want to drop out, it just feels wrong for me to take up a spot…”

“No.” Leon steps closer to you, closing the distance between you enough for you to tilt your head slightly upwards to meet him in the eyes. “I’ll admit that I was hurt at first… I thought you didn’t want my endorsement. That Milo was special to you.”

Your face begins to feel a bit hot, you’re not sure such strong emotions like this exists over sports.

“And to think he was the person you happened to encounter in the Wild Area this whole time, and you had no idea he was a gym leader.” The gears are turning behind his gaze. “He must have seen something special in you. As Chairman Rose said, you’re being guided by your Wishing Star… I was there, I know what your wish was.” He hits a closed fist in an open palm, like he just decided on something. “No, you’re supposed to do this, don’t drop out. I think I can do it by the time you get to Wyndon, if you’re able to push through.”

That last part makes your brows knit and head tilt to the side. “Do what??”

Leon looks like he said something he shouldn’t have, backing up from you. “Nothing, absolutely nothin-”

“There you are!”

A hug glomps onto you from behind, and the impeccable turquoise nails on the hands clasped around your shoulders signal that it’s Sonia.

“What a total shocker this is! You should have seen Leon panicking earlier when he told me the news.” Sonia giggles in your ear, her breath tickling at your neck.

The Champion of Galar fidgets in front of you. “ANYWAY,” It seems like Leon doesn’t wish for Sonia to elaborate further. “I have to get to some work for the Chairman. I’ll text you two later, the gym leaders always have a get-together before heading off to their gyms.”

He waves and dashes off to the entrance, seeming to steel himself before going out to the public.

Sonia lets go of you and turns you around to face her. “It’s been a sec since I’ve last been to Motostoke, or hung out with any of the gym leaders in fact.” As if being reminded of something, she lets go of your shoulders and begins to text on her phone. “Actually my best friend is a gym leader, I’m sure she’ll be down for a cuppa before we head to dinner.”

She begins to walk absentmindedly towards the door as she texted with her friend, and you followed, feeling more lost than you did before. At least you could see all of Postwick, and everything seemed predictable and quiet. Now are you not only out traveling a country you barely know, but are participating in its most important sporting event without a clue of what you were doing. Everyone else moved around so naturally, and to you, everything’s foreign.

“Alright?”

You didn’t notice that Sonia finished what she was doing on her phone and looked over to see how overwhelmed you were feeling. Giving her a weak smile didn’t do anything to convince her that you were okay.

“I got it!” Her eyes sparkle a bit as she grabs your hand. “You know what you could use? A bit of shopping!”

~*~*~*~

You have to admit, shopping and gossiping with Sonia does make you feel better. She mostly talks to you about their time in the Wild Area after you separated, wisely gliding around moments that would remind you of the worry you put them through and highlighting the amount of times Leon would get lost. Things begin to feel normal again. Sonia is mainly looking through the glasses collection, asking which pair makes her look the most professorial, if that’s a word. You’re feeling like you should look more the part of a gym challenger, you buy some track bottoms and a matching cap, along with a pair of purple sunglass Sonia slips on your face to match your yellow jacket. You had quite the fashionable and colorful getup for a gym challenger, you think, looking at your clothes in a mirror. The less this is about getting lost and grimy in the Wild Area, the better.  

Just as you both exit the store, Sonia’s Rotom Phone pops out of her bag and shows her a new text she received. “Brilliant!” She makes a couple taps before Rotom buzzes happily and flies back where it came from. “She’s meeting us at a cafe down the way! Just follow me~”

You stroll down the boulevard with her, looking around and taking in the scenery. The both of you pass buy vintage record shops and bookstores, all in their own ways inviting. Everything has been a rush since you arrived, but you hope to find an excuse to just look around Motostoke by yourself.

Eventually the two of you enter a trendy looking cafe, somewhere you could totally imagine Sonia meeting with friends of her. You scan the tables looking for a spot to sit when you see her:

“Nessa! Darling~”

Sonia moves to hug the gym leader, who was out of her league clothing and in fashionable clothing not too unlike the ones you’ve seen her model. Nerves all of a sudden wrack your body as they separate, and Sonia turns to introduce you.

“We’ve shaken hands before, but are you good with hugs?”

You’re shocked but begin to relax a bit when you give a friendly greeting hug to her. It makes you think, why are you nervous around her anyway?

Nessa gestures to the table she’s sitting at, which already has mugs of tea for each of you. “I got us all some Calm Mint tea, I hope that’s alright. I know I could use some calm after today.” She tests the temperature of the tea with a small sip before looking over to you. “You’re quite the interesting one, aren’t you? Wouldn’t have guessed you were acquainted with Sonia and Leon.”

You bring the tea closer to your noise so you can smell it. It indeed smells like what you imagine calm to smell like, soft floral and herbal notes stand out of the usual minty taste. “It’s all by chance really. I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time.” You think back to the dinner conversation you had with Leon back in Postwick, your first chance encounter with Milo, and shopping with Sonia.

Her eyebrows raise a little in response. “I guess I didn’t notice it during the ceremony, but that accent is Alolan, is it not?” After you nod, she sits back in her chair. “That makes more sense, you seem to both stick out and not really know what is going on.”

Unsure of whether she meant that as a critique or passing observation, you look down a little embarrassed. “I admit, I do feel a bit in the deep end at the moment. All of this is rather sudden.”

“Milo told me about what happened in the Wild Area. I guess you don’t really have places like that where you’re from.”

You get flustered under her gaze as she sips some tea, like she’s evaluating you. Sonia seems to pick up on this and changes the subject. “So Nessa, how are you and Milo doing? I know you both haven’t seen each other for some time, preparing your gyms for the challenge and all.”

“Oh yes, I meant to mention.” She sets down her cup on the table. “We broke up.”

What? Sonia is similarly shocked so you know this must be news to her.

“Really? When?? You were just talking about how you wanted to see him last night!”

“Just after the opening ceremony and before I came over here.”

She doesn’t seem said or upset at all, which confuses you.

“Nessa this makes it, what, the third time you two have broken up this year?” Sonia rolls her eyes and looks a bit unamused, but it seems more out of concern for her friend than any actual judgment.

“I think it’s for good this time. No really!” She responds to Sonia’s clear expression of disbelief. “We’re just really good friends and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just because we’re close doesn’t mean we need to be in a relationship. I mean, it doesn’t even feel like we are in one, things are just, well, normal.”

Sonia rests her chin into her palm and nods, as if she’s heard this before. “But you’re the one who keeps starting and breaking things off. Are you sure you’re not going to change your mind about it?”

“It’s for good this time, I swear!” She looks a bit indignant, which actually amuses you. It’s nice to know there’s a human behind what you see as a perfect mask. Nessa crosses her arms, looking more serious. “I told him that we’re rivals. No one sees us as a real challenge, and we’re not going to be taken seriously if we don’t get stronger. A Grass-type specialist is the perfect rival to help me rise to the top, and he could use any excuse to get more serious as a gym leader.”

“You’re serious? What did he say to that?”

Nessa frowns and picks her tea back up. “Oh you know, he just sort of laughed it off like he usually does. He said his only rival is himself or some nonsense like that. I think Milo feels nothing is really going to change between us, but it really is going to be different!”

You’re quiet for the most part, sipping on your tea as the two go back and forth. You can tell they’ve been friends for a bit. It felt good to be included, it’s nice to be around familiarity. Though it isn’t long until Nessa looks to you with a bit of a mischievous look.

“And what’s going on with you and Leon?”

The question hits you like a Wooloo Tackle from the side, making you sputter in your tea a bit. “I’m sorry?? What do you mean by that?”

Ness takes out her Rotom Phone, gives it a few taps, and shows you the screen. Opened up is the popular social media app Pokegram, and your eyes see pictures of you and Leon. “This is blowing up all over the place. Did you really not know?” In a post captioned Is Champion Leon Dating a Gym Challenger!?, there’s a few purposefully chosen pictures to make it seem you and Leon were intimate. The first was him hugging you at the entrance of Motostoke, then there ones of you entering the elevator at Budew Drop Inn together, him holding your hand going through the crowd outside of the stadium, and of course, his hug during the opening ceremony. Your eyes widen when you see the amount of likes, reposts, and comments.

“Oh my god.” Sonia gasps, looking at it from her phone. “We’ve been shopping all day, and no one knows your social names because you’re new here. So we’ve been oblivious this entire time!”

You’re stunned, sitting back in your chair. “How did they get all those pictures?”

“Sports fans are nuts here in Galar.” Nessa takes back her phone and scrolls through it some. “It’s not uncommon for us to have a stalking incident once in a while, all the gym leaders and Leon have to be extra careful of what we do out in the open. Especially Leon, who obviously has the most fans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Oleana is giving him an earful right now. The League is very controlling of our public image.” She looks over to you. “But it surprises me seeing all this, and it’s Milo of all people endorsing you for the gym challenge. Why didn’t Leon?”

It takes you a couple of seconds for the reeling in your brain to slow down enough to respond to her. “He did offer, but I said no. I wasn’t, and technically sorta still am not, interested in doing the gym challenge. I told that to Milo as well. So it was shocking to find out that he endorsed me. He just asked me to deliver a letter to the person at the front desk, he never told me that what was inside! I didn’t even know he was a gym leader!”

To your surprise, a small smile forms on Nessa’s lips. “I see, now I understand.”

You blink a few times under her gaze. “Understand…?”

Before she could reply, all three of your phones buzz. Your Rotom Phone zips out of your bag and opens up a text for you to look like. It’s a group text of mostly Galarian numbers you don’t recognize, from Leon and including Sonia. Seeing that Nessa got the text as well, you assumed it was to all the gym leaders.

It’s that time again everyone! Head on over to Huo Guo Hot Pot for our yearly celebration! Let’s start this year off with a Champion good time!

Don’t forget to thank our sponsors, Huo Guo Hot Pot, and take plenty photos for Pokegram!

(Oleana forced me to write that)

That’s right, Leon mentioned before there was a gathering happening. Given what you’ve just found out, you’re surprised he’s inviting you. Wouldn’t that just create more controversy?

~*~*~*~

Nessa leads the both of you to the restaurant, being the most familiar with Motostoke. You all chat pretty fluidly, any reservations you had being around Nessa washing away. It’s an important lesson about appearances, and giving everyone a chance.

You all eventually arrive to a restaurant with wooden finishing and lanterns, giving it a rustic and traditional style more akin to the Johto and Hoenn regions than anything in Galar.

“Despite being sponsors, everything here is really good. Kabu recommends this place whenever there’s a bunch of us in Motosoke.” Nessa mentions as she waves to the League official, who casts a suspicious look your way. “Both are with me.” They nod and hold the door open long enough for the three of you to enter.

Inside is actually quite spacious with many tables, but the only people inside seem to be associated with the League in some way. In the back corner of the restaurant you see some people waving, beckoning Nessa and Sonia over. You follow with a stone of anxiety in your stomach. In no way where you expecting this especially with everything that’s going on.

“Hello, hello! Make room for us why don’t you?” Sonia greeted, smiling and giving some shoulder pats and hugs. It seems like she’s already acquainted with most of the leaders, probably because she’s close with Leon and Nessa. As the text mentioned, it was a hot pot restaurant, and the current setup had four people sharing the same simmering pot.

“Everyone, I’d like to introduce you to a new friend!” You’re certain you blushed when Nessa announced that, both because you were hoping to maintain a low profile and also you didn’t realize she felt so friendly towards you already. Most people were polite, giving smiles, nods, and basic greetings.

“Oi! Yeah you, come sit with us!” You notice a rather tall man grinning and waving at you, and if you remember correctly, he was the furthest down the line of gym leaders when you were shaking hands, just before Leon. In fact, at his table were two, quite interesting people: Leon and Milo. “Just want to get to know you a bit.” He winks as you eventually nod and separate from Sonia and Nessa.

You sit down at the table with a bubbling pot that smelled of mushrooms and spices, next to the stranger and across from Milo, with Leon on the opposite corner of you. Both of the men you know looked incredibly flustered, with Milo looking down at his plate and Leon staring somewhere off in the middle distance. Things definitely feel… awkward.

“’Name’s Raihan, I’m the sorry bloke that has to clean up all of this guy’s,” He jerks his thumb towards Leon. “messes. I also have the best ‘gram feed in all the League.” He winks at you again, leaning back on his chair and draping his long arms on the back.

After introducing yourself, Raihan insists on following each other on Pokegram. You look up to Leon and Milo, who are still shifting uncomfortably on the other side of the table, busying themselves looking at the menu. “What’s wrong with them?”

“That’s what I wanna know, luv.” He peers at them over his phone, still scrolling. “They’ve been acting right daft all day, one thing after another. Figured you would be able to help me out here.” He looks back to what he’s looking at on his phone, eventually stopping on something. “You’re from Alola, right? Accent fits, you have that look to ya.” After you nod, he shows something from Pokegram to Leon and Milo. “Is this what’s got your fancy, mates?”

Both of them turn red. When you look, it’s just a normal picture of you at the beach back on Melemele Island. Sure you have a swimsuit on, but so does everyone at the beach?

“Raihan, stop.” Leon swats the hand holding up the phone, causing the Rotom to zoom away and float by Raihan’s head with a buzz.

“Oh now you want to speak up. Tell me why you got hands all over this bird out of nowhere.” He looks to you. “You’ve seen the pictures, right? I mean, you were there, given, well, you’re the bird.”

You blink a few times being asked so forwardly. “It’s all still a shock to me too. Leon was just being friendly, we were separated in the Wild Area and by the time I arrived here, I was running late to see my cousin in the opening ceremony. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about.”

Raihan smirks a bit, revealing his one sharp tooth that reminded you of a beast. “I see, I see. And Milo’s endorsement of you?”

Looking over to Milo, it seems like he wants to be anywhere but here.

“Not only did he endorse a complete random, no offense, but breaks up with Nessa on the same day. When they didn’t walk out the stadium together, fans went rabid with speculation.”

“She broke up with me. N-not that it’s a big deal!” Milo finally chances looking up at everyone. “We’re still good friends, there’s nothin’ awkward or anythin’.”

“Right, right farm boy, we get it. But why did you endorse this bird over here? Have you met before today? You know the League, and the fans, dig into the lives of challengers endorsed by League representatives.”

“I’d like to know too, Milo. I was so shocked.” Your voice is soft, almost like how you would talk to your Pokemon. “I’m not sure what you see in me to use your own name to endorse me.”

Milo shifts his weight in his seat, breathes in some air, and looks up at you through his bangs. “I’m sorry, I shoulda told you. But the way ya handled Pokemon out ‘n the Wild Area is remarkable! Watched three different Pokemon accept your ownership without battlin’. That’s rare and unusual! And…” He fidgets some more instead of finishing.

Both Leon and Raihan raise an eyebrow at you. “Three Pokemon? Which ones?” Leon asks, not having seen it for himself.

“Umm, let’s see, I think he means Wooloo, Lotad, who’s now a Lombre, and Pancham.”

Leon is shocked, and looks to Milo. “So you were with guy with the Wooloo? And who defeated the Seismitoad??”

Milo bashfully nodded, stealing a look at you before looking quickly back down at the menu as a waiter stopped by the table. It seems like someone put in an order for you all already, and various vegetables, meats, and dipping sauces were placed around the pot. “Sake for the table?” When you all nod, small tumblers are placed in front of you and filled up. “Please let me know if you all would like anything else.” They take the menus, bow, and leave.

Raihan is the first to speak, lifting his cup. “To a new gym challenge, yeah? Here’s hoping none get through me and I beat the pants off Leon.”

“Hey, wait-” Leon’s brows furrow, hand halfway to tapping Raihan’s. “I don’t want to cheers to that!”

“And what bollocks do you wish for? Is it…” Raihan looks over to you.

Before he can say anything else, Milo thrusts his cup in. “Cheers to that!”

You play along, not knowing what is going on with these three, but smiling as Leon and Milo begin to open up and talk about this year’s challenge. It’s obvious things aren’t resolved, and there’s more going on behind the scenes, but you put that aside as you remember how much you just enjoy their company. Raihan is an entertaining contrast to their personalities. Where they are earnest and fumbling, he’s smooth and brash at the same time. He easily convinces you into selfies, and you can see that the other two are staring.

The food is indeed delicious, and sharing dinner with the boys is fun. Sometimes funny moments will come up, like both Milo and you attempting to grab the same lotus root, and spending an entire 5 minutes offering it to the other. Or Raihan overzealously dipping his pork into soy sauce and splashing who you learned to be Gordie sitting at the table next to yours. You realize, when you just let go, things work themselves out, and all the tension melts. Yes, things aren’t resolved. But as you look out to this group of people, you sense a feeling of belonging, and you know they will be, in time.

~*~*~*~

After dinner, the group splits in different ways. Some call flying taxis, others head back to Budew Drop Inn, and some even walk off into the city without really saying where they’ve headed. You head back to the hotel, the group boisterous with a healthy amount of sake in them. The rest of the city is quiet but has a low hum with all of the steam-powered machinery at work. The train has stopped by now, but steam lazily hisses from various vents on the streets. Looking up, you can only see a few stars. You realize you haven’t seen a clear sky since you’ve left Postwick. Only fitting given how cloudy your path seems.

Early in the walk, you feel a tug on your sleeve, and you turn to see Milo trailing behind the rest of the group. You hang back until you’re matching his pace.

“Hey.”

“Evenin’.” He’s not looking directly at you, but you can tell he’s a little more at ease. “How are you feelin’?”

Walking with him reminds you a little of the time you spent together in the Wild Area. “Hmm, lost, but holding faith that I will find my way.”

The both of you walk a couple of paces without saying anything.

“I owe ya a better explanation for everythin’. Just been a bit out of my element today.” He exhales, looks at you, and then back forward. “While it’s true I’m impressed by your ability to attract Pokemon, there was another reason I gave you my endorsement.”

You can tell he’s trying to work up to something. Instinctively, you reach out to his shoulder. “May I?” When he nods, you place your hand on it. Like the rest of his body it’s well-built, your fingers lightly rub the muscle you find there.

“I also did it because…” You can hear him gulp a little. “I wanted us to have an excuse to see each other again. ‘n for you to come to Turffield.” He looks to you, searching your face for a reaction. “I’ve enjoyed the time we spent together so far.”

That’s when you begin to realize something about Milo.

He’s cute.

Like, really cute.

“So did I Milo. I’m happy to hear you feel the same.” Whenever the two of you pass by a street light, you try and take in all the feature you can see. The soft qualities of his face, the hard qualities of his body. Everything you’ve felt about Milo rolled into this experience you’re having now.

“Really?” He’s being bashful, which makes you want to tease him a little.

“Of course. And you didn’t have to go through all this to see me again. You could, you know, ask for my number.”

“R-right!” A few moments pass in contemplation. “May I have your number? Jus’ for keepin’ in touch ‘n all!”

Smiling, you offer Milo your phone, and he puts in his information. When he hands it back you send him a quick text.

so glad i met you, all the way back at route 1 <3

By now you’ve reached the Budew Drop Inn, and all that remains is Sonia, Leon, Raihan, Milo, and yourself. Others, Leon in particular, grab your attention away from Milo, tipsy and full of low giggles. Riding the elevator is when you find out Milo is staying with Raihan. When they move to get off, giving their parting goodbyes, the sake in your system emboldens you to hug Milo. You can feel he’s surprised, but eventually he returns the gesture. It’s possible he said something to you, but it was too soft for you to hear. All of you wave goodbye as Raihan drags him away from you and the elevator.

Feeling a pair of eyes on you, you turn around to your friends remaining. Sonia is fighting persistent yawning while Pokegram is showing on her phone. Shifting to look at Leon, you see that he’s been observing you for some time now. His expression is a mix between sleepy and conflicted, like he’s trying to figure something out by just understanding your features. Something in your alcohol-influenced brain decides that Leon also wants a hug, so you step over and wrap your arms around his middle.

His body stiffens for a moment, before relaxing and hugging you tightly. You only now realize how comfortable Leon feels, since he’s usually so uptight around you. Maybe it’s the exhaustion from the day, but you begin to drift asleep, closing your eyes and listening to the stead rhythm of his heart.

[schrijverr]

Flying Solo

Reggie can dance ballet, he learned from his mother and does it whenever he’s feeling low. The band catches him and it turns into a bonding moment.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: Reggies home life from before they died is mentioned briefly. Tell me if I missed anything or if you want me to tag something!

~~~~~~~~~~

Alex and Luke had been friends since they were very little and had befriended Bobby in Middle School, only meeting Reggie in High School after he had moved to LA from NYC. He had easily fit in to their little group, but they did not know Reggie as well as each other.

Not that Reggie minded, he was a pretty private person. He didn’t like sharing things about himself and had become a pro in talking without ever saying something.

He did not like talking about his home and his parents, so he avoided those topics and made sure to always have an excuse ready about why they couldn't go to his home and he put on an act (partly) of being a dumbass to discourage deeper conversations.

It had even taken the other three a while before they figured out where he was from, only finding out when he had rolled his eyes at the depiction of the Big Apple in a movie.

Reggie liked his new friends though. They let him stay on their couches when the fighting got bad and never pitied him for the bruises.

They were his family.

However, he did not share everything with them, even after they’d gotten close enough to be brothers. Like the fact that his mother had been a professional ballerina, who was still angry she had to give up her studio for his fathers job, nor the fact that he had spend most of his youth there as well and knew how to dance ballet.

He knew they wouldn't judge him for it or think he was girly or weird, he had seen that with Alex. But still, it was his little thing.

The thing he did when he was down, his small comfort that reminded him of better times when glasses remained whole and his mother still smiled.

Ballet was how he had gotten into music, first learning to play pieces on the piano, later violin, then banjo and guitar, which lead to the true love that was his bass. His mother had always been a music person, his dad too. That used to connect them.

So he kept it to himself, only doing small pirouettes and some stretching in his room or old routines on the beach late at night under the stars to the beat of the fighting floating from the house.

But then they died and nothing was the same anymore. His home was a bike shack, his parents were gone and he was a ghost that could only be seen when they sung with a specific girl. The only good thing was that he would keep his flexibility for all of eternity.

Well, that might be a bit dramatic. Julie was super nice, he still had his friend and their music, and Ray was everything he had ever wanted in a dad, even if the man couldn't see him.

It was just that it hurt sometimes.

It hurt that he would never be able to socialize again, that they never had the breakthrough they had worked so hard for, that their music had been stolen by someone they trusted, that the only good father figure he’d ever known only tolerated him because he was invisible, that his friends were finding other people and he was being left behind.

Life, well, death, just fucking sucked and Reggie hated it. Not always, just some days when the loneliness crept up on him and he had no one to turn to.

So he returned to the thing that had kept him going for most of his life, before he had his band, his new family.

Ballet.

First he went to the beach, like he’d used to, but the bike shack was a bitter reminder of what he had lost and the entire area wasn’t the same anymore. So he returned to the Molina house, which used to be the Willson house.

Ray sometimes listened to classical music while he worked and, since he couldn't see Reggie, it was the perfect time.

He started doing his stretches, before he moved on to the basic positions and some other steps. It was nothing fancy, nothing like he’d used to do, but it was calming. Just flying through the space with his eyes closed while memories played on his eyelids.

His mother beckoning him closer with a smile, the older girls at the studio who had adored him when he was younger, his dad at the piano in the living room, while he either sat next to him or twirled with his mother.

The good times.

Soon it became routine to do old ballet routines in the living room while Ray was working and he was sure none of the others would be home or just whenever there was no one at all.

It was pretty handy that he could phase through objects now and didn’t have to deal with pushing everything to the side, although clothes were still an issue. He had a pair of sweats and a tank-top though, but no shoes, so he had to manage on bare feet.

But it was nice, it was comforting, which meant it had to go to shit at some point.

Today had began not that great. Reggie had been awake, like every night, but this time it hadn’t been nice and quiet, just a reminder that he wasn’t alive anymore. He’d gone on a walk, but all the changes were also a reminder and the day had just been doomed from the start.

First he’d wanted to hang with the guys, but Alex had a date (totally not a date, shut up) with Willie and Luke had heard his parents talking about his cousins and aunt coming, so he was haunting them, leaving Reggie on his own.

He had searched for Ray, but the man was away on a shoot and Reggie was truly on his own in the house. Nothing that bad, he’d thought as he decided to dance for a bit.

Quickly poofing over to the garage, he changed into what he had dubbed his dancing clothes, before poofing back and starting up some Tsjaikovski while he did the warming up. He reasoned that if anyone came home, they’d think Ray had left his music on.

He had started with something easy, but he could do that from muscle memory alone, which wasn’t helping him with getting his mind of things. So the routines had gotten increasingly more difficult throughout the day as he forgot completely about the time.

Because he was so focused on jumping at the right beats and stepping in time with the music, he didn’t notice the door opening and the small gasp Julie let out as she watched him. Nor did he notice Luke and Alex poofing back into the room next to Julie.

They had returned to find an empty garage, so they had assumed Reggie would be hanging with Ray, instead they had found Julie staring at something while standing in the doorway.

With their curiosity piqued they had poofed there and looked to find the usually clumsy bassist flying gracefully through the room.

After a fast set of pirouettes Reggie stopped, the dance was over. He stood still for a few seconds with his eyes closed as he caught his breath only to get snapped out of it by the sound of applause coming from in front of him.

He snapped his eyes open and quickly jumped out of the end position as he squeaked: “How long have you been there?”

“A few minutes.” Julie answered, “But Reggie that was amazing! I didn’t know you could dance like that.”

“Yeah, me neither, that’s sick, dude!” Luke also had processed what he had just seen.

“Why didn’t you ever say?” Alex asked.

“Uh…” Reggie gestured to the air helplessly, before he tried: “Never came up?”

Lukes eyes narrowed as he spotted Reggie lying, which Julie caught onto as she said: “Sorry, was I not supposed to see that?”

Reggie rubbed the back of his head as his cheeks started to flush. He said: “I must have forgotten the time, I’m usually gone before anyone sees. Unless you want to count Ray, but he can’t really see me. It’s my own fault.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Luke pouted, “Don’t you trust us?”

“It’s just something personal. My mother used to have a studio back in New York, we danced together when I was little while my dad played the piano, you know, before they started fighting.” Reggie explained, unable to deny Luke anything when he pouted.

“Oh.” Luke looked sheepish, “Sorry for pushing, but that was insane, bro.”

“Thank you!” Reggie grinned.

“Wait, New York?” Julie asked.

“We met Reggie in High School, he used to live in New York before they had to move for his dads job.” Alex explained.

In the background Luke pulled Reggie into a side hug, as he asked: “How can you be so graceful and trip over your own feet while walking, dude?”

“I do not.” Reggie exclaimed.

“You once tripped over air, Reginald.” Alex told him with an eyebrow raise.

Julie now finally closed the door behind her and excitedly asked: “Don’t care how clumsy he usually is, can you show me how you did that?”

“Did what?”

“The dancing? Please, I’ve always wanted to try, but by the time I had outgrown my ‘I’m-not-like-the-other-girls’ phase I was too old to get good and get lessons.” Julie said, “Can you teach me the basics?”

“I mean I could, but I you have to warm up first and I don’t know how flexible you are.” Reggie replied tentatively. Julie cheered, before she raced up the stairs to get changed into better clothes for this, leaving the three boys behind.

“I’m sorry if I pushed you to share.” Luke said after a few seconds, “I didn’t want to force you to tell us that.”

“It’s alright, man.” Reggie said, “I mostly have good memories connected with dancing, it’s something I do when I feel lonely.”

“Do you- do you feel lonely often?” Luke asked with sad eyes, making Reggie realize what he had just admitted.

Reggie didn’t want to lie to him again or make him feel like a bad friend after all he had done for him, so he just said: “It’s been hard turning into a ghost, you know I love to talk to people.”

That was not completely false, Reggie had always been the social butterfly of Sunset Curve and the life of the party. Usually talking to twenty people at the same time, none he had known three seconds ago and he did miss that it just wasn’t the whole story.

Luke saw through the words and felt guilty about leaving his friend alone when he clearly needed company. Alex seemingly had an answer, though. He carefully asked: “You wouldn't mind me joining either, would you?”

“No, of course not. You need better moves if you’re gonna keep joining Dirty Candy.” Reggie grinned.

At that point Julie came barreling down the stairs, catching the tail end of the conversation. She said: “Luke, you have to join now too. It’ll be band-bonding.”

The other two snorted at the idea of bouncy Luke trying to do strict ballet and Luke paled. It was too late for him, however, Julie was set on it. So a few minutes later they were all wearing dance clothes as they cleared the instruments to make space for Julie in the garage.

They had done jumping jacks to get the blood pumping and had struggled with touching their toes and keeping them pointed when Reggie moved to the splits.

“What the fuck, Reg.” Luke exclaimed, hissing in pain as he failed miserably in doing them himself.

“I’ve been doing this since before I can remember, Luke. Would be a bit strange, if I couldn't do them.” Reggie laughed, it was nice to make some more good memories connected to dancing, now with his new family.

From where she was struggling with the split herself, Julie huffed: “What else have you been hiding from us, Reggie? More surprises in there?”

“I mean, I don’t know if I ever mentioned I also play piano and violin?” Reggie replied.

“WHAT!”

[tobswrites]

Other Side-oneshot

Another bnha Kiribaku Fantasy AU because I love dragon Kirishima, and because I was heavily inspired by this creator’s animation please check them out, and read their plot in their description! 

There was tales of dragons so old, one might believe they were just legends. Dragons that once co-existed with the humans, beings that shared their magic to all of the world. They were creatures that had it all, power, strength, wisdom, they were freedom. 

Katsuki grew up under his mother reign, groomed and raised to be the next ruler of the small kingdom. Trapped forever behind the castle walls to delegate with the other kingdoms surrounding them, pretending to be modest compared to the others, follow a fake protocol to keep their alliances, sign papers and rule when the citizens become unruly.

He hated the entire concept, he would love to be king one day sure, but to never even experience the world outside of his kingdom was torture. To not be able to explore and make a name for himself, a name that wasn’t already tied to royalty or was influenced by his mother.

No, he wanted to prove not only to the world, but to himself that he is worth the title of king.

How can a king delegate with kingdoms when he’s never been, how can a king prepare for a problem that has yet occurred in his life, how can he be a king making hastily decisions if he has not been in battle? He has no real experience besides that of his mothers, or that of lectures that come from books and rules.

Anyways, back to the dragons, Katsuki had heard of the tales and legends, of stories and the narratives. How it’s been about a millennium, perhaps even longer depending on the book you opened, that dragons were seen last.

People, humans and all other greedy creatures alike were obsessed with the dragons, of their scales that make of great armor, of fire so hot to melt the toughest of metals, their ability of flight and rule over the skies unlike any other. They had strength not only in their height, but as well in magic and in energy.

Not to forget they were so beautiful. Creatures no one could take their eyes away from.

But they disappeared for thousands of years, because greedy bastards could not keep their hands off them. Many were stolen from their homes, raised from eggs to slaves, fancied in chains and jewels a like. Used in war and controlled to gain power. They were slaughtered for their scales and talons, killed for their fangs and horns. Used to decorate their walls and become trophies to sick fucks.

The dragons of course were not weak, but they were tired of hiding, tired of running and fighting, they wanted to live in peace and so the main population had flown away, dwindled in numbers. So that they did not become of what happened to the unicorns, they left. The last dragon ever seen was a slave girl, who’s died after the constant war of obtaining her.

Some say she died by accident, others have been told that she killed herself, for she did not want to be trophy any longer.

Katsuki, when he was young, remembered a promise he had made with Deku, that the two would not die until they see a dragon with their own eyes. He doesn’t know what that idiot has been up to since he left the kingdom, following in the steps of man they both admired, while Bakugou had to stay in the castle, he was sure as hell going to see a dragon without him.

There was a mountain range, called Takai Mountains, rocks that even penetrated the clouds. And just above those clouds, were rumored to be the home of the dragons. Only of course no one survived to confirm those rumors.

Either they lost their way up or died coming back down.

Since dragons were not the only creatures living in those mountains. Bakugou should know, since he is currently trekking in unknown territory.

Bakugou was not one to fight meaningless fight, to only kill when hungry, to only kill to defend. So avoided the animals living in these mountains as best as he could, but rams were nasty assholes, constantly pushing things off cliffs and rocks. They were seven feet tall, horns curved off their thick skulls.

He had to kill one through his hike up the mountains and used as much as he could of the animal to not have the sacrifice be a waste. He dried meat, cooked it, used the ram’s fur for warmth. He had to only kill one more animal at the end of his trip out of defense, an owl griffon.

Its feathers were soft and warm, using it for the outer top of his red cape, he was able to rest easy on hard gagged rocks, and keep warm when the air’s cold winds picked up.

His slow trek to the top of the mountain also helped with him become accustom with the thin air. Soon, he was able to reach the top. Even to him, the foggy, thick clouds were hard and scary to maneuver through, but as soon as he broke out of that fog, he was greeted with a sight he believes many people have yet to seen.

It looked like snow, hills and hills of snow that seemed to never end. Breathtaking and beautiful, all of it was a look to never tear away from. That is until he heard a sharp sound, cutting the skies above the clouds. Looking up, he couldn’t hold his giddy smile, laughing in excitement as the dragons who still flew high above him flying towards their home, which couldn’t be far.

Turning to see the directions the dragons were heading, he was quick to take out a dagger and shoot it from his hand, hitting a rock just near a face he saw from the corner of his eye.

There, standing unbothered by the dagger that was inches away from scaring his other eye was a man. Large in stature, red hair, long with the tips a black. His face was worn of either age or tiredness. Bakugou thinks it’s the latter.  

“You’re a dragon.” Bakugou is quick to say, looking at the man’s features. He sorta feels bad for throwing the dagger now, but still, the dragon shouldn’t have snuck up on him like that. The man had ears longer than any elf he’s seen, red and thick with black piercings, small loops unlike the green quartz studs Bakugou wore.

His horns were large as well, both a dark red and shaped uniformly. Sharp and and not all dull at the points. He wore a leather vest, lined with fur. He also wore a scarf, thick like the rest of the man’s clothing, it was a plain scarf, but it caught Bakugou’s interest, nonetheless.

“And who are you?” The dragon growled, crossing his arms and watching the human carefully.

“Bakugou Katsuki.” The barbarian king says with a cocky smile.

“Kirishima.” The red head says, but there’s a look of distaste. “Why are you here?”

“Have many reached this point?” Bakugou asks his own question instead, causing Kirishima to sneer at the blond with even more disgust.

“No. Is that why you’re here? For fame? For a title to be able to reach the peak of Takai?” The mountains were very much known to be the mountains of the Kings, and so it wouldn’t be a surprise if that was why Bakugou was here.

Either way, Kirishima could not let the man pass this point.

“No, I’m here for you.” Bakugou answers truthfully, causing the dragon to look surprised.

“For me?” Does he know? It wouldn’t be possible, the human barely knows where he is, he looks too excited and there’s never been any..

“Well, not you specifically,” Bakugou says, waving him off, “any dragon would do.”

That causes Kirishima to growl even louder, any dragon? Was this man like of those stories told by his ancestors before him? The greed that had infested the creatures below to take things that did not belong to them?

“For what?”

“For companionship.”

Okay, wait what?

“You’re a dragon, right?” Bakugou asked, taking a step forward, curious, “I want you to travel with me, to lands never seen before to worlds only written in the books of myths and legends. To see more than the walls that contained me for years.”

Kirishima’s change of look from distrust to confusion and curiousness helped Bakugou become forward. The barbarian king was known to anger and irritate people quickly, but he wants this man to follow him. If he can get a dragon to follow him, then he can do the impossible too.

“You are a human, aren’t you? You do know you humans are beneath us, creatures not worth following, creatures not even worth talking to.” He dryly laughs.

Bakugou snorts.

“What?” Kirishima’s smile is quick to disappear.

“You’re not just some dragon huh?”

“What impression did I give you?”

“A guard doesn’t ask questions first, a citizen doesn’t look as calm as you do to an outsider, to a different species completely, especially if us humans have yet made it up these mountains for years.”

Kirishima glares, his fist clenching tighter than before.

“You sorta remind me of me.”

“How so?”

Bakugou was always one to ask questions later, always one for a fight when he was younger. But those years have passed him, and he’s tired of the same routine. Not like he would admit, but if he saw a dragon at his door step, in his kingdom he would act like that fucking nerd and ask all sorts of stupid questions, be calm and rational, be intrigued but feign indifference.

“You’re royalty, aren’t you?”

Kirishima’s entire body stiffens, and he curses at himself for reaction so blatantly.

Bakugou laughs at the dragons reaction, but then he stretches his right hand out, unsheathing his talibon sword with the other.

“I know that look in your eyes, the look of longing and the feeling of ache at the very deep of your soul. You’re bored, you’re tired of the same shit. Right here, right now, I’m giving you the offer, follow me and I’ll cut you free from your chains.” He raises his sword up to show a representation of how easily Bakugou can do that for him.

There’s walls that surround Kirishima too, sure he’s not allowed to be outside his own home’s boundary, and sure he did sneak out to look out to the horizon only to find Bakugou there, admiring the view as he was.

“You’re bored of this shit aren’t you? Grey rocks and blue skies, don’t you want to see what’s further beyond?” he slices his sword backward, pointing the blade to the clouds far from the mountains. “Trade it for something more colorful.”

“You’re fucking crazy.” Kirishima has never left this mountain, not when he was a whelp, and not when he was a drake. He was raised above the clouds, and was forbid to see anything beyond them.

“Then live a little crazy.” Bakugou quickly replies back, a feral grin growing on the man’s features, “Don’t be a king to some dumb fucks who need to be ruled. Risk it, and maybe you’ll be able to see it all.”

“You don’t know what youre saying.”

“Of course I do, you play the part of king, you sign shit, and you either agree with a new law, or disagree. You decide the fate of your people, strapped to a chair all fucking day with the same issues and shit people have dealt with for millions of years.”

Kirishima takes a step backwards, turning his view from Bakugou, already feeling conflicted with this man’s words.

“You can either stay here Kirishima, stuck in a fucking cage, or take this key I’m giving you, and fucking fly the hell out of here.”

Kirishima scoffs, looking back to Bakugou looking a little more pissed, but Bakugou’s smile doesn’t falter.

“I hate to tell you that I’m actually happy with this life you think I’m trapped in.” uncrossing his arms, Kirishima walks towards Bakugou, but the man looks completely fearless, and that fucking grin of his won’t leave his face. “I admire you though, this whole thing you got going for you.” He motions towards Bakugou’s entirely with his hand, looking at the shorter man up and down. “Really I do.”

“But?” now it’s Bakugou’s time to cross his arms, his sword swiftly maneuvered so that it rest easy in his hand, not cutting or jabbing into anything on his body.

“You said it yourself, I’m a ruler, a dragon of high status, to run around with a human?” Kirishima laughs, saying it out loud even helps his conflicting emotions.

“I’m okay with this title I get to play, a soon to be king, now that’s what I want.” His growling increased tenfold, his wings sprung to life behind him, and Bakugou was sure they weren’t there before. Before Bakugou’s eyes, the man disappeared and in front of him was something magnificent.

Kirishima was huge, his scales beautiful and glistening in the sun, dull and intimidating in the dark.  His entire body was packed with muscle, and the dragon was radiating heat. Bakugou had to stagger a step back from the sheer force Kirishima’s energy had given off.

This wasn’t just some royal dragon, this had to be the king of dragons.

“I don’t need a key because I’m not in a fucking cage.” He snarls at Bakugou, his large head only inches away from the smaller male, yet the blond looks far from intimidated. He looked at Kirishima with only adoration and amazement.

“If I were mixed up with you,” he says, breaking the silence since Bakugou hasn’t retorted, his breath taken from him the second Kirishima turned, “I’ll be the talk of the dragons.” They would disown him, they would have him banished from this land, afraid that he’ll bring back the humans to overtake them and disrupt their community.

“Look at you Kirishima,” Bakugou takes the extra step, closing the distant between them more. “you have the eyes of someone who lost all his fight. Damaged and broken.” Spreading his arms, he looks at Kirishima with a sense of genuine care, “at least with me you would live a little, even laugh a little, give me the chance to give you that freedom.”

At the same time he says so, a large dragon shoots up from the clouds, just at the edge of the cliff they stood on, springing towards the skies. He doesn’t see them, at least Bakugou doesn’t think they do. He also internally laughs and cheers at the great timing the other dragon soars into the sky.

Distracted with the flying dragon, he doesn’t see Kirishima change back to his human form effortlessly.

“It’s a deal worth taking Kirishima.” Bakugou says, looking at Kirishima carefully, “But I’ll leave that up to you.”

[sergeant-donny-donowitz]

No More Goodbyes (DonnyxFem!Reader)

Requested by @svonschroeder

Let me know if you wanna be added to the IB or OUATIH taglists :)

@owba-chan @war-obsessed  @inglourious-imagines @tealaquinn @struggling-bee @frozenhuntress67 @kwyloz @sodapop182 _______________________

You weren't technically a basterd. You didn't work for the OSS. You were a British spy, working for MI6. But, there were times where your paths crossed. ...Actually, they crossed very often. You'd behind enemy lines since the war started, no more than a kid, not expected to survive. In the end, you became the key in multiple operations. Which was why you resented being partnered with the basterds at first. "I'm not a bloody nanny." You muttered, without a choice. Orders were orders. But, the basterds were an acquired taste. After a few run-ins and missions together, you found that you liked being around them, as much as you hated to admit it. And what you hated to admit the most was that you rather liked sergeant Donny Donowitz. You couldn't hide it, though. That was why Aldo cheekily made sure that whenever they had the opportunity to stay in a hotel, you and Donny ended up in the same room. Honestly, he probably did it because you'd probably kill the others. And if you didn't, Donny would. But, no matter what the classified folders said, you were a basterd in their eyes... Which is why everyone was upset when you were being transferred back to England. You didn't know when you'd be coming back behind enemy lines, if ever. What you did know, however, was that it was clear you had to say your goodbyes. Because even if you did finish your new mission before the end of the war, and even if you did transfer back, it was still a war. You didn't know if they'd still be there. So, bitter sweet goodbyes in the middle of a French pub it was. And in the middle of it all, one too many slips with language were made. There were one too many keen ears in the pub. Shots were fired. You were hurt. Donny didn't let go of you. Not until you made it over the lines, into free France.  There, it took, a mob of nurses, and all the basterds to pry him away from you, and let the medics have the time and space to have a look at you. They just managed to wrap up your wound, when Donny barged back in. He crouched by you, holding your head up in his hands, placing it on his lap, as he looked at the doctor, seeming almost feverish himself as he demanded, "Fuck's sake, doc! At least get some goddamn aspirin or somethin' in here for her!" The medic raised her eyebrow, without a word, glancing to you. You didn't say a word eitiher. Donny looked to the medic, then to you, then back at the medic, "What?" The medic cleared her throat, "It's not medication you can take in Agent L/N's...er...condition." "What the hell do you mean 'condition'?! ALL wOunDEd SolDIErS geT pAiN MeDi-" You rolled your eyes, and managed to sit up on your own, "Donny, calm down." "BUT-" "Donny." You sighed, with a smile, wondering where you'd be without him? Certainly not in that 'condition'. You smiled at the medic gratefully, and she smiled back, with a single nod, "I'll leave you two alone for a few moments." Before the medic was even out of the room, Donny was pressing for answers. To be fair, he had practically watched his world fall apart the moment he saw your blood on the ground. He didn't know what he'd do without you. "YN, WHAT DOES SHE MEAN?! ARE YOU OK?! FOR FUCK'S SAKE< SOMEONE FUCKING TELL ME S-" You sighed, and tried not to laugh, so it wouldn't hurt. "I'm ok, Donny, it's just-" "WHAT?!" "I-" "Y/N!" "Well if you'd just bloody listen!" He nodded, "Ok, Ok...I'm calm...I'm..." "Deep breath." "Y/n." He looked at you, losing patience. You looked at him, with the same amount of balls.

"FINE. Deep breath. I'm calm. I'm calm as I can be." "They did some tests, ok." "OK?!" "Donny." You warned as you narrowed your eyes. "There's sick people here, you need to shut up." He sighed, "Y/n, please...I almost lost you today. Just..." You nodded, "I Know...Just tell me you'll stay calm." "I'll try." He smiled, reassuring you he meant it. You nodded, and sighed. You weren't quite sure how to phrase it. But you also weren't sure how you felt either.  You'd been suspecting it for a week or two. Part of you really wanted it to be true... The other part looked at Donny, and wondered why? Why now? How could now be the time? "Donny..." He looked down at you softly, his hand gently wrapping around yours, as he smiled, waiting for an answer, "Yeah, doll?" "I'm pregnant." His breath caught in his throat, "NOT CALM. NOT CALM." "BREATHE." He looked at you, with the widest smile you'd ever seen on that basterd's face, eyes wide with love, as if he could see the future, "YA MEAN IT?!" You giggled, "Why   would I make somethin' like that up, love?" He knelt by you, his hand softly resting over your stomach, "Y-Ya...ya mean it? Right? Tell me you do." You nodded, smiling, your hands resting over his, "I mean it, Donny. I mean it." He laughed, and you could practically see fireworks in his eyes as he threw his arms around you.

And he stayed like that. When you woke up the next morning, his arms were still wrapped around you, with a gentle, but protective hold around your stomavh. You smiled, and heard him mumble, half asleep, "Don't move..." You knew he wanted to say, 'or you'll hurt yourself,' But that wasn't what he meant. What he meant was "Don't go." You turned your head to look at him, and looked into his eyes. They were screaming, "Don't go," in spite of his orders, and yours. The orders were still in place. A week later, the basterds followed those orders, and escorted you to the base in free France. Your orders were to return to England from tehre. Donny's were to stay with the basterds, and immeditaely go back behind enemy lines. But...his eyes were still begging you to stay. Begging for something to change. He argued with himself, though. Maybe, he sighed thinking, maybe it was for the best. After all, you have him one more reason to fight. And, if you were in England, you'd be safer. So, you said your goodbyes. The basterds said their congratulations, and they stepped back, leaving you and Donny with a moment. He got on one knee, his arms wrapped around you one last time, as he laid his head against your belly, looking up at you with those eyes, as he planted a kiss, and whispered, "I'll be there, kid, once this is over..." He smiled at you. And every smile in that moment, meant the world. But it was his big, brown eyes giving it all away, still screaming "Don't go," at the top of his longs, when you looked out the window of the plane, and waved to him as your heart broke.

********** The war was over. Donny had no idea what happened to you in that time, not even what his own baby's name was. He did the math though. He knew his kid was about a year old by then. That was all. That, and that he got a coded note slipped to him by a nurse under the OSS' employment, after the cinema explosion. He knew the handwriting. It was from you. It took some help, but he finally figured it out. Dale Barracks. A british military base. He knew then, that you really were safe. He ignored everything thte doctors said, and got on his feet when they weren't looking. The rest of the basterds wre flying back that night. He said his goodbyes to them before then. He didn't care about the medal of honor.

He cared about you. He took the first flight available. He was wondering how the hell he'd get to a British military base...but he didn't have to. You got quite a few calls from concerned OSS officers. They knew you'd keep an eye on him, anyway. And you did. You were waiting for him at the airport. You and your baby. She was just learning to stumble around in the world. And she happened to stumble toward the only yank you could ever love. He dropped his bag, smiling, looking at you, then at the tiny baby, with your hair and his eyes. She tripped over a little, and he quickly caught her in his arms. Every muscle in his body was aching, he had a limp now, but he didn't care. None of that mattered, as he caught his baby in his arms, and heard her giggle for the first time, as she looked up at him, and excitedly babbled, "Da-da!" He laughed, and nodded, feeling as though he could cry from the happiness, "Th'that's right! That's me, kid...that's me..." He didn't know what you'd named her. He felt your hand resting on his cheek, and he looked up. For the first time in over a year, you were at ease. Every time you closed your eyes, you could see his, painfully wishing out loud. But now, his eyes were singing, it seemed. And wondering. You held your family in your arms, "Her name's Sarah." "Sarah..." He picked her up, smiling, as if the whole world was lighting up around him,  and slowly rose to his feet, the pain seeming flow away, like a dwindling ocean wave. He took you  in his arms, the smell of ash and victory filling your nose as you held him. Then, you both stood there, your whole futures ahead of yourselves, with each other. Boston, or Birmingham? It didn't matter, as long as the three of you were together. You both knew that, as you watched your baby girl, looking up and smiling wistfully at the sky. There would be no more bombers or air raids. No more soldiers marching in the streets. No more nazis to scalp, and no more codes to break. The war was over. He'd been gone,  but he gave you and Sarah a world of your own, where there was time to love each other, and safe for her to grow up in, where there were no more goodbyes.

[ghostgothgeek]

Hurt.

Merry Christmas Pham! Here is some much needed Sam and Tucker friendship bonding! This is kind of meant to set the tone before Doctor’s Disorders and explain why Sam knows Tucker doesn’t like doctors or hospitals and Danny doesn’t. Hope you enjoy!

Standard disclaimers. Also posted on my AO3 and FFN accounts. Rated T for swearing. 

--

“SAM!” Danny and Tucker cried, Tucker from across the street and Danny approximately 75 feet in the air. 

“Motherfucker,” Sam muttered to herself and gently poked at her right ankle. It was already swelling up and was probably turning red underneath her tights. She rolled her ankle around a bit. It wasn’t broken, but it definitely hurt. “I’m fine!” she called back to her friends, shooting the ghost that had just attacked her, the same one Danny was battling in the sky, with her wrist ray to prove her point. 

Tucker ran over to her, trying to assess the situation. “Are you okay?” He held a hand out to help her from the ground. She grabbed it and hissed when she stood fully, quickly grabbing onto Tucker’s shoulder and letting her right foot hang above the ground. 

“Shit..the ONE TIME I wear sneakers instead of my boots…” Danny and Tucker had insisted that if she wore sneakers to fight instead of her clunky boots, her fighting would be more efficient. Why had she listened to them again? She gets almost as many ghosts as Danny and her boots at least provided ankle support...

Tucker grinned, “It seemed like a good idea at the time. But seriously, are you okay?” 

“Ugh, I don’t know. I didn’t break anything, but I can’t walk, let alone stand.” She glanced up at Danny, who was shooting an ectoblast at his opponent. “I think you should take me to the hospital to get-”

“Nope.”

“Tucker, I’m serious.”

“So am I! You’re fine! You can just lean on me or have Danny fly you home when he’s done. No big deal. No doctor, no hospital.” He shook his head frantically and wrapped Sam’s arm around his shoulder, her arm wrapping around his torso shortly thereafter. She glanced down at her swollen ankle.

“Tucker, this hurts really bad. And you know I’m not one to complain.” 

Tucker shot her a look. “What about the time you complained about dissecting real frogs in biology? Or the time you complained about those really cool monster trucks? Or when you complained about beauty pageants and then joined in anyway? Or any of the times you complained about Paulina? Oh! And what about that one time wh-” 

“Alright, alright, I get it. Well, I’m not one to complain about pain, anyway. But seriously, can you help me get to the hospital?” 

“Do I have to?” Tucker groaned. 

“Yes! What’s the big deal?” Tucker muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t quite make out. “What?” 

“I don’t like hospitals.” 

“Yeah, and I don’t like the possibility of never walking again. Tucker, please.” 

He sighed. Sam didn’t say 'please’ very often. “Alright, alright. I’m doing this because you’re my best friend and I love you, okay? But I’m leaving right after I drop you off.” Sam rolled her eyes but complied. They both glanced back up at Danny, who was still mid-battle but holding his own. “He can catch up with us later.” 

Tucker had gotten Sam into the emergency room, where she sat filling out some paperwork. He turned around to book it out of there when Sam stopped him by grabbing his wrist. “Tuck, can you please stay?” Her face was full of conflicting emotions. She hated asking for help, yet here she was sacrificing her pride and reputation of being an independent woman because she was scared.

He glanced around the room and made a face before his eyes settled on her pleading lavender ones. He had never seen her so vulnerable before. He sighed and sat down next to her. “Thanks,” there was a moment of silence before she continued, “so while we wait, how about you tell me why you don’t like hospitals.” She gently grabbed his hand closest to hers, which was gripping the arms of his chair tightly. He groaned internally; he very well knew that she would pester him until he gave her a straight answer. You could never bullshit Sam. Plus, she had already shown vulnerability to him today. He could at least return the favor.

“Well…I guess it started when I was 6. I had gotten hurt on the playground, so my mom took me to the hospital. A woodchip kinda stabbed me in the hand when some kid pushed me over. They had to remove it for me, and then they stapled the wound shut.” 

“Ah, that’s why you have that scar on your hand.” Sam nodded towards it. He flipped his hand over where the scar in the middle of his palm was clearly visible. 

“Yeah, it was terrible. Who uses staples on a kid? Anyway, they kept stabbing me with needles to take all these tests and stuff. I don’t like needles.” He visibly shuddered. “Then when I was 9, I had to go to a hospital again when my grandpa was sick. I didn’t really understand what was going on, but my dad had left me in the room with him while he called my mom, and I was all alone and long story short he just died right in front of me. That was pretty traumatizing.” 

“I’m so sorry.” She said genuinely. Perhaps it was because she was so close to her grandmother that the statement hit her hard. She squeezed his hand.

“Another time back in middle school, I went to the nurse’s office because I scraped my knee in gym class and needed a bandaid, and while I was waiting for her to grab one, Gabriel Morris puked all over my shoes.” Tucker’s face scrunched up in disgust as he recalled the bad memory. “And then it’s just everything in general. There’s the weird smell and everything is white and they just stab you with needles and there’s people in the building dying right now and it’s all so gross and terrifying. I can’t even look at a hospital when I pass by one. I avoid doctors at all costs.”

Sam squeezed his hand again. “Well, I really appreciate you being here for me right now. I know it’s going to take awhile, and I need company or I’ll go insane.” She smiled at him. She had always been close with Tucker, and though they had conflicting interests on occasion, they had their handful of moments like these.

Tucker returned a small smile and breathed out a small laugh. “Look, I’m not even the one who is in pain and you’re comforting me.” 

Sam laughed, “Hey, we all have our shit, you know.” She glanced at his phone on his lap when it lit up, signaling a text from Danny. 

Tucker unlocked his phone and read the message before shoving it in his pocket. “Danny’s putting the ghost back into the Ghost Zone right now and then he’s going to swing by Frostbite to ask a few questions. He’s going to be a while.” Sam nodded in response. 

“No problem, I have the mighty fine Tucker to help me through this crisis.”

“It’s Too Fine, actually.” He frowned.

“My mistake.” She smiled, turning her gaze from him as the nurse called her name. Tucker pushed her in a wheelchair to a small room with all sorts of wires and things that could poke somebody. He gulped. Sam could sense his wariness, and looked to the young, attractive nurse, who was questioning Sam about what happened. “Oh, I took kind of a hard fall. This here is my best friend Tucker, he’s been getting me through all this. He’s super brave and practically carried me over here. He’s my support system today.” 

Tucker blushed at the praise and stared down at his shoes. The nurse gave him a reassuring smile and held her hand out for him to shake. “I’m Claire, I’ll be taking care of your friend today. Did you see what happened?” 

He looked up at the blonde, whose smile widened when his eyes met hers. He shook her hand. “U-uh, yeah…” Tucker paused as he formulated a response. “We were just walking home from school and this ghost just blasted her out of nowhere, it was pretty freaky. Sam here kinda tripped backwards and fell in a weird way. I am always telling her she should wear boots or something with more ankle support, clumsy little thing.”

Sam tilted her head back and glared up at him. Tucker just shrugged and grinned, letting her know he was just teasing. Sam was just glad his attention seemed to be diverted from the room he was currently in. 

“Oh, you’re very brave for getting her here in the middle of a ghost attack. Let’s take a look at your ankle.” Sam cringed as the nurse took her shoe off and started touching her ankle. “Yes, this definitely needs some attention. I’ll get the doctor to see you shortly and will take you up for x-rays in a few minutes if need be. In the meantime, how about you take those tights off so we can get a better look. I’ll be back in a few.” The nurse softly closed the door behind her as Sam stood on one foot and started pulling her purple tights off. 

“Woah! Hey! I’m still here!” Tucker yelled, covering his eyes with his hands. 

Sam laughed, “Tucker, chill. I’m not naked or anything.” She wrapped her arm around him for support as she put her weight on him and tugged her tights off her good ankle. She sat on the hospital bed and looked at Tucker, who was peeking through his fingers. “I do need your help though. Help me get these off, but be gentle.” Sam pointed to her tights remaining on her other leg. Tucker nodded and carefully pulled her tights completely off.

“You know, I always dreamt of undressing a girl, but you’re not exactly who I had in mind. No offense.” Tucker’s remark earned a chuckle from Sam.

“None taken.” She sat back on the hospital bed and watched him glance around the room nervously. “You don’t have to worry, you know. I’m the patient, not you. And I don’t plan on dying any time soon.” 

“Are you nauseous?” Tucker raised an eyebrow and sat in the wheelchair.

“Tucker, if I was going to hurl all over you, I would at least have the common decency to tell you first.” She sighed when her comment didn’t make him any less anxious. “Thanks for staying with me for this. If my parents were in town, they would be driving me and the doctors insane. You’re a great friend. I know it isn’t said enough.” 

Tucker looked at her bashfully, unsure of how to respond. “I uh...thanks? Or you’re welcome?” 

Sam chuckled, “I’m not sure what the appropriate response is either. Hey, pull up the movie trailer for Trinity of Doom again! The sound is way better on your phone.” She smiled when she saw how proud he was of his technology as he pulled it up. 

Several minutes and a debate over which monster is scarier later, there was a brief knock on the door before the doctor walked in. “So, Samantha-” he started.

“Sam.” Tucker and Sam corrected him at the same time. 

“Let me check out your injury.” The doctor set his clipboard down on the counter and bent down to inspect Sam’s ankle. She winced when he started moving it and held Tucker, who looked ready to pounce on the doctor, back as he stood next to her protectively. 

The doctor paused and pursed his lips at the other miscellaneous scrapes and bruises that coated her legs, some looking more healed and some looking fresh. “Samantha, are you sure this has only been a one time occurance? We can talk in private if your boyfriend wants to wait outside.” 

Sam looked at him confused, ignoring his use of her full name. “I don’t understand.” 

“You seem to have more injuries than just a sprained ankle, and they appear to have occurred over different periods of time. Domestic violence is unfortunately pretty common, even amongst teena-”

“Excuse me?!” Sam interrupted.

“We can talk in private if that makes you more comforta-”

“First of all, Tucker is not my boyfriend. Second, minor bruises and cuts hardly count as injuries. Third, what makes you think he would be abusive towards me when he has shown absolutely ZERO signs of being my boyfriend, let alone an abuser?” 

“Well, I mean, he’s, you know, you never know and typically perpetrators are-”

“Black?” Tucker spat angrily. 

“That’s not exactly what I was...I’m just saying that-” The doctor stumbled over his words, clearly embarrassed and trying to avoid a lawsuit.

Tucker opened his mouth to speak again, but Sam beat him to it. “That is so unprofessional and honestly just plain stupid of you to say. I can’t believe someone who is supposed to be smart enough to get through med school and someone who took the hippocratic oath and has to treat a diversity of patients would be so ignorant to racially profile someone and suggest he’s abusive because of the color of his skin. You damn well know that the cuts and bruises I have are as minor as playground injuries, but no, why would a white girl come in here with a black boy if she wasn’t being somehow manipulated into staying in an abusive relationship? I’ll have you know that Tucker is one of the sweetest people I know and he is a person of incredible character, which is something you, an adult and a supposed professional, are not. Now I suggest you think before you speak next and apologize to my friend here right now or I will have a massive Manson family lawsuit hit you and this hospital so hard your ancestors will be feeling it.”

Tucker’s jaw dropped slightly and his eyes were wide, though he shouldn’t have been too surprised that she would scold an adult like that. 

The doctor looked at the girl, who was lighting panting from how much effort she had put into her rant, in shock. He was honestly a little terrified of how much anger she had in her eyes. He looked over at the boy who now held a stoic expression. “M-my deepest apologies, sir.” He didn’t think he could form any other intelligible sentences. 

“Awesome. Now go get me a new doctor to wrap my damn ankle so we can get out of here,” Sam said sternly. The doctor simply nodded, clearly still stupefied, and scrambled out of the room. “The fucking nerve of that guy,” she started again, clearly still furious. She looked back at her friend to see how he was handling the situation. 

He didn’t even need to thank her, gratitude and pride were written all over his face. She shot him a small smile and held her arms out for a hug, which he quickly accepted. “Thanks, Sam.” He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. 

“Any time.” She smiled and pulled back, taking a deep breath as the energy in the room began to settle. Tucker sat down next to her and stared at his shoes for a few moments before glancing around the room and becoming anxious again. Sam quickly whipped out her phone. “Hey did you see this video of a hedgehog taking a bath?” She gave him a comforting smile.

“No, I didn’t.” He smiled back gratefully.

After a new doctor had come in to wrap Sam’s ankle, apologizing profusely to the teens, the nurse from earlier had returned and handed Tucker Sam’s discharge papers. “I left my personal phone number on there in case you have any questions about your friend’s treatment.” Tucker swore she winked at him before helping Sam stand up on her crutches. He only nodded in response and helped Sam out of the hospital, where a cab was already waiting to take them back to Sam’s place. 

“So, Game of Thrones marathon until Danny gets back?” Sam smiled, texting Danny to let her know she was alright and they were heading home. 

“Hell yeah!” 

When they arrived back at Sam’s house, Tucker helped her up the front steps and watched her make her way into the kitchen to pull snacks out. “I’ll order some pizzas, you carry this downstairs and get comfy.” 

Tucker nodded and did as she asked after she insisted she was fine and could manage her way downstairs by herself, especially because her house had an elevator to help her grandma get around. He sat down in his favorite spot in her theater and settled in, feeling incredibly grateful for his best friend and her safety. 

Sam arrived shortly thereafter and pulled up the episode that would continue her and Tucker’s binge. Game of Thrones was dark enough for Sam’s enjoyment, action-packed enough to keep Tucker entertained without his PDA, and nerdy enough for the both of them. Danny never understood the hype. Game of Thrones was something Sam and Tucker shared, the tradition starting up one afternoon when they were waiting on Danny to get out of detention. 

Later, Danny landed in Sam’s basement, glancing at all the junk food scattered across the couch between his friends. “Are you okay Sam?” 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just have to wear this stupid boot for a week. Fortunately it’s not too much bigger than my combat boots, so really what’s the difference.” She smiled.

“Yeah, Sam’s okay, but the doctor isn’t.” Tucker laughed.

“What?” Danny grabbed a soda and sat in the open seat. 

“Sam threatened a doctor today,” Tucker stated proudly. 

“What?!” 

“It’s no big deal,” Sam dismissed it with a flick of her hand. 

“It was a big deal, Danny! She even dropped the Manson name and threatened a lawsuit! It was awesome!” Tucker said excitedly. 

“It was nothing,” Sam said sheepishly. “Tucker got a hot nurse’s number!” 

“Not really, she was just being nice.”

“Oh please! She was totally into you, and you were just radiating that ‘Too Fine’ charm!”

Danny drowned out their conversation and looked back and forth between his friends flabbergasted. He wasn’t even sure which out of character aspect of his two friends he should respond to first. Before he could even gather his thoughts, the two were already sucked back into their show. 

“How awesome is that dragon?!” 

“It’s incredible! The CGI they do is amazing!”

Danny frowned, feeling extremely excluded. Sam and Tucker were friends of course, but these moments where they were more than getting along were few and far between. “Hey guys, I fought a real dragon remember?” They ignored him. “A ghost dragon? A ghost dragon that Sam turned into? That was more awesome, right?!” 

“Uh huh.” 

“Sure, whatever.” 

“The same dragon I fought today?!” No response. 

Danny huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t leaving the two of them alone ever again.

[littlekatleaf]

Buried in a burning flame is love and its decisive pain (part 1)

Boy, come on out from the cold You’re lost outside there, don’t you know ~ The White Buffalo, “Wish It Was True”

“Wouldn’ta asked ya to come if I knew you were still sick, mate.” Junkrat eyed Roadhog as they boarded the Orca, trying to see how he was really doing. Not easy behind the mask, but he’d heard the coughing, even if Hana and Lucio, a few steps ahead and in an animated discussion about some ancient video game called Fortnite, didn’t seem to. Hog looked better, but never complained so Junkrat had to be observant.

“I’m fine. And perfectly capable of saying no to you.”

“Truer words,” Junkrat agreed with a laugh. “Pretty sure you enjoy tellin’ me no. But ya got a soft spot for the D.Va.”

Roadhog shrugged but didn’t try to deny it. “Someone needs to keep an eye on you kids.”

“Don’t know what yer talkin’ about. Always on me best behavior.” Felt Roadie rolling his eyes behind the smoked lenses of his mask. Junkrat grinned. Couldn’t let Roadie down, now could he? After all, gonna call him a kid, might as well act like one.

“Better be. I won’t be able to save you from Mei otherwise.”

Junkrat, frowning, considered. Mei might present a challenge. “Some bodyguard you are, can’t even protect me from a slip of a sheila.” Glanced at Roadhog out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t know why she hates me so much. Must be a fire n’ ice thing.”

Roadhog huffed his wheezy laugh. ‘F he was able to find Rat’s admittedly naff joke funny must be okay. Leastwise enough for a small trip to a cabin in Taos. Mei and Satya’d planned it for those what didn’t have somewhere else to go over the holiday - Rat’d assumed anyone not them. So he’d been surprised when Hana invited them to join. Sure they were friendly enough - played video games, watched movies, that sorta thing, but this was different. When Hana first brought it up late one night, after they’d been playing one of her favorite games for too many hours to count, eyes blurring with exhaustion and screen glare, Rat thought she just meant Lucio.

“What about you and Roadhog,” she’d clarified.

“Me an’ Roadie,” he’d echoed, brain lagging a beat behind.

“Gonna join? You should! You don’t have any family in Australia, do you? What else would you do?”

Neither him nor Hog had anyone in Straya, not anymore, but didn’t need mentioning. “Figured we’d hold down the Watchpoint with Winston and Morrison.”

Hana shook her head. “Lame. Holidays are supposed to be fun.” “And Morrison’s the Anti-Fun,” Lucio added.

“Fair point, both of ya - but Mei…” Hana waved off his concern. “She just hasn’t gotten to know you yet.” She paused, cocked a brow. “She’s a little slow to warm up.” Lucio groaned. “Ugh. That was a Junkrat joke if I ever heard one.”

Junkrat had laughed, said he’d have to ask Roadhog and didn’t miss the look that went between them.

“So what’s with you two?” Hana was sprawled on her bed, chin propped on her fists, feet kicked up behind her. Picture of nonchalance, but her eyes were intent and curious.

Junkrat cocked his head. “What d’ya mean?”

“Like, I know he’s your bodyguard and…” She scrunched up her nose like she was looking for the right words. “Business partner? You guys pulled those heists all over the world… but… is that it?”

Lucio nudged her none-too-gently with his elbow from where he lay next to her. “Hana…”

“What? I’m just curious. You don’t mind, do you Junkrat?”

He shrugged. He didn’t, exactly. But he also didn’t, exactly, know how to answer. Never put words to it, who they were to each other. Might consider Hana and Lucio closest to friends he had other’n Roadie, still... couldn’t talk ‘bout shit like that with them. Trust didn’t come easy in Junkertown. Just because he an’ the Hog were taking their chances with Overwatch rather than prison didn’t mean it came easy here either.

Luckily Lucio saved him. “Mind or not, you shouldn’t pry.”

Hana stuck her tongue out at Lucio, but left off. When Junkrat managed to win the game he was pretty sure it was an apology. No one beat the D.Va unless she let them.

Roadhog seemed perfectly normal on the flight. Well, normal for Roadie. Spent the time reading or knitting or just looking out the window. Too calm to Junkrat’s way of thinking, and quickly bored, he dozed off. Time they landed, Rat was more than ready to get out and stretch his leg.

“Welcome to Taos,” Lena said.

The bay doors opened with a click-swish and a gust of cold, crisp air swept through the ship. Junkrat shivered - got cold nights in the Outback, but this was downright frigid. Didn’t think he’d ever get used to Christmas in winter. He tugged his jacket tighter around himself and followed Roadhog through snowdrifts to a small cabin surrounded by pines that scented the breeze sharp and clean. Put him in the mind of home - times he and Roadie would head up North, let the Queen forget about them for a bit. Just them and the bike and the road and nights under the stars. Wondered if Hog ever thought about it. Ever missed it.

“You’re quiet,” Lucio said, coming up alongside, knapsack over his shoulder.

Junkrat tried to shake off the mood. “Just thinkin’, mate.”

“Everything all right?”

“Right as,” he said - then a snowball smacked into the back of his head, dropping bits down the back of his collar and making him shudder. “Oi!”

Hana burst into laughter. “Gotcha!”

“Gonna regret that,” Junkrat called, depositing his bag carefully on the porch. Wouldn’t get on with Mei ‘f he blew up the cabin.

“Not likely!” She threw another snowball, but Junkrat ducked behind Roadhog and it thudded against Roadhog’s back and disintegrated.

Junkrat laughed and his breath puffed a cloud. “Nice aim. Good thing ya ain’t on damage.”

Hana snorted. “You’re one to talk; you just toss grenades and hope for the best.”

Junkrat didn’t argue, lobbed his own snowball. And caught Mei in the back of the head. “Ah fuck, sorry…” but almost before the words were out of his mouth she’d blasted him in the chest. He yelped as bits of snow slid down the neck of his shirt. Mei laughed and suddenly the air was full of flying snow. Loose teams and shifting alliances formed but Emily, Roadie and Satya bailed quickly. Emily offered to make tea and cocoa for everyone and Roadhog went to help. He was coughing.

Junkrat was about to ask him, again, if he was okay when one of Lucio’s snowballs - well aimed - smacked him in the cheek. Easily sidetracked, he returned fire.

The fight raged until the last light faded from the sky and the first stars appeared, and even though it was cold the heat of the battle kept them warm, and they were laughing when they tramped into the cabin, stomping snow from their boots and brushing it from their shoulders.

“Think Jesse left any whiskey last time he stayed,” Lena asked, hanging up her jacket.

“What do you think I put in the drinks?” Emily handed them each a steaming cup.

Junkrat curled his hand around the hot ceramic gratefully. The snow in his hair had melted and trickled cold water down the back of his neck. He shivered and sniffed against a dripping nose, but the alcohol burned warm in his stomach and Lucio was setting up his equipment and Mei was cooking something that smelled delicious and soon the music was bumping and they were crowded around the tiny kitchen table and Lena was boasting about some mission she’d been on, gesturing wildly with her chopsticks, and Emily asked about their heist in Dorado and maybe he played it up but even Satya was smiling and Roadie huffed his usual laugh and Rat was warm all through and it didn’t matter that his head was starting to hurt and his throat was too because he was warm and content and maybe it was going to be okay.

The warmth didn’t fade, even as he scrambled into the cold sheets of the cot. Didn’t matter that the bed was barely big enough for Roadie alone; Junkrat was used to sleeping anywhere he happened to pass out. Just lucky that lately had been next to Hog. Might be cold an’ snowy outside, wind might be whining, but here was warm and it was a good night.

[agrinsosardonic]

Wicked Little Thing

A/U: CloudxReno 

Also on: A03 and Fanfiction.net

Reno wasn’t like the other boys. 

He solidified that when he showed up at Cloud’s window in the early morning hours on the first day of his 18th summer. He had something to show him. Of the utmost importance. Cloud, with half opened blue eyes stared at the boy smirking in the window. The heat of the sun already suffocating despite just breaking through the dark clouds of night. Cloud’s skin felt like rubber. Sticky wet. Like something was crawling through the little blonde hairs on his arms. 

But still, he dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, and snuck out of the sleeping house to join the other boy. Reno didn’t say much, but it’s rare for him to use any words. Follow me. Died in the humid air right as it grazed Cloud’s ears. And Reno already walking towards the forest. Cloud thought about arguing. Or bitchin’, as Reno called it. But arguing with Reno was as useful as fist fighting a brick wall. The brick wall always wins. Cloud laments this fact, silently of course, as he steps through mud and sticks towards an undisclosed location. 

The trees like statues as they provide minimal relief from the ball of flame in the sky. 

The air smelled stale and wet.

Like the mold that grows in the boys home, where Reno lives. 

The stench that sticks to their clothes; a tell-tale sign of the abandoned.

But Cloud noted, the one time Reno allowed him close enough he could take in his smell, the other boy reminded him of flames. 

They come upon a clearing. And Cloud gagged when death crept into the air. 

Rotting eggs and sulfur.  Cloud pulled his shirt over his nose to filter the smell, though even his mother’s soap proved to be a pathetic barrier. Nothing really prepared Cloud for the stench of a floating dead body baking in the hot sun. At the edge of the swamp, half of the blue flesh bobbed in the water. It’s clothes tattered and torn; button down and no pants. Bloated beyond recognition. Veins like a road map twisting along milky skin. 

Cloud darts blue eyes towards Reno. The other boy stared at the body; his face like stone never acknowledging the pungent stench. 

“Gotta get used to dead bodies if ya gonna be in SOLDIER,” he said in a thick accent that Cloud could never place, but was one more thing that separated him from the other boys. Reno’s lips tugged into a smirk. 

Cloud tried breathing through his mouth; but it tasted like spoiled meat. And he knew if he threw up, Reno would never let him live it down. He swallowed the bile that burned in his throat. And didn’t say another word. 

The sounds of summer embraced the scene. The animals that lurk in the swamp send ripples of waves crashing to the surface as they feed. Birds squawk overhead. Breaking twigs in the distance. Mosquitoes and flies buzzed too close. The hum pierced Cloud’s ear drum as he tried to swat them away. 

The heat had them both sweating through white shirts. Reno pulled his over his head, revealing the lean muscles and faded bruises. Like dying fireworks in a peach skyline. And Cloud couldn’t help but gaze along his body. Taking inventory every line and freckle until tattooed to his brain. Reno cast his two pearls of lake colored eyes upon the other boy, curious like a fox.

“Comeon,” he drawled, “we’re pullin’ it out.”

“Uuh,” Cloud stuttered, dropping his shirt from his mouth, “What?”

Reno walked closer to the body- Cloud impressed that the other boy could handle the smell- and grabbed a swollen ankle. “I wanna burn it.”

“W-what?” Cloud repeated.

“Fuckin’ what,” Reno snaps, “I ain’t speakin’ a different language.”

Reno hated speaking at all. This was the most string of words he’s spoken in a while. Cloud liked the sound of his voice. Rough like coal. Bitter like whiskey he pretended he didn’t drink when the sun went down. Not like the other boys with their clean grammar and smooth inflections uttered through pearly white teeth. Not like Clouds, who flumbles through words like he’s running through boulders. Getting caught up. Tongue too big for his mouth. Swollen. 

Cloud huffed. And followed the order. The smell only grew impossible to handle. The smaller of the two boys coughing and hacking as he tried fruitlessly to shield his nose with his shirt again. Reno watched him the whole time with hooded eyes that darkened under the mess of red hair. Cloud tried to focus on the task. And not how Reno scanned his body. Resting on the bit of skin exposed from pulling up his shirt. 

Cloud hesitated. The flesh that held together the foot to ankle looked diseased. Black. Putrid. He didn’t want to touch it, not at all. The amount of bacteria eating away at the stinking flesh was enough to make Cloud sick. But he could still feel Reno’s burning gaze. And he doesn’t want to look like a coward in front of him. He wrapped his fingers around the skin- and it feels like wet, slimy, clay. He pulled and the flesh peeled away from worn bone. Slipped from his hands like thick water. 

He yelled and jumped back, tripping over a rock. 

Reno’s laugh sounded like razor blades. He’s pacing around the clearing, holding his stomach. And if Cloud had an ounce of courage, he might swing at him. 

“Fuck you!” He shouted instead. 

“Poor lil bird.” Reno regained his composure. His toothy smile revealed two sharp canines.

Cloud scrambled back to his feet. “You’re sick, man.”

The red-head shrugs, wiping his hands on dirty blue jeans. He pulls out his crumbled pack of smokes and places a cigarette between his thin lips. 

“Can I bum one?” Cloud asked. 

Reno ignited the match, the flame orange and yellow casts haunting shadows across his face. “No.”

“Why?” 

He took a drag, “Waste.”

Cloud knew what he meant. “I heard everyone smokes in SOLDIER. I got to learn right?”

“Who told ya that? Zack?” Reno scrunched his face like the name tasted like poison on his tongue. Cloud nodded and Reno just shook his head. “Zack has half a brain and it ain’t in his head.”

Cloud doesn’t respond. Eyes wilted to the dirt ground; a large centipede crawled over his shoe and he kicked it into the lake where it can be a gators snack. 

“You can’t burn the body, by the way,” he said. “It’s too wet. It won’t catch.”

Reno grimaced in response. Cloud admired the scowl on the other boy’s face. How it compliments the rest of his rough edges. He watched him take slow drags of his cigarette. How the black smoke slowly escaped his lips, obstructing his features except for those two eyes that glow against smoke. Like the stars in the midnight sky. 

Reno was a house fire. 

And maybe Cloud felt that way because the first time he saw him Mrs. Fost house was engulfed. Glowing orange embers fell from the sky like rain. Hissed and singed when they landed on the cobble stoned street. Everyone watched. Some helped. The good  ol’ boys, like Zack, rallied each other and grabbed water from the well to put out the fire. 

Cloud stood hypnotized by the dancing reds that ate at the flimsy wood, which scorched the air. And he thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen up to that point. He wanted to feel as powerful as a fire. Eat away at the things weaker than him. But Cloud wasn’t a house fire. Cloud was the wood structure collapsing like a dying star. 

He heard the striking of a match. Turned towards the sound. 

Saw a boy, with hair the color of blood, bringing fire to the cigarette between his lips. 

He looked like danger. Cut from metal. Sharp like the switchblade in his pocket. 

And then, like now under the muted morning light, in a swamp that reeks of death, Cloud can’t stop staring at the boy. Who appeared a year ago like a phantom under the flames of destruction. Cloud gravitated to him like he was the sun. And found only darkness. A red dwarf. Two minutes from midnight and ready for armageddon. And that’s all he knew.

Reno’s past a mystery but everyone tried predicting his future.

Boys like that end up in the gutter.

The mothers whispered. 

Filthy monsters. Wicked little things. All end up dead before eighteen.

Zack and the rest of the boys warned him much the same.

You hang out with trash you start to smell.

But Reno smelled like burning wood, nicotine, and pomegranates. 

Reno was fire and Cloud wanted to burn.

Thunder cracked. Cloud looked into the darkening sky. “It’s going to rain.”

“So?” Reno grabbed a long stick and stomped back towards the body. “Afraid of gettin’ wet?” He winks, “Little birds can’t fly in rain?” 

He plunged the stick into the bloated stomach of cadaver. Black ooze pushed out. Cloud swore he heard a wheeze before another boom of thunder. He flinched as Reno dug the wood deeper until it stood on its own. 

“Wh-why did you do that?”

Reno snapped his eyes at Cloud. And shrugged, again. Cloud pursed his lips looking for words. But found vacant expressions. Reno didn’t need to explain himself; he’s red hot anger. And everything he does is a result of that. 

“You gotta learn to stab shit if you wanna be a SOLDIER.” Reno said and revealed a switchblade from his back pocket. “Comeon.”

Cloud hesitated. “W..Why?”

“I just said why, fuck.” 

The sky opened and cold rain cooled the hot earth. The drops slammed against the bloated body; singing through the dense forest and murky swamp. Tap tap tap. Rapid like bullets. 

“I won’t be stabbing something that’s already dead, right?” Cloud shifted. 

Reno removed the dead cigarette from his mouth, flicking it into the swamp and approached Cloud. His feet sunk into the mud with every step; but as if blessed, he doesn’t stumble. And the blonde can’t seem to move, even though Reno’s giving him this look; like an alligator lurking below the surface of the swamp, ready to bite his head off. He stopped too close. Cloud could see the gentle rise and fall of his chest. The bones of his rib cage that peek through the skin. The small cuts. The large black and blues. From one too many fights with those good boys. 

To Cloud’s surprise, they’re the same height. Blue green meets slate blue eyes. Reno always gave off the impression of being impossibly larger than life. Cloud crushed under his gaze. But in the pouring rain, in the morning light, with the smell of rotting flesh and still water, they were equals. 

Reno grabbed Cloud’s wrist, with a sudden movement that it stole the blonde’s heartbeat, and placed the hilt of the blade in his wet palm. 

“Stab me.”

“What!?” Cloud didn’t stutter this time. He blurted the words from his mouth with a frantic tone. He tried to move back but Reno held him firm. Rooted to the ground. “No w-way!”

“Gotta learn.” Reno grinned something vile. He closed Cloud’s fingers around the worn wood, and pressed the sharpened knife against his own side. Guiding the other boy. His skin tickling the blade like a dar. “Right here.”

“Y-y-you’re fucki-in nuts, Re.”

“You think this my first time bein’ stabbed?”

“No, bu-t-” Cloud could only shake his head, “I ain’t stabbing you. No w-way.”

Reno frowned, bringing Cloud and his wrist and the blade to his neck. “How ‘bout here?”

“That’s w-worse!” Cloud panted. “You’ll die.”

“You can’t kill me, lil bird.” And Reno laughed. A devastated laugh that sounded more like the lightning that flashed overhead. Blinding Cloud for a moment. But only a moment. And he saw electricity in the redhead eyes. And felt his skin rise towards the cement sky. And he didn’t know if the shock was from the angry god above or the boy before him, yanking him closer. Stumbling over feet. His collision with Reno- skin to skin- proceeded the thunder. 

“Hm,” Reno purrs, and Cloud felt his breath against his lips. “Ya never gonna make SOLDIER.”

Cloud growled, “F-Fuck you, Reno.”

Reno squeezed Cloud’s wrist. Tight. Until he was forced to drop the knife. “Ya finally gettin mad, huh?” 

But Cloud stared into Reno’s eyes- too busy to get mad. Trying to focus on anything else besides Reno. Not his lips and how they were slightly opened and just slightly inviting. And that he smells of smoldering flame that eats at an entire forest. And his hand feels rough around his wrist. And Cloud’s aware of the lack of blood traveling to his fingers that they are going numb. 

Reno relaxed his grip. Moving his hand up Cloud’s, over the scars that littered his calloused fingers. Burns. “I like it when ya mad,” he whispered, “ya more interestin’.”

And he’s giving Cloud the same look he flashed him at Mrs. Fost’s house fire. When the smoke around his face cleared. And Cloud saw the dramatic curves of his face. His slanted auburn eyebrows that clashed against the red hues of his hair. Mesmerized by the way his eyes glowed- literally glowed- brighter than the fire that consumed the wood house over the old women’s feverish cries. And Cloud was, himself, engulfed by Reno’s gaze that he didn’t acknowledge how the strange boy traveled from Cloud’s face, down his chest, to his bandaged right hand that blistered underneath the cloth. 

Not until the red-head curled his lips into a wicked little smirk. 

Under the rain, the hot rain that stuck to his body like grime, Reno had the same look, Curiosity mixed with bloodlust. 

Or…

Just regular lust. 

And Cloud couldn’t stand another minute not knowing if Reno tasted like he smelled-

Pressed his lips against the red-heads, snaking his fingers into his wet hair to pull him closer. Impossibly close.

He expected a fist in his face, rocking him from this earth. Instead, Reno returns the kiss twice as forceful and with more practice. Wrapping his lean arms around Cloud’s small frame. Gliding his nails through the white fabric. 

Cloud opened his mouth so their tongues can meet,

And he tasted like tar. And electricity. And sulfur. 

They managed to get off the shirt that clung to Cloud’s body like suction cups. And they were back to skin and mess of limbs and lips. 

And teeth that bit on Cloud’s lip; and he moaned from his throat a sound that rushed through Reno’s body like a shockwave. Then fall to the floor. Cushioned by the mud. 

They tarnished their bodies in dirt and filth. Rough hands digging into flesh. And Cloud couldn’t keep track of how many times Reno’s name left his bruised lips through harsh breathes. 

And he didn’t stutter. 

He memorized that name. Branded it in his brain. 

The only word he knew. 

The red-head sat up, straddling Cloud’s hips under him. Pressing his hand firm on his chest to keep him on the ground. And blue-green eyes stare at Reno. Flushed with pleading desire. But he’s preoccupied with the scars on Cloud’s chest. 

And if Reno was faded fireworks during the sun set.

Cloud was the scorched woods during sun rise.  

Old burns splashed over his pale skin. Some still pink and angry. Other’s that blended into his flesh.  

And Reno smiled.

His first real smile. 

And Cloud thought he looked like the devil. 

He dropped down, their torsos meeting. Lips just barely touching. “I knew it,” he whispers. 

And he figured it out the night they first met. That Cloud was a match that needed a spark. 

Their lips met again. Clothes torn off.

The rain and mud made their bodies slick. And Cloud dug his nails into Reno’s back while he hissed into the blonde's neck. Nipping and biting skin, adding crimson to muted colors. 

It was the tangled limbs- how Cloud didn’t know where he ended and Reno began- that had raw breathless gasps clawing at his throat. 

And they were gripped in euphoria that they forgot about the body decaying next to them. 

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

The rain stopped. The heat rose from the soil and the earth felt like an oven. Reno stood over the body; his jeans stained with mud and shirt over his shoulder. Cloud walked next to him, still trying to adjust his shorts, with his own shirt balled in his pocket- his mom will have a word with him when he gets home, for sure. But that would have to wait. Right now, he relished the tingles that touched every part of his body, while he watched the red-head. New scars painted his canvas. Long streaks of red that matched the ones on Cloud’s body. And the blonde felt the throb of the bite on his shoulder; and it burned like the fire that decorated his flesh. 

He didn’t even care that Reno had marked him-

Like the house fire, Reno was the most beautiful thing he had even seen in eighteen years on this dying planet. And Cloud wanted every bite, and burn, the red head could offer him. 

Reno grabbed his pack. Placed a cigarette in his mouth and lit it with his last match. 

He turned to Cloud, removed the stick and gently placed it between Cloud’s partial opened lips. The other boy blinked several times in confusion, as Reno replaced it with another one, and leaned into Cloud’s ember to light it. 

The sound of searing fire touched his ears.

His whole body twitched. 

Cloud smiled, couldn’t help it, and took a sharp inhale. Blowing the smoke right at Reno, who smirked. 

“Thought you said it would be a waste?” Cloud sing-songed.

“Heh, ya ain’t gettin’ into SOLDIER anymore. Don’t matter.”

“W-why do you say that?” Cloud cocked his head, and in mid-morning light, he looked like an innocent boy filled with naivety. 

But Reno knew better. “They don’t care for wicked little things like us.”

They shared a look under the heat of the sun that burned their skin. A look they shared against the warming flames. Where Cloud saw him for the first time and knew he needed to understand as much as he could about the mysterious boy who appeared from thin air. Who was filthy. Abandoned. A discarded trash.

But stunning. Like a god. 

He was right.

Reno wasn’t like the other boys.

And neither was Cloud. 

[let-it-raines]

Rising from the Ashes (15/?)

When her husband died, Emma wasn’t sure that she could ever move on. He left her with a broken heart and a baby who was only three-months old. It’s enough to take most people down, to make them not want to keep going, but Emma Swan isn’t most people. She’s stronger than she has any right to be. And after years of heartache, she’s found ways to move on…one of those being in Neal’s best friend, Killian Jones. As she’s always known, however, things are more complicated than they ever seem to be.

Rating: Mature

A/N: I got in a pretty major sticky spot with some of the upcoming chapters (it’s messy, y’all), so I obviously spent my time trying to make a new banner 75% of the way into the story to confuse all of you. Logical, right? And it’s not even the one I was trying to make. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this one! It’s not quite as angsty as some of the others, but big things do happen! 

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“Dad, last time we were on an airplane Mom threw up in my pretzel bag.”

Neal looks over to her with a raised brow as they walk through the airport terminal, people quickly passing them with their suitcases rolling behind them, half of the wheels squeaking against the battered tile floor. “Did she? That’s kind of gross.”

“It was so gross,” Henry continues skipping a bit ahead of them, his backpack bouncing on his back so that all of his belongings jiggle around. “She said that it was all Ada’s fault.”

“Morning sickness,” she explains to Neal while Ada squirms in her bjorn. She wants to be able to crawl around and prop herself up on all of the chairs, but now is unfortunately not the time for that. Now is obviously just the time for Emma’s back to hurt because of how big this kid is getting. “The last time we went on a trip we went to London to visit Liam and Belle, and I was very early on in my pregnancy. So naturally the worst of the vomiting took place on a plane.”

“So I bet you love flying then?”

“Well, last time I couldn’t stop throwing up and this time I have a baby, which means that she’s obviously going to scream the entire time and everyone will hate us.”

“They won’t hate us, love,” Killian not-so-helpfully supplies. “People know that babies cry.” “Doesn’t make it any less obnoxious when the wailing won’t stop.”

She opens her mouth to say something back to Neal, but then Henry is stopping in front of them, his feet practically skidding across the tile. “Dad, look at that plane. It’s huge.”

“How many people do you think fit in there, kid?” Neal asks, taking a few steps forward so that he’s in line with Henry while she falls back a step to walk next to Killian as he tugs along their carry-on and the stroller. People might not hate them for the screaming baby, but they’ll hate them for taking up overhead space. They should have just checked the thing.

“You excited to go back to our old stomping grounds, Swan?”

She’s a bit wary about it if she’s honest with herself, but they’re going for spring break and to let Henry see where Neal is now officially going to be living. It’s a good thing, and she’s going to enjoy it. She’s determined to. If not for her, for Henry.

“A little. I mean, there’s a lot of memories there, but I figured we’d go full on tourist and take Henry to all of the monuments, do one of those fake photos where he’s shaking George Washington’s hand. Really live it up. Henry will love that. Is that history buff mind of yours all geared up to tell him the stories?”

“You insult me, Swan. You know that I come prepared. And if I forget something, I’m sure there’s a brochure or two to help me.”

“If you ever need another job, I bet you would make an excellent tour guide.”

“Ah, yes, the Brit who shows people around America’s capital.”

“The British-American war veteran who shows people around America’s capital,” she corrects, looking up at him and smiling while he keeps looking straight ahead, the defined line of his jaw in her vision. “And who looks damn good doing it. I’ll write you a trip advisor review and mention just how hot you are so that you get lots of customers.”

He scoffs at that, the slightest bit of laughter in the sound. “I would think that my brain would be the thing my little followers are interested in.”

“Oh it will be. It’s a very sexy thing that I am very much in love with. I just like looking at your face is all.”

Killian smiles down at her, his eyes crinkling with affection, and she wonders what her life would be like if he looked at her like that for the rest of her life. She’s got no idea how he expresses such emotion with only his face, but sometimes it takes her breath away.

“That’s a good thing because I like looking at my face too.”

“You are devilishly handsome after all.”

They all easily board the plane, even if it takes a few minutes to check the stroller at the gate instead of putting it in the overhead, and thankfully, Ada doesn’t have a meltdown during the flight. Killian spends most of the time reading to her while Emma holds her in her lap, and Ada is thoroughly entertained by the bright pictures and pop up sections. Emma can tell that she still wants to move around and crawl, but she is not about to let her kid move around on the floor of an airplane. That’s a recipe for getting sick, and that’s the last thing that she wants.

But they do eventually land at Raegan and load up into a cab to be taken to the hotel. They’ll probably take the metro for the rest of the week, but they can spend the money on a cab when they have all of these bags. It’s weird to be back in the city, even if they are in the actual metropolitan instead of just outside in Alexandria. It’s been…exactly four years since she last lived here, and she could probably still get around the city without even thinking about it.

Except there is no way for her to simply not think about it. This place is so full of world history, the good and the bad, and it’s the same for her personal history. She went to school here, which is something she is still so proud of when she thought that was something she would never do. She got to be someone on her own, someone new who was making something of herself. She fell in love here after meeting Neal at a bar when she was still too young to meet men at bars, but, really, they probably fell in love at the Little Red Fox café on the corner of Connecticut Avenue. The name of the place had been so ridiculous, but it’s where Neal took her on their first official date and charmed her by telling her all about his adventures overseas.

This city is where she had this great love story that she was so swept up in that she didn’t see the things about it that didn’t make it so great. But it was full of so much goodness, and she can’t forget about that. Sha can’t forget about the years that Neal made her happy. She can’t forget that he’s the one who has given her Henry.

She can’t forget.

She also can’t forget that this is the place where her world fell apart, where she was told that her husband was missing, where she was told that he was most likely dead, where she believed that he was dead. This is the place where she realized that she’d be raising their son by herself.

This is the place.

It’s also where she met Killian, where she let him support her, where she fell in love with him.

So being back here is jarring and a bit…she doesn’t know how she feels as their car drives through crowded streets, avoiding all of the downtown traffic and tourist areas as much as possible. The weirdest thing, though, is that Neal is here, in this city, and that he’s coming back.

She thought he was gone forever, and he’s not.

He’s here. He’s here. He’s here.

And yet he’s leaving she and Henry again. This time by choice. It’s another thing that she doesn’t completely understand, but she’s trying to be as supportive as she can. He’s been through so much, and he needs to be happy. She needs him to be happy.

“Is this where you’re gonna live?” Henry asks as they walk into their hotel, the high ceiling vaulted up as light filters through the windows.

“No, I’m going to live in an apartment,” Neal tells him, taking his hand and walking with Henry as they make their way to the front desk. “I might live in a hotel for a little while until I can move my things in, not that I really have things yet.”

“I’ll draw you a picture that can go on your wall.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

Neal checks them into their rooms for the week. They’ve got a bed for Henry in their room, as did Neal, so he’ll be switching between the rooms this week. She has a feeling that he’ll only stay one night with Neal before he freaks out being away from her, but who knows? He could surprise her. He tends to do that, especially as he’s growing up and becoming a bit braver in the things that he does.

She’s got a good kid. She’s proud of the way she’s raised him.

Once they get into the room, she simply puts all of Ada’s bags on the ground and gets out what she needs to change her diaper while Killian unpacks their clothes and puts them in the closet and the dresser. He’s quite possibly the only person she knows who does that at hotels, but she’s learned not to tease him about it. It gets him all huffy and rushed, so she lets him put their things away. Besides, he’s the one who packs them all up again, so it’s not like it causes any extra stress for her.

It's actually more convenient, not that she’d ever admit that.

-/-

-/-

“Killian,” she moans when his tongue runs over her most sensitive spot, her hips arching into the air as much as she can with the extra weight that’s weighing her down. “Oh shit, oh shit. That, keep doing that.”

He growls against her core, the vibrations running over every inch of her body, but like instructed, he doesn’t change a thing. He keeps flicking his tongue against her flesh, kissing her with his lips and his tongue and his teeth. God, he’s so good at this. It’s unfair. Like, he should not be this good, but she’s really not going to complain when she gets to be the recipient. And slowly but surely her release starts to unfurl, moving from her center and outward as she melts into the bed and the blankets that her hands are holding onto for dear life.

This is good. Wonderful. Fantastic.

She’d really like for him to do that again and again and again.

But she’s really hungry.

Before she can raise her head from her pillow, Killian’s moving up her body, kissing her inner thigh, the skin still sensitive, and moving up her stomach and to her breasts, lightly kissing the rounded curves before he’s gently dragging his teeth up her neck. Finally he lands on her lips, lazily kissing her mouth all the while his hands keep moving at her breasts and down her stomach.

She might actually become one with this hotel bed if this keeps going on like this.

There would be no complaints coming from her, even if her back hurts a little bit.

So that’s a little complaint.

“You are the most glorious woman I have ever known,” he murmurs against her lips before dragging his teeth over her jaw. “Everything from the way you moan my name when you come undone to the way that your right pinky toe is a little oddly shaped.”

“Your kid might have that pinky toe.”

“And it’ll be my favorite of all of her toes,” he sighs before rolling off of her and onto his back.

“Do I – do we – ”

“No,” he answers before she can even finish the question, the mattress moving underneath her as Killian sits up and nudges her head over onto his stomach. “Your stomach has been growling like mad, and you apparently need to eat again. I can have my turn later, or not at all, but you need to eat.”

“A man who puts food over sex. Are you the perfect man? Have I finally found you?”

She sees the blush rise on his cheeks before he’s reaching down and playfully pinching her nose before his hands starts running over her stomach, tracing the curve that’s been driving her crazy lately. She’s happy, but damn, pregnancy is a bitch.

The miracle of life or whatever.

“I’m possibly the furthest thing away from perfect,” Killian whispers, and she looks up in time to see the tick of his jaw as his gaze moves from her stomach to the ceiling. “You know that.”

“Hey,” she sighs, placing her hands over his and holding him to where Ada is kicking. The tiny little flutters have turned into full on sucker punches, but they’re gentle enough right now. When it’s three in the morning, that will be another story. “Killian Jones, I love you. You are my best friend on this planet, and I choose to see the best in you every day just like you do to me.”

“I know but I – Emma, you know me. You know my past. I used to drink too much, to sleep with too many women, to aide in killing others with my job. I – I’m not the perfect man.”

She’s aware of the face that she’s still naked, that her body is still completely exposed to him when he’s still mostly clothed, but her vulnerability doesn’t seem anything like the one that she’s suddenly found Killian in.

“I was kidding, babe. I – ” She slowly moves to sit up, shuffling around the bed until she can face him, tugging a blanket up around her shoulders as her sweat dries and the air conditioning begins to chill her. Killian’s still looking away, his jaw still ticking, and her worry keeps building until he tangles their fingers together. “I know you’re not perfect. Neither of us are. What’s running through that head of yours?”

“It’s idiotic, Swan. Drop it.”

“I’m not going to drop it when you’re obviously hurting.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he barks, and she practically flinches, releasing his hand and scooting away from him while tears well in her eyes, one quickly escaping and rolling down her cheek.

“Killian – ”

“I’m going to take a shower.” He quickly gets up from the bed and moves to the bathroom, closing the door behind him as the water immediately turns on, the pipes rumbling to life all the while she’s still confused as to what the hell just happened.

What the hell did just happen?

She doesn’t…Killian literally just spent minutes with his head buried between her thighs after they went out to dinner and for a walk around the city, and then they were…talking. They were talking, weren’t they? They were talking about food because her stomach is somehow still growling, and then he…then he got pissed and stormed into the bathroom.

Now she’s sitting naked in the bed with her thighs still tingling a bit and tears rolling down her face because she’s seven months pregnant and has no idea what’s happening. None, and she can’t seem to figure it out even as she gets up off of the bed and goes to the dresser to grab a pair of pajama shorts and one of Killian’s t-shirts since most of hers don’t fit her right now. Well, they do, but they’re not oversized anymore.

They’re only in this hotel for a night so that they can have this mini babymoon, something she finds a little ridiculous, but when David and Mary Margaret offered to take Henry so she and Killian could have some time to themselves, she accepted it without question. Why Killian put away their clothes when they’re only here for a night, she doesn’t really know. She thought maybe he only did that when they were staying in a hotel for a long time.

She thought she was going to want more time, but since she and Killian are apparently now in an argument, she doesn’t know if she even wants tonight. It’s not like there’s anywhere either of them can go besides the bedroom or the bathroom.

Ada kicks in her stomach at the same time that it growls, and she presses her hand down on the spot where she seems to be determined to burst through skin. It’s so uncomfortable, but considering she gets nervous when she’s not kicking, she’ll take it.

“Are you hungry, bug?” she wonders aloud, wandering over to the menu that room service offers and flipping it open. “Mommy is hungry and kind of feeling like eating everything down in this kitchen. Would you be okay with that? Would you give me heartburn if I did that?”

She keeps talking to her stomach as she continues to flip through the menu, eventually ordering a cheeseburger and some onion rings plus a salad and some fruit for Killian since she knows the he probably doesn’t want food but she feels bad not getting anything for him. She’ll share if he does want something. It’s too expensive for her to order him something he might not eat.

Maybe she should have gotten him an omelet or something.

No, no. it’s fine. This is what he would want. It’s exactly what he would do, and she closes the book and refuses to think that she’s somehow messed up again, not that she’s entirely sure that she messed up the first time.

She’s not really sure of anything right now.

Scratch that.

She’s sure that she has to pee.

Of course she has to pee. She’s pregnant. She always has to pee, but of all the times, couldn’t her bladder have waited when her the only available bathroom is the one her boyfriend is currently sulking in?

Maybe she could go down to the lobby.

The thought alone has her bladder practically scream at her, and before she can think too much about it, she’s opening the bathroom door, thankful that Killian didn’t lock it, and wandering inside so that she can pee.

“Swan, what are you – ”

“Going to the bathroom,” she huffs, sitting down all the while she can see Killian showering through the glass pane. Usually it’d be an attractive site, but she’s miserable and mad and doesn’t care what he looks like with water dripping down the muscles of his torso.

Killian doesn’t say anything else, and she ignores the feel of his eyes on her until she’s up and washing her hands. She’s got mascara running down her cheeks, and she takes the time to wipe it off and make herself look like less of a deranged raccoon while the shower water shuts off and Killian steps out, a towel resting low on his hips as he dries his hair off.

Dammit. He’s really hot.

“Swan, you’re going to rub that skin dry if you keep doing that.”

“My eyeliner won’t come off.”

“You’ve got to – ”

“I know how to remove makeup,” she bites back, all of her anger and confusion that she’s been stewing in for the past few minutes coming to life over her eyeliner.

“Darling – ”

“No,” she cries, dropping her cloth and turning to look up at him, trying to straighten her back as much as she can to make herself taller, “you don’t get to storm off all upset and leave me confused and then try to comfort me and be sweet to me. That’s not how this works.”

“How does it work? You get to be in charge and you get to yell at me for needing time?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“It’s what you said.”

“Why are you upset?” She slaps her hands against her thighs before bringing them up to wipe at her cheeks as more tears fall. “We were talking about food, and then you…then you left. Why?”

Killian looks up at the ceiling, his jaw visibly clenching, and she watches as a drop of water from his hair trails down his cheek and falls to his balled-up fist. “You called me perfect.”

“I don’t…I don’t understand.”

“You called me perfect,” he repeats, looking down to her with glassy blue eyes, sadness practically brimming to the surface. “You called me – ” He reaches up and runs his hand over his jaw, his fingers tapping against his chin, and she has to focus on her breathing to calm herself down before she sobs again. “I know that it was in jest, love, that it was a throwaway statement, but I’ve been struggling a bit lately with some of my issues, especially with the baby.”

“Do you not want her?”

The words escape her before she can stop them, her old insecurities and issues coming out as well, but Killian doesn’t let her spiral before he’s pulling her into his embrace as much as he can, the warmth of his chest and arms enveloping her as her chest heaves and she has to stop herself from heaving her dinner.

“I want her more than anything,” he promises, the words spoken directly in her ear so that the vibrations of his voice ghost down her spine. “I want you more than anything, Henry too. I don’t want you to ever doubt that, and if I do, I’m not doing my job.”

“What’s wrong then?”

“I’m scared, Emma,” he whispers, his hand rubbing up and down her back while hers stay still on his, the fear practically paralyzing her. “I had a shit excuse of a father and then again with my step-father, so I have no examples as to how a man should treat his children or his wife…his partner. I know you and Henry love me, that you both think the world of me, but I’m not perfect. I make mistakes all of the time, and I’m terrified that I’m going to do that with our child so that I let both you and her down.”

“Killian,” she sighs, the damn tears stinging in her eyes again while she pulls back and reaches up to cup his face, holding his gaze to hers, “you’re not going to. Of course you’re going to mess up. We both are. We’ve done it with Henry, and look how good he is. You’re not perfect, but I promise I’d never ask you to be. I love you just as you are, and if you keep on loving me and our kids in the same way that you already do, everything will be fine.”

There’s a knock on the door, and Killian’s brow raises before she lets him go and backs up.

“Room service,” she explains, quickly exiting the bathroom to open the door and get their tray of food, setting it down on the little desk that’s in the room.

Killian steps out of the bathroom as well and makes his way to the dresser so that he can slip on some pajama pants, the plaid now covering his legs, before he walks toward the tray and lifts the lid on it.

“I’m guessing the salad isn’t for you.”

“It’s yours if you want it. I knew you wouldn’t want a big meal because we did just eat dinner, but I didn’t want to not get you anything. And I’ll share.”

“Aye,” he laughs, reaching down and picking up an onion ring before taking a large bit, “you will. Thank you, love.”

“Do you want to,” she starts, looking up at him with her lips pressed together while Ada kicks her stomach, “sit on the bed and eat to talk some more? I know this is not how we imagined our night, but I think we have some stuff to talk about.”

“I’d like that.”

-/-

-/-

They don’t stay in the hotel for long, really only staying for enough time to unpack, before they’re all walking back outside and finding a metro stop so that they can make their way to dinner. She doesn’t miss riding the metro, especially now that she thinks of all of the germs that Henry can pick up from holding onto the polls and that Ada can pick up from simply existing, but this is the best way to get around when they don’t want to walk enough to work up a sweat. Henry may very well think it’s the coolest thing in the world, though, so she has an even stronger feeling they’ll be riding it all week.

“How’s it feel to be back?” Neal asks her as they walk the rest of the way to the Bulletin, nearly echoing Killian’s words from earlier.

“Weird,” she answers honestly, reaching forward to grab Henry’s hand so he doesn’t wander off into the street. “I think it’ll get weirder the more places we go. Is that what it was like when you first started coming back?”

“To be fair, every place has been weird for me to come back to.” Neal flashes her his boyish smile, even with the gray in his beard, before she laughs and pats his forearm. “But yeah, it definitely was, but the first thing I did was go to that dessert place, Captain Cookie – ”

“ – and the Milkman,” she finishes for him, practically groaning as she tugs Henry back and looks behind her to make sure they haven’t lost Killian as he carries Ada. “That place was the best. We’ll have to take you there, kid.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s got cookies and superheroes,” Neal tells him. “You’d love it. There’s a lot of good places to eat we’ll have to take you after we go to the museums.”

“Daddy said there’s a museum where I can be a spy.”

“That’s a good one. We can go there. There’s also the Smithsonian, which has a lot of things you can see like space shuttles and superhero costumes from the movies. I bet there’s even some ships that you can see that are like the ones Killian and I used to work on.”

“Can we go on a real ship?”

“We can maybe go on one that’s in the museum,” Neal explains, pointing to the restaurant just ahead of them, “but we can talk about it after we eat, okay?”

-/-

The first three days of their vacation seem to breeze by as they hit as many sights for Henry as they possibly can. Between the three of them they’re able to tell him a lot of the history behind monuments, even if they have to make it as kid friendly as possible for some things. They eat enough junk food to last her for months, and if it wasn’t for all of this walking, she’s sure that she would have gained at least ten pounds. But it’s a vacation, she has to remind herself, even if she doesn’t feel relaxed. Everything she eats isn’t going to be one of Killian’s homecooked meals where things are a little healthier than normal. It’s not going to kill her to indulge in a giant ice cream sandwich that she couldn’t possibly finish eating before it melts.

Besides, it’s not like she’s the most healthy eater anyways. There’s simply usually more of a balance.

But it’s a vacation.

Plus, even Killian got himself a milkshake, and he somehow managed to get a little of it on his beard. He’s not a messy eater, at all, so she enjoyed that even if he got a little flustered by it.

The dork.

On Wednesday Neal gets them access to a tour of part of the Truman building so Henry can kind of see where he’s going to be working with the State Department. It’s interesting for her, but she can tell that Henry is bored out of his mind, so they quickly leave and make their way to the zoo. Of all the places for Henry to want to go while they’re here, she was not expecting the zoo, if only because they’ve been to enough zoos in his lifetime. But it’s what he wants, and he has a good time as they wander the paths to go to the different exhibits.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Mostly pandas, though. Okay, so just two pandas that Henry spends a lot of time looking at, and she just knows that they’re going to leave this place with an expensive stuffed animal from one of the gift shops. It’s fine. This is a vacation, and she wants Henry to be happy. Besides, this zoo is all about wildlife restoration and preservation, so hopefully he’ll learn a few things too. She thinks that’s what Killian is trying to teach him as he reads the little information guides next to all of the exhibits.

Ada starts crying in her stroller, and before it can get too loud, Emma squats down and unstraps her, picking her up and holding her to her chest as they sway back and forth. She needs to eat soon. They all do, which means they need to leave the panda exhibit at some point today.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” she soothes, rubbing her hand down Ada’s back. “You’re okay. We’re going to go inside soon and you can eat and take a nap. It’ll all be okay.”

“Do we need to go, love?” Killian asks her, walking away from the window and toward her.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Henry,” Neal starts, “let’s go get something to eat. We can look at the pandas again later.”

Henry grumbles a bit, but he listens, joining them as they look for somewhere that’s not too crowded to eat. Plus somewhere that has some shade. It’s not terribly hot here, but she’s worried about Henry getting too much sun even with all of the lotion that she’s applied.

“Neal,” someone calls, and they all stop walking to turn to see a man slowly jogging their way before he stops in front of Neal. “Neal Gold? Mate, it’s so nice to see you! What’s it been? Three years?”

“Um, I think you have the wrong guy, man,” Neal explains, flashing him a smile while Ada starts babbling to her.

“No, it’s Kyle Thomasson. We used to watch football matches at the Three Kings in London. You were in there nearly every Thursday night.”

“My last name is Cassidy,” Neal explains as he holds his hands up. “You’ve probably seen my face on TV and got a little confused. It happens to me all of the time. It’s nice to meet you, though.”

“Are you sure because I – ”

“Dada,” Ada gurgles, and she nearly drops her child, all of her focus now on the fact that she just said her first word.

“Killian,” Emma gasps, looking over to him as his gaze stays on Neal and his conversation, jaw clenching. “Killian,” she repeats, grabbing his arm until he looks at her.

“What, love?”

“Ada just said her first word.”

“Truly?�� he chuckles, one hand falling on her back while the other lands on Ada’s arm. His eyes are so blue and happy, and he doesn’t even know that she said his name first.

“Ada, will you say it again? Will you say Dada again, bug?”

Ada doesn’t seem to care that they’re waiting for a repeat performance because she goes back to holding her hand to her mouth and biting down on her fingers while she tries to coax it out of her. She needs for the kid to say it again so Killian can hear, but she knows that it likely won’t happen. That’s how it was for Henry too.

“She really said my name?” Killian asks, his voice almost in a state of bewilderment as his fingers run up Ada’s arm.

“She said Dada, clear as day.” She presses up on her toes to kiss the corner of Killian’s lips. “She’ll say it again, I’m sure. And if not, you’ll annoy her enough with it until she does.”

“I will not.”

“You most definitely will.”

“Mom,” Henry groans, and her eyes dart to him as he’s practically laid out on a fence, “I thought we were going to eat.”

“We are, we are. Your sister just said her first word.”

“Was it that she’s hungry?”

“Talk about some sass, kid,” she laughs, handing Ada to Killian so that hopefully he can hear her speak before she moves up to walk next to Henry, letting him push the empty stroller as the man Neal was talking to walks away, obviously finally accepting that he was talking to the wrong person.

Most of their afternoon is spent at the zoo so that Henry can go through all of the exhibits again, and when they leave, he has a stuffed panda toy and at least three books about all of the different animals he saw today. Ada has a little stuffed giraffe too, but that’s mostly because Killian is an absolute sucker and had to get her something too. She suspects that it’s because their daughter’s first word was Killian’s name and not hers. That’s something she’s going to be hearing for awhile, but that’s okay. Henry said her name first, and even if she was his only parent for a long time, that still means the world to her.

And he eventually got around to having a dad…and then another one. He’s a lucky kid.

Even though her feet are starting to get tired from spending the day walking around, they hop on the metro and make their way to the Potomac Park so that they can show Henry a few more memorials. The cherry blossoms are in bloom, too, so she’s kind of excited to see those as she pushes Ada’s stroller in front of her while the kid naps.

She’s living the life being able to go on a sightseeing vacation but never having to walk. Maybe in the morning they’ll spend a little extra time in the hotel so that Ada can crawl around and stand propped up against the chairs to get her energy out. Maybe they’ll spend some extra time in the hotel so that they can sleep in a little bit and rest. She tries to work out pretty regularly, but man can vacation take a lot out of her when she feels like she hasn’t sat down in days. Henry’s dragging too, so maybe tomorrow will be a relaxed day.

“You see that spot up there?” Neal points out to Henry, guiding his gaze up to a small benched area next to the river, some of the early cherry blossoms having bloomed over the pathway.

“It’s just a seat.”

“You’d think that, but that’s the spot where I asked your mom to marry me.”

Her step falters for a moment, her feet nearly tripping over her sneakers, and if she didn’t have Ada’s stroller to hold her up, she might fall to the ground. And if the burning in Killian’s eyes is any indication, he’s noticed. Of course this is the spot. She knew that. How could she forget? That was one of the happiest moments of her life. But she didn’t think that they were coming here when Neal told Henry that he knew one of the best views in the city.

Her tiredness has obviously made her forget. It’s been a big, exhausting day. She probably still smells like the elephants.

“Really? Right there?”

“Right there. I got down on one knee and asked your mom to marry me, and she said yes before she hugged me.”

“You’re not married anymore, though,” Henry points out, his voice staying at such an equal volume. He doesn’t understand the complexity of what he’s talking about, doesn’t understand the emotions. She doesn’t even understand the emotions herself. “You could always ask her again.”

Neal and Killian both let out a loud cough, the words obviously shocking them both. They’ve shocked her too, but mostly, she’s relieved that she doesn’t have to be the one to answer the hard question for once. She’s been answering them for eight, almost nine, years, and she’s going to let Neal answer this one, especially when he kind of led himself into it.

She doesn’t think she can speak with the way Killian’s eyes are still burning into her skull either. He’s been doing that a lot this afternoon, but she’s mostly thought it was because he got to experience Ada’s first word (kind of) when he usually misses so much because of work. His look now is obviously to see if she’s okay.

She’s not entirely sure if she is.

“Henry,” Neal sighs, squatting down in the middle of the path despite the fact that they’ll block foot traffic, “I love your mom a lot, but she and I aren’t going to get married again, okay? She’s with Killian, with your daddy, and one day they might get married just like one day I might marry someone else. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be our awesome kid and that we’re going to stop doing fun things like this.”

“Are you going to get married to someone who you meet here? In your new home?”

Neal shrugs, looking back at her and flashing her an amused grin. He’s doing a really good job at handling this. He probably shouldn’t have pointed out his proposal spot to Henry, but that was an easy mistake. He likely wanted Henry to know some of his history, some of their history. He should know that his parents were in love once, and this is a nice way for Neal to handle talking about it. He’s doing so well being a father and helping Henry understand that he’s not going to be around as much as he is now, and she’s so dang proud of him and proud of how he’s adjusting back to normal life. She’s proud of how he’s changed since they were together.

“I don’t know. I haven’t met her yet, but if I do, I promise that you can meet her too.”

“Do you think she’ll want to go eat pizza with us?”

“I know she will.”

“Awesome.”

Neal stands from the ground and wraps his arm around Henry’s shoulder, guiding them back into the crowd and along the pathway while Killian does the same to her, nudging her along so that she starts pushing the stroller again.

“Are you okay, darling?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she promises, sniffling the slightest bit. She’s mostly okay, but she also just watched Neal get to be a dad to their kid in a spot that is important to her, to them. That’s something she dreamed about for a long time, both when she felt alone when she was pregnant and when she actually was alone after Neal…died - disappeared. She’s always wanted Henry to have this relationship with his dad, and now he has it. It makes her heart ache but in a good way. “I knew coming back here would bring back a lot of memories, but I wasn’t expecting any of that conversation to happen.”

“Me either,” he whispers, his voice cracking the slightest bit.

It’s not something she’s proud of, especially with how much she trusts Killian, but she’s been worried about him. He’s been acting odd recently. He’s more reserved, his emotions bottled up, but whenever she’s about to say something about it, he lets her in, let’s her see what he’s thinking. They’ve been working so damn hard to fix them, to make them better. Their love has never been easy, even when it was, and she wants to fight for it. She knows Killian does too, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t worry. He’s bottled up things before about being a dad, about messing things up, and even when she feels like she knows everything about him, he surprises her.

That’s likely a good thing that they always have things to learn about each other.

And this conversation has started to drudge up the feelings she’s been hiding below the surface as well, her own little bottled up thoughts. Marriage has never been a “must have” for them. How they are has been good, and especially with how her first marriage went, she was hesitant at first. But she hasn’t been hesitant about it in years now. She’s known that it’s what she wants, has talked to Killian about it. She knows that he wants it too, that the ring is still resting in his uniform pocket. It hasn’t moved since she found in three months ago.

Has he changed his mind again? Does he not want to be with her anymore? Legally, at least. Is she too much? Are her relationships too much? Is she not enough?

Her demons are the ones telling her these things, the ones attacking her mind, and as open as she and Killian are trying to be with each other, she doesn’t want to blurt out “why the hell won’t you marry me?”

She’d definitely sound crazy, and a part of her doesn’t want to ruin his plans again like she must have done the first time. It’s Killian. He has to have a plan. He always does. He’s the most thoughtful man in the world, and he would think something like this through.

But why hasn’t he asked?

Why is she freaking out? Why is she thinking there’s some kind of wall between them when it’s just him and her, no walls, no secrets?

Why is she doing this now when they’ve had a really good day? When their daughter has had a monumental day and their son is having a great trip?

“I love you, you know,” Killian adds, pressing his lips into her temple as they walk under the cherry blossoms, the reflection of the Jefferson monument shining in the water.

“I do. I love you.”

“And I’m sorry for all of the negative thoughts that your mind is currently running through.” She almost protests, but he soldiers on. “Ah, don’t try to deny it, Swan. I know you. You’re doing a million and one ‘what if’ scenarios right now because of what just happened. Don’t do that.”

“I’m scared that we’re going to mess Henry up more than we already have.”

Killian doesn’t say anything for a long time, the two of them walking side by side in something between companionable silence and awkward silence, but then he speaks, his voice audibly broken even though she can tell that he’s trying to hide it.

“I won’t let that happen. The rest of my life is going to be spent protecting the three of you and giving you the best life possible. No matter what.”

[artisticamore]

Amethyst exited the commuter bus. She’d had a long, hard day at the restaurant and couldn’t wait to get home to soak her feet. She glanced at her watch as she walked down Main Street there weren't that many people out,  It was one o’clock in the morning. Even though there weren't many people out she still watched any and ever move those around her. Amethyst sighed in annoyance, then cringed. She needed to be more careful. Habits died hard she couldn't afford to get comfortable if she did she was as good as dead. If she made the mistake a few years back getting comfortable that she almost got caught by a group of villains.     She instantly thought about last week and how she refused to give some punks her money. She was tired. She had worked a month of double shifts getting four hours of sleep a night just so she could pay the rent and food bills. Amethyst couldn't afford to stress more so she focused on getting home and sleeping as long as she possibly could. * * * * Amethyst had paid the landlord yesterday, so she didn’t have to use the back entrance to avoid seeing him. Thoughts of a hot bath filled her head as she entered the front door. There was no security, hardly any working lights, and the place reeked of garbage. As she ascended the stairs, her stomach began to quiver. She was frightened of her landlord he could get hands when he had too much to drink, normally her brothers would deal with him but they were busy a lot lately that she rarely saw either of them unless it was on the news. The anticipation of his state if he was waiting for her was getting the best of her. 'Quit worrying and move faster', she told herself as she reached the third floor. Amethyst reached her door and placed the key in the lock. As she entered the apartment, she closed the door and threw her purse onto the couch. The house was clean it looked like one of her brothers if not both had stopped by and cleaned up for her, going by the strong smell lavender and sage in the air they either ran her a bath or used her favorite soap. Decided to take a shower instead of a bath  Amethyst stripped on her way to the bathroom  leaving a trail of clothes she'll get them later. Once cleaned she oiled up throwing on her nightie to sleep. His hunch had brought them to Paranormal Liberation Front office in the bowels of the mansion. Approximately seven months ago, his senses began to go haywire every time he saw Re-Destro or Tomura Shigaraki. His Ingenious Intellect, keen eye along with his partner's empathic abilities tipped them off to something being amiss where those two were concerned. So they began watching them and monitoring their behavior and activities. Their kate night trips to the depths of the mansion, their disappearance at days on end and telephone calls they thought no one knew about. Hawk knew that he had to play it smart and safe when it came to those two. Re-Destro was very powerful plus a genius and Tomura Shigaraki was just as deadly be know as one of the most dangerous villains in Japan. Hawk was already playing a deadly game being a double agent for The Hero Public Safety Commission. He knew he was constantly being watched from time to time. Not to say sometimes he could get far enough away from them. He just had to be extra careful Tomura Shigaraki was too smart to leave clues out now that All  For One was locked up. His keen intelligence paired with his partner's empathy they noticed more then they were supposed to like how Trumpet and Skeptic were constantly giving off anxiety on more than a few occasions.  It started a few months back, they often were seen together walking around the mansion more. They had looked over their shoulders every time they enter the boss's office or their own. Or when going to the lower levels of the mansion. Seeing it would bring to much attention to himself he never followed his partner took on that responsibility keeping to the shadows or investigating during his downtime. His partner was like him an agent too who's been uncovered for years now. His partner often reported back to him seeing Skeptic retreat to his office after his trips to the mansion ' s bowels and spending a substantial amount of time inputting information into his computer. He felt in the depth of his soul that the data was important, but he didn't know that it was about to blow apart his only means of peace because what he uncovered was one of the biggest mysteries of his life and one of the darkest secrets of the underworld. Should it get out. So he bides his time until his two targets were away and the rest of the leading members were taking take of business elsewhere. He knew that Tomura and Re-Destro were meeting with important gangs and the Yakuza while the Lieutenants had their own missions. He also knew that everyone should be back in two to four days' timem so time was of the essence. So here he was in Skeptic's office bypassing the locked doors and other security measures, downloading upon a flash drive the wealth of data and documents he had inputted into the computer over the past year. His mind was a jumbled mess as he hastily scanned the files being downloaded. Being the skilled hero he was, he was able to bypass the eight encryption passwords in a considerable amount of time he even got touch with his partner checking in, letting him know he was okay through their coms. No one had that many passwords let alone took the time to encrypt them unless they were in possession of something they didn't want to be seen. He was sure Tomura Shigaraki was keeping track of the mansion, even though he was away. He had infiltrated the League of Villians and couldn't afford any mistakes nowadays otherwise all hell would break loose. He looked at the clock above the door of Skeptic's office. It was 2:54 in the morning. He then glanced at the percentage of the data already downloaded. He had 42% to go. He rubbed his gold eyes to relieve some of their sensitivity to the light-emitting off the computer screen. As he scanned the screen his eyes coursed over the rapid movements of the scores of data and documents being downloaded. He looked at the clock again. Only fifteen minutes had elapsed since his first glance. Automatically he glanced down at the bottom of the computer screen. Almost there only 15% remained. He used what time he had left to go through the office thoroughly. Making sure he didn't miss anything important, suspicious and securing the room by removing all traces of his presence. The download was finished and the computer was waiting for his next command when he reclaimed his spot before it. Hastily, he typed in a series of commands to shut down the computer and retracted the flash drive, deftly slipping it into the pocket of his aviator jacket. Hawk looked around again to ascertain everything remained in place. Even as a proficient hero, one couldn't be too careful. When he satisfied all was well, he made his way out of the office as covertly as he could as he had entered. It wasn't often that Hawks was shocked, but when he was, it was then likely something significant earth-shattering. To say he was reading was earth-shattering was an understatement of the century. After he had left Skeptic's office, he made his way to the place he was to regroup. Anxious to read the data he had downloaded. "This is bad!"Hawk hissed. What the hell had he stumbled upon? The two folders that held the bulk of the data was labeled Weapon Armageddon and Rebirth XX and was heavily encoded. A third folder was labeled Breeding encrypted. What the...? Rebirth XX? Breeding? Weapon Armageddon? He muttered a few curses, It was to take all of his skills and concentration to decode their encryptions. What the hell was contained in these folders that they needed to be so heavily secured? He stretched out his hands, linked them together and cracked his knuckles ready to get working on the smaller file. Hawks wings trembled feathers ruffling, an uneasy feeling suddenly washing over him. A nagging voice in his head telling he didn't have much time. Sending a quick text to his partner he told them to meet him back at the apartment quickly instead. He made it across town faster than he normally would, once inside he quickly sat down at the kitchen table a pot of coffee brewing. His laptop booting up in front of him. He reaches up rubbing his temples attempting to alleviate some of the stress that weighed him down. He knew he should get some sleep to regain some of his strength  yet something told him this couldn't wait. He moved trembling hands over the keyboard picking up speed decoding the files as fast as he could. Halfway through reading the files, he was disgusted with what he was reading the documents contained detailed information containing a chilling future. Apparently, Rebirth XX was a woman with a strong nature quirk. There were little notes written here and there on other quirks similar to that on the top chosen woman. A subfolder was labeled test subject and candidates, this was where Tomura Shigaraki and the doctor came into play. They provide the genetic breakdown and of course the medicine and space needed for the operations. They were all listed by age, quirk, sex, possible quirks of children between males and females. In great detail, the woman on the list was organized by body type, occupation, family, health history, skin tone, eye shape, color. This was a breeding list! Hawk got sick as the meaning came together before him. Hawk a Ted to beat them he wanted to fly to agency ordering an all-out manhunt against sinister people he hated that he had to pretend to be one of them. He didn't think he could be any more shocked than he was, but he quickly learned that was not the case the more read. He has carefully perused the subfolder within the one that was already opened. Each page listed a female with more than thirty males all with buyer price Shifting through the folder he came to the end of the folder. The page was different then the others it was outlined and titled different. Class alpha quirk! All columns containing information one strong woman from hero's, villains and civilians. This folder scared him his sister was on this list. With alert eyes, he gleaned every information that Skeptic had collected on his sister. He was scared to read the information block to find out who she was paired with. Glancing down Hawk forced himself to read even with the sinking feeling in his chest. The candidate and buyers for his sister started with Tomura  Shigaraki and Re-Destro themselves followed by ever top-ranked villain in Japan S class through D class.   Hawk's eyes widen horror. No! No! No! There was no way in hell he going to let his baby sister be touched by such vile creatures. What the hell was he going to do? What the hell could he could for that matter he couldn't protect her he was uncover, he's been uncovered for two years now there was no way he could afford to get caught not when so many lives depend on what he finds. "Think..Think," he muttered over and over again. His sister was in danger. How was he to begin protecting her? He pushed his laptop aside getting up pacing the kitchen. He stopped mid-stride when a thought popped into his head. It definitely had merits and it would most definitely could work. He was going to send Amethyst to one of the top hero's hopefully he could get one of the top ten to protect his sister. The sound of a front door pulling up broke him out of his thoughts. He glanced over to the digital clock on the stove. Damn, he been up way too long! It was 4:30 in the morning. That had to be his partner, but he remembered him coming in not even thirty minutes after him. When did he leave and why? "You finally calm?" Dabi greeted him. "Yes where did you go?" he asked. Dabi held up a burner phone and a small carry on bag. "I was getting our little gem some stuff, I read over your shoulder she needs to leave tonight I don't want to take any chance on her being caught since there isn't a date for her capture. By looking at the file on her it seems they know everything except where she lives she can't stay here any longer. There's no time to lose she needs  to be out and the house empty by nightfall." "You're right to let's go wake her up she needs to be gone now!" Hawk walked with Dabi following him to their sister's room. They were going to miss her!

[jamespottervevo]

painted red (to fit right in) 1/3

James Potter is Spider-Man, and no one gave him an instruction manual.

He really could have used that manual. 

Spiderman!AU | no movie spoilers | 7.k words | ao3  

thank you to @frxddi @n0tromulus and @sitienessuficientecoraje for beta reading!

(if you showed any above average interest in this fic [yes I read tags bc I crave validation], I’m going to tag you here- @elanev91 @magic-girl-in-a-muggle-world @frustratedpoetwrites @cornerforward13 @padfootdidit) 

CHAPTER 1: i feel it in my bones

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

James Potter came to in handcuffs. Again. Sirius kept a tally, for some asinine reason, of all the times he woke up handcuffed. Specifically in public. Not that he made a habit of being handcuffed in private either, that would make things a bit awkward around the house, paper thin walls and all that. He would never be able to look his mum in the eye if she walked in on him in cuffs, or the suit for that matter. He really didn’t want her to walk in on him in the suit. Not because he didn’t like it! He looked pretty sick in red after all. It was just- James took a breath, blinked once, then twice, then tried desperately to ignore the ache that had found a home at the base of his skull.

He was in the back of a squad car and for some inexplicable reason, no one had thought to try and peel off his mask. James supposed that, in the officers’ defense, the seam was really hard to find sometimes. But, on the other hand, what was with the police in New York? Had they even been trained or had they just been given a gun and told to shoot brown people?- something very fucking unfortunate for James.

He looked back down at the cuffs on his wrist, jangling them a bit to see if by some miracle the cops had forgotten to actually lock the damn things, but no dice; maybe they had been trained after all. At least they’d been so kind as to cuff him in the front. He could work with that. His eyes flicked toward the rear view mirror and he watched as a few officers milled about, surveying the scene, chatting loudly, kicking garbage, generally being vaguely scummy in a sort of indistinct way. He grit his teeth and cracked his neck, bouncing just a bit in the seat to garner up some sort of energy, to shake off the fucking jackhammering going on in his skull.

He twisted in the seat, as subtle as he could manage before kicking at the door, hard, and knocking it open. (It occurred to James later that he could have just used the handle.) Okay, so maybe he really needed to work on that whole “not alerting every cop in the area to his escape” thing, but he was like, sixty percent sure he might have had a concussion.  He couldn’t be blamed for the stupid things he did while most likely concussed, but he knew for a fact that Sirius wouldn’t let him live it down once the video footage broke.

But right,- cops, staring at him and yelling, hands drifting to weapons. James took another deep breath and pretended his head wasn’t a few seconds off from exploding before he began running, feet hard and fast hitting the pavement. He couldn’t see, sensory overload the helpful little voice in his head supplied as he jumped over a fire hydrant, down the sidewalk, sirens starting to blare behind him again. Everything was too much. Too much light, too many colors, too much movement. He picked up on it all and felt like he might throw up his Cheerios. He really shouldn’t have had that second glass of chocolate milk either.

“Come on, come on,” James mumbled, eyes dating;  he just had to find a building tall enough… He grinned as he turned the corner, all but smacking right into a beautiful skyscraper. Okay, maybe it was a little ugly but it was absolutely perfect. He glanced over his shoulder, the police turning the corner. James flicked his wrist, and offered the police officers a wave as the web shot from his hand and plastered itself to the wall up ahead.

“Well, officers, it’s been a ple-” He cut off as the force of the web retracting finally grabbed him, yanking him off toward the wall at a speed that was definitely not safe for the concussion he definitely had or the breakfast he was definitely going to throw up. He’d never thrown up in the mask and he absolutely refused for that first to happen while being chased by a few very angry cops while handcuffed.

Webslinging? Much harder while handcuffed he might add.

But cuffed or not, the feeling still opened up some part of him. Like...magic. Everytime he was in the air, James felt more alive than he thought should be allowed. Like every breath he’d ever held suddenly rushed out of him, no weight to burden him. Nothing had ever made him feel quite so real. It was as close to flying anyone could ever get, he reasoned.

Well. Flying with a little more thought, he amended, as he shot another web, twisted his body to avoid slamming head first into a billboard. Something about lotion. Or maybe yogurt. He hadn’t been able to get a clear picture while hurtling past at breakneck speed. But it had looked like Jamie Lee Curtis, so probably yogurt.

While yes, being in the air, grabbing buildings and flagpoles and billboards to swing and throw himself farther and farther away from the cops was nice (breathtaking, spectacular, fucking fun), it didn’t exactly stop his head from threatening to explode. Had the sun always been that fucking bright? When the sirens started to fade out into nothingness behind him, James began trying to find his alleyway.  

Despite what the papers said about him, he didn’t think he was a “public menace” at all! Sure, maybe he still hadn’t quite got a hang of the whole “hero” thing yet, but it’s not like anyone ever gave him a manual. Couldn’t just google “am I a spider?” or “how to be a superhero?” - though, he did think there was a wikifact article on that one actually- or even “how to look good in spandex?” And yes, maybe he’d tried to google that one.

But.

Just because knew he couldn’t truthfully be labeled a public menace, it didn’t necessarily mean people, you know. Agreed with him. So landing in the street? Not a good plan. Besides, all of his belongings were stashed away behind a dumpster and a cleverly placed board in the alley behind the Indian grocery near home. It took a few more swings before he caught sight of the familiar signs and swung himself down into the alley. His nose scrunched. Oh god. He’d forgotten it was garbage day. But beggars couldn’t be choosers, he supposed as his feet hit the ground. He stumbled, having momentarily forgotten that he had definite brain damage and also was handcuffed and probably could taste color thanks to the overstimulation.

James gave his surroundings a cursory glance- he had to be quick about this- before yanking his wrists apart, hard, splitting the cuffs with a satisfying CRACK! Fucking hurt though. And now he just had two locked on bracelets. And still had his suit on. And-

His phone was going off.

James’ train of thought slowed as he heard the blaring saxophone riff of “Careless Whisper” increasing in volume from inside his suit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. His alarm. Throwing another glance around the alleyway first, James ripped off his mask, hair standing straight up and undoubtedly looking like a rats nest. George fucking Michael was going to get him caught in a skeevy alleyway, half dressed, in handcuffs. Is this what his life had come to? Goddamnit. He hoped his mom didn’t put all that information in his obituary after she definitely murdered him for galavanting about as a superhero without her permission.

After a bit more fumbling, he managed to unzip his suit and shove his hand into it, silencing his “hey dumbass it’s time for school” alarm. Because he was a dumbass who was definitely going to be late for school. James looked around hopelessly, as if he could find a magical key somewhere in the alley that would let him get the fucking cuffs off.

What a sight he bet he was- half dressed in his Spider-Man suit, squinting without his glasses, wobbling from the concussion. James paused, and reached out to steady himself by throwing a hand onto the wall.

His (wildly out of focused) eyes landed on a mostly distinguishable blur. Huh. So, maybe it wasn’t a key, but a pipe should work, right? Without much thought (because, as James would admit, he rarely did anything with much thought) he slammed his wrists down onto the pipe as hard as he could.

The metallic clang echoed through the alley and he had to bite back a cry of pain as the reverberations shook through his wrists, but the cuffs snapped off. A couple bruises were nothing new! He’d be fine!

James spent a few more moments fumbling in the alley. Nearly falling headfirst in the dumpster while reaching for his backpack. (He’d learned his lesson and had wrapped the bag in a quadruple layer of plastic grocery sacks to keep the Garbage Reek off of it.) Tripping over his own feet as he stripped out of the suit. Almost tearing a gigantic fucking hole in his t-shirt as he tried to get it on over his head. He was doing great.

Once he was finally changed and his suit was hidden and his backpack was de-plasticed, James glanced down at his phone. Fuck. Fuck. 7:39. He couldn’t exactly websling his way to class and he’d told his parents he was spending the night with Remus so it’s not like he could manage a ride off them. Fuck.

 ----------------------

 james potter to Big Chungus: anyone near devars rn?

sirius black: tf u at devars for at 7 in the morning

sirius black: ik we have ladoo at home unless ur fatass ate all of them

remus lupin: I’m pretty sure that pete ate most of the pack james thought he’d hid in that hollowed out book on his shelf

peter pettigrew: you promised you wouldn’t tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!

james potter: 1) hate all of u.

james potter: 2) not about snacks just need a ride so come get me

remus lupin: be there in five you absolute jackass

remus lupin: but I want some of those chickpea things from the store as payment

remus lupin: the ones with the peanuts with them

james potter: literally said this wasn’t about snacks like two secs ago. Not even in the store

remus lupin: u want a ride? Bc this is about snacks now jim

james potter: ...which size bag do u want

 ----------------------

 The thing was, he’d never meant to be a hero.

He hadn’t purposefully shoved his hand into a creepy spider’s weird science prison containment cage during the field trip to RidCorp. Hadn’t gone out of his way to bend metal pipes in half on accident (that had been a shock to say the least). Hadn’t woken up one morning with the intention of sticking to walls. Door handles. Stairway railing at school. James Potter had been happy! Never wishing he had more or could be more or should be more.

Because he loved his life! He loved his parents and his friends. He played soccer and helped carry the debate team to victory and fucked around in some of his classes! No seventeen year old in their right mind would purposefully go out of their way for that sort of responsibility! He barely remembered to take out the garbage- of course he never meant to become a hero!

He’d also not meant to accidentally save Lily Evans’ life.

But life just had a way of intervening, didn’t it?

 ----------------------

 “You’re staring.”

James jolted slightly, glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. Sirius made himself comfortable far too close to James’ ear before throwing himself down at their usual lunch table.

He decided not to grace Sirius with a response and instead rubbed his neck, pretended he wasn’t thirteen different types of pathetic. “I was not staring- I mean. No, what? Who would I have even been staring at?” Smooth, Potter, he thought, really fucking smooth. Inconspicuous.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he swung his backpack from his shoulders and dropped it to the floor with an unceremonious thud. James flinched at the sound. (Concussed, remember? A week later and he was still dealing with headaches) A few people glanced their way, but it wasn’t as if Sirius seemed to care. Well, James reasoned, he probably had done it for the attention in the first place. James adjusted his glasses, concentrated quite fiercely at a place on the wall, poked at his food with little intention of actually eating.

Sirius snorted. “So you mean to tell me that you weren’t staring at Evans then?” The lilt to his voice made it very apparent that yes, Sirius knew that he’d been staring at Evans and was now being the world’s largest dick about the fact.

Before James could continue his scathing silent treatment, Remus sank into his customary seat. “Oh, no, James was definitely staring at Lily,” he provided. Traitor.

James pulled his phone out from his pocket and finally tore his gaze away from the very intriguing concrete wall and tapped out a message.

james potter to remus lupin: et tu brute

He set down his phone with a huff. “I was not fucking staring at Evans,” he lied. Poorly. Because as he spoke, his gaze shifted back toward her direction. James only vaguely registered Remus’s scoff at the text message because…

God.

Lily E. Evans (so he may have glanced at her student ID. Once… Okay, four times) happened to be the singularly most beautiful person he’d ever met. Fuck, that he’d ever seen. And that included Kim Possible, who he may or may not have had a fat crush on as a kid. (He had a type, okay? The guys never ceased to give him shit over that, but resolutely, James refused to be shamed for the level of self awareness he was positive people would be plenty jealous to achieve.) Evans blew everyone else out of the water.

He loved her hair- thick and red with impossibly good looking bangs. (James melted whenever she pulled it into a ponytail and had managed to fucking fail gym class freshman year because he was distracted. Over a ponytail. Gym class! He was a student athlete!) Her eyes that he could have composed sonnets about if he knew how to do that sort of thing. Her dimples. Freckles. The stubbornness written into her chin, her jaw. Her eyes. Her eyes. Her eyes.

Then there was the way she laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder and only ever used purple InkJoy pens. The fact she laced her boots to the very top and tucked in the excess. How when she seemed anxious, she’d put on cherry lip balm like a nervous tick. The way she always knew the answers to anything Slughorn asked before James could even comprehend the question. How she gave tours to all the new students and never faked a smile. God. Then there was her smile. He’d thought a lot about her smile. How to make her smile at him instead of scowl. Huff. Frown.

Evans was...was an angel. A goddess. A-

“You’re literally about to start drooling.” Peter snapped James from his reverie. The tater tot that hit him in the face shortly after helped as well.

James snatched the weaponized tot off the table and popped it into his mouth. “No I wasn’t,” he lied once again, this time around the food in his mouth. He swallowed. Stole another one of Pete’s tater tots. When had he sat down anyway? Had he been that enthralled in Evans-land (again)?

Unable to help himself, James took one last glance in Evans’ direction before the undoubtable barrage of soggy potatoes could commence.

Her head was thrown back as she laughed, a featherlight hand on Snape’s shoulder. His stomach clenched.

Evans was a pipe dream.

 ----------------------

 sirius black to peter pronounced venti wrong three separate times in the starbucks line: take bets, is minnie gonna let us pick our groups for this project

peter pettigrew: i hadn’t slept in 40 hours! Bc you made me stay up! Watching every fucking fast and furious movie

peter pettigrew: and then made me give analysis after each one

peter pettigrew: and keep a comprehensive ranking of them

remus lupin: pete did you drink three venti coffees????????

sirius black: he got thru one before he said “his heart was going to burst”

james potter: jesus christ dude

james potter: but tokyo drift is obviously the best

remus lupin: isn’t gal gadot in some of those?

remus lupin: my mother keeps telling me to find a nice jewish girl think she’d be okay with this?

sirius black: jim ur opinions are trash, pete ur coffee habits are wack, remus I keep telling u we’re soulmates god. Now FOCUS.

sirius black: groups. for. project.

remus lupin: dude of course she’s not letting us work together

james potter: yeah do u like...not remember what happened last time

remus lupin: pete still can’t eat spaghetti

peter pettigrew changed chat name to PTSD (post traumatic spaghetti disorder)

 ----------------------

 He died. That had to be what had happened, right? Maybe all the brain trauma he’d been hiding from his parents had finally caught up to him. What movie was it where everything turned out to have all been a dream? Because that was another likely situation. Really, anything felt more plausible than McGonagall- Minnie, his guardian-fucking-angel, a saint on Earth- pairing him with Lily E. Evans for the history project.

James did a great job pretending he hadn’t seen the less-than-thrilled look on Evans’ face when the pairing was announced. Because he was living. The project meant he’d have an excuse to talk to her without coming across as a creep. That he’d be able to spend time with her outside of school.

Pathetic? Oh, definitely. But James couldn’t make himself care because Evans’ number was written in purple ink, tidy little numbers, on the back of his hand. He may or may not have memorized it before class had even ended. So yeah. Pathetic.  Happily, happily pathetic.

James kept looking down at his phone.

lily (love of my life) evans: meet me at the nat. history museum by on the front steps?

lily (love of my life) evans: 5:30 okay?

James knew without a doubt that if Evans had asked him to show up at four in the morning and wait all day, he would have without question. So 5:30? No problem. It gave him a little extra time for his patrols too! (Admittedly, he was the only one keeping track of his patrols, but it wasn’t like he should sit by and do nothing, not with the powers he’d been given. Right? Right.)

James couldn’t wipe the grin off his face, not even when he ducked into the closest abandoned alley to change. This time, he’d managed the foresight to wear most of his suit on under his school clothes, save for the mask and gloves. He was learning, thank you very much.

He could only imagine what he looked like, swinging from building to building while still wearing his backpack. (A text from Sirius informed him that he “looked like a whole ass fucking weeb.”)

Swinging from one building to the next, just listening, focusing, he let his senses kick into overdrive to pick up anything unusual. Since the bite, the world had grown too loud, too much, at times. James learned how to turn it off, eventually, but it took him time. Days of headaches and nausea and blurry vision, days when he could suddenly see the flecks of dry skin on Pete’s cheek from across the room. When he could smell Evans’ perfume tables away in Minnie’s class and he nearly fainted. It definitely took time. But he liked to think he’d gotten better at it all. At trying to be a hero, using his powers.

He hadn’t...done much, admittedly. He’d helped that one woman get back into her car; he’d climbed up onto the roof to grab a basketball for some kids. Oh, he’d gotten back a stolen bike, chased down a purse snatcher. Pulled a kid from the street to avoid a jackass on a motorcycle. Small things. Good things, but small things. He’d only been at this for a few months- just long enough for the police to hate him on sight and the Daily Prophet to label him a menace just because he may have accidentally done some light property damage. Maybe.

But doing nothing? Now that felt like a waste. James swung up onto the edge of a roof, plopped down to make himself comfortable, and tugged off his mask. He gulped down fresh air and tilted his head back, letting the wind rush over his face. The building was too tall for anyone to be able to make out his face from down below, or at least he hoped that was the case.

After a little more fumbling, James pulled his phone from his suit and began tapping at the screen while still wearing his gloves. Of course, that didn’t fucking work because it never worked. He huffed and yanked a glove off with his mouth, his other hand pressed against the ledge for balance. He could just imagine his obituary if he fell.

“James Potter was beloved by everyone except his mother who he’s going to send into an early grave because of his shenanigans. He looked like a fool and at the very least could have worn a jacket. He fell off the building because he never ate his ratha poriyal because his brother told him it would make him turn into a Chupacabra. It’s a miracle they didn’t fall off the roof together. He leaves behind a messy room and an angry cat who has begun peeing everywhere in retaliation. In lieu of flowers, send a cleaning crew.”

So he held onto the ledge.

Evans hadn’t texted yet, which meant he still had a little longer to kill before showing up at the museum like a lovestruck fool. James took a few minutes to absently scroll through Twitter, check his email, stockpile a few memes for the guys later. He snapped off a selfie, angling it just right before sending it to the groupchat, just to flex.

 ----------------------

 Casual. Casual. He could do casual. He could definitely do casual. Casual? Not an issue. James Potter was smooth as fuck. He kept his focus on the soccer ball in his hands as he stared up at the stucco ceiling. He tossed the ball in the air, caught it, repeated. Toss. Catch. Toss. Catch.

“So,” he began, fighting the waver in his voice. These were his best friends. They’d understand. Right? They’d believe him. “You guys heard about Spider-Man?” Saying it out loud felt like coughing up dust.

Sirius glanced over from his nest in the beanbag chair, raised an eyebrow, shifted slightly. Remus made a soft, disgruntled sort of sound as Sirius moved and made a bit of a show of adjusting his legs across his lap, draped from where he sat in James’ desk chair.

“You mean the dude that’s been running around in pajamas?” Remus asked, scowled down at Sirius who had simply started wiggling in the seat. Ever the help, Pete began tossing licorice bites across the room to Sirius to further egg on his wiggles. Well. Maybe hinderance, based on Remus’s look as he bapped Sirius on the head with his novel before looking over at James. Sirius caught a bit of licorice in his mouth and he and Pete threw their arms up in triumphant glee. “I’ve seen him on the news some, yeah.”

The ball was in midair as he began to sputter, sitting up. “He does not wear pajamas!”  Without sparing a glance, James stuck his hand out and caught the soccer ball in his open palm. Remus looked mildly impressed. Mildly. High praise, really.

Peter chewed on a piece his of licorice. “No, I agree with Remus. He’s definitely wearing pajamas,” he mumbled around his candy after taking his time to come to that conclusion. A conclusion James had hoped would be rational and obvious because of course Spider-Man didn’t look like he was wearing pajamas.

Sirius snorted, tapping away at his phone. “You’re just agreeing with Remus because he’s smart,” he deadpanned, gaze unwavering. Instagram, if James had to guess. But!

“So you agree with me then, right? He’s clearly not wearing pajamas!” James exclaimed, relief almost obvious in his tone. He set the soccer ball down. Uh. Fuck. Okay. His hand was stuck. He casually just...left it there. On top the soccer ball. Like anyone would do.

Sirius let out another snort. This time his eyes wandered over the edge of his phone to land on a perfectly, totally chill, super normal James who just happened to like resting his hand on a soccer ball. “What? Fuck no, of course it looks like he’s in pajamas.”

“But-”

“Remus is smart, not wrong.”

James was melting. God. Okay. Just be calm. Don’t make things weird. Take it eas- “I’m Spider-Man!” He shouted, cut himself off when he remembered they were in his bedroom and his parents were home and he didn’t need the wrath of Euphemia Potter at six o’clock on a Tuesday. “I’m Spider-Man.” He repeated, a little quieter, a little calmer.

This time, it was Remus who broke the silence first. With a surprised yelp of laughter. He set down his book and looked at James, nose wrinkled in amusement. It made him look younger, James realized, the nose thing. “Dude, c’mon. You’re telling me that you, James Fleamont-”

“God don’t remind me-”

“- Potter are Spider-Man,” Remus finished, the corners of his lips tugged up into a cheeky grin.

James suddenly felt, oh what was the word? Re-fucking-gret.

“Do you not remember freshman year gym with Hooch? Because,” Sirius started, “I do. You fell from the top of the rope climb and smacked your bigass head onto the gym floor. You threw up. We all watched you throw up.”

James could have done without the fucking laughter in his tone. Brother who? No. He was an only child from there on out. “Okay that was only because I saw Evans do this thi-”

“You also fell down the stairs last month, like, all of the stairs,” Peter chimed in because of course! Clearly it was mock-James-during-his-big-dramatic-alter-ego-reveal-moment-time! “A lot of people saw that too,” he added with clearly careful thought, fucking reminiscing about James falling headfirst down the stairs. As if he didn’t have enough brain damage already.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Without thinking (wow, he had a habit of not thinking) James flicked his wrist and shot out a web, snatching Sirius’s phone from his hand.

The room went very...very quiet. The trio turned to look at him, faces blank, as if their reactions were buffering and then Sirius opened his mouth-

“What the FUCK.”

 ----------------------

 peter pettigrew to SPIDERJAMES??????????????????????: okay so can u lay eggs

james potter: dude wtf no??????

sirius black: okay r u sure tho? Like have u really tried to lay an egg?

james potter: why. the fuck would i try to lay an egg??

peter pettigrew: science

james potter: I don’t lay eggs.

remus lupin: what happens when you masturbate

james potter: I do NOT want to answer that

sirius black: yknow, also p invested in jim not answering that

peter pettigrew: ………morbidly curious

remus lupin: it’s just as valid as asking about eggs.

james potter: I regret telling all of you anything ever in my life

james potter left the chat

remus lupin changed chat name to spidersemen? is it a thing.

sirius black: im so uncomfortable

remus lupin: good. hard questions should make you uncomfortable

peter pettigrew: ha! Hard.

sirius black: u were so pure before we were friends

remus lupin: you don’t know my life.

 ----------------------

 James shifted on the roof, slipped his phone back into his suit. 5:06. He had exactly 24 minutes to get get to the museum, change, and make himself look perfectly loveable to be just on time to meet Evans. Right. Super duper reasonable! He swung his legs around from the edge of the roof, moving back onto solid ground and grabbing his backpack in one fluid motion. The museum was...James squinted, used his finger to point as he counted, six blocks away. He could totally handle that in 24 minutes.

Wait. Mask. Right. He bent down to swipe his mask off the roof ledge when his body went cold. His muscles tightened, the hair on the back of his neck standing up as a creeping feeling rolled up his spine. He could hear see smell taste everything oh god there was a baby crying down the street- pizza- cat being chased- woman yelling on the phone- trashcan.spiderwebonthefireescape.taxisnearlycolliding.tacotruckemptyinggrease-Hey Get Out Of Her- No I Didn’t Tell Him Ab- I Love You Have A Good D- Yeah I Got The Shit It’s-

James let out a sharp gasp and broke focus, his hand curled tight around his mask. It happened, sometimes, an overload like that. The kind that made every nerve in his body go into hyper-super-what-the-fuck sensitive mode. He felt it, all the time, really. Walking down the street. When he answered the front door. When he saw the police. He didn’t have to have the suit for that.  He once tried to explain it as anxiety dialed up to fifty, when there was danger, his body reacted. Like an allergy.

Without a doubt, that spider-sense never led to anything good, especially not when the feeling came across that violently. And in that moment, all James could hear, smell, think was “Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

James yanked his mask on, took a deep breath. Focused.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

He started to run and without hesitation, threw himself off the roof, arms spread, a nose dive. A leap of faith that he wasn’t about to do something incredibly stupid. Focus. James shot out a weh on instinct, catching a fire escape and throwing himself higher, faster.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

Close. James was close. His body felt tense, on edge. He swung around a building and nodded at the wide-eyed woman in the passing window, waved. He heard the slam of a car door. A van. An alley.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

He landed with a loud, metallic thunk, a creak as the fire escape settled under his weight. James winced, scrunched his eyes shut, said a little prayer that the men didn’t hear him. He quickly ducked behind a comically small potted plant and prayed that would be enough.

Slowly, James peered around the plant, nudging one of the leaves out of the- weed. He was hiding behind a cutesy terra cotta pot of weed on someone’s fire escape. Okay then. He stored that information away for later and took everything in.

A nondescript black van sat parked in the alley, one of the back hatch doors swung open. James could just barely make out a few cardboard boxes stacked in the back. Two men stood to the side, backs turned to James’ hiding place. One in a hoodie, a cigarette in one pale hand. One in a button up shirt tucked into dress pants.

“How much more is he gonna need?” Hoodie asked. His voice hadn’t seemed to have dropped. Young sounding. James scooted a little closer, pushing the plant for cover and immediately regretted the action as the pot scraped across the metal grating. Loudly. Whoopsie.

He studied Hoodie, nose scrunched as he wondered why a teenager wou- oh. If that was a teenage dude’s ass, he was definitely going to have to reevaluate some things later. People did always think that Sirius was his boyfriend which like, gross? They were practically related and he’d seen Sirius’s dental hygiene habits up close and he did not want to get personal. If he’d date any of his friends, obviously it would be Remus. Was that even a question? Actually, Pete would be rather supportive no matter what.

James frowned. He did have a bit of an obsession with George Michael- He paused the steamrolling thoughts and just...filed that crisis away for later.

Button Up shifted, folded his arms over his chest. “Unsure. The experiments have been going as we’d hoped, but it’s not even close to passing under FDA regulations.” Button Up sighed and pulled a bulky looking phone out of his back pocket. James squinted. Was that a flip phone? Who the fuck still used a flip phone?

Button Up held a finger up to Hoodie and brought the phone up to his ear. The three waited, James with baited breath, Hoodie with restless posture and puffs of smoke, Button Up with a perfectly blank face.

Hoodie moved her weight from one foot to the other and pulled her hand from her pockets. She pushed the hood of her sweatshirt off, revealing a mess of dark, curly hair. She took a drag off her cigarette. Exhaled. “Look, I’m in a hurry here. Your boss has my number if he needs anymore, but he’s gotta remember that my supplier takes his time with this. I won’t be able to pull this much out of my ass again.” Hoodie spoke around the cigarette in her mouth, blew smoke toward the van.

Button Up didn’t glance in Hoodie’s direction. “Yes. Hello sir! I- yes...no we didn’t run into any issues- Five boxes as ordered, I’ll be...Uh. Yes. I’ll ask.” He snapped his phone shut, cleared his throat. “He wants five more shipments, as well as a few...test subjects. Double the pay if you get it done by the end of the month.” Button Up cleared his throat, moved as if adjusting a tie.

Hoodie nodded once, then twice, dropped her cigarette butt to the ground and extended her hand. Button Up clasped it in a way so professional, it was almost funny. “He better, or else. Don’t think the boss would like it too much if the Prophet caught wind of this, now would he?” There was confidence in her tone, another shift in her posture. Holding her head up higher. Power, James realized. Whatever this was, the cards were in her hands.

Button Up withdrew his hand and turned away from Hoodie, closing the back door of the van. James’ body thrummed with energy, jittered. They’d not said anything illegal, but he knew better than to doubt his spidey sense. He needed to do...something. Follow one of them or catch one in a web or… Something.

In his moment of internal debate, James had missed Hoodie’s retreat, leaving Button Up to focus on. He turned toward the fire escape as he rubbed his temples and James got a decent look at his face. He felt...a little disappointed honestly. No super badass scars or tattoos, and he wasn’t that good looking. He looked plain, forgettable. Hanging from his shirt was a security badge. James couldn’t quite make out the words, but he recognized the logo.

RidCorp. The pioneer and leader in innovation when it came to new pharmaceuticals and genetics, RidCorp was the public’s darling when it came to the future. Cures for cancer and growing new organs and...James had just watched an employee make a shady deal in an empty alleyway.

He didn’t hesitate. When Button Up turned once again, started to walk toward the driver’s side door, James dropped down from the fire escape with a THUMP. He took a moment to prop a hand on the wall, cross his ankles as he leaned. Button Up swivelled on his heels, fast.

James wiggled the fingers on his free hand. “This looked like a lot of fun. Can I join in? I’m a great conversationalist!” He wished he had a camera to capture the look of absolute “what the fuckery” on Button Up’s face.

“Shit,” Button Up hissed as he leapt into the van and slammed the door shut. Before James had the foresight to memorize the license plate, Button Up was speeding off down the alley. The van made a violent turn into the street and was reasonably met with angry honks and shouts.

James grinned, shot a web, and let the momentum carry him after the van. Button Up hadn’t managed to get very far before James caught sight of him again. He kept up the pace of webswingjump, webswingjump, until he was close enough to land a web onto the top of the van.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to swing from superpowered spiderwebs in a very crowded city, down a very crowded street, without drawing attention.

“Is that Spider-Man?”

“Who’s he chasing?”

“God that costume’s stupid looking!”

That comment was just hurtful, but it wasn’t as if he had time to stop and argue with a random New Yorker. He perched on the roof of the van as Button Up sped down the street, veering in a way that clued James into the fact he was trying to be shaken off.

He stuck himself to the roof with one hand as he bent over, upside down in front of the windshield. “Use the spray,” he shouted, pointed down at the wipers, “I’m sure that’ll help! Usually gets bugs off!” He gave a thumbs up and Button Up slammed on his brakes. The suddenness of the stop dislodged James from the roof and if it weren't for his reflexes kicking in, he’d have flown headfirst into the street. Instead, he fired off a web and swung himself up onto the side of a building, breathing hard.

The van started moving again as James carefully tried to come up with a plan. He’d not expected to get nearly so far. He couldn’t let Button Up get away!  Before he could undoubtedly have his brilliant lightbulb moment, police sirens began blaring in the background. Oh fuck.

He looked around, glad for the mask to hide his panic. Sirens. Sirens. Sirens. James tilted his head. A few blocks out still, it sounded, but that didn’t exactly give him much time-

Time. He threw a panicked glance over his shoulder toward the clock hanging off a department store front. 5:26. Evans. James looked back and the van was...gone. Fuck. The police were closer; the van was gone; he couldn’t be arrested again; Evans was going to kill him.

After a moment of deliberation, James started to websling, throwing around his weight as he flung himself up in the air, higher and higher, quicker and quicker, to get to the museum in time. Evans would make that face at him if he was late, the one that made him want to retract into his own body and wither away. Disappointment.

His heart pounded and James could hear it in his ears, breathing fast and hard and his hands were so sweaty. When he finally caught sight of the museum, a wave of relief washed through his body because not only did he see the museum, but a blur of red hair just turning down the sidewalk.

He was going to be on time. Sweaty. But on time. He swung in closer, aiming for the alley around the corner. Evans wasn’t going to hate him. She’d fall in love with him for knowing the names of all the dinosaurs and they’d get married and have the cutest child and- no. no. no. no. no.

James’ body went ice cold.

The scaffolding over the entrance where workers were taking down a metallic spider.  

The giant hunk of metal slipping out of place.

Falling. Falling. Falling.

He didn’t think.

He just moved.

It happened faster than even James could comprehend.

The screaming. The warnings. The panic.

A girl looking up too late.

The spider was too big for James to simply push the girl clear of its path. So he shot a web at her waist and pulled her into his chest, curling around her as he threw both hands up to catch the spider as it fell. (Talk about irony.) The weight of it all sent vibrations down his arms and he couldn’t breathe, too high off adrenaline, couldn’t think.

And then… quiet. People stunned into silence around him on the steps, shocked workers up above, the girl no longer screaming in his arms. James gave a grunt and dropped the spider to the side, let his arms drop.

He panted as he looked down and met a pair of green green eyes. Those eyes. Evans stared up at him in wonderment. Relief. Whatever it was, James wanted to savor the moment.

He cleared his throat, stepped away, put his hands on his hips because that’s what superheroes did right? “Alright, E- Miss?” He forced his voice lower. As low as he could make it. Pretended it didn’t crack when he spoke.

Evans blinked up at him, her shoulders shaking. He loved the coat she wore, it matched her eyes- oh god, she’d been talking. “- I...thank you,” Lily finished, hiccuped. James grinned because no one could see.

Admiration. That was the look in her eyes. He didn’t know what to say.

Sirens picked up volume in the background. Cops and an ambulance, James distinguished. Someone in the crowd had probably called 911. Right. The cops definitely still hated him. His feet did not want to move but after a few seconds of internal wrestling- he could just yank his mask off right, show Evans that he wasn’t an entire jackass- James flicked his wrists and fired off a web.

Then he finally spoke “I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” he continued trying to sound like Batman, let the web start to pull him away, “that’s what I’m here for!” God. He needed a better catchphrase. But Evans eyes were still on him and she seemed so adoring that he nearly forgot to fire off another web to keep from landing face first in the street.

He had spidey sense, not common sense.

When he wrapped the corner, he could already hear the chatter from the crowd picking up intensity, the sirens halting as the emergency responders arrived at the museum entrance.

The thought hit him as he landed in an alleyway. Evans was going to think he was so late to their meetup.

Fuck.