#he goes back for hunting dogs meeting and it's right there in front of everyone
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Honeysuckle’s don’t cover the devils scent
[part 1/?]
Chrollo x Librarian!Fem!Reader
Description: Reader owns a Library in a small village on a tiny island. Chrollo is looking for a specific book to read. He goes to the library looking for the book on several occasions each time it was checked out on the upside (or is it?)he starts to take a liken to a certain librarian.
Backstory: Reader was a hunter but gave up on her dreams when she was 17 (She’s not a good fighter but does know a lot about nen) not wanting to waste the rest of her life she just decided to settle down and make memories in the village.
Warnings: !!!None so far just bad writing!!!
My fingers grazed over titles of books I knew by heart. I found the place the novel went and put the book about astronomy in its rightful place. I stood back up my oversized cardigan lifting from the floor. My feet sluggishly moved to the children’s section putting toys and coloring pages away until I heard the bell chime admittedly lighting my mood. A young stranger in an even stranger outfit.
(Change of POV)
There were finger puppets and pencils scattered on a tiny table. It piqued my interest but also worried me that this was a children’s library. A young woman approached me. Her hair [Unless you don’t have any :/] was (h/l) and a beautiful (h/c). She wore a big cardigan and pants that where too big and a little stained perhaps was paint or spilled food with a plain black top with pieces of white fur maybe a dogs but most likely a cat’s fur [he isn’t interested in her I just think that Chrollo would analyze everyone when he first meets them just to clarify].
“Hi, Can I help you with anything? I’m the librarian you can call me (Y/n). it’s a pleasure meeting you we don’t get a lot of visitors being the only village on a tiny unpopular island” She stuck her hand out it was littered with colorful bracelets and on the non dominant hand had additional doodles.I decided to accept the hand shake.
“My name is chrollo and I would like to check out a book called immortality is the Dilemma and savior of life.” [This is a book title I just made up but it’s basically about a vampire trying to escape the cage of immortality while a young man is hunting the vampire trying to gain mortality] I looked in her (E/c) reading them only to find nothing.
“Of course let me check if we have that for ya” (Y/n) walked behind the front desk entering the title.
“Oh shucks it looks like it’s checked out I’m so sorry, but would you like to stay for tea anyway?” I look down contemplating the offer of tea. I’m not busy and I have run out of tea and I am craving tea right now. I suppose it won’t be so bad.
“I don’t see why not” I sat down and a normal table unlike the tiny table across the library.
“What kind of tea would you like?” They probably don’t have many Judging by how small the town is.
“Anything is fine” I looked around the Libary more it was very small but not cramped. There was a kids section and they had computers. There was even a garden outside and a donation box. Oh how interesting humans are. Some are so generous well others are greedy and rotten to the core.
“Do you like milk and sugar in your tea?” Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
“I would like a little teaspoon or so of sugar and no milk please and thank you” I smile softly to (Y/n). She is quite interesting.
I watched as leaves left the trees almost poetically as I waited. “So Chrollo where are you from?
“I’m just from a small island” I smile gently watching her face for anything.
“Really? That’s nice” We sat there for around an hour and a half having a decent conversation before screaming children in dragon onesies came stumbling through the door. There trainers rub dirt onto the carpet before walking in. This is quite a lively place for a Libary.
“Oh sorry I’m gonna go take care of those little dragons.” She sat down her cup. Straightening her shirt as she walked to the loud children with a general warm smile on her face [Y’all have a face right? If not L to you ig]. It made my heart warm seeing such kindness.
A/N
This is more of a pilot [which is why it’s so short] to see if I should actually write a story and if I’m any good because it would be my first so I’ll continue if this gets likes or someone suggests me to continue [which probably won’t happen]
#hxh chrollo#chrollo lucilfer#chrollo x reader#chrollo lucifer x reader#chrollo hunter x hunter#chrollo x you#chrollo x y/n#hxh#hxh x reader#y/n#x y/n#silly
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Vēnor
latin: Chase, Hunt
Brilliant Chang meets a happily divorced Eva after the events of Look Both Ways , The Wreckage and Perhaps
cw: failed relationships, mentions of drug use, murder, mentions of sex and Eva’s slight god complex
Lucy Winters belongs to @emotionalcadaver
taglist @justrainandcoffee @zablife @thegreatdragonfruta @hoodeddreams13 @novashelby @kmc1989
She likes to play games.
After her disastrous marriage to Tommy, her subsequent divorce and failed attempts to rekindle that spark since Lucy had up and left anyways, Eva decided to keep up her game with the Chinaman who thinks her easy prey.
It is his way of gaining clients and even dealers for his cocaine. He romances and seduces his prey and before they know it, they’re dealing drugs with their brains turned to mush to get a crumb of his attention. Freda Kempton would not be the last of his victims.
Brilliant Chang, the Dope King of London.
Handsome, cultured and not at all put off by the existence of the witch’s two-year-old son and that her divorce doesn’t mean she’s no longer a Shelby. Chang’s last invitation had come while shopping at his warehouse with little Charlie on her hip, Tommy getting on her last nerve and, like his attempts before, a gift to show his interest.
Eva wanted to get him to leave his private room and try to woo her where everyone would see him. After all, she isn’t interested in his drugs, the last time she had cocaine it drove her to attempt suicide and Eva refuses to go back there at all costs.
She wants to fuck him, plain and simple.
Now that her divorce has given her some notoriety, freedom and a wide selection to choose from, the witch wants to take her time finding someone who would accept her terms and conditions.
There are many universes and lifetimes where that man is Tommy Shelby, but in this one, he, sadly, is not.
“Tell Mr. Chang if he wants someone who goes to him when he orders it, he should get a dog.” Eva tells the waiter who finds her refusal alarming and does not stop her from leaving even if her meal has yet to even arrive.
Much like Tommy Shelby, Billy Chang is far too used to having women be too easy to get. Rejection was not something they were used to; Tommy seeking her to fill the space Lucy left and Chang’s invitations these past months were proof of that.
The waiter goes into the private room from where the king observes his kingdom and relates her words to him. This time she had sent an unflattering comment, the previous ones were a simple no.
Eva leaves knowing the next time she comes; he will be waiting here for her.
“You play well, Mrs. Shelby.” Brillian Chang is dressed finely with a fur coat worth as much as her wedding ring and sitting at the table he always has open for her. There is no menu, why would there be when the man has spent the past year studying her?
It is simply tea with small plates of food. Dim Sum the waitress had called it the first time. Or was it Yum Cha?
“Your strategy merited a harder game.” The Mexican witch sat down knowing all the whispering around them is about them. Billy Chang hardly leaves his private room, just as the Shelbys hardly leave the snug at the Garrison. To see him come out for a woman when the others went to him is enough to cause a stir.
“Or perhaps I let you win.” He admits with his eyes roaming her as if she were the meal set out before them.
Been so long since a man’s been bold enough to desire her so openly. Many still feared the man she was married to even here in London ---or did when Tommy got it in his head that despite fucking up the best damn thing in his life, he believed he had any fucking right to impose his will on her.
Tommy no longer satisfied her, too much hurt, too much anger for putting them in this situation in the first place and unwilling to move on like she had.
He had a choice, her or Lucy. Because he couldn’t decide, the witch made the choice for him and now the Romani gangster gets a front row seat to his ex-wife seeking her pleasure with whomever she wants.
Brilliant Chang had no idea how attractive he became to her when his way of flirting with her pricked Tommy’s jealous streak and her ex-husband told her of how the man here killed Freda Kempton.
He is using you to get to me, Tommy had wagged his finger at her and demanded she stop going to Chang’s warehouses and teahouse in Regent Street.
Eva had half a mind to tell him where Lucy was hiding just so he’d fuck off, but Lucy needed to learn who she was outside of Tommy’s orbit and see if she’d still choose him afterwards. The witch couldn’t drag her nor Tommy kicking and screaming to a shrink, traveling with a Romani family wholly unconnected to the Shelbys should do the trick.
“And yet I got what I wanted, didn’t I?” the witch shuts the door to her past and focuses on the present and the near future where this man shows her why all those women fall under his spell so easily.
His place, she doesn’t want to risk Charlie interrupting him or, worse, Tommy’s people knowing his identity too soon. Eva had even lost her tail and ditched the driver Tommy gave her for her safety with ease for the occasion.
“I see why Mr. Shelby can’t let you go, cunning as the devil and as beautiful as Venus.” He pours the tea, first her cup then his, a gesture she’s learned is a sign of respect.
Its is the tea she usually gets, had a strange name that translated to Iron Goddess or something of the sort and could pass for an English breakfast tea. Despite knowing this was all done to trap her, the witch finds it thoughtful that he would order his staff to cater to her tastes for this first meeting.
“Ex-husband.” The witch corrects as she took her cup, a finer thing like the sort of cups she has been served with since she first rejected his invitation to join him for a meal.
“Then his loss is my gain.” Chang took his own cup and drank first to show it was not tampered with. Freda Kempton had drunk water mixed with snow until it killed her, or so she’s heard.
He wasn’t out to kill her; he could’ve done it sooner. He, like her, wanted a good fuck after a good game.
He has wanted her ever since he saw her in Birmingham years ago, the dark beauty who turned heads wherever she went. Richer than God, far more beautiful than all the girls he took to his bed and, despite her penchant for dark clothing, a drop of color in cold and dreary England.
But he also knows the rumors.
She has plenty of tricks to prove she’s the real deal, from knowing the person’s entire future to turning any drink in her hands into whatever alcohol she wants. Eva is something of a Messiah in her family, the only living witch since her mother and grandmother died in 1914.
“You’ll be acquitted but your reputation will take a blow.” This was what worried him after evidence mentioned him. This would ruin him and make him the villain in every story…even if he had been at fault for playing up the dead girl’s sorrows and discarding of her after.
“I did not seek you out to know the future, but I welcome the news either way.” The businessman admits, it was obvious that he’d lose his reputation and there would not be enough evidence to charge him for her murder.
“Then what do you want?” she knows what it is, but, fuck, did she want to hear him say it.
“Everything.”
Chang knows his way with women, Eva’s not had this much fun in ages.
He took charge, fucked her until she forgets she had a kid at home and then let her tie him up as they played their games her way.
And yet that paled to how just being with him felt.
The witch missed this, this spark of connection and understanding she hadn’t felt since Tommy. That ‘there you are’ one doesn’t believe in until it happens.
And then after three years it happened again. Part of her thought she wouldn’t feel it again after Tommy.
But she has just as she told Tommy and Lucy it would.
“What is the price Shelby couldn’t pay?” Billy asks after they’ve come up with a foolproof scheme to have him acquitted and keep most of his reputation intact.
“Exclusive devotion.”
Most just say a monogamous marriage, but Eva has never felt or been seen as fully human even by her family. She is the patron saint, the jealous goddess who will rain fire and brimstone on those who incur her wrath.
Tommy hadn’t understood the fine print. Convinced that because she enjoyed one threesome and was sort of friends with his lover, Eva would make an exception. And what a mistake that had been.
Brilliant Chang weighs his options, thinks she cannot tell as they lay there in his bed while evening becomes night outside. She’d have to leave soon, can’t have Tommy waiting for her because she had been out all day.
“Can I see you again tomorrow?” he asks having concluded that she’s worth a monogamous lifestyle. A monotheistic lifestyle, he corrects himself unaware Eva can read his thoughts.
She isn’t as strict as many believe, Eva’s quite fun and willing to allow a short noncommittal fling from time to time and the occasional orgy. The witch only demands she is always the only person who owns her lover’s heart.
“You may,” Eva brushed damp hair from his face and added in between kisses, “Take me dancing, a club my ex-husband can’t get into and ruin this for me.”
#evacore#brilliant chang#brilliant chang x oc#brilliant chang x eva smith#peaky blinders fanfiction#peaky blinder fanfic
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I should drop all my link hcs because I have so many
Twilight
-the wolf curse was removed from him but it left a lot of physical and instinctual changes to him, he would describe himself as being 50/50 wolf and hylian
-the curse mark is on his forehead, cheeks, and stomach
-he has fangs and his nails grow long, he prefers to keep them sharp because it’s sometimes helpful and helps him curb scratching urges easier
-speaking of urges, he has a lot. He likes to stimulate his senses a lot, like how dogs like to fetch and dig, or how cats like to scratch and hunt. He’ll get into instinctual modes where he’s more quiet and physically needy, just like when dogs have gone a while without attention and beg you for pets
-he shows affection thru kisses licks and bites, he sometimes gets into playful modes where he’s sniffing a lot and he tends to always give kisses with tongue, a wolf/human hybrid that’s halfway between a kiss and a lick that’s not too animalistic but curbs the urge to care for and groom people
-he lovesss biting and chewing, even if it’s just gentle nips and nibbles. It calms him and eases him when he’s feeling upset about things
-caught between either being dominant and extra caring or submissive and compliant, does this make him a beta idk abo things
-his senses are very strong, hearing and smell specifically. One fun thing is that he smells arousal, so if somebody is bricked up, he will know who. And half of the time smelling it puts him in the mood too. What a disaster. Jk. He gets to have sex with everyone! Yay!
-looks up to Time a LOT. He bonded with his spirit and learned so many things from him, he was the only real connection he had to the past hero he’s taking the place of. And while he’s mocked by others for wearing the tunic, he himself is praising him and urging him to move onward. So meeting a young adult version of the same guy, who’s equally smart and attractive as the one he idolized. It makes him go. Insane.
-back to praise, yes he loves to hear that he is a good boy, but he gets flustered and embarrassed too. He just likes to be appreciated and loved as affectionately as he often feels
Time
-Physically, around 23 but including time shenanigans, he’s closer to 25
-He’s forced to grow up way too fast so he can be harsh and brash, but he’s also still a kid at heart and loves to be mischievous and playful
-coped very badly with Termina, even inside of it, using the looping time to mess around with no consequences. He would drink until Tatl had to drop things on his face so he’d wake up and play the song of time before the moon fell. He’d also sleep around with no consequences because they wouldn’t remember it
-more on that in Termina he was more like 13, some time passed and he moved out of kokiri forest but life wasn’t the same without Navi so that’s why he went to look for her
-anyway he was incredibly young to be sleeping around and it’s awful. He mainly went after kafei and would go “I was transformed into a kid too, it’s fine” 🙁
-he stayed kafeis sneaky link years later and eventually kafei broke down in guilt in front of him for taking advantage of a kid while being married and link was like “maybe I shouldn’t do this anymore”
-so after that he stopped partying and sleeping around and tried to settle down and find peace, that was around 22. But as an adventurer he could never stop craving excitement and went out into the forest again looking for trouble, and that’s when he falls into twilight’s world.
-scar on his eye from the fight with Majora, it broke the fierce deity mask in half and he almost dieddd
-also broke his back once in termina and it never healed right, I’ve adopted this hc as my own hehehe
-has a few scars that didn’t heal right and are too tight, they stretch and get irritated and inflamed, there’s one on his ribs thats especially bad he got in his fight w ganondorf
-loves to fish. Goes so insane for fishing
-considered pursuing malon but didn’t want to drag her into his turbulent life bc he knew it would only cause pain for others. Didn’t think it was possible to settle down
-very confident in his abilities and brags and is quite teasing, very playful because he’s a kid at heart, but often gets deathly serious and contemplates heavy things
-ends up being content with leaving his hometown in the past behind. He’s had enough time travel shenanigans to really not care where he’s at. He just wants to live in the moment and cherish his relationship with the man he feels so connected to
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Merlin accidentally becomes Legolas/Katniss/Merida… you know the type;
He may be shitty at sword fighting, but Merlin begins to use a traditional bow and arrow and… actually becomes very good at it??
I imagine the first time he does it, it’s a complete fluke.
The five knights, The King, and Merlin are on their way back from yet another (frankly, ridiculous) quest.
They have been, of course, ambushed by a group of bandits, twenty to their six (six plus Merlin, though no one bar Lancelot knows about his magic, so he isn’t counted as a fighter). Though the knights outweigh them in skill, their sheer numbers makes it a… challenging, fight (meaning that they are winning, but far too slowly for their liking, and no one wants to admit it).
Now normally, Merlin hides behind a tree or in a ditch, and performs his spells quietly without being noticed, slowly helping and speeding up the fight. Except this time, the Gang was in the middle of a barren, open field, the bandits had disguised themselves with magic until the moment they attacked, and Merlin was right in the middle of all the action.
Everyone worried for his safety. There was nowhere for him to hide here, so they had to keep an eye on him, lest he get hurt (and Arthur sulked, or kicked off, depending on how badly he was hurt).
With nowhere to hide (and no branches to drop, or roots to trip people with), and one of the knights throwing a glance his way every ten seconds, he couldn’t use his magic.
He was currently on his hands and knees, Leon directly in front of him, Percival to his left, holding off four attackers between them (Merlin would marvel at how impressive that was if he weren’t otherwise preoccupied).
He keeps trying to get to Arthur, crawling between legs and over the groaning, injured bodies of bandits (he made a point to land sharp elbows and harsh knees into the more… sensitive areas), but with everyone moving around so rapidly, and the vicious swinging of swords and axes and maces inches above his head, he kept getting side-tracked and blocked and almost knocked out.
With a frustrated huff, he notices yet another bandit rounding on The King. Said huff turns into a pained gasp when he realises that Arthur hasn’t seen him yet.
The bandit raises his weapon in the air, seconds from bringing it down on Arthur’s back, but Leon is right there, and there are no branches to drop on him, and Arthur still hasn’t noticed!
The noise is too loud, grunts and yells and clashes of metal drowning out any sort of warning yell that Merlin could throw Arthur’s way, and he scrabbles around on the floor desperately; hands raking through sharp grass and over bloodied bodies as he stares in horror at the triumphant smirk on the future-King-killer’s face.
Time seems to slow (no magic, just adrenaline) as Merlin’s hands find purchase on a smooth, curved piece of wood. He picks it up without looking, at first intending to throw whatever it is as hard as he can in the bandits direction, before something (magic, instincts, periphery vision, who knows) tells him to look down.
He obeys, and widens his eyes as he sees the longbow gripped tightly in his right hand, and a stray arrow on the floor next to his left.
Merlin is no expert, only having actually hunted once or twice back home in Ealdor, when he was younger, but that was just enough knowledge for him to know roughly how to notch the arrow and fire. He pulls the two up quickly, a plan formulating in his head:
Step 1) Notch arrow.
Step 2) Close eyes.
Step 3) Magic? Hope?
Step 4) Come up with some sort of lie that explains how he managed to make the shot from sixty yards away, through a crowd.
Thankfully, it would appear that Merlin’s bad luck has given him a rest today; the first three steps go off without a hitch (the fourth will come a little later, when the battle is over), but he doesn’t have time to congratulate himself before he’s thrown into the fray, the bandits now obviously seeing him as some sort of threat.
Arthur finally defeats his own attackers, looking behind him in shock to see his unknown enemy lying on the floor, gurgling up blood and grasping weakly at the arrow through his neck. His head whips to the side, trying to find whoever had made the shot; his bewildered gaze meets Merlin’s for only a second before the servant is dragged to his feet, and promptly punched in the face.
He stumbles back and can just about hear Leon yell something from beside him but he pays it no mind, righting his balance once again and swinging his arm back, before bringing it down harshly on his newest attackers head. The resounding crack echoes over the field as the wood of the longbow splits in two on the bandit’s skull, and he drops like a sack of potatoes.
The fight doesn’t last much longer, each knight taking advantage of their enemies' fatigue, and Merlin using his now broken longbow to whack them in the shins or trip them up when they weren’t paying attention.
He was sad to see it broken, but two of his closest friends literally owned a blacksmith's, and he had easy access to the Castle’s armoury; he could get a hold of another one easily enough, as long as he survived the journey back home.
The battle finally came to a close. Everyone was exhausted, and each of them was sporting more than one hefty bruise, but they were all alive and there were no serious injuries, so they could be grateful for that. After Arthur had counted his men, and generally taken stock of things, he traipsed tiredly over to Merlin, who had abandoned his broken bow in favour of cleaning a still weeping cut on Elyan’s temple.
“Didn’t know you had it in you, Merlin.”
The servant ignores him at first, biting his lip in concentration as he carefully wipes the grime away from the wound. It was small, so an infection wouldn’t be too worrying, but it wouldn’t be comfortable and would make the scarring worse, so best to avoid it if at all possible. He hums in satisfaction as he leans back on his heels, Elyan gives him a grateful smile, and Merlin finally throws a glance Arthur’s way, before focusing back on threading the needle in his hands; it would only need two or three stitches, thankfully:
“Hmm. I'm not fond of hunting, but we had to for food back in Ealdor. Except we didn’t have fancy crossbows or hunting dogs, so we had to make do with hand-whittled longbows.”
Arthur nods, frowning slightly:
“Still, if I’d known you were that good, I would’ve demanded you had a bow of your own; that way us lot wouldn’t have to spend so much time making sure you don’t get yourself killed.”
Merlin smirked and quirked an eyebrow, but doesn’t look away from Elyan’s stitches, whispering an apology at the man’s wince before he speaks slowly, concentrating:
“Careful Sire, that almost sounded like a compliment.”
Elyan snorts out a laugh, but Merlin tuts and lightly slaps his leg disapprovingly, and he stills again. Arthur rolls his eyes with a huff:
“As if. Hurry up, I want to get moving as soon as possible.”
~
Arthur wasn’t the only one that noticed Merlin’s outstanding shot, and over the course of the next few day’s journey home, he received a multitude of compliments from the other knights.
Including an hour long excited infodump about the history and use of longbows from Leon, which Merlin eagerly hung onto every word of, a fond smile on his face (Leon was a noble, and had it practically beaten into him to not ramble, so Merlin always did his best not to discourage the man. That, and the fact that it was actually very interesting, and useful, if he were to keep up this charade that he was an expert marksman).
When Merlin finally had a moment alone with Lancelot, a few days after they had gotten back, he burst:
“Please please tell me you know how to use a longbow??”
Lancelot raises his eyebrow from where he was sat on the bed in Merlin’s room. Merlin was staring at him with unconcealed desperation, and the knight chuckled as he answered:
“Why? It’s not like you need any more training, that was a cracking shot.”
Merlin huffed loudly, running his hands through his hair as he looked back at the knight:
“I used magic!! I closed my eyes so no one would see and I guided the arrow with magic! Now everyone thinks I’m some master marksman! This is bad. What if next time I can’t use magic, or what if someone notices that I have my eyes closed when I fire?”
Lancelot clamps a hand over his mouth in a poor attempt to stop himself from giggling, but he gives up quickly, bursting into laughter at the younger man’s panic. Said younger man fumes, sputtering as he picks up one of the knight’s discarded boots and throws it at him:
“It’s not funny, Lance! I’m being serious, this is an actual issue!”
Lancelot calms himself, rubbing the mirth from his eyes as he takes a deep breath:
“Ok ok, sorry. Yes, I can teach you to use a longbow properly. Have you ever actually used one before, or was the hunting thing a cover?”
The red fades from Merlin’s face slightly as he realises the other man is intending to help him, his panic lessening:
“Sort of. Yeah, I went hunting with a bow a couple times, but not enough to be that good at it.”
Lancelot sighs fondly and nods his head:
“Well, that’s a start at least. Come on, I’ve not got patrol until after dinner, and Arthur thinks you’re busy helping Gaius, so we’ve got a few hours.”
~
So I imagine that’s how it goes for a while.
After their last big adventure, Arthur was reluctant to head out as a group again, wanting to give everyone time to recuperate and get back into the swing of things.
Merlin’s skills with a bow were bought up constantly by everyone, news had even reached Gwen (who gave him a proud smile and a cute little dance to congratulate him) and Gaius (who raised an eyebrow, and had much better skill than Lancelot at holding in his laughter).
Gwaine, Elyan, and even Percival were desperate to set up targets and watch him shoot shit (their words), Leon wanted to talk about the specifics of technique and crafting, and Arthur... well. Arthur sounded like he was taking the piss, but there was something else in his tone that Merlin couldn’t quite pinpoint.
Affection? Pride?
Probably not, probably jealousy and annoyance that Merlin is so effortlessly good at something that Arthur himself was average at at best.
Merlin manages to avoid it for a while, showing his “skills” off, but he and Lancelot are running out of excuses, and Arthur is starting to accuse him of being a fake who got lucky. Normally, things like that didn’t bother Merlin, and technically Arthur wasn’t wrong... he had got lucky, and cheated with magic, but that wasn’t the point. It was nice for Merlin, to be good at something, really good.
He was good at plenty of other things. Magic for starters, though not even Lancelot knew the full extent of his power in that area. But he cooked well (shown by the fact that the knights always scoffed the lot), he was a good physician (shown by the fact that the knights trusted him just as much as Gaius when it came to treating injuries and sickness), and he was a BRILLIANT servant, if he did say so himself.
But he never got any actual praise for that. Merlin hated to think badly of the knights, his friends, but they only complained when Merlin wasn’t there, never praised him when he was. Well, apart from Lancelot. And that had just started a bunch of rumours that they were... uh... boinking.
(False. Anyone with more than two braincells could see that Sir Lancelot was head over heals in love with the newly-promoted Housekeeper, Guinevere, and that The King’s Manservant had an affinity for certain a blond prat-King.)
ANYWAY
It was nice for Merlin to have a skill that others thought worth complimenting, and with Lancelot monitoring his practice sessions, correcting any mistakes and offering congratulations whenever he did well, he hoped it wouldn’t be too long before he no longer had to come up with excuses.
Luckily, Merlin picked it up very quickly.
Despite being clumsy by nature (though Lancelot is starting to suspect more and more that it’s all for show), the dark haired servant can consistently hit bullseyes from fifty yards within a month. The further away from the target he got, the less astounding his aim was, but that was to be expected, and another month later he could successfully hit a moving target from seventy feet.
A training session, around three months after he started properly practicing, he finally “gave in” to Gwaine’s begging. Lancelot helped him set up a bunch of targets, and fetched a bag of apples to throw.
Merlin put on quite the show, grinning at the uproarious applause he got from the knights when he hit every single bullseye, and every single thrown target. Thankfully the knowing, proud smiles between the servant and Sir Lancelot went unnoticed, and even Arthur gave him a clap on the back and an impressed nod.
~
The first time Merlin met the knights in the courtyard to find Leon holding a longbow and quiver of arrows out to him, he panicked slightly, but one reassuring smile from Lancelot boosted his confidence, and he took them with a quiet thank you.
(After the fifth time, Arthur huffed, and told him to just keep them. He was the only one that regularly signed them out of the armoury anyway, so it would just be easier if he just took possession of them.)
It settled everyone’s stomachs, knowing that not only did the group have a master marksmen, hiding in the trees and taking out enemies that they didn’t see coming, but that Merlin personally now had more than his frankly horrifying (or... horrifying as far as they were concerned) stealth skills to keep him safe.
And that (a master marksmen in the trees) is exactly what happened.
In the early days, it involved a lot of bruises; Merlin could fire well, but firing and balancing at the same time? Took some getting used to, and involved a lot of falling out of trees at inopportune times.
The knights, Gwaine and Arthur especially, laughed endlessly at that, but quickly stopped after a particularly tired and irate and bruised Merlin fired an arrow so close by Gwaine’s crotch, that it stuck his trousers fast into the tree just behind him.
At first, it was meant to be just as back-up; Merlin was no knight. He still refused to wear armour, and Arthur didn’t want his manservant to make himself a target... at least that was his excuse.
Really, it was because (as far as Arthur was aware) Merlin had never deliberately killed before. Even now, years into his Kingship, and even longer into his knighthood, Arthur hated killing; it made him sick, and took a lot of practice at compartmentalization before it no longer bothered him as much.
Merlin was his manservant, his (best) friend, the love of his life (secretly). He was not a warrior, he was not meant to kill, he was meant to be protected from that.
But alas, Merlin did not get the memo, and the first patrol he went on with his bow and quiver slung over his shoulder, he killed at least five bandits.
After the fight, it was Leon who approached him first, a concerned look on his face despite Merlin’s nonchalant expression as he checked over the string for wear and tear:
“Are you feeling alright, Merlin? You got a few good shots in there, you’re not feeling sick?”
Merlin looked up at the hand on his shoulder and the soft words, a confused look on his face:
“Why would being good make me feel sick?”
Leon tilts his head in sympathy, which just makes Merlin even more confused:
“The man you killed the other month was spur of the moment, protecting your King. But you... you killed a fair few men today, Merlin. I know that can be incredibly difficult at first, I just wanted to check in.”
The others had finally walked over to join them; Percival, Elyan, Gwaine, and Arthur looking equally concerned, whilst Lancelot hid his proud smile. Merlin just raised an eyebrow at them:
“You seem to be under the impression that I’ve never killed anyone before?”
Everyone (bar Lancelot) looks taken aback at that, and Arthur frowns whilst Leon drops his hand in shock. The King speaks slowly:
“Merlin, are you telling us you’ve killed people before?”
The manservant clenches his jaw at that and looks back down at his bow, resuming his checking of the string and its knots. He speaks lowly, and the knights can tell it’s not a topic he’s fond of:
“Hmm. It’s a tough world, Sire. I’ve done what I had to, to keep myself and the people I care about safe.”
At his dark reply, conversation stopped, and didn’t resume for the rest of the day as everyone contemplated Merlin’s words.
That is, until he was the first one to successfully catch dinner later that evening. At which he got an incredulous look from Arthur when he made it back to camp with his half of the patrol:
“I thought you despised hunting??”
Merlin didn’t look up from the hares he was skinning, and the rest of the knights tuned in, curious:
“No. I hate hunting for sport; it shows hubris and cruelty. Hunting for food is not only necessary and natural, but humbling, if you do it right and honour every part of the creature.”
Arthur, ever the eloquent one, stared at him blankly, and said, rather dumbly:
“...What?”
Merlin huffed, finally looking up:
“Going after helpless animals on horseback with crossbows and hunting dogs is like giving yourself a huge pat on the back for winning a tournament against an unarmoured, unarmed, unconscious opponent, and then calling yourself strong and brave for daring to fight in the first place. It’s an egotistical act of violence for no other reason than cruelty for the sake of cruelty.-”
The knights looks on him with shock, Percival and Leon at least having the decency to look a little ashamed. Merlin looks back down to the hares, and everyone notices the careful way he cuts at the fur:
“I’ve taken these lives to feed us as a necessity. The meat will be eaten, but that isn’t all. I’ll take the bones home for Gaius, the marrow is useful in a lot of medicine. The fur can be repurposed for winter gloves or socks. The organs and other bits that we won’t eat: I’ll take for the pigs in the farms, or the dogs up at the castle. In using every part of them we are... honouring them, in a way. As a thank-you for their... sacrifice.”
Arthur looks a little dumbfounded. As royalty, he of course had never really considered the waste that comes about with hunting, but Merlin, a farm-boy from a rural village who barely scraped by every winter? Of course he saw a deeper meaning in hunting. He would have to.
Elyan is the first to break the silence:
“You almost sound religious, Merlin.”
Merlin looks up at him, a strained smile on his face. As magic incarnate, he has a particularly strong, temperamental relationship with nature and her creatures, a bond that some might call faith. To be wasteful or cruel in any way hurts him in more ways than one:
“Not really, I just have respect for nature, is all.”
No one mentions the thinly-veiled insult, but everyone creeps closer, wanting to see the way he disassembles the creatures for future reference.
~
It’s been eight months since that first, perfect shot.
Merlin’s skills with a longbow had become a normal, expected part of The Gang’s experiences, but the knights never stopped praising and thanking him when he saved their lives (something that Merlin still hadn’t quite gotten used), and The King had apparently not stopped thinking about it for barely more than a second.
Yule was approaching quickly: Merlin, Gwen, and the Steward being constantly busy with preparations in the castle, the knights being run off their feet escorting emergency aid to the border villages for the harsh winter, and Arthur himself having every minute of the day taken up with speech writing, invite sending, and his other general King-during-Yule duties.
That however, was all to be expected, and of course did nothing to keep Arthur and Merlin from their annual traditions.
It wasn’t official, it wasn’t even spoken of, but the last evening of Yule, the night before the new year, the two of them always spent together.
The last feast of the year would finish, Arthur would stay to see his guests off, thank the staff for all of their hard work, and finally retire to his chambers, his tired manservant barely a hair’s breadth behind him. They would sit in front of the lit hearth (in comfy chairs that only they used), work their way through a jug or two of wine, exchange small gifts, and fall asleep in front of the fire. Their hands, dangling over the side of their chairs, seem to be creeping closer and closer with each passing year; though have yet to become entangled by morning.
This year was somehow no different, and very different, at the same time.
The King and his Manservant settled in their chairs, tired and already a little more than tipsy from the wine drunk during the feast. Arthur looked up at Merlin, the fond smile dropping from his face when he sees the other man’s features pulled into a contemplative frown:
“What’s on your mind, Merls? I don’t think I’ve seen you this serious since the start of the celebrations.”
Merlin looked up at him suddenly, his eyes wide, but he smiles and shakes his head:
“Nothing, nothing. Just thinking is all.”
Normally, Arthur would raise an eyebrow and let a scathing tease on the state of Merlin’s intelligence fall from his lips, but not tonight. This is the only night of the year that The King allows himself to entertain the idea that perhaps he and Merlin were more than friends, or at least could be. So instead he resumes his smiling, and looks back to the fire, taking another sip of his wine before responding softly:
“What about?”
Merlin hums, copying Arthur’s wine-sipping, before taking a deep breath:
“The future, mostly. You, me, Camelot. Secrets and truths, and when one might turn into the other. Soon, I think... yeah. Soon.”
Arthur huffs slightly in amusement. He knows that Merlin hides a great deal of himself, but he always becomes more cryptic after a few glasses of wine, like he desperately wants to say something and doesn’t have the power to stop himself from hinting at whatever it may be.
He asks his next question good-naturedly, a smile sweetened by wine gracing his face:
“The hell does that mean?”
Merlin lets out a short laugh, looking up at the other man:
“Oh, you know. Thinking about spilling all my deepest darkest secrets to you, at some point soon.”
Arthur snorts, saying, only for the sake of keeping up the charade they’ve built:
“You don’t have any secrets, Merlin. Certainly not any that are deep or dark.”
Once, Arthur would have believed that. Then, when he stopped believing it, he was angry about it, and now? Now, he finds he doesn’t mind so much. He is confident, he has faith, in both himself and in Merlin. He knows that those secrets are there, and Merlin knows that he knows, but that’s ok. Nothing either of them could reveal would tear them apart, at least not for long, so Arthur was happy to wait until Merlin was happy to share.
Merlin chuckled at Arthur’s response, shaking his head slightly before reaching down and picking up a small wrapped parcel that he’d stowed away before the feast:
“Come on, I’m a little nervous about your gift this year, so let’s get it over and done with.”
Arthur nodded, accepting the change in subject, and set his wine down so he could pick up the (much bigger) parcel by his own chair.
Merlin raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. After the first gift-exchange happened, Merlin had put his foot down and made Arthur swear to not go overboard on the expense side of things. Arthur may have been a prince, and now a King, but Merlin was still just a servant/physician; he could hardly afford anything worthy of a King.
He had a feeling that Arthur might’ve broken his word this year, but where Arthur had likely gone overboard with expense, Merlin had definitely gone overboard with sentimentality.
They swapped parcels, Merlin placing the large, heavy box carefully at his feet as he gestured Arthur to open his first. Arthur got to it, tearing the paper off without a second of hesitation, and Merlin allowed himself to smile fondly at the child-like excitement on the blonde’s face.
Arthur’s brow creased as he dropped the paper to the floor, stroking soft fingers over the worn leather of an old, well-loved book. Merlin took deep, fortifying breaths as Arthur carefully opened the first few pages, butterflies in his stomach as Arthur’s eyes wandered the yellowed paper in curiosity.
The King looked up at him, amused confusion on his face as he asked:
“Is this yours? I didn’t know you could draw, Merlin.”
Merlin gulped, and shook his head as memories of the exquisite sketches filled his mind; detail-perfect renditions of the castle, the town square, waterfalls and knights in action and people that Merlin didn’t recognise (for the most part. Arthur evidently hadn’t gotten to any of the pages with young Uther on them).
“No, not mine. This one requires a little explanation-”
Arthur nodded, carefully closing the book and holding it protectively in his lap as he gave Merlin his undivided attention:
“-I mentioned off-handedly to Leon a few months ago that I thought the lack of... of paintings of the late Queen in the castle was odd.-”
Arthur gulped at the mention of his mother, but nodded with a small smile when Merlin paused:
“-He said that when she passed, The King had everything to do with her moved to the vaults. He couldn’t force himself to destroy any of it, but looking at it, day in and day out, was too painful. We found the keys, with the help of Geoffrey, and went down to have a look, see what we could find. We didn’t tell you about it because we didn’t want to disappoint you, in case we couldn’t find anything.-”
Merlin once again looked a little nervous at this, and reached a hand out towards Arthur. When the man didn’t flinch away (if anything, he leaned into it), he moved to grip his shoulder blade, running his thumb over the exposed skin at the base of The King’s neck.
“-We found... a lot. Old clothes and paintings mainly, some jewellery. But then I found that;-”
He nodded at the book in Arthur’s lap, and tightened his grip on his shoulder. Merlin spoke his next words so quietly that Arthur almost doesn’t hear him, a soft smile on his face:
“-your mother was quite the artist, Arthur. I knew you had to have it.”
Arthur gasped softly, his eyes widening as he looked down at the book:
“You... you think my mother drew these?”
Merlin smiled at him, moving his hand to squeeze Arthur’s wrist slightly, before dropping it entirely:
“Check the back page.”
Arthur took a deep breath before doing what Merlin said, handling the book with even more care than he had before now that he knows who it belonged to. He turned to the very last page, to see an inscription written in beautiful cursive. Merlin recited it aloud, having memorised the words weeks ago:
“My dearest son, my silly sketches are able to hold only a fraction of our Kingdom’s beauty. I know one day that you will see what I see, treasure it just as much, and make it your own. You have my support, forever and always, your loving Mother.”
Arthur bites his lip harshly, lifting the book to press his forehead against the words as he shuts his eyes tightly, though that does nothing to stop the tears. Merlin replaces his hand on The King’s shoulder as the man shakes. He sniffles slightly, putting the book back in his lap, though keeping his hands wrapped around it securely, as he looks to Merlin:
“Merlin, I... I don’t even know what to say. This is... amazing. I... Thank you.”
Merlin smiles, shaking his head slightly:
“Technically, it wasn’t even mine to give, it’s always been yours. But I thought it might make a nice surprise. There’s plenty of other stuff down there, I’ll show you in the morning.”
Arthur nods his head, wiping his tears as he carefully places the book on his side table and gestures to the box at Merlin’s feet. He was itching to scour through the book, dedicating every single line to memory, but whilst Merlin had been nervous about Arthur’s gift, Arthur was buzzing about Merlin’s, and he was desperate to see the man’s reaction.
Merlin huffs out a laugh, but picks the box up, noting once again how heavy it is. He sets about removing the paper, much calmer and more methodical than Arthur had been, with his face pinched in concentration.
He frowns in curiosity as he sets eyes on the wooden box. It had a hinged lid, and a logo that he’s certain he recognises burned like a brand into the corner. He can feel Arthur bouncing in his chair slightly, and looks up at him in amusement, laughing once again when he nods excitedly back down at the box.
He lifts the lid, and takes in a shocked breath.
Inside was a beautifully crafted long bow; the wood smooth and varnished and carved, and a leather quiver. The patterns embossed in the leather and carved in to the metal at the base, match those carved into the wood of the bow, and Merlin traces soft fingers over the intricate swirls, stopping with a teary smile at the Pendragon crest, carved just next to a Merlin bird.
He lets out a breath he hadn’t even realised he’d been holding as he looks up at the excited King:
“Arthur this is beautiful. Gods I almost don’t want to touch it, I feel like it should be on display behind glass.”
Arthur lets out a laugh, obviously pleased with Merlin’s reaction:
“Nope. It will be going with you every time you leave the city, and considering how much trouble we always seem to attract, I have no doubt that it will see a lot of use.”
Merlin laughs, closing the lid carefully and setting the box back on the floor, before launching himself bodily at Arthur. The blonde laughs, wrapping his arms around Merlin’s middle with no hesitation as the other man mutters endless thank-yous in his ear.
The servant finally pulls back, settling in his own chair again, and the two of them hope that the other puts the flush on their face down to the wine, and nothing else. They look to each other with wide grins on their faces, and Arthur breaks the stare first, taking another gulp of his wine before laughing jovially and speaking:
“Well. Here’s to an amazing year, and hopefully an even better one, starting in a few minutes.”
Merlin nods, lifting his own goblet to tap it against Arthur’s:
“Here’s to the past, that guides us-”
He gestures to the book on Arthur’s table:
“-and the future, that calls to us.”
He gestures to his new bow, and they both finish their wine off, a healthy flush to their cheeks and fond smiles on their faces.
They fall asleep in their respective chairs, the same as every year.
In the morning, they wake with pounding headaches, a promise of a golden future, and hands intertwined.
~
THE END!!
We love a cutesy/hopeful ending😌
Like always lads, you wanna write it out in full, go for it, credit and tag me✌️
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#merthur#bbc merlin#gwencelot#merthur fluff#merlin#king arthur#arthur#arthur pendragon#uther pendragon#ygraine#ygraine pendragon#gaius#merlin is a smart boy who deserves hugs and praise#arthur is gay but stupid#arthur is pining#merlin with a longbow#is v v sexy#according to one arthur pendragon#gwen#guinevere#sir leon#leon#sir gwaine#gwaine#sir percival#percival#sir elyan#elyan#sir lancelot#lancelot
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soft pre-relationship spike spiegel hcs
A/N: sorry these are so short sigh. Hope you like them anon and thanks for my first Cowboy Bebop request!! YALL PLEASE SEND IN MORE REQUESTS CAUSE I HAVE AN UNHEALTHY OBSESSION WITH THIS MAN
when Spike meets you, he treats you just like how he treats everyone else
indifferent, uncaring, cold, bored, cocky
no matter what you do, he always just seems indifferent or annoyed with you
you and Faye always complain about him and neither of you care if he even hears your complaints
it goes on like that until you showed up on one of Spike’s missions and kicked some serious ass, including Spike’s for being so reckless
ever since then, he’s been a hopeless fool in love with strong feelings
you don’t even notice the change at first
it started off with very simple, subtle things
he’d save the last can of soda for you (without you having to bribe him)
he’d go with you on missions to help you (without you having to bribe him)
he started bringing back little trinkets and knickknacks for you when he went to a place you’ve never been before (again, without you having to bribe him)
he even gives you part of his earnings after a successful bounty hunt (and even when you deny it, he always ends up sending it to your electro-wallet and every time you try to return it, he’d deny it or just send it right back to you)
he was acting major sus
anytime you tried to confront him and ask him why he’s being so nice, he’d just brush you off and claim he’s always been like this, which makes you, Faye, Jet, and even the dog laugh
he glared at each of you, of course
when you confront him a second time, you make sure that you two are alone
“Hey, I appreciate all the stuff you’re doing for me, but...why are you doing it?” you ask him quietly one day in his workshop
he looks up from his gun that he’s cleaning to raise a brow up at you
“I’m flirting with you, dumbass,” he states bluntly, a smirk crawling onto his face when you get flustered and start stuttering
“Well, I—you can’t just—why would—”
he hums and stands up, looming over you and reminding you just how much taller he is than you
“Why don’t we go on a date, firecracker?” he asks in a voice so low that your stomach does a flip
you don’t even mind that he just used that stupid nickname that you hate since your brain is too preoccupied focusing on how close he is to you
he’s used it ever since the first time you fought in front of him
some idiot was flirting with you and when they went to grope you, you broke their hand
unbeknownst to you, Spike thought it was super hot
he’s found that he has a thing for people who can kick his ass if they wanted to
you’ve never seriously tried to fight him before though
eh, maybe one day ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
“Um, okay,” you mumble, nervously playing with your hands
he hums and takes your hands into his, tugging you closer towards him
he then lets go one of your hands to tilt your head back to look up at him
“I’m going to kiss you now,” he whispers, waiting for any sign that you don’t want that
when all you do is let out a shaky sigh and slip your eyes closed, he leans down and connects your lips to his
you expected it to be fast-paced and hungry, but all you receive is softness and a kiss so sweet and passionate that your toes curl
you two end up kissing for so long that everyone starts wondering where you two ran off to
when they catch you two kissing, Spike just looks smug while watching you get flustered and try to splutter out an explanation
⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰
MASTERLIST
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⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰
#cowboy bebop spike#spike spiegel x reader#cowboy bebop x reader#cowboy bebop#spike spiegel#cowboy bebop x reader fluff#spike spiegel x reader fluff#cowboy bebop hcs#cowboy bebop headcanons#spike#spike spiegel headcanons#spike spiegel hcs#spike spiegel fluff#cowboy bebop fluff#fluff
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Will mafia!h and Y/N will have babies? 🥺💓
IM SO SORRY TO TELL YOU THIS BESTIE BUT.... </3
39. " I'm not saying a goodbye."
It was raining. Skies a gloomy shade of cinereal. Harry’s sleek car came to a screeching halt infront of the vast threshold of his home -- his grin pearlish, eyes twinkling a spark as he gets out of the car not caring to close the door behind. He greets his staff and strides two steps together with a gorgeous bunch of his lovie’s favourite flowers now dewy with raindrops and his nose twitched upon sniffing the vanilla-y smell while passing the kitchen and with his beam never vanishing he leaned into the doorframe asking the people inside, “’Ave y'seen Y/N?” Only for them to shake their heads in uncertainty.
She hasn’t showed herself downstairs since morning and even though it’s very odd of her not to chirp around the mansion nobody went to knock at her door to inquire, they think she deserves privacy.
This time they should have because when Harry barged inside their room it was caliginous with curtains shut and lights dimmed to zero.
“Lovie?” His cheery voice clamoured against the walls, a sour feeling he couldn’t be aware of pinches him in throat as he bobbed his head around to look for her and it perked up when a shadow falls on his feet.
“Baby?” His smile quirked back onto his confused features and he narrowed his eyelids to take in her presence through the darkness of wardrobe, “Harry.” A shaky whisper floated towards him and before that sweet call she was falling against his chest.
“Y/N ... baby —-,” His stumped chuckle halted, his brain numbed for a moment when his fingertips brushed up her back to push her closer to him and they trembled as they collected the wetness there. His heart bleaks a stinging pain into it’s cords, his breath shuddered coldly, flowers falling sadly beside their feet and his eyes earths with tears of panic, angst and torment.
His fingertips coating in his love's thick blood.
“I –- ‘m .. you –.. you’re h-hu —- hurt,” He stammered through a whimper hand wrapping around the dagger whose half end’s stabbed into Y/N's spine, her weak frail body unresponsive though she could listen to him.
“Who did this to you! Who did this to you!?” His screams and cries startled everyone downstairs and they rushed up to see what’s happening, to be shocked by their sights of Y/N limp in Harry’s embrace.
He turned his neck to shout at them, “I need a hand t’help me!!” His eyes bloodshot and Niall his best-man scurried over to them as Harry carried Y/N and laid her on her tummy on the bed, he slips onto his knees putting his chin on the mattress to look in her hazy painful eyes -- tears caged in them but never flowing down.
“Harry ...” She mumbled grittily in agony lifting her shaky fingers to pet his face and like an affection starved kitten Harry doesn’t let her tire herself and gets closer to her himself, “Niall bring the first aid, it’s under the sink.” He commands him not letting his eyes drift from over her angelic face.
“You’re okay baby. You’re okay, I know how to stitch up knife wounds.” He sniffled sucking in a breath trying to be brave for her and she just smiled gorgeously, lips blue and cheeks draining out of her usual berry stain.
“Jesus. Harry she’s been stabbed thrice, those fuckers,” Niall’s words wavered in fear and sympathy for Y/N. He squeezed Harry’s shoulder as Harry sobbed upon hearing that, “No –-... no, no! It’s still okay yeah poppet? I’m g’na get y'alright.” He wanted to covers his eyes to block the hurting groans Y/N elicited and he cradled her soft face in his warm palms in comparison to her temperature, touching their temples to pray together.
“Harry li .. listen to —- to me,” She gasps eyes flittering over his shoulder towards Bambi and Thumper the two dogs that had gotten overly fond of her, Harry’s blurry gaze follows her enfeebled gesture for them to come near her.
They whined and howled sadly flopping beside Harry and Harry hiccupped into his elbow shaking his head when Y/N put her hand under their ears in effort to scratch them but wasn’t able to unfortunately, “Hi babies. You’re gonna look after dad after ‘m gone?” Everyone cried at that watching her soul leave their dull lives that watered colourful upon her arrival.
“Don’t say that! Don’t y'dare say that!” Harry sobbed rushing to hug her tightly, the front of his shirt loathing crimson and she hissed looping her arm against his neck when Niall pulled the dagger out from her lower spine gradually and slowly not to hurt her.
“’M so sorry baby, sorry for being the reason of y’pain.” His tears dampened her already sweaty crook of neck, “Pr – promise me t-that that you’ll have some —.. someone who lov‐-.. loves –--,” She whimpered. Her body jerked into him with a force and she pushed him weakly away to stitch her lips tenderly against his's.
“Tell me bubby. Ha—- have I loved y'enough?” She cooed into their kiss and Harry bolted his eyes shut, poisonous sobs wrecking out of his chest.
“Tell me before, I go ...” Her heartbeat started dropping insanely, her lips wobbled, toes curling with life excavating out of her, “Y'have. Y'have don’t go baby, I’m not saying a goodbye!” He cried showering her in kisses for the one last time and pets her hair, eyes closed praying she takes him with herself because he'd never recover from the pain of loosing the only person he loved more than himself, the person who made hum love himself.
“I love you ..” She whispered, her loving kind eyes locked against his’s and the pool of honey around her rims expanded, her lips parted around the gasping breaths and Harry begged and pleaded — a side of him no-one has ever witnessed as he twisted in anguish considering himself the unluckiest man on the earth for letting his lover go like this, in the worst possible way.
“I love you, I thought I’d never be capable of, y'made me worthy darling. I'll always love you baby....” He shrieked into her chest heaving her up gently to embrace her properly and even though he knew she was no more with him, he fooled himself into thinking so.
If it was possible he’d have clawed his ribs to pluck out his heart in return of hers and he felt like the sun and earth had crashed vanishing away the time spaces as he sat there crying and crying mourning the loss of his lovie that could never be healed by anything in this whole word.
He keeps on holding her, rocking back and forth as he lulls her to slumber of death.
It hurts. It hurts so bad.
His heart weeps.
His soul aches.
When rain stopped and that tranquil silence doomed over them, rage filled his every pore and vein.
He knew who did this. Harry has played dirty but he has never played unfair. It was this gang of companies who sabotaged and destructed the orphanages at the property which belonged to his mother (but the papers weren’t clear) to build restaurants and apartments there so Harry took revenge by burning acres of their illegal drug running underground factory and rebuilt the orphanages and took Y/N to one of their charity events.
She was the happiest he had ever seen her.
It’s like a gun barrel clicked in. A firecracker catching the fuse of ashe to burst everything into flames as Harry laid her with ever most tenderness and kissed her temple, her lifeless eyelids and her chapped lips.
Cleaned the streak of blood with his sleeve and didn’t wipe his tears away bashing out of the room, everyone stepped away as Niall lunged infront of him to stop him before he goes to cause damage to himself more than to them for being in such a vulnerable and weak state.
“Step away.” He growled angrily, gaze fiery and dangerous.
“No.” Niall sighed.
“I wouldn’t get her buried in sucha cold blood. She didn’t deserved this, hell nobody does.” Harry kissed his teeth together gripping at his hair ruthlessly, cheeks dry with tears, his limbs trembling, his head spinning.
“Anyone who wouldn’t follow my orders gets their kneecaps blow-off.” He grunted -- nostrils flaring and saying this he went away, snatching his guns from the console and ordered his men to find the security guards that had their duties at the main gates.
In just a day he hunted each of those monsters down like a hungry wolf and gave them such punished, tortured deaths that each one fell in Harry’s feet for his mercy but his heart was turned into a stone already because the only warmth it had there was because of one person and that person’s gone leaving him to survive in this hellhole alone while he dragged these bastards to the depths of firepits.
Once, coming back home to her. To his sunshine, to his soul and life, to his reasons of getting up every morning so he would get to spend time with her —- he broke down. Into shattered bits and pieces of remorse, guilt and sadness feeling himself so small and hurtable as he cried to himself all alone in their garden with no-one to console him where he’ll come to meet her daily.
He wants to rip his skin apart and set it on fire for his beating heart to stop, for it stop feeling.
He feels sick. Fainting, in urgency and desperation to hold his baby and never let go.
To lay down with her under the soil if that's possible.
his only reason to live.
His only beloved.
.
The wind giggles through pink leaves of cherry blossom tree, lush grass resting peacefully and Harry smiles to himself treading towards his two most favourite people in the world.
The spring being their heartiest month.
“Azalea! What y’chattering ‘bout t'mum?” He asks and nods proudly when his lil boy stands up from his cross position on the ground from beside his mother and brushes the grassy spikes from his cherry printed shorts with his little pudgy hands.
“My first day at school dada!” The four years old squeals and Harry scoops him up in his arms, kissing his cheek again amount less times, “Is that so, huh! huh!” He tickles his little bun.
Y/N was right. Isn’t she always. Harry chuckles. Even if she’s gone he still feels loved from her, she’s in the rains, in the sweaters he wears when he feels shallow, in the scent of his pillows, she’s in the vanilla smell of their favourite cupcakes – she’s in his dreams and that name of their son, Azalea.
She always wanted to name their first born Azalea, a blooming flower that happens to be a vibrant pink, a gift of spring, are floriferous in sunshine and she'd always say that Harry would be their sun.
Their ever source of happiness.
Azalea was three days old when his mother died and Harry took him home even though not sure of his own decision but something in those little eyes that matches his mommy made Harry’s heart attract towards him so much he brought him without another thought.
A home he built with Y/N. The curtains of the mansion still remains pushed back wide, flower vases on every furniture, not a day goes by when anyone doesn’t misses her and the ducklings has grown so much that Y/N would have been spinning in happiness around.
Nothing has changed, life’s fleeting for everyone except for Harry. He counts each day and night that goes without her beside him in his sleep, in the little picnics with Azalea and Niall, in the story reading at nights with his baby, in kitchen to watch the winters first rain prattling against that one window that’s old enough to carry the remains of his ancestors, she’s never there to share a noodle pot with him while he sits and eat alone, never there to patch his favourite socks back, to kiss his forehead whenever he leaves home, to call him sweet names and to laugh with him on his silly jokes, to do thumb fights, to get angry with him whenever he refuses to layer himself in cold.
Never.
Never physically. But, she’s always there in his heart, her presence lurks around him and he could feel the warmth of her wrapping around him whenever he falls asleep watching telly.
“What did y'learn today bubba?” He asks Azalea and grins cheekily when Azalea babbles, “Colours!”
“That’s fuckin’ amazin'!” At that a huge gush of breeze hits him in face a tiny branch of the tree they’re standing under falls on his head.
“Kay' kay fine! No cursing.” He squeaks in defence pouting down at the grave of his lovie and his face splits into a grin when his hair glittered up with cherry blossom leaves.
“We miss you very much,” His voice heavy and sad. He gulps chokingly and blinks away the glossiness, stroking a thumb up Azalea cheek who’s sitting in Harry’s lap.
Every evening they come to meet Y/N, the hole in his heart couldn’t fill up of her void but the soothing feeling of relief that she’s in their garden and nearer to him has lessened the grief.
“G’na meet you tomorrow, our baby’s mighty hungry.” He chuckles hearing the grumbling noises coming from Azalea’s belly.
“You’re so cheeky baby.” His eyes glimmers and he feels himself swooning into breeze, “How’s it going in heaven?” He asks airily tracing his initials beside her beautiful name engraved at the tombstone and it’s like she’s scolding him when he gets a nip on his pointy finger.
“Azalea kiss mommy a goodbye.” Harry breaks into laughter when Azalea bobs his head and almost tumbles of his daddy’s lap in the effort to reach the tombstone.
“Goodbye beautiful.” Harry whispers kissing the top of her tombstone and his heart bursts into lilacs when once again he’s showered into petal like leaves.
“I love you too, baby.” Finally he has accepted to say goodbyes.
#THIS MADE ME CRY I NEVER CRY AT MY OWN FICS#THIS ONE WAS HELLA SAD#SORRY POPPLINS#BUT HAD TO GIVE YOU AN HEARTACHE#HARRY SAD WRITINGS#HARRY ANGST#harry styles fanfic#harry styles#cute harry#harry styles blurb#harry styles smut#harry smut#harry styles fanfiction#harry angst#hsh#fluff#dom harry
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How about an AU where Jon and Gerry have been dating since Uni and have managed to keep it secret from everyone (including Elias and Gerttrude) by complete accident?
send me an au and i'll give you 5+ headcanons about it! requests closed!
by accident you say? 👀
1. jon and gerry meet somewhere completely ridiculous (yet also completely mundane) where the chance of them running into one another was like.... one in a million. like, maybe jon's class got out early and so he decided to walk a little further from campus to try a new coffee shop that he's never tried before and never will again because he realizes he really hates the drinks and that it's not worth the walk, and gerry is in the area looking into something leitner-related and he looks down at his phone a bit too long and runs smack into jon when he's walking away from the coffee shop with a lukewarm travel cup of hot chocolate because they were out of tea (what kind of coffee shop is out of tea? jon thinks with a scowl).
the hot chocolate spills all over gerry and jon's like 'oh god sorry, do you- do you want me to do something?' and gerry's about to brush past him when he sees the person he was looking for and shit, they're looking this way so without thinking he just... grabs jon and pulls him into the nearest shop. which happens to be selling something weird, idk, little ceramic figurines. and gerry does Not know what to say because like, he can't tell this stranger that he's hiding from maybe-a-fear-avatar! so he's like 'uh. you can make it up to me by.... helping me pick out a figurine? for, er. my mother. yes.'
so they're just walking through this shop, gerry's shirt still wet with hot chocolate, jon Very confused and also Very late for class but somehow nervous to just leave, so they look at figurines together. gerry keeps looking back out the window and nope, maybe-an-avatar is still there, and now they're sitting on the bench and it doesn't look like they're planning on moving anytime soon and gerry really doesn't want to take the chance and gamble that the maybe-avatar won't recognize him or realize what he's looking for. so gerry keeps shooting down every recommendation jon gives him with some progressively-more bullshit reasons--'oh, my mum already has that one' 'that one's too expensive, i can't afford it' 'that's too small' 'i don't like the way that one's looking at me' 'my mom's allergic to dogs, actually'--until jon's finally like 'okay what is going on and can i leave now?'.
and the maybe-avatar is still out there and gerry's certain now that they're watching him and he's suddenly very aware that he's spent a long period of time with this guy whose name he actually didn't quite catch and that it definitely looks like they're working together and ah, fuck, if i let him leave and he gets targeted because of me i'd feel horrible. so gerry sighs and thinks fuck it and is like 'listen i'm gonna level with you. i'm here looking for a book and there is somebody watching me right now and i know how that sounds but it's really not as shady as you think and also really not my fault but it is my fault that you're here too so. yeah. sorry i don't know if it's safe for you to leave.'
and all jon can think to say is 'a book?'.
and gerry's like 'don't worry about that bit, you really wouldn't understand' and jon gets all bristly and says primly, 'well, i'm a lit major and i work at the university library maybe i could help' and gerry can't help but laugh and say, 'really hope there's not a leitner in your uni library, mate'. and then jon gets this wide-eyed expression on his face like he's just seen a ghost and says 'what did you just say?' and before gerry can deflect again jon says, more intensely, but also hesitantly, 'is... is it called a guest for mr. spider?'.
and gerry's like 'um. no, it's not' and jon deflates a bit but now gerry's curious and he's like 'why?' and jon tries to deflect like 'oh clearly i misunderstood' but gerry's not budging and he's like 'no, no--have you read a leitner? gold bookplate, super fucked-up consequences?' and jon just goes pale which is really all the confirmation gerry needs. gerry feels the need to clarify that he hates them too--that he burns them whenever he gets the chance.
weakly, jon says, 'there... there's more than one?'. and then, a bit stronger: 'you- you're looking for another one? here? and you're going to burn it?'
gerry: yes, that's the plan. why--?
jon, without hesitation: i want to help
and maybe gerry is hesitant at first but, well. it seems like jon is already fully in this, so he reluctantly agrees, and they hunt down the leitner together and gerry lets jon burn it and then they're friends (and it really doesn't take long at all for that to transition into partners).
2. gertrude and elias missing that they're dating is a comedy of errors, including a lot of rather dramatic near misses including, but not limited to:
- jon always leaves a room just before one of them enters
- gerry always talks ambiguously about the person helping him hunt down leitners; elias always assumes he means gertrude, gertrude always assumes he means his mother. this is exploited to a comedic level
- getrude thinks 'going on a date' is code for gerry having a new lead on jurgen leitner and leaving to go chase it down
- when jon joins the institute as a researcher and runs into gerry in the building for the first time, he greets him neutrally in a mutually-agreed display of professionalism while working. gertrude and elias both remark at the fact that 'it's so nice that jon/gerry has a friend'
- gertrude, opening the door to the break room and bustling around inside, looking over at gerry where he's standing in front of the counter, jon sat atop it with his legs bracketing gerry's hips (they have very clearly just been kissing): oh hello gerard. jonathan. talking about leitners again?
jon, a bit embarrassed, slipping into Ultra Professionalism to compensate: i was just discussing with mr. keay the details of case number 0031211 regarding ms. cortena's experience with the talking vase--
gertrude, not at all interested, already knows that it's fake: right, right, carry on then
*after she's gotten her tea and left*
gerry, holding in laughter: 'mr. keay'?
jon, blushing: shut up gerry
3. gerry, casually, not actually aware that getrude doesn't know that he and jon are dating: yeah so then i had to leave my date early to go chase down this leitner and jon was not pleased
gertrude, after a hum of acknowledgement: how unfortunate. i'm not sure how jonathan's opinion on the matter is relevant, however. was he disappointed that you didn't ask him to track down the leitner with you?
gerry, Confused™️: he was.... at the date?
gertrude: at the date? whatever for?
gerry, now staring openly: because i was on a date with him? because we're dating? wait, did you not know that?
gertrude, not willing to admit that she missed that for nearly three years: of course i knew that, gerard. don't be foolish.
gerry, now even more confused: but--
gertrude, without missing a beat: i trust the leitner hunt went well, then?
gerry, after a long pause: um. yes?
gertrude, nodding: good.
4. there's an institute party and everyone's allowed to bring a plus-one
elias, noticing that jon's alone at the party: ah hello, jonathan. no plus one for you today?
jon: no, gerry couldn't make it, unfortunately. family business.
elias, somehow Oblivious, and also very Old Fashioned and way too familiar with his employees: quite. though typically, plus ones are of the romantic capacity. it's nice that you would consider gerard an acceptable substitute though, i suppose
jon, Bi confusion and suddenly unsure if his boss is homophobic: um. it.... it would have been in a romantic capacity?
elias, still Not Getting It: ah, i see. perhaps for the best, then--office parties don't make for pleasant first dates, in my experience
jon, unsure of how much of his personal life he wants to share with elias but not really wanting to pretend like he's not been dating gerry for going on three years now: um. it- it wouldn't be our first date. or- or really a date at all, just an- an event, i really don't think gerry would call this a date
elias, Getting it a little bit: ah. unfortunate, then. congratulations, i suppose, are in order. was it a recent engagement?
jon, ??????, biting the bullet: we've been together for three years, elias
5. jon, handing gerry a wrapped package on their fourth anniversary after they started dating: this is, um. this is for you
gerry, opening it and holding up the little ceramic figure of a dog: jon. is this--?
jon, in a rush: it's from that shop. where we, uh. where we met.
gerry, overcome with such love he really can't stand it, throwing all of his proposal plans out the window and digging the little square velvet box out of his pocket: jon can i ask you a question--
(jon is so surprised he just starts crying. it's only the fifth time gerry's ever seen him cry and he's so worried he said something wrong at first but then jon manages to say yes around his tears and jon wraps his arms around gerry tightly and buries his face in gerry's shoulder and whispers i love you and gerry hugs him tightly in return and says i love you, too, jon. i love you too.)
#the magnus archives#tma#jongerry#gerry keay#jonathan sims#ask#rugletthewren#((i'm still working on all of these just at a slower pace than before))#also this one came out very long and way more detailed than i planed ahsdglkglsa#'i'll give you 5+ headcanons' more like i'll write an entire fic in bullet form lmao#my fic
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Alright so this is a little different from what I have been doing, but it has been on my MIND. I swear I am working on requests too, writing a spicy Tech fic rn.
But anyways.
Due to this post by @spaceydragons I have come up with a series of headcanons for my beloved Echo, but as a country boy because as a country-ish girl myself I love them. (Was fr late to work the other day because of a farmer and his flock of geese on the road and had to help him chase them back into their pin. It had just rained so they were running to the ditch when he didn't get the gate shut all the way 😭)
But enough stories, have this series of headcanons because I feel no one would like a story over it LMAO
If you want me to do a differentcharacter for this au, just shoot me a message, ask, or a comment!! I have ideas for the rest of TBB and some other clone boys and even some Generals 😌
Sorry this is LONG
Echo would be the type that would take you out fishing your first date.
He is a bit shy and awkward, but fishing is something that doesn't need a lot of talking, but you can.
It is something that is peaceful and relaxing, plus he can help you if need be.
Or you can even help him.
I feel like he would absolutely love hunting with you too!
Not hunting with guns, but hunting for different herbs or foods.
He wouldn't be opposed to hunting animals, but it isn't always his cup of tea.
I headcanon that maybe he and all the rest of TBB were in a war, but they made it out.
Echo lost his arm and legs to it.
Which fives told you when you first met them. "Yep, the war cost my buddy an arm and TWO legs."
Echo was not amused and wanted to beat up Fives for embarrassing him in front of a pretty lady.
He is very insecure about his prosthetics at first, but after you assure him that you think they're unique and what makes him, him. He thinks he absolutely wants to die for you.
Plus you admire the fact that he can still do the things he loves even with a fake arm. Which he doesn't always put on around you after you reassure him a few times that it's fine.
He would definitely brag you up if you caught a big ass fish.
"Oh, you caught that? That ain't NOTHIN' compared to what my girl caught down at the lake the other night. 'Bout the size of her arm!"
This may be me being biased, but he would love night fishing too.
He would put his pole up sometimes just to hold you in his lap while you let your line set in the water.
Just admiring the feel of you pressed against his chest and the way the moon light reflected off your features.
He would also love sleeping with you in a hammock.
Unless it's hotter than all get out.
Then he'd stick to two separate hammocks while the two of you talked and slowly dozed off for an afternoon nap.
He also seems like the gardener of the group along with Wrecker.
He would have a mad green thumb with his gentle giant brother.
Though Wrecker would prefer the flowers, while Echo would be more for the fruits and veggies.
Echo would be in close contact with the 501st still, as well.
Taking you over to meet his other brothers. Meet their families and friends as well.
You and Fives would click with the 501st just as well as you do the Bad Batch, and Echo would love you even more for it.
Tbh in this hc I feel TBB would be more the hillbillies and the other clone units. Especially the 501st would be the farming/rancher types.
So Echo would have traits from both.
He would take you for a ride in the tractor, too 😏
He would let you feed the animals and play with the dogs.
Rex would absolutely love you as well. For the fact you're so nice to them and help them out even when Echo isn't around, AND the fact that you are taking care of his brother.
"I haven't seen him this happy since I upped his and Fives' rank."
You would feel absolutely amazing about yourself.
Until Hardcase and Jesse demanded you cook them all a meal.
To which you would, but you'd deep down hate it only for the fact they could all eat a fucking horse, each.
You would be cooking most the night when all the boys got together.
Echo would help out, along with some of his other brothers you trusted in the kitchen.
Like Kix, Tup, and especially Fives.
No one knew how Fives was such a damned good cook, but he was.
Echo would watch you braid Tups hair and make a mental not to let his hair grow out longer.
He loves it when you run your fingers over his shorter hair, but the way Tup seemed to be nearly falling asleep against your thing as he sat on the floor in between your legs while you sat in the chair and braided his hair? He knew he'd love it.
So this actually happened to my uncle 💀. But I feel like Echo would lose his prosthetics as least once. Say he has an old truck, but he loves it? Yeah there's a hole in the floor and "PULL OVER THERE GOES MY FUCKING LEG-" "AGAIN?? ECHO-"
Okay, okay. But imagine- you, Echo, and TBB all going for drives to the lake???
I feel like everyone but Echo and Crosshair would fully submerge themselves underwater on hot days.
Cross seems like he wouldn't enjoy it much. Maybe a little? But I deadass feel like he can't swim.
This may be me projecting my own fears onto Echo(I do that sometimes.) But I really feel like he would be scared of deep waters. Even before he lost his limbs.
He only sits near the water and occasionally goes in with you, but you have to be right next to him at all times while holding his hand
Plus he won't let it go past his mid calve.
Echo would most definitely make you stuff too!
You want a new coffee table?
Bam, him and Tech made you a new one.
It's your anniversary?
Well lookie there, you have a necklace he made just for you!
He would also spoil you.
Even if he doesn't have the most money, he would do little things that meant the world to you.
OKAY OKAY- BUT PROPER DATE NIGHTS-
THey would be little picnics outdoors on a blanket with you favorite sandwiches and drink 🥺🥺
He would wear a buttoned up flannel and blue jeans with cowboy boots because they are easy to slip over his prosthetics.
You unbutton his flannel to find nothing underneath 😏
Oh, and I do feel he would have scarring from the explosion. Which I always hc him with.
He would also have a mega bad farmers tan, because same.
He'd melt each time you trace his scars and nearly malfunction when you kiss them 😩
In conclusion, he would be the best country boyfriend.
#country boy i love you#clone wars echo#arc trooper fives#arc trooper echo x reader#arc trooper echo#the bad batch#the bad batch echo#echo x reader#please help this au is overtaking my thought process#captain rex#arc trooper jesse#clone trooper tup#clone trooper dogma#clone trooper x reader#bad batch#bad batch tech#bad batch echo#bad batch hunter#bad batch wrecker#bad batch crosshair#bad batch x reader
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baby, just say yes
full masterlist
Pairings: Bucky Barnes x female!reader
Word count: 3,324
Warning: fluff!! pure feelings, inaccurate depiction of middle-age relationships (?)
Summary: inspired by taylor swift’s “love story” and a bit of bridgerton. james barnes was the son of your father’s rival. what happens when two star-crossed lovers fell in love? will their love conquer their families’ bad blood?
a/n: in honour of taylor releasing re-recorded version of love story, i wanted to write something inspired by it because i’m a sucker for fairytales (HA!) i wanted to post this on valentine’s day but it turned out to be longer than i planned. also, bridgerton might have influenced some of my writing. so enjoy! reblogs and comments are always appreciated. :)
The party was in full swing as the music enlivened the masquerade revellers in ball gowns and fancy suits. You stepped into the party in your best dress with your hair half pinned up in braids. You wore your fulgent jewellery proudly, not caring what anyone thought of your confidence. As the daughter of an aristocratic family, you never once had to worry about fortune or popularity. Your father was a powerful man and everyone knew and worshipped the ground you walked on. But really, you were smart enough to know that these people were merely a bunch of bootlickers. They wished to get close to you for your wealth and repute.
The ball that was held by your father bored you. You never really liked any of his associates. You were a naturally an introvert, you preferred to be alone in your room and read books or be with your dog. However, keeping up a good appearance, well your father’s appearance, was necessary to maintain the family’s name. So you had no choice but to get up, get ready and show your face.
You greeted one of your cousins, Bella, who had come all the way from France. She looked dazzling as always. She hoped to meet a rich husband in one of these balls, but none of them had been captivated by her enough to get down on one knee. Somehow, they always turned their heads to you even when you never displayed any interest in marrying any time soon.
People were chatting, laughing and drinking left and right, some were on the hunt for a match. A few men had come up to you and asked for a dance, you always came up with a reason to dodge them. So you ran to the nearest table to get a glass of champagne. A bit of alcohol could soothe your nerves.
And then, as if the world stopped moving and time froze. A man with short dark hair and navy blue velvet suit made an entrance to the ball. He folded his hands behind him and his walk displayed confidence and power. You couldn't see his entire face for he was wearing a mask but even with only half of his face was shown, you could already tell how handsome he was. The scruff on his lower face added to his sex appeal and there was a mysterious way about him.
He walked further into the ball until his eyes found yours, and it was like the butterflies in your stomach had been possessed. He boldly made his way towards you until you were standing face to face. You could make out his features more clearly now from this proximity. You couldn't help but instantly noticed his eyes; how translucent it was, not only in the colour but also the way it spoke to your soul wordlessly. And the blue in them made you think that God created him and inspired the ocean to seize the colour. And his smell was intoxicating. He had a masculine scent to him, filling up your thoughts with obscene scenarios. It piqued your curiosity about the man behind the mask.
You were a respected woman despite your age. Not only because of your family’s power but also because you carved out your image as this ‘untouchable, implausible’ lady to any man. It would take a true magnetic man to charm you and so far, you haven't crossed paths with one yet…. Until tonight.
He broke the silence first by greeting you, “hello there, milady. Quite a warm night, isn’t it?” Oh, how his voice was making you feel things you’d never felt before. Is this what love at first sight felt like?
“Yes, milord. It truly is.” You replied in a calm manner despite the hurricane inside you.
The orchestras began playing a lively tune, inviting men and women to pair up and dance. He held out his hand for you, “may I have this dance, milady?”
He led you to the centre of the ballroom. He stood in line with other men facing their partners. They bowed their heads and so did you with other women. They held out their hands for their partners to take and began putting their hands on their partners’ shoulders and waists.
You held your breath as he laid his hand on your skin, closing the distance between the two of you. He began to take the lead as your feet were moving in sync, trying not to step on him. You had taken dancing classes before but you almost never danced in the ballroom, so you were a little nervous about forgetting the lessons you had learned in front of this beautiful man.
“I never caught your name, milady.”
“I never caught yours either.” You snarked.
“I asked you first, milady,” the smirk on his face showed his amusement.
You chuckled, “My name’s y/n.”
“Such a lovely name for a lovely lady.”
“Oh, please. Cut the coquetry, milord. Plenty of men have told me that before.”
“Oh, have they?”
The choreography made you switch partners and you danced with this stranger. He looked delighted to have a chance with you but you merely smiled politely at him, until they switched back to your previous partners.
“Did that man tell you the same thing?”
“No, but I could tell from his expression that if we had danced a little longer, he would’ve found a synonymous flattery for me.”
“Are you used to having men throw themselves at your feet?”
“Yes, milord. I eat it for breakfast.”
You danced with him a little bit more until he spoke a hushed tone, “this party bores me. Would you like to meet me in the garden once this dance is over?”
“That would be splendid.”
The dance was finished and you bowed to each other and he kissed your gloved hand. “I’ll see you in the garden in 10 minutes.” He walked past by you, brushing your shoulder with his. You turned your head in his direction, deciding whether you should hold onto your words or not. But without much thinking, you took a glass of champagne and then snuck out, avoiding your parents’ scrutiny.
You found him standing there with his hands behind his back in the middle of the garden where flowers surrounded him, making the sight seem romantic. “Are you expecting someone, milord?”
“Not anymore,” he smiled. “I’ve persuaded you into a clandestine meeting, seems like I am winning the game.”
“Don’t flatter yourself, milord. I sneak out to the garden every day. Which reminds me, I didn’t quite catch your name back there.”
“My name’s James, milady. But, you may call me Bucky.”
Your furrowed your brows in a questioning look, “Bucky?”
“Yes. My mother bestowed me that nickname and the people that are closest to me call me Bucky.”
“Hm, is this another of your flattery that I get to call you ‘Bucky’?
“Yes, milady. I don’t take a lot of women to the gardens as well, so you could say you’re pretty special.”
“Let’s see how tonight goes and I will know.”
You and James talked some more. He told you stories about his family and you told him about yours. He also opened up about how his mother died. Though he looked dejected while telling stories about her, most of the times he was charming, with and clever, making you feel at ease in his company. You had met plenty of men but none of them had made you feel as comfortable as James did. He made you laugh several times with his jokes and you exchanged thoughts about social issues such as marriage, love, children with him. You always thought you’d never marry or perhaps you’d marry in your thirties or forties but it seems as if your heart is tossing away those ideas.
You were really enjoying your time with him that there was a moment where it was just the crickets and your soft breaths. You laid your head on his shoulder as his warmth engulfed you. You nearly fell asleep until the voice of your father disrupted your moment. “Y/N!” The sounds of footsteps were approaching and then your father’s incensed face came to view. “Y/N! What do you think you are doing?!”
“Father, calm down, I was merely promenading with James.”
“Milord, forgive me. I asked for your daughter to meet me in this garden. Please, don’t rebuke her.”
“You shut your mouth, young man. I know who you are and I would never let you lay a hand on my daughter, ever again. You should be ashamed o yourself.”
“Father, what are you so furious about?”
“Don’t you know who he is, y/n?!”
“No, who is he?” You looked at James then back to your father. James looked shocked at the intrusion.
“He is the son of that bastard, George Barnes. I had told you many stories about the lies and betrayals they did years ago. I would never forget them.” Your father enunciated those words as he stared into James’ eyes.
“Is that true?”
James looked doubtful, “yes.”
You felt dizzy. The first man that had truly captured your heart was the son of your families’ number one rival. It was as if the world didn’t like the idea of you finding love.
“Y/N, I swear, on my mother’s grave that I didn’t know. I didn’t know you were-”
“You stay away from my daughter! Do you hear me? If I ever see you anywhere near her, I will kill you with my own hands.” You father grabbed your hand then dragged you back to your carriage where your mother had been waiting for you both.
You tried to free yourself out of your father’s grip but it was to no avail. You looked back at James who was still standing there one last time before the carriage took you away. You cried all the way home.
-
It’s been three days since the debacle in the garden. You didn’t regret one thing about your feelings, but you blamed the universe for the circumstances. Out of all the people in the world, why must the man that you’d been waiting for was the one you couldn’t be with?
You missed James. You missed the warmth of being in his arms, the gentleness in his eyes and the way his voice soothed you. You wanted to see him more than anything but since that night, you begged your parents to let you see James, you fought tooth and nail to make your father change his mind, but all you got was being locked in your room after you threatened them to run away from home. They even went as far as hiring a guard to stand in front of your bedroom all day.
You sat by your window, looking up at the moon in your nightgown, wondering if James was thinking of you too until your reverie was disrupted by a knocking sound on your window. You instantly looked down to see what was the cause and the sight before you blew away the dark clouds above your head. James Barnes was standing below, with pebbles in his hand.
He smiled when you saw your face and you opened your windows, “James! What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you, of course. Are you able to come down?”
“I’ll try, but be quite okay? Don’t let anyone see you.”
You opened the lock of your door as quietly as possible. It was nearing 2 AM and the guard was snoring in his seat. You minded your steps like a ninja, not wanting to cause any noise. You held your breath when he stirred in his sleep but he thankfully he didn’t wake up. So you sprinted downstairs under the darkness of your mansion.
You quietly unlocked the door of the main entrance and immediately ran to the backyard, where James was waiting for you.
“James!” You shrieked. The joy in his face was palpable, so did yours. You ran to him, lifting your nightgown so you wouldn’t stumble and jumped on him and he caught you.
“I’ve missed you, princess,” James whispered breathily while hiding his face in your shoulder.
“I’ve missed you too. How did you know where I live?”
“I got connections. I’ve spent the last three days endlessly thinking of you.”
“I haven’t thought of anything else other than you too, James.”
He smiled then kissed you deeply, pouring all his longing in the last three days for you.
James took you to the outskirts of the town and you walked hand in hand, wandering around in the night. You talked about the history of your families and how your father wouldn’t let you go out alone knowing that you would try to see him and he told his father about you and what went down in the garden. You sighed, knowing that there was no chance for you and James to be together but then a fleeting thought came.
“Let’s run away,” you recklessly uttered.
“What?” James heard every word you said, he was just taken aback by what it meant.
“Let’s just… Get out of here. We can leave at midnight, I’ll pack up my things and we can be together.”
“Y/N, we can’t.”
“Why?” You were exasperated. “Don’t you wanna be with me, James?”
“I do, however, I can’t do that to you, my love. It’s too dangerous. Your father is a powerful man, I can’t imagine what he would do to us both if he found out.”
“We can, we just have to be careful! C’mon James, I’ve felt so alone my whole life until I met you. I don’t wanna be alone anymore.”
“You won’t, darling. I promise you. I’ve got plans, okay? You just need to trust me.”
“Okay, I trust you.”
-
It had been a week since you last saw James and you were losing faith every day. You had no clue of what James was planning to do. You trusted him but you wished he had been more clear of his intentions. Now, all you could do was wait for him in silence, unable to do anything, like a kite in the wind.
“You haven’t touched your food, dear. Is everything alright?” Your mother asked from across the dining table.
“Yes, mother. I am simply not famished.”
“Eat some of your food, will you? I’d hate to see you ill.”
You wished you could sneak behind your father to vent to your mother about your feelings for James, however, you knew that your mother was loyal to your father and there was no secret between them. You used to hope that one day if you’d ever find a husband, you would have the same foundation in your marriage as your parents had, now you would be delighted if they announced their divorce so you could be free from your father.
The majordomo interrupted your dinner by informing that you had a couple of guests. By the look on your father’s face, you could tell that he wasn’t expecting any tonight, but he got up to welcome whoever was waiting outside anyway.
You heard your father’s booming voice from the dining table and you and your mother exchanged glances. You instantly followed him to see what was going on.
“You dare to show your face here after I’ve warned you of staying away from my family!”
And you stopped in your tracks when you saw James standing next to an older man facing your father. “James…”
“Y/N…” Without a second thought, you ran to him, wanting to hold and kiss him more than anything. For a second there, you forgot everyone was watching. But your father caught you and your guard held you back.
“Let go of me!”
“Now I want you out of my land and never to return or there will be a huge consequence.”
“I am here to make peace. My son told me about your daughter and I wasn’t keen on the idea of uniting our families but I am willing to try for him. Let’s end this bad blood between us, Robert. We shall not let our children suffer simply because of our pride.”
“I’d rather die than to let my your bastard of a son touch my daughter.” Your father gritted through his teeth. “Now leave or you will be removed forcibly.” Your father turned around but before he could close the door on them, James stopped him.
“I’m in love with your daughter, Sir Y/L/N.” That stopped your father in his tracks. “I have met many women yet, I have never felt this way for anyone,” James gazed into your eyes.
“In the last two weeks I have known her, I have learned that you raised a bright, courageous, loving, beautiful woman,” he paused, as if he was trying to show you the sincerity behind his confession. You didn’t realize tears have welled up in your eyes.
“From the very moment I saw her in that ball, I knew I’d live in regret if I didn’t catch her name before I leave. Your daughter stood out like a diamond in the dirt and it was an honour to held her hand while dancing. It was an honour knowing her. And it would be an honour to have her by my side until the end of my life,” He paused. “I know I am undeserving of your daughter but I will never let her doubt that she is loved and she deserves everything good I could offer.”
A single tear cascaded down your cheek. “So, Y/N Y/L/N, will you marry me?” He moved closer toward you, and your father was left speechless by James’ words. James got down on his knee and presented a velvet box with a gleaming diamond ring inside it.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, thousand times yes.” James put the ring on your finger and you jumped on him and he caught you. For a minute there you forgot that there was still an unresolved animosity between your families, though your mother had a huge smile on her face and she nearly teared up at the sight of her daughter being so in love. George Barnes was smiling ear to ear as well, looking so proud of his son.
He thought that with his son’s reputation of being a rake, he would never settle. But he finally found his match and though he didn’t take it so pleasantly at first, James talked it out to him and George learned to be happy and accept it. George recalled the moment he fell in love with Winnifred, she didn’t come from an aristocratic family. She was merely a singer and his family didn’t approve but he opposed them and married her anyway until they had James. George also hoped that their marriage could end the bad blood between him and your father.
James set you back on the floor and you looked at your father. “Father? I love him and I may never fall in love again. Please, let me be with him. If you love me, you won’t stand in the way.” Your father was baffled, but the resentment in his eyes had softened. “Do you really want to spend the rest of your life waiting for me to find someone to marry and keeping enemies? I’m marrying him whether you approve or not. But I wouldn’t want you to be absent from my wedding.”
Your father sighed, “are you happy?”
“More than I have ever been.”
“Then I suppose, I shall put my pride aside for the one person I love the most in the world.”
“Thank you, father.” You hugged him and he kissed the top of your head.
You grew up being cynical toward fairytales, but for once in your life, you believe that you have found your fairytale ending.
#bucky barnes#bucky barnes au#bucky barnes fanfic#bucky barnes one shot#bucky barnes imagine#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes smut#bucky barnes fluff#bucky barnes medieval au#bucky barnes royal au#bucky barnes royalty au#prince!bucky#romeo and juliet au#romeo & juliet
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Basic backstories, setup and just few little things about Werewolf Cole Au. A synopsis if you will?
There's no elemental powers, Overlord, Zane isn't a nindroid, etc. Just basically a regular world with small real myths such as Werewolves.
Werewolf wolf forms aren't humanoid, but really are just big 6ft tall wolves.
Kai and Nya do live in a house near the woods and their parents were never kidnapped so they were raised by them. However they both are in a line of work that has them not home most of the time.
Kai & Nya found Lloyd on the streets being bullied from other kids. Kai immediately couldn't stand it and stepped in. When asked where Lloyd lived so they could take him, Lloyd said he didn't have one.
After a long video call later, and a quick visit by Maya, Lloyd was able to be adopted into their family and enroll in school under the name Lloyd Smith.
Kai is 20, Nya is 18, Lloyd is 14, Cole is 21, Jay is 18, Zane is 23, Pixal is 22, Skylor is 21. Excluding Cole till later, they're just a big friend group.
Kai is trying to find a good College to get into while working at Skylor and her Mother's small Noodle Shop. There is no Chen because I said so.
Skylor and Kai used to date in Highschool, but found to be better friends instead and now are just close friends.
Jay & Nya are in highschool Senior Year, and are together.
Zane & Pixal was friends with them in highschool, but now are in College together. Also a couple, and they love to visit when they can and video chat.
Lloyd is in Middle School. He's managed to make few friends there but his best friends are his adopted siblings, their friends, and his adopted cat, Meowthra.
Cole was childhood friends with Jay back in another town until one day him, his father and mother had to suddenly move out without a word to anyone. So to Jay, his childhood friend just one day disappeared.
There are Werewolf Hunters after them.
Cole gets his wolf side from Lily.
Lily doesn't pass away when he was younger, but is sick. Lou moves them to the Town where the gang are, hearing about how it's nice and close to some woods, good clean air, and he did some digging and saw nothing about Hunters being in the town because the Forest and its wildlife are supposed to be protected.
Cole is trying to figure out what to do for his mother and always goes out to the woods at night to let himself be a wolf, especially because he doesn't have complete control of his transformation like Lily.
Unfortunately Hunters did follow them.
The Hunters one day went to eat at the Noodle Shop and talked about going hunting in the Woods. Kai overheard, and he knows the Woods are not to be hunted in. Kai tried leaving a voicemail to Skylor but his phone unfortunately died mid message. He wasn't sneaky enough about it and the Hunters did notice.
At the end of his shift, locking up the Noodle Shop, Kai is jumped by the Hunters so they don't have a goody goody try and ruin their hunt.
Kai managed to get away and did run off into the woods, hoping to lead them off his tail, not find their way to his house, while also hoping to manage to get home through the woods.
Kai of course loses the Hunters, but unfortunately his ankle did get sprained pretty bad and he stops to sit against a tree once he's sure he's safe.
That's when Cole finds him after smelling some of his blood.
Kai never heard of any reports of wolves in the woods, especially none that are 6ft tall. So understandably, Kai freezes up in fear while also knowing he wouldn't get anywhere if he tried.
Cole approaches, luckily just have hunted something himself so Kai's blood doesn't affect his hunter instincts too much.
Cole slowly approaches Kai before licking his wounds. He turns Kai around and grabs him by the back of his jacket, carrying him off to his little den he set up for when he's out in the woods.
Kai freaks out and is about to yell before he hears the distant sound of a Jeep driving through the woods which leads him to shut up in fear its the hunters.
This also has Cole rush to the den.
The den is set up with a large bedroll, campfire and few other necessities because Cole goes to it when he's a human as well. It surprises Kai, but he doesn't complain when the big wolf sets him down and carries over a first aid kit.
Even after patching himself up, Kai still can't get up, but it seems the Wolf in front of him basically saved him and maybe has an owner. Plus, out of fear of running into the hunters, he decides okay he'll stay for the night.
Cole does notice Kai starts shivering when trying to sleep, so he goes over to offer some warmth. Kai while uneasy with a big wolf next to him, accepts it, not wanting to risk going against it and it is nice.
This leads to both of them falling asleep and Cole completely forgetting he's going to change back in the morning.
So Kai wakes up being hugged by this large shirtless man. His screaming wakes Cole up, leading him to screaming as well as the scramble to get apart.
The den is surprisingly close to Kai's house, so as Nya is about to head out on her bike to find out why Kai didn't come home last night, she hears him screaming in the woods.
After the screaming stops, Kai and Cole stare at each other. Kai in complete bewilderment, glancing around for that wolf from last night unaware it was Cole. Cole meanwhile is frozen, slapping himself mentally for some reason helping this random stranger as a wolf and not thinking about him turning back in the morning.
Nya calls out for Kai though, drawing his attention away from Cole and allowing him a moment to slip away.
Kai after realizing he was left alone, decides to get up, limping out of the den to call out to Nya.
Kai is brought home and his wounds are more properly treated. A call to Skylor to look out for the guys that jumped Kai and to let her know what's up.
Kai tells the story about the Wolf. Lloyd gets excited wanting to find a big nice Wolf himself, but Nya quickly dismisses it to it most likely just being a dream passing out in the woods. Hoping to delude Lloyd from going and searching the woods for said Wolf, while also not believing it herself.
Kai is basically forced to stay home till they know the Hunters aren't going to go after him again, and to heal up his ankle.
Kai keeps thinking about that night while during his little house arrest, and even dreams of the man he woke up next to, turning into the 6ft Wolf that helped him.
One night when he's okay to walk again and Nya is at Jay's house with Lloyd to help him study, and for a little sleepover, Kai sneaks out back to the woods, finding the den again and hopes to come across the Wolf again.
Cole wanders in as a wolf and freezes noticing Kai waiting for him. He was no different from Kai, constantly thinking about the other in numerous ways since their encounter.
Cole unfortunately wasn't so prepared for another meeting and turns to run away, but finds himself freezing when Kai cries out "Wait!"
Kai slowly approaches Cole.
"You can understand me, can't you?" Cole looks Kai in the eyes and nods to Kai's slight surprise.
"Are you that guy I woke up next to?" Cole whines in response, in fear of Kai knowing.
"It's okay! I... well its little weird to think about, but... wow I was actually right? Haha, I don't know how to feel about this, but I won't go ratting you out don't worry!" Cole's ears perk up in surprise.
That's when the familiar sound of a Jeep reaches both their ears. Smelling the air, Cole whines, recognizing the smell of Hunters, moving to turn and run again, but Kai stops him again.
Kai offers and brings Cole back to his house to help hide him. Cole feels like he should reject, and not trust so easily, but he finds himself following Kai easily.
That's when Kai walks in with Cole, ducking through the back door and see Nya and Lloyd who just got home because the sleep over got cancelled.
After a lot of panic and explaining later, Nya agrees to help out Cole, wanting more explaining from him if Kai saying him turning into a human is true.
Lloyd is very excited to see such a big wolf and starts talking to Cole a lot. It surprises Cole, but he also finds it enjoyable to see a kid so excited to actually see him like this after growing up and being told by Lou he should never show his secret to anyone.
Lloyd does bring Meowthra to Cole, and while Kai and Nya were expecting the usual Cat vs Dog or this case, Wolf, Meowthra surprisingly really likes Cole and they get along fine.
Lloyd helps Kai give food to Cole once they hear the wolf's tummy growl.
The next morning, Cole wakes up in the living room as human and he does explain what he is. Pleading for the trio of siblings to not say anything, especially after he smelled Hunters and learned they're the ones who hurt Kai. They of course agree to the promise.
This starts the cycle of Cole coming over some nights as a Wolf and staying the night.
Cole is excited to talk to people again after being on the run and being hidden for so long and a nice distraction from worrying about his mother.
Kai finds himself wanting to spend more and more time with Cole until he realizes he's actually falling in love with a werewolf.
Overtime the rest of the friend group also accidentally learn about Cole but agree to keep the secret. Jay especially being really happy to see his childhood friend again and getting an explanation why he disappeared so long ago.
Kai find himself talking a lot about Cole to his siblings and Skylor. Cole does the same to Jay about Kai.
Of course they do confess at some point. Or basically forced to by everyone.
Cole keeps all this a secret from Lou because his father has grown to always have a constant worry of his son and wife being hurt because their Wolf sides. He talks to Lily about everyone though when he thinks she's asleep, but she does hear it all and is happy to hear her son is happy. She doesn't tell Lou until Cole is ready.
Cole is a clingly bf when him and Kai are together, being very touch starved from only having his mom & dad for so long. Kai loves attention, so it works out perfectly.
Cole as a wolf will sometimes just pick up Kai to bring him t lay down with and enjoy cuddles. When human, he loves to come up from behind for a hug.
Kai brought Cole to work one day and Cole fell in love with the food there ofc.
When Cole first ate cake around the others, he was a wolf and they did immediately get scared with mindset of chocolate bad for dogs. Morning came and Cole reassured he was fine and is still okay to eat anything he can as a human, as a wolf.
Cole does still struggle with gaining control of his transformation but that mainly affects to him turning into a wolf every night. Lily can turn into a wolf anytime she wants.
However sometimes Cole finds himself losing to his wolf instincts and needs to hunt or gets hostile.
First time Cole loses himself as a wolf he is hostile, but Kai slowly approaches him, treating it like he would for Lloyd when he has panic attacks, and brings Cole out of it. Mostly succeeding to get close because Cole smells his own scent on Kai.
They all do try and pitch in to find a way to help Lily, and stop the Hunters.
#ninjago#ninjago au#werewolf cole#Lavashipping#kai smith#cole brookstone#long post#nya smith#lloyd garmadon#jay walker#zane julien#skylor chen#pixal borg#This ended up being a lot more than i was thinking of writing down#But hey#I say I love this au#werewolf Cole au
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The Same Page
This is my @destielsecretsanta2020 gift for @eclypseaf!!! The request was open, but bonus points for Miracle being present. So I wrote some post empty rescue fic!
This one honestly gave me a really hard time and I have no idea why. I hope you like it and have has an awesome christmas!
[Ao3 Link]
The portal spits them out in the dungeon.
Dean stumbles out first, a half step ahead of Cas. Human, malleable, and very much alive with one of the little dude's arms draped over Dean's shoulder.
Cas stumbles forward. Dean shoots an arm out in front of him, places a hand firmly against his chest. He maneuvers his other arms under his trenchcoat, grips his side firm.
His skins almost cool to the touch — much too cold to be safe. Not for a human, especially a brand new one.
And what if he's sick? Or gets sick and can't get better? Without his grace, there's a whole new set of worries. A bad flu that gets worse until he's gone, a hunt going wrong, fucking cancer. Heart disease kills pretty much everyone, doesn't it?
He takes a deep breath and focuses on the gentle thud of Cas' heart against his palm.
The last eight months haven't been easy. Not between the alcohol Sam eventually cut him off from, and the hunts getting sparse, and Jack being terrifying and gone until he wasn't.
Cas lulls his head to the side. His inky heart sticks to his forehead, and his blueberry-sweet eyes are unfocused but still manage to catch Dean's.
It's achingly familiar, and he smiles easy. "Hey there, sunshine."
Cas pinches his brows together as his head swims to stay upright. He slurs through some half-baked, nonsense question about coral reef bleaching, and Dean's so relieved he laughs.
Cas smiles at the sound, dazed and feather-light, but the joy is unmistakable.
It's the best thing Dean's ever seen. Fuck, he missed him. Missed him so much he didn't know what to do with himself.
Cas winces — what little help he was giving Dean in holding him up falls. He makes up the difference quick. Weak fingers curl around Dean's wrist.
"Sorry —"
"S'okay. Gonna —" he swallows hard. Tries to shove away the distinct pin-prick in his tear ducts that always means he needs to man the hell up. "Gonna get you to a bed, okay?"
Cas grunts, a pitiful noise that's mostly air and entirely feeble. "Tired."
"Rest then. It ain't far. I gotcha, buddy."
When he nods, his hair brushes Dean's neck.
It's not well thought out. The lack of work and overload of carbs haven't done Dean's muscles any favors. His joints creak and protest every step, but his room isn't far, and he'd be damned before he let's Cas feel like he has to do anything alone this time.
Miracle hops off the bed the moment the door opens.
Dean lays Cas on top of the bunched up blanket. Once he's down, Dean slowly works the trencoast and suit jacket off, his hands careful as they trail across the thin cotton of his shirt.
Cas shivers, and Dean wrestles to tug the blanket out from under him, Miracle nuzzling the side of his leg the whole time.
She's probably hungry. Or just wants attention. He hasn't exactly been available the last couple weeks, too busy with his nose in piles of research. But it all payed off.
Cas grimaces in his sleep, and it twists the cords in Dean's chest. He reaches his hand out and ghosts his fingers across the sweat-stained hair stuck to his skin, gently pushing it to the side.
He'd said it once, not more than a month ago, in the darkness of his room, Miracle tucked as close as he could get her.
He said he loved me, and I — I didn't say it back. But I do. God I do.
Dean trails his hand from his forehead to the flushed pillow of his cheeks. The other knuckles roughly at his eyes and comes back wet.
He has no god damn idea what he wouldve done without Miracle to talk to. Cause he could never get it out to Sam. Not those last moments. Not what Cas really means to him. Always too close to an edge of something larger than any apocalypse they've ever dealt with.
He traces down low enough to brush across Cas' wrist, the pained look still on his face.
Dean swallows, his heart hammers hard in his throat. Timid even though the guy is unconscious, Dean grabs his hand.
His mind blanks. Turns to complete static — a jumble of half-formed thoughts about every reason he ever told himself not to.
He's an angel. The worlds ending. Always ending. He doesn't feel that way. Can't, the equipment for it's not there. It's why he leaves, isn't it? And what the fuck could ever hope to start when it's all always falling apart? When they could fall apart.
Everyone leaves.
A flash of cold prickles down his back, and he tries to takes a deep breath. It goes down ragged. There was something he read once, about picking out a sense.
Cas' breath, slow and steady. The clink of Mircale's claws on the floor. A muted buzz from the florescent lights in the hall.
He breaths again, a little easier. His fingers curls into Cas' palm, and his finger twitch against Dean in response. The dent in his brows relax, his jaw goes slack.
"S'okay Cas." He squeezes. "Just... be okay."
When his phone rings, dumped and forgotten on the other side of the room, he isn't quite sure how to let go. Like the ligaments in his hand have cemented in place, forgotten the muscle memory to make the movements happen.
When the second call comes through, Cas mumbles something. Dean's shoulder slack, and he pulls his hands back, clammy and with a slight tremor.
It's Sam. There's a small tug of guilt — he should've called him the moment he put Cas down. He knows he would've been worried sick if Sam was the one that had to go.
Sam's relieved too, promises to buy stuff for dinner on his way back from where Dean went in the Empty about fifty miles out. And he must hear something in his voice, because he stresses to go watch a movie or something and let Cas sleep it off.
Of course he's right. They knew Cas would be out cold. But leaving the room is still hard, and he lingers in the doorway until he gets a good look at Miracle's mess of tangled fur.
He hasn't brushed her hair, since that's practically what the fur is, in weeks.
"C'mon girl."
He grabs the brush from the bedside table, casts on last look at Cas, and takes Miracle to the TV room.
She hops on the couch next to him, tail thumping with excitement.
"You wanna get pretty to meet Cas later?"
She nuzzles his hand, sticks her nose against the brush, and a little bit of the stress from today lightens up.
He flips on some netflix show about baking food, and talks to Miracle as he starts in on her snout.
It's ritualistic to touch on whatevers going on with her, at this point.
As her fur smooths, he tells her about the Empty. Its piss-poor lighting, the mind boggling way directions work, how it has this awful burnt-licorice and gasoline stench clung to the nothingness of its everything.
It kinda makes his head hurt.
Almost two full episodes in, he has all her fur neat and tidy, and his little monologue has circled back to Cas. She'd know a lot about him if she could talk.
"It's hard to believe he's really back. And — and maybe it'll be good. We could, I dunno, get you a yard?" He nods, smiles. "Yeah, I bet your spoiled ass would like that. The bunker ain't a place for pets."
Miracle leaps from the couch, and someone clears their throat from the door.
Cas stands in the doorway, hunched in on himself. Dark strands of hair twist up in random directions, and the casual clothes Dean left him fit snugly.
He looks... comfortable. Like he slipped into humanity ages ago, not this afternoon.
"Cas."
He tilts his lips up, tight and sheepish. "I see you have a dog now."
"Yeah. Miracle. She uh — she helped me." He motions vaguely to his head. "Might not be batting a hundred up here if not for her."
Cas glances down at her, and the tense smile softens. "I'm very grateful then."
Almost reverent, he scratches the side of her ear.
Dean shakes his head. Blinks. Two things he never thought he'd see side by side mixed with the insanity of the day make none of this seem real.
Deep breath.
"She can — she can be there for you too," Dean says. "If you need it. Dogs are great listeners. Even the Madonna types like this one."
Cas gives a contemplative hum. "They are both blonde."
He puffs a breath of air. It's easy to forget Cas actually knows what he's talking about now, sometimes. Even if he does still miss the point by a mile.
"It was your turn."
Cas raises an eyebrow.
"To, uh, pick a movie." He motions to the seat next to him. "If you want."
Cas runs his bottom lip between his teeth and doesn't look at Dean. Doesn't say anything either. Just nods, walks over, and sinks into the couch.
It's a respectable distance. Close enough Dean would be able to sense him, far enough away they won't touch.
Miracle curls up on the other side of Cas, head flopped on his lap, right next to his balled up hands.
"Is it over?" His voice is small.
Dean doesn't have to ask. "Chuck isn't aproblem anymore." Cas sighs, slinks down bonelessly into the cushions. "We figured it out, took his powers. Jack's fixing up Heaven with it. Says he's gunna do that, find a way to put Amara back together, and then come home."
"Good. I don't think I'm up to fighting standards." He rolls his head to the side. They're close enough Dean can make out each muscle in his neck when he swallows. "You didn't have to save me, Dean. I'd — made peace with that fate."
It's bullshit. It's bullshit and Cas has to know it. He almost tells him a much, but if he can't have that talk now, then he never will.
He licks his lips. It doesn't help the dryness.
"Did you mean it?"
It's a dumb question, but one he needs answered.
Cas doesn't miss a beat. "That and more." The serenity in his words is endearing as it is cutting when he adds, "But we don't have to address it. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
It's Dean's turn to melt with relief. "Good — that's good."
Cas winces. "I understand if you'd like some space —"
He starts to stand up, and panic seizes Dean's chest like a vice grip. He grabs his wrist and Cas freezes.
"No! God no. Cas, it — it wasn't supposed to happen like that."
He looks confused, before some amount of understanding smoothes out some of the worried lines in his face. His eyes flick down to Dean's mouth for an instant. "How was it supposed to happen, then?"
"I thought, maybe on a hunt? Or — I don't know. Just... " some place I could say it back.
Its not good enough, saying it without saying it. Cas gave a speech. He saved Dean's life, saved the god damn world. All without knowing.
He shakes his head. Starts again. He had enough practice between thoughts he couldn't shove away and late night pet-therapy. "I thought you knew. Hell, I've been scared everyone knows. And if they did, you did too, right?"
"Subtly isn't always my strongest suit."
He laughs, and it's almost on the wrong side of sane. "Don't I know it."
He can do direct.
Slow enough that Cas has time to pull back, he runs his hand up his arm, cradles it against the back of Cas' neck. He leans across the small distance and kisses him.
It's clumsy and unsure, and Cas places a skittish hand on Dean's side like he's not sure what he's allowed to have even now, but their lips mesh together in a way that feels better than anything he can remember.
When they part, he's not sure either one of them are breathing. And he can't look at Cas, not when he says it. Not yet. So he presses their foreheads together, keeps his eyes fully lidded.
"I don't know how you could think you aren't worth saving. You — you're it for me."
"Dean —"
He shakes his head, and the tips of their noses brush. "I love you more than I know what to do with. You know that right?"
Bewildered, Cas says, "I didn't."
"Yean, well. Now you do."
He scoots back in place, flushed firm against the cushion. Their hands tangle together, and their knees are touching, and it's too much and not enough. But mostly not enough. Dean dares a glance over. Cas is staring at their hands, a pleased smile on his face.
And they're on the same page.
"I think you said something about a yard when I walked in?"
Instead of answering he says, "We should retire. I'm too old for this shit."
"Entirely?"
Dean shrugs. "A hunt here and there wouldn't hurt I guess."
"We'll talk about it later." He reaches over him, grabs the remote. "I think you said it was my turn?"
Dean grins, full and toothy. "Yeah, just no more romcoms, dude. I can only take so many."
Cas nods, curt and serious. "Of course."
He does anyway, and it's the best shitty movie Dean's ever seen.
#destiel secret santa#sorry this is being posted so late in the day!!!#my internets broken at the moment so it was very difficult to get it up#and i also couldnt run it through any spelling/grammer checkers#hopefully theres nothing atrociously wrong with it#destiel#deancas#destiel fanfic
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“I’m sorry, I was under the impression that you wanted to live” + handers = tears ;_; Happy Friday!
Oooooh this was the BEST prompt, thank you so much!!!!!
(If you’d like me to write you a dragon age fic, send me a prompt from here!)
@dadrunkwriting
Pairing: Handers
Characters: Anders, Garrett Hawke
Tags: immediately post Chantry explosion, suicidal impulses, frank discussion of grief and discrimination, angst, fluff, hurt/comfort
Rating: Mature
“If you want to kill me for this, I won’t stop you.”
Everything is on fire. The Kirkwall sky is bloody with heat and flames that lick smoke up into the firmament like some terrible beast from Calenhad’s day. There’s screaming, and an awful cacophony of metal on metal and stone, and softer than that the slick squelch and spray of viscera. Hawke had left one home burning once. He wonders how it is that he found his way into another one.
Anders is as still and pale as some terminal invalid, peacefully awaiting their restful end. It’s jarring, against the tumult of the night, as if he is somehow separate to it, cut from a different cloth to that which Hawke and the rest of the city are made of. There’s a light wind, utterly oblivious to the chaos, and it pulls a loose strand of hair past Anders’ ear. He’s going grey, Hawke notes, distantly: glitters of silver woven between the red and blonde which shine in the dancing firelight.
He doesn’t look scared.
Hawke feels heat rising in the back of his mind, quick and red as fresh blood. “I’m sorry, I was under the impression you wanted to live.”
For the first time since breaking formation to confront the Knight Commander herself, Anders’ facade cracks, a comma of a frown wrinkling his brow. He opens his mouth, but Hawke goes on, striding forward to pace in front of him because he has to do something with the energy bunching in his muscles and he doesn’t trust himself to do anything else. His voice bounces against the broken stone buildings around them like thunder, and behind him Dog is barking. He doesn’t stop.
“I was under the, perhaps idiotic impression, that I made you happy.” Hawke blinks, and his eyes sting, and he tells himself it’s the smoke. When he turns back to Anders, he can’t quite look at his face. “I thought - and I know, I know, some thick Fereldan dog lord, what the fuck was I thinking - but I thought, I really thought, that you actually wanted me. Wanted this.” Hawke gestures briefly, explosively to the burning buildings around them. “I guess not.”
Anders is really frowning now, though he makes no move to stand or take his staff. “Garrett, this isn’t about y-”
“Isn’t it?” Hawke’s voice pitches up with his incredulity so sharply it hurts, and he grimaces, dragging a hand down over his beard hard enough to feel the bruising press of his fingers against his jaw. There are tears running down his cheeks now. It’s the smoke. “I thought you trusted me. I thought you felt - Maker, safe? Void, Carver was right, I’ve always been thicker than a fucking genlock.”
Anders does stand, now, and Fenris moves, tattoos burning white and strange as lightning against the smoking city. Dog growls, and Fenris falters, even as Hawke looks up to meet his eyes. Fenris purses his lips, but stops. Anders’ staff is still resting against the block of stone on which he’d been sitting, like the spear in a warrior’s grave.
“Garrett, this burden isn’t yours to bear - “
“But I thought you were!” Hawke roars, and glares when his voice breaks as if his lover had ever been fooled by his pretension at bravado. Anders’ narrow jaw tightens, and he steps forward, grabbing Hawke’s forearms with a strength that belies his slender build.
“I was. Garrett, listen to me,” Anders’ hands are squeezing Hawke’s arms tightly enough to hurt, and his grip doesn’t loosen until Hawke meets his eyes. They’re dark and brown in the strange twilight of the burning city, and his face is thick with ginger freckles. “You can kill me, if you want. But I won’t die with you believing I didn’t want you, or trust you, or love you, with every ounce of everything I am and ever have been. I love you, Garrett Hawke, more than every star in the sky. And I’ll die happy, knowing that.”
Hawke tries without much effort to pull away, and doesn’t fight the sob that rips its way out of his throat, grimacing as more tears run down his cheeks. “Then why do you think I could kill you?” He looks at Anders, now, who’s become abruptly very still, and presses closer, fingers curling uselessly where his arms are still trapped in Anders’ grasp. “I can’t - I’ve lost everyone. I’ve lost everything. I can’t survive losing you, too. Don’t ask me to do that. Please.”
Far off, on the streets of Kirkwall, there’s the sound of screaming, and below that the guttural, twisted roar of monsters. But beneath the smouldering ruins of the Chantry, arms going numb in Anders’ fingers, Hawke thinks he might as well be standing on the moon. Anders’ grip loosens, a little, his expression caught halfway between surprise and frustration, the way it freezes when he’s confronted with a particularly challenging remedy. “I thought - I didn’t think - I thought it would be easier this way.”
Hawke laughs, rough and aching. “Yeah, well. Don’t know if anyone told you, but I’m not famous for taking the easy way out.”
Anders’ mouth curls up at one corner into the shadow of a small, humourless smile. “No, I suppose you’re not.”
He lets go of Hawke’s arms, then, and turns away, face falling behind the same stone mask of impassivity he’d worn before, and Hawke’s stomach lurches. He sways forward, catching Anders’ hand. Anders doesn’t turn back to look at him. In the wind and the explosion, clumps of hair have pulled free of his hair tie, and now they conceal his face in curtains of dirty gold. Hawke tries, once, and fails, to speak past the thickness in his throat. His fingers tighten around Anders’ thin wrist.
“Anders, please. Maker damn me to the Void if he must, please, don’t take yourself away from me.”
Anders still isn’t looking at him. The rest of their friends are silent, expressions uncharacteristically grim. Dog is looking between Anders and Hawke, and after a moment she sits and whines, frightened. When Anders speaks, he does it so quietly that Hawke has to strain to hear him over the burning city. “You don’t know what you’re asking for. I won’t do this to you.”
Hawke scowls, and pulls on Anders’ hand. Anders resists him. “Do what?” Hawke pulls again, harder this time, and Anders stumbles backward, snarling as he turns to face him. Hawke returns the expression, “Do I get a say in this decision? Or are you going to make it for me?”
“You’ll be a criminal, Garrett! You’ll be hunted for the rest of your life. We both will.” Anders hair pulls back from his face, and in the bloody light of the setting sun creeping between clouds of ash, it looks as if he’s burning.
“So?” Hawke throws up a free hand, clutching Anders in the other as if he’s the only thing holding him onto solid earth. “Been there, done that.”
“Not like this.” Anders’ teeth are bared with the furious grief of the confession, and Hawke can see now the tear tracks in the sweat and ash on his cheeks. “You’ve never been hated like this. I won’t do that to you. I won’t let them hate you.”
Something gives way in Hawke’s chest. Pulling Anders’ closer isn’t difficult; Anders is strong, but Hawke has been learning how to fight with his hands since he was old enough to hold a knife, and he’s never had the luxury of fire in his fingertips. Hawke catches Anders’ shoulder with his other hand, and then moves his hand up to the back of Anders’ neck, holding him still when Anders tries to pull away, squeezing his eyes shut. “I will. I’ll tear the Grand Cathedral down brick by brick. I’ll set the fucking world on fire. I’ll make them hate me.”
Anders shakes his head, but he isn’t trying to pull away any more, just crying, silent and eerily still. When he speaks his voice is a rough whisper. “You don’t understand. You don’t know what this is like. I never wanted to do this to you.”
Hawke moves his hand from the back of Anders’ neck to his chin, cupping it between his forefinger and thumb and lifting his head. He waits until Anders opens his eyes. “Tough shit. It’s already done. That ship sailed six years ago and I don’t know any pirate quick enough to capture her.” Hawke stops, and hesitates, and looks into Anders’ eyes. He presses a rough, clumsy kiss to his lover’s forehead. “You’re my heart, Anders. Don’t make me live without my heart.”
Anders chokes, and laughs, and then his free hand is coming up to clasp Hawke’s cheek and the back of his ear and pull him close for a kiss. Their lips are salty with tears, their breath stained with smoke. It doesn’t matter. It feels like coming up for air. Hawke shuts his eyes, and for half a heartbeat, the burning city and the screams, the templars and the monsters, Meredith and Orsino, all of them twist and disappear into the oblivion behind his eyelids, and there is only Anders and the scrape of his stubble and the flicker of his clever tongue.
Anders pulls back, and his breath scrapes against Hawke’s nose and lips, and Hawke holds onto him like a drowning man on the open sea. “It’s not going to be easy, you know.”
Hawke laughs, and slides his fingers into Anders’ sweat-damp hair, cupping the back of his head. “Haven’t you heard? Nothing ever is.”
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All That Haunts Us (1/14)
Jon and Tim have seen their fair share of strange things while working in Research at the Magnus Institute. They still didn’t quite expect to rescue Martin, who has been missing for a year, from a supernatural encounter during one of their investigations. Together, the three of them hunt for answers and try to find a way forward, but they all have things that haunt them.
Meanwhile, Elias sees the perfect opportunity to set his devious plan into motion...
Jon/Martin/Tim, rated T, ~2500 words for this chapter. Read on AO3!
Tim plumps down onto the corner of Jon’s desk without much warning. After months of being friends with Tim Jon supposes he should be used to it by now, but he still startles a little, eyes shooting up from the book he’s been engrossed in for who knows how long. Tim sits there with his arms crossed over his chest, smiling down at him like he’s exactly where he belongs.
“Can I help you?” Jon finally asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, I hope so,” Tim says lightly. “But first, I brought lunch.”
He sets a sandwich down in front of Jon. Jon blinks in surprise, and only now notices the rumbling of his stomach and the empty desks around him as everyone else in his shared office has gone out for lunch. “Oh. Sorry, we had planned to meet up, hadn’t we?”
“It’s fine. I don’t mind eating here.” Tim takes a bite of his own sandwich, as if to demonstrate. Jon wrinkles his nose as he continues talking, mouth half full. “Reading anything interesting?”
For a second Jon hesitates - out of all the people in the Research Department, Tim might be the only one to agree with him that ‘The Architecture of Cathedrals in the 15th Century’ is actually interesting. But based on the look in his eyes, Jon suspects he has something more pressing to talk about. “Nothing too important,” he finally says, carefully prying the wrapper away from his food. “What did you need help with?”
“I’ve been working on a case.”
Jon looks up from his sandwich - spicy chicken and cucumber, just what he prefers - and frowns. “The one with the cat, right?”
Tim heaves a melodramatic sigh. “Yes, the one with the lady who claims her cat got eaten by, let me quote, ‘a six foot tall monster with too many legs and teeth’. As if that’s the only logical explanation for an outdoor cat to go missing in London. Never mind, oh, I don’t know, cars and foxes and all that.”
Even as he tries to suppress it, Jon can’t quite help the grin tugging at the corners of his lips. “You sound like you had a bit of a week.”
“Oh, you have no idea. I called every vet and the animal shelter if they’ve seen any unusual injuries. And then I’ve knocked on every door in the area that has a cat flap and asked them if their cat has gone missing in the last year, and I scoured every possible missing pet portal on the entire internet.”
“... and? Did you find anything?” Jon asks when Tim doesn’t continue.
Tim throws his hands up, exasperated. “Of course I found something. Do you have any idea how many cats go missing every year in a city like this, entirely due to natural causes?”
Jon nods. “Okay, I get your point. This still doesn’t answer the question of what you need help with though.”
“Look, I just thought... if there is a monster like that - and I’m not saying there is - it’s big enough to harm more than cats, right? So I looked for missing dogs as well. And then, while I was on a roll and because I was terribly bored, I looked for missing persons.”
At that, Jon raises an eyebrow. He knows Tim is an excellent researcher, thorough in everything he does, but that seems to go even beyond his usual rigour. “You can’t possibly tell me you found an account of a person being eaten by a monster like that. Surely we would have heard of it by now.”
“No, ‘course not.” Tim rolls his eyes, taking another bite of his sandwich before he continues. “This has nothing to do with that. But what I did find was a missing person’s report from about a year ago, and several accounts from the last few months that the building where he used to live is haunted.”
Jon stills, looking at Tim with a frown. “That rather sounds like someone is making a crude joke.”
“At first I thought so too,” Tim says. “But the reports on the hauntings didn’t mention that a person went missing there. And the guy’s address isn’t even public. They couldn’t have known. I had Sasha dig that up for me, along with other details on the case. You know Sasha, right?”
Jon nods - he doesn’t think he’s ever talked to her, but even he can’t escape the Institute gossip when someone transfers from Artifact Storage to another department. And he’s seen her around Research by now, in the last few weeks. “I- yes. But… what kind of ‘haunting’ are we talking about here?”
Tim shrugs. “There seems to be a bunch of evidence. Recordings of hushed voices and weird noises, something like rustling? Blurry figures in the shadows. Cold spots.”
“I’m not sure I would count that as evidence.”
Tim lets out a long sigh. “Don’t be such a sceptic.”
Jon frowns. “It is our job to be sceptical.”
“Yeah, sure, but you have to admit it’s a weird coincidence, right? That this building where one person disappeared is supposedly haunted since then?”
Jon bites his lip. He trusts Tim’s instincts. And he can’t deny that there’s something off about this whole thing, even if he can’t put his finger on it. It happens sometimes, that a case just feels… wrong, he supposes. That it comes with a prickle of unease and a shiver down his spine, in a way that is too familiar to ignore. He wonders if Tim feels it as well, or if he just - for some unfathomable reason - wants to get out of interviewing even more cat owners.
“What do you want to do about this, then?” he finally asks, and Tim’s face immediately brightens.
“I want to go view the flat. There’s a rent advertisement online. Perfect opportunity for a bit of snooping.”
“Okay. And you need me for… what, exactly?”
At this Tim smiles - a bit mischievous, which is his usual expression, but also a bit bashful, which is a rare sight for someone as self-assured as Tim. Jon can’t help but feel a bit nervous about that, and reaches for his long cold mug of tea.
“I need you to pose as my boyfriend,” Tim says calmly, and Jon promptly chokes as he takes a sip.
“What?” he finally manages to get out as soon as he can breathe again. His cheeks are burning, but Tim just gives him a sympathetic smile and a pat on the back.
“You heard me. Come on, help me out there buddy.”
“But… why?”
Tim lets out a long sigh. “Look, I first tried to be honest, but when I called the landlord and mentioned the Magnus Institute he swore at me and hung up. The rent advertisement is just the backup plan. I need you to be with me and take over the speaking to make sure he doesn’t recognize me.”
For a moment, Jon can only stare at him. “I still don’t understand why I’d have to be your boyfriend. Can’t I be your flatmate?”
“It’s a one bedroom apartment. He’s not going to believe we’re flatmates.”
“What about Sasha? Can’t you ask her?” Jon asks, a bit helplessly.
Tim gives him a long look. “Jon, I’m trying very hard not to be offended that you really don’t want to fake date me, but you’re not making it easy.”
“I- I’m not-” Jon splutters before heaving a sigh. “I- fine. Fine. I’ll do it.”
Tim cheers, even as Jon glowers at him. “Oh, this is fantastic,” he says, rubbing his hands together. “I’ve always wanted to do something like this. Can I call you a pet name?”
Heat rises in Jon’s cheeks. He tries his best to glare even as his stomach swoops at the idea, for reasons he resolutely does not want to examine. “Absolutely not.”
“Hold your hand?”
“No.”
Tim lets out a sigh, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re no fun.”
“This is supposed to be work, not fun.”
“I can multitask and do both at once, Jon.”
Suppressing a groan, Jon rolls his eyes at him, and decides to just move on. “When do you want to do this?”
“Okay, so, I need you to call to set up an appointment. We can-”
Abruptly, Tim stops. He goes still, the excited grin slipping off his lips. He’s not looking at Jon anymore, his eyes instead fixed on something behind him.
Jon whirls around in his chair, and startles when his gaze falls on Elias Bouchard, head of the Magnus Institute, standing in the doorway to his office. As usual, he is wearing an impeccable grey suit and a smile that never quite matches the piercing look in his eyes. Somehow, there’s always something unnerving about him, although Jon can’t put his finger on it.
“Um. Hello, Mr. Bouchard,” he starts slowly.
Elias’ smile widens just a little bit. “Jonathan. I’ve told you before, call me Elias,” he says smoothly. “And Timothy. Just the man I wanted to speak to.”
Tim winces and sits up a little straighter. “Of course. What can I help you with?”
Elias fixes Tim with a long stare that makes Jon squirm in his seat. “I had a rather unpleasant call with one Mr. Abbott earlier,” Elias finally says, raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow. “He complained that someone from the Magnus Institute asked to see one of his rental properties to investigate a case.”
“I’m just doing some regular follow-up, Sir,” Tim says, a bit defensively. Jon finally looks away from Elias towards Tim, and watches the crease between his brows deepen as Elias continues.
“Of course. I’m sure you were perfectly polite, Timothy. Mr. Abbott, however, was quite clear that he believes an investigation like this will hurt his carefully crafted image. And I just couldn’t help but wonder why you were contacting him when you were supposed to work on the… what was it, the case of Mrs. Mitchell, I believe? Regarding the disappearance of her cat?”
“Err. Yes, I-”
“Are the cases connected?” Elias asks, a sudden sharpness in his voice that makes Jon flinch. Tim’s mouth twists, as if he’s trying hard to suppress a grimace.
“I don’t believe so, no,” Tim says hesitantly. “I just thought-”
“In that case, I would advise you to focus on the work you were assigned, Mr. Stoker.” The tone in Elias’ voice makes it very clear that he won’t accept any objections. Nevertheless, the smile on his lips doesn’t falter. “We wouldn’t want to get any more complaints, would we?”
“I-” Tim stops himself, letting out a sigh. “Of course, Sir.”
“Since it seems you might have gotten bored with the Mitchell case, I’m sure you have already conducted all necessary research and can deliver the report to my desk by this evening. Or am I mistaken?”
Tim’s frown deepens, but he doesn’t protest. “Sure,” he grumbles.
“Excellent,” Elias says, the sudden sharpness in his voice gone as quickly as it came. He gives them both a short nod. “Have a good day, gentlemen.”
With that, Elias turns on his heels and walks away. He’s out of sight as soon as he turns a corner down the corridor, but still, Jon can’t help but stare after him. Beside him, Tim lets out a pitiful groan.
“This evening?” Tim buries his face in his hands. “I had until next week to do the report. I haven’t even started it.”
“I’m sorry,” Jon says with a wince. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Nah. Don’t think so. But thank you.” Tim looks up with a small smile and stands, wrapping up the remains of his sandwich. “I’ll best get back to work if I want to have this done by five.”
Jon lets out a small hum, but he’s still distracted by what just happened. Again, he stares down the corridor, as if Elias might reappear any second. He can’t shake the feeling of his eyes on him.
“Are you alright?” Tim asks. Jon startles a little and looks back at him. Tim is watching him with a quizzical expression on his face.
“Yes,” Jon says hesitantly, chewing on his bottom lip. “It’s just… that was strange, wasn’t it?”
Tim shrugs. “Yeah. But everything about Bouchard is strange.”
“I suppose. But this was...” Jon hesitates. This was more than strange, he wants to say. This feels like Elias doesn’t want us to investigate whatever is going on in that haunted flat. But that’s a silly thought, isn’t it? Jon shakes his head. “Nevermind. Good luck with the report.”
Tim gives him a pained smile. “Thanks,” he says miserably, and finally shuffles back towards his office.
That afternoon, as much as Jon tries to go back to his book, he can’t quite stop thinking. He can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, in a way that makes him jittery and anxious and makes it impossible to focus on the words in front of him. He stays late to make up for it, and when he finally calls it a day, the other researchers that share his office have already left. Jon puts on his coat and grabs his bag, and goes to check on Tim.
The door to Tim’s office is still open, although all the desks are currently unoccupied. Tim’s desk is a bit of a mess, filled with piled up papers and books and too many empty cups of tea. With their earlier conversation about the case still on the forefront of his mind, Jon gives in to the temptation to step closer and skim through the texts scattered on the desk.
It doesn’t take long until his gaze falls onto what looks like the copy of a police report. Carefully, he pulls the paper out from underneath a book. It’s undoubtedly the missing person’s report Tim has mentioned. The address fits to the area of the case he was working on. Jon starts reading, and immediately stills.
It hits him suddenly that Tim had never mentioned the name of the missing person. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that there are actual people behind the cases they’re researching. But there’s the name, right next to a photograph.
In the photo, Martin Blackwood is looking directly at the camera, a small smile on his lips. Jon takes a moment to take him in - the pudgy cheeks covered in freckles, the sad eyes, the light brown hair falling in soft curls around his face. An actual person, with a life and friends and family who must wonder what has happened to him after he disappeared a year ago. Who maybe still have hope that one day, he will come back.
So far, Jon was only a little irritated that Elias intervened in their investigation. Now, he’s suddenly furious.
Before he knows what he’s doing, Jon pulls out his phone and takes a photograph of the report. He places it back on Tim’s desk and leaves.
As he walks to the tube station, he pulls up the address on his phone. He takes the train that goes in the opposite direction of where he lives, changes trains twice, and finally, half an hour later, steps out into the chill September air. By now, it’s already getting dark. Jon pulls up the collar of his coat to protect himself against the cold, and begins to walk towards the haunted flat where Martin Blackwood disappeared.
#the magnus archives#tma#tma fic#jonmartim#jontim#my fic#my fic: all that haunts us#it's heeere#my very first tma multichapter#and actually my longest ever fic#that I actually edit and upload#I have an entire rough draft done so I think regular updates will be fine?
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Mister Perfectly Fine
Fearless - Taylor's Version (From The Vault)
As long as he's going, working his eight hours at the hospital, running from one meeting to the other, squeezing surgeries in every free minute he has or running behind the twins at home, everything is fine. As long as his mind is going he's perfectly fine. But as soon as his head hids the pillow or he sits down alone in his office and his mind starts to calms down he's not fine anymore. As soon as his mind stops thinking about the hospital he has to run, the patients he has to save or about his twins, his thoughts take over - thoughts he hates and loves at the same time. Deep thoughts that bring forth every kind of emotion in his body. Thoughts about her. The one good thing he had in his life for so long and now not anymore because he chose his kids. He chose his kids over her and after months he still doesn't know if it was the right or wrong decision. Since the day he left her, this thought lives in his head like a parasite, never leaving him. In every quiet second his mind goes back to this decision and everything involved in it and makes him go nuts. But not only his mind goes crazy also his heart. He could cry everytime he thinks about her and the potential future he lost by leaving her. He could beat himself at the thought of how much he hurt her - again. It beats him up that he not only broke the vow he gave her not to long before he left but that he broke the biggest promise he ever gave her - to always be her home and to never leave her. He knew that this was and still is her biggest insecurity. Way to many people left her or pushed her aside like she was nothing and Alex promised to himself, pretty early in their relationship, that he would never do that to her. But he did, more than once.
Every quiet minute his heart aches at his biggest lost he ever experienced and at the unconditional love he had received from her daily and now never will again.
Of course his kids love him and he knows that Izzie does too in some way but it's just not the same. It's not the kind of love that overfills his heart with warmth every day. The kind of love that let him growl at the ceiling, fake break up in front of a whole hospital, that is ok with going jail to prevent someone from having to testify, that puts on fake vampire teeth and marries someone for a second time after a crappy day at work. The kind of love that, now that it's gone, makes him realise how big of an impact it had on him, his mind and his heart. Because now that it's gone, his body wants it back like a drug. But nothing, sadly not even his kids, can fill his empty heart completely. There's always this whole that nothing can fill.
And so everytime his mind gets the chance to calm down it craves for the drug he can't consume. She is 1800 miles away, living her life like he should too - but he just can't, not really.
He leans back in his chair starring at the picture of the twins that's standing on his office desk right beside his work laptop. Their silly faces smile towards the camera. He loves his kids, they are one of the best things that ever happened to him but every time he looks at them he can't stop but wonder what his and Jo's kids would have been like. If they would have had a little boy first, who was through and through a mommas boy or if they would have had a little girl first, who would have looked like a carbon copy of Jo and would have adored her daddy to death. Or if they would have had both; twins - silly and foul-mouthed but still the cutes little angels.
He hates those uncontrolled, silent thoughts of what if. He hates that he secretly wishes things were different. He hates that he's not fine when he should be.
He loosens his stare from the only picture on his desk and turns his chair to reach for the lowest drawer of his desk - like he did so many times before. He opens it to take the only item out and carefully strokes his thumb over the wooden frame until it hits the silky red ribbon he never took off. Starring at the picture in the frame, memories of one of the best days in his life play in his head. From her excited face when she showed up at Mer's house, to her excitingly kissing Arizona, to her storming into his dressing room mocking him for something she thought he did, to her loud, pure laugh in the shed, her soft lips on his after they said I do, to her sleepy smile as he picked her up to carry her bridal stile through their loft door.
Everything about this day was perfect even though nothing went according to plan. But that was so them. Nothing in their six years together ever went according to plan. If it would have, he would have married her a year into their relationship. They would have started making babies immediately and would now live in a big suburban house with their five kids, two dogs and probably some fish. But it's not, their life didn't go according to plan, they had some massive bumps in their road - their ups and downs, they broke up and found their way back together, they had their difficult paths to navigate through but they did it and it made them stronger - as a person and as a couple. He always thought that nothing could ever break them. And he loved the thought of getting old with Jo and to die with her at his side once they were wrinkly and grey. Now everything changed and it's his fault.
Looking at the big smile on her face, the urge to call her comes over him - to hear her voice, to talk to her about everything he hates right now.
Way to many times the thinks of just dialing her number and calling her. The thought of hearing her voice again makes his heart flutter. He misses her. He misses talking to her. He misses his friend he can tell everything. He misses their lazy nights curled up in each other's arms on the couch, a trashy reality show in the background, while they just talk - about everyone and everything for hours without loosing a topic.
He also misses her silly self. Her bad jokes that she thought were hilarious. Her face when she told them. Her pure laugh after she told them. When they were alone she never took herself to serious. She was one hundred percent herself around him. Joking, laughing, running around without pans and only one of his shirts on.
He's not gonna lie, he also misses her body. Her perfect body - her ass, her boobs, her mouth, her smell, her hair, her perfect hands that she loved to bury in his hair. He loves and misses every bit of her. He misses what her body was able to do to his. How her hand in his neck was able to give him goosebumps on his entire body. How her presence when she walked into a room, made his stomach flutter. How her lips on his let him forget everything. How her curled up in his arms, close against his body made him love her even more. It wasn't just the amazing sex he misses, it is her.
He puts the picture down on his desk running his hands over his face. He never thought that he could miss someone this much - and he had lost a lot of people over time.
The little knock on his door let him sit up straight again. He quickly puts the picture back in the drawer and closes it before he let's the person come inside.
"Doctor Karev. You wanted to speak me?"
"Doctor Jones. Yeah, please sit down." He points to the chairs in front of his desk to let the resident sit. "I heard you were at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in Seattle. Tell me how it was."
"Oh. It was amazing. I've never seen a this innovative and cutting edge hospital before. No offense." The brunette smiles a little nervous as she sits down in front of her boss.
"Absolutely not. I know how good it is. I learned in that hospital and worked there for many years." Alex replies with a little, toothless smile.
"Really? I never knew that." She answers surprised.
"So tell me a little bit. What did you do while you were there? Who did you meet?" Alex asks, interested in hearing about his former colleagues and friends.
"Oh I- Ok on the first day I was in their ER. Doctor Hunt showed me around and I assisted him. The second day I met the Doctor Meredith Grey. God she's everything, but I guess you know that. She showed me around the ICU and I met Doctor Webber and Doctor Bailey. On the third day I was in ortho and met Doctor Lincoln, he's amazing. Well they call him Ortho-God for a reason. My third day I was with Doctor Sheppard. She showed me her newest scans and let me join in on an operation. The last day I was with Doctor Hayes on the Peds floor. He was so nice and showed me around the NICU and PICU. I also met Doctor DeLuca and Doctor Wilson there, they were both so nice and showed me some of their cute little pacients." She smiles after finishing.
"Sorry, Doctor Wilson?" He asks a little confused.
"Yeah. She was so nice. She showed and explained me everything and let me hold one of her patients. She was so cute. The baby not Doctor Wilson. I mean Doctor Wilson is pretty cute too, especially when she's talking to her little patients but that's not the point, right?" She laughs.
"I guess I missed something, little patients? What is she doing on the Peds floor?" Alex asks again, trying to get every single little bit of information from the resident.
"Well that's where OB/Gyn's are sometimes, right?" She shrugs.
"Wait. OB/Gyn?" Now he's confused. Did Jo change specialties or was the resident in front of him talking about someone completely different?
"Yeah. Oh right. She was a general surgeon before but changed specialties during the pandemic. She told me everything when we were having lunch. She said she needed some joy in her life after her husband left her and she found that in OB so she changed specialties." Doctor Jones clarifies, with a smile.
"Thank you." Alex nods, to signal the brunette that he got all the information he wanted.
"Ahm sure. Anything else, Doctor Karev?" She asks before she stands up to leave.
"No. It's good to hear you had a great time in Seattle." He gives her a toothless smile before he leans forwards.
"I did. Thank you again for letting me do that."
"No problem."
As the door closes he leans back in his chair again. Thinking about what Doctor Jones just told him.
He's happy that she's happy. That she found new joy in her life. That's everything he needs to know. He needs her to be fine. Even though he misses her even more now and is not fine, he is happy that she is fine.
-
It’s finally Taylor Swift x Jolex Week! So excited for all the stories. Here’s mine, hope you like it.
Enjoy!
-
@odd-birds-and-booksellers @doc-pickles @angry-slytherin @cicinicole-14 @mac-andcheeses @renipedia @jobrookekarev @kidneys4karev @only-freaking-sunflowers @iamtrebleclefstories
#jolex#fan4196#fanfic#fanfiction#jo x alex#alex#alex karev#grey's#grey's anatomy#grey's fanfic#TSjolexWeek21
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Favorite fics by some of your buddies on Tumblr and Discord?
God nonnie. You fucked up big time. You underestimated just how hard I can appreciate my friends. I’d like to formally apologize for how long and in-depth this got, but I would pick a stopping point and then go ‘oh! but i cant leave out so-and-so’ and then this got mega out of hand.
Organized by author and not genre! And if I didn’t include any of your works (or I did and it was not the one you wanted), please, don’t take it personally. I am trusting everyone who comes across this post to read the tags themselves, but for two of the fics I have left TWs in front of them.
Cassia’s fics:
Internet Enemies by @cassiopeia721 (x)
At school, Midoriya Izuku is ignored at best. At home, he's raised by a single mother who seems to be always taking night shifts, and who he communicates with almost exclusively through notes on lunch boxes and texts lying about his location. As such, Midoriya Izuku turns to the internet— or more specifically, an All Might fan server on discord— for companionship. Like most things in his life, it goes wrong eventually. It just takes longer than usual.
hypnic jump
Izuku finds himself somewhere he doesn't recognize in an oversized green jumpsuit with a hero he's never seen at his back. He's pretty sure he's dreaming, and subsequent events only solidify that theory into rock-solid certainty.
Paradigm Shift (Harry Potter)
Harry undergoes a paradigm shift at the beginning of his fifth year. (Slytherin Harry)
~~~
Kestrel’s fics:
Compass by @autisticmidoriyas (x)
Midoriya Izuku never had the chance to become a hero—or even to grow up. Fifteen years after his death, Akatani Izuku tries to save the life of a dying hero and in return receives a target painted on his back and a power humming in his bones.
All Might, Sir Nighteye, Ground Zero, Suneater, and Skyquake are left scrambling in the wake of Lemillion’s death to figure out who now holds One For All.
Intertwined with all this, the League of Villains’ war against Japan burns on. With the loss of Lemillion, the advantage is now theirs, and with the loss of One For All, victory is all-but-assured.
(What the villains don’t know is that One For All lives on in the blood of a boy who was always meant to be a hero.)
triskelion
A few seconds, and their lives—their life—is changed forever. Where three people used to exist, there is now only one.
While visiting the mall with their class, Izuku, Katsuki, and Shouto are the victims of someone whose quirk can fuse together objects … and people.
Permanently.
Facing down the fact that they may never be unfused, a long adjustment period lies ahead of them as they learn how to be themself and figure out where they fit into their families, their class, and their world.
the meaning of hope
One day, the smoke will reach its end. They hold out hope for that. Even with quirks, fires cannot burn forever. They will consume all their fuel, until there is nothing left, and they will wither and die.
~~~
Lilly’s fics:
Rise of the Rat Finks by Authoress_Lilly
“You're not in trouble Neito. You’ve been tapped to join The Rats.”
The boy blinks. “The what?”
Vlad opens up a folder and hands Monoma a flyer and a small pin in the shape of a rat. “It’s a sort of secret society here at UA.
Or: an excuse to put Monoma and Midoriya together in way too many words 😅
The Root to Villainy
Prompt: Izuku doesn't realize how fucked up his past was until Aizawa does an immersive class on villain origins.
Whoops?
~~~
Dance’s fics:
Never Take Your Problem Children To Costco by DanceInTheKitchen
“SECURE THE EGGS! I REPEAT SECURE THE EGGS!” Bakugou bellowed.
“YES SIR! AYE AYE SIR!” Izuku saluted.
Shouta is staring at his students, one of whom seems to be reenacting the Lion King with a carton of eggs while the other salutes him, and wonders. What the hell did he do in his past life to deserve this?? Past him must have committed some great sin, like putting sugar in his coffee, or being a dog person.
Or, Aizawa, Bakugou and Midoriya walk into a Costco.
grow as we go
The dorms were silent, but out here in the open air, she felt both isolated and free. Isolated from the world, but free from the responsibility crushing her, isolated from her friends and family, but free from judgement. Up here, with only the stars and Iida as company, Momo felt like she could breathe.
They sat next to each other in silence, watching the stars silently crawl their way across the sky. Iida doesn’t break the silence, but he also doesn’t leave. It’s a silent promise, to listen if she needs it, or to keep her company if she doesn’t want to speak. It’s comforting.
She’s not sure when she speaks, it’s somewhere between staring up at the stars, and looking at the shiny dew covering the grass of the hills behind UA.
“I’m not ready.”
Or, with graduation right around the corner, Momo has a conversation with Iida about what growing up means.
~~~
Azure’s fics:
A Helping Hand for All by azureskyy
Izuku doesn't know why everyone's talking about a certain hero analyst online. He's tried browsing through the forums and other sites, but he just can't find the person they're talking about.
Maybe he'll ask them later. For now, he has some analysis to do.
Or: Izuku is a well-known hero and quirk analyst across multiple social media platforms.
Not that he's aware of it, of course.
A Missed Chance
Two paths cross then diverge. In another universe, perhaps, they could have walked on the same path; they could have talked for the second time that day, and Izuku could have been given an opportunity that could change his entire life. And maybe, just maybe, he would have taken it.
But this isn’t that universe.
Or: What if All Might wasn't able to find Izuku after the Sludge Villain Incident?
~~~
Alice’s fics:
A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by @makeitbluue (x)
“Did you think you’d be safe from me forever? That you could chip away at my power base and I would not care or try to hunt you down?” The man asks as he steps forwards.
Izuku scrambles backwards in his bed, searching the covers as he goes for his phone. If he can get a text off to All Might or Aizawa-sensei he can alert people to the potential danger.
But even as he moves, something in the back of his mind tells him he had heard this voice before. A different time, a different context, but the same voice.
~~~
Ely’s fics:
bend and break by @queenangst (x)
In a world where you can feel your soulmate's pain, Eijirou spends a lot of his life up until meeting his soulmate hurting.
draw and quarter
In District Twelve, no one volunteers.
When Aizawa Shouta’s name is called, no one says a word. He stands there for a moment, feeling all the world slow around him, and then he straightens his shoulders and walks to his death.
He will die fighting. At the very least, Shouta can promise that.
Shouta's name is drawn for the Hunger Games, alongside Shirakumo Oboro. No one from their district has ever won.
damage control
After All for One's defeat, Aizawa Shouta is grasping for ways to protect his students. At the same time, a discrepancy in Midoriya's behavior leads Shouta down a dangerous line of investigation and to a single question: if Midoriya is the U.A. traitor.
Between the Wind and the Water
Staying at U.A. for winter break, Izuku hopes it'll be a quiet chance to spend the holidays with Todoroki and supervising teachers All Might and Aizawa-sensei.
It's just his luck a gift-shopping trip turns into a gift from a villain, and Izuku's new Half-Cold, Half-Hot Quirk is not so easy to control. Neither are the secrets he's been carefully keeping.
a glimpse of tomorrow (looking back)
Subject: Aldera Time Capsule Ceremony Forwarded Message— This year marks ten years for the Aldera Middle School graduating class of 20XX.To celebrate, we would like to invite pro heroes Kingpin and Deku, Aldera alumni, to participate in a public time-capsule opening. We are incredibly proud to have helped them on their journeys to becoming heroes, and would be most honored to receive them as guests and for them to speak at the ceremony. [...]
"Well," Deku says, leaning over to turn the monitor towards him. His eyes flick over the contents of the email one more time. "If they haven't changed, then I guess we could return the favor."
Ten years down the line, Bakugou and Midoriya are invited to a time capsule ceremony at their middle school to read letters from their past selves, and look back on their past and how it shaped their future. For anyone else, it would have been a celebration.
For the two of them, it's an opportunity.
A look into Bakugou and Midoriya's past—through a future neither of them imagined—as pro heroes, agency partners, and friends.
of the mighty heart
It was just complicated. Kacchan had changed. Izuku had changed. What was between them was constant—Kacchan was always there—but even constants, Izuku supposed, could change, too.
...You saved me, sometimes you say Deku and it doesn’t sound so much like an insult, you say it like you mean it, you say it like you mean me.
After the war ends and the dust settles, Izuku is left in pain and feeling useless. There's still so much to do and people to save, and it's just... too much for one person.
And then there's Kacchan.
~~~
Fawn’s fics:
Bough Breaks by @fawnvelveteen (x) (trigger warning for discussion of rape/noncon)
In life, nothing is certain. Pro-heroes aren’t always the good guys. Children are not spared from the darkest realms of humanity. Izuku isn't acting like his normal self at school lately, and his homeroom teacher has taken notice. After learning about the mother’s new, unwelcomed boyfriend, Aizawa’s concern shifts into dread. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep his student away from harm.
Almost Moon (trigger warning for suicide) (Black Clover)
It was always at night. One of Noelle's squadmates, apparently, believes it's a good idea to walk across the rooftop, directly over her head while she is trying to get some sleep. Finally, she decides to confront the nighttime nuisance. What she discovers is something she never expected, nor did she wish to see.
~~~
Nez’s fics:
The True Successor by @neko-nez (x)
Toshinori is caught in a time loop.
~~~
Aodh’s fics:
new game + (the pros of being over-leveled, the catharsis of finally beating That One Boss, and a bonus social link) by @takeyamayuu (x)
Izuku hasn’t been noticed yet, being as far from the fight as he is. Or if he has, they’re dismissing him in favor of the larger threat of Aizawa-sensei. As they should, since he takes out the last one with a well placed kick, turning to face Shigaraki,
Izuku tenses, this is-
This is where his teacher’s arm is injured and then-
The Nomu.
One for All spikes to around fifty percent, his muscles stinging, bones creaking as Izuku darts forward, aiming for Shigaraki’s head with an axe-kick.
Second year Midoriya Izuku gets hit with a Quirk, skids into the USJ, and learns a little about self-care along the way.
~~~
Ghost’s fics:
fingerpaint bruises and a kick in the teeth by @ghoststrawberries (x)
There’s a sour taste in Shouta’s mouth as he stares at Jackrabbit’s bright smile. The smile he’s wearing in every clear photo of him. It somewhat reminds Shouta of All Might’s smile.
Jackrabbit might be a menace to the Commission, but there’s no way Shouta can believe that a man with that smile is anything less than good to his core.
“And I’m your last resort to handle this quietly.” He says knowingly, keeping his thoughts to himself.
“Precisely.”
Shouta’s gut response is to refuse.
The words “I don’t kill.” are halfway up his throat before they become stuck.
As an underground hero, sometimes Shouta Aizawa is called upon to do darker jobs than one might expect a hero to have to do. This time, when he's tasked with taking out a vigilante who's managed to bother the Hero Public Safety Commission one too many times, he's not sure he'll be able to follow through.
~~~
Amira’s fics:
And Now I See Daylight by @awake-my-oceans (x)
AnalysisOverload Current mood: HERO CON HERO CON HERO CON HERO CON
AnalysisOverload reblogged AnalysisOverload Okay, let’s talk HeroCon.
Look around, and you’ll see a lot of discrimination—against people whose Quirk is debilitating, against people whose Quirks scare us, against people who have trouble controlling their Quirk, against people who don’t have a Quirk at all. It’s easy to feel alone in a sea of discrimination.
Enter HeroCon:X.
A social media fic following Deku post-graduation.
The chaotic neutral’s guide to time travel
“You claim you are from the future,” Nedzu said, hopping onto his desk. “Do you have anything to prove this?”
Hitoshi fished around in his pocket. “Here’s my hero license,” he said, holding it up.
Nedzu opened his mouth, but Hitoshi kept right on going, producing a handful of odds and ends from his pocket. “Also a movie ticket, some dryer lint, some, uh, didn’t know I still had that but it’s old gum—“
That was when Aizawa walked in, capture weapon floating around him. “What’s the emergency?” he asked, clipped, as he kicked open the door.
“—and the left arm of a Deku plushie,” Hitoshi finished, unruffled. “My cat ate the rest.”
~~~
Aaaaaand that’s all I got. Thanks for making it to the end!
#bnha#bnha fic#fic rec#fic rec list#fic rec masterpost#nova talks#all my friends in one post. sniffle#most of em anyway#not sure what to tag this so. ill hit send!#forgot too tag this as an ask rip#anonymous#ask
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Chapter 16: After Shards
There is much stuff i want to say about this update, but not enough space. So I decided to make an author Notes close to the end.
For now I wanna thank everyone who was patient, understanding and welcoming me. Many of you probably forgot this existed, some stopped around to ask how I was doing, and i'm thankful for it.
You guys have no idea how your reviews and knowing i had to complete this had saved my life. And I say this more than I really would like to admit. Your reviews, comments and messages were the line to bring me back to end stuff many times. For that, thank you.
Thank you every single one of you who stop by, leaving a comment, review or not. You who take few minutes to read what I'm writing, those of you who are silently lurking and hoping for an update, this is for you. Thank you for existing, thank you for saving my life in more ways than i can ever put in words.
Thank you.
Now let's get back on where we left, shall we?
Chapters: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
You can read Ever After at Ao3 | FF.net | DeviantArt and on Tumblr, feel free to go read where it pleases you the most
Chapter 16: After Remembrance
"So let me see if I got it…" Janna said crossing her legs on Marco's bed, he tried not to get annoyed on her dirty sneakers on his sheets given he was asking a favor to her "You want me to perform some kind of witchery-"
"Enchantment." Marco corrected.
"Whatever, you want me to try to make magic in a world that has become void of it to recover your girl?"
Marco shifted on his computer chair replying with an awkward "Yes?"
His childhood friend frowned a bit in deep thought, "Don't get me wrong Marco, but how in the hell am I supposed to do that?!" resting a bit back on his bed she continued "you said yourself that when she left it also erased not only her existence but every trace of magic here, including my own magic as you say. How would I be able to use magic if there's none around or in me?"
"You see, here is the catch. I don't think you're completely void of it."
Janna exchanged looks with his dog before both of them looked back at him as if they were reconsidering the option of calling the hospital to take him in.
"OK, let me explain." He took a breath, "When Star had come to this dimension, we had no idea that magic truly existed. In fact, there is- or at least had by then, a bunch of magic creatures living among us and we had no idea because we were used to our routines and livelihood. But Star had to adapt and she had to question and understand everything and while she had to discover and learn, she ended up showing and doing the same for us."
Janna rested her chin on her hand in a tedious position "Your point being?"
"My point is that there was magic here before Star came along. Magic that was from here, from Earth. Like, very low and not much, but once was enough to connect our worlds and dimensions, then we can do it again."
"That… kinda makes sense." She agreed with a nod "But if she blocked the other side it would still be impossible."
"She might have blocked the way directly to Mewni and other dimensions I knew the way over. But it's impossible for her to have blocked all dimensions back and forth."
"So what? Your plan is to go aimlessly into a random dimension and find a way over into another until you jump onto Minnie?"
"Mewni, and yes. I will get the right way eventually. I know I will." Marco said determinedly, "I had to hunt down the entity that was responsible for creating the material for transportation through the dimensions and I did it. If I was able to do that by then, nothing will stop me from reaching out for Star. And I know for a fact, there's a place that connects all dimensions."
A place that once almost got destroyed by desperation and naiveness, by that's another story and a detail he didn't need to disclose right now.
"Except the fact I can't use magic." Janna reminded him.
"Not really, that's what I am trying to say. Star might have cut or blocked the magic traces that were unnatural from here, but she can't get rid of what is natural."
"Uh…" Janna squinted her eyes, having trouble understanding "I kinda get your point, but not what you aim at…"
"Look, think about this like… the seasons!"
Janna gave a flat look as if that seemed more confusing but gestured to him to go on.
"You see, in Spring it's the prosperous time, when flowers grow, fruits are there and things blooms, then comes summer and while the temperature is high, we still can get the supriments spring gave us, then comes autumn and that's when the hard time comes. Leaves fall, fruits are not that much, some plants die, all while we prepare to the winter, when it's cold and we need to survive without much food-"
Janna facepalmed herself "You know that's totally not how it works, right?!"
"Just listen!" He sighed "after the time at lowest, what comes next?"
"Spring?"
"Exactly!" Marco replied her bored tone with excitement, "It comes the time when it flourishes again! You understand?! It's a cycle!"
Janna frowned, understanding his logic but still questioning it "You think Star speeds up the cycle?"
"She did something. Knowing or not." He shrugged, turning to her once more "Nature finds a way. It will make magic flow again, if it follows the seasons or not I have no idea, but I know it does follow a cycle. He have magic in our history, we got historical events that none can explain, and that follows some impact, and it goes around the world not just a place particular, and we had quiet times and then the new things again and-"
"Breathe, boy" Janna said standing up and sighing a bit as she forced Marco to sit down and take a moment, "Did you take your medicine?"
"We don't have time to-"
"We made a deal." She crossed her arms standing up in front of him as she looked at him sternly from his bed. "You keep yourself sane and under the medical conditions, as long as you're stable and healthy I'm willing to help you." The dark-haired girl looked around and asked again, "So, did you take your meds?"
Marco sighed and thought for a moment, "I did take them this morning." He looked at his phone for a moment and took a breath of redemption, "It is a bit past the time for me to take some I guess…"
"Well, then." His childhood friend gestured to the door, so he could go ahead and get the medicine wherever they were. Marco did as she suggested, knowing she was asking for the best of him and she was indeed looking out for his health. The last thing he needed now he was getting his memories back and was determined to find Star, was to have a breakdown and lose control (his last one was still healing in his eyebrow), he ain't got time for that.
He got his meds and went to the kitchen taking a cup of water as Janna promptly got herself to sit on the couch with Barko Jr. After taking his meds and sitting on the couch he was about to continue when Janna gestured him to wait.
"Take a breath. You were getting anxious, so take a few minutes. I'll wait."
"We don't have time for this, Janna."
"Then you're gonna have to deal with this alone." She looked at him, her face completely serious, "We made a deal, and I'll make sure you stand your word even against your own wishes."
Marco huffed, dropping himself on the couch "What is this, your crush on me is back?!"
"Hm, kinda. Considering you're the best candidate? Maybe." At his unbelievable stare she smirked "What? You can see me dating Alfonso? Ferguson? Jason?! ugh, no. The girls aren't much better and the hottest take went halfworld away" Janna made a dramatic gesture "So I might as well take care of my last option in case the worst happens."
"Wow, thanks" Marco replied to her in a sarcastic tone.
"You're welcome. Don't worry, once our kid gets my talent and hits big, that will make me meet my true guy. I'll dump you right away."
Marco frowned "I really have no idea if you're serious or not."
"Me neither" Janna replied.
He looked at her in complete confusion and decided to let it go since it wasn't going anywhere. Taking some breaths instead as he watched the clock he was able to feel himself calming down slowly and organizing his own thoughts.
"You had always liked spooked stuff, remember?"
"So what?" Janna said, turning to lay with her feet up, "Does that have to do with anything?"
"Remember the time church used to hunt witches and other beings, but mostly witches?"
"Yeah, many women got killed, they never apologized and all that jazz… Why are you giving me a history lesson?"
"You are a descendant of the Witches…" He frowned "I don't remember quite much clearly yet, but… I remember you found out one ancestor of yours was hunted down, claimed to be a witch and got to escape, you found there actually two types of such thing and used Star magic to… Do something… I can't remember well, but I know you used her magic to make your own flow again from the sleepy state it was in."
Janna sat straight and looked at him in shock "Are you telling me, I'm magic?"
Catching her tone of both disbelief and sassiness, Marco joked back at her "You're a Wizard, Janna."
"I'm a what?"Janna whispered before laughing with him, "Seriously, you're telling me I'm a witch?"
"Pretty much. You used to say the others called you something else because they didn't consider you one of them, but you got it."
Janna stood up and paced slowly in the living room, murmuring to herself as she was making her own conclusions from the information he gave.
"OK, if what you say is true, then there might be a way to awaken what was inside of me. I mean, she didn't destroy the magic, she just erased what existed from her existence, right?"
"I guess? I don't know that much actually. It's just a theory"
"That makes sense," Janna prompted "if she truly had erased every magic or destroyed then that would erase even the ones who weren't involved with her… Like your dog and, well, me."
"You?"
"It's just as you say, if I already had a bit in me, even if too little to make a difference, doesn't change the fact I got it and could try to do again what I did last, if she had went far enough it would have erased the existence of those who have some magic connection in them, me." She pointed out.
"So you think you can do it?"
Janna smirked, grabbing her purse and fishing for her phone as she began to type "Only one way to find out."
.
.
.
It was weird enough how her mother had been hovering over her lately, but having Tom, Ponyhead and Kelly aside every other person around to do the same was becoming maddening.
Star knew she had been sick, whatever her cough was, made everyone worried since they didn't find a solution. It was recurring more and more, if she coughed in front of them there was a desperation to show in their eyes so quickly she had to find out what they were hiding.
The little petal in her hand told her it was a lot more than they let her know.
The doctors have told her if she ever coughs something, she has to go to them immediately, and so her friends often offered to give her a doctor if there was any signal of her cough…
If she wanted to find out what was going on, she couldn't trust either side about the petals in her cough.
Besides they should be busy and worried about something else, she was getting married soon for the sake of her kingdom, they should be trying to find a way out of the war menace.
Just like she should be if she wasn't busy organizing a wedding ceremony she would rather not have anyways.
"Why do we have to make it big?!" She moaned tiredly to her mother.
"You're a princess, simple as that. The people need to know and have security for their new king, the wedding it's not just about tying laces, but also about showing the people you have a ground and know what you're doing, in the fateful decision you're making by marrying this man." Moon replied and put her papers down.
"Can we like, make an agreement, sign stuff and bep bop do? No one is interested in anything else aside from keeping Mewni safe at this point."
Moon turned to her and took a breath, "Is that why you agreed to the marriage?"
"Well, yeah…" the princess replied, turning away from her mother. "It's not like I had many choices anyway."
"I'm really sorry for all of this Star…" her mother replied with a sad voice, "Of all people, I really wish you had the chance to make the choice like I did in my time."
"You're not helping much…" Star observed looking at another stupid list of things to get for a wedding. Why did they need a golden cornucopia?!
"I know… That's why I invited someone that knows about this to talk it out with you."
Turning to her mother, her eyes turned curious "Who did you invite?"
Moon smiled at her, "It's a surprise."
She rolled her eyes and continued to look in her to-do list about what there was to still afford for the ceremony. She couldn't wait until the papers had been over so she could get to…
To what?
Star shook her head and tried to focus again. There was no one for her to meet after that, she had been so sleepless and stressed about things happening that she had been catching herself into errands that didn't exist or lost in corridors trying to find a room that wasn't there.
Maybe she should see a doctor after all.
.
.
.
.
.
Marco stood blinking at a board that Janna made with pins, pictures, lists and scribes around and even a red string that connected to a question mark.
"Uh… what am I looking at?"
Janna sighed, "You're looking at the fact that you were right." Crossing her arms she looked away "Damn I was hoping you weren't so on point."
"What does the criminal board have to do with this?"
"This is an investigation board, thank you very much." Janna said and pointed at her notes, "I went around my stuff to figure out the blanks points or odd stuff that I couldn't remember how happened or that the explanation was just plain weird."
Marco frowned at a picture of her and pointed, "What does a picture of you in a pink dress have to do with this?"
Snatching the picture from his hand, Janna followed her notes as if there was never the said picture there, "So there are a lot of those blanks around like, why the heck I have a recipe for cupcakes? I don't even cook, and if I did, I wouldn't be interested in cupcakes!"
Marco looked around the said notes noticing the odd that Janna was mentioning. She was right about most of them, the pictures of scenarios and selfies were not her thing, just like notes on clothing, books, and… that Korean version of Twilight?
"What matters is that you're right. Whatever I had in me or that composed those pictures enough to make me interested, was changed."
He nodded, "and how are you finding proof I was right to help us?"
"It helps because I began to look into my stuff to see if I could find anything else and, BOOM!" Janna shoved her phone in his face.
"A… contact list?" He asked, confused.
"Yep. I went through my contact list, I don't know the majority of these names and some weren't even real numbers like this… Thomas the Train?! Why do I have the number of a toy train to begin with?"
Marco tried to bring her focus back again, "Well, and did you find anything that helped us?"
Janna began to tap her phone again, "Actually, I did!"
Turning the phone to him again Marco was to stare at the eyes on the screen looking right back to him. It was a woman a bit older than them, she was red haired and skin a bit paler than his, her brown eyes blinked at him then she smiled and waved at him from the screen.
"Tami, meet Marco. Marco, this is Tamir LesTrange" Janna said, motioning between them.
"Hello!" Tami said, smiling from the other side.
"Hi…" he replied and looked at Janna, "how exactly is she supposed to help?"
Janna put her phone on his table where the stranger could see them both, "Tami remembers what I can't, or at least most of it. To begin with how we meet and what we are."
"Hey! I thought you said you believed in me saying you were a witch?"
There was a giggle and Marco realized it came from the screen, "There's a difference between believing and fact checking," Tami explained, "she was trying to recover what was lost in the spell of your friend."
"Wait, you remember too?!"
"Kinda" the red haired replied, "your theory of Earth's own magic isn't completely wrong, but also has some fantasies into it. I can remember what is related to me, Janna and the betweens, but if you ask me specifically about that friend of yours, well, I'm afraid I'm not much help." She shrugged embarrassed.
"So, how can you help us then?"
This time Janna replied to him, "Dude, she's a Witch."
Marco blinked twice at Janna and then at the phone before letting a gasped "Whaaat" escape his lips.
"A witch, Marco." The other laughed, "Oh boy, Potter references never get old!" The red haired girl shook her head and continued "I'm one of the natural magic users from Earth, see?"
On a movement with her hands, there was a wave of energy that made some stuff on her desk float before getting down again by another gesture to make it disappear.
He looked at the lady's hands in shock. It was one thing to know magic existed and have memory of it, but to see it was something completely different. To see the proof in a live video of another magic user was… almost unbelievable.
Wow, he gets why the others had trouble believing him.
"OK, Tami, can you explain what you told me before to him?" Janna asked.
"Why don't you say it?" She questioned.
"I forgot already."
With a sigh, the woman on the other side began to speak to Marco. "As I told Janna, your theory is in the right way, but not quite. Our world is about cycles, from the survival and animal one, to life and magic one. So yeah, there are parts of history that magic is stronger and others that are not, but aren't related to seasons, but with world history itself and around."
"World history?"
"Yep!" Tami nodded, "It's one of the biggest and sadly most natural occurrences in humanity, history repeats itself. Kind of like a curse even. People study history to not make the same mistakes, but while they do, the other part is making up and learning that stuff and find themselves agreeing with the past and making their own conclusions to do over again and as a result it happens again."
"That… is awful, is there nothing to do?"
"It's human nature. To find themselves in a group and try to engage into their battles to survive and the goals to fight against the opposition. The only way to stop the cycle would be to put everyone in a stance of ultimate survival: work together or die."
"Like stone age." Janna replied.
Marco shook his head to focus again, they could talk about history lessons later "What does this have to do with the magic?"
"Oh yeah!" The woman said changing her sitting pose "Well, the reason is because once there was a limited or over-limits magic on Earth is pretty simple, the Inquisition and Witch hunting events."
"So the Inquisition was right?"
"Nope." Both women replied and Janna continued, "they did kill a lot of innocents while hunting. Most people dead weren't related to magic even, or didn't even know."
Marco tried to follow their line of thought "Uhh… That means?"
"That means that, whatever your girlfriend did, she can't change history. She at most repressed what was already around. So we can recover the state to what it was and make magic flow around Earth, however I don't know about the portals stuff, that was never knowledge of our world magic."
"We still have to try." He replied determined, ready to get up. "It's the best chance We- I have to."
"Easy there, Romeo." Said Janna pushing him back down to his bed, "So far we gave you the good news."
He sighed, of course it wouldn't be that easy. "Ok, tell me the bad news."
"Well, for beginners…" Janna started, "Thomas the Train it's not the only contact missing. There's a bunch of them, for both me and Tami."
Tami looked at him with a sad smile, "That's true. And while I'm good friends and a mentor to Janna, I'm still a minor witch. In fact, Janna was stronger than I was. I lost contact with the Witches and other creatures more or less around the data your friend had cut the magic flow."
"Did something happen to them?" Marco asked in worry.
"I don't think so." The witch replied "I think they sensed something to come and took the ways to be safe, even if we lost contact with others. They probably left the others safe from consequences out of it, like Wiccas and minor witches, and in Janna's case, an illegitimate Witch."
"Illegitimate witch?" Marco asked his friend.
"Long history to another history and time. Now," Janna said, focusing back on the matter, "the point is, all the people who have better knowledge on Earth magic or how we could make the portal thing work again are out of reach and the others who are left aren't powerful enough to connect to other worlds."
Marco crossed his arms and thought for a while, looking between a magicless-witch Janna and the witch on the phone before an idea struck him again. "What if we reunited you?"
"What?" Both of them asked.
"Alone you can't do much, but… United, maybe we could bring enough power to make a connection, even to another world…" Marco took his magical scissors out of his pocket and showed them "From there I can get to other places until I reach the right one to get to Mewni."
"YOU HAVE AN INTERDIMENSIONAL SCISSOR?!" Tami screamed from the other side of the phone "Damn, you were someone important! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get one of these? A human even?!"
"I have vague memories of it." Marco shrugged, smiling sincerely to her "So, we can get contact with others you girls find and reunite to try to make these work, how about it?" Tami smiled sadly at him again and Marco could already sense the bad news again, but this time it was Janna who let out a sigh as she crossed her arms.
"You think I didn't want to meet her or bring her here for a reason? Would have been a lot easier and better" She pouted.
He looked at Tami questioning in silence what Janna meant, but observing the scenery behind her, more specific about what he thought until then it was a poster until the moment he saw a bird flying there, it dewelled him the reason of why Janna was upset and the bad news.
Marco let out a groan as he hid his face in his hands, to which Tami confirmed in voice what he just concluded, "I'm in Japan."
"And as far as we had been, well, mostly her since they refuse to talk to an illegitimate witch with no powers, most wiccans and witches left are in the same situation. We are scattered around the world" Janna replied.
He let his back fall into the bed and groaned louder. It could not be easy, could it?!
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When she was told she had visitors, Star had expected to be one of her friends checking on her again for the fifth time that week, or maybe even a surprise visit from a messenger from her fianceé kingdom with more stuff arranged or to be arranged for the wedding.
She didn't not expected to meet Eclipsa sitting in the garden drinking tea as she waited for her.
"Oh dear!" Eclipsa smiled "There you are! It's so good to see you! Come sit!"
Confused, Star obliged to what the other queen requested, "Hi Eclipsa… I'm sorry I wasn't expecting you."
"Really?" She replied surprised, "Your mother invited me, I thought you do know."
The princess blinked confused, "You were the one she told me about? I didn't know. She just said it was someone I could talk about and it was a surprise."
"Well, she told me about what you had been dealing with and… I can understand. I think from all the people I'm the closest that can understand you, that's probably why she told me to come talk to you."
So that was it. Her mother was still worried, despite her doctor saying she was ok and that she agreed with the meanings behind the wedding. Yes, she was still trying to find a way out of the war menace, but it was more a precaution and safety than anything else. Besides, so far the plan is going very well and… If it came to worse than she had to make sure someone was left to look after what she left.
"I'm fine, really." Star sighed.
"It's natural for a mother to be worried, more so in this case in which the daughter was forced into a decision she wasn't ready or didn't want to take." Eclipsa replied "It's a different situation, but we both had to go with the decision for outside factors."
It was only then that Star was reminded of the fact that Eclipsa was married before Globgor, despite already being with him and having her relationship established. Solaria didn't accept their relationship and arranged her wedding with a prince from a fellow kingdom in hopes that the marriage and kingdom obligation would make Eclipsa forget her forbidden passion for a monster of all people. Star didn't know much details aside from the fact that Globgor broke his promise to never feed himself from human flesh again by consuming Chastican, getting away to have Meteora and get captured shortly after and separated for all those years.
So far, Eclipsa was really the one who could understand the situation the most, even if the reasons for the arranged marriage were different, neither had been out of love, but because the obligations of the crown required so, for the safety of the people. For Eclipsa, because the former queen's prejudice against monsters was so powerful, she took a blind eye to who she put her daughter with. For her, because the war menace was a risk to the whole of Mewni and other possible dimensions and kingdoms Mewni had been in peace, not to count the possible multiverses.
She looked up to Eclipsa again, the queen being patient in Star taking her time to speak if she wished. Eclipsa has always been a kind heart that didn't deserve what happened to her. Star was really glad she was able to help get Eclipsa's happy ending by letting her rule the Monster Castle, which was her rightful place given Globgor once was the king of monsters. Maybe she couldn't fix the time and all that happened, but she could at the very least help.
Besides, it was a great help given that monsters and Mewmans still had much distaste on each other to just live together magically, it needed time to adapt, and so far having the kingdoms nearby with a free pass to both sides was showing to be really helpful. Even those who disliked the idea, at the very least respected the new ways of living… Well, after the battle that is.
Eclipsa also had been kind to them by giving the Crown back and rebuilding Mewni. So now they could rule together and work so both kinds would live and work together, the progress has been promising so far. Both crowns had been working hard to make it possible to unify in the future.
"Do you think…" Star said unsure "Am I doing the right thing?"
Eclipsa thought a bit, "There's no way we can know. For as long as I know you, Star, you have been writing the history your own way, taking what you thought was best by following your heart but taking your mind into it." She smiled at the princess "You proved yourself over and over again, you showed every single one that you can do more than one can imagine and even yourself. When we think you're done, you come with something new and that is what makes you the best queen of us all. Even now, I have no doubt you have something in your mind of how you can make things right and fix, and if you don't have the answers… you're on the way there." She looked into Star's eyes and smiled "Am I wrong?"
For the first time in a long time, Star smiled. Eclipsa had her right, she was trying to find a way to fix things up… But she didn't know the cost of it. And if she were to admit…
"I am scared." Star replied.
"I would think it weird of you not to be. You're about to face something new, but then again, you can always overcome the obstacles given. You and Marco."
Star blinked, her heart racing to the name familiar and dearly but yet new to her. She repeated in a whisper to her lips, she could even see the image of a boy with a red hoodie over his head…
A loud childish laughter distracted her. Both of them looked beyond their table to where Globgor was playing with Meteora and… Since when Eclipsa had another child? Star felt her chest tight and the coughs coming up, but she couldn't take that since the feeling of dread and anxiety had been washing over her. To the memory of her holding the other girl as a newborn baby, to her older brother introducing them, and the images flooding back.
Her head hurt, breathing was hard, and she couldn't even walk in a straight line when she got up abruptly to leave the garden abandoning the worried calls of the other queen. She just had to leave that place. She had to be quiet and think, she had to…
Remember.
She remembers now. The friendship, the love, the heartbreak. Earth, the school, her friends, the time spent between dimensions, the fights and all that came along. She remembers him always by her side and their hands together, she remembers his little sister, who they had promised to let grow with Meteora again, she remembers Diaz, who asked to be called as her parents too, she remembers why the earrings were so important. She remembers Angie telling her goodbye and Rafael holding her close…
She was so stressed up by then she didn't get to think about Mariposa, who wasn't around and didn't get mentioned by them.
She feels the tears on her eyes and coughs some more petals as she falls on her knees. She remembers the sickness and what happened. She remembers why it's so important that the plan works and she gets someone to take care of what's left once she's gone…
Eclipsa steps behind her carefully, and kneels to the ground, trying not to scare her after how she fled the garden. Her hand makes gentle circling motions until Star is calmed enough to speak if she wishes.
"Mariposa…" Is all she can say.
Eclipsa bites her lip and sighs, deciding to say once for all. "As you know, after how well Meteora and her bonded, we agreed with Diaz to have them grow together. The vacations here and school time on Earth… Since me and Globgor were going on the vacation trip early and Mariposa wasn't in school yet, we invited her to come."
Star slowly turned to look at Eclipsa as she continued, still sniffing for what she was about to hear, "That's when they contacted us and told about what was to happen. We spoke to Moon too and… We talked. A lot. So we decided that Mariposa was taken care of by us, and Diaz sent all her material to study, and also things to be remembered by. We thought about moving to Earth or they moving here, but… It didn't solve the problem in the end. Angie said they had Marco to take care after, and they had been parenting once, they would miss Mariposa everyday, but it would be the best. Rafael agreed they couldn't take Meteora away from us to take care of given she had magic, and that we had been apart for so long and we finally had our second chance…"
"So Mariposa is trapped in here."
"Mariposa is growing up with Meteora…" Eclipsa sighed, "She's too young to understand she can't go back to Earth. We have all the stuff from her to know and we're gonna tell her, but…" The queen took a breath, "The Evanescent magic took effect here too… Mariposa doesn't remember anything about Earth aside from what we told her."
Star choked as she started crying harder, she didn't mind to know if the petals were choking her or the tears, believing she deserved at this point. She just tore a family apart and erased a little girl's memory of her own family. Mariposa didn't remember her family back on Earth and by this she could only guess that the portals cutting severed those ties and by that maybe the Diaz couldn't remember her too.
She deserved to suffocate on those petals.
Now that she thought about it, the Diaz were looking into a family album when she left… They weren't looking into her pictures only, but the ones with Mariposa.
"What have I done?!" Star whispered crying in pain "Why no one told me?!"
"Oh dear…" Eclipsa caressed her head "You had already so much… None of us wanted to give you that pain and burden. It was a parenting decision for adults to take, and we did. We didn't want you to take the blame or responsibility."
"What for?!" Star continued to cry "How can I ever forgive myself from separating her from her family, for her losing her memories? for them to lose their daughter?!"
Eclipsa smiled sadly and was about to speak when she saw someone else in the room. Star looked up to see the little girl with brown skin and the cute mole as her brother, those big brown eyes confused looking at them as she slowly approached, her hair a bit longer than she remembered and she looked at Star sad.
"Don't cry…" She said, patting Star's face.
Star smiled sadly, trying her best to not scare Mariposa as she picked her up and hugged tightly, she looked so much after her brother it hurt. She continued to whisper how much she was sorry until she began to calm down.
Eclipsa stayed there supporting Star by staying by her side simply. It didn't miss her eyes the smudged makeup that covered the broken hearts, nor the petals on the floor.
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Janna walked into Marco's room letting out a whistle. There were papers all around, his computer open with at least thirty tabs open, there were scribbles, notes, and red strings on the floor, maps, pictures and even other stuff that Janna didn't pay attention to in the middle of her process.
"I understand why you weren't surprised with my board now."
Marco chuckled as he marked something in another note, "I'm the crazy guy, remember? This is organized close to how my mind had been before. I don't like to admit it, but those pills do help."
"Are you taking them, by the way?"
"Yup." Marco took the bottle out his pocket and shook so Janna could see and hear the pills inside before he put back in his pocket, "They are necessary, so I take them. I wish I didn't have to? Yes, but for now I need them and that's it."
Janna clapped to him and Marco rolled his eyes. He knew medicine was important, and took time for him to accept he needed the mental medicine just like any other sick person would need. If they were for the heart he would take them, so why not take them for his brain?
"You said you had news." The former witch replied, trying to step further into the room, "Is this it?"
Marco got up and bit his marker end thinking a bit more into how to voice his thoughts.
"I think I know how to open the portal." Janna stopped in her tracks, not daring to make any movement until he continued "If this place was once connected to Mewni through magic, it means it should be connected again, even if just a little. Might not be enough to create a portal, but the magic is already in both places, Earth is already connected to the magic dimensions as so. We could reunite a number of people to try to gather enough energy for the scissor to work, but even so might not be enough, and focusing them on one place might not help the magic to keep flowing."
His friend decided it was safer to step back and lean on the doorframe, "Ok, so, we need to reunite or not?"
"We need everyone to stay where they are." Marco replies nodding "If you had been scattered all around the world, there might be a reason for it. Tami said that the natural course is that the flow comes back little by little and the other witches and whatever are waiting the time for it, so I thought, 'what if that's it?' you know?" Marco said happily. Janna blinked slowly to him and continued her deadpan stare so he could continue for her to understand. "She cut the unnatural magic, her own and what came with her, the witches might have been influenced by the flow of her magic around, that's why they left."
Janna thought for a second, "Actually, that makes sense. If it wasn't much and suddenly there's a new one around they might have been caught by the new magic too… They could have lost all the magic like I did for mixing it up."
"Like filling a cup of water with orange juice. If you want to get rid of the mix you need to get rid of both." Marco said "And because they had the influence, they couldn't risk to stay. However!" Marco said pointing to a scheme drawing on his wall, "Tami said she and the other left were more natural magicians, that used Earth and natural sources, that's why they are out of risk!"
There was a gasp heard and then a voice replying to him, "It's natural magic!"
The trickster took her phone out of her jacket and showed him her mentor on video call who was clapping and smiling happily. "Well, that explains how I was so oddly and suddenly put in Japan."
"You weren't there before?"
"Nope!" She replied "I made a test to come here, but I was sure to fail because of some missing papers, but then they suddenly were found and approved at the last second." She thought for a second, "I wonder if there are others who have done this too."
"It might if we go by Marco's theory." Janna replied. "Maybe the Elders knew that we could restore the magic flow by ourselves and made a way to scarce us around the globe." She shrugged.
"If that's the case," The boy continued "I thought that if you all used your magic at the same time, it might be enough to get magic on Earth flowing on the levels that it was again."
The red haired woman frowned a bit in worry, "I'm not sure, it might need a lot of people doing it at the same time, and there are the timezones, not to say so far the ones I had contact don't have that much power enough to make our magic connect one point to another to make it flow." She sat back on the chair and crossed her arms thoughtfully.
"Marco, are you really asking us to do that? We would be risking to expose ourselves and be hunted down to death again for what? So you can be with your girlfriend?"
Marco gulped. She had a point, there were many factors to make it harder. to make one witch to pass the magic from a point to another, then that required that some ignored the timezones, and…
And this was the best chance he had to see Star again.
"Yes." He replied "I'm asking you to do this so I can go to her. I will cross every mountain, swim every ocean just to fix what I've broken. If I need to go around the world to talk and ask one by one to agree then I will. This is the best if not the only chance I got to be with her. So yes, I'm being selfish and asking you all to take the risk to restore the Earth magic and I can be with Star again."
There was a moment of silence before a loud squeal and giggling from the phone startled both in the room, "Okay!"
"Okay?!" Both Janna and Marco replied surprised.
"Okay." The witch nodded, grabbing some papers and writing something in them, "I'm a big fan of love, and that confession? That got me. So yeah I'm going to do it. I'll talk to my friends and the ones I got in contact to plan this and will get back to you. Ah! I can't wait to help you two get back together!" Suddenly the woman began to transform the notes she wrote into paper birds and sent them to the window. "I have much work to do, I'll see you later!" With another set of squeals and giggles she hung up.
Both teenagers stood there looking at the phone screen locking it up in shock. It was rather… easy. And that was exactly why Marco wasn't sure if it would work, if there is something he learned about this whole thing is that nothing would come easy to him.
Still, he had high hopes and for that, he grabbed the bracelet that once belonged to her and held it tight, hoping that soon he could give it back, that then he could hold her hand - if she allowed, he had to recognize that he had every right to reject by how things messed up.
"I would love to stay," Janna commented but stopped for a second, "Wait nevermind, I'll stay and look around your stuff to see if I get any other stuff to this mad plan of yours"
"Gee, thanks" Marco shrugged and moved for her to come into his room. "Be my guest. I'll get some air."
"By the smell of this room, you do need it."
He ignored the comment even through his blush. He knew she was just teasing him… right?
He was walking down the corridor when he saw his dog lying in front of the guest door crying. Once he saw Marco, it got up and began to scratch the door asking to be open for him. He was ready to open the door when he touched the handle and suddenly began to hear a song from the other side.
When I wake up, yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you!
He stopped for a moment, he was sure the room wasn't in use for a long time and that there was nothing on the other side of that door. So that could only mean…
When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you!
Marco opened the door, but instead of looking into the visitor room that was very much like his, he saw a huge room, with an aquarium, stairs, and even a balcony. He stepped into the room with a fond smile on his face as he watched in admiration the figure on the bed jumping and dancing to the song blasting in her speaker.
If I get drunk, Well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who gets drunk next to you!
It was another of her times singing super glue songs, she was jumping on her bed as she sang the lyrics, laughing happily as she did so, her golden hair dancing up and down, her bed already a mess from her dancing.
And if I haver, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's haverin' to you!
He couldn't help but smile openly at the memory, it was such a happy and innocent time. She was just there dancing and singing to a good song and enjoying the moment, while he was making nachos down the stairs. She was smiling so brightly and it was such a good memory that made him laugh a bit to see her like that.
There was a noise beside him, she didn't notice because of the song and how distracted he was by the scene, he found himself years young putting down the table some nachos only to lean on the doorframe crossing his arms and watch her performance of happiness.
How he didn't realize by then he was already falling for her? That fond and loving smile and the joy he remembers to feel just to watch her jumping to the song and be happy for a moment… It was enough to make him smile and be happy himself.
He laughed, they were really oblivious.
Star soon took notice of him standing there watching her and motioning to him to get up her bed and join her, he gave an eye roll pretending to be reluctant but joined her more than glad.
"When I'm lonely, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who's lonely without you!"
They began to dance together, both laughing above the bed as they continued to lip sync the song.
"When I'm dreaming, well I know I'm gonna dream, I'm gonna dream about the time when I'm with you!"
They began to run in circles in the bed, getting dizzy and then switching to another game.
"When I go out, well I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the man who goes along with you!"
They began to try to ticklish one to another. Sometimes missing and others getting right making another fit of laughter go up.
"And when I come home, yes I know I'm gonna be, I gonna be the man who's coming home with you"
They both sang together getting louder and louder until they reached the chorus and began to shake their heads, messing up their hair hard as they sang one to another as they jumped in her bed.
"But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more! Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door!"
The song went on, and Marco grabbed a pillow to hit her, Star laughed, grabbing another to defend and attack him. They stayed like that until the chorus came back again and they sang together breathless.
"But I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more! Just to be the man who walked a thousand miles to fall down at your door!"
They both give a last jump and fall laying down on her bed in a fit of laughter with their belly hurting and red faces from all the energy wasted just for the fun and singing together and having a fun time.
The laughter began to fade in the air as the memory faded and gave place to reality. His dog was laying down on the bed that was just like his, he stepped closer and sat there looking at the bracelet once again.
"I miss her too." he told Barko, embracing the animal and caressing it's fur until he fell asleep.
At the door, Janna looked down at the floor before taking her phone and dialing some numbers. She couldn't let him go on like that, if Marco needed to meet the girl again to get his closure, then he would meet her. Even if she had to ask some favors she had been saving.
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"MOON!"
Her name echoed into the room and she flinched, but still took a breath. She should have expected that Eclipsa would find out about what was going on sooner or later, and given she took Star as a granddaughter/nephew it was no surprise she would be furious once she found out about the whole thing and not only what Moon let her know.
"Before you take out your fury on me, take a seat so I can explain…"
"You erased her memories!" Eclipsa slammed her fists on the table, "You took away her memories about the boy she loved!"
"I had my reasons to do so and you would understand if-"
"And she has broken hearts! Her magic is unstable, she's been crying non-stop! Moon, have any idea of what you have done?!"
"I have plenty of ideas of what I did and I did what was best for her!" Moon replied, raising her voice.
Globgor came into the door a bit after being accompanied by River, Glossaryck and Baby. The monster tried to calm down his wife by gently pulling her to sit, but she refused, still staring at Moon like she could punch her, maybe she would.
"What right do you think you have to take away her memories?!"
"It was hurting her far worse than it should!"
"And taking away was the answer?! That's not up to you to decide, Moon! You out of everyone should know this!"
"Sweetie," Globgor tried again, "let's hear what they have to say."
"I did what I had to do to save my daughter, you would have done the same!"
Eclipsa gasped more angrily than before "What harm could the memories of Marco could have caused?!"
"The memories are killing her! From inside out!" From the moment of shock of the other queen, Moon took a breath and looked down, she admitted in defeat the truth about the condition. "Star has the Deadly Flowers."
Eclipsa let out a breath and finally let herself be led by her husband to sit down as he stood beside her holding her hand, now just as worried about the princess' condition as his wife was.
"What stage is it?" The king of monsters asked.
Moon sat down, River coming by her side as her hands massaged her temples, "She was vomiting the flowers weeks ago. We didn't have many options, so…"
Globgor nodded and Eclipsa looked at him confused, as he clearly knew of the sickness better, it wasn't fully disclosed how many monsters fell victim to such sickness. As he explained what the disease was and the cure methods, Eclipsa felt more heartache for the princess that was playing with the two children in her room at the moment.
"So… you took the flowers out?" She asked.
"We did," River replied, "but she seed is placed in her heart so…" He looked down sadly and Globgor continued for him.
"The flowers will continue to bloom over and over again, and quicker every time, until it comes to a point where… There's no way out."
Eclipsa felt her eyes water and held her husband's hand tight, "There must be something we can do! Some potion or-"
"Don't you think I've been trying?" Moon replied looking up with teary eyes, "I sleep every night without knowing if my daughter will be there in the next day, or for how long… And she's about to marry someone she doesn't love because Marco is back on Earth where we cannot reach anymore."
Eclipsa sniffed and stood in silence for a moment with them. It was a serious situation, and if Star had come to pass before the wedding would be even worse.
Even so, she knew she should, but couldn't bring herself to tell them that Star had partially recovered her memories and the flowers are back. Star made her promise not to do so and now she gets why, she's afraid of losing them again and by now… That's all she has left of her happiness back then.
"So we… wait?" Eclipsa said reluctantly.
Moon closed her eyes with River, showing how much pain they have to admit that all they could do was to provide the best they could while they could, but they couldn't afford a cure or miracle to get her rid of her pain and death.
Eclipsa wished for a moment that she could have convinced Diaz to move to Mewni, this could have solved so many things… but they didn't know back then. Even if they did, once Star severed the magic ties, they would have been sent back to the place they belonged, without magic.
But if was like that, then-
"Wait, Star erased her magic back from Earth, then the same happened from here, right?"
"That's right." Glossaryck confirmed.
Eclipsa then looked up a bit more hopeful, "Then how's Mariposa still here?"
It took a moment for the others to understand what she meant, but when they did, the same feeling of a sparkle of hope that got into them.
"That's impossible!" Moon said, still hard-believing "Earth is magicless!"
Globgor got up and turned to them, "Eclipsa has a point, we had been taking care of Mariposa ever since the portals closed. The only thing that changed was that she also lost her memories, she is still affected by the magic, and possibly what happens back on Earth for that to happen."
The Mewni queen got up and turned to the magic guide, "Glossaryck, is it possible?"
The blue creature thought for a moment, "Earth has its own natural magic like all dimensions, but would be very unlike - not to say impossible to make it connected back or flow enough to connect again. It would be necessary to have an incredible amount of magical power to reconnect with their own magic to make it flow enough and then later they do it again for someone from this side to make the connection."
"We didn't have to do that the first time," River complained.
"The ties weren't severed or blocked then. Just out of use" Said Baby. "Besides, Earth has been out of Magic users for many years, and we have no communication now. They would have to make this plan on their own with none of our communication. No one knows about this to make it happen."
Moon was about to try to argue with another solution when Tom and Ponyhead got into the room in a hurry and were screaming with something in their hands. The queen was about to ask for them to calm down and sit when Tom put the device with a point blinking and made her go speechless.
"I don't know how, but somehow, they are up to something!" Tom said.
The others got around Moon to look into the screen and see what they were so amazed about too and felt themselves in shock as much as the teenagers were, but in a good way. Glossaryck groaned rolling his eyes, but smiled still after everyone gave a hopeful laugh.
On the other side of the room, Ponyhead was dancing in the air chanting happily "I cannot believe it! Earth-Turd did it! Earth has magic again!"
_________
This is for now.
On a brighter note, I'm out of the horrible writer block the finale and few other things gave me. That is to say I'm finally writing the final chapters to go.
Thank you again, and onwards to the finale!
PS: we got a discord now if interest anyone :)
A special shout out to @tamiletrange for having my back and also, a special tribute for her in this chapter as Janna’s mentor
@manifisto42 @judytrashcan @thatgirlinspace @ido100 @cid331 @krystalhuntress @mrevaunit42 @luigifan7 @avatarrocks132 @touya-r @dvvkroh @starkiller9903 @oofcorp @ironlightsheep @ironlord-firoh @the-x-files-fan
#svtfoe#svtfoe fanfic#svtfoe ever after#star vs the forces of evil#star vs the force of evil spoilers#starco#fanfic#by me#svtfoe fic#star vs fandom#star butterfly#marco díaz#moon butterfly#river butterfly
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