#he had a “son’ but it’s not clear if he was adopted or sired because??? anyways the relative still alive apprently won’t answer questions

[kiwikipedia]

Li Shuwen on the other hand likely did not fuck often

I don’t need answers I need people to remember that Chiron fucked and often

[eighthdoctor]

When you say your great grandmother was given a baby in as a maid in a country house, do you mean she adopted, or do you have family with an illegitimate claim to a title?

Neither.

My great grandma in Small Town American West in the 1920s/30s, at a time when there was The Town Doctor and he was probably the wealthiest person in the area. So there wasn't a title (none of those in the US).

He was just a doctor and had an identically named son, and a house big enough to have a live-in maid for.

And then one of them sired a baby on her--we don't know which because she just put down the name, no Sr/Jr. IIRC she was dismissed when it became clear she was pregnant. No idea how she kept herself together after that--could ask my dad but he's not the genealogist for that side of the family.

This all probably has something to do why my grandma was a socialist during the Red Scare though.

[thelongforgottenrealm]

RODERICK VARMONT, EMPEROR OF THE VARMONT EMPIRE / JUDE LAW

♛ Age: (49) ♛ Relationships: Amira Varmont, Marian Varmont (wives), Arthur Varmont, Sebastian Varmont, Edmund Varmont (sons), Guinevere Varmont, Cassandra Varmont (daughters), Alaric Varmont (brother), Bartholomew Varmot (uncle/hand/unknown rival), Ciara Varmont, Eoin Varmont (cousins), Godfrey Calainon, Tristan Calainon (brothers-in-law), Eilionora Stafford (hostage/intended fourth wife), Aria Stafford (hostage), Aleksander Royce (priest)

roderick was never supposed to be king – he had an older brother, whom his father loved and adored

roderick, in comparison, never lived up and his father never let him forget this fact and he often reminded his son how grateful he was that roderick had not been born first

when roderick was seventeen years old, he went in secret, to marry his childhood love – despite his own father having arranged another match for him. but roderick knew his own heart and married the girl he loved – even if she was the third daughter of a disgraced family – her own father had been executed for treason

he planned to run away with her, but he never got the chance – for both his father and brother succumbed to the plague that would ravage the land the following spring

as soon as roderick was crowned, he set his sights on the countries across the sea – he was determined to build himself an empire and prove to everyone that he would be a king, a conqueror, and an emperor

he remained very much in love with his first wife, but on his travels he met amira calainon who turned his head

falling under her charms, he was determined to have her, but she said she would only go to his bed as his wife

roderick saw no reason why he couldn’t adopt the old ways and have as many wives as he pleased – besides, he desired a son and heir of his own and so far was childless

he hastily married again, a year later, when he still had no children to speak of, despite having two healthy wives – this time taking a young lady who had come from a large family, herself, to wife hoping she would be the one to give him children

in the end, his first wife gave him his first child – a baby girl who they named guin; marian gave birth to a son, some months later and in the years that followed gave him two more children; amira gave him one son

it has never been clear who he means to leave his own throne to – guin is the eldest, arthur is the eldest boy, and edmund is the eldest boy born of his second wife (what no one really knows is that sebastian is the eldest trueborn son he has – arthur having been sired by marian’s secret lover .... and roderick's own uncle)

can be heartless and cruel, but there’s more to him than that – he was certainly once a much softer man, but his life has not been an easy one and his obsession for power has blinded him to his other priorities

his first wife eventually died – the doctors could not tell him why, but roderick knows it was because of a broken heart – she never stopped loving him and when he chose to take on other wives, he hurt her beyond repair

roderick has recently conquered astaira, which is the largest and most profitable kingdom thus far. to secure it, he means to take queen elinora as his wife but she is less than ready to give in to him and, in the meantime, he has both her and her youngest sister under house arrest

he does not believe in this place’s old religion and means to snuff out an already dying flame …. little does roderick know, that there is much more truth to the old tales than he gives them credit for, and that the true danger is now less than a world away ….

TAKEN BY KATE AA.

[theultimatepielord]

Alright I can sorta explain the traitor thing but I can't do it calmly because it makes me SO angry about the way Sarevok is portrayed in bg3. So Jaheira has definitely at no point served Bhaal, except possibly once by accident. During the bg1 expansion Siege of Dragonspear (made by different devs like 15 years after bg1s release) she can help the player clear out an ulitharid (souped up illithid that doesn't work for an elder brain) from a desecrated temple of Bhaal that was converted to a temple of Cyric near Boreskyr Bridge, the place Cyric killed Bhaal. Sarevok was dead at this point on account of Jaheira and friends having killed him a couple weeks prior, so it's unlikely he's making any reference to it. Sarevok is most likely referring to the events of Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, in which he can join up with the party. Explaining this will require a quick summary of the saga, so here goes.

Bhaal died during the Time of Troubles, a period where the gods had to walk the earth as mortals (predicated by a scheme by the Dead Three to steal the Tablets of Fate), slain by the adventurer Cyric who used Bhaal's essence to become a god himself. But ahead of the Troubles, Bhaal had received a prophesy of his death and devised a solution: children. Bhaal and Bane attacked the problem in similar ways, but while Bane planned to have a single son to use to resurrect himself, Bhaal opted to sire as many kids as possible. Each kid would have a fraction of his essence, which would return to him when they died. This did work, though it took over a century longer than Bane's resurrection. This led to the prophecy of Alaundo: "The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he will spawn a score of mortal progeny. Chaos will be sown from their passage." The resurrection was intended to be quick, as the kids were mostly mothered by his priestesses, who were intended to kill them after receiving word of Bhaal's death. In the temple beneath Baldur's Gate however, the Harpers, in a group featuring the sage Gorion and new recruits Khalid and Jaheira, intervened. They were too late for most of the kids, but did save two babies. Gorion opted to retire upon seeing the pile of dead babies and took 2 of the children with him to Candlekeep. One he raised himself, that became CHARNAME/Gorion's Ward/Abdel Adrian, while the other was given to the innkeeper Winthrop, and was named Imoen. Sarevok escaped the temple by hiding in the pile of dead children, and survived on the streets of Baldur's Gate for a while (by thieving and mugging, mainly) until he was found by Rieltar Anchev, who was impressed by his strength, resourcefulness, and ruthlessness, and adopted him, making him his heir and ward. He quickly brought Sarevok into his business, the Iron Throne. He hired the scholar Winski Perorate to teach the lad, and it was Winski who discovered Sarevok's heritage. Winski encouraged Sarevok to pursue his heritage, and in the course of Sarevok's research at Candlekeep, he found a sibling: Abdel/CHARNAME/GW. So Sarevok killed Gorion and tried to kill his sibling, as part of his plan to ascend to godhood. The main thrust of that plan was to hijack Rieltar's plan for commercial domination and use it to trigger a war between the Gate and Amn. Ultimately though, he died and the plan failed. Abdel and co were later kidnapped by the evil wizard Jon Irenicus, who awakened CHARNAME and Imoen's Bhaalspawn powers for his own nefarious ends. CHARNAME's emerged stronger, allowing him access to the Slayer, and most critically, a piece of the family lands: in the Abyss. Sarevok found his way to those lands and offered his knowledge and expertise to CHARNAME in exchange for resurrection. While he didn't retain his Bhaalspawn powers, he was restored to life and joined CHARNAME's crew to help him defeat the 5, a cadre of evil Bhaalspawn including Ilasera and Sendai, and headed by Bhaal's traitorous High Priestess, Amelyssan the Blackhearted, who sought to steal the essences of the Bhaalspawn to become the new Lady of Murder. Afterwards, Sarevok went his own way. At some point he conquered Westgate, he buried the bones of his one true love, Tamoko, in her homeland of Kara-Tur, and Orin's backstory got stapled on. Also somehow he gained extra longevity, because without his Bhaalspawn powers he should have died of old age by now (Abdel/CHARNAME was murdered like 5 years ago at the age of 150ish, and Sarevok is canonically older).

The thing is, in all that story, forget Jaheira not serving Bhaal, SAREVOK never served Bhaal (except incidentally by killing Amelyssan, but Amelyssan was hell bent on murdering CHARNAME's whole party, so he didn't really have a choice). Beyond that, he always looked out for himself first and foremost. He didn't want to resurrect Bhaal when he tried to create a massive war, he wanted to ascend to godhood HIMSELF. As WInski Perorate put it, "if you have the arrogance of a god and can kill like a god, who's to say you are not a god?" ALSO, Sarevok doesn't have to stay evil during the events of Throne of Bhaal. Bg 1 + 2 are mostly a story about destiny, and the question about how much of your life you can really control. For Sarevok, one of the main questions is how things would have gone had CHARNAME ended up on the streets of the Gate and Sarevok enjoyed a happy childhood with Gorion. In Throne of Bhaal, the player can even guide Sarevok to redemption, as he reflects on the fruitlessness of his quest for power and godhood. Throne of Bhaal is rightly considered the weakest part of Bioware's Baldur's Gate, but Sarevok's redemption arc is AWESOME.

And then we get this shit in bg3. Bringing Sarevok back was a bad idea from the start: the Dark Urge uses the Bhaalspawn taint as an analogy for mental illness, which works fine but is a totally different story than the story about destiny the first two games were telling. And bringing him back like THIS? Completely bastardized with all of his personality and nuance and growth sandblasted off, a completely reworked story that makes no fucking sense, and to top it all off they recast him (come the fuck on what made you think you could replace Kevin Michael Richardson). TL;DR put no weight into anything Sarevok says or does in this game as it relates to the first two, because he's just here for the cameo to get a few extra nostalgia dollars, and because hcing him as just a random Bhaal construct given a familiar face both makes more sense and is less infuriating.

Sarevok Anchev: Here come those who seek to transcend. Aspirants of his most profane order - the would-be Unholy Assassins of Bhaal. Sarevok Anchev: But these are not aspirants. You have brought traitors of Bhaal into our midst. Sarevok Anchev: Harper worm... the abdicating hero... your keen sense for this city has withered in your absence. Jaheira: Sarevok, Bhaal's least favourite son. Still tied to daddy's apron strings, I see. Sarevok Anchev: You disappoint me, child of Murder. I expected more of your return.

In hindsight bringing an old enemy of Bhaal to the Murder Tribunal was, perhaps, a bad idea. Although "traitor" implies that Jaheira actually served Bhaal at some point, which... I don't know, I haven't played the first two games. Maybe? But somehow I doubt it. (Don't tell me.) Accidentally disappointed my big brother by bringing his old enemy to the Murder Tribunal. It's fine! I'm only a little bit of a disappointment. Also, Bhaal doesn't seem to mind me bringing Jaheira along so really Sarevok has no right to complain.

Also Jaheira repeatedly referring to Bhaal as "daddy" when talking to Bhaalspawn is kind of hilarious. I feel like you probably shouldn't call the god of murder "daddy" even if it is just in the context of his actual offspring.

[thecupcakewritesmorethings]

Ghost: Nihil, The Anti-Church, and Fatherhood

Alright, I’m going to come right out and say it. One of the duties of a Satanic priest is TO HAVE PROGENY. Be it your own progeny from your own bloodline, or an adopted sort of progeny, it is part of the Anti-Church’s doctrine. ((Mirroring the often echoed sentiment that Christians should not have carnal relations until marriage, and even then it should specifically to *make babies*.)) You don’t want to join the Anti-Church if you’re not down with children. You just don’t.

Fathers, too, in general, are greatly revered. Not in a patriarchal sort of sense, but in an entirely medically necessary one. In the dark ages, it was highly likely a woman would die in childbirth, so the Anti-Church encourages fathers to actively participate in the lives of their offspring. Mothers are important, too, of course, but the lore of being a father, adopted or not, holds a lot of symbolism for the Anti-Church.

Anyway, this is my round-about way of saying that Papa Nihil IS a big ole flirt, who’s got at least 3 sons that we know of, but he likely would have had MORE if he and Seestor worked things out.

We know the famous line from Ghost: Chapter 2 that being Papa runs in Nihil’s family line nine generations. Assuming that the Cardinal Copia and the other numbered Emeritus’ are the 10th generation. Without specific ages to go off of; we can only estimate. With a quick google search, that’s about 250 years ago. 2018-250= 1768, PREDATING THE BRITISH COLONIES INDEPENDENCE by nearly a decade. So yeah, a long-ass-time.

However, something to note is that Papa Nihil, himself, seems to be unaware of his own lineage in the music video for “Dance Macabre”. Now, this could just be because it’s a music video intending to tell a stand-alone story, but... We all know Ghost doesn’t usually DO that, so I’m going to err on the side of caution that these events fit the diegesis, and that they’re canon.

We know that a lot of the people at the party recognize that Nihil is a part of said “Blood Line”, the doorman and Seeeestor immediately catch on, and the rest of the party falls in line soon thereafter. Most importantly this gives us two clues into young Nihil’s upbringing. He was likely raised by his mother, and maybe a step-father, and is currently unaware of his connection to the Anti-Church. This also implies at the time of the Dance Macabre Video that either Nihil’s own father was Papa, or a half-brother whom he raised was. This suggests that Papa Nihil’s father had at least two children. He, and an older half-brother.

Cycling back around, if we bend to the idea that Cardinal Copia is Seestor’s bastard child with Nihil, it makes for some great form of poetic justice, doesn’t it?

Anyway, by the time Kiss the Go-Goat comes out, it’s apparent there is something more meaningful going on between Nihil and Seestor, because when he starts kissing and making out with various audience members she storms off, ANGRILY. It’s implied that their relationship ends at that moment, even though it’s very clear Nihil and Seeestor are still attracted to each other. (Many people believe that, at the time, she is pregnant with the Cardinal as she is seen holding her hand over her lower abdomen, and she reacts violently to the lady beside her holding the cigarette).

Again, assuming that Copia IS a part of the Bloodline, this would probably make him the youngest Papa.

We know that there is only a 3 month difference between Papa ii and Papa iii, PROVING they had separate mothers, and Papa i... Well... We don’t know much about him, but I think we get enough of the picture to understand.

By the time Kiss the Go-Goat came out Nihil had probably already sired at LEAST Papa i with someone within the Anti-Church, and maybe entirely because he needed to stake his claim within the Anti-Church, providing a precautionary heir. Nihil and Seeestor’s relationship begins to get more romantically inclined, even with Papa i being raised equally between he and the Anti-Church. I bet Papa ii and Papa iii come soon after, and at this point Nihil has been fully recognized as Papa Emeritus 0.

And Seeestor, LOVES THIS. Super powerful, hot, Satanist boyfriend with several heirs to keep the church going for years to come? SIGN HER UP.

It’s at this point where things go... South? Seeestor had not been upset for Nihil to sleep around up to this point because- well, duh, it’s in the doctrine. However, things change when their relationship gets more serious. She wants commitment, and most importantly- Monogamy. She doesn’t mind that he has several kids, she’d clearly raise them right. She doesn’t mind his sordid past, or even that he wasn’t brought up by the church, but she wants the rest of him for the rest of his life.

So Nihil has to make a fundamental choice to remain entirely faithful to Seeestor (who he DOES IN FACT LOVE), or the Religion that they are both incredibly devoted to. The Religion, mind you, that Seestor herself probably pressured Nihil into doing a lot of out-o-of-character things for. Annnnnd Nihil choses the Church OVER her.

I don’t think Nihil fooled around after that. I think he spent a great amount of his youth trying to make it up to Seeestor, but by the time all was said and done she had made up her mind. She was going to raise Copia by herself and maybe even smugly suggested that someone else had been the father. The only thing keeping these two working in proximity being their shared faith, but I don’t see either of them working particularly close in that time.

This also reflects how Papa Nihil may see Copia. Assuming he was never told he was his father, he assumes that Copia is the result of a revenge hook-up. If he has, though... Well, this only makes him Seeestor’s pawn who over-took his brothers. The one child he had no say in raising at all.

I think, while not a perfect parent, Nihil tried his best to be there for the sons he did raise. I think if he and Seeeestor had worked things out, he probably would have been happy to have MORE children, too. 

[robininthelabyrinth]

We’ve heard Jiang Fengmian as WWX’s bio father, now it’s time for Lan Qiren as secretly his father. (Please no Wangxian for this one!)

ao3

“You want me to what,” Lan Qiren said.

“Be the father of my child,” Cangse Sanren said. Simply and straightforwardly, as if that were just a thing people said.

Casually.

To their friends.

To their – as far as he knew – platonic friends!

“You’re married,” he stressed.

“Yes, Qiren-xiong, I’m aware,” Cangse Sanren said, her eyes bright with mirth. “I was even there through some of the festivities. Though not all, of course, since the bride gets sent away far too early at these things, and of course then there was all the liquor –”

“Cangse Sanren,” Lan Qiren said through gritted teeth, wishing not for the first time that his friend had an actual name rather than merely a title – something he could use or not use to emphasize his feelings on the subject.

She laughed at him, because of course she did.

“Let me explain,” she said, probably because she sensed that he was considering stabbing her if she didn't. “Lao Wei and I –”

“Aren’t you older than he is?” Lan Qiren asked, dubious. “Possibly by several centuries?”

“Humans call their husbands that,” Cangse Sanren said, waving her hands at him. “Don’t bother me with details.”

“…you’re human, right?”

“Of course! This is the fourth time you’ve asked, and the answer hasn’t changed. Why would you ever think otherwise?”

“The way that you continuously refer to – no, I’m not letting you distract me this time. Explain yourself!”

Cangse Sanren giggled into her sleeve. “We want children,” she said. “But he can’t, you see. Wrong parts. So we need someone else to be the sire, and I want it to be you.”

“Why?”

More giggling. “Because I like you. And why not?”

“And Wei Changze agreed to this?” Lan Qiren asked, slightly appalled. He knew Cangse Sanren well enough to assume that the answer had to be yes, and yet still...

“Yes, he did, but you’re welcome to talk with him directly. In fact, I encourage it.”

“Perhaps I will,” Lan Qiren said.

Wei Changze was a pleasant person, even if he and Lan Qiren weren’t direct friends – Lan Qiren was a bit too inflexible and serious, Wei Changze a little too free-spirited and light-hearted, so they’d never entirely bonded, but they were both very fond of Cangse Sanren in all her strangeness, each in their own way, and that was enough of a basis for a decent relationship.

“I’d be honored if you would agree,” Wei Changze said when Lan Qiren asked. “You’re my wife’s favorite person besides me – why not you?”

Lan Qiren could think of many, many reasons why not.

“I don’t want to impact your relationship with her,” he said cautiously, and Wei Changze blinked at him as if to say how would it do that? “If jealousy were to arise…”

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Wei Changze said.

“…you understand that if I agree to your proposal, I would be sleeping with your wife.”

“Oh yes,” Wei Changze said. “Several times, I hope. We've got to make sure it takes, after all. On that note, can I watch?”

Lan Qiren was a man aware of his dignity. It was beneath his dignity to flail around like a teenager.

He flailed regardless.

“You don’t have to let me if you don’t want to,” Wei Changze said, but he was pouting. “I guess. I just think it’d be hot, that’s all.”

Lan Qiren put his head in his hands.

“You’re bright red,” Wei Changze observed. “Does that mean you’ll do it?”

“I don’t even like Cangse Sanren that way,” Lan Qiren said, voice muffled by his palms. “I mean, I like her, but I don’t – like her. Romantically. At all.”

“And I’m very happy about that,” Wei Changze said soothingly. “As is she, being as she married me and not you. You don’t need to have romantic or even sexual feelings about her, you just need to platonically bang her a few times.”

“…I will do it provided you never refer to it that way ever again.”

“Deal,” Wei Changze said, and grinned, waving his wife in through the door; she bounded in like a lion on the hunt, smelling blood.

“Additionally, we should be clear about what we expect regarding the child,” Lan Qiren said, even though he was already being carted along to the bed by Cangse Sanren’s excessive momentum and Wei Changze’s entirely unnecessary assistance in removing his clothing. “Obviously any child will be yours in every respect, legally and emotionally and otherwise, both of you, but if possible I would still like to see him –”

“Of course,” Cangse Sanren said agreeably, removing his pants. “Whenever you like.”

-

“Something is wrong,” Lan Qiren said firmly.

Yu Ziyuan scowled at him, even as her husband frowned thoughtfully. “Cangse Sanren is a rogue cultivator,” she said acidly. “It is not unusual for rogue cultivators to go a few months without contacting their friends in the cultivation world.”

“We have an agreement that she would come by once every season or else send word. She has not missed a single instance, and yet now she does.”

“Why would she agree to meet so regularly with you? We barely see her once a year, if that,” Yu Ziyuan asked, and Lan Qiren knew her issues with Cangse Sanren were actually issues with Jiang Fengmian, but it still irritated him to be used as a pawn in their troubled marriage.

“If you do not intend to help me search, then just say so,” he said heavily. “I fear that something has happened to her, and I intend to find her; I would like your help, but will proceed without it if need be. If all is well and she just decided not to come, and also not to send word or any other sign, then I will apologize for the inconvenience and repay you any monies expended. But if not…”

“I will help,” Jiang Fengmian said, and Yu Ziyuan looked on the verge of exploding.

“I’ll leave you to sort that out,” Lan Qiren said, shaking out his sleeves and leaving at once. As per their agreement, Cangse Sanren brought Wei Ying to the Cloud Recesses once every season or else sent word explaining her absence – the lack of any word this time was deeply troubling. After all, in the end, despite Cangse Sanren’s relatively humble goals and low-key life, there was always that doom said to be associated with those who left the immortal mountain…

He worried.

He’d planned to tell Cangse Sanren about He Kexin’s death during her present visit, had hoped that Wei Ying’s presence might help lift Lan Zhan’s mood after the loss of his mother and give him some comfort – Wei Ying was Lan Zhan’s favorite person in all the world, bar none, and he had waited so anxiously, if wordlessly, for him to arrive during the month that they expected Cangse Sanren and her family to come. And yet the days ticked by and he didn’t arrive at all…

Lan Qiren worried.

Still, with Jiang Fengmian’s help, and of course the Nie sect’s – Lao Nie hadn’t hesitated to agree, even though unlike Jiang Fengmian he did not have a personal connection to either Cangse Sanren or Wei Changze and was acting wholly on account of his friendship with Lan Qiren – they would be able to cover a great deal of the cultivation world, especially given that Cangse Sanren disliked both Lanling Jin and Qishan Wen and was unlikely to venture into either of their territories.

They would find her.

He hoped that they would find her.

-

“Well, that was a meeting full of revelations,” Lao Nie said, eyes curved into crescents of mirth. “The only thing that would have made it better is if you’d ended your sentence with ‘so fuck off’. You know, so that it would’ve been ‘Because he’s my biological son, so fuck off’.”

“It isn’t anyone else’s business,” Lan Qiren said querulously. “I don’t consider him my son – he’s Wei Changze’s son! His surname is Wei for a reason! The exact mechanics of his conception are private-”

“Are they? Too bad, I’d have liked to hear about it.”

“Lao Nie!”

“What? It’d be hot.”

“Wei Changze said the same thing,” Lan Qiren grumbled. “What is wrong with all you people? Anyway, that was not my point; we can discuss your sexual titillation later. My point is that Wei Ying should not have a shadow cast over his parentage – I should not have had to reveal that fact at any point.”

“You had no choice,” Lao Nie said, not without sympathy. “Given that Wei Changze was a former disciple of the Lotus Pier, Jiang Fengmian had the better claim to custody absent that fact. Never mind that you were Cangse Sanren’s close friend, or that they came to visit you more often; never mind that Yu Ziyuan is to this day only barely able to restrain her jealousy and hatred of the pair of them and would be made miserable by the boy’s presence on the Lotus Pier, and possibly make his life miserable in return; never mind that Jiang Fengmian already grossly favors the boy over his own children, a surefire recipe for disaster…you had to say what you said, Qiren. Wei Ying will be better off at the Cloud Recesses.”

“He’ll be a disaster at the Cloud Recesses,” Lan Qiren said, rubbing his temples. “He’s as free-spirited as his parents were. That’s the only hesitation I have…if it weren’t for all the other things you mentioned, Yu Ziyuan’s jealousy and the favoritism and all that, I would think he’d be better off among the Jiang.”

“He will make a very unique Lan,” Lao Nie acknowledged. “But he’ll be an adopted cousin to your nephews, and they’ll grow up as brothers. A-Zhan will be delighted.”

“Yes,” Lan Qiren said, acknowledging the point. At least there was that. “Yes, he will.”

“Maybe I’ll have a talk with Jiang Fengmian,” Lao Nie said, more to himself than Lan Qiren. “That poor Jiang boy, no one deserves to grow up with a real-life person being ‘another person’s child’. Perhaps I’ll see about inviting the boy over to the Unclean Realm more often. A-Sang could use a playmate…”

-

“You’re weird for a Lan,” Jiang Cheng said.

“That’s because I’m not a Lan,” Wei Wuxian laughed. “I’m a Wei! Lan Zhan’s a Lan, Xichen-da-ge is a Lan, but I’m not. Don’t let the white robes mislead you.”

Jiang Cheng coughed. “That’s not – what I meant.”

Wei Wuxian blinked at him.

“Well,” Jiang Cheng said, abruptly looking extremely awkward. “Your father’s a Lan, isn’t he? Teacher Lan.”

“Oh, that! No, he’s not. Easy mistake to make,” Wei Wuxian assured him. “Lots of people think that, what with me knowing the Lan sect rules backwards and forwards and upside down – mostly so that I can haggle my punishments down when I break them, that's how I learn them best – but actually I’m Wei Changze’s son.”

Jiang Cheng’s face was red. “But…my dad said…”

“He helped,” Wei Wuxian conceded, tapping his nose meaningfully. “That’s why I’m so pretty! But Wei Changze was the one that wanted me, Wei Changze’s the one who gave me his surname; it’s his grave I sweep during Qingming. If you like, you can think of me as having been adopted into the Wei family; that’s common enough, isn’t it?”

“I guess so,” Jiang Cheng said, blinking. And then he said, sounding doubtful, “Do you really know all those rules?”

“All of them! You have no idea how much trouble you can make with a good set of rules.” Wei Wuxian grinned. “Want to see?”

“I – can we?”

“No,” Nie Mingjue said, stepping into the room. He looked tired, as always, but Wei Wuxian thought that there was never a time when he didn’t, certainly ever since he became sect leader too early. Lan Xichen was always worrying about him, and Lan Qiren, too, and since they were worried, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had figured they might as well get in on the action. “Not in the Unclean Realm you can’t. Save it for the Lotus Pier, since the Cloud Recesses are too wise to you now.”

“No one is truly wise to my wicked ways,” Wei Wuxian boasted, and Nie Huaisang poked his head out from behind Nie Mingjue’s back and waved – he’d been dragged away to saber training, leaving Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng to try to make friends without him. Without Lan Wangji, too, which was even more unfair; how was Wei Wuxian supposed to represent the gentle snow and wild wind without his other half?

Stupid seclusion. Wei Wuxian was with his uncle in disliking it even when it was necessary.

Though Jiang Cheng was kind of cool…

-

“This is,” Lan Qiren informed Cangse Sanren’s memorial tablet, “entirely your fault.”

Despite her son’s newfound demonic cultivation skills – or his taste for revenge: he had taken the burning of the Cloud Recesses very personally, and the attack on the Lotus Pier, and so on his best friend Jiang Cheng, very nearly as badly, and that, somehow, had inspired him in new and even more uncontrolled ways – there was no response from the grave.

And yet, somehow, Lan Qiren suspected that he could hear her laughing at him.

[raindancer2004]

Headcanon - Dating Jane

Warnings: Fluff

You meet Jane at an evening Art class at the community college

Jane’s throat burned the moment you entered the room; the moment she caught your alluring scent she wanted to drain you dry and felt her self-control waver a little bit

Everything changed though the second Y/C eyes met her brown eyes (she’s wearing lenses) a soft gasp leaving her lips as the realisation hit her, you were her mate

She hated the fact that after waiting a millennium to meet her mate, Fate had given her a human for a mate

Jane hates humans due to her past but tolerates them when it suits her, like when she takes courses to keep busy in her down time  

She refused to get to know you, scowling at you as you neared the empty desk by hers

You see the scowl on her face and leave an empty desk between the two of you

You felt a little drawn to her after your eyes had met but had no idea why

You sneaked glances over to her desk to look at her and her work, she was a talented drawer

She would see you glancing at her due to her heightened peripheral vision

She would sneak the occasional look at you too, admiring your artwork also

Two weeks after you first ‘met’ Jane your tutor paired you with her for a group Art project – Paint someone or something you admire. You can use any style or technique you wanted as long as you had prep work as well as your final piece

Jane both hated and liked being paired with you for the project, you on the other hand were a nervous wreck as you were pretty sure she hated you, you just didn’t know why

Jane suggested painting her ‘Uncle Marcus’ as someone she admired as he had lost his wife but was still able to raise his ‘son’ Demetri alone whilst holding his position in the ‘Italian Government’ You agree because he sounds like a great guy and you can’t think of another idea

Marcus felt very honoured to find that Jane admired him and was looking forward to seeing this ‘someone’ that Jane cleared liked but wouldn’t admit to it

You found the more the time you spent with Jane, the easier she became to talk to, although she still had her walls up

Despite this you found yourself falling for Jane, she was beautiful, talented and funny; not to mention you loved her smile (the rare occasions you saw it)

Jane didn’t want your first date to feel like a first date so she invited you to accompany her to the Art Gallery “It may help with inspiration for our project” She gives you as a reason and you feel your heart skip a beat at getting to spend a whole day with her

Once the ‘date’ is over you ask to the movies the following weekend and she accepts with a small smile but she feels all warm inside knowing you want to spend time with her

You notice her skin is cold and firm to touch when you reach to hold her hand during the movie and although she tenses and waits for you to reject her, to her surprise you don’t you just look at her and smile

Jane decided that night she would tell you her secret and if you took that news ok, she would tell you that the two of you were mates

“I knew there was something special about you the moment I saw you” You smile at her and you chuckle at the shocked expression on her face. She didn’t expect you to take the news of her being a vampire as well as you did, let alone call her special.

She told you all about vampires and their mates and how you were hers and that she wanted to spend forever with you, although she made it clear that she wanted you turned sooner rather than later

Once she told you a little of her and Alec’s past; their history with humans, you suddenly understood her initial reaction to you in the Art Class and her changing moods with you depending on the day she’s had or how she was feeling

Sulpicia took a liking to you the moment she saw you “Ah my beautiful child” She cupped your face in her hands softly “You and Jane will be very happy together”

Sulpicia thought of you as a daughter, knowing that Aro thought of Jane as a daughter

Jane prided herself on her self-control, although Demetri’s was better but she put that down to his gift and the fact he spent more time around humans than the rest of the guards

Jane calls you sweetie as a term of endearment, you call her hunny in return

The two of you spoke about you becoming immortal and you agreed to be turned as soon possible…but on one condition…you both got to travel to New York for Christmas one year to shop and see the sights, once you had gotten through your newborn phase

Jane agreed instantly, “It’s the least I can do, seeing as you have accepted me for who I am and agreed to be changed soon”

Jane also liked the idea of Christmas in New York as it meant no exposure risk and neither of you would feel the cold

She then went on to explain that when it came to you her self-control waivered sometimes, which you understood and apologised for “Don’t apologise sweetie, it isn’t your fault. I love you too much to risk harming you so I’m asking someone I trust to change you on my behalf” “You love me?” “What? No.” You look at her an eyebrow raised and she looked down at her shoes and mumbled “Maybe.” You chuckled a little “I love you too hunny” You kiss her cheek and she smiles wide

She asked Demetri to turn you just as Alec had asked him to turn his mate six months before

Demetri agreed and even offered to train her privately as he did Alec’s mate, Jane and his own mate being the only other vampires in the training room

You noticed Felix was sulking around Jane and you by extension “What’s up Fe?” “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that the twins don’t trust me to turn their mates” He glared at the two of you “What’s so damn special about Demetri?” He grumbled

“I think of Demetri as a big brother and being that he turned Alec’s mate, I thought it may be nice for Y/N to have the same sire” Jane replied and Felix continued to glare at you both and mumbled under his breath “I wouldn’t want to be the sire to your little mate anyway” Jane let that comment go given that he was clearly upset with her

A month after you’re turned you and Alec’s mate run into the library smiling wide, a mischievous look in your eyes “Happy Father’s Day Dad” You both hand Demetri a Father’s Day card that says ‘The World’s Best Dad.’ Felix doubles over laughing as Demetri smiles at you both “Thank you girls” His chest puffing out with pride at his ‘little creations’ as he affectionately refers to you both as you’re both a lot younger than him

Jane and you aren’t able to have children and as Jane said before: she’s not really mum material so adopting a child won’t work. You agreed with her as you don’t feel very maternal either

You both return from a shopping trip a few days later with your ‘fur babies’ having purchased two kittens; Mittens who was grey with white paws and Buttons who was grey with white spots on his back

“Hey dad, meet your ‘fur grandbabies’” You tell Demetri smiling and his heart melts a little “Look darling, I have ‘fur grandbabies” He says proudly to his mate who smiles lovingly back at him “Technically, they’re yours too as you’re his mate” You tell her with a smile, one she returns before replying “We’re very happy for you both”

You and Jane then proudly show your ‘fur babies’ off to the Kings, Alec, Felix and their mates

Jane may not have liked you when you first met but she is absolutely head over heels in love with you and is happy knowing she gets to spend forever by your side

[thegoldenheiress]

Hope and Marcel are BROTHER AND SISTER as far as I’m concerned.  This depends on the Marcel if I’m writing with them but if I’m writing with someone that isn’t a Marcel?  They are siblings.  It is complicated on all fronts from the history that Marcel dealt with at the hands of her family and the fact they aren’t close in age.  THE MIKAELSON FAMILY WAS NOT KIND TO MARCEL IN CANON.  I’m going off canon material here and not the interoperation of Klaus and Marcel muses.   This is just so I am not god-molding a relationship.  I adapt for characters and what they see so if Rebekah is in a relationship with Marcel? That is noted.  If Klaus is kinder / nicer to Marcel than the show that is noted.  If a Marcel wants to have them cut sibling contact completely that is noted as well. The only real time that things aren’t noted is if your muse is not directly related to Marcel / the mikaelson family and this headcanon would be default unless otherwise talked about.

Marcel saved her when she was seven years old.  This was the first real memory she has of him.  He was this kind soul that told her “Close your eyes and sing.” 

She later uses that line with her own sired friend Henry  ( Read up on my version of what Henry was to Hope because to me he was a friend.  He wasn’t just some guy that bought his blood ).

Marcel stayed in contact with Hope as far as we could guess even after the Hollow broke her family apart.  

Hope finds out that they are related by adoption through reading her father’s journals as it never was outright stated that Marcel / Klaus / Hayley told her.

Hope doesn’t know the extent of what happened between her family and Marcel.  Her family write in journals and things but they all are one sided and as it has been shown Klaus will condemn people for the smallest of crimes.

Hope asked Marcel if it was OKAY for her to consider him her brother.  His answer was yes ( subject to change on a Marcel ).  She never asks deep questions about his relationship with their dad.  Whatever he shared or she knows is from journals and word of mouth

Hope is LOYAL to both sides of her family.  To her MARCEL IS A MIKAELSON or an honorary Mikaelson in her mind. This means if you fuck with him there is a chance that if she catches wind of it there is going to be an issue.  While Marcel has made it clear on the show he is glad that he isn’t a Mikaelson?  Hope sees him as family and thus shoves him in that category in her head but will NEVER tell him that to her he is a Mikaelson because it feels like a sore spot.

Who Hope is most loyal to will always be HER MOTHER in my canon where Klaus still cut contact (subject to change with the Klaus).  So in a fight of MIKAELSON VS MARCEL?  She is going to side with her mother and stay the fuck out of it.  She doesn’t like being in the middle of the mess that started before her.  She can see both sides      ( Or she will try to see both sides but the Mikaelson family is YIKES at times and she knows it ).

Hope is also a CHILD in the eyes of everyone so if they put her in the middle of it ( like how divorced parents do often) it would be crappy all around.

Hope knows that she was treated better in life than Marcel was by this family.  Knows that she never had to feel left out 100% from ALWAYS AND FOREVER.  That this family will ALWAYS have her back even if she is in the wrong because that is how they are.

Marcel is the only one that can understand the damage that her father can do to his children.  He is the only one that can understand a fraction of what it is like to be his child.  While Klaus never fully treated him like a son in canon or anything.  Anyways, Marcel might not understand everything he can sure try.

Hope is KLAUS MIKAELSON’S HEIR.  She is the one that everyone thinks about when they think of his child. She has the money of her father,  the legacy,  the power,  etc.  She is not on the same level as Marcel where she should be below him as the SECOND child?  She really isn’t in that family. Marcel has always been second rate and Hope knows it and hates it inside.  

Hope is insecure about her relationship with him.  Constantly tip toes around lines and isn’t sure of how steady and strong it is. She often wonders if dad comes back will she be shoved to the side or will she turn into one of them and push her brother aside. This doesn’t make sense when you think about how Hope knows that she is Klaus Mikaelson’s everything but at the same time it does. She constantly worries of not being enough for people and that includes her father.

Marcel is OLDER than her by a hell of a lot meaning that their relationship is a mix of sibling and parent.  When Klaus left and stopped talking to her it is likely that she looked for a father in Marcel which isn’t fair to Marcel but it happened.  She called him weekly like her mother,   looking for praise and love.  He gave her what her father didn’t show when he cut contact when she was 10/11 years old.

Hope has great views on adoption.  She believes it is an amazing thing and does believe that ADOPTION IS FAMILY because while Legacies wants us to believe she struggles with that idea she doesn’t for me.  “A crew is not a family.” didn’t happen here.  She saw the relationship Landon and Rafael had and respected it because in a lot of ways it is the same as her relationship with Marcel.

[thesnowfelled-a]

Hope and Marcel are BROTHER AND SISTER as far as I’m concerned.  This depends on the Marcel if I’m writing with them but if I’m writing with someone that isn’t a Marcel?  They are siblings.  It is complicated on all fronts from the history that Marcel dealt with at the hands of her family and the fact they aren’t close in age.  THE MIKAELSON FAMILY WAS NOT KIND TO MARCEL IN CANON.  I’m going off canon material here and not the interoperation of Klaus and Marcel muses.  This is just so I am not god-molding a relationship.  I adapt for characters and what they see so if Rebekah is in a relationship with Marcel? That is noted.�� If Klaus is kinder / nicer to Marcel than the show that is noted.  If a Marcel wants to have them cut sibling contact completely that is noted as well. The only real time that things aren’t noted is if your muse is not directly related to Marcel / the mikaelson family and this headcanon would be default unless otherwise talked about.

Marcel saved her when she was seven years old.  This was the first real memory she has of him.  He was this kind soul that told her “Close your eyes and sing.”  

She later uses that line with her own sired friend Henry  ( Read up on my version of what Henry was to Hope because to me he was a friend.  He wasn’t just some guy that bought his blood ).

Marcel stayed in contact with Hope as far as we could guess even after the Hollow broke her family apart.  

Hope finds out that they are related by adoption through reading her father’s journals as it never was outright stated that Marcel / Klaus / Hayley told her.

Hope doesn’t know the extent of what happened between her family and Marcel.  Her family write in journals and things but they all are one sided and as it has been shown Klaus will condemn people for the smallest of crimes.

Hope asked Marcel if it was OKAY for her to consider him her brother.  His answer was yes ( subject to change on a Marcel ).  She never asks deep questions about his relationship with their dad.  Whatever he shared or she knows is from journals and word of mouth

Hope is LOYAL to both sides of her family.  To her MARCEL IS A MIKAELSON or an honorary Mikaelson in her mind. This means if you fuck with him there is a chance that if she catches wind of it there is going to be an issue.  While Marcel has made it clear on the show he is glad that he isn’t a Mikaelson?  Hope sees him as family and thus shoves him in that category in her head but will NEVER tell him that to her he is a Mikaelson because it feels like a sore spot. 

Who Hope is most loyal to will always be HER MOTHER in my canon where Klaus still cut contact (subject to change with the Klaus).  So in a fight of MIKAELSON VS MARCEL?  She is going to side with her mother and stay the fuck out of it.  She doesn’t like being in the middle of the mess that started before her.  She can see both sides      ( Or she will try to see both sides but the Mikaelson family is YIKES at times and she knows it ).

Hope is also a CHILD in the eyes of everyone so if they put her in the middle of it ( like how divorced parents do often) it would be crappy all around.

Hope knows that she was treated better in life than Marcel was by this family.  Knows that she never had to feel left out 100% from ALWAYS AND FOREVER.  That this family will ALWAYS have her back even if she is in the wrong because that is how they are. 

Marcel is the only one that can understand the damage that her father can do to his children.  He is the only one that can understand a fraction of what it is like to be his child.  While Klaus never fully treated him like a son in canon or anything.  Anyways, Marcel might not understand everything he can sure try.

Hope is KLAUS MIKAELSON’S HEIR.  She is the one that everyone thinks about when they think of his child. She has the money of her father,  the legacy,  the power,  etc.  She is not on the same level as Marcel where she should be below him as the SECOND child?  She really isn’t in that family. Marcel has always been second rate and Hope knows it and hates it inside.  

Hope is insecure about her relationship with him.  Constantly tip toes around lines and isn’t sure of how steady and strong it is. She often wonders if dad comes back will she be shoved to the side or will she turn into one of them and push her brother aside. This doesn’t make sense when you think about how Hope knows that she is Klaus Mikaelson’s everything but at the same time it does. She constantly worries of not being enough for people and that includes her father.

Marcel is OLDER than her by a hell of a lot meaning that their relationship is a mix of sibling and parent.  When Klaus left and stopped talking to her it is likely that she looked for a father in Marcel which isn’t fair to Marcel but it happened.  She called him weekly like her mother,  looking for praise and love.  He gave her what her father didn’t show when he cut contact when she was 10/11 years old.

Hope has great views on adoption.  She believes it is an amazing thing and does believe that ADOPTION IS FAMILY because while Legacies wants us to believe she struggles with that idea she doesn’t for me.  “A crew is not a family.” didn’t happen here.  She saw the relationship Landon and Rafael had and respected it because in a lot of ways it is the same as her relationship with Marcel.

[castiel-kline]

cas and balthazar meet again post finale

This one really got away from me, and it got really long. I promise it does answer the prompt but I also made it super plotty for some reason. I hope you don’t mind!

Being taken by the Empty didn’t feel like dying. 

Of course, that’s what was happening to him, but it didn’t feel like that. It felt cold, and painful, and vengeful. Lonely and miserable and laced with glittering knives of regret.

It was his damnation. Not the traditional sense of the word, but true nonetheless. 

But if facing it meant he’d save his family? Save Jack from being subject to the same fate? He’d damn himself to this a thousand times over, without a single shred of hesitation. 

The Empty had him entirely covered in its goo, tendrils snaking under his skin and into his body from every angle. In through the eyes, the nose, snaking down his throat. Under the fingernails, into the ears, scraping through the tattered remnants of his grace and pressing down around his true form. 

It was agony. 

Eventually it subsided, and some of the inky tendrils retracted, leaving him gasping for air that neither existed in this realm nor was truly necessary. He collapsed in a heap, the Empty bubbling around him. He spared a glance up, wondering if the Shadow were nearby to gloat before sending them both into slumber. What he saw… well. Unexpected didn’t quite cover it. 

“Jack?” 

“Hmm. Guess again, Castiel.” 

“No.” Don’t you dare look like him.

“Oh, yes. Because it hurts you to look at him, doesn’t it?” The Shadow leaned down, condescension clear as day in its every move. So wrong on Jack’s face that it twisted something deep within him. It stared him down, watching him squirm, mania-painted smirk stretching wider. “Good. I want you to suffer, so that’s what you’re going to do.” 

“I thought you wanted your peace and quiet,” Cas managed, as more tendrils snaked out over his wrists and ankles. Dragging him a little bit further down, completely at the Empty’s mercy. Somehow he suspected that was the point.

The Shadow straightened, looking down Jack’s nose at him. 

“Of course I do,” It said, emulating Jack’s earnestness. Liar. “But I can’t!”

“What?”

“Wonderboy-” the Shadow gesticulated wildly in the direction of its facsimile body “-woke everybody up when he exploded all over me. So I don’t get to sleep, no, and if I don’t get to sleep then you definitely don’t get to sleep. None at all.” 

Quicker than a blink, the Shadow had fisted Castiel’s collar in its hands, bringing their faces inches apart. 

“At least,” It whispered, eyes wild with an energy Jack had never, and would never, possess. “I get to make you suffer like you’ve made me suffer. So I want you to look at this face, Castiel. Look at it, and know that it’s contorted in tears right now because Papa Bear abandoned him.” 

The Shadow threw him down, the goo swallowing him right back up. Submerged in the dark, he scarcely felt its weight. He was too busy drowning in a fresh cascade of guilt.

It yanked him back up, tendrils leaving him suspended in the middle of nothing. Some of them twisted at his feathers, pulling them just enough to be excruciating but not enough to rip them free. He screamed.

“Be quiet!” The Empty released him, and Cas fell back down, every fibre of his being crying out in pain.

The Shadow cackled, everything about it from the pitch to the cadence to the intention screaming wrong, wrong, wrong.

“You’re never going to regret this, are you?”

Cas glared at it, mustering up as much defiance as he could. 

“No,” he croaked. “Because saving my family? That’s worth dying a thousand deaths.”

The Shadow doubled over laughing again. Then, quick as a blink, kicked him across the face, sending him reeling backwards.

“‘Die a thousand deaths’? Please. You’re pathetic, you know that?”

Castiel pushed himself back up, following the Shadow’s pacing with his eyes. It walked with one arm tucked behind its back, the other gesticulating as it spoke.

“Death isn’t going to be enough for you, hmm. Oh, you know what you’ve never been able to take?” It spun back around, grinning down at him. “You can’t stand seeing the pain you’ve caused. And since you can’t see what’s left of your precious little family- not that they even care that you died, by the way- how would you feel about seeing the angels again?”

No. He must have looked visibly afraid, because the Shadow only smiled wider. 

“Not so pleasant a thought, hmm? Seeing as you killed most of them.” It laughed again, clapping its hands in an expression of glee that would have been endearing coming from Jack, but now simply served to be disturbing. “Oh, yes. It’ll be just like throwing a scrap of meat to a pack of starving dogs.”

Cas shook his head, but the Empty pressed on. It waved its hand, and Castiel was thrown some immeasurable distance away. He pushed himself to a sitting position, and watched in horror as the ground bubbled around him, and his brothers and sisters began to crawl their way out.

He recognized them, of course, because he’d taken care to never forget a single name. He saw Hael first, then Bartholomew, then Jonah and Efram and Ambriel and Samandriel. He saw Raphael, Uriel, Anna, Jophiel. He scrambled to his feet, unable to do anything but watch and wait for their wrath to undoubtedly descend upon him. 

Someone grabbed him from behind and pulled, running and dragging Castiel with them. He didn’t fight it, figuring that whoever had him was going to inflict a world of pain and there wasn’t a thing to do but accept it. They’d gone a fair distance, if there was such a thing as distance in nothing, before they stopped and Cas turned to face who had taken him. 

“Balthazar?” His voice came out strangled, as scarcely more than a whisper. 

“Cas,” Balthazar said, staring at him with something unreadable in his eyes. “Your wings…”

“Balthazar,” Cas repeated, finding himself unable to say anything else, mind swirling in an inescapable vortex of grief and guilt and pain. “I’m sorry, my friend. I’m so sorry.”

“What, for killing me? You weren’t yourself.”

“I was. That’s the problem.”

Balthazar just shook his head. “It’s going to take more than a stab in the back to get rid of me. You do know that, right?”

“If we weren’t already dead I’d offer you my blade to kill me. I deserve nothing more.”

“Castiel.” Cas forced himself to meet Balthazar’s eyes directly. “I know you, and so I forgive you. As I’ve told you before- nothing’s changed.”

Cas smiled bitterly. “Except me.”

“What happened to you?” Balthazar’s fingers traced the air where Castiel’s wings lay mangled and twisted in another dimension. “You look like you’ve been clawed apart by feral house cats.”

“I destroyed everything, Balthazar. So many times.” And he felt like he was being crushed under the weight of all his mistakes. Perhaps this was the torture the Empty preferred for him- giving him back a lost friend, giving him forgiveness- and then ripping it away again. Surely even someone as loyal as Balthazar wouldn’t want to associate with him after learning of the things he’d done.

“You, Cassie? I’ve only ever known you to do what’s right.”

“How can you say that when you saw me make one of my biggest mistakes? When I killed you because of it?”

Balthazar scoffed. “Mistake? Cas, you were trying to stop our control freak of an older brother from letting the other ones out to destroy the world. What about that is a mistake? Sure, Crowley was a bit of a snake, but come on. It can’t have been so long that you’ve forgotten your good intentions.”

Cas didn’t say a word, and Balthazar narrowed his eyes. “How long has it been, Cas?”

Cas sighed. “Nine years.”

“Nine years.” Balthazar’s eyebrows had shot all the way up. “Wow. Not long at all. So what could… no. Tell me you weren’t.”

Castiel frowned. “Weren’t what?”

“Weren’t still kissing the Winchesters’ asses for the whole nine years.”

“They’re my friends, Balthazar.”

“Oh, really?” Balthazar crossed his arms. “If they’re your friends, why did they treat you like one of the guns they keep in the trunk of their wretched car?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Isn’t it, Cas?” Balthazar sighed, backing down a little. Nine years of death wouldn’t stop them from bickering, it seemed, though he did put a hand on Cas’ shoulder. An uncharacteristic attempt to show solidarity through the sarcasm.

“Look,” Balthazar continued. “What you do is your business, but… just tell me there was something good in those years. That it wasn’t just you running around trying to prove yourself to them.”

There was something, in fact, something he’d never expected. Something beautiful.

“I had a son,” he admitted. He’d often wondered what Jack would be like meeting angels that weren’t hell-bent on killing him. He’d imagined Jack meeting Balthazar, or Hannah, or Rachel or Samandriel, but it would never come to fruition. The best he would get was telling them about him, assuming he would be able to escape being choked and stretched and drowned by the depths of the Empty for all eternity.

“Why, Cassie, I’m impressed,” Balthazar said wryly. Oh no. Before Cas could interject and explain, Balthazar continued. “Looks like you really did get that stick out of your ass. And you put it right up-”

“Balthazar! He’s not mine, not like that. He chose me, and his mother was a friend. That’s all.”

Balthazar seemed to enjoy how flustered he was, but his tone was serious. “You adopted a human child?”

“No, he’s a nephilim.”

“Ah,” Balthazar said. “So they changed the rules regarding them in the past nine years, then?”

“No,” Cas said again, getting frustrated. He’d forgotten how much Balthazar loved to hear himself speak. Even if he had missed it, it was still mildly insufferable.

“Well, you rebel Cas, you. But, ah- who was the sire?”

Cas winced. “Lucifer.”

“Oh, my. That is unfortunate.”

“Yeah. Jack’s nothing like him, though. He’s… he’s very much like his mother. And I like to think he’s a little bit like me, too.”

Balthazar looked at him, somehow still reading him like a book after all this time.

“You spoil the poor child, don’t you?”

“I most certainly do not,” Cas huffed.

“Oh, yes you do. You’ve always been soft, but now you’re practically a down pillow.”

Cas’ smile was sadder, again. “I told you I’ve changed.”

“Maybe so. But we haven’t.”

“Thank you.”

Balthazar smiled. “I do have one question though, Cas.”

“Of course.”

“How did you die?”

Well. He supposed it would have had to be asked eventually. Unfortunately his hesitation gave Balthazar another opportunity to talk over him.

“Please don’t tell me it was for the Winchesters.”

“I love them.”

Balthazar rolled his eyes. “Of course you do. And unfortunately I love that about you. Well, go on. Tell me a story.”

Cas shrugged. “I made a deal with the Empty. My life for Jack’s, which- it wasn’t even a question. It said that when I was finally happy, it would take me.”

Balthazar frowned. “What did you in?”

“You know, I’m not really sure. But I managed to save Dean, and that’s all that matters.”

“Oh, Cas,” Balthazar muttered, sounding deeply sad. “Well, at least you were clearly a better father than our dear old absent God. That much is clear.”

Cas’ heart sank. He couldn’t not tell him, though he didn’t necessarily want to break the news.

“Balthazar.”

“What?”

“Um. A lot has happened since I’ve last seen you, and there’s a lot you need to know, but God- God was never on our side.”

--------

They walked aimlessly through the Empty, keeping aware for signs of their siblings or the Shadow, but oddly finding none.

“Well then,” Balthazar said, flippant as ever. Cas was nearly sure he was deflecting.

“That’s all you have to say? You’re not angry?”

“Nope.” Forced cheerfulness. “Never liked him anyway. Frankly, I’m surprised you even met the man.”

Cas paused and stopped moving, feeling something tugging at his grace.

“Cas, what’s wrong? Are you alright?” Balthazar had stopped too, hovering closer. 

A pocket of the nothingness in front of them seemed to pull itself inward, caving in like a black hole and then cracking open just a bit. Was this what it looked like when someone died and came to the Empty?

Hopefully not, because the distortion cleared and Jack was standing there. And it was painfully, obviously Jack, clearly indicated by everything from his posture to the grace Cas could feel reaching for his own.

Balthazar stiffened, preparing for a fight, but the minute Jack caught sight of Castiel the angel found himself with an armful of nephilim. He held on tight, feeling Jack trembling slightly.

Having connected the dots, Balthazar caught his eye over Jack’s shoulder and mouthed “down pillow.” Cas shook his head slightly, but turned his attention back to his son.

“Jack? Are you-”

“I’m getting you out, Cas,” Jack said, pulling back. “We’re both getting out of here.”

Balthazar’s stricken expression tugged at Cas’ heart.

“Just me?” Cas asked.

Jack’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“The other angels are awake, Jack. Can you…”

“I… maybe. But, Cas, I don’t… I don’t know them. Why…”

“It’s alright if you can’t,” Cas assured. “But if we can help them somehow, be that bringing them back or putting them to sleep… I need to try to make things right.”

Jack nodded. “I’ll try to help.”

Cas smiled at him, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. “Thank you. And thank you for coming to get me.”

“Of course. I missed you,” Jack said, eyes wide. Cas felt something else inside him twisting.

Balthazar cleared his throat, and Cas gently turned Jack around to face the third member of their party.

“Jack, this is Balthazar. He’s a good friend.”

Jack and Balthazar looked at each other, Jack frowning and Balthazar smirking in a horribly misguided attempt to be friendly. The silence stretched on, utterly deafening. Jack broke it first.

“I… I met an alternate universe version of you that was not very nice.”

Balthazar didn’t miss a beat.

“Well, you know what they say. Don’t judge an angel by their alternate universe counterparts, right?”

That got a bit of a smile out of Jack, though he was still wary. Cas couldn’t blame him, so he kept in contact to keep him at ease.

“We need to find the Shadow. Make an arrangement so that we can take a few angels with us and the Empty goes back to peace and quiet,” Jack said. The self-assuredness was clearly a front, but somehow Cas felt as if he’d have time to help Jack through it. 

“Okay,” he said, nodding at Jack. Jack nodded back, and the three of them started walking. Into what, they didn’t know. 

But Castiel had the strangest feeling that it was all going to turn out alright.

[jjs-other-other-blog]

Fanfic idea season 13 au (long post)

I never wrote anything about this but I had this story idea around the time Jack was first introduced to the show with the basic concept of "fighting fire with fire". Heaven is scared of Jack because nephilim are dangerous and this one even more so: He is half archangel and Lucifer's son. How do you fight someone like that when heaven itself has so little power left? You find others to fight for you and who better than evenly matched archangel nephilim!

So they send some expandable low-ranking angel or two back in time to round up Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, tell them some lie about how the fate of heaven and earth is at stake etc etc, convince them to sire nephilim of their own, take their children to train them and leave the mothers for dead. They are being fed heaven's propaganda from day 1, trained to do one thing and one thing only: Kill Jack Kline.

Except the plan doesn't work out completely. Gabriel never really trusted his siblings and finds out something fishy is going on, so he hides his own child somewhere safe and suddenly heaven is only in possession of two superpowered toddlers and the third is out there posing another potential threat.

Meanwhile season 13 plays out as canon until Cas gets back, but at some point they're attacked by this incredibly powerful thing, about Jack's age it seems. They're able to fend him off, but he threatens to be back and that Jack's days are numbered, you know the drill. They start to slowly uncover this conspiracy and every now and then run into either Raphael's or Michael's son.

At some point this girl shows up at the bunker who had no knowledge of the supernatural or anything that's been going on until some psycho broke into her home, killed her (adoptive) parents by burning their fucking eyes out, kidnapped her little brother and attempted to murder her as well. Another dude showed up though, teleported her halfway across the country, told her to find Castiel and trust no-one else. They come to the conclusion that her brother is the lost 4th archangel nephilim, Gabriel's son, and that's why they took him.

So now team free will 2.0 + that girl (who has eldest daughter syndrome and refuses to stay out of it) not only need to defend themselves against Mike and Raph Junior, they're also on a rescue mission. The team dynamic get's thrown a bit out of balance by the new addition to the team and (found) family drama ensues, but in a weird way it also helps with the rocky relationship between Dean and Jack, because there's a clear parallel between Dean and the new girl who immediately adopted Jack as her little brother which in turn helps Dean think of Jack as more than Satan's spawn who got Cas killed.

Meanwhile the other two nephilim who have only recently been allowed to leave heaven for their mission also discover new things about earth, the angels and themselves and soon start fighting about it. One of them starts to doubt their mission while the other only becomes more and more convinced of it. The biggest discussion between them is held on the topic of Gabriel's son. Not only is he acting like a complete brat, he's disobedient in training and shows no signs of any heavenly powers. Mike Jr insists they need to train him more, give him harder tasks, break his will and then eventually the powers will surface, he can't suppress them forever. Raph Jr thinks he needs time, a gentle hand to guide him and someone who explains the importance of what they're doing.

It all comes to a climax when Raph Jr leads a small group of angels against team free will. The fight goes well for tfw, but Jack get's knocked out while Sam, Dean and Cas are still busy fighting. Knowing it won't make much of a difference, but also incapable of doing nothing, new girl jumps between unconscious Jack and an approaching angel. He raises his blade, she screams, there's a blinding white light and the angel is burned to ashes.

The only survivor of the attack on heaven's side is Raph Jr who retreats and comes to the same conclusion as team free will: The angels grabbed the wrong child. Gabriel never had a son, he had a daughter and her brother is completely useless to the angels. He can't tell anyone about that though or the boy who he genuinely likes will surely die. Which is why he starts working against heaven. He still doesn't know what to think about Jack, but he knows this other boy is innocent and needs to be returned to his remaining family.

I never figured out how exactly the final showdown of this story would play out (feel free to add on), but Raph Jr smuggles the kid out of heaven and back to team free will and they all team up to end this once and for all.

[pencilofawesomeness]

I have Opinions on the Post-War Todoroki Drama/Endeavor Redemption Prospect (post #302)

Okay, so for a long time, I have seen these debates regarding Endeavor, and now that it is being officially Addressed, a lot of tea is getting spilt over the matter. I find it fascinating, on something of a social level. I have my two-cents on the matter, just as everyone does, and two-cents are two-cents, and everyone’s thoughts are valid. This community has come to blows over the topic before, so I just wanted to get that out of the way.

It simultaneously surprises me and doesn’t surprise me that a lot of people hate the idea of Endeavor getting redeemed. He was a terrible guy and a worse father, and YES, he was abusive. However, fandoms have rallied behind morally messed up characters before, MHA included, so I am intrigued by the difference. Likely, it is because he is a parent, and the victim of his debauchery is primarily our favorite Shoto. When kids are involved, it is a natural tendency to start labelling the adult as irredeemable. Parents are held to a higher standard, and they should be. But from a character aspect, why is Endeavor the butt of all the undying hatred? Especially considering that Endeavor is not the worst parent figure in the show.

That’s right. I said it.

Something I noticed about MHA, rather early on, is that Horikoshi absolutely killed it with the foils. So many characters foil one another, while maintaining enriching characterization on their own, and it’s fantastic. Mentorship and parenthood is also a key theme of this show, which I also really enjoyed. Early on, there was something of a three way foil established, between All Might, Endeavor, and All for One.

All Might and Midoriya, in contrast to AfO and Tomura, is an obvious foil, as both All Might and AfO are clearly trying to establish a legacy, with the inheritance of their power or dominion. However, Endeavor is doing the same, hoping to get a child that can take his legacy and make it better. He’s doing the exact same thing as All Might, except with harsh means and selfish reasons, and the same thing as AfO, except with good intentions and a lack of self-awareness.

It’s something of a ‘good, neutral, evil’ spectrum, except as Horikoshi does rather brilliant, all three examples are gray. All Might loves Midoriya and wants him to thrive, but he also pushes the burdening concept of being the one solely responsible for the order of society into his lap. All for One allows Tomura to think for himself and choose his path, however, it was all just a semblance of choice and All for One is not against body-napping his adopted ‘son’ (who he Definitely, Purposefully, emotionally manipulated to the upmost) and belittling him. Endeavor tried to make sure his kids were healthy and safe, but he was so focused on bringing up one of them as a hero in his stead, he forgot how to take their emotions and desires into account, having sired them with wrong intentions. 

All Might has already been shown as learning his faults and doing better to foster teamwork in the Class 1-A students and Midoriya. All for One already showed his true colors as not really caring about Tomura’s progression, but rather just his own legacy. It’s Endeavor’s turn. He’s already better than AfO, morally speaking, because his abuse was out of neglect and denseness, not on purpose. And, he’s currently seeing his faults and dwelling on them, acknowledging his actions as wrong. This is big.

Yes, Endeavor was a terrible person, and no, his family is not obligated to love him, but he is allowed redemption. In fact, Endeavor has another foil, and—hot take incoming—

If Endeavor doesn’t ‘deserve’ a redemption arc, then neither did Bakugo.

Bakugo was a lot like early-Endeavor. He was obsessed with strength and heroes, and he thought that associating with ‘weakness’ would make him weak as well. He was a kid, yes, but he was abusive and a bully for no “good reason,” even telling Midoriya in no uncertain terms to kill himself. There was no cause other than Bakugo’s own insecurity. He was a horrible person for the sake of it, and rough though his mother was, he had no excuse. It originated in him and the people he associated himself with, though it was only allowed to thrive in his home, and in their society. He was, objectively speaking, a terrible person.

However, we see that Bakugo has been trying to improve. He’s still rough around the edges, but he’s learning. This is widely accepted as good, learning and self-improvement is. Midoriya is not obligated to help Bakugo in this journey, and he hasn’t always—Kirishima and other characters have contributed—but Midoriya, being Midoriya, has chosen to give Bakugo another chance, and it’s working. They actually work well together, and due to this second chance, they were able to save each others’ lives.

Endeavor has a similar record: terrible person but with good intentions. And, he’s now starting to learn. He could either follow the same path as Bakugo did, or he could shell up and dig in his heels. Which, it doesn’t look like he’s doing.

Now, Shoto has extended his (hesitant) hand to Endeavor, just as Midoriya did to Bakugo, and Midoriya did to him. This is Shoto’s choice, and he risks getting burned, but he knows firsthand the benefits. In fact, Shoto already helped Endeavor, without doing so explicitly—during the Remedial Training arc. This is the first time he makes a (clear) attempt to do so willingly. Redemption doesn’t have to be a group effort, but it always goes smoother when it is.

There’s so many other aspects I can talk about, like Dabi vs Endeavor, and Hawks and Dabi, and how the Todorokis all claimed some part of blame in 302, but the main thing I wanted to address was the prospect of whether Endeavor should or shouldn’t be redeemed. Obviously, this is a show, and this kind of discourse is to be expected—and encouraged—but it’s interesting that we even debate shoulds and shouldn’ts when every single character is human, and everyone has a chance at redemption. It’s only about whether or not they themselves accept it and work towards it. It doesn’t matter if the person is a child or adult. Everyone can change, for good or for better. It doesn’t wipe away the past, and it doesn’t guarantee the future, and it’s full of uncertainties. And I’m really hyped to see how that theme is addressed and plays out in MHA. 

[hayleyb100]

Light My Way, Part 10

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 - Part 8 - Part 9 - Part 10 - Part 11 the end

⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️  -It is a twisted story of Pokemon Sun and Moon, and a crossover of Pokemon SM and SWSH. -It features Hau and Kabu as the main characters. -Extremely angsty. -Everything is headcanon. -It isn’t spoiler-free.

In the cafe, Kabu blankly stared at the tea steaming. During his youth, he would visit the bar to drink liquor at this emotional state, but he now knows that doesn't help to resolve these intense emotions, so he chose tea. But his body and mind even rejected his favorite herb tea.

He was so hurt. Literally crushed to the bottom. Even worse than the time when he was kicked out of the Gym Leader position. People are always silly enough to realize how they are so attached to others only when they were about to lose them. Kabu should have known how scary it is to get attached to someone. It was as if part of his heart was torn away. All the pain in the past was worth nothing compared to now.

Kabu was obviously furious against Hau's so-called dad, but he was upset with Hau as well. He felt as if he was betrayed. He did everything and studied so hard to make sure he could give all the best to him, and then when the biological dad appeared, he turned a cold shoulder against him right away. He knows that love isn't something you give expecting a return, but he felt all his efforts have gone to waste. How could he!

"Oh? Is it not Mr. Kabu, the Gym Leader of Motorstocke? What a pleasant surprise."

A soothing voice rang from behind. Kabu turned back and saw a skinny man who caused quite a stir to Galar. Raihan, who barely talked about his family, introduced this man named Richard as his father. But it was surprising that no one realized that Richard was Raihan's father. Despite some infirm out appearance, he had exactly the same turquoise-colored eyes glowing. 

It rubbed salt against Kabu's painful heart because that man has a blood-related son who shares something in common externally.

"I saw your fantastic match while I was watching Raihan in Champion's Tournament. My apologies, I should have visited you and other Gym Leaders earlier to greet you formally, for taking care of my son well..."

"Oh... No, please... It is alright... You must be busy too."

"Not at all! I am a free man who even has spare time to give medical herbs for tea to the cafe like this."

"........"

Kabu just stared at the teacup. Richard frowned, as some familiar emotions flickered across the Fire Gym Leader's face. He carefully sounded Kabu's feeling out.

"Umm... Your child must be asleep for you to spend some time at the cafe alone this late..."

Kabu looked at the man again in quite a bit of surprise.

"Yes, I have overheard about your darling foster child from Raihan. He was excited to see him too. He said Milo and Nessa were speaking endlessly on how sweet the child was."

"..........." Kabu's face turned yet gloomier. Richard realized that his intuition was right.

"...Did something happen to the child? I may not be a good father myself, but the least I can do is be all ears. It is like they say, the burden in the heart is cut to half if you share."

Kabu thought nothing could help him at the moment since there was nothing he could do to stop Hau leaving, but he wanted to ask someone why Hau had to leave him. Is it because of that one yelling he did?

"Excuse my rudeness for asking you this, but I heard that you were having a cold phase with your son... Am I correct? Please, I don't have anyone else to turn to ask."

Kabu's desperation pierced Richard's heart like a blade. With fatherly instinct, he could feel something is going on between him and the foster child.

"Please go on. I will be of help as much as I can possibly be."

With a tearing mind, Kabu explained what happened with that so-called father. Richard was so disgusted with that despicable and shameless person. How could he repay the favor with mockery and ingratitude when he wasn't even there for his son?

"...I see..." Richard frowned, as Kabu's pain penetrated to his bones.

"So here is the real question. Why do you think Hau is willing to leave? Is it proof that foster or adoptive parents cannot outclass the blood-related no matter how much I try? Your son came back to you after a long time too. Is that just because he is your own?"

Kabu clenched his fists on his knees, restraining his tears.

Richard took a long time to come up with the answer, as his case of dispute with the son was heavily different from Kabu's. The despair of Kabu was real, as he had a huge hurdle between him and the boy called Hau.

After a long silence, Richard started.

"Mr. Kabu... I do not know the weight of your agony completely, but I can tell you several things as a father."

He sadly smiled at Kabu to console him.

"When Raihan was having a silence conflict with me, I thought I will never reconcile with him ever again because it prolonged for such a long time. But he eventually did... And I doubt it that it is due to the bloodline because if it was, he would have come back to me way before that. Raihan confessed that it was not the blood-relation which moved him but the letters I have sent over many years... Trust me, giving birth is not the guaranteed success for parent and child bond. Children need far more beyond that. Family members do not love each other instinctively. It is the time and emotions they share that make them a family."

Kabu still wore the gloomy expression, as he was dubious if he did his best to fill the missing parental love to Hau. Plus, it took that many years for the family to reunite, so those few months didn't seem like much.

Richard wore another of his smiles that exerts Heal Pulse.

"...Mr. Kabu, Raihan must have come back late because he had wonderful friends and other ones who he could love. But you are different... I heard that you took in a child of indescribable pain who is cornered and strayed, and worked seriously to make him better, yes? That must have meant so much to the child. It is not about the time you spent with the child... It is about how and what you did with them. If you have conveyed sincere love, the child would have surely picked it up."

Kabu stared at Richard straight, but now with his eyes glistening with hope. Richard nodded for him.

"One aspect that I regret about my relationship with Raihan is that I wish I could have been braver to go and turned things around. But considering your passionate battle style, you can be different, sire. You are not someone who would sit and wait, are you?"

"......."

Kabu didn't say anything, but something seemed to have unclouded in his mind.

"Well, I should be going... But I do hope what I shared today would be of help..."

Richard gave a light bow and strolled out of the cafe.

___________________________________

"Are you ready to go home?" the so-called dad wore a hideous fake smile at Hau. Hau gave a light nod, but he was devastated inside. All his instincts screamed not to follow.

"WAIT!!" the voice Hau yearned from the bottom of the heart rang from the back.

Hau and his forged dad turned around, and there was Kabu completely covered in sweat. Kabu was perplexed until the last moment whether or not to let Hau go or not because Hau agreed with his dad to follow. But his heart pushed him to the airport.

"Hau, don't! Don't leave! I still have so much I want to give you!"

Little Alolan boy's eyes started to become dewy. The sincere emotions of Kabu overwhelmed his soul. The forged dad frowned immediately.

"Umm, I thought we talked about legal rights. Hau. Come on."

"No! I will not let the poor boy go with a father who doesn't even know how to cherish and appreciate his child! I'm going to take every legal measure to adopt him and raise him as my own, so let him go!"

"Absurd! Hau, don't listen to him. We have an airplane to board."

The forged dad wore an unpleasant expression at Kabu and held Hau's hand even tighter.

The scene rang a bell in Hau.

That day.

When the evil woman dragged him by hand to cold sleep.

If he had shaken off the hand, he wouldn't have-

.......

Hau gripped Kabu's towel. The little hand of the boy slid out of the forged dad's hand.

"Hau?" the dad's face crumbled further in displeasure.

"...Dad, you said... Tutu and Mom would love me to be happy, right?"

"Umm, yeah?"

"Then, I want to stay here."

"What???"

"I'm sorry to say this to Tutu and mom, but the short time I spent in Galar gave me so much more joy than 11 years I had spent in Alola. You said you are trying to take me back to Alola to make sure we stay 'happy'. But... Dad, I am going, to be honest with you... All the patients and secureness Mr. Kabu gave, all the fun Brother Milo and Sister Nessa gave, all the encouragement Brother Hop gave... They are such a bliss to me. The love everyone gave me was so tremendous that I have never felt so alive. They made me feel like... Hau, as a person, not a grandson of Kahuna."

The boy's black pearly eyes glowed with determination. He inhaled deeply again and expressed his mind loud and clear.

"Dad. I'm not going back to Alola. I'm staying right here with everyone."

The forged dad's internal organs twisted in disgust just like how Kabu felt because his plan got wrecked. But he can't just pick the kid up and run to the airplane as if he is kidnapping since he needs to portray a perfect father until his custody is secured. It was his words against him. His backfire of the plan was quite the sight to see. With all his might, he retained the fake grin and said,

"Oh, that's a shame... Alright, you can stay here until you are ready to move in."

With that as the last sentence, He left alone to board the plane.

Hau turned around. Kabu was right there, with bent knees to meet him at his level. 

The Fire Gym Leader opened his arms wide, and Hau ran to get cuddled.

"Oh, Hau... I thought I was going to lose you..."

Tears started to drop on Hau. The warmth conveyed just how much Kabu is truly attached to the little boy. Hau's eyes started to well up too.

"So... Am I allowed to stay with you?"

"Yes, by all means... We can be a family forever."

Kabu squeezed his son closer. Hau beamed with relief. He was finally with the family he has always dreamed of: The one who values and respects him as an individual. He had a surprise for Kabu as well.

"Thank you... Thank you so much for accepting me, 'Makua(Father in Hawaiian)'".

"Yes, Hau... My son."

[a-blue-secret]

CHAPTER XII

BACK TO MASTERLIST

Chapter XI | Chapter XII | Chapter XIII

GENRES: royal au; fantasy au; magic au; friends-to-enemies-to-lovers; king!beomgyu, vizier!taehyun

PAIRING: taegyu

WARNINGS: swearing (Taehyun has the mouth of a sailor smh)

WORD COUNT: 4.8k+

AN: This is a chapter y'all have probably been waiting for! Here, we get to see Taehyun's reaction :)

SUMMARY: Best friends turned enemies, Kang Taehyun has managed to trick Choi Beomgyu into his service, and to rule for a year and a day, until his youngest brother would be old enough to take the throne. Choi Beomgyu has no intention of being obedient however, and tries to thwart Taehyun’s orders at every turn. With a growing amount of distrust and lies within the court, will Taehyun manage to keep the kingdom of Gojongja from falling apart?

Taehyun strode up to Beomgyu’s door. “Hello, Seojung. Can I talk to Beomgyu?”

“The King wishes to talk to no one,” the guard responded. “He is taking no visitors.”

Taehyun sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Tell him it’s his vizier, who really needs to talk to him.”

Still, Seojung shook his head. “He has explicitly expressed he does not want to talk to you,” he said.

Taehyun pursed his lips in frustration. “Fine.” He walked away, annoyed. “Guess I’ll have to employ the military myself…”

As Taehyun disappeared round the corner, Beomgyu cracked the door open and peered outside. “Has he gone?”

“He has, sire.”

“Oh good.” Beomgyu breathed a sigh of relief, and stepped out from behind the door.

“Sire?”

“Yes?” Beomgyu turned to Seojung.

“You know that you will have to talk to Sir Taehyun eventually. As he is your vizier, you are obligated to listen to the advice he gives you.”

Beomgyu rolled his eyes, groaning. “Not you too! That’s what Chan said as well.” He crossed his arms childishly. “What if I don’t want to?”

“You have to. It is your duty.”

“Hmph.” Beomgyu pouted, but didn’t say anything. He sniffed pettily, and retreated back into his room.

.・゜-: ✧ :-

“Oh, Taehyun!”

Taehyun turned around to see Yeonjun jogging up to him. “Hey, Yeonjun. What’s up?”

“You said you trusted me, right?” Yeonjun asked, once he’d reached the vizier.

Taehyun nodded. “Yes. I did.”

“Well, there’s something I wanted to tell you. Could you come to my room?”

Taehyun thought for a moment. “Uhm, sure. Yeah, I have time. Wanna go now?”

Taehyun followed Yeonjun down the halls and into the room the Aruyeonan was staying. He patiently stood in the middle of the room while Yeonjun paced around.

“Take your time, don’t worry,” Taehyun reassured him. As Yeonjun was pacing, the edge of the curtain snaked around his ankle, and he quickly shook it off. Taehyun raised an eyebrow. The Aruyeonan must be really nervous, if he was losing control of his ability. Finally, Yeonjun ran a hand through his hair and sighed, sitting down on the bed.

“I, uh… okay. I’m ready now.” He took a deep breath, and began to speak.

“Even being the son of a lord, I didn’t have the best childhood growing up,” Yeonjun began. “Father was always too busy to take care of me, and Mother was more interested in being part of the social hierarchy in the court. I guess you could say I was... lonely. I was lonely, but… then gained a brother."

Yeonjun smiled a little." Mother never had another child after me. But, a boy from the West came into our court one day, and our clan adopted him. He went through the whole ability-adopting process and everything; I was so excited at the thought of finally having a sibling. Only, the operation went wrong. Instead of having our ability - inanimate object manipulation – he gained a new one. Matter manipulation.”

“Matter manipulation? What’s that?”

“It’s not an actual ability. When they were doing the operation, the ability mutated and he gained something else. He can manipulate an object’s state of matter. Make solid into liquid, gas into solid, et cetera et cetera, while also changing solids. He can make stone into metal, or wood into stone, or metal into wood. Anything to do with an object’s matter, he could manipulate it.”

Yeonjun smiled bitterly. “The operation also went wrong in the fact that he kept his old ability, too. People were shocked and kind of repelled by it, and asked if we still wanted him in our clan. Mother and Father, being the leading family in our clan, had the last say on the matter. I begged and begged them to let him stay. I told them that if we rejected him he’d have nowhere to go, and would die alone. Eventually, they agreed to let him stay as part of our clan. He became my brother, my adorable little brother. For the first time ever, I had a companion. We laughed together, played together, did everything together.” Yeonjun’s eyes glazed over as he reminisced.

“It was… they were the best years of my life. But as time went on, it soon became clear that things were not going… the best for him.”

Taehyun tilted his head. “How do you mean?”

“You’ve probably heard a lot that Aruyeo is the best at being welcoming to all people, regardless of sexuality or gender or race?”

Taehyun nodded. “Duh, everyone knows that. It’s literally a fact.”

“Well throw that ‘fact’ out the window. Because it’s not true at all.”

Taehyun blinked. “Say what?”

“If there’s one thing Aruyeo aren’t that accepting of, it’s Westerners,” Yeonjun explained. “Being a defensive Kingdom, they automatically dislike people not from the Four Kingdoms. The ‘fact’ about them being welcoming is true to some extent, however. They accept different sexualities, and even different Kingdoms, but they just can’t accept foreigners. They just couldn’t accept him. When our parents died at a young age – an assassination, I tell you, even though we couldn’t prove it – we were left to fend for ourselves. I was barely an adult, and had my younger brother to look after too. He was constantly pushed around and bullied, too, which didn’t make life any easier. It broke my heart whenever I noticed a bruise he tried to hide from me, or when I saw him getting called racial slurs, and he’d just hang his head without saying anything.”

“How– how has none of this ever reached other Kingdoms?” Taehyun asked, in disbelief.

“It’s rare any foreigners even come to Aruyeo,” Yeonjun said. “Anyone that does receives the same treatment my brother did.”

Taehyun shook his head. “That’s awful. Couldn’t you do anything?”

“I couldn’t. They were all more powerful members of the court. Now I think about it, it’s a miracle I even managed to convince my parents to let him stay in the clan.”

Yeonjun paused, looking at Taehyun. “But I’m rambling now. Before I tell you the important thing, though, I just want to make sure of something.”

“Okay…?”

“Do you trust me?”

Taehyun looked at Yeonjun, searching within his fox-like eyes. He searched for any hint of underlying intentions, and hint of sinister motives, any malicious intent in his eye. There was none. All he could see was a truthful, hopeful, slightly nervous Yeonjun, staring back at him with his amber eyes. He took a deep breath.

“Yes. Yes, I trust you.”

“Okay, good.” Yeonjun paused. “Hueningkai is my adoptive brother. Hueningkai, the one who made that marble.”

Taehyun nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“He’s the one who was bullied because he was a Westerner, and because he didn’t have a… normal ability.”

Taehyun blinked, and nodded again. “Okay.”

“And he hated being different.”

“Okay.”

“And so, we became more involved in court.”

Taehyun opened his mouth to say ‘okay’ again, but Yeonjun held a finger up. “Please, just listen. Say a word and I might lose my nerve and not tell you.” Taehyun shut his mouth, and gestured for Yeonjun to carry on.

“We became more involved, to try and gain some protection. He… we… Queen Erajin needed informants. She needed people to tell her things. She needed information about things, and being an informant would give us a crazy amount of security, not only financially but status-wise as well, because we’d almost immediately be higher than anyone else in court, basically preventing anyone from bullying him, and me. It was tempting. We- we took on this role. We… we are her informants. We were those people. Taehyun, don’t run away but… we’re her spies.”

Taehyun tripped over a fold in the carpet and almost fell over backwards. “What the- what the fuck.”

“We were Queen Erajin’s spies. But we’re not anymore! Something weird is happening. Just like Scholar Min said. He caught on quicker than I did. She sent us here to find out any dirt about Gojongja, to see if she could corrupt the people’s view of you. I thought nothing of it. I’ve done things like that in other Kingdoms, and even in Aruyeo, many times before. It wasn’t my place to question. When you told me about all that you’re doing to try and help your people, though, it made me hesitate. You’re so good. There’s nothing sinister or bad about the way you rule. And it made me question, ‘Why was she doing this? What does she gain out of this?’ Something is not right, and yours and Beomgyu’s sincere natures help me realise that. Taehyun, please believe me, we’re not her spies anymore.”

Taehyun was shaking. Either from terror or anger, he wasn’t sure."What the fuck."

"A-and also… Hueningkai, he's here. He's the one I sent a letter to, back during the revel. I was telling him that something was off with Queen Erajin, and that day he also came with me to see what I meant. He’s here right now."

"What the fuck."

"Taehyun, please, I – we – are not spies for her anymore. Well, we still are, but we're not going to report back! Please Taehyun, believe me."

Taehyun gripped the chest of drawers tightly, knuckles white. "What the fuck," he whispered, staring at Yeonjun with wide eyes. "You… you're a spy." He shook his head. "I knew there was something off about you."

"Taehyun, please believe me. We're not working for her anymore, something is seriously wrong with the Aruyeonan court and I don't want to be a part of it."

Taehyun didn't seem to hear him. "You… I told you so much. I trusted you so much. I should banish you. I should execute you, accuse you of treason, make sure you never breathe again. What Lord Hyunjin wrote also makes sense now. It's an acronym, albeit a weird one. C, H, O, I… You're a Jeonju Choi, right?"

Yeonjun started. "Hyunjin's been in contact with you?" He licked his lips nervously, face pale. "And yes. Yes I am."

Taehyun laughed ruefully, looking down. He rubbed his eyes, head in hands. "He told me not to trust the Jeonju Chois. I shouldn't trust you Jeonju Chois." Taehyun lifted his eyes up to Yeonjun. "So then why do I still trust you?"

"Yeonjun?" A voice said, and a tall, young boy entered the room from what appeared to be a hole in the wall. Taehyun visibly flinched, gripping the chest of drawers tighter. This must be Hueningkai, he thought. God, he's tall. He could see the Western features prominent in his nose and eyebrows, but other than that he could pass for a normal person from the Four Kingdoms.

"Did you tell the vizier? That we're the good guys now?"

Yeonjun quickly got up and went over to the boy. "Not now, Hueningkai," he said quietly. "Taehyun's still here, and he's in a bit of a shock."

"But, you told him we're good, right? And he said he trusts you."

Yeonjun ran a hand through his hair, anxiously looking at the vizier who was staring at them, eyes unfocused. "I think… I don't know. I think there's only so much trust can do."

"Can I talk to him?" The boy blinked innocent eyes at Yeonjun.

"What? Hueningkai, no! You're basically a stranger, he's not going to–"

"Hello," the boy said, darting past Yeonjun to walk up to Taehyun. The vizier, who was still holding onto the corner of the drawers for dear life, looked up at him.

"My name is Hueningkai," he said. He held out his hand towards Taehyun, as if to shake hands. Taehyun just stared at the outstretched hand, and after a beat Hueningkai dropped it. "I'm the adoptive brother of Yeonjun. You probably don't trust us. That's a good idea, since we literally just admitted we were spies."

Taehyun found his voice long enough to be able to scoff. "Yeah, no shit. I'm not really sure how to process anything right now. I'm contemplating whether to believe you, or throw you into the dungeons."

Hueningkai smiled kindly. "That's understandable. But, I just want you to think about it. If we were truly going to betray you, do you think we'd admit to this? We're putting our lives in your hands. We are doing this because we feel that what Queen Erajin is doing is sinister and slightly scary, and we want to go against that. We are risking our lives here. If word gets out that we have betrayed Her Highness, we'll be executed. We’re spies, after all. We’re trusted with information that ought not to reach anyone else. She’ll have no choice but to kill us. And yet, we're trusting you with the information. Yeonjun really admires you. He really trusts you, too. Please, believe us."

Taehyun gaped at Hueningkai, before quickly closing his mouth and prising his stiff fingers from the wood. "I… this is so much to process. You're… spies?"

Yeonjun was standing helplessly behind Hueningkai, a doomed look on his face. "Please, Taehyun. I trust you."

"I– I don't know what to do," Taehyun said. "It's just so much to process." He staggered to the door, and opened it. "Give me time."

With those words, Taehyun closed the door, and Yeonjun and Hueningkai were left alone in Yeonjun's room. The elder bit his lip. "Kang Taehyun, please trust us. Something is happening in Aruyeo, and I don't like it one bit."

.・゜-: ✧ :-

Taehyun, once he’d reached his room, collapsed into a chair. His hands were shaking. He dragged a hand across his face, still processing what just happened. A knock came from his door.

“Sire, you have–”

“Cancel it!” Taehyun interrupted. “Whatever I have, cancel it!”

“But sire, they–”

“I don’t care! Cancel everything I have today!” Taehyun yelled. Jungwon was silent.

“Very well, sir.”

Taehyun blinked rapidly, sinking further into the velvet. “He was a spy,” he whispered to himself. “No- he is a spy. And he fucking brought a spy friend with him as well. He was a spy from Aruyeo. I can’t believe I trusted him!” he yelled out, throwing a cushion towards the opposite wall. “I just… gah!” He clenched his hair into his fists. “I almost told him as well!” He whimpered as his fists unfurled themselves, hands shaking too much to have a tight grip on his hair. “I trusted him… I trusted Yeonjun…”

Taehyun sat in the same chair for several hours, until his trembling died down. At that point, it was late afternoon. Hand over his eyes, Taehyun took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “Alright,” he said to himself. “Let’s get this in order shall we?” Taehyun took his hand away from his eyes, but his eyes still remained closed. He gestured with his fingers vaguely into the air as he began speaking again. “So Yeonjun was a spy. Working for Queen Erajin. And he came here to gather – dirt, was it? – on the Gojongja court, to feed back to the queen. But he said that he’s now… what? Good?” Taehyun scoffed. “Judging by how he spoke, he’s been a spy for a while. I bet his allegiance can’t change just like that.” Taehyun paused, and cracked open an eye. “That Hueningkai guy though… he’s kind of right. Why would they tell me if they were still loyal to Queen Erajin? Unless… it’s a tactic for me to let my guard down.” Taehyun nodded darkly to himself. “That’s it. They’re trying to trick me into trusting them, using it as a chance to get to know other secrets.”

Taehyun opened his eyes fully, now feeling more grounded in his thoughts. “Yes, that’s got to be it. I’ve gotten them all figured out. No need to stress. It’ll look bad if I lock them up, so I’ll just ignore them. Yes- I’ll do that.”

He sat up, but quickly deflated again. “Wait… what if they’re telling the truth? In which case it would be stupid not to trust them, because I would be endangering their lives if I didn’t…”

Taehyun sighed, rubbing his nose frustratedly. “Ah, I don’t know.” He paused. “Although, it is more believable that they’re just trying to trick me. But hang on, that would mean I’m okay with the fact they’re spies!” He threw his hands up in the air, leaning back in the armchair. “Ugh, I’m confused…”

Just then, a knock sounded at his door. “Sir, they said that today is the only day–”

“Tell them no! Tell them they have to have another day!” Taehyun yelled. “I can’t do it!”

He went back to muttering to himself. “Wait… but I still can’t trust them. They’re spies, after all. You’d have to be an idiot to trust a spy.” But then he paused. Suddenly, all he could see were Yeonjun’s clear, amber eyes, staring at him with a mixture of nervousness and hope. There had been no trace of an evil or manipulating nature there at all. Taehyun frowned, now more confused than ever.

“Sir, today is the absolutely only day you can talk to the Head General. They won’t be able to come for more than a month after this.”

Taehyun’s mouth pursed in annoyance. “Fine! Fine!” He stalked across the room and opened the door. “Fine! If it’s the only day, then I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll go there now.”

“Sir?” Taehyun looked at Jungwon, pausing his frustrated march down the hall. “Apparently, since you are going in the King’s place, it is necessary for you to take a high-ranking Lord with you to see the Head General.”

Taehyun huffed, still irritated. Then, his frown melted away as he thought. “Hm… fine. Which Lord was it that said they supported us…? Ah, that’s right. Where’s Lord Soobin?”

.・゜-: ✧ :-

Taehyun nodded thoughtfully. “Alright, so it won’t be necessary to bring too many people, like you said. I know of a few places they can be stationed, but I’m not sure about the west of Gojongja.”

“Oh, I know a few,” Lord Soobin spoke up. He circled his finger around several places on their map. “Here, here, and here will be good places. They’re not too imposing, but they’ll be obvious. That’s what we want, right?”

“Right,” Taehyun agreed, tapping his chin. “Hm, I don’t know West Gojongja too well, but I have faith in you, Lord Soobin.” He looked up at the Head General. “What do you say?”

“Looks fine to me,” the general responded. “How many men would you say you’d need? We will do our best to cater to your preferences.”

Taehyun turned to Soobin.

“I would say just five men per station,” the Lord replied. “We are looking to simply discourage them. Too many would seem overpowering, but too little would seem odd.”

Taehyun nodded. “Five seems fine to me. Would that be okay with you?”

“Indeed, it is alright with us. I will have the men selected right away. When would you like them stationed?”

“As soon as possible, if you may,” Taehyun said. “Though the riot has died down a little, we can never know when it will flare up again.”

The general nodded. “Of course, sire.” He bowed, and made as if to leave when he paused and turned back. “Ah, when would you like them to retreat from the public? At what stage would you deem it suitable to withdraw the army?”

“Um…” Taehyun tapped his chin. “I’ll let you know when they should withdraw,” he said finally.

“Additionally, when the public atmosphere reverts back to normal would be a good time too,” Lord Soobin added, frowning thoughtfully down at the map of Gojongja. “We should probably install more guards around the palace,” he commented.

Taehyun nodded. “Yes, that would probably be a good idea. I’ll employ some Invisi as well.” He gestured to the Head General. “You are dismissed.”

Once the Head General had left, Taehyun turned to Soobin, and the two left the room as well. “Thank you for accompanying me on such short notice,” he said.

“Oh, it was no trouble at all,” Lord Soobin replied easily. “Indeed, it was an honour.”

Taehyun smiled. “Well, with His Greatness having taken a break for an unspecified amount of time, we may see each other more often.”

Soobin gave a small smile too. “If I may ask, would you happen to know when King Beomgyu will come back to governing the Kingdom?"

Taehyun sighed. "You may ask, but I don't know the answer myself. But I'm going to have to drag him out sooner or later, so he will come back eventually."

Soobin nodded, and bowed. "It was incredibly nice to discuss matters with you, Sir Taehyun."

Taehyun inclined his head. "Likewise, Lord Soobin."

The tall Lord bowed again before walking away. Taehyun stared after him rather enviously.

"He's so tall… I wanna grow that tall."

.・゜-: ✧ :-

“Oh? Lord Soobin?”

Taehyun watched as Soobin flinched, rubbing his eyes vigorously. “Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you,” Taehyun said.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Soobin said, waving his hands in an attempt to reassure Taehyun. “Was there a reason you came here to the library?”

“As a matter of fact, I was looking for you,” Taehyun said. “Do you mind if I–?”

“Oh, of course not,” Soobin said, shuffling over to make room for Taehyun at the table. Taehyun sat down and spread out all his documents across the wooden surface. Soobin scanned through all of them, and looked at the vizier, eyes wide. “You’re replacing council members?”

“King Beomgyu wants it done, that’s why,” sighed Taehyun, carelessly flicking a parchment across the table. “If he hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t be doing this at all. It’s too much hard work. Also, it’s a little confusing, so I wanted to ask you about it.”

Soobin raised an eyebrow bemusedly. “Me? So suddenly? We’ve barely met. Surely there’s someone else you normally talk to about this? Doesn’t the Grand Vizier have smart friends of his own?”

Normally, I’d talk to Yeonjun about this, but… he betrayed me. Taehyun shook his head vigorously. “No. I do everything alone.”

Soobin hummed. “Interesting. Okay, let me see these papers. I might be able to help.”

.・゜-: ✧ :-

Soobin tapped his fingers on the table while chewing the feathered end of his quill. After a while, he set down the parchment and dragged the other documents towards him, reading through them one by one. Taehyun rested his head on his hand, watching as Soobin analysed the papers.

“Apparently word has gotten out that I’m going to be changing the members of the council,” Taehyun spoke up. “I received many letters from the clans involved, telling me off for even thinking such a thing.”

Soobin looked up at him, feathers still in his mouth. “Do you have them with you?”

“Uh… how will they help?”

Soobin held out his hand as Taehyun rummaged through his case. He wordlessly handed the letters over to the Lord. “These clans know things. It’s likely they’ve unintentionally given you pointers as to how to go about replacing council members, while they were reprimanding you. Ah! See, like here.” Soobin pointed to a few lines written in angry handwriting. “‘Why would you go through the trouble of background checking every Lord you see, when you have a perfectly good council, whose backgrounds are already fully checked?’ So whoever you want to employ for the new Council, you’ll need to do a background check first. And look, this one. ‘Finding a Lord to match the one you replaced will be difficult. All the Lords of the current Council are far more experienced than any of the other Lords in court, so there will be no point.’ So for every Lord you remove, you’ll need to replace him with one who matches his skill and intelligence.”

“Yes, but that’s where it gets complicated,” Taehyun explained, reaching for one of the papers on the table. “If you look at the Gojongja citizen rights, it says that everyone’s capability is different and they ought not to be compared to one another.”

Soobin tsked, pushing aside the paper. “No one follows those rules that precisely! It’s fine. Oh look, and here it says that you can’t replace members one by one, and if you want to replace one Lord you’ll need to replace all of them at the same time. So it would be best for you to have all the new members ready before you officially announce that you’re replacing the Council.” He handed the letters back to Taehyun, smiling. “See? That wasn’t so confusing, was it?”

“Now that I have someone else explaining it to me, it’s actually ridiculously easy,” Taehyun admitted, taking the letters back from Soobin. “Thank you. Now all I need to do is find Lords to be part of the new council.” Taehyun paused in the middle of tidying away his papers, sighing. “Oh, that’s going to be hard. Barely anyone is trustworthy right now…”

“I know a few people who I could offer to you,” Soobin said. “If you’d like, of course.”

Taehyun turned to Soobin, eyes wide. “Yes, that would be so helpful! If you could maybe let me know of their names, and I’ll do a background check on them at once! Um, would you, Lord Soobin, like to be on the council?”

“Oh, no, no. Gosh, no! I’d prefer to be a close friend than a colleague,” Soobin said, smiling. Taehyun beamed back, snapping shut his case.

“Thank you so much, Lord Soobin. You’ve been a great help.”

“It was my pleasure.”

Soobin watched as Taehyun bowed happily and walked out of the library. He turned back to the book he’d been looking at before the vizier had arrived, a small smile on his face. He hadn’t expected the scary, intimidating Grand Vizier to look so… cute when he was happy.

.・゜-: ✧ :-

Taehyun was outside Yeonjun's room again. After returning to his room, now fully understanding how to replace members of the council, his mind drifted back to the spy, and also the dilemma he was in. Should he trust Yeonjun? Should he lock him up? What should he do?

Unable to stay trapped in one room with his thoughts, Taehyun had wandered through the palace and, while he’d tried his best to stay away, his feet kept directing him towards the spy’s chambers.

And so there he was, for the third time that day, biting his nails nervously, staring at the white door in front of him. It appeared that Yeonjun had gotten rid of his guard: at that moment, it was just him and the door. (Taehyun had sent Heesung away to do other business.) He lifted his hand as if to knock, but quickly retreated, clasping his hands behind his back.

"No, no, no," he muttered to himself. "What am I doing? I should leave before those spies find out I'm here." But still, he stood in front of Yeonjun's door. He scratched the side of his neck with the back of his nails, biting his lip. He shook his head, and backed away.

"No, no no. Let's go." With some hesitation, he moved away, quickly walking back down the hallway before his feet changed their mind.

Inside Yeonjun's (and Hueningkai's) room, the two of them were staring at the glass ball.

"Oh look, he left again," Hueningkai sighed boredly, chin rested on his palm. "I know you said to give him space, Yeonjun, but this is a bit… much. If this keeps happening, we're not going to get anywhere."

"We should let him come to us," Yeonjun stated firmly. "We thrust this news upon him rather suddenly. He's bound to feel conflicted. Give him time. Then, we'll see what his final reaction will be."

"He's not giving much of a clear reaction right now," Hueningkai commented as they watched the vizier come up to the door again. "Look, he's come back."

Yeonjun smacked the younger upside the head. "Stop spying on him," he scolded.

"Hey!" Hueningkai complained, rubbing his head. "We're literally spies, what do you want me to do?"

"Don't spy on Taehyun, that's all," Yeonjun said. "It's immoral. Especially if we want him to trust us."

Hueningkai sighed, putting the ball away. "Fine. But what if he never trusts us? What if we stay stuck in this loop forever?"

"We won't," Yeonjun said. "He may seem unsure now, but Taehyun has a really strong mindset. He'll come to a decision soon."

Hueningkai shrugged, leaning back when they heard the vizier's footsteps retreat yet again. "If you say so."

[buffyversefanfiction]

Slayer of Slayers

Warnings:I do not own, nor do I claim to own any of the copyright or characters within the Buffyverse which includes but not limited to the television shows Buffy and Angel, as well as the Darkhorse comics series’ continuation.

15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft.

M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

PART FOUR LINK HERE

Part Five - Parental Guidance Advised

Theo Frey, the slayer of slayers, was now a vampire, a vampire unlike any other before him, one that sired themselves, and along with his new undead status, he found his slayer strength, speed, and healing, was now matched with his vampire side making him even more powerful than ever before, all working towards Drusilla’s grand plans which were created after she had a vision of the vampire/slayer hybrid bringing about the end of days.

Drusilla and Theo traveled to the outskirts of New York, in the middle of nowhere, located deep within some woods, arriving at an abandoned asylum which Drusilla had claimed to be her home for many years now, the first place she took Theo after his parents died, the place in which Theo first met the love of his life, Tobias. “The future is a funny little thing not once did I see the death of my darling Tobias in any vision and now it’s the first and last thing, I see every day.” Drusilla sadly revealed to Theo, as the two walked down a hallway within the abandoned asylum late at night. “Well, it would have been good to get a whole heads up about becoming a vamp myself before it actually happened, but I guess I was not on a need-to-know basis with that one.” Theo slyly snapped at his fellow vampire. “It was you and Tobias who chose to go off on your own create your own paths and become number one targets for all slayers,” Drusilla replied. “Everything was meant to happen the way it was for you to become the best version of yourself, a version strong enough to kill your birth mother.” “Did Tobias always know? That I’d one day become a vampire?” Theo could not help but wonder, as he began to wonder whether falling for Tobias was all just a part of Drusilla’s plans. “No, he did not…you two were truly destined to love each other it is with great sadness that your love story with my beautiful Tobias has come to an end but sadly it does not surprise me either,” Drusilla revealed to him, before going on to say. “Buffy will stop at nothing to slay us all, yet where was she to slay the monsters who took the ones that raised you?” “Buffy and Angel will pay for abandoning me in fact I am already putting a plan into action for them both but let me make myself clear when I say I will not be waiting as long to take revenge for Tobias,” Theo promised her, much to Drusilla’s delight. “Now why do I still feel the same?” “Well, another little hitch has occurred it seems you still have your soul,” Drusilla answered him, both looking as shocked as the other. “I do not know why that pesky thing is still in place, but I am not worried about it, some of the biggest monsters in the world still have souls after all…now please do tell mummy what you have planned for other mummy and naughty daddy?”

After being M.I.A from the slayer world as well as her friends, loved ones, and all real-world connections, Buffy Summers had taken to a cabin in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, the perfect place to get lost and forget about the rest of the world, and for one whole year she had uninterrupted bliss as she attempted to get over the loss of her son, but as she sat on the steps of her cabin porch and felt a sudden change in the wind nearby, she knew her perfect isolation was about to be intruded and after a blast of lightning struck the nearby grounds it became abundantly clear that her best friend Willow had found her. “I told you not to come looking for me I told you when I was ready, I’d come looking for you,” Buffy told the red-headed witch after Willow appeared from out of the ripped air that the lightning strike had just caused. “But it is good to see you again Willow…I’ve missed you.” “We found him, Buffy…” Willow said with great sadness, knowing the story she was about to tell her friend would only cause her more hurt but also knowing she had to be the one who Buffy found out from. Willow sat Buffy back down on the porch, sitting next to her, and went on to tell her everything she knew about Buffy’s son Theo, the revelation that he was somehow a slayer like his mother, that he was seeing a vampire just like his mother, but that was where the similarities ended as she went on to talk about Theo hunting other slayers before being captured and possibly killed by Buffy’s former watcher Rupert Giles in self-defense. Willow made it clear that they had no idea who he was until it was too late, that despite not knowing who he was they fought hard for his redemption, and how she believed that despite it being unlikely, that Theo Frey had somehow survived and was still out there somewhere. She hugged Buffy as she cried, listened while she shouted, advised her while she tried to make sense of it all, and stayed with the blonde-haired slayer until she was ready to act towards the shocking revelations. “He’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time, living a life before our very eyes…god knows what he has been through, what I was not there to protect him from.” Buffy cried as she tried to come to terms with the news about her now fully grown son who was just born over a year ago. “And now he could be gone again…” “I have several covens working on locating him, Faith’s headed to Los Angeles to speak to Angel about it all and get him involved in finding him too,” Willow confessed to the slayer, trying to give her some positive news. “We are going to find him; I know he is still out there I just know it!” “Oh god, we told him his son was dead and now he might actually be.” Buffy realized as she felt the weight of lying to Angel for all this time.

Angel sat behind the desk in his office within the Hyperion Hotel looking through the books he had gathered through the years as he searched for information on the latest demon he and Illyria were hunting when he was surprised to hear the front door to the Hyperion Hotel being opened thanks to his advanced vampire hearing and so he rose out of his chair, grabbed a hold of a nearby knife and walked into the main foyer of the hotel where he was shocked to find Faith stood there waiting for him. “You can drop the weapon big man it's only little old me.” Faith said to the vampire with a soul, before the two walked into his office, as the slayer slowly began to prepare herself for telling Angel the truth, fearing it would change their friendship forever. “Thought you were held up at slayer rehab trying to mend the boy slayer’s broken ways,” Angel replied as he placed his knife back onto his desk table. “Do not tell me he’s already redeemed and ready to be put back into society.” “Far from it actually,” Faith answered nervously. “The thing about Theo is, well he kind of, sort of, turns out to be your long lost son, the miracle child you had with Buffy who we kind of told you was dead…there is no better way to say this than we kind of lost him through a portal last year and told you he died because well Connor…but he’s back all grown up just like Connor and sort of evil again like Connor.” “You guys told me he was dead, you told me he was dead!” Angel snapped at the one slayer he believed would never keep something from him, especially not something like this. “I help you capture him, we could have killed him, and all this time he was my son? How that hell is that even possible?” “Well, the good news is he wound up in the past and not a hell dimension.” Faith told the vampire reluctantly, feeling his fury over the lies that she helped tell, even if she believed it was for his best. “None of this is good Faith! You lied to me! You, Buffy, and Willow told me he died! I mourned the loss of my baby son, I blamed myself for not being enough to protect him, I blamed her.” Angel shouted in disbelief, infuriated to learn his son had been alive all this time. “Where is he now? Where is Theo?” “Okay do not get all murder and Angelus like on me but Giles sort of shot him multiple times then he swan dived out of a window into deep waters but hey on the plus side Willow is pretty sure he’s still alive…” Faith quickly responded, making sure she gave him all the information needed as she wished for this conversation, and for her friend’s anger, to come to an end, despite knowing this was only the beginning.

The several covens working on finding a location for Theo Frey through magical means had finally got some results, questionable results, as they informed Willow that the male slayer was in his hometown of Riverborn, of all places, Theo had headed home, and despite the gut feeling that this was most definitely some kind of trap, Willow revealed her covens’ findings to Buffy and the two best friends quickly headed for the Californian small town located rather close to their own hometown of Sunnydale, or where Sunnydale once stood. “This place is giving me all the wrong kind of Sunnydale vibes which only serves to convince me even further that we are walking straight into a trap,” Willow told her blonde-haired friend, as she and Buffy walked the streets of Riverborn, late at night, in search of the Frey family home, where Buffy’s son once lived. “I do not care if he wants to trap me or not the point is he wants us there which is a step in the right direction for me,” Buffy admitted to her, as the two stopped outside of an abandoned home, the tell-tale signs of its boarded windows, and the decaying build revealing it to be the former family home of Theo and his adoptive parents. “I hope this was a happy home to grow up in…I hope his life has not all been as twisted as the recent years we know about.” “Well, if it was not, it is not like I could have done anything, you know with the whole fact that I thought my son was dead this entire time.” Angel snapped at Buffy, appearing from behind the slayer and witch. “Angel…I can’t begin to apologize for everything I’ve put you through, that I forced Willow and Faith to put you through, so I’m not going to, not yet anyway.” Buffy told the vampire with which she shared a child, as his eyes never left the view of their son’s former home. Willow quickly informed Angel of the plan which she and Buffy had made while on their way to Riverborn, hoping to avoid as much awkwardness between the two as possible, as she revealed she would wait outside ready to cast any spells needed if Theo had not come alone so that the two could focus on trying to get through to their son, and after a few minutes of talking things through it was time to put their plans into action.

As Buffy and Angel walked through the front door of Theo’s family home and into the living room he once shared with his adoptive parents it became abundantly clear, by the photos in frames placed above a cozy fireplace, that the people who had raised their son truly loved him like he was their own, and for a brief moment, they found comfort in that knowledge, until their minds began to wonder what happened to them for this once loving home to become so empty and for their son to go down such a wicked path. “All I wanted for him was a normal life, a normal home, and to be safe,” Buffy told Angel as tears formed in her eyes, while the slayer and vampire moved into the kitchen where they found a sinister-looking Theo gleefully awaiting their arrival as he held a crossbow in his hands ready to fire at any given moment. “Before or after the monsters that you were supposed to slay took everything away from me.” Theo sarcastically replied to his mother, finally meeting her for the first time after all these years. “The blood-stained carpet in the living room is where I found my mother on my sixteenth birthday…oh the irony, and here is where I found my father.” “Theo I am so sorry!” Buffy cried, seeing nothing but hatred for her in her son’s eyes, beautiful eyes which he had gotten from Buffy’s mother, with his facial structure very much like Angel’s. “You seem different!” Angel stated to his son, realizing something had changed within him since the last time they met when he did not know Theo was his son. “So, the cat is clearly out of the bag about who I really am. That’s good it’s going to make this so much more enjoyable!” Theo declared revealing to them both that he knew exactly who they were and that he hated them more than anything else on this planet. “Theo, you have got to know I had no idea that you were even alive. I’d have stopped at nothing to find you otherwise.” Angel promised his son, hoping to explain his absence to Theo, that he was not to blame for not being in his life. “I thought I had lost you forever I had no clue where you wound up…I should’ve looked for you, but I hoped you were better off without me.” Buffy confessed as Theo kept the crossbow firmly pointing at both of his biological parents, seeming untouched by their words. “I do not want answers, you idiots.” Theo scoffed at them both. “Answers are what some lost boy looks for as he longs to be found but I’m no lost boy and I found myself a very long time ago. All I want is revenge!” Theo did not wait for either Buffy or Angel to reply before shooting two arrows in their direction, arrows which Angel managed to catch, one in each hand, before it made any damage towards him or Buffy as Theo quickly scurried out of the kitchen ready to play a game of hide and seek, a game he intended to not only win but to use as another trap for the two people he blamed for everything wrong in his life.

Angel took to the upstairs of Theo’s family home while Buffy went down to the basement, figuring if they took both options to where their son could have run to, then he would not be able to get away so easily, and as Angel reached the upstairs hallway, he found himself walking into Theo’s bedroom which looked like it had been kept the same way since he was last in it. Angel scoured the room where he found shelves filled with books, a desk filled with awards, and a picture by Theo’s bed of himself and a friend, which he did not know at the time was Ruby Moon, and as he continued to look around his son’s room he realized Theo once lived a happy life in this home, which is exactly why they were brought here because Theo blamed them for his happy life coming to an end. Although Angel’s search led to nowhere, Buffy’s search was going much better as she reached the bottom of the basement stairs to see Theo stood there, having ditched his crossbow, for a shiny blade. “I was hoping you’d be the one to find me first, mother and son, slayer versus slayer, you’re going to be my biggest kill.” Theo boasted to a horrified Buffy who was left unnerved by her son’s desire to kill her. “I do not want to fight you, Theo, you are my son and I love you,” Buffy replied cautiously, fearing she would have no choice but to go head-to-head with her own son. “I’m a vampire just like daddy now, did I forget to mention that? So, if you think you’re going to win against me then I have to tell you I’m a lot stronger than when I went up against your friends.” Theo confessed to a stunned Buffy, who realized her son had died before she even got a chance to meet him and at the hands of Giles, nonetheless. “You’re dead?” Buffy answered in complete shock, blaming herself for her son’s doomed fate. “But you still have a soul…” Angel announced as he appeared at the top of the basement stairs and began walking down towards Buffy and Theo. “I don’t know how it’s possible, how you are a vampire, and yet somehow you are still you but the fact that you’ve kept your soul is very much evidence that you are not as evil as you want us to believe.” “Or maybe my soul is so damned the devil himself does not want it?” Theo replied to his father, eager to debunk Angel’s theory about him. “I am the first vampire in history to ever sire himself I guess that means the rules are different for me and although there are two of you, I like my odds considering I am both vampire and slayer.” “I am not going to fight you!” Buffy repeated herself, refusing to lay hands on her son. “I will,” Angel stated before going on to say. “If I have to beat the good back into you then I will.” Theo charged towards Angel swinging his blade multiple times in his direction, Angel managing to avoid being cut before knocking the blade out of Theo’s hands leading to the two vampires going head-to-head in a brutal and bloody fight. Angel managed to hold his own against his son Theo for some time, but it was not long before Theo began to get the better of his father but not because of his new undead status but rather because Angel was holding back, and Buffy could see that, so as Theo threw his biological father to the floor Buffy rushed across the basement floor and picked up Theo’s knife. “Stop it now!” Buffy shouted at her son as she placed the knife against her son. “If you are so damned determined to kill your parents then start with me. “Buffy…” Angel muttered before being knocked out by a killer right hook punch by Theo, who left his father unconscious on the ground as he began to walk over towards his mother. “Do not think that I will not kill you right here right now!” Theo told Buffy as he placed his own hands on the blade pressed against Buffy’s chest. “Then do it! If it is going to make you happy then do it!” Buffy pleaded with her son as tears began to form in her eyes. “All I have ever wanted is your happiness…” Theo pushed the blade into Buffy’s chest ever so slightly, just enough force so she could feel the blade but not enough force to break the skin, and he stood there with a knife

to his mother’s chest for what felt like forever to Buffy but in likelihood was less than a minute, before Theo threw the blade to the ground, unable to kill his own mother. “I do not remember what happy feels like anymore,” Theo admitted honestly, his words making Buffy realize how truly broken he was, much to her own horror, and as he began walking up the stairs leaving both Buffy and Angel in the basement, Buffy could not help but feel responsible for her son’s fate, vowing to save him from himself even if it did lead to her own death.

[love-and-monsters]

Wyvern Prince 17

M Wyvern X F human reader, 3014 words.

Davrakoss shifted his cloak around his shoulders, the thick fur partially obscuring his face. He looked sideways at you, brows drawing together. “Aren’t you cold?”

“A little,” you said. It was still early morning, with the sky turning the pale shade of blue it became right before the sun actually rose. There was a thin layer of frost over the castle grounds.

Davrakoss tapped his tail against your leg. It was a gesture he’d taken to recently. It seemed to be his way of contact when you couldn’t obviously touch each other. The motion was small enough to be generally overlooked, but it was still a point of comfort between you.

The carriage rattled over the cobblestones and came to a halt in front of you. A small procession of guards flanked it. You stepped forward and unlatched the carriage door, standing back to allow Davrakoss to get inside.

Once he was in, you made to follow him. Someone nearby cleared their throat and you glanced over to see one of the guards glaring at you.

“Servants ride on the outside of the carriage,” he said. His voice was slightly muffled by the helmet, but you could hear his disapproval loud and clear. “Riding with the prince would be inappropriate.”

You hesitated, uncertain if it was something you could protest on. “I’ve been allowed to ride with him before,” you said.

Davrakoss poked his head out of the carriage. “What is the delay?” he said. He was getting better at adopting the snotty tone nobles were known for.

“Your servant was attempting to board the carriage with you,” the guard said.

“I allow her to ride with me,” Davrakoss said, perfectly arrogant in his tone. He narrowed his eyes. They flickered like fire, sparking dangerously.

The guard was as moved as a stone. “It would be inappropriate for a servant to do something above her station,” he said. His voice was thick with condescension. “She will sit outside.”

As he spoke, he shifted slightly and you noticed a gold marking on his armor, a bolt of lightning. You dipped your head in a subservient bow to Davrakoss. “I apologize for the delay and my presumptuousness, sire. I will sit outside, as is my place.” You stared at him hard, trying to communicate with your eyes that he shouldn’t protest over this. He furrowed his brows, but caught your drift. You clicked the door closed after him and settled in the servant’s seat on the outside of the carriage. The guard turned away and, at his signal, the procession started.

You leaned back in your seat, hunching as the wind picked up. You were wearing a cloak, but it wasn’t furred, like Davrakoss’ and it wasn’t particularly thick. It afforded little protection against the chill of the day. Your eyes watered and tears dribbled down your cheeks, freezing before they could drip off your face.

Luckily, it was only a few hours to Morrigan, so there wasn’t enough time for you to freeze solid. The carriage rolled to a stop outside an inn and you carefully stepped down, wobbling on your stiff legs.

You opened the carriage door and Davrakoss emerged, looking irritable. Under the watchful gaze of the guards, you couldn’t do much more than bow politely and move to grab his luggage. His tail tapped against your calf, and you pointedly ignored it.

The instant you were inside the inn, Davrakoss rounded on you. “You must be freezing,” he fussed, shedding his cloak and wrapping it over your shoulders. He was always warm, but after spending so long in the cold, he was practically bleeding heat. His hands wrapped around yours, cradling them in a nest of warmth. “You’re like ice.”

You sniffed. Your nose was running and stinging from the cold. Davrakoss offered you a handkerchief. “Thanks,” you mumbled, dabbing at your face.

“Of course,” he said. “Sit down, let’s get you warm.”

The bed was, as was usual for his accommodations, large and plush and covered in thick quilts. Davrakoss settled you under one, then walked over to the large fireplace across the room. His back was to you, so you couldn’t see what he was doing, but after a moment, the logs caught fire. He leaned back, coughing.

“Are you all right?” you asked.

He retreated to the bed, still coughing into the crook of his elbow. “I always forget how much breathing fire stings as a human,” he groaned. He pinched his nose, snorting out smoke.

“You didn’t have to,” you said. “I could have started the fire.”

“Faster and easier my way,” he said, shaking off the last stinging embers of fire. “Come here.” He settled into bed next to you and pulled you close. “What was the problem with that man?” he fumed as his fingers pulled through your hair.

“I know him,” you said. You felt Davrakoss startle slightly with surprise under you. “I know of him, anyway.”

“Who is he?”

“He’s part of the upper echelons of the guards, the Lightning class. He’s the son of the Queen’s defense minister, I think.” Davrakoss wrinkled his nose. “Nobles in the guards are the worst, usually. Most guards don’t care about class, but the ones who do and have the power to enforce it get really nasty.”

Davrakoss frowned, curling his tail around your waist. “Asshole,” he growled.

“Don’t push it with him,” you warned. “You may be a prince, but he’s got more power here than you do. You’ll just make things worse for yourself.”

A low growl rumbled through Davrakoss’ chest, but he didn’t protest. You nestled into his shoulder, appreciating the warmth that flowed off of him.

You jolted awake some time later. Davrakoss was resting his cheek on the top of your head, awake but out of it. You shifted and Davrakoss lifted his head.

“You’re feeling better?” he asked, brushing the back of his hand over your cheeks and forehead. “Not sick?”

“Catching your death of cold is an expression, Davrakoss. Humans don’t fall sick just because we got too cold.” He’d heard the turn of phrase around the castle couple of weeks ago and had never entirely let go of the idea. “I’m fine. What time is it?”

Davrakoss glanced at the clock. “Close to six.”

“Shit.” You stumbled out of bed. “I should be preparing your dinner and you should be preparing your speech. Why did you let me sleep so long?”

Davrakoss’ expression was somewhat nonplussed. “You seemed like you needed it. You’ve been sleeping poorly lately.”

You glanced over your shoulder at him. He stared back. You’d never told him you’d had difficulty sleeping. It was unnerving how well he seemed able to pick up on those things.

“I’m going to go get your dinner ready. Work on your speech. You’re giving it tomorrow morning, remember.”

“Yes, I remember,” Davrakoss sighed as you left.

Fortunately, the kitchens in the inn were able to provide you with a meal for Davrakoss in short order. You returned to his room to find him sitting up in bed, skimming over his speech. “Are you done?” you asked, nodding to the speech.

“It’s as good as it’s going to get,” he said. “I’m not worried about the speech, to be honest. I’m more worried about having to talk to the locals afterwards.”

“It’s good for building trust with the citizens. Morrigan is a big trade city with a lot of influence. If they think the wyverns are good, the influence will spread.”

Davrakoss grimaced. “I know why. I just am not much of a people person.”

“You’re fine with me,” you reminded him.

“You’re special,” he said, fixing you with such an adoring look that you went silent.

Once Davrakoss had eaten, you made to leave and he began his usual routine of trying to get you to stay. It had become almost like a dance or a game. He persisted in trying, even though he usually lost.

“Please?” he said, giving you pleading eyes. “Maybe you’ll sleep better if you stay here.”

“I’ll be fine. I’ll sleep better without someone’s tail whacking me every five minutes,” you said, stepping back toward the door.

Davrakoss adopted a theatrically wounded expression. “I don’t do that!” he protested.

“Look, if I spend the night, people here will definitely notice. Anyway, we have to be up early, so I’ll be back soon.” You leaned back in to press a kiss to his mouth. He sank into it greedily, and when you pulled back, he looked disappointed.

“Don’t do this to me,” he complained, but his mouth twitched a little. “I love you.”

“I love you too. I’ll see you in the morning,” you said. Davrakoss stole another kiss and you slipped carefully out of the room.

It took a little while to fall asleep and when you dragged yourself out of bed before sunrise, you were groggy. You snagged a pastry from the kitchens when you brought Davrakoss his breakfast. He was still asleep when you go there and you let him stay that way for a bit while you organized everything he would need.

He stirred before you went over to wake him up. “G’morning,” he mumbled when he caught sight of you.

“Good morning,” you replied, carefully smothering a yawn. Davrakoss wasn’t fooled.

“Still tired?” he asked sympathetically as he got out of bed. You nodded. “I’m sorry.” He pressed a kiss to your forehead. You leaned against him for a moment, appreciating the contact.

“We should be getting ready,” you said. Davrakoss nodded and started hurriedly eating while you finished gathering his items. Once he was done with breakfast, you helped dress him and pulled his hair up.

“I wish you didn’t have to come with,” he said as you finished adjusting his cloak. “You look so tired.”

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep if I stayed here. Too worried,” you said. Davrakoss smiled and squeezed your hand.

“I’m going to force you to take a nap when we get back,” he said. “But I suppose I do prefer it when you’re with me. It’s much more comfortable.”

You boarded the carriage together, with Davrakoss inside and you perched on the outside. It was a brief ride to the center of the town, where there was already a massive crowd. You fussed over Davrakoss for a few moments more before allowing him to step into the center of the crowd and give his speech.

It was a fairly standard speech, and you were fairly certain the crowd was more interested in staring at Davrakoss’ inhuman features than actually listening to him, but no one seemed frightened or angry, so you decided to take that as a win.

Once the speech was concluded, most of the crowd dispersed. Those that remained were the upper crust of the town, those who ran the largest trades and businesses. They were the people who Davrakoss would have to impress if he wanted to secure more support for wyverns.

You followed a short distance behind him as the group of people began to move toward the classy building they were meeting in. Just as you made to step over the threshold into the building, someone caught your shoulder.

You turned to see the guard with the lightning emblem staring down at you. “Servants,” he said in a cool, grating tone, “are not allowed inside.”

If you had been less tired or perhaps less worried about how Davrakoss would fare on his own, you would have backed off. But instead, you shook off his hand and snapped, “The prince has requested that I accompany him and accompany him I will. You are not my master.”

You barely had time to register that his hand had lifted before it came down across your face. The metal opened a slice across your cheekbone and the heavy strike made your head ring. You collapsed back onto the ground, stunned.

“How dare you!” Davrakoss’ voice thundered across the square. There was rage in his voice the likes of which you’d never heard. When you looked up, he was bearing down on the guard, eyes flashing and teeth bared.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“How dare you,” Davrakoss repeated in a softer and infinitely more threatening tone as he stood over the guard. He was only the barest half-inch taller, but in his rage, he seemed much larger. He was almost shaking too, and you had the brief, horrifying idea that he was going to transform right there and rip the guard limb from limb.

“Don’t you touch her,” Davrakoss snarled, making noises that were too feral to be made by an entirely human throat. “She’s mine.”

You began praying to every god you had ever heard of that the guard took that as a statement of owning property and not as a romantic sentiment.

“Then you should train her better,” the guard said. “She’s an insolent, uppity brat.”

Davrakoss growled, a deep and menacing sound. His eyes looked like a forest blaze, quickly spiraling out of control. Shit. You needed to do something.

Hurriedly, you bent over the ground in the most prostrate pose you could manage. “My deepest apologies,” you said, ignoring the awful pain in your jaw. “Sire, I was out of place. Forgive me.”

Davrakoss looked at you, apparently startled out of his rage, at least for a moment. You stared up at him, trying to communicate with your eyes. Don’t make a big deal. Go back inside. Drop it. I’m fine.

He stared at you, for a moment, then slowly, mercifully, the tension drained from his body. He took a step back, glaring at the guard. “Never,” he warned in a low tone, “touch her again.” He glanced at you with concern again, but you looked back resolutely. His brows furrowed, but, with a look of regret, he stepped back inside the building.

You stood next to the door. It was cold and your jaw radiated pain along your face. The cut wept small drops of blood as you stared resolutely ahead. The guard stood near you and you were determined not to show him how much he had hurt you.

Only an hour later, a distracted-looking Davrakoss emerged from the building. You gave him a brief nod of acknowledgement and his tail tapped gently at your ankle.

The ride back to the inn was quick, but unsettling due to your proximity to the guard. You kept your head down, trying not to make any moves that would piss him off.

Davrakoss practically dragged you into his room as soon as you were inside. “Oh, heavens, look at your face!” he cried, cupping your head in his hands. “You poor thing.”

“It’s not that bad,” you said, but you could feel how swollen it was. Davrakoss frowned at you.

“Let me fix it,” he said, and bent in to kiss the wound. You ducked back, holding your hands up.

“You can’t,” you reminded him. “That guard knows he hit me. If I show up tomorrow and my face is fine, he’ll know something happened.”

Davrakoss gritted his teeth, face contorting with anger. “I’m going to kill him.”

“You will not,” you said. “Listen to me. I’m all right.”

“You are not! Don’t tell me that you are!” Davrakoss’ voice rose, not with anger, but with clear distress. “You’re hurt.” He hovered a hand around your cheek, fingers ghosting over the bruise like he was frightened to touch it. Abruptly, his face crumpled. “Sara, I can’t do this.”

It felt like someone had punched you in the stomach. Your breath rushed out of you and an anxious tingling began in your extremities. You hadn’t exactly been expecting it, but it wasn’t surprising. “Of course, sire. I… should go, then.”

Davrakoss lifted his head, blinking at you. “What?”

It was your turn to be startled. “You don’t want me to leave?”

“No.” He frowned at you. “Why would I want that?”

“You said you couldn’t do this anymore. I assumed you were ending the relationship.”

“No! No, no.” He squeezed you against him. “Of course not.” You sagged with relief, then winced as your aching face pressed against his chest. “Oh, sorry. Come on, sit down. Let’s at least get you something cold to put on your face.”

He entered the bathroom as you sank onto his bed and returned a moment later with a wet cloth. “Lie back,” he said, settling on the bed next to you. He placed the cloth carefully on your face. It was mildly better than not having the cloth. Davrakoss lay down next to you, wrapping one of his arms over your shoulders.

“I don’t want to break up with you,” he said. “I love you. But I can’t just watch people hurt you.”

“I’m used to this sort of thing,” you said. Davrakoss winced.

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” he said. “It’s awful, watching people treat you like you’re not important.” His fingers trailed in slow circles on your shoulder. “I know you want to keep the relationship secret, and you have good reasons, but I can’t just stand by if someone hits you.”

“You want to tell people?” you asked.

“I know you don’t want to,” Davrakoss said. “But we’ve been together for a little while now. We’re going to have to tell someone eventually.”

You stayed anxiously silent. “I’m just scared,” you said, barely above a quavering whisper.

“I’ll keep you safe, if you’ll allow it,” Davrakoss said. “I know it’s a bit change and it’s frightening, but I think it will be better for you if you can get through it.”

“I want to think about it,” you said. Davrakoss sighed, his warm breath ruffling your hair.

“I understand,” he said. “Let me know when you’re ready.”

You leaned back into him as he pressed a kiss to your temple and wrapped his tail over your waist. Even with your anxiety running wild, he was something secure to lean against. At least you had him. Maybe that was good enough.