#he said he thought the elementary school was my stop with this big creepy grin.

[hamburgerslippers]

[kidney9-9]

Summer Vacation

Anonymous asked:

heyyyyy, if you are taking smutty requests could you do one where Toms family and the readers family are really close and go on holiday together but Tom and the reader hate each other. Throughout the holiday the keep teasing each other just to take the piss but eventually it gets too much for them, then their families go out but they don’t go and it’s becomes too much and they f*ck😏 and then after they are kissing and their families come home and think finally(im a sucker for enemies to lovers)

hi anon! hope you like this! before you read, please read the warnings! No mention of protection but can be imagined :)

Masterlist

Tom Holland x Reader (Smut with plot) Warnings: cursing, anger, kitchen sex, enemies-to-lovers, harsh teasing (non-sexual), dom!Tom, and oral sex (female receiving) Word Count: 4.7k

When you learned your family booked their annual summer vacation with the Hollands, you complained. The son, Tom Holland, also known as that one fucking asshole who threw sand in your eyes as a kid, was the main reason of your complaint. Since the day he threw sand in your eyes, the two of you despised each other, always jabbing each other with mean insults or shady comments. He was the reason you absolutely fucking hated vacations with your family.

He always called you “cow-girl” because of the unfortunate incident of a cow stepping on your foot during one of the vacations. You always hated when he would call you that, especially around other groups of people, other than your families. It caught on during elementary school, and you were teased the rest of the year because of it. On the other hand, you started calling him “poop-boy” after he tripped and slipped right into the cow poop after that same cow stepped on your foot.

Your families always teased the two of you, always telling you that you would be a great married couple. The two of you would instantly deny their teasing, which was the one thing the two of you had in common. Your dad always jokingly patting Tom’s back, telling him, “Oh, welcome to the family, son.” Which always made you uncomfortable as well. Whenever your family met any of the people you dated, they’d compare them to Tom, which made you hate him even more.

Hate was a strong word, but that was the only thing close enough to what you could describe your feelings of him. Even though you “hated” Tom, you couldn’t help but admit he was fucking hot. It made things even worse after seeing him on vacation, with only a pair of swim trunks on, and immediately thinking about how you wanted to jump his bones and shout at him.

He was lounging on the sunbeds of the summer house your and his family rented together this summer on a sunny beach when you got there. He had a beer in a hand and sunglasses on, talking to his brother and not bothering to look over to you and your family. His mom greeted all of you with a warm smile, “Welcome guys! It’s lovely to see you all here! How have you been?” You smiled politely back at her as she and your mom started animatedly chatting. Your dad sent you a grin and then looked over to the boys, “Hey Tom! Harry, come over here!” He called out with a wave.

Harry was such a sweetheart. You had no idea how he was related to Tom, because of how sweet he was to you all the time. He would call you big sis, and the two of you would always hang out the most during vacations. You looked over to the two of them, smile dropping as Tom lifted his sunglasses and glared at you.

What a lovely greeting, you thought, as him and Harry strolled closer to you and your dad. Your mom had gone inside to put the suitcases away in the rooms. “Hi Harry!” You said sweetly, pulling him for a quick hug. Harry grinned back to you, “Hey guys, happy you can make it.” Your dad nodded to his statement, smiling. But looking back at Tom, you could see he was not having it.

“I’m not happy cow-girl came along.” Tom grumbled out, taking a long sip of his beer. You rolled your eyes at the nickname as both your dad and Harry started laughing, “When are you guys getting together?” Your dad questioned teasingly and the both of you grimaced at the thought. When Tom glared over at you again, making Harry punch the side of his arm mouthing, “Not now.”

The four of you walked inside while Tom continued to glare at you. Harry frowned at Tom’s obvious rudeness again, while you could practically feel the holes burning through your head. You stopped thinking about that for a second, as you looked around the entrance of the summer house with amazement. It was completely beautiful. The house was open concept, a beautiful big living room, a dining room off to the side, and the kitchen had a large island.

Tom scoffed at your awe, “Already impressed? Wonder what type of boys you take home.” Your dad acted like he didn’t hear that, just glanced back to the three of you with raised eyebrows before heading off to greet Tom’s dad. You jeered back to Tom instantly, “What? You take home spoiled girls? That’s your thing, huh?” Harry coughed out a giggle between the two of you as he walked into the kitchen, slicing a piece of the cake that his mom made earlier. 

He offered some to you, which you declined politely, since you weren’t in the mood to stick around Tom any longer. It was like a pissing contest between the two of you, trying to reach the farthest point to anger each other. “At least I can actually take them home and introduce them to the family.” Tom shot back, making you laugh sarcastically.

“Like your family wants to meet the bratty girls you bring home on the weekends.” You retorted, glancing back to Harry as he took a bite of his slice with a slow nod at your statement. You grinned in victory as Tom scoffed at his brother, slapping the side of his arm annoyed.

Your smugness didn’t last too long though, “I’m heading upstairs, see you later Harry.” You said, looking down at your phone with a grin at the message that popped up. It was one of your friends, sending you another funny video she found online. “Can’t even look at him when you’re speaking? Who’s the fucking brat now?” Tom spoke up, making you scoff at him, rolling your eyes.

It was always like he had to have the last word. You ignored the two boys hollering at each other and you, as you walked up the stairs to the bedroom your suitcase was in. You laid back on the bed with a sigh, glancing around at the mirrors on the wall. It was sort of creepy to you, seeing so many mirrors hung up in a room, but you shrugged it off when you stood back up, starting to unpack some of your clothes. You took your bathing suit out, quickly changing into it so you could go swimming down at the beach. When you looked down there, it seemed like no one was out, and it was peaceful.

You frowned again, realizing it would be anything but peaceful with Tom there.

Down at the beach, you quickly ran into the water, not caring about anyone watching you as you splashed your way in. It was so relaxing to float in the water with the sound of the waves. The sun was bright too, but not the type to make you squint your eyes at. Harry laughed, following you in as you both started splashing water at each other. “Ow! My eyes!” You yelped out as the salty water stung, making Harry stop for a moment.

You giggled quietly as he came closer concerned. Tom watched from the shore with a frown, seeing you clutch your face in pain, and debated if he should go in to check on you. Even though the two of you were far from friends, he still felt a little sting of worry when you didn’t let go of your face, and it made Harry panic.

Tom’s worry reminded him of the time you two met, when he accidently smacked sand in your eyes. He remembered how angry and upset you were, officially declaring him your “enemy” as a six-year-old. He really didn’t want to hurt you, but he just wanted to impress you with cool sand tricks. He saw you playing with toys he wanted to play with, and thought you looked cool, and as he introduced himself, and flicked sand up into the air, it just landed straight in your eyes. You had to go to urgent care when you opened your eyes, making everyone at the park gasp. He felt horrible, but you did say he was your “enemy”, so he felt like he didn’t even have to apologize.

When Harry got to you, spinning you around to face him, your hands were still on your face and you laughed loudly, scaring Harry as you pushed him down into the water. Tom scoffed at your actions and himself, for even being worried about you. “Harry! Next time you have to make sure to splash her eyes!” Tom called out, making you irritated. You glanced back to Harry as he laughed at his brother’s joke.

“Why’s your brother such a dick?” You questioned seriously and quietly to Harry. Tom took a seat back on the chair, putting his sunglasses back on with a sigh. “I don’t know why either of you act like that. If you guys got along, you’d be great together, as friends or…” Harry trailed off seeing your glower at him.

“Not you too!” You groaned out, walking back to shore to dry off. It was already dinner time even though the sun was still out, and you could see back through the windows of the summer house, as both yours and Tom’s family pilled to the front entrance, dressed formally. You dried off quickly with your towel, and threw it back on Tom, making him gasp out of his sleepy-sun rest. “Cow-girl.” Tom bit at you, making you roll your eyes.

“Poop-boy, our families are leaving.” You responded, using his nickname. Tom sighed at it, not bothering to comment as Harry made his way to you both. He stood between the two of you as you all walked back to the house. “You’re going Harry?” You asked, confused as he began to walk faster, or even speed walk. He grinned back to you two, “Yeah! You aren’t?” His question hit both you and Tom.

At the same time, you responded, “Not feeling like it.” While Tom replied, “Nah, too early for me.” The both of you looked at each other with a groan, as Harry laughed. He could already tell that the two of you were going to get on each other’s nerves when everyone else leaves for hours. Harry quickly ran off inside, once the three of you reached the entrance, running into the families.

You glanced to everyone, explaining, “I’m just not really wanting dinner right now. Might go lay down.” Your mom nodded back to you, “Oh bummer! Maybe tomorrow night you can come.” All the parents agreed as Harry sprinted downstairs, stumbling in an outfit now, making everyone laugh. Tom slapped his brother’s shoulder playfully, “Can’t believe you’re leaving me here with that thing.” His voice stung out.

“That thing” was a vicious and horrible comment about you. You usually dealt with cow-girl just fine but when he referred to you like that, it made you upset. His comment quieted everyone down from the laughter and chatter, and they quickly said their goodbyes and left. When your family never spoke up for you in front of everyone here, from Tom’s mean attitude to you, it hurt as well. But it was because they never understood that even though it could’ve just been a joke, it still stung.

Tom sighed out when they left, and gazed back to you, annoyed. He was still thinking about what you and Harry did in the water and it just irritated him that you had the nerve to act like Harry hurt your eyes. You shifted on your feet for a second, looking back to him and shrugged, not wanting to deal with his rude behavior. You walked over to the kitchen and got yourself a glass of water.

Your phone beeped, and it was your friend again with another funny video, and you laughed at the thumbnail on it. Tom strolled over to the kitchen and leaned up against the pantry, “Is that your boyfriend or something?” He asked, absentmindedly playing with his fingers. The way you would smile at your phone was starting to annoy him.

“Uh, no? Why?” You questioned back, facing him. Tom rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah, I should’ve known.” Your irritated sigh came out at his words, and you just weren’t in the mood to argue, so you dropped it. Another beep on your phone brought your attention back, and you laughed loudly at it. It was a picture Harry sent of him, clutching his seat belt funnily. 

“What is it now?” Tom asked, pushing himself off the pantry door and glancing over your shoulder at the picture. He chuckled at Harry’s antics, but your tensed up by how close he was. This was the first-time you guys laughed together, at the same thing, in so long. His breath was hitting your neck as he stood behind you looking at the phone. You felt your cheeks burn at it, knowing your neck was sensitive. Tom stayed a second longer than necessary, only stepping back when you glanced back to him.

The two of you stood in silence for a few moments, before Tom cleared his throat, “Poop-boy is a stupid nickname, by the way.” You laughed at that, fully turning around after setting your phone down. “Yeah, so is cow-girl.” Another awkward silence ensured after that, and you sighed at it, glancing back to the cake with interest.

Tom got out two plates, seeing you eye the cake and set it on the island, to fix both of you a slice. “So, have you seen my recent movie?” You frowned at that, sure you have, and you liked it, but you didn’t want him to know that. Even though the two of you were having a rare friendly interaction, it didn’t change the fact he was an asshole to you most of the time. “No, I don’t watch any of them.” You responded, making Tom scoff.

His family and yours have been friends for so long, and it bothered him, that not once did you watch any of the work he did. And when you continued, it only pissed him off further, “Acting is a talentless job, there’s no value in it.” Sure, you realized you should’ve stopped but seeing him angrily clench his fists together after pushing a plate with a slice of cake to you. Tom breathed in, trying to calm down before he did something stupid, like blow up on you again.

“And besides, don’t you only do minor roles? Seems irrelevant.” You pushed, trying to hide your smirk as Tom banged his fists into the counter. “Minor roles? Are you kidding me? That’s my life’s work! You could have just said no!” Tom exclaimed back, in disbelief and anger at you. You shrugged your shoulders at him. You did actually like his movies, and his roles but if you told him, it would only boost his cocky attitude up.

“Do you even know what I do for a living?” You questioned back, making Tom pause. He didn’t know anything about your work. You never said anything about it, at all and it made Tom hesitantly shake his head, “No.” You laughed in disbelief at that, “You don’t have the right to bitch at me then.” You didn’t want him to know about your job, seeing as he would only criticize you more.

Tom stepped forward to you again, “Excuse me? Who’s the fucking bitch here? I know it’s not me.” His voice came out in a sneer and you frowned at it. You didn’t say anything, just picked at the slice he gave you with the fork. “Say it again for me, bitch.” Tom spat out, grabbing your wrist harshly.

“Fucking hell Tom! I’m sorry!” You yelped back, trying to tug your hand away from his but he pulled you in closer to him, making you drop the fork on the floor. You gazed back up to Tom as he stared at you, realizing he shouldn’t have grabbed you like that. He let go of your hands with hesitation, but you stayed in place, standing almost a breath away from him. “Fine, fuck, I’m sorry too.” He mumbled, looking down at you, with his face softening just a little.

You stayed still as silence burned through the two of you, as Tom’s face started going red. You couldn’t tell if it was from anger or something else. You felt a buzzing run through you as the two of you made eye contact, and you couldn’t help but slip your gaze down to his lips slowly. He stood still, gazing at you as you slowly moved your eyes back to his and blushed.

He burned too, just thinking about what your look at his lips could mean. You broke out of the stance, bending down to pick the fork up with a sigh and you stood back up as Tom stayed in place, looking at you. With a teasing attitude, you placed the fork back onto the counter, and swiped your finger over the top of the cake, collecting the frosting.

You gazed back to him with a smirk, stepping back closer to him, as you placed the finger in your mouth, swirling your tongue over the frosting. You closed your eyes, memorizing the flavor as he quietly gasped at you. When you slightly moaned at the taste, Tom finally reached out, snapping your finger out of your mouth, and pulling you to his body, with no distance.

You glanced to him in surprise as he leaned down, and then oh, fuck. You realized what was happening. Tom slammed his lips to yours with a grunt, and you took a second to process it, before kissing back twice as harshly. He pushed you back against the counter, taking his lips off yours for a moment, and he glanced back up to your eyes, “This okay?” He questioned, and you quickly responded a breathy, “Yeah, fuck.”

He pushed into you, trapping you between his arms, with your back against the counter. His lips pushed onto yours again and you opened your mouth instantly, making Tom groan lightly as he pushed his tongue through your lips. His lips were softer than you expected, and the way his tongue swirled and curled, you were stunned by his expert techniques. But you quickly pushed that thought away, as you pushed your tongue onto his, fighting for dominance.

It didn’t work out though, as he pulled away from you again, and muttered out, “Up.” You quickly hopped, and he picked you up, pushing you on top of the counter Your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him in closer to you, and the two of you moaned at the feeling. You started to feel a wetness pull in your bathing suit, which wasn’t from the sea. Tom pulled away again, gasping for breath as he tugged your top piece, trying to take it off.

You reached behind you, tugging the top apart, and letting it drop in front of the two of you as Tom gasped, leaning down and capturing a nipple in his mouth. You moaned out as he licked and bit down, in a repeating motion, and you felt yourself getting even more aroused when you looked down to see Tom’s erection.

His cock twitched over and over again from the two of you, and he couldn’t help but think, how fucking hot this was. In all the ways he ever thought of you as a bitch or just “cow-girl”, he didn’t ever expect for you to feel so good under him. And the sounds you were making just made him want you more. “Fuck, why didn’t we do this sooner?” He groaned out, reaching up to kiss you again.

You moaned into his mouth with a shrug. It didn’t really matter to you, all you wanted to do was this, now and in the moment. Tom sighed into the kiss, as you tugged him closer again with your legs. You swirled your tongue onto his lip, and you pushed your hand through his hair, tugging at it. He groaned again and you bit down onto his bottom lip, making him open up again. The sloppy kissing between the two of you started to cause a dribble of shared saliva down your body.

You pulled away for breath again, and Tom quickly tugged his swim trunks down, revealing his throbbing cock to you. He looked back at you, suddenly more aware and spoke up, “Do you want to do this?” his voice came out in shallow breaths, and you quickly responded, “Yes, please.” Tom groaned at your begging, and tugged down your swim bottoms, making you gasp in excitement.

Tom breathed in deeply at the site of you glimmering wet. He couldn’t stop himself as he dived down and kissed your core. You gasped out again, and he started licking, and sucking. It was amazing to him, he couldn’t stop once he started, when hearing your moans and the taste. You moaned loudly, and squeezed your legs around his head, while pushing your hands back into his hair, tugging and sliding your fingers through it.

The pulsing intensified as he sucked straight onto your clit, and you yelped out, “Tom, please!” He pulled away, feeling another twitch rush through his cock. He breathed in unsteadily, “What do you want, babe?” You furrowed your eyebrows at the nickname but retorted, “Tom, please just fuck me.”

He sighed out, feeling himself flush more as he stood back up, and pulled you closer to his hips. In a slow movement, he pushed himself in with a loud groan. “Oh fuck!” He groaned out and you moaned as well, feeling the fullness in you. Tom shuddered when he bottomed out, “Fuck, how are you so fucking tight?” You groaned when he moved back and slammed into you again.

“Fuck Tom!” You moaned out, as he started to pace himself. Both of you were breathing loud and unevenly, moaning out when he would sink in again. You wrapped your legs around him, to pull him in even more making him tremble. Tom suddenly bent his legs, and scooped you up, you held onto him as he carried you back to the pantry door, slamming back into you. You gasped out at the different position and he took the chance to kiss you deeply, groaning into the kiss.

He continued to hold you up against the door as you moaned into the kiss. You pushed your head away from his, pulling his head back with your hand and leaning down and kissing his neck sloppily. He groaned again, pushing one hand down to your clit and rubbing it suddenly. You gasped at the sensations, feeling like you were nearing an orgasm. As if Tom could feel it as well, he started rubbing harder onto your clit and with a loud gasp and moan, “Tom- I’m fuck, I’m coming.”

“Come for me.” He grunted out, and in an instant, you felt like bliss. You came hard and fast, moaning out his name loudly, as Tom neared his end too. He moved himself out of you as he came hard, groaning loudly. His legs felt like jelly, and you quickly dropped your legs, standing up while trembling and breathing heavily. “Holy shit.” You whispered out, sinking to the ground of the kitchen with Tom following along.

You sat with each other for a few minutes, trying to catch your breath. “That was fucking good, poop-boy. Didn’t know you had that much stamina.” You laughed out, making Tom shake his head at you. But this time he was smiling too, “Fuck you, cow-girl.” The both of you looked at each other silently for a moment before bursting out laughing together.

It was so strange to be here with him, laughing with him. And especially fucking him. That felt good though, but you just hoped it wouldn’t bite you in the ass. You glanced out the window, noticing it was already nighttime, and that the sunset was already gone. You pushed yourself up with a groan, as Tom stayed on the floor still. “I’m going to take a shower.” You murmured to him, making him gaze up to you.

“I can join if you want?” Tom responded instantly making you giggle again. The sex glow was visible on both of you, and especially his face, with his doped-out smile. You blushed again looking at it, finding it attractive. “No, I think they’ll be back soon.” You whispered, smiling back to him.

But where did all of this leave you two?

You thought about it for a long time in the shower, maybe over an hour. It wasn’t like the two of you could just go back to hating each other like nothing. That would hurt too much, for the both of you. You could see that Tom didn’t want to go back either, by the way you guys interacted after the sex. And it was also fucking good, one of the best in a long time and you assumed so for him too. After all these years, and you finally fucked some of the tension out? Yeah, it was great. But you guys couldn’t possibly just start a relationship like that.

You stepped out of the shower after making sure you got all the mess off your body, hoping to talk to Tom about everything. Was it going to be a one-time thing? You anticipated not. You quickly got dressed, seeing the marks Tom made around the one nipple and laughing at it. It was already bruised, which surprised you.

After getting your pajamas on, you headed downstairs again, seeing that Tom cleaned up the kitchen, but was still in his swim-trunks. “Hey,” You greeted quietly and almost shyly, his head instantly looked up to you and he smiled brightly.

Oh, fuck. That was so fucking cute and hot. He walked towards you with the same sex-doped grin you had. The front door opened, but the two of you were too entrapped in each other to notice, as Tom leaned down to kiss you again. You instantly wrapped your arms around the back of his neck, smiling into the kiss. And that was when you heard the screaming. The two of you bounced away from each other as Harry hollered, “Finally!”

Your dad had shouted, “When’s the wedding?!” And the rest of them too shocked to say anything. You and Tom glanced at each other awkwardly, not expecting them at all. The stare the two of you shared together was an invisible conversation, where you agreed to deny everything.

“What are you talking about?” You questioned back, acting baffled as Tom started, “Yeah, you guys are drunk…”. Harry snorted at your defense, “I don’t care, just as long as you guys didn’t do it in my room here.”

Tom shook his head at that laughing, as you raised your eyebrows back to Harry. He came between you and Tom again and pulled you into a group hug. “If I’m not the best man, fucking make me the bride’s maid of honor.” His voice came out in a hushed tone, and the three of you fell into laughter. - tags: @lozzypoz321​ taglist is open!

[inkedstarlight]

Elriel: Halloween Edition

Summary: Azriel and his son go trick-or-treating and stop by Elain's house. They have an adorable encounter. Later that night, Elain goes to Feyre's house for the Halloween party she's throwing and meets her boyfriend, Rhys. Rhysand's brothers also come to the party and Elain runs into Azriel yet again. Let the romance ensue. Basically just a shit ton of fluff. Note: Read it here on AO3!

There was nothing Elain Archeron loved more than giving candy out to little kids on Halloween. Which is why she was currently sitting on her living room couch in her costume, the bowl of candy in her lap as she patiently waited for the first trick-or-treater to come.

It was the first Halloween that she’ll have spent in her new house. She’d recently moved from her studio apartment to a small, two-bedroom house just outside the city. After being promoted from teacher to principal at the elementary school she’d worked at for more than five years, Elain figured a little change was in order.

Unfortunately, the new neighborhood was a bit further from her sisters than her apartment had been. They both lived in the city, Feyre taught painting lessons at the local art store while Nesta worked as a software developer at a start-up tech company. Feyre had also recently moved; her boyfriend of only seven months, Rhysand, asked her to move in with him. Elain hadn't yet met him but from what Feyre had told her, he seemed like he treated her sister really well. But Elain would be the judge of that.

Well, more like Nesta would be the judge of that. Elain was certain that her older sister was going to interrogate the poor man until she's squeezed out his darkest secrets. Nesta had a... unique way with people. Unconventional, but it'd been effective thus far.

Tonight was particularly exciting because the couple was hosting a small Halloween bash at their place. Elain had been bugging Feyre for weeks to properly introduce Rhysand to her and Nesta. Their schedules very rarely matched up.

The doorbell rang, pulling Elain from her thoughts and back to the present. She glanced at the clock. It was four-thirty in the evening. The sun still shone bright in the sky.

She grinned to herself. Let the trick or treating commence.

Jumping up from where she sat, Elain excitedly made her way to the front of the house. She swung the door open. What she saw on her porch melted her damn heart.

A little boy, no older than six, was dressed as a firefighter. He had a tiny hard hat on his head, his chocolate hair curling out from underneath. A dalmatian stuffed animal was tucked under his arm, his other hand clutching a jack-o-lantern bucket for candy. His eyelashes were impossibly long as he looked up at her with wide eyes and a goofy smile. It was contagious.

Elain also noticed that he was alone, no adult in sight.

“Trick or treat!” the boy greeted her.

“Happy Halloween!” Elain replied with a giggle. She put her bowl of candy on the ground to kneel in front of him. She looked around. “Is someone with you?”

“Yeah,” the kid sighed like he just got out of a stressful work meeting. Elain inwardly smiled. “My daddy. But he kept talking and talking about why he thought Mounds was his favorite candy, even though it’s obviously the worst.”

The boy stopped to look at her as if waiting for her to agree. Elain nodded her head vigorously. Naturally.

“He was just talking so much,” the little boy continued. He gestured for Elain to come closer before whisper-shouting, “You know, I really think he needs a girl in his life –”

“TOBIAS!” a strong, male voice called out.

“Uh-oh,” the boy, Tobias, muttered under his breath. He looked up at Elain with pleading eyes. “Don’t let me get in trouble.”

Elain suppressed her laugh and nodded at him. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Tobias held out his pinky finger. "Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise," Elain swore. Gods, this kid was a gem.

Elain watched as a man approached her yard. His face was twisted with frustration, presumably because his son ran away, but he was… beautiful. Elain sucked in a breath as she ran her eyes up and down his body. He was wearing a loose white shirt, slightly sheer, that had a very deep V. The sleeves were cut off messily and he wore a fake sword on his hip. He was a pirate. A sexy pirate. But it was definitely a costume that wasn't advertised as 'sexy.' No, it was the man wearing it that made it sexy. And to make it even better, he looked as if he’d thrown it on last minute when his son reminded him it was Halloween.

The man stopped in front of Tobias. He crossed his arms, paying no mind to Elain.

“You’re in big trouble."

“But –”

“We’ve talked about this, Tobias. You can’t just run away from someone when you get bored.”

Now Elain really had to hold in her laugh. She covered it with a cough.

That's when Tobias’s father realized they had an audience. He directed his authoritative stare to Elain, and his hazel eyes immediately softened. She did her best to not fidget as his eyes ran over her. He must have seen the humor on her face because his lips twitched upward.

 Fucking adorable.

“Sorry about my son,” he said sincerely, shooting a glare at an oblivious Tobias from the corner of his eye. “I’m Azriel. And you are?”

“Elain," she told him with a shy smile.

“Elain,” he echoed, testing it out on his tongue. Shivers ran down Elain’s arms. His voice was like velvet. She could listen to him repeat her name over and over again for hours.

Stop being so creepy.

“You, uh –” Azriel stumbled over his words awkwardly as he tried to find the words. “I love your costume.”

Elain blushed appreciatively. But before she could thank him, Tobias groaned.

“C’mon, Daddy, that was so lame. Get her phone number or something.”

Elain clapped a hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking as she nearly lost it. It was Azriel’s turn to blush this time.

“Tobs, now’s not the time –”

“But she’s so pretty and nice! I already love her,” he pouted up at his father.

Azriel mumbled incoherent words as he tried to usher his son off the porch. “We should really go,” Azriel said, trying to avoid eye contact with her. He was so awkward. She loved it. “I’m so sorry again.”

“Wait!" Elain blurted out, trying to delay his departure. Azriel looked at her and she gave him a sheepish smile. "You forgot to grab some candy."

Tobias didn't need to be told twice. Elain held out the bowl for him to choose. He fished around for a while before picking three Skittles packages. Elain gave him a wink before turning to Azriel.

“Everyone should get candy on Halloween,” she grinned at him.

He looked at her curiously before smiling gratefully and taking a piece of candy without even looking to see the options.

“Thank you, Elain," he said, his tone sincere and soft. She nearly melted right there.

"Happy Halloween," she murmured as she watched Azriel back away, Tobias looking at his father as if he had two heads. Azriel seemed to be in a daze, giving Elain a small wave as he continued to walk backwards. He stumbled over his own feet, earning a laugh from Elain. Then, he finally turned around and walked out of sight.

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

“It’s so wonderful to meet you!” Elain exclaimed, ignoring the hand that Rhysand held out and going straight in for a hug.

“Don’t suffocate him,” Feyre joked as she watched them embrace.

Elain had arrived to their place a couple minutes early, eager to meet her sister’s boyfriend. Elain backed away to let Nesta introduced herself. Elain leaned over to Feyre.

“You didn’t tell me how cute he is,” Elain whispered with a giggle.

Feyre laughed. “Did I mention he has two brothers?”

Elain’s jaw dropped. “No, you seemed to have conveniently left that part out.”

“Well, they’ll be here soon,” Feyre said with a twinkle in her eye. “And they’re both single.”

Nesta turned to them as they laughed secretively. Rhysand followed her gaze. “What are you two giggling about?”

Before Feyre had a chance to answer, the doorbell rang. She excused herself, Rhysand right on her tail.

Elain looked over at her older sister to see her glaring down at her. “Let me guess: you guys were talking about Rhysand’s brothers.”

“How’d you know?”

Nesta let out an exasperated sigh. “She’s already tried to set me up with one of them.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t go well?”

Nesta scoffed. “Horribly. She failed to mention that he was a grade A –”

“Fancy seeing you here, sweetheart,” a low voice interrupted Nesta’s rant.

A man approached them, hands in pockets as he strutted confidently. His long brown hair was tied up in a messy bun and a five o’clock shadow on his sharp jaw. Elain watched as her sister dragged her hands down her face and groaned at the mere sight of him. That only made him chuckle deeply.

“Miss me?”

Nesta ignored his comment and reluctantly gestured to him. “Elain, this is Cassian. Cassian, this is my other sister Elain.”

Cassian shot her a goofy grin and reached out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Elain. I’ve never seen anyone rock fairy wings like you are.”

Elain couldn’t help but blush. “Thank you.”

Nesta rolled her eyes. “Ugh, stop charming everyone!”

“I’m irresistible, sweetheart,” Cassian batted his eyelashes.

“I need a drink,” Nesta muttered to herself before walking away and in the direction of the kitchen.

Cassian winked at Elain before following her sister. “I could use a drink too!"

Elain listened to them bicker as they walked away, a smile touching her lips.

Over the next couple hours, more and more people arrived at Rhysand and Feyre’s place. It soon got crowded, Elain unable to hear over the booming music and incessant chatter.

She was sitting on an loveseat in the corner watching Cassian trying to convince Nesta to dance with him when she heard a familiar voice.

"Sorry I'm so late, the babysitter cancelled last minute and I had to find a replacement."

Elain's head snapped to the foyer where Feyre and Rhys stood with another man. Elain got a glimpse of his face as he took off his jacket, and her suspicions were confirmed.

It was Azriel.

Elain's heart was beating out of her chest as she watched Feyre lead Azriel into the living room where she sat.

Then he spotted her.

He stopped dead in his tracks, Feyre continuing to walk and talk, not noticing that she no longer had his attention. No, his eyes were on Elain and Elain alone.

Elain gave him a little wave. Azriel's lips turned into a full out smile as he caught up to Feyre, who had been leading him to Elain anyway. Presumably to introduce him to her and Nesta.

"Azriel, this is -"

"Elain," he finished. His eyes were still on her, disbelief on his face.

Feyre looked between them confusedly. "Do you guys know each other?"

"Uh..." Elain started, unsure of what to say. "Sort of?"

"I went out with Tobias and we incidentally stopped by her house," Azriel explained.

"Well," Feyre said with a mischievous grin. "I guess I'll leave you guys to it." She shot Elain a look that said, You should make a move.

And just like that, they were alone.

Azriel took a seat beside Elain, leaving only a couple inches between them as he turned his body toward her. He smelled amazing.

"So, you're Feyre's sister, huh?" Azriel gazed at her earnestly and bumped his shoulder against hers. "I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot of each other."

Elain bit her lip to stop herself from grinning like an idiot. "No complaints here."

A comfortable silence fell between them as they watched others dancing and drinking. The current song faded out and "Creep" by Radiohead began to play.

"Would you, um... would you like to dance?" Azriel asked her tentatively.

Oh my gods, yes! What kind of question is that?

"I would love to," Elain exclaimed.

Azriel stood and held out his hand. The moment Elain took his hand with her own, she was a goner.

He led them to the makeshift dance floor before bringing her hand to his shoulder and grabbing her waist gently with his hand. Fire shot through Elain when his thumb circled idly on her palm. Then, he pulled her in close.

"This okay?" Azriel murmured, his lips brushing against her ear. She shivered and nodded.

"Did I mention," he continued, spinning them in a slow circle, "that you are absolutely gorgeous?"

Elain hid her face against his shoulder to smile widely before craning her neck to look at with him, a twinkle in her eye. "I think you were too busy tripping over your own feet to mention that."

Azriel tipped back his head and laughed loudly. She loved the sound. "You wound me, Elain," he told her, but Elain could see the faint blush in his cheeks. He leaned in to whisper, "You're right though. You make me nervous."

The music swelled, and Azriel guided both of Elain's hands to cup the back of his neck. He encircled his arms around her waist until their bodies were flush against each other, their foreheads touching.

"I like Tobias. He's a great kid."

Azriel's entire body seemed to relax as he gave her an easy smile. "He's a handful, and I love him."

"I can tell," Elain told him. "You're a good dad."

"Thank you." Azriel huffed out a laugh. "You're something else, Elain Archeron."

Elain leaned her head back and she searched his hazel eyes. "Is that a good thing?"

Something unreadable flashed in his eyes. "Yes."

And then he was capturing her lips in his to give Elain the sweetest kiss she'd ever had.

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

tag list (lmk if you want to be added/removed): @sjmships​ @sleeping-and-books​ @sirgwaines​ @books-for-sure​ @blowing-mikey​ @b00kworm​ @wineywitch202​ @liquifyme​ @maastrash​ @thewayshedreamed​

[saiki-in-jsl]

No Powers Saiki AU (3k)

Where he also has anxiety and selective mutism. (But also, nobody has powers. And that volcano issue never happens because I SAID SO.)

Uhm uhhhh, in no way am I a doctor, so this may not be very accurate. Sorry!!

TW: Panic attack, I don’t think this one needs a skip so I’ll just leave it as that (but if you need one, tell me :eyes:)

Also on my ao3!

Also well shit, I do like myself some good Kusuo and Akechi friendship :,)

Also also, ugggghhhhhh, the italics stuff don’t go through when I copy and paste from my docs rip. This is why I prefer ao3 more (and because their tagging system is HEAVENLY) so if you wanna read with all them proper italics I suggest switching to my ao3

ALSO ALSO ALSO, RIGHT WHEN I FINISHED THIS, I DISCOVERED ASL AND JSL ARE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SO D A R N H E C K I’M SORRY. I did a big oopsie,,,let’s,,,pretend that asl,,,is,,default,,?

Saiki Kusuo was not your typical boy.

Since he was young, it had been painfully obvious that he was a gifted child, surpassing his brother by intelligence and strength. This had drawn many curious scientists to him, and after several tests that went on for hours and hours, he finally broke. He stopped talking and he stopped wanting to be around people.

His mother, equally as tired of the scientists as her son was, decided to hide his identity away from the public, constantly moving from location to location to avoid the people who knew of her son’s abilities.

This barely helped with Kusuo’s social development as a child, so the more he moved, the more he decided that he would much rather live in an isolated world than a world filled with people with prying eyes and loud mouths.

He did make a friend once though, but it barely lasted due to unforeseen circumstances that involved a few beat up bullies, and it had surprisingly hurt when he had to move away again. Akechi was his first real friend, and realizing that he won’t be seeing him again felt weird.

As much as he loved being alone, a friend would’ve been nice.

So the night before they moved away, he had pushed open his parents’ door, gripping his pajama top tightly, and whispered really really softly to his mother, “Mama. Will I ever make a friend?”

It was the first time he had spoken in a very long time, in fact, his mother couldn’t remember the last time he had spoken to her without pointing and hand gestures. So predictably, she cried and hugged him tight, mumbling how sorry she was for ruining his chance at making a friend, too caught up with trying to avoid those nosey scientists.

Middle school went by like a blur, aside from the occasional school switch that still happened, yet not as often as elementary. He didn’t remember a single thing that happened during those school days, maybe a few anxiety attacks in the bathroom and a sad attempt at trying to socialize, but that was it. Maybe it really was easier to be alone, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about losing his breathing from the sheer amount of stress he got from the assembly hall.

Highschool came and Kusuo had a new plan: Accept that having friends are not necessary and speaking with your mouth is dumb. 

He quickly learnt how to use ASL, much preferring that language over vocally speaking, and made sure his grades were as average as possible. He had excelled through middle school and elementary school like it was nothing, but it had led him to be placed on stage many times because of this. So no more of that, because that was a recipe for disaster to him.

Kusuo made sure everything was in perfect place before heading to school. He made sure the school knew about his condition, and he also made sure to let them know he didn’t want to be publicly known as the school’s “mute kid”, so he’d definitely blend in without an issue.

Kusuo couldn’t believe what was happening. He hadn’t even fully registered his first year of highschool properly and his second year was already here. 

To start off, he had friends, something he did not expect to have. He could predict many things, the weather, what people were thinking, and if he tried hard enough, he could even predict who would walk by his classroom in the next second. But he did not see this one coming.

He didn’t even know how. Nendou was a dunce who went from copying his homework to hanging around and inviting him out for ramen and Kaidou was a chuunibyou who thought Kusuo’s hand gestures was some sort of secret language and ended up perceiving Kusuo as some ally to Jet Black Wings.

Yumehara, for no reason other than the fact that Kusuo looked cute, decided she was meant to be with him. A lot of effort was taken to avoid her, but just as she lost interest in him, the class- no, the world’s idol decided she’d have a crush on him too. Then there was the class representative, Hairo, who constantly screamed and moved and how does he not get tired? 

Then there was Kuboyasu, Toritsuka, Aiura, and so many people it made his head spin.

But they all had one thing in common when they communicated with him, and that was the fact that they all thought he was deaf. Granted, people who use ASL were commonly deaf, so he wasn’t blaming them for assuming so, and it did help him a little since this made them talk less around him and gave him a good excuse for ignoring them half the time.

Two years he spent in this highschool, and not once had he fired rapid ASL before. He never got the chance to, and he didn’t have much care for doing so. Mostly because most of the people around him didn’t even understand sign language.

But sometimes, listening to Toritsuka talk on and on about some cute girl could really put you on edge. Especially when he kept egging Kusuo on about the type of girls he liked.

The thing was, Kusuo didn’t like romance. He liked observing it and the idea of it, but he would never want to be a part of it. Frankly enough, he didn’t find any joy in it, he much preferred a life of solitude.

“C’mon, I know you can understand me, Saiki,” Toritsuka poked, grinning widely. “What kind of girls are you into? Or perhaps are into boys? Seriously, tell me, maybe we can go on a double date sometime. What about Teruhashi--“

Kusuo scowled, taking a step back and suddenly flying into fast ASL that roughly translated to several insults and long explanations as to why Kusuo wasn’t going to tell him. Toritsuka only blinked in surprise, because he swore he just saw the middle finger between those fast hand gestures, and he took a step back, raising his hands in defeat.

“Relax! Alright!” Toritsuka said, dropping the subject for good. “Next time fling me a note or something, that is seriously intimidating!”

Kusuo winced, feeling the third piece of paper Kaidou had just flung at him hit his head. This had been going on for the whole period, and Kusuo wondered why the teacher hadn’t noticed it yet. Most of the notes Kaidou sent weren’t serious anyways, and clearly not worth writing back to him.

He barely understood the references the boy was making anyways. 

“How about we hang out after school? Do you like cake?” The last note read.

Kusuo smiled softly. “Yes, I do like cake.” He wrote, and with ease, he strategically threw it back so it would land perfectly on Kaidou’s table.

Being around Teruhashi was not ideal at all, because wherever she went, many people would follow. Kusuo hated crowds more than anything, it made his throat close up and his face a little sweaty, though his facial expression would never express his discomfort.

It would always remain blank and devoid of emotions.

Which always peaked Teruhashi’s interest. She found it a challenge to make the “deaf” kid who barely spoke gasp at her beauty, it would be a mighty achievement, yet no matter how hard she tried, it just never worked, which only pushed her to try harder. It resulted in her falling in love with him, unfortunately.

“Saiki does have a cute face though,” Teruhashi mumbled under her breath right as she walked along with Kusuo. She assumed he couldn’t hear her, so she regularly said things like those quietly to herself whenever he wasn’t looking her way. He appreciated the compliment at times, but sometimes, they do get a little creepy.

Nendou probably didn’t understand the idea of deaf people, or perhaps he thought his idea was pretty smart. Either ways, Kusuo sometimes couldn’t understand why he had to shout at him to communicate.

Did Nendou think deaf people just had very very poor hearing? Probably. But it often got annoying when they were in public places, and Kusuo couldn’t even tell him to quiet down because he couldn’t tell when exactly he was actually shouting.

Both his shouting and talking volume were around the same range.

But, it was rather nice of him to go out of his way to learn a bit of sign language just so he wouldn’t have to shout at Kusuo anymore. It was actually pretty nice having an ASL buddy.

Note to self, do not use ASL around Kuboyasu too much. He will and can mistake them as gang signs and get either sappy or angry. Kusuo said in his head as he watched Kuboyasu stare off into the distance with his fists clenched, reminiscing about his gang days.

Several times Kusuo had mistaken Hairo’s sad attempt at ASL as actual words and once spent half an hour straight wondering why the boy had signed refrigerator geese to him during that dodgeball game.

Saiko had once walked up to him and declared that whatever “nonsense” Kusuo was going to sign, he’d know right away what they would mean. At first, Kusuo found it hard to believe that the rich boy had taken time to learn ASL within his one day of being in this school, but as it turned out, all Saiko did was hire a translator to follow him around to translate Kusuo’s words.

That was possibly the most amount of effort he’d ever seen from Saiko, and it was good enough.

Kusuo wondered if learning ASL had magically made him more attractive. Aiura would not leave him alone, with her blonde hair, tanned skin, overly accessorized things, and bubbly personality. She wasn’t like Teruhashi, who attracted more men than Kusuo could count on his fingers, so she wasn’t as annoying to be around with.

But then again, she was more forward than Teruhashi too, so it didn’t make her more appealing either.

Seeing Akechi again resurfaced too many feelings. He hadn’t really realized how much he missed his first friend, but then again, the same boy was probably very aware of Kusuo’s high intelligence and may accidentally reveal his secret with that blabbering mouth of his.

Though, Kusuo had to admit, Akechi hadn’t changed one bit since the last time he saw him. Besides the haircut of course, and some other details, like how good he was at deducting now.

Being around Akechi was always strangely comforting back then, there was just something about listening to him talk that made Kusuo feel comfortable. You could say his talking was like white noise to Kusuo.

“Why does everyone assume you’re deaf? You’re not deaf, you just don’t like talking a lot, right? Why don’t you tell them that? Is it because you find it easier to pretend to be deaf? I can understand that, you were always really quiet, which was nice because you were a great listener too. I never found out why you up and left our elementary school without saying goodbye, but you were crazy sma--” Okay, that was when Kusuo made him stop talking, and Akechi took this as a hint to keep it a secret. There was a pause before Kusuo finally signed something to him.

Sorry. 

“Nothing to apologize! I don’t think it was your fault anyways, but your plan worked like a charm honestly,” Akechi smiled. “I hope you missed me, because I know I missed you. We have a lot of catching up to do, I’ll start! So basically…”

Kusuo did. He really did miss him.

A play. Their class was doing a play.

After all that effort of trying to stay off the stage, he still couldn’t avoid it.

He’d feel bad if he didn’t show up to contribute, so he definitely couldn’t just ditch them. The most he could do was play a background role, but even then he’d still be painfully aware that he would be in front of the whole school, and he just couldn’t handle that.

But seeing everyone giving their all to make this play work, Kusuo couldn’t help but join along, regardless of his own condition.

Practice for the play went smoothly, and he found himself being able to cope with it. All he did was sway around like seaweed, since that was his role, and then walk off when his scene ends. Easy, nothing too complicated, he would be fine.

Until Saiko got his sensitive feelings hurt and decided to pull their budget on literally everything, including the costumes. Now, Kusuo couldn’t care less about that issue if it weren’t for the fact that; if the other cast didn’t have their costumes, they wouldn’t stand out as much, and there’d be a higher chance of the audience staring at him.

Yet there wasn’t much time to do last minute preparations for props and clothing, so everyone was encouraged to try their best in making their own costumes before the deadline. Kusuo predicted that no one would actually follow through, and for once, he wished he was wrong.

Apparently he didn’t wish hard enough, because that was exactly what had happened during the play. Everyone mostly came in their gym clothes, some with small props to make it look like they’ve tried, and some who just didn’t do anything at all.

When Kusuo’s scene finally came up, he and the rest of the people who played as seaweed scrambled onto stage, making waving motions with their arms to simulate seaweed underwater. Things went well for the most part, Kusuo did as practiced and waved around just like his other seaweed playing classmates, but the longer he stayed, the more aware he became.

Eyes, everywhere, in front of him, staring too hard, too long. Their mouths are moving, but he can’t hear what they’re saying, it was like they were on the other end of a glass wall. Were they talking about him among themselves? 

Had it always been this warm on stage? Was it normal for his hands to shake? Was he breathing? He didn’t remember exhaling, nor inhaling. His throat went dry, his whole body rigid from...fear?

Someone was pushing him, someone else was pulling him, but he can’t properly grasp what was happening. 

The world went a bit blurry before he completely went dark.

Kusuo woke up in the nurse’s office, body aching and throat dry. He wondered how long it took for him to wake up, but depending on the sun outside, it may have been an hour or so. He sat up slowly, groaning slightly from the pain, before suddenly being attacked by a hug from a familiar person.

“Pal! You’re okay,” Nendou cheered, finally pulling away from the hug to double check on his friend. He lifted his hands, proceeding to sign to him, You just suddenly fell over after they pulled you off stage.

My bad, Kusuo signed back tiredly. Sorry.

“What’d he say?” Kaidou nudged Nendou. Did he really have to ask? It was quite obvious.

“He says he’s fine.” Nendou answered, completely leaving out Kusuo’s apology, which he found strangely comforting yet offensive.

“He literally had a panic attack on stage, what do you mean he’s fine?” Kaidou argued, then he looked over at Kusuo with a deeper frown. “Why didn’t you tell us you were having an attack?”

“He wasn't being attacked,” Nendou said blankly.

“A panic attack, it’s different,” Kaidou huffed. “Saiki, not to be intrusive, but do you have anxiety?”

Did...he? He honestly never thought about it properly. Sure, he did have anxiety attacks every now and then when he was a kid, but this was the first one he had after a long time, so he never really considered he might’ve had anxiety.

Actually, it was starting to all make sense to him now that he thought about it.

“I’m going to take that as a yes but you didn’t know,” Kaidou said slowly, concern laced in his tone. It made sense that Kaidou would know, it did seem like he used to have the same issue.

“Oh for sure, can’t you tell from the way his eyes had widened just now by half a centimetre?” Akechi piped up from behind. 

Good freaking grief.

He knew his mother didn’t trust doctors, but Kusuo really needed to see one after literally fainting in school. Not only that, it wasn’t his first time having an attack either, this was just the first time it had gotten this bad.

Sitting in a psychiatrist's waiting room felt odd, because it seemed a lot more homey than a regular doctor’s waiting room, with paintings hung on the walls and carpeted floor. He wasn’t particularly nervous, but he knew his mother was, because the hand she was using to hold onto him was shaking.

It’ll be okay, he reassured, squeezing his mother’s hand tight.

And it was okay. The lady was really nice to him, gentle and understanding, she barely pried and most of the questions she asked were pretty normal. She was a little surprised to learn that Kusuo could speak, but not in a way that was obvious, only Kusuo could tell that she was.

Communication with her was sorta slow. He had to type onto his notes app on his phone for her to read to answer her questions instead of hand signing, which he didn’t really mind all that much.

His mother, who had been waiting outside for them to be done, immediately got up when Kusuo was finished and asked several questions, one being: Did he need to take medication now?

Fortunately enough, it seemed like his case wasn’t too severe yet, mostly because he could still handle being around people without an issue, so he didn’t need to take any meds for now. Although his selective mutism was pretty serious, it wasn’t too bad either in his case, due to the fact that Kusuo spoke through sign language rather than verbally, so he wasn’t completely mute per se.

He came back next week, and the next, and many more weeks after that. He really liked this therapy thing.

“So your friends think you’re deaf, so you’re using that as an excuse to ignore them sometimes?”

Oh, when she put it like that, it just made him sound like an asshole. But yeah, he pretty much was doing that.

“Is there a particular reason why?”

Kusuo drummed his fingers on his lap. There were many reasons why, but those reasons had long lost their meaning. At first, it was because he didn’t want any friends, but now that he did have friends, there wasn’t any reason for him to keep following them through. No matter how many times he told himself he didn’t like them, they were still his friends.

“And why do you not want any friends?”

“Making friends was hard, keeping friends was hard, and losing them was even harder.” Kusuo typed out. “I guess I stopped trying. But then they started coming to me, and it was weird because I had already accepted it.”

“So you got scared?”

She could say that.

She uncrossed her legs, only to cross them back moments later, and adjusted her glasses, leaning forward, “It’s okay to feel scared about losing your friends, but if you’re going to push everyone who wants to be with you away, then how are you going to know if they’ll truly leave you? There’s nothing wrong with wanting space, but people do need other people to survive.”

One of the many things he did like about his friends was the fact that they all knew he enjoyed sweets. It was pretty obvious that he did, with the way his face would smile softly and soften at the taste of coffee jelly.

Surprisingly, they never notice that he’d much rather be left alone. Either that, or they don’t care.

It was a small outing event, they were mainly just eating and talking, but also trying their best to include Kusuo as much as possible, even though he didn’t mind being left alone with his coffee jelly and cakes.

“Man, I feel bad not including Saiki in conversations sometimes,” Kaidou mumbled, assuming Kusuo didn’t know what he had just said because he wasn’t reading Kaidou’s lips. “Since it’s hard to talk to him sometimes.”

“I’m sure we’re trying our best,” Teruhashi beamed, making Kaidou flush red.

“We should probably just learn sign language like Nendou did.” Kaidou hummed, rolling a fork between his thumb and finger. “It’d be a lot easier.” Though possibly soul crushing for him, considering Kaidou had cram school and such already on his schedule.

“Sounds fun,” Kuboyasu commented. “I’d be down. Maybe we can surprise him.” Oh that was just too much, too nice, Kusuo didn’t even know what he did to earn this much love.

Nendou snorted, grinning widely as he pumped his fist on his chest, “I can teach you all!”

“That would save a lot of money.”

Kusuo stopped eating, a rare sight to see despite him being undisturbed, and he placed his spoon down. Everyone stopped talking, looking over at him in confusion before he finally opened his mouth, surprising them even more.

“I can hear you,” Kusuo managed out. “I always could.”

Teruhashi was the first to react, eyes widening and her face turning bright red. All those comments she muttered, he had heard them all.

Nendou blinked, smiling widely with his arms spread wide, “Congratulations on learning how to hear, pal!” Not quite there, but appreciated.

“Uh, uhm, OF COURSE! I knew the whole time,” Kaidou flashed a charming grin, which would’ve worked if it weren’t for the awkward pose he was doing.

Kuboyasu only stared, and drank his tea, “Oh. Well.”

“Sorry.” Then Kusuo paused, and raised his hands to sign. Felt more comfortable being like this, but you all are too nice to me. So the least I could do was tell you the truth. I don’t talk because I have selective mutism.

Nendou translated for them, and they all softened hearing this. Kusuo pressed his back against the booth seat and fiddled with his spoon before taking another bite. That felt easy, and weight lifting. Now that they know, he didn’t have to feel so bad about them going out of their way to do things for him just because they thought he was deaf.

“Of course I knew from the beginning,” Akechi boasted slightly, eyeing Aiura and Toritsuka with a smug grin. Aiura rolled her eyes at him, but pointed at Kusuo with a narrowed look.

“So you, like, could hear us the whole time,” she confirmed with him again. “I always thought you were just stupid smart, or something, at figuring things out despite not being able to hear, y’know?” Well, she wasn’t wrong about the smart part.

“That is so annoying!” Toritsuka blurted. “You’re annoying! Jeez! Would’ve been so much easier! Did you not tell us because you want an excuse to ignore us?” Kusuo recounted the number of times he avoided Toritsuka running towards him from behind, pretending he couldn’t hear him.

He proceeded to shake his head, very very slowly.

“He’s lying, by the way,” Akechi whispered. Kusuo clicked his tongue at that, earning himself a cheeky grin from Akechi.

Well that was that, now they all knew Kusuo wasn’t some deaf kid, even though that info might’ve spread throughout the school, which he really couldn’t care less about.

It was really nice, though, having friends he could trust.

[artificialqueens]

Tree House Kisses, Chapter 5 (Adorney) - Scorpio and Veronica

Chapter Summary: Just when Adore’s tired of being tired, someone new shows up. But why wasn’t Courtney informed?

Chapter 5: Shape of You

Adore shoved a couple of chips into her mouth, nose wrinkled in disgust, watching the obvious way Roy was flirting with Courtney, and the shameless way she was lapping up the attention. It had started with him teasing her, and currently had devolved into him attempting to tickle her on the grassy hillside where the group ate their lunch, as Courtney shrieked and giggled and pretended to want him to stop.

It had been a strange summer. After the bombshell news about Courtney’s parents dropped, Adore had decided not to reveal anything to her best friend about her sexuality yet. She tried to be a rock, a shoulder to cry on. She made a serious effort to spend time with Courtney all summer - even begging Bonnie to take Courtney along with them when they visited her cousins in Arizona, and making sure that no more than a few hours went by without a text.

Sometimes, she felt like she was leading a double life. Because while all that was going on, at the same time, she was taking every possible opportunity to sneak off with Violet. They had long since passed the days of mere make-outs in the tree house, and graduated to more adult forms of sexual experimentation. Violet was desperately in love with Fame, another girl in their class (although she tried to act cool about it), and it helped Adore to know that neither one of them was going to have their feelings crushed - at least, not by each other.

As Courtney had become fond of saying - romance and love and relationships were utter bullshit. The only thing in life that could truly be counted on were your friends.

And even that, Adore realized, was not guaranteed, as she watched her best friend act like a total fucking braindead idiot with a boy who had been annoying them since elementary school.

“Royyyyy, stoooop!” Courtney whined, giggling and simpering at him.

Adore stood up, the remnants of her lunch in her hands. “You know, when you want someone to stop touching you, giggling and batting your eyelashes is kind of a mixed message,” she said, then turned and flounced away.

Courtney jumped up and hurried after her. “Dory, wait up!”

Roy sighed slightly, whining to no one in particular, “Goddammit. Adore totally just fucked up my game.”

Jamin and Bob both laughed.

“What game?” Jamin asked.

“Yeah bro, you got no game,” Bob added.

“I have game!” Roy defended.

Alyssa and Darienne exchanged a look.

“Sorry, how long have you liked Courtney?” asked Darienne.

“Yeah, and you’re still just friends?” added Alyssa, with a judgmental pop of her tongue. “Maybe she’s trying to tell you something.”

The pretty brunette gave Roy a playful shove, fluttering her lashes.

“I’m taking it slow.”

“You’ve known her since you were like 3. That’s reeeeeeal slow, man,” Thorgy laughed.

“No fuckin’ game,” Bob proclaimed.

-

“Courtney!” Roy hurried up to Courtney at her locker, trying to catch her between the lunch bell and fifth period.

“Hey.” Courtney turned around, shutting her locker and flashing him a lopsided grin.

“Um...so...have you seen that new Exorcist movie yet?”

“Nope...have you?”

“No, but, uh...I heard it’s good. I was gonna try to see it this weekend.”

“Cool...” Courtney smiled, giving him a glimmer of hope.

“Are you free Friday? Do you want to maybe come with me?” Roy asked tentatively.

“Sure,” she agreed, slinging her backpack over her shoulder. “Who else is coming?”

“Oh. Um…” Roy shifted slightly. “I kind of thought it would just be the two of us.” He watched her face carefully as recognition dawned in her eyes.

“Oh…” she said softly, biting her lip nervously.

Roy cleared his throat and quickly backtracked, “You know, as friends.” He gave her a shaky smile, flashing his dimples.

“Right! Of course!” Courtney beamed up at him, eyes bright, radiant smile melting his heart. “So...I’ll see you later?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Relief and shame coursed through him. You fucking pussy, he told himself.

Courtney bit her lip again, flipping her ponytail over her shoulder and bouncing away down the hall. Bob, leaning on his locker nearby, gave Roy a knowing smirk.

Roy shook his head as Bob came sauntering towards him. “Don’t even start.”

Bob laughed. “Noooo fuckin’ game.”

“Fuck off,” Roy snapped, punching Bob on the shoulder.

-

COURTNEY: What do I wear? I don’t want to give him the wrong idea...

COURTNEY: But I still want to look cute.

COURTNEY: Do you think it’s really a just friends thing or is he full of shit?

ADORE: He’s full of shit

COURTNEY: LOL

COURTNEY: Well...

COURTNEY: If this is a date, what do I DO?

COURTNEY: Do I let him kiss me?

COURTNEY: I don’t know if I even like him like that...

COURTNEY: DORY HELP

-

ADORE: Come over. I’m bored.

VIOLET: Sorry pumpkin. It’s my brother’s birthday. We’re classing it up at the Outback Steakhouse tonight.

ADORE: Fuck.

VIOLET: What would you do if I was there??

VIOLET: …

VIOLET: Tell me where you’d touch me...

ADORE: I’m not in the mood for this.

VIOLET: You’re no fun at all.

ADORE: Yeah, well. Life is no fun.

VIOLET: Emo cunt

ADORE: Fuck off

VIOLET: Ohhhhhh...tonight’s your boo’s big date, huh?

ADORE: Goodnight, Violet

-

COURTNEY: DUDE

COURTNEY: He’s wearing so much cologne

COURTNEY: OMG I think this is a date

COURTNEY: WTF do I do?

COURTNEY: Adore???

COURTNEY: OK he’s being really nice and he keeps giving me those puppy eyes

COURTNEY: I feel kind of bad

COURTNEY: I really wish you were here

COURTNEY: Lol I just said “supposably” on purpose and he didn’t even correct me (I mean he clenched his teeth but he didn’t say anything)

COURTNEY: Lol he’s trying so hard

COURTNEY: It’s really pretty cute...

COURTNEY: DORY ARE YOU ALIVE???

“Ugh!” Adore hurled her phone out the window, into the grass. She curled into a ball and squeezed her eyes shut. And then she must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, hands were shaking her awake.

She opened her eyes to see Courtney leaning over her in a relatively modest (for her) outfit, consisting of a sweater, colorful leggings, mini-skirt, and ugg boots.

“Why are you ignoring me?” she pouted, hands on her hips.

Adore groaned. “I fell asleep. How was your date?”

“It wasn’t a date.”

“Yeah, yeah. So did you kiss him or what?”

“Nope.” Courtney flopped down next to Adore on the bean bag, resting a head on her shoulder.

Adore sighed. “You will.”

Courtney laughed. “Maybe. We’ll see.”

-

Adore had seen the moving truck in the driveway yesterday, on her way back from Violet's. To her disappointment, she didn't see anyone, but like everyone else on the street, she was curious as to who was moving into their neighborhood. Adore and her mother even made a bet a couple of weeks ago, when Bonnie announced that the house had been sold. Adore was sure that their new neighbors were going to be a fresh young couple with small kids (also hoping she could get a babysitting job), and Bonnie was convinced that it was an older couple that she had seen looking at the house not long after Bendela’s family moved out.

“I just want you to casually walk by and see what you can peek,” Bonnie said from her place by the stove scrambling eggs, “But don't be creepy, okay?”

“What? I'm not creepy,” Adore leaned on the table, slightly offended.

“Yeah, sometimes you are. You got them big ol’ eyes and sometimes you just stare at people,” Bonnie turned to look at Adore, who was frowning. “Now, don’t get upset, I'm just saying that when you get nervous or shy you tend to just stare. And though it can be endearing, it’s also…a little bit creepy. Like the other day at the grocery store,” Bonnie continued to elaborate.

“What?” Adores voice went up a couple of octaves, “I didn't do anything at the store!”

“Oh, I know you didn't. You just gawked at the cashier as she flirted with you. I was so embarrassed. ‘My child is so awkward,’ I thought,” Bonnie sighed dramatically.

Since Adrian went to college a couple of months ago, the pair had become closer than Adore ever imagined. Being the last one in the house made Bonnie clingier than ever. Everywhere they went, her mother continuously pointed out pretty girls, trying to figure out Adore's type, even though Adore insisted she didn't have a type. Bonnie also let Adore have a glass of wine with her in the evenings, while they watched movies or ate dinner.

“That's totally different, she was gorgeous,” Adore exclaimed standing up from the table and grabbing two plates out of the cabinet.

“Okay, and? So are you,” Bonnie turned off the stove, scooping the eggs onto both plates.

“I was caught off-guard.”

“How? She was checking you out before we even got to the register.”

“I… I just didn't realize she was actually flirting with me until,” Adore tried to find the right excuse for her cold feet in the store the other day, “I thought she was just doing her job,” Adore shrugged, taking the waffles out of the toaster.

“Adore, you’ve got to work on your gaydar or you'll never get a girlfriend.”

-

Adore tried to be discrete as she wandered down the street to Dela’s old house. She noticed that the moving truck was no longer there, indicating that the mysterious neighbors were now settled in. Adore made sure to appear as casual as possible as she strolled past the driveway.

All of that was soon thrown out the door, when she saw the blonde crouched next to dirt bike. Stopped in her tracks, Adore stood mouth agape as she drank the girl in, because damn was she sexy.  The girl’s thick blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail with a few strays falling loose, long creamy legs were on display thanks to a pair of cut off shorts, paired with a loose white tank top and beat up combat boots. All of it making Adore’s heart go into overdrive. And when she looked up at Adore with those ice-blue eyes framed by thick liner, Adore knew she was a goner.

Adore swallowed, when the girl rose from her crouched position everything seeming to move in slow motion as she made her way towards a mesmerized Adore. She took in every part of the girl, her slim frame, her red bra shown clearly through the thin top and her face--fuck she was beautiful. She definitely wasn’t an old groggy couple, or a three-year-old in need of a babysitter.

“Sup,” the blonde nodded stopping in front of her, eyes trailing down Adore’s body. Her voice was slow, low and fucking sexy.

“Uh,” Adore giggled nervously, “Hi.”

“So, I’m guessing you live ‘round here. Came to check out the new neighbors,” the blonde said, shifting her weight to one leg, linking her thumbs in her belt loops.

“Yeah, yeah. I, uh, I live a couple of houses down. Yeah, that one right there, I don’t know if you can, like, see it. It’s the one with the tree house in the backyard,” Adore stumbled over her words pointing in the direction of her house. She couldn’t believe it, in a matter of seconds she’d been reduced to a blubbering, giggly mess.

Her heart raced as the blonde leaned in towards her to get a look at where Adore was pointing, “That one, right there?” she pointed in the same direction as Adore, her voice sending shivers down Adore’s spine.

“Yeah,” Adore swallowed, quickly looking away to try to regain her composure.

“Well, nice to meet ya, I’m Pearl,” the girl held her hand out, blue eyes boring into Adore’s.

“A-Adore,” she reached out to meet Pearl’s hand.

-

COURTNEY: Meet me at the flagpole before class starts?

ADORE: Sorry, busy

Adore stuffed her phone into her bag as she led Pearl to the office to get her schedule from the office.

“Hopefully we have some classes together, but even if we don’t I can still show you to them. I mean, like, if you want me to, ya’ know,” Adore offered. She tried to play it cool, but she knew Pearl had her wrapped around her finger and it’d only been two days.

Pearl wasn’t just a pretty face, she was hilarious--with her deadpan sense of humor, filled with random facts. And they had a lot of interests in common. And when Pearl confirmed that she was a lesbian, Adore nearly fell out of her chair. Literally.

They were in Pearl’s garage drinking soda, listening to Green Day, Adore giving her a picture of what to expect from school.

“I mean I haven’t really been hanging out with my friends as much as I use to. Kind of just been a floater lately; talking to this person and hanging out with that person. Usually my best friend, Courtney. You should meet her; she’s amazing,” Adore shrugged tilting the chair forward. She was sitting backwards on the chair, legs on either side, arm resting on top of the back as she rocked.

“Well, I mean high school is that time when people start to go their separate ways. But, now you’ve got me. I’m just hoping there’s a lot of cute girls. I mean I haven’t been let down so far,” Pearl said, taking a sip from her can.

Adore face went red at the compliment, but was more focused on getting a solid answer, “Cute girls?” she inquired, making sure to keep her tone light, as she leaned forward with the chair.

“Yeah, I’m a girl’s girl,” Pearl winked and Adore nearly lost her balance, the chair almost slipping away from her. Luckily, Pearl reached out to help steady her.

“Of course, I want you to show me around. Don’t let me get stuck with some preppy tour guide who’s way too enthusiastic and happy to be here,” Pearl gave a crooked smile.

Adore giggled, since that tour guide would likely have been Darienne or Thorgy, who certainly fit the “preppy and too enthusiastic” description.

After getting Pearl’s schedule, they happily realized that they had three out of six classes together. “I can show you to your homeroom now or later, but I don’t think it’ll matter. We only go to homeroom to pick up papers or on important test days,” Adore explained.

“We can go to class now and stop by in between classes,” Pearl suggested.

“Okay, then. Let’s go to English,” Adore said, leading Pearl to first period.

-

“Mr. Harris, this is Pearl.”

“Oh, we have a new student?” the older man looked up from his desk, “Well, why wasn’t I informed about this?” he mumbled to himself, shuffling the papers on his desk.

“Yeah, Pearl Lent,” Pearl introduced herself. “Well, take a seat, wherever you choose, and talk to me after class so we can get caught up,” he dismissed the two.

Adore led Pearl to the back, where she usually sat. They were soon joined by April and Bob.

“You must be the new girl,” Bob smiled at Pearl.

“Yep.”

“Yeah, this is Pearl. She’s fucking cool.”

“Hi, I’m April.”

"Hi there." Pearl smiled charmingly up at April.

“Mhm, it’s pretty weird having someone living in the old Emerson’s house,” Bob started.

Adore’s brows furrowed, confused because that was not Bendela’s last name.

“Yeah, it’s been empty for as long as we can remember. Right Adore?”

“What are you-”

“Yeah. You know it’s haunted,” Bob continued, leaning forward onto Pearl’s desk. “Apparently, the Emerson’s son was a murderer and they moved when suspicions started to rise. The story is that their son started off killing animals in his backyard for fun- sacrificing them. Then one day, he grew curious. Wondered what it would be like to take the life of something bigger, more significant, a person. His first victim was his four-year-old neighbor. He suffocated him, then cut up his body before burying him. Then after that he couldn't stop. He grew addicted to the power. Some say that his parents knew and were just too afraid to confront him. Others say that they didn’t believe their sweet child could do all the horrible things that he was being accused of...” Bob was so close to Pearl, his voice falling to a whisper at the end.

Adore looked at Pearl, who was staring at Bob with a look of disbelief, confused and creeped out because her parents had told her that a family had just moved out earlier that summer.

“He’s so full of shit, Pearl,” Adore shook her head.

“Adore!” Bob laughed, “You’re always ruining things.”

“It wasn’t even funny.”

“Yeah, because you didn’t give it a chance to be.”

“Bob,” Adore sighed, “You’re just not funny,” she tried to keep her tone serious.

“Adore, stop lying,” Bob shook his head, “I’m hi-lar-ious,” he said, turning to April, who was a giggling mess in her seat, “See!”

Before Adore could reply, she was interrupted by Courtney, who she hadn’t even seen come in.

“Uhm, Hi, you must be Pearl,” Courtney gave a tight smile.

“Yeah, and you are?” Pearl leaned forward, attention on the pretty green-eyed girl.

“Courtney, and this is my seat.”

Pearl frowned, but shook her head and with an ��okay’ and started to gather her things to move, not wanting to be problematic on her first day.

She was stopped by Adore, who put her hand on her arm, “Wait,” she said, and then turned to her best friend. “Courtney, it’s her first day. I’m showing her around, let her sit here, we don’t have assigned seats. Just sit next to April,” Adore tried to convince Courtney.

Appalled and offended, Courtney’s mouth dropped opened at her best friend’s words. “What?” she scoffed.

“Court, come on. Don’t be like that, just let her sit here,” Adore said, pouting at the end.

“I can move. It’s not a big deal, Adore,” Pearl said moving to gather her stuff again.

“No,” Adore whined before looking back to Courtney.

“Adore, she just said it’s no big deal and I’ve been sitting next to you since the first day of class. That’s not fair,” Courtney was now annoyed, not at Pearl, but Adore’s audacity to let someone that she just met take her seat, then try to convince her to sit somewhere else.

“Okay, okay. You’re right,” Adore finally agreed, “Pearl let’s sit over there, there's two open seats.”

As Adore and Pearl moved, Courtney scrunched up her face, sitting down with a huff.

-

Adore was over the moon to have Pearl in her classes. Introducing the beautiful girl to everyone, giddy when Pearl turned to look at her for reassurance or to make a face. Maybe, it was because Pearl was new and different. Adore had been surrounded by the same people most of her life and Pearl’s presence was such a breath of fresh air, Adore could barely contain her excitement.  

“You don’t have to buy a locker if you don’t want. You can share with me?” Adore offered as they left Pearl’s homeroom teacher who had given her a bunch of papers that she would need.

“Really?”

“Yeah, no reason for you to pay five dollars for a locker, when I have plenty room in mine.”

“Wow, I guess I need to start thinking of a way to pay you back,” Pearl winked and Adore blushed when their hands lightly brushed together.

As the pair made their way to math, a particular short skirt caught Adore’s attention. Violet was bent over in front of her locker, going through her bag and Adore, excited to introduce Pearl, dragged the girl over to Violet.

“Hey, babe,” Adore greeted Violet, her hand lightly touching the exposed skin on Violet’s thigh to get her attention.

“Hey,” Violet stood up, turning to press a light kiss to Adore’s cheek before looking over to the blonde with narrowed eyes.

Pearl was unashamedly checking Violet out, taking in her pretty doll-like face, long black ponytail, crop top, and skirt.

“Hm, this must the infamous Pearl,” Violet said, a bored look on her face as she looked Pearl over. She had to admit that the girl was gorgeous, but Violet didn't plan to let Pearl know that.

“Infamous,” Pearl repeated in her slow drawl, “I wouldn’t use that word, but I am Pearl,” she finished with a crooked smirk.

Adore glanced between them hoping that they would get along, but from Violet’s demeanor it didn’t seem like she was planning to befriend the girl anytime soon.

“Whatever, everyone’s been talking about you. And I’ll say, I’m not impressed.”

“Oh, so, I’m guessing you’re the mean girl,” Pearl said, her tone joking.

“Sure,” Violet rolled her eyes, turning to pick up her bag and close her locker, “See you later, beautiful,” Violet said, pressing another kiss to Adore’s cheek, this time longer, making sure to leave a red print on Adore’s cheek. She pulled away, before sending Pearl a look and walking away.

Adore wiped the print from her cheek, as Pearl watched Violet walk away, her curiosity evident.

“Uh, girlfriend?” Pearl asked as she looked back to Adore.

“No, no,” Adore assured.

Pearl raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “Well, she’s fucking gorgeous and she didn’t really seem to like me and that kiss was definitely a claim,” Pearl wiped the rest of Violet’s lipstick off her face as they made their way to their next class.

“Nah, we have like a friends with benefits kind of relationship, but she’s not like jealous or anything, I'm positive. She just likes to leave her mark and being difficult, that’s just her. But she’ll come around soon,” Adore nodded.

-

Gia and Laganja slid into the seats on either side of Courtney. She looked up from the math homework she was trying to finish before the bell rang. “Hey, guys.”

“Hey Court,” said Laganja. “You alright? You seem kind of...”

“Out of sorts…” Gia finished slowly, with a wry smile.

“I’m fine.”

“Hmmm.” Laganja clicked her tongue, imitating her role model, their head cheerleader, Alyssa Edwards.

“What do you think of that new girl?” Gia asked. “She’s like...really beautiful, huh?”

Courtney shrugged, “I mean, she’s pretty...I guess...”

“You guess? She’s gorgeous, and Adore seems to really like her,” Laganja pushed, observing Courtney’s reaction closely.

Courtney shifted in her seat, her mouth slightly turned down as she frowned, “She’s just showing her around because she’s new.”

Just then Adore and Pearl walked in together, Adore standing with Pearl as she introduced herself to the teacher.

“Eh, I don’t think that’s it,” Gia said, “I mean, we all know Adore, and she’s acting like Pearl’s the best thing since glitter.”

“I know Adore too, better than either of you,” Courtney snapped, ready to go on the defensive.

The knowing smirk they exchanged went over Courtney’s head as Adore and Pearl walked over to them.

“Just look at them, acting like the best of friends,” Laganja whispered right before the pair sat down. “Hey, Adore, did you finish the homework?” she asked innocently.

Courtney stayed silent as she watched Adore and Pearl.

“Yeah, I copied from Jinkx,” Adore said stiffly. It was no secret how much Adore disliked Courtney’s cheerleading friends, or as she liked to refer to Gia and Laganja, “Team Too Much.” She turned to murmur something to Pearl, who brushed Adore’s hair off of her shoulder, causing her cheeks to turn red.

Laganja looked at Courtney pointedly, one eyebrow raised. A hot jealousy started to burn in Courtney’s chest as she watched the two interact, but she refused to acknowledge it as anything more than fear of losing her best friend to a girl who had only been around for a day.

-

Courtney picked at her food, watching Adore and Pearl over by the lockers, chatting. Pearl had a hand on Adore’s arm, and Adore’s eyes sparkled as they talked, heads close together.

Bob shoved Roy slightly. “You could learn a thing or two from that new girl. Less than a week and Adore is ready to pack a suitcase full of her Indigo Girls CDs and move in with her. That’s game.”

Roy punched Bob on the arm, muttering, “Shut the fuck up!” under his breath.

Courtney frowned. “Bob, you’re such a little gossip. Why are you always starting rumors?”

“It’s not a rumor.” Bob said, confused. “She still hasn’t told you? It’s been like a year.”

Roy punched him again.

“Stop punching me, fuckface!” Bob punched him back.

“Hasn’t told me what?” Courtney asked quietly.

“Adore’s gay, Courtney. She came out to her family like, almost a year ago. Her mom told my mom last year.”

Courtney stared at Bob in stunned silence, heart pounding in her ears.

[hunnywrites]

Sixteen Candles: Part Three

Summary: It’s the day that Vivian has been looking forward to nearly her entire life: her sixteenth birthday. But between her sister’s wedding overshadowing her big day, and praying that her crush Billy Hargrove will finally notice her things aren’t going too well for her. If she can just survive the under the sea dance at her school and avoid the really weird and creepy Tommy H her night might be salvageable. Maybe.

Pairing: Billy Hargrove/OFC

Sarah, Kevin and Vivian’s parents had left for dinner about twenty minutes ago. Since Enzo’s was the nicest, or really the only nice restaurant in town, they were hoping it would impress Kevin’s snooty parents. It probably wouldn’t. Now Vivian’s grandparents were left in charge. Which meant they would be eating dry meatloaf for dinner and her grandma would remind them over and over of the dangers of underage drinking and premarital sex. Vivian almost put her fork through her eye. 

She hadn’t gotten a dress for the dance. She had been holding out until the last minute hoping that her mother would decide against forcing her to go. Instead Sarah lent her a dress that she didn’t want anymore because it was “totally out of style” and wouldn’t be caught dead in. Vivian didn’t really get why. It was a cute dress. It was a deep red, velvet dress with a Bardot neckline that stopped just above her knees. It was a little bit ill fitting. Sarah was practically waifish and Vivian had wider hips and a bit more of a fuller figure like their mother. The dress ended up showing off that “nice little figure” her grandma had told her she had a little bit too much for her liking. But if she threw her leather jacket over it it wasn’t so bad. 

Her hair had won the battle of Vivian trying to tame it. She’d cut her curly red hair about a month ago to her shoulders, hoping that it would make it easier to manage. It didn’t. She guessed it made her look cool. Casual. Like she didn’t really care that much. Plus, after Carol started pounding on the bathroom door and threatening her, she didn’t really have much of a choice but to give up. 

Now it was time to wait for Tommy to show up to drive them to the dance. Carol was back in her bedroom getting dressed and singing loudly and very off key along with Madonna to Burning Up. Vivian was in Sarah’s room, standing in front of the full length mirror hanging on the back of her door. She didn’t feel like she was sixteen. She didn’t look any different than when she had been fifteen. But had she ever felt different after her birthday? Had she always been too wrapped up in all the cake and presents to notice?

She let out a soft huff and turned to the side. She felt ridiculous in Sarah’s dress. Like she was trying too hard almost. There was a brief moment when Vivian wondered if Billy would like it. Maybe that was the change. Worrying so much about what a boy thought of her. Or catching herself day dreaming way too often about all the things she wanted to do with Billy that always made her cheeks grow all hot. And then there was being faced with the fact that absolutely none of those things would happen in a million years. Vivian let out a groan. Growing up sucked. 

“Girls! Thomas is here!” Vivian rolled her eyes at the sound of her grandma’s voice. No one called Tommy H Thomas. It made him sound way too mature when really he had the mentality of a thirteen year old. Carol poked her head out of her room and yelled down that she would be out in a minute. Which in Carol speak meant more like ten. Vivian reluctantly made her way downstairs to the living room where Tommy was waiting by the front door. He gave her a slow once over and grinned at her. Vivian suddenly felt like little red riding hood trapped in a room with the big bad wolf. 

“Lookin’ good, Viv. That a new dress?” Vivian plopped down onto the couch and instinctively turned her body away from Tommy. She hated having to be alone with him.

“Uh, not really. It’s actually Sarah’s.” she tugged at the end of her dress in an attempt to cover up a bit more of her legs. Tommy didn’t hide the fact that he was looking at them. Vivian had never understood what Carol saw in him. They’d somehow been together since Vivian was in elementary school. It made the fact that Tommy almost relentlessly hit on Vivian any time Carol wasn’t around that much creepier. Of all the boys in Hawkins to be interested in her, why did it have to be Tommy H?

Tommy moved closer to her and perched on the arm of the couch. “Hey, how come you don’t have a date to the dance?” usually Vivian would have some sort of biting remark. Sarah was always telling her that she was much too comfortable being sarcastic. But with Tommy she kept the comments she wanted to say to herself and kept things as short as possible. He wasn’t entirely bright enough to understand sarcasm. Or much of anything. Usually he would just seem to think she was flirting back and it would be impossible to escape the conversation. 

Plus, she didn’t really want to open the can of worms that was wondering why no one had asked her to the dance. “...I just didn’t want to go with anyone, I guess.” she finally said with a shrug. 

“Oh...well, that’s okay. You wanna be my date? I’m sure I can juggle you and Carol.” that grin was back. Vivian didn’t stop herself from rolling her eyes. 

“How about you ask Carol how she’d feel about that arrangement?” Vivian asked, fluttering her eyelashes with a sweet smile. Tommy’s grin fell. He opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Vivian’s grandmother walking in. Tommy nearly jumped up from the arm of the couch. 

“Would you like something to drink, Thomas? Are you hungry? I made meatloaf. The girls weren’t really hungry so there’s plenty left over.” they were plenty hungry. The meatloaf was just awful. Vivian almost hoped Tommy would accept her offer. 

Tommy only smiled what Vivian assumed he thought was a charming smile. “Oh, no thank you ma’am. My mom made a pretty big dinner so I don’t really have room for meatloaf.” he patted his stomach.

“Consider yourself lucky. A dog wouldn’t even eat that meatloaf.” it was Carol. She came practically stomping down the stairs in her strapless, light pink chiffon dress that she had begged and pleaded with their dad to buy her for the dance. Vivian usually felt self conscious next to her older sister, but she felt even more so now. Carol looked like she had just stepped out of an issue of Cosmo. 

Their grandmother frowned over at Carol. “Now, young lad-”

Carol rolled her eyes and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “We gotta run, grandma. Don’t wait up. Mom says curfew’s at one,” that definitely wasn’t true. The girls had a firm eleven o’clock curfew on weekends. But Vivian kept her mouth shut. Carol grabbed Tommy by the arm and pulled him towards the front door, Vivian close behind. Their grandma followed with a reminder of the lovely talk they’d had at dinner. The three teens practically bolted for Tommy’s car. 

“God, she never shuts up!” Carol groaned. “No sex before marriage!” she said in a crude, mocking voice. “Jesus doesn’t like tramps! Please.”

“Don’t forget that story about her friend Judy and how her grandson died from drinking a beer at a highschool party.” Vivian laughed as she slid into the backseat. Carol threw her head back and let out a cackle like laugh.

“That’s right! He’s not even dead! He got shit faced on tequila shots and got a dui and his dad sent him to boot camp!” if it was one thing Vivian could bond with her sister over, it was what an absolute fruit loop their grandmother was. 

Tommy was grinning again. “You know, she’s a little too late with that no sex before marriage thing, Car.” Vivian’s nose scrunched up in disgust. So not what she wanted to hear. Ever.

Carol let out a loud snort and shoved Tommy’s shoulder. “Shut up, ass.” and just like that, the sisterly bonding was over. For the rest of the ride to school Vivian ceased to exist to Carol and Tommy. Which was pretty alright with her. Especially when it came to Tommy.

The Hawkins High gym had been transformed into an under the sea fantasy. Well, as much of a fantasy as the dance committee had been able to pull off. Blue lights hung high above the students dancing and mingling, giving them all an odd and almost otherworldly pallor. Silver streamers hung from the doorways, food tables and sporadically from the gym’s ceiling mimic what Vivian assumed to be seaweed. In one corner there were large cut outs of crudely drawn sea creatures along with a mermaid and merman as a photo op for the students and their dates. 

Carol quickly dragged Tommy over to have their photo taken. “Oh, see ya later, sis! Have fun!” Vivian muttered to herself as she made her way over to the bleachers where Robin was sitting and looking bored. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.” she said with a heavy sigh as she sat next to her best friend. 

“Likewise,” Robin said with a grin. “I dig the dress. It’s gonna be hard for Billy to ignore you in that.” 

Vivian rolled her eyes and waved a hand at Robin. “This so isn’t for him. I didn’t have anything to wear so I had to borrow it from Sarah. Tommy hit on me while we were waiting for Carol to finish getting ready,” she pulled a face. Robin and Vivian both looked over to where Tommy and Carol were posing in front of the photographer for their dance photo. They both groaned. Vivian scanned the room quickly. “...Have you seen Billy?” she asked casually. 

Robin smiled and shook her head. “Not yet. I’m imagining Cheryl’s gonna turn up fashionably late. You want some punch or something?” Vivian only shrugged. Robin patted her knee and stood up. “Be right back.” Vivian watched Robin head over to the snack table and let out a sigh. This was probably gonna be a long night. And adding the fact that she was going to wait around for Billy like a little puppy definitely wasn’t going to help.

“There she is!” Vivian groaned. Her night just kept getting worse. Tommy had spotted her. He was dancing along to the music and headed her way. Carol wasn’t anywhere in sight. “Been lookin’ for ya, Viv!” he took her by the hands and pulled her to her feet. Vivian watched in near horror as Tommy continued to dance in front of her. 

“Uh, Tommy? Where’s Carol?” 

He didn’t stop dancing. “She went to the bathroom with Cheryl. Come on, girl! Don’t leave me hangin’! I love this song!” he took Vivian’s hands in his again and tried to get her to dance with him. Vivian harshly pulled away from him. She didn’t really know who she was more embarrassed for. Tommy and his awful dancing, herself for having to be seen with him, or Carol for thinking Tommy wasn’t an absolute creep. 

“You know, I’m not really much of a dancer. Maybe you should just go find Billy or something,” she took a step back from Tommy hoping it would keep him from grabbing her again. “Have you seen him anywhere?” 

Tommy was still dancing. “I think he’s outside having a smoke,” Vivian thought that she hid her disappointment, but apparently not as well as she thought. Tommy grinned at her. “You sweet on Hargrove, Viv?”

Vivian felt her cheeks burn. “Of course not. I didn’t even...I gotta go find Robin.” she rushed around Tommy and disappeared into the sea of dancing teenagers.

A few moments later Billy waltzed back into the gym. He shoved the sleeves of the black blazer he was wearing up his arms and gave an unimpressed look around the gym. Susan had given him the blazer right before he left to pick up Cheryl. It was his dad’s. “It’s a dance, Billy! You have to look your best for your date!” she had said, running into her bedroom to fetch the coat. 

Cheryl hadn’t really cared about what he was wearing. She spent the entire drive fixing her makeup and bitching about how her parents refused to buy her the dress she had wanted because she had failed two classes that past semester. As soon as they arrived at the dance Cheryl and made a beeline for Carol and the two had run off the the bathroom. Billy headed back outside for a smoke and to sneak a few swigs from the flask he’d stashed on the inner pocket of his blazer. 

When he’d made his way back inside Tommy was dancing over by the bleachers. Alone. Billy rolled his eyes and walked over to him. “They’re still not back yet?” he asked, scanning the crowd for Cheryl and Carol. 

“Nah, man. I bet they’ll be gone for awhile,” Tommy finally stopped dancing and looked at his friend with a mischievous grin. “You’ll never guess who was asking about you, dude.”

Billy let out a heavy sigh and shoved his hands into his pockets, his fingers playing mindlessly with his lighter. “I give up.” he said with a bored tone. 

Tommy threw an arm around Billy’s shoulders and turned him towards the snack table. Vivian was standing by the punch bowl with Robin. She looked good. Amazing, actually. But with the way she kept pulling at the bottom of her dress and shifting uncomfortably showed that she wasn’t entirely comfortable with all the new attention she was getting. Billy watched on with an amused look. 

“You think you can maybe talk to her? Get me an in?” Billy frowned and looked over at Tommy.

“...The hell are you talking about? Aren’t you with Carol?”

Tommy looked around to make sure that no one was listening. He grinned wickedly. “I don’t see her around, do you?”

Billy rolled his eyes. “Christ, Tommy. You’re even dumber than I thought.”

Tommy frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You can’t try to fuck your girl’s sister. They tell each other about that kinda shit. You need to get some tact, man,” not to mention he was fairly certain that he would see pigs flying before Vivian ever agreed to willingly sit in a room alone with Tommy. There was a moment when Vivian turned and met eyes with Billy from across the gym. Her lips twitched. Like she wasn’t sure whether to smile at him or not. The corner of Billy’s mouth turned upwards in a smirk, and Vivian’s cheeks turned a deep pink before she turned back to Robin. “...I’ll see you later, Tommy.” he patted his friend on the shoulder and started off towards Vivian.

“There you are!” Billy stifled the groan he wanted to let out at the sound of Cheryl’s voice. He stopped in his tracks, turning to face his date with a thin smile. “I was worried someone might’ve stolen you away,” she said with an overly sweet smile. Cheryl straightened out the front of Billy’s blazer before she placed her hands on his chest. “Carol told me that Tommy’s having a party at his place after and I said we would go.”

Billy could think of about 900 completely awful things that he would rather do than go to a party with his friends. “I’m not really in a partying mood. I gotta get to the pool early tomorrow.” he lied. 

If looks could kill, Billy would be dead. Cheryl’s hot pink nails dig ever so slightly into his chest as she glared up at him. “Well, I already told Carol that we would go. And it’ll look bad if I go by myself. So you’re going to come with me, and you’re going to have a good time.” she said through her teeth. 

A mistake that Billy had made early on with Cheryl was deciding not to argue with her. It gave her the sense that he was a pushover that would do whatever she wanted. That she had power in the relationship. Usually it was just easier to do what Cheryl said. No matter how much he hated it. It was never worth all the dirty looks and all of her bitching. “...Whatever, Cheryl. We’ll stop by for a few minutes. I’m gonna go have another smoke.” 

He didn’t care that he was ditching her. He didn’t care about the way she was calling after him in that fake, sweet voice that she used in front of other people. He wanted to get away from her. Away from this stupid under the sea dance. 

He shoved the gym door opened and collided hard with someone on the other side. “Christ, watch where you’re goi- oh, Billy!” it was Vivian. The door shut loudly behind him, and the two were left out in the quiet hallway. 

“Sorry…” he muttered, fidgeting with the lighter in his pocket. Vivian waved him off and adjusted her dress. He couldn’t help but give her another once over. “I like the dress.”

Vivian’s hands went still as she looked up at him. She blinked a few times. “...What?”

Billy chuckled and motioned to her outfit. “The dress. It looks good on you. You get it for your birthday?” 

He expected her to blush again. To freeze up like she usually did when he complimented her. Instead she rolled her eyes dramatically and scoffed. “No. I didn’t get shit for my birthday. My family forgot all about it.” there was a shocked look on her face almost like she had said something she shouldn’t have.

Billy raised an eyebrow. “They forgot? How’s that possible?”

“My sister’s stupid wedding. I keep telling myself that I’m over it, but every time I bring it up I get pissed off all over again,” she shook her head. “It’s not really a big deal. Anyways, having fun with Cheryl?” there was a bit of bite in her voice that made Billy smirk down at her. 

“Tons,” he said cooly. “She told me Tommy’s having a party at his place after the dance. You should come. Bring Robin. We’ll call it your birthday party.” that shy look of hers was back. Billy couldn’t help but smile. 

“I don’t know…” she scrunched up her nose. “I’ve kinda had my fill of Tommy for one night. Robin and I were gonna head to the movies and see Red Dawn,” Billy honestly wished he could join them. “Maybe next time.” she offered. He knew that was a lie. 

Billy smiled slowly at her and nodded. “Yeah, maybe next time. Well, I guess I’ll see you around Birthday Girl.” Vivian tucked a piece of hair behind her ear as her cheeks turned pink again. Her lips twitched again, like she was fighting to keep her cool. She mumbled a “bye” before rushing back into the gym. He knew that Vivian thought he couldn’t see her now. He placed a cigarette between his lips as he watched her hurry across the dance floor towards Robin. 

She was talking to her friend animatedly and pointing back to the gym doors. Robin looked on with an amused smile at her friends ranting. Billy let out a short laugh and lit his cigarette. He didn’t really know why he was so interested in Vivian. Aside from her obvious good looks, Vivian was a good girl. Billy had never really liked good girls. Maybe Cheryl had made him realize it was time to try something new. 

He decided once he was sure that she was home from the movies that he would call her and ask her out. What could go wrong? 

[puckyou-forpuckssake]

North Star (3)—C. Parayko

Message me to request an imagine. Check my blog for master list or search for more in blog with #hockeyimagine. There are more parts to this!

“Were we fighting?” Colton asked one morning a month after the accident. You looked over your shoulder at him. He was staring at his cup of coffee and then up at you. He was wearing his glasses and god you loved that look on him that you wanted to pounce. You focused back on the pancakes in front of you instead of him.

“No,” you answered. “Why do you ask that?”

“You sleep in a different room. I know some couples do, but I can see where stuff used to be and no longer is. That normally signals a couple isn’t on good terms,” he pointed out. “So I was just wondering if you are being nice just because of what happened and then when I turn around you make this choking motions.”

You chuckled as he demonstrated angrily choking the air. You shook your head. “No we weren’t fighting. We’ve been great. We were slowly exiting the honeymoon phase since you were back into the season. I moved to one of the guest rooms because I wasn’t sure how you would deal with me in bed with you when you have no idea who I am.”

Colton frowned. “I’m sorry you feel that way. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable in our home.”

Our home. Those words gave you hope. “And I you.”

Silence fell over you two as you finished up and played the pancakes. You could feel Colton’s eyes on you as you made his plate just how he likes it. “I think we should go out today,” he said suddenly.

“What?”

“I’ve been cooped up in this house for almost two weeks now, and you haven’t left much either. Let’s go out someplace. Maybe we can relax and get to know each other,” he paused. “Again.”

Once again, you were taken aback by what he said. You wanted to say that you were getting your Colton back, but the thing was, your Colton was staring straight back at you. The amnesia hadn’t changed him. He was still the man you loved. He just didn’t consciously remember you.

“That would be nice. You pick the place. Nothing is coming to mind to do in November.”

Colton thought for a minute. “Can I drive?” He asked. “Doc said at the last appointment that I could.” You reluctantly agreed, but maybe this would be good for him.

————————————————————

You watched Colton’s nose scrunch up to push his glasses up as he drove. You looked out the window to hide your smile. His little quirks like that one drove you crazy. You refrained from asking where you were heading. It was clear Colton knew where he was going.

“Here we go,” Colton smiled as he turned into a parking lot. “I’ve probably taken you here before.”

You smiled. The Missouri Botanical Garden. “You’ll always be a softie even if you can be a beast on the ice. I know how much you love enjoying the peace and quiet of the garden. It’s the opposite of the ice.”

Colton blushed a little before getting out of the car. There wasn’t much of crowd as it was November and a Tuesday. You were quiet as you walked through the gardens. “First date,” you blurted out.

Colton glanced at you confused.

“You took me here for our first date,” you explained. “I remember how proud you were to take me here, even though this is your secret haven. You told me that you’re wanted to share this part of your life with me more than anyone you knew. I know that was when I realized you are something really special to me.”

Colton nodded. Maybe it was you telling him such an intimate moment between you two that he couldn’t remember was the reason his cheeks were as red as Nolan Patrick’s and wore a goofy grin.

“How did we meet? I remember when I first woke up those words I said to you you mentioned were the ones I told you when we first meet. So is our life a rom-com?”

You snorted. “Our life is certainly not a rom-com; however, it is starting to feel like a cheesy romance. I wish I could tell you we met in some cute way, but we didn’t. I met you at work.”

“My work or your work? Please be my work.”

You chuckled at the fear in his face. You started back to work a week ago after being on leave to take care of Colton until he was more comfortable. It was a perk of never taking off work normally.

“Mine,” His rosey cheeks stayed. “You act like I do such a scary thing.”

“Because you do!” Colton exclaimed. “I must’ve made a fool of myself.”

“Mark thought it was funny.”

“Mark would’ve been like 8 or 9 at the time. Of course he thought it was funny.”

You were an elementary school teacher and at one point taught where Mark went to school before switching to teach at a school in Creve Coeur. You met the Tarasenkos months before Colton as you were Mark’s third grade teacher and new to the area. Mark always told you in class that you would like his dad’s friend Colton. You always just nodded along. Then when you decided to hold a science fair for your class, Mark forced you to meet Colton as he was the one carrying Mark’s solar system project. He tripped and broke it, but no one seemed to really care.

“So how did we get from there to here?” Colton asked after you explained. “You said that we got married like four months ago and got together two years prior.”

“You remember a lot of things I say.”

Colton shrugged. “You’re my guide to normality. Alex and Vlad don’t know what I need to know about us. About me. You do.”

You wanted to kiss him so badly. You wanted to grab his hand and tell him your news that won’t be hidden much longer. But you knew Colton wouldn’t be able to handle that right now.

“A couple weeks after the science fair, I went to a Blues game with some visiting friends who were big hockey nuts. At the game we ran into Yana and Mark. Jayne was with them too. They forced me down to meet the team after the game.”

“Forced you?” Colton chuckled.

You nodded. “My friends went very willingly but Yana dragged me down there saying you would be happy to see me. Jayne was completely on board. I noticed you before I noticed the smell in the locker room. You’re hard to miss. That night a make-a-wish kid was there. She was five. She walked in that night wearing an Allen jersey but left with you as her favorite player. You were completely wrapped around her finger. I just stared at you. It was honestly probably borderline creepy. You didn’t acknowledge me until Jake took her to try on his pads. It was that moment when you looked up and saw me staring that we both knew we were screwed. A week later we were walking around here, talking like we are now. You proposed to me during dinner at home.

“We were just discussing our day as we ate and you just blurted it out. ‘Marry me’. You then profusely apologized saying that wasn’t how you wanted it to go and you had just bought the ring hours before. You rambled on about how perfect you wanted it to be. I kissed you so you could shut up. We got married here four months ago.”

You had noticed that during your tale Colton had grabbed your hand. He was smiling too. “I’d call that a love story. It feels...right. Does that make sense? Like deep down I can feel it.”

You nodded.

Colton squeezed your hand and stopped you under an arch of flowers. He didn’t know, consciously, that this was the spot that you said “I do” at. “You’re guiding me home, Y/N. I promise you that we will be together again.”

“We are together, Colton.”

He surprised you when he gently kissed your forehead. “Till death do us part.”

[monster-ronpa]

Warriors of hope meeting another kid who’s a Naga/Lamia?

First imagine for the kids! I tried to make it good, but it’s also pretty long because of that.

Please tell me if they’re in character, I want these kids to be written to the highest quality.

Also, to the original requester, please tell me if you would like Monaca included–I will make the necessary changes.

~Mod Rachnera

You’re Just Like Me! (Lamia!Warriors of Hope and their new Friend)

Masaru Daimon(Lamia Subspecies: Echidna)

Masaru always thought of himself as a type of “hero.” The guy that’d save everyone else from the bad people.

But, he never really got to live out that lifestyle. Why? Because the world isn’t tailored to most kids’ wishes.

Raised by his single human father on account that his mother left a year after his birth, Masaru was mistreated for many of his days. Blamed for the Lamia that left his dad on the account that their kid wasn’t a girl like she’d hoped. Apparently neither of them truly loved him, it seems.

But, Masaru still tried! He wanted to help others, and he tried his best. Some reciprocated nicely, like the woman across the street needing help with groceries. 

Others…didn’t, like the monster-racist old man across the street pelting him with rocks for attempting to help him cross a busy street.

The kid felt so alone…even if he did help people, really–no one seemed to care much for anything except themselves. Even other monster kids thought he was weird, and stayed away from him.

Well, except for one. You. He met you when you were also being bullied by other kids–human and monster.

“Hey! Leave that kid alone!” he viciously slithered towards you as you were curled up in a coiled heap, shielding your human body from the sticks they hit you with.

Scaring them away with a fierce, signature Echidna-viper hiss, they ran off, and he looked at you. You looked at him through the coils of your tail and he reached a scaled hand out.

“Are you okay?” he smiled, “Those kids didn’t poke your eyes out, huh??” “N-No, they didn’t.”

As you uncoiled your tail, it dawned on him–you were a Lamia! An Echidna! Just like him, scales and everything! But why were you being bullied? ….guess he said that out loud.

“I-I’m t-t-the only Echidna in c-class,” you said quietly. Masaru paused, staring for a bit.

“Well, where d’you go?” “H-Hope’s Peak Elementary..?” “Wow, really?! Hey, what class are you in?!” “T-The teachers put me in the m-monster class for the Monster Lil’ Ultimates..” “I’m gonna be going there!”

Your eyes lit up as you smiled hopefully, “Really?” your demeanor brightened up immensely when he said so! That made Masaru smile as he put his hands on your shoulders.

“What’s your name??” “Y/N!” “I’m Masaru, Y/N! And don’t worry!” he points to himself, “Once I’m in the school, you won’t be bullied anymore! Cuz I’ll be your friend! And I’ll protect you from aaaaall the bullies and make sure you’re not lonely!” he grinned, “I’ll be your hero!”

At that, you seemed so, so happy. You smiled brightly, “Thank you Masaru!” you giggled, “You’re already my hero! The best hero!”

Those words echoed in his mind as he made his way back home–until he could enact justice upon his father for such mistreatment, Masaru would endure it. He’d keep being the hero you need–the hero you want. And not only that..

…he’d be the best friend he could be as well.

Jataro Kemuri(Lamia Subspecies: Medusa)

Jataro wasn’t liked by others. And, well, he knew it was because he was a Medusa.

People hated him. Feared him. Disliked him. They wanted to get away from him. He didn’t even want to appear as if he was trying to be mean or distant–he just…he just has bad vision, like any Medusa.

But, even after putting a mask over his face from his mother’s orders, he was still convinced–people distanced themselves since he was atrocious. Disgusting.

No one loved him, they just tolerated him since they couldn’t see his face. But, really, would it matter? Even with the mask he’ll be hated. People don’t want to be friends with him, or spend time with him.

Jataro just accepted that…maybe he was destined to be alone. In a world where everyone hated. But maybe it was best to be alone. After all, if he was hated, no one would want to get close to him, then disappoint him when they let him go, right?

….so he thought.

He was coming from the bathroom at the park one day only to bump into someone else coming from another direction. He let out a small yelp before adjusting his mask, and looking at who he bumped into.

Looking up, your eyes met with his. You fixed your glasses before squinting.

Oh….you’re a–a Medusa too! He gasped quietly and you spoke first as he was frozen in shock and uncertainty. “I’m sorry, these glasses are really cheap, so they….don’t help me see much,” you said with a squint.

Jataro blinked, “Ohhhh….no, it’s fine, it’s my fault anyway…” he looks down, fiddling with his fingers.

“I was lost in thought–I was, like….thinking about..” he hums, “….I forgot. Anyway, it’s my fault you bumped into me. Just like how earlier, I bumped into a human lady and made her drop a carton of eggs in the store–my mom got reaaaally angry at me…you know, why do you think we crack eggs before we eat them? Do you think it’s cuz we can’t digest the shell, or is it cuz, like, it just really hurts to chew? Like eating glass, hahahah–” he didn’t realize he was rambling until just now, so he shut his lips, pursing them tightly.

You blink, “……Uh. O-Oh, no, it really was my fault–I wasn’t looking….b-but hey! Uhm, c–cool mask! Did you make it?”

He smiled, “Oh, yeah…..I have to wear this mask–my mom says if I don’t, then people’s eyes will explode from how scary and ugly my face is…plusss, the snakes? in my hair are really short, cuz my hair is short–and they look really weird and spooky too..”

You blinked. Then told him to wait there. Jataro didn’t get it, but he did as he was told, simply swinging his arms around boredly as he went to a nearby bench.

Coming back to him, you were now wearing a paper bag around your head, sitting next to him. “….are you…making fun of me..?” “No, I just thought.”

You smiled at him underneath the mask, he could tell. Why? “I just thought that, well, if you were ugly, I am too!” you coiled your tail around his in a gesture similar to a handshake, “Lets be ugly together–Lamias all stick together, you know?”

Jataro blushed heavily under his mask, tugging it shyly, “…….okay…..you’re weird, and….I-I don’t get why you wanna be ugly with someone as atrocious as me…but I won’t stop you. E-Even if your kindness is….unsettling.” 

Truthfully, deep down…he was glad someone would stick by him in this awful world.

Kotoko Utsugi(Lamia Subspecies: Melusine)

Kotoko was going along with her fellow Melusine mother to audition for a play. Albeit it was a bit forceful, Kotoko didn’t want to go to the audition and instead wanted to go and play.

“No, no, don’t you see, Kotoko? When you get up on that stage, no doubt–you’ll sparkle and shine! You’ll get to be as bright as the sun!”

She didn’t care about that, though. She never did. All she wanted was to be a normal kid.

Yet here she was, auditioning for a play, and getting the role, as usual. And getting creepy stares and perverted smiles from the men producing and directing them–as she usually did.

She was especially famous for making it big as a child monster actor, which probably intensified their “admiration” from her. She had no doubt that monster fetishizers and pedophiles probably liked her too, and that made her nauseous.

That was when she heard another small voice.

“Hey! Cool headband! Did your folks force you to sign up for this stupid play too?”

Looking over, she came face to face with you–and gasped softly. You were a Melusine! You had wings like hers and everything!

Realizing she was staring silently, she gasped again, before answering hastily, “Oh, yeah! Uhm–I mean…yeah, I got the part, but, I was kinda…yeah, I was forced to. My mom really wanted me to. And so I did..”

“Same! My pops and big sis really wanted me to–for whatever reason. They got real pushy so I just went with it so they’d stop bothering me!” you look around, “But, truth be told, I was planning on skipping practice to go to the park!”

Kotoko’s eyes widened a bit, “Wouldn’t you get in trouble with the producers?” that thought made her feel so uneasy..

“No, trust me, I’m real good at making excuses–and they fall for ‘em every time! Those dumb ol’ guys. Hey, wanna play with me tomorrow? We can skip auditions and go get some drinks!”

Kotoko nervously glanced around to make sure no one was listening to your plans, before accepting with a bright smile. Finally, maybe–maybe this is her chance to have some semblance of happiness and peace in her life..

“Oh, by the way, I’m Y/N! What’s your name?” “It’s Kotoko! Eh, K-Kotoko Utsugi, that is!” “Nice!”

As your older sister called you back over to leave, you lifted your tail up, “I’ll see you tomorrow for some fun, okay, Kotoko? We’re gonna skip like–all the practice and go play around instead!”

She looked at your tail, before hesitantly wrapping hers around it in a sort of handshake kind of way. Smiling happily, she giggled a bit and you did too, smiling back.

“See ya, Kotoko!” “Y-Yeah, see you around!”

For once, Kotoko felt a sliver of hope in her heart–maybe this would be her escape. Her escape from the cruel, dirty world she was thrusted into against her will.

Nagisa Shingetsu(Regular Lamia)

Nagisa watched with cold, unblinking eyes at the human and monster children who were playing outside.

He would’ve gone outside to play with them on break, but due to mental anxiety that he’d be punished if he didn’t continue to study, he was continuing to do schoolwork.

Although, since he was left without much of a distraction, he began to think on how stressed out he was.

He hadn’t gotten sleep, as usual, at all yesterday night. 

Makeup provided by his mother had hidden most of the fatigue that used to be very visible on his face, but he had nearly fallen asleep a few times before having to pinch himself awake.

Although his stress and anxiety was getting to him, and he pressed down on his pencil too hard, breaking it and tearing the paper a bit.

Instantly he noticed this and growled in frustration, sliding his upper half off of his chair to get ready to look for something to fix the paper and sharpen his pencil when he saw you.

You were quietly sketching away on a piece of paper but that wasn’t what interested him–you were the only other Lamia he’s met in this school. If he was honest, he felt mildly ostracized from others due to his species not being too prevalent here. How did he not notice sooner?

But he was staring too long since you looked up at him, blinking. Blushing in embarrassment, he blinks himself when you wave him over.

“I heard the paper tearing, do you need tape?” you asked as you reached into your desk to get him some just in case.

“Oh, um….yes, that’d be appreciated. If you have a pencil sharpener to spare, too…then…?” he nods, “Thank you.”

You hand him some tape and a pencil sharpener, “It’s fine, that happens to me too–I get distracted or press too hard and everything goes wrong.” “Haha, yeah, I guess..”

Nagisa sat there in quietness for a bit before asking you a question. “Why didn’t you go out to play with the others? Surely that must be more fun?”

You smiled sadly, “Uh, well, I don’t actually have any friends to play with. No one really wants to be the new transfer student’s friend, I guess.”

Oh, so that’s it. Nagisa had an urge to get to know you for some reason–another Lamia, perhaps. Plus, his head was throbbing and he needed a break. Or at least, someone to converse with.

“I could…go ahead and show you around this place. My father works here, I know it from head to toe–er, tail. But, that should be after school or at least on another break. Does that sound okay?”

You nod, smiling thankfully, “Okay! Thank you! It’s really appreciated–the fact that I have company and that you’re gonna show me around,” you giggle and he blushes again but smiles gently.

“Y-Yeah, it’s the least I can do for a new student……well, back to work. See you then.” “Mhm! Oh, and my name is Y/N!” “Oh…I’m Nagisa, then.”

You wave at him as he goes to sit down again, “Nice to meet you, Nagisa!”

He felt accomplished today just for that small event. Maybe this could be a chance for him to feel….not so stressed all the time. Maybe.

[justlookfrightened]

Fun and games

Based on this prompt from @wyntera:

one of them has a little cousin that's having a birthday party at one of those family fun parks where they have mini golf and go karts and arcade games, cute competition ensues

Jack looked warily at the garish, grinning face on the painted sign. Clowns were creepy, he thought. It wasn’t  just him.

“This is it,” Bitty said. “Uncle Beau’s House of Fun. Although it’s not really a house -- you’ll notice the lack of actual walls. Can you grab that bag there? I’ve got the cupcakes.”

“Why would your cousin host a first birthday here?” Jack asked, as they crunched their way across the gravel parking lot. “I mean, there’s really nothing for a one-year-old to do here.”

“It’s not really about the baby,” Bitty said. “It’s about the parents.”

“Like they want to show off what a good party they can throw for their friends?” Jack said.

“Not exactly,” Bitty said. “More like they grew up at the arcade and go-karting, and they haven’t been able to get out so much since Ellie was born, and this is a chance to get out with a few dozen people who will be happy to take a turn entertaining the baby. I mean, Amanda’s younger than me.”

“Wait -- a few dozen?”

“Jack, did you see how many cupcakes Mama and I made?”

“I thought you made a lot of extra ones.”

“Oh, honey.”

Jack followed Bitty across the threshold, stepping onto the cement slab and feeling a little relief from the shade of the roof. Pop music blared from speakers near the ceiling, fighting a losing battle with the whine of go-kart engines coming from the track out back and the dings and buzzes of at least two dozen arcade games.

Bitty led the way to a picnic table at the back, already piled high with presents for Ellie.

“Jack, this my cousin Amanda and her husband, Scott,” Bitty said, setting his tray of cupcakes down next to the one his parents drove over. “Amanda, this my boyfriend, Jack.”

“Uh, we know, Dicky,” Amanda said. “I think y’all made that pretty clear on TV, don’t you?”

Jack wasn’t sure how to read her tone, but Bitty just ducked his head and grinned. “I guess so,” he said. “That was kind of the point, y’know?”

“You always were kinda dramatic,” Amanda said. “But you done good, little Dicky.”

Jack found himself face-to-face with Scott, who was big and beefy, like so many football players who offering his hand to shake. “Welcome,” Scott said. “I never really watched hockey before, but Mandy’s Uncle Richard wouldn’t stop about it, so we watched that last series. I don’t know how you guys do that -- all on skates and all.”

“You know, Bi-- Eric plays hockey, right?” Jack said.

“Well, yeah, but not like that, right?” Scott said.

“Yeah, pretty much just like that,” Jack said. “He’s going to be captain of the team I was captain of the year before I joined the Falcs, so. And he can skate faster than me or any guy on my team.”

“You singing my praises over there again?”

Bitty was apparently done talking to his cousin.

“Sorry,” Jack said.

“No need to apologize, sweetpea. Let’s get a couple of those cups of tokens and play some games, all right? We’ve got about an hour before they bring out the food. And Amanda said we should get our names on the list if we want to go-kart.”

“You want to?” Jack said.

“Sure, I’ll beat you in another kind of race,” Bitty said, smirking. “What do you want to do until then? Video games? Pinball? Skee-ball?”

Jack considered. He knew he wasn’t much good at the kind of video games the guys played on consoles through their TVs, and he didn’t think he’d be much better with the machines that lined the center of the pavilion. Old-fashioned pinball would be better -- the only controls to master would be the flippers. But Bitty would chirp him for being old-fashioned. He was sure of it.

“You spend much time at places like this as a kid?” he asked, hoping to stall for time.

“Well, sure,” Bitty said. “In elementary school, the rule was that you had to invite everybody to a birthday party, or, as we got a little older, all the boys or all the girls. For a few years there, it seemed like every party was at an arcade. And since no one really liked me, I just hung out and played.”

He shrugged. “Turns out I wasn’t bad.”

Jack could see that, given Eric’s hand-eye coordination. But he was a professional athlete. He should be able to do this, too. Maybe it was that all he did growing up was play hockey.

“Skee-ball’s the one like bowling, right?”

“Sort of,” Bitty said. “In that there’s a ball and you roll it.”

“Let’s do that,” Jack said.

It was fun, he decided. He figured out pretty quickly that the best move was to aim high instead of for the middle. They payoff was better -- especially if you hit one of the corner holes for 100 points -- and even if you missed, you had a chance to do better than the 10 points you got for missing all the targets.

It was fun, and Jack was definitely better than the six-year-old next to him, but he was nowhere near as good as Bitty. Jack’s best game came in at 280 points, and it made the machine spit out a long strip of tickets. Bitty’s best game that Jack saw hit 400, with Bitty putting six straight balls in the 50-point target. That was  the kind of consistency that only came with long practice.

Bitty’s ticket strip was folding onto itself on the floor.

“I think I saw Space Invaders over there,” Jack said. “Want to do that?”

“Go ahead,” Bitty said “There’s that hunting game next to it. I’ll do that.”

“They let kids play shooting games?”

“Jack, honey, they let kids shoot real guns,” Bitty said.

After another 15 minutes, both their ticket rolls had grown, but Bitty’s was at least twice the size of Jack’s.

“Had enough of blasting aliens?” Bitty said. “If we pool our tickets I think we have enough to get that stuffed unicorn behind the counter. We can give it to Ellie.”

Jack thought the box of play food and children’s books they had wrapped probably outshone a arcade plushie, but maybe not.

“It could turn into her Señor Bun,” Bitty was saying.

The unicorn claimed and delivered to Ellie -- who wasted no time biting down on the horn -- Bitty looked aroind again. “The air hockey table is free.”

“I don’t know why they call this hockey.” Jack said, watching the board tally another point for Bitty, who was up 6-5. “It’s more like paddle ball or something.”

“LIke flat table tennis?” Bitty said. “I can see that.”

Jack tied it a moment later, and finally pulled out a win. “Good game,” Bitty said graciously.

A little too graciously. Jack suspected Bitty had gone easy on him, but he wasn’t about to ask.

“Let’s check in at the go-kart station,” Bitty said.

“FIne,” Jack said. “But I want you to go for it, okay? Don’t let me win.”

Bitty didn’t pretend to be shocked, which pretty much confirmed Jack’s suspicion.

“If you say so,” Bitty said. “But I know it’s no fun if you feel like you can’t compete. I grew up playing these games, so it’s not really fair. And weight’s a big disadvantage in go-karting.”

“And it’s a big advantage in hockey, which we played together for two years,” Jack said. “It’s fine. I’ll do my best, and you do your best.”

“And we’ll both probably get beaten by my cousin Shelly,” Bitty said. “She’s 10, and she’s a maniac.”

Jack told himself he could do this. He could surprise Bitty, cruise to the finish ahead of him. And when the karts took off, he managed to at least stay with Bitty for a bit. But every corner, he seemed to drift just a touch wider and lose just a couple of feet. 

By the time the race was over -- Shelly in first, Bitty in second -- Jack was 50 feet and another two karts back. But it was good, watching Bitty climb out of the cart, laughing and congratulating Shelly. His smile was open in a way it hadn’t been the last time Jack was in Georgia with him, and he’d introduced Jack as his boyfriend to people who clearly knew exactly who he was, and who he was to Bitty. And all of them, to a person, smiled and offered their congratulations.

It felt like winning to Jack.

[gabberwockywrites]

“Blind”- A Promtis Story

Prompto looses his contacts and doesn’t have glasses. Luckily Ignis has extra frames and knows a guy in Lestallum. 

AO3 Link

Prompto knew, as soon as he slid those frames on his face in elementary school, that’d he’d need some form of vision correction for the rest of his life. It was just a fact; one that became more and more obvious as his vision got worse and worse, lenses growing thicker and more obvious.

The option of contact lenses when he turned thirteen was a blessing, one he accepted excitedly, foregoing his glasses for poking himself in the eye every morning.

Whenever he needed a prescription change, he focused one what he used most: his contacts.

Which was how he found himself in this predicament: missing contacts and out-of-date glasses left in Insomnia, probably cracked and broken by now.

“Shit.”

“What’s up, Prom?”

“Nothing!” he squinted up at the figure in the tent’s entrance. “I’m fine, Noct.”

He wasn’t fine.

His head was pounding, right behind his eyes, as he tried to focus on anything. Eventually, he just closed his eyes with a groan and leaned back against his seat in the Regalia.

“Prompto, are you quite alright?” Ignis asked, concerned. “You sound ill.”

“’S just a headache, Iggy.” Prompto replied. “I’ll be fine after I lay down.”

Ignis frowned. “Do you want to switch with Noctis? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. And Gladio would let you lie down.”

Prompto hummed, nodding, as Ignis pulled over and shook Noctis awake.

“What is it?” Noctis groaned, slowly waking up.

“Switch with Prompto, he needs to lay down.”

That woke Noctis up. “Prom, you ok?”

“Just a headache.” Prompto responded, climbing out of the car.

Noctis followed suit, letting Prompto settle into the seat he’d just vacated. Prompto groaned with relief as he laid down.

“Hey, kid.” Gladio rumbled as Prompto’s head hit his leg. “How’s your head?”

“Pounding.” Prompto replied, blinking up at Gladio and wincing.

He chuckled, a hand moving to rest on the younger’s head. “Just rest, ok?”

Prompto nodded, falling asleep.

Noctis startled him awake a few hours later with a shout. “Imperials above us!”

Prompto groaned as everyone sprang into action; he hung back a bit as usual, trying to shoot the enemies and clear some of them out. He used his gun sparingly; all the MT’s and even his friends blurred together into one mass.

After the fight, and a few bullet dodges, Ignis turned to Prompto.

“Prompto, do you need glasses?”

“Uh.. what?”

“Do you need glasses?”

Prompto hesitated. “Uh… yeah. I usually wear contacts though.”

“And you’re not right now, are you?”

“Ummm…. No. I couldn’t find them.”

“And your glasses?”

“In Insomnia. They’re practically useless, I don’t remember the last time I changed the prescription on them.”

Ignis sighed. “Luck for you, I have extra frames. I recommend we head back to Lestallum to find someone who can get you new lenses.”

Prompto groaned. “I hate glasses.”

“And yet you need them for emergencies such as these.” Ignis replies. “We’ll try to get you contacts as well.”

“Thanks, Iggy.”

“Of course.”

They settled back in the Regalia, Noctis gently pushing Prompto towards the back seat.

“Lay down, Prom. It helps, right?”

Prompto nodded. “A but but… if you want the back, I’ll be ok.”

Noctis shook his head. “I’ll be ok in the front seat. I just want you to feel better.”

Gladio chuckled, shaking his head at the two of them. “Sit in the back with Prom, Noct. I’ll take the front.”

“You sure?”

“Yep!” Gladio smiled. “Now go before I change my mind.”

And that was how they sat, Prompto sprawled across Noctis’s lap as the two older men took the front, for the drive back to Lestallum.

Once there, Ignis checked them into the hotel before leaving to find the correct doctor for Prompto.

Prompto flopped onto the bed, closing his eyes. Noctis laid on top of him, resting his head on Prompto’s chest.

“So… how blind are you?”

Prompto opened his eyes and blinked down at him. “What?”

“How much do you need glasses? Are you like Iggy, like how he can like… mostly see but prefers glasses? Or are you actually almost blind?”

Prompto laughed. “Nah, I’m pretty blind.”

“Really.”

“Yep! Pretty sure I shouldn’t be handling a gun until I get glasses.”

“I’ll say,” Gladio cut in, looking up from his book. “Pretty sure I almost caught a few of Prom’s stray bullets.”

Prompto winced. “Sorry, big guy.”

“It’s OK.” He chuckled. “Nothing hit me.”

“Did he manage to hit anything?” Noctis teased.

“Hey!”

Noctis laughed. “Prom, babe, I know you’re normally a great shot. But blind…”

“Not so much.” Gladio finished, grinned.

Prompto whined, “Guys!”

Noctis smiled, leaning up to peck Prompto’s lips. “Still love you, babe.”

“Thanks.”

Ignis walked in, startling the two on the bed. “Got you an appointment for tomorrow, Prompto.” He said, settling next to Gladio on the couch.

“Thanks, Igs.”

“Of course,” he nudged Gladio’s arm up so he could snuggle under it, starting to relax. “How’re you feeling?”

“About the same.” Prompto answered. “My headache won’t go away until I get my glasses.”

Ignis nodded. “Well that will hopefully be fixed tomorrow.”

Prompto hummed, shifting with Noctis as the other moved behind him. “Noct?”

“Lay your head in my lap, I’ll massage your scalp.”

“What?”

“It helps with my headaches.”

Prompto looked up at him. “Is that why you’d just come lay on my lap in the afternoon?”

“Umm… yeah?”

“Huh,” he laid down in Noctis’s lap, letting him run fingers through his hair.

A few moments of silence passed before Noctis spoke up again. “I bet you’ll be cute with glasses.”

“Huh?” Prompto opened his eyes and looked up at Noctis.

“I bet you look cute with glasses.”

Prompto spluttered. “I- uh… nah. Besides, I’m already cute.”

Noctis smiled. “Ok, so you’ll be even cuter in glasses.”

“Nope.”

“Yep.”

“Nope.”

“Yep.”

“… you’re not gonna let me win, are you?” Prompto sighed.

“Nope.” Noctis grinned. “Come on, I only vaguely remember you with glasses and I thought you were cute then.”

Prompto squawked, sitting up and turning to Noctis. “You remember that?!”

“Course I do. You were the first person in that school who talked to me for me.”

“Oh…”

“Only the once though. You didn’t try again until high school.”

Ignis raised an eyebrow, keying into their conversation. “Was Prompto the little blond boy you were always looking at, Noct?”

Noctis blushed. “Yeah. I wanted him to talk to me again but I didn’t want to scare him into it.”

Prompto squeaked, face red. “You were watching me?!”

“Well it sounds creepy when you say it like that…”

“I thought you looked rather wistful,” Ignis cut in again, “whenever you looked at him.”

Noctis’s blush deepened. “Well, anyway. You looked cute in glasses then so you probably look good in them now.”

“Noct, stop!” Prompto whined as Noctis laughed.

“Sorry, babe, just stating facts.”

Prompto groaned again, triggering the other three’s laughter, before flopping back into Noctis’s lap and letting him massage the headache away.

Prompto got lucky the next day, as he left the office with a new pair of glasses perched on his nose. They’d had his prescription on hand, though he would have to wait a few weeks for contacts.

Noctis stared when Prompto got back to the hotel room. “You’re adorable.”

Prompto shook his head. “If you say so.”

“You are!” Noctis said, walking closer. “They… I don’t know… suit you?”

Prompto laughed. “They suit me?”

“Yeah, they like… frame your face well and draw attention to your eyes and shit.”

Gladio laughed at Noctis’s attempt at a compliment, only growing louder when Noctis whirled to glare at him.

“What?”

Gladio shook his head, trying to speak through laughter. “Just… you sounded so earnest. And then you ended it… with ‘shit.’”

Prompto, on the other hand, was staring at Noctis, almost as if surprised.

“You really think so?”

Noctis turned to him. “Huh?”

“You think I look good with glasses?”

“Of course. You always look amazing, Prom.”

“O-oh…”

Noctis smiled. “I know… you’re not always a huge fan of your body…” he trailed off and wrapped his arms around Prompto’s waist. “But… I think you’re gorgeous. No matter what.”

Prompto nodded, hiding his face in Noctis’s neck. “…thanks, Noct.”

Noctis smiled and eased Prompto’s face up to kiss him. “I love you, Prom. Glasses and all.”

Prompto laughed. “I love you too, Noct.”

Like my work? Buy me a coffee!

[missingverse]

Missing  Chapter Four

The train took its sweet time bringing Arnold back to Hillwood, he paced up and down the carriage all the way. Once he left the station he pedaled his bike home as fast as he could, lungs burning and muscles aching but no worse than the rising panic that he was going to get to his house to find Helga was not there.

She would manifest back in the house. She had done that before, he knew. He had a feeling she was there, waiting for him to get back.

But what if she wasn't?

…..

Helga's parents appeared on TV just once, a month into her disappearance. They went through the motions of asking for help bringing their daughter home, but it was hard to feel sympathy for them. Miriam looked even more out of it than usual, yellow in the face, slurring her words, staring vacantly into the camera. Probably sedated with more than liquor.

Bob, though...

Bob didn't look like a grieving father. He looked angry, not distraught. He gritted his teeth and let his wife do the talking, clenching his fists in full view of the camera. When a journalist asked if there was any chance Helga had tried to get in contact, he huffed through his teeth and looked away. That moment was when roughly half of America decided Bob Pataki was a murderer.

They got a hard time in the aftermath. Cranks from online crime communities regularly turned up on their doorstep demanding that Bob confess. Helga's sister dropped out of her senior year of college because people kept asking her about her father. Miriam stopped going outside, and the amount of glass bottles found in the trash doubled.

Nobody shopped at the beeper store (which was by now a general electrical goods store where most kids got their first phone, but not anymore) and gradually Bob stopped going to work. The store remained locked up, until it was broken into, thousands of dollars of merchandise stolen and the outside coated with red paint. Someone had crudely scrawled the words WHERE IS SHE across the placard.

They stuck it out for a long time; Bob had insurance, he had the store cleaned up but he didn't reopen. They got their groceries delivered and put up with the stares and whispers when they did venture outside. But after a while it got too much for them. When Bob's car was stolen and found burned out outside the store, they packed up and left Hillwood. Nobody bothered to find out where they had gone, and although online sleuths tried to puzzle it out the remaining Patakis were largely forgotten.

…..

He tossed his bike carelessly under the stoop, ran up the stairs with a cursory greeting to his Grandpa and threw open his door, half-convinced Helga wouldn't be there...

...she was. Looking no worse for wear, just a little sulky.

“I don't know what happened....” she began. “I...”

She was abruptly cut off when Arnold crossed the few feet separating them and pulled her into his arms. He held onto her tight, just to make sure she was still there. She felt solid enough, but he squeezed her hard, just in case.

In elementary school she had been taller than him. Now her head fit neatly in the spot under his chin where his neck met his head. There was something reassuring about that.

She stood there and let him hold her for who knows how long, before gently prying his arms off of her and stepping back.

“You should sit down,” she told him, and sure enough his legs did feel like they were buckling under him. “Did you bike all the way back?”

“No,” he told her breathlessly. “I just hurried back....we're not doing that again.”

“Okay,” she agreed. She was looking at him like he had gone slightly mad, and maybe he had.

After catching his breath, he went downstairs for dinner. He renewed his promise to his Grandpa to check the pipes (he didn't need to, pipes were fine, Helga just liked tapping on the walls). As he chewed a hard lump of lukewarm meatloaf he puzzled out what to do next.

She reacted to the trees. The hills.

There was a stream in those hills. Wasn't a big one, but it swelled when the weather was bad. And there had been early summer storms the week Helga went missing.

It wasn't a new clue, exactly. He had seen it mooted before on sleuth blogs, along with a topography map of the general area. The stream could have carried Helga's shoe into the drainage ditch if there was enough rainfall. But the stream had been dredged for other clues and nothing else had been found. It was nowhere near big enough for her to have fallen in and drowned, that theory had been thoroughly debunked by professionals and amateurs.

What else is there?

Then a thought struck him; Helga's 'boyfriend.'

…..

Patrick Castle was thirteen, and for the girls who gossiped that was exciting. It was a triumph for any girl to have an older boyfriend, glamorous even. The fact that they weren't actually dating didn't seem to matter. Anyone who asked Helga about it got a derisive snort and a roll of her eyes.

It was curious; when they were nine they were so eager to date, and crushes seemed all important. Arnold's own crushes had lost much of their lustre when he turned ten and realized that dating at that age was kind of ridiculous. Not to mention Ruth was known for dating much older boys, and Lila moved away when her father remarried. She wrote once, he wrote back, and that was it.

Rhonda wanted to date older boys, she talked about it a lot back when she actually talked to people. She seemed angry that Helga had managed to get something she wanted without even trying, and at the same time strangely proud that her 'friend' had this elusive status.

Patrick had been interviewed after Helga went missing, and he denied that they had ever dated. He'd spent time with her because she was on the baseball team, he saw her as a little sister. And in any case he had an alibi for that weekend; he was in Washington State with his family.

…..

“...Castle?” Helga wondered, scratching at a spot above her right eye.

“Ring any bells?” Arnold pushed.

“Sort of,” Helga answered. “We dated?”

“Everyone else thought so. You wouldn't give anyone a straight answer. And he denied it when you went missing.”

“Then we probably didn't,” Helga said, tracing circles on the carpet with her shoeless foot. “Who dates an eleven-year-old anyway? Even I know that's creepy.”

“That's what the peanut gallery says too,” Arnold told her, flicking through a bunch of comments on a blog post about Castle. “That's why he wasn't ruled out as a suspect. Do you have any memories of him?”

“Sort of, they're blurry,” she answered. “I think he walked me home a few times after practice. I can't recall much else.”

“I found his Facebook,” Arnold told her, switching tabs. “He's on a college break, he's working as an assistant coach for the Little League.”

“You're going to talk to him?”

“Worth a shot.”

The Little League practice field was closer than the industrial farm, so he felt less cagey about letting Helga tag along. She hopped into the basket without complaint. They found Patrick Castle in seconds, helping a very small bespectacled girl with her swing.

He was good-looking, Arnold had to admit. Sandy-haired, classically American square-jaw-and-straight -nose-and perfect grin with perfect teeth. Arnold had never seen him at thirteen, but if she was anything like he was at nineteen no wonder the girls had lost their minds.

He looked over at Helga; she was staring at Patrick, frowning slightly and rubbing that spot on her head again. Dimly Arnold wondered if ghosts could get headaches.

“Can I help you?”

Patrick had crossed the field to the bleachers without Arnold noticing, and he jumped. Of course Patrick would notice, he was the only other near-adult watching practice.

“Uh, yeah...” Arnold stammered, caught off guard. “....you're Patrick Castle, right?”

“I am,” Patrick answered amiably. “What can I do for you?”

“It's about Helga Pataki....”

At the mention of her name, Patrick's face clouded over and he turned his back.

“I'm not in the mood for this today,” he called over his shoulder, a hard note to his voice. “Get your kicks some other place.”

“What? No,” Arnold said as he stumbled down the bleachers after him. “I just wanted to ask some questions.”

“They all want to ask questions,” Patrick growled. “Not today. There's kids here. I told the police everything I knew and that info is online. Get it there.”

“Look, I'm not from the web, okay?” said Arnold. “I was a friend of Helga's. I just wanted to know....”

“What?” Patrick turned to face him, fury marring his all-American good looks. “What could you possibly want to know?”

Arnold could see Helga out of the corner of his eye. Why were they there?

“I wanted to know what she was like with you,” Arnold shrugged, helplessly. “Like, was she okay? Was she in trouble? I figured you'd know.”

Patrick's expression softened, and he glanced around at the kids on the field who were watching them now with morbid childish interest.

“Over here,” he said, beckoning Arnold (and by extension, Helga) into the nearby dugout.

When the kids had stopped paying attention and went back to playing baseball, Patrick started talking.

“We never dated,” he began. “I told the police that, and it's true. I wanted to, but she wasn't interested. Said she was too young for me. She was right.”

“Why did you want to date her?” Arnold asked.

Patrick shrugged and smiled.

“She wasn't like any other girl I knew,” he said. “She was different. Special. Real smart, didn't take any bullshit....how could you not fall for a girl like that?”

He might have expected Helga to look pleased with this praise, but she didn't. She just looked sad.

“Hell, I wasn't the only one,” Patrick continued with a rueful laugh. “I was just the one she put up with. We did some stuff together besides baseball. We went to the movies, ice-cream after big games, that kind of thing. I brought her home for dinner a few times. My mom loved her.”

“Sounds like you were dating to me,” Arnold said.

“That's what the police said,” Patrick laughed. “But it wasn't like that. She just seemed like she needed it.”

“Needed it?”

Patrick broke off, looked over the field at the kids pitching and swinging as hard as their half-grown limbs could manage.

“I've been in the Little League since I was ten,” he said. “Junior coach when I was too old to play. This is a good crop of kids this year, but there's always one. See that one?”

He pointed at a little boy wearing a catcher's mitt, skinny and short with a head of unkempt curly hair.

“That's the one that comes to baseball because he's got nowhere else to go,” Patrick said. “There's always one. Helga was that one.”

Arnold blinked, and looked at the boy a little closer until he could see what Patrick was seeing. Mismatched socks and a hole in the collar of his shirt. A head shorter than everyone else. Eyes that were sunken in from lack of sleep.

“Officially we're not supposed to interfere unless we notice something we can report to CPS,” Patrick continued. “We do what we can here, keep an eye on them. 'Course I wasn't old enough to do anything for Helga...but how could I not? I mean, she had friends and all, but she had no-one that treated her like she was special. And she was special.”

Helga was rubbing the spot on her head with increasing irritation.

“All I did was take her out a few times, treat her to things, walked her home after practice. She deserved that much, right?”

“Yes, she did,” Arnold agreed, swallowing down the lump in his throat.

Even Patrick looked like he wanted to cry. But the head coach finally took notice that his junior was shirking, and called him over.

“I suppose, though, it's only the special ones that disappear like that, right?” he finished before walking away.

[ichimatsutrash04-blog]

Corpse Party: Osomatsu-san - Chapter One

It was Osomatsu who suggested they use the charm. Of course, at the time, nobody thought anything of it. It was just a paper doll that couldn’t hurt them in any way besides maybe giving someone a paper cut. Right? They had all agreed to it under the impression that nothing would happen. It was only symbolic, something that was supposed to keep them together forever. Everyone knew that Osomatsu couldn’t stand the thought of being separated from his brothers, even though he wouldn’t ever admit it aloud. So they would play along, if only to make their older brother feel better. Because that’s what this charm would do. Right? They tore the carefully cut out paper into six pieces, lightning racing across the inky sky outside the window. Silence filled the room, save for the rain pounding on the roof. And when the floor opened beneath them and they were swallowed into a darkness blacker than the night, their horrified screams filling the air as they desperately tried to cling to one another, the same thoughts swirled through their minds. This wasn’t happening. This was only a nightmare from which they would wake from in a moment and be able to huddle closer to whichever brother was beside them for comfort. Right?

Choromatsu struggled to open his eyes, now aware that he was laying on an uneven wooden floor, loose nails digging into his back. It took a minute for him to recall what events had led up to this point after which he sat bolt upright and clutched his head as he was hit with a wave of nausea. Knees drawn to his chest, Choromatsu breathed heavily as he tried to process what exactly had happened. Eventually, he regained control and started to examine his surroundings from where he sat on the floor, eyes widening due to the lack of light. He determined that he was in a classroom, elementary school, most likely, but one that had been abandoned and fallen into disrepair decades ago. Small chairs and desks lay scattered around the room, some overturned, others broken in pieces and the floorboards appeared to vanish in some places, revealing a seemingly bottomless pit below. On the other side of the room, Choromatsu spotted a motionless figure wearing a familiar red hoodie.

“Oso – ah!” Choromatsu yelled out in pain as his leg gave out from under him and he fell back to the floor. He held his throbbing ankle, but was too concerned about his unconscious brother to really care. He slowly got back on his feet and limped over to Osomatsu, falling to his knees beside him. The boy lay sprawled on the ground, eyes closed and breathing so shallow that for a few heart-stopping moments, Choromatsu thought he was dead. “Osomatsu-niisan?” Choromatsu gently tugged on his brother’s sleeve. “Come on, you gotta wake up, we have to find everyone else.” No response. “Come on, wake up!” Choromatsu began shaking Osomatsu by the shoulders, becoming increasingly desperate as time passed and the eldest Matsuno remained unresponsive. Biting back tears, Choromatsu turned his back on his older brother, hiding his face behind his knees in order to block out the complete darkness and silence that was eating away at his sanity.

After what Choromatsu deemed officially too long, Osomatsu groaned and rolled over onto his side. Choromatsu whipped around and threw himself onto his brother, hugging him tightly. “Choro, what the…? Where are…we…?” Osomatsu wondered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and pushing himself off the ground.

Choromatsu quickly wiped the tears from his face and sat back down next to his brother. “I don’t know, but I didn’t know when you were gonna wake up and I thought you were gonna leave me here by myself and oh god-“

“Hey, don’t worry,” Osomatsu said with a smile, stepping into the big brother role after having seen his panicked younger sibling. “I’m not going anywhere. Seriously though, where are we?”

Finally calmed down, or at least as calm as one can be in such a situation, Choromatsu glanced around. “An elementary school, I think. Doesn’t look like one I’ve ever seen though.” He stood and walked over to inspect one of the windows, his injured foot causing him to wince with every step.

“Are you hurt?” Osomatsu asked with a hint of concern in his voice. As the eldest son, it was, after all, his responsibility to make sure his brothers were okay.

Choromatsu was staring out the dirty glass. “Sprained ankle, hurts like hell, but I think we’ve got bigger problems. The only thing I can see out here is a forest that I don’t recognize at all. I can’t even tell what time of day it is either, it’s too cloudy…” His breathing quickened as he realized that they were trapped in this creepy, old building with no knowledge of where they were, how to get home, or how long they had been gone. Had their parents noticed they were missing? Was anyone even looking for them?

Osomatsu hurried over to his little brother and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, turning him away from the window. “We’ll be fine! We always are, aren’t we? We’ll just go find Totty, he’s gotta be around here somewhere, and use his cell to figure out where we are and how to get home. We’ll be out of here in no time! Okay?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Choromatsu agreed quietly, staring intently at his green shoes. He tentatively stepped forward, hissing in pain at his ankle. “Shit that hurts!”

“Umm…maybe you can rest here,” Osomatsu suggested, “and I’ll find the others then bring them back.”

Now, Choromatsu was many things, but stupid wasn’t one of them. If there was a single thing that he’d learn from watching horror movies, it’s that you don’t split up if you don’t want to get yourself killed. Ever.

“No way. I’m coming with you,” Choromatsu said defiantly. “I’m fine, it doesn’t actually hurt that bad.” He grimaced at what a terrible liar he was and hoped his brother was too oblivious to argue.

Osomatsu looked skeptical, but nodded his head anyways. “Alright, but you can lean on me if you need to. Just let me know.”

Together, they exited the classroom and found themselves in an eerie hallway that seemed to extend endlessly on either side. It was so dark that it was nearly impossible to distinguish where the floor dropped off into nothingness. Choromatsu made a mental note to pay careful attention to where he was walking.

“So, right or left?” Osomatsu asked, giving his brother a sideways glance.

Choromatsu peered down the hallway, attempting to find some sort of sign indicating which way would lead to their brothers. “I don’t – right, I guess,” he said after a moment of hesitation. And so, the pair walked off in the chosen direction, Osomatsu leading the way, Choromatsu gripping his brother’s sleeve from behind.

It was when they had finally found a staircase leading to what they assumed was the ground floor that they first encountered a decaying corpse. It was a high school girl, judging by the size and uniform, with maggots falling from her open mouth and empty eye sockets. The surrounding wall and floor was stained with blood, implying that this girl had suffered a violent death.

“Fuck…” Osomatsu said, unable to tear his gaze away from the horrific site. Choromatsu, on the other hand, immediately turned away, hand over his mouth, trying not to vomit. He had always had a weak stomach. “I’m sure it’s not real,” Osomatsu assured his sibling. Whether he was comforting himself or his brother, he couldn’t say. “It’s gotta be a replica…a really, really good replica. Just, don’t look at it. Come on.” Choromatsu squeezed his eyes shut and continued trailing after Osomatsu.

Now if Osomatsu hadn’t been frightened before, seeing a dead body had left him downright terrified. He had to find his other brothers and fast. There was no telling what else was in this school with them and Osomatsu had a sneaking suspicion that only bad things happened here. He couldn’t stop his mind from drifting to his missing siblings and how they were dealing with this situation. What if any of them had woken up only to find that they’re all by themselves? What if they had regained consciousness in this other-worldly place with nothing familiar to ground them or anyone to offer words of comfort? What if one of them had been injured even worse than Choromatsu and couldn’t walk, stuck in a strange room, scared and alone, or worse, dying? Osomatsu pictured Todomatsu, who couldn’t even walk down the hall to the toilet at night without holding someone’s hand, inching his way down a dark corridor, hugging the wall with tears in his eyes. He imagined Jyushimatsu struggling to keep that stupid, yet heart-warming grin on his face as he flung doors open, trying unsuccessfully to locate his brothers. He saw Ichimatsu, hair more disheveled than usual, his normally nonchalant façade giving way to panic as he huddled in a corner, surrounded by death and without his family to make sure he didn’t lose it. And he saw Karamatsu, who cared about his brothers more than anyone in the whole world, and was probably having more of a breakdown than Osomatsu was, wondering if they were okay. Speaking of whether his brother was okay:

“Hey Choromatsu, you doing alright back there?”

Choromatsu kept his gaze fixed on his feet, but still managed to glimpse every rotting corpse, bloodied body part and unidentifiable stain they passed. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You look a little pale. Are you sure you don’t want to sit down somewhere while I get everyone else?”

“I said I’m fine.” Choromatsu paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

“Actually, how are you doing, Osomatsu-niisan?”

Osomatsu laughed. “Don’t worry about me, it’s not your job.”

“Not my job? Osomatsu, just because you’re the oldest doesn’t mean you don’t need someone to care about you. I know you’re scared.”

“I am not scared.”

“You can’t hide it. I can see your hands shaking.”

Osomatsu quickly shoved his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. “So what?”

“So, it’s okay to be afraid. In fact, you’ll probably feel better if you just admit it. You can trust me.”

Choromatsu waited patiently for his older brother to respond, unaware that he was waiting for something he would never receive. Osomatsu suddenly froze, fixated on something in the distance.

“Is that…?” Osomatsu muttered. Only a split second later, the eldest Matsuno had taken off, sprinting down the corridor. “I think I found the exit!” he called back to Choromatsu who watched his brother disappear into the darkness.

“Wait for me!” he yelled, limping as fast as his injured ankle would allow him to. He was almost to what he assumed was the main entrance when

THUMP

Choromatsu felt his stomach drop. “Osomatsu?” He cautiously stepped over the threshold, holding his breath in nervous anticipation. He walked past a row of lockers, careful not to trip over the small shoes scattered on the floor, and found his brother who had fallen to his knees before a large wooden door that could only lead to the outside. In his trembling hands, he held a torn, blood-stained, purple hoodie.

[bts-dream-land-blog]

unexpected crush I 05

01 I 02 I 03 I 04 I 05

Words count: 1732

Member: Jimin & you (ft. Taehyung)

Genre: Fluff

A/N: Cute vmin gif <3 Also, if these quotes before each chapter confuses you cause it’s not related to the story it’s only there because it’s stuff I can relate to or things that I found interesting or kinda cute ;) <3

___________________________________________________________

He puts me through hell and I call it love.

***

If you saw the look on my face when I saw Katie and compared it to Jimin’s & Taehyung’s look when they saw Katie, it wouldn't even come close to same. Trust me, theirs were so much more...annoyed. It took an idiot to not see their annoyance fuming from every corner. "What does she want now?" Jimin grunted.

Katie flung the door open and entered the room with a huge grin planted on her face. I kind of felt bad for the girl for thinking she was so vulnerable and attractive but really, these guys wanted nothing with her to do. "Jimin, Taehyung."

"Katie," the boys said in unison with no trace of enthusiasm earning a chuckle from me. Katie shot a glare my way and I quickly adverted my eyes to my nails. "How are you on this fine day?" Katie wraps her arms around Taehyung’s shoulder as she strokes his cheek. It was disgusting, she was like a dog seeking for attention. She is a dog seeking for attention.

Taehyung grabs her hand slowly dragging it from his cheek. "I'm good, you?" This was nothing like pleasing for both Taehyung or me. It was absolutely horrifying, why would she throw herself at boys like that. "Just perfect now that you're here."

"Oh god." I mumble to myself.

"Jimin, baby." Jimin’s amused eyes quickly changed to horrified. He found eye contact with Taehyung and they gave each other this nod that boys do. "Hey Taehyung, don't we have that project to work on?"

"Yeah man, totally forgot." Taehyung said, but anyone could tell they were lying. They were just trying to find an excuse to get away from me. "Crystal, you too."

   As soon as Jimin and Taehyung left the room, the nice façade that Katie had used previously was quickly erased and she showed her true self. The Katie that I have encountered is nothing like the Katie you meet or see, this one was legit evil. ''Dumb bitch.'' She muttered, ''I told you to stay away from him.''

      I put my hands up in mock surrender, ''My bad.'' I took a step closer to Katie trying to come out at least a little bit intimidating, but Katie was wearing her expensive heels that made her taller than her true height and so I looked like a puppy next to her. She smirked whilst lowering down to my height and whispered – ''You stay away; this is my final warning.'' – She shrugs her hair over her shoulders and pulls of one of those fake smiles. ''Okay, I'll see you in class. Tuddulu.'' Once she was out of the room, I mimicked her in a high pitched voice – ''Tuddulu.'' with a face that no one would want to witness.

Class would start in five minutes and I was still on the other side of the building. I grunted whilst swinging my backpack over my shoulder, preparing to look like an idiot who's running a marathon through our huge school. I made it in time luckily and I was happy to see that I had a large options of seats to take. I decided I would choose the seat in the very back of our classroom but the one next to the window so I could have a nice view over the beautiful lake at the back of our school. It was beautiful but no one was allowed to go there due to some working progress. They were planning on building something out there but I never bothered to ask or dig in information. Students started filling the classroom while I was minding my own business researching some important stuff, and by important stuff I mean kittens.

     ''Can I sit here?'' I almost jumped at the voice but I remained calm. The guy in front of me was the same guy you would find in magazine, he was absolutely beautiful but something about him screamed - "stay away from me!" Now wasn't the time to experiment this guy so I nodded. "Sure."

"I'm Cameron." I grabbed his out stretched hand and shook it, "Crystal."

"Beautiful name for a beautiful girl." I was about to open my mouth to respond but a sneeze erupted instead. Cameron looked weirded out and I thought for a second he would start making faces but he didn't, he laughed, actually. He burst out laughing so the entire class looked our way. "That's cute," he says after finishing his laughing session. He also wiped away a nonexistent tear for a dramatic effect because there was no tears on his cheek. "Sorry, think I caught something."

    Yesterday, I accidentally took a sip from my sisters cup and she has the flu. I didn't think it would affect me because frankly, I was immune to sickness. I haven't been sick for years, the last incident was when I was eight and I'm seventeen now. I guess the flu season was stronger this year for me to actually sneeze and to make it worse, I was freezing and it was summer time so that didn't make any sense. This was the worst time to get a flu because its so humid and hot and the weather is always perfect, like who wants to catch the flu in the summer time? Nobody.

    "Cameron, Crystal." Our teacher called for our names. "Silence." I gave her a quick nod and pulled out my notepad so I could write down everything she talked about. Throughout the entire class, I tried my best to avoid Cameron. Not because he was annoying but because I found him weird. Through the corner of my eyes I could see he kept stealing glances my way, and he kept studying me as if I was a project or something and that freaked me out. Sometimes I even caught him smiling to himself after checking me out. "Cameron, what's so funny?" Our teachers asked when Cameron couldn't hold in his laugh.

He looked my way, his eyes boring into mine with a creepy smirk on his face as he answered, "Nothing."

Our teacher minded his own business and that freaked me out more because that meant that Cameron could bother me even more without my knowledge. I've never seen this guy before in my class and he has never approached me at school, why would he come to me now? There was clearly other seats available than mine - why didn't he choose other seats? He's a mysterious guy that I'd rather not associate with - so when I class was over, I quickly hurried out of the classroom into the bathroom before he could ask me any further questions about my social life.

     My phone starting vibrating in my hands and I breathed in relief when I saw the caller ID. I don't know what I would've done if it was Cameron. "Hey," I responded to the call.

"I'm at Jackson's house for the week, call me if you need anything."

"Why? Did something happen?" I checked my face in the mirror to make sure I didn't have anything stained or anything between my teeth. Even if I don't have anyone to impress, I still wanted to look good - good first impression you know.

    "He caught the flu" I snorted, "Well, I wonder who he caught it from," I said teasingly. My sister and her boyfriend Jackson has been together for as long as I can remember. I'm serious, they were friends since kindergarten, best friends since elementary, and started dating in middle school. They escalated from puppy love to true love - it's so cute. No matter how many times she tells me their story, I will never get tired of it.

  "Shut up, I put some money on the dining table so help yourself." I bid her goodbye after thanking her and hung up. She was the mother figure in my life, she was literally all I had. My mom? All I ever do with her is fight, fight and fight. She is what you call a workaholic. She loved to work but she never used her money. That's why my bank account was pretty loaded but I wasn't a spender myself. I saved it for an emergency but my life was so boring that I never really got to spend them on an emergency. Mom was rarely home and even with all the money she earns for us, it still doesn't make up for the time she wasted on her job instead of spending time with her kids.

My sister was lucky to be born in that time my mom was still a student and still studying to get a good degree, she got the childhood she wanted. Meanwhile I had a childhood with neither a mom or dad, just my sister.

I decided that I would get out of the toilet now instead of hiding from someone who probably already left the school seeing as school ended fifteen minutes ago. I walked to my locker and locked in my English books. The halls were pretty much empty now and that was nice. Our school had this huge staircase that you had to walk down to get to the exit, it's usually where we have gatherings when the school is announcing something because it's that big. I was about to step down when I heard shuffling, or more like, running behind me. I didn't even get the chance to turn around when I was pushed from behind making me loose balance and swing forward. First hit was to my face and from there I rolled down the stair case, while I was rolling I could recognize the face of someone I had just encountered. It was Cameron, and he looked - happy?

I tried to stop myself from rolling so I pulled out my arm but that was a bad move because the next thing I heard was a snap and a aching pain stormed through my body. Eventually I landed at the end of the staircase with I believe was a broken arm. The tears were already streaming down my cheeks but my sobs were quiet. I heard shuffling and shortly, Taehyung came to view.

"Shit!" He muttered, "Jimin! Come over here, It's crystal."