#his eyes make me cackle madly every time without fail

[themushroomgoesyeet]

Goldfish eyeball lookin' ass

??

[mindofasupernova]

Someone you loved

Kaz Brekker x reader

Mr. Sandman Part 2

Inspired by the song "Someone you loved" by Lewis Capaldi

I'm going under and this time I fear there's no one to save me

This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy

Kaz's mind was a raging storm, an ever-shifting landscape. His heart was madly racing and he feared that if it didn't stop soon, it'll burst out of his chest.

Two days had gone by and yet there was no information about Y/N's whereabouts. No one had made an effort to contact him asking for money in exchange for her safety, no blackmail, nothing. Kaz knew the probability of Y/N being alive was shrinking as the days passed.

Kaz felt terrible, guilt crushed his heart in a vicious grip. If he hadn't kicked her out, if he had taken back his words, if he had just... No, thinking about what ifs wouldn't bring Y/N back home. If she's still alive a cruel voice whispered in the back of his mind.

His mind drifted to his darkest memories, horrible images plagued his mind. Rotting flesh beneath his fingers, icy hands grabbing at him, threatening to pull him under the waves. Water filled his lungs, consuming his oxygen and living him in the dark. His head broke the water, gasping for air, Kaz looked around, trying to find something, anything to grab to avoid drowning. Only that now instead of his brother's corpse, he saw Y/N's limp body floating above the water.

Kaz fell to his knees, the pain brought him back to reality. He was trembling, sharp gasps left his body, black dots covered his vision. Y/N would have told him to focus on reality, take in the details, count every little object he could find in the room. But Y/N wasn't here, and it was all his fault.

___________

I need somebody to heal, somebody to know

Somebody to have, somebody to hold

Y/N talked passionately about her latest read, making wild gestures with her hands as if to prove a point. Jesper's arm was slung across her shoulder, head thrown back in a laughing fit. When his cackles died down, Jesper leaned his head on Y/N's shoulder and started mocking her for being able to remember the exact place where phrases were in the book.

Kaz watched silently from his seat in the Crow Club, he knew those touches were purely friendly gestures, and still he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy.

On many sleepless nights, Kaz thoughts had wandered down a treacherous path, always finding their way to Y/N. His mind had been invaded by images of her: the smile she always wore when she was about to make a witty comment, the way she pursed her lips whenever he asked her to memorize an important document, the furrow of her brows when paying close attention to Kaz's plans.

He snapped out of it, angry at himself for thinking about her, he couldn't afford those thoughts. Kaz's life was dangerous and he had many enemies who wouldn't hesitate to use anything or anyone against him. If he left himself feel, if he let her in, he knew there was nothing he wouldn't do for her.

He had tried. He had tried to distance himself, push her away until his feelings dissipated to nothing. However, every time Y/N appeared in his office late at night just to talk about her day, every time she called his name, every time she sent a glorious smile his way, Kaz couldn't bring himself to say no.

And now, looking at Y/N from across the room, a sense of longing clouded his vision. Thoughts of sitting next to her, no space between their bodies, with no fear of touching reminded him of how miserably he had failed.

____________

It's easy to say, but it's never the same

I guess I kinda liked the way you numbed all the pain

Since Y/N's kidnapping, Kaz had gone completely feral. He had looked for anyone who could provide information. He had kidnapped, tortured, and even killed members of any other gangs he had his suspicions on. He was unstoppable, he wouldn't rest until his Y/N was safe. She isn't even yours because you kicked her out a scornful voice reminded him.

Kaz's whole body hurt, his limp was more prominent than usual, his knuckles were bloodied and a purplish bruise contrasted against his pale skin from a blow he had taken when he was beating the life out of one of the Dime Lion's informants.

How he wished Y/N was there. No matter how many times he came back to the Slat, covered in blood and clutching at his wounds, Y/N's gaze always turned into one of horrified worry.

Y/N had always healed his wounds after a mission, wiping the blood away very carefully in order not to touch his skin. Even when he wasn't bleeding and it was just his leg giving him a bad day or a headache that refused to leave him, Y/N always brought him medicine or tea depending on the situation.

But Y/N was gone and he might not ever see her again. His thoughts lurched him back to the ocean, dead things suffocated him. He clutched his cane tighter, he couldn't have a panic attack now, he needed to find Y/N.

_______

Now the day bleeds into nightfall

And you're not here to get me through it all

The night wrapped the dirty streets of Ketterdam in its wicked hold, the moon loomed ahead casting a palish glow through Kaz's window. Another day had passed and he was no closer to finding Y/N.

He was alone in his office, clutching his cane tighter by the second, its sharp edges bruising his skin, and yet, the pain wasn't enough to keep the waters from rising, Y/N's form surrounded by corpses.

No, he couldn't think of her this way. He had to remain positive, he needed to hope Y/N was still alive somewhere, but for someone like Kaz, remaining positive wasn't something he strived on. Instead, Kaz looked inside his brain, searching for a memory of Y/N to avoid passing out and when he found it, he seized it and hung to it for dear life.

Kaz had heard people say love arrived at the most unexpected times, bloomed in the most unlikely places. People said love wasn't something you chose, something you could control, not a concept you could welcome or shut out of your life at your convenience.

Kaz deemed those people foolish, weak for not being able to control themselves, and as the cold mastermind he was, Kaz brushed off all of their comments. And he would have kept thinking that way if it hadn't been for Y/N during a warm summer evening.

The Crow Club was surprisingly empty, everyone was in a relaxed state, currently resting after a successful heist. Kaz had been working in his office, signing contracts when a soft knock sounded against his door, Y/N peered inside and after receiving Kaz's consent, stepped through the threshold.

Y/N sat in front of his desk, a small smile playing on her face, ensued by a moment of silence, Y/N started talking. Kaz's head perked up at the sound of her voice, eyes leaving the papers to direct his whole attention to her but he had been completely caught off guard by the sight before him.

Y/N's mouth was moving but Kaz's couldn't hear a thing, it was as if someone had stolen the sound so he could only focus on Y/N's heavenly form.

Y/N's hair was slightly disheveled, gusts of wind occasionally brushing lonely strands into different directions, soft locks swishing in compass with a nonexistent melody. Sunset rays filtered through the window, lighting up Y/N's features. Sunlight beams fell gently down the slope of her nose, gently caressed her long lashes, and kissed her tender lips giving them a reddish hue.

At that moment, Kaz realized how dreadfully unjust the world was. How come was the wind able to run his breezy fingers across her beautiful hair? How could the rain brush her skin lovingly without repelling at the idea of skin contact? Why could the Sun kiss her graceful lips and he couldn't?

Kaz wanted to hold her, reach for her whenever he wanted without fear of drowning. He wanted to hug her and nuzzle his nose in her hair affectionately. He wanted to know what her skin felt like under his fingertips. Kaz wanted to know the taste of her lips.

Because he was in love with her.

________

I let my guard down and then you pulled the rug

I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

Y/N laid immobile in his bed, her skin almost as pale as his sheets, soft breaths escaped her lungs. Kaz sat in a chair near her fragile body, his frown deepened every time his eyes landed on a different wound.

Kaz felt like in a déjà vu, a vision that had happened exactly three weeks ago. This was the reason why Kaz had pushed her, why he had evicted her from the Slat, the one home she had ever known. But did it matter? All his efforts to keep her safe had been in vain.

That fateful night, when she had been the distraction in a supposed easy heist, everything had come tumbling down. The nightmares had started back then, where he first saw her all bloodied and beaten and unconscious. They didn't know if she would ever wake up. Kaz had refused to visit her, images of his nine-year-old self seeing her amongst the corpses in the Reaper's Barge haunted his days.

When she had woken up he'd wanted to see her, but he couldn't bring himself to because he knew what he had to do. Kaz couldn't bear the thought of her dying, he couldn't imagine her gone, but if he gave her hope, if she saw how much he cared, she would refuse to leave. He needed her to stay away for her safety

So he had done that, he had ruthlessly yanked his heart out of his chest when he had kicked her out. The words he had said to her tortured him since that day: "Do not think that just because I have kept you around for this long you're irreplaceable." And when he thought he couldn't feel more pain, Y/N had started crying. Silent droplets fell down her cheeks and Kaz felt as if the most savage assassin had ripped his heart into shreds.

I let my guard down and then you pulled the rug

I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

Seating there, silently watching Y/N's closed eyes, he was experiencing it all again. When they had found her she had been tied to a chair, unmoving, in one of the Dime Lion's warehouses. He swore his heart had stopped beating, she couldn't be dead, when Nina had checked for her heartbeat and announced it was still there, Kaz's heart reanimated.

Nina had done her best to heal her and now the only thing there was to do was wait until she woke up. This time Kaz had refused to leave her bedside. This time he would do things differently.

He had been a coward, he now realized. He should have never let her go. He should have been braver, stronger, he should have protected her. Now he realized he wanted, no, needed her with him. He had been too scared worrying for the future that he had forgotten to enjoy the present. He wouldn't make that mistake again.

"Kaz?"

His head shot back to Y/N. She was awake, she was alive and he would never let her go.

And with such a fervent emotion, he couldn't have thought himself capable of expressing, he said "Please, don't ever leave me again. "

Thanks for the song recommendation @itsemy01

Taglist:

@getawayfrommewerewolf, @lady1505, @rika90, @thedelusionreaderbitch, @coffeewithoutcaffeine, @aleksanderwh0r3, @princessleah129, @subjecta13-thefangirl

[chaptersinprogress]

sweet skies & floral lies

There were 2 things: 1) Tsuna had a secret 2) Skull, who he'd all but formally adopted, was in on it But the truth (the whole truth, and nothing but the truth) lay beneath sweet smiles and the scent of rotting flowers

Rating: T

Warnings: implied violence and murder

Pairings: Skull & Sawada Tsunayoshi; brief Skull/Viper; brief 1827

Prompt: @khrrarepairweek 2021 day 3 | secret/hidden skillsets

“Tsuna, Tsuna, Tsuna!” Skull shouted as he burst through the shop door, the bell hanging above it jangling wildly.

The man in question startled violently, almost dropping an exquisite and very breakable ceramic vase. “Skull?! What’s happening?!”

Skull skidded to a stop at the counter from which the florist was staring at him with no small amount of alarm.

“I-” he announced, puffing up. “Have scored a date with Viper! Tonight! In 2 hours!”

Tsuna stared for a moment longer before heaving a sigh of relief.

“Skull!” he scolded lightly, placing the vase he’d narrowly rescued from utter destruction on the countertop. “With the way you barged in, I thought something bad had happened.”

“Oh…” said Skull, deflating.

He ashamedly scuffed his boots on the floor and fiddled with his lip ring, all the while looking like a kicked puppy.

Shaking his head fondly, Tsuna gave the teen a warm smile. “That’s really great news. Did they like the last gift you gave them?”

Skull immediately perked up.

“Ye-p!” he exclaimed, popping the ‘p’. “They were so impressed with how detailed the bleeding heart pendant on the necklace was! Man, that was one of the hardest metalworking projects I’ve done.”

“That’s wonderful!” Tsuna leaned over to ruffle the teen’s spikey purple hair. “Good job!”

Skull drew back and pouted. “Not a kid!”

“You’re 19, Skull,” Tsuna pointed out with an amused smile. “Still a teenager.”

“Am not! Maybe you’re just old,” Skull sniffed haughtily.

Tsuna gasped dramatically.

“You take that back!” he demanded in mock affront.

“Nope!” said Skull, eyes lighting up. “You’re old, Tsuna! Soooo ooooold!”

Narrowing his eyes, Tsuna took off his apron and laid it on the counter. “I’m warning you Skull…”

“Whacha gonna do? Make me?”

“That’s it!” Tsuna exclaimed. “You’re in for it now!”

He lunged across the counter and Skull leapt back with a delighted laugh, Tsuna’s fingers missing his shirt by centimeters.

“Catch me if you can old man!” he crowed and raced across the room.

Tsuna promptly gave chase. “Oh, it’s on!”

The two of them ran around the flower shop in a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse, ducking and weaving between the multitude of plants while remaining mindful of not damaging any of them.

“You!” Tsuna cried, chest heaving as they paused to size each other up.

Skull laughed gleefully. “Old man, old man!” he chanted and stuck out his tongue.

“Get back here!”

The teen turned around and ran for it, Tsuna hot on his heels. As they chased each other, they failed to register the light tinkling of the bell at the entrance.

Cackling madly, Skull didn’t notice the person who had stepped inside until he nearly crashed into them, barely managing to duck around them in time.

Tsuna skidded to a stop right in front of the newcomer. “Kyo-kun!”

Hibari Kyoya looked at him, then at Skull, then back at Tsuna, before raising an eyebrow.

“Tell him, Kyo!” Tsuna said indignantly. “Tell him I’m not old! I’m 27 for Kami’s sake!”

Hibari shot Skull a brief glance. Then smirked at Tsuna.

“You’re old.”

Tsuna’s jaw dropped as Skull gasped in delight before doubling over laughing.

“BETRAYAL!” Tsuna cried out, jabbing a finger at the traitor.

Hibari’s smirk softened into a tiny smile. Grasping the outstretched hand gently, he pressed a soft kiss to the inside of Tsuna’s wrist before sliding an arm around his waist and dragging him in to kiss him properly.

“Ewww, I’m still here you know?”

The couple broke apart and Tsuna stuck out his tongue at Skull over Hibari’s shoulder.

“You’re just jealous that I’ve been happily married for over 7 years now.”

“Rude! But fair.”

Hibari tugged on a lock of Tsuna’s gravity-defying hair. “I have a present for you in the usual place,” he said quietly when Tsuna turned to him.

“Aw, Kyoya you do love me!” said Tsuna delightedly.

Hibari huffed and flicked his forehead. 'Of course I do', his unimpressed expression screamed.

“You two are soooo sappy,” grimaced Skull. “I hope I get a love like that someday,” he added, a little bit wistful.

Tsuna clapped his hands as Hibari moved away. “Well if this date goes well, maybe you will!”

“Good luck,” said Hibari, briefly resting a palm on the top of Skull’s head before disappearing through the back leading to the home upstairs.

“Oh. My. God.” exhaled Skull shakily. “I have no idea if that was meant to be encouragement or a threat. Scary murder husband is SCARY. Tsuna, are you sure he’s Carabinieri and not a hitman,” he called out.

Tsuna laughed as he studied the assortment of flora in the shop. “Yes, Skull. I’m sure.” Then cocked his head. “Hmm… maybe roses? Roses are a classic.”

Picking a brilliant red one, Tsuna moved back to the counter. “Do you want a single flower or a bouquet?” he asked absentmindedly.

Skull followed him over. “Ah, actually…” he trailed off.

Tsuna paused and waited for him to continue.

“Couldyouturnitintoglass?” Skull rushed out.

The florist blinked. “Skull, I did not catch a single word of that.”

“Could you like… maybe… turn it to something fancy… like before?”

Thrown, Tsuna frantically looked around before hissing, “Skull! You weren’t even supposed to see that!”

“I know, I know! I’m sorry!”

Rubbing his temples, Tsuna sighed. “It’s ok. Just, don’t go around telling people about it?”

Skull nodded so fast Tsuna had a brief moment of worry that he’d accidentally break his neck. “Promise! My lips are sealed!”

“Alright,” Tsuna whispered conspiratorially, gesturing for Skull to come closer. “Watch.”

He spun the rose between his thumb, index and middle fingers.

Skull’s eyes widened as bright gold spread across the dark green of the stem, winding up to the flower where the blood red petals turned clear crystal, exploding into a myriad of brilliant fractal colours that shimmered and shifted with every change of light.

“Woah,” he breathed out. “That is so cool! Can you do others?”

“Only if the flowers are fresh,” Tsuna admitted. “Doesn’t work on dried or preserved plants and have no idea why.”

With a final twirl to show off his handiwork, Tsuna presented the rose to Skull.

“Now run along and impress your date. It’s on me,” he waved off when Skull made to reach for his wallet.

“Thanks Tsuna!” the teen shouted, beaming widely as he rushed out. “You’re the best!”

“Drive carefully!” Tsuna called out, following the other to the door. “And text me when you get home!”

Smiling, he shook his head as Skull raced off on his motorcycle, the rose safely tucked inside and zipped up in the latter's jacket.

When the teen vanished around the corner, Tsuna let the door fall shut and switched the store sign from 'OPEN' to 'CLOSED'. Then made his way to the storage room where the bouquets stored in the cold cabinets and various gardening implements were kept.

Closing and locking the door after himself, Tsuna hummed a cheerful tune while walking to the lone empty cabinet without shelves in the corner with a sad 'OUT OF ORDER' sign pasted on the glass.

He pulled the door open and keyed the passcode into a lock concealed at the side. With a hiss, the back of the cabinet swung open to reveal a dark set of stairs leading down. Unbothered by the lack of light, he continued humming as he descended till the stairs levelled off into a cavernous basement.

The sides of the room were filled with human statues and sculptures of different mediums: crystal, porcelain, glass, stone, clay and more. Bright spotlights shone down on them, throwing their lifelike features into stark relief.

Their subject matter, however, was horrifying.

But Tsuna gave them nary a glance while making his way over to a small pit in the center of the room, the top barred with steel rods - spaced across such that it was possible to slip an entire arm between them.

The woman inside whimpered softly, eyes wide with terror.

“Oh my, you’re a pretty one!” Tsuna exclaimed quietly, eyes lighting up. “Kyoya has such good taste, he knows exactly what I want for new material! Did you see my collection? I had so much fun creating them.”

She shook violently, shrinking away from him.

Tsuna smiled gently. “Don’t worry. It’ll be over quick.”

[ampleappleamble]

The Elf and the Orlan's Wedding

—

"Hey. You'll marry me, won't you?"

Aloth had spent the last five years of his life honing his skills and reflexes in his mission to hunt down and destroy one of the most dangerous cults on the face of Eora, but somehow he still couldn't help but be utterly bested by just a few little words. Axa had a way of doing that– cutting past all his pretense and politesse, punching through all his meticulously constructed defenses with just a few simple words, striking at the very heart of him. It was part of why he loved her, and no small part, either.

He pulled her closer as he attempted to sit up in her spacious sleeping berth, struggling to scrape enough of his brain back together from the one-two punch of vigorous, passionate lovemaking followed up by that question to formulate an answer for her. But despite his best efforts, he found that the best he could manage was a feeble, "I beg your pardon?"

She laughed and nuzzled her face into his chest, his bare skin warm against her brow. She'd known the question would shock him, but she also knew that no matter how carefully she phrased it, there really was no way to ask a man like Aloth a question like that without shocking him. "Sorry to surprise you. But it's something I've been thinking about for a while now," she continued. "After we've arrived back in the Dyrwood and settled a few matters, gotten Caed Nua's reconstruction properly underway, taken some time to recover from all this– there'd really be nothing stopping us." She snuggled closer. "And I know the challenges we'll be facing in this new, uncertain world would feel a lot less daunting with you by my side. So... why not get married?"

Axa paused, then, tensed up in Aloth's arms. "That is, if you'd like to." She lifted her head to look at him, her violet eyes soft and glittering in the lamplight. "Would you like to?"

He studied her face, rosy and gorgeous and full of hope. Her proposal wasn't entirely unexpected– after all, it was only natural that she should want to take their relationship further, especially after all they'd been through together in the Deadfire– but it was still a bit overwhelming, actually experiencing such a thing himself instead of merely reading about it in a novel or watching strangers act it out in a stageplay. His head was swimming, his heart was hammering in his chest, his stomach was fluttering madly– but all the same, he couldn't help but smile at her.

"Of course. Of course I would," he murmured at last, brushing a lock of hair from her brow. "I can think of no greater pleasure."

The tears finally came, welled in her eyes as she beamed up at him. "Oh, Aloth," she whispered, pressing her face into his shoulder and squeezing him tight. "You have no idea how happy you've just made me."

"How happy I've made you?" He laughed, surprised to find himself blinking away tears as well. "I'm to be the consort of the Lady of Caed Nua! The brave, kind, beautiful heroine who uncovered the cause of the Hollowborn Crisis and saved the Dyrwood, the indomitable spirit who defies death and deities alike– and of all people, you want to be mine, to be my– my–"

My bride. Axa. My bride, my love, my wife. The reality of it suddenly struck him with its full gravitas, and an indescribable emotion washed over him. "I love you, Axa. Truly."

Giggles mingled with her sobs, and she scrubbed at her wet eyes with a fuzzy fist. "And I love you," she replied softly. She looked up at him again, grinning. "You'll plan everything, right? I was never very good at that sort of thing."

Aloth sighed, slumping back down against the pillows as Axa cackled. "I should have known," he groaned, shaking his head good- naturedly at his newly-betrothed.

"Yes, you should have," she agreed, spreading out on top of him, making herself comfortable. "Planning a fancy formal event– such as, say, the wedding of a landed thaynu who is returning triumphantly from a world-shaking, death-defying mission in the Deadfire– plays much more to your strengths than to mine. Of course, I'll help as much as I'm able. How about I find us an officiant?"

He cocked an eyebrow at her. "Xoti, then? Or were you thinking of asking Vatnir?"

She paused for a moment, her brow furrowed in consternation. "Gods, are those two the only priests I know?" she muttered, resting her chin again Aloth's sternum, and she sighed. "Typical of me, I suppose, to shun all clergy but the most death-obsessed misfits. Even my resident cleric at Caed Nua was a morose Berathian."

Was. Axa's smile faltered, and she abruptly went quiet, unfixing her gaze, lowering her eyelids.

"Well, given what we know of the gods, is it any surprise our priestly acquaintances gravitate toward the morbid?" Aloth tucked a lock of her burgundy hair behind her ear, let his hand linger on her cheek. He'd noticed the sudden chill in her demeanor– reminded of Caed Nua, no doubt, of her myriad responsibilities back at home, the dead waiting to be buried– and had hoped he could warm her back up a bit, but it appeared that even his wry musings weren't enough to soothe her melancholia.

"We're going to be alright, aren't we?" Axa's voice was soft and serious, and she reflexively curled in on herself, clinging to her lover as she contemplated the future ahead of them. "Kith, I mean."

He wrapped her in his arms, warm and steady, and let out a shaky sigh. "I don't know. With the Wheel destroyed and the cycle of reincarnation stalled indefinitely, we'll certainly have our work cut out for us. But if there's one thing in common between all peoples and cultures on Eora, I would posit that it is our stubbornness." Aloth smiled, ran a hand through her thick, soft hair. "With people like you working to guide and support us, kith may yet learn to band together and channel that indefatigable will of ours into finding an equitable solution for all this mess. In any case, I can't really see us all just... giving up. Especially not after all we've seen, all we've been through."

The two lay together in silence for a while, his hand in her hair, her ear pressed to his heart. It had always fascinated her, how elf hearts beat so much more slowly than orlans'.

"The Elf and the Orlan's Wedding," she murmured.

"I... do hope you're not intending to have me write that on the invitations." He allowed himself a small smile. When she hadn't responded, he was sure he'd failed to cheer her, but maybe he'd conceded too soon?

"It's a children's song," she laughed, propping herself up a bit, "that I was just now reminded of. It's about an elf and an orlan at their wedding, and everyone in attendance is bemoaning the foolishness of such a union. 'She'll outlive you by two centuries, it's a waste of time for you both'... That sort of sentiment."

"Charming," Aloth deadpanned.

"Oh, yes," she chuckled, "very much so. Of course, by the end, the lyrics reveal that the titular elf and orlan are well aware of the vast disparity in their lifespans, but they've decided they love each other too much to let something like that get in the way of enjoying their time together."

He smiled knowingly. "Sounds familiar."

She smiled back. "The moral of the story, of course, is that one cannot waste one's life worrying about what others think, about the 'proper' ways of going about this or that, and that it's better to live in the moment and enjoy what you have while you have it."

"Sounds very familiar," Aloth sighed. "But if kith spend too much energy on enjoying the present, we won't be able to prepare for the troubles of the future until they're upon us."

"Ah, but that's just another reason the title characters chose to marry," Axa grinned. "It's easy to miss the significance when you're a child, but there are a few lines in the song regarding the orlan's horrible estranged family complaining about how the orlan's assets will now be bequeathed to his elf wife upon his death, thus keeping it out of their greedy paws for at least 200 more years, if not forever."

He cocked an eyebrow. "That's not your reason for proposing, is it?"

"No!" She laughed, lightly swatting at his chest with the back of one hand. "Although it'll be damned funny, I have to admit, sticking it to all the little Dyrwoodan lordlings with their eyes on my land who were just planning on waiting for me to die in a few decades." A wicked grin spread across her little face, and Aloth couldn't help but laugh.

"Pray tell, then," he smiled, running a hand up and down her back, ruffling her fur and smoothing it back down, "what exactly is the point you're trying to make by bringing up this song, my dear?"

Axa toyed with a lock of his hair, biting her lip and staring at nothing in particular, before finally admitting: "You know, I'm not sure. I definitely lost the plot somewhere along the line, there. I suppose I was trying to draw some sort of parallel between The Elf and the Orlan's Wedding, and our wedding, and... and the challenges ahead of us all in regards to repairing the cycle of reincarnation... something about planning for the future while still making sure to enjoy the present..." She scoffed at herself, resting her chin on Aloth's breast again. "Maybe I was simply randomly reminded of a silly song from my youth and I'm trying too hard to stretch it to link it to current events. Or I'm just tired and rambling and not making any sense at all."

"No," Aloth assured her, "you definitely had a reason for bringing it up, even if you can't quite articulate why." He stroked the back of her ear, staring pensively at the ceiling. "I think, perhaps, you wanted to reassure yourself that even if some new version of the Wheel ends up never getting built, even if it turns out that the days of kith are truly numbered and our end is inevitable... that doesn't mean you need to mourn every day yet to come as if it's already been lived in vain. As a Chanter, and given the subject we'd been discussing, it's only natural the realization would come to you in the form of a song about marriage."

She snuggled close to him, sighing contentedly. "You see why I want you to plan the wedding?" she murmured. "You make everything make sense."

"I learned it from you, you know," he replied, nuzzling the top of her head. "Funny how that works, isn't it? Like a two-piece puzzle. We complete each other."

"Thought that advice sounded familiar," Axa giggled. "Should listen to myself– and you– more often."

"That's a given." Aloth went to kiss her forehead, and she surprised him yet again by scooting forward and craning her neck to press her lips to his instead.

"What about Engrim?" she whispered sweetly, her smile still brushing his. "He's a priest of Magran. If we kept the booze away from him until after the ceremony–"

"Absolutely not, my love." His breath tickled her nose. "No wedding of mine will utilize a Magranite ceremony, and certainly not one conducted by a lush."

The little woman laughed, pressing her face to his neck. "Come on, I'm running out of priests!"

"You truly can't think of any others?" He kissed her temple, sighing with a mix of contendedness and exasperation at his little bride.

"Well, I do know a certain Glamfellen who's a priest of Wael, but we're not exactly on speaking terms." She tried a wry grin, but it morphed into a grimace halfway through. "Ugh. Not as funny as I thought it'd be. Sorry."

Aloth chuckled. "It's decided, then. We'll have a secular wedding."

"Sounds good to me, actually," Axa replied. "Never had much need of the gods anyway."

—

[nomsugayoongi]

Chapter 2

Pairing: Jungkook X OC female

Warnings: None. It's just fluff. Absolute fluff.

For weeks, nights passed uneventfully and even though he slept well, he didn't dream. At least not any he could remember and although he hadn't forgotten about the dream, it wasn't something he thought about much. It was just a strange dream. So after a particularly long and tiring day, Jungkook wasn't thinking about anything other than how tired he was when he finally fell into bed. His body ached from dance practise, the beginnings of a headache starting to settle behind his eyes and even though it wasn't particularly late, he knew that if he didn't rest he'd pay for it the following day. He'd barely closed his eyes when a noise had him groaning. A tapping sound. Like fingers on glass.

"I'm sleeping. Go away" he muttered. "Not so soggy this time." His eyes shot open. He was no longer in his room. He turned, he was back at the top of the dark road only this time there was someone in the window of the convenience store. He spun round, his face errupting in a grin as he spotted her smushed against the glass, tapping furiously with her fingernails. "You again." She nodded, pressing her lips to the glass and blowing, causing her lips to puff apart in the stupidest way. "Are you 6? No self respecting adult makes faces on windows" he chuckled, immediately running over and doing the same thing on the other side of the window. She giggled, her hand pressed flat against the glass as she looked at him. "You came back." She mouthed. He nodded, suddenly wanting to place his hand on the glass over hers. "What are you doing in there?" He questioned. She looked behind her and shrugged. "Eating. Ever had the run of a whole store?" She grinned wickedly.

He joined her inside, they took great pleasure in raiding the shelves, he didn't feel hungry in the slightest but that wasn't the point. They opened so many snacks, taking one bite, comparing the taste then abandoning it to move onto the next one. He noticed she liked savoury more than sweet. "So this dream thing? You said last time that we control it so if I wanted something that wasn't here could I just....make it be here?" He asked, watching her pick one single pocky out of every different flavoured pack then taking a huge bite out of the bunch. "Hmm...I guess so. I haven't actually tried." She muttered, spraying chocolate and biscuit crumbs as she spoke with her mouth full. He rolled his eyes with a chuckle. "What have you tried?" He asked. She hummed, wiping her hands on the front of her jeans. "Flying mostly. I've changed the place a couple of times. Tried to make a rollercoaster appear but I failed at that. I think my dream rollercoaster is too extreme even for here." She smiled. "Show me how to fly." He grinned.

He followed her outside, she spun, walking backwards as she grinned at him giddily. "Ok, just...float up." She instructed. He watched her in awe as she started to float, her feet wriggling happily as they lifted from the ground. She raised herself just maybe twice his height and looked down at him, folding her arms. "Come on." She smiled. He looked down at his own feet agaisnt the floor. Nothing was happening. He tried jumping a couple of times only to come rushing back down. "You're trying too hard. Remember, you're dreaming. Stop trying to actually make your body fly. Think it. Don't do it." She explained. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to picture himself floating upward. "It's not working" he huffed. "You sure about that?" He heard her chuckle. He opened his eyes and gasped. He was a good 6 feet off the ground, legs dangling limply. "No way" he breathed, urging himself higher. "No fucking way!" He surged upward, head thrown back, cackling wildly. He heard her laughing too, she was higher than him, doing mad loops and swooshes through the air. "Fun right?" She shouted through squealed laughter. "This is amazing." He whooped, also trying a loop, essentially throwing himself backwards like he was attempting a back flip but without the fear of crashing to the ground. His heart raced. He felt amazing. Weightless and free. The closest he'd come to the feeling was when he'd bungee jumped and that had ended too quickly. His adrenaline surged, flooding him with an unbridled joy.

He looked over at her, she was watching him with a grin. "Are you real?" He asked. She raised an eyebrow. "Are you just part of my dream? You seem so real. But...this seems so real." He kicked his legs against the air with a chuckle. "Did I just dream you?" She floated up a little before spinning into a huge loop, stopping right in front of him. "I guess that's your choice. Like everything else in here." She smiled. He studied her. He wanted to believe she was real. Surely he couldn't have conjured up a whole ass person. She had to be real. He reached out, smoothing his fingertips through the ends of her flowing hair. It felt soft and silky. "You feel real." He said softly. She giggled, flying underneath him then swooping up behind, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, pretty much clamped to him like a backpack. He grinned, holding her legs around his waist even though he knew he didn't actually need to support her. "Definitely real." He muttered, looking out in front of him. "Hold on" he chuckled, zooming higher up then spinning madly as he aimed back down towards the ground. She squealed hysterically, arms tightening around his shoulders even though there was no fear of falling. He couldn't remember laughing as hard in a long time. He finally stopped, landing on the slate roof of the gazebo, gently putting her down as he looked out onto the water. "This is the best dream I've ever had."

It took Jungkook a while to get over that one. The feeling of freedom he'd had while spinning through the air with her stayed with him for ages. It bled into his waking life and he'd find himself zoning out, trying to replay it in his mind. Which was fine when he wasn't doing anything but not so great when he was at practise or in the middle of an interview. His band mates had noticed, asking him more than once if he was ok, why he was so distracted. He made excuses that he hadn't slept well when in actual fact, all he did in his free time was sleep in an attempt to go back. Yet he woke up morning after morning disappointed. It was strange but he missed it. He missed the freedom. He missed the possibility. He missed her. ​He knew it was stupid. She wasn't real. A figment of his imagination. A dream. But he missed her and as days turned to weeks, the niggle became an ache he found impossible to ignore.

[soulmate-game]

This isn’t my usual Maribat, but I am testing out a new story just to get the creative juices flowing. This is a One Piece and Pokémon crossover, starring a Sylveon named Fae. Based off of/inspired by “the smallest straw hat” on fanfiction.net. It’s a new style and type of story from my usual, but I wanted to try it out. I love “The Smallest Straw Hat,” and I couldn’t help but wanna try out my own addition to the world, even if it isn’t canon. And I... kinda love Sylveon? like a lot?

—*—*—*—*—*

Everyone has their stereotypes about the color pink. And bows. Girly, they say with either fondness or disgust. Childish, they say with either nostalgia or scorn. Weak, they say. Because apparently “childish” and “girly” are both synonymous with “this thing/person is powerless,” or “useless,” or “worthless.”

Heh. I parade down the streets of the latest town I managed to reach, ears and tail raised high in show of my pride to be pink. Sure, I had my natural bows of fur that were just, well, part of me. And sure, I was mostly pink and white. But such was the design of every Sylveon, and most of my race were actually male. So. Everyone who immediately wrote us, and by extension me, off as being a girl just because of my appearance royally pissed me off.

I was proud to be pink. Nobody in their right mind, who knew anything about Pokémon, dared to treat a Sylveon as a weakling.

If they did, I’d make sure they knew better soon enough.

But alas, I wasn’t anywhere near Home. Back Home, everyone knew about Pokémon. We are everywhere. But all the way out here, where I was sure hardly any other Pokémon have ever ventured? Not a single human seemed to know the word, and by extension the entire species, even existed. The animals out here were all…

Normal.

Even more normal than Normal types. It was… jarring, at first. But I got used to it after a while. Life on the oceans, jumping from island to island on whatever ship I could get on, was fun. Compared to back Home, the living things out here didn’t surprise me often. So I could just enjoy everything I saw and did.

After That Day, the pure-hearted adventure was welcome.

“What is that?” And here come the whispers. Humans don’t seem to change much, no matter where I go. Fingers pointed at me, not expecting me to be fully aware of what they were saying and doing, as I garnered stares just by walking down the street.

“Some kinda fox, it’s gotta be with those ears and snout. I’ve never seen a pink and white fox before though!”

“Those bows look so real, like they could be part of the thing’s body!”

“No way that’s a fox, it’s gotta be a weird cat!”

“Those are bunny ears. Maybe it’s a mutated rabbit!”

I ignored everyone. It wasn’t like they would understand me anyway. A few brave thugs tried to tackle and grab me, but I’m no hatchling. I easily pranced and jumped out of their grasp, humming a random tune under my breath as I did so. Figuring a little fun wouldn’t hurt, I chanced them a little wink and channeled a bit of my charm. The weak-willed dolts were slumped in a pile in seconds, too enamored by my cuteness to even move. Chuckling, I just turned and pranced away.

Humans really never change.

Screams erupted, making me pause. I whipped my head around, trying to find the source of the sound. It was accompanied by the crackling of flames and thumps of heavy things being knocked over.

Too familiar. Too, too familiar.

I grit my jaw, turning as soon as I located the direction the cacophony was coming from and running straight for it. I might be a Pokémon, but I couldn’t stand screams. I failed my Home, my family. I was damned if I didn’t try my best not to fail people in peril again. Even if it was just humans, I had to try to help.

I had to.

Such was part of the reason I traveled. I was enjoying my adventure, sure, but there were two other reasons I didn’t try to head back Home. One; I was searching for someone. Two; as soon as I realized that Pokémon didn’t exist outside of Home, I decided I had to use my powers to help anyone I could. Heh. Guess a certain old friend of mine rubbed off on me, now I’m running into danger constantly without any plans. They’d be so proud.

Sliding around a corner, I finally saw it. Almost an entire street was aflame, the flags that flew just off the shore stopping me in my tracks for a second.

Marines.

I had spent enough time out on the seas to know how corrupt the supposed “good guys,” could be. Hiding under my breath, I ran toward the first burning building I could see. If there was anyone stuck inside, I had to get to them. But as I got to the door, I had to stumble back to avoid being trampled as a large, blond man came out carrying two passed out bodies over his shoulders. My squeak of surprise apparently caught his attention, and for a moment his black eyes met mine. He paused, scanning the street for a second before continuing on.

I followed him. I don’t know why, but something told me he got everyone left in that building, and was trying to finish getting those last two to safety. Regardless, I had no idea what was going on and he seemed to. For now, I’d get my cues from him.

He made his way to a large ship with a dragon figurehead, and I leapt to hide behind the corner of a not-burning building to watch as he handed the wounded people on his shoulders off to apparent allies of his before he took off again. Once more, I followed. This time, before he could even touch the door to another building that was on fire, I beat him there.

I let my ribbons expand, feeling as they started to glow. The light attracted his attention soon enough, making the man pause. He put a hand on the pipe that I now noticed was on his back, but otherwise only watched me. Satisfied that he wasn’t going to attack, I focused back on the building and let the power from my ribbon-feelers build up in front of my snout. Opening my mouth, I set off the move with a roar. My voice was the final trigger, power blasting out from my mouth in the form of a giant storm of winds, clashing into each other and whirling madly until they hit the building. The force of my fairy wind put out the flames on the whole building, though it left me slightly short of breath. I turned my head back to the blond, nodding my head to the building.

He grinned at me, taking his hand off his pipe and rushing into the building without me having to try to get the message across a second time.

That was when the footsteps stole my attention, and I whirled around. A veritable army of Marines was headed straight for me— no, straight for the building I had just put out. They were after the blond man.

I felt a growl build up in the back of my throat, quickly separating my legs and taking a fighting stance. The blond was one of the few people I could see actually trying to help with this horrid situation, I wouldn’t let anyone get in his way! But if there’s one good thing about everything I’ve been through, it’s that fighting is nothing new to me. I’d take care of these jerks, and buy that blond guy time to save as many people as he could.

As usual, nobody seemed to take the sight of me seriously. The marines seemed just about ready to run me over, but I wasn’t about to allow that.

“Idiots. You won’t pass me!” I shouted, though all they heard was “Sylveon! Eon!”

Taking a deep breath, I once again channeled my power into my feelers. Letting them raise and float straight up in the air, I narrowed my eyes and sang the tune that came naturally to me at that point. My voice rang through the air as if there were no other sounds to muffle it, as if there were no screams or flames or crumbling buildings at all. As my short song echoed unnaturally across the street, a thick fog burst into being around my feet before quickly spreading until it covered the entire block and went ten feet high. Only the area directly behind me was spared, since I didn’t want to hinder the blond man that I was doing this to protect.

The magical cloud of fog was thick and almost viscous, and it merely swayed in place instead of moving like a normal fog. It hung there, taunting and obstructing the marine assholes caught inside. I could hear the fumbles and curses as they began to trip over on another, unable to get their bearings. But merely stalling them wasn’t enough. Steadying myself, it had been a while since I had had a proper fight, I raised my head and changed my tone. Focusing on the people I could feel trapped in my fog, I let loose a siren-like wail that I knew from experience burrowed itself into the brains of those that I targeted with it. It didn’t even take a second for the screams of pain to rise up from within the fog, but I knew that it wasn’t enough to knock any of them out.

I sighed; sure defending and attacking strategically was a strong point of mine, but that didn’t mean it was very exciting. I admit, I might have a bit of an adrenaline addiction. I like fighting up close, so what? But that wasn’t my job, right then I had to just stall these guys so that—

“I got them out, nice job,” the voice that came from behind me made me jump, and I turned around to see the very man I had decided to stall for. He grinned widely at me, his mouth almost making a full D shape. “These guys aren’t too strong, but they would have slowed me down for sure. But there were more people than I anticipated in those buildings, mind giving me a hand?” He jerked his head behind him. Blinking, I followed the gesture and almost fell over. At least ten people, all in various stages of injury or unconsciousness, were strewn on the sidewalk. No way that came all from the one building I put out! How fast was this guy?

A loud laugh drew my attention back to the blond, who was nearly doubled over with his cackling. “Y-y-you’re face! Hahahaha! Don’t be so surprised, little thing. I’m good at what I do. Now come on, think you can help me carry some of them? I think I can take four or five, how many can you get?”

I puffed out my cheeks, raising my head with a confident huff as I let my ribbons stretch out. “Sylvie!” These things aren’t just for show, ya know!

Walking forward and ignoring the heavy weight of the man’s stare as he watched me, I let each of my ribbons lift up two people each. The ones that were still conscious seemed to think that I was some fever dream, which at least kept them from struggling too much since they weren’t going to fight what they thought was a hallucination. I turned proudly, smiling at the man. See? Child’s play. You get the rest. “Eon? Sylvie Sylvie.”

He clearly didn’t understand me, but chuckled anyway. “Nice, you’re stronger than you look, for such a tiny thing,” watch it. “I’ll follow behind you with the rest, did you see the boat that I took the others to? Go there, my friends will know how to help these guys.”

I nodded, not waiting to see the blond grab the last three victims before I ran off in the direction of the dragon-designed ship. I actually scoffed a bit. No matter where I went, there was always something related to dragons. Why were humans so obsessed with those things anyway? They weren’t that impressive.

“Hey! What’re you doing with— oh, you’re handing them to me?” A girl with orange hair was waiting at the boarding platform for the ship, and seemed ready to fight until I all but shoved the people I was carrying at her. “Oh. Well, thanks?”

“Don’t worry, this little thing helped me out back there,” the blond had caught up, smiling at the woman as he handed off his own victims to someone else nearby. “Let’s get these guys to the infirmary, yeah? Wanna come with us, little one? The marines aren’t likely to forget you, you kinda stand out.”

I tilted my head. He had a point, I wasn’t exactly a stealthy Pokémon when it came to my appearance. And attacking marines was bound to get me in trouble later.

The blond seemed to notice my reluctance to just go off with strangers, and chuckled again before walking over and kneeling in front of me. “I guess it would help if I introduced myself, huh? You seem to understand me just fine. My name’s Sabo. I’m part of the revolutionary army, just like everyone on this ship,” he gestured to the boat behind him. “That girl is my friend Koala. What’s your name?”

“Sylveon.”

Sabo blinked, furrowing his brows a little. “Sylveon? What are you, then?”

“Sylveon,” honestly, dealing with humans who weren’t from Home was exhausting. Always the same questions, and I could never answer them any easier than I could before.

“Huh? Is that all you can say, your name?”

I huffed, already frustrated by this stupid language barrier. “Sylveon. Sylvi, syl, Eon. Sylveon.”

“So, Sylveon is the name of your species?” I nodded, close enough. “And that is all you can say? Variations of your name?” I nodded again. Finally, we were getting places. Sabo rocked back on his heels, humming as he observed me. “Can I call you Silky-Chan?”

Oh. Hell no. I growled, narrowing my eyes. Apparently that was amusing, because he just laughed at me.

“Come on, Silky-Chan. We can figure out more about you later, but we should go before they send stronger marines.”

I grumbled under my breath at the stupid nickname he gave me, but followed him on board anyway. If nothing else, he seemed interesting. I could always jump overboard when we got close to another island if I wanted to get away.

—*—*—*—*—*

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Heathers | Sweet Pea

A/N: Second to last part! It’s almost the end of the rewrite of the Heathers episode, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far! :D 

Act one - Act two - Act three - Act four - Act Five 

Words: 3076

Pairing: Sweet Pea x Reader 

Warnings: angst, cursing, sexual harassment

Act Five: Meant To Be Yours

Ever since we rehearsed Dead Girl Walking for the first time yesterday, I haven’t been able to shake the feeling I had when I was straddling Sweet Pea’s lap. Why – oh why – must he be so attractive and so good at singing? Never have I felt anything like this for a co-star in a play or musical. I hate feeling this weak and vulnerable for a boy. Thought I’d learned my lesson after Reggie, but I guess I didn’t.  “Earth to Y/N,” Ella’s voice makes me snap out of my thoughts.  “Hm, what?” I ask, my eyes darting from Ella to Margot and back. Both of them have knowing smirks on their faces. The three of us are sat at the cafeteria, eating our lunches. Only a few more hours until the very last rehearsal before we go through everything from beginning to end for the next rehearsals.  “You’re so crazy about him,” Margot retorts and takes a bite from her sandwich.  “I am not,” I shoot back, furrowing my eyebrows.  “Hm, Ella, don’t you think it’s weird I didn’t have to say a name, and still, Y/N knew who I was talking about?” Margot is a great actress, but her sarcasm always seeps through in situations like this.  “Yeah, that is weird. How could that be, Margot?” Ella taps her chin twice with her index finger and looks like she’s in deep thought with her brows furrowed and lips pursed.  “I don’t know, Ella. Maybe because she’s so damn madly in love with the guy playing Jason Dean.” Margot and Ella both burst out laughing, and I can’t help but smile too.  “Imagine having your own Jason Dean without the psychopathic part, and not doing anything about it,” Ella scoffs, shaking her head at me while picking at her salad. “I mean, honestly, Y/N, what’s holding you back?” I drop my sandwich on my tray and heave a deep sigh. “Is it the Serpent-thing? I thought you didn’t care about all that shit?” Margot adds, wanting to know too, why I didn’t take my chance and ask him out.  “No…” I sigh again, “It’s… I… I don’t know, guys. I just think I’m scared. I mean, what if he doesn’t feel the same? He’s pretty much still in love with Josie McCoy even though she broke his heart in a thousand pieces. What’s Reggie going to do? Is it going to change the entire musical? Is it going to steer me away from my path straight to NYU?” I ramble all of the thoughts I’d been overthinking on my own the entire night last night.  “Wow, girl, okay…” Margot seems a little taken aback by all the thoughts slipping out of my mouth. “Let’s break this down,” she says and glances to Ella for a second as if to check who’ll start. Ella does.  “The only way to know if he feels the same, is to ask him.” She shrugs as if it’s that simple.  “Are you sure he’s still in love with Josie? I mean, what you guys did in rehearsals during Dead Girl Walking, that was improv, which might mean he wanted to rip your shirt off the entire time,” Margot continues by tackling my second thought.  “Who cares what Reggie’s going to do? He’s a dick, Y/N. Screw him,” Ella says, and Margot nods.  “If you’re scared it’s going to change the musical, then wait until the musical’s over. The show’s next weekend if you can wait that long. But if it’s going to change the musical, he isn’t that great an actor, sweetie.” Margot presses her lips together in a painful grimace.  “You still have this year and senior year to spend with him and if he loves you, he’ll understand you’ll have to work on musical theater to get into the college of your dreams. He’ll support you, run lines with you, sing songs with you. If the both of you want it enough, you’ll make it work.”  I sigh again. They’re not wrong, but I’m not convinced yet. “Yeah, but what if he doesn’t want me like that?” My friends at the other side of the table groan simultaneously.  “We’re not going to start this again, Y/N,” Margot says.  “Just ask him,” Ella adds, exaggerating the articulation of the words. I open my mouth to say something else, but the bell ringing to signal the end of lunch interrupts me. “Let’s go, I’ve got biology and professor Phylum doesn’t like tardiness.” Margot and I nod, and the three of us leave the cafeteria together. On our way to our lockers, we bump into a bunch of jocks. Not Reggie nor Archie. But Ryan, Jake and Mason. All three with gross smirks on their faces.  “Hey, Y/N,” Ryan greets in a deep voice.  “Sorry, boys, we got to get to class,” I say, and we try to walk past them, but they block us from doing so. “Can you let us through, please?” I try to keep my voice steady, even though I’m starting to get scared. These three don’t have the cleanest record when it comes to interactions with women.  “Ah, you can’t just leave,” Mason’s mouth curls up into a grin.  “Not when you’re dressed like that,” Jake then goes. I look down to the Veronica skirt I’m wearing. Kevin told us to always wear something our characters would wear to really get into the mind of the person we’re supposed to play.  “Dressed like what? This is what I always wear?” I glance at my friends, who are clearly as confused as I am. The three boys give each other a glance too before Mason goes on.  “Yeah! And it’s torture!” Ryan almost yells in frustration.  “How can you expect us to control ourselves when you look like that?” says Jake. This is going to be one of those conversations, isn’t it?  “Back off, assholes,” Cheryl’s voice sounds from behind me. When I turn my head, I find Sweet Pea, Fangs, Toni and Cheryl standing behind me with their arms crossed. My eyes linger a little longer on the tall Serpent right behind me. He has an intimidating scowl on his face.  “Oh, look the criminals are backing up the theater nerds now that they’re singing and dancing together like little fags.” Mason says with a chuckle and hitting his best bud, Jake, on his chest. Jake and Ryan both cackle obnoxiously.  “What’s going on here, Bulldogs?” Reggie’s voice chimes in. For some reason, it only makes me tense up more. He goes to stand next to Ryan, looking at me first, then glancing at the Bulldogs. “Are they harassing you, Y/N?” I want to open my mouth to tell him it’s not that bad to avoid any fighting when Betty and Veronica chime in too.  “Get over yourself, assholes, she’s not that into you,” Veronica tells them, her eyebrows furrowed.  “Oh, come on, Reg!” Mason starts, “You’ve noticed she’s gotten hotter every damn day! She may not have been good enough for you back then, but right now, she’s good enough to get with me!” I raise my eyebrow at him. I can’t keep my mouth shut anymore. Not when he’s talking shit like that.  “Now I’m good enough?” I ask, stepping forward. Reggie steps back to allow me more space. “Did it ever occur to you that I don’t care if I’m ‘good enough’ for a gross, misogynistic prick like you? I’m intelligent enough to know my worth doesn’t depend on a jock’s boner. You, however, are worth nothing. So, get your tiny dick out of here before I cut it off.” I’ve gotten closer with every word I’ve said to the point where I’m mere inches away from him.  “You heard her, ass,” Archie then says, who’d joined too.  “Get out of here!” Sweet Pea adds with his intimidating, low voice that sends shivers down my spine.  “See you in hell, assholes!” Betty, Margot and I yell after them as they scurry away.  “Thanks for backing me up, guys,” I say, glancing up to every single one of my co-stars. My eyes linger on Sweet Pea again, and he’s looking at me too. His scowl is replaced with a small smile and sparkles in his eyes, lighting up his eyes more.  “That’s all good, Y/N,” Reggie says, and wraps an arm around me. I stiffen at the all-too-familiar feeling. “We’re all theater nerds now!” I wriggle myself loose from his grip with a chuckle.  “Mess with Veronica, mess with the Heathers!” Cheryl chimes in. Her red lips are turned up into a wide, bright smile that takes away the nerves I just felt when Reggie placed his arm around me.  “Let’s get to class now,” Margot then suggests, and we all nod in agreement.  “Y/N,” Sweet Pea starts and holds me back by my arm while the others get to class. “Can we please rehearse some lines tonight after rehearsal?” The words feel like a punch in the stomach. I can’t be trusted alone with him. I’ll just forget about all of my worries and kiss him and then overthink it once again when it’s happened. I need to step back and pretend I’m not as in love with him as I am right now. For my own good. For my future. To save the musical.

“Let’s do Yo Girl and Meant to Be Yours back to back again. Make sure to go all-in today, kids!” Evelyn tells us with a grin on her face. Everyone that needs to be on stage goes to get ready. Cheryl, Archie and Reggie go to stand on the raised bit of the stage. They’re dead by now, so it’s their ghosts that are still haunting Veronica. Betty, Veronica and I stand on the lower bit to do our small conversation. “Martha Dumptruck took a belly flop off the Old Mill Bridge last night holding a suicide note,” Betty says with a chuckle. “Oh my God, is she dead?” I ask, eyes wide, pretending to be shocked by this news. Betty then replies, “Just some broken bones. Just another geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably.” She rolls her eyes and walks off stage with Veronica in tow. “Yo girl, keep it together I knew you would come far Now you're truly a Heather Smell how gangsta you are,” Cheryl, Reggie and Archie sing together from ‘heaven’. “Martha, I’m so sorry,” I say, Veronica Sawyer’s barely holding it together. “Yo girl, feel a bit punchy? She's not looking so well Still, you've earned that red scrunchie Come join Heather in hell,” the dead characters sing again, and on walk our coach and the drama teacher who are playing my parents. “Where’ve you been?” Coach McLaren asks with furrowed eyebrows. He’s not the greatest actor. But it’ll do for a few lines. “We've been worried sick! Your friend JD stopped by. He told us everything,” miss Jacobs says her line. “Everything?” I ask. Miss Jacobs gives me a worried smile. “Your depression, your thoughts of suicide…” Coach McLaren goes. Miss Jacobs shows me a Moby Dick copy. “He even showed us your copy of Moby Dick!” “He’s got your handwriting down cold,” Cheryl chimes in sassily. “Please, honey, talk to us!” miss Jacobs pleads. At least her good acting balances out coach’s bad acting. I shake my head viciously. “No, you wouldn’t understand!” “Try me! I’ve experienced everything you’re going through!” miss Jacobs’ voice grows, and I back up. “Guess who's right down the block?” the dead kids sing behind us. “Your problems seem like life and death—” ‘mom’ chimes in. Then Cheryl, Reggie and Archie take their turn again, “Guess who’s climbing the stairs?” “I promise they’re not!” miss Jacobs says. “Guess who’s picking your lock?” “You don’t know what my world looks like!” I yell at my mother and run off stage. “Time’s up! Go say your prayers!” Mom and dad now walk off stage, and I go back on. The dead kids walk down the stairs on one side while I run up the ones on the other side. “Veronica's running on, running on fumes now Veronica's totally fried Veronica's gotta be trippin' on 'schrooms now, Thinking that she can hide Veronica's done for, there's no doubt now, Notify next of kin! Veronica's trying to keep him out now Too late! He got in!” Sweet Pea walks onto stage as if he’d just broken into my ‘bedroom”, and I’m hiding in the closet from him. “Knock! Knock! Sorry to come through the window. Dreadful etiquette, I know!” Sweet Pea’s voice makes my knees buckle. He sounds so angry, yet I know he isn’t. He looked happy just seconds ago. “Get out of my house!” I yell at him through the pretend door. “All is forgiven, baby! Come on and get dressed! You’re my date to the pep rally tonight!” I perk up at that with furrowed eyebrows in confusion. “What?! Why?!” “You chucked me out like I was trash, For that you should be dead— But! But! But! Then it hit me like a flash, What if high school went away instead' Those assholes are the key! They're keeping you away from me! They made you blind, messed up your mind But I can set you free!” When we were exploring the songs still, Ella, Margot and I were always dancing to this song. But now, I can’t seem to move a muscle. I’m not allowed to, but even if I was, I’m too enthralled by his voice and how perfect it sounds for the song. “You left me and I fell apart, I punched the wall and cried— Bam! Bam! Bam!” I jump a little when his voice grows louder. “Then I found you changed my heart and set loose all that truthful shit inside! And so I built a bomb Tonight our school is Vietnam! Let's guarantee they'll never see their senior prom!” The music slows down a little and his voice does too, getting a bit vulnerable. “I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! Don't give up on me now! Finish what we've begun! I was meant to be yours!” Then the music grows louder and harder, and his voice becomes angrier and more psychopathic than before. How do I only find out now how talented this boy is? “So when the high school gym goes boom with everyone inside— Pchw! Pchw! Pchw! In the rubble of their tomb We'll plant this note explaining why they died!” The other students walk up the stage too, surrounding JD in a half circle. “We, the students of Westerburg High Will die. Our burnt bodies may finally get through To you. Your society churns out slaves and blanks No thanks. Signed the Students of Westerburg High 'Goodbye.'” The students stay where they are, but Sweet Pea now sings on his own. “We'll watch the smoke poor out the doors. Bring marshmallows, We'll make s'mores! We can smile and cuddle while the fire roars!” Then, everyone sings back up vocals for Sweet Pea during the chorus, making it sound even more magical. However, I can only focus on Sweet Pea’s gorgeous voice. It’s making me fall more and more in love with the boy. Damn it. “I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! I can't make this alone! Finish what we've begun! You were meant to be mine! I am all that you need! You carved open my heart! Can't just leave me to bleed!” I begin to prepare my fake suicide by hanging up a fake noose and wrapping it around my neck. “Veronica, open the—open the door, please' Veronica, open the door. Veronica, can we not fight anymore' Please, can we not fight anymore' Veronica, sure, you're scared, I've been there. I can set you free! Veronica, don't make me come in there! I'm gonna count to three! “One! Two! Fuck it!” He opens the ‘door’ and finds his Veronica dead. The boy, overcome with emotions, kneels down next to me and begins crying. “Oh my God! 'No! 'Veronica'!” His voice sounds softer, but still equally as powerful. And it still sends chills down my spine. “Please don't leave me alone' You were all I could trust' I can't do this alone'” The others back him up again for the very last line, and goosebumps form on my arms. “Still I will if I must!” “Veronica?!” mom shouts as she walks up the stairs. Sweet Pea looks up in a panic and runs off stage.  “I made you a snack! Veronica?!” Miss Jacobs walks up the stairs with a tray in her hands when she finds her daughter hung from the ceiling. A loud, shrill shriek comes from her body, making me snap my head up. “No, no, no!” I yell and run up to her. “No, it was a joke! No, mom, please! Look at me! I’m okay!” I grab her cheeks and makes her look at me. I wipe away her tears. “I’m fine. I’m fine!” “That’s not funny!” she yells back at me, sobbing violently.   “And scene!” Kevin yells, and miss Jacobs and I get up. “You’re doing a great job, Y/N,” she tells me with a smile. Miss Jacobs has always been kind of my second mom. She’s my theater mom. She’s supporting me in my dreams to become a professional musical theater actress. The woman believes in me more than my own mother. “Thanks, mom,” I say with a wink and approach my friends on the side of the stage. “I have a problem,” I say in a panicked, but hushed voice. “What is it?” Margot asks, placing her round sunglasses on the top of her head. “I’m terribly and embarrassingly in love with Jason Dean,” I hope they get the code name for Sweet Pea as I don’t want to anyone to hear me say his actual name. The girls’ smiles widen. “Thank heaven’s she admits it!” they both exclaim loudly. I shush them immediately, frantically looking around if anyone’s heard them. Everyone else seems preoccupied with other things, and I sigh in relief. “I don’t know what to do though?” I whisper with a pained expression. “Help? Please?” “Let stoner chick and preppy kid take care of it!” Ella reassures me. Or at least tries to. I’m not sure if I am reassured. 

[forehead-enthusiast]

Drowning

Pairing: Lifeguard!Jaehyun x Reader

Genre: Fluff 

Word Count: 1.1k

Summary: A stupid friend, a stupid plan, a really hot lifeguard- what could go wrong?

A/N: this was meant to be about johnny but like me better hit kinda different you feel me?? basically just an extra long blurb about dumb cute pool antics :D anyway i hope you guys like it!!!

.

“Listen, I’m just saying, if he thinks you’re drowning, he will save you. It’s literally his job. And then you could pretend to need CPR, too, if you catch my drift.” Your friend wiggled her eyebrows, clearly proud of her plan.

“This is why I don’t tell you things.”

You deeply regretted letting slip how cute you thought Jaehyun, the local lifeguard was. She hadn’t stopped suggesting you try and drown yourself since.

Friendship at its finest, you supposed.

When her meddling eyes weren’t watching you, you’d sneak glances at the aforementioned man, squinting at the sunlight glaring off his skin. It was almost unfair how gorgeous he looked, sitting up in his tower, blowing his whistle at squealing children. He’d always smile when he’d tell them off for running. It was a painfully endearing smile, and you sighed wistfully without realizing.

“...And she looked at his glistening muscles, practically drooling, as her friend watched, but she was so lost in his biceps that-”

“Stop narrating!” You smacked your friend’s shoulder, mortified that she’d noticed your gazing. “I wasn’t even looking at his arms, I was looking at his cute smi...le.”

Wrong answer.

Your friend toppled backwards, absolutely cackling. “Oh, you’ve got it bad bad. Whaaaat, his smile make your heart flutter? Send butterflies to your tummy? Make you wanna drop down on one knee right now?” She held her sides, trembling, all too amused at her own teasing. You imagined a meteor falling out of the sky and crushing her.

“Shut up already.”

“Listen,” she wheezed, “He’d probably smile right at you if he thought he saved your life, right? Isn’t that worth drinking some gross pool water? For his smile that you just oh-so-looove?”

“Your logic is… just the worst. Besides, I can swim!” You hoped she wouldn’t notice that you didn’t deny the “love” thing she said.

“What’s your point?”

 .

Jaehyun sat awkwardly a little ways away, and pretended he couldn’t hear every word you said. It was hard not to- neither you nor your friend were very quiet. If he was being honest, though, he probably would’ve noticed even if you’d been more discreet. He’d found himself time and time again looking for you unconsciously, and felt rather remiss when he couldn’t find you. On occasion, you’d lock eyes across the pool, and your shy smile and nod never failed to make him feel a little bashful himself. 

Your voice seemed to stand out to him amidst all the other screams and shouts, and before he realized, he could pick it out without even trying. That seemed like it was backfiring now. He touched his arms awkwardly when he heard your friend’s comments, feeling self conscious in a way he couldn’t quite explain. He flushed when he heard you mention his smile. 

He zoned out for a bit, absentmindedly yelling at some particularly rowdy teenagers, and wondered if he should say something to you. Of course, that would be embarrassing for both parties, but wouldn’t it be more embarrassing if he just let you keep going? Or would-

“Help, she’s drowning, oh no.”

He looked up at the sound of your friend’s very poor acting, and saw you floundering in the pool. You cursed your friend for shoving you in when you weren’t paying attention, and flailed, trying to right yourself. However, before you could gather your bearings, you felt a somehow-familiar arm wrap around your waist and pull you to the surface.

“A-are you okay?”

“Uh… yep.”

You stared unblinkingly into Jaehyun’s eyes, still processing the fact that he was right in front of you and that the warmth you were feeling pressed against you was his. Your friend’s taunting voice rang out in your mind as you thought about the arm holding you securely. You went temporarily deaf, all the noise from the crowds fading away as you focused your senses entirely on him. You didn’t even notice your friend giving you an enthusiastic thumbs-up from behind his back.

“Y-y’know, I’m, I’m actually good, you can let go, I, uh, I can swim.” And even if you couldn’t, water was less of a threat to your life than a face this beautiful being so close to yours.

“Yeah, I know.”

He knows? Knows what? That you can swim? How? Well, granted, you were a grown human, and one that he’d seen swimming many times before, so you convinced yourself it wasn’t weird he’d said that. You mutely allowed him to lift you from the water, and hoped you weren’t too heavy for him to lift when he left the pool. He helped you, as unnecessary as it was, towards a bench in the shade and let you sit down.

“Uh, I’m fine. I wasn’t actually drowning.”

“I know.”

He couldn’t think of any other way to respond, and panicked internally at his unintentional vagueness.

“W-what do you mean, you know?”

That was a hard question to answer.

“Well, I heard you. Talking. With your friend?” He peeked up to look at your expression, which could only be described as petrified. He laughed despite the tense air that had settled, relaxing a bit. It almost looked like your face couldn’t decide whether to go completely pale or completely red.

“Don’t worry! I’m not, like, mad or anything. Besides,” He looked away again, pushing some of his dripping hair off his forehead, “I probably wouldn’t have heard if I hadn’t been paying attention to you. But I was! Because I think you’re cute. Too.”

Your brain had switched off about two minutes ago, and you were not registering a single word he was saying now. He heard, he heard, he heard, oh dear God. Jaehyun waved his hand in front of your face, impressed by how completely blank it was, and chuckled. He looked around for any hint of what to do, and saw your friend very obviously spying from a short distance. She waved brightly, and when he waved back, stunned, she nodded in mock thankfulness. Then, with a sharp salute, she jumped back in the water, leaving him more confused and embarrassed than he’d ever been.

At least she gave him an idea.

He leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to your dripping forehead. You flinched, and finally snapped back to reality, only to clap a hand to your forehead and stutter madly.

“You- why- my- me- why did you-”

“C...CPR?” 

“O-on my forehead?”

He flushed. It seemed a lot less dumb in his head, but now that he’d done it, he just wanted to drown himself too. A second later, he felt a soft touch to his cheek, and looked back at you to see you with your face buried in your hands.

“...My shift here ends soon. Do you want to go… somewhere? With me?”

“Yes. Please.”

“You guys are so lame! Kiss her for real, coward!”

“SHUT UP!”

Jaehyun still yelled at you for running as you chased that nosy idiot down.

[dragonleesupporter]

8 or 5 with lee!virgil (because of course id suggest that) (btw when you originally posted that list i thought you were asking US to write that stuff so i started writing a fic with one of them but realized it was like a carbon copy of another fic i wrote so i just have like a 70% tickle fic with "tickle voodoo doll" in)

Well, you can still write some fics based off the prompts if you like. I’ve seen some prompt lists go like that, I think. This is my first prompt list, so I really don’t know what I’m doing, but at least it’s fun! Last one for a while, let’s go!

...

Patton had been very patient, but now he was starting to grow frustrated. He thought he had tickled Virgil everywhere he could, but whenever his attacks ended, Virgil would say those darn three words.

“Missed a spot.”

It was driving the poor fatherly figment crazy. What spot could he be missing? He was the master of tickling! 

“Roman...?” The prince heard a slow knock at his door.

“Yes, Padre? Is everything okay?” Roman opened the door to see a sad, defeated-looking Patton staring at his feet.

“Virgil’s still saying I’m missing a spot whenever I tickle him... Do you think there’s maybe... a spell in your little pink section to... help me see ALL of his little tickly spots?” Patton looked everywhere but the princes eyes. He hated asking for help.

“Isn’t that cheating?” Roman smiled softly and patted the light blue side on his shoulder. 

“I’ve tried so many times to find it, but it’s literally impossible!” The prince awed as Patton pouted angrily like a toddler without their toy.

“Okay, okay, okay... As long as it gets that horrible look off your face.” Roman waved his hand as if the wipe away his own doubt, but was glad to find Patton’s eyes had brightened at his acceptance to help.

“Let’s see, I think I might know a spell...” The red side started flipping through the pages. 

...

Virgil woke up relaxed just to have his peace disrupted by an odd, pink glowing light in his sheets. Surprised and somewhat panicked, he threw them off the bed to realize the glow wasn’t coming from the blankets, it was coming from HIM. 

The emo examined himself;

His armpits and stomach were glowing brightly, as well as the tips of his ears, his feet and his neck. A more subtle glowing at his sides, ribs, knees, and hands. He curiously lifted his shirt up and saw a supernova of light coming from his belly button.

Uh-oh.

Patton couldn’t find out, or he’d die of laughter. 

Patton had gotten Virgil on his sides, ribs, pits, feet, knees, hands, ears, neck, and belly, but had never gotten his belly button. 

You see, Patton thought all belly buttons weren’t ticklish after his attempts at attacking both Roman and Logan had failed in that respect. Logan was the one who initially told him that such places just weren’t ticklish. But a little secret was that Virgil, Deceit, and Remus all had ridiculously sensitive giggle buttons, that so far, hadn’t been discovered by the fatherly side just because he didn’t think of it as a tickle spot!

Oh, Virgil was now starting to regret his taunting of the light blue trait. Always saying ‘Missed a spot’ and chuckling at his unofficial dad’s whine. He knew Patton would never think to tickle him there. He probably should’ve kept his mouth shut... but maybe... this is kinda what he wanted all along?

KNOCK KNOCK

SHIT.

“Hey kiddo! Breakfast is ready! Scrambled egg and and toast!” Patton’s cheery voice called from the other side of the door.

“C-coming!” Virgil silently cursed himself for the break in his voice before trying to figure out just how he was going to present himself to the others.

He eventually thought “screw it.” and dressed himself accordingly to his secret desires. Even if he knew he was going to be wrecked, it was going to be worth all the shocked expressions.

“Ah, Virgil. There you-” Logan choked on his words, fork dropping from his hand as his brain tried to process what he was seeing, and Roman nearly spit out his orange juice in surprise, slapping a hand over his mouth.

Patton turned around and almost dropped the plates in his hands as his jaw fell to the floor.

Virgil was dressed in a VERY thin crop top (almost see-through!) and shorts, exposing all of his glowing, especially the absolute sun in the middle of his belly

He looked around at the others expressions and couldn’t help but throw his head back, laughing at their shock. Yep, he had decided. It was well worth it.

“S-so U-um, n-nice s-sexy- I MEAN ATTRACTIVE I- YOU- I-I-I-I-” Roman sputtered like a broken CD as his face turned redder than his sash, and Logan hid his face in his hands, hoping his flustered cheeks would die down. 

Patton stared at Virgil with wide, windows-error eyes. He was laughing at them. LAUGHING. Those sweet giggles... that blazing belly button... it was there the whole time... Waiting for him... That laugh... that tummy... The fatherly trait’s eyes twitched and flinched madly before his pupils narrowed to specs.

Ler Mood Activated

“AH!” Virgil’s laughter was cut off as he was full-on CHARGED DOWN by the moral side like a bull cape, and immediately went to guard his giggle button.

“You can’t hide from me, anymore.~” 

Oh, Virgil knew he was going to get it, now. Even if he was guarding, whenever he heard Patton’s ler voice go that low... Let’s just say Virgil was now regretting EVERYTHING. His clothes, his treatment of the light blue dad, just everything...

Patton was already scratching at his ears, making him squeal as his arms shook with the urge to reach up and block his head. Now with the glow spell activated, Patton could see every inch of ticklish skin and navigated it like a map as his smile grew wider and wider. 

As he was reaching around his head, Patton saw a rather bright spot of glowing on his unofficial son’s back.

BINGO.

He reached scribbled his fingers against the spot as Virgil reeled back, the sudden upward twitch causing his hands to slip from the middle of his belly.

CHECK. MATE. 

Virgil threw his head back and screamed as Patton’s two index fingers wiggled their way into his giggle button. Up and down, side to side, EVERY little movement was unbearable to the emo.

“GEHEHEHEHEHEHEHET AHAHAHAHOHOHOHOHOUHUHUT OHOHOHOF THEHEHEHEHHEHEHERE!! PFFTHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! PAHAHAHAT!” Virgil was immediately hysterical and found himself gasping for air only seconds into the torture. 

He thrashed wildly as his legs kicked hard enough to break rock and his arms slapped and grabbed at anything around him to help escape from the maddening sensation. He knew he was going to die of laughter, but jeez, it felt like he was actually going to pass out!

And he nearly did.

“K-kiddo? Are you okay? I-I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have been so rough!” Virgil opened his eyes and as his sight focused, a hand rubbing his belly comfortingly, he saw Patton, worriedly checking him over. 

“I_ihihihi’m fihihihine Pahahahat...” The purple side giggled through his words. 

“Hey, Virgil. I have a secret.~” Roman chirped up from behind the moral side.

“Patton’s belly button is just as ticklish!”

“Wait. How can that be? I don’t even know that! I’ve never been tickled there!” Patton turned around and faced Roman, eyebrows waving with confusion.

“How long do you think I’ve had that dark spell book for?” Roman winked. “There’s a reason why I know all your spots by heart.” 

Patton’s relief was brought to an end as he was pinned against the floor, Virgil’s face twisted into a cocky smirk. 

“Cya later Padre!~”

“Goodnight, Patton.” The two other sides left, calling to the doomed moral side as they went.

“W-WAIT! D-dohohon’t leehehehheave MEEEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!” 

Patton’s cackles lit up the night as Virgil sought his revenge to the fullest. 

[jadekitty777]

Cram Session

Alright, the final day is here – and you better believe I’m ready to burst with excitement! I have not been able to calm down all week!

So, to cap things off, let’s go for a ‘feel good’ one, yeah? This one’s all about friendship and teamwork.

Rating: K

Word Count: 2200

Summary: With the looming threat of his entire team being failed if he does, Tai finds himself desperately trying to absorb every bit of knowledge he can before the big test. Unsurprisingly, it’s not going well – but at least Qrow’s there to offer some moral support.

Ao3 Link: Cram Session

The fluctuation of hormone levels from pure dust injection in the human body was found to have different effects depending on many factors including the following: Age, weight, aura level,…

The tapping of his pencil kept time with the ticking clock as Tai read through the scientific journal, trying to absorb as much as he could. He needed to get a good grade on this test; he was doing horribly in his Analytical Dust Chemical Bonding class. Just the name of it was daunting – but the actual lessons were brutal. He’d never gotten so many bad marks in his life. One more and he was going to fail the class. While that wouldn’t be the end of the world on its own, there was just one teensy-weensy, itty-bitty little problem:

If he failed, the rest of his team did as well.

No pressure there or anything.

He believed that the dire consequences was all about promoting teamwork – some philosophical mumbo-jumbo about how if they let a partner fall behind in class, they’d let them fall behind on the field too. He wouldn’t even say he disagreed with the idea, but it certainly didn’t account for people like Qrow and Raven, who had virtually no prior schooling experience. Not to say they were dunces – put them on the field and they’d ace nearly any training exercise. But the minute a pen was in their hand and a book in their lap, they suddenly seemed like the stupidest people in all of Beacon.

It was Summer who had figured it out. Their history teacher had called on Qrow to answer a question on the board. He had squinted for a few moments, before saying, “I can’t.”

“You don’t know the answer?”

“Nah, just can’t read your handwriting.”

At the time, Tai hadn’t thought anything of it; but as the teacher read off the question, Summer sat up straight in her seat, looking as if she’d just solved an enigma. Later that day, she called for an impromptu ‘team meeting’.

He remembered how she paced, looking troubled, before finally whirling on the twins. “Look, I’m just going to be direct about this. You two can’t read, can you?”

Tai was so caught off guard by the announcement his mind was struggling to catch up. The siblings, however, had no such issue, going from bored to alert in a blink. “What nonsense are you spouting? How do you think we filled out our transcripts?” Raven counterargued.

“Bribery.” Summer replied without missing a beat. “Just like you’re doing with Oobleck.”

“It’s called working smarter, not harder.” Qrow quipped.

“No, it’s called cheating.” She retorted. “And it’s not going to carry you through the next four years.”

“Don’t know if you don’t try.”

“And anyways, last I checked, we were here to fight Grimm.” Raven added. “Who cares about the written stuff?”

Summer started ticking off points on her fingers. “How are you guys going to write the papers? Do the presentations? Take the finals?”

That seemed to knock out some of their bluster as they shared an uncertain glance. It seemed the exact scale of what they needed to worry about had never occurred to them – but how could it of? They couldn’t read the lesson plan. “We’ll figure it out.” Raven finally said, shrugging it off.

Summer looked between them, huffing like a bull about to charge.

Tai was the one who found his voice first. “Are you sure that’s the decision you want to make?”

“Oh great, now you have something to say?” Qrow snipped, his casual tone shifting to something more caustic.

Deliberately avoiding the obvious goad, he continued, “Look, there’s no shame if you don’t know how to read or write. There’s only shame in not being willing to learn.”

“You’re a regular ol’ walking proverb, you know that?”

“I have a book filled with them. I’ll let you read it when you can.” He finally shot back, getting to his feet. “But you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t try. So, either you lower your pride and ask us for help, or you fail. Your choice.”

Summer intervened, gentle yet firm. “You guys must have come to this school for a reason. You have to decide if that reason is worth working hard for.”

Nothing had happened right away, and after a few days, Tai was pretty sure the twins were going to stick it out on their own. Then, one day, while he and Summer were studying in the library, the two had walked right up to their table and demanded their ‘supplementary lessons’ (Raven absolutely refused to call it help).

As it turned out, neither of them were completely illiterate, but their handwriting was atrocious and the level they could read at was on par with a seven-year old’s. So, Summer got them comprehensive reading books to strengthen their vocabulary and stencils to help them with their letters. It was torturously slow-going at times, and he had worried the whole process would be agonizingly painful, as he’d expected every lesson would be nothing but their attitude dialed to eleven – and it had been. At least, at first.

But as the weeks passed, the twins seemed to be less focused on irritating their teammates and more focused on actually learning. Qrow had an insanely good memory, so he was picking up new words and how to apply and spell them by the buckets nearly every week. For Raven, what she lacked in memory she made up for in pure fortitude as she rewrote and reread until she got it right. And though he’d never dare tell them, it was kind of adorable seeing one of Raven’s little smiles or hearing Qrow’s soft ‘Oh’ whenever they understood something.

To his own surprise, Tai discovered he had a bit of a fondness for teaching. There was just something so uplifting about helping the twins work through a problem and see them get it and realizing it was him who helped get them there. It made him really look forward to their time together. It was nice, just being able to sit down together, just the four of them, laughing and helping one another. It finally felt like they were a team.

More than that even - like they really were friends.

He wasn’t going to mess that all up by failing this exam.

The mesolimbic dopaminergic system seems to have a habit of creating new pathways in the ventral striatum…

“The what in the what?” He groaned, letting his head thump onto his desk. How was he going to get all this by Monday?

The door opening had him shooting back up. He expected the rest of his team to walk in, but was surprised when it was just Qrow. He was polishing off the remains of a cookie – Summer’s idea. She thought a reward system would be a good motivator. The twins had rolled their eyes about it, reminding their leader they weren’t children; yet, every cookie earned was mysteriously gone by the end of the session.

“Yo.” He greeted around the mouthful.

“Hey. Done already?” Tai replied, glancing at the clock. It wasn’t even late afternoon yet.

“Nah.” Qrow said, dropping his book bag onto the desk adjacent Tai’s. “Flowerbud called for a break. So, I came back for a nap.”

“Where’d they go?”

“Where else? Training room.”

He snorted softly. From the way she behaved, anyone would have expected it to be Raven’s scheme – but it was actually Summer who loved to unwind by kicking the crap out of them. Rae was just too stubborn to back out of a challenge.

“Isn’t that the same chapter you were reading when we left?”

Tai looked down, covering part of the page. “I was just going over it again.”

Qrow hooked his ankle around the leg of his desk chair, pulling it out and plopping down. “So you know all about the transcriptional mechanisms that develop over time from dust exposure?”

He stared. “Do you?”

“I mean, I don’t actually know what I just said, but I know that basically people get addicted to the stuff.” He replied with a shrug. “So when you see those words, that’s the answer you’re looking for.”

His brow furrowed, trying to make sense of that suggestion. “Is that how you’ve been taking these tests? Just correlating words with the answers you hope will be there?”

“Well yeah. It’s not like I’m gonna be able to read at an academy level anytime soon. Gotta make do with what I got.” He stretched his legs up onto his desk, tipping his chair back. “Don’t need top marks, just passing ones, right?”

“Yeah but,” Tai tried to argue, but when he realized he really didn’t have one, he merely sighed, slumping over some. “Well, I guess it works for a guy like you. You’ve practically got a photographic memory.”

“Or just nothing’s up here.” Qrow joked, tapping his own temple. “An empty mind makes room for more genius.”

“Oh yeah you’re a real prodigy.”

He popped his collar. “Glad you noticed.” With a clack, his chair landed back on all four legs and he popped out of his seat. “And genius like this needs rest.” He put his palm against Tai’s forehead, pushing his head back. “Come on sunburn, you need some too.”

Tai shoved him away. “Maybe later.”

He shrugged, walking across the room. “You know it’s not that big of a deal if you fail, right?”

“Of course it is!” He turned, draping his arm across the back of his chair. “What if I get us all held back?”

“Oh gosh!” He exclaimed sarcastically, falling back onto his bed. “Another whole semester of free food and a bed so soft it’s like sleeping on a cloud? What ever shall I do?”

Huh.

Well, when he put it that way, Tai had no idea why he was trying so hard either.

As if he could read his thoughts, Qrow continued, “See? It’s all in the perspective.”

He couldn’t help it. “So you’re giving me the ‘bird’s-eye view’?” He rose his arm to guard from the pillow flung his way, cackling madly.

Not quite as amused, his roommate only rolled his eyes. “Whatever man, you’re stupid.”

“Don’t worry, our chemistry teacher agrees.” He joked, turning back to his textbook. He underlined the bit about transcriptional messages.

Too lazy to fetch his own, Qrow snatched the pillow off of Raven’s bed. As he got comfortable, he spoke up again, “I still think you’re stressing too much.”

He wrote a note in the margin beside the paragraph. “I just don’t want to disappoint you guys.”

“Sorry to tell ya this bud, but you’re sharing a space with me. Disappointment is guaranteed.” As if Qrow’s words were a cue, the lead on Tai’s pencil suddenly snapped.

He sighed, tossing it down. Alright, maybe a break was in order.

Tai got to his feet, stretching out some of the kinks that had settled. He fetched the pillow off the floor, nailing Qrow in the face with it. He laughed as the other squawked indignantly, turning away to pick up his scroll. He flicked off the lights and headed for his own bed, ducking under a retaliatory throw, the pillow hitting the door and flumping uselessly to the ground. “Nice try.”

Not willing to sacrifice his other, Qrow just grumbled over his failed attempt, kicking off his shoes. He twisted onto his side, facing Tai as he laid down on his own bed. The smirk he gave him was borderline lecherous. “At least I finally got you into bed.”

Tai threw his pillow. And Summer’s for good measure. “You’re the worst!” He ignored the way he laughed at him, focusing on his phone as he set an alarm for them. He placed it on his nightstand. “Alright, give it back. Alarm’s on for five-thirty.” He caught his pillow when it was tossed back at him, burying his face into it.

He heard Qrow shift around before he said, “Hey so, I can’t help you study, but if it means that much to you, I can help you cheat.”

He turned his head, “What?”

“Yeah. I’ll write you tiiiny little notes and we can slip them in the lapels of your jacket.” He pinched his forefinger and thumb together to accentuate just how tiny he meant. “They’ll never suspect a thing.”

Despite knowing it would expel him if he got caught, the fact he was legitimately considering it was probably not a good sign of where his moral compass was going. “I’ll pass, but thanks anyways.”

“Alright. If you change your mind I got plenty of ideas.”

Tai smiled, knowing just how much it said about Qrow that he was at least offering – or trying to cheer him up at all, for that matter. Six months ago, they could barely stop themselves from flinging insults if they were in the same room together; now, he merely ribbed him for fun. Things had definitely changed.

As he drifted off, he figured Qrow was right. It really didn’t matter if he failed some silly test. He’d made some good friends along the way and that was the best success he could ever have.

-

A/N: Prompt was “Are you sure that’s the decision you want to make?”

[slashed-dreamzzz]

First, I'd like to say that I already love this blog! Second, how do you think the slashers would react to finding out that someone is forcibly trying to drag their s/o with them? Like, they think they're lost or in danger so they drag them with them. (Stay awesome!

The short answer is, they’re fucking pissed

Jason

-Jason couldn’t help but feel immensely worried for you every time a new batch of counselors came to the camp, the unknowing lambs lining up for slaughter. He always insisted that you take refuge in his own cabin while he was on a killing spree, and under no circumstances were you to venture outside and possibly be seen by a runaway victim. The last thing you wanted was for Jason to worry for no reason about you, so you agreed to obey the one and only request he ever made of you. There was only one time when you broke this sacred rule. One unbearably hot night, Jason had left to complete his grocery list of kills, and that left you all alone in a cabin with no AC. You guiltily gazed at the lake out in the distance, the prospect of any sort of relief from the heat too tempting to resist, and decided to go for a quick dip before Jason realized you had gone. Giddily running out to Crystal Lake, you stopped when the water reached your knees, basking in the coolness long desired after the sweltering day you had been through. Suddenly there was a splashing behind you, the person gasping for air. Before you could even turn around their hand had gripped your upper arms and was dragging you out of the lake. You were grunting at this intruder, trying to rip your arms out of their grasp but they only held on tighter. “Be quiet! There’s a fucking psycho on the loose, I’m getting us outta here!” You bristled at their words. That “fucking psycho” was your significant other, and you did not appreciate such slander against your precious Jason. Struggling even harder did naught, and you were forcibly dragged out of the lake as panic flooded your mind. Gathering your breath, you screamed for Jason as you were pulled further and further away, praying he would hear your plea. You dug your feet in the ground to prevent any more movement, but the intruder only yanked you along, shouting obscenities at your refusal to cooperate. Their grip on your arm was beginning to burn, and you let out a sob at the prospect of being whisked away by this stranger who refused to listen to you. All of a sudden you saw movement in the corner of your teary vision, and then before you could process anything the stranger was ripped away from your arm, and you looked up at the visage of your behemoth, looking absolutely furious by the way he held the intruder by their neck. Jason glanced back at you to make sure you were alright, but when he saw how you were crying because of this low-life scum, that did it. Jason tossed them to the ground and lifted his machete high in the air. You noticed how the moon glinted off the sharp blade before it was plunged into the intruder’s chest. Over and over again. You turned away from the gruesome sight, still shaking from the sobs that wracked your body. When the squelching noises finally ceased, you heard Jason’s slow footsteps coming closer, and felt his arms wrap around your frame from behind and pull you into his chest, the strong scent of iron nearly making you gag. You leaned back into him, and could only mutter a soft apology as a tear ran down your cheek.

Freddy

-You were well aware of what Freddy did in his spare time when he wasn’t with you, despite never seeing it in person. As much as the idea was supposed to be despicable, you pushed any guilty thoughts back into the dark recesses of your mind. Most nights were spent with just you and him, any and all indications of the horrible deeds he’s committed forgotten as you were taken in by his snarky words and dark humor that never failed to make you laugh. Unfortunately, this false sense of contentment was never meant to last. You were preparing for bed one night, wondering if tonight you would be able to enter the dream realm after some time of having just regular dreams. Settling under your covers, you closed your eyes and smiled slightly in anticipation of seeing your charming Freddy. After what seemed like seconds later, you were delighted to have woken up in the familiar boiler room, the red glow almost as welcoming as….Where was Freddy anyway? He was nowhere to be seen, and it was odd because he was always right there, waiting for you to wake up in the dream realm. You gave a slight frown, and began to realize that something felt…off. Normally all one could hear was that of the boilers, but this time you heard the distinct sound of rapid footsteps, coupled with a labored breathing. And it was getting closer. You braced yourself for whatever would come around the corner, and was confused to find another person come barreling towards you. You stood there, trying to make sense of this unexpected encounter when they skid to a stop a couple feet in front of you, their chest heaving with exertion. “What’s…going on here?” you started slowly, carefully approaching the exhausted runner. They gasped for breath before replying. “There’s…a fucking…killer…been chasing me ever since I fell asleep…” Your blood ran cold. This was one of Freddy’s soon-to-be victims. Merely knowing that he killed was one thing. But coming face to face with a real person being hunted, seeing the terrified look in their eyes and the tremble in their voice…It made you feel indescribable amounts of regret for your apathy. The runner’s voice broke you out of your trance, and they grabbed both your upper arms. “Listen…We can get outta here together if we somehow manage to wake ourselves up before…He gets us.” They held out their hand for you to take, a hopeful look replacing the hunted one they wore not moments before, a beacon of light beginning to shine in their eyes. Swallowing, you slowly reached out your own hand, but before you could take it a pair of claws exploded out from their chest, their mouth open in a silent scream. You pulled away and let out a shout of anguish as blood spurted onto you and the floor. Their body slumped forward to reveal your Freddy, cackling madly as he tossed their body to the side like a doll. “Thanks for distracting him, dollface. I might have even let him go, but that fucker was going to try and take you away, wasn’t he?” Freddy came and lifted his ungloved hand to cup your cheek, wiping away a stray spot of blood. “I can’t ever allow something like that to happen to you.”  He murmured lowly. You felt your throat constrict, but leaned into his touch as he continued to coo sweet nothings, unaware of the storm roiling inside your soul.

Michael

-Living in the Myers house wasn’t the most pleasant experience in the world. After years of abandonment, everything was cracked, chipped, pealing, and faded to a shell of its former cozy and home-like self. The dirty windows were incredibly drafty in the winter, what was left of the curtains were moth-bitten scraps, and the rotten floorboards were just a hair away from crumbling under one’s feet if they didn’t tread carefully enough.Yet despite all of this, Michael still insisted on keeping residence in his former home. Time and time again you tried in vain to convince him to leave, but in the end you realized that this was probably the best option for Michael to hide out from prying police. So because of this, you spent time more often than not in the decrepit house, slowly working to transform it into something more habitable for your Michael. Ah, the things you do for love. One day you had been scrubbing down the kitchen floor, trying your best to get rid of those long lasting stains. You weren’t sure where Michael had decided to run off to, but you figured he was close enough since he didn’t tend to wander very far anyway. Dumping a sponge back into the bucket full of soapy water, you wrung it out slightly and began your efforts to clean once again, your knuckles coated in suds. A piece of hair fell in front of your eyes, and you gave a huff, trying to blow it out of the way. After a couple more minutes of futile scrubbing (damn these stupid checkered tiles), you heard the front door open and close carefully. Oh, Michael was home. You could have him try and help clean for once. Knees creaking, you slowly got up and winced, having been kneeling on the hard ground for too long. You wiped your hands on your pants, not caring since you looked like crap anyway from cleaning for more than a few hours now. “Michael, wanna come in here and-” you started to say, but stopped when you saw a random person instead. You froze, the rest of your sentence lost on the tip of your tongue. The intruder seemed just as surprised as you were, stopping dead in their tracks. ‘Wow, I honestly didn’t think anyone would be in here of all places…” The stranger muttered, looking up and down your form. You clenched your fists, angry that some rando had the gall to intrude upon yours and Michael’s space without a second thought. Sure it looked abandoned on the outside, but weren’t people not supposed to enter anyway? At least you had Michael’s permission to come and go as you pleased. This person, however, did most certainly not. “You need to leave. Now.” That was all you could manage to spit out without completely losing your cool, your words clipped and rough. The stranger just looked at you funny, and then widened their eyes. “Don’t tell me….You’re being held hostage by Michael fucking Myers?! Look, don’t worry, I’m gonna get you outta here and then we’re calling the police.” Your blood froze. No, calling the police would be a very bad, bad idea. Before you could react, the person had grabbed your wrist and was pulling you towards the front door, completely oblivious to your growls of protest. “Leave me the fuck alone, I’m not a damn hostage-!” The guy just ignored you, looking at you with a pitying expression instead. Unable to wrench free, you did the only thing you could. You screamed for Michael at the top of your lungs. By this time you and the stranger were outside on the porch, headed towards the street. Stumbling down the porch steps, you were just about to give up all hope when, all of a sudden, Michael stepped out from a neighboring hedge and blocked the pathway to the road. The intruder stopped dead in his tracks while you gave an audible sigh of relief. Michael looked between you and the intruder, and paused when he saw the visible anguish twisting your features. How dare this filth touch you, and by the looks of it, steal his precious other half away from him? His grip on the knife tightened, and he took only a few long strides to grab onto the stranger and roughly yank him off you, tossing him against the house in a loud thud. You stumbled back, rubbing your wrist gently as you watched Michael approach the trembling stranger, raising his knife above his head before bringing it down into his head. Blood began to drip in copious amounts down his face, and he slumped back against the house, well and truly dead. You ran to Michael’s side and hugged him fiercely, never having remembered a time when you were more grateful for any other person. Michael was still, but raised a bloody hand and stroked your hair softly, glaring down at the dead body and vowing the same fate on any others foolish enough to invade his terf again.

Leatherface

-Despite what most people complained about, you were enraptured with the bare Texan landscape that had become your new home. No one for miles, acres of land as far as the eyes could see, and the big blue sky overseeing it all like a picturesque postcard. Not to mention the beautiful nighttime scenery with a multitude of stars visible, minuscule jewels lining the velvet of night. You always pleaded for Bubba to go on long walks with you to take in the scenery, and also because you loved spending as much as you could with your chubby butcher. Bubba was happy to make you happy, so he usually agreed to your request to take a walk around the Sawyer property. Your favorite time of day to do so was just as the sun was setting, the colors bleeding into one another to create a watercolor of warm hues surrounding the red sun. It was a sight you never wanted to miss. Unfortunately, when you asked Bubba to accompany you, he gave a sad grunt, shaking his head and motioning towards the basement. Ah, he probably had some last minute meat to cut and package. You gave him a sweet smile as he hung his head as an apology, putting a hand on his chest. “Aw, don’t worry about it honey. I won’t be too long, okay?” You pecked him where his lips would be, and giving a little wave headed out the door in the late summer haze. You took a deep breath, and exhaled. Fresh air was always welcome after spending almost all day in the Sawyer house that, no matter how much you cleaned, held a slight stench of rust. The fields stretched for miles, seemingly going on forever and only ending at the sunset. Walking down the porch steps, you began your atmospheric trek. Eventually, you found yourself quite near the road, having wandered a bit farther than usual. A car was passing by, its headlights nearly blinding you, and to your surprise it came to a slow stop, the man leaning out the window and asking if you were lost. You smiled and replied in the negative, saying that it was late and you should be getting home soon anyway. The man, however, insisted that he show you back and get you there safe before darkness completely enveloped the sky. Your stomach began to twist into knots, knowing the fate that awaited the man should be go back with you. Backing away quickly, you shouted an apology and began walking swiftly towards the way you came, back to the house. You managed to return before nighttime, panting and sweating just a bit from the heat. There didn’t seem to be anyone else home, so instead of looking for them you headed to the bathroom to wash up and scrub the dust and sweat from your face. Not too long later, you distinctly heard the scream of a man come from outside the house. You flinched. That must be Bubba doing his job. A shout of anger, the sounds of scuffling before a chainsaw revving caught your attention, and the front door burst open.You jumped, only to recognize the face of the man who had stopped for you not an hour ago. He must have remembered you as well, because he grabbed your hand, panting that he’d get the two of you out of here. “Did he kidnap you too? I was stopped by this hitchhiker, and the rest just went to shit...” You gently tried to pry him off you, tugging away from the door and warning him to let go. He didn’t act like he heard you, and kept going to and out the front door. Bubba was waiting with his chainsaw raised, but when he saw you in the grasp of this man, he went berserk. The guy slammed the door shut and raced towards the back of the house with you in tow. The sound of a door splintering was heard behind you, and Bubba’s howls of anger rang in your ears. Your heart broke, and with a final, harsh yank. you ripped away from the man and ran back towards Bubba. Getting behind Bubba, you fearfully watched as the guy came back to retrieve you, and before he could utter another words Bubba ran his chainsaw right through his abdomen, lifting it up and up to split him from the waist in half. Blood drenched the floor and rug, and the body parts fell with a disgusting splotch. Bubba’s chest was heaving, saw dripping crimson tears onto his shoes. You backed away and slid down a wall, body trembling uncontrollably as sobs came unbidden. Bubba dropped his saw and kneeled down to comfort your shaking form, muttering incoherent words meant to ease your shock and hugging you tightly against his large chest. You gripped onto his dirty shirt and let out a choked sob, wanting nothing more than to go back to the peaceful Texan landscape, and wander forever to forget the twisted reality you refused to acknowledge.

[cardshcrp]

- check raise.

Wrangler taps his ragged watch, scowling at the scratched up glass and swiping a grimy thumb over it.

Twenty minutes, and the best prospects to take on the most skilled of the kids he’d brought would arrive. He’d already passed off the majority of them, secured them places in trustworthy crews that would feed and treat them right.

He’d swear on his grave he was a callous, rough fellow, but the truth was that he’d fed every street rat in the Quarter and Treme, and that there was always a big old heap of sleeping kids in his workshop come nightfall. And, of course, this; he looked out for them when nobody else would, rounded them up and found them spots to grow.

His name was Henri, but no one used it anymore. Far easier to just affectionately call him the Wrangler and look over the screaming crowd of children trailing along behind him, which was always a weird sight considering he was a cobbler by trade without a reason for such things to be happening.

He had a talent for picking up the best kids, the clever ones that had good eyes and clever fingers, and so he got a good stipend from the Thieves’ Guild to house their future members. And to bring them to these events, let them be chosen and taken into new lives and trained up, given home and purpose.

It wasn’t a bad life, all in all, most days.

The exceptions to that rule were the days during which Remy decided to throw fits.

Remy had been there the longest. He’d been special—Wrangler still remembered the hushed whispers. Le diable blanc. Le diable blanc. He’d taken him in without asking questions, raising the tenacious child not as a son but as a savior until he was old enough to shoo on. He didn’t offer affection or special attention, which was exactly the way they both liked it. 

Generally speaking, Remy wasn’t hard to handle. He’d tumble around in the street with the others and sometimes lift little trinkets or food with smart fingers, scampering home with a smile. He took care of himself, decked anybody who called him a girl, and once a week snuck Henri a blossom from the flower girl’s cart. But on the days where he was unhappy, he was a true terror, more liable to come back with broken bones or a busted lip or dangling a dripping knife in his hand than anybody else, all with a smart retort on his tongue.

Of course, it was just his luck that the boy had picked today of all days to be difficult, the day he could be changing his life for the better, having taking very personal offense to the fact that Brigitte and Thomas had stolen the dark glasses he used to cover his eyes so that the other children wouldn’t stare so much at them.

“Behave,” Wrangler hisses under his breath, and he is met with a red-eyed glare that says very clearly that Remy plans to do no such thing, not in the least. If anything, the child looks positively mutinous, ponytail disheveled and fists clenched. The boy was really fache now.  “Don’t you go startin’ bullshit, Remy. We here to pass a good time and find you some folk to work with. Understand?”

He is met with a begrudging nod. Remy does understand, after all. He isn’t stupid.

As a matter of fact, he’s smart enough to take advantage of the fact that Henri had only said not to start anything. If he wasn’t caught, then nothing would be started. And Remy was very, very good at not being caught.

He begins casting around for a good target, and it doesn’t take him all that long to find one. It’s actually a fairly sound plan; such things are known to work. If a prospective thief nicked something off an older, better one, it proved right off the bat they were worth keeping.

Remy’s eyes settle on a tall man, with dark skin and dark clothes and bright jewelry, surrounded by people. They were all trying to get closer, some doing a better job of it than others. None of the other kids in attendance seem to have noticed, too preoccupied with gawping at the lowlier thieves that were claiming them for their ragtag crews.

This man, whoever he was, had power, and Remy was going to steal a little bit of that feeling of being wanted, whatever it took.

He’s good at it, admittedly. He slides through the throngs of people easy as breathing, shifting between legs and flashing little smiles with downcast eyes. He oozes away from prying eyes, so indiscreet that the entire ballroom filled with people for whom paranoia was a living took no notice.

Except, unfortunately for him, the one person who really shouldn’t notice, and as soon as Remy’s fingers flutter up the lip of his mark’s back pocket, he finds himself hauled into the air by the scruff of his neck by one strong hand, dangling at the perfect height to swap glares with the warmest chocolate eyes he’d ever seen, creased with laugh lines all round the edges. He yowls in protest, flailing about madly quite like a fish out of water until he realizes exactly how many bemused stares are being leveled at him.

“Now, girlie,” the man says, slow and lazy and utterly unperturbed at the fact he’d just caught a ten-year-old street rat with sticky fingers in his pocket. “What you think you doin’, huh?”

Remy’s nose scrunches, and he scowls outright, struggle renewed as he squirms in the stranger’s iron grip. Little legs lash out, and he does his damnedest to hit the big man right in the crotch, but fails miserably.

“I’m a boy,” he retorts, bubbling over with spite and face so red there was nearly steam coming out of his ears. “And you can eat my cheeks!”

It’s impossible to miss the utter silence around them as everyone simply stares, taken aback by the child’s vicious audacity, and Jean-Luc LeBeau just laughs, deep and booming, right in Remy’s face.

It doesn’t do much but make the kid start turning vaguely puce-colored.

Wrangler is shaking his head in the background, face buried in his palm and shoulders shaking in a way that signals tears, stifled laughter, or maybe both.

“I’m the best in the Quarter!” Remy howls, completely furious. “I’m better’n you an’ everybody here! Let! Me! Go!”

The patriarch of the Thieves’ Guild eyes the shrieking ball of rage trying wonderfully persistently to kick him where it hurts, and the room as a collective is hushed, every breath held.

“I don’ think so,” he finally drawls, mouth curving to flash white, white teeth against dark skin. “Soon, maybe. Not yet, though.”

Wrangler clears his throat, because as much as he doesn’t want to speak up, he doesn’t want to see Remy get tossed from under the protection they’ve given him, either, not for a fit of foolishness at least. It’s his own fault if he earns it later, but right now? He’s but a boy, and so the cobbler steps up, head bowed in quiet deference. “’Scuse me, sir,” he says, and for the first time Remy’s eyes widen, because he’s never heard Wrangler call anybody sir, not even his fancy rich folk customers, and he hangs still, suddenly scared just a little. Not that he’d admit it. “But what’re you plannin’ t’do with him?”

Jean-Luc blinks, then casts a considering glance over the rather petulant child hanging from his grip.

“Well,” he says, “I always wanted a son, I reckon.”

Wrangler’s jaw nearly hits the floor, and quite a few of the eligible bachelorettes in the room look like they’ve swallowed a lemon whole, but Jean-Luc just smiles.

Remy squints at him and tells him, extra loud and extra brazen, “If ya can’t even knock up a cheap woman to do that, you ain’t worth much!”

The room practically explodes in shocked whispers and upset around them, but Jean-Luc just cackles, great, wheezing chuckles tearing out of him in a way no one’s ever seen. He sets down his glowering adopted son, though he keeps a firm grip on Remy’s collar, and grins. “Boy, you keep it up and I might crown you king today.”

Remy screws up his entire face (a very ugly sight to see), still not understanding, and stomps on his new father’s foot with all the force he can manage. It isn’t very much, all in all, and Jean-Luc just guffaws, hauling the boy off to his future home along with a whole tray of banana pudding and leaving the party in disarray.

Wrangler groans to himself as the ballroom settles into horrified fallout, eyes rolled to heaven in a plea he knows won’t be answered. Anybody up there is laughing at him today, that’s for sure.

Almighty God in heaven, that kid’s goin’ to be in charge of us all. We’re fucked.

[pandomiasplayground]

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一No matter how hard she tried to avoid sleep, it was always inevitable in its coming as it would envelop her in its crushing darkness. And with them came the nightmarish memories that would never leave her alone as it was weighed heavily by guilt and failure.

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一It rarely ever varied from its pattern. The first portion of the nightmare was the same… as though suspended in space to watch the ultimate show, the world in front of her looked so beautiful, the oceans ranging from turquoise green to aquamarine surrounding multiple lands. But the change came swiftly as the mana was drained from its very core. First, the lush greenery that had spread over many continents was quickly changing to the color of ash as the trees would crumble. The oceans with its bluish green tinge was rapidly boiling to the color of molten lava which began to erupt across the lands like blood oozing from many wounds. Waves of energy was rolling over her as she watched, barely able to keep herself aware without being overcome by the pain of so much life just evaporating like steam.

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一As this continued, the dark bird-like figure on the horizon was growing darker, absorbing the mana, the very life, of the world as it swelled in size until it eclipsed the sun. This figure had been her worst enemy, her solemn charge to which was to stop him… and she was powerless, growing more-so as he continued to absorb the mana until now even the lava was starting to lose its vivid colors, cooling quickly as even the oxygen was becoming lost to the nothingness.

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一It was almost impossible to see the world past the shadow of the being, and even more so to see that parts of the world was cracking. Slowly at first before it became noticeable, it was chipping away, no mana to even try to hold it together as it simply crumbled and disappeared into space. But no… that wasn’t space… it was the Void…

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一 In a whirlwind of memories, the scene of the planet was replaced with a small village of humanoid beings, however they were fleeing from a danger that overtook them too quickly, the danger that cackled madly in bloodlust as she casually sent one soldier against the belltower with a sickening thud. But there was nothing Rosalia could do as she struggled from within the beast that resembled her, was in fact her body but with the beast in control. The beast she had accidentally given a name long ago; Thornara. Watching as one victim after another fell, many torn apart while others fled. But it wouldn’t be long before they all fell…

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一Like a rush of wind blowing leaves, it shifted once more to another memory, the terrible argument with Dea, the Guardian of Death as she stood over the bodies of those that Rosalia had tried to return to life, those empty eyes glaring at her as she had whipped the professional sunglasses off to make her point. “Their time was now, Rosalia. You can’t keep trying to change the fate of these mortals at a whim.” “But their death was my fault!”

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一The screams of her friends had brought another sharp memory, fire erupting all around as the ex-Guardian, her nemesis known as Aridem, plunged his gods-forsaken blade into an already dead body.  This was the terrifying power of the Void, which erased anything it touched and pulled the essence within its realm. Helplessly Rosalia could only watch as the body was dissolving away to nothingness, reaching a hand forward that was clearly broken as she tried to grip onto her friend. Her friends had become nothing, and could never be returned to the spirit cycle. “A R I D E M!”

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一The dissolving bodies changed from her friends to the realm of Salri’s domain, watching as the angels assembled for battle while the other Guardians were around. A tall being with beautiful white draconic wings edged with the brightest of gold scales had her back towards them. “It is now truly a war when we failed to halt Aridem’s malicious plan to spread the Void that now resides at the edge of our realm. We must be prepared and fight to our fullest.” But then her kind yet weary eyes turned to look at Rosalia, who was still reeling from grief of losing her adopted child, who had only just started her own life with a family, along with her precious children that had gone to fight despite her urgency that they should stay with the man that fathered the twins back in a realm that hadn’t been touched yet… “Share with me your mana Rosalia, but you cannot take part with this war.”

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一“What?” Rosalia felt anger burn through the pain. “You can’t stop me from joining!” Salri only continued to look tired. “If Aridem gets control over you, then it is all truly lost. The Void has become too powerful, too spread out. And we have to keep it within our dimension, no matter the cost. As the Guardian of Rebirth, you must keep the affinity alive. And with that end, I will send you to the furthest dimension as I possibly can.” She reached forward and brushed her hand against Rosalia’s face even as she started draining the energy, looking pained as she had to do this. “I love you, my child, but this is how it has to be…”

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一The memories began to slide toward her worst fears; that there was no angels. No Guardians. No Salri. Not even the Elder Gods. Everyone was falling to the gaping nothingness that overtook even space where no light or stars could be seen. And every single person, whether friends, family or strangers, that was sucked toward that gaping hole was reaching up to her, silent screams never heard as their eyes were wide with fear and pain while their bodies would dissolve into the nothingness… soul and all…

Ʒ🕁Ƹ一"I failed... I failed e v e r y o n e..." It didn’t matter to her that she wasn’t given a choice in whether to join the final confrontation. Nor that it may not have changed anything. All it was that awashed over her was the guilt of being the only possible survivor of the universe that had been her home. She may truly never see the goddess that she did see as a mother ever again, nor any of her family whether immediate or extended...

[stlgeekgirl]

Arnold/Helga: 6, 7, 25, 32, 48, 54, 94, 117, 135 (arnold asking helga would be amazing) :'D feel free to pick and choose b/c it's a lot lmao

I got five for you right now and I’ll finish the last two tomorrow.  (I’m doing 135 because you were specific and I have an idea!)  Hope you like what I’ve got so far!

Also, I’m tagging @pointyobjects for #7 because I feel she can relate and therefore appreciate it. (Miss you PO!)

6- Scary movies are for chumps

 “Where are you two jack legs going?’

Arnold and Gerald stopped in mid-conversationto glance towards the blonde star softball pitcher of Hillwood High and hertrusted bestie standing by said bestie’s locker.  

“Evil Twin 27: The return of the Thirdis out today.”  Gerald answered.  “We’re heading to the afternoon showing.  Wanna come with?”

Arnold winced at Gerald’s invite to the twoteens.  Phoebe smiled shyly, tucking herbooks into the crook of her arm.  

“Sorry Gerald, I have a ton of homework to doand you know my thoughts on scary movies.”

“Scary movies are for chumps.”  Helga added popping her gum.  “Sounds lame.”

“Chumps?” Arnold stepped forward, looking at the blonde and missing the sharedglance between Phoebe and Gerald.  “Iseem to remember a very different conversation during Evil Twin 26,Pataki.”

Helga snorted. “Just as lame.”

“That’s why you were in my lap during half ofthe movie?  Because it was lame?”

“I wasn’t in your lap.”  She retorted, her face reddening.  

“So it was some other ninety-eight pound blondein my lap clutching onto me like a life preserver?”

Helga took a step towards him.  “There’d better not be any other blondes inyour lap bucko. And I was not clutching onto you like a life preserver.  You’re delusional.”

“Wanna test that theory tomorrow?”

“Fine!”

“Fine! Pick you up at three?”

“Fine! You’re buying the popcorn.”

“Great!”

Phoebe leaned towards Gerald.  “Can’t they ever just ask each other out likenormal people?”

Gerald grinned. “That’d be like asking the sun to set in the North, babe.”

  7-You’vegone to the bathroom fifty times today.

 Arnold looked up from his book as his wifeeased herself back down on the couch.

“You okay?”

“As well as can be expected, why?”

“You’ve gone to the bathroom fifty timestoday.  That can’t be normal.”

Helga reached for the remote and failed fallingback onto the couch with a “hmmphff”. Arnold leaned to pick up the remote and hand it to her.  

“Thank you. Arnold, I’m pregnant.  Your spawnis sitting on my bladder.  I’m countingit as a win that I haven’t peed my pants today. Fifty times today successfully making it to the bathroom is a greatthing, because they were all successful. I hate trying to change clothes while I’m this huge.”

His smile softened and he reached over andstroked her round belly, feeling movement under the skin.  

“You look beautiful.  You aren’t huge, you’re pregnant and I loveyou.”

“Aww…” She leaned towards him for a kiss before stopping suddenly and growlingunder her breath.  “This is gettingridiculous.”  She snarled as she tried toclimb to her feet again.  Arnold helpedher up and she waddled back towards the bathroom.  

“Get the hell off my bladder!”  he heard her yelling at her stomach as hewent back to his book.  “Move positionsalready!”

25- Aren’tyou supposed to be the adult?

“Run!”  

A group of nine teens raced madly out of thenow abandoned Dino World, chased by three out of shape security guards, separatingin different directions once they all cleared the fence.  All thankful that Eugene didn’t end upjoining them on this expedition into reminiscing their childhood as he surelywould’ve gotten caught on the fence, a ride, the large delapidated dino statueat the front of the park and would’ve gotten caught by the three Securityguards Helga had dubbed Larry, Shep and Mo.

Gerald, Stinky, and Harold had run towards thePier. Sid, Nadine and Lila had taken off towards the tracks which left Helga,Arnold and Curly running towards the overpass. They raced under the abandoned highway underpass, throwing themselvesagainst a concrete barrier.  Helga peekedaround the corner for any signs of flashlights while Curly cackled in nervousrelief.  

“Shush!” Arnold hushed him franticly.  “We don’tknow where the guard went.”

Curly spun around in circles, hands thrownwide.  “But don’t you feel alive?  That was great Arnold!”

He couldn’t help the half grin that slid acrosshis face while he watched Curly.  

“Yeah…it kind of was.”

“I don’t get it.”  Helga was back, standing next to him watchingCurly spin around.  She waved away hisunspoken question.  “Nah, they much ofhave given up or gone after the group that ran towards the Pier.  This was your idea?  To break into Dino World?”

“Yep!” Curly announced gleefully.  Shetilted her head.  

“Aren’t you supposed to be the adult.”

Arnold shrugged, shoving his hands into hisjacket pockets.  “Sometimes, we gotta actlike kids Helga.  Even I can’t be theadult all the time.”

She shook her head and leaned against hisshoulder.  “Like Gerald always says, you’rea bold kid Arnold.”

 48- Ibet you can’t go 24 hours without cussing.

Helga stared at him as if he had lost his mind.

“Excuse me?”

He stood before her unruffled.  In fact, he looked like he was almostenjoying this conversation.  

“You heard me Pataki.  I bet you can’t go 24 hours without cussing.”

She shifted from one foot to the other, tryingto figure out his plan.  

“And…for argument’s sake, let’s say I manage todo this-“

“Impossible.”

“What do I get for winning?”

His grin grew wider and even more calculating,his arms spread wide.  “Whatever youwant.”  He said, annunciating each word.

She raised an eyebrow.  “And if you win?”

He gave her that look.  Dammit, he knew what that look did toher.  “I get one favor to be determinedlater.”

She swallowed. Hard.  “Okay football head.  You’re on.”

He stuck out his hand.  “Shake on it.”

She shook his hand and he pulled her towardshim so his lips were right next to her ear.

“I look forward to winning Pataki.”

Just as quickly he released her with a smuggrin.  “See you later.”

She watched him leave, mouth dry, heartpounding.  

“Christ.” She whispered.  She was so fucked.

 54-Why’sthere a pregnancy test in the trash?

 Arnold stood in his bathroom staring indisbelief at the crumpled box in the trashcan. The pink and white box with the picture of a stick with a pinkline.  

His heart pounded in his chest and hefrantically tried to remember when he last time he was sent out to buychocolate and pretzels was.  He waspositive it was only last month…not even three weeks ago.  Had she forgotten to take one of herpills?  Had they not been safe?  Was there a heat of the moment time he’dforgotten?

He frantically racked his brain over everysingle time they’d had sex within the last three weeks and, granted, he keptgetting sidetracked, but he couldn’t remember a single instance that wouldresult in this box being in their bathroom.

Was he ready to be a Dad?  He wasn’t sure.  He wasn’t to be a Dad, that wasn’t aquestion.  He wanted a family more thananything and Helga knew that, agreed with him, even after he was worried that,with her family, she wouldn’t ever want to have kids.  

But they were only twenty. He wasn’t sure hewas ready to be a Dad at twenty.

He stepped out of the bathroom in a daze,wandering towards the bedroom where Helga was getting dressed for their dinnerwith Gerald and Phoebe that night.  Shelooked up at he stumbled in.  

“You okay?” she asked worriedly as he looked up at her, his eyes scanning her abdomenas if trying to spot any differences.  “Youlook as if the Headless Cabbie drove over your grave.  What’s wrong?”

Nothing for it but to just ask.

“Why’s there a pregnancy test in the trash?”

She blushed. Actually blushed and he felt his heart skip.  

“Damn, I forgot about that.  Sorry. You weren’t supposed to know yet.”  She winced and he felt his heart catch as herealized that, yes, he wanted this. He was okay with this.  

“Phoebe was late and she came over for moralsupport to take the test.  She didn’twant to tell Gerald until she was sure. So act surprised when they tell you tonight, yeah?”

He frowned, not expecting this turn atall.  “So…wait…it’s not…Phoebe’spregnant?”

Helga nodded. “Yep.  She had a huge freak outbut now she’s fine.  As long as Geraldo’sfine which I think he will be, I mean after all, you two are all about familyand kids…”  Her voice trailed off as herface drained of color.

“Oh…Oh hell….oh shit, you thought….oh Arnold, I’mso sorry.”

He waved off her stumbled apology, feeling botha little let down and relieved.  “No, noit’s fine.  I just…”

She crossed the room, hugging him to her.  “Oh my love, I’m so sorry. I didn’t eventhink how this would look to you.  I wasso worried about Phoebe, I forgot to shove it under the empty rolls orsomething.”

“It’s fine Helga. It just threw me.”

She pulled back to look at him.  “I know you want kids Arnold, and when ithappens, I promise, you will not find out by a discarded box in the bathroomtrash.  I will make absolutely sure thatany pregnancy test I do, you’ll be right there walking the halls for thoseseven minutes with me, I promise.”

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her,dropping a soft kiss on her lips.  “Youalways know what to say to make me feel better darling.”

[zephfair]

Day 16 ficlet

Day 16: College Art Students AU only not exactly

Grimmjow/Ichigo pre-relationship fluff

Rated G except for language

WARNING: This contains university student/TA relationship. Be warned for slight age difference which is never mentioned, and if that whole student/TA thing bothers you, please don’t read this.

Grimmjow pulled his phone toward him when the text notification went off three times in a row. Grading freshman essays was his least favorite part of the job so he didn’t mind putting it off for another couple minutes. The paper he was trying to read was so bad it made him want to shred it.

The phone chimed a fourth time. Then a fifth.

They were all from a number he didn’t recognize. The first read Hey don’t think i can come tonight

the second: imma bout to fail this project for mon

the third: shorty Jagermeister and this shorty project

*shorty

*SHITTY

Grimmjow was staring at the phone in bemused silence when it jingled again.

i hate him and his stupid pretty face with a line of red angry emojis

He realized that it was obviously a wrong number. That could happen to anyone. The disturbing thing was that it appeared to actually be about him, if that nickname was a joke about his surname. He was a teaching assistant for Professor Aizen in the art department, and his senior class in sculpture did have an important project due Monday.

He just wondered which one of the little bastards it was. He really wanted to find out.

He started typing then erased it and finally settled on Where r u now

The writer hadn’t caught on yet apparently because they answered right away. art bldg ofc where else would I be? The ducking kiln is killing me.

Then *Ducking

F UCKING

FUCK NEW PHONE LEARN MY CURSES

Grimmjow smiled a slow and evil smile. He was still in his office, just two floors above the studio where the student must be trying to cram a semester’s worth of sculpture into one weekend.

There were so many little irresponsible douchebags in that class. How many times he’d wanted to tell them off or push them off their high horses. But Aizen had warned him to be professional to the little asswipes and so he’d tried.

Well, there was a first time for everything.

And if he just decided to stroll into the studio on a Friday night and bust a student for being a dick, well, he had to take pleasure in the small things.

Meet you there he texted as he strode toward the stairway.

The building was usually dark and quiet on weekend nights, and this was no exception. He was able to creep down the hall toward the only studio with a light on and know he’d found his texter.

He peered in and luckily the bright orange head was turned the other way. He should have fucking known it. He’d known that kid was trouble from the moment he walked into class.

Ichigo Kurosaki was a graphic design major so he and Grimmjow hadn’t had any classes together. And he’d saved the mandatory sculpting class until his last semester which Grimmjow could have warned him was a big mistake.

He’d been quiet in class and conscientious enough, turning in projects on time along with other mandatory assignments. His work wasn’t even totally horrible which was more than Grimmjow could say about the rest of the class.

It was the fact that during the second class of the semester, Aizen had asked Grimmjow to talk for part of the session on his interest and specialization in Renaissance work, but that kid Kurosaki had the audacity to be the only student who even bothered to ask a question and then had the balls to challenge him.

They’d spent the next five minutes in spirited and increasingly angry vulgar debate, only to have Professor Aizen step between them with a cutting joke and placate them by making fun of them both. The resulting laugh from the rest of the class still rankled Grimmjow. He’d studiously ignored the kid ever since and rigorously held up his work to exacting standards, although Aizen always had the final word on grades so the kid was doing fine.

To have that dumbass be the one who sent those texts… wait. Grimmjow stared at the messages again. He actually thought Grimmjow had a pretty face?

Grimmjow felt the smirk begin in his very soul. He could work with this.

He carefully ruffled his hair so it looked casually worn. He finished untucking his shirt then unbuttoned the top three buttons. He debated taking off the glasses but thought they only enhanced the vibe.

Then he walked into the studio as confident as a cat stalking a helpless baby bird.

Kurosaki was still facing away, scowling at whatever monstrosity he was attempting to create. The scowl was even bigger than his usual expression.

Grimmjow crept up behind him without even trying hard. He leaned down almost even with his ear and said, “What the hell is that supposed to be?”

He whipped his head back just in time to avoid Kurosaki’s startled jump and shrieked “SHIT!” He would have cackled madly but fought to keep his neutral, unimpressed, disinterested look as Kurosaki whirled around.

“What the fuck are you doing here? Why’d you sneak up on me?”

Grimmjow shrugged. “I’m the one asking you what you’re doing here. On a Friday night. Two days before your big project is due. Surely you’re not trying to just get started now? I’m sure Professor Aizen would love to know that you’ve put off his assignment until the very last minute.”

Kurosaki’s jaw worked like he was physically holding back what he wanted to really say. Grimmjow folded his arms over his chest and allowed himself a little smirk.

“The assignment isn’t due until Monday. My work’ll be done then.”

“Not if that,” Grimmjow gestured toward the mess on the table, “is your project.”

“I’m working on it,” Kurosaki said tightly and sat back down.

Grimmjow leaned down and put his arms around Kurosaki to get his hands into the clay. Kurosaki jumped but then froze.

“Are you sure you don’t need a hand with that,” Grimmjow purred into his ear.

“N-n-no,” Ichigo finally go out. Then he got angry. “Stop it, what are you even doing?”

“I thought I could help. Certainly wouldn’t want you to fail and then not graduate. Then you’d have to take our class all over again.”

“Not going to happen. As long as I pass this project, I’ll pass the class.”

“Ah, but not if you don’t manage to turn in something presentable.”

Ichigo turned a little and Grimmjow’s nose was in his hair. He took a deep breath and Ichigo froze. Gotcha, he thought.

“Maybe you just need a better design for your piece? Maybe I could model for you and you could capture my pretty face.”

Ichigo was so still Grimmjow almost checked him for a pulse. It seemed like he was even holding his breath.

“How did you… why would you say that?”

Grimmjow slapped his phone down. “You really should know your friends’ numbers by now, Kurosaki.”

Ichigo stared at the messages. “I had to get a new phone and my contacts are all messed up. I was trying to get Ishida.”

“Well, you got me,” Grimmjow straightened up then spun Ichigo’s chair so it faced him. “Whether you wanted me or not.”

“Shit,” Ichigo said, with feeling. “Wait a minute, you knew I was bitching about you. And you still came here?”

“I wanted to see which of you asshats from class was talking about me.”

Ichigo’s expression changed a little. “Or maybe you hoped one of us actually thought you were hot.”

Grimmjow leaned down right into his face. “You never said I was hot,” he purred. “Is this your true feelings coming out now, Kurosaki?”

Ichigo’s face started to pink and then darken to red across the cheeks. Grimmjow watched in glee. “No! Shut up!”

Ichigo tried to turn his chair back around, but Grimmjow held the arms firmly.

“Maybe I thought I’d come down here, see who it is, maybe sneak up behind them, get a little close and intimidate them, make them sorry they put off their project to the last minute. But instead, maybe I learned something even more interesting.”

“Like what?” Ichigo blustered.

“You may know shit about Renaissance sculpture but you’ve got great taste in men.” Grimmjow leaned the extra couple inches slowly, giving Ichigo the chance to move away, but his eyes darted to Grimmjow’s mouth and he licked his own bottom lip quickly.

Grimmjow kissed him slowly, tasting his firm lips, feeling his mouth open and, unable to resist the invitation, licked his way inside his mouth, just for a tease. When he pulled back, Ichigo’s eyes were closed and he swayed forward to follow Grimmjow’s mouth.

“Hmm, too bad your sculpting isn’t as good as your kissing,” he said.

Ichigo’s eyes popped open and he said, “Too bad you’re a dick every time you open your mouth. If you’d just stay still and look pretty, you wouldn’t be half as bad.”

“You’re cute,” Grimmjow flicked his forehead. “Now get back to work. I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to be, but it’s hideous.”

Ichigo’s scowl encompassed the clay as well. “It’s my backup. My first piece is in the kiln but something’s all messed up. If it doesn’t fire right, I figured I was fucked so I’d better try something else.”

Grimmjow shook his head. “You’re a mess.” Ichigo opened his mouth to argue but Grimmjow shushed him. “Let me take care of the kiln because I actually know what I’m doing. Let’s hope your first try is better than this. And then,” he leered broadly as Ichigo’s scowl didn’t lessen, “maybe if you need more inspiration I can model for you and see how well you do with male nudes.”

He ignored Ichigo’s mumble of what he’d like to do to Grimmjow that included much violence but he leaned down again and gave him a quick kiss. “And later, you can see what I can do with a nude male.”

Ichigo’s blush was going to be addictive, but it shut him up to get back to his work while Grimmjow went to work his own magic on the recalcitrant equipment. His night wasn’t going anything like he’d planned, but it might be that he’d found something a lot better.

From Ichigo’s muttered curses and the loud splat of clay behind him, it just might take a little longer.

*Ichigo managed to scrape together a project that Aizen passed and so he still graduated with honors. Grimmjow taught him a few other techniques that were more personal. And they never did agree on the importance of Renaissance sculpture.

[witch-bomb]

Obsidian - Chapter 6: Natsu’s Cat

Title: Obsidian

Fandom: Fairy Tail with Steven Universe elements (not really a crossover)

Genres: Family, friendship, humor, adventure, sci-fi

Rating: T

Summary: Natsu had never met his brother. Almost all he knew about him was that he had led twelve others to Earth thousands of years ago in order to protect it - and that he, along with the remainder of the twelve, had to keep protecting it.

More than a month had passed since the collapse of the Lunar Sea Spire. There hadn’t been too many missions since then; those they had found had been deemed “too dangerous” for Natsu.

  But this new mission, they had decided, would be perfect for him.

  Natsu hopped down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear. The Lunar Sea Spire had just been a test, as far as he was concerned – this would be his first real mission with the Spriggans.

  They had given him the details earlier: they would be going to a forest to find some stone which caused a seemingly permanent storm over the area. They hadn’t specified exactly what they were supposed to do about the stone, though. Natsu guessed they would destroy it, since taking it somewhere else would only bring the storm upon a different location.

  He leapt over the last few steps, landing on the ground floor. “I packed my bags! When are we going? Who’s coming with me this time?”

  “All of us,” Invel replied. “The forest is huge. We need to search the entire place to find the Rain Stone.”

  “So we need to split up?”

  “Yep. Everyone for themselves,” Dimaria replied. “But we’ll have a meeting spot we’ll go back to after a few hours or so.”

  Natsu’s heart raced. He would be deep in a forest, all on his own, potentially saving a wide area from the storm that had ravaged it for years. “Awesome! Let’s go!” He froze. “…Are we all gonna fit on the warp pad?”

“Ajeel, you’re stepping on my foot.”

  “Too bad, ice queen. There’s nowhere else to stand.”

  “Hey, Wahl. Ever heard of personal space?”

  “No.”

  “…I’m not surprised, actually.” Brandish sighed.

  Dimaria folded her arms. “You know what? I’ll transport us, and then–”

  “Aw, c’mon!” Natsu’s arm shot into the air, hitting Serena upside the face. “Let me do it! I still need practice!”

  August stared at Dimaria, then at Natsu. “Dimaria, let Natsu do it. He’s right.”

  “…Okay. Just make sure we end up in the right place.”

  “I will!” Natsu focused, shutting his eyes.

  Seconds passed before the group was enveloped in light and transported away.

“I did it!”

  The moment they landed, all eight of them stumbled off of the warp pad with shouts of annoyance – or triumph, in Natsu’s case.

  “I did it, guys!”

  Dimaria leaned toward Brandish, murmuring in her ear. “Is he going to get this excited every time he successfully warps us?”

  Brandish shrugged. “I guess he would be excited about it.”

  “Okay, everyone!” Invel clapped his hands to get their attention, stepping onto a rock and staring down at them. “We need to make a plan. We’ll all head in different directions to find the Rain Stone, then meet back here in four hours. That means we’ll go about two hours into the woods, then take another two to walk back here. I’ll go north–”

  Ajeel glared up at him. “Who put you in charge, princess??”

  “I’m the most responsible one, so it makes sense that I should–”

  “Hah!” Ajeel snorted. “The most responsible? You’re the one who makes me do all the chores instead of, y’know, taking responsibility and doing it yourself!”

  “First of all, I don’t make you do all the chores. Just most of them.” Invel returned the glare coldly. “Secondly, it’s your punishment for constantly breaking things, going out of your way to get on my nerves, taking missions without so much as thinking of the rest of us…”

  Luckily, over the years, the others had developed a habit of tuning out Invel and Ajeel’s arguments. Most of them chose to wander aimlessly around the clearing. Serena had found a gecko under a rock somewhere and sat cross-legged in the dirt, petting it gently. Brandish stood beneath a tall tree, her head tilted back to examine the top leaves.

  Natsu scratched the back of his head. “Man, this mission is already going pretty badly.” He glanced around. “Hey, guys? What about the rain stone?”

  “Screw the rain stone.” Serena smiled down at the gecko he had found. “I have Gilbert.”

  “Dude, Gilbert is the worst name ever for a gecko!” Wahl kneeled next to him. “Call him Billy.”

  “Invel? Ajeel?” Natsu headed toward them. “Can we go on the mission already?”

  “Fine! I’ll take your advice and we’ll see where it gets me!” Ajeel snapped. He spun around and stormed toward the western exit of the clearing.

  “And I’ll use your idea and prove to you that it’s doomed to fail miserably!” Huffing angrily, Invel turned and strode to the east.

  Natsu watched him leave. Slowly, his mind processed the fact that the one in charge had left – and nobody else was taking over. He grinned, leaping up onto the rock. “I’m in charge! I’m the leader! Whoo!”

  “Enough, Natsu.” August raised a hand. “I’m the leader. I’ll organize everyone.”

  Natsu’s face fell. “What?”

  “Natsu…”

  “...Aw. Okay.” Natsu sighed and stepped off of the rock dejectedly.

It took August a minute or so to get everyone’s attention.

  Clearly, they would need to split up to cover more ground in their search. August assigned everyone a direction at random – excluding east and west, since Invel and Ajeel already headed those ways.

  He’d assigned Natsu to the northeast route.

  After walking for an hour or so, the rain soaked through Natsu’s clothes, leaving him freezing and drenched. Water dripped from his hair into his eyes, blurring his vision. And still he had found no sign of the Rain Stone.

  Not the “great adventure” he’d expected, to say the least.

  According to the Spriggans’ description of the Rain Stone, Natsu should be looking for a blue crystal about the same height as himself. Yet the exotic blooms lining the tree trunks seemed to be the only blue in sight.

  Of course, it would be deep in the forest if whoever had placed it had been so desperate to keep others from finding it. With this in mind, Natsu marched onward through the puddles and mud, unaware of his silent observer.

In the north, things were much… slower.

  “Such a pain…” Brandish sighed, leaning back against the trunk of an exotic tree. Why was it always the Spriggan Gems’ responsibility to fix the little things that went wrong on this planet? Corrupted gems, she could deal with. The damage caused by these corrupted gems, she could deal with. But hours of walking through a downpour to find some rock? Sure, it was a sacred stone originating from Homeworld, but couldn’t the humans remove it themselves?

  Brandish stood up, stretching. Even if it was a pain, she may as well keep searching…

“Rain Stooone!” Serena called, cupping his hands around his mouth. He struck a pose. “You can’t hide forever, Rain Stone!”

  No response except the sound of the rain pattering against leaves.

  “Hmm. I’ll keep moving. I’m bound to find that silly rock eventually…”

“Hah!” Ajeel’s foot collided with rock, flipping it over. “Stupid ice queen! Bet I won’t find a thing on this route!” He stomped onward, insects and small animals scuttling to the sides of the path to avoid his rampage. Still, he had calmed down since setting off an hour ago; in fact, he slowed to a walk, then stopped completely.

  Damn, maybe he’s right about the “irresponsible” thing. I’ve just been stomping around without even looking. Maybe I passed the Rain Stone by now…

  No, wait. What am I thinking? I’m just using his idea to prove to him how wrong he was. Of course it won’t be down this route.

  With a snort of laughter, he continued walking.

The pattering of the rain on the leaves filled the air, the only sound in the peaceful forest. Occasionally, creatures could be seen scuttling through the foliage, seeking shelter. Despite the downpour, the scene was a peaceful one.

  Until a sudden blast tore through the trees, knocking a few over and sending debris flying in all directions.

  Wahl grinned as his targets fell to the ground in splinters, glancing around for any sign of a shattered rain stone. After all, if the final goal was to destroy it, why hold back?

  Cackling madly, he fired another blast, smoke billowing around him and into the blue abyss of the sky.

In the south, Dimaria took a similar approach.

  Her blade sliced through yet another thick trunk, the column of wood crashing to the ground. Golden eyes scanned the surrounding area – still no sign of the Rain Stone.

  She chopped down another cluster of trees, stepping back as they fell to the damp earth below.

  “Still no sign of it, huh?” Dimaria sighed. “Looks like whoever put that stone there really didn’t want it found…”

As August continued the journey through the rainforest, he vaguely wondered how the Rain Stone, an ancient artefact from Homeworld, had even ended up in a forest on Earth. Had it been dropped from an invading ship? Put here on purpose by a spiteful gem? And just how long had it been here? He recalled that the request to remove the stone had come in quite some time ago – decades? Centuries?

  Whatever the case, getting rid of it should be their sole focus right now. Grumbling, he continued in the southeast direction.

Sharp eyes darted around, scanning the area for any sign of a blue crystal. Nothing.

  Invel sighed, continuing his journey east. He’d been travelling for an hour, yet still, he hadn’t seen any trace of the Rain Stone. It seemed Ajeel was wrong after all – just as he had set out to prove.

  But maybe I spoke to him a bit too harshly… Invel paused. No. I only spoke the truth; I shouldn’t be regretting this. After all, he really does go out of his way to annoy me – still, maybe I really did speak rudely…

  Shaking his head, he kept walking.

Natsu stopped in his tracks. Out of the corner of his eye, he’d seen a flash of blue – not the pale, dull hue of the flowers, but a much more vivid shade.

  Hope lighting up his eyes, he retraced his steps, peering through the trees.

  A blue creature – similar to some sort of big cat – rested in a sheltered spot beneath the trees, curled up, quite clearly asleep.

  Natsu immediately forgot about the rain stone. Amazed, he carefully stepped over the bushes, creeping toward the unusual animal.

  He knelt next to him. “Hey...”

  The cat lazily opened one eye, peering up at Natsu. Unexpectedly, the creature made no move to run away, or even to stand up.

  Trying to talk to a cat would be stupid. Could he even understand human speech, let alone respond? Even if he did, would he be any help whatsoever? Asking a cat for directions or advice would make one look like a fool.

  Natsu decided to give it a shot. “Have you seen a big blue crystal around here? Apparently it’s what’s causing this rain.”

  The cat stared up at him for a few moments, before standing and stretching. He turned and walked away.

  His face lighting up, Natsu stumbled through the bushes after the creature, his eyes fixed on the blue fur. Had he understood? Would he lead Natsu to the Rain Stone?

  The dense forest soon opened up into a clearing. In the middle of said clearing lay a stream, rain pattering on the surface.

  Natsu slowed to a halt as he entered the clearing, looking around for any sign of the stone. His shoulders slumped in disappointment as his search proved fruitless: the object was nowhere to be found.

  He slumped to the ground, the weight of disappointment sinking in his stomach. “I guess you don’t know where it is, huh?”

  Ignoring Natsu, the cat stepped into the water, splashing around in an effort to catch fish. Natsu watched, disinterested, for a minute or so, before deciding that he should resume his search for the Rain Stone.

  He stood up, dusting himself off. “Well, see ya.”

  The cat perked up, watching him intently as he walked away. Keeping his eyes fixed on the human, he stepped out of the water and followed him back through the trees.

  Natsu paused, hearing the rustling from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder. “Are you gonna follow me?”

  The cat stared at him.

  “…Okay.” He turned and continued to pick his way through the thick barrier of plants, the cat following a few feet behind him.

  Rain poured from the leaves, creating miniature waterfalls all around them. Natsu finally located the path he’d been on before, treading carefully, breaking branches to create a way through.

  “See any signs of the Rain Stone?”

  Of course, talking to a cat was silly. But Natsu found that it helped to alleviate the loneliness of the woods a bit.

  The cat purred, bumping against his legs. Grinning, Natsu kept moving.

  “Wonder how long it’s been. Invel said four hours, right?” Natsu frowned. “Feels like I’ve been walking for ages. Wish I’d brought my watch…”

  Trotting alongside him, the cat listened attentively to Natsu’s aimless rambling, staring up at him.

  Natsu suddenly halted, his breath catching in his throat. Had he imagined it? No – straight ahead of him, a faint blue glow could be seen through the trees…

“Where is he?”

  Invel paced back and forth, occasionally glancing at the treeline for any sign of Natsu.

  Wahl frowned. “D’you think he found it?”

  “Maybe.” Dimaria glanced at the surrounding forest. “Or he was eaten.”

  Brandish smacked her on the arm. “Mari! Don’t joke about that.”

  Invel glared at Dimaria. “Natsu is completely safe, I’m sure.”

  “I suppose our best course of action is to search for him,” August grumbled. “He might be in some sort of trouble.”

  Serena jumped up from his seat on the ground. “Okay! Which way did Natsu go?”

  “To the northeast,” Ajeel replied, gesturing in the western direction.

  “The northeast is that way, actually.” Brandish pointed toward the south.

  Serena shook his head. “That’s the east, silly. The northeast is that way.”

  Invel sighed. “Where’s our compass?”

  Rolling his eyes, August drew the shining object from his pocket. “It’s… that way.”

  Almost before he finished speaking, the other six dashed in the direction he had indicated. Had the ground not been soaking wet, August swore they would have left a cloud of dust behind them. He shook his head and dropped the compass back into his pocket, strolling after them.

“Ow!”

  Natsu glared at the crystal, rubbing his stinging fist.

  “Stupid rock…”

  A few meters away, the blue cat sat and watched curiously. He almost seemed to be mocking Natsu.

  Muttering to himself, Natsu swung his fist and struck the crystal again… to no avail. “Dammit! I wish I had a weapon like the others...” He huffed and landed a few more punches, before slumping to the ground, panting.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the cat. “Hey, don’t think I’m giving up! I’m just taking a break, okay?”

  The cat wandered over and sniffed at him, before returning to his former place and simply watching.

  Natsu glanced around, wondering if he should return to the clearing to meet the others. But he had found the stone – what if he couldn’t find it again after his return?

  Perhaps the best thing to do was to wait around here until the others found him and the stone. They would be here eventually. In the meantime, he could work on destroying it.

  Standing up again, he resumed his efforts to break the Rain Stone.

Natsu lay face-down on the grass, groaning in pain. His knuckles had become reddened and cracked from repeatedly striking the stone.

  “Ugh… Not even a scratch…”

  The cat purred, wandering over to sniff him carefully.

  “Natsu!”

  The sound of footsteps pounding the soaked ground became audible. Natsu peered up and quickly stood, vainly attempting to dust himself off. The cat scurried away from the sudden noise.

  “Natsu!” Brandish hurried toward him. “Are you okay?”

  Invel glanced down at Natsu’s knuckles and frowned. “Were you trying to break the Rain Stone by yourself? Natsu, you shouldn’t try to break a solid crystal with your bare hands!”

  “Hey, he found the Rain Stone!” Cheering loudly, Ajeel climbed on top of the crystal and began to stomp on it, the sounds reverberating throughout the clearing.

  Dimaria rubbed her arms, grumbling, and glared up at Ajeel. “Can we just destroy the thing and stop this rain already?”

  “But it’s so pretty…” Serena gently stroked the rain-speckled surface, his eyes sparkling.

  August sighed and shook his head. “Wahl, just… destroy it already.”

  Both Serena and Ajeel suddenly shrieked in terror as a blast tore through the crystal, shattering it into tiny pieces. Ajeel crashed to the ground among the blue shards.

  “Ow! Dude, what’s your problem??”

  Wahl grinned from behind his blaster. “Shouldn’t’ve been standing on the thing in the first place!” He began cackling.

  Natsu gaped at the mess of crystal on the ground. “…It was that easy?!”

  “You should’ve come to us before.” Serena patted him on the back.

  They stood in silence, watching as the clouds overhead gradually cleared. The rain gradually slowed down to the occasional patter, then stopped. The cat purred as he felt the warmth of the sun on his blue fur.

  Natsu grinned up at the near-cloudless sky. “So, I guess we were succe–”

  He was cut off by Dimaria’s sudden shout. “What is that?”

  Invel’s eyes widened. “Is – is that a cat??”

  Natsu grimaced. He’d nearly forgotten about the cat.

  Brandish clamped her hands over her mouth. “It’s… so cute…”

  “Is nobody gonna point out that it has wings?!” Ajeel shrieked.

  Natsu cleared his throat. “Yeah, I sorta made a new friend. He’s called…” He thought for a moment. “Blue!”

  August raised an eyebrow. “Blue? That seems a bit…”

  “Actually, my name is Happy.”

  Immediately, the conversation died down. For several seconds, nobody moved. Then all heads turned toward Wahl.

  Wahl raised his hands defensively. “It wasn’t me!”

  “Well, it certainly wasn’t the cat. Cats don’t talk.” Invel frowned.

  Happy turned abruptly toward Invel. “Hey! That’s rude!”

  “It is!” Ajeel yelled. “It’s talking!”

  “You’re not the only one hearing it.” Dimaria stared in astonishment.

  Natsu stared down at Happy, bewildered. “You didn’t talk earlier…”

  Happy grinned. “You thought I couldn’t talk? Then why were you talking to me?”

  “Hey!!”

  Invel shook his head. “That’s enough. Let’s just… go home.”

  “No way!” Ajeel folded his arms. “Are we seriously gonna leave the talking, winged, blue cat behind?”

  “Yes,” August cut in. “We are not having animals in the temple.”

  Brandish stared at him in horror. “But he’s friendly. And fluffy.”

  “We should keep him!” Serena struck a pose. “After all, I lost Billy Gilbert the gecko somewhere in the forest.”

  “I put him back in the woods,” Wahl reminded him. “He wouldn’t last five minutes in the temple.”

  Serena carried on as if he hadn’t heard. “…So I’m not going to return to the temple without some sort of animal to make up for my loss!”

  “No,” August said flatly.

  “I won’t let him into the temple if he keeps sassing us!” Invel glared down at Happy, who had wandered over to him.

  Ajeel stared blankly at him. “But… we kept Serena.”

  Natsu, reaching a final decision, headed toward Happy and stood next to him. He planted his feet firmly on the ground and folded his arms. “I’m not going back without Happy.”

  “Natsu…” August glared at him. “You’re not five anymore. Cease this behaviour.”

  “Such a pain… but it’s so cute…” Brandish shook her head and assumed a similar position, planting herself beside Natsu. She was followed closely by Ajeel and Serena.

  Wahl glanced at the cat. “…I guess he has a better survival rate than a gecko.” He headed over to join them.

  Invel hesitated for a long moment. He glanced down at Happy. “…Well, nobody’s going to teach him to be polite if he stays out here.”

  “Invel. I thought you, at least, were more sensible than this.”

  “I’m being entirely sensible. It’s important that he learns how to properly speak to people.”

  “He’s a cat.”

  “And?”

  “He lives in the middle of the jungle. How many people will he ever be talking to out here?”

  “A lot more once someone else finds him, I’d think,” Brandish replied.

  August froze. For a long moment, the only sound was the rustling of leaves. “…Fine. We’re going home. But if that cat steps out of line, I’ll personally bring him back here.”

  Happy stuck his tongue out at him.

  Some grumbling, some pleased, the team began the two-hour trek back to the warp pad.