#i Need more earth girls are easy stuff urgently

[atlas-dr0wned]

chat what do we think of the jeff goldblum shrine

[guqin-and-flute]

In Your Hands--Ch. 3 [Peony to Lotus!Verse]

[Chapter 1][Chapter 2]

[This whole fic is the second chronological installment of the Peony to Lotus!Verse]

[First Installment] [Ao3 Series]

“...A-Jie?”

“Mm?” Yanli opens her eyes, going from the deep red-orange of the sun on her eyelids to the fresh blue of the world. She cranes her neck around to look over at A-Cheng. 

And finds that he’s no longer basking beside her and is instead sitting up, elbows on his knees, hands fiddling with something on the ground in front of him. 

It had taken some convincing to get him to actually lay down in the grass with her as A-Xian and A-Yao man the kites for target practice below them in the waterfall grotto--he is so concerned with being proper and respectable that he hardly lets himself relax anymore. He isn’t even relaxing now. While his gaze is on the disciples playing and training below their bluff-top vantage point, his lips are tight, his face troubled. Sitting up, she scoots closer to him and nudges her shoulder up against him, playfully. “What is it, A-di?”

The wind dances over the dewy spots the sun-warmed grass had left on her robes, lifting up the fresh and living scent of plants and water as she waits for his jaw to work over the words before they come out. For all that he blurts out whatever he wants about (or at) Xianxian, he is always careful when it comes to something regarding her. So she waits, gentling her energy and leaning closer to rest her temple against his hunched shoulder, rubbing her thumb along the tough leather of his bracer. 

“Are you...happy?”

She smiles, even though he can’t see it. “Of course I am, A-Cheng. It’s a beautiful day and we’re spending time together. Why?”

“I mean, are you happy...in general? With….” As he pauses, she follows his still stuck gaze and finds it on A-Yao in the shade holding a kite string, listening to something a shimei is saying with a patient smile. “I didn’t...we didn’t force you, did we? You really seemed to like that peac--well, you know. Wei Wuxian and I were wondering…” He looks back to his hands, twisting grass between them fitfully, but she sees his gaze dart to her sideways from underneath his eyebrows. “Are you happy?”

Sweet, romantic boys; the ones who had planned her wedding in full when they were only 8. Both still haunted by the wounds left by her parents’ relationship in their own way. Who had both been more than unimpressed with Jin Guangshan’s attempt at what he clearly saw was a hand-me-down marriage--a marriage they were apparently forgetting that, had she not insisted on for the good of the Clan, wouldn’t have even happened. “With you all taking such good care of me, how could I be anything but?” she teases, but his anxiety stays on his face, so she pets down his hair.

As for Jin Zixuan…. Yanli hadn’t flinched when A-Cheng had said his name, but that familiar drain had opened up in her chest, pulling her down and in until she’s a little smaller, a little sadder, a little...less. Yes. She had wanted to become worthy of that match, for her Clan, for her mother, who had promised her to it since she was just a girl. She had tried.

She just hadn’t been enough. 

“Is he good to you?”

Yanli shakes herself from her thoughts and sits up. She laces her fingers together and cushions her chin on the back of them with a faux thoughtful air. “Hmmm, is he good to me? Well, let’s see. I think I’ve received about 4 more gifts from him this week alone and he practically waits on me hand and foot.” She grins despite herself, that familiar giddy curling in her belly. “I would certainly say so.”

At this easy reply, he slants a curious, self conscious look that fits the round faced child she can still remember better than a would-be-stern Clan Leader and hesitantly asks, “Are you...in love?” while waggling his finger back and forth, as if indicating the space between her and her husband.

She covers an unlady-like snort of laughter that threatens to escape before she bites her lip against its persistent aftershocks and lowers the hand. “Why do you ask that like you’re going to get in trouble?” Something about the way he asks it just seems so young.

Flushing, he squirms and looks back down the bluff, but she sees the smile trying to fight its way onto his compressed lips. “I’m just curious!” When she continues to grin, he shoots her a look of reproach and complains, “A-jie, don’t laugh at me!”

“I’m not, I would never!” She laughs and rubs his shoulder to lessen the sting of the tease. “You’re so funny. But...I think...I don’t honestly know. I love talking with him and learning about him; I love...making him happy and seeing him smile. I get excited to spend time with him. I was always under the impression that being in love is something huge and earth shaking--from all the legends and epics--and when you know you know, but…” Yanli takes a deep breath of the clean, full air and looks back down, catching her eyes on the lovely, now-familiar shape of A-Yao in profile. Now, he’s looking up at the kites while shading his eyes, a small smile still on his lips. “But I’m just...happy. It’s lovely, with him, and honestly, I would be completely content if this is all it is.” It would be enough.

She searches this thought, a little, pushing at its edges. For a family? For children? To want? The answer within herself doesn’t feel nearly as urgent as it used to when it comes back with ‘Maybe. There’s no rush.’ She marvels a little at how much she actually believes it.

Watching her watch A-Yao, A-Cheng smiles tentatively in the side of her vision. “That sounds really nice, A-jie.”

“It really is. He’s very...doting.”

At this, A-Cheng snorts. “Unsurprising, considering how he was with Nie-xiong.”

“Oh? Were they close, A-Yao and Nie-er-gongzi?” 

“He definitely was devastated when Jin-xiong was kicked out of the Unclean Realm. I always got the feeling that he was something in between a shixiong and a babysitter, but they always got along well, from what I saw. Actually,” he furrows his eyebrows thoughtfully, tilting his head as he watches the disciples milling about, joyful fragments of shouts drifting up with the breeze. “Come to think of it, I don’t know that he’s seen him since….They weren’t in contact during the Sunshot Campaign, we know that much. Maybe they got to talk at the banquet?” His face darkens at the memory--where Jin Zixuan had officially called off the engagement, but he doesn’t speak on it. “I wonder what Nie-xiong thinks of him being here.” His scowl lightens to mere irritation and he scoffs, voice testy, now, as he adds, “Hasn’t bothered to visit.”

Hmm. She plucks this blossoming idea like a little flower to keep for later. Perhaps this is something else she could give her husband. 

And oh, that distant past, when she had first seen A-Yao in the classroom of the Cloud Recesses, standing humbly beside Nie Huaisang with his head down. A whole lifetime ago, when her family and Clan still lived and her biggest worry was Jin Zixuan’s aversion; it felt like an entire version of her had lived and died since. If she set herself to it, she could even remember the specifics, like how she had been impressed by his eloquence and the competence of his bearing--even when his parentage had been publicly mocked. In truth, she had been more focused on Wei Wuxian behaving at the time--to her shame. She had known it was wrong even while it happened, could have said something, anything at all. 

At least she would, now.

Turning to smooth her hand down his cheek to soothe his ruffled feathers over Nie Huaisang’s neglect and difficult memories, she catches sight of A-Xian charging up the hill with fiendish purpose under the rolling shadow of a cloud. He canons into A-Cheng like a vaguely sweaty firework without slowing.

A-Cheng squawks in disgust as it bowls them both over into the grass and the two of them begin to scuffle about it. A-Xian pants, “Shijie, I don’t think your husband has ever shot a bow before! Ow! You shit!”

A-Cheng sits, grinning and triumphant, on the back of Xianxian’s shoulders, digging his brother’s face into the grass and dirt. But just for a second or two, before he is flipped off and pinned, until he is shoved over and on and on, growling insults and play threats at each other like wrestling puppies. Eventually, laughing, Yanli stands and tugs A-Xian’s arm from the writhing pile, more of a hint than actually physically intervening. But he obediently heaves himself up, sweating, panting, and grinning, all harder than before. A-Cheng gives him a faux-surly punch in the side in retaliation and it very nearly starts the whole thing over again until Yanli firmly puts herself between them with a grin, brushing grass clumps from their hair and clothes. “Honestly, you two! I don’t envy the laundry women, just look what you’ve done to your robes. I should make you two clean them!” A-Cheng at least pretends to look halfway chastised while smiling, but A-Xian just looks proud. That is, until she continues, “And I hope you didn’t embarrass A-Yao about it. You know he wasn’t raised with the same training we were.”

At this, he cocks her an half pout, tucking his chin down and sticking his lip out. “Shijieee, all I said was that he must be worried he couldn’t beat our youngest shidi because he wouldn’t even try. Then he started ignoring me!”

A-Cheng rolls his eyes and tuts, loudly, before saying, “You asshole,” just as Yanli sighs.

Shaking her head, she tilts it in gentle scolding. “Maybe because you compared him to an 8 year old? Xianxian. You have to be careful; you know what people say about him. He needs to be safe, here. Where did you leave him?”

“Oh, he’s still down there, organizing clean up. He wasn’t offended--unlike some people,” here, he shoves at A-Cheng’s shoulder, who elbows him back. “Just the usual smiley Lianfang-zun. You know how he is, shijie, he doesn’t get upset over stuff like that.”

He’s always smiling, that doesn’t mean anything, Xianxian. You of all people would understand that. Yanli raises an eyebrow, gentle but not smiling. His childish act mellows behind his dirt smudged face and he looks away, pouting for real and rubbing his nose. “Sorry, shijie,” he mutters. 

“Mm, it’s not me you have to apologize to, A-Xian. It’s about time for you to organize cleanup now, don’t you think?”

He heaves a dramatic sigh, but grudgingly nods before perching on the edge of the bluff, shouting down through cupped hands. “Jin-gege-e-e, your wife wants you!” When he turns around, he points at A-Cheng nonchalantly. “You’re helping.”

“Oh, am I?” A-Cheng smirks, folding his arms and puffing up, very clearly preparing to pull rank.

“Uh, yeah, if you want this back!” Suddenly, A-Xian spins and sprints down the hill, holding his fist up over his shoulder.

“Wei Wuxian! What’d you take?! Hey! Stop!” 

As he pelts down the hill after him, Yanli has to laugh because, in the second before he had run, A-Xian had had nothing in his hands at all. For a moment, in this new peace, she closes her eyes and folds her hands over her belly, savoring the sun shining warm--almost hot--on the top of her head and the playful shouts of her brothers and the disciples below. Then, she hears footsteps. When she opens her eyes, she sees A-Yao making his steady way up the hill, his face pleasantly blank. The closer he gets, however, his eyes warm and the edges of him soften until he is here, reaching out and taking her hands. “A-Li? What do you need?” He smells like grass and water and sun.

“Was A-Xian being terrible again?”

He chuckles and shakes his head. “Oh no, he’s just being Wei Wuxian. You look flushed--shall I walk you back?” 

But day by day she is learning each of his little lies and she recognizes this as one of them. Strangely, as the weeks go by, the masks he wears have been bothering her less and less; partially because she is beginning to understand that they are protection for him. Like armor or clothing--he would feel naked without them. If she can still tell what he wants, if she can still peek under them, she is more than happy not to pry them from him when he still needs their safety. (Of course she wishes he didn’t feel like he needs them in their home, with the people who would be his family, if he let them. But, like growing seeds or proving dough, these things take time and that, they certainly have.) He is becoming less of an impenetrable fortress and more of a foreign land that she can more easily navigate as she learns the language. It allows her to leave these smiles hung up like beautiful paintings she can name. Underneath this, he is tense and displeased; his smile-curved eyes opaque, his jaw holding tension. This one is Humiliation.

Twining her arms around his trim waist, she thrills in that wanted way she does every time he lets her hold him before she tucks her cheek to his to murmur, “I told him not to tease like that. I know it hurts you.” While she may have become more inclined to leave him his shields when he puts them up against her, she can’t help but talk around it, just a little. She cares less about the hiding and more about the fact that he suffers.

“...It’s fine.” He says nothing more, but his hands move to hold her back, one smoothing up between her shoulder blades as his face tips down against her neck, nose and eyelashes pressing. Not a talking problem, then. So she rocks, a bit, from her ankles to her hips, swaying them both slowly together in the rustling breeze with something like playfulness and something like comfort. “What are you doing, this afternoon?” She asks the air behind him, eyes cast to the wisping clouds passing slowly across the sky.

“Mm, I had planned to organize a list of new merchants in the area for Jiang Wanyin. Is there something you need me to do instead?"

"Is it urgent?"

"Not that I saw. Why, A-Li?"

"I was going to make dumplings tonight and I would love it if you joined me. If you want," she adds, diffidently. “I made the dough this morning.”

He startles, a little, and draws back, looking genuinely surprised. He opens his mouth, then closes it. Then smiles warmly. “I’d be delighted.” 

The sincerity of that smile makes her grin and she bounces a little on her toes--and he laughs. Clearly, he's pleased she wants to spend time with him. And she's pleased that he's pleased. And he seems to be pleased that she's pleased that he's pleased and around and around they go--it might have been embarrassing if it weren’t so fun.

It turns out that he’s as quick a study at being a kitchen hand as he is at anything else he does; he absorbs her instructions thoughtfully and works diligently, his noon-sky blue sleeves patterned with little whirls of teal tied back with a simple strip of cloth as he chops up the chives and garlic and ginger. His knife strokes are as rhythmic and sure as the kitchen is hot, with little wisps of breeze edging around the wet billows of spices and green and cooking pork. “You are so much easier to work with than Xianxian,” she tells him from down the smooth, sunbathed counter where she’s perched on a stool, rolling out the rounds of dough. “I love him dearly, but he tries to put absolutely everything in his mouth, even now.”

A tiny smile picks at the corner of his concentration tight lips. Then, with a flick of an eye to see if she’s watching, he wordlessly pops a little shred of ginger into his mouth from the neat pile he has made. “You!” Yanli gasps in delighted outrage at his audacity and leans over to ineffectually tap at the counter near his elbow--she can’t quite reach him, sitting down.

At this, he laughs outright and offers his wrist out, knife blade carefully angled away . She gives the back of his wrist a playful little swipe with her fingertips, leaving streaks of flour. “I thought I would make it a little more familiar for you,” he says, by way of excuse. “More what you’re used to.”

“Absolutely incorrigible,” she replies, fondly, righting herself again.

Here in the kitchen, where she has history and proficiency--where she is master--it’s as easy as anything to tease and tend with absolutely no worry at all. She isn’t agonizing if she is providing enough or saying the right things, because she knows exactly what must be done when, and he is masterful at following directions the very first time she gives them. Conversation is light and inconsequential around her instructions, and she is able to conserve her energy staying seated on the stool, maneuvering him about the kitchen as her arms with little guilt at all.

 In what feels like no time, they sit beside each other at the floured, bowl littered counter; bowls of filling, of water, of flour. Their shoulders brush. “So you wet the edge like this, because the dough isn’t completely fresh anymore--”

“Mn.”

“And you spoon in about this much--not much more or it will burst in the pan.”

“This much?”

“A little more, I think. Perfect! Then, like this. Then you fold the sides.”

“Too much?”

“Mmn, next time it can be a little tighter, but that’s good for your first one! Pinch it and--beautiful!” She pauses a moment to savor the look of her husband with flour speckling his quick, capable hands and lean forearms, seriously contemplating the dumpling. “You’re a natural.”

The withdrawing he had done behind his shields that morning is nowhere in sight when he looks over at her with unmistakable pride in his bright eyes. “Well, I have a wonderful teacher.”

She bites her grin back and waves the compliments away, laying out the next wrapper in front of her. “Oh, you.”

“Where did you learn the art of food?”

“Liu-popo, one of our cooks! I think I first got interested because I was sick for a lot of my childhood and she always made me the most wonderful meals. And when we found out about my heart and my health...well….” Mother stopped pushing once she realized Yanli would never be able to keep up with the training of the other disciples because there was no way for her to improve. No way for her to contribute to the Clan in a meaningful way. “I had a lot more free time. My room was by the kitchens, and I have always loved the smells and the bustle of it all. The more I was there, the more Liu-popo would let me mix things, tell me how they worked and what flavors went together. At dinner, seeing people eat what I made...knowing I did that, knowing I made them happy and full…it felt good.” She gives a little smile and glances at him. “And there's so many things you can do once you understand the basics, too. You can experiment and make new dishes!”

He wets the edge of his next dough wrapper and says, conversationally, “Like Wei Wuxian and his talisman inventions.”

This startles a laugh out of her and sparks from her dangling earrings in the sun dance off the warm gold glow reflected from their bodies onto the wall around the window. “Oh, no, it’s nothing special.”

“Really? I think it’s very similar. You’re perfecting something and helping people. Bringing them together and taking care of them, feeding their bodies and keeping them strong? That’s just as important.”

She hesitates and looks out the window. She never thought of it that way. The lotuses are pearly and bobbing in the bright breeze, their heady scent sneaking in light and fragrant under the punch of the spices. Their brilliance under the sun leaves dazzling green after images when she blinks. “Do you think so?” Assigning that much importance to it seems borderline ridiculous--what she does and what her brothers do is hardly comparable at all. She struggles to make herself useful while they blaze their way through the world, changing it with their will and sword edges. They are proper cultivators, proper warriors.

There is a pause, then a gentle hand lays over her wrist, slightly gritty from the flour coating his palm. “If you had asked me what I would have preferred when I was in the Scorching Sun Palace--a talisman or a warm meal from someone who--” it feels like he swallows a word back here, smoothly substituting, “cares, I know which I would have chosen. Without question.”

Even this feels like a kind exaggeration designed to make her feel better--soup instead of life saving magic? But this little rare little bauble of personal experience he was handing her was something more important than soothing her pride, so she smiles over at him. “You’re very sweet. But what about you? You’re a natural! Did your niang teach you how to cook?”

At this, his face slides from serious earnest to pleasant veneer and, with a spike of cold anxiety, she fears she has put her hand on a door that she thought she was being invited into, only to find it forbidden. But he merely turns back to spooning in the pork filling and says, lightly. “I’m sure she knew how--she was well educated in most things. But we didn’t tend to frequent the kitchens.” There is a silence she fears is the end of this particularly enticing thread. But then, eyes still on the pre-dumpling, he says, “She taught me other things, though. How to read and write. Proper etiquette. The basics of a guqin….”

There is a pause, and this feels almost uncertain, him tilting on his toes on the precipice of a step she desperately wants him to take, so she hazards, “Like Lan-zongzhu.”

A smile, small and fond, before he forces it brighter at his hands, efficiently twisting the little peaks. “Just like. He’s had more formal training, of course, but she was able to play quite well.”

Yanli knows some of this, of course. His mother had been famous for how educated she was despite her occupation--the refined courtesan of Yunping. But that’s not who she had been to A-Yao. She had been his mother. “She was a very talented woman.”

“Yes.”

“You loved her very much.”

Softer, smile greying; “Yes.”

A silence stretches, a bird outside trilling to accentuate it, so she says, quietly. “I’m sorry, we don’t have to talk about her, A-Yao. I didn’t mean to pry.”

That smile hikes wider and he looks over at her, where she can see in full the raw tension that hides just barely underneath and she wants to shower him with praise and thanks for the gift that it is. “You’re my wife, A-Li. There’s no prying; you can ask me anything you want to know.”

Mmhm, she thinks, I can ask, but you won't necessarily answer. What clever wording; sneaky. No need to push. Just like with A-Xian, she will let him take the time he needs to tell her what's wrong. As long as he knows she is always there to listen. “Well, I love hearing about her….” Then shyly, she adds. “Would she have liked me?

When his face softens completely, there is something in the corners of his mouth that makes her think of tears, though there’s no trace of it anywhere else. His voice is low when he says, “She would have adored you.”

She reaches out and touches his cheek with her flour coated hand, crumbling a swath of white up to his cheekbone. The way he’s looking at her is almost like yearning in his eyes, searching and wanting, even though she is right here, right with him, staying. A warmth rushes in her chest. “I would have loved to have met her, A-Yao. She must have been amazing--and you honor her so well.” It's truth. Nothing but.

Little lines pierce where his dimples should lie and he swallows, blinks. “...I try,” he says in a voice she has never heard from him before; it’s small. Clotted and uncertain. His eyes widen and he stiffens, and she feels him tightening, receding--so she pretends she doesn’t see it, pretends that she doesn’t know that that had been a slip of vulnerability that scares him.

She takes away all pressure--her hand from his cheek, her gaze from his face--and turns away to fuss over another circle of dough. Sprinkling more flour on the counter, arranging everything just so in front of her as she smiles. “Well, you’ve proven to be a wonderful kitchen hand, so you should help me make dumplings for all the holidays, since you’re so good at it. New Years and Dongzhi and--oh, I should teach you the dances we do for the Dragon Boat Festival! I perform one every year for Lotus Pier, when I can. Or,” she straightens with realization. “Oh!” When she turns to him, he’s considering the dumpling he’s pinching with far more concentration than is warranted. “Oh, you grew up in Yunping! Do you know any?”

He clears his throat without looking up, smile uncomfortable. “I know a few. Quite a few. My mother taught me to dance because she didn’t know any martial arts to prepare me for cultivation outside some of the books she managed to find. But she knew starting me in a physical discipline young would help. I’m...adequate.”

Even more corners of her life she could tuck him into! More things she could share with him! A way to draw him from the shell he’s desperately trying to retreat back into! Excitedly, she twists on her stool, swiping her hands on her apron. “Oh, show me, please, I want to see!”

The tips of his ears redden adorably, and he winces. “I don’t...A-Li--”

There are not many things she will push him on, except on matters where he paints himself as unworthy, but this! This she absolutely has to see, here, just them, sharing the things that make them who they are under the kitchen counter in private. “Please, oh, please! I’ll even dance with you, if you don’t want to do it alone! We’ll go together!” She stands and shrugs her shoulders to free her arms some mobility from where her apron captures the joining of her sleeves, letting her hands rest on the air in delicate anticipation.

He’s startled into looking up at her, eyebrows pinching. His face is colored in embarrassed alarm. “I only ever performed alone, my partner dances aren’t--”

Performed! She could crow. And she will get that story in time, oh yes she will. “Then you choose! Whatever you want, I’ll follow you! Whatever you want, whatever!”

At this insistence, reluctantly, slowly, he stands, dusting off his hands before untying the cloth that keeps his sleeves back. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, to her utter rising delight he shrugs out of his heavier blue outer robe entirely to drape over the edge of the rack of unpeeled vegetables. It leaves him in 2 lighter, tighter layers of shades of plum and navy. The lack of patterns on the fabric simplifies his lines, rendering him limber and neat as he places his feet just so.

Immediately it is clear that he is not merely adequate, as he claimed. When he lifts his hands, the intent behind them shows someone who has had control of their body’s movements from a very young age and knows where every square inch of it is at all times--no less talented or powerful than those lifelong cultivators that she knows. He is watching her. She glows with the trust of it all and follows his first step. 

There is no music, and so she sees his quick tempo and meets it with a wordless, half remembered song, all ‘da da’s and breathless notes as they move. And they dance, wheeling tight in the modest space of the kitchen floor. The dance he chooses is, as he said, not usually a couple dance, but she knows it and mirrors him, light and lilting, stepping quick and smooth. Some of the sweeps of his arms and legs are the masculinized version of what she knows, so she reflects in compliment when she can--when the counters and bulbs of hanging garlic and strings of peppers don’t block her path. It’s amazing, it’s easy, it’s fun.

She watches his face flash pass during a turn--once, concentration; twice, surprise; thrice, realization. When he faces front, he looks tentatively pleased. 

She arches her back and kicks up her foot in a sharp arc in improvisation, grinning cheekily and that real, crooked grin of his is back, with something different, something--is that teasing? Arms spread like wings for balance, he responds in kind, but the arc of it is wider, higher, until, for a single moment, the billow of his robes is a flower blossom on the impossibly straight line of his legs, up and down. She whoops in undignified awe in the middle of a measure, abandoning the tune.

In the end, she bumps the corner table with her hip and teeters a moment, arms wheeling for balance even as she laughs. When he catches her wrist and pulls her back, Yanli collapses onto him, arms around his neck as she giggles, helplessly elated. Struggling back upright, she grabs his face in her palms and plants a quick, hard kiss on his lips. 

His fast breath tastes like ginger. 

They are both flushed and panting in the heat of the kitchen, wisps of humidity frazzled hair escaping their respective guan and pin. And they are both grinning. “You must perform with me,” she wheezes.

Breathlessly, he lets out a short laugh, smile going wryer but not disappearing. “Ah, I doubt anyone wants to see me.”

“I do!”

Again, he chuckles. “Then I’ll dance for you.”

He’ll dance for her! That golden bubbling is back in her chest, permeating the whole of her until she feels like sunlight. “Think about it at least?”

With an air of extreme indulgence that tells her that he has thought and has already decided, he nods, one dimple pressed in deep. She lets it go. Oh well, next year. 

He helps her sit because her lungs are tight and her legs going to jelly, but she is so helplessly pleased by him and the gifts he keeps giving her. So she kisses him again, because she likes to and she can, and feels his palms press her closer by her shoulder blades and feels so very very wanted.

[darkpoisonouslove]

Winx Club Season 4 Thoughts Part 2

I did part 1 here. Let’s see if part 2 is gonna top that in a positive way or in a negative one.

4x14:

- I can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with Bloom. Musa is moving way too fast in her “crush” on Jason. Not to mention that it looked like things were getting a bit better between her and Riven during the last battle with the Wizards.

- Okay, but Bloom is saying the exact opposite of what happened. She wasn’t scared of being a fairy. She instantly agreed to go with Stella to Alfea and never even for a second stopped to think about that taking her away from home like Roxy is doing. At least Roxy can see that it is possible to balance being a fairy and still doing everyday things.

- Faragonda is really getting on my nerves in this scene. First, she jumps on talking about Roxy attending Alfea without even asking her and then she’s all “She needs time”. Contradictory much? If she needs time, then give it to her. And taking the White Circle is probably not a good idea. From what we saw in 4x01 Alfea teachers were unable to do anything against the Wizards and Roxy used it to defeat them in the previous episode. So Winx and Roxy are literally the only ones that can protect the White Circle and use it. Why send it to Alfea? The Wizards can learn about it and attack the school and there will be no one to stop them. Not to mention that it was the thing that helped defeat them and without it Winx and Roxy are weaker and possibly can’t protect Gardenia.

- The TV crew - “talks about fairies* Stella - “Do you think they might be talking about us?” WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?!?!?!?!?! Of course they are talking about you! Do you see any other girls flying around in sparkly outfits! It should be illegal for this line to be so stupid considering how short it is.

- So now the Specialists are throwing jabs at each other? I thought Sky and Brandon were the bestest of friends, wtf? And Helia too? Seriously? Can this season not ruin all the good dynamics? At least the Riven and Nabu friendship is still going strong. And Riven is being more open with Nabu while Nabu is giving some quality advice. I like that. Almost makes up for the other bullshit happening with all of them.

- Didn’t the tiger say the ship is leaving soon? And they still decided to wait a whole day to get there? That sounds like an urgent, asap business but yeah, sure. Go chill all day. What could go wrong with that plan?

- Klaus is super chill considering Roxy just brought a tiger home and it’s adorable but shouldn’t they report the whole thing and take the tiger to the proper authorities? I know the magical dimension has no logic whatsoever when it comes to laws and such but they are on Earth now and I am pretty sure it is not legal for Roxy to keep the tiger. Can we have some real world logic here, please?

- Stella and Brandon are so fucking cute when they’re not fighting.

- Damn, Jason even interrupted the breakup talk. Come on! We all know it is not breakup talk but still.

- Yeah, they really fought the most powerful beings of the magical dimension and then lost to two animal smugglers. Nice one, you guys.

- I will never get over the stupidity that fairies being unable to get out of simple ropes on their own is. They have magic for heaven’s sake! Bloom could totally burn the ropes with a little spark! This is super stupid!

- Yes, just release a bunch of wild animals in the middle of a city. Nothing could go wrong with that.

- Why are they exhausted? They literally didn’t do shit! It was just Musa that used her powers! Also, wouldn’t it have made more sense if they used Flora’s special powers? She is the fairy of nature and animals are part of nature. What the hell does the song of one’s heart have to do with how they act towards nature?!

- Omg, why is Musa acting like Jason’s wedding had her heartbroken? She met him three days ago and didn’t know anything about him! He offered to produce her music which is still absolutely doable even if he is married! She’s acting like she’s been in love with him for years and she barely knows him! Besides, she hasn’t lost any of his support and encouragement for her musical career. This is an exaggerated reaction.

4x15:

- Um... aren’t Winx only in Gardenia? This looks like they’ve gone worldwide. Also, since when can Duman do anything that does not involve shapeshifting?

- What the fuck, he just turned into water?!

- Ogron is getting the right idea. Well, right for the Wizards’ plans.

- What is Stella doing? I get she’s tired but she just went in the shop, looked at what all the others were doing and then left?! What the hell???

- *groan* Why are we bringing up the Mitzi thing again? That was already resolved, dammit! I remember Mitzi was part of Ogron’s plan but they could have still had that without reopening drama that they already closed. And even Mitzi’s words are stupid. There is nothing to fight for. Brandon already chose Stella.

- Where did Mitzi’s friends come from all of a sudden? This is exactly like Chimera and her groupies. And Valtor also planned on using her against Stella. *sigh* We have done this already! I feel like they decided to combine the Diaspro and Chimera storylines from last season and push it all on Stella for some reason.

- Wtf? Mitzi and her friends were super scared but then suddenly they follow the Wizards just because of their dislike for Winx? Like, the Wizards didn’t even introduce themselves or anything, they didn’t even give them a reason to follow them. What the hell is the logic of this scene? At least Mitzi’s friends look somewhat genuine since they were all curled up into each other when they got scared and she didn’t try to push them away. Why does she want Brandon if she can have two girlfriends? Brandon is awesome but already taken and she seems to have a cool relationship with her girls already. Oh, look, her girls even have brains! Come on, Mitzi, listen to them!

- I guess Ogron has the power to make fairies now! Though, a better explanation would be that they just gave them magical powers and Duman used his shapeshifting skills to only make them look like fairies to make people hate fairies when Mitzi and her friends start doing stupid stuff.

- Oh, really? Musa now wants Riven back? After her other option was taken away? This is horrible. If the problem was truly that she felt Riven was unsupportive, she shouldn’t want him back unless they fix that. But no, now that Jason is off the table, she wants Riven back even though he allegedly wasn’t good for her. Just say you’re desperate for attention, honey.

- They’re even helping at the bar after the long day they had? If I were them I would just crash on the ground as well the first chance I got.

- At least Bloom only put the lid of the shaft back in place instead of levitating the person.

- It is pretty cool that they show Roxy and Mitzi and her friends training parallel to each other. And the lessons were interesting (I thought the birds were gonna drop Kiko but he got enough when he got hit with that soccer ball). Also, Mitzi really is learning fast if you can say that having common sense counts as learning but considering what they’ve already done in this season, I’ll take it.

- Oh, wow! Mitzi is showing some actual strategical thinking! And she wasn’t blinded by her desire to be better than Winx and instead admitted their weakness in order to defeat them? I am so pleasantly surprised. Less so by the people of Gardenia. Just because someone calls you friend, doesn’t mean that you’re really friends or have anything in common. Please! Can people not fall for everything so easily?!

- Oh, damn! Bloom got physical! She really got mad, huh? And she’s also pretty strong to just flip Mitzi like that.

- It took them that long to figure out that Winx are protecting them? Really? Last time I checked, people were supposed to have stopped believing in magic, not be stupid as all fuck.

- Wait, so Mitzi and her friends don’t remember what happened? And no one is gonna do anything about them? They destroyed a whole park and almost killed people! Did no one see their faces? How come they are not in any legal trouble for this?!

- At least Jason’s wife is not affected by this jealousy plague that has hit all the Winx and the Specialists.

4x16:

- Yeah, I don’t think finding them is going to be a problem. Especially now that they are popular both because of the pet shop and as fairies. The only problem the Wizards have is that they can’t quite defeat them currently.

- I thought Roxy didn’t remember the Nebula possession.

- What are those mood swings of Musa’s? Last episode she instantly went looking for Riven after she learned there could be nothing between her and Jason, now she’s moping about Jason still. Do you even know what you want at this point?

- I don’t think putting the White Circle in the game is a good idea. Can they even keep an eye on it that way? What if the Wizards do something like the Tracix spell and find out the Circle is in the game? What is gonna stop them from taking it? I think Winx underestimate them. But Stella’s reaction to Tecna’s gadgets was super cute! They should have had more friendship moments together.

- Wtf, where did this idea for the music band come from? Also, Bloom just said she needs Musa to give her singing lessons. How come she’s the main vocalist of the band later on? And Flora telling Stella that it’s not easy to perform in front of people? Stella, who already won a beauty pageant? Really? We all know Stella doesn’t give two fucks about being in front of people.

- Riven is communicating so much better with Nabu and even Helia than he is with Musa. I think they never became friends before becoming a couple and that is really getting in the way of truly opening up to each other. At least he has great wingmen.

- Okay, Riven fucked it up but it was obviously an accident. And Musa didn’t even appreciate his attempt. In fact, her reactions to his attempts to be better are always so negative and, therefore, discourage him from ever doing it again. I’m surprised he still wants to do things right by her after all the times she’s acted like a bitch because his attempts were not quite successful. She doesn’t appreciate his efforts at all if the outcome is not perfect.

- See? I told you they would find it. Winx really underestimated them a lot this time. And if they were gonna stay in town, why not just carry the Circle with them? This was a stupid plan.

- Klaus is a very understanding employer if he still hasn’t fired the Specialists after they keep disappearing like that for undetermined amounts of time. Though, I think after learning about the fairy business, it is natural that he will be a bit more lenient when he knows what dangers they are battling.

- Helia really do be beating monsters with just a glove, huh?

- Aww, look at Timmy being absolutely amazing!

- Couldn’t they use the Zoomix wings without the need for Musa’s sonic distortion? It didn’t seem to do that much anyway.

- Why did they let go of the Circle and where did it go? Couldn’t Roxy have done something to keep it with them? It responds to her the most. Oh, they have it.

- At least Musa apologized to Riven. Her reaction to the chocolates was really stupid so I’m glad she rethought all of that. Even though I don’t understand why Nabu had to be the one to tell her what Riven was doing. I thought it was obvious.

4x17:

- How many times are they gonna leave Kiko in charge when they know the pets don’t listen to him? Also, didn’t they already spoil the fact that the fairies are trapped and the White Circle is the last portal to free them in a recap in one of the earlier episodes?

- Wait, since when are the pets listening to Kiko?

- The Book of Fairies? Is that the Believix book? How many things are in that book? It doesn’t look endless.

- Wow, that’s a lot of responsibility shoved on Roxy’s shoulders. But did they seriously leave her? How do they plan on freeing the Earth fairies without her?

- Well, they’re going to have to use some spells in order to get out of their predicaments whether they like it or not. Also, is it the island that has been enchanted by the Wizards to take care of fairies? Is that what is happening here? Because I don’t think the Wizards are there at the current moment.

- If they can’t use their magic, free climbing will be dangerous, not fun.

- Yes, of course, Bloom can break the spell over herself like none of the others were able to.

- Well, Bloom got her unicorn/pegasus in Magical Adventure. But can’t Musa do something about the sirens’ song?

- Finally. Both about Musa and freeing the Earth fairies. Tecna and Stella make quite a great team, though!

- Bloom really just called a queen “Your Highness”. I know she didn’t grow up a princess but she must have learned by now from Stella and Layla (and even her own parents who are free at this point) what the proper way to address a queen/king is.

- When is Morgana gonna tell Roxy that she’s her mom? Does she even remember? They didn’t erase her memories like with Klaus’, right? I thought she would be mad at Nebula for possessing her daughter but there was no reaction whatsoever.

4x18:

- How did they jump from “Shit, we might have doomed Earth” to “Yay, we’re becoming an official band” so quickly? And even Roxy was on board with all that even though she was being torn apart by guilt earlier. Drama would have been more proper here than in any of the other places they have used it this season. Also, what is it that makes Musa such a professional musician compared to the others? It’s not like she has her own songs produced or anything. And Stella said she plays a lot of instruments. Plus, if a musical producer liked them, then that means that they are all more than just amateurs.

- At least the new outfits are cute. And the boys are totally swept off their feet. XD

- Ugh, just tell me Sky is not going to go into jealousy rage again. And why do he and Brandon keep making digs at each other? They are supposed to be the eternal bromance. And Riven too? I thought we were over this!

- It’s Flora time by the looks of it. I have to say that the idea of Winx fighting the Major Fairies is really good because the fairies’ powers come from hatred while Winx’ powers come from the belief of humans in magic so by defeating the fairies, Winx get to show that faith and love are always stronger. That was well thought up. I only hope the execution will be decent as well.

- Seriously, Flora is their trump card in this situation and even she can’t fight? Nabu is being totally awesome, though! Even if a bit of a Deus Ex Machina.

- Well, of course, Diana is in the park. Where would a nature fairy go? Is anyone shocked by this?

- These carnivore plants look different from the usual. But they really left the guys go after Diana even though they couldn’t do anything against her with their magic? And Timmy was worried about the monsters that are obviously much weaker than Diana? Great.

- Tecna is rocking this as usual. But of course, there is a giant spider. Every. Single. Time.

- Did Sky really order Diana to stop? Has his coronation gotten to his head? I am surprised she didn’t snap at that very instant.

- Why is Nabu literally the only one that is handling this? He is the only one that is not a Specialist and it looks like all they’re Specialists in is jealousy. It’s because of the magic, right? Look at them say that people without magic are useless.

- What exactly are Nabu’s powers? Because he seems to be able to do everything.

- Yes, Mike, anger the oversized spider more! What a wonderful idea! At least we know where Bloom got her temper. Not that she didn’t have enough of it already in her genes from both Oritel and Marion but I’m sure growing up with Mike only nurtured it instead of inhibiting it.

- Lmao at Mike and Stella’s conversation. XD He is right, though. At this rate, they’ll destroy the whole building.

- Yeah, Musa blasted it but what was Tecna doing? Just standing under the spider and screaming? Please, she is better than this!

- What does Roxy mean “It’s not [her] type of pet”? She’s the fairy of animals! That means all animals, not just the furry, cute ones.

- I don’t think teleportation is gonna solve all the problems. As an on-the-spot solution for the spider situation it is okay but they still need to figure out a way to beat Diana. Nabu’s been holding her off while the seven of them can’t even defeat a single spider.

- Aww, that scene was pretty emotional. Between Nabu’s guilt for not saving the others and Musa’s feelings for Riven, it got intense. And the plot is getting more intense as well which is awesome!

4x19:

- Wait, wait! They just gave them the Sophix Gifts? Didn’t Winx have to accomplish some missions to get them? Or do they receive them before the mission to finish it with the help of the Gifts?

- I thought Stella would freak when she saw the snake but she just petted it like it was a puppy. That was adorable!

- That vision told them fuckall. Like they weren’t gonna take that path anyway. What was the point of it?

- Hideout? This is not a hideout! It looks more like a temple. But hideout would imply it should be hidden and it just... isn’t.

- Okay, the Earth fairies have a point to some extent and Flora feeling the pain of the plants could have been a good way to show forgiveness since Diana is bound to feel the same pain, only, she has let it turn her dark. And then Winx could use the Believix powers with help from the Earth fairies to stop humans from destroying the planet... Which they can still do. Hopefully.

- Again, aren’t they only famous in Gardenia? Why does Stella think that deforestators in the Amazonian jungle will know who they are?

- So there’s not gonna be any actual transformation for the Sophix? They just change their outfits and wings. At least the gifts look cool even though they probably won’t get to use them much. It would have been even better if the warrior fairies would just think for themselves instead of listen to Diana like they don’t have their own brains.

- At least Musa and Riven are getting somewhere. Still not good enough but it’s better than the previous few episodes.

- I thought the Sophix powers were supposed to defeat Diana. How are they gonna do that if they can’t even defeat this other fairy that is surely weaker than her? And they already considered the possibility of it being a trap so why did they fall for it so easily?

4x20:

- Why is the recap implying that Roxy is with them in Amazonia when she stayed behind?

- Flora is getting fired up because of the plants again which I like but it would have been better if it actually allowed her to break out of the chains instead of all of them waiting to be rescued. Also, you have to love how Diana cares more about the source of her power rather than the destruction of the very forest that is her domain.

- Bloom: Let’s destroy it. *3 seconds later* Bloom: Destruction is not the solution to anything. Well, good thing your mood swings were from bad to good mood this time. Also, how do they imagine they are going to protect the bud from anyone that wants to hurt it if they ever want to go back home? Keeping that promise would mean living there for the rest of their lives. Why is this dialogue so decidedly not thought out?

- I thought that thanks to Sophix Winx are now completely connected with nature. What happened with that? I know Diana is the fairy of nature but so is Flora! She should be able to do something here and they should at least be equals with advantage to Winx because they’re more (we don’t count the warrior fairies because we all know that they don’t matter).

- Convenient how feeling nature suffering only happens sometimes and just with close range destruction. If Diana was feeling every tree that was cut down, she shouldn’t have been able to stand on her feet by now. This is bullshit and so is the fact that Flora is not any more useful than any of the other Winx right now. At least Nabu is being awesome again aka doing everyone else’s jobs.

- Great! Now both Flora and Diana are useless.

- Aww, finally we get some fangirling from Stella over Brandon again! I have missed this and it was about damn time. How could they trade this perfection for all the stupid jealousy drama in this season?

- If Diana is the fairy of nature, she should be damn near immortal and in order to destroy her, you should destroy all nature first. This is absolute nonsense. They cut down two trees and now she’s in mortal danger. Some fucking fairy of nature. Please!

- Now Diana went from completely useless to ridiculously and over the top so. If the Major Fairy of nature can’t cure the bud, then what is she even good for, really? This whole episode is bullshit on top of other bullshit.

- Really? There wasn’t even a good moment of revelation. Winx did a lot but it wasn’t their actions that changed her mind, it was the native people and that was just... a bit underwhelming. This could have been done so much better. *sigh*

- “Gift of Wisdom,” they say like there was any wisdom in what happened here. If anything, there was empathy and just general common sense from Winx who were aware of the fact that just because some people do bad things, it doesn’t mean that all people are evil. There is no wisdom in that. Nothing even remotely smart in any of this.

- At least Musa and Riven finally fixed their shit! Riven was being absolutely adorable! He really has his jerk moments but he is awesome and so underappreciated. And all the other couples were adorable as well! Though, I have to say that I love the fact that Bloom accidentally implied that Layla and Nabu are a better couple than her and Sky. XD Thanks, writers! (even if they quickly rebutted that idea with the next dialogue exchange) I will be forever salty about the fact that they didn’t let Layla have the wedding she was so worried about organizing. She is so invested in it and so in love with Nabu and they just... they just went and killed him.

4x21:

- Seriously? Andy and his band barely showed up and the guys already started acting like everything was ruined? When will this be over? I am so sick of it, especially after it was already made super clear that they have nothing to worry about. And how are Winx getting produced so fast? They literally got a producer the same day they formed their band. This does not follow any actual logic.

- Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Suddenly they’re all super talented in music. Of course. And why is Musa acting like she hasn’t been in Jason’s studio before? Come on, writers! That was a big moment of drama for her and Riven. If you insist on shoving jealousy everywhere, at least remember the details around it and stop contradicting yourselves!

- I am pretty sure they also mentioned the musical contest already in a previous episode so they are repeating themselves... again. Can we get back to the Major Fairies? At least things are happening there.

- All their performances have been live! He’s already seen how they do live shows! This is really getting on my nerves.

- Since when is a music band their dream?!?!?!?! And why are the boys being so fucking jealous all over again?!?!?!?! Just. Move. The fuck. ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Great! And now suddenly we went from Bloom and Musa being vocalists to only Bloom even though Musa is THE FUCKING FAIRY OF MUSIC! This episode is testing my patience. Actually, the previous episode did that. This one is running it fucking thin!

- Well, fucking finally! I was wondering when the Wizards were gonna show up again, and this is getting interesting. Though, Ogron kneeling in front of Bloom is just a bit too theatrical for me to not start suspecting that they have a play here. Even if they are truly weakened, that doesn’t mean that they don’t plan on taking advantage of having Winx fight their battle to get their powers back and come out on top again.

- Yep, there was a physical Black Circle, after all. It was just too lame for them not to do it. And they aren’t even going to explain how in the hell all the Wizards’ power is contained in it. The White Circle is a portal (and one of many at that) but the Black Circle is more like the Agathor Box and contains all the Wizards’ power? Yeah, right. None of this checks out. Again.

- Somehow I have a feeling that since the Wizards are with them, they are going to draw attention in one way or another.

- Okay, Winx pushing the Wizards out of harm’s way was actually kinda funny but it just makes the Wizards look fucking incompetent without their magic. Like, please, they are centuries old! They certainly have the common sense of moving out of the way of a boulder that will crush them! And they’re acting like what Winx did was some kind of impossible feat when it was just basic survival instinct. There isn’t much philosophy to “jump out of the way of the thing that can kill you”. Can we stop acting like they solved the biggest mysteries of the universe? But I trust the Wizards less and less the nicer they act.

- I am also getting sick of them acting like the Gift of Heart is landing them some magical levels of courage when any person would have done the exact same things even without magic.

- Well, now the Specialists just seem to have general anger management issues even if those guys were truly annoying as hell in the 10 seconds they had on screen.

- For a second there I thought Morgana would possess Roxy like Nebula did but, thankfully, she didn’t. She’s trying to save her daughter. Which I think would work much better if she told her she was her mom. But anyway, I agree with her this time. Her quest for vengeance and Winx’ attempts to save humankind aside, it is obvious that the Wizards are not being honest about this and will use the first opportunity to turn things in their favor again. They might even be trying to kill Sybila by having Winx get them to her because they can’t reach her on their own.

- And here I thought they couldn’t transform. But of course, they can! It would have been much more interesting if Winx had had to use the Black Circle because their Believix powers weren’t working.

- That was it? I expected more from that battle. And it could have been a test to see if their intentions were good aka having them protecting the Wizards be the part that would prove they only want to help everyone. But it was all over before it began. What even was the point of it?

- Aww, the Specialists are going to play to buy Winx some time. Lmao it would be super stupid if they got chosen for winners instead of Winx and it would probably create more drama. But I think it would have been cooler if Nabu had used his magic to make them all look like their girlfriends and win the first place for them. XD It was cool to see Riven do something like that, though. And he’s singing!

- Tests, my ass. Those were barely any tests. They have been through so much worse back when they were freshmen in Alfea and they also handled it better back then despite being significantly weaker in power.

- Seriously, Stella? Are your comprehension skills damaged or something? Handling the mission without help from magic actually makes you braver, you stupid idiot! And I am so happy that it wasn’t the Gift of Heart in action because that would have made it really underwhelming.

- Yeah, so the Wizards are obviously gonna do some shit here because we all know what happens before the end of this season. But the musical contest was saved. Because that is the most important thing in their lives, apparently.

- I was worried Musa was going to be a bitch about this but they solved this quickly. Good. My tolerance for drama is running out and there are still five episodes left of this season. And Musa was also singing along with Bloom. (I’ll take what I can get since even that will be gone soon.)

- Does Jason know that they’re fairies (which he should) and, more importantly, can he produce them in the rest of the magical dimension? That would have been fun to see. Imagine you are a musical producer and suddenly these fairies appear. They’re good and you sign a contract with them and next thing you know, you’re being taken to different planets because they also want to sing there and your business is suddenly interdimensional. That would have been a good thing to add to this whole ridiculous subplot with the musical band.

4x22:

- Oh, damn! Aurora looks pretty powerful! I just hope that they will do more with her than they did with Diana. And she also seems smart, too, as she came up with the idea of wanting the Wizards as ransom. At least the Fairies of Vengeance haven’t lost it enough to attack Sybila.

- Aww, Tecna’s dress is awesome! I love it!

- Why did they just go separate ways if they were trying to come up with a name for the band. What, are they gonna give up after one suggestion? And can we, please, have someone else other than Bloom come up with the name? Like Musa maybe?

- Oh, yeah, another Ice Age is gonna be a great surprise for their future and an awesome start to their musical career! (But damn, why are Layla and Nabu so cute? Also, wtf is up with Musa? One second she acts like she is totally in love with Riven (she even said he already has her) and then she says she needs to think. Well, if you’re gonna think, think before you say things like that!)

- Okay, but what are the Earth fairies going to do after they destroy Earth? This seems a little counterproductive, just saying.

- I knew the Wizards were planning something. I just can’t tell if Duman was actually hurt or they did it on purpose to be more convincing. However, I think I saw somewhere that he dies in the end of the season so that would suggest that it wasn’t the other Wizards that had him spelled to appear so weak. But damn, they almost looked genuinely worried for him in the beginning there!

- Oh, so Amazonia was too dangerous for Roxy but now that the end of the world is coming up, she can suddenly go to the very center of that shitstorm? Wow, great logic there.

- Yes, good thing that this is happening on Earth so that it can get destroyed rather than the magical dimension.

- Morgana’s strategy here is not very smart. Does she think that she is going to win Roxy over by killing her friends? I know she’s a bit blinded by rage and thirst for vengeance right now but it should click that that will not be in her favor.

- “Well done”? She didn’t hit anything! You’d think that Musa’s sonic waves will be very useful against ice monsters (especially since we’ve seen her shatter Icy’s ice shards with them already)... that is, if she can actually hit any of the monsters with them, which she didn’t. Bloom and Stella’s powers should also be very useful in this situation, yet they somehow seem to not be giving it their all here... And suddenly they got overzealous.

- “Three days ago”? Wtf, Aurora definitely did not launch her attack that long ago. They can’t even keep a solid timeline in one single episode. *exasperated sigh*

- Ah, so brainwashing the polar bears is what Roxy is here for. There were plenty of animals in Amazonia, too, but they benched her on that one. Anyway, I am glad they didn’t fight the bears.

- The Lovix transformation is really annoying me. They couldn’t draw something that is actually appropriate for the cold weather. Obviously they aren’t cold in their fairy forms but if you’re gonna give it fur to make it look warm and wintery, you can actually make it look like something that someone without magic would realistically wear in the winter.

- At least now Bloom and Stella are actually utilizing the advantage of their elements. But Flora is again only using her ivy and it is getting boring. All that magic at her disposal and she uses the same type of attack (even if they give the spells different names) all the time. You might wanna update your repertoire. And wtf was up with Roxy’s attack? Why would blasting at the fairies feet make them fall? Their wings would be the center of their mass so pushing at their feet wouldn’t have much of an effect. Or at least it shouldn’t have because they are flying and not walking but someone in the crew there did not get the memo.

- What do you mean that there is no way out? If there is a way in, there is at least one way out. Also, if you’re at the center of a maze, there should be many paths you can take even if they only temporarily serve as an escape.

- Roxy just used Morgana’s plan of getting rid of only Winx against her. That was great! I am starting to think that she is the only one with a brain here and needs some new mentors because hers might teach her their own stupidity.

- Seriously, they didn’t do that much. They did fight the ice monsters but other than that, their lack of braincells is just astounding. At least this was a little better than the last episode with Sybila’s cave.

- I have to agree with Aurora, they do catch up a little too late. However, Morgana said that no harm should come upon Roxy and they just left Roxy in danger of freezing to death. I’m sure she didn’t mean “make Winx choose between my daughter and mankind”. Hopefully, this will bring out some sense in her.

4x23:

- How is this not putting Roxy in danger? What the fuck did Morgana tell them?! Why is Nebula doing the exact opposite of keeping Roxy safe? Don’t let a hair from her head fall means not let her freeze to death as well! If I were Morgana, I would stop wasting my time on vengeance and take care of my daughter!

- Since when can’t the Earth fairies enter Sybila’s cave?!?!?!?! That is definitely not the reason why they didn’t want to go against her in the previous episode. They just wanted to avoid getting on the wrong side of her. Not to mention that ROXY ENTERED SYBILA’S CAVE! AND SHE IS A TERRESTRIAL FAIRY! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT AT THIS POINT, WRITERS?!?!?!?!?!?!?

- Can you shut up with the responsibility speech and start doing something? You’re losing precious seconds!

- Why the fuck is she angering Nebula? Yes, let’s fight while Roxy is fucking freezing to death! And why don’t they just use the Zoomix wings and teleport away?!?!?! It is Aurora’s magic that is freezing over the world. They need to find her. Why are they wasting their time on Nebula anyway?

- And now they’re trapped. How is finding out what Morgana’s relation to Roxy is going to help them at this very moment? I get that they don’t have many other options (or any) but that does not sound like it will grant them a way out. Also, I am pretty sure Bloom was not actually there during the fight she was talking about when Roxy noticed the other fairies weren’t attacking her. Been a few days since I watched that but I am pretty sure Bloom and Stella stayed behind to hold off the ice monsters and weren’t there for Bloom to make the observation she is now stating. Unless Roxy somehow telepathically told her about it, SHE CAN’T KNOW! There hasn’t been a single thing about this episode that is not frustrating so far.

- Bloom managed to buy you time, my ass. She managed to get you trapped when you could have just teleported away! You call that a good move?!

- Yes, just kidnap Roxy. For a moment there I really thought she would. But damn, why can’t she listen to her own daughter? Roxy has been on Earth for the last sixteen years that she missed. I think between the two of them Roxy knows better how humans are.

- What does it matter if it’s an ice rink when they’re going to be flying over it anyway?

- What, that was it? One shot and they’re done? Please, tell me Bloom is going to do something any moment because this episode is gonna make me lose it otherwise!

- What the fuck exhausted them? They haven’t even been fighting for a minute! Nebula is supposed to be super strong and Bloom has the fucking Dragon Fire! If this is all they can do, we need new characters because these just became a fucking joke.

- Nebula is acting like the people gave up on them the second they disappeared which is definitely not what happened and I don’t know what she expected. That people are going to believe in creatures that no one can prove exist until the end of times?

- I get that the Lovix is meant for cold environments but Bloom’s power is the Dragon Fire and she’s been using only ice magic. That’s not how her powers are supposed to work.

- Didn’t Bloom summon her Dragon Fire? Why are there SNOWFLAKES coming out of her hands?!?!?!?!

- Well, at least Morgana has some sense left. Not a lot, but some.

- They don’t need her portal, they have stupid teleportation wings!

- Oh, no. Nabu will be dying soon. And they even had Layla reacting to the Black Gift to foreshadow it. God, I hate this!

- Well, for being one of the Major Fairies, Aurora certainly didn’t do shit.

- Why was there all of that wondering about Morgana’s relation to Roxy when they didn’t make any progress on that front at all?! It was very misplaced especially considering the gravity of the situation it was happening in.

- God, I really hate the writers right now. They really included that scene with Nabu telling Layla everything is going to be fine as long as they’re together right before killing him? That is EVIL!

- We all agree that this ring moment there means that Stella and Brandon are now engaged, right? I mean, it would make sense that he’d want to show her she is the only one for him after all the jealousy bullshit in this season.

4x24:

- Riiiiight. The Wizards seem so dangerous without their powers... Oh, wait! We’ve never actually seen them do anything without their powers. And they needed Winx to rescue them from the falling rocks instead of just following their innate survival instincts and ducking out of the way. Sure, seem real dangerous to me.

- Was that a portal Nabu just opened? And why can’t he try the magic at Sybila’s cave? Why do they need to go to Gardenia when he could just do it there?

- Yep, it’s a portal. He’s never opened portals before but sure he can do it now all of a sudden!

- Didn’t they have to go underground last time to open the gate to Tir Nan Og? But of course, who needs consistency? On anything.

- Yes, the Wizards were going to be defeated by a flock of crows. Damn, how dangerous they are!

- The Circle is the door to the black abyss? What the hell does that mean?!

- Wait... Their wings grew back after the Wizards cut them off?! Wow. Way to make none of this lasting. Yes, they were trapped for centuries but if anything, that gave their wings time to grow back. Even if they’d been free, it would have still sucked without wings and it could have diminished their power greatly to the point where they wouldn’t have been much more than ordinary humans. Honestly, the writers are running from writing proper trauma and consequences of it every single time except the one when they killed off Nabu and then let it stick. THAT was what they should have taken back! The fairies would have been much more terrifying without wings and drawing into their nature powers to the point of starting to destroy Earth in order to compensate for the magic taken away from them and defeat the Wizards. But nope, they got their wings back.

- I wonder if Morgana would have still been quite as welcoming of Roxy if she weren’t her daughter. Considering the way she instantly went against Winx in the name of her revenge despite the fact that they saved her, I’m gonna say no.

- Nabu is basically the alternative medicine guy you turn to when doctors keep stuffing you with meds without actually having any idea what they are trying to do aka curing the symptoms, not the disease. But is this the confirmation that Duman did this on his own? He purposefully used his powers so much as to appear sick and make the Wizards look more sympathetic? Cause they kinda went off the radar and there was no reason for him to have been shapeshifting so much otherwise. Edit: yep, he did it to himself.

- And the Nabu and Riven bromance is going on strong. Makes me even madder that they killed him off.

- Lmao, they really believed the Wizards though. I was gonna say this was the dumbest thing they’ve ever done but they’ve done plenty of dumb things. Also, don’t tell me - Nabu’s sudden ability to open portals will be used now to warn the fairies.

- Did Nabu just perform an exorcism that ended up killing Duman? Damn, talk about harsh.

- “They must be at the castle” really narrows this down. Also, why tf is Morgana acting like the Black Circle is the ring she’s always wanted? If it were me, I would make sure it never sees the light of day again if it couldn’t be destroyed. But since they said that there were other White Circles that were destroyed, then the Black Circle can probably be destroyed as well. So fucking destroy it already!

- Yeah, these guardian fairies are definitely doing a great job.

- Is he trying to trap them again? Didn’t he already try that? He’s just upgraded it a little bit now but do we really believe there won’t be any coming back for all these fairies? Let me guess, no one important will actually get sucked in then.

- Yes, Tecna, we couldn’t tell that the vortexes suck you into a dimension of hell. Thanks for your input.

- Oh, damn! Nabu sucking the entire abyss into his staff was super epic and some finale level moment, I have to say. I am surprised they didn’t save it up for then.

- “These eyes, Layla, mustn’t cry”?????? What kind of epic goodbye is that?!?!?! How could they break my heart so much?!?!??!?! I am fucking crying over here!!!!!

- “These eyes will never cry again.” Well, maybe but I am fucking bawling over here! And Ogron... that was the biggest dick move anyone in the entire series has ever pulled. And of course, Layla is the one suffering from this. @ the writers - Leave her the fuck alone!!!!!!!

- “Until he wakes up again”? Isn’t he dead? Does she mean reincarnation? Wtf does that line mean??????

- I hate Layla’s decision. Not just because she instantly switched over to revenge which is really... I don’t want to say hypocritical but that’s what it was. She’s been fighting the Earth fairies for a couple of episodes now because she didn’t believe they were right to seek revenge but once she is in pain and wronged, suddenly revenge is the answer to everything. And the fact that she abandoned her friends so easily almost makes it look like she’s choosing love over friendship which is just so tired. Not to mention that she knows very well Nabu wouldn’t have wanted her to turn hateful. I know we can’t help our feelings, but we can help our actions because we have control of those. She didn’t have to jump on revenge train after she’s been fighting the Earth fairies from doing the same.

4x25:

- If Riven doesn’t throw a fit over this, it would be OOC. But until then I’ll take him crying. As sad as this is, I love that he just reacts so openly to Nabu’s death because they were really close. (Also, yes, Bloom, we know you never thought any of you could die. If it had occurred to you that it was possible, you all would have made smarter choices. Hopefully.)

- Layla is being absolutely baffling. She left her friends but then she asks if they need Morgana’s permission to do something that she knows Morgana will never let them do.

- Didn’t Roxy’s dream sort of imply that Morgana got trapped in the mirror? As if it is some sort of gateway which would leave her “close but far away”? Or was that not a dream and we didn’t see Roxy’s dream, she just retold it?

- How the fuck does Sky know that about the Hall? When has he been in the castle? When has he read the Book of Fairies (which I don’t think even had a layout of the Tir Nan Og castle)? This doesn’t make sense!

- Well, Morgana did not choose her court well. They turned against her instead of being loyal just because they don’t like her decision. Honestly, if they aren’t going to take orders, why even be there?

- Wow, Bloom gave a really good argument. We could have used a mic drop over here!

- The writers have already proven they don’t care about semantics but the Wizards are Nabu’s killers/murderers, not assassins. Assassination requires political motives. That was pure cruelty.

- Wow, Layla is really the one being all “you replaced me” even though she was the one who left! Not to mention that it’s not like they only now invited Roxy to be one of them. They said she was with them way back in the first half of the season and Roxy has earned her place with them since she never abandoned them even though she knew that could put her in danger as well.

- Winx are being surprisingly wise about this. Excluding Layla, that is. Although I have to say that when they thought Tecna died in season 3, they were all on board with revenge against Valtor even though he was less directly responsible for that than the Wizards were for Nabu’s death. Hopefully, that’s what made them learn because they almost died back then.

- Wow, Roxy didn’t even question Morgana being her mom for a moment. I know she’s felt connected to her but she’s never known anything about her mom and finally learning who she is doesn’t evoke any more reaction than “cereal for breakfast” would.

- Love how Tecna isn’t having any traumatic memories triggered by being back in the Omega dimension where she almost died!

- Yes, Layla. Get yourself killed as well. I know you don’t care but there are other people who loved you besides Nabu and who you still love. At least all the other fairies besides Nebula stepped down. But Morgana’s move to just ask them to come home and even offer to abdicate was really touching.

4x26:

- Can I just say how lame it is to call 4x26 “Ice and Fire” when 1x26 was “Fire and Ice”?

- Wasn’t Anagan the fast one? Literally super speed. How come he’s the first one to run out of energy to run? It is literally his magical power and specialty!

- Layla and Nebula should stop blasting stuff because they’ll either run out of magic or cause a cave in. Either way, they’ll boost up the chances of their own death.

- Ogron can still absorb powers. Didn’t that disappear at some point? Also, why were they running if they were perfectly capable of defeating Layla and Nebula?

- Does this mean that Layla will stop with the vengeance agenda and come back to the club? Please!

- Aaaaand they caused a cave in! Wow, didn’t see that coming! Also, the only reason the Wizards hid in Omega was so that the final battle wouldn’t destroy Tir Nan Og or Gardenia and they get delivered to the prison dimension where they belong instantly! In fact, they delivered themselves. Someone just had to deep freeze them.

- Yeah, right. Nebula suddenly changed her mind. Like, there was no trigger to this change or reason behind it. If Morgana’s speech didn’t touch her, then nearly getting herself and Layla killed shouldn’t have had much more effect. The writers should have left her there as a way for her to ensure the Wizards will never get free. It would have made more sense for her character at this point since she was the one that gave up on being the fairy of peace. Someone else could have taken that one on.

- What did Morgana mean by “release your magic”? They didn’t give it up, did they? Only let it imbue the world again and work in harmony with it once more, right?

- Eh, did Nebula really deserve being queen after her horrible judgment that could have cost the lives of all the fairies? And she only changed her mind once the Wizards were defeated. What would have happened if they’d gotten away? She probably would have still chased them. Also, does this mean Roxy is not the princess of Tir Nan Og anymore? She certainly is too young and inexperienced to rule and she didn’t want to be a fairy (though that is probably resolved by now) but maybe one day she’ll want to be the fairy queen. Though, I think Nebula won’t have a problem with that. How long do Earth fairies live, though? Because they’ve been saying they have been trapped for centuries.

- Tbh Morgana had the most reason to be mad considering the family the Wizards took away from her but I am glad she chose to put her efforts towards said family rather than revenge.

- They really forgot about the pets? Stella is really gonna throw a fit this time. But there is no rest from the pets and the business.

- If the pets form a music band, I will throw a fit.

- Oh, wow! Sky remembered his royal duties and the Specialists are actually still going to school? You’d think they would’ve thrown them out by now. Though, I guess this was an official mission.

- It must have been really tough on Layla to tell Nabu’s parents about his death instead of their wedding.

- Faragonda showed up? I cannot believe it! But why the hell would Roxy decide to go to Alfea right now? She just got her mother and they have so much catching up to do. Besides, Morgana can certainly teach her all there is to being a fairy considering how she was the queen of all Earth fairies.

- Are the girls really thinking they can balance a business, a musical career and being guardians of the magical dimension? This is not ambitious. It is madness. Also, they never picked a name for the band, did they?

- I am surprised by how long they took to wrap this season up. At least it paid off as they managed to cover all the things that needed covering after the last battle. Some better than others but it was decent as far as endings go.

This season suffered from some major pacing issues. The first half dragged along too much with the tons of jealousy and relationship drama that took up screen time that could have been used for something productive instead and the second half could have used more time to flesh out some plot points and use some characters and situations to their full potential. There was definitely way too much going on in this season with the pet shop, the music band, the relationship drama, the Wizards of the Black Circle, Roxy and the Earth Fairies. They could have easily cut the band and the romantic drama to give the important elements time to shine. The Wizards were used very chaotically in the first half of the season and nearly disappeared from the second half. The battle with the Major Fairies could have definitely used more space and better utilization of some of the fairies (aka Aurora). There was some good action but even that lacked logic at a lot of points. There was too much going on in terms of magical transformations in this season but that was balanced somewhat well and was probably the best done part of the whole season. I will never forgive the crime that killing off Nabu was because it was just unnecessary.

[hollenka99]

Henrik and Joline

Summary: Henrik and Joline spent many nights under the stars.

Warnings: Referenced death/infant death

After playing SoulScape last weekend, I really wanted to write something based on it. Please check out @power-of-friends-games on GameJolt because their games are really cool.

The night had been like any other. After clocking out, Henrik had walked down the road to his usual stargazing spot. Before long, he'd located both Hercules and Ophiuchus. It was as blissful as ever. Nothing could distract him from his time here, not even the sound of cars passing by. Or so he believed. "Excuse me. Do you mind if I join you?" Shooting upright in alarm, he momentarily forgets himself as their eyes meet. Oh. Well, he hadn't expected for her to look like that. While he can't see her eyes properly in this light, the waves in her hair are like the sea gently lapping along a beach. That three quarter length skirt she was wearing looked pretty on her as well. In years to come, he will swear this was the very moment he fell for her. "Oh, well sit, sit!" "Thanks." She drops down next to him. With a hand extended, she says "I'm Joline." "Henrik." They smile at each other as he returns the handshake. The two of them spend the night chatting and admiring the night sky. With no effort at all, 10 minutes become 100. The first time he hears her laugh, he knows he wants the chance to hear it as often as she'll allow him. And that smile... well, the sentiment remained the same. At one point, Joline begins talking about the sky, how she adores the amalgamation of swirling colours always present above. She's always had a soft spot she can't explain for the blue parts of it. He says nothing other than casual agreement. "You know, I've never seen you around. Was this your first time coming here?" "No, I am here a lot." Joline's brows furrow in thought. "Huh, that's odd. Would've thought I'd bump into you before tonight." "Well, we've met now. And I think I would like to keep meeting. What about you?" "Yeah. Yeah, I think I'd like that too." They go their separate ways soon after exchanging contact details. Henrik struggles to stop smiling slightly to himself the whole trip home. ---- Visiting their usual stargazing spot had become a practically daily affair by this point of their relationship. Henrik honestly wondered how he'd been able to be here on his own before meeting Joline. Some nights, they conversed on and off throughout their stay. Other times, silence would surround them comfortably. Tonight seemed to be one of intermittent chatter. It begins with Henrik and Joline laying on the grass. Their hands have effortlessly found each other with the sound of the breeze accompanying them. Their little contest to identify as many constellations as they could had concluded a while ago. Joline sighs contently. "I can't wait to be able to do this as a family." "That sounds lovely. I'm sure it will happen someday." "How about as soon as next year?" A beat passes. Henrik's face contorts into varying expressions before settling on amazed disbelief. Sitting up, Joline can do nothing but grin at her husband as he stares at her. "Henny, we're going to have a baby." She bursts into a fit of giggles as she falls back from the force of a body colliding into hers. Henrik seems not to take much notice of the playful warnings to be careful. Instead, he tightens his embrace. There comes a peck on her lips followed by a reminder that he loved her. It is a while before the joyful excitement dissipates enough for there to calm once more. "I didn't think anywhere else could have done this announcement justice. Just you, me and the stars above. They're responsible for bringing us together and now, well..." A few brief chuckles. "You know, you could say the stars ali-" His finger rapidly positions itself on her lips. "No, please. Being friends with Chase is bad enough. All those bad, bad jokes." The finger is gently removed. "But still, a baby." "A baby." He echoes in an exhale. "Our baby." "I can't wait." She gazes his way, grin firmly fixed on her face. He lets their eyes meet as fingers entwine. "Me neither." ---- Henrik double checks he had essential items such as his wallet and keys when Joline burst into the corridor. Odd, she'd been reading a magazine only a couple minutes ago when he kissed her goodbye. What on earth could be so urgent? "Henrik, wait." "What's wrong? I need to go to work right now. The clock is ticking." "I'm sure this is worth being a few minutes late." Joline beams as she grabs his wrist. His face lights up upon realising where his hand was being directed. Even more so when he feels the fluttering sensation she'd intended him to. If he had it his way, he'd spend all morning ensuring their daughter knew how excited they were to meet her. Joline regrettably cuts it short after a number of minutes. "Henny, you should probably leave." He grumbles. "But-" "Go! You don't want to be late for work, do you? We'll still be here when you get back." Despite the momentary reluctance at the door, Henrik begins his shift in a better mood than he was expecting. ---- It was clear Joline couldn't find comfort tonight. The larger her bump got, the more difficulty she had with finding a good position to relax in. This extended not only to their bed and sofa but also the ground at their favourite spot. Perhaps even more so. Either way, the manner she kept shifting worried him. Henrik is somewhat glad when she unexpectedly takes advantage of him lying back. "Have you ever considered a career as a pillow?" "Surprisingly, no." "Hmm. Maybe replace a couple of those ribs with whatever they stuff actual pillows with and you'd be good to go." "If you say so." He strokes the top of her head. In the night air, they revive the name discussion. For months, they'd thrown suggestions around but while a few had been decent contenders, none seemed to be quite right. There was still time, of course. However, the time that remained was growing ever shorter with each week that passed. Options such as Estelle were brought up without any real consideration. "No, I think I actually like the thought of an E name. How about... Emma? I like Emma." "Emma von Schneeplestein does sound nice." "We going with Emma?" "Hmm, maybe. Make sure we don't forget to write that down later." The two of them lie there with only the wind and the results of its influence to be heard around them. Joline drifts off with ease, head remaining on her husband's stomach. And for a good while, he doesn't dare disturb her. ---- Joline wasn't going to make it. Henrik had been there when she'd unexpectedly collapsed, doing everything he could think of to help save her in response. However, when all things were said and done, there was nothing more he could do for his beloved wife. Well, perhaps there was one thing. There was still Emma. Their little angel, as precious as she was small. If anything, Joline would want him to be with her. As if she had to ask. Their daughter shifts slightly in her incubator. Oh Emma. Don't worry, it was going to be okay. Daddy's right here and he's not going anywhere. They would go home together. Just without... without Mummy. They'd manage though. He promises he'll be there for her, regardless of the circumstance. Time slips by as he ensures his daughter knew how much he loved her, how much Joline loved her despite them never getting to truly meet. Emma becomes the sole audience to a multitude of stories featuring her parents. She learns of the day Joline had bought a light blue turtleneck to tease him, only for it to genuinely become one her favourite choices for the colder months. The anecdote revolving around how he knew he wanted to marry her is also told. Then there was obviously the time a beautiful woman had asked to sit beside him as they stargazed. They wouldn't be here today if the Mindscape hadn't been generous enough to allow their paths to coincide. As much as he wishes things could have gone differently today, at least there was one good thing coming out of it. Throughout the day, he monitors the baby's wellbeing. When his eyelids grow heavy without permission, his brain reacts by instinctively causing his head to jerk up. No, he couldn't rest yet. He needed to keep an eye on Emma. He could sleep once they were both cleared to return home. He's sure his little girl will like the crib Joline picked out. Being confused as to when he fell asleep is the least of his problems when he wakes. Emma is gone too. No, this couldn't be happening. He should have noticed the signs. Why didn't he spot the warnings? Surely this could have been prevented if he had been more observant. There must be something he'd missed due to his negligence. If only he hadn't been stupid enough to sit down and allow himself to pass out. He leaves reluctantly following several sympathetic prompts to head home. Supposedly, that was the best place for him right now, though he certainly disputes the notion. The issue is, he's not sure where he wants to end up. One thing is for sure. He doesn't want it to be home. Who would ever want their destination to be an empty house? ---- He avoids that particular spot. Their spot. It's not easy by any means. The damned place was to the side of the only road leading to the hospital. Despite every self protective effort, the day does eventually come when he finds himself standing where he'd spent countless evenings admiring the stars with his wife. Too long had he stood frozen on the other side of the road. He'd simply remained transfixed, mentally battling himself regarding whether this was a good idea. It wasn't but he doesn't believe sheer avoidance would be beneficial either. A particularly bright star catches his eye once he gains the courage to glance skyward. He knows it is most likely Venus or a similar celestial body. That doesn't prevent him from fooling himself enough to hear her voice for a short lived moment. From beyond the grave, she greets him with "Hi, Henny." And well, he supposes it was somewhat fitting she had used Venus just to say hello. Joline had been a display of utter beauty that he'd loved more than any other person in his life. As for desires? Ha! The one desire he had concerning her was to have her back by his side. Preferably with Emma in her arms. Not that he would deserve it, given how he'd betrayed their trust in failing to save them. "Good evening to you too, Joline." He brokenly mutters back. With another glance at the stars, it's almost as if she was beside him. He swears he can feel Joline sliding her fingers inbetween his and resting her head on his shoulder for a fleeting second. His fingers curl as his head leans sideways, both expecting to meet something solid. Instead all they find is air. No. No, sorry, he doesn't believe he can do this. Not tonight. Any remnants of Joline that had been anticipating his return here would have to be left disapprovingly watching him flee. ---- Henrik had travelled along this route so many times over the years it was practically second nature to him. The quantity of memories made here were innumerate. Granted, a great deal of them were filled with him and Joline not talking about much. He wouldn't take back a second of that time spent together. He certainly recalls getting through some rough shifts thanks to the promise of being able to relax with her at the end of it. A version of this location was the entry point to his worst memory. He's replayed that terrible day an unhealthy amount. Yet it was in the name of saving his son in everything but blood that he'd done it. He would force himself through it again if it could help Angus. He's so relieved the serum is being accepted by the hunter's soul. "Hellooo? Dad, are you there?" "Hmm, yes? Sorry, what did you say?" "I was just wondering what you thought about my idea. I know it's kind of a trek to get to my home from Attitude City and I should be focusing on letting the serum do its job but... I want to do this for Anti and the others. Especially after everything I did." "The party?" "Yes." "It is a great idea. I am proud of you for wanting to organise this. But let me help his friends first." "Dad, his birthday isn't until the 10th. I'm sure you'll have figured this stuff out before then." "Well, don't do anything too strenuous yet, okay? Until I am sure you are recovering, I want you to be careful." A chuckle is heard over the line. "Don't worry, Dad. I think I already feel a little better than yesterday." The call soon ends, leaving Henrik to sit in an all too familiar patch of grass. And for the first time in too long, there is no pain in coming here.

[quartzkeyboard]

Almost Home

Summary: You’re home on leave with Bones, but some unsavory memories put a dent in your plans for the morning.

Word Count: 1,277

Warnings: Angst, Bad Memories, Death, Semi-Panic Attack?

A/N: Hello guys! Quarentine has me a bit bored, so I wrote stuff! Yay! This is my very first fic ever (like ever ever) so please be gentle. I really hope you like it!

-

Sunlight streaked across the floor as your eyes cracked open. Birds chirped in the trees outside, and the bed was far comfier then it should have been. You glanced up to the clock on the wall, reading 8:30 as the time. You began to stretch when you felt an arm snake around your waist and pull you closer.

"It's too early, go back to sleep sweetheart," Leonard mumbled into the back of your neck. You smiled and rolled over to face him. His eyes were still closed, and his brown hair a mess across his face. 

"Come on hon, it's our first day home. Might as well get up and go make the most of it" You brushed his hair away from his eyes and put a gentle hand on his cheek. You had been thinking of this leave for weeks now, and couldn't wait to go back to all the places you had missed on Earth while aboard the Enterprise.

"We have a whole week to do things, let's stay here today" he responded while pulling you closer to him "and I don't just mean around the house, I mean in this bed."

You couldn't deny how nice a day of nothing sounded after everything that had been going on. The last month had been rough on everyone, and shore leave on Earth seemed to be the only possible remedy for the crew's morale. Altamid flashed back to you, and you shivered. 'It's safe here' you reminded yourself 'it's over.' Sensing your sudden change, the doctor looked at you with a slight twinge of concern and gently kissed your temple.

"You okay (y/n)?" 

With a halfhearted nod, you seemed to zone out further. You couldn't help the memories that flooded back every so often. The ship being ripped apart, watching your crewmates suffocate in space, your escape pod being snatched out of the chaos, watching your friends be taken, not being able to do anything to help them, and never seeing them return. You suddenly squeezed Leonard's arm like it was a lifeline, and watched in horror as memories played in snippets in your mind.

You remembered them, all of them. You knew you would never forget them and knew that no matter what you did, the memories would never leave you. You desperately wanted to forget, and wished you could have gone back to tell the captain not to go to Altamid, warned him about the fate that awaited his crew, but there was no going back. Yes, the crew had saved the girl that had been stuck there, Jaylah, you remembered, but at what cost?

Leonard watched sadly as you replayed the events in your head, knowing there was not much he could do to ease the pain. This was the first Starfleet disaster you had ever directly been a part of and he knew it wouldn't be the last if you stayed on the Enterprise. That ship had a way of attracting disaster to it. He carefully sat you upright and gently ran his hands through your hair, turning your face towards him.

"(y/n), (y/n) come back to me darlin', (y/n) I need you to focus on me, can you do that?" He felt you tense up as it all replayed over and over. One hand gripped his arm, and the other gripped his shirt. Your eyes seemed to look through him as he kept saying your name. 

You had begun to shake at some point, you weren't quite sure when, but it was violent. Leonard moved his hands to your shoulders, trying to keep you grounded, his voice steadily getting more urgent. You couldn't breathe now. You felt trapped inside yourself, trapped inside a horrible memory. Silent tears began to stream down your face. 

The alarms blared, and red lights flashed all around you. A young man in a red shirt begged you to help him, but there was nothing you could do for him. The gash in his side was too deep and too long. It was either try to save him and both of you die, or one of you get out. There was no saving the red shirt that looked eerily like your nephew, and couldn't have been more than 20. You did not know his name.

Running was your only way to help more people. Get to the panel, set up the emergency airlock. Without the airlocks, everyone would die. Airlocks minimized causalities and sealed off the areas that had been blown open so more people could make their way to safety. You briefly recalled an old “Airlocks Save Lives” PSA you saw as a child.

You remembered the hole suddenly blown open in the hull, but this time you weren't on the other side of the emergency airlock. This time you never even made it to the panel. You could have sworn you were out there with them, suffocating in the void, floating in an endless abyss. No bodies to bury, no one to visit your grave, no one there. Just you, facing the end with no company but the stars and the corpses of what used to be your crewmates.

"(Y/N)!" you suddenly felt like you were thrown back into reality. Sunlight streaked across the floor. You were sitting in a bed. Leonard was there, with his hands on your arms. Concern was written all over his face. You realized that despite being back on Earth, your lungs still felt like there was no air to take in.

"Listen to me darlin', focus on me, okay? I need you to breath with me, focus on that. We are going to go slowly in through the nose, hold it for 3, then go out through the mouth, okay? Think you can do that with me?" His voice was much softer now, but with the same urgency. You knew he was using his doctor voice, but frankly, you didn't care. You nodded quickly and began to breathe with him; breathe in, hold, breathe out. Eventually, you made it back to something resembling normal. 

You sat there in silence for a moment, staring down at your lap. What a way to ruin a perfect morning. "I-I'm s-sorry" you croaked out.

"Sweetheart, you have nothing to be sorry for, you went through something traumatic, and your mind hasn't healed yet. That's not something you need to apologize for" He whispered as he wiped a few tears off your cheek. "It's only been a month darlin'. You have to give yourself time".

You nodded slowly, trying to absorb his words. Despite your breathing being somewhat normal, you couldn't shake the fear, the dread, and the horrible grief you felt. It was all so much that you felt almost numb. You laid down and rested your head in Leonard's lap while he ran his fingers through your (y/h/c) hair. 

Neither of you spoke, and after a while the doctor helped you get up “You go get cleaned up, I’ll make us some food. If you need me just call, okay?” he murmured gently. You nodded and set off on your task, glad for something to distract you. 

You felt better after a shower, and could no longer ignore the growling sound your stomach had been making. You sat down at the table and were greeted with a plate of pancakes, strawberries, and bacon. Neither of you spoke while you ate, but it wasn’t awkward. Leonard simply held your hand while you both ate, and smiled gently back at every glance you gave him.

Healing was not going to be easy, and moving on would be even more difficult, but Leonard was here, and for right now, you were home. That could be enough for the moment.

[onebourbon-oneshot-onetear]

Aquatica

Chapter 4- The Enemy Below

I do not own D.C Comics, and I only own my OC and my versions of the plots.

BEEP BEEP BEEP I rolled over and slapped my hand on my alarm clock. I opened my eyes and looked at the numbers flashing on the screen, 9:15 pm. While most people are going to bed at this time, I was getting up to run around the rooftops of Gotham.

Doing my nightly patrols was actually pretty fun. It gave me a chance to exercise and use my powers in a less stressful situation than I would while with the Justice League. Usually when I work with the League, it's always an Earth-ending-life-and-death situation. That's not always the best time to test new stuff out with my powers. While patrolling Gotham, there wasn't a real sense of urgency. Most of the crimes that I stopped at night was robberies and small acts of vandalism by rowdy teens, no big deal.

I groaned and rolled out of bed. Usually I fall asleep in the early afternoon, but due to a flood in India that I had to help Superman with, I had only gotten about three hours of sleep. I went and turned on my coffee machine and headed to the bathroom to go take a shower and get changed into my leggings, leotard and jacket. I dried my hair and pulled it up into a half ponytail. I walked into the kitchen, poured myself some coffee and grabbed some leftover food from my fridge. I wolfed it all down, tied up my black combat boots, and climbed out of my fire escape onto my building's rooftop.

Since my building was in the middle of Gotham, I could see practically everything that went on. Usually I looked for the flashing lights of police cars in order to find a crime that I could help with. So far they have seemed grateful for my help, and nobody has had any problems with me helping them catch their criminals.

Tonight I didn't see any police lights, so I decided to go along the rooftops and find the criminals myself. Most of the time while jumping or flying from building to building I would catch a robbery happening in an alley. It was pretty easy from there to freeze the robber to the ground until the police got there. I could usually catch about twenty robbers a night, and a dozen more than that on the weekends. Yeah, that's how bad the crime in Gotham was. You would think people would learn not to do such stupid things, especially when Batman and I were out. Then again if these guys were smart they wouldn't be robbers.

I patrolled for a couple of hours catching about fifteen robbers, when a jet hovered above the building I was next to. I recognized it as the League's jet and I flew up to meet it. Inside was John, Diana, and Superman, and from the looks on their faces, I knew something was wrong. "What's up guys?" I asked.

"Evie, we need your help." Superman urgently said. "We have a sunken military submarine with officers trapped on it and we need to get them out." My eyes widened and I wasted no time hopping in the jet and strapping myself in.

"Do we have any idea what caused the sub to sink?" I asked.

"No, not yet." Diana said. I have only seen her a couple times since she joined the League, and I still wasn't a fan of hers. She had never been mean to me at all, so I really didn't have any reason to dislike her. As childish as it sounds, I just wasn't a fan of her personality. She thought men were beneath her, at least from the way I had heard her talk about the beliefs of Themyscara, the land she was from. Apparently the Amazon warriors thought men were not to be trusted and they were weak. Considering how Diana had never met a man up until about a month ago, I didn't think it was right for her to be so judgmental about them. But either way, I decided to act professional around her and be nice. Well as nice as I can be.

We had already left the city and were heading to the location where the sub was when Superman turned towards me and handed me something. "Here, I haven't given you a com link yet. This is one you can keep with you at all times, that way if you need something you won't have to find your own way up to the Watch Tower." I took the earpiece and stuck it in my ear. It was small and discreet so I could get away with wearing it all the time.

"Thanks." I said to him. He turned back around and started pressing more buttons on the jet. I felt the nose of the jet pitch forward and I assumed we were going to land. I wasn't expecting the whole jet to go underwater. I jumped in my seat as the jet crashed into the water and started diving down.

Superman must have sensed my uneasiness because he turned back around and looked at me. "You didn't know this thing could go underwater?"

I looked out the window at the dark water and looked back at him. "No, no clue." I weakly said. Superman just chuckled, but he grew serious when a beeping started going off on the monitor up front.

"I've locked on to their distress beacon. We're getting close." Diana said.

Superman had gotten up and looked out the front window. "We're not the only ones." He said pointing out a ship that was facing us underwater. It appeared to be a submarine, but it was sleeker and didn't look like anything our military used. We flew under it and we saw that their submarine dwarfed our ship. "We've got company." Superman said sitting back down and getting buckled back into his seat. We came back up over their ship, and they shot two missiles at us.

"Not for long." Green Lantern said, steering us out of the way of the two missiles. We rocked to the side as we dodged the missiles, and when we righted ourselves we flew past the submarine and over a rock structure that had different canyons carved through it. If we weren't being shot at I would have loved to stay and look at the view.

The sub followed us and kept shooting missiles at us, which we continued to dodge and block. Up ahead of us were two arches made of rock.

"G.L go through there! They won't be able to fit through." I told him. Their sub was way too big to get through both arches. G.L went through both arches and I turned around to see if the other sub did too. They hit the first arch and got stuck.

"Lost 'em." Green Lantern smugly said, before two more subs came up from the bottom of the sea floor and stopped in front of us. I just rolled my eyes. You never say stuff like that, it's only an invitation for more crap to come our way.

"You were saying?" Superman asked sarcastically. Green Lantern continued to dodge the missile attacks, but Superman had had enough. He stood up and opened a compartment on the ceiling of the jet. He took out a mask to wear underwater and handed me one. "Those sailors won't have a prayer if we keep playing cat and mouse, come on." I took my staff off my belt and put it on my seat so I didn't lose while fighting and it sunk so I couldn't find it ever again. Besides, I would have all the water I would need out there.

We left the jet just before a missile hit it. Lantern put a bubble over us and we went over to the subs to find a way to take them out. Now instead of missiles being shot, they were now individual beams. I was going through the water faster than I had ever gone before. I quickly zipped over to a sub and completely froze their guns, leaving them defenseless. I looked over and watched Superman punch the other subs guns so hard that the metal completely crumpled. Green Lantern went underneath and tore a hole straight through with his ring.

Superman and Wonder Woman each took a sub and pushed them together making the windows to the subs explode, while Lantern tore off the nose of one of them. I floated back through the water to make sure that no other guns were intact. The two subs were completely dysfunctional and they both sunk to the bottom. Once they hit each other the force created an explosion.

I looked back at the sub and failed to notice that a small army had come together in front of us until someone told us to halt. I looked over and saw two more submarines, two men on what looked like underwater jet skis, and another man who held a trident and wore gold plated armor with dark green pants and accents on it. One look at them and I knew who they were.

"Those are Atlantians…" I whispered to myself. The man in the gold must be Aquaman, king of Atlantis. He may not be on dry land all the time but I definitely knew who he was. Seeing as I'm a girl who can control water, it was absolutely awing to meet the man who can practically control the seven seas, and talk to sea creatures. Talk about meeting a role model. I wanted to swim right up to him and ask a million different questions about different ways I could use my powers, but judging by the glare he was giving us he wasn't too happy to see us.

"Man, that glare can compete with Bats' glare." I said.

"You've violated the sovereign borders of Atlantis. Leave at once or you will be destroyed." Aquaman said pointing his trident at us. Oookay, guess I'm not getting those questions answered.

Superman was in the front of the group so he spoke for us. "We apologize for the intrusion." He said, putting his hands up in surrender. "We were responding to a call for help."

Aquaman looked over to the sub, which was now sitting on a bunch of rocks. "They should've stayed on the surface where they belong."

"Please. The men on board, they'll drown." Diana pleaded with him. Aquaman raised an eyebrow, and thought for a second.

"Take the crew. But the vessel stays." He commanded.

"No way. That's a nuclear sub." Green Lantern said. I looked back at him like he was crazy, which I'm pretty sure he is. He pushed past Superman and made his way closer to Aquaman. I noticed that all of the guards had now tensed up and had a hand on their weapons.

"G.L, not now." I quietly said to him, but he brushed me off.

"If you think we're just going to walk away and leave it…"

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Aquaman interrupted. He did have a point, we were at an unfair advantage, seeing as the Atlantians were in a completely natural environment down here, and the only one of us who was feeling mostly comfortable underwater this deep was me. And I know that I probably wouldn't be able to stand up to a whole Atlantian army.

G.L's eyes glowed bright green and he went to go swim forward even more, but thankfully Superman stopped him. "He's right. Time's running out." He looked over at me. "Aquatica, do you think you can make an air bubble to get the crew out of the sub?" At first I forgot that he was talking to me since he used my hero name, but I guess since we were in front of people we didn't know he just wanted to be safe.

I remembered the question and I didn't even have to think about whether I could do it. "Sure, no problem." I shrugged. I swam over to the sub and separated the oxygen molecules from the hydrogen ones in order to form a huge bubble where the outside was made of water, but inside was made of air. I looked over at Aquaman and I was happy to see he looked impressed. I didn't get to think about it too long because soon enough the crew was put in my bubble and we were getting ready to leave.

"That's the last one." Superman called up to me. I closed off the small tunnel I made from the hole in the sub to the main part of my bubble, and started moving it up to the surface slowly. I couldn't go too fast for risk that I, or anyone else inside the bubble, would get the bends. That wouldn't be fun to deal with.

I broke the surface and saw that we were in the middle of a bad storm. Thunder and lightning were everywhere, the waves were choppy, and it was pouring down rain. The rain didn't bother me, in fact it made me stronger. The part that worried me was the thunder and lightning. The last thing I needed was to risk these people getting electrocuted. "Hey G.L, think you can take over here?" I asked him. I explained what I was worried about and he agreed with me. He put everyone in a giant green bubble and I went over and hopped in the jet.

Superman decided to stay outside and speak with Aquaman so it was just Diana and I in the jet. We sat in comfortable silence and I drew some pictures on the condensation that had formed on the windows. Childish, I know but hey, I didn't have anything else to do.

Green Lantern took the crew of the sub to the hospital in Metropolis while Superman, Diana, and I went back to the watchtower. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a cup of coffee. Since I didn't have much sleep last night I needed some help staying awake now. I walked back to the main floor with my mug in my hands. J'onn, Diana, and Flash were standing in a huddle talking, while Superman was on the phone. Judging by the way he was standing and the tone of his voice I assumed it was someone important on the other line, and that someone wasn't happy.

I walked over to the group just as Diana said "Aquaman's no madman. He's a king. He only wants to preserve and protect his own kind."

"So, who's gonna protect us from him?" G.L asked.

"I don't know, I kinda like the guy." I said.

"How can you say that?" G.L turned to me and asked. "He has one of our nuclear submarines!"

I fully turned towards Lantern. "He just wants to protect himself and his people. I can totally understand what he is thinking. Everybody up here on land doesn't think twice about polluting the water and going wherever they want, not caring about whose area they are invading. As someone who deals with water quite often, I can completely understand why Aquaman doesn't like us. It infuriates me every time I see garbage floating in the ocean, or dead sea animals killed because of plastic and toxins. That is his home, imagine how he feels." I said. "Do I agree with him keeping nuclear subs? No. But I can understand where he's coming from." I said taking a sip of my coffee. Apparently he didn't like my answer very much, and G.L stormed off, fuming.

I watched his retreating form and shook my head. "That guy needs to loosen up a bit." I said. I downed the last of my coffee and went back to the kitchen to clean my mug. I didn't have anything else planned for the day, so I figured I would go downstairs to my pool.

Did I not mention that the Watchtower has a pool? Cause it does! It's more of a giant diving well, you know, one of the really deep ones. It's awesome because I can sit in it and recharge my powers, or I can work on new things with my powers. It's also my hiding place. I can make an air bubble and hide down there for hours without anyone finding me. It's worked so far, so hopefully nobody will catch on to what I'm doing.

I went down to the pool and just floated on my back, listening to the water lap against the edges. I could feel the water repowering me and it woke me up a little more than the coffee did. J'onn said he thinks he understands why being in water helps me rejuvenate so much. Apparently there is more water in my system than that of a normal humans. Normal people are made of about 60 percent of water. I'm made up of 80 percent. It's not a problem, in fact it actually helps me when I'm sick or hurt. Instead of using medicine for minor stuff like scrapes or colds I can just sit in water for an hour and the symptoms are gone. The only downfall of being made up of this much water is I am more sensitive to the heat. Being outside on a hot summer day isn't life threating, but being in extreme heat for a long period of time can deplete my powers completely, or worse, kill me.

I was laying in the pool when I got called up through my earpiece. "Evie, you may want to come up here." J'onn said.

I sighed, hoping I was going to get a little more peace and quiet. "Sure thing J'onn, be right up." I pulled myself out of the pool, evaporated all the water off of me and headed upstairs. Not surprisingly, Green Lantern was ranting about something again.

"I knew we couldn't trust that fish man. The sub's been stripped and the plutonium is gone."

"And you think Aquaman's responsible?" Diana asked him.

"Who else princess?" G.L asked her sarcastically. "We've got to go back to Atlantis and get some straight answers."

I looked over to Superman. "If it's Aquaman you want, he's not in Atlantis." He said. I saw the news was on and the usual anchorman was reporting from what looked like the World Assembly building.

"According to eyewitness accounts Aquaman then forced his way past the guards and into a closed session of the World Assembly." The reporter said. "But as to why he's here or what he wants, we'll have to wait for further developments."

"Well that's one way to make yourself heard." I said, crossing my arms. "Maybe this is a good thing, it sounds like he wants to talk things over."

"Or he wants to kill us all." Green Lantern mumbled. Diana looked like she was about to retort and I rolled my eyes and walked over to look down at Earth. I didn't need to hear any more arguing from those two. The Earth looked so peaceful from up here, I wish we could get some of that peace here. I continued to stare at it and J'onn walked over to me, apparently now wanting to hear the arguments as well.

"How are you doing, Evie?" He asked me.

"I'm fine J'onn, how are you? Are you getting used to Earth's habits yet?"

"Some customs are strange, as is everything else. It is a lot to get used to." He said.

I chuckled, "I'm sure you'll be fine J'onn. If you have any questions or you just want to talk, you can just ask. I'd be happy to help."

"That is very kind of you Evie, thank you." He turned away from me and spoke to the rest of the group. "I believe we should go down and try to talk to Aquaman. Make sure he does not get into any trouble."

"You're right. Who knows what could happen." Superman said. Diana went to go get the jet ready to go while J'onn made sure everything in the Tower was secure. We were at the World Assembly building within minutes, and there was a horde of reporters outside.

"You guys go in and talk some sense into Aquaman, I'll stay out here and cover crowd control." I told them. They nodded and flew inside. I stayed outside and looked at all the people waiting to hear news from inside the meeting. A few minutes later the reporters swarmed the door just as Aquaman walked out. I made my way over to him to make sure none of the reporters got too close. In his bad mood, I'm sure Aquaman didn't need any cameras in his face.

The reporters had surrounded him and were asking him dozens of questions. He just glared at them and pushed past them. I was about five feet away from him when I called out to him. "Aquaman, wait!" I said. He ignored me and kept walking towards the street. I followed him and was quickly gaining ground when I heard a high pitched noise. I had just enough time to see something heading straight at us before it exploded. I was thrown back a couple feet and hit the concrete wall lining the sidewalk. I couldn't hear anything except a high pitched ringing in my ears and I saw double vision. I tried sitting up but I had the wind knocked out of me from the impact of the blast.

I looked up to see what the damage was, when I saw Aquaman laying on the ground struggling to get up. I sat up straight and a sharp pain shot through my ribs. Great, they're probably cracked or broken. I groaned and was able to stand on my feet, albeit I was a little wobbly. J'onn rushed over to me. "Evie, are you hurt?" He asked, concern lacing his voice.

I took a deep breath. "I'm fine, just a little banged up." I saw Superman pick up Aquaman, with Diana's help, and flew away. "How is he?" I asked.

J'onn looked grim. "It is hard to say, he was closer to the blast than you were. His injuries will be much more serious." I took a step and the pain in my ribs flared up again. Sensing this, J'onn said "Perhaps you should go to the hospital as well."

I kept walking. "I'm fine, honestly." From the look he was giving me I knew J'onn didn't believe a word I was saying. I sighed, "Fine, have it your way." I said. J'onn walked over, picked me up and flew me to the hospital they others had taken Aquaman to.

Soon enough I had a nurse checking my vitals and bandaging my ribs up. "These are just bruised sweetie, but make sure you don't overwork yourself for a couple days." She said to me. She was a cute old thing, old enough to be a grandmother but not so old that she you had to worry about her not properly doing her job.

"I'll do my best, but unless the criminals stop working for a few days, it'll be pretty unlikely." I said. She had just finished with the bandages when she lifted my shirt back down and patted my knee in a grandmotherly fashion.

"Well then, those bad guys won't know what hit 'em." She said. I smiled and put my jacket back on.

"Can you tell me where they took Aquaman?" I asked her. I should probably regroup with everyone in case crazier rocket launching people show up.

"He's in a special ward. Take the elevator to the top floor, you can't miss it."

I nodded. "Thank you." I got off the bed and was halfway over to the elevator when she stopped me.

"Here," she handed me a water bottle. "Drink this, you don't want to get dehydrated." I took the bottle and thanked her again. I followed her instructions and when I got off the elevator Diana, John, Superman and J'onn were waiting and watching the doctor work on Aquaman.

"How's he doing?" I asked. Everyone looked over at me and Superman was the first to walk over to me.

"How are you doing? You were pretty close to that explosion." He said.

I shrugged. "Just a couple bruised ribs, and some scrapes. Nothing I can't handle." I said. Just as I finished the door to the operating room opened and the doctor walked out.

"How bad is it?" Diana asked him.

The doctor took off his surgical mask and put his hand to his chin. "Hard to tell. His physiology is not like ours. It's unlike anything I've ever seen." Poor man, he looked so flustered. Superman stepped up.

"But can you help him?" He asked.

"I don't know." He said. I looked past him and saw a movement in the shadows. My muscles tensed and I thought it was going to be whoever shot the rocket at us, but it turns out it was just Bats.

"Then maybe I can." He said, finally stepping out of the shadows. "Get him on a gurney, I'm going to need a water tank." At first the doctor didn't know what to think, but seeing the look from Batman he was receiving, he was practically sprinting into the O.R.

They pushed Aquaman through the hospital and into a room that had a water tank set up in it. Batman had gone ahead to get the tank ready and when the gurney came in the room, Superman lifted Aquaman up and put him in the tank. The rest of us had spilled into the room and watched as the beeping on the monitors evened out.

The doctor turned around. "His vitals, they're stabilizing." He said astounded. Batman walked over to the heart monitor and handed the doctor some papers.

"Maintain saline at 3.5 percent." He told him. He talked to the doctor some more but I had just turned around and watched Aquaman in the tank. Putting him in water makes sense since he lives there anyway, I thought. He must rejuvenate in water just like I do. I turned to see that the doctor had left and everyone had gathered around the tank.

"Same goes to you Evie." Batman said.

"Huh?" I said, coming out of my thoughts.

"Drink the water, it'll heal your ribs." I looked down and in all the commotion I forgot that I still had my water.

"Right, thanks…wait how did you know my ribs were hurt?" I asked him. He hadn't been around when I had gotten here, and my bandages were covered. Bats chose to ignore my question and he turned back towards the tank. I rolled my eyes at his mysteriousness and took a sip of my water. Immediately, the pain in my ribs had faded and I didn't feel the sting from my scrapes anymore. I smiled to myself, this is a major perk.

About half an hour later, I was sitting on the hospital bed, twirling my staff between my fingers, a habit I had picked up for when I was bored. Green Lantern was looking out the window and the rest of them had huddled around the tank.

"He's coming around." Superman said, startling me. It had been absolutely silent for the past half an hour and his voice was really loud. I got up off the bed and walked over to the tank while putting my staff away.

Green Lantern strode forward and went right up to the tank. "Good. Now maybe we can get some answers." He said. Of course he would still be upset. Don't give him a break since he almost died, let's interrogate him as soon as he wakes up. "What did you do with the plutonium?" He asked, literally banging on the glass. I raised my eyebrow, is this guy serious?

"Hey Green Bean, could you not bang on the glass like an impatient child at the zoo?" I asked him. Was giving him an attitude the smartest thing to do? No. But I don't really have a filter. Before he could crush me with the power of his ring, Aquaman woke up and floated up to the top of the tank.

"Plutonium?" He asked. He pulled himself out of the tank and took the suction monitors off his chest.

"From the submarine. You stole it." Green Lantern said. I closed my eyes and smacked my palm to my forehead. Let's not ask the Atlantian how he feels since he almost died, let's ask him if he stole our nuclear devices. Nice bedside manners, John.

"My orders were to leave that vessel where it lay." Aquaman said, sounding quite angry.

Green Lantern getting in his face probably wasn't helping the situation. "And you expect us to believe that?"

"Believe what you want. Someone tried to kill me and I need to find out who."

I scoffed, "Yeah, join the club." He looked up at me and my eyes widened once I realized what I had said. "Not to be rude or anything, I mean you have every right to go looking for them." I stammered out. "I was just collateral damage, it was really you they were after. Not that it's a good thing, cause it's not. I'm just saying you're more important than I am…not that I'm not important, it's just cause you're royalty and I'm not and…" I finally stopped when Batman elbowed me in the ribs. Everybody in the room was now looking at me strangely. "Sorry." I whispered out, looking down at my boots.

"You go by Aquatica, do you not?" Aquaman asked me. I was stunned for a second. I just sounded like a lunatic, why was he talking to me?

"Yes, that's my hero name, but if you want you can call me Evie." I somehow managed to squeak out.

"I'm sorry you were hurt when it was me they were after." He said. "I've seen what you can do with water, it is quite interesting how someone from the land can control the water so fluently."

I almost fainted right then and there. Aquaman, the King of Atlantis, was complementing me on how I control water. I stammered out a quiet thank you, and then I started grinning like an idiot. Somehow, despite how crazy I looked, Aquaman managed to give me a soft smile.

Aquaman grew quite serious again, and he headed for the door, looking to leave.

"Wait, I can help." Batman said, stepping forward. "But you're going to have to trust me." Aquaman paused for a second, then he turned around and walked back into the room. We started discussing a plan to lure the would-be assassin out of hiding in order for them to finish off the job. J'onn would morph himself into Aquaman and be taken out by stretcher. The rest of us would be waiting for the assassin, and before he can do any real damage, we would catch him. Sounds easier said than done.

Night fell and we started our trap. The news crews were waiting outside along with an ambulance, after word had spread that Aquaman was being moved to a different facility to receive treatment. I was on the roof with Wonder Woman while Bats and Superman were on a rooftop across from us. We were all looking for any signs of the assassin. "I hope this plan of yours works, Batman." Diana said into her com link.

"Just keep your eyes open." He said. Not even five seconds later, the doors to the hospital opened and Aquaman was rolled out on a gurney. Immediately the news reporters and photographers were swarming him, trying to get a picture of the Atlantian. While everyone else was busy looking at Aquaman, I glanced down and saw somebody dressed in a parka and snow hat crouching behind a mail box. I believe I just found the assassin. He could have blended in a little more, it isn't December. I thought. Plus, the poor guy has to be dying under that parka.

"Guys, isn't it a little hot for winter clothes?" I said looking down at him. Just as I said it, he pulled out a missile launcher from his duffel bag.

"There!" Wonder Woman yelled out, pointing to the man. I rolled my eyes at that. No. Really? The guy wearing winter clothes in the summer is our guy…and he's right there?! Gasp. I'm sorry, I can't control my sarcasm.

"I see him." Batman said, looking through his binoculars. Or batnoculars as I now call them. I don't know what he calls them but it's probably the boring old name for them. At least my word was more fun.

Just before the assassin could pull the trigger on the launcher, Batman had thrown a batarang and pushed it downward, so the rocket hit the ground and exploded before it could hit any people.

As soon as he realized that his plan failed, the assassin ran away and down an alley. Superman flew after him while Batman went to check on J'onn. I decided to follow Superman to see if he needed any help. Just as I turned the corner, I saw that Superman had bent over to pick up a manhole cover, but as soon as he touched it he was thrown back and electrocuted.

Batman and J'onn ran down the alley as I was bent over Superman checking to see if he was okay. J'onn phased through, and I swore I heard an engine going past even though there was no cars around us. J'onn told Diana that our would be assassin was heading her way.

"Do you have this?" I asked Batman. He looked back down at Superman and nodded. "Alright, I'm gonna go help Wonder Woman." I jumped in the air and a disc was created under my feet. God, I loved doing that! I flew to where Wonder Woman should be positioned at.

There was a giant crash as Diana pounded her way through the ground. I waited to see what would happen, and there was another smaller portion of concrete that crumbled down again. "I don't think that was supposed to happen." I muttered to myself. I heard the engine of the assassin and I flew down into the original hole that Wonder Woman made.

I caught up with him after a few turns and I smirked. Wrong move going in the sewers buddy. I decided to mess with him a little bit. I froze his motorcycle so it stopped suddenly and he was thrown forward into the water. I stopped my disc and just hovered in the air a couple feet away from him. He was groaning and struggling to get up. I guess I threw him a little too hard.

"Next time, don't run from someone who controls water in a giant tube full of water." I said to him. There was a splash behind me and Batman was standing there. I pretended to dust my hands off and turned towards him. "Well, now that that's done would you mind cuffing him? I'm sure you have handcuffs with you, right?" Even from here I could see Batman roll his eyes at me but nonetheless he walked forward.

"Don't move." Batman growled out. I finally got a chance to look at the man, even if it was for a brief second. He wore a red and silver outfit, with what appeared to be a metal helmet that encased his whole head. He had a small red scope over his right eye, I assumed that helped him shoot. Before I was even done looking him over, he had rolled onto his back and threw a small silver circle in the air just above Batman's head.

My eyes widened and before I could do anything gas came out of the disc. The second it came near me I was thrown into a coughing fit so bad that I couldn't breathe. I barely saw through the gas the assassin running away, but I was coughing so bad I never would have been able to go after him.

The gas let up a few second later and I was able to draw a small breath. "What the hell was that?" I wheezed out. Through my watering eyes I could see Batman was doubled over coughing just as bad as I was. I gathered what little strength I had and raised the water levels up quickly until it reached the top of the ceiling and I brought it down just as fast.

The gas was gone and I gulped in some air, and I could hear that Bats was doing the same. "Sorry I got you wet, I had to get the gas off of you." My voice was all raspy from all the coughing.

"It's fine." Batman said, his voice gruffer than usual. He straightened himself up and looked down the pipe in the direction our guy had run down.

"I don't suppose you know where this pipe leads, do you?" I asked him.

"This isn't Gotham, I have no idea." He said. I nodded and started jogging down the path with Bats next to me.

"Wait, does that mean you know the sewers of Gotham too?" I asked him. He only smirked at me and didn't say anything while we continued to run. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me. How do you have time to actually go do things when you're memorizing maps of the sewer?"

He was saved from answering when we reached the nearest manhole. Thankfully it was uncovered, but it was still a good ten feet up. Before I could even think, Batman had grabbed my waist and pulled me to him before he used his grapple to get us both out of the sewer.

My cheeks instantly went red after being in such close proximity to him. I'm not saying I liked him or anything, it was just a little unnerving. Plus I could feel his muscles and let me tell you, they felt pretty good. Don't blame me, I may be a hero but I am still a girl. I notice these things.

Once I steadied myself on the ground I muttered a thanks, trying to let him avoid seeing my red cheeks. I doubt he did but like the silent man he is, he didn't say anything. "Come on, Superman is following him." Bats said before using a grapple to get up into the air.

"Oh, right…yeah." I had almost forgotten we were following an assassin. I jumped on a disc and followed behind Bats. We rounded the corner and saw a green van on fire and Superman holding our assassin. "Do you know who this guy is?" I asked Bats.

"His name is Deadshot. He's one of the most deadly assassins out there. He hardly misses a target."

"Well, I hate to mess up his record." I said not sounding very sorry at all. We walked over to Superman just as Wonder Woman and J'onn did.

"Gee, why would a hired gun try to shoot somebody?" he asked, laying the sarcasm on thick. "Could it be that someone paid me to?" If he wasn't a bad guy I probably would have laughed at how sarcastic he sounded. A man after my own heart.

"Who?" Wonder Woman asked him.

"Oh come on babe, you know I can't tell you that. Professional ethics." He said. I could practically hear his eyes roll as he said that.

"Oh please," I said stepping forward. "You have no ethics. Just tell us who payed you already." I snapped out. I didn't feel like standing out here all night just so some jerk can mess with us.

"So you're the girl that can control water." He said. He looked me up and down and my skin crawled. "Tell me, are there any other liquids you can control? Cause sweetheart, I would love to find out." My eyes widened as I understood double meaning behind what he said.

"What did you just say to me?" I growled out. I walked forward and practically ripped Deadshot out of Superman's grasp and held him up by the front of his suit. "Would you like me to freeze that area of your body, sweetheart?" I practically spit at him. "Cause I can guarantee that would get you singing like a song bird."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I whipped my head around. "I'll take it from here." Batman said. I looked back at Deadshot to see that his eyes had gone wide. I shoved him into Batman's grip and took a step back.

I looked down and saw my hands were shaking, that's how mad I was. I'm a woman, not a piece of meat. I got enough of that kind of stuff in the Navy by the guys who didn't think I was worth anything. I certainly wasn't going to take it from some scumbag who shoots people. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Okay. I'll tell, I'll tell." Deadshot said. I was very pleased to hear that he sounded panicked.

"What did he say to him?" I asked Superman, curious of what Bats could have said to make him flip that fast.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." Superman said. Well alrighty then.

The pair walked back over to us and Batman pushed him towards us. Deadshot dusted off his shoulder where Batman had touched him. "Who hired you?"

"I don't know. I don't ask questions." He said. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. A whole lot of help this guy was.

"Not good enough. How were you paid?" Batman said.

"In gold. See?" Deadshot looked over to an overturned chest that had an enormous amount of gold coming out of it. With the heated discussion between him and me, no one had noticed it.

"That has to be worth thousands of dollars." I said. Batman went over and picked up a piece and looked at it closely.

"Spanish doubloons." He said.

"Where would they get coins like this?" Wonder Woman asked.

I snorted "I don't know, maybe some pirates hired him." Everyone looked at me a little annoyed, except Deadshot who let out a loud snort. I looked at him furiously. "I don't remember talking to you." I said. His eyes widened and he didn't say anything else. I looked up and everyone was still looking at me. "Sorry." I said looking down at my boots. I really needed to stop doing that every time I get embarrassed, it was starting to become a bad habit.

"Atlantis. That is where you would get these coins." J'onn said. I realized he was right. With all the sunken ships and shipwrecks that have happened, especially during the times of the Spanish conquistadors, they would have plenty of treasure to just give away.

"We've got to warn Aquaman." Superman said.

"Too late." I looked up and Green Lantern was hovering above us before he dropped down onto the ground. "That royal pain in the neck's already gone. And I couldn't stop him."

"Hera help him." Wonder Woman said. I internally rolled my eyes at that, and then a thought popped into my head.

"Wait," I said. "Does this mean we are going to Atlantis?" I asked excitedly.

"It would seem so." Superman said. I squealed inside. Atlantis! The city underwater, where everyone there could control water and were super cool and watery! I wanted to jump up and down, I was so ready to go. "Come on, let's go."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Deadshot trying to nonchalantly creep away. "Not so fast." I said. He tried to run and I decided it was time for payback. I froze him directly to the ground in a giant bunch of ice. "This should hold him until the police arrive." I said. Superman chuckled and walked past me.

Deadshot was struggling to get out to absolutely no avail. We all filed past him, with Bats and I going past him last. "Aw come on sweetie, a little help here?" He shivered out. I just laughed and kept walking.

"Sorry, but you aren't getting out of there. Next time you should watch your mouth." I called over my shoulder.

"That was a little harsh, don't you think?" Batman asked me.

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'. "He deserves it." I looked up and Batman was smirking again. "By the way, what did you say to him?" I asked.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it." He said and quickened his pace so he was walking in front of me. I shrugged my shoulders. If he didn't want me to know, it's probably for the best.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Diana had gone to get the jet when the rest of us stayed behind and waited for her. We started discussing plans for how we would talk to Aquaman once we get to Atlantis. I had noticed that Batman had been very quiet and stood farther back away from the group. I walked over to him.

"Everything alright? You're even more quiet than usual."

"I'm fine." He said, not even bothering to turn towards me. "I'm not going with you guys to Atlantis. I'll stay up here and keep an eye on everything."

I guess I should have known that Bats wouldn't want to go with the rest of us. Even though he had been helping the League with the big dangers, he still preferred to work alone. "Alright, that's probably a good idea." I said. If something were to happen up here than none of us would know. "Let us know if you need anything." I had already turned and headed back towards the group when I heard the familiar sound of Bats' grapple shooting up. By the time I turned back around, he had disappeared in the shadows.

Diana had come back with the jet, so we all had piled in and headed towards the ocean. We dove under the waves and were off to Atlantis. This trip seemed longer than when we came to rescue the ship, and I started to get anxious. Despite working with the League for over a month now, I still got nervous before our encounters with the bad guys.

"We're almost there." Diana said breaking the silence. "Atlantis is just beyond that reef." I pushed aside my nerves and focused more on my excitement. I was going to go see Atlantis! I wondered what it looked like, if the buildings were made of gold, or coral, or old ships; I wasn't sure what to expect. It would be so cool to see a city that is completely underwater.

"Don't expect them to welcome us with open arms." Green Lantern said, and with that my excitement was swept away and my nerves had come back to take its place. Thanks G.L.

"Set the ship down here." Superman suggested. "Maybe we can slip under their defenses."

"Yeah, I doubt that. We are in their ocean. They probably knew we were here five minutes ago." I said. I love being right sometimes because no sooner had I said that, two explosions rocked the ship.

"Evie is right. They've already seen us." J'onn said. We all looked out the front window of the jet to see a giant ship that dwarfed ours, along with dozens of foot soldiers on their underwater jet skis.

"If it's a fight they want, they've got it." Green Lantern said glowing green and heading for the back. What is it with this guy and wanting to fight everyone?

"Wait! Remember why we're here." Diana said, stopping Green Lantern from doing anything too stupid, like start a war. That would be a pretty dumb thing to do. Even though he didn't look happy about it, G.L powered down.

"Good. Let's go talk to them." I said slipping on my air mask. Superman and Diana did the same and we opened our hatch and swam out into the middle of the vessels that were surrounding us.

"Hold your fire! We come with an urgent message for your king." Superman called out to the soldiers. I held my breath to see what they would do. A second later missiles were heading straight for us.

"Scatter!" I yelled out. Green Lantern put a shield around us to protect us from the blast and we headed towards different directions to stop the incoming soldiers. Two soldiers on speed jets were coming my way so I ducked and weaved in between the rocks to try and lose them. Unfortunately that didn't work, so I thought of a different plan. I hid on top of a rock, and when one of the jets came near me, I plunged myself on top of one of the soldiers shoulders and grabbed his neck. I flung him off the jet and he hit one of the rock formations.

However, in my genius plan I never thought about what I would do with the speed jet, you know, since I don't know how to drive it. The jet started plummeting to the ground so I jumped off and floated in the water. The jet hit the rocks below and exploded.

The other soldier following me saw the explosion and started coming in our direction. I pushed myself through the water until I was a good bit ahead of him. I stopped and turned around, looking at the jet. I waited until he was close to me and I took my staff, extended it, and clotheslined him. He flew off of his jet and sank to the bottom. I carefully swam back to where everyone else was trying to stop the larger ship from firing at us.

Superman lifted a rock and ran underneath the bottom of their sub, sinking it. "This way!" he said flying past us. We swam past another rock arch, and we saw the outline of buildings.

"There it is!" G.L pointed out and we swam faster to the buildings and as we got closer, I realized that the city was under a giant bubble. That surprised me, I thought that the city would be completely submerged underwater. I was so curious about the city, once we helped Aquaman I wanted to ask him if he could show me around. That might be a stretch though, considering I had only talked to him for a total of like, five minutes.

Once we got closer to the city, we started letting our guard down. There didn't seem to be any more soldiers following us, so we weren't in immediate danger. At least, that's what I thought. There was a blast behind us and silver spiked balls were floating past us. They reminded me of old Navy mines that you would see in movies.

We each ducked and dodged them, careful not to try and set them off. I dove down deeper and somersaulted myself over an incoming mine. I carefully weaved my way back to the others. "Not even close." Green Lantern said.

I was thrown forward into the rock wall when the first mine exploded behind us. Spoke too soon G.L, I thought. "Depth charges." I heard J'onn say. Each mine that went off caused the nearest one to go off as well, surrounding ourselves in a ring of explosions. I was being tossed against the cliffs from the pressures and forces of the explosions, and I was unable to get myself back up. After one large explosion, a piece of rock fell off the wall behind me, hitting my head and I blacked out.

Why was everything so bright? And what the hell is that beeping? I groggily opened my eyes and saw I was kneeling in a giant room, with marble floors and giant pillars. This must be one of the buildings inside of Atlantis, I thought. There was a man standing in front of Superman, speaking to him about Aquaman.

That's when I noticed the metal sensors on top of everyone's heads, I assumed that's what the beeping was. I thought my headache was because of the rocks, but now I'm pretty sure it's because of this thing on my head. What the hell were they planning on doing to us?

"Where's Aquaman?" Superman asked the man he was talking to.

"I thought your kind already took care of him." The man in the green outfit said.

"No. He came back here." Diana said, just waking up as well.

"We came to warn him about a plot against his life," Superman said, trying to make the guard understand that we wanted peace, and not a fight. "An Atlantian plot." I glanced around the room and noticed that we were surrounded by not only guards, but some civilians as well. They were all dressed in varying shades of green or blue. I wanted to look around some more, but the guard standing next to me didn't look too nice. I certainly didn't want him thinking I was trying to escape.

I noticed a movement on the balcony above me and I looked up to see one of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She had red hair, that looked almost purple in the light, and she was wearing a green crop top with gold on the edges and matching pants. She had a sheer cape that trailed down her back and around her legs. Then I noticed the crown that was on top of her head. That has to be the Queen of Atlantis, I thought, perhaps she could get us out of this mess.

"Lies and deceptions!" The man Superman was talking to said. He picked up his trident and shot Superman with an electric beam. My eyes widened, why couldn't these jerks just believe what we are telling them? The force of the beam knocked Superman backwards and he laid on the ground groaning.

"I consider this latest incursion nothing less than an act of war." He said, looking at all of us.

"Yeah? Last time I checked, we didn't shoot first, you just did." I said, giving this man my meanest glare. He looked over at me and I knew I probably shouldn't have opened my mouth.

He walked over to me and knelt down, putting his trident right up against my throat. "You dare speak to me like that, you land dweller? Just because you can handle water as well as an Atlantian can, does not mean you are worth anything here." He pressed the end of the trident in my throat a little harder with enough pressure to draw blood, and then he stood back up and walked to the center of the line we were kneeled in. "You'll be executed as enemies of the crown. Then I will wipe out the surface world forever." With that threat he turned away, and we were all lead to a metal room.

The others were led in first and handcuffed to the walls. Just before I was about to enter a guard grabbed me and pushed me to the side. "This one thrives in the water. Take her to the heat chamber." A not so gentle guard pulled me out of this room and into a smaller one.

I started struggling but the guard only gripped my arm harder, so hard I'm pretty sure I'll have a bruise there tomorrow. "Umm, not to sound rude or anything but where are you taking me?" I asked him, figuring if I knew where I was going, I would be able to get myself out of this situation.

"The heat chamber." He grunted out, obviously not interested in talking to me.

"Oh, now I know where I'm going. Thanks big man!" I said in the most sarcastic tone of voice I could possibly muster at the moment. Suddenly he spun me around so my back was to the wall and my feet off the floor, while he was holding me up by my neck. This guy had a strong grip and I couldn't draw in a breath.

"Listen to me you Land Dweller, I don't like you. Quite frankly, I'm going to enjoy watching you burn up in the heat chamber." My eyes widened and I started panicking. What did he mean I would burn up? He gave me a sickly sinister grin. "That's right girl. The heat chamber is where Atlantians go to die. It's so hot it burns them to a crisp. Who knows what it will do to you when you're in there." At this point I was seeing black spots in my vision and I could feel myself about to lose consciousness, until he released my neck and I dropped to the floor.

The second the pressure was gone I started sucking in air, trying to get the pounding out of my ears and the spots in my vision to go away. I had hardly taken a single deep breath when he pulled my arm and practically dragged me the rest of the way down the hallway. He opened a door and inside was a glass container, with large vents coming into the top of the container.

My heart rate quickened and I started squirming harder. Too long in that heat, and the water inside of me would evaporate, killing me in a matter of minutes, practically burning me from the inside out. My struggles were proven completely pointless as the guard threw me in the chamber and the door locked behind me.

I scrambled onto my feet and started banging on the door trying to break it. The guard looked back at me and sneered before pressing some controls on a table in the middle of the room.

The vents turned on and I immediately felt the heat coming through them. Imagine opening a black car in the middle of the summer on the equator. Then multiply it times a hundred. Within thirty seconds of the vents turning on I could feel myself becoming dehydrated and sweat was pouring off my body. The seconds seemed like lifetimes, and I could feel my skin drying up, literally watching cracks form on my arms. I started coughing and I collapsed onto my knees. The inside of my body felt like literal fire, and I curled up into the fetal position.

I figured that this was the end of my life. The city that I was so excited and willing to see would be my cemetery. I wanted to laugh at the irony but if I did that my lungs might turn to dust. I closed my eyes, preparing for death, when I realized it had gone quiet in my glass box. Then I realized the vents were no longer on.

My eyes fluttered open and I saw a woman on the other side of the glass, the unconscious guard at her feet, pressing the buttons on the control panel. She looked up at me and I realized that it was the woman in the crown that I had seen earlier. The door to my box opened and a cool gush of wind came in.

I still couldn't move, but I felt her drag me out of the box and onto the granite floors in the middle of the room. I probably looked pathetic, trying to draw air into my lungs, but my entire body felt so dry that I couldn't do anything properly. I wondered if this is what fish felt like when they were out of water. "Perhaps this will help." I heard the woman say. Seconds later I felt a splash of water on me, and it was absolute Heaven.

Just from that one splash of water, I felt ten times better. I was able to draw in breaths without sounding like I was dying, and I could start to move my body more without being afraid it would break apart. The woman gave me another splash of water and I felt completely renewed. I sat up and looked up at her. "I don't mean to sound rude, but who are you?" I asked her. She held out a hand and pulled me up from the ground so I could steady myself.

"I am Mera, Queen of Atlantis and wife to our King, Aquaman." She said. I nodded and looked down at the guard lying on the floor.

"Nice work there your majesty." I grinned and looked at her. She also smiled, but it vanished quickly and she looked quite serious.

"We must go now. You're friends are in as much danger as you were in." I frowned, suddenly worried about them. In my whole being turned into a raisin ordeal I had completely forgotten about them being chained to their own chamber. Mera and I rushed out into the hallway and back where the others were. We peeked into the door and I saw that the container the others were in was filling up with water. Now I see why I couldn't have gone in there. It would have been way too easy for me to stop the water. I checked to make sure the others hadn't drowned yet, but they were still struggling which meant that they hadn't been underwater too long.

Mera went in first, slipping through the door and behind the guards. Without warning, she picked up a silver weapon that somewhat resembled Hawkgirl's mace, and whacked both guards on the head with it. They crumpled to the ground in a heap and didn't move. I rushed into the room while Mera was already pulling the lever to drain the water that had filled the container with everyone in it.

The water was sucked down the drain like an oversized bathtub and the glass lifted up. The others were panting hard, trying to catch their breath and refill their bodies with oxygen. I didn't even bother waiting for a key and I went over to J'onn first and slashed his shackles off with a piece of thick ice. He ripped the headband off his head and sent me a smile.

Mera had already taken the locks off of John and she was making her way to Diana. "Thank you. But why?" Diana asked Mera in a weak voice. Usually I would have something sarcastic to say about the whole thing, but seeing as how she almost died I would give her a break, just this once.

"You believe someone in Atlantis had betrayed my husband. I also fear for his life, but I need your help." She explained. My heart went out to the poor woman. She sounded so desperate and sad, you couldn't help but want to help her.

"You've got it." John said, with Superman and J'onn walking behind him and rubbing their wrists where the handcuffs were. I smiled a bit at that, it was nice to see John so determined to help the Atlantians when twelve hours earlier he hated them. I personally think John needs to let lose a little bit, he's too serious all the time.

Mera had led us out of this torture building and let us walk around Atlantis. The buildings were incredible, they were all sorts of geometric shapes, and the colors weren't too bright or too dark, they resembled natural ocean colors. I was practically bouncing up and down when I was walking I was so excited. Apparently I was too excited cause Superman put a hand on my shoulder in order to calm me down a tad bit. "Sorry." I said shrugging and looking sheepish. He only smiled and shook his head. That's what I liked about him. He didn't take the small things too seriously unlike some people we know. *cough cough* John Stewart *cough cough*. Oh sorry, must have had a tickle in my throat.

Anyway, back to the tour. The best part was the giant waterfall that was in the middle of the city. It had a bridge that circled the whole thing and the sound was so soothing. It seemed like the most fitting thing to have in the center of the city. A place where air can meet water all the time.

"Your kingdom is truly magnificent." Wonder Woman said, reflecting my thoughts. "I see why Aquaman protects it so passionately."

"Unfortunately, there are those whose ambitions would destroy it." She said. I had to hand it to her, for her family being missing, she was holding all of this together very well. I suppose that must have been the Queen in her. Her people looked to her and drew their strength from her.

Mera was right with the whole destroying Atlantis bit, because when we turned the corner on the bridge guards started shooting at us, nearly hitting the Queen herself. Out of instinct, I drew the water from the waterfall and froze it creating a giant block of ice in order to protect us from them.

More guards came from behind us and I heard Green Lantern tell everyone to step back. I was too focused on my ice to really pay attention to what he was doing but I heard a giant boom and the bridge rattled, with the sounds of screaming guards following. Luckily I had jumped and formed an ice disk while everyone else floated above the hole in the bridge, with Diana holding Mera.

"Well that was easy." I said while evaporating the water from the ice into my staff, which was now back on my belt.

"Thank you." Mera said looking up at Diana.

"This fight is far from over." J'onn said looking at all of us. He flew up over the city and we all followed suit. We decided to go back to the palace in order to regroup and think of a plan. We entered the throne room, and we were all impressed. It was made completely of white marble and silver stone. On the far edge of the room sat a platform with Aquaman's throne on it, in between two black marble pillars. I was ogling at the room when my eyes found Mera.

She looked as if she were about to collapse from the stress she had been through these past two days. "Your highness, perhaps it is best if you rest for a minute." I said gesturing to the stairs in front of the throne. She gave me a grateful smile and I led her over to the stairs while the others seemed to split up to look for Aquaman. I sat with her and tried my best to soothe her.

After a few moments neither of us had spoken. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to say to the woman. She was missing her husband and son, even I had no idea what kind of pain that felt like. "You are quite talented with water." She said softly, breaking the silence.

"Thank you." I said just as quietly, not wanting to be so loud in this big room.

"It seems as if you are not Atlantian, yet you have the very powers that we have. How is that?" She inquired. I bit my lip, thinking of a way to tell her how I got my powers without boring her about my past.

"Well, I was part of the military for a little while. One day I had walked into a lab filled with chemicals, and one of them exploded. The next thing I knew when I woke up in our hospital, I could control and manipulate water." I said. I figured that would be the short and sweet version. Mera was looking at me with wide eyes, as if she was surprised that I was not born with this ability.

She seemed to have gotten over her disbelief and she smiled. "When this whole thing is over you should come back here to Atlantis sometime. Perhaps you can learn new ways to use your powers and I could gain a friend." She said looking over at me. "I may be queen, but that does not mean that I have too much time to go out on social visits. It would be nice to do girl things with someone who isn't intimidated because I am their queen." She explained.

I sent her a smile and patted her hand. "That sounds wonderful. I would love to see more of your kingdom." I said. Before Mera could reply J'onn materialized through the floor.

"We've searched the entire palace." He said. Superman and Diana flew in from an upstairs balcony.

"But there's still no sign of him." Superman said. With these words, Mera finally broke. Her strong façade cracked and it was plain as day, the pain that she was feeling. She put her hands over her face and sobs racked her body. I put a comforting arm around her shoulders and my other hand rubbed circles in her arm.

"Mera, it's going to be okay. We'll do everything we can to bring them back to you, I promise." I said to her. Just then, footsteps echoed down the hall and everyone, except Mera, looked up at the doorway. I looked up and my jaw dropped.

Inside the doorway was Aquaman, holding a baby who I presumed was his son. The joy didn't last because my eyes immediately glanced down to the red bandage covering his left hand. That can't be good. Mera must have sensed that someone else was in the room with us, because she stopped sobbing and moved her hands from her face. She finally looked up to see her husband and child in the doorway.

A look of pure joy swept across her features and in mere seconds she was sprinting across the room to get to them. I stood up from the steps and met the others in the center of the room. She tackled them both into a hug and they murmured some words to each other, but as soon as Aquaman let go of his son, we all could see the red stump where his hand used to be.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

While Aquaman wasn't freaking out over missing a hand the rest of us were. Mera immediately rushed him to their version of a hospital so he could get looked at and possibly fixed. From what I understood, the doctors didn't think they could reattach the hand, but they could put on a prosthetic.

We all stood in the operating room while the doctor put something metal in place of Aquaman's hand. The noises of the drills and the sight of all the blood was making me a little nauseas, so I did the best I could not to look over at the doctor working, instead, finding the floor tiles much more interesting.

"His own hand. I can't believe it." Superman said, still not quite believing it.

"I told you he was a madman." John said, crossing his arms.

"Is it madness to sacrifice all for someone you love?" Mera asked him. At least John had the decency to look a little ashamed for calling her husband crazy right in front of them.

"Can't you work any faster?" Aquaman demanded of the doctor. Good grief, if cutting off your own hand isn't enough to keep you down, than what is?

"This is a delicate operation, My Lord." The doctor said. "It can't be rushed." I don't know what kind of doctors they had here in Atlantis, but they freaked me out. Why were they in a full body jumpsuit? It was extremely unnerving to not see any skin at all, and only see a blue suit and some weird looking goggles.

Aquaman continued to sit in the chair, groaning in pain as the doctor attached his prosthetic on. I'm glad I wasn't in that situation, cause they would have had to have given me barrels of anesthesia to make sure I didn't feel a thing.

Suddenly a small beeping noise disturbed the continual zapping of the doctor's instruments. At first I wasn't sure what it was, but then I realized it was one of our com links. "Superman, a situation has developed up at the north pole." Ah, so Bats decided to make another appearance today. How thoughtful of him.

"What, did Santa forget to pay his rent this month?" I said loud enough for Batman to hear. I heard the loud sigh and could practically picture the eye roll and frown that was quite normal for Bats to wear when he was around either me or Flash. What can I say? We are the comedic relief to this team.

"No Evelyn." Bats said. Ouch, use of my full name. "Thermal readings show temperatures increasing rapidly."

"If that continues, the ecological effects could be catastrophic." J'onn said.

"Then let's check it out." John said, always ready for a fight, he is.

"But what about the crisis here?" Diana asked, looking over at the royal family who was gathered around the doctor.

"I have a feeling the two events are connected." I said.

Aquaman looked over at us just as I said this. "It's the doomsday thermal reactor." I blinked, not quite understanding what he was saying.

"Uh, yeah sorry but did you say a doomsday thermal reactor?" I asked. "That doesn't sound like a fun time."

Aquaman ignored me. "We designed it to create a polar meltdown."

"What?" John shouted. Great, and these two were getting along somewhat well.

"I had it built as a weapon of last resort." Aquaman explained. "To protect Atlantis, should the surface world ever attack." We all just stood there in shock, not quite believing that the Atlantians had a weapon that could kill all of the humans in practically a day. "But I never armed it." Aquaman added looking down.

"Oh, well if you never armed it I guess that makes it a-okay then, doesn't it?" I said, getting quite upset. Not only was he prepared to kill us but he would take the rest of the animals down with us? I mean honestly there are better ways to end the world then melting the North Pole. Think about the polar bears people! We need to save them!

Aquaman glared at me, but it faded when he saw just how upset we all were. His glare turned into shame, and my heart started to melt a little bit. I could see he never actually intended to use it. This doomsday device was no different than our nuclear weapons. God forbid those ever have to get used. I suddenly felt bad for snapping at him like that.

"Then Orm must have armed them," John said, interrupting the awkward silence that had settled around us. "Using the plutonium from the submarine."

"If the polar cap melts the world will sink beneath the waves." Superman said. To be honest that didn't sound like such a bad world. I mean, I would have fun, the Atlantians would have fun, but I guess for everyone else it would kind of suck. "Everything will be destroyed." He concluded. Suddenly this plan didn't sound as cool.

"We have to stop Orm." I said.

"And he will be." Aquaman said. His procedure was finally done and he stood up from his operating chair. In place of his left hand was a harpoon, attached by a gold medal holder on his wrist. That was the most metal thing I have ever seen, no pun intended. He was like a cooler version of Captain Hook. Except much hotter. What? I'm not blind. He's gorgeous.

"I'll see to it personally." He said and with the expression that was on his face I believed him. Poor Orm. He's gonna have hell to pay when Aquaman gets ahold of him.

"So, road trip to the North Pole anyone?" I asked.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Soon enough we were on our way to the North Pole. Aquaman decided to swim there while the rest of us flew. Well, I say flew but I guess you can call my version surfing. It was so much fun to skim across the tops of waves, I don't know why I didn't do it more often. Oh, that's right, cause I'm always saving the world and kicking ass.

Aquaman was pretty fast in the water, I had to go my full speed just to keep up with him. He was literally like a torpedo in the water. We reached the shore to the North Pole and he flipped himself out of the water, scaring off some seals that were chilling on the ice cap. And yes, I totally meant that pun.

"Aquaman, wait!" Superman called to him. I got off my ice disk and started walking behind Aquaman, with my staff in hand.

"Why do you follow?" He retorted looking between me and the others.

"We want to help." Diana told him.

"This is my battle." Aquaman said, obviously not budging on doing this by himself. "No one asked you to fight it."

"Well since we all live on this planet, we automatically have to help protect it." I said, flipping my staff over in my hand. "You don't get a say in that matter."

The others hovered beside both of us. "Evie is right." Superman said. "Like it or not, we have a stake in the outcome. We're not leaving."

"Just stay out of my way." Aquaman grumbled out. With all the grumbling this guy does he could rival Batman. Suddenly, a light beneath the ice exploded and we were all pushed back, but we landed on our feet. Here we go again.

The ground beneath us shook and two giant Atlantian ships rose out of the ice and started shooting at us. Superman and J'onn flew towards the closes ship while Green Lantern put himself, Diana, Aquaman and I into a ball and flew us right behind the others.

Up ahead I saw an entire squadron of Atlantian soldiers on jet skis come towards us. "Hope you guys are ready." G.L. said and he reduced the sphere, letting Aquaman land in the ocean while the rest of us flew towards the ship. G.L put up a shield to block the rays from the soldier's guns. I lifted the water up to create a giant wave that lifted all the skis out of the water and flipped them over, sending the soldiers tumbling into the water. That should stop them for a little bit, I thought.

There was a loud cracking noise behind me and I turned to see some of the big glaciers starting to crumble apart, it was getting too warm up here. "Superman, the glaciers are already starting to melt." I heard Batman say through our coms. I looked over my other shoulder and saw his bat jet moving past the glaciers on the other side.

"I know, but we've got our hands full here." Superman said into his com. In the background I could hear the firing of the guns and they were only getting louder. I whipped around and saw another fleet of skis coming towards us. Four were headed straight for me, so instead of flipping them up this time, I decided to get a little rougher. I made a wall if ice right on the surface of the water. When the skis tried to go over it, they got caught and the men were sent dozens of feet up in the air and landed with a smack in the water.

Suddenly there was a huge splash and I looked over to see Aquaman on the back of an orca, jumping on top of a group of soldiers. "That has to be the coolest thing I have ever seen." I said to myself. (And look! Another ice pun!)

I looked back around and saw that everyone else was busy fighting other soldiers, but the glaciers were still melting at an alarming rate. "We need to turn the machine off." I said into my ear com. "Does anyone copy?"

"I'm already on my way over to the machine, meet me there." Batman said. I looked around and saw that one specific glacier had heat waves coming off of it. Looks like I found the hiding place. I jumped on a disc and made my way to the glacier, with Batman catching up to me. "There's not much time." He said looking over at me. "If we can't shut that down the entire world is doomed."

"I suppose this is a bad time to say I told you so." Green Lantern said into his comm.

I rolled my eyes. "Now really isn't the time Green Bean." I said. I turned to Batman. "What do we have to do?" Before he could answer me there was a bigger rumble than before as more ice fell down into the ocean. "Wait, did it just get hotter?" I asked.

Batman didn't say anything, which meant that I was probably right. We both landed and stood at the entrance of the glacier, dodging the falling ice pieces. "Bats, we might be too late." I said, starting to get a little panicked.

"Not yet." He said as he ran into the glacier. I chased after him, right on his heels. We raced in through a side entrance and saw the giant machine sparking and smoking. Great, it's completely fried. I nervously looked over at Batman but he didn't seem to be worrying too much. He picked up a few pieces of the machine and threw them back down.

"No good. I'll have to go inside and manually shut it down."

"That doesn't sound too safe." I said, worriedly looking at the machine which seemed to be sparking even more frequently.

"Your ice, can it protect me?" Batman asked.

I paled a little bit, I wasn't sure if I could put enough ice around him without actually seeing him. "I might, but I would have to be directly with you. I'm not sure if I could do it without a visual." I quickly said, knowing that time was of the essence. Batman seemed to hesitate for a second, but he nodded.

"Alright then." I said. I stood directly next to him and closed my eyes. I imagined a layer of ice covering both of us, but with the consistency of water, so we could move without breaking the ice. To my absolute surprise it held together when we walked forward into the tube we would have to crawl into.

Batman went crawling in first and I followed behind him. We had only been in for a few moments when an explosion rocked the machine back and forth. We both paused and waited to make sure nothing would happen then we continued on at a faster pace. "We might want to hurry, just a teeny bit." I said.

It was hot as hell in this machine, and I could feel myself starting to weaken. I wasn't fully recovered from the heat chamber I had been put in earlier today, and this was only depleting me more. Plus, I was tasked with keeping both Bats and I safe from this machine, using a technique I had never done before. Needless to say, the stress was starting to get to me. "Seriously Bats, how much longer?" I asked through gritted teeth, with sweat dripping from my forehead.

"We're here." He said as we came up on a valve release. He twisted the nozzle and the machine started shutting down. As soon as he said we were safe, I release my hold on the water and it fell onto the ground. I don't even have the energy to soak it all up. I lean up against the wall and put my head back, closed my eyes and took some deep breaths. I probably look like a wreck at this point but I didn't care.

"You alright?" Batman asked. I opened one eye to look at him and he was staring at me, looking quite concerned.

"I'm fine. It's just been a long day." I said, resting my head back against the wall.

"I could assume that from the bruises on your neck." He said, nodding to them. Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that.

"Yeah well what can I say, me and security guards don't get along. Especially when they throw you in a heat chamber and try to turn you into a raisin." I said. He nodded so I guess he understood what I was saying. I had finally gotten my breathing returned to normal and I sat up on my knees. "Okay, let's get out of here."

We crawled back out of the tunnel to see Aquaman walking towards us. "Looks like we did it." I said.

"Then the threat is over." Aquaman said. Without another word we left the machine behind and went towards the entrance of the cave where the jet was parked. Aquaman jumped in the water and went back over to the others, presumably to tell the others the good news.

"Do you want a ride?" Batman asked me. I was quite shocked, usually once the mission was finished he would high tail it out and we wouldn't see him for a few days. I was still feeling weak so I nodded and jumped in the back. Bats got in the front and threw me something, which landed in my lap.

"Here, this should help." I looked down, and sitting in my lap was a bottle of water. I arched an eyebrow and picked it up.

"Since when do you keep water in your jet?" I asked him.

"Since the last time I got thirsty." He deadpanned out. It took me a second to realize that he was joking.

"Are you joking around with me?" I asked him. He didn't say anything but I could see him smirking in the reflection of the glass. "You are joking." I gasped. "Mark this down ladies and gents, that on this day in the good year of our Lord, the Batman of Gotham told a joke!" I said in a totally ridiculous British accent.

"Evie, just drink the water." He replied, but I could hear a hint of a smile in his voice. Soon enough we had landed where the others were. He opened the hatch and I jumped out, but I realized that he didn't.

"Are you coming with us?" I asked. He just shook his head.

"I need to-"

"get back to Gotham." We both finished at the same time. "Yeah, I know." I said. I smiled and turned around. "Hey Bats?" I said looking over my shoulder. He looked up at me expectantly. "Thanks for everything." I said. He nodded and flew off.

I turned back around and the others were talking to Aquaman. "I need to get back and fix the damage my brother has done to my kingdom." He said.

"We'll come with you, in case you need anything." Superman said. Aquaman looked reluctant but he agreed. "Very well."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

We all stood in the throne room, with Mera standing next to Aquaman who was sitting in his throne. We all were behind the throne in a line. Aquaman said he needed to hear what the guards who had betrayed him had to say about their actions. He sent for them and they were escorted in.

One man was pushed to the front by the others. Poor son of a bitch, I thought. He was going on and on about how they were not to be blamed for their treason. "And surely, you must know, My Lord. Our loyalty belongs to you and you alone. We never believed in Orm's plan. But your brother forced us. The truth is we were only following orders." He said as he finished.

I didn't think for one second that Aquaman believed any of this, and I was proven right. Aquaman stood up and looked down on the guards. "Get them out of my sight." He said. From the look on his face I could understand why he was such a great king. His orders were absolute, but when the time came for it he was kind and caring. He was exactly what people needed.

"I can only blame myself." Aquaman sighed out. "My fear of the surface dwellers blinded me to those I should've feared most, and it cost me dearly." He finished the end of his sentence holding up his new harpoon hand.

"Don't be too hard on yourself." John told him. "Maybe we've all misjudged." He said. It seems that it only caused the world to almost end for these two to see the error of their ways and reach an understanding of each other. Go figure.

"Perhaps. All I want…all I've ever wanted is peace and security for Atlantis." He said, looking out at the silhouette of the buildings that made up his kingdom.

Superman stepped forward. "After what's happened, it won't be easy."

"I know." Aquaman turned around and looked at his son, who was in Mera's arms. "But some sacrifices are worth it."

"Besides, I don't think you're one for doing things the easy way." I said. Aquaman looked over at me and chuckled.

"I want to thank you all." He said, looking at each of us individually."

"It's not a problem. Anytime you need help, just let us know." Superman said. We took that as our dismissal and we started to walk out.

"Evie!" Mera called out. I turned around and she came walking forward and wrapped her arms around me, now that she had handed to baby to Aquaman. I returned the gesture. "Thank you so much." She said. She pulled out of the hug and kept her hands on my shoulders. "You are always welcome to come and visit me and my family." She said.

"Thank you." I said, "I'll make sure to stop by soon." I gave her one last smile and headed for the large doors. I had a strong feeling in me, that even though it has been a rough road between us, one day the Atlantians and the people on the land would one day live together in harmony.

[cynicalrainbows]

Inner Voice Chapter 7

Fluffy fluffy ending after all the trauma.

The conversation drifts away, as Anna’s phone buzzes with a text and Anne starts teasing her when she won’t tell them who it’s from. After a moment, Jane unpeels herself from the group and stands up, has an urgent whispered conversation with the director and comes back.

‘You’re having the rest of the day off, alright love?’

‘What?’ She wonders for a moment if she’s being sent home in disgrace- but Jane doesn’t look annoyed.

‘So you can rest- I checked and Grace is happy to go on as you for the night so it won’t put anyone out.’

‘It’s fine-’ She brushes at her sore, swollen eyes, hoping they go back to normal before the first show.

‘Really Kitty-’ Catalina gently touches her arm. ‘You need to take care of yourself. After all of that….you need some downtime, I think.’ 

She can feel herself blushing at the reference to her….. She isn’t even sure what to call it. She’d know the words if she was back at Court: a disgrace, an embarrassment, a shameful display, but she doesn’t feel like the others would quite agree with her somehow.

‘I could still go on-’

‘Of course you could’ Anne stops trying to snatch Anna’s phone and bobs up at her elbow. ‘We Howard girls are tough. Obviously. But you don’t need to. You’re allowed to take a day off.’

Perhaps it’s hearing Anna’s words repeated, perhaps it’s the little silly glow she gets at Anne's affirmation of their connection….but she finds herself nodding acquiesce. 

‘Alright…’

When she moves to gather her stuff and starts digging through her purse for bus fare, she’s surprised that the others follow her to the door.

‘Don’t you need to-?’

‘Oh we’ll come back, finish rehearsal of course.’ Catalina waves a hand dismissively. ‘We cleared it with Suzanne- we’ll be back within the hour.’

‘But why?’

‘We wanted to see you safely home first, love.’

‘All of you?’

Anna steps up behind Jane and nods. ‘All of us.’

*

‘It’s my turn to sit in the front-’

‘Well it’s my turn to drive and I refuse to drive with you in the front seat.’

‘Then let someone else drive, and we’ll get Kitty home before midnight-’

Catalina aims a playful swat at Anne’s arm, laughing, and Anne sticks out her tongue like a child. Usually the easy dynamic that seemed to spring up out of nowhere between the two makes Kitty feel wrongfooted, like she's intruding, like she's an imposter being the one related to Anne, when the others know her better...but then Catalina wraps an arm around her shoulders.

‘Kitty can sit in front. You don’t mind, right?’ She asks, quickly. ‘Only you’re the only one I trust not to make me listen to something awful.’

‘Fat chance.’ Anne shakes her head. ‘Kitty is a loyal cousin who would never take my rightful place, right?’

‘Kitty is a kind girl who won't leave me to be subjected to your dreadful taste in screechy, screamy music-’

They're both looking at her and it feels funny, to have them both vying for her favour like this, even if it is a joke, a game. Still it's one she included in- and it makes her feel brave enough to actually be part of it, over the impulse that makes her want to shrink away.

‘I’d… like to sit up front. Please.’ 

‘Yes! Good music for all!’

Catalina squeezes her gleefully and for a moment she’s afraid of Anne being upset with her- is she an idiot for siding against her own cousin?

‘Curse you, Kitty.’

But Anne’s beaming as she says it.

**

She’s buckling her seatbelt and Catalina is fussing with adjusting her seat and complaining that Jane always puts it too far forward, while Anne complains loudly from the back every time it rams into her knees and Jane argues that it’s hardly her fault if Catalina has Amazon-long legs now.

In the midst of it, Cathy leans forward and pokes her head between the two seats.

‘Kitty?’

‘Mmm?’

‘I just wanted to say….It does get easier you know- not believing him.’

‘Does it? Does it really?’ It's her secret fear, that it’ll never go away entirely, that she’ll be hearing his voice forever, but Cathy nods decisively.

‘Really it does. You’ll see.’

Cathy smiles at her warmly before she sinks back into her place and Kitty smiles back. It doesn't feel like they need to say anything else and it’s nice, it’s a good feeling.

She trusts her.

**

The car is quiet and the warm air blowing at her from the vents, the gentle movement, the chance to sit and not talk, means she's almost asleep by the time they pull up to the house.

When they get in, Anna guides her to the shower to stop her from walking into walls. Everything feels a bit fuzzy now, like her body is letting itself sink into her exhaustion.

‘Do you want pajamas or normal clothes?’

She hesitates- and Anna laughs. (She is the only person from the old life who never seemed to be annoyed by her indecision, and she will follow Anna to the ends of the earth in gratitude for it.)

‘I’ll surprise you.’

It's a relief, once the cold sweat of rehearsal has been washed away and she’s warmed up a bit. The clothes outside the bathroom door aren’t hers- she doesn’t recognise the material at first. When she unfolds them, she sees they’re Anna’s own old sweat pants and a faded tshirt.

The writing on the front reads Bitch Goddess. She buries her face for a moment in the worn-soft material before putting it on.

The others are in her room when she gets there. Cathy is putting a cup of tea down on her bedside table; Jane puts a hot water bottle on the bedspread.

‘You looked cold in the car.’

It feels odd, the attention all centered around her, but nice too. 

She's surrounded, shielded, protected.

‘Thanks’

‘No problem, Kitty-Kat.’

‘Will you be ok, Kitty?’ Anna is still eyeing her as if she might break down all over again and she shakes her head firmly.

‘I’ll be fine. Really.’

As much as she had been prepared to push on through rehearsals and performance, the hot shower and the warmth- of the hot water bottle, of Cathy and Anne perched on the bed either side of her- is making her as if she could sleep for a year, even though it’s only mid afternoon. 

The thought of being on her own doesn’t even feel as lonely as it might have done this morning- she can read a bit, she thinks, maybe try the Netflix series Anne keeps recommending. 

‘Don’t do any chores or anything that’s like work, ok?’

‘I won’t, I promise.’

 She has to swallow a yawn half way through her reply.

‘Get some rest, ok?’

She nods; Jane fusses with her pillows. 

It’s like being ill, it’s like being an invalid- but it’s also just nice, to feel so very cocooned in care. It soothes away the stress of the day, the anxiety and fear and the other emotions that have been unexpectedly unearthed: it helps push away the scared shakiness that's still threatening around the edges. 

Catalina tucks a blanket over her; it would make her feel like a child, except for the fact that it’s not something she can ever remember anyone doing for her, ever.

‘We’ll text before we go on.’

‘Ok.’

‘Thanks for….being so honest with us today Kitty-’ Cathy adds. ‘It was really brave.’ 

There are murmurs of agreement.

‘Thank you-’ She feels her face heating up as she says it. ‘Thank you for….listening. And for….everything.’

‘Thank you for letting us help.’

‘Remember, we’re all here if you need a reminder. If you need us to help drown him out a bit.’

‘Or just for anything-’ Jane adds quickly ‘Anything at all, sweetheart.’

‘Promise you’ll let us help you?’ Anne actually looks anxious as she says it, her hands clasped in front of her. ‘Promise you’ll keep on being open with us?’

‘I promise-’ she starts and then starts again. ‘I promise- as long as you promise the same?’ it sounds stupid as she says it and she half wants to take it back but it’s hard to do so gracefully when there are five people hanging on your every word. ‘Promise you’ll all...let me help you too?’

Theres a moment and she cringes- what a stupid stupid thing to say, as if she could help them. Then Catalina sighs.

‘God the fact that that bastard made you doubt for even a moment that you’re a good person makes me want to scream.’

‘What Catalina means is- yes.’ Cathy interpets.

‘We’ll all help each other. We’re a family- right?’

The other queens exchange anxious hopeful glances, and for the first time, the bonds that she’s imagined between the other queens as being strong and impenetrable and utterly beyond anything she could hope to attain seem...fragile. Newly forged, just as her own are. But so full of hope. so very full of hope.

‘Yes’

‘That's right’

She feels the tiniest glow that this is something she’s made happen- this moment, she can sense, is a shifting of states of being, a growing closeness. It's a change that happened because of her, and it’s this- even more so than the way she feels oddly lighter now, even more so that the feeling that she's shed something heavy and dragging that she’d been carrying around- it’s this that she’s grateful for.

They’re not a family, not yet- but they could be.

One day.

[dreamcity-rawr]

Comfy || Jeno

Character: Lee Jeno (NCT DREAM) Genre: 7 deadly sins - Sloth, fluff Words: 2.1k words Summary: in which you wake up the demon of sloth, Lee Jeno Warning: language Request: Jeno extension of demon!nctdream 

  “You want me to what?!” You turn towards the group of older males with a look of disbelief. You’re casually sitting by the infirmary desk, looking after the place for the day because the doctor in charge has an urgent matter with her daughter again and you’re the only person she trusts enough to ask for help.

   You don’t have to do much. Just sit there and write down the names of any students that come in for care or just to rest. There isn’t much of a need to treat anyone’s injuries because no serious stuff really happens around your school.

  It was all going so well, with no disruptions or problems until these people show up, asking you for the most ridiculous favor. You recognize them as the basketball team and you know well who they are here for.

  “We’re having an important practice for tomorrow’s match and we really need him to wake the hell up. He’s been skipping too many practices just to sleep in this place” One of the males reasons. You watch them as if waiting for them to give you more of a reason but seeing as they aren’t saying anything more, you continue, “And that concerns me because?” Your brows meet in both confusion and annoyance.

  “You’re the only person gutsy enough to wake him up, y’n. You’re in charge of the infirmary anyways right? So.…” Another says, nodding his head as if to make you nod yours as well, it only manages to make you scoff.

  “Don’t give me that bullshit. He’s your teammate, go wake him up yourselves” you reason back. The older males all sigh before one steps up to say, “He broke the captain’s arm the last time he tried to wake him, we can’t afford to lose another good pla-”

“-and what makes you think he won’t break mine? Jeno’s a demon for god’s sake, I don’t want to wake him up and have my head chopped off” You shake your head in defense, refusing to even think about what might happen if you were to take on the responsibility.

  For the very few times that you were present at the infirmary, you always see Lee Jeno on the list of “patients” resting in the infirmary, he just sleeps there most schooldays. Makes you wonder what kind of sickness he, a powerful and probably immortal demon like him, might have that he’s always in there. How on earth did he get into the basketball team in the first place if he’s so sleepy all the time.

   The times his sleep’s disrupted are terrifying and you were unfortunate enough to witness the rage that’s Lee Jeno, woken up from sleep. The minute anyone even touches him, his hand shoots out to grip their throat so fast you’d think he wasn’t even asleep in the first place. His eyes turn this unnatural and demonic green color, sending shivers down your spine just seeing it from afar.

   The time Jeno broke the captains arm was the time you were sick so you were resting in the bed next to his. You, as a light sleeper, were woken up instantly when you heard the captain call for Jeno. So when you turn around to frown at whoever was making the ruckus, Jeno already had him pinned against the wall as his other hand grips the older male’s arm that just shook Jeno awake.

  In a breath, he broke his arm with a sickening crack, sending the older in a painful scream. That was the day you decided you’d never, ever, even think about talking to him when he’s sleeping, let alone touch. Not even if the building was on fire.

   In a way, it opens your eyes. You’ve always thought demons are just like human beings with just a bit of supernatural power. But after witnessing Jeno’s rage, you come to realize that demons are so dangerous that humans are nothing but flies compared to them.

   After that situation, the doctor had told you, Jeno is a demon, yes, that you know. But he’s a demon of Sloth, meaning he’s just flat out lazy. And it explains why he’s sleeping most of the time and if he’s not, he just looks so drained, as if life was sucked out from him. And that also means that anyone who stands in his way of getting sleep has a death wish.

  “Come on, y/n. Just this once. You’re a girl anyways so he might go easy on you” the older male says, almost pleads. Your gender doesn’t change a thing. Jeno’s a damn ruthless demon. Nothing can possibly make you even touch Jeno. You’re not that eager to die young and definitely not in such a pathetic way.

  “You wanted that limited edition pikachu figure for your sister’s birthday, right?” That’s when you look back at the male, quiet for a long and thoughtful minute. The male smirks to himself as he’s hit the bull’s eye.

  Your sister’s birthday’s coming up soon and she’s been talking about that dumb pikachu silver figure every single day. And you truly want to get it for her, only problem’s money. It is so expensive as it is limited edition but then again, the way your sister’s eyes always sparkle when she talks about it just makes you eager to finally get her a great gift after so many years of being apart from her.

  A long sigh leaves your lips as you stand up from your seat. You turn to look at Jeno, sleeping so soundly before looking back at the basketball team, “You better get that fucking figure for me, I’m sacrificing my limbs for this, dude”. The male smiles in content, nodding his head vigorously.

  Here goes nothing, you think as you approach the bed.

  You watch him quietly, gathering your courage to do this dumb thing, sleeping so soundly. His features are a mix of softness and sharpness together. So peaceful and gentle as he breathes softly, body curled up a little as there’s no blanket. He was too lazy to get himself one even in this chilly weather. But his nose and jaw are so sharp they could cut, those and his piercing gaze are what draw this really cold and fierce aura to him.

  Your hand reaches out, hovering over the male’s shoulder hesitantly. You turn to look at the team of basketball players once again, as if to think through whether it’s really a safe idea only to roll your eyes as they hide themselves behind the door, just as anxious and nervous just standing that far away.

  You look back at Jeno and clench your jaw, hand finally going forward. As soon as your palm makes contact with his shoulder, his eyebrows narrow in a frown. You inhale sharply, freezing for a second, waiting for any alarming reactions. That’s when his eyes open ever so slowly before he looks you directly in the eyes.

  If looks could kill, you’d be long gone. There is this cold and distant feeling about him as he glares at you with his greenish eyes. Your lips tremble as you let out a quiet, “Your teammates are looking for you”. It comes out way shakier than you intend it to and Jeno feels the fear even through your palm.

  You brace yourself as you notice the snarl curling at the corner of his lips. He’s pissed.

  But then his eyes move from yours to your body. Or more exactly, what you are wearing. It’s a chilly winter so you’re in an oversized hoodie, one that you feel really comfy in just because it is warm and soft. Unsure of what he’s thinking, you look down at your hoodie before looking back at him with a tilted head, “W-Wanna borrow thi-” before you can even finish, your vision spins.

  The next thing you know, you’re lying on your side on the bed Jeno’s in. your eyes widen as you feel his arms circle around your waist, one hand even reaches beneath the hoodie, coming in contact with the shirt you’re wearing under it. Your back is pressed flush against his chest, feeling the coldness of his skin even through the thick hoodie. His legs tangle with yours as you don’t even dare move an inch from the position he’s holding you in.

  Your eyes wander towards the doors in panic, searching for the basketball team and asking for some help because Jeno’s about to either crush you and suffocate you but to your horror, they had fled the minute Jeno had pulled you down onto the bed, not wanting to be involved.

  You curse mentally as your eyes shift around the room, feeling Jeno’s grip around you go even tighter. You close your eyes shut, just waiting for pain to start hitting you or any of that sort. But then the only thing you really feel is breath hitting against your neck. Jeno’s cold breath sent shivers down your spine.

  “Mmmm, warm and comfy” he hums, face almost hidden at your nape, his nose grazing it slightly with every breath he takes. And you realize, he’s gone back to sleep when you hear the gentle snores.

  “Jeno?” you call out quietly to confirm, not really sure whether you should be glad that he hasn’t hurt you yet or not. Because being in this position isn’t something to be glad about either. But then again, should you really take the risk of waking him up again and probably having him go mad demon mode at you for real?

  You wiggle yourself from his grip, hoping it doesn’t wake him up. But to your discomfort, his arms are so tightly wrapped around you that you can’t even shift your position. A low growl comes from behind you and you freeze in your spot.

  “Stay still, stop moving” his voice is so low, somehow even demonic, that you feel the vibration at the back of your neck. “just let me go and you can continue sleeping” you say, not sure why you even said that, knowing you could be getting him pissed and yourself in trouble.

   A gasp leaves your lips when his arms loosen around you only to swift you up and turn you around so you’re facing him. It all happens in a blink of an eye, because it is a demon you’re dealing with here. His speed takes the breath right from your lungs. But another thing that leaves you breathless is how close your faces are right now.

   Jeno’s face is just a breath away from yours, his eyes looking right into yours, still droopy and tired as always. His features are absolutely stunning up close, as if carved by heavens. He’s a demon, maybe he’s carved by Satan himself.

   “Woah…how the hell does one look like this?” you mumble unconsciously as you just stare at his features. You feel his hand snake up to the back of your head and in a second, he presses your face against his chest before his other arm returns to wrap around your frame, “Shhh, you talk too much” his voice is tired yet so alluring.

   It leaves your heart beating like crazy. At this point, your face is flushed because one, it’s getting pretty hot and two, Jeno gets you so flustered with so little effort. There are lots of attractive guys, yes, but Jeno just has this alluring aura around him that just screams inhuman. And as much as it nerve-wrecks you, it also excites you.

  “Had I known you’re this comfortable to hold, I’d have already joined you all those other times you were here” you hear him say in his tired voice and you look from his chest in surprise. Your eyes widen you notice he’s already been looking down at you.

   “How do you even know I was here when you’re always asleep” You ask, actually having the courage to hold a conversation with him, he watches you for a quiet while before he closes his eyes while replying, “I hear everything in my sleep”.

  “Wait, so you heard your teammates earlier?” you ask with a raised brow, shifting your position to put some space between you two but Jeno’s not letting you move even an inch, instead, he pulls your face into chest once more, this time, making sure to secure it there so you stop talking to him as he drifts back to sleep, but not before muttering a quiet, “This is much better than that pikachu figure, don’t you think?”.

  Shit, he got you.

   author’s note thank you yoonbabe-d and anon for sending in teh requests~ I love doing these extensions, maybe taht’s why they end up being too long, lol...anyways, hope you enjoyed reading this~   ♥️ I love you  ♥️

[shadowluverworks]

Remissionem - Chapter 4

If you’ve been keeping up with the show, (SPOILERS HERE) Della has returned to Earth. In this story however, Della is still gone, and her whereabouts are unknown, she is presumed dead. (END SPOILERS)

This story has some gore in it, considering it’s about a family overcoming an accident and fighting mortality. Reader discretion advised as I work at a veterinary clinic, so wounds and the treatment of them may be described rather realistically. If you have a squeamish stomach, I suggest not reading these sections. For those of my readers who like this sort of stuff, I hope you are satisfied you creepy little nerds! Thanks for reading guys!

Chapter 4: Once Set Together

Pants leave the old duck as he regains his breath, coughing weakly here and there. Scrooge just barely succeeded in restraining himself from giving his third nephew a swift kick across the plane’s belly. He releases his death grip on Donald’s arm, who promptly rubs it with a wince. He lowers his left leg once again. His injured hip had been throbbing at the movements, but that pain had been numbed in comparison to what his kin were doing to him. He attempts to force himself to relax for a brief moment.

Dewey and Huey have moved aside, the broken leg now successfully splinted. They’re some pride showing in their faces, but mainly they’re just happy to have escaped unscathed. Scrooge glances at his lower limb. It seems straighter now than before; the two had done a good job, they should be proud of themselves, just like he is.

Breath now returning, his gaze rises back to his great nephews with a long blink, “...good lads...” It’s all he can manage right now. But it’s enough. The two give a small sympathetic smile back to him.

With that taken care of, Webby and Donald are ready to move on, whether he is or not. His first nephew is already lifting his bad arm up and away again. A whine wants to force its way out, but he puts an end to it before it even begins. They mean well, he knows, but the exhaustion of the whole ordeal is seriously catching up to him. He’d already lost consciousness more than once and can’t promise he won’t again. The concussion still makes his stomach twist and turn with every passing second, and there’s no way he could walk a straight line with the dizziness that plagues him. Lying more on his right hip again to give Webby access to the injury, he uses his good elbow for support, but it’s already trembling under his weight.

The girl duckling puts a towel on the floor in front of her to soak up any fluid and opens up a fresh water bottle. Donald kneels next to her, one leg on either side of his uncle, almost straddling without putting his own weight on the other. He delicately holds the bad wing out of the way with his right hand and places his left on Scrooge’s right ribcage to keep him in place and prevent him from moving away.

With the old duck pinned in a sense, Webby starts to pour the water over the wound. The oldest nephew immediately tightens his hold as the injured avian starts to thrash weakly with a groan between his clenched teeth. The boys see the struggle and assist their uncle in restraining, Dewey holding down the legs that have started to kick and Huey running around to the other side. He kneels next to the rich duck’s right side near his head, holding his shoulder in place and helping in any way he can to prevent any further injury.

Webby’s brows furrow, she hates having to see her hero recoil in pain by her own hand, but she knows it’s what is best. He would tell her not to hesitate if he were in his right mind. She steels her nerves, fighting her conflicting emotions, and continues. Her fingers circle around the inside of the cut and between the skin flaps, cleaning out any dirt and debris that might have gathered. A breathless gasp meets her ears as water and blood pool together on the floor.

The pain is too much. Scrooge wants to tell her to stop, he can’t take it anymore. He’s ashamed of himself; the toughest of the toughies fighting a wee lass over a boo-boo. But this boo-boo hurts like he couldn’t imagine. The ribcage possesses only a thin layer of skin and hardly any fat deposits over it, making it an extremely sensitive spot on the body to begin with. As if the cut wasn’t enough, every time her small fingers move back and forth, he could feel the bones shift around inside. The assault to his already broken body makes his supporting arm finally give way and he lands on top of Huey beside him, forcing Donald and Webby to adjust their positioning as the bloodied mess pools onto the blankets beneath him. Blast me bagpipes, this is worse than me arm!

The oldest triplet is knocked over by the force of his great uncle falling on him and he lands on his rump, the entrepreneur’s head landing in his small lap as a cough leaves him again. Huey is unsure what to do for a moment as his uncle’s now free hand squeezes the quilts below them. He’s almost certain he saw the dark turquoise eyes were moist when they widened with the pained wheeze; he’s never seen the old man cry before.

His uncertainty is replaced by his older brother instincts. Many a night has he calmed his younger brothers after a nightmare or provided support when they had fallen and scraped a knee. He’s dealt with this before, it was no different, the subject was simply older than he in this situation. He just needs to calm the other down.

He places his tiny right hand over the larger one tightly clinging to the blankets. It’s cool and clammy to the touch. His other is placed on the man’s head, gently running his fingers through the tufts of soft feathers there and combing out any debris or dried blood clumps. He’s careful to avoid any cuts that are still actively bleeding.

The action is supposed to be soothing, but from his position he can see his Scrooge’s eyes open wide in surprise. The back of his head is to the boy’s stomach, and the child can only see his left eye as it searches, seemingly unsure how to react. No one had ever done this to him before. He’d lived his whole life without being comforted, and he isn’t exactly sure how to respond to the gesture.

Though as Webby’s cleansing reaches the deeper sections of the wound, all thought is replaced by pain again, and his eyes close tightly with a grimace and a grunt. Huey can faintly feel the hand beneath his open just slightly to release the blankets and allow his own hand inside the tight squeeze. The body atop his stifles as many sounds as possible and attempts to keep motionless, head turning more towards the floor beneath them and inadvertently closer to his own frame. Huey chooses not to say anything, to protect what little pride the old man has left. He was just happy to help in whatever way he could.

Finally, the tortuous cleaning stops as the girl moves on to her curved needle, “I’m gonna start sewing this up now, Mr. McDuck. Please try to hold still.” She doesn’t want to stab any more than she has to or cause more damage to the avian beneath her whose thrashing has started to still.

Webby receives a soft grunt in response, and starts with the innermost muscle layer, using the needle much like one would if you were to sew up a hole in a piece of clothing. Each puncture makes a tiny red stream form to join the already flowing river as she pulls the meat back together. When too much blood blocks her view, she uses some gauze from the first aid kit to dab it away and continues her needlework. Her patient trembles but sits surprisingly still. What makes her move faster however, are the now quick, shallow breaths forming beneath her quaking hands.

Donald notices the odd breathing rate now, too. His eyebrows furrowing as he cranes his head over to look at his uncle, “Scrooge?���

No verbal answer, just more rapid breathing. Dewey peeks over the sailor’s shoulder to see what’s happening, the legs he was holding down have stopped fighting him.

Webby finishes the muscle layer and urgently moves on to the second, the subcutaneous layer, trying to finish as soon as possible. The bleeding has dramatically lightened already, but each new puncture still causes more to form. She can see the old duck is starting to turn a bit more pale. She needs to get this bleeding under control.

Huey gives the body on his lap a light shake to get a response as he tries to see the other’s face. Eyes are tightly closed, beak open to pant, but no reply. The cold hand is still tightly squeezing his own, but he feels it would go lax if he moved away, “I think he might have passed out again!”

Blood loss, fainting, shivering, paleness, rapid breathing; Donald can easily recognize the shock is getting worse. He frowns, “I don’t like the way he’s breathing. How’s it coming, Webby?”

Said duckling can feel the pressure now, her hands shaking as she works. It’s not easy to sew a cut when it’s moving so much! The ribcage rapidly expands and deflates, moving the laceration as it does. She keeps her face focused to not let on how much she’s panicking inside, “I’m almost done with the hypodermic layer, then I just have the skin left!”

There’s a wheeze starting to form in the breaths. Donald’s brows knead together even more, “He’s having trouble.”

The eldest triplet’s fingers never cease combing the thick feathers, still attempting to calm the one beneath him, “If we had an oxygen mask, that might help!”

Dewey is already standing and turning to the flight deck, “Launchpad! Do you have an oxygen mask in here?!”

The pilot’s head turns to shout back, “I have one up here in the cockpit, but I think there’s a portable one in the back!”

The middle child puts his hands up towards the other, “Don’t move, just keep flying! Tell me where it is!”

“The locker where the medical supplies are kept; there’s a compartment built in the back; it should be in there!”

The youngest triplet turns around and walks to the balcony in time to see Dewey running to the back of the plane in search for the locker, “Why do you need a...”

He cuts himself off, stomach dropping at the sight. He can see the limp figure on the floor, face hidden by his uncle kneeling over it. He can barely see Huey on the floor, his face is upset. Webby is across him on the other side, her back to Louie, thankfully hiding whatever she’s working on. The once white towel on the floor at her feet, now a crimson color, doesn’t help his queasiness.

Dewey carries a mask in one hand and trails a dark green tank behind him. He stops next to Huey and they start turning the knobs on the tank. Donald uses his free hand to lift the oxygen mask up to his own face, testing to see if it’s working. It must be, as he hands it back to the other triplets who begin fidgeting with what he assumes is his great uncle’s face. The view is still hidden, and he can feel his anxiety starting to well up.

Launchpad turns his head to the green triplet again, “What’s going on?”

Louie ignores the question, and yells out his own to the group below, leaning over the balcony railing to try and see, “Is he ok?!”

Donald turns his head to him, “He passed out again! He was breathing a little funny but he’s fine now!”

Louie breathes in relief. For a second, he thought they were losing the old codger. He watches for a bit longer, before turning back to his seat next to the pilot, “He’s ok.”

The phrase repeats in his head, as if still convincing himself. Launchpad looks concerned but turns his head back to the sky before them.

Dewey glances at his elder brother next to him, who returns the worried expression. Their uncle hadn’t been completely honest with their youngest sibling. Louie was exceptionally emotional, and Donald had tried to reassure him that everything was under control. But the truth was even after they had fitted the mask around Scrooge’s beak, his breathing still has yet to return to normal. Fog forms in the front of the clear mask with every breath, the same troubled expression on his face.

Webby finishes her last stitch on the skin and cuts the extra length away. The black stitches stick out on the white feathers, but at least the bleeding has mostly stopped now. The feathers themselves turned out to be quite bothersome in trying to get her needle around, but at last the gash is back together. She puts down her instruments and picks up the water bottle again, rinsing her work clean once more. The blood stains are still present as well as the deep bruise, but the injury itself looks much better. A clean towel dabs up the moisture and dries the feathers. The duckling sits back with a sigh, her face now finally showing her concern as she looks up at the sailor.

Donald leans over to look at her work before smiling back to her, “And you said it wouldn’t be pretty.”

Webby gives a small, half-hearted smile in thanks. The duck lowers the injured wing once again and moves away to sit next his nephews.

With the laceration now being left alone, the family notices the rich duck’s breath starting to slow down. Each breath gets deeper and his whole body seems to relax, the pained expression now moving to a neutral one, and the grip on Huey’s hand softens.

The eldest triplet continues running his left hand through the soft feathers on his great uncle’s head, “That’s better. I think he’s ok now.”

Donald stretches before reaching for the needles and tools beside Webby, “Good. Let’s keep cleaning the cuts while he’s out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Donald’s steady hands work to bring the thin skin back together on his uncle’s forehead. Several minutes have already ticked by since Scrooge lost consciousness once again, this one is lasting longer than the other rather short ones before. Despite their worry, the group is actively taking advantage of it by cleaning the rest of the wounds scattered across his body. Ice packs are resting along the stinted leg to prevent anymore swelling from starting and ease what’s already inflamed. Most of the small cuts just needed cleaning, and Webby takes the initiative by rinsing them out with the water and then drying them afterwards with a towel.

Before moving along, Webby examines the large bruise over the left hip, lightly pressing around the bone. Nothing moves with her probes and the bones feel normal, though there is definitely some swelling around the joints. It’s most likely a deep tissue injury, and the bone might be bruised, but at least it doesn’t seem broken. With Scrooge’s age, his bones should be brittle; it’s a miracle more of them aren’t shattered.

Finished with the wounds here, Webby moves up to where the rest of the group are sitting. Dewey sits next to the green oxygen tank, making sure it doesn’t tip over. Donald’s sitting on his knees as he sews up the cut on Scrooge’s head, which rests in Huey’s lap.

The red garbed boy strokes the long feathers on the side the man’s face to keep out of the way of his uncle’s work; they’re much softer than he’d expected.

The girl duckling dampens a fresh towel and pats at the back of the rich duck’s head. Most of the small cuts there have clotted already, but she’s gentle. He most likely hit there when he landed, and it’s surely sensitive.

The old codger’s face twitches and they all notice, he’s been immobile since he lost consciousness. Webby finishes her cleaning and removes the towel. The sailor takes one last chunk of skin as he starts the last stitch and there’s a flinch in reaction. Two dark turquoise eyes open slowly, and he hurries to complete it. The blue pools are unfocused at first and simply blink in reaction to him tying it off and cutting away the excess.

As Donald sits back, the eyes suddenly widen as their owner’s mind becomes aware of his surroundings. His breathing increases slightly, and he then notices the mask around his beak. The hand holding Huey’s lets go and grabs at the mask as his breathing picks up to a panic; he’s unsure of what’s happening. Years of living on his own has made him expect the worst and awakening in this strange situation makes his mind assume he’s in the presence of an enemy. He can’t show weakness; he attempts to sit up in his confusion.

The eldest triplet seizes his hand before he can remove the mask and makes him pause in his movements, “No, no, no! It’s ok, you’re ok. Take deep breaths, in, and out. In, and out.”

The boy makes the old duck focus on him. Huey breathes with him, in and out. The eyes are large in alertness, but he watches the child closely, and follows his instruction, forcing his lungs to take longer, deeper breaths to calm himself.

Scrooge’s eyes lower and blink as his body starts to relax, his mind returning to him. He lowers himself back to the boy’s lap; he’s not among enemies, he’s among family; he can lower his guard. His hand remains on the oxygen mask, but he doesn’t remove it, yet.

Huey strokes his head again, “Good. Just breathe.”

He glances around him, noticing other family members looking down at him. Dewey sits next to the boy in red, holding on to what he assumes is the oxygen tank his mask is connected to. Webby sits next to the middle child, holding a crimson stained white towel. Donald sits next to her and beside himself. His own body is in an arc of sorts and wrapped around his first nephew. He doesn’t know how he got like this. Of course, he recalls the events that transpired earlier, his aching body making it hard for him to forget, but he doesn’t remember feeling faint.

Donald watches his uncle closely. Eyes glance around the room and at each of them, before finally locking with his own. He can see the confusion in them, silently asking ‘what happened?’ He answers the old man’s wordless question, “You passed out again while Webby was stitching up your side. You started having trouble breathing, so we found this oxygen tank and hooked you up to it."

Scrooge’s eyebrows furrow in what seems to be annoyance; he doesn’t like being doted over. Before anyone can stop him, he pulls the oxygen mask off his beak, and starts to push himself up to a sitting position with a grimace. His kin bark at him to stay still and lay low, but he ignores them until he can finally rest against the pillow leaning on the Sunchaser’s side. He lets out a breath before addressing his family, “...Oh quit yer worryin’. Ah’m fine.” His body rests heavily against the plane’s wall as his head spins with the sudden vertical position. Eyes close to keep the world from revolving before them.

The family can say little to sway the stubborn duck, they all know from experience. Instead of insisting he should lay back down, they decide to finish what they started. Scrooge had been laying on his right side, which prevented any wounds on that portion of his body from being cleaned. There are still a few small cuts that need attention, but the biggest one is the large laceration on his upper right arm. The gash had already made a bloody stain on the blankets where he had previously been lying a short time ago, and most of his feathers on that side are now a dark crimson color.

Webby is the first to start dabbing away at the smaller scrapes here and there, making the old duck open his eyes at the sudden probing, but he does nothing to stop her. Dewey turns the oxygen tank off, seeing as his great uncle was bound and determined not to use it anymore. But instead of returning it to the medical locker, he lays the tank on its side and pushes it only a short distance from them in case they would need it again. Huey readjusts the ice packs that have moved away from the broken leg to cover it again as Donald moves closer to inspect the bleeding arm.

The cut isn’t life-threatening, but deep, and would definitely need some stitches. Putting more towels underneath them, the sailor takes his bottle of water and starts to dump it over the wound, instantly sending a crimson river flowing down the other’s arm. Scrooge flinches, mainly from the sudden cold water running down his arm as he glares at his nephew, who promptly begins cleaning out the gash with searching fingers once again.

The rich duck grunts, leaning a little away from his kin, “Must ye git every nook ‘n cranny?!”

A scowl reaches his, “I’d hate for you to lose your arm from infection after I missed all the dirt in here and then closed it up!”

An eyeroll with a groan in frustration, but Scrooge doesn’t snap back.

Even though they argue, Donald can honestly say he’s happy his uncle is putting up a fight again, it means he’s starting to feel a bit more like himself. The sailor worried when his usually tenacious uncle never once retorted to them. As much as he wants to sigh in relief and even hug the man for the simple reassurance that the old cheapskate’s still alive, things still aren’t right between the two of them. He knows it, and he’s sure Scrooge is aware of it as well, but neither are the best at talking about their feelings. Thankfully that could wait for now, there were more pressing matters that needed to be dealt with.

He picks up the instruments again, hoping these would be the last stitches he has to do for a long time. He brings the needle to the muscle layer first, taking a decent sized chunk to start bringing back together. His uncle winces and grunts at the sharp stabbing but tries his best to remain still. Being able to physically feel your muscles being tied together is a strange sensation, and one that is not exactly comfortable. The old duck shifts a little, trying to distract himself as his nephew continues down his line of sutures.

Donald would almost prefer it if Scrooge was sleeping again now. The way he recoils and fidgets is not making this an easy job. At least when he was unconscious, he held still. The sailor feels bad for the young duckling that had to sew up the large laceration on the rib cage half an hour ago.

In the midst of his uncle’s writhing, his needle unintentionally pushes deeper than planned, drawing out a bigger trail of the red fluid. A yip rewards him as the body flinches away a few good inches, snarling, “Take it easy!”

He’s blamed for it, of course. He hisses back, “Well stop your squirming!”

The old codger snarls back at him, “Ah’m only squirmin’ because yer bein’ too rough!”

There is no gentle way to sew up a laceration; it’s not going to be painless. Donald’s eyes narrow as he draws out his trump card, “Would you rather we have Mrs. B take care of this when we get back?!”

Immediate silence...followed by a few grumbles under the Scottish duck’s breath in his Gaelic tongue.

Scrooge knows better than to have his housekeeper, Mrs. Beakley, dress wounds. The woman was a secret agent and a better bodyguard than he could ever hope for, but she was not known for her gentle nature. On the few occasions the world’s richest duck had been injured, she lived up to her ruthless and merciless nature. Sure, his wounds had healed well and were properly taken care of, but the pain involved in her rehabilitation techniques were worse than the initial injuries themselves. Even her own granddaughter, Webbigail, had learned at a young age to dress her own scrapes and cuts les she fall victim to her grandmother’s unforgiving methods.

At the housekeeper’s name, Webby visibly winces at the thought. Her reaction only seals Scrooge’s hesitation at having Mrs. Beakley sew up and dress his injuries. Instead of arguing or retorting more, he looks in the other direction and holds his body as still as he is able. His attempts prove to be beneficial for his nephew, who finally finishes the muscular layer and can move on to the second layer.

The girl duckling has moved to Scrooge’s left side to be out of Donald’s way, though she continues her cleaning by leaning over and carefully patting the cuts. There’s a particularly sore looking mark over his right collar bone, and she gently dabs away at it, trying in vain to clean the gravel and dirt from the scrapes. He winces with a strained grunt, whether from her or the sailor’s doing one can’t be sure, but her dark eyes still flick up to his in sympathy, “Sorry.”

He shakes his head just slightly, a bit unnerved at the look in them, “Don be, ‘s nae yer fault.”

There’s an awkward silence at that. No one replies as it seems everyone is lost in their own thoughts. The rich duck notices how the many pairs of eyes that were looking at him just a second ago, now glance away as their owners pretend to be busy with whatever they can occupy their hands with. He furrows his brows; what’s going through their heads?

With his mind distracted, he fails to notice his nephew move to the skin layer on his wound, and before he knows it, the gash is already completely sewed up. Donald leans away with a sigh, “There. Now at least you won’t bleed out before Mrs. B can get ahold of you.”

Scrooge stifles a groan. There’s sure to be many choice words filling his ears when they get back. He’d rather his kin have left him in the jungle.

But at last, his wounds have been tended to, at least until they get home. For now, they can relax and try to forget about what had happened. The entrepreneur feels a shiver starting in his frame again. Blood loss is cruel to the body. He’d tried to ignore it as best he could before, but now it’s proving to be too much.

Donald notices the trembling right away, finds a thick blanket, and promptly covers his uncle with it, tucking it in around him. Scrooge wants to retort at being babied but can’t find it in him as the warm quilt gradually rises his body’s temperature. His nephew places a hand on his forehead, mindful of the stitched-up cut, and hums in thought, “You still feel like you have a fever. Try to get some sleep.”

The rich duck blinks slowly back in response; his body feels heavy.

After cleaning up the mess they had made, the two boys and Webby all but passed out in various locations along the plane’s floor. They were utterly exhausted, merely running on adrenaline this whole time to make sure the rich duck would survive. Donald had sat down a little way away from Scrooge, leaning against the plane’s side. It was obvious he was having trouble staying awake as well, his eyes closing longer at every blink, head lowering.

The old duck can’t but feel pride in his kin. They had taken such great care of him already, ignoring their own needs. He adjusts a little, trying and failing to get comfortable as the dull pain relentlessly throbs throughout his frame, his shivers only exasperating it. A few minutes pass before the soft snoring informs him of his nephew succumbing to the fight. He closes his eyes as well, trying to at least rest and ignore his body’s complaints.

[5sauceprefs]

CEO (l.h)

CEO Luke congratulates Y/N on her promotion using more than just words. 

Words: 2000+

Warnings: lil tiny bit of smut

A/N: I haven’t written anything like this before but it was sooooooooo much fun, hope you love it you beautiful people. Thanks so much for all the love!

Monday morning only really meant meeting one thing: meetings. Every single Monday morning you would sit in the same meeting room, in the same spot, discussing the same topics in relation to the company. It had never really made sense to you. But, as you had literally just been promoted from marketing director to chief communications officer (as of yesterday!), it didn’t really feel right expressing this opinion. Yet. Besides, with the promotion came the new corner office with complete city views so who were you to complain.

Heading into the meeting room, everyone seemed to be there with only two empty seats left. In fact, the seat you usually take was filled with a young, unfamiliar face. So instead, you took the only one left. The seat right across from the big CEO himself, who was yet to make an appearance. As you took your seat, you felt the pit of your stomach drop. This new seat didn’t feel right? Being directly in the view of Luke was nothing short of terrifying. He was cocky, sexy, charming, intimidating and really fucking sexy. But, there was no time to show this. You had a new position in the company and today was your day to show everyone, and maybe even especially Luke, how perfect you were for the new role.

You were pulled from your thoughts by the sudden silence of your work colleagues which only meant one thing. Luke was here. Watching as he walked in, you couldn’t help but let your eyes wander up and down his tall frame. He was clad in his usual attire; a sleek black suit that was nothing short of perfectly fitting. Today, he wore a navy tie which was a nice change from his usual black. His blonde curls were a little bit messy but still totally sexy. The things you would do to run your hands through those curls, ugh.  

“Good morning team, I don’t have anything too exciting to start off with today but I will need to address some changes to procedures to finish up. Okay let’s get started, Mr Clifford, how are the accounts?” Luke said, his eyes not leaving you once despite addressing the entire room.

Aaaannnndddddd cue the point where you zone out.

Every Monday meeting was the same for you, pretend to be paying attention, check out Luke, nod a long as if you totally agree with whatever is being said, take very meaningful notes and repeat.

Looking up from your ‘notes’ and taking a sip of your water, you tried your absolute best to make it look like you weren’t affected by Luke’s heavy stare that was focused on you. But, you could feel the butterflies in your stomach starting to creep up. Making sure you still had Luke’s attention, you slowly moistened your lips with your tongue before biting down on your bottom lip. Watching Luke shift slightly in his chair, you couldn’t help but smirk as he subtly shook his head at you as if to say “don’t”. This was typical of you and Luke though, it’s like you both enjoyed teasing each other a little even if you did find him kind of intimidating. Although, nothing more than a cheeky comment when you passed each other in the office ever came out of it.

Ripping your eyes away from Luke, you turned your attention back to taking your ‘notes’ which was really you just doodling in your diary that was already too full with your daily schedules scribbled over the pages to actually be taking any real notes.

You almost jumped when the vibrating of the phone in your lap pulled you from your thoughts. The strategic placement of your phone, enabled you to view and send text messages in the meeting without anyone catching on.

You could feel the heat rising in your cheeks as you read the message that flashed across the screen in front of you and all it had was three words.

Luke Hemmings: Stop teasing, love.

Without even thinking, you quickly typed out your reply and smirked at the look on Luke’s face as you watched him read the text.

Y/N: I don’t know what you’re talking about?

Luke Hemmings: Don’t play games you can’t win, Y/N.

Y/N: Good thing I never lose, Hemmings.

And just like that, this is how your Monday morning meeting that was always exactly the same, was suddenly not so familiar.

Lifting your head up from your phone at the sound of your name being said, you couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed seeing as you had no idea who had just said what about you.

“Sorry, I got a text from my mum that was urgent.” You lied, “what was that?” you questioned, hoping that the rest of your colleagues would excuse your absence from the oh so important meeting.

“That’s okay Miss Y/L/N, I was just wondering if you could share the strategies you were hoping to employ in order to better the company as our new chief communications officer.” Luke said smugly, as if he was hoping you hadn’t thought this far ahead. Idiot. You had worked for him for too long to not know that he would spring something like this on you.

“Of course Mr. Hemmings. I have already sat down for an interview with Forbes, discussing the new journey we will be taking with our business. I believe it will be published in their next issue, they’ll be in contact with you for the cover shoot seeing as it will be the cover story. I have also signed three new investors as of 9am this morning, and I have two further interviews with possible investors this afternoon” you said, probably a little too enthusiastically. But, with Luke looking so shocked you couldn’t help yourself. “Oh, I also am currently finalizing a fundraiser that will be held for the community next week.” You finished, after pausing for a cheeky dramatic effect.

Y/N 1, Luke 0.

Sitting back down in your seat, you couldn’t help but smile. You had left Luke speechless and it was way too satisfying.

“Okay, that’s it for today’s meeting. I know it was only short but I’ll see you all next week.” Luke announced abruptly. “Miss Y/L/N, I’d like if you could stay behind please. We need to discuss more about this fundraiser you are currently organized.”

You knew that the organization of the fundraiser had nothing to do with Luke so you were almost 100% sure that you definitely wouldn’t be talking about it. What on earth was he up to?

Waiting for your colleagues to clear out, you couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous. What was Luke going to talk to you about? Or maybe he did just want to talk about the fundraiser and you were totally looking too far into this. He IS your boss and maybe he just wants to make sure everything is perfect because if one little thing stuffs up; it might tarnish the reputation of his business.

Getting lost in your thoughts, the sudden slam of the meeting room door startled you. Looking up from your handbag that you had been packing your things into, you couldn’t help but notice that Luke had twisted the small lock on the door to prevent people entering.

Before you could even register what was happening, Luke had lifted you up out of the chair you had been sitting in and placed you up on the desk. Using his hand to spread your legs slightly, he placed himself so he was standing in between them.

“So princess, I haven’t really gotten the chance to congratulate you on your promotion yet.” He smirked, placing one hand either side of you against the disk so that he was level with you rather than looking down at you.

Luke’s proximity made you swallow hard, eyes glancing towards his plump pink lips.

“A simple congratulations Y/N would suffice.” you teased, reaching forward to play with the hem of his shirt. The things you would do to rip this thing off him right now.

“I was thinking something more along the lines of this” he said, his voice so low and deep that he was barely speaking above a whisper. Tilting your chin up with his hand, he began to place soft kisses along your jaw and down your neck.

“You know, I did tell you to stop teasing princess” he continued, feeling his lips curl into a smirk against your skin as he continued to leave a trail of kisses down your neck and along your now exposed collarbone.

“and I told you that I didn’t know what you were talking about” you responded, a hint of playfulness in your voice as you started to loosen the tie from around his neck. If he was going to keep kissing you like this, it was only fair if you got to tease a little too.

In fact, you had decided that the minute he locked the meeting room door that you knew exactly what you wanted to do. You were going to tease him just enough to get him all worked up and then you’d leave. There was no way you were going to let him win this easy. Sure, you’d love to fuck his brains out. But, he was your boss and you weren’t quite that kind of girl. The chase was always fun, but you were more of a hopeless romantic. You wanted flowers and surprises, not a quick fuck in the meeting room.

“Bullshit. I need this off” Luke grunted, undoing the buttons on your white shirt before throwing it to the side. You watched as Luke’s bright blue eyes raked over your near naked chest, your intricate lace bra the only thing covering the upper half of your body.

“You should not wear a shirt more often.” He winked, returning his lips back to your neck. The kisses weren’t so soft now as he began to suck and bite at your neck, making his way down to your boobs. Running your hands through his blonde curls, you couldn’t help the moan that escaped your lips as his tongue flicked over your hardened nipples.

“So do you congratulate all off your staff like this when they get promotions?” you breathed, using every muscle in your body to stop yourself from moaning again. Luke definitely knew how to use his mouth.

“Only you, princess.” He said, pulling away from you a little to return his lips back to your mouth.

Feeling his hard bulge brush against your leg, you couldn’t help yourself when you reached down to start palming him through his pants. Feeling him against your hand only made you want him more and then feeling his moan against your lips was basically enough on its own to send you over the edge.

“Fuck Y/N, I need you. Now.” Luke groaned, almost desperately as he played with the buckle on his pants.

Gotcha.

“Too bad I don’t have sex until at least the third date.” You smirked, quickly hoping up from the table, lazily throwing your shirt back on and Luke’s blazer to hide the buttons that weren’t properly done up because you didn’t quite have the time.

The look on Luke’s face was priceless, you wish you had a camera handy to capture the exact expression. His mouth was hanging so far open it was nearly touching the ground.

“I told you I never lose, Hemmings” you called, just as you were about to open the door, sending the stunned boy a cheeky wink as you walked, or basically skipped, out of the meeting room. Did that really just happen?

Looking down to check the time on your phone, you almost froze completely in your spot as you read the message notification on your screen

Luke Hemmings: I’ll pick you up at 7, princess. Have you ever been on 3 dates in one night before? x

Uh-oh what had you just started?

[thisisnotawonderland-blog1]

Enter Sandman - Heavy thoughts tonight // And they aren’t of Snow White (Chapter 5)

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

A/N: this took ages! sorry! anyway, it’s not very ‘billy x reader’ this chapter, and it’s not the last chapter, there are more to come! so excited for season 2!!!!!

Warnings: lots of violence and war, that’s like it, but there’s a lot of it 🤷‍♀️

I’m going to start trying to post every Monday, but I might post more (or less) frequently than that.

-

When Y/N was on her second tour in Syria, she realised how easy it was to loose track of time. While she was there, she never heard what day it was, only times. See, when you don’t hear the date for a few weeks or more, you’ll lose track of what day it is, what the date is; simple things. There was one time, when the post from their family got delayed, that Y/N’s old squad had thought it was July, until she got a selection of birthday cards. Her birthday was in August. Y/N found that it was all well and good to know the day and the date, and the anniversaries of everyone’s marriages and births, but it wasn’t instrumental to anyone’s life. She forgot her own birthday, but what did it matter if she still knew her age? A birthday is really just another day; the 1st of January just marked another 365 days, 52 weeks or twelve months; time is a concept. - “I forgot to call my mum for Christmas and New Year’s.” “What?” Billy glanced at his friend - he didn’t really understand the whole drama about being with family at the festive time of the year (this was understandable, of course.) “She told me to call her. I forgot - which is annoying because this time I can’t say I was busy because I wasn’t doing anything.” “You were unconscious at Christmas and and still recovering at New Year’s. You couldn’t’ve called her,” Billy reasoned, making Y/N laugh. “I can’t believe that I, sniper and fighter pilot, got shot in the stomach on Christmas Eve. I mean, I blame you,” she said, ending on a joking note. “I told you to stop shooting and get down, but did you? No, of course not,” Billy said, making her laugh. “I was on a roll! Did you see how many people I hit! Even you can’t deny it was pretty epic,” she said, rousingly her eyebrows mockingly at him. “Nah, that was pretty cool. You could even say it was as cool as when I was on my first tour and I-“ “Bill, as much as that’s a great story, I’ve only heard it five thousand times,” Frank cut him off, entering the dormitory where Billy and Y/N were seated, “Y/N, Rawlins wants ya.” At that, Y/N hopped up from where she was sitting, cross-legged, on Billy’s bed. She pulled her boots on, messed his hair up and left, turning round only to say to Bill, “tell me later, k?” As she jogged across the sand dunes towards the mess tent, golds, scarlets and magentas staining the sky above her as she did so, she thought about what Rawlins had said when he spoke to her last, just before the Christmas Eve Mission. When she got to the tent, Schoonover was vacant, probably with some of the soldiers. she knew why he wasn’t there, but she pushed the thought away. No one could know. “Sir?” she asked. “Ah yes, Sergeant Y/L/N, I need to you talk to you, it’s about Operation Hecate - there’s been a problem,” he said, and she ran forwards to where the maps were laid out on the table. “What kind of problem?” she asks, urgency laced through her voice, “Is it-“ “It will still go ahead. But next mission, you’re going to have to do it. As soon as possible, we can’t hold this off any longer. You know the plan.” “What will the mission be?” “A staged one. And a dangerous one too. It will be… difficult. You don’t have to worry; just make sure you remember to turn your lights off.” “Of course, Sir. May I go?” she points in the general direction of the cafeteria tent. “Yes, eat, build your strength for tomorrow.” - “What was that about?” Frank asked as Y/N sat down on the bench with her food - canned army rations - and began to stuff her mouth. “Upcoming mission - just checking the F35’s in good condition for tomorrow,” she looked up from the food, and saw them all staring at her. “What?” she asked, looking at the three men, and they continued to stare as she shovelled another mouthful of food down her throat, “What?” “Uh, nothing,” Curtis said, eyeing her plate as another overly filled fork full was stuffed down her throat, “nothing.” “What, never seen a girl eat?” She said, almost laughing at the ridiculousness of their faces. “Not like that, I haven’t,” Frank chuckled, and she rolled her eyes. “Seriously, you guys are sexist. Just a lil’ bit, but sexist none the less. It’s food. I’m hungry. Stop making faces.” The men then pretended as if nothing had happened, Billy swiftly changing their conversation towards the elephant in the room - “So, mission tomorrow? “Yeah, it’s… I don’t know. Seemed like a big deal,” Y/N said, shrugging and dropping her cutlery unceremoniously onto her now-empty plate. It is a big deal. She know it is because it impacts her more than it impacts anyone else she knows - and doesn’t know, for that matter. - “Hey, Bill!” He turns to face the pilot behind him. “Yes, love?” He flirts, making her laugh; a look of terror passes her faces, he only just sees it, “are you okay?” “I need to talk to you -” She sounds urgent as she grabs his hand and pulls him away from the stacks of equipment and fellow Marines - “in private.” “What’s going on?” He asks, suddenly suspicious - and scared - of her behaviour. “Look, I need you to know something. Separately from that, tell Frank and Curtis that I loved knowing them-“ “What the hell is going on?” “It’s nothing to worry about. Bill, listen to me, and you can’t tell anyone else about any of this, okay?” “Y/N, I…” “Okay?” “Yes, fine.” “Something big is going to go down tonight. And I need you to know that I would never hurt you intentionally. This past year has been the best of my life. Especially since I got to spend it with you. Now, I really need to go - my charriot awaits. I… I lo - bye Bill!” She runs off, living him in a state of curious stupor - what the hell was going on? - There are two trucks; both khaki, both with a USMC symbol next to a ‘Stark Industries’ symbol on the right side; one had six soldiers (Frank, his three Marines and two medics) and the other had five soldiers (Billy, his three Marines  and Curtis.) No one dared to talk. The dirt trucks that they rode down were uneven, but no one noticed - they were checking equipment and hoping that the mission they’re on goes better that their last one. Overhead, the distant hum of a plane’s engine reminded that their friend will provide more than enough support. Even that did little to calm their nerves. Billy found himself praying - odd, since he’s an atheist - that Y/N would be there when they get back to camp; after her behaviour earlier, he felt as though she’s on a suicide mission. The squad pulled into a ditch, and the soldiers climbed out. They could feel it in the air - this was a battle they wouldn’t forget. - Black. Red. Orange, yellow, blue, pink, green. There was a rainbow of colours on the battlefield. Fiery colours of explosions; the blue hues of the twilight; the greens of the uniform. There are flashes of the brightest whites, and moments of suffocating black; there were moments when it feels as though the very earth itself is on fire. Occasionally, shrapnel fell from the sky like a monsoon - fatal to those in it’s path - when their British friend was successful; that didn’t stop the look of pure horror the Marines made when there was an aerial explosion - waiting for the confirmation that their plane was still flying. It felt as though it had been hours. They needed to turn around. They needed to retreat. There weren’t enough medics and there was so much dust in the air that it was impossible for the soldiers to see more then ten feet infront of their fingertips. It seemed as though enemy soldiers jumped out of thin air. There was an explosion in the distance. They could tell because their world lit up momentarily. Billy pulled his radio to his ear, waiting to hear the confirmation from Y/N that the last of the enemy planes was down and they can go home. - There was a crowd. There’s always a crowd. Frank was off doing who knows what (probably having a go at Rawlins) and Curtis was with patients. Billy was frantic, he checked the face of every soldier. “There’s no point in searching.” He turned to face the voice - Schoonover - in confusion. “What do you mean?” He asked, panic filling his body like mercury. “She went down at the end - so did the enemy plane. Lost one of the wings and didn’t have time to eject. I’m sorry.” He didn’t sound sorry. Billy screamed. He’d never lost his cool before - not like this - but he surged forwards, and suddenly there were three people stopping him from killing Schoonover. - “Hi, Flight Sergeant Y/L/N, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Director Nick Fury, and this is Maria Hill.”

[dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt]

Even numbers. Fuck you 💙

:’) 🖕💙

Under the cut… oh my god… lord give me strength… if any of y’all wanna get to know me… read this monster X’D

2. Are you outgoing or shy?

I think a bit of both?? I’m the type of person who’d willingly get lost in a strange city but also suddenly develop a stutter when I try to communicate with my fellow humans. :)

4. Are you easy to get along with?

lmao no.

6. What kind of people are you attracted to?

Kind ones. Who can tolerate me.

8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind?

An ex friend/abuser atm. :))))

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?

What qualifies as deep?? I guess, my Dad?? Maybe??

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

Dodie Clark - Monster

Easy Life - Pockets

Lorde - Buzzcut Season

Zack Hemsey - The Way

Fits and the Tantrums - Roll Up

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

Yeah, I think so?

16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

I kissed my Mum on the top of her head. So, yes. XD

18. Do you still talk to your first crush?

That would be Jesse. So, yes. Hope he doesn’t find this blog yikes. X’D

20. Do you like your neighbors?

Yes on one side. No on the other side.

22. Where would you like to travel?

America firstly. Then all over the place to visit other friends. I promised my Mum I’d take her to San Francisco one day, so I gotta keep that promise.

24. Favorite part of your daily routine?

PETS :DDDDD

26. What do you do when you wake up?

Try my best not to murder anyone while I get my cup of tea liquid life ready. XD Say hi to doggos and beep babies. Check to see if any of my friends need me urgently. Then eat toast.

28. Who are you most comfortable around?

My pets. My parents. My friends.

30. Do you ever want to get married?

I really don’t mind getting married or living in sin. XD It would depend entirely on what my partner wanted, I’d do whatever would make them happy.

32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with?

No one. Guess you could say I’m demisexual.

34. Do you play sports? What sports?

Does horseback riding count?? I’ve dabbled in a bit of cricket. But my lungs don’t like intensive exercising, especially cardio stuff.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

Story of my life, every single time. I’ve never told anyone I liked them. I’d rather die than make them feel bad or uncomfortable bc I know they don’t feel the same way.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

At the moment all I can think of is my crush lmao. :’)

40. What do you want to do after high school?

Absolutely nothing bc I’m a dropout. XD Be a completely self-taught author, hopefully.

42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean?

Online, I’m probably just really tired and don’t have the energy to be upbeat and/or talk to people. In real life, it’s nothing abnormal; I hate my voice so I don’t talk much and I like quiet. If I’m not using a bunch of emojis (you know how I normally do) when I’m talking, you know I’m either being super serious, or I’m pissed off, or both.

44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean?

NEITHER YIKES I LIKE MY SOLID EARTH THANK U VERY MUCH

46. What are you paranoid about?

Being annoying.

48. Have you ever been drunk?

Nope. Not really planning on it, either. I’m kind of curious as to how I’d be, though. Like I have deep-rooted buried anger issues so I might be angry, but I’m also depressed so I might be a puddle of tears and sadness, BUT my personality is v energetic and happy so… who knows, dude. X’D

50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore?

Blue and grey. It has “yo” on the hood. :D

52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself?

Biologically male. please.

54. Favourite store?

?? don’t have one. 

56. Favourite colour?

Navy or a kind of dark aqua-navy kind of colour, like a bit of a green tinge as well? I’m also really fond of yellow too.

58. Last thing you ate?

LEFTOVER HAMBURGER AND IT WAS DELICIOUS I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVED HAMBURGERS!!!!!!1!!

60. Ever won a competition? For what?

Yeah, dog training competition with our German Shepherd when I was 11.

62. Been arrested? For what?

No yet lmao.

64. Tell us the story of your first kiss?

I’ll be sure to tell you about it when it happens. XD

66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends?

I don’t have any irl friends so… HELL YEAH!!

68. Twitter or Tumblr?

Tumblr. Obviously.

70. Names of your bestfriends?

I could literally just list all my Tumblr friends here. I’ve learnt not to get specifically close to any one or two persons. So… all my beans!!! Love you!!

72. What colour are your towels?

Blue! :D I was forced to use the pink towels in the set when I was little and not out as trans so now I surround myself in all the gendered blue bullshit X’D

74. Do you sleep with stuffed animals?

….. maaayyyybbbeee.

76. Favourite animal?

D O G

78:Chocolate or Vanilla?

Neither.

80. What colour shirt are you wearing?

It’s my very yellow button down!! :D

82. Favourite tv show?

S E N S E 8

84. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2?

Never seen either oops.

86. Favourite character from Mean Girls?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

88. First person you talked to today?

Enna aka Cinnamonpuff aka steverogershield

90. Name a person you hate?

My brother, Mackenzie. :)

92. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

Anyone who mistreats animals.

94.How many sweatpants do you have?

I rarely wear anything but sweatpants, so I have 8. THEY’RE COMFY OKAY. And since it’s usually cold or hot here with no real warm in between, I’m either wearing shorts or sweatpants. It’s only in the rare in-between weather (like now) that I wear my jeans.

96. Last movie you watched?

Can’t remember. I watched the first season of Jessica Jones tho, so… show instead of movie. XD

98.Favourite actor?

TERRY CREWS

100. Have any pets?

YES!!! 3 dogs (one German Shepherd named Ria, a Whippet named Granger, and a mutt named Maude), 3 chickens (Haymitch the black one, Cinna the dark brown one, Effie the pale brown one) and 2 ducks (Peeta and Katniss.) THEY’RE MY BABIES AND I’D DIE FOR THEM!!! :’D

102. Do you type fast?

LMAO APPARENTLY I DO??? My Dad thinks I must type gibberish and makes me type out what he says because he doesn’t think I can type that fast. I only type with 2 fingers normally too. X’D

104. Can you spell well?

w e l l (idk. maybe.)

106. Ever been to a bonfire party?

Yup.

108. Have you ever been on a horse? 

Many times. I LOVE them SO MUCH.

110. Is something irritating you right now?

Yeah.

112. Do you have trust issues?

No. *insert canned audience laughter here* Yes, I do. Big time. Just bc I’m friendly doesn’t mean I trust anyone.

114. What was your childhood nickname?

Matt, actually!! :D

116. Do you play the Wii?

Used to, now I don’t have one anymore and it wasn’t my favourite console.

118.Do you like chicken noodle soup?

Y E S. GIMME!!!!!! :D

120.Favourite book?

Bird by Crystal Chan.

122.Are you mean?

I think I definitely can be very cutting when I lose my temper. But I haven’t done that in years now and I try very hard to be a good person. Luckily my first reaction is normally hurt, so by the time the anger kicks in I normally try and get out of the situation before I can say something harsh.

124.Can you keep white shoes clean?

NOPE. I can never keep anything clean, probably why I like dark colours so much. I literally do not own any white clothes anymore because they always get stained within a few hours of me wearing them asdfghjkl. 😅

126.Do you believe in true love?

Kind of. I believe that no relationship is ever perfect, but if people gel well and COMMUNICATE OFTEN AND HONESTLY the relationship can be amazing. I guess it’s its own kind of perfect relationship. I definitely think there’s people you get along brilliantly with, better than anyone else. There’s somebody in the world for everyone! :D

128.What makes you happy?

Animals. My friends. My OCs. :’)

130.What your zodiac sign?

Pisces!! I definitely think I’ve grown into it over time. X’D

132. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do?

??? depends on whether I like them back or not, obviously. If I do, I’ll probably scream for a solid week and then decide if I want to drag them into my mountain of bullshit with a relationship, or leave it be. If I don’t, let them down as gently as I can. Also I’m a raging bi, so gender wouldn’t matter. :P

134.Favourite lyrics right now?

My all-time favourite lyrics are from The Judge by Twenty one Pilots:

“When the leader of the bad guys sangSomething soft and soaked in painI heard the echo from his secret hideawayHe must’ve forgot to close his doorAs he cranked out those dismal chordsAnd his four walls declared him insane”

136.Dumbest lie you ever told?

“Did you let Haymitch jump on your back again?”

“Uh… noooo.”

“Then why do you have massive scratches in the clear shape of chicken feet on your back?”

“UHHHHHH-”

i”M A HUFFLEPUFF OKAY I’M NOT GOOD AT LYING X’D

128.How tall are you?

I’m not.

140.Brunette or Blonde?

Like, people I’m attracted to, or for me? I honestly don’t care attraction wise. For me, I guess brunette bc I think I look really weird with pale hair lmao.

142.Night or Day?

NIGHT. Dear god, night.

144.Are you a vegetarian?

NOPE. Honestly think I’d go insane if I didn’t eat meat. XD I mean, I would if I had to, but I’d really prefer not to.

146.Tea or Coffee?

TEA. I hate coffee, I’ll leave that to other people. XD

148.Mars or Snickers?

SNICKERS. Mars are good but… Snickers!!!!

150. Do you believe in ghosts?

Hell fucking yes you bet I do pal!!!!!!

[solarpoweredflashlight]

Think - Saturn/LT Fanfic

“I’ve been thinking about you,” Saturn says, impulsively, angrily, hungrily, earnestly.

String of Pearls is somewhere nearby. Luna-Terra can read it in Mare Crisium’s input sensors, can feel it in the way she shifts differently. The prototype’s strange gravity changes the vibration of her old beast’s engines against Luna-Terra’s callused palms just ever so slightly.

“You say that like it’s my fault,” Luna-Terra retorts coolly, beads of sweat gathering and pooling between her shoulder blades as she flicks switches, twists dials. Like breathing, the muscle memory of each tiny adjustment, each analog translation from her mind to her body to her Ship-Self’s body and her mind.

But no – they’ve always been very clear they’re not supposed to think of the Ship-Selves as having their own thoughts, their own instincts.

She turns the ever-bleeding warhorse of a robot just so, searching, hunting. The others, perhaps, they use their Ship-Selves to see, to feel, to sense. Luna-Terra doesn’t have that luxury. Does she want it? Hard to say. She’s never known anything else but the struggle to translate her true intentions from one body into another, never known it to be effortless, and she has adapted. Some might say – some have said – that this struggle has shaped her, defined her.

Maybe one day she’ll replace Mare Crisium with a Ship-Self that doesn’t take so much work to make hers. But then, would it really be hers if she hadn’t put all that time and love and pain into understanding how to make it be what she needed it to be, do what she needed it to do?

“It is your fault,” Saturn chuffs, and shows her hand. So damn cocky. Is she trying to be found? Maybe. Ah – but she cheats, that damn Celestial Mechanic. The String of Pearls reveals herself momentarily to the sharpest of eyes, the cleverest of observers, and then recalculates all of existence, fudges the numbers, and she’s gone again with a wink before Luna-Terra can get a shot off. She’s gotten better. Or maybe she was always this good, and she’s just come to terms with the necessity of cheating to get what she wants.

“I don’t control what you think,” Luna-Terra says, and the sweat gathering between her shoulders comes together, rolls down her spine in one slick bead like a greedy thumb down her back.

“I felt that,” Saturn whispers over the comms.

“Get out of my head,” Luna-Terra growls, stilling in her cockpit, straining as if to hear with her human senses. But she can – she isn’t listening through the Mare Crisium, she’s listening to her. The body itself creaks and groans, responding to the tides of that slippery little asshole and her slippery little ship.

“I’m not in your head,” Saturn says, “I’m just listening in on the narrative – and the narrative says you want the same thing I want, I think.”

“And what is it you think?” Luna-Terra asks, a little smirk forming on her face. If she can keep Saturn talking – no, don’t think about it, don’t give her the opportunity to read between the lines. Don’t think, just do.

There she is.

Behind Luna-Terra.

Sneaking up. Snaking up.

The poisoned tip of a monstrous claw following the path of a bead of sweat in reverse, up the back of the Mare Crisium. Luna-Terra shudders, but waits. She knows better. She knows the second move is always more advantageous than the first. When the time comes her body, old though it is, retrofitted and fixed and made to fit if not made to fit, her body will know what to do.

“I keep getting sidetracked by this little thought,” Saturn says, and she doesn’t purr like Pluto does, but Luna-Terra can hear the grin in her voice, the violence, the rage, the trust, the threat, the promise. Sweat along her back, goosebumps along her arm. “Do you wanna hear it?”

When did Saturn get so damn cocky?

Time to teach her a lesson.

Before she has time to think, Luna-Terra is throwing herself forward, body within body, muscle memory flying loose and easy, natural as breathing, translating intent to kinetics to intent to kinetics, and Mare Crisium whips around, a steel greyhound bristling with edges honed sharp by humanity’s cruelties. Her spear hooks String of Pearl’s feet, flips them out from under her, and in a daring move her gravity flares – a burst of urgent assertion. Saturn goes down, but as she does she’s laughing.

“Hit a nerve, did I?” Saturn smirks, looking up at her from the ground as if she’s won the fight, as if she still has the upper hand.

“When did you lose your fear of me, I wonder?” Luna-Terra muses, striding to where String of Pearls lies crushed among the dust of Ares’ haggard surface. She crouches, looming over Saturn’s Ship-Self, and draws her blade. Saturn needs to be afraid. If she’s not afraid of Luna-Terra, then she’s not afraid of the Memorial Foundation. And if she’s not afraid of the Memorial Foundation, she’s not afraid of Earth – and she really, really should be.

“I would say it was the first time I saw you helpless underneath of me,” Saturn quips, and in that moment Luna-Terra realizes the String of Pearls’ tail is coiled tight around the Mare Crisium’s ankle. Too late. “And I realized you wanted to be there.” The tail yanks, and Mare Crisium’s feet are pulled out from under her body. She falls, breath catching, and the shock of the landing knocks the air right out of her.

The dust clouds up, her Ship-Self groans, her human body groans, and the String of Pearls insinuates itself against them both, thighs to thighs, palms to palms, stomach to stomach.

“And now we’re back here again,” Saturn says, gloating.

“So we are,” Luna-Terra says, a coil of something winding tight in her chest. Say nothing, give nothing away.

“You know what I keep thinking about?” Saturn says, as if she doesn’t have Luna-Terra pinned, as if they’re having this conversation casually and not through desperate, tense combat. “It’s really been pissing Mercury off how I keep trailing off and being distracted, it’s actually kind of funny.” String of Pearls’ face comes in close to Mare Crisium’s neck, and Luna-Terra can feel the thrum of her enemy’s Tidal Reactor through their touching Ship-Selves. “You, beneath me again,” Saturn says, her words ichor and wine, dripping poison that numbs and softens.

“I could throw you off of me anytime I want,” Luna-Terra says, attempting to sound unconcerned. Her reward is a loud guffaw, triumphant and childish, through the comms.

“So you admit you don’t want this to stop.”

“That isn’t what I said.”

“So say it.”

“That I don’t want this to stop?”

“If it’s true.”

Silence. Truth. Truth, hanging thick in Luna-Terra’s throat. She loves this. She loves the freedom of failure, loves the liberation of giving someone else total control. She hates having to be the one to make decisions.

Saturn laughs at her through the narrative, if not through the comms.

“Maybe just for a little while,” Luna-Terra says, and as the words leave her lips tension begins to leave her body.

“I’m not like Pluto,” Saturn says, easing their Ship-Selves more closely together, an embrace instead of a grapple. “I don’t think I can just know what you think, know what you want, know what’s best for you. There’s some stuff I can guess. You don’t make it hard to guess.” Luna-Terra feels her cheeks get hot, says nothing. “I’m not in your head, and we don’t have years of history. So I’m gonna need to trust you, LT.”

“You can trust me,” she says, and feels the sweet surrender in uttering those words.

“Can I trust you to speak up for yourself?” String of Pearls eases Mare Crisium to its side, encases it in a gentle hold heedless of the ever-seeping blood of its open wound. “Can I trust you to tell me no when you need to?”

It’s strange, to have it asked of her so plainly, but nice. Yes, it’s nice to not have someone just assume they’ll be able to read her like an open book.

“If you need me to,” Luna-Terra says, relieved to have been given a directive, “then I will.”

“I do need you to,” Saturn says, and Luna-Terra can read in her Ship-Self’s sensors that Saturn has opened her cockpit, “Because if I’m going to tie you down and sit on your face, I need to know you want it just as much as I do.”

“Fuck,” Luna-Terra exhales.

“What’s that?” Saturn croons, mocking. “Use your words, miss big tough ace pilot.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to tell me whether you like the sound of that, for one.”

“Yes,”

“Yes?”

A pause.

“Yes please.”

“Good girl,” Saturn laughs into Luna-Terra’s ear across the comms, and it’s a pure hit of pleasure, dopamine delivered direct to her brain. “My cockpit is open. You should come say hi, hotshot.”

“You want me to come to you?” To leave Mare Crisium, to enter String of Pearls. She thought it would be like before, when Saturn slipped past her defenses and inside her Ship-Self, inside her thoughts, inside her desires. This wasn’t what she was imagining – if she makes that journey across the chasm between their Ship-Selves, there’ll be no denying her desire, no pretending she was the passive recipient and not an active participant in this treasonous foreplay.

“Do you trust me?” Saturn asks. No. Yes. Maybe. Definitely. Definitely not.

“I want to.”

“Then come try it. Just for a little while.”

Luna-Terra thinks, just for a moment, before she remembers how much she hates doing that – stopping to think. Things never work out right when she stops to think. It’s a human tic she’s long discarded, and so she discards her uncertainty and opens the hatch.

There isn’t far to traverse, wrapped up in String of Pearls’ embrace like she is, but her heart is thundering like she’s run a lightyear marathon by the time she reaches Saturn’s waiting, open chassis.

It feels disrespectful to keep comparing her to Pluto, but they’re both such a big part of her life – both such fucking insistent tops sometimes – that she can’t help it. Pluto, Luna-Terra imagines, would be smiling benevolently, praising her softly for making this leap of faith.

Saturn is smirking, that damn smug idiot. It makes Luna-Terra melt all the same.

“Come here,” Saturn growls through her smirk, taking Luna-Terra by the lapels and kissing her, hard and hungry. Luna-Terra yields, softening and compliant, each shuddering exhale freeing her of the burden of thought, of decision-making, of responsibility. Mine, mine, mine, sing Saturn’s kisses, Saturn’s teeth, Saturn’s greedy fingers. Luna-Terra allows herself to be pulled into the cockpit of the String of Pearls.

Yours, her body whispers, with a trembling release. Just for a little while. Just for a little while.

[prongsno]

For Every Broken Dream 2/?

chapter one |  Chapter Two (read on ao3) {3357 words} At seventeen, James Potter’s only option is to work in service at the large Evans estate as a farmer. He can’t mess this up- he needs it more than ever. Shame things are never as easy as we want them to be.

A fortnight passes with no other visit from the strawberry thief, something that James is both relieved and curious about.

Throughout the days that follow he’s extremely grateful and thankful that Sirius is here to help him. The days are quiet and lonely without Slughorn, but the wide-eyed boy with the cheshire-cat like grin fills the gap, almost. He could even go as far as calling him a friend.

Summer reaches its peak; the days are golden and amber, as if the whole world is on fire around them. The hours are bright and he’s constantly surrounded by so much beauty that it makes his heart lighter each day. The colours he didn’t even know existed before seeing them through dainty flowers, the succulent smell of the sweet peas and geraniums that fill up his senses and make him feel like he’s in a different world.

He is, in a way.

Then there are the days that McGonagall makes her visit to check up on how he’s doing. Each day he sees her he hopes earnestly (and sometimes even prays) that he’ll see the housekeeper with a little brown envelope clutched tight in her hands, but each day it’s the same. No news, no idea how Slughorn is.

The woman, behind her stern brow and set lips, radiates a kind of motherly love and affection. It’s unnerving and heartbreaking. Especially when he’s almost run out of his stash of tea bags, so she brings him a handful from the manor so fine that he hardly wants to touch them in case his hands are too dirty.

She makes him a tea, all the while chattering about how many people she’s met during her life.

“You come to realise, Potter,” she says as she munches through her fifth bourbon biscuit, “that everyone is living their own life. Course, it sounds obvious when I say it like that. But all the people in the world are fighting their own battles. It makes you feel less lonely, in a way.”

He’s grateful for her company, especially on the days when Sirius fails to show and ends up sending a hurried, scribbled letter with one of the usual workers. It’s always the same ‘something urgent has come up’ and, while he’s definitely in no position to judge anyone, he can’t help but wonder about his friend’s life outside of the Evans manor.

McGonagall is just putting a slice of cake down on the wooden table one day when a panting Peter Pettigrew knocks on his door with a letter.

“It’s from Sirius,” The boy says before James can even open his mouth.

He nods all the same, opening the envelope with grubby fingers and scans his eyes over the elegant handwriting (how does Sirius manage to write so neatly?), even though he knows full well what it will say.

He should really check up on his friend and make sure he’s alright; it’s the fourth day he’s missed (which really isn’t that much when you take into consideration all the times Sirius has shown up at the crack of dawn, ready to work).

“Sirius again, is it?” The housekeeper asks, her eyes twinkling a little too knowingly. James nods and places the letter on the chair, shrugging.

“You care very deeply about him, don’t you?” she says, and pops another biscuit into her mouth. She nudges the tin over to him slightly. He doesn’t take one.

“I just want to make sure he’s okay, is all. I…” He laughs, a little uncertain, scratching behind his ear as he stares defiantly out of the window as to not catch her gaze. “Well. I don’t have many friends.”

McGonagall smiles and, when she does, her eyes shine like the northern lights he’s heard about in bedtime stories. James wishes she did that more often - it’d be a lot easier to work for her if she wasn’t stern and scary all the time.

“You’ve got a lot of heart.”

He isn’t so sure. She didn’t meet him then . When problems had arched upon his back like he was carrying the world on his shoulders and all he wanted to do was crumble from the weight of it all.

He didn’t even recognise himself now, if that was a good or bad thing he wasn’t sure.

“Aren’t you worried, Ma’am?”

“About what?”

“Sirius. And…” He can already feel the apprehension mixed along with fear and nervousness as he opens his mouth and licks his dry lips. “And Mr. Slughorn. He said he’d be back soon-”

It’s the way that she smiles at him and pats him on the hand, bringing his hurried words to a jumbled stop.

“Slughorn is well, I can assure you that. As for your friend�� just be patient.”

James nods, trying to let her words calm down the anxiety and tension that still twists uncomfortably in his gut.

McGonagall says nothing for a while.

They sip at their tea in a comforting silence, watching out of the window as the birds fly around in the trees. But then the old woman is nudging the tin full of biscuits at him again, her eyes twinkling.

“Have a biscuit, Potter,” she says.

This time, he does.

It’s the first light of day and James, eyes squinting against the bright sun, stumbles up the lane.

He half expects Sirius to not be there; but lo and behold there the boy is, crunching on an apple and blowing on a dandelion, the seeds flying around him in the light breeze.

“They’re a bugger to get rid of you know,” James scowls, slapping the dandelion out Sirius’ hand.

Sirius’s grin is wide. “Nice to see you too.”

“How’s everything? Was it something with your family?”

Sirius just shakes his head, brushing it away. “Nah it’s fine.” He chews on the last bite of apple and takes a crumpled letter from his chest pocket. “You should read this though. That girl came to deliver it this morning.”

“By girl , do you mean Mary?” James asks with a sly grin.

Sirius rolls his eyes, cheeks a little heated. “Oh was that her name? I couldn’t recall.”

One thing they seem to have in common, it seems, is their inability to lie. He lets it slide though, just this time. The last time Sirius saw Mary he was a bumbling mess and could hardly speak three words in front of her.

The letter is light in his hands, and the handwriting looks eerily like the familiar scratching of Slughorn. James rips the letter open in an instant, letting out a deep breath as he reads.

“The old man’s coming back! In four nights.”

Sirius peers over his shoulder, and presses his thumb against one of the inked words. “A fortnight ,” he says. “It means two weeks.”

“How’d you know that?”

“Err,” Sirius turns, and hastily pulls the wheelbarrow up with his hands. “I saw it one time in a newspaper one time?” He doesn’t even wait for James to answer back, just starts whistling out a merry tune and starts walking towards the gardens.

James swears, picking up his own manure-filled wheelbarrow and jogs after him. “Where’d you get one of those? The paper’s a lot of pennies.”

“Oh, I found it. In the bin.”

They stop moving, ready to deposit the manure by the vegetable patch. James still doesn’t look convinced.

“So you rummaged through a bin and found a newspaper just so you could learn a new word?”

“Reading’s fun.” He shrugs. “It's important and informative. Keeps your mind away from reality.”

It’s mid June, the weather changes frequently between warm and boiling and James, who anticipated the former, takes off his cotton jacket. It’s stifling, and he wipes his brow with the coat before throwing it over the barrow.

“Away from your family?”

The garden’s are busy today, with people tending to every aspect from the delicate, beautiful flowers and plants in the greenhouses to the very grass itself.

Sirius manages a nod. “I suppose.”

“You’re not the only one,”

“To have family issues?” Sirius wipes his brow, smearing mud across his face and laughs out. “Don’t think there’s anyone on this good earth who’s lucky enough not to have problems with family.”

It’s something he keeps in his mind all day. Even when they’re walking back towards the farmyard in the evening, when the sun’s rays are withering away behind cool clouds.

Are all family issues like his? Do they all hurt as much?

“Do you know much about Slughorn’s family?” he asks Sirius as the two stop to eat their dinner at the top of the hill.

From here, the whole estate and beyond is in view. The vast greenery, the gigantic Evan’s household, with its elaborate windows and dozens of steaming chimneys. Beyond that is the Black Manor, somewhere hidden in the distance.

“He has a happy family, from what I remember.” Sirius pulls at the grass next to him, fingers digging into the dirt. “Two boys and a girl. And Mrs Slughorn made the tastiest minced pies.”

“I hope nothing too serious happened, for him to pack up and go back like that.”

James takes out two crisp, tart apples and two slices of lightly salted buttered wheat bread. Sirius refuses to eat it, but gives in when James threatens to tell Mary all about Sirius’s feelings.

“He’s already endured a fair share of loss, they had another girl who caught scarlet fever when she was only little.” It takes Sirius a lot longer than James to eat the bread. Whilst James is ferociously hungry, and eats the whole thing in two bites, three at the most (he’s too famished to really count), Sirius takes dozens of tiny bites.

“I think he does go to visit them as much as he can. I tried to help him with the travel money,” At this point Sirius stops and stuffs the rest of the bread into his mouth. His eyes are a little panicked as he washes away the bread with water. “Of course but I, err, don’t have a lot. At all.”

James is only really understanding now that each family is different. They all have their problems. It’s a strange thought that there must be others in the world who suffer just as much as he is. Who have problems with family.

There has to be. He can't be the only one feeling like this.

In the back of his mind, he hears Sirius call out that he needs to leave. The sun is setting, it’s time for the work to end again.

“You’ve never told me about your family.” James blurts out, watching curiously as Sirius pauses, his feet crunching to a halt on the gravel pathway.

His fingers twitch as he turns back and gives him a small, sad smile. “Maybe one day.”

“Just so long as you know I uh…” James flexes his hands and bites his lip. “I’m here, if you want to - you know - talk.”

“You flatter me.”

“Oh, stuff it.” A twig is thrown in Sirius’s direction and he dodges it with another laugh.

“Thanks though, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Then off Sirius goes, the sun on his back and the trees dancing beside him as he departs back down the hill.

When the boy has disappeared from sight, James walks up the small lane towards the farm, his mind still reeling about family. His family, and the pain that resurfaces every time he remembers.

It's the numb feeling, making his fingers itch as he thinks back. That pain of loss, something most are aware of but few never really heal from it.

His feet halt to a stop when he hears a noise coming from the farm. There’s a light on in the house. Grubby, dirt-painted fingers grip tight onto the spade in his hands, and he tip-toes cautiously inside.

He’s met with a peculiar sight.

“You! You’re not planning on stealing the pig now, are you?!”

She’s like autumn; crisp, orange and red.

She gives him a stare, cool and undeterred and keeps stroking Dolores the pig.

“Do you know what shoes are?” he asks when her silence lasts longer than a minute.

She wiggles her toes absently and for a split second James regrets his question - what if she really is too poor to own a pair of shoes?

“You’re unbelievable,” she says after what feels like a lifetime.

Her voice is filled with joy and happiness and she snorts out a laugh, eyes crinkling as he stares at her, gobsmacked. He’s shocked, staring at her as she gives the pig a final pat and walks through the farm and towards the cottage.

His cottage.

He hurries after her, not sure if this is real or a dream.

“What are you even doing here?” he calls out, his feet rushing to fall in step with hers. His entire body is filled with butterflies, they jitter around inside making him feel all twitchy. He glances over to her, she must be a figment of his imagination. She has to be.

“Do I need a reason?”

She opens the door like she owns the place, waltzes towards the sink and begins to wash her hands. He doesn’t know what to do and for a fleeting moment it seems like she doesn't know either.

Once she’s finished with the sink her fingers flutter along the brick wall and she turns away from his gaze, a soft blush gracing her cheeks and then with a blink it’s gone as quickly as it came.

There’s silence.

“So, are you not going to offer me a drink?” she asks. She cocks her head, folds her arms against her chest and stares at him expectantly.

He stays where he is, leaning against the door, still too shocked to move. How can she affect him this much?

Her eyes twinkle, like she knows what he’s thinking, and his feet move before he’s even aware of it. He’s walking towards her, not entirely sure why.

“I don’t really have a lot to offer,” he says finally. “Water or milk. That’s about it.” He shrugs and glances down at her.

Dirty feet, the same baggy and worn out clothes that he last saw her in, her hair still wild and chaotic.

And yet she’s still breathtaking.

She hums and walks towards the fraying, red chair by the window. “No tea? That’s an outrage.”

“Ran out yesterday.”

He pours her a cup of water and hands it to her, trying his best to hide his shaking fingers. He’s not exactly living in luxury, but what he has, as little as it may be, seems to be a lot more than her.

She sits in the chair like it’s hers, like it was designed and made just for her. It looks so natural.

He stares as she drinks and she stares defiantly back.

“Are you going to tell me what you’re really doing here?” he asks once she places the empty cup on the table. “How did you know I’d be here? Who even are you?”

“That’s a lot of questions you’re asking, James.”

He shivers, delighted that she remembers his name. “Well, you’re not really giving me a lot to go on.”

Dusk snatches away any light left in the room like a thief, forcing him to light a candle. Once her face is illuminated by the dimmed light it’s like she’s a different person.

“I’m intrigued, I suppose.”

“About what?”

She lifts her head, and for a moment it looks like she’s struggling with what to say. “You.”

“Me ?” His eyes widen in shock. “Why?”

She leans forwards. “You’ve left your family, your home. You’ve travelled probably miles from the city. To come here.” She gestures around her. “ Here . In some boring estate where even the grass gets cared for. Why?”

“The city isn’t a great place.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve spent my whole life here. I can’t even imagine the city.” She looks out of the window dreamily, she must think it’s like some passage from Lord Byron’s poetry, romantic and exhilarating. If so, James thinks with a frown, she’s severely mistaken.

“There are no birds, for starters. No waking up in the mornings and listening to their songs. None of that.”

She looks surprised, but not too shocked. “Well birds require nests in trees and vast land for the chicks to get food. I suppose you’ll find more of that in the country.”

He nods, pretending like he has at least some idea of what she just said. He knows nothing about birds, just that their singing is sweet to his ears.

“Don’t you miss your family?” The question is soft spoken and the butterflies are back, rippling and fluttering all the way from his toes to his heart.

She notices the way his breath hitches, how his eyes suddenly change like the tide. There's so much emotion in there, so much he's clearly battling.

“I'm sorry,” she says. “I didn't mean to pry… you don't have to -”

“It's okay.” He smiles and drums his fingers against the table. Her stare, normally daunting, gives him a strange kind of peace. She’s under his skin, already a part of him. “I don't have much of that left.” He says finally, his words hesitant as he stares into her eyes.

She doesn’t press on, and for that he’s thankful. One day he’ll talk about it, he says to her. When he’s ready.

It’s remarkably easy to talk to her. She listens to him ramble on about his farming adventures with a smile, and she laughs when he recounts his first sheep shearing experience.

It seems like she has no intention of leaving for what feels like hours. He's used to her company and her soft, sweet laughter that sets his heart ablaze.

But then she's standing and he instantly follows out of respect, even if she has no title to her name - she’s his Lady.

“I really must be going now.”

“You still haven't told me your name…”

“What good’s a name?” she asks under the moonlight. “It doesn’t define you.”

“No, but then how else am I to know who you are? How would I… how would I find you?”

Under the thousand stars she's not a poor girl dressed in rags at all but a beautiful woman, radiating and twinkling under the beauty of the night sky. You don’t see the beauty of the night in the city either. But he hasn’t the heart to tell her that.

She ponders his words for a moment. “Just call me Jane . And I'll find you. If you let me.”

She's far more beautiful than a name as plain and simple as that, but he nods.

He promises her he'll be waiting.

“How was your passion-filled rendezvous with the fair lady?”

“ Pardon ?”

“You’ve got that stupid smile on your face you get whenever you’re speaking about her. So, did you meet her again?”

Sirius, who is sucking on a piece of sugar beet, gives James his most widest, cheshire-cat-like grin yet.

It’s when the boy starts wiggling his eyebrows in a horribly suggestive manner that he’s pushed to the floor and almost falls into a patch of manure.

“She came here just after you left, yes. But nothing happened.”

“Nothing? You mean you don't even know that she's…” Sirius bites his tongue, and tugs at his sleeve. “I mean, you don’t even know who she is? Not even her name?”

James just shrugs, a small smile on his lips. He looks thrilled and awestruck. “Nope. But she did tell me to call her Jane.”

For some reason, Sirius groans at the name. He looks amused and perplexed at the same time. “ Jane ?” He repeats, not being able to conceal a grin.

James is completely oblivious to it all. He stares up at the sky, breathing in the sweet, fresh air and lifts up his hands. “Jane. She’s far more than that. She has to be.”

Maybe, Sirius thinks, just maybe it will all work out. He hopes so, at the very least.

[thisiswhereifall]

Day 4: Pets

Need I say more? I managed to write today, as well. Holy quiznacking crows, I'm on a roll these days.

I really enjoyed writing this, even more than the previous ones, to be honest. I thought it was a cute prompt(open-ended, too, because hey. Everyone loves an open-ended story.) and it was just an idea I came up with

Enjoy!

--------------- o ------------------

Pidge had always liked tiny things.

No, that didn't mean she didn't like Kaltenecker or the idea of bringing her to the ship. She absolutely adored the cow and her affectionate moo's. Not to mention, the milkshakes are entirely helpful to keep Pidge's brain healthy and functioning. It was a good thing that Allura allowed them to keep her, too.

But that doesn't stop Pidge from liking tiny things.

Part of it involves the smallest screws and machine parts that she considers to be very cute. She would smile and inwardly squeal whenever she tinkers into alien machines and sees the tiniest parts that comprise such a deadly weapon. Pidge also loved seeing the Galra drones despite the fact that they were there to kill her, and she loved Rover so much. He was a robot, loyal, and tiny.

Pidge definitely liked tiny things.

Green knows it, but never did Pidge make her lion feel as if she didn't love her. Green was beautiful and majestic, the only lion with a shield on her backside and Pidge would melt when Green purrs lovingly at her. Large, powerful, and intimidating, but Pidge loved her, anyway. Green is beautiful in more ways than one, and Pidge could never be more proud.

Pidge remembers that she still liked tiny things, when a flash of blue crosses her line of vision and she blinks.

She followed the alien creature floating around her bedroom, its glowing markings blinking in excitement as it circled the cluttered area with wide curious eyes and a permanent pout. The creature was small and quiet; slow-moving and peaceful, and Pidge just couldn't resist taking it with her before she left the trash planet she was thrown in from the corrupted wormhole.

Allura and Coran never noticed the tiny thing enter the Green Lion.

And it wasn't like Pidge actually brought it with her. The thing followed her into her Lion, rather, it followed the suspicious trash that Pidge secretly brought into her Lion. If Green didn't send her the message, Pidge wouldn't even know that the little creature was there with her. And she remembered that day very well.

That day, she yelped into the comms, even more startled that it was a blue space caterpillar rather than a green one.

“Pidge, are you alright?” Allura immediately asked, much to Pidge's horror as she grabbed the creature and hid both of her hands out of the camera's sight as it flashed on. She gulped, biting her tongue to prevent herself from rambling and she was a terrible liar.

“O-Oh, nothing! I just, um, accidentally hit my toe at the, uh, corner.” Her eyes looked around to see if there were any corners inside Green. There were none. “I mean, I just hit my toe somewhere, I didn't actually mean a specific corner or literally, a corner. There are lots of stuff here that you could hit your toe at, and not to mention, Green is probably made of some hard space material that a human body could--"

“Pidge, aren't you wearing your armor?” Allura interrupted, and Pidge knew that she just messed herself up big-time.

Pidge sighed, opening her mouth again to say something else despite the futile attempts of trying to stop the furry thing in her hands from moving “Okay, okay, you got me. I was…” She gripped the creature a little tighter, as much as she didn't want to hurt it any further. “… So excited that my satellite worked that I yelped in shock when Green responded to my feelings.” Okay, that was definitely way more believable.

Green rumbled in protest and Pidge ignored her.

Silence took over the comms before Allura finally replied. “Oh. Okay. Now let's go get the others.” Soon, the mic and camera shut off and Pidge let out a long sigh of relief. She then placed her hands in front of her and stared long at the blue alien. She didn't sign up for adoption papers at all. “Okay, little guy. What are you doing here? We're miles away from your home planet now.” She softly whispered, afraid that anyone would hear her.

The last thing Pidge wanted was for anyone to see a blue space caterpillar with her.

She watched the creature float around, then behind her as if it was trying to answer. Pidge turned her head to follow it with her gaze, her face heating up when it landed on the suspicious trash she had brought with her aboard Green. Her hand flew to her face. Now she's got two things to hide from her team.

One, the cute new pet, and two, Trash Lance. And they were both blue.

That day, Pidge knew she was doomed for life if anyone ever enters her bedroom and sees them in the farthest and most hidden corner of her room. The first few days weren't easy at all.

The first thing Pidge did was to make a mess out of her own sleeping space, one that would turn off anyone's curiosity about what abominations she hid in her room. Hunk hated it when things weren't organized – he was an engineer, after all. Allura and Coran aren't interested in invading other people's privacy. Shiro would occasionally knock from time to time to check on her, but he wouldn't bother turning the lights on, entering the room, or looking around, so it was safe. Which left Keith and Lance.

Keith had zero fucks to give when it comes to anything urgent. Sure, he wouldn't just enter someone else's space without permission, but once the guy thinks that what he's there for is more important than anything else including privacy, he would barge in without a word and not care no matter how many times you yell at him for entering. He would, most likely, yell back.

And it just so happened that the day Pidge brought home her secret, it just had to be Keith who was the first to enter her room unannounced.

“Pidge, training deck now. Shiro has something to-- what's that?” Keith turned his attention to a certain trash at the corner of the room, but before he could process what exactly it was, Pidge flung herself in front of his eyes, throwing a blanket behind her.

“Nothing, really! Just a new robot prototype I've been working on.” She had gotten better at lying, silently wishing that Keith didn't have enough time to even recognize who the piece of trash lump was.

It was a good thing that Keith gave zero fucks about anything else, because he didn't question her any further. Or maybe he already knows and just chooses not to say anything about it. After all, Keith figured that she was a girl before she even said anything at all. He once again, reminded her of the urgent meeting in the training room, before finally leaving.

Pidge should get to work soon.

Making a mess was easy enough, since she had enough machines and hoarded lots of clutter to scatter on the floor, making sure that stepping would prove to be hard enough for anyone to enter. Lance was, surprisingly, a neat and finicky person so he would be easy to ward off with just a few garbage here and there.

And the plan worked. Not long after, Keith barely steps inside the room for fear that he might break something on the floor. Hunk refuses to even open the door. Shiro didn't have to enter to check on her, as usual, and Lance…

“Woah, what the quiznack, Pidge? It's like the aftermath of a tornado!”

Frankly-speaking, Lance didn't care about the trash. He would complain, but he didn't really care. He'd still walk into the room and drag her out whenever he felt like it. The first time, Pidge had to grab her pet and hide it with her pillows while she shoved Trash Lance under her bed. Lance had been at the doorway the moment she panicked so he didn't really notice, since he was busy complaining.

Pidge had to resort to Plan B.

She installed a security system outside her door so it would detect Lance from a few meters away. Using Galra drone parts, same with Rover, she successfully created an invisible scanner and now she could prepare in advance whenever Lance was about to invade her space.

But Lance wasn't the only problem in this scenario. His counterparts were also hard to deal with.

Caterpillar Lance was just as curious as he was.

The little creature would fly around and check out every single clutter all over Pidge's room. It would often do so every time her scanners would alert her that Lance was going to arrive any moment, much to her dismay. She would desperately try to jump and catch it, always barely making it in time before Lance appears on the doorway, completely oblivious about the way she catches her breath when he does.

What was more annoying was the fact that the creature gets hungry.

It was logical. All living things get hungry and this was no robot. This was an actual living thing and she couldn't just let it starve in her room. Finding out its diet was a challenge. Sneaking its food into her room, even more so.

“Uh, Pidge. What exactly are you going to do with that? I mean, hey, you're supposed to eat it since it's, well, food. But… I thought you said you hated veggies?” One night, Hunk caught her piling up her plate with food goo and a bunch of unrecognizable space vegetables from the fridge. He must have been up for a midnight snack, and she was not pleased.

“Uh, I was going to try some since I was… hungry.” Lying to Hunk was one of the toughest things to do, seeing as how observant the fellow was. From the looks of his face, Pidge was sure he wasn't buying it.

He tilted his head in suspicion, eyeing Pidge. “No, no, no. I swear I left some desserts in the fridge and knowing you, you wouldn't choose veggies over sweets anytime.” Pidge definitely hated the fact that literally everyone in the ship knew that she loved sweets like any girl would. She shouldn't have disclosed that much info about herself.

“Fine. I was going to do a few biology tests in my room since I have always wondered if the materials that comprised Earth plants are the same as the ones in space. Green's hidden power got my gears up and running.” If there were any higher beings in space, she surely needed them any moment now. She also felt bad about always using Green as an excuse, but what choice does she have?

Science was enough to convince Hunk that she wasn't going to feed a living creature in her room, as he let her go after a few discussions about galactic theories.

Her heart felt a bit warm and happy when her little companion loved the veggies and that her efforts weren't all in vain.

Days passed by and Pidge proceeded as normal. Shoving Trash Lance under her bed whenever her scanners alerted her, hiding her friend with her pillows, spending her days and nights in Green's hangar so no one would come looking for her in her room, sneaking out food from the fridge, and all in all, just doing missions with her teammates. Everything was going by smoothly and she finally found her brother after all this time.

She introduced him to her room, suddenly remembering that Trash Lance and Caterpillar Lance weren't hidden. Thankfully, Matt didn't notice anything. The tour around the castle ended peacefully and preparations for the next battle were being discussed thoroughly.

Pidge retreated to her room after a long day, bothered by the fact that Lotor just technically saved them all. It was a suspicious act for her, but she didn't have the energy to think about that now. She held the plate of veggies closer, feeling guilty for not leaving out food for Caterpillar Lance the whole time.

As she stepped closer to her door, her heart skipped a beat and her eyes widened when she saw that it was wide open. Her ears started ringing as she sprinted towards her room in horror, not caring if the veggies were falling from the plate by how fast she was running.

Turning on the lights, her eyes quickly looked around. Trash Lance was still there at the corner. Her room was still a mess. Everything was normal, she thought. Her breath hitched when she realized that something was terribly wrong.

Caterpillar Lance was missing.

Panicking, Pidge dropped the plate hastily on her bed, throwing off all pillows from her bed and mentally cursing herself for leaving the door unlocked before leaving for battle. She even searched every drawer and under the bed, but she couldn't find him. Her friend was tiny and small and that would mean she would have to search for every possible nook and cranny in the castle if it decided to wander off.

“You've got to be kidding me!” She ran outside her room once again, panting and swearing from time to time in between her short breaths. She first searched the lounge. No sign of it. She made a mental note never to run into Keith or Shiro at this time because having to come up with an excuse today didn't sound very appealing to her.

She searched the training room, Green's hangar, and literally the whole castle. A hand fell to her chest as she heaved in large amounts of air. Looking up, she opened the door to the last room she hasn't looked into yet.

Kaltenecker's area.

As she stepped in and almost got blinded by how sunny the surroundings were, her eyes could hardly make out the figure from afar.

It wasn't Kaltenecker. Her heart seemed to have started beating faster and she was sure it was no longer adrenaline.

Before she could say anything, Lance turned around and spotted her. A goofy grin was plastered on his face and on his shoulders was the very thing that Pidge was trying to keep away from Lance. “Pidge! Look, this little guy followed me all the way to my room so I thought it would be nice for Kaltenecker to meet him.” He gestured to Caterpillar Lance, which was perched on his shoulder and staring at him.

Pidge froze. Caterpillar Lance knows him and intentionally followed him.

The thought was funny enough that Pidge's shoulders started shaking. “Pidge?” Lance spoke once more, before her silent chuckling turned into full-blown laughter. She tried to talk, but failed miserably. She looked up at Lance again, his confused expression transforming into a wide smile. “Well, I'm glad you're happy, Pidge. Kaltenecker liked him, as well.”

Her cheeks flushed at his words. He obviously had no idea that it was her who brought the caterpillar into the ship. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” She smiled back at him.

“Come to think of it, wasn't this what Allura and Coran were talking about? The little caterpillar-like beings that helped you build that satellite? If you brought one home, why did you choose blue?”

Quiznack.

[rustleandeddy]

Chapter 20

Mira swam beside Cul, matching his steady speed. It was all she could do to keep from dashing forward as fast as her tail could carry her, but she’d learned that the Nomads knew how to get from here to there far faster than she could. The water around them was still filled with the cacophonous rumble of the ground heaving beneath them. The people of the town had evacuated, hanging in the water above their homes to watch helplessly as one by one they succumbed to the quake. That was several minutes ago. If anything, the quake had grown stronger. Mira’s home would be gravel by now. She didn’t care about that now. The quakes always hit the rift harder than the town. And Eddy was still out there somewhere.

“It’s never gone on for this long,” Mira repeated to herself, almost as a mantra. “The quakes have been getting worse, but they’ve never gone on for this long. Something is happening, I know it.”

“Don’t think about what is happening now,” Cul said. “You can’t change what is happening. You can only change what you will do. Think about what you will need to do when you reach your brother.”

“Right, right,” she said. “I need the spell. So I can swim as deep as you and Eddy.”

She pulled a thin spell book from her bag, a newer version of the one she’d unwittingly loaned to Eddy.

“It’s too dark. I can’t read it,” Mira growled in frustration.

Cul wrapped an arm around her to steady her swimming, then leaned close so that the subtle glow from his spines and eyes fell upon the book.

“Yes, that’s good. Thank you,” she said.

She murmured words carefully. As frazzled and worried as she was, she couldn’t afford a misspoken syllable. When the spell completed, she felt a sensation sweep over her, one she’d not felt in years. Not since she was a young girl and her father had taken her to the rift to see where he worked.

“Come on. Let’s go deeper,” Mira said. “I want to see the ground. I want to follow it, so that we can follow the rift just as soon as we reach it.

He nodded and released her waist. The two swam side by side. Mira shrugged off the strange feeling of pressure squeezing uncomfortably upon her as she dove. The spell had done its work. The pressure was unfamiliar, but it was not unsafe. Waves and ripples caused them to bob and waver in their journey, the trembling earth transmitting its motion to the water around them.

“This is no normal quake,” Cul said.

“I know. It doesn’t seem to end,” Mira said.

“It isn’t just that. I’ve felt quakes before. Only one or two. But they were never like this. Quakes are constant, steady. This is different. Sudden, halting. I don’t know. It doesn’t feel natural.”

Mira shook her head. “This is how they are in Barnacle. Now tell me. Bult might still be down there in the rift. What would he do in a situation like this?”

“If he was hurt, he would sound the trumpet.”

“But no one is near enough to hear.”

“The whale would hear. The trumpet can carry a long, long way. Even if we can’t hear it, the whale can. And the distress call is one that no nomad drift will ignore.”

She looked to him. “You make the call then.”

“We don’t know if we are where we need to be. They will go to where the call is sounded. If we are far from where your brother and Bult are, precious moments—”

“My brother is in the middle of this. Make the call!” she insisted.

He hesitated only for a moment. Cul produced an ornate and well-used shell and put it to his lips. A long, repeating note blared out. The sound was urgent, radiating the tone of emergency. When he was done, he stowed the shell and they continued to swim downward.

“If they have heard, they will come as swiftly as any of them can swim.”

“It was hours to reach the rift from where you were before.”

“They have been heading south. They will be closer now. And you’ve never seen a whale swimming with purpose. They will be here sooner than you might imagine. But we’ll need to call again when we reach the rift so they know where the true emergency is.”

Mira gazed into the murky distance.

“I think they will know where the true emergency is…”

Though it was subtle, hidden and layered among the endless rumble of the shaking ground, there was a new sound. It was sharp and tumultuous, a sound like boiling water or hissing steam. Something more was happening than a simple earthquake.

#

Borgle reached the head of the Great Ancient and the adventurers tumbled down to it. Eddy quickly pulled both the chisel and the hammer from his back. Mab snatched the hammer.

“Borgle! Dig down on the head! And if we fall, catch us!” Eddy ordered.

Borgle gave a delighted whir and clamped its claws onto the armored hide to begin rattling against it. Mab set about hammering the chisel with all her might. Eddy repositioned it between each blow, keeping its tip in the place where it would do the most good.

“What do I do?” Rustle asked.

He buzzed about, eyes wide and trying to look in a dozen directions at once.

“I don’t know. I have my hands full now,” Eddy said.

“I’ve got to be able to do something.”

“You are a smart fairy.” Eddy held tight to the now embedded chisel and caught Mab’s leg to keep her from being thrown free as the ancient tried to shake them off. “You can think of a good thing to do, I am sure.”

“Uh… Uh…”

Rustle looked around him again. The thieves had finally finished flooding in. They were slashing and clawing at the Great Ancient, and moreover, he could feel them drawing upon its dark well of power. All around them, the walls were fracturing and crumbling. Lava poured in in great gushing black tendrils. From the cries and struggles of the Great Ancient, the rising level of the stuff had reached its tentacles. The whole, mountain-sized beast thrashed and yanked at its chains. With each motion the restraints gave just a little bit more. If the thieves and the hammer and chisel didn’t do their job, there was the very real chance that it would pull free of its bindings. The fairy weighed this into his mind, seeing what if anything he could do. A tiny fairy against a beast that had once threatened the entirety of the sea.

“I can’t help you fight these things!” Rustle said.

“Then help for after!” Eddy said, yanking the chisel free and setting it in a new spot. “We will need to escape. Help us do that!”

“But how can I…”

He trailed off. The walls were sloughing into the chamber all around them. Great faults split the walls. With each new struggle, he could feel the paths around them opening. Finely trained intuition, the very thing that had allowed him to navigate first by the winds, then by the currents, drew and redrew a map in his head. There were paths to the outside now. And more by the minute. But with each one that appeared, others closed. Tumbling stone had thrown their surroundings into chaos. No path to the outside would last for long. They would need something to help clear the way.

Rustle turned to Borgle. The thing was visibly frustrated, still rattling and slamming its beak against the Great Ancient’s hide and achieving little more than a shallow divot compared to the deep gash the divine hammer and chisel had achieved.

“Borgle! Follow me! I need you to dig this way!” he ordered.

The digger paused briefly, aiming its two functional eyes at the fairy to consider him before turning back to its present orders.

“What orders should I give? It only speaks my language,” Eddy huffed, clearing some unspeakable gunk from the chisel before putting it to work once more.

“I don’t know! I just… Teach me some words!”

“What words?”

“Um… Dig, and follow! And up, down, all of the directions…”

“They are very easy. Listen close.”

For a few harried minutes, deep in a chamber at the bottom of the sea, a merman alternated between positioning a chisel for a dwarf woman to drive into the skull of an ancient horror and giving language lessons to a fairy. Rustle absorbed the words as best he could, then turned to Borgle.

“Borgle! Follow me!” he intoned in his best approximation of Eddy’s language.

The digger paused again, plinking and clacking as it considered the words, then released the ancient’s head and drifted up to wait obediently await further direction.

“Good! Take it and find a way out!” Eddy said.

The fairy buzzed off toward one of the walls.

“And if it goes to sleep, put blood on the mark over its eyes,” Eddy called after him.

“What are you doing? You buffoon!” Mab cried. “That thing is supposed to catch us if we fall!”

“So we should not fall! Easy!” Eddy said.

One of the thieves clattered up along the side of the Ancient’s head. Eddy darted back from the gash they had been digging and pulled Mab along with him. The insect-like creature seemed to ignore them, aiming instead for the weakened point in the Great Ancient’s armor.

“Out of here, you wretched thing!” A firm swing of Mab’s hammer knocked the squealing thief away like it was nothing. “No one steals my hard work!”

“You see? We can do this!” Eddy said. “Keep at it. Every hit keeps the monster fighting to reach us and failing to knock away the thieves. Eventually it will fall.”

Mab gritted her teeth. “It’ll jolly well fall when I make it fall!”

#

Rustle held tight to Borgle as it darted up along a jagged new fissure opened into the wall of the chamber. It was a little difficult guiding the digger when it could actually swim faster than he could, but the thing seemed to do well with simple directions punctuated by the mer word for “stop.” They punched through weakened walls, cleared mounds of fallen debris, and gradually left the stifling heat of the Ancient’s chamber behind.

“Stop!” Rustle ordered as they tumbled into a reasonably clear section of a larger tunnel.

He shut his eyes and tried to work out the best path forward. The ever-shifting layout of the collapsing tunnels meant that the path he’d been hoping to carve when they’d started was now far from ideal.

“I think… there’s a big space that’s fairly open. It’s that way! Dig. That way!”

Borgle chimed and hurried to comply. A few good hard bashes of its nose punched through to something Rustle hadn’t been expecting. Light. It was a faint golden glow, a bit like the dawn sun.

“It’s impossible! We haven’t reached the surface yet, have we? Go! Follow that light!”

Borgle’s grippers clutched stones and heaved them aside, gradually revealing the source of the light. It was most certainly not the surface. The glow came from thin stalks drifting in torn-free tufts and clumps of mushroom-like growth hanging in the water around them. It was the chamber that Eddy had stumbled onto, and that Mab had called home for so many years. Sure enough, Eddy’s awakening of the big digger had destabilized it. The place was mostly collapsed and entirely flooded. Rustle buzzed about, probing the place with his slowly improving mystic powers, trying to find a way out.

“We’re close…” he said. “We’re close to the main tunnel. It’s right above us. We’ve got to dig upward. Dig upward, Borgle!”

The digger faithfully swam to the ceiling and clamped on. Unfortunately, the weakened stone had already come raining down. What remained in the ceiling was good, thick stone that slowed the digger terribly. He turned to look where he’d come from. The ease of reaching this place was tempered by the fact that much of the digging they’d done along the way had already been closed in again by further collapse. On one hand, they were nearly to a tunnel that could lead them to the open sea. On the other hand, he’d have to do nearly as much digging to get back to them as he’d done to get here. And as the rumbling intensified, it was only going to get worse.

“Think, Rustle. Think,” he muttered to himself.

One of the glowing stalks drifted nearby. A bit of the fluid within had seeped out, giving the water around him a wonderfully sweet flavor. He darted to the stalk and sampled some of the fluid directly. It was nourishing. Far more so than Eddy’s sweets. After a few grateful swallows, he noticed something else in the dimly lit cavern. Something was shiny. He flitted down to find what looked to be a second Borgle. Not far away there was a third, and a forth.

“That’s it!” Rustle proclaimed. “Let’s see. They’re fueled by blood, right?”

He nicked himself with his borrowed claw and smeared a bit of it on the mark near the glass globes of the inert digger’s eyes. It shuddered and flickered, but did not awake. He tried a second one. It shifted a bit more, but seemed unable to move. One after another he dabbed blood onto the marks. Eventually he found a second digger able to pull itself from the rubble. Then another. He stirred as many as he could find to life and gave them orders.

“Dig up! Open the way to the tunnel!”

Rustle worked his way deeper into the cavern until he found a particularly tall mound of stone with a gleaming bit of metal beneath. He swam between the cracks in the stone, following the curves and shapes of the thing until he finally found an appropriate mark. He smeared it with blood.

Instantly the whole mound of stone seemed to lurch around him. He swam to the relative safety of the open and watched as the device he’d awakened started to shed the debris. As it revealed itself in full, he smiled.

“You are coming with me,” he said.

#

Eddy and Mab had been hard at work. They were both doused with whatever purple-blue goo it was that flowed through the Great Ancient’s veins. The thing had ceased to do anything but try to shake them free. With each successive wound they opened, the ancient diverted more of its efforts ridding itself of them. It was no longer clawing at the thieves. It was barely trying to keep itself from the rising lava. If not for them, it might have escaped by now, but they’d succeeded in eclipsing every other threat. It wanted them dead. Nothing else mattered.

“I think we’re about to hit a rich vein on this one, Eddy,” Mab said, heaving the hammer for another blow.

Despite their terrible predicament, she seemed almost gleeful in her wielding of the hammer, as if she was a fish who for the first time in ages had been allowed to swim in the open ocean. She raised the divine hammer high and brought it down.

There was no telling what exactly they’d managed to pierce, but the moment they did so, the ancient released a deafening, shrill roar. All four of its arms heaved at their chains. The motion drove the beast down into the lava, completely immersing its tentacles, but also tore it free of its shackles. The four arms raised high and thrust at the pair of adventurers.

“We go now!” Eddy cried.

He grabbed Mab, coiled his ailing tail, and sprung from the thing’s head just as it raked its hideous claws over where they had been.

Eddy hadn’t had much time to recover, so he still lacked the strength to keep the pair afloat, but he was at least able to drag them toward the walls. The rising lava had forced the thieves that hadn’t been destroyed to cluster all the more thickly. They still couldn’t care less about the merman and the dwarf. He caught their legs, bounced off their backs, and otherwise used them as stepping stones to keep himself and Mab from falling to their doom.

The now-freed limbs of great ancient slashed and swatted at the horde of creatures around it. It was too far buried in the lava to free itself, but it was dead set on ensuring it wasn’t the only thing to succumb to the molten stone. It bashed the walls and gripped thieves by the handful. The mounting damage to the chamber caused the ceiling to fail. Boulders rained down. Eddy flopped and bounced between them just as he had between the thieves.

Finally, amid a hail of crumbling roof, he spotted a section of wall that seemed to have given way to one of the many natural tunnels. He heaved himself toward it and worked his tail for all it could give. They reached it just as the stones raining down became a full landslide. Eddy threw himself over Mab and held her close against the wall of the alcove the section of tunnel they hoped would hold strong. For what seemed like an eternity, the thundering rain of stones continued. Jagged pebbles and stones rattled and bounced off Eddy’s back, mounding up. Then, gradually, the rumble ceased. Not just the tumble of the stones, but the quaking motion of the creature’s struggles and his attempts to escape.

“Mab?” Eddy asked, pulling back and allowing the heap of debris atop him to sprinkle way. “Are you hurt?”

“I’ve been better,” she coughed.

He rolled aside and the pair surveyed their situation. The tunnel both ahead and behind was utterly and hopelessly blocked with fallen stone. A few large chunks of the ceiling had dropped down around them as well.

“We are very much lucky!” Eddy said. “Any of these big pieces could have crushed us.”

“Yeah,” Mab said, climbing to her feet and brushing herself off. “I’m not convinced we are all that lucky.”

“We could be dead!” Eddy said. “And the shaking is done, so the big monster is dead! That’s how an adventure should end.”

“I hate to puncture your happy ending, Eddy. But there are a few things you need to keep in mind. We’re still trapped.”

“Rustle will rescue us.”

“From what I’ve seen of him he’s mostly good for fretting and getting us in hotter water. But let’s assume you’re right. That lava is still rising, with plenty of cracks just big enough for it to seep through. This tunnel is getting hotter by the moment. He’s not only got to rescue us, he’s got to rescue us fast. We don’t know how far he got, and we know how fast Borgle can dig. There’s a chance we’re already dead, we just haven’t been boiled alive yet.”

Eddy crossed his arms. “He will save us.”

“Fine. But that’s not all. Listen close.”

The merman waited.

“You are not saying anything,” he said.

“Not to me, you great bubble-headed fish! Listen to everything else!”

Eddy nodded and shut his eyes. The rumbling was done, certainly. The distant—but approaching—whistle and spit of lava meeting cooler water—was constant. Subtly interspersed, though, was a clatter and scratch. It wasn’t just settling stone. It was motion. Motion of things smaller than the Great Ancient.

“The landslide didn’t kill all of the thieves…” Eddy said.

“Right. So where are we? Maybe the lava rises and we and the thieves are roasted or boiled. Not ideal. We get rescued, but the surviving thieves escape too, which is no skin off my nose, but seems like it would cause some problems for you and your kind.”

“We could be saved and the thieves could die! That is a thing that could happen! We just need to be very much lucky, and we have been very much lucky.”

“Maybe you have. I’ve been trapped in an air pocket for years, and the first so-called ‘intelligent’ beast to come along drags me into a fight with an ancient horror and gets us trapped in a pot that’s about to boil over.”

“I think my good luck is better than your bad luck… But maybe we dig up a little. To help the luck find us.”

She hefted the hammer. “Now you’re speaking my language.”

#

Mira and Cul had reached what should have been the beginning of the rift not long before. What they’d discovered was horrific. The rift was gone, or at least it was no longer recognizable. Vast sections of it had crumbled in on itself. The central sections had deepened. The further they went, the deeper the rift went. What had been a gash in the sea floor, softened by untold ages of constant currents, now was a jagged, fresh wound that continued downward seemingly without end.

“No… No, no, no…” Mira muttered as she held tight to Cul.

His natural glow was still the only useful source of light. In her haste to be on her way, she’d neglected to bring a light of her own beyond the shells that hung from her necklace. At another time, they would have done some good, but not here, and not now. The devastation had kicked up copious amounts of silt. The water around them was milky with the stuff. It choked them with every breath and made it necessary to nearly be on top of something before their light cut far enough through it for them to see.

“We need to look for a merman’s glow,” Mira said. “Eddy isn’t a fool. He would have gotten as near to the surface as possible if something like this was happening. We’ll see him. I know we will…”

They swam onward, following the path of the devastation. Gradually it became more substantial. The rift was no longer a sharp, defined thing in the floor. It was merely the deepest part of a sinkhole.

“He’ll be alive. He’ll be alive…” She repeated desperately, as though through repetition she could make it true.

A short, wavering blast of sound came from below. Mira recognized it as a weak attempt at the same distress call she’d convinced Cul to sound not long ago. Cul reacted to it as though his body were moving of its own accord. He darted directly toward it, moving faster than Mira had ever seen him move. Mira worked her tail to catch up.

“… There… What color was your brother’s glow?” Cul said, pointing as he swam.

“Bluegreen. A bit lighter than yours.”

“Not your brother then. I see… I see two colors. Do you see? Something red further ahead. And there, below. I recognize that sharp green. That’s Bult!”

They dove toward the gravelly dross piled beneath them. The vague glow resolved into what was clearly the spines of a merman. Cul gripped the largest of the stones and heaved them aside. Mira had mystically borrowed the pressure resistance of the males, but she lacked their strength. Instead, she consulted the spell book, squinting at the page and holding her faintly glowing necklace closer. When she was satisfied she’d found the proper words, she murmured them with eyes shut tight.

The water around them coiled and churned. A tight swirl drew the silt around them up and away, then slowly strengthened to begin lifting away the smaller stones and pebbles. Between the two of them, Mira and Cul unearthed Bult. When he was clear of the heaviest of the stones that had trapped him, Cul put his arms around his fellow nomad and pulled him free.

“Bult! Speak to me! What happened?” Cul said.

The rough-looking merman was dazed, but his injuries were mercifully minor.

“I was looking through the overhangs. The sort of places that I thought a shore-lover might like. Then the ground started shaking. Half the sea floor came down upon me.”

“Are you hurt? Do you need aid?” Mira said.

“Nothing a couple loaves of pannet couldn’t cure,” he said, blotting some of his thick blood from his forehead.

“Did you see my brother?” she urged.

“Didn’t see anyone.”

She darted up and away, straining her vision for the other glow they’d seen.

“You’ve got to help us then.”

With Cul’s aid, Bult joined them and they swam down along the slumping ground. As they’d traveled they’d come to forget the whistling, churning sound that had concerned them when they’d first drawn near. It was constant, an unnatural but unchanging part of the disaster that had happened here. As they approached the hazy, smoldering glow, they found the sound was growing louder. The water was turbulent. It had grown sharply warmer along the way.

“I know this. This sound. The way the water is so lively,” Bult said. “Remember? When we followed the stout current out past Deep Swell to see if we could get some good weapons for trade?”

“The Glowing Pools,” Cul said. “Yes. This does feel like that. But there are no glowing pools here.”

“There are now…”

They paused and gazed down. The collapsed sea floor dropped sharply down. Constant rippling currents stirred the water even more powerfully, keeping the water heavy with silt. And beyond the silt, a deep, constant glow.

“The blood of the earth…” Cul said. “All of that trembling… It must have opened a wound deep enough to reveal it.”

Mira’s face took on a hard, defiant look. A realization was dawning upon her, but she seemed to be physically fighting it.

Cul approached her.

“Has your brother… Has he worked with the Glowing Pools before?” Cul asked.

“He hasn’t,” she said quietly.

“Done for, then,” Bult said.

Cul thumped him in the arm.

“We don’t know that,” Cul said.

“We do! Takes all sorts of magic and equipment to work near the glowing pools. If they just showed up, and he wasn’t ready—” Bult continued.

“Shut your mouth,” Cul barked.

“Do you hear that?” Mira said, shutting her eyes and turning her head.

The others did the same. Amid the roiling tumult, there was something more. A clatter and crackle. Moving stones. Not settling. Not dislodging. Shifting with purpose. Something was digging, and not far below.

“Come on! It could be him! It is him. I know it!” Mira shouted.

She dragged Cul and Bult deeper. They followed the sound, eventually locating its source along one of the shallower parts of the sloping wall. She tugged madly at the stones. Cul did the same.

“We’re coming, Eddy! We’re coming!” she cried.

They shifted as many stones as they could, sending them tumbling down into the glowing pit. But for every stone they moved, the sound seemed just as far away.

In the distance above them, the blast of a shell rang out.

“They’re here!” Bult said. “The rest of the drift is here!”

“So quickly?” Mira replied.

“I told you. Nothing covers a long distance quicker than a good healthy whale and a dedicated drift of nomads,” Cul said. “Bult, go to them. Send down the strongest mermen and see to it you get your wounds tended to.”

“I can work.”

“They’re fresh, you were buried for who knows how long. Now go!”

Bult muttered under his breath, but finally obliged. Mira re-cast the spell that began to clear away the smaller stones again and pull the silt from the water.

“Hold on, Eddy!” she called. “Help is here!”

#

Beneath the sea floor, Mab and Eddy worked at the stone. The heat was becoming unbearable. Though the lava’s rise seemed to have slowed, or even stopped, the temperature continued to creep higher.

“I don’t…” Eddy wheezed. “I don’t know how much longer I can go on…”

“I’ve seen worse heat than this. Just keep at it,” Mab said.

“It isn’t… It isn’t the same for mermen. We do fine with cold. But hot. Not so fine.”

He cleared a bit of stone that they’d chiseled away and packed it into the cracks behind them. If they’d not been sealing off the tunnel behind, the flood of hot water probably would have finished them minutes ago.

“Just imagine nice cold water on the other side of the next stone. Look, see? There’s just a bit more. I can see a big gap on the other side of it.”

“I will work until I can’t… But you do me a favor.”

“Fine, fine. What’s the favor?” Mab grumbled, hefting the hammer as he found a proper place to position the chisel.

“Tell my story. The adventure. I told it all to you, the parts before you got here. And you have been here for the rest.”

“Tell it yourself.”

“If I die, you tell it.”

“Just hold the chisel.”

She raised the hammer up and brought it down. The chisel punched cleanly through the stone ahead, shattering it. The rest of the wall before them fell away. Sure enough, there was a void behind it.

“There! See? Never doubt the mining intuition of a dwarf! We just need to…”

The pair clambered over debris to find that they’d revealed not an open tunnel, but a small chamber blocked on the far end with a massive, entirely intact stone. Mab ran her hand over it. Boring through it wouldn’t be like they’d been doing until now. It wouldn’t be shifting fallen stones and chipping through bits of collapsed roof. It would be like starting a fresh tunnel from scratch.

“All right…” Mab said. “Any bits of the story you’d like me to emphasize?”

“Make sure you talk about Rustle. Find him and learn his part. I think he thinks this adventure wasn’t for him. But it was for him. It was for both of us. For all three of us.”

A subtle rumble started to rattle around them. Likely some of the thieves scrabbling between bits of debris in their own bid for freedom. Eddy raised his voice to be heard.

“Tell people about the big fight. How we poked holes in the head of the monster. That was good.”

The rumble grew louder.

“Tell them about the place we found you! And how you helped fix Borgle.”

Now the rumble was almost painfully loud. Eddy swam back and held the chisel defensively. Mab stood beside him and held her hammer.

“Probably this is a part you should tell too,” Eddy said.

Rhythmic pounding sent fractures splitting along the surface of the wall before them. Finally, the wall seemed to turn to powder all at once. Mab and Eddy shielded their eyes. When the jagged bits of shattered stone settled, what stood before them was a massive, complex assembly of gleaming metallic parts.

“That’s… That’s my house!” Mab said.

Indeed, they were staring into the front door of the structure Mab had built from the diggers. The mechanism settled a bit lower, like a crab taking a seat, and a blue gleam of light flitted from within. Rustle appeared. Once again he greeted Eddy by darting into him and hugging his neck. The force of the pounce was enough to knock Eddy back a bit.

“Yes, definitely tell this part,” Eddy said.

Mab stepped up to the thing she’d called her home for so many years.

“You woke it up?” Mab asked.

“Yes. I found a few marks and put blood on them,” Rustle explained.

“Rustle says yes,” Eddy explained.

“I guess the metal carcass still had a mind in it somewhere.” She grinned. “I’m glad I made sure the thing could still move!”

“Come on,” Eddy said, flitting inside. “I woke up other diggers. They’ve been digging upward. We should have a way out by now. I want to get out of this place right now!”

The three entered the ‘house’ and found places to brace themselves.

“Maybe you could tell this thing what to do. It was having a very hard time piecing together useful orders out of what I remembered you taught me.”

“Take us to the surface!” Eddy said. “The most direct route!”

Gears spun, chains shifted, and the mass of machinery pivoted in place to retrace its steps.

“Did you do it? Did you kill the Great Ancient?” Rustle asked.

“Yes! We broke its head, and then stones pushed it down into the blood of the earth.”

“And the thieves?”

“Um… Less yes…”

#

Six of Cul’s fellow nomads, including a reluctant Sitz, were hard at work clearing away the stones nearest to the scratching sound. It had seemed tantalizingly near to the surface when they’d begun, but the smaller, easier to move stones had quickly sifted aside to reveal much larger slabs. Fortunately, there were few things that couldn’t be moved by a sufficient number of mermen working together.

“On three,” Cul said. “One, two, three!”

All six of them propped their tails against the ground and heaved with all their might. A glassy block of black stone tipped up and tumbled down into the glowing pit. Below was nothing but darkness. They’d broken through the debris.

A roar rose up, but it was cut short when something came rushing out of the gap they’d opened. Had they been present for Rustle and Eddy’s adventures thus far, they would have known it was a thief, and a badly injured one at that. The insect-like form was missing several limbs. Its carapace was fractured and oozing. But it was still very much alive. Without the irresistible target of the Great Ancient, the thing picked a fresh target. As there was but one creature present with a substantial mystical aspect, Mira became that target.

The thing launched at her. She darted nimbly aside, but it scrabbled along the debris and thrust itself after her. Shouts rang out among the mermen to kill the beast, and soon the six of them had converged upon it, driving stout knives into the creature, tugging at its limbs, and generally attempting to break it to pieces. It snapped and slashed at them, and though they were strong, they couldn’t seem to put an end to it. Worse, while they grappled with it, another emerged from below. Then another.

“Swim up! Find the rest of the drift. Tell them to take up arms!” Cul shouted.

“If I go, they’ll follow! They’re after me!” Mira shouted.

The ground began to rumble.

“What did you get us into!?” shouted Sitz.

Fresh pits opened all around them. From some, more of the horrid monsters flitted out. From others, something else. Gleaming metallic mechanisms. Then the ground practically exploded beneath them and a massive final beast emerged. It was Mab’s house, and in it, the three adventurers.

Eddy darted out from within as the thing crept crabwise to a stop.

“Eddy!” Mira called.

“Mira!” he shouted back.

His eyes swept about, trying to make sense of what was going on around him. Then, in a snap decision he shouted.

“Diggers! Destroy the thieves. Borgle, Mab, Rustle, you come with me, help me defend Mira!”

The metallic mechanisms released a chorus of obedient chimes and quickly assaulted the thieves. Eddy swam painfully to Mira’s side and raised his chisel. Mab trotted over and readied her weapon. Rustle flitted between them, eying the water behind.

“What is all of this?” Mira asked.

“A very long story,” Eddy said. “An adventure!”

Mab swung the hammer and smashed one of the thieves aside.

“A bloody nuisance from beginning to end,” she growled.

For a time, chaos reigned. It seemed to do so rather frequently when Eddy was around. He and the others faced off against the remaining thieves. A thousand of them had been enough to challenge the Great Ancient. Even a hundred would have probably been enough to kill the whole of their little group. But when the hole stopped spewing them, there were barely a dozen, and they were all suffering from a massive landslide, a near-cooking, and a prolonged battle with the Great Ancient. It was by no means an easy battle. Had it been just the nomads and Mira or just Eddy and the others, thieves might have prevailed. But combined, the group was equal to the challenge. When all was said and done, the creatures were defeated.

“I knew you’d still be alive… I knew you would be,” Mira said, hugging Eddy tight.

“Easy,” he said. “I’ve taken some bumps and bruises. Who are these nomads?”

“This is Cul and his drift,” she said. “After the first quake I was worried about you. I hired them to help find you. Who are these… creatures?”

Eddy smiled broadly. “This is Rustle. He is a fairy. A water fairy from the forest on the other side of the mountain. He is clever and brave and helpful. And this is Mab. She is a dwarf from the mountain. She is clever and brave and … hardworking. And that is Borgle! Borgle is a digger, and Borgle is helpful and hardworking. Brave too, but I do not know if the word applies to a machine. The other diggers are like Borgle, but Borgle is the best, if you ask me.”

“And the largest thing?”

“That is Mab’s house.”

“… Dwarves live in great mechanical crabs?”

“Not all of them. But Mab did. Like I said. It is a long story. And I cannot wait to tell it to you…”

###