#i am a student so its nearing finals week which means no tumbl for me :(

[witchinatree]

i think i finally cracked the code on getting through this horrid class for context- im currently taking an advanced literature class with GENUINELY the worst teacher ive ever had, i will not elaborate because ill just start complaining i stopped being motivated to do her work because she doesnt grade anything so whats the point?? but no, thats just gonna lead me to failure for when she inevitably grades the 20 outstanding assignments !!!! instead. she WANTS me to fail, so i wont <3!! im doing her work bc she doesnt want me to!!!!!! stay mad its good for your work ethic

[itsthe-neo-zone]

Wands and Potions: NCT dream & WayV 

Please read the Masterlist before continuing ahead with the chapter, thank you.  

Chapter 18:

[02:16PM]

[20th of October]

“Do you even know what he was using the tentacle juice for?” 

The huffs became frequent and the more Lyra questioned the more Selene became tired. Was this really necessary? And why was she being so unbelievably nosy?

“No, and frankly I don’t need to know.” the walking stopped halting the trail the two created in the thick fluffy snow that covered the earth. “because I don’t care.”

“You should, Liu could be plo-” a snicker stopped Lyra’s chapped lips from blurting her thoughts. “Plotting? Is that what you were going to say? He’s plotting against me. Or maybe its against you? Or even Jinsoul.” The words spat back at Lyra.

The brunette took her lips between her teeth, her fingers took the red and golden threads of the scarf wrapped across her chest, fiddling with the bare edges. Selene was already on edge and the change of demeanour pushed her off.

“Hey, I’m not going to feel sorry for you, so don’t give me that pathetic look.” Her fingers ran through her golden roots, her hair had turned a shade darker with the coming of winter making it lose the fiery glimmer in it.

“You all need to stop telling me how to act or feel.” She rolled her eyes leaving the brunette standing there stiff and alone, the only speck of colour on a blank sheet of white for miles.

 The creaking door slid open letting a gust of cold biting chill mix in with the heated warmth of the shop. The three broomsticks was a place where the youngsters could chill and relax. The ancient and rustic feel made it close to home for some.

It wasn’t the same for Selene.

“You need to start talking to her again, Scorpius you can’t just igno-” “Oh but he can,” she shuddered, the witch dropped the scarf and slid the robes off her shoulders setting them next to her. Sparing a glance at Albus, Selene sympathised with the blonde boy before her.

“And why is that?”

“She’s being awfully nosy, quite bitchy too.”

“Just because you aren’t on good terms it doesn’t mean he has to ignore his own sister.” Albus shuffles closer his tone drops to a minimal whisper. Selene rubbed her hands trying to heat up the ice cold blue tinted flesh.  

“Also, what happened to innocent sweet Selene?”

“Oh her?” her arm lifted to signal the server, “she’s usually what most see if they don’t know me too well. Ask Scorpius.”

The glance left Selene and moved towards the empty blonde boy next to him. No response came. His head lulled above his fist pushing the skin upwards, hair covering his glacier orbs.

“You ok?” the ginger placed her hand upon his, she felt his fingers twitch, there was no warmth in his touch. Inside her chest, the breathing became a little harder, an exasperated sigh left her.  

“It’s hard, I know. but you have to believe your father did this for a good reason. And now you can let her move in, you’ve always said you wanted a sister.”

“Move in? After my mother’s death?” his voice dripped with poison. It was a little loud gaining attention from the tables nearby. Jisung sent the most blood curdling nape shivering stare at Selene from across the bar.  His eyes were hard-rimmed and fixed, so much so that it was as if he was not able to move his eyeballs.

If looks could kill. The ginger would have disintegrated instantly.

So would Albus have with what Scorpius was sending him.

“Keep it down a little.”

“I am not going to replace my mother any time soon.” He spat back.

“You need her, Scorpius think about it, she will help you and your father get through this. Lyr-” the death glares the two sent made him rethink his choice of words. “Ehem… I- mean she is a girl after all.”

Selene sipped the jug of glowering orange liquid letting it sting the back of her throat slightly. She needed it. Secretly, it was the only thing she was feeling nowadays.

“Rose Weasley can take her in. After all, the two are half-sisters.” His voice was stiff and cut at the end, it was like his throat was clogged. Scorpius hated this topic. He didn’t want to talk about it.  

The others sensed that.

“And you, cut the long night walks with that German Durmstrang boy.”

“Whys that? Am I bothering you in any way?”

“No actually, its not me you’re bothering but-” A hand slapped the two lips that were moving of their own accord. Selene didn’t think nothing of it, but she missed the alarmed state that Albus was in.

“You shouldn’t be walking around he grounds late at night. Its dangerous.”

“Did little miss snitch tell you I was sneaking out late? I knew it!” she turned to the deflated boy. “This is why you shouldn’t talk to her just yet.” She finished her words with another gulp taking in the tingling sensation.

“Selene, I’m being serious, it shouldn’t matter who told me, this is for your own safety.”

“Why does everyone hate him so much?” the witch continued taking larger gulps the farther she got towards the bottom of the cup.

“Can you calm down; you must be really thirsty.”

Selene chuckled but before a word could be uttered, she lifted the closest free hand towards her head, she felt dizzy and her eyes were going blurry.

“Why’s everything spinning?” a murmur left her lips. It was mumbled aloud. A chair dragging across the wooden polished floor was heard in the distance and someone’s figure made their presence known next to her.

“Did she drink from this?” snatching the cup from the table Chenle grabbed it sniffing the few sips left in the cup.

“Yeah, why?”

Selene didn’t see the glare sent towards the table chenle was situated at before he came over, she also didn’t see the way he dropped the few paper bills on the table.

She did feel his strong hand grasp tightly onto her arm and shoulder helping her out of her chair. The daze she was in was getting stronger. Her knees felt week from the sudden force of standing but she pushed through on his command.

“Whats going on?” the question was left unanswered as she was dragged out tumbling next to him as they ventured into the freezing cold.

She had left her robe and scarf at the bar, shivering and dizzy Selene moved to lean onto his arm. Sliding the other across her waist he pulled her to a nearby stable.

“Why did you drink it knowing its full of poison?” he strained. She wasn’t on good terms with him. Actually, she despised the blonde mixed boy.

“Answer me!” his voice rose. Selene couldn’t really see that well her head was pounding, and it was starting to get even worse.

“I-I can’t see clearly. My eyes…” “What… whats going on?” she lifted her fingers to eyes level but all she saw was a messy blur of what used to be HD clear vision. Thin strips of cream-brown against white.

“You took a morbus potion. From your symptoms only a few drops, too much could have killed you.” A silent pause registered between the two, she was confused and the last few words he had said really hit clear. I could have died; I never finished the glass. I could have…

“I’ve taken no such thing.”

“It was in the drink,” his voice was hard, it was like he had a rock lodged in his mouth. “Someone must have slipped it in.”

“I feel like I-” holding her lips shut with her hands she felt something sinister crawl up her throat it blocked her breathing and restricted her normal body flow. Defying gravity and her disaccord of its appearance. Please no, not here…

“Get it out of your system.” His tone lightened slightly, or maybe it was her hearing things. Why would his tone change anyway Selene was over listening into things that didn’t matter right now.

“Take this.” He handed her a bottle it contained a liquid of some sort that didn’t look too familiar, she stared at it cautiously as if it would transfigure into a centipede.

“I don’t want to.”

She was able to push down the thick trickling of crimson blood

“It’s already gone this far, how do I know this isn’t going to kill me?” Selene didn’t move her head she just lifted her eyes staring him up, the trust was gone. It was hidden, locked away until he took the key out. But she didn’t expect the answer he gave her…

He sighed dropping his hand before looking away his eyes glanced anywhere but her face. The breath that left his dry, chapped lips evaporated into smoke coalescing itself into the air.

“Good point,” he pressed his lips into a thin line. “Why would I stop you from drinking the rest of the jug back then?”

Selene glanced down, his face had no show of remorse and it had a blank expression plastered onto it. She couldn’t maintain eye contact at all. It felt pointless.

His words made sense though…

“Drink it all.”

Listening to him, she took the first sip hesitantly, not minding the bitter taste. It felt heavy on her tongue but she too it in accepting it was good for her.

“You’ll be alright.” he muttered the words, in the wintery cold that surrounded them Selene felt her heart warm up slightly. She would never admit it now but it felt nice having someone look out. Even if it was with a frown and a dry response.

 [09:15PM]

Selene felt drained. Absolutely exhausted and while she did love nothing but a good rest she still had to do her night duties before she finally could rest this included the lengthy check and route of the whole 2nd floor and near the library.

It would have been 10 times easier- not to mention faster- if it wasn’t for the bratty 3rd year that refused to help her out. The job was specifically made for two yet she never showed up. But the ginger couldn’t bring it in her debilitated self to spend any longer than necessary looking for the young student.

“For fuck sake…” selenes face fell completely. She was aggravated to the max now, which can be added to the list of emotions she was feeling. The last thing she’d expect to see was the young student supposed to be helping her helping her own needs.

The sound of lips against lips filled the air and half of her internally cringed, the lewd sounds filling the air too fast to comprehend. God did she wish to wash out her ears with soap. But as she left a figment of her imagination removed the figure of the male student much older than the girl and placed a charming and devilish German student that had been taking up to much of her mind lately.

For a short second, it was barely comprehensible. his light caress and soft touch was all she yearned for. She shook her head continuing all the rounds she needed to finish. The guilt inside her built up daily but she pressed it down.

During the cold and wintery days. The gloom that was slowly being foreshadowed around the castle, Yangyang was the only source of happiness and joy she found. He filled her with something so intangible and sensual it was so difficult to describe.

And Selene felt herself change bit by bit, she tried to subconsciously hold back. Avoiding him on certain days and cancelling scheduled meet ups but it was inevitable, Yangyang was slowly yet voraciously devouring every inch of her being. She could feel it in the way she looked at him. The way her thoughts where changing. Her desires were developing.

Something once so innocent – a touch from him – a simple sensory fondle. Turned into a carnal and instinctual hunger that he had awoken in her. What was I turning into?…

[Selene Pov]

I felt that relief I craved for when I entered the dorms. Red or green it never mattered when I was weak in the knees. I looked at my bed like a man who was stranded in the dessert looked at fresh water.

“Look who’s here...”

“Please don’t start.” I knew this was going to be rough getting past the two crow-like girls at their beds but I didn’t expect their beady eyes glaring in the pitch dark the cool toned shadow casting harsh shapes across their faces.

“What?”

“We know what you borrowed.” A sigh left her lips as Jinny finished speaking, but the sly raven next to her muttered “She really stole it…” “Ravelle!”

“I didn’t do anything.” A frustrated exhale left my own lips. They wouldn’t know a thing because I never let them know about anything. It wasn’t their business.

“Does this ring a bell to you?” Ravelle stood up waving a slither of tentacula its sticky residue dripping from its end.

“Yeah.” I simply muttered, shrugging and to Ravelle’s shock. She probably thought I was going to deny everything.  

“It’s what you mix every morning to slap” I lightly tapped my fingers onto her cheeks “onto your face, what was it for again- oh right. Your beautiful visuals… right?” I rolled my eyes after feigning thought.

The sniggers didn’t go unnoticed from Jinny who had rolled back onto her bed fully. The glimmer in her beading eyes was picked up by the light rays of moonlight sheathed inside.

“Don’t you dare make fun of my natural face masks and answer me truthfully.” Her voice picked up in volume.

“You’re pathetic.” Ravelle spat back after no response from me.

“You’d really love to know what was in that wrap I held before, don’t you?” I edged coyly. I loved having her on edge like this. But it wouldn’t last too long…

“Sit down.”

I motioned to sit down pointing for her to do as I say.

“There’s no point in getting mad now since it’s already over. There is nothing you could do about it.” I couldn’t help but stop myself from giggling slightly. It was too good.

“I gave the wrap of tentacula away. It wasn’t for me anyways.” I smiled

Ravelle started feeling uncomfortable, she shifted from her position awkwardly. Blinking multiple times.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean Gryffindor or any house for a matter of fact is going nowhere. This year belongs to Durmstrang and I just made sure they got a head start.”

“WHAT THE FUCK?” Ravelle’s eyes went as wide as saucers, “What have you done? Selene!” Jinny’s voice piped up for the first time, the shriek in her voice prominent.

“You’ll find out soon.” I sniggered, a smirk coming up to form at my lips.

 “Shit shi- Guys! You won’t believe this!” the doors to the main dormitories slam open and in came a breathless and beyond petrified Irene, the young girl held her posture against her shaking knees.

The worry evident in her chewed dry lips and pale yellow face. A few more moments and it looked like she was about to throw up.

“They, the- oh god.” It’s like realisation flushed her face, Irene was gobsmacked she frowned glancing at the two girls that were accusing me. Jinny flipped over to see the ghastly expression Irene adorned.

“What is it, spit it out already!”

“James. And uh- Well James potter and his friends they got severely injured.”

“WHAT?” the screech was pitched so high I was surprised it didn’t shatter the clouded glass of the window. All three of us flinched.

“Calm down Ravelle,” Jinny pushed past, fixing her hair. She smiled gently towards the terrified girl. “How did they get injured, tell me what happened clearly” after a few seconds of sharp breaths, Irene spoke shuddering the words I had wanted to hear since I gave the plant to him.

“Well, they got injured last night in the pre battle for the lead in the tournament. Someone had put a certain strange plant in their soup.”

“It was- uh… it’s almost fatal for some.” The last few words were muttered but I heard everything as clearly as I could.

At some point I doubted myself, my ears had to be making up sounds for me to hear and feel accomplished. It couldn’t have worked that well.

“It wasn’t just them. The other houses reported similar symptoms to them earlier.” Another young Gryffindor peeped through the wooden door squeaking quietly.

“Get lost pipsqueak!” Ravelle threw the remains of tentacula at the doorway, “I’ll deal with you later. You’ve done something!”

Her eyes screamed anger she was Enraged, Ravelle hit boiling point. Her body buzzing with a fury that could only be calmed with the sight of her secret lover safe.  

“Yeah yeah,” I waved my hand swatting her as she stormed off. She couldn't do a thing.

 This was only the beginning of things…

@ajuniceuajuniceu​ @kkuljungwoo​ @sensiblebutch​ @kangkinoa​ @nctzen2020​ @mystic-jungkook​ @merryandhappylele​ @bcbymingi​ @mochischeeks  @rilakunma​ @jaehyunspaghetti​ @commentgirl​ @99jjh​ @johnnys-wifeu​ @misaraem @apricottulips​ @h2ogamergirl@angelsnowflake​

(if you want to be added to the taglist please send in an ask or direct message me thanks)

[lyssismagical]

i know its not really all that original of a prompt but could you do something where peters identity is reveal on a school field trip??

Thanks for the request!! 

*

Peter’s had a pretty bad record with field trips so far. Between the radioactive spider bite at Oscorp and the whole dying on a foreign planet on a field trip to MoMA… It wasn’t particularly a good streak.

But this was different, right? It wasn’t his field trip, he was chaperoning Morgan’s field trip. That’s different. His bad luck shouldn’t affect this trip… he hopes.

“C’mon, M. We’ve got a bus to catch!” Peter exclaims, shoving his shoes on and trying to find his keys.

“Peter, you’re stressing too much about a field trip,” Pepper says, helping Morgan slide her backpack onto her shoulders and slip on her sparkly shoes. “And before you ask, your keys are on the coffee table, your coffee in on the dining room table, and your snacks are all with Morgan.”

Peter grabs his things quickly, kissing Pepper on the cheek before scooping Morgan into his arms.

“You excited?” he asks as she settles on his hip. “A trip to the nature museum?”

She’s smiling excitedly and she nods. “Yeah! There’s an ex-ex-”

“Exhibit?” Peter offers.

“For butterflies! And we can hold them if we’re really careful.”

Pepper pulls Morgan’s backpack strap over her shoulder from where it had slipped. “Have fun, be safe. If you need anything, and I mean anything, Peter, you know our number.”

“I’ve got this, Pepper, I can chaperone a first-grade field trip.”

And he could.

It was easy peasy. A walk in the park. He’s Spider-Man. He can watch his group of five students for a few hours while they make their way around the nature museum.

He kept all of the kids he was in charge of alive and safe and there was only one close call where he thought he lost one of the boys, but they were just looking at the dinosaur fossils in the exhibit over from theirs.

Tony, with all his spare money lying around, made sure to rent out the whole place for their field trip, so there wasn’t even any issues with anybody trying to get pictures of him or Morgan since their identities got released to the public.

It wasn’t calm, but it was nice. And it was always rewarding to see Morgan so happy, he even sent Pepper and Tony a few pictures he got of Morgan holding a butterfly.

“We ready to head back to the bus?” The second chaperone asks. There’s a total of four of them there to help out with the twenty students. “We got everyone?”

Peter does a quick head count of the group of students sitting, awaiting instructions, surprisingly patiently.

He turns to tell the other chaperones that they’re good to go when his spidey-sense goes off. His heart drops.

With barely enough time to spare, he jumps at the chaperone beside him and they go tumbling to the floor, barely missing the bullet that whizzes past them.

Screaming erupts at the same time the doors and floor-to-ceiling windows shatter.

Peter acts as fast as he can, racing towards the terrified children. He needs to get them to safety. They are the number one priority. Screw his identity, screw self-preservation. He needs to get those twenty six or seven year old to safety, no matter what.

He can hear the chaperones pleading for their lives behind him and he begs silently that they can keep whoever’s here distracted for just a few minutes.

“Stay quiet, stay hidden,” he tells the children. He flips a few tables on their sides to make a wall, easily ripping the bolted down legs out of the ground, and ushers the kids into hiding, losing precious time.

He turns as soon as the kids are behind the metal tables, hidden from view and he smiles at the guards who have their big weapons pointed at him.

The chaperones are on their knees, hands behind their head with one guard watching them.

“What’s up with this, guys?” he asks, keeping a façade of nonchalance as he slowly starts to move away from the tables, keeping their attention on him. “A museum, really?”

“How about you shut up and join the others over there while he get what we need?” one man speaks up, rolling his eyes behind his ski mask.

“No, that’s him,” a woman says. “That’s the boy. We just need to get the girl out of hiding.”

Peter raises his hand. “Am I the boy? That’s exciting, isn’t it? Unfortunately, though, you aren’t going anywhere near the girl or taking us anywhere.”

“You’ll do as we ask,” The woman retorts, hefting her weapon onto her shoulder. It looks like alien tech.

“Actually, no, I won’t. You take a step towards the girl, and you lose, you hear me?” Peter says, quickly throwing on a confident façade.

In all honestly, he’s a little worried about the alien tech and the heavy weaponry the guards are holding. Plus, it’ll be a fight of one to eight, which he doesn’t think is really fair. But he’s fought way worse than these dumbasses.

One guard takes a slow step towards the table, but not slow enough. Peter catches it and he throws his arm out, shooting a web at the guard. The webs catch and the man stumbles forward, getting webbed to the ground just as the other guards start firing at Peter.

He works solely on adrenaline and on a desperate big-brother-protection that’s ignited within his chest. Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop him from keeping Morgan safe.

Pain flares in his leg, but he pushes through it, against it, and dodges bullets to the best of his abilities, throwing webs left and right almost blindly, relying on his spidey-sense to keep him alive.

And then, everything silences.

He falls to the ground, eyes darting open and towards the table almost immediately. All eight guards are webbed to the floor, most of them knocked out. The table is chipped and dented, but none of the bullets have gone through and Peter can’t see any blood besides his own and the guards’.

“You’re Spider-Man?” one of the chaperones asks, eyes wide. The world is still and quiet. And then they seem to realize. “Oh, shoot, man, you need medical attention.”

The world tips blurrily to the side and Peter doesn’t realize until his head hits the ground that it was him tipping, not the world.

“Petey!” Morgan shrieks.

One of the chaperones grabs her, holding her and the rest of the kids back. “Let’s get all of you onto the bus and back to school, alright? You’re parents will be waiting there for you. Peter’s going to be just fine, we just have to give him some space.”

All of the kids look upset at that. Peter was their favourite volunteer. Everybody always fought to be on Peter’s team and it was Peter’s favourite thing in the world.

“Peter?” one boy pipes up. It’s the boy from his group, the one who wandered off to look at dinosaur fossils. Peter throws all of his attention on the boy. “Are you okay?”

The young hero tries his best to offer the boy a smile. “Yeah, Jake, I’m gonna be okay. You listen to Miss T, though, alright? I promise I’ll make it up to you guys.”

“Come to Show and Tell next week?” a little girl asks, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Please?”

“Course, kiddo, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

The kids are finally satisfied with Peter’s answers and they all helpfully follow the chaperone out to the waiting bus.

“You need help, man.” The two chaperones left are kneeling over him with wide eyes and shaking hands hovering uselessly between them. “Should we call emergency services?”

“Fuck, no,” he mutters, pain washing over him and sending black dots dancing across his vision. “Tony’s coming.”

“Tony… Like Tony Stark?” one guy asks, eyebrows creasing. “How does he…”

Peter lifts his arm which he only now realizes is stained in blood, but his watch is flashing red with the Iron Man symbol in the center.

“Coming,” he repeats, slurring through his ideas. “Here soon. Gonna be okay. Not Spider-Man.”

“We all saw you there, man, you can’t deny you’re Spider-Man.”

The first guy elbows the second. “Your secret’s safe with us, Peter. Don’t worry about that right now.”

Before Peter has to endure the conversation any longer, the Iron Man suit lands just outside the museum and then, within a blink, Tony’s at his side, gently lifting him into a sitting position and shooing the chaperones.

“I thought you were boasting about how good of chaperone you’d be and how there was no way this trip could go wrong,” Tony says. “And then this?”

Peter shrugs, wincing when a stab of pain shoots through his arm. “Had to keep ever’one safe.”

“You did, kiddo, I can promise you that much. You did a good job.”

“Tired.”

“Sleep, buddy, I’ll take you to Brucie and get him to patch you all up, okay? Sound good?”

Peter hums in agreement, eyes already closed, and body leaning into Tony’s warmth.

The suit materializes around Tony and he’s lifted into the air.

The last thing he hears before the world goes dark is Tony murmuring, “Thank you for saving Morgan.”

*

“Never going on a field trip again,” he says before he even bothers to open his eyes. He’s comfy and warm and he knows before he’s really aware that he’s definitely pumped full of pain meds.

Tony laughs somewhere near his head. “Yeah, kiddo, I can second that one.”

“Petey okay?”

Peter quickly opens his eyes, throwing on a wide smile. “See, M? Told you I’d be okay, didn’t I?”

Morgan seems skeptical, narrowing her eyes, before she seems to determine Peter’s telling the truth. She crawls up onto the end of his bed, and lifts a book up.

“Mommy took me back to the giftshop,” she explains, nodding excitedly. “I got you a present!”

He takes the book from her and flips it over. There’s a picture of a butterfly on the front.

“Thanks, M. Sorry I ruined your trip with my bad luck,” he says, smiling when Tony rolls his eyes but doesn’t bother trying to correct him.

But Morgan grins. “It was super duper fun and now everybody knows I’m Spider-Man’s little sister.”

[magiesheartlove]

The Greatest Show (a love letter to MLP:FiM

Okay, so I was planing on writing this down sometime after the season ended but, I’m just feeling a lot of...feels, at the moment that, I just needed to get this written down.

I’m going to be frank, I am sad MLP is ending but, at the same time, I’m glad it won’t become one of those series that just keeps going and going to the point at which it overstayed it’s welcome. I have long since accepted that season 9 would be the end of MLP. When a show ends, I always accept it. If it ends on a high note, even better.

Out of all the shows I have watched in the early 2010s, MLP was one I never, in a millions years, would have imagined would gain not only such a huge and devoted following that stretched far from its intended demographic, but also was a series that, in my eyes, reflected everything I loved about storytelling and why I wanted to tell stories to begin with.

I will never forget the first time I was introduced to the series. I was watching television on an ordinary Saturday, and one day on the Hub Channel in the channel guide I read My Little Pony was on. I simply shrugged and decided to just watch a little snippet of my childhood, so “what the heck”.

I had since grown out of the MLP phase, and while I still love magically colorful equines, the cutesy, baby talking cartoon horses didn’t appeal to a high school senior like myself. Instead of seeing either some old nineties rerun of an old episode, or something meant for a pre-school audience, I saw... cute, funny, not-cheesy, modernized ponies in a stylized flash animation...and they were taking on a flipping DRAGON!

It was the episode “Dragonshy”, and when I saw Fluttershy stand up to that dragon, no joke, my jaw dropped. I’ve seen the typical “shy person gets over their fear” plot done before, but the way it was handled, and the way they portrayed the ponies (including Rainbow Dash, who I remembered being a fashionable pony who said “darling” every other word), as a rough and tumble tomboy was awesome! It had a fashionista unicorn with sass, a Pinkie Pie who was actually funny, a country pony with muscle, and a unicorn who took charge.

This... this wasn’t the MLP I grew up with. This was... modern and, updated and stylized and, thought out more.... and... I... was.... HOOKED! I couldn’t stop gushing about it to my Mom, and she was staring at me like “it’s My Little Pony”, and I was all “I know!”

Of course, when I watched “Winter Wrap up” and I saw that they were about to sing, I thought, “Oh, a cutesy song. Okay.” And then the song played.... it wasn’t annoying, the lyrics weren’t babyish, and the ponies sounded.... good. Like, star quality, Broadway good. The music, the animation, the way the song fit into the episode it.... it was..... I loved it. My jaw was to the floor at how it completely blew away my expectations. This was definitely NOT the my little pony I remember, and I just fell harder and harder for it.

I fell for the characters in a heartbeat, the world building was colorful and beautiful, and the morals. Let me tell ya, the morals sold it for me. While I had seen other educational shows that practically shove the message in your face, this one did it in a way that was tailored into each episode without feeling like it was bashing you over the head with it. Sure, there were a few times near the end, but they were minor nitpicks in my opinion.

This, this was the kind of show, the kind of story, the kind of world, the kind of characters I always dreamed of making myself. Stories about love, and friendship, and family, characters with bonds that you could feel radiating off of the screen, a world so vast and endless you wished you could enter it and live every day exploring the horizons and uncovering new mysteries within it, and all alongside the ones who would wrestle a hydra or jump from a crystal palace for you.

As I grew older, finding good quality shows I could enjoy was difficult. Shows now a days either try to be “edgy” or “mature” that they just came across as trying too hard. As much as I adore overarching stories, it was refreshing to go back to that slice of life, villain of the week format that is feels like it’s being rejected now a days in animation. Again, I don’t have a problem with overarching plots, but slice of life stories can be just as fun, and open up a lot of doors for character interactions and enough wiggle room for the morals to shine through more.

MLP continued to surprise me over the years. As I grew, so did the show. I mean, Twilight went from an awkward student who didn’t care about friends, into the flipping PRINCESS of Friendship! Rarity expanded her business, Rainbow Dash learned humility and became a Wonder Bolt. Fluttershy became more and more confident, Applejack learned to ask for help, and Pinkie Pie had her ups and down, but at the end of the day, all she really cared about was making her friends happy. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders finally found their calling, and it completely blew me away. Like a lot of people, I cried.

Speaking of tears, I know the whole villains reforming thing has caused some controversy over the years, and while I do empathize with a lot of the criticism, I can’t not love seeing these villains change for the better. Call me a compete and total sap, but if a man who persecuted and murdered people for believing in a Savior, only to have the most earth shattering revelation and transform into a messenger of the Gospel, even at the risk of his own life, and if a man from my Church can go from a man with the heart of a murder, into a devoted and kindhearted man who sung songs to The Lord every Sunday, then yes. If someone is willing, if they WANT it enough, I believe a heart of stone can become a heart of flesh. I know, a lot of people don’t believe it, and I understand why. But like Jesus, I want those lost lambs to find their way back.

As a President Lincoln once said: If I make my enemy my friend, have I not defeated my enemy?

I love when a villain changes for the better. Even if, story wise, it can be rushed, the meaning is still there. For me, that’s enough. I know not everybody changes, but that doesn’t mean nobody will. We live in a fallen world, but there is a Light that chases away the dark, gives us His hand, and shows us there is a better way. Just like Twilight did for Sunset Shimmer, and Sunset Shimmer did for Human Twilight.

Aside from introducing me to an amazing fandom, meeting so many wonderful people, and even being the show that coaxed me into the fanfiction world which led me to discover my love fo writing, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has and will forever be my all time favorite show, surpassing all others from my childhood. It came during my transition from a child to an adult. It sparked my imagination, made me smile, made me laugh and made me cry.

This series, this world, and its characters carried something that made it stand out amongst so many other shows in my eyes, and in my heart I always knew why. To quote the minister of Shady Oak ministries on YouTube; “They took the love of God, and put it on ponies.” Yes, when I watched MLP, when I heard the messages and witnessed the strong relationships, I saw Jesus manifested in each of them. I wasn’t even trying to find it, I just... felt it in my heart.

The Magic Of Friendship brought out the best in the Mane Six, brought out the best in those around them, and came through for them even when it seemed as if all was lost. And, it didn’t just go by the motions. The characters grew and learned, but that spark, that special little something that made them who they were, it didn’t fade, it only became stronger. They became the best versions of themselves, and though they still tumble and fall, they keep getting back up, because one way or another, there will ways be somepony there to reach out their hoof and help them back up.

I am so grateful for this show, and for all the wonderful things that came with it. The good, the bad, the weird, the funny, all of it.

Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike, Celestia, Luna, Sunset Shimmer, Discord, everypony, Thank you all for these wonderful nine years, and for teaching us that Friendship truly is the most powerful magic of all. But most importantly, Thank You Jesus, for having revealed this series to me, and for speaking to me through these ponies, reminding me of Your love, Your mercy, and most of all, Your friendship.

Nothing stays the same for long, but when it changes doesn't mean it's gone. Things may come and things may go. Some go fast and some go slow. Few things last, that's all I know. But Friendship, carries on through the ages.

[mcu-owns-my-ass]

Dark

Pairing: Bucky x reader

Word count: 2.9 k

Summary: Bucky and reader are hydra prisoners, but maybe they’ll find a way out

Warnings: Mentions of torture (Kind of), language (I can’t write without cursing apparently) ANGST

A/N: I wrote this for @fangirlfiction and @phoenixwintersolo #angstember challenge, @noshitstark writing challenge and @bucky-at-bedtime marvellous writing challenge. I am so so so incredibly sorry to be so late with this, I am a mess (and so is my fic but I tried). My prompts were: “You can’t do this to me”, “I’ll do it for you. I’ll do anything for you” and “Stay close to people that feel like sunlight). Thank you so much to Lila, Nikki and Jess for letting me be a part of their challenges and special thanks to @danyofwesteros and @its-a-pretty-interesting-wall for beta reading this for me! 

The yellow lights and the whirring noises of the machinery in the room were overwhelming.

You could barely focus your sight, which was adjusting glacially slow to the bright lights after months in the dark.

You wanted to collapse, vomit or maybe just die right there. You knew it was a matter of time before your legs gave way to the heaviness you felt.

If it weren’t for the arm of a man in a lab coat that held you steady, you’d had fallen already.

“Do it,” The man screamed, forcefully pushing you to stand near a chair where someone sat, bound and gagged.

Your brain was sluggish, and you opened and closed your eyes a few times trying to focus your eyes on the person on the chair, still not fully comprehending the situation.

“No,” You managed in a croaky voice

Another shove sent you tumbling and you grabbed on to the chair in order not to fall face first on the cold white floor.

You were inches from him, and now you could see clear enough.

“Bucky,” You mumbled, struggling to contain the nausea. You hadn’t seen him in years, not since the time they made you put the words in his head. His blue eyes beamed in recognition for the smallest of seconds, and you felt his hand seize yours with a steely grip. He didn’t answer but you felt how he slipped something into your hand. He stared at you, an anguish ridden glance, and you know what it meant.

Next thing you felt was a heavy blow to the head, and then it all went black.

The dripping sound of a leaking faucet wakes you, and this time the room is dark. You’re thankful for that. Your brain feels like it’s been through a blender.

You lift yourself from the ground and struggle to sit against the cold damp wall of the cell. Your wrist is bruised by the single handcuff they use to contain your powers. Dim light filters through the barred window in the door, and some muffled voices reach your ears.

“She’s not strong enough. You saw what happened this morning”

“Then wipe her. Let’s start clean. Wipe him too, while you’re at it. They’re recognizing each other again”

“Every time we do it, it takes her longer to learn to contain her power. I lost two people last time”

“Doesn’t matter. We have the machine now, thanks to her. And she’s becoming harder to manage. I’ve got half a mind to just … terminate her. If only we didn’t need her...”

“Please, don’t do that. She’s fascinating, scientifically… The first human being able to manipulate minds... Imagine if we could replicate it in other humans…”

“Yeah, yeah, I don’t care. Just deal with it.”

The words echoed in your brain like fireworks and your memory started to function again.

This morning

Your mind runs a play by play of the scene and it dawns on you suddenly.

You look at your closed fist, and when you open it you find a shard of metal, sharp and cold.

Bucky.

You trail off, remembering when you met him, so many years ago.

This talent of yours, it came at a price. They lure you under the pretense of science and research, and a hefty chunk of money, which sounds amazing for a broke college student. If only you had known… It was all very civilized, until he came along. Until the tests weren’t on you, but on him and others, and you stop cooperating.

Then they throw you in a cell. Cold and damp all the time, but at least you’re not alone. Or so you thought, but it would probably had been the same. He never talks, never moves, never does anything. Just sits there until they take him away for awhile and eventually throw him back in.

It’s strange at first but then you stop caring if he hears you or not, because the silence is deafening and you have to say something, even if to remember that you actually exist. So you talk, and talk and talk. You tell him the unprompted story of your miserable life, and how you came to be property of hydra.

Sometimes you just mumble nonsense, until your voice is hoarse.

Sometimes you sing whatever tune you remember from better days. Anything to drown the silence.

“How long have you been here?” You ask him once. Time moves different in the darkness, and you have already lost count of your own time there. Probably months.

His head hangs low, as always, but you’re not really expecting an answer, because he hasn’t uttered a word in all the time you’ve been locked together.

“What year is it?” He whispers

It surprises you, but you search your brain for the answer.

“1991. At least that’s what I remember”

He says nothing for a while, just grabs his head between his hands, trying to remember something.

“Four...almost five…”

Your eyes grow wide “five years?” You ask, astonished.

“Decades. Four, almost five decades”

Your mouth flies open in disbelief. You can’t fathom 5 years in this hell hole. But 5 decades…

You’re not sure why but you feel the unstoppable need to hug him, so you do. He jerks a little at the contact at first, but then he melts into it.

Then you cry, for him and for you and because you haven’t cried in so long that the first tear releases a flood. He cries with you, until you’re both out of tears, and he’s not the first to let go.

It all changes after that day.

He tells you the story of how he lost his arm, how hydra captured him. His name is Bucky. He had a friend named Steve. He was in WWII. However little he remembers from his past, he tells you.

Some nights you sleep next to each other, when the cold gets to be too much, and you wake up with his flesh arm around you. It feels nice, like a ray of sunlight in the darkness, and you never want to let go.

It’s never more, never less. Friendship seems a strange word for what you are. But it’s the closest.

Sometimes he asks you to sing for him, all the silly tunes you sang on those first weeks, and you comply. Misery seems more bearable when it’s shared.

Occasionally, when the nights are darkest, he’ll whisper in your ear “If we make it out of here, will you help me forget?”

Your heart shrinks at his words because you know what they mean, but your answer is always the same “I’ll do it for you. I’ll do anything for you”

Then he holds you tighter and you hope he never lets go.

Until one day they take him, and he doesn’t comeback. And then shortly after, they come for you.

Your next meeting is less than pleasant.

--------

You hear footsteps approaching and they rip you from your memories. Then the latch on the door whirs as it unlocks. A tall man enters the room, the same guy from this morning, dressed in black pants and a pristine white coat.

“Feeling better?” He asks with a mocking grin as he kneels in front of you until you’re to eye level.

“Fuck you,” You spit in his face, and he’s less than pleased, but otherwise non-reactive. He moves to produce a paper tissue from his pocket and you know it’s now or never.

Your hand flies in front of his face, and before he can even process what’s happening, the shard of metal is sinking into the thin skin of his neck. His eyes widen in confusion, and his blood spatters across your face, and his next words drown in his throat with his dying breath.

Adrenaline kicks in and you pry the key of the cells from the dead guy’s hand. In a matter of seconds you’re out of the cell and running the halls like a mad person. You count the cells until you get to his.

He sits on the same chair, and someone it’s next to him but they have their back to the door.

An alarm starts blaring the second his eyes meet yours, but he wastes no time. The restraints around his arms are no match for his super soldier strength and his metallic arm.

You’re in a frenzy trying to kick open the locked door, and you hear rushed footsteps coming your way. You have seconds, and the adrenaline kicks again.

Inside the room Bucky’s fighting someone but the fight doesn't last long and finally he’s there, one locked door away from you.

Then you remember: You have the keys.

You fumble with them and try a couple of them until the right one opens the door.

You can already see the armed guards coming your way from one end of the hallway, and it’s like you’re glued to the floor, panic setting in your confused eyes.

The super soldier grabs your hand and pulls you out of the stupor. You run with him through the maze of hallways that is the Hydra base.

He stops for a second forcing you to stop with him. He looks at you, like he’s trying to figure something out but can’t. Whatever is going through his mind remains a mystery and then with a flick of his metal hand he releases your wrist from the handcuff designed to contain you.

He grabs your arm again, softly this time and guides you. You hope to god that he knows the way out of this place.

As soon as you turn the next hallway there’s already armed guards waiting for you and you stop dead on your tracks. The soldier tries pulling you but you’re frozen again in fear. This is the closest you’ve ever gotten to escaping. And now it’s over.

However, he’s not willing to go down without fighting and he takes on the 4 guys that are coming at you. You’ve seen him in action before but this is surreal. There are limbs flying about, and it’s a miracle how in a couple of seconds he already has 2 of the guards down on the floor.

You watch him, eyes wide in awe. But finally a bullet catches his shoulder and it’s like a bucket of cold water just fell on top of you.

And you remember. You can help him.

You close your eyes, and concentrate, and it hurts, it’s horrible, but it works.

“STOP!”

Your scream is loud and firm and the second you utter it, the remaining two guards stop, vacant eyes and drooling faces.

You both stare at each other for a moment, and then you run to catch up to him. You encounter a couple more guards on your way out but they’re no match to you and the soldier. The sound of the alarms is deafening to the point where you can barely hear your own thoughts, but it doesn’t matter because you can see the exit.

He reaches the door first and the night air hits you in the face as he opens the heavy door to a patch of woods. But you don’t have time to stop since now you have the whole of hydra breathing down your neck. You hear gunshots and in a trembling second you take his hand and run, run, run into the woods.

He manages much better in the terrain, and you haven’t even seen the outside in years, but somehow manage to keep up with him by will alone.

Neither of you stop even for a breath for a long time. Fortunately, everytime you dare to look back, the flashlights of the people looking for you seem farther and farther.

Then it dies down, the adrenaline rush is over and your body is screaming for a break.

“Bucky,” you say in between shortened breaths, leaning your arm on a tree for support.

He stops and looks at you, not even a drop of sweat on him.

“You keep calling me that. And so did the man on the bridge,” He trails off and his eyes get lost in the void of night.

“What?” you squint at him

“Who the hell is Bucky?” He asks

“You don’t remember,” You sigh, biting your lip, “Wait… If you don’t remember...Why did you help me? You could have made a run for it without me”

“I don’t know. I just felt like I should. Like I knew you”

He looks at you as if you hold all the answers. You take a cautious step towards him, and you go to touch his cheek, but he takes a step back.

“I don’t want to hurt you… I can help you remember,” You say, and your lips curl in a small smile, more sad than anything.

He doesn’t move and you take it as an ok to get closer. Maybe the face was too intimate, so instead you take his hand on yours, and he flinches a bit but he doesn’t step away this time.

You take a deep breath and close your eyes. You can feel something leaving you and going through him.

He feels it too, warm and soft, washing over him and making him somewhat whole again, slowly filling the empty spaces inside his brain, layers upon layers of memories, good and bad.

The cold reaches your bones for the first time that night and you know it’s done, so you let go of him.

“That’s all I have. I can only give you back what they made me take. But I’m sure there’s more,”

The change inside of him is evident, and his steel blue eyes no longer look lost, but crystalline and bright.

This time he’s the one closing the distance between the two of you. How could he forget you? And yet, he knows you’re the one to blame. But he also knows it’s not your fault, because he has done awful things too, none of them willing.

You’re not sure if he’s going to attack you or not, but he’s near and you want to be near again so you don’t move, and suddenly he’s enveloping you in his strong arms, hugging you so tight that you can feel your own heartbeat pouncing on his shirt. You hug him back and it’s everything you remember, wholehearted and pleasant like a blanket on a rainy day.

You cry and laugh and so does he, grabbing your face in his hands and looking at you as if it were the first time. He looks tired and sad and incredibly handsome under the pale moonlight, so your brain chooses to disregard the precarious nature of your current situation, and before you know it, you’re crashing your lips on his.

His eyes widen in surprise for a moment but almost instantaneously he’s kissing you back. He tastes sweet and salty, and the kiss is full, intense like a storm and almost as violent.

Then it all comes crashing down. There’s gunshots coming from every other direction, and one buries in your in leg. Rushed footsteps sound between the trees, and you know they’re close.

There’s no pain, only a burning feeling in your leg, and the familiar sensation of blood running down your thigh.

He looks at you in confusion and he understands in a second. He grabs you by the arm again, and you move to start running beside him but the second your leg takes a step, it crumbles in itself, and you fall to the leaf covered ground. You’re not gonna make it, but he might, if he runs

“RUN!” You scream at him

“No. I won’t without you,” He found you again. He’s determined not to lose you. So he kneels beside you and tries to lift you but you can’t stand. The initial shock is wearing off and it’s rising into mind shattering pain.

“You have to,” You mumble, and you know what has to happen next, “Come back for me. If you can,”

“No. Don’t! You can’t do this to me!” He screams in despair but there’s no other way

“I am so sorry,” you say as a single tear escapes your struggling eyes

“Don’t d-”

But he never finishes his sentence, because your hand is already in his shoulder, and you don’t even need words anymore. You can feel his memory dissolving between your fingers, like butter. It won’t last long, just a few hours. Just until you can lead them away from him, and he’s far away from this place.

“Run,” You whisper in his ear, “Find the man on the bridge”

You see his eyes go blank and you hate yourself for what you did. But there was no other way. And your heart it’s breaking into a million pieces,

You struggle but find footing and you limp as far away from him as you can, purposefully making noise that will alert hydra of your position. It’s you who they want after all. They have more winter soldiers. But only one of you.

You look back and you can see the reflection of a metal arm running in the distance, until he’s out of sight, and you know it’s time.

“I’m here assholes,” You whimper.

With a heavy thud you let yourself fall to the ground again. They’re looming over you, and soon enough you’ll be a prisoner again. But at least he’s safe now.

[imagine-marvelously]

A Weapon of My Own Design: Falling

Characters: Loki x OC (Ashira)

Warnings: Violence (sorta)

WC: 2,847

Summary: After Loki falls from the void, he lands onto a planet where a runaway is attempt to get some rest. Just as he gets up people after her begin a shoot out, forcing the pair to fly away and work together. They aren’t the most fond of each other. 

A/N: I love Star Wars so there will be Star Wars references fucking everywhere ya hoes :,). I also don’t consider swearing a warning because it is just part of my vocabulary. Also any spelling mistakes are mine, because I am a full time messy college student. 

Deserted planets are a blessing to a runaway. They provide something no other planet can: safety. No people means no one to recognize her means no one to force her home. 

Ashira sits with her back against the closed ramp panel of her ship, relaxing for the first time in weeks. Nearly everywhere she goes someone has found her and forced her to run as fast as she can as far as she can. For the past few days, the complete slack of her muscles and near blankness in her mind has been so new it’s almost unnerving. 

Never has it been more than two days of either rest or lack of running, so the blessing of four is odd. But a blessing she will gladly take from the universe. 

The horrifying hiss of a falling object awakens her from the weak slumber she fell into. Her right eye peeks open in interest. The object appears to be flailing out almost like fabric once tightly wound torn apart and flapping wildly in the wind of the fall. It nears closer, and closer, and closer, the edges of the fabric becoming more clearly defined and less of a rip like they originally seemed. Possibly a broken parachute or piece of lining someone tossed out of their ship. 

It lands with a dusty red thud in the ground about fifteen feet from her. It’s the thud that makes her lean forward. No fabric would thud that loudly or make any sound really in the softness of the dirt on Hosnia. So her eyes scan for possible details that may indicate a harder object involved in the fall, a harder object involved in the hiss of the fall. The fabric is leather of some form - which does back a different noise than a parachute or ship lining or any other basic fabric for one thing. 

But as her eyes move up the shape she notices a dramatically different color from the black of a the leather - a fleshy ivory tone in the shape of hands. 

“Holy shit,” Ashira gasps. A person just landed face down after falling who knows. 

The woman stands within a heartbeat, withdrawing her pure white sword simultaneously. Tepid steps leading her towards the person who may be may (due to the tracing her eyes do over the leather). Her sword is held steady in front of her; after finally achieving some rest she is not about to risk some random person murdering her. 

With the tip of the white blade she carefully pushes beneath the torso and turns the man over to his back. For crash landing a few feet from her at universe knows what speed he appears surprisingly unbroken. Face scuffed a bit, the red mud from the planet soaked into his clothing, but unbroken from his outer appearance. Likely got a lot of broken bones though. 

Careful not to startle the man (if he is alive), her sword gently prods around him more. Pulling back the cloth at his neck exposes no markings identifying him with any of the major gangs, just a of couple scratches; his clothing is not of any Ravagers factions. Appears to be just a strange man who just so happened to crash land near her current hide out. Still a little too coincidental for her liking. 

With a sigh Ashira puts her sword back in its holster. She will need to get going soon. Some weird person will have traced his flight in hopes for parts or food or clothing and find her along with him, something she cannot risk. Her head tilts upwards towards the hazy sky in hopes of pre-catching anyone who may be after her that her watch may not identify since it is only calibrated for very specific groups of people. The spectacle up there is a lone vulture like bird, sweeping back and forth for prey. It is a surprisingly comforting sight all things considered.

The man wakes with a sudden gasp of air. Ashira’s attention is removed quickly from the bird to the man, jumping back a few feet, swinging her sword from its sheath rapidly with her left hand and resting her right on her hip where her sharpest and closest dagger sits. Her eyes watch for sudden advances towards her; the man sits up lazily, his body moving slowly onto his forearms. Even if he is not a threat, as of this moment he is to her.

His eyes spend a minute focusing on the site in front of him: a woman in armor that is partially like Asgard’s holding a white sword stands steady in front of him, her cool silver hair pulled tightly in a two braids behind her, practically black eyes stare him down, deep purple skin glistening in the low light. She appears a foot shorter than him, but well built and strong. Loki then focuses on his surroundings: red dirt, sporadic gray-toned foliage, large boulders, and the sun indirectly lighting them. 

“Where am I?” He groans.

“That depends.” Ashira straightens herself, glaring at the pale, dark haired man. “Why did you crash land here?” 

Loki blinks incredulously. “I don't even know where here is!” 

“Hosnia. You are on Hosnia, alright?” She explains. 

Loki looks around again. “I’ve never heard of Hosnia.”

“Probably because it is a barren planet in the middle of fucking nowhere.” 

The god nods slowly. “Could you put the sword down?” 

“Not until I’m sure you are not after me.” She advances towards him, sword tilting ever so slightly closer, tip nearly touching his neck. 

“After you?” Loki stands quickly to back away; Ashira backing up one pace but maintaining her sword’s reach towards him. “I don’t even know who you are! You could at least put it down because I am a king!”

Ashira grinds her teeth. There are little to no good options right now. The only indication she has that he isn’t trying to get to her is his lack of Ravager or gang markings. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t. Plenty of people have tried despite their lack of affiliation."

“Prove it to me.” She gestures with her sword towards his face. “Prove you aren’t lying.” 

“About being a king or about not being after you?” 

“Both!” She sneers.

“How am I supposed to do that?” He shouts. 

“I don’t know!” She yells back. 

As soon as Loki goes to reply again, the sound of hundreds of beeps steals his words. The woman glances down at her left wrist where a screen is lit entirely bright red. At least three hundred ships hovering in the atmosphere are dive bombing towards them, paralyzing guns aimed carefully.

An explosion of dirt hits Loki in the back. Then another hits Ashira and him in the front, the strike perfectly between the two. The black of the woman’s eyes grow small as she widens her eyes, her heart rate suddenly jumping. Two different identification symbols mark the ships, all advancing towards them at at a near inescapable pace: the Hutt Clan and the Fetters. 

“Shit, shit, shit!” Quickly she re-sheaths her sword. “Come with me!”

Two more strikes hit beside the pair, Loki throwing his arms up to shield his face. 

“I still don’t know who you are!” He screams through the deafening strikes.

Ashira grabs his wrist tightly. He stares down at her grip: it’s stronger than even his brother’s whose can easily be bone shattering. 

“And I still don’t know if you are lying or not but if you don’t want to die, you come with me!” Three more strikes force the dirt up around them so without trying to convince him to come with she tugs him with her. 

Loki stumbles forward with her, his own feet tripping each other. The speed in which she is pulling him is too fast for him, faster than he’s ever seen any humanoid being run ever. He falls with the trip of his own feet so the strong woman just starts dragging him. 

“The ship is just around this rock, come on!”

As Ashira rounds the corner Loki lands back on his feet, his legs struggling still to keep up with the ridiculous pace the woman runs. A button on the right side of her belt is pressed and a once hidden ship phases into sight, its blackness a stark contrast against the red of the planet around them. Loki is admittedly frightened as they get within inches and no door has opened; his fears are quickly quenched as soon as the woman passes through a hidden side panel with ease. He stumbles after her and tumbles into the ship.

Ashira slams a button beside the hidden entrance which solidifies it, fortifying it from the outside. He watches, entirely startled, as the woman basically jumps into the pilot seat from where they entered nearly twenty feet back. She flips three switches quickly, paying no mind to the small questions her passenger is asking her rapidly. There are more important things on her mind. 

With a groan and a rumble, the ship reluctantly pulls off the ground. It creaks with every inch it inclines, the sound of it threatening to collapse painful to Loki’s ears. A ship like this would never be allowed to be flown on Asgard. 

“I don’t give free rides, get up here and help.” The woman gestures to the empty seat beside her. Loki clambers past the random garbage and ship pieces to sit carefully beside her. “Do you know how to use this control panel?” 

Loki centers himself, gripping onto both armrests as a blast shudders the entire ship. 

“Hey, can you work this or not?” The woman shouts.

Loki looks the panel over. It’s akin to the technology to the ships on Asgard. A bit of orientation and he will be able to work it easily.

“Yes,” he replies. 

“Good. Shoot at any ship. Do not discriminate. All of them.” She steers them hard right despite still being mid-ascent. 

“Alright.” His grip on the armrests tighten a moment to prevent himself from falling out of his seat but the woman beside him seems to not bothered at all by the momentum thrusting their bodies violently. 

Loki looks down at the numerous buttons and chooses to grab both small sticks. Two small screens pop up in front of him on the window in front of him, each for the individual guns and each for the individual stick. 

It’s surprisingly instinctual aiming and shooting at each ship that nears them despite using two separate systems as a single person, becoming easier as they exit the atmosphere and the distinction of ships is no longer muddied by the misty sky. Ship after ship explodes with ease. The thin purple blast from the gun more powerful than Loki originally suspected. And shooting ships down in such a random, instead of militaristic way is freeing. The sporadic-ness is calming even. 

As the final ship floats into view, Loki stares at its Asgardian style build. An instant paralysis runs through his body, the façade of average temperature dropping to his colder touch. If it weren’t for his distraction of looking at the ship, he may have noticed the rapid best of his heart only becoming faster. 

Is it possible someone came for him, traced him through his fall through the galaxy? Is it possibly they do want him home? 

Ashira tears her eyes off piloting for a second to see her guest’s apprehension. Her teeth grind heavily as she throws her right hand over his left and forces the mechanism to fire. One shot and the ship explodes in front of them. 

“What the fuck was that?” She shouts as her hands readjust the controls.

“I- I don’t know.”

“All of them I said! All of them!” Her head turns to him. “Good thing they are all gone now, you fucking idiot!” 

The man also turns his head in shock. The dread is replaced with instant anger at her insult. “I am a king! How dare you insult me!” 

“You almost got us killed, I have every right to insult you! King or not it wouldn’t have mattered if we were dead! Your title means nothing in the stage of war! Nothing!” She pauses to heavily inhale then exhale. “Nothing,” she whispers through her teeth. It’s softer but no less intense. 

Loki chooses not to respond. Her words are not untrue, no not at all, but they also aren’t true. After years of battling along side his brother and father he knows their titles meant everything as they fought. Thor God of Thunder and son of Odin meant he took control whenever he arrived. When Odin arrived he took over, as he is king and the Allfather. There is an inkling now in his head that questions all of that: has Asgard ever experienced the type of war she is discussing? Is her version lawless battle or a more pure and original form of warfare? 

The prince sighs to clear his head. Overthinking her one sentence will get him nowhere. 

It’s an uncomfortable silence as the pilot stares down at her control panel. Her mouth twitches as she clenches and unclenches her jaw, hands working violently to recalibrate them. Though it takes her a mere moment to put it on autopilot, she acts like it is the hardest thing in the world to keep herself occupied.

For at least ten minutes Ashira does nothing but stare at the panel she is no longer touching and Loki does nothing but stare out at the space they are traveling quite quickly through. 

Loki finally breaks the silence, wanting to at least know the name of the woman he is stuck with for an undermined amount of time. 

“I believe I at least deserving your name after shooting at those ships for you.”

The woman raises her right eyebrow as her lips pull into a half smile, impressed by the quip of a question. Her body twists the chair to face the man. “Ashira. My name is Ashira. Yours?” 

“Loki.” 

“Alright Loki.” Ashira looks up to the ceiling. Loki, she’s never heard that one before. Nice name. “Until I am positive we are no longer being chased, you are stuck on this ship with me. Get comfy.” Her eyes flit back down to him. 

The woman decides on standing up, pushing herself up from the chair, and walking towards the back of the ship. Loki watches as Ashira walks away: there is something peculiar about the way she walks. A walk somewhere between a warrior or soldier’s intensity and a high royal; somewhere between his brother’s pompous step and his mother’s careful glide. 

“Welcome to casa de Runaway. We’ve got all the best amenities.” Ashira pauses at her dinky kitchen and yanks open both cupboards simultaneously. “We got shitty food from I don’t remember where that might be poisonous at this point, we got stale water and other gross drinks. And we got a ship that need to be altered every four days, might fall apart at any given moment.” She spins on her heels to find her guest standing across from her, braid whipping around with her. “Up there,” she points to a set of stairs he hadn’t noticed previously just behind the cockpit like area, “are some weird beds. You’ll see what I mean when you go up there. Shower is also up there, bathroom is to my left. This ship makes no sense in its layout and I understand. Any complaints can be directed to that exit over there.” Her hands point to behind him. 

 Loki fidgets nervously with his hands. “I don’t think I can really complain when you just saved my life, can I?”

“Like I said, complaints that may arise can be directed to the exit…” She leans back on the counter and looks Loki up and down. “… your majesty.” 

Loki half smiles, shaking his head. “I don’t think I can accept you calling me that title.” 

“Oh?” She tilts her head to the side. “You wanted me to call you king a few minutes ago.”

Loki lightly scoffs. “You are… right. If we were dead it wouldn’t matter.”

She bites her lips as a smirk threatens to pull them apart. “I changed your mind already? I must be magic.”

Loki waves his right hand gently, the ripped and dirtied outfit now replaced with a clean and much refined one. 

Ashira giggles. “I see someone knows actual magic.”

“My mother taught me.” 

“Try to use it to a minimum. If they got any track on you you using your magic could become a problem for me.” With a sigh she pushes herself from the counter. “We will hopefully be able to find another planet to go soon, hopefully one with supplies and one where if you want to stay you can.”

“Thank you. For… for saving my life.”

“Did your mother also teach you manners?”

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 175 & 176: Thoughts and Spoilers

Hello, I am back. Sorry the last couple weeks were busy. Anyway, I am really loving these two chapters so lets get right into it.

Preparation for the festival continues, and Deku still really can’t dance. We see a cute Eri and by now y’all probably decided that it was Aizawa doing her hair, and I agree (the dudes got some long locks himself, he knows how to do hair I can guarantee that). The class has made some serious progress and they are all nervous/hyped for the festival. Then a little bit of plot happens, Deku realized some of the ropes that will support the disco bal- ahem - Aoyama, are frayed and they need new ones. Deku says he’ll go out and get some new ones after his morning training (nothing will go wrong I’m sure). Kaminari notes that Deku will be cutting it close with training, shopping and prepping for the festival. So finally, the day of the festival arrives.

Hatsume hasn’t slept or bathed in a week and runs out into the woods to find Deku to give him his modified gloves (and damn they are stylin’). The sytlin’ aspect is actually something Mei consciously had in mind when she made it, which amazed me because all of her previous “babies” have been just straight up robots, but this time she had Deku’s hero costume in mind when she developed it. Mei is going to be a top-class hero support... uh.. person? Is there a title for it? Engineer? Something like that.

Deku is running a tad late because he was working with the gloves so much, but now he is going to get the ropes. He passes some of the festival which is nice to see that it is all coming together. He falls even further behind because the store he was thinking of was not selling any ropes that would work. At precisely 8:30, Deku bumps into two very suspicious individuals coming out of an alley. This oddly... gentle... individual diverts his path away from Deku and mentions something about a high-end brand of tea. Deku recognizes the brand as the one Momo so graciously served Class 1-A the other day. The mention of tea got this suspiciously suave individual’s attention and started a conversation without thinking. Then, legitimately, the scene gets tense. They start to piece together who each other are. “A high-class student,” “a suspicious character linked with tea,” “a student in the UA area,” “a familiar voice,” “he is a student at UA!” “He is Gentle!” Cue all black panel with Gentle and Deku staring each other down. I loved this sequence for a couple reasons: 1.) neither character is stupid, they’ve deduced who the other is very quickly with minimal interaction, 2.) other shows or stories keep characters in the dark about simple stuff for ages just for tension, whereas here nothing was kept hidden for long, but maximum tension was reached in three pages, 3.) the characters aren’t dumb! I can not stress that enough! God I love seeing characters figure thing out like normal human beings, it is so refreshing to see, 4.) and both characters are taking the other very seriously (more about that later).

Deku then does something that I adore, he asks Gentle to stop. Straight forward and honest, he leaves Gentle open to several options, one of which is dropping the idea and leaving entirely. It also speaks volumes of Deku’s character, despite being a hero confronted with a known villain, his first instinct is a peaceful resolution, not a fight. He does not instigate a fight, such a peaceful kid (despite how freaking crazy he is during his fights). The chapter ends like this, with a small counter saying the performance will take place in an hour and twenty-eight minutes.

The next chapter starts with Gentle admitting that Deku outted him, and Deku checks to see if there are any civilians on the street to worry about. I love that small gesture cause that is something that is typically neglected in stories, bystanders and if they are in harms way. Deku determines that they only thing now is to prepare for a fight. gentle has the same idea, whips off his disguise and tells Brava to start filming and not to stop under any circumstances. Gentle starts with a flourish and poses for the camera, Deku lunges, and basically hits one of those saran wrap pranks where it is pulled across a door frame. This saran wrap however is incredibly elastic and launches Deku backwards at high speeds. Gentle confirms that his quirk is elasticity, which is similar to what I imagined, so I am glad one of my theories was close to the mark. Gentle actually seems very surprised by the sheer force that Deku was launched at, meaning that he doesn’t put any force into his quirk at all, all the bounce comes from outside force (makes sense in this cause Deku was using Full Cowl). The distance that Deku was launched intimidates Gentle, saying that if the kid could withstand that, he must have some serious power behind him. Coming to that conclusion, Gentle and Brava book it.

Deku gets up and chases them further, Gentle sets up a trampoline and bounces Deku into the air so they can get further away. Gentle takes this moment to talk to Deku, saying that he understands Deku’s desire for the festival to go well, but Gentle is prioritizing his attack over the students having fun, which as a villain should be a given, but Gentle doesn’t really give off the villain vibe. Gentle and Brava make another dash for it, and Brava recognizes Deku from the sports festival, saying that he was “the crazy boy who fought by destroying his arms.” Gentle then gives a face of comedic fear, and I love it, Deku’s madman reputation is giving people pause now, I love that he is scaring the crap outta people he hasn’t even meet yet. Something similar occurred kinda recently in One Piece, I might write a post about that later. Anyways, Deku is tumbling through the air. He is remembering a conversation he had with Eri, and how she is looking forward to the dance party (THIS WAS SAID WHILE ERI WAS TRYING TO SMILE AND IT WAS SO SWEET I BECAME PHYSICALLY ILL THEN I LOOKED AT IT MORE). Deku is also remembering helping Jirou compile a load of notes she took for the other band members. She had notes on par to Deku’s hero notes, and Deku was thrilled cause originally he thought Jirou had a favorite hero she wanted to take notes on (Deku’s reaction to this was not like himself, much more like a friend’s though I can’t really place whose, Iida maybe? Either way, friends are rubbing off on each other). It is shown later Tokoyami using those notes, and its implied that Bakugou has already read it, which makes sense with his academic jock vibe.

This is all to show that Deku absolutely can not allow Gentle to get anywhere near to UA. Deku is about to launch a midair attack, remembers his training with All Might and comments about dancing from Mina. This combination allows Deku to fire off an air blast while upside down to stall Gentle. Deku immediately catches up with a Full Cowl jump and sends both of them into a construction site. And that is where the chapter ends, but I’ve got a couple other thoughts I’d like to share.

So there are a couple things I absolutely adore when some elements are included in a story. One of which is recognition. Not like a character starts off well known, but when a character works hard and somewhere during the story you realize, oh crap, this character is really well known now. Deku is getting there and you’ve got no idea how much that hypes me up. The implications of this fight with Gentle could launch Deku even further into the public eye. If Deku defeats Gentle, that will be the first villain Deku took down without help. On top of that, the whole thing will be recorded, meaning Deku will have to learn a lesson or two about camera awareness or at least he has to acknowledge the celebrity aspect of heroing. I would love for Deku to get interviewed or something, maybe we see a new article about him or something. Plus, imagine this: Deku starts to develop a fan club. Of course Eri and Kouta are the founder and president of the club, but imagine Deku getting recognized in public positively (we’re just gonna forget about Shigaraki “recognizing” Deku in the mall). To sum it up, Deku is moving up in the world, and there is some major potential for him to get his name catapulted into the pro-hero world.

The other thing I absolutely love is when opponents recognize each other as strong enemies. Far too often villains are so egotistical that they refuse to see the possibility that their adversary could beat them, even if they have already been beaten. A fight where both sides realize they can lose makes the fight 100x more tense, and this is what is happening here. Gentle is legitimately wary of the strength that Deku wields, and Deku is the cautious type by nature, so of course he too is aware of how this situation could be very bad. A fight between equals is sooooo good. Those are two of things I love seeing in stories, I got a couple others, but those are the ones that apply to this chapter.

That should be about it. Thank you for taking your time to read this whole long thing. I am thinking that I might try to diversify this blog to some other stories as well (anime, movies, etc.), though I have been busy recently so I am not sure how that would work out. I’ll figure it out later. Again, thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day.

[marauder--harder]

Fate, Misunderstood- A Remus Lupin Imagine (Part 1)

A/N: Sorry this wasn’t up sooner. I don’t know if I really like it all that much, so I’m sorry for that too. Hope you enjoy, lovelies. 

Request from Anon: would you please write some remus x reader where sirius meets reader in one of his classes and starts talking to her because he knows remus has a crush on her and he wants to help them but remus thinks that the girl has a crush on sirius so its all a big misunderstanding

Remus didn’t believe in fate.

He thought it to be too cruel of a concept for people. If fate existed, that means that it was set for him to be cursed as a monster. It was set that there would be a war. It was set that life was harsh and filled with pain. No, Remus refused to believe in fate. Bad things happen to good people, and people make wrong choices. He had convinced himself of this at a very young age; and with the war approaching quickly, it was not difficult to support his claims.

Until he saw you.

You were an enigma. Constantly showing up in Remus’ life, just on the outskirts. He didn’t know your name, your year, or really anything about you-- except that you were beautiful. Every time he found himself doubting the good things in life, you appeared. The two of you had never spoken, but it didn’t stop Remus from feeling a bit lighter as he watched you float around with a happiness he didn’t know was humanly possible.

Remus had fallen for you, hard; and he hated it.

“What’s got you in such a mood?” James asked, as Remus sat down in the Great Hall with a huff.

“Nothing,” he snapped back and quickly began digging into his food without another word.

The three boys looked to their werewolf friend, and then exchanged glances. Peter counted the number of days before the full moon, then mouthed ‘four’ to the others. They nodded in understanding and let the boy be. If he was in a mood, trying to cheer him up would not be a good thing for any of them. Nothing seemed to shake Remus from his aggressiveness in the days leading up to his transformations.

Breakfast was eaten in silence, the only conversation held when James asked Lily out for the third time this week and she rejected him, for the third time. After they ate, the four marauders made their way to the first class of the day: Potions.

This seemed to put Remus in an even more foul mood as he didn’t want to go anywhere near the class. Sure, he was paired with Lily, who was rather great at the subject; but it was cold, dark, and damp in the dungeons. He briefly wondered if he should just skip class for the day, but decided against it for the fact that he would be missing his classes within the next couple of days anyhow. 

Upon arrival, he immediately regretted this decision when Lily turned to him.

“Do you mind if we aren’t partners for today, Remus? Sev wanted to talk to me about something and I figured this would be the easiest way in doing so.”

Taking in a deep breath, Remus sighed and tried his best to not snap at the young girl. “Go ahead. I’ll find someone else for today.”

With a smile and a quick hug, Lily was off to sit next to her Slytherin friend. This left Remus alone and fidgety, as he didn’t want a different partner and surely wouldn’t go up to ask someone. He’d wait until someone came to him, probably whomever came in late to today’s lesson.

What Remus did not expect was a soft touch on his shoulder, and a warm voice to fill his ears.

“Um, your Remus Lupin, right?”

Looking up, he saw his enigma staring right at him. The tension placed in his shoulders melted away as he held your gentle gaze. “Yeah, I am.”

Your face brightened slightly and smiled, an expression that Remus now knew was his favorite. He found himself mirroring you slightly as you continued. “Great! I was wondering if you had a partner for today’s lesson? Alice is out sick and I am left partnerless.”

Remus shook his head and you sat down next to the young boy.

“Perfect. I’m Y/N, by the way. And I have to warn you, I’m kind of rubbish at Potions.”

Still smiling, his headache that was forming just moments prior suddenly vanished, and he laughed softly. “No worries, I think I can carry us through today’s lesson.”

You nodded, and put your hand over your heart in a false dramatic sense. “My knight in shining armor.”

Before he could think it through, the words were tumbling out of his mouth with a wink. “Anything for a fair maiden such as yourself.”

At this, you both flushed a shade of pink and seemed to lose your nerve at flirting any more. The rest of class went by without incident; and even though it was slightly awkward at times, Remus found himself feeling better. He guided you through the potion you made and with his help, you seemed to pick it up better than when Slughorn explained it.

“See? You aren’t abysmal like you had said. You only almost caused a fire once.” He joked, and you playfully smacked his arm.

“Hey, not fair! That was your fault anyhow. You told me to stir counter-clockwise, not clockwise!”

The two of you laughed as you packed away your things, and you smiled up at the young boy.

“Even if I did almost start a fire, I’m glad I partnered with you today. You helped better than Slughorn ever could, so thank you.”

Remus nodded, and smiled back at you gently. “It’s no problem at all. Lily ditched me for the day anyhow, so I was partnerless too.”

As the two of you said your goodbyes, neither of you saw the young boy watching from a distance. Sirius Black saw the smile on his friend’s face, and was surprised that he had not bit your head off once. If you brightened his mood on a day leading up to the full moon, you must be pretty special. Grinning broadly, he decided that tomorrow he would see how special you were for himself.

When Remus walked into Potions class the next day, he frowned. Lily was back sitting in her old seat next to his. Slightly disappointed that he couldn’t share his time with you again, he made his way over and sat next to the red-headed girl.

“Morning, Remus.”

However, the young boy did not reply, as he was watching two students chat happily with one another across the room. His heart fell into his stomach. You were sitting in your usual seat, and in Alice’s was none other than Gryffindor’s Casanova, Sirius Black. He was leaning against the desk cooly, flashing his signature smirk and talking about something Remus could only imagine was an infamous pick up line.

However, much to his dismay you smiled shyly and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear as you looked down. The more he concentrated on the scene in front of him, the more he realized that your cheeks were also dusted an adorable shade of pink. You were blushing at whatever Sirius had said, which made him laugh and wink at you.

“Hello? Earth to Moony?” Lily asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

This seemed to snap Remus from his trance and looked back to his friend. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“I was apologizing for ditching you yesterday. I didn’t realize it was this close to, you know, and shouldn’t have left you to some random partner who probably made things worse for you. But, it seems like you are more mad than I thought.”

He winced slightly at the guilt in her voice and reached out to bring his hand over hers. “I’m sorry, Lily. I’m not mad about yesterday. Y/N partnered up with me, and it really wasn’t so bad.”

At the mention of your name, Lily scanned the room to find you. “Y/N... Y/N Y/L/N? She’s terrible at potions! I’m so sorry, if I had known I really wouldn’t have left you with-”

Remus seemed to forget about what he just saw and actually laughed at his riled up friend. “Lily, stop. It really wasn’t all that bad. I helped her with the potion and we made it through. I actually had fun yesterday.”

Lily paused, her eyes flicking back over to Remus’. As she stared at him, she finally understood why he didn’t mind her ditching him the day prior. “Ohh, well I’m glad then. She seems like a really nice girl, Remus. Have you asked her out yet?”

Suddenly, he tall boy deflated. “Don’t go there, Lily. She clearly isn’t interested.”

He nodded his head over to your seat and she peered over his shoulder to see you and Sirius still talking happily. Yet, you weren’t looking at Sirius. You were staring across the room, over at Lily’s table. When the two of you made eye contact, you flushed a deeper shade of red and quickly turned your attention back to Sirius. Confused, Lily did the same to Remus, who was now twirling his quill in his hand dejectedly.

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that, Remus. You could always give it a shot?”

Shaking his head, he sighed and opened up his textbook. “No, I know not to get in the way of heart-throb Sirius Black’s missions. I wouldn’t stand a chance anyways.”

A pang went through Lily’s heart at the defeated tone in her friend’s voice. Opening up her own book, she dropped the subject and decided not to press him any further.

For the rest of the week Sirius sat with you in Potions. Remus had gone through a whole array of emotions at the thought of it. At first, he was disappointed, automatically assuming that he had lost any chance with you. Yet, the next day he was confused as he noticed you staring at him often. Although, every time he’d look in your direction, you would turn away quickly and go back to talking with Sirius. On Friday, the day before the full moon, Remus was angry. He was mad at Sirius for trying to get with the one girl whom he cared about. Sirius seemed to be able to have any girl in Hogwarts, except Lily maybe. Yet, he chose his beautiful enigma. In Remus’ mind, this was just another reason that there was no such thing as fate.

Throughout the week, Lily had tried to cheer her friend up. It even got to the point that she told him she’d go out with James if he would just think about asking you out. He laughed hollowly and told her that there was no point in going out with someone if their heart wasn’t in it. Worst of all, she didn’t know if he was talking about her going out with James, or you with him.

Come Saturday, Remus had become irrationally upset. He didn’t know if it was due to the constant flirting between you and Sirius, the fact that today was the day of the full moon, or if it were because he was very close to accepting defeat. You and Sirius had extended your chats in class to knowing glances in the Great Hall and the common room. Remus bitterly thought that the two of you even stole his one place of solitude from him, the library.

Every time Sirius would look over at you, smirking but not saying anything more, you would blush and look down. It was obvious that you were shying away from whatever the boy was insinuating, and even though his stomach sank at the thought of it not being because of him, he couldn’t help but smile at your demureness.

It was a couple of hours before he would need to leave for the Shrieking Shack when Sirius came up to check on his friend. It was common place that one of the boys would assure that he was set for the night, ensuring that he had everything he needed before his transformation.

“Hey mate, you all set?” He asked as he leaned on the post of his bed casually.

“I think I would know what I need, Sirius. I have been doing this long enough by now.” The tone in Remus’ voice made Sirius wince, and he assumed that this would be a rough night for all of them.

Pushing off the bedpost, he made his way over to his friend carefully. “I know, I just wanted to know if you needed anything.”

“Not from you, no thanks.”

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows at his response. He was used to the boy being agitated before the full moon, but never directly at him.

“What do you mean?”

Remus sighed, not having enough energy to deal with his problem with Sirius right now. He felt as if he didn’t deal with it, it didn’t hurt as badly. “Nothing. Just, let’s get going.” He closed his bag and made his way over to the door, ready to get this night over with.

As the two boys reached the bottom of the stairs, they ran into the one person Remus did not want to see.

“Oh, hey Remus! Where you boys off to?” Your eyes were shining brightly, seemingly always light enough to soothe his mood. Yet, as he looked back to Sirius to see him smirking slightly, he shook his head and looked down. Muttering some excuse, Remus breezed past you, not stopping long enough to see the hurt flash across your face. You looked to Sirius, and shrugged slightly.

“See, told you.”

Sirius’ smirk fell instantly and he sighed gently. “Now’s just not a good time, Y/N. Trust me, he does like you. I can see it.”

You laughed sadly and shook your head, trying to appear lighthearted. “It’s okay, Sirius. You saw it for yourself. He doesn’t want really anything to do with me, and that’s okay. Now please, just drop it.” The playfulness in your words were forced and you both could tell. Shaking his head slightly, he put his arm on your shoulder comfortingly.

“I’ve known Moony for years, and he has never looked at someone like he looks at you. Just try again tomorrow. I promise, it’ll be different.”

Looking into his eyes, you felt yourself nod before you could think it through. The thought of Remus rejecting you again left a knot in your stomach, yet you couldn’t help but think about the possibility that he might like you. You didn’t see it, but Sirius spoke with such a conviction that you had to believe him. Standing up on your tiptoes, you hugged him tightly and kissed his cheek.

“Thank you, Sirius.”

He smiled down at you, relieved to know that you’d give Moony a second chance. After he said his goodbyes, he turned to catch up with the rest of the group to find that Remus was nowhere in sight. He sighed and made his way down with James and Peter, thinking that now all he needed to do was get through tonight.

[mindless-thoughts13]

Colour Blind

Mini bang - @hogwartshousesnet

Title: Colour Blind

Author: Kierabee123

Fandom: Harry Potter

Word Count: 5K

Characters: James Potter, Lilly Evans, Sirius Black, Minerva McGonagall

Warning: Character death

Chapters: Not really chapters but 9/10 pages?

Artwork by @whompingwillowss to follow

James Potter could not see colours. He struggled to understand why his family seemed to be the only ones in the wizarding world with this wicked curse. For centuries, the Potter’s could not differentiate between colours until they met and fell in love with their soulmates. It had gotten to the point where James was embarrassed, he would tell his friends he was colour blind so that he didn’t have to explain. He found it difficult but all his friends seemed to understand, no one would question it although when he explained the situation to Remus, he had a twinkle in his eye that suggested he knew there was something deeper, but Remus didn’t push… he was good like that.

Sometimes James thought about who he would like to be with, but he knew it didn’t work like that. He would sometimes let his eyes wander around the classes at Hogwarts, trying to see if someone held some colour, some glint, but it never worked like that. Besides his eyes always fell to a certain miss Evans who didn’t even seem to notice him, she was always talking to Snevilous anyway.

He could never get over that, how she could be friends with the greasy haired little troll, and to make it all worse he was a Slytherin! A disgusting snake! Still he couldn’t say this to her, but it didn’t stop him saying it to Snape. He made sure to always tell Snape exactly what he thought of him, and it was never anything good. He just couldn’t stand Snape, and neither could his friends, which just made it all the more fun to tease him.

Still, James needed to stop daydreaming and get to charms before he was late… again. So, he trudged along the corridors with Sirius, the last straggling students mulling around looked like they were going to be late too. He was about to drift off into another Lilly related daydream when Sirius nudged him. ‘’Have you been listening to a word I have said?’’. James didn’t even realise he was being spoken to, ‘’Sorry Padfoot, I just have a lot on my mind at the minute’’. Sirius smirked at him, ‘’I’m sure you do’’ he joked.

Just then, who else should round the corner but the slippery git himself. Without missing a beat James stuck out his leg and sent Snape tumbling down to the ground, books flying everywhere. He was about to make some snide remark when Lilly angel Evans rounded the corner too. James straightened up and tried to look strong and impressive but it didn’t last long, Evans was mad, and all that anger seemed to be directed at James.

‘’What is wrong with you?!?!?’’ she screamed.

James froze, eyes widening. He did not expect that.

‘’We didn’t do anything wrong, Severus and I where minding or own business and now he is on the floor, what do you have to say for yourself?’’ She looked ready to throw punches.

And then, something happened that no one expected.

‘’I don’t need your help you filthy little mudblood! I can deal with them myself’’ Snape practically spat the words at Lilly.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion after that, Sirius, someone who hated old house supremacy and racism more than anyone else dived straight for Severus, fists balled. James dived for Sirius to hold him back and before anyone could stop her Lilly smacked Severus right across the face. Then to make matters worse, McGonagall walked right around the corner, and gave all 4 of them detention.

∞∞∞∞∞

It was surreal being a room with Lilly, his best friend, and Snevilous. James didn’t really know what he found stranger, but when McGonagall returned to the room, his companions where the last of his worries.

‘’What I witnessed in the corridor was absolutely disgusting… from all of you.’’ McGonagall looked more disappointed than James had ever seen, and he was in her office a lot.

‘’And you Ms Evans, I expected more from you’’ Lilly hung her head, hurt and ashamed.

‘’But Professor didn’t you hear what that creature…’’

‘’MR POTTER ENOUGH’’

James shut his mouth cutting off the rest of his argument very quickly.

‘’I heard exactly what Mr Snape had said, coincidently he is in detention as well. Or did you not notice? Now because of the disgusting behaviour from all of you I will be giving you each just punishments.’’

No one like the sound of that.

‘’Mr Snape and Mr Black, you two will be assisting professor Slughorn, cleaning the equipment for all the potion classrooms, for a week’’

‘’BUT PROFESSOR…’’

‘’No arguing Mr Black, my decision is final!’’ Sirius looked like he was going to attack Snape again, like this was somehow his fault. Meanwhile Snape still sat silently, his head remaining hung the whole time.

‘’And for you two…’’ McGonagall turned to Lilly and James. You two will be assisting our games keeper in maintain the school grounds, this will be during your free periods and after dinner in the evenings, for one week.’’

Lilly looked up, for a split-second James thought she was going to argue, but then she hung her head again, it looked like she was upset. Meanwhile thought he could think or worse punishments, he felt sorry for Sirius, but he couldn’t wait for this to begin.

∞∞∞

The next day during his charms lessons James couldn’t focus. After charms he had a free period and that meant one whole our with Lilly. He couldn’t dream of anything better. The marauders had been teasing him all day and he couldn’t care less, he knew this is where he could wow her, and finally find out if she could break his curse. James hated sounding like a damsel in distress but he couldn’t help it, he wanted rid of his curse, he knew Sirius struggled with seeing black and white as Padfoot but that just wasn’t the same. If Evans was the one then he was free and he just knew he would be happy.

Finally, Slughorn stopped talking and dismissed the class. Ignoring the fact that he had now been assigned a two-foot essay on the properties of Acromantula venom, (with an extra foot on beetle’s eyes for zoning out in the classroom and being caught) he rushed off to the gamekeeper’s cabin. He was already good friends with the gamekeeper’s assistant Hagrid. James figured they would be working with him so that the official gamekeeper could continue to do the more difficult tasks.

Upon arriving at the cabin, he realised Lily was already there laughing with Hagrid. When she noticed James, Lilly immediately stopped smiling and looked to the ground. James tried not to become disheartened by this, he believed he had a chance.

‘’Hullo James, you ready?’’ the potential giant Hagrid was grinning down on James, not seeming to notice the tension in the air.

‘’You bet’’ James smirked and winked at Lilly… this only made her frown deepen.

Hagrid lead the pair off into the forbidden forest, to a small clearing, the floor being littered with Shrivelfigs. These where small purple plants that shed its leaves in autumn. As it was nearing the end of autumn already there was many leaves scattered across the floor. Hagrid grinned at the pair.

‘’Alright, so it’s a pretty easy task today, you need to harvest all the leaves of these Shrivelfigs today. Slughorn wants them delivered to them by tonight so that he can sterilise them for the school nurse. If yer come back after your dinner you will be able to finish it before curfew.

I’ll be back at the hut if you need me, if not I’ll be back in an hour to take you back to the castle.’’

Hagrid then marched off to his hut, merrily oblivious to the tension between James and Lilly.

James hoped it wasn’t going to be this awkward the entire time but it didn’t look hopeful. Lilly was seemingly refusing to look even in the general direction of James and was just getting on with work.

‘’So… what an odd punishment, right? I mean Shrivelfigs? They seem really…’’

He didn’t get a chance to finish his sentence before Lilly sun around and gave him a look that silenced any words that may have followed.

‘’Now listen and listen well, in the last two days I have lost my best friend, received my first ever detention and been tasked with babysitting you as well as having to collect Shrivelfigs. I am exhausted, severely stressed and do not want to do any of it. My only solace is that in six excruciatingly long days this will all be over and I will not have to deal with you or any stupid plants again!’’

By the end of it Lilly was panting and flushed. At least, James thought she was flushed, just her face seemed darker almost, it was hard to tell with the curse but he had better things to worry about. She was blaming him! After all he had done for her, showing her the truth to Snevilous, how he was using her so people didn’t see his true colours. The nerve! Well that was it, clearly, she was not the one for him, and he was not going to treat her like it! If she was going to act like Snevilous then he was not going to permit it.

For the rest of the day it was awkward silence, collecting Shrivelfigs and who can glare at the other the longest. The winner was Lilly but only because James let her win, she didn’t intimidate him, he was not scared. Not at all. Not. One. Bit.

∞∞∞

That evening when James returned to his dorm, he collapsed on Sirius’ bed.

‘’Ohhh, it went that well then?’’ Sirius smirked, pushing James off his bed and onto the floor.

James got up and stumbled to his bed, kicking his shoes off in the process.

‘’She hates me!!!!!’’ he whined throwing his arm over his eyes. Remus then looked up from his book long enough to roll his eyes at James, then went back to ignoring him.

‘’I mean, all I did was ‘accidentally’ trip up Snape, and when I try to talk to her she screams at me. Oh Padfoot, Mooney what do I do?’’ he decided to glance at Sirius only to regret it as Sirius was stifling a laugh at how James was acting.

*giggle* ‘’Honestly Prongs, you would think you loved her or something. May I remind you that you aren’t actually dating, you don’t need a woman to make you happy, and most importantly you’re James fucking Potter! Who cares if some girl doesn’t like you? There are plenty more, and she defended Snevilous? That good for nothing rat that doesn’t know how to take a shower? No, I am not going to let you sit here and complain about a preppy, good for nothing…’’

Sirius was cut short due to Remus giving him a very cold stare, he may have forgotten that Remus and Lilly happened to be very good friends. Still James began to feel more confident and empowered.

‘’You’re right! I mean I don’t need her. I should have told her that I didn’t need her. In fact, that’s exactly what I’ll do tomorrow!’’

Again, Remus looked up long enough to roll his eyes but James didn’t notice, he was already plotting how to tell Lilly how mad he was.

∞∞∞

The next day James and Lilly had a shared free period at the end of lessons, right before dinner which in James’ opinion, gave him enough time to give Lilly a piece of his mind. He had been brooding all day and had gotten himself very worked up. When he finally marched down to meet Lilly and Hagrid he was well and truly fuming! He had been focusing about it all day and knew exactly what he was going to do.

After getting their new task from Hagrid (which James paid no attention to) James let loose all his pent-up thoughts.

‘’YOU’RE A RIGHT BITCH YOU KNOW THAT?’’ Lilly froze already looking ready to kill but James continued.

‘’I didn’t even do anything to you and I was only trying to be friendly and why you only worry about Snevilous I have no idea. He doesn’t even care about you, he’s just using you and your stupid enough to…’’ he never got to finish his sentence before Lilly had dived at him and pinned him to the floor.

‘’Say one more word and I’ll make you regret it’’ Lilly practically spat the words at him.

James smirked, ‘’Oh yeah Evans? What could you possibly do to me?’’

Without missing a beat Lilly punched James right in the face. James tried to roll away but Lilly seemed to be stronger than she looked. She continued to punch and scratch letting out all her pent-up aggression against him while he kicked and pushed to get her away. When Hagrid found them at the end of the hour they were both sufficiently exhausted and hadn’t done anything that was asked of them. James was cut and bruised in multiple places and Lilly was glaring at him, nursing a burst lip.

The two of them sulked into the great hall for dinner but made sure they were as far away from the other as possible. James slumped down with the marauders and Lilly sat by herself at the end of the table. Without missing a beat Sirius started the interrogation, ‘’What did you do! Why are you bleeding? And why does Evans have a burst lip? I mean I know some like it rough but… OUCH’’. Before he could finish Remus had punched him to be quiet. So, James explained the whole story to his little group, who all looked completely bewildered by the end of it, many times through the story Peter looked over at Lilly in fear and awe.

‘’So now I don’t know what to do, she clearly hates me and I can’t even get away from her because we still have the rest of the week to work together.’’ Before the other boys could offer any ideas, McGonagall stormed over towards James and instructed him to leave the table, she collected Lilly too and marched them to her office.

‘’I am beyond ashamed of you two! Now I don’t need to know how you started fighting but I do know that if it continues you will be working together until the end of the year, as it stands you will be working together until the Halloween ball, although Hagrid and our gamekeeper have decided they no longer want you helping them, so for the next two week you will be assisting me in cleaning the empty classrooms and then helping decorate the great hall. Understood?’’

James couldn’t believe that she had found out about the fight, it was obvious something had happened of course but he was sure that no one knew they actually fought. Then to make matter worse he had to spend another 2 weeks with her? It was an outrage, he was just about to voice this opinion when he happened to look over at Lilly. She had her head bowed and looked completely embarrassed, clearly, she was not accustomed to being in trouble. He realised he had been very harsh to her and decided it was for the best if he kept his opinions to himself.

‘’Yes professor’’ he muttered.

For the entire journey, back to the common room, as dinner had long since finished, they remained quiet, contemplating everything that had went on. James realised now that if he had to be stuck with her for another fortnight then he might need to be more civil and not call her a bitch. Climbing through the portrait hole he went to apologise but Lilly had already run up the girl’s dormitories staircase and left him behind. When the marauder finally went to the dorms, James was already in bed thinking about what had happened.

∞∞∞

The following day James didn’t know where to go for his free period. He knew not to go to the gamekeeper’s cabin but McGonagall hadn’t told him when he was to assist her, so he went to the library, then who else should he happen upon but Lilly Evans. He decided that now was a better time than any to apologise so he slowly crept up to her. She seemed to be very engrossed in her book, almost like she wasn’t reading it at all, but more using it to avoid something.

‘’Erm… *cough* could I sit with you?’’ James managed to stutter to her.

She reluctantly looked up at him, sizing him up to see if he was a threat to her. When she realised he was serious she nodded but still seemed extremely cautious.

‘’I want to apologise for yesterday’’ he said lamely. ‘’I shouldn’t have called you a bitch and provoked you, you were right. It was my fault we’re in this mess and I shouldn’t have tripped Snev… I mean, Snape.’’ He looked up from apologising to the table, long enough to see a very stunned expression on Lilly’s face, which she quickly masked.

‘’Well, I guess you mean well, so I suppose I forgive you’’ Lilly muttered.

That was enough for James right now, he was on civil terms with Lilly which meant he could deal with being stuck with her whenever McGonagall called on them to help. Which, by glancing at the library entrance, appeared to be now. She was marching into the library, heading straight or the table Lilly and he were sat at.

‘’Mr Potter, Miss Evans, it would seem that Peeves has decided to do a number on one of my transfiguration rooms and I need it clean and ready to use by last period. I suspect you two should be able to get it done in time, as long as you don’t start fighting again.

Now follow me, I expect you two to complete this during this period while you are free and after your lunch. You are both excelling at transfigurations classes so instead of being in my lesson you will be finishing the classroom… and no arguments miss Evans, if you two had remained civil you would not be in this situation.’’

Lilly was seemingly about to argue but after McGonagall had told her off she seem furious and brooded the whole way to the classroom. It didn’t seem like they would be talking much today after all.

∞∞∞

After a long week of working for McGonagall, James was fed up, he felt like he has cleaned every classroom in Hogwarts and still felt like he was no closer to making up with Lilly. Not that it was important, it wasn’t like he liked her or anything, or wanted to take her to the Halloween ball or anything, he just wanted it to be civil when working that was all. It had nothing to do with how pretty she was, how assertive she was, or how she made him want to be a better person… Not at all.

He decided he was going to ask the one smart person he knew to help him make things up to her. So, after he finished helping McGonagall for the last time this week he went off to find Remus. Not surprisingly, he found him in the library, catching up on the work he missed during the full moon.

After explaining how it was going with her and how he felt about her. Remus just gave James a knowing look, ‘’Talk to her Prongs. I have a feeling if you open up to her it’ll be a lot better for you.’’ James smiled at him, thanked him for the advice and went to find Sirius, because he can give him better advice. He wasn’t going to open his heart to her… who does that?

So, after hearing ideas from both Sirius and Remus, James gave up. Sirius said he should wait for Lilly to open her heart to him, then he should play hard to get so that she would be more interested in him. But James had met Lilly and knew that would never work, Lilly was to independent and self-assured. She was definitely not the type of girl to open her heart then wait around. For all James knew she didn’t even feel the same way that he did. It seemed even Peters idea of just watching her from afar and taking locks of her hair seemed less impossible than this. It was going to be a long time coming if he couldn’t figure out what to do.

∞∞∞

After another gruelling week, James had discovered a few things. Cleaning classrooms was really boring, Peeves defiantly hated him, and Lilly was even more perfect than he thought she was. He had been marvelling at her all week, with how she scared off Peeves, how her transfiguration was amazing and how she had the most beautiful green eyes he had ever noticed.

… green!

He knew what colour eyes she had, this wasn’t possible, this meant Remus was right!

After receiving his notice to go and help McGonagall again he practically sprinted down the corridors just so he could find Lilly. Cleaning the classroom didn’t matter, all that mattered was that Lilly liked him back! He didn’t need to be scared to tell her how he felt because he had known all week that she likes him too… what made it worse was that he hadn’t even realised. Sure, he knew that she was pretty, and that she suddenly seemed more beautiful but he couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed her eye colour until now. Maybe it wasn’t that noticeable, maybe it had gone from a tint to full blown glowing emerald beauty!

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even realise he’d made it to the classroom until he had barrelled into McGonagall and had thrown her to the floor.

‘’MR POTTER!’’

McGonagall pulled herself up from the floor and straightened her robes.

‘’If you would so kindly get up I have something to tell you both, although following that I am just to change my mind.’’

She waited while James scrambled up and tried to make himself look presentable standing next to Lilly.

‘’Now before being ever so rudely floored, I was trying to tell you that I have decided to cut your punishment short…’’

James and Lilly’s faces brightened so quickly.

‘’Due to the great work, you two have been doing this will be the last classroom I require you to clean. I have never seen anyone deal with Peeves so well whilst still getting their work done. What surprises me more is how much you seem to have grown Mr Potter in that I have not had to tell you to stop fighting or misbehaving at all since you have been under punishment and I have to say I am very proud.’’

At this point James didn’t know if he should laugh or cry, this had never happened before in all his years at Hogwarts. For the first time possibly in his life, James Potter was speechless.

‘’Now all I need you to do is sort this classroom and fix the desks. They seem to have been charmed into trees which, in my opinion makes no sense but, I digress. Once you have completed this you will be dismissed from your cleaning duties.’’

‘’Thank you, professor.’’ They both said in unison.

As soon as McGonagall left the room James turned to Lilly.

‘’So…’’

Lilly looked over from one of the desks trees inquisitively, ‘’so?’’.

‘’I was wondering if you would wanttogototheballwithme, *cough*’’

‘’I’m sorry what?’’ it was obvious Lilly knew what he meant as she was trying not to laugh but she made him try again.

‘’Do you want to go to the ball with me?’’

Lilly stopped laughing and walked over to James, taking his hand.

‘’I would love to, but only if you promise you won’t be dancing with Sirius more than me?’’

Now it was James’ turn to laugh, while he thought about Sirius in a ball gown walking through the ball.

‘’Okay I promise.’’

After that cute moment, they spent the rest of the day turning trees into desks and talking about anything and everything.

∞∞∞

All James had done since Lilly had said yes to him was talk. He was constantly talking to Remus, Sirius and Peter so much about her that they were getting annoyed. They didn’t want to hear about how pretty she was, or how smart she was, or how he couldn’t wait for the ball. Sirius had certainly had enough and had decided to take matters into his own hands. He was ready to make sure there was never another ball so that he wouldn’t have to deal with listening to this drivel ever again.

The night of the ball Sirius cast a spell that transfigured all the chairs into bushes and all the tables into trees (an idea he got from one of James’ stories). He then hexed the doors so that whenever someone left the room their hair was hexed to change colour every time they sneezed. Finally, he made it so that whenever someone said the name Potter they would start dancing consistently for 5 minutes, only at the ball. What Sirius didn’t realise is that he had set a hex so strong that it would last for every Halloween ball… forever.

But James didn’t know this. So that night he so proudly walked Lilly to the ball and danced with her all night. They had a great time and loved how enthusiastic they’re friends where when they danced all night. It seemed like a night to be remembered. James especially loved how he could finally see the colours of fall. He had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life. He couldn’t get over hoe Lilly hair glowed like the auburn leaves the seemed to cover the floor. Without a doubt, this was the best night of his life. What made it better was Sirius’ prank of changing all the furniture to plants didn’t affect the party and gave it a better autumn feel.

As the night grew later James decided now was the best time to tell Lilly how he felt about her. He pulled her into the dance floor.

‘’Lilly there’s something I need to tell you…’’

‘’Yes James?’’

‘’I just want you to know how much I care about you, and well… I think I love you’’

Lilly blushed at James’ forwardness but smiled knowingly.

‘’And I think I love you too Mr Potter’’

Then, just before they could lean in to kiss, Lilly started dancing. And she looked very scared about it.

‘’Way to kill the moment Lil’’ James awkwardly laughed out.

‘’James, I can’t stop, help please’’ Lilly was becoming frantic.

Before James could answer he noticed Sirius in the corner laughing with Peter. That when he realised what they had done, that’s when he realised why everyone had been so enthusiastically dancing… it was because they couldn’t help it. Sirius had hexed them.

It seemed that McGonagall had realised a second before James what was going on and decided enough was enough. She marched over to Sirius and Peter and dragged them from the hall before anyone could argue.

That night ended with a very long detention for Sirius, quite a few stolen moments between James and Lilly, and multiple people wishing they didn’t have hay fever because their hair should not be blue!

James was so happy had Lilly in his life and so proud of where he was… he knew his life was going to be perfect.

∞∞∞

5 years later… Halloween night, 1980. James and Lilly have been found by the dark lord and are trying to protect their only son, Harry.

∞∞∞

‘’Lilly! Take Harry and run!’’ those where the last words James spoke to Lilly before the light flashed before his eyes and he was no more.

James didn’t know what happened next. He believed it was wicked irony that the first and last colour he should ever see are green. He found it even more cruel that his perfect life should be ripped from him, as well as the colour in his world.

What seemed to be the worst part of his curse was that after only 5 years, because he was no longer with Lilly, his colour had left him. He knew he was in a medow, he could see what he assumed was natural beauty all around him… but here he was, alone, in the black and white world that surrounded him.

At least, he thought, Lilly and Harry were safe. If they hadn’t made it here with him they must have escaped. Got somewhere where they couldn’t be harmed, somewhere where they could live and be a family. There was so many things James felt in that moment, but knowing that they were alive was enough to quell it all. It was enough for James to be content.

Then, as if by magic, colour started to floor into the valley, starting with the grass, and reaching to the tips of the earth. James thought that, because he was content and because of how much he loved his family, his curse had lifted. But he was wrong.

As he looked longingly around the valley he noticed a beautiful woman stood facing him. He didn’t need to be close to her to know that that ethereal beauty was his wife. He ran to her, only to notice the tears streaming down her face.

‘’Harry?’’

She looked up at him.

‘’He’s alive… James I’m so sorry’’

‘’Why on earth are you sorry?’’

‘’I could have gotten away, I could have taken him, I…’’

James took Lilly in his arms and held her. Stopping any words that may have followed.

‘’He’s alive love, he’s not with us but he’s alive’’

They stayed like that for a long time. Held in each other’s’ embrace, and together. For the rest of their days they where together.

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[sandveforfatter-blog]

Flawed

A pang struck me. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?." Emily said, looking at me with vulnerable eyes. The now cold coffee soaked my pants, leaving me dissatisfied. The usually pleasant interview turned sour, ending all too abruptly.     We had only been talking for half an hour, Emily and me before our interview of my youth turned sour. It started like any other interview before. At seven in the morning I arrived at the cafe spotting Emily seated at the empty long table in front of the window. The cafe was full of customers, enjoying their morning coffee, a couple at a table bickered about the wait. Emily's odd way of sitting separated her from everyone else in the cafe, giving her an almost alien look to her surroundings. I paused for a moment to observe her. She wore a bright white jacket over top a blue shirt and black jean pants. She was leaning forward on the table, head on her left elbow, her piercing green eye lined eyes staring at her cup of coffee. Her long brown hair strewn about the table with her rough cut face accented by the morning light. She twirled the stir stick of her coffee around with one finger smirking at her meaningless task. I didn't understand why she was smiling, but I enjoyed her pleasant look. I looked around at everyone in the cafe, they all sat upright drinking their coffee blank faced. Emily noticed me then she waved me over smiling jubilantly. I sat beside her. "How are you today Eric!" "Good, but tired." I yawned stretching to relieve myself of exhaustion. "Must we meet so early in the morning everyday." "Awe boo hoo" she said mockingly, hands rubbing away imaginary tears from her eyes. "Is seven o'clock really that early here?" she asked. "Yes, it is!" "Huh, interesting" She said as she scribbled down some notes in a small book she seemingly pulled out of nowhere. I sat quietly waiting for her to finish her notes, as I always did. Once she was done, she turned to me and said, "Well, I am pretty much aware of almost everything I need, but I still don't know how the schooling works here and children's lives. So why don't you tell me about your youth, how you grew up." "Well, sure, but I warn you my childhood was rather boorish" "I'm sure that's not true at all, you're very interesting." She said jokingly patting me on my shoulder. "Well, where should I start?" "Let's go with the earliest days of school you remember, and describe how the school system works too"   I explained to Emily about my short years in school and how I flew through the normal thirteen year program in five years. I told Emily how I took a class on world behavior to better understand life outside of Haven. I described how our school taught young kids of five in the first year, how to treat other kids, social manners and minor math, science, and art teachings. Then through the next five years we were taught basic math, basic science, and basic art skills, as well as sports and Havens history. Then the final stretch of seven years teaches kids about whatever they have interest in dependent on an interview with teachers. Though I finished all this early I still understood the structure of it. Emily seemed fascinated, but oddly confused by the structure of it all, wondering whether kids got free time during school to play, and what kind of classes were available to the students in the final tier of schooling. She then asked whether the students got grades, to which I had no idea what she was referring, explaining that our schools didn't rate students. Emily paused for a moment, then said, "So you don't have to worry about failing at school then?" I replied, "Yes, what would be the point of doing it if you could fail." "So that you can strive to succeed." Emily retorted. "You can't tell me you don't know what that means?" "It's not that I don't know what you mean, it's just that failure is only going to cause stress that people don't need." "Well, I disagree, struggles can only make a person strong if dealt with properly." Emily said as she scribbled down some notes in her book. "How can you grow properly without struggling?" I did not understand what she said to me. "I'm sorry, but you're wrong our people don't have to worry about anything and we are doing very well. Struggling is just dumb." I said. Emily looked at me disapprovingly, which caught me off guard. "Anyways, what else did you want to know?" I quickly stuttered hoping to change the mood. "Well, what about your life outside of school, how was that?" Emily said after a pause, then returned to her normal demeanor. "Oh, you wouldn't want to hear about that, I just read books and studied. Nothing much there." "Okay, what about your father? There are sure to be interesting stories around him, a big council man!" Emily said enthusiastically. "Not much my father makes me do some of his work for him, and he was too busy working to fully take care of me. Honestly, if he was dead I might not even notice!" I said jokingly, laughing afterwards. "Did you just say that!" Emily suddenly barked at me. She was now standing facing me with an angered expression. "You have no idea what the death of a father feels like do you!?" I sat silently, shocked at Emily's sudden anger. Emily glared at me for a moment, then became flustered as she looked around at the now interested customers around the cafe. "I think I should go." She said as she quickly reached for her bag and notebook sitting on the table. "Emily I-" Shocked filled me as Emily's coffee poured onto my lap.  It seemed as Emily pulled her bag off the table it knocked the cup sending it tumbling from its plate, and onto my lap. I yelped expecting hot coffee, but only got a cold sensation as the coffee soaked into my pants. Emily panicked as I yelped, frantically fumbling with some napkins for the cold mess as she said. "Oh, i'm so sorry, that was so dumb of me!"   "It's okay, it's not hot." I sighed. A moment of silence filled the cafe as Emily dabbed at the stain on my pants with a red face. The other customers watching eagerly, waiting to see what would happen next. "I really should go." Emily said standing up while looking down, away from my gaze. She grabbed her things and walked to the door, than stopped. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?" I just nodded, than she left. I sat there for a moment, confused. I wondered why I was in the kind of situation in the first place.   The 21 year old Emily had arrived here in Haven two months ago as a journalist from Cambit, trying to be an eyewitness to the secrets of the closed off Nation. She was to interview my father a member of the Council of peoples. A twelve men and women's council who were the go between between our Overmind computer and our people. The Overmind computer acted as our nations governing force, controlling all the robots that ran our nation. From farming to construction, and the distribution of goods they handled the entire infrastructure of Haven. Due to this structure the need for currency died as every person was allotted whatever they needed.   Through incubation reproduction the population is kept under control as well. Given straight to their parents from incubation the children grow up through mandatory schooling to then become anything. They can do whatever they want from reading everyday to construction, and writing to business. People also have no fear of premature death, with nanobots injected at birth that kills all disease and even heal any wounds. Built as a giant island city and walled off from the world Haven practically lives up to its name.   Whereas Cambit which pertains the rest of the world is built as a capitalist nation with a council of peers who govern the entire nation. People work day in and day out just to get by in life, not able to do everything they want.  Though no war happens, the two nations have no communication as Haven keeps its doors closed to all, except for now. A recent negotiation between Cambit and Haven has opened the doors of Haven for the very first time. Cambit desired to understand the world of Haven more and our Overmind and council decided that letting them see our way of life may cause Cambit to desire to change to Havens superior lifestyle, joining Haven as a whole.   Emily only had the chance to interview my father once. He was always busy with his council work, so he never had time to meet with Emily. My Father pointed Emily in my direction only two weeks after Emily arrived. I would regularly help my father with his work, so I had a similar experience as he did towards Haven, understanding its inner working. I also had more of a normal citizen view of Haven, unlike my workaholic father.   We first met at my house. Emily told me how she wanted to know everything there was to know about Haven. Our first real interview together was a strange experience for me to say the least. We met in the park near Haven's Gate. I was nervous, I had never met a girl alone and my age before. I had never even dated a girl before. Emily had been waiting for me on a park bench looking out over a pond freckled with ducks and geese. The fading cloud line revealing a beautiful blue sky, casting a beam of light directly on Emily. As I approached, I noticed she was writing furiously in her book she kept with herself. Like in the cafe she looked alien, but substantially more so back then. She casually wore a red button up shirt that fit her nicely, as well as navy blue jeans which framed her feminine features quiet well. This simple array of clothes greatly contrasted my own as well as the few other people in the park's attire. White jackets atop white long sleeved shirts and white dress pants with black shoes, though not everyone wore identical clothing the differences between them were fewer than the similarities.   As I approached Emily she didn't notice me at first, too deeply entranced by her own writings. Waiting for a bit I expected her to notice my arrival sadly she did not stray from her book. I leaned, closer taking the opportunity to see what she was writing, perhaps something about me. The page was messily scribbled on with countless word of emotion all sharing a similar theme of negativity. Words like angry, or frustrated were rough and thick lettered covering small spaces of the page, whereas words like sad, or weak hid beneath scribbles and other words lightly printed almost invisible, but fat taking up most of the page. Moving ever so closer to see what new things she was writing, unaware of my surroundings, I slipped, My hand using the backrest as support found a wet patch and slid carelessly out from under me. Managing to catch myself, I slumped into a casual sitting position, feeling smug I forget the situation I am in. Looking to Emily I was met with a concerned and brightly flushed face her book in her lap closed. "Get to know a girl first!" Emily said slapping me across the face.   It seemed in my fumble I managed to slip my arm around her shoulders, where than my hand fell loosely resting over top her left breast. I jumped back away from Emily grabbing my rogue hand, a red hand print burning on my face. Touching a breast like this for my first time had not been how I imagined it going. A swirl of emotions tumbled around my head. A long pause of silence filled the air. I peered to Emily, who almost appeared to be waiting, seeming not as perturbed by the event as I. I began to ponder on the strange writings I had seen in Emily's book and what they could possibly mean.   The thought distracted me, and I had all but forgotten the event prior when I asked Emily, "So what were you writing in there." Pointing to the book in her lap. "Oh that, yeah... Well...  Let's just say something personal. Something no one is supposed to see." "Oh" Another paused sat between us. "So you were just trying to see my book before, not fondle me" "Yeah... Sorry about that, really, I didn't mean to-" "It's fine just don't do it again." "Why were you trying to see what I was writing, are you some sort of creep?" "No! I was just curious about what you write about." I said too embarrassed to admit I wanted to know if she was writing about me, my cheeks mimicking tomatoes.   "You could have just asked," Emily proclaimed. "If you want to get to know me, just get to know me" "Really, after what I just did to you, you're okay with that!?" "Sure, I mean you didn't mean to assault me before. Plus you seem interesting enough." I paused for a moment in shock. Didn't expect it to go this way, I thought. "Okay, yeah let's do it!" I reached out my hand to Emily for a handshake. Giving me a puzzled smirk she accepted. "Yeah, sounds fun! Now what we came here to do." She said with a bright smile.   The interview was short lived that day. We planned to meet every week morning with the location switching between local cafe's and restaurants. Our meetings became more casual over the preceding month. We learned more and more about each other. We became the closest I could imagine friends becoming and quickly my time with Emily became the most enjoyable part of my day. Till today that is.    I left the cafe pants still damp with coffee. It was still early around eight o'clock as I headed home. It was a cold morning. The sun was hidden behind thick dark clouds that covered the morning sky, letting only a few slivers of light through. As I walked home in discomfort I looked around the city I lived in. People filled the streets doing their own unique thing for the day. Each and every person looked fine walking alone or with another facing the world ahead of them. Everyone looked young and healthy, the images of pure perfection with beautiful skin, and thick luscious hair men and women both. Their figures were all that of the ideal image, the perfect body fat percentage for athletes. Me included I had the same beautiful hair, skin, and body, and this was all thanks to our Haven. This city provided us with the perfect lives, so why worry about anything this place is perfect.  I arrived at my home relatively quickly. My home, which I shared with father, like any other stood between two others of its kind.  I swung open the door to my home and kicked off my shoes along with my pants, tossing them to the side where a small cleaning bot gathered them up, shoe arranged neatly by the door and pants to be washed. I walked upstairs through the picture laden stairwell. All the pictures were of moments of success in mine and my father's life. They were all the same picture taken in different spot during different years, though the theme stayed the same. Save for two pictures one old the other more recent. The older picture sat at the top of the stairs across from the new one, it showed a family portrait of me as a baby, my father, and my mother. My mother had left Haven shortly after I was born, I was never told why by my father. Perhaps he didn't know himself or perhaps he didn't want to know. The other picture was a portrait of me dressed in an all white suit silhouetted by Haven itself as if viewed from a high wall or cliff.   I hated it.   I took to my room, an all white room with a white bed and white desk. The single small window looked out to the streets below lively with the daily bustle. I flopped on my bed and stared at the blank ceiling above me. I began recalling the mess at the cafe with Emily. I couldn't understand the reason for her outburst, and what did she mean by the death of a father. Did she lose her father, why wouldn't she have told me. Also, how could someone grow from struggling if it's not needed, Emily seemed convinced. Pulling out my phone and holding it up in front of my face I thought, maybe I should call her and ask. The opening and slam of the front door cut my thought short. I walked to the stairs to see who it was. My father stood at the doorway removing his shoes. "Hey father, what were you doing this morning?" I said. My father looked up from his shoes, "Oh, Hello, I was just doing some work for the council. People's requests and such, you know." "Okay." I said leaning on the railings of the stairs. "Father? I am just curious, but do you know how someone could benefit from struggling?" "Umm... No son, I can't say I do" "Oh, okay." "What is this about exactly?" "Well, Emily said something weird today. I told her struggling was dumb and isn't needed to succeed, but she sort of disagreed asking me how we grow without struggling" "Well son, it is dumb. It's sad to say, but Emily must be pretty stupid to think that she needs to grow through struggling. We all know that people grow just fine without hardships or worries here." "Huh... yeah, you must be right." I said pausing for a moment, then I walked upstairs to my room.   I sat on my bed with this clawing feeling, digging its way into my head. Almost like an idea was infiltrating my thoughts from some foreign place. Emily wasn't dumb I knew that, but what she was talking about today was nothing I have ever heard of. If what she says is true, what does that mean for me. I stared at phone reading Emily's name over and over searching for an answer hidden somewhere within it. The phone rang suddenly in my hand, it was Emily. I answered it. Emily's voice appeared through the phone, "Hey Eric I want to apologize for the way I acted, that wasn't fair, to you and I am sure you didn't mean anything by what you said. Can we meet in an hour at noon where we had our first interview." "Yeah, sure. I'll see you there." Emily hung up, and I sat impatient waiting for noon. I got to the park early around eleven fifty in hopes to be there before Emily so I could prepare my thoughts for whatever it was I was going to hear. Dark clouds covered the sky, blocking all sunlight from seeing the earth as a slight wind chilled the air. The park was empty, not a soul in sight save for Emily sitting at the same bench as the first time. A dreary pond lay before her dark and paled. I approached her and sat down. We sat in silence for some fifteen some odd minutes before Emily spoke staring straight ahead. Her voice came slowly and soft from her lips. "Eric, I am sorry for spazzing out at you today" I said nothing, only looked at Emily, hoping to see her face looking at me. "I want to explain why I freaked out at you, so you can at least understand why I said those things." She stood up and walked to the pond, as I followed silently. "I recently had to deal with my father's death. He was murdered in his office while he worked. My father was a journalist, he wrote about the truths of the world. He would never stop looking for the truth, no matter how much trouble it brought with it. When I was little my father would always tell me stories about his adventures, how he would scale mountains and traverse deserts to seek out the real stories of the world. He always wanted the world to know the reality, no matter how harsh it was." Emily stopped for a moment letting out a quivering sigh. "He was reporting on a story about a gangster. During his interviewing he discovered a secret of theirs he wasn't supposed to know, and they killed him so it wouldn't get out." For a moment I felt as if to say something, but before I could she continued. "My father worked hard to earn our family a living, he struggled every day. I looked up to my father, so when he died, I took it really hard. I still have trouble dealing with it now, and believing the fact that he's gone. Even though I wish he were here I believe that his death helped me grow. I could see specks of tears welling in her eyes. "If I never lost my father I would have never become the journalist I am today" Emily still gazed at the pond as the sun pierced through the clouds, illuminating the park and pond. I stared at Emily for a moment, then looked out over the pond. The new sunlight shone across the water, revealing ecstatic life beneath the surface, fish in troves swam about the small pond in a rhythmic dance, almost as if to praise the suns arrival, the water baring a radiant blue hue. Just maybe... I looked back to Emily to see her facing me smiling. I reached out and hugged Emily, we  shared a small moment then released. I gazed at Emily, her eyeliner smeared across her cheeks from where the tears were wiped away. Her disheveled hair lazily catching the soft wind. I was entranced by her look of complete vulnerability. She was beautiful.