#i did save enough pocket money to move
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so... next year is internship for 18 weeks, if I:
move to a new place
pros:
less housemates (max 5, most working adults)
near train station, 2 stops to reach working place
save time
cons:
expensive rental (its like 80% of my already low intern paycheck lmao)
stay at the current student house
pros:
cheap rent
cons:
ass housemates (currently all males, and they are so fucking unhygienic)
ass landlords
far far faaaaaaaaaar away from workplace (have to get out the house 2 hours before exact clock in time because of traffic)
wasting time on traffic
#rambling tag#money can really solve everything#my siblings be like you should stay at the current place#to save money#and i was like 'and sacrifice my mentality?????'#and they were like 'its only for 6 months'#bruh#idk#i did save enough pocket money to move#(plus some from my gf which my fam doesnt know about ofc)#its for my graduation trip#but it wont happen if i did not FINISH the internship#whats the point of saving money to go on a GRADUATION TRIP IF I COULD NOT DO THE INTERNSHIP TO GRADUATE#I really REALLY hope this internship to not mentally and physically exhausted me too much that it fucks me up and im back to square one
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By Bernie Sanders | July 13, 2024
I will do all that I can to see that President Biden is re-elected. Why? Despite my disagreements with him on particular issues, he has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country and is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump — a demagogue and pathological liar. It’s time to learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.
I strongly disagree with Mr. Biden on the question of U.S. support for Israel’s horrific war against the Palestinian people. The United States should not provide Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing extremist government with another nickel as it continues to create one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern history.
I strongly disagree with the president’s belief that the Affordable Care Act, as useful as it has been, will ever address America’s health care crisis. Our health care system is broken, dysfunctional and wildly expensive and needs to be replaced with a “Medicare for all” single-payer system. Health care is a human right.
And those are not my only disagreements with Mr. Biden.
But for over two weeks now, the corporate media has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world. The media has frantically searched for every living human being who no longer supports the president or any neurologist who wants to appear on TV. Unfortunately, too many Democrats have joined that circular firing squad.
Yes. I know: Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate.
Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate. And with an effective campaign taht speaks to the needs of working families, he will not only defeat Mr. Trump but beat him badly. It’s time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking.
I understand that some Democrats get nervous about having to explain the president’s gaffes and misspeaking names. But unlike the Republicans, they do not have to explain away a candidate who now has 34 felony convictions and faces charges that could lead to dozens of additional convictions, who has been hit with a $5 million judgment after he was found liable in a sexual abuse case, who has been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits, who has repeatedly gone bankrupt and who has told thousands of documented lies and falsehoods.
Supporters of Mr. Biden can speak proudly about a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment. The Biden administration, as a result of the American Rescue Plan, helped rebuild the economy during the pandemic far faster than economists thought possible. At a time when people were terrified about the future, the president and those of us who supported him in Congress put Americans back to work, provided cash benefits to desperate parents and protected small businesses, hospitals, schools and child care centers.
After decades of talk about our crumbling roads, bridges and water systems, we put more money into rebuilding America’s infrastructure than ever before — which is projected to create millions of well-paying jobs. And we did not stop there. We made the largest-ever investment in climate action to save the planet. We canceled student debt for nearly five million financially strapped Americans. We cut prices for insulin and asthma inhalers, capped out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and got free vaccines to the American people. We battled to defend women’s rights in the face of moves by Trump-appointed jurists to roll back reproductive freedom and deny women the right to control their own bodies.
So, yes, Mr. Biden has a record to run on. A strong record. But he and his supporters should never suggest that what’s been accomplished is sufficient. To win the election, the president must do more than just defend his excellent record. He needs to propose and fight for a bold agenda that speaks to the needs of the vast majority of our people — the working families of this country, the people who have been left behind for far too long.
At a time when the billionaires have never had it so good and when the United States is experiencing virtually unprecedented income and wealth inequality, over 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, real weekly wages for the average worker have not risen in over 50 years, 25 percent of seniors live each year on $15,000 or less, we have a higher rate of childhood poverty than almost any other major country, and housing is becoming more and more unaffordable — among other crises.
This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We can do better. We must do better. Joe Biden knows that. Donald Trump does not. Joe Biden wants to tax the rich so that we can fund the needs of working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Donald Trump wants to cut taxes for the billionaire class. Joe Biden wants to expand Social Security benefits. Donald Trump and his friends want to weaken Social Security. Joe Biden wants to make it easier for workers to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages and benefits. Donald Trump wants to let multinational corporations get away with exploiting workers and ripping off consumers. Joe Biden respects democracy. Donald Trump attacks it.
This election offers a stark choice on issue after issue. If Mr. Biden and his supporters focus on these issues — and refuse to be divided and distracted — the president will rally working families to his side in the industrial Midwest swing states and elsewhere and win the November election. And let me say this as emphatically as I can: For the sake of our kids and future generations, he must win.
Bernie Sanders is the senior senator from Vermont.
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Lost a bunch of shit in Valheim trying to recover shit in Valheim it’s great I love not knowing why the game crashes randomly and loses progress
#we’re running modded valheim and **I** don’t crash but my husband does but **I’m** the host so whatever he had in his pockets#disappears if it wasn’t in there the last time we saved which btw because this happens so often is sub 5 minutes now#but that was long enough to lose a huge amount of resources bc we were moving a boat to go get our silver#so I’m going through the process of logging out#starting unmodded valheim#logging in. giving myself all the stuff to make that boat that just vanished when#guess what! I forgot to log into my bridge character who ISNT holding anything modded#and logged into my MODDED CHARACTER with MODDED ITEMS.#WITHOUT MODS.#so not only did we lose our boat I also lost#a shit ton of hard to get my hands on Magical Runes#that I CANT use Devcommands to give myself :) because they’re modded :)#and also !!!!! I lost my backpack. with all the resources that were inside it.#anyways that happened a couple hours ago and I started my period so I’m already hugely depressed#and we’re fighting unemployment in the hopes we can pay our bills still because other spouse got let go. so we’re down the main job.#and before this all happened I ordered a hoodie from Rainylune and they sent the wrong size and it doesn’t fit ;;#and it’s been like nearly a week since I emailed them and I haven’t heard back and I’m sad and stressed abt money and#worried about how we’re gonna cover the hormones we started because we thought we were finally fucking stable#and I never get to leave the house anymore or see people and I think I’m just getting sad 😞
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Wild ride
"Damn, Y/N," he murmured, running his hand through your mildly tangled hair. "You're something else."
You smile, feeling utterly sated and content. "And don't you forget it, cowboy," you reply, planting a lazy kiss onto his bare chest.
Pairing: Tyler Owens x fem! Reader
Genre: smut
Word count: 5206
Summary: Tyler comforts you through a panic attack after a storm. He then rescues you from your fight with Javi. You take a drive to a hotel and then things get very heated.
a/n: this is entirely a reader insert to the movie bc I thought it would fit so perfectly. Also this is the longest oneshot I’ve ever wrote lmao 😭 Hopefully you enjoy!
When you moved to New York it wasn’t just to get away from the place where your friends all died. It was because you couldn’t live there without feeling guilt about being the reason everyone was out there to begin with. The shame and guilt was burning you, inside and out. All for what? What did it get you? Nothing. If you couldn’t tame a tornado you were going to do everything in your power to help people prepare and get out before it was too late. So when Javi came to you asking for help with storm par, you wanted to tell him no. You wanted to say that there was no way you could ever possibly go back not after what you did.
But when he was explaining how they would be making a perfect 3D scan of the tornado and how it can be used to help save lives, you knew you had to help. He was right. You could get him close enough to the tornado in order to set up the portable units.
As time passes you find yourself more intrigued by the self proclaimed “Tornado Wrangler”, whatever that’s supposed to mean. At the same time though, he’s frustrating. Like all he cares about is chasing the storm and making money instead of realizing how much damage these things cause.
“Javi, we have to help.” You say sternly as he keeps talking about the stupid sensor. “Javi! It’s a small town, they’re going to need all the help they can get, we need to help.” He sighs.
“Alright, alright. I’ll look for it later, okay?” You press a hand to his arm gently. “You made a good call. They really do need our help.” Javi pulls off to the side of the road, taking the keys out. You quickly leave the truck and go off to help.
We worked through the afternoon, finding lost heirlooms, important documents, and small mementos that people had thought were lost forever. Each time, their faces would light up with relief, and I’d feel a small sense of satisfaction, knowing I could make a difference.
The sun had broken through the clouds, casting long shadows over the town. The cleanup was far from over, but the worst was behind us. People were starting to talk again, making plans to rebuild. There was a sense of hope in the air, fragile but growing stronger with each passing minute.
You’re watching Javi and Scott interacting with an old guy and someone who lost their bar. Your eyebrows furrow as they offer him a card. “Didn’t know storm par was in the business of helping people,” you hear the familiar cowboy’s voice ringing through the air.
”Well, from what I see they’re trying to make a difference.” You turn to look at Tyler, wrapping your arms around your upper body.
”That’s one way of putting it,” he narrows his eyes while looking behind you at Javi.
“What?” you clench your jaw.
“Do you even know who you’re chasing for?”, his voice raises slightly. ”How much more do these people got to lose before y’all are done making a difference?” His face tightens as he grinds his teeth slightly.
”Sorry, says the guy setting up shop selling t-shirts and mugs after a storm’s hit.” You turn around before he can answer. Pulling the keys Javi gave you out of your pocket. Right as you’re reaching for the door, Lily yells your name.
”Hey, take some food,” she hands you a brown takeout box and a water bottle.
”Oh, I don’t have any cash on me,” you give a half smile.
”It’s okay, that’s why we're always selling shirts and mugs, so we can help give people food.” You shake your head as your eyes widen slightly.
”Then you should keep it, in case you run out.” She hands you the water bottle.
“At least take the water, stay hydrated.” You nod and tell her to stay safe.
Once you get back to the motel you quickly take a shower. Sitting down on the bed with your laptop you look up “Marshall Riggs” you bite down on your cheek, your eyes closing after you read up on him. Pinching your nose bridge you let out a sigh, closing the device.
There’s a knock at the door, you get up slowly and open it. “Some of Javi’s crew said you were staying down by the rodeo.” You don’t say anything in return so he offers you a small pizza box. “Thought you might be hungry,” you take it and shut the door in his face.
You reopen the door, “Thank you, Tyler.” He smiles sweetly.
“How are you doin’, after all that?” Your head nods softly. “How about I show you something nice, city girl.” He offers you his arm.
”And what’s that?” Stepping out of your room you close and lock the door before taking his arm. He doesn’t reply but instead leads you to the stadium at the rodeo. The sun dipped low on the horizon, casting a warm, golden light over the dusty rodeo grounds. The air buzzed with excitement and the scent of grilled food, mingling with the earthy smell of the arena. Families filled the bleachers, kids waving flags and clutching cotton candy, while seasoned rodeo-goers leaned against the rails, hats tipped low, eyes sharp with anticipation.
As the night wore on, the rodeo continued—steer wrestling, bronc riding, and more, each event bringing its own excitement and challenges. The crowd cheered, laughed, and gasped, caught up in the spectacle. In the arena, cowboys were competing in the team roping event. Dust kicked up as the horses thundered forward, riders expertly casting their lassos around the horns of the steers. The crowd roared with approval when a duo managed to secure a flawless catch, the announcer’s voice booming in congratulations.
“So tell me about yourself city girl,” Tyler’s voice is low and gentle.
“You know you keep calling me that,” you turn to him, “ but this isn’t my first rodeo, I grew up here in Oklahoma.” Turning back to the events in front of you.
“Would you look at that, I finally learned something about you.” His lips curve up as he admires your side profile.
Back behind the scenes, in the holding pens, a few of the seasoned ranch hands started to glance nervously at the sky. They could see it now—a line of dark, swirling clouds on the horizon, moving faster than seemed natural. A wind had picked up, too, sharper and colder than it had been just minutes ago. But the rodeo continued, the excitement and noise drowning out any sense of unease.
A leaf falls onto your head, you reach your hand up into the air as you watch the leaves fall around you. “Tyler, the air feels heavy, this isn’t right.”
In the ring, the next event was starting: the barrel racing. A young girl was about to make her run when a sharp crack of thunder boomed overhead, so loud it momentarily drowned out the announcer. The crowd murmured, looking up at the sky as the first raindrops began to fall. But as she rounded the first barrel, the wind hit, strong and fierce, whipping dust and debris across the arena. The rain intensified, turning into a heavy downpour that sent people in the stands scrambling for cover. The announcer tried to keep up the energy, but his voice was lost in the wind. In the distance, a low, ominous rumble filled the air—not thunder this time, but something far more menacing.
There's barely time to react before the rodeo’s emergency siren began to wail, a long, shrill warning that sent a chill down everyone’s spine. People were running, some heading for their cars, others diving for the nearest ditch or sturdy structure. The craze of people began pushing and trampling one another, Tyler quickly grabs a woman who fell. He helps her up to her feet and guides you toward the hotel you’re staying at.
“There! Let’s check for a basement,” you nod as you both run inside. There’s a couple arguing with the clerk, you’re checking around for a doorway that might lead to a basement. Tyler tries to ask the man working the front desk but to no avail. “Outside, there’s an empty pool.” You yell to Tyler, “we can try there” he nods and you begin leading the young mother and daughter out the door, Owen’s and the man follow close behind. Once you get the mother and girl down you jump in. Directing them toward the open piping. “Hold on there, cover her head.”
You grasp onto the pipes holding on tight as you feel Tyler’s chest pressing against your back. He keeps his hands tight around the bars, he keeps himself tight against you making sure you don’t move.
“You’re gonna be okay, keep holding on. I’ve got you. I’ve got you” he’s whispering into your ear. You tightly squeeze your eyes shut feeling as though you’re being transported back to the day when you lost everything.
It started with a flutter in your chest, like the faint rustling of wings. You tried to ignore it, chalking it up to nerves, but the flutter didn’t go away. Instead, it grew stronger, spreading through your body like wildfire. Your breathing quickened, shallow and rapid, each breath feeling like it wasn’t enough, like there wasn’t enough air.
It started with trembling hands, and then your whole body followed, shaking uncontrollably. Feeling lightheaded, as if the ground beneath you had suddenly disappeared, leaving you suspended in a void. My chest tightened, squeezing tighter and tighter, making it even harder to breathe.
As quickly as the storm had begun, it passed over. Tyler wraps his arms around you. “Y/N? Is everything okay?” Your body continues to shake as you can’t seem to breathe. “It’s okay, just follow my breathing,” he turns you around so your face is in his chest.
”Deep breaths, in and out,” Tyler gives gentle directions as he rubs his palms over your arms.
”I think I’m okay now..” your voice is soft and hoarse as you choke the words out. His cold, rough hand gently brushes the hair from your face.
“You look like you’ve been through hell tonight.” He says, while helping you out of the pool. You stifle a small laugh in response. Boone and the rest of his crew come up to the pair of you, asking if you’re both alright.
“Y/N, baby. Are you okay?” Javi appears behind you, his hands gently pressing into your hips as he pulls you into a tight hug.
Tyler feels a pang of jealousy as he watches Javi slide his hands lovingly around your hips and pull you into the hug. He tries to shake the feeling, reminding himself that it’s not his place to care. Still, he can’t help but feel a sense of protectiveness wash over him.
“I came as soon as I heard,” his eyes filled with worry as you looked up at him. “Where did you hide out? The pool?” You just nod in response, finding comfort in his arms. Javi keeps repeatedly asking if you’re okay, running his fingers through your hair and resting one hand on your waist.
“Yes, I’m okay. It’s okay,” you pull away from him, giving a soft smile. “I was with Tyler the whole time, he made sure I was okay.” He nods but his eyes flicker behind you.
“Javi, your little girlfriend is fine, now let's get to work.” Scott says loudly, catching the attention of Tyler and Lily. “Apparently this place was family owned so I’m gonna start working on numbers. Riggs is gonna want those first thing.” His voice and face are both emotionless and cold, sending a slight shiver down your spine.
“Wait wait,” you hold onto his arm. “What exactly is Riggs getting out of all your data collection?”
“What’s the matter?” He scratches his neck and awkward expression flashing over his features.
“Is profiting off of people’s tragedy part of your business plan? Why are you doing this?” You pull away from his body.
“Riggs is offering these people a way to move on with their lives.” He takes a step back from you, his voice raising slightly.
“Swooping in and taking advantage of people, who have just lost everything” you take a deep breath to steady your shaky voice “You have no idea what that’s like”
“I don’t know what that’s like?” His fist clenches “How about losing three of my best friends while you were trying to land a big fat grant for your science project?”
Your eyes fill with fresh tears as you look up at him, lip quivering. “Take your keys, I’m done.” You toss them at his feet walking off as fast as you can. Finding yourself drawn to Tyler and his wrangler team.
Tyler witnessed the whole exchange, and his protective instinct flares up again. He watches you stomp away from Javi, a mixture of anger and concern etched on his face. He notices the tears in your eyes and the wobble in your lip. He steps forward and places a gentle hand on your shoulder. “Hey, sweetheart. You okay?”
“Can you just take me somewhere please?” Your voice trembles while Javi yells after you. Asking you not to leave like this.
Tyler shoots a warning glare over his shoulder at Javi before turning back to you. “Of course, darling. Anywhere you want to go.” Owen’s voice is soft and soothing, a stark contrast to his rough exterior.
He gently takes your elbow, steering you away from Javi, and his crew. Tyler leads you over to his Truck in the parking lot where the motel once was, his hand still on your elbow. Tyler opens the passenger door and guides you onto the seat, shutting the door before making his way around to the driver's side.
A sigh escapes your lips as you relax into the seat. You softly massage your nose bridge keeping your eyes squeezed shut as a tear escapes one of your eyes.
Tyler watches you silently as you try to regain your composure. He can sense the pain and hurt radiating off of you, and he wishes he could take it all away. After a few moments, he breaks the silence. “Hey, look at me for a second.” He puts his hand on your knee rubbing small circles into your skin.
You open up your eyes, turning to look at him. Your lip still quivering slightly. Tyler’s heart aches as he looks into your tearful eyes. He reaches out and gently wipes the tear away with his thumb, his rough hands surprisingly tender against your face.
“Hey, you don’t need to worry about anything right now. You’re gonna stay with me tonight, okay?” His hand travels down your cheek as he leans over and presses a soft kiss to your forehead. Before he starts the car he reaches into the backseat pulling out one of his hats, putting it on with his signature smile.
“You know, you deserve way better than that,” he turns the keys in the ignition. “You can do way better than him anyway.” You giggle while brushing your teary eyes.
“Do you think Javi and I are a couple?” Your once sorrow filled eyes light up with your laugh. A small smile tugs at the corner of Tyler's mouth as he watches you laugh. The sight of your smile warms his heart, and the pang of jealousy eases a bit.
“I mean, he seemed pretty possessive of you back there. And the way he was touchin’ up on you…” he lets his voice trail off, his jaw clenching slightly at the memory.
“Don’t tell me that makes you jealous,” a small smirk decorates your lips. You lean closer to his side, turning your body to further face him.
Tyler’s breath hitches as you lean closer to him, a wave of electricity coursing through his veins. He tries to keep his cool, but the hint of possessiveness flickers in his eyes once again.
“Jealous? Me?” he scoffs, trying to convince himself more than you.
Your eyes light up “Oh you’re totally jealous,” you brush your fingers over the skin on his arms, moving your hand to meet his.
A shiver runs down Tyler’s spine as your fingers travel along his skin, his heartbeat quickening at your touch. He tries to maintain a cool demeanor, but the flutter in his chest gives him away.
“Jealous? Of that jackass?”, his voice a little rougher this time. He looks down at your hand in his, noticing how small and delicate it looks against his own, rough and calloused hands. He swallows hard, fighting the urge to interlace his fingers with yours.
“Is that so?” You interlock your fingers with his as you lean over to kiss his temple. “It’s okay to be jealous, just tell me you don’t like seeing other men touching me,” you whisper into his ear, your voice filled with amusement.
Tyler takes a sharp breath as you interlace your fingers with his, his hand clamping tight around yours. “It does make me jealous,” he admits, his voice a gravelly whisper. His free hand squeezes the steering wheel, the muscles in his arm flexing tightly. “Alright, I don’t like seeing other men touchin’ you.” He brushes his thumb over the top of your hand.
A blush quickly rises up your face as you squeeze his hand firmly. Resting your head against his shoulder you bite down on the inside of your cheek. “Are we almost to a hotel?” Your heart races as you feel the muscles in his arm flexing.
Tyler glances out the window at the passing scenery, trying to distract himself from the feeling of you resting against his shoulder. He clears his throat before speaking, his voice still low and rough.
“We’re almost there. Just a few more minutes.” He rubs his thumb over your knuckles, the gentle movement betraying the tension in his body. He can’t help but steal a glance down at you, taking in your blushing face and the way you bite down on your lip. He fights the urge to pull you into his lap and press his lips against yours.
Using your free hand you run your fingers over his thigh, letting your mind wander as you think about your plans for the night. Trailing your hand closer and closer to his hips teasingly.
Tyler’s breath hitches as you run your fingers along his thigh, his body tense as you trail your hand closer to his hips. His mind starts racing with impure thoughts, visions of you pinned beneath him, your skin against his. He swallows hard, his muscles tensing further as he tries to control himself.
“You’re playin’ a dangerous game, you know that?” his voice low and rough, almost coming out as a growl.
“Yeah?” You run your fingers over his golden belt buckle, “I like dangerous games,” your tongue poking out as you lick your bottom lip.
Tyler swallows hard when you touch his golden belt buckle, his body shuddering under your touch. He shifts in his seat, trying to hide the effect you’re having on him while also struggling to keep his eyes on the road.
“Oh yeah? How dangerous are you willing to go?” he asks, his voice thick with desire. He glances down at your tongue on your lip, his eyes darkening as he imagines what it would feel like against his skin.
“That depends, love,” you press soft kisses into his neck, moving your hand from his, resting it on his chest. “How far are you gonna wanna go?” Your eyes flicker to the hotel sign as the truck pulls into the parking lot.
Tyler lets out a shaky breath as you pepper kisses along his neck, his heart stuttering at the feeling of your lips on his skin. He places a hand over yours on his chest, feeling the rapid beat of his heart thundering beneath your touch.
“Damn, darlin’, you’re really testing my limits right now.” he manages to say, his voice a growl. “But if it were up to me I’d go as far as you’d let me.”
He looks out the window as the truck pulls into the hotel parking lot, his mind racing with all the possibilities that the night holds. He leaps out of the truck running to your side to open the door for you.
“Well, you better hurry up and find us a room then,” you shut the door behind you. You pull the hat from his head, placing it on yours.
Tyler watches you stride ahead of him, his eyes drinking in the sight of his hat sitting on your head. He adjusts his jeans, trying to hide the stiffness growing in his groin as he follows you up to the hotel check-in desk.
“You’re a damn tease, you know that?” he mutters to you as he gets the room keys from the attendant. You flash him an innocent smile as you step into the elevator.
“But you’re too cute when you’re flustered.” Looking up at him you press both hands against his well-built abs. You slip your thigh between his legs as he reaches for the buttons on the elevator, pressing into his groin.
Tyler’s breath hitches at the feel of your hands on his stomach, his muscles flexing under your touch. His heart nearly pounds out of his chest as your thigh brushes against his stiffness, a guttural groan escaping his lips at the contact.
“Jesus, darlin'...you’re gonna be the death of me.” he pants, the words thick with lust. He struggles with the elevator buttons, his hands fumbling as his mind becomes increasingly clouded with need.
You stand up on your tippy toes to whisper in his ear “That’s the plan,”. You move one hand up to his jaw, pulling his face to yours. “Are you gonna kiss me yet?” You mumble.
Tyler swallows hard as you tease his ear with your hot breath, his body growing taut with desire. He looks down at your face, his gaze fixated on your lips as you speak. The words send a shiver down his spine, his restraint slipping by the second.
“You want me to kiss you, darlin’?” his lips hover just above your own. He runs a thumb across your lower lip, his eyes darkened by lust.
“Tyler, I want you to do much more than just kiss me.” Your arms wrap around his neck as you press your chest against his. “Please,” you breathe out. The elevator dings as you get to the floor of your room.
Tyler’s control snaps at your words, a low growl escaping his lips as you press against him. He grabs your waist, his fingers digging into your skin as he pulls you close, the pleading tone of your voice nearly undoing him.
“Don’t gotta ask me twice, darlin’” He mutters, his voice low and gravelly. He picks you up, wrapping your legs around his waist as he carries you out of the elevator and towards your room. You giggle into his ear while he unlocks the door.
Tyler grins at the sound of your giggles, his chest rumbling with a satisfied chuckle. He kicks the hotel door open, his eyes locking on the queen-sized bed in the center of the room. He sets you down on the edge of the bed, towering over you as he places his hands on your thighs. You both kick your shoes off really quickly before getting back to it.
Your hand goes to the back of his neck as you pull his face to yours. You kiss him with hunger. Your free hand sliding up his shirt as you feel his smooth abs.
Tyler groans deep in his throat as you pull him towards you, his body responding instantly to your touch. He devours your lips with a primal need, his tongue exploring your mouth as he presses his body up against yours. His muscles twitch under your hand, fire spreading through his veins as you glide your fingers across his abs.
“Goddamn it, Y/N… you're makin' me crazy.” he gasps, his voice thick with desire. He kisses you again, his hands roaming up your thighs, tracing the curves of your body with rough yet tender caresses.
Your hands trail down his abdomen, landing on his belt buckle once again. Your fingers fumble with his belt before successfully pulling it out. Breaking the kiss you quickly remove your shirt, throwing it to the corner of the room.
“Mm Ty…” sucking on your bottom lip as you lean back on your hands while looking up at him seductively.
Tyler sucks in a sharp breath, his body tensing under your touch. Once you remove your shirt, revealing the soft skin beneath, his gaze trails over your body, his eyes darkened by lust. He watches you lean back on the bed, your eyes locking with his in a sultry gaze.
“Mmm darlin’...” you sit up and pull him closer by the loops on his jeans, his strong legs coming between your own, spreading them apart. Lifting up his shirt you press kisses all over his tanned skin.
He reaches his hand out to touch your exposed skin, his fingers gently tracing your collarbone. “Then why don’t you do something about it baby?” You ask in a low tone.
His hands rest on your waist, pulling you closer as you spread your legs even wider for him. “Oh baby, you don't know what you're gettin' yourself into” he whispers, his voice rumbling with need.
He suddenly grips your hips tightly and flips you onto your back, his body hovering over yours as he pins you against the bed. Reaching up you pull his shirt over his head almost moaning at the sight of his toned body.
He smirks as he watches your eyes rake over him, his ego growing at your reaction. “You like what you see, Y/N?” He asks, his voice rough with desire as he looks down at you, his body pressing against yours.
“Most definitely,” you capture his lips in a deep kiss, maneuvering to put him on his back, straddling his hips. Moving back you unbutton his jeans and slide the zipper down. Pulling the pants off his hips you smile to yourself as you see how worked up you got him. Your hand slips into his boxers wrapping around his length.
He lets out a guttural moan, body arching into yours at the contact. “Oh God, baby…” he gasps, his eyes fluttering shut as he lets out a string of curses. Tyler's sharp intake of breath was your reward, and you relish in the feeling of power it gives you. He grips the bed sheets tightly as you pull his dick out, wrapping your lips around the tip.
“Fuck,” he moans as you pull off and sit back on the bed, making sure your teasing antics continue. All you really want is for Tyler to take complete control and you know exactly how to make him. With slow, purposeful movements, you remove your bra, freeing your breasts and running gentle hands over your own body, nipples hardening under your touch. Then you sit back, pulling your panties off, giving him a show.
Tyler's breathing quickens, his desire palpable. "Damn it, Y/N, you know what I want," he said, his voice thick with need. "Stop teasing and give it to me."
A slow, seductive smile spreads across your face. "I'm not teasing, Tyler," you say, reaching for his hand and placing it on your thigh. "I'm just getting started." Guiding his hand, you slowly part your legs, exposing your wet, eager pussy to his touch. Tyler's fingers delve between the folds, his touch both gentle and demanding. You moan, eyebrows furrowing as you squeeze your eyes shut, your head falling back while you relish in the sensation.
"That's it," you whisper, eyes fluttering shut as your eyebrows furrow with pleasure. "Touch me, Tyler. Make me cum." Your voice comes out in a gentle beg.
Tyler's other hand joins the first, exploring your most intimate places, his thumbs circling your clit as he plunged his fingers into the tight hole. Your hips buck as you begin riding his hands with waves of pleasure crashing over you.
"Yes, just like that," you pant, your body trembling. "Oh, God, Tyler, don't stop. I'm so close."
Tyler quickens his pace, his eyes never leaving yours as he pushes you closer and closer to the edge. "Cum for me, Y/N," he commanded, his voice hoarse with desire. "Let me feel you fall apart."
With a sharp cry, you climax, your body shaking uncontrollably as pleasure rips through your entire body. Tyler continues working his magic, drawing out your orgasm and prolonging the exquisite sensation.
Finally, as the waves of pleasure subside, you collapse into the bed, your chest heaving as you try to catch a breath. Tyler hovers over your frame, his eyes smoldering with a mixture of triumph and desire.
"That," he said, his voice raw, "was just the beginning. Especially after all of that teasing you did,” his voice low and sultry. Tyler's lips curve into a devilish smile as he positions himself between your trembling legs. In one smooth thrust, he enters you, filling you completely. Moaning at the stretch, your body welcomes the invasion.
Tyler begin to move, his hips driving into you with a rhythmic pace. Meeting his thrusts, your nails digging into his back as you urge him on. The bed creaks in time with their passionate dance, the sound of your guys’s passionate gasps and moans filling the room.
"Harder, Tyler," you moan, your body craving much more. "Fuck me harder."
Tyler obliges, his movements becoming more urgent as he plunges into you again and again. The room echos with the sounds of your carnal coupling, the air heavy with the scent of sex.
Your body coils tight once more, climbing towards another orgasm. "I'm gonna cum again," you cry out, voice hoarse. "Don't stop, Tyler, please don't stop."
Tyler grunts his response, his own orgasm building. He reaches between their bodies, his fingers finding your slightly swollen clit and rubbing it in circles. It was all the stimulation you needed, and with a shout of release, you shatter into pieces, juices flooding around Tyler's hard cock.
Feeling you contracting around him, Tyler finally let go, thrusting deeply into you. Moaning into your ear as he spilled his seed, filling you with his warmth. You both cling to each other, breathing coming in ragged gasps as the two of you ride out the waves of your shared ecstasy. Collapsing onto the bed, bodies still joined, Tyler rolls onto his back, bringing your exhausted body with him so laying sprawled on top of him.
"Damn, Y/N," he murmured, running his hand through your mildly tangled hair. "You're something else."
You smile, feeling utterly sated and content. "And don't you forget it, cowboy," you reply, planting a lazy kiss onto his bare chest.
a/n (again): sorry just wanted to say that I’m working on making some more twisters smut, but i also have top gun maverick smut if y’all wanna check that out 😝🙏
#smut#tyler owens#twisters#twisters 2024#glenn powell#glen powell#Tyler owens reader#tyler owens x reader#tyler owens x y/n#tyler owens x you#tyler owens x reader smut#tyler owens x you smut#twisters2024 glen powell
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money troubles
Januarys in Tulsa were a different kind of hell. You wouldn’t think it would get that cold in Oklahoma, but Darry was surprised every year when December rolled around. His brothers hoarded blankets, stacking them as high as they could go. January and February were even worse.
It was his first winter without his parents, without his father’s salary. Heat was expensive, more so since their windows were thin and the doors couldn’t shut properly. Darry held out as long as possible before turning the heating on.
Pony grumbled a little, wrapping up in blankets and wearing Darry’s old football sweatshirts over every outfit.
One night in December, Darry was half asleep when his bedroom door opened and his brothers padded their way over to his bed. He barely had enough time to wake up before they crawled on top of him and settled down. Before he could ask what was wrong, he felt Pony’s cold toes being pressed to his shin.
“Y’all are freezing,” Darry murmured as Soda snuggled into his side, forcing his cold nose against Darry’s shoulder. He sighed and rubbed their backs, “I’ll turn on the heat tomorrow.” With his Christmas bonus, they would be fine with the added expense.
January was when things got hard.
It was midnight and Darry sat alone at the dining table. When finances were tight, he always did the bookkeeping after the boys went to bed. He didn’t need them worrying, that was his job. And based on his calculations, they’d have to cut back somewhere. It was heat or food.
Darry’s head fell into his hands. What the hell was he supposed to do? He never wished for his parents more than he did at that moment. A tear dripped onto the notebook paper in front of him.
He could eat less, leave more for everyone else. That would save some money at least. But not nearly enough. Pony had track, he needed to be eating his fill. And if they didn’t eat with them, he didn’t know where half the gang would get their next meal.
But if he turned off the heat, well he honestly didn’t know what would happen. He knew he couldn’t stand to see his brothers shivering in the cold, he couldn’t watch them bundle up and pretend nothing was wrong.
What the hell was he supposed to do?
He didn’t hear the front door opening, or the footfalls in the entryway. He didn’t know that Two-Bit was inside until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Darry jumped, raising his hands defensively.
Two-Bit smirked and raised his hands, “Woah there, cowboy.” Then he saw the tears in Darry’s eyes. “What’s goin’ on? Is everyone okay?”
“Everyone’s fine.” Darry swallowed thickly and ran a hand over his face, “Ain’t nothing for you to worry about. The couch is open if you want to crash.”
Two-Bit’s eyes fell to the page in front of Darry and his eyes widened. Too late, Darry moved to cover it. Two had already seen. “Shit, I didn’t know things were that bad.”
“It’s none of your business,” Darry said shortly. He closed the notebook and slid it under a newspaper.
He tried to stand up, but Two put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to stay seated. Two-Bit sat down in Pony’s usual chair. He was quiet for a long moment, leg jogging under him. Then he nodded to himself and started digging in his pockets.
A moment later, he put a handful of crumpled bills and a stack of coins in front of Darry. Based on his quick math, it was almost twenty five dollars.
“I’m not takin’ your money.” Darry leaned back as though physical distance could make the money go away. “Where did you even get this much money?”
Two-Bit shrugged, “Texas Hold ‘Em, odd jobs for a guy my ma knows. It’s not even that much money.” It was. It would be enough for food and heat and extra for next month.
“I can’t take this,” Darry pushed it towards his friend. He and Two-Bit had been pals for as long as he could remember, they practically grew up together. Two-Bit was a good guy, Darry trusted him with his family more than anyone else. He knew that Two could use this money for his mom or his sister. Why on earth would he give it to Darry?
“You need it. It’s not even that much.” Two-Bit sighed and for the first time in a long time, Darry didn’t smell alcohol on him. “Look, you help me and the boys, you give us food and…” He nodded his head towards the bedrooms, “I know Johnny is sleeping in the spare room. You forced him to so he wouldn’t sleep outside.” Darry looked down, it was true. “Exactly. So take the goddamn money and keep your kid brothers warm. And the rest of us yahoos that traipse through your door.”
Darry stared at Two-Bit, saying nothing. Two-Bit rolled his eyes, “It should not be this hard to convince a guy to take money.”
“I don’t-”
“Darry.” Two-Bit and Darry turned around to see Soda standing in the doorway. His hair was all a mess and he looked like he was still half asleep. “What’s going on?”
Darry threw on a smile, “A stray just wandered through the door.” He slapped Two-Bit on the shoulder. “Figured I’d let him stay the night and then go from there. Ya think we should keep him?”
Soda chuckled, “Just until morning.” He yawned. “Y’all need to talk quieter. Pony and Johnny are fast asleep.”
“Will do,” Darry told him. “Goodnight, Pepsi.” Soda just yawned again and waved before plodding back to bed. Darry’s eyes stayed at where he was for a long moment. Then he turned back to his friend.
Soda and Pony deserved a home that was warm and safe and with enough food for them and all their friends. They needed this money. He could suffer the shame of accepting money from a friend just this once.
So he grit his teeth and said, “I don’t want to be makin’ a habit of this.”
Two-Bit grinned, “Wouldn’t dream of it, superman.”
He squeezed Darry’s shoulder, “I’m going to sleep on the couch, tell Johnny that I get the bed next time.” Darry snorted and shook his head, that was never going to happen.
Darry looked at the pile of money for a long moment. His hands shook ever so slightly as he tucked it into the coffee can on top of the fridge.
When he turned back, Soda was standing in the doorway again, watching him. He seemed more awake now. They just looked at each other for a long moment.
Soda crossed the room in two strides and hugged Darry. Just from that, Soda knew Darry had heard, or at least seen his exchange with Two-Bit. He knew that Soda worried about him, probably far too much. To Soda, Darry accepting help was nothing short of a miracle.
“I love you,” Soda said softly. “You’re doing a really good job.”
Darry’s throat became thick with tears and he held Soda just a little tighter. “Thank you, honey.” Since their parents died, he’d been adrift, trying desperately to keep everything together. He kissed Soda’s head, “I love you too.” Darry pulled back and pushed Soda’s hair out of his face. Without all that grease, Soda’s hair was constantly covering his eyes. “Go back to bed.”
Soda huffed, “What if I don’t wanna?”
Darry couldn’t help the laugh that bust from his chest, “You’re soundin’ an awful lot like Ponyboy.”
“And he’s my favorite brother, so what?” Soda said sarcastically, earning him a thawk on the head from Darry. A few months ago, that would have hurt, even if it was a joke. Now he knew his brother was being a knucklehead, delirious in his sleep-addled mind.
“Go to bed, short stack,” Darry said, giving Soda a light shove towards the hallway. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Soda smirked. He gave Darry another quick squeeze before darting back towards his bed. Darry followed him a few minutes later.
Unable to help himself, he ducked his head into the spare room where Johnny and Pony had fallen asleep. The two of them were curled towards each other like parentheses, Pony’s thumb still holding place in his book.
With a fond smile, he leaned over the bed and pulled the book from his brother’s hands. He slipped a bookmark in and set it to the side table. Both the boys were covered in a thick blanket. Darry adjusted it around their shoulders.
One of Johnny’s eyes squinted open, “What?”
Just like he would one of his brothers, Darry touched his head affectionately, “Just me, buddy. Go back to sleep.” His heart warmed at the trust Johnny displayed as he closed his eyes again and snuggled back down. That was why he needed the money, Johnny needed a safe place to stay.
Darry closed the bedroom door and then moved to check on Soda. His idiot brother was still awake, not even pretending to sleep. Darry leaned into the door frame, “Golly, you’d think you were six, not sixteen.”
Soda stuck his tongue out, only proving Darry’s point. “I’m goin’ to sleep. Wanted to make sure you didn’t try to pull an all-nighter.”
“Goodnight, Soda,” Darry said meaningfully.
“Night.” Soda snuggled down into bed with a content look on his face. Darry smiled and finally headed back to his bedroom.
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Can you write something with Damian X Reader where R is an extremely intelligent girl, to the point of having discovered the secret identities of the entire Batfam only two months after moving to Gotham, and who is constantly in the Bats' action scenes (Like she shows up anywhere they're fighting criminals just to recite one by one the reasons why she's sure they're the Waynes, even with all of them denying it and pretending she's a complete crazy person. A bonus if Damian "hates" her (it's actually just misunderstood love because she's just awesome and he can't handle himself)). By the way: your Batfam fanfic is great!
Sometimes Things Aren't As Plain As They Seem
Pairing: Damian X F!Reader
Warnings: Self harm, blood, mention of torture near the end
Reader and Damian's age aren't specified and I'm really sorry but you can tell I gave up at the end I've also never written for Damian so he's probably ooc
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You've held a secret for the past few months now.
No one else knew this secret of yours. Well, except the people involved in this classified information. Namely, the Wayne family and those close to them. In fact, this secret wasn't even yours to share.
What this secret was? The identity of the vigilantes that patrolled the streets of Gotham. Yes, the birds, the bat and those that worked with them in Gotham.
Your first hint was almost instantaneous after moving here. After all, who would have enough money for all those gadgets that Batman uses? Almost every citizen has come to realise that he doesn’t have any powers— with the exception of a few—so the only other reason would be man-made technology. But those costed money, and most people in Gotham could never afford those, so that left the rich or those with connection to them.
After this realisation, you made it your mission to find out their identities. It was a personal goal of yours, another thing to add to your list of achievements. And you did it. Just two months in to living in Gotham at that.
However, you needed confirmation. You were almost certain you were right, but you needed one final confirmation. You had doubts. The main being that it was hard to believe that someone from the high society of Gotham would even think to help the poor without a hidden motive. Bruce Wayne—Batman—had proven himself multiple times, yet the doubt would linger at the back of your mind.
So what better proof than word from the mouths of the heroes themselves?
Lately, Damian’s been dreading the patrols around Gotham. The reason being was this girl, around the same age as him, you.
In almost every patrol, you had interrupted them. You had somehow found out their routes for their patrols, even when they tried everything to make it impossible to track them. When questioned, you would say that there is a pattern in everything, that’s what made people human. Human, not a hero, not a killer, just human.
You would constantly put yourself in danger, just trying to get an answer from him and his father. You would always list reasons why Gotham’s vigilantes were the Waynes. It was almost endearing annoying.
In fact, you were a danger yourself. You were a risk. You could easily spill their identities.
So tonight, he would warn you. Save you. Unfortunately for you, his job was to analyse anything and everything about someone suspicious, and in his family’s books, you were one. Fortunately for him, you were easy to find, because just as you said, there is pattern in everything.
It was another night of you trying to get your final, solid evidence. You snuck around the streets of Gotham, heading to the area where you next expected Batman and Robin to start their patrol.
As you made you way, you felt eyes boring holes into you. You reached your hand into your pocket, clutching the pocket knife inside. As you heard a thud of a pair of feet landing on the ground, you turned around, shoving the knife at the person’s throat.
Your eyes widened when you saw a familiar domino mask staring back at you. Robin—Damian Wayne. What the hell? You’re usually the one to look for them, not the other way around. What’s with this turn of events?
“(Last Name).” His voice is sharp, not even bothered by the knife pointed at his neck.
“Robin? Why are you here? You’re not supposed to be on patrol yet.”
“Of course you would know that.” He mutters under his breath. “You’re putting yourself in danger. You need to stop or we will make you.”
“I- what?” You stumbled back, confused at his words.
“Stop following us. For your safety and our own.”
“Well maybe if you finally gave me answers, I’d finally leave you guys alone.” You cross your arm and roll your eyes. You knew you were being stubborn to a fault, but you really wanted this confirmation.
“And what will you do with this information?” He returns the action and raises his eyebrow.
“Nothing. Swear on my life.”
“And how should I trust you?” He asks, skeptically. There was an awkward silence between you two for a moment. You stared into each other’s eyes, before you put the knife to your palm and let the blood dripple down on the ground.
“May Lady Gotham herself place a curse on me should I lie.” You see his face twist, trying to make sense of what you just did. This was probably a stupid idea, but you needed answers. After all, the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back.
“Why did you do that? Do you know what you’ve just done?” Robin was dumbfounded. Who in the world would someone in their right mind make an oath like that just for some answers? Apparently you. He was almost amazed.
“Of course I do. Just tell me what I want to hear already.”
“Fine. You’re right. Will you stop putting yourself in danger already?” He sighs defeatedly. A smirk forms on your face, another goal achieved.
“I was right.”
“You were right.”
“Well, that’s all I needed! See you around wonderboy!” You turn on your foot, not waiting for his reaction to your nickname for him, and start walking back to your house. You’ll definitely be recording this down in your journal when you arrive.
“Hey wait! You hand’s still bleeding!” You stop in your tracks and look at your hand and back at Robin, now confirmed Damian Wayne.
“It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt that much. I’ll just bandage it up at home.” Actually, it did hurt, but you wanted to look cool in front of him. I mean who wouldn’t want to in front of the guy they like?
Another silence falls between you two. You could see the conflicted look on his face, even with the domino mask covering half of it. You mentally laughed at his expression. After a few seconds, he seemed to finally come to a decision. He reached for your wounded hand, and you hesitantly let him hold it.
“At least let me help. I have some gauze in my utility belt to cover it.” This boy really was full of surprises, first coming to you to threaten you and now he’s helping you fix a self-inflicted wound. You truly chose the right guy to have a puppy crush on.
“Alright.” He held your hand gently, like you were fragile glass that would break in one wrong move. He pulled out a roll of gauze and wrapped it around your hand. You can hear him muttering stuff under his breath before finally speaking up.
“You’re actually crazy. why would you make an oath like that?”
“Aww is little birdie concerned about me?” You teased him.
“(Last Name).” He remained serious, but you reply with a chuckle.
“I don’t plan to break it, so it won’t affect me at all.” He looks up at you, a disapproving frown on his face. You return with a smile and his face flushes before he goes back to fixing your hand.
He finishes up quickly and lets you go home.
As you finally walked back home you could feel somehow following you, but you didn’t feel threatened. You knew it was Robin.
The next few nights, you left a few art supplies on your window sill, and by the time you would wake up, they would be gone
This eventually evolved into letters that you would write to him. At first, you were met with silence, but you pursued. Eventually, you would finally see a reply and from then on, you two became friends.
Unspoken words lingered between you two.
They remained unspoken until a rumour goes around the rogues of Gotham that you knew the identities of the vigilantes.
You, not having any connections with them, lived in blissful peace. That is, until you’re kidnapped and tortured for your knowledge.
You spend hours in pain, never spilling a word. Not only because of the oath, but also to not put Damian in danger.
After a few hours, you were finally saved. High in emotions, Damian accidentally takes his anger out on you, before realising his grave mistake.
He isn’t greeted with your smirk, no, instead he sees your tears. That’s when he’s forced to confront his feelings.
During your recovery, he visited almost every day, apologising profusely.
The tension doesn’t go away even after your fully recovered, but you slowly but surely warm up to him again.
It takes a while to get your friendship to normal, but when it does, you get closer and closer.
In fact, you would say you two were closer than before. So it would come to no one’s surprise when you two eventually ended up in a relationship.
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Some explanation -
The oath is basically self-explanatory. Should you break it, Lady Gotham would place a curse on you. It honestly just came to my mind while I was writing this and I liked it so I decided to add it
I also wanted to play around with the sentient Lady Gotham so yeah
Anyways, I'm so sorry this is kinda bad 😭I might rewrite this one day since I'm really not satisfied with it
I had to dance around the topic of reader being smart because I honestly didn't know how to write that
Tysm for the request tho! As much as I struggled with it, I absolutely loved the idea <3
I wanted to go into more detail but I got writers block in between and didn't want to make it multi-part so I had to do that last part like that 🥲
You guys know the drill, any mistakes are free to be pointed out and I will fix them as soon as possible
Don't know if anyone actually reads my long ahh A/N's, but if you do, asks are encouraged as I do love to interact with people and they give me motivation
#astraeus-tree#damian wayne#damian al ghul#damian wayne x reader#x reader#x female reader#batfam x reader#batfamily x reader#batfam#batfamily
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Beware of the Physical Exam! - it’s y/n’s first official event as a host! though soon after the members realize it is also almost time for their physical exams that threaten y/n’s security and haruhi’s identity. in an attempt to save the girls, tamaki comes up with a plan!
pairing - fem!reader x host club members
apart of - ouran add-in
The host club members were currently enjoying a refreshing evening outside. Some were dressed as butlers and the others were dressed in a more kimono-type outfit. All of them were prepared to entertain their guests in their unique way.
"So, in which cup would my princess like her tea? The Foley? Worcester? Or perhaps the Susie Cooper Gardenia?" Tamaki questioned, showcasing the assortment of tea cups on the table.
"Beautiful, they are English antiques, aren't they? Which one do you like, Tamaki?" A girl asked and soon enough he held onto her wrist lightly, leaning in.
"Which one?” he stared into her eyes, charm reaching the girl as her free hand fidgeted with the hem of her dress. “None of these compare to my princess," He concluded, leaving the girl a blushing mess.
"Oh wow, I don't know what to say," the young woman muttered.
Meanwhile, the twins were up to their musings, side by side, trying to enchant those guests who resided beside them.
"I think you would like Covent Garden," Hikaru expressed, "Most of our Victorian pieces are from there.”
Moments after, while holding the teapot Kaoru bumped it against his glass, the steaming liquid spilling down and burning his finger. His brother gracefully took the burnt finger, a red mark already shining on his pale skin, and placed a soft kiss upon the burn, which earned a couple of coos from the ladies who resided across.
"Honestly Kaoru, you have to be more careful," His brother softly scolded him. "From now on, keep your eyes on me, okay?"
"Yes, Hikaru."
"I can't take this, it's overwhelming," A girl with purple bows in her hair sighed, shielding her face and getting a quick nudge from her friend.
"You have to watch this, you may not get another chance! Who knows when it will happen again!" Her friend exclaimed, lightly shaking the shoulder of her friend in an attempt to get her eyes open.
"You're right, mademoiselle," Kyoya agreed, making a swift entrance. "All beauty is fleeting, just take a look at these cherry blossoms. You'll never be able to see them this vibrant again. That's why I've compiled this picture book of them."
Y/n looked up from across her partner at the mention of a book. Though, to her disappointment, it was just Kyoya trying to make a profit, not interest avid readers. So, Y/n moved her attention back to talking with her guests.
"How was the math exam? I'm sure you did splendidly. You always do," She hummed, going to pick up the teacup. Since the woman was very strong about keeping the bottom half of her face covered she quickly lifted the bottom of her mask to allow her to take a small sip. After years of practice with little moments of moving the mask, she was still able to keep much covered.
"I-I think I did okay," A girl stuttered, trying to cover her blush with her hands.
"I did good. Really good. Are you proud of me Y/n?"
"Of course, I knew you would do amazing," She told the boy, nodding. She knew this factually because he was a high-placing student within the school. Though Kyoya was a bit conniving his notebook played useful. It held much information about the guests, which allowed Y/n to become a splendid actress. She placed her soft hand across the table more, just a few inches away from the boy, before moving it back and picking up the tea.
"Do you need some more sugar for that?" The girl questioned, eyes scanning around the table.
"I'm perfectly fine," Y/n thanked her, pushing some of her hair back. The girl fell back more into her chair causing a worried Kyoya to disperse from the other girls with some more money in his pocket.
Meanwhile, Haruhi closely watched Honey do too much to the tea. His hand was moving at a speedy pace to try and mix the tea more thoroughly.
"You overdid it," Mori told the blonde boy beside him eliciting shock from the woman that surrounded him. Honey just stared sadly at the cup, embarrassment spreading on his face. The girls who resided around the table picked up on his changing mood, stuttering over one another to comment reassurance.
"Honey, I'll take it! It looks so yummy," The girl next to him reassured him. Mori grabbed some treats nearby and moved them closer to Honey. The girls continued to compliment him, while his mood quickly morphed to a happier one.
After they were all done with the guests Haruhi went to go and enjoy the scenery that was all around them. There was something relaxing about nature at times like this, she enjoyed the way the petals fell, it was comforting and helped calm some recent nerves.
"Haruhi, are you doing okay?" Y/n questioned, walking over with her floral mask on. "For myself, I will conclude that it was an interesting first day. I suspected that when I joined the club I would just have tea, not guests all for myself," She laughed lightly.
"Oh, well I have learned with them it is never what you expect. You are good at communicating politely with people, you have a certain aura about you,” Haruhi blushed in the slightest, taking her eyes off of Y/n and back towards the trees, “So I think you did great.”
"Thank you. You did great as well. I have been meaning to mention that the kimono compliments your features," Y/n told her, that same blush darkening that now Y/n could recognize. "The guests are all so kind, but I'm just not… Well, it doesn’t matter," Y/n sighed, moving away from the girl to find a small treat for herself. Haruhi watched her leave, trying to think of what she could say to her. Haruhi recognized that she didn’t know much about her friend, the deeper things, and had hope that through this club Y/n would open up more.
"Y/n!" Tamaki called after her, jogging a bit to catch up alongside her. "What did you think about today, do you feel alright?"
"Do I feel alright?" She repeated, taken aback by the question. "I suppose, why do you ask?" She questioned, skeptical of his reasoning.
"Today was your first day with the club! Though, it is natural for me to impress the ladies I know it’s not the same for everyone. I am also having a good day if you were wondering,” he smiled like an excited child, gesturing to himself as he sparkled in the sunlight. The sun was a rather fitting part of his look, Y/n realized that was what Tamaki was beginning to remind her of, the sun. He was excited which was contagious, it made the more reserved woman less anxious to take a step out into the limelight. “I'm looking rather excellent, don't you agree?" His confidence was a little comical to the girl, though a part of her also admired it.
"Tamaki-senpai," Y/n started, looking up and down at the young male, particularly taking a main focus onto his eyes. To Tamaki, it felt like this moment was going on for minutes and he found himself a little worried to hear her response but the oddest part was that he found himself craving a certain response from her. Tamaki was not one to just fall for every maiden, he took an interest in the ones who were not the easiest to crack, so of course his attention was spiked at this new player. "You don't look bad," She finished, shrugging her shoulders a bit. "Can I read now?"
"Y/nnnnn," He whined, looking at the girl sadly. "I will make you fall for me, it should be simple since I look the way I do, but just you wait!" He exclaimed, running off. Though Y/n didn’t take his claim as a serious promise, just another little comment thanks to his childish personality.
"Hey Y/n, what electives are you going to have next term?" Hikaru asked, walking over with his brother. They soon had the girl in between them both, not believing in personal space.
"What about conversational French?" Kaoru suggested.
"Well, I was thinking of seeing what Haruhi was doing," Y/n said, gesturing with her eyes for the mentioned girl to come over.
"We should take it together," Hikaru spoke. Kaoru took a paper from his bag and began to read the top of the list.
"Oh well,” Y/n interrupted Kaoru, “ I'm fine with doing it with Haruhi but I don't know about everyone else," Y/n trailed off eyes returning to Haruhi for some help. On the opposite side of the garden, Tamaki was staring intently at the first years, closely watching their interactions.
"Oh come on," Kaoru started. He turned back, his brother doing the same, and they spoke at the same time saying "We are in the same class.”
"Say, Mommy dear," Tamaki spoke, now positioned where he was looking at a tree with his knees to his chest.
"What is it now, daddy?" Kyoya responded, writing on his checklist.
"What do you think of Y/n?" He looked back over at Y/n conversing with the other members of the group, getting up from his position and walking over to Kyoya.
"She's.... interesting," He told him, looking over for himself. He could tell she was slightly smiling underneath the mask, and a part of him wished he could see it.
"I want to see her smile, her real look," Tamaki admitted, almost reading Kyoya's thoughts.
"That would be nice, but I'm afraid we won't be able to do that. I don't want to be sued by her family, that wouldn't be pleasant," He chuckled lightly, getting back to his list.
"Y/n!" Tamaki yelled ignoring Kyoya’s warnings and rushed over to the group. "Let me see!"
"Excuse me?" She stepped backward, looking at her senpai weirdly as if he were a stranger. "See what exactly?"
"Underneath the mask," He added as if it were obvious.
"We want to see," The twins spoke up, walking over. Now the three crowded her, two on her side and one right in front. It looked as if a scene out of a princess movie where the three villains tried to attack the innocent princess.
"Um, guys," Haruhi mumbled, feeling very worried for her female friend.
"No, you can't see, don't be ridiculous."
"Let daddy see," Tamaki told her, reaching a hand out to grab the mask but instead of getting a snatch of the fabric as Y/n stepped back she tripped on a rock, causing her to fall backward. Luckily, she was caught by a male with black hair, catching her in his arms. Y/n carefully looked back up at him confused.
"Don't pressure her," Mori spoke deeply, not moving his eyes from hers. She looked up at him, studying his face.
"Thank you Mori-senpai," She moved away from his grip calculating eyes watching the quiet man. As if they truly were in a princess movie Mori would be the prince which wasn’t a wanted casting among the three villains.
"Not fair, I wanted to hold her," Tamaki muttered, moving back over to the tree where he was once spying on Y/n. His sulking caused bunches of mushrooms to burst up as an overwhelming energy radiated from his body.
"There are bigger problems than you holding me," Y/n mentioned, walking over to Haruhi. Who she lightly patted on the shoulder "It's almost time for the physical exams.”
"That's right, I forgot all about it," Kyoya commented, the Host Club now all forming around the ‘secret’ girl.
"Then that means, there's no doubt, they're gonna know I'm a girl," Haruhi realized, sticking a finger in the air. Most of the host club were worried for their fellow member. "You know they might even make Y/n take her mask down too and do it in front of everyone," The club turned their heads, all of them, to stare at the said girl.
“Possibly,” Y/n shrugged, no body language expressing any nerves at the factor. Instead Y/n just guided her friend off of the grass and back into the school to finally search for a new book. That was the biggest concern for her at the moment.
The rest of the club went their separate way back to the Music room. It was not until Tamaki took a seat that he truly thought about the chances of what could happen during the physical exams, Despite a part of him feeling guilty he just couldn't help but think about what it would be like if she did take off her mask and secretly hope it would happen.
In Tamaki's Head
"Senpai, I'm scared. I didn't want people to see me like this, why can't I be hidden? They keep staring," Y/n told Tamaki.
"My dear, you have nothing to fear," He snaked one hand around her waist, using his other to brush some hair from her face. "They are staring because you're gorgeous! Don't worry princess I'll protect you, I’ll be your prince," He reassured her, leaning down to kiss the beautiful li-
"He must be having a great daydream," Honey spoke up, looking at Tamaki who was lost in his imagination.
"He's kind of creeping me out," Hikaru admitted, looking disgustingly at the older boy.
"Envious, Hikaru? This is all part of my strategy! While you've wasted time blinded by your jealousy, I've foreseen the outcome of this charade. This story is a romantic school comedy! Y/n and I are the main characters, so that means we are love interests!" He exclaimed, back facing the group and fingers to his chin.
"Yeah, then what are we?" The twins asked, staring at their 'boss' with an annoyed look.
"You boys," He spun around, pointing a finger at them. "Are the homosexual supporting cast!"
"What about Haruhi and Y/n, you don't get it," The twins put their heads in their palms.
"If word gets out that Haru-chan is a girl, then she will get in trouble with the rest of the school! If N/n-chan has to take her mask off around people, then she will move schools," Honey mentioned.
"Haruhi and Y/n would be much more popular with the men as well," Hikaru added.
"Sorry, for coming a bit late, Y/n couldn't find the book she wanted," Haruhi lightly chuckled, opening the club door.
"Don't you worry Haruhi and Y/n! We're determined to keep your secret. No one will see your face and no one will find out you're a girl during tomorrow's physical exams. You can stay our secret princesses!" Tamaki exclaimed, grabbing Haruhi's shoulders and shaking her.
"I'm not scared," Y/n murmured.
"You aren't?" Honey looked over to her.
"My family is well known, I can easily get a private room. Not all of the exam has to be seen by other people," Y/n shrugged. "We shouldn't worry too much about Haruhi though I’m sure"
"Good! You're going to be alright, Y/n. Now listen up squad members, at tomorrow's physical exams position yourselves in position A and then wait for your orders," A whiteboard was soon wheeled into view with drawings on it explaining the plan to conceal Haruhi's gender.
"Am I a part of this?" Y/n asked, walking over and looking at the whiteboard. It seemed all too extravagant, or more wishful thinking, that it would provide the wanted results.
"You just go in your private room and look pretty there," Tamaki told her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"Alright," She nodded her head. Tamaki dispersed back towards the whiteboard, commanding the fellow men as Y/n moved over by Kyoya in the background who was up to his routine notetaking. "Kyoya if you can get me a private room can't you ge-"
"Don't ruin this, just watch," He muttered, not looking up from his notetaking.
While Y/n was talking with Kyoya -trying to get him to spill more of his secret plan- Haruhi was talking with the boys who were upset at her lack of motivation to conceal her identity.
"I mean you guys aren't bad, but if it gets out I'm a girl there's nothing I can do, you know?" She spoke carelessly.
"She doesn't seem to care one way or another," The twins observed.
"Well before we do anything else, we have to find a way to motivate her," Kaoru added, the twins trying to think of something. Y/n overheard them and made her way into the conversation. She was already a part of the club and didn't want to have her only friend leave. She was also in too deep as word got to her father and he wouldn't let her quit just because her friend did.
"Haruhi, haven't you mentioned you wanted to try fancy tuna?" Y/n asked, walking up to the girl.
"Oh that's right, you didn't get to eat any the other time," Tamaki added, now feeling a bit more motivated.
"Did you hear that, she's never gotten to eat fancy tuna before. Isn't that awful?" Hikaru, not so quietly whispered.
"Wow! Talk about a difficult childhood," Kaoru responded, both twins staring right at Haruhi.
Honey looked at his bunny, "If only Haru-chan could stay in the host club, she'd have the chance to eat all kinds of yummy things whenever she wants."
"Don't be silly! Just because I'm poor and never had it, doesn't mean I'm so much of a glutton that I'd go on fooling everyone about my gender just to try some fancy tuna," Haruhi laughed nervously.
"We wouldn't get as much time together, Haruhi and I'd have to be in the club all alone," Y/n faked a sigh, looking at the ceiling. "We wouldn't get the opportunity to spend time with each other outside of class and never indulge in fancy tuna together,"
"Will I get to eat it with you?" Haruhi asked, the whole group lightening up.
"We will begin conducting physical examinations shortly. All students please proceed to the clinic in your respective school building," The voice on the intercom announced.
"So what's the deal with this, formation A thing, you guys were talking about?" Haruhi questioned, walking alongside the twins and Y/n. No one said a word and so in an attempt to get someone talking she asked another question, "What do they do during physical exams here at Ouran anyway?"
"It's no different than a physical exam you'd get at any other school," Hikaru told her.
"Yeah, why would a physical exam be any different for us just because we're rich?" Kaoru asked. Y/n just silently watched the conversation go down, thanks to her father she was more knowledgeable about the outside world and understood the differences in their world and the people of different social classes.
It was a quick trip, soon enough they were outside the doors getting ready for the exams to commence.
"You're right I didn't think of it that way," Haruhi lightly chuckled. She opened the door. The whole scenery seemed so much more extravagant, a wide variety of doctors and nurses lined up, probably some at the top of their profession, with shining equipment and complimenting features.
"I'm going to guess this isn't like commoners physical exams," Y/n added, watching Haruhi's mouth drop.
"Excuse me Hitachiin brothers, please follow me this way to have your height measured," A nurse bowed, having her hand out.
"Miss Takahashi," A nurse came and quickly curtsied. "I'll be your nurse, follow me. Mr. Ootori had us set up a special area for you," She led the girl over to another stall away from others to allow the privacy of taking down her mask.
"Mr. Fujioka? I'm your nurse for the exams this afternoon, please come this way," The nurse grabbed Haruhi's wrist, dragging her away from the entrance.
Y/n was motioned over to a secluded area to take the exams and speak with the nurse and doctor. It was a tent of a room, and the exams did not take long, just a couple of quick checkups and she was almost finished.
"Please, just take it down quickly, we already did the other requirements for today, we just have to check your nostrils and hearing."
"I suppose," She mumbled, quickly pulling it down. The doctor did his thing, sticking the equipment where it was needed checking her lungs and nose with the shining light.
"All good!" The doctor smiled, putting a thumbs up. "If I may ask, looking at your chart there are not any underlying healthcare problems. Do you wear it as a precaution?" The doctor realized, looking down at the chart about Y/n's health.
"It's for personal reasons, doctor. It is a precaution that my father wishes I take for the sake of my mother." Y/n nodded, sliding it back up and making her way away from the area. She walked back over to where many of the other students were receiving their exams in an attempt to find the rest of the group. If she was going to follow Kyoya’s instruction she wanted to at least be able to watch it play out.
"Why are Honey and Mori dressed as doctors?" A girl asked, multiple others surrounding them.
"Honey-senpai, is this a part of Tamaki-senpai's plan?" Y/n bent down, fixing his fake glasses, which were tilted to the side. Kyoya was too busy speaking with Haruhi, so Y/n focused her attention on the 'doctors'.
"Yes, but don't tell anyone," He nodded, bringing a finger to his lip in a whisper before trying to put on a more mature look to pose as a doctor which resulted in a few of the girls cooing.
"Undercover," Mori muttered.
"Y/n-sama! Have you had your physical exam?" A girl asked and soon enough there were more surrounding her.
"Uhh," She looked around, the girl’s eyes peering closer and staring right at the dark mask set in the middle of her face.
"Ladies, Y/n must come with me, I apologize," Kyoya curtly walked over and took her wrist to lead her away.
"Thank you Kyoya-senpai," She looked up at him.
"Of course, you do owe me now though."
"Ah," She groaned, taking her hand away. While watching the busy halls filled with students and professionals Y/n let out an, "Ow," after getting bumped into by a bit stranger of a doctor.
"I'm sorry," The doctor apologized, barely sparing her a glance. In response to his actions, Kyoya looked down at Y/n, studying her features. It was clear she felt a bit of pain, clutching onto her shoulder while staring off into the distance. Kyoya was confused by the emotions that washed over him, it was too unrecognized that he didn’t even truly think through grabbing her hand once again. He wrapped his hand around hers, covering it but fingers were not intertwined.
"Are you okay?" His facial expressions did not change but there was a softer tone to his voice.
"I'm fine," She slowly took her hand away from his. "Let's just find the twins," Y/n walked away from the boy, leaving him to look at the space where the doctor once was, questioning who he was.
"Doesn't matter to me," Hikaru mentioned from not too far away.
"We're not shy, who needs a curtain?" Kaoru spoke.
"See Y/n, impressive turnout today. Physical Exam day is quite popular with the ladies," Kyoya brushed off his uniform, motioning over to where the twins were mere feet away attracting a large crowd with a keen glare.
"Oh my," She breathed out, shaking her head a little and peering over at Haruhi standing on the side who was mentally slapping herself.
"I won't allow it, it's just not fair. I won't let those doctors touch you Kaoru," Hikaru expressed.
"What are you talking about? You don't seem to have a problem with touching me when we play doctor at home. I can't get you to stop tickling me and toying with my body," Kaoru told him, the girls around them started raising their voices with the classic flushing of their cheeks.
While the twins carried most of the attention the fellow members of the club took the opportunity to use them as a distraction. "Come on Haru-chan, this way!" Honey exclaimed, he and Mori grabbed the girl and ran off away from the crowd before they could notice.
"I don't think Tamaki's plan is going to go the way he wants," Y/n added, looking at Kyoya who had an evil smirk on his face. The duo soon made their way over to where Haruhi’s exam was to be taking place, there they chatted to one another.
Soon enough the show began when the nurse came into view in front of the small curtain. "Mr Fujioka, are you ready to be measured now?" The nurse had asked with a clipboard in hand and the eyes of dozens of girls situated on the curtain.
"Yes, I'm Haruhi Fujioka," A very apparent Tamaki came out, brown hair wig not fully placed on his hair and white shirt open.
"Oh no," Y/n mustered, eyes wide and bemused at what was transpiring, not believing that this was what he was planning all along. The group watched the girls easily tell it was him, yelling out comments of disappointment. "Enough playing Kyoya-senpai, help Haruhi out," Y/n pushed him forward lightly with a hand on his upper back.
"YOU JERKS!" Tamaki ripped the wig off, grabbing Hikaru. "You said there was no way they'd be able to tell!"
"It's payback for calling us the homosexual supporting cast," Hikaru laughed.
"Haruhi, let's go," Y/n told her, grabbing her hand. Kyoya stood still, watching the little bickering take place between Tamaki and the twins and deciding to enjoy the amusement instead of following Y/n’s earlier wishes. "Kyoya-senpai set up another room."
"Turns out the doctors here today are all on staff at one of Kyoya-senpai's family's hospitals," Hikaru added.
"Would have been nice if he said something to us earlier," Kaoru finished, both shrugging their shoulders.
"I had to get my revenge too. I'm sorry I just don't think I'm supporting class, homosexual or otherwise," He smiled. Haruhi rolled her eyes at the man's antics.
"Y/n, will you come with me?" Haruhi shyly asked to which Y/n just nodded and smiled at the boys, following her friend as they walked to the private room.
While the girls went off together, it allowed Y/n to give Haruhi some reassurance and let the girl rant to her about Tamaki's idiotic plan. The boys stayed back behind and couldn’t help but overhear a fellow student talking about a strange doctor who tried to make a pass at her.
"I had a feeling this might happen," Kyoya spoke.
"What do you mean?" Honey asked.
"A bit earlier today, a strange man in a white lab coat bumped into Y/n, he wasn't one of the doctors but I refrained from telling her that."
"Shouldn't you have said something sooner?" The twins wondered.
"It's no big deal, I'm sure the security guards will catch him," Kyoya stated. A security guard then came up to the girl and questioned where he went. In response, she told him that the doctor ran off to the special boy's clinic.
"Y/n and Haruhi!" The boys realized.
"I'll be out here," Y/n told Haruhi as her friend entered the curtained area.
"Thanks, Y/n," Haruhi mentioned, walking into the curtained room. Once gaining a breath, and not having so many nerves she started to undress but slowed when she heard the curtain move. "Y/n?"
"No, it's not what you think! Please keep quiet," The doctor spoke, grabbing her shoulder and covering her mouth. Haruhi went to mumble please from underneath his hand, her own hands gripping to try and take him off of hers.
Soon the curtains were thrown back and a loud "Let go!" resounded around the room. Y/n came barreling in, kicking the man right in his side. He let go of Haruhi, going to grab his hip, and with a swift kick to his back, he fell forward onto the ground. Rushing in behind were the boys eerily calm and standing around the doctor intimidatingly.
"One, good looks that attract the public eye," The twins stepped closer.
"Two, more wealth than you can imagine," Kyoya motioned to his book, pushing up his glasses and glaring down.
"Three, a chivalry that will never be able to overlook," Mori began.
"The hideous wickedness of this world," Honey finished.
"Four, smoothness of the tongue, ready to persuade anyone," Y/n added.
"That's what makes the Ouran Host Club," Tamaki beamed, finishing off the speech and placing himself right in front of the doctor. Y/n turned to focus her attention back on Haruhi, getting Tamaki’s jacket to put over her shoulders.
"We're here, watch out," The boys all said, looking at the doctor angrily.
"Please don't hurt me! Spare my life!" The doctor begged. He was a nervous wreck himself and began to tell his life story about losing his daughter and being a real doctor. After telling his story most of the club was left unimpressed, not ready to disregard all the things and rules he has broken through this whole venture. However, that didn’t stop Tamaki from letting the tears fall down his face and sympathizing with the older man's troubles.
"I don't think this is the right place," Y/n spoke up, taking her hands away from around Haruhi’s shoulders, and walking forward. "From your life story, this doesn't sound like a place your daughter would attend," She explained.
"I'm looking for Ouran Public High School," The doctor confessed.
"This is Ouran Academy, a private institution," Kyoya told him, the twins making comments about the doctor's sad relationship with his daughter.
"Kyoya, would you please find a map of all the public schools in this area? I'd like to help this man find his daughter," Tamaki asked. Kyoya found a map and they bid the doctor a goodbye, wishing him luck with his relationship with his daughter.
"I have to finish my exam," Haruhi told the group leaving afterward.
"You know," Y/n looked around at the group, where they all were looking at her intently.
"Don't tell me you're going to leave," Tamaki groaned.
"No, it's just, maybe this club isn't too bad," Y/n laughed, admiring the way a few of the boy's faces ow had a dash of pink on them.
"You're so cute Y/n!" Tamaki beamed, trampling her in a hug. "I know the true reason you’re doing it is because of your father, but you're just too cute with that comment."
"Hey! Get off!"
"Red Card!" The twins called out. "Tamaki's being a pervert."
"Can you just get off?"
next chapter - Attack of the Lady Manager!
#ouranhighhostclub#ouran koukou host club#ohshc x reader#ouran x reader#ohshc fanfic#ohshc tamaki#ohshc haruhi#ouran hshc#ouran highschool host club#ouran high school host club#ouran host club#haruhi x reader#honey x reader#hikaru x reader#haruhi fujioka#mori x reader#kyoya ootori#kaoru x reader#kyoya x reader#tamaki x reader#tamaki suoh#ouran tamaki#ouran haruhi#ouran kyoya
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A Doe in Fall (Part 9)
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/37626b34504f039e5aacbe54d8259535/ba3b758541a1733b-a8/s540x810/e859fb6ba816242d956790daacdb2a8044ed96f9.jpg)
⟢HumanAlastor x FemaleBurlesquerReader - A Doe in Fall
A burlesquer with a penchant for conning men, you find your latest game interrupted when your next mark saves you from an aggressive fan— by killing him. The chance encounter left you curious, still half convinced you could complete your normal chase. Unbeknownst to you, you were the one being tracked.
Part 1 - Pretty in Red smut💦 Part 2 - Liar smut💦 Part 3 - A Tragedy smut💦 Part 4 - Enough Part 5 - Too Much Part 6 - Learning smut💦 Part 7 - Recognition smut💦 Part 8 - Trust sexual 🥵 Part 9 - Shiny Things ��� Part 10 - Good Deeds Part 11 - Caught Part 12 - Eddie Part 13 - The Release Part 14 - Someone like her smutty💦
Part 9 - Shiny Things
Ephi moves in, and Ruth reads you like an open book.
「Warnings/Promises: HumanAlastor x Fem! BurlesqueReader, Reference to domestic abuse of non-reader character, fucks, crows, swans, emotions be emotioning, so many birds, I don’t think reader is Aromantic I think she’s just stubborn, Cliff diving is just a joke do not follow people off cliffs, everyone is kicking reader’s ass in some way, my apologies to parts of Texas but not Texas as a whole」
Long time no see ! My head wasn’t in the right space for this story, and my head was also literally not doing well. But! Reading glasses helped since I’m writing on my phone like 7 inches from my face. the goal is Wednesday updates~ there’s about four parts already written so we’ve got a month of runway 👌🏼 Wednesday mornings are ‘God, That’s Good’ by @macabr3-barbi3 and nights are ADIF!
🎶 last time on A Doe In Fall 🎶 : you came home from your first week staying officially at Alastor’s to find your estranged sister waiting on your stoop.
this isn’t sexy but just like minors come on, MDNI? This blog is a sex shop
It’s not that you hated your sister, it’s that you resented her. You could love someone and not like them an ounce… but unfortunately when she left so did your familial love. Which meant all that held you together now was distrust and an obligation to a dead woman.
“So things didn’t pan out up north?” You waved her into your apartment, agitation apparent in even the gesture of your arm.
“It’s peachy! Just need to lay low a bit.” She said it with a chipper voice while looking around your apartment like she paid for it. “Wow you weren’t lying about the no money, huh? Talk about a shoebox.”
Charming.
“Well, Ephi, you’re welcome to leave.” While you didn’t understand the name it wasn’t your business to question what someone asked to be called. Especially considering your own dual identity. You may have disliked the woman but human decency still hung to the bones of the relationship you called your sisterhood.
An obnoxious chuckle, “Nah it’ll do! Just the one single bed?”
“Why would I have more than one bed?”
A deep sigh from her, “Still last to be picked by the fellas, sis?” Her hand passed over your dresses hanging in the open closet, “The ugly duckling was always your favorite story.”
The fine hairs rose on the back of your neck, a cat’s hackles moving as the anger bristled through your body. You opened your mouth to shout all the ways you were not the ugly one in the room, hand already in the air to direct her attention to the dried, hanging flowers covering the far wall. How many people threw flowers at her feet? How many proposals were shouted to her? Wedding rings slipped off fingers and into pockets for her?
The air in your lungs went flat as a small fire of embarrassment rose in your gut.
How could she so quickly reduce you to a little girl again? Taking the bait for a fight you couldn’t win, because she wasn’t listening to anything but her own voice. Biting the inside of your cheek, your hand fell back to your side.
“You can take it. I’ll just be by for clothes now and then. Been staying with a friend closer to work.” Flipping through your mind you tried to catalog your valuables. What did you absolutely need to not turn up missing?
Ephi sat on the bed and crossed her legs in her best imitation of a lady. “Staying with Mister Fancy Pants?” A smile that reminded you of your childhood. A smile that said, “I won’t tell mom!” Right before turning and running to your mother’s ear.
“No.”
A giggle two octaves above her usual tone, “Sure, okay! No skin off my back.”
You took your time to gather the items you had forgotten first, then the items you didn’t want her to have. Unsure how exactly to tell Alastor why a week into sharing his home officially you were already redecorating, you left that for your future self to figure out. The first item was obvious.
An angel statue your mother kept on her nightstand. You wrapped it in some newspaper, trying not to look in her direction.
Your sister chased dick like most people chased liberty. Something she shared with your mother. Which was her right, but it rubbed you the wrong way how she would always forget everyone else in her life when she had a man to call her own. A fair weather friend, at that.
“How’s Howard?” The dick that took her away so many years ago.
She abandoned the lady act and rummaged through your cabinets, “Who’s that?”
Right.
A gold coin on a necklace. You slipped it inside a sock.
“So, then, who is the man of the hour?”
Ephi began opening the dresser drawers, poking here and there. “Whaddya mean! I am an independent woman.”
You weren’t sure that had ever been true. While your mother had drilled it into your skull to never place yourself in the need of a man, she always seemed to throw her heart (and house keys and purse strings…) at the feet of any man willing to love her.
“Love” her.
There was no love in any of that. A common problem of confusing love with any and all intense emotions affected your mother and many others.
Slashed furniture is not adoration. Breaking windows is not a love language. Bruises are not affection.
Your hands ran down the bag’s shapeless sides. Without thinking, you smiled. Adoration. Love languages. Affection. You had them and the knowledge of their secrets all to yourself.
Secrets you didn’t need slipping out. Secrets your sister couldn’t hold to save her life, or yours for that matter. You hurried around the room grabbing knick-knacks and photos and jewelry. Alastor would be at work soon, you wondered if you should call to warn him. This time not about a hot headed flatfoot but a nosey sibling.
You’d tell him later. No reason to talk to Brenda again. Quickly your leather bag got full and heavy. What was supposed to be a casual foray into sharing a home already turning into a full on move.
Everything you needed and a few things no one ever would, because damn would Ephi pawn them the very second she needed something, were safely zipped away. Any plans to relax at home before work were abandoned and you just marched to the door.
A random memory flashed behind your eyes, washing Alastor’s hair in the tub until the water ran clear. Why now? The only memory shared in your apartment. And it was an awful one. But, it had Alastor. That gave it value.
“Hey, if any men come by looking for me you just don’t answer, okay?” You forced your face to relax, to show the sincerity you worked so hard to keep to yourself, “Please, Ephi.”
Her smile widened past unnaturally white teeth, no money for a room but clearly cash for peroxide tooth gel, “Ooh, why? Little sister make some enemies?”
Why couldn’t she just fucking agree?
“My job sometimes attracts crazies. I don’t tell them where I live but occasionally they figure it out. They’ve gotten violent before so…just don’t answer the buzzer. They’ll say they’re damn near anyone to get you to let them up.” You stopped the nervous twisting of your bag’s handle, “Boyfriend, boss, detective. They've tried it all.”
“Aww, sis. Look at you.” She leaned her full figure against the open door frame, arm raised up like a pin up. Ephi was always effortlessly enchanting when her mouth was closed. “Stalkers? Mama would be so proud. Finally learning how to catch a man’s attention.”
The tears that stung your eyes were inspired partly by anger and partly by pain. They came so suddenly you could only laugh in response.
“Lovely to see your new name hasn’t changed you, Ephi. I’ll be back occasionally. Don’t steal anything, no strangers over. Spare key is in the bowl by the door.”
“Oh hey!”
You turned back.
“I do need some cash. Until I find work.”
The numbness blanketed you with a chill.
“I’ve got like, three bucks. Is that fine?”
Why did you ask that? You knew she could very well say it wasn’t fine and you’d be obligated to offer to get more. Atleast, that’s what you’d have done when you were younger. How easily you both slipped into old roles. Or perhaps she never grew out of hers.
She mulled it over, “Yeah that’ll be fine.” Her hand came out and waited for the bills.
An open palm waiting for your money.
You pulled the folded bills from your wallet and set them in her hand without touching her skin.
“Thanks sis!” She turned and closed the door before you could reply.
✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦ . ⁺ . ✦
The other dancers shot you a look when your bag jingled and clanked as it hit the floor, you wincing as you remembered the ceramic figurine.
“You…. going somewhere, hun? The detective got you on something?”
A quick shake of your head. You hadn’t considered the optics. Luckily it was early enough the room wasn’t very busy. A few select missing women would have pried for more information. Your hands fidgeted, unsure what to do. On the way in you saw some newer talent getting their feet on stage, maybe watch them? Too early for make up.
A loving voice from Ruth, always a savior, “Cigarette?”
You melted at the offer. Alastor wasn’t a fan of the smell so you were slyly cutting back.
She popped a sun bleached folding chair open and set it in between you both as a footrest. So many broken and ruined chairs littered the sides of the dingy roof, you were shocked she found a good one on her first try.
“Alright, tell me what happened with that detective. Do I need to go rough up a city employee?” Ruth leaned back and settled into her chair with a creak and a whine of the wood.
You needed a second, eyes flitting around as she handed her cigarette for you to take a drag. What could you say? What did she already know? You’d not spoken about it since she helped shoo him away but the appearance of half your belongings haphazardly stuffed into a bag clearly had her alarms going off.
“So remember the guy who came by for me? Tall handsome one.”
She nodded enthusiastically, “Yes! Of course. Don’t forget a name like his. Or face.” She whistled like a crude man trying to get a woman’s attention in the most annoying way.
“The detective thinks he did something to Tommy. That he was jealous. Which is ridiculous-,” you felt a nervous energy slip down your arms.
An abrupt laugh, “That string bean couldn’t open a heavy window. He didn’t do shit to Tommy. What a stupid thing to say.”
Did she notice how much you’d been holding your breath? A deep sigh as you let it go. “Exactly! He doesn’t even know about what happened that night with that guy and Tommy’s arrangement; it’s too mortifying. Anyway, the detective has been hounding me about it. I don’t wanna cause trouble.” You ashed the cigarette and held it out for her, “Stuff is still new with him and me, so I didn’t tell the detective his details or work anything. Why would I? So he can harass him too?” The words all tumbled out so quickly. A faucet turned too far to the left.
“Fair.” A few passes back and forth in what you hoped was a comfortable silence and not an indication she was piecing together things you needed to remain unlinked. Finally, “Didn’t realize you two were still seeing each other. Longest one you’ve kept for awhile now.”
Looking up, you marveled at the view of the open sky. Not a cloud in sight. A smile crept across your face, the heat of the sun warming you from the inside out. The slightest chill to the air warning you of Fall. “Yeah.”
She asked what made him so special and you didn’t know where to start. “The obvious,” you began. “He’s so-,”
“Clever.” “Handsome.”
You’d spoken at the same time, her attempt at soothsaying failing miserably.
“Clever, Ruth. He’s very clever. Handsome men are a dime a dozen. But he’s sharp as a tack.” She rolled her eyes and waved her hand around for you to go on. You let your mind toss out the shiniest examples. “He’s so skilled. He knows how to hunt and take apart animals. He can fish. Cooks like a dream. He knows how to clean clothes well and how to use a washing board.”
“Useful.” She mused. That isn’t what you meant. You weren’t trying to list off his features like a new appliance. It was just— impressive. He was well rounded.
“And he’s terribly kind. He’s always,” how to say it delicately, “going out of his way to help others solve their problems.” That seemed accurate and vague enough. You chuckled to yourself, remembering him at the kitchen table, “His face lights up so bright when he’s talking about his hobbies. Like, I can see his soul glittering behind his eyes and suddenly I’m just as interested in whatever he’s talking about as he is.” You let your eyes close around the mental image of his surprised face every time you complimented him. But they shot open when she began giggling, “What?”
“You’re in looooove,” her foot kicked yours, “I know that look. Head over heels already. Talking about him like he made the fucking stars.”
Wide eyed and stunned, was it written on your face so plainly? “Oh don’t say that. It makes me so uncomfortable. We’re just enjoying each other's company.” When she moved to give you the cigarette again you didn’t take it. “All I was saying was—,” fuck, what were you saying? That he was special? “He’s a very nice person to spend my limited time with. It’s a finite resource and all.”
With a shrug she took another puff, “What’s to be uncomfortable about? Falling in love is a wonderful thing, hun.”
Was it? Honestly, had she ever considered how much damage came with loving someone? It was putting your heart outside your body. Letting someone else carry it around and just praying they didn’t hurt you, or get hurt, or go off and die and take your heart with them. Why would anyone willingly do such a silly thing?
“Cheesy. And kind of creepy. Falling? How do I get back up if things go south?”
You’d successfully avoided emotional attachment to nearly every lover you’d taken. The way women seemed to get struck down dumb by any old John or Jane just wasn’t appealing. Love was for fools. The weak. The dependent.
Or, so you had whispered to yourself as you pretended to not be home when suitors came knocking, as you avoided ringing phones, as you apologized and slid out of restaurant seats after awkward dinners.
“If you fall hard enough, you don’t get back up.” She said it like it was a good thing. “You’ll love them forever, even if you hate em.”
That was the problem, too. How could she not hear that as she said it? All loss of control of your own heart and emotions was simply bad. People do irrational things for love.
You shivered, “That sounds absolutely horrid, Ruth.”
“Aah,” she dismissed you with a raspberry blown between her lips, “For the right man, you’ll find yourself enjoying the trip down!”
“Nah, I’m not fan of heights. No dick is worth that.”
“Is that all men are to you? Sex?” She guffawed, taken aback by your comment. Which was odd, given it was Ruth.
But, Yes.
Well. No . But — he wasn't a man. He was something different. The exception to the rule. Alastor was different.
Or, fine.
Yes, he was a man.
No, you didn’t see them as just sex. It was easier to say people were just pleasure and not stop to think about life any other way. Things got complicated when you added another person. Life became sloppy and uncontainable. If you stopped and considered the lives behind the people you used to lead on and let go before things got too difficult, you’d just wound yourself. It was easier to stop at sex.
When you could. Which you could, before. When sex was a token you traded back and forth with someone. But Alastor didn’t accept that currency. You couldn’t hand him your body and get brief but lovely companionship back. Your value had to lie elsewhere, the things you set before him and the wonders he had to offer were much richer in their worth than what you’d ever had before.
Sometimes it felt like you slid him a penny and he handed you a quarter. You found yourself scrounging up the petty coins of your worth and trying to save them up for him. Practicing your makeup, learning how he liked his coffee, remembering all of the things he said he hated and loved. Attempting to stop smoking. Every act was another shiny offering for him.
A crow scrounging the park grounds for glittering trash. Not very swan-like, you thought.
“You really don’t think you’re falling for him?” Ruth put out the cigarette in the coffee can beside her. As you turned to argue with her you saw her face full of amusement and incredulousness. It was rhetorical.
The argument withered and you could only pout, everyone that day seeming to catch your tongue, “I don’t wanna think about it. I’ll get scared and run away. He’ll figure out how little I have to give eventually. If anything more is gonna happen, it’ll happen. I’ll just… let it. Why ruin it with… saying childish things.”
“You’re naive but that’s okay. Enjoy the honeymoon stage while you can.”
Your eyes rolled, “What if he doesn’t feel the same? Why embarrass myself.” When you sighed the weight of just how heavy and true that sentiment was resonated in your stomach. Telling him you were falling in love? Alastor was a killer. His passion was singular. What good was a dame to him? No, worse than worthless. A liability. A witness. A weak point in the walls he so carefully crafted. If he knew you were in love with him he’d just end things sooner than they would have naturally.
“Dontcha wanna know if he’s a waste of that precious time, then?”
You cackled, choking on your spit. Alastor? He was the most worthwhile thing you’d ever encountered. Time with him suddenly had …. Value. That fucking word again. But time with him, it was slow enough to be deep and rich, but so fleeting you already felt a mourning mood for how much closer you were to the end.
You could only shake your head, “Wait, Ruth, didn’t you get divorced?”
“Shhh that doesn’t count!” She rose and stretched her long arms up to the sun and then out to the horizon, “Plus that’s how I know what I’m talking about! After the honeymoon phase? You’ll be arguing about laundry and wishing you were strangers again. Fighting about children and lawncare.”
As your finger nervously came to your mouth, teeth cutting into the nail, you considered how if Alastor complained about laundry and you could argue back with the comfort of knowing neither would simply leave, that’d be….nice. The safety of being honest without the fear of the other person giving up on you. Was that love?
And did that matter at all?
You’d thought earlier you knew the answers but now, when someone else said it, you got scared of those words.
Ruth must have put a spell on you. As you and a bevy of others danced in line on stage, arms over shoulders and legs kicking high enough to show cheek and jiggle the soft skin of your thighs and stomach, you felt butterflies in your gut. Alastor would be picking you up in a matter of hours.
A few men sent you drinks, which you repaid with a wink and a kiss blown across the bar before downing the liquor. It was the usual routine. You hadn’t felt nerves to see Alastor quite like that since sheepishly picking out “comfortable” shoes.
Alastor’s eyes widened when he took the bag from you, not noticing your attempts to avoid making eye contact. He let out a chuckle, his best attempt at stifling the joking question, “Already moving in?”
He realized quickly enough that wasn’t a good joke. Not when he finally looked up and saw your stare was distant.
“Everything okay, dear?” He walked to open your door for you, and you nodded a thank you and an affirmative.
Should you rip off the band aid? Should you just say it and see what happens?
When you turned to look at him and blurt out a confession, you were stopped by the profile of his face. What a gentle face. A lovely jaw. Even his bones were better than other people’s. What were you doing in this man’s car? What little pieces of glittering trash were you about to toss at him on a random Friday night?
No, in the books you read, confessions were always grande affairs. Fireworks and dinner parties and passionate kisses in rain storms.
You’d have to put a little effort into this. His brows rose as he clocked your staring. Eyes on the road, smirk pulled to the right, his hand came to rest on your thigh.
He deserved something much better than whatever you had to offer. Something unlike yourself entirely.
The drive home, and yes you let yourself linger on the word instead of shoo it away, you watched a deer jump across the dirt road just past the bridge.
“The bucks chase the does. It’s part of their mating ritual. I guess it’s not unlike the ‘playing hard to get’ some women like. The longer the chase, the prouder the buck to snag his prize.”
You laughed, “Women don’t like it, I don’t think. Well, some do I am sure but… If we don’t do that then people think we’re easy. We need plausible deniability. If people learn we put out we can claim we didn’t really want to and save some face.”
Alastor grimaced, “Gross.”
Unseen, you nodded and turned to watch the buck leap after its doe.
“Kind of funny, you chased me down, didn’t you?” Alastor’s comment pulled you back to him.
“Oh yes. That makes you my doe.” Your arm came to rest against the car door, the trees slowly rolling by in the darkness. “Reminds me of the small freckles across your shoulders.”
“My mighty buck!” He fawned, in jest, pretending to collapse into your lap. You shoved him back up and behind the wheel proper. “Well given the chance, I’d chase you for miles.” His hand flexed on your leg.
“To Texas?” You asked. Your usual end point.
“Further.”
“How far?”
“There is no limit. I’d … run right off a cliff, head first, if you were waiting at the bottom.” He took his hand back, needing both to hold the wheel. What he said hit him harder than he had intended. Was it too much? A tad too dramatic? A nervous clearing of his throat, followed by an awkward laugh to put more space between him and the confession.
The idea of you making Alastor chase you was ridiculous. You enjoyed the games you played with others, but you were never meant to be caught. If you wanted that, you’d just…give yourself. As you had done with him. Only him. The first and last person you ever wanted to give yourself over to in any sense. “And if I just… lied down and let you catch me? Would that make me a poorly earned prize?”
“Nope! That’d make me a lucky duck. And make you quite smart, if I do say so myself.” A wink. “Why run from such a catch like me?”
You landed a smack on his arm, light and playful.
A truly comfortable silence settled in, just the sound of the car trembling over the rough road. The newest model Ford was still as loud as the last, but luckily you were far from others.
The words had lingered like smoke, and you felt the need to address them.
“Don’t actually do that though. If I run off a cliff or something stupid, don’t you dare follow me.”
Alastor just laughed, wasn’t that what you were doing for him already? Diving into hell for some inexplicable reason after Alastor. He wasn’t expressing some lack of self preservation, he was merely letting you know he’d reciprocate the fall. You hadn’t made him run after you, but instead seemed to just….rest your neck between his canines. And trust.
If you were to go to heaven, he wasn’t sure what he’d do. It was too late to redeem his soul now. How far was heaven from hell, anyways? If the devil survived the plummet perhaps he could scale the walls of his enclosure and breach the gates.
Though, as he thought about the idea of heaven, he considered how happy his mother would be to meet you. To take you from her would be as cruel as heaven taking you from him.
Maybe he could make a plea. To just be able to see you from below.
But if the knowledge you were happy and safe was all he had, he’d be a richer man in hell than he’d ever been on earth. It’d be enough.
He’d just need to broadcast his radio waves a little further for your listening pleasure.
⋅˚₊‧ ଳ⋆Masterlist.ೃ࿔*:・
˖ ݁𖥔.Summoning the Horny Little Deer Cult.𖥔 ݁ ˖
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Love Bite ⭑˚🩸⭑ 𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑒
yandere!vampires x f!reader
yandere, reverse harem, original characters, vampire!ocs x fem!reader
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/dcd98291942869d7144a51c9a5302e34/d89127599b5e1702-4c/s540x810/9487ccdfe6b01ce31e285db5daffd4cfdd21a448.jpg)
Desperate for money to pay off your debts, you sign up for a program that allows you to sell your blood to vampires. At first, everything is fine, and you’re finally able to make ends meet. But they soon begin craving more than just your blood.
story masterlist | next
Certain people are dealt a shittier hand in life than others, and unfortunately, you are one of those people.
Life has never been easy for you. As far back as you can remember, it's been one shitstorm after the other. Your parents are as good as dead to you, because all they ever did was make reckless choices and run away, leaving you to clean up their mess. That's how, at the young age of twenty, you've already got more debt than the average person could ever fathom.
Still, you make do. You hustle as best you can to get through one day and move on to the next. It's exhausting, and sometimes it feels like you're ready to give up, but against all odds, you persevere.
"That'll be 50 credits," the cashier says.
You let out a sigh and give her your card. Everything is so goddamn expensive these days. Even a simple grocery trip feels like a big slap in the face.
"Oh. Sorry," she blinks. "It's been declined. Do you have any other form of payment on hand?"
Shit. This one too?
You mumble an apology and dig through your wallet again. Thankfully, you happen to have enough cash to cover the cost. Just barely.
"Thank you for shopping with us," the cashier recites monotonously. She packs your groceries in a bag and hands it to you, then gestures for the next customer to step forward.
You leave the store the same as always, feeling worn-down and discouraged. You'll have to apply for a new card, but who knows when they'll send it to you. Goddammit. You're already scraping the bottom of the barrel as is. You hardly have enough emergency savings to last until then.
It's a shitty day, and unfortunately for you, it's about to get even worse.
"[Name]," a distinct, familiar voice mutters. You flinch at the sound, nearly dropping your grocery bag in the process. There's a man standing outside your apartment complex. A man that always makes your stomach crease in discomfort.
You instinctively step back. "I don't want any trouble, Johnny. Please, can I just get through?"
He ignores you and walks over, and while you stand there, stiff from fright, he peeks into your grocery bag and hums, visibly amused.
"Not exactly a lavish dinner," he chuckles. "But I guess you've got no choice but to be frugal, huh?"
"I just want to go home," you plead. "Please. Don't do this."
Alas, Johnny has never been one to give a shit about your circumstances, and today is no exception.
"I haven't been getting the money you promised me," he glares. "You've been late on your payments, and I'm really starting to lose my patience here."
You try to protest, but he wraps his hand around your throat and forcibly pins you against a wall. He isn't applying too much pressure, not yet, but the threat is there all the same.
"You owe me money, [Name]." His pupils constrict, a telltale sign that he's furious. "I'm done with your shitty excuses. If you can't make good on your promises, then you pay the price. This is the way the world works."
He holds you there, just so he can watch you whimper and cower in fear, then he eventually releases his hold on you and steps away.
"I'm giving you one more week," he says. "If you don't come up with the amount we agreed on in one week, I might seriously have to kill you. And don't even think of running away like your parents did. I'm sure as hell not gonna make the same mistake twice."
Johnny walks off with a steady, relaxed gait and his hands buried in his pockets. It's that easy for him. He can threaten an innocent woman and not think anything of it, the sick bastard.
You sniffle and resist the urge to cry. Fuck your parents. All they ever did was ruin your life. You have no idea where they're hiding right now, but for their own sake, they had better not show their faces around you ever again.
Still. There's no point in lamenting what can't be changed. Your parents are gone. It's up to you to remedy this situation and pay that disgusting loan shark back.
The question is, how?
How in the world will you pull that off? You barely make enough to eat two meals a day and cover your rent, let alone the steep cost of your debts.
It just seems like a lost cause. You've been working yourself to the bone, but you still can't even make a dent in what your parents owe. It's all too much to bear. It makes you want to forfeit your life entirely. At least then, you might finally be able to rest in peace.
Weighed down by the hopelessness of your situation, you trudge into your crappy studio apartment, chuck the groceries in the fridge, and plop down on the couch, defeated.
I guess it's time to look for another job. Something I can squeeze into my schedule. I can probably survive without sleeping a few days in a row, right?
You chuckle brokenly and scroll through your phone, looking for anything you might have a shot at. Finding a good job in this city is yet another hopeless dream for someone like you, who didn't go to college and doesn't have any other notable qualifications. All of your current jobs may as well be paying you dirt, which is why you can never meet Johnny's ridiculous demands.
You're just about to give up and go make yourself a rather pathetic dinner, when suddenly, something catches your eye.
[𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗚𝗥𝗔𝗠 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛]: 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱. 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘃𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀-𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘀.
Vampires. Not long ago, a law was passed, granting vampires access to the city. More and more of them seem to be moving here, the central hub of the country. Of course, most people felt uncomfortable with this change, but it seems to be a necessary step in fighting back against years of discrimination. Humans naturally fear vampires, and the government is doing everything it can to integrate them into society.
Since drinking blood by force is considered a crime, this program is most likely a way for vampires to obtain their blood safely and without any consequence, just so long as people are willing to sign up for it.
You take a moment to assess your situation. You have almost no money to your name, and there's a greedy loan shark that's just itching to torture you if you fail to pay him back in time. If you don't get some money, and fast, you're probably headed for the afterlife.
That being said, you've never encountered a vampire before. You've heard all sorts of horror stories about them. That they're physically stronger than humans, have more acute senses, and could easily bludgeon you to death if they wanted to.
But even if that's actually true, how is it any different than what Johnny will do to you if you don't pay him back?
You press your lips together. Perhaps there's no harm in trying at least once and seeing how it'll go. It's not like you're guaranteed to get accepted for the program anyways. And besides, this is being implemented by the government, so surely, they won't allow any humans to come to harm in the process.
Above all else, you are incredibly desperate, with very little to lose.
So, you decide to take a gamble.
𝗔𝗣𝗣𝗟𝗬 [𝗫]?
...
Your luck might finally be changing for the better, or maybe they're just desperate for applicants, but either way, you got the job.
It was a bit tedious. The screening process was rather lengthy, and they made you do quite a few medical tests to ensure you didn't have any infectious diseases or anything like that. You suppose having a clean bill of health is the one thing required for this position, considering you'll be giving your blood to someone else. Thankfully, even though your life is shit, you've always been rather sturdy, which is the only reason you've lasted this long.
You're currently walking through a glossy white corridor. The building you're in is polished and sleek, some kind of medical company that's been researching vampires for quite a long time. They call themselves Plasma Inc., which is a bit tacky, but you're certainly in no position to judge.
The doctor escorting you holds a clipboard against his chest, and glances over at you every so often.
"We're almost there," he says. After a brief pause, he adds, "There's no need to be nervous."
Honestly, you're a little nervous, but only because you've never done this before. Giving your blood to a vampire... it all sounds so farfetched. You really didn't think this was something you'd ever be doing.
But beggars can't afford to be choosers.
"For the client's privacy and peace of mind, there aren't any cameras inside the room. We will not be able to see or hear anything that happens in there. You signed the confidentiality clause, so please keep in mind that you will be liable for any private information that you happen to disclose."
You knew as much going into this. There's no point in psyching yourself out. Everything's going to be fine. This is all perfectly safe.
...it should be, at least.
"Whenever you're ready," the doctor says. He's stopped in front of a door, and you instinctively gulp as you imagine what—or rather, who—is on the other side.
Okay, then. No reason to back out now. You chose this. It's a desperate measure, and sure, you'll lose a bit of blood in the process, but if it helps you pay off your debt and get back on your feet, then it's easily worth it.
"I'm ready," you say.
The doctor nods briefly, offers you an encouraging smile, then opens the door.
It closes behind you right away, and your eyes instinctively search the room until they land on a motionless, seated figure.
It's a man. Well, a vampire, but still a man. Deep down, you'd been hoping that it might be a woman. A man seems somewhat more intimidating, although you suppose all vampires are stronger than humans, so it wouldn't have made a difference either way.
He's beautiful, though. Vampires are scarce in numbers, and they don't usually go out during the day, so it's unlikely that you would have ever passed by one. But you've only ever heard people speak of them in frightening terms. Never in a million years did you imagine they'd be so utterly gorgeous. Or perhaps this particular vampire is simply an exception.
You don't quite realize how much time you've spent fawning over his appearance until he suddenly stands up.
Instinctively, you flinch, and it's clear that it doesn't go unnoticed.
He narrows his eyes. "If you're not comfortable doing this, you're welcome to leave. I was told that the humans who signed up for this program were all completely willing. I have no intention of taking your blood without your full cooperation."
"Oh. S-Sorry," you stammer. "I'm not uncomfortable. I guess I'm just a little bit starstruck. It's my first time meeting a vampire."
"There's no need to gawk at me. I'm not some animal trapped inside a cage."
He has a rather harsh tongue, but again, you're in no position to judge. Perhaps your reaction offended him, unintentional as it may have been.
"Sorry," you say again, then you offer him a weak smile. "Um... I'm [Name]. I'm not really sure what the etiquette for this sort of thing is, but it's nice to meet you."
It takes him a while to respond. He studies you quietly with those mesmerizing eyes of his, and the silence is awkward, to say the least.
"I'm Xavier," he finally replies. He frowns a bit. "But I didn't come here to chat. If you're ready, I'll like to move on with this as soon as possible."
Right. He's here for the same reason you are. It's not an opportunity for the two of you to exchange pleasantries.
You're here to sell your blood, and he's here to drink it.
"Okay," you swallow. Now that it's come down to it, you can feel your heart beating faster by the second. But this is fine. This is nothing. Compared to all the shit you've already been through, this may as well be a walk in the park.
You walk over to him, taking slow, careful steps, then you sit down in one of the chairs. He does the same, staring at you without blinking the whole time. You watch as he shuffles a bit closer, and he uses his fingers to pull down the collar of your shirt slightly. You shiver at the sensation of his skin brushing against yours. God, his hands are cold.
Xavier stares right into your eyes. "This is your last chance to back out. If you tell me to stop now, I will, but otherwise, I'll take it that you've agreed to move on."
"I'm fine," you reassure. Despite the fact that your stomach is a bundle of nerves right now, you're determined to press on. You need this. There's simply no other option.
You'll do whatever it takes to live on, even if it means selling the very essence that grants you life in the first place.
"Okay," Xavier says, and he wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you closer. His jaw unhinges, and the last thing you see before you squeeze your eyes shut is the pearly-white color of his bright, glistening fangs.
He bites into your neck.
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Gilded Constellations | (wolfstar x reader)
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Series Masterlist | Previous episode
Pairing: Wolfstar x Reader Word Count: 10.2 K Warnings: MAJOR ANGST MOMENT Prompt: Alone, desperate, lonely. How did you end up like this? How will you recover? Is recovering even possible? This IS a Wolfstar x reader fic, but it's incredibly slow burn. They won't start all dating each other until we're very deep into the story, but I promise the long wait will be worth it. Proofread by Lovely @aremuslupinsimp
Chapter 56: Who Wants to Live Forever
There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams,
yet slips away from us
You sighed, it was a game. Your father had designed a game, and if you wanted to get to the other side you’d have to follow his instructions or solve his riddle. The weird thing was, how much it seemed to be targeted to you. As if he knew one day, you’d have to enter the chamber without him, or without the key. It was fishy, but you still wanted to know what was on the other side.
The riddle was way too elaborate for him to have created it since Christmas, so you ruled out the chance of it being a trap. You would have gone as far as to say that he hadn’t even thought about you visiting theVault he’d given you yet, as if he expected that to be way later on. It was true that you’d gotten an obscene amount of pocket money on Christmas, and he did suggest you could save it in your vault. But still, there was something odd about the entire thing.
You read the riddle again “In shadows deep and whispers soft, a secret lies, though hidden oft,” you muttered. “It must be somewhere in here.” You looked around, raptor-like, analytical, and cold. Solving a riddle was a brilliant way to take your mind off everything it was insistent on thinking, and you weren’t going to reject the opportunity. “Whispers soft,” you repeated. In one of the corners stood a long and tall harp. You could barely see it, it was as if it was sucking the light out of the room. You grabbed the star ring you’d seen earlier with a handkerchief and walked closer to it. Nothing seemed to move, but as you walked closer, you could hear it: the faintest sound of the harp, a soft and haunting melody.
You instantly knew what it was, “The Song of Seikilos”. You swallowed, there was no question about it anymore, this riddle had been designed for you. The Song of Seikilos wasn’t the most common song out there, but you knew about it, and Silas knew that you knew. The summer before the trip with the Blacks, your father had taken you and your mother to Denmark for some political business. You’d begged him to let you visit the muggle museum. He said he too was interested in visiting it and told you to wait.
A week later you were all in the museum. They had a special music-related event, and inside one of the showrooms you got to see the marble columns that held the poem. But there was also a man next to it, playing the same song on the violin while a lady dressed in Greek robes sang the song.
You placed the ring closer to the harp, and surely, there were Greek inscriptions on its side. You breathed and took a closer look. You couldn’t read or speak Greek –let alone ancient Greek– but you were familiar enough with the alphabet, and it wasn’t hard to find the “Σεικίλος”.
You were right, it really was The Song of Seikilos.
You tried to remember what the poem was about, the small caption next to the piece said something about it being a dedication for Seikilos’ wife. But this had happened years ago, how the fuck would your father expect you to remember? You went back to the inscriptions on the harp. You looked through the text again, paying attention to each of the letters. Was there anything you could read?
φαίνου? No idea what that might be. λυποῦ? You weren’t even sure how to pronounce that. χρόνος? hronos… Chronos… The titan of time!
“Of course!” You said excitedly. “The song of Seikilos was an epitaph! A poem for his dеad wife.”
It said something about Chronos demanding it’s due. About time demanding his due. Time… time… time… you pondered. “Through twists and turns of mind and fate. Seek the truth, but never late.”
But what could the truth be? Dеath? That was too simple, too obvious.
Silas would never go for something like that. You leaned closer to the harp, the ring held high illuminating as much as possible, the harp still sucked the light out of it. Either way, right in the corner of the room, under a couple of books you saw something that looked interesting. An old journal. But not just any journal, it was a dream journal.
“In echoes of dreams untold, the key awaits, in tales of old,” you whispered and leaned in to take it in between your hands. It was heavy and old. Blue leather cover and silver engravings. You pulled it out and held it to the light of the vault. You checked the clock again. 10 minutes. it had been ten minutes since you took your bag. If only you could slow time or make yourself faster. There were plenty of spells that allowed you to do that, none of which you could perform with her wand.
You took a deep breath before opening the dream journal. Empty. It made sense, after all it said dreams untold. But if they’re not told then… could they be shown?
You looked at the page and placed your hand on it, closed your eyes and waited. The tick-tack of the grandfather clock and the faintest whispers of the harp the only sounds in the room. You waited a little more… tick, tack, tick, tack… nothing… No dream, no visions, nothing.
You turned to the harp again, perhaps you missed something. Maybe on the echos old, instead of in the dreams untold, you thought. But there was nothing on the books either. You grabbed the journal, closed it and started inspecting the cover… there was something odd in some of the patterns. You slid your hand over the spine. and suddenly, something clicked. You frowned and opened the journal again, right there in the middle of the book there were a few hollow pages and inside one of them a small locket.
You grabbed the locket and left the book on the side, on the back, in cursive so small it was almost unreadable, it said:
While you live, shine have no grief at all life exists only for a short while and Time demands his due.
“It’s the poem’s translation,” you whispered. “But why would I need the poem’s translation?” You looked at the book with the poem again. “Through trials dire and trials fair, only the wise shall find it there.”
Echoes old, and dreams untold, you recited. Echos old, could be old books, you’d already seen a few old books, there were very many in that corner behind the harp. You pulled them out towards the centre of the room. The Tales of Beedle the Bard, The Arcanum Codex: Legends of the Ancient Wizards, The Chronicles of Avalon (that one was fae), The Divine Comedy, The Chronicles of Mistwood Manor, The Iliad, Paradise Lost and the Odyssey. So many ancient books: wizard, muggle and fae; but how would you know which one to take?
The poem… the poem was Greek. You took the three books. in your hands. The Iliad, The Divine Comedy and the Odyssey. But which one to take?
The Divine Comedy was about hell, but it was also about dеath, which could have a connection to the Seikilos’ poem. On the other hand, The Odyssey perfectly reflected the “trials dire and trials fair, only the wise shall find it there” line of the riddle.
You were hesitant as you picked the book up, you’d read it before. Your mother had given it to you a few years ago as proof of one of the best muggle-wizard collaborations. With the fact that Homer had been a wizard and because of Circe and Odysseus’ collaboration, proved that while wizards were powerful, and could be evil, they could also be benevolent and help humans. But that was before wizards had decided to seclude themselves from the world, and when they were actually trying to integrate themselves into it.
The book was the version you remembered your mother had given you; green cover, and written in verse. You flipped through some of the pages, and right in the middle of one of them, you found a recipe.
“Shut up,” you whispered as you looked at it. It was sleep draught. “Fine then, that’s it,” you said annoyed. You were stuck. Except, what if you weren’t? You took the locket from the table in which you’d place it, and stared. The key awaits, in tales of old.
What if the locket really is a key? But a key to what?
You spun around in your place, paying a closer look at all the things scattered in the room. The harp and the clock jumped at you at once.
You walked towards the clock: χρόνος. Chronos was such an important character in the poem, it made sense for it to be an equally important character in the riddle. In seconds you were right in front of it. It had been 15 minutes since you started. You placed your hand over the clock, there were many intricacies detailed all over. From a wonderfully sculpted story on the cover to details of the moon, stars, and planets on the face. It had not two, but eleven hands, 2 for hours and minutes, and then one for each planet. They were right around the clock, and moved ever so slightly each day, mirroring the real movements of each of them.
And then, right behind the small cristal, there were the winding ports. You took the locket in your hands and cranked it open. Right inside of it, there was a small winding key. You placed it on a spot, and there was a soft chime you took in a breath. Good, now you had to find the rest of the keys.
You grabbed the book and went over some other lines of the riddle: In silence vast and darkness deep, the answer lies, in dreams asleep. but wake ye now, and heed the call, for time is short, and darkness falls. You glanced at the clock, there was something there now that wasn’t there before. The moon phase section was changing every couple of minutes. It went from crescent to quarter in less than 5. “For time is short and darkness falls,” you whispered as you took a deep breath. “Fuck,” you said when you realised that you didn’t have much time.
It felt like you were spinning around and around and yet you didn’t get the result you’d hoped for. You turned to the rest of the books. You frowned and turned to the riddle again. There was something about the wise: only the wise shall find it there.
“The wise,” you repeated as you pondered. Greek, the Illiad, Wise. “Athena! But where?” You thought of looking in the book, but something told you that might not be the solution, you had already found enough things in books, there was no way the rest were in them too.
You looked around the room again, there were so many things it was like looking for Waldo, or worse yet since when you looked for Waldo you knew exactly what you had to find, a small man with glasses and a red striped shirt. Now thought? You had no idea what you were looking for. Still, you looked around and focused.
That’s when you spotted it, right at the top of one of the huge shelves that held piles and piles of things, there was a statue of an owl. You scoffed when you realised what kind of owl it was, a fucking Athene. You used one of the hundreds of piles of books to lift yourself enough to pull the owl from its place.
That had never been an issue before, a small spell would be more than enough to have it float gently towards you, but you had to improvise now. You almost tripped and fell, but you managed to hold your balance and took a deep breath once you were back on solid ground with the owl in your hand. You started to twist it around, looking at all his sides. But there was nothing, not a single thing.
That’s when an idea popped into your head, you took a deep breath and dropped the entire statue into the ground. It burst into hundreds of smaller pieces, and yet they all looked like they had been designed to crack a certain way. You looked at the floor, they had somehow arranged themselves, one line towards the clock, and the other one towards a small cabinet in the far end of the room. You walked there and started opening all the small drawers.
They had ingredients for potions, and jewellery and– bingo! A vial. Clear liquid, a simple, omnibus label: φάρμακο. You suspected what it might be, the horrifying thought sinking in like a doxy’s fangs. You sighed as you unclogged the cork and brought the potion up to your nose.
You took a deep breath. Nothing. You concentrated a little bit more, you used the same technique you had developed lately, and while you didn’t physically turn into Vixen, you called upon her sense of smell. There it was, cleverly cloaked, clearly done by an expert, it must have been worth a small fortune. But it was clear as day: Valerian Root and Sopophorous Bean.
Draught of Living Dеath.
Rather proper, since φάρμακο is old Greek for both poison and cure, you remembered Slughorn had mentioned that once.
If you thought it through, there was no way you were drinking to a different potion. While a simple sleeping draught would have done the trick, like the one in the small note still in your pocket, there was no way time allowed you to brew such a thing, not with the moon already being full, and with half of your time gone.
Now, you knew how dangerous draught of living dеath could be, and this is when the dire trials came back, you could either drink it, do the brave and reckless thing, or you could try and brew the other potion. With no wand, and barely enough time to find all the ingredients.
You took a deep breath, if you took only a drop, really a drop, nothing more than that, and if the potion wasn’t concentrated enough, then perhaps it would be enough for you to fall asleep and wake up before the moon was dark again.
It was now or never, you took a small hairpin from one of the corners and dipped it in the small bottle. Your breath was short, breathing had become harder as you moved the small, poison-filled pin towards your face. It’s what was expected of you, your father knew how reckless you were, if he had left that there it was for a reason. Not many would be brave –or stupid– enough to drink Draught of Living Dеath, except perhaps someone as stubborn as you or him.
You stuck your tongue out and gently brushed the hairpin right on top of it. You placed the bottle on the side and looked around. Nothing, perhaps I should take more, you thought, and then the walls started to change, coating themselves in a black gooey substance before disappearing entirely.
“So I’m dreaming,” you said, there was an echo of your voice, going all the way to the end of the seamingly endless room you were in before coming back to you, in a voice eerie similar to yours but also vastly different.
Deeper, richer, sinister, “So, you are dreaming.”
You swallowed, it was pointless to ask where this was, or anything regarding the nature of the place, you knew you had a limited amount of time and no matter how different time was in dreams, you couldn’t afford to lose any of it, not unless you wanted Chronos to demand his due.
“I’m looking for a key,” you said, your voice echoed again, louder this time, and then, out of nowhere, something, or rather someone appeared right in front of you.
“We know,” the thing said. It was a figure, almost a mirror to you but with no face, all dark and smooth like a mannequin. Only a sunken mouth, awfully reminiscent of a Dementor’s. It didn’t move as it spoke. “Why do you want it?”
“I need to get to the other Vault.”
“The mirror,” a whisper said.
“She wants the mirror,” another whisper returned.
“I just want the key,” you replied. “I need to see what’s on the other side. It may be dangerous.”
“It is dangerous, child,” the voice said.
“It’s a terrible idea to go,” a different one added.
“Perhaps… I still have to do it,” you retorted.
The creature in front of you smiled, a sharp, shark-like grin, “that’s what we wanted to hear,” it said.
“Two paths lay ahead of thee,” one of the voices started.
“One of us always tells the truth.”
“The other one always lies.”
“You may ask one question.”
“To either one of us but not both.”
“Ask away, little sprite.”
“Or stay in the darkness and relent.”
“It is your choice.”
You sighed. You knew this riddle, your dad had given it to you when you were 10, you couldn’t find an answer and you begged him to give it to you. He’d said one day you’d guess it yourself.
“But what if I don’t?” you’d asked, concerned.
“Then you’ll go through the wrong path and something bad would happen.”
“But you could tell me now. Then nothing bad would happen to me.”
“And you wouldn’t learn a thing,” he had answered indifferently.
You held back a resentful groan, as you bit your lip. This stupid game was getting beyond annoying. If this was his way to have you solve his stupid riddle, if he thought you ought to learn something from putting your life at risk, then he might be even worse than you thought. This wasn’t even tough love, this was a reckless gamble of your safety, whatever lesson you were supposed to learn from it was in no way worth it.
And yet, you’d go through with it either way, and he knew you’d go through with it, you were obdurate and determined, and you had to know what was on the other vault. The dream beings had confirmed how dangerous it was, you could not leave it on his hands. Not on the same hands that had cast crucio on your mother. The action that made you react harshly and cause that fire, the action that had caused her demise.
You turned around, you could hear a faint echo of the clock and the sound of the moon phase section changing again, you were running out of time.
“I–” you staggered. How could you trick them? One question, what could you ask?
You turned to one of the paths and pointed at it, “Would the other Omnius voice tell me that this is the way to the key?”
There was silence, and then the voice said, “No.”
If it was lying, then the truth would have said “yes”, and it would have changed it to “no”, which meant it was the right path. If it were telling the truth, then the lying voice would have said “no”, and it still would be the right path.
“Then this is my way,” you said and walked towards the path.
“Are you sure?” one of the voices said.
“You might be wrong,” the other one added.
“Or you might be right.”
“Logic in the dream world can be different than back on earth.”
“What if we switch?”
“What if we both lied?”
“Then the riddle would have always been unsolvable by logic,” you said with a shrug. You were confident in your answer.
“And magic?”
“Potions?”
“Veritaserum?” you asked. “That would be cheating.”
“Isn’t it worth it? To fulfil your task?”
“Would you drink it voluntarily?”
“Of course not!” the voice said, irritated.
“Then it wouldn’t,” you replied. “Unlike Silas, I do not think things can be achieved by any means necessary.”
The voice laughed, a loud, horrifying cackle that resonated and echoed through the entire room. “She really thinks she’s so much better for following her moral compass.”
“Where has that led you, child?”
“Alone.”
“Abandoned.”
“Motherless.”
“Loverless.”
“Straight towards despair.”
You looked at them, their heinous words echoing in your head, each one stronger than the last. All of them ringing truth to your ears. But you weren’t going to put your happiness above the one of those you loved. You were not going to let them suffer at your expense. Not when you tried to help Nina and not when you broke up with Sirius.
“Well then, I’ll walk there gladly, as long as I can still protect the ones I love,” you replied, tears prickled in your eyes as you ventured into the path.
It was dark and it seemed to grow smaller the deeper you were. But you pushed on, after a long walk, you entered a chamber. You looked around, it was empty, except for a deep plunging drop, and a floating slab of concrete in the middle. And right there in the centre of the island, there was a small jewellery box, with the same engravings as the Grandfather clock in the real world. You knew how dangerous of a jump it was, but you had to take it.
You took a few steps back to build momentum and you ran. You crashed chest-first into the side, it knocked your breath out and you barely managed to hold onto one of the raised tiles in the floor. Tears prickled in your eyes as you struggled up. How did it always look so much easier in movies and comics? This was almost impossibly tough to achieve. And you had relatively decent arm strength. There was a wand lying on the side, just within reach.
You hadn’t seen it before but you took it and pointed downwards. “Confringo!” you shouted, the impulse the spell gave you was enough to flip you upside down and have you crash, back first, onto the concrete, your head slamming with an unsettling loud thud. You groaned as you looked up at the nothingness above.
And then you heard it again, like a faraway whisper: Tick, tack, tick, tack… The ever-so-constant reminder that you had no time to rest. You exhaled wearily and groaned your way into a sitting position. You took the small jewellery box in your hands and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t budge You were about to smash it into a wall out of exasperation, a riddle within a riddle within a fucking riddle, it was getting out of hand.
But there was a small glistening thing in the side of the box with some kind of engraving: ᾄδειν Σεικίλος.
Of course, you thought and recalled the poem you had memorised just in case, “While you live, shine,” there was a click inside the box. “Have no grief at all,” another click and then a twist, “life exists only for a short while,” a louder sound came from the box, like a small bell, “and Time demands his due.”
The box opened in a second, surely, there was a key, mirroring the one that had been inside the locket there. You grabbed it, expecting to wake up, but nothing happened. You looked around, there were other trinkets scattered all around, but none of them had anything that could help you wake up on the outside.
There were unlabeled potion bottles, there were other wands like the one you’d used earlier, there were some bones in the corner and there were even a few books– the same ones that had been next to the harp. But there had to be a way to wake up, there had to be a way to get out.
And there was an infallible one, one that you had heard of before and that your father had made sure to drill into your head in the past.
“Darling, our little girl is having nightmares.”
“She is?” he asked as he leaned down to look at you, you must have been four or five.
“There’s dragons, and trolls and big scary dogs that want to eat me.”
“And where are you in the dream?”
“Running through the forest, and then I reach a cliff, I can’t run anymore, they,” you sniffed. Those small child eyes, normally filled with wonder, were filled with tears, “they eat me. It hurts.”
“A cliff you said?”
“Yes!”
“Then jump.”
“Ju-jump?” you staggered. “But it’s dangerous and there are pointy rocks at the bottom, I would diе.”
“Is the best way to wake up from a dream.”
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“Wouldn’t being stabbed by rocks be less painful than being eaten alive?”
“Silas!” your mother chided.
Your father threw her a look and then one at you, a small smile playing on his lips, “Then… You learn how to fly!” he said as he took you in his hands and twirled with you in the sky. Your laughs filled the room, your mom was clapping and he looked at you with the purest of smiles when suddenly, out of nowhere, he let go of you and you plunged into the floor. Of course, you fell into a mattress he had apparated there, but the fall hadn’t been any less jarring.
On the floor, you looked at him with a terrorized expression.
“Silas!” Avis said angrily.
“It’s so she learns it’s not that terrible to fall,” Silas responded as he pointed at you, a dismissive sort of look. “Children like it.”
“She’s horrified!”
“She is not! Look at her!”
Both of them turned to you expectantly. You were small, but you knew if you said the wrong thing, the two of them would fight, and you could never tolerate their fights. With your heart hammering in your chest, you smiled faintly and then started to laugh. The tears that left your eyes, were considered laughter-induced rather than the terrified ones they actually were. “Again,” you managed to say, to sell the idea further.
That’s when you decided you had to become an expert at flying, you couldn’t allow Silas to throw you again.
And yet, here you were, back in a dream and you would not only allow Silas to push you down a cliff, but you were about to plunge into the dark abyss, willingly. “He always gets what he wants, doesn’t he?”
You leaned over the edge, looking down, there was no breeze, nothing that could indicate how far of a fall it might be, if there was an end to it at all. You had learned how to fly so you wouldn’t fear the fall. You hadn’t been afraid when you fell from your broom and you wouldn’t start being fearful now.
You extended one of your legs, your feet dangled over nothingness, you took a deep breath and then you plunged. If you screamed, the hollowness of the place made the sound disappear. The rush of the fall was there, the same plunging sensation you felt sometimes on a broom, it was beautiful and harrowing at the same time.
And then, you woke up. Your breath was short, there was a thin coat of cold sweat over your limbs and the place seemed way brighter than you remembered. The key, was in your hands, it was lighter here than in the dream, but it was there nonetheless.
You opened your palm, it was almost the same as the other one, except for a slightly darker colour. You stared at it as you tried to catch your breath, you wanted to laugh and you wanted to cry, but you glanced at the clock instead. Third quarter, you sprung up from where you lay and ran towards the clock, placing the key straight on its spot. The moon phase went from Third Quarter to Waning Gibbous. It wasn’t much, around 4 more minutes than before, but four minutes were enough to make the difference.
You took the book with the riddle and went through the last lines, the ones that you hadn’t used before Paths diverge, yet all converge to where the truth and secrets surge. Choose wisely, seeker, lest you fail, and in the end, your efforts pale.
“Choose wisely, seeker,” you thought. Could he mean?
You turned around, looking for something, and right there in the middle of one of the bigger shelves, there was a golden snitch. When you stepped closer to her she released her small wings and started to fly around the room.
You had no broom, but you had experience, if she thought you weren’t looking at her she would lean closer to taunt you, that was what they always did. You walked towards the pile of books you had left in the centre of the vault and grabbed one of them, flipping through the pages while keeping an attentive eye on the clock. The moon was back in Third quarter. You were running out of time. You were just looking at the pictures in the book, the Peverell bothers talking to Dеath, Dеath giving them the hallows, you’d heard the story many times before. You waited: one look at the pictures and a short glance at the clock, the tick-tack almost maddening as the small snitch kept buzzing around the room.
And then it happened, the small golden ball flew close to you, right in front of your face. You were as quick as humanly possible and took it with one of your hands. You could feel it melt at your touch, suddenly you no longer had a snitch but a small shiny key. Its colour lighter than the other two.
You turned to the clock: Waning Crescent. The tick, tick of the handles seemed to get thicker as you approached it, louder, so loud it was almost deafening, but you never stopped walking and lodged the key straight into the one remaining hole.
Three paths, three keys, they all converged into one single clock, into a master of time. The bottom door of the clock opened itself, and on the other side you could see nothing but darkness.
You had solved it, and yet the next step was as daunting as some of the trials you’d already accomplished. You took a deep breath and walked inside. Darkness, darkness, darkness, and then… light. Not blinding but enough to make you squint. A vault, twin to the one you had been on, and yet vastly different. All the things had been piled to the side, and in the centre back there was a large something covered by a thin fabric, it draped down the sides of it, allowing you to see a shape, it looked like some kind of door.
You walked outside of a clock, exactly the same as the one in the other room, and towards the large thing at the end. You didn’t hesitate to pull the thin white sheet from it, there was a small cloud of dust that wafted through the air due to the harsh movement and then, once the dust settled, the sheet fell on the floor with a gentle thud. Not a door, but… a mirror.
Except it wasn’t quite that either, you could see your reflection, but there was something odd about it, it was you, but, there was something about it that looked different.
You looked at the mirror, there seemed to be an inscription at the top “riapsed dnaht urt d niflla hsuo yt ini htiwt nemrot ren niruoy tubega sivruo y ton tcel feri ”
It was English text, which surprised you since you assumed it would also be Greek, everything seemed Greek that day. You read it aloud, it didn’t sound like Greek either –you thought it could have been the pronunciation rather than the spelling. You pulled back a little, trying to get the big picture. The mirror was tall, far taller than you, even Remus would have fit inside of it perfectly, and it would have surpassed him. It had a silver frame and it had pointy ends, it reminded you a lot of Hogwarts Architecture.
You wondered if you’d ever seen a mirror like that, and you didn’t quite remember such a thing. Yet, it was oddly familiar as if you had seen it before, perhaps in a dream. You reread the words again, and that’s when you realised what it said. It wasn’t Greek, it wasn’t even a different language, rather, and quite proper of a mirror, it was in English, but spelt backwards.
"I reflect not your visage but your inner torment, within it you shall find truth and despair,” you read aloud. There was a slow chime as if it had come from the clock behind you and not the mirror itself. The reflection in the mirror wobbled as if the screen had turned into a silvery pool instead of glass.
You walked closer again, you knew reading the inscription had activated whatever was inside of it, but the idea of seeing your inner torment was not something you were eager to do, it wasn’t something that you wanted to face. You’d been running from it incessantly since Christmas, and you did not want to stop now.
But you had to.
Whatever was inside the mirror was reason enough for your father to make that dreadful riddle, and if it had been that hard to accomplish, then there was definitely something worthy inside of it. You looked at the mercury-like screen ahead of you and took another step towards it. You placed your hand on it and saw how the entire thing wobbled alongside your small push. It seemed to almost stick to your finger before releasing it and going back to its place.
You remembered what one of the voices in the dream had said, the echo so present in your head, it was as if they were speaking to you again, “Straight towards despair.”
Right in front of you stood a mirror of despair, and you would walk right inside of it. Head high, and breath calm, even as your heart hammered inside your chest. You took a deep breath and took another step, and then another. The metal liquid surrounded you completely, and suddenly you were somewhere else.
You were falling, and then you crashed onto a mattress. Avis and Silas were there.
“Mum,” you said, tears prickling your eyes. “Mom, you’re here!”
“Look what you’ve done!” She said angrily at Silas, “She’s crying.”
“No! No, I’m–” She looked younger, far younger than you remembered, far younger than she’d been when your chimaera swallowed her.
“She can barely speak.”
“She must learn! She must become stronger! If she wants to survive she–”
“Silas!”
You knew what this was, you didn’t want to see it. You stood up in an instant, “It’s fine, I’ll go to my room,” you said before exiting the living room as far as you could. You locked yourself in one of the closets, and things were calm only for a second. The doors opened, your room was different, and you, or another version of you was there, writing something furiously on some parchment, bunching it up and throwing it on the side.
Regulus’ letter was on your bed, you walked towards it and picked it up, you now knew what it said, how much heartache would have been spared if only you had given Reggie a chance. “Read it,” you told her.
She turned to you, tears in her eyes and a scornful smile, “you have no business here,” she replied, snatched the letter from your hands and threw it towards the fire.
She watched it burn with a tear sliding down her cheek and then went back to writing the letter she was working on, you looked over her shoulder “Sirius, This is the last letter I write. I’m sorry for…” you knew exactly what she was writing, what you had written.
You sighed, and walked toward the door, next thing you knew, you were in the shack. Remus had a cloak, and he was panicking, looking at the bIood in his hands, breath sharp and desperately looking at James and Peter.
“Where is she?” He asked, you could hear the desperate crack in his voice.
“She’s okay, she’s with Sirius,” James said with ease. Peter was looking at the broken metal door with a confused face, and trying to place it back into place with a spell.
“Don’t lie to me,” he pressed, there were tears prickling in his eyes, he looked livid and terribly upset. “This is her bIood,” Remus said, his voice breaking near the end. “It smells like her!”
James licked his lips and took a deep breath. “Yes, you accidentally scratched, nothing else. You know,” he said. “You remember.”
“No, I–” Remus breathed, he was entirely forlorn. He frowned, “I lost track of them! She was there and then she wasn’t and then–” Remus shook his head and sat back on the bed “–There was a fox.”
James nodded, “She’s the fox.”
“Moony was trying to bite her!”
“That didn’t happen,” James reassured. “There were no bites.”
“So, she’s okay?”
“She needs to get patched up,” James said, “but she’ll be fine, she’s tough.”
You wanted to walk towards Remus and give him a hug, to tell him that you were all right, that you would be all right. That it wouldn’t even be the hardest thing you’d go through in the past few months, but the scene dissolved into another one. Remus, James and Peter turned into dust, so did the room, and it slowly rearranged into a larger room.
You heard the door close behind you and then turned to the only person remaining in the room. Evan. He stared at the door dumbfounded, a mix of hatred and relief evident on his face. You weren’t sure why you were there, and you were about to follow yourself when you heard a sob. You turned around to look at Evan hesitantly, a small confused frown knitting your eyebrows together. He was crouching down on the floor, face hidden in his hands and a stream of tears leaving his eyes.
You stared at him confused. A part of you wanted to place an arm on his shoulder and tell him things would be all right –not that you could actually interact with him– the other part, the one still sad and angry about what happened in November was almost thrilled he was crying. But the first one won over the second and you approached him cautiously.
He was muttering incoherent things as he spoke, something about Arkalis, about you saving him, about hate and compassion and Merlin knows what else. You swallowed, when you implied to his father that he was straight, when you manipulated Arkalis into thinking you had kissed his son to get him off Evan’s back you were just doing what you considered was right, you never expected for that to mean so much to Evan. Let alone break him down into tears.
It made sense now, that he and Barty had helped, what you’d done there was a lot more than you initially thought, your simple, almost dutiful act of kindness had meant a lot more to them than it had meant to you. You had earned the help they’d given you, simply by being kind.
You stood up, it was not your place to be here, in fact, you assumed Barty would be here soon anyway, for some reason you seemed to be surrounded by tragic love stories. You looked at the clock in the corner, and then you heard a scream.
You were paralysed by it, your breathing caught in your throat, a small sob leaving your lips. You knew what that was, you knew who that scream belonged to.
“No,” you whispered, shaking your head. “No, no, no,” you repeated, breath sharp and chest heaving. “Not this again, I don’t want to go through this again.”
Suddenly Evan wasn’t on the floor anymore, he –or a distorted shadow of him– was right in front of you. Tall and imposing and as terrifying as he seemed that night in the forest. “Go,” he said, although it wasn’t quite his voice.
“I don’t want to,” you replied, voice small, filled with anguish.
The world around dissolved and you were back in the hall. Nina was being held by two wizards while her mom was being tortured on the floor.
“I don’t want to see this!” you insisted. The door from the terrace where you were with Reggie was still closed. You were both still there, this was before you arrived. Nina was crying, and screaming and her mom’s jarring shrieks were even louder. You closed your eyes, but the sounds became even more vivid, louder and overwhelming, you felt like your ears would bleed if you didn’t open your eyes again.
Bellatrix shouted, there was a blinding green light and then Nina’s mother fell on the floor with a hollow thud, eyes shiny and completely defocused.
Nina let out a shrilling cry, something so loud and harrowing that you knew instantly what it was. The one you had heard from the terrace. Bella started saying several things, and you saw yourself leaving Reggie on the chair and speeding to the area, determined to do something, determined to save her. If only you knew that determination would lead you nowhere.
The second you spoke, and Nina turned to you, the entire scene dissolved. Now it was your father looking at your mother after she’d been stepped on by the Chimaera, you gulped, his screams had been swallowed by the commotion that day, but today you were closer to them. In your father’s gaze, there was anger and desperation and he looked both irked and terrified as he held your mother’s charred body.
“I’m so sorry,” you mumbled, tears welling up in your eyes as you saw your father filled with despair. “I’m so sorry, I just wanted to do what was right, all I wanted was to–”
The scene dissolved again, now it was Nina taking your face in her hands and telling you that you had to keep moving. You looked completely appalled, desperate, borderline hysterical; but Nina looked at you with a loving gaze, a calm, lake-like balminess emanated from her celadon eyes as she spoke, loud and clear. It hadn’t felt like that in the moment, but Nina had spoken to you for several sentences before you caught what she was saying before she told you to look at her, to really look at her and then told you how it wasn’t your fault.
The scene dissolved as you and Nina walked towards the window. The scorching heat of the Chimera dwindled and was replaced with an eerie coldness. Your heartbeat paced rapidly, you knew what was coming, and you didn’t want to face it again. You shut your eyes as the scene around you started to darken, “Please,” you begged. “I don’t want to live through this again, please.”
But if there was an architect to this ordeal, he either didn’t hear your pleas or chose to ignore them. You felt something cold graze your cheek, and when you touched it you realised it was snow. You sighed, you were surrounded by hedges, the moon high above you, bright but nonetheless harrowing. You knew that moon, you knew what she’d witnessed, what you were about to witness again.
Suddenly you and Nina passed by, running fast as Lucius appeared, throwing a spell and taunting you over the dеath of Cygnus Black. You fought, fierce and determined and strong. Lucius wasn’t all that great of a duelist, but you were weak, marred and using a stolen wand. Had he been any better you would have lost to him after the first couple of spells. Then he made the hole in the ground you threw a spell on him and started to repair it. Nina saw Lucius get out, she saw him pointing his wand at you, and then she saw something else. Something behind Lucius. Whatever she saw, you hadn’t seen it then and you still weren’t able to see it now.
She nodded and pushed you, the spell hit her and she fell on the floor. You –the other you– instantly crawled towards her with a raw scream, the bright shining light was there again and then from behind Lucius appeared Evan and Barty.
You were crying and pleading and telling her it would be all right even if the two of you knew that wasn’t true. You turned your gaze to the side, trying to avoid looking at it again, but then you turned back, tears streaming down your face as you stared. You wanted to see Nina alive again, you wanted to hear her voice, even if it was her last breath that you’d hear.
Seconds later you were crying and trying to use the wand to revive her, but nothing worked. You knew nothing would and yet you harboured an inch of hope that maybe in this dream, Nina wouldn’t diе, that she would wake up and run the hell away from that hedge with you.
Barty approached you and tried to pry you off Nina’s body for a few minutes before he actually managed to do it. Nina became butterflies and you saw one of them lean closer to you, to the real you, not the dream you crying on the floor; but the spectator of it all.
“Nina,” you whispered, the butterfly batted her wings and flew along the rest of them.
The scene dissolved and you saw Sirius, he was in what you quickly recognised as James’ bathroom. He was on the floor and panicking. He was saying something about it not being a dream and about you being in danger.
“It was real, and she’s alone, in the snow, pretty much passed out, we have to do something. Maybe I can apparate there or–”
“You’ll splinch.”
“Damn it, James!” Sirius snapped. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing!”
He looked absolutely desperate, terrified, you wanted to hug him and tell him things would be all right but then James spoke. “Remus!” he said. The scene dissolved again. Now it was Remus running through the shack, looking at the fence and then at the window you had used to save the butterfly. He ran through the snow, desperate, out of breath until he found you.
You had been too numb to see his reactions, but when he touched you, with that tenderness that he managed to always pull off, you saw how scared he was, as terrified as Sirius as he pressed his hand onto your face and realised how cold you were. He had stuttered several times until he managed to get proper words out, he carried you. And then, just as he apparated away, the scene dissolved.
This time it took longer for the next scene to appear, all of the mist around you changing colour and slowly solidifying into something else. It was you and Sirius, in the Potter’s kitchen. You sucked in a breath. The entire scene passed over, how you asked Sirius if he liked Remus, how you told him you would leave, and how he begged you not to do it.
Sirius’ tears were gut-wrenching, you wanted to run and hug him and hit the person who had made him cry like that. The problem was, it had been you, you had been the one to make his eyes well up in tears, the one to make his voice crumble, and the one to cause him all of that distress.
You held back the tears, “I get it!” you said loud and clear, your voice heavy with emotion you tried to conceal.
“I get it!” you repeated as you turned around. “I cause despair, I’m the source of it on everyone around me, people cry because of me, people diе because of me! Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Nothing, absolute silence. The scene in front of you, of Sirius plopping down on the floor with tears in his eyes, of Sirius crying and in distress, was there, and then it wasn’t. It dissolved, leaving you in an eerie nothingness. It was so vast you weren’t sure where it started and where it ended, there was silence, and it was cold. Not as cold as the snow but cold enough to send a chill down your spine.
It felt like you were not only alone but forsaken.
“You get it,” an echoing voice rang in your head.
“She thinks she does,” another said.
“She’s wrong and she’s right and she’s confused, and so, so alone,” a third voice said, mocking pity on every word.
You looked around, but there was no one, the voices seemed to slam directly onto your head.
“But you don’t have to be,” the first voice said.
You did not like where this was going. You had read plenty of ghost stories, any offer too good to be true was probably laden with some secret evil. This place, the entire trial felt exactly like a horror story. And yet you felt so lonely, that you listened.
“There’s rock,” the second voice said.
“It will help you bring me back, my love,” you froze, it was your mother’s voice. You turned around, tears welled up in your eyes as you saw her. It was not your mum, but the charred remnants of her that the Chimera had left, but it had her voice, and it had her eyes, your eyes.
Your breath hitched in your throat, your heart hammered in your chest as you looked at her. Trying to think of a way to help her. You were walking towards her when there was another voice from behind you.
“You can bring us back.”
You sobbed and turned around, you had recognized her voice, you had missed that voice, a tear rolled down your cheek as you looked at her. She was as you remembered, cheeks pink with the cold and blonde waves stained with crimson. She was looking at you like you were the last hope she had, the one thing that would stop her from despair.
“Nina,” you said, voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, you sniffed as you tried to breathe.
She smiled, the smile you knew so well to be hers. “With this,” she said softly and extended her hand towards you. “Spin the stone three times, and we’ll be back.”
She extended her hand, she was holding a ring in between her fingers. You looked at the ring, you were hesitant, but you took it. Her hands felt like Nina’s, but cold. You looked at the ring, a dubious frown accompanied your sniffing.
“Spin it three times and bring them back,” one of the voices said.
“Bring us back,” both Nina and your mother said at the same time.
“You will bring me back, won’t you?” Nina asked, her voice soft, hopeful.
A stone that can bring someone back from the dеad if you spin it three times. “It’s a Dеathly Hallow,” you said in a soft, surprised exhale.
“It is, dear,” your mother said. Her charred hand was upon your shoulder. You turned your head to look at her, out of the corner of your eye you could see how burned her entire body was, “you can use it to bring us back,” she added, with a smile that looked so much like her and so much unlike her with all the charred skin that you shivered.
“Mum?” you said, your head cocked to the side, your voice nothing but a whisper.
“Go ahead, pretty girl.”
“Save us,” Nina said.
You tried to hold back the tears, but it was useless, you took a breath that got stuck in your throat. You had read the Tales of Beedle the Bard, you had read other muggle fables, doing it was a bad idea, and bringing someone back from the dеad was about the worst thing you could do to both them, and to yourself. But with your mum being charred and with Nina’s hair turning crimson rather than blonde, both because of you, you wanted nothing more than to fix your mistake.
You desperately yearned to have them back, to hug them again, for their scent to fill your nostrils like it had so many times before, the light wood-like smell of your mother and the blue lily and lavender perfume Nina used to wear. The images in front of you, although faithful to the last time you’d seen them both were nothing other than a brittle and shallow reflection of them.
The imitation was almost perfect, the slight ups and downs from the way they spoke, the colour of their eyes, the way their faces moved, the way the light hit Nina’s freckles. They were so similar it was easy to be fooled by them, but beyond that and if you looked closer, they were nothing more than a mirror of who they really had been, a frail reflection of the women you’d once loved. A projection, beaming at you from the distance, light shining from a dеad star.
You had read that once in a book, and you hadn’t quite grasped the magnificence of it until you too, felt it.
“Darling?” your mother said, cocking her head. “Spin the rock! What are you waiting for?”
“Three times, and then we’re back,” Nina chimed.
“Are you not going to bring us back?” Your mother asked, it sounded angry.
“Why wouldn’t you?” Nina said, her eyes welling up with tears. “I thought we were friends.”
“No,” you said to yourself as you shook your head. “No, no, please don’t do this to me.”
“Darling,” your mum said, her voice was that of a reprimand, cold and stern, she sounded more like Silas than herself. “Spin it now, bring us back!” she urged.
You were taking steps back, away from the two of them but they stepped towards you as you did. Your mother was angry, even beneath the charred skin you could tell she was seething. Nina was sad, crumbling, cheeks red and stained with the track of her tears.
“Please,” you begged.
Nina fell to the floor, knees crashing onto nothingness with a loud thud, “I don’t understand… We were friends. I loved you. I was in love with you, why did you not love me back? If I were Sirius or Remus you would spin that stone in a heartbeat, wouldn’t you? Am I not enough?”
“Nina,” you said.
“I diеd for you!” she screamed. “I’m dеad because of you!”
You stopped cold when she said that. She was right, and she was dеad because of you. You took the stone ring in your hands, held it closer to your face and touched the stone, tentatively, only with the tip of your finger. And then, out of nowhere, a small blue butterfly landed on your finger. You looked at her, it was the same butterfly you had helped enter the shack.
“Have you also diеd because of me?” you asked bitterly. “Do you also want me to bring you back?”
You put your finger back in the stone, but the butterfly got in between, not letting you touch it. You frowned as realisation hit you. That was not Nina, Nina would never say those awful things to you, no matter how many times you had said them to yourself.
The butterfly on the other hand? The one trying to stop you? That was a lot more like the Nina that tried to snap you from your destructive thoughts back at Evan’s manor. Like the Nina that had hexed Bellatrix without hesitation to defend you, like the Nina that had pushed you out of harm’s way, like the real Nina.
Nina whispered your name, and you looked up at her. “Bring me back,” she said. “I want to live again.”
“No,” you said.
“What?” your mother asked, the steady but furious tone you had come to know so well.
“I said no,” you repeated louder this time. “I can’t help you.”
Nina’s face fell to the ground, a tear streaming down her face while your mother stalked towards you angrily. Nina looked up at you, anguish and despair so evident that it was almost heartbreaking. “Is it because I’m not good enough?”
“It’s because you’re not her,” you said simply. “She wouldn’t want me to do it.”
“But I do!” She said distressed. “I do! I want you to bring me back! I want to live again! I want to feel the sun on my face and hear the hollow sound of the wind and taste chocolate on my tongue and see you.”
“I can’t.”
“But you kiIIed me!” she said desperate, her face morphing into an expression that you weren’t sure Nina was capable of making. “You murdеred me, I diеd because of you! Why won’t you bring me back?”
“BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT NINA!” you shrieked, your voice breaking near the end. The figure pulled back. “You don’t know how much I wanted you to be her. How much I wanted to see her again, how much I craved to hear her voice again. But your voice, although similar, is not hers. And your eyes? They might be the exact same colour, but they don’t twinkle in the way hers did. You,” you looked at the charred figure.
“You both are nothing but an illusion of who they both were, of what they were…And you could never be anything but. Because…” you hesitated, you didn’t want to say it. “Because you’re both dеad.”
The figures dissolved in an instant.
You crumbled onto the floor and sobbed. The nothingness embraced you like an old friend and you allowed your tears to stream down your cheeks in a cascade of pent-up emotions. All the denial you had forced through them, all the times you had blinked them away.
You cried and cried and mumbled incoherently how sorry you were over a hundred times. Nina was dеad. Your mother was dеad. They were both gone, and they would never come back. You pulled the ring from your fist, you’d held it so tightly that the shape of the stone had etched itself onto your hand. You held it between your fingers and stared.
Not even this rock would bring them back, even if it was a real Dеathly Hallow, even if it had the power to bring people back from the dеad, you were sure the price you’d pay for it would be far more devastating than the crumbling ghost of the person you knew that it would bring back.
“Truth,” a voice said, echoing in your ears the same way it had done inside the dream.
“She saw past despair and looked at the truth,” the other continued.
“You may go now, child.” A third one said. The reflective-like screen appeared in front of you. You could see the colours of the vault on the outside. You blinked and then turned your eyes back to the ring. You extended it right in front of your chest, holding it in the palm of your hand, before turning your hand upside down and letting it fall to the floor.
“You won’t bring it with you, child?” the second voice asked.
“No,” you said simply. “Something like this shouldn’t exist.”
“Destroy it then.”
“I can’t,” you said, you had felt the power within it. It was dark and dеadly. “You know I can’t.”
“Then someone else might take it. Use it.”
You let out a breathy scoff and then sniffed, your nose was still filled with snot from the tears. “Not if it’s unfindable,” you said and stepped out of the mirror. When you turned back to look at it, Nina and your mother were tapping at the crystal desperately. As if they too wanted to get out as if you were the only one who could help them.
You reached inside your pocket and took Nina’s wand in your hands. You looked at it with a sort of sorrowful look, eyes glassy with tears and then pointed it at the mirror. You took a deep breath, “Reducto!”
A flash of light came from Nina’s wand and crashed onto the face of the mirror, turning it into shreds. The wand had worked better than any wand you had ever used in your life, as if she had been made for you.
Unbeknownst to you, your spell hadn’t trapped the ring in the mirror forever, but rather, transported it back to its original place, Gaunt House. And it would remain there for years, until someone else, someone much weaker to the whispers of the dеad, tried to use it.
There's no chance for us
It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us
Who wants to live forever
Who dares to love forever
Oh oo woh, when love must diе
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A/N: I questioned myself for making them suffer so much while revising this chapter. Some of Sirius' words are just heart wrenching to me, I swear <3
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cw: reader is a non-japanese university student.
There’s nothing more embarrassing to you than having to do mental math to afford a cold drink at the store, but this is what you’re reduced to, now that your funds have slowly dwindled and the convenience store closest to your cheap, dingy apartment seems to be shockingly expensive.
You’re not down on your luck enough to call your parents and beg for extra cash, but as you count coins in your hand, and push a wrapped onigiri and a bottle of Ramune across the table to the disinterested shop clerk, you consider it heavily.
Despite the fact that you’d felt the man's eyes on you the entire time you were perusing the aisles, he might as well be pretending he’s just noticed you, as you stand and wait for him to ring up your order. You and the clerk have an odd tension, something you wish you could understand, but as long as you can buy your snack and leave, letting your money stretch for as long as possible until your university scholarship kicks in, you can tolerate anything.
You watch the register again as he rings up your food, then there’s a sudden small jump in price, just about 150 yen.
“Extra fee,” the clerk says as he watches your eyes flicker just for a moment, but you don’t argue. Your Japanese is limited enough that you’re not sure you can make a great argument, and it’s not like you know what the law is here.
An extra small fee cannot be too much to pay for some peace.
“Oi, what’s that extra fee for? You’re making shit up now, are ya?”
You freeze from the rashness of the voice coming up behind you, but when you turn, there’s a man coming up behind you who looks about your age, hair tousled and eyes downturned and sleepy giving him a just rolled out of bed look despite it being past sunset. Hands in his pockets he approaches, his geta loud with every footstrike as he walks. He’s also holding a bottle of Ramune, same flavor as yours.
Setting his purchase beside yours, he leans over the counter to face the clerk, a smirk on his face.
“You overcharging foreigners? Lame.”
Something about his joking voice has a lilt of a threat, and the shop clerk looks quickly from him to you, quickly deciding it’s not worth the argument, also choosing peace the same way you did before.
“My apologies, probably an accident, young lady,” he says to you, almost cloyingly politely.
You know damn well that’s not true because he’s charged you the same ‘fee’ every time you’ve come here since the start of the month. But you keep your lips tightly closed as you smile.
“Thank you very much,” you say politely to to the clerk. You glance at the young man who’s already cracked open his drink before paying.
“If it’s just that, I can pay for it,” you offer in some semblance of duty. After all you’re not something or someone to be saved, just a decent human being.
The young man scoffs and shakes his head out of you, then slaps an assortment of bills and coins on the counter, exact change, and walks out of the shop without a word. The shopkeeper shakes his head as he gives you back your own change, and you take a moment to gather up your things, compelled to run after him.
He hasn’t gone far, squatted at the corner of the street, what appears to be a cigarette in his hand. You wonder for a moment if he swiped the pack, but when you see a half empty pack beside him you quickly feel bad for your assumption.
Your sense of stranger danger fails you, and you move closer to him, bag in your right hand.
“Thank you for your help.”
He takes a drag of his cigarette then puffs it for a moment, looking up at you through glasses, shaded in the sun, although a peek of green shines through.
“Don’t let people rip you off like that. You look like a dumbass.”
You still for a moment, smarted by his brashness, then smile.
“Right.”
He peers up at you with your smile and scoffs.
You decide not to bother him further, but before you leave, decide to give him your name.
“In case we ever see each other again,” you add. He gives you another sideways glance then pulls out his phone. You’re tense about the idea of giving him your phone number, but quickly realizing he’s not asking.
He’s sending a text to someone else, uninterested in your conversation.
You’re a bit slighted, then embarrassed that you’re slighted, and make your way home.
“Togame Jo," he calls behind you.
You pretend not to hear his name, but when you meet him again, just a few days later, it’s the first thing out of your mouth.
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Mammon Imagine: He Finds a Picture of Him in Your Wallet
anonymous said: “Totally a fluffy moment. picture Mc with mammon and they buy something but mams sees a picture of them together or just mammon in their wallet. Dude is totally gushing over it. brothers probably ask why just him and are throwing pictures at you. Asmo got a whole picture stash we already know.”
—————
You were having a day out with the brothers, visiting several shops and markets together. After a full day of wrangling the seven of them all around the Devildom, you were in desperate need of some sustenance. Beel had enthusiastically suggested you all eat dinner at Hell’s Kitchen, as they were having a BOGO on burger meals, and you would only really have to pay for four people rather than eight. Happy to save some money, everyone agreed, and now you were all sat at a table enjoying your meals.
“Ooh, MC! Let’s go over to that claw machine! I see a super cute unicorn plushy that I really want!” Asmo pleaded, tugging on your arm as the meal was coming to a close.
“Alright, I’m coming.” you smiled patiently, moving to get up out of your chair. You grabbed your wallet out of your pocket it and handed it to the person sitting next to you, which just so happened to be Mammon. “Go ahead and pay for me and Asmo’s if the waitress comes by with the check, okay?”
“Oi! You should offer to pay for mine too since you’re leavin’ me to pay for your food!” Mammon scoffed.
“I figured you’d just take some of my money to pay for yours anyway.” you teased him, ruffling his snow white locks.
He blushed reluctantly as you scampered off to the other end of the restaurant with Asmo.
“How much longer are you going to pretend you’re not in love with them?” Belphie asked him nonchalantly once you were out of earshot.
Mammon gasped defensively. “Wh…? Whadya’ talkin’ about? I’m not in love with them…” His eyes darted down to your wallet in his hands that he was currently fiddling with to avoid the gaze of his brothers. “Besides, they don’t feel that way about me.”
“That’s true, you’re far too scummy.” Levi clicked his tongue apathetically, going back to his phone.
“Hey! That ain’t what I meant!” Mammon screeched back at his younger brother, wacking him on the shoulders. “Of course they like The Great Mammon. But only as a friend.”
“How can you be so sure?” Lucifer inquired, setting his silverware down to focus on his brother.
“I just know, okay?!” the avatar of greed huffed, annoyed that his brothers only seemed to be interested in what he had to say when he was talking about you.
“Alright, here’s the check!” the waitress suddenly interrupted the conversation. “Did you guys want to pay now, or are we still finishing up?”
“We can pay now, thank you.” Lucifer replied, motioning for everyone to hand over their money.
Mammon flipped open your wallet to retrieve the grimm, setting it down face open while he handed the money across the table to Lucifer. However as soon as he sat back down, something caught his attention. Behind your school I.D was the outline of a polaroid photograph. He debated on whether or not to pull it out and look at it. Just as he was about to however, Levi snatched the wallet away.
“Hey, what’s that picture?” the otaku asked, fumbling through the card holders to slip it out.
“Oi, stop! That’s MC’s!” Mammon retaliated, swiping at his brothers’ hands. They began tugging on either side of the wallet like little children, until Lucifer intervened and slapped them both upside the head, snatching the wallet away once they were busy wincing in pain.
“Honestly you two, all this commotion over a silly little photograph…” Lucifer grumbled, glancing down at it. He began slipping the picture out of its slot. “I suppose we’ll have no peace until it’s revealed.” He slapped the polaroid down on the center of the table, causing everyone to widen their eyes at the sight of it.
“Is that…?” Beel asked, shocked enough to even pause his eating for a moment.
“It’s me!” Mammon exclaimed, picking it up to inspect it further. The rest of the brothers all leaned forward to crowd around him, as if they couldn’t believe their own eyes. It was a picture you had snapped of him passed out in your bed after a night of drinking and gambling at the casino. The only part of you that was visible was one smiling eye and your forehead, as he took up most of the shot. He was curled up on his side and clinging onto you like a koala, fast asleep in a white t-shirt. His hair was messy and his face was puffy, but there was an adorable innocence to it that no one could deny.
“Hey everyone, look what MC won me!” Asmo suddenly chirped, holding out his new pink sparkly unicorn. You were trailing slightly behind him, the two of you now stopped in front of the table. “Um, what’s that? And why are you all so stunned?”
“Ya keep a picture of me in your wallet?” Mammon finally spoke in a small voice, his eyes sparkling with adoration.
You glanced over at the photograph in the center of the table, realizing it was yours. “Oh, yeah! I just thought you looked so cute, I look at it all the time. It makes me really happy.”
With that, Mammon’s face flushed a deep shade of hot pink. However, a sly grin soon made its way onto his face as he adjusted his glasses. “Well of course it does. A snapshot of me is bound to make anyone’s day brighter.”
“Oh please…” Levi rolled his eyes, obviously envious of your affections for Mammon. “I’ve got a couple pictures of you I could give MC that are way less attractive.”
“Oh yeah, so do I. I keep a special album on my phone just for them.” Satan agreed, swiping open his phone to show you.
“Aye! Guys, stop!” Mammon demanded, swiping their phones away from your view.
“I actually keep really nice pictures of all of us in my wallet.” Asmo declared, reaching for his purse. He then unzipped the hot pink leopard print wallet and dumped out a fat pile of photographs. Everyone gasped and reached forward to inspect them, except for Mammon who slid out of his chair to lead you away for a semi-private conversation.
“Please, don’t let them show ya any embarrassing pictures of me.” he pleaded, holding onto your hand. “I don’t think I could face ya again if they did.”
“Don’t worry Mammon. I don’t think I could ever find you unattractive.” you told him with an affectionate grin.
He blushed once again, his eyes darting to the ground bashfully. “Aye… ya can’t just be sayin’ things like that…”
“Why? It’s true.” you reassured him, gripping onto his hands comfortingly. He looked up at you with a hopeful glint in his eyes, to which you leaned forward and pecked his lips with your own. It was short, but sweet enough to stop his heart and make his whole body heat up.
“Wh…? MC! What was that all about?!” he exclaimed, mouth falling agape in shock.
“Do I have to spell it out for you?” you asked, comically widening your eyes. “I like you, Mammon! A lot! I want us to be together!”
As soon as your words registered, his face broke out into an enormous grin. In an instant, he was placing his hands on your cheeks to press his lips to yours, longer and more passionately than your previous kiss. Your own hands came to rest against his chest, curving your body into his. As you pulled away, foreheads pressed together, you were startled by the eruption of applause from the entire restaurant, mainly from the rest of the brothers.
“Finally!” Belphie cheered, standing up on his chair. You had truly never seen him so energetic before.
You looked at each other, giggling at your slight discomfort, then held hands and walked back over to the table.
“So, are you two finally official?” Lucifer asked, folding his arms across his chest with an amused grin.
“Well, I’d say so.” Mammon sighed with a mildly cocky yet sincere tone. “After all, I am the one who’s picture is in their wallet.” He then leaned over to you and winked. “By the way, I’m gonna need a picture of ya that’s just as adorable as mine!”
#mammon obey me#mammon headcanon#mammon fluff#mammon imagine#mammon x mc#mammon x reader#obey me mammon#obey me imagines#obey me x reader#obey me writing#obey me fluff#obey me fanfic#obey me scenarios#obey me requests#obey me reactions#obey me shall we date
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Give me merch, BoC!
Before I freak out about colors in episode three of 4 Minutes, just know that if this was a time-traveling show on GMMTV, the cats in the claw machine would've been merch yesterday!
BoC, why don't you want our money?!
But even without making them merch, these cats made my day!
And it's all because Great gave Tyme the white one.
Tyme is color-coded black and Great is color-coded white.
So each cat represents them in this time-shifting story, and Great gave himself to Tyme by giving him the white cat.
And strangely enough, these color-coded boys won several cats which is a successful date, but also something something about several versions of themselves existing within the story . . .
But what really makes me happy is each cat has a heart in the other color on its side, so when held together, those heart patches form a dual-colored heart!
And although I think Tyme approached Great because he wanted information on Great's family, the boys got hit with a tiny blinding light of love right before they were supposed to kiss.
And Tyme did expose himself to Great instead of fighting him even though he could have easily overpowered Great, which is something we saw when Tyme fought Title.
Because this story is really about the gray area everyone is existing in.
When Win showed up the first time, Tonkla was guarded with a boundary firmly planted between them and Win was light.
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But this episode, Tonkla removed his barrier, and let Win in, but Win, in his dark colors, definitely crossed a line he shouldn't have.
Win is a good guy.
And so is Korn.
But circumstances and choices change people.
And even the best people are capable of doing bad.
So it's interesting that Tyme has been positioned in black from the beginning even though he is a doctor.
And Great is positioned as white even though we have seen him run away from doing what's right several times.
Yet when Tyme went to ask Great out and Great confessed to seeing the future, Tyme was in gray as he shifts between the two colors.
Great's interactions with Tyme advance the clock a minute closer to 11:04 from 11:00, but the number four is special, as many people have pointed out because it represents death.
And Great keeps getting closer and closer.
So him throwing down his phone causing the number four ball to roll into the pocket was perhaps telling that it's not all Tyme moving the clock, but just like Win and Korn and their colors, Great's choices are moving the clock and impacting his life.
Doctors save lives, but we have been shown through the woman who tried to die by suicide and the patient this episode in Bed #4, that doctors also need to know when to listen and end a patient's suffering.
(Spare Me Your Mercy, I'm so ready for you and your color-coded boys in love to give us a story about these specific ethics! I'm going to watch you so hard!)
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Tyme continues to say he isn't a doctor but a surgeon. Tyme doesn't listen to his patients, which is why Den is upset at him. And Tyme isn't listening to Great because if he was he'd hear exactly what is being said - "these symptoms happened when [the] heart stopped"
Tyme needs Great to remind him, that regardless of the past, it's important to listen and care, and Great needs Tyme to listen to his sad rich boy stories. They need each other to save each other. Triage, is that you homie in a trench coat and mustache glasses?!
But more importantly, they need each other to save each other's hearts! Great needs Tyme to literally save his life by saving his heart, but Tyme was hardening his heart. He had stated several times that he is in his career for the money, but Great reminded Tyme that money was irrelevant if the love was missing with his story of a 1,000 baht toy. They have both good and bad in them, but they need the other color-coded person to be complete. They need the other person to live.
Since I still believe Tyme is the one having cardiac arrest in the first episode, if one of them actually gives up his heart to save the other, I'm gonna be unwell about it.
Random Thoughts:
The friend calling Tyme a "pale guy, very handsome, and kinda brooding" hit me personally because I call characters who are black color-coded Black Brooders and Tyme is the Black Brooder in this story.
Great seeing the message on the tea cup change from "Don't forget to get your wound checked at the hospital" to "Can you forgive me, Great?" has me thinking this won't just be about Tyme trying to get dirt on Great's family and Great being upset about. That question feels heavier. That question feels like both their lives are changed by Tyme.
The female patient who experiences the same symptoms as Great was wearing white and black when she was being interviewed, but when Great envisioned a woman on the bed, red lights were flashing, like they were meeting while coding.
The way the red reflects on Great's shirt in the car makes it look like a heart on his sleeve when he looks at Tyme.
MY BOY MIO!
#4 minutes#4 minutes the series#long post#I'm unwell about those cats#give the props department a raise#color coded boys in love#the colors mean things#nobody better be giving up a heart in this show
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The Diary of Tom Riddle- Diary! Tom Riddle x Reader - P3
![Tumblr media](https://64.media.tumblr.com/102d8c80041440182c8297cef5bf75c4/4f65a4fe37a87db5-67/s540x810/714ce2c427dde2370954f8aee788c233ac86c84f.jpg)
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pairing: Tom riddle x Fem reader
warnings: Horcruxes, Manipulation, Tom being Tom, side effects of being possessed.
summary: 16-year-old (y/n) finds a mysterious black book on the floor of after it slips out of Ginny Weasleys caldron, curious, she picks it up and keeps it-which leads to one thing after another and discovers the book is far more than it seems.
-Part 1- -Part 2- -Part 4-
=
Thankfully, as she woke up, (y/n) hadn't moved from her bed throughout the night. She sighed and slowly sat up, rubbing her face, drawing back the curtains of her bed, seeing her roommates all up and getting dressed for the day. It was a Sunday, so it was Hogsmeade day for years 3 and up.
Hogsmeade sounded fun.
(y/n) looked at the diary and grabbed it, popping open her ink well and grabbing her quill, flipping open a book to the now blank page she’d been writing in the night before.
“Morning Tom.”
Tom took a moment to respond, her ink disappearing into the page as his elegant scrawl appeared in its place.
‘Good morning (y/n), did you sleep well?’
“yes I did, thankfully. Woke up where I should be too, in my bed.”
‘Very good. Are you feeling better?’
“yeah, much better, thank you. Im going to go to Hogsmeade today, would you like to come with?”
‘Well, I wouldn’t be able to do much, would I?’
(y/n) hummed in thought, Tom had a point, as he could only see what she wrote/illustrated in the book.
“good point, but I could maybe bring you to the bookstore there and get some ink you’d like?”
‘I don’t eat the ink (y/n)’
“not what I meant but that’s a very funny visual thank you.”
(y/n) giggled to herself, imagining the book eating the ink instead of just absorbing it to write back to her.
“I meant like, would you like some fancy ink? I saved up some money from my allowance and can get some good ink from the store if you would prefer it?”
‘How…generous of you, (y/n)’
“thank you :)”
Tom took a very long moment to respond, as if he was thinking long and hard about her offer. Finally, after a few minutes, he wrote back-though he did so while (y/n) was getting dressed for her outing to Hogsmeade, putting on an oversized sweater for maximum comfort.
‘I suppose it couldn’t hurt if you brought the diary along, I certainly don’t mind good inks to write with, I myself was never able to afford more than the most basic brands.’
(y/n) tilted her head a bit, a smile growing on her face. Tom was opening up to her a bit! Okay-play it cool-don’t overreact.
“aww really?”
‘I don’t need your pity (y/n)’
Oops.
“not pity! Im sorry! Just…idk”
‘What in the merlin does ‘idk’ mean?’
“Oh-I don’t know-its an abbreviation.”
‘Why don’t you just write ‘I don’t know’, it’s not hard?’
“idk, just easier.”
She felt like she could hear him sigh, which made her giggle and she finished getting dressed before writing to him again.
“okay okay, im going to go eat, ill be back to grab you before everyone heads out to Hogsmeade.”
Tom didn’t respond so (y/n) closed the diary and put it back on her bedside table, capping her ink well and cleaning her quill before leaving her room, heading out to the great hall for breakfast.
-
Hogsmeade, thankfully, took the rest of the events from the night before off (y/n)’s mind as she went from store to store, starting at the book store and writing down ink brands and types to Tom, who eventually picked out a non-expensive India ink, but it was definitely more costly than the usual ink she got.
She closed the diary and put it back in her bag, taking the new ink to the front and buying it, the shopkeep wrapping it in paper and then giving it to her in a paper bag.
She counted how much money she had left as she walked down the main path of the village, nodding to herself as she pocketed the coins. She had enough to do someday after Halloween candy shopping.
She hopped straight into Honeydukes, where loads of other students were buying their own discounted candy, and quickly got some candies that were under the discount.
Including a bag of candy corn, and it was the type made in shop-which was even better.
“What is it with you and candy corn (n/n)?” one of her friends that had accompanied her to Hogsmeade asked teasingly, attempting to steal one of the candies (y/n) had bought.
“It’s good!” (y/n) defended the candy, holding the box to her chest. She knew candy corn wasn’t a worldly liked candy-but it was hers and her dad's favorite, so it not only tasted good to her, but it also was nostalgic.
(y/n)’s friend snickered, taking a caramel apple lollipop from (y/n)’s bag full of discounted Halloween candy. (y/n) rolled her eyes, the two catching up with the rest of their friends, hanging out at the three broomsticks for a while before heading back to the castle.
Upon getting back to her dorm room, (y/n) poured out the candy onto her bed and spread it out, sorting it and eating a few pieces here and there as she separated the chocolates from the hard candies, and the lollipops from the taffy.
She took out the diary and the new well of ink, opening the wax around it and setting it aside, testing the ink on her actual notebook before writing to Tom.
“back from Hogsmeade! Using the new ink as well :)”
‘I can tell, it’s far smoother than the ink you were using before.’
“I’m glad you like it! I also got a lot of candy from honeydukes, they were having a day after Halloween sale, I got nearly 5 pounds of candy for one galleon.”
‘Sweet tooth?’
“big one.”
(y/n) smiled brightly as she continued her conversation with Tom, which turned to her asking Tom what his favorite candy was…is.
‘I haven't tried much candy if I must be honest, though I do like treacle tarts.’
“yum, those are pretty good”
“great now Im craving treacle tart thanks Tom.”
‘You’re welcome, (y/n)’
-
(y/n) happily painted on some Slytherin green and silver face paint onto her cheeks, today was the first quidditch game of the year, and the Slytherin team had gotten a new seeker-the spoiled as fuck Draco Malfoy, who everyone knew bribed his way in but he still wasn’t a terrible flyer-and brand new brooms.
The whole Slytherin house was excited, ready to win the first match of the season against Gryffindor, since they hadn’t won a game against Gryffindor since Harry Potter joined the team the year before.
“You almost ready (y/n)?!” her friend called from the bathroom as she herself finished her makeup.
“Yeah!” (y/n) said, hopping to her feet after pulling away from her desk mirror. “I’m all done!” she wrapped a scarf around her neck and hooked her arm with her friends and they all went down to the quidditch pitch together, the roar of excitement already humming through the stands.
The game started quickly after that and it was exciting! The Slytherins were walloping the Gryffindors easily-quickly overtaking them 90-30. (y/n) whistled and cheered for her team, throwing her fists into the air with each score. “Woah what the fuck?!” she heard her friend suddenly exclaim and (y/n) turned to see where she was looking, her brows furrowing as a bludger began to deliberately chase Harry Potter.
“Is that a rouge bludger??” (y/n) said, her lip curling in confusion. “What the hell they’re like-impossible to tamper??” (y/n) and her friend stopped paying attention to the game as a whole, watching in near horror as Harry was chased around by a bludger.
The Weasley twins tried to bat it away from him but it kept coming back.
“that’s not good-we should tell a teacher-“ (y/n) stuttered, turning to head off the stands, maybe catch Madam Hooch’s attention and stop the game before someone got hurt. (y/n)’s friend nodded and followed her through the crowd of Slytherins and down the stands.
Just as they reached Madam Hooch, the bludger had slammed into Harry’s arm as he reached for the snitch and he hit the dirt soon after; though he had the snitch in hand, Gryffindor had won the game. “Oh shit,” (y/n) muttered under her breath, looking at Harrys very broken arm, as Madam Hooch blew the whistle, ending the game.
The Weasley twins somehow caught the tampered bludger, getting it back into the box and locking it down. Madam Hooch instantly saw to it, and while that all happened-the idiot Lockhart…erm…mended Harry’s arm.
“Ew,” (y/n) muttered as her friend gagged at the rubber look Harry’s arm had taken. Lockhart hadn’t mended shit; he’d removed Harry’s bones!
“That is so nasty,” (y/n)’s friend muttered, and (y/n) nodded in agreement, heading back to the castle after Headmaster Dumbledore told everyone the match was over and to head back to the castle while Harry, and any other injured players, went to Madam Pomfrey.
“Gotta be honest, Gryffindor deserved that win, I mean-odds stacked against them, with those new brooms and that bloody bludger, they won. Shame Potter’s arm got broken for it though.” (y/n)’s friend ranted as they walked back to the common room, (y/n) nodding in agreement. “I have to wonder who tampered the bludger? I mean Madam Hooch checks them right before the game, and if it wasn’t tampered then, how could’ve someone hexed it within the minutes before the game began?”
(y/n) shrugged as her friend continued to rant. “Maybe someone tampered with it mid-game? Because it wasn’t doing it at first, if it was tampered with before the game-it would’ve gone after Harry straight away? Wouldn’t it?” (y/n) suggested, walking into the common room after several other students and her friend nodded, tapping her chin.
“That does sound logical, though I’m not sure how or why anyone would do that, I mean-he’s just a 12-year-old kid? Who’d want to charm a bloody iron magic ball to hurt him?” (y/n) shrugged in response to her friend's rhetorical question.
“Someone fucked up,” (y/n) answered anyway and her friend sighed, the two entering their dorm room. Her friend went to wipe the Slytherin-themed makeup off her face while (y/n) went to her bed and grabbed the diary.
“Potter almost got killed by a bludger at the quidditch match today.”
(y/n) could almost feel the sense of ‘!!?!?!’ from Tom as he hurriedly wrote back to her.
‘Who starts a conversation like that? also what? how? I never liked Quidditch but I’m sure those Quidditch gear chests are impossible to get into?’
“that’s what I said, I think someone jinxed it mid game because it wasn’t going after him at first.”
‘How odd. And it was going after Potter specifically?’
“yeah! Only him, the Weasley twins kept batting it away from him but it would go right back after Potter. Its really weird.”
‘I cannot tell you it isn’t, because it is very odd.’
“yeah”
(y/n) perked up as her friend came back out of the bathroom. “I’m going to go get lunch, you coming?” her friend asked and (y/n) nodded.
“Yeah, lemme just wash my face,” (y/n) said, looking back down at the diary and telling Tom she had to go, setting the book down on the bedside table and going into the bathroom to wash her face.
-
(y/n) woke up very late that night, a ringing in her ears as she opened her eyes, feeling kinda nauseous. She groaned lightly, realizing she’d fallen off her bed, her head pounding as she attempted to get up, pressing her palms to her eyes as they ached.
“What the fuck,” she muttered, rubbing her face. She’d never fallen off her bed before, but considering the odd dream she had-she wasn’t surprised. She eventually got to her feet after the nausea had passed and climbed back into bed, yawning.
She laid back down, but couldn’t get back to sleep. Her mind kept going back to that odd dream. She had been walking through the halls of Hogwarts, at what seemed to be a late hour, and went into one of the bathrooms and…spoke a strange language-a hissing language, and the…sink had come apart??? After that she woke up, having fallen off her bed mid weird dream.
She huffed and drew the curtains around her bed, grabbing her wand, the diary, and her quill. “Lumos,” (y/n) murmured and the tip of her wand began to glow and she opened the diary, flipping through pages and pages of notes, and doodles.
She dipped her quill and began to write to Tom.
“I fell out of my bed,”
‘And why is that so important to tell me? It’s late I’m sure, you should be asleep.’
“you’re right but I cant get back to sleep, I had a weird dream and woke up after falling out of my bed, which ive never done”
“or at least I havent done since I was a kid?”
‘Interesting. What was your dream about if I may ask?’
(y/n) wrote down what she remembered from the dream, and then added a small detail she hadn’t realized till now.
“it felt like I was having an out of body experience, or like I was watching through someone elses eyes? You get what I mean?”
‘I suppose I do, though im sure there’s nothing to worry about, everyone has odd dreams sometimes.’
“have you ever had an odd dream?”
‘Yes, I’m not divulging that information though, you’ll tease me relentlessly about it.’
“no I wont!”
(y/n) huffed as Tom didn’t respond, and she could imagine the expression of ‘sure you wont’ on his face. She wished she knew wha the looked like…wait maybe she could find him in the gallery! He did say he was a prefect in his time, maybe there was a picture somewhere of the 1942-1943 prefects.
“you’re no fun.”
‘Go to sleep (y/n),’
“fiiiine, goodnight Tom.”
‘Goodnight, (y/n)’
-
“A first year got petrified?!” (y/n) asked in a hushed tone, her eyes wide as she gripped her friend's hand tightly as they walked to breakfast Monday morning.
“Yeah, apparently it happened Saturday night, or well, early Sunday morning if you think about it that way-but Professor Dumbledore found him in the middle of the night-just-stone still, petrified.” (y/n)’s friend rambled and (y/n) frowned, squeezing her friend’s hand tighter.
Early Sunday morning…she’d had that weird dream and fell out of her bed Sunday morning.
“What time did the first year get petrified?” (y/n) asked and her friend shrugged.
“Dunno, I’m only telling you what I heard from the grapevine, all I know is Sunday morning, a first year got petrified.” (y/n) huffed nervously in response, swallowing harshly, that weird feeling of paranoia returning to her gut.
Just a coincidence, just a coincidence. It had to be; besides, she’d just fallen out of her bed this time, she hadn’t sleepwalked, she hadn’t even left her dorm room.
…right?
-
“I’m leaving.” (y/n) huffed as dumbass Lockhart came onto the long dueling stage that was set up lengthwise in the great hall, replacing the house tables. Her friend grabbed her arm as she attempted to escape, tugging her towards the edge of the stage-making them be front and center.
“Oh, come on (y/n)~ it’ll be fun!” her friend said cheerfully, she’d didn’t understand why (y/n)…disliked ‘Professor’ Lockhart, even thinking he was hot.
It was one of the few things (y/n) vehemently disagreed with her on.
“it’ll be cringe as fuck that’s what it’ll be.” (y/n) grumbled, crossing her arms as she pouted. She expected maybe Professor Flitwick to be the head of the dueling club, but noooo it had to be the obvious fake Lockhart.
Though-Professor Snape had agreed to…help Lockhart in a demonstration, and that, was going to be fun.
(y/n) couldn’t help the peal of laughter that came from her as Snape sent Lockhart across the dueling stage, her friend gasping as Lockhart landed with a thump. “Is he okay?” her friend asked and (y/n) just snickered with the rest of the Slytherin members of the club.
“Who cares? That was funny.” (y/n) chuckled, smirking as her friend gave her a glare. After that everyone got paired into groups, Lockhart nearly putting the little 1st and 2nd years with the 5th and 6th years attending, Snape correcting that mistake and putting (y/n) against a fellow 6th-year Slytherin, though (y/n) hardly knew his name.
“Remember, disarm only!” Lockhart said and (y/n) rolled her eyes, bowing her to dueling partner with her wand at her side and then holding it out in front of her, her other arm over her head for balance.
The dueling began moments later, and spells shot out of their wands every other moment. (y/n) began with the disarming charm, expelliarmus, but her opponent blocked it and returned with a Stupefy. (y/n) went to block but it felt like she wasn’t in control of herself anymore, she stepped to the side-avoiding the spell-and held out her wand in a grip that wasn’t her own.
“Relashio!” With a wave of her wand her dueling opponent was forced to drop their wand and then (y/n) twirled her wand again. “Depulso!” A blast of white magic flew towards her dueling opponent and they flew back, hitting the ground with a loud thud.
There was an intense satisfaction that ran deep in her bones for a split moment, and an odd feeling to finish her opponent off-but that quickly went away and (y/n) pocketed her wand, rushing over to her dueling partner. “Are you okay?” (y/n) asked, offering her hand and her dueling partner chuckled painfully, rubbing their lower back as she helped them stand.
“I’m okay-that was wicked casting though,” (y/n) only nodded in response, licking her teeth as the dueling groups were stopped, a green haze in the air from the dueling 2nd years. She began to leave the great hall as Potter and Malfoy began to duel, only stopping when she heard a strange hissing coming from the stage.
She turned, the hissing sounding too familiar, coming from Potter as he…hissed at a black snake? Her ears began to ring, her vision going a bit blurry as she stared at Potter, the boy hissing at the snake before Snape destroyed it.
What the fuck?
That was the same hissing she’d heard in her dream on Sunday.
-end of p3-
im very happy with this part and i hope you guys are too-taglist!!!
@dracosslxt4eva @dream-your-own-way @slaggylemon
@slytherinbackintomyroom @starryhiraeth @larallott
#tom riddle x reader#tom riddle#tom riddle imagine#harry potter fanfiction#diary Tom Riddle#horcrux Tom
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The Bard Who Returned to Fairyland in Search of a Name by Bodhrán M.
It was the ferryman who met the bard first, a beardless lad in a ragged cloak, broadbrimmed hat, and carrying nothing save an iron knife and one small pack across his shoulders. He watched with mild interest as the bard picked his way down the grassy knoll and onto the black-wood of the small dock, coming to a halt directly before the little boat.
Neither of them moved for a long while. Somewhere in the distance, an eagle screamed.
Finally, the bard spoke.
“I wish to cross the river,” he said.
The ferryman leant on his oar and regarded him with rheumy eyes, pushing a lank hunk of wire-grey hair from his face. “Is that so?” he replied. “Do you have payment, my boy?”
“Yes, I do.” The bard withdrew a coin purse from beneath the green cloak.
“Coin won’t do, boy. Not what I dabble in.”
“I know,” the bard said quietly. He had an odd voice, the ferryman noted, with no hint of fear or trepidation or awe. “I bring seashells from the coasts of Ireland,” he continued, “filled with the songs of the selkies. I bring spices from the borders of India and China with many healing powers beyond that which we can understand, and a trollish crystal gifted by the giantess-queen of Iceland. I deal as little in money as you do.”
The ferryman was impressed, even if he didn’t show it. He dug a filthy black pipe from a salt-encrusted pocket and stuck it between his teeth. He waited, but the bard made no move to light it for him. Finally, he took a tinderbox from another pouch (this one being an oilskin gifted many years ago by a Swedish princess) and struck a spark.
“So,” the ferryman said, his words curled about the billowing black smoke, “you know what is across this river?”
“I know.”
“And yet you wish to cross it.”
The bard shrugged, almost as if to say that the statement was obvious enough that it did not need to be said. “Have I brought enough to pay for passage?” he asked.
“Of course,” the ferryman said as he stepped aside to allow the man to board.
But the bard did not. Instead, he gripped the brim of his hat and pulled it further down over his eyes. His voice was as steady as before, but lower and intertwined with steel. “Both ways?”
The ferryman’s eyes narrowed.
The bard stood there, waiting for an answer, one small hand on his knife.
Hemming and hawing, the ferryman felt a sting of disappointment and suspicion in his gut. He had ferried more hopefuls across this river than he had ferried back and there was almost nothing which he liked more than the faces of those who had returned to his boat having not taken the first precaution. They had thought ahead enough – many of these wanderers and seekers of mysteries and gold – to have gotten his word not to throw them into the cold water or have their treasures taken before they reached human land again, but they had not thought about payment for the return journey.
But seashells and spices were twice the payment for a crossing – and he had never owned a troll-crystal before. He’d heard that they could outshine the sunrises even in the frozen northern plains, that they were rainbow stars from deep within the ground. It would be something to treasure in the dark.
It was through gritted teeth, therefore, which he gave his answer. “Yes,” the ferryman said.
The hat bobbed as the bard nodded. “And I will reach each shore in the same condition as I board your boat, sir? Each way.”
“Yes,” the ferryman agreed sullenly. Then he thought and tried to not brighten in anticipation.
The bard either did not notice or did not care, but he stepped aboard with the ease of one used to the pitch and swell of river boats. He sat in the prow, half-turned so he could look across the water and still see the ferryman.
Clever, that.
Carefully, the ferryman untied the mooring rope and then pushed off the knoll with his oar. He began to pull through the water with broad, powerful strokes and so it was a matter of minutes before they reached halfway.
It was then that the ferryman felt safe in speaking again. Too soon and sometimes the young fools would see the error of their ways and pitch themselves into the water. Once you reached halfway, you were falling into enchantments rather simple cold. It did make him laugh, sometimes, to see them flail and splash their way back to safety. He liked to wave at the ones who lived, standing sopping wet and humiliated on the dock, and sing mocking laments at those who did not.
But he did not think that this young man would do so. Still, he waited.
“You off to fairyland, boy?” he asked cheerfully, “Here to see for yourselves the wonders your bardic forefathers taught you? To see if they’re as real as they say?”
The bard tilted his head and the ferryman saw a flash of white teeth from beneath the hat brim, bared in a savage grin.
“No, sir,” the bard said, “I am not merely going to fairyland, sir ferryman. I am going back.”
“Well, that’s a thing!” the ferryman exclaimed. He rubbed his chin with his free hand and added, “Not many people wish to test their luck twice.”
The bard shrugged again.
“And why have you returned?”
The hat tilted back and suddenly the ferryman saw the bard’s face clearly for the first time. It was even younger-looking than he’d expected, suntanned and heavily freckled, but harsh and set in furious determination. “That is my business and my business alone, sir ferryman,” the bard replied in cold tones. “For I know what you are as we have met before, and you told me in the mistaken belief that we would never cross paths again. And I know that changelings would do what they can to gain favour in the eyes of fairyland’s mistress. I would not give up my slightest advantage to satisfy your curiosity.”
Knocked back a little by the intensity of this speech and suddenly slightly afraid of why he would not remember this young man, the ferryman opened and shut his mouth a few times and said nothing in reply. He rowed on in silence, feeling sweat prickling on his brow. Either this passenger was a grand sorcerer of some great power, or he was an overconfident boy with a head full of stories. But he could not place a finger on either option without some unease. Neither felt right.
“It was curiosity, nothing more,” the ferryman mumbled. “I meant no harm in asking.”
“But you did mean harm in knowing,” the bard replied lightly. “And you could make harm in telling. I am no child, sir ferryman, and I understand how this all works.”
#the bard who returned to fairyland in search of a name#writing#writeblr#long post#fairytales#fairy tale
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If I Lead (pt3)
Part 2 here
Vincesco stood true by his word.
Desmond didn't even need to use most of his skillset which he was happy about. He took it easy and dodged when he needed and accepted some punches when It seemed like he was going overboard. He was not trying to climb the ranks in a race and make a name, he just needed to be off the training wheels. And It had worked. The young lad looked a bit pissed off about not winning against him but Desmond didn't care much about it.
The next day he was given instructions and pocket money to get himself some gear that fitted him. Now equipped with warmer clothes and shoes that actually fit he was faring better.
Marsilio also was paying him quite a good amount of money for basically doing nothing but walking around and swinging his sword to train every now and then…. He really couldn't understand why the mercenaries complained about Ezio cutting their wages since he became in charge, just how much Mario was paying them before?
A month passed in this new lazy routine.
He made home in his guard tower. He was used to sleeping outside and wasting money on rent seemed unnecessary when he had little to no belongings. He bought himself some extra blankets to cushion the stone ground and shield from the cold wind at night. His lodging was enough for him.
He was rarely in it unless he was sleeping anyway.
He would wake up before dawn, bathe in the stream right outside the village a few minutes away if he needed, and then he would make his way to the barracks.
It was peaceful really…
He was terribly bored.
There was not much for him to do, sometimes he would get called to patrol outside the woods to see if any bandits were camping around but they have yet to see one since he has been here. Every now and then he would group with some people for training, but most of the time he was left alone as long as he reported to the barracks first thing of the day.
He had taken hunting as a hobby, going out around mid-noon to catch some small game to bring to the butcher. It gave him food and some extra savings money. He wanted to save enough to buy a horse so he could travel without problems, taking detours if he needed but horses were expensive.
The barracks stable had a few but they all had their owners and the ones that did not were there if the need arose. Also, he really wasn't looking to be known as -the horse thief-.
Sometimes Vincesco would call him over to go for a drink at the tavern, each time he would accept with the guilt eating him from inside out. He was not supposed to lay around and get drunk. He had people he needed to get back to, people who he was to guide but he could not refuse his bosses.
So he would drink a mug or two of the piss-tasting beer, the cheapest money could find as slowly as he could till the rest were drunk enough for them to not realize he was faking his stumbles on the street. Once everyone parted he would climb up to his den and force himself to sleep.
He was going mad.
Desmond wasn't used to being this useless. He was used to waking up and having a mission to complete.
Find us a new water-source Desmond, We need food Desmond the field has yet to yield any, Desmond help us move this rocks over so we can prepare the shelter, Desmond climb up the mountain to see if there is anything that survived
and he did it all without complaints.
He travelled for days or months to see if there was anything new, he noted down any new changes he could see. He helped Shaun with whatever he needed his strength or body for. He helped Rebecca gather whatever supply she was going to need to make their lives easier. That was his job.
He was there to calm the people down, remind them that gods had not forsaken them but they had been given a new beginning. To not panic but have hope so humankind could survive long after them.
It was all bullshit really, to keep the leftover people from going mad.
In the darkest times, religion was most of the time the home of hope they needed to shelter in. But it had worked.
They had a functioning farm, bushes that yielded berries, small huts that gave lodging to people. They were actually seeing growth after 20 years, grass was filling the land and young trees were growing taller. They were finally getting somewhere so Desmond had left on a new expedition to find some more survivors further back from the camp to see if anyone was left.
And then he was here.
Lying on his blankets he watched the stars, tracing the groups with his eyes trying to remember the names Shaun taught them, the ones he couldn't remember without his books, Rebecca had made up stupid nicknames for.
He missed them terribly nowadays… Even his father.
William had died just three years ago. The grief lingered more than he had expected. All the issues they had before seemed so small after the flare, they never patched things up but they didn't fight like they used to. Desmond knew he bore some guilt about convincing him to not go through with the shields. They all did.
They each had their turns to cry, shout and laugh crazy about it then cry some more. The three blamed themselves which in turn made Desmond blame himself more. It was an endless cycle they decided to put behind themselves to focus on the now.
Desmond turned to his side, inhaling deeply, his hair tickling his neck from the wind. He listened to the nocturnal birds and closed his eyes. He hoped they were safe above all else.
---------------------------
Two weeks passed by fast and Desmond's routine did not change. Wake up, bathe, barracks, busywork, hunt, do something… anything… then sleep. He had taken to sharpening the unused swords and upkeep of them for today's activity since no one else was bothering to do it.
Near a clearing around the stable, he was sitting on a stool, sharpening one sword after another with a whetstone on his lap, adding them to a pile.
“Actually working for your coins Domenico? You should join the others inside for a few cups.”
He looked at the voice that was calling him. Angelo, one from Marsillios circle. He gave a polite smile back. “Not much to do and I don't like drinking while the sun is up, gives me issues at night.”
“Smart man, keeping your soldier ready for when it's needed.”
Desmond made a face at the joke, He never stepped a foot in the brothel. A lot of the recruit's freshly earned coins ended up in there almost the day they gained them… then trickled back into the economy. He did not want to think about the amount of STD’s circulating around. Even if everyone was magically clean… sex had been the last thing on his mind for a long while.
“Please, If the wife learned I even dared to breathe next to one of the honey pots she would have my head.”
“Oh come on, how would she even know?”
He hummed in answer and smiled “Trust me she would… and I like to keep my manhood intact till I die”
Angelo laughed and walked near him. Eyeing the swords lying on a pile on the side, the ones that were ready to be polished.
“Needed me for anything?”
The other man shifted his weight “Marsillio wanted me to let people know to be extra sharp the next few days, actually do what he says and whatnot… not that you need a reminder.”
“Why is that? Is Ser Mario coming to check the barracks again?” He had seen him a couple of times, the man usually looked around for a few minutes then joined the backroom to talk about what he needed to.
“Nah, the actual big boss is coming back any day now. Sent in a word with his bird, arrived just an hour ago to the villa.”
Desmond's whole body tensed in a second. It was not hard to figure out who the nickname belonged to.
Ezio was coming back.
He forced himself to relax. “A-ah… so we need to be on our best behaviour?”
“Mmhm. You might be asked to go to the training grounds a bit more and longer than you are used to, we need to look busy lest we want more budget cuts. The young master has already been bleeding us dry…”
Desmond gave a nervous chuckle and placed the sword in his hand on the pile. “Alright, no problem for me but I know a lot of the kids are going to groan and moan about it”
“Yeah they already are, Vinchesco is not happy about it so I'm sending you up next to him for morale.” A soft pat landed on his shoulder “Think yourself as second in charge. A small promotion with no pay raise”
Angelo left his side with a smile.
“Great”
Not great… he couldn't even hide next to the recruits as they trained.
He might visit the church just to pray and hope that Ezio doesn't give a shit about the training area and just passes by it.
Maybe he could fake a stomachache or the plague… ask for a toilet break as soon as Ezio stepped foot through the gates…
---------------------------
For two days Desmond’s every limb was aware of every movement and talk around him. They were patrolling a lot more and training a lot longer.
He wished he was just given the duty of cleaning around the barracks but Vincheso liked him for some reason enough to ask him to stick by his side.
“If I have to hear any more whining I might actually have them train till sunrise…”
Desmond shrugged his shoulders and he listened to him complain, not much different than the recruits. He figured it out the second day while Vinchesco’s job was to babysit the newbies, Desmond’s job was to babysit him. “You know if you guys were more strict from the get-go they wouldn't feel this comfortable crying about it.”
“And make my own job harder? Training doesn't teach a man how to swing a sword anyway, they actually need to fight to become man is what I think. I sure didn't learn how to kill from stabbing these stupid straw dummies couple times a day.”
“I'm not sure just charging into the enemy will teach them much is all I’m saying… well other than dying.”
Vinchesco leaned back onto the railing “Meh, I send the ones that show promise to the others that actually put them to work.” he waved his hand around “All this is just, keeping the meatshields sharper.”
Desmond sighed, what a way to raise an army… Ezio really needed to keep tighter reins around these bunch and overhaul the system… but he rather Ezio do that once he got to Venice and away from here.
“You are way too uptight Dominico. It's good here. We get coin, we get food, we drink then we fuck and then we sleep. Living it up like nobles almost… you should enjoy it more, I’m sure you fought plenty of battles in your youth but this is not a battlefield and we got Ser Ezio behind us if else happens. The man is his own army.”
Desmond's jaw clenched, old memories of the fall of this Monterriggioni flashing in his mind. No wonder no one was alerted till it was too late… he always thought the Village was captured way too easily.
“Mmhm… I'll try” he smiled back with a strain “Old habits die hard, that's all… the guard schedule back in Florence was way more strict.”
“More the reason to-” “HE IS BACK! SER EZIO IS BACK”
A shout cut off Vinchesco’s word, The messenger ran towards them.
Desmon felt the anxiety boil in his gut
“Shit…”
#If I lead#assassin's creed#desmond miles#ezio auditore#we do a little timeskip speedrun here#Desmond is getting fed up with these mfs lol#he has been a leader at his camp for 20+ yrs at this point even if he doesnt think himself as much so the disorder of the merchs bothers hi#ezio is too busy fixing his own world to see the state of Monterriggione#hope it didnt feel like I passed the opening way too fast#im trying to have them meet by 4-5th chapter so I dont get bored lol#worldbuilding is fun but I rather see Desmond speak to Ezio than this lot lol
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