#i feel like more should be done to keep you psycho bitches in check

[revehae]

AND ANOTHER THING

we need to kill everyone at sm entertainment

[emospritelet]

Closing the Circle - chapter 15/16

Okay, I know it's taken ages, but I swear we're almost done. One chapter to go after this. Last time, Gold helped to rescue Belle, Emma and Philip from Zelena, and was freaked out by Belle hugging him, so of course he was an ass about it.

AO3 link

Belle climbed into the back of Mulan’s car, feeling almost unbearably weary, and listening to the excited chatter of the others with half an ear. Lily slid onto the seat next to her, shifting close as Emma got in beside her and closed the door. There was a flurry of movement as everyone reached for seat belts, Mulan and Aurora getting in front and buckling up. Belle let her head roll back against the seat with a sigh of relief as the car started up and moved off down the driveway. The moon was high above the trees, flickering through pine branches as they followed the road back to Storybrooke, and Belle wondered how Ruby was doing out in the woods. Whether she was running with the wolves that had helped to save them.

“So,” said Emma, making her glance around. “Gold. I take it he’s not just a pawnbroker.”

Belle shook her head.

“Is he like - a witch? A - a warlock? Or is it wizard?” Emma rolled her eyes. “God, I can’t believe I’m saying this! Two days ago I would have checked myself into therapy for just thinking all this could be real!”

“He’s none of those things,” said Belle. “He’s a vampire. And I suppose he kind of runs this town. In a way.”

“A vampire, huh?” Emma sounded resigned. “I guess I should have known from the outfits. Are you telling me I don’t have to worry about him trying to drink my blood like I’m a bottle of Cabernet?”

“Oh, he wouldn’t touch you,” Lily assured her. “Townsfolk are off limits. You’re as safe as the rest of us.”

“Not sure how safe anyone is in this place with that psycho bitch around,” remarked Emma. “Honestly? I was Team Gold back there. If he’d killed her I would have been cheering him on. Sucks for Regina, I guess, but he was right about Zelena being a threat to the town.”

“Seems like the town’s safety was the only reason he was there,” said Belle, unable to keep an edge of bitterness out of her voice, and Mulan caught her eye in the rear view mirror.

“Hey,” she said gently. “He may be an emotionally-constipated ass, but I don’t think he took on Zelena for shits and giggles. You should have seen his face when we told him you were missing.”

“I thought he was going to break something,” added Aurora. “And when he knew it was Zelena… He was furious, Belle. And - and scared too, I thought. He took us to Ruby and got her to track you, and asked the other vampires to put the word out that he was looking for you. He tried to hide it, but it was obvious he was pretty desperate to find you.”

“Oh!” said Lily, wide-eyed. “So that’s why Zelena’s jealous of you. You and Gold? I didn’t realise you two were a thing.”

“We’re not,” said Belle shortly.

“But he obviously cares about you…”

“He cares about his own bloody authority,” sighed Belle. “You heard him! He could barely look at me; I even hugged him and - nothing! It’s like he was a - a rock, or something. A really bloody annoying, way too good in bed, stupid rock!”

“Breaking news: local man can’t admit his feelings!” announced Emma. “More headlines! Water is wet, and it turns out that bears really do shit in the woods! More at six!”

They all burst out laughing, Belle included, and Emma grinned at her.

“Seriously, he’s a guy,” she said. “Just because he’s immortal and powerful doesn’t mean he’s not a total dumbass.”

“Oh, he’s definitely that,” said Belle, in a dry tone, and Emma grinned again, shifting in her seat a little.

“I hope Philip’s okay,” she said. “Poor guy - he was so desperate not to hurt anyone.”

Lily shuddered.

“I’m so glad that’s over,” she said. “He seems nice. Ruby will look after him, and if he goes to the bar with Gold and his friends, he’ll have no problem being accepted by everyone else.”

“I hope he has a strong constitution if he’s drinking with Gold’s friends,” remarked Mulan. “They seem to spend most of their time either drunk or hungover.”

“After being chained naked in a cellar for a week and then told he has to fight a witch, he might welcome some sweet oblivion,” said Aurora, and they all chuckled.

Mulan tapped at the indicator, turning off the road onto Storybrooke’s Main Street, and Belle watched the streetlights flick past.

“If it’s okay with you guys, I think I’ll pass on the drinks,” she said. “I’d rather take a long shower and wash the cellar out of my hair. And get some sleep. I feel as though I could sleep for days, and I have a library to run.”

“We’ll drop you off,” said Mulan. “Make sure you set up a magical barrier; I don’t want Zelena getting it in her head to finish the job.”

“I don’t think she’d dare,” said Lily. “Besides, I’m sure Regina will keep her in the mansion until they’ve worked out how to pacify Gold.”

“You think it’s likely they can?” asked Emma. “He looked pretty murderous, last time we saw him.”

“Oh, he always keeps his word,” said Lily uncomfortably. “If he sees her again, she’s dead. I don’t know how Cora and Regina will handle it, but they’ll either have to get her out of town or - well, or make some other deal with him.”

“But they’re witches,” said Emma. “Couldn’t they just - I don’t know - turn him into a frog, or something?”

“Magic doesn’t seem to work on him like it works on other vampires,” said Aurora. “I can’t imagine what he might do if they tried something and failed.”

Emma winced, and Lily wrinkled her nose.

“It was a long time ago,” she said slowly, “but I heard that the Coven went up against him before. Back in the sixties, or something. Most of them were killed, and Regina’s grandmother was the only one left alive. Whatever the reason was that she was spared, she was way too scared to try anything again. As kids, we were always told not to get on the wrong side of him.”

“I guess Zelena didn’t pay attention in class, then,” said Belle, and Lily sniffed.

“Zelena always thinks the rules don’t apply to her.”

Mulan caught Belle’s eye in the mirror again.

“Don’t feel sorry for Zelena,” she said. “She would have killed you and not lost a wink of sleep over it.”

“I’m not feeling sorry for her,” said Belle immediately, and hesitated. “I’m not sure what I’m feeling. Confusion, mostly. And exhaustion. Mustn’t forget that.”

The others laughed.

“Get some sleep,” suggested Aurora. “You don’t need to think about Gold right now. Or what he has planned for Zelena.” 

“Whatever it is, she deserves it,” said Mulan fiercely, and Aurora murmured agreement.

“I guarantee it’s nothing good,” said Lily, with a bleak expression. “I guess I should feel something about that; I’ve known her for years, but we’ve never been close. And after what she did to you two…” She shook her head. “Honestly? I kind of think she deserves it too.”

“Hold on, I thought you said he wouldn’t hurt anyone in Storybrooke,” said Emma. “Doesn’t that include Zelena?”

“Well, technically she waived her rights to protection when she attacked you and Belle,” said Lily. “Gold’s the one that created the Covenant in the first place. He’s a stickler for keeping to the letter of it.”

“What is this Covenant?” asked Emma. “Gold and Regina were arguing about it in the cellar.” 

“It’s - it’s kind of a peace treaty between the magic users and supernatural creatures,” said Lily. “We don’t harm each other, and we don’t hurt the townsfolk. Storybrooke’s a safe haven for all that live there. Or at least that was the idea.”

Her voice trailed off into a whisper, and Emma squeezed her hand comfortingly.

“Sorry your family sucks,” she said, and Lily let out a tearful, liquid sort of laugh.

“Regina’s not so bad.”

“What will you do now?” asked Aurora, glancing back at them, and Lily shrugged.

“I think it may be time for me to leave home for good,” she said, glancing at Emma.

“Maybe we could be roomies,” suggested Emma, blushing a little. “I should really think about putting down some roots and - and it might be nice if we got a place together. You know, if you wanted.”

Lily gave her a tremulous smile.

“You really want to?” she asked nervously. “You don’t think I’m a - a freak?”

“Hey, we’re both freaks,” said Emma immediately, and Lily giggled, her eyes gleaming.

“Okay then,” she said. “I - I guess we’ll be roommates.”

She leaned into Emma, reaching out to squeeze her hand, and Belle smiled to herself.

“Maybe Gold has an apartment you could rent,” suggested Aurora, and Emma snorted.

“My landlord is a vampire,” she said flatly. “Sounds like a bad nineties sitcom.”

“Maybe we could leave Storybrooke altogether,” said Lily, glancing at Emma. “Make a new start somewhere else.”

“Sounds like the sort of decision we shouldn’t make before some serious celebrating,” said Emma, with a grin.

“Rabbit Hole, here we come,” said Mulan, chuckling.

-

Gold was pacing. After dropping the others at the bar, he had returned to the shop, knowing full well that he would get no rest if he went home. Belle’s face kept swimming into his thoughts, her radiant joy turning to crushing disappointment as he pretended indifference. He had wanted to tell her how glad he was that she was alive, that she was unhurt, that he had been frantic with worry for her. That he loved her.

He froze, shoulders hunched as he ground the cane between his feet, his muscles taut. His instinct was to shove the feeling away, push it low down where he could ignore it, but something told him that it would slowly burn its way upwards to consume him. The strength of his feeling, the certainty of it, had been growing since he had first touched her. He had thought he could control it, but then she had hugged him. It had been lifetimes, centuries, since anyone had clung to him for comfort. Since he had known true affection. She cared for him, even knowing what he was, and he had come within minutes of losing her forever.

The ringing of his cellphone sounded harsh in his ears, and he was tempted to hurl the thing across the room. A glance at the number made his teeth clench, but he nodded slowly, and swiped a thumb against the screen to answer. May as well make my position clear.

“Madam Mayor,” he said evenly.

“Mr Gold.” Cora Mills was trying for a sultry tone that made his lip curl. “I understand there was some - unpleasantness - at my house this evening.”

“That’s a glaring fucking understatement,” he said tersely. “I presume Regina told you what happened?”

“I presume you are aware that I had no prior knowledge of Zelena’s activities,” she went on, her tone airy. “I assure you she will be punished. You can leave it to me. She won’t bother you again.”

Gold felt a flare of rage, but let it out in a hollow chuckle.

“Oh, that’s not how this works,” he said softly. “She didn’t just break the Covenant, she almost obliterated it.”

“Oh, really!” She sounded exasperated. “It’s not as though anyone was hurt!”

“No thanks to your first-born.”

“She’s ambitious, that’s all.”

“She’s fucking unhinged,” he said coldly. “Miss Swan and Miss French could have been murdered, and the werewolf too. I will not let that stand!”

“If you just trust me—”

“Trust can be forfeited more quickly than it can be earned!” he snapped. “Do you have any idea how hard I’m gonna have to work to convince the other creatures in this town that they won’t end up in your cellar? You think I’ll stand in their way if they decide to strike first?”

There was a moment of silence.

“That would be unfortunate,” she said. “I can see your dilemma.”

“Oh, I don’t have a fucking dilemma, I assure you,” he rasped. “I have absolute clarity on what needs to happen here. You remember what I did to that shape-shifter a while back for a far less serious transgression, I’m sure.”

“Yes, but that was a demon…”

“As opposed to what?” His tone was flat. “Do you think humans deserve special treatment, or are you forgetting what I am?”

“Always so melodramatic!” she sighed. “I’m sure there must be some way to resolve this little misunderstanding!”

Gold clenched his jaw.

“I never break a deal, Madam Mayor,” he said evenly. “Regina asked me for time to tell you what had happened. I agreed to that. I also told her that the next time I see Zelena, I’ll kill her. Believe that I meant every word.”

“And I suppose there’s nothing I can say that will persuade you that leaving her alive is in everyone’s interests?”

“Your powers of deduction are truly remarkable,” he said dryly. “Try considering the interests of the daughter you actually care about. Think about how you’ll protect Regina from the consequences of Zelena’s recklessness. I wasn’t joking about how the other creatures will react to this.”

The Mayor clicked her tongue in exasperation.

“This is very disappointing, Mr Gold,” she said. “I thought you were a more reasonable man. Able to see the bigger picture, not blinded by - well, whatever it is you’re feeling towards some Little Miss Nobody.”

Gold tamped down his anger, letting it burn low in his belly.

“As I recall,” he said evenly. “The last time your family crossed me, I listened to your mother’s pathetic pleas for mercy, and let her live. I did so against my better judgement, and I informed her that any future transgression would arouse my - extreme displeasure. You’re lucky I haven’t killed every last one of you.”

There was silence at the other end of the line.

“Perhaps we strike a new deal,” she said then. “We’ll leave town. Take Zelena far away, you would never have to see any of us ever again.”

Gold let out a low, humourless chuckle.

“And spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder?” he said. “I don’t think so. Leave town if you wish, but she stays to face the consequences of her actions. If she’s lucky, I’ll make it quick. Which is more than she would have done for Miss French.”

“And if she decides to stay in the mansion?” The Mayor’s tone was wry. “I hope you don’t intend to attack us in our own home. That would end badly. For all concerned.”

“Oh, I’ve no intention of attacking you,” he said. “On the contrary. I believe you’ll see the sense in letting her come to me.”

“You think I’d sacrifice my own daughter?” 

“If it meant saving your own skin?” he remarked. “I don’t imagine you’d think twice.”

More silence. He could sense her cold fury.

“Are you expecting her to simply walk into your shop when the whole town is aware of your - disproportionate - reaction to this whole affair?”

Gold smiled.

“Well, you’re a resourceful woman, Madam Mayor,” he said lightly. “I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

-

The following day there was a strange, tense atmosphere in the town, a heavy pressure in the air and the residents speaking in hushed tones, as though they could sense that something had altered in the delicate balance of power. Most of the townsfolk, human or otherwise, appeared to be giving Gold a wide berth, and he wasn’t sure if they could sense his anger, or if Jefferson and Cruella had spread the word that he was in no mood to suffer fools. He had asked them to reassure all creatures that he was dealing with Zelena’s breach of the Covenant, but knew that he would have to make an announcement himself when it was done. Uncertainty made people jittery, and fear could lead to unintended consequences. Not for the first time, he cursed Zelena’s very existence.

The shop was conspicuously empty of customers, and he spent the morning dusting the stock and catching up on the accounts. Once that was done, he began carefully tending to some of the more valuable antiques. He had recently acquired some new pieces that needed preparing for sale. A cardboard box sat by the cash register, filled with pieces of delicate white porcelain nestled in tissue paper and bubble wrap, awaiting his attention. A long wooden case, dark with age and scuffed at the edges, was open on the shop counter beside it, its red silk lining holding an ornately-carved sheath. The sword that went with it, a Japanese katana , was lying on a pad on the workbench in the back room, and Gold had spent the best part of an hour cleaning it. It had been a useful distraction; he knew that he needed to speak to Belle, and he told himself that completing his chores was just as important, and in no way an excuse to put off their meeting. Antiques needed care and attention, after all, and the process of cleaning and fixing the treasures in his collection helped him to think. 

Gold eyed the sword critically, holding out the blade and staring down it to check that no scratches or debris marred its gleaming length. He set aside the silk ball filled with powdered stone that he had used to polish the blade to a mirror-like shine. Long fingers cloaked in gossamer-thin black silk plucked a sheet of fine tissue paper and wiped off the residue, and soft cloth daubed with mineral oil was stroked carefully over the blade. The tinkle of the shop’s bell made his lip curl, and he gave the blade a final wipe as he listened to the rapid tapping of footsteps on the wooden floor.

“Gold, are you in here?” came an unwelcome, familiar voice, and he scowled.

“Well, it is my shop,” he said under his breath.

He glanced over his shoulder as Zelena entered the back room. Her red hair was pinned up beneath a hat with a feather at the side, and a dark green wrap dress gave a generous view of her cleavage. She still had that tiny smirk twisting her mouth, as though she knew a joke no one else understood, but as she felt his eyes on her, it became a pout. Gold tried not to grimace, and kept his expression carefully neutral. 

“Ms Mills,” he said calmly. “A moment.”

He picked up the sword, holding it carefully balanced in the palms of his hands and easing past her into the shop. 

“Mother said that you wanted to speak to me,” she said carelessly.

“Did she?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“Oh, she told me not to come,” she added. “Said that you were in a terrible mood. I must say you don’t seem any different than usual to me. I told her you’d get over that silly little spat we had. I know you understand the risks that have to be taken when you aim high.” 

Gold carefully placed the sword in its case next to the scabbard, feeling Zelena’s eyes on his back as he set it down on the red silk.

“I can’t imagine why you continue to run this place,” she said airily. “I don’t see many customers coming in here, so it must be losing you money. Why bother with the facade of being an antique dealer when the whole town knows what you are?”

Gold smiled to himself.

“The shop is actually very successful,” he said. “But I do most of my business online. The internet is one of humanity’s most incredible inventions, don’t you think? I provide rare objects for collectors all over the world.”

He gestured to the sword, still with his back to her.

“This is the most recent item due to be shipped to one of my more discerning customers,” he said. “Did you know that blades by a certain swordsmith in the fourteenth century were thought to be cursed?”

“Really?” Her tone was flat. “I can’t sense anything.”

His cold smile grew a little, the corner of his mouth drawing upward.

“A legend, perhaps,” he acknowledged. “It’s said that they couldn’t be sheathed without having drawn blood; that they - thirsted - for it. When cleaning his sword, a samurai would often cut himself in order to satisfy the cursed blade’s taste for violence, by which he hoped to stop the sword from choosing him as its next victim. Blood-drinkers, I suppose you could call them.”

His voice trailed off to a whisper, and he rested black-gloved hands on the counter, fingers poised on their tips.

“Fascinating.” Zelena sounded bored. “Speaking of a thirst for blood, that’s why I’m here. About our deal. I’m ready.”

Gold carefully peeled off the silk gloves, dropping them into the open sword case and slowly turning on his toes to face her.

“Our deal?”

“You agreed to make me a vampire,” she said.

He eyed her for a moment, and his lips twitched in a tiny smile.

“Ah yes,” he said softly. “If I recall correctly, you requested that I do so in return for you releasing Miss French and Miss Swan.”

“That’s right.”

“Which you failed to do.”

She rolled her eyes.

“They’re free, aren’t they?”

“No thanks to you.” He shifted his stance a little, shaking his hair back. “I also recall that you were rather unconscious when I took them out of the cellar you had trapped them in. You know, after you kidnapped them and almost got them killed.”

Zelena sniffed, looking unconcerned.

“Well, I wanted to help Lily get control of her powers, and I did,” she said. “For all the thanks I get, she hasn’t spoken to me since. Or apologised for knocking me unconscious. The rest of the Coven are furious with me too.”

“You astonish me.”

“Well, I can’t see what they’re so mad about,” she went on. “I fixed Lily’s problem. She gets to canoodle with her girlfriend, the werewolf is roaming free, and the librarian is back with her books, no doubt being her usual interfering self. Everybody wins.”

Gold’s smile widened.

“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it.”

“So are you going to keep your word, or not?”

Gold stepped forward, until they were almost touching, and Zelena sucked in a breath, lips parting in arousal. He could hear her pulse thumping hard, blood surging through her as her excitement rose.

“Oh, I always keep my word,” he said lightly. “And I remember exactly what I said to you. If you want me to proceed as promised, I can do that.”

Zelena’s brow furrowed, as though something in her sensed his anger, the molten core of rage at the heart of him. She batted her eyelashes, smiling widely as if dismissing any thought of danger. 

“This isn’t an idea I just came up with on a whim, you know,” she said. “I’ve been considering it for years. I really think I ought to do it while I’m still young and beautiful, don’t you? Youth, beauty and power for eternity! Can you think of anything better?”

Gold didn’t bother to answer.

“The town will be ours!” she went on. “Or, better yet, we could go somewhere else, away from small-town Maine. Let Regina have her pathetic little fiefdom. We could go to New York, or - well, or anywhere! We could rule a country if we wanted!”

“You have lofty ambitions,” he remarked.

“What’s wrong with that?” she demanded. “The power of magic and the life of an immortal - imagine what I could do! What we could do! There’s so much you could teach me!”

His mouth twitched at that.

“And you’re ready, are you?” he asked softly.

Zelena’s eyes widened in excitement.

“Yes!” she breathed.

Gold gave a slight smile, looking her up and down.

“You’re sure that’s what you want?” he whispered. “To face the unknown?”

She put her hands on his chest, pale eyes gazing up at him.

“I want immortality!” she breathed, and his smile grew.

“I promise you, Ms Mills,” he said. “That a hundred years from now, the residents of Storybrooke will still speak your name.”

“Good!” she urged. “I want them on their knees !”

“I’m sure you do.”

She was almost panting with excitement, her eyes sparkling. Gold resisted a shudder and sucked his teeth, inclining his head as he took a step back and turned away.

“Immortality is not what you’d expect,” he said quietly. “It’s a strange thing to stand outside time. To watch everyone you love die and turn to dust. To watch civilisations rise and fall.”

“You seem to be doing well enough on it.”

“That’s because I’m careful,” he said. “And very much the exception rather than the rule.”

“So teach me!” she said urgently, and he eyed her for a moment before nodding slowly.

“It’s really not that complicated,” he said. “The secret to a long life comes down to instinct. Who to trust. Or not.”

“Oh?”

He took a step forwards, walking in a slow circle around her.

“Knowing which battle to pick,” he added. “When to retreat. When to start a fight.”

Her eyes were following him, hungry and eager, and he pivoted on his toes, whipping back around and snatching the sword from its case.

“And when to finish it!” he snarled, and lashed out.

Steel hummed as it sliced through the air, and he barely felt the impact. A spray of blood fanned out, spattering the counter and the polished floor in a gleaming, crimson arc. There was a wet, heavy thump as her head hit the floor, her body crumpling in a heap at his feet. Blood dripped from the tip of the blade, and Gold calmly reached for the silk handkerchief in his jacket pocket to wipe it clean. Zelena’s head had rolled when it fell, and was staring up at him with glassy, sightless eyes. Gold’s mouth twisted.

“Consider this a lesson learned,” he said quietly.

-

After Mulan and the others had dropped her off at the library, Belle had spent a long time in the shower, scrubbing away the dirt and the scent of dust and fear. She had not expected to get much rest, but the following day she woke from a long and—thankfully—dreamless sleep to see that the sun had risen. Her phone showed messages from Mulan and Aurora, checking up on her, and she hurriedly sent a text back. They had sent pictures from the Rabbit Hole; squashed together with Emma and Lily and Philip, grinning widely. Philip looked better already, the silver cuff around his wrist peeking out from beneath a paisley-patterned silk shirt and black brocade waistcoat. The owner of the clothes was in another of the pictures, hat pulled down at a rakish angle and a tall drink in his hand, his arm around Cruella’s shoulders and both of them looking wasted. There was no sign of Gold. 

She opened the library as usual, but there were few visitors. The atmosphere in Storybrooke felt strained, as though everyone was keeping their voices to a whisper and tiptoeing about the town. It gave Belle an itch between her shoulder blades, an anxiety that made her start at the slightest noise, eyes scanning for any sign of reddish hair or green dresses. She was unsure whether the rest of the town knew what had happened, or whether it was only the supernatural creatures, and the humans were picking up on their unease.

The strange, heavy feeling continued until after the sun had set, when it seemed to ease a little. Belle let out her breath in a rush, allowing her shoulders to slump. She carried on cleaning up the library, sweeping the floor and tidying the circulation desk. It was past closing time, and she gathered up the few books that had been left on tables and set them on the trolley for sorting. A squeak from the library door made her jump, and she turned with a gasp, a heavy book held in both hands. The knot of fear in her chest softened as she saw that it was Gold, leather-gloved hands folded over the handle of his cane, his gaze steady.

Gold could feel a blaze of warmth inside him at the sight of her. Her eyes were wide, her lips parted, as though she was afraid, but he noted with some amusement that she was holding a book like she was about to bludgeon him to death.

“Forgive me,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s - it’s fine, really.” She set the book down, turning to face him. “I’ve just been kind of jumpy since - well, since I got kidnapped. And there’s been this weird feeling in the town all day - at least, it felt that way to me. Maybe I’m just nervous.”

“No, you’re quite correct,” he said. “I’ve felt it too, and I suspect you can guess the cause.”

“Was it - because of what happened?” she asked, her voice uncertain. “Because of Zelena?” 

He took a step forward, cane tapping on the floor.

“It’s been many years since a magic user has attacked any of the residents,” he said. “The creatures that make their home here were extremely concerned by what happened to you and Miss Swan. When they heard about Zelena’s plans for the werewolf… well, let’s just say Jefferson and Cruella spent most of last night and today trying to reassure them that I would deal with the problem.”

He let the last few words out in a whisper, and Belle opened her mouth and closed it again, looking uneasy.

“The prospect of immediate and violent retaliation was very real,” he added. “Luckily that crisis has been averted. For now. Nonetheless, I’ll have to spend some time this evening assuring everyone that there’s no danger of any repetition. There’s a meeting at City Hall at eight for all supernatural creatures and magic users. You’re welcome to attend.”

“Oh.” Her face fell a little, teeth catching at the plump softness of her lower lip. “No danger. Does that mean—”

“I killed Zelena,” he said calmly, noting the way her eyes squeezed shut before opening again. “I made it quick. Painless. Which is more than she deserved, frankly, but I don’t suppose it matters.”

Belle looked stricken. She swallowed hard, shifting from one foot to the other.

“Did you - uh - bite her?” she asked, and winced. “Actually, I’m not sure I want to know.”

Gold had curled his lip, but then he gave her a wry smile.

“I did not. Oh, that’s what she came to me for, but no. I’d like to think I have more taste.”

She was silent, and it was making him feel awkward. He stepped forward, beginning to pace, cane tapping against the floor.

“I understand that you’re disappointed in me, but I’m not sorry I killed her,” he went on. “She needed to die. She needed to die before this town fell apart and turned on itself. Before the fragile peace I’ve kept for sixty years imploded.”

He stopped, grounding the cane and swivelling on his toes to face her as he flicked back his hair. Belle looked to be struggling with something, her mouth working.

“I know she was - dangerous,” she said. “If this was anywhere but Storybrooke, I’d say she needed to face proper justice, but—”

“She did,” he said softly. “She faced our justice. Such as it is.”

She looked at her hands, fingers twisting around each other, and he waited for her to tell him to leave.

“I - I understand,” she said, surprising him. “I’m not saying I like it, but I understand why you did what you did. Lily explained how the Covenant works, that it protects the whole town, that - that the peace depends on everyone keeping to it. I can see how she threatened that.”

He had expected to have to argue with her, and her response rendered him temporarily mute. Belle looked hesitant, eyes flicking up to meet his.

“Regardless of the need to protect the town,” she said carefully. “You did everything you could to save us. Aurora and Mulan told me how you - you took charge, you brought in Ruby and the others to help. If you hadn’t done that, if you hadn’t cared—”

“If I hadn’t taken an interest in you in the first place, you would never have been in danger,” he said tersely. “It was my fault you were in there. You and Miss Swan.”

“You’re not responsible for Zelena’s choices!” she said sharply. 

“She would never have dared to hurt you if I hadn’t—” He cut off, looking away.  

Belle watched him, his mouth pressed in a thin line, his jaw tight. He swallowed, his face softening a little as he glanced back at her.

“I didn’t come to tell you about Zelena,” he said. “Well, not just that. I came because - because you were right. About me.”

“Right about what?” she asked.

“What you said,” he explained. “The night I - the night I ended things between us. The night I - I pushed you away.”

She sucked in a breath, an ache in her heart as she remembered what he had said to her, and he pressed a hand to his chest, looking hesitant.

“I am a coward,” he said softly. “I have been for my entire, sorry existence. Becoming a vampire, gaining strength and power didn’t make me braver. It just made me dangerous.”

Belle licked her lips, taking a step closer.

“Tell me about it,” she asked gently. “About who you were when you - changed.”

Gold’s mouth twisted in a wry smile.

“My life before,” he said, “was very different.”

Belle gave him a tiny, wry smile.

“Let me guess,” she said. “Castle, soldiers, used to getting your own way? What were you, like a - a clan leader or something?”

Gold’s smile was something she hadn’t seen before. There was something in his eyes. A weary sort of sadness.

“I - uh - raised sheep,” he said simply. “Spun wool. Wove cloth. I lived in a one-room wooden house with a turf roof and traded wool for flour so I could make bread.”

Belle felt her mouth fall open, and snapped it shut.

“Oh,” she said.

“I was poor,” he added. “And lame. Injured my leg in a stupid war I had no interest in fighting.”

“Oh.” She felt a rush of understanding. “The cane! You said it was a reminder of - of human frailty. I didn’t realise you were talking about your own.”

Gold wrinkled his nose, glancing away for a moment.

“Sometimes I like to remind myself that I was once human,” he said. “I could always get around well enough with a staff, despite my limp. I just wasn’t any good at fighting. Or protecting anyone.”

He dropped his eyes, appearing to study the space between his feet. 

“It must be awkward, having to remember to limp when you don’t have to,” ventured Belle, and he smiled wearily.

“Muscle memory lasts a long time, it seems,” he said quietly. “Longer than other memories. Muscle memory and - regret.”

“You regret becoming a vampire?” she asked, and his mouth twitched.

“I regret why it was necessary,” he whispered.

Belle could feel her curiosity growing, and she moved closer.

“What happened?” she asked softly, and Gold pulled a face, looking away briefly before glancing back. 

“We were poor, like I said.” His fingers opened and closed on the cane handle. “But we had enough, most days, and we were happy. It was just the two of us. Me, and - and my son.”

Belle felt her mouth fall open.

“Your son?”

“Baelfire was his name,” said Gold. “He was the most important thing in the world to me. I loved him with every breath in my body, so when he was amongst those chosen to fight in yet another bloody pointless battle, I would have done everything in my power to keep him safe.”

“Of course you would,” she whispered, and his mouth flattened.

“Yes, well, unfortunately I didn’t have any power,” he said dryly. “As the men who took him made me well aware. I had no money to give them, I couldn’t even take his place. They laughed when I offered. Kicked my staff away and left me begging and weeping in the dirt as they dragged my boy away.”

He dropped his eyes again, a tiny shake of his head, his mouth working and his hands gripping the cane handle, knuckles white. Grief and shame seemed to radiate from him, and Belle bit her lip, one hand reaching out to him before dropping uselessly at her side.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “What - what happened?”

Gold inhaled sharply, straightening up, and the familiar, dark glint was back in his eyes. 

“It was dusk, and a man helped me get to my feet,” he said. “Put the staff back in my hands and took me home. He told me I could get my boy back, if I let him help me.” He pulled his lower lip up over his teeth, shaking his head. “I didn’t ask what the price would be.”

“He was a vampire?” whispered Belle, and he nodded.

“Everything changed for me that night,” he said. “The process itself was - agonising - but when it was over, I felt as though I’d been reborn. I suppose I had. In a way.”

“He gave you a choice,” said Belle. “Why?”

Gold’s mouth twisted upwards in a wry, slanting grin.

“He said he saw something in me,” he said. “Something that reminded him of his human life. He said he was once a desperate soul, like me.”

“And that made him want to help you?”

“I suppose so,” said Gold. “And he did. Or he tried, at least. I think he’d been a vampire for a long time. Perhaps as long as I have now. He didn’t seem to have the - blood lust - that raged through me when I woke. He told me of the limits to my immortality, and what could hurt me. He told me the longer I stayed alive, the harder it would be to kill me. At the time it felt as though I was barely listening. For the first time in my life I felt strong, and utterly fearless. I had Baelfire’s scent, and the scent of those that had taken him. I was eager to hunt. Eager to - to feed.”

“Did you find him?” asked Belle nervously. “Baelfire?”

He nodded.

“I found him,” he said quietly. “Him and all the other children that had been stolen from their families. I slaughtered their kidnappers, drained them dry and left them where they fell.”

His eyes were somewhere far off, his expression grim.

“Baelfire looked at me as though I was a stranger,” he said. “He saw me rip the throat out of one of his captors. My limp had gone, and I was covered in blood. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the terror in his eyes. He must have thought he was next.”

“Perhaps he didn’t recognise you,” offered Belle, and he smiled sadly.

“No he didn’t,” he agreed. “Not at first. And when he did—” He glanced away, his mouth flattening. “When he did, I could still see the fear in him. I could smell it, changed as I was. I would never have hurt him, I would have thrown myself off a cliff before I’d ever have done so, but I had changed forever, and he knew it. He knew that there was - evil - inside me.”

Belle was silent, waiting for him to speak, and Gold swallowed hard.

“I left,” he said. “The hunger in those first few days was extreme, and I didn’t want him to see, so I left. Found the ones that started that whole stupid bloody clan feud in the first place and killed them. I wanted to try and - and get it all out of my system before I went back to him.” He let out a low, dark chuckle. “So naive. As if I could. As if he’d forget what he’d seen.”

“How did he react?” asked Belle, and Gold pulled a face. 

“He was wary, at first,” he said. “He didn’t understand what I was any more than I did, but I told him I had only wanted to free him and the other children. I promised him that I wouldn’t kill anyone else.”

He was silent for a moment, eyes on the floor.

“Of course, it was a promise I couldn’t keep,” he said softly. “I had to feed, but I kept it from him. We moved around a lot in those first few years. We had to. I had to. It couldn’t last, of course. What I was - what I did - it drew attention. He realised just how much I’d broken my word when we faced an angry mob wanting to burn me alive.”

“God!” Belle clapped her hands to her mouth, and he gave her a twisted smile.

“Oh, it wouldn’t have killed me,” he said. “Would have hurt like fuck, though. And they would have thrown him on the pyre for good measure. I’d become a vampire to save him, and every day I was putting him in danger. I had to leave.”

“And Baelfire?” asked Belle softly, and Gold sniffed.

“I wanted to give him a chance at a normal life,” he said bleakly. “He was almost a man by then, and I told him that I’d come back when I’d found a way to lift this - this curse. I told him it wouldn’t be long.”

Belle felt a surge of sympathy for him. She wondered how long he had searched. How many dead ends and disappointments he had faced.

“Did you see him again?” she asked, and he gave a brief, sad smile.

“Once.”

“What happened to him?” asked Belle, and he pulled a face.

“What happens to all humans,” he said bleakly, “He died.”

She stepped closer, wanting to reach out to him, but her arms seemed to be frozen at her sides.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I can’t imagine how it feels to lose a child.”

“I once told you that I didn’t need to be saved,” he said. “Perhaps I was wrong about that. Either way, it’s too late. With all the things I’ve done, I don’t deserve to be.”

Belle shook her head.

“I don’t believe that,” she whispered. “I don’t. It’s never too late.”

“Doesn’t matter.” Gold looked up at her, and his face was calm again. “I know what I am. I’ve had centuries to come to terms with it. Creating the Covenant and keeping the peace between the human and the supernatural doesn’t give me absolution, but I suppose it’s something.”

He looked weary, his shoulders slumping a little as he took a step back from her.

“Speaking of, I should really get over to the town hall and explain my latest murder.”

His tone was self-deprecating, and he gave her a nod as he turned away. Belle stepped forward as he headed for the door.

“Why did you tell me about your life?” she asked, making him pause. “About Baelfire?”

Gold turned slowly on his toes to face her.

“I wanted you to know,” he said simply. “I - suppose I wanted you to know me.”

He looked surprised as he said it, as though the words were unexpected, and she smiled.

“I’m glad,” she said quietly.

He held her gaze for a moment, as though he wanted to say something more, but seemed to think better of it.

“As I said, you’re welcome to come to the meeting,” he said. “Now that you’ve decided to stay in town, perhaps you’ll want to meet some of the other creatures that live here. No doubt there are many intrusive and deeply personal questions you’re simply desperate to ask them.”

His tone was dry, but there was a gleam in his eyes, and Belle bit back a grin.

“I haven’t finished with you yet.”

“No doubt.” His mouth twitched a little, and he bowed his head. “Good evening, Miss French.”

[awkwardwithapause263]

Spoilers for Episode 3 of Mayfair Witches if you haven’t watched.

The sheer audacity of Carlotta be like hi, I’m your great aunt and the dead woman was your mother why don’t you come back to my place. Knowing damn well she snatched Rowan from Deirdre then kept Deirdre in a catatonic state for thirty plus years then wanna be all woe is me I failed her, our family and god then jumps to oh look he’s looking for his whore but wait she’s made of stronger stuff than her mother. Bitch! Her words alone after the things she’s done make me despise her, but binding that innocent woman to Lasher knowing Lasher would kill her in one of the worst ways imaginable all because she did the morally right thing makes me be like I won’t be sad or sorry when you get pushed off that balcony.

How was Lasher able to leave the grounds if he was bound to the maid?

It was Cortland that killed her why else would he be in such a shock at himself like oh my god I did that combined with I know you’re upset I loved her too, but on the bight side you’re now free to bind with the thirteen witch and the fact Lasher was beyond pissed off at him.

So I was right about Ciprien getting there and Rowan deciding to go with him instead and about the safe house being what is keeping Lasher at bay.

Ciprien my dude don’t you know you never tell a woman how she feels even if you know how she feels and anyways it would have seemed like a invasion of privacy if someone told me I know what you feel I felt it when I touched you even if it was done on accident.

People can’t be that gullible to the point he can get into the crime scene and the morgue without much effort.

The medical examiner was an insensitive dick people really should do a thorough background check when hiring and then continuous ones throughout their employment.

Up until their final scene together Lasher and Rowan felt like a drugged girl awkwardly making her way down the block while some guy is taking advantage which I guess is what we’re meant to get from it. I was mentally screaming come on Rowan some woman is insistent you have a drink even when you told her no(when she popped up and started talking I was like who is this some old friend of Deirdre) then some guy appears after you have that drink in a mask. Stop and think about it that’s him. Inside the episode someone said he and Rowan bonded over shared grief I agree in the beginning when he was that woman they did.

He had absolute nothing to say for himself when Rowan snapped out of it and figured out wait this isn’t right you aren’t my mother it’s you it was you all along.

And girl what the fuck are you doing wandering around at night when there’s a psycho demon after you I would have stayed near that building and gone immediately back inside once it was all clear.

I was expecting those boys to follow Rowan then Lasher to swoop in and kill them all to appear the hero.

I wonder if Ciprien’s sister is going come back into play, those heels underneath the couch were a one night stand kind of moment, why is she working in heels pregnant, when she said are you seeing my brother I was like not yet she’s not, Rowan sweetie now is not the time to project your shit onto other people.

Cortland was going through Rowan’s belongings uh excuse you sir?

That last scene with Ciprien and Rowan was cheesy, cute, sincere and kinda intimate.

Love how we getting an expanse on magic and how the physical manifestation of Ciprien’s ability has adapted. In the first two episodes it was like a portal opened and he saw what was behind the object he was touching now it’s like we see a reflection of what he sees via his glasses.

Might add more.

This episode didn’t get me pumped for the next one which I guess is the point being it’s meant to be very solemn.

Was Lasher aware that Rowan felt what he was doing to Deirdre? Doesn’t seem so.

Why do I get the feeling Carlotta’s protection is putting and keeping Rowan in a catatonic state until she dies? Oh that’s right it’s what she did with Deirdre.

Ciprien’s directions were for your own safety don’t leave the apartment, but she ended up having to because of the fire now she’s thinking I won’t be able to go back inside for some time, but I can’t stay out here where Lasher can find me I know I’ll go to the Mayfair house because Carlotta said I’d be safe there. When in all honesty that is the absolute last and worst place she needs to be.

You remind me of her. Yeah exactly what a woman wants to hear(note sarcasm).

So let me see if I got this right when she took that drank it projected her consciousness into the ghostly plane where she could physically interact with Lasher and see other ghost but none of the other humans could see or interact with her or them and when she snapped out of it she came back to herself on the street corner where it began.

If you’re only separated for a minute why don’t you go find Deirdre and leave Rowan the fuck alone.

Anything could have happened to her while she was unconscious on that street.

I’ve heard people say all rowan does is cry, she looks a mess and is making poor decisions. Well in the first episode she was killing people with her mind and her mom was gaslighting her about it, in the second episode her mom was dead and her boss wouldn’t let her work and in the third her birth mom was murdered in both of her mom’s death she had to watch and could do nothing about it.

I think Lasher was scratching at the necklace through Deirdre but couldn’t get it off because she was so drugged.

Maybe that’s why Josephine was there to make sure nothing did.

[haechanniesunflowers]

y/n slaps yandere!Ateez during an argument

Warnings: this kind of behaviour is sick and you shouldn't take inspiration from it. I do not support it, none of us support it or should support it. It is wrong in every way.

Mentions of blood, rage, extreme violence, gore, brutality

Requested by @btsxgx

Hongjoong

He has one rule you must remember all the time, you are not allowed to touch him without his permission, he hates being touched

You want to hold his hand? Ask him. You want to wake him up from a nap? Call his name. But you do not touch him without his permission or else he will punish you and he's a masochistic psycho so you better keep your hands to yourself

Today was a bad day for him and he was taking it out on you. He was humiliating you for no good reason even though you were on your best behaviour for him. His words were getting unbearable and then you snapped and argued back

He was stunned because you never raise your voice at him so he got physical and started pushing you harshly

In an attempt to stop him your palm landed across his jaw and suddenly everything was quite, all you could hear was your heart thumping because you had just touched him

He grabbed you by your neck and shoved you to the ground on your back and stepped on you with one foot on your ribcage

He was putting too much pressure

Hongjoong made you look at him and "you want to hurt me? That's why you hit me? Your weak hands won't do it, let me do it for you" and he started hitting his face

You tried stopping him and apologized but he wasn't having it

You had touched him and now this was your punishment, he'd hurt himself and blame it on you

Seonghwa

He's a possessive yandere so don't even think about meeting your friends

But you still kinda wanted to meet your friends so you did that, without him knowing because he was busy at work

y/n's luck really ran out today huh? Because you just came back home after having the time of your life catching up with friends and umm... is that Seonghwa in the kitchen? yes honey and I'm so sorry

"you're home early" you started the conversation and back hugged him

"yeah my students finished with their vocal lessons early so I decided to come home to spend some time with you but I guess you were out whoring around with those pathetic sluts you call friends" he said in a sweet voice but you were taken aback by his words

You let him go and tried distancing yourself from him but he grabbed your wrist and pulled you to his chest and kissed you

You resisted and accidentally hit his face and you could feel him staring to breathe heavily

He stopped kissing you and pushed you towards the counter and grabbed your hand and smashed it on it several times

You were screaming your head off so he chocked you with his other hand

By the time he was done, your hand was purple, yellow and blue and two of your fingers were bent the other way, the joints completely broken. You felt dizzy and threw up

"oh no sweetheart are you okay? you should go sit on the couch I'll make some soup for you maybe you'll feel better" he cooed as if he didn't just violently break your hand

You screamed and begged for him to take you to a hospital and he took your hand in his and squeezed it while staring at you lovingly and said "of course sweetheart, afterall your stupid friends hurt your beautiful hand and I'll tell the doctor about that, maybe he'll tell you not to see them again. And then I'll report them to the police, look at how brutal those bitches are, did they really have to break your hand?" he said and took you to the hospital (yikes)

Yunho

Remember that episode of powerpuff girls in which the girls time travel to the future and the whole town is ruined because they weren't there to save them and everyone's old and keeps saying "it's your fault". That's Yunho. Everything is your fault and he'll cry over it and if you deny or leave, he'll end up in the ER.

Please explain to him why you were excitedly thanking the cashier for the store restocking your favorite moisturiser because girl you were obviously cheating on him like that *rolls eyes*

You guys got in the car and drive off and suddenly Yunho inquires about the incident with tears in his eyes "you're going to leave me for him aren't you"

He starts whining and crying and you're scared because he's almost overspending so you slap him to bring him to his senses and ge stops the car

"y-you hit me? It's because you hate me now isn't it? You love that man and now you're going to hit me to make me feel worthless" he says but you answer with a wth because you're fed up of his jealousy and he presses the gas pedal and starts driving recklessly

You start apologizing and reassuring him that you aren't going to leave him and that you love him too much to do so, even though the relationship was exhausting but you had to say this to save your life right now

Yunho stopped the car again and hugged you and smirked to himself

"haha works every time" he thought to himself

Yeosang

His silence speaks volumes

He's the unpredictable kind

So when you slapped him for constantly scolding you for saying no to his stupid plan of going to Jongho's house to watch movies he left you alone and went on his own

But he didn't come back home for the next couple of days

You were ecstatic because "yes finally now I can have some time to myself" but days turned into weeks and now he hadn't contacted you or come home for a month and as much as you hate to admit it, you were worried so you called Jongho and asked him about your boyfriend but Jongho said he hasn't spoken to Yeosang for over a month and revealed that he didn't come to his home to watch movies the day you had the argument with him

You called all his friends but they all said they didn't know where he was

You were scared and guilty and cried

You went to the police station to file a missing report and a search for Kang Yeosang began

The police searched everywhere for him for a few weeks but there was no sign of him

Until one day, a month after the search began and you were starting to lose hope, he came back home

You asked him where he was and he told you he was home

You told him to stop playing with you and demanded to know where he went and why he left you alone

"I just told you I was home, I saw how worried you got and how you cried for me. I saw you sleeping on the couch and in our bed, waiting for any lead for me"

You were terrified of what he said because all of that was true but you knew for a fact that he wasn't home so how did he know all this

"what's going on Yeosang?" you ask him in fear

He just smiled and sat on the couch and turned the TV on

You came to sit next to him and there was silence for some time until he said "y/n? Next time try to hit me, there will be a search party for you"

San

The brutal sadist

You knew better than to get on his nerves because he switches from his usual sweet doting personality to a violent mad man

But you were on your period and everything was making you angry

San was feeling horny and wanted you but you didn't want him to come near you

You were beyond angry when he didn't stop and kept kissing you and trying to undress you, so you slapped him

San caressed his cheek and laughed a little and you knew you've done fucked up

You instantly start apologizing but San kept laughing with his hand still on his cheek

"kinky. do that again" he said

But you didn't want to do that again so you kept telling him how sorry you were and that you wanted him

He looked at you and smiled and said "I said, do. that. again." you were crying at this point

The next thing you knew, San was dragging you out the room by your arm and took you to the basement where he kept his tools. You were still apologizing in hopes of him going easy on you

He fixed your arm in one of the machines (the one which Ester uses to break her arm in the movie Orphan) and kept going until you heard the sound of your broken bones

San started slapping you and you were begging for mercy at this point

He was completely out of it and looked like he would kill you right then and there

You woke up in a hospital bed and heard the doctor telling San that "your girlfriend needs to see a psychiatrist because if she has hurt herself like that now, who knows what she would do to herself in the future"

The doctor came to check you and San held your hand "honey I was so scared! why did you hurt yourself like that. You didn't even think what I would go through, you know I can't see you in pain"

You felt tears escaping

Mingi

Mingi had just insulted your sister for visiting you and kicked her out of the house

You were furious and argued with him about it and he just said "I hate her, so she shouldn't come here where I can see her"

You said "well I hate your bitchass friends and family too, they shouldn't come here either where I can see them"

He started using slurs against your family and you slapped him out of anger

He quickly pushed you towards the wall and punched you

Your lips were bleeding but he wasn't done

He said he'd do the same to your sister she ever comes here again

You protested and called him out but he punched you again, this time drawing blood from your nose

You really didn't think Mingi would ever hit you like this but he just did and you wanted to run out of the house, away from him

But he grabbed your leg as soon as you tried to get out of the room and got on top of you

"you're really getting on my nerves today bitch"

He punched you one more time and you fainted

Wooyoung

Wooyoung is the brat tamer kind and that's what you were being right now, a brat

You wanted to leave the house and go shopping but he wasn't in the mood to go out and you weren't allowed to go without him

So you started whining

He was getting annoyed and warned you

But you had a death wish of some sort and kept whining

He had had enough and started being rough with you to stop you

You protested and accidentally slapped him

You really outdid yourself and now you were in for it

He dragged you to his room, tied your limbs and ripped your clothes off

"now I'm going to punish you for what you've done baby girl and you're going to count for me"

You tried to keep yourself composed

The whip stung your back and you screamed

"that isn't a number I hear, let's start again"

Jongho

Jongho didn't like to use his strength against you under any circumstances

He loved you too much and felt that he needed to protect you

You were happy with him but sometimes he was too much

He just told you that you are forbidden from seeing your male friend again because Jongho got the vibe that he was interested in you

You told him he was thinking too much and that your friend didn't really like you like that

But he said "no means no, you're not going to meet him again"

You were angry at him because you had to meet that friend in less than an hour "how am I going to explain this to him"?

"tell him you don't want to see him, if he's smart he'll get the message" Jongho replied

"Jongho you're being unreasonable and stupid" you said and he came to stand in front of you with his arms folded on his chest

You hated that he was challenging you right now so you slapped him

He didn't even budge because your slap was nothing compared to what he could do and he didn't want to slap you

But as payback, he forcefully took your phone and called your friend

"you make my girlfriend uncomfortable, don't ever try contacting her or meeting her again if you know what's good for you" he said on the phone

You were embarrassed and annoyed

[1plus1kiyoomi]

Chapter 16: 6PM Walks

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“What did you call me a while ago?” Kiyoomi asks Kia, not listening to what you’re saying.

“Kiyoomi, this isn’t our issue right now.”

“No, it is. She has to call me that again.”

“She won’t.”

“She will. She did it a while ago.”

“Kia’s probably playing with you,” you mumble to yourself, but you leave the two of them to continue making breakfast before the whole fiasco. You figure that Sakusa is too excited being called papa that he won’t listen to anything you will say at the moment.

“Kia say it again. What you called me a while ago,” Kiyoomi asks Kia. They are on the couch in the living room, Kia’s eyes stuck on the television screen. She ignores Kiyoomi. He takes the remote and turns the TV off. The little girl looks at him in disapproval. “Say it again and I will turn the TV on.”

“What?” Kia asks, obviously not hearing Kiyoomi’s pleads a while back.

“What did you call me a while ago?” Kiyoomi pushes, his eyes piercing through hers, begging.

“Kyo,” Kia deadpans.

Kiyoomi pouts, turning the TV back on. He leaves Kia on the couch, then goes to you at kitchen. You don’t notice him so he just leans his back on the counter, admiring you from behind. You looked so cute with his shirt and boxers on, the apron you’re wearing is the cherry on top. He’s trying his best not to jump on you especially that Kia is just there.

You, on the other hand, are slicing the apples, Saki in your mind. “That fucking bitch,” you mutter, slicing rougher than needed. “She better not show up here again.”

“Have mercy on the apples,” Kiyoomi chuckles. He wraps his arms around your waist, his chin on top of your head. You continue to slice, Kiyoomi carefully watching your hands. “Where’s the ring I gave you?”

“It’s in my bag. I took it off when we were in Universals since it was slipping off my finger. I was scared I’d lose it,” you reply. His hug feels comforting so you slow down in slicing. “Have you given up on Kia calling you papa?”

“No,” he huffs, his chin now on your shoulder. You giggle at his determination. “You’re probably shocked about what happened.”

“Didn’t know your fuck buddy was psycho,” you respond. He starts leaving small kisses on your exposed neck, so you put the knife down and turn to him. “Kiyoomi, why are you so touchy today?”

“What do you mean? I was also touchy yesterday,” he corrects you. His hands intertwine with yours as he brings it close to his. He gives all your fingers soft kisses, completely calming you down. “You seem so stressed. You should get a massage or something.”

“That sounds nice.” You smile at the thought of simply relaxing. Ever since you had given birth to Kia, time for yourself was impossible.

“Then take a day off from being a mom today,” Kiyoomi mumbles, planting a kiss on your forehead. You look up to him in confusion. “I’ll drop you off at the mall. I actually booked you an appointment at a salon and spa a week ago.” You stare at him in suspicion but he seems solely genuine about wanting you to relax.

“What about Kia?” You ask hesitantly.

“I’ll take good care of her,” he responds. “Get changed. I’ll continue making breakfast.”

After eating breakfast with Kiyoomi and Kia, they send you off to the mall. You are so excited to relax. “Me time” is rare as a mother. You shall cherish it without questions on how and why you got to do it.

As you left the car, Kia and Kiyoomi drive to another street in the city of Osaka. They leave the car, and go to a small cafe that doesn’t have a lot of customers. A woman waves at him and he goes to where she’s seated.

“Kyo who’s that?”

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You finish your appointments at around 5:30 PM. Kiyoomi really wanted you to relax. He had appointed a full body massage for you, a hair treatment appointment, manicure and pedicure and lunch at a 4-star sushi place; he’s spoiling you.

You see his car at the driveway outside the mall. You enter his car, then you sanitize your hands. Kia is asleep so you keep quiet. You take a look at him and he looks nervous.

“Are you okay?” You ask him and he nods. You eye him warily as he starts driving off without a word. “What did the two of you do today?”

“We went to a cafe, then met up with my nutritionist. Kia is also gave him a checkup. Apparently, Kia is taller than most of her peers. She’s 8 centimeters away from 100cm and she’s only 30 months old...” Kiyoomi states in a stressed manner.

“Are you afraid she’ll get bullied by other kids for her height?” You look at him and he seemed upset about it. “On the brighter side, with her height she can be a volleyball player like you.” You reassure him, he still looks like he’s on the edge.

“It’s the flower field Kia and I went to a while ago. Do you wanna take a walk?” He suddenly suggests, looking out the window of his car. You hum as a yes, then he parks his car somewhere near the flower field.

“Baby...” You coo at Kia, taking her seatbelt off. Her eyes slowly flutter open and she smiles when she sees you. You lift her off her chair then close the car’s door.

You look around, and notice that there aren’t a lot of people. No wonder why Kiyoomi wanted to take a walk. The place is peaceful and breathtaking. Rows of different kinds of flowers, but mostly roses and tulips. You look down to Kia and see that she is staring at the sun setting over the flower field.

You finally sense Kiyoomi beside you, but the energy he’s giving is off. You take a glance at him and he isn’t wearing his mask on. Now your suspicion has risen to the highest level. You want to ask him about it but Kia suddenly wriggles out of your hold. You run after her but stop when you see two familiar boys.

“Mu-chan! Ki-chan!” She squeals in excitement, running towards the said boys. You greet them with a wave as they are standing from a far. You watch Kia run to them before walking towards them too.

“Mama! Turn around!” Kia shouts but you don’t hear properly.

“Turn! Around!” Atsumu shouts this time, signaling you turn with his hand. You raise an eyebrow at them before turning around.

3rd Year, Itachiyama Academy

August 19

“Omi... I suddenly thought of something,” you spoke, watching the sunset. You two were at his backyard, enjoying your first anniversary in the comfort of his home. “How will you propose to me?”

“Are you really thinking about marriage just because we’ve been dating for a year now?” Sakusa squinted his eyes at you. You shrugged, leaning on his shoulder.

“I’m just curious since you hate surprises. You might tell me to get my nails done a week before so it’d look good in pictures,” you joked. He let out a chuckle in agreement.

“I might do that.” He saw the excitement in your eyes. Now, he’s curious about your dream proposal. “How do you want me to propose? Do you want a grand one or a simple one?”

“I want you to propose just like this,” you replied, eyes glued on the setting sun. “You, me, on our anniversary, with the sun setting.”

“Do I have to be on my knee? The ground might be dirty,” he rambled so you pouted.

“How is it a proposal if you don’t go on one bended knee?!”

“Then I’ll do that,” he replied, determined. There was no hesitance in his response so your heart beat faster.

“Really?” You asked, hopeful. You were now looking at him and so was he.

“Yes.”

“Sakusa Kiyoomi, why?!” You exclaim as you cover your face with your hands, tears already falling from your eyes.

The Sakusa Kiyoomi who well known as a germaphobe is on his knee in front you, with a ring in his hand. You check your phone to see the date, just to make sure. August 19. You cry even harder, not able to process what’s happening. Your heart is about to jump out of your chest. How does he remember even that?

“Will you marry me?”

Unable to answer due to too much emotions, you pull him up and kiss him deeply, hooking your arm on his neck, pulling him close to you. He wraps his arms around your waist, lifting you up the ground in excitement. He puts you back on the ground, then gives you another chaste kiss before slipping the ring in your ring finger. He gives it a kiss, before kissing you once more.

“Mama!” You hear Kia run to the two you. Kiyoomi lifts Kia with one arm, his other arm not leaving you. “Look! Kyo proposed to me too!”

“Kyo who’s that?” Kia asked as she and Kiyoomi sat in the same table with a strange woman.

“Is this your daughter?” The woman asked Sakusa. He nodded. Kia was still looking at her weirdly. “Hi, I’m Nako. I’m a jewelry maker. I make necklaces, bracelets, and rings. Do you wanna see?”

“Sorry, I’m late,” a familiar voice spoke, catching Kia’s full atention.

“Mu-chan!” Kia greeted him with a kiss. He sat down beside her, greeting Nako and his teammate with a smile and wave. Nako was Atsumu’s classmate in high school that has become a famous jeweler in Japan.

“Here’s the ring and necklace you have requested to custom made,” Nako told Kiyoomi, handing him two black velvet boxes. “Just as requested, a palladium engagement ring with a 2.4 carat round cut diamond. And in this box we have a 14k white gold ring attached to a 14k white gold chain. I also made sure that this won’t choke your daughter. But to be extra careful, take it off during her sleep or if she’s playing without you or your wife around.”

They finished their transaction and Nako left, leaving the boys with Kia in the cafe. “So we’ll wait for at the flower field near your house and Kia will run to us, then you’ll propose?” Atsumu clarified.

“Yes. That’s right,” Kiyoomi approved. “Please thank Kita-san for me.”

“I will. I will. We’ll meet you there.” Atsumu bid his good byes, leaving the father-daughter duo.

“Papa what’s the rings for?” Kia asked, staring at the shiny jewelry set in front of her.

“Baby, I’ll propose to your mama,” Kiyoomi started to explain. “I’ll give her this ring so we can get married and we’ll be together forever.” He tried to explain in simpler words so the child could understand.

“Why do you want to be with mama forever?” Kia questioned, which made Kiyoomi smile.

“Because I love your mama.”

“How about Kia? Do you love Kia?” Kia tilted her head to the side, her hopeful eyes peering at his. He cupped her cheek, planting a kiss on her forehead.

“So much. I love Kia so much,” he replied. “That’s why I’m giving you this.” Kiyoomi took the necklace out of the box, presenting it to her.

“You’re proposing to Kia?” She asked in an excited manner, her hands clasped together, pressing them close to her chest. “You wanna be together with Kia forever?”

Kia started crying in joy so Kiyoomi picked her up from her chair, giving her a tight hug. Her sobs quiet down so Kiyoomi put the necklace on her. She hugs him again, giving him a lot of kisses.

“I love papa, too.”

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

Facts:

The idea and tradition of engagement rings dates back to ancient Egypt. The Egyptians believed circles were symbols of eternity.

The truth is the most popular engagement month in a year is December. 

In all, about 70% of brides wear their rings on the fourth finger of their left hand; a tradition that comes from the Roman belief that the vena amoris, or vein of love, was located there.

Wedding rings were traditionally made of gold because it was considered the most pure and valuable metal, and was thought to perfectly symbolize marriage.

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Taglist:  @elianetsantana​ aoi-turtle ptv-hades  aquzairus a-applepi justoneofthefangirlsarianna-r13 morenabambinii chaelysian loser-keiji mxngy ne-kuroon1fangirlsblog d-efendmissalicebaskervillemarvelousbakugou @agaashesmilktea​ bonkyandloki kimi09 ntimacy @mkazuyuh  ushi-please minty-mangos-world @dearest-kiyoomi​ yeehawslap  onlyshinji obsessedwhxre

[lilyrachelcassidy]

Birthday Cake

A/N: Suprise folks!!! *me laughing maniacally* The whole scenery for this fic somehow appeared in my head and I just COULDN’T let it slip away, so... My biggest inspo for that was @drawlfoy!! Remember her posting the fic where Draco and Reader work at McDonald’s and are total suckers in their job (arguing with the customers; preparing wrong orders; etc.)? Dee unfortunately, deleted this precious, but it’s stuck to my head ever since (lol lol, it’s the moment where Dee wants to get rid of something, but I kindly remind everyone it existed). Therefore I present to you the next Draco x Reader fic related to our fav fast-food rest. This time, however, they’re not working at the same workplace but... I'm going to stop here cuz I don't want to spoiler :P

**The second thing that triggered me to write this fic is the YouTube video I recently saw with a lady who orders the 'specials' appearing to be out of the menu list of McDonald’s, through the Drive-Through. She asked for a birthday cake, was laughed at a few times, but eventually got what she wanted. Applause for the attitude!!

About the fic (context, my bitches): ofc it’s the modern AU, non-magical world. Draco’s the worst boyfriend ever but always manages to turn things into their righteous place. 

Summary: The birthday is upcoming, and Draco is in a rush to think up an idea for a perfect gift. His ingenuity fails, however, and leaves Y/N very unsatisfied with a disaster that has been forged. 

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: my brain playing a total psycho, language, alcohol, sexual undertones/allusions to sex, Pansy being too much of her self... deal...

Tags: @drawlfoy @eltanin-malfoy

Such an unrestrained desire to strangle somebody you hadn't felt in a long time.

Really.

Today was your birthday, which you had been widely announcing for almost a whole month to people you might have accidentally forgotten about it. Having your boyfriend, Draco, on your mind in particular.

You doubted he would have the guts to omit your big day, though as repeatedly as he had done for a few years back. But something between foresight and the second sense of prevention told you to keep reminding him every day of the upcoming event, with a heap of birthday-themed emojis and uppercases in the messages.

Everything was planned out in your head: him picking you up from your house with the sharp-red cabriolet that he used only for special occasions; him driving the two of you to the fanciest restaurant he could find in town; him bestowing you with a nice-looking, golden necklace or a different piece of jewelry you had been suggestively pointing out in the store's exhibition; him booking up a hotel room for you two to celebrate.

Either way, that was much beyond your expectations, as it turned out. And now you were sitting in the front yard of your house, waiting for him to show up.

'If he was going to at all.' This thought invaded your mind for the last hour, try as might to subdue it. An hour you had been sitting tight, hoping it was only a delay caused by a traffic jam or other irrational explanation he could come up with. But you were deceiving yourself, you eventually presumed -- you had been checking up your phone every one minute, only to see if any message notification popped up on the screen, other than birthday wishes from friends who actually cared for you.

2.02pm: Nothing.

2.03pm: Susan 'Happy birthday bitch!'

2.04pm: Instagram notif. (Someone liked your photo, which you had posted before leaving your room, posing in front of the mirror in the best cocktail dress you could find in the wardrobe.)

2.05pm: Nothing yet again.

2.06pm: Still... Peace and quiet.

"Fuck it...Enough," you muttered under your breath, an annoying disillusionment falling like a heavy mile stone on your chest. Tears suddenly started sprinkling in your eyes at the regret, and you were very reluctant to admit that your friends were right -- Draco Malfoy was an egoistic, negligent, self-absorbed pri--

"Hi." You heard the raspy, panting voice says. "Sorry for the delay."

You blinked slowly, stupidly. You raised your head to assure yourself it was him. That his expression actually corresponded to his words and showed some kind of remorse for standing you up. But no... There he was: standing in front of you, plainly confident and unashamed, with his cocky smirk provoking you to slap him.

Oh, how much you craved to slap him right now. "Where to the fuck have you been?"

"I've tried to pick this up," he explained, simultaneously lifting up the paper bag he'd been carrying in his hand. The big, exclaiming letters 'McDonald's' with the brand's logo were printed on its exterior, and it was fully stuffed with something inside.

Not quite comprehending, you furrowed. You attempted to hide the venom in your voice, but somehow it found its way to leak out. "Couldn't you do that in advance?"

"Nope..." It was his turn to furrow, looking almost shocked with the question. And thanks to all those years of your relationship, you knew it was his piss-poor estimation of time taking over. "It was a last-minute surprise."

"Sounds like it," you commented irritably. "What's that?"

"Your birthday present, sunshine," he drawled happily, ignoring your remark. He sounded positively delighted and satisfied with himself at surprising you with that because he saw a slight crease of shock painting on your forehead. "Here you go."

You took his deposit out of his grasp, still quite unsure. What if his gift would only make a situation worse? Can it get any worse with Draco's total lack of tact? Yes. But it was only one way to find out.

Without even stealing a second glance at him, you ripped off all of the packaging that had been folded around, protecting the contents. You tried to do it carefully and without any impact of emotions revealing the way you felt inside, but your hands were shaking with rage, and you couldn't quite contain yourself. You had been highly aware you shouldn't have expected much from him, but still...

You wondered if the universe was playing against you.

There was a moment of tense silence as you struggled to deal with all the wrappings. Rather unfortunately, you wished you hadn't put so much effort in opening your so-called 'gift' because as you finally did, it only angered you more, seeing as the disappointment laughs at your face. And yes, as a matter of fact, the universe was against you today...

"Are you kidding me?" you asked in disbelief, fury reappearing in your eyes. "A birthday cake?! From McDonald's?" Ugly, little cake with the creepiest smiley face of a clown. It wasn't even fresh, you realized, when you smelled it and felt a musty reek of a freezer, it probably had been kept in. A confusing sense of sadness in your chest couldn't reach any higher at this point.

"Don't you like it?" he asked, detecting the wrath in your eyes. At that, you felt the dumbest urge to laugh and never stop. "I thought it'd be something original."

"Oh, I love it," you said sarcastically, a faint voice of hope telling you it was only a very bad joke was still lingering in your head. But it wasn't a joke.

"It's not just--" He struggled to form a coherent sentence. "I've been asking Blaise and Theo about any ideas. I told them, what you had said to me -- 'you didn't want anything fancy.' So we decided it's... something."

"Of course I didn't tell you I want anything, you dolt!" Your voice raised up almost two octaves, and the pulse sped up so fast it entailed a headache along. A neighbor from the opposite garden who was watering the flowers looked at you, startled, and eyes widened your exasperated tone. You didn’t care. "It's how it works: you don't tell other people you expect them to buy something!"

"But I'm your boyfriend. You shouldn't -- er-- feel uncomfortable to tell..."

"Exactly! As my boyfriend, you should have known!"

"Well... I didn't. If that's what's bothering you, we can...we can..."

"Stop." Listening to him and his pathetic excuses was the last thing you were going to do now. "What – why would you even – " You sputtered out, unable to process or express exactly what you were feeling. There was definitely anger and indignation. Curiosity, for another, as to why Draco would even fall for such foolish and ill-considered idea, and -- to the top of it -- hope it would make a good fit. And possibly, the last and most satisfying part, was the wicked impulse to throw the cake directly into his arrogant face, letting him taste his own medicine he had been serving you for years on each failed birthday.

"You know, for once, you could pay more effort and try doing something nice for me," you told him firmly, deflating to calm down your buzzing nerves.

"I've been tr--"

"Do you realize how much it costs me to pretend to be happy when you forget about me? Last year, I organized a big-ass party for your birthday, inviting over all of your friends and buying the best booze I could find to celebrate it properly," you said harshly and pretentiously, as you intended. "The best part is, you didn't even thank me." You stared at him, wringing your hands and expecting to perceive any trope of shame in his eyes. For the first time, you actually did.  

"Listen, about that--" he calmly attempted to cut off your monologue.

"No, you listen..." Did you really want what was upcoming next? Maybe it was about time. "Today, I decided I'm standing up for myself. So, for the last time, get out from my porch."

He bristled, the thunderstruck air hanging around him. "Because of the stupid cake?"

"What?! No! It's just... I feel like you don't give a damn about me anymore." Gulp formed in your throat, and the tears finally left your eyes at the consciousness of what was happening. "I think we both deserve some time."

Your eyes moved to his, and you almost wished you hadn't looked. He was watching you, with pursed lips and a pure mixture of every emotion: anger, sadness, resentment, pretension, dejection. The faintest of his flustered blushes appeared on his cheeks, and you suddenly wished you could hug him. "So you are putting us..." His finger pointed at him and you as if expecting clarification. "...on a break? Is that what it is?"

You were truly torn, to be honest. Becoming single on your birthday was the last wish you had for this day, but you felt a strong sense of adequacy and pride for building up the boundaries of tolerance. Besides, seeing as it was heading nowhere, it was only a matter of time that your relationship came to an end.  

Although, it hurt. A lot. "Yes."

You darted your eyes from him, not wanting to study his reaction in case it caused you to meltdown and jump to his embrace, apologizing endlessly for your words. You loved him. But you didn't regret what you had just said.

Something like a dry chuckle of disbelief escaped out of his mouth. "Is that what you really want?"

'No,' your thoughts prompted you instantly before you could even contemplate. 'I want you to say so many things you're never willing to say. But you don't know.'

So instead, you lied: "Yes."

All expressed, you spun around without peeking back and rushed into your room, already knowing there was no more sense in strives to make this day any better; all of it would bring only bad associations. It would be depressing, even more than it already was.

God, was it how the break-up pained? Because if so, you wanted to be deceased. The world spun suddenly, and you sank to your knees, shaking madly and doing your best to find your way back to your bed, located a few mere meters from you. Part of you felt numb, but your head was wide awake and alarming you that something in terms of a disaster had just happened. Because it did. The clutching in your chest was unbearable, and tears were dashing out of your eyes like a living waterfall, which made you bury your face in your hands. Never have you ever wanted to be so drunk before.

And so many questions rung up in your head at once.

Did you make a good decision? What if you are going to miss him, yet knowing you could never call? What about college -- are things about to get awkward?

No answers.

But you knew someone who would be able to reply to them.

With the blurred by tears vision, you struggled but managed to find your phone in the purse, and then clumsily scrolled through and tapped in your list of contacts before holding the phone to your ear.

Please answer, you begged. Please, please…

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Pansy's voice roared from the other side of a line, as always, enthusiastic.

"Pansy." You tried to sound less brokenly than you were, feeling marginally worse at the reminder of your birthday. "Is Daphne around?"

"Ouch, you're a really nasty bitch sometimes, you know. I'm not goin' to point out today, but since you didn't let me end my wishes, I'll note that for the future reference." You were sure she was grinning at the teasing, seeing as much as she liked that. Normally, you wouldn't mind, but... "How--"

"Pansy, please..." you sobbed out, almost desperate to have someone to consult and share emotions with. Daphne -- contrary to Pansy, who could be very judgy sometimes -- was someone you had especially on mind now. "I need to talk to her."

You heard her sigh; the kind of sigh she used to either prove her resignation or concern. But, as much as it surprised you, she suppressed her curiosity and, without a second word, obediently handed the phone over to Daphne. At least, that's what you assumed because you heard a pause and subdued mutters in the background.

"Y/N?" the milder tone spoke up, and you felt suddenly very strange as if submerged in water of relief; relief to hear the familiar voice. That released you from keeping a distant attitude, and yet again, a sadness washed over you, triggering a loud wail to come out of your mouth. "Y/N, is everything alright?"

"No..." you sniveled, unable to collect yourself together. "I-I... We br-brok-e up."

"You and Draco?" Daphne asked, astonishment evident.

You nodded but then remembered she couldn't see you nor read your expression. So instead, you forced your vocal cords to work again. "Mhm..."

"What happened?"

Restoring the story in your brain again, you told her everything, still tearfully but much more coherently this time. You avoided the details, briefly skipping from one utterance to another, as your conversations had gone, and you were very much thankful she didn't press for more information about the prospect of the situation. If it hadn't been her sporadic gasps or loud inhales of breath, you would have almost presumed she wasn't listening. However, she was, and as soon turned out, Pansy was as well.

"That's bananas!" Pansy shouted somewhere from the back as you had ended, and despite your gloom, you giggled quietly at her comment.

"Shush," Daphne tried to silence her, covering up the fact she had put you on the speaker. You didn't mind because you knew Pansy, who would definitely expect Daphne to cite the whole conversation if needed. But knowing Daphne as well, you could bet she flushed more than she would want to at that point. "So it all started because of the cake?"

"And the delay," you added. "But it's not just about that, obviously. It feels like... he completely stopped caring. And I don't want to be stuck in a relationship where everything is about sex and having fun only. Draco wasn't looking for a commitment, which..."

"Sucks,"ended this time Pansy unhesitatingly, who wasn't now screaming from the other part of a room but openly participating in the discussion.

"Yeah," you agreed.

"As for me, I think he might love you more than you know, Y/N." It was Daphne talking again, and she sounded positively convinced about her view as for someone who had hardly exchanged any word with Draco for the past few years. As if reading your thoughts, she continued. "I've observed you a lot. I know he might seem unemotional, but it's you who discovered him. That must require a lot of trust, you know."

You contemplated, and some of the memories and images from your first encounter run across your brain, try as might to suppress it: spotting each other at the party; binging some whisky shots together; flirty teasing; the very masculine scent of cologne; and then... more spicy recollections -- eager lips pressing against each other; against each others' necks; against other parts of the body; stripping off the clothes in the passionate haste...

Receiving a long moment of silence, Daphne took a second chance and asked. "And what's with you? Do you want to end it?"

It felt like standing before the oracle of truth. Therefore, you couldn't deny it in front of yourself. "No."

"So what're you still doing there?" commented Pansy impatiently, and you could imagine her rolling the eyes. "Get out and find him!"

She was right. You will.

XOXOXOXO

"I thought I'd find you here..."

No. Actually, you didn't. 

You had tracked Draco's phone with your own one with some help of an app that, as the two of you had established still in the relationship, would be a good idea in case of an emergency. That in itself proved to be more than helpful, believing that your argument may be pinned as something in terms of an emergency, right?

So having access to his location, you had found out he was in the park where he had taken you on the first date, shortly after dinner, to watch the sunset that, as he had described, 'was a typical cliche from every romantic movie.'

But you had fallen for that. So much.

You hadn't been aware the place had actually some meaning for him until now, and that... God, that he had even remembered it. Time showed, however, that it indeed did, to which your heart reacted with a happy jolting. But also with a nasty sting of nostalgia following shortly after.

Yet, that only had encouraged you to make up your mind and go looking for him, which hadn't been such a difficult task per se. He was sitting on the bench, in the shade of a tree, and hiding his a little too delicate skin from the sun rays. As soon as he had heard your voice, his gray eyes flew up to see you standing a few meters away.

"What are you doing here?" was the immediate question that tumbled out of his mouth. He arched his eyebrow, and to your surprise, he didn't even look angry or sad with you. Nothing near the edge; actually, almost something like the amusement was painting on his face.

"Aren't you mad with me?" you asked intrigued, completely forgetting about his question.

He frowned. "Why would I be?" His tone was so mild that you weren't sure if he was referring to the double meaning; but then he smirked playfully and said, "Besides, I knew you were coming."

"Wha-- How?" you asked, eyes dilating a fraction, in shock.

He smirked, pointing at his phone in an explanatory manner. After a moment, you finally figured out what he meant: the app must have registered he had been tracked and that your phone was trying to find his. At this notice, you reacted with a wave of flush, suddenly regretting your previous lie. His smile only widened at your expression. "Wanna sit? It's plenty of room here."

"Mhm..." You nodded, pleased to accept his offer, and walked over to the bench, doing your best to hide the evident embarrassment on your face. You felt strange he had taken you with such ease, seeing as merely two or three hours ago, you had burst at him like a cram-full volcano of unspoken emotions.

Draco shifted a package from his side, making more space for you to sit, and it took you a moment to realize it was a McDonald's cake from earlier. Everything started from that -- a stupid, little piece of cake which stood up between...

You shook the thought away, taking a seat next to him, close enough to smell his sandalwood cologne. "You didn't answer my question," Draco reminded you. "What's so important to make you track my phone?"

"I'm sorry, okay?" You rounded your face to him, flustrated, leaning at the backrest of a bench. "That's why I came. I wanted to apologize."

"Oh... Couldn't you call?"

You sighed. "I figured you wouldn't want to talk to me after...you know... our quarrel," you said half-despondent, half-desperate, watching your feet as if it were the most interesting thing to peer at now. "I didn't mean what I said earlier."

"I know," he said. Out of nowhere, he was gently grasping your palms which forced you to look up directly into his intense gaze. His eyes were swirling like molten silver at you. "But I should be apologizing, love. I made a mistake, okay?" His hands traveled all across to your tense shoulders, squeezing them lightly. "I know I should be more... affectionate with you. And this was...dumb. A dumb mistake. With that cake. But I'll try to be better if you give it another shot."

He looked so serious that you instantly believed him. You wanted to actually, with all force of longing, which grew up too rapidly in you when he wasn't around. Draco was a fool, you could easily say. But he was your fool, which was a thing you couldn't be more proud of.

Peeking slowly in the other direction, you asked, out of the topic, "You remembered the place?"

"Of course," he puffed jokingly, smiling. "Our first date. Officially our place from then on."

"Right..." You smiled back.

Honestly, the mere fact that he had called this spot 'yours' warmed up your heart, and you felt yourself grinning at his never-before-discovered emotionality. To assure yourself you weren't the only one caring, it was all you needed to hear.

The whole moment was intense, and now, you realized, is when you should have hugged him. Kissed him. Said something back at his sincere endearment.

But instead, spotting plastic cutlery next to your 'gift', you asked, "So what's the taste of the birthday cake?"  

And you knew he had caught the subtext of your playful inquiry. And you knew that soon you would work things out again. But, as for now...

"I thought you would never ask."

XOXOXOXO

A/N: Looooooool. Such a drama-comedy, right? And I could easily say It feels like 50% Draco-x-Reader / 50% Draco-x-BirthdayCake... But whatever (2am is working like a drunken bud, folks). Happy beginning of August :)

[appleciders]

Rachel + Leah + Water, the Director’s Cut!

Okay, so I made this gifset exploring Rachel and Leah and the ocean, but because there’s a ten gif limit and a major point of gifsets is for them to look nice, I had to sacrifice a lot of the behind the scenes thoughts and initial versions that came along the way. I still wanted to talk about them though, because I found a lot of them really cool, so I figured I’d stick all that in this post. It’s gonna get long, so you can find the rest under the cut!

So first up, we have Leah as we first see her in the water. (I’m using shitty screenshots because tumblr has a 2mb limit for gifs on text posts and I don’t feel like compressing these down lmao.) Here, she’s face-down, unconscious, floating on a fragment of the plane. This is the first time we see any of the girls in the water.

As Leah gives her dramatic speech talks to the detectives, we see flashbacks to the girl’s lives pre-island. There we see that one of them already has a very strong relationship with the water already, in her before-life: Rachel.

Rachel, as we know, is a diver. We see her take a magnificent tumble into the pool, but when she surfaces, her coach is sternly head-shaking. She corrects Rachel’s form, and after she walks away, Rachel echoes the correction, clearly frustrated with herself. 

Back to Leah. We next see Leah waking up on her lil chunk of flotsam. When she realizes what the hell’s going on, she does what we all would do and starts screaming in terror.

Her panic gets interrupted by Jeannette’s classic Raise Your Glass ringtone. (This was my alarm for two years in high school, and when I watched this for the first time I did have an out-of-body experience). She swims her way over to the Hello Kitty suitcase and—irrationally—unzips it, but we’ll cut her some slack because she’s in some serious shock. As she tries to get the phone, it slips through her fingers and starts spiraling down to the bottom of the ocean. She dives after it.

Unfortunately, she quickly runs out of air and has to give up. She then spots Jeannette floating nearby, checks her out, judges her to be “just a little roughed up,” and then sees land and has a big oh-thank-fuck moment. Because we saw Gretchen’s team placing all of the girls, we know that Linh and Leah were the only two that were put out in the open water. The other girls were put in the beach, or, in Martha’s case, near the shore. This was probably done to quell some of Leah’s suspicions about the crash, but it does give me a couple questions about how they got the other girls wet—did they hose them all down? Pour a couple buckets over their heads? Bob each of them up and down a couple times in a big net like fries in a fryer?? 

Anyway, not important. 

Next that we see, Leah has pulled Jeannette/Linh in from the water. (My Australian parents, who can never pass up an opportunity to give ocean safety tips, chimed in at this point in our first watch to say “See how she’s doing it! You always want to hold someone from behind and pull them in that way. Good job, well done.” So there’s some approval for you, Leah.) As Leah nears the shore, Dot and Toni come tearing in and they help pull the two of them out. 

The rest of the episode after that really only concerns fresh water—Toni and Shelby set out in search of it, to no avail, and Nora helpfully plugs Diet Coke reminds us multiple times that sugar’s heavier than water, so “sugar sinks.” We do set up a goal for the next couple episodes, though: Rachel says, “I'm gonna swim out to the plane tomorrow. See if I can find anything,” and Leah volunteers to come with. Rachel gives her a nod of respect.

Moving on to episode two, we have Rachel and Leah’s (iconic) first real conversation. Rachel says she’s still going out to the wreckage. Leah looks out and looks back at her, incredulous, and says, “Rachel, the water’s insane.” Here’s a big recurring association—the water and “insanity.” (I use insanity here because that’s the language they use, along with psycho/crazy. In no way does that reflect my actual beliefs about their behavior nor am I condoning the way they use those words.) Leah points out the rip current (“well done,” said my mum), and explains her very brief stint as a norcal surfer. Rachel still looks set on going, but then Leah says:

Turns out, Leah can be as ripe with foreshadowing as Fatin. This marks the appearance of their second main association with the ocean—death. After she says this, Leah turns Rachel’s attention inland, and the two agree to climb a big hill to scope out their situation.

Episode two is also obviously Rachel’s episode, so we see a lot of her relationship with diving. 

We see her plunge over and over and over again, drilling technique and form, but despite all her hard work, we learn her coach advised her to quit the team. Instead, Rachel throws herself in twice as hard, and ends up with an eating disorder. By the time the nationals come around, she’s too physically weak to dive safely, and she ends up hitting her head as she goes down. She surfaces in the pool with blood flowing around her.

She refuses to see that as the end of her diving career. She says she’s gonna “get back out there” and “be fucking great again” and she tells Nora at the end of the episode that she needs her to let her believe that.

In episode three, we finally see Leah and Rachel’s trip out to the plane! Nora comes along with them, her relationship with Rachel smoothed over after the events of ep two. “Nora’s a good swimmer,” Rachel explains as she invites her, “We were both water babies.” Water’s clearly been central to Nora and Rachel’s identities since they were really young. 

The three of them make their escape from the rest of the girls as the topic of building a shelter comes up. “Not interested in putting down roots!” Rachel calls. In keeping with the elements theme, Rachel isn’t looking to be grounded. She climbs super high into the air and she dives deep into the water, but earth isn’t her thing. (See: the quicksand scene. Whoops.)

Anyway, the three of them paddle out into the water. Rachel dives down, scopes out the plane, tells Nora she doesn’t expect her to “fucking free dive in open water,” and then looks to Leah and asks if she’s ready. Leah reluctantly agrees. 

We get our first shot Rachel swimming down into the ocean and our second shot of Leah (first the phone, second the plane). In the wreckage of the plane, they discover the black box, affixed to the wall. They keep trying to wrench it free, but it’s stuck, and Leah—who’s primary activity is, like, reading—keeps having to surface for air. Rachel gets frustrated and grabs her leg, holding her down. 

Leah screams and fights, but Rachel doesn’t let go. We cut away, and when we see them again, they’ve emerged victorious (Rachel) and drowned as dogs after a bath (Leah and Nora) with the black box in hand. Later, Leah mutters the above line to Fatin, calling Rachel a “psychopath.” For those keeping score at home, here’s where we refer back to the association between water and “insanity.”

In episode four, the ocean benevolently bestows a bag of takis upon Nora, and we have our whole shelter-building shebang. It’s all very land-based until Leah and Fatin go head to head, which ends with Fatin smearing her blood all over Leah’s face. Leah, with her usual flair, strips off her clothes as she walks into the ocean. She stays down there, passively letting the water wash the blood from her face.

This shot parallels a couple things. First, the drifting blood visually parallels Rachel in the pool after her diving injury. Second, we have Rachel staring out at the water where Leah’s disappeared and going, “Man, that is some real Virginia Woolf-type shit.” Dot has no fucking clue what she means, so Fatin interprets: “It means that bitch is crazy. She said you were the psychopath of the group.” Now it’s Leah who’s done something in the water that’s been deemed insane. The water and “insanity;” the water and accusations of insanity within their relationship. 

Those accusations pop up in episode five, but the episode is pretty focused on the inland search for Fatin, and revolves around fresh water, not salt water. (That could be a whole nother post lol.) It’s in episode six where we again see these two return to the ocean. 

Rachel is diving in the ocean! For fun! She’s picking up pretty shells (which granted isn’t the safest thing to do in the pacific, cone snails are not our friends), and she’s grinning, and she’s generally enjoying herself. With the, uh, finale situation, we’re probably not gonna get to see her smile for a bit, which is sad, because she should get to do this more often! This shot visually echoes her diving for the plane and Leah diving for the phone, except she can be in a better mood because there is no end goal. 

So she goes diving, ends up finding a bunch of mussels, gathers ‘em up, and brings ‘em back to camp. They all chow down, but wind up with serious food poisoning. Martha and Toni ring death’s doorbell a couple of times. Rachel blames herself—she’s the one that went swimming out there, she brought the mussels back. Again, we see that connection between the ocean and death.

And that association comes back bright an early in ep seven! The tide surges higher than they’ve ever seen, taking down their shelter and leaving them all scrambling. 

While Leah convinces Fatin that her life is more important than her suitcase, Rachel is left with a decision: help Nora, screaming to her from where she’s clinging to a rock for dear life, or grab the black box. In a move that contrasts Toni’s immediate and unquestioning aid of Martha, Rachel picks the black box. 

After, when they’re debriefing, Nora’s quick to bring it up. She doesn’t hide her hurt. “It happened so fast,” she says, “we all acted irrationally. Like Fatin, who jumped into a rip current to save her toothbrush. Or Rachel, who left me for fucking dead.” I think this counts as a double whammy for the “insanity” and death count—I think “acted irrationally” is as close as Nora gets to calling anyone crazy, and is honestly a better descriptor of all the other instances of “insanity” that we’ve seen, and the ocean was the source of the very real risk to Nora’s life. 

(Honestly, I think Rachel thought she was making a rational choice here—just with some grim fucking calculus. Still, given that nobody’d responded to the black box by then, I think it was a decision fueled by the need to keep hold of hope more than actual rationality.) In a fun contrast to the rest of the episode, it’s Leah that keeps a level head in this situation. 

The rest of the episode is low on water scenes, though Leah’s paranoia about Shelby is fueled by her sneaking off to the water, which could fall under the “insanity” category. It also marks where Nora begins to take an active role in breaking apart Rachel’s fantasy about diving again. 

Ep eight has one of the best montages in a series of great montages, with the playing in the water scene! A plane has seen them, they’re gonna be saved, and they all get to get high and act like kids. 

I have this lingering and probably irrational concern that the entire water play scene is choreographed and that it’s chock-full of foreshadowing. Like I know to some extent they likely were just like “yeah guys go goof off in the water,” but like...the wave pulling Rachel and Nora apart here...I mean.... (Rachel is probably gonna get more blood on Dot in the near future, too. ) That aside, their horseplay gets interrupted when Leah notices some blood on Dot, which Rachel realizes is her own period blood.  

Fatin then chimes in with her ever-gleeful foreshadowing: “Shark week for Rachel.” So while this whole encounter with the water actually seems mostly good for a change, it’s colored by the tie-in to what we know is coming.

In ep nine, reality has set in that rescue isn’t imminent. Everyone’s starving, Leah has started to spiral, and Rachel’s unusually skittish. By the tide’s edge, Nora asks for her help fishing, but Rachel refuses, saying that she’s weak. Nora flicks water at her, and Rachel flinches, clearly scared.

Starvation seems to have triggered Rachel’s trauma around the water leftover from her diving accident. In response, Nora reaches out a hand and says, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Meanwhile, Leah’s spiral has reached critical. She starts ranting about the ocean and the water and pushes past Dot, sprinting into the waves:

And so she’s taken to heart the way they think Jeannette’s body “escaped” the island—the tide—and it’s been spun like cotton candy in her head. She’s right, technically—Jeanette/Linh’s body was moved off the island by boat, and there’s definitely an argument that if they really did all swim out Gretchen’s team would save them, or at least try to. This is also a very real suicide attempt. So it’s kind of a culmination of the threats of death and mental health issues that’ve been wrapped up in the ocean since the start.

On Rachel’s end, Nora has taken her up to a cliff. Rachel calls the whole thing “borderline insane,” walking up when they’re so low on energy, but Nora tells her she needs to make a truce between herself and the water. 

“You’re afraid of it now,” she says, and Rachel replies that, “All it ever did was make me sick.” Nora immediately surges forward to say “That’s not true!” Rachel, incredulous, says, “Isn't this what you want? For me to hang it up? For me to forget the whole fucking diving game?” Nora says, “No. I don't know. I don't want you to forget you.” She then tells Rachel she should dive off the end of the cliff, that she marked it to make sure it’s safe. Rachel says she can’t.

There’s a lot here. First, there’s the first time we’ve seen of Rachel explicitly call herself sick. In episode two, even in a treatment center, she still denies it, says she’s just an athlete who knows what it takes. But now she’s reached a place where she acknowledges her eating disorder—and also probably her recent illness with the mussels—and ties it directly to the water. It’s the reason she’s sick.

Nora’s fear that Rachel will forget herself also just hammers home how central the water has always been to Rachel’s identity. Cutting herself off from the water would be cutting off a core part of herself. (...whoops) And we’ve seen that it does bring her actual joy, when she’s allowed to relax with it, but she’s had such traumatic associations rolled up into it now. Nora doesn’t want Rachel to do diving as a sport anymore, because of how badly it’s hurt her, but she does want Rachel to keep diving and swimming as like, a form of unevaluated personal expression.

At the moment that Rachel’s refusing to jump, she and Nora hear shouts from the mainland. They see Fatin and Dot screaming after Leah. Confused, Nora asks, “Where is she going?” but Rachel understands immediately, with absolute certainty, without needing to be told—“To fucking drown to death.” Seven episodes after Leah called heading into the water a death wish, she’s finally proving it true. Rachel squares her shoulders, takes a few deep breaths, and sprints into a dive. 

Unlike all her other dives high altitude dives we’ve seen her do, this dive isn’t qualified based on aesthetics. This dive matters because of what it will do, not on how it looks. And what it does do is bring her into the ocean, where she needs to be for her friend. So with strong strokes, she swims out towards Leah.

When she reaches her, she takes hold of her, pulls her into her chest from behind. She begins to swim with her back to shore. This rescue directly parallels Leah’s rescue of Linh that we talked about above. It also, as the Out in the Wilds podcast insightfully pointed out, really calls Rachel and Leah’s relationship back to the beginning. Whereas Rachel had initially held Leah down in the water, putting her in danger of drowning, Rachel here pulls her out of the water, saving her from drowning. Together, they make it all the way back to the shore.

Finally (and, like, if you’ve made it all the way down here? bless you. thank you), we have episode ten. The ocean doesn’t really figure into episode ten until the very end. Rachel has had a long episode of healing—she’s happy to be full and she’s in a good place with her sister and things seem to be going pretty okay. She decides to heal her relationship with the water, too. She heads out, telling Nora that she’s “Just gonna float, Nor. Just float.”

Just floating. After all the times we saw her plunging into the water, purposefully, with frustration, with drive, with so much to prove and with so much sacrifice and self-abuse to prove it with, Rachel finally just wants to float. She wants to let herself relax. She wants to let the water carry her.

Of course, that means there has to be, like, a massive marine carnivore waiting to mistake her for a seal.

Visually, this shot really parallels the opening shot of Leah on the fragment of plane. Instead of being face-down, though, she’s face-up, and she’s conscious, just not of the threat from below. 

The shark bites.

In a horrible parallel to Leah’s Virginia Woolf moment and Rachel’s diving accident, we see blood pool in the water. Rachel is pulled under. The girls on the land start screaming and running toward her. We know Rachel doesn’t die, but this is still a near-death experience, one that probably cost her her arm. Leah, covered in dirt and her own blood after crawling out of the pit Nora led her into, can only stand and watch, shocked and horrified.

So that got! Way longer than I meant it to! And honestly most of this was condensed into very concise tags in a post I made a few days ago! But if you made it all the way down here, you’ve now seen everything I wanted to fit into that gifset but couldn’t. Thanks for sticking with me, friend <3

[hotwings0203]

A/N: Hi guys! This is my first oneshot thingy (or any piece) that I’m posting here, it’s kind of dark but I think that’s the type of fic I enjoy writing. Let me know what you all think, and any suggestions or feedback is much appreciated since this is the first time I’m using Tumblr😆

Warnings: implication of non-con, manipulation, yandere themes, kidnapping

Pairing: Yandere Dabi x f reader

Smoke curled into your hiding place, invading your senses. You could hear him smashing other various household items around the house, attempting to startle you and make a sound, effectively revealing your hiding place

Which wasn’t a very clever one, mind you.

If you only had a couple more seconds, maybe, just maybe you could’ve dove into the closet and actually hidden with some blankets and clothes covering you instead of your current chosen position, which was under the creaky bed.

You cursed yourself for even starting something so stupid, and getting a rise out of him in the first place when you knew, you knew he hated it when you picked fights over the smallest of things. All he wanted you to do was make him some breakfast, now was that so much to ask for? Did you have to put rat poison in his oatmeal at 10 am in the morning?

You didn’t think you could handle playing this happy-go-lucky fake domestic scene any further; you wanted to go home. You wanted to see your family again for Thanksgiving, you wanted to meet up with your friends and get your nails done and coo over pretty boys, and most of all you wanted to go outside and gaze up at the clear blue sky and just watch the fall colors swirl around you in a halo of leaves.

Dabi let’s you go outside twice every month if you’re being good for him, and if you really please him he’ll let you touch the grass without that stupid shock collar that adorns your neck like an ornament with with him by your side, of course. Don’t think he’ll fully trust you after that stunt you pulled last week when you tried chewing the restraints off your wrists.

He had to salute your effort though, you really might’ve gotten away if he hadn’t surrounded you by his flames before you could touch the door.

Kind of like now, actually. While you’re trembling and cramped unceremoniously under the bed, he’s finished scanning the living room and kitchen for any sign of you.

Shit

That means there’s only two places left: the bathroom and his room, where you are.

Your legs are starting to cramp up and you’re wondering how long you can manage to stay still while this psycho is hounding you out.

“If you quit acting like a pussy and come out within 30 seconds, I’ll make sure to leave your face intact. Can’t say the same about the rest of you though, babe, I’m not feeling very generous or inclined to spare you too much after choking down rat poison.” He all but snarls as you can see from underneath the bed his elbows and jaw curl with smoke, blue flames licking at his shins.

The smell of rotting flesh feels like an ominous foreshadowing of your fate if you don’t think of a way out of this, fast.

You’re pulled from your musing as Dabi slams the bathroom closet door shut, and flings the shower curtain aside violently, indicating no more places are left for him to check for you except his room.

You’re out of time.

Picking up the soap dispenser on the sink counter, he weighs it in his hand, testing it’s material. You’re peeking out from underneath the mattress, unsure of what he’s doing.

You don’t need to keep wondering after he suddenly hurls the glass down on the floor, the dispenser shattering on the floor near the bed mere inches away from where your face was.

You let out a small shriek at the explosion, and immediately still and clamp your hand over your mouth with wide eyes.

But the damage has already been done, and Dabi knows this as he lets out a dark chuckle and saunters towards the bed, turning around and plopping down on the plushy material, his boots right in front of your face.

“We both already know where this is going, little mouse. I caught you, but I’ll be nice and give you one more chance to come to me willingly.”

He leans back on his elbows and tilts his head up to the chafing ceiling. He knows you’ll come, you always eventually do, that’s why he loves you, his sweet little girl who always does what she’s told.

What he doesn’t expect, however, is you making one last break for it, clambering out from the opposite side of where you both are situated and bolting to the door.

He whips his head around at the sound of you desperately fumbling with the lock on the door, when did he lock it? God this is taking too long he’s gonna catch you he’s gonna-

But you’re already out of the door and flying down the hallway as you hear him leaping off the bed and scrambling after you, the house completely silent save for the deafening sounds of both of your own objectives pounding away at the floor in the same direction.

“You fucking bitch, I grant you one last chance to come clean to me and this is the thanks I get? You’re dead little mouse.” You hear him howl behind you, and it scares you at how close he sounds.

But now you see it, you see your freedom at the entrance just an arms length away and you’re touching the door and-

The room is suddenly enveloped by blue fire, the door handle becoming so hot under your touch that you wail as you let go and cradle your bubbling flesh, tears blurring your vision as you whirl around to locate your assailant and captor.

Dabi stands in the middle of the living room, ethereal cobalt lighting up the sides of his face and illuminating the staples that stretch and threaten to rip from the shit-eating grin he sports while looking at your defenseless demeanor.

“I told you to listen while I was playing nice, right? This is what happens to little mice who want to turn into rats so bad. Is that why you wanted to feed me rat poison, huh, baby? You were warning me to get rid of what you might turn out to be, hmm?” He pouts at you, the corners of his mouth twitching when you sob in terror

“D-dabi please,” you bawl, “please let me leave. I w- wanna go h-home.” Your chest heaves at the last word, the pain in your hand paling in comparison to the ache in your chest.

“An-and I w-want you on your kn-knees worshipping the ground I walk on and making good use of that bitchy little mouth instead of whining and sniveling.” He mocked and cooed cruelly, reveling at your helplessness.

You could do nothing but wail louder as he started slowly walking towards you, his eyes narrowed, complemented with dark glint in his pupils while his ever-lasting hellish quirk enunciated his heavy steps.

Dabi finally reached you, and you pathetically pressed yourself into the wall and turned your face as he lifted his hand and stroked your cheek in faux sympathy. His bottom lip was stuck out in a fake pout, mimicking your state of panic.

“You’re not scared of me, right baby? It’s just a game, right? I mean after all I do for you-bathe, feed, and dress you- you only feel love for me, right?”

He was toying with you, in a similar fashion a cat plays with its prey before it pounces.

When you hesitated for a moment too long, his hand by your face heated up its dying embers, warning you to give him what he wanted to hear.

You whimpered and tried to evade his hand, only resulting in his gripping the back of your head and yanking back on your hair roughly so you were forced to look up and meet his amused, dark gaze.

“Ah-ah my pretty bitch. You don’t get to move away from me after all the stunts you pulled today. I’ve had enough of your bullshit so don’t test me any more, now I asked you a question: you love me right?”

At your wits end, you maintained eye contact with him as you shakily tried to nod your head, the movement being difficult to do as he had such a death-grip on your locks.

But he wasn’t satisfied by your pathetic attempt at agreeing, it seemed like he wanted to make your life hell even further and draw this out as long as he could because he clicked his tongue and shook your head like a rag doll in his hands, hair flying across your face and giving you whiplash.

“Use that sharp tongue you got on you before I melt your fucking teeth. You might be a grade-A moron, and a pathetic one at that but I know damn well you’re not mute.” He leans in further, his nose grazing yours as you almost went cross eyed trying to keep him in vision.

“Y-yes Dabi, I love you.”

His silence seemed to scream unimpressed, so you hurried to salvage the situation as best as you could so it wouldn’t escalate the knee-deep shit you were already in.

“And I’m...sorry I was being such a brat today, I just missed everyone I used to be close with. But you were right, I should be more grateful after everything you do for me. It’s not fair that I don’t treat you with the same, uh, affection that you show me. A-and I’m sorry I put... rat poison in your food.” You whispered this last part, too embarrassed to look him in the eyes.

He snorted, not entirely convinced at your sincerity in the apology but it was enough for him to loosen his grip on your head and take a step back from your personal space.

You sink down the wall to your knees, curling up slightly and taking shaky breaths as you attempt to calm down. The room is still engulfed in flames, but thanks to Dabi’s foresight and extensive planning, most of the furniture of fire-proof (god knows how he got it like that, it’s not like he was the son of the number one hero or anything to accumulate such wealth) so the damage was limited save for your mental state and injured hand.

Dabi crouches down in front of you, an odd smirk on his face as you peer up at him in caution.

“You know, I didn’t say I forgive you princess, or that you’re excused for your little tantrum.”

He cocks his head at you and lifts your chin up towards him with a scarred finger. You blanch at the implication of this ordeal not being over from your excruciating apology, and his disturbing Cheshire-cat grin stretches so wide over his face, you wonder distantly if his stitches are going to pop loose any second.

“Please, I’m sorry. I’ll do anything, just please don’t...please don’t burn me.” You whisper in defeat.

“Anything, you say? But why? Isn’t it more fun if I brand my name into your back? Oh wait! Maybe I’ll burn you so bad you’ll look like me! Then we’ll really be a matching couple, you’d like that wouldn’t you? I mean if you love me as much as you claim you’ll let me, right?”

He’s trapped you again. If you deny, he’ll ruthlessly berate you for lying to his face and who knows what he’ll do just for the sick, sadistic satisfaction he’ll get from making you stumble over your own lie.

If you comply, however, you’ll look like burnt bacon, just like this fucker.

“I’ll do anything to make you forgive me.” You quietly settle for.

He studies you for a moment, and the uncomfortably silence he grants you makes you shift in your place.

Dabi finally stands to his full height and stretches his arms back with a content groan.

“If that’s the case, then don’t say I didn’t let you choose how you wanted to make it up to me.”

You glance up when you hear the sound of a zipper being undone, and you mouth gapes at his innuendo. You can’t seem to look away as he frees himself from his black boxers, the sound of his belt and pants rustling as they hit the floor.

“Now then, what was that you said about redemption? I think this is a great way to put that mouth to good use, little mouse.”

[wendy130]

Do you prefer them alive or dead?

//AU: Strangers on The Internet (made by @possiblyaperson3)

//Based off of this post.

//I speed-ran this aghldskjfdsf. I don’t normally write stuff like this, but I had a lotta fun with it.

//I’ll put the writing under a read more since it contains some dark stuff.

//Warnings: dark themes, gore mentioned, vore mentioned

----

Tommy fidgeted in his seat, contemplating on whether he should speak up about one of the many burning questions in his mind. If he asked, he’d at least get a definitive answer instead of having to assume; but on the other hand, he really didn’t want to know what the response would be, in fear of the answer he’d get. He stared at his computer, hard, as if it had done something wrong to him. The brightness of the screen contrasted the rest of his dark room, and if he hadn’t put it to low brightness, he would have most likely have burnt his eyes out.

“Tommy,” a voice came from his headphones. He flinched, “you’re doing that thing again.”

“What thing?” he questioned. He already knew what Wilbur would say; he already knew what Will was talking about. He did it whenever he was stressed, angry, or just whenever he wanted- needed to say something.

“That whole breathing heavily thing. You do that whenever you want to say something, but you’re holding back. What is it?” Tommy was silent for a while. He’d open his mouth to say something but then quickly shut it. He only spoke up when Wilbur tried speaking again,

“Do- well...” he cut himself off, trying to get his guts together. Come on Tommyinnit, don’t be a damn wuss. He took a deep breath and blurted out his question before he lost his confidence, “do you prefer eating humans dead or a-alive?” He could tell Wilbur was caught off guard by his question, because it took a minute for the giant to respond.

In a joking manner, Wilbur remarked, “huh, is the vegan-” Ah, that’s right. Wilbur was still under the impression that he was another giant instead of a human, “-finally curious about the taste of humans?”

“I- uh.. sorta?” he was surely not interested in the taste of his kind, but if this meant that he could get Wilbur’s opinion on the way he liked eating humans, he had to act like it. Maybe, Wilbur wasn’t so bad. Maybe, he wasn’t a psycho for eating living creatures.

Wilbur hummed, “well, it’s an obvious answer: alive of course. I enjoy their struggling.” He laughed after saying that as if the sheer notion of eating someone alive was merely a joke. As if the person he was eating wasn’t another living breathing creature. Tommy’s stomach churned, and a sense of dread crashed down on him.

Wilbur continued, “though, buying living ones are a bitch since they cost so much. But, I suppose it is worth the price. Y’know, Tommy, I think my favorite way to eat them would be to...” Tommy stopped listening after that point; he didn’t want to hear it. He didn’t want to hear about how Wilbur ate his kind.

He came to a horrible realization.

Wilbur was that bad. Tommy was friends with a giant who ate his kind and enjoyed doing so.

All of Tommy’s nightmares came crashing back. The ones about him and Puffy being found in the library and being separated by those cages that brought countless other humans to their deaths. The ones about faceless giants killing him and laughing as they did so. The ones about giants killing Puffy in front of him- eating Puffy in front of him. Tearing her apart, piece by piece,limb by limb, bone by bone. The bloodcurdling screams from Puffy still haunted him.

And the worst nightmares of them all almost hit him like a freight train. His friends finding out he was a human, tracking him down, finding him, and slowly ripping him apart like some sort of cookie before splitting his body amongst themselves and gorging on his remains. Wilbur finding him and eating him alive, so he would feel the searing hot sensation of digestion as laughter erupted around his final moments.

His breath hitched; he needed to get away and calm down. He snapped back into reality. Wilbur was saying something, but Tommy couldn’t comprehend what he was saying and promptly cut off Wilbur,

“Hey Wilbur, I got to go,” he paused for a split second. He needed a reason why he was leaving so abruptly, else Will might suspect something, “I- uh, Puffy texted me t-to... do my chores before she came back home.” Technically not a lie, she had said that before leaving their little abode to scavenge for food.

“Ah- okay,” Wilbur sounded a bit surprised, “you can’t stay on any longer?”

Tommy struggled to keep his voice in check, “yeah, sorry ‘bout that. Talk to you later.” With that, he exited the call as fast as possible, not even giving Wilbur the time to say farewell himself.

He sat in his chair for a while, with legs pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapping around them, staring at Wilbur’s profile picture.

He shouldn’t have asked.

[lady-z-writes]

Plaything (Heisenberg x fem!reader)

Chapter 4 (of 5)

Summary: Reader works for BSAA and is scoping out the village until you get captured by none other than Heisenberg who doesn’t take well to trespassers. Once he learns of your hatred for your job, he wants the information you have and he doesn’t have to try hard to get it. You find yourself drinking, fireside, with him and can’t help but let him touch you. Angie said he’d needed a plaything and, well, you’re it.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Smut with (some) plot, chapter 4 below the cut:

You can remember the feel of a scratchy washcloth against your skin. It’s warm and the movement against your nipples is gentle. You want nothing more than to sleep right now, but you open your eyes and note a very shirtless, very tentative Heisenberg cleaning you up.

A moan leaves you as you try to shift over, cover your tits, go back to sleep – but he grips your wrist gently and easily turns you back over.

He chuckles. “Wore you out, huh?” his cocky smirk makes you smile back. “Just…let me do this then you can sleep.”

You nod, eyelids feeling heavy, and you let him take care of you.

When he’s done, you watch him turn toward his desk but your hand juts out to grab his wrist this time. He halts, slowly glances down at you.

“Stay,” you hum, shifting on his bed. “Please?”

Before long, you feel the bed dip from his weight beside you and you let yourself rest.

•••

It’s night by the time you wake again and he’s no longer in the bed with you, but you see the moonbeams through the curtains and stare up at the stars for a moment.

The breeze makes you cold and you reach for a nearby shirt of his. It’s white and shows your nipples through it, but the warmth is a comfort.

An empty room greets you when you look around. There are journals and books you’d never really paid attention to before. A part of you is tempted to flip through them, but you’re reminded of the behavior Heisenberg clearly wants you to exhibit.

Instead, you grab your boots and decide to shower off the events from the other night.

The water is scolding but perfect as you wash with his shampoo. It’s lonelier than last time, but your mind needs some clarity.

What you stumbled into…it’s laughable. If you’d been on any other team with any other lord, Heisenberg probably wouldn’t have saved you. You won’t let your mind wander to the others for too long – how their carcasses are probably tossed away somewhere and forgotten about right now. Heisenberg has his moments, sure, but you’re alive and it’s a kindness he didn’t need to do.

Your fingers are macerated so you shut off the faucet, reach for a towel. Sleep did you good, food would do you better. When your eyes travel to the doorway, you can’t help but scream.

A Soldat stands in the doorway.

Wrapping a towel around yourself, you press your back to the shower wall, breath coming in rapid bursts. The Soldat simply attempts to shove its way into the bathroom, but it doesn’t fit and the drill hits the wall instead.

There’s no other way out and you’re pretty sure the thing is going to drill through the wall. It manages quicker than you expect and you’re still in the shower stall, holding onto the towel for dear life as it strides toward you.

Its one drill gets stuck on the stall door, the other reaching you and digging into your arm. Another scream and you’re cowering down in the corner of the stall, pressing your hand against the bleeding wound.

In a blink, the Soldat is tossed against the other wall and Heisenberg steps into the shower. His eyes take in the blood.

“Can you stand?”

You’re in shock, but you nod quickly and you don’t stop nodding until he’s got you out of the room.

He sits you in his desk chair and grips your wrist, turning your arm over to see if the puncture wound went all the way through. You dare to look at it and see the gouge in your arm, blood oozing onto the towel.

“Next time,” he growls, pulling the towel down and exposing your breasts. “You get me before you shower.”

It hurts when he presses the towel to the wound, applying pressure to stop the bleeding. You grit your teeth, reminded of a recent mission you were wounded in. Pain is temporary, you remind yourself as he cleans off the wound.

He actually has gauze and it feels good once he’s wrapping the wound.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” you find yourself saying. “I’m sure you were busy.” You notice his eyes take in your nakedness. “Thank you…for everything.”

“This place isn’t safe for you, clearly. Don’t leave my sight again.”

You convince him you need food so he lets you get dressed. You’re afraid to enter where the Soldat is, but you grab the shirt and boots and run back to Heisenberg. He watches you dress in his white shirt and your knee-high boots.

“You are entirely too distracting,” he hums, staring at your nipples through the shirt.

In an instant, you’re shoved to the nearest wall, hands above your head, Heisenberg pressing a palm against your fists. He kisses you deeply, body flush against yours. His hand travels between you two and he plays with your clit. You not wearing panties has proven to be very distracting.

His fingers arched inside of you, mouth pressing kisses to your neck, you’re once again so pleasured. It feels like a wave consuming you – distracting you momentarily from your hunger.

“I’ve got to finish up a project,” he mutters against your neck. “What should I do with you?”

“You want to keep fucking me, you’ve gotta let a girl eat,” you quip.

Heisenberg blinks at you as he pulls away. “What a mouth on you…” he raises a brow. “Fine. It’ll keep you quiet while I work.”

He doesn’t have anything spectacular to eat but you manage to scrounge together something simple – some bread, veggies, more fruit. There’s some granola bars and you’re wondering where he got them but your curiosity melts away when he demands you get done and follow him. Snagging one, you scurry off behind him.

You’re deeper into the factory than you’ve ever been and it’s a bit overwhelming. Heisenberg drones on about some projects and gives you more information on the ins and outs of the Soldats. He claims he doesn’t expect you to work on any today, but you find it hard to believe. The man seems like he’s always plotting.

Halfway through the granola bar, he calls you over to help him but loud growling and snarling nearby alerts you both.

“Shit,” Heisenberg is suddenly irritated as he meanders to a window. His hand slams against the wall. “That oversized, psycho bitch.”

He’s spinning on his heels and approaching you quickly as you swallow your last mouthful of food. Eyes wide, you stare as he strides toward you and pulls your arm. As he’s dragging you down the hallway, you’re struggling to get out of his grip and repeating, “what’s wrong?”

“Apparently since I haven’t checked in recently, I get to be dropped in on by my sister.”

Your mouth goes dry at the thought and you stutter out a, “what do we do?”

•••

“You overgrown waste of space, get out.”

You can hear them yelling somewhere up above, but Karl had specific instructions to take the elevator two floors down, walk through the doors to the left, and take off down the hallway from there. He said wherever you’d go, he’d find you but as your eyes take in the maze down here, you worry that isn’t true.

Still, what choice do you have? It’s either this or be skewered by his false sister once she finds out you’re still alive. The thought chills you.

Deep in the maze now, you hear the movement of the elevator and their raised voices stirring about. Metal clangs, screaming, and crashing sounds above and as you hear the shifting of the elevator again, you break out in a full sprint.

Adrenaline coursing through you, it’s like an electric shock to your senses. The metal clanging almost seems louder and you wonder if Karl is doing that just to alert you where they are.

You’re good and lost by now, entering rooms that attach to other rooms; trying to find a hiding spot before you realize they’re moving again.

Her senses are sharp, apparently.

Approaching a room deep in the maze of things, you see a few lights on; wonder what he uses this for – but your wondering is cut short by the shadow of a figure standing in the nearby doorway.

An almost-scream leaves your throat but you cover your mouth with both hands in attempt to silence yourself.

The beast grunts, approaching slowly. Both arms are drills – the same version of the Soldat that attacked you earlier. It raises its drills in a readying attack.

You run back the way you came, back to the parts of the factory you know these things aren’t. Karl had mentioned before to stay near him if you were ever to venture out, but given the current unexpected guest, you’d had no other choice.

The creature charges after you, its grunting loud. Of course you look back at it – its grey skin – it’s like you still can’t believe what you’re seeing.

You manage to find your way back to a main hallway and take it all the way down. Glancing back, you think you’ve lost it…and then a loud clanging noise greets your ears.

It feels like everything is in slow motion when you turn. The oversized woman from the church stands just off the elevator, her long claws reflecting light. You can hear your heartbeat in your ears and as she charges at you, you see Heisenberg swing his hammer behind her.

With a flick of his wrist, he sends a bunch of metal scraps toward you with such power, you’re crashing against the nearest wall.

“I told you to stay out of it,” he’s yelling and it makes you hold your breath from on the ground.

“You kept her?” the woman screams. “I’ve known you to do some stupid things, but this?”

“Yack yack, go squawk to Miranda.”

“Do you know who they are?” she gasps. You notice Heisenberg is silent. “The others I brought to Castle Dimitrescu, they offered up knowledge: these people were meant to gather information on us,” she’s screaming at him. “And yet you keep this spy as a plaything? I knew you had intentions, idiot man-thing. You need to take care of this now.”

She clicks her tongue when she notices you pulling Heisenberg’s shirt down to cover yourself – feeling exposed.

“Oh, believe me, I will…” his voice is polished, mannerly. It stops you in your tracks. “You know how I don’t like anyone ruining my fun. This little slut has been sucking and fucking all night. I’m using her until I’m done and then I’ll string her body up for the Lycans.”

The tall woman lifts her chin with an inhale. You notice as she takes you in, Heisenberg is glancing down the hall you ran from, as if looking for his creation.

“Well, I…” the woman pauses. “I suppose I must honor Mother Miranda’s choices – though they may be poor at times.” A nod. She steps toward you, punctures the skin on your chest. “You disgusting harlot. I hope you rot.”

You cry out from the pain, try backing away, but are pinned to the wall suddenly by metal wrapping around your wrists.

“I’ll take it from here, dear sister,” Heisenberg sneers. “It’s my hour of need and…I’m sure you don’t want to be around when I take what I’m owed.”

The suggestive tone in his voice makes the woman sneer at him.

“Fine. Show me out.” She stands at full height and saunters over to the elevator. Just as you think you’re safe, she pauses, sniffs the air. “She’s not alone.”

“What?”

“There’s another.”

“What do you mean?” he’s spastic now.

“Did you bring another here?”

“No,” he quirks a brow at her. “Sure you aren’t losing it? Hat’s too big for your head – no time for big brain moments.”

She rolls her eyes and follows him to the elevator.

Heisenberg leaves you here, pinned up to the wall, crying and bleeding and praying to a higher power that thing doesn’t find its way back here or you’re dead.

And as the minutes tick by, you wonder just how honest he was being with his sister…was this all a ruse? His kindness just an extended roleplay to get what he wanted out of you before killing you?

The movement of the elevator startles you once again. A part of you is grateful for his return, meaning the monster may be kept at bay; yet you’re worried what his intentions are.

As he strides over to you against the wall, he exhales cigar smoke in your face.

“I like you strung up like that. My shirt, nipples hard, legs spread…” He kisses you then and you want to lean into it, but you’re frozen. He notices, pulls back. “Ah, I see the gears turning now…” he taps the cigar ashes off on your arm. “Not to worry, kitten. I’ll take care of you.”

The movement to your left makes your stomach drop. The monster from before lurches into view – loud and menacing.

“Should I let it repeat the scene from earlier? Your blood shed and my family won’t be forced to check on me anymore. No doubt Miranda’s about to find out about the fact that you’re still living…” as he rambles, the Soldat storms closer.

“Stop,” you whisper out, shaking.

He examines you then, “That’s real fear there, isn’t it, doll?” he huffs a laugh. “You truly think that I’m that much of a monster? To waste such a pretty specimen on such a gruesome death? No.” He snaps his fingers and uses his powers to urge the Soldat back down the hallway. “You’re lucky.” Another exhale of smoke in your face before he shifts his hands and the metal holding you to the wall loosens enough for you to slide to the floor. “Come on. Get up. No use wasting our time sulking.”

You’re hesitant to follow him to the elevator. Once again he’s acting so flippant and you’re afraid to let your guard down.

Still, what choice do you have? You follow wordlessly because you’re stuck here even if you find out he’s a bad man.

He chuckles at you as you join him on the elevator. “All that spunk is gone?”

You open your mouth to speak, close it, inhale sharply. He blinks slowly at you, crossing his arms.

“What the Hell was that? Are you planning on killing me, Heisenberg? Is this just some drawn out roleplay fantasy of yours? Fuck me, give me Stockholm Syndrome, then off to create me into some corpse of a machine?”

He smirks around the cigar as you raise your voice at him.

“There she is,” he hisses, grabbing you by the hair. “I wondered how long that fear would hide your attitude.”

When the elevator stops, he motions for you to follow him. You hesitate, but you do; slowly, cautiously. The maze of the factory takes you to his quarters in a way you can’t imagine memorizing. He’s silent as you walk together.

Barely into the room, he reaches for your shirt and rips down. The buttons go flying everywhere and the garment falls to the floor – leaving you naked minus your boots.

Heisenberg’s hands move as a collar and chains float behind you. You’re trying to maneuver away but it clasps around your neck before you can move too far. The chains are all connected, your wrists clasped behind your back. Heisenberg shoves you to your knees and you feel cold shackles around your ankles.

Eyes wide, mouth open, you’re too stunned to speak.

He’s in front of you in seconds, looking down at you like he’s inspecting his work. The way he licks his lower lip makes you shift your gaze to his erection right before your eyes.

“Too easy. Didn’t even put up a fight. You going soft on me, kitten? Or is it that you want this?”

He pulls a glove off, crouches down to your level, reaches in between your legs, and feels your wetness. A low groan leaves him.

“Wh-what are you…-”

“You so enjoy this, [Y/N]. Don’t act like you don’t, just embrace it. You like being my plaything – it’s the best job you’ve ever had.”

“Worst pay I’ve ever had,” you retort. It’s sort of a joke, you think.

His hand cups around your throat and he presses in warning.

“Real cute, huh?” He shoves you off, stands back up. “Mmm you have no idea how badly I want that mouth of yours on my cock…but I’ve got a few notes to take and a phone call to see if my dear brother knows of your survival yet. And you’re going to kneel and wait for me.”

He presses his hand to the back of your head, shoves his crotch in your face for a moment until you struggle against him, still unsure how to read the situation.

Finally, he pulls away, leaves you on the filthy floor, and sits himself at his desk.

“You should have just killed me on the bridge if this was all your plan.”

He doesn’t even look at you, which had been a hope of yours. You want to see his expression, see his eyes.

“Keep talking and I’ll bolt metal across your lips.”

Things go silent until he has to make his phone call – just pen scratches across paper and the normal metal clanging of the factory. You imagine more of those Soldats are stomping around somewhere and the image makes you shudder.

You barely notice when he’s picked up the phone, you’re too busy focusing on the pain in your knees.

“No, Moreau, this isn’t Miranda…” he sighs into the receiver. “Yes, I’ve heard that they were agents…no, I’m not worried…look, you globular piss baby: has Lady Gargantuan called you today?...”

You’re waiting for his response to continue but Heisenberg has gone silent. His back is to you so you can’t read his expression once again. You see his shoulders move with his breathing.

Suddenly, the receiver slams.

“This arrangement isn’t going to last long,” he growls as he stands, knocking over his chair.

Before you can respond, he uses his powers to lift up the metal chains around you and toss you to the bed. Face-planted, you struggle to sit up, turn over.

“If that weeping sack of mucus knows, you can bet he’s told the star of his Oedipus Complex.”

Heisenberg is unbuckling his belts, tossing off his shirt, completely undressing with each step toward the bed. You watch him from your awkward, uncomfortable position and your stomach flips.

When he flops down on the bed, he pulls the chains so you’re forced to straddle him. In ankle and wrist restraints, your range of movement is significantly reduced. He knows this. It’s clearly doing something for him as you watch his dick get hard again.

“Ride my cock, [Y/N],” he demands.

Your knees ache, but he helps pull you down onto him and the instant pleasure makes you forget about the soreness in your knees for a little while. Your legs can only spread so far with these ankle cuffs but that sort of adds to the sensation with how tight you are against him.

“Karl,” you whine.

“Mmm, yes, pet?”

“What are you gonna do to me?” your voice brakes as tears fill your eyes.

His expression changes for a fleeting moment. The ankle shackles are opened with a wave of his hand. You feel your knees buckle under you and you fall face-first into his broad chest. Heisenberg runs a hand through your hair, trace down your back. You feel him press his lips against the top of your head, a moan making his chest rumble as he thrusts up into you.

“Right now, I’m gonna enjoy you,” he speaks softly. “We’ll figure out the rest in the morning.”

It’s a soft moment and it catches you off guard. You lift your head up and meet eyes with him. It’s then that you realize his intentions, know in your heart that he was putting on a front for Lady Dimitrescu.

Suddenly, the position you’re in doesn’t seem so dire.

[craftypeaceturtle]

Distanced, part 1

Summary: A group chat fic! How shall these useless students cope with daily life.

Note: This is my first attempt at anything even remotely like this! I have no idea how this will turn out so feedback is greatly appreciated! Intrulogical. 

Next part here!!

.

MESSAGES: To Remus Prince (Presentation)

Tuesday, 16:15

Hello. This is Logan Sanders from Prof. Smith’s seminar. Do you have any suggestions for how we should go about completing the upcoming assessment?

Remus Prince: who dis

I literally just stated it. Logan Sanders.

I wear the tie.

Remus Prince: OHHH

Remus Prince: Well 1stly

Remus Prince: What’s the best planet in the solar system?

Pardon?

Remus Prince: i LitERaLlY JuSt stAtED iT

That has nothing to do with anything, we just need to get through this project.

Remus Prince: if u want to work then u have to answer

Jupiter. 

Remus Prince: cool.

Remus Prince: You’ll do.

Remus Prince: My name is Remus.

I know. We did actually swap phone numbers. We in fact discussed which topic we would be doing for over fifteen minutes in the seminar. So we have indeed met. If you continue to be obnoxious then this will be a easier project. 

.

MESSAGES: To Remus Sanders (Presentation)

Tuesday, 16:22

Why did you ask that question?

 Remus Prince: I asked my brother that question and he answered earth

Remus Prince: I’ve had trust issues ever since

Roman’s favourite planet is Earth? 

 Remus Prince: HAH

Remus Prince: ye he’s an idiot

Remus Prince: I’ve gotta test everyone now.

Remus Prince: You passed btw

Remus Prince: WAIT!

Remus Prince: Do u know Ro?

Yes, he is my friend and roommate. 

Remus Prince: What was ur name again????????

You can literally scroll up and reread it. I refuse. You got into university for a reason and so you can manage my name.

Remus Prince: jk

Okay then. Do you want to discuss how we should go about creating this powerpoint?

Remus Prince: what’s there to ‘discuss’?

We can separately conduct our research however it is regrettably better to meet up in person to practise not only giving the presentation but also the construction of the presentation itself.

Remus Prince: man you just love sending essays huh

I have written out longer messages. I don’t understand the point of sending a sentence at a time and risk getting interrupted. Plus at least my texting doesn’t seem all like an assault of constant notifications. 

Remus Prince: fair

Shall we say that we should aim to get our presentation research finished by two weeks (15th). That leaves us another two weeks to construct the powerpoint, gather more research if necessary, then practise presenting. 

Remus Prince: k

GROUPCHAT: Goths, Emos, and Remus

Tuesday, 16:26

Octopussy: can I vent for a sec

Octopussy: So! I’m just sitting here. Y’know. Vibing. 

Octopussy: Then out of nowhere the nerd from my class starts messaging me about the group project that’s due a month away

Octopussy: like wtf

Octopussy: nice to know the nerd thing isn’t just appearance

Vigilant: help

Octopussy: he made a big deal about meeting up as well to do this!

Octopussy: No one in the class even cares!

Octopussy: No one is even remotely

Octopussy: Not even close

Octopussy: To thinking about that project right now!

Octopussy: We’ve got ages!

Vigilant: oh sweet jesus

Octopussy: Like! We’ve got a month!

Octopussy: AN ENTIRE MONTH

Octopussy: Like he also wants to meet up as well to practise

Octopus: Like ew.

Top-Hat-Gay: Are you done?

Octopussy: ye

Octopussy: he’s a dick

Vigilant: oh thank god

Top-Hat-Gay: Ha, as if you believe in god.

Vigilant: If it stops Re from not spamming us then I’ll believe whatever. 

Octopussy: rude

Vigilant: bitch

Top-Hat-Gay: On an actually important note, which one of you last used my nail bag?

Octopussy: me!

Octopussy: you need more green 

Top-Hat-Gay: No I fucking don’t!

Top-Hat-Gay: There was an entirely new bottle in there!

Octopussy: I said what I said.

Top-Hat-Gay: I hate you. 

Octopussy: Thank bby

Octopussy: ALSO!

Octopussy: I found out the nerd also lives with Ro.

Top-Hat-Gay: So?

Vigilant: hE’S FORBIDDEN

Top-Hat-Gay: Wait so the nerd is Logan?

Octopussy: He is!

Octopussy: not that it seems to be having any effect on Ro. he’s as dense as a brick.

Top-Hat-Gay: I saw him today going into Remy’s. 

Vigilant: Why are we even talking about him

Vigilant: Like who gives a shit.

Octopussy: dunno

Octopussy: just thought it was weird

Top-Hat-Gay: Maybe you should switch partners. Especially if he wants to meet up at some point.

Octopussy: nah

Octopussy: not worth it

Top-Hat-Gay: A teacher wouldn’t care. They only want to see good grades. They won’t mind moving stuff around for you.

Octopussy: He seems harmless. 

Vigilant: you literally called him a dick after one conversation.

Octopussy: he is a dick

Octopussy: he seems stuffy but just a nerd through and through. He’s not going to be a prick or anything.

Vigilant: This isn’t really about him. He already got you talking about you know who in your first ever conversation. Maybe you shouldn’t hang around him.

Octopussy: I just thought it was interesting

Octopussy: It doesn’t mean jack shit

Octopussy: Not everything I talk about has some grand meaning.

Octopussy: I just thought it was weird that this nerd I share my classes with also lives with my bro. 

Top-Hat-Gay: And that’s perfectly fine Re.

Octopussy: soz V

Octopussy: didn’t mean to blow up in your face

Octopussy: just annoying to feel psycho-analysed 

Vigilant: soz

Octopussy: okay! 

Octopussy: that’s proof enough!

Octopussy: we can behave to each other so ice cream plz!!!!!!!!!!!

Top-Hat-Gay: JESUS CHRIST I SAID THAT AS A JOKE LAST YEAR

Octopussy: I will eat V’s posters unless you give us reward good boy icecream

Vigilant: chocolate pls

Top-Hat-Gay: jesus do you lot know how long it takes for me to put on my cape to go shopping

Vigilant: yes

Vigilant: we are precisely aware of exactly how long it takes

Vigilant: that’s why we don’t go shopping with you

GROUPCHAT: THE FAM ILY

Tuesday, 16:38

Pat-on-the-back: Heya guys, are we all in for dinner tonight?

Logan.S: I am.

YourHopesandDreams: I will be in at 7. If you could be so compassionate to push your meal back until then, I would be truly indebted to you.

Pat-on-the-back:  Fine by me!

Logan.S: I am agreeable.

Pat-on-the-back: Also Lo! Are you finished with your work?

Logan.S: I have finished my to-do list so I am available if I’m needed. 

Pat-on-the-back: No, you’re all good! I just wanted to check. It sounded like you were doing work for like four hours straight.

Logan.S: It took three hours thank you very much. 

Logan.S: So what are we doing for dinner?

Pat-on-the-back: I was thinking lasagne! 

Pat-on-the-back: also! Don’t think I’ll notice that change in topic!

Pat-on-the-back: I thought we all agreed on two hour stretches of work with a 15 min break at least. I mean... it’s even written on our calendar! There’s no way you forgot, did you Mister! 

Logan.S: It’s fine Pat.

Logan.S: Just let it go

Logan.S: I needed to get it done

Logan.S: I don’t need to be babied. 

Logan.S: I’m taking a break now. I’m okay.

Pat-on-the-back: I know, I’m sorry. I just want to make sure. As long as you feel okay then everything’s alright! How was your work anyway?

Logan.S: Fairly ordinary actually. I had to go through some of my notes and rewrite a couple of pages then I had to organise a group project due the 2nd of March. 

Pat-on-the-back: Sounds productive!

Logan.S: Thank you.

YourHopesandDreams: Ew. Group project. Who’s your partner?

Logan.S: We are in entirely different courses, why do you think you would know them?

YourHopesandDreams: Everyone knows the drama students know everyone. 

Logan.S: I’m working with Remus.

YourHopesandDreams: You should ask to swap partners. 

Logan.S: I won’t do so unless I have a genuine reason. I’ve not had any interactions with him previously and while he did seem half-hearted and obnoxious in his messages, he seems harmless. If he messes everything around then I will but I won’t make a fuss unless I have reason to.

Pat-on-the-back: That’s fair but please make sure to tell us if he pulls anything.

YourHopesandDreams: Your loss. 

.

MESSAGES: To Nerd

Wednesday, 3:02

hey u awake

Nerd: What on earth are you doing up at 3am? 

Oh

Soz

Wrong number.

MESSAGES: To Nerd

Wednesday, 3:12

Nerd: What is your favourite planet?

wha

Nerd: I figured it would be fair to ask your test to you. For all I know you could be as uncultured as your brother.

can we not talk about him

I dunno really

I wanna say pluto because they deserve it

but I kinda like saturn best.

Nerd: Any reason why?

Just kinda interesting

Big, lots a moons, ring. 

It’s just a cool planet. 

Nerd: Fair enough.

Do you have a reason to like jupiter?

Nerd: If I’m being honest, my science teacher absolutely adored Jupiter. I don’t know why but that memory of him ranting about how cool it was just really stuck with me. I was only about 8 years old. But I found myself agreeing with him. Back then my fascination was a lot more childish. I thought it was fascinating that since Jupiter was a gas planet it hadn’t been blown away yet. I grew up from that view but the interest never left.

ew that was almost cute.

Nerd: I concur that was very unprofessional.

WAIT

WAIT

HOLD ON

Why hasn’t Jupiter blown away!?!?!?!?!??

Nerd: Excuse me?

8YR OLD YOU IS A GENUIS 

Nerd: There’s no atmosphere in space!

But there’s pressure and junk isn’t there? 

Nerd: The pressure is pulling the mass into the centre which keeps the planet whole.

Do you think we could step on Jupiter?

Nerd: I don’t know.

I thought you knew space!

Nerd: I do biology! To get into a biology degree, I did a bunch of biology based subjects! Why would I know anything about space?

I dunno.

I guess if you look like a nerd people just presume.

Nerd: I’ve personally found it’s the confidence. If you act confident enough then everyone presumes you know exactly what you’re doing and you’re in control, no matter how out of place you look. 

I’ll drink to that!

Wait, in what situation would you have learnt this!?!

Nerd: I have a bad habit of accidentally going to the wrong class and just going along with it rather than anything else. Although I should say I did fantastic in that architectural history class. But this habit has caused some awkward situations. I have also impersonated a store manager to explain why me and my friend were there when really he ran into the warehouse searching for a kitten. 

HAH

That’s brilliant

Using your nerdy powers to overthrow society.

Does this mean you’re a liar?

Nerd: I call it ‘managing life’. 

HAH

Sounds about right.

Why are you awake at this time?

Nerd: I could ask you that.

[british-bombs]

( TO BEAT THE DEVIL ) An introduction.

FORMAT: teleplay / novel

GENRE: horror, coming of age

LOGLINE: An interning demon drives a pair of twins cursed with obedience and honesty to kill their cult leader.

THEMES: Trauma, sexual abuse, domestic violence, victim blaming (particularly self blame), peer pressure, redemption, internalized homophobia, and religion.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual abuse, violence, domestic and otherwise, manipulation, and death

EXTENDED SUMMARY, CHARACTERS, EXCERPT AND NOTES:

Carmine can taste it. They're hiding something. Humans have such a silly smell about them, turns an overwhelming shade of sweet when they've made a demonic deal. All four of these children have. He just can't figure out what, and more importantly: why.

It keeps him on the surface longer than he should be. Long enough that Lilith sees it fit to send him a fucking trainee? And if that wasn't insult enough, the trainees one of the eternal teenage know-it-alls.

He's already got four annoying toddlers to trail, and now there's one tugging his hand in the new generation's approach to soul-catching like Carmine isn't one of the best employees they've had since the turn of the century.

And somehow, to make it all worse, the trainee is good at it. And if Carmine wants to keep his spot at the top of the food chain, he's going to have to get the soul of that dumb bitch who's running the joint.

But, of course, the kid gets him murdered??? And then has the nerve to figure out how what those toddlers managed to stick their syrupy, grubby little hands in. What gives?

But two can play at that game. If he can't get the dead guy's, then he can have the next best thing.

Jesse has lived just under seventeen years, but he's ready to check out. Or he was. But of course, some selfish bastard had to come along and say you can't ever act on those thoughts again! Don't think like that!

And then the hole kept getting deeper.

Six feet deep, to be exact. He's got blood on his hands and no matter how fucking good it felt to cut off the air supply to the God who stole his innocence, it's probably not going to feel very good to watch his mom suffer through a highly publicized trial with headlines like CHILD MURDERS HIGH PROFILE BENEFACTOR!!!

Oh. Well. Billy did say if he really got in that deep, he could always strike up a deal. His soul, everything wrapped up in a nice little bow, sweet as Easter Sunday. But until then? Yeah, he's content to live in a stupid fucking Sherlock Holmes novel.

CHARACTERS:

JESSE NIX: A soon-to-be seventeen-year-old saddled with the curse of obedience. Unlike miss-lucky-Ella-Enchanted, he wasn't told to give away his mommy's locket. No-siree. He was told to give away his virginity. In his opinion, the only appropriate payback is a life. Maybe, one day, if he really snaps, he'll dig up Pastor Dallin's corpse and chop his dick off. Really stick it to the man. If he doesn't go to prison first, anyway. (spotify playlist)

NANCY NIX: Also a soon-to-be-seventeen-year-old, though saddled with the curse of honesty. It's really not so bad. That is, until she stumbles across the sight of her dearest little brother covered in blood for no reason he can push through his metal braces. She refuses to believe he did it on purpose. If only she could convince the cops without sounding like a nutjob. (spotify playlist)

BEVERLY PINES: A seventeen-year-old cursed to feel the pain of those around her. It makes for some fun family dinners with a sadistic mom and a missing dad. Distance nulls pain, but she can't ever seem to make it past state lines before her mom gets wise and breaks one of her ribs. Oh, well. She's got a bone to pick with psychos like her mom. Apparently, Pastor Dallin was one of them. She doesn't think she could stomach the pain of killing someone, so next best thing, right? (spotify playlist)

CLARICE ANDERMANN: Also a seventeen-year-old cursed to be constantly in motion. It's honestly not that bad. She's Yale bound! Perks of having endless energy for everything to cheerleading to debate contests, though she can't imagine her heart's going to keep up like this. It's already hanging on by a thread. That thread is named Beverly Pines and like hell she's letting it go to prison for nothing. (spotify playlist)

BILLY: An annoying fuck trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body. No curses. The opposite, in fact - blessed with a silver tongue and a keen sense of deduction. It takes him all of two hours to put together (almost) everything about Jesse Nix. He just didn't think he could push the repressed little fuck to murder that quick. (All the more power to him, though. Prison always makes people desperate and paranoid, AKA: an easy mark.) (spotify playlist)

MAVIS EVANGELISTA: Former housewife turned grieving widow turned revered prophet. If she got a little help from someone downstairs, then who's to know? They love her all the same. Now, she really, really wants to see how far she can push them all. (spotify playlist)

CARMINE: Just a helpful guy, passing through. Really doesn't need anything, just a little pledge, is all! And then? Then, you can have everything you want, fame, money, power, love. The sky is your limit. The water's fine! (Ignore the piranhas, they'll wait till you're dead to eat your face, just a little bit.) (spotify playlist)

NOTES:

- all of these characters have equal importance within the story.

- personal tag system for story stuff is '#tbtd' and character tags are just first name (ex: '#jesse')

- this is kind of really fucked up. the only reason i wrote it was cause i was thinking damn ella enchanted really is NOT fucked up enough. like i don't think the author of ella enchanted went dark enough. a locket? that's it? a bitch move. i'm taking it to straight murder and sexual abuse

- jesse transgender, no character straight except evil people

- i'm not entirely sure how tag lists work but i think i get the gist of them?? idk if you want rb or ask or something </3

EXCERPT:

There were moments, where she was reminded just how different this voice was, how violent.

She had found Lynette, making off with her makeup that she’d spent her own allowance on. Mavis doted on her and, from what she’d seen of other families, everyone else looked upon their little siblings with contempt, despising the burden they dragged along with their existence.

But Mavis adored Lyn. When she'd been born, her mother had come home with a tiny thing bundled in pink fleece. Mavis had taken to Lyn on sight, thinking Lynette’s headband adorned with a baby blue bow was the universe’s way of telling her happy birthday! as reparations for the ones her mother had missed while she was enduring her week long stay at the hospital.

But that mindset was a disease, one that had finally caught up with her. Had Lynette not become her burden? She was nineteen, busting her back day and night so Lynette wouldn’t have to, that she might avoid the life that Mavis had lived in those blissful six years where it was her and her alone.

Had her mother not tampered down her birthday celebrations since Lynette’s was so very close and they couldn’t afford double anyway? Had Lynette not deprived her of the teenage experiences she heard her classmates speak of, going out and tasting alcohol for the first time while Mavis followed a ten year old Lynette house to house so she could complain of a stomach ache after she’d devoured all the candy on the walk back home?

And now this! Stealing her few precious items, the few things she bothered to save up for, few things she bothered to keep hidden. For what? It wasn’t as though she was ever going to have the courage to ask a peer of her’s out. She was a thief.

One Mavis had made the mistake of taking care of. She should’ve embraced those stirrings of resentment, should’ve left Lynette to her own devices since Lynette didn’t appreciate anything, or even half of what Mavis afforded her. She should’ve left her out in the cold that Christmas. How could anyone have known? It wasn’t as though corpses could talk--

She had let Lyn take off with the whole case, as if to remind herself when she woke up the next morning what she had considered, how vile the thought was.

Lyn had never done anything unforgivable to Mavis. Mavis didn’t suppose she ever could. It was no fault of Lyn’s she didn’t understand what it was like to live with their father. How could she? It was a topic off limits to Lyn by both Mavis and their mother. After all, a child born blind doesn’t know until it’s pointed out to them.

And yet, she found guilt hard to summon. She did, but the speed at which it came, the strength, made her uneasy. What had happened to the girl she was? Lyn had been her world. What had changed?

Then, dully, that other voice, entirely of its own volition, said You did.

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Rundown Job

leverage 5.09

the HEART EYES in parker and eliot’s eyes as they watch hardison crack the code of the vault is my religion

- - - - -

Hardison: Kiss for luck?

Parker: Who needs luck?

confident baby

- - - - -

(Parker begins doing elaborate moves and turns to get through the lasers, quickly reaching the far wall)

Hardison: I never get tired of that

THE HANDSHAKE BETWEEN HARDISON AND ELIOT BC THEY LOVE THEIR BADASS GIRLFRIEND

- - - - -

Parker (opens a case to reveal it is full of diamonds): Oh! Bup-bup.

(Eliot snaps at Parker to get her attention)

Hardison: Eight new schools. Okay, take care, sister Agnes. (hangs up)

(Parker closes the case and gives it to Eliot for mailing as Hardison dials the phone)

Hardison: Hey, Nate, we’re done in D.C. We’re flying back tomorrow. See you.

Parker: They’re so shiny. Couldn’t I have just kept one?

Hardison: Road to redemption, Parker. Just think how good it’s gonna feel when you get that Christmas card from those orphans. Hell, we may even get Eliot to smile.

parker deserves all the shiny things

“the road to redemption” THEY CHANGE TOGETHER

- - - - -

Riley: Why’d you quit, anyway? (pushes button again)

Eliot: Started running with some different people...

(Riley pushes button again but it doesn’t seem to be working)

Eliot: Like a hacker...

(Hardison enters room and nods. Riley pulls a gun from his drawer and shoots toward Eliot, but the gun is empty)

Eliot: And a thief.

(Parker taps on Riley’s head. He turns. She is holding the clip and a bullet from his gun)

Parker: Click. (tosses clip and bullet on table)

eliot “I started running with some different people” spencer loves his partners and I adore that with my whole (whole) heart

- - - - -

Eliot: Good night.

(Parker stuns Riley, who slumps on the desk)

I’m glad they’re enabling her tasering obsession

- - - - -

Eliot (checks his watch): I’m gonna keep her alive. You guys find a way to get her out of here.

Hardison: With what? I…

Eliot (walks away): You stole a Michelangelo with tinfoil and chewing gum. Figure it out!

eliot is like bitch please you’re smarter than this

- - - - -

the way the three of them back up to each other, covering their backs ,,,

- - - - -

Hardison: This is a violation of my constitutional rights.

Vance: You’re Alec Hardison. You cracked the Pentagon servers when you were 12. N.S.A. has a file on you a mile long.

Hardison: Do they? What do they say about me? I hope they gave me a cool nickname.

Vance: Parker here... No file on you, which is...

(Parker appears to be sleeping)

Vance: Is she asleep?

Eliot: She bores easy. What do you got on us?

hardison probably does have a cool nickname

also I LOVE how they still have no clue about parker

+

eliot being like “she bored easy” 🤷🏼‍♀️ the MARRIEDNESS

- - - - -

Hardison: Y-you’re talking about stopping a terrorist attack in an afternoon. We’d need all your intel.

Vance: That truck back at the crime scene... It’s an N.S.A. Mobile response intelligence unit–

Hardison: With the Schneier cryptography system and the j-dam satellite uplink? That... I know nothing about, ‘cause that would be treason and wrong. (to Vance) Are you for real

hardison: I wouldn’t know anything about that because that wouLd Be TrEaSoN

- - - - -

Vance: So, you grab the truck... (moves to sit by Eliot) Hell... Your girlfriend’s already out of her cuffs.

(Parker sits up holding the handcuffs and tosses them to Vance)

...they didn’t deny that parker was eliot’s girlfriend. they didn’t bother to correct him because it is, in fact, true that she is both their girlfriends. in this essay I will-

- - - - -

Agent: No, I can’t let you in the truck.

Hardison: A gigabyte gone... your job, gone.

Agent: Security clearances.

Hardison: You’re not gonna let who...

Eliot: What are we, terrorists? Okay, that was my plan was to come here, show you a real badge that I somehow got, and then bring somebody crazy to break into a secure vehicle? We’re gonna move this down the block. He’s gonna spend about an hour doing spot-checks on databases. I showed you my badge. Man, here, take my badge. (tosses it to Agent) Call it in. I got to deal with this guy

it’s funny because it’s true

- - - - -

Hardison: It’s got every database... N.S.A., CIA, FBI. It’s got hard backdoors into most commercial systems, live feeds into every security camera on the grid. Man, if this wasn’t such a gross violation of our civil liberties, I would be in love right now.

they never stop calling out the government and I’m Here For It™

- - - - -

Parker: Where do we start?

Eliot: We start with getting you two on a plane out of here. You didn’t sign up for this. Trust me.

Hardison: And you? You’re going to handle this by yourself? Come on, she’s a lady, man. She needs the right touch. What you gonna do with your big punching hands... Punch the screens? No.

Parker: We agreed we all change. Better or worse, we change together.

Eliot (after a moment): What do they got on the gunman?

ELIOT JUST WANTS HIS PARTNERS SAFE

also,,, for better or worse, we change together??? BITCH THOSE ARE WEDDING VOWS

- - - - -

Parker: Do you know why you bring a cooler full of ice to a robbery? No? I do. Everything we need to know is in that basement. I’ll drive.

Hardison: Hold on.

Eliot: Exactly.

Hardison: No, hold on. (holds on to table)

Eliot: Oh, you... oh, hell, man (sits down in chair across from Hardison. the van horn honks twice and eliot looks around, fumbling) No seat belts up in this thing- (looks at Hardison) d-do you got a seat belt?

Hardison: No, uh-uh, hold the wall (holds the wall)

eliot and hardison being exhausted boyfriends at parker’s reckless driving, I love this song

- - - - -

Parker: How do you lose track of a whole laboratory?

Eliot: There’s over 200 tons of uranium missing from the United States nuclear storage.

Hardison: The air force lost a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Georgia.

Eliot: Countries are big things, Parker. A lot of secrets slip through the cracks.

wow I love knowing these things and having to live with it

- - - - -

Hardison: The Spanish flu killed 50 million people during World War I, and now somebody’s got it. (opens door)

Parker: Look, we can do this. Just treat it like any another job.

Hardison: This isn’t just any other job.

Eliot: All right, all right. Stay focused.

Hardison: I focused! That bug in there killed 50 million people! 50! And that was when the population was lower.

Parker: Now?

Hardison: Now? 150 million people. 150 million dead. Hey, we’re thieves, man, and we’re good at what we do, but this is way, way out of our league. And you expect us to go catch some psycho with a city killer? A country killer?

Eliot: You scared?

Hardison: You’re damn right.

(Hardison turns to enter the truck but Eliot grabs his wrist, holding him back)

Eliot: I’m not. I got the best thief And the smartest guy I know chasing this guy.

(Hardison looks at Parker, but Eliot grabs his head and pulls him back)

Eliot: Hey, listen to me. You’re smartest man I’ve ever known, Hardison. I need that brain to get me to him. ‘Cause you know if I lay my hands on him, it’s done. Get me to him. (lets Hardison go)

tHe WaY hE gRaBs HaRdiSoN’S fACE

eliot knows hardison is spiraling but he also knows how to get him out of it because he knows hardison like the back of his hand and knows how to get through to him

THEY LOVE EACH OTHER

- - - - -

there are so many good ot3 shots in this episode it brings me so much joy

- - - - -

parker climbs hardison like a T R E E to turn off that detonator as eliot provides counterbalance

- - - - -

Eliot: Did it work?

Hardison: I... I don’t know. I’m trying to get the phone speaker.

Vance (on phone): Move, move, move! Get to cover! Pull everyone back to the perimeter!

Eliot: Ohh! My boy! (hugs Hardison) That is what I’m talking about!

tHe HuG, yOuR hOnOR

- - - - -

they really be playing grand theft auto in this one

- - - - -

(Udall fires toward the trio and they dive for cover. Eliot and Parker look at each other and nod. Parker looks at Hardison)

Parker: For luck.

(Parker kisses Hardison, then she and Eliot nod at each other. Parker grabs the briefcase and runs off the train while Eliot runs toward Udall. Hardison goes after Parker, and Udall shoots Eliot in the leg. Eliot reaches Udall and punches him, knocking him out. Hardison continues after Parker, who stops and opens the briefcase)

F O R L U C K

also high key the look parker and eliot share? it had the same vibes as “we do the things that they can’t, won’t”

+

parker high key kissing hardison “for luck” but also kissing him because eliot can’t

- - - - -

Hardison: Yeah. Yeah, that’ll do... that’ll do it. (he pulls her into his arms) Don’t do that to me. I can’t lose you. Do you understand? I can’t lose you. Don’t scare me like that.

Parker: Yeah.

Hardison: I can’t

he loves her so, so much

- - - - -

Vance: Promise you’ll at least consider working with us again.

Eliot: I work with them now.

Vance: Honor among thieves?

Eliot: Something like that. (walks away)

something like that,,, HE LOVES THEM, YOUR HONOR

- - - - -

Vance: World can always use some more good guys.

Parker: Yeah, well, too bad we’re the bad guys

smh, “sometimes the bad guys are the best good guys”

- - - - -

Parker: You’re shot. You should go to the hospital.

Eliot: I don’t do hospitals. (drops crutch)

Hardison: I told you. He takes getting shot very lightly

he drops his crutch to lean on parker and hardison THIS IS NOT A DRILL

- - - - -

after watching this episode, I agree with y’all wholeheartedly that this was an ot3 GOLDMINE

edit: also, notice how much is written in pink (the colorcode for ot3 notes and meta). like, more than half of it. because LITERALLY ALL OF THIS IS OT3 MATERIAL

[mrallnight57-blog]

The Crystal of Mordokia

Chapter 4

    The street was in chaos as several motorcycles zipped through traffic. None of them cared about stop lights or stop signs. All they wanted to do was get to their destination. A old abandoned hotel. Which was now the headquarters of the Gothic Lights, and the location of tonight's big event.

   The group pulled up to the old hotel, and there were a couple of bystanders. A man and a woman. The man started laughing hard. "Hey Denise look at these freaks with their biker outfits and Mohawks. Which decade do they think there in? The 80s."

    Denise looked over to her boyfriend. "Fred you should probably keep your mouth shut. They look pretty tough."

   Fred started laughing, "Oooh, I'm so scared. There probably all gay. The worst their going to do is style my hair."

   One of the bikers heard Fred talking. He was the largest of the group, and his mohawk was taller than everyone else's. On his jean jacket was a picture of a sledgehammer. Sledgehammer was also the name on his jacket. A name given to him, because when he punched someone, it felt like he had hit them with a sledgehammer.

   Denise noticed the rather large man walking there way, and she began to panic, she started to pull at her boyfriend's arm. "Hey we need to go, one of them is coming this way."

  Fred pulled his arm away from Denise and said, "Settle down babe. I got this."

   Fred looked over at Sledgehammer who was walking towards him. "Hey man, I was just playing." Then Fred looked at the building and a sign said, "See The Disciples tonight live, for free." Fred turned his attention back to Sledgehammer. "Hey, there's a free concert tonight!"

    "Yeah." Sledgehammer punched Fred right in the gut. Then looked down at him and said. "And we are working security."

  Fred fell to his knees, holding his gut, and began coughing up blood. Sledgehammer, barely punched Fred, but it was still hard enough to rupture something inside Fred's body.

   Denise bent down to check on her boyfriend. Then she looked up at Sledgehammer. "Hey psycho! "What do you think you're doing!?! I should call the cops!"

   Sledgehammer lit a cigar. "Well, if you do that, first I'm going to kill every cop that comes after me, and after I kill those cops. I'm going to find out where you live, and I'm going to kill you, and everyone else that lives at your house. Then I'm going to find your friends and your family, and kill them too."

   Denise was shaking in fear. She could take one look at Sledgehammer and could tell he wasn't messing around. In fact he had probably done that before, to someone else. Denise began pleading. "Please don't do that." Denise was trembling as she spoke.

    Sledgehammer smiled, as smoke left his mouth. "Well if you don't want that to happen, the best thing for you to do is take your little friend there to the hospital, and tell them he fell down some stairs."

    Denise was shaking, she did her best to help Fred to his feet. Then the two of them began walking towards the hospital.

   The rest of The Punk Rockers had been watching the event unfold. Pounder, a medium sized man stepped over to where Sledgehammer was standing, smoking a cigar. "Hey dude. Why did you let them go? You should have at least made the girl suck your dick, or something."

   Sledgehammer turned his attention to Pounder. "Shut the fuck up Pounder! That's your problem. You always think with your dick. We have more important business right now. We got to go in here and talk to Mister dark and spooky." Sledgehammer took another puff of his cigar. "Where the fuck is Rolo!?!"

    Pounder turned away to think, then back to Sledgehammer. "I think he went to go see his daughter."

    Sledgehammer was starting to get impatient. "Well he needs to hurry the fuck up and get back here!"

    Suddenly another motorcycle pulled up. Once Pounder spotted it, he tapped Sledgehammer on the shoulder. "There's the little bitch now!"

    Sledgehammer turned to see Rolo walking towards him. "About fucking time! If you would have made us late. I would have had no problem killing you and leaving your body on the side walk."

    Rolo gave Sledgehammer a confused look. "I thought we still had ten minutes."

    Sledgehammer grabbed Rolo by his jacket and pulled him close. "It's called being professional. I like being early."

    A couple of Punk Rockers began laughing. The thought of them being professional just made them laugh. They couldn't imagine themselves in a suit and tie.

    Sledgehammer led the group into the hotel. Once inside they noticed how dimly lit everything was. Along the walls was a ton of gothic imagery, and a few Punk Rockers were beginning to feel uncomfortable. One of them even asked, "how long are we going to be here?"

   Sledgehammer turned to the grunt who was speaking. "Stop being a pussy, and shut the fuck up!"

    The group walked into the conference room of the hotel. Inside their was a stage. There was also a set of stairs that went up to the second floor, and on that floor you could walk around, and look down at the conference room.

    Once all the Punk Rockers got into the room. The doors of the room closed on their own. This made a loud noise.

    This caused some of the Punk Rockers to get startled. One of them screamed out. "What the fuck!?!"

    Sledgehammer turned to the man. "Hey!!! What did I say about being a pussy?"

    Sledgehammer looked up and saw the second floor fill up with people in hoods and robes. There had to be at least twenty or thirty of them. The dimly lit room made it impossible for the Punk Rockers to see any of the hooded men's faces. This took Sledgehammer off guard as well. "Okay, now that's creepy."

    "Welcome!!!" A loud voice echoed through the conference room. The Punk Rockers' attention went towards the stage. Standing on the stage was another man in a Robe but his head wasn't covered.

   Sledgehammer looked at the man on stage. "You must be Gothic Mirror."

   "That's correct." Gothic Mirror stepped down off the stage, and started walking towards them. "I'm glad to see you all found the place okay. So I bet you all are chomping at the bit, to know why you are here."

   Sledgehammer lit another cigar and took a drag. "Oh we know why we are here. Our leader got into a tussle with some dumb vigilante, and now he is in prison, and it just so happens the one person who can get him out is very interested in your little cult. So he wants us to be your security for tonight's event. We do that, and he will get our boy out of prison."

    Gothic Mirror smiled, "I'm happy you understand your situation. Unfortunately there is something else I need you to do."

   One of the other Punk Rockers stepped forward. "No. The Unfortunate thing is we have to be here at all, and if you think we are going to take orders from you. You got another thing coming, because we are running the show now."

   Gothic Mirror looked at the name on the man's Jacket. "Buzzsaw? Is that what they call you?"

  "Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

    Gothic Mirror smiled, and looked over at Sledgehammer who threw his hands up. Basically without words, letting Gothic Mirror know Buzzsaw was acting on his own. Sledgehammer had heard rumors about Gothic Mirror's abilities, and the last thing he wanted was to have Gothic Mirror fucking with his head.

  Gothic Mirror leaned into Buzzsaw and whispered in his ear. One word. "Fear."

   Buzzsaw was about to laugh, but then realized he was no longer in the conference room. In fact he was in a very small room. All the walls were white, and there was no door or way out of the room.

    As he looked around the room, he realized he was by himself. "All right guys, this isn't funny. Where the fuck is everyone!?!"

   Suddenly the walls began moving. Making the room smaller, the room was closing in on him. This caused Buzzsaw to panic. He started screaming, "Come on guys! Let me out of here!!!" Buzzsaw tried to push against one of the walls, to push it back, but it didn't work. Now the walls were getting closer and moving faster.

   Buzzsaw began crying. "Look dude. I'm sorry! Please man!!! Let me go!!!" This outburst only seem to make the walls close in faster. Buzzsaw dropped to his knees, and began crying. "Come on man! I don't want to die!"

Buzzsaw closed his eyes, and waited for the walls to crush him. Tears were rolling down his face. He set there crying, waiting for his impending doom, but it never came.

Moments later he could hear his friends laughing at him, and Sledgehammer's voice. "Dude, you cry like a bitch."

    Buzzsaw was still on his knees with tears streaming down his face. Gothic Mirror was standing over him. Gothic Mirror squatted down so the two of them could be eye to eye. "Speak that way to me again, and next time those walls will completely close, and you will die. Do you understand me?"

    Buzzsaw nodded, and Gothic Mirror smiled. "Good."

    Sledgehammer grabbed the back of Buzzsaw jacket, and pulled him to his feet. "Get your ass over there with everyone else, and don't speak until spoken to! Buzzsaw went where he was told, and Sledgehammer shook his head. "What a fucking idiot." Then Sledgehammer looked over to Gothic Mirror. "So what's this favor you need us to do?

   Gothic Mirror got back on the stage. "Earlier this week my informant in the FBI filled me in on the whereabouts of an alien artifact. So this morning, a few of my followers and myself, broke into a government lab, and stole it. I also may have accidentally on purpose killed one of the scientist."

    Sledgehammer raised an eyebrow. "Accidentally on purpose huh? Well, where is this alien artifact now?"

    Gothic Mirror reached into his robe and pulled out a small led case, and opened it up. Inside was a small crystal that was completely dark.

   Sledgehammer and the rest of the Punk Rockers began feeling really uneasy, as if the Grim Reaper himself had just entered the room. Sledgehammer took a step back. "What is that thing!?!"

    Gothic Mirror, who seemed not to be bothered by the orra of the crystal, looked at the crystal. "It's called the Crystal of Mordokia, but I have no idea what it does, and until Litias tells me what it does. Litias isn't getting it."

    Pounder, who was now standing next to Sledgehammer, began scratching his head. "Who is Litias?"

    Gothic Mirror closed the case and put it back in his Robe. "Don't worry yourself about that. What I need you to do is, when the FBI gets here, I need you to take care of them."

   Sledgehammer stepped forward, "Take care of them how?"

    "Kill them of course. Except for one." Gothic Mirror put his hood over his head. "Her name is Jenny Ramirez."

[mummybear]

Just Let Go

This Is Day 9 Of Roleplay May

Words: 4570

Warnings: Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Letting Go Of Control, Restraints, Orgasm Control, Dom OC, Sub Stiles, Good Boy Kink, Think That’s It. 

Characters: Stiles Stilinski, OC (Michelle), Mentions Of Void, Mentions Of The Pack.

Pairings: Stiles Stilinski x OC (Michelle)

Summary: Stiles is pulling away from the pack a little and falling behind on school work, so Michelle agrees to help him with the studying for their econ exam. However, it turns out that all the studying in the world isn’t enough to help him. Michelle quickly discovers that Stiles is hiding more than he first let on to anyone else and she helps him find release.

A/N: This is Especially for my beautiful girl Michelle @holyhellpit @dylanholyhellobrien for all of her incredible support over the last five years we’ve known each other and not forgetting her amazing work! I try to include a fic for her in every time I do one of these things :) So I really hope you like it babe <3 ;)

Michelle pulls up in front of the Stilinski house and grabs her things from the passenger seat of her car. She’d offered to help Stiles study for their upcoming econ exam, since he’d not really been able to focus lately for some reason. He hadn’t told anyone why, just said it was a bunch of different things that were mounting up, things that he didn’t want to get into. 

Although, Michelle had a sneaking suspicion that there was more going on than just a few things weighing on him. Especially since the thing with Void, it was clear apparently only to her that he wasn’t the same happy go lucky boy he’d once been. 

She could’ve been crazy but lately it felt more and more like they had been getting closer as friends, maybe even leaning towards more than friends. Which was perfectly okay with her, but she’d had no desire to push Stiles into something he didn’t want if it were just her imagination. So she ignored it the best she could, no matter how hard it was.

After locking her car she makes her way up the small path, noticing that the Sheriff’s cruiser is already gone. In all the time they’d been friends, she wasn’t sure how often the two of them had been in his house together and they’d spent even less time alone together. 

Reaching the door she takes a deep breath and knocks. It doesn’t take long for the door to swing open revealing a very dishevelled looking Stiles, hair sticking up all over the place and still in the middle of struggling to pull his t-shirt over his head. Which gave her a nice view of the surprisingly defined abs which he hides so well beneath the t-shirt he wears. 

Before he successfully gets it to fall into place.

Michelle is still biting back a smile at the way the goofball turns up at the door, when he finally meets her gaze, those big brown eyes of his growing a little wider than usual.

“I uh… Sorry, I guess time kinda got away from me a bit today” he rushes to explain, stepping back so that she can walk past him and into the house.

“Don’t worry about it, Stiles. It happens to the best of us,” Michelle assures him with a soft smile as she hangs her coat up and kicks off her shoes. “So, where do you want me?” Her question takes him by surprise and he almost chokes on his drink. Yet another thought crosses her mind when Stiles becomes a little awkward, rubbing at the back of his neck, after repeatedly stumbling over his words

“Well I was thinking upstairs, if that’s okay?” Stiles sighs a little relieved when Michelle simply nods. They both gather up their snacks and drinks and Stiles collects his things from the kitchen table before leading the way upstairs to his room. 

Michelle catches him rolling his eyes at something and frowns, feeling a little more worried about him by the second. 

“Is everything okay Stiles? You seem a little off, kinda nervous or something.”

Stiles remains quiet as the two of them walk into his room, but she thinks she might know why. Seeing that the duvet and sheets are a complete mess on the bed, her brow arches as she looks at Stiles, finding him already blushing as he looks between her and the bed.

“Yeah, sure. Fine, everything’s fine” he smiles awkwardly, starting to remake the bed but it would’ve been so obvious to anyone looking just how hard he was blushing.

Michelle wondered if he’d been having a little more than a mid afternoon nap before she’d turned up, but given his behaviour towards her already she thought it best to not say anything, simply heading over to the other side of his bed to help him finish making it. Stiles seems to relax a little in the moments that followed, an easy and comfortable silence falling between the pair.

Once their little job is done they grab their books and Michelle sets about teaching Stiles everything he needs for the exam. However, it doesn’t take long for them to become distracted, reminiscing on all of the times that coach had flipped out on them during classes. Almost all of them are related to Stiles and their love-hate relationship.

“So how’s the teaching assistants job going? You had to teach any dicks yet?” Stiles asks suddenly, as he pops another chip into his mouth, completely changing the subject.

“Yeah, It’s good. Keeping me super busy, I just think they find it odd that I’m only a few years older than them, yet I’m telling them what to do” she tells him honestly, catching the candy he tosses at her with ease.

“I bet you’re great at it though” Stiles mumbles quietly around a mouthful of food.

“Great at what?” Michelle asks through a laugh, “Being a bossy bitch?” 

“Hey, if the shoe fits,” Stiles laughs when she throws a pillow at his head.

“I’m gonna have to put you in detention if you keep sassing me Stilinski, be a good boy” she warns him playfully, gently slapping his thigh with the ruler that had been laying between them. 

Stiles’ surprised gasp catches her attention, he’s blushing again but he does his best to ignore the now slightly awkward situation. However, there’s no escaping the other type of tension in the air as their eyes meet. 

Stiles licks his lips, whispering something under his breath that Michelle misses. Before he quickly looks back at the workbook between them, not allowing the look to linger too long. For a minute there Michelle expects him to get up and bolt off the bed, to her surprise he just stays there, fiddling with a pen before it drops back onto the book. Michelle looks over at him to find him scratching at the back of his neck in that adorably nervous way he does.

“Can I just say something real quick? It’s kinda gonna bring the mood down, but I need to tell you” Stiles asks as he rolls on his side to face her, Michelle mirrors his actions, resting her elbow on the bed and her head on her hand.

“Of course you can. Is everything okay?” she frowns concerned carefully laying her hand over his.

Stiles shakes his head looking down at their hands he smiles a little before finally looking into her eyes again.

“I just wanted to say thank you, you know. For everything you’ve done for me, since V-Void. It kinda feels like you’re the only one who even tries to understand. It’s just nice, spending time with someone as amazing as you, who sees me really sees me and doesn’t wanna run away.” 

He’s so damn vulnerable suddenly and it breaks her heart to see him like this, releasing now more than ever that people don’t appreciate everything that is Stiles Stilinski. 

“I wish I could do more, Stiles. Why would I run away? He wasn’t you, not even close. It’s gonna take a lot more than some psycho stealing your face to scare me away” she assures him sweetly, Stiles smiles at that looking down at the bed as he nods.

Michelle cups his cheek as a stray tear falls from his eye, he looks up at her again. Those sweet honey brown eyes looking right into hers.

“I just wish I could forget, just let go.” he swallows hard leaning into her touch as his body subconsciously shifts towards hers.

Michelle can hear her blood pumping in her ears, she would literally give anything to help him but she’s just worried right now may not be the best time. Her thumb brushes over the moles and freckles on his cheek, unable to stop herself from glancing down at his lips when he sinks his teeth into the bottom one.

“Stiles, we should probably keep going. I don’t-” her sentence is cut short when she sees the dejected look on Stiles’ face.

“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, stupid-” he’s cut off this time when Michelle presses her lips against his, there’s a moment where he stares at her with wide eyes. 

Only seconds pass before he relaxes, carefully his hands cup her cheeks, long fingers pushing into her hair as the kiss deepens. When he gives over control immediately Michelle moans against his soft lips, their tongues explore each other's mouths, slow and tender but she can feel the need in every movement he makes trying to pull her on top of him.

Reluctantly she pulls back, gently dragging her teeth over his full bottom lip. Searching his eyes for any uncertainty, but all she sees is the lust and desire in those slowly darkening brown eyes.

“I shouldn’t have done that,” she swallows nervously looking down at him, his wrists now trapped under her hands, his lips still a breath away from her own.

“Please Michelle, don’t stop. I’ll be a good boy,” he all but whimpers as his hands clenched into fists.

It takes every ounce of self control then and there for her not to give in.

“Oh fuck, Stiles, come on. You’re not playing fair,” 

His cheeky smile only forces a smile from her.

“Please, I need you so bad. I don’t trust anyone, not the way I trust you and I know you want this, just as much as I do” he rambles off quickly, leaning up the best he can his lips press against hers again. Her fingers flex around his wrists, pulling a moan from Stiles when her nails start digging into his skin.

“Are you sure? You’ll tell me if you change your mind?” she checks, letting up on her grip on him a little.

“I promise” he replies quietly.

“Okay, just relax. Sit up for me.” She instructs calmly, Stiles does as he’s told. Sitting up so they’re both facing each other.

Stiles watches her closely as she climbs off the bed crooking her finger for him to follow her. He practically scrambles off of the bed almost falling on the floor. Michelle can’t help but laugh fondly at his eagerness.

“Calm down baby, we’ve got all night” she winks pulling her t-shirt over her head and throwing it at Stiles. 

It smacks him in the face and falls to the floor, “Best teacher ever” Stiles groans, taking a step closer as she tugs off her jeans. Leaving her in just her simple black lacy bra and panties.

“Your turn Stilinski, strip” she smirks, watching him gulp as his eyes continue to roam her almost naked form. “You wanna be a good boy for me don’t you baby?” Michelle all but purrs, stepping closer and wrapping her arms around his neck as she pouts at him. 

Stiles nods rapidly in answer to her question. Her hands slip under the hem of his shirt, his skin so warm and soft. She smiles sweetly at him before dragging down his chest and over his abs pulling a whimper from those plump lips of his. Stiles quickly pulls his t-shirt over his head and drops it to the floor, 

“Everything?” Stiles questions, his voice breaking under the strain of his nerves slightly as his thumbs hook inside his sweatpants and the elastic of his boxers.

Biting her lip Michelle nods, as the sweatpants are pushed over his ass she’s amazed by just how muscular it is, making her want to sink her teeth into it. His thighs are clearly strong and his cock has her mouth watering. But she’s still unable to suppress her giggle when those sweatpants get stuck on his ankle. She gently pushes him back onto the bed and tugs them the rest of the way from his body and crawls over him, while he shuffles up towards the pillows.

“God you’re gorgeous baby,” she smiles appreciatively against his neck hearing Stiles moan beneath her. Her lips and teeth drag down his neck, slow and teasingly. Stiles’ hands clench in the duvet as her tongue slides along his collarbone, Michelle’s hands slowly move down his biceps, feeling his muscles clenching beneath the skin. 

His hands grab at her hair as her tongue circles around one of his nipples, her eyes flick up to meet his, seeing the hard rise and fall of his chest as she sucks marks into his skin.

When her fingers slowly drag down his ribs Stiles clenches his fingers in her hair. Narrowing her eyes at him, she makes him moan when a gentle slap hits his inner thigh.

“Hands off, naughty boy. Hold on to the headboard.” 

“Please Michelle,” Stiles whines wriggling beneath her.

“This is all about you. I’ll take as long as I want, now do as you're told or I stop, and you can wait even longer” she warns him sternly. Stiles swallows hard and nods, his pupils blown wide, eyes almost black when he finally does as she asks.

“Good boy,” she praises, pressing a kiss to his hip and sucking a mark into his skin as her fingers wrap around his impressive length. 

“F-Fuck” Stiles stutters throwing his head back against the pillows, Michelle moves her hand over him up and down slowly, enjoying the way he’s stretched out beneath her. Arms pulled above his head and stomach tensed, thick muscles straining against his skin. His head is tossed back in the pillows and his hips start bucking up into her fist.

Her free hand slides down his inner thigh, nails dragging along his perfectly soft skin, pulling a needy whine from his plump lips. Right before seals her lips around the swollen head of his thick length, laying her free hand and forearm across his lean hips and pinning them to the bed. 

“S-So good - oh god” his broken moan sends shivers down Michelle’s spine. Licking along the pulsing vein she slowly takes his cock deeper into her mouth. Flicking her eyes up to look at him again she sees that he’s white knuckling the headboard, eyes screwed shut and that pink plump bottom lip trapped between his teeth to the point it’s almost bleeding.

Her hand keeps moving over his cock, up and down, slow and purposeful as she removes her mouth for a moment. “Stiles, look at me baby and breathe,” Michelle encourages gently, Stiles snaps his eyes open and looks down at her taking a shaky breath.

“Wanna touch you, please,” he all but begs, as she takes his cock back into her mouth and gently sucks, sliding her tongue over the leaking tip collecting the salty pre-come as she goes  moaning quietly at the taste. Michelle lets her tongue circle around the perfect ridges, causing Stiles to thrust up towards her mouth. 

“You’re close aren’t you?” she asks voice breathy as she releases his cock with a quiet pop. Fidgeting where she sits as her panties dampen considerably further, seeing the desperate look in his eyes and his flushed cheeks. 

Stiles nods quickly in reply, making her smile as she completely releases his cock from her grip. “You want me to take these off?” she purrs seductively, sitting up on her knees and tugging at the sides of her panties.

Sitting up on his elbows and releasing the headboard, Stiles licks his lips, “Please” he all but croaks, eyes almost black as they lock onto her hands.

“Since you asked so nicely” she smirks, pulling them slowly from her body and dropping them off the side of the bed. Crawling over his body she straddles his hips, “You wanna feel how wet you make me baby?” Michelle asks seductively, as she rolls her hips down letting his thick length slide easily between her folds.

Stiles grabs her hips as they start to move, holding onto her as she rocks back and forth, watching the way his cock nudges against her clit with every movement. 

“So wet. So hot,” Stiles groans distractly, his hands feel incredible on her, long slim fingers digging into her hips painfully. Her own fingers are digging into his chest, clinging to him for life.

“Want me to sit on your face? Let you touch whatever you want?” 

“Fuck, yes please. Wanna taste your pussy so bad baby, please.” Stiles begs shamelessly, as his cock nudges at her entrance.

Leaning down she presses her lips to his, continuing to roll her hips into him. Stiles is a whimpering mess beneath her and she fucking loves it.

“Oh you will Stiles, but I want you to touch yourself while you’re doing it. Make yourself come for me, think you can do that?”

“Wanna come inside you though,” he moans as his cock starts to throb, still trapped between her folds, teasing her clit.

“Oh you will. Trust me, gonna make you feel so good,” she promises hotly against his lips, Stiles shivers dropping his hands from her hips, swallowing around the dry lump in his throat.

“Fuck, okay.” 

“There’s my good boy,” she praises, kneeling just above his face, facing the foot of bed, so that she can see everything. “Now, wrap those long fingers around your perfect cock for me big boy.” Michelle moans as he cranes his neck, pushing the thick muscle through her folds. Lowering her hips, when he finally does as she asked and starts pumping his cock in his fist. She can still see her slick glistening wet on his member as he moves his hand.

Leaning forward she rests her hands on his thighs, rolling her hips back into his face. Stiles cries out into her pussy when her tongue brushes the tip of his cock again. Sucking back a gasp when Stiles sinks two fingers inside her, licking around them as she pushes back into him. 

“Michelle, g-gonna come” his broken cry makes her pussy clamp around his fingers.

“Give it to me Stiles, come in my mouth” she practically growls, wrapping her lips around him as his fingers speed up their own push and pull, tongue rapidly flicking over her sensitive clit.

Stiles’ thighs start shaking when she sucks and his release floods her mouth, shooting down the back of her throat. Coughing a little she swallows him down, licking her smirking lips. Stiles moans when she climbs off of him and lays down beside him, “I wasn’t done, you didn’t finish.” he complains, still panting as his hooded eyes find hers.

Michelle spreads her legs and grips his hair between her fingers, “Oh sweetie, you’re far from done. The kiss she presses to his lips is quick and firm, pulling back with a harsh tug of his hair. “Now, no more hands pretty boy, work that mouth,” 

“Yes Miss. Fuck you’re so hot,” Stiles hisses at the sting of the grip on his head.

Releasing him for a moment, her hips arch as he climbs between her legs hooking them over his surprisingly broad shoulders. Two long fingers spread her pussy open, dipping his head down, his eyes stay on hers, letting the tip of his tongue flick back and forth over her tight bundle of nerves.

Michelle’s already so close, being wound up by him for this long is driving her crazy. Tasting his release on her tongue was only adding to her need. 

“You hard again baby?”

Watching his hips rolling against the duvet beneath him, he licks through her folds, from her soaked entrance to her throbbing clit moaning into her. 

“So fucking hard, God I want your come so bad, please” he whines needy and desperate just how she likes him.

“So close Stiles,” 

Her eyes flutter shut as he pushes those long skillful fingers back inside her, even deeper than before, moving even faster, curling them just right as he sucks her clit between his plump lips and flicks his tongue back and forth quickly.

“Fuck, yes! Right there Stiles!” she all but screams, hands quickly returning to his hair. Eyes rolling into the back of her head when her orgasm finally hits her like a truck. 

She can hear Stiles moaning her name into her pussy as he laps up her juices like a man starved. She’s whimpering a little as she comes down, so sensitive, removing his fingers from her Stiles licks them thoroughly clean. Michelle can’t help but watch that skilful tongue licking along those long fingers that had always hypnotised her and this was something else.

Stiles kisses and nips his way up her body, slow and gentle until his cock is brushing through her folds again with every slow rock of his hips. When their eyes meet Michelle almost gets lost in those gorgeous brown eyes.

Hooking her leg over his hip she smiles up at him, before quickly rolling them onto his back so that she’s on top of him. 

“Don’t look surprised Stilinski, I have thought about doing this to you for a while.” She winks, laughing when Stiles groans underneath her.

“So have I, but you just keep surprising me.”

“Is that what you were doing before I got here earlier? Thinking about me riding your cock were you?” 

Stiles licks his dry lips and nods, she bites back the smile that’s pulling at her lips the best she can. “I come so hard every time I think about you,” he confesses.

“You’ll have to show me some time. Now are you ready baby?” she asks gently, wrapping her fingers around his thickness, letting the swollen head of his cock press against her slick opening. 

“More than ready, please. Just wanna feel you,” 

Their moans blend together as her hand releases his cock and she slowly lowers herself onto his length. Feeling herself stretch around him perfectly the deeper it goes. Stilling herself she takes hold of his hands and guides them to her breasts, a loud groan is pulled from his mouth as she drops down fully, letting him fill her in one easy movement. 

Stiles’ fingers tighten on her breasts as she rolls her hips experimentally, “Fuck you’re so big baby, fill me up so good,” 

He roughly pinches her nipples causing a needy noise to leave her lips, “Hands back up you, that’s enough touching.” she warns him, as she switches and starts rising and falling on his cock. Stiles’ hands fall from her breasts but quickly grip her hips when she speeds up, “Final warning, you bad boy.” she pants harshly, feeling his fingers tighten on his hips makes her smile, but it’s anything but sweet.

“You’re so tight, feels so fucking good,”

When she almost completely stops her movements Stiles swears under his breath, catching his lip between his teeth. Leaning over him she grabs a tie from the bedside table, “Hands. Now Stiles. You do not want to keep testing me,” she demands. 

Stiles whimpers, giving her his hands, pulling them together roughly she ties his wrists together before connecting the tie to the bed.

“God you’re so sexy when you’re angry” Stiles moans out when her movements become more insistent. Keeping her eyes locked on his as she leans back, resting her hands on his strong thighs. Changing the angle perfectly, so that the head of his cock now drags against her inner walls in just the right way. The harder she bounces the louder Stiles becomes, the muscles in his arms straining as he tugs against his bindings.

Planting his feet on the bed Stiles starts to thrust his hips up, meeting her every thrust, her edge is nearing as the slapping of their sweaty skin falls into sync with every moan and whimper they’re pulling from one another.

“S-So close” Stiles whimpers chewing on his lip. Michelle slips a hand between her legs and starts to rub at her clit in hard fast precise circles.

“Don’t you fucking dare! Naughty boys come l-last, so wait your turn,” she moans around a gasp, the remaining hand on his thigh squeezing hard.

Michelle’s pussy clenches around Stiles’ cock and she screws her eyes shut, feeling the orgasm approaching, his name is a chant that falls from her lips. Her mouth drops open in a silent scream when she finally falls over that edge, her stomach clenching and her walls fluttering.

She can faintly hear Stiles begging for release beneath her and forces her eyes open, resting her hands on his chest, feeling his heart beating rapidly beneath her hand.

“Need it please, God please,” he moans loud and out of control.

Nodding she lays fully on top of him and kisses him hard, all tongues and teeth as she unties his hands. Hands that immediately grab her ass and this time she doesn’t stop it him, “Give it to me baby, fuck me good and hard,” she purrs against his ear, dragging her teeth over his earlobe and pushing back onto his cock.

Stiles is like a man gone wild when he finally takes control, quickly flipping her onto her back. He grabs one of her legs and throws it over his shoulder, so that it’s trapped between them which changes the angle completely, heightening everything. 

Plump pink lips attack her neck, sucking marks into her soft skin everywhere that he can reach as he continues pounding roughly up into her, his hips begin to stutter. 

Grabbing Michelle’s hands he links their fingers and pushes them back against the bed.

“You feel so good, Stiles! Shit, come on baby!” 

Stiles all but growls when he finally comes undone, two more rough thrusts of his hips, has him collapsing against her, sweat coating their skin, his damp hair pressed into her neck as he pants harshly, chest burning and heaving. Michelle holds him against her when he releases her hands, gently rolling them onto their sides. 

His eyes flutter open to meet the perfect mix of blue and green in her eyes, “you’re so amazing,” Stiles smiles sleepily, brushing the backs of his fingers across her cheek. Pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. “So beautiful,” he breathes out slowly.

Michelle can’t help but smile, blushing at the way he’s looking at her, he looks lighter than he has in months, his big brown eyes are now back to being warm and loving just like they had been before. 

“Hey you already got laid you know. No need to keep buttering me up,” she jokes with a laugh, which Stiles quickly joins in with. 

“You were just something else. So much more than I ever hoped and expectations were high” 

He’s grinning like an idiot as he holds her closer, “Like I said best teacher ever.”

“Are you gonna tell the pack what’s actually going on?” she asks, pushing the damp hair from his forehead.

“Maybe at some point. Right now, I’m happy with it just being me and you.” He smiles sweetly, leaning into her touch when she cups his cheek, letting her thumb brush across the blush.

“Hmmm, I like the sound of that,” she smiles letting him pull her into another unforgettable kiss.

Tags: @chewie-redbird​ @julzdec​ @lettersofwrittencollective​ @stiles-o-dylan24​ @mogaruke​ @all-alone-he-turns-to-stone​ @dylanholyhellobrien​ @desireepow-1986​ @emichelle​ @lilulo-12​ @22sarah08​ @deanwanddamons​ @simsadventures​  @charmed-asylum​ @nicole-lynne​ @hazel-eye-coffee-shop-girl-blog @defenderrosetyler​ @emilyshurley​ @emoryhemsworth​ @foxyjwls007​ @mylovelydame21​ @sunshineandwings86 @captain-shannon-becker​ @heimdoodle​ @plushpyrate​ @winchester-wifey​ @screamxqueenx94​ @brien-odylan​ @fox-in-a-mousetrap-8 @riseandshinelittleblossom​ @riseandshinelittleblossom​ @mrs-mitch-rapp93​  

[cherrybombusa]

GROUP ONE  - THE LIBRARY. SUCCESS.

PLAYERS:

THE ARTIST - Sloane Salt. THE ROMANTIC - Mac Walsh.  THE  FILMMAKER - Zev King.  THE MANNEQUIN - Lilli Montgomery.  THE BITCH - Zahra Jackson. THE WRITER - Noah Russell. 

PERKS EARNED: 

WALK IN MY SHOES: After Jamie Dyer spilled his secret to save his friends, he’s been rewarded with the ability to put other people in his shoes! If something happens to Jamie he doesn’t like, he has the ability to switch places with any character as if it happened to them instead. 

MEMORABLE MOMENTS: 

-MAC GOT TAKEN BY THE KILLERS.  -LILLI GOT GRABBED TWICE AND TAKEN.  -SLOANE ATTACKED A MAN ON LSD AND SAVED ZEV. -JAMIE SPILLED HIS SECRET TO CLARISSA - AND THE REST OF CHERRY. 

THE NARRATOR: It might not have been a quiet night, maybe not even uneventful, but the Gang found themselves grateful, at least, that the Candy Girl hadn’t shown her face. It was nearing midnight now, and with only Paulie Virginia checking on the kids before they fell asleep on the sand, and Lucas Bright left straggling on the beach with the Gang, they were sure to turn-in soon. 

They were gathered around the bonfire, talking and laughing - almost even letting their guards down - but the screech of three white vans pulling up to the shore interrupted every little conversation taking place around the bonfire. They didn’t want to think anything of it at first… College kids in this town were wild, and they were all piling back into town this week, after all. But when a group of masked, hooded figures with baseball bats, and kitchen knives galore began making their way out of the vehicles, and onto the beach - what were they supposed to do but worry?

OFFICER PAULIE: “Hey! Stop right there!”

THE NARRATOR: It was almost instinctual for the rookie to go right into barking cop voice, even with no back up  - stupid, of course - but another ‘Candy Girl’ stunt was the last thing he was going to let happen on his watch. The man reaches for the taser in his belt, just like he was trained to do, but just as he gets it free, the blur of a body rushing forward - Lucas Bright - distracts him for a split enough second to fumble. 

Paulie almost yells for Lucas to stop, but before he can get the words off of his tongue, the Bright kid nearly runs headfirst into one of the masked figures' fists. It’s shocking how hard he falls - makes Paulie wonder if he’s okay - but before he can wonder too much, he realizes too late that one of the hooded figures has gotten the jump on him. He’s half expecting the figure to reach for his taser - the oh shit moment of the century - but when Paulie feels a baseball bat connect with his ribcage… He almost wishes he had been tased. Might have hurt less.

CANDY GIRL: “Hello, my little freaks and geeks! Did you miss me and my little friends? Because I think tonight is about to get a little more fun.”

THE NARRATOR:  ...Uh oh. Maybe I spoke too soon about the Candy Girl not showing her face. 

It doesn’t take long to get the gang tied up - not with the threat of knives, and Paulie’s discarded taser at the hooded groups disposal - and the ringleader of this little group, the one bouncing around telling everyone what to do, seems absolutely giddy with her capture. What else are you supposed to expect from faceless psychos, though, right?

CANDY GIRL: “Here’s the game tonight, losers! We’re gonna split you up and see if you can pass our little trials. Those who do? They get to go home tonight! Those who don’t…. Well, you might end up closer to Lux than you thought you were before.”

THE NARRATOR: Candy turns toward one of the other masked figures - one that seems like her Helper - flicking her chin toward the Gang. It’s a cue, and that much becomes clear when one-by-one, each of them has a hood slipped over their face, obstructing their view nearly completely.

CANDY GIRL: “But first, we’re going on a little trip!”

THE NARRATOR: It’s hard for the Gang to know just how they’ve been split up, but as they’re pushed forward toward the parking lot - the sound of Paulie’s and Lucas’s far-off groaning in their ears - they know one thing. They’re completely fucked, and there’s nothing they can do about it with their hands tied behind their backs… Especially not when they’re about to be shoved into the back of those fucking vans.

Nobody’s really sure how long they’ve been driving - they’re all too terrified to try and keep count - but by the time the van finally slows to a stop, they’re all dragged right back out onto solid ground, and into… some old building. Just where, is the question.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS HAVE BEEN TAKEN BY THE CANDY GIRL TO CCU FOR A NIGHT OF FUN. DON’T DIE!

THE NARRATOR: Maybe it’s the heavy doors that give away their final destination, or maybe it’s the musty smell of old textbooks, but those who had ever stepped foot into the CCU library know right where they are at that moment. It’s a comforting place for some - one that induces only stress, or indifference to others - but it’s hard to imagine that it won’t be a place that brings anxiety after tonight; just as tainted as the boardwalk, or even walking along Lux’s and Harvey’s block might be. Now is no time to think about how they might feel in the future, though -- if they even make it that far. No, they’re going to have to make it through tonight first.

The gang is led into the room like lambs to slaughter - Jamie carried not-so-nicely over one of the maniacs shoulders - but once they’re situated, the hoods that cover the gang’s faces come off; they even cut the ropes off from around their wrists, but the knives, and baseball bats manage to keep everyone in their place. The library is dimly lit, with only it’s balcony lights shining down on the grandiose room; the bank of computers on the second floor is like a beacon, beckoning them forward. It almost seems normal for a moment, like they were just there studying after-hours, but the two figures heading the circle - Candy and her supposed assistant - shock them back into reality with a clap of their hands.

CANDY GIRL: “Like I said, we’re gonna play a little game tonight, boys and girls! But, you’re all oh-so-familiar with games, aren’t you? Especially after our special little stunt at the boardwalk.”

THE NARRATOR: Her voice could almost be considered familiar, but nobody in the room really knows where to place the memory of it. Did she actually sound like that recording on the beach? Was she someone they knew? The gang just looks at each other from any angle that they can; making eye contact at whatever cost, as if it might help them all jog their memory to know they’re on the same page. They don’t get another chance to listen, though, as the other figure - Candy's helper - begins speaking.

CANDY'S LITTLE HELPER:  “She’s written some riddles!”

THE NARRATOR:  They pull a sheet of paper from their pocket.

CANDY GIRL: “And you’re going to solve them! Don’t worry about the doors -”

THE NARRATOR:  The movement is clearly rehearsed as a number of their captors - five, if you’re counting - head toward the door. Three of them leave, but the other two begin looping chains through the antique handles, locking them into the room with no real escape but up… And we know just how well this group does with climbing.

NOAH RUSSELL: Of course. They couldn't have one fucking night could they? Although what more could he have expected from the masked figure who thought a funeral was the time and place to play spin the bottle. The library of all places had a chilling feel to it in comparison to the beach. Almost theatrical like every horror book he'd ever read, and he sure as hell had read a lot of them. "I'm getting real sick of these damn riddles." He started as he thought about taking a step towards the door before thinking better of it. These people had knives, bats, and while on their own that didn't have to overly intimidating, this was the same person who only too recently before had blown up an entire carousel. "Anyone opposed to taking out the windows?"

SLOANE SALT: On some level Sloane knew that this was... a bad situation. There were scary people with what looked like weapons. Extremely tall people, some as tall as the ceiling, maybe and swaying.  The hooded girl's voice sounded kind of familiar, but considering the state she was in, she could hardly pin point who it was. She hadn't said much of a word on the way to the library mostly because she didn't really want anyone to know that she was feeling weird and now she was sitting on her ass, staring at her newly freed hands. "When did I paint these...?" She muttered to herself, turning her head entirely too slowly to look over at Noah as he spoke. As she took in his words, her expression quickly shifted to offence, her eyes widening and her mouth opening in fear. Those poor windows, they hadn't done anything to anyone. "No, don't hurt them!"

CANDY'S LITTLE HELPER: “--Um, excuse me? You’re totally throwing us off our rhythm!”

THE NARRATOR: Candy’s little Helper interrupts the conversations with an annoyed tone, as if they’re the ones inconveniencing her night. It’s strange, how nonchalant it is, but Candy just just shushes her. You can't even see her face, but you can almost just tell she's rolling her eyes beneath the mask.

CANDY GIRL: “Will literally just say your line?

CANDY'S LITTLE HELPER: "Fine! You need three keys, and three keys, exactly!"

CANDY GIRL: "Or you'll spend the night -"

THE NARRATOR: Maybe it’s the fear of the moment that kept all of their eyes focused on the two masked figures interacting with them - tunnel vision, of sorts - but it only makes the loud squish of blade entering flesh even louder than it should have been. The group of them flinching before Candy even has a chance to start shrieking through the pain of the blade in their side.

It was almost unbelievable that it had happened at first - did it even make sense that the Candy Girl’s henchmen were even turning on her?  - but the blood splashing against the tile had to have been proof enough that it wasn’t just some fucked up group hallucination… One that didn’t seem so expected by either Candy Girl, or the other henchmen.

CANDY'S LITTLE HELPER: “What the fuck is wrong with you!”

THE NARRATOR: Fair question. And the attacker should have heard it - as loud as the second-not-so-in-charge-figure shrieked - but the knife-wielder didn’t even flinch as he dragged Candy toward the bookshelves; blood pouring from the wound in her side.

The other mask - Candy’s little helper - almost considers running for it, throws the note from her hands in anticipation of getting the fuck out of there…  but she hardly gets a chance when her own attacker - the other one of the maniacs who had chained the door - comes from behind her and squeezes their hulking arms around her fame. They have their own knife; one that plunges directly into her abdomen, but the Gang doesn’t have much time to watch as the attacker laughs and drags her toward his own row of bookshelves.

What. The. Fuck.

There’s only a moment of hesitation - it had all happened so quickly - but the gang wastes no more time before fleeing to opposite sides of the library, Mac helping Jamie as best as he can in the struggle. The sound of the woman’s dying screams echo across the space, shaking all of them to their core… but they all know one thing: they need to get their hands on that riddle.

If they’re locked in, then it might be their only way of getting out.

MAKE A CHOICE:  MAC, JAMIE, LILLI, AND NOAH ARE ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE LIBRARY, HIDING BEHIND THE LIBRARIAN’S DESK. ZEV, SLOANE, AND ZAHRA ARE ON THE RIGHT SIDE, MAKING THEIR WAY UP THE STAIRS TO THE SECOND LEVEL.

MAC: Tonight is the first time in his life that Mac thinks he shouldn't have went along with one of Libby's ideas. How stupid of them was it to all gather in one spot in the middle of the night? They might as well have asked Sloane to paint perfect targets on their collective backs. He'd already been freaking out enough as it was, but the sound of that blade? The blood? If he made it out of here alive they were sure to be added to his ever growing list of nightmare material. A sudden rush of adrenaline as everyone begins to flee has him nearly carrying Jamie across the room, ducking under the desk, eyes searching to see if the rest of his friends had made it over unscathed. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now?"

NOAH: Even though he knew about the kind of antics the Candy Girl could have possibly gotten up to, there was a difference between knowing and seeing them first hand. Of course it wasn't the first time he'd seen blood drawn, but the blood from cut lips and faces after a brutal run in from home failed in comparison to what he'd just seen. Candy Girl was supposed to be their captor wasn't she? The one who'd been tormenting them since night one? The one who kept Lux fresh and at the forefront of their minds, unable to move on. Watching her fall to her knees, the screeches of pain that rang out behind them as they'd ducked for cover. It didn't make sense. Any trace of alcohol that had once been intruding his symptom felt faint in comparison as he hid beside the desk. "I don't know but we can't stay here. We're gonna be sitting ducks. We need to find those fuckin' keys, but looking in a library is going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack." He added in a harsh whisper as he attempted to catch his breath.

THE NARRATOR: Split up and helpless. Fuck. Looks like they need that riddle if they're going to make it out of here alive.

MAKE A CHOICE:  SOMEBODY DOWNSTAIRS MUST RETRIEVE THE RIDDLE: WHO WILL IT BE?

MAC: Mac's eyes dart around the room, searching for the slip of paper he'd seen one of their captors pull out at the mention of riddles. He wasn't even sure if it would help them at this point, considering he was almost positive getting stabbed wasn't part of the plan, but it was their best option. Right? When his eyes finally land on the piece of paper his adrenaline once again kicks in, causing him to lunge across the room in an attempt to retrieve it.

MAKE A CHOICE: SUCCESS!

THE NARRATOR: Every step sounds like a symphony in their own ears, each and every movement too-loud, even masked by the sound of Candy and her Helper's screams, but somehow Mac manages to make his way back around the librarian's desk and toward where the riddle was thrown. He gets his hands on the blood soaked paper; the breath leaving his lungs as the sound of screaming begins to die - no pun intended - out. It’s not completely obvious what he should do next, but he makes eye contact with his friends behind the librarian's desk; with the few on the second level. 

They’re never going to make it out of this without each other, so they better think fast. 

They hear the sound of the killers beginning to stir from somewhere within the maze of bookshelves, and just like that a plan forms in their freaky little hive mind. Someone needs to distract the killers while everyone else gets upstairs. But who will it be?

MAKE A CHOICE: SOMEBODY MUST DISTRACT THE KILLERS WHILE THEIR FRIENDS GET UPSTAIRS. SHOULD THEY THROW SOMETHING ACROSS THE ROOM ,  SNEAK ACROSS THE ROOM AND KNOCK SOMETHING OVER, OR SHOULD SOMEONE UPSTAIRS THROW SOMETHING OFF OF THE BALCONY?

ZAHRA:  Zahra peered down at the half left on the floor below. Things had gone wrong so quickly and in so many ways and compartmentalising was the only way any of them were getting out of this in one piece, so she did her best to ignore the fading screams. Instead she turned her focus to her surroundings. There had to be something she could throw down to distract the psychos - there! Her eye caught on a computer plugged in near the edge of the balcony. Wordlessly, she hurried over to it and yanked out the plug. Then, with as much of a heave as she could muster, she threw it over the edge.

MAKE A CHOICE: FAILURE!

THE NARRATOR: It was a long shot, but as Zahra tosses the computer off the railing, only one of the killers turns their head to investigate. The other? Well, their gaze lands directly on Mac. 

It’s hardly a split second before they cross the room toward them, and as hard as Mac tries to fight, but it’s no use - the threat of the knife, and the feeling of it’s handle knocking against the side of his face is enough to give the killer the upper hand… At least they have time to throw the riddle in the general direction of their friend before they’re dragged away toward the maze of bookshelves. 

It’s enough to the rest of the gang all in place, but they know they have to get upstairs -  they have to get the hell out of there, and save Mac.. if there’s even time. They all book it as fast as they can, everyone helping Jamie along the way, and somehow they manage to make it up the stairs before they’re spotted - one of them even manages to grab the riddle, even if they were silently hoping it wasn’t Mac's last gift to them all. 

At least it might actually save them. 

Their hearts are pounding loud enough in their chests that they might swear they could all count each other’s heartbeats. Now is no time to check up on each other, though - not as they lay the first riddle out in front of them

.

If you want the first key, you’ll have to find Me,

I’m the keeper of the scrolls, you see.

Melvil named the system, and I check it twice,

Are you feeling naughty? Then here’s some advice: 

I’ll name a book, or maybe name three -

You’ll choose the one that speaks to the dream 

Of losing it all, or leaving behind 

That sweet, sane, little part of your mind. 

Maybe they fight it, or maybe they end it, 

Maybe the pick is the one your friend mentioned. 

Will your gang make it out? Maybe -  who knows.

But I wouldn’t count on it, unless you all know who glows.

HOODED MANIAC: THE KILLER IS HERE.

THE NARRATOR: The killer hardly sneaks up on the, but the Gang is surprised anyway - each of them gasping as Lilli is snatched up by his grasp. She screams - she's caught - but the rest of them have a choice to make.

MAKE A CHOICE: LILLI HAS BEEN GRABBED. DO YOU TRY TO SAVE THEM OR LET THEM GO?

ZAHRA: Yeah, things with Lilli had always been a little contentious but there was no way Zahra was letting her be dragged away. They'd already lost Mac and that was fucking enough. She lunged forward and grabbed Lilli as she was snatched up.

MAKE A CHOICE: SUCCESS!

THE NARRATOR: It’s a great effort, and though they don’t manage much real damage, Zahra's still successful in getting her ""friend"" the hell away from that monster. The whole group is terrified, but they’re quick on their feet as they move somewhere else that could be deemed even semi safe within the madness to solve the next riddle.... Watch out though. I think the killer saw where you were going.

MAKE A CHOICE: LILLI RUNS FOR THE KEY.

THE NARRATOR: Lilli runs as fast as she can - the gang all sneaking close behind - and with the correct location, it’s not hard to find the key taped to a shelf in the history section, along with the next part of the riddle. It should be easy to get back to their friends, but before they can even turn around, she feels hands grasping around her limbs and yanking them back through the bookshelves yet again- dragging her away toward the maze of a room to… She didn’t even want to think about it. She just knew they had to fight - but she can’t do it alone.

MAKE A CHOICE:  DOES SOMEBODY WANT TO SAVE THEIR FRIEND, OR LET THEM DROP THE KEY?

THE NARRATOR: The gang can hear Lilli trying to fight her attacker - her screaming echoing through the space  - and though the guilt eats them alive, they know there’s nothing they can do about it. They just have to hope that the fact that the screaming gets further and further away and doesn’t just abruptly end - just like it did when those two masked maniacs got stabbed earlier - is a good sign. 

The remaining members make quick work of grabbing the key and the riddle, and try to find another safe spot in the library.

If you want to get out, don’t Twist and Shout, 

It’s not the Candy Man locking you out. 

If you feel Clueless, then here’s your clue - 

You can find Me behind door number two. 

How to know you’re close? Just think of the times, 

The 90’s are ending, but gossip still thrives! 

Once you’re through, don’t look any further - 

Your key can be found in the one with no murder.

ZEV: Zev scopes out the Librarian's desk and makes a move for it, trying to keep down and quiet as he dashes, heart pounding in his chest.

THE NARRATOR: Zev sprints with everyone else not far behind him. The key is there, taped beneath Glenda Logan's desk along with the last part of their riddle, but at the very last moment - before the Gang can warn him - one of the killers comes and hits him over the back of the head with his knife. He's got a hold on Zev, and as hard as he's fighting, he's not going to be able to make it out alone.

MAKE A CHOICE: DOES SOMEBODY WANT TO SAVE THEIR FRIEND, OR LET THEM DROP THE KEY? 

SLOANE SALT: All of the running around and masked killers has mostly been Sloane moving in accordance with everyone else, eyes bugged out of her face as she tries not to trip over her platform boots. When Zev gets snatched, it's as if enlightenment comes over her and she suddenly becomes aware that one of her favourite people, someone basically a little brother to her is in danger. "Let go of him!" She screeches as she reaches for him, using all of her body weight to try and pull him away.

MAKE A CHOICE: SUCESS!

THE NARRATOR: Maybe it's the LSD, or just sheer willpower, but everyone swears they actually see the Killer flinch as Sloane screams like a banshee toward him. They groan in pain as their shoulder is pulled nearly out of place, and in fear they run as far as they can in the other direction.

 The whole group is terrified, if not confident, but they’re quick on their feet as they move somewhere else that could be deemed even semi safe within the madness to solve the next riddle.

Here’s your third key - you’re almost there! 

Unless you can’t take a bit of a scare. 

Your clues can be found with Clarissa Teller - 

But she’ll only tell you if you can impress her. 

Somebody’s secret must be told.

 It’s only then that I’ll give her the gold. 

So, hurry along! But only choose one.

Oh, wow, oh boy!

Now this will be fun.

MAKE A CHOICE: SOMEBODY MUST TELL CLARISSA THEIR SECRET ON THE COMPUTER UPSTAIRS. WHEN THEY DO, THE LOCATION OF THE THIRD KEY TO BE RELEASED.

NOAH: The panic that had gripped his chest as the evening grew, only intensified as they read their final clue. Mac had been taken, Lilli had been taken, he'd watched helplessly as Zahra saved Zev, and perhaps the bit that was the most impossible to forget, he'd seen the Candy Girl murdered before his very eyes. And while he didn't see the life fleeing from her eyes he could picture it a little too well. "Zev you okay?" He asked, in an attempted moment of calm and partially to distract from the racing of his own heart. Waiting the moment for some sort of nod before turning to the rest of the group. "What the hell is she talking about? What doesn't Clarissa know already?" He asked, his voice soft with profound fear as he glanced around the room. The first two clues while challenging in their own right, they seemed to fall into place, but he dreaded what could possibly be meant by the third.

SLOANE SALT: Sloane was definitely riding on more than one high at the moment, one of the unidentified form, from that pill she'd taken and one from saving Zev. She was breathing heavily, leaning on the table in the study room as she looked around at everyone who was still with them. They needed to get through this, that was the only thing that mattered, even if even the furniture was kind of freaking her out. Throwing her arms around Zev, she turned her head when she heard Noah's voice. Her mouth twisted as she fought off the urge to say something, a sly smile forming on her lips. "Come on, she doesn't know lots of secrets." Her eyes widened as she emphasised the 'lots'. In the state she was in, she was tempted to just start blurting out everything she knew, but then her head turned to Jamie and she suddenly felt guilty. "What do we do?"

JAMIE: Jamie had been watching the crew from the jump, lingering behind the rest not only due to his leg but his own dwindling motivation to be part of some messed up game when two of his favourite cohorts had gone missing with no promise of survival. This was what Cherry was now, a mecca of lost, frantic young adults enslaved to the whims of someone other than themselves.  As terrible as they were, Jamie didn't believe any of them deserved to be forced to admit to something they weren't ready for. That was why he'd agreed to hide the note, wasn't it?

When Sloane's desperate eyes met his, he'd already made up his mind.

"I'll do it," he said, with little fanfare. "Can someone help me up the stairs?"

By the time he was seated at the computer, his heroic resolve had diminished. Words that normally came easy for him sat bated behind still fingers as he thought of exactly what to write when he'd never allowed the thoughts to come to real fruition.

𝐝𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞:  Dear Clarissa, the day has finally come where I have to acknowledge your existence but rest assured that it's not by my own volition. I have a secret to tell you that I'm sure won't come as too big of a surprise. 

Last semester, I snuck in and did the SATs for Cherry High graduates who had the means to pay. My family is in debt, thanks to my father and his frivolous new wife, and I thought I'd be able to pay it off. I couldn't, but that's not the point. The point is that I enjoyed every minute of it. The studying, the acceptance, the shining accolades.

I mean, I wouldn't have to talk to you if I just went to college, would I?

THE NARRATOR: It probably feels like a punch in the gut to be selling their own secret to the local paper, but as they press send on the keyboard - as Clarissa starts typing - the power goes out, and the room goes dark. It’s terrifying at first, enough to make the Gang clutch at each other, like it might be their last moment… But when the sound of chains dropping from the door handles echoes through the room - followed by the scurry of sprinting out of the library - they almost think to breathe a sigh of relief. Could that really be it? Could it be over? 

They don’t move for nearly an hour - or maybe it just feels like an hour - but when they finally decide the coast is clear, the group of them  - or what’s left of them - sprint down the stairs, and the hell out of CCU as quickly as they can. Maybe it’s a betrayal to not even look for their friends… or maybe their bodies. But how are they supposed to stomach the thought of it? How are they expected to stick around with those… killers still on the loose? 

Are their friends still alive? Is the Candy Girl alive? Who knows. They just know they need to get the police down here to help their friends as soon as they can... even if it means leaving people behind for now.

MAKE A CHOICE: YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED YOUR PLOT EVENT. YOUR FRIEND'S FATES ARE UNKNOWN.