#i have NO recollection of listening to tank that many times?? i do like it though. fun song

[rucow]

i logged onto desktop tumblr for the first time in years just to fully expose my music taste and show u what i listen to on a daily basis hehe

[wandaslamb]

Cabin In the Woods

Parings: Dark!Natasha Romanoff x fem!reader

warnings: 18+ Non-con, Knife play, cutting, blood (just a little bit), pet names (bunny, baby doll, sweetheart, angel), body betrayal, fingering, cunnilingus, hair pulling, daddy kink, chasing, obsessive, stalking, pervy nat, if I'm missing things let me know :)

a/n: hi!!! this is my very first fic, and I really would appreciate it if you left some type of feedback :))) I was really nervous to post this, considering I haven't written a fic in years, but I got bored one day, and here it is!! I hope you guys enjoy it, and maybe I'll turn this fic into an actual AU

Word count: 4.5k

After your long semester and treacherous finals and projects you had to finish, you decided that you wanted to go to an Air BNB to relax and take time off from the real world. You always liked the woods; it was calming, and you and your parents always went on camping trips when you were younger. Getting older, you found escaping to the woods after a long, hard time and reconnecting with nature was very rehabilitating. So, seeing this offer, you decided to pack your bags and go out for a week. 

There was a slight knock on the door. You assumed it might have been Wanda, the lady who let you stay in her lovely cabin. "Hello? Anyone home?" The knocking continued till you got up and answered the door. 

"Oh..thank god someone answered!" A woman who didn't look like Wanda from the pictures in the cabin stood there. She wore a simple tank top with ripped jeans and black boots to finish the look. She had deep red hair that was messily tied up in a bun. She looked like she had a backpack with a camera around her neck; she must have been a hiker. 

"A-are you okay? It's pretty late out.. are you hurt?" Seeing someone out this late was very strange. When you would go out, it was close to sundown, but you always made it back in time before the sun fully set. 

The woman let out a nervous laugh, "I'm fine, I'm not hurt or anything, but um," she trailed off, clutching her camera in her hands.".. Fuck this is so embarrassing..but I'm uh, pretty lost.." her voice trailed off before she decided to muster up the courage to look at you. 

"Listen, I know... I know. I was trying to get some pictures of the area, and the lookout points weren't doing them justice, so I kind of.. Went off the trail. I mean, I did get a few good photos in the process!" she let out a deep sigh, catching the concerned look on your face." sorry, Besides the point. Can you possibly point me in the right direction of the trail?"

 "Well...I haven't been here for a while, but I can help you." You peeked your head outside past her and recollected your memory of the path you would take when you went on your walks before speaking again.

"got it.. Back up the hill, stay to the right of the river.." She smirked, "And there isn't any chance of you walking back with me?" You didn't know the lady, but the kindness in you wanted to go with her to make sure she got back safe, but how would you get back in the dark?

"I'm kidding! Of course not... It's getting dark for a young girl like you to be out this late anyways.." she grabbed onto the straps of her backpack, sighing, "Well... Thank you! I'm sorry for barging into your peaceful weekend; maybe I'll see you and whoever you are here with hiking tomorrow?" You gave a shy nod and told the woman goodnight before closing the door and going to bed. 

The next day, you spent the whole morning and afternoon cooking breakfast and sitting by the river writing in your journal. Since the river was so close to your cabin, you decided it would be nice to hang out there before returning. The weather was nice; some birds were chirping in the distance, the water was calm, and there weren't many people around. 

The sun started to set, so you decided it was time for your walk. It was pretty late; the sun had almost entirely set, but you figured no one would be around, and you wouldn't travel far from the cabin; you went on your journey. The woods at night were more serene; the stars you never get to see because of the city lights lit up your path along with the moon; the woodland creatures were more than likely asleep at night, so the bunnies, deer, and birds you saw while you were at the river were long gone. 

It wasn't before long you heard a crack deep in the forest that made you jump, assuming you were alone. "Oh, it's you!" you heard a familiar voice say before turning towards it. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to sneak up on you... I mean, it's not hard to spook someone when they are hiking at night." the woman let out a deep laugh before you glared at her for scaring you. 

"Well, I was going on my daily walk... I lost track of time and…what are you doing out here??" You folded your arms, waiting for her reply. "What am I doing out here? More photography..now that I know my way back, I won't get lost if I decide to go out and take some shots of the moon or... Other things.." she leaned against the tree before smiling again, "So, did you get any of your friends to come hiking with you?" You started to look down, but her laugh and deeper voice took you out of your thoughts. 

"Oh… don't tell me you came to that cabin alone... What is a young girl like you doing by herself in a cabin in the woods?"

"I just wanted to take some time off after my semester in school; I assumed no one comes out here, so-" The woman stood up straight; it wasn't until now that you noticed that she was a lot taller and more muscular-looking than you. She had defined muscles along with her shirt, showing off her toned abs. 

"Oh, you are a lot braver than me; I mean, your not worried something happened to you while you were out here; I get it it's pretty remote out here... But Shit can happen, right?"

"Yea… I guess you are right; I just assumed because, on the listing, the lady said people don't come around the area as much, so it would be quiet and peaceful… "You brushed off that she was standing slightly close to you, and you backed away a bit. "Anyways, where's your camera? I'd love to see some of your pictures if you don't mind.." giving her a soft, warm smile, you leaned against the tree. 

"Oh, it's here! I know it doesn't look like much. But I've gotten some really.. Really good photos so far. It takes great close-up shots...We could go back to your cabin and get you out of the dark, and I can show them to you. Only if you want.." she licked her lips before leaning over you against the tree.

"I didn't say this earlier, but you are very pretty. I mean, I could take your pictures too if you want.." The woman's deep voice rattled through your head, and the prominent shyness started to creep up on your face because of how close you were. "Come on! Why do you look so nervous all of a sudden? I mean, you know I've taken photos of you already... what's a few more?"

"You…what?" Your smile quickly turned into a frown, and hearing her laugh only made you feel worse, "It's not like you can stop me, pretty girl.." there was darkness in her eyes that made your body feel cold. You tried too hard to get from her, proving extremely hard because she trapped you between her and the tree. But you managed to get out of the way and make a run for it. 

"You know you only make it worse if you run!!" You paid her no mind instead, running as far as you could. You couldn't run to your cabin because she knew exactly where it was. Maybe the service road could be some help? 

You heard heavy footsteps come after you, but you were determined to get out of the woods. Your breath was ragged, and your running started to slow down; you assumed that you would be more fit to run long distances, but your daily pilates proved you wrong. 

It wasn't long until your arm got pulled, and your body got pressed against the ground. "You can only run so far, bunny.." her breath beating down your neck as you tried to catch yours. 

"Haha... I got you~ awe, bunny, look at those pretty wide eyes, you struggling to catch your breath. I told you there was no use to running; you should have listened to me, darling." she moved a piece of hair behind your ear, now straddling your back, "What really was the plan here? You came out to stay at a cabin alone, you answered the door for a stranger and went out a night completely defenseless. If I didn't know any better, it was like you wanted someone to." She stopped and laughed. She saw the tears roll down your face onto the forest floor. 

"Well... I don't want to spoil the surprise I have planned for you…" she smiled, taking her thumb and wiping your falling tears before she ran that same thumb across her tongue, letting out a guttural moan. 

You just knew you were dead; you watched way too many true crime videos to see what happens to people who are in your situation. You felt her start to bite and kiss the side of your neck, starting to leave a bruise on it, making you whimper in the process. 

"Was that a whimper? What a sweet little bunny..! Do it again.." she returned to a different spot, moaning on your neck, marking you as hers. "I feel you shaking, sweetheart, don't be scared... I'm going to make you feel good.." You started to kick at her, trying to free yourself yet again. 

"Hey.. hey... I can hold you down with one hand and choke you with the other. Do you want me to fuck your pathetic little body on the ground like the little slut you are," she growled in your ear, sending shivers down your body, "or are you going to come back to the cabin with me, like a good little bunny?" she nipped at your ear earning a small yelp from you, "ill.. Come back w-with you please.." you managed to squeak out. 

"Good girl, now come on.." she slowly got off you, still holding onto your arms. "I don't think I need to tell you; what would happen if you try to run again, do I?" You started to get a bit antsy, tears spilling down your face before you heard a flick of a knife that was swiftly held up to your throat. 

"Ah ah ah... Now you are all quiet, aren't you?.. I'm astonished you seemed like a very smart girl; you fell for the lost little hiker act... Such a gullible little bunny.." she chuckled before pushing you to walk. Not before long, you both showed up to the cabin. The knife is still at your neck. Your arms locked tightly in her other hand. 

"Open the door.." your shaky hands unlocked the door, letting you inside. She led you both to a couch in the middle of the room before she sat on it, grabbing your hair and pulling you towards her, making you cry out. "You have such pretty soft hair, bunny.." she let go of it, grabbing your chin and pulling you in for a kiss, instantly dominating your mouth. 

She bit your lip, making you whimper in her lap, making her pull away, now sadistically smiling at you. "Mmm, you like it when I bite your lip, hm? I felt that shiver, sweet girl.. "she let out a deep breath "fuck, I couldn't help myself after seeing you hiking from that lookout point. Your gorgeous ass and thighs in those leggings, your cute little face when you got tried...I got myself off before I got up to where I was. I snapped photo after photo of you while you played in the river and when you went out to journal in your pajamas every morning. But I knew pictures weren't enough, no... I had to have you. I had to be the one that makes you tired, to make you whimper and moan for me. I need to see you... All of you, bunny. Let's get you out of these, hm?" you felt the coldness of her sharp knife press against you, cutting your shirt off along with your sports bra. 

She moaned when she saw your breasts pop out of your bra before dropping the knife and taking them in her hands, teasing you, smiling when you started trembling in her lap. 

"I know you are excited, darling... I am, too.." she ran her palms up your stomach before wrapping them around your neck.

"N-no, please.." she tilted her head before frowning at you, "No? Did you just say no.. to me?" her voice became monotone. She looked like she wasn't happy. 

"Look at me." you didn't. You were too busy in your mind, assuming the worst was about to happen to you until you felt a sharp sting across your cheek. "I said. Look. At. Me." she gritted through her teeth. "You're going to listen to me, bunny? I'm going to get these leggings off, then you're going to go up to that bedroom of yours and lay back on your bed... Do you understand me?" you looked down at the knife in her hand that was dangerously close to your chest. "Look at me. Look at me in the eyes, not the knife, baby.." your eyes slowly met hers. "Good girl.." 

Tears started to pool up again, making her give you a fake pout, "Baby doll, you do not have to cry.. I'm going to make you feel so good. And you're going to make me feel good, too.." you started to sniffle and chose not to say anything else. 

"Now, we are going to walk... And you're going to feel this knife pressed against your throat. If you do anything stupid, you will be sliced open..is that clear?" you nodded, whimpering.

"Say yes, Daddy.." you heard the smile in her voice when she said that. 

"Y-yes, Daddy.." she let out a satisfied hum, "there we go.." You both made your way up to the bedroom, lying on the bed as you were told. "Just like that... Good little bunny!!" smiled, pulling out her camera, "Let me just... capture this moment.." she started taking pictures of you pouting when you began to cry again. "Baby, don't cry! I need you to smile! Let's see that pretty smile, okay?" 

After a few more pictures, she removed her bag, set the camera on the nightstand, and walked over to you. "Hmm, can you do one last thing for me, bunny?.. Give me your wrist." she took your wrist, chaining them to the bed. 

"You can pull off them now, but it won't matter.." she giggled. 

"W-why..?"

She chuckled, "Aren't you the curious bunny.." she smiled, getting close to your face. "Because baby, I'm going to fuck you so good you aren't going to want to go anywhere..not... That'd let you anyway. Now.. open your mouth." 

You looked at her, opening your mouth before she squeezed your face, making you stick your tongue out before spitting on it. "Aht aht.. Don't swallow it, doll. Keep your tongue out nice and pretty for me.." she started to take off her clothes, and you watched as she did, seeing all the scratches you had left from trying to fight back. "seems like you put up a small fight.." she climbed over you, giving you a complete view of her glistening pussy. Seeing how wet she was from this whole interaction didn't even compare to how much you were dripping on the bed. But you were scared shitless. Your body felt otherwise. 

She lowered herself on your face, grabbing your hair and making you moan against her. "Come on, sweetheart, you're going to eat Daddy out, okay? Clean up the mess you've made of me." you absentmindedly started to lap at her clit, earning her deep moans and her pulling your hair even more.

"Mm yea.. Use your pretty little tongue... Fuck.." her head was thrown back, her toned stomach was all you could see. You, too, caught up in her sounds, and she tasted didn't even notice when she reached back and started rubbing your puffy little cunt through your panties with her fingers making you moan against her, sending vibrations thorough out her body.

"Mm, don't stop licking, keep fucking going. Holy Shit… being such an obedient little slut.." she gasped when she felt your wetness seep through your panties. "Such a dirty little girl turned on by getting used like the whore you are. Letting a fucking stranger use your mouth to get off." her breathing got ragged as you got faster and more sloppy with your licks and sucks, making her cum all over your face. 

"Ah ha.. don't you look pretty angel.. Covered in my cum and your drool…I need another picture.." she grabbed the camera off the nightstand again, snapping some pictures. 

"You want to taste yourself, doll?" she moved her fingers up to your mouth, plunging them down your throat, making you gag a bit. "Taste good, doesn't it? I have to get a taste for myself later, but since you've been a good bunny for me, it's time for your reward.

You thought it was your chance to do something. You started squirming, and it made her a tiny bit upset. "Do you think squirming is going to do anything? You can't get away from me… did you forget I have a knife? I don't want to use it on you, but I will if you keep struggling. You're such a pretty girl... My pretty girl and I would hate to mess you up... Let me cut this underwear off, and then I'll put the knife up…" She flicked it open again, causing you to buck your hips as she got close to cutting them off, making her knick your thigh in the process. "See..this happens when you don't listen to daddy.." 

"No- no, please... Stop, please!" your tears started to come back; she shushed you, licking the blood off the knife before straddling your waist. "You can say no all you want, bunny, but it's happening no matter what.." she cut them off, exposing you to the cold air of the cabin, your scent making her moan.

"Look at you, bunny.. you're dripping down to your ass," she ran her softly up your slit before licking it clean, letting out a satisfied moan. You jerked your hips at her noises, making her giggle. "Oh.. you jerked pretty hard there... Does it feel good? I've barely even touched you.."

She got off your waist, looking down over you, "If I were to just... push my fingers into you now, they would slide in so easily. But I'll be nice... Just circle warm you up a bit."

"No! Stop it, please.." you cried out. Your voice was almost gone, and you watched as she rolled her eyes. 

"Here we go again with the no… you're being so stubborn. I think it would just be better for the both of us if I just.." she took your now ripped panties and shoved them into your mouth.

"Shut. You. Up. There.." she had a satisfied smile on her face. "Oh, don't look so terrified... It wasn't like you were going to wear those panties again anyway... Now where was I… right." she smiled, continuing to circle your clit, moaning before sticking two fingers in you and making you scream. 

"Aww, look at you taking two fingers like a good girl; you usually can only fit one in. You brought that new toy with you on your trip but couldn't even fit that. And look at you now, being a big girl, taking two of my fingers so easily." She really has been watching you this whole time. You were sure you closed the curtains... Maybe she had heard you mumbling to yourself about it...

The room was full of sounds from your aching cunt, her deep moans from seeing your pussy grip her fingers, and your cries of pain that soon turned into pleasures. She started to use her thumb to rub your clit. 

"What if I was to add another finger..oh.. Was that a moan, bunny?" she bit her lip before laughing, "Let me hear it again.." she started to move her thumb faster, making you arch your back before pushing down on your stomach and fingering you harder. 

"Oh, I think you're getting closer for me, baby; we can stop, though, for a second.." she pulled her fingers out of you, making you whimper and clinch around nothing, missing her fingers being inside of you. She started to laugh, seeing your face begin to tear up again. 

"Look at you... It's pathetic! First telling me no and now wanting me to finish you off... You're so adorable, bunny.." she went in her bag and got something to put on. When she came back, she had a strap without the toy. She started to look at your bags before taking the brand-new toy you brought and attaching it to it. "It's so cute that you picked out this one... This might be a little too big for you, don't you think?" she was right; you had picked out a toy that was way too big for you. You ultimately chose it because of its appearance; it was a clear and pink silicone toy with little hearts in it. You didn't read the size when you ordered it and ordered a 9-inch. 

"Don't worry, bunny, ill make it fit.." she lined herself up with your entrance rubbing the tip up and down your slick-covered cunt. "You make me so fucking wet bunny... The way you took my pussy in your mouth like a good slut. You were such a good girl, making me feel so good. But now it's my turn to make you feel even better." she slowly pushed herself in, making you moan out, her holding your hips still as you took almost half the cock in you. 

"Mm, look at that.. God, I wish you could see how good your cunt looks stretched around this toy.." She started to rub your clit again, pushing more and more into you before you felt her bottom out into you. "That's a good girl!! See, I knew you could do it.." she started slowly but started to pound you when she felt you loosen up a little bit. Your back was arched as she held your hips, mumbling dirty names in your ear as she fucked you senseless.

"Doesn't it feel good, bunny?" your face was puffy from all the tears you were letting out as she started to kiss them away. She mumbled into your neck, "I know, I know… it's so hard to go slow when you're making cute noises like these. I want you to scream for me... But there is always tomorrow for that angel; you are all mine. I don't have to rush; you didn't think this was the last time we'd do this, did you?" your heart sank as tears rose in your eyes. 

 You whimpered about how the owner of the house would be looking for you, but nothing came out except muffled sounds in between her thrusts. She chuckled and looked down at you.

"Honey, no one is going to look for you. Your mine for the next few days... Maybe even longer. Fuck! You feel so fucking good. I don't think I'll ever let you go.." you were trying your best to stifle your moans, not trying to be loud to let her know you were slightly enjoying her movements. She stroked your face with her hand before cupping your face.

"It's so cute watching you try to be quiet; you can let go for me, bunny... No one is going to hear you. It's okay.." her breath was ragged again, and her thrust became sloppier.

"You're doing so good for me, sweetheart. Sweetheart, let me help you.." she reached into the side table drawer and pulled out a small vibrator, widening your eyes. 'How did she know that was there?' you thought. But you were completely snapped out of it before she unchained one of your hands and put the vibrator in your hand before guiding it to your clit. 

"Oh fuck!! Your clinching so hard around my cock, bunny… I want you to come for me, doll.." she slapped your face, "aht aht I want to see your pretty little eyes, come on now look at me while you cum, come on be a good girl for me.." the tears pricked at your eyes, but they seemed only to egg her on. 

"Mm, does it feel good, angel? Me pounding you with your toy while you have a little vibrator on your clit?" her moans got louder, and so did yours. It wasn't until she removed your hand with the vibrator from your clit you let out the most pornographic moan, squirting on her and the bed as she pulled out of you. 

Your body was spazzing as she unchained you pulling you into her lap and holding you as you came down from your high. She reached over to grab a water bottle from her bag and gave it to you, making you drink it as she smiled down at you. There was a faint buzz from the other nightstand as you tried to catch your breath; the woman reached over to get what seemed to be your phone. She let out a small chuckle before moving the strand of hair out of your face and showing you your phone. 

"Look, bunny, the owner said you don't have to worry about the payment... She said she'd be home shortly... Though I don't think the cameras did you justice, she'd want to see you for herself.." She sat the phone down before laying you back down on the bed. 

"But let's get you cleaned up first. I want my wife to see how adorable you are when you aren't covered in sweat and cum.. Maybe you can show her the pictures when she comes. How does that sound?" 

And with that, she went to run the bath. You weren't going anywhere anytime soon, not that your legs worked anyway. She carried you to the bathtub, settling you in before going downstairs. It wasn't until long before you heard the words, "Oh Nat, she's perfect... Our perfect bunny."

[threeletterslife]

23 | Legends of Darlaria

⨰ summary: You wake up amidst a war with no recollection of your past. Faced with suspicion and distrust, you struggle to assimilate into a foreign nation—otherwise known as your home. But on your enlightening journey to search for your identity, you come face to face with the General of the Army.

⨰ pairing/rating: yoongi x reader & jungkook x reader | PG-15

⨰ genre: 70% angst, 30% fluff | war!au & magic!au

⨰ warnings: profanity, mentions of blood, gore, suicide and death

⨰ wordcount: 5.7k

⨰ join the taglist! (pm/send in an ask/reply/reblog)

⨰ previous | series m.list | next

⧖⧗Circa Alexandrite⧗⧖

“What happened?!” you shriek, barging into the General’s tent, tears already blurring your vision. From the haze, you still manage to make out a cot in the middle. What you can’t make out is the person on the cot, for there seems to be a thick wall of healers surrounding it, tending to a single man who makes no indication that he is okay.

It’s also eerily silent. 

Your voice becomes so painfully loud in comparison. “Is he alive?” Your words seem to echo across the tent, bouncing against the red walls. Several healers grimace.

“Please, sir, you need to leave.”

Leave? How in the hell are they asking you to leave? Without even knowing if he’ll make it? “Please tell me what happened,” you say, voice aquiver. “Was it a transformation spell?? Have you stopped it?”

“Y/N!” Suhyun suddenly rushes into the tent, grabbing one of your arms while Jaeno seizes the other. “I’m so sorry,” she apologizes to the healers. “We tried to stop her.” She turns to you, a grave look on her face. “You need to listen to me, Y/N,” she says. “Let the healers deal with whatever they have to deal with in peace. The last thing we want is for the soldiers to panic. We’ve already detained Soldier Baek and Soldier Kim to stop the spread of information. We don’t want any rumors. He’s the last of the Min Clan, do you hear me, Y/N? And if… if worse comes to worst, you need to hold yourself together. Please. Get your fucking shit together!”

“Suhyun…”

She’s never spoken so harshly to you before.

“I-I just want to… I want to see him. I—”

Even Suhyun looks close to tears. She shakes her head. “They’re going to heal him,” she whispers. But it sounds like she’s trying to convince herself as well as you, and it’s not quite working on both ends. She turns to her boyfriend, her lips trembling. “Jaeno. I-I’m… I’m not ready. I don’t think I can do it. If he dies, I—”

“O-Off… icer,” a ghastly voice whispers.

That’s you.

He’s calling you.

All too soon, you’re forcing yourself away from Suhyun and Jaeno’s grasps and running towards the cot where he rests. All eyes are on you, but for the first time, you don’t care at all. And when you manage to push through the circle of healers, you finally see him.

The sight is grisly. 

He’s been stripped of the upper half of his uniform, only in his white tank top drenched in so much sweat that it does little to hide the gruesome bruises and scars littered all across his torso. His face is pale and streaked with blood and dirt, and his wet hair clings to his forehead. His eyes are open yet so empty, so void.

Your stomach drops. 

You’ve seen this look on the injured in the medical tent. The look of death.

The culprit is the pool of viscous red oozing out of his right shoulder.

It sizzles. It crackles. And it burns.

It can’t possibly be blood. Blood doesn’t do that.

Your skin turns icy cold when you realize what it really is.

Lava. It’s lava.

But why? Why him? Why now? 

You want to sink to your knees. Yet you can’t. Not with him in front of you. If anything, you need to be there for him. Because he’s undeniably in a worse state than you are. He’s probably convinced that death will soon come knocking at his door. He might be scared. Or even terrified. Or maybe he’s welcoming death with open arms as he said he would nearly two years ago. You’re not sure.

But you selfishly want him to hang on. You want him alive. There are so many things you haven’t been able to tell him, so many feelings to face, so many emotions to accept… 

“I-I’m here, sir,” you whisper. You hate that you stuttered, and you hate the way he stares at the ceiling with those empty, glassy eyes of his.

His lips twitch momentarily. “It…” he breathes, “it doesn’t… h-hurt much anymore.”

That can only mean the heat has already damaged his nerves.

It breaks you, seeing him like this. You want to grab onto his hand, sweep his hair out of his face, hug him, lava on his shoulder or not—but it’s all nothing more than a pipe dream.

“O-Officer,” he murmurs in his husky voice. Though he’s calling you, he feels so far away—as if he’s calling for you in his dreams again. As if he’s already drifting off to be with the spirits. When he slowly blinks, a rogue tear rolls down the side of his face. “D-Don’t worry… I’m… f-fine.”

Something inside of you snaps.

All of your fear, anxiety and emotions seem to vanish into thin air—replaced by sheer determination. You grit your teeth. Even on his deathbed, he wants to protect you, make sure you’re not worried. But you won’t let him die. You can’t. There are too many unresolved duties, questions, feelings.

You whirl around to face the healers who have been wordlessly extracting the seemingly endless stream of lava coming from the General’s shoulder. “How long has it been?” 

“Thirty minutes, sir,” one of the healers says. 

“He was hit in the shoulder by one of the transformation spheres while in battle,” another healer says. “They rushed him back as soon as it happened. As soon as they realized it was serious.”

“We’ve been extracting the lava with fire wielding, but it won’t stop.”

“It’s spreading, too, sir. Slowly, but steadily. He hasn’t gone into shock yet, but he’s lost feeling in his shoulder… It’s not looking great.”

“Thirty minutes…” you echo. “Thirty minutes,” you say again as you glance at the General once more. “The lava should’ve overtaken more than half of his body by now. Their transformation magic is usually much faster than this.”

“Y-Yes, sir, the spread is much slower than what we usually see, but it’s persistent. We’ve never been able to save a soldier once they’ve been hit by transformation magic.”

“Are you saying it’s a lost cause?” you ask in the most even-toned voice you can muster up. Behind you, Suhyun lets out a wail, followed by Jaeno attempting to solace her.

It’s silent. 

Everybody is scared to answer your question. They all look down at their feet.

“No,” you say, shaking your head. You can’t just let him die. Not after you declared that you’d follow him until you died. Not after you told him that you don’t want to lose him too. Words leave your mouth in desperation: “Have we thought about amputating?”

“T-That never works, sir… The transformation spell still spreads throughout the rest of the body.”

Shit. Is it really a lost cause? It can’t possibly be. Your mind races as you scavenge for another solution—any solution. Something has to work. Something has the potential to save his life. You glance at him. His breaths are growing more and more rapid and he seems to be dipping in and out of consciousness. Yet his eyes are wide open. They’re staring into you too, but you can’t discern a meaning behind them at all. They’re empty. Soulless. Your heart clenches in a pain you’ve only ever felt one other time—when Doyun passed. But this is different. You can prevent this. You’ve still got time.

“There should be a reason that this transformation spell is reacting slower than the others,” you say. “He should be dead by now if this had been a normal spell. We need to examine where the sphere hit him. There’s a high possibility that he was hit by a faulty spell, so we should be looking for some sort of evidence. It’s not a lost cause until he’s pronounced dead.”

“Yes, sir!”

The healers spring into action. Several of them hold down the General’s body as the others who are capable of fire wielding begin extracting the lava from his shoulder. The General makes no noise. He barely even blinks.

“His blood pressure’s dropping!”

“Get him some more oxygen!”

“H-His lips are turning blue!”

“Someone get him a blanket!”

“He’s hyperventilating!”

“He could be going into shock soon—”

“W-Wait! Wait! There’s something there!”

Your heart leaps.

“T-There! That glistening thing!”

You’re immediately by the sharp-eyed healer’s side. “Can we extract it? Is it safe to touch?”

“We have some air mediums, sir. We’ll get on it right away.”

You watch, barely even blinking as the healers begin the arduous process of dislodging the mysterious fragment in the General’s shoulder. The first few tries are a failure—only because the fragment periodically spurts out lava. When the healers are able to time their extraction—in the short, two-minute interval the fragment of the sphere has before it spews lava—the mission finally succeeds. 

The tiny sphere—or what’s left of it—falls to the floor, where it spurts out some more hot lava. The ground sizzles. There’s a short moment of silence where everybody takes in the miracle. Then:

“He’s going into shock!” a healer yells.

“Is he conscious?”

“Sir? Sir!”

“Negative! Someone get him ready for a blood transfusion!”

“Why in Soo’s name are you just standing there? Get moving!”

You don’t understand much of what is going on, but you stay the entire while. Even when the healers have left—encapsulating the lava-spewing fragment in a water bubble and taking it with them—you stay in the tent. You’re not sure what time it is now. You’ve lost track ever since you walked in. In fact, you’ve lost track of everything since the moment you received the news of his injury.

All that matters now is that the General is alive and breathing. He’s unconscious at the moment, but you’ve volunteered to watch over him until he wakes up. They’re not sure when.

You hope that it’s soon. Because each second that he stays in that position, covered up in bandages and blankets, you think he’s a second closer to death. It won’t matter how long he stays unconscious, however. Because you swear to every spirit in existence that you won’t leave his side until he wakes up.

“She’s been in there for three days,” Suhyun sighs. She nervously plays with her rings, twisting them back and forth around her fingers. “She hasn’t eaten a thing.”

“She’s always been close to the General,” Wonmi says.

“She has?”

“Yes,” the third sector captain insists. 

“Is that so?” Suhyun frowns. “But what she’s doing… That’s what I would do for Jaeno. That’s what Ohsung’s done for you, Wonmi.”

“I never said anything about it being not platonic,” Wonmi answers.

Suhyun stares at Wonmi in disbelief. 

“It’s only a hunch,” Wonmi says while casually fixing her bangs. “And besides, officer romance is the least of our problems. Y/N’s reported that he woke several times now, but he never notices that she’s there. He talks, though. Just not to her.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to tell the soldiers,” Suhyun says. She fiddles with her rings, looking down at her feet. “I don’t want to give anyone false hope. If… If he dies, Wonmi, I’ll be his natural successor.”

“Good for you, then.”

“No, Wonmi, it won’t be good for me. I’ve always dreamed about being the General of the Solarian Army, but now that it’s so close to me… I can’t. I don’t want it like this. It’s too soon. I can’t be as great as he was.”

“You’re talking about him as if he’s already dead, Suhyun,” Wonmi snorts. “I think you’ll be a fine General. When it happens, it happens. You’ll be ready then. For now, we wait. Only time can tell if he’ll be all right.”

But time moves slowly when all she can do is wait.

Suhyun has to wait another six days before the General is able to form coherent sentences. He’s still far too weak to be up and walking around—she’s heard that he can barely sit up from his bed. When she finally finds enough courage inside of her to visit him in his tent, he welcomes her amiably, albeit weakly.

“Long time no see, Lieutenant Ki,” he croaks from his position on the cot.

“Sir,” she greets him back with a deep bow. “How are you feeling?”

“Light-headed,” he says. “Still can’t really feel my right shoulder. But I’m scheduled for physical therapy for the next three circas. Apparently, I’ve acquired fourth-degree burns—internal and external. No major organ damage, though. I was lucky.”

“You were more than lucky, General,” Suhyun says. “It was a miracle! We’ve been investigating the fragment of the sphere we extracted from your shoulder. Whoever cast the transformation spell only achieved a partial version of it. If the spell had been fully cast, we wouldn’t have been able to extract the sphere at all! It was a miracle that only an incomplete spell hit you—and so shallowly, too. And that Captain Ryu found out and was able to direct the healers so expertly.”

“Ah,” the General says. “Yes, Captain Ryu…”

“She was there for you when I couldn’t be,” Suhyun admits, lowering her head. “I’m sorry, General. I wasn’t thinking straight at the moment. I was too engrossed with the fact that I wasn’t ready to take your place… And clearly, judging by my reaction that night, I was right.”

“You handled it well, Lieteunant Ki,” the General says. “You give yourself too little credit. You ensured that the news of my injury did not get out prematurely. You ensured that no one panicked. No one knew what happened until I was okay. I think that’s a feat in itself.”

“General…”

“It was an unprecedented situation, Lieutenant Ki. Don’t be too hard on yourself… You will have to take on some of my responsibilities, however. I won’t be getting up anytime soon. It’ll be up to you to share my duties with the other officers. I trust you, Suhyun,” the General says. He clears his throat. “And I’m sorry. I know how worried you were. I know you don’t think you’re ready yet to take my place. But Lieutenant Ki, I believe that those who think they are not ready for higher positions are usually better-fitted than those who think they are.”

Suhyun can’t help but think that’s true. When she was younger, when she had too much ambition and nowhere to channel it but her pride, she was arrogant and uncompromising. She would’ve made a tyrant of a General—just like the current General’s brother and his mother, too. But she respects her General because he often doubts himself. Because he opens his ears to others. Yet he can be decisive when he must be, and he knows how to command an army without being unnecessarily swayed. She doesn’t think she’ll ever be as good as he is because her pride does often get in her way. But she’s working on it. And by the time the position comes to her, she hopes she will lead the army as great as the General has.

“Thank you, sir,” she says. “Thank you.”

He nods. “You’ll have to lead the officer meetings until I am well enough to get up, Lieutenant Ki. I trust that you can handle that.”

“Of course, sir. I’ll report back to you as soon as they finish.”

“Thank you,” he says. 

There’s an awkward silence where she’s unsure whether she is allowed to leave without his dismissal, and he’s unsure what she’s waiting for if she looks like she has nothing else to say. 

When you rush into the tent, carrying a clay tray filled with food, Incha and rolled-up wet cloths, you nearly drop it and its contents once you notice Suhyun. “O-Oh!” you exclaim, looking between her and the General nervously. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt something serious. I’ll come back later—”

“No,” the General says so quickly that Suhyun raises her eyebrows. “We were finished,” he says. “You may stay.” He nods to Suhyun. “Send my apologies to the officers for me.”

“Yes, General,” she says, and with a bow, she quickly dismisses herself from the General’s tent. She looks back as she walks away, cocking her head in curiosity. You didn’t even announce your arrival before you’d stepped into his tent. Even Suhyun’s never done that, and she’s supposedly his right-hand-officer. How close are the two of you, anyway? And for you to be taking care of him every day and not some healers…? But then again, he has historically refused private medical treatment, and even convincing him to be treated in his tent and not the common medical tents took some adamant persuading; so maybe you’re doing both of them a favor.

Regardless, Wonmi is definitely correct. There’s something there—between you and the General. But it’s also none of Suhyun’s business, and while she cares for the General, she has no say in his private matters. Yet… she can’t help but wonder… has his decision to keep you from fighting been completely personal this entire time?

“How have you been feeling, sir?” you ask as you set the tray down at the General’s desk and perch up upon it as well.

“I swear I had this same conversation just moments ago with Lieutenant Ki,” he says in such a serious voice that you worry that you’ve bored him already. 

It takes you several embarrassing seconds to realize he’s joking. “O-Oh! Then I’d be happy to let you take the reins of the conversation, sir.”

“Why, thank you, Officer,” he says, a small smile already appearing on his lips. “I wasn’t able to, due to my delirious state before, but now that I am alive and recovering, I wanted to ask you: do you still wish to fight after having seen what they’ve done to me?”

He looks surprised that your initial reaction is to laugh. “Sir! Are you trying to use your injury to deter me from ever considering going out on the battlefield again?”

“Is it working, Officer?”

“Not in the slightest, sir,” you reply. “In fact, it has given me more reason to want to fight, for if you are hurt, we’ll need more people out there to make up for what you can do.”

He sighs, shaking his head. “Even after seeing me in my worst state—hallucinations and all—you still want to fight? You really are a fire medium; you know that?”

You nod fervently. “Nothing will make me change my mind.”

“I know how stubborn you can be,” the General says. He pauses just slightly but it’s enough for you to notice. “When… When I was dipping in and out of consciousness, I’m not sure when, I remember seeing you. I thought it was one of the hallucinations. I… I might have called for you, Officer.”

“Which time are you referring to, sir?” you ask. 

His ears turn red as he stutters just a bit, “I-I was not aware that this happened more than once, Officer. I apologize if you were frightened by it in any way.”

“I wasn’t frightened, sir,” you say. “I was worried. You called for your sister before you called for me. And your brother, too. I figured you were seeing hallucinations and immediately tried to calm you down.”

Ah. So you’d seen it all.

Yoongi can’t quite exactly remember what he’d seen in those hallucinations, but he remembers burning. He remembers seeing his sister in front of him, taking her own life, lighting her entire body on fire. He didn’t realize until it was too late that he, too, was burning along with her.

He remembers thinking that he’d somehow been transported to Ara and somehow, it was now winter. He remembers seeing a hazy figure that resembled his brother, freezing to death in a snow blizzard with nothing to wear but his uniform. He remembers being cold, and he remembers shivering, but he can’t recall much further than that.

And then he remembers you. He always heard your voice first. When it was so unbearably hot, your voice had offered him the cool reprieve that he was so desperately seeking. When it was unbelievably cold, your voice had given him the warmth that he needed to survive. And every time, he remembers someone who looked like you gently brushing his hair out of his face. All this time he thought it was the wind—that his mind was just playing tricks on him. But he only realizes now that it really was you.

“Thank you,” is all he can say. “I realized I never got a chance to say it. You’ve been taking care of me after my operation, even though no one has required you to do so—you must be busier now, too, since my absence. It’s also thanks to you that I am alive today. I’m indebted to you, Officer. You’ve practically saved my life.”

For Sooht’s sake is it hard to control yourself when he says things like this so nonchalantly. It takes everything in your power to swallow down the flutters in your stomach and keep a straight face. “All I did was oversee a process I knew very little of, sir. I mustn’t take all of the credit. Lieutenant Ki worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to ensure that no soldier panicked at the news of your injury, and the healers were the ones who operated on you. Although I did play a part in your recovery, I wouldn’t be the only person you’d be indebted to.”

The General smiles. “I’ve already given those people my thanks, Officer. But they were only doing their duty, were they not? You needn’t stay with me for over a week, barely leaving the tent—being the first and last person I see every day… It’s pleasant, Officer, I don’t deny it, but this was never required of you. And even now,” he says, gazing over at the tray you’d set on his desk, “you bring me my meals and fresh washcloths. I don’t recall this being in your job description, Officer.”

Is he teasing you? There’s a definite lilt to his voice that points signs toward yes, but you can’t help but give a serious answer. “But sir, I did say that I could never lose you. And besides, every time a person tells me that they would do everything in their power to keep me alive, I must do the same, sir. So you don’t have to thank me. You would’ve done the same thing if you were in my place,” you say, though your hands begin to sweat at your own boldness.

The General raises his eyebrows. “You’re right, Officer,” he says. “I would’ve done the same.” He pauses. “But you make it sound like multiple people have told you that they, in fact, would do everything in their power to keep you alive. Is that true, Officer?”

Your eyes widen. “No, sir! I don’t think I could ever handle that. Even with you… I…”

“You…?”

“It’s selfish for me to say, but I was scared, sir. I was terrified. I didn’t think you’d make it out alive. I already lost Doyun—I-I… I didn’t want to lose you too. But I also know how stupid my thoughts were when you were probably facing terrors much more justifiable than mine.”

“It’s not selfish of you to feel emotions, Officer,” the General says. “I was never afraid of my own death, either, so you needn’t worry,” the General says. He suddenly shifts his position on his cot, his hair falling forward to cascade over his eyes. “What I was afraid of was you.”

“Me, sir?” you ask, astonished. 

“You are kind-hearted, Officer, no matter how humble you are about it. I was afraid that another death would push you over the edge.”

You nod. That’s fair, considering how you’d reacted over Doyun’s passing. You’re just about to reply and tell him that he’s the kind-hearted one for worrying about your wellbeing while he was the one on his deathbed when the General unexpectedly continues on—all the while avoiding eye contact:

“I was afraid that you’d care about me more than you really should,” he says, his voice much huskier than before. “I was afraid that all you’d remember about me if I died was that last, horrible conversation we had.” He stares up at you, the movement clearing the hair away from his face and revealing his softened eyes. “All I could remember were the mistakes.”

Your heart feels like it’s in your throat. What does he mean? Questions are brewing in your head faster than you’re getting the answers, and suddenly, your head feels like it’s about to burst. He was afraid that you’d care about him more than you really should? What the hell is that supposed to mean? You didn’t even think the last conversation you had with him before his injury was that horrible—just puzzling. And the mistakes? You can’t recall a single one.

 “I’ve thought about what I’ve said, Officer,” the General continues, slowly, almost cautiously. “I’ve thought about the gravity of it. I’ve thought about the repercussions. I’ve thought about how you’ve taken it, too. It’s all I thought about since the moment I gained consciousness, Officer.”

“Sir…” You have no idea what is coming next. And suddenly, you’re feeling a new kind of fear.

“I should have never put you in that position,” he says. “I should not have told you the things I told you that day, Officer. It was inappropriate of me, as your General and superior, and I… I sincerely apologize for my misconduct.”

Does he mean…?

I can’t lose you. I can’t bear the thought.

I’ll do everything in my power to keep you alive.

It’d really kill me to lose you too.

His voice echoes in your head for the thousandth time.

Did he say those words out of desperation? Is he only apologizing now that he realizes they aren’t true? Or did he really mean them? Is he apologizing because he believes that you don’t feel the same?

What do you say? How do you respond to this?

He didn’t need to apologize. Not if he truly meant those words. Not if you would say them back in a heartbeat.

The words spill out of you before you can swallow them in cowardliness. “But I care about you too, sir,” you say.

He completely freezes.

“I care about you as you are my General, but you are also a person I trust and admire and support. Even if you were stripped from your position and your title, I would be by your side, sir. T-To be honest, I have also been ruminating over our last conversation. And I… I just can’t seem to discern the line. You tell me that you’ve grown to care about me and that it’d kill you to lose me, but in that same breath, you demand orders from me and dismiss me from your presence as a superior. I don’t know what to think, sir. And for Sooht’s sake! I can’t stop calling you ‘sir,’ and you have yet to cease to call me ‘Officer.’ I will always be your offi—I mean—captain, sir. And yet… yet I’m confused. Because when you tell someone that you would do everything in your power to keep them alive, there are certain connotations that come with it that you cannot deny! M-My point is, if I even have a point within all of this nonsense, it’s not misconduct if both parties feel the same way!”

You pant for breath, feeling almost dizzy due to an outburst that you hadn’t planned to have at all. It’s only when you feel your legs nearly give out from underneath you that you realize that you had been standing. Somewhere along your nervous speech, you’d stood up, and in your frenzy, you hadn’t even noticed.

It’s only for a few seconds, but it feels like an eternity, this silence. And in those seconds, you observe him, his countenance. Does he look horrified? Had you drastically misinterpreted every single one of his words? Had you crossed the line? 

But no, he looks the same. He has an unreadable expression on his face—one that instills fear in you all over again. Does he think you’re delusional? Does he still believe it is misconduct and now you’re guilty of it too? In that case, you should apologize immediately. But before you can get a word out, he speaks:

“Love and war is dangerously precarious.”

Your heart sinks at his words. 

“Do you remember that, Officer? We’ve established that over a year ago, did we not?”

“Y-Yes, sir,” you say, lowering your head. “Of course I remember, sir.”

“Have your opinions changed?”

“T-They haven’t, sir.”

“Mine have not, either,” he replies. He lets out a shaky breath that makes the fear within you grow stronger. “We haven’t been able to change each other’s opinions, my officer. But then again, we are stubborn people, aren’t we?” He smiles, though you can’t necessarily say he looks happy. “I speak to you as a Solarian—without my title, my position, my honor—but you were right to say that there are certain connotations that come with declaring responsibility for another’s life. I cannot deny this. In fact, everything I’ve told you remains true.”

Oh.

There’s an emptiness that rings inside of you for just a moment before the floodgate of thoughts opens up. 

So there are feelings. You hadn’t been projecting after all. But instead of feeling relief, even a bit of happiness, you feel despair. Because even if you were something more than an officer and her General, you could never be together. It wouldn’t be fair to either of you. You can’t imagine having a broken heart during a war—especially not as a captain. You’ve seen what love can do to people. You’ve seen how it made Doyun. You’ve seen Taehoon volunteer to fight to be with Hana. You’ve seen couples torn apart, couples brought together. But there always comes a time when one of them dies—if not both. You can’t deal with any more sadness. You can’t have another death like Doyun’s.

“If there was no war,” you whisper, “do you think…?”

The General doesn’t meet your eyes. “I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.”

It hurts. Not in the kind of pain you felt when he was slowly dying on that same cot over a week ago, but in the kind of pain that just rips you apart from the insides—it’s so quick, so sudden that you feel numb afterward. 

It’s just not meant to be.

The two of you have come to such a precise conclusion, strangely enough, considering that everything about this conversation had been crafted by reading between the lines. Yet it’s a conclusion nevertheless, and it’s best not to dwell on things that you cannot change.

“But Officer, I don’t want you to think for a second that this will change how I feel for you,” the General says. “I will always regard you highly. I will always feel happy when you are in my presence. I will always worry when you worry. I will always become angry at the things that have hurt you. But I… I am a General, Officer. I am the General of the fucking Solarian Army, and if I misstep, if I lose my vision, my goal for even a millisecond, I will be putting thousands of lives in danger. I cannot risk that, my officer. I’m sure you understand.”

It kills him to have to admit this.

And a small, deep part of him is angry about it, too. He never wanted this responsibility. It was forced onto him. It was his birthright, but never once had he ever sought power and fame. He wants to love, too. He wants to feel things other than anger and hatred toward the Darlaeans. He wants to be happy. He wants to know what it would be like to be with you. But as the last of the Min Clan, he must fulfill his duties, and it’s too late to back out now.

“I do, sir,” you say. He can’t read your face today. It’s so guarded, though he sees an occasional flash of vibrant emotions in your eyes. “I understand.”

“You may leave when you wish, Officer.” 

You linger, which he notices. It makes him wonder if everything you and he had just concluded had been a giant mistake. So what if love and war is precarious? Who’s to say it will fail every time? Was it foolish to not give it a chance? But no… To have the General of all people involved in romance and feelings and emotional affairs. He shudders. He can just hear the rumors that would spread like wildfire. 

Instead of saving lives and leading battles, he’s stuck in the arms of his own officer!—the same officer he appointed in a suspiciously expedited process! He won’t let her fight to protect her but forgets to protect the thousands of soldiers under his rule. How pathetic! He could be thinking of Solaria, his own nation, but he’s too busy thinking of his officer to even properly tend to his duties! What a disgrace they both are, canoodling around and wasting precious time when they could be doing their jobs!

Yoongi can’t let that happen. He doesn’t really care if they drag his name through the dirt and blood and grime. But he knows that these rumors also won’t leave you alone. He can’t have that. This kind of gossip is the same one that could quite possibly lead to insubordination. Your own soldiers might cease to listen to you, respect you. He could never allow that to happen.

But…

To think that you’ve felt the same all this time. To think that you could’ve lost sleep over this. To think that in another time and place, this could’ve happened.

He doesn’t know what to think.

He just wants to lie down for a very, very long time. And he knows he can do it, too. Because for the first time in his damn life, he has all the time in the world.

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⨰ a/n: oops! is this anything like you expected? with just two chapters left in this act, there's going to be some more ~drama~ anyways, have a fantastic new years; i'll see you with another chapter in 2023! (p.s. i just wanna give yoongi and oc a hug 😭😭)

please consider telling me your thoughts with a comment, an ask or a reblog :) i love hearing readers' impressions/rambles/predictions! if you want to join the taglist, send in a private message, ask, reply to this post or reblog with your request!

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Brother Knows Best

Anonymous said: 

would you be willing to write a john b twin one where his sister is just super rebellious and has completely changed who she was and he’s worried? just super protective 

Summary: Everyone knew that you were this innocent little girl. You rarely drank, and you almost never smoked or did any kind of drug. That was until Big John went missing. It started your year of spiraling and none of your friends, or even your brother knew how to help you. 

“Just one more drink,” You friend called from beside the gas station you were all sat at. 

“One more drink always turns into too many.” You said with a laugh. 

“Well that’s the fun in it,” She said handing you another beer. 

“Yeah, yeah.” You said taking a large gulp of the beverage.  

A few hours later you were so gone you were seeing multiples of everything you looked at. You never liked to drink, let alone get crossfaded but here you were off your ass. 

“I should probably be going,” You slurred to your friends who just waved a goodbye. 

You started your walk home, but you could barely even stand straight, It was dark and you were sure if you just laid in the grass on the side of the road you’d be alright for the night. You decided that was your best bet and you plopped down into the grass, falling asleep to the feeling of your head spinning in circles. 

................................................................................................................................ 

When you woke up you had no recollection of any of the events from the night prior. You felt intoxicated still though, so you were sure you had been drinking. 

“Glad to see you made it home.” John B said sarcastically. 

“Fuck off, JB.” You said, pushing yourself off the couch with a groan. 

“No, you know we had to pull you out of a ditch on the side of the road at 2am last night? How inconsiderate and irresponsible can you be?” John B asked, raising his voice. 

“Yeah, I’m the irresponsible one.” You said with a laugh. 

“What if some random person came and took you, played a little game of cut the girl up and then threw your body else where?” 

“Well then maybe I’d feel better than I do now. Why do you care all of a sudden? You left me to deal with my emotions all by myself for months after dad - dad disappeared. You shut everyone out and when I finally find a way to cope you suddenly don’t want me to “go down that path”. Fuck off John B, don’t act like you fucking care now.” You said, pushing past him and towards the bathroom. 

“That’s not fair. I didn’t shut everyone out, I just kept to myself.” 

“In case you didn’t notice that’s the same thing.” You ended the conversation by slamming the bathroom door. 

Unbeknownst to you, your friends had been sitting on the porch listening to your argument. Entirely siding with John B, they just wanted their friend back who was sweet and kind, and didn’t do self-destructive things. 

After taking a long shower, you got out and started getting ready for another party that you were going to. You pulled on black cutoff shorts with a cropped crotchet tank top. Throwing on a minimal amount of makeup you shrugged and then let your hair air dry into its natural curls. 

“Where you going?” Kie asked curiously as you stepped out of the bathrom and walked into the living room. 

“Party with some friends.” 

“Maybe it’s not such a good idea to go out again, you still look hungover.” John B said. 

“That’s the fun, big brother.” You said with a shrug. 

“It’s fun until you get addicted,” JJ said softly, looking at you carefully. 

“I’ll deal with that when we get there.” 

“I was hoping you’d stay in tonight we have a few things we wanted to go over for restorations of the HMS.” Pope said with a smile. 

“I’ll be back later, we can talk then. They’re expecting me. Speaking of which I gotta go.” You said, checking the time on your phone and then shoving it back into your pocket. 

John B put his head in his hands as he watched you walk out of the Chateau and get in your car. 

John B’s POV 

“I just don’t know what to do anymore. Like I get the urge to party and relax, but she’s turning to drugs and ending up in ditches. I don’t want to have to tell someone my underaged sister needs help with addiction, but that’s where it’s heading.” 

“I get it man, addiction is hard to watch. We’ve tried to warn her, maybe she just needs a heart to heart from you. No bullshit yelling, and blaming each other. You just need to talk it out and go from there.” JJ said. 

I nodded my head and picked up the beer I had been drinking. 

“Why don’t we just have a fire and relax a little bit?” Kie asked, sensing the tension I was radiating. 

“Yeah, I liked that idea.” Pope said with a smile. 

................................................................................................................................ 

About an hour into the fire I heard my phone ring. I raised an eyebrow and then moved to pick it up. “Y/N” being written out across the screen. I picked up and instantly heard crying and was concerned. 

“Y/N, hey calm down what’s wrong,” I asked getting up quickly. 

“Please-please come ge-get me,” she sobbed into the phone. 

“Where are you at?” I asked, worriedly. 

“Amelia’s house, ju-just down th-the stree-et from a gas station.” 

“I’ll be there in a second, what happened?” I questioned as I grabbed my keys and got in the van. 

“I-I’ll see you when you get he-here.” She hiccupped before hanging up. 

“Where are you going?” Pope asked. 

“Getting Y/N, she called crying.” I said, watching as worried expressions flashed over my friend’s faces. 

................................................................................................................................ 

Y/N’s POV 

I sat under a tree, shaking. Everything had gone too far tonight, too much alcohol, too many people, too many questions about everything. I felt myself spiraling and I was terrified. 

“Hey, you okay?” John B’s voice sounded out. 

My eyes met his, and instantly his face was covered in worry. 

“I just wan-wanna go home.” 

He nodded and helped me stand. Wrapping his arm securely around my shoulder, he led me to the van where I could see all of our friends staring at me worriedly. 

................................................................................................................................ 

The next morning I woke up, tucked in my brother’s arms. I looked up to see John B staring down at me. 

“Can we talk about what happened last night?” He asked carefully. 

I nodded my head and sat up. 

“I went into that party so ready to just be carefree. There were guys offering to get me drinks, I was dancing with everyone, and people were wanting to hookup. I didn’t mind anything, but then there was questions about how I was doing and how I was coping with everything. It was like a big slap in the face, I realized I never dealt with anything. Everything was just being buried with all of the parties I was going to. I started feeling myself spiral so I called. I realized you were right and I shouldn’t be coping this way.” You said with a sigh. 

“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty, but I’m glad you concluded your actions were irresponsible and that they’re the wrong way to cope. I was so worried about you, all of us were. You slowly stopped being the responsible friend who took care of everyone, never drinking to being this completely different person. You slowly stopped caring about your well-being and completely changed who you were. I just wanted my sister back.” John B said, tears welling in his eyes. 

You breathed out a sigh as tears fell onto your cheeks and you embraced your brother. You knew it was going to be a long road to becoming the girl you were before, but you were sure with the help of your brother and your friends you could do it. 

[claraweems]

Post-Destroy Shakarian Mini-Fic

Her body was found in the rubble a little more than thirty-six hours after the Citadel event and it was rushed to the nearest triage tent with little more than a pulse. It wasn’t more than a couple hours before she was ushered to a more capable facility outside of London proper and then it was all hands on deck.

That was six weeks ago now; six long weeks of awaiting communications channels to open, for any news, for hope. A vid call was the best the Alliance could offer the crew of the Normandy at this point and they all knew who to give those precious few minutes of airtime to.

The doors to the commanding officer’s quarters locked and Garrus quickly took a seat in the small task chair at Shepard’s computer. A deep breath, eyes closed, and he connected the call. It was a nurse, or an aide of some sort, who confirmed his identity and carried the mobile vid device over to the hospital bed.

And there she was. Garrus’s heart raced, his mandibles clenched and his eyes searched over all he could see of Shepard. She looked pathetic in her blue hospital gown, cannula under her nose and who knows how many connections all over her body to any number of telemetry devices. Maybe even life support, ported directly into her cybernetics. Black circles under her eyes, hair thin and greasy from lack of proper bathing, but there she was.

And her eyes, her bright green eyes, they were… Blank. Just, blank.

Not lifeless, but soulless, that’s how he would describe the blank stare that Jane Shepard gave him. He saw no relief, no joy, nothing, when her eyes focussed on the screen put in front of her.

“Are you another doctor?” That alto which could be music to his auriculars was so shallow.

“I--” Garrus was interrupted by the nurse, no doubt due to the time lag. The human woman corrected her patient, ‘No, dear, this is a connection to the SSV Normandy. This is one of your shipmates.’

Shipmates, Garrus huffed in his mind.

“The Normandy?” Jane brought a hand to her lips, drawing a finger tip over them in thought. An IV or some other connection hung from the back of her hand, taped in place. She seemed in good care, if done a bit archaically. It was likely the best they could do, all things considered. “Captain Anderson’s new ship. You must be the turian envoy. Nihlus, was it?” Shepard smiled weakly. Diplomatic, even at her lowest.

His heart sank. A low hum escaped Garrus’ throat, inaudible over the call, but it washed over his body. Shock, sadness. It was hard to process what he had just heard, what Shepard-- Jane, his Jane-- had just said.

“No, no, I’m Garrus,” he spoke up after a pause, voice deflated. “Garrus Vakarian, I’m…” He watched Shepard’s eyes struggle to focus on the video. She was obviously tired, and didn’t seem particularly interested if for no reason other than fatigue. “I’m, yeah, just checking on you. Wanted to make sure you were alright.”

The Commander looked toward the nurse, every third or fourth word slurring, “I’ve got such a damn headache. Everyone keeps telling me my injuries happened on the Citadel, something heroic. I’ve never even been to the damn Citadel.” Her attention went back to Garrus, “Last thing I remember I was boarding a shuttle to rendezvous with Anderson, and now...” She weakly gestured at the room.

The turian nodded solemnly, eyes diverting from the screen to nothing in particular on Shepard’s desk. He listened to her slow speech, and it was painful. So painful. This was … this was hardly Shepard. A severe brain injury was the obvious culprit of this behavior and it absolutely was not a surprise considering events. To witness memory loss like this was shocking. It was one thing to expect it somewhere in the back of his mind, but it knocked the wind out of Garrus’s sales to see it first hand. Was it a ‘physical’ erasure caused by the injury? Was it post-traumatically induced?

Did he really want to know, or care? It was reality, plain and simple.

All that mattered right then was that he couldn’t find his words. The silence likely lasted little more than a handful of seconds, the hospital machines beeping away to fill the voice, but finally Shepard spoke up once more. “I guess I should ask… if I was injured this bad, how is everyone else? Where is the Captain?”

“Shepard…” Garrus instinctively responded, voice hushed. His tone was on the cusp of an incredulous laugh; this was … unbearable.

“That bad, huh?” The Commander tried to smirk, but yawned.

“Yeah,” he nodded in response, “It’s a long story and I don’t have much time on the vid call to really tell it. Shepard, I should... go. Give the crew an update on you.” He felt like a coward.

“Tell them not to kick too much ass without me. Obviously the Normandy’s maiden flight went off without a hitch if she’s got a crew waiting for me, uh…” She raised an eyebrow, as if searching for the word. Name, more like. “Soldier.”

“Garrus.”

“Garrus. Right.”

He ended the call and stood within the same motion. His name echoed back to him so colorlessly… it hurt. He shuddered as he paced across the room, the quarters he had commandeered after the crash-landing. No one protested, of course. They were family. They understood.

Now their matriarch was… Well, Garrus didn’t even know how to describe the short conversation, how to tell the crew that they were nothing more than acquaintances in her mind. Hell, she had no recollection of him… there was no way she was going to remember any of the non-Alliance crew.

Garrus sat on the edge, on Jane’s side, of the squat human bed. He had brought in a few ergonomic cushions for himself, but they were splayed out across the far side, spilling onto the floor. Three fingers rubbed across his face and over his cranial blades, eyes distant and glassy. He looked around the room, trying to compose himself; the squat couch and chairs, the emptied fish tank, the stack of cups and saucers left over from the past few days.

She was alive, she was safe, but…

His whole body shuddered once more, blue eyes closing and a hand covering his face. Subharmonics rumbled low, from head to toe, a collection of sounds at pitches and in tones that melded together in a mournful song. His emotions spilled over, out of his control, and he sobbed. It would have been absolutely useless, probably more harm than good, to tell her who she really was to him. Damnit. He wanted to tell her he loved her, he wanted to remind her of … of everything. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

A jerking, choking sob; Garrus had never been wracked with such agonizing grief before. With his mother there was closure through longanimity. With his crew on Omega there was closure through revenge. With watching Palaven burn there was closure through Shepard.

This was a fate worse than her death.

[parappa-and-lammy]

Disabled OCs 2: Electric Boogaloo

it’s them, they’re here! Or yknow, a chunk of em. i had a LOT backlogged and there are even more in store i have saved away - the ones here are the most fleshed out!

To start, with who appears to already pique peeps interest:

⬆️ Bumble Bea the flower-capybara! 

Most notable is her golden and wild long flowing hair. It has green streaks through it, along with plenty of flowers; some grown by her, and others gathered throughout her life. They’re able to stay alive as long as she keeps them in her mane. Definitely the hippie type, she enjoys being around people and in nature. She is friendly towards everyone, and calls them all some variation of “honey” (hun, honey bun, hun bun..,), she’ll even sometimes pluck a flower to give to you!

Her original dream was to be a rockstar sensation, specializing in psychedelic rock. She even has her own custom guitar (which looks like a bumblebee!). Has hyperthyroidism and fibromyalgia - the chronic pain of which made her decide to retire. She’ll come out to play every so often, just not so extensively as before. For now, she simply hangs out with her family and helps them with their own problems.

⬆️ Lonnie Lop the jerboa-rabbit!

Lonnie is a jokester who doesn’t take much seriously. So much so, he sometimes forgets that some topics are off limits. Barely being an adult, he has trouble judging people, and tends to take things at face value. He’s an overly emotional immature thing at times... but he’s discovered that his family is most important to him.

Lonnie wanted to become an idol more than anything way back when - he had the cuteness, the singing skill, the dancing and everything else! But they had all turned him down, and it’s not really a mystery why. He has a stoma on his abdomen and has a colostomy bag - the most decorated and brightly colored ones are his favorite. He is also borderline anemic and has pica - both of which caused an event that led to him getting the stoma in his childhood.

For now, he simply helps his family out with random little jobs. He looks up to Bumble, who he considers his sister. He still insists on becoming an idol somehow.

⬆️ Otto the otter!

He is a jolly old man with a big heart, and a laugh so loud it shakes the building. Some people might be off-put by his openness, but he’s nothing but sincere. He will always set time aside to listen to whatever problems you may be having, though he isn’t exactly the most intellectual. He’s a lil’ confused but he’s got the spirit.

Otto has epilepsy, along with chronic migraines. All his sons and daughters left the nest and got careers in the technological industry, and he’s nothing but happy for them. But he stays away from screens and such. He’s moreso a man that works with his hands. And he does! Whenever he isn’t in the house with his new found family, he’ll be outside working on a project.

After the passing of his wife and his kids going on to do great things, he’s opened his house up for the ones who have no home. Many people have come to call his house ‘home’ and become part of the family. He fosters kids and helps people feel appreciated when they never have. Bumble came by long ago and is officially part of the family. Lonnie was the first foster kid at his home, and also was the first to be adopted by him.

⬆️ Kato the croco-llope and Lea the sheep-leopard!

Lea has high morality, which many remember her for: she shall never speak ill of someone. Never outwardly be rude or mean to someone. She tends to prioritize helping others over herself, even to the point of bringing harm onto herself. At times like these, usually standoffish Kato will step in and stand up for her. They known each other for a very long time - Kato has known her most of his life, and Lea has known him for over a decade now.

Lea was born deaf and is very adept at ASL and reading lips. Kato lost his arm and eye, has hearing loss in his right ear, among other things, due to something that happened long ago. Despite this, he’s become quite skilled at kung fu - even CCMO has commended him, and request he train others at the dojo alongside him.

The two live at Otto’s Foster Home, with Lea having registered to be the full-time caretaker there. She made Kato go through the training and begrudgingly become registered as well, though he now enjoys it. Lea owns a specialized dulcimer while Kato has and can play his adungu. They’ll play as a duet for the kids sometimes, who always enjoy their little performances.

⬆️ Donna the chameleon-iguana!

She herself has barely any recollection of what she’s like. She remembers slipping away... and then ‘waking up’ in PaRappa Town. after an unpleasant run-in with a certain flower girl, Donna is guided towards the Otto home with the help of a kind rapping dog. She was shaken from the experience still, and simply finds vacancy there.

She wasn’t willing to open up to anyone there, yet finds an unlikely friend in someone called Theo. With his roundabout help and the eventual help of the others who live there, she manages to recover from her past experiences and unlock her past, so that she can finally put her best foot forward.

Donna had untreated juvenile arthritis, and now consequentially has joint damage from it, among other things. She wears loose clothes and has long ties attached to zippers in order to help her move with less strain.

⬆️ Theo the bugbot!

He is an old, cranky, pessimist grump who always has something snarky to say. You’d be lucky if he didn’t directly tell you straight to your face. Doesn’t acquaint much with the other people in the Otto household (where he resides), until he met Donna. They form an unlikely friendship - his abrasive attitude was what she needed to address her problems, and in turn, she helps him be less of an ass.

Congenitally amputated legs, so he attaches large wheels to spurs to get around. He also has pulmonary fibrosis that developed from sarcoidosis. He wears a powerful respirator he had built himself everywhere outside of his room. Hoists oxygen tanks on his back thanks to a vest he designed for himself. Theo also has a sort of addiction to chocolate - the one he wasn’t able to kick. He was very self-destructive in his youth, though he begrudgingly takes better care of himself now.

Theo is talented at home improvement, as can be seen with his assisted living tools. Though he’s embarrassed over it for multiple reasons, he can play the hurdy-gurdy quite well, and does so often when he’s alone in his room. He even played for Donna on one occasion, though he wouldn’t dream of showing the other people in the house his playing skills.

⬆️ Angel the anteater and Cupcake the sugar glider!

Angel was an overachieving student at the college, going for a degree in writing, until the day she became sick with what she thought was the flu. But after weeks of rest, she became worse and worse - and was eventually diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome). She joined a support group so as not to be alone during this time. and met Cupcake, who instantly took a liking to her.

Cupcake has Crohn’s disease, and visibility problems due to complications with Crohn’s disease. She had to radically change her diet from before; she eats plenty of honey which helps, but misses cocoa products. The two live together in one dorm, with Cupcake not even hesitating to help Angel with whatever she needs. She always wanted to be a nurse, though she was teaching as Home Ec now.

When Angel inevitably loses her schooling and thus her dorm, the two move in together into Otto’s home. Angel gives what she can by helping the kids with their school curriculum. Cupcake helps her with that, and also teaching the kids other things they need to know. Angel is able to play the harp, while Cupcake plays the harpsichord. They make a fantastic duo, both as a duet and otherwise.

⬆️ Gilly Gary the garden snail!

A boy with the voice of an angel, Gilly was one of the foster kids at Otto’s home before being adopted by a quadruplet slug singing group. They all have a dream of being able to make it big performing all over the world - but until then, they perform at small venues all across PaRappa Town. They’ll sometimes even host fundraisers for homes and institutions that need it.

Though Gilly wants to be a star in the singing world, he doesn’t take much seriously. He just wants to goof off and have fun! He and Lonnie would raise trouble together, seeing as they brought the most mischievous side out of each other.

Gilly had his leg amputated at a young age due to a rapidly spreading infection, and uses Lofstran crutches to support himself. He really doesn’t care, though since he’s a bit of a fashionista (he adores the aesthetic of the mid to late 70s), he won’t EVER cut off a pant leg, and resigns to tucking it in instead. It comes in helpful when trying to sneak stuff into the movie theatre haha funni reference

⬆️ Pekh the wolf-rooster!

This is a cheerful, euphoric man who rises up early every day to greet the sun. He is incredibly happy with himself, and chivalrous - anything he has, he immediately gives to someone else. He already knows he’s glorious, so someone else should have it instead! Though, he isn’t really the sharpest beak on the block. He may be easily confused by something you say, but he’d support you all the way.

His kidneys don’t work very well, and so he gets a dialysis 3 days a week, but takes care of his body otherwise. Why wouldn’t he? He’s the best! On his way to the doctor office, he’ll yodel aloud to himself and everyone around, and will continue while getting the dialysis done. He has an AV fistula in his left arm. He wanted the graft, but the fistula was the better option.

Some people are a bit annoyed by his self-euphoria, but others find it endearing. His family (everyone in the Otto household) see him as a beacon of happiness - Lonnie looks up to him, Theo gets irritated by his bubbliness, while everyone else in the house cheers him on.

~

And that’s the 2nd round of disabled OCs! I had a blast designing them all. I still have so many more that have yet to be 100% done yet (and i even have the first round to shine up and reintroduce)! I’ll see yall when i put up round 3! These were so exhausting to draww

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Opening Up with… Evanescence

Opening Up sees us talk to musicians about the opening track from each of their studio albums. Our next guest is Amy Lee, lead vocalist and founding member of goth-pop veterans Evanescence. With millions of albums sold worldwide, the band are one of the most beloved of their era – and there's still plenty left in the tank, as their latest studio album attests to.

Amy Lee’s eyes widen when she realises what the premise of today’s conversation is. “I never get asked about this sort of stuff!” she exclaims excitedly from her Nashville home, surrounded by a stuffed toy collection belonging to her seven-year-old son Jack. Lee is very drawn to the prospect of a grand opening, whether that’s in the albums that she listens to, the gigs she attends or the movies she watches.

“I have a couple of different ideas about it,” she says. “An album opener…it’s got to pull you in. There’s different ways to do that, and we’ve done a few. One way is to give it the slow build – something that is opening up a world and an atmosphere to you where you’re like, ‘Okay, this is the world I’m stepping into.’ It builds up until it gets to that first big moment of impact. The other method, which I also love, is when you don’t hesitate and just burst right into something. We do our live shows both ways, too. It’s one of those things where it just kind of depends on your mood. You want to really reflect not only on where you’re at, but where you’ve been.”

‘Going Under’ – Fallen, 2003

In another life, ‘Going Under’  would have been the world’s introduction to Evanescence. The opening track to what would go on to be one of the highest-selling albums of the decade was the favourite among Lee and co. to be its lead single. Wind-Up Records, however, opted for ‘Bring Me to Life’, and the rest, as they say, is history. That’s not to count out ‘Going Under’ by any means whatsoever – after all, as Buzz Aldrin once said, second comes right after first.

“That was the song that we really wanted,” admits Lee, reflecting on the song nearly 18 years after its release. “I love ‘Bring Me to Life’, obviously, but we had a great feeling about ‘Going Under’ being sent to radio before the album came out. When that didn’t happen, it kind of became like, ‘Okay, well at least when you hear the album, I want it to still be the first thing that you hear.’”

The song details a tumultuous relationship that Lee had in her early 20s, both in the throes of it and staring back at the ashes of its remnants. She acknowledges the song’s agency reflects both strength and vulnerability in tandem, which explains why the track has spoken to so many listeners over the years. “I think it’s really strong,” she asserts.

“It presents a place that I kind of got to later. I’m calling out for help – ‘I’m going under/I’m drowning in you’ – but it starts out with me being like, ‘You know what? I’m done with this. I’m stepping out of the situation.’ I think that attitude was something for me that I was more excited to project.”

Setlist.fm approximates that the band have played ‘Going Under’ nearly 500 times over the years, making it one of the strongest staples of their shows. It’s a classic “hold out the mic” song – Lee can defer to her makeshift choir on any given night to take up any section of lyrics with full confidence that they’ll be sung back loud and proud. “It’s a fun one to play live,” she notes. “Some songs have more staying power than others, and that song really has that for me. That’s the song that still feels really good and still fits. It doesn’t have anything about it that sort of feels like ‘Okay, that’s cool and that’s part of our history, but that’s not really what we are anymore.’ That one just really has stood the test of time.”

‘Sweet Sacrifice’ – The Open Door, 2006

The parallels between the first tracks on Evanescence’s first two records are obvious. Each cuts straight to the chase, pairing a distorted Lee vocal with a crunching, down-tuned palm-mute guitar chug before bringing in a steady full-band groove and a rousing, angsty chorus. Internally, however, the make-up of Evanescence had drastically shifted between albums, informed by the exit of the band’s co-founder in guitarist Ben Moody less than a year after the release of Fallen. This came midway through a tour, leaving the band to scramble in finding a replacement guitarist, which came in the form of Terry Balsamo (a member of the opening band, Cold). At the conclusion of the tour, Balsamo ultimately joined Evanescence full-time – a position he would hold for the next 12 years.

“That writing process was a new experience,” recollects Lee on co-writing with Balsamo for the first time. “We just had a different energy, which was really cool. We spent a lot of all-nighters in this house in LA – which was actually the first house I’d ever bought. Terry would come up and stay for a month or whatever at a time, and we would work all night.”

When queried specifically on the writing of ‘Sweet Sacrifice,’ Lee recalls a moment where she and Balsamo really clicked creatively – the song’s stirring pre-chorus, which builds to its hard-hitting hook and big-swinging drums. “The guitar and the vocal are kind of mirroring each other there,” she says. “We were really excited about it. There was just this feeling that came with it,  like, the freedom of saying ‘we’ve earned the right to make music however we want right now.’ So many people were breathing down my neck being like, ‘Let me write your songs for you.’ Writing that song was us saying ‘no, we’re gonna do whatever we want because we earned this.’”

“I felt like the song was so beautifully heavy,” she continues. “I also felt like it would subvert what people would expect as an opening track. Because I was without my guitar-playing original counterpart, there was somehow this idea that the next record [should] be softer and more feminine. I love heavy music, of course, and what was coming out of me and Terry was, in some ways, a lot heavier.”

September will mark the 15-year anniversary of The Open Door, and although it doesn’t hold the same legacy as Fallen, it remains a sentimental favourite among fans of the band. Lee still maintains a strong relationship with the record – if not for the fact that the band was able to make it at all in the first place.

“I still love it very much, it means a lot to me,” she comments. “I did have a lot to prove, and I felt the pressure of people feeling like, ‘I wonder if she can do that without Ben.’ I was really excited to show right away that we were taking it to the next level.”

‘What You Want’ – Evanescence, 2011

The first thing you hear on Evanescence’s third studio album is not Lee. Hell, it’s not even a guitar. It’s a reverb-heavy kick and snare beat, which sounds like it’s echoing from the depths of an arena. It immediately kicks the album off on a high gear, and is a perfect example of Lee’s latter example of not hesitating and bursting right in as an opener.

“That’s Will,” she determines of the song’s opening fill – courtesy of drummer Will Hunt, who made his debut on Evanescence after touring with the band for several years prior. “He is the greatest drummer in the world. That part was totally him. He is arena rock to the max, so it’s perfect. What’s cool about that is we all have different things in us that [are] our own style, each member of the band. When everybody’s particular tastes and styles get a chance to really shine through what they’re doing, I think that’s what can make it really amazing.”

“That album, it’s self-titled because it was such a group effort. Certainly it was more [of] one than before, when it was really more kind of duos for both of the other albums – Ben and I, Terry and I. This time was more like, ‘Okay, let’s let everybody really have a chance to shine.’” Lee points to ‘What You Want’ in particular when reflecting on the all-in band approach in songwriting: “I believe it was me, Terry and Tim [McCord, bassist], and we were at my house in Brooklyn,” she describes. “I had a little studio on the top floor, and just pulled up a loop on Pro Tools. Terry started playing, Tim started playing and it just became a thing with the three of us. We brought the band in, and that dinky little loop became what Will did. It really took it to another place.”

“It starts off with that awesome drum beat, but the combo to me really happens when when everything eventually comes in. It really comes together. I hear Terry in those different little half-note steps, I hear me bringing in some of my pop influences in the melody. This is us just really having fun making music and being ourselves.”

‘Overture’ – Synthesis, 2017

In one of the band’s most ambitious projects to date, Synthesis saw Evanescence team up with veteran composer David Campbell (also known as Beck’s dad) to create orchestral renditions of their best-known songs. Before it kicks off in earnest, however, the album opens with a swelling overture penned by Lee herself. It’s a rare instance of her flexing a different creative muscle in the track-ones of the band’s career, where she approaches it as an arranger and composer as opposed to a singer and songwriter.

“The whole idea of the project, for me, really stems from the fact that there’s all these little parts,” she explains. “It’s where my classical influence, which was my first really passionate musical influence, has a moment. It’s something that is an important core part of the music. ‘Never Go Back,’ which follows the overture, is one of those songs – the bridge is totally just like mad Mozart in the darkness, y’know? It’s my classical alter-ego going crazy. It’s interesting, because I think that the combination of that happening against the rock is really what makes it Evanescence. At the same time, I can still see this whole landscape of us that exists underneath and inside the music that is just entirely that other side. A lot of the time, when I’m coming up with the idea to start and then bring it to the table, it’s usually in this piano and electronics-based world before it really becomes a fully-fledged rock song. The idea of Synthesis was to get to just indulge in all of those things.”

When looking at the creation of the album’s overture, Lee sees that alter-ego taking both form and flight. “That part in particular is just one of my favourite moments on the record,” she says. “It’s very classically inspired, obviously. To make that into a full piece with David and give it that slow build, like we were talking about…I just loved being able to do that. That’s one of the ones that we’re driving you into a place and you’re like, ‘Oh, where are we going?’ And then you get there. It was very special to have at the beginning of every show on the tour. I’ll never forget that.”

‘Artifact/The Turn’ – The Bitter Truth, 2021

“Let me tell you about this, because it’s unusual.” Having eyed the conversation’s flow keenly, Lee is prepared at the ready to talk about ‘Artifact/The Turn,’ which opens The Bitter Truth, the first collection of all-new Evanescence music in a decade. As she will go on to explain in great detail, the album’s opening moment is twofold – hence the forward slash in its title. First, the artifact, which Lee found on her computer. “That’s nothing but like a little keyboard and my voice,” she confirms.

“That part is me on my laptop with the laptop built-in mic in a hotel room in Canada in the middle of the night on tour. That was not intended to make it as is on the album. The reason it’s called ‘Artifact’ is something that Nick [Raskulinecz], our producer, said. He was like, ‘Do you really want to redo this?’ I always was thinking I was going to. ‘Well, yeah,’ I said. ‘Don’t we need to like do it in high quality, like on a real microphone? He says, ‘I don’t know if you’re going to be able to recapture that exact feeling.’ I thought about that, and it all just kind of connected. It has all these little artifacts in it – it’s actually a little ancient piece of the the writing process, and it’s intact. It hasn’t been re-recorded or redone in any way.”

This leads to where the music makes a turn – courtesy, naturally, of ‘The Turn.’ This was another one-on-one between Lee and a collaborator, although this time, it arrives in the unexpected form of The Crystal Method’s Scott Kirkland. “We just met through a mutual friend, my old lighting director,” Lee recalls. “We were both on the bill at some festival and we made friends. It turned out we were fans of each other, and I was like, ‘Hey, if you ever want to just like swap files, who knows? We might come up with something!’ We started sending each other little baby demo ideas that we had. He had that music bed a little bit in a different arrangement that he sent to me – and again, on tour in a backroom, I found myself singing over it and came up with a melody. He tweaked it and did it for real, and that was it.”

Piecing these two compositions together made it very clear to Lee from the outset that this is how The Bitter Truth would begin – especially when she saw how it transitioned into track two, ‘Broken Pieces Shine’. “I love the way that that riff brings you into our band – where we are now and what the sound of us is now,” she says. “It’s driving, and it is coming for you – and it just feels so good when it hits. I love the beginning of this album.”

It’s been around a month since the album’s release, and although the band obviously haven’t gotten to play any shows thus far, they’ve still been met with an endless stream of messages, comments and praise from fans all over the world. After such an extensive rollout – not by design, of course – the sense of relief within the Evanescence camp is palpable. “It’s so satisfying,” adds Lee. “The one thing that’s going to drive it all the way home, obviously, is going to be when we get to live inside it and go on tour and play these songs live.”

[sylvie-writes]

Are You Worthy?

Part 2 of Getting Ready

Disclaimer: Some of the events may be out of order or removed but it’s for the purpose of the story

Warnings: mentions of alcohol. any screw ups in spelling or grammar.  

I just found out that I screwed up the timeline... but this is fanfcition... so just please ignore that huge plot hole that i’ve just created. 

Loosely edited. I will fully check over it this week, my loves. 

Sorry about the end. It’s midnight and i’m too tired to write a whole ass scene. 

Enjoy!

The drive to the compound was a little over twenty minutes, the late night traffic of Brooklyn lightly flooding the roads. Sarah was in the back seat, strapped in her car seat joyously maundering about making new friends tonight. That child was a social butterfly, never really understanding the stranger-danger rule, one you and Steve often tried to implement into her impressionable mind. Steve looked into the rearview mirror, shooting the mini chatty cathy a large smile. 

Arriving at the event, ponds of cars littered the street, valet attendants frantically rushing around to the lineup of many pretentious cars. Once a valet had taken your car, Steve stepped out, first helping you from the passenger seat and then unbuckling Sarah. All three Rogers casually strolled into the multi-level tower, its height unfathomable. Heading to the back elevators, which weren’t crowded, for you all knew the compound layout better than most of the guests. Sarah’s hands held your’s and Steve’s as she was sandwiched between the two of you, yet happily swinging her parents’ hands with her own.

Sam immediately greeted you, Steve and Sarah, quickly inviting you all over for a friendly game of pool with some older gentlemen. Of course, since Sarah was only three, she couldn't play pool and instead joyously watched as the billiard balls fell into the pockets, only piquing her interest as she wondered where the pockets led to. You and Steve decided to share one cue stick, each shooting while the other held Sarah, who babbled to the parent holding her at that time. 

About halfway through the game, Steve had noticed you were shivering just a smidge. He swiftly laid the cue stick against the pool table as it wasn't his turn anyway. Taking off the leather jacket, Steve wrapped it around your shoulders, prompting you to turn your attention and body back towards the pool table and him.

“You scared me, Rogers.” You jocosely squinted at the man then handing Sarah over so you could properly wear the oversized leather jacket. The pleasant and familiar cologne wrapped around your body as if it were a warm and securing hug. By the time you had finished your mini conversation with Steve it was your turn to play pool, Sarah preciously becoming your cheerleader. 

Steve had ventured off with Sam while you and Sarah had ended up with Tony, Thor and Maria, painfully listening to Rhodey’s recollection of his time as the War Machine. 

“Well, you know the suit can take the weight. So I take the tank, fly it right up to the General’s Palace, drop it at his feet, and I’m like BOOM, you looking for this?” 

Tony and Thor just looked at Rhodey with an unamused look while Sarah giggled at the story, not really understanding but laughing at the funny voice he had used. Reiterating himself, Rhodey repeated the story in hopes of getting a better reaction from his crowd. 

“Boom. Are you looking- why do I even talk to you guys? Everywhere else that story kills.”

The disappointed man turns to face you, his hand up, expecting a high five. You just look at him before laughing and shaking your head, while Sarah glady gives Rhodey her hand in place of yours. 

“Well that's the whole story?”

Rhodey turned back to Thor with a mirthless expression.

“Yes, that’s the War Machine story.”

Thor turned to Tony, then back to Rhodey, laughing deeply and then responding with what you had assumed was sarcasm.

“Oh it’s very good then. It’s impressive!”

“Quality save.” 

Amused at Thor’s attempt, Rhodey then changed the subject, the conversation moving faster than Steve could run.

“Gentlemen, where are the ladies?” 

Maria’s simple question turned into a compliment battle between Tony and Thor. 

Sarah continued to giggle and out stretched her arms to the man beside you, a signal to hold her. Stopping your own laughter, you hand Sarah over to Rhodey who was just as giddy as the little girl in his arms.

“Go find your hubby!” Rhodey nudged you in the shoulder and you gave him and Sarah a quick hug before going your separate ways. You shot the two gloating men with a look of mock disappointment, bidding Maria a “good luck”, and then leaving at Rhodey’s wishes. 

“What happened to him?” You walked to stand beside Steve, watching as an older gentleman, drunkenly passed out, was being carried by two younger men. 

“This.” Steve brought the glass to your lips, a sour look tainting your face after just a small sip.

“My god, what is that?! It takes like fire!” A hearty chuckle left Steve as he pointed to Thor who was holding a small flask and doing shots with a group of men. 

Sarah was still with Tony, allowing you and Steve to go enjoy some time with each other. The two of you just stood on the balcony, your arms linked together as the stars brightly painted the sky. It had been a while since you and Steve had such a heartfelt conversation, both recalling old memories. Not only was the man linked beside you, your husband, but also your best friend. You and Steve have always shared everything with the other, whether it be tears or laughter. This man was literally the epitome of your everything. 

“Do you remember when you listened to a few of my vinyls for weeks just so you could learn the words?” 

Steve’s lips were on your head as he talked, leaving gentle kisses.

A chuckle left your mouth at the adorable yet embarrassing memory.

It was in the beginning of your relationship when you and Steve were just months into a relationship. Steve had always let you choose the music. He even learned how to use cd’s in a boombox, quite the change from vinyls and a record player. Well, one day, Steve had left for a mission, one you were not needed for. During the day that he was gone, you spent hours trying to figure out how to use his record player. When you finally did, that day all you listened to were the vinyls, engraving every word into your mind.  

“I couldn’t figure out how to play the vinyls.” A small pout wiggled onto your lips, one Steve kissed away then pulled from your face chuckling breathily. 

“Don’t laugh at your wife’s pain!”

“I’m not trying to! You are just so damn adorable. I see where Sarah gets it from.”

An hour later, you and Steve had parted ways and you were currently strolling over to the bar, a martini in mind, but when your daughter came bounding at you, hugging your leg, your plans for a drink changed.

“Hi, Mommy!” Unlatching the girl from your leg, you leaned down to pick her up, seeing Tony now staring at you with a look of relief. Sarah must’ve run from him at the sight of her mother. 

You waved Tony away, bidding him back to his conversation. 

“What are you doing, Mommy?” 

“I was just about to get a drink.” 

“Ohhh can I have one?”

After her request, you explained to her that some drinks were for adults. Martini long forgotten, you instead went to order a shirley temple to share with Sarah. At first she was confused since you had just explained that the drinks from the bar were for adults, but then you further told her some drinks were okay. Long story short, Sarah had just learned that she must ask you or Steve since you would both know what to order her.

Now done with the most confusing lesson you’ve ever taught Sarah, you continued your walk to the bar.

Natasha was behind the counter, currently pouring a drink for herself while she and Bruce returned some playful chatter. A few minutes passed and their conversation ended. Smirking, Nat left the flustered man with your husband, who had just shown up at the end of the counter for a beer himself.

“It’s nice.”

Bruce turned to look at Steve, genuinely confused, partly to Steve’s statement and then Natasha's flirting. 

“You and Romanoff.” 

Once all the pieces finally clicked in the clueless man’s head, he instantly denied the claims thrown his way. 

Deciding to finally join the conversation, you walked up beside Steve, who was happily surprised at your appearance, with Sarah on your hip. 

“Yeah, you both are adorable!” 

Poor Bruce was a ball of nerves not even able to form the words to repudiate your comment. 

“It’s okay, nobody’s breaking any bylaws.”

Sarah’s attention had now shifted from the mature conversation and to Thor who was a few feet away. The man was making funny faces at her, snickers ensuing. Tapping your shoulder politely, she then pointed to Thor and you set her down, watching her run away, never once peeling away your eyes until she made it into the safe hold of the man, who shot a thumbs up allowing you to return to Steve and Bruce’s conversation. 

“It’s just that she’s not the most… open person in the world, but with you she seems very relaxed.” 

“Agreed. You two are practically like Steve and I!” 

“No, Natasha, she just likes to flirt.” 

“I’ve seen her flirt. Up close. And this ain’t that.” Your husband reached for a beer, then holding his arm out for you. 

“Look, as maybe the world’s leading authority on waiting too long. Don’t. You both deserve a win.” 

Steve gave Bruce a heartening smile, waiting as you unlatched your arm from his. You placed a friendly peck on the man’s cheek before giving him some words of reassurance.

“Don’t underestimate your worth.” Bruce then gave you both a small meek smile, returning to his drink. 

“What do you mean up close!” You and Steve were already long gone yet still able to hear Bruce’s cry of befuddlement to which your husband smirked, causing you to scoldingly slap him on the chest.

“You're absolutely terrible, Grant.” 

As expected, Steve just laughed at your reprimand. Whenever you scolded him, it usually involved his middle name being crammed somewhere into your lengthy chide. Like a disciplined child, he’d listen pitifully. Most of the time you’d chastise him for his reckless nature, that scared you to death. Then he’d apologize a thousand times while planting kisses all over your face, making you giggle endlessly, certainly failing at keeping up the irritated facade.  

“Yet, you love me, doll.” Steve had somehow dragged you to the dance floor, pulling your flush to him as the song began. You brought your arms to his neck, noses touching as he proudly smiled down on you, slightly tightening his grip on your waist. The two of you swayed slowly, your lips connected softly. 

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” 

Once the song had finished it was replaced with an upbeat line dance to which you and Steve briskly rushed off the floor being met with Sarah who sat at a table with Natasha, cheering at you and Steve.

“Mommy, Daddy! That was omazing!” 

“Well, how about you and I go get some celebration cake for everyone!”

As any sane toddler, Sarah agreed to her father’s delectable plan. Steve plucked his daughter from Natasha’s lap, then taking yours and hers order. Once the two had left, you dived right into a conversation with Nat. The topic; Bruce.

Not too long after, the party ended and all Avengers then regrouped, tiredly surrounding the large coffee table covered in takeout and Thor’s hammer idly resting on the end. 

“But it’s a trickkkk.” Clint dragged out his statement to emphasize his belief, the little girl sitting beside you, smiling wider. 

“No. no. it’s much more than that.” Steve and Thor exchanged the flask as you stared at it, still revolted by its god-awful taste. 

“Ah, whosoever be he worthy shall haveth the power.” You leaned towards the table, reaching for the carton, laughing at Clint’s truthful reenactment. 

“Whatever man, it’s a trick!”

Arising a challenge, Thor pointed to Mjolnir. 

“Please, be my guest.” 

“Come on.”

“Really?” 

“Yeah.”

Clint got up from his seat on the ground, walking confidently towards the hammer as Tony let out a snarky remark.

“Clint, you’ve had a tough week, we won’t hold it against you if you can’t get it up.”

Laughter circled around as Clint came up to Thor, a promising look on his face.

“You know I’ve seen this before right?” 

With one hand, Clint attempted to pull the hammer, utilizing all his strength not an ounce unused. 

“I still don’t know how you do it.” 

“Smell the silent judgement?” Giggles escaped yours and Sarah’s lips as Steve turned to see his two best girls enjoying the amusement. 

“Please, Stark, by all means.” 

With arrogant poise, Stark raised from his seat, scooting to the table as you could picture his impending disappointment, already laughing at the mere thought. 

“Never one to shrink from an honest challenge.” 

Rolling up his sleeves, Tony placed his arm in the handle of the hammer.

“Right, so, if I lift it, I then rule Asgard?” 

“Yes, of course.” Thor calmly replied, just basking in the free entertainment from his competitive friends. You could see Steve who was beside him, trying his best to contain his laughter. Directing Sarah’s attention from Tony and to Steve, she held in her own laughter as you explained what was happening. 

“I will be reinstituting Prima Nocta.” To no surprise, the hammer didn’t budge leaving Tony quickly trying to cover his displeasure. 

Tony then returned with his suit’s hand, the hammer still resting on the table. Even Rhodey joined Tony’s unsuccessful conquest. 

“Are you even pulling?” 

“Are you on my team?”

“Just represent. Pull.” 

Next up was Bruce, who also failed, luckily not hulking out on everyone. Natasha gave him a smile while Steve and Thor tried to hide their merriment.  

After Bruce’s fruitless attempt, it soon became your husband’s turn. 

“Come on, Cap.” 

Steve then pulled on the hammer with all his brawn. You weren’t even sure if you were paying attention to the hammer anymore, too caught up on the shirt clinging to Steve. 

Your attention span was then proved when the hammer moved up. Sarah’s eyes widened as did yours. Thor had obviously noticed since you sensed some tensity from him. Steve tried once again, this time receiving the same futile result as the rest. When the hammer stopped budging you saw the now relieved man swiftly try to cover up his reaction. A nervous chuckle escaping his lips, echoing into the glass. 

“Nothing!” 

“Mrs. & lil Ms. Rogers?” Steve outstretched his hand to yours and Sarah’s, guiding you both towards the hammer. All three of you grabbed the hammer. Steve holding the handle while you and Sarah pulled at the stick. Everyone’s combined strength was enough to lift the hammer had it not been of otherworldly decent. Giving up, Sarah was just a smidge disappointed, perking back to herself at Tony’s quip.

“Even the House of Rogers failed too.” You shot Stark a faux look of vexation from the couch, to which he returned with his tongue poking out. Sarah caught this and then ran to him copying his action while you went to sit on Steve’s lap.

“And, Widow?”

Natasha sipped her beer and shook her head. 

“That’s not a question I need answered.” 

The night continued on with conspiracy theories about the hammer and playful jabs at Steve’s slip-up on his choice of words from the mission recently, Sarah enjoying every moment of the time albeit past her bedtime. 

At some point, Sarah had fallen asleep on your shoulder as you and Steve bid your fellow Avengers goodbye. 

Indeed, today has been one of the best days, all in part to your lovely family and closest friends. 

[hallowgracie]

Villain Story Excerpt: The Day He Disappeared

author’s note | Villain Story is a future project set in the Atomic-verse as a standalone and direct sequel to the events of Atomic Rebooted following a new protagonist, a girl called Laura who quickly finds herself in a precarious relationship with the new greatest threat to the city, Titanio. 

This is one of the flashbacks to Laura’s childhood—and one of the most important ones. Her childhood best friend, Nikola, disappeared under mysterious circumstances when they were both fourteen years old. This is Laura’s recollection of that night. 

I hope you’ll enjoy this little preview of the next project I’ll be working on when Crystal Magic is done!

content warning | implied kidnapping, gore, violence, and murder 

The night before Nikola went missing will always be imprinted into my mind. I could forget his face and his name before I’d forget that night. 

I remember the night air, hot and humid compared to the cold, arid chambers of first the movie theater and then the monorail we’d just stepped off of.

By the suburbs, fireflies darted about, blinking their secret messages to one another and anybody who cared enough to listen. 

We were laughing, allegedly about the movie, the latest Eternal Seas film and what was supposed to be the last one. But that wasn’t really what we were laughing about. It was the kind of laughter you can only give when you’re with your favorite person in the whole world. It comes from the joy of being together, of just being in each other’s company. 

We were just strolling down the blocks of our neighborhood. Most parents wouldn’t let their fourteen-year-olds out late at night in our city—especially because Dr. Electra was still active at the time. Much less let us return whenever we wanted.

But my childhood wasn’t like that. You can have all sorts of adventures when you have a super-powerful best friend willing to follow you to the ends of the Earth. 

Because my parents and Nikola’s knew that he would do anything to protect me.

I don’t think any of us knew what ‘anything’ would entail, however. 

Not until that night. 

It was supposed to be another perfect night in our idyllic childhood. Another one to file away with video games in the treehouse, ice cream trucks, and daring each other off the high dive at the public pool.

Everything was like that—up until a car stopped behind us and a man in black stepped out. 

Nikola turned his back to me and stuck his hand out. The man went flying, skidding onto the pavement. There was blood on the road.

I screamed, my hands flew to my mouth—just as someone came up behind me and grabbed me, wrenching my arms behind my back. I cried out in pain, tears stinging my eyes. I kicked and screamed as more of them came out of the bushes, surrounding Nikola. 

I screamed louder, trying to get anybody to hear us, to help us, to save us.

But no one was coming.

Nikola must’ve realized that about when I did. Because that was when he showed his true power. 

He threw out his hands in wide, frantic arcs—and his power cut through them all, a scorching energy blade. It ended at the man holding me captive, cutting off his head. He crumpled to the ground, and I pulled away. 

But I couldn’t pull my eyes away from what Nikola had done.

I might’ve started crying there, if I hadn’t somehow been able to look him in his shell-shocked eyes. He needed me. 

Specifically, he needed me to be calm now, to be in control.

“Are you okay?” I think we ere both shaking, just standing there in the summer air. 

“Yeah.” His voice was a million miles away. “You?”

“I’m going to be okay.” I nodded. 

He looked over his shoulder all of a sudden—he must’ve heard something. 

A stray cat walked on past the abandoned car.

“Someone probably heard that—and if they see this, then—“ His green eyes darted about in a panic. “Then Atomic Energy will come and—“

“Well, then we’d better get out of here before someone finds out.” I grabbed his hand. “Come on!”

We’d never run faster in our entire lives. Not even when we raced in the park, or on the playground in elementary school. Not even when we were running late to a family dinner my mom was holding for some of my dad’s co-workers. 

Instead of going back to either of our houses, we hopped the perfect picket fence separating the backyard from the rest of the world.

By the time we heard sirens in the distance, we were safely in the treehouse.

It was only then that I became aware of the blood splatters on my tank top.

“I think if I wash this out, then we should be able to get away with this.” I plucked at the stained fabric, surprised at my own even tone. 

Nikola said nothing. He sat curled into a little ball, knees to his chest, rocking slowly as he looked off into the distance with those shell-shocked eyes. 

After a long silence, he looked up to me. The light still did not return in his eyes. 

“Do you think anyone saw us?”

“No.” I shook my head. “It’s nearly eleven, all the windows were dark.”

“I killed them.” His voice cracked. “Oh my god, I—“

“They were trying to hurt us, it was just self-defense, right?” I placed a hand on his arm. “It was just self-defense, no one would be mad at you if they knew.”

I paused. “And no one’s going to know. This can stay our secret.”

“Another one.” 

I shrugged. “One of many.”

He closed his eyes, burying his face in his knees. 

“You also saved my life.” My voice went soft, like falling snowflakes. “And I’m grateful.”

He looked back up at me. “I guess that makes it worth it.”

“And for what it’s worth, I thought it was a good night. Before those guys came.”

He managed a smile. “I should probably get you back home, then.”

I shook my head. “No, I want to make sure you get back safe.”

“It won’t be a problem.” He grinned, like everything was back to normal. “I can take care of myself.”

Like he hadn’t killed five men. 

Like everything wasn’t about to change. 

But I was stupid and I wanted to believe in him.

So I reluctantly nodded. “Fine. But only because you’re just hopping the fence next door.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning, Ashling.”

With that, we both went out of the treehouse and hopped back over the fence. I went inside, and looked back once, to make sure he was going in the right direction.

After all, it was just to the house next door.

Satisfied, I closed the door and ran upstairs. Mother had told me she wouldn’t stay up before she left, because she trusted Nikola would get me back home safe.

She was right about that.

But I wasn’t the one she needed to worry about all along. 

I remember washing out my tank top, switching into pajamas, how I passed into such a deep sleep, the rest of the night only felt like a second passed.

When I woke up the next morning, I’d gotten dressed and headed over to the Faradays’ house, rang the doorbell and everything.

Mrs. Faraday cracked open the door, with circles under her eyes and wearing her favorite old pink bathrobe. 

That’s when I knew, before she even put it to words.

“Nikola never made it home last night.”

[pufflyhallows]

Wounds

Pairing: Remus Lupin x reader

Summary: You and Remus were together for eight years. When James and Lily died and Sirius was sent to Azkaban, things got really difficult and he eventually left you. Now you meet again at Hogwarts after you helped Sirius escape and clear everything up. The past is discussed.

a/n: This is the morning after Remus’ transformation and chasing after Harry and Hermione in Prisoner of Azkaban. Reader and Remus were reunited in the Shrieking Shack, but that was focused on Peter so I didn’t think it was relevant to this piece in particular as they didn’t have time to talk there.

Warnings: mentions of death, language, angst.

Word count: 2,960

********

“So this is your office.”

“Was. Was my office.”

Remus was emptying the old drawers of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher’s office. The news about his condition would soon be spread, so the logical thing to do was leave before it did. He wasn’t happy about it, of course – it was yet another job he was losing for the same damn reason. He reckoned that was something that would follow him his entire life, though. At this point, he was merely used to it.

“It was your office,” you repeated, nodding slowly. “I’m sorry you have to leave. I know the kids loved having you as their teacher.”

“You do?” he looked up from the suitcase he was filling with books.

“I had a little chat with Hermione. ‘The best DADA teacher we’ve had so far’, if I remember correctly.”

“Not a very hard title to win. They’ve only had two teachers before me – one had You-Know-Who on the back of his head, and the other was a narcissistic self-proclaimed hero.”

“You’ll never learn how to take a compliment, will you?”

Remus looked down at his suitcase again, a small sheepish smile on his lips.

You had been resting your shoulder on the door frame, arms crossed and eyes everywhere. The office looked smaller than it did in your head. You started to walk around, carefully observing anything interesting you found, arms still crossed on your chest.

“I remember last time I was here,” you broke the silence. “Many years ago when I was just a stupid teenager.”

“You were never stupid,” Remus interrupted.

“Oh, I was. Very much. And I was here because I was in trouble. Professor Jones had caught me cheating on his test. I don’t know if you’ll remember.”

“I remember,” Remus nodded. “You and Sirius got caught, and James felt guilty he hadn’t, so he turned himself in.”

“Yeah! Wow, that was so long ago,” you thought about it for a few seconds before continuing. “Anyway, I was standing here, Sirius and James by my side, and we were all staring at Professor Jones, who was standing right there where you are, behind the desk. He made us sit down and write some famous quote about integrity over and over again.”

“And I dare say neither of you learned the lesson.”

“Depends on what lesson you’re talking about. We cheated on the following test, but didn’t get caught – that lesson we learned.”

Remus snorted a discrete laugh through his nose, eyes on the books he was packing. “I suppose that’s good.”

“Yeah, it is. I mean… it was.”

Remus looked up at you. The history behind your words flooded his mind just as much as it flooded yours, and both of you missed the times when all you had to worry about was detention.

And when you had each other’s embrace to run to. Yeah, that too.

“We had fun, didn’t we, Remus?”

“We did,” he nodded. “But these last years wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t fucked up everything.”

“Stop. I didn’t come here to have this conversation.”

“But we need to have this conversation, Y/N. I need to have this conversation.”

“You asked me for forgiveness right before transforming last night, do you remember? You apologized. And I said I forgive you. We don’t need to talk about this.”

“We do,” Remus walked around the desk and approached you, stopping just a meter away. “There are things I need to say, things that I need you to hear. A simple ‘I’m sorry’ is not enough.”

You looked at each other for a few seconds. Hesitation and uncertainty in your eyes, hope and urgency in Remus’.

“Please,” he muttered.

You chewed on your bottom lip, thinking you weren’t ready for this yet. Yes, you forgave him – you had forgiven him years ago, even before he apologized. But it still hurt. Ten years passed since Remus left you, but the pain was still all too real. It was not left in the past, as you wished.

At the time, you tried to hate him. You tried to despise him, but you failed – you loved him way too much for that. You felt betrayed and abandoned, and you resented him for a while, yes. But hate? You never could, no matter how many times you had made yourself think of him as a coward, a traitor, a selfish asshole. You knew it wasn’t true. Your heart was broken and you wanted to hate him for breaking it, but… you failed.

And now, you knew you were not ready to have this conversation yet. You didn’t resent him anymore and you had forgiven him already, but it still hurt. The past hurt. And you weren’t ready to touch those wounds yet.

“Please, Y/N.”

“Remus, I-”

“I just need you to listen. You don’t have to say or do anything. Just listen.”

You looked into Remus’ pleading eyes and felt like you had no strength to fight any emotions anymore. You would be lying if you said you didn’t want to listen to what he had to say – because you did, very much – but you knew that you just weren’t ready yet.

“I don’t think I can.”

“But… why?”

“I don’t know, Remus,” you sighed, defeated. “I think it’ll break me. I don’t want to relive the past. At least, not right now.”

Remus looked down at his feet, a gesture that instantly reminded you of the shy boy he once was, and you had to close your eyes so you wouldn’t start crying right then and there. He nodded and stepped back, swallowing hard as he carried on with his packing.

“I forgive you. That’s not up to discussion,” you stated, your voice weaker than you intended. “I want you to know that.”

He nodded again, not looking up.

“And I will listen to what you have to say. Just not today.”

“Okay,” he mumbled.

“I’m happy to be here and I want it to stay like that. I’m happy to see you, I’m happy that Sirius is free, I’m happy I got to see Harry all grown… God! Lily’s eyes.”

“But looks just like James,” Remus whispered, a shy smile on the corner of his lips as he still looked down at his suitcase and not at you.

“Yeah. The hair… It’s insane.”

Silence suddenly reigned in the room, making you feel small. Remus had finished emptying the drawers and was now trying to close his super full suitcase. The only sounds in the office came from the Grindylow’s tank in the corner.

You slowly approached the desk, noticing the countless pieces of parchment spread on it. Some were assignments Remus’ students would never get back directly from him, and you knew that would make them sad. However, you noticed a familiar piece of parchment on the table.

“Is that…?” you pointed at it and Remus stopped to look.

“Yes. I intend to give it back to Harry.”

“Awesome,” you reached out, fascinated. “May I…?”

“Of course.”

It was hard to hide the excitement you were feeling at that moment. After all, it was the first time in over a decade that you were able to see and touch the Marauder’s Map.

“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” you whispered as you pressed the tip of your wand against it.

Thin ink lines began to spread like a spider’s web. They joined each other, they criss-crossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed: Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER’S MAP.

Your heart sank. You felt the tears stinging your eyes, but you merely blinked them away. So many memories came at once into your mind, it was hard to keep track of them.

You could read your own name in the Defence Against the Dark Arts office, but not Remus’. That didn’t surprise you. You knew only a Marauder could read another Marauder’s name on the map.

“I hadn’t realized how much I missed this,” you whispered as you traced your name with the tip of your fingers.

“Yeah… me neither.”

“Is this how you found out I was here?”

“No. I recognized you outside my classroom’s window weeks ago. You really fascinated the Ravenclaw first-years. They all thought you had been sent by Rowena Ravenclaw herself.”

You laughed as you recollected the mesmerized look on the students’ faces. “I should’ve remembered the fact that eagles don’t nod when children wave at them.”

“You sure made them happy. And hard to concentrate back on the lesson too.”

“Sorry about that. I was… excited to see you teaching. And now I know that was stupid. I could’ve blown everything up and Sirius wouldn’t have been able to get in and-”

“You think I’d have done something?”

“Well, I don’t know. Sirius escaped prison and suddenly I was here… You could’ve thought I was trying to get Harry and reported me. I have always been associated with Sirius since the beginning, you remember. After he escaped, people thought I had something to do with it.”

Remus looked at you, frowning slightly.

“Which is true,” you clarified. “I had something to do with it. Everything to do with it. But people didn’t know that for sure, so it was a little unfair that they were accusing me.”

Remus raised an eyebrow.

“Okay. It wasn’t unfair, given my history of nagging the Ministry about his arrest,” you sighed. “Public protests that costed me jobs, peace, safety and… relationships.”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about that.”

“I do, Remus. That’s the thing. I do. I’m just… I don’t know.”

You took a deep breath and put the map down on the desk. Maybe it was time to talk about it.

“I don’t know how to feel about this whole thing right now. Like I said, I’m happy I’m here, but… things didn’t turn out exactly how we planned. Peter escaped and Sirius had to run away on a hippogriff so he wouldn’t be kissed. Now we don’t know when we’ll see him again, do we? And I’m happy to see you, I really am, specially because now you know I was telling the truth and everything else was just media bullshit, but that’s… that’s also exactly why I’m still hurting. You didn’t believe me. You chose to walk away and leave me alone on this. I had to fight this fight by myself, because I couldn’t just leave Sirius there and go live my life like you did. I forgive you and I think I understand now, but I’m still fucking hurting.”

After letting all that out, you felt a tiny bit better. Everything was on the table now for him to see, and you didn’t know what to expect, to be honest. Your voice had broken on the last sentence, but you hoped he hadn’t noticed.

Remus blinked a few times and swallowed hard. He looked at you like he was carefully choosing the words he was about to speak.

“That’s… that’s what you think I did? I ‘left Sirius there and went live my life’?”

You didn’t say anything as now you realized that wasn’t fair. You knew very well that life for him was never easy and he couldn’t just ‘go live it’.

“It killed me, Y/N. A part of me died with James, Lily and Peter, another part of me died when I found out it had been Sirius, and another part of me died when you, the only person left, the only one I had, my everything, started going around defending the murderer. This was the scenario I had, you have to remember that. I was already completely alone before even leaving you. Sirius was all you talked about for the next two years. We didn’t have any conversations that weren’t about him or Peter or the Ministry. And I listened to you. Even though your only reasoning for defending Sirius was that ‘he would never do this’, I listened to you. Despite having all the evidences point to him, I listened to you say he was innocent. I thought you were grieving. I thought you were in denial. I thought it would go away after a while, but it didn’t. You were convinced he was innocent. It was killing me, but I didn’t want to lose you. I stayed.”

Remus took a deep breath and only then you realized you had been holding yours.

“But then…” he continued. “But then you started actually going to the Ministry. You demanded to be heard, you made noise, you protested. You caught the media’s attention by doing so, and soon enough all the Daily Prophet talked about was ‘the lunatic in love with the murderer’. They’re really good, the journalists. They did their research and they got to me. That’s when things really started going south. We had eyes on us every day. Our house was being watched. People left notes, threats, nasty things. You were too busy with the Ministry to notice, but I did. I was the one who got the mail and read them all. I was there in the background of your fight for justice. You lost your job, but you said I didn’t have to worry because you were already applying for new ones. You never got a reply. I was supporting us and it was becoming really difficult. People on the street called me enabler, a fool, irresponsible, and worse things. Soon my boss didn’t want me associated with them, so I lost my job too, when it was already so hard for me to get one. In the meanwhile, when we were at home together, you spent all your time doing research on Magical Law Enforcement and such. You were obsessed. We didn’t talk. But when we did, it was about him. It was then that I started to believe what they said. I started to believe you weren’t grieving, you were just in love with him. My insecurities from school came back and I created in my head an image of you two together. And I believed it. That’s when I left.”

Silence.

You didn’t even try to hold back the tears. They were running down your cheeks freely.

Remus had watery eyes, but not a single tear fell down.

“And now I know you were right. I am so, so fucking sorry, Y/N.”

“I am sorry too.”

You broke down. All the emotions you felt the day he left you were back. Every wound was reopened and started to bleed again.

You covered your face in an attempt to muffle your sobs, your whimpers, and just hide from him. You felt vulnerable, exposed, small.

Hesitantly, Remus walked around the desk and stood by your side. He slowly put his hand on your shoulder and whispered:

“It’s over. It’s all over now.”

You shook your head. “It’s not. It’ll never be over. James and Lily will never come back.”

As your crying got more intense, Remus’ grip on your shoulder tightened, until he decided that wasn’t enough and pulled you into a hug. His arms around you felt good, really good. You instantly felt safe, like you hadn��t in a very long time.

“Shh,” he rubbed your back in a soothing motion, a very familiar gesture that took you back in time to when you were just an angsty teenager with an equally angsty boyfriend.

“I missed you, Remus. I missed you so fucking much.”

“Oh, Y/N. I missed you too.”

The two of you stayed like that for a while, until you managed to compose yourself.

“I’m sorry,” you said again.

“There’s nothing you need to apologize for.”

“This was my fault too, Remus. I didn’t take into account the fact that you were grieving too. You had lost your friends too. I neglected you. I got so involved with trying to prove Sirius’ innocence that I left you to mourn alone. Like I said earlier, I think I understand now why you left. This doesn’t make me hurt any less, but I do understand you better. You put up with your grieving girlfriend defending the murderer of your best friends for two years. That was your point of view.”

“But you were right and I should’ve believed you. I should’ve fought with you. It’ll take a while before I can forgive myself for that.”

“Okay,” you let go of him so you could look into his watery eyes. “But I forgive you.”

“You have always been too nice for your own good.”

You chuckled, stepping back and wiping the remaining tears away. “You’re one to talk.”

“Professor Lupin?”

A small voice came from the doorway, after a quick knock on the open door.

Harry.

“I can come back later.”

“No, Harry. It’s okay,” you motioned for him to come in. “I was just leaving, actually.”

“You were?” Remus muttered to you, not loud enough for Harry to hear.

“Yes. You have very important business to take care of and I’ll leave you to it,” you mumbled back with a small smile.

You turned back to Harry and met the eyes of your late best friend. Swallowing hard, you smiled at him as well. “It was so nice meeting you, Harry. I hope I see you again soon.”

“It was nice to get to know you too, Y/N. Thanks for… for telling me about my mum.”

“Anytime,” you walked up to him and slightly ruffled his hair. “Well, I should get going now. See you around, Remus.”

“See you, Y/N.”

********

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #404

“death doesn’t answer when i cried for help”

The person you had the strongest feelings for dies, do you care? I'd be fucking devastated. It wouldn't feel real. Is there something you’re happy about at the moment? A few things. I'm still on that high of my APAP mask working, like I'm actually getting some fucking quality sleep, and I think I'm noticing the effects of my TMS therapy finally, too. My PTSD has most notably been much more bearable, and my interests are beginning to spread again. Do you want someone dead? No. Do you ever wonder what your ex is up to? I mean yeah, I think that's pretty normal, even for someone without my issues. Have you ever fed or taken care of a stray animal? Oh, many times. What is something you tend to worry about? My health and future. What is something you do that is unhealthy? Sit at the computer for way too long. I'm absolutely certain my vision is as poor as it is partially because of me endlessly staring at screens. What is something you do that is good for you? I'm not afraid to prioritize my mental health. What last caused you to force a smile? I was watching a Mark video for the first time in a while and was just reminded of how much I love and appreciate that moron. What was the last video game you played? Was it fun? Because you said "video" game, I guess I'll exclude computer ones, in which case I'm pretty sure it was Silent Hill 2. Given it's one of my all-time favorite games, of course I think it's fun. It's one hell of an emotional ride. What is something not many people know about you? The fact I was a dancer for many years would probably surprise people once they have a good idea of me and what I like. What word describes your basic style? Lazy, honestly. I dress for comfort, and given that's usually just pj pants and a tank top... yeah, I don't put much effort into my clothing when I'm going most places. Have you ever been told you were going to Hell? She kinda beat around the bush, but yes. Have you ever wanted to kill yourself? On more than one occasion. If yes, what convinced you not to go through with it? Well, I did OD once, but on the other occasions, it was the fear of the unknown that deterred me. Have you ever rejected a guy, only to have him push the issue by asking “why?” and insisting that you just need to get to know him better? Omg no, thank god. I would NOT handle that well. Is there something that you believe everyone should do and you can’t believe that some people don’t do it (e.g., recycle or go to the dentist regularly)? I didn't know 'til a survey question asked it that there are people who don't brush their tongue when brushing their teeth. Like holy shit dude, there are SO many germs on your tongue, clean that shit. Regarding the last good choice (healthy choice, kind choice, selfless choice, etc.) you made, what was your real motivation behind it? Ummmm the nearest that comes to mind is I guess taking my meds? I mean I do that every single day, but it's still a healthy choice for me. The motivation was because I am very serious about doing what I can for my mental wellbeing. What is something that you have had to practice at to get the hang of it? If you can’t think of anything, that’s okay, what’s something you are currently practicing at and trying to master? I really can't think of something for the first half of the question, but I can tell you that right now I'm attempting to force a routine of applying a therapy technique called "opposite action" into my daily life, where you, well, do the exact opposite of what your depression tells you to not do. It is WAY harder than it sounds, but I'm doing it with reading 30 minutes a day! Have you ever gone to the store to buy something, like a video game, when it came out at midnight? Not to my recollection, no. Regarding the last novel you read, was there a romance included? If so, was it central to the plot? The last novel I finished, yes. It wasn't central to the plot. Have you ever done relaxation meditations or listened to relaxation guides or positive-thinking/healing recordings? No, except in therapy when different therapists wanted me to experiment with it during a session. They just don't work for me. Do you have any interests that are also often shared by children? Yeah. Those are the one I'm especially self-conscious about. there something that could be a solitary activity but you really only like to do it with other people (e.g., watching movies, playing video games, etc.)? Watching movies or TV. Are you satisfied with the interior design or decoration in your home? Or do you think it needs a total home makeover? A makeover would be nice... Is there something that you’d like to own but you can’t find it anywhere? If not, can you a remember a time when you wanted something? Did you ever end up finding it or did you eventually stop wanting it? OKAY SO I actually have seen this custom-made once long after deciding I wanted it, but it was RIDICULOUSLY expensive. There's a location in the Silent Hill games called Heaven's Night, and I'd love love LOVE to commission someone to duplicate the neon pink sign of it to hang in my room. Hopefully one day I could still do it. Who makes you smile the most? Probably my cat, honestly. What piercings do you want/have? I've talked about the piercings I have, but I'll talk about those I want. My #1 is absolutely collarbone dermals, but as I've explained a billion times, I want to lose weight so the bones are more prominent for the sake of contrast; you can't really see my collarbones now, so I just think it'd look pretty dumb and random to just have random piercings somewhere around there with no dimension. I also want way more in my ears, dermals in my back dimples also once I've lost weight, my right nostril for the dozenth time (but this time I'll wear a hoop), and while I'd absolutely adore an undereye microdermal as well, it'd be pointless with glasses. :/ What's your favorite website? KM is my pride and joy and really feels like my online home, so despite using sites like YouTube more, that 'ole RP site has to be my fave. Do you own a fish tank with fish? No. I had fish bowls (AWFUL idea) as a kid, but never tanks Do you like the movie 300? Never seen it. Do you pop your knuckles? NOOOOOOOOOOO. I absolutely hate the sound. It makes me cringe and shiver. Do you have Photoshop? Yes. It comes in the Adobe CC photography bundle I have. Do you use tinypic or photobucket? I used Photobucket back in the day. Now I just upload to imgur. What’s your favourite song from the 1980s? You're talking to someone who adores classic rock/metal, haha. How about the 1990s? There are way too many songs to choose from. Have you won anything recently? No. How often do you make Excel tables? What for? Never. What was the last baby animal you saw in the wild? There was a poor fawn as roadkill on the highway recently. :/ Are you always available or online? Preeeetty much. Do you have dietary restrictions? Or do you just eat what you like? I can eat whatever. Do you prefer gold, silver or steel jewelry? Or no jewelry at all? Steel. I'm allergic to silver, and I think steel is more subtle than gold. Have you been binge-watching any shows lately? If so, what? No. If you dye your hair, do you do it yourself or go to a salon? I do it at a salon. If you have any, do you like your in-laws? I don’t have any. Would it bother you, if your partner had cut contact with their parents? If they had a good reason, no. Have you ever wondered whether you were adopted? As a kid I did because I thought Mom was meaner to me than my siblings, lol. What’s the best physical feeling in the entire universe? ........... This question is a setup lmfao. Have you ever grown a berry bush? No. Have you done something new to your hair recently? No. It's been the same for quite a while. I wanna dye it badly. Do you have bad anxiety? If so, do you take any kind of medication for it? I'm diagnosed with generalized and social anxiety, so yeah. I take Klonopin once and day and Ativan as needed for attacks. One thing you’ve experienced that you thought you never would have? HA, the first thing to come to mind was being noticed by Mark by making a viral (in the community, anyway) gif of he and his doggy. I shit you not, I couldn't sleep for three days lmfao. What was the last thing someone said to you that kept repeating over & over in your head? That I gained fucking seven pounds in two months at my last doctor appointment. I wanted to scream. How often do you have late nights out? Never. I'm a homebody. If you could, would you work from home? Do you think that would make you more or less productive? No. It would absolutely make me less productive. If you had the ability to change the weather, what would you change it to right now? Cool with a nice breeze, mostly clear skies, crisp air... That'd be nice right now. Is there something that you really need to do, but can’t seem to get motivated to do it? I say it all the time: finish decorating my room. It's funny, because I KNOW I'll feel more at home and cozy with my bedroom more personalized. Most disturbing movie you have ever seen? Paranormal Entity. The ending was... a lot. Has a life goal or dream ever come true for you yet? If yes, what is it? If no, do you think you’ll achieve it? Not that I can think of. .-. I hope I can achieve some... Have you ever had food poisoning? No, thank God. What are you listening to? "The Man Who Made a Monster" by Dance With the Dead. Do you think there will be a WWIII? I find it inevitable at some point down humanity's future. People are too hateful for it not to eventually. Has anyone ever asked you if you were emo? Yeah. Has someone ever liked you that you never thought would? Maybe? Idk. In all honesty, can a person be too nice? Yes, in some instances. Has one of your friend’s boyfriends ever tried to cheat on them with you? Yes, when I was around 12. And I let it happen. It's one of my biggest regrets. Is mental abuse really as bad as physical abuse? Of course it is. Emotional abuse can cut just as deep as some physical blows, or even deeper. Do you shop at Sephora for make-up? No. Zelda: Twilight Princess or Ocarina of Time? I'm actually not into TLoZ. Do you own a rosary? I did as a kid growing up in a Catholic Sunday school. If you were homeless, how would you cope? If I had no loved ones in my life and no sign of things getting better, I'm honestly preeetty sure I'd end my life.

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book Four: War (Gladiolus x Reader) Chapter Seven

Gladio and (Y/n) headed to Tostwell Grill, which was tucked away in the corner of the marketplace. They sat down at one of the tables and looked over the menu. It was small and only two dishes were being served.

Once reading the ingredients for each of the dishes, the Horseman's brows knitted together. "Neither one of these are breakfast foods. One's a stew and the other's skewers."

"You discriminating against food now?" Gladio asked.

"No..."

"Then pick one."

War told the man tending to their table what she wanted followed by Gladio. While waiting for their meals, the girl crossed her legs and arms as she focused on the shield across from her. "So, what did you want to ask about the nightmare?"

"Oh, right." Gladio recollects what he saw in the nightmare the night before. "After you're killed, water floods the throne room. What's with that?"

"As you're aware, I was also able to call upon the Astrals after earning their favor. Before Gaius could claim Vanaheim for Niflheim, I used my dying breath to summon Leviathan. My final wish was for her to drown the entire kingdom to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. That is the reason why Vanaheim now lies at the bottom of the ocean."

"Damn..." The brute mumbled.

"Was there anything else?" She asked.

"No, only the water was new."

Their food arrived. (Y/n) savored the stew while Gladio ravished the skewers. Halfway through cleaning his plate, he asked, "So, exactly how long has it been since you've ate?"

She lowered her spoon. "You trying to figure out exactly how old I am?"

Gladio picked up on her playful tone and chuckled. "Someone's getting better at messin' around. But in all seriousness, no."

"It's been almost eight months now since my last meal," she confessed. "My sisters and I might not need to eat, but we throw these huge feasts whenever it's one of our birthdays. It's more for fun than satisfaction."

"A huge feasts with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Sounds interesting."

"It's just a normal feast. There's nothing special about it," War stated.

"To you it might not be, but it does to me," Gladio replied. "Sitting at a table with immortals sounds like a helluva feast."

(Y/n) took another spoonful of stew, enjoying the flavor. She noticed Gladio staring at her and lowered her spoon. "Why're you staring at me?"

"Tryna figure somethin' out," he answered.

"And what's that?"

"Who that guy you were talkin' to yesterday was."

"Guy...?" War muttered. "You mean at the outlook?"

"Yeah. You seemed awfully close. Don't tell me you found a boyfriend."

Her eye twitches. "...Are you serious? Did you just hear what came out of your mouth and how ridiculous it sounded? Or do I need to repeat it myself?" She pushed the bowl of stew away. "For your information, that "guy" yesterday was the daemon king himself. He's not my "boyfriend." He happens to be the powerful immortal that resurrected me."

"Well, that explains the horns..." Gladio murmured.

"Haven't you been listening to me? I told you I don't trust mortals." She stood up, anger bubbling inside her veins. "Besides, my personal affairs are none of your business even if I have shared some small details here and there." War left the eatery in order to keep her calm.

Gladio quickly paid the bill and followed after her. He caught up with the Horseman and walked beside her. "Y'know, not all mortals are like Gaius."

(Y/n) stopped in the middle of the marketplace. "I'm well aware of that. You and the others have proven that, but I still have trust issues. The one job I gave you is to show that there is someone on Eos I can trust. Or do I need to find another mortal?"

"Trust me, I can do it," he confidently claimed. "Just wait and see, firecracker."

War pulled up her hood, hiding her face from the shield. "I'm counting on you, Gladio."

The brute was able to catch a glimpse of the smile she was trying to conceal. He wanted to tease her, but decided not to anger her.

The duo walked around Lestallum for a little while, chatting about various topics. Gladio was able to learn a little more about (Y/n) and vice versa. Their conversation was sidetracked when they were soon joined by a bubbly Prompto. The blonde excitedly told them how he ran into Famine and she spent some time with him.

At hearing the news, Gladio glances towards War. "You and your sisters are everywhere."

"We are just trying to do our job," she replied. "These monsters are not easy to find as they are much more intelligent than daemons or normal beasts."

"Guess you wouldn't be having so much trouble if they were, right?" Prompto asked.

"I would be back in the Inner Sanctum by now if they were pretty dumb. Sadly, they're not."

"Well, now you've got us to help you," Gladio stated.

"Oh, I don't think so. It's best you and the others stay as far away from these monstrosities as possible. They're here on Eos because they crave the blood of humans. You all would be a feast for the bunyips and the dullahan."

"I'd rather not be eaten alive by one of those things..." Prompto muttered.

The trio returned to the Leville to check on Ignis and Noctis. Once doing that, they discussed their next plan. Deciding to rest just a little longer, they would remain in Lestallum for the time being.

<-------------<<<<<

Several days later, Gladio told everyone what was on his mind. After having some time to think it over, he wanted to escort his sister to Cape Caem. They left the Leville and headed to the gas station located on the main road. Iris, who was kind enough to fill the Regalia's tank, was waiting for them. When she counted how many people there were, a worried expression appeared on her face. "There's six of us and only five seat."

"Don't worry. (Y/n)'s got a ride," Gladio said, gesturing to the redhead.

Iris looked toward the Horseman. "Are you sure you don't want to ride with us? I can always sit on Gladdy's lap."

"No, it's fine. You all go on ahead. I'll catch up with you in a short bit," she responded. The five climb into the car and depart from Lestallum.

(Y/n) called upon Ares, the flaming steed appearing from a thicket of fog. She promptly mounted his back and entangled her fingers in his mane. The flames danced around her hands, the heat causing her no injury. "C'mon, Ares, let's catch up." The horse neighed, taking off down the road.

Within a few seconds, she caught up with the Regalia. Although she was familiar with the way to Cape Caem, she wanted to stay with the others in case they needed her. Ares ran alongside the car, easily keeping pace with it. Due to the wind whistling in her ears, she couldn't hear what the others were talking about. However, she did catch Iris staring at her in astonishment. The young Amicitia wasn't aware of her status as Horseman until now. From the grin she saw on Gladio's face, she figured he was telling his sister all the details.

(Y/n) reverted her attention back to the road ahead. She kept her eyes forward, making sure Ares kept his distance from the car to avoid an accident. However, her attention was diverted when they were halfway to Old Lestallum. The rancid scent of decaying flesh and the tinge of iron she assumed was from blood reached her nose. Eyes narrowing, she looked around in a desperate attempt to locate the source of the odor. Since it was nearly noon, it was impossible a daemon could emanate such a stench. She also knew no beast indigenous to Eos smelt in such a manner.

Suddenly, Ignis slammed on brakes. Ares followed suit, slowing down and stopping beside the vehicle. War wondered what was the problem until she saw it. Her eyes widen before narrowing into a glare when recognizing the creature blocking the road. "The dullahan..."

"A wh-what?" Prompto swallowed in fear.

"A headless horseman," she simplified.

"Didn't know you had a creepy, headless brother," Gladio teased.

She ignored the shield, her (e/c) eyes glued to the dullahan. It didn't move towards them, but it was wielding its spine as if it was ready to attack. It whipped its spine like a whip, its horse neighing in response. While examining the monster's appearance, she noticed something was missing. "Where's its head?"

"Didn't you just say it was a headless horseman?" Noctis retorted.

"I did, but dullahans always travel with their heads. Something feels off..."

Prompto couldn't tear his fearful gaze away from the menacing creature. "I-Is it really a big deal that it doesn't have its head with it?"

"Without the head, I can't kill it," War stated.

"What will your plan of attack be, (Y/n)?" Ignis inquired.

"This thing has killed and I can smell the corpses. I will keep it occupied and pray to the Astrals I'll be able to find the head," she proclaimed. "You focus on escaping."

"You're not seriously gonna fight that thing all by yourself, are you?" Gladio asked in disbelief.

"Yes, I am." She summoned a bow, a single arrow materializing from the crimson crystal shards. Firing the arrow, she targeted the dullahan's steed. The monster used its spine whip to deflect the arrow with ease. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, War materialized another arrow and nocked it. At the same time, she dug her heels into Ares' sides to urge him forward. She released the arrow and it impaled the dullahan's chest plate. Seeing she had its full attention when it charged towards her, she shouted for Ignis to drive away. The advisor didn't hesitate and drove off.

The dullahan used its whip to try and grab the Horseman. However, Ares manages to dodge and protect his rider. (Y/n) thanked him before commanding him to run away from the main road. The horse did as she commanded, running away from the main road. The monster followed on its own black, hazy steed. Knowing the dullahan was nothing without its horse, she knew fighting it on-foot was out of the question unless it willingly abandoned its steed.

"C'mon, you bastard," (Y/n) hissed, glaring over her shoulder at the dullahan. Ares led them to a large, open area where there was enough room to ride around. The Horseman switched out her bow for a pair of daggers as she and the monster faced off. Urging her steed to charge directly at it, she yelled his name and he took off. Pushing herself into a crouching position on Ares' back, she waited for the perfect opportunity to attack.

The dullahan charged forward, meeting the Horseman and her steed halfway. It used its whip to swipe at the redhead, but it missed its mark when she dodged the attack and leapt onto the dullahan. She tackled it off its horse and buried one of her daggers into its chest plate.

"Where's your damn head, you bastard?" She growled, jamming her second dagger into its shoulder. A black substance dribbled from its wounds, cascading down its body. Once it dropped onto the grass, the luscious green turned into a decaying brown.

The dullahan chuckled demonically. It grabbed its whip and targeted the redhead. It pierced her side deeply, causing her to shriek in pain. She promptly summoned a javelin and plunged it through the monster's abdomen, pinning it to the ground. Shakily, she pushed herself off the dullahan and got to her feet. Yanking the tip of the spine whip out of her body, she tossed it aside. Blood soaked her left side and dripped to the ground.

Before War could strike again, the dullahan ripped the javelin out of its abdomen and stood up. It stood up and summoned its horse. It made a quick escape, but (Y/n) immediately took chase. She pressed a hand against her wound, knowing it would take more time to heal since the monsters from the Inner Sanctum were more powerful than an average daemon or beast. Following the monster, she fought against the wooziness she felt from the blood loss and focused on her target. "Show me where you've hidden your head, you bastard..."

<-------------<<<<<

A couple days later after their infiltration of Fort Vaullery and exploring Malmalam Ticket, the royal retinue and Iris were now resting at Kellebram Haven. Prompto was showing Iris the many photos he's taken since she's joined them. After looking through his new pictures, the blonde came across a picture he took of (Y/n) when they first met.

"Oh, it's (Y/n)!" Iris cheered. "Do you have any more pictures of her?"

"I've got tons!" Prompto flipped through various more photos before coming across more with the Horseman as the main subject. Most of them were of her fighting or chatting with Gladio.

Noticing the pattern, the girl asked, "Wait, does Gladdy get along with (Y/n)?"

"I guess you could say that," he answered.

Flipping to the next picture, Iris gaped in amazement when she saw (Y/n) wielding an array of weapons. "Oh, wow! She's so cool!"

Noctis, who'd been playing King's Knight on his phone, looked up at hearing Iris praise the Horseman. "Y'know, we haven't seen her in a while."

Prompto lowered his camera with a concerned expression. "It's been two days. Shouldn't she be back by now?"

"She's immortal. How much trouble could she possibly be in?" Gladio remarked. "Besides, she mentioned she couldn't kill that thing unless she found the head. She's probably looking for it as we speak."

"Or she's in trouble," he replied.

"I hope she's okay," Iris mumbled. "I still owe her for getting me, Jarred, and Talcott out of the city."

"Maybe we should check on her," Prompto suggested. "You've got that orb she gave you, right, big guy? Summon her!"

"And possibly fuck up her entire mission?" The brute scoffed. "I don't think so. I'll be the headless one if that happened."

"Maybe you could try after dinner?" Iris asked.

Gladio wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was worried about (Y/n). He'd already been tempted to summon her. However, he fought the urge knowing she was trying to focus on the dullahan. But now seeing he wasn't the only one concerned about her, his temptation returned and he wouldn't be able to stave it off this time. "Fine, I'll try after dinner."

Ignis was already ahead of the group. He'd been working on dinner for the past fifteen minutes and it was almost done. Once the food was done, he passed out plates to everyone. They ate the delicious meal around the fire as the chill of night crept around them. The sound of daemons soon filled the dark void of the night. Their shrill cries caused an uneasiness to wash over the group.

Iris lifted her head, gazing out into the darkness. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that. I don't understand how you all can ignore it."

"It took a while, but now we all sleep through it," Noctis said.

"It still freaks me out from time to time," Prompto confessed. He put his plate down and nearly jumped out of his seat when an earsplitting shout came from a daemon close by. "Okay, that one definitely freaked me out."

"It was quite unusual," Ignis stated.

"Our daemon reflector isn't here at the moment," Gladio said.

"Daemon reflector?" Iris parroted.

"(Y/n)," he replied. "Most daemons are afraid of her. Whenever she's around, nights are quieter and it's easier to fall asleep."

"Now that you mention it..." Iris mumbled. "No daemons attacked us the night we were heading to Lestallum. I thought we were just lucky."

"At least she's not a daemon magnet," Noctis commented. "Not sure how I'd feel about that..."

"I'd welcome it. It'd give us more opportunities to train," Gladio said. "It'd also make our hunts easier. Speaking of hunts, you said (Y/n) took down that naga without touching it, blondie."

"Oh, yeah!" Prompto cheered as he remembered witnessing the daemon turn into a pile of ash. "I don't know what exactly happened, but it's like (Y/n) just stared into its eyes and it turned to stone. Then it disintegrated into a pile of ash."

"That sounds...scary," Iris said.

"I was freaked out, but it was kinda cool to watch."

"I wonder what she did," the young Amacitia hummed in curiosity.

"Not sure. She hasn't said," Gladio explained. He fished the summoning orb out of his pocket, remembering what he promised to do after they finished dinner. He muttered her name and saw the orb gleam slightly. After some time, he learned that faint glimmer of light meant it worked.

Looking around the haven, he searched for War. The others followed suit and Iris was the first to spot the Horseman a short distance away. "There she is!"

Everyone glanced in the direction the girl was staring and saw the redhead slowly approaching the haven. Gladio noticed something was wrong while watching her stumble forward. Her form was hunched over and she was having difficulty standing on her own two legs. He stood from his seat, putting the orb back into his pocket. "(Y/n)?"

War didn't answer his call as she dragged her body towards the haven. Her hand was pressed against her side in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. Her vision was splotchy and she was barely conscious. She managed to lift her head when hearing someone approach. Seeing it was Gladio, she tried to speak. "Sorry..." she mumbled weakly as her legs gave our underneath her. Her vision turned to black as she fell unconscious.

[moirai-au]

“You look sad” Marvin and Jameson? If that works for you?

Timeline: early in Arc 6 - Aftermath, a few days after they defeat the Entity.

Taglist: @immabethehero @bupine​ @tabbynerdicat @i-maybe-exist @its-ethan-bro @sandinthetardis @honestlyitsjustkenna 

His fists clenched and unclenched as he stared ahead, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. The orchids in front of him swayed back and forth slowly, gently, a barely-visible green glow surrounding the damaged stems. “C’mon,” he hissed between clenched teeth, “C’mon, just work already-”

A stab of pain in between his eyes made him gasp, and he lost his grip; the glow faded and  the flowers dropped back into their sorry state. He grabbed the edges of his work table to support himself, clenching his jaw and hiding his face in his free hand; he could feel the uneven skin under his palm.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. But most of all, he wanted his mask.

“Hey.”

Mars yelped and turned around, clutching his chest where he could feel his heart beating frantically. “Jesus, Aster! I told you to stop sneaking up on me like that.”

The demon smirked, showing off his razor-sharp teeth. “Not in a million years. You’re too fun to play with, Scars.”

The young man rolled his eyes, feeling particularly aware of the chilly breeze against his face. “Back to nicknames I see. What, scared to admit you care? Again?”

Aster ignored him, walking around him to poke at the orchids. “The fuck are you doing here anyway? Doc would be pissed if he found out you were out of bed.”

Mars pursed his lips, fiddling with the fabric of his pyjama bottoms. “I’m fine. Just needed some fresh air. I’ve done nothing but sleep while I was stuck in that fucking tank, if I stayed still another minute I would’ve gone insane.”

The fiend hummed. “You should try it sometimes. Sane is boring.”

“What do you want?” Mars sighed, grabbing the plant to put it back in its proper place; the stems were just as ruined as before, the petals dull and drooping. “Other than ruin my day even more, that is.”

“I don’t want shit. He does.”

Mars followed Aster’s gaze; at the entrance of the greenhouse stood a sheepish-looking Charlie, his hand raised in a small wave. Mars blinked, waving back absentmindedly. “Um, hi? Sorry, did you need something?”

The dapper man shook his head, stepping inside the glass house to walk to the mage at a leisurely pace.

“‘kay Dapper, be quick about it,” Aster growled, “I have a nap to get back to.”

“Wait- Jem, you actually found him?”

It was common knowledge at this point; whenever Aster slept -which wasn’t that often- he disappeared from the surface of the Earth. Even Mars, who’d been living in the mansion all his life, who’d explored every nook and cranny of it a hundred times over, could never find where the demon hid to rest.

Well- except for that one time, not long after he got his human body. And that other time, just a week ago. But those were special circumstances.

“Yeah,” Aster relented, glaring at the bowtie-wearing man who only smiled innocently at him. “I don’t know how that weirdo did it either. Said he wanted to talk to you.”

Charlie nodded, his hands signing a slow and hesitant yes. “…Sure,” Mars shrugged. “What about?”

Aster propped his back against a pillar, closing his eyes in concentration. Since the whole… thing had went down the week before, the time traveller had been taken in by their strange little group, having nowhere else to go. Cecil had told them his vocal chords had been destroyed when that demon had slit his throat -a gruesome sight none of them wanted to remember- Aster had been playing translator, using his ability to pick up on the thoughts the time traveller projected. Until the mute was more comfortable with sign language at least.

Mars hadn’t really had the chance to interact with him much, being stuck in a feverish haze the whole time, yet he already knew all there was to know about him.

“I’m worried.” Aster started. His voice was even, calm, a far cry from his usually… intense inflexion. Mars tried to focus on Charles, the sheer bizarrerie of the situation not helping in the slightest.

The man’s warm hazel eyes peered right at him as the demon spoke for him, his hands signing clumsily every few words. “I’m worried. About you.”

Mars stared, dumbfounded. The man who’d been ripped away from his time, who had lost everything and everyone he’d ever known, who’d been captured, locked away, hurt and used as a human puppet for almost a year… was worried about him.

He’d laugh if he didn’t feel like such a useless husk at the moment.

Charlie gestured some more. “You look sad.” Aster translated, arms crossed and eyes still closed. The former mage raised an eyebrow. “What? I don’t. I’m fine.”

“Liar!” Aster hissed, eyes flying open to glare at him. “Stop lying. I fucking hate it when you lie, and you know it.”

Pretender. Fraud.

Charlie visibly tensed at the expletive as Mars scoffed, returning the glare. “And who’s saying that? You or him?”

“Both.” the demon retorted, uncharacteristically serious. “We know you. We’ve been in your head, remember?”

Mars winced, a mess of fractured memories coming to the forefront of his mind.

The blank void. The Architect beckoning him, coercing him to let go, to give up. The despair.

Then voices, first distant and muted, then all-encompassing; four he knew, and one he didn’t.

The merge. All those memories that weren’t his, flooding his mind relentlessly. The feeling of being one, then six, then one.

He’d been Ollie. He’d been Cecil. He’d been Dave. He’d been Charlie, the one he hadn’t known yet. Hell, he’d even been Aster. And they’d been him in return.

Everything they were, everything they’d ever been, mashed together in a single moment, in a single mind, powerful enough to beat their foe.

“I don’t remember much,” Aster’s voice snapped him out of his recollection; he was speaking for Jem again. “But I remember enough still. I know you now, Mars, and I can tell you’re distressed.”

The mage sayed silent for a few seconds; the problem with sharing a mindspace with other people? They’d be able to call you out on your shit.

Jem was right. Back at the forest, right after it was all over, they’d all been stuck in a trance-like state, their minds still linked by a few fraying threads. They’d managed to drag themselves back to the mansion before collapsing in an exhausted pile, unable to tell where each of them started or ended, a few fleeting thoughts and feelings still coursing between them.

The connexion had been snapped for good by the time they woke up the next day, and the memories of the time they’d spent as one had been fading away ever since.

Mars signed. He resisted the urge to hide his face, knowing the futility of the gesture; there wasn’t anything about him that Jamie hadn’t seen already. “Okay, okay.” he relented, sitting on a bench next to his work table. “Fine, ya got me. I feel like shit.”

Charlie nodded. “I figured as much. Do you wish to talk about it?”

The mage snorted; it was so weird to hear such old-fashioned language coming out of Aster’s mouth. “Not really. But I know you won’t leave me alone until I do, so I guess we’re doing this.”

“Indeed we are. Because I know you’ll let it fester inside until someone gets hurt. Most likely you.”

Mars looked down at his lap. He hated how right Jem was. “You sound like Dave.”

“We do share a similar outlook on life. Now,” the time-traveller said patiently, sitting next to the mage, “Penny for your thoughts?”

***

“It just… feels like such a non-problem, you know?”

Marvs didn’t know how long he’d been venting, but once the floodgates had been open, he’d found he couldn’t stop. And Jem just sat next to him, listening to his woes in silence, only nodding from time to time to show he was paying attention. Aster had moved to lay down on the table, his head resting on an arm while the other dangled from the surface. If not for the dim green glow of his barely opened eyes, one could’ve thought he’d fallen asleep. Not that he’d actually would, not in plain sight like this.

The mage scratched at the bandages on his arm; hopefully Cecil would let him take them off for good soon. “My powers, my magic- they were the source of all my problems. I’ve lost count of how many times I wished I hadn’t been born with it. But now…”

He shook his head, fingers digging into his skin. “Now I- I feel wrong. Useless. Broken. Like I’m nothing without- fuck, I actually miss it.”

He laughed mirthlessly. “God, I can’t believe this. I sound like an entitled brat. Oh wait, I am. This is stupid, I’m stupid, you’re literally stranded in the future and I’m complaining about trivial stuff like this, I shouldn’t be upset by this-”

“Bullshit.”

Mars turned back to Charlie, gaping; the man was glaring at Aster, crossing his arms in a disapproving manner. The demon furrowed his brow, opening his eyes to peer at the other. “What? …Oh c’mon old man, it’s the same thing- hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m not even- Ugh!”

The fiend growled and clicked in his native tongue before shaking his head and turning to Mars. “Fine. He didn’t say bullshit. He said, and I quote, ‘that’s a pile of moonrocks’.”

Mars blinked; that one was new. “What?”

“It’s not a contest.” Jamie insisted. “How you feel is not daft or unimportant just because some other people are, according to you, worse off.”

“But… don’t you miss your time?”

Charlie looked up, a wistful expression on his face; the sky was clear today, the afternoon sun casting warm rays through the glass ceiling. “Of course I do,” he said through Aster. “My life wasn’t perfect by any means. But it was something, and it was mine.”

He frowned. His hands were tight around his pocket watch, knuckles turning white. “And this… creature took it all away. I can never go back. All for some power he coveted for his grand plan. Did you know I couldn’t even use it anymore?”

That last sentence was directed at Mars, who reeled back in surprise. “Wh- your magic?”

“Yes.”

His head was spinning. It all seemed so… final. “It’s gone? Completely? Are you sure?”

“Quite sure. I’d never noticed it existed before I learned to harness it, but I can say for certainty that this part of me is gone.”

The mustached man tilted his head. “But surely you knew this, did you not? I felt it. The strain. The snap. Like something shattering. That means you all must have felt it as well.”

Mars looked down at his feet. “I- yeah. But I didn’t think… I didn’t know…”

“Do not pity me, friend. I don’t miss it.”

“You don’t?”

“Not one bit. I lived my whole life without it, and using it proved to be my downfall. But you?”

Jamie put a hand on his shoulder. His eyes were steeled by resolve. “You’ve always been aware of this power. It’s brought you pain, a lot of it. But it was still a part of you you learned to live with, to depend on. And without it, I am willing to bet that none of us would’ve met, and that’s not a prospect I’m too fond of. So it’s not surprising that you’d feel a sense of loss. Although…”

He got up, reaching for the orchids above the work table, Mars’ slitted eyes not leaving him for a second. He came back and handed the plant to the mage, his crinkled eyes and dimples showing that he was smiling under his mustache. “Look.”

And as Mars squinted at the flowers, wondering what point the other was trying to make- he saw it.

There, partially hidden beneath the dying stems, were a few bright green buds that definitely weren’t there before.

“Have faith, Mars.” Jameson winked. “I don’t think you’ve completely lost your touch yet.”

Mars looked at Jem, at a loss for words; this was a man who’d been through things he couldn’t even fathom. Yet here he was, still standing. Smiling through it all, bright and warm like a saturated sunrise, despite the obvious grief and trauma he didn’t try to hide when he was having a bad day.

He felt something bloom in his chest. Admiration. Hope.

In this moment, the heavy cloud that hovered over his head seemed so threatening anymore. He smiled. “…Thanks Jem. You’re… pretty swell.”

The dapper fellow smiled even brighter, scratching the back of his head bashfully. Aster made a gagging sound. “Blargh, you fleshbags are gonna make me sick. Dapper, you make me say any more of that sappy shit I swear to fuck-”

Language, Charlie signed. Aster flipped him off.

The mage and the time traveller erupted into chuckles, before the latter gasped. He raised a finger in the air as if to say hold it and got up, running out of the greenhouse like the devil himself was hot on his heels.

“What’s he doing?” Mars asked Aster, puzzled at the other’s behavior.

The imp shrugged, jumping down from the table. “Hell if I know. Heard something about forgetting, and fixing. Whatever, I’m out.”

“What do you mean you’re ‘out’? How am I supposed to-”

“Look,” Aster cut him off with a sneer, “He’s said his piece, I’m done playing parrot for today. Figure it out, genius.”

And with that, he walked away and disappeared into the mansion, leaving Mars sitting awkwardly on the bench.

Thankfully he didn’t have to wait for long, because Charles walked back in not a minute later, visibly holding something. Mars shot to his feet, not believing his eyes. “Jem- Is that my-”

The dapper man beamed as he came to a stop in front of him; in his hands laid his old cat-shaped mask. In one piece.

Well, sort of- the cracks running through it were obvious, having been filled out with a slick golden substance. The thinner cracks all around the edges has been filled in the same manner, giving it an almost regal feel.

It looked beautiful.

“I-” Mars choked, grabbing the mask with reverence, “Shit, Jem, this is- how? I mean, I know how, stuff like this was your job back then- but where? When? I thought- I thought it was lost, back in the forest…”

Charlie signed, slowly. Mars squinted, trying to decipher what the other meant with his very limited knowledge of ASL. “You… found the pieces? Here? In the mansion?”

A nod.

“But how? Did one of us pick them up on the way back?”

A shrug.

“Right, fading memories, got it.”

He looked down at the mask for a few more seconds, taking it all in, before finally holding it up to his face. He fastened the white straps around his head, in fluid motions rehearsed a thousand times, and let out a trembling breath; the weight and feel of it was familiar. Comforting. He smiled down at the tinkerer.

“Thank you.” Mars smiled down at the hat-wearing man, his slitted eyes gleaming in relief and gratitude. “So much. For everything.”

And as Charlie signed what he could only guess meant you’re welcome, he decided he needed to brush up on his sign language.

[kimjongdaely]

The Art of Sin [Chapter 4] [M]

Gang!AU, Racer!AU, Tattoo Artist!AU

Pairing: Chen x Reader

Warnings: Language, violence, sexual situations, vandalism

Summary: He’s an artist. He does it all for the ‘art.’ Tattooing. Racing. Sex. All because he thinks they’re beautiful. There’s no one here that doesn’t know his name, because it’s everywhere. On every graffiti-filled wall, every tattooed skin, every cheer of the crowd. His name is there somewhere, because it’s all his—this world. And when he lays his eyes on you—well, he’s never seen anything more beautiful. And he’s going to make you his masterpiece.

Chapter 1│Chapter 2│Chapter 3 [M]│Chapter 4 [M]│Chapter 5 [M]│ Chapter 6│Chapter 7│Chapter 8 [M]

You blink, groaning at the light that streams in through the curtains. You roll over, snuggling deeper into the sheets, refusing to get up just yet.

You hear a soft chuckle, warm lips that brush your forehead. “Awake yet, princess?”

Your eyes snap open, for a moment being unable to recognize the voice. There’s a gentle smile on Chen’s face, a little amused as he watches the confusion, then realization flash in your eyes.

“I’m awake.” You mumble, feeling suddenly embarrassed, painfully aware of your nudity—and, well, his. There’s no reason to be embarrassed though, you remind yourself.

“I’m going to go shower.” He says, getting up and stretching. You avert your eyes, feeling your cheeks heat. You’re only able to hum a reply before he heads into the bathroom, the sound of water running seconds later.

You push yourself up, locating your discarded clothes and putting them back on. You try your hardest to comb through your messy hair, waiting for Chen to come out so you can use the bathroom next. You pause, staring at yourself in the mirror over the bedside table, seeing your disheveled appearance and the dark hickeys that litter your neck. Looking down the neck of your shirt, you find that your chest and stomach are equally covered in hickeys.

Oh god, this is so embarrassing. You hug yourself, shivering as you remember what happened. You don’t even know what happened. You were never the type to do one-night stands, never the type to sleep with a guy you literally just met.

And yet here you are. You’re not sure if the churning feeling in your stomach is regret. It’s hard to pinpoint what you’re feeling at the moment.

The shower stops. You feel your heart pound as you listen to soft shuffling through the bathroom door, and moments later Chen comes out with a towel wrapped loosely around his waist, steam rolling out.

You quickly look away again, a conditioned reflex. He chuckles, ruffling the water out of his hair. “What’s wrong? You saw me last night, didn’t you?”

You feel so fucking warm right now, and you kind of want to jump out the window. “Y-Yeah...sorry, I don’t usually do this so I’m a little...shy? I guess?”

He laughs again, pushing the wet hair out of his face and holy shit how does someone look so good— “You sure weren’t shy when you were begging me to fu—”

“Okay! Yes!” You shoot up, yelling to cover his words, embarrassed and annoyed of his teasing. “You were quite the jerk yesterday, by the way.”

He saunters over, pulling your chin towards him, letting you see his shit-eating grin. “Sorry, you were so cute that it made me want to bully you.”

His warm breath fans over your cheek, and he smells amazing. Like vanilla and warm fires, a comforting scent that makes your body relax and tense at the same time.

You shiver at the warmth radiating off him, and you want to get closer, want him to hold you but you’re definitely not going to be that girl. Even if you did sleep with him.

He smirks, cocking his head teasingly at you before pulling away. He grabs his shirt from the floor, pulling it on. “By the way, where do you wanna go?”

“Go?” You repeat, confused. You try not to look at him as he wears his pants.

“For our date.” He answers, finally fully dressed. “You said you would go on one with me last night.”

You blink, puzzled. You have no recollection of such conversation whatsoever.

“Well, I’m not letting you back out now.” There are so many secrets hidden in his smile. Your mind blanks, unable to comprehend the situation you’re in.

“I don’t mind going on a date.” You start slowly, “But why me?”

He scoffs. “Are you really asking me that after last night?”

“My question still stands.”

He pushes the hair out of his eyes again, since they keep falling back down. He huffs, “It’s because I think you’re beautiful.”

You raise a brow at him. “Why thank you. But you’re pretty shallow, aren’t you?”

“I am.” He answers without any hesitation whatsoever. “I am very shallow, actually. So?”

You blink at him, letting his words seep in. You can’t help but burst out laughing at his bluntness. Well, at least he’s very honest. “Alright. Meet me at the aquarium at nine. You have my number, right?”

He cocks his head oddly at you. “Why? Can’t we just go together now?”

“No way. I’m going home first.” You tell him.

He still looks confused. “Why bother?”

You poke the gap between his brows like you would to a child, wagging her finger. “It’s a date, right? I can’t be going in these dirty clothes.”

“Dirty.” He laughs, earning a good smack on the head.

The aquarium is bustling with people. Not surprising, since it’s Saturday. You feel refreshed after a nice hot shower. You’re glad you chose the aquarium off the top of your head, because you’re sure you’d melt under the sun if you chose something outdoors.

Chen is ten minutes early, which is a surprise. You expected him to be late or something (he just seemed like the type of douchebag), but no. He looks good, hair swiped up and changed into a loose, flowery shirt that you’re pretty sure only he can pull off, and black leather pants. He looks like he actually made an effort, and that makes you smile.

“Hey,” he greets, a grin on his face as he sweeps your look. “You look nice.”

You flush, “Thanks.”

It feels weird to be on a date with him like this. Everything about this is weird, since you’ve completely switched up the steps. Shouldn’t people normally go on at least a few dates first before they sleep together?

You peak at him from under your lashes, watching him smile charmingly at the worker behind the counter of the ticket booth. You hardly know him at all, to be honest. Just his first name and occupation.

He gets the tickets, and you head towards the entrance of the aquarium, letting the cool air hit your face. Waiting in line was absolute torture in this crazy heat.

You love the coolness of the aquarium—not just in the sense of their great air-conditioning. You love the shades of blues you see everywhere, the calm atmosphere as you stare at the sea creatures swimming about. Everything here seems like it might stop time, and you can spend days just sitting here staring at the tanks.

If only there weren’t so many darn people today.

“They always start with shallow water before they go into the ocean, right?” Chen asks, glancing at the long line of people hogging the sides of the fish tanks. “I wanna see the sharks.”

You roll your eyes, smiling. “Of course you do.” Somehow you knew he would say that before he did. Like you know him better than you really do.

“Then let’s breeze through this section.” He says, grinning like a child would on a field day. Which, you suppose, is an accurate depiction of what’s happening. He grabs your hand, lacing your fingers. “Wouldn’t want to get separated.”

It feels odd holding his hand like this, but not unpleasant. Though you’ve slept with him, this is the first time you felt anything that remotely resembles being a couple.

You shake that thought away. You’re on your first date. He might not even want to pursue anything after this. You shouldn’t get your hopes up or dream up silly things.

You grab some snacks as a quick lunch before you go further.

Like he said, you scanned the tanks near the beginning—they didn’t seem all that interesting and you sure as hell didn’t have the patience to wait for all the people to get their fill before moving on.

You head through the tunnel, seeing the sharks and other colorful fish swimming up ahead, a scuba-diver waving at the guests as he feeds them. As you near the Open Ocean exhibit, the lights get dimmer to resemble the real habitat, and somehow it seems less people loiter around here.

You and Chen sit down in front of the giant tank, just watching the fishes. This is calm and quiet and you sometimes wish you could bring a book and just sit here until they close.

But that would be a boring date, so you offer to leave.

“It’s okay.” He answers, staring at the fish. “I wanna stay in the air-condition for a little longer.”

His answer surprises you a little, but it makes you happy. Like he feels the same way.

How wonderful would that be?

After dinner, Chen sends you home like a gentleman. The whole day has been surprisingly chill; uneventful, even. It’s just a date like any other, and though you had a lot of fun and really enjoyed his sarcasm and wit (as well as countless fish jokes), you can’t help the strange nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach.

You were also pretty skeptical about letting him send you home. Sure, you slept with him and went on a date with him, but you’re not sure you trust him with your address.

He didn’t exactly push for it either. He was so casual about it, his tone telling you he didn’t really care either way.

Regardless of any hesitation, you let him send you home anyway. You might regret it if he turns out to be a serial killer, but somehow you doubt that.

“Today was fun.” Chen says at your doorway, flashing you a charming smile. “Let’s do it again sometime.”

“Yeah.” You answer, smiling back but it’s a little forced, and apparently he can tell as he blinks at you. He doesn’t comment though, ignoring it completely.

“Good night.” He bids, giving you a small wave before he turns, heading back out.

You don’t know why you did it, or what came over you but you grab his arm, pulling him back. He looks surprised, his brow raised as he stares at you. You gulp, feeling a shiver roll down your spine, hearing alarms blare in your mind but you ignore all of them. “Are you lying to me?”

You’re not even sure what you were trying to do from blurting that out; such a random thing to say, especially after a great first date.

He blinks at you again, his eyes shining with shock and mirth at the same time. He tilts his head at you. “...No?”

Okay, you definitely phrased it weird. You steel yourself, letting go of his hand since he doesn’t seem to be leaving anymore. You look him in the eyes, trying to decipher them, though you find nothing. “Last night you were...different.” You swallow thickly, weighing the words and grabbing for the right ones. “When I was getting my tattoo, during our date, you seemed so...proper. So charming and that...freaks me out, if you know what I mean?”

He gives out a little laugh. “Uh, no? Isn’t that good?”

“It should be.” You answer. “And I would’ve bought it if last night never happened. If we went straight to the date instead of the sex.” You shake your head, your tone slightly accusing but at the same time deathly certain. “You’re faking it, aren’t you? All that prince charming act. Who are you? Why are you hiding yourself from me?”

He stares at you for a second, really staring you down, as if seeing you in a new light, as if he’s trying to decide if you’re friend or foe. It makes you uncomfortable, makes you shift and avert your eyes.

Then he chuckles, a dark chuckle that brings shivers down your spine, that makes goosebumps erupt over your skin. He corners you against the doorframe, making it so that you can’t go in or out. He leans in, a smirk on his lips. “What if I am faking it? So what? Princess, you don’t want to know who I really am. You should just accept what you’re shown. Believe the lies. No one gets hurt that way.”

You shake your head, terrified and curious at the same time, whispering, “But I want to know.”

He chuckles again, breath fanning your cheek before he moves to lean into your ear, his lips grazing the shell and you shake, become putty in his presence. “Trust me. You’re better off not knowing.”

“I’m not scared.” Your voice is tiny though, an evident contradiction. Of course you’re scared. You really are; all the possibilities swimming in your mind but somehow...none of that matters. You want to know. Need to know, almost as if your heart and mind are desperately begging for the truth.

He pauses, contemplating before he breathes out, pulling away. “Alright.” His voice is low, his eyes dark. He smirks as he holds out his hand for you. “Don’t regret it.”

He takes you back to EXO Customs, but holy shit.

This is nothing like you’ve seen before. There are lights flashing, people absolutely everywhere. It’s crazy loud, music booming along with people’s cheers. Through gabs between the people, you see beautiful race cars lined up, people making bets and drinking alcohol.

“W-What’s going on?” You ask, a little terrified of the wild atmosphere, sticking a little closer to Chen.

“A race.” He answers. “We often get challenges and get into races. Happens most weekends. It can get pretty intense.”

“And you...?” You ask, staring at him.

“I race, yeah.” He shrugs. “Sometimes, not always. Only when they need a spot filled or when things seem fun for me.” He points at a glossy black BMW, red streaks of flames painted on, seemingly glowing under the flashing lights. “I painted that beauty. Not too bad, eh?”

“Wait.” You feel dizzy, the lights and colors flashing through your vision. You feel like you’re suffocating, being in this crowd. “You race? You spray paint cars? This race, is it—”

“It’s illegal.” He answers. “We do illegal racing. Drug dealing. Part dealing. Whatever.”

You feel a little sick, unable to believe what you’re witnessing. Illegal stuff. You’ve never touched anything illegal before—always heard rumors and gossip and always rolled your eyes at them. You were never one to go down such a path, to mingle with such people and yet here you are.

“What’s wrong, princess?” He leans down, whispering hotly in your ear so you can hear him above the booming music. “Regretting already?”

You swallow, wanting to admit that, yes, you do regret knowing. He was right. God, he was right about staying away. Believing the lies. You could’ve stayed ‘good.’

But it’s too late. Deep down you know that.

He laughs, voice mixing in with the crowd and he tugs you away, leading you to the garage. “This way.”

He pulls you in, and it’s dark. There’s a pungent smell of gasoline, metal and sweat. Lights reflect off the walls, but it surprisingly drowns out most of the sound, though you can still feel the thumping in the ground, can still hear them in the distance.

“Now you know.” He opens his arms, spinning slowly in a circle as if to show you all of him in its entirety. The illegal racer. Member of a goddamn gang. You should’ve known better. “So,” he breathes out. “Who am I?”

“I don’t know.” You answer honestly. “I think I still need to figure that one out.”

Amused, he laughs. “I’m really liking you.” He corners you against the nose of a car, an abrupt motion that has you fall back, half sitting on the hood. The coolness of the metal makes you flinch. 

“Chen?” You’re a little scared when you call his name, but he merely smiles at you.

“Hey, now you know who I am.” He says. “I don’t have to hold back anymore, right?” His lips find their place on your neck, adding more hickeys to your collection of them. You wonder if he’ll ever let them fade entirely before he adds more.

You moan, and he helps you sit more properly on the hood of the poor car. His scorching hands trail up your legs, and you’re already feeling weak.

“They probably can’t hear you,” he murmurs against your skin, already slick with sweat, “but just in case, can you keep quiet, princess?”

You nod your head, lifting your hips so he can pull down your shorts along with your underwear. You grab his shoulders to steel yourself, holding in a gasp when he slips a finger into you.

“Already wet?” He asks, tutting. “My, you’re even more eager than me.”

He fingers you slowly, and you wonder if he’ll do the same as last time, denying you your orgasm. Still, you obediently keep quiet, digging your nails into his shoulders as you try your hardest not to give in so quickly, not to let your hips move on their own.

He chuckles, seeing the effort you’re putting in. He puts in another finger, curling them and aiming straight for your sweet spot. You see black spots at the ecstasy, heaving as you desperately try to keep in your scream. Your eyes roll back as he hits that spot continuously, gaining in speed. Just from finding it once, it seems he’s already able to recognize where your sweet spot is.

He drags his thumb over your clit, rubbing it profusely, abusing it and you throw your head back, rolling your hips into his hand so desperately as you feel the knot begin to build.

“Chen, please.” You rasp, already unable to control yourself as you move more hurriedly. “Faster. I-I’m going to cum.”

“Cum.” He growls, fingering you even faster, adding a third finger and you almost scream, if he didn’t cover your mouth with his other hand. “Cum for me, princess.”

The sounds and colors explode as you hit your high, body arching, head thrashing as you have no other outlet. His fingers pull out, dripping wet and you flush, so embarrassed of what you’ve done in a public place. He licks his fingers clean, laughing quietly. “Damn, that was hot.”

“Shut up!” You hiss, pulling your pants back on and hopping off—hating the wet, sticking feeling—immensely horrified that you let him do such a thing. “What if someone came in? What if—”

“Chen, you in there?” A deep voice comes, and you cover your mouth to stop the absolutely appalled gasp, glaring at Chen who merely shrugs.

“Yeah,” he answers as a tall form enters. The lights come on, and you blink at the sudden brightness. “Did you finish brooding?”

You recognize the man, his icy white hair. You’ve seen him working on cars when you came for a tattoo. He scowls, a dark expression as he glares at Chen. “Shut up, asshole.” He sees you then, his expression changing immediately into surprise. “Hey, you finally got laid?”

“Yeah,” Chen grins, a cheeky grin filled with mischief as he grabs your hand, pulling you quickly out the garage. He calls back, “Sorry, Yeol!”

What a crude way of saying it. You wonder if you’re just that to him. But you don’t have the time to get angry as you wonder why he apologized before you remember what you had done. On what you assume to be one of Yeol’s cars.

Oh.

Shit.

“CHEN YOU FUCKING DISGUSTING SON OF A BITCH! I’M GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Chen merely laughs, and you can’t help but follow.

Previous Chapter [M]│Next Chapter [M]

The Art of Sin Mini Masterlist

EXO Customs Collab Masterlist

A/N: I did most of this in one sitting. I’m patting myself on the back. I hope you guys are enjoying this fic so far, because I really am! And I’m excited for what’s to come~

Tags: @ninibears-erigom @baekwell--tart @fairyyeols @suhoerections @kpop---scenarios @skjdln @yeoldontknow @kyungseokie @loser-dot-com @writingstuffandmore @enchanting-exo @vivianhuynh77 @dear-fake-diary @weirdsofagirls @wongxiexie @lovebuginlove @noonaofjungkook @thesoondongiefiles @joolsreadsfics @bluepsycopanda @sebootyforlife

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King And Queen Of The Pirates

Chapter Three, Luffy and Aya's Past! The Passing Of The Hat!

"Soooo....huuungrry." moaned Luffy as he stared into his reflection in the water.

"When are we gonna reach land anyway?" asked Zoro, his arms rested behind his head as he watched the clouds drifted by in the sky.

"Who knows? We've been sailing for awhile by just the wind and the waves. Who knows when we'll reach land." asked Luffy. He splashed the water a bit to cure himself of his boredom. Zoro raised his eyebrow and scowled.

"Isn't the King and Queen of the Pirates supposed to know where were going?" He asked, irritated. Luffy shrugged.

"Not really. We've been sailing here and there." said Luffy. Aya turned to Zoro. "What about you? Aren't you some expert bounty hunter who's been sailing for a long time?" she asked. Zoro blushed seeing that Aya was a leaning in a little too close.

Zoro moved away from her. "I don't have any recollection of calling myself a bounty hunter." He said. He looked back to the sky. "I had to set out to the sea in search of one man. I couldn't return to my village. At that point, I had no choice but to go after pirates to make a living." He said. Aya nodded and looked back at the water. She smirked.

"Yeah, I see. So you're just lost." She said in a teasing voice. A vein popped on Zoro's head. "You don't have to put it like that!" He snapped, slamming his hand to the side of the boat. The boat rocked violently back and forth, knocking Luffy's hat off his head. His eyes widen.

"Oh no! Not my Shanks hat!" yelled Luffy. Zoro and Luffy quickly rushed after it 

"This straw hat means more to me then you'll ever know. It's been with me in many fights. It's something so precious, I couldn't even give it to you, Luffy."

Ten years ago...

On a island there was a village called Foosha Village. In a bar there was a pirate crew who were celebrating and partying as they drank and feasted. At the counter of the bar, there were three people sitting on stools. One was a man with crimson red hair and eyes, black as night. On his left eye, he had a scar that had three slashes. Sitting beside him were two kids, a boy and a girl. The boy had short black hair and was wearing a white shirt with an anchor on it and blue shorts, it was Luffy. The girl had short hair as well the same as her brother's while the tips of her hair reached her chin. She was wearing a blue tank top and shorts, silently reading a book about pirates, it was Aya. Aya coughed as she covered her mouth with her hand until she broke into a coughing fit. 

The red-haired man gave the girl a worried look. "You sure you're feeling well? Maybe you should get some rest?" He suggested. Aya shot the man a glare as she frowned at him. Luffy smiled. 

"Aya's tough. She's not going to let a cough keep her down." said Luffy.

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone." said Aya. "It's just allergies, it's just a little settled in my chest that's all."

 Aya frowned and continued reading pressing her nose to the book while trying to ignore her brother's loud voice as he was talking with the red-haired man.

"You gotta take me on your next adventure, Shanks! I wanna be a pirate, just like you!" said Luffy, happily. The man known as Shanks laughed.

"Right, as if you could ever be a pirate." He chuckled.

"Why couldn't I?" asked Luffy. A man with wavy blond hair chuckled as well.

"Look, Luffy. You might be a good swimmer and all, but, you still wouldn't make it as a pirate." He said. Luffy turned to him staring at him with an annoyed look.

"But I'm an amazing fighter too! My punches are like pistols!" He exclaimed, punching his fist in the air.

"Are they now?" asked Shanks in a bored tone.

"What's that suppose to mean?!" yelled Luffy, angrily.

"Heh! Heh! He means you're too much like a kid, kid." said a heavyset man as he laughed.

"He's right, you know, I've got boys much older than you." Said Yasopp.

Yasopp wobbled over to Aya and throw his arm around her shoulders. He was slightly drunk as Aya could smell the alcohol from his breath. "Hey, Aya. I've got a boy who's just around your age." He said. 

"Again, no thanks." said Aya as she looked away from him.

Yasopp gave her a disappointed look. "What? Are you saying that you're too good for him?!" He shouted.

Aya had a disgusted look on her face and she scrunched up her nose in the air sticking out her tongue. "Boys are gross!" She said.

Shanks laughed. "You say that now, Aya. But, one day that might change." He said.

Aya turned to him and glared. "Shut up." She growled. 

Luffy turned to Shanks and his crew angrily. "I'm not a kid! I'm a grownup!" shouted Luffy

"Ah, calm down, Luffy. Here have some juice." said Shanks as he passed the boy a glass filled with orange juice. The anger on Luffy's face went away.

"Wow, thanks, Shanks." He said happily, sipping on the juice.

"I don't know one pirate who drinks juice!" Shanks laughed as he slapped his hand on the counter. Aya rolled her eyes at her brother's stupidity. She saw it coming a mile away as soon as the pirate captain handed her brother the drink.

Luffy blushed as his cheeks grew red with embarrassment. "HEY! YOU TRICKED ME!" He yelled. His anger grew as Shanks and his crew laughed at him. "STOP LAUGHING! THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT!"

Suddenly, the door to the bar was kicked open and everyone went silent as a group of people walked in. "Excuse us." said a low gruff voice. No one in the room moved a muscle, instead of Shanks, who was eating. 

"So these are what pass for pirates around these parts? Looks rather sad to me." said a men with long black hair as he walked in. He walked over to the counter, ignoring Shanks, Luffy and Aya. The bar's owner, Makino, walked over to him.

"Welcome, gentlemen. What can I do for you?" She asked. The man smirked.

"We're mountain bandits. But, we didn't come here to tear your place apart. All we want is some sake. I'd say, ten barrels shall do." said the leader of the bandits.

"I'm sorry. But, we're already out of sake." said Makino. The man crossed his arms.

"Really? That's interesting. Then what are these pirates drinking? It doesn't look like water." He said.

"No, it just happens to be the last of what I have stocked. I'm sorry." said Makino. Shanks wiped his mouth as he finished his meal.

"My apologies, gentlemen. Looks like me and my friends drank the place dry. But, you can have this, if you want." He said as he hold up an unopened bottle of sake to the bandit. "You can have this one. It hasn't even been opened and-" The sound of glass shattering echoed in the room as the bandit broke the bottle with his fist over Shank's head.

Makino and Luffy gasped while Aya watched silently. Shanks was doused from the alcohol as it dripped from his clothes. "I'm a wanted man. There's an eight million bounty on my head. So don't insult me with one lousy bottle of sake." said the bandit.

Shank's ignored him and bent down to the floor. "Just great...now the floor's all wet. You got a rag I can clean this up with, Makino?" asked Shanks as he got to his knees and started to pick up the glass shards from the floor.

"Oh no, I'll-"

Crash! Everyone gasped as the bandit slammed Shanks into the counter as he punched him. The plate that was sitting on the counter shattered on top of the captain's head. The bandit pulled out his sword and made a huge scratch on the counter. "Since you like cleaning up messes so much, maybe you'll find this more fulfilling." said the bandit as he put his sword away. "A place with no sake is not worth are time. Let's go." He said as he and his crew walked out of the bar.

"Captain, are you okay? Are you hurt?" asked Makino as she checked Shanks over. The captain waved his hand.

"I don't have a problem in the world, Makino." He said with a laugh. His crew began to join him as they howled in laughter. Shank's threw his head back laughing as hard along with them.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!"

Everyone stopped as they stared at Luffy who was standing on the stool, fuming in anger. He was breathing heavily and glaring at them. "WHAT'S SO FUNNY?! YOU'VE SHOULD'VE FOUGHT BACK, SHANKS! IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW STRONG THEY LOOK OR HOW MANY THEY WERE, YOU CAN'T JUST LAUGH IT OFF! YOU'RE NOT A MAN OR A PIRATE!" roared Luffy. Shanks gave him an reassuring smile.

"Listen, Luffy. I know how you feel. But the guy just spilled some booze on me, nothing to get upset over." He said. Luffy's shoulders slumped as he pouted. "Whatever." He said. Luffy sat back in his stool and leaned over the counter, sulking. Then he noticed a small chest with a strange looking fruit that was inside it. It was purple and round in shape with swirls on it. Luffy blinked. His mouth began to water practically dripping from it. He leaned over the counter and took the fruit from the chest. Aya coughed. She glanced over at her brother seeing him take the strange fruit from the case. Her eyes gave a questionable look as she stared at the fruit. She had never seen one like it before.

"You really shouldn't eat that. You don't even know what that is." said Aya. Luffy didn't hear her and opened his mouth. Before she could stop him, Luffy had already chomped down on it and swallowed a bite. Aya slapped her forehead and groaned.

Shanks fixed his straw hat then turned to Luffy and saw him eating. He chuckled. "You know, Luffy, there are other ways to soothe your anger besides eating." said Shanks.

"Shut up!" yelled Luffy. Shanks noticed something in the boy's hands. His eyes widen.

"Wait, what are you eating?!" He asked. Luffy gulped the fruit down.

"I-uh...well, I-whoa!" yelled Luffy as he was hung upside down in the air by Shanks.

"You did not just eat the fruit from the box, did you?! Spit it out! NOW!" yelled Shanks as he shook him.

"Ow! Ow! What are you doing?! Why are you shaking-"

Suddenly, Luffy's head stretched and smashed to the floor. Everyone was silent staring in shock. Aya's eyes widen as her mouth dropped a bit. "What...what's going on?" asked Luffy. He had a scared look on his face.

"Luffy! You just ate the Gum-Gum fruit! It's part of a group called the Devil Fruit! Eating any of them takes your ability to swim for the rest of their lives! That one caused your body to turn to rubber!" yelled Shanks. Luffy's eyes widen.

"NO WAY!" shouted Luffy. "IT CAN'T!"

"YOU DUMBASS!" shouted Shanks."

Luffy gasped as he felt the wind get knocked out of him as he was slammed into the wall. "Heh, this is just sad. We were just enjoying a drink and you two came and disrupted it." said the leader of the bandits as he and his group snickered. Luffy glared dangerously at him. He glanced over to the side and saw Aya lying on the ground unconscious, completely beaten up bloodied and bruised.

"You better apologize! No one messes with Shank's crew! And you're going to pay for what you did to Aya!" He yelled. The bandit leader placed a foot on Luffy's head. Luffy bared his teeth at him angrily.

"I don't think I insulted you directly." said the leader of the bandits.

"You think wrong! You better apologize or else!" shouted Luffy.

"Big mouth, kid. That's what got you into this shit." said the leader of the bandits.

Back at the bar, the bandits and the leader returned and were gulping down some sake. They were all joking and bad talking about Shanks and his crew.

 "What losers! Calling themselves pirates!"

" Pirates are just wimps. Nothing more. They're all talk, no action!"

"SHUT UP!" a loud voice shouted.

Then men turned to see Luffy who was glaring at them angrily while Makino and Aya tried to hold him back. "STOP IT! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SHANKS AND HIS CREW! YOU BETTER SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTHS, BANDITS!" He screamed.

Luffy yelped as he felt the bandit press down on his head harder. "You should watch your mouth, kid. No one has ever insulted me and lived to tell the tale." said the leader as he pulled out his sword.

Luffy charged at the bandit, punching him in the legs. The bandit laughed. He kicked Luffy away, slamming him into the wall. The bandit picked Luffy up and threw back his fist. Aya's eyes widen and she ran over to the two. She jumped up and grabbed onto the bandits arm, dangling from it and bit him. The bandit glared at Aya, dropping Luffy to the floor. He grabbed Aya by the throat lifting her.

"You brat! You bit me!" shouted the bandit. 

"Leave him alone!" shouted Aya. The bandit stopped as he saw Aya's necklace shining in his face. He smirked. The bandit grabbed the chain and ripped the necklace off from Aya's neck, holding it in his hand. 

"Give it back!" Aya shouted in anger. She bit the bandits hand. The bandit's eyes widen as he yelped in pain. He growled and in a flash he kneed Aya in her chest. He dropped her and she fell to the floor. Aya gasped as she tried to breathe. Then she began coughing up blood as it splattered to the floor. Luffy, Makino, and some of the customers in the bar stared in horror as they saw Aya coughing violently. Aya's eyes widen in fear as she saw the small droplets of blood fell landing on the wooden floor. Aya grabbed her chest in pain and looked up glaring at the bandit. Her vision began to blur.

"Damn you." said Aya, weakly. Luffy gasped as he saw her collapsed.

"Aya!" Luffy shouted as he ran over to her. "You bastard!" He growled as he glared at the bandit.

The bandit laughed and started to walk away. "Take these two with us." He ordered his men. "I'm not done with them yet." They grabbed Luffy and Aya, carrying them to the village square.

The mayor and Makino rushed over to them. "Stop!" yelled the mayor as he and Makino ran in. "Let the children go. I beg you." The leader of the bandits turned to him.

"Please, I have no idea what they've said and I don't intend to fight you for it. I'll even pay you. Just let them live, please." begged the mayor as he got to his knees. The leader of the bandits smirked and pulled out his sword.

"As if. These brats have already got me pissed, and now they will pay for it with their deaths." He said.

"You're the rotten one!" yelled Luffy. The bandit inched the blade towards the boy's neck.

"And you're a lost cause. Why these two are fighting for a punk ass like you and that runt is beyond me. You're just another piece of crap who's life will not be missed." said the bandit.

"Please, no!" cried the mayor and Makino.

"Well, I was wondering why the bar was empty on such a fine day." A voice called out.

Makino and the Mayor gasped as they turned around to see Shanks and his crew behind them. "Well, what do ya know, it's the mountain bandits again." said Shanks as he tipped his hat. The leader of the bandits glared at him. Luffy eyes widen, surprised to see him.

"Pirates, where have you've been? Scrubbing the latrines?" asked the leader of the bandits.

"Luffy." said Shanks, ignoring the bandit. "Didn't you say that your punches were like pistols?" asked the captain in a teasing tone in his voice.

"Shut your mouth." hissed Luffy.

"Listen, pirates. I don't give a damn why you're here, so why don't you buzz off? Better yet, let's send you off in a casket." asked the leader of the bandits. One of his men aimed a pistol at Shanks' head. Shanks smirked.

"Are you willing to risk your life?" asked Shanks. "Now that you've drawn your pistol, are you going go use it?"

Suddenly, a gun shot echoed as it fired.

The bandit's body fell to the ground with a thud. Everyone gasped as one of Shanks men fired taking the bandit out in one shot, while munching a piece of meat from a turkey leg he was holding.  "What'd you fellas expect? We play nice? We're pirates for crying out loud." asked one of Shanks' men. Shanks' hat suddenly fell as he lowered his head, as a shadow covered his face.

"Listen, fellas. Whether I'm sprayed with alcohol or doused with food. Hell, I can even take being spat in the face and I'll just laugh it off. But,..." Suddenly, Shanks' looked up with a glare in his eyes as his happy mannerism was gone. "If you ever hurt a friend of mine, or call them useless, that's were I draw the line, regardless of what they've done." said the captain. Luffy's eyes got teary.

"Shanks..." He whispered sadly.

The bandit leader cackled. "So we're going to pay? Fine, let's see if you can survive. Men, kill them all!" He commanded as his men charged at the group of pirates with swords in their hands.

Just as they got closer, suddenly, all of them fell to the ground, dead. The leader of the bandits eyes widen in shock as he saw his men fall one by one, mysteriously. Then a sniper from Shanks' crew stepped up and smirked. "Really, is that all you got?" asked Yasopp.

"Wow..." whispered Luffy in awe. He glance over at Aya. He wished that she could see this as well. 

"H-hold on! These kids attacked us!" yelled the leader of the bandits. Shanks smirked.

"Didn't you say you had a bounty on your head?" He asked. The bandit's eyes widen in fear as he stared at the red-haired man before him. Then he pulled out a small bomb and threw it to the ground. It exploded and smoke came flying everywhere.

"Luffy? Aya?" As the smoke cleared. Shanks sighed in relief seeing Aya. But, Luffy was nowhere to be seen. His eyes widen in horror. "Oh no! I let that guy take him! What are we gonna do?!" He asked, panicking. His crew smirked seeing their captain in a panicked state.

 "Watch over Aya. I'm going after Luffy!" Shouted Shanks as he chased after the bandit. 

Luffy struggled as the bandit leader dangled him over the sea by the collar of his shirt. They were now in a boat in the middle of the ocean. The bandit laughed as he looked to the sky. "Heh, they'll never find me."

"Let me go, damn it! I can't wait to see Shanks rip your head off with his bare hands!" shouted Luffy as he squirmed to get out of the bandits hold on him. The bandit smirked.

"Have fun sleeping with the fishes, kid." said the bandit as he threw Luffy into the water. At the last second, Luffy grabbed the chain from Aya's necklace and ripped it off from the bandit's neck, splashing into the water as he did.

"Hey! Give me that!" shouted the bandit leader. 

"No! It's my sister's! You can't have it, you bastard!" Luffy shouted as he flailed and kicked in the water, trying to stay afloat. He felt his body trying to sink. The bandit was about to grab Luffy but something rose from out of the water behind him. A huge shadow casted over him. The bandit froze and turned around to see a giant sea monster with razor sharp teeth. In an instant, the monster ate him in one bite. Luffy gasped and struggled harder as the giant waves knocked him around. His eyes widen as he saw the sea monster swimming closer to him with it's mouth open.

"SHHHAAAAANNNKSSS!" screamed Luffy.

A loud snap was heard as the sea monster crashed into the water. Luffy looked up speechless as something wrapped around him, holding him tightly. "Shanks." He whispered in disbelief. The sea monster breached surface again, getting ready to strike again. It's eyes widen in fear and it froze as it saw Shanks glaring at it. "Get lost." Growled Shanks. It immediately swam away leaving the two alone.

Shanks sighed in relief and smiled as he heard the sound of seagulls and waves crashing nearby as the danger was gone. "I'm in your debt, Luffy. Makino told us everything. On how the two of you defended us and and the name of the crew. How you were willing to fight." He said. Luffy was clutching his shirt tightly, sobbing uncontrollably. He hiccuped as more tears flowed and ran down his cheeks.

Shanks smiled playfully. "Hey, come on. You can't cry. You're a grownup now." He said. Luffy hiccuped.

"But...Shanks...your arm."

"YOUR ARM!" He screamed as he sobbed harder. It was a memory that would haunt him forever. Shanks arm was gone. Blood dripped from the missing limb, staining the captain's shirt and into the water. He had saved Luffy but at the cost of his arm. Shanks placed his other hand on top of Luffy's head patting it reassuringly as the boy cried and trembled. He smiled sadly.

"It's okay, Luffy, it's just an arm. I've got another one. The only thing that matters is that the two of you are safe." said the captain. Luffy clutched his shirt tighter and sobbed burying his face in Shanks' chest. He couldn't protect his sister and he couldn't even protect himself. He felt useless. And because of it, the man that he had looked up to, his idol, lost his arm, sacrificing himself for him. Luffy silently promised himself that he would become stronger so nothing like this ever happens again.

At the docks of the port, Shanks crew hurried to load their ship with cargo of supplies they need. Standing by the ship were three people. "So, you're leaving?" asked Luffy, standing next to Shanks. The red-haired nodded now wearing a black cape over his shoulders covering his missing arm.

"Yeah, it was a nice extended vacation, but, we have to part ways now. I bet you'll miss me, right?" asked the captain. Luffy nodded.

"But, this time will be different. I won't beg you to take me with you. Because I'm gonna become a pirate all on my own." said Luffy. 

"Me too." said Aya, now covered in bandages from head to toe. Shanks stuck his tongue at them.

"Bleh. I wouldn't take you with me anyway. You two will never make it as a pirate." He said.

Luffy glared at him. "NO! I WILL MAKE IT AS A PIRATE! SOMEDAY, I'M GONNA GATHER A CREW THAT'S WAY BETTER THAN YOURS AND I'LL FIND THE GREATEST TREASURE OF ALL TIME! THE ONE PIECE! THEN I'LL-I'LL BE KING OF THE PIRATES! I'LL SHOW YOU!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

"And I'm gonna queen!" shouted Aya. "I'm not going to let anyone beat me up again!"

"You think you'll surpass us, huh?" Shanks asked. Luffy frowned then looked to the ground glaring. Shanks smiled and took off his straw hat. "In that case, I'll leave this hat to you. It means more to me than everything in the world. So you better take care of it. Got it, Luffy?" asked the captain as he placed it on Luffy's head. The hat was a little too big for him and it fell as it nearly covered his eyes. Tears began to form as Luffy felt them sting in his eyes.

Shanks and his crew board the ship and were now sailing away. The villagers waved as it sailed away.

Luffy held his hand in Aya's as they watched the ship sail away. Aya felt him clenching it tightly and she looked to see that he had a serious look on his face. Aya but her lower lip and looked down to the ground. "I am not going to be weak anymore!" Thought Aya as she promised herself, clutching her necklace she was wearing around her neck. Luffy clutched the hat tightly to his chest. Shanks last words echoed their minds.

"I want you to bring this hat back to me one day. In good condition. And only once you've become a great pirates. That's our promise,"

Luffy stared at the hat he was holding in his hands. Zoro raised an eyebrow. Aya gave him a concerned look. Luffy had been quiet for awhile which was unusual for him. "Hey, Luffy. You're gonna drop that again. I thought that it was important to you." said the swordsman. Luffy smiled and placed the hat on his head.

"Yeah, it is thanks." He said, giving Zoro a grin. Zoro groaned. 

"I am so hungry, it's killing me." He said. Aya heard her stomach growl and she groaned as well. Luffy blinked and looked to the sky. He noticed that something was flying overhead. It was a giant bird. Luffy smiled. "Hey, let's eat that bird." Zoro rolled his head.

"How do we catch it?" He asked. His eyes widen as he saw Luffy stretch his arm to the sail of the small ship.

"Gum-Gum Rocket!" yelled Luffy.

"Luffy! We're in the middle of the ocean!" shouted Aya as she grabbed onto the straw hat's shirt. "If you miss. I'm gonna have to save your ass!" Just as she finished, in an instant, the two of them were launched into the sky. Zoro tilted his head when he noticed something. He noticed that Aya was screaming wildly. Then he realized what had happened. Luffy's head was stuck in the mouth of the bird's and now the two of them were flying away farther away. Zoro started rowing faster snarling and muttering under his breath, trying to follow after them. 

Then he sees a couple of pirates in the water and was heading straight towards them. "I can't stop you're going to have to climb on!" He shouted. The pirates shouted but managed to climb themselves aboard the ship. Zoro look up to the sky but didn't see the bird anymore. He growled as he sat down on the boat. He growled as he thought to himself.

"Just great. It had not only been a few days and now I have already both of them." Then he looked up and glared at the pirates that were now sitting in the boat. "You guys made me lose sight of them. Row faster or else." He said, menacingly as threatened to pulled out his swords.

The bird carried Aya and Luffy to an island when suddenly a cannon ball was fired. It hit the bird, dropping them. Luffy and Aya screamed. Now, they were falling, descending faster and faster towards the ground below them.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, LUFFY!" shouted Aya.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

hey star your tags on that umbrella academy post? abt ben tapping into his residual eldritch abomination powers to keep the ghosts away from his brother? VISIONARY

Hey listen.  This was gonna be a short ramble about this concept.  Now...I’m not sure if I’m going to expand it, but.  I sure did write it.

Klaus overdoses for the second time when he’s twenty.

He overdosed for the firsttime two days after his brother’s funeral.  That’s another story, but theshort version goes like this.  Klaus started crying after he stopped screaming,and Ben didn’t leave.  Then he stopped crying and he started drinking, andBen didn’t leave.  Before the funeral, hetook some pills, and Ben didn’t leave.  After the funeral, he tookwhatever he could get his hands on, and Ben vanished like the rest of them, hisfragile link to Klaus eroded by the high, and then--smash cut to KlausHargreeves in an ambulance, in a hospital bed, in the tabloids.  Bendoesn’t know how he forced his way through Klaus’ haze of intoxication enoughto be seen, when Klaus came to, briefly, in the ambulance, but he alsoknows that Klaus has never managed to get rid of him properly since.

Point is, Klaus is twenty andit’s a Monday and Ben is going to fucking kill him if he lives through this.

“Klaus!  Klaus, get up!” Ben shouts.

“B’nny,” Klaus drawls, soslow, like the words are as thick as tar. He’s not quite all gone yet but Klaus, and by extension Ben, has hungaround a lot of junkies lately.  Benknows what it looks like as the crest of a heroin overdose starts to crash downlike a wave, and he’s not fucking lettingit.  “Shhh.”

“Fuck you, get up and call an ambulance!”

“D’n wanna.”

It’s been a long time sinceBen forgot he was dead, but he grabs thoughtlessly at Klaus, moving to shakehim or drag him to his feet or something.  His hands slip right into Klaus’ chest with ashock like static discharge.  It’s not agreat feeling for the dead, generally worse for the living, and from the looksof things, enough heroin to drop someone twice Klaus’ size makes it even moreunpleasant.

“Go’way,” Klaus says, slidingfurther down in his seat so that Ben’s hands phase out of him.  “M’tired.”

Ben does not go away.  “Get up.”

“No.”

Ben kicks him in the leg.  

It doesn’t connect, of course,but Ben can’t do much else.  Klaus wincesaway from the cold shock of Ben’s foot passing through his shin, pulling bothfeet up clumsily onto the couch, and Ben aims an open-handed slap at Klaus’head.  It makes Klaus rock sideways toavoid it, toward the phone on the counter five feet away.  Ben sits down on the couch right where Klausis obviously hoping to lie down, and Klaus shivers away from him.

“Phone,” Ben says flatly.  “Now.” He hesitates.  “I don’t want towatch you die, Klaus.”

It’s a low blow.  Emotional honesty is cheating, in Hargreeves familyarguments.  He can see something likeconfused betrayal cross Klaus’ face, like Ben just went for a crotch shotduring a friendly sparring match.

Fucking tough.

“Call an ambulance,” Ben repeats.

Klaus stares at him.  Ben doesn’t flinch.

The ambulance gets thereseven minutes later.

Diego’s number is in Klaus’pocket, because Diego offered and Ben heckled Klaus until he agreed, and ittakes hours for Diego to show up.  In themeantime, Ben sits on the foot of Klaus’ bed, hands clasped in front of hismouth, and watches the in-and-out drift of the ghosts around them, as naloxoneand heroin compete for ownership of Klaus’ system.  When the nurse comes in and ups the naloxonedose, the ghosts surge to the fore, not quite real enough to speak but morethan real enough to cluster around the foot of Klaus’ bed.  As the naloxone degrades and the heroin risesback to the fore, the ghosts fade again as Klaus’ breathing slows.  

Ben is dead.  He can’t feel his heart race or his handsshake with the adrenaline drop—he can’t doadrenaline anymore.  He’s rare, evenunique, in his experience of the dead, because when he died he seems to havejust gone cold, rather than being trapped in an endless nightmare of his owndeath.  He can be furious, he can beafraid, he can be happy, but it’s all muffled in comparison to when he wasalive.  Never more muffled than now.  The more sober Klaus is, the more real Benis, but right now—

Well, right now Klaus isabout as far from sober as he can get without being dead, and Ben, for once, appreciates the clarity.

This needs to not happenagain.  Later, when Klaus is awake, maybeBen will be able to attach frantic worry and the keening, screaming fear ofbeing alone to that sentiment, but right now it’s a fact, plain andsimple.  This needs to not happenagain.  The drugs are one thing, but thiswillful, reckless self-endangerment must stop, for both their sakes.

For all their sakes, really, because real-Ben might be angry with hissiblings for letting Klaus slip away, but dead-Ben, cold-Ben, he knows that theycare.  They’re just too busy beingwrapped up in their own damage to notice that Klaus has been drowning sincethey were kids.

Ben sits there for an hour,watching the ghosts ebb and flow, and turns the problem over in his mind.  He needs to do something to save Klaus,because his siblings won’t.  It’s nottheir fault, they just don’t get why Klaus needs saving.  None of them understand what it’s like to beterrified of their own powers.  Hell, ifbeing high had closed away the shadowed parts of Ben’s mind, sealed whateverportal They could touch him through, he can see how he might have ended up inthis hospital bed himself.

There’s a thought, Benmuses.  Klaus is on the downswing, andBen’s cold enough to think about it, at the moment.  Being dead has made him—limited.  He doesn’t feel the need, the craving, thatradiated from Them when he was alive.  Maybebecause Klaus is never sober enough to make him that real, maybe because beingdead means that They don’t need blood the same way Ben doesn’t need water.  

But that begs the question ofwhether They’re gone or just resting.

For the first time since thedisastrous mission that cost Ben his life, he closes his eyes and reaches out,and—

And tentacles burst out of hischest, out of his belly, as painlessly and easily as flexing his fingers.

Ben is startled enough thatit cuts through the cold, just for a moment, and the tentacles stay there,rippling like he’s underwater, stirred by currents that he can’t see.  They’re cold and slick to the touch when helets one wrap around his hand—not slimy, just slick, like steel doused withwater.  There’s no blood, this time, nopenalty for keeping Them locked away all these years, They’re just there. He can’t even feel the burning strain of keeping things under control.

Of course.  The dead can’t feel pain.

Not that Ben wouldn’t tradeanything to be alive again, but also: this is an unforeseen upside of deaththat he will have to remember to appreciate, after Klaus is conscious and hecan appreciate things again.  

For the moment, he’s going tobuy them some time.

Ben dismisses the tentacles—Theyvanish like he’s waved his hand through steam, easy like it never was when hewas alive—and resettles himself on the end of Klaus’ bed, legs crossed andelbows propped on his knees.  Then hewatches a nurse come in and check the naloxone, and he waits for the ghosts tocome back.

Here’s the thing.

Ben was never really…aplanner, when he was alive.  He outgrewplans fairly young, because frankly no plan survived contact with Them andeventually Ben learned to roll with the punches.  There was very little in the way of finesseto being more or less the party tank. Ben stood back with Klaus while Diego and Luther and Allison and Fivecleared civilians and took down anyone who got in their way, and then Benkilled everyone who was left over.  Verysimple.  All he ever had to do was keephis mouth shut and not have a panic attack until after they were donedebriefing with their father.

Now he’s here, and he’s notentirely sure what he’s going to do.  Ben has only the vaguest recollection of how Reginaldtaught them to plan, something to the tune of set your goals and consider how to achieve them with the availableresources, which was less than helpful when they were eleven and isn’t muchbetter now.  

Ben wants Klaus to nevernearly kill himself again.  Therefore, Benwants Klaus to stop taking drugs so much. His goal is to get Klaus to go to rehab and make it stick thistime.  

Ben is a ghost and can’texactly do anything to make Klauscooperate, except apparently emotionally blackmail him.  Ben’s sum total of available resources comesto two: he has his voice, and he has ghost tentacles that can’t do anything toKlaus except possibly startle him.  Notlikely.  Klaus is jittery in the way ofjunkies everywhere, but his threshold for ‘startled’ is high, because he spendsall his time ignoring ghosts with their intestines dangling out of their abdomen.  So Ben can yell at him.  Excellent. Not helpful, obviously, because if Ben could change Klaus’ mind byyelling, he definitely would have managed it by now.

Klaus must be cycling up again,because frustration wells up in Ben’s chest like water coming to a boil, and aghost clarifies to Ben’s right.

“Fuck off,” Ben tells theghost, scowling.  It’s a woman in a bloodyblue dress, and she has a steak knife buried in her eye.  She looks to him when he speaks, but not forlong—Ben is dead too, and ghosts hold little interest for their own kind as faras he can tell.  Ben hasn’t been hauntedsince he died, according to Klaus, and it’s nice, admittedly, to have Klauslook at him sometimes these days.  By thetime Ben died, Klaus could barely stand to be sober in the same room with him.  

Ben’s not sure how manypeople he’s killed.  He’s pretty sureKlaus could tell him, and he absolutely does not want to hear that number.

The woman in blue edgestoward Klaus, and in the corners of the room, Ben can see other ghosts clarifying.  It’s the only word for it, when they blurback into reality after being driven away by Klaus’ latest high, and they’recoming back gradually, but more strongly than before.  The heroin must be starting to work its wayout of Klaus’ system.

Ben feels another emotionclick into place, resurrected by Klaus’ gradual return to the world of theliving, and it’s the fear.  He’s on aclock.  The second Klaus is well enoughto wander out of this hospital, he’s going to go try to deafen himself to theghosts again.  Klaus will kill himselflong and slow with apathy and chemicals, right up until he kills himself fast with chemicals, and Ben isn’t surehe can shout Klaus into saving his own life twice.

Fuck, what is Ben supposed todo here?  

For a moment, angry andedging toward frantic, Ben misses Luther so sharply it hurts.  Luther is too much of a linear thinker to bea good strategist, not exactly a leader for the ages, kind of insufferable evenat his better moments—but he was Number One. When one of them didn’t want to be responsible for their plans, theircrisis, their mission, they could turn to Luther and shove it all into hishands and walk the fuck away.  Luthermight not do the right thing, but he’ddo something, and it wouldn’t be Ben’sfault if it went horribly wrong.  If Bensits here frozen and indecisive until Klaus walks out to buy some cocaine orsome meth or God knows what else, that’s going to be Ben’s fault, and he wishesNumber One was here to take over.

The woman in blue is standingat Klaus’ bedside now, near his hand, and she leans over, and opens her mouth.

“Please,” she says, and hervoice might be pretty if it wasn’t ravaged like she’s been crying or screamingor both.  “Please.  You have to saveher, you have to--”

“Hey,” Ben barks as Klausstirs, just slightly, under the sheet.  “Hedoesn’t have to do anything.”

She ignores him, bendingcloser, one shaking hand reaching out toward Klaus as if to grab him.  Sometimes newer ghosts are like that, handsy,like they’ve forgotten they can’t touch Klaus and cling to him until he listens to them, and—

Klaus’s heart rate isstarting to pick up.  

Ben needs more time, more time to find a solution.

The woman in blue is stillbegging, and the steady beep of Klaus’ heart monitor is marking his slow returnto consciousness, and the gathered ghosts are starting to murmur, and it’s beena long time since Ben remembered sensory overload but he needs quiet, just for a moment, just for longenough to figure out what to do.

“Don’t touch him!” Ben says,and grabs the woman in blue by the shoulder.

It—works.

Ben doesn’t think about itfor too long, just slides off the hospital bed and all but throws her backward.  If he thinks about it, he’s definitely goingto reach some kind of internal limit on the amount of stress he can take andglitch out of existence.  So he doesn’tthink, just uses a grip that Diego taught him when they were kids and sends herflying back.

She looks shocked, startledout of her cycle of begging and screaming and shouting, and Ben is standingbetween her and Klaus.  

“Don’t touch him,” Benrepeats, flatly.  “He’s sleeping.”

“I just—I just need to talkto him,” she says.  To Ben, now.  Apparently, getting violent is enough to earnBen a moment of attention.

“Not right now you don’t.”

“I need—I have to--”

Maybe he should bekinder.  Maybe he should be softer, maybehe should understand her desperation, maybe he should see something worth helpinghere, but—

She reaches out, trying toget past Ben, and all he sees is a threat.

“Stop,” Ben snarls, and They come to his call, and the woman in bluebarely has a moment to look horrified before Ben rips her spectral self into somany tatters of mist.  There’s noscreaming.  A tentacle clamps over hermouth and tears her head clean off before she can manage it.

Years of habit forces theshock and alarm, the automatic oh Godwhat did I do, into the back of Ben’s mind to be dealt with later.  It’s been a long time since he slipped intothe mindset of a mission, but no one ever said the Umbrella Academy was poorlytrained, and it settles into place without any effort at all.

The woman in blue doesn’treform.  It’s possible he’s destroyed hercompletely.  He’ll deal with that later,too.  For now, he steps forward, towardthe ghosts huddled around the foot of Klaus’ bed and puts on his best, mostmerciless tone, and says, “Who’s next?”

Five ghosts are next.  In order, they are an old man with a slashedthroat, a girl no more than thirteen whose right side is broken from femur toshoulder, a young man with three bullet holes in his gut and a fourth betweenhis eyes, a woman in her prime dressed in torn clothes and a slashed throat,and an old woman without any injuries at all, save for the IV shunt stillleaking blood from her hand.  Each ofthem try to speak to Ben.  Three of themtry to shout past him, at Klaus, who hasn’t quite beaten the sedative drag ofthe heroin enough to open his eyes.

Ben tears through them liketissue paper, one after another.

Later, he might be appalledat himself for it.  Right now, all he canfeel is a dim, grim gratitude that ghosts don’t bleed.

Ben always hated beingcovered in other people’s blood.

When he’s done, he turns hisgaze on the remaining ghosts.  They lookback at him with an unusual degree of presence of mind, the kind of humanity he’s not used to seeing in themexcept in the rare moments that Klaus pays attention to them.  Ben steps forward.  They shuffle back.

A vague part of Ben’s mind titterswildly—he’s scaring ghosts now.  Wouldn’tDaddy Dearest be proud of his pet monster?

“Get lost,” he snaps.

Wonder of fucking wonders—theygo.  Some of them fade away.  A few, so obviously terrified of the sleektentacles writhing eagerly around Ben, leave more mundanely, through the opendoor.  Only two linger—a woman withbright green eyes and the same perpetually sad set to her lips that Klaus wearsso casually over his smile, and a man in fatigues with blood on his chest.  But they don’t speak, and they don’t approachKlaus, and they stay well back from Ben.

Ben glares at them both,trying to convey how much he is notfucking around.

The soldier gives him asalute, and then they fade too.

“B’n?” Klaus mumbles frombehind him, in the raspy voice of someone who was mostly comatose not too longago.  Klaus has always recoveredfreakishly fast, once he manages to get past the worst of a brush with death,this is a known fact.  It’s like Deathdoesn’t want him.  Ben still twitches insurprise at the sound, and dismisses Them before he turns around.

“Klaus, you’re awake.”

“Mmm,” Klaus says, crackingan eye open to peer at Ben.  The othereye opens.  “Heard s’methin’.”

“There’s no one here,” Bensays, and stuffs both hands into his pockets.  “Just me.”