#i have had french class for five years. i should know this

[coffeefromvoid]

Logically i know how to pronounce “Enjolras”, with the french j and everything. But for some fucking reason whenever i read it, it sounds Spanish in my head. “En-hol-Ras” WHO IS ENHOLRAS @MY BRAIN?????

[myokk]

before it felt like a sin, ch. 1

pairing: Sebastian Sallow x f!MC

word count: 3000

summary: Eloise never wanted to be different.

And yet, her differences are what have defined her life up until this point: growing up as a squib in one of the most prominent wizarding families, being exiled to muggle society, and then attending Hogwarts at the age of sixteen.

She finds herself thrust into the life she should have been prepared for from birth but was denied. As she navigates this new life and her new precarious position in her family, she must come to terms with the fact that maybe what she dreamed of her whole life isn't turning out how she ever expected it would.

a/n: Hi everyone!! I decided to post this here too...I'm slowly going through everything I've written so far, and I want to post each chapter here as I edit them. I'm hoping that this can be a way to a) get back in to writing more, and b) get better at my art as I make full illustrations for each chapter. Let me know what you think!! :)

There is nothing quite as horrible as being a muggle, Eloise thought savagely as she ripped out yet another stitch in the landscape she was embroidering. At least, it was supposed to be a landscape. Maybe with her head tilted to the left and with her eyes almost closed so everything blurred together, it might resemble one. She did just that, trying her hardest to make out some recognizable shape and blast the stupid practice of manually pushing colored thread through a fabric in some sort of -

���And what is this, Miss Babbit?”

Eloise jumped at the sound and looked up at the scowling face of her teacher, and then quickly back down at the tangled thread in her lap. Behind her, she could hear the hushed giggles of the other girls in her class.

“Oh! Er…it��s -”

“How long have you been here?” the woman interrupted.

“One hour…I just -”

“Don’t be smart with me. I mean, at this institute.”

“Five years.” Eloise glared down at her embroidery as if it had personally offended her. It wasn’t like she was actively trying to be bad at everything, but she had the distinct disadvantage - how had it ever come to be that she would be at a disadvantage to muggles? - of not having spent a lifetime being prepared for muggle society and all that it entailed. The last five years had been a monotonous, endless cycle of lessons designed to turn her into the perfect lady: French (a waste of time as Eloise was already fluent), embroidery (a waste of time as the things she embroidered weren’t actually useful), dancing (a waste of time as she was already engaged to be married - why would she bother trying to woo another silly man?), and her most dreaded class of all: etiquette. No matter how many years had been spent trying to assimilate into muggle culture, her thoughts still got muddled when she tried to remember the steps to a dance, or how to properly address the son of a duke.

Did it really matter, anyways, what the other girls thought? She had pretended her whole life to be the daughter she thought her parents had wanted - now she was simply pretending that she hadn’t been thrown into the muggle world without a second thought. What was a bit more pretending - that she didn’t care? That she hadn’t been tossed aside without a second thought?

“Exactly. Five years. And yet, you have shown no progress whatsoever. This -” a finger jabbed accusingly at the embroidery - “is absolutely horrendous. If your parents hadn’t continued to make such a sizeable donation every year, I would have deemed you a lost cause and sent you packing when you first arrived. How your family ever managed your betrothal to the son of an earl is beyond me.”

Eloise grimaced at the mention of her fiance as her teacher clapped her hands together to get the attention of the class - a wholly unnecessary action due to the fact that it was already being given. “Class is dismissed. Please collect your belongings and put them in the correct place. Remember, as future wives and mothers, you must be organized in all aspects of your life. Many of you will be managing important households and the slightest misstep -“ a slight glance to Eloise out of the corner of her eye - “can cause the biggest of scandals.”

Eloise raced to gather her things and leave the classroom before everyone else. No matter how many years had been spent at the school, she couldn’t help but hate sitting through the classes amongst the judgmental stares and snide remarks. Although things had started out shaky at the finishing school - to be expected, really, when you’ve grown up in wizarding society and then are then forced to live as a muggle - it still stung that after all these years, she still hadn’t found a friendly face. She was treated as if she were a pariah: it was as if the other girls just knew that something was different about her. But…wasn’t that the great irony of it all? She wasn’t different than them. She was a filthy squib.

When she first arrived at the school, she was an anomaly. A twelve-year-old girl who didn’t know how to play the piano or who the queen was. It was clear to everyone that Eloise wasn’t the charity case of the school - her parents were obviously quite wealthy - and yet they seemingly wanted nothing to do with her. Whereas the others got regular letters and visits from their family, it was as if Eloise were an orphan. Nothing new to her of course, but to her peers this otherness aided them in her ostracization.

Upon entering her room, she was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts. Something wasn’t right. Everything seemed the same: a twin bed perfectly made opposite a small wardrobe, a plain wooden desk placed between them. The weak afternoon sunlight shone through the window, illuminating her desk. But…there.

That…

Placed on her bed, resting on the pillow, was a letter.

She never received letters.

Eloise shoved her embroidery under her bed and hungrily grabbed at it, pausing when she saw the address. Miss E. Babbit. The Third Bedroom on the Left… It seemed vaguely familiar to her in a way she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

As she read the letter, though, it became apparent to her exactly why this was. Although not exactly the same as the one her brother had received six years earlier, it quickly became apparent that this was a Hogwarts letter. For her. For Miss E. Babbit.

Hands shaking, she set the letter down on her desk and sat on the edge of her bed. She smoothed her hands over her skirt over and over, taking comfort in the familiar softness as she tried to even her breathing.

How was this possible? She had all but accepted the fact that she was a squib. The shame of her family, a dirty secret to be hidden away and never talked about or mentioned again. Her parents had suspected as much by the time she had turned seven without any signs of magic whatsoever manifesting around her - not even a basic transformation of brussel sprouts to sweets during dinner. It was ultimately confirmed, however, when her own Hogwarts acceptance letter never arrived. She had spent the whole year before her banishment daydreaming about her life at Hogwarts, still optimistic that there could be something magical inside of her. Her brother, Leo, came home every holiday with wonderful stories of his new friends and teachers, and the subjects he was learning at school. Even back then, at twelve years old, Eloise hadn’t been sure if he was actually hopeful she wasn’t a squib, or if he had been trying to prolong the fantasy for her before it all came crashing down.

Although she had had five years to come to terms with her new life, there was still a small part of her that hoped. A small “what if…”. She had tried time and time again to squash that tiny ray of optimism that would escape every so often, tried so very hard to cultivate a hard exterior that wouldn’t let any sort of vulnerability shine through. And that optimism was a vulnerability, after all. It was that vulnerability that had made it absolutely impossible for her to fit in the muggle world, and made it so that she didn’t really want to try.

Five years to come to terms with the fact that she needed a new purpose for her life and…

…not anymore?

Eloise grabbed the letter and greedily read through it again, drinking in all of the words. She paused at the end, thinking. Was this a forgery? Some sort of awful joke orchestrated by her brother? Leo had never been cruel to her in the past; in fact, he was the one who always encouraged her and was the most probable source of the small optimism that remained within her. However, she had no way of knowing how he had changed since she had last seen him. It had been, after all, five very long years. And not once had she heard from him, even though he had promised her through huge sobbing gulps that he would never abandon her. Maybe their parents had slowly poisoned him against her. It would be right on the nose for them, after all.

Looking at the envelope again, however…Third Bedroom on the Left…no. It was too specific. Nobody in her previous life had any reason to even want to contact her again, and nobody in her current life even knew what Hogwarts was, let alone have the ability to convincingly forge a letter just to have some fun at her expense.

A light, bubbly feeling began to spread throughout her body as it sunk in that this was real. She was going to Hogwarts. Soon, a - squinting at the letter again - a Professor Fig would be contacting her and giving her things to study. A huge grin slowly spread across her face and she hugged the letter to her chest as she fell back on her bed. She read through it again. Was it the fifth time already? It felt as though no amount of times rereading the letter would ever be enough.

Eloise got up and walked over to look at the calendar on her desk. She was surprised to see that September 1st was in only two days. The days at the finishing school moved in such a strange, sluggish way. They all felt the same. Monotonous. French and Latin and embroidery and household management and Merlin even knows what else all blending into each other in an endless parade of dusty classrooms and gossip and boredom.

The light feeling left her in an instant as, after years of practice, the optimism was squashed back down. But how will you even get to London? And, her brain added sneakily, you haven’t even shown any signs of magic. Maybe you’ll just be returned back here after they realize their mistake.

No, she thought fiercely, gripping the letter. Until -

A tapping came from the window. A tentative smile returned at the sight of a tawny brown owl with another envelope in its beak. She ripped it open as soon as it was in her hands (again addressed to Miss E. Babbit) and along with the letter a small, purple pouch fell out of the envelope and onto her bed.

Miss Eloise Babbit,

I am pleased to be the wizard charged with such an important task as escorting you to Hogwarts in two days’ time. It is something extraordinary to be accepted in your fifth-year, and as such, I expect extraordinary things from you. I have enclosed a small pouch along with this envelope, and in it are some items that will be vital to you in the upcoming days. I have included books for you to study at your leisure, and a small gobstone that will bring you to our rendezvous point in London. All you have to do is touch it at noon on the 1st and you will be transported instantly.

Your family has not been informed of your acceptance. I am sure you understand why - at this, Eloise scoffed quietly to herself - which is why I will personally be your escort.

I am looking forward to meeting you and bringing you to the sorting ceremony in two days’ time.

Yours,

Eleazar Fig

The handwriting was tiny and spidery and cramped, but it didn’t stop Eloise from reading it with the same vigor as the previous letter and as many times. Finally, she turned to the small pouch that had fallen onto her bed when she opened the second envelope. It must have had an invisible extension charm, because it was filled to the brim with books on basic spellwork and general wizarding history. Professor Fig had no way of knowing, but Eloise had already read many of these books and many more during the year her brother had started Hogwarts, as she had needed to know absolutely everything about what would be awaiting her. A few years may have passed since she had stepped foot in her family’s library, but she couldn’t get the books or their contents out of her brain even if she had wanted to. She had really wanted to forget everything she knew about the magical world when it was confirmed she was a squib but it was a futile effort. As she zoned out during her piano lessons, she would find herself mentally going through the movements to cast different charms.

It was painful to be thinking about things from the life that had been ripped away from her, to know that what she was thinking about would never come to pass, that she would never be able to wield magic - and yet she couldn’t find herself able to stop.

As Eloise picked out one of the books and settled into her armchair, a steely resolve overcame her.

She would prove that she deserved to be there, and was just as capable as any of they were. She would make her parents regret ever discarding her like she was nothing.

She was worthy. She was capable. And she would prove it.

The morning of September 1st dawned cold and rainy. Absolutely perfect.

Eloise had pretended to be sick the night before, and no one had suspected a thing when she stayed in bed long after all of the other girls had gotten ready and headed to breakfast. As the last of the chattering faded away down the hallway, Eloise finally got out of bed and prepared herself for the day. It was difficult to sit still long enough to braid her hair. Her fingers wouldn’t stop trembling and she had to restart countless times. Finally, she tied the black ribbon at the end into a neat bow and turned to the drawer of her desk to retrieve the small purple pouch she had hidden away.

Everything she deemed important enough to come along with her had already been placed inside: the books from Professor Fig, the hair ribbons gifted to her by her brother many years ago, and some clothing. Nothing else was coming with. She needed the fresh start. Besides, anything else she might need would be supplied, as her acceptance letter had specifically stated that any school supplies would be provided to her.

Waiting the hours before noon came along proved to be more difficult than Eloise had imagined. Time seemed to be moving slower than the molasses that had come with the breakfast sent up to her, the steady patter of the rain becoming a sort of metronome keeping time as she paced back and forth. Wasn’t there anything that could distract her, even for a bit? She glanced at the clock. Only five minutes had passed since the last time. 10.35.

The second hand ticking away in tandem with the sound of rain splashing against her window.

What if this was all a trick? What if she arrived at Hogwarts, and they turned her away because they realized they had made a mistake? After all, why would they admit a sixteen-year-old? Surely she was too old; every other student had started Hogwarts at the age of twelve and had shown signs of magic much earlier than that. She still hadn’t shown any signs of magical capability whatsoever, and didn’t feel any different than she had before receiving the letter. It had to be a fluke.

As her thoughts started veering into the melancholy she was prone to, she shook her head. No. Today was a happy, exciting day. She wasn’t going to squash the optimism down today, not when she needed it most. All of these thoughts she was having were simply that: thoughts. Not reality. Hogwarts never made a mistake, and in all of the history books she had read, she couldn’t recall an instance of someone being turned away at the door. Granted, she had also never heard of someone being admitted so late. But, better to focus on what she did know, which was that she had gotten the letter. It must be right in its assumption that she had magic.

Trying to pass the time was easier said than done. She ended up quizzing herself on all of the charms she had memorized in the books sent by Professor Fig, moving an imaginary wand in the precise movements needed to successfully cast and focusing on her pronunciation. She had studied all of these forms late into both nights she had had the books, and when she would eventually close her eyes to sleep, the wand movements were all she saw.

Eloise was determined that she would receive pity from nobody. Nobody was going to look at her like she was lacking. She had gotten enough of that to last a lifetime, and now that she was given this opportunity she wasn’t about to waste it.

When noon finally struck, Eloise was ready and waiting. She eagerly grabbed the gobstone that was sitting on her desk and felt the familiar tugging sensation in her navel as she was whisked away to London and the beginning of her new life.

next chapter

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 9/24/2024

you might be wondering “is my dear friend tumblr user girlfriendsofthegalaxy still unemployed?” the answer is yes. take this cat off my hands please i don’t think he’s causing the unemployment but he certainly isn’t helping

listening

via Wendy @dying-suffering-french-stalkers, Huoy Meas' ប្រគល់ក្ដីស្នេហ៍មកខ្ញុំវិញ. figuring out what this incredibly zippy Cambodian rock song is named and what it's about was really difficult bc spotify is a bane upon this earth and won't let you fucking copy-paste and OCR was not working on the Khmer script. i ended up listening to the first couple seconds of each of her songs on apple music, and finally figured out this roughly translates to Give Me Back My Love and is about begging a fuckboy for closure.

via the spotify discover weekly, Night Club's Pretty Girls Do Ugly Things. all Night Club's songs sound the same so if you like one, great news! i had this song on for a full gregorian hour bc, i am only a tiny bit ashamed to say, i was storyboarding a The Man With No Name fancam to this. i think it would go pretty hard.

Smoke you like a cigarette Choke you like a lariat Fatalistic tourniquet Do you want more?

-

reading

thank you mackintosh.

i did not Adore any of these comics from the library. i sort of enjoyed Night of the Ghoul, a one-volume TPB by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla. i think ive blogged about this before but every once in a while i'll get a bee in my bonnet to read some horror comics even though i am a giant baby about horror movies.

Night of the Ghoul is about how you can't save your dad from PTSD but also about a lost horror film and also about the extremely dad behavior of tracking down every scrap of info about an auteur. there's also a monster.

the subtle art changes from present day to the remains of the film to the non-film flashbacks are well done, imo. the cover screams mignola but the inside pages are really fun pulp nonsense. i love a piece of genre writing that rolls around and delights in being a piece of genre writing.

im doing my level best not to get sucked into tiktok but i DO love watching this lady revive antique nail polish and look for dupes for shades from like the 20s. she found an almost exact dupe for a shade produced during wwii which is crazy insane to me!!!

-

watching

The Asphalt Jungle (1950, dir. Huston), it's a very painterly heist noir. i even like Sterling Hayden in one of the more prominent roles, even though i think he generally has the appeal of undercooked dough.

much like Fritz Lang's M, it presents the criminal element of the city as its own class with its own reputation and reference systems. it got in some trouble with the censors for having a VERY clearly laid out heist plan and execution. it's also got the babiest Marilyn Monroe in one of her earliest roles

this was such a gloriously messy movie. everyone is such a fucking mess. this woman only known as Doll is heartbreakingly, head over heels in love with Sterling Hayden's character. she's a little flighty and bumbling and silly, but determined! they're constantly orbiting the gravitational weight of her desire for this man and desire for a real life with this man. and that's just one subplot! she has maybe five minutes total screentime! she should have gotten a supporting actress oscar!!! everyone acted their fucking hearts out and it was so much fun to watch!

-

playing

monument valley is in the netflix games library this month (i don't actually know what their liscencing agreements would even look like, they and the studios they worked with were very tightlipped about that when they were rolling this out three years ago) but i assume it's going to be on the service for a while. i have never played this game, which makes me feel a little bit like a bad gamer. you can tell it's ten years old from some of the color and texture choices, but WOW did literally everyone take inspiration from this game.

this is the platonic ideal of a phone game. i get why everyone went insane about it and there was a brief boom of geometry-based puzzle mobile games. it is MUCH much harder now to get people to pay money to play a game that has a planned endpoint and planned number of levels, so netflix is a good home for it.

i was often frustrated but always delighted. the level below involves making something happening that made me genuinely gasp out loud in glee. well worth the annoyance of downloading the netflix app and scrolling through the poorly labeled and poorly sorted carousel of games.

great retrospective, a bit about how you need to have tiny teams go off and just kind of fuck around and bring weird stuff back, and a lot about how they actually designed the levels

The end result had a pixel-perfect axonometric aesthetic that not only went hard on its references to Dutch master artist and printmaker Maurits Cornelis Escher, but also dug deep into classic video game design, going right back to early arcade machines and 8-bit titles. Each of the ten levels is like a piece of fine furniture, built with invisible dovetail joints and inlaid with marquetry, stuffed with secret compartments and little design flourishes. Gray cites the world of theatre and stage design, as well as graphics, as important keystones in the way the levels were constructed. ‘Ken would always talk about flower arranging, and how you frame a silhouette of a level on the screen,’ he says.

-

making

update on the Phantom Menace fabric: pinked the raw edges and threw it in the laundry again with a very large quantity of vinegar. 50% poly was too high for it to really do anything, which is interesting. it didn’t lessen the seam edge effects either, which is a little annoying bc the seams were so gigantic and that’s a good chunk of fabric to lose. i am going to buy a camp shirt pattern at some point when i have money again but for now it goes in The Box

also! thrifted a pack of o-rings for jars for a dollar and finally put my grains etc in my pretty jars. they’re going to live in the pantry but today they live out on the countertop

[agendabymooner]

about names: an amazing boy with an amazing name || cl16 scenario (1)

dad!charles leclerc x mom!ofc (hearth sister!ofc)

EXTENSION OF OF LONG LINES AND NAMES AND THE LECLERC DAYCARE

Summary: The Leclerc boys and their names go hand in hand. OR times when Charles and his wife Aimee had to explain that their children’s names are meaningful. 

Scenario summary: Charles and Aimee wondered what Hervé meant when he said that his name was silly and that he hated it. Thank goodness, Pascale Leclerc was the one that the boy cannot refuse as she comforts her grandson.

Content warning: Kids teasing kids, possible use of explicit language, fluff, dad!Charles content, the Leclerc family (Pascale and Leclerc brothers) content, briefly mentions Charles' dad, crappy French translations by Apple, sad kids being comforted, fluff, what is beta reading we write things at 2am and post it after lol

Note: One more before I dash out of my dorm for the day lmfaoo

masterlist

Aimee Leclerc was no stranger to chatty kids and pick-up schedules, so it was no wonder why she immediately found herself in front of the elementary school that stood gloriously in the middle of Monte-Carlo as she waited for her two children to be dismissed from the class for the day. 

It was a routine of hers now that her work in McLaren had become remote. Five children took up all of her time and between them and her work— she would’ve immediately left the company if the team made her choose. She’d rather be in Monaco while Charles continued to pursue his career as a racing driver. 

Zak Brown was empathetic enough to understand that a set of children wouldn’t be able to have a stable routine should they continue to travel around the world just to be with their parents who worked overseas, offering Aimee a chance to work at home and adapt to a better routine as she took care of her children. 

She could wait patiently if anybody ever asked her. She had no problem, knowing that she was able to finish her work long before she could pick up her eldest children. 

But the energy that her children had shown merely told her enough: they might have been either excited to see her or they thought that she was rushing them. She caught a glimpse of her twins as they stepped out of the elementary school, their uniforms somehow tidy and less wrinkled despite their busy day. 

“Maman! Devinez quoi?” Guess what? Jules jumped excitedly as he wrapped his arms around Aimee tightly, still jumpy and giddy as he spoke in English, “We did our quiz in maths!” 

“Oh? Is that right, J?” Aimee asked with a smile, her fingers running through her son’s wavy hair. It was surprising how her children’s hair continued to lose its volume as years passed— it was becoming more like Charles’ hair.

They were mini Charleses, indeed.

“Yes, Maman! I also— uh…” It seemed like Jules ran out of English immediately as he said, “J'ai fait si bien! Je n'ai perdu qu'un point!” I did so good! I only lost one point!

Aimee was merely thankful that she could understand French and Italian, or rather, she was thankful her private teacher taught her how to speak those languages; otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to understand her multilingual-speaking children. 

She primarily spoke English and had grown up practicing a standard accent in her Received Pronunciation. She never adapted to her husband’s speaking style, but learned to understand it nevertheless. Their children were being raised in Monaco, after all, and most people spoke in French or Italian. She was only thankful that she was able to teach them to speak English to preserve that part of them. Most of their cousins are raised in England and this gave them the opportunity to converse in that language. 

Anyways.

Aimee beamed at her son and exclaimed, “A good job done, Jules!” Then she turned to look at her other son, who was unusually quiet for such a normal day. Hervé, as Aimee learned while nurturing her ever-growing children, was never quiet — he was one of the boys who would often cause ruckus inside the Leclerc home. If he’s silent like this then Aimee knew he was feeling something along the lines of upset. 

Hervé was never upset. He was so much like his grandfather— his namesake. So joyous. Why was he feeling so down? Aimee didn’t know.

“Hervé, my love,” Aimee called softly, but he couldn’t hear. Jules turned to look at his twin and noticed the boy disassociated, giving his brother’s shirt a tug as Hervé finally looked up. The Leclerc matriarch (2.0) smiled gently and asked, “Is it a long day for you?” 

“Oui, Maman,” he replied quietly, offering her a nod and nothing more. 

Aimee had led them to the Aston Martin family SUV as soon as he answered and drove off to head home. Jules was chatting Aimee’s ears off and it somehow defeaned her. It wasn’t because Jules was loud, no; Hervé wasn’t even talking, and his silence defeaned her.

“Herb,” she called as she looked at the rear view mirror, noticing how his jaw clenched before crossing his arms. “Hervé?”

“Stupid, silly name,” Jules hadn’t seen Hervé mutter those words beneath his breath but Aimee certainly had, leaving the mother confused. What the hell was happening?

“H,” Aimee called once more. Hervé’s angry eyes finally looked up to meet Aimee’s worried ones. Even if she wanted to remind him to calm down, she knew that it would lead to his outburst so she avoided it and asked, “Da’s home? Do you want to tell him about your maths quiz today? Maybe you and Jules can show him the art you made for Mademoiselle Blanc?” 

“Hmp,” the eldest Leclerc twin huffed, turning away from his mother and looking out the window. 

Jules’s eyes narrowed as he gave a brief glimpse at Aimee, turning towards his twin, “Are you okay, H?” 

“Oui,” Hervé muttered, acting as some sort of assurance, but this only made Jules look at his mother with worry. Aimee flashed a smile at her son before continuing to drive on the way home. It was another thing that the Leclerc boys had gotten from their father; they were bad liars. 

It only got worse when Aimee pulled up to their driveway, and the boys made their way inside. Jules dashed out of the car with his backpack to navigate his way around the house, trying to find their father before he gasped, “Da!” 

Aimee watched her other son carefully, trying to read Hervé’s behaviour as he walked past Aimee. She still wasn’t sure what was going on. 

“Oh! Hello, Jules!” Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari driver who had just returned from a doubleheader, grinned gracefully at the sight of his son. In his arm was one of his young twins, Anthoine — or Tony, for most people — while the other half of the pair, Alain, sat on the playmat with his book propped open. “Comment va l'école aujourd'hui?” How is school today?

“Very good, Da!” Jules grinned toothily, “Madame Hurst m'a donné une étoile pour mon quiz de mathématiques!” Mrs. Hurst gave me a star for my maths quiz! 

“Ah, really? Cela signifie que vous avez fait un excellent travail en étudiant avec maman alors,” it means you’ve done a good job at studying with Mummy, then. Charles glanced past Aimee’s legs, seeing the other pair of his twins as he greeted the quiet boy, “Bonjour, Hervé. Comment allez-vous?” Good afternoon, Hervé. How are you?

“D'accord, Da,” Fine. Hervé muttered, his irritation noticed easily by his father as Charles scowled lightly. Every adult in their family knew that it meant trouble if Charles gave this look. 

At first, the Ferrari driver tried to make a light of the situation, “Why the long face, Hervé? The more you do that, the more you’ll look like your Uncle Toto. Give Da a smile?”

“No,” but Hervé wasn’t having it as he snapped at his father firmly, the tip of his ears turning red as he stomped off.

“No?” 

“Don’t call me that!” Hervé snapped, his eyes turning dark as he got angry and upset.

“What? Hervé���“ Charles tried to reason out, but the 7-year-old was anything but reasonable at the moment. 

“I’m not Hervé! Don’t call me that! It’s a stupid name!” 

Charles could have sworn that he, too, was seeing red as he placed the toddler in his arms before marching off the playroom. He followed after his son and exclaimed, “Hervé Louis Sebastien René Mathieu Leclerc! Come back here!” 

“No! No more talking! Leave me alone, Da!”

Thud. The boy had just slammed the door on his father’s face, and Charles— Charles was fuming. 

He loves his boys dearly; he does. But it was moments like this that somehow made him different from the loving father that he is. He wasn’t even sure why he was so upset— was it because of the fact that his son just yelled that he didn’t want to talk, or did he just hear his son say that his father’s name was stupid? He wasn’t sure. 

He was just… upset and confused. 

Charles wasn’t sure where he’d gone wrong with becoming a parent to his sons. He did everything he could despite being a busy driver— he took care of them whenever Aimee was out, he taught them how to be kind to other people and he taught them how to love. Hervé had never been this upset before and it bothered Charles and Aimee to no end. What was he genuinely upset about?

Then they both recalled what the boy said. Hervé wasn’t his name. He thought that the name was silly, from what Aimee had told Charles. Where did that even come from? 

“I— truthfully, I don’t even know where that came from, Charles,” Aimee admitted as she sat with him on the couch that night, sighing heavily while the driver rested his head against his hand. 

They tried asking the boy, from asking him to come down for dinner (with Aimee giving up and leaving a bowl of rice and chicken in front of his door) to Charles asking to come into his room (with Charles not receiving any form of response). But alas, Hervé had no response. He didn’t even respond when they tried to ask if he’d like to come over to his Uncle Lorenzo or Arthur’s place. 

No luck. 

“He didn’t mention anything at all,” she continued, keeping her voice down to avoid waking any of their children up. “He was muttering to himself, I’ve no bloody clue he was upset.” 

“I didn’t know either,” Charles murmured, grabbing a hold of her hand and kissing the knuckles of it. “He isn’t normally like this— he’d tell us if there’s something wrong.”

It was true. Hervé, much like the other Leclerc children, never got into a fight with a friend before. He was upfront about his feelings and would tell either his parents or playmate about being upset. There were some instances when he almost snapped but otherwise managed to control his emotions— he was so much like his brothers and mother in a sense. Aimee always approached them with the five-finger solution before they could even burst into tears or anger. 

So, for Hervé to keep quiet? 

Even Aimee couldn’t get an answer from him. What did he mean by his name was a stupid name? Charles asked himself this a couple of times. 

His name was Hervé— that was a typical French name, no? What made Hervé think that his name, his late grandfather’s name, was silly? Charles tried approaching his son about the matter every minute since the boys got home from school, but much to his dismay, the boy evaded him. 

But there was only one person that Hervé wouldn’t refuse to answer. Much like his late grandfather, Hervé never refused his Mamé. 

So the next day, Pascale Leclerc — the grandmother of the Leclerc boys — took the liberty to have a day off with the upset boy. Jules felt incomplete without Hervé in the school but went nonetheless, and the five-year-old boy PJ went to kindergarten while Aimee, Charles and the youngest twins went out. Pascale stayed at home with Hervé and baked cookies with him. 

After putting the cookie dough into the preheated oven, Pascale served the boy some tea, to which Hervé gratefully drank as his grandmother sat across from him.

She sighed and placed a hand on his knee, “Est-il vrai que tu t'es fâché contre ton père, Hervé?” Is it true that you got angry with your dad, Hervé? She asked, her question leaving him frozen as he looked at Pascale guiltily. 

Hervé carefully sat his mug down on the table and nodded solemnly, not uttering a word. Pascale asked, “Has it been a rough day for you? That’s why you got angry?” 

Hervé shook his head as Pascale suggested, “Veux-tu dire à Mamé ce qui t'a mis en colère? Peut-être pouvons-nous trouver une solution ensemble?” Will you tell Mamé what has gotten you angry? Maybe we can find a solution together?

The longer the silence lasted, the more the tears flowed out of Hervé’s eyes as his lips pursed and trembled. The poor boy couldn’t help but stammer, “Mon nom est tellement silly et stupide, Mamé!” My name is so silly and stupid! He continued to cry out, “Kylian a dit que mon nom venait de «Herbe et fromage» et c'est très stupide! Je n'aime pas mon nom, Mamé!” Kylian said that my name came from ‘Herb and cheese’ and that it’s stupid! I don’t like my name, Mamé! 

Pascale’s eyes nearly teared up at the confession that Hervé made. He hated his name because someone made him feel like it wasn’t worth appreciating. Her poor grandson was subjected to this kind of behaviour, which felt so… disheartening. 

“Oh, Hervé,” Pascale immediately reached out to soothe the boy, shushing him quietly while he sobbed. His eyes shut as tears continued to flow down, soaking Pascale’s cardigan in the process. “Your name is not stupid or silly; did you know that?”

His crying lasted for several minutes, with Pascale patiently soothing him in the process. When his sobbing quietened, Pascale took this as an opportunity to tell him about his name.

She sighed shakily, not wanting to shed a tear or two as she explained, “Da, Uncle Lorenzo and Uncle Arthur had their own Da— you have seen him before in the pictures, oui?” She felt the boy nod through her chest as she hummed and continued, “That was your Papy. Do you know what his name was? His name was Hervé.” 

“Her—“ the boy hiccuped. “Hervé? Like me?”

“Oui, mon amour,” Pascale replied with a soft smile, “Hervé like you.”

“You are sooo much like your Papy Hervé, that is why Maman and Da named you after him,” Pascale continued, “you are as funny and happy as him. When he was still alive I used to call him Herb. I loved him so much, mon chou.

“And when he was gone, your Da and your uncles filled the rest of the space in my heart that you and your brothers soon took over,” Pascale smiled, “and I think that your name is beautiful like it is with my Herb’s.” 

“It is?” 

“Oui, my love,” Pascale replied, “your name is what keeps your Papy’s memories alive for your Da and your uncles. Do not let anyone think that it is a silly name because you are an amazing boy with an amazing name. Your Maman and Da love you so much, and your Da? He loved his Papa so much that he decided to name another person he loved after him. That’s you, mon cœur.” 

Ever since then, Hervé learned how to embrace his name and would often explain to everyone where his name came from, even in the grid and paddock. 

Nobody needed to ask where his name came from— after all, he is Hervé Leclerc. He was just as joyful and enthusiastic as his grandfather. 

[bomberqueen17]

Liveblogging the Aubreyad: Book 3, HMS Surprise (part 1)

This one, I made notes on my phone while listening to the audiobook, so we shall see how well I distill them.

The series is hitting its stride now as a series, I think. M&C was kind of oneshottish, no real expectation of continuation; Post Captain was the pleased "oh! i get another one? great!" where he then crammed in three books' worth into one, and now HMS S is "ah. this is a series! Settle this plot down, then." pacing-wise.

So we pick up with politicians wrangling over the aftermath of the previous book, which had seemed to end so tidily and on such a happy note. Of course that is not the end-- there's a series now.

So at the end of the previous book, Jack was one of five captains sharing out a prize of some several million pounds, and this would have made him enormously wealthy and guaranteed his marriage. Of course.

In the opening scene of this one we hear that, legally, Spain had not declared war on Britain at the time, so legally, that money is not prize money, so legally, it should just be kept entirely for the government and not distributed to the sailors and officers who actually did the fighting at all, despite that being the well-established custom of the day. Legally, see, they don't have to hand it out, even though the people who designed the mission, and the people who executed the mission, all felt certain that it was a legit prize at the time and acted accordingly.

Stephen's friend Sir Joseph, head of Naval Intelligence, is arguing that of course it should be prize money, for large numbers of very good reasons, not least that he designed the mission with that in mind.

But the new First Lord of the Admiralty is a civilian politician. And he openly mentions Stephen Maturin's name, despite the fact that Sir Joseph had stressed to him that the man is a confidential agent. The First Lord does not catch the hint. And then he asks who the captains are, and remembers that Jack Aubrey's father is an opposition member in Parliament, and immediately Sir Joseph knows that it's over; this is political wrangling now, and this man will make a decision that harms the national interest and the morale of the service and everything else simply because General Aubrey is a politician he does not like.

So there is no prize money. And Jack is not out of debt. And cannot marry Sophie. And, far far far worse, Stephen's name is now exposed to a crowd of non-confidential people of no particular discretion, particularly marked as a secret agent with knowledge of Spanish affairs.

Anyway-- zooming out from that crackerjack first scene, and it is despite how it sounds, it's really well-told political intrigue with a very good layering of easy-to-understand, easy-to-deplore bullshit (and Admiral Harte gets his shitty little nose in there being a massive hypocrite, have no fear) -- the general situation is thus:

Jack, still in the Lively, is in the Med bottling up the French fleet in Toulon, and is engaged to Sophie-- legally, with all kinds of avaricious wrangles from Mrs. Williams, all the terms and conditions he acquiesced to unprotesting, so that Sophie will legally own most of their joint property. Diana has run off to India with Canning; Stephen has been collecting intelligence on them, though mostly it seems for the purpose of hurting himself with it. Stephen is to go to Minorca to do more intelligence stuff despite the fact that his name has been exposed-- the news will not have reached them, Stephen says coolly, declining to cancel the mission.

The Lively has a schoolmaster to oversee the young gentlemen's lessons. (Prior to being a midshipman, a young gentleman will be expected to have served three years of sea time, with the status of First Class Volunteer; many are listed as servants during this time, and many of them do not actually report to the ship during this time-- entering a friend's son on one's books to say he was on a ship long enough that when he joins he can just start as a midshipman with no waste of time is a perfectly accepted kind of little fraud, very common in Jack's social circles. "Young gentleman" as a category seems to include both the volunteers and rated midshipmen. But the Lively has a number of quite young gentlemen actually aboard, including the five-year-old [or, seven. he was five in the previous book but in this book, some weeks later, he is now seven] son of one of the lieutenants, as he came home from a voyage to find his wife dead and no family remaining to care for the child, so the little boy has been onboard ever since. Apparently Babbington may actually have still been a volunteer during some of the events of Master and Commander, but of course this is not consistently represented. I fully support an author doing whatever the hell he wants with timelines, and it is absolutely consistent with the inconsistency of historical records, LOL.)

Anyway-- Jack also actually went to sea as a volunteer very young, and the ship he was on did not have a competent schoolmaster, so he has suffered his entire life from not a very good education. He is sitting in on the young gentlemen's lessons ostensibly because he is concerned for them and wants to ensure they learn what they must, but in practice, he is taking advantage of this opportunity to get a proper thorough grounding in his own education, belatedly, and is thereby unlocking a real true love of mathematics, heretofore only instinctively guessed-at.

The Lively has seen long prior service in the South Pacific, and as such has a number of Asian crew members aboard. (So we do now see the word Chinaman occur, which unlike Indiaman does refer to humans, but is used as a neutral descriptor; I will nevertheless henceforth be avoiding its use, though to be fair I think it only occurs once in the book anyway.) Jack is pleased with the Chinese and Malayan crewmen, largely, as they all are unfailingly polite and have a number of useful skills, and are excellent seamen. But he finds out during an elaborate cutting-out expedition that many of them had formerly been pirates; they slaughter their opponents with absolutely stunning efficiency in a quite practiced manner despite how little combat the Lively itself has seen.

They make for Minorca to pick up Stephen but he does not make the rendezvous. Another Catalan man appears, and says Stephen has been taken, and is being tortured by the French in Port Mahon. Jack knows the city. With the Catalans, he sets up a rescue mission, and frees the prisoners, burns the house (coincidentally, the house where Captain and Molly Harte used to live), and rescues Stephen, who has had all his fingernails pulled out and has been stretched on a rack. (Touchingly, he has hallucinated Jack coming in to rescue him before, and so when it truly happens, is surprisingly calm, mistaking it for another hallucination.) It is a taut little action, badass as fuck. The officers of the Lively are disappointed when Jack won't take them, but this is not an official sanctioned expedition and there will be no glory, no report, no credit, no advancement of career-- it is simply a pragmatic necessity, and he wants only people who know the ground (his own people, Killick and Bonden) plus enough to pad out the numbers to make it work, so he takes those of the Chinese and Malay pirates who choose to volunteer, since this is just the ticket for them. (All of them volunteer.)

(A side note. The Catalan who helps them is named Joan. The audiobook narrator pronounces this Catalan man's name, which in Spanish would be Juan, and is pronounced the same, as the English woman's name Joan. Come on Simon. I believed in you.)

They get Stephen and get out, and we resume the tale in England with Stephen staying at an inn in Portsmouth. The Lively has been handed back over to her real captain, Hammond, at Gibraltar.

Jack is immediately arrested for debt as he tries to get the invalid Stephen into a carriage to go from Portsmouth to London, so off he goes to a sponging-house, hero or no; he goes quietly and resignedly. Sir Joseph Blaine is shocked to hear that heroic Jack is imprisoned; he had arranged for at least a consolation, an ex gratia payment, for the captains who were denied prize rights over the Spanish treasure, but it comes out that the agent has been slow in paying it out, and Jack is helpless without it. Blaine resolves to see it settled, at least, and does-- Jack is released. At least provisionally; there are other debts.

Sir Joseph, in his gratitude for Stephen's rescue, gets Jack another ship-- HMS Surprise, on an errand to carry an emissary to Kampong. It's a good long mission in a lovely ship (in which Jack served as a midshipman long ago), and he hopes it will give Jack's affairs time to settle.

Stephen turns to Bonden, asking him to write a letter for him, since his hands are so injured, and it comes out abruptly that Bonden is illiterate.

'Bonden,' cried Stephen, 'take pen and ink, and write -' 'Write, sir?' cried Bonden. 'Yes. Sit square to your paper, and write: Landsdowne Crescent - Barret Bonden, are you brought by the lee?' 'Why, yes, sir; that I am - fair broached-to. Though I can read pretty quick, if in broad print; I can make out a watch-bill.' 'Never mind. I shall show you the way of it when we are at sea, however: it is no great matter - look at the fools who write all day long - but it is useful, by land. You can ride a horse, sure?' 'Which I have rid a horse, sir; and three or four times, too, when ashore.'

Bonden takes the message on foot, and goes and fetches Sophie and Pullings, Sophie to write the letter from Stephen to Jack, and Pullings to carry it. This allows them to arrange for Sophie to come along to the rendezvous, so that she can see and speak to Jack briefly without her mother's knowledge. Jack had tried to release her from the engagement when his renewed troubles with debt became apparent, but she wished to refuse, but could not speak to him directly about it, so this is their chance.

She sneaks out at night and goes in the coach with Stephen, and there gets a half an hour (well, forty-five minutes; Stephen with the timepiece is soft-hearted) of conversation with Jack before they must part ways, her to go home and sneak back in to her house, Stephen and Jack to go on to the Surprise, waiting in Plymouth.

The Surprise makes her way off around the world, saddled with a moderately ineffectual but amiable first lieutenant named Hervey who has influential friends, and a second lieutenant named Nicolls who is inoffensive if clearly suffering from major depression, but with Tom Pullings as the third lieutenant, competent and familiar. They are becalmed awhile, and Jack teaches Stephen to swim-- badly, but at all, which is an accomplishment.

'Did you see me?' [Stephen] cried as Jack came nearer. 'I swam the entire length: four hundred and twenty strokes without a pause!' 'Well done,' said Jack, swinging himself into the boat with an easy roll. 'Well done indeed.' Each stroke must have propelled Stephen a little less than three inches, for the Surprise was only a twenty-eight gun ship, a sixth-rate of 579 tons - the kind so harshly called a jackass frigate by those not belonging to her. 'Should you like to come aboard? Let me give you a hand.'

Some of the men get scurvy. They run short of supplies and are down to eating rats, which they euphemistically term "millers" out of absurd delicacy. Stephen has pet rats, he is feeding them madder as an experiment.

They find St. Paul's Rocks, where Stephen begs to be put ashore for a moment to study the birds. Jack declines, as it is Sunday and one cannot ask the men to work on Sunday, but the second lieutenant Nicolls volunteers to take him over in the little rowboat for a few hours.

A sudden squall damages the ship and washes poor depressed Nicolls away, along with the little boat; Stephen survives, but is stranded, and the Surprise driven away by the wind. Some undefined time later (two days?), Babbington comes in the barge with Bonden and others rowing double-banked in a great hurry straight into the eye of the wind where the ship herself could not come, certain the Doctor must be dead but hoping against hope to find him. They do, alive, and bring him back to the ship.

Stephen claims that the extreme heat on the shelter-less rock has worked miracles on his torture-twisted tendons.

'I wish you joy of your rescue, Doctor,' said Mr Atkins, the only man aboard who was not pleased to see the barge return: Stephen was attached to the mission in an artfully vague capacity, and the envoy's instructions required him to seek Dr Maturin's advice; Mr Atkins's advice or indeed presence was nowhere mentioned and he was consumed with jealousy. 'May I fetch you a towel or some other garment?'- with a look at Stephen's scrofulous shrunken belly. 'You are very officious, sir; but this is the garment in which I shall appear before God; I find it answers pretty well. It may be termed my birthday suit.' 'That has choked the bugger off,' said Pullings to Babbington, just above his breath, out of a motionless face. 'That is one in his bleeding eye.'

During Stephen's absence, however, he finds that someone has stolen his rats, and he is furious.

Babbington is given an acting promotion to lieutenant to replace Nicolls. His perfect delight in this is marred only by his guilt at having, along with the rest of the larboard midshipmen's berth, eaten Stephen's rats, and he blubberingly confesses. Stephen revenges himself only mildly for this offense.

Jack wished to avoid putting ashore in Brazil, to avoid official delays, but Stephen suggests they just find a village and buy green stuff there, which works. Stephen of course has to go ashore. He promises not to return with any vampires, but in the event comes back with a three-toed sloth, which does not like Jack. Jack wins it over by giving it grog, in time-honored sailor fashion. Stephen discovers this and is indignant, leading to possibly the funniest line in this book:

Stephen looked sharply round, saw the decanter, smelt to the sloth, and cried, 'Jack, you have debauched my sloth.'

The dignitaries aboard are annoying and take up an enormous amount of space, including Jack's entire great cabin, so that he must room with Stephen in a smaller space. The envoy himself, a Mr. Stanhope, is dignified and kind (though a bit remote: "Once he had established that Jack and Hervey were connected with families he knew, he treated them as human beings; all the others as dogs - but as good, quite intelligent dogs in a dog-loving community"), but his head secretary, Mr. Atkins, is an officious, self-important, tale-bearing busybody universally loathed onboard.

Stephen teaches Bonden to read and write. They have their lessons up in the top, for privacy-- Bonden is not keen to be mocked on his scholarly habits, and hides the book when the midshipman Callow comes up to deliver a message. Stephen doesn't notice this.

They get, finally, to the high latitudes, where there is a huge blow, though Stephen is consoled by finally seeing the albatross. The dignitaries complain that the ship leaks and demand better accomodations. Stephen refuses to pass the message and tells the officious secretary to go tell Jack himself. The man declines to do this, as Jack is currently lashed to the wheel in the driving rain working like hell round the clock with all hands to keep the ship from broaching-to and foundering, and indeed shortly after winds up clinging for his life to a broken mast in the front of the ship trying like hell to keep the sea from overwhelming them. Surprise is damaged internally, her timbers strained, and they have to limp the rest of the way. Not a single rat is left in the ship, the stores are dangerously low.

I wasn't going to do this but I'm going to divide this. I swear I'll get better at making these short. I'm kind of doing a... rehabilitative exercise on my ability to write, here. Coming up is part two, Bombay! With critical updates on How Many Indiamen Tom Pullings Has Been In! And you'll never guess who gets the clap!

[dramatic-crying]

good old days // ryan dunn x reader

Writing prompt: "She runs into her high school crush and reminisces about the time that they had a really cute moment"

Summary: While working the closing shift at your job, you run into someone you haven't seen in years.

Work count: ~1.5k

Warnings: MAJOR FLUFF, swearing, cute shit

"Will that be all, sir?" You ask, making drinks for the man currently sitting across the bar counter from you.

"Yeah, whatever. Just put it on my tab, will ya, sweetheart?" He remarks, giving you a wink before walking to his friends halfway across the bar.

"You got it, dick," you say under your breath.

"Hey, Y/N!" You hear to your right. You immediately turn to see your manager walking towards you, your heart instantly dropping when you realize that she might have heard what you just said. However, despite your fears, she smiles at you warmly and says, "You wanna take your 30 minute break now before we get super busy?"

"Yes, please," you exaggerate, smiling at her as you rush towards the back. All you grab is a pack of cigarettes and the small dinner of some fries and chicken strips your coworker had cooked for you at the beginning of your shift. You check the clock, just to check how much of your never-ending shift has passed. 9:17, perfect.

"See ya in half an hour!" You shout to your coworkers before walking out the front door and heading to one of the tables placed in front of the bar. You sit down and quickly dig into your meal, feeling like you haven't eaten in days (when, in reality, it's been about 5 hours).

About eating all the lukewarm french-fries you had, you pause to have a cigarette before having the rest of your food. "Hey, dude! Mind sharing one?" You hear from right behind you. As you glance towards where the voice came from, you find a relatively tall, smiling man with a buzz cut.

You barely mutter out an answer before you see a strong hand land on the shoulder of the first man. As the first man moves out of the way, you see a vaguely familiar face behind him. He's blonde, has enormous blue eyes, and a shit-eating grin on his face, and you could swear you've seen him somewhere before. "Will you stop messing with people while we get food for five goddamn seconds?" He playfully complains, shoving his friend away from you. The blonde then looks to you, while saying, "I'm so sorry about him, he doesn't really know boundaries..." By the end of this man's sentence, his voice has almost completely trailed off and his friend heads back into the restaurant. He just... stares into your eyes for what feels like an eternity. He shakes his head a moment later, breaking eye contact. "I should go," he mumbles, beginning to leave.

"Wait!" You shout, expressing the only words you could muster in this entire situation. You turn around in your chair to be able to fully see the mystery man. You chuckle slightly as you realize you have this random man's entire attention. "You just look really familiar," you chuckle as you sweep your hair out of your face. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound weird at all."

He lets out a little giggle and moves the sunglasses he was wearing to sit on top of his head. "I was actually gonna say the same thing about you," he admits, taking a few steps closer. You gesture to the other end of the table you're sitting at.

"Wanna join me?" You suggest, taking another pull of your cigarette. He looks unsure for a few seconds, then begins to move over to the table, taking the seat that you offered. He suddenly holds his hand out to you and says, "I'm Ryan, by the way."

You take his hand and respond, "I'm Y/N." After this action, the man, who you now know as Ryan, smiles twice as big as he did before. "Did you happen to go to Westchester High?"

Ryan's eyes widen with realization as his mouth drops open. "Oh my god, of fucking course! I totally should've recognized you, you were in my P.E. class, right?" Your face begins to feel warm as blush rushed to your cheeks, but you still answer his question.

"I think so, yeah. The teacher, Mr. Wilson, was always a fuckin' bitch to you," you exclaim while chuckling. Ryan covers his face in embarrassment.

"Well, can't say I didn't deserve it since I ditched his class most of the time."

"So, what have you been doing since high school?" You inquire, hoping to continue this conversation with a long-lost acquaintance.

He clears his throat, and you shift in your seat in anticipation of his answer. "Well, I actually started filming movies with my friends, and we just started filming a T.V. show with some other really cool guys."

You can feel your eyes widen in surprise; it's not every day that someone you used to know happens to be famous. "Holy shit, good for you!"

He shakes his head while laughing small bit. "Yeah, well, it can get pretty hectic every once in a while." You scoff in response and say, "Don't tell me that you're complaining about being famous."

He shrugs his shoulders with a neutral look on his face. "What can I say, I'm not much of an extrovert."

You nod your head and say, "Yeah, I guess that's fair."

"What about you?" He questions. "What have you been up to?"

Just before you were about to answer, your manager comes out of the bar and begins to yell to you. "Y/N, what are you doing?? It's been 45 minutes!"

You whip back around to Ryan with a terrified look on your face. You were about to apologize, but the blonde man stopped you. "It's okay," he declares, smiling at you. "We can reminisce in the good old days later, maybe after you get off of work?"

Instantly, you nod in response. "Absolutely, um... I get off at 1."

"Oof, long night," he responds.

"I know," you say, giggling.

"Well, whatever. It's worth it," Ryan admits, his puppy-dog eyes staring straight into your soul.

You bite your lip. "Okay, see ya later." And, with that, you go back into the restaurant.

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

It was finally time for you to go home, and you couldn't wait. You rushed out of the bar as fast as you could, ensuring you had all your belongings with you, so you didn't have to return until your next shift.

As you step outside, you feel the slight trickle of light rain. "Great," you sigh, soon realizing you were going to have to walk home in the pouring rain. You hear someone greet you out of nowhere and you shriek slightly in surprise. However, not surprisingly, you soon see Ryan doubled over, laughing his ass off. What a dick. "Jesus, what the fuck were you doing in the shadows?? You're gonna give someone a fuckin' heart attack one day," you exclaim, holding your hand over your heart.

"Oh my god, you should've seen your face!" Ryan cries, still hysterically laughing. "You jumped like three feet into the air!"

"Shut up," you groan, walking over and shoving him slightly. He finally begins to calm down, but it's extremely easy to tell his eyes were tearing up with how hard he was laughing. "What are you even doing here still?"

"Well, I mean, you said we could talk after you get off of work, so I just thought I would... wait for you," he says.

You raise your eyebrows, and he seems to catch onto the reason why.

"Okay, so that sounded a lot less creepy in my head. But do you think I could at least walk you home?"

You take a few seconds to think, but it really isn't even a question for you. "Sure, why not?"

He grins in response and holds out his hand for you to take. You roll your eyes but take his hand anyway.

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

It only took about 15 minutes to walk back to your apartment, but the entire time you two were laughing like idiots while reminiscing about the stupid shit you did in high school.

"Right, right, and then Raab ended up getting expelled because of it!" Ryan yells.

"For smearing shit all over the school's lockers?" You cry in disgust.

Ryan hums in response and giggles once again. Once you two had properly calmed down, you point out that you both had arrived at your apartment. It almost looks as though Ryan is upset as he walks you up to your apartment building's front door. You both stop in front of the building, and he gently takes your hands in his.

"I know this is gonna sound weird, and possibly creepy, but you are really, really pretty. Beautiful, even." He remarks, biting his lip as though he's pondering what to say next.

"Yes?" You question, urging him to speak what's on his mind.

"Can I... kiss you?" He sheepishly looks up at you through his eyelashes.

You scoff and say, "Is that even a question?" You then cautiously grab his chin and bring him in for a passionate kiss. After almost 10 seconds, you both pull back for air. He rests his forehead on yours.

"Wow," he says in awe.

You slowly pull back his face to find that his cheeks are slightly dusted pick. "Do you wanna know something?" You whisper. He just nods his head in response. "I've been waiting for you to do that since high school."

[justrandomfanfictionskh]

We Should have Stayed in Gotham ch 4

(Almost every Maribat fic I read has the akuma class going to Gotham. But tell me which is more likely, a class touring the city of crime, or a class touring the city of lights? So here it is, the Daminette fic that only I asked for, where Gotham goes to Paris, and the poor students have to grapple with the fact that they have competition for the most dangerous city in the world. I wonder what will happen?) (a/n: Warning dark Conversation. Don't be taken off guard.)

ao3 Beginning Previous

Despite what his brothers might say, Damian did not hate fun. He just hated their idiotic brand of fun that usually found them needing Bruce and the WE PR team to bail them out of jail while Barbara laughed at them from the other side of the bars. (He would never forgive Todd from stopping him from freeing the Zoo Animals. They would have gotten away with it if he had just followed orders.) Still, he planned to have fun on this trip, especially at the Louvre. He had always wanted to see the inside of this place, the art, the history, maybe even correct some of the factual errors. A scavenger hunt would not interfere with that, even if it was tedious and pointless.

But then Alix and Kathryn had skated by waving a half-completed work sheet shouting, “You’re falling behind!” Apparently, they had gotten a head start by going through her father’s office. Mendeleiev just groaned as manic grins spread across multiple students’ faces, including Marinette’s.

 And so it was, that before any of the teachers could stop them, the Parisians had grabbed their Gothamite’s hand and took off running through the halls of the most famous museum in the world. Damian didn’t know how to react as Marinette pulled him through wing after wing, her hand holding his in a vice grip, until they stopped in the Egyptian hall. He was surprised to see that she wasn’t panting, even though she had to be running at full speed in order to stay ahead of him.

Instead she just skidded to a stop and began to say in very broken German, “Ok…the first…question…is about…”

Damian cleared his throat, and said in French “You want to win this, right?” Marinette cocked her head but nodded. “Then I think it will be best if we stick to our fluent languages. We can help each other after we finish demolishing your insane classmates.”

Marinette grinned and then said in English, “Very well, but what about your classmates. Won’t they be a problem?”

Damian glanced at his work sheet and raised an eyebrow. “I doubt they will be much help. After all I’m not even sure what this first question means. Is it some sort of riddle?”

Marinette laughed and pulled him deeper into the wing. “Sabrina and your class representative, no you call it president, made this to encourage us to ask questions about each other,” she explained, “‘The scroll that awoke the Pharaoh, and revealed the secret of the Bug,’ is a reference to the akuma Pharaoh. He was a researcher here at the Louver whose theory on resurrection magic was dismissed, so he was akumatized in order to prove it worked. He tried to sacrifice Alya to the god Ra.”

Damian squashed a quip about how that would not have been the worst thing, instead settling on the more pressing question, “And the secret of the Bug?”

Marinette stopped in front of an old papyrus scroll, her smile fond and almost nostalgic as she looked at it. She pointed at the image of a woman with a yoyo in a spotted robe fighting the Pharaoh. “It was during this fight that it was revealed that Ladybug was over five thousand years old.”

Damian nodded as he looked at the scroll with consideration. “I thought the SpotsOn blog said that the title of Ladybug was a mantle passed down.”

“It is,” Marinette said as she scribbled on her work sheet. “But it was this scroll that set the question in motion. Since then scholars have been scouring the artifacts looking for people who could have a Miraculous Holder.”

“So why is it on our work sheet?” Damian asked.

And Marinette once more smiled as if at a fond memory. “I was with Alya when she found this. I got turned into one of the hundred mummies meant to aid in the sacrifice. Believe it or not we were actually good friends back then.”

Damian opened his mouth to say something, but Marinette clapped her hands and spun towards him with a smile. “Alright, the first one was for Paris, the second one should be for Gotham. Alix and Kathryn, have a good head start, but if we run, and take a few short cuts I know, then we should be able to catch up and beat them!”

Damian stifled a grin with a smirk. Her competitive spirit was infectious, and it pulled at his own instincts to push them to victory. And he was so tempted to give into it. He was the Son of the Bat after all, there was no way they could lose. But Grayson was always warning him that he overdid it, so he fought the urge to string trip wire everywhere and looked down at his sheet. His smirk turning devilish. “Are there any bat artifacts in the Chinese Wing?”

Marinette nodded briskly, “Tang Dynasty, this way!” And with that she had grabbed his hand and was once again pulling him through the Louvre at a devastating pace. And as the game went on, Damian stopped denying the genuine and bright smile that was slowly growing on his lips. But even as he gave into his more competitive instincts, he noticed a few interesting details about the Parisians.

For example, the Museum had obviously prepared for them, because they had roped off designated running lanes so the students could go wild without breaking anything or disrupting the other guests. And as they zoomed past, while the tourists stared in shock, the employees and locals laughed and cheered them on. It was strange considering that in Gotham they would have had security called on them ages ago.

Another thing was that all the Parisians were strangely athletic. Even the ones who should have been out of breath at the first sprint, vaulted and laughed as if it was nothing. At the pace he and Marinette were keeping, he expected that she would have to slow down after the first three questions. Instead, she only seemed to gain speed as she pulled him after her in a rush of adrenaline. And she never slowed down. Even when her classmate, the tall Chinese one, barreled toward them with his partner on his back, Marinette never slowed. She just pulled Damian down so that they slid down the slick floor, as the boy vaulted over them with ease.

Leaping to her feet, Marinette continued to pull Damian along even as her peer shouted, “I’m going to get you Mari!”

“In you dreams Kim!” she shouted. She beamed with pure joy, and Damian felt his own adrenaline muddling his senses, because he found himself mirroring her.

“What was that?” He demanded when they reached the Enlightenment Room.

“Hm?” Marinette said even as she searched the artifacts, “Oh, have you ever played the floor is lava?”

Damian grimaced against the memory. Grayson had thought it was a good idea to yell that phrase in the middle of Titan’s Tower, resulting in Jon scooping him up and hovering over the floor. Everyone had laughed as Damian thrashed like a kitten in the bath. It was one of his more embarrassing memories. “Once or twice,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Have you ever played it with real lava?”

Damian cocked his head at the question then nodded his head in understanding, “Lava Boy, he was a level 10 right?”

“You read the list,” Marinette said with a smug smile.

“Tt,” Damian said has he scanned for their opponents. “Of course, I did, I’m not an imbecile.  But what does this have to do with the fact that your entire class seems to be experts in parkour?”

“Not the entire class,” Marinette mused as she jotted down the answer. “Just those who know to pay attention in gym. Parkour became a curriculum requirement after Lava Boy. Every Parisian school teaches it as apart of our Physical Education. Or as we like to call it, ‘Running from Akumas 101.’”

Damian nodded his understanding. It was smart. It made him wonder why Gotham schools didn’t teach self-defense. But then again, maybe they did. He never really paid attention in class. But he had no time to ponder, because Marinette was grabbing his hand again and pulling him to the next artifact.

They ran into Alix and Kathryn twice, and saw that they were catching up, as the pair debated if they should be going towards Modern Art, or Ancient Greece. Which was when Damian noticed something else about Marinette, she was smart. When she had competed with him in languages, he had known that she had intelligence. But now she barely had too look at the clues to know the item they were talking about. And they really were some of the strangest clues, for example, “This Queen’s spear is lauded as Luck’s greatest hand.”

“That could be anything!” Damian exclaimed.      

“Queen Hippolyta’s spear was donated by Wonder Woman back in 1983, as a gift to her adopted city,” Marinette stated and then dashed off.

“Wait how did you know that?” Damian cried as he chased her.

“Hippolyta was the first named Ladybug, although technically she was the second holder. The first was the Oracle of Khepri, although her name was lost to time. We saw her scroll like ten minutes ago.”

Damian just shook his head and followed her without question. And that was another strange thing that he noticed. He didn’t mind following this girl around. Under normal circumstances, he would have demanded the lead. But Marinette just pulled him along as if her leadership was the most natural thing in the world. And as of yet, Damian could not begrudge her for it. And so it was in less time than he thought possible, they were racing back to the teachers with Alix and Kathryn hot on their heels and gaining. Then Marinette pulled out a bag of marbles and scattered them on the floor.

“Hey!” Alix yelled as the two girls were forced to slow down, “That’s cheating!”

“No rule against it!” Marinette shouted back as Damian laughed.

Mlle. Mendeleiev was pinching her nose as the pair skidded to a stop in front of her and handed her their completed work sheets. “I hope,” she said in her stern voice, “That the two of you got to talk at least once during that…escapade?”

“Yes Mlle. Mendeleiev,” Marinette said with her signature bright smile growing even as Damian sunk back into his signature scowl.

“Oh, and what did you learn about each other,” Bustier said with her signature plastered smile and too sweet voice.

“That Damian knows a lot about bats but not a lot about bugs.”

Damian couldn’t help the amused snort, even as the teachers rolled their eyes and took their sheets. But it was one of the Gotham teachers, Miss. Faustus who said, “You finished three hours early. Why don’t you two go back through the museum slower this time? Or perhaps spend time at the museum’s café?”

The two nodded their assent and then waited for Alix and Kathryn to turn in their sheet. “Well,” Marinette said, beaming so brightly, Damian was sure he was going to go blind. “We won!”

“You cheated!” Alix cried in mock annoyance as she skated up to them.

“Tt,” Damian said, “You were the ones with a head start, not to mention you were on skates. If anything, you were the ones that cheated, and yet we still were victorious. I do not know if that proves the depths of your ineptitude or the height of our excellence, but either way, you cannot argue with the results.”

Kathryn face palmed, as Alix stared at him in shock. Suddenly Damian was very aware that offending the wrong person in this city could result in a villain chasing him down. But he refused to back down as he tilted his chin to the girl, daring her to question him. Instead, Alix just turned to Marinette who seemed completely unfazed by his attitude.

At her friend’s questioning look, Marinette smiled gently. “Imagine if Kagami and Chloe were one person, and male. That’s him,” she said jutting her thumb at Damian. He furrowed his brow at the comparison, but faced Alix undaunted all the same.

She however just said “Oh,” as if that made perfect sense and then studied him more critically. Then her face split into the widest, most mischievous grin, Damian had ever seen (and he lived with Jason). A little nervous he took a step back even as Alix leaned forward and said, “We kill Lila!”

“Alix, no!” Marinette cried.

“Alix, yes!” Alix cried grabbing Damian’s shoulders before he could even begin to process what was happening as she said in a hissing voice, “Come! We have murder to plan!”

“No murder!” Marinette cried, even as Damian threw her hands off of him.

“First,” he said coldly, “Never touch me again. Second, I assume you have a strategy?”

Alix cackled and led him to the café even as Marinette screamed in frustration.

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

“So,” Kathryn said once they were all seated at the Museum’s outdoor café, “Who is this Lila and why are we trying to kill her?”

Damian remained silent as he watched the Parisians. They had only ordered drinks, because apparently the best bakery in Paris was catering their “Getting to Know You Party” later. So he sipped his as he watched Marinette tense, and Alix huff in frustration. It seemed, that now her adrenaline from the game was spent, the roller blading menace was ready to be serious. But it was Marinette who began the story.

“Lila,” she said simply, “Is a compulsive liar in our class. The only way to ensure that she didn’t akumatize anyone from Gotham was to pair her with the worst French speaker in your class, because she doesn’t know a lick of English no matter what she might claim.”

“When she first came here,” Alix said anger dripping from her every word, “She would tell all of these crazy stories about the places she’s been, and the celebrities she’s met. Of course, none of us actually believed her. We actually personally know a lot of the celebrities she likes to name drop so we always knew she was lying. We thought it was just some sort of game she liked to play, so we entertained her. It wasn’t doing any harm.”

“I never liked the game,” Marinette said as she stirred her coffee. “So I asked her to stop, and she threatened me. It was the only time she’s ever been completely honest.”

Alix took a deep calming breath, an action which Damian was quickly learning to associate with deep negative emotions from the Parisians. “That’s when her lies became a little less obvious,” she said, “She started sneaking subtler lies in with her obvious ones, slowly turning the class against Marinette. Started framing her for stealing, cheating, and bullying. Things like that.”

“She almost got me expelled,” Marinette said into her cup. And Damian couldn’t stop the shock from spreading across his face.

“Are you saying that your teachers believed her?” Damian demanded. He had only known this girl for an hour and a half, but already he felt that her being anything other than a model student was just preposterous.

But Marinette didn’t seem to register his outrage as she just shrugged and said, “The principle is more worried about funding and press than justice,” she said, “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Mlle. Bustier is a bit naive. Mlle. Mendeleiev is great, and she doesn’t let Lila get away with anything. But Mlle. Bustier…”

“That woman needs her license revoked,” Alix said in a huff, “And she probably would have by now if it wasn’t for Hawkmoth.”

“So?” Kathryn said leaning forward, “What happened?”

“Adrien,” Marinette said with a sigh of exhaustion, “Another classmate. Apparently, he talked to her, made a deal with her to back off. He told me about it as if it was this grand gesture on his part. But basically, it boils down to, he lets her do whatever she wants as long as she doesn’t directly target me.” Marinette rolled her eyes, “His heart's in the right place, but his arrows don’t always hit their marks if you know what I mean.” The Gothamites nodded and then gestured for the girls to continue.

“So anyway,” Alix said, “Later, Lila comes forward and admits that she lied. Claims she has a mental disorder that forces her to lie. Only, that night Marinette goes home and does a crap-ton of research on mental illnesses and lying and guess what?”

“There’s no such thing,” Damian said with a sneer.

Marinette just shook her head, “Compulsive lying is a symptom of many different illnesses, mainly OCD and psychopathy. But neither force the individual to lie. The person is always conscious of what they are doing, and can chose differently given that they are actively working towards their mental health.”

“And when Marinette presented her research,” Alix said, “The class basically split in two. The enablers who think the best way to help Lila is to humor her. And the intelligent people, who are just sick and tired of her crap.”

“Me, Chloe, Sabrina, Alix, and Juleka are the most outspoken members of the Intelligent,” Marinette explained. “Alya, Rose, and Mylene are the most outspoken of the Enablers. Everyone else falls on a sliding scale in between. But of course, none of this would even be a problem it is wasn’t for Hawkmoth.”

“Yeah,” Alix said sipping her coffee, “Hawkmoth has everybody thrown out of whack. I mean how do you in good conscious call someone out for being an idiot, when they’re enough of an idiot to let that akumatize them.”

“Next thing you know,” Marinette said, “You're running through the city with a horribly dressed flying fox demon on your tail.”

Both girls groaned and sipped their drinks, as Damian exchanged a look with Kathryn. Finally, Damian asked the question that had been plaguing him since the moment he had heard the name Hawkmoth, “What about the Justice League? Why hasn’t anyone called them in?”

“Screw the League,” a harsh voice called out, and the party turned to see Chloe and Sabrina with Alice and Will following behind.

“Chloe,” Marinette said instantly brighter, “You’re done early. I thought you would be dragging your feet in there.”

“Chloe helped me make the scavenger hunt so she can’t participate,” Sabrina said sliding into the chair beside Marinette. “So, we decided to do a walking tour with our partners instead.”

Everyone then introduced themselves, with Damian being introduced to Chloe last. They stared at each other with narrowed eyes before huffing simultaneously and sipping their drinks. The rest of the group giggled at that before Alice said, “What do you mean, ‘screw the League?’ I know some of them are blowhards, but they do have some powerful magic users. They can help.”

Chloe sniffed derisively, but the rest of the Parisians became somber. They looked to Chloe almost as if asking for her permission before she nodded. Then Marinette cleared her throat and said,

“It was three years ago, at the beginning of this…mess. At first all of the akumas were level 1-4s. Powerful and scary but not dangerous. No casualties, and they always had limited goals. It was very rare for them to effect more than ten people. Then…then we got our first level eight, Dark Cupid.”

“I saw him in my research,” Damian said stiffly, “I couldn’t understand why he was put so high, all of the other level eights had a death count in the high thousands, but his wasn’t even in the high hundreds.”

Sabrina nodded emphatically, her face contorted with pain, “Yes. The akumas are categorized by the damage they do. Which means that the higher akumas are rated by their death count. 5 is 1-1,000. 6 is 1,000-10,000. 7 is 10,000-1 million. 8 is 1 million-10 million. 9 is 10 million to 1 billion. and 10 is anything high than a billion.”

“But there are other kinds of damage that rank just as high as death,” Marinette said as she reached over to grip Chloe’s hand which was starting to shake. “When those akumas happen on a wide scale, they are usually ranked higher.”

“And Dark Cupid was one of those?” Kathryn asked.

“I read about him too,” Alice said leaning forward. “There weren’t any fight videos of him on the blog, but it said that he made people feel the opposite of their true emotions. What does that even mean?”

The girls took a deep breath and looked to Chloe again. She just nodded as she stared numbly into her coffee. It was Alix who spoke, “Dark Cupid was a boy whose Valentine humiliated him. So he made people feel the opposite of their true emotions. Love turned to hate. Hate turned to love.”

“I don’t see the problem,” Damian said, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Oh!” Will cried, horror etched over his face. “Oh, that…that’s awful!”

“What?” Kathryn demanded.

Marinette sighed and looked them in the eyes. There was something hard and cold in her gaze, and it seeped into her voice as she said, “Imagine the person you love the most. The person you trust the most, parent, sibling, partner, spouse, being struck with a black arrow and then turning against you. They are consumed with a burning obsessive hatred for you and everything else they love. What do you think would happen?”

Damian paled at the thought. He could imagine it. He didn’t want to, but he could see it happening. His family sitting down to dinner, suddenly struck from behind…and then turning on him. It was a horrible image and he wanted to forget he ever saw it, but Marinette was not done.

“Now, imagine the person you hate. You’re worst enemy, and the same thing happens to them. Except now, with love. Or perhaps more accurately…lust. You’re enemy filled with an obsessive drive to ‘love’ you, just as your loved ones are filled with an obsessive drive to hate you. What do you think happens then?”

Damian was suddenly very glad that he had not eaten anything, because he was going to throw up. The images that Marinette was painting for them. They were horrible. They were gruesome, and disgusting on so many levels. And…and they had lived through that. He looked up and saw it. All four of these girls had faced that. Spouses turning on their partners. Parents turning on their children. Friends turning on their friends. All on a day when they were supposed to be celebrating their love and trust. And then to add their enemies into the mix…

“Only 136 dead,” Sabrina said solemnly, “But over three million reports of assault and battery, and over ten thousand reported rapes, and sexual assaults. And those were just the people who came forward.”

“We called the Justice League,” Chloe said as a single tear fell down her quivering jaw. “We broke their website begging for help, once the Miraculous Cure passed through. But they never answered.”

“Three more akumas were created because of that,” Marinette said squeezing Chloe’s hand as Sabrina wrapped her arms around her. “Eventually Ladybug gave a press release saying she got in contact with an International member, but she didn’t say whom. Here,” Marinette pulled up a video on YouTube and showed it to them. “You can watch that later. It basically says that miraculous matters are miraculous matters, and the Justice League will not be coming unless it’s a level 11 akuma.”

“Level 11?” Kathryn squeaked.

“Yeah,” Alix said with an amused huff, “Otherwise known as the ‘How in God’s Name are You Still Alive!’ Protocol.”

“If either Ladybug, or Chat Noir ever lose their Miraculous to Hawkmoth. Then the other is to retreat and go into hiding, while every citizen still alive in Paris spams the Justice Leagues number until someone shows up,” Marinette said with a small smile. “It hasn’t happened yet, but we’ll be prepared if it does.”

“Were you?” Alice looked at the shaking Chloe, her voice hesitant and soft. “I’m sorry but you told me that you used to have a lot of enemies. So…were you…um…”

Chloe sniffed and straightened, she was as rigid as a bored, but her chin was up and her jaw was set. Her eyes had not lost their fire as she scoffed and said, “Kwami no, no one touched me during Dark Cupid. I was the bitch who caused the whole thing.”

The Gothamites blinked. “What?” Damian demanded.

“You heard me,” Chloe said firmly squeezing Marinette’s hand. “Dark Cupid. The most emotionally scaring akuma aside from Sand Boy. I caused him. I was the dumb bitch who humiliated the boy and made Valentines day banned in Paris! It was my fault.”

“Chloe—” Sabrina began, but the heiress silenced her by leaning forward and growling,

“I caused more akumas, and suffering in this city, then Joker has probably done in a year. Everyday I wake up knowing that I am probably the most despicable being on the planet. But you know what? Everyday I wake up and decide to change that. It will never be enough. I will never undo the damage I did to Paris. But damn it, I’m trying! And I’m not alone.

“This is Paris. If you haven’t been an akuma, you’ve caused one, and no one is immune. Not even angels who are too good for this world like, Sabrina and Marinette heaven help them! So everyday we wake up knowing that we are villains! But every day we wake up and we swear we are going to do better. We make amends and we try. We’re all monsters, but we all have one enemy, and that’s the idiot who thinks he can put chains on monsters and not get bit!”

Chloe was seething now. Her teeth bared. Her eye wide. But she was still in control, and she stared them all down with the deadly force of a lioness. It quelled any arguments, pinning the Gothamites to there seats. As she roughly wiped the tears from her eyes, she declared,

“So yeah, screw the Justice League. As far as I’m concerned, they can all go and suck it! This is Paris, and we clean up our own messes. Besides even if they did show up, there’s nothing they can do. Ladybug is right, this is a Miraculous problem to be solved by Miraculous Holders.”

“Besides,” Sabrina said in a far gentler tone, “Do any of you really want to see and akumatized Superman? Or Batman?”

Everyone shivered at the thought, even Damian. He then drew in on himself as he thought about everything they had said. Lila. Hawkmoth. Dark Cupid. Chloe. The Justice League. Not all of his questions were answered, not by a long shot. But then he remembered the scavenger hunt. The pure joy radiating off of the Paris Class as they ran through the Museum. The genuine laughter of the employees at seeing their antics. The bright smiles of the civilians as they walked with their heads held high down the streets. They had been through hell, like Gotham never had. But where Gothamites scurried and scowled they…smiled.

Even now as he looked up to study the four girls before them, they were smiling. Bright, genuine, pure smiles. They laughed as they pulled the Gothamites out of their horror. They cheered as more of their friends joined them from within the museum. It was strange. It was confounding, confusing, and impossible for Damian to comprehend. It was…miraculous.

And so Damian whispered to himself in his heart, "I swear on mantle as Robin, and on my title as the Son of the Bat, and the Demon's Heir, I will do everything in my power to defeat Hawkmoth."

Next   

@night-ngale @annastasha @ev-cupcake @hammalammadamdam @laydeekrayzee @itsemmylie @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks  @doglover82 @raven-ette @atiredartistandacat

[marie-swriting]

Romantic Feelings, For Me ? - Robin Buckley

Stranger Things Masterlist

Superache Masterlist

Summary : You have a crush on Robin and so does she but neither of you feels ready to make the first move, too scared to lose the other. Thankfully for the both of you, your best friends, Steve and Chrissy, want to help you out.

Warnings : mutual pining, happy ending, mention of alcohol (be careful with your alcohol consumption), maybe some grammatical mistakes as English is not my First language, tell me if you see some or if I missed any warnings.

Word count : 2.4k

French version

Song inspiration : Disaster by Conan Gray

“This could be a disaster, Steve ! A huge disaster ! Why did you have to invite her ? I had everything planned and you’ve ruined everything by inviting her to your damn party.” Robin exclaims while giving plastic cups to Steve.

“On the contrary, I’m giving you a little help here. You’ll be able to confess your feelings.” he replies, setting the cups on the table in front of him.

“At a party full of the populars from your year and mine ? Surrounded by drunk people ? I don’t think so ! There are so many factors that make me believe it is a lost cause. Do you need me to remind you of all the scenarios ?”

“No, you haven’t stopped telling me all about it since I told you I had invited Y/N tonight. I got it.” Steve refuses before going to the kitchen to get the alcohol. 

“It doesn’t look like it.” she keeps saying whilst following him, all agitated, “Besides, I’m still not sure if she’s attracted to me.”

“Do I need to remind you last week you asked me if it was totally platonic for her to call you, like, every night ? I’m saying it again, it is not platonic.”

“Maybe she does this with Chrissy too ? What do we know ? It’s her best friend, it’d be rational.”

“Sometimes you stay on the phone 'till midnight, trust me, she doesn’t have the time to do the same with Chrissy.”

“Ok, let’s say you’re right and that, by some sort of miracles, she is attracted to me,” Robin starts, making Steve sigh, “what if she ends up freaking out along the way and then we lose everything we’ve been building the past seven months ? And what if the moment I say ‘I love you’, she doesn’t say it back and that ruins everything as well ? Did you think about that ?”

“You should tell her you like her before thinking about the moment you’ll tell her ‘I love you’.”

“I prefer to think about every scenario before jumping in with both feet.”

“The problem is, by overthinking, you’re gonna destroy the relationship yourself.” Steve retort, looking his best friend in the eyes. “You should still test the water tonight and if she’s receptive then good for you, if she isn’t, just say you’ve been drinking too much and you didn’t express yourself correctly. It’ll go smoothly like this, trust me.”

“Trust you ? You, Steve Harrington, who go from one date to the other without it going any further ? I don’t think-”

“Trust me on that one.” he cuts her off, exasperated. “I’m telling you, the feelings you have for Y/N are reciprocated. Stop stressing about it.”

Steve gives Robin a reassuring look. She finally lets go of a sigh, like to signal she accepts her fate. Robin isn’t fully convinced by Steve’s words but they still help her to reduce her stress. A bit. Robin finishes helping Steve to prepare the party, letting her anxiety about you in the back of her mind.

When the party starts, Robin enjoys herself with the other guests. Tired to dance after five songs, she goes into a corner of the living-room, a drink in hand. She tries to catch her breath when John from her Algebra class comes to her and starts talking with her. Not knowing what he wants, Robin answers him. As the conversation goes by, she becomes more and more uncomfortable as she sees John slowly getting closer to her. She’s searching for an excuse to leave the room when she hears your voice calling her name.

“I’ve been looking for you !” you say, putting your hand on Robin’s forearm. “I need your help, can you come with me ? Sorry John, but it’s a girl emergency.” you specify with an emphatic look.

“Oh, yeah, no problem.” he stutters, blushing, “I need to go to… I mean, Bye, Robin.”

“You looked like you needed some help.” you slowly chuckle when you’re away from John.

“Thank God, Y/N. I didn’t know how to get out of this situation. I like you !” Robin says without thinking and making you smile.

“You like me ?”

Hearing your question, Robin’s eyes go wide as she panics. She pretends to cough and search for a solution to resolve the situation.

“Yeah, like a friend, I mean, you know. Sorry I think I’ve been drinking too much. Did you just arrive ? Want to drink something ?” she changes the subject, avoiding your gaze.

“Yes, thanks.” you accept and Robin starts walking in front of you, but you hold her back. “Robin, I like you, too.”

Upon hearing your sentence, Robin stays put in place for a second, not knowing how to act. You end up taking her hand and guiding her to the table with the drinks to pour you a glass while Robin gets a grip on herself.

During the whole party, you stay together, enjoying each other’s company. At some point, you’re really close and yet none of you know if you should understand something out of this situation. From afar, Steve and Chrissy look at you both, completely desperate. They see none of you dares to make the first move whilst you’re both waiting for that. If there weren't that many people, they would’ve forced you to get closer to make an end to your lack of action once and for all. That night, they promised to themselves to do something to help you both, you deserve your cute little romance.

Determined to help Robin, Steve decides to take advantage of a day where he has to get Dustin from school to talk with your best friend. He waits, leaning against his car, until he sees Chrissy walking to her vehicle. He takes a deep breath and trots towards her.

“Chrissy, hi !”

“Oh, hey.” Chrissy answers, stopping in her tracks. “You’re here for Dustin ?”

“Yeah. Actually, I also wanted to talk to you about something. I wanted to know if Y/N had a crush on anybody at the moment ?”

“Why do you want to know that ?” she questions with a questioning look.

“Because I…,” Steve stutters, looking for an excuse, “Actually, I wanted to ask her out and I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.”

“Oh.” Chrissy exclaims, taken aback, “Well, you did the good thing by asking me because Y/N has a crush on someone else so it’s not going  to work.”

“Don’t worry about it, at least I tried. Do I know the guy ?”

Chrissy notices Steve tries to play it cool but sees behind his question there's something else. She quickly guesses, just like her, Steve has had enough of seeing you and Robin beat around the bush without doing anything.

“Yeah, you know them very well but I won’t give you their name or I’d be a terrible best friend.”

“I get it. Do you know if she’s gonna try to make the first move with them ?”

“Not sure. She’s afraid it’s unrequited even if I’m sure it isn’t. Since your party I've been trying to give her enough courage to have her confess her feelings.” she admits and Steve nods.

“I get your frustration. Robin is also attracted to someone and she’d rather imagine all the worst case scenarios instead of asking them on a date. If the person she’s attracted to doesn’t make the first move, I think she’s going to wait for a long time or miss her chance.” he informs with an insistent look.

“I hope it won’t be the case. I need to go.” she states before leaving without letting him respond.

Steve waves at Chrissy whilst she fastly gets in her car. Chrissy doesn’t waste a second and drives to your home with a big smile on her face. As for you, you’re at your desk, focused on your History homework when someone opens your bedroom’s door loudly. A hand on your chest, you turn around and see Chrissy.

“You want me to have a heart attack or what ?”

“Steve asked me if you had a crush on him !” Chrissy exclaims as if it was breaking news.

“And it's good news because…?”

“I told him you’re attracted to someone else.”

“Chrissy !” you retort with your eyes wide open.

“I didn’t mention Robin, promise.” your best friend quickly specifies, making you sigh of relief. “I just said you have someone else in mind and you don’t know how to confess your feelings.”

“Still don’t know how this is good news.”

“It is good news because he talked to me about Robin ! He told me she’s also attracted to someone but doesn’t know how to make the first move. He totally implied Robin has a crush on you. You should’ve seen his face. You were waiting for your sign, there it is ! Go to Robin and ask her out on a date now.” Chrissy orders pointing at your bedroom’s door.

“No.” you contradict, panicked, “Your conversation with Steve doesn’t prove anything. Maybe you interpreted it wrong.”

“I swear I didn’t ! Besides, at the party, Robin did say to you ‘I like you’, didn’t she ?”

“Like a friend, yes. Don’t forget that part.”

“Maybe she said it ‘cause she panicked ?” Chrissy suggests and you shake your head.

“She still said it quickly while I had a big smile on my face.”

“It’s unbelievable to nitpick like that !” she mumbles. “Y/N, during the party, I watched you and Robin and she’s totally smitten by you. And even though Steve didn’t say it, I’m sure he saw the same thing as me so get up from your chair and let’s go to Family Video !” Chrissy commands, pulling you by the arm.

With a sigh of exasperation, you follow Chrissy who’s dragging you to her car. The whole ride, you try to make her change her mind however she stands her ground and parks in front of Family Video. You sink a bit more in the passenger seat but Chrissy opens the passenger door from her seat.

“Y/N, I know you’re worried about it but believe me, Robin has feelings for you. I wouldn’t be making you do that if I wasn't sure.” Chrissy affirms with her soft voice.

“But I had planned everything !” you complain, “I had planned to wait a bit more just to be sure she was attracted to me and some weeks after that, I would have asked her out. If I do it now, everything will be ruined ! It’s too early !”

“By waiting too much, you risk ruining it before it begins. You’ve been waiting for seven months, don’t you think it’s long enough ?”

You look at your best friend before sighing in frustration because, deep down, you know she isn’t fully wrong.

“You’re right but what if-”

“Stop with the ‘what if’s and go get your girl !” she cuts you off.

Chrissy shoves you, forcing you out of the car. You close the door and start walking toward the entrance of the store. You run your clammy hands over your jeans when a forty years old woman gets in front of you and opens the door. She holds it for you and you thank her before entering as well. Stressed, you run to hide in one of the aisles, hoping Robin nor Steve have seen you. The woman gives back her tape to Steve before leaving without renting a new movie. When you hear the door close again, you breathe slowly, hoping to get a grip on yourself. You try to give yourself some encouragement to get out of your hiding spot and go talk to Robin when you hear her voice. You can’t make out what she’s saying but you can guess she’s panicked because she’s speaking very fast to Steve. You get closer to them while being silent and you finally can understand what she’s saying.

“Steve, I’m telling you it means nothing.” Robin objects.

“She said she likes you, too, right ? And contrary to you who lost your nerve, she didn’t specify ‘like a friend’.” he retorts.

You get a bit closer and you can finally see Robin who has her back on you whilst Steve is in front of her. Robin runs a hand over her face before responding.

“Maybe for her, her ‘I like you’ was hiding a ‘like a friend’ as well like I had said it just before ? Steve, I’m not 100% sure.”

“With what Chrissy implied, you can’t have any more doubts. Y/N hasn’t said anything yet because of the same reasons as you, she’s nervous about it so go talk to her today or do it on the phone tonight if you’re too scared to do it face to face.”

“You’re right, I’m gonna go to her and suddenly say ‘Actually, I have feelings for you, romantic feelings, wanna go out with me ?’ Yeah, sure, it’ll work.” Robin exclaims sarcastically. 

“You have feelings for me ?” you question, getting out of your hiding spot.

“Please, don’t tell me Y/N is behind me.” Robin whispers.

“Good luck, Robin.” Steve smiles before walking away.

“You have feelings for me ?” you repeat and Robin turns red.

“What ? No, it’s not that. You misunderstood me. I was talking about someone else-”

“You’re a terrible liar.” you interrupt her, laughing slowly, “Robin, I have feelings for you too.”

“You do ?” she asks, shocked.

“Yeah.” you confirm, avoiding her eyes for a second, “I didn’t know how to tell you, I was imagining the worst and therefore I was always finding an excuse to stay silent. It seems like I could have said something for a long time.”

“Wait, you really have feelings, romantic feelings, for me ?” she verifies.

“What wasn’t clear with what I just said ?” you retort, starting to slowly get nervous again.

“It’s just.... I can’t believe it.”

“If I asked you out on a date, would it help you believe it ?” you enquire with a smile.

“What ? Yeah, totally !” Robin accepts with eagerness.

“Great. I’ll give you the details when we call each other tonight ?”

Still confused, Robin simply nods to accept. Happy, you take one step and kiss her left cheek. When you back up, Robin blushes again. You smile at her reaction besides being glad to finally have a date with Robin, after months of being hopeful and hopeless. A few seconds later, you walk away from her and wave at her one last time whilst Robin looks at you lovingly. When you go back to Chrissy in her car, you see her raising her thumb up in the direction of Family Video and you see Steve doing the same when Robin comes to him, with a huge smile on her face.

Stranger Things Masterlist

Superache Masterlist

{This is my side blog so I'll be answering comments under the username @marie-sworld}

[the-conversation-pod]

Winter 2024 Teaser

And we're back!

We have been recording so much for you all this season! We completed the first year of the show, and what a year it has been!

We've made a lot of friends through this show, and even picked up some help from @ginnymoonbeam and @lurkingshan who got to produce their own episode!

To complete the year, we are opening our longest season by discussing the big shows from the Fall, including Only Friends, I Feel You Linger in the Air, and What Did You Eat Yesterday? 2, before wrapping up the year with a packed Grab Bag episode.

As is our tradition, we will then have our Five-Part Very Important Internet BL Awards, covering our awards for Acting, Ships, Production, Best in Class, and Special Class Awards.

We'll then close out the season with our Lagniappe episode as always and hear from some of the listeners.

Enjoy teaser for the season.

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming Soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

[The teaser opens with the pod team chatting in a bar together.]

NiNi

Okay guys, so we are alive on the site of our annual–hopefully it's annual–podcast team staff meeting.

Ginny

Ohh! 

[Shan laughs]

Nini

And we just gonna give us, like, a little five-minute live about, like, what's—what's occurring? What's going on with the peeps? So, everybody say “hi.” Ben, say “Hi.”

Ben

“Whaddup?”

NiNi

Shan, say “hi.” 

Shan

“Heyo.”

Nini

Ginny say “hi.” 

Ginny

“Heyo!”

NiNi

And here's NiNi! So…

[Cut back to the normal recording booth.]

Ben

And we're back. Welcome to year two of The Conversation…

Ohh, let me try it again. [Strums fingers on desk. NiNi laughs]

I got this.

NiNi

Do you? Do you?

Ben

Yeah, I got this.

NiNi

Okay.

Ben

And we're back. Welcome to year two of The Conversation! Hello, NiNi.

NiNi

Oh my God, we've been doing this for a fucking year. How did we survive the last year? We did? I don't know how? But we did.

Ben

We survived it through sheer gumption and the Type-A planning of all of your lists that keep us organized between seasons.

NiNi

[laughs] I do be doing a lot.

Ben

This show is a BL podcast featuring two goofy-ass Millennials from the Caribbean who watch way too much BL.

NiNi

I mean, that's a good description.

Ben

NiNi, how would you describe me to the viewers?

NiNi

How would I describe Ben to the viewers?

Ben is… an intellectual. Ben is the kind of man who enjoys French film, I think.

Ben

I do. I actually watched one, like, two weeks ago.

NiNi

You see, I knew it. I knew it. Ben’s always getting me together, and that's the best part of our friendship. Ben is gathering me gently at all times—and I need to be gathered—sometimes, should be told, because I just be going off in too many different directions. 

So, a whole year with you. I have had a fabulous time so far, sir. And here's to many more.

How would you describe me?

Ben

You are a Thai BL girlie set upon by my goddamn queer cinephile sensibilities, who continues to put up with them.

[both laugh]

NiNi

I’m sorry [laughs]—I like other things!

Ben

I'm sorry. The Philippines is out of commission.

NiNi

[laughs] Rude. Accurate, but rude.

Ben

You're somebody with a really strong background in theater and dramatic storytelling who really appreciates the heightened drama aspects of the way Thailand approaches BL. The more telenovela BL becomes, or the more like big-romance-dramatic BL becomes—particularly in Thailand—the more fun you seem to have. 

And over the course of the last year when we've been unpacking these shows, we've been talking about where these shows really land emotionally for NiNi, who's into this for a lot of the fun and some of the camp and the way the romance plays out. And how I end up mostly focused on the queer truth that I can get out of these stories, and how strongly they resonate, and also how well put together these things are. 

We are the podcast for BL viewers who care about BL being genuinely good and not just fun.

[cuts back to the bar conversation]

NiNi

We are just doing like a little bit about—let's, let's pick a topic that's not gonna, like, piss off anybody too much.

Ben 

No! Let's start where we were—

[Shan laughs]

Ginny

You turned it on right when we were pissing people off!

[Shan laughs]

Ben

I am six drinks in. We're going in. Only Friends sucks— 

[NiNi laughs]

—and it made us like First and Khaotung less.

NiNi

Oh no…

Shan

Listen, it's the truth. 

Ben

Like! 

Shan

They were not the moment in this show.

Ben

Going into this show, Ginny and I were very quietly FK girlies.

[Shan and Ginny laugh]

Shan

Not that quietly.

Ben

You were not in our DMs!

[Everyone laughs]

Shan

I could feel the energy coming from your DMs!

[cuts back to the recording booth]

NiNi

It's been an interesting year for us. There have been highs, there have been lows, there have been arguments—very polite ones. There have been agreements. There's been a lot happening in the last year in the BL space and we're gonna talk about it really all through the winter season.

Season 5. Five seasons of this.

So we're going to talk about the things that we watched in the fall. We are going to talk about 2023 as a whole and what we got out of it. And it's winter, so you know what that means? We're going to give out some VIIB Awards.

Ben

I'm very excited for the VIIB Awards. It is the most contentious I think I have felt with you since we started doing all of this. Normally, I'm just excited to talk with you about things. I have never felt more antagonistic!

NiNi

Ben put on his eye black and he said, “What we not ‘bout to do!” 

[Ben laughs]

“These vibes you be feeling, that's all well and good. This is not the Vibes Awards, okauy? This is the VIIB Awards.” [NiNi laughs]

Ben

These are the Very Important Internet BL Awards.

NiNi

He's like, “You're gonna have to come with actual arguments.”

Ben

We will! We say these things are better than the rest? You better be specific, because there is a wide field of contenders!

NiNi

A very wide field, and I think that's part of the story of this year as well. For all the ups and downs, it has been a big year, I think, for BL. I don't know if you feel the same way.

Ben

I do. I mean, that's the problem for this year that we'll get into as we talk about this. This year has had some of my favorite good productions that the genre has ever produced, and that has made it really difficult for the things that are not.

We are not lacking for choice in the good.

[cuts back to the bar conversation]

Ben

And this show made me hate them.

Ginny

To be, to be clear: I still, like, this show did not make me hate either of them individually. Like, Khaotung did some phenomenal performances. First matched them. Maybe you disagree, but I did not feel that way about it. Yeah.

NiNi

[waves at Ginny to continue] All right! We’re getting it! 

Ginny

But I—

NiNi

It's going to be quiet, but I'll get it.

Ginny

—something about the way it was set up, I just did not. I came out of it feeling less hype about them as a pair.

Shan

Mhmm. I was never really a FirstKhao girlie. Like, I'm not into the pairs in general. You all know that I like ‘em to mix and match. But, I'm just like—

NiNi/Ben

Yeah, that's better.

Shan

—I just feel like they're both… They've both been better with other people, especially First.

[cuts back to the recording booth]

NiNi

We've got a packed season for you. Ten! Count ‘em: ten! It's our longest season ever. Ten fabulous episodes.

Ben

[laughs] Wait. What the fuck, really?

NiNi

Yes. 

Ben

Okay. 

[NiNi laughs]

So, if you want to hear people be kind of sassy and way too serious, and be more than a little bit drunk about BL—

[NiNi laughs]

—for about 15 hours over the next, like six weeks, we are your show!

NiNi

This is the Brown Liquor Podcast. [laughs]

[cuts back to the bar conversation]

NiNi

All right, I think we're gonna see if we get, what we get out of that. I don't know how much we're gonna get out of that. We will see. We had to try. [NiNi laughs as the audio trails off]

[edenjohansson]

Chapter 3

teacher's pet

Y/N's pov : 

I walked inside my new classroom again and saw a group of five girls. I saluted them and sat again. My desk was made with a light wood that looked really nice and was large enough for all my stuff on it. We could possibly lay on it I think. 

I opened my laptop and found my powerpoint easily. I felt a pair of eyes on me and I looked up to see a redhead girl looking at me. She was more than looking actually, her eyes were dark green and she was detailing my face. Our eyes locked for an instant and I smirked looking at her cheeks turning red. I focused again on my speech for about five minutes when a group of boys entered the class. One of them was limping but finally sat right behind the redhead girl. She smiled at him and started talking with him. I had to admit that she had a pretty smile. 

I stood up and put my powerpoint on the white board. 

"Okay class, we have everyone I think. May I present myself, I'm professor Y/L/N, your new french teacher. Hope you'll survive this class" 

I started my presentation and the class subjects through the years, starting with grammar. As I said that some of them sighed out loud. 

"Yes I know grammar is the worst thing but we have to pass through it if you want to understand all the times of French. Because there's a lot" I tried to reassure them. 

I continued my speech and saw a hand raised. One of the boys. 

"Yes?" I asked him. 

"Are we gonna watch movies?" He said, laughing. 

"It depends. If it's part of the schedule, then why not?" I answered. 

I saw him nod his head. The class was ending in 15 minutes so I decided to ask them to present themself. 

"You have the right to just tell me your name you know" I said, looking at their stress faces. 

"I'm Wanda Maximoff" Another redhead started to say. 

"I'm Carol Danvers" A blond girl said after. 

"Maria Hills" 

"Steve Rogers" It was the boy with an injury. 

"James Barnes but people call me Bucky" 

"Tony Stark, I'm the smart one" 

I laughed at his words. 

"Bruce Banner" 

"Thor Odinson and here's my brother Loki" 

The first boy was blond with blue eyes and the brother has black hair with green eyes. 

"My last name is Laufeyson" Loki added. 

I nodded, taking small notes. 

"Pietro Maximoff, twin of Wanda, I'm twelve minutes older" He said, proud of himself. 

"I'm Valkyrie, at your service mylady" She said, flirting with me. 

"I take notes of that thank you Valkyrie" I said, flirting back. 

"And I'm Natasha Romanoff" 

It was a pretty name for a pretty face. I nodded to everyone and heard the ring of school, announcing the end of class. 

"Well see you tomorrow everyone" I saluted them, starting to pack my stuff together. 

I was ready to go when I heard someone calling me. I turned around and smiled, seeing my best friend with a huge rose bouquet. She walked toward me and placed the flowers on my desk. I leaned and hugged her. 

"You know that one of the girls is literally devouring you with her eyes" Lolly whispered. 

"I know I know, she's cute with her black hair. Her name is Valkyrie" I whispered back, looking discreetly at them. 

"I'm not talking about that girl. I'm talking about the redhead one" 

I looked at Lolly without understanding and then back at the group. Valkyrie was talking to Carol and Wanda but Natasha was looking at me. We crossed our eyes again but she turned away and pretended to speak again. She was all red. It was cute. 

"Well maybe but you know me. I love the attention but I never..." I started. 

"You never attached to anyone, I know but you should, like, really should try. Love is not going to kill you. I know you like to please people but I'm sure that you can learn to really love someone" Lolly said with her concerned eyes. 

"Stop looking at me like that" 

"You know I'm right Y/N" 

I sighed. I knew she had a point and I was ready to try but certainly not with one of my students. I had to think about my whole carriere before. 

"I'll try. But not with a student. You know I can't" 

"Of course. If you want, tonight we can go to the lesbian bar I know! It will be fun" Lolly proposed, happy. 

I nodded and grabbed my bag and the flowers. We walked out of class and directly went home to start our preparation for the evening. 

[xoxomoonlightxoxo]

P&C | Ch. 2: Hey Flip Flops

➪ Playlist (Spotify) l Series Masterlist

6:30 a.m.

"Mira, Miraya, wake up!" I sigh as my body is awakened by the sound of my alarm clock and Jiah's voice.

"It's time already?" I whine, stretching my body for what seems like an hour. I can barely make out Jiah's words as they're interrupted by her yawns, but I'm pretty sure she said something about breakfast.

We quickly get ready. Check each other out for the 50th time, making sure we both look to die for because that's what boss ladies do, before finally heading out. It rained the night before so the air is extra crisp, which I love. Would rather have this than the 10-month winter season I had to endure back home.

Jiah was right, the knee-high boots definitely pulled the whole look together, we both look like two French girls. Talking about fashion, people in Korea (especially girls) know how to dress well. Everything, and I mean everything, from their hair down to their nails is polished and well put together. Mindblowing, as back home I could be seen wearing the same Harvard sweater for 5 consecutive days, with absolutely no shame or will to change. So, the fact that these boots are now in my possession should in itself cause a commotion, but for now, I'll settle for Jiah's reassurance and cute compliments.

Unfortunately, though, our little date had to pause as it was time to depart to our respective faculty buildings. See, Jiah is a Business major with a minor in accounting, aka money is basically going to follow her 24/7. While I'm majoring in Nursing, by choice mind you! I was going to go into Dietetics before realising that my eating habits are questionable at best, so I spared humanity with this one (you're welcome). But now, if you see me in your local hospital in my cute scrubs just know that I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing so please, just mind your business.

Anywho, we said our goodbyes and wished each other luck. Fast forward to about five minutes, and there I was, standing in front of the building that will probably make me cry, scream, laugh, and all of the above throughout the next 4 years. Nonetheless, I have come this far right? The possibility of everything I worked for going down the drain is the only motivation I need right now to do my best.

--

As I walked out of my last class of the day, the sun was already beginning to set. To be honest, everything went pretty well, I mean as well as it could go on syllabus day. My professors were all pretty chill except for one lady who intimidates the crap out of me for absolutely no reason. She has over 30 years of experience in this field and deals with new cohorts, which means she might be my supervisor. If that's the case I will have to pregame each clinical to not pass out in her presence.

I wanted to grab a quick coffee on my way back to the dorm when I felt my phone buzz.

Jiah: Heyy lovely, how are you? Have you eaten? Jimin invited us to a little get-together with his friends, so I'll pick you up at 7.

Mira: Hey babes, I'm great. How are you, love? Sure, I'll let you know when I'm ready.

Oh my god, my first party. It's no big deal but my body has definitely become more tense. I mean I know literally no one else aside from Jiah. I haven't even met her boyfriend, barely know what he looks like. But, I trust her, so as long as I stick by her everything should be fine, right? I mean what's the worst that can happen?

Caught up in my thoughts, I was abruptly interrupted by a sudden push, a body that slammed past me as I tried to open the front door of the dormitory. Ouch. I didn't have time to check who it was but they also made no effort in checking if I was okay. Looking back all I could see was a tall guy with a black hoodie who seemed to be in a rush. Jeez, people these days are just something else I swear. Whatever, I thought, maybe they were having a rough day. Nonetheless, I straightened up and made my way up to my dorm, trying to forget whatever that was as I had bigger things to think about.

--

Knock Knock Knock

"Miraya, open up, I'm here!" I could hear Jiah's screams from my bedroom as I tried to quickly unlock the door. One hand on the doorknob, the other on my dress strap. And, as the door swung open, Jiah was left in absolute awe.

"Sheesh, miss girl who allowed you to look this good?" she exclaimed, coming in for a tight hug.

"Girl, look at you! Screw your boyfriend and come live with me," we both giggled, knowing dam well that we both looked quite good. I mean go big or go home right?

"I'm almost done, I swear. But please, can you help me with this strap? It unclipped and I almost lost my mind. I don't know why this dress requires 10 people to assemble," I whine a little as Jiah quickly clasps the dress back into its position.

"Hey, what's this? Are you okay?"

"What?" I ask, as she walks us over to my mirror before pointing to a bruise on my forearm.

"Oh, yeah, so silly. This guy bumped into me as I was trying to get into the building today. But, it's no big deal. It doesn't hurt." I assure her, letting out a small chuckle.

"Are you sure? Next time you see him let me know, I'll run straight into him." she urges with pure determination on her face. I can't help but smile, reaching out and going in for a hug. We talk about our day for a little while until finally leaving the dorm.

--

"So, this party? Who else is going to be there?" I quietly ask as we make our way down to the elevators.

"Oh, just, my boyfriend, his friends, and some other people from this dormitory," Jiah explains before pressing the Basement floor.

While my nerves were somewhat calm during our elevator ride, they sure as hell were not once the doors opened and I saw the amount of people just at the entrance. My eyes were wide open as I glanced at Jiah before she looked back with a mischievous yet nervous smile.

"Come on Mira, let's have fun. Let loose!" she exclaimed, pulling my arm towards the entrance. There was no time to answer or to protest so I had no other choice but to follow her into a huge studio room with disco lights and music blasting from each corner. "Small gathering"

"Baby!" Jiah screamed, as her hold on my hand loosened and she ran to a boy in a black cap. Jimin. Well, at least, now I know what he looks like. It was cute watching them reunite. They have definitely missed each other, it was clear from the way their bodies melted into one another and their eyes locked.

"Miraya, come here let me introduce you to everyone," Jiah waved for me to come closer before I could make out the other people in the circle, and that's when my eyes stopped on him. Oh my god, no.

"Oh, hey flip flops!" Tae scrunched his nose before parading his boxy smile, waving at my yet again flushed face. I dare not to look up, hoping that if I can't see them then they won't be able to see me. A girl can dream, I guess. 

"Flip flops?" Jimin and Jiah both ask, letting out a chuckle at the funny nickname.

"Yeah, it was so funny because when we first met I was in the elevator and she ran ..."

"Ok, that's enough, thank you for your input but really, it's not that serious. Umm ... so Jimin, how was your vacation?" I quickly try to change the subject before Tae sends me into another nervous breakdown. Everyone just smiles and looks at Jimin, while Tae teasingly grins at my quick remark.

"Yeah, I mean it was honestly so nice, the boys and I went to Bora Bora. Heaven on Earth! Baby, next time, we should all go," he says, adoring eyes looking down at Jiah who was snuggled into his embrace.

"Oh, by the way, this is Jungkook. We drove all night yesterday from Busan, so excuse his appearance." Jimin smiles, pulling on Jungkook's hoodie to come forward and introduce himself. The poor guy seemed absolutely drained but managed to let out a tiny hello with a nod before stepping back into the shadow. Something about him seemed familiar but I couldn't tell what exactly.

Previous l Next

[impcrios]

( jacob anderson | cis-man | he/him ) — was that rodolphus lestrange passing through diagon alley? those close to them say they remind them of  old memories burned in a fire, the feeling before a storm coming through, hushed conversations in a dark room, a quiet rage becoming more and more violent, and a love for your siblings and taking care of them, which i suppose seems to fit slytherin alumni. they’re actually pretty diplomatic, self-righteous, and powerful for a thirty-five year old, but i wonder if it serves them well when working as chief head of auror of department of magical law enforcement. rumor has it that the pureblood is aligning with the death eaters. i wouldn’t have guessed… but this is a conversation we should be having somewhere else.

full name — rodolphus lestrange nickname(s) — rod, roddy name meaning — rodolphus: wolf counsel. lestrange: the strange one age — thirty-five date of birth — october 31st place of birth —  star sign — scorpio sun, aquarius moon, libra rising current location — lestrange manor gender — cis-man pronouns — he/him sexual orientation — bisexual religion — none  occupation — chief head of auror of department of magical law enforcement.   education level — hogwarts, auror training, eventually chief training family — ransome lestrange ( father ), renata lestrange ( mother ), rabastan lestrange ( brother ), alice lestrange ( sister ) finances — again, when the wixen class war begins, eat rodolphus spoken languages — english, french, german boggart — becoming his father patronus — thestral ( he doesn't deserve this but again i've done it twice ) the second most rare patronus, only an unusual individual could produce a thestral.   thestral patronus can be seen by even those who have no been close to death. this is due to them being summoned by a charm and under the control of a witch or wizard.  those with the thestral patronus are gentle at heart and kind to those around them. those with this patronus have an understanding nature and will often make others feel like they are on the same wavelength.  if this is your patronus you may find people around you open up to you with things they have told nobody else. having such a gentle nature does make people with the thestral sometimes at risk of being pushed about, however it is uncommon for someone to feel negatively towards those who cast this patronus.  it is important to say that those with this patronus often have the most gentle souls of all.  wand — dogwood with unicorn hair 14 1/2 inches considered a quirky and mischievous wand wood, often associated with owners who enjoy excitement and playful magic. unicorn hair generally considered the most faithful and consistent core, producing magic with minimal fluctuations and resistance to dark magic, length 14.5 inches, which is considered a fairly standard wand length, hard flexibility this suggests the wand would be less prone to bending or flexing during spellcasting, potentially indicating a more controlled and precise magic style. 

rodolphus knew who he was from an early age, the first born and heir, always the politician, he knew what it meant to have family honour and he took it seriously. while his father was gone rodolphus had stepped up and was often the father-figure for rabastan and kept that close to the chest, always telling his brother of the ways a family should go ( with the current family being broken itself ), he raised him almost as his mini-me.

rod and rabastan lived a charmed life together, always looking out for one another because it was just the two of them, wherever rabastan strayed you’d always find rod picking up the pieces. it was what he was good it, whether it be his brother or his mother, rodolphus had stepped in, knowing that it was what he was meant to do, taking care of people while their world crumbled, and whatever he was feeling often put on the back end.

that’s just what rodolphus did, raising his brother, teaching him the ways of blood purity, and what company to keep. it's what his father would have wanted, regardless of his father not being there for weeks at a time, rodolphus had stopped caring a long time ago about his father’s whereabouts, what he did when they couldn’t see him. 

where alice got the loving father, rodolphus was left with a father that was stern and strict, it's all that he ever knew so rodolphus was never out of line. he knew what needed to be done, and did everything in his power to be a man of power. school came easy for someone like rodolphus, he excelled in everything that was asked of him, never once got detention or fell out of line in school, he was a prefect and headboy and ran the slytherin house like the navy, always saying to look out for each other because we are all that we have. 

it was hard accepting alice, at first, hard to imagine that the first lestrange family wasn’t enough for his father, and that he had to go and make a new one. rodolphus has never forgiven his father and probably never will, it’s why he makes the choices that he does, but it also means that he must also take care of alice because he knew what it felt like to be unloved. he grew up in cruelty with an absent mother who was often distraught due to the affair. 

when it came to picking a job he knew that becoming chief head of auror was always going to be in his foresight, he wanted power and he wanted to be a leader so he worked way up and now being chief head auror means he has control of how people are governed, and he knows that it pleases the dark lord, and more importantly, pleases his father. and that was the matter of it all, if his father couldn’t love him then he would do something that would make him more powerful than him. 

he was friends with voldemort when they were school, and knew him by another name, tom was often at the lestrange house but never at theirs, while he doesn’t know his blood lineage he knew that the young man would be something powerful growing up and he has kept this friendship and knows that with his growing power he will become something great and rodolphus will always follow.

it's a hard line, between what he believes and how he sees his sister, who went to a different house, there's many whispers on where her allegiance lies but she is still his sister and only knows to protect her. he loves his family, even if the family is broken, and in the end when he tortures her he doesn’t do it because he’s happy about it. but rodolphus was always loved power, he just didn’t realize it would come with a cost.

[love-fireflysong]

Oh snap, that's right: four weeks and counting babes! You're girl is on a fucking roll right now! And for those curious or who even cares, I did actually manage to transcribe all my notebook chicken scratch into the much more legible Constantia font I've been apparently using for the last like ten years (honestly thought I had been using Times New Roman until literally five seconds ago 🙃). Took me like four days to do so but I did it 😤

And for those who are know wondering 'hey, but if you managed to finish typing it all up then why didn't you post it like you said you were gonna'? Well that's easy, I decided at once I finished typing it up at like 4 am that I was for once gonna be patient and let it sit unedited and unlooked at for the next week, so that way I would hopefully come back with fresh eyes and brain and get to see alllllll my mistakes and not just have my brain auto-correct all the missing words and misspellings like usual. Wanted to try and act like a semi-professional writer this time so we'll just have to see how that ends up going later this week huh?

Anyways, barring any catastrophic emergencies (and the more likely scenario where my brain just decides that nope video games are more fun) it should absolutely 100% be up and posted by the end of the week! Yay! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

And here's just one last sneak peek for what to possibly expect (mostly cause due to rainy weather at night and going to bed early to catch up on some sleep, I kind of...didn't write anything this past week 😅 oops?)

Forcing herself to be content with the occasional text even as the guilt of feeling like she was being a terrible friend just made the weight of the sweater feel heavier and heavier the longer it stayed in her bag. None of which was helped by the fact that the guilt-ridden hoodie in question was just sitting out in the open on her desk. Mocking her and her patheticness out of the corner of her eye as she tried to concentrate on conjugating the rest of these verbs for French class. Verbs that were really not helping the situation what with how the next batch of five solely consisted of the words: to return, to visit, to miss, to steal, and to borrow. It was bad enough that the hoodie was leaving her feeling like an awful friend (though the odd fish-eyed stare of the hideous bootleg Hello Kitty charm hanging off her phone basically digging holes into the back of her head so it could stare into her soul from her bedside table certainly wasn't helping matters any) having her French homework of all thing continuing to pile on the guilt was just mean.

[orionbelt1]

O and L : Drunken Apologies never feel quite as sincere

This is an excerpt from something I’m working on, Enjoy! ( Reblogs are okay , just give credit and I do check tags!)

L has just come back from a date with U, a guy from her French lit class and they have pulled up in front of her house and he cuts the engine

L: I had a lot of fun tonight but mini golf is definitely not one of my strengths .

U: Yeah , no that much was apparent after seeing your work on the eighteenth hole.

L: Hey, that was not my fault!

U: Not your fault, L , your ball ricocheted off of the windmill and almost hit a five year old.

L: well in my defense, the arcade shouldn’t have put that windmill there and that lady shouldn’t have put her kid there so…

U: (laughs) you are unbelievable and I mean that in the best way possible.

L and U share a smile and a small moment of silence before they begin to lean in for a kiss. Before their lips make contact U stops as he sees something in the distance.

U : is there someone sitting on your porch?

L turns around to look in the same direction as U and sighs frustratedly

L: I’m sorry , I gotta go.

U: Who is that?

L: My neighbor , it’s a long story which I will share with you the next time we do this because I had a great time tonight.

U : wait so, Im getting a second date?

L: yes, and a third and a fourth and so on and so forth, if you play your cards right.

L quickly gathers her things, leans over to give U a kiss on the cheek and hurries to leave the car. U pulls off shortly after.

L walks up to O who’s sitting on the porch. He takes a swig of the drink in his hand that appears to be whiskey.

L: O, it’s midnight; what are you doing here?

O: You look nice, where are you coming from? A date?

L: that’s none of your business. Why are you here, I told you to stay away from me , my family and my house. Was I not clear?

O: Who’s the guy?

L: That’s also none of your business.

O: Look, you could either tell me who he is or I can find out on my own…your choice.

L: (sighs) His name is U and he’s in my summer Lit class. He’s been asking me out for a while now and I’ve been putting it off because I was occupied with other … people . Now that I’m not, I finally said yes.

O: Do you like him?

L: And if I do, what does it matter to you?

O: it’s a simple yes or no question, L.

L: Yes, I do and I like him so much that we almost kissed tonight and we’re going on another date soon.

O: Almost, what do you mean almost?

L: I mean I would’ve but I had to come find out why a drunken dumbass was sitting on my porch.

O: Oh yeah (laughs)

O takes another sip of his drink

O: (slurring) It’s not fair , that should be me.

L: And it could’ve been you but you had to go and lie to me like…

O: I didn’t lie to you because I wanted to L! I did because I had to. I couldn’t tell you the whole truth because if I did ; you would want nothing to do with me.

L: And it never crossed your mind that maybe I liked you enough to overlook whatever it was that you thought you couldn’t tell me.

O: I doubt that anything involving me having a secret girlfriend would be something that you would be willing to overlook . No ones that understanding L, not even you.

L: Whatever O , you’re drunk and you’re making excuses for being an ass. Get up , I’m taking you home.

O : you know what , fine L . You think you want to know the truth so bad, well here it goes

O gets up from the porch swing and walks over to L. He grabs her by the arm and begins to drag her to his house.

L: No , O , what are you doing?!

O: Giving you what you want, the truth.

L: No , O, stop…

O continues to drag L to his house and she keeps trying to break free of his grasps. To no avail, she fails because even in his sloppy drunken state he still over powers her.

XOXO

Love ,

Orion’s Belt and Orion Writes ❤️💛❤️💛

[moonchild-things]

Chapter Three: A Chaotic Breakfast

Summary: Beauxbaton’s biggest prankster has finally been expelled from the French boarding school. Having limited choices, Iris Evans is sent to join her sister at Hogwarts. As she adjusts to the new scenery, Lily’s twin makes new friends with a different array of people. Though there was no doubt that she would become friends with the Marauders.  

Word Count: 7979

Blog Masterlist | Foxy Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

---

THE NEXT MORNING ALL OF THE GIRLS in the dorm woke up in a timely manner. However, like Marlene, some of the girls had a harder time getting up than others. Lily was fully awake, dressed in her uniform, hair brushed thoroughly and books held in her hands she was ready for the first day of school.

Unlike her twin, Iris was still curled up in her bed. Her short ruby hair was in knots, drool dribbled down her chin and her body was strewn across her bed with the covers nearly on the floor. Lily scowled when she noticed the state of her sister. They had to head to the Great Hall in only a few minutes so that they could eat, get their schedules and find their classes for this year. And Lily did not want to be late in the slightest.

Though, Lily should have seen this happening. With the fact that she knows that Iris stayed up quite late and that she isn't a morning person, she should have expected Iris not to be ready yet. And she had the perfect way to wake up her twin.

During the summer, Iris spent most of her time scheming, pranking, eating and sleeping. And whenever she did sleep it was till noon, which pissed Lily off a lot. Since Lily is a morning person and loved to do many different activities during the summertime, she always planned to do them with Iris. And the only way to do that was to wake up Iris, which was a tough job.

Lily could swear that Iris could sleep through an earthquake and not even stir. But there was one way that Lily always knew how to wake up Iris. Of course, she only found out about it once they found out they were witches, but it works perfectly.

Lily grabbed her wand and walked over to stand at the foot of Iris' bed. Wendy and Marlene watched Lily stalk her way to her twins bed like a lion. Each shared a glance with each other as they realized what Lily was going to do. They knew all too well about how Lily likes to wake up people in the morning. Both of them and the other girls in their dorm have been recipients of the treatment in the past. Some more than others.

Lily stared down at her sister with a sinister smile. Despite Iris annoying Lily by not being ready, she loved waking Iris up this way. Iris continued to snore as she dreamed of all the adventures that she would have now that she was attending Hogwarts. However, as she was in the middle of her dream about pranking Severus, she felt a coldness consuming her entire body.

She gasped as she was jolted by a stream of water hitting her face and entire body. She struggled in her bed as she tried to get away from the stream of cold water. Her struggles didn't help her situation as she only ended up falling to the ground in a mess of limbs and wet blankets.

"Good morning, sister dearest," Iris heard her twin say sweetly. She uncovered herself from the soaked blankets and glared up at her smirking sister.

"I hate you."

Lily only giggled, "just get ready, we have to go to the Great Hall in five minutes, and I am not waiting for you." Iris huffed and brushed her wet hair from her face.

In the background, Wendy and Marlene tried to keep their laughter to a minimum as they watched Iris pull at her clingy clothes. Iris turned her irritated glare on the two and sneered slightly. They could tell that she definitely was not a morning person. After a few moments, they ran out of the room once they saw Iris had noticed them about to die of laughter.

Iris stood up and stretched her stiff limbs before heading into the bathroom. But once she finally got into the bathroom and saw her disheveled appearance in the mirror she remembered what she had done last night. The sleepy look in her eyes disappeared and was replaced with mischief and excitement. A smile crawled onto her face as she started to pull a brush through her unruly hair.

"Why do you look so happy?"

Iris turned to see Lily standing in the doorway of the bathroom. Lily's eyes suspiciously rake over her twin. What is Iris up to? She wondered.

Iris shrugged her shoulders as she started to get a few items for her shower. "I just have a good feeling about today is all."

Lily's eyebrows scrunched up as she watched her sister head over to the showers with a bounce in her step. She watched nervously. Whenever Iris was having a good day, someone else was bound to be having a bad day at her expense.

---

Wendy and Marlene giggled as they hung onto each other and tried to walk down the narrow stone staircase to the common room. Their suppressed laughter could be heard in the common room itself and a few other students watched as the two girls stumbled their way in. The Marauders watched as the pair finally bursted into full-on laughter. Their faces were maroon as they gasped for breath as if they were underwater.

The boys exchanged confused looks as they watched the girls try to regain their breath. The girls had finally sobered up and calmed down enough to walk straight. Except for Marlene, who kept letting a few giggles slip from her lips.

"Why do you think they're so bubbly?" James asked as they watched to two girls sit together at a table in the corner.

Sirius shrugged his shoulders, "no clue."

"Maybe it has something to do with Iris…?" Peter voiced his hypothesis softly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it does," Remus scoffed and stuffed his face back into the muggle book he was reading before he was interrupted.

Soon enough, said girl came bounding down the stairs and into the common room with a bright smile. Despite it being the first day of school, she was extremely excited about what was to come during breakfast. She wishes she had her mother's camera to take pictures of it. Perhaps she could find someone in the castle with one.

She saw the Marauders sitting on the couch and chairs in front of the fireplace. She wasn't surprised to find that Remus has his nose stuck in a book (one that Iris actually knew, surprisingly), James and Sirius bickering with each other like siblings and Peter appeared to be quite clueless to what he should be doing. But she noticed that he was fidgeting quite a bit. He must just be a fidgety person, she thought. She hadn't known the boy long, only a day in fact, and she could only think that he was usually like that.

Hopping her way into the common room, Iris plopped herself down on the couch in between Remus and James. "Good morning, boys," she greeted them enthusiastically.

"Morning Iris," Remus hummed as he looked up from his book momentarily before stuffing his face back into it.

"Morning," Peter squeaked causing Iris to smile brightly towards them.

James turned away from Sirius, ending their bickering, and turned to drape an arm over Iris' shoulders. "Good morning, Miss. Evans. You seem very chipper this beautiful morning."

"Yes, very chipper," Sirius mocked James' posh voice as he jumped over to push Remus off of the couch so he could sit on Iris' other side and earned a heated glare. "I could only guess it's because you get to see the most handsome wizard in Hogwarts," Sirius ran a hand through his hair arrogantly with a smirk. Everyone rolled their eyes, and Iris smirked.

"Yes, that is exactly why I'm excited," Iris declared and watched as Sirius' grey eyes widened as he thought she was referring to him. She quickly moved to help Remus up before pushing him to sit on the couch where she previously was. Remus, breathless at the sudden movement, squealed as Iris jumped into his arms and sat on his lap. "So Remus, how are you this wonderful morning?"

Flustered, Remus stuttered with his words, "w-well, f-f-fine, Iris." He stared at her startled as he now focused on the girl sitting in his lap, his book now forgotten about. Iris fluttered her eyelashes at Remus and stared at him as if he was the most interesting person she'd ever met.

Iris giggled girlishly and fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously, "that's really cool, Remus."

"Okay, okay, we get it. You two can stop now!" Sirius grumbled as he pulled Iris off of Remus and instead into his own lap. His face was slightly red in annoyance as he grumbled under his breath about 'a stupid wolf'. Iris' eyebrows furrowed when she heard him mutter that, but she brushed it off as one of the nicknames the boys have for each other.

"Now as much as I'm enjoying watching you two fight over Iris-" James started.

"We're not-"

James cut Remus off, "but I'd much rather be enjoying a wonderful breakfast with my true love."

"Your true love…?" Iris wondered out loud as the four boys turned to look at her, "you mean Sirius?"

She started to laugh hysterically and had to wrap her arms around Sirius' neck to stop herself from falling onto the ground. Sirius flushed crimson as Iris buried her face into his shoulder and Remus and Peter started to laugh too. Sirius' eyebrows furrowed in slight irritation. Not only were his friends annoying him, but so was Iris. But Merlin, did he love seeing her smile. And her laugh, he could listen to her laugh on repeat.

"What are you lot laughing about?" Lily asked as she descended the stairs from the dorms. She stared with a questioning brow raised as she saw the Marauders (minus Sirius and James) and her sister laughing as if they had heard the funniest joke ever. She also stared at the fact that Iris was hanging onto Sirius' neck, sitting in his lap and her head is buried into his shoulder.

"Ah, Lily. You look ravishing as ever," James flirted as he beckoned her over. "It looks like there aren't any open seats," he patted his lap, "you can sit here."

Lily scoffed as she rolled her eyes and didn't even walk in his direction as she strutted her way over to the table where Wendy and Marlene were. "That was a very lame attempt of a flirt, Potter," Iris stated.

James rolled his eyes, "like you could do better."

Iris smirked with a mischievous glint in her chocolate eyes, "oh, don't challenge me, Potter."

James leaned forward, "I'm challenging you, Evans. I don't think you know anything about flirting."

"After what she just did to Remus?" Peter questioned quietly.

Iris raised a questioning eyebrow with a smirk, "I suppose I just have to prove myself even more." She turned to look at Sirius with large eyes, "you hear that Sirius? James doesn't think I can flirt." She played with his tie and bit her bottom lip. Sirius stared at her with wide eyes as he tried his best to ignore the effect she had on him. "Do you want to help me prove him wrong?" She innocently ran her hand up and down his chest lightly. Each light touch from her gentle fingers set a trail of fire in their wake across his chest. His breath hitched as he sat frozen in his spot.

The other boys watched with surprise painting each of their faces. They knew that Iris was definitely a flirt, but they didn't think they'd see it to this extent. And to have this effect of Sirius Black… "Alright we get it, Iris," Remus commented as he shifted uncomfortably next to the pair.

"Really, because I think Sirius was enjoying that," Iris laughed lightly.

Lily appeared behind the group and pulled Iris off of a flustered and embarrassed Sirius. "Time to head down for breakfast, Iris. We need to get our times tables."

"But Lily," Iris whined like a child as Lily started to drag her towards the portrait hole. "I don't want to go to classes."

Lily huffed but didn't stop pulling Iris out of the common room as Wendy and Marlene followed. "And I don't care."

---

Lily was finally able to pull Iris down a few flights of stairs (with Wendy and Marlene's help) til Iris stopped fighting her and walked to the Great Hall. They soon arrived at the Great Hall on time and sat at the Gryffindor table to eat their breakfast.

"Oh, they have french toast!" Iris squealed and plopped down into a seat before beginning to pile her plate with toast.

Wendy grimaced slightly as she sat down in front of Iris. She had to admit that Iris' stomach appeared to be a bottomless pit, and she's barely known the girl a few days. "Slow down, Iris. You're going to choke."

Iris rolled her eyes as she shoved another piece of french toast into her mouth and said sarcastically, "Yes, mum."

"You would think being in France for a long time you'd be sick of french toast," Marlene commented as she sat next to Iris. Copying her new friend, Marlene started to shove as much food as she could onto her own plate and began to scarf down what she could.

Iris hummed in thought as she momentarily stopped eating (to the relief of Wendy, who really thought she was going to choke.). She swallowed the mouthful she had, "not really, come to think of it, they didn't serve french toast at meals in Beauxbatons." Shrugging, Iris continued to scarf down her food to the dismay of both Wendy and Lily.

The girls continued to banter lightly with each other for a few more minutes as the Great Hall started to fill up with more students. Iris watched eagerly as she spotted a few of her trick sweets sitting on a few platters. Untouched, the sweets waited for someone to take a bite out of it. She didn't even notice the Marauders finally enter the Great Hall because of how enticed she was with her sweets.

"You know, you could just eat the sweets and not stare at them longingly," James teased Iris as he sat down next to Lily (to her dismay).

"Hmm? Oh, no. I've already eaten too much," Iris dismissed.

"Has Hell frozen over!?" Lily exclaimed earning a glare from her twin. "I've never heard you say that before," Lily chuckled as Iris' new friends snickered with each other. Iris' eye twitched in irritation as she huffed.

"Well, if you're not going to eat them," Sirius shrugged as he grabbed a few for himself, and the other boys followed after. Iris watched impatiently as she waited for the boys to finally eat her treats.

"They look pretty good," Lily squealed as she picked up one of the sweets. Iris' eyes widened, she didn't want Lily to eat them! It may have been interesting to see Lily with purple hair, or boys clothes, or speaking a different language, but Iris wanted to live more than anything. And Lily would have killed Iris if she was pranked, on the first day too.

She quickly grabbed Lily's hand and stopped her from even touching one of the sweets. The girls looked at her with confused and puzzled looks. "Don't," Iris whispered as she pointed to the boys who were now starting to actually eat the sweets.

They stared at Iris with furrowed eyebrows, and then her eyes narrowed to slits, "why? What did you do?"

Iris' eyes twinkled with mischief as a smirk graced her light pink lips, "just watch." Her vague reply caused Lily's eyes to cautiously stare at her sister's face with worry.

Screams and yelps soon started to fill the air as people started to eat the trick treats. People's hair started to change colors, people started to switch clothes and people's voices were altered drastically.

The room erupted into chaos, just like Iris imagined. She smiled widely as she saw what havoc she was causing. She was immensely proud that her prank worked perfectly.

"Oh, my Godric!" Marlene exclaimed as she watched everyone start to run about the Great Hall in a panic. Iris howled in laughter and had to hold onto Marlene to stop herself from falling onto the ground. The group of girls watched as people ran about trying to get themselves fixed. Girls held out their hair for inspection and found that their once long beautify blonde or brown hair had changed into vibrant, unnatural colors. They all looked like circus clowns. People quickly tried to run out of the Great Hall before they started to be sick all over the place. Some weren't that lucky. And people had a hard time communicating because they suddenly spoke another language.

"Iris!" Lily yelled in a stern voice, but she couldn't help but let a small smile creep onto her pale lips. She had to admit, it was a decent prank. Her sister only looked back at her with a wide smirk and bright brown eyes that nearly blinded Lily with mischief.

She winked at her and laughed gleefully, "admit it, Lil. This is brilliant!"

"Bloody hell!" They heard Sirius exclaim, but once they turned around to the group of boys, they found that it wasn't Sirius who had yelled. Instead, James stared at Sirius with wide eyes as he found that his voice wasn't his own.

Sirius stared back at him with the same amount of surprise. "Prongs? Why do you sound like me!?"

James stared at him with just as much confusion as they heard James' voice when Sirius spoke. Remus sat next to Sirius and looked from one beyond confused boy to the other. He hadn't the faintest idea of what was happening, but if it had to do with the sweets, he was afraid to find out what had happened to him.

"What's going on!?" He exclaimed. Relief flooded him once he found that his voice hadn't changed, but it soon was drained from his body as Iris laughed hysterically while pointing at him. What was wrong!?

The rest of his friends turned to him and joined Iris in laughing, he still had no idea why. He wasn't able to see the fact that his once chestnut brown hair had suddenly changed into a bright neon blue and his eyes were a dark purple. He still stared at them with confusion and worry swimming in his abnormally colored eyes.

"What? What's wrong?"

He didn't get a reply as his two friends continued to laugh, their laughter sounding strange to them because they weren't their own voice.

Gibberish soon sprouted out of the last member of the Marauders. Peter starred in terror at his friends as he heard his own voice was speaking in a different language. He spoke frantically and had no idea what was happening. Honestly, if he hadn't of started to panic out loud, everyone else would have forgotten about him. Poor Peter.

"I must admit," Wendy commented in surprise, "this was actually quite a good prank, Iris."

The boys head snapped in the girl's direction. Their eyes settling on the hysterical redhead who nodded her head in agreement. "You did this?" James asked with amazement.

"Don't be so surprised, Potter," Iris said after sobering up from her giggles.

"I didn't think that you had it in you, love," Sirius said with a large smile. Godric, Sirius was falling hard for this girl, and he's only known her for a day!

Iris smirked and winked at him, "I suppose you know not to underestimate me in the future, darling."

---

Breakfast in the great hall soon ended and after the chaos, Iris' prank people were finally getting turned back to normal. People's hair had been changed back to their normal color, voices were restored to the right people, students changed clothes and people were finally able to speak the right language.

After somehow it slipped that Iris was behind it, she was promptly given detention by her head of house, Professor McGonagall. However, as they were leaving the great hall to head to their classes, Iris didn't miss the smile the headmaster had flashed her way as his eye twinkled with amusement.

The group gossiped with each other as they made their way towards the dungeons. The girls had potions with Professor Slughorn first. They scurried into the seats and waited for Slughorn to finally arrive. Lily had to be front and center so that she could see the Professor properly and clearly, like the good student she was. Iris would have rather sat in the back of the class, but seeing as Lily was in her class, she was forced to sit up front with her.

Iris had shivered once she had stepped foot into the potion classroom. "Why is the potions room in the dungeons?" She asked as she sat behind Lily in the second row next to Marlene. Lily turned to her sister and shrugged her shoulders.

"It just is."

Iris hummed in thought, potions wasn't in the dungeons at Beauxbatons. She guessed it was just a Hogwarts thing.

"It's so the snakes can feel right at home," a careless voice said from behind Iris. She turned around to see that Sirius and James had decided to sit behind them. "Don't want them to feel homesick."

"Ha." Iris said lamely, "very funny, Sirius. You must be the funniest wizard I've ever met."

Sirius smirked and ran a hand through his hair while smirking, "and the most handsome."

"Good morning, class," Professor Slughorn's voice halted their conversation and greeted his students as he came into the classroom carrying a variety of books. Everyone in the class reciprocated the greeting in monotone voices. The only one who seemed to be excited about this class was, of course, Lily. "Ah, I hope you are all excited about his coming year, I know I am."

The class stared at him with bored expressions. (Except for Lily, again.) Iris pursed her lips and stared at her new potions professor. She thought he is a very chirpy and enthusiastic teacher. He is obviously very ecstatic about his subject, unlike his students. Even though Iris wasn't as enthused about this class as her sister, she knew that this class was going to be easy for her. Seeing as she was top of her potions class at Beauxbatons, she was going to have no problem with this class. Which means more time messing about with potions for future pranks.

Professor Slughorn continued to speak excitedly about what he would be teaching about this year, but Iris couldn't find the will to listen to the man. She absentmindedly doodled on her parchment and paid no mind to her Professor.

"-and Ms. Iris Evans with Mr. Black." Professor Slughorn's light and airy voice brought Iris back to reality as her head popped up at the sound of her name. She didn't do anything!

She stared dumbfounded as a few people began to move around the room and sat in new seats. Wendy stood up from her seat next to Lily and moved somewhere else while Remus replaced her.

"Good luck, Iris," Marlene muttered to her as she collected her quills and stood from her seat.

Iris' eyebrows furrowed as she watched her friend leave the table, "why?"

With a fleeting apologetic smile, Marlene moved to her new seat next to a fellow Gryffindor name Hannah Beckett. Iris watched her with confusion, and she chastised herself for not paying attention. However, when a head of shaggy black hair and an arrogant smirk sat next to her, Iris groaned internally.

"It appears that we're going to be partners, love."

Iris rolled her eyes at the cocky voice and turned to look at the teenage boy, "I guess we are."

"Don't sound too upset, love, I'm sure we are going to work well with each," the air of cockiness was choking Iris to death. It might end up killing her before she even had the chance to kill Sirius herself.

"For your first assignment," Slughorn brought Iris out of her internal battle over who would die first, "you and your partner must produce Dizziness Draught." The class groaned in frustration. Dizziness Draught! They had barely learned about Dizziness Draught the year prior and now they had to try and make it themselves. Fat chance! "Yes, yes, I know. A moderately difficult brew, but I know you lot are smart enough to do it!" He commented, but everyone knew that he was referring to Lily, who smiled brightly at the professor. "The first pair to finish their brew will gain 10 points for their house each! Now chop, chop!" He exclaimed and urged his students to start on the task, "go now! Start working!"

Iris sighed and opened up her potions book to the correct page. Dizziness Draught was something that was quite simple, in Iris' opinion. She pulled out a cauldron, the necessary ingredients and the correct tools to cut and slice the ingredients.

Sirius watched her start to work silently. She hummed to herself slightly and he could tell that she was in a world of her own. It's obvious that potions was a strong suit of hers. From the way she expertly cut the ingredients and threw them into the cauldron of bubbling liquids, Sirius watched every move she made.

This continued on for a few more minutes. Sirius just sat in his chair and admired Iris work her magic. The other pairs of students had a hard time trying to put it all together and at one point someone's cauldron blew up in their face! But Iris had no trouble at all. She made this look easy. In her moment of bliss and concentration, Sirius grew restless from not doing any work and cleared this throat. The sudden noise startled Iris and she nearly dropped the wrong amount of one ingredient into the cauldron, which would have turned out bad for them.

"Anything I can help with, love?"

Iris sighed out of her nose and didn't even bat an eye in his direction, "no, darling, now do what you do best; sit and look pretty."

Sirius smirked. Iris' comment didn't do anything but help inflate his ego. If anything, she's caused herself more trouble than she would have if she didn't say anything.

"You think I'm pretty?" He arrogantly asked.

Iris rolled her eyes and finally looked up from the ingredient list she was reading. She flashed him a fake smile, "whatever will get you to shut up." And she immediately turned back down to her book and popped another ingredient into the cauldron. She was far too concentrated to slow herself down now, and Sirius is not going to distract her!

Sirius pursed his lips as they once again fell into silence. Restlessly, Sirius began to play with a quill and some parchment. At one point, he decided to annoy Iris. He used the quill to tickle Iris' nose and cheek. At first, she squealed at the light brush of the feather and caused a few of their peers to look over at them in confusion. However, as he continued to do it, Iris grew irritated and plucked the quill from his hands before she threw it on the ground.

The silence between them was once again suffocating Sirius. He has to think of something to say before he dies of boredom. He smirked slyly as he finally thought of a topic that was one he really did want to know about. "This morning was quite a good prank, love."

Iris momentarily paused her brewing to stare at him questioningly. She stared at him for a moment, and Sirius was scared that he had said the wrong thing. She pursed her lips and nodded her head, "thanks."

Sirius swallowed and ran a hand through his hair to hopefully disguise the fact that he was slightly nervous. "I'm just saying," he leaned in closer to as she turned to him with her brow arched, "you pranked some of the best pranksters in the whole school this morning, I'd keep an eye out for any payback."

Iris scoffed, "I guess you're referring to yourself there? Along with the other Marauders?"

Sirius only smirked in reply as the two stared at each other. "Well done!" The two turned away from each other and stared at Professor Slughorn who peered down at their cauldron. With wide, impressed eyes, the professor allowed a smile to stretch across his face. "You two have done an excellent job, this is a perfect brew!"

Iris smiled proudly, "thank you, professor."

"Twenty points to Gryffindor!" The other Gryffindors cheered and congratulated both Iris and Sirius. With a smug smile, Iris gathered her belongings and patted Lily on the head. Her twin rolled her eyes and grumbled under her breath about how impossible and unfair it was that Iris finished first.

Once Professor Slughorn had finished congratulating the pair on their magnificent brew, he allowed the two to leave. Sirius and Iris sauntered out of the room with their heads held high in satisfaction. (Even though Sirius didn't do any work.) Once the door to the classroom shut and the pair were left by themselves in the deserted hallway Iris let out a deep breath and closed her eyes, "finally."

Sirius smirked and reached his arm around Iris' shoulder and drew her into his side. "Yes, love, we can finally spend some time alone together."

Prying herself from under his dangly arm and pushed him away, Iris scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Nice try, darling. However, I would rather spend time alone." With that said, Iris sauntered away from the teenage boy. Sirius watched her go with a longing expression. He sighed dreamily as she watched the ginger sashay down the hallway and rounded the corner.

His red-haired beauty disappeared from his sight as he stared at where she had just gone. He did not move. He only reminisced about the feeling of warmth when her body was pressed up against his only moments ago. It was as if Iris had used a love potion of him. He was completely smitten with Iris Evans. The poor boy was wrapped around her finger. After a few moments of staring, Sirius was finally able to compose himself and started to trot after where Iris had gone.

---

Under a large oak tree on the edge of the Black Lake, Iris sat against the tree and sighed contently. She had found a wonderful spot to sit by herself and enjoy the quietness. It had taken her a short time to actually navigate around the school grounds, but it was worth it in the end. Hogwarts had a slightly colder climate than Beauxbatons and a somewhat slightly darker aura, but Iris loved that. Beauxbatons was far too bright and colorful for her taste and she appreciated the change of scenery. Hogwarts just had a sense of mystery that tempted Iris to no end. She could only imagine what secrets lied under the calm waters of the Black Lake or what lurked in the forbidden forest.

But as any good thing, they must come to an end. The quiet was interrupted by the sound of leaves being crunched under someone's feet. Iris looked back towards where she heard the sound as a scowl placed itself on her. All she wanted was some peace, Merlin.

Sirius stalked over towards his red-headed beauty that sat under the large oak tree. His shoulder-length black hair swayed in the light breezes that tickled the both of them with a cool gust of air. He smirked widely and plopped himself down next to Iris. "Like I said, Love, we finally get some alone time."

Iris rolled her eyes and scoffed, "you can't take a hint, can you?"

Sirius' smirk didn't falter, "no."

"Right, okay."

The two of them sat in silence. It wasn't necessarily awkward or uncomfortable, but if Iris had a say in this situation, which it doesn't seem like she did because Sirius will most likely follow her, she would much rather be alone. By alone, she means alone, not Sirius' definition of the word.

"We don't have to sit in silence, you know." Sirius started which caused Iris to huff through her nose. He smirked and leaned back against the tree, "we could… get to know each other more."

Iris chuckled lightly, "I've already heard enough about you to know that getting to 'know each other' just means shagging behind this tree."

Sirius laughed lightly in embarrassment, "not always."

"Fine, what exactly do you want to know?"

Sirius, flustered now that he actually had the chance to get to know her, stumbled over his words. "Well, I mean, I-I just wanted to ask how your first day is so far." He smiled sheepishly as he realized he was becoming flustered and embarrassed.

Iris pursed her light pink lips and thought about it for a minute. Of course, the day was going well, mainly due to only having one class so far and getting to leave it early. She'd just have to see how the rest of the day went for her. "So far? It's okay, I suppose," she started and smiled lightly as she seemed to love how Sirius stumbled over his words. "I've only had one class and got to leave it early… but it's fine. Hogwarts is slightly different than Beauxbatons."

"A good different or…"

Iris giggled lightly, "good different, there are no pompous, bitchy blondes run around the courtyard as they use their veela powers on everyone who would look in their direction."

Sirius laughed as well and relaxed as he calmed himself down. He really needs to control himself when it comes to Iris. Most of the times, when he spoke to girls they were the ones blushing under his stare and having a hard time finding their words. It was completely outrageous to think! At least, for him it was. He had a feeling that Iris knew that too and was enjoying the effect she had on him.

The two of them continued to make conversation which mainly consisted of Iris using her effect on him to her own entertainment. Eventually, they had fallen into a comfortable silence as they leaned against the large tree. She would never have guessed, from the stories that her sister and new friends had told her about Sirius, that he was even capable to stay quiet that long.

Soon enough, the three other Marauders came bounding down the hill and towards the tree the two were sitting at. "There you two are," James teased as they all came to sit around the tree, "we were wondering where you lovebirds went after class."

Iris rolled her eyes and hit the back of James' head. All the while, Sirius began to blush after his comment. "Yes, here we are." She scoffed and smirked and smugly asked, "how was potions after we left?"

"Dreadful," Remus commented, "how did you even finish that potion so fast, Iris?"

Sirius gasped scandalously, "Moony, do you think I didn't help my dear Iris with the potion."

Everyone rolled their eyes at his dramatics. "First off," Iris started, "I'm not yours, and second, I think they know for a fact you didn't have a hand in making our potion."

"I find your lack of faith in my intelligence unbelievable."

"I learned about Dizziness Draught a while back at Beauxbatons, it's honestly really simple." She stated and smirked, "it can be used for some brutal pranks as well!"

James laughed, "simple? Even Remus had trouble making it, and he had Lily helping him!" Remus flushed at the fact that James pointed out he was unable to make the potion. He was the smartest out of their group and he usually hated when his friends teased him about not knowing something.

"Speaking of pranks," Remus coughed, "you did quite well this morning."

James brightened as he was reminded of what Iris had done that morning. "Oh! Yes, that was brilliant!" He was thoroughly impressed with what had happened, despite him being apart of the people who were pranked. He could forgive his 'future sister-in-law', however. Especially if she was willing to help him with pranks in the near future.

"Though, I did mention earlier that she should watch her back," Sirius commented smugly and crossed his arms. "You can't prank the Kings of Hogwarts and expect no consequences." The three other boys nodded their heads and opened agreed with him.

Iris nodded her head sarcastically with wide eyes, "Oh, Merlin, I'm really in trouble now, aren't I? I've crossed the Kings of Hogwarts, please, spare me!" She dramatically stated and clasped her hands together as if she were praying. "Have Mercy!" They all laughed at her. They were definitely going to love being friends with Iris if she is always entertaining like this.

---

The rest of the day went by like a flash. Iris went to the rest of her classes for the day, sadly. She and the Marauders had Defence Against the Dark Arts class afterward, and as soon as Iris stepped foot through the doors, Lily had been trying to keep Iris and the boys separated. She was fine with Iris being friends with Remus, she actually was friends with him herself. She thought that if Iris was friends with him, his studious personality could have rubbed off on Iris this year. Lily also didn't have a problem with Peter either, he was just a lost puppy kind of boy who followed what the others did. But being friends with James and Sirius wasn't going to help anyone, in her mind.

Of course, when Lily was able to separate the rambunctious group, she forced Iris to sit with her up front, again. However, Iris was quite fond of DADA. It might have been the challenge the class presented her with or the idea of learning about dark powers that were hard to control that interested her, whatever it was, Iris quite liked it. It's strange to even think of Iris actually liking a class!

Afterward was lunch, there Iris was introduced to some of Lily's other friends. She even took the time to say hello to Severus, while also earning sneers and glares from the other Slytherins at their table. But Severus was happy to speak with her even if it was for only a moment. He was glad that she had been enjoying her first day at Hogwarts.

They had departed the Great Hall when they had finished their lunch and headed to their first Herbology class of the year. This class proved to be quite the bore with just about everyone. Iris could tell that barely anyone really kept close attention to the lesson, even Lily seemed susceptible to the boredom the class provided.

When Herbology ended, the fifth year Gryffindors then headed to their last class of the day; Transfiguration with their head of house, Professor McGonagall. Iris didn't think that the class was complete rubbish, but did get bored when McGonagall would drown on and on about one certain spell. She would have much rather cast the spell and ask questions later. Though that could be why she usually ended up in so much trouble all the time…

Transfiguration ended, to the relief of everyone, and then they all headed to dinner. Just like earlier in the day, Lily had dragged Iris away from the Marauders and any of the other boys who she knew were trouble. Iris had already been thrown out of one school because of a prank, she didn't need to be thrown out of a second. Though without the boys to tease and joke with, Iris found dinner to be completely boring!

But Hell would have frozen over if James Potter hadn't tried to speak with Lily at least once, or four times. "Go out with me, Lily?" He asked with a wide arrogant smirk for the fifth time that night and dinner had only started about ten minutes ago.

At that point, Lily should have just ignored James, but she didn't… "Leave me alone, Potter!" She grumbled and tried to turn away from him, only to face her sister who also loved to bother her.

"Give Potter a chance, Lil!" She quipped, "he kind of looks pathetic with all this begging." Lily rolled her eyes and stood up from the table to find somewhere else to sit without being bugged by anyone. "Aw, don't go, Lil! I love you!" Lily ignored her and the chuckles her exaggerations were attracting while sitting further down the table. She calmed down and shrugged her shoulders, "guess you won't be needing this." She grabbed Lily's forgot plate of food and replaced her empty plate with it. Lily was able to grab the last chicken leg off of the platter and Iris was dying for another one. Sometimes messing with her sister resulted in some wonderful outcomes.

---

When dinner ended everyone headed up to their common room and dorms. All of the girls, Iris, Lily, Wendy, and Marlene, were up in the common room around the flickering flames in the fireplace. They were gossiping about their first day back.

"Did you see his hair!" Marlene giggled as she gushed about the seventh year Ravenclaw, William Hanning. She had already gone on and on about the older boy for about thirty minutes. It was starting to get slightly annoying, in Iris' opinion. She would much rather be sleeping at the moment in her bed than forced to listen to her sister and new friends giggle and fawn over a bunch of boys.

"Iris," Wendy dragged Iris out of her thoughts of sleeping and back to their conversation, "we really wanted to know where you and Black disappeared off to after potions."

Marlene turned to her, "yeah, by the way, how did you finish that brew so quickly?"

Iris waved her hand dismissively, "I already learned about it a while back and I don't see why it's so interesting where Sirius and I were."

All the girls seemed to laugh at her perturbed and confused expression, "because the two of you were alone for quite some time…" Wendy raised a suggestive eyebrow which caused the other girls to giggle as Iris to scoff.

"Please!" She yelled out, "I wanted to be alone and Sirius followed me down by the Black Lake."

"When it comes to Black, alone time with him means a quick shag somewhere private." Marlene couldn't help but point out. It was known all around the school that Sirius was a player. He was the heartthrob of the school and just about any girl would fall to their knees for him. Well, everyone except Iris.

Iris grinned cheekily, "you're experienced with this sort of thing, are you?"

Marlene turned scarlet as they once again roared in laughter. Wendy had to hold onto Lily to prevent herself from falling off of the love seat the two of them sat on. Marlene was sat on the chair on the far right near the entrance of the common room and Iris had taken up the entire couch. She was stretched out along the velvety red cushions with the excuse that she was 'far more tired' than any of the others. However, it seemed that she would begin to regret choosing the couch over the chair Marlene was sitting in because only one person could sit there… And multiple people could sit on the couch.

With that being said, as the girl's laughter began to die down, the Marauders came bounding into the common room. The four of them were laughing themselves after they had just come back from tormenting Severus once again. Of course, there was no way that they would tell Iris and Lily that. James and Sirius did not want to upset either girl and they threatened Peter and Remus that if they said anything about that to the girls they would be beaten, badly. They knew that, for some reason they couldn't understand, the girls were friends with the snake-like boy. So if the girls found out that they were, more or less, bullying him, things would not turn out good for any of them.

They then noticed that the girls were all sitting on the chairs and couches around the fireplace. They were quick to fill up any of the available spaces. Sirius was quick to jump onto the couch right next to Iris as was Remus, though he was a tad bit more polite about it. James hopped over to sit on the armrest of the love seat next to Lily, who glared at him with piercing green eyes. Peter… just stood by himself as he didn't have a place to sit. He looked lost.

"Fancy seeing you girls here," Sirius commented confidently as he reached out to wrap an arm around Iris' shoulders. She stiffened at his movement and tried to stop herself from blushing at the contact. Was it just her or was the room getting warmer…

"If you want to keep that arm, I advise you to move it." She grumbled out and pushed him away. She then turned away from him with her nose held high.

Sirius smirked and ruffled his perfectly messy hair, "oh but you love it when I touch you." He once again wrapped his arm around him, this time around her waist as he pulled her into his side. He'd be damned if he allowed himself to melt because of this one beautiful, stunning girl without trying to get some sort of reaction out of her. He was going to try to get a reaction out of her like he would any other girl. Iris didn't seem to be the type of girl to swoon over words, so physical contact seemed to be the way to go.

Lily watched how Iris became irritated (or was she blushing?) with how close Sirius was and cleared her throat. "Sirius, really, if you don't want to die today, I suggest you let my sister go."

After taking a quick glance at his fiery haired woman, Sirius reluctantly let go of her when he saw the murderous look in her green eyes. He chuckled lightly and at least put a couple of inches between them. He might be slightly infatuated with her since he first laid eyes on her, but he was already scared of her.

"Right," Wendy commented and stood up from the love seat, "as lovely as it was seeing Iris threaten Sirius, I think we best be off to bed." To prove her point further, Marlene yawned, which was followed by Remus and then James. It was obvious that everyone was tired from the rigorous first day of classes. "Come on!"

"See you in your dreams, Iris!" Sirius exclaimed as he decided to take a page out of James' book. Said boy winked at Sirius as he realized he had copied his own pick-up line, and he approved of it. Though Iris didn't as she slapped the back of Sirius' head and followed the other girls up the tower to their dorm. Sirius rubbed the back of his head but smiled widely, "Night to you too!"

His friends chuckled and tried to keep them as quiet as they could as the girls ascended the stairs. Once the girls were out of earshot they bursted into laughter. "You are so whipped, Padfoot!" Remus was able to get out through his laughter. Sirius only rolled his eyes and sulked in his seat.

---

Blog Masterlist | Foxy Masterlist | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter