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2-cute-4-school · 4 years ago

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𝚗𝚌𝚝 𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚖 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚌𝚞𝚍𝚍𝚕𝚢, 𝚎𝚡𝚑𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚜/𝚘

a/n: hiiiii so i decided to make this a 2in1 reaction; basically i just put together 2 of my requests that were *in my opinion* closely related. hope y’all don’t mind and enjoy!! ( ˊᵕˋ )♡.°⑅

requested by annonies: ‘Hey.. could you please do nct dream reaction to s/o having high fever and just wants cuddls? 🥺 like how would they take care of them.. make it fluffy please.’ & ‘nct dream reaction to their s/o being EXTREMELY tired and then like ummmmm cuddling and stuff maybe?? *uwuing in the distance*’

Mark Lee

okay but just imagine this (๑◕︵◕๑)

cuddle sessions when you’re both stretched thin and overworked

even though we all know he isn’t big on skinship i think he would throw all reticence out the window when it’s crystal clear that you both NEED each other ꒰๑˃͈꒳˂͈๑꒱ﾉ*ﾞ̥

so you just crawl under the bankets into his arms and you both just lay together in silence just enjoying each other’s presence

bonus points if he runs his hand through your hair and you trace shapes with the pads of your fingers on his skin (´,,•ω•,,)♡

it would probaby take a couple of lazy kisses and if you’re really really soft he might just hum some song lowly in your ear

just a lil heads up:

you ain’t getting out of his arms ‘til next morning so better hope you peed beforehand and have a bottle of water in reach (ಠ‿↼)

the only thing that would make him get up without a second thought?

if you’re feverish because of your exhaustion

his worry wouldn’t allow him to settle down until he’s 110% sure he made everything in his power to keep you comfortable

“cold towels, water, painkillers just in case, is there anything i’m forgetting? babe, should i make you some tea-”

“mark, you know what would make me feel SO much better?”

“huh?” ｢(ﾟ<ﾟ)ﾞ??

“CUDDLES, BABE, CUDDLES!!” (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)

you don’t have to say that twice, your man is tucking you into his side in an instant flash ain’t got nothing on mark, he’s a man on a mission

he’ll try to stay awake long enough to make sure you’ve fallen asleep properly since he knows your fever won’t go away without proper rest

might hover over you the next morning too!! ( ≧Д≦)

Huang Renjun

this boy would FRET like CONSTANTLY

especially if you develop a fever

he keeps piling up a lot of stuff in your room, anything he deems would be potentially helpful at some point is surrounding your bed

“jun, why tf is a cactus on my nightstand?” Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

“what if haechan walks through the door?”

“... understandable” ¯\_( ◉ 3 ◉ )_/¯

your room looks like a deposit at this point and you’ve tried to drag him to bed more times than you can count

but he’s restless ༼ ಥ ‿ ಥ ༽

until your frustration topples over and you’re on the verge of tears as you ask him for ✨cuddles ✨

he might actually feel bad for not joining you earlier so he’s gonna be EXTRA soft with you enjoy it while you can

he’s gonna pepper kisses all over you as he encases you in his lil arms and nuzzles his face into the crown of your head (っ˘з(˘⌣˘ )

he’s ready to offer free massages or head scratches!!!! LIMITED OFFER DON’T MISS OUT!!!

also he’s ready for literally anything

fever? medicine and wet towels nearby. thirst? 4 bottles of water AND gatorade. hunger? your favourite take out is waiting. any intruders? cactus is right by his hand. cuddles? CUDDLES!!!!! (۶* ‘ꆚ’)۶”

i think he’ll probably stay up even after you fell asleep, reading about how exhaustion affects one’s body and how to help i just think he’s a really wholesome person despite his all ‘don’t talk to him he angy’ character

but he’s still SO attentive to you!!

he’s down to anything that would make you feel better and if that means 20 hours of non stop cuddling so be it (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

Lee Jeno

i think he’d be REALLY clingy with you even in normal circumstances kind of like how he’s with mark ya know

so your affected well-being will just give him an extra reason to evolve to his ULTIMATE LEVEL OF PHYSICAL AFFECTION◝( ′ㅂ`)و ̑̑

he won’t let you lift A FINGER

my man is cuddling you even while standing up (灬 ♡ ω ♡ 灬)

he’s also going to insist on carrying you anywhere even if it’s just from the bed to the bathroom this boi is strong you have no excuse to shy away from him he won’t let you

you have no chance at escaping him btw his arms are made of iron when it comes to cuddles good luck prying them off you

and even though he’s clearly focusing on your requested cuddles, he’ll ask you from time to time if you need anything, how you’re feeling, if you’re comfortable

lowkey uses the excuse of checking your temperature to give you endless forehead kithes cuz he can (*＾∀ﾟ)ъ

he also becomes kind of hyperaware of every little move you make

you shiver? he’s cocooning you in yet another blanket. you’re becoming restless? he adjusts your cuddling position until you’re fully comfortable.

NOTHING gets past him ┌༼ σ ‸ σ ༽┐

idk why but i have a hunch that jeno sleeps like a rock

so if he happens to fall asleep too and you need to get up? pfft yeah sure better call for a crane to lift you up from the bed ૮( ᵒ̌ૢꇴᵒ̌ૢ )ა｡

he’s also going to be EXTREMELY cranky if anyone dares interrupt your extended cuddle session this is strictly ‘only y/n and jeno time’

he might also entertain you with a few pictures of his cats if you’re feeling soft or ugly pictures of his members if you need a good laugh

would totally recommend leaving yourself in jeno’s care!! ♡(.◜ω◝.)♡

Lee Haechan

he would LIVE for your cuddle sessions (●♡∀♡))

despite that, he WOULDN’T STAND you being uncomfortable for a single second if he can do something against that

i think he’s the type of person who wouldn’t leave even the smallest of papercuts untreated when it comes to his partner so exhaustion? fever? yeah no. frickin. way. ┐(;Ծ⌓Ծ;)┌

and after he’s absolutely sure he has everything you might need nearby and put a cold cloth on your forehead and made sure you were hydrated and well fed

he finally climbs into bed with you and just SMOTHERS the shite outta you i’m not even kidding ꒰๑*´ᗜ`*꒱*›◡‹꒱꒱

he’s full on *leech mode*, kisses and nuzzles and gentle caresses

and best part of the package? this man is a walking spotify premium!!

you get to choose whatever song you want and switch with no ads and he has no complaints since his payment is already made in cuddles

you thought this was the end of it?? SIKE

also an entertainment king!! ୧༼✿ ͡◕ д ◕͡ ༽୨

we all know he probably has shit on all of the members and he’s not shy to do some harmless story telling to put you in a good mood

so just imagine and try coming up with anything better

sleepy you engulfed in the sunshine himself’s arms, tightly cradled against him with his soothing honey voice murmuring and humming to you and only you ˭̡̞(◞⁎˃ᆺ˂)◞*✰

his protective side might surface too btw

no one is allowed near you and if someone somehow managed to bother you? oh hell naw 🙃

now they’re on hyuck’s black list good luck mate

his babie gets the royalty treatment in those times guaranteed

Na Jaemin

he’s a doting boyfriend either way i think we can all agree on that

but you clinging to him and asking for cuddles? you not feeling well?

yeah not on his watch mother hen in action part the sea (ﾉ･ｪ･)ﾉ

i don’t think he’d panic tho, his only struggle would be postponing the cuddles you’re asking for while he prepares something to eat and a tea and fluffs up the pillows and blankets he’s gathered (oꆤ︵ꆤo)

but once he’s done?

yeah you’re bundled in a mountain of softness and most importantly? our cuddle bug jaemin (♡ >ω< ♡)

he’ll keep you propped up against his chest while he feeds you himself, proper care is something unskippable in his agenda

but after that any cuddling position is FREE REAL ESTATE!!

anything his baby wants, his baby gets ෆ╹ .̮ ╹ෆ

but for the sake of his mental stability he’d prefer to be in a position from where he can see you

boi is too worried to let you out of his sight so he’s aiming to be the big spoon or facing you directly 三 ( ◜◡‾)っ)⁰▿⁰)

he’ll help you fall asleep in any way he can

he’ll caress your back, your arms, he’ll softly massage your neck and shoulders, he has a playlist ready for sleepy moods

he is PREPARED ٩(๑•̀ㅂ•́)و

he checks your temperature every so often and he grumbles with a pout if it doesn’t seem to be going down

but if it comes down to it he won’t hesitate to ask someone to bring some medicine and if your exhaustion and/or fever doesn’t relent he’ll insist on getting checked by a doctor

it would break his heart to see you so weak and no ammount of cuddles could repair it until he sees you up and healthy again (◕⌓◕;)

but he’ll do all the pampering in the world so don’t worry

Zhong Chenle

i think he would hesitate at first but only because he’s kinda scared he’ll only make it worse and he WOULDN’T want that ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

eventually i guess he’d step out to call his mum for help before he pulls some bull like ‘let’s do some math it’s gonna be fun’ and you lose your shit like no thanks fam i wanna live (┛ಠДಠ)┛彡┻━┻

he’ll listen RELIGIOUSLY to his mum’s advice

makes you some chamomile exactly how you like it, probably pulls together something small to eat but won’t force you

what he will force you to take is some medicine you ain’t dying on his watch (๑･`▱´･๑)

and most importantly... DAEGAL CUDDLES!!!! imagine getting to cuddle every nctzen’s bias

he might get *a little* jelly tho if you pay too much attention to her tho

so he makes up some dumb excuse about dog hair aggravating your fever or some dubious other reason why you have to let go of his puppy and cuddle HIM!! ೕ(•̀ᴗ•́)

he’ll do that cute thing where he leans his forehead against yours to check your temperature he has to be extra until the end

and before you go to sleep he’ll try to prod at you to tell him what caused you to be so exhausted that you developed a fever might nag at you too about how unheathy it is to let it get to that point

he just wants to help okay? baby is worried in his own way ( •́ ∧ •̀ )

if there’s ANYTHING he can do to help consider it done by the time you wake up he’ll ALWAYS go an extra mile for you

and chenle wants to make sure you are aware of that and can lean on him so it never gets to this point again

but for the time being... it’s cuddles and relaxation time!! ✧(๑✪д✪)۶

better believe he’s already preparing a spa day for both of you to enjoy like the ✨spicy ✨ bitches you are

Park Jisung

his heartbeat accelerates

and unfortunately it’s not because he’s flustered shame (#ﾟﾛﾟ#)

his only thought when he sees you with bag under your eyes and a cold wet cloth on your forehead is ‘shit, they’re dying wait no censor the first part i can’t get my mouth washed with soap but... poop, they’re dying’

ONE step away from calling for an ambulance or morgue in his mind

he SWEARS he’ll let you teach him how to ride a bycicle as long as you get out of this safe and sound (╬⁽⁽ ⁰ ⁾⁾ Д ⁽⁽ ⁰ ⁾⁾)

he’s a bit of a mess, but he’s your cute mess

it would take *quite* a bit of reassurance that you’re going to be fine after a good night’s sleep and some jisung time for him to somewhat relax

his cheeks will flush once he curls himself around your form no matter how many times you’ve cuddled before

but once you sigh blissfully once he wraps his arms around you, it’s game over for him ε=(｡♡ˇд ˇ♡｡）

he MELTS against you

he’ll caress your head and gently scratch your scalp, lays kisses on your cheeks/forehead/crown of your head

but he will also fret every time you toss and turn or you make any sound that seems ‘distressed’ to him

we all know he can sleep anywhere under a frickin carpet so he won’t have any problems adjusting to whatever works for you since all that matters to him atm is that you’re comfortable (♡ >ω< ♡)

he just wants you to get better faster

he’ll talk to you in a hushed voice, encouraging and praising you and assuring you that once you’re all better he’ll help you with whatever you need and EVERYTHING will be well in the end ٩(ó｡ò۶ ♡)

he’s a senstitive person so he just wants to be there for you in any shape and form he can be

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livesincerely · 4 years ago

Note

I just read the accidental kiss scene, btw very good, and immediately wanted a romantic kiss follow up.

I think you’ve made a lot of people very happy by sending this in... ;)

(Sequel to this)

00000

“Dave!” Jack calls, when he’s able to put the words together. “Davey, I know you can hear me!” He knocks a few more times, then switches to banging on the glass with the heel of his hand. “I will stand out here all damn day, don’ think that I won’t!”

Finally, the curtains part and Davey appears. His whole face is red—his flush creeping down his neck and disappearing beneath the collar of his shirt—but his mouth is set with a grim sort of determination. Jack sees him take a breath, then the window slowly slides open.

He starts, “Davey, wha—“

“So, I’m a little bit in love with you,” Davey says, and Jack’s whole world tilts. “Or, more than a little bit, if I’m being honest.”

Jack stares. “You’re—“

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Davey quickly interrupts, and his knuckles are white where they’re curled around the window sill, his eyes focused somewhere near Jack’s left elbow. “Really, we don’t. Actually, let’s agree to just never talk about it because I already know that you... I mean, of course you aren’t...”

Davey’s voice wobbles, and he cuts himself off. His eyes dart up to meet Jack’s own, then cut away just as quickly, too fast for Jack to read any of the emotions swirling in them.

“Yeah,” Davey continues, his shoulders sagging with resignation. “Exactly. So I don’t need you say it. And it’d be real kind of you to not make me have to hear it Jackie.”

Jack’s throat works but no sound comes out. His brain feels like it’s been rung out and hung up to dry, just whipping uselessly in the breeze. He opens his mouth and out falls, “...You’re really in love with me?”

“Of course I am,” Davey answers, and he says it so simple and plain—like he isn’t upending Jack’s entire life with each and every syllable. “How could I not be?”

Davey chews at his bottom lip, then says, earnest and apologetic, “I wasn’t going to tell you, I swear I wasn’t, I’m honestly happy just being your friend. And I didn’t mean to, um, kiss you.” Davey scrubs a hand over the back of his neck, glancing up at Jack with nervous, worried eyes. “Sorry about that. I guess I just thought.... well, I don’t know what I thought. I wasn’t thinking, really.”

“But we don’t need to talk about it,” Davey says again, hurriedly—like he doesn’t want to give Jack a chance to respond to him, like he’s afraid of what Jack might say. “Really, we don’t. We’ll just pretend like this never happened and nothing like this will ever— because the last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable. And, well, it will really put a damper on our friendship if you break my heart.”

That last part is phrased like a joke, but Davey doesn’t sound like he’s joking. Jack knows he needs to say something, but he doesn’t have a clue where to start—there’s just too much to be said.

“You should probably get going,” Davey murmurs before Jack can figure it out, ducking his head. “I’m sure Crutchie and Albert are missing you.” And for the second time that morning, he closes the window in Jack’s face, the lock snapping shut with a soft click.

Jack stands there for god knows how long, still trying to process whatever the hell just happened. He eventually clambers down to street level, almost careening into a trash can as he jumps off the fire escape because his knees are too wobbly to hold him up, his mind whirring with a hundred different thoughts.

The next hour passes in a blur. He’s distantly aware of making his way back to the Lodging House, of Crutchie and Albert and Romeo and the rest of the Newsies moving around him as they all get ready for work, but they’re misty shadows in his mind.

All he can think about is Davey. The way Davey’s arm feels thrown casually across Jack’s shoulders as they walk down the street, thighs brushing which each step. How Davey can roll his eyes with his whole body but can’t ever quite hide how the corners of his mouth turn up into a smile, even when he’s absolutely fed up with Jack’s shit.

He thinks of Davey kissing him, how it had been too short and too surprising for Jack to respond in any real way, but how he wishes he’d had a chance to. He thinks of the look on Davey’s face, of the tone of Davey’s voice when he said that they could stay friends and just pretend it never happened.

But he doesn’t want to pretend, Jack realizes as he walks towards the Distribution Center. What he wants is to know what Davey’s smile tastes like, how Davey’s fingers feel laced between his own, if he can see the love in Davey’s eyes, now that he knows to look for it.

He wants it like a fire in his soul. He can’t even imagine trying to pretend otherwise.

Davey’s waiting for him in the square, standing off to the side and fiddling anxiously with one of the buttons on his vest, carrying a paper bag in his other hand. When he notices Jack’s arrival, he takes a cautious step forward to meet him.

Tentatively, Davey says, “We didn’t decide on lunch plans earlier, so I just went ahead and brought sandwiches.”

Jack kisses him.

Davey freezes, lips parting around a startled gasp, and there’s a soft thunk as the sack lunches fall to the ground. Jack pays it no mind, too intent on his task to be bothered, and he cradles Davey’s face gently between his palms, pressing closer and kissing deeper. There’s another moment of stillness, then Davey’s relaxing into the embrace, his hands coming up to rest against Jack’s waist, his mouth moving slowly, tenderly against Jack’s as they kiss and kiss.

“What was that?” Davey says, shocked and breathless when they finally part.

“You said ya didn’t want to talk about it,” Jack reminds him. His heart’s floating and soaring all around his chest. “That was us not talking about it.”

Davey licks his lips, lashes fluttering as he blinks. “That’s really not what I meant.”

“Are ya complaining about it?” Jack asks.

Davey squints at him, his expression torn between joy and exasperation and disbelief. “...No.”

“Alrighty then,” Jack says, grinning. “Now hurry up an’ getcha papes, we’s wastin’ daylight.” He kisses him once more, just because he wants to, just because he can, then reaches up and fixes Davey’s cap so it sits right on his head. “Oh, and Dave?”

“Yeah, Jackie?”

“I’m a little bit in love with you too.”

00000

@johnnyboy879

#newsies #javid #jack kelly #davey jacobs #*editor's note #*the writing desk #*ask #*ask game #bits & bobs #let's cut to the chase series #hope you enjoy!#<3333 #can you believe I’ve done 16 of these?#and there’s still like a dozen prompts in my inbox jc 😅

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unbelievableholland · 5 years ago

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Season of Reunions: Epilogue

Pairings: Mob!Hollands x Sister!Reader

Warnings: Death, curse words, blood, violence, kind of unedited😂

Words: 752

A/N: Heyyyy, sorry this took so long. I kind of just lost inspiration for this fic😅 but hey! At least I finished it. I hope you guys like it. My very first series oml😌

Btw, I have a new series coming up! Two new series actually. A Peter Parker on and a Tom Holland one. I'm uploading a teaser as soon as I can! I worked really hard on planning it and I really put my heart into it too. That's the thing, I lost motivation for this fic because I didn't plan it at all, but at least I know the plot for the two new fics😂

Anyway, thank you for reading this! Even though it isn't even that good😅

——————————————————————

“Jo” tears welling up in your eyes as you whisper her name. Kneeling down next to her, you cradle her head. Not caring about the blood under your feet, or the fact that Ace is still there.

Blood was coming out of her mouth, and her eyes are slowly fluttering shut. “No, Stay awake, Jo! Please” You don’t care if your voice sounds weak or that you’re basically sobbing for the first time in front of people. You couldn’t bring yourself to care. Not when the only person you’ve treated as family is dying in front of you.

“Y-Y/N, stay w-with them. Please, sta— stay with your— Y-your family. Th-they’ll protect you. B— Be h-happy” Choking on her own blood, she tells you this. As her eyes finally close and her whole body relaxed underneath you, staring into nothing with a smile on her face.

You shout. You let it go. Every emotion you’ve ever kept inside you being heard in that pain-filled scream.

Slowly, you look up. Staring into Ace’s eyes before you sprinted over to him. Punching him over and over again, not caring about any damages you cause him. You don’t stop, even when he’s laying on the ground with you above him, punching him relentlessly.

All of a sudden, you felt a pair of arms wrap around your torso, pulling you off of Ace’s unconscious body. You keep screaming, letting out screams of agony and a string of curse words at him. Tears streaming down your face as you try to fight against whoever’s preventing you from hurting Ace some more.

“Fuck you! Y-you killed her! You t-took her away from me, you asshole! She’s a-all I fucking had!” Finally, you felt as though your body if jelly. Your legs going limp, falling against Tom. The tears kept coming as you found yourself pressed against Tom’s chest, his arms wrapped around you protectively.

You felt like a child, but you need this. You need someone to ground you or else you’d lose it. So, you wrap your arms around Tom, crying onto his chest as you heard sirens in the distance.

After a few minutes, your breathing slows down and the sound or crying disappears. As Tom looks down, he sees that you’ve fallen asleep. Eyes red and puffy.

Seeing you like that made Tom’s heart break. Jo was a close family friend, and he knows that she took good care of you, but he also knows that it’s his turn now.

You didn’t know, but Tom is crying as well. He couldn’t take losing Jo and seeing you lose her. How you tried to keep composed, how you tried to put a brave face on for Jo.

The moment you screamed; he couldn’t take it. It was so full of pain and anger that he couldn’t imagine. He blamed himself, because he didn’t do anything about it. You saved his fucking life! And in turn, Jo saved yours. In a way, he’s very thankful for Jo. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if you died this young, thinking that your own family hated you.

He can’t think straight, so he cried. He cried, holding you tighter as the paramedics took Ace and Jo into the ambulance. Harry, Sam, and Harrison all kneeled down next to him, tears staining their cheeks.

They guided Tom back to their car, trying to escape before the paramedics could approach them. Tom carried you in his arms, cradling you like you’d disappear if he didn’t hold you as close to him as possible.

He grounded you as much as you grounded him. You kept him from going insane. Looking down at your sleeping figure as they drove away, he caressed your face gently, kissing your forehead. Letting a few more tears leave his eyes.

The car ride was quiet. With everyone trying to process what happened, and trying not to wake you, none of them could speak up.

In spite of the absolute silence, everyone knew that this is the night that changed everything. Jo isn’t with them anymore, and they finally have their sister with them. Everyone in the car thought the same thing. They won’t ever let you get hurt again.

This time, this time they’ll do it right. They’ll protect you, and they’d make sure that no one ever dares to lay a hand on you.

Because you’re a Holland, and you’re their sister. They’d never let anything bad happen to you. They’ll make sure of it.

——————————————————————

Permanent Tag List:

@spideylovin @used-avocado @why-am-i-so-obsessed-help @annoylinglyaries @autobotgirl15-blog @shootingstarsaretearsofheaven @tiffy119 @eridanuswave

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kryptsune · 5 years ago

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I have a Confession... {Red X Frisk Drabble}

FRANS WEEK 2020 // Day 1: Confession

>>Day 2

@fransweek

🌼So a little bit about this. I am planning on doing Frans week this year that said I also don’t want to stress myself out. I have a sketch that I am working on that combines a few of the prompts but I still wanted to do something for day one so here is Underworld Red and Frisk after her run. Frans is so important to me so it is nice to post this kind of content again.

If you are currently reading Underworld there are a couple of spoilers within this that have yet to show up in the fic. I actually have decided to write this out instead because I am currently editing and getting feedback on the latest chapter which I plan to get up today at some point. If not it is going to be tomorrow. This scene is not canon to Underworld btw angst ahead.

===========================

She had yanked her hand away yelling only for him to become a little overly aggressive. It had slipped her mind as she shook from his actions. His boney almost claw-like fingers dug into her skin causing a blossom of blood to form and trickle down her arm. He had released her when he didn’t realize his own strength but it was too late.

Her ears rang with his shouts as she ran clutching her arm. Her legs brought her to the only place she found solace. A small little place in Waterfall. She collapsed next to the glowing blue stream shivering as if the very ground she now rested was but ice. When she looked down at her arm, the wound was nowhere to be seen.

That only meant that her mind had started to decay and old horrors were spilling out. Did he even grab her? Her eyes filled with tears as she placed her shaking hand against her lips. What was real? What was fake? She knew that he loved her but this. She was sure she looked at him with horror swimming in those cobalt depths. The fear was undeniable and he had done nothing to deserve it. How could you ever love someone that saw the shadow of your former self-overlaid over the present? Was she a hypocrite? She told him that she forgave him and yet her mind was wrought with rot. It’s decay slowly creeping deeper and deeper into her mind. The ghosts of the past haunted her even to the extreme of physical sensation. What were you supposed to trust?

She closed her eyes leaning forward in defeat. Her age was in its prime. A young woman with so much life to live and yet this disease had slowly consumed her sanity and with age, it would only devour what was left of the present. She couldn’t put him through that. It would break her heart. She didn’t deserve him not after that. At that moment her heart began to break. She loved him so much that his happiness went beyond her selfishness. He was better off finding a monster to be with than her. She would get old, her condition would become worse, and he would be tied to a human with such a short life in comparison to his own. It was the way it truly had to be. No amount of apology could ever fix what she had just done even if it was not in her proper state of mind.

She just sat there staring blankly into the water only to hear a small noise off to the side. It was him. It was near impossible for her to truly be alone when he was able to track her down so easily. Even when he approached she refused to raise her head to look at him, “I’m sorry…” She nearly choked on her next set of words as they passed her wavering lips, “We can’t be together. I…. I can barely control myself any longer. All I see is the worst part of you when…”

The tears began to form as she tried to stop herself, “I know there is so much I love. I…I don’t even deserve you. I want to love you and keep you close to me but I fear I am losing my mind. I see things past and.“ She was cut off as she screwed her eyes shut only whimpering a few chosen words, "I’m so sorry I yelled…. That I ran… I don’t know what is wrong with me anymore.”

Physical ailments could be treated with simple medication or rest but the mind is a complex beast. Just as it’s physical appearance depicts it is a maze that one could be trapped in for all eternity with no hope of escape. She was shaking and nearly on the cliff of a panic attack. What would he say?

All she felt was gentle arms wrapping around her from behind cradling her in that warm embrace. How could he even look at her let alone touch her? All she could hear was that soft twinkle of chimes that made Waterfall so unique. He loved her, cared for her, and comforted her. He was her best friend and now someone she couldn’t imagine being without. His silence only led to soft gestures like the wiping of tears, a soft squeeze, and a small smile. He didn’t need words to tell her how he felt. When the silence finally broke she was staring up into those red eyes. One that used to frighten her but now drew her in with that brilliant ruby hue.

He knew what it was like to lose your mind as his father had made sure of it. The monster he once was and the one she had met were like doppelgangers and though those traits from his past had returned he still struggled with the one thing that stained his very being. The very thing that had nearly torn half the Underworld apart with its aggression and madness. To see her go through the same pains hurt his soul.

He had learned to control his and yet hers only seemed to become worse. He feared one day she would harm herself due to some demon that crept into her mind. Take that pain away... that was all that he wanted for her. Even her outbursts could never change how much he loved her. Even if she tried to pull away he would always pull her back. He had done this to her and so he deserved what he was getting.

He only threaded his fingers through her hair gently combing through the auburn strands, “Why would ya ever think I’d be mad at ya?” He had been working tirelessly for weeks trying to improve her mental condition and yet no amount of magic could fix her wounds, “Ya don’t deserve me? Sweetheart, ya got it backward. I did this ta ya and I’m sorry. I wish I could take it all back er’… erase all tha bad but I can’t. You could yell at me fer tha rest of yer life… I will never leave ya.”

He just held her praying to someone, anyone that one day those demons would be purged from her mind even if that meant he had to be out of the equation. She deserved better and though he loved her with his every breath he could not deny that he was only causing her more pain. He could feel her small frame shuddering as she sobbed, “Shhhh I gotcha.”

It was ironic considering the place she had chosen to escape to. It was a special place for both of them. It did not look like much but this was the place where his once cold and ruthless soul had been soothed. No amount of words or magic could do what her warm smile had or just that sparkle of hope and love in her eyes. It was the moment he realized he had been horribly wrong about the seemingly fragile human girl sitting beside him and how much of the term monster he had become.

A truly awful horrible demon of a skeleton that didn’t deserve her angelic mercy. He had a difficult time living with his past actions drowning in a regret that not even time could cure. He remembered finding her trying to hold back tears as she wrapped her pale arms around herself. Seeing his handiwork in full display only for her to panic at his snooping. She explained that though time appeared broken for her that did not mean there were no consequences to such a thing. She called it a curse and rightfully so. Even as they sat in silence he could feel his thoughts shifting.

That was the moment that changed everything. That was truly the moment that he realized just how special she was and how important she was to him specifically. He nearly cursed himself for not seeing it sooner. It was the same exact spot. The only difference was that he had no hesitation in his comforting of her. He wanted her to know that no matter what he would always be there no matter what she did because deep down a little of her hope had made its way into him. He would save her just like she had saved him all those years ago. She deserved happiness and he knew that for her that included him just as much. She had said so herself.

He closed his sockets just resting his mouth on the crown of her head before slowly raising it to speak clearly, “Ya saved everyone Sweetheart… now let me save you, alright?”

He continued to hold her like the little fragile thing she was letting her feel that warmth and comfort. That loving embrace that would never leave her. She looked up at him now calmed by the soft words and warm cradle of his arms. It was a simple word one that might make another laugh at its absurdity, “Red…”

Ah yes, the nickname. The very one that had been a joke in the past. A failed attempt at a kind of quip for his use of so many pet names for her. There was one that stood out among the rest, sweetheart. There was nothing as fitting as that one simple word for her. She had made a point about mocking his fashion sense and his unfortunate eye color saying that he should be nicknamed after the color he seemed to be drowned in but it was his.

A name that proved that though he had become something he hardly recognized that was the person she had grown fond of and could call a friend. It was special even if to the untrained eye it would appear rather bland or foolish. When that word slipped past her lips his soul would thump in his chest skipping the nonexistent beat that filled what a heart would do.

He stared into those blue eyes that were filled with so much love for him something he never thought he would ever deserve. No, no one could say that name like she could. She didn’t need to speak anymore he just swept her off her feet so they could once again return home. He would keep hope for a brighter future and one day all those grey clouds would give way to the most beautiful blue sky.

She had already cleared away the storm for him now it was his turn to show her the true beauty of a night sky unhindered by a single cloud. A peace, love, and happiness unmatched and unequal to anything on this planet or under it.

💙Ways to Support💙:

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Thank you, everyone, for your continuous love and support. It truly means so much to me.

#undertale #frans #frisk x sans #underfell #Red X Frisk #Underworld Au #Underworld #WTU #Welcome to the Underworld #fransweek2020 #fransweek #drabble #Red Fontaine #Sans Fontaine #fluff #angst #Day 1

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paperclipninja · 5 years ago

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Younger post-ep ramble 6x04

Well now, we’ve hit a rather interesting point in the season now haven’t we? Can you say DRAH-MAH. This week’s episode, ‘An Inside Glob’, sees the tension that’s been mounting in the first three episodes of season 6 reach boiling point. And then boil over. Into a restaurant full of onlookers. Then onto Reddit. Lol. Now I may be biased because of my love of Miriam Shor (or I am simply an appreciator of good directing when I see it), but this week’s ep was so well put together, it felt like there was ample room for each scene to breathe and the pacing overall felt significantly less frantic than it sometimes does. There was a familiarity, for lack of a better word, about the structure and the feel of this ep, not to mention the writing left me legit laughing out loud many times throughout. The writers are bringing it this season. We also see the welcome return of two faves: Charles’ three-piece suit and Liza’s silver-suit power-tude. Let’s dive on in.

You always know it’s going to be a good ep when it opens with a loft heart-to-heart between Liza and Maggie, but not before Liza meets Maggie’s new boo Beth (with Liza’s ‘ew’ and hand wiping after Maggie tells her they just finished a session equal parts gold and gross). Their whole interaction, from the ‘I promise not to call him Chaz’ (was anyone else hoping she would call him Chaz, because I was HANGING for a Chaz drop at dinner. There’s still time...), to Liza sharing her concerns that Charles is secretly financing a new company and Maggie trying to justify all the coincidences and reassure her, it was just premium bff content. Not to mention a great set-up for the episode and follow on from the last one.

Liza continues to try and allay her suspicions about Charles by getting Kelsey’s view of the funding source after the morning meeting with my new fave power-trio (quick poll: Zane always looking like a dog who just ate your pizza - accurate or nay?) and Diana brings the top quality delivery of one liners right from the get-go as we’re introduced to this week’s author, Bronwyn Madigan (aka, the cash cow whose milk Millennial could use...yes, D. Trout, you did need to say that). Apparently baby boomers like to top off their reading of erotica with a good meatloaf (actual meatloaf, get your minds out of the euphemistic gutter) and that is now two foodstuffs I have a strained relationship with following this ep of Younger. Liza is able to quash her spidey senses re: the Mercury money briefly, as Kelsey reveals she’s been doing some digging and discovered the company is operating out of the financial district, therefore obviously it’s a big media company behind it. Obviously...

Lo and behold Kelsey marches her feisty self down to the Mercury office to confront Zane and weaves through hopeful start-up founders in a co-working space to find him (also, are AirPods a pre-req to land a job at Mercury?). Their entire exchange had a couple of ‘whoa’ moments for me. Exhibit A, when discussing how Zane secured Audrey Colbert’s book:

Kelsey: ‘So you slept with her? God, that is completely unethical. And so creepy”

Zane: ‘But it’s fine when you do it?’

File under: T for TRUTH. Not gonna lie, I almost applauded. I would have filed under H for Hypocrite except the next part of the conversation, in which Kelsey throws the accusation that Zane went after Audrey because he knew she was (and I’m with Zane on this one, she is going to need to learn to suck it up when Millennial loses out on books, our pal Kels is on one steep learning curve), followed with, ‘that book was important to me and you knew it’, goes straight to the H folder. How does Zane know it? Could it be because Kelsey told Zane she was going after Audrey’s book? Even after he told her he had a job, that he was just waiting for everything to line up and considering his history of swooping in and being competitive? While they are not fully comparable situations, I found this a bit rich considering the grief Kelsey gave Liza for discussing business with Charles (I get that was her insecurity and feeling he would interfere), when her discussions with Zane have seemingly led him to going after this book. Which is 100% in character for him btw.

I have been liking a lot of Kelsey’s boss moments this season but this week it certainly felt like she was in way over her head. At her lunch with Lauren, yet another combo I thoroughly enjoy on my screen, we once again see Lauren being the relentlessly supportive friend she always is and educating Kelsey on the dos and don’ts of dating apps (surely Kelsey knew that deleting an app doesn’t delete your profile right??? Putting it down to stress amnesia). Pointing out that putting your job title on your dating profile if it is in any way a potential threat to male ego is a big no-no (’this kind of over-accomplishment only works if you’re trying to pick up women’), Lauren offers up that Kelsey suffers from BDE. Of course we later discover that rather than big dick energy, Kelsey is suffering bald dude energy, confirmed by her alopecia diagnosis. I did so enjoy Kelsey’s dramatic reactions, ‘just keep an eye out ok?’, to the whole ordeal and it certainly added another element to the rising tension.

Cue hilarious conversation with Diana about her own battle with hair loss (not on her head) along with the rest of her ailments (shingles seems to be a running theme this season. Did someone in the writers room have a shingles flair up recently after reading a particularly terrible autobiography or suffer month-specific breakouts aka Diana’s electric tube top? Need to know). Even though it was not making Kelsey feel better necessarily, this was Diana being supportive in her own way and I am just here for it every day of the week. I think what I enjoyed most about the office scenes in this episode, aside from every single line that came out of Diana’s mouth, were the moments that were reminiscent of the old office dynamic. From Diana bleating ‘Liza’ as she enters Liza’s office (still can’t believe that’s a thing) with the idea of advertising erotica on the bike kiosks to the sarcasm when Liza asks ‘Bronwyn’s?’ and Diana responds with ‘no, my own’. We finally get to meet author of ‘The Seasoned Slut’ (loving the guest casting this season btw) who oozes a self-assurance that only serves to emphasise her reason for not re-signing with Millennial: that her problem ‘is with the lack of value placed on experience’. Ugh, I loved this line.

I loved it because it is an absolute reality, especially for women in the workplace, and goes hand in hand with the ageism this show’s entire premise was built upon. I loved it because this show tells us that experience is and should be valued through Zane’s comment in episode one, that Kelsey should not lose Diana as she is the best in the business and Kelsey telling Diana that she values and respects her. And I loved this line because the set-up for this season remains true to the original premise and challenges it at the same time, taking another look at the role age/experience and gender play in success and reinventing yourself. Did I mention I love this show?

Liza’s reaction to the question of ‘where is the grey hair in the room?’ was also noted, a nice reminder that the age-lie is still in play and is never far from the surface. The other thing I loved in the meeting with Bronwyn was Diana’s horror that she a) might be considered the demographic for her books and b) ‘do people think I’m her age?’ I cannot imagine a time I will ever watch this line and not roar with laughter. I also love that that was the main takeaway Diana had from the whole BJ comment this woman just casually dropped in as she exited, you know, as one might mention they know a great bagel place you might enjoy nearby.

Josh’s parenting journey continues to unfold as he gets his first overnight stay with Gemma, but not before experiencing some kind of parental rite of passage and being squirted in the face with breast milk. I know there is a lot of mistrust of Clare out there in the internet but I will keep saying this week after week, I am so enjoying seeing Josh and Clare navigating this modern-day parenting arrangement together. I appreciate Josh’s desire to be there for both Clare and Gemma in any way he can and I appreciate that Clare appears to be open and wanting the same. I am not the biggest fan of baby storylines in general but I tell you what, to see Lauren pacing up and down cradling this little person, I am 100% pro-baby. This is one of my favourite moments of the whole episode and just when I thought there couldn’t possibly be any more layers to Lauren Heller, I get the up-all-night-with-crying-baby Lauren and I simply cannot: ‘I have been up all night with a crying baby. Why? I don’t know, because the rest of you either don’t have ears or you don’t have souls’. Early contender for line of the season. Kelsey’s bag-of-hair inducing scream finally wakes Josh and Lauren’s reaction, for him to ‘get it together man, Kelsey doesn’t need this’, epitomises Lauren’s selfless nature (which I just love as it seems so contradictory to her sometimes self-absorbed tendencies). It was not because she was up all night with his child, it was that Kelsey was in the midst of a crisis that Lauren needed Josh to pull it together and it just reinforces yet again what a multi-dimensional, caring character she is. And yes Josh, you are the dad, not the babysitter (kudos for this Alison Brown) so you may need to learn to sleep a little more lightly or something FYI.

Kelsey’s hair stress continues to play out as she runs into Maggie, who was also hoping to make a covert pharmaceutical purchase and the two wander back to Maggie’s for the scene I have been looking forward to since the possibility of such a scene came into play. I am of course talking about dinner at the loft and the integration of Charles into the friend circle. Kelsey’s freak out seems to be hitting fever pitch as she asks Beth for advice but this is soon interrupted by the arrival of Charles and Liza, who come bearing blackout cake (which I googled and holy chocolate pudding it looks AMAZING) in the most adorbs coupley entrance and don’t mind me, just having a quiet gush over here. Ok, I’m done. While Kelsey is over chatting with her old boss, Beth puts her naturopathy into practice by suggesting Maggie take a more natural approach to treating her yeast infection, doing some seasoning of her own to let a clove of garlic work its magic. Between jalapeno dick and garlic vag, this show loves to make us consider our spices in a whole new light.

This entire dinner party scene was next level, I want to frame a picture of it and put it on my wall because yes. We have casual, relaxed Charles, who is the first to ask if there is garlic bread on the menu (I love so much that he was the first to smell it) and seriously, from this moment, the unfolding of the garlic saga was nothing short of amazing. Kelsey was so amped this whole scene, she’s like a tightly wound ball and it was palpable. Her interjections as she commented that it smells like an everything bagel and agreement about the garlic knot and escargot were just brilliant contrasts to her otherwise increasing intensity. I so adored seeing Kelsey and Charles interacting casually and seeing what this would (ahem, could have) look like. But Kelsey asking Liza if she’d told Charles about Brownyn Madigan...I’m sorry, but how could she WHEN SHE CAN’T TALK ABOUT WORK WITH CHARLES? This bit made my head hurt a bit. Surely Liza in that moment must have been thinking the same (also Liza’s moment of identifying a garlic knot, so so good).

What I love most about this scene is that we have Kelsey’s conversation getting more intense by the minute as she jumps from unloading about the stress of work, to Zane and his new venture, before finally climaxing with her ‘who is it?’ declaration, all the while having zero suspicion that Mercury’s investor is sitting right beside her. Side note: I really like Charles’ comment that he’s sure it is business, not personal re: Zane. I think it’s interesting considering the stereotype that women are too emotional vs. men and I’m curious to see how this plays out this season as Kelsey finds her feet. Meanwhile, Charles is trying to have a nice double date with his gf, while also keeping a secret that is the cause of much of the distress Kelsey is sharing with the table, while Liza takes the opportunity to make Charles squirm by pressing the point about the money for Zane’s venture coming from somewhere. It’s such an intricate web and of course parallel to that is Maggie’s secret vagina garlic that has the whole room assuming some kind of paranormal baking is taking place before Maggie responds to Kelsey’s ‘who is it?’ with, ‘it’s me!’ and it was just too much. My reaction was the same as everyone around the table when Maggie announced the source of the garlicky aroma, what a dinner party (and what a way for Charles to avoid any further scrutiny).

I am so glad that the conversation that needed to happen finally did this week and that was, of course, Liza confronting Charles about his involvement in Mercury. Oy, my heart. It broke a little when Liza gave Charles the opportunity to come clean and he didn’t and she had to ask so directly. It was so good to hear these two talking, like properly talking, and Charles explaining that he had to make choices in order to be with Liza but he never wanted to give up publishing for good was great insight into the journey Charles has been on post-Empirical, especially as we really haven’t been privy to that. I felt for both of them at various stages during the conversation. I do believe Liza understands why Charles would want to reinvent himself but I also understand why she would feel so hurt that he would keep such a huge thing from her (although again, they’d agreed not to talk about work at Liza’s request so *insert shrug emoji here*).

But it does highlight an ongoing issue which I really hope gets properly addressed sometime soon and that is where Liza’s loyalties lie. I think it is unquestionably not ok that Charles set up a rival company while Chairman of the Board of Millennial, for obvious reasons. However, had he told Liza, she would have felt compelled to tell Kelsey, which I have no doubt Charles knows and would expect as she is the publisher, so in not telling Liza he is yes protecting his own interests but also stopping her from being in a compromised position. So while Charles’ secrecy is disappointing, so is Liza’s text to Kelsey the following morning asking to meet before work after Charles asked specifically that she tell no one about him financing Mercury just yet.

This episode comes to a head at Suffolk House in a most spectacular fashion. Hilary Duff really did knock this entire ep out of the water with her acting, I cannot heap enough praise on her for the entire performance. You just knew it was gonna be good when Liza turned up as Kelsey was intercepting Bronwyn in an attempt to convince her that Zane was a bitter ex-employee (not very professional IMO but we won’t focus on that for now), only to discover that Bronwyn didn’t know Zane from a wart on her butt (delightful). She was in fact there to meet...dun-dun-dunnnnn...Charles (shout-out to the three piece suit, always a welcome sight, did not disappoint)! Kelsey was justifiably angry, however the stark contrast in experience and maturity was well and truly on show as she proceeded to express herself very loudly and publicly, despite Charles and Zane suggesting they step outside. Zane clocked the smart phone filming the entire incident and you just knew that Kelsey’s outburst was going to come back to bite her.

Regardless of whether Kelsey was in the right or wrong, she certainly came off worse in the way she handled it. My favourite part of the scene was Liza FINALLY re-awakening that gutsy silver suit wearing power, her turning and telling Bronwyn that Charles called her books matron lit was this season’s manuscript drop. And thank f-ing god. One of the things I’ve always loved about the Liza/ Charles dynamic is that Liza stands up for herself with him when she doesn’t with so many others and she is not afraid to call him out, which has been missing these past couple of eps. So now that that has been restored, I am legit so excited to see how this relationship moves forward.

The ramifications of the restaurant confrontation are of course trending on Reddit by the next morning, and Liza and Diana have the unenviable job of delivering the news that even though Charles was in the wrong for setting up the company the way he did, he has since resigned from the board and a number of authors are making noise about jumping ship to Mercury (I was going to say that I think Kelsey might have preferred it if her eyebrows actually had fallen off in that moment but I feel like that’s probs false).

The fact that Kelsey and Charles are pitted against one another as publishers and Liza and Zane as editors provides the most glorious opportunity to explore the ideas of reputation vs. experience. vs. gender vs. fresh ideas and I am so here for it, so damn excited, and so sure that whatever ends up playing out this season, it will be nothing that I expect. In the meantime I’m going to compile every Diana Trout line from this episode into a ringtone because what workplace wouldn’t want Diana talking about nutcracker’s oesophagus ringing through the open-plan office?

#youngertv #younger tv #ramble #review #6x04 #sutton foster #peter hermann #kelsey peters #diana trout #maggie amato #lauren heller #team charles #younger season 6

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3wishesandthensome · 7 years ago

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Flash Episode Idea (w/ the twins)

Okay, so last night after the episode with “Dawn”, I started thinking about how most likely next season WestAllen will be parents. Iris is either gonna find out she’s pregnant towards or at the end of this season. There have been too many hints to suggest otherwise. So, with that in mind, I figured they’re probably gonna skip over the pregnancy (since we already have a Cecile pregnancy; seems kind of repetitive to do another one, although I hope we get at least a few episodes of pregnant WestAllen it’d be extremely cute) and next season the kids will be either toddlers or children. I thought maybe if they did a couple years time jump the kids would be toddlers or full grown children, if they rationalize that the kids maybe grow at an exceptional rate because of their speed abilities (kind of like Renesmee from Twilight). But anyways, I was trying to fall asleep last night and I couldn’t stop thinking about WestAllen trying to parent two little speedsters so I kind of came up with my own episode. I’m not a fanfiction writer so I kind of just saw the episode in my head and I’m just going to describe it out to you guys (with some dialogue). I personally think it could actually be an episode in the future!

This is going to be very long so keep scrolling if you don’t want to read! Btw, in this scenario, there’s really only been a time jump of about 3 years but the twins are physically and mentally the age of around 8 or 9 (I know this wouldn’t really happen, but for the sake of the idea, it only really worked if they were this old). Also, they usually refer to Dawn as Nora since her name (I think we’re all assuming) is Nora Dawn, but still sometimes call her Dawn or Dawny.

Enjoy!

So the episode starts out with the twins running around the house at lightning speed, even though they know they shouldn’t be. Barry comes down and wrangles them up, because both he and Iris know telling them to stop won’t do much.

“I’ll take Don,” Iris says, bags under her eyes, indicating the amount of sleep, or lack-thereof, she got last night due to the twins incessant running around.

“Why do you get the easy child?” Barry groans. He hadn’t gotten much sleep either. Actually he’d probably gotten less since he was the only one who could catch them.

“Because I pushed both these kids out of my -”

“Yes, okay, fair point. I’ll get Nora.”

“Thank you,” Iris says with Don already in her arms. He was the less problematic one. He always listened to his parents, unless Dawn told him not, then all bets were off. He followed his twin sister wherever she went and did whatever she did. This didn’t always lead to great results.

Iris left to drop Don off at school while Barry sat down with Dawn and tried to explain to her the importance of only using her powers when absolutely necessary. They go back and forth for a while but she eventually concedes and he gets her to school on time.

The episode goes on and they fight their weekly villain with the usual hurdles. The first fight goes wrong and the villain gets away. Team Flash regroups at Star Labs and goes over how to stop them. As they are deliberating the twins speed in from school to everyone’s surprise.

“Beat ya!” Dawn exclaims.

“Nuh-uh! I was through the doors first. I didn’t know you meant whoever was in the lab first wins, so I stopped running downstairs.”

“Not my fault you don’t get how racing works.”

“What are you two doing here?” Iris interrupts, clearly upset. She tried not to let it show how worried she got for her kids about their powers but sometimes she couldn’t help it. The city doesn’t know the Flash has kids. If their powers were ever discovered, it would only be a matter of time before people started putting two and two together to figure out who they were and that would eventually lead to the Flash’s identity being revealed.

Barry stood with his arms crossed in front of his kids waiting for an explanation, Iris behind the dashboard with the same body posture, while Harry, Caitlin, and Cisco, slowly exit the room, knowing the storm that’s about to be brought towards the young children.

“I wanted to prove to Don that I’m faster since I’m older.”

“By one minute!” Don quickly pointed out. Both Iris and Barry rolled their eyes.

“Still! I won so I’m right.” She shrugged and walked off with Don to the training room to start her homework, as they usually do after school.

Both Barry and Iris have their heads in their hands at this point, not knowing what to do about their persistent and stubborn children.

“Bare, we have to do something about this. If they don’t quit using their powers, something is going to happen to them. I won’t be able to live with myself if something happens to our babies.”

“I know. I know.” Barry slowly walks towards Iris and wraps his arms around his lightening rod. While in an embrace, he adds, “I didn’t get my powers until I was an adult. I could be trained and I had enough sense to know the responsibility that came with these abilities. They’re just kids. They don’t get it. I can’t imagine what how they feel. I mean even without powers kids just want to run around and have fun. It’s kind of like that but 100 times worse.”

Iris leans back to look him in the eyes and smiles. “Lucky us, huh?”

He returns her smile. “Yeah, lucky us.”

The next day, Barry goes to Harry with a favor. He asks him to build two small power inhibitors to suppress the twins’ powers, but subtle enough so they won’t know they have it on. Harry builds one into a bracelet for Don and another into a headband for Dawn. Barry takes the twins to Star Labs before school.

“Guys, I got you two some cool presents. I thought you could wear them to school.” Barry pulls out the new accessories for his kids. Iris watches lovingly, not knowing the gifts’ true intentions.

“Cool!” Don exclaims as his dad puts on his new bracelet.

“Cute.” Dawn says, a little less enthusiastically but still happy to have something from her dad that she oh so admired.

“Do you like them?” He asked his kids as he knelt down to their level.

“Yes!” They both said. Barry smiled so wide, knowing he made both him and his kids happy, for different reasons. “Good! Now, I’m giving these to you on the promise that you won’t use your powers for anything but absolute emergencies, okay? That means no racing, no speeding through your schoolwork, and no running home after school. Got it?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Alright, Mommy is going to drop you off at school and I’m going to pick you up later. Love you guys. Give me a kiss.”

They both gave him a kiss on the opposite cheek and skipped off with their mom who was waiting for them by the door. Dawn looked back at her dad one last time before he was out of sight. Barry gave her an affectionate wink. Barry didn’t have a favorite child, of course. He loved his kids both to the moon an back equally. But he and Dawn had a special connection. She was just like him; not as he was as a child, but as he is now. She was always itching to help someone and oh so stubborn when it came to someone telling her not to do something. He admired her for her bravery just as she admired him for simply being her dad.

The episode goes on with Team Flash dealing with the uncaught villain and side storylines with Caitlin, Harry, Cisco, and Joe. At the end of the school day Barry goes to pick up the twins (it’s become a running gag in the show that Barry and this other carpool dad always get into it because they always end up blocking each other when picking up their respective kids). So while they’re getting into another argument, Dawn is walking out of school, with Don close behind her. There is another kid in front of them bouncing a ball carelessly. As the twins are walking towards their dad (who is still arguing with the other parent) the child with the ball loses control of the ball and goes out into the street to retrieve it, without looking to see if there are cars coming. Dawn, being the innate hero that she is, runs to push the child out of the way of an oncoming car because she knows she’ll be fast enough to save the kid without getting hurt. She runs to push the kid out of the street, and she does, but now she’s in the middle of the street, helpless without her speed working, and a car approaching quickly. A few parents scream, not knowing what to do, which draws Barry’s attention. He sees his little girl seconds away from being critically injured.

“NORA!” He screams and runs as fast as he possibly can to get her. He grabs her just in time. He cradles her tightly her on the sidewalk, not letting go even for a second, knowing he almost lost his baby, and it was his fault.

Back at Star Labs, Caitlin is caring for Dawn in the medical lab, just to make sure she’s not too traumatized from almost being hit by a car. She tucks her in while Don cuddles her from behind, making sure his sister is okay.

“How is she?” Iris asks anxiously, rising from her chair.

“She’s still a little shaken, but she’ll be alright. Don is comforting her. Two peas in a pod those two.” Caitlin says admirably.

“Can we go in and talk to her?” Barry asks. His head hangs down like it usually does when he’s upset or saddened by something.

Caitlin hesitates before speaking, knowing they’re not going to like her answer.

“It’d be a good idea to give her some space. I think she’s a bit embarrassed.”

“What could she possibly be embarrassed about?” Iris asks, wanting nothing more than to just hold her daughter and tell her it’s all going to be okay.

“She said her dad is the Flash, a hero that saves people every day. And she wasn’t able to save this one kid. She just really wants to make you proud.” With that, Caitlin walked off, unknowingly making Barry feel like the worst father in the world.

Iris sighs and looks on her children through the glass. “I’m just so glad she’s okay. She could’ve been seriously hurt. You saved her. Why do you look so defeated?” She asked her husband.

Barry can’t look her in the eyes. “Bare?” She asks again.

“Iris, I... I messed up.”

“Barry, what happened?”

He sighs, then let’s it all go. “You know the bracelet and headband I gave them this morning?” She nods. “They had power inhibitors in them to suppress the kids’ powers. I didn’t want them being reckless and I knew they weren’t going to wear them if they knew what they were. Iris, I’m so sorry I thought I was helping.”

“Barry, Dawn was almost killed today! What were you thinking?”

“I know, I know, and I wish I could take it all back! I thought this would protect them. All I’m trying to do is protect them!”

Iris backs away from Barry. She knows he meant well, but she also knows they were supposed to be a team, as partners and parents. He should’ve told her what he was doing. But he didn’t and now that’s all weighing on him.

“Iris, please, listen to me. I’m so sorry. I know you’re mad, but listen. The inhibitors were supposed to just keep them from using their powers until we could teach them the importance of -”

“Barry.” Iris interrupts, not looking at him, but behind him.

“I just wanted to protect -”

“Barry, stop.” She says, with a finality to her tone. He follows her gaze to their children who left the medical room and entered the main lab with their parents moments ago, just in time to hear what their dad had done.

“How could you do that to us?” Dawn says, anger radiating out of her. Both Barry and Iris had never seen her so mad. Hell, they’d never seen an 8 year old this mad ever. Don hovered behind his sister, clearly upset and hurt, but not as vocal about it. He had always been that way. It reminded Barry of how Barry and Iris used to be as kids. With her taking the lead and him always following her. Maybe that’s why Barry had such as strong connection with Dawn. Maybe it wasn’t that she reminded him of himself, but of Iris.

“Guys, I was trying to protect you -” Barry tried to muster up some fatherly strength, to not seem weak in front of his kids, but he’s defeated. He feels so guilty about what happened - or almost happened - to his kid. He can’t forgive himself.

“You’re always saying that, but all you do is lie! You tell us not to use speed unless it’s an emergency, but you use your speed to do whatever you want! You use it to do dishes, to get to work, to cook dinner, even to get us to school! You tell us to be honest with you but you lied to us and almost got us hurt! You’re supposed to be a hero. Heroes don’t lie.” With that, Dawn threw her headband on the ground with such force, Iris actually gasped. Then she sped off.

“Dawn!” Iris yelled after her, but she was long gone by then. She quickly turns to her husband. “Barry you have to go after her. Who knows what kind of trouble she could get into.”

“On it.” He says without hesitation. But he’s back within the minute without his daughter in tow. “I checked the house, the school, Joe’s, Harry’s, Cisco’s, and Caitlin’s houses. She’s not there.” They both turn to their son. “Don, do you have any idea where your sister would go? You know her better than anyone.”

They look at Don expectantly, but to no avail. He shakes his head sadly, not knowing what to do. Iris pulls him in for a tight hug, wishing she could do the same for her other child, but at least she can make one of them feel better.

Team Flash stays at Star Labs for the rest of the night searching for Dawn, but nothing is helping. Barry is normally tracked by his suit, and neither of the twins were wearing the one Cisco had made for them to wear for training. Wherever she was she was being still because there was no indication of a speedster showing up on the radars.

It’s very late at this point but the team is still at it. Iris and Barry are trying to stay calm for their son’s sake but they are both freaking out on the inside. All of sudden, the monitor in the lab pops up with this week’s villain. He turns the camera to Dawn, who is tied up to a chair with rope and her mouth is duct taped shut. Iris immediately gasps and starts crying at the sight of her baby being held captive. The villain tells them if the Flash does not come he will kill the child (A/N: in my head he was basically threatening to burn her with acid like the trickster episode so obviously that wouldn’t be reused but since this is a fake ass episode I’m going to use it lol). The villain isn’t aware Dawn is the Flash’s kid but he knows he wouldn’t let an innocent child suffer. He starts the timer at 15 minutes. After it runs out, the acid will consume her.

Iris covers Don’s ears, not wanting her son to hear the horrible things this man plans to do with his sister. Cisco takes Don out of the room while Iris loses it and runs out into the hallway, almost to the point of hyperventilating. Barry goes out to comfort her. He tells her he’s going to bring her back. He won’t let anything happen to her. He promises.

He goes back into the main lab and puts on his suit. Cisco advises him not to go just yet, seeing as how they don’t have anything to combat the acid and Barry will most likely get hurt.

“I don’t care! That’s my daughter and I’m not going to let anything happen to her!” He screams with determination.

Harry says, “Barry, it doesn’t do us any good to send you in and you get killed. Nora will still get hurt and Iris loses her husband and her child. We have to come up with a plan.”

“He’s right.” Iris says with tears still in her eyes. “We have to have a plan in order to save her.”

They come up with a plan (one I cannot be bothered to actually think of) and they head out. Before they do, Iris looks at Barry. “Barry?”

“Yeah?”

“Bring our baby home.”

He nods with certainty. “I will.”

At the warehouse that Caitlin and Iris triangulated the signal to be coming from, Barry, Cisco and KF show up to get their youngest member. The clock only has 5 minutes left on in. The villain takes the tape off of Dawn’s mouth so she can plea.

“Help me daddy! Please!” She cries.

The villain looks shocked. “Well, well, well. I had no idea the Flash had procreated.” He smiles sinisterly. “This must be so hard for you.”

“Let her go!” Barry says, his voice not wavering. He’s trying to stay strong for his frightened daughter. “This has nothing to do with her. This is between me and you.”

“Not anymore. Tick tock, Flash. Tick tock.”

The 3 superheroes fight the villain but they are each quickly defeated. Barry feels helpless as his little girl looks to her dad with desperate eyes, screaming his name every time he’s injured.

The clock is down to 2 minutes. Barry, on the ground and feeling hopeless, pleas with the villain. “Please… just let me talk to her. I need to say something to her before… before she…”

The villain sighs. “Ugh…I suppose. Better make it quick. 1 minute left.”

Barry is on the ground, so injured he can barely move. But he manages to muster up enough strength to look at his daughter, straight in the eyes. “Dawn, listen to me. Are you listening?”

She lets out a sob, but she nods. “Yes, daddy, I’m listening.”

Her little voice, sounding so scared, breaks Barry even more than he already was. But he knows he has to tell her. “Remember last year for your birthday party? All the kids had already left and mommy was putting Don to sleep?” Dawn nods. “And it was just me and you? You had had so much cake you were practically bouncing off the walls. And we started to dance,” Barry starts smiling at the memory, despite the current circumstances. “We danced so much and we were having so much fun. And you, Dawny, you started to shake so fast, and you had no idea how you were doing it. Remember that?”

Dawn nods, making sure to keep eye contact with her father, sensing something about to happen.

He looks her right in the eye, and says, “Do that again.”

Barry musters up all the strength he has left to leap at the villain, catching him off guard and tacking him to the ground. Dawn vibrates as fast as she can and the rope breaks off from her. The timer goes off just as Dawn is free. Barry runs to pull her from under the acid just as it starts to come down while KF has regained consciousness and freezes the acid before it can touch anything. Barry holds his girl in his arms so tight, she can barely breathe. But Dawn doesn’t mind. She’s so happy to be in her father’s arms again.

The episode ends with the WestAllen crew at the loft a few nights later. They’re watching a show they all hate except Dawn, who picked it. And since she had two near death experiences that week, she was allowed to pick the nightly entertainment.

Once it was over, Iris announces, “Okay kids, time for bed. I want those teeth brushed and polished by the time we come up and tuck you in.”

“My teeth are always polished. See?” Don opens his mouth as wide as it can go and shoves his mother’s nose in his mouth so she can smell his stinky breath.

Iris pulls back, laughing. “Gross!” As he runs upstairs she slaps him on the butt and he laughs.

Dawn pulls out a folded up piece of paper from her pocket and hands it to Barry. He looks puzzled but she doesn’t indicate what it is. She kisses both her parents before running after her brother.

“What is it?” Iris asks curiously, leaning closer to Barry on their couch.

“Not sure. Let’s see.” He opens it up for both of them to see. It’s an assignment they had to do at school that day. The assignment was to talk about your favorite superhero. Barry reads it out loud for them both. “’My favorite superhero is my dad. His power is being the best dad ever. He’s my favorite because he’s always there for me. Even when I don’t listen, he’s always there to catch me when I fall. He’s the best dad ever.’”

Iris didn’t realize but there were tears in her eyes. Barry wiped them away when he saw and kissed her on the forehead. It made him feel great to know that even though her dad was a literal superhero, she still saw him, Barry Allen, as her hero.

“Lucky us, huh?” Barry said with a smile.

“Yeah, lucky us.” Iris reciprocated. The two shared a tender kiss, and then went upstairs to put their kids to sleep.

So that’s it! In my head that’s basically how the dialogue went. I had a lot of fun writing this. I’m not by any means a fanfiction writer so that’s why is was very clunky. On top of that I wasn’t really trying to make it a story like on fanfiction, just a description of what I saw in my head. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! I hope we get something like this down the line. I can’t wait to see WestAllen as parents!

#the flash #the flash fanfiction #westallen #westallen fanfiction #dawn allen #don allen #tornado twins #Barry Allen #iris west allen #Joe west #cisco ramon #caitlin snow #killer frost

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enaasteria · 7 years ago

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Answered Asks // 1

This first bulk ask is for Music Anon as you sent me your reactions while reading and I LOVED THEM SO MUCH. Under the cut!

Anonymous said to enaasteria: March 30th 2018, 6:51:00 pm · 4 hours ago But what happens after 18 T_T?! Do we send them off to happy ending AU? But okay I can’t wait to see them being all fluff balls like omg I need fluff after all that angst (though I do love angst but they deserve their happy)! Btw, I sent you a message about a song that reminded me of chapter 11. I was just wondering if you’ve received because I remember you saying your inbox eats your messages sometimes :)

18 is the epilogue. It really is just a cute scene I have in mind that I want to write out that gives insight into what their life is afterwards. And yes!! the music ask is in my inbox. I’m saving it for when I can really focus on the lyrics. My brain is a bit loopy right now from finishing 17 so I want to take my time and enjoy the music you sent. I’ll definitely listen to it tomorrow morning when my brain is refreshed~~~!!!

Anonymous said to enaasteria: March 30th 2018, 7:10:00 pm · 3 hours ago

Okay I saw that you enjoy messages while we’re reading so I’m going to send you a lot of annoying ones which will make you sick of me. I’m at the scissors part and can I just say CHANYEOL? WHY?! DO YOU NOT READ THE ATMOSPHERE. IT SHOULD BE SEHUN AND AHRI ALL TANGLED UP AND PRETZELING, NOT YOU AND SEHUN!! Buuuut awwwww the hand holding. SOFLUFFYLIKEABUNNY. I literally had to wear my pyjamas and run to bed so that I could enjoy it in my most comfortable position. Back to reading! - musicanon

I’m gunna answer all of your individual messages personally because I LOVED READING EVERY ONE OF THEM. THEY WERE THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY NIGHT MUSIC ANON. THEY REALLY WERE. OMG. I had to rewrite this part so many times because I couldn’t figure out how to get Sehun and Ahri to the bathroom scene. The flow was completely off and I was like---let me try having Chanyeol being a fidgety mess and grab Sehun all over the place and voila. LOL

Ended the intense haircut session xD! I love the way you describe scenes in which Ahri cradles Sehun’s face. It’s so intimate and loving. I also love how both haircut sessions in the story kind of depicts how Ahri is letting Sehun into her world. But this time, he wants to venture deeper and she also wants him to come closer. So much has changed! Did Sehun read a manual on perfect boyfriend 101 because damn boy, you’re giving Ahri (and me) heart attacks! STAYINYOURLANE.

YOU NOTICED. YASSSS. When he kissed her inner wrist LIKE. PLEASE @ LORD. PLEASE BLESS ME WITH THIS ROMANCE IRL. I NEED THIS. EVEN HALF OF THIS ROMANCE. I ain’t a greedy lady but I just want some heartfelt moments like this. Haircut session. My hearteu. Side note---I really need my bangs cut. Where can I get an apt Sehun to cut my hair??? BUT SNIFFS. This is how I see Sehun being with the person he loves. I really think he would dote on her and really love her to the extent of his capabilities. It just makes me go uwu.

Btw, Soi being like are you sure you’re done reminds me of the scene in Black Panther where T’challa is having his fam reunion and M’Baku is like YAWN are you done? Are you done?! Cracks me up!

OMG. BLACK PANTHER. You are just about my favorite anon. Thank you and let me love you forever and ever.

Oh dear lord, I hope Yua’s work troubles weren’t the ones you were going through (or something similar)? Also, I hope you weren’t referring to your cousin x_x. But of course, if you were then SHAME ON ALL THOSE PEOPLE WHO DO THIS TO YOU. You’re like Ahri though! Strong and elegant in her way of dealing with things <3 Soi’s desire to smush the lovebirds together perfectly describes my own. I always think of the NOW KISS meme whenever Sehun and Ahri are in close proximity. JUSTKISSCOMEON - ma

Every work trouble I really did go through. I write a lot from experiences so this whole chapter encompasses a lot of moments I dealt in real life. The work, the 23 hr straight shift, the glass frame and rewriting it. All happened. But it’s also a reason why I quit so now life is a lot better without those leadership boogers. WHAT IS THIS MEME YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT AND WHERE CAN I FIND ITTTT???

How funny would it be if Ahri playfully called Sehun Monsieur and Sehun launches into full French mode like Bonjour oui oui mademoiselle (my last French lesson was 15 years ago. it’s been awhile xD). Ahri be like dafuq I’m out - ma

Ahhhhhh my dearest music anon. She would straight up respond back in fluent french and let him live out his wildest dreams PUAHAHAHAH

TIE SCENE SO CUTE *hearteyes* I can imagine it playing out in my head!!! I have to applaud Ahri for being able to tie it on someone else. I can only tie it while it’s on my neck, loosen it and give it to someone else. And lol, of course Mr Perfect Boyfriend has the ability to somehow make his gaze softer on command xD. Ahri bby, how are you not melting. SOI?! YOU JUST SAID YOU WANTED THEM TO KISS AND NOW YOU’RE INTERRUPTING THEM. For a good reason. BUTSTILL. Just wait 30 seconds!!! - ma

RIGHT. This chapter made me CRY A RIVER AND IM STILL A MESS. And Monsieur Oh is adept with his facial structure and actions and can be any man you want him to be. You want sturdy burly Sehun. You got it. Soft, cherub Sehun? NO PROBLEM. He can do it all!!! But honestly I would melt too and she sort of does. Eventually LOOOOL But to Soi’s defense, she just has terrible timing. HAHAHAHA She’s my baby. I love Soi. I love Yua. I love Ahri. I love Yumi. I love all my girls.

Ohgod! Poor Ahri for having to do all that name writing! Sehun is right. She’s got this! But you’ve perfectly described me whenever I make a mistake in my writing. I’m like FFS I NEED TO REWRITE THIS WHOLE THING. That’s why I like pencils because rubbers exist. Look at Ahri getting all turned on by Sehun’s knife skills *waggles brows* it’s like her artistic rendition of lumberjack Sehun. I bet Sehun is already planning their wedding. Crossing mirrors off the list or else the missus would cry -ma

This was another one of the scenes where I wrote from experience. I was helping out a wedding and this bride made her seating charts just as I described. Her wedding was outside and it was windy and it knocked over one of the seating charts. I had to rewrite all those names and it was such a PAIN IN THE BUTTTTT. OMG ARCHITECT SEHUN WOULD BE SO HEUNGNNGNGNG. She goes and visits him at the office while he’s drafting a building. AND SHE JUST LOOKS AT HIM AND ITS HIS TURN TO ASK HER, CAN YOU LOOK AT ME LESS INTENSELY PLEASE, AHRI. IT would be just cutest.

CONGRATS TO THE BRIDE AND GROOM! Dude I can’t believe you forgot her name. I don’t do this at all *rolls eyes and acts self righteous* btw, I didn’t know about the least to most important bridesmaids/groom thing! It actually made me laugh because if you’re asked to be one, you know exactly where you stand in the ranking xD. ASDFGHJKL. HANDHOLDING. FITTING PRECISELY IN ALL THE EMPTY SPACES IN BETWEEN. WALKING DOWN THE AISLE. That’s it. They’re officially married in my mind. No arguments! - ma

Seunghyun and Lia’s meeting was actually how I met my husband. He didn’t remember my name actually but I remembered his and it was and still is how I torment him LOOOOL. It’s not really least important to most important. I just did it for writing purposes but it’s your wedding. Sometimes people just place people in certain spots based on their height LOL. AHRI AND SEHUN. MARRIED> I DEAD.

Oh Chanyeol, you finally have met your violent happy ending. He’s a pup in love! Very unexpected but I approve. Yeol and Ahri’s pact doesn’t stand because Sehun and Ahri just got married (and secretly stole Seunghyun and Lia’s thunder). OMGKEEPERS! ISEEWHATUDIDTHERE. Man Sehun, how does it feel listening to how you’ve been a dick to Ahri in KeepersAU (also early in ApartmentAU)? But he made amends so he will be forgiven. IS HE GOING TO GIVE HER JEWELLERY?! He said he wouldn’t unless ...! - ma

HE’S A PUP IN LOVE AND THATS EXACTLY WHAT HE ISSSSS. IT was never really a true pact to begin with. Just a joke to mess with Sehun that I added in and I don’t think Ahri would’ve ever went through with it tbh. She’s not the type to marry someone at all, if ever and even if she’s old and wrinkly, she wouldn’t marry someone if she didn’t wholeheartedly love him. AND YASSSS KEEEPEEPEPERPRRSSS. I’m glad you see it. I was really proud of this. I wove in so many stories for this chapter. My brain was about to burst. AYEEEE. WILL HE. WILL WE FIND OUT IF HE GIVES HER JEWELRY in 18??? We shall see.

I just died of fluff and I’m not even done yet. I had to take so many breaks in between reading by smushing my face into the pillow because my heart was bursting with cotton wool!! Not gonna lie, I wanted to smack Sehun for using >100 batteries. BE ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY BOY. Even if you’re in a fictional scene. But A+ for set up. The jar of longing is so sweet! BESTILLMYHEART. HAHAHA I CANT BELIEVESHE TOLD HIM ABOUT HOW SHE CLASSIFIES HIM! Married couple spilling all their secrets & kissing -ma

ITS SO FLUFF RIGHT? LIKE I CANT EVEN FIGURE OUT HOW I DID IT. I can’t even live right now because I’ve never written anything like this before. I’m more into darker stories where things are just pain and crying and tears and heart breaking torment. SO THIS WAS A 180 FROM WHAT I USUALLY WRITE. I hope it wasn’t vomit inducing fluff but IM SORRY. THE BATTERIES. Would it help if I said they’re rechargeable?????? AYEEEE. VERSIONS EQUATE TO CREATIVITY. Who knows, it might be a kink. OR. he could spend the rest of his life entertaining her with versions and asking her what do you call this one? how about this one? AHRIIII~~~~~~She would major regret this later on hahaha

Aw, I’m glad Ahri got to see the stars!! And promptly decided that she wanted to be with Sehun instead. Omg HAHAH. I was like how do you unofficially own a star? Did he call the international space agency or Spock or something and told them to fly a toothpick flag up with the names of Sehun and Ahri written on it xD? Btw are those star designations real? I tried googling but ended up with Supreme Court cases lol! Whenever Sehun tells stories that his father told him, and he says that (tbc) - ma

YES! You can can actually “buy” a star and “name” it. It’s definitely not official. It’s not like N*SA will recognize it but it’s just a sweet gesture and that’s why he said unofficially. The star designations I used aren’t real but they are formatted in that way. I had do research on this and it’s really long and windy and hard to explain because even my brain was like---i can not understand this. The letters are usually an abbrev of the telescope used to discover the star and the numbers are sometimes the year found or the date or coordinates. Like I said, really complicated science stuff so for the sake of fic writing, I just made it simple and put in some numbers that mean stuff LOOOL

And he says that it’s been passed down from generation to generation. I have this picture of ancient Egyptian Sehun wearing the Pharoh headgear in my mind telling his son about how KeepersAU Sehun was a dick and how he should cling to a girl called Ahri when he meets her xD! HE IS SO SMOOTH IN THIS CHAPTER. I spilled tea on myself so many times while reading. Can I just say that the we are stars for eternity idea (unless they decide to be a supernova) is so creative and so fitting for them?

AHHAHAHAHAHAH PHARAOH SEHUN. IM DED. OMG. I will never forget this memory and look. Another version of Sehun to make me want to die in a pile of fluff. And tbh---I really imagine Sehun coming to Ahri’s classroom with the kids all around him. Ada. Joon. They’re all around him in a circle as he tells embarrassing lovey dovey songs about Sehun and Ahri and it just makes me smile soooo much. ISNT IT. I HAD THIS IDEA FOR 3 YEARS AND I FINALLY WROTE IT OUT AND IM SO CRY TEARS OVER IT???? But yes---no supernova. no kilonova none of that colliding and bursting together business LOL.

You are so incredibly thoughtful in crafting a sense of continuity and meaning for Sehun and Ahri <3. I think that’s why they are so addictive as a couple. Because we get to see the way they’ve grown, the way they accept the hurt they’ve inflicted upon each other and themselves but actually reflect on it and come out stronger. I love the honesty and kindness they’ve shown each other in this chapter. How they’ve come out of hiding to show that they do indeed love the other. - ma

THANK YOUUUUUU. OMG. THIS REALLY IS SO SWEET. Your messages made me so much and I’m addicted to them as well. They’re like my babies and I just want to give them all the happiness to make up for all the pain I put them through.

I loooove the parallel scenes between this chapter and the previous ones because this time, their words and actions mean something deeper. I wish I was as eloquent as you are because I don’t have words to describe how beautiful they are together. They are so in love and I’m in love with them being in love *_*! Casually throwing myself in their relationship. I’ll be waving pom-poms in the bushes where they can’t see teehee! Can we have a reincarnation AU based on the last line xD? - ma

AHHHHH IM NOT ELOQUENT AT ALL. I really fail at words and I might reread to fix some things but YESSS. I’m all about parallels. I love making full circle of things to make sure it all ends cleanly and making sure they’re not who they were but better people now. REINCARNATION AUUUUU. MAYBE. MAYBE. I have a few reincarnation prompts saved so I might dig into them and may something will spark???

Thank you thank you thank you for writing this absolutely brilliant story <3. I know nobody is as attached to Sehun and Ahri as you are but we’ve all loved them together for the past three years. THEY ARE LIKE OUR BABIES! I teared while reading 17 T_T. I can’t let them leave the nest. They need to stay within our arms forever!!! How many thank yous can I say before you want to hit me? WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU? You’ve blessed us with this story and I only hope I could do something in return. - ma

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME. I’m not sure how long you’ve been with my blog but if it’s been 1+ years or even from the beginning, I really want to thank you for your patience. I know I’m not the quickest writer out there but I’m nevertheless so grateful for your words. For your sentiments. For all that you’ve written for me to make me smile. THESE MESSAGES ARE MORE THAN ENOUGH AS GRATITUDE. I really love how you reacted to them and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Nothing makes a writer happier than reading messages like this and seeing how you loved this story and cherish it as much as I do.

Okay, I’m probably getting annoying by now. so this is the last one I swear (also because tumblr is being like WHOA WAIT AN HOUR BEFORE ASKING MORE. So I’ve had to switch my WiFi mode on and off so that it doesn’t recognise me as the same person). I’m just gonna reread the chapter again and again, and again tomorrow and again and again. Thank you for this masterpiece. suffice to say, I more than love it so don’t you dare think that it’s anything short of fantabulous! throwsheartsatyou - ma

This is not annoying at all. You’re not annoying, MA. omg TUMBLR DOES THAT??? I never knew!!!! But really, thank you again endlessly for all that you’ve written. I appreciate it so much and I’m so happy you love this story. You are just the sweetest and I PROMISE TO LISTEN TO YOUR MUSIC RECS TOMORROW THE MOMENT I WAKE UP. hugs you. LOVES YOU. THROWS CONFETTI AT YOU.

#music anon #messages #SO MANY LOVELY MESSAGES #ICRY

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pumpkins-s · 8 years ago

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Spilling Like An Overflowing Sink

Read on AO3 Here

Read the Other Chapters on Tumblr Here

Lance Alexander Rafael McClain is born in the middle of a summer storm, thunder cracking and rain slamming onto the roof of an old ramshackle house that had seen more than its fair share of children.

The miracle baby, that’s what the family had called Lance. The unexpected son to a mother of five daughters.

(In which family is always complicated, Lance’s life hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows, and he and Keith are really emotionally constipated for each other.)

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Relationships: Keith/Lance, significant platonic Lance & Hunk

Characters: Lance, Lance’s family, Hunk, Keith, Shiro, Pidge, Allura, Coran

Chapter 6: Live

(( Author’s Note: Heyo, new year, new update!

This wasn't originally going to be its own full chapter, but after doing the math on length and having just suffered through writing a 15k update for another fic (I'm serious, I did that, kill me), I decided to split the planned chapter up. Hence this. Now, before anyone asks, a lot of you have been asking about Keith, so I'll just say this-- They meet when Lance is 15. He's 11 now. How fast we get to Keith depends on how much of the next 4, Very Important, I'll add, years of Lance's life I cover, so please be patient, k? You'll get Keith in a chapter or two.

And!! Before we begin!! This fic has its own first piece of fanart!! I've been told it's a WIP, but it's still amazing so I have to show it off-- So everyone go check out Peachlance's gorgeous art of young Hunk and Lance. It's beautiful. I yelled in the middle of an airport when I saw it. (BTW if anyone ever does fanart for this fic and I miss it because it's on another site or whatever, please tell me in a comment on this fic or an ask to my tumblr with the link, I'd hate to miss it!!)

Also!! I'm on Twitter now since there seems to be a significant portion of the Voltron fandom that prefers that to Tumblr. I don't post a ton on it, but I'll be putting out update notifications from now on, so if you want those and my all-caps tweets yelling at Aiden, my irl Keith friend, feel free to follow me, yeah?

Ok that's it you can ignore me now here's Lance have fun y'all.))

Come September, Lance and Hunk pack their bags and move into the dormitories at Greenwood, accompanied by their moving team of the entire McClain family, plus Hunk’s grandmother— The whole lot of them piling into the old family jeep and pickup truck and Hunk’s grandmother’s tiny, ancient Toyota with an assortment of random things they’re each separately convinced Lance and Hunk are going to need.

Lance imagines they make quite the sight, pulling up to the pristine parking spaces outside the Greenwood buildings and piling out of the cars in a haphazard mess of long limbs and a loud mix of Spanish and English that blends together into a background noise that is comforting in its familiarity against the apprehensive mystery that is Greenwood. They certainly do get their fair share of stares as they cram into the entry building for student check-in, confirming that, yes, they are indeed all relatives, and are here to help Lance and Hunk move in.

Honestly, Lance has to admit they’re all pretty restrained, all things considered. Everyone knows how important this is to him, and to Hunk, in his own way, and his family is hardly inclined to mess this up for them, so there’s a fair degree of… what Lance might dare call caution in their behavior. They’re loud, and talkative, and move around a lot, because they’re McClains and that’s what they do when they move as a pack, but Karen doesn’t try to play soccer in the dorm hall, Igraine doesn’t punch anyone, even Marcie restrains herself from commenting loudly on the hairstyle choices of the people around them.

…Ok, yeah, she whispers a few comments under her breath to Lance, but that was still a marked effort on her part, and she was right that one guy’s undercut had been so sloppily done it was painful to look at, even Lance could agree on that.

Karen hadn’t seen anything wrong with it but, then again, that was Karen, who’s thought processes concerning her hair began and ended at where the nearest scrunchie was to pull it up into its perpetual bushy ponytail, much to Marcie and Lance’s horror.

If anything though, Lance thinks they just get odd looks because they’re… them. A large, loud, Cuban family who clearly don’t have the money to be here, let alone the pedigree.

“Fuck em.” Igraine mutters firmly under her breath the first time a mother helping her son with his bags scoffs at them when they pass by in the dormitory hall. “You’ve earned your right to be here. At least you didn’t buy your way in.”

“Igraine.” Aunt Rosa snaps, slapping her on the arm, and Lance snorts loudly, earning a victorious smirk from his sister even as she whines and cradles her arm as if it’s now broken. The burst of noise only earns them more side-eyes from the people in the hall, and Lance ducks his head sheepishly, scratching at the back of it nervously. He’s still not used to his short hair, really, and when he’s anxious he tends to find it feels quite itchy. At least the bangs that frame his face are just long enough to play with and twirl with his fingers. He thinks he’d lose his mind otherwise, far too used to having long curls to twirl and braid and tie into loose knots when he gets fidgety— Honestly, he has no idea what he’s gonna do in class now to keep his hands busy.

Eventually, they get all the boxes into his and Hunk’s room (and thank God for that little blessing, Lance doesn’t know how he’d function if they hadn’t been allowed to pre-choose their roommates), stacked up along the walls and all over the floor. Frankly, it seems like far more than the two of them will need to Lance, especially given they barely live an hour or so away, but a good portion of the boxes are things he can identify as not having packed himself, snuck in amongst all their other belongings, no doubt random pieces of junk his family has decided they require. Lance wouldn’t be surprised if he found something as random as a paper towel dispenser or half-empty bottles of shampoo, honestly. Knowing his family, it’s far too likely. He still remembers with a kind of abject horror the mess that was Carlos and Rachel moving into their new house.

It’s… different, bringing all his things in here and trying to make it a living space. Lance has only had one room his entire life, and if he ever slept in another room in the house, it had always been with Loraine. But… Loraine isn’t here anymore, and this is not his house.

Luckily, the adults largely take over once they get everything in, rearranging the school-provided furniture, getting the beds made with sheets and quilts and extra pillows, and unpacking the heaviest books. It only takes about ten minutes before Uncle Jesús, Lucas, Igraine, and Lance’s grandfather are kicked out of the room under orders to go get food for everyone, once it quickly becomes clear Lance and Hunk’s dorm room is not large enough to have all of them milling around in it. As it is, they still barely fit, shuffling past each other and ducking out into the hall as they work to make room. It’s a mess, but… nice. Lance is going to miss not being around his family every day, and so the squished hustle of it all is something he chooses to savor rather than be frustrated with.

When it comes time for families to leave, the extended visiting hours for the move-in day coming to an end once night falls, it’s a long, drawn-out procession of goodbyes. Lance has to patiently remind his mother and sisters that he’ll see them all again come the weekend, but even while reassuring them, he himself can’t help but cling to them tightly when they embrace him, memorizing his mother’s warmth, Marcie’s fruity smell, Karen’s chapped lips when she kisses the side of his head, the sharp dig of Igraine’s multiple ear piercings against his cheek when she hugs him tight. Each of them distinct in the little things that mark them as who they are— Marcie and her guiding softness, Karen’s grounding reassurance, Igraine’s fire, Evie’s quick wit.

His sisters.

…And Lance, the shadow to the all-encompassing, insurmountable ocean.

“Are these… Christmas lights. Yep, they’re Christmas lights.” Lance glances up at Hunk’s bewildered words, and snorts loudly, shaking his head in slight disbelief. Even with their families’ help, there’d still been plenty left to unpack once they left, and apparently they were hitting the boxes of weird stuff now.

“Just throw them on one of the desks for now.” Lance says dismissively, turning back to his own box, while Hunk bemusedly gathers up the lights in his arms and stares at them.

“…We could string them up along the ceiling? Like college students do in the movies?”

“Wouldn’t that be a safety code violation?” Lance asks, unfolding the flaps on the box in front of him and blinking in surprise. “…Why.”

“What?” Hunk says, frowning, and Lance sighs, straightening up and pulling out the large Cuban flag he’d found stuffed in the top of the box.

“I bet my abuelita put it in— She does realize I was born in the U.S., right?”

“Maybe she just wants you to be proud of your heritage. It’s a good thing.” Hunk says mildly, and Lance rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, okay, come talk to me when you find your giant New Zealand flag then.”

“Actually…” Reaching into the new box he’s just opened, Hunk pulls out a miniature New Zealand flag on a stick and waves it back and forth. “It seems my grandmother had a similar thought pattern.” Idly, he peers into the box. “…Oh look there’s an All Blacks flag there too.”

“Jesus.”

“He’s over there.” Hunk says, pointing at the crucifix sitting on Lance’s bedside table, also a gift from his grandmother, Lance suspects.

Lance grabs the pillow off his bed closest to him and chucks it at Hunk’s head.

Hunk dodges easily, not even sparing Lance a look as he pulls a few books out of the box and sets them on his desk. Lance huffs in irritation and chucks the flag onto the edge of his bed to deal with later, emptying the rest of the box to find… yarn, lots and lots of yarn.

Wincing, he runs a hand over the closest ball, a light pink that’s soft to the touch. He’d learned to knit from Marcie, who’d in turn learned from their grandmother, as something to do with his hands when he was feeling overly fidgety. It had been nice, something he enjoyed, even if he’d mostly only made scarves and blankets, but since Loraine’s death he hadn’t touched his knitting needles, the whole activity too drenched in memories of being tucked up on Loraine’s bed with her watching a movie as he moves the yarn through his fingers.

He gives it a moment of hesitation, and then folds the box shut and pushes it under his bed.

Knitting’s probably not a normal boy’s thing anyways.

“Hey help me with this box.” Lance startles, standing up and going over to where Hunk is standing next to a large box, helping him push it into the spot they’d cleared for emptying and sorting boxes and cutting the tape on the top. Hunk opens the flaps and reaches in, pulling out a mess of fabric. “Clothes. Guess we missed a box earlier. Looks like these are all yours.” Lance takes the bundle of shirts from Hunk and opens a dresser drawer, dropping them in before moving onto the next handful. They’re all plain or with simple logos, old things he’d gotten from Lucas and Carlos, a few of Karen’s old things when she wore more masculine clothing for a while when she was younger. He’d purposely made sure to leave out all the old floral-patterned tops and frilly blouses along with the other clothing hidden in the back of his closet when he’d picked out what to pack— He hadn’t needed too many clothes, anyways, since the school had uniforms. This was mostly just for lounging around the dorm or days when casual wear was permitted.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Hunk reach for something in the box, pulling out an old grey shirt and staring at it, brows furrowed and a question clearly on the tip of his tongue. Before he can say anything, Lance quickly snatches the shirt out of his grasp, throwing it in the drawer with the rest of the clothing and shutting it firmly, ignoring Hunk’s questioning eyes even as they follow him as he folds up the now empty box and drops it into the pile with its brethren in the corner.

He knows Hunk has noticed the change in his clothing, his mannerisms, as distinct as his hair, but he’s not ready for the questions yet.

…He’s not yet come up with an answer.

“How many boxes do we have left?” He asks pointedly, kicking the pile of empty boxes into a more reasonable shape.

“Oh! Uh…” Hunk startles, and glancing back Lance watches him peer around the room. “Nine or ten? We’ve gotten all the big ones, we could always do the rest tomorrow after orientation.”

Lance frowns. “If you’re tired, you can sleep now. I want to finish tonight so we don’t have to worry.”

He’s too jittery to sleep, honestly. Nerves and fears and excitement about being away from Veradera, from home, but being here, colliding together in a mess of emotion and displaced energy. Hunk hesitates, shaking his head, and Lance can tell he feels much the same.

“Nah, let’s just… get it all done tonight.”

Lance nods, grabbing a box off the stack and passing it to Hunk before grabbing one himself, setting it on top of his bed and opening it up. Once he gets the flaps on the top open, though, he freezes, feeling ice trickle through his veins and under his skin as he stares down at the box. “…Dammit, Marcie.”

“What’s wrong?” Hunk asks behind him, and Lance jolts.

“Nothing. Just. Stuff I told her not to pack that she put in anyways.”

In the box sits the things Marcie and Lance had bonded over for years, the skills she had taught him— The child-size makeup case she’d given him, filled with bottles of tacky nail polish in bright, sparkly colors, the lip gloss set Mavis had sent him along with others his sisters had gifted him, a couple old, thick pen eyeliners Igraine had given him, a cheap set of cheerful eye-shadows Carlos had bought him from the dollar store as a present last year. Next to the makeup case is the little box of hair ribbons he used to use, and with a pang of hurt at the sight, Lance wonders why Marcie would even put those in. He cut his hair. It’s done, no changing it.

It’s done.

That Lance— Lancie, Loo-Loo, whatever, whatever he was, is nothing now. Just a pile of memories buried away with his old clothes in the shadowed places no one will think to look.

With only a second’s hesitation, fingers drifting over the top of the makeup case, Lance folds the box top shut, picking it up and shoving it under his bed, crawling under after it to make sure it is pushed to the furthest corner against the walls, and then shoves the other boxes being stored under his bed around it for good measure, until it’s hidden from sight.

There’s no room for that… person anymore.

“Hey, you alright?” Lance feels a foot prod the back of his leg as Hunk’s voice pipes up, and he yelps, shooting up and slamming his head against the underside of his bed, pain blossoming through his skull as his vision blurs.

“…Ow.”

“Lance?!”

“I’m fine, just…” He groans, wiggling back out from under the bed and staring up at Hunk tiredly. “You surprised me.”

Hunk grins sheepishly. “Sorry. I’m just… hungry. They said there’s snacks left out in the dorm lounge tonight, right? Since a lot of students skipped dinner to unpack.”

“Yeah.” Lance nods, wincing when that sends another spike of pain through his head. “You want to go get some?”

“Please.”

They barely make it five steps down the hall before the whispers, the sidelong glances start— There’s plenty of other students still out in the hall, curfew rules given some leeway due to the fact it’s move-in day, and out here Lance and Hunk stick out like sore thumbs. In uniforms Lance imagines they’ll look much like everyone else, but everyone’s milling about in casual clothing right now, and Lance and Hunk’s worn, clearly hand-me-down sweaters and jeans with their tears in the knees make a sharp contrast to the neat, new clothes the other kids sport. Glancing down uncomfortably, Lance tries not to stare too hard at his own bare feet in comparison to the clean-looking shoes many of the others he can spot are wearing.

He hadn’t even thought to put shoes on. His sneakers were for the mud of the park and the cracked gravel of the street, not for indoors. Lance is pretty sure his mother would kill him if he ever wore his grubby shoes on inside. Even Marcie’s pretty work pumps that she had saved for months for and looks after with religious zeal come off at the door at home.

He’s so preoccupied with his little thought derailment of the etiquette of shoes on versus shoes off, Lance doesn’t even notice the boys rounding the corner until he quite literally slams into one, their chin connecting with his forehead, sending him reeling back in surprised pain, Hunk catching him with a startled yelp.

“What the fuck?” Someone says in a surprised, vaguely annoyed voice, and Lance glances up cautiously as he straightens back up, wincing when he makes eye contact with an older-looking boy with pale skin and short red-blond hair who is currently glaring at him like he’s a particularly disgusting piece of gum under his shoe.

“S-Sorry.” He stutters on instinct, taking a step back and slamming into Hunk, who Lance had conveniently forgotten was right behind him.

“Sorry? You damn well should be!” The older boy says with a kind of miffed outrage, crossing his arms as the other boy next to him looms over Lance and Hunk. “Didn’t your parents ever teach you to watch where you’re going?”

“He said sorry.” Hunk says, taking a step forward, and Lance gratefully ducks behind Hunk. It’s hardly his proudest moment, but these boys are at least a head taller than him and could probably bench-press him easy— Lance is tiny even for an eleven-year-old, and Hunk, lucky bastard, sits rather tall and large for a twelve-year-old. Between the two of them, Lance likes Hunk’s chances of at least getting the other boys to back down, given they can’t really risk their scholarships by getting into a fistfight on their first day.

“What are you, his bodyguard? Back off, lumpy.” Big and scary scowls. “I’m talking to the twig.” He raises an eyebrow at Lance, and snorts. “How the hell did you get into this school? What are you, a Mexican?”

Lance flushes, pushing past Hunk with every intention of informing the boy that he is Cuban, thank you very much, and that he can, frankly, fuck right off, when a serenely cheerful voice beats him to the punch.

“Demonstrating a deep and layered understanding of the various nuances of the Hispanic identity as always, Travis.” A girl says from an open door on the left, leaning against the frame with her arms crossed. “Then again, you’d probably know quite a bit about Mexico, right? Given your daddy gets his cocaine stash from there.”

The boy turns red, spluttering. “Fuck off, Ritchie.”

“Oh, right.” The girl hums, lifting a hand to inspect her nails. “I suppose I could fuck off? Could fuck off right to the headmaster’s office. I’ve been meaning to look in on my granddad since I arrived.”

The boy pales, and his friend grabs his arm, pulling him away. “C’mon, man. Not worth it.” The two turn, disappearing around the corner, and the girl watches them go with a satisfied smirk.

“Bye!” She trills, and then turns back to Hunk and Lance with a raised eyebrow. “You two all good?”

“Uh.” Lance glances at Hunk, who shrugs, eyes wide in confusion. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problemo.” The girl says happily. “Travis and Jordan are mcfucking pricks. I like any excuse to tell them to fuck off.”

“…Okay?” Lance says awkwardly, unsure of what else to say. Subconsciously he brings a hand up to play with his hair, like he usually does when he’s nervous, only to meet air and flinch, pulling his hand down as he remembers there’s nothing there anymore.

“Ritzie!” An exasperated voice calls from inside the room behind the girl, and a boy with short black hair, dark eyes, and a scowl appears in the doorway. “Stop harassing new students.”

The girl gasps, placing a hand over her heart. “Me? Never. I’m only introducing myself.” Sticking a hand out to Lance, she grins. “Isabel Lamae, but everyone calls me Ritzie. At your service.”

“…Lance. Lance McClain.” Lance answers, carefully taking her hand and inspecting the girl before him. Ritzie is tall and willowy, probably two or three years older than him, if he had to guess, with thick blonde hair pulled up in two pony-buns on the sides of her head in a style Lance finds reminiscent of Sailor Moon, and wide, thick-rimmed purple glasses. She’s pretty, he guesses, in an eclectic kind of way, and her easy confidence reminds him a bit of Igraine. “That’s Hunk.” He says, pointing over his shoulder, and Hunk waves.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Ritzie parrots back cheerfully. “The grumpy one who yelled at me is Yuu, my roommate.” Behind her, the boy’s eyes narrow, fixing a glare at the back of her head.

“I thought boys and girls couldn’t room together?” Hunk asks curiously, looking between Ritzie and Yuu.

“They can’t.” Ritzie says, sticking her hands in her pockets with a self-satisfactory smirk and pursing her lips, blowing a bright pink bubble out that explodes after a moment with a quiet little pop.

“Then…”

“Her grandfather’s the headmaster.” Yuu sighs, seemingly giving up and approaching them to stand next to Ritzie in the doorway. “Which means she does whatever she wants.”

Hunk pales, staring at Ritzie with wide eyes. “Oh my God your grandfather’s the headmaster.”

“Chill.” Ritzie says, idly waving a hand. “You two are new, right? Scholarship, I’m guessing? No offense but you can usually guess.” Lance winces, and Ritzie shoots him finger guns. “Don’t worry about it. I’m glad, you two look like you deserve it.” She nods to herself, looking pleased. “I have an eye for these things.”

“Well, she thinks she does.” Yuu says, rolling his eyes.

“…Great.” Hunk says faintly.

“Yep.” Ritzie nods, pausing for a moment, head tilting, and then pulls out a small packet from her pocket and offers it to them. “Bubblegum?”

Lance blinks, glancing at Hunk who subtly shakes his head, eyes wide.

“…Sure. Why not.” Lance says, already reaching out.

And that is how he and Hunk end up accidentally befriending Ritzie Lamae and Yuu Itami, the livewire princess of Greenwood and her sounding board slash handler.

Slowly, they fall into something like a settling at the Academy, or at least a semblance of it. It’s… undeniably odd, being even this far away from Veradera on a daily basis, but Lance finds it’s somewhat the change he needs. He misses home, of course. He misses it like hell, but he still gets to come back on the weekends, to revisit his sisters, his family, the worn staircases of his home, the faded glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling, the cracks in the concrete outside his driveway, the crab-grass riddled front yard of Hunk’s small house where his now aging dog sleeps in the afternoon sun, the white, bright sand of Veradera beach, the creaking pews of the church, the feel of Loraine’s gravestone against his back.

And this way, he’s still alleviated from the… pressures of his home. Lance will never say he feels unsafe or unwelcome in his house, because there would never be a bigger lie. His family would protect him with their lives. But… it’s also hard being there sometimes now. The gaping loss of Loraine, while scabbing over, is still achingly fresh in all their chests, and while Lance doesn’t have the heart to place any more undue burdens on his family in their grief, pretending to be okay all the time is, frankly, exhausting.

Because, ultimately, Lance is very aware he isn’t okay. He’s better than he was— He’s learned to function again, to survive, but a mediocre duct-taped job holding together solely on hope and a prayer doesn’t fix something firmly broken. Lance is never going to be whole again, not in his soul or his heart, he knows, in a way he can’t put into words. Even once the worst of the grief and the agony has been worked through, one day, this is something he will never move past. The connection between himself and Loraine was intimate and fathomless in a way he shares with no one else. He holds something similar with Hunk, he thinks, but it’s different. Hunk is someone he feels close to, like they hold a connection beyond their time together, but Loraine was like… the other half of his mind. Losing her fractured something deep inside his soul, well beyond the definitions of his short childhood or his yet unlived years.

Sometimes, he wonders if this is what the oceans might feel like, if someone came along and placed blocks between them, severing Pacific and Indian and Artic. That’s not the way things are meant to be, he thinks. Water is meant to intermingle and run together. You can’t take one piece of water and say it is different from another, when they are meant to be one.

Lance’s only other comfort in his thoughts, to rival that of knowing his family doesn’t have to see these broken pieces of himself, is that Hunk is here with him. Hunk, who picks him up and puts him back together when he falls. Hunk, who listens to his nonsensical ramblings about water and souls and Loraine with an understanding and patience beyond his years, and cleans up Lance’s messes afterwards, coaxing the blades from Lance’s skin before he can do more harm to himself, and forcing him to sleep and eat and keep up appearances in class.

Honestly, if it weren’t for Hunk, Lance really isn’t sure if he would have survived those first few months at Greenwood.

The other surprisingly consistent presences he finds at his side are Ritzie and Yuu, who seem to take an attachment to Lance and Hunk after that first encounter on move-in day. Or… at least Ritzie does. Lance suspects Yuu usually just goes along with whatever Ritzie fancies, either unable or unwilling to talk her out of her ideas, instead simply hanging around for something like quality control, and to make sure Ritzie doesn’t get herself killed.

Ritzie is easy to get along with, Lance finds. She’s beyond privileged, as pretty much almost everyone at the Academy is, but not arrogant or obnoxious about it. She has an ego, but only for the things she achieves herself— Not beyond showing off, largely the opposite honestly, but only for her own brilliance, never her family’s money or influence, unless she threatens it to protect an underprivileged or younger student who’s getting shit from the kids who do think their money entitles them to everything.

Lance has never been able to hold a friend beyond Hunk, too smart and too little and too different to give him much popularity before, but he… he likes Ritzie. She’s just as smart as him, as many others here are, and fun. She doesn’t care about his age or size, judging him by his kindness to others and his “interestingness”, as she puts it. He doesn’t tell her about… Himself, about the Lancie-Loo of Veradera beach, and Loraine, and promises to stars, but those are secrets reserved to Hunk and his heart, for a dead child who can no longer be to survive and do what he plans to. Still, he enjoys her company, embracing her loudness and her quirkiness and her spitfire energy. Hunk is slower to warm up to her, but even he can’t avoid her cheerful charisma.

Yuu is trickier, Lance finds. Despite his disgruntled complaints, he shows himself to be very attached to Ritzie, her right-hand man. He’s dismissive towards Lance and Hunk at first. Not in a mean way, but just as if he assumes they’ll soon get tired of Ritzie, or Ritzie will get bored and that will be the end of it, but with time, he seems to unfurl, accepting Lance and Hunk as occasional presences in his and Ritzie’s space. Yuu and Hunk get along well, once they both get over their personal cautions. Yuu is analytical design and portable game devices and formulas for circuitry and wires, and that clicks well with Hunk’s easy joy in technology, in science, in creation.

Ritzie is more… charm and exploratory whim. Bold words and the written truth in print and demand for answers to everything and anything. They’re traits Lance and her share, in part, and he figures that’s largely why they mesh so easily.

And so, while he and Hunk remain partners in crime, formed by unbreakable trust, Ritzie and Yuu also become on-and-off presences in their days, offering new company and idle chatter.

It’s… nice.

Adjusting to the academic side of Greenwood is its own bag of worms though, Lance discovers.

For once, Lance is no longer the youngest, smallest child in his grade. Instead, he finds his classes filled with a mix of different kids, sharing space with children several years younger than him, as well as those older, including Ritzie and Yuu occasionally, despite them being a year older than Hunk and two older than Lance. Class in general is less regular— They don’t take the same classes all the time, and aside from some basics, the curriculum is a lot less regimented.

Greenwood is, as Ritzie calls it, “a true magnet school”, dedicated to producing students who rake in accreditations and awards for the school. As such, Lance finds that pretty much every student is dedicated to one or two clubs or particular talents, be they academic, artistic, or athletic.

It only takes a few weeks before one of their science teachers pulls Hunk aside and recruits him to the competitive robotics and engineering clubs, his talent for schematics and building the impossible out of scraps, long honed from years hanging around Igraine and Lance’s uncle at the repair shop, quickly coming to light. As for the rest of Lance’s miniscule social circle, Ritzie is part of the school’s elite debate and mock trial teams, and Yuu the mathematics team, along with the same robotics team Hunk is dragged into.

Lance himself doesn’t really find an easy niche. His specialty, much as it can be called that, has always been being moderately decent at everything. It was what had allowed him to jump a grade, given there was no one subject he was significantly less proficient in than the rest. He has odd skills he’s picked up, but they’re all what he’s learned from his family— An intricate knowledge of makeup and hairstyling techniques thanks to Marcie, basic understanding of an engine via Igraine, some easy programming skills and how to hedge a wifi signal he’s locked out of courtesy of Evie, etcetera. Regardless, if he has any particular skills, they’re not any he can identify or that immediately stick out.

The thing is, Lance’d be fine with that, normally. So what if he’s not an expert in anything? He’s relatively good at most academics, speaks two languages perfectly, can keep up in P.E. just fine, and knows quite a bit about astronomy. But, the problem lies in the inherent purpose of Greenwood— To pull in as many accolades as possible. To not have a talent that can bring awards to the school is to be useless to it, and not a position he can afford to be in as a scholarship student.

Honestly, he stumbles across his saving grace completely on accident. It’s one of the lunch breaks when Hunk and Yuu are off with the robotics team for… something, it kind of goes over his head, and Ritzie is nowhere to be found, possibly off trying to break into somewhere she’s not supposed to be. Lance is left alone and bored, and accidentally finds some other students, a couple of which he gets along with well enough, playing chess in one of the common areas. On a whim, he asks to play, and one of the older students, who is known to be a bit of a cocky bastard, agrees with a smug smirk, probably assuming he can beat Lance easy as he explains the rules of each piece with a breezy air.

He isn’t smiling when Lance beats him five minutes later, his eyes wide as he stares at Lance’s equally shocked expression.

By the time Lance has thoroughly thrashed the next three others that challenge him, each of them waiting for Lance’s lucky streak to end almost as much as he himself is, one of the upper-grade math teachers finds them, and pulls Lance into her office for a… talk about his sudden new skill.

Within the next month and a half, he plays through three chess tournaments and ends up with two grandmasters coaching him that the school hires the minute he somehow wins his first competition.

Turns out he’s really fucking good at chess, not that Lance would guess that any more than most people would either.

“Of course you are.” Is what Mavis says to him when he tells her over the phone, ever as much the confidante to him she became over the end of summer. “You’re good at reading people and have a head for analysis, Loraine always talked about how smart you are. Try some language and statistics courses, that kind of thing. I think you’ll be fine.”

So Lance does.

The first Christmas home from Greenwood, and the first without Loraine is… odd. Christmas has always been a big deal with their family, and it’s his and Hunk’s first extended break home from the Academy, so while it’s nice to be back its also feels vaguely overwhelming. Lance really isn’t sure how being around his family, people he sees almost every weekend, can be exhausting, but it’s… difficult, to try and come back and get into the holiday cheer. Sleeping in his room in the house for more than a day or two feels odd, and Lance is grateful that by day two Hunk gives up the ghost and migrates over to the McClain house with his pillow for pretty much the rest of winter break.

It’s not bad. It’s nice being with his family and having a couple weeks to hang around Veradera, but there’s still an absence that sticks in Lance’s throat. He misses Loraine, achingly so, and being back home only emphasizes that.

It’s hard, knowing that this situation isn’t going to change, that she’s… never coming back.

Mavis avoids coming home completely for Christmas, a point Lance loudly berates her for over the phone, but she waxes poetic about not having the money and then mails him down a less-than-cheap looking dark blue sweater and a chessboard as Christmas presents.

“Don’t tell the others, but you’re my favorite.” She says, with put-on melodrama, when he calls her about the presents. “Besides if you have to dress like… that, it might as well be nice stuff.”

That’s another aspect that makes Lance’s skin itch uncomfortably about being home. He hasn’t allowed himself to touch the discarded clothing of his old life in the back of his wardrobe any time he comes home for the weekend, and he holds himself to that over the break as well. It’s not worth the risk, really, and part of him is afraid that, if he indulged, he might not have the heart to give it up and go back to living as this new image of himself at Greenwood only a couple weeks later.

Practice makes perfect. Surely, with time, he will come to accept this boyish, awkward version of himself he sees in the mirror.

So, he remains as he has taught himself to be, despite the worried glances his family still sometimes cast at him, and comforts himself with the familiarities of home. He spends time with his sisters, his mother, aunts, and uncle, he visits Carlos and Rachel two streets over, plays with Josie, no longer a small baby but an excitable toddler eagerly awaiting the promise of a sibling from her parents, walks the beaches with Hunk, chases the cracks in the gravel on the sidewalks on the way to the dairy shop, and sits in the garage under león’s shadow, the hoverbike preserved lovingly by Igraine and waiting, promised to Lance once he’s big enough, because of course it’s his, Loraine would have wanted him to have it.

Sometimes, in the early mornings, when the sun isn’t quite yet risen and the last of the stars are yet to sleep, Lance will sneak out to the churchyard, will dust the snow off Loraine’s gravestone and sit with his back to it, ignoring the chill of the wind and the nip of the snow against his fingers, because he always forgets gloves, always, and tells her about Greenwood, about his life.

Lance wonders, occasionally, if she would be proud of him, of what he’s doing to preserve their dream, her dream.

He hopes so. He really, really hopes so.

He wants more than anything to be the legacy Loraine deserves, to be worthy of the pride and the love and the confidence she had always held in him.

He feels closer to her, oddly enough, there with his back against the stone, or with his head pressed to it as he traces the words on the stone, and occasionally, on the ever slowly re-healing scars on his skin.

Loraine Ophelia Eliza, Loraine Ophelia Eliza, Loraine Ophelia Eliza.

Please forgive me, he asks in his silent mantra. Please protect me. Please let me get this right, for you, for me.

It’s not that bad, Lance tells himself, and that’s the important part, right?

And when he goes back to Greenwood with Hunk come the new year, and Ritzie and Yuu break into their room almost immediately, the former’s mouth running a mile a minute about all the boring socialite parties she had to attend, with the air of someone who has walked through a war zone, while Yuu patiently half-listens and shows Hunk and Lance his new video games behind Ritzie’s back, it’s not too bad either.

He’s surviving, rising on up on the way to the stars, and that’s all that matters.

#Hi i'm a piece of shit who never crossposts on time #no this isn't an update this is Old #spilling like an overflowing sink (voltron)#my writing #Voltron

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