#i keep flip-flopping between the two so advice would be welcome

[whovianofmidgard]

WIP list game

Tagged by @thescrapwitch , thank you!

Rules: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! Then tag as many people as you have WIPS.

Light Touched ch. 13.

A Message Delivered/Recieved (Losgar Unburnt sequel)

A Kiss Here, A Kiss There (for silm smut week)

Forbidden Prey (for silm smut week)

Celebrimbor/Maeglin for silm smut week

You Are Listening to Edain FM

Slay the Dark Vala

7 wips, so 7 tags: @meadowlarkx @thecoolblackwaves @deadqueernoldor @chthonion @jouissants @dreamingthroughthenoise @glorf1ndel

[obscure-sentimentalist]

flommy, “I have pillows, blankets, supreme comfort, and all that’s missing is you.”

[So this one’s been nagging at me for probably about a year now? It had been sitting half-started for ages, as I never really knew how to carry out the idea I had, but I did my best in coming back to it now. Bit lighter on the Flommy interactions this time, but in exchange we get Tommy and Thea siblingness and some Tommy thoughts.]

From the Comforting Cuddles starters list

“What do you think about ‘I have pillows, blankets, supreme comfort, and all that’s missing is you’?”

“Do you need me to take you to the ER?” Thea deadpans from her perch on the cushioned window seat in Tommy’s room of the hotel suite without looking up from her phone. “Because it sounds like you got one of those Hallmark cards from the airport gift shop lodged in your throat.”

Tommy slowly lowers his own phone and rolls his head towards his sister, expression settling into one of loving annoyance. “What I’m getting out of that is that I have a future in the greeting card industry.”

“The future you should be more concerned about is the one where I spin-kick you in the head before the emotional trauma of hearing my brother workshopping romantic texts to his girlfriend sets in.”

“Hey, I’m keeping it perfectly PG,” Tommy defends, pointing at Thea with his free hand for emphasis.

That finally gets her to set her phone aside and swivel in her seat to face Tommy, giving him a striking, raised-eyebrow look. “I think the subject matter automatically makes it PG-13.”

“It’s a hotel bed!” Any exasperation behind the words trips right out of the gate, stumbling into nervous laughter.

Thea just continues to stare, swinging her legs back-and-forth unevenly as her feet dangle above the floor.

“That’s… achieved the perfect ratio of softness to firmness for an excellent night’s sleep?” Tommy can feel his ears reddening as they disappear into his shoulders. “Also, those pillows. Heavenly. Remind me to check with management to find out who the supplier is, I’m going to place a personal bulk order once we get back to Starling.”

“Right,” Thea says slowly, legs finally stilling. “So the high-quality comfiness is the thing worth writing home about. No other reason why you’d express missing having a plus-one to enjoy it.”

Had his mouth not dropped open with a scandalized pop instead, Tommy might have swallowed his tongue. “Thea Dearden Queen, you’re going to stop right there before I also ask about the hotel’s highest-strength cleaning supplies and if they can be applied directly to my brain.”

“You asked for critique,” Thea reminds him, but backs off by raising her hands sarcastically in surrender. “Just pointing out insinuations you may or may not have intended. You’re welcome.”

Chagrined by both the acknowledgement that he’d asked for help and his sister’s frankness in delivering said feedback, Tommy turns his attention back to the blinking cursor in the half-filled message box. The wittiness of the greeting has dulled significantly since the lightbulb first flicked on, even without the suggestive commentary. It’s a grim admission that spurs Tommy’s thumb to find the delete key and hold, consuming the carefully-crafted words before his eyes until he’s greeted once again by blank space.

The fact that Thea’s sigh is louder than his own is what pries Tommy away from his seemingly insurmountable task with his eyebrows raised in curiosity.

“You really haven’t done this sort of thing before, have you?” Thea asks, waving a hand vaguely at the room as she sinks back against the window. “The out-of-town business trip.”

Admitting defeat (at least for the moment), Tommy tosses the phone onto the bed and crosses his arms, the corners of his mouth twitching. “I mean, if my business was pleasure...”

“So no, then,” Thea cuts in with a fond eye-roll. Her face goes soft a moment later, though, and she glances back at Tommy with a strange sort of knowingness. “Which means you especially haven’t done it when you’ve been in an actual relationship.”

Tommy offers up an entirely sheepish look. “I think that’s a given.”

Thea makes a little shrug-like expression with her lips, conceding that point. She pulls one foot up to rest on the cushion and hugs her knee to her chest, before giving Tommy another gently pointed stare. “It’s okay, you know.”

“Hmm?” Tommy rocks back on his heels as he lets the questioning hum slip, and rolls his lips under for a façade of innocence. These last few exchanges have been drawing them dangerously close to vulnerable topics—it’s still Tommy’s carefully-wired reflex to either clown about it or just play dumb.

Too bad Thea knows those moves when she sees them, and her narrowed eyes suggest that she’s still considering the earlier threat of a spin-kick in the head.

“It’s okay to miss her,” she says, stripping Tommy’s anxieties bare with a single statement.

For a split second, he thinks he might have preferred stewing in the awkward surrounding the Bed Text for just a bit longer. Incidental innuendoes are familiar territory, even if being called out for them by his younger sister adds a new layer of humiliation.

The notion doesn’t linger, though, but it’s due less to the embarrassment than it is to his brain bouncing from point to point like a pinball machine from hell. The mortification just ricochets back to the almost-slip in question, and—true to pattern as of late—propels his thoughts to a flare of fondness and Felicity. The thing that makes Tommy want to bury his face in one of the pillows that started it all, though, is the fact that the ball rebounds again to the current conversation, seemingly inescapable.

“It’s not weird?” The question comes hesitantly as he uncrosses his arms, immediately bringing one hand to rub the back of his neck. “I mean, it’s only two nights, and one already down—we’re back by tomorrow afternoon, no time at all. I feel like it’s too much, just me being unreasonably clingy.”

Experience seems to back up that impression, after all. Two years, five, more have created gulfs between Tommy and his loved ones, and even then, his longing and loneliness came off as exaggerated and one-sided.

But maybe that’s not entirely fair, he immediately scrambles to note. Oliver was working through his own problems at the time (in questionably-at-best healthy ways), caught up in a different storm of emotion and trauma that instinctively repelled Tommy—familiar magnets flipped to the same pole for the very first time. Perhaps it took more time and effort than either of them could have expected, and still never returned them to where they left off, but they did manage to establish a balance better suited to who they are now.

(Even Tommy’s being in this hotel room—as one of three co-owners of Verdant, joining Thea in exploring options for expanding the club outside of Starling—is evidence enough of that reconciliation and understanding.)

As for his father’s absence and return…

Well, any expression of emotion comes off as an overreaction when compared to Malcolm, and should not be counted.

Almost as if she senses Tommy’s once-solid evidence crumbling to dust, Thea pushes off the window seat, landing gracefully on her feet. “You’re overthinking this, especially with the texts. Just call her, all right? We don’t need to head out for at least another hour, so there’s plenty of time.”

Still lagging a little bit from trying to detangle his anxieties, Tommy nods absently in agreement as his eyes follow Thea’s movements towards the door. When she crosses the threshold to head back into the suite’s living area, though, his brain finally catches up. “Hey! How is it that you’re the one giving me relationship advice?”

Thea grips the doorframe and leans her full body back into the room, one eyebrow arched as she tilts her head to look at him.

“I mean, isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? You know, older brother’s prerogative and all?” Tommy defends weakly, wilting under the sharp stare.

“Seeing as I ended up with emotionally-constipated brothers on both sides, I think that privilege has been revoked,” Thea declares, smoothly propelling herself back upright and reaching for the doorknob. She pulls it behind her as she finally departs, but not before shooting Tommy a cheeky, “I’ll give you some privacy to relay the magical properties of a hotel bed.”

Tommy imagines his immediate response is the sound an ostrich would make if strangled. “Okay, look…”

The door closes firmly before he can get any more words out, but not fast enough that he doesn’t catch Thea’s laughter.

“Brat,” Tommy mutters affectionately under his breath, before teetering backwards to flop down on said bed. The impact bounces his phone an inch or two above the comforter, only to land face-down right next to his hip.

Tommy’s breath catches in his chest as his attention is drawn again to the device, a mere hand-twitch within reach. Hardly any effort at all to pick up, and selecting Felicity’s name from his recent call log to re-dial is no more complex a step. But his hand seems to be declining all calls from his brain, remaining unmoving at his side without even an itch in the fingertips.

He’s overreacting—he has to be, and for real this time. It’s been barely a day since his standard morning protest of Felicity’s alarm (involving an exaggerated yawn and an arm stretched across her stomach to secure her in place for just a bit longer) was met with a laugh and a set of ice-cold toes pressed to his shins in retaliation. Barely a day since Tommy lumbered past the bathroom door on his way to the kitchen and couldn’t (wouldn’t) fight the grin that bloomed upon overhearing Felicity’s murmur-singing of some earworm while getting ready. Barely a day since she’d swept into the kitchen, all color and curls, to accept the travel mug of coffee from Tommy’s hands in exchange for a soft, lingering kiss and wishes for a safe flight.

A one-day break from routine—one that’s still a few months fresh, at that—and certain comfort shouldn’t be this jarring, should it?

After all, it’s not like they’ve been completely out of contact for the last 24 hours. Tommy had passed along travel updates (and a couple pictures taken mid-flight of Thea, tuned out with her neck pillow, eye mask, and earbuds); in turn, Felicity had relayed the shift between her day and night jobs, and confirmed her safe return home following the latter. There may temporarily be a few hundred miles of physical distance between them, but Felicity is still firmly here in Tommy’s life.

And yet, he can’t help but linger on the memory of waking this morning: rolling onto his stomach and reaching across the bed, only for his arm to land flat atop a mattress completely devoid of another body’s warmth. How the confusion and pinprick of hurt struck faster than the recognition that said bed wasn’t his own and why, and the clarity only served to transform it into a yearning ache. Even brushing his teeth was a more solemn affair, with Tommy still half-listening for Felicity puttering around and starting her day.

Maybe Thea… has a point.

Before Tommy can tend to the gentle bruise to his ego from admitting his younger sister has relationship wisdom where he does not, his phone buzzes with an incoming call. Synapses finally firing as they should, his hand wraps around the device and lifts it to his face to glance at the screen.

His fingers nearly fumble and drop the phone directly onto his face when he sees Felicity’s contact photo (one he’d surreptitiously taken shortly after they’d moved in together, when he’d caught her pleasantly lost in thought at the kitchen table) and the banner requesting a video call.

Thankfully, Tommy manages to spare himself that painful landing by adjusting his grip and scooting back into a seated position against the headboard. He takes and releases a deep breath to compose himself, before his thumb finds the Accept button.

Within an instant of Felicity coming into focus, Tommy feels his lips tug into a broad smile to compliment her still-sleepy one.

“Morning,” she greets with a little finger-wiggling wave, before she pulls a steaming mug of coffee into view with her other hand. After a second, she curls her fingers into her palm and wrinkles her nose in thought. “Wow, that was weird.”

“What, saying ‘good morning’?” Tommy asks, raising an eyebrow teasingly.

Felicity mirrors the expression and throws in a shrug. “I rarely get to open with it, at least. It’s usually beat out by someone requesting that I ‘please keep hands and feet and body inside the bed at all times’.”

“Always best to take those safety messages seriously, you know,” Tommy notes sagely. He can feel the corners of his mouth twitching, threatening an even bigger smile, but the impulse immediately extinguishes once he sees Felicity worrying her lower lip between her teeth and averting her gaze in uncertainty.

“I missed it today,” she blurts, catching them both off-guard after a (seemingly agonizingly long) beat. A light flush comes to her cheeks at that, but she confidently lifts her eyes back to meet Tommy’s and amends, “I missed you. Waking up with only a tangle of blankets trying to keep me in bed, and then getting ready on my own… I mean, it’s not unusual or unfamiliar, I did get by for many years this way. But I guess going back now, after getting into new and shared habits, is stranger than I expected.”

Felicity takes a breath to duck her head a little and push a stray curl behind her ear with her free hand, before picking up steam. “It must be something about the distance that’s getting to me—for no real reason, because it’s only been the one day and you’re back tomorrow—but I wanted to call and say…”

“I have pillows, blankets, supreme comfort, and all that’s missing is you.”

Only once Felicity pauses, lips frozen in a little “O” and only a single surprised blink to prove that the connection isn’t buffering, does Tommy realize he’s landed himself right back where he started. This time, though, he’s backed by Felicity’s own testimony, and that changes the game.

The lights on the pinball machine of his thoughts are going wild, that’s for sure.

“What I mean by that,” he starts, punctuating mid-sentence by awkwardly clearing his throat, “is that I miss you too. That I was actually looking forward to cold feet on my legs this morning, and hoping to hear you singing in the bathroom, and…”

Tommy trails off, disguising a small wince. Thea’s going to be smug about this for the rest of the weekend, and almost certainly for a while after they return to Starling.

“And I think that, if we’re both feeling this way, maybe we’re not overreacting so much as we’re… on to something.”

It’s difficult to determine what that “something” is, beyond the sense that it feels right. That they—Felicity and Tommy, together—feel right, and even a temporary deviation from pattern (no matter how small or odd) is a shock to the system.

It’s okay to miss her.

Felicity remains silent on the other end—the stunned expression having melted off her face and into something more thoughtful, but much less readable. Even though their conversation up to this point made their alignment apparently clear and she’s likely just turning the implications over in her mind, Tommy can’t help but subtly squirm from the suspense.

“Yeah,” Felicity finally speaks up, lips spreading in a small, soft smile as she nods in agreement. “Maybe we are.”

Despite that being the very answer Tommy was hoping to hear, he has no immediate idea how to respond.

“Oh. Uh, good,” he fumbles. “Because I’m hoping you’ll feel the same way about these pillows if I manage to find out where they’re from and get my hands on a few.”

Something in Tommy’s chest swoops as Felicity cracks out a startled yet amused laugh. “You’re really stuck on those, huh?”

Tommy meets that with a casual shrug and pats the one next to him for emphasis. “I’m a connoisseur. These meet all the necessary criteria, and then some.”

“And I’m a tough sell,” Felicity retorts, settling back in her seat and bringing her mug to her lips. “I know what I like, and I’m seeing only one pillow here that I want for sure by the end of the weekend.” To drive the point home, she bobs her head sharply to give Tommy a once-over.

“Well, now that I will gladly arrange,” Tommy agrees, and lets the grin spread unrestrained across his face.

[thewraphim]

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[the-gedonelune-times]

Chapter 3: Fateful Encounter

Summary: Gedonelune, the prestigious royal magic academy is waiting just for you! The door has opened a whole new world of possibilities for your future. For the next thirteen days you’ll be undergoing the provisional trial to see if you have what it takes to become an official student. Along the way you’ll be meeting new faces and going on exciting new adventures. But be warned, shadows are being cast on the land, if you dive to deep, you may find yourself being swallowed up by the chaos. Your journey begins now, will you be able to banish the darkness?

(This chapter does contains scenes mentioning blood and violence)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

A groan escaped my lips as I stared at the numbers on the clock that was resting on the nightstand by my bed. It was still well into the early morning hours. My body felt heavy as I rolled to the side, pressing my face into my pillow. I still had about seven hours before I had to meet up with Nadia and head over to the tea party that those men from last night invited us to. I was honestly still a bit nervous but decided to try and chase away the feeling with some more rest. It was a rather rough next few hours though, all of which were full of tossing and turning, restlessness, and a lot of grumbling. By this point, I decided to say ‘screw it’ as I threw the covers to the side while getting out of bed. 

Despite barely getting a wink of sleep, I felt more energized than ever as I walked back from the Night Class cafeteria. A cold shower and a cup of coffee did the trick, at least for the meantime. Luckily it was the weekend, so if I desperately needed to go and lie down and try to get some more rest then I could. I hadn’t realized it until now, but it really did feel dead here in the morning, though, that’s to be expected when basically every Night Class student is nocturnal.

At least the areas above ground were pretty lively. Even though it was still pretty early out, I could see a few students roaming around the courtyard, one of which was...Nadia? It was hard to tell if it was really her at first glance. I had only ever seen her with her prefect uniform, which stood out among the other uniforms. But today she was in something completely different; a light blue shirt and a pair of black shorts, complete with a pair of flip-flops. Her usual one-sided ponytail was now loosely tied as a small breeze swept it back. She must have caught me staring because she gave me a somewhat cocky grin before putting her book down, waving me over.

I smiled as I walked over, giving a quick greeting as I did.

“I see you’re up early.”

“Have been for a while.” I chuckled.

“Really? Did you not sleep well?”

“Not really. But I should have enough energy to get through the tea party.”

Nadia’s face softened, but the worry was still written on it clear as day. “Please don’t overdo yourself today.”

“I won’t.” I answered.

“Good.” Nadia smiled. “I know we still have around an hour before we have to be there, but we can go ahead and head up to the village. Lacan or Felix might be out in the garden, oh maybe Lily is too!”

“Lily?” I recall hearing the names Lacan, Willem and Felix from last night, but this was a name that was completely new.

“Oh yeah, you haven’t met Lily or even Felix yet. Lily has been living with Willem and the others for a couple of months. I met her a couple of times when I went to visit Hugo; who’ll you’ll also probably meet soon. Anyways, Lily is a real sweet girl, she’s always taking care of the garden, she just adores flowers.”

Lily huh? Despite still knowing so little about her, I felt rather excited to meet her. That very excitement was carried with me all the way to the village. The man from last night, Lacan, was the one to greet us. He was practically running and I was a little worried, wondering if he was going to just crash right into us. Of course, he didn’t, but he was pretty excited to know we came and yet a little sad that more hadn’t shown up.

“Is it really just you two?” He asked curiously while peering over our shoulders.

“I’m afraid the others just didn’t have the time.” Nadia explained.

“Well, that’s alright.” Lacan waved. “That just more tea and baked goods for us right?”

“Right.” Nadia nodded while Lacan took her by the arm, excitedly leading her to the house. 

I trailed behind them, taking in the views. It was incredible to see that an entire village had been built here by students from the Academy. When Nadia first told me about it, I was a little shocked and a bit saddening that I didn’t have the chance to meet said former students. As I got closer to their house I noticed just how many houses were here, including one that was in the process of being built. I wonder who it belonged to.

Not paying attention to my surroundings, I ended up tripping over something, I couldn’t tell what and fell right into someone. I had regained my posture and was about to step back when I lost my balance after placing my foot on something unstable. This time I knew what it was, a shovel, I was prepared to make contact with the ground but found myself being pulled back to my feet by the person I had bumped into. 

“I’m so sorry.” I apologized. 

“It’s alright. I should have found a better place to put my things. But at the same time *you should have been watching your surroundings more carefully.”

“Hm?” 

My eyes met the ones of the person who helped me. It was a girl around my height, she had long platinum-blonde, almost silver, colored hair that moved with the passing breeze. Her eyes were a bit harder to see by her messy bangs that was caused by the sunhat she was wearing, but I could tell that they were kind. I watched as she titled her head, her hand waving in front of my face.

“Hello? Earth to the stranger in the garden.” She wore a smile as she spoke.

“Ah, sorry I…”

“Is the sun getting to you? I’ve heard that sometimes people look lost like that when they’re not hydrated properly. Perhaps you need some water?”

I chuckled. “No, I’m not dehydrated nor am I feeling unwell. I just..er..” I couldn’t exactly tell her that I was staring. Things could get awkward very fast. Instead, I just cleared my throat and smiled. “I was just admiring the view around here.”

“Oh?” Her eyes looked me up and down as she walked around me. “Come to think of it, I’ve never seen you around here. Are you new?”

“Yes.” I answered with a nod.

“Really?! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Lily gasped before rushing over to a patch of vibrant colored flowers. After doing some thinking, her hands plucked one of the flowers skillfully from the patch. In her hand was now a beautiful orange tulip, it almost looked like she had a small flame in her hand. I was about to ask about the flower when she held it up to me.

“For you.”

“H-Huh?”

“Think of this as a welcoming gift.”

The flower was placed in my hands, I was so afraid that I might somehow smash it that I decided to tuck it behind my ears. Lily gasped and clasped her hands together.

“You look so nice with that colour, it really brings out your eyes.”

“Y-You think so?” I unconsciously began to touch the petals of the flower that was nestled in my hair. For some reason I had grown rather embarrassed, almost to the point where I could barely make eye contact with her. 

“Hey you two, the tea and stuff are ready!:

*Oh thank goodness….*

With what seemed like perfect timing, Lacan had stepped out of the house and now stood on the porch. He smiled when he saw us, but it faded when he saw that Lily’s hands and outfit were completely covered in dust and semi-wet dirt from her time in the gardening,

“Lily! Were messing with the garden?”

Not seeming to care, she smiled. “I wanted to plant the other flowers. I still have to get the Bearded Iris plants in the ground.”

“You can do that later. Right now you need to clean up. We have company joining us for tea.”

“Oh?” Lily blinked a couple of times and then looked at me curiously. “So you’re here because of the invitation?”

“Ah, yes.” 

“I see! I’ll go put on a very special outfit then!”

 Lily then began dusting off her outfit before heading up to the porch. She looked back at me as if telling me to follow. As I did, I noticed something that caught me by surprise, or rather shocked me to the point where I grew concerned. Lily had on an outfit that left her back exposed, on her back were three deep wounds that almost looked fresh. They resembled claw marks. I wanted to ask but decided it was best not to, I had just met this person, after all, it would have been rude.

Lacan, however, caught onto my staring and shared a similar sad gaze. “Don’t worry, she’ll be alright.”

Was this guy a mind reader now?

I entered the house with Lacan, but was left behind as he said he was going to check on Lily. He told me that the kitchen would be down the hall and that everyone was already there. When I got there, I could hear a conversation between Willem and Nadia. Worried that I would be interrupting something, I Quietly hid out of view, just enough to be able to keep listening.

“...so she really doesn’t remember anything?”

“No. Her memory has been wiped clean and ever since the attack, it’s gotten worse.”

“I...I can’t believe it.”

So this girl was attacked? Their voices seemed to go quiet and just as I leaned in to listen more closely, I heard someone clear their throat from behind me. I turned around in a panic to see a man with blonde hair and curly white ram-like horns. He seemed to have a disinterested look as he spoke. 

“Is eavesdropping some kind of human pasttime? It seems rather rude to me.”

“Er, well I, you see…”

“Save your breath. I could care less.” He muttered while walking inside.

What is this guy’s problem?

I decided to follow suit and was immediately greeted by Willem.

“Hello there.”

“Hello.” I put on my best smile and watched as the man in white robes roll his eyes.

“I’m glad you could join us.” He smiled. “ But just a little word of advice, if you’re going to listen in on one’s conversation, try harder to conceal yourself next time.”

What in the world are these guys?!

“How did you..?”

“Well, as a Dragonkin, my hearing is rather good, I could hear the shift in floorboards near the entrance. But your shadow was also seen clear as day.” He laughed and I found myself wanting to hide my face in embarrassment.

Lily and Lacan joined us a little while later and from there we all sat down and began engaging in small talk as we drank our tea and enjoyed the baked goods. During this time, I was learning more about Dragonkin, Willem was very thorough in his explanations and it was incredibly interesting to listen to. Even the man in the white robes, who I learned was Felix, seemed to enjoy sharing stories from a faraway past. There was a small break of the conversation which led to silence befalling us. During the silence, Lily had shifted in her seat, asking to be excused to go get some fresh air. 

When she left, I noticed that the atmosphere in the room had changed drastically. 

“It’s her back I’m sure…” Felix looked away sadly.

“Felix…:

“You can’t keep blaming yourself for what happened.”

I was about to ask, but held my tongue instead. Nadia beat me to the question anyways.

“What exactly happened?”

The three men all exchanged looks, each of them going silent before Felix spoke up.

“I asked Lily to join me for a stroll on the usual path.” Felix explained. “ We had just reached a clearing in the path right by the flower field that Lily loves so much. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and just as we were about to take a break and rest in the grass. That’s when...it happened.”

Felix stopped for a moment, going quiet as he gathered his thoughts. “It all happened so fast, this magic beast came out of nowhere, it looked like a Chimera. It charged right towards us, specifically me. Even if I had managed to cast a spell, I would have still been injured. But just as I was prepared for the blow, Lily...she...she stepped in front of me and threw her arms around my neck, taking the blow. The scream she let out, it was unlike anything I had ever heard before. I tried healing her wounds but nothing happened, so I brought her back home right away.”

“It was a really gruesome scene.” Lacan recalled. “Felix ran in here with his robes stained with so much blood. I really thought we were going to lose her. Luckily Willem was here though, he knew of a way to stop the bleeding, but...we couldn’t heal the wound. That’s why the wound on her back looks so fresh, it’s because those markings are cursed.”

“Cursed?” The words left my mouth before I could stop them. 

Lacan nodded. “Yes. Lily’s powers were sealed and her memory wiped clean. She’s stuck in her human form, almost like she’s been reset.”

*Human form? So does that mean that Lily was a Dragonkin too? I asked myself silently while listening on.

“She also can’t stay sitting in one place for too long, nor can she have fabric touching her back. It gives her a tremendous amount of pain and has made it a bit more difficult for her to even do her usual tasks.”

“But our lily is a real fighter.” Lacan smiled. “She still takes care of the plants and she’s been writing down in her journal whenever her memory starts giving out. She’ll get through this, I mean, she has all of us to support her.” 

“That’s right.”

“But what if she doesn’t get better? What if she’s doomed to this kind of lifestyle? This is no way for her to live!”

Felix shouted before getting up from his seat, rushing out of the room and slamming a door that must have been down one of the halls. Willem had tried calling out to him and was about to get up as well but was stopped by Lacan before he even could. 

“Let him be, Willem. He needs some space, you know he always comes back to us when his mind is cleared. Now is no different.”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

As the others began some small chatter, I looked down at my plate and teacup. There was so much that was going on that I didn’t feel like even finishing up the rest of it. In fact, I could really use some fresh air right about now…

“May I be excused?”

“Hm?”

“Is everything alright?” Nadia asked.

“Yes, I just need some fresh air.”

“Go right ahead.” Willem softly smiled. “A lot has happened and I send my apologies for making you go through it.”

“The porch is open!” Lacan beamed as he changed the subject. “We even have some chairs set up so you get a really pretty view of the garden.”

“Thank you.”

I gave a thankful nod and pushed my chair out, quickly removing myself away from the table and the area in general. There was so much to process and the fact that such a beast could cause such harm to people who were merely taking a stroll worried me. My mind couldn’t take it, so I thought fresh air could help. But as I stepped out onto the porch and sat down in one the nearby chairs, I remembered something. *Wasn’t Lily out here too?* Just as I thought that, my eyes focused in on a figure who was standing over a patch of flowers. I could tell right away that it was Lily.

She was wearing a completely different outfit, a backless rose-coloured sundress. Seeming to notice my presence, Lily turned to face me, a smile rose to her face as she gave a small wave, heading in my direction. I could see her face more clearly this time and almost immediately I was drawn to her eyes and the smile she had was making my heart thud.

“Are you about to leave?” She asked almost sadly.

“No, not yet. I just needed some fresh air,”

“Oh thank goodness…”Lily sighed. “I was a little worried.”

“Worried?”

Lily nodded. “I really wanted to keep talking to you, I can tell that you have a kind heart.”

“A kind heart huh?”

“Well you’re also pretty interesting and there’s not a lot of new faces that come around here. So seeing you here is a real treat!”

“You mean, you don’t see a lot of people? What about when you go into town?”

“Going into town is rare for me. Willem says it’s safer is I stay here in the village, but he still lets me go into town as long as I’m with one of them. Although, going into town right now isn’t an option since there was an incident that occurred recently. I’m not sure what happened but when I heard Willem talking about it, I felt...uneasy, yes that would be the best term to describe it.”

Strange, this was the first time I had heard about this happening, and with the academy being so close to the town, it’s a wonder that this kind of information wasn’t disclosed. Though, I suppose if such information was given out, then it could cause panic to ensue. Still...this seems pretty serious, I wonder what happened?

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Lily spoke as she sat down in the chair next to me. “Willem said that the people at the Ministry would take care of things.”

“I suppose that’ll offer some relief.”

Lily nodded and before I knew it, we dived into a deep conversation. Even though I had just met her, it felt like Lily and I had known each other for a while, we just seemed to hit off really well. A couple of hours had passed before Nadia had stepped out onto the porch, asking if I was ready to go.

“You’re leaving already?” Lily looked at me sadly.

“I’m sorry, Lily. I really wish I could stay longer.”

“Me too! Will you be able to come over tomorrow?”

“I start classes tomorrow, if I didn’t have them then I’d love to come back to see you.”

“Classes? Does that mean you go to the academy nearby?”

I nodded and watched as Lily fumbled with her hands, finally resting them on her lap. “Is there any way that we could still keep in touch?”

That was a good question, was there a way we could? If there was, I’d love to take the opportunity.

“Magic notes.” Nadia responded. 

“Huh?”

“I think Persephone should have given you some. You two could write to one another.”

“Really?”

“Where can I gets some?”

“I have some.” Willem responded from the doorway. “I think sending magical notes to one another would be a wonderful thing for you, Lily. It’s wonderful to see you making some new friends.”

I watched as Lily practically jumped out of her seat with excitement. “Please teach me how to use it!”

Willem laughed. “Alright, alright. I’ll teach you in a little bit.”

“Thank you.” Lily smiled before looking back at me, holing out her hand. “I’ll be sure to write to you every day, i-if you don’t mind of course.”

“I would really like that.” I took her hand and gave it a few shakes before leaving with Nadia.

The sun was still shining brightly by the time we got back to the academy. Nadia and I said our goodbyes before parting our separate ways. I must have been grinning the entire time as I walked back to my dorms because when I got back to my room, my face hurt. What was it about Lily that made me feel this way? I wasn’t sure of these feelings, but I knew that I wanted to see her again….

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

Nadia: I’m happy that they got along so well with Lily.

Persephone: You mean the new student?

Nadia: Yeah! 

Persephone: I guess that explains that goofy grin they had on their face while going to their dorms.

Naida: I can see them getting along well in the future.

Persephone: We can talk more about this later. For now, let’s get on with the preview.

Nadia: Their first day of classes and their trial begins, how will things go, and what familiar faces await them?

Persephone: Find out soon in the chapter ‘Classes’.

[allie-and-her-fandoms]

Waiting For A Storm

Author's Notes: Hey guys, it is time I posted another Fairy Tail fanfiction, starring my other FT OTP, Gruvia. I wrote this fic as a gift for my Internet wife and best friend, @ship-ambrosia, whose birthday is today. Thank you for everything you've done for me, Bree. You're the Juvia to my Gray and let me say that the day I met you was the best day of my life. We became friends thanks to this ship, which also happens to be your OTP, and once again, thank you for everything. Also, I am sorry if you don't like it. Enjoy (or endure)!

Tags: angst, fluff, family

Disclaimer: the events of this fic happen between the timeline of "Four Degrees" and "The Droplet", written by Bree herself. Go check them out on her AO3, shipambrosia_bree.

-----

The end of March was coming close for the people of Fiore, bringing the joy that Spring always made sure to gift the people with. However, in a rather small city called Magnolia, there was something rather peculiar going on. There was a violent snowstorm raging and slicing through the pathways and abandoned houses of the settlement, the wind whistling and inviting his snowflake comrades to join the tempest. As she sat down and watched the frozen fractals dancing in the air, Juvia’s eyes were glued to the window, waiting for her beloved to return to the place that called their home. She remembered the times they spent together in his apartment, and she was still stunned by Gray’s decision to move with him and not leave the house, under any circumstances; a decision he took a few months ago, due to a certain reason. Soon, the Water Mage’s thoughts were somewhere else.

---

After a dire battle with the Dragon Gods, the White Mage and the Dragon Eaters, Gray had finally decided to do what he had told Juvina; he went and got the woman that loved him unconditionally for years (a manly action, according to Elfman). The moment he finally gave her the answer he had promised that day on the bridge, her heart was beating in a frenzy, as her stomach flipped and her mind flopped. As she finally found out the meaning of her beloved’s words, the bluenette’s eyes were invaded by tears that shortly left to flood the Guild’s backyard, earning a strong reaction from those present, Gray included. The days that followed were blissful for her. She had never expected his touches to feel so… warm.

His caresses, his kisses, his words were warming her from inside out, and it didn’t take them too long to get to the next step of their relationship. Mouth to mouth and chest to chest, they poured all their feelings in their touches and whispered calls, and would always end up falling asleep in each other’s arms, Juvia’s head always finding rest against Gray’s heart. However, one certain night ended up in a different way than expected.

A few weeks later, they found themselves reminiscing the event that had brought them together and strengthened their bond: the day Invel forced them to fight each other, a day that left both emotional and physical scars. Shortly after, Gray found himself getting drowned in Juvia’s affection once more, as she also shared the thought that had been travelling through her mind. An unexpected visit to the ill-tempered Porlyusica had ultimately confirmed her suspicion: under Juvia’s heart, a new life had already begun to bloom.

---

The news of a new member joining them soon had the Guild go on a state of pure joy. All their guildmates were screaming “Congratulations!” from the top of their lungs; even the Master was elated to find out that he would have another great-grandchild. Soon after, a party was thrown to celebrate the joyful event, as the Water Mage found herself bombarded with advice from Levy and Bisca, and the Ice Mage got his own tips from Alzack and Gajeel, with some bonus threats from the Iron Dragon Slayer.

As her pregnancy advanced, Juvia found herself incapable of performing magic the way she used to – she had gotten slower, and her focus wasn’t on the world around her as often – all that mattered was the development of her unborn child. However, little did she know that this might’ve been the nail in the coffin for her.

---

“I’m home!” Gray’s voice interrupted Juvia’s train of thoughts, as she watched her boyfriend take off his shoes. He then went her way, gave her a smile and brushed his lips against hers.

“Welcome home, Gray. How was the job?”

“It went well. It was exhausting, and someone whose name I won’t give,” he muttered “Flame Brain” between his coughs, “almost got the town we were supposed to protect, destroyed. Luckily, we managed to stop him and finish the job. How about you?” Gray asked, pressing his palm on his girlfriend’s growing belly, being rewarded with a small push against his hand.

“The same things that Juvia has done for months; eat, sleep, gestate and repeat,” she chuckled. “Oh, and Levy and the twins paid Juvia a visit.” she beamed; she always loved spending time with the two azure-haired children, and the feeling was mutual. However, the smile on her lips didn’t last long, as a frown adorned on her face, her brows furrowing and her fingers intertwining. “Gray…” she hesitated. She really didn’t want to anger him, but the growing frustration was eating her at the core. “Can Juvia leave our home, even for a few moments, please? She really misses everyone else in the Guild.”

The moment those words came out of Juvia’s mouth, Gray stood up straight in front of her, his fists clenching, a dark gaze sent Juvia’s way. “You know very well what my answer’s gonna be, don’t you?” the words left his mouth on a harsher tone than he intended.

“Juvia knows, but she can’t stay anymore in our home, doing nothing but stay in bed and eat. Juvia wants to see the streets of Magnolia again, and not from a window. She misses the Guild–”

“Juvia, my answer is still no. Please understand that.” Gray muttered, gritting his teeth, and the temperature dropping a few degrees lower. Why couldn’t she see he was doing all of this for their sake, for her and their child’s sake?!

“Gray, please. Juvia knows you just want to keep Juvia and our child safe,” she replied, a hand on her belly “but she doesn’t believe that the way you intend to do this is the best. Juvia is not a little girl, she will be more careful this time around; just trust her – “

“JUVIA!” Gray snapped, pieces of ice appearing and shattering around him just as soon as they were created. The Water Mage’s eyes widened and her breath froze inside her lungs, as she found herself wrapping her arms around her belly. She knew Gray would never hurt her, but her maternal instincts kicked in faster than imagined. When he saw his girlfriend’s scared expression, Gray took deep breaths and tried to compose himself. “You know why you cannot leave. It’s not like I don’t want you to, but… If something like that happened again…” His gaze lowered, his nails digging deeper into the palms of his hands, his teeth biting his tongue, suppresing a sob.

---

He still remembered seeing an injured Juvia being attacked and knocked unconscious by someone sent to kill him, just like other Devil Slayers and their families. As soon as he encased the masked man in ice, he brought her to the infirmary, where Wendy managed to heal her injuries, as she assured that their child was safe, much to their relief. And that was all that mattered in that moment. After the man got interrogated, Gray could hear that man’s wicked laugh, as he told the Ice Mage that he wasn’t working on his own.

That phrase alone made his blood freeze in his veins, as he replayed the moment his beloved fell to the ground, cuts and bruises glaring on her skin. He couldn’t afford losing another loved one, not now that he was going to have his own family. He promised he would become a man who could protect Juvia, and yet, he had broken the promise he made. Then, it hit him. Those people couldn’t harm her, if Juvia were to stay from that moment on at home, where no one could lay a single finger on her, not with all the protection enchantments around their home. He would keep his oath. He would protect Juvia and their child, no matter what.

---

Juvia didn’t want to see him like this, so she stood up the couch as fast as she could and embraced the Ice Mage who washed her rain away, as tight as she could, pools of tears forming in her eyes. She was supposed to ease his pain, not be its main cause; and this made her heart ache for him.

“Juvia is sorry. So, so sorry.” Her arms drew him as close to her as they could, while her aquamarine eyes were searching for his midnight ones. “Juvia will never be as stupid as she was that day, I promise.”

“I can’t go through this again. Not again.” his voice cracked, as he leaned into her embrace. The moment he felt her welcoming warmth, he found himself sobbing in her chest once again.

“You won’t. Juvia promises that she – no, we won’t leave you, no matter what.” Juvia murmured as she raised her hands, so she could caress his hair. Her soothing voice and warm touches always made Gray feel safe, loved, home. “Juvia promises you that she and our little one won’t leave you. We’ll always be by your side.”

As he registered her words, Gray’s sobs slowly subsided and quickly wiped the tears he had just shed, as he straightened his back. “Juvia, no matter what happens, I will always be by your side, just like how you’ve always been by mine. And I promise that I will do my best to be the father he or she deserves.” Gray still didn’t know his child’s gender, as he wanted to keep it as a surprise. He decided that if they had a boy, they would name him Storm, and if they had a girl, they would name her Iris. At the end of the day, the only thing he cares about is his baby’s safety; but he would be lying if he didn’t say he wanted a girl.

“You already are, Gray. You love this child already, even if he or she isn’t born yet.” She then took Gray’s hand and placed it once again on her belly, as their child moved again. “And it looks the little one agrees. Now please, go get some sleep. You just came from a job and you need all the rest you need. Soon, you’ll look for those moments,” she giggled.

Gray couldn’t help but chuckle. This woman… “Okay. Wake me up when dinner is ready.” he waved Juvia’s way, as he headed towards their bedroom, not hearing the Water Mage’s next words.

“Your daddy already loves you so much, and so does momma, Storm.”

BONUS – April 13th

The moment Gray held his son for the first time, he remembered the words Ur once told him about her daughter; how her tears wouldn’t stop and how she truly felt alive the day Ultear was born. At that time, he didn’t understand those words, but now he did. He felt tears making their way on his cheeks and a brand-new feeling: love for his newborn. As tears hit the little boy’s face, he started to whimper, and looked his way with his big midnight eyes. While holding the young Storm in his arms for the unkempt time, the Ice Mage made himself another oath. “Storm, I will do my best to keep you away from darkness. And if you ever encounter it, I’ll seal it away for you.”

---

“Juvia still cannot believe he is here!” she whispered, her eyes gleaming and full of love for the new life that stood between her and Gray in their bed. She then placed her hand on Storm’s tiny chest, feeling it rise and fall with every breath he took.

“Yeah… Me neither.” he admitted, as he failed to keep his eyes from his cobalt-haired son, his right hand underneath his raven locks. “Thank you, Juvia.”

“What are you thanking Juvia for, Gray?” she asked, her gaze away from her son and fixed on her boyfriend.

“For everything.” The Ice Mage smiled her way, cupping her cheek with his other hand.

“No; thank you, Gray. For giving Juvia the best life she could have.” She smiled back, leaning into Gray’s touch. Their waiting for a storm was finally over, and they couldn’t be happier, as their son brought the sunshine into their lives after that fateful day.

-----

Thank you once again for reading. Hope you enjoyed😊

[ayawriter]

Fever

Characters: Naib&Friends

Summary: Naib falls ill, but decides to deal with it on his own (re: suck it up and ignore it until after matches were over) This causes some complications once he actually participates in a match, and puts his relationships and values into question.

The dining hall was alive with noise, yet none of it reached his ears. Naib silently picked at his food, letting the buzz of conversation wash over him as he slowly lost his appetite. Everything was too loud, and his body was stuck in between feeling fine, and feeling achy. Same with his headache.

“Yo, Naib, you gonna eat that?”

“Hm.”

Naib pushed his plate towards the Forward before standing up, closing his eyes to keep himself from getting dizzy. He opens his eyes and starts to leave when he was called out by a concerned doctor.

“Wait, Mr. Subedar! You’ve barely eaten anything, are you feeling alright?”

Naib huffed inaudibly. He wanted to get back to his room quickly, and sleep until match time. His ears felt stuffed with cotton, his body felt like it was in freezing snow and on fire at the same time, and his nerves were on high alert, throwing his senses into overdrive. He felt before he saw Emily reach out toward him.

“Don’t touch me!” Before he could register what was happening, he had already slapped Emily’s hand away from himself.

The entire dining hall went silent, staring at the two. Naib struggled to keep his breathing in check. Stumbling backwards, he mumbled a quick apology before disappearing towards his room.

The lawyer was the first one to break the silence.

“Hmph. At least it’s finally gotten quiet.”

Emma glanced worriedly at Emily as the doctor sat back down in her seat beside the gardener. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am not hurt. Please, do not worry.”

William, who had turned back to his food at that point, chimed in, “Still, it’s not like him to react like that to anyone, especially someone like Dr. Dyer. I mean, he’s always been kinda spiky, but he never lashed out like that before.”

Martha hummed in thought. “Perhaps It’s stress? He has been participating in the games almost every chance he gets. Which, I’m all for the enthusiasm, but I’m worried he’s going to burn himself out at this rate. Or work himself sick.”

Slowly the noise returned to its previous level, but there was now a tense atmosphere as the survivors worried over their fellow comrade.

—

Naib kept a steady pace back to his room, one hand on the wall to keep himself steady. He sighed. He shouldn’t have reacted like that. Emily was only worried. He’ll have to apologize later.

“Oof.”

“Ah!”

So lost in his own thoughts, Naib didn’t notice the figure rounding the corner. They collided, bouncing off each other and falling on their butts.

“S-sorry…”

Naib looked up once the dizziness subsided to find Aesop’s concerned face staring back at him. Surprisingly, the embalmer was the first to recover. He held out his hand. Naib grabbed it and was helped up.

“Nah, it was my fault. I wasn’t paying attention. Thanks.”

Aesop mumbled a “no problem” and another apology before speeding off. Probably towards the dining hall. Once he turned the corner, Naib started his walk back to his room. He locked the door and flopped down onto the sheets, he didn’t bother taking off his boots or untying his hair. As soon as his body touched the sheets, he was out.

—

   He didn’t know how long he was asleep for before he woke up to an incessant amount of knocking on his door. He groaned, half from being woken up, and half from how sore his body was. He shivered. Was it always this cold in here? Naib opened his door, glaring daggers at whoever it was that woke him. God, his head hurt.

   “Oh, you’re awake.”

   It was the seer.

   “The matching is about to start. I was just wanting to check up on you and make sure you were ready.”

   Despite the smile on his face, Eli was studying Naib with an intense gaze through his blindfold. He didn’t have to rely on his seer abilities to guess that Naib wasn’t in the best shape to be participating in any matches. The mercenary wasn’t necessarily close to other survivors, but the seer had somehow proved himself to be a trustworthy fellow, and maybe even could be considered one of the mercenary’s closest friends.

   “Sure. Just give me a sec.”

   The mercenary left the door to grab his elbow pads before leaving his room and closing the door behind him. He turned to Eli, nodding, and they both made their way towards the matching room. Naib involuntarily shivered again, which did not go unnoticed by Eli. There was a reason he was one of Naib’s best friends.

   “Cold?”

   Naib jumped, which made the seer frown in concern. It was the same as the incident from breakfast. Naib may have a heightened sense of danger, but he was never jumpy, and he never lashed out, unless provoked.

   “What? No. Besides, how can I be cold if it’s already so hot?”

   Hot? Now something was definitely wrong. First the jumpiness, then the shivers, then the claims of the mansion being hot. Sure, it may not be the coolest, but it surely wasn’t as sweltering as Naib seemed to think it was, nor was it cold. Right as they were about to enter the matching room, Eli grabbed Naib’s wrist, pulling him close and placing his other hand onto the mercenary’s face. He wasn’t burning with a fever like he originally thought, but Naib was still too warm to be healthy. There was even a light blush on his cheeks, though whether it was from embarrassment or sickness he wasn’t sure. Eli was struck with a sudden feeling of foreboding.

“Naib,” he started, “I think you should sit this one out. Don’t volunteer. Or if you are chosen, switch with another survivor.”

“…Is it another one of your ‘premonitions’?”

Eli smiled wryly. “I guess you could say that. But it’s more of a gut feeling. You know I can’t exactly “see” anything at the moment.”

Naib studied him for a moment, acknowledging his comments with a hum before opening his mouth.

“I’ll…I’ll think about it.”

Eli watched him walk through the doors into the matching room. With a sigh, he walked in after him, hoping Naib would take his advice. Though he already knew the answer to that.

—

The match started with little incident. As he suspected, Naib ended up participating in the match, ignoring Eli’s warnings, taking the place of Tracy, who had injured her wrist while working on one of her projects, making her decoding skills useless. The final team ended up being Aesop, William, Naib, and Eli.

[Focus on decoding!]

Messages pinged from all directions, and Eli set to work on a cipher nearby. Today’s match was in the Red Church with the Gamekeeper. Eli bit his lip, barely catching one of the calibrations. This is going to be rough. Especially with Naib in his weakened state…A low hoot alerted the Seer of his owl’s return.

“Welcome back, my friend. I’m sorry for giving you so much work, but do you think you can check on Naib for a moment?”

With a nod, the owl took off in the direction of the Mercenary. Meanwhile, Naib was feeling miserable. He started nearby the small hut, which he was thankful for, since it was a strong kiting area. Unfortunately, he kept missing calibration after calibration, which lead the Hunter straight to him.

[The hunter is near me!]

Naib sent the message just as he was about to get hit. Fortunately Eli’s trusty owl had swooped in just in time to block the first hit. Naib sent out a quick message of gratitude, preparing to dash towards the next kiting area when the world started spinning. He had used his dash as usual, but it left him feeling nauseous and forced him to stop and heave. His body was burning, and his shivering became more pronounced.

‘Damn, I can’t stop here. Still got three ciphers left and Bane’s going to catch up any time!’

Naib somehow willed his body to keep his food down and keep running, his breath coming out more like gasps. His body felt like lead. Everything was losing color. The hunter was close enough that he could see the red shadow of his gaze. His heart pounded a vibrant mix of purple and red.  

“Shit–”

Bane’s hook got caught in his hood, pulling him back and forcing him to take a hit. The force of the pull and the blow from the same hook knocked out all the air in his lungs, and caused his to make flips. Before he could register what was happening, he was on his knees, throwing up what little breakfast he had.

Bane froze, stunned. Survivors didn’t usually go down like that when he hit them, especially the Mercenary, who usually takes a few seconds to register the attack completely. Something was definitely up. Somewhat panicked, he decided to try and seek for the other survivors for help.

—

Eli sighed in relief as he was able to block the incoming attack from the Gamekeeper at the last second. He ignored the brief headache caused from taking a hit from a hunter, and continued decoding his cipher. He welcomed the owl back with a good job and a small pat on the head, and popped the machine. In the distance another cipher lit up upon completion. Only three more to go. Only three more to go. Alright, now to go find Naib. Sure the Seer was able to block one attack, but the Mercenary was sick. Eli needed to be there to support him. He immediately left in search of his friend when another cipher popped. Only two more left. He pinged a message to the other two and quickened his pace. A gong sounded.

“Naib!”

Said male’s icon had slowly started to fill up. Eli only prayed he would make it in time. His heart pounded. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Eli almost froze when he saw the hunter approach him, but something was different. The gut feeling came back. The gauge was now completely up to half, showing Naib’s status as “wounded”.

“Eli.”

Strange. The Gamekeeper never used the survivors’ names unless they were outside of the match. Something must have happened.

“Bane, did something happen? Where’s Naib?”

Bane didn’t answer, only motioned for him to follow urgently. Eli didn’t waste any time to comply. He was led to an area where Naib often liked to do his chases.

“Oh god.”

Naib was sitting, leaning heavily against the wall. There was a puddle of bile nearby. The Seer tried not to look, focusing on the unconscious Mercenary. He dropped to his knees, putting a hand to his forehead. He was burning up. Nothing like the slightly warm sensation from before the match. He grit his teeth.

“I told you…Damn it, you’re such an idiot.”

A cipher popped in the distance. Eli and Bane looked at each other, the hunter nodding.

“I still have about a hundred seconds before I can surrender. I suggest you gather your comrades and tell them the situation.”

“Thank you, Bane.”

The hunter nodded.

[Cipher machine primed!]

[Follow me!]

Eli spammed the message in response to William’s own, never once keeping his gaze off his ill friend. It took a while but William and Aesop finally arrived.

“Hey, what’s going on–Holy shit, Gamekeeper! Eli, run!” William ran to tackle the hunter, but was easily evaded.

“Will, stop, now’s not the time.”

“…Naib?”

Aesop’s quiet voice was muffled, but the surprise and concern was clear. He had silently joined the group in the short commotion. William turned and almost did a double take.

“Is…Is he okay–I mean–obviously he’s not–but, like…” William trailed off, but his question was clear.

Eli shook his head, “I’m fairly certain this isn’t anything serious, just a high fever and coughing. He may have also been suffering a bit from nausea.”

After a bout of silence, Ban finally spoke up, “The cooldown’s up. It’s your win.”

“Thank you again, Bane.”

“A match with an ill player is not worth playing,” he eyed the mercenary, currently being held by the Forward. “Next time, lock him up in his room or something before he does something stupid like this. We hunters may not be able to kill you, but things outside of the control of matches can. I shall hunt you when all players are healthy.”

And with that, a message popped up along with Bane’s disappearance, signifying the surrender. The four were transported back to the manor.

“Oh, welcome, back–Oh!”

Emma was the first to greet them, dropping some flowers she had picked from the garden in shock.    “I-I’ll go get Emily right away!”

The four headed to the makeshift “med-bay”, which was really just a large guest room with many beds. William gently laid the Mercenary down on one of the beds. Naib’s face was flushed, his hair sticking to his face slick with sweat. Aesop took care to pull his hair from the usual ponytail to make things more comfortable. The Gardener returned with Emily, who immediately went into work mode, shooing out William, Aesop, and Emma, and leaving Eli to explain the situation. She checked the ill Mercenary for any abnormalities before sighing.

“Well, fortunately, it’s nothing serious. Just a simple flu caused by a mix of stress, exhaustion, and overwork. He should be fine in a couple days if he rests and takes it easy. Even after that, I would recommend staying away from matches for at least a couple more days after recovery. He really has been participating a lot lately, and now that I have had a chance to look him over properly, there are traces of lack of sleep,” She sighed. “It truly was a matter of time.”

Eli nodded. “Thank you, Emily. I don’t know where we would be without you.”

“It is no trouble. I’m just doing my job as the resident doctor.”

“Still, thank you.”

The Doctor only smiled, and let Eli take Naib back to his room.

—

For the next couple days, Eli took turns with his friends and Emily to take care of the sick Mercenary. Fortunately, he was way too delirious with fever to even think about trying to do anything strenuous. He spent most of the time sleeping off the fever, only waking to eat or throw up. After two long days, Naib’s fever peaked before finally breaking. After what seemed like forever, Naib woke up, eyes frantically blinking away the sleep. Eli was beside his bed, reading a book when he noticed Naib awake.

“Good morning, Naib,” he greeted, smiling. “You caused quite a panic, collapsing during a match. And then you’re fever spiked last night…It broke finally.”

Naib brought up an arm to cover his eyes.

“How long was I out.”

“Two days.”

Naib shot up, instantly regretting it as the room spun. He felt gentle hands steadying and supporting him, helping to lean him against the headboard.

“Careful, you just woke up. Don’t strain yourself.”

Naib nodded, trying to wrap his head around the fact that two days had passed with him out of commission. He sighed heavily.

“Still…two days? That’s…”

Too long is what he wanted to say, but one look from Eli made his words die in his throat.

“Naib,” he started, not missing the slight flinch the Mercenary made at his tone, “You had an extremely high fever. You collapsed during the match–a match I specifically told you to sit out of. If it weren’t for Bane’s kindness in throwing the match, you may have been in worse shape–I know the injurines gained in matches are gone afterwards, but the exhaustion and stress doesn’t.��

Naib couldn’t find the words to refute. In hindsight, perhaps he really should have taken it easy. Even if he didn’t volunteer, someone else would have. Then again, maybe not. He’s probably one of the few people who willingly volunteers for matches. At the time, he didn’t want Tracy to play a match with injured wrists, and his body went into autopilot and pressed the volunteer button. Naib hung his head in shame. In his recklessness he had caused problems for his friends and comrades.

“Which leads me to my next concern,” Eli continued, snapping Naib out of his thoughts. “Ever since you arrived, you’ve been playing the game non-stop. I can’t deny that when you play, you truly do seem to enjoy the thrill of the chase, but…it also seems like there’s a desperation to your actions. You almost never escape, and always volunteer in place of another who couldn’t, and you refuse to seek for help. You constantly support us…rescue us, but refuse to accept the same…Do you not trust us?”

This made Naib perk up with shock.

“That’s not true, I–” he paused. Now that he thought about it, when was the last time he actually fully relied on a comrade? “You’re…You’re right…I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just…”

Eli smiled, “You don’t want to burden us because you care too much. Same with the chases. It’s the one time you feel useful, and when you take hits meant for others and let the others escape before you, it’s the same. You’d rather be the sacrifice than sacrifice another.”

Naib perked up.

“Haha, by that reaction, I guessed right.” He sat down on the bed, a hand on his head and pulling him into a hug. “You’re not alone. Don’t try to shoulder the burden by yourself.”

They stayed like that for a bit longer, before they pulled apart. Eli stood up abruptly.

“Alright! It’s almost time for breakfast. Everyone was worried, so why don’t we head down once you’ve changed?”

Naib stared for a moment before a small smile spread across his face.

“Yeah.”

Eli turned to leave.

“And Eli,” Naib paused as Eli looked back, “Thanks…for everything. I’ll need to thank the other guys too.”

Eli smiled wide, “It’s what friends do. We lean on and help each other. Don’t forget that.”

Naib nodded and waited for Eli to exit the room before changing. Really, he’s found some great comrades–no–friends. And he’s vowed to protect each and every one of them with his life.

[arazialotis]

Irish Whiskey - Part 1

Pairing: Patrick × Reader, jealous Dean

Word Count: Around 2100 

Summary: With the case taking longer than expected, Y/N jumps on the opportunity to blow off some steam with a flirtatious Irish gentleman and perhaps will have the chance to make a couple extra bucks while at it. But the case and seemingly simple poker game turns more complicated when the Winchesters come across a familiar face. (Patrick appeared in Supernatural Ep. 5 x 7)

Warnings: Language

@misguidedconqueress Thanks so much for helping me review and edit!! Especially with this one since it is not my typical style. 

----

Witches, you were sure of it; they are what brought you and the Winchesters to the town three days ago. But you were nowhere close. The case should have your full attention but you had become delayed by the sly Irish man sitting across the high top from you. His dark brown eyes were warm and inviting yet glinted with a shimmer of mystery and danger. You wanted nothing more than to run your hands through his flowing curls. And his voice, well his voice warmed your soul the way the Irish Whiskey you were both nursing burned on its way down.

Dean and Sam were both long gone by now. Dean with some chick… as always. But lying to yourself had become easier than entertaining the disappointment. And this man, was a very welcomed distraction.

“So Patrick, you from around here?” You asked, wondering if this handsome distraction could possibly give you leads.

“No, just passing through actually.” He twisted a toothpick in his mouth.

“Oh, what for?” You questioned taking another sip of whiskey.

He smirked still impressed you could handle it. “Poker. A tournament in fact. It's really just a hobby but it makes a few extra bucks. You play?” He asked.

You chuckled. “Ah no. Tried to pick it up but, uh, I was sick of people wiping the floor with me, so I gave it up.”

“That’s too bad. I could give you a few tips, I’ve heard I’m a very good teacher.” He set his toothpick down and reached for a deck of cards in his coat pocket.

“I’m afraid a teacher is only as good as their student and I… I just can’t bluff.”  You blushed.

He started shuffling the deck. “We’ll only go one round.”

“Okay,” You agreed flipping through your coin purse. “Well, if you are interested in lint, hotel keys, or gas station receipts… I’m your girl.” After he dealt the cards and he took a sip of his whiskey.“Your hotel key doesn’t sound too bad.” He smirked and slipped the toothpick back between his lips.

“Oh my god!” You hid your face in your hands. “That’s not what I meant!” You giggled.

“I know Y/N, I’m simply giving you a hard time.” He lightly chuckled. “I’ll give ya the first lesson for free.” He winked.

You squirmed in your seat, imaging this is what it must feel like to have Dean’s attention. “How kind of you.” You finished the glass and singled to the bar for another.

Patrick analyzed your move, trying to read more than just your poker abilities. “Texas hold‘em. You know how the game?”

“The mechanics. Yes.” You looked at your cards and winced.

He laughed and took back all the cards redealing. “You actually need to try and bluff.” “Okay, okay.. I’ll try.” You looked at your cards again and wiped your hand over your face, looking Patrick dead in the eyes. But you couldn’t hold the serious gaze and started to giggle.

“Yeah. You’re terrible.” He chuckled back.

‘“No, no. I’m going to try.” You diverted your gaze. “So..” You found a napkin and started writing down. “I will bet you my number.” You folded the napkin in half and set in the middle.

“I’ll call.” He wrote down his number as well, set it in the middle, and dealt the flop.

You had nothing, but you were trying your best to bluff. “I’ll bet you another round of whiskey.” You purposed.

“I’ll call, and raise you a date tomorrow night.” He offered.

“I’ll call.” Your toes curled. He turned and you’ve never seen a hand this bad.

“Umm…” You didn’t know what else to throw in. “Drinks after dinner?”

“And I’ll raise you my hotel key.” He twisted the toothpick.

You sighed. “... I gotta fold.” You saw his lip twitch in disappointment. “Listen, you are super attractive.” You silently cursed at yourself for being so blunt. Maybe the whiskey was getting to you. “But I’m not the kind of girl just to have a one night stand when I meet someone on the first night.” You anxiously stated.

“Well, technically it would be the second night, after the date and all…” He grinned.

You laughed back. “Okay, if I didn’t just ruin everything. Let see how tomorrow night goes… and maybe we can play another game.”

“I’m in.” He agreed.

After a few more drinks, you called it a night and walked yourself back to the hotel. The next morning, you woke up to pounding on the door and in your head. You stumbled over to the door, rubbing your eyes. Both boys stood outside your doorway, in their tailored and freshly pressed suits. They both furrowed their brows at you.

“Late night? That’s not like you.” Dean chided as he waltzed in.

“Shut up.” You left the door open so Sam could come in too.

“Y/N, it’s 11:15.” Sam stated.

You laid back down on the bed and put a pillow over your head.

“And you have the babies and brunch group in 30.” He continued.

“Babies and what?” You sat back up.

Sam rolled his eyes, exasperated. “I sent you details last night.”

“Essentially, all the desperate housewives from the suburb get together and gossip while they actively ignore munchkins whining and running around.” Dean explained condescendingly.

“Okay. Big flaw in your plan… no kid.” You pointed out.

“Congratulations, you’re expecting.” Dean snarked. “New to the neighborhood and looking for connections and advice.”

“Ugh.” You complained and shut the bathroom door to get ready.

Sam and Dean dropped you off at a way too trendy spot, for babies and brunch. You had in mind a McDonald’s with one of those playplaces. But no, in this place everything was robin's egg blue or fairy dust moss color, and of course a ton of bird decor.

A woman perked up, smiling at you upon your entrance. You swore you could practically smell the chemicals radiating from her unnaturally white teeth.You bit your lip to avoid smiling as she crooned. “Ruthie darling, come join us.” ‘

Ruth was the identity Dean had come up with for you. You plastered on a fake smile and went up an octave more than you are used too. “Veronica? I’m so sorry to intrude but I am new to town and stumbled upon your blog…”

“Darling, darling.” She waved you over to the table. “You don’t need to apologize for anything.” You sat down in the free chair, putting your purse in your lap. “We are delighted to have you.” She greeted for the table around you. “I’d offer you a mimosa, but we want to keep that precious bundle of joy safe and sound.” The group laughed.

You politely chuckled and put your hand to your abdomen. “Yup, we are staying dry for another seven months.”

Veronica placed her hand on your shoulder. “It’s all worth it, Ruthie dear.”

The rest of the wives continued business as usual, gossiping about anyone and anything, complaining about their husbands, and willfully ignoring their children’s screams and overwhelming amount of bodily fluids. You tried to stay focused though on the pack leader. She would have the most information if there was a witch in the group.

“So, Veronica, which one of these little rascals is yours?” You looked around, eyes following the two boys running around the table playing tag.

“Oh sadly none, my children have all grown and moved away with no prospects of grandchildren.” She conveyed with sorrow.

“But you’re so young?” You blurted out in shock before you could catch yourself.

She chuckled. “Oh you’re too kind my dear. No, it’s true. That’s why I’ve started this group. So I can be a support to young mothers and get the joy from the children.”

At that moment, one of the boys playing tag tripped over his shoelace and collided with the ground. You looked to his mother who was already on her third mimosa and waved him off as he started to wail.

“There, there Sebastian.” Veronica called and snapped her fingers. He instantly stopped crying.

“... You’re so good with them…” You spoke, but the look on Sebastian’s face indicated he was more mortified than calm.

“It comes naturally dear, don’t you worry, it will come to you too.” Her phone buzzed and she jumped in her seat. “Oop, I’m running late for the salon. But we simply must continue our conversation. How does tomorrow for afternoon tea sound?”

“That would be so lovely.” You bordered on the edge of mocking her fake pleasantry.

“Wonderful, I’ll text you the details.” She stood up and blew a kiss to the rest of the group before waving. “Bye darlings.”

As soon as she left, Sebastian began crying again, raising your growing suspicion. His mother finally took notice and went to collect him.

The lady next to you bumped in. “Hey, don’t get too close, she can be a little overbearing.”

“A little overbearing?” The woman argued from across the table. “She’s worse than my mother-in-law.”

“I’m sorry… I guess I’m confused…” You stated.

Sebastian's mother who was now packing up, piped in. “Sweetheart, she pays for the drinks so we come.”

That’s a little rude, you thought to yourself. Maybe your gut feeling was wrong.

“All I’m saying is, the doting on is fun for a while but pretty soon you’ll start to remind her of her daughter and she’ll send you to her estate in New Hampshire like the rest because.” The woman cleared her throat and gave her best impression. “‘They simply have far superior doctors in that region. I can’t have you giving birth in this primitive landscape.’” A few of the other women chuckled.

“I’m sorry, the rest?” You asked… then again your gut never steered you wrong before.

“Yes… a few months ago… what was her name..” The lady tried to recall.

“Casey!” One popped in. “And before that, the poor gal who was still in high school.”

You forced a lump from growing in your throat. The missing high school girl was what brought you out in the first place. “But never any of you?” You clarified.

“No she doesn’t want to pull us away from our families already here. I guess she just wants to make sure the ones who are alone feel cared for. It’s really not all that bad.” One lady passively argued.

“Okay, well thanks for the info, ladies… I’m going to get going though.” At this point you felt you had a solid case built up against her. It would be better to focus your energy on her rather than trying to suffer through another hour of gossip.

You set out down the street towards the downtown district, dialing Dean’s cell. “Hey. Suspect numero uno is going to send you details about a tea party tomorrow.”

“Why me?” Dean asked.

“Because you’re the one who set up this brunch thing in the first place, idiot…. I don’t want to raise suspicion by giving out a different number.” You explained. “Just forward it to me when she does, I’m headed to city hall to dig up any records I can.”

“We’ll meet ‘cha there.” Dean ended hanging up the phone.

After pouring through city taxes, housing records, and whatever else you could get your hands on, you were able to establish Veronica moved here twenty years ago with her husband Edward Marshe. Unfortunately, there was no mention of the kids she had spoken about. You discussed the babies and brunch meeting with the boys and they agreed that it was still worth investigating further. Perhaps tea would lead to some further details. Sam was planning to research more into this New Hampshire estate and the oversea investments that counted for most of their income.

You picked up your phone and gasped at the time, evening already setting in. “Shit guys, I gotta run.”

Sam and Dean shared a shocked look. “What for?” Sam asked.

“Card game.” You smirked.

“And you didn’t invite me?” Dean asked pretending to be offended.

“You’re a distraction.” You reminded.

“Because of my dashing good looks?” He teased.

“Oh of course.” You snorted. “Your fiery eyes, hard pecs, and boyish charm just makes me oh so weak in the knees I forget the difference between clovers and spades.” You teased even if there was a hint of truth to it.

“Shut up.” Dean waved you off. “Win it big time for us kid.”

“Drinks on me tomorrow night, boys.” You laughed before walking out with confidence. You had this Irish man right where you wanted him.

-----

Part 2

Forever Tags: @nanie5 @sea040561 @crushing83 @mogaruke @deanwinchesterforpromqueen @ginamsmith @jotink78 @blushingokoye @sup3r-pott3r-lock3d @dancingalone21 @li-ssu @highonpastries @daddy-kink-confirmed @weewooweewoo1212 @carryonmyswansong @spn-dean-and-sam-winchester @atc74 @superapplepie @coolness22 @cassieraider @winchesternco @adaliamalfoy @iwriteaboutdean @spnbaby-67

[shy-violet-soul]

Overrated

Title: Overrated Pairing: AU: Merman-Castiel x OFC Binda, Dean & Sam Prompt: merpup Summary: In her world filled with annoying, overbearing boys, Binda just wants something of her own she doesn’t have to share.  Will a kind, quiet merman have the answer? Warnings:  Salt-water fluff.  A couple of curse words. Word count: 2,200-ish

A/N:  I’m so tickled to take part in my first writing challenge!  Thank you to @siren-kitten-his for hosting “Kitten’s Mermaid Challenge”.  This is also my first AU, so I hope I did the characters proud.  A big thank you to @thesassywallflower for being my beta on this one.

Binda - “deep water” (Aboriginal Australia)

This is a work of fiction based upon characters created by CW.  The character “Binda” is my own creation.  Please do not repost without my permission.

(photo: Robert Harding, Getty Images)

With one final grunt of effort, Binda flopped onto her belly and sighed in contentment.  Creating the perfect resting spot took more fussing than a mama sea turtle digging a nest for her eggs, but it was worth it!  The gentle hill of sand she had studiously constructed curved her spine into a gentle arch as she pillowed her face on her crossed arms.  Sheltered here from the currents, Binda smiled as she felt herself sink into a welcome nap.

It was damn hard to get any peace with those two around.

“Bee!”

Damnit.

“Maybe she’s not here, Dean.”

“Nah, Cas said he followed her here.”

DAMNIT!  Binda growled as their voices echoed above her.  She should have known those dumb gobies wouldn’t leave her be.  She also should have known that nosy codfish was going to tail her.

“C’mon, Bee, come out, come out, wherever you are!”

Maybe if she just kept quiet, they’d go away...a clam dropped onto her head and frantically skittered away.

“Ow!” she squawked, flopping upright and glaring upwards as she rubbed the sore spot.  

“Hiya, princess!”  Bright green eyes glinted down at her above Dean’s trademark smirk.  Sam drifted into view, his gaze apologetic, as both brothers blocked out the sunlight drifting into her precious coral cave.  Luckily, her gargantuan brothers were too big to fit through the opening.

“I tried to stop him, Binda.”

“Obviously not hard enough,” she grumbled as she plunked herself back onto the sand.  The poor terrorized clam was struggling to bury itself, and Binda crooned to it soothingly as she sluiced a handful of sand on top of it.  

“Aw, don’t be like that, Bumblebee.”

The childhood nickname grated on her already raw nerves.  “It’s ‘Binda’, Dean.  Go away.”

A chunk of dead coral thunked on her head next, getting tangled in her gypsum-white hair.  Days of being pestered, bedeviled, and hounded suddenly burned like sand in a fresh coral scrape.  Binda snarled, a snap of her tail shooting her straight to the cave’s mouth.  The groans from both her brothers as her skull slammed into their noses was worth the sudden headache.

“What. Do. You. WANT?” she roared into their faces.

“Great Whites, Binda, what the hell?” Dean groused, rubbing between his eyes gingerly.

“I didn’t even do anything this time,” her taller brother whined from behind his hands.  

“Sorry, Sam,” she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.  “Seriously, just leave me alone, guys!  What’s a girl gotta do to get some peace and quiet?”

“Calm your clam shells, toots.  Geez,  Binda, are you heading into your egg-laying season?”  

Red.  She literally saw red.  Dean literally never saw her right hook coming.

“Son of a bitch!” Blood ribboned into the water from Dean’s nose as Binda turned to glare at Sam.

“Don’t look at me! Chasing you was his idea!” Sam yelped, his gold-striped grouper tail scrambling him backwards.

Binda ignored him, stabbing one slim pointer finger towards her brothers.  “You two listen to me!  If you follow me, I will harpoon you in the Amazon in the middle of a piranha colony!”  Infuriated beyond belief, Binda spun and waved her powerful tail, surging away from them.  “And don’t think I won’t do it!”

Weaving amid flurries of fish, Binda ignored Sam’s shout as she swam away.  It’s not that she didn’t love her big brothers; she did, truly.  With their mother gone and their father always away, they’d practically raised her.  From the first toddling flip of her dorsal fin, her brothers had been there for her through it all.  No mermaid in all the seven seas ever had better brothers.

They were always there for her.  Really.  Always frickin’ there.  

If it wasn’t Dean needling her to go treasure hunting, Sam had his latest scroll he just couldn’t wait to share.  They were there in the mornings, eating her favorite North Pacific krill.  They were there to swim her home after her lessons, glaring off any cute mermen she even blinked at.  They were there in the evenings, arguing over which lagoon to hit for dinner.  As much as she loved them, Binda felt like she couldn’t breathe sometimes with how always...there...Sam and Dean were.

Distracted by her thoughts and frustrations, Binda didn’t check the corner before banking around a coral outcropping and plowed headfirst into something.

Someone, actually.

The someone in question flailed backwards at the force of their collision, straight into a swarm of visiting electric eels.  The alarmed critters sputtered and thrashed, snapping great sparks into the unsuspecting soul thrust into their midst.  Binda shrieked, darting forward and grasping a wrist to yank him out of the spitting, arcing tangle.  The merman collided heavily into her, his face smashing into the curve of her neck and shoulder.  Hissing with displeasure, the eels hurried on their way.

Gasping to catch a breath, Binda leaned back just as the mystery merman did.  She found herself snared by a pair of astonishingly blue eyes.

“Castiel?” she asked dazedly.  The merman straightened and moved away, rotating his shoulders a bit stiffly.

“That was unpleasant,” he rumbled in that deep voice.  

“Oh, my gosh, Cas!  Are you okay?”  Binda’s gaze flitted over him, searching for injuries.  

“I’ve sustained no permanent damage.”

“What are you even doing here?” she quizzed the merman, her brows twitching with confusion.

“I, uh -” the dark-haired mer glanced downwards, rubbing the back of his neck a bit sheepishly.  “I followed you.”

Binda’s eyes popped open at the remark.  “You followed me?”  Exasperated anew, Binda flung her arms up.  “Of course you did!  Everyone follows me!”

Cas cocked his head to the side, squinting at her.  “I do not think everyone follows you, Binda.  There are many species in our cove who aren’t…” His voice dwindled off when the mermaid levelled a hard glare in his direction.  “Nevermind.”

“Oh!  What is it with you mermen?!  Can’t you leave me alone for even a second?” Frustration rolled off the maid in waves, and Cas couldn’t help but stare.  The current washed around them just so, billowing her white, waist-length locks around her in tantalizing tendrils.  Her gorgeous tail, the bright gold and orange of a fan goldfish, gleamed about her in delicate, flowing fronds.  It reminded him of the fancy dress adorning a human woman he’d seen on a distant shore long ago.  Her green eyes, different from her oldest brother’s, shone brighter than any anemone, like a gem he’d spied in a wreckage.  Practical soldier though he was, Cas was convinced Binda’s smiling gaze could soften the hardest of hearts.

That gaze wasn’t smiling at him now.  

“I’m sorry, Binda.”

“No, you’re not!”  She advanced at him, wagging a finger under his nose.  “If you were sorry, you wouldn’t have told those two yahoo brothers of mine where I was!  For carp’s sake, Castiel!  You three are gonna be the death of me!”  Her ire growing with each moment, Binda began swimming a line in front of Cas, arms gesticulating wildly.  “When I wake up, there they are!  When I go out, there you are!  I can’t even go browsing for new top shells alone!  Can’t I, just once, have a moment to myself?  Have something that’s only mine that I don’t have to share?”

“I just...”

“What, Castiel?  Just - what?”

“I just....want to make sure you’re safe.”  With those words, all the ire drained out of her like air out of a puffer fish.  This amazing, strong, handsome merman wanted to make sure she was safe.  Binda would be lying if she said her heart didn’t flutter about the serious Castiel.  While the other mermaids fawned over Dean’s vivid green and black cichild scales, or Sam’s bright gold stripes, Castiel’s midnight blue and black betta tail had always caught her eye.  Different from any other mer, Cas possessed an extra set of fins separate from his tail.  Thin, nearly translucent, the two long slender fins hung from his shoulders like wings.  Chest muscles she’d blushingly admired bore an intricate tracery of gold in some ancient script - Enochian, Binda had heard Sam call it once.

Yes, Castiel was altogether quite the catch, pardon the phrase.  But it was his quiet, gentle presence Binda most enjoyed.  He often joined her as she tended the Pearl Reef, sometimes sitting with her as she rested in the quiet away from the busy-ness of cove life.  He’d point out some bright flag of seaweed that made a picturesque splash against the rocks, or tell her about the seahorse hatchlings he’d seen the day before.  Binda had always hoped she might catch affection in his gaze one day..

But his gaze held only duty, just like always.

Binda’s shoulders sagged at the thought.  It wasn’t Cas’ fault, really.  Her father or her brothers had probably told him to keep an eye on her.  Trying for nonchalant and failing, Binda drug up a half-assed smile for the merman.

“It’s alright, Castiel.  I’m sorry for yelling.  I think I’ll head on home now.  I’ll see you later.”  With a wave of her side fins in farewell, Binda took herself off for the family caves.  

Castiel sighed, brow creased in frustration as he watched her go.  This wooing was much more difficult than he anticipated.  He didn’t dare ask Sam or Dean for advice.  He needed help from someone who wouldn’t laugh at him.  And he knew just the one!

In a flurry of blue-black fins, Castiel took off for the friendliest corner of the cove.

Curled up under a large network of seaweed fronds, Binda lay quietly, staring up at the surface.  The sun above shimmered like hammered silver in fleeting glimpses between the leaves.  She huffed a sigh as she rolled to her side, twitching when something tickled her.  One, then two, then five little pink seahorses poked their wee heads up above her fins.  Binda smiled as she held out her hand to let them weave between her fingers playfully.  

The boys had mercifully left her alone, and Binda had it in her heart to feel bad.  Almost.  At least for making Dean bleed. Although, she wasn’t going to waste the peace and quiet gifted to her.  And if her smile looked a bit mopey - well, her peace and quiet were the only ones there to see.

“Shhh!”  The muffled sound barely caught her attention, but it did that of the seahorses.  The little creatures bobbed forward curiously, and Binda waved herself upright.  

“Hello?” she called out.

“Uhhh…” Binda would know that confusion anywhere.

“Castiel?”  She swam a bit higher to see over the seaweed; the merman seemed to be hunched weirdly backwards, like his anal fin was caught in his wings or something.  “Are you alright?”

“I - I consulted Garth about my quandary,” he spouted out, his cheeks a bit flushed with...what?

“Oh.  What quandary?  Can I help?” Binda asked, her eyes tinged with concern as she swam nearer.  

“No.  Yes.  I - I -” The poor mer couldn’t seem to make up his mind; the expression on his face looked like he might spontaneously combust.  Was he ill?  He suddenly lurched, his features contorting in discomfort.

“Cas, did those eels hurt you?  Let me see!”  Binda demanded, approaching him determinedly.

“No!  Uh - this is for you!”  The poor soul looked almost green as he thrust something into her arms.  Binda’s arms instinctively closed around it, and the mass came alive as it wriggled and whined and…licked?

The merpup was all white, fur soft as the sand from a place called Puerto Rico her father once visited.  His gleaming scales were iridescent green, showing hints of blue and purple in the light.  And the black eyes that looked up at her had her falling in love in a heartbeat.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, cuddling the little pup under her chin.  Her happy laughter splashed out when sweet puppy kisses found her jaw and cheek.  “Oh, Castiel, thank you!”

“Please accept this canine as a token of my affection for you.”  Castiel thought he spoke out loud but he wasn’t sure.  His heart was pounding so hard with nerves, he honestly thought he might throw up, but Binda’s blinding smile distracted his queasiness.

At Castiel’s mumbled proclamation, Binda’s heart skipped and skipped again.  Without thinking, she wrapped an arm around those broad shoulders and smushed a happy kiss to his lips.  A spark that had nothing to do with any eels leapt between the two, painting matching flushes on both faces.  

“Th-thank you, Cas, I accept!” Binda managed to stammer out.

“That’s...reassuring to hear.”  Binda’s smile widened as Castiel’s shoulders sagged with relief.  The pup continued to whine happily, yipping as he craned his head to swipe more kisses on Binda’s face.  “I don’t know how much peace and quiet you’ll find with him”

“Peace and quiet are overrated!  What should we call him?” she cooed, reaching up to scratch the little ears.

“Garth said his name is Mr. Fizzles.  Which I find confusing because this canine emits no effervescence of any kind.”

Pure delight echoed in the chuckles Binda couldn’t hold in, and she beckoned the merman with a bob of her head as she cradled the merpup closer.

“Come on!  Let’s get him settled!”  

Snared by that blinding smile, all for him, Castiel couldn’t help but follow.  The two spent a lovely hour getting Mr. Fizzles comfortable, and Binda eagerly waited for her brothers to return home so she could show him off.  Her pup and her Castiel. 

(very sad photo editing by me of a very cute puppy)

[odogaronfang]

Your shitposting is great my guy, that’s fun. Tell us some random non plot related bs about the BoTW au?

sorry for not getting to this sooner!! when i get asks like this i like to take a couple of days to gather my thoughts so i can give you a better answer!!

- out of the six of them, i think zelda is the most overall mature. i mean, sure, she’s still a kid like the rest of them, and she has her fun, but when it really comes down to it she’s the most responsible and the best at getting done what needs to get done. it comes as a bit of a surprise to people that don’t know them so well, because most of the time they look at serious boring old vio and think that he’s probably the tired and jaded supervisor but. not so.

- adding onto that last thing- people tend to assume that vio is the very dignified one. emotionally detached, won’t let silly little things like feelings and morality get in the way of a job that needs to be done, reserved and calm and all that superficial stereotype stuff. they half expect the trope of the sort of english-gentry type personality. and they could not be further from the truth. that’s how he is superficially, but, like, get close to him and spend some more time with him and you’ll see. he kind of swings between following his stereotype and being just as irritable and generally frustrated as blue and shadow get, and honestly it’s a roll of the dice as to what he is. also? he does curse a lot. he doesn’t always go around shouting fuck at everyone he sees, but if something’s really getting on his nerves for whatever reason, he can out-curse shadow. and usually it’s more under his breath, but that doesn’t mean he really makes much of an effort to hide it.

- vio and blue have a sort of legolas/gimli fighting dynamic going on when they get into the thick of it. “bet i can kill more of these bokoblins than you” “bet i can take down a moblin in less hits than you” “bet i’ll be the one to kill this talus” type stuff. honestly, if they had an encampment to clear and no one was feeling particularly up to the job, they’d just off-handedly mention the results of the last competition and that would almost guarantee another face-off between the two, and everyone else could just sit back and watch the two of them go at it. in these kinds of situations they both know they’re basically being used but neither of them care much. one of vio’s favorite things to do when this happens is to let blue think she’s racking up the points, and then the moment she’s about to strike the killing blow on something, he’ll take it out with an arrow. and he does it repeatedly.

- shadow is extremely lazy and will use his magic for the most mundane of things, once he gets comfortable using it around them. he won’t feel like getting off the couch to get the plate red’s offering him so he just magics it over. he doesn’t want to pack his things so he just uses magic to shove things in his bag. he doesn’t feel like climbing an eight foot hill so he floats himself up. and all the while everyone, and especially blue, is indignant. “if this magic is so important to your survival why are you wasting it lacing up your boots” “because what if i trip??? i could get HURT and i can’t risk it coming undone” (and then he probably gets swatted on the head with something)

- green is intimately familiar with gerudo religion and customs. in theory he’s a follower of hylia according to the hylians’ belief system, because it was mostly his dad who raised him and that was what his dad practiced, but he’s far more interested and in tune with the gerudo religion, despite spending a lot less time with his mom throughout his life. the breakdown of all that is here, but his favorite heroines are nailuk and imura, and even though technically he hasn’t been formally confirmed into their religion, he still follows it all as though he has. and it isn’t a closed religion, so technically he could go and request passage through the rites like any other devotee, but he’s an anxious child and always shies away from completing the devotional trials. of course, every time the subject comes up with his mother, she affectionately makes fun of him for it, and especially so once she learns of their quest- “oh, so you’re fine running around the continent trying to save the world, but one little molduga and you’re tucking tail?” (he does, eventually, gather up his courage and finally go through with it. he chooses nailuk as his patron heroine and gets a very nice devotional tattoo of a pink lotus on his arm. his mother is very proud of him, and they do make a special one-day exception to the No Men rule to celebrate his official integration into their religion.)

- unless my brain decides to take an unplanned detour through some weird plot point, you will never get to meet vio’s mother, even though she’s alive. this is because, to put it lightly, they are not fond of one another. it was already kind of rough on vio in his early years, because his dad, as a sheikah, lived in kakariko, and she, as a hylian, was forbidden from living there and so lived in tabantha. it led to a very odd and uncoordinated shared-custody situation, where he’d be living with his mother for a year and then out of the blue his dad would drop by and be like come on son we’re going on an adventure. and then he’d go live in kakariko for months with his dad. and it resulted in a confusing flip-flopping of cultures, and it also resulted in a lot of resentment on her part, towards his father. but because his father didn’t live with her (for a complicated number of reasons, one of which involving a pretty serious falling-out concerning the matter of vio’s mixed heritage) she was unable to express it towards who she actually really hated, and so ended up taking it out on vio most of the time, and it came to be that vio really just couldn’t wait for his dad to come back so he could go be in kakariko, which he liked infinitely better than tabantha. at some point she got REALLY nasty and bordered on actually dangerous, so vio finally put his tiny eight-year-old foot down and decided that he would take matters into his own hands, and hopped on his faithful and much beloved horse and just left. and one day he arrived in kakariko and went to his dad’s house and he just kinda walked in like hey old man how’s it been. after some mild concern and fear for his safety, they sat down and vio explained the situation and ended up living in kakariko from then on. after his dad died, he stayed for about another year and a half, because quite frankly he needed people to keep an eye on him, and after that he took to traveling, took up the trade of a merchant as a kind of excuse, and when he was about sixteen or so, used the money he’d saved to get himself a place in hateno, far far away from his mother but still close to the village he considered family. this one got kinda ramble-y but that’s the rundown on the situation, and anyone with any kind of sense won’t bring up the subject with him, because he’ll either get very withdrawn and avoidant or he will get very angry. you don’t want either of those things.

- it takes some time to get past the initial awkwardness of things, for a few reasons, and there will always be some bumps in the road, but out of everyone, shadow trusts vio the most with personal matters. some of it is because they share at least some heritage, and shadow knows that vio will understand his sheikah-bred tendencies a lot more than any of the others. but he also knows that vio will in no way be taking his shit- but he will constructively not take any of his shit. he thinks that red and green will be generally too lenient with whatever is going on with him, and blue will be far too harsh, and zelda lacks a few certain points of experience with his background that would otherwise make her fine to deal with. so if he actually decides to confide in someone or go to someone looking for advice or help, he will usually go to vio, because vio is certainly not going to excuse anything that he’s done wrong, and he will be very up-front about what he’s screwed up, but he’s also better at providing solutions or advice rather than just flat criticism and nothing else. and as much as shadow would like to be coddled and told that he is Perfect The Way He Is, he knows in his heart that that couldn’t be further from the truth, and he knows all too well that vio has no reservations when it comes to calling him out.

-this is a secret that shadow will take to the grave, but there were a few little parts of the yiga that shadow enjoyed and, at times, kind of misses a little bit. even though there were quite a few people in there that he held no love for, there were still others that were welcoming to him, and kind of took him under their wing, especially when he was just coming in as a young kid. he sometimes wishes he could see them again, just to see how things are, but he knows that if he ever does meet them again, it’ll probably be on opposite sides of the battle. and, even more secretly, he did kind of revel in the power that being in the yiga gave him. even as one of the lower-ranked members, he still had more power at his disposal than some of the highest of the high among the non-yiga. he liked knowing that the upper hand was always his and the situations were always his to control, and while some of that stemmed from being so thoroughly trapped under the thumb of his overseers, it was also, in some little dark part of his brain, just part of him as a person.

-blue’s favorite people in all of hyrule (aside from her village, of course) are the gorons. she just loves the atmosphere there. she describes it as an entire town full of bros, and even the most distant of them still share this sort of familial bond that she has yet to see matched among anyone else. the rough-and-tumble attitudes and general relaxed air and casually determined personalities just kinda resonate with her, and by the end of it she kind of ends up as an honorary goron. she also really likes their spice. so does zelda. their food becomes a little dangerous after trips to goron city.

-green’s dad actually used to be in the princess’s personal detail of guards. it was only for about two years, while they were in the process of searching for suitable champions, but it happened, and even through the calamity, he managed to preserve the uniform and the sword he was given. when green was little, he used to steal the clothes all the time and dress up in them and walk around acting like a guard. he’d stand in front of the door to the kitchen with his little wooden sparring sword in his hands and demand to know his dad’s name and business before he’d allow him to enter. and even though the hat was far too big for him, even when they went out to practice with their swords or tend their garden or go hunting, green would insist upon wearing it, and even though it fell in front of his eyes every ten seconds he refused to ever leave it at home. even still it’s an inside joke between them to ask name and business before letting the other go anywhere.

[justanoutlawfic]

Can I have Red Snowing with Emma “sorry. i didn’t mean what i said.”

Set in my “Home” verse. A basic fix-it to how Emma handled Henry’s adoption in season 2. Takes place after the party in The Cricket Game.

Also on AO3

The funny thing about words is once they’re said, theycannot be taken back. It was a lesson Emma had learned the hard way growing up.When she met her parents, she would realize that she had inherited her father’stact and that was part of the problem. The other was that she didn’t know howto trust and to let people in. She wanted to protect her heart from beingbroken again, what was left of it anyway.

Which was why it was hard to find out that she had nottwo parents, but three of them. The idea that someone who didn’t share herblood could care for her as much as Ruby did, scared her. It wasn’t that she didn’tbelieve it could happen-she knew that Regina loved Henry as if she had givenlife to him-she just didn’t think it was possible for her. All those years offeeling like the misfit child, the one who was never chosen.

Now, she was being chosen by Ruby and it scared theever living hell out of her.

Ruby knew she was dealing with a 28 year old woman andnot a child. She had the advantage of being close to Emma under the curse, justas Mary Margaret had. Even so, she knew that a parent’s job didn’t stop justbecause their child was grown. Granny still cared for her and gave her advice,she probably always would.

So, when Emma was trying to figure out how to work outa custody plan with Regina, her parents were trying to help her figure out whatwas fair.

“I’m lucky Regina even agreed to this,” Emma mumbledthe night of her and Snow’s welcome back party.

After Regina left the diner, she had made it clearthat she wanted Henry to come back living with her. They had worked on their relationshipand while there was more work to be done, Emma knew clearly how much she caredfor her son. She didn’t have a say in Henry going back, but she felt comfortablewith it. She had been wrong for trying to take Henry from her, Regina had everyright for her to want to leave town. However, what Emma said was right. Thedays of Henry only having one parent were over. Emma couldn’t just leave town,now that she had her parents back, and it wasn’t as if she could pretend Henry didn’texist. So, they were changing their adoption plan so it would be more open.

“I’m thinking, maybe 50/50,” Emma said, finally.

Snow tilted her head. “I don’t know, sweetheart.”

“What? Under the curse you wanted me to pursuecustody.”

“Yeah, that was me cursed. Now that I’m awake, I knowthat’s not right. Regina is his mother, no matter what our feelings are on her.”

David nodded in agreement. “I don’t think you should rockthe boat by asking for so much. Storybrooke is a small town, you’re going toend up seeing Henry a lot as it is. He doesn’t need to spend the night here foryou to be his mom.”

“He’s right, pup,” Ruby said. “I think you should askfor weekends, plus suggest that if Henry wants to spend the night more, itshould be his choice.”

“We don’t know if Regina will allow that, though,” Emmasaid with a frown.

“Well…she is his mother.”

“I know that!” Emma threw her arms in the air. “Ichose to give him up without selecting parents, so he ended up with her.“She saw the way her parents looked at her and she let out a frustrated sigh. “Iwouldn’t change who he ended up with for the world, I know Regina loves him. Ijust…I don’t want to miss out on more time with him.”

“I understand that.” David rubbed her back. “But atthe end of the day, you have to respect her wishes.”

Emma knew subconsciously that her parents weren’t necessarilysiding with Regina, just looking at things from a realistic point of view. Shealso knew that she wasn’t angry with Regina for her choices, she was more upsetwith herself. Years ago, she chose to go with a closed adoption because shethought it’d be easier on her. If she ever saw the child, she’d want contactand to be around, there was no way that she could give them up again. The planhad worked well. She had thought about Henry over the years, but it was easierto know that he was in a good home.

Then he showed up and took her to Storybrooke. Sheopened her heart to him and now she had to live with her choices. Ones she wouldn’ttake back, she couldn’t have raised him 11 years ago. Still, it was hard and itwas exactly why she hadn’t wanted contact in the first place.

“Well, you know what, unlike some of us, I actuallywant to be in my child’s life,” Emma said.

Hurt fell across Ruby, Snow and David’s faces.

“We wanted to be in your life, Emma,” Snow whispered. “Butit wasn’t as if we had much of a choice, we had to keep you safe. I thought youunderstood that.”

“I do. But it doesn’t change the fact that I’mfighting for my child, something you never did.”

“We did fight for you!” David argued. He saw his wife tryingto tell him to calm down, but he was too far gone. He respected Emma’s feelingsand knew how much it had to hurt to find out what had happened when she was ababy, but they had their own as well. “We did everything we could to try tostop Regina, to make sure that you were safe! I am sorry it wasn’t good enough,Emma, and I will spend the rest of my life feeling guilty over that. You can beangry, you can hate us, but you cannot say that we didn’t try.”

Emma sat there, staring at her father. This wasn’t theman who had flip flopped between Mary Margaret and Kathryn. This wasn’t theperson who had given up hope in the former when she was a possible suspect inhis wife’s “murder”. No, this was a man who had been through a hell of a lot asshe witnessed in the storybook. He had lost his parents, his twin brother,battled an evil step-father. Just when he finally got his happy ending, it wasall ripped away.

He had fought like hell for their family and in theend, he failed. Just like she had fought for the town and felt like she hadwhen Henry almost died. She wasn’t really angry with them anymore for what theyhad done, she was angry with the situation and it wasn’t fair to take it out onthem.

“You’re right,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I didn’t…I didn’tmean what I said. I’m just stressed out.”

David let out a choppy breath. “I know, and I’m sorry.I know how hard this is, to get your child back, only for it to be verycomplicated. Just be happy that you have Henry back at all.”

Emma nodded. She knew that she had gone too far and shedidn’t expect her parents to say it was okay. She saw the forgiveness in theireyes and that made her squirm a bit, it wasn’t something she was used to. Shealso knew that they understood what she was going through, even worse. They hadgiven up a baby and gotten back a 28-year-old. It wasn’t fair. She could onlyimagine how the situation would’ve gone if she had been adopted as a child. Shewould definitely feel torn between those who raised her and the people who had madethe hard choice to give her up.

It wasn’t fair to keep putting Henry in the middle. Thiswhole situation was hard on him, even if he was putting on a brave face. Askingfor weekends and suggesting that maybe they let him decide how he spent histime was the fair way to go. Regina was reasonable, she wanted what was bestfor him just as much as Emma did.

Under the curse, she hadn’t had any guidance for howto do the right thing, now she did. She was really lucky to have her parentsback in her life.

[anirishview]

Chicken Phở

We spent two hours in Yangon. Did I get my first experience of the hot, humid Asian air in Yangon Airport? No. We sat in the plane – if you were going to Myanmar/Burma then you went on your way, however, if your last stop was Hanoi then you stayed on the plane. So we stayed. We were told not to leave our seats if we could avoid it. We waited while they refuelled. We sat while they sprayed disinfectant in the plane in accordance with Vietnamese regulations – all we were told was that if you would be bothered by this then you should cover your eyes, nose and mouth when passed by the cabin crew while they sprayed it at the height of the overhead bins. While we waited we filled out mandatory forms detailing if we had been to certain named countries or if we had experienced vomiting, diarrhoea, sore throat and other minor unpleasant ailments in the past 30 days. As well as our email, phone and address of where we would be staying for the duration of our trip in Vietnam.

When we landed in Hanoi we made our way out – slowly and impatiently. Our nerves were settling in and leaving an uncomfortableness in our stomachs, we needed this part of our journey to be over. We handed the “medical” forms in (they just stamped them and didn’t even read them) and headed over to the visa desk. We gave our visa approval letter over and waited to receive our visa. We opted for the visa on arrival simply because there isn’t a Vietnamese embassy in Ireland, the closest being in London so doing the application online is super quick and easy. It took less than an hour from what I remember of the blur that was our arrival. We collected our bags and shuffled our way out of the crowded arrival gate searching for our name on a piece of paper. Finally we saw it – our driver was waiting patiently in a mess of other drivers. The fantastic thing about our hostel was that they had a section on their website that allowed you to request an airport pickup. This saved an immense amount of hassle and stress for us – we knew that it was a fixed fee which we would pay to the hostel, we wouldn’t be brought an arsey way around Hanoi nor did we have to find a taxi driver and hope that our exhausted and nervous selves could explain where we needed to go, hoping he would know how to get to the hostel.

Our first time on the roads of Vietnam was, for me, terrifying and exhilarating. Cars and bikes were swarming from every direction and few were driving in a manner which seems safe or logical to us. Cars drove where they could fit – not in between the carefully painted lines on the motorway. In other words a three lane road had become a four or five lane road, not including the bikes which zipped in and out of traffic and sped about this way and that way. Once we got into Hanoi it was a new chaos in comparison to the motor way. We were at a stand still but again, if we could fit through a gap in the numerous vehicles then we went through it. To say we were delighted to reach the hostel doesn’t quite do it justice. The staff were incredibly lovely and welcoming. They put our minds at ease and were eager to offer help and advice. We got changed and showered and went out with directions and a map to find food. It was about 6pm and we were knackered and hungry. We got lost. Quite lost really. We doubled back on ourselves and never found one of the recommended restaurants (the hostel staff strongly advised that we stay away from street food initially) but we did find an ATM to get out some dong. Once we found a small restaurant/café/essentially indoor street food we ordered some pho (noodle soup). My SO got beef and I got chicken as I normally prefer chicken to beef for something like that. It was good but my nerves weren’t allowing me to fully enjoy it but it was so good to eat something that wasn’t airplane food! We paid and laughed at the fact that our dinner had cost us €4! We used our data (yes Irish data…I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re super stuck) because we were lost in Hanoi and desperately needed to find the solace of our hostel. I won’t lie, I clung to my SO so that neither of us would get lost in the madness of a Friday night in Hanoi.

Once back to the hostel, we quickly shed the city off and got ready for bed. That’s when I tasted my dinner for a second time. I vomited all night and most of the morning. The stomach cramps were horrible. Don’t get chicken pho from a restaurant or café. Just don’t do it. Around 11 or 12 the next day my SO found a “western” café and insisted we go just to get some food that I would be able to stomach. We downloaded a map of Hanoi and made our way out. Let me tell you, Joma’s bakery was an absolute godsend! I managed to keep down a fresh croissant and an iced tea – with a lot of bargaining with my stomach. We still felt horrible though. There was this constant feeling that we had fucked up majorly. It was hot, humid and verging on terrifying really. Hanoi is really, well and truly not like any other city we’ve been to, and as my first experience in Asia it looked hostile. No matter how much research you do nothing can truly prepare you for the chaos that is Hanoi. We were indescribably delighted when our soon to be colleagues arrived Saturday afternoon and were waiting to meet up with us. We crept out again and realised that there was a lot around us – familiar shop and restaurants which would become our saviour for the 6 days which we spent in Hanoi. We met the manager with whom we had our Skype interview and three other people outside Dominos and went to a secluded café for a few hours. The café is impossible to find unless you are given ridiculously specific directions or if someone brings you there. It is behind a silk shop, down a tiny alley, past what kind of looks like someone’s living room and then it just opens up into a 3 story building. I got the best mango smoothie that I have ever had, and may ever have in the future. While my SO got an iced egg coffee. You read that right – an egg coffee. I don’t know how to make one but it is pretty much just iced coffee with whipped egg whites mixed in, it is truly amazing and is something that my SO orders whenever we step foot in Hanoi. Meeting people who have been in Vietnam for quite a while, 2 for 3 months and 2 for almost a year, it put our minds at ease. It was great to meet the people with whom we would be living and working to convince us that Vietnam was not as scary as it might seem, we would be able to find our place within it and, hopefully, with our new colleagues and housemates.

The rest of the week was ok, we spent most mornings in Joma’s and spent quite a lot of time escaping the heat, humidity and pollution during the middle of the day safe in our hostel. We would head out again in the evenings and found that Dominos was our safest option for food while we were adjusting. We knew before that we would need to avoid the women and men selling things, especially food, on the street and quickly learned how to easily move past them. We had been followed by one for a day we discovered and she caught us while we had to wait to cross a busy street. To hold us there she put her bamboo baskets across my shoulder and her hat on my head insisting that we take a photo so we caved and then before I could get it off of me she had given us warm and pre-cut pineapple and demanded payment. We didn’t have exact change so she kept saying “I give you change, I give you change”. If you take one thing away from this then let it be this – you will not get change and will have been paying too much in the first place, they will take off and disappear into a sea of Vietnamese hats and bamboo baskets. We paid 300,000 vnd for pineapple we didn’t eat - €12 for a small bag of pineapple. You have to be smart and fast with these people as they have been conning tourists for years and will always become smarter and faster. Mind your shoes when you walk – men sit and call after you in a panic, desperate to “help” as your shoe, be it a flip flop or leather dress shoe, is broken and he and only he can help you with his glue. They are very adept at getting your shoe off before you know what is happening and you will pay more than 300,000 vnd to get it back. They have friends around too in order to make sure that you can’t pull your shoe back and run. They almost got my SO but we were a few days in Hanoi and more savvy (well more than we were at first). Wanting to try Vietnamese food again, but more carefully, we found a restaurant called the Green Mango, which happened to also be a hotel. Well Oh.My.God. The food was amazing, they do effectively Vietnamese food and Western food and they were so friendly and for the first time since arriving in Vietnam we didn’t feel like we were being cheated out of something. For example we ordered a starter each and the waitress kindly told us that as the portion size was so large she would advise us sharing one – which we did and were glad that we did. Oh and the cocktails were to die for!

[gldngrl7]

Karamel Fic: Permission to Flourish (7/11)

Title: Permission to Flourish

Author: gldngrl7

Date Started: February 12, 2017

Rating: T for Teen (I know!  I can’t believe it either!)

  Author’s Notes:  

This story is the sequel to Bulletproof. Please read that one-shot before diving into this one.

This chapter introduces another original character that I really loved writing.  I always knew that Mike was going be stubborn and that he was going to need a lot of outside influences to help him reach his decision.  He needed someone to tell him it was okay to stop thinking with his head and start thinking with his heart again.

Comments are welcomed, flames are destroyed with my freeze breath.

So many many thanks to my those who’ve taken the time to comment: @lostin-the-desert @anaveragegirl15 @threesilverthings88 @emarasmoak @myfangirlinghq

           I'll close my eyes

                 Then I won't see

                       The love you don't feel

                                   When you're holding me

          Mornin' will come

                   And I'll do what’s right

                           Just give me till then

                                       To give up this fight

            And I will give up this fight

 --Bonnie Raitt – “I Can’t Make You Love Me”

  Chapter 7/11

  Playing Valor left Mike stinking of fire and fumes, and in desperate need of a shower.  Back in his slacks and plaid shirt, he landed in a clump of trees before hopping the back fence into the yard of the house where he rented a garage apartment.  It wasn’t close to work, but the undeveloped forest area behind his street made for perfect cover when he needed to slip in and out undetected.

 Years ago, Elam Scheinbaum, worried about how his wife would survive without him on a fixed income, had spent a portion of their life savings converting their detached garage into a fully functional studio apartment.  It was an investment in her golden years, allowing her to have a modest income from the tenant’s monthly rent payment.

 Walking across the yard, he heard the back door of the main house open, just as the patio light flicked on.  “Michael, is that you?” came a soft, uncertain voice.

 “It’s me, Mrs. Scheinbaum,” he reassured.  Even with the light on, her eyesight wasn’t the best at night.

 “Oh goodness,” she gasped, her hand fluttering over her chest.  “You’re home awfully late.”

 “One of my students was in an accident at school. I’ve been at the hospital with her mother,” he explained, before redirecting the conversation.  “You’re up awfully late.”

 “Well…my hips, you know,” she referred to the pain that sometimes kept her awake at night.

 “I’m sorry to hear that.”

 “Such a sweet boy,” she gushed.  Mrs. Scheinbaum was a tiny little thing, made even more diminutive by time and gravity.  The top of her kerchiefed head barely came up to his chest, and there were times he was terrified that if he touched her she would shatter to pieces.

 Being utterly clueless, Mike had asked about the kerchiefs once over an afternoon tea with his landlady (she loved to have him for tea on Sunday afternoons), and she explained that she and her husband Elam had worshipped in the Orthodox Jewish faith at the beginning of their marriage, where it was required for a woman to keep her hair covered for anyone other than her husband.  Over the years their religious practice had become more and more moderate as their four children entered their lives, but even with the shift in her practice, she never felt quite herself unless her head was covered.  Even with her husband dead for the last decade, Mike had never seen her head uncovered.

 “And I’ve been watching the coverage on the fire at the refinery.  My Eli worked summers there when he was in college.  Did I tell you that?”

 Her eldest son, Elijah had gotten his college degree in chemical engineering more than three decades ago and moved away shortly after having found work in Louisiana.  These days, he made brief visits to his mother during the holiday seasons with his wife and kids in tow.  “No, Mrs. Scheinbaum, you never told me that,” he shook his head.  Forgetting the reason why he had rushed home, Mike stepped closer to her.

 “How many times do I have to tell you to call me Naomi?” she teased.

 “Just once more, Mrs. Scheinbaum,” he teased right back, adjusting his glasses on the bridge of his nose.

 “Such a good boy,” she muttered, shaking her head. Mike sometimes wondered if she felt her own sons weren’t good boys.  “Your mother must have raised you right.”  

 Mike thought that couldn’t be further from the truth, but answered her assumption with an upwards tilt of his lips.  Everything he had learned about being a good man he’d learned from Kara and Lois.  And from the example set by Clark.

 Her eyes squinted a little, suspiciously, as she looked at him.  “Come to think of it…I didn’t hear your car in the driveway.”

 “I had trouble starting my car,” he lied.  “I took an Uber.”

 She sniffed the air.  “You need a shower, Michael,” she suggested in that way that was more of a demand.

 “I was just about to….”

 “Take your shower, Michael.  I’ll put the kettle on.  You look like you could use a nice cup of tea.”

 She wasn’t wrong.  The earthly beverage of hot tea had restorative properties that couldn’t be explained or quantified – at least not by someone like him.  And after the day he’d had, a cup of tea sounded like just what he needed.

 Mike moved to step back, but her hand reached out to grab his wrist.  Her grip was tight, despite her age, the strength of a woman who had raised four strapping sons and had been given no quarter, nor had she offered any.  “I may be old, Michael, but I know what’s going on. I see things.  I also smell things.”

 His heart skipped in his chest as he instinctually shuttered his eyes and cleared his throat.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mrs. Scheinbaum,” he evaded. “I was just trying to get my car started.”

 She winked and gripped his wrist tighter, as if she knew he was too afraid of breaking her to pull away.  “Of course you were.  I just wanted you to know…that I know.   You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want.  That’s all right, Michael.  Just know that I’m paying attention and I’m cheering you on.  And that you’ll always have a place in my home.”

 “Well I…thank you,” he said, deciding to let it go. He could never convince a 90-year-old widow that she didn’t know what she thought she knew.  It was a waste of time and breath.

 “Go on then,” she said, releasing his hand. “The kettle won’t take long to boil and I’ll have your cup ready for you.”

 Mike nodded and slipped away, out of the circle of the porch light, until he was unlocking the door to his apartment and flipping on the lights inside.  The flat was modest with a small kitchen, a bathroom with a shower, a full-sized bed in one corner and an entertainment center and sofa in another.  He didn’t need much and the apartment served his needs. The rent was cheap enough that he was able to put money in savings for a rainy day – or in the event he ever hastily needed a change of identity.

 He wasn’t worried on that score when it came to Mrs. Scheinbaum.  She may know what she knew but she would never breathe a word about it to anyone, not even to her gaggle of ladies with whom she played regular games of Canasta. Mike suspected that having him here, just a few steps away from her home, made her feel safe and if that were true, how could he take that away from her by telling her she was wrong?

 Mike could have showered before the water had a chance to steam up, but instead he took a few minutes to enjoy the feeling of the day and all of its drama being rinsed from his body and circling down the drain.  It was, of course, a pipe dream (aha!) but it was a lovely notion all the same.  Shower complete, he towel dried and left his hair wet and sticking out, straw-like from his head.  Mike donned his steamed up glasses again, as well as a pair of cargo shorts and a tee shirt, before slipping on a cheap, worn pair of flip-flops he usually only wore when he did the yard work outside, or took the trash bins to the curb on Wednesday nights.

 As predicted, she was dropping his preferred three sugar cubes into a steaming teacup when he walked in the back door. He’d been here a thousand times or more, but a part of him still waited to be invited like a little boy visiting a friend’s house.  She waved a hand, offering him his usual chair at the table, which he gladly accepted.

 “I’d tell you all this sugar will rot your teeth,” she smiled.  “But I suppose your teeth don’t rot, do they?”

 Mike opened his mouth to play off her suggestion, treat it like a funny game between them, or to once more suggest, quite unbelievably, that he didn’t know what she was talking about.  But then, he thought better of it.  What harm would it to do to give her the confirmation she so desperately wanted?  After all, he trusted her.  Knew her heart and knew that she would never intentionally reveal his secret.  It would be nice to have someone know – someone he could talk to face to face.

 Clark had drilled into him the necessity of maintaining the mask and had Mike had listened well, soaking up the advice from the man who made being a superhero an art form.  But Clark Kent had never meant this.  Don’t reveal yourself before others, before people you can’t contain. On the playground today, he had come a hairsbreadth from breaking that rule and he would have, had Supergirl not shown up just in the nick of time.

 But this wasn’t what Clark had meant when he’d taught Mike that rule.  Decide who you can trust with your secret.  Choose wisely.  Buried beneath the lessons, that had been in the hidden truth.

 “No, they don’t rot,” he answered her query, waiting for the regret to wash over him for revealing his true self.  It never came.  Without a hint of flair or drama, Mike reached up and removed his glasses, setting them on the table in front of him.

 Her eyebrows rose, as though she hadn’t been expecting him to crumble to her will quite so easily.  She threw back her head and laughed, a soft, raspy sound he found contagious.  “That must be nice,” she said, at last.  “I had a full set of dentures by the time I was seventy-two.  Sometimes I think we were only meant to live for as long as our teeth last.  Where are you from, Michael?  Krypton? Like Superman?”

 Unlike with Superman and Supergirl, there hadn’t been a massive media onslaught when he’d flown onto the scene.  No interviews or questions.  They’d made assumptions, of course but nothing they’d bothered to attempt confirming.  No one had even requested an exclusive, or if they had, he hadn’t been made aware. Alien superheroes were kind of old hat by then.

 “Daxam,” he answered.  Even though he didn’t need the tea to cool down to drink it, out of habit he did as humans did and blew at the steamy liquid.    “It is…was…in the same solar system as Krypton.  Like Supergirl, I grew up on a planet with a red sun.  When my planet was being bombarded with the remains of Krypton, I managed to escape in the flight pod of a Kryptonian emissary – who was already dead, or so I was told.  And that’s my story,” he said, as if wasn’t just the tip of the iceberg.

 She took a sip of her own tea, cream no sugar, staring out the kitchen nook window to the garage he called home.  “It must be a lonely life.”

 “There are other benefits,” he shrugged, but he couldn’t hide the desolate tone buried in his voice.

 “You know…my friend Ellen has a single granddaughter close to your age.  Lovely girl,” she announced, as though deciding to solve his loneliness problem in one night.  “A handsome boy like you should really have a girl.”  Then her head snapped up, tilting to one side to take a better measure of him. Her eyes twinkled in the soft glow of the kitchen light.  “Or a boy,” she said, with a casual shrug as though unflustered by such things.  “My friend Marion has a son who just broke up with his partner.  They were together for fifteen years, if you can believe it.  Perhaps he might be interested in a blind date.”

 Mike laughed.  He couldn’t help himself, because she seemed so invested in seeing him happy, and it had been a long time since anyone had cared.  “I appreciate the sentiment, Mrs. Scheinbaum, but….” He trailed off.  His heart panged in his chest like a hard strike to a gong that reverberated throughout his entire body.  He’d actually managed to go a few hours without thinking about Kara.

 “But your heart belongs to someone else,” she inferred from the look on his face.

 “I’m afraid so,” he answered, without bothering to reconsider his response, or to couch it in vaguer terms.

 “One day I’ll get that story out of you, Michael,” she insisted.

 “One day…I’m sure you will.”

 “Well don’t wait too long,” she warned.  “I’m ninety years old.  I don’t have many days left.”

 Mike grew sad at the thought of losing her.  Humans were so delicate and their lifespans so short. For some, death couldn’t find them fast enough as far as he was concerned, but for others like Naomi Scheinbaum, death would come all too soon, taking a bright light from the world when it did.  “I’m sure you’ll outlive us all,” he replied, wishful thinking.  

 “Nonsense,” the old woman sighed, taking a sip of her tea, and looking older than he’s ever seen her.   “I’ve seen too much of this world.  It will be time to be reunited with my Elam soon.”

 Her eyes glowed with such promise, as if the thought of dying didn’t scare her in the slightest, especially if it meant being with her lost love.  Mike hoped that while he was alive, Elam Scheinbaum knew exactly how lucky he was to be loved by a woman like Naomi with her whole soul.  His heart panged again at the thought, wishing hopelessly that he could have a love like that.  It occurred to Mike that Mrs. Scheinbaum might be just the person to hear his story, and now might be just the time to tell it.

 “I had a visit from her today,” he began, taking a sip of his tea and tasting the sweetness on his tongue.

 Sharp as a tack despite her advanced age, she quickly inferred, “The girl you love?”

 “Yes,” he replied.  “I haven’t seen her for six years.  When I landed on this planet…I disrupted her life…became a burden to her. In a way I became her responsibility. She was beautiful and strong and so compassionate to other people and so…determined.  She didn’t know how to give up – even when it would have been smarter and safer to quit.  I fell in love with her because it was impossible not to…and because she was impossible.”

 “She sure sounds like something special,” Mrs. Scheinbaum said, her tone gently encouraging him to continue.

 ‘She was,” he agreed, remembering those early days before he’d screwed it up by opening his mouth – or by kissing her in the first place.  He’d take it all back if he could; to return to the time when she was training him and they were having good times and a lot of laughter.  “But then I had to go and tell her how I felt.”

 “She didn’t feel the same?”

 Mike shook his head slowly.  “I wasn’t exactly the man she deserved.  I was selfish and self-centered; I wasn’t serious enough. We were so different, believed in different things.  We disagreed a lot.  I didn’t have the first clue what she needed or how to give it to her. Until…she came to me and said that she could never be with me.  That even if she had the time or the inclination to date someone, it wouldn’t be a man like me.  That’s when I knew….that the best thing I could do for her…what she needed…was for me to leave.  So I did.”

 “It’s what you both needed.  At the time,” she suggested.

 “Both needed?”

 “You were like a gosling, Michael, imprinting on the first person to make a significant impact on your life after your arrival.  You had no one and everything you knew was gone. You clung to her, perhaps enough to frighten her.  She became your…everything and that’s not good when you don’t even know who you are yet. But you did the right thing, dear. You departed the nest and, in the process, learned to fly on your own.  And look at you now…when you’re not using your powers to save lives, you’re a schoolteacher who molds young minds and shapes futures.  For an abysmal amount of money, might I add.  Tell me how that’s selfish and self-centered,” she huffed, obstinately.

 “It’s like I’m still clinging to her,” Mike said. “I’ve never been able to forget her…to move on.”

 “Maybe you’re not supposed to,” she suggested, pouring him a second cup of tea, and sliding the sugar bowl in his direction. “What was it like to see her again?”

 “It was like falling and knowing that hitting the ground is the only thing that’s going to stop you.”  A feeling with which he was all too familiar, thanks to Clark’s long-suffering, and increasingly enterprising attempts to teach him to fly.

 “Sounds like love.”  She smiled ruefully and sighed.  “I miss that feeling.  When just looking into his eyes is like stepping off a cliff.  When it’s right…when you’re in it together it’s okay though, because you know you have a soft place to land.”

 But that was exactly Mike’s problem.  Kara didn’t feel like a soft place to land, she felt like a bed of jagged rocks amongst a churning, pounding surf.

 “Why was she here?” Mrs. Scheinbaum asked.  “Here on business?”

 “You could say that.  She tracked me a down,” he told her.  “A mutual friend told her where to find me.  After six years of keeping it a secret.”

 “Secret?’ her thin, well-groomed eyebrows wrinkled her brow.  “Now this is getting interesting.  Why such secrecy, Michael?”

 “I wanted her to move on with her life.  I wanted it to be like I never landed in her backyard. Never screwed up her life.”

 “There’s only three reasons why a women would hunt down a man: love, greed, or revenge.  Which was it?”  Mrs. Scheinbaum leaned forward, teasing him in a conspiratorial whisper.

 “I left without saying goodbye,” he explained. “She just wanted the last word.”

 “So she just came to tell you off?  She put a lot of care into not caring about you.”

 “No…it wasn’t…like that….”  Mike’s mind went back to that scene in the hospital cafeteria. The tears he hadn’t wanted to see, still didn’t want to accept, and didn’t want to let in because he knew the damage they could do to the Kevlar around his heart.

 “What was it then?”

 “She told me she didn’t mean the things she’d said that night.  That she’d been young and stupid and scared.  She said that she was sorry…for all of it.  That it was the biggest regret of her life.  She said she liked me, but hadn’t known how to tell me or what to do about it.”

 “And did she tell you she still loves you?”

 “No,” he shook his head.  “Why?”

 “Because she does.”

 “No,” he insisted, “this was just her—“

 “You told me she was strong and determined and impossible,” Mrs. Scheinbaum interrupted.  “A woman like that doesn’t track a man down after six years and lay her heart at his feet unless she loves him.  Why is it so hard for you to believe that someone could you love you, Michael?”

 “I don’t know,” he mumbled.  “Maybe because no one ever has.”

 “You need to let yourself be loved, Michael.  It’s not hard,” she promised.  “You just have to….lean into it, and let it sweep you away. You did it once,” she pointed out. Mrs. Scheinbaum reached out, placing a hand, gnarled with age, the skin as thin and breakable as tissue paper, over his.  “Surely it can’t be any harder than learning to fly,” she winked.

 He chuckled, his voice dry and raspy despite the tea.  “You’d be surprised.”

 “My marriage to Elam was arranged,” she confessed, causing his eyes to widen.  “Not a popular notion these days, I know,” she waved a hand.  Being from Daxam, this was a concept he understood, but Naomi Scheinbaum was the first person of his earthly acquaintance who’d been in an arranged marriage.  “I was born in The Netherlands in 1934.   My family had been in the diamond business for four generations—it was amongst the first industries the Nazis sacked when they invaded Holland.  They needed industrial grade diamonds to build weapons, you understand.  Anyway, when you run a diamond business you learn quickly to be paranoid, to take security very seriously, and so my father was always prepared.  The Germans had already invaded Denmark, Norway, France and Luxembourg – he knew it was only a matter of time.  So he sent us—my mother and brother—out of the country to be safe as soon as he sensed the wolves were at the gate.    I arrived here when I was barely six years old, clinging so tightly to my mother’s hand when we stepped off the boat in New York.  We had a suitcase each and a small bag of cut diamonds, tucked in my underpants, to start a new life.  My father’s younger brother and his family arrived a month later.  That is when we learned my father had died at the hands of the Nazis that ransacked his business.”

 She’d been just like him once – long ago.  A stranger in a strange land where nothing made sense and the road home had closed behind them.  He covered her hand with his to let him know he understood – he truly did.

 “After the war, there were so few of us left it seemed, the Nazis had killed so many.  Elam fought in the war in his own way.  Though as an Orthodox he was a conscientious objector and wouldn’t pick up a gun, but at sixteen he had inherited his father’s printing business and so he offered his services to the war effort that way.  Printing propaganda leaflets and fliers – ‘Buy War Bonds’, ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships’ – that sort of thing.” Mrs. Scheinbaum rolled her eyes and tilted back her head, as though recalling what a silly child she once one. “And he was ancient when we met,” she said.  “Oh, Michael, he was so old!  Twenty-nine,” she chuckled.

 Mike laughed.  “Walking with a cane, was he?”

 “He might as well have been,” she insisted.  “I was seventeen,” she explained.  “Anyone older than the age my brother reached had one foot in the grave.”

 “What happened to your brother?”

 “He was twelve when we immigrated.  He would have turned right back around to go fight the Nazis if he could have.  After Pearl Harbor, there were lines out the door of the army recruitment centers. Nate was one of the first to sign up. He was barely nineteen years old at the time.  He died in August 1944 – buried in Normandy.

 “I’m very sorry.”

 “In 1951, our community was just beginning to recover from the war.  So many losses.  There wasn’t one among us who didn’t lose someone.  In our grief and our determination to continue on…to spit in the face of what the Nazis did to us…we banded together to renew our faith, to say…’We are still here”.  We married…we had children, because we believed God demanded it of us.  To be fruitful and multiply.  Elam saw me one Sabbath at temple and that was all it took. I don’t know what he saw in me, but he approached my uncle to ask for intercession.  My uncle encouraged the match but didn’t force it.  Elam was a good man who could make a good living and those were hard to come by after the war.  I didn’t love him, but I thought, ‘I should snap this man up before someone else does.’  And so I did. I was very pragmatic for a seventeen-year-old.”

 “I guess it worked out.”

 “Not at first,” she said.  “We were strangers who shared a bed, and then…a child and then…two. We made a life and we lived it together, but I held myself back.  To this day, I don’t know why.  Maybe it was because my father never survived the Nazi invasion, or because my brother died on Omaha Beach.  Maybe a part of me thought I would just lose my husband too.  Elam wanted more than what we had, that was clear from day one. He wanted love and so…that’s what he gave me.  He invested his love in me, in the hopes that someday he would see a return on that investment.  I struggled with my feelings every day.  It wasn’t that I didn’t feel anything, you see.  It’s that I didn’t want to feel anything.  Part of me wanted to shove it all down into a dark hole and forget all about it.”

 “So what changed?” he wondered.

 “One day I realized that this was not what God intended when he made us…this building of walls around our heart.  God…the Universe,” she translated for his benefit, understanding that their belief systems were not the same, “wants us together. Draws us together, like the sea to a shore.  After seven years, he was my best friend, he knew everything there was to know about me – the places I liked to hide.  His investment of love had quietly and artfully filled the gaps left behind by my father and my brother.   One day I looked at him and I saw something…inescapable, but more importantly…that I didn’t want to escape it.  I was exhausted from swimming against his current.”

 “What did you do?”

 “I leaned into it, Michael,” she smiled.  “That’s all.  I leaned into it, and the rest was easy.”  She reached up and cupped his cheek, the tissue paper thin skin of hands softer than silk.  “This girl,” she said.  “You have to ask yourself…’is she inescapable?’  Do you think you can do that?”

 He nodded, though he already knew the answer to the question.

 “I poured a healthy dose of whiskey into my tea, and the room is spinning a bit.  Do you think you could help me to my room, dear?  I think I’ll be able to get some sleep now.”

 “Oh, of course,” he jumped from his chair and offered an arm to help her from hers.  She gripped him tightly as he walked her down the hall to her bedroom. Her sheets were already pulled back from an earlier attempt to sleep, so she slipped in easily and pulled the sheets around her.  Mike flicked the switch on the lamp beside her bed and plunged the room into darkness.

 “Goodnight Spaceman,” she said, her words already slurring with sleep.

 Mike chuckled.  “Good night, Mrs. Scheinbaum.  Sweet dreams.”

 A light snore was already coming from the covers by the time he closed her bedroom door behind him.  In the kitchen, he washed out their tea cups, setting them out to dry and put away the rest of the tea service, before grabbing his glasses from the table, slipping out of the back door, and over to his apartment.

 Mrs. Scheinbaum had given him a lot to think about, which left him tossing and turning on his mattress, unable to sleep. Giving up on the idea of getting any sleep at all tonight, he reached for his he phone on the charger on the bedside table.

 He could always catch up on some email.

 TBC