#i saw someone saying the dog it's actually intak because the dog came through the window and intak wakes up next to one but it doesn't make

[p1harmonie]

I JUST REWATCHED PIWON MOVIE AND I HAVE THINGS TO SAY

[thischickwritessometimes]

MYSME RBB

Hey!! I joined my first ever collab this year for the Mystic Messenger fandom! It was totally awesome, and I lucked out and got someone super cool as my artist. Shout out to @thedum1, who was my partner for this. Go check out their amazing art that goes along with my writing, and give them some love. Without further ado, here’s the fic!

(You can also find this on ao3!)

Saeyoung decided that he’d been sitting in one place for far too long. His back was screaming in agony, his eyes were trying desperately to make the computer screen focus, and his head felt like it was stuffed full of cotton. All of those combined to make him feel miserable, like he was going to explode if he sat there for even one more minute. 

He shut down his workstation, making sure that his work remained where it was, the computer encoded carefully to make sure that no one could get into it and change things. Of course, if someone was going to get in, they’d have to break through the security in his house, which wasn’t likely to happen. He’d just figured out the best password for his front gate, after all. As Saeyoung idly considered his password (and other possible future ones), he slid on his shoes and grabbed his jacket. 

He stopped in the kitchen to grab a package of Honey Buddha Chips and then was off, heading into town on some form of a quest. The destination isn’t important, he tells himself, just the experience. He just needed some fresh air, a sight that wasn’t his computer screen (or, more recently, the wall slightly above and behind his computer), and perhaps a reminder that there were other humans in the world outside of himself and Vanderwood.

He hummed to himself as he walked, enjoying the sun on his skin and the sounds of birds and people talking. Couples were walking just about everywhere in the park, each chatting and laughing happily. Some younger kids were running around chasing each other. A dog sprinted past Saeyoung, chasing a stick that had just been thrown. 

The dog reminded him of Elly. She always was willing to run around his feet happily as he played with her in Jumin’s apartment. He missed the white cat. It’d been far too long since he last saw her, and he mentally decided to schedule a time to break through his friend’s security to see the fluffy Persian again.

As he walked along, a flyer for a pet shop caught his eye. It was advertising a day to come play with the animals, both cats and dogs alike. As he stopped to read it more thoroughly, Saeyoung realized that if he headed to the shop right now he could get in at least an hour and a half with the cats (and maybe some dogs too). Now armed and ready with a plan of action, he set off with a purpose, striding quickly to the pet store.

As he neared it, he noticed that not many people were lingering around. Saeyoung realized that this must be one of the less popular pet shops and was sad to see that, especially because it looked very charming and quaint. As he pushed open the door, a bell above his head let out a quiet sound to alert an employee that someone had arrived.

Sure enough, a slightly frazzled-looking young man appeared. His hair was shaggy and black, long enough that it was falling into his eyes just slightly. The eyes in question were a stunning blue-green that Saeyoung wouldn’t mind looking into for a while. He tried to shake off that thought. He was here for cute cats, not cute people.

“How can I help you?” The guy asked, a small smile on his face. 

“I’m here to play with the cats. I saw a flyer saying that you guys had free time for that?”

“Oh, of course! Right this way. I think there’s only one other person in there, so it shouldn’t be that much of a crowd. Feel free to use any of the toys out. And don’t worry, the only one that scratches is our resident sourpuss, Yoshi.” The employee opened the door carefully and Saeyoung peered in, amazed at all the cats running around or napping. 

There was one girl sitting happily in the middle of the room, surrounded by cats. She had a dark skin tone and was wearing a pink skirt and what Saeyoung was pretty sure was a halter top. (How he knew that? Well, let’s just say that he had been considering one for cosplay for a long time.) When she turned to look at him, he spotted glasses and heterochromatic eyes. One brown, the other a bright blue. 

She’s cute, was his first thought. It only amplified when he realized that her hair had a piece sticking up that looked to be meticulously formed into a heart like you would see on a lovesick anime girl. Her dedication spoke volumes and he knew that he would probably end up liking this girl if they talked. 

He shook his head slightly. No, he couldn’t be thinking about that. Not today! He was here for cute cats, not cute girls or cute boys. His mind was set firmly on petting all the adorable creatures. 

So he walked past the girl, giving her a faint smile. She returned it with a glowing one that practically lit up her entire face, and Saeyoung had to hide how his heart pattered at the sight. He focused his eyes on a particularly cute orange cat that was napping peacefully in a ray of sunlight.

As he reached out to pet it carefully, the cat responded by purring softly, like this was everything it could have dreamed of. However, after a while it tired of his antics and scratched softly at his hand in warning. He chuckled and pulled his hand away, letting the feline relax by itself. His eyes scanned the room for another willing friend and they snagged on a little black and white kitten.

It was pawing at a toy, obviously bored. Saeyoung crawled over carefully and picked up the toy, which appeared to be a feather on a string. He bounced it around, and the kitten started to paw at it. It got into the game, eventually leaping at it until it tired itself out. 

Saeyoung made a “pspsps” noise, trying to attract the kitten to him. Its ears perked up and it headed over to his lap, where he petted it softly. The cat seemed like just the perfect companion, and if he could adopt a cat right now he would definitely consider this little guy as the one.

There was a quiet intake of breath over his shoulder, and Saeyoung looked back to see the girl gazing fondly at the kitten. As soon as she noticed his gaze, she colored, blushing slightly. “Ah! Sorry to bother you!”

“Oh, it’s not an issue,” he said, giving her a smile. “He’s a cute one, isn’t he?” He gestured to the kitten that had made itself comfortable in his lap. 

“Yes, he really is. I must admit, I may have been looking at him the entire time… but I got a little nervous he wouldn’t like me.” She looked away, seemingly embarrassed. 

“Well,” Saeyoung said, an idea coming to mind. “Let’s test that out, shall we?” With that, he scooped up the feline and plopped him directly in her lap. The cat seemed stunned at first, and Saeyoung worried that he would hiss and claw at the abrupt change. Instead, the cat sniffed at the girl and then settled in again, seemingly unconcerned by what had just happened. 

“Oh,” the girl said, smiling. “He’s lovely.” Her hands went to softly pet him. 

After a few minutes, she looked up. The cat was happily asleep in her lap, purring softly. She spoke again, her voice quiet so as to not disturb the kitten. “I’m sorry, I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Jasmine, but you can call me Jas. It’s good to meet you…”

She trailed off, searching for a name. Saeyoung smiled at her before giving her his fake name. “I’m Luciel. It’s good to meet you as well, Jas. It seems like you’ve got a way with cats, huh?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” she said with a laugh. “I do love them though. Cats are some of the best animals, in my opinion.”

“You have a top-tier opinion then. I’m inclined to agree!”

“So I take it you’re a cat enthusiast as well, Luciel?”

“Yep,” he said, popping the ‘p’. “I have a friend who has a gorgeous cat and that’s kind of what kickstarted my love for them.”

“Have you ever considered getting one?” She cocked her head, but her hands never left the black and white kitten.

“I’d be lying if I said no. But my job is kind of crazy, and I can honestly say that I don’t think a cat would be good for me right now. Someday soon, hopefully. What about you?”

“I actually came here today hoping to adopt. I’ve been looking for a while but I never found one that I really loved. Well, until today. But I’m still not completely sure…”

“Well the little guy loves you, I can tell that much. And if I’m wrong, which is not very likely, let me tell you, he’s the kind of cat that will always be able to find a new home.” Saeyoung stretched and winked at her.

“Well in that case… I guess I’ll need a name for him, huh?” She looked down with a smile. “Got any good ones?” Jasmine’s heterochromatic eyes twinkled with a hidden glee when Saeyoung’s face lit up. 

“Oh boy, do I! I’ve been saving up all sorts of names for this. Okay, there are the classics, like Fluffy, Batdude, Charles. Oh, and you can’t forget Toast!” His rambling list of (admittedly awful) cat names went on for a long time, leaving Jas halfway to tears with laughter as he continued. When he finally drew his list to a close, both of them had laughed so hard that the kitten had woken up and the employee had poked his head in to make sure that nothing bad was going on.

“Okay, okay,” Saeyoung said once he’d calmed down slightly, “any names catch your fancy?”

“I mean Fuzzbucket was a pretty good idea, but I think I decided on Tama.”

Saeyoung and Jas looked down at the same time to inspect the cat. The black and white kitten released a soft mewl and butted his head at Jas’ hand to request more pets. The two scheming partners in crime looked at each other and smiled. 

“Tama is perfect.” They both said at the same time, then blushed and looked away. Saeyoung swore that when he looked at her cradling the tiny cat next to her chest she seemed to glow with happiness.

Soon enough the time to play with cats was over and the employee was putting the animals back in their cages and thanking them for coming to play with the cats. Jas told him about her interest in adopting Tama, and the employee got her the forms she would need to sign before she could take the kitten home. Saeyoung stayed with her as she filled the forms out, the both of them laughing and chatting the entire time. When all was said and done, Jas hoisted the carrier that held Tama up and exited the building, Saeyoung holding the door for her.

Jas scanned the street, then took a deep breath in, steeling her nerves. “I had a really good time today, Luciel. I was wondering if you’d like to do it again some...time?” She turned around to see the man gone. Her brows furrowed as she swiveled her head to see where he’d gone. “Luciel?”

Saeyoung, who had darted behind a pillar beside the pet store, let out a quiet sigh of disappointment. He gritted his teeth together when he heard Jas whisper sadly to Tama that “he must not have wanted to talk anymore, huh?” 

He leaned his head against the pillar and stayed there until he heard the quiet clip-clop of her shoes walking away. Then he tore himself away from the pillar and walked towards home, hands shoved into his pockets, knowing that he would always remember the girl from the pet shop.

The sounds of music coming from a radio fill the kitchen. A black and white cat races around its owners’ feet as they try to dance. Laughter and pure contentment fill the air as the redhead twirls around the girl with one blue eye and one brown one. 

Years ago, when I was younger, I kinda liked a girl I knew. 

“Do you remember when we first met?” Jas asked, her skirt swinging wildly as Saeyoung spun her enthusiastically.

“How could I forget? That pet shop must be the most magical place on this Earth to me.”

She was mine, and we were sweethearts. That was then, but then it’s true.

“I was so upset when you disappeared, you know. I thought you’d gotten sick of me.”

“I was just as upset, trust me. But I thought I had to, because of the agency. And with Rika and the RFA… it just wasn’t a good time.” Saeyoung shook his head, but then pulled Jas closer to him as they waltzed across the floor.

I’m in love with a fairytale, even though it hurts. Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind, I’m already cursed.

“And then I showed up at Rika’s apartment a few weeks later. Crazy how fate works like that, huh?”

“Oh trust me, I was incredibly surprised to see you appear on the CCTV feed. If my life had a playlist of all the moments where I nearly fell out of my chair, that would definitely be on the top ten list.” 

“I was just as shocked as you were, trust me! I had told myself that I would never see you again, but then there you were!” Jas shook her head. “I had half-convinced myself you were some figment of my imagination.”

Every day we started fighting, but every night we fell in love. No one else could make me sadder, but no one else could lift me high above.

“I feel bad that I tried to push you away while we were both in the apartment. It was hard for me because you were the thing that made me happy and also frustrated me to no end. After all, I was sure I would hurt you.” 

“I wanted to punch you so much, I hope you know. I was at my wit’s end when you finally opened up a little bit!”

“But I did, and look at where we ended up. I opened up, got my brother back, and I got the privilege of having you in my life as my girlfriend and now fiancee.”

“I’m glad that it all worked out because there’s no one else I’d rather spend the rest of my days with.”

“The same goes to you, Jas.”

“I love you, Saeyoung Choi. Bad cat names and all.” Jas said as the music started to slowly die down.

“And I love you, Jasmine Luna, no matter how much time you spend in the bathroom doing your hair.” Saeyoung responded, dipping Jas as she let out a quiet squeal.

The two laughed and continued dancing late into the night, Tama observing from his perch high above.

I’m in love with a fairytale, even though it hurts. Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind, I’m already cursed.

And there’s the fic!! Reminder to check out the awesome @thedum1 for their amazing art!!

[psychedellic-phase]

Fifteen (pt 4)

A/N: thank you so much for all the love so far! If I’m off at all on timelines I’m really sorry; time moves weird in cm. I’m loving writing this one though! requests/comments/etc are always welcome! xxR

Masterlist: 

(Part 1)  (Part 2) (Part 3)

tw: kinda smut but not really? otherwise none

wc: 3.0k

“Item #3 is a watch. Your watch, the one I got you for your birthday. It’s the first gift I ever got you as your “girlfriend”. I gave it to you the weekend after your birthday because we were out on a case. It came in a little black box that I tied a blue ribbon around. I made you dinner at my apartment; spaghetti and a jar of Ragu. (Cooking is clearly not my strong suit) You pretended to like it to spare my ego, which was very sweet of you. I took it out after we ate.You started protesting the minute I picked it up; insisting that I didn’t need to get you anything. To which I probably said something like “Of course I had to get you something. You only turn twenty-nine once.” 

I wrapped my arms around your neck and laid my head on top of yours to watch you open it. 

You loved it, of course you did. I picked it out especially for you. Then you blew out a candle that was shoved in a cup of jello because you love jello and don’t really love cake. 

I love that day, but that isn’t the important story I want to tell with this watch. It's just a $50 piece of black leather and glass that I liked at the jewelry store. The story I want to tell is about a very specific time you wore it. 

The black leather has worn out over time, especially on the hole where you would close it. You always wore it on the hole one looser than it needed to be so it could fit over your shirts and sweaters. I never understood why you do that, and I guess now I’ll never find out. 

I bet you’re wondering why I have this and you don’t. You left it at my place. Our place? No, I guess now it’s just my old apartment that I once had the privilege of sharing with you. This watch is years old, so eventually it got pushed to the back of a drawer where you never went looking for it. Somehow, you forgot about it. I didn't think you could forget about anything. Ever. Isn’t that like your whole thing? But you forgot this. I found it when I was packing up my life the other day. It can’t come to Seattle with me and it’s rightfully yours. So you can have it back, even though you don’t seem to want it.”

Spencer held the watch in his hand. He had looked for it. He turned his whole apartment upside down looking for it. It never occurred to him to ask you where it was and by the time he missed it the mere thought of asking you about it made him sick to his stomach. The battery died while it was hidden in a drawer in the room the two of you used to share. A room he would never see again in an apartment he would never see again because you moved to Seattle. 

Today is February sixteenth, and the watch had stopped on December 3 at 10:36 am. It struck him as odd that the clock stopped ticking on the day you officially split up. It’s like the clock ticked just for the two of you, timing your relationship, and when you stopped the watch did too. 

He decided to put it on and admire it. The buckle went into the worn hole easily. He loved this watch, mostly because you got it for him. You always were the best gift giver. 

He took it off quickly. The leather suddenly felt like it was burning his skin. 

“The important story starts on a case in Jacksonville, Florida. The one where the bodies were all deep in the ocean. We’d been together for maybe a few months at that point and it was going great. Our platonic sleepovers had become very not platonic. I wore your t-shirts to bed like nightgowns and woke up most mornings to see you next to me. You always wake up before me, so usually you would be watching me sleep like a weirdo. Once I would stir and finally wake up you'd kiss my forehead and pull me in for a hug. It was amazing. I definitely miss waking up next to you. It felt like when you’re a kid and sleep with your favorite stuffed animal or baby blanket. They soothe you, which is something I always needed. The nightmares wake me up every night. Sometimes even multiple times a night. It’s hard for them not to when we see the things we see, but anytime I slept next to you the nightmares wouldn’t paralyze me. If I woke up in a cold sweat and could feel your arm slung lazily over my body, the fear would melt away. 

At work though, we kept it cool. We didn’t share a room or get too touchy. We didn’t need to add fuel to the fire that was Derek Morgan and Penelope Garcia’s snide remarks. 

I made an exception that night though. Something about that case got under my skin. I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing most of the time, but the fact that so many bodies were in the ocean and we had no idea about it made me want to simultaneously cry and throw up. The cruelty of humanity is really never ending.  

That night was the night before we caught him. I was so tired that I fell asleep early, which is rare for me. But sadly I was awoken by one of my worst recurring nightmares. You know the one, the really bad one. When I woke up I was screaming, thrashing my legs, and drenched in sweat. I yelled so loud I thought I woke up Rossi who was in the next room. Thankfully, he sleeps pretty well. I tried to go back to sleep but only tossed and turned. The nightmare kept crawling back in. Eventually, I gave up and crept down the hallway to your room. I knew you’d be awake. The only shut eye you get is when you blink. I knocked and whispered “It’s me.”

You opened the door and looked confused, “W-What are you doing here?” You looked down the hallway both ways to make sure nobody saw us. Your hair was all tousled and wet from a shower and you had on loose pajamas that clung to your damp body. You also had on the watch. 

“I had a nightmare.” I said it desperately, the images came back. It got hard to breathe. I was panicking and thought I would cry. That’s all I needed to say for you to grab me in your arms tightly, reminding me where I was. With you. Safe. In a hotel room in Florida. On Earth. I can float up into my head so easily, and you were always there to bring me back down. You let me bury my face in your chest. I grabbed at your shirt frantically. I needed something and someone I knew was real. You just let me do what I needed to. I know how much it used to hurt you seeing me hurt, I can only imagine how you felt that night. Despite whatever you were feeling, you whispered reassurances to me. You told me that I was safe. That I was okay. That I was alive. 

You drew small circles on my back until my breathing and heart rate went down. When I could breathe again, you placed a kiss on the top of my head. We realized I hadn’t even passed the threshold of the door yet. I was just standing in the hallway at 1 am clinging onto you like an idiot. So you took my hand firmly, forcing it to stop shaking, and led me into your room. I pulled you to the bed and sat down. You sat next to me and asked me if I wanted to talk about it. All I could do was shake my head no. You understand. You have your own nightmares all the time; we all do. I stared in your eyes, the same way I have a million times and I could see it. I could see the love. We hadn’t said it yet, but we both knew. 

You pulled me in close and I asked you, “Can I please sleep here tonight?”

You nodded and lifted the covers so I could snuggle into them. You tucked me in and then started walking away. 

“Wait! Where are you going?” I protested, reaching out for you and giving you my best puppy dog eyes. (Which you ALWAYS fall for)

You bent down next to me and moved a piece of hair out of my face before cupping my cheek, “I’m getting you a glass of water. When you wake up screaming your throat goes dry. We can’t have you losing your voice.” 

I smiled. You’re too caring. I didn’t know there was such a thing until I met you. In fact, I didn’t know men could be so kind until I met you. 

“Okay, then get in here with me. I can only sleep well if I’m pressed up against you.”

You smiled, and leaned in to give me a peck on the lips. A peck that I then deepened into a real kiss. You pulled away and chuckled awkwardly, “Can I get you water first?”

I nodded and you hurried away. When you came back you climbed in next to me and pulled me into your arms for a hug. Your arms may be skinny but they’re strong and steady. I can’t even count the number of times your arms have steadied the cries that rack through my body. You were my rock.”

Were. Past tense. He winced at that like it was a slap in the face. 

“I turned over to look at you. The bedside lamp was off but the moonlight was streaming through the window so I could see you. That night is when your two arms became home. Home. I wonder if I’ll ever feel at home again. Seattle won’t be home. Seattle doesn’t have you, but then again neither do I.”

With a sharp intake of breath, Spencer stood up. His throat felt impossibly dry and his tongue felt two sizes too big for his mouth. He held the letter in his hands as he got a glass of water, just like he got you that night, his eyes never leaving the words. He wanted to yell that you did have him. You’d always have him, at least a piece, and if you wanted the whole thing you could have that too. But if he did scream it from the rooftops there would be no one to hear it and no one would even want to hear it anyway. 

“So when I was looking at you I kissed you. And then again. And again. You’re so easy to kiss, your lips are soft, but always a little chapped because you’re constantly biting them. We kissed and kissed until my hands happened to take your shirt off and your hands happened to take mine off. We kissed until I was on top of you, bare skin against bare skin. We kissed until we couldn’t anymore; until our bodies were glistening in sweat and we were out of breath. We kissed the whole time, it was actually impressive. Your mouth never left a part of my body, and mine liked to migrate to that spot on your neck and behind your earlobe. We only stopped kissing when you’d ask me if I was okay. Ever the gentleman, Spencer Reid. Diana raised you right. 

That was the first time you ever saw me naked and surprisingly I wasn’t uncomfortable. Usually I can be a bit insecure in how I look, but you let me know you loved every inch. I saw you that day too, almost completely naked, except you never took off the watch. The watch that I saw as you gripped the sheets with your hands. The watch that I saw when you pulled my hair into a makeshift ponytail. The watch that was cold against my hot skin as you leaned into me. 

That morning we woke up as a mess of tangled limbs, which is my favorite way to wake up. The first moments of morning are bliss. Everything is still and perfect. You sloppily kissing my cheeks and me giggling under you.

“I’m sore,” I said, fake pouting. 

You went to make some crappy coffee in the crappy hotel room coffee pot.  A blush formed on your cheeks and you stammered, “I-I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”

You were so worried. It was so sweet. 

“You could never hurt me.” 

What an ironic thing for me to say. 

“Come back to bed, Spence,” I patted the mattress next to me and you smiled and agreed, flopping next to me. 

“I’m coming, Love.” 

“Love?” I said. 

“Yes, Love, is that okay?”

“Yeah, I like ‘Love’, Love.”

You scrunched up your face, your little nose wrinkling, “Love? We can’t both be ‘Love.’”

I batted my eyelashes and said, “What would you like me to call you instead, Sir?”

You smirked, “I can think of a few things.”

That lasted a solid five seconds until I heard loud knocking on the door. 

“Reid, me and Rossi are going to hit the free breakfast in ten, you coming?” 

Derek. Derek coming and ruining our morning sex. 

We both groaned and you got up, opening the door just enough so he could see you and not me in your bed. He could immediately tell what happened. I think that’s his superpower. 

“My man!” He said and I imagine you glared at him, “Am I interrupting something?” 

You just shook your head nervously, “We, uh, I will be down soon. I have to shower.”

You shut the door in his face and I just laughed at the vibrant shade of red you turned. You joined me in bed and I just laid on your chest, listening to your heartbeat. You drew little shapes on my arm; I twisted the curl that forms on the nape of your neck. It was so perfect. That may be the happiest I’ve ever been. 

But sadly we were taken out of our own little world by Hotch calling us. As much as I hated it at the time, I definitely will miss getting a phone call from Hotch. 

I left your room with just a chaste kiss and a promise that we’d have more slumber parties like that when we got home. You made me pinky promise to talk about my nightmare. 

“Talking about the dream is extremely beneficial,” You said. And I knew you were right, but I didn’t want to scare you away yet. So I didn’t tell you until two years after that day. I just nodded and told you the next time I had it I would tell you. You smiled and squeezed my hand as I passed the threshold of the door. That was the end of our lovely night, and then we spent the rest of the day in Work Mode. 

So that’s what this watch reminds me of. This watch is that night. The night I visit often in my daydreams. It’s the only tangible reminder of the first of many nights to end in us falling asleep undressed next to each other. The night where we said ‘I love you’ with every part of ourselves except our voices. It took a few more months to say the words, but we both always knew. 

When I found the watch while packing, I put it on. Even on the tightest hole it still spun around on my wrist. It felt funny on me, because it should be on you. 

You never came looking for it, which, I’ll admit, hurts a lot. I keep thinking that maybe if you had things would be different. You could’ve called me and asked where it was, then I would have invited you over to get it. Maybe I could’ve given it to you over coffee. We could’ve talked, maybe even figured out what we needed from each other. We could’ve reconciled. Fixed this. God, how badly I wanted to fix this. But we couldn’t. Could we? I guess we’ll never know. 

Maybe one day you’ll wear this again. I hope you do. I hope you want to. And if you do, I hope you think of me.”

Spencer put the letter down and rummaged through some drawers until he found the supplies he needed to change the battery. Once he did, he spun the little knob on the side until it got to the right time. He buckled it on his wrist and admired it. He had no idea what it meant to you, but now that he did he could never look at it the same again. He remembered that night often when he missed you. He remembered how the soft skin of your hips felt against his finger tips. How your skin tasted salty when he kissed along your chest. He remembered how your body felt as he moved above you and how your lips never left each other for even a second. How your hands tugged at his hair and how your nails dug into the skin of his back. He missed it. In the last few months of your relationship you refused to be intimate. He was lucky if he could get you to be in the same room as him. There was a good reason for it, but he still missed feeling that close to you. He doubted he’d ever let himself get that close to anyone again. 

You were right, of course. You’re always right. He should have called about the watch. Hell, he should have called about anything. He should have found any excuse to talk to you more than just about work. He should have done so many things different. But then again, you never called. You never texted him to come get his stuff. You never talked to him about anything other than work. So maybe in some weird way you guys were even. It takes two. 

He looked at the time on the watch. It was well past midnight now, so he grabbed the box and your notes and put it on his bed. He laid next to it, imagining it was you. The box was parts of you, and if that was as close as he could get, that would have to be enough. He rolled over and closed his eyes, begging his brain to let him see you the only place he would from now on. His dreams.

PART 5!

tags:  @l0ve-0f-my-life @aperrywilliams @helloniallslovelies​ @random-ravings @ajwantsapancake​ @boiled-onionrings​

[equisetumspn]

I decided that 15x20 never happened and wanted to give it a go at some kind of fix it. I haven't written any kind of fiction in a million years,so I'm a bit rusty.

Coda for 15x19 with a fluffy ending.

When Chuck lost his powers to Jack, they left him where he had fallen to the ground. Neither Dean nor Sam could find it in them to care about the crumpled pile of a man who used to be God. Not after everything he’d done to them, not after all the years he’d spent toying with them for his own amusement. Dean turned immediately and started to walk towards the Impala, Sam waited for Jack to catch up before they followed him.

“So, now what? What do we do?” Sam asked.

“We get them back. Everybody who Chuck poofed away, we bring them back. Eileen, Garth, Charlie, Donna, Jody and the girls, everybody else who disappeared. Jack?”

“I’ll try” Jack snapped his fingers several times, the scrunched up expression on his face showing how hard he concentrated on channelling his new powers. Dean heard a happy bark coming from the backseat.

“Hey, buddy, I missed you” he said and pulled the dog into his arms, burying his face in Miracle’s fur. A faint buzzing and a sharp intake of breath made him look up. Sam had pulled his phone from his pocket typing rapidly.

“Eileen is back! She’s okay. Thank you, Jack” Sam said without looking up from the phone still typing.

“That’s great Sammy. She coming to meet you or are we gonna go pick her up on the way back to the bunker? Cause I guess you wanna see her?”

“Yeah I. Let’s, uh let’s go get her.”

When he saw Sam’s long arms wrap around Eileen, the joy and relief radiating out of Sam made Dean smile. It was the first time since Cas had been taken by the Empty that he had been able to smile, it was small and filled with pain, but it was still a smile. He was happy for his brother but seeing him reunite with Eileen just made him ache for Cas even more. He closed his eyes and sighed as Cas’ words echoed in his mind, he wondered if there would ever come a day where he wouldn’t hear them all day and dream about them all night. He sighed again.

“What are you thinking about, Dean?” Jack had moved into the front seat of the Impala, Miracle on his lap, so that Sam and Eileen could sit next to each other in the back.

“Cas.”

“Yeah, me too. We’ll get him out. Somehow.” Jack said as Sam and Eileen climbed into the car, signing to each other.

Four days later, Dean could barely keep his eyes open as he forced himself to turn to the next page. He felt like he had searched every single book in the bunker’s library. He’d had help by the others, but Sam and Eileen had at least taken breaks. They’d gone to bed, they’d cooked in the kitchen, and they’d reminded him to eat. Hell, even Jack had taken breaks to go on walks with Miracle.

“Dean, come on, you need to sleep.”

“I’ve slept.”

“Three hours in that chair doesn’t count, besides you need to shower. You stink. And you need to drink something other than coffee. Go rest for a while.”

“Fine.” Dean grabbed the sandwich Sam had brought him and took a bite of it on the way to the shower. “But you better wake me up when I’ve had my four hours.”

Dean was dreaming of blue eyes being swallowed by black goo when Jack came storming into his room.

“Dean! Dean! We think that maybe” he didn’t have time to say more because Dean had already left the room, running to the library.

“What the hell, Sam! You were supposed to wake me up two hours ago!” Dean barked. “And what is that?” he pointed to a stone slab in Eileen’s hand.

“It’s a record of the Empty. We found it down with the other stuff we have left from Metatron.”

“Metatron! That big bag of dicks!”

“Yeah, well, at least he was good at jutting down information. Chuck must have asked him to collect all he knew about the Empty.”

“Jack, you can read it, right?”

“Yes. We think that we can use it to open a portal into the Empty if we combine it with an old spell we found in one of Rowena’s books.”

“Awesome, anyone else of our old friends needed for this? Let’s just do it.”

“Dean, from what we’ve understood, only one person can go in after him. And it can’t be Jack because we need his powers to keep the portal open.”

“I was already planning on being the one doing it. It… it has to be me, Sam.”

“Okay, I figured you’d say that. It needs to be done in a place that is significant to you, significant to Cas.”

Dean closed his eyes. A place that was significant to him and Cas? They’d been through so much together. Heaven. Hell. Purgatory. There was one place his mind kept coming back to…

“The barn.”

“Sorry?”

“The barn where me and Bobby summoned Cas after he rescued me from hell.”

When the portal slowly opened, Dean turned around for one last look before he stepped into the Empty. He saw Sam, looking tense with his arm around Eileen, and Jack, flexing his hand to open the portal more so Dean could step through it. The last thing he saw was one of the old sigils Bobby had painted before they’d first met Cas and he’d introduced himself as an Angel of the Lord.

It was dark. So very dark. Dean tried to hold his hand in front of his face, but he could not see anything, he could just sense that it was there. He had always hated that feeling. Dean pressed the button on his flashlight but it did not turn on. Neither did his phone. He supposed that things generating light didn’t work in the Empty. He pocketed his phone and threw the useless flashlight to the side. It made a weird, clanky sound when it landed. Almost like he was in an endless cavern, he thought.

“Cas?” Dean’s voice echoed and then he heard nothing at all. It was like the darkness surrounding him consumed all light and all sounds. With nothing but his intuition to guide him he picked a direction and started to walk.

Dean walked. It felt like he had walked for a week. Or it could be twenty minutes. It was hard to tell when he couldn’t rely on his senses.

Dean kept walking.

And walking.

Right as he started to fear that he would be stuck here forever, doomed to walk in the dark of the Empty for the rest of eternity, he sensed something different. It wasn’t like he could see anything, or hear anything, but everything just seemed a little bit less… compact. He picked up his speed. When the air around him went from pitch black to the deepest of grays, he started to run. He ran until he almost tripped over something on the ground. No, not something. Someone.

“Cas! Cas! Hey, Cas! Come on!”

“He can’t hear you.”

Dean turned around without letting go of Cas. “Meg.”

“I’m still not Meg. I was supposed to fall asleep when he got here. Castiel’s here and I’m not asleep. He’s the one sleeping, it’s not fair! I’m so tired!” she whined.

Dean looked down at Cas, he really did look like he was sleeping. Sleeping peacefully. Maybe he should just let him be? Dean shook that thought away as soon as it appeared, no damn it! He was going to be selfish for once in his life. There had to be a way… What if…

“Meg?” She glowered at him. “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to call you that. If I could help you to fall asleep, would you let us go then?”

“You’d help me? Why?”

“Because I know how much it sucks not being able to sleep. Everyone deserves to sleep.”

She looked like she was considering what he had said.

“He can’t leave as an angel” she said after a long pause. “His grace has to stay here.”

Dean didn’t hesitate. “Deal.” He pulled off his jacket and his flannel, folding them into a square and putting them on the ground. “You need a pillow if you’re gonna sleep.”

Meg-who-didn’t-want-to-be-called-Meg slowly got down and put her head on the improvised pillow. Dean looked at her and then at Cas and then at Meg again, before he bent down over Cas and carefully removed his trench coat. He put it over Meg, tucking her in.

“There. You need a blanket too. Nice and comfy, right?”

Meg nodded, actually looking comfortable.

“Now close your eyes.”

Meg closed her eyes.

“Concentrate on your breathing. In and out. Nice and slow. In and out.”

Meg’s breathing slowed down.

“Good. There you go. Just like that. In and out. In and out…” Dean’s voice turned into a quiet whisper.

“Dean?”

“Cas! Cas, you’re awake!”

“Yes, Dean. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to grip you tight and raise you from mmmph” before he could get the rest of the sentence out, Cas had put his hands around his neck and dragged Dean towards him and pulled him into a kiss. Dean was barely aware of the darkness disappearing around them, but all of a sudden, he was back on the dusty floor of the barn. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. There was a noise in the background of Jack closing the portal. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He heard Sam clear his throat somewhere close by. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He faintly heard Sam say to the others that maybe they should wait by the car. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. The footsteps from Sam, Eileen, and Jack grew fainter. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to stop kissing Cas now that he finally had started to kiss him. Eventually, they had to breathe. Dean leaned his forehead against Cas’.

“I love you too, angel. Of course I love you too.”

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Incarceration.”

This is the part two to behind bars. WARNING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

I don’t think there is anything really bad in this one, so I leave i up to your guys to decide weather to read it. you don’t need to have read the first part to read this one if you don’t want. 

He hadn’t been wrong when he said things could only get worse, Sitting there in the back of the, technically unlicensed police vehicle Krill watched from between the bars as the city passed below them. Neon lights roared past in streaks of light as they were ushered through Noctopolis’s complicated system of airways, marked by hundreds of glowing orange traffic buies. Commander Vir lay awkwardly on one shoulder muzzled and silent.

Krill was left alone to assume the worst without any words of encouragement from his usually upbeat human friend. Noctopolis was a lawless backwater, they both knew that, so what was to come was sure to be the worst of what mild anarchy had to offer. They knew from reports that humanity, while always on the verge of anarchy, refused the idea on principal, so someone somewhere had set up a policing system, now, who that was, and how they were being paid off remained a mystery.

The vehicle was pulled right and angled downwards giving Krill a view through the plexiglass separator and out the front windshield. What he saw, he didn’t like. The structure was a behemoth of steel, concrete, and iron surrounded on all sides by miles and miles of electrified chain linked topped in cruelly twisting barbed wire. A network of floating cameras spanned the sky over the building intermittently bathing the ground in a horrifically bright spotlight. When mechanical methods weren’t enough, men in dark uniforms paced the perimeter with vicious black dogs cradling human lethality in mat black contraptions fueled by gunpowder thousands of years of death engineering.

He glanced over at the Commander, but the look on the man’s face…. Well it was…. Not encouraging. His eyes had gone wide, and not the good kind of wide, the very very bad kind. The human was scared.

As they sat there, he began frantically kicking at the seat in front of him.

The officer in the driver’s seat turned his head sideways, “KNOCK IT OFF!”

The commander didn’t let up kicking harder. The second officer turned around, “You don’t want to know what happens if you keep resisting. We can tell he prisoners inside whatever we want about you.”

The commander paused eyes unsure before jerking his head. The guard finally sighed, pressing a button on a small device allowing the volume on the commander’s speech, “Where the hell are you taking us….”

The man turned back to the front and snorted, “Don’t you know . I thought the Turma Supermax Corrections Facility was famous.”

“First of all isn't Turma just the word for prison in Russian, and second of all, famous for being a deathtrap, like the gulag, Alcatraz, San Quenton, Hell? You haven't proven that I’ve done anything wrong, we should be going to jail, not prison, maybe to court, but this, this is insane.”

The guards didn’t even look at them, “Surprisingly educated little bugger aren't you.This isn’t earth kid, this is Noctopolis, and the UN doesn't decide what goes on here, at least not yet. And since we don’t have a jail, guess you'll have to spend some time in the hole.”

Krill watched the man go pale, not just a little, but grey pale, corpse pale, and if the human was scared…. He was scared.

Krill leaned closer to the human as the vehicle dropped low onto the entrance road stopping before the scanning equipment. “What is going on?”

The commander leaned over whispering, “Remember that time we ended up in a rundi prison.”

“Yeah?”

“Well think like that but…. Like a thousand times worse.”

Krill wondered how hard it would be to fling himself out the window. The human leaned closer, “This facility is famous because of it’s practically medieval incarceration practices, we haven't used systems like this in over a thousand years. Men kept in sells out can almost spread your arms to touch both sides in, no privacy, no protection. To survive the aliens and the humans have formed gangs on the inside. When you get in you HAVE to join a gang, or you die. Since the prison was started there have been ten major riots hundreds of deaths. You’ll get shanked, beaten to death, or worse if you don’t comply to gang rule. You have to pay them do jobs and you WILL be inducted weather you like it or not.” Krill felt his body going cold, “Horrible food terrible conditions rampant drug use that the guards don’t care about… This facility is…. It’s human sociality gone wrong, the Stanford prison experiment in practice…. It’s every monster under the bed and every deep dark secret we try to hide from ourselves. This is… humanity uncensored.” “Way to sugar coat it.” Krill squeaked

“I did.”

The two of them went silent as the vehicle stopped by the guard towers scanned and the gates opened. A prisoner transport bus drove in beside the, and form the window, krill could seem massive hulking shadows hunched behind those windows. He shivered at the thought of what they could be.

“So, this isn’t normal.”

“Not even close, on earth your may go to jail, like a mini prison much nicer probably smells like shit but no big deal, to actually get here you have to be sentenced by a judge. They have to PROVE you really did what they are accusing you of, and then they have to decide your sentence. You get bail, a lawyer, correspondence, and if you cooperate, generally not flogged over the head.” 

They were waved through and up to the doors. The commander grimace, “Get ready, this is going to be… horrific.”

The door to their side opened,and the two of them were dragged from the car. Krill was practically ignored, but the commander was bodily manhandled towards the doors as the bus came to a stop next to them. Krill watched in horror as the doors opened, and the biggest, meanest, scariest looking humans he had ever seen stepped from the doors, They were massive some of them at least four inches taller than the commander with a least fifty pounds of muscle on him their arms and chests swollen like balloons, of course they came in all shapes and sizes some smaller some with hair some without, some heavily covered in tattoos while others were clean of them. Dark ink in the shape of teardrops touched some of their faces, he saw plenty of spiderwebs, many words. And it wasn’t just humans, it was hulking drev and seedy looking tesraki all clustered together in an amalgamation of shifty eyes and glares.

They were shoved through the open doors into a massive intake room and up towards the desk. A pair of guards stood at each station with even more over to the side.

Krill was pulled up to one counter.

“Name, Species, and charges.” 

One of the officers answered for him, “Says its name is Krill, Vrul, charged with aiding and intent to sell.”

He was pulled to the side, and a strange contraption was held up to his neck. There was a sharp hiss, a thud, and he squealed in pain as the fluorescent dye was injected into his skin. He was shoved to the side into another holding room, and Commander Vir was pushed up to the counter.

“Name, date of birth, charges.”

“COMMANDER Adam Vir of the UNSC.” One of the guards snorted.

The lady raised an eyebrow looking him over, “Hmmm and I’m the president of Mars. Please place your hand on the scanner.” The human did as told, but in changed red and blinked negative, the woman clicked her tongue and ran a quick wand over his arm, “Sorry Mr. John Doe, military ID is required for all UNSC officers and soldiers, and you don’t appear to have one, plus your prints aren't in the system, now date of birth?”

The human sighed, “July 13, 3998, and im innocent.”

Behind him the guard snorted, “Possession of illegal substance, intent to sell, failure to identify, unlawful possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest.”

“I did identify myself, and the drugs you found on me weren’t mine. I was-”

“Ah that age old shtick, these aren’t my pants officer, I swear.” She motioned him forward, and before he could react the device came up. He cursed as the dye was injected into his skin leaving the fluorescent purple number visible on its surface. He was pushed forward into the holding cell with krill, and from there they were funneled into two lines, humans and nonhumans.

Stepping up to the counter, they were ordered to surrender ALL personal Items.

Commander Vir was momentarily uncuffed under the eyes of at least five guards pulling off his belt, watch, and shoes placing the in the container. The man behind the desk waited, “ALL personal items.”

“Everything.”

The man grunted, “Can't exactly cavity search you if we can’t get to all the cavities, now get to it.” 

Krill felt very sorry for the humans just then, he may not have understood it, but he did understand the invasion of personal privacy. The commander eventually dropped his last item of clothing into the box looking very, very uncomfortable. The shiny metal of his cheap prosthetic glittered in the fluorescent lights, “Ask me to give up the leg, and we are going to have a RIOT.” He snarled.

“No, but we will need he eyepatch.”

The human tried to protest, but that wasn’t an option, and eventually he pulled it off and tossed it angrily onto the pile. From there they were cuffed and brought into another long-white room where they were all sat side by side in two long rows. The commander scooted closer to Krill as he eyed the man next to him, almost as tall as Sunny.

Krill glanced over at the human and, “I thought you just had the one tatoo.”

The human glowered at him, “Dude, no… we are not talking about that here. Not like this.” That was when they were all unceremoniously blasted with a deluge of water. Coughing sputtering and dripping they were lead out a set of doors and over a series of grates blowing freezing cold air. The human;’s skin had turned purple and he was shivering.

“Fuck this.” he moaned then paused, “Never-mind, don’t think to deeply into that.”

Krill was mercilessly led off to another containment unit while the humans were led into another area. 

A single guard was snapping pictures of the incoming tattoos and cataloging them along with the ID number. The commander turned around to show the largest tattoo he had  about fist sized on his right shoulder-blade. It was the earth encircled by a pair of wings and the banner for his flight unit.

“Which gang is this one for.” The man asked

He sighed, “‘No gang, it's an air-force thing.” The man grunted, “Any others.” With a sigh the Commander turned to the side exposing the second tattoo on the side of his leg just under his hip. 

“The hell is that supposed to be.”

He looked almost offended, “Marvin the Martian.” He received only a blank stare, “you know weird voice little alien character from the looney tunes…. Look I was drunk when I got it but that’s still no reason you shouldn't know who he is and before you ask NO it is not gang affiliated.”

When Krill was finally united with the commander, the man looked… very flustered, though he had been given a steel grey long-sleeve jumpsuit to wear. “I ... hate…. Everything.” Krill glanced nervously towards the opposite doors. 

“You need to talk to the GA ad the UNSC about this… this is barbaric.”

The human grumbled, “Tell me about it, we invented imaging machines for a reason.”

Krill had a feeling they were talking about two different things, but kept silent. The two of them were grabbed by a pair of guards and then led towards the doors, “Alright you two a couple of rules before you go in, play nice with the other kids, the first three digits of your ID number match that of your cell. When the bell rings you will return to your cell, if you don’t you will be administered an electric shock until you comply.” The doors ahead of them opened, and they were shoved out into general population.

The room was absolutely massive rising at least seven stories up with steel catwalks and safety glass at all seven levels. The center of the room was crowded with tables and chairs, a TV hung from one corner of the room, and the sound was absolutely deafening, the echoing cascade of a hundred voices. They noticed pretty quickly the species based segregation going on inside. The drev had claimed the TV while the humans congregated at the center of the room. The Tesraki were cowering under the stairs, and a couple other odds and ends hung on to that group.

There were no visible Vrul.

Together they cautiously stepped onto the floor. Commander Vir’s teeth were gritted, and he kept absently adjusting the grey gauze strip that now made for an eyepatch.

“We are going to die.” Krill whispered.

The captain didn’t respond.

Together they found themselves a table away from all three groups and tried to vanish into the shadows. Commander Vir was desperately muttering to himself trying to figure out a way to contact someone on the outside, or at least get out a message. Krill was hiding himself under the table rocking back and forth wishing for the sweet release of death. 

“Krill, Krill maybe we can talk to one of the guards, maybe we can convince them to help us.” He stood from his seat nodding to himself not waiting for Krill to give his opinion turned and ran face first into the chest of an absolutely behemoth prisoner. He WAS as tall as sunny for sure with a chest measurement almost twice that of Vir. His huge arms where the circumference of the commander’s head. 

Slowly the Commander lifted his eyes upwards mouth hanging slightly open eyes wide coming to a rather large, round face with a well trimmed goatee, no hair and angrily slanted eyebrows. It was then he noticed the four other humans standing behind him. One was tall and surprisingly handsome with thick curly hair going down to his shoulders while the other two were short wiry, balding and appeared to be twins. To their right was a man just a little shorter than the first dark hair dark skin and an unusually friendly expression considering the circumstances.

The man just in front of Vir stepped forward placing them chest to chest with Vir craning his neck upwards, “Why don’t you take a seat, friend.” He took another step forward and Vir staggered back catching his knees on the bench and forcibly sitting down. As soon as he did the dark friendly-face man, and one of the twins came to sit next to him sandwiching him in between them in what might have been a friendly gesture, accept for it wasn’t.

The first man loomed over him arms crossed over his chest, “Do you know what the first rule of the yard is?”

Commander Vir stammered and pressed himself back into the table, “Uh… don’t be a dick?”

The men around the table chuckled, without any humor, “Ah, I see we have a funny guy here, and when I say funny guy I mean a guy who is funny because he's clearly never been in the hoe before and learned everything he knows from movies…. Am I wrong?” 

Vir shook his head, though if Krill were in his position he wouldn't have disagreed either.

“First rule of the yard is that gang rules. It's the humans against the beetles and the bats, you get a chance to screw them over, you take it. But before that, Allen over there-” The handsome human raised his hand, “Is going to check your record, and if we see anything we don’t like…. Well you can imagine fom there.”

“S-something you don’t like? Like what.”

The small man to his side piped up, “Like if you're some kind of Cho-mo.”

Vir frowned, “A what/”

THe skinny  guy beside him spat on the floor, “ You know, A cho-mo, a kiddy fiddler,.”

Vir’s eyes widened, “Woah, whoah, hold on, I’m not that's… disgusting. I like kids…. Hold on that came out wrong. I mean I would never never ever touch or hurt a kid.” He took a deep breath, calming himself, “I am not a child molester and the kind of people that do that kind of thing deserve to die.” He locked eyes with the man above him and held it.

The frown split into a grin, “Good, just what we like to hear because if you turn out to be lying to us we’re gonna beat you to within an inch of your life,” He smiled openly “now just gotta make sure you aren't a snitch.” 

He was slapped heavily on the back by the darker human beside him lurching forward teeth gritted eyes wide. Before he could do anything the handsome man stepped forward, grabbed him by the hair, and ran some sort of scanning device over his number. He yelped in pain,but was pushed back before he could do anything. The man looked down at the device eyes scanning quickly over the words. The entire group went very still for a moment leaning in closer towards the commander with narrowed eyes.

“ John Doe, 25, 210, 6’2 Caucasian, Green Eye, prosthetic leg, tattoos of unknown origin, right shoulder right hip.” he looked up from his device, and sneered before looking down at his notes. “Possession of illegal substance, intent to sell, failure to identify, unlawful possession of a firearm, and resisting arrest.” There was a mutter around the group Krill thought he saw a few of the humans nodding.

“That's what they SAY I did, but I didn’t”

“Sure we’re all innocent here. Anyway John, what’s your real name?”

Adam shifted uncomfortably from where he was pinned between two strangers, “Adam, my name is Adam, and I told them that.”

“Uh huh, sure.”

Krill heard something from behind him as suddenly he was dragged into the air by a vice-like hand on his shoulder. He squealed and thrashed in desperation and fear as the other twin dragged him from under the table and held him up to the light, “And who is your friend here, a bug, don’t see many of those around here.”

Before any of the men could move, the commander was out of his seat and face to face with the small man. His single green eye once wide and afraid had narrowed, he stood tall back straight chest out teeth locked into a snarl, “Put him down or your fist goes down your throat.” His voice was like ice on steel.

Surprisingly the small man stepped back in shock. The entire group murmured, the small man looked towards his leader who finally waved a hand. Krill was dropped to the floor and skittered over to hide behind Adam who stood defensively against a group of five men, two of them taller than he was, “If you want to hurt him, then this ENTIRE prison is going to have to go through me.”

The big man cocked his head staring down at Adam like a great dane looks at a cockroach, “And what is the bug to you.”

“Someone I’m not willing to let get hurt, and if any of you disrespect him again I will go THROUGH you.” He was toe to toe with the big man now unmoving. Kril covered his eyes.

The big man leaned back a bit in contemplation, “You’re not one of those ... Disgusting Extrrials are you, getting freaky with the bug there.”

He didn’t break his stance, “We’re friends, and I owe him my life a million times over.”

The big man tapped his fingers against his arm for a contemplative moment, “Alright, I can respect that, just keep him in line, and he’s your responsibility.” Adam was clapped heavily on the shoulder and his eyes joggled around in his head with the force of it. The tense circle that had been around them before broke into into relaxation smiling and laughing, “Welcome to the hole.”

Krill kept at his heels as the two of them were dragged across the room to join the humans at their tables.

Only Krill saw the light tremor in the captain’s hand as they moved off.

[anteroom-of-death]

Life, For Dummies p2

a/n: quarentine’s brought out the worst in me, does anyone know anything anymore? idk... i hope you all enjoy part 2! part 3′s got the spice in my mind’s plotting... slow burn anyone???

It had been roughly a week since you’d join the Master on his TARDIS. It was cozier and the console room was an actual room, like a living room. Sure it had all the little knobs and a control center, but it had a mini kitchen and couches and soft chairs. As well as whatever books he had been reading at the moment. 

Homey. Comforting even.

Today’s adventure was less relaxing than his first he brought you on: A spa planet. Three whole days of being rubbed down, being fed gorgeous tasting health foods and relaxation. Closest to being a dog that chills in a rich socalite’s handbag all day. He of course, joined you in these revelries, and you even joined him as he made little jokes about other species' appearances and gossip.

This time was him killing off an entire planet for a Empress’s cheek. He offered you pour over coffee and a Danish as he giggled over the ash filling the air from an Adirondack chair as you tried to mentally stop yourself from crying over this. You, Y/N, were here with a genocidal maniac and you should really get a grip. You signed up for this. Anything you saw was your own fault, you told yourself as you cautiously took the coffee from the man and sat next to him.

“I can tell you’re thinking, love.” He said, “Why don’t say what’s on your mind? Hmm?” 

“Why me?” You tore your eyes away from the sight of a giant building falling downwards on itself. “You could have taken Yaz or Ryan or hell, even pick some schlub off the streets!”

He raised his hand and raised his voice. “So the Doctor’s the only one who can take a pet or two or more?” His eyebrows raised, there he was, always sprinkling in the word “pet” usually it brought a shiver down your spine. But not today. Not now.

You huffed and groaned, rubbing your finger into your eye, “No, Master-” you said the word as if it wasn’t your kink, but a derogatory term. “Why me? What do you expect? Huh? You’re gonna go after her one day and I will be there, looking like a traitor or a double agent or what the fuck ever, and here I am, getting attached to you and I’ve just seen you nuke a fucking civilization? I’ve never seen that happen besides like, footage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” You manually stopped him with a raised hand and all the venom you could shoot from your eyes. “I can’t yet reconcile friendships! It’s like eighth grade all over again and Tammy doesn’t like Britney and Britney is friends with Joe but Joe like likes Tammy and Joe’s just over here wanting to blow his brains out!” You gesticulated this flowchart of emotional entanglement before slamming down the coffee and deciding to slam the TARDIS door shut. You didn’t want an answer anymore. You accidentally revealed too much. 

You didn’t know what you felt anymore.

Sure, the man was hotter than your wildest fantasies of what a hot person could look like, and the name was enough to bring out any other types of fantasies you could have. It’s not like you weren’t already shaking off dirty thoughts about him and various pieces of furniture in here. 

The Master frequented between slightly soft and vulnerable to ready to kill off anyone. That wasn’t the most stable of mindsets.

You began shaking where you stood. What if he was now going to kill you? You were a lot more disrespectful than the Empress was. Your breathing became erratic and there was a definite lump in your throat forming. This, out of all the ways you thought death would come to you, especially since Time Lords entered your life, wasn’t how you expected to die. 

He slammed open the door and you let out a scream before dissolving into hysterics. The scrap of dignity you had left told you not to beg for your life. 

For a split minute you tried to gather yourself up and over before getting back up and spitting through your tears, “Kill me, go ahead, I dare you to!” Your breathing sped up as your heart slammed, threatening to break your rib cage. You were so close to pissing yourself as you scrunched up your eyes, you didn’t want to see your death or the man before you shrinking you to dinky size. 

Would it hurt? You thought as you mentally started internerising all you hadn’t accomplished in life and the pile of dirty clothes you left at home. 

“Well,” Trying to sound braver than you were, “Get on with it!” 

Mirthful laughter started and got louder as you closed your eyes tighter and evened out your breathing. “Kill me!” It came out half begging at this point, the coffee stirring up the acid in your stomach

It was a second later that a sarcastic sounding applause started and you opened up your eye, only one. For caution. 

“You think I’m going to kill you because you talked back once?” He purred. “Is your opinion of me that warped?” 

Pointing outside, “I have my rights to think that!” 

“Oh please, she thinks she can speak to anyone in any tone all her life and doesn’t like when people tell her no once, so I had to. The rest of the people are just a perk to add to her little lesson in decorum…”

“Not fucking funny!” Hauling out and hitting him in the arm, “You really had me going! I aged more in the past minute than I have all my life!” You sat down and moaned in pain as you massaged your forehead and worked on breathing.

“It was fun, loads of it. You gotta admit it.” 

You groaned and leaned backwards on the couch pulling the thick afghan over your face. “Sadist.” You muttered into the thick weave.

It could have been your imagination, but you for a split second thought you heard from the other side of the room, “And don’t you love me for it.”

It could have been your dirty imagination creeping up again. Maybe…

It was like he could read your mind, and it was his own monkey bars to swing around on.Testing you out and seeing how you’d react. 

Not that you’d expect someone who’s name was The Master to do anything differently…

Not that when you saw him and learned what his name was that you weren’t gunning to board the plane into subspace from dipshit-ville. 

Hearing him start the TARDIS up and go for another destination, you pulled it off your face and around you like a shawl, “So why does yours change shape all the time and seem like you don’t have to run around the console?”

“Hers is meant for multiple people to fly and it’s very, very broken.”

Of course, you rolled your eyes.

“It’s supposed to blend in, do what it’s pilot says. You know, rather like a car. You wouldn’t bring a dinky muddy Jeep Wrangler to a proper black tie event? Would you.” He flipped a switch and started entering coordinates into the touch screen.

“If you ain’t a pussy.” You muttered again. The statement smacked of classism you felt.

He elected to ignore that. Thank G-d. 

“So what are you in the mood for, Y/N? The best traditional Earth food the 34th century can offer or a nice shallow grave I can chuck your willing corpse into.” He smirked and wrinkled his nose at you.

“Woah. King of the non-sequitur.” 

“What even is ‘traditional’ Earth food?” Last time you checked, there were hundreds of what could be argued as “traditional” Earth foods. Your curiosity was genuinely piqued. “Yeah…” you nasalled, “Gimmie the best Earth food the 34th century can offer!” You leaned back down on the couch. 

“Get dressed better.” He ordered. 

You slumped off to the massive wardrobe and got something comfy yet nice looking. Just in case you had to run away from an explosion or something. 

Schlepping out of the depths, you twirled around, “I’m decent.” 

He made a noise like the Jeopardy buzzer. “Utterly not. Try again.” 

You did. 

Another buzzer noise. 

Third times a charm, you even put on a nice corset dress and a slide-on pair of sneakers. 

He marched you up in yourself ranting about how humans couldn’t be half-arsed to make their own decisions and he should just start picking your clothing out for you. 

You held your tongue and just waited for it to be over. 

“Get undressed.” He flipped a hand at you. 

Of all the places to strip down, in front of an alien was not on the list. It wasn’t like it was the person at the lingerie store sizing you up for a bra and panties. It was a man, alien albeit, and he was seeing you in your Hello Kitty underwear and tattered nude bra. Humiliating. 

“What do I even wear? You couldn’t even whip out the Space-Zagat or tell me how many Space Michelin Stars this place has!” You covered your stomach with your hands in an attempt at modesty. 

He went over to the hanger next to the door and seemingly manifested a shimmery purple ombre tulle gown and some glitzy silver strap heels.

He hastily unzipped it and said, “Pop in.” and you slid in as he zipped it up, you felt the warmth of his hands linger on the small of your back and the nape of your neck. He took his index finger and slid it up, the corner of the nail slightly catching on the soft baby hairs at the bottom of your scalp. You shivered and had a sharp intake of breath. You nearly felt more tears spring up for today. That felt good.

Suddenly, you felt a clink of a thick chain lock around your neck. “Turn around…” He ordered again, softly. He pointed towards a mirror. The sight of yourself was bewildering. It was off the shoulder and flattered you a little too much. It, paired with the solid gold chainmail necklace made you look almost regal? Queenly. All the big words. 

“Oh wow…” The words almost came out a choked garble, and yet barely above a whisper. The image before you was beautiful, and he was looming in the background, dressed to the nines to match in purple and gold. 

Then you exhaled. 

You looked like a power couple, like Bradjelina before the split, or Michelle and Barack Obama. You were sad how well you looked together. Though, how can an alien, especially when you saw what the females of the species did- eat a bar of soap and act like a racoon on trash night. 

You shook the lovely thoughts of that away. Tonight and the sensation of his slightly calloused, warm hands on your body were enough lust for one lifetime. 

“We’ve arrived.” He noted, drawing you out of yet another blank faced reverie.

You and your damn reveries. 

That’d be your death. 

Sashaying out as he took your hand and led you into this obviously very fancy and very expensive restaurant’s coat room from what looked like a small cupboard he led you to the reception where a humanoid with grey skin and spikes on their nose sat, “Name?” They drew lazily, a curious brow spike raised at the pair of you. 

“You will give us the best table and give us the best recreation-vintage.” He stated as if he was asking the weather. The creature looked dumbstruck and walked you to the table at the end of the dining hall, looking out on the vastness of space with planets twinkling and stars churning out light in the distance. The darkness contrasted well with the silver and whites of the place. 

As if by meaning, the pair of you stood out. Everyone else was in muted silver tones and you were specks of color demanding attention and respect. The center of a very odd universe. 

“Cotes du Rhone Red…” The waitstaff converged to you, “Sir, the finest of the Spiced Cheese Triangles...made this morning.” “Madame…” They all started simping postulating towards you.

Once you got your orders taken, you bit into one of the so called “Spiced Cheese Triangles”, it was a Dorito. 

“These are Doritos.” You whispered scandalised. “Do-rit-os.” He laughed, “Classic Earth food. You know how it is. The poor people love the food, the rich come in, spruce up the area, paint over the color, then charge a dozen times more for the same food. Don’t you know gentrification when you see it?” 

You guwaffed before taking a sip of your wine. The place was quiet except for the hushed chatter and soft sounds of eating. No music. Just the chasm of looking out into space. You rested your chin on your wrists and looked out. Where were you? Where was this place? So many questions scraped around your brain.

“You’re in the Black Eye Galaxy…” He responded quietly, “At the corner of it that looks into the mighty center…” 

You poked at your temple then towards his face. “I knew it!” You accused in a breath. “You can read my mind!” You leaned back and crossed your arms, “And you have me scrambling to find words every second of every day.” 

He winked. “A little. Human brains are very easy to rifle around in. I try not to read yours. Out of respect. I don’t mean to, all Time Lords are sensitive to the psychic vibrations of others. I was just a little more good at that when I was child. I use it to my advantage. Especially all things…” He trailed off, eyes growing dark. You made a mental note to pry later. Then tried to hide that and wipe it. He could read your mind, and you had to wrap your mind around that and compartmentalize that for another day. You didn’t want to ruin this lovely moment. Or a lovely half of a moment since it suddenly got dark. Your food got served and you continued to stare off into the great abyss of space. 

“Y/N?” Asked the Master. 

“Yes, Master?” You looked at him. His eyes were impossibly large and impossibly soft, framed by the longest and softest black lashes. It was strange how a man so universally feared and prone to fire-starting was capable of such a baby face. 

“I want you to tell me what you’re thinking. I’d rather not read your mind.” 

You felt yourself swallow a sudden lump in your throat. 

“I’ll work on it.” You promised.

Were you falling in love with him? Was this love? More confusion ebbed at your head. You scraped at your eyebrow with your pinky nail. 

You shoved that down deep into the caverns of your brain, where you kept your ballerina dreams and daddy issues.

You ate quietly. He barely seemed to touch a thing however. The evening drew on in a realm between too comfortable and oddly disheartening. 

As the evening drew to a close, he didn’t even pay. He just said to the waitress, “We’re finished.” And walked back to the TARDIS. This time not holding your hand. You didn’t know if that was a sign for you to grow up and stop fantasizing. You could take a hint. You weren’t as dumb as you looked. 

You marched to your room and couldn’t yet bear to rip your beautiful outfit from yourself. Especially the necklace, it felt oddly right. Like a collar or a letterman jacket. Something definitive of a bond. You sniffled. No more tears.

Wall of emotional protection, back up. Time to protect yourself. There’s no condom for your heart- you told yourself.

You went out back to the small kitchenette in the console room and made yourself a cup of tea to settle your stomach and saw him leaning over the counter of his little planning station, papers askew, hair mussed. It was sinful for one man to look insanely good while plotting something. 

“You’re still dressed?” He asked. Of course he’d stripped into something more comfortable, an unbuttoned waistcoat and jeans, a simple light purple button up. Did he sleep? You were contemplating PJs.

“Yeah. Problem?” You shrugged.

The look given was indescribable. 

“Utterly indecent.” He shook his head. He turned away for a second to bookmark the thick book he had. The way his jeans- midrise- shift around his bum was something funky. His hips were a bit wide so they slung over his body lavisciously. You caught yourself staring at it 

“Oh for fucks sake.” He said looking at you, your mouth sideways gaped, like you were some truck driver eyeing up a dime a ride whore at the stop. For all the rollercoaster of the day, the Master was breathtaking to look at.

He was in your mind again, and you were too tired and emotionally strung out to care. 

“I just want tea.”...and you, you mentally added, hoping that he’d get the subtext and either kill you to stop you from humiliating yourself further or make a move. Either or, it was something. 

He made a tutting noise and said, “Oh, you’d have to give me something in return.” A grin that was thoroughly wicked and possibly evil crept up and warmth flooded his eyes. His perfectly white teeth flashing dangerously in the ambient lighting. 

“What’s that?” You opened the line for bartering. You slid onto the table he was working at. Tea could wait for a second. Things just got interesting. 

He put one of those larger than life hangs on your neck and rested the crook of his thumb on your jaw, and petted it slightly. The rest of his fingers slightly applied a pressure to the base of your skull. His eyes traced over your face as he contemplated. He licked his lips slightly before speaking.

“I want you, fully. No more thoughts of ‘Oh, what if the Doctor catches us?’ or if you’re a traitor to her just because you are mine now. If she was truly a friend to you, and not just a preoccupation…”He cocked his head and focused his eyes on your lips. “She’d grant you this…” He moved his thumb down to the hollow of your jaw and pressed it. “She’d let you.” You closed your eyes and fluttered your eyelashes flipping around the millions of pro’s and con’s. You felt yourself relax and your body made your choices for you, you weren’t fighting it anymore. 

“What do you say, love?” He breathed in a husky tone.

“Yes.”

“Yes, who?” He chided in a guiding tone.

“Yes, Master.” 

“Good girl.” He laughed and dipped you down on the table inhaling your lips inward and pressed down with his free hand on your hip.

Giving up never would feel so good...

[98prilla]

Seeking Oblivion

Next

Previous 

AO3

...

Gray. Everything and nothing and the world was gray. He couldn’t even see his own hand in front of his face, his own being felt strange, not quite solid, on this endless realm of empty nothing that clouded everything.

 But there was one thing, something, pulsing softly at the edge of his senses, dim and distant but there.

 “Roman!” he shouted, voice bouncing and ricocheting back at him in a choir of calls, somehow louder than he'd been to start with.

 He spun towards the feeling, taking off after it, pulling once more at the bond, feeling him closer, but no more responsive, still frustratingly, emptily, terrifyingly blank.

 The farther he got into the gray, the harder it was to keep moving, some force slowing him, until pushing forwards with all his might barely moved him a step.

 But he could see something. He grit his teeth, summoned all his strength, and shoved, suddenly through.

The gray was behind, a bubble over this space, one he could somehow feel used to be larger, one he could feel shrinking and cracking, only a matter of time until the gray swept in and devoured it all.

 And on a stone pedestal before him was Roman, arms crossed over his chest, still as stone, pale as ivory. His outfit was leeched of color, his sash a pale, faded pink, his gold epaulets a faint yellow, the shine corroded and rusting away.

 His heart clenched and he reached out, eyes widening as he felt Roman's cheek. It didn’t just look like ivory, it was cold, solid stone. Roman was turned to stone.

 He stumbled back, screaming as he saw a crack form across Roman's legs, spreading up his body, diverging into hairline fractures that threatened to send him crumbling to rubble.

…

“Remus!”

 His eyes snapped open, and he heaved in a choked breath, eyes wild and wide as he saw more of the gray, the devouring gray, and Roman, he had to find Roman, and someone was screaming, and oh, it was him.

 He snapped his mouth shut, swallowing the scream still lingering in his throat, feeling hands on his shoulders, realizing Patton was kneeling before him, eyes wide and worried behind his glasses.

 He focused instead on Patton's face, cataloging the rounded wire frames, counting the freckles that bridged his nose, the floof to his disheveled bed head, realizing only at Patton’s small giggle that one of his hands had unconsciously found its way into his hair. It was very soft, a bit like petting a fluffy cat. Maybe Patton’s hair was just a cat, and he’d put it on his head and trained it to stay still so no one would realize he had a pet he was allergic to.

 “It’s not a cat, kiddo, just my hair.” Patton giggled, making Remus realize he'd spoken out loud. “you okay, kiddo? You woke up screaming.” He took a deep breath, surprised that Patton hadn’t pulled away yet, hadn’t told him to get off, hadn’t shoved him away in disgust.

 “Remus?” Virgil asked, and his eyes snapped to his, surprised again to see softness instead of the fear he was used to.

 “roman… I saw Roman…” he whispered, disentangling himself from Patton with a grateful glance towards the moral side as he kept ahold of his hand, the touch keeping him from losing hold of his sanity as he stood, still shaky. “not… not him, really, but the Imagination’s manifestation of him, of… of his form, of what he’s feeling or… fuck, I don’t know, I don’t know how to explain it! It’s just… it’s bad. It’s what we already knew. It’s all crumbling down, and soon so will Roman if we can’t fix whatever the hell he did to himself because he thought none of you loved him anymore!” He rants, having let go of Patton at some point, pacing once more, arms swinging wildly.

 “He thinks… we don’t love him?” Patton asked, and he looked at the moral side incredulously.

 “Um. Duh? He was a mess, yesterday. He was basically told everything he’d ever done to try and be good like you wanted meant nothing, that giving up the callback meant nothing, that trusting Janus was bad, but now trusting Janus is good, and being selfish is good, even though before it was bad, and everything that he’d been doing to try and be good was actually hurting everybody else! And then, you-“ Remus spun, pointing at Janus, eyes burning, “You basically called him evil, called him me, which is his worst fear, and none of you stepped in to say otherwise! So yeah, he thinks no one wants him anymore, dipshits!” He yelled angrily, glaring around at the somewhat stricken sides. “Except you, Virgil, you were dealing with your own shit.” He threw in after a moments thought. “Now come on!” He turned on his heel and stomped away, taking the lead, following the thread connecting him to Roman, trying and failing to pull at it and get any response from his other half, not really caring if the others were following or even keeping up.

 “I didn’t mean to hurt him… I just thought he needed space.” Patton whispered, feeling almost stuck in place as he pictured Roman’s face before he sunk out, on the verge of tears, hugging himself tightly.

 “I know, Patton. But a lot of people got hurt yesterday, by the both of us.” Janus murmured, looking ahead to where Logan and Virgil walked, nearly in step, Remus already disappearing into the fog.

 “how do I fix any of this? How… what if I can’t?” Patton asked desolately, looking up at Janus with those wide, puppy dog eyes.

 “You can, and you will. You always do, Pat.” He replied, squeezing Patton’s shoulder once, before pulling him into motion. “Just one step at a time.”

…

 It could have been hours later or mere minutes, when they reached the base of the tower. There was no sense of time there, no sense of anything, and the only thing keeping any of them from going mad from it was the worry that grew with every step.

 Then, suddenly, they were there.

 It was like stepping into a bubble of preserved Imagination. Suddenly, there was green grass underfoot, butterflies flitting from wildflower to wildflower, the colors bright and disorienting after so long in the gray. There was sun again, and fluffy clouds, and blue sky, a sweet, summer breeze lazily gusting by.  

 And in the center of it all, was the tower. It spiraled up, up, up, so high that even craning his neck all the way back, Virgil couldn’t quite see the very top of it. He eyeballed the bricks, but at a distance, they all looked solid. He was about to ask Remus if he’d be able to make something, in this uncorrupted sphere of the imagination, when a roar shook the ground.

 Suddenly the sun was blocked out by a huge shadow, and both Virgil and Janus shoved the others back, stumbling after them, as a huge thump sent them all sprawling. Looking back, Virgil sucked in a breath. Of course. Of course Princey couldn’t make an impossible tower, it also had to have a guardian.

 It was a dragon, a giant, fiery red dragon, golden scales interspersed among the ruby red, and it glinted like fire as it flared its wings, roaring once more, a sound that knocked them all further back, sent Virgil’s heart pounding, because it was huge, its talons taller than he was, teeth bared in a low growl as it watched them, slowly approaching.

 “I suggest a tactical retreat.” Logan murmured, trying to stay as still as possible, so as not to trigger the dragon’s hunting instincts.

 “Please, I’ve fought dragons thousands of times, and Roman’s aren’t even venomous!” Remus scoffed.

 “Yes, but that was with the power of the imagination. You can’t conjure here, Remus, you’re at a distinct disadvantage.” Janus cut in, grabbing onto Remus’s wrist before he could lose control and lunge at the beast.

 “Um, guys, we better do something, otherwise we’re gonna be dragon food!” Virgil hissed, unable to pull his eyes away from the furious dragon, who was now snorting smoke out of its nostrils, and he could practically see the fire burning in its belly, ready to erupt at any moment and burn them all to ashes, and then they’d all die just like that, and oh god, Thomas really was going to be a potato, wasn’t he-

 “Patton!” Janus hissed, and his eyes shot up, heart freezing in his chest as they all were broken out of their argument, Patton halfway across the clearing to the thundering, scaled beast.

 “Guys, it’s ok.” Patton said, shooting them all a small, worried smile, hands shaking as he approached the dragon, covering his ears as it roared again, right in his face, hearing the others’ sharp intakes of breaths.

 “hey, bud. It’s ok. I’m not gonna hurt you, m’kay?” He said softly, hands raised in the air, eyes looking down at the ground, peeking at the dragon from the corners of his eyes. He saw the dragon nervously kneading the ground, and lowered his hands to his sides. “You’re scared, aren’t you?” The dragon puffed indignantly in his face, wings flapping once, hard enough to knock him onto his butt. He smiled gently, looking up at the dragon, who’s entire focus was on him now, eyes narrowed as it tried to figure him out.

 “I’m scared too. We came looking for our friend, cause we know he’s in trouble. He’s… he’s had a tough time, recently, y’know? That’s why you’re here too, right? To take care of Roman?” He asked, tilting his head, the dragon slowly blinking once, almost like cats do, to show trust. “You’re protecting him, aren’t you? Trying to keep all the bad stuff away.” It’s not really a question, but the dragon seemed to nod, settling down on the ground, still watching Patton warily. He sighed.

 “and we’re part of what hurt him, so you’re trying to keep us away, keep us from hurting him more. I get it. But… but we want to help. This place is falling apart, cause of whatever is happening up there, and we can stop it. We have to stop it. Otherwise… otherwise I lose one of my kiddos, and I can’t…” He swiped his eyes with his sleeve, unable to help the sniffles overtaking him, all if it really just hitting him, that he could lose Roman forever.

 “I’d miss him. I’d miss him so, so much, I don’t think I could stand it. And I just want to help him feel better. I just want to tell him how much I love him, and I can’t, and I understand why he’d need space, but he didn’t need to leave…” He was crying, now, full on, messy tears dripping down his face.

 Then suddenly there was warmth against him, and he looked up to see the dragon nuzzling him with its snout, and with a small, broken wail, he hugged back, the dragon curling around him, resting its head in his lap as he pet it and cried and told it everything that had happened, everything that he’d wished he’d done differently, every way he was going to show Roman he was so, so, so, loved when they got him back, because they would get him back, they had to!

 Eventually, he cried himself out, hiccupping slightly as he stroked the dragon’s nose, wiping away the last of his tears.

 “you’re a good listener, huh? You’re a good dragon, too. Thank you, for looking after him.” Patton mumbled, kissing the top of its head softly. The dragon rumbled, almost a purr, and a small smile cracked through his misery as he drew back, sighing as he stared up at the tower. “will you let us through? We just… we wanna make things right.” He whispered, the dragon pulling back, looking at him hard for a long, endless moment, before dipping his head, and stretching out a wing, an invitation to climb aboard. He felt something in his heart lift as he turned back to the others, watching him with varying amounts of amazement and concern.

 “Well? Are you coming?” He echoed Remus, from what felt like years ago, a hopeful smile on his face as they all approached.

 “Is… is this really safe? Like, its not gonna drop us, or anything, right?” Virgil asked, glancing at the dragon a bit distrustfully.

 “It’ll be fine, Virg. I promise.” Virgil sighed, muttering something about going out with a bang, before gingerly climbing up the dragon’s wing, sitting between two of its spine spikes.

 “I’ll go make sure he doesn’t panic himself into falling off.” Janus commented with an eye roll, climbing up next. Logan simply gave him a small nod, his eyes somehow conveying all of his thanks and astonishment, as well as admonishment for putting himself in harm’s way.

 “Remus?” He asked softly, the last one to not board, looking up at the top of the tower’s spiral.

 “What if it really is like my dream? What if he’s crumbled to nothing but rubble?”

 “He hasn’t. This wouldn’t still be here, if he already had gone. We can do this, Ree. We all can. Together.” Remus stared a moment at Patton’s outstretched hand, taking a shuddering breath as he clasped it firmly in his, pulling Patton into a hug before he could stop himself.

 “thank you. For being so nice to me.” He mumbled, before he pulled away, springing up the dragon’s wing, Patton right behind, a slight frown playing on his lips. He’d have to make a point of including Remus more, inviting him to family events, him and Janus both.

 Because… because they were, part of the family. Family fought and squabbled and yelled and disagreed, but family loved each other, in the end, were only trying to look out for each other, even when that meant butting heads. They were his kiddos now, too, and he was determined that no one ever feel unwanted, ever again.

[certifiedskywalker]

The Person I Love - Klaus Hargreeves

Ever since you met Klaus Hargreeves, you knew you were in it for the long haul. You didn’t care about his past or his powers; you only wanted him. But when drugs begin to consume him, you’re left with a choice. Get him the help he needs and miss him or watching him kill himself slowly. You love him too much to watch him suffer.

AN: Okay, she’s a long one!. Any feedback/suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated!

Warnings: Angst, cursing, drug abuse (it comes with the territory), and slight sexual joke/implication(?)not really though

You had never known a sober version of Klaus. As much as you hated to dwell on the thought, you were certain he was high when he met you. How could someone like him smile at you like he did without being influenced by chemicals coursing through his veins. Perhaps it was meeting you, speaking to you, that upturned the corners of his mouth, but the rational part of you denied that as fact. However, in your darkest moments, you liked to think that smile was unaltered by any sort of pill. It was what made the nights less difficult and the days not so long. That thought made it all worth it when you woke up next to him, that same smile on his lips as he reclined in the hospital bed.

“Does this gown make me look fat?” “Never,” you say, smiling right back at him. The smile fades for a moment as you rub at sleep still clouding your eyes. By now, you were used to falling asleep in uncomfortable chairs; however, despite your experience, your body retained each ache. “You didn’t have to stay,” Klaus says softly, eyes taking in your tired expression. You slumped in the chair, turning your head to stare at him with an all too loving gaze. “You know that I do,” you hum in reply, “wouldn’t have it any other way.” It was a lie. Both of you knew that. You would love to have Klaus sober, to know that he was safe with the temptation of drugs behind him and the threat of death a far off cry. “Careful,” Klaus tsked, “grow any more honorable and you’ll turn into Luther.” You smile at the mention of his brother. You hadn’t actually met the man but, from what Klaus told you, his overbearing sense of morality was stupefying.

“So, what happened this time?” Your question prompted silence from the man before you. He tore his green eyes away from your face and fiddled with his hands that rested in his lap. The IV stuck into his hand shifted with each movement and you wondered if Klaus had grown too comfortable with the feeling of needles under his skin.

“Ya know, the usual,” he brushed off your worry with practiced ease, “overdid it. You know I was never any good with fractions and conversions.” Klaus chuckled, hoping his laughter would coax a grin your lips again. When it didn’t, Klaus knew something within you had been altered by this hospital stay. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” You ask, eyes widening now with shock. “Klaus, what’s wrong is that the nurses here are on a friendly, first name basis with you. What’s wrong is that we have had more sleep overs in this room than we have had at our own homes.” You were standing now, trying to distract yourself from the tears that were beginning to gather in your eyes.

“Y/N,” Klaus started to speak, but for the first time in his life, no words came to mind. You frowned at his new found quiet and continued. You stepped up to the foot of the bed so you could look directly at him as you spoke.

“This is the fifth time you’ve told me you ‘overdid it’ and I’m starting to…” you bit your lip at the thought and Klaus sat up in his bed. You turned your gaze back to him, taking in his wild mess of chocolate curls and the guilty concern written across his face. “I’m starting to think that maybe you’re doing it on purpose.”

Klaus’ jaw snapped shut and any words he had gathered died on the tip of his tongue. His eyes took in your form, from your baggy clothes that told him that, when the doctor called you, you had been ready for bed, and to the bags under your shining eyes. All signs of your worry and lack of true rest; a privilege you lost when you put your name down as Klaus’ emergency contact. You never told him that you did that, or how it felt more like a marriage certificate as you signed your very soul over to him and his bad choices. What hurt him, hurt you in ways he could never fathom. Not even now.

You sniffled and the sound filled the air around you. Still stuck in stunned silence, Klaus could only watch as you strode over to the chair. Fishing under the cushion, you pulled out pamphlets from the check in desk and the papers you had been given. You handed them out to him, your hands shaking when his fingers brushed against yours to grab them.

“That’s the doctor’s recommended treatment plan,” you murmured as Klaus trailed his gaze over the papers. His eyes caught the title of one of the foldables you had stole from the desk, reading ‘Steady Oaks Rehabilitation Center’. It was then he turned his head to look at you again. Green eyes become glassy as he stared up at you.

“I don’t-”

“It’s just something to consider, Klaus,” you said softly, too tired to be any louder than a whisper. “Let me know what you decide.” You leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. His skin felt cold when it brushed against your lips and you couldn’t tell if that was the cause of the shiver down your spine or the overwhelming love you felt for him shooting through your body.

“I’ll call you,” Klaus said swiftly, as if he were frightened that you were going to leave before he could give you any semblance of reassurance. You gave him a half-hearted smile and nodded.

“I’ll be waiting,” you replied before slipping out of his hospital room, the image of that first smile dancing in front of your eyes. He watched you go, eyelids fluttering in a vain attempt to quell the tears in gathering in his eyes. With the hopes of distracting himself Klaus opened the pamphlet for the rehabilitation center. A pen fell from it’s folds and into his lap.

Looking from where it fell, Klaus saw a blue header underlined in dark ink. ‘Coping with a Loved One’s Addiction’, bolded in it’s print. A sudden and violent sob shook Klaus’ body. His shoulder sagged and his face contorted in pain. Now he knew; he knew just how much his hurt had hurt you. Not even Ben had to tell him.

Klaus didn’t call for a while. You waited nonetheless, loyal as a dog and never not consistent. Whenever you were home you’d spare glances at the phone hung on the wall of your apartment, just waiting. When you woke and the receiver was flashing you’d be sent into a panic. You’d listen to every message, waiting for the familiar, lyrical tones of Klaus’ voice asking what you were up to and if you wanted any company.

Not once did you hear his recorded greeting and when you tried to call him, the line beeped once until it cut off. Silently, you prayed to any and all powerful beings that Klaus was only behind on phone bills not, like his landline, dead. The only shred of hope you clung to was that the hospitals had not called you either. However, that one solace did nothing to dull the ache in your heart. You missed Klaus dearly and desperately.

On one particularly rain-ridden day, your longing was nearing the point of madness. Worried had plagued your heart for close to three weeks now. While it wasn’t unusual for Klaus to disappear for long stretches of time, he always called. Always. You were about to call the police, the hospital, even some of his family members when your phone rang.

Rushing towards it, you saw that the number was unknown. A strange combination of numbers that was foreign to you ran across the caller ID. A new wave of anguish washed over you. You picked up the phone, pressing it to your ear in the hopes that whoever was on the other end had something good to tell you.

“Hello?” You asked bitterly, unable to hide your disappointment. A few long moments of silence passed as you heard muffled shuffling noises on the other end. “Hello?”

“H-Hey you.” The voice was unmistakable and it made your whole being tremble with shocks of emotion. “Sorry I haven’t called. These piss-hats don’t allow phone calls until ‘the patient shows a growing sense of responsibility and stability’. What morons, right?”

“Klaus!” You said, tears flowing from your eyes and you giggled at his impression. He chuckled on the other end and you could almost hear that smile of his.

“Y/N!”

“I’ve missed you,” you gushed into the phone, leaning your shoulder up against the wall. You twirled the coiled cord between your fingers as you sank into the sound of Klaus’ voice. “So you checked yourself in?”

“Y-Yeah, yeah, I did, I just,” Klaus mumbled the rest, making it hard for you to pick up.

“What?”

“I checked myself in, yeah.” He said quickly and you noted the slight panic in his tone.

“What did you say after that?” You pressed, the phone against your ear became your life line as you waited for his reply. All you could think of was Klaus, standing against the wall of the center he was in, smiling like he did. You missed that smile.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you hearing things, Y/N? I sure hope not, because that’s my thing.” You giggled softly, shaking your head at his humor.

“Klaus,” you groaned teasingly, your back fully resting on the wall of your apartment. You heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end, the kind that told you that what you said shocked your friend somehow. “Klaus?”

“Say it again, please,” his voice was almost a whimper. The sound of it made your heart ache while goosebumps simultaneously rose along your arms.

“Klaus,” you repeat, in a lower whisper this time. He sighed on the other end and you could almost feel his breath tickling your neck like how it did when he whispered a joke in your ear.

“I miss you,” he keened, “so much, I didn’t know it was possible.” Your breath caught in your throat at his words and you longed to be with him in the moment. To see him, not in your mind, but in reality; be able to reach out and touch him, give him comfort.

“I miss you too,” you murmur and that’s enough for him. It has to be. His phone call time is running out, the woman in her uniform tapping her wrist with a scowl.

“Keep missing me,” he begged, “I have to go Y/N. I’ll call you again when I can.”

“Klaus, wait,” you begin but he keeps going.

“Oh and tell my landlord to suck a dick, okay?” You stifle a laugh.

“Okay, but hold on,” you start again but he stops you once more.

“I gotta go, Y/N,” he says quickly, but he pauses after a split second before adding, “I love you.” Your mouth opened but no words came out, only his name again. Like a prayer, it fell from your lips, a promise that rang in both of your ears.

“Klaus,” your voice is low, quiet, timid from his admittance.

“I know,” he replied, pressing his forehead to the wall next to him. He liked to imagine you were doing the same in your apartment. Maybe you were even wearing one of the shirts he had left there from a long ago stay on your couch. He hated that couch.

“I lov-” The line went dead before you could finish and you felt your very life force drain. Angrily, you hung the phone up on the receiver with tears welling up in your eyes. “I love you too,” you whispered with a sad smile, “I love you too.”

On the other end, Klaus was staring daggers at the woman who had plucked the phone from his grasp. He opened his mouth, a sense of rage he saved mostly towards his father threatening to spill out from his lips. The woman only huffed at his expression, raising an eyebrow in wait. Klaus bit his tongue, knowing that if he acted out now they could keep him here longer.

“Well,” he said once he had taken a few breaths, “that was quite rude.” The woman grumbled something under her breath before pushing him along. As they walked down the narrow hallway, Klaus’ mind exchanged the blue painted walls for those of your apartment. If he tried hard enough he could see you in your kitchen, swaying slightly to the beat of the music playing from the nearby record player.

It was a sight he had seen many times before. On those nights where he had stayed over, back pressed to the couch in your cramped living room, he would pretend to still be sleeping. His eyes would be barely open, just enough to catch your movements in tune with the music. The image brought a smile to Klaus’ lips as he was led back to his room. As his door shut behind him, he silently hoped you were smiling because you loved him too.

It was cold the day Klaus was to be released. Nonetheless, you stood outside the rehab center, nervously picking at your nails. It was a habit that you had adopted from Klaus. Now you knew the action spawned from his symptoms of withdrawal. Puzzles pieces of his life started to fall together before you, amplified by his time away.

In your waking hours, thoughts of Klaus consumed you. You thought back to any and every memory you had of him in between hoping he was eating and wishing he were with you. The phones calls were all too rare and much too brief for your mind to cease thinking about his occupation of your heart. What made it all the more wonderfully worse was that the calls didn’t end with the same longing ‘I love you’ as the first one had.

You had rationalized that Klaus said it by mistake, caught up in the heat of the moment, or meant in a way that was purely platonic. From the moment you had met him, you knew Klaus was full of undying compassion. His loyalty went without question and was nothing but constant; unless the hunger for his next high rendered him powerless. So it wouldn’t surprise you if he had meant his words without the punctuation of romance. For, from the moment you had met him, Klaus was never in a relationship for very long.

It was that alone that held you back from telling Klaus how you truly felt about him. You didn’t want to lose him in the same way so many others had. Instead, you made yourself comfortable as a dear friend, the friend that gave Klaus a place to stay when his newest partner told him to get lost. It was similar to the present moment. Once he emerged from the rehabilitation center, Klaus was going to call your couch home for a while.

The thought of having him around again made you smile to yourself, warming your cheeks against the Autumn chill that had taken over New York. It was clear things would be different, Klaus would need extra attention, but you were willing to give him that. Hell, you were eager to. You peered at the clock, biting at the inside of your cheek as you calculated just how much longer it would be until Klaus was by your side again.

Your brows furrowed as you did the math, wondering if perhaps the clock was a few minutes too fast. A few people washed out onto the sidewalk you stood upon, blocking your view slightly. With a groan, you craned your neck until you could see the time again. Five minutes until you could see him again. Could that be right?

“And I thought I was bad with time, ha!” Klaus’ voice made you spin so quickly on your heels that you reached out for him to stabilize yourself. “Whoa, easy!”

His long fingers wrap around your wrists, holding you still as you take him in. The sight of him fills your soul like air in your lungs, like you need him. His bright green eyes scan over your features, that signature smile playing on his pink lips. One of your hands lifts from his arm and trails up to grasp his chin. The facial hair he had been growing out was styled, making him look older than he did when you last laid eyes on him.

“I like this,” you said, rubbing your thumb over the hair on his chin. Klaus let out a breathy chuckle so light he matched the tone of his eyes.

“Hoped that you would,” he teased, his teeth curling his bottom lip a moment as he took in your face. Cheeks and nose rosy from the breeze, your neck wrapped in a scarf he had stolen for you long ago. It had been too long. “You’re the only one worth looking good for.”

Silence rests between your bodies, everything you both want to say read like poems in your eyes. You feel stinging behind your eyes as you peer into Klaus’ green ones. Carefully, as if he were broken glass, you skirt your thumb across his cheek. His breath hitches for a moment and he feels that pulling in his heart; that same feeling he left whenever you left the room.

“I’ve missed you,” you say at the same time, prompting a mess of laughing sobs from your throats. You only shake your head, wrapping your arms over his shoulder and leaning into his frame. Instinct falls over Klaus as his arms find their places on your waist. He presses his face into the crook of your neck, closing his eyes when the smell of your soap and the feeling of your body on his overwhelms his senses.

You held each other for a while. People gawked at the sight of you two as they passed by. The sidewalk seems to grow more crowded as Klaus clung to you tightly. A few more minutes go by until Klaus pulls away from you. Despite the smile playing on his plush lips, the glimmer that had shone in his eyes seemed to fade.

“I am absolutely starved,” he groans, patting his stomach to emphasize it’s emptiness. You grin at him, having missed his childish demeanor. He smiles at the sight of yours and extends his hand to you. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” you play along, taking his cold hand in yours. His finger’s intertwine with yours as if it was where they were meant to be. As you start to walk, Klaus recalls the wonderful and colorful people had he met. While he talks, you spare a glance up at him. His curls bounce with each step and the lines in his face deepen as he tries to impersonate one of the other patients he had met. He was still your Klaus only, hopefully, sober.

When you don’t laugh at his sorry attempt of a baritone voice, Klaus turns his gaze on you. His smile holds true even as he stares at you with slight confusion. Lips parted and eyes, with slightly dilated pupils, appear more like a soft, yellow-green in the sunlight. You swear you had seen a puppy in the park one day with the same expression.

“What?” He asked, nudging his shoulder against your as you both continue to walk. He lifts a hand to pull his eyelid away from one of his eyes, a twisted grin on his features. “Is there something in my eye?”

You stifle a laugh, shaking your head at the goof of a man beside you. “No, just good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back,” Klaus agrees, his tone falling into one more serious as he gives your hand a reassuring squeeze. You both round the corner of the street and soon, Griddy’s Donuts comes into your line of sight.   

“I don’t see why we had to come home to have tea. Don’t they have tea at Griddy’s?” You ask, reaching into your cupboard for the stash of tea you had kept. Finding the right brew, you pulled two mugs down as well, setting it all out on the counter. You glance over at Klaus who, despite being in your apartment before, wandered about your small living room like a weary traveler.

He liked the way you had said ‘home’, as if it was shared. As if you had both lived there together for years and, in a sense, Klaus could argue that you had. Nights he spent sprawled out on your couch, whining about everything and anything while you listened. You always listened. Home, he thought, he could get used to that.

“They do,” Klaus says finally, turning away from your book shelf to smile at you. “But I wouldn’t wish that rat poison on my worst enemy. Tea shouldn’t smell like monkey shit.” You giggle as you pour water into the kettle. Klaus didn’t realize how much he had missed the sound of your laughter.

“Good to know,” you muse. Setting the kettle on the stove, you start a low flame beneath it. As you waited to see some steam, Klaus turned his attention back to your bookshelf. His eyes skimmed over the titles of works he was horribly unfamiliar with. It wasn’t until he reached the few bottom shelves when he felt more knowledgeable.

“Your vinyl’s are as dusty as my father’s closet,” Klaus teased, pulling at a few of the cardboard sleeves to read the artist’s name. “I should know,” he added, “I spent a lot of time in closets.”

“I haven’t used it in a while,” you explained. You strode out of your tiny kitchen and over to where Klaus had crouched down. His fur coat brushed the hardwood floor of your apartment, nearly concealing his sneakers from your view. He looked so small as you stood over him.

“Why ever not? There’s always time for music!” He exclaimed, standing with a record in his hand. You didn’t get a chance to look at the title or tell him that, ever since he had checked himself into rehab and out of your life, all the music had bled from your life. Any song you had dared to listen to reminded you of his smile and brought you to tears. You had cried enough with just the crushing feeling of missing Klaus, so you figured it was best to give music a rest until he returned.

“I was just busy, I guess,” you mumble as Klaus slid the record from it’s sleeve. With nimble fingers, he placed the disk on the player and set the needle. When he faces you again, the side of his mouth is quirked upwards in a shy smile that was only reserved for you.

“Too busy to spare a dance?” He extends his hand to you as the first few notes of Elton John’s ‘Rocketman’ crackled on the record player. “I’ll lead,” he added, “if that helps.”

“Says the man with two left feet,” you joked before taking his hand. Klaus chuckled, pulling you to the middle of your living room so you would both had more space.

“You only say that ‘cause you’re jealous.” As he spoke, Klaus intertwined your fingers with his once more and rested his other hand just above your hip. Even through your clothes, you could feel the coldness of his fingertips.

“Hm, me jealous? I don’t think so,” you jeered back, placing your own hand on his upper arm as Klaus began to waltz. Your bodies moved together as if they were never parted. Klaus smiled at you wickedly and dared to take a sneaky step closer to you. Your face went pink at the action, his proximity to you making your heart beat even faster.

“Then why do you look so flustered, my dear?” Klaus’ tone drips with smugness when the pet name slips over his lips. He only called you ‘dear’ when he wanted something. You could remember the first time it had happened a few months into your friendship. Klaus had pulled you to a parade of some sort in the city in July. The sun was beating down on everyone and you were taking a drink from your water bottle when he spoke up.

“Can I steal a sip, my dear?” The name had sent the butterflies nesting in your stomach into a frenzy. You couldn’t remember now if you had even replied to his question. All you did recall is handing him the bottle and Klaus throwing a skinny arm over your shoulders.

That was the same day you realized you were falling for your friend. Klaus looked so carefree as he danced down the street, following the brightly colored floats with music blaring from their speakers. He had asked you to dance then too. Both of you had made absolute fools of yourselves but even when he wasn’t trying, Klaus made it look graceful, easy. It was so easy to be with him.

“Where’d you go?” Klaus’ new question pulled you back from your reflection. His dark brows were knitted in slight concern and you felt the hand he had your hip rub against your side in an attempt to bring you back to the present.

“No where,” you said, giving him a smile, “I was just thinking.” Klaus huffed, his expression losing it’s rare face of worriment.

“That’s awfully dangerous.” You nodded, biting your lower lip as you debated in your mind to tell him. To tell him how much you had thought about him while he was gone, how much you really loved him and ask if he loved you.

“Yeah,” you murmured, “it is sometimes.” Klaus must have sensed the change of mood because he dropped his hand from yours. Soon it found its place on your other hip and was pulling you even closer to him. To press away any space between your bodies, you wrapped your arms over his shoulders and around his slim neck. Your head now rested against his chest and you could hear the quick, steady beat of his heart.

“Then don’t think,” Klaus murmured, his breath stirring strands of your hair.

“That’s easier said than it is done,” you replied with a sigh. Hoping to hide from your own thoughts and Klaus’ field of vision, you pressed your face deeper against his chest.

“Drugs help,” he said, so nonchalantly it scared you. You pulled away and gave him a look of fear. Klaus took in your wide eyes and parted lips, realizing he had gone too far. Before he could apologize you spoke up.

“Are you still using?” You didn’t know if you wanted him to tell you quickly or slowly. If he had to think it over, he was using, but if he answered too fast he could be lying. Every idea tormented your brain in a barrage of guilt and annoyance. All you wanted was a moment, untainted, with him.

“Y/N,” Klaus started, stepping close to you once more with his hands reaching for you waist. You hadn’t realized you had pushed yourself so far away from him. “I’m not using.”

“So it’s just you?” You asked, leaning into his renewed touch.

“Well, you’re gonna have to be more specific on that.” You cocked your head to the side and Klaus smiled at your confusion. “Ben is here. Luckily this place isn’t haunted.” You sighed and pinched his shoulder before falling against his chest again.

“Hi Ben,” you said softly, eyes skirting around your living room as if by chance, you could see his spectral form. Klaus laughed suddenly and you felt him shake his head.

“He says ‘hi’ too,” he mumbled something afterwards, directed towards Ben, and you smiled.

“And something else, I presume?” Klaus exhaled through his nose and glanced down you in his arms. Swaying to the sound of Elton John’s voice, you looked so soft. Klaus nodded to your question before sinking into your warmth and the lyrics that filled the room.

“What did he say?”

“Oh you know,” Klaus scoffed, trailing off in the hopes you would drop the topic. Klaus peered over his shoulder and his eyes found Ben. He stood in your kitchen, shaking his head at the sight of you both. Klaus lifted a hand from the small of your back and gestured for his brother to go away. Ben sighed and walked down the hallway of your apartment.

“I actually don’t know,” you teased, “that’s why you’re here.”

“Here to act as the conduit in which you flirt with my dead brother? I knew it,” Klaus said, his voice sad, over-dramatically so. “And here I thought you truly loved me. Y/N, you’re cold hearted.”

“I do,” you said quietly, with a tone of voice that dripped with a sincerity that cut through Klaus’ playful show.

“What?” He sounded genuinely confused at your words and looked the part too when you pulled yourself away from his chest to look into his eyes. The vibrant green was darker now in the low light of your apartment.

The question hovered between the two of you for a while longer. Your mind was racing, wandering through every possible outcome that your next few words could bring about. Klaus, on the other hand, wasn’t thinking at all. One of his hands trailed up from your waist to your cheek. The skin was soft to the touch and it took every ounce of will power Klaus had in him not to kiss you then and there. He wanted to kiss you so desperately but, for once in his life, he was ready to wait.

“I do, love you,” you breathed out, as if the words flowed straight from your heart and through your mouth. Klaus’ green eyes seemed to sparkle at your words and the smile that graced his lips sent a wave of adoration over the entirety of your being.

“I love you too,” he said, his voice quiet. It was as if he were a child on the playground, telling his best friend a long kept secret. “Over the phone I meant it. I couldn’t stand not seeing you when I wanted to. I wanted to see the person I love,” he brushed his fingers over your cheek, “and now I can.”

“So poetic, was that Keats? No, wait. It was Dickinson, wasn’t it?” You ask teasingly, prompting Klaus to chuckle. You had never heard him lay it on so thickly before; at least not when the subject of his affections was you.

“You know I never paid attention in literature class,” he leaned a little closer to you. “I always thought, why read poetry when you can make it yourself.” His body was now flush with your own, his hand holding your jaw now. His words melted you into his touch and you found yourself leaning up towards him.

“You should share more often,” you vex, pleased with the sudden mask of confidence that now rested on your features. You weren’t entirely sure where it came from, but you were happy with the results nonetheless. “Maybe I will,” Klaus beamed, his forehead now resting against your own. A few stray brown curls tickled your skin, but you didn’t pay much mind to them. You only hum in response as the music began to fill the quiet between you. Eager, you craned your neck upwards, silently granting Klaus the permission he had been waiting for.

Full of want and unhindered passion, Klaus pressed his lips to yours roughly. You expected nothing less than the rawness that made up his existence. He was himself with you, no drugs required. Your hands slipped into his hair, tugging lightly at the strands as Klaus held your close to him. His lips were soft, softer than you ever imagined.

Testing the waters, Klaus grazed the tip of his tongue against your bottom lip. Bending to his will, your mouth parted and the kiss deepened. His hand on your cheek traveled back down to your waist, the other squeezed at your hip. Just as Elton John’s voice faded out, the whistling of the kettle on the stove reached your ears.

“Fuck the tea,” Klaus mumbled against your lips as you started to pull away. His green eyes were dark and lips more of a red color after the bruising kiss you had shared. His gaze danced across your features and he could feel every fiber of his body screaming for you. “Better yet, fuck m-” Klaus began but you pecked his lips again to quiet him.

“You’re the one who wanted the tea,” you pointed out. Klaus watched at you pulled away from his lips, a smile resting on your features. He could only imagine he wore the same expression, if not more dopey and messy.

“I actually want you, the tea was simply a diversion,” he explained, following you into your cramped kitchenette. He studied you as you turned the stove off and prepared the tea bags to steep. The domestic sight sent a shiver down Klaus’ spine. It was a scene he could grow used to seeing. He heard a cough suddenly and he peered down the hallway.

“I actually wanted the tea,” Ben grumbled, but he gave his brother a thumbs up. Ben had done the same thing the day Klaus had met you. Klaus could remember Ben poking at his stunted courage, trying to get him to go up and speak to you. He was glad in that moment, happy for the curse that his father had called a gift. Now, Klaus smiled at his brother. Turning his gaze back to you, Klaus saw a glimmer of possibility shining in your eyes.

[belphieslilcow]

Unnamed Smopkins Fic Part 2

Jimmy’s brain tries to justify what he saw last night and now has to deal with the idea of being the Gary Guardian(tm) 

(CW: one instance of ableist language at the beginning)

Jimmy immediately slamming the door after seeing Gary would almost be funny if it wasn’t him in this situation. He wasn’t sure what was happening, there was no way in hell Crabblesnitch would actually let that psycho back to school, would he? Jimmy shook his head and fast walked out the front door, not bothering to muffle the slam this time. 

He was sure he had to be dreaming, he must’ve passed out during the movie and is having a bad dream, yeah that must be it. Though there was a small part of his mind telling him he was as awake as ever and he didn’t want to chance it. He went out the way he came in, climbing over the front fence and riding his bike back to Blue Skies, not bothering to call anyone to tell them he was coming, he just needed to leave. 

_

Jimmy groaned as a ray of light hit his eyes through a window, he didn’t feel like he slept at all. He felt something that felt like an armrest on his head and shot up, he looked around and recognized it as Edgar’s place, he thought that he was right, he must’ve not left and just crashed here. He breathed a sigh of relief, it was all a dream after all… 

“Hey, Jim, you’re finally awake.” 

He looked over and saw Edgar, sitting at the nearby table. “Finally? How long’ve I been out?” 

Edgar looked to the digital clock on his stove, “Umm, I found you at around six this morning I think, I don’t know how long you were outside, but at least since then.” 

“Wait, what do you mean found me?” 

“We all thought you left after the movie so we went to bed after a bit, then when I woke up I looked outside and saw you face down in the grass next to your bike, so I brought you in.” 

That made Jimmy’s heart sink, Gary really was there in his dorm, huh? He put his head in his hands and swore to himself. 

“You staying for lunch or are you gonna head back out?” 

Jimmy got up and stretched, “No, I’ll leave, I got something waiting for me back at school.” 

He heard a sharp intake of breath and saw a small smile come from Edgar, “Well you better not keep her waiting, see ya later, Jim.” 

Jimmy sighed, he wished it was a girl waiting for him he waved bye and stepped out of the trailer door, after almost getting blinded by the afternoon sun, he jumped on his bike and made his way back to Bullworth. 

_

Before getting back, he made a pit stop in town for some quick breakfast, or lunch, considering it was almost noon. He chose to eat outside, it was nice weather and more importantly, he saw some of the Nerds at a table and didn’t want to get sucked into another Grottos and Gremlins game. It was one of the slowest lunches he’s ever had, the food itself was kinda garbage, but he wanted to waste the most time he could. 

He was both mad at Crabblesnitch for letting Gary back into school and rooming them up, but also at himself for not realizing it’d be Gary sooner, he could be such an idiot sometimes. Eventually he figured he better just go and get it over with, he threw away his trash in the nearby can, he debated getting his bike from the nearby garage, but figured he wasn’t in that mucha of a hurry and started his way back.

_ 

As soon as he stepped foot on campus, he heard Miss Danvers on the intercom, “JIMMY HOPKINS, PLEASE COME TO THE FRONT OFFICE, IMMEDIATELY.” 

He groaned to himself, and sulked his way towards the office, giving the occasional wave to the various students walking around. He felt a pang of nostalgia as he walked up the stairs, it reminded him of when he first got here, the feeling sucked. 

He eventually reached the second floor and saw Miss Danvers, she had her usual scowl painted on her face, occasionally looking to the side. 

“Well, James, glad you could finally join us, Dr. Crabblesnitch is waiting in his office.” She suddenly jolted her gaze to the left again, “Not you, you’re staying here until he wants you back there again.” 

Jimmy looked over to where Miss Danvers was looking and just as he thought, there was Gary. He slowly walked in and occasionally glanced over where he was sitting, Gary’s hand was covering his mouth and he had a giant bruise on his right eye, he almost seemed like he was shaking, but he didn’t have enough time to really look and made his way into Crabblesnitch’s office. 

_

Jimmy sat down in one of the empty chairs in front of the desk, all too used to getting speeches from him. 

“James, was something we discussed yesterday unclear? Did I or did I not tell you to make sure Mr. Smith behaved?” 

Now it was Jimmy’s turn to scowl, “Well you didn’t tell me it’d be Gary. Why the hell is he here, anyway?” 

“Mr. Smith is back in Bullworth because his parents were outraged at finding out their son was put in an asylum and demanded he be put back in.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “I for one thought that because of his… misdemeanor last year, he wouldn’t be welcomed by the other students.” 

Crabblesnitch stood up and started pacing around the room, “I figured that since you’re the, ahem, ‘king of the school’, if you’re protecting him, then we won’t have to worry about any potential lawsuits with him getting killed. 

“I’m not going to be his bodyguard, get someone else.” Jimmy started to get up before a hand on his shoulder pushed him back down. 

“James, I’ll be straight with you, the Smith’s have paid our school a good sum of money to make sure their son stays here, I wouldn’t do it if I hadn’t already gotten the check.” 

Jimmy looked up and into Crabblesnitch’s eyes as he continued, “This is not a choice, Hopkins, there is not refusing, you will protect Mr. Smith, are we understood?” 

The grip on his shoulder had gotten tighter and tighter as he spoke, Jimmy shook his hand off and spoke, “If I really don’t have a choice then fine.” 

“That’s the spirit, boy! Now as I’m sure you saw when you walked in, he’s in the reception area, you’ll need to walk him back to your dorm, when classes start you’ll be getting the same schedule, you may not let him leave your sight, Hopkins.” 

He then pulled out a small sheet of paper, and handed it over to Jimmy. “Mr. Smith is on medication now, so he should be much calmer, these are the times he must take it,he has his own notes, but he is not allowed to miss a dose.” 

Crabblesnitch took a deep breath, “Now, if there are no more questions, you may go.” 

Jimmy’s head was rattling with all the information he’d been given, he felt like he was going to be taking care of a dog, not protecting some rich snobs bratty kid, but he got up and went out the door. He looked back over at Gary, he was now tapping his fingers against his knees, though his face looked strangely calmed, it gave Jimmy a weird feeling in his chest. He walked over, opening his mouth to say something to his old rival, but without a word, Gary stood up, waiting for Jimmy to walk out. 

“Uh, okay, I guess we’re going back to my- our room now.” He waited for Gary to take the lead as he used to, but he just looked him in the eyes. 

After a couple seconds he finally spoke, “Then, let’s go?” He tilted his head in confusion and gestured his hand out, not so subtly telling Jimmy to go first. 

Jimmy nodded and started walking out the door, glancing back every so often to make sure Gary was following, and they eventually were walking side by side, on their way back to their doom, and to their new lives.

[cocoarchives]

The Monument at the End of the World

There’s this port town that exists at the edge of the sea.

The people who live there are all fishermen or farmers or children of the two, who live in homes made of stone or wood or brick, or perhaps a combination of the three. When you step into one, you’re greeted with the creak of the floorboards and the squeaks of the mice in the walls. When you gain the rare opportunities to creep up the steps to the second floors, it feels like the ground will collapse underneath your feet.

The perpetual fog makes the air feel like honey. On the warmest days it cools your face. On the coldest days… They suggest it’s best to stay inside.

By the town there is a forest, and it’s not that uncommon to see people hiking along the trails, mesmerized by the songbirds and the fresh air. The roads they follow aren’t exactly roads either; simply dirt left trampled by years of travelling.

But there’s another trail too, though it’s not as well traversed. As all who walk off the protected paths eventually make their way to the cliff overlooking the sea, the place that can only be seen from the inside and not out. A cliff with a fence to keep its visitors safe. A cliff with a monument that was small, and yet looked like it stretched out infinitely into the sky. A monument made with an onyx’s imitation, covered in chains and locks, older than the town itself. A monument that was there before the first settlers, left unmovable in this ordinary little port town by the sea.

This story is about the monument. The monument that took the lives of two teens, and became an urban legend of the town.

The story that ruined the town it resides in, that forever made them wary of the strangers that dared to approach them.

And it all begins with a boy. A boy who only saw love.

The target of his affection was a traveler. A young girl with hair like melted chocolate, flowing like water in the wind as she ran behind him, one hand in his and another on her straw hat. Her freckles were barely visible over her red cheeks, and her legs were covered in cuts and scrapes from the vines that tried to warn them of the events that are to come.

“How much further?” She cried, breathless.

“Not a moment more.” He replied, as the trees parted for them and revealed this place; the cliff and the smell of salt springing up from the lapping waves.

The girl gasped, tugging out of the grip of the boy and rushing her way to the railing. Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of the drop, but it rose at the sight of the clouds skimming the water’s surface like strange animals taking a drink.

“It’s beautiful.” She whispered. “It’s like being at the end of the world.”

The boy took her hand, and she turned, lips parted in awe. Her eyes had the look of a dreamer, of someone who had risen from an impossible world.

“There’s more.” He said, as soft as she, and the girl allows herself to be dragged away. Away from the edge, away from the thrill.

Away from the clouds.

“Look at this.” He told her, guiding her movements, and his laughter when he saw her jaw go slack was enough to bring the sun just that much closer.

“Can… can I touch it?” She asked uncertainly, fingers already moving to brush its strange surface.

“Well, you can do more than that!” He exclaimed, digging his fingertips into invisible groves in the rock like it was muscle memory. With a light tug, a portion of the monument swung open, and the words in the girl’s throat dissolved.

This strange structure — the structure which must have stood from the beginning of time itself, which must’ve endured wars and battles that the girl couldn’t even imagine — was hollow. The thickness of it was maybe only a centimeter or two, obviously too thin to even begin to support its own weight and yet… it did. Miraculously, somehow it did.

“It’s an abyss.” Were the only words she managed to say.

The boy laughed again, and the girl’s cheeks went warm.

“No, no! I’m sorry.” He apologized. “It really is not as terrifying as you make it seem. I think it’s quite wonderful actually. Please. After you.”

Tentatively, with his aid, she took a step into this strange claustrophobic space.

“You may start hearing-” The boy began, but as she crossed the threshold into this small, compact room, the sound vanished.

Her eyes widened, as she turned swiftly in a panic but...everything was fine. Her companion was still there, beaming up at her like a dog waiting for a bone. The sky continued to lower itself to kiss the ground. The wind continued to brush the leaves on the trees with the delicacy of a mother to a child.

His mouth moved soundlessly. Like there was a barrier between him and her, like they were worlds apart despite being almost right next to each other. Just an arm’s length away.

She saw what he was going to do before his own body moved to do it.

“No, wait!”

But as much as she screamed, as much as she cried out, her desperate words were futile. The door enclosed her into the dark. Into the abyss. Into the unknown that she’s willingly made herself a part of.

In the chamber, the only thing she heard were her own heavy breaths. The only thing she could feel was the warmth on her face, the cold in her hands. The rock, slick and without dents or weaknesses under her fingertips. It was like being in the embrace of the night herself, her mouth so close to the girl’s ear. She could imagine the intake of breath, the lady’s lips parting.

But the noise that came out was not a singular voice. It was a roar, a multitude, an infinite wave of sound. The sound of every man, every woman, and every child who has ever lived and will live. The sound of laughter, the sound of bliss. The sound of terror. The sound of agony. Life and death, love and hate. Every human constant. Every human language. All of time. All of space.

All of it, the complicated mess of history. Physics. Science. All simplified into a wall of noise.

Of course, the immediacy of it startled her. The way it began with no warning, no end in sight. Time playing in infinite loops around her, every scream embedding itself into her memory. But with it brought her a thrill, a magical sort of wonder as she experienced the world with nothing but her ears.

“Oh my god.”

The voice — echoing a thousand times over — suddenly shocked the girl out of her awe. Because… it was familiar. Because it was a sound she’s heard every single day of her life. A sound that chased her wherever she went.

“Please.” The girl heard herself say.

“I’m sorry.” A boy’s voice. The voice of her companion. The voice of her trusted friend.

She didn’t understand how the light could have blinded her more than the dark, how it could leave her so cold despite the sun brushing her cheek with its rays, wiping her tears away.

“Is everything alright?” He asked when she stuck her head out, and it was him, and it can’t be him. The boy she heard in the rock was not a boy with soft features, who looked at her with kind eyes, who offered her a hand.

“I—” She began, as her hand cautiously reached for his, but she choked on her words as her body lurched forward. As her mouth landed onto his, warm and cold. Pleasure and pain. Bliss and anxiety. Her hat fell, then was whisked away in the wind.

“What’s wrong?” His quiet voice was like a knife to her, and the reaction she gave said as much. “Please, if… if it’s—”

“I- I heard your voice,” The girl couldn’t keep her voice steady. “I heard your voice in there, and mine, and… I can’t. I’m sorry.”

His face didn’t fall like she thought it would. Like she’d hoped. Instead, the shadows seemed to cover him like a shield, and she stepped back.

“Kas?” She whispered.

“I knew you would hear it.” His voice cracked. “But I brought you here anyways. Isn’t that enough for you to trust me?”

He turned to lean on the railing, to listen to the creak of his weight on the bars. He turned to watch the clouds on the water, who’ve barely moved since their arrival. To the world outside the town. To a future he will never see.

The waves roared. And he lost himself in them. The waves roared and he forgot himself. The waves roared and he had a pistol in his hands.

His entire world went mute. He only saw white.

“Oh my god.” Her hand was on her mouth. She sounded like she was worlds away. It sounded like they were a thousand years apart.

“Please.” The terror was apparent in her voice.

“I’m not… I would never hurt you,” It wasn’t a promise. He was begging. Begging her. Begging his cruel world and its mistresses. “Please.”

“Kas, put it down.” She said, slowly approaching. And he listened, his knees bending slowly. He listened, through the pain in his heart. He listened. He listened.

But time and fate have bitter tempers. They do not like being tricked and toyed with.

A crash of water on the rocks like cymbals and a bang that echoed through history. A bang that echoed in the ears of every man that ever lived, a sound mistaken for anything except for what it actually was.

The girl, cold even before she fell, blood like a flower on her chest.

The boy, stumbling back from the shock and recoil. The boy, who landed too hard on the railing. The railing that gave out under him like it had given him his judgement. Like it gave out through the weight of his sins.

“I’m sorry.” The words fell out of his mouth, his final words as he left the girl and the open monument behind, escaping from one unfair world and into the next.

[quaalussy]

Dreamboy Episode 6: Jupiter’s Lifeless Moons transcript

Hi! I was looking online to see if anyone had been doing Dreamboy transcripts and I saw that there was nothing after episode five, so I’ve started on the rest, episode six first. Sorry in advance for any spelling or grammar mistakes, I’m dealing with lots of run on sentences here. Anyway I hope you enjoy, more transcripts to come (I’m gonna try to do all the bonus episodes and such). Also: if you’re looking to hire a transcriptionist for your podcast or anything else please feel free to shoot me a message, I’m always looking for work 

Enjoy! If you’d rather have a pdf copy I’d be happy to send that to you too.

DANE

The dream is different this time. It starts in the dark like always, but this time I'm laying down. I’m curled up on something rough. I lift my head up. I feel like I'm moving. Oh my god, I’m inside the fish. I’m laying on its tongue. But it’s like it’s tongue is the whole bottom of the inside of the fish, and the inside of the fish is huge. It’s like the whole thing is hollow, and it has ridges like the inside of a throat. I stand up and look around. It’s daytime outside and the light is coming through the mouth and eyes like windows. I just stare at that ghostly daylight face, swaying slowly side to side as the fish swims. I have this sudden urge to look out, to look out of the mouth. So I walk to the front of the tongue. I walk right up to its giant jaws. The bones lay open just a little bit, and then they close and I feel the water come in, wash over my face, push my hair back. Outside I can see the tops of rocky spires, like underwater mountains or something, passing underneath us, and I want to see, I want to look but that means I have to lean my head out of its mouth, between its jaws. I think about it. Another intake of water blows my hair back. 

[WATER RUSHES IN]

The mouth is exactly the height of my head, and I reach out and touch the bone jaw, and then I pull my hand back and wait. Nothing. Maybe the fish doesn’t know I’m in here. I reach out and touch the jaw again, but this time I leave my hand on it. Nothing. Just the rhythm of swimming. God, it feels so sharp. I swallow, and I lean my head out over the razor edge, and I look down into the water at the rocky spires passing underneath, but they aren’t spires, they’re not mountains, they’re buildings. The tops of tall skyscrapers all fuzzy and covered in moss and algae. It’s a whole city. It’s downtown Cleveland.

[SWOOSHING NOISES]

DANE

I wake up. The bright, late morning sun is coming through the windows of the guest bedroom, and my hand immediately goes to my dick, but it’s soft.

[SOFT MUSIC]

DANE

I get up and put on my wrinkled red shirt and slog my way to the zoo for work. On my way I text Luke, just a simple “hey, WYD”, but he doesn’t answer. He never responded to my goodnight text last night, either. Like, maybe he’s mad? About the cakes? I don’t know. I almost walk into traffic because I'm staring at the message thread. I stop at Settler’s Coffee, and I text him again. I say “I had another fish dream, they’re getting weirder.” I watch my phone intently as I cream and sugar my coffee. I use the simple syrup even though it’s hot coffee, just to have a hand free for my phone. But nothing. I get to work. Maybe he’s still asleep. He is pretty nocturnal. Work is stupid, we’re understaffed so I spend six and a half hours straight at the roller coaster podium. I stop saying that whole de-briefing room line about three hours in, and I text Luke a few more times, but he still doesn’t answer. And then I run out of things to text without feeling like a crazy creep. Now it’s a half an hour before close and I'm only just now getting a lunch break because Tammy Jammers, who usually watches the ride while I’m out on break, called out sick today. She said she had food poisoning, but I know she’s just hungover. Her last Instagram post was at three A.M. last night, and it was a picture, taken with a flash, of Taco Bell that she put on a plate. I go out to the main drag to get food like I always do, but the only food place still open is the hot dog stand, and I just can’t with those. They’re like the same temperature and texture as a human body so they make your mouth feel like it’s kissing someone you don’t like. Hot dog? Lukewarm dog more like. A breeze blows. [sighs] It’s getting colder, so I go back inside into the hall of history which is just this longstupid hallway

[OPERA ARIA IN BACKGROUND]

in the same building as the roller coaster. I have to walk through it every day when I go on lunchbreak, but I never actually stop because I only get thirty minutes for lunch break, and it takes twenty minutes just to get through the fucking food line, so I have to run through there, and it’s just like dusty plaques and old maps and stuff. There’s like a few old exhibits that don’t work. It’s, like, where grandparents go to hang out on hot days. Which you would think meant that they had more places to sit down, but.... I look down at my phone again. Nothing. There’s also this weird music playing, and it’s skipping like…. I look up and see a wall with the words “who's who” painted really big on the top of it, and underneath there’s like a bunch of buttons with flaps. I run my finger around one of the buttons and just like accidently the button pushes in and this voice recording starts to play. It’s Kritch! 

ELI KRITCH

You love grapes and naps. Before your life here at the Pepper Heights Zoo, you were an animal pioneer for NASA and actually went into space! After that, you spent many years at an interstate sideshow in the Florida Panhandle doing a high society routine. To this day you still listen to opera to fall asleep. Which Pepper Heights animal friend are you?

DANE

The recording ends. I lift up the flap. It says “you are the chimpanzee, Madam Beauregard.” Great. That’s creepy. I look back down at my phone. Still nothing. It’s not that I like... it’s not that I like need to talk to him or anything, it’s just that, like, it’s just the not knowing is fucking awful. Like, just text me back! How hard is it to text somebody back? I look back at the wall. There’s an arrow pointing to a smaller button next to Madam Beauregard’s name, and it says “push button to hear your favorite aria”, but the music is stuck in which totally explains the skipping music. Jesus Christ, it’s probably an actual CD player behind this fucking wall with this place. I look at my phone. Fucking nothing. Earlier in the day, right after I asked if he was mad, I saw the little dots

VOICES [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

You know, the little dots that mean somebody’s typing back. And I… I watched them, and then they disappeared and they never started again.

VOICES [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

And ever since then my head has just been full of all the little voices that say all the little things.. 

VOICES [sung] Where is Luke? 

Ughhh Jesus fuck, now they have music. That’s great.

VOICES [sung[

Where is Luke?

DANE

 Yeah I don’t really care where he’s at. And why are there so many buttons in this exhibit? Like, there’s no way there’s this many animals that still live here. Like, most of the exhibits are shut down, these animals are probably dead. 

VOICES [sung]

Losers

DANE

And the seven that are here are like not the kind of animals you want to push a button and hear about, right? 

VOICES [sung]

Losers 

DANE They’re like, retired circus freaks and movie animals that can’t work anymore. 

VOICES [sung]

Losers, losers, losers

DANE

It’s like this whole place just attracts washed up showbiz animals. 

VOICES 

Just like you!

DANE

[sighs] Yeah thanks I connected that. I look down at my phone. Again. Nothing. Again. I don’t even know why I keep checking. I mean, I turn my vibration notifications on so I wouldn’t have to check but I still check. So I open up instagram to see if he’s posting there, but he’s not. It’s just the picture that he posted late last night. The one of the blue hand on his neck that we took in front of the tunnel. It’s already got like three thousand likes, Jesus Christ. I check my texts again. Why am I checking it, I'm holding it. So I open up Grindr. I check his profile. He’s not on. It says he hasn’t been on in hours. So I open up my texts again and I just look at it, I just LOOK. UGHH why won’t he text?!

VOICES

Cause he’d rather spend time with strange old men than talk to me.

DANE

It’s like they practice in there while I’m sleeping, Jesus. I look back up from my phone. Now I’m in front of some sort of ice age diorama, like, why? There’s a caveman standing over a wolf that he’s just killed, and there’s blood everywhere. And behind that, really small in a cave, there’s a woman and a child, waiting for him all terrified. But right next to the cave in the dark where you can’t see is another wolf, and nobody sees it. And then another face appears in the glass. I turn around. It’s Kritch. Or, like, Kritch’s face, on a TV, in an exhibit on the opposite wall. I walk over. He’s younger. It’s weird seeing young Kritch, I mean it’s like still my boss but, you know, smoother. It’s some sort of like special news piece from like twenty years ago. 

KRITCH

Oh I certainly think the people over at Stonefall Labs can appreciate what we are doing over here. And for the record I do not believe that they are covering up any discoveries of alien life. That’s quite frankly preposterous. I can assure you they were in fact only only doing a geological survey of the moons of Jupiter, on contract from NASA, like they say. I just think they came up at the end of that, did more to make a big deal of it, we all have swings and misses sometimes, but I thought I’d take my own swing. 

DANE 

Boy, his smile hasn’t changed, that’s for sure. The video ends and there’s a black screen with a logo that says “The Zenarc Corporation”. I see my face in the screen. 

[SWOOSHING NOISES/MUSIC]

DANE

It’s taken me a couple weeks of working here to piece it all together, but I do sort of know a little bit about what Kritch’s talking about in this video. See, in the late fifties the Stonefalls built this private research and development site called Stonefall Labs on the other side of the woods from the zoo. All sorts of things were developed there over the years, everything from, like, ketchup recipes and zip-ties to lots of darker things I’m sure we don’t know about. Like they famously patented the first answering machine, for example. It was as big as a room. It got sabotaged by this secret group of secretaries, though. Which is a cool story, but later. Anyway, because of some sort of technology that they had patented, they got a contract from NASA in the eighties to survey Jupiter’s moons to look for the possible presence of a specific isotope of helium called helium two. Now, scientists thought helium two was going to be like the rocket fuel of the future, it was going to revolutionize space exploration they thought. And this was all public knowledge there was even a little article in the paper, but nobody really cared. However, Stonefall labs found nothing. Zip. And at first they just said that there was problems with their equipment, but then weeks went by and then months and they said nothing. And they stayed quiet for so long that it started to attract attention, and people started to say maybe they in fact had found something a lot more interesting than helium deposits on the moons of Jupiter. Which, of course, that blew up like a house fire and pretty soon there was this huge conspiracy theory and speculation and a media frenzy. But at the same time while that was all going on, the young Elias Kritch had just taken over the helm of the Pepper Heights Zoo from his late father, Eddie. Despite the fact that another Kritch in charge of the zoo was like the last thing the Stonefalls wanted. But Eli was intent on leaving his mark, and he vowed to turn the zoo into a profitable enterprise, rather than just another suckling on the Stonefall money teet. So he said “I have an idea, how about a full on theatrical roller coaster experience called Jupiter’s Lifeless Moons”. The whole story inspired by the controversy. It was supposed to be this stepping stone into becoming a real amusement park, but he never made the money back. Like not even close. He put the zoo into permanent debt. The Stonefalls never let him live it down. And it only took a couple of years before the entire context was completely buried anyway. Pretty soon, nobody remembered anything at all about the Stonefall Lab’s Jovian lunar survey scandal, you know. But the ride stayed and here it is after all these years. The video starts to replay, Kritch starts talking again, and I start to walk away but I notice something I didn't see before: a rough disk with a hole in it hanging from a string around young Kritch’s neck. A disk with a hole in the middle… John Stonefall. What the…. I check my phone. 

VOICES [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

Still nothing. 

VOICES [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

Why can’t he just text back? 

VOICES [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

Whatever. 

LADY 1 [sung]

And could he really actually like me?

DANE

Yeah, probably not.

LADY 1 [sung]

Maybe I fucked it all up again

DANE

Probably.

LADY 1 [sung]

Maybe I’ll never know again

DANE

Whoa, that seems a little melodramatic

LADY 1 [sung]

Why do I even care?

DANE

You know, I don’t even care

LADY 1 [sung]

Do I even care?

DANE

 No. I don’t think I even care.

LADY 2 [sung]

This is textbook patriarchal communication

 MAN 1 [sung]

Maybe he’s not answering for a reason

DANE

I.. I know he’s mad at me for eating his cakes.

VOICES

Guilt!

DANE

Which, I did eat his cakes. 

VOICES 

Guilt!

DANE And lie to him 

VOICES

Guilt! Guilt!

DANE

Ughhhhh 

DANE [sung] Why do I feel guilty?

VOICES [sung]

Resentment

DANE [sung] I mean it’s not that big of a deal, Cora’s just a crazy lady.

VOICES [sung] Resentment

DANE [sung]

And the cakes were sent to the wrong house

LADY 2 [sung] I don’t know if that is true

DANE [sung] Why do I care? I don’t even like him at all

VOICES [sung] Where is Luke? 

DANE Wanna know where he’s at? I’ll tell you where he’s at.

DANE [sung]

He’s off somewhere being young and stupid

HIGH VOICES [sung]

Haul him off, haul him off, haul him off!

DANE [sung]

He’s off somewhere not knowing what he wants

VOICES [sung] We just met

DANE 

Yeah, we just met.

VOICES [sung]

We just met!

DANE [sung] He’s too laid back

LOW VOICES [sung] Too laid back

HIGH VOICES [sung]

Sleeps on the floor of an empty house

DANE [sung] I wish I could sleep on the floor in an empty house…. But I can’t!

DANE

Cause I have real responsibilities

DANE [sung]

Like he doesn’t do anything

HIGH VOICES [sung]

Do anything

DANE [sung]

Maybe he does and I just haven’t asked

VOICES [sung] Do anything, I didn’t do anything

DANE [sung] Maybe I’m the one

VOICES [sung] NOPE

DANE

Being a total dick

VOICES [sung] NOPE DANE Maybe I’m being a dick

VOICES [sung] I didn’t do anything 

VOICE 1 [sung]

He’s just a narcissistic twink!

DANE Yeah 

VOICE 1 [sung]

He’s just a narcissistic twink! DANE

Yeah

VOICES [sung]

A narcisistic, masochistic, fetishistic, sorta cryptic, dirty little selfish fucking twink! Who would rather be hit by strange old men than talk to me.

DANE Yeah, but I don’t care.

VOICES [sung] I don’t care! 

DANE

I gotta get outta here. Where are the doors, where are the doors, I just need some air. I fall through the double doors, out onto the main drag. Oh, god….The air is cool, but it feels good. There’s, like, silence for a minute. At least in my head. I hear an age-guesser guessing his last customer somewhere.

[AGE GUESSER SPEAKING IN BACKGROUND]

DANE A smattering of laughing through the trees. 

[LAUGHTER]

DANE

And I reach for my phone out of like instinct.

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

But then I stop myself because this is stupid

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE

Like it's annoying that...

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where is Luke? DANE Like there’s some, some sort of..

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where is Luke? DANE

My body seems to have a question. Like a body question.

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where is Luke?

DANE 

That it keeps asking.

VOICE 1 [sung]

Where…

DANE

My phone vibrates in my pocket! I pull it out. It’s a Grindr message. I open up the app. Oh, he’s cute. His message just says “hey”. It also says he’s only 200 feet away. I look up and look around. I don’t see anyone who looks like him. I look back at his profile. He’s playfully flexing his arm in his photo and making a goofy face, standing shirtless and soaking wet next to a pool in someone’s backyard somewhere, and his dark hair looks darker because it’s wet, and his underarm hair is pasted to his body in little black flames. His headline says Alex. I look at the time. I have twenty minutes. [sighs] Fuck it. “Hey”, I say. “What’s up”, he says. “On break”, I say. “Me too”, he says. “You work at the zoo?” “No, Stonefall Labs. I came to get a hot dog”. Wow, yuck, really? But I couldn't pass up the opportunity for a bad joke so I said “ah, you like weiners, huh”. Coy emoji.”LOL, yep”, he says. Then, “do you?”, and immediately he sends a picture of his dick. Whoa. Fuck, it’s huge. It’s thicker in the middle and curves really dramatically, and it’s so hard in the picture that it looks like a dead thing that’s swollen up on the side of a path. “Wow” I say, “I’d love to put that in my mouth some time.” Coy face. “You should”, he says, “how about now?” “Where”, I say. “Men’s bathroom by the Dippin’ Dots. No one’s ever in there. I’m by there now.” Fuck, my heart is racing. The zoo closes in half an hour, and there’s like nobody here, and he’s right, that bathroom is so out of the way that nobody uses it hardly. Even the Dippin’ Dots guy won’t be there cause he’s watching the rollercoaster for me right now. I look down at his message again. Then at the clock. Seventeen minutes left. My heart is getting quicker. [sighs] ”Okay”, I say “I’ll come now”. “I’ll be waiting inside”, he says. Okay. A few seconds later I’m cutting across the main thoroughfare. Walking quickly. The breeze is cool on my face. The stands are mostly all closed and the rides are shutting down. The few people that are out are all workers, all walking the same direction to the front gate. Their faces lit from underneath by their own phones. I come around the corner by the closed up Dippin’ Dots stand, and I stop. There it is. The squat, gray bathroom building with that rusty water fountain on the side that hasn’t worked for so long that an out of order sign is no longer required. I see the door of the men’s bathroom. It’s closed, but there’s an edge of seering white light all around the heavy metal door. Okay, okay okay okay okay. I walk up to it. I look around. Nobody. The whole building seems to have a low hum. I take a breath, and I open the door. There’s a loud metal creak as the door opens. 

[CREAK]

DANE And the door catches on the concrete floor and doesn’t shut all the way. I kick it a couple times until it does. 

[DOOR SHUTS]

DANE

The metal bangs ring and echo off the tile. Then I round a tiled wall into the bright restroom, and I see him, standing at the far left urinal, his back to me. He doesn’t look back or move, the cold white lights buzzing and flickering all around. I check the stall on the other side of the little room. It’s empty. It’s door off one of its hinges and hanging there like an open jaw. I walk up slowly to the far right urinal, side eyeing the guy. I keep a urinal between us. I get there and I start to undo my pants. The light directly above the urinals is buzzing, loud. I glance over at him, but he doesn’t look back at me or anything. He doesn’t talk or move or acknowledge me at all. Like, what the fuck? I mean it’s definitely him, and he’s standing away from the urinal so that I can see his dick but he’s just peeing. I look back at the wall, and then I look back over at him. He is handsome, though. He’s a few inches taller than me and muscular, in baggy Carhartt pants and a large dirty gray t-shirt. There’s paint on his elbows and grease on his arms. I look back straight ahead. Okay, now what? I start to panic. I try to pee, but I really don’t have to go. One more time, I look over. He’s done now, shaking his dick. God, even soft it’s big. But he’s still ignoring me. He’s still shaking it, like, way longer than he should. Okay, it starts to get bigger as he swings it around. And then he starts pulling on it, and I'm just standing there watching him out of the side of my eye, holding my own dick in my hand. God, it’s getting bigger and bigger and less floppy, and slowly his pulling turns into gripping and stroking, and it gets thicker and tighter until after about a minute it’s as thick as I saw in the pic earlier. God, it looks angry, and I'm watching his hand run the length of it back and forth, trying not to look like I'm looking, lost in the rhythm, when I hear it- a voice coming from everywhere at once. I look up at the side of his face, straight at it. The lights above flicker a little. It had to be his voice, but he’s still not looking at me. He’s just watching his hand move over his own dick. But as I'm looking at the side of his face I see his lips move, and I hear his voice again. 

ALEX Come here. Get on your knees. 

DANE I take a breath, I turn, and I walk up next to him. I can smell his cologne, and I kneel down in front of the urinals. The floor is hard and a little wet on my knees, and I try not to think about why. He turns, swinging his dick toward my face, and finally his eyes look down into mine. The light is buzzing and pulsing above him, his body’s like a silhouette, and then he reaches down and puts his fingers in my mouth. They smell like solvents and metal, and he feels around like he lost something in my teeth. And it doesn’t seem like this would be hot but, god, something about it really is. And then he opens my mouth wider with his fingers and takes them out and traces the wetness of my spit up my face, and then grabs my hair and slowly puts his dick in. Past my lips, and then past my tongue, gentle but also steady. I feel it hit the back of my throat and stop. He grabs my hair harder and looks down at my eyes. I don’t know how, but I sort of nod with my face and eyes and make a sort of “uh-huh” sound, and he smiles and puts more pressure in his thrust. And I feel my throat iris out like a dark, wet camera. And he slides all the way down, until my face is against his body. He just holds me against him, and he breathes. I feel the entire inside of my throat and head stretched over his dick. I feel it reaching down into my chest. I feel like a butterfly on a pin. His smell fills my nose. It’s a thick, sweaty smell- the smell of baseball and locker rooms and the back of the bus. He just looks down at me, and I look up at him, and the light buzzes. 

[BATHROOM DOOR OPENS]

DANE

The metal bathroom door. He takes his dick out of my throat.

[DANE GAGS AND COUGHS]

DANE It almost makes me puke. I scramble to my feet and quickly get to the urinal. He turns and does the same. We both just stare at the wall in front of us, become strangers again. I hear someone round the tile wall behind us. I hear Alex zipping up his pants and flushing, quick. I do the same. I wipe the water from my eyes and I go to leave, but as I turn, I see the person who entered. It’s the Dippin’ Dots guy, Trey. 

DANE [to TREY] Oh, hey man. Wait, you’re not still watching the ride...

TREY [laughs] Nah. I guess some little girl dropped her teddy bear on the track, so I closed it up early, but I left her number on the control console. 

DANE

But you didn’t go get it?

TREY

Fuck no. I'm not climbing all those jank-ass ladders. 

DANE [to listener] Alex brushes past Trey and heads out of the bathroom. Trey doesn’t even look at him. It’s funny what straight boys just can’t see in bathrooms. I watch Trey disappear into the slack jaw of the stall without even trying to close the door, and then I hear him start to pee. 

[PEEING NOISES]

TREY

Later, dude!

DANE I get back to the roller coaster, it takes like twenty seconds. I go into the side door 

[DOOR OPENING]

The door shuts behind me. 

[DOOR SHUTTING]

And I take a breath. That was fucking intense. It all feels like it didn’t happen, but it just happened like a minute ago. I can still smell the dude on my face. Whoa [sighs]. All the colored lights and space music are gone, and the big overhead lights are on, but I know Trey’s dumb ass didn’t do any of the other closing duties. I walk up to my podium and I see the ride is switched into its standby mode, which means that both cars are nestled into the shuttle bay, and the power is off to the ride. In order to turn it all back on again, you need to put a special key in and turn the red lever, then you hear a big “kerchunk”, and the whole building sorta comes alive and the lights change and the music starts, but now it just looks like bad props and old paint in a bright warehouse, which is what it is. There’s the note Trey was talking about, though. It just says “little girl lost teddy on ride” and then a phone number. There’s not even a name. The keys are next to the note. I take them both and put them in my pocket. 

[KEYS JANGLING, POCKET RUSTLING]

DANE I finish the rest of the closing duties: sweep and mop the floors, wipe the glass on the doors, wipe the coaster cars down, and when everything’s done, I go through the utility door into the underbelly of the ride to look for the damn teddy bear. Under the ride there are work lights, these bare bulbs hanging from scaffolding, but they definitely don’t work, so I pull out my phone and turn on the flashlight. It smells like laser tag. You know, that... that special effects smoke that they use. Half the time when people drop something we find it in “The Net”, and we’re supposed to check “The Net” once a week but people never check it. Also, the net is so old that it has rips and tears and whole sections that have fallen down. It’s like the web of a giant spider that got bored and said “fuck it” and crawled away years ago. So, often things end up on the dusty floor, twenty or thirty feet below. I walk to a place where I can look up through the skeleton of the rollercoaster into the net by the big turn. That’s usually where people drop things, the big turn. No teddy bear. I point my phone light down onto the concrete floor below it. Nothing. Anything new down in this dusty world is immediately visible for its lack of gray dust fuzz. If it has color, it’s new. But I only see an endless field of small, linty shapes. Look, there’s one last place that things occasionally do end up. The moon platform. See, in the middle of the ride there’s this platform where the coaster stops, like full on stops, and this video plays. It’s supposed to be the surface of the moon that you land on, and it’s where you meet the alien that makes the name of the ride ironic, I guess. I’ve never actually ridden the ride so I don’t know, but, like, a rollercoaster with a video in the middle sounds like an awful idea. I’m standing at the base of the ladder to the platform, looking up. I give it a shake. 

[LADDER RATTLING]

It’s so loose that it wobbles and buckles all the way up, moaning and creaking. I hear a screw fall somewhere in the dark.

[SCREW FALLS]

DANE

[sighs] I take a breath and start to climb. 

[LADDER RATTLING]

DANE

I feel the swaying pull of my weight on the scaffolding. Jesus. More creaking. I just climb faster and faster, I just try not to look. Finally I get up to the top of the platform and pull myself up and dust myself off. 

[DUSTING OFF]

DANE

I stand up and look around. The platform is decorated to look like the rocky surface of a moon. Foam rocks, gray paint, that kinda thing. Still no sign of a teddy bear, though. I start to look behind the foam rocks. Maybe it got thrown. But then I hear a sound, a huge “kerchunk”. The work lights go off, the colored lights come on, and space music starts. The building groans, and something huge and metal begins to slither below me. Fuck, someone’s turned on the ride! I scramble to find the ladder in the dark, but I can’t, and I hear the coaster rumbling in the walls, it’s getting closer. Fuck! I don’t know what happens if I’m up here when the coaster comes, so I try to find the ladder again, but one foot slips off the edge of the platform. Holy fuck, I like almost fall. Jesus it woulda killed me, it’s like thirty feet straight down. The roar’s getting louder and louder and louder, I pull my leg back and I scoot behind a foam rock just as the coaster rounds the corner.

[COASTER WHOOSHING]

DANE There’s a person in it. The coaster slows and stops, locks into place. The screen lights up and the video begins, and in the light of the video I see that the person is Kritch, sitting in the middle front seat of the coaster, watching the screen, his arms in front of him on the lap bar. The moonscape continues in the video, making it look like the surface of the moon goes on for miles, and then there’s like eery moon music playing. Well, then a green alien emerges from behind a rock in the video, and it gets closer to us cautiously, and then it starts to speak. 

ALIEN IN VIDEO Greetings, earthlings aboard Shuttle 5. I’m a representative for the race of beings that has inhabited Moon 34 of the planet you call Jupiter for millions of years. Your civilization has remained unaware of our existence until this moment. We mean you no harm. We have no weapons, our technology is meager, but we know why you’ve come. The resource you seek is plentiful here, but its retrieval would destroy our home and lead to our certain demise, as we depend upon it for sustenance. We will restore your communications momentarily. However, we beg of you, do not disclose our existence to your superiors upon your return. You must report no helium two on Moon 34, the future of our species rests in your hands, earthlings of Shuttle 5. Good fortune and tidings to you.

DANE The video ends and the coaster comes unlocked and starts again.

[COASTER STARTING, ROLLING]

DANE

Kritch faces front, and I see him wipe his eyes. I must have stood up during the alien’s speech. I crouch back down and hide again quickly. Fuck, I hope he didn’t see me. I listen to the coaster disappear down another hill as the onboard computer says “malfunction, malfunction, returning to Jupiter base [unintelligible]. The roar fades. [sighs] I breathe out. Then I get up and start feeling around for the ladder. A few minutes later, I fall through the utility door back into the launch room, almost coughing from the fake smoke. What the fuck was Kritch doing riding a kid’s ride all by himself in the middle of the fucking night? [sighs] What a weirdo. I hear the coaster make the last of the big turns. I just wanna get out of here, so I slip out quickly  the way that the kids come out, through the debriefing room. The debriefing room is just a room with two big light-up buttons under a sign that says “MISSION REPORT”. I stop. The buttons… The buttons. I’ve never really understood them before now. There’s a red one and a green one, and the red button says “no helium present on moon” and the green button says “helium present on moon”, but it’s the green button that’s worn so much that it’s barely legible. I get closer. The glow of green gets brighter on my face. I don’t understand, the kids rat out the alien? That’s fucked up. I reach out and touch the green button. It’s rough from years of well-behaved, terrified children. But then, and I don't know why really, I reach over and press the red button. It blinks three times. 

KRITCH

Good choice.

DANE [to listener]

It’s Kritch. I didn’t hear him slip in. 

DANE [to Kritch]

Oh, um, I was... I was just uh leaving.

KRITCH It’s okay.

DANE [to listener]

He walks up beside me and looks at the buttons.

KRITCH

It is curious.

DANE [to Kritch]

What’s curious?

KRITCH Well, I didn’t expect it either but it’s true. All the kids push the green button.

DANE [to listener]

He’s not looking at me. He’s staring at the green button, his fingers running over that same rough patch. 

KRITCH They tell the truth because they know they’re supposed to or they will get in trouble. But the grown-ups? They choose red. 

DANE [to listener]

He looks over at the red button. His hand drops and his smile flattens.

KRITCH Because they know the truth about trouble.

DANE [to Kritch]

What’s the truth about trouble?

DANE [to listener]

He turns towards me. I can see that his eyes are still wet, and his suit is, like, way too shiny, and it’s reflecting the red and green lights. He takes a step towards me. 

KRITCH That you’re always in trouble. 

DANE [to listener] And then leans down until his face is like right over mine.

KRITCH And sometimes a little lie can really help with how much.

DANE [to listener]

The zoo is deserted. It’s after close now. All the lights on all the rides are out. Kritch said he would close up the ride and that I could go, so I started to head for the gate. I haven’t checked my phone in a while, but just as I'm reaching for it I hear something. 

[ANIMAL CRYING]

DANE

A crying sound. Zoe. I stop. Something is different about the sound this time.

[ANIMAL CRYING]

DANE

I turn around and walk slowly along the side of the huge building that houses both the rollercoaster and Zoe’s enclosure. The sound usually sounds like it’s far away, like in a cave, but this time it sounds very close. I round the corner and there she is, only like fifteen feet from me, in a small cement stall with an iron gate around it standing over a drain. She yelps when she sees me.

[ZOE YELPS]

DANE I scream a little bit and turn to run around the corner, and boom! I almost run into someone.

DANE [to person]

Oh I'm sorry I… 

DANE [to listener]

it’s Jennifer. 

JENNIFER Did you miss me?

DANE [to Jennifer]

Fuck. I should have known I'd see you. Wherever there’s shadows and secrets there you are a sneakin’.

JENNIFER Look who’s talking. You’re the sneak tonight. Sneak.

DANE [to Jennifer] What are you even doing here?

JENNIFER What are you even doing here?

DANE [to Jennifer] I’m at my job. It’s a thing grown-ups do.

JENNIFER Pssh. Grown-up? Nice shirt. I’m here for the rally, stupid.

DANE [to listener]

She holds up a flier to my face, like a brat. I recognize it from Emily’s porch yesterday. It says “save Zoe rally at the zoo”. Fuck, that’s today? I don’t even know the date. I look back down at her stupid face. 

DANE [to Jennifer]

You know what? You oughta go back and say hi to your little friend Zoe, stick your face through that gate and see if she’ll kiss ya’. 

DANE [to listener]

Jennifer looks at me with almost pity, and then she starts laughing. 

JENNIFER [laughing]

DANE [to Jennifer]

What’s so funny?

JENNIFER

[laughing] Oh, Zoe can’t hurt me. 

DANE [to Jennifer]

Why not?

DANE [to listener]

She steps closer to me. She’s holding a piece of cardboard with “SAVE ZOE” written on it. 

JENNIFER Because Zoe the zebra is dead. 

[THEME MUSIC]

ELLIE HAYMEN Dreamboy is co-created by Dane Terry and Ellie Haymen. Developed and directed by Ellie Haymen. Written, composed, and performed by Dane Terry, featuring Cecil Baldwin, Avery Draut, Michael St. Peter, Jake Sellers and Chris Weingarten. Sound Designed, Engineered, Mixed and Mastered by Christopher Weingarten at Bananappeal Studio. Edited by Alexander Charles Adams. Creative Producer and Assistant Director: Ashlin Hatch. Associate producer: Adam Cecil. Executive Producer: Christy Gressman. A very special thanks to Night Vale Presents. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram @dreamboypodcast. For more info and for merch check out dreamboypodcast.com. 

[accidentalharrie]

Harry Styles: A Crush for the Zeitgeist

At Harry Styles’s “SOLD OUT ONE NIGHT ONLY” celebration in Los Angeles for his new album, Fine Line, a black Lab puppy with a big soft face and chubby paws is the official security dog. As I wait in line and stare at him, he’s staring at his chaperone, pure love in his eyes. The puppy’s training kicks in when the well-manicured probable model ahead of me drops a bag of gourmet cupcakes. The puppy tries to run toward the cupcakes and is eventually taken on a walk to cool off. He could be a mascot here. The demographic of the Harry Styles’s tour kickoff is urgent, excitable sweet tooth.

At the Forum, approximately 17,000 chirpy fans, mostly femme and seemingly circa Styles’s age (25), prance into the stadium with birthday-girl energy and new shirts. The shirt with an impressive plurality here is sold at the merch table outside. (“Where are your regular shirts?” I ask two friends who’ve been on tour with Harry and they laugh and tell me, “In a bag under our seat.” Obviously.) Fifteen minutes before his set time, the merch booths have been picked almost clean. Another probable model is wearing eight gold rings across her fingers that spell F I N E L I N E like brass knuckles.

Instead of wearing Styles concert T-shirts, some of his fans are just dressed like him. If you were wondering where all the bright, high-waisted trousers disappeared to on Friday night, they were with me at the Forum. Like the most consuming of crushes, there is a dual impulse to both be and be with. I count at least five imitations of his Gucci huge-leg sailor-pants look from his album cover. A leopard suit from his last tour; the “Sex” shirt he wore on SNL. For the life of me I can’t keep a Styles song in my head, but the outfits are emblazoned on my cortex. I was at that SNL taping actually, a fact I forgot until I wrote that down. I am a receptive sieve when it comes to this handsome scamp.

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To decode Harry Styles to my date (their cultural interests run more to Björk, 1997–2004, plus 2015), I tell them Styles describes Fine Line as “all about having sex and feeling sad.” My date looks at sea for a second and then asks: “At the same time?”

I can’t wait to know the answer. I’ve heard that Fine Line is testing: Can Styles make soulful and patient ’70s psych-rock and still make fan hearts’ skip a beat in 2019? Styles’s fans have flocked tightly around him since his days in confection-pop band One Direction and they stuck close through his eponymous first solo album two years ago: a moody work in the genre of “nonthreatening bad boy.” This year, things got freakier. In a Rolling Stone profile, he told a story about biting his tongue while recording and high on mushrooms, so blood came out of his mouth as he sang. Intense, animal, and daring. In honor of Styles’s new artistic voyage, my date and I split a mushroom.

The lights shoot up, Styles emerges onto the stage, and there’s a collective intake of breath. Actually, the person next to me gasp-shouts “HIS CHEST!” the millisecond before the screams avalanche.

Styles frisks around the stage singing about sex and candy, “Watermelon Sugar,” and a mandate of radical softness and euphoria. He moves like a tickle: intended to make you feel giddy and impulsive. And it’s felt. Being inside the stadium is like being inside the radiating pink heat of a crush feeling. There’s no hesitancy. Fans have come from Brazil and North Carolina. I meet a coven of teens sneaking vodka out of a water bottle in the bathroom, and they tell me they saw him in 2013 with One Direction: “It’s full circle.” Someone at the front of the pit keeps hoisting flowers up toward Styles, little white, sad carnations. The devotion here is as uncomplicated as I have ever seen devotion. I envy that. The Forum, the entire venue, changes its Instagram bio to “Harry Styles stan account [multiple stars emoji]” in an instant.

The metabolism is also immeasurably fast. As my date put it: “Everyone knows everything in here.” His fans know every song in their bones, from an album that was released that day. They shout the words to prove it. On Instagram, I saw a clip of a fan outside saying she hadn’t listened yet [AUDIBLE GASPS], and then she explains this will be a special opportunity to hear the album for the first time live [DIFFERENT GASPS, ADMIRING GASPS]. It’s a sentimentalist’s scene.

People scream the whole time, in addition to bobbling on command and filming. Until Styles, I tacitly agreed that it was a confusing irony that fans screamed over music they wanted to hear. I realize now that he’s made music to scream over. This is a universe of their mutual creation, the soundtrack is just the mood cue.

It can be alienating: This is the music that launched a million zillion hearts? But I realize that a crush should not be judged on talent. And Styles is a perfect crush. Slinking around in the drama of big pants and a Mick Jagger femme blouse. He looks like a rascal androgyne, he acts like a romantic, he’s all chin scruff and nonthreatening sex appeal.

Because of the pants, he dances in a way that Katharine Hepburn might. There’s a feline backward skip that seems to accentuate the knee caps. And other times, in louche-adjacent but ultimately weightless seduction, it seems as if there are string held to the stop of his hip bones. I was thrilled when I read an interview with one of Styles’s favored designers, Harris Reed, who said some clothes were specifically flared so Styles could “dance and do his pelvic thrusting, which he loves to do.” The creature is a perfect crush.

There’s a photo opportunity to stand in Styles’s place: a dark-green screen that will become the Tim Walker–photographed Fine Line album cover (floating hand included). People try to imitate Styles’s stance, but it’s surprisingly tough. I think most people don’t put their hips forward enough. No one quite achieves the lightness of the hand on his waist. And the casual point is rendered as finger gun. Styles is a master craftsman of the fluid choreography.

Can you forgive me for waiting until now to tell you that Stevie Nicks descended onto the stage like an archangel? They Landslid together. (Brief history: Harry Styles paid official tribute to Nicks at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony by saying, “She’s always there for you. She knows what you need: advice, a little wisdom, a blouse, a shawl”; Nicks mistakenly referred to Styles’s former band as “’N Sync.”) Nicks — dusky voice even duskier, in high beige boots — sways in front of a mic stand with a thousand sparkling scarves on it. Styles approaches his half of the duet with clarity and practice and he does a worshipful dance at her. This whole place is a devotional practice. I remember that I’m on mushrooms and feel religious about it. When they sing, “I’ve been afraid of changing because I’ve built my life around you,” I think about Styles and the fans and their adoring fealty.

So the night’s heating up. Glitter drops from the ceiling (metaphorically “snow” as Styles is singing “Wonderful Christmas Time”). This is nice. Styles says, “The album is yours; I am yours,” so I think it’s a Christmas present. I should write a thank-you note.

The Fine Line’s tour comes with a take-home message: “Treat People With Kindness,” which is incidentally the name of a bombastic choral-influenced song on Fine Line. It’s inscribed on shirts and on handwritten signs, helpfully summarized as “TPWK,” which is incidentally the sound of someone being punched in the stomach.

With three minutes left of the night, Styles launches into “Kiwi,” a song from his first solo album that’s famous for making big floors shake. Before the song breaks, I see a pack of girls in sneakers and skirts and jumpsuits carefully clear a wide circle in the pit and then hurtle into it. Will they be able to thrash with kindness and consideration? Of course, they’ve been studying Fine Line and how to walk it. And when Styles asks them, “Will you dance with me like you’ve never danced before?” I’ve never seen such obedience.

[fc5holidayexchange]

Far Cry 5 Holiday Exchange 2019 Fic

‘Aim for the Heart’

-John sets a trap for the deputy-

Deputy Emily Rook/John Seed

@oh-the-bliss

“My gift to you, hope you like it! Happy Holidays! - @sleepydaydreamz

Static came through the other end of the radio as Emily Rook set her sniper on the outpost in front of her. It was night and the stars began to show themselves as Emily took another drag of the joint between her lips. She ignored the noise and continued to count the Peggies surrounding the Jessop Conservatory in Faith’s region. Emily had dreaded coming to this place with Bliss barrels scattered everywhere but she knew she had to get it over with eventually.

“Depuuty,” sang out a voice from her radio. Emily’s shoulders tensed as she ignored it and looked through her scope, counting a total of fifteen cult members.

“You really should pick up your radio, dear,” sighed John. “Fine, I guess I’ll have fun with my new friend here. Such a cute and cuddly creature.”

A dog’s whine could be heard through the radio and Emily instantly dropped her weapon and grabbed the radio from her belt. She was about to press the talk button when a thought struck her. Just because there was a dog with him didn’t necessarily mean it was Boomer. There were plenty of strays roaming around Hope County, it wouldn’t be too difficult for John to catch one and lie about it.

“You’re lying,” she muttered through the radio. The last time she had seen the lovable dog, she had left him in the hands of Sharky. Emily knew that he wouldn’t let anything happen to that dog; even promising he would die just to keep him safe.

“Oh, I would never lie to you, Emily,” said John and she winced at the way he said her name. “I’ll prove it to you. Your little dog just so happens to be wearing a red bandanna with a tag on it. It says Rocky on one side, but it seems to be scratched out. Looks like someone tried to etch the name ‘Boomer’ on the back. Sloppy writing if you ask me.”

The color drained from Emily’s face as she quickly packed up her gear and ran toward the truck parked behind her. As she started the car and slammed on the gas, she snatched the radio and let out a deep growl.

“If you so much as touch him-”

“You’ll what? Actually, you can tell me in person. Meet me at my ranch within the hour.”

His voice sharply cut out, making Emily step on the pedal until it hit the floor as she weaved between the few passing cars on the winding road. John had done plenty of things in the past to get her attention, but he did nothing this drastic. Her mind went back to how she blew up five of his silos yesterday and now she was starting to wish she hadn’t.

As Emily pulled up the long driveway, she slammed on the brakes and threw the door open as she ran outside with shotgun in hand. After kicking the doors open, she aimed her gun around crazily, searching for any sign of movement.

The house was silent and now that she thought about it, there were no guards posted outside or parked in the driveway. A fire flickered in the dim lighting as Emily’s heart rate began to pick up, her ears straining for the smallest of noises.

The sound of a door slowly opening upstairs nearly made her jump as she quickly turned around and walked up the staircase. A light shown through the half-opened door and she could hear soft noises coming from within.

Emily crept down the hallway and stopped right outside as she used the end of her shotgun to carefully open the door.

“Boomer!” she gasped. Boomer was crawled up in the corner of the bathroom, happily chewing on a bone. Emily set her gun down and crawled to him as she rubbed his ears when she felt something poke the back of her head.

“So happy that you came,” said John above her. “Don’t try to make any sudden movements. I might miss and hurt your friend here. Now, hands up.”

Emily scowled as she slowly raised her hands and stood up on her feet. John’s hand wrapped around the back of her neck as he pulled her out of the bathroom and shut the door behind him, locking Boomer in.

John hummed as he took away the two knives strapped to her legs and a small pistol tucked in the back of her pants. She hated herself for not bringing in more weapons but the fear of something happening to Boomer overrode all common sense.

“Move forward.”

John shoved the gun against Emily’s head as she walked down the hall and felt his hand push her into a different room. Emily recognized it as his bedroom and she already knew where he wanted this to go.

“You blew up my silos yesterday,” said John in a dangerously low voice. “I have to admit, you’re the only woman who has ever made a dent in my wallet. It’s starting to annoy me.”

John hit her in the back with his gun and she grunted as she fell to the floor. As Emily got up to her knees, she looked up and felt his gun press against her forehead.

“I would first like an apology,” said John. “Go on then, I don’t have all day.”

Emily narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if he really would kill her this time. In the past, he had always let her off with a warning, although those warnings included getting marked or enduring his baptisms.

The click of the safety switching on grabbed Emily’s attention as he tilted his head down at her.

“I really don’t feel like putting a dog down today,” threatened John. It could’ve been just another one of John’s sick tests, but Emily didn’t want to take a chance on it. She leaned back on the heels of her feet and held her hands in front of her, hoping to look as demur as possible.

“I’m sorry, John,” she breathed. “I didn’t mean to annoy you.”

John studied her as he pressed the gun further into her head but Emily made no movements. It seemed like their staring contest was going to last forever until John let out a low chuckle and holstered his gun onto his belt.

“See? That’s all I wanted,” said John. He offered her his hand and she begrudgingly took it, knowing there would be severe consequences if she didn’t.

“You look tired,” he noted. “More than usual.”

Emily shrugged as he grabbed her chin and gently forced her to look at him. She couldn’t help but stare into his eyes and loved how they reminded her of the Montana sky.

“My men have been dismissed for the night,” said John softly. “They won’t be back until morning…”

Emily knew where this was going and part of her wanted to run away as far as possible. However, the way his hand trailed down to caress her collarbone stopped her from doing so. She knew it had been a mistake to kiss him the last time they had met.

It had been his second attempt to try and baptize her, this time, without Joseph interrupting. He had drugged her by using the Bliss bullets again and she had woken up in a drugged haze by a river. He had stood waist-deep inside the water and was completely shirtless, his sins and tattoos exposed for the world to see.

Emily remembered how sad he had looked and how his face changed when he realized she was looking at him. The face she presumed he saved for his old days as a lawyer came on, a small smirk with a slightly raised eyebrow. She hadn’t planned on going into the water on her own but her legs took her to him anyways.

Just as she approached him, she took his face into her hands and looked carefully at his face. It could’ve been the Bliss that was making her so vulnerable, but she wanted to see that face again; the one that showed the slightest hint of humanity among the madness.

“What are you doing?” he had whispered to her.

It was at that moment she saw it; the slight expansion of his pupils, the sharp intake of breath and the way his hands rested on her hips. For one full minute, they weren’t the cult’s Baptist or the rookie cop. They were just two people, holding each other in a moment of peace.

Emily’s lips had found his before she could even think twice about it. She remembered the small moan he had let out after finally breaking their brief kiss and she had never heard such a pleasing sound.

The sound of Boomer’s barking brought her back to the present and she tried turning away from him.

“I can’t stay here,” said Emily. She shook her head, hoping it would clear her mind of the past.

“No one will find ever out,” assured John. “When was the last time you slept in an actual bed? Or even took a nice, hot shower? I know for a fact you haven’t had a decent meal since this whole thing started.”

Emily shook her head again and took a step back but John quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her into him.

“Please, Emily. Just one night, that’s all I ask,” he said. She could feel the slight trembling in his body as he held her. With all the promises he had made her, what was one night after all?

[kpopisthereasonihavenolife]

Blight | V

BTS

Jeon Jungkook/Reader [F]

Genre: Dragon/Shapeshifter AU, Magic AU, Enemies to Lovers

Words: 5k

@tamedandscripted @syubcandy @cencoroil @kathrynwynterbourne @fireflower90 @bluegreenguppyfish @queen-pharaoh-hatshepsut @mygukandonly @ms-bookdragon @leemarkeurii @seaofsunbeams @astronomyturtle @v-reallife

“Y/n,” Jungkook called as he grabbed your right hand with your tattoo below your palm with his own left tattooed hand.  Holding it tightly he slumped over, putting his forehead on your shoulder as he sighed. It wasn’t a sigh of resignation, nor was it a sigh of someone who was being forced into a situation.  It was a sigh of comfort in which he breathed.

“Y/n,” he repeated as he held your hand in his own,  “I’m ready to be your Familiar now.”

XXX

“What?” You asked in a small, whispered breath.  Were his head not on your shoulder with his ear so close, you doubt he would’ve heard you at all.  “You’re ready- I- what? What do you mean?” You stuttered around your words, suddenly becoming far less fluent in the language you were speaking since you were young.  Jungkook remained silent as you soon grabbed his shoulders and pushed him off you, tearing your hand out of his grasp in the process.

As you held him away from you, his eyes seemed almost glassy.  Did admitting- saying that- make him emotional?  Did he regret it? Or was he lying to you and he couldn’t hold back? You retracted your hands slowly from his shoulders, dropping them to your lap.

“You’re a liar,” you accused.  Jungkook stiffened as he took a sharp intake of breath through his nose.  

“I’m a lot of things, Y/n,” he started with a firm voice, “but I am not a liar,” he defended himself.

“No. No, just- no.  You hated me two days ago.  So, you can’t just-”

“People’s minds can change.  Mine did.”

“Jungkook-”

“No, listen to me.  I mean it, Y/n. I do.”

You just huffed as you brought your hands to your face. Feeling the fabric of your bandage on your face, something occurred to you.  Sparked to your mind. “Jungkook,” you called as you lowered your hands from your face slowly. Your gaze locked onto your palms as your hands hovered in the air. “Are you just saying all this because of this,” you gestured to your bandaged, covered and infected left arm.  “Is… is this all just pity from you?”

Jungkook didn’t speak.  He wanted to refuse immediately, but his throat locked up.  It was like something had cursed him into silence when in truth it was just his conscience halting him and his words.  He wanted to deny it, wanted to say it was his own decision and now the fact that you got hurt that changed his mind. However, if he took a step back, that’s really how it appeared.

Jungkook’s attitude only changed on the courtyard, after you lost consciousness as your blight worked its way into you.  He changed when he carried you into Parrish’s medical room. He changed when you woke up and Yoongi was scolding you and he felt relieved.  He changed when you went to dinner as a group and he finally got to see you smile and actually talk to him as Jungkook, but not as the snotty, stuck up dragon-shifter.  Was it all for pity?

He shook his head.  No. Surely it’s not, it’s his decision and while he knows you’re injured, it wasn’t his fault.  There wasn’t anything he could’ve done to stop what Zaros did, and furthermore, there was no cure for a blight.  In this situation, he couldn’t do anything. Nothing but accept that he is your Familiar.

“It's… not pity.  It's not,” he whispered to you and to himself as well.  You doubted him and he could feel it. If he were you, he’d doubt him too. “Please trust me and listen.  I- yes maybe I felt bad when you got hurt, but that’s not the reason I’ve finally come to terms with all of this.  I’ve- for the longest time- hated Spellcasters and their system with binding a Familiar.”

“Yes, I’m fully aware.  You made that clear to me anytime you saw me.  And I mean anytime. You’d kick sand at me if you walked by me or called me something rude if you just barely saw me across the halls.”

Jungkook slightly winced.  Looking back on himself now, he really was horrible.  “I’m sorry about all that,” he mumbled.

“All is forgiven,”  you said calmly. “I didn’t help by adding fuel to the fire that was our relationship.  I was just as crude and uncivil towards you, so it balances out to a clean slate.”

Jungkook smiled small as his gaze lowered to the floor.  He sighed as he continued to try and convince you of his swapped opinion towards you and the both of your immediate partnership. “I always thought that Familiars were just an easy way out for your kind, so as someone who worked hard every day to get to where I am now… I don’t know, it just pissed me off.  They pissed me off.”

You tried to catch his eyes, gaining eye contact would help him try and defend himself and yet there he sat, next to you staring at the floors of this empty, locked classroom.   “So, you’re saying something changed your mind?” He shrugged before he nodded, an very unsure gesture to be fair. An equal action of ‘sure, that’s what we’ll say’. “What was it?”

Jungkook finally raised his head, connected his dark eyes with your own.  He could almost see the magic behind them, sparkling like pure energy. He had no doubt you could see the fire his eyes that flicked at the edge of his irises.

“You did,” he stated much bolder than before.  “I saw everything between you and Zaros,” you gasped lightly when he mentioned your father by name.  “When he froze everything. When he scolded and scorned you. When he cast that spell and how you tried to explain that the reason you came to him alone was that your Familiar didn’t want to be there at your side.”  He took a breath, “you got hurt because I was too afraid and stubborn to realize that not all Spellcasters are like that. You aren’t, and I don’t think Yoongi is either.”

Jungkook lowered his head towards you, placing his hands on the floor as he bowed deeply to you.  “I’m sorry for judging you all this time when all I’ve been is wrong,” he apologized. You panicked as you yanked the back of his shirt to sit him back up.  Your cheeks were flushed when he looked at you, clearly embarrassed from the public display of such a fond apology. He chuckled as you looked to make sure no one was peaking in any windows to see him in such a state.  

The renown wrestling team captain who literally throws men twice his size from wall to wall without breaking a sweat, bowing his head to the floor at an injured, blighted Witch.  It was a joke if it were to be seen for sure.

“Jungkook,” you started, “I’ll think about it.  I’ll give you time to really think over your decision.”

“I don’t need any more time.  I’ve thought it through already.”

You sighed as you stood up, Jungkook quickly following suit.  He stood above you as he watched as you smoothed out your clothes and grabbed your bag.  He watched as you rubbed and messed just slightly withed the edges of your bandage.

“Regardless, I’ll make sure that no one finds out about you being bound, especially to me.”  Jungkook furrowed his brows. “It’s a well-known fact that you don’t like me to the rest of our two buildings.  Not to mention your pretty infamous for being that one student who swore up and down he wouldn’t accept a contract.” He lowered your arm as you slung your bag over your shoulder. “I’ll think of some story to figure out so people won’t bombard you with questions.”

You turned your back, flicking the lock on the door open to step out before Jungkook yanked on your bag.  Letting out a small squeal, you stumbled backward a few steps before your bag was taken from you completely.  Whipping around you already had your mouth open to yell at Jungkook.

“Hush,” he told you as he set your bag on a desk and stripping himself of his hoodie.  Pulling it off his back, over his head and letting the sleeves drop from his arms, he held it out and practically tossed it onto your head.  Acting like a dog who got a blanket thrown over him, you swatted at the fabric and pulled it from you, leaving you a mess far to be desired.

“Just what is your problem?!”  You hissed as you held the hoodie he threw at you.  

“Your arm’s bothering you and it’s already been changed for the day.  So, cover it up. That hoodie isn’t very thick so the fabric shouldn’t mess with the bandages.” Jungkook took your bag back and held it at his waist, waiting for you to put the hoodie on.  With your bag held hostage, and the waiting glare in the eyes of the half-dragon, you merely sighed as you slipped the clothing over your head.

It wasn’t so much heavy as it was big, cover your arms and going well past your fingertips as the hoodie itself engulfed you.  Though, you couldn’t help the smile that grew on your face with how warm and comfortable it was. Jungkook quickly took your right wrist with his left, the same wrist that had his Familiar tattoo inscribed on your skin.  

“I’m fully prepared to be your Familiar.  When I say that, I mean it. I have no intention of hiding it or keeping it a secret should anyone ask me about it.  You shouldn’t feel the need to lie for me when I have no future intention of doing so.”

“Jungkook-”

“Furthermore, as your Familiar, I have a condition to watch over your well being. That includes making sure your magic isn’t overused.”  

You scowled at you as you rotate your wrist out of his grasp.  

“I’m not some doddering old lady you need to babysit.  I can take care of myself and contrary to what others think, I am capable of living without using magic.  I’ll be fine, so lay off.” Jungkook sighed. Your stubbornness was to be expected. What with how your previous interactions always were, this was at least a small step forward away from the past.  

He cupped his chin, trying to think of a way to get you to trust him.  He wasn’t lying and he really was willing to try and put in the effort to make this partnership work.  He just needed to do something grand enough to show that he trusted you so that you can trust him in return.  

He grumbled silently as you held your hand out for your bag.  He just shook his head as he handed it back to you, but only after an idea sparked into mind.

“After school, I wanna show you something.”  You raised your brow at his sudden smile and excitement.  “I have a secret place that I want to show you. It’s a place that no one knows about and I go there all the time to get my bearings.”

“Okay?  Why do I need to go?”

“So that you can trust me.  If I take you to my secret place, I obviously am willing to work together.”

“You’re awfully pushy about all of this.”  You sighed in defeat. “Alright, we can go to your hideout.  But only after school.” He nodded as he tossed your bag to you and trotted to the door, opened it before walking out.  You followed suit, shutting the door behind you before heading off in the opposite direction of Jungkook. Thinking about it, he had no reason to be in this part of your building.

How did he know you were even in that room?

XXX

It was already mid-afternoon when your classes had finished for the day.  With a stack full of spellbooks to research and study as well as homework from the day of casual classes you missed, you walked around the halls mindlessly as you dreaded unloading your bag when you dragged yourself back into your dorm. Where Yoongi would no doubt absolutely refuse to help you with anything.  A true snake.

You sighed as you heaved yourself to your locker and spun to lock dial to the left, then to the right and left once more before you unlatched it and swung the metal door open.  Tossing in your unneeded books and papers, you grabbed your essentials for home when your locker was then slammed shut. Nearly slamming your fingers in the metal door as you quickly yanked them back and out of the way.

Half expecting Jungkook to be the culprit, you opened your mouth ready to spout off some dragon related insult, but it died before it rolled off your tongue.  Before you were Elias, the student council president, and quite the royal pain in the ass. Inspecting his nails as if he had just lifted bricks instead of slamming your locker door- he seemed passive.  

You bit your tongue, keeping your composure as you turned to face him fully.  Arrogant or not, he was older than you and he technically was superior in regards to you and your standing in your division. Even if you were both B Ranks in your respective species- he was the student’s guide post; somehow.

“May I help you with something, Elias?” You bit back the sarcastic tone just begging to leap right out of your throat.  

“Perhaps,” was his dead, unamused reply.  He seemed so bothered like you sought him out instead of the reality being him stepping into your space and bothering you.  If he would just mind his business his attitude could be avoided. You just wanted to tell him to buzz off in all honesty. “I hear you’ve sustained a pretty nasty blight there, Salem.”  

You nodded as you unconsciously recoiled your arm back into the overgrown sleeve of Jungkook’s hoodie you still wore.  “I have. In the skirmish the other day, I got a bit too tackless and my actions wound up costing me.”

“I see.  You’re recovering well?” His tone couldn’t sound less caring if he tried.  He obviously didn’t want to be here in your presence, and the feeling was mutual.  He could be on his way any time now. The sooner the better.

“I am.  I’m receiving oversight and proper treatment. As well as I plan to have medical follow-ups weekly.”  You- giving up on the idea of getting back into your locker- slung your bag around your back and hoisted it up onto your shoulders.  “Is there anything else you’d like to speak to me about. If not, I’m quite busy. I have someone waiting for me as well as many assignments and spells to practice and study.”

You politely gestured to him as a means to get away and made it as far as his right shoulder before he grabbed you.  Yanking your wrist, he pushed you against the lockers, pinning your left shoulder down as he hardened his hand into stone.  

As a Gargoyle, he can solidify and stone any part of his body at any given time.  He can even become a living statue for a time if he wished. He had you basically tacked to the wall like a piece of paper to a cork board. You winced as the pressure his hand was pushing into your shoulder.  It made your bandaged, left art twitch, just itching to use magic to overpower him, but you didn’t. You had more self-restraint than that.

He lifted your right wrist up to his face, pushing your sleeve down as he inspected your Familiar tattoo.  His grey eyes narrowed as he twisted and rotated your wrist as he scanned your wrist like a barcode. You winced when he twisted it too far and pinched your skin between his fingers.  The halls had nearly cleared out, only a few people here and there but none would willing to intervene.

It was Elias after all, they couldn’t do anything even if they wanted to.  It didn’t help the slight annoyance bubbling in your gut though.

You felt your pride burning into your head as it nearly pushed you to cast a spell just strong enough to throw him back into the wall across the hall- maybe through it if it was cast carefully enough. You were at the edge of doing so, sparks of magic crackling at your fingertips when someone yanked Elias off you instead.  

Confused for a moment and slacking back against the wall without something pinning you, you nearly lost your balance from his rapid separation.  Elias, staggering backward was soon wincing as his arm that held you previously were now pinned behind his back.

Jungkook- with a frown etched into his face- pulled on his arm, pinning it on his back as he held Elias’s collar from the back, keeping him away from you. Jungkook stepped and mosied around to where his back was towards you and shoved Elias in the opposite direction.

The Gargoyle nearly tripped forward as he regained his balance and whipped around angrily to glare at Jungkook who just rotated his shoulder, you behind him.

“Jungkook, what are you doing?” You whispered to him but didn’t reply to you.  He just kept his sights on Elias as he stood back up to his full height and shook out his arm, trying to will away the pain. “Jungkook?”

“I’ll ask you once to keep your hands to yourself,” Jungkook declared as he stared Elias down. The two were both stubborn, hard-headed and arrogant.  At least Jungkook was able to bend down to a level of agreement most cases- even if he complained. Elias was no such man, he was as proud as the rock he could kick around the courtyard.

“I do hope you're not threatening me, Helios,” Elias sneered.

“And if I am?”

Elias only scoffed as a sly- seemingly upper handed- smirk grew on his face.  “Since when did the one infamous Shifter on campus who refuses to have anything to do with Spellcasters decide to protect one?  Really, are all reptiles this way?”

Jungkook clenched his jaw.  “Just once I’d like to knock you through the roof,” Jungkook muttered as you placed a hand on the center of his back, trying to calm him down.  He didn’t need to start a bigger scene already.

“You’re taking this far too seriously- almost personally.  How precious,” Elias teased.  You don’t know why per se Jungkook was acting so chivalrous- and though you greatly appreciated it, things were looking to get worse before better. 

“I have every right to take it as personally as if you were assaulting me directly.” Jungkook rose his wrist up, keeping it clear in Elias’s sight.  “If you continue to berate and antagonize my Master I’ll be forced to soundly take immediate- unpleasant- action.” Jungkook turned slightly, grabbing your hand that once rested on his back.  “Heed your actions, I’ve warned you once. There will be no second time.” Jungkook tugged you off down the hall, leaving Elias behind as he stomped away.

As you mindlessly let yourself get pulled along, Elias only scoffed as he then turned and went to be on his way.  Only to be stopped, frozen in his own shadow when Yoongi rounded the corner when you and Jungkook were well on your way out of the area.  Yoongi with a twisted smile on his face painted in annoyance with Jimin at his side with a scowl.

Even Elias felt fear, and Yoongi hit that fear on the head like an almighty hammer.  

“Let’s have a little chat,” Yoongi purred as Jimin even felt a shiver going down his spine.  Yoongi was nothing short of sadistic.

XXX

Jungkook had dragged you to a vacant hall of the building just before stepping outside.  He stopped as he kept a hold of your hand, turning to you and scanning your face that was etched in complete confusion.  He could see your mind whirling around what just happened and why. He slapped your forehead.

“Don’t think too hard.  Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself,” he jested with a smirk.  You snapped to as you gasped and slapped your hand out of his own, face flushed in embarrassment and annoyance. He chuckled as you took your hand and slid it into your sleeve, hiding it from sight.  He took notice that you were still wearing his hoodie he gave you this morning. “You kept it on?” You look at him, a scowl pouting on your face. He reached and grabbed hold of the fabric of the hoodie, tugging a bit.  “The hoodie. I didn’t think you’d actually keep it on. I mean, you were more than allowed to take it off and throw it away when I left.” He smirked as you swatted his hand off of the comfortable piece of clothing.

“I- that’s not important right now,” your scowl softened as you looked at him.  “Listen, rumors are bound to spread about you being my Familiar now.”

“It’s not really a rumor if it’s true though.”

“Doesn’t it bother you? Even a little bit?”

Jungkook cupped his chin with his finger as he thought for only a few- almost comical- seconds.  “It doesn’t.”

“You say that with such confidence,” you deadpan as you quirk an eyebrow at him.  He smirked.

“That’s because I am confident.  My choice is final and it’s not going to change.”  He held out his left, tattooed, wrist. “I’m yours.”  You sighed in defeat. He put his hands on his hip as he huffed.  “Right, on to what we should be doing.” You looked at him as he turned and ran a bit away from you, telling you to stay put and that he’d need some room.  Only getting more confused, he turned back to face you- only yards away now. “I’m going to transform, try not to be too impressed!” He shouted as he cupped around his mouth.

“You’re going to what?!” You panicked as the earth began the smallest of tremors and the wind shifted. The smallest shine of a physical aura surrounded his body as the wind became visible and surrounded him in a cloud or whirlwind.  Holding your hair out of your face, you watched the wall of wind expand and grow larger and large. Growing tall towards the sky and wide to fill the area you stood in.

Soon, the wind began to break, small snippets opening to reveal scales and claws before dispersing with a gust strong enough to start you stumbling backward.  Once calm, it seemed as though the wind from before almost never happened- it was so silent. Silent save from the heavy breathing hovering high above your head.

Looking up with wide eyes, you saw the dragon that was once Jeon Jungkook.  A might dragon he was. Scales shining enough you could almost use one as a mirror.  He was giant, standing as tall as a three-story building and although he took up a grand amount of space, he was a slim dragon.  His tail whipped behind him, thinning to the barbed point at the tip. His wings were flat against his back and you could hardly make them out with them so well hidden when not in use.

Lowering his head towards you, his giant golden eyes took up the mass of your torso.  His three-horned head was almost intimidating- if you hadn’t known this was also the same geek who ditched class because he didn’t feel like attending. His claws at the base of his hind and front legs were massive, it was easy to see why Dragons became so endangered and protected in the past.  You could think of a lot of people who’d want something so rare and sturdy to create weapons and armor. His scales could easily be sold to a noble home for women to marvel at.

He opened his mouth, his fangs on display easily the size of your body. You could see the ridges of the tongue that sat still in his mouth- the same tongue that appeared to be more blue than pink.  

His entire color was a soft auburn, something you thought fascinating.  If you looked at it just right, he almost appeared the softest shade of red.  

“Are you going to gawk all afternoon?” You screamed as you jumped, no expecting him to be able to talk. His giant jaws didn’t even move as you heard his voice echo.  It almost sounded deeper? Perhaps the change alters the vocal cords, it would make sense you supposed.

“You- you can still speak like this?!” If he were in his human form, he would’ve rolled his eyes.  

“More telepathy than speaking. Now get on and hold onto one of my horns.  You’ve got a long flight ahead of us.” He lowered his head further, resting his jaws on the ground as his reptilian-like eyelids flickered with blinks and his black slit pupil shrunk and enlarged in his golden eyes.  

“Just… climb on?” You asked as you stepped towards him and placed your hands on the side of his head.  His scales were cool to the touch- at first at least. Once there a moment, you could feel a warmth run through his rough skin and into your own.  You had no doubt that was the fire in his soul that allowed him such a grand transformation.

“Yes.  I won’t let you fall, I promise.”  He chided with a deep, dragonesque chuckle.  You mocked him as you slowly- and as carefully as you could- climbed up onto his neck and crawled up to the crown of his head where you wrapped your arms around a horn of his.  It was about as thick around as a tree that still had half its life left to grow. It made wrapping your arms around it and interlocking your hands to secure yourself a great deal harder than you thought.

As a second-hand precaution, you made sure to lock your ankles as you wrapped your legs around the base of the horn as well.  

You jumped as Jungkook slowly started raising his head higher and soon you were above the trees and your sights grazed the top floors of the school.  The sun that slowly began to dip became warmer as the shade was eliminated from the equation altogether. You felt his shoulders move as you looked behind you, eager to see him spread his wings.  

When he did- when you saw how the sunlight hit them so that you could see the slightest outline of muscles and veins in his grey wings- you smiled in fascination.  

Maybe he was pretty cool but damned if you were going to tell him that.  

With a gust of wind as his two wings rose and pushed down, you closed your eyes as you held tightly onto his horn and soon you felt yourself and Jungkook rising.  Before long, he was hovering at the very top of the school and peeking over you could see the smallest outlines of people below, marveling at the dragon.

“Hold on,” he told you before he started off.  Higher and higher going past the campus, onwards past town and into nowhere you knew.  Soon, he even moved where you were fighting the best kind of chill as he flew you both through the cloud and soon even above him.  

The romance stories you’ve read never prepared you for the glory and pure beauty of the way the sun created so many pastel colors and how they blend into the sky and reflected in the clouds.  It was like you were part of a painting created by an artist known the world over.

It was so strange to touch a cloud and have your hand past right through it, whipping around the vapor filled cloud.  In cartoons, clouds always remained it’s puffy, cotton ball shape. This though wisped right through your fingers and felt like silk on your skin.  It was chilly but in the best possible way.

“It’s so beautiful,” you whispered to no one- not even yourself.  Maybe it was just your mind slipping out of your mouth subconsciously.  Though, whatever the reason behind your words was, it kept the fire in Jungkook chest burning as he took below the cloud not soon after.

You peeked around the horn that you held and saw him approaching a mountain top.  Typically speaking, going the steady route he was towards a peek of a mountain that clearly wasn’t going to move for him would be pretty anxiety-inducing.  Though, as you got closer, you noticed the peek was actually open and before long, he was arching and diving his way down.

His wings folded far closer to his body as he nose-dived into a cavern of rock and you held onto his horn for dear life as the free-fall took momentum. You ducked as lower as you could to prevent yourself from being flung right off him, eyes tightly shut.  

You squawked when you heard his wings open suddenly as the air caught them and suddenly you weren’t diving down some hidden, mountain top cavern.  Instead, you were hovering, basically floating in the air.

“Hey scaredy cat, open your eyes now,”  Jungkook spoke to you as you clicked your tongue and bit back at him.

“I wasn’t scared of anything!  I was worried about dust or rock.. getting in my… eye,” your voice that was biting and stern softened to a whispered as you looked below you.  It was a vast jungle, green and luscious and filled with life.

The waterfall Jungkook knew so well, the lake of healing properties.  The mysterious island with the throne and arch to match. The trees, weeping with greens, purples, and blues thriving and the echos of all the creatures and animals that lived here.  

This was Jungkook’s secret place, but he decided that he should learn to share some things- even if with just one person.  Who better to share with than his Master.

-TBC-

[swiss-cheeze]

Cheater Cheater Pumpkin Eater || part 3 || Tommy Lee

Warnings: uhh, drinking, swearing, sex

A/N: this is the LAST installation of Cheater Cheater, I hope you like this three part mini fic thing!

Part 1: https://snitchthewitch.tumblr.com/post/184823306925/cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater-tommy-lee-x

Part 2: https://snitchthewitch.tumblr.com/post/185406896095/cheater-cheater-pumpkin-eater-part-2-tommy

———

(Y/n) looked around and realized how uncomfortable she actually was in a setting like this, all dolled up and posh, she would rather a crowded bar filled with cigarette smoke and good beers, good friends and shitty perverts that she could knock out, the girl smirked at some earlier memories of doing that many a time before. However, (Y/n)’s thoughts where cut short as a voice brought her back to reality, a voice she hadn’t heard in almost 3 years.

“You look rather uncomfortable in this environment, if I knew it was you I would’ve taken you to a bar instead of this place” Tommy said.

---

Sighing through her nose (Y/n) closed her eyes as her finger ran around the top of her wine glass, “and if I knew it was you I would have boarded my room for a week” the girl said bitterly.

“I see you still hate me” Tommy said, the man sat down next to (Y/n) who quickly scooted far away from the man, a hurt look over taking his features.

“I recall you where the one who cheated” (Y/n) said, staring at her wine glass before taking a mouthful.

“Look (Y/n), I’m sorry for what happened back then-“

“No you’re not” (Y/n) cut Tommy off quickly, the boy shut up immediately seeing as there where steak knives in easy reach, “you cheated on me for three quarters of the tour, you had a girl suck you off while on the phone to me while you had the other girl pull the goddam phone cord out from the fucking phone!” (Y/n) said exasperated, her elbows staying on the table but her hands making the story as her gaze stayed on the tablecloth wide eyed.

“When did you get told that?” Tommy whispered in disbelief, the band had been acting weird with him when the pair first parted ways and almost no one talked to him besides a few words from Mick. It came to the drummer that (Y/n) was like a little sister to all of them, the reason why they didn’t talk to him after the breakup.

“Vince told me, Nikki gave me a call and Mick came over for a chat” (Y/n) said softly, “they aren’t stupid Tommy”, that name had not been uttered from your mouth in almost three years, “they told me everything they should have about Heather”

“Heather…” Tommy whispered looking at the piece of table cloth her was fiddling with.

“Nikki told me you broke up” (Y/n) whispered softly, “I’m sorry” the girl muttered.

“Don’t apologise, I just think she was the one that got away” Tommy said before clearing his throat, “but, I want a fresh start” the drummer said happily, (Y/n)’s gaze turned up to look at the drummer and fuck his eyes still looked heavenly. (Y/n) was about to say something before Charles came back over.

“Are we ready ma’am?” Charles asked as he took out his notepad and pen, (Y/n)’s gaze turned to Tommy as Charles’ eyes flitted between the pair.

“No, actually he would like the cheque please” (Y/n) said, “This isn’t exactly a place neither of us fit into” the girl said as she started to gather her things, Charles gave (Y/n) a sly smile under his moustache and nodded.

“If you would so kindly follow me I’ll get you on your way” Charles said before leading the pair to the register. Tommy pulled out his wallet.

“Did you get told I was paying or?” Tommy asked with a sly grin.

“Yes I was actually, that’s the only reason I got the most expensive wine I liked that I only had a glass and a half off before your rock star ass showed up” (Y/n) retorted.

“Still as feisty as ever” Tommy said as he paid for the bill, “I like it”, (Y/n) sighed and rolled her eyes. The girl thanked Charles with a kind smile as Tommy linked his arm with hers and started walking to the exit.

“Well seeing as it’s only nine why don’t we go to a locally crowded bar filled with sweaty bodies, cigarette smoke and beers” (Y/n) said with a cocky grin. The girl really hadn’t realised how much she had missed Tommy’s touch, his smell and even just his overall persona and aura he gave out. Like an excited puppy.

“I would very much love that” Tommy said with a grin.

---

A bucket of chips and seven drinks between the pair, (Y/n) and Tommy where finally talking about the past.

“I really didn’t mean to baby girl” Tommy said, (Y/n) cringed at the nickname as Tommy held her hand, “I was so fucked up back then, with touring and Nikki and everything else…” Tommy drawled out.

“You really can’t come up with an excuse can you?” (Y/n) said with a sour look on her face, “you cheated on me for months! And you didn’t tell me, I had to hear it from Vince who had to defend himself from me almost punching him!” the girl said aggressively, “GOD,” she wretched her hand from Tommy’s grip and got up quickly, “here I thought I could give you a second chance! You looked so nice in a suit, you sounded so nice when my friend described you but you’re just as sick and twisted as you were back then!” (Y/n) exclaimed, the girl quickly walked to the exit with Tommy in tow.

“Don’t do this again (Y/n)!” Tommy yelled, immediately regretting his words the minute they left his mouth. Rain was pouring from the sky as (Y/n) walked down the sidewalk, from Tommy’s sentence the girl swerved around to look back at the drummer with a glare.

“ME!? I DID THIS AGAIN?!” she yelled over the rain as she held up a shivering finger to Tommy’s face, the pair were already drenched through.

“I didn’t mean-“

“I DIDN’T MEAN, I DIDN’T MEAN, AND WHAT THE HELL DIDN’T YOU MEAN TOMMY, HUH!?” (Y/n) cut off the drummer, she was sick of his shit back then and is still sick of it to this day; the girl turned around and started walking away again, that was before a hand grabbed her wrist, twirled her around and pinned her to an alleyway wall, “What the HELL?!”

“LISTEN TO ME” Tommy yelled over the rain, (Y/n) shut her mouth at his tone, “I didn’t mean to not love you the way I was meant to” Tommy said, a sudden rush of…something, overcame (Y/n) at the man’s words, “I treated you like real shit, the dirt under my shoe and the wheel of a tour bus. You deserved so much better than me but I was young and OH so dumb, I still technically am but that isn’t the point” (Y/n)’s lip quirked, “you’re a princess, fuck, a QUEEN in my eyes; and you still are, every day I would try and contact you but you ended up changing your phone, then moving houses to the fucking country and I knew I would never be able to see you. It broke my heart to see you wielding a wooden goddamn spoon than I was that day; except when it was my mum who was wielding the spoon,” Tommy added making (Y/n) smile, “I wanted to leave that kitchen because I knew there was knives in the room, I had never been more scared of someone then that day, you were so calm and your words almost sounded rehearsed and the fact that they did told me how much pain and hurt and anguish I really put you through. You slapped me and everything fell numb, you left and I laid on those tiles for a good hour before I really realised what had happened, I went to our-my, room and all of your clothes where gone. You didn’t know it then but I had an engagement ring hiding in that room” Tommy said softly electing a soft intake of breath from (Y/n), “I was starting to plan everything when shit went to the fan, I still have that ring (Y/n), to this day I have kept it for the day I saw you again, for the day you could forgive me and give me a second chance at a life with you, a family with you, a dog and kid, or two! Or three or however many you wanted!” Tommy said with a laugh, the laugh was contagious because (Y/n) found herself giggling along with the drummer, “I made songs dedicated to you but I never produced them or got Vince to sing them, hell I never even played a simple beat to them because you weren’t there to fill in the place I needed to MAKE the beat” Tommy looked defeated but he kept talking, (Y/n) brought her hand up to the man’s cheek and cupped it softly, “I didn’t want to chase after you because it wasn’t right, I needed to wait and see what would happen” Tommy said softly. (Y/n) gave a watery smile and sniffled softly.

“I went to the country, I didn’t listen to anything by you guys, I didn’t read the tabloids or papers, I wouldn’t utter your name or the band or anything; but right now I want to scream your name at the top of my lungs” (Y/n) said with a smile.

“Are you meaning the dirty way love?” Tommy asked slyly with a cocky grin, (Y/n) shoved the man with a laugh.

“TWAT!” (Y/n) said with a laugh.

“Come on bird, my house is closer than yours I’d bet” Tommy said, “let’s get you warm” the boy said, he slung an arm around the girls shoulder as (Y/n) did the same with his waist and the pair walked (quickly) in the rain to Tommy’s house.

---

(Y/n) smiled softly as Tommy let the girl into his house, the man immediately turned on the heaters, and a small hum of appreciation came from the girl behind him as she took in the front room decorations; a show of how much money the drummer has as well as how homely it felt walking in.

“I-it’s a little messy” Tommy said tight-lipped as he grabbed some strewn around clothes and beer bottles and started throwing them into other places of the house.

“You were always someone messy” (Y/n) said with a small chuckle making Tommy give a small grin to her direction.

“Shut it you” Tommy mumbled softly with a grin. (Y/n) put her hands up in defence as she sat down on the couch and made herself at home.

“Beer or wine?” Tommy asked as he opened one of the fridges in the room.

“Beer would be lovely” (Y/n) replied as she flicked on the telly as Tommy came back and handed her a cold long neck, the girl took it gratefully as she positioned it at the coffee table and hit the bottle cap off with the ledge.

“Wow, never knew you could do that” Tommy said as he used a cap opener and placed the cap along with (Y/n)’s.

“College frat parties do come in handy for later in life sometimes” (Y/n) said as she held up her bottle slightly and took a sip with a grin.

“If that’s what you say then yeah” Tommy replied as he too took a mouthful of his drink, (Y/n) fiddled with the TV remote for a little while before landing on MTV and Don’t Go Away Mad was soon playing around the room.

“This is you guys?” (Y/n) asked, she hadn’t heard or seen anything of the Crüe in almost three years, “you guys aren’t doing too badly” the girl said absently with a shrug.

“Yeah well, we’re only just cruising by I guess, we’re about to go on tour” Tommy said, “Nikki is up to his hips in drugs, Heather left, Mick’s back has gotten worse…” Tommy paused and played with a loose string on the couch, “we’re a little bit of a mess right now, but you’re the only thing I can see clearly” Tommy grinned slyly.

“You flatter me Tommy, you really do” (Y/n) said with a small smile, mumbling the lyrics to ‘I can see clearly now the rain is gone’.

“How are you going at home?” Tommy asked (Y/n) as he turned to look at the girl and took a swig from his beer.

“Oh, fine, hanging out. Nothing exciting happens if that’s what you’re asking” she took a swig of the beer, “haven’t had a guy in a while” (Y/n) said absently, “you?”

“Well, Heather” Tommy said with a shrug, “then your friend set us up” Tommy said with a small blush and childlike giggle, “remember that time when we set fire to Nikkis hotel room?” Tommy asked with a large grin, (Y/n) let out a laugh.

“Yeah, yeah I remember that, Doc kicked our asses because of it. The bill wasn’t even that big but he still held a grudge against us for like three weeks” (Y/n) said with a laugh, the laugh was rather contagious as Tommy followed through and chuckled slightly as well before a semi awkward silence overcame the pair.

“You said you hadn’t had a guy in a while” Tommy questioned as he gave (Y/n) a curious look, “what do you mean by that?” the boy took a swig from his beer again.

“E-ever since you and I broke up I haven’t really…been with anyone. I’ve tried but they never worked more than a month or so” (Y/n) said with a shrug, “a few hook-ups here and there but they were really bad” the girl said as her face contorted into something akin to disgust and uncomfortableness.

“Well, if it means anything, I haven’t had any good sex either” Tommy said with an awkward smile, “Heather wasn’t really-“

“Tommy, dude. I do NOT want to know your sex life” (Y/n) said with a large laugh, “it can most definitely not be any worse than mine”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Tommy asked with a laugh.

“What! Nothing! Pretend I said nothing” (Y/n) said with a fit of giggles.

“No tell me!” Tommy pleaded as he sat up in anticipation.

“No! Nope!” (Y/n) said, the boy huffed softly as he put down his beer.

“I’ll do something you really don’t like unless you tell me” Tommy said, the girl put down her drink too and cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah? And what’s that tough guy?” (Y/n) asked cockily.

“This!” Tommy pounced on the girl and quickly pinned her before tickling her sides, the girl screeched and writhed beneath Tommy with laughter.

“NO T-TOMMY ST-AH-STOP!” (Y/n) yelled as she tried to swat Tommy’s hands away as well as using her legs and feet.

“Tell me!” the boy yelled through (Y/n)’s laughter.

“FINE FINE! ILL TELL!” (Y/n) said, Tommy stopped his antics but still stayed on top of the girl, officially pinning her to the couch as she regained her breath for a moment, “cum” she finally said through laboured breaths, “they haven’t made me cum. I usually had to go home just to relieve myself for it” to say Tommy looked surprised was a little bit of an understatement.

“You mean to tell me, you haven’t had a proper orgasm in somewhat of three years?” Tommy asked.

“Yep. All by me, my fingers and my toys” (Y/n) said as her breathing finally evened out and she looked up at the boy atop of her. Looking into Tommy hazy brown eyes and back at her own reflection (Y/n) saw the glimmer of what the pair where both thinking, the boy’s hazel eyes became glazed over as his hand came up and cupped the girl’s cheek.

“You know…” Tommy paused, “I could…help you” the boy said with a mischievous glint in his eye, “like I used to” he added making the girl beneath him grin, the alcohol still buzzing slightly in her system.

“Yeah?” (Y/n) asked with a cocked eyebrow, “then what’s stopping you?” the girl questioned Tommy who only grinned before quickly leaning down and smashing his lips against (Y/n)’s, the girl beneath him let out a soft moan as her hands came up and tangled themselves in Tommy’s hair and pulling him by his neck to get closer. Tommy’s hands drifted down the front of (Y/n)’s dress, giving a gratuitous squeeze to her breasts before going under the hem of the long skirt before the girl started pushing Tommy away.

“You okay? Did I overstep?” Tommy quickly asked, (Y/n) only snorted softly as she stood up and started to take off her shoes.

“Clothes. Now” (Y/n) said, Tommy was up on his feet taking his jacket and shirt off quicker then he could smash a television set and hotel room. (Y/n) turned around, “unzip me?” the girl asked, Tommy’s breath hitched as he stood in his dress pants.

“That’s probably the most beautiful and sexy thing I’ve ever heard anyone say” the boy said as he stepped closer, the cold tips of his fingers briefly touched the girls bare shoulders before quickly heading to the zip and dragging it down. Tommy left small kisses from (Y/n)’s shoulder to the connection of her neck and shoulder before biting down softly and sucking, giving a nice purple bruise, a soft whine came from the girl in front of him before the dress fell to the floor and pooled at her painted toes in a pool of deep satin red. (Y/n) turned around and wrapped her arms around Tommy’s neck, quickly bringing him down to her lips again as she moved the boy backwards, as the kiss got more and more heated (Y/n) brought her hands down and started undoing Tommy’s belt as the boys hands went to her back and started undoing her bra. Tommy’s pants where quickly dropped as well as (Y/n)’s bra, both articles of clothing discarded amongst the rest on the floor, the boys hands quickly went to (Y/n)’s breast, giving a good squeeze before he was suddenly pushed back onto the couch, the girl quickly followed through and straddled Tommy as he quickly went back to his previous actions. The boys hand came up to her right nipple and started playing and tugging while his mouth worked with (Y/n)’s left hardened nipple; delicate moans and whines came from (Y/n) above Tommy as her hips instinctively ground against Tommy’s, a deep growl came from the boy under her as his hips came up into hers. Tommy switched breasts as his unoccupied hand went down and started rubbing circles over (Y/n) pantie clad clit.

“So wet for me already princess?” Tommy mumbled against her breast, he gave the nipple a good tug with his teeth before the boy went to sucking marks into (Y/n) neck, the girls moans grew louder as her hips stuttered against Tommy’s hand. (Y/n)’s hand quickly found their way to Tommy’s hair and then his shoulders before travelling south and landing on Tommy’s crotch, quickly going under his boxers and playing with the head of Tommy’s penis; a loud groan came from the boy as her hand started moving against him, his hips stuttering as his fingers continued on (Y/n)’s clit and nipple. Soft moans and groans came from both (Y/n) and Tommy as they kept up their antics on each other.

“F-fuck, e-enough of this” (Y/n) panted softly as she tried to take down Tommy’s underwear, “just fuck me already” the girl whined softly. Tommy nods quickly as he takes his hand away from (Y/n)’s front as the pair discard their final article of clothing before resuming their previous positions.

“Condom?” Tommy asked as he looked to the girl above him panting softly as (Y/n) started to line the boy up to her entrance.

“I’m clean and on the pill” the girl said looking to Tommy with laboured breathing, “you?”

“Clean, yeah yeah clean” Tommy said with a nod; it wasn’t a lie, he was clean. He technically got a check-up only three weeks prior; who would’ve thought he’d be in this situation three weeks ago?

“Good” (Y/n) said, the girls voice brought Tommy back from his thoughts as she slowly sat down and started to sink down on him; a low moan came from both participants as the girl bottomed herself out and sat for a moment to get used to Tommy’s size. The boys hands came to rest softly at (Y/n)’s waist and lower back as her arms wrapped around his shoulders as she started bouncing, soft grunts and whimpers came from the pair.

“F-feel so fucking g-good baby girl” Tommy said softly as he kissed along the junction of (Y/n)’s neck as the boy leant his head back and watched himself move in and out of the girl above him. Tits bouncing, hair bouncing and skin slapping was something that suited the girl above Tommy as one of his hands travelled down and started toying with (Y/n)’s clit, the girls mouth opened in a lovely O shape as their hips collided together. “Gonna cum pretty girl?” Tommy asked breathlessly.

“S-so close” (Y/n) whimpered softly, Tommy’s hips started to stutter and the pair’s thrusting started to get sloppy.

“Oh F-FUCK PRINCESS!” Tommy groaned out loudly, his hips stilled as he came inside (Y/n), his fingers continued toying with her clit as her orgasm washed over her too. (Y/n) slumped over Tommy as her hips stuttered slightly from the intense climax she had just had as well as trying to milk as much of it as she could. Tommy kissed along (Y/n)’s neck softly as the girl caught her breath and licked her dry lips as she faced the junction.

“That was…” (Y/n) started after a few moments.

“Spectacular?” Tommy asked with a grin and chuckle, the vibrations of Tommy made (Y/n) laugh softly too.

“Something akin to that; yeah” the girl responded, Tommy pushed (Y/n)’s shoulder slightly to make the girl look at him; the girl leaned back on her thighs slightly, a look of slight discomfort entered her face at the feeling of Tommy softening inside of her.

“Come back” Tommy said to the girl softly, “I miss you so much, I was so fucking bad when you left, I searched everywhere to find you and apologies and try to win you back but you had left. And even the day after you did leave I went to everyone, Vince, Nikki, Mick and even Doc; I knew you were with Vince because that was always the first place you would ever go when you weren’t okay but Vinny told me you didn’t want to see me and all of that shit. I stopped drumming for a solid few months, I locked myself in the house and refused to go into the bedroom, everything still had your beautiful scent and I could still see you walking around the house and into the kitchen. The boys had to-“ Tommy was cut off with a harsh and passionate kiss from (Y/n), her arms wrapped tightly around the boys neck as his wrapped around her waist, pulling her in and close to his chest. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before the pair separated and pressed their foreheads together.

“You cheat on me, you get a blow job from a random girl that isn’t me, you even so much as kiss another girl without asking me for permission for a music video; I WILL cut your penis off and I WILL skip town twice as much as I did before and you will NEVER find me again” (Y/n) said defensively making Tommy laugh a genuine laugh.

“I promise I won’t doll, I don’t like making mistakes twice” Tommy said with a large grin, “let me take you out on a proper date”

“Where to?” (Y/n) asked with a smile.

“Movies? Park? Crowded bar? Wherever you want to go sweetheart” Tommy said sweetly, a smile spread across (Y/n)’s face.

“Sounds like a plan, Drummer” (Y/n) said, she pecked Tommy’s lips briefly, “let’s start by you taking me to bed and letting me friggen sleep yeah?” the girl asked with a small laugh, the laugh was contagious because Tommy laughed softly too.

“Consider it done princess” Tommy said, the boy helped (Y/n) off of him and a calm silence came over the couple as Tommy put his underwear back on before picking (Y/n) up bridal style (causing her to giggle softly) and walking her to the master bedroom where he dressed the girl in a clean pair of his boxers and one of his shirts before placing her softly on the bed, “I’m glad I’ve got you back” Tommy said softly as he got in the bed next to the girl, she looked at Tommy apprehensively, “I don’t ever want to lose you again”

“Three years and you’ve gone soft” (Y/n) said a little sleepily with a small smile making Tommy laugh softly as he faced the girl, the pair got comfortable and cuddled close together as Tommy kissed (Y/n)’s forehead.

“Only for you my love” Tommy whispered softly and sweetly.

———

TAGLIST:

(Only for this mini series)

@tephi101 || @kingbouji3 || @crazysaladchopshop ||

((If your name is crossed out tumblr isn’t letting me tag you))

[reflections-in-tea-cups]

Shadow

tw: pet death

We lost our beautiful, lively, shy, affectionate, panther of a house cat on Monday, March 25, 2019. While I hope the details of the past month fade from my memory, I know some of you are shocked at the news and want to know what happened. This story is still too painful to retell, so I’m putting it here.

It’s a long story with a tragic end. It’s not my best writing, but editing it further is beyond me right now. 

Shadow came into our lives on Feb. 13th, 2015. We went to the animal shelter to look at a dog – instead, we came home with an eight-year-old black cat. We thought he was a gentle old man, but as soon as he stepped out of the crate we realized they had sent us home with a panther. He was thirteen pounds of pure muscle, and the first thing he did was jump up six feet to hide on the top shelf of my closet.

Despite his size and athleticism, he was incredibly gentle and shy. He hid under the bed the first two weeks that he spent with us, only coming out after lots of cajoling. Even then, he’d often stop just at the edge of the bed so we could reach in and pet him. Once he was comfortable with us, he’d throw himself at our feet for pets and scritches, rolling around so we could get at his belly. He was always deferential to our resident female cat, despite having at least three pounds on her. He was playful and sweet, jumping up walls to catch at laser lights and crawling under the covers for morning snuggles. You always knew what his favorite toy was, as he’d leave it next to (or, more commonly, in) his food dish.

I’m not sure when he stopped eating. He still cried for food every morning and night, and he still went to the bowl and began lapping it up. We noticed that there was more wet food being left over, but that happens sometimes and it usually isn’t a problem – maybe one or both cats don’t care for that flavor of wet food, or maybe they got tired of it, or maybe they’re eating less because everyone is less active in winter. They always had access to dry food, so I didn’t worry.

I was shocked when I picked him up in late February and realized I could feel his bones. He was always a healthy, muscular cat – but suddenly he felt frail and old. Concerned, I made an vet appointment; the soonest available was two weeks away. Luck was on our side, and I got a call a few days later saying they could see us March 8th.

At the vet, we found our healthy-at-thirteen-pounds boy was now under ten. Blood work showed signs of pancreatitis, dehydration, and anemia. X-rays didn’t find anything surprising, just an empty stomach. He got anti-nausea meds, pain meds, and fluids. They sent us back home with some prescription food, instructions to monitor his food and water intake, and a blood recheck appointment set up for a week later.

His appetite increased for a few days. He still wasn’t eating enough to gain any weight, but any progress was hopeful. But by Wednesday (the 13th) he was back to barely eating anything and I called and got him an appointment for the next day. The 14th was terrifying – his weight had continued to drop, and as had his red blood cell count. They recommended hospitalization for IV fluids and medication, and to monitor his eating. I cried signing the papers to leave him there for the day.

When I went to pick him up that night, they said he hadn’t really improved and they recommended overnight hospitalization. Our vet isn’t a 24 hour clinic, so that involved transferring him to a local emergency vet. The ER vet reassured us that pancreatitis is often treated by a few days of pushing fluids, so we should remain hopeful. She also offered to do an ultrasound on his abdomen, to further look for anything else that could be causing his symptoms. No one really knew why he was so anemic, but maybe the ultra sound would see if/where he was bleeding internally.

After a sleepless night, the ER vet called to tell us Shadow had done well – they’d gotten him to eat a little, and the ultra sound hadn’t found anything too alarming or conclusive. The only thing they noted was an enlarged lymph node. We were told another day of hospitalization would be ideal, but we might be able to take him home that night. It was with a much lighter heart that we brought him back to our regular vet, giving them the overnight report and excited to get our healthy boy back soon.

However, our rollercoaster took a sudden dive. The vet reported that he hadn’t eaten and had only gotten more lethargic as the day progressed. The next diagnostic step they recommended was exploratory surgery, during which they would also insert a feeding tube so we could ensure he was getting the calories he needed. At this point, they were very worried he was about to enter liver failure from starvation.

We decided to go ahead with the surgery, which was scheduled for the next morning. We took him home that night for lots of cuddles – lapped up our affection all night. He was so happy to be back in his familiar environment, and our other cat also made it clear she was thrilled he was home.

Taking him to the vet the next morning was a tense affair. After finally being home, he wanted nothing to do with his cat carrier and let us know it. Three hours later I got a call from the vet – he’d done very well in surgery and was waking up comfortably! They had a new diagnosis based on the state of his liver and gall-bladder: feline triaditis. While they did take a couple biopsies, they were pretty confident we were on the right track. They said the prognosis was good but the at-home care would be intensive; not only were we responsible for his calorie intake through the feeding tube until he began to eat again, but there were also five medications that needed to be given once or twice a day. They still hadn’t found a source for the anemia, but hoped it would recoup with everything else.

We were thrilled to bring him home and dedicated to getting him back up to health. His food was specially prepared each day and given to him 4-5 times daily. He had to be quarantined from our other cat and dog for a while, so he was confined to the spare bedroom. Within three days, he was starting to eat on his own and was feisty enough to try and escape to the rest of the apartment whenever I opened the door. His stitches were healing well, and we got a onesie for him to wear instead of the hated cone (not that he liked it much better). The vet checked in that Monday, and was almost as excited as I was to hear how well he was doing. We started letting him explore the rest of the apartment with Leira and Kenai when we were home to monitor him, so he got more stimulation and got to hang out in all his favorite spots. Everything was looking up.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last. On Friday (the 22nd) I noticed that his eating was declining. We had just gotten him up to full calories through the feeding tube, so I figured it would take a while for his appetite to surpass what we were giving him. However, his appetite didn’t pick back up, and he began showing increased signs of nausea when I fed him. He also felt unusually warm. On Monday I called the vet, and left a message asking if this was normal recovery behavior. I spent the afternoon at home with him, waiting for the vet to call. They didn’t, so I called and asked again that evening – this time someone went back to talk to the vet in person. We were advised to take him to ER.

We went back to the ER where he had been hospitalized just ten days before. After a quick physical exam (where we saw he had lost even more weight, and he was feverish), they took him back for more bloodwork. He was extraordinarily anemic – his red blood cell count had decreased by half from its previous low levels. We could take him to a clinic that could do a blood transfusion – the nearest one was an hour away by car, and he’d have to stay there for at least 24 hours to make sure his body didn’t reject the blood. And since we didn’t know what was causing the anemia, it was likely the transfusion would only buy us a little time.

The next diagnostic step would be to test a sample of his bone marrow, a process that would involve putting him under anesthesia. There were three main suspects for his anemia at this point: a virus attacking his red blood cells and/or bone marrow, an autoimmune disorder (his body attacking his red blood cells), or cancer. We were advised that was a toss of the dice whether or not it was something treatable; even if it was, it would be extremely intensive and difficult for him.

We took some time to hold him close and think about our options. His options. For the last few weeks (and the last four years) we had discussed always trying to do what was best for him. And as he fell asleep in my arms, that most difficult choice became clear.

The vet told us we could take him home overnight if we wanted, but it we weren’t going to do a transfusion we should bring him back within 24 hours to put him to sleep. I didn’t want him to go through two more car rides (his most hated activity) and what would clearly be a painful and stressful night – we decided it would be best to let him go peacefully that night. He’d had a good day cuddling on the couch with me, Leira, and Kenai (one of the rare times I actually got a picture of him and the dog together). Luis and I held him for at least an hour, telling him we loved him and soaking in his sweetness.  Finally we knew we couldn’t delay any longer. Luis held me and I held Shadow as the vet administered the anesthesia, lulling him into sleep for the last time.

Shadow was so much more than we ever could have expected. I’ll never be able to describe him adequately, or what he meant to us. We will miss him forever, and cherish the time we did get to spend with him.