#i still have a longer thing with her and gus bouncing around in my head but this is basically an abridged version | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nationalharryleague · 4 years

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In the Long Green Grass

Pairing: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: the fluffiest fluff with husband!harry

Word count: 2K

A/N: Hi everyone!! Merry Christmas to all that celebrate!! this is my Secret Santa (run and organized by the lovely lu (@meetmymouth) gift to the sweetest angel who walks among us miss hasibi (@peachybloomss)!!! I hope you enjoy it my love!!! More of my writing can be found in my masterlist and I would love to hear what everyone thinks in my ask! Thank you so much for reading!!

***

You were stirred by the sounds of the waves crashing against the cliff outside the home as the early morning sun streamed in through the windows. A small huf and whine left your lips, always one to ask for just five more minutes in bed, before you climbed from underneath the warm plush blankets and your toes hit the icy and worn wood floors beneath you.

The buttery yellow sunlight thwarted your plans to fight yourself back to sleep for those last few moments, prompting you to reach out your arms in a longing stretch. You released a light and sleepy hum of surprise when your arm hit a tiny furry body, and not the arm of the man who loved to sleep late in the bed beside you. Peeping one eye open, you made eye contact with Piper, Harry’s small jet black cat with glowing green eyes who was laying next to you, curled up on sheets that still held the indent of his body in them.

Piper wore a face of annoyance, obviously blaming you for interrupting her precious beauty sleep, and her eyes followed your body as you forced yourself out of the bed with one goal: find Harry.

Harry had a habit of disappearing, especially in a new place where there was just so much to explore. He was a wanderer (and an aquarius); always on the move, carried along by a thought or idea he just couldn’t resist. It was hard for him to sit still, a trait he probably picked up after tour after tour after tour, never allowing himself the luxury of rest or relaxation after it was never allowed to him. That was why you had insisted he needed time away from the city, finding a perfect spot in a small cottage that sat on the edge of a cliff along the ocean with a back garden full of sweet smelling flowers and tall cushony grass.

You tiptoed carefully down the spiral staircase that lovingly let out groans underfoot, still rubbing the sleep out of your eyes, into a kitchen that looked straight out of a fairytale. It was small with moss green cabinets and large bay windows that filled the space with light that kept the seemingly hundreds of plants in the house happy and thriving. A cool ocean breeze came in through the open windows of the small breakfast nook, bringing along the scent of a fresh pot of coffee that sat on the butcher block countertops like it had been waiting for you to wake all along. While you felt a jump of excitement within you for the coffee, it still hadn’t been what (or who) you were looking for, even though you were very glad you found it.

A sweet cup of coffee was thoughtfully prepared in a tea cup you had found in the cabinet with small wisteria flowers painted around it’s rim. You knew Harry would poke fun at your cup choice if he were there. “Tea cups are for tea,” you could hear him say, perking up the edges of your mouth into a gentle smile as you sipped it carefully. But the flowers reminded you of the beautiful wisteria tree that flowed in the wind and scattered it’s petals all over the back garden; you just couldn’t pass it up.

It took you quite a while to find him, even with the new found caffeinated energy running through your system. You had run into the two other cats at the house, both rather chubby tabbys named Jack and Gus, that called this back garden home on your search and you obviously had to say good morning. The two rubbed themselves up against your legs, begging for a scratch behind the ear and a bit of attention, and you obliged. Who were you to deny them of it?

The garden the cats got to call home was a dream. It was filled with every variety of colorful flower imaginable and blanketed in a sweet air that always hovered over the space. Your favorites were the small peachy blooms that smelled of sugary perfume. A stone fence ran the perimeter of the yard, a white picket fence in the middle opening to a swath of overgrown grass that swayed in the wind on a hill. If you squinted, you could see the house of the couple you were renting the cottage from, but they were far enough away it felt like you were the only people around for miles.

When you spotted a Harry-shaped hole in the tall grass up the hill, you had a sneaking suspicion you had found your missing husband.

The tall grass squished beneath your feet as you climbed the hill, creating a soft padding below, and the long blades tickled against your bare legs as you made your way towards him, still only dressed in one of his perfectly worn t-shirts from the night before.

“There you are,” you hummed happily when you reached him, standing above him as he layed in the grass. “I thought that I lost you.”

He looked like a renaissance painting as he laid in the grass that was dotted with small pink and purple wildflowers. His curls had gotten a little longer during his much needed break and they splayed out around his head in delicate ringlets like a halo. The light from the still rising sun bounced off his slightly dewy skin, giving him a glow that lit him up even more than usual. Stubble danced across his cheeks and jaw, framing his perfectly pink lips that held a gentle smile as he looked up at you from the ground. And his eyes squinted slightly, shielding his pupils from the ever growing brightness of the sky, creating delicate little wrinkles around his sea glass green eyes that looked so vibrant in the light.

A worn book that you hadn’t seen before, bound in dark green leather with gold detailing, sat on his chest; Poems for Lovers: A Collection was embossed delicately across the cover.

“You’ll never lose me,” he mumbled up at you, a gravel in his voice like it was the first time he had used it that day. You had been married for almost two years and had been together for five, but your cheeks never failed to redden when he spoke sweet nothings like that. “Good morning, angel,” he said softly, reaching his hand up for yours.

You moved to place your hand in his, but ended up only linking your pinkies together in the process; a light tug from the man below you signaled for you to join him on the ground. You couldn’t resist, sitting yourself down with your legs crossed in front of you on the slightly damp ground next to him, pinkies still locked together.

“Morning,” you greeted. “I missed you in bed. Piper isn’t much of a cuddler,” you chuckled while absentmindedly playing with his fingers, twirling his wedding band.

“She’s not very nice, is she?” he smiled, opening his eyes fully to meet yours as you strategically moved your body to block his delicate eyes from the sun. “I’m sorry my cat’s a bitch,” he joked. “She still thinks she’s my number one girl.”

“I tell her I’m sorry that I stole her spot in bed all the time, she never listens. Won’t even have a civil chat with me about it,” you teased sarcastically.

Harry let out an enthusiastic giggle at your words; it was high pitched, and came from his belly in loud bursts of air. His cheeks scrunched up and forced his eyes closed because he was smiling so wide, crinkling the corners of his eyes once again. His laughter was infectious and you couldn’t help but join in.

You two must have looked insane, sitting in the grass in a field in the middle of nowhere just after dawn, laughing like idiots. But you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Well, a few more hours of sleep wouldn’t have hurt.

As your gigges died down, you turned your attention to the book resting on his chest. “You ditched me in bed for a book?” you teased, letting the remaining laughter escape your body.

“I couldn’t sleep and I found it on one of the bookshelves. I thought it would be nice to read in the grass and watch the sun come up.”

“You should have woken me up. I could have thought of a few things we could have done to tire you out.” A smirk played on your lips as you tapped your chin, pretending to think, as you watched his eyes grow in amusement from your innuendo.

“You looked too peaceful sleeping. Also, drool and bedhead don’t really turn me on if I’m being honest.” It was your turn to react to his teasing.

Your jaw dropped in feigned offence and your finger flew over your shoulder to point back at the cottage. “I can go back if you’d like your privacy,” you said incredulously and with dramatics, until a few chuckles broke through and your resolve softened once again.

“Oh no no no,” he spoke with a grin, “come here,” moving the book and tapping his chest for you to rest your head on. You turned yourself around to lay yourself on the ground, placing your head on his chest and listening to his steady and calming heartbeat.

“How are your poems?” you asked, referencing the book he was now holding in his hands.

“They are very good. I’m glad I found it.” His voice reverberated under your head as he spoke, and you rose and fell softly with his breath.

“Read me your favorite.”

“Okay,” he began, thumbing through the pages as he held the book above both your heads. You listened as he let out a small “ah, here it is,” before he dramatically cleared his throat. “You might remember me talking about this one already, but I love it.”

You knew he loved it before he even began reading anything. He loved his poetry, especially when they were about love. Harry was a hopeless romantic at heart, often saying to you and interviewers “I just love love.” He loved falling in love with you and becoming a team, just as much as you did with him.

“It’s called The Wait,” he spoke gently, his voice taking on a deeper and more enunciated quality. You recognized the poem immediately, as it was the one referenced on his pants for the Vogue cover shoot. He had dedicated it to you then, and was doing it again now in the grass. “It seemed like years before I picked a bouquet of kisses off her mouth and put them into a dawn-colored vase in my heart,” he began. He spoke slowly and smoothly with the consistency and sweetness of honey. “But the wait was worth it,” he continued. “Because I was in love.”

You couldn’t help but think of your own story as he read. He had chased after you for years, with you always insisting that he was your best friend and you were afraid to ruin that. But gradually, your best friend became your lover, and your lover became your husband.

“I like that one a lot too.” You spoke softly and with reflection. “It reminds me of us.”

“That’s why it’s my favorite.”

You two layed in the grass for hours, not a care in the world, as he read from the book. Every poem took you two on a journey into a love story, one that for the two of you only existed on the page, but told of a very real love that couldn’t have been dishonestly written.

But with how you felt in the moment, with the joy and loving warmth you felt in your belly, you were sure you could write a million poems about the love you had with him.

Thank you so much for reading!! Reblogs/feedback mean the world!!!

#I hope you like it honey!!!!#harry styles fanfiction #harry styles fanfic #harry styles one shot #harry styles fluff #Harry styles Drabble #harry styles blurb #harry styles imagine #harry styles #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x reader #one direction fanfic #one direction #meetmygift2020 #my writing #harryandhockey

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silverblood5 · 3 years

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Gus and Willow Week 2021 Day 1 Hexside

I wanted to do something for Gus and Willow Week. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the whole week since I'm really busy right now, but I have plans for a couple.

Characters: Willow, Gus, Boscha, Amity

Wordcount: 1087

Summary: How Willow Park met Augustus Porter.

Warnings for bullying and a very slight amount of blood.

@guswillowweek

Willow placed her books in her locker with the air of a person who’d had a far too long day. She’d failed the latest Abomination test, in front of her whole class no less, and the ‘half a witch Willow’ comments had been especially worse since then. Though she was used to failing, this one hit her pretty hard, because it was worth half her grade this semester, and she’d promised her parents she’d do well this time.

They really wanted her to do well in this class, but no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t do it. Willow hated letting her dads down, and she didn’t think she could bare another disappointed speech from them when word of her failure reached home.

Willow’s thoughts were cut off sharply when something hard hit the back of her head. She cried out as the force pushed her head into her locker door, a sharp pain ran across her forehead and her glasses were knocked off her face.

She immediately ducked down to grab them, ignoring the sounds of mocking laughter and hoping she could get away before they picked up the ball again. The grudgby ball that caused her so much pain was bouncing innocently next to her. The beats of it speeding up as it lost momentum felt to Willow like it was matching her heartbeat as yellow-clad legs came into view.

“Woops. My bad.” Boscha leaned down to pick up the ball, not sounding apologetic in the slightest. “I should really watch where I throw this thing. But it’s good to know my throw’s still good. Packs a pretty good punch don’t you think, half a witch?”

Willow didn’t look up at the condescending question, preferring to fix the arm of her glasses and stare at the cracked lens. She ignored the sting of tears in her eyes as she tried to think of something to say. But the words dried up along with her throat when a new voice spoke up.

“Just leave her alone Boscha. You know she’s not worth it.” The voice sounded bored and indifferent, like she truly couldn’t care what was happening and thought Willow wasn’t worth the fuss. If Willow were being honest, it hurt worse than the double impact on either side of her head. She looked up then, but Amity was already walking away, followed by her laughing friends.

She stared a little longer, hoping Amity would sense her looking and turn around.

But she never did.

She never looked back.

Alone in the hallway, Willow finally let a tear fall. She looked down at the broken glasses, hoping her parents wouldn’t be too upset about having to replace them. This was the third pair in as many months, and on top of failing that test…

Her breath hitched, the frustration and despair of the day catching up with her. With shaking hands, she put the glasses back on, feeling them sit wonkily on her face as she slowly rose to her feet.

Focus on the positives, Willow. She chanted in her head.

It was lunch now, so she didn’t have a class, and she packed her own lunch, so she could go wherever she wanted to be alone for the next half hour.

Forcing herself to take a calming breath, Willow ran through the list of places she knew of where she could be alone on school grounds.

Her thought process was halted by a soft clearing of the throat, and something white in the corner of her eye.

“Excuse me?” Willow turned at the quiet voice, seeing a short brown skinned boy with dark brown hair and dark grey eyes. He was wearing the Illusion track uniform and looked a good couple of years younger than her. The boy had an apologetic, yet concerned look on his face, and was holding out a tissue. “You’re bleeding.”

Willow blinked, taking a while to process his words, but when she did, she raised a hand to the throbbing part of her head. She winced as her fingers landed right on an already swelling bump and pulled back her hand to see a shine blood on her fingertips. She took the tissue from the boy, thanking him softly, and pressed it to her forehead.

“Do you need to go to the nurse?” He asked her.

Willow shook her head softly, “No, it’s just a cut. I’ll be fine.” She pulled her lunch from her locker, wanting to do something, and not knowing how to keep up the conversation. She looked back at the boy, seeing a hesitant look on his face, and decided she should end the conversation.

“Thank you again, but I should get goi-“

“Where were you going to eat?” He blurted out. Willow stared at him a moment, and he gave a sheepish smile before speaking again, a little slower. “Sorry. I mean, I saw those girls heading to the cafeteria, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be near them right now. So, I’m just wondering if you have a place in mind to go or if you want to come with me. I have a secret spot no one else will go to.”

Willow contemplated letting him know she had her own stash of secret places, but she was touched by his friendly offer and didn’t want to dismiss him. “What kind of place?”

He beamed at her question, and immediately started explaining. “I’m in a club called the Human Appreciation Society, or HAS for short. We have our own classroom we can use, and since I’m the president, I can use it whenever I want.” He finished proudly, and Willow smiled at his enthusiasm. “I usually go there for lunch, since I don’t have any friends. You can come with me if you want. I promise no one will bother you there.”

Willow smiled at his sincerity, lowering the tissue to see that the bleeding had stopped, and nodded at him. “I’d like that. On one condition.”

He tilted his head at her curiously, “What’s that?”

She switched the tissue to her other hand with her lunch and held it out to him. “That I be your friend. I’m Willow, by the way.”

The boy smiled so widely, she wondered if his cheeks hurt. He grabbed her hand and shook it with so much enthusiasm, Willow had to laugh.

“Yes! Yes, I’d love that! It’s lovely to meet you, new friend. My name’s Augustus.”

“Lovely to meet you too, Augustus.”

#toh #the owl house #toh willow #willow park #toh gus #gus porter #augustus porter #toh amity #toh boscha #hexside #guswillowweek2021 #tw bullying

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drabbles-of-writing · 4 years

Text

We’re Soarin’, Flying

This is part of my Wing AU

AO3

Masterpost

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

“Amity! Hey, Amity! Amity!”

Luz swooped from the top of one of the lockers, flaring her wings to slow herself down as she skidded to a stop by the girl, nearly knocking into her.

Amity jumped, her wings twitching ever so slightly before she relaxed into a smile, side-stepping to avoid Luz’s flailing wings.

“Hey, Luz.”

“Sorry about the drop in,” Luz said sheepishly, her wings scrunching up over her shoulders as she rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve been trying to find you all day, but, ah, all my classes were practically on the other side of school.”

Amity’s ears perked slightly in curiosity. She let Luz continue rambling as she placed the last of her books in her lockers, far more relaxed than how she had been earlier.

“So, I actually have an idea for us! You said you weren’t busy today, right?” Luz asked, clearly straining to not stand so close to Amity as to avoid hitting her with her wings that refused to sit still.

“No…” Amity said slowly, shutting her locker and glanced at Luz with sudden interest. “What were you thinking of?” She said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

“You’re gonna love it!” Luz smiled, grabbing her wrist with both hands and beginning to tug her along. “It’s just a little off from where we fought Grometheus, remember?”

“It was only a few days ago, Luz.” Amity said, a faint blush on her cheeks as she was pulled along. “What’s this about?”

“So, I was talking with Willow and Gus,” Luz said, flapping her wings on occasion to speed up their movement. “And I felt bad that you can’t fl--”

Amity stiffened and suddenly seized forward, slapping her hand over Luz’s mouth. Only then did the human stop.

Amity looked around fearfully, though since it was the end of the day, nobody was really paying attention. The only students still in the building were too busy making their ways to the exit.

“Luz!” Amity hissed, slowly taking her hand away.

“Right, sorry, private subject, I forgot.” Luz said sheepishly, her wings drooping slightly. “But that’s the point of this outing! It’s to help you with that little dilemma.”

Amity blinked at her in confusion. Luz’s wings were already twitching again as she was hurrying towards the exit, once again, pulling the kestrel along.

Then Luz saw her expression of realization.

“No, no, no no no,” Amity said, digging her heels in, but it was useless against the tile and the unstoppable force known as Luz. “No, bad idea, we’re not doing this.”

“Yes, yes, yes we are!” Luz said, giving Amity a wide grin and beating her wings as they came out of the school. “You said you couldn’t, you know, do the thing, during our fight with Grometheus, and I have made it my mission to help you.”

“You really don’t have to,” Amity shook her head, still half-heartedly struggling as Luz dragged her to the bottom of the steps, where Willow and Gus were waiting.

“Too bad, I’m doing it anyway.” Luz said, finally stopping by her friends, her wings practically vibrating.

“Please tell me you’re here to try and be the voice of reason,” Amity begged, turning to Willow leaning against the stone by the steps.

“I am,” Willow nodded, and Amity visibly relaxed. “And my voice of reason says that you need to learn how to use those wings.” She said firmly, crossing her arms.

Amity groaned and hung her head, defeated. Luz was too giddy with excitement to bother with a sympathetic pat on the back.

“And it would be interesting to document,” Gus added. “I mean, not a lot of people write down or talk about what happens to wings when they aren’t used in flight for years on end. It could be enlightening!”

“You better keep that completely anonymous.” Amity warned, pointing a threatening finger at the boy. “No names, no locations, no mentions of species, anything.”

“All my research is one hundred percent confidential.” Gus said, raising a hand. “It’ll remain personal for a long time, anyway.”

“Keep it that way,”

“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Luz said, flapping her wings widely and jumping around her friends. “We only have so much light left!” “We have at least a few hours,” Amity pointed out.

“And those precious hours are being wasted,” Luz whined, her wings hanging loosely at her sides. “Come on, come on!” She said, grabbing Amity’s hand with both of hers and already tugging her along.

“Looks like the natural disaster has truly begun,” Gus sighed, hurrying after the two as Luz pulled them along.

“Oh, just you wait.” Willow mumbled.

“Okay, so!” Luz stood in front of Amity, the cliff behind her. “What do you know about flying?”

“Uh,” Amity blinked, glancing back at Willow and Gus, who were sitting on the sidelines of the clearing. “I know you need to...flap your wings a lot?”

“Alright, not a bad start.” Luz said, her wings half-open as she scrunched her face in thought. “Do you know how to take off?”

“I just need to jump and flap my wings, right?” Amity said. “Then, I dunno, catch a draft of air?”

Luz pressed her mouth into a thin line, mildly concerned.

“How about we just take a look at those wings first?” She said, doing her best to give a reassuring smile.

Luz spread her own wings to their full length, then gestured for Amity to do the same. The witch swallowed and slowly unfurled her wings from her shoulders.

They sagged a bit, the tips of her feathers brushing the grass. The first thing Amity noticed was that, in comparison to her own, Luz’s wings were tiny. Amity’s wings were narrow and meant for speed. Whereas Luz’s were wider, the feathers and patagium thinner, and practically shrank when put in front of the kestrels.

Which was an odd realization, Amity thought. Her wings were nowhere near big, and barely even normal-sized. She supposed it put into perspective just how...fragile Luz was in this world.

“Not bad, not bad,” Luz hummed, her wings arching as she walked in a circle around Amity, peering at her wings.

Luz reached forward and touched Amity’s left wing. Amity startled and jerked her wing back.

“Sorry, sorry!” Luz raised her hands quickly and stepped away. “Wing sensitivity, my bad.” She said shyly.

“N-no, it’s fine,” Amity mumbled, slowly stretching out her wing again and ignoring Willow and Gus’s snickers behind her. “Just surprised me, that’s all.”

Luz flicked her tail and reached forward again, glancing at Amity. At her nod, she drew her hands underneath Amity’s wing and lifted it higher.

Amity resisted the urge to shutter at the touch and instead did her best to hold her wing at the height Luz lifted it to.

Once Luz was satisfied, she hurried to Amity’s other wing and did the same, until they were raised just above her shoulders and back in a take-off position.

“Try moving them,” Luz said, backing up to stand in front of Amity again. “Like this,”

She began beating her wings, slowly at first, but soon became rapid. It created a small gust of wind that ruffled Amity’s hair and feathers, and even rose Luz off the ground a few inches before she stopped and dropped back down.

Amity shuffled her feet and stretched her wings back further, feeling small pops in her muscles at being stretched. She beat them forward, and mid-movement, the bones on her wings let out a sickening crack.

Really, it was only the type of crack that your bones give in the morning when you wake up and haven’t moved for a while. But nevertheless, it was loud, and it was disturbing, to say the least.

Luz instantly cringed back, wincing at the sound. Willow did the same as Gus self-consciously drew his wings closer.

Amity paused, her wings halfway hanging in front of her as she gave a nervous smile.

“It’s, uh, been a while.” She mumbled.

“I can tell,” Luz nodded. “Just, erm, stretch them out.”

Amity nodded and slowly beat her wings back and forth, wincing at every strain and crack her wings gave, not used to being moved. Luz was disturbed by every noise she heard, and Amity didn’t blame her.

Eventually, her wings stopped making sickening noises, and she began to speed up her flapping. Luz perked up and her own wings started to beat in excitement.

“Don’t forget the tail!” Luz added above the wind being created by Amity’s flapping.

Amity spread her tail and increased the power, despite already starting to feel fatigued.

She felt her feet begin to lift slightly and she held the speed her wings were at. Luz bounced on her heels in excitement and stepped back.

Amity rose a few inches in the air, causing Willow and Gus’s interest to grow.

A spike of pain shot through Amity’s right wing and she dropped with a yelp, her wings laying on the grass as she landed on her side.

“Are you okay?” Luz worried, hurrying over and dropping to her knees.

“M’fine,” Amity mumbled, raising her head and giving a smile as Willow rushed over. “Just a cramp, I think.”

“Probably from not using your wings for a while,” Willow said, both her and Luz helping Amity to her feet.

“Maybe we should just work on wing exercises today,” Luz hummed, glancing back at Amity’s wings, which were loosely dragging on the ground. “It’s probably not easy on your wings to start flying after going unused for years.”

“No, no, I can do it.” Amity shook her head, raising her wings to her sides.

“Someone had a change of heart,” Willow murmured, stepping away and fluttering her wings.

“Zip it,” Amity grumbled, her ears pressing back.

“Are you sure?” Luz worried, her tail flicking. “I thought this would only take a few days, but if it hurts, it might take longer…” She said, running a hand through her hair.

“I’m fine, really.” Amity insisted. “I wanna try again.”

Luz seemed unsure, but nodded. She stepped back and let Amity stretch out her wings again. Willow wandered back to Gus but stayed standing, her wings buzzing every now and again.

Amity beat her wings once more, testing them out. Luz circled her in half-flutters as she did so, her tail twitching nonstop.

Amity soon rose off the ground again, feeling a heavy strain in her wings and creeping pain. She ignored it and held her position a few inches in the air. Luz started grinning and chirped, flying a little ways above her in encouragement.

“Come on, let’s see if we can get you airborne!” Luz said, giving Willow and Gus thumbs up.

Amity felt a swell in her chest and beat her wings faster, trying to angle properly and push herself in the air.

The second she tried to fly up instead of hovering, however, was when her wings suddenly felt like thorn-covered chains had suddenly wrapped around them.

A strained cry escaped Amity and her wings cramped up. She hit the ground harder than she thought and was winded momentarily, letting out a wheezing breath of air.

She was subconsciously aware of Luz landing and her friends surrounding her, asking questions that blurred together. Her vision was fuzzy and she tried to blink it away, shutting her eyes like that would combat the pain her wings were in.

It truly felt like a sharp string was contracting around them at different levels, and she was reminded of those awful binding straps her parents made her try out that wouldn’t let her wings move an inch.

She tried to mumble that she was fine and attempted to push herself upright. Her wings started to automatically move to fold regally over her back as they had been for all these years, and the muscles in not only her wings but shoulders and back cried in protest, causing her to whimper and collapse again.

She was aware of the flash of speckled brown wings covering her before she let her head thump on the ground and her eyes shut.

“Day three of flight training,” Gus mumbled, walking along the large branch as he tapped his pencil on his notebook. “Luz has decided to try moving through the trees to build up Amity’s wing muscle-mass. It's…” He paused, frowning.

“Not going too well,”

“I can hear you!”

Amity hopped to the next closest branch, stumbling before clinging to the trunk of the tree, her wings curled tightly at her sides. Willow landed on the same branch, giving her a pitying look.

“This is ridiculous,” Amity grumbled under her breath, looking off the branch to the ground spiraling below. “The kid with baby fluff is better than me.”

“I’m writing that down!” Gus called from his branch, angrily scribbling in his notebook.

“Don’t mind him, he’s just had more...exercise with his wings.” Willow said, hovering a few feet away as Amity peeled herself off the trunk and sheepishly stepped to the next branch.

“If it makes you feel any better, Luz still has a bit of fluff.” She offered.

“She does?” Amity instantly perked up, missing her branch and slipping off.

Thankfully, she managed to scramble and grab onto the branch, her lower half hanging off as she clinged to the thicker branch for dear life, her wings still tightly around her sides as she tried to pull herself up.

“Hey, Amity!”

Luz zoomed right on by, pausing for a moment to perch on a thinner branch above the witch, making her pause and look up.

“The point is to, uh, use your wings.” She said, ruffling her own. “Just try gliding! Or moving them when going from branch-to-branch.”

“I’d rather not fall out of the tree, thank you.” Amity grumbled, struggling to pull herself up as Willow watched with mild concern.

“Psh, you won’t fall. We’re high enough that you’d hit a branch that’d stop your fall...eventually.” Luz shrugged.

“You’re terrible at reassurance,” Willow deadpanned.

“Tell you what,” Amity said, laying her chin on the branch. “I’ll give it a shot. But I’m starting slow.”

“I can work with that!” Luz said cheerfully, her wings raising. “Hey, Gus! Race ya!” She called, hopping off the branch.

“Wha--wait! I wasn’t ready!” The nuthatch cried, fluttering after her.

Amity watched Luz fly off, stopping on branches occasionally to laugh and tease Gus. Her wings were constantly moving this way and that, and not for the first time, Amity wondered if Luz’s wings were really as fragile as they looked.

Willow cleared her throat and Amity jerked her head up, catching the hummingbirds smile with a raised brow.

“What?” Amity growled, finally managing to pull herself up onto her branch and trying to steady herself.

“I didn’t say anything,” Willow said simply, landing on a branch next to Amity’s. “Just that...you’re awfully more open recently, that’s all.”

“Luz has that impact on people,” Amity said stiffly, half-opening her wings and debating if the five foot jump to the next branch was worth it.

“Of course,” Willow said calmly.

Amity jumped to the next branch, her wings spread to balance her. She floundered for a moment before shooting out both of her wings, keeping herself from falling off.

Amity let out a breath of relief and lowered her wings slightly, but kept them open. She looked down the line of trees again, spotting Luz darting around the bigger trunks and startling Gus, laughing with her wings hanging at her sides, yet seeming so lively.

She smiled, just a bit.

“You know I wouldn’t mind, right?”

Amity squawked and whirled around, realizing Willow had landed next to her without her noticing, a smug look on her face.

“Mind? Course, course not.” Amity said quickly, ears flicking back as a flush came to her face. “I mean, it’s a small thing anyway, why would you even worry about it?” She said, forgoing judging the gap and flapping her wings as she landed on the next branch, having to grab one above her to stop herself from slipping off.

“But, uh, you wouldn’t? Really?” Amity swallowed, glancing at Willow as she calmly landed next to her.

“So you do know what I’m implying,” Willow said smugly, her wings arched.

“I--” Amity started before slowly shutting her mouth again and resorting to a glare. “I don’t like you.”

“Yes, you do.”

Amity muttered and released the branch above her, debating the consequences of knocking Willow off the branch with her wings. So far, the cons were outweighing the pros.

“Out of curiosity, could you bend the trees so I don’t break every bone in my body when I inevitably fall?” Amity asked, hoping to change the conversation.

“It would be more like growing the leaves, not bending the tree, but yes.” Willow said, deciding to be merciful. “You’re going to be fine, Amity. Luz went out of her way to make sure nothing went wrong today.”

“Which means she shoved a bunch of problems into a closet and is going to deal with them when she forgets they exist and suddenly burst free?” Amity guessed, giving Willow a side-eye.

“Yeah, pretty much.” Willow nodded with a tired sigh. “But let's focus on getting those wings moving before whatever troubles Luz has hidden away come looking for blood.”

“It is sounding more appealing now,” Amity agreed, holding her wings out and taking a breath before jumping off her branch.

She glided in a wonky fashion for only a few moments before smacking into a thin branch and clinging clumsily to it, her cheek resting against the wood. She heard whoops and rattles and looked up, seeing Luz and Gus had brought their game closer to her and Willow.

“That was a good glide,” Luz complimented, landing on a branch underneath Amity’s so her face could lean closer to hers. “We could probably try glides across the clearing, soon!” She said gleefully.

Amity short-circuited for a moment, her words coming out in a jumbled mess before she realized she was slipping off and re-tightened her old on the branch.

“Y-yeah! Totally,” Amity nodded, swallowing thickly as she attempted to sit up.

“How are your wings feeling?” Luz asked, flying up and offering a hand to Amity, which the witch gratefully took.

“A little stiff, but not too bad.” Amity said, steadying herself on her feet. “I haven’t been moving them much, so that probably helps.”

“Aw, come on, Amity! You’re supposed to use them,” Luz complained, landing on the thin branch beside her and making it wobble.

If she noticed, she didn’t react to it.

“We gotta build up those muscles! Make them big and powerful, like mine.” She said, proudly flaring her wings, despite them being significantly smaller than Amity’s.

Amity raised a brow in amusement and looked over Luz. Her gaze paused for a moment on her wings. Specifically, the base of them.

Sure enough, Willow was right. Where Luz’s wings met her body, and even underneath her marginal and secondary covert feathers, was small gray and white downy fluff. It wasn’t exactly hidden, but due to how close it was to her body and her wings' natural white speckles, most people wouldn’t even notice them.

“Amity?”

The witch jerked her head up, startled. She blushed redder when she noticed Luz was looking at her oddly and drawing her wings half-closed.

“Are you sure you're okay? You kinda spaced out for a moment, there.” She said, a slight twitch to her tail.

“Yes! Yeah, I, erm, I’m okay.” Amity said, hating how loud her voice was at first and rubbing the back of her neck. “Just, uh, thinking about how I’m gonna actually manage to fly.”

“Aw, you’ll get it, I’m sure.” Luz said kindly. “We’re not giving up that easily!”

“What are ya talkin’ bout?”

The branch shook more as Gus landed on Amity’s other side. Amity held out her hands to keep her balance, uneasy.

“Just flying,” Luz said, oblivious as Gus rose his wings to hold himself still. “Hey, where’s Wil--”

Willow, sure enough, came to land on the branch where it connected to the trunk of the tree. Her wings were still slowing down to stop her flight when a cracking noise reached their ears.

Before anyone could shout a warning, the branch snapped off from underneath the kids, sending them tumbling down.

Amity flailed and flung out her wings, trying to stop her fall. Her wings caught the air and she got momentary whiplash as her fall stopped abruptly.

She glided for a good few moments, looking around frantically before crashing face-first into a branch and landing with a thud on the one beneath it, groaning.

She lifted her head to check what happened to the others, worried. Gazing below her, she saw that Gus had landed on a large leaf that Willow made to catch him. Luz hadn’t been so lucky and clearly tried to fly away but instead hit a branch and landed on the intersection between two larger ones. Bruised, but no worse for wear.

Willow, since she had been the last to land, and was a hummingbird, had avoided falling altogether.

“You guys okay?” Willow asked, landing in the middle of where her friends were scattered.

Groans of pain greeted her.

“I think we’re done for today.” Amity decided, folding her wings over her back as she sat up.

“Fair,” Luz mumbled, rolling off the intersection before flaring out her wings and flying up. “Amity, you need help getting down?”

“I...I think I can try and glide down.” Amity said, peering over the branch. “Willow, prepare to catch me, please.”

“Can do,” Willow sighed, letting Gus’s leaf shrink to normal size and dumping the nuthatch on the ground below, much to his complaints.

“Hey, I think today was pretty successful.” Luz shrugged, flying around Amity. “Considering how it could’ve gone, breaking a branch is actually pretty decent!” Amity and Willow made eye contact from across the trees.

“You have a monster chasing you today, don’t you?” Willow deadpanned.

“Two, actually.”

“This is the worst idea you’ve ever had during these sessions. And you wanted us to try and ride a Roc.”

“I think you’re being a little over-dramatic, Amity.”

“It’s not so bad,” Luz said, standing at the edge of the cliff. “I mean, you’ve made a lot of progress. And it’s only been just over a week! If anything bad happens, you can just glide to safety. Or Willow can catch you.” She added.

“There is one branch on this entire cliff.” Amity said, pointing below. “And I don’t want to land in the ocean, Luz.”

“This is why we don’t take advice from Eda,” Gus mumbled under his breath.

“I won’t let you fall, I promise.” Luz said, her tail quivering slightly. “I can catch you, and so can Willow.” She insisted.

Amity frowned and peered over the edge, clearly not convinced.

Okay, Luz thought, so maybe her previous ideas hadn’t all been bangers. Especially not the Roc or the throwing plan. But this wasn’t that bad, not really. Sure, Amity could get her wings wet, but so long she didn’t crash at the bottom of the cliff, she’d be fine, this is fine.

“We gotta get those wings in the air somehow, and you’re already able to glide longer! This’ll be great, I’m sure.” She said, waving a hand.

“Yeah,” Gus drawled out slowly, glancing at Luz’s tail, which had not stopped twitching. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this if you're not completely sure of it?”

“Course I’m sure, why wouldn’t I be sure?” Luz said quickly, glancing around. “I’m fine, it’ll all be fine. Look, here,”

With that, she calmly took a step backwards off the cliff.

Amity jerked forward for a moment before drawing back. Luz had fallen for barely a second before she had spread her wings and flown up, now hovering a little over two thousand feet in the air.

“Now I can make sure nothing bad happens.” She said. “Just, uh, you know...don’t look down?” She tried with a sheepish smile.

“We’re all going to regret this,” Willow muttered.

Despite her words, she also stepped off the cliff and flew halfway down where the broken branch was, hovering by it at the ready.

“You three have fun, I’m staying here.” Gus said, fluttering his wings as he focused on his notebook. “I’d rather not risk crashing into the sea.”

This did little to reassure Amity.

“Just open your wings and glide,” Luz said, flying around the edge of the cliff. “Maybe flap your wings a little. What’s the worst that could--”

“Don’t finish that,” Amity growled, snapping her head up to glare at the sparrow. “I don’t need us being jinxed right now.”

“Right, yeah, sorry,” Luz nodded, flying back. “Uh, you can do it?”

“Thanks,” Amity deadpanned.

Luz flew a little below the cliff, clinging onto the rock as she looked up at Amity psyching herself up. She kept her wings half open behind her, should she fall off.

“I’m right here, I promise.” Luz said, offering a smile.

Amity looked down at her for a few moments before giving a smile back and vanishing from her line of view.

Luz tilted her head, confused, and a little intrigued, as she heard the shuffling and ruffling of feathers above her.

Then, without warning, Amity suddenly leapt off the cliff.

Her wings were spread wide, and she soared right over both Luz’s and Willow’s heads. Luz gaped for a few moments before launching off the rockface.

Amity was managing to glide, albeit shakily, over the ocean. Luz grinned and flew up beside her, whooping and cheering.

Amity had her arms held out at her sides and her eyes were glued to the horizon.

“You alright?” Luz giggled.

“If I just keep staring ahead I’ll be fine,” Amity said, never moving her head. “I’m not falling, right?”

“Hmm,” Luz glanced back and at Amity’s steady gliding. “Nope! Well, I guess you are, but it’s with style.”

Amity snorted, her stiff stance wavering for a moment. Luz grinned in victory and looked back, noticing they were getting further from the cliff. Willow had moved away from the branch and was waving to them.

“We should probably turn back before you glide out to sea,” Luz called over to her. “You remember how to tilt your wings?”

“I think so?” Amity mumbled.

She dipped her left wing and leaned, turning in the air. Luz smiled, flying up and over Amity in a spinning circle before continuing to fly normally just underneath the witch.

Willow was cheering as well, hovering above the cliff. Luz could see Gus furiously scribbling notes and constantly looking back up at them, grinning.

Amity laughed, finally relaxing as she tilted her wings slightly, swaying in the air.

“And you thought this was a terrible idea,” Luz smirked.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Amity grumbled, rolling her eyes before glancing down at Luz.

Luz saw her eyes wander to the crashing ocean beneath them and her face fell.

“Uh, Luz?” Amity said, going a little pale.

“I told you not to look down!” Luz squawked, flying higher up so that her wings were nearly brushing Amity’s.

“It-it’s not the height,” Amity shook her head, tearing her gaze away from the ocean and looking back up at the human. “I think there’s something down there.”

Luz blinked and looked down, squinting. For a few brief moments, she saw nothing. Then, in a brief flash, she saw something dark flick out of the water before vanishing.

Luz glanced back at Amity, who was banking to the right in a circle, nervous.

“Uh, out of curiosity,” Luz said slowly, pausing in the air to hover as Amity glided by. “What’s the ocean wildlife like in the Boiling Isles?”

A massive tremor suddenly shook the area, catching the attention of Willow and Gus, who were both standing when it hti. Luz whirled around to call a warning to Amity before the sea suddenly split apart, revealing massive, gaping jaws.

Luz let out a cry and flailed, barely missing jaws closing around her tail as she tucked in and darted away.

She spun, taking in the massive monster that had come from the sea.

It’s lower half was a golden carp, even with the head. But the mouth was wide open, and coming from said mouth was a striped cat-like demon. All that was coming out of the mouth was from the shoulder up, including paws nearly the size of the Owl House and a maw filled with teeth as big as a person.

The monster fell back to the sea at it’s failed attempt, though it’s eyes still shone with hunger.

“What was that?” Luz shouted, looking around wildly. “Amity? Amity!”

The kestrel, during the chaos, had smacked into the cliffside and was about two hundred feet down, clinging to the rock for dear life. Willow and Gus were picking themselves up from the sudden attack, panic evident.

“Luz, get back here!” Willow waved her hands around. “It’s after you!”

Luz didn’t need to be told twice.

She dove towards the cliff, hitting the safe grass before springing up a moment later and leaning over, her tail trembling.

“Amity!” She called down, and the witch jerked her head up.

“Hang on,” Willow said, stretching out a hand and making the branch a couple hundred feet below Amity twitch and move.

The branch had grown to a reasonable size before it started growing up towards Amity.

That was when the sea monster leapt out again.

It had spotted Amity, as her bright green feathers made her stand out against the dark gray stone. It snapped its jaws, taking out the branch cleanly as a claw dug into the cliff, dangerously close to the witch.

Luz didn’t know when she jumped off, but in a flash, she was suddenly diving right towards the leviathan.

She flared her wings, barely slowing her descent before she landed right between its eyes. She could hear her friends screaming, either at her or for their own lives, but she couldn’t make out any of the words.

“Get lost, you overgrown catfish!” She barked, flapping over to its left eye before slamming her feet down on it.

The monster howled and reared back, nearly taking Luz with it before she darted back into the air. She turned and flew to Amity, who was curled into a ball where she was clinging to the rocks, her wings shaking.

Luz landed right on the rock beside her and grabbed her shoulder. Amity’s eyes opened and she stared at Luz, unable to speak. All Luz could hear were distressed, rapid chirps from her throat.

“Willow! Help me grab Amity!” Luz called up the cliff, taking Amity’s arm.

It took a few moments, considering all the howling and tremors the sea beast was causing, but Willow appeared on Amity’s other side just a moment later. She grabbed her right arm and the two were quick to launch off the cliff and rise to the air.

Until a paw slammed into the cliff, just above them and barely a few meters away from missing Gus, who had been peering over the edge.

The girls all whirled around, meeting two massive eyes, one of them slightly red from getting kicked.

The three froze for a moment, the girls and the monster having a momentary staring contest.

Then its jaw opened and it launched towards them.

The three split apart in a flash. Luz and Willow flew to the left and right, and Amity...dove.

Luz could see her wings tucked into her sides as she dove downwards, panic violently seizing her.

“Amity! Pull up!” Luz cried.

The monster’s face hit the cliff and it hissed, jerking back and swiping it's free paw towards the closest bird, which happened to be Willow.

Willow managed to dodge and fly upwards, making a beeline for Gus, who had stepped back.

Luz tightened her wings to her sides and dropped like a stone, attempting to peer around the hulking beast, trying to figure out where Amity was among the thrashing golden body and massive waves.

She saw something coming at her from the corner of her eye and spun to the side, spreading her wings right as a gust of wind went by, accompanying a paw with claws the length of a bus.

The tiger roared, furious that it’s prey was proving so hard to catch.

Luz finally saw Amity, right as she was twisting around to miss the beasts thrashing tail.

Luz cried out, curving around to try and reach her friend.

Amity suddenly shot out her wings and tilted upwards, sending her soaring nearly straight-up.

Luz didn’t have the chance to gape, because the beasts paw had hit the water right by her, sending waves four times as big as she was.

She darted up and around its forearm, missing its jaws by the brush of her feathers as she finally popped up above its head.

Willow was swiftly growing the grass on the cliff face, beginning to move them around the monster's neck and face, causing it to yowl and hiss.

Luz couldn’t even pay attention to that, she was too busy flying around and looking for a familiar flash of green.

And, right by the leviathans back, she saw it.

Amity soared up and her hand suddenly lit ablaze. She paused right by its head and flared out her wings. In that brief moment of pause, she flung the handful of fire at the cat's nose, hissing a slew of curses at it.

The fire grew when it came in contact with its nose and the beast shrieked, pulling back and breaking free of the grass wrapped around it. Amity flew, flew, out of the way as it hissed and removed its claws from the cliff face.

Luz slowly landed, deciding she’d rather not get involved. Amity’s rage-filled snarls were enough to keep her at bay.

The cat spat back at her but lowered its head, rubbing at its nose with its paw.

With a growl, the beast turned and dove back into the sea, deciding the fight wasn’t worth the prey.

In mere moments, it was like it was never there.

The others were breathing heavily, trying to process what had just happened. Luz, on the other hand, was left staring in the air at Amity, who was hovering right where she was, still watching where it vanished.

“She’s flying,” Luz murmured, before suddenly jumping up. “She’s flying! Amity! Amity! You’re flying!”

The witch turned back around, confused for a brief moment before glancing at her wings.

Luz leapt into the air and spun around the kestrel, talking a mile a minute as she resisted the urge to tackle Amity out of the sky in a hug.

Amity exhaled, shaking with the effort and her wings faltered. Luz paused then and gave her a worried look.

“Yeah, great,” Amity wheezed, her eyelids drooping. “I’m...I’m kinda tired…”

“Oh, right, right!” Luz nodded, taking her hands and flying the witch down. “Yeah, I think we’ve done more than enough for the day.”

“Are you okay?” Willow worried, coming up to Amity once they landed and holding her up.

“Everything hurts,” Amity whined, “Especially these,” She weakly twitched her wings.

“But not as much as before, right?” Gus inquired.

“...nah, not yet.” Amity shook her head.

“That’s a win in my book!” Luz said cheerfully. “C’mon, let’s get back to the Owl House before Eda shows up wondering what the fuss was all about.”

Amity didn’t respond. She just closed her eyes and nodded tiredly, leaning on Willow as she began the walk back to the Owl House.

Gus and Luz kept on talking, about the fight, the flying, what Gus had written down, anything. Luz somehow still had an abundance of energy, asking Amity questions she didn’t expect answers to and thinking up more ideas now that Amity had flown. After all, just because she flew once didn’t mean she was a master now.

Amity could barely keep her eyes open, and her walking was more like stumbling.

And yet, despite that, she couldn’t stop smiling, either.

184 notes · View notes

rohad93 · 4 years

Text

Moonlit Masquerade: Shades of Autumn

Luz is early today. She’d been getting to school earlier and earlier as the weeks have worn on.

She always has been an early riser, just not an early to do anything after she got up, person. More content to lay in bed, enjoying the quiet of the morning till her alarm actually went off and she was forced to get up.

But Amity gets to school early, so Luz does too, of course.

Any extra time spent with her paramour Is enough to get her moving, even at the crack of dawn.

The air is cool and crisp with the onset of fall. The trees have begun to change color, though to her it’s strange to see because the foliage in the Isles is already such varying shades aside from the green she’s used to, the only way she can really tell is because the ones she sees every day outside the owl house or on the way to school have begun to change hue and flake off the branches. Greens are turning red and brown while the reds wilt into bright yellows. The woods are a rainbow of hues; she likes it.

Even if it is a constant reminder.

She takes a deep breath of the cool air and grins as she jogs towards the school, some fallen leaves crunching under her steps.

As she runs up the path to Hexside she quickly spots her girlfriend’s head of mint green hair near the steps, she grins and makes a beeline straight for her.

She’s talking to Gus and Willow who are apparently also early today.

“Hey, guys!” She smiles brightly as she comes to a skidding halt in front of them.

Hey, Luz.“ Gus and Willow grin and wave.

“Buenos dìas, mi amor.” She nudges Amity with her hip, who pinks a little but smiles at her tenderly. She’s spent enough time with Luz over the last month and a half to have started picking up some Spanish and it’s only when Luz starts her rapid, spitfire rambling in the language that she gets hopelessly lost, but she’s trying. She wants to learn, for Luz and for herself. She’d like to be able to say whatever she wants to her without fear of people overhearing things they shouldn’t.

It’s slow work, but Luz is all too happy to help her learn, even when she giggles at the stilted, choppy way Amity says things. Rolling her ‘R’s is another thing she’s having difficulty with.

She may have also managed to get a hold of a handy little Spanish to English dictionary, courtesy of Eda, from her pile of human trash. She’s been studying it in her spare time, hoping to surprise her girlfriend with things she hasn’t yet taught her.

“Morning…” She hesitates, hoping she’s not going to butcher this, “querida.”

Luz chokes on her own spit as her face turns red and Amity feels rather proud of herself, having brought her chatty girlfriend to stupefied silence.

“What’s going on?” Gus whispers to Willow who just smiles.

They’ve become pretty accustomed to Luz and Amity’s somewhat new dynamic since they started dating and all the strange, sometimes hard to follow conversations the two have. Though without any context Willow thinks she knows what’s going on.

She’s also picked up a little of Luz’s other language, and while she doesn’t know ‘amor’ or ‘querida’ the faces the two make tells her all she needs to know about the nature of these words and she rolls her eyes at the couple.

“They’re just being sappy, don’t worry about it.

“Oh…” Gus nods.

“Where did you learn that?” Luz finally sputters, still red-faced, and Amity grins, and maybe it’s a Blight sibling thing, but she winks and Luz feels like she might just melt into a puddle of human goo. She only thought she got flustered whenever one of the twins winked at her, this was a whole nother level entirely.

“If you two are done…,“ Willow started, drawing the couples embarrassed gazes. “I heard the Autumn festival is going to be in town this weekend, we should all go.”

“Yeah!” Luz quickly agreed before stopping. “What’s The Autumn festival?” she asks and Willow laughs while Amity can only roll her eyes fondly.

“It’s like a carnival but with autumn-themed food and games and all kinds of fun stuff,” Gus explains, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet and Luz joins him in excited fidgeting.

“Count me in!” Luz pumps a fist before turning to look at her girlfriend imploringly. Amity’s lips twitch at the large, pleading eyes now turned on her. Luz is the only one with this kind of power over her. Not that she would have turned down the opportunity to spend an afternoon with her and their friends.

“Sounds like fun,” she agreed.

Luz and Gus cheer, high-fiving while Amity and Willow share a look.

They talked a little while longer before the bell rang and they all had to make their way to class.

It was Thursday, and Luz had Bard and Oracle track classes today, so she bid farewell to her friends as she and Amity walked down another hall. Abominations were only one hall down from the bard hall.

When they stopped in front of the entrance to the bard’s hall Amity grabbed her arm.

“I won’t be able to meet you today, my mom wants me to come straight home after school.” She frowned and Luz resisted the urge to pout, she knew Amity didn’t like it anymore then she did so she simply nodded.

“It’s okay, I’ll see you tomorrow and I’ll message you tonight.” She smiled and Amity’s frown vanished in the face of it. She wanted very badly to close the short distance between them and lay a quick kiss on her mouth but there were students all around them, though none close enough to hear them.

“I’ll be waiting for it, querida.” she grinned as she walked away from her again short-circuiting girlfriend.

~ ~ ~

Luz was worried

She’d waited until sometime after dinner before sending Amity a message on her scroll as she laid in bed. Usually, Amity replied within a few minutes.

She’d waited a few hours, checking her scroll periodically, eventually feeling antsy and moving about the house.

Eda and Lilith seemed to pick up on her behavior pretty quickly as she wandered around the kitchen and living room, frowning.

“Is something the matter, Luz?” Lilith was the first to ask.

“Hmm, Amity hasn’t messaged me back yet and it’s been four hours…,” she mumbled, plopping down on the floor, opposite the couch where the sisters were sitting.’

“That’s it? Your girlfriend hasn’t messaged you back yet?” Eda cocked a brow. “You were wandering around here looking like someone was being murdered.” She crossed her arms.

“You don’t understand, Eda!” She threw up her hands. “She’s never not responded to me before… and her mom wanted her to come home right after school today… I’m worried.” She glanced down at her still silent scroll.

The women shared a look before turning back to Luz.

“I’m sure it’s gonna be okay, kid. If her mom wanted her home it must have been for something, she’s just busy.” Eda tried to comfort her apprentice.

“Surely if something were wrong she would have messaged you first,” Lilith followed up.

“Yeah, kids head over heels for you. If she needed you, she’d let you know.”

“Hmm, I guess…,” Luz grumbled.

Eda frowned at the glum look on her kid’s face and stood.

“Come on Luz, let’s go get ice screams,” she said, ruffling the girl’s head as she walked over to the door.

A tiny smile pulled at her lips at what she knew Eda was trying to do. They were probably right, Amity had a tighter schedule than most adults she knew, she was probably just busy.

“Okay” She hopped up to join Eda at the door.

“King, let’s go, we’re getting Ice screams!” she yelled, and upstairs a loud squeal of excitement echoed back. “You too, Lilly.” Eda jerked her head.

“Very well.”

~ ~ ~

Luz was very worried now as she walked quickly to school.

Amity had never returned her message and according to the little text next to it, she had never even read it.

That was not like her and it made Luz’s stomach tight with worry.

She shot right out of the house as soon as she had gotten dressed when she’d checked her scroll to still see no sign of Amity.

Students were milling about the front of the building. If she wanted to avoid people Amity would get to school just before the bell rang so she could use it as an excuse. She’s done it a couple of times since they started dating, though never to Luz.

Just as she predicted, she could see her girlfriends bright green head as she walked toward Hexside’s main steps.

“Amity!”

She froze stiff at the call, but she didn’t look like she was going to try and run.

“Hey! I was worried about you, you never messaged me back last night.” She stopped at Amity’s side so their conversation was hushed as kids walked by them.

“Sorry, Luz… I got busy last night, I didn’t mean to worry you…” She turned to look at her with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

Luz noticed it immediately.

Amity’s hair was a bright new shade of mint and the auburn roots Luz adored were gone, now the same shade as the rest of her hair.

“Your hair…,” Luz mumbled and Amity clutched her books tighter to her chest. She knew Luz would notice right away. She didn’t know why she thought she could avoid this.

Luz pursed her lips as she looked at the uniform color and remembered what Amity had told her about it. She’d held her tongue before about the subject, but this clearly caused her girlfriend distress if the way her hunched shoulders and the way she couldn’t meet Luz’s eyes meant anything.

“Did your mom make you re-dye your hair last night?” She knew she hit the nail on the head because as soon as the sentence left her mouth Amity flinched, hunkering in even further.

“Yes,” she answered after a long moment, just as the bell rang. “I gotta go.” She tried to walk away but Luz grabbed her shoulder.

“Amity, wait…”

“I really don’t want to talk about this right now, Luz.” She pulled away and ran inside leaving Luz to watch her go from the bottom of the steps with a frown.

Her stomach was churning with worry for Amity and anger at her girlfriend’s mother. She’d never met Mrs. Blight, but she knew already without a doubt, she didn’t like her.

~ ~ ~

Amity could hardly pay attention to her classes. She was mad at herself.

She knew eventually her roots were going to reach a point where her mother was going to ‘suggest’ that she fix it. She knew by the length that the time was approaching and she should have told Luz about it, knowing that she would notice right away and that she knew her and her mother’s… secret agreement, if that was what she wanted to call it. Amity sniffed at that.

Even Ed and Em didn’t know why she colored her hair, they’d teased her mercilessly about it after the first time, saying that if she wanted to be like them she’d have to try harder then that.

Hell, she wasn’t sure her father even knew. Having inherited her warm auburn hair from him, he’d seemed a little disappointed after the first time her mother had ‘asked’ her to color it, in that cloying sweet way that meant she wasn’t really asking.

She sighed to herself, she hadn’t meant to ignore Luz last night, but having her hair recolored had put her in a very bad mood and she didn’t think she’d have been good company.

Then this morning… she groaned quietly.

Of course, Luz would be able to put two and two together and see that she was upset. She always was the first couple of days after having her hair fixed. She really shouldn’t have blown her off though. She would send her a message later, apologizing.

There wasn’t much she could do about her hair. She wished she could just let it be the color it was; It frustrated her.

When class mercifully ended she took her time gathering her things. She knew in the back of her mind it was just to avoid Luz, even though she really wanted to see her.

After last night she just wanted to let her girlfriend hold her. She was always happiest and at peace whenever the human wrapped her arms around her and let her just bury her face into her neck.

But Luz also asked too many questions and felt righteous, indignant anger for others much too strong to simply ignore this, it was one of the things Amity loved about her. She cared so much, but this was something beyond her, and Amity needed to find a way to explain it to her so she would let it go.

Luz thought the emperor was tough? She’d never met Odalia Blight and if Amity had her way, she never would.

She was walking down the quiet empty halls tiredly when a classroom door swung open and someone grabbed her pulling her inside. She didn’t even have time to cry out as the door shut and she was standing in the middle of an empty classroom.

“It’s just me!” Luz quickly soothed her panic.

“Luz!” Amity hissed. “What are you doing?” She held a hand to her chest over her rapidly beating heart.

“Sorry, I was waiting for you.”

“You could have just waited outside for me…,” Amity grumbled.

“So you could take off running the second you saw me?” Luz frowned, not glaring but it was a very stern look that made Amity frown guiltily.

“I’m sorry…,” she mumbled.

“Don’t be sorry, just talk to me, Amity” Luz pleaded. “I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, amor”

“You can’t help with this, Luz.” she shook her head, looking at the floor. “This is just… something I have to do… I know you want to help but you can’t. So please, can you just forget about it?”

“No!” Luz flings out her arms. “How can I just ignore it when it makes you like this?!” Luz can’t understand why Amity just can’t talk to her about this.

Maybe she can’t do anything, but she’s there for Amity to lean on even when she needs her, when she’s hurting, even when they can’t do anything about it.

She doesn’t have to shove it all down and pretend she’s not bothered when she clearly is.

Frustration is bubbling up in Amity’s stomach like a boiling cauldron. Why can’t Luz understand that this is just something she has to do?

“It’s just hair, Luz!” She’s not shouting but it’s much louder than it needs to be.

“If it was just about hair then you wouldn’t be so upset and miserable about it!” Luz’s tone also raises. “You wouldn’t be hiding from me!”

“It doesn’t matter, I have to do this, you don’t know what my mother is like!” she is yelling now.

"I would if you would just explain it to me!” She shouts back, just as loud.

Amity turns away from her, shaking. She hates this, hates how angry she is, hates her mother, and that Luz can’t just let this go. Just this once, she wished she didn’t care so much.

Luz frowns. This wasn’t at all how she had wanted this to go. She takes a breath, calming herself.

“Hey, it’s okay… maybe I don’t get it…” Luz starts quietly and reaches out a hand towards Amity’s shaking shoulder. “But my mom…”

Amity is just so frustrated by everything she spins around to face her surprised girlfriend and snaps:

“Stop, your right, you don’t get it and your mom isn’t here!“

Brown eyes go wide and the hurt couldn’t be clearer.

Just like that, all her frustration drains out of her and she wants nothing more than to take the words back, pull them back and swallow the vile things before they leave her mouth, but she can’t. They’re out there now and she has to live with that.

Live with the deafening silence that fills the empty classroom as she and Luz stare back at each other with wide eyes, gold filled with horror and brown with shock and hurt

Her stomach drops into her feet as Luz’s lips begin to tremble and her eyes turn glassy.

She wants to say something, anything, but for the life of her, she can’t get her mouth to form the words.

Luz bursts, choking on a sob before she turns and runs, wrenching the door open. It slams against the wall, the bang echoing through the room as she flees down the hall.

"Luz!” Amity calls finally able to make her body respond and she runs after her, but Luz is fast, much faster then Amity realized as she bursts out of the schools front doors in time to see the other girl vanishing into the woods at the edge of the school grounds, she stops at the bottom of the steps, helplessly watching her girlfriend disappear from sight amid the trees.

“Amity!?” She looks to see Gus and Willow, standing at the edge of the steps looking at her with concerned faces. No doubt they had seen Luz run by sobbing.

“What happened!?” Willow asks.

“What did you do!?” Gus accuses, pointing a finger at her and glaring.

‘I…” she stammers, then bites her lip and after a long minute trying to form coherent thoughts, she slowly explains what happened. The two friends’ faces change from shock to outrage and alarm by the time she’s done.

“Why would you say that?!” Willow is all but shouting at her as Gus crosses his arms and glares as if she didn’t already feel bad about what she’d said to Luz.

“I don’t know!” she wails. “It was stupid and cruel and I don’t know! I didn’t mean to, I was just frustrated, she wouldn’t drop it and it just came out…” She buried her face in her hands miserably.

Willow is pinching the bridge of her nose beneath her glasses. She knows what she’s about to say is going to make Amity feel so much worse, but it needs to be said.

“You don’t know how cruel…,” she starts and Amity is looking at her with worried eyes at the miserable tone of her voice. “Summer is over Amity, Luz was supposed to go home almost two weeks ago…,” she trails off and Amity’s mind shifts gears, spinning into overdrive as she takes in the meaning of those words, understanding slapping her in the face.

“Oh… oh, Titan, no!” She covers her mouth with her hands but the horror In her eyes is clear. In the midst of the cloudy haze of their blossoming relationship, Amity had lost track of the days.

Somewhere in the human world, a mother is desperately searching for her missing daughter and Luz knows this, Amity, Willow, and Gus know this, and Amity had only, no matter how unintentionally, dug the knife in deeper.

Her knees are on the verge of giving out and she drops on the bottom step before they can buckle of their own accord.

“Why am I so terrible!” Amity shouts, reaching up to pull at her hair, shame is the only thing she can feel and it makes bile threaten to rise up her throat; she thinks she’s about to be sick as water pools in the corners of her eyes.

Willow sighs and kneels down on the ground in front of her, thinking about what to say.

“You’re not terrible, Amity,” she said slowly. “I know you didn’t mean it and I’m sure Luz knows it to…”

“I hurt her…” Amity whimpers, and she’s never been so disappointed in herself as she is at this moment, knowing that she’s hurt the one person she cares about more than anything.

Willow and Gus share a look before turning back to the girl cracking too pieces in front of them.

“You can still fix this, Amity.” Willow reaches up and lays a comforting hand on the trembling girl’s shoulder. “You need to talk to her, now.” Willow impresses the urgency upon her.

She nods, wiping away the tears that are threatening to fall and she stands.

“I gotta go…” she takes off toward the owl house without another word.

When she’s finally standing in front of the house she’s panting, having run all the way.

She takes a moment to get her breath back before walking up to knock on the door. Hooty is strangely quiet as he looks at her from his place in the door.

After a moment it opens and the owl lady is standing there looking at her with a frown.

“Is Luz here? she asks, trying not to cower as Eda looks down at her.

Eda simply regards her for another few seconds before saying anything.

“Yeah, ran through here crying. Your doing, I take it?” It’s not really a question.

“Can I talk to her…, please?” She’ll beg if she has to. She has to make this right.

Eda continues to stare at her for the longest few seconds of Amity’s life before she steps aside and Amity shoots through the door and up the stairs, not even acknowledging King or Lilith sitting on the couch.

Luz’s door is closed but she can hear her quiet muffled crying through the door and it tears at her heart. She lifts her hand to knock but hesitates, and swallows, but her mouth is dry.

Finally, she taps on the door and the cries quiet.

“Not now, Eda…” her voice is quiet and it cracks. Amity takes hold of the handle, gripping it tightly before pushing it open.

It’s dim in the room, stray beams of light are streaming through the drawn curtains, just enough that she can see.

Luz is curled up on her bed, facing away from her.

She must have heard the door open.

“I just wanna be alone, Eda,” she choked quietly.

Amity licks her dry lips.

“Luz”

The girl goes still before her cries pick up again, though she’s trying to muffle them.

Amity’s feet are heavy as she walks across the room, but hesitates at the bedside, not sure what to do with herself.

Finally, she settles for kneeling on the floor, so her face is level with Luz, hands holding onto the edge of the mattress. The old, worn wood bites into her knees but she ignores it.

“Luz…, I am so sorry,” she finally says. “I didn’t mean to say that… or to yell at you… I was just frustrated and I know that’s no excuse for it, I just…” she chokes back her own tears. “I’m sorry, I’m just so sorry.” It’s all she can say as she stares at her girlfriend’s quaking back, tears dripping down her cheeks. Her head drops and she clenches her eyes shut as more tears fall, dripping off her chin to the floor, leaving little wet circles in the dry wood.

She stays right there for several long minutes before the bed shifts and she looks up.

Luz has rolled over to face her, staring back at her with wet, red-rimmed eyes.

She’s still crying as she holds up an arm and Amity stares back at her with wide eyes.

“C'mere,” she croaks and Amity scrambles into the bed, wedging one of her arms between Luz and the mattress to squeeze her close, burying her face into her chest.

Luz’s grip on her is just as tight as she nuzzles her face into bright green hair.

They just lay there for a while as their tears slow, eyes closed

They don’t hear the Clawthorne sisters outside the door.

“Edalyn!” Lilith hisses as she follows her sister down the hall to Luz’s room. “Do you honestly think they’re in there making out again?!” She asks with quiet outrage.

“After last week I’m just checking!” she hisses back. “They know the rules, door open!” she says quietly.

Lilith rolls her eyes, scowling. “Luz was in tears!”

“I know. Do you know how many crying people I’ve 'comforted’?” The younger finger quotes and Lilith’s scowl only intensifies; for multiple reasons.

“Do you really think so lowly of Amity?” she growls.

“No, of course not, but I need to check on my kid!” Eda growls, looking at Lilith over her shoulder. The elder only frowns but says nothing else.

She’s silent when she turns the door handle and opens it just a couple of inches to peek inside. the first thing she sees of course is the two teenagers curled up together on the bed, and she’s just about to throw the door open when she hears it.

Crying.

Both of them are huddled together on the bed crying.

She closes the door as silently as she opened it and backs away.

“Well?” Lilith asks lowly and Eda just shakes her head.

“Leave 'em be,” she says as they walk back down the hall.

When the crying has stopped the two are just laying there quietly, absorbing each other’s warmth, still sniffling on occasion as Luz runs her fingers through Amity’s hair while the other clenches and unclenches her hands in the fabric of Luz’s shirt.

Finally, Amity finds the will to speak.

“I lost track of the days…,” she starts quietly. “I completely forgot when you were supposed to go back…”

Luz hums.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Amity finally finds the courage to ask.

Luz just shrugs, frowning into Amity’s hair.

“I didn’t want anyone to worry about me. I especially didn’t want you to worry about me. Worrying about it isn’t going to fix it…,” she trails off.

Amity makes a frustrated sound in her throat and pulls back just enough so they can look at each other. Both their eyes are red and puffy.

“That’s not how this works, Luz! I’m going to worry about you whether you want me to or not, that’s how love works!” She’s more than aware of the hypocrisy of her words as they come out of her mouth, but more so as those deep brown eyes lock with hers, but she goes on. “I want to be there for you, even if I can’t do anything, I want you to be able to lean on me.”

“Then why won’t you let me be there for you?” she shoots back and Amity flinches. The words hold no anger, just sad confusion.

“I…,” Amity sighs. She’s been thinking about this too and has finally come to the answer. “I don’t know how…” her voice is so soft Luz barely hears it. “I’m a Blight… I’m not supposed to need anyone. I should be strong enough on my own.” She closes her eyes, unable to stare into Luz’s any longer, she can’t bear whatever she might find there.

“That’s stupid.”

Her eyes shoot open to look at Luz, who is frowning. She looks angry but Amity realizes it’s not directed at her as she presses her forehead against hers.

“Everyone needs help sometimes, no matter what their name is, and… we’re supposed to be there to help each other, no matter what, that’s what this is.” Her grip on Amity tightens. “Like you said, that’s what love is. Us against the world, but you have to let me, Amity.” Her voice is thick with raw emotion.

Luz is getting blurry as tears fill Amity’s eyes again and her fingers dig into Luz’s shirt in a death grip. Luz is smiling at her sadly as they begin to drip down her cheeks to the bed. She nods shakily.

“I know…,” she hiccups.

“You said I don’t understand. So explain it to me,” she breathes, and Amity sniffles. “Please, mi amor. Tell me.” Luz whispers.

So she does.

They lay there a long time, so long, the sunlight in the room disappears, casting the room in darkness as Amity explains exactly what it’s like growing up in Blight Manor, with parents that are too busy most of the time to even remember they have children unless it’s convenient to them. With a distant father who is usually too busy to spend time with his family or know what is going on and a mother who when she has the time, uses it to try and sculpt all her children into perfectly painted figurines for her to display to their friends and acquaintances at parties.

Nevermind that the paint just hides the many chips and cracks beneath.

Luz only holds her all the tighter the longer they lay there and her heart aches the more Amity speaks as she realizes that Willow and green hair dye are only the tip of an iceberg lodged in her girlfriend’s heart.

“Oh, Amity,” Luz breathes, holding her as tight as she can without crushing her. “I’m sorry,” she finally says when Amity is finished. “I should have left it alone…”

Amity shakes her head

“No…, I should have talked to you about this instead of just trying to ignore it,” she sighs “I know you, Luz. I know how much you care and want to help… I love that about you… I guess part of me just didn’t want you to know what a mess I am,” she mumbles, gold eyes sliding to look anywhere but Luz. She squeaks as Luz’s grip on her becomes crushing.

“You’re not!” she growls, anger burns in her belly like she’s swallowed fire. She’s never felt such intense hatred before as she feels at Amity’s mom right now. “You’re amazing and I love you so much.” She squeezes harder still. “And what your parents do isn’t your fault,” she asserts.

“Luz, too tight…,” Amity squeaks.

“Sorry, sorry!” Luz smiles sheepishly and relaxes her death grip on Amity, who can finally take a full breath. “Really, though. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed. When you tell me to leave something alone I need to listen…,” she says with a frown, which makes Amity frown.

She draws her hands back from around Luz’s back and wedges them between them to wrap her fingers around her neck, thumbs brushing her cheeks.

“And I need to learn that I can rely on you, no matter what,” she says and Luz smiles, making her own lips pull up.

“Always, mi amor.” she affirms, leaning into Amity’s touch.

Amity closes the incrementally small distance between the two to press a soft kiss to her girlfriend’s smiling mouth.

When she releases her she sighs happily but exhausted.

“We’ve been here a long time… you probably need to get home.” Luz frowns, not at all happy about having to send Amity home now that she knows exactly what that home is like.

The twins can only help so much, they too are just teenagers in the same boat as their sister, even though it seems to Luz that shielding Amity from as much as they can is their priority; for which she could never be more grateful.

Thankfully Amity just shakes her head.

“They left for the weekend this morning… it’s just Ed and Em at home,” she says.

“Then stay,” Luz says without even having to think about it.

Amity jerks up to look at her, eyes blown wide and cheeks pinking.

“I… don’t think Eda will be okay with that after what happened last week” the pink turns red.

“She will if I explain It to her…,” she says. Amity looks unsure of that. “We need adults in our corner, even if they’re both wanted criminals.” She grins and Amity can’t help but giggle at her. Even when it’s dark, Luz has a way of lighting up her world.

“Okay” she moves to sit up but Luz pushes her back down with a hand on her shoulder.

“You stay here, I can do it, amor,” Luz assures her. Amity wants to argue, but she feels drained after explaining it all to Luz, so she just nods.

Luz pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and crawls off the bed, moving to the door.

Amity bites her lip before calling out.

“Hurry back, querida.”

Luz freezes and Amity grins, knowing even without being able to see her face as it’s turned away and dark that Luz is blushing.

After a second she just looks over her shoulder and smiles.

“Siempre volveré a ti, mi amor.” She says before opening the door and disappearing down the hall, leaving Amity confused but flustered.

She pulls out her scroll and calls her sister who picks up on the second ring.

“Mittens, are you okay, where are you?” She sounds worried and Amity feels a little guilty about that.

“I’m fine, Em. I’m at Luz's…”

“Oooh, and what are you two up to I wonder…?” she says with a knowing lilt, but she does not have the energy to be angry at her older sisters teasing.

“Emira…” the tired and almost sad way she says her sister’s name makes the sound on the other end go quiet for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” Emira sounds serious now, and with a weary sigh she explains the last few hours to the twins after Emira has put her scroll on speaker, which includes finally telling the twins why she’s been dying her hair green for years; they don’t like it. Not one bit.

After about twenty minutes Luz peeks her head in the bedroom door and seeing her on her scroll, gives her a thumbs-up as she walks quietly into the room to sit on the end of the bed.

“Titan, Amity…” she hears her brother say quietly.

“I’m going to stay with Luz tonight, I’ll be back in the morning and we can talk about it later,” she says before he or Emira can say anything else.

There’s a long moment of silence and Amity can just see the two of them, looking at each other having one of the silent conversations they’re famous for.

“Alright, we’ll see you tomorrow. We love you!” The two chorus at the end and Amity rolls here eyes, but smiles.

“I love you too.” The scroll beeps as the call ends and Luz reaches out to grab her hand and squeezes reassuringly.

“Eda said we’re good to go for tonight and that dinner is ready.”

It isn’t until she says this that Amity realizes how absolutely starving she is.

“That sounds nice.” She nods.

Luz grins and leads her downstairs, hand still threaded through hers.

Eda looks up as they walk into the kitchen.

“Have a seat, kids.” She motions to the table where Lilith and King are already sitting, waiting.

They do, and they all smile, and for once Amity is glad that Lilith is here.

Maybe she hasn’t forgiven her yet, but she’s trying, and after all this talk about her mother, she’s glad for anyone else.

She gives Lilith a small smile and the woman seems surprised, but it’s quickly replaced with a reassuring look.

When dinner finished and everything is cleaned up, Amity insists on helping, the two head for the stairs only to be stopped by Eda, poking her head out of the kitchen to look at the two as they start up the stairs.

“Luz” her mentor calls, and they both turn back to look at her.

“You two can sleep up there, but that door stays open, no funny business, or this is the last time anyone stays here; got it?” They both turn bright red but Luz nods.

“No funny business,” she squeaks. she’s not going to even attempt to argue that nothing is going to happen, she just agrees; not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Good. Night, kids.” Eda grins and the two hurry up the stairs, mumbling to each other and faces red.

#Lumity #Moonlit Masquerade #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Willow Park #Gus Porter #Eda Clawthorne #lilith clawthorne #Edric Blight #Emira Blight #fanfic #toh #the owl house

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shards-of-divinity · 4 years

Text

"Bone-Weary" a WenZhou Word of Honor fic.

Summary: "A'Xu...Haven't you traded massages with a martial sibling after long hours of training or travel?"

Before he can stop himself Zhou Zishu takes his discarded sash and holds it up. “Blindfold yourself and you can do what you want to do.”

He watches Wen Kexing’s throat bob before he quickly rallies himself, flicking his fan out and cocking his head with a slow smile.

“So we’ve switched to this type of play? A’Xu, you continue to surprise me and I only want to know more. The last thing I want to do is over-tax you in your condition--”

Or, in which Wen Kexing takes care of Zhou Zishu after their impromptu swim.

(Find me here on AO3)

He forces himself not to shiver in the night air, energy depleted still from the toxin that lingers in his veins. Not for the first time, Zhou Zishu hates the nails that restrict his internal force and how long it's taking to bounce back even with the tincture he had on hand.

Pushing aside the thought, he tries to focus on his meal. The rabbit meat is stringy and burnt in places but still hot and Zhou Zishu forces himself not to eat too fast. Any food at this point would aid in rebuilding the energy he is expending to heal.

"A'Xu, you flatter me with your enthusiasm for my cooking!"

Zhou Zishu glances at Wen Kexing out of the corner of his eyes; hiding a huff of laughter at the slender fingers trying to make work of the ruined meat. As if he could feel Zhou Zishu staring, Wen Kexing's laughing eyes meet his and he leans in closer.

"If you had followed me back to my boat there would have been a much better meal for us."

"This is enough," Zhou Zishu says, ignoring the pout sent his way. How a grown man and (very likely) accomplished martial artist can look so pitiful and still have any face is beyond him.

"At least try to lie a bit better than that, A'Xu. One can only do so much with only this fire and no kitchen or spices. After the feast at Sanbai Manor--especially those delightful prawns--this is unseemly."

Zhou Zishu's face reddens slightly at the memory of Wen Kexing boldly placing the prawns on his plate as if they were close and anything other than reluctant travel partners. He takes another bite and hopes the firelight hides the color lingering in his cheeks.

"Surely with such a well trained and graceful form you're used to finer things than this poor meal. Your attempt at a disguise and demeanor can't hide the elegance in your every move, A'Xu."

Again with the excessive compliments! Zhou Zishu slowly lifts his head from his food and stares. Wen Kexing is watching him, chin propped on his hand again. Once again he wonders if the man is trying to throw him off balance, enjoys teasing him or…

Or.

The final option just isn't a possibility.

Before he can think of a reply, a cough forces its way out of Zhou Zishu and the food tumbles from his hand to the ground.

"Zhou Xu!"

As he's wracked with a coughing fit, suddenly all of his senses are invaded with Wen Kexing. His vision is full of the man's robes, he's surrounded by the scent of the river and wet hair and clothing, those things covering the faded smell of hair oils and tonics. The other man's warmth feels almost smothering as he leans in to try to steady Zhou Zishu through his coughing fit. He braces his hands on Wen Kexing's forearms, meaning to push him away but gripping tightly as he coughs harder.

Zhou Zishu forces himself upright and folds his body into a lotus pose, closing watering eyes. A second later Wen Kexing's energy flows into him and bolsters his own and Zhou Zishu ignores how compatible it feels.

"Will you follow me back to the boat now?" Wen Kexing is leaning over his shoulder too close in his ear and Zhou Zishu pulls away with a sigh. "You can't hide the way you're hunched into yourself and hurting; not from me."

"Of course, my form is so distracting to you I'm sure you've studied and memorized my every move, Lao Wen," Zhou Zishu quips back between more coughing, and there's a moment of silence between them.

"A'Xu you are shivering, soaked to the bone from our impromptu swim, and lacking energy. Please see reason?"

Zhou Zishu takes in a deep breath and turns to fully face Wen Kexing. "Who is partially to blame for my condition, Lao Wen?"

Wen Kexing sighs loudly. "Alright, alright. Let me make it up to you? On. The. Boat."

It's bone-deep weariness that finally forces Zhou Zishu to give in. In the nearly three years since he's left he's used to sleeping outdoors or in other uncomfortable places, but the excitement of his condition and last few days demand a proper rest.

He finds himself settled at a low table, a flavorful spread in front of him with heated wine. The two maids smile and sneak glances at him in curiosity as they bring more food. There's pea shoots with garlic, sweet sesame buns. Flavorful rice and tender white fish that is savory instead of overly bitter, and other foods placed before them. Zhou Zishu wonders again who exactly Wen Kexing is to just have such opulence at his fingertips, but doesn't hesitate to eat his fill as midnight creeps ever closer.

"So much better than charred rabbit, isn't it."

Wen Kexing pulls back his sleeve with extra flair as if they're at another banquet, serving Zhou Zishu first and then himself. Zhou Zishu tracks the movement, and feels the sudden (irrational) urge to bite at Wen Kexing's wrist.

There must have been something in the water, too, if Zhou Zishu can't control his thoughts.

"Who have you run into now, Master!"

Gu Xiang rises from below deck, bouncing forward; and settling herself between them both at the table. Zhou Zishu watches her face slacken in surprise while Wen Kexing smiles in amusement.

"Aiyah, it's you! Sick Dude!" She waves her finger in his face before rubbing at his cheek in wonder. "Master, you saw through the disguise and were right after all!"

Zhou Zishu leans back, smirking when Gu Xiang squawks loudly as her actions earn her a rap on the head from Wen Kexing's fan.

"Did you ever doubt me? You can see what I've always known, that A'Xu is truly a treasure."

Zhou Zishu rolls his eyes but smiles before returning to his meal. His thoughts drift between the clatter of his chopsticks against the plate, lulled by the savory food and energy of Xiang and Wen Kexing's bickering in the background.

It doesn't take long to finish the meal and round it off with fresh fruit and more wine and then Wen Kexing brings out his flute to play. The music slides smoothly from more refined pieces to local, jaunty tunes that might be more familiar in a tavern before finally returning to the Bodhi Meditation Song. Zhou Zishu watches Wen Kexing’s eyes flutter shut as he plays, and he only stops when Gu Xiang sighs and rests her elbows on the table.

“Will you only play when this dude is around?”

The music continues, only a slight curl of Wen Kexing’s lips showing acknowledgement of the question. Zhou Zishu listens a few moments longer before clearing his throat.

“You don’t need to play all night for me again, Lao Wen.”

The Bodhi Meditation Song finishes after repeating once more and the look Wen Kexing levels him with after makes Zhou Zishu’s mouth go dry. It’s too assessing before his face softens to a playful smile. “Maybe you’re right, A’Xu. I am a bit tired...let’s get settled and start out fresh tomorrow!”

...

Zhou Zishu lets himself be led below the deck where a large, yet cozy room awaits, a small desk with texts stacked neatly rests against the corner along with a room divider and a bed just large enough for two people sits at the opposite wall. Paintings cover another wall and the final holds a small window. He wonders again who exactly Wen Kexing is to have this much at hand yet pursue him so relentlessly, trailing his fingers along the finely crafted wood of the desk.

“Does my modest room meet your tastes?”

He stares as Wen Kexing rummages through a clothing chest and pulls out two sets of inner robes for sleeping. He turns and hands them out with a flourish to Zhou Zishu, who stares blankly.

“My robes are fine--”

“A’Xu, if you won’t change for your own self preservation at least have pity on my bedding. How rude to sleep in a clean bed with wet and travel-soiled clothing, not to mention the blood or did you forget so easily?” Wen Kexing is suddenly in his space again, hand on its way to his brow. “Are you running a fever?”

Zhou Zishu smacks the offending hand away, and then he and Wen Kexing are sparring again, Wen Kexing’s delighted smile growing when he twists to avoid knocking into his desk; advancing and forcing Zhou Zishu to avoid hitting the end of the bed. They come to a stop when Zhou Zishu wavers a bit and he finds himself gently but firmly pushed to sit on the low bed.

“Enough play; you need your rest if we are to continue tomorrow.”

“Who says I was playing,” he grumbles, hissing softly when pain flares down his back and the ever-present ache in his body from the nails in his chest. He watches Wen Kexing take the Glass Armor from his sleeve and produce a key, putting it inside of his desk before locking it inside.

“Alright, A’Xu. Let me take care of you. A massage imbued with internal energy should help ease your discomfort.”

Zhou Zishu pulls away when Wen Kexing tugs on his sleeve, schooling his face into something that isn’t shock. “That’s not really needed. You played the meditation song, I’ve eaten. I can sleep--”

“Come, A’Xu...Don’t you have a long journey ahead of you? Do you want your disciple to worry when he sees you in such a sorry state?”

His sleeve is pulled at again and Zhou Zishu peers into Wen Kexing’s face; taking in his wide eyes and open expression. There’s not a hint of teasing in sight.

"Haven't we shared multiple nights slumbering together under the stars? In a woodshed? Why be nervous now? Haven't you traded massages with a martial sibling after long hours of training or travel?"

Before he can stop himself Zhou Zishu takes his discarded sash and holds it up. “Blindfold yourself and you can do what you want to do.”

He watches Wen Kexing’s throat bob before he quickly rallies himself, flicking his fan out and cocking his head with a slow smile.

“So we’ve switched to this type of play? A’Xu, you continue to surprise me and I only want to know more. The last thing I want to do is over-tax you in your condition--”

Zhou Zishu’s head aches with how hard he rolls his eyes. “Will you do it or not?” he holds the sash up higher, watching Wen Kexing’s smile fade into a thoughtful look; setting down his fan and taking the sash from him.

“Despite what you think of me, I am a virtuous man. However, if it would ease you I’ll wear this."

While he doesn’t think Wen Kexing would truly violate his space, he still doesn’t want anyone who doesn’t need to see the evidence of the nails in his chest. It’s one of his most closely guarded secrets and he’s too tired for questions. He’s too tired to think of this massage as a poor idea, and leans against the wall to wait.

Wen Kexing brushes his hair over his shoulders before making quick work of putting on the impromptu blindfold. Once he’s situated, Zhou Zishu waves his hand in front of his face to make sure he truly cannot see before settling on the edge of the bed.

“Go ahead then, Lao Wen,” he murmurs, waiting and feeling oddly exposed somehow. There’s no reply and then hands come to rest lightly on his arms.

His robes are pulled down from his shoulders and pushed aside until they're pooled at his waist. Broad hands sweep along his shoulders before they begin to knead at the tense muscles, heated with internal energy and Zhou Zishu forces himself to not groan in relief. He allows himself to curl forward and Wen Kexing’s touch follows him.

There's no sound other than the light creaking of the boat and soft laughter and the clatter of dishes above them. Wen Kexing is--for once--blessedly silent, and Zhou Zishu glances over his shoulder to make sure the blindfold is still in place.

"Are you rendered speechless, Philanthropist Wen? No poetry or literature in honor of my flexibility or 'well-trained waist'?"

The hands pause on their journey, and Zhou Zishu can practically hear the smile he can't see. "I can be serious, and taking care of my A'Xu is an important task.”

Zhou Zishu settles again. He lets himself drift in the thumbs rubbing at his shoulders; Wen Kexing careful to avoid the injury and touch around it. His fingers digging into the right muscles in his biceps to help them loosen. His entire back is explored and given the same thorough treatment, even his arms; Wen Kexing learning in close enough that Zhou Zishu can hear him breathing steadily in his ear.

“‘...elegant and graceful is the lord; and fine match for the gentleman.’[1]--”

The soft words startle Zhou Zishu back into awareness. “I should have known better than to think you could stay quiet for longer than a half a dian[2]...”

A huff of laughter stirs the hair at the nape of Zhou Zishu’s neck and he suppresses a shiver. “You seemed disappointed that I didn’t compliment you earlier…” Wen Kexing’s fingers dig in deeper, the heat intensifying at the small of his back and Zhou Zishu feels restless; trying and failing to notice the new heat building in his belly and the need to arch back into that touch.

It’s been much too long if such a simple massage is drawing a reaction like this from him. He wonders what Wen Kexing would do if Zhou Zishu gave in to his body’s urges; turning around and pressing the man to the bed beneath him. Tangling his fingers in Wen Kexing’s hair and dragging that smiling mouth into a deep kiss. Rendering him breathless, but probably never silent. Would Wen Kexing battle him in his usual way for the upper hand or would he stretch out and take whatever Zhou Zishu gave him?

He thinks of pulling away his fine layers and seeing if the skin underneath is as pale yet strong as the wrist Wen Kexing flashed at him while pouring tea. If he’d laugh as much and smile while Zhou Zishu tasted the skin at his throat and trailed further downwards. He wonders what other tricks the man had hidden under the mask of elegance, and if his broad hands would take as much care exploring the rest of Zhou Zishu’s body.

Zhou Zishu’s thoughts cool down and turn to leaning back; letting his head fall onto Wen Kexing shoulder. How those soft lips would feel pressed to his own and of Wen Kexing’s hands coming forward to encircle him gently. When was the last time Zhou Zishu had been embraced by anyone? Much too long and the ache of loneliness pushes aside any unwanted arousal that he might have had.

“What are you thinking about?”

Zhou Zishu takes another breath, letting it out slowly. Wen Kexing’s hands have traveled during his errant thoughts, kneading back at his shoulders again. Zhou Zishu feels light, much better than he’s felt in months. The heat of Wen Kexing’s internal energy making him nearly boneless.

“That’s better,” he murmurs, and he hears Wen Kexing shuffle a bit behind him. “Thank you, Wen Kexing.”

“So formal when we’re like this,” Wen Kexing tsks, spending a bit more time before the energy fades until it’s barely warmer than the room around them. His fingers trail lightly down Zhou Zishu’s spine just to rile him up, and it breaks the moment. Zhou Zishu huffs and shifts forward to stand, but Wen Kexing follows; pulling his robes back up as carefully as he rolled them down.

“There, now we are done.”

Zhou Zishu stands and turns to look down at where Wen Kexing is seated perfectly; his robes settled around him as neatly as if they were at a banquet instead of in bed. His head tips back and a soft smile quirks his lips the longer Zhou Zishu stares.

“Unless you’d like more,” he laughs, reaching out and wiggling his fingers with a playful grin. “My martial siblings always said I had the most talented hands.”

Zhou Zishu shakes his head. “Boring.”

Wen Kexing’s delighted laughter rings around them. “Come now, A’Xu; laughter is also key to healing. Either way, may I remove this blindfold?”

“You’re finished aren’t you?” Zhou Zishu tosses over his shoulder, glancing back as Wen Kexing rises from the bed and removes the sash in one smooth movement. A pout overtakes the full lips and Wen Kexing is back to crowding into his space. “My sadness at not seeing more of your handsome form is soothed by the memory my hands will have of your soft skin and lovely shoulders.”

Wen Kexing tosses a lingering look over his shoulder before setting up the room divider to change and Zhou Zishu takes a deep, fortifying breath before undressing quickly.

“Come sleep, Zhou Xu,” Wen Kexing calls when they’re both dressed for bed, voice firm. Zhou Zishu steps closer and settles on the soft bed; sparing a look at Wen Kexing who looks softer than he’d think the man would in dove gray sleeping robes, hair braided over his shoulder and stretched out on his side.

“The floor would have sufficed.”

“Please, A’Xu. I would never let you sleep that way in my presence, and do you truly think I would sleep on the floor? You’re arguing just to be contrary! This bed is large enough after all and it’s for one night. Sleep.”

Zhou Zishu shakes his head but gets into the bed anyway. He glares half-heartedly at Wen Kexing’s smug smile, and rolls onto his good side; pulling the blanket over him. His skin prickles at the feeling of eyes watching him before the bed shifts and Wen Kexing rolls to face the other wall before settling down.

His last thoughts are of the piece of Glass Armor sitting in the locked drawer of Wen Kexing’s desk and the sound of the man’s slowing breathing behind him.

…

Zhou Zishu wakes feeling refreshed, blinking away half-remembered dreams of lips pressing against his shoulder and a soft smile before focusing on the soft light that stretches across the room and the gentle sway of the boat. Footsteps clatter above, likely the maids or Gu Xiang and Zhou Zishu bites back a groan as he arches his back in a long stretch. His energy feels more stable if not as strong as he wishes, and the lingering pain from both wounds is gone. He slowly drags his arm up and pushes the sleeve aside to see healed skin.

A soft sigh draws his gaze to Wen Kexing where he’s much closer than he was the night before, practically sharing Zhou Zishu’s body heat and pillow. The dawn light casts the other man in different shades of pinks and reds and Zhou Zishu is struck with the odd urge to capture him with the same reds as the flowers he painted in what feels like a lifetime ago.

He wonders about a different life, where he could completely let down his guard and confide in someone in waking hours instead of wishing while the world is asleep. A life where he is whole and able to reach out to trace the sleep-slackened face of a lover or train a smiling and eager disciple. To belong again in a place and not wander in guilt and feel a weariness down to his bones.

“I thought I was the shameless one. Here you are watching me sleep, A’Xu.”

“No one alive could match your levels of shamelessness,” Zhou Zishu quips back, his voice hoarse from sleep. He blinks, focusing on the indentations on Wen Kexing's cheek from the pillow instead of his lips.

Instead of deterring him, Wen Kexing rolls onto his side and props himself up so he’s looking down; eyes sweeping over Zhou Zishu’s thankfully blanket clad form.

“The only shame is I was denied the view of you waking. I keep missing it!”

He rolls onto his back, draping his arm over his eyes; secretly grateful for Wen Kexing waking when he did. Zhou Zishu has no right or reason to try to imagine a life that is impossible or including the man at all. Despite the short amount of time they’ve known Wen Kexing has invaded the cracks of his defenses, and he doesn’t know how to feel about it other than foolish and yet sad he’s not got enough time to see what might happen.

There's a sharp rap at the door and Zhou Zishu sits up quickly, pushing himself up from bed and moves until he’s halfway across the room. Gu Xiang opens it with a basin full of steaming water, not hiding her curiosity as she looks between him and Wen Kexing who is standing just behind him.

"A'Xiang, have you suddenly become so disciplined that you're bringing the bathing supplies so early in the morning? Are Yun Cai and Hong Lu still unwell?"

She sets the basin down and rises slowly.

"No, Master. They're well...but you did sleep longer than you usually do,” Gu Xiang says with raised eyebrows and Zhou Zishu huffs a laugh as Wen Kexing takes the basin from Gu Xiang, setting it down on the table before waving her out of the room

"How could you criticize such a dedicated servant, Lao Wen?” Zhou Zishu teases. “One who is also a cute young lady?"

"A'Xu. You hurt me...dropping so many sweet words to everyone else but me." Zhou Zishu rolls his eyes as Wen Kexing snaps his fan open and steps closer. "Besides, that 'cute young lady' is as nosy as any old grandmother."

"Maybe she's protective instead?" Zhou Zishu shrugs, turning away.

Wen Kexing hums. “‘Protective’? I think I’d enjoy whatever you’d have planned for me, Zhou Xu.”

That startles a true laugh out of him, and Zhou Zishu lets his head fall back in amusement. If only Wen Kexing knew. When he finishes laughing and turns around, Wen Kexing is watching him in a way he can’t read. Zhou Zishu would almost say conflicted and maybe even enthralled and Zhou Zishu shakes his head; setting up the room divider between them to break the charged energy in the room. Wen Kexing pushes it aside a second later.

"Not so fast, A'Xu," and Zhou Zishu steps back as Wen Kexing invades his space with a mountain of robes.

"How could you possibly continue in those old robes now that you are not wearing your disguise? I’ve got plenty more here for you to choose from." Wen Kexing begins to pile robes over his arm until the riot of colors makes Zhou Zishu dizzy.

"Alright, alright. At most I'll take these," he relents; grabbing plain robes in the softest blues, grays, and cream and turning around before Wen Kexing can do more. An irritated scoff meets his back and Zhou Zishu smirks, setting them down before putting the room divider back up.

He washes in the heated water quickly, ignoring the rustling of Wen Kexing doing the same. Zhou Zishu finishes his absolutions quickly, and emerges to see Wen Kexing standing there in deep turquoise and vibrant red.

"You look even more beauti--gallant, A’Xu,” Wen Kexing drawls, moving too close as usual and Zhou Zishu smirks back as the other man’s eyes linger.

“Here!"

He glances down at the wooden comb and guan in Wen Kexing’s hand, and takes them slowly. Their fingers touch briefly and Wen Kexing pulls away with a smile.

"Consider it a little gift."

"You're so generous, Lao Wen,” Zhou Zishu says, taking time to brush his hair quickly and secure it before pushing the door aside ascending the steps.

“It’s only fair after you gave me the privilege of touching your naked flesh in my bed last night, A’Xu,” Wen Kexing purrs, and Zhou Zishu shoves him aside at Gu Xiang’s wide eyes and laughter combined with the two maids who hide their smiles behind their sleeves.

“You--!”

“Won’t you stay for another meal before you leave?” Wen Kexing rolls over any reply Zhou Zishu might’ve had and his protest dies in his throat. He rolls his eyes, ignoring all of the eyes on him and shakes his head; taking in the sun’s placement in the sky. “It’s later than I want it to be; it’s best to start out now.

“I’ll see you off then!”

Zhou Zishu gives up trying to shake him off, instead handing the comb out to Wen Kexing. “Thanks for lending this to me...and everything else.”

Wen Kexing’s hand folds over his, thankfully the angle of his body blocking the gesture from being seen. “It’s rude to refuse a gift and someone’s hospitality,” he says waving his fan at Zhou Zishu like he would an unruly child. “As for the rest, I’ll always be willing to care for you, Zhou Xu.”

Zhou Zishu turns Wen Kexing’s words over in his head, the weight of them too much to analyze at the moment. He stares at their hands for a moment before stepping away. He shares a long look with Wen Kexing before offering him a small smile of thanks.

He puts the comb in his money pouch and tucks it into his sash before jumping onto the cool, morning air; Wen Kexing's fond laughter ringing behind him as they travel towards the shore.

#word of honor #shan he ling #tian ya ke #wenzhou #wen Kexing #zhou Zishu

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echoes-of-the-clockwork · 4 years

Text

Book Three: Pestilence (Ignis x Reader) Chapter Four

The companions, with their weapons at the ready, attacked the jabberwock. (Y/n) stood opposite of Prompto and kept an eye on the boys, casting spell after spell. She dodged the beast's tail when it swung in her direction and froze one of its legs. It tipped over and fell on its side, making in vulnerable.

They struck its underbelly until it recovered with a hiss and charged directly at Prompto. The boy was unable to avoid the attack and waited to feel the pain, but he felt nothing. All he heard was the sound of shattering glass. He saw the barrier protecting him and small branching cracks where the jabberwock's body slammed into it. The blonde sighed and looked past the beast toward Pestilence. "Thanks for the save, (Y/n)!"

She smiled in response and electrocuted the monster with a shockwave of lightning, deflecting its attention from the boy to her. It charged at her as she dispersed the barrier and casted an ice spell. A large ice shard protruded from the floor, impaling the beast through the stomach. Two more emerged from the floor, plunging into the jabberwock's sides and pinning it in place.

The royal retinue performed a cross-chain attack, siphoning the last of the beast's health. It released a deathly howl before the ice shards shattered and its body toppled over. The jabberwock's body vaporized, revealing the Sword of the Tall. Noctis kneeled beside the greatsword and held out his hand. The blade rose into the air with a radiant glow before disappearing into Noctis' chest. The royal arms in his possession encircled his body before shattering into radiant shards of crystal.

"Alright! We won!" Prompto cheered. "Now can we leave?"

"It's gonna be a long trek back," Gladio said.

"Not necessarily," (Y/n) spoke up. She wandered over to a strange mechanism on the floor and stepped on it. In the blink of an eye, she vanished.

"Wha-Where's she go?!" Prompto panicked.

Gladio and Ignis didn't question the strange mechanism and followed the Horseman's lead. They stepped on it and found themselves back at the entrance not too far from Pestilence.

"That was convenient," the shield commented.

"Warping mechanisms were used frequently during the ancient times to travel around. Morosely, the secret behind their manufacturing has forever been lost to the hands of time," the (e/c)-eyed girl said.

Then, Noctis and Prompto appeared next to them and were amazed at where they were transported. When they heard the blonde's stomach growl, all eyes fell on him. He blushed when he saw the grin on (Y/n)'s face.

"Sounds like we better make camp," Gladio smugly grinned.

"There's a haven nearby," Ignis informed his companions.

"Let's get moving before I collapse," Noctis sighed.

The group leave Costlemark Tower and discover it is nighttime. They learn they'd been inside the dungeon for nearly two days. When the cool breeze kissed their skin, that's when they felt the exhaustion setting in. All except for (Y/n).

At Oathe Haven, the boys set up camp. The Horseman begged them to let her help, but all of them had the same response. She sighed, watching them helplessly as they worked in tandem to set up the chairs, tent, and cooking station. Prompto started the fire while Noctis and Gladio pitched the tent. Ignis had set his sights on making dinner and immediately got to work.

Pestilence desperately wanted to occupy her mind and body, deciding to offer her help with cooking. She strolled over to Ignis with her hands behind her back. She leant forward when she reached his side. "I plan on helping in any way I can. May I?"

Ignis couldn't deny her help since he rarely received it from his friends. "I would appreciate the helping hand." He handed her a knife and she thanked him before beginning to slice the vegetables for the stew he was making. While cutting the garula sirloin, he couldn't help but glance in her direction and notice her skills with a knife. "You are quite nimble with your hands, (Y/n)."

She looked up from the potato she was slicing with a smile. "Just like you, I prepare meals back in the Inner Sanctum. My sisters and I do not need to eat, but we do still enjoy meals every now and then. Speaking of home..." She held out her hand and a small bottle manifested in her palm. "Fresh herbs that go delectably with any stew. I grew them myself. I've an herb garden back in the Inner Sanctum and I also grow coffee beans for War's sake. She's quite fond of coffee herself."

(Y/n) placed the vegetables in the pot, popped the lid off the glass vial, and sprinkled some herbs into the stew. Ignis wasn't bothered with her adding the herbs to his recipe. He actually was curious and welcomed the change.

Hearing the others complaining about their growling stomachs, the advisor rolled his eyes as he added the garula meat. When he went to stir the stew, the Horseman stopped him by nudging him away from the stove. "You should be relaxing. I will handle the rest, Ignis."

Gladio saw how (Y/n) grabbed the strategist and escorted him to his seat around the campfire. "What's this-Iggy being kicked out of the kitchen? That's the first."

"To some extent-yes," the white-haired girl responded. "I will handle the rest while he relaxes."

Once Ignis was seated, the Horseman spun on her heels and tended to dinner. The boys stared at her back as she stirred the stew. Prompto leant forward in his chair and scrolled through the numerous of pictures he'd taken throughout their trek through Costlemark Tower. When he came across one of the battle with the jabberwock, he showed it to the others. "Gotta say-this one's pretty good!"

It was a picture of (Y/n) grasping her staff right after the ice shards shattered. The crystal-like shards rained down around her, creating a beautiful image as the dim lights from the machinery around her bounced off the ice shards. The small hint of a smile on the girl's face made it even more alluring.

"That's a keeper," Gladio commented.

"Definitely!" The blonde cheered. He turned off his camera just as Pestilence handed out dinner. The boys thanked her and immediately munched down.

When they all took the first bite, they froze. Prompto swallowed and glanced up at (Y/n), who stood between his chair and Ignis'. "This is Iggy's recipe, right?"

"Yes," she nodded. "With a small twist of my own."

"And what's the small twist?" Noctis asked as he pushed the vegetables around in the broth.

"A combination of herbs I grew myself." (Y/n)'s smile fell. "Does it not taste good?"

"The taste is extraordinary, (Y/n)," Ignis reassures her when he saw her frown.

The Horseman placed a hand on her chest and sighed in relief. "Thank goodness..."

Suddenly, Pestilence's (e/c) eyes widen in horror. She immediately turns around, staring into the darkness beyond the haven. Her eyes dart back and forth in her head as she searches the shadows of the night. She walks to the edge of the haven, eyes continuing to frantically search the area.

Noctis was the first to notice her strange behavior and called out to her. "What's wrong?" Hearing the prince, the others glanced in the direction he was looking and saw the girl acting strangely. She didn't answer and before any of them could stand from their seats, she disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

The boys flew to their feet and called out for the Horseman, but none of them received a response. "W-Where'd she go?" Prompto muttered as they looked around.

"How should we know?" Noctis inquired.

Out of the blue, Ignis felt a warm sensation in his pocket. Glancing down, he could see the orb glowing through the fabric of his pants. He fished it out of his pocket, eyeing the artifact closely. Before batting an eye, (Y/n) appeared right in front of him with a heavy sigh, a small apology, and took a few steps back to give the strategist his space. "I fear I sensed the draugr nearby and took a look. It seems to have fled and I've lost its signature. I apologize for the abrupt departure."

"I'm confused," Noctis said. "Most daemons avoid you, but what about beasts and monsters from your world?"

"Beasts have far less intelligence than daemons and also do not know we work for the daemon king himself. Monsters from the Inner Sanctum, on the other hand, have grown accustomed to our scent and no longer fear my sisters and I." (Y/n) combed a few strands of hair from her face and behind her ear before clearing her throat and changing the subject. "I see that you four are done with dinner. I will wash the dishes."

The Horseman walked around and gathered the bowls and utensils from them before placing them on the table beside the stove. Ignis tried to help, but she quickly placed herself between him and dishes. She only casted a small smile over her shoulder in his direction as she began cleaning.

Reluctantly, Ignis joined his friends inside the tent. Prompto and Noctis were playing on their phones while Gladio has his nose buried in a book. The tactician still held the orb in his hand, watching the silver wisp encased inside bounce against the glass.

Prompto glanced up from his phone and saw the royal advisor admiring the artifact. He scooted closer to Ignis and stared at it, too. "Glad we found it and not those creeps."

"Indeed," the emerald-eyed man responded, his eyes solely focused on the orb.

"What did (Y/n) call him-Silas or something like that?" Noctis spoke up after overhearing them.

"Apparently, he's the leader of thing so called "gang". A few people were talkin' about him in Lestallum. Bastard's been terrorizing most of Lucis for that damn orb," Gladio said, joining in on their conversation.

"I can't believe we've never heard of him or these highwaymen 'til now," Noctis scoffed.

"A troupe of ruffians is simply what they are," Ignis responded.

"Let's just hope they don't plan on becoming a nuisance," Gladio said.

"Might be too late for that," Prompto stated, sliding his phone into his pocket. He yawned and threw his body down against the bottom of the tent. "Don't know about you guys, but I'm callin' it a night." Crawling into a ball, the blonde fell asleep only a few seconds later. Noctis soon joined him followed by Gladio.

Ignis switched off the lamp in the tent and set it aside to prevent anyone from knocking it over while they slept. He moved to where he usually slept and lied down. A few minutes passed and he finally fell asleep.

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

A few hours later, Ignis' eyes flew wide open and his upper body shot off the ground. His body was doused in a cold sweat, chest rising and falling rapidly. He ran a hand through his slightly damp locks before glancing around the tent. Luckily, his abrupt awakening didn't wake the others.

Carefully, Ignis maneuvered through the tent and unzipped it. He stepped outside, noticing the fire had died and the faint rays of the sun could be seen in the sky.

"Nightmare?" A gentle voice asked him, startling him. Ignis looks to his left and sees (Y/n) standing a few feet away with a concerned expression. As he examined her, he noticed she had cleansed her clothes of the blood. He simply nodded, deciding to keep the contents of his nightmare a secret. The Horseman followed him to the chairs gathered around the once brightly lit fire and sat beside him. "I won't pry, but the way you're sweating tells me it was horrible."

"It was," Ignis responds. He placed a gloved hand against his forehead, wiping away some of the sweat. Though he was free from the nightmare, the images were burnt into his mind. The screaming and begging continued to ring in his ears even during his waking moments.

(Y/n) leaned forward in the seat and crossed her legs. "Would you like a warm cup of coffee?"

Ignis nodded, staring at the small fire pit in front of them. "Please."

Pestilence stood up and got to work on his cup of coffee. When she asked what he preferred, she was shocked to discover he wanted the same blend she made for him in Lestallum. "Coming right up."

Ignis reclined back in the chair, staring up at the semi-dark sky. He closed his eyes to see if he could get a few more minutes of sleep, but only the image of (Y/n) begging with tears in hers eyes before plummeting to her death plagued his mind. He opened his eyes when he smelt the familiar scent of coffee.

The Horseman offered him the tin cup, which he accepted with a faint smile. He sipped at the warm beverage, letting the bittersweet taste cascade across all his tastebuds.

(Y/n), once again, claimed the seat next to him and they chatted just like they did in the Leville a couple days ago. Their conversation carried on for hours until Gladio and Prompto woke up a little after seven.

"Morning!" The blonde boy greets the two as he emerges from the tent alongside the shield.

Gladio saw the tired expression on Ignis' face and scowled. "Didn't get enough sleep, Iggy?"

"A horrid nightmare startled me awake," he confesses. "I was unable to fall back asleep after awakening the first time."

"What was the nightmare about? Must've been pretty scary if it kept you from falling back asleep," Prompt eagerly pried.

Ignis glanced at (Y/n) for a brief second before his eyes darted back to the cup of coffee in his hand. "I'd prefer not to speak of it."

"Damn," Gladio said. "That bad, huh?"

"Undeniably horrifying."

The four fell silent as they sat in the four chairs around the fire pit. After a few minutes of suffocating silence, Gladio cleared his throat and looked at Pestilence. "Guess we're headin' to the Rock of Ravatogh next. After that, I want to head back to Lestallum. I can't let Iris go to Caem all by herself after what happened."

"Of course, Gladio. We all wish for Iris' safety," the girl responded. "The trek up the volcano will be less treacherous than our venture through Costlemark. Although steep, I know you all can handle it."

"Better wake Prince Charmless so we can get this show on the road." Gladio stood from the chair and headed over to the tent.

"We're gonna eat breakfast first, right?" Prompto glanced between Ignis and (Y/n). They both nodded, making the gunslinger pump a fist into the air. "Yes!"

#ffxv x reader #ffxv #ignis x reader #ignis scientia #final fantasy xv x reader #final fantasy xv #noctis lucis caelum x reader #prompto argentum #gladiolus amicitia

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princecharmingmendes · 5 years

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Just the Way You Are | Peter Mendes

Peter gets even more insecure about his feelings towards you, that you don’t even know about (Best Friends to Lovers).

* Hi! This is my first work ever on this site, so I’d love if you guys could give me some feedback or whatever, it would mean the world to me!

*Word count: 4.7k

*Warnings: mentions of sex, drinking, cursing, adorable Peter, and I guess that’s it!

*Posted: December 2nd, 2019.

-*-

“Y/N?” Peter asked breathlessly answering his phone.

“Are you okay?” She asked with her voice a little weird.

“Yeah, I was just editing some photos, really focused and only noticed my phone was ringing when it fell of my nightstand, so I had to run or you’d have reached voicemail”

“Sorry, I didn’t even think to text you to see if you’re awake or with someone, or studying”

“It’s okay, so, why are you calling me on a Wednesday at one a.m.?”

“I just got home from that trip I told you I was going with Jake...”

“Oh, great, how was it?” Peter sighed closing his eyes and rubbing his temple with his free hand, already hating himself for asking.

“It sucked” She said pacing around her room.

“Really? Why?”

“He was extremely selfish and rude with everyone, I just wanted to leave as fast as I could”

“Was he rude to you?”

“No, just annoying”

“That’s a little less fucked up, isn’t it?”

“Dunno, don’t care, I dumped him” She said shrugging and laying in her bad, starring at a picture of her and Peter hugging and smiling, with Shawn and Raul kneeled in front of them with the funniest expressions.

“You did what?”

“I ended whatever we had”

“Why?!”

“You didn’t seem to like him that much to care about the reason why I dumped him, I thought that you’d be thrilled”

“I didn’t, I hated him, it’s just, I... how are you dealing with it? I thought you actually liked him and stuff”

“He was... fine I guess, it’s not like he was the love of my life”

“Don’t you miss him?”

“I was with him like, two hours ago”

“You know what I meant”

“I know, I’m sorry... it’s just... is it bad that I don’t? Like, at all?”

“Of course not, just means that you did the right thing, angel... it wasn’t meant to be”

“God, I just wish I could hug you and squeezing you right now”

“It’s late, angel, you should sleep”

“I know, I’m sorry, what are you guys doing this weekend?”

“Nothing, just going to Shawn’s place, he’s getting back tomorrow night”

“Oh, that’s nice”

“Do you want to join us?”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! They love you as much as I do, and we miss you”

“Okay, then count me in, are you sleeping there?”

“No, I’m coming back home with Raul”

“Okay, can you give me a ride?”

“Do you want to sleep here?”

“At your house?”

“Yeah, that’s dumb, sorry, sure, I’ll give you a ride”

“No, it’s not, I’d love to crash there”

“Great, angel, see you Saturday then?” Peter asked trying to confirm that he wasn’t going completely nuts with a smile that was already hurting her cheeks.

“Yeah! That will be perfect! Thank you so much, Peter, I love you”

“I love you too, goodnight, angel”

And just like that, they both went to bed with the most idiot smiles plastered on their faces.

-*-

When Saturday arrived, Peter went to the gym to try to spend as much energy as he could, seeing her after a month is literally almost killing him. They’ve been friends since they wore diapers, the four of them to be precise. But she’s always been closer to him. He had a crush on her since he was seventeen and he hid that like it was the worst thing that had ever happened in his life. Shawn and Raul only found out last year, on Shawn’s twenty first birthday, where they saw Peter drinking more than usual because she was making out with her boyfriend at the time.

What Peter didn’t know was that she started falling for him when they’re fifteen.

Y/N couldn’t stop thinking about seeing the triplets, especially because they’ve never been so many days apart, except for Shawn that was touring the world. But spending the last month and a half away from her best friends, specially Peter, was actually bothering her. She spent the rest of the days until Saturday counting the hours to see them. She simply couldn’t wait to hug and annoy the he’ll out of them.

So now she’s sitting in her bed, staring at her closet, trying to figure out what to wear. A nice outfit would be good to say “I’m single but I’m so fine with my self” or “hi, missed you, I’m too intimate with you to care about how I look and I want to be comfortable”. In the end, she ended up opting for a tight tank top, some cute sweatpants and a pair of her favorite sneakers. Her hair was naturally wavy and face bare of makeup, except for mascara and lip balm.

She grabbed her backpack with her toiletries and a few clothes to change later and headed out the building, deciding to walk to Peter’s place instead of driving, it was only a few blocks away and it was still day. She left early anyway, so since walking would take longer, she opted for that to don’t be early, since he told her to go there around seven.

Well, she was too eager and ended up early anyways. She was in the front of the building deciding if she should go upstairs or if she should wait twenty minutes til seven. When she was almost giving up and heading for the coffee on the corner, she felt someone wrapping their arms around her torso from behind and she completely froze, relaxing a bit when she heard his laugh.

“Hey, baby!”

“Raul!” She said turning around and hugging him as tight as possible.

“What are you doing down here?”

“I got here too early, didn’t know if I was supposed to just go upstairs or wait”

“Oh, that’s bullshit, you know you can come in anytime, you even got the key”

“Yeah, whatever”

“Let’s go?”

“Sure” I said letting go of him but he never let me, so he kept his arm around my shoulders.

“Pete’s dying to see you”

“Really?” She said lightly chuckling.

“Yeah, he’s been driving me nuts”

“Oh, come on, he’s sweet”

“Of course you’d say that, you love him!”

“Hey! I really appreciate him as a friend”

“Uh sure, so you’re just gonna lie and say you don’t have a crush on my brother”

“Fuck you, Raul” I said pushing his shoulder playfully and he full on laughed getting out of the elevator.

“I’ll be right back” Raul said in the moment we stepped into his place and disappeared on the hallway to his bedroom.

I wandered around the place, seeing new pictures hanging on the wall and admiring every little detail in every single one of them, knowing that Peter probably took it and spent hours editing. Just when I grabbed on that was me and only me I heard his voice.

“Raul, who were you taking to?” Peter asked and I turned around, placing the picture on the couch and pretty much throwing myself at him, wrapping him in the tightest hug I could possibly give “hey, angel” he said surprised as heck, wrapping his arms around me just as tightly and kissing my hair multiple time, taking me off the ground.

“Hey, Pete” I said nuzzling my face on his neck, wrapping my legs around his waist.

“You’re early” he said chuckling.

“I’m sorry”

“Don’t be, I’m glad you’re here” he said kissing my temple.

“God, I missed you so much”

“I missed you too, sweetheart”

“Not as much as I did”

“I doubt that” Raul said coming from behind Peter “dude, put on some clothes at least”

That’s when she noticed that his skin was not completely dry, his hair was damp and he only had a towel wrapped around his waist. Y/N quickly let go of him and walked backwards, feeling her cheeks burn, and she was able to see Peters whole body tint pink.

“Shit, I’m so sorry, Y/N”

“No, it’s okay, Pete, I don’t mind, go change, I’ll be here”

“I’m sorry” he said going back to his room.

“Damn, I didn’t know you were that crazy about him”

“Oh, fuck off, Raul” I said rolling my eyes “I didn’t even noticed that he was partially naked”

“Oh, but you liked the view, he is working out a lot more than he used to”

“I noticed that, he’s bigger than you”

“He is”

“What happened?”

“He’s just interested in getting built or something”

“Why?”

“Maybe a girl, I don’t know”

“Is he seeing someone?!”

“Don’t know, he doesn’t really talk about it in details”

“Oh”

“Hey, what are you guys talking about?”

“Nothing really” Raul said shrugging “when are going to go to Shawn’s?”

“I don’t know, is he home yet?”

“Probably, I’m just gonna call him to check” Peter said texting him “he said we can go now, he just asked us to go to the market first, to grab somethings”

“Fine, lemme just grab my jacket, okay?” Raul asked going back to his room.

“Sure”

“Do you want to leave you things on the guest room?”

“Guest room?”

“Yeah, we have one now”

“Nice”

“Yeah, so... do you want to leave your things there?”

“Mhm” She mumbled and following to the room he pointed, dropping her stuff on the bed.

“Come on, losers, let’s grab Shawn’s list and head to his house” Raul called from the front door.

“Oh, shut up, douche” She said rolling her eyes and trying to suppress a laugh.

Peter chuckled and offered his hand for her to grab, and she happily did it.

-*-

They grabbed a lot of snacks and Shawn’s requests which were always the same since he was away for too long and had nothing on his fridge. We went straight to his condo after the little market stop by and Peter parked at his spot in his brother’s garage. When they got in the elevator she was practically bouncing of excitement to finally see Shawn, Raul couldn’t stop himself from laughing and Peter was constantly grinning at her.

“Go, just get in and hug him” Raul said patting her back.

She quickly did what he said when the elevator doors opened and barged into his house.

“Hey, gu... Y/N?” Shawn sounded extremely surprised, but quickly ran to her and hugged her as tight as possible.

“Hey, rockstar”

“I can’t believe you’re here!”

“No one told you I was coming?”

“No! God I missed you!” Shawn said spinning her around making her laugh.

“Surprise!” Raul announced getting in with the bags “not saying hello to your big bro?”

“Hey, I had lunch with you guys yesterday, I don’t see her in ages!”

“What are the plans for today?” Peter said placing everything in place in Shawn’s kitchen, Y/N running there to help him.

“I thought we could watch something, talk, have a few drinks and maybe play some games, for old times sake”

“Count me in” Raul said.

“I’m cool with it” She said placing a hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“So am I”

“Cool, I’m ordering pizza” Shawn announced.

“Me and Pete are getting the kitchen organized”

“I’m getting the living room ready”

-*-

After they ate three whole pizzas, a movie in and a few beers down, except for Peter who’s going to drive back, they started debating which movie they should watch next. Shawn was sitting with his feet on the central table, Raul was lying on the floor. Y/N and Peter were on the same side of the “L” shaped couch, she was with a pillow on her lap and her legs on top of Peter’s lap, which he was gently caressing, but never going to far high, always the sweetest.

“Just put on something random and let’s talk”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, Raul, Friends maybe” she said shrugging.

“Fine”

“So, Shawn, how was tour?”

“Amazing, the last leg was fantastic, everything was great, the crowd was fantastic”

“That’s so nice, I’m so fucking proud of you” She said smiling and Shawn.

“Thank you, honey, what about you?”

“Me?”

“How was that trip?”

“Shitty, dumped him”

“Why?”

“He didn’t deserve her” Peter mumbled.

“What?” Raul asked turning around to face us.

“He was not enough, he was rude and didn’t treat her the way she deserved”

“If you say so...” Shawn said shrugging.

“Peter’s actually right, he was just... whatever”

“You’re fine?”

“Couldn’t be better” she said lying her head on Peter’s shoulder.

“That’s great”

“You know what we should do?”

“What, Raul?” Peter asked rolling his eyes at his brother.

“Play some sort of truth or dare”

“Oh no” Y/N said chuckling.

“What do you me by ‘some sort of’?”

“We can just ask questions, like, spin something and ask something, if the person doesn’t want to answer, the person needs to do a dare”

“Okay, that seems innocent enough” Shawn said chuckling.

“Guys, are we twelve or something?” Peter asked playing with his fingers, clearly nervous.

“Why? Scared?”

“Fuck off, Raul”.

“Are you in?”

“Yeah, whatever” Peter said sighing and she grabbed his hand.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want it”

“No, it’s okay, angel, I’ll do it” Peter said kissing my knuckles.

“Fine, everybody on the floor!” Raul said downing his beer bottle and everybody settled down on the fluffy rug.

“Okay, I’m spinning” Shawn said grabbing the bottle from Raul’s hand and spinning it, the edge pointing to me.

“Okay, you’re gonna ask a question and the three of us are going to answer, if we choose not to, we have to do something, you can propose a dare”

“Cool, who was your worst kiss?”

“Just like that, huh?” Raul asked grinning at her.

“Sure!”

“Mine was with that nurse I dated for two weeks” Raul said.

“Five days, Raul, mine was my ex”

“But you guys were together for a few months, Pete!”

“I know, I liked her, we just didn’t fit”

“Well, mine was my first, awful experience”

“Okay, great, I’m spinning now?”

“Yep!”

So she did and it was Shawn’s turn.

“What was the worst thing you’ve ever done in school?”

“Uuuh, that’s easy, I purposely blowed up the chemistry class so I could go home early to watch a game without ditching”

“I thought you were going to say you burned someone”

“Hey, Y/N, I’m not that bad”

“Whatever, Raul, the worst thing I’ve ever done? Oh, I went on a date with that substitute teacher and the next day we made out on the library, and then I never saw him again, Mr. Harrison was back”

“I can’t believe it! You were like seventeen!” Shawn sounded extremely shocked.

“He was twenty something at the time, not so old, okay? What about you, Pete?”

“Me? I... o helped someone cheat on a test or something”

“Really? I didn’t think you did that” Raul said with his brow arched.

“Well, it was a one time thing”

“That makes a little more sense” Shawn said spinning.

“Peter!”

“Hmm... when was the last time you guys actually liked someone, as in, really like?”

“Last year”

“Two years ago”

“What about you, angel?”

“Me? I don’t, maybe now?”

“Now?!”

“That’s another question, Peter” She said chuckling, making him blush.

“Yeah, right, sorry” he said spinning the bottle.

“Finally! Okay, where was the craziest place you guys did it? And I’d say something like Eiffel Tower I’ll literally murder you, Shawn” Raul said making all of them laugh.

“The jet” Shawn said shrugging.

“On the hood of my ex’s car”

“Holy crap, really? Where?”

“And the end of a cliff we used to hang out at, it was always very empty” she said playing with the throw pillow on her lap.

“That’s nice” Raul said smirking.

“Fuck off”

“And you, Peter?” Shawn asked.

“The end of the bed, I guess” he said lowly and sighing, feeling a hand being placed on his thigh, seeing her fingers lightly caressing the area.

“Why don’t we play a little bit of Mario kart?”

“Why? This is nice!” Raul said crossing his arms.

“What? Are you afraid to loose for a little girl?”

“Never, let’s play, baby!”

“Fine, will go find the remotes, come help me, Raul” Shawn said getting up.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re a looser”

“Fuck you” he said getting up and pushing Shawn into the hallway.

“Thanks” Peter mumbled under his breath.

“For what?”

“For getting me out of that situation” he almost whispered.

“Hey, of course, you don’t have to thank me, Pete, I’ll always have your back” she said grabbing his hand.

“Thank you” he said kissing the back of her hand “can I ask you something?”

“Sure, shoot”

“Who do you like?”

“We’re not playing the game anymore”

“I know, I just thought that there were no secrets between us, Angel”

“There aren’t, it’s just that it’s nothing serious, he doesn’t even know yet, and I don’t know if I want this to become a thing so yeah, anyway, I’m sorry, I promise I will tell you if I change my mind about him”

“Okay” he said kissing her forehead and she smiled at him.

“Found them!” Shawn said coming back to the room.

“Great” She said getting up and sitting on the couch “ready to loose, Raul?”

“I’m not loosing”

“Yeah, you are” Peter said climbing on the couch as well.

And so they spent their night like that, between teasing, laughing, eating junk food and just spending some precious time together, which has become more rare with their schedules. Around two in the morning Peter decide it’s time to get back home and leave Shawn to rest, so the three of them go back to the boys’ apartment. Raul went straight to his room, not before kissing the top of your head goodnight, and probably fell asleep pretty quickly.

Peter did the same thing, but went to the guest room with her to wish her goodnight and kiss her forehead one more time, before going back to his room. She couldn’t sleep well that night, feeling a little weird towards Peter, he got all weird after the game and wouldn’t talk to her. But what she didn’t know, is that he couldn’t either. He spent the whole night rolling on his bed, thinking how pathetic he was and how she would never fall for him if he was still like that.

-*-

One week. That’s how long Peter’s been acting weird. He suddenly attended parties in the middle of the week, wasn’t wearing his glasses, and had a date every single night, but still trying to make time for Y/N by meeting her for lunch. Raul noticed the difference as well and actually asked him what was that all about, but he only got a “there’s nothing different, I just never told you guys about it” as an answer and that only triggered Y/N more. Since when was he lying to her?!

On the next weekend she went to the boy’s house without texting any of them. It’s not something that she had ever done before, but still, it felt weird. So there she was, in front of their apartment door, considering knocking or just barging in. So she just grabbed her key and got in, not seeing any sign of the guys there. She made herself at home, dropping her bag at the couch and went straight to Peter’s room, not finding him there. So Y/N just sat at his bed and waited until he got home, but she ended up falling asleep.

When Peter got home, after going out with another girl just to impress her or forget her, whatever happened first, he could swear his heart melted. She was sprawled on his bed, cuddling the hoodie he left there and curled into herself. He quickly grabbed a blanket and placed over her, leaving his things on his room and heading for the kitchen to make them both something to eat. Deciding to ditch the party he didn’t even wanted to go to be with her.

“Hey?” Her voice sounded soft from behind him.

Peter turned around to see her actually wearing his hoodie and with her hair in a messy bun.

“Hey, you’re up”

“Yeah, I didn’t even know I fell asleep, sorry”

“Hey, it’s okay, you know I love having you here, everything’s okay?”

“With me? Yes, what are you doing?”

“Pasta, for us, Raul’s at the hospital and he’s not coming back today”

“Oh, sorry to bother your Saturday’s plans”

“It’s okay, you’ll always come first, so, what brought you here?”

“You”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you, Peter, we need to talk, can we?”

“Of course, just let me do something about dinner” he said tiding up the kitchen “wanna sit on the couch?”

“Okay” she said turning around and sitting there with her legs crossed, he sat on the same couch, turning to face her.

“What’s wrong, angel?”

“You are all wrong”

“Me?! What’s wrong with me?”

“What’s wrong with you? In one day you changed completely, started partying on week days, having several dates in 24 hours, ditching classes, not wearing your glasses, you even got your ears pierced”

“That’s me!”

“That’s not you! And really, if that’s what you want to be, fine, I don’t care, I love you, but everything happened so fast and I never thought you would be someone like this”

“Like what? Actually nice? Actually interesting? Someone girls would want?”

“No!”

“No what? What’s wrong with me being lime this? I’m not boring old nerd, I’m actually someone desired and cool, can’t you see it?”

“See what?”

“That like this I’m not invisible anymore, people actually want to be around me, they see me the same way people see Shawn and Raul, I’m not there shadow anymore”

“Pete...”

“No, Y/N, that’s the first time you actually noticed me? Even my best friend didn’t see me, Shawn is the popstar, Raul is the bad boy with a golden heart, and me? Well, I know how to use a camera and can’t say ‘no’ to anyone, wow, the best triplet”

“Pet...”

“People would only talk to me to get to one of them, maybe even Aaliyah”

“P...”

“And to add to the whole equation, I’m not enough for you. I’m not cool enough, I’m not hot enough, I’m not the kind of guy the would be brave enough to have sex with you on the hood of my car in the middle of nowhere, I’m not the guy that parties all night and wear cool clothes, or has a bunch of tattoos and lots of ex girlfriends, or am the best kisser, or the most talented or...”

“Peter, shut up!” She said watching the guy in front of her almost pull all of his hair out.

“I’m sorry, you don’t need to hear this, I’m just...”

“You’re perfect!”

“I’m what?”

“You’re perfect, Peter”

“No, I’m...”

“Hey hey hey, you talked too much already, lemme speak a little, okay?” She asked grabbing his hands while he nodded “yeah, you’re not the ‘coolest’ triplet or whatever, but you’re equally talented and hot, you might not be a bad boy who would fuck me on the fucking top of the Eiffel Tower, or the one that would take me to hundreds of parties, or wear leather jackets, or date a bunch of people” with that Peter lowered his head but she wouldn’t have it, so she cupped his face with both hand, kneeling in front of him “but you’re my Peter, the guy who would light up the whole place with candles and dance around the apartment with me, who would take me to an art exposition and tell me everything about the guys technique, who wears the coziest hoodies and the sweetest glasses, who dates only a few girls, but makes them feel like they are the only one in the world, you’re my person, Peter, you’re the guy I’ve fallen in love since I am fifteen years old and tried to forget all the time cause you’re my best friend and I didn’t want to ruin it, okay? I love you, just the way you are, Pete, don’t you dare change yourself to please somebody else”

“You love me? Like that?” He asked with wide eyes.

“I love you, just like that”

“Oh my God, are you for real?”

“One hundred percent” she said giggling and kissing the tip of his nose.

“I love you too, so so so much” he said placing his hands carefully on her sides.

“Good, now promise me one thing” she said leaning forward.

“Anything”

“Don’t ever lie to me again, if you feel insecure again, talk to me, okay? I’ll always love and support you, no matter what” she said mere inches way from his face.

“Okay, angel, I promise”

“Great, now can I kiss you or not?” She asked with a smug grin on her face that was quickly erased by his lips colliding with hers in the sweetest kiss she’s ever had.

Peter wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, making her fall on his lap, straddling his body. She ran her hand through his curls, tugging lightly making him groan slightly, and a little after that, she felt his tongue on her lower lip making her part her lips almost instantaneously, deepening the kiss.

They spent a while just lazily making out on the couch, curious hands discovering each other’s bodies in ways they’ve never done before. After a while they parted just slightly, to recover the breaths and he rested his forehead on hers, panting a bit. They both had the most stupid smiles plastered on their faces.

“Angel?”

“Hm?”

“Do you want to go on a date with me? Let’s say, tomorrow at lunch?”

“I’d love to... Pete?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I sleep here tonight?”

“Of course you can!”

“But like... with you? And maybe cuddle?”

“Yes, yes you can”

“Okay” she said pecking his lips and getting up, receiving a whine from him”

“Where are you going?”

“I’m starving, I want the pasta you promised me!”

“Fine, but then I’m not letting you go, this still feels too much like a dream to me”

“Seems fair” she said chuckling and offering him her hand, which he gladly took.

“Let me finish our food”

And with that, he was back at cooking, bur eventually taking breaks to peck her lips softly. They ate in front of the tv, watching a random romcom and making fun of it. After that, they cleaned everything up and headed for his room, in which he changed into a pair of sweatpants and she took her jeans off, deciding to sleep only in his hoodie (and he wasn't complaining about it). They lied down together and immediately tangled themselves and started to talk about everything and anything until they fell asleep, which she did first, giving Peter some time to admire her and let the facts that happened that night sink in.

He never felt happier, and neither did she.

-*-

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” They both sat up extremely quickly to the sound of someone shouting at the end of the bed “why were you barely dressed on top of him?” Raul asked in a normal tone this time, but still sounding like he saw a three headed unicorn.

“We got our shit together yesterday and I guess we are together now” She said simply, laying back on Peter’s bed.

“Are you two together for real?”

“Yeah, Raul, now can you just leave? We went late to bed and I’m tired” Peter said laying back and pulling Y/N to lay on his chest.

“Okay, okay, sorry, guess I’ll see you at lunch?”

“We’re going out on a date, but maybe later, now leave” Peter said playing with Y/N’s hair.

“I can’t believe it, I have to call Shawn” Raul said leaving the room.

“Well, I didn’t want you to wake up like that” Peter mumbled kissing her forehead.

“It’s okay, waking up with you beside has always been the best, but now is even better”

“I’m sorry”

“It’s okay, if we go back to sleep and wake up later we can pretend this never happened”

“That’s an amazing idea, Angel” Peter said kissing her hair softly and going back to playing with her hair.

“I love you” she whispered lightly before going back to sleep.

“I love you too, Y/N”

-*-

*I have a few more projects planned and a few that are almost done.

*Please reblog or like this post if you liked it so I’ll know if I’m supposed to keep posting or something like that.

*I’m sorry if there are any spelling mistakes.

*Please do not repost this without giving me the credit, this is a completely original piece and I do not give permission to copy this.

*Guess that’s it, hope you guys enjoy it!

*xoxo*

-🌙

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someonefantastic · 4 years

Text

They Look So Pretty When They Bleed

I had fun interpreting this prompt :) This was gonna be my longest fic so far but tomorrows fic actually is longer so look forward to that. Anyways yay for making it to double digits! Also this is set ambiguously in s8 cause I love me some established shules. Summary: Shawn and Juliet are having a nice date night, what could go wrong? Warnings: stabbing, blood loss, passing out, some innuendos but nothing too outside of the show also on ao3 (this gets kinda long so it’d be better accessed on ao3 tbh) ___ “So Mr. Spencer,” Juliet started as they exited the restaurant and turned on to the boardwalk, “Where to now?”

Shawn grinned and grabbed her hand, a bounce in his step. “Well Detective O’Hara, I was thinking we’d go back home and pop in a movie. Maybe a little Netflix and chill action hmm?” He waggled his eyebrows.

She threw her head back, her laughter only causing his grin to widen. “You have a one-track mind sometimes.”

“Oh, I always have a one-track mind when it comes to you,” He smirked.

She rolled her eyes. “You know, that would be almost romantic if we weren’t just talking about sex.”

He gave a half shrug. “Tomato, cucumber.”

As her laughter subsided, he caught her looking at him out of the corner of his eye. “What?”

She gave him a soft smile, “Nothing. I just like looking.”

Even after almost three years of dating, his cheeks still flushed at the compliment. “Thanks. I like your face too.”

“Thanks, Shawn.”

“Anytime babe.”

It was a beautiful night. A warm, salty breeze came off of the ocean, turning the sticky humidity of the day into a gentle glow. Music faded in and out, as they passed restaurants and clubs, a chaotic symphony of noise. Waves crashed in the distance and the wooden slats creaked beneath their feet.

Shawn tugged on her hand, leading her towards the parking lot. Underneath a streetlight sat her green VW beetle, the interior illuminated. A tall man, clad in jeans and a hoodie stood by the front door, patting his pockets with fervor.

They exchanged looks.

“Is he trying to steal my car?” Juliet whispered, eyes darting from him to the guy.

He shook his head, “I doubt it. He doesn’t seem like the type. Look at him, he seems like he’s looking for his keys. Probably got your car mistaken for his own.”

She cocked an eyebrow. “You think he drives a green beetle?”

“Gus drives a blue echo.”

Pursing her lips, she bopped her head from side to side. “You’ve got a point.”

He turned his attention to the man who was still frantically searching his pockets. “Hey man, lost your keys?”

The guy jumped, whirling around, his eyes wide. Actually, he was more like a boy, had to be in his early twenties at least.

“Uh, yeah. I can’t seem to figure out where I put them.” His voice wobbled as he spoke.

He shifted his feet and Shawn noticed something glint in the corner of his sweatshirt pocket. Subtly, he took a small step forward, making sure he was closer to the guy than Juliet.

“Dang man, I hate when that happens. I lose everything. Last week I lost half a ham sandwich in my best friend’s desk. Boy was he not happy about that.” He chuckled.

The guy didn’t laugh, his eyes darting around the parking lot.

“Well anyway, I think I know one problem here.” The man’s eyes snapped to his face. “This isn’t your car.”

Shawn saw the muscles in his arms tense before he moved. His hand shifted inside his pocket, eyes wild and scared.

There was no time, he had to protect Jules.

The second he stepped in front of her, it seemed like the whole world slowed down. He saw the guy pull out a knife, the streetlights glinting off of the patches of metal that weren’t rusted. He watched as the knife was jabbed into his stomach, cutting through his grey button-up shirt and piercing his skin.

His vision blurred, a dull ringing beginning to creep into his ears. He was frozen, unable to move or speak in a mix of shock and something he couldn’t quite place. All he could do was watch as the guy moved towards Juliet. And as much as he wanted to tackle the guy or do something to protect her, he knew she could take care of herself.

His point was made as the assailant was met with a swift punch to the nose. That was his Jules.

Clutching his bruised, if not broken, appendage in his hand, she took advantage of the situation. Pulling up her dress’ skirt- if he was in his right mind he may have commented on that being incredibly sexy- and unholstering her gun.

“SBPD. Drop the knife.” Her voice was even and her eyes icy.

Blood was now running down the guy’s hand and his eyes were unfocused but he complied. The knife clattered to the ground. Not wasting any time she shoved him up against the side of the car, detaching handcuffs from her other thigh and clasping them around his wrists. At this point in their relationship, Shawn wasn’t even surprised that she had brought handcuffs on their date night, though he was a little disappointed that they weren’t going to be used on him.

Eventually- he couldn’t be sure when Juliet in cop mode was very distracting (also the knife wound but mostly Juliet)- he had wound up on the ground, leaning heavily against the rear tire. The area under his hand was wet and he could feel his heartbeat through his stomach. That wasn’t normal.

He heard the car door slam and Juliet knelt next to him, her eyes wide, breathing heavily.

“I called for backup, they should be here in ten.” She gingerly picked up his hand, gasping as she inspected the wound. “Shawn you’re losing a lot of blood.”

“Oh is that why I feel so lightheaded?”

“Might’ve hit an artery. Gosh, I hope not.” She muttered more to herself. Gripping the bottom of her light blue sundress, she tore the fabric.

His words were starting to slur together, but he couldn’t resist making a joke. “Wow Jules as much as I enjoy you undressing, I don’t think now is the time.”

Shaking her head, she wrapped one arm around his back and gently eased him away from her car and to the ground. “You’re losing too much blood, I gotta try to stop it somehow.”

As much as he’d usually love her touch, this time he wasn’t a fan. He bit back a scream, the pressure on the cut sending fire throughout his stomach. Her face twisted into a mix of sympathy and concern and she grabbed one of his hands.

Raising their joined hands, she pressed her lips against the back of his. “I’m sorry sweetheart.”

“So much for Netflix and chill.” He chuckled weakly.

He watched her apply pressure to the wound for some time. Even given their undesired circumstances, she was still beautiful. Her hair was down, it’s length and style reminding him of the time when she went undercover at a sorority house. He had been so enamored with her. Her quick wit, her sharp investigative skills, her empathy, the way she always kept him guessing, not to mention those great outfits. If someone had told him then, that he’d wind up in a committed relationship with her, even considering marriage, he would have simply laughed and told them to stop messing with him.

But even then he had been in love with her, though he didn’t realize it until much much later and admitted it later still. He loved her. Simple as that.

His vision blurred and his eyelids felt so heavy. It was getting harder to pay attention now. He was shaking, feeling so cold and yet sweating all the same. All he could feel was the pain. He didn’t want to close his eyes, to lose the vision before him, but he didn’t want to stay awake either. Maybe if he just slept for a bit, he’d have lovely dreams of Jules.

She felt his hand go limp. Whipping her head around, she watched helplessly as his eyes slid closed.

“No, no, no... Shawn!” Letting go of his hand, she gently patted the side of his face. His skin was cold. “Shawn, I need you to stay awake.”

When he didn’t respond she swore loudly. Of course, he passed out. He was losing blood- a lot of it.

Picking up her hand, she cursed again at the sight of crimson soaking through her torn dress fabric. Without hesitation, she tore again at her dress, replacing the bloody scrap with a fresh one. Applying even more pressure, she watched his face, looking for any response. She was met with none.

His skin was pale, an odd contrast to the dark stubble around his cheeks. Breathing too shallow for her liking but she could only focus on one thing at a time. Right now stopping- or at least slowing- the bleeding was the priority.

She ran a hand through her hair and then down her face. He couldn’t die. She wouldn’t let him. They still had their whole lives in front of them. Sure it had only been a few months since they got back together but marriage talks were already becoming more and more frequent. Late one night, he told her that their breakup had shown him that he didn’t want to live life without her. She had nearly proposed to him on the spot. But they were still getting back in their groove and engagement was a big step. She wanted him- both of them- to be absolutely sure about their decision before taking that step. Now she just hoped they’d make it that far.

“Shawn Spencer, if we get out of this, I’m gonna kiss you for all you’re worth. Or kill you. I haven’t decided yet.”

Hunched over him, her hair fell around her like a curtain. Brushing it behind her ear she slightly scolded herself for not wearing it up today. Curse Shawn and his love for her hair being down.

She tore again at her dress, scowling at the now mid-thigh length. If he kept bleeding like that, he’d get his wish about seeing her undressed.

As if sensing an opportunity to make a joke, he stirred. His eyes flickered open. Unfocused but still open.

“Shawn,” She gasped, feeling tears start to pool in her eyes. In the distance, sirens blared. There was hope for them yet.

The corner of his mouth turned upwards. Hand reaching out, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re so beautiful.”

Later at the hospital, she would look in the mirror and laugh, much to the disturbed looks of the people around her. Leave it to Shawn to compliment her while her dress is half torn and her face is streaked with blood. Boy did she love him.

She'd tell him such as soon as he woke up.

#whumptober2020 #no. 10 #they look so pretty when they bleed #blood loss #juliet o'hara #shawn spencer #shules #blood tw #knife tw #violence tw #angst #shawn whump #skipps writes #psych fanfic

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harryandmolly · 5 years

Text

Complicit // 2

summary: Shawn is under more pressure than he’s ever known. He craves release and comfort, the simplicity of sex. He gets more than he bargained for.

warnings: language, NSFW, possibly gratuitous fashion description

WC: 5.3k

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

Niall drops his head and leans into the final note, squinting and scrunching his face as he riddles out this one song that’s been driving him up a wall for almost a week. He feels a flicker of inspiration, reaches for it as he looks out the window toward the balcony of his Hollywood Hills home. His brow furrows, his fingers wind up to strike the strings again, and--

Buzz. Buzzzzzzz. Buzzbuzz.

He swears under his breath and tosses the acoustic beside him on the couch. He can’t admit to himself that he’s grateful for the distraction, so he decides to be annoyed with whomever is calling.

Shawny Boi.

He sighs. He can’t be annoyed with Shawn. It’s like being annoyed with a labradoodle puppy.

“Hey, mate.”

“Hey man, how’s it going?”

Niall laughs. Shawn’s voice is bright and edging toward chipper. He can hear his doofy, multi-million dollar smile through the phone. And Niall knows who put it there.

“I guess that first date was good, then?”

Shawn, pacing around barefoot in his kitchen, grins eagerly and strokes a hand through his messy curls. “Oh… man. Dude, it was… so good. I should’ve done this years ago.”

Niall, bemused, shimmies further into the cushions of his couch, trying not to feel like the old and wise man Shawn sees him as. “Shawny, you’re 21. How long ago are you talkin’ about?”

Shawn laughs, bubbly and strange somehow, like he’s high. Niall’s seen Shawn high when they’ve smoked weed together. He doesn’t get giggly, he gets philosophical. And hungry.

This is a different high altogether.

“You know what I mean, man. Feels good, feels like I can like… handle shit now. Y’know? Like I was so tired and didn’t even realize it and then I got to sleep for like two full days and I’m all good again.”

Niall’s familiar with the feeling. His first date with Karina was similarly revitalizing. He was bouncing off the walls for a week. He nods in understanding.

“‘S a great feeling, havin’ someone take all the pressure off and force you to just… feel good.”

“Yeah,” Shawn answers dreamily, “I just wanted to like, thank you again. I think this kinda saved my ass.”

Niall smiles to himself and bounces his bad knee, glancing out the window. “Gonna see her again, then?”

“Definitely. I’m gonna call again today.”

Niall’s knee slows. He bites his lip and tilts his head from side to side. “Listen, mate, just don’t get attached. I know it feels good, but it still doesn’t compare to something… real.”

Shawn bobs his head at the reality he’s been trying to remind himself of in the 24 hours since she slipped back into her Roger Vivier heels and left him in bed with a kiss on the cheek and a glint in her warm, tired eyes. He drops his head and rolls it, stretching his neck.

“Yeah, no, I mean, I know. I just feel like I got so much shit pent up over the last few months. And I’m about to go home for a week and then this whole festival thing is lined up to kick my ass all summer, plus I’ll be flying back and forth to LA to be seen with Bex, so… I’m just… I dunno.”

It’s a weak explanation. He huffs, his chest deflating, indignant at the idea of having to explain himself at all. He’s a grown man, he can do what he wants with his time and money and attention. He needs this. It’s therapeutic. It’s good for him. And it feels so fucking good.

Niall rubs a hand against the scruff under his chin. “Hey, it’s all you, mate. Whatever you wanna do. I’m glad it’s helped.”

“Yeah. Thanks again, dude. I’ll see ya soon.”

Shawn hangs up and, with color in his cheeks, skims through his contacts to find La Splendeur saved under the name “Dentist,” just in case. His hand shakes a little as he holds the phone to his ear.

The temperature change leaving the LA heat wave outdoors to stepping into Silver’s 6 bedroom Beverly Hills modern monstrosity of a home has Penny wincing and cursing herself for not remembering a jacket. Twice a month they have this meeting, always in the quiet security of Silver’s house rather than discussing business out in the open, and nearly every time Penny sits and shivers.

“Welcome home, love.”

Silver’s voice rings through the high-ceilinged foyer, crisp and lightly accented by British boarding school and Cambridge. Penny looks up to see her on the landing above in a white Theory pantsuit that’s tailored so sharply she looks untouchable. Penny smiles. Home, indeed.

Silver’s steps down the staircase are quiet, despite the sleek marble beneath her stilettoed feet. Despite the facade of the outfit, she takes Penny in her arms and kisses her cheeks three times, offering her arm to guide them into the living room where a full Japanese tea service waits.

Silver’s friendship is an odd and somehow comforting mix of formality and family. Penny’s never seen her underdressed, or sick, or overly emotional. And despite Silver’s perceived coldness, reflected in her choice of home and interior decorating, Penny has always felt safe and loved in her presence, ever since Silver first hired her as an escort at 20.

Penny, respectfully also in business formal, a pale pink Max Mara pencil dress and creamy nude Louboutins (a gift from Silver for her birthday), perches on the edge of the snowy white chaise and faces her best friend.

Silver sweeps a lock of dark hair behind her ear and grins.

“So how was it?”

Penny’s face lights up. She drums her fingers against her knee and tries to play coy. “Spectacular.”

“Good, tell me everything.”

Penny lifts a cleanly filled brow. “Hard up, are we?”

Silver chuckles and eyes the tea service. “Have you ever known me to be without?”

Silver, long since retired from escorting herself, has had a long line of pretty young things hanging around since Penny has known her, but never for very long. Last Penny heard, Yvette, a fresh faced lingerie model from Nice, was the flavor of the month. Silver doesn’t spend a night alone if she doesn’t want to.

Penny cedes with a nod and a smirk. “So you’re just girlishly curious?”

Silver lifts a toned shoulder and sips her tea. “It’s nice to see how the other half lives sometimes. And it’s good business for me to know what clients like him can be like. Makes me a better manager.”

Silver launched La Splendeur two years after hiring Penny with the idea that Silver would largely oversee the personnel -- drivers, girls, clients -- and Penny with her head for business would run the logistics -- the books, legal, and some of the legitimate earnings attached to La Splendeur that keeps curious eyes from gazing too close. They became partners, each sharing equal cuts of the profits, each assigned to manage the parts of the organization where they had the most acumen.

This bimonthly meeting is designed to keep both ends running smoothly as well as serving as an excuse for two busy friends to meet up under legitimate circumstances. Silver doesn’t often show much interest in Penny’s dates after they’ve been vetted and approved. Penny wonders what it is about Shawn that has her curious.

“He was very nervous. We did a lot of work to get him to let go. Honestly, he’s one of the trickier clients I’ve seen in a while. But once I got him there…”

Penny’s eyes flutter shut as she revisits her night with Shawn. Even after she made him come twice in a row in her hand, he had more for her. They were up most of the night with brief naps in between wild, uncontrollable orgasms. Truthfully, Penny’s not sure she’s ever had such an enthusiastic first date with a client. She’s been on cloud nine for days thinking about how calm and deeply satisfied he looked the next morning.

When she looks back at Silver, her intensely dark eyes are gleaming mischievously. Penny rolls her own.

“I’m glad he enjoyed himself. He called to rebook you. You have a room at The London tomorrow night at 9.”

Penny tries not to lick her lips insatiably but Silver knows her too well. She releases an echo-y, delighted laugh.

“Seems like maybe you have a new favorite?” she guesses.

Penny’s eyes drop to her own half-drunk cup of tea. “We’ll see. Some guys like this, they start hot and heavy and lose steam fast. Maybe he just needs this boost and he’ll be on his merry pop star way.”

Silver, ever unnervingly wise and all-seeing, nods and glances out her windows that look out onto the Los Angeles skyline. “Maybe.”

Penny feels the hair raise on the back of her neck and swallows, reaching for her laptop. “Let’s go over this month.”

Shawn recognizes the guy in the dark suit standing outside the room when he gets off the elevator with Winston Churchill on the doors. He offers him a shaky smile, trying not to imagine what he must be thinking about why Shawn is seeing this woman twice in one week. Shawn’s been trying not to look too closely at that himself since he booked the second date.

Gus, Shawn thinks his name is, gives a nod at the wire transfer confirmation on Shawn’s phone screen and lets him in.

The room is more standard glam-modern hotel vibes than the Chateau. It’s just a little cold, very clean, basic art, matching furniture. Shawn’s eyes skim over it, unfocused. They fix on the hardcased luggage sitting discreetly in the corner. His fingers twitch, imagining what’s inside it.

He sits on the end of the bed this time instead of in the lounge area where he felt a little more innocent and less like he was waiting for a prostitute to come nail him into a hole in the mattress.

Despite his eagerness for tonight and his relative comfort, having spent the night with her once before, Shawn feels some nerves creeping through his forced calm. He wonders for a moment if he won’t get used to it, waiting for her, never really forgetting the circumstances that brought them both here.

Not that he plans to continue seeing her for much longer. Just until the festivals start, maybe once or twice after when he’s back in LA getting papped with Bex at a Starbucks with his hand in her back pocket or something. His jaw tightens slightly, and then the door opens.

Penny is glowing in an emerald green cocktail dress that clings to her every curve and ends dangerously high on her sculpted, bronzed thighs. Her hair is sleek and straight, parted down the center and back over her shoulders. Her toes are painted to match her dress. Shawn shivers and wonders if she did it on purpose, if she’s been planning her outfit for him.

Shut up, his brain tells him, Why would she do that? She doesn’t need to impress you. You’re a sure thing.

The corner of his mouth lifts. He stands and smoothes his sweaty palms down the front of his inky black jeans. Gus shuts the door behind her. She smiles like she’s been waiting for this.

“Hey, you.”

Any remaining nerves vanish. Her voice is like heroin in his bloodstream. His eyes drift shut, his head falls back for a moment as he revels in her comfort.

“Hi, Penny.”

She steps forward in heeled black sandals with a jeweled brooch around each ankle strap. He takes his time looking her up and down, then feels a flash of guilt when his eyes settle on her pretty face.

She seems to know what’s on his mind. She stops before him and rests her hand on his cheek.

“It’s ok. You can look. Can even touch, if you’d like.”

The words have his fingers twitching hard where they rest at his sides. He swallows and proceeds with caution, keeping his eyes focused on hers, lined and smoky tonight, to watch her reaction.

He rests his hands on her bare upper arms, stroking her skin with his rough, calloused thumbs. Carefully, slowly, he drags them up over her narrow shoulders, brushing along the line of her collarbones, teasing the warm skin of her throat. His mouth waters. He curls his hands down over her shoulder blades, finding with a noticeable hitch in his breathing that the dress has a very low back. His fingers skate over naked skin, following the hollow of her back and stopping above the swell of her ass to fold around her hips, admiring the feel of the deep green silk.

He releases a ragged breath and closes his eyes. “I couldn’t wait. I n-needed to see you again this week before I go home for a while.”

When he opens his eyes, he sees her nodding gently, raising a hand to cup the back of his neck. She steps a little closer until they’re chest to chest, or as close as they can be considering the height difference.

“And how do you feel now that I’m here?”

Shawn smiles a little -- at her, at his own willingness to be totally honest with her. He wets his lips and says, “Like I’m amazed I waited a whole four days.”

Satisfied, Penny hums from the back of her throat and leads him down to kiss her. She starts slow, gentle against his mouth, brushing little soft kisses over his top and bottom lips like she’s memorizing the shape of them. Her free hand, by contrast, drags tight and hungry up his swollen bicep, squeezing as she goes, stopping to grip his shoulder.

He’s obedient for her despite his urge to take more than what she’s giving. He keeps his returning kisses as light as hers, but she’s holding him so tight he knows she can feel how hard he’s trying. It makes her smile and coo into his mouth. She pulls away slightly, massaging the back of his neck.

“You look beautiful,” he murmurs without taking his eyes off hers. She chuckles.

“Thank you, so do you.”

Shawn laughs and starts to duck his head. Penny’s hand holds him firm and guides his lips back to hers. These are real kisses now. He groans into her mouth, opens wider so she can tease his tongue the way she likes. His hands draw her hips in closer until they’re pressed against his. He starts to lead them toward the bed, but Penny stands firm.

“What do you want?” he pants softly, his forehead tilted against hers. He hears her lips pull into a smile.

“Your mouth.”

Shawn’s nervous system goes erratic. His eyes snap open, his hands sink harder into the fabric around her hips, he pants against her cheek.

“Really?”

If he had any self awareness right now, he’d flinch and squirm at the timid excitement in his voice. Good thing he’s too fucked for her to notice.

Penny gently detangles herself from his grasp and nods toward the bed. He sits on the end, legs spread, his elbows on his knees as he vibrates in place waiting for her. Now it’s Penny’s turn to look him over.

He looks less tired than he did when she met him. His eyes are a little brighter, his skin a little clearer, his shoulders a little further from his ears. She lets the power of it flood her system, feels that old animal that lives inside her stretch its legs and awaken for another night with him.

She did that. She gave him that. She took a man who needed her, who needed release and comfort and affection and she gave it to him tenfold. She took something a little broken and made it brand fucking new. And now she gets to let loose a little more, build upon the foundation she started.

He’s looking at her like he did last time, waiting to see her when she bares herself to him. She wets her lips, painted a light mauve color, and steps closer, heightening the tension.

“Are… uhm, are you gonna take your clothes off?” he asks hopefully.

Penny lifts a shoulder with a smirk. “No need.”

His face falls a little. She grins, or more just bares her teeth, and lifts a toned leg to press the sole of her shoe to his chest. Shawn inhales sharply and lets it nudge him back to lie against the bed, blinking up at the ceiling.

She watches his broad chest rise and fall, picking up speed as the anticipation builds. She gazes at him hungrily, at his large hands running up and down his thick thighs as he self-soothes. She can feel him trying not to lift his head to look at her. Her patience runs thin.

Penny lifts herself over him, one knee on either side of his torso, climbing on top of him carefully until she’s centered above his pretty face.

“Shit. You weren’t wearing panties this whole time?”

His voice is squeaky and breathless. Penny tips her head back and laughs, tugging her skirt up.

“They don’t really work with this dress,” she explains, reaching down to curl a lock of his hair around her finger.

He learned from their first night together not to touch her until she tells him to, so his arms rest limp by his sides, despite how badly he’d like to plant his hands on her hips and yank her warm cunt down to meet his mouth.

But that’s not what he’s here for. He’s not here to take, he’s here to let her give to him. He closes his eyes, recenters himself, and looks up again to see her watching him.

“Want to taste me, Shawn?”

He pauses. He nods. “Yes please.”

Penny slowly lowers her hips until she meets his face and the eager lips that are already pressing needy kisses against her folds. She hums and settles further, reaching for his arms to secure them around her as she starts to rock against him.

“I’m gonna ride your face. Just… just keep your mouth on me,” she instructs, her voice going soft and breathy as she starts to pick up speed.

Shawn is in fucking heaven.

His eyes are wide open, staring up at her as she takes what she needs from him, her clit bumping his nose with every tight stroke. His dick strains in his jeans, but neither of them seems to care. His hands fit into the dips at her waistline and hold her, supporting her as she rolls her hips.

Shawn likes oral, he always has. But this is beyond anything he’s ever experienced. He’s never had a woman use him for her pleasure like this before. He would’ve guessed it would feel odd, disconnected somehow, lacking. But with Penny, he swears he’d give her fucking anything.

Shawn groans, flattening his tongue for her to work against as she soaks his mouth and cheeks. The slick insides of her thighs make an incredible noise against his face as she moves faster and grinds harder. He can feel the tension in her legs and the erratic rise and fall of her chest. She’s getting closer. She’s going to come on his face.

Shawn moans, overwhelmed at the very idea. His toes curl in his boots. He blinks desperately up at her, watching as her tanned face flushes. Suddenly, without warning, her pretty brown eyes snap shut and she fists a hand into his curls, whining loud.

“Shawn! Oh… fuck,” she squeals, meeting her orgasm without slowing down. She continues riding him hard and he doesn’t back down either, massaging her waist and watching greedily as the motion slips her dress up her hips and shows him more of her pretty skin.

Finally, it abates and he’s left cleaning her up with his tongue, eyes fluttering drowsily, his breathing regulating in time with hers.

Penny releases his hair from her fingers and sighs, easing up on her knees. He holds her steady as her legs shake, looking pleased with himself.

Penny laughs, climbing down his stomach so she can lean in to kiss him, tasting herself on his tongue. He whimpers, cupping his hand beneath her hair, letting her explore his mouth as she pleases.

“You really liked that,” she breathes. It’s not a question -- she doesn’t even really need his confirmation. She can see it all over his face, could feel it in the way he stared up for her and let her have him.

He blushes and nods, smiling. “You… yeah. Fuck, yeah. You taste amazing.”

Penny’s heart clamors against her ribs like it wants to get a look at him. She runs her hands through her now sex-fucked hair and laughs.

“Good. I want another one.”

Shawn blinks and feels a moment of deja vu bring him back to their first night. “Yeah?”

Penny nods casually, unbuckling the straps of her shoes where her legs are folded beneath her. She kicks them away, dropping them off the side of the bed and reaching back for her zipper, fumbling with the awkward angle.

Shawn perks up. “Can I help with that?”

Penny kisses the tip of his nose. “Sweet. Yes, please.”

Shawn focuses his gaze on a freckle on her collarbone while his fingers tug at her zipper. When he feels it meet resistance, he stops, looks to her for instruction, then continues undressing her when she raises her arms.

Naked on his lap, she plants her hands on his chest and admires the way his heart pulses frantically for her. She sucks his earlobe between her swollen lips and feels him sigh.

“Where do you want me, Pen?”

Penny’s lips twitch at the nickname and how quickly he’s caught on. She lifts a knee and drops onto the bed beside him with a soft thump, spreading her legs and cozying into the pillows like she owns the place. He chokes on a breath that comes up short in his chest.

“Get comfy. You’re going to be down there for a while. I want to come until I can’t anymore.”

Again, she has him floored. They experimented with his overstimulation before, and tonight she wants him to help her test her own limits. He swallows and nods eagerly.

“Yeah. Of-- of course. Yes. Do you want me to…?” He gestures down at himself, still fully clothed.

Penny, with her hair spread out around her head like a halo and a manicured fingernail between her teeth, shrugs. “Take off your jeans. I don’t want your pretty cock to suffocate.”

Shawn’s abdomen clenches and he covers the inhuman noise he makes with a weak chuckle. His “pretty cock” twitches hard, reacting to the compliment.

He ditches his boots, socks and jeans and nestles up on his stomach between her thighs, breathing softly.

“So fuckin’ pretty and wet,” he praises, shaking his head in disbelief. She smiles like she’s heard it before, and he’s sure she has.

He turns his face into her inner thigh and sucks some soft, wet skin into his mouth, releasing a muffled groan as she inhales. Reluctantly, he releases her without leaving a mark, knowing he should ask permission before he tries to go that far. His eyes flicker to hers. They’re dark and unreadable, steady on him as she waits patiently. He figures she’s not in a rush. They have all night for him to make her come. His own needs are barely a blip on his radar. He’s focused on her, on her flushed pink folds, her clenching stomach, her full, touchable breasts.

She might need to beg him to leave her alone once she lets him loose. He’s not going to want to come up for air ever again.

Shawn takes a deep breath and dives in, humming as he sucks her inner labia into his mouth. Penny’s hips shift, her body melting into the bed gracefully as she relaxes. Shawn eyes her from over the soft curve of her stomach, easing up to swipe his tongue against her slowly and watch how she reacts to every little move he makes.

If she can study him, he can study her, too, learn exactly how she likes to be touched, to be tasted, to be fucked. He wants to know everything, wants to internalize it so he can attempt to bring her a fraction of the bliss she’s brought him. By the way her back arches slightly when he flicks at the hood of her clit, he’s making progress.

Shawn has officially lost count of her orgasms.

He’s past painfully hard and it’s becoming more and more apparent that he needs to come or he’s gonna, like, die, but he refuses to break and beg for it.

They’ve taken short breaks, but he hasn’t left her, receding only as far as her inner thighs that he sucks and lavishes with kisses while they talk quietly as she recovers. He tells her about his trip home next week, about having to get on the road for the festival tour soon after. He mumbles hopes and nerves and dreams and concerns as she runs her fingers through his hair and asks thoughtful questions even after four or five orgasms, so her brain is more mush than useful. But he shows no signs of wanting to go anywhere, especially now that he’s learned the tricks that get her loud and twitchy and coming hard on his needy tongue. So they lie there on the bed in the same position, right into the small hours of the morning.

Shawn hums gratefully as he sweeps up her next orgasm, relishing the shivers he feels as he holds the base of her ribcage. He grunts and noses at her neatly trimmed patch of pubic hair, sighing hot and loud against her folds.

“Yes?” she chuckles.

He shifts uncomfortably against the bed and lifts his gaze, looking like a guilty puppy.

“I’m… nothing. It’s ok.”

Penny comes up on shaky forearms and traces her soft toes up his back, snagging at the t-shirt he’s still wearing.

“You sure? You don’t need anything?” she whispers. His ears go red. She’s teasing him. He juts his chin out stubbornly and shakes his head, focuses instead on tonguing circles around her throbbing clit. He watches in satisfaction as her abdomen tenses and she releases an involuntary grunt of approval as her body beckons to him.

“You’ve been hard for a couple hours. Keep grinding your hips against the bed. Wouldn’t you rather me help you come?”

Shawn’s eyes fix on hers tentatively. He’s not sure how she wants him to proceed. He wasn’t going to ask, he really wasn’t. But at the idea that he might get to come soon, his cock pulses in his boxers, still leaking in the same spot.

“Only… if you want me to.”

Penny beams down at him in a way that has him hiding his face in her slick inner thigh. She strokes his curls, encouraging him to look at her.

“I want you to ask me nicely.”

Shawn heaves a sigh. He noses curiously at her clit, presses a little kiss to her folds.

“May I please come now?”

His voice is soft and quiet. He’s not used to begging.

Not yet, anyway.

Penny keeps her fingers moving through his hair, waiting for more.

“Say it again, Shawn.”

“I… please, Penny. I’ve been so good. Please let me come for you?”

She blinks slowly, lazily, drugged by the power he so freely drops into her hands. At her reaction, he swallows and continues.

“Please,” he hisses, pressing more needy kisses to anywhere he can reach, “Penny, I’ll come so good for you. I’m so fucking hard. Just want to come once and then I’ll keep eating your fucking perfect pussy. Please, Penny, I want to come.”

The corners of her mouth lift in a dangerous grin. She bobs her head, pushing at his hair so he’ll ease back from between her legs.

“Take your shirt off.”

Shawn sits up and yanks at the collar, throwing it over his head. His chest is pink, heavily flushed from their hours of fucking. Her eyes scrape over his every curve and angle, and she’d be lying to herself if she thought it wasn’t mostly to keep him waiting for her. She pulls her legs together, rubbing her wet thighs as she considers him.

“Boxers, too.”

Shawn stands for expediency’s sake and drops them without ceremony, kicking them off his ankles. His hands curl into fists to keep himself from grabbing at his swollen pink cock.

Penny licks her lips obscenely. She eyes him, head cocked, and crooks her finger. He climbs back onto the bed.

“Come here,” she whispers, flattening her legs and waving him forward.

Unsure of what she wants, unable to do anything but follow her lead, Shawn kneewalks on either side of her until he straddles her torso, positioned over her chest.

Penny smirks as she looks him over, lets her hands wander over his tensed thighs, his rippling stomach, his slim hips and tight little ass. Shawn’s toes curl. His hands stay at his sides.

“Wanna watch you touch yourself. Wanna feel you come on my tits, would you like that?”

He chokes on air. Would he like that? Jesus Christ.

He nods frantically, curling a fist around his cock. His whole body shakes with a relieved sigh. As her small hands smooth up and down his quads, he pumps in and out of his fist, scrunching his face at the filthy sound of it.

“Oh, fuck,” he swears, shaking his head, “Fuck, I love being good for you.”

When he can manage to open his eyes, Penny is staring up at him in wonder, looking between his face and his thrusting hips. She bites down on her lower lip.

“Good. God, you’re so fucking hot, so hard for me.”

Shawn hangs his head, groaning loud and unabashed as his orgasm starts to coil hot in his lower abdomen.

“Penny… gonna come. Gonna come on your pretty tits.”

Penny wets her lips and tries not to look like she’s aching for it. She closes her eyes briefly, brushes her hands up around his hips to grip the cheeks of his ass.

Her eyes open.

“Shawn, are you my good boy?”

She brings a hand down hard on his right cheek, the resounding smack of skin on skin propelling him forward through the wall of his orgasm.

He screams, breathing into a growl of her name, spurting hard onto her chest. His hips snap desperately, his hand pumps his cock through one of the strongest orgasms he’s ever had. His head falls forward to rest against the cushioned headboard, looking down at her as he remembers how to breathe again.

“Guess you are my good boy, then,” she preens, skimming her hands over his body again as he sits back on his heels.

“Holy… shit.”

“Feel good, Shawn?”

He blinks blearily and manages to nod. With a huff, he lifts himself onto newborn horse legs and stumbles to the bathroom for a wet washcloth. Without her even asking, he carefully sweeps the cloth over her chest, cleaning his orgasm off her perfect breasts. He tosses the cloth aside and gazes down at her. She smiles. He sighs.

“You’re… exactly who I need right now.”

They’re Penny’s favorite words to hear from a client. They represent absolute success. They make her proud, despite the prejudices and misconceptions surrounding her job. The look on his face right now is the reason she is here. Her heart gives an extra squeeze. She reaches for him, folds him down beside her and guides his head onto her chest. Without another word, they fall asleep.

--------

Hope this goes well with your Sunday morning coffee <3 speaking of Ko-fi, buy me one if you feel like it! Link in bio.

Taglist: @smallerinfinities @the-claire-bitch-project @achinglyshawn @infiniteshawn @mendesoft @singanddreamanyway @alone-in-madness @abigfatmess @shawnitsmutual @awkwardfangirl2014 @september-lace @grittyisaho @sinplisticshawn @rollingxstone @yslsaint @randi-eve @fallmoreinlove @heyits-claire @itrocksmysocks @parkerspicedlatte @simpledomain @abeautiful-and-cloudy-day @thecurlsofgod @magcon7280 @bensbuttercup @shawnsmusical @paigeasourous @tnhmblive @greedydevil @tamegray @meltingicequeen @havethetimeeofyourlifee @normalcyisoverrated-beyou @t-i-n-y-d-i-n-o

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candra-hearts · 4 years

Text

Heart of a Queen

This has been a wip on my computer for over two years, and I never really had any intention of finishing it, but @starry-serenade asked me to post it, so here it is!

also lowkey tagging @starswirlblitz and @jessucakes bc you might like it?

This story I think lies between KH2 and Dream Drop Distance, with the change that Kairi is present and has been helping Queen Minnie and the rest. It’s been a while since I’ve dived deep into KH lore, so please forgive any inconsistencies or incorrect applications of KH magic!

* * * * * * * * *

When Sora and Kairi find a mysterious Heartless, they take a chance and bring it back to Disney Castle. Fortunately for them, one lucky rabbit is able to aid them in their quest to find out who it could be…

* * * * * * * * *

“What is that, how did it get in here, and why do you have it?” Donald asked harshly.

Kairi raised her eyebrow at the royal magician. “It’s a Heartless, and Sora and I brought it back for King Mickey to take a look at it.” She protectively laid a hand on the head of the small black creature that crouched at her side.

“Wak? Why?” Donald looked up at Goofy. “How did you even get it here? The castle’s magic should keep out all Heartless!”

“It should. I guess it doesn’t work all the time,” Sora said, shrugging.

“Ah-hyuck. Why would ya bring a Heartless here? What does His Majesty need to see about it?” Goofy asked, scratching the back of his head.

“It looks different than the others we’ve fought,” Sora said. He pointed to the top of the Heartless’s head. “It has pointy ear-things, and its eyes are green.” Which they were, and from all the time he spent helping his friends cleanse the darkness from their worlds, all the time he spent whacking Heartless back into dissipating shadows, he was pretty sure they weren’t normally that color.

“I can feel that it’s special. I don’t think it’s a normal Heartless,” Kairi added.

“But if it’s not a Heartless, then what is it?” Donald asked. “This makes no sense. I’m telling the King.” He darted out of the room.

“Okay. That’s fine!” Sora called after him. “Tell him to come out and see!”

“Sora, I hope your hunch is right,” Kairi murmured to him.

“You said you can feel it’s different than a normal Heartless, right? I trust you, and I think you could be right,” Sora said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. King Mickey’ll see what we’re talking about.”

Goofy bent down to look at the Heartless, which, frightened, hid behind Kairi’s leg. “Gawrsh. It’s kind of a cute little feller, ain’t it?”

Donald and Mickey arrived in that moment. “What’s all this about a Heartless in my castle?” Mickey asked, raising an eyebrow. He summoned his Keyblade in a flash of golden light.

The Heartless hid behind Kairi, and Sora put himself protectively between her and the King. “Your Majesty, this Heartless isn’t here to hurt anyone. We brought it here.”

“You brought a Heartless? Here?” Mickey put his Keyblade away and looked up at the boy in confusion. “Why?”

“It’s okay, sweetheart, King Mickey isn’t going to hurt you,” Kairi crooned gently, persuading the small shadowy creature to come out from behind her. It looked over at Mickey, still holding onto Kairi’s leg with tiny hands. “I just… I just have a feeling, in my heart, that this Heartless is special. It’s different… it looks a little different, its presence feels a little different…” The girl shook her head. “I don’t know why exactly…”

“Well, remember when I took my own heart?” Sora said, tilting his head. “I got split into a Heartless, and Roxas, my Nobody.” Goofy nodded, remembering. “I got turned into a Heartless, but Kairi…” he blushed, “…turned me back to my normal self.”

Goofy snapped his fingers. “So ya think this might be the Heartless of somebody we know?”

“We… we think it might be,” Kairi said. “Maybe that’s why the castle’s magic… isn’t really affecting it.”

“Hmmm.” Mickey pondered this. “Well, it makes sense. All right. We’ll keep it until we can figure out how to turn it back into whoever it is. But it needs to be watched at all times; we can’t leave it unattended.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Kairi said with plain relief, bowing her head to the mouse king.

“Aw, Kairi, we went over this,” Mickey chuckled. “Just King Mickey is enough.”

“Right. King Mickey.”

* * * * * * * * *

“BLAAAAAHHHHHAAAAHHHHRRRRGGHHAAAAAAAHHHH! OW! OW! OW!”

Oswald spun wildly out of the portal and bounced directly onto Disney Castle’s back lawn. He spit perfectly manicured blades of grass out of his mouth and rubbed his head, sitting up and groaning as his Keyblade Armor disappeared and the portal closed. “I hate between-world travel…”

He’d been a Keyblade Master longer than he cared to admit, but traveling through the Corridors was not one of his specialties. After a couple more minutes his vision stopped spinning and he was able to make out an enormous blue and white marble building towering over him. “Well, at least I’m in the right place.” He stood up and made his way toward the Gummi Ship Hanger, searching for the one mouse who could hopefully help him out.

* * * * * * * * *

Minnie looked around her. She, Riku, Kairi and Donald had spent much of the afternoon in the library doing research on the Cornerstone of Light and Disney Castle, among many, many other things. “Oh, now where were we?”

“The History of Disney Castle, Volume X,” Riku said, cracking a grin.

“The Keyblade War, Volume II,” Kairi added.

“That’s right. Oh, and where is the King? I asked him to meet us hours ago…”

“I’ll go find him, Your Majesty,” Donald offered, and before she could say yes or no he was already out the door and down the hall.

Minnie sighed and replaced a book on the shelf.

Less than ten minutes later, a familiar voice spoke up from the doorway. “Don’t worry, Your Highness, I’m here for ya!”

The Queen giggled. “Oh, Mickey.” She put her hands on her hips. “But you’re still late, what kept you?”

Mickey grinned and stepped into the library, followed by two other figures: Sora and Oswald.

Riku raised an eyebrow. The rabbit who had followed the King in the door was about his height, though his tall black ears added a good foot to his stature. He looked remarkably like the King, but his face was white instead of peach. He wore a similar outfit as well, simple clothes for traveling, he supposed, but it was blue, silver, and black instead of red, gold, and black. Unlike the King, he wore no gloves and no shoes, choosing to walk barefoot.

“Oh, King Oswald!” Minnie curtsied.

Sora and Riku bowed and Kairi curtsied as well.

The corner of Oswald’s mouth turned up in the ghost of what once might have been called a smile, but it vanished almost as soon as it appeared. He waved his hand for the teens to stand and turned his attention back toward Mickey. “Mick, I hate to admit it, but I need your help.”

“’Course, Oswald! Brothers gotta stick together, ya know.”

“Brothers?” Sora whispered to Riku.

“Half-brothers, actually,” Riku replied, remembering a long-ago conversation with the King in which he’d told him about Oswald, about the rabbit king who was his half-brother, who ruled a land much different than his.

“Yeah, but don’t forget, I’m older than you, mouse,” Oswald grumbled, shoving one of his hands in his pockets.

Mickey put his hands on his hips. “What’s the trouble, Os? I haven’t heard from ya in… well… time’s different in each world, but it’s probably been a while.”

“Well, my world was taken by the darkness and—”

Five different gasps punctuated the room. Sora, Riku, and Kairi looked at each other. Minnie looked at Mickey who looked horrified at Oswald. “Wasteland’s gone?” the Queen gulped at last.

Oswald winced but nodded affirmatively. “Yeah. I… I don’t know what even happened. I was out walking on Mean Street when a tidal wave of darkness surged down an alley toward me. I got out my Keyblade and put up a Refleza, but even that didn’t do much of anything; I blacked out and found myself in Traverse Town.”

There was silence in the room for the span of a few heartbeats. “Did… did anyone else make it out?” King Mickey asked with a soft gulp.

Oswald sighed, a deep sigh that seemed to travel all the way from his large black feet up and out of his mouth. “I haven’t seen Ortensia. I don’t know where she is. I looked all over Traverse Town, even asked around, but nobody’d seen her. My sweetie pie, my kitty…” He sighed and reached up to tug on one of his ears in an aggravated motion. “Not to mention my 420 Bunny Children, who knows where they all are… and Gus and all the other Gremlins, I didn’t see anybody and it’s just…”

Kitty? Something clicked in Kairi’s memory. “Oh! Your Majesty?”

Minnie, Mickey, and Oswald all looked at her. “Yes?” they asked with one voice.

“I’m sorry, I mean King Oswald,” the girl amended, twisting her hands in the fabric of her skirt.

The rabbit in question looked up at her. “Yeah?”

“Your wife… you said she’s a cat?”

Oswald smiled dreamily. “The most beautiful cat to ever live.”

Kairi glanced meaningfully at Sora, but he hadn’t seemed to put the pieces together. “Can you excuse us for a second? We need to go check on something.” Minnie nodded but returned her attention quickly to Oswald’s worries.

Kairi took Sora’s hand and dragged him bodily out of the library. “Kairi, what are you doing?” he queried as she continued to yank his arm out of his socket. When had she gotten this strong?

“That Heartless we found, it has pointy ears like a cat, right? I think… I think it might be Ortensia’s Heartless,” she explained.

“Oh. Oh, okay. That makes total sense,” Sora said, nodding like he’d known it all along. “Where did you leave it?”

“I left it in the garden, told Pluto to watch it… oh no.” The pair halted by the railing overlooking the back lawn. The Heartless was there, all right, but so was Donald, and out of the corner of his eye, Sora caught a glimpse of Pluto trapped in a cage made of great icicles. Angry barks echoed between the topiaries as the gold mutt tried to break loose.

Kairi inhaled a sharp breath and felt Sora’s hand cover hers in a comforting grip.

“You’re dangerous…” they could hear him muttering to himself. “You’re dangerous, I don’t care what the King says, I’m gonna take care of you once and for all…”

With a flash of white and silver Kairi was alone on the balcony. Sora had vaulted over the railing with smooth precision borne of much practice and flung his Keyblade at Donald… not to strike him, only to distract him. The Keyblade embedded itself in the lawn up to the teeth a foot from Donald’s beak.

“Wak! Who’s there?” he quacked angrily.

“Donald, don’t!” Sora shouted as he ran to retrieve his Keyblade. “It’s Ortensia!”

“Ortensia?!?” Donald repeated, his brows flying down into a confused line.

“Kai, go find the Heartless!” the boy shouted back up to the balcony.

Kairi nodded and vaulted over the railing herself, scanning the area for the little black creature.

“What makes you think that thing is Queen Ortensia?” Donald complained, folding his arms, his staff stuck under his arm.

“King Oswald’s here, he lost her, and we think this Heartless… might be her,” Sora explained as he summoned his best Fira’s to melt Pluto’s prison.

“She can’t be a Heartless, that’s ridiculous…” the royal magician said, waving his hand dismissively.

Sora put his hand on his hip, still focusing the tip of his Keyblade on the icicles. “Uh huh. And when I got turned into a Heartless, who hit me on the head a bunch of times? I still remember that!”

“Wak! Oh, all right, maybe it could be possible…” Donald relented grumpily.

The Heartless had hid in a bush at the rear of the garden, and Kairi was on its tail. She knelt down and parted the leaves carefully. The Heartless scooted further back until it was touching the marble wall. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s me, Kairi, remember me?” Kairi said soothingly. “Are you okay, Ortensia?”

The Heartless seemed to perk up, turning its head toward the girl.

“That’s your name, isn’t it?” The Heartless began to crawl toward the front of the bush and Kairi moved out of the way. “King Oswald’s here. He misses you a lot. Do you want to go see him?”

The black creature parted the leaves, stepping out into the afternoon sun, and gave a very slight head motion that might have been a nod. “Good,” Kairi said, relieved. “He’s up in the castle.”

The Heartless took her offered hand and together they made their way back up toward where Sora had finally freed Pluto.

The second he was out, Pluto darted over to Donald and began barking at him angrily.

Donald fended him off with his staff. “Pluto, cut it out!”

“Ruff ruff gurrr rufff ruff ruff!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry for freezing you.”

“Gurrrrruff ruff rrrr ruff grrr…”

“Oh, fine! And I’m sorry for trying to hurt the Heartless!”

Pluto stopped barking and snorted, nodding his head sharply.

“You’re such a good dog…” Kairi said, rubbing the mutt’s head affectionately.

Sora dismissed his Keyblade. “Kairi, you found it?”

“Right here. Let’s go find King Oswald.”

* * * * * * * * *

Fortunately, he hadn’t left the library, as he was still in the midst of a heated discussion with Mickey. “…flung to all the worlds! It’s too reckless, and besides, it’s against the rules. Master Yen Sid wouldn’t be happy.”

Sora elbowed the door open and held it for his girlfriend and her charge. “We’re back, Your Majesties.”

“King Oswald?” Kairi ventured.

“Yes?” He glanced over at her, his arms folded and one foot tapping a frustrated rhythm on the tiled floor.

“We have someone we would like you to see.” Kairi gently ushered the Heartless in front of her, where it stood stock still, seeming to be frightened.

Oswald felt his heart give a soft flip. Only one person ever made that happen. “…Ortensia?” The Heartless looked up at him and tilted its head curiously. Oswald slowly approached it, feeling his heart grow warmer even in its presence. “It is you… isn’t it… Ortensia….” He took its hands, and in an instant had it in a warm embrace. “My Ortensia…”

There was a poof and a flash of light and the Heartless vanished. In its place stood a female cat Oswald’s height, wearing a lacy pink gown and gold gloves. A tiny gold tiara with a white-gold flower in the center was nestled between her pointed ears.

“Oh, honey bunny!”

They separated for only a second before Ortensia began to kiss him all over his face. Grinning he picked her up and twirled her around. She shrieked with laughter. “You’re all right after all! Oh, I’m so glad!” Oswald cried, his heart thrumming with joy and relief.

Mickey sighed and put his hand in his pocket. “Well, that answers that question.”

Donald tapped his foot, grumbling. “…can’t believe it worked…”

Kairi curtsied again. “Queen Ortensia, I presume.”

Oswald stopped spinning and put his wife down. She hopped a little, her black and gold heels tapping on the tiled floor. “Oh, yes. That’s right. Oh, it’s so nice to be me again! Thank you for being so kind to me!”

“Glad to help, Your Majesty!” Sora said, grinning excitedly.

“I… I don’t know what happened…” Ortensia sighed, touching her cheek softly. “I was doing the flower arrangements for the party and all of a sudden everything was shadowy and cold and there were tendrils of darkness everywhere. I tried Pearl and Holy and neither made the darkness retreat for long. I shouted and shouted for you, Oswald, hoping you would hear even though I knew you were out about town today…” She sighed again. “I guess I must have blacked out because I don’t remember much of anything after that.”

“Well, you’re here now, hon, and you’re okay, and that’s what matters,” Oswald said, taking her hand and weaving his fingers between hers, still plainly relieved. “And somehow we’ll figure out how to save our world.”

Mickey shook his head. “It seems like every time we take two steps forward with that, we get pushed three steps back. I thought all the worlds had returned, but if there are some that are still disappearing, then I feel like we’re just… at a standstill.”

Minnie took his hand. “We’re all working very hard to figure out what to do,” she said softly. “And as long as we’re together, as long as our hearts are together, the Light will guide us.”

Mickey pecked her on the temple. “You’re right, Min. We’re gonna figure it out together.”

* * * * * * * * *

BONUS:

“Oswald, where are the kids?”

“Missing? They probably got flung to all the worlds of light just like those puppies did a couple of years ago…”

“All 420?”

“Yes, honey, all 420.”

“What are we going to do?”

Oswald tilted his face up toward the ceiling, a frustrated groan escaping through his teeth before addressing the room at large. “Who wants to go on a quest?”

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sdv-hiddenfarm · 5 years

Text

Thank you so much, @runawayface! I was crying before I even read the story...thank you for the kind words on the Stories series. I appreciate them, and they inspire me!

Readers, this is very much like the Stories series. It’s mostly focused on the villagers, all in-character and full of charm. It’s a longer fic, 12 pages/4500+ words, and it is 100% worth reading.

To: girljen/sdv-hiddenfarm

From: runawayface

Title: New Farmer Stories

Word Count: 4,537

Summary: It’s not every day that a new resident is coming to Pelican Town, so when a notice appears on the town bulletin board to announce the arrival of a new farmer, the villagers all have a wide range of reactions to such momentous news. Most are excited, others are not, but there is no escaping the hysteria that takes over the town at the prospect of someone new.

Notes: I’m inspired by the Stories collection on AO3, they are each a true masterpiece. The way each character is fully fleshed out and written with a personality that both nods to canon as well as being given their own unique twist… it’s masterful. I hope that I can do justice to your work, it is nothing short of awe-inspiring how fluidly you are able to weave so many wonderful and unique characters together in your stories. Thank you for what you bring to the community.

*Please look for accompanying artwork for this piece from @coindraws, we collaborated for fic/artwork for you!

ATTN: RESIDENTS OF PELICAN TOWN

As Mayor of Pelican Town, I am happy to announce that a new resident will be joining our community next week! Her name is Michele (granddaughter of Duncan, for those who remember him) and she will be moving into the old farmhouse at Hidden Farm. Please make her feel welcome in our community and help her adjust to life in Pelican Town.

-Mayor Lewis

The notice had been tacked onto the community bulletin board on a large, bright purple piece of paper during the middle of the night. Pierre was the first to notice this large announcement when he awoke on this cold winter morning and shuffled outdoors to brush the snow from his doorstep. Announcements on large, bright purple paper were usually from Mayor Lewis himself and it almost always meant that something important was happening in Pelican Town. When Pierre noticed this new announcement, he very quickly ran indoors to grab Caroline and Abigail who were in the kitchen enjoying their breakfast from the warmth of the family’s kitchen. The three of them rushed outside and read the notice together, their jaws collectively agape as they processed the news that they had just read… someone new was coming to Pelican Town.

It didn’t take long for such momentous news to spread through the town like wildfire, especially with Caroline on the case. Calls were made all across town and within the hour, the town square was packed as the residents all shuffled out of their homes to see the announcement for themselves. It wasn’t every day that a new resident was coming to town and all the villagers of Pelican Town couldn’t wait to start speculating about the new farmer and how this new addition could drastically shift the town dynamic. In such a small town, even one person could easily change the entire dynamic of the town for better or for worse.

“A new resident, I can’t believe it!” Caroline gushed excitedly to Marnie and Jodi. The three ladies had excused themselves to a corner of town square to start chatting about the new farmer almost immediately.

“Thanks so much for calling us,” Jodi said to Caroline, looking appreciative.

“You were my first phone call, Jodi,” Caroline answered with a wink. Then she turned to Marnie. “And of course, you were my second.”

“This is so exciting,” Marnie went on, trying very hard to subdue the anxious, giddy grin on her face. “Hidden Farm has been abandoned for so long, it’ll be nice to have someone finally breathe life into it.”

“I remember Duncan, he was such a kind man,” Jodi said fondly. “I hope this new farmer is kind as well, we could use more nice people here in town. If she’s his granddaughter, I would hope she’d have the same values as Duncan.”

While Jodi, Caroline, and Marnie were huddled together, trying to talk quietly about the new farmer; Pierre, Gus, and Lewis were standing right outside of Pierre’s General Store having the same conversation, however Pierre was making no attempt to keep his voice down and in fact was speaking a bit louder than perhaps he needed to.

“You know, Mayor, I was the first to notice your announcement,” Pierre bragged with a smug grin on his face.

“That stands to reason, as it was posted outside of your door,” Lewis replied matter-of-factly, as Pierre’s smug smirk faded.

“I always love new residents!” Gus exclaimed jovially, looking positively thrilled. “It always shakes the town up a bit, changes things around. It keeps things interesting.”

“Good for business,” Pierre went on, causing Gus to roll his eyes slightly. That wasn’t quite what Gus meant, but leave it to Pierre to interpret it as such. “I’ll definitely have to get in touch with my suppliers to let them know I’ll be needing to stock greater quantities of seeds. I’m sure this new farmer and I will get to know each other very well once they start needing to purchase seeds for the farm.”

“Unless they get them from JojaMart,” Lewis commented with a frown, causing Pierre to lose a bit of color in his face.

Next to Pierre’s shop, Doctor Harvey was craning his neck over Pierre’s shoulder to see the announcement better, he was one of the last to be called about this new development and was still trying to figure out exactly what was going on throughout the commotion. When Maru spotted Harvey trying to read the note, she quickly rushed over to him.

“Doctor!” Maru called out to him from across the crowd. She gently excused her way through the crowd until she had reached the clinic, followed closely by her mother and father.

“Ah, Maru!” Harvey said cordially, giving her a small wave. “Robin and Demetrius as well, nice to see you all this morning.”

“Crazy stuff about the new farmer, right?” Maru asked excitedly, nearly bouncing on the tips of her toes in excitement.

“I’ve only just heard about it,” Harvey replied, still glancing at the notice on the bulletin board. “I stepped out the clinic door to find a mass of people outside, for a moment I thought there was a community event I’d forgotten about!”

“Nope, just everyone losing their minds over some fresh blood!” Robin commented with a smirk.

“I try to avoid anything that leads to fresh blood,” Harvey replied with a deadpan expression, though Demetrius burst out laughing.

“Good one, Doctor!” Demetrius howled, slapping his knee in amusement.

From across the town square, Maru spotted Penny sitting under a tree with Vincent and Jas, speaking excitedly to the both of them.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” Maru said distractedly, still staring across the square at Penny.

“But you only just got here!” Harvey commented to the back of Maru’s head, she was already crossing town square to join Penny and the children.

“Hey!” Maru said excitedly, taking a seat on the grass next to Penny.

“Oh!” Penny squealed, jumping in surprise at Maru’s sudden appearance. “You scared me!”

“I’m sorry,” Maru replied, biting her bottom lip apologetically.

“That’s okay,” Penny said sweetly. “I was just talking to Vincent and Jas about the new farmer. Sometimes it can be exciting when someone new joins a community, but it can also be an overwhelming or even scary time.”

“I’m not scared!” Vincent chimed in, putting on his bravest face, though all he was really doing was just clenching his teeth awkwardly.

“And there’s no reason to be,” Penny said gently to Vincent. Then she turned her attention to Jas. “But it’s also perfectly okay to be a little nervous.”

“I… I just hope she’s nice,” Jas said quietly.

“I’m sure she will be,” Penny said reassuringly. “I’ll tell you what, why don’t we make some welcome cards for the new farmer this afternoon! We can use leaves and flowers to glue to the front of our card to welcome Ms. Michele to our community!”

“Such a smart idea,” Maru commented with an affectionate smile at Penny. “I’m free all day if you guys want some help.”

“That would be wonderful, thank you Maru,” Penny replied with a warm smile.

Near the tree where Maru, Penny, Vincent, and Jas sat making plans for their card, Elliot and Leah had stepped aside from the crowd to stand together near the river. Elliot was staring out across the river absentmindedly, he appeared very deep in thought, which wasn’t necessarily unusual for him.

“What’s going on in that brain of yours?” Leah asked with a chuckle. If allowed to, Elliot could easily spend an entire afternoon staring thoughtfully across the river. Leah would give anything for just a glimpse into his mind.

“Just pondering over how the town dynamic is drastically going to be changed with the arrival of this new farmer, and how their presence here will mold and change our everyday life in possibly new and exciting ways, the prospect of it is rather exhilarating,” Elliot mused.

“Yup… a new person in town will do that,” Leah commented with a shrug. She winced slightly at such a simple answer, she couldn’t help but feel slightly intimidated sometimes when holding a conversation with Elliot.

“Michele…” Elliot suddenly said, the name escaping his lips slowly and delicately as though he were uttering a forbidden secret.

“Huh?” Leah asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Michele,” Elliot repeated thoughtfully. “Quite a lovely name, though I’m kicking myself for not remembering its origin.”

“I guess it’s a pretty name,” Leah replied quietly, trying to hold back the bitter scowl on her face. She tried to turn her attention elsewhere as Elliot continued to stare thoughtfully across the river.

Just North of the river, Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian were huddled together against the wall of the saloon. They, too, were speculating about the new addition to town.

“I can’t believe there’s gonna be a new chick!” Sam exclaimed to Sebastian and Abigail. “I hope she’s a babe!”

“Sam, don’t be gross,” Abigail moaned, tilting her head at Sam.

“What?! Is it wrong to hope that the new chick who’s moving to town is a hottie?” Sam asked, sounding genuinely confused.

“Yes!” Abigail replied with an exasperated sigh. “Sebastian, help me out here.”

“Huh?” Sebastian answered, snapping to attention at the mention of his name. He hadn’t been paying any attention to the conversation up to this point.

“Nevermind, you’re useless,” Abigail said with a huff before rounding back to Sam. “And you’re insensitive.”

“I’m sorry if I said something to make you mad,” Sam said honestly, seeing the pout on Abigail’s face. “I really didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine,” Abigail sighed, her harsh expression softening. “Just try to play it cool, okay? She’s a person, not a piece of meat.”

“What kind of meat?” Sam asked thoughtfully, his tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth as his brain reeled. “Salami? Nah, not salami, I just had that last week… Ooh, pepperoni! On a pizza!” Sam looked delighted at the sudden prospect of pepperoni pizza, causing Abigail and Sebastian to shake their heads. Sam was quite easily derailed.

On the other side of the saloon, Alex and Haley were standing together near Dusty’s enclosure, trying to distance themselves from the overexcited crowd.

“I just don’t see what the fuss is all about,” Haley said with a small huff. “Everyone’s losing their minds over someone we haven’t even met yet.”

“I don’t know, I think I get it,” Alex said thoughtfully. “Not a lot happens here, at least this is something that can shake things up.”

“I guess,” Haley sighed, folding her arms. “Could be interesting to have someone new here, at least maybe the town won’t be so boring for a few weeks.”

Alex nodded in agreement, anything that could breathe some life into this dull town was always welcome. He looked up and noticed that his grandparents were right outside of the house and he grinned when he noticed that his grandmother looked positively elated.

“Oh, George, there’s going to be someone new in town, isn’t that wonderful?” Evelyn asked, clapping her hands excitedly in front of her.

“Great, another new face around this town, just what we need,” George replied sarcastically.

“It’s exactly what we need,” Evelyn replied with a nod, glossing over her husband’s sarcasm.

“There’s enough daggum people in this town, we don’t need another one,” George spat.

“I think having a new face in town will be wonderful,” Evelyn went on positively. “Plus, it’s Duncan’s granddaughter, I’m sure she’ll be a delight. That old farm has been abandoned for some time now, it’s a shame to see Duncan’s legacy wither away like that.”

George’s harsh expression softened at the mention of Duncan, he had always held a great amount of respect for Duncan and even George couldn’t deny that it would be nice to see Hidden Farm returned to its former glory. Of course, he couldn’t express such a sudden change of heart in front of Evelyn, so he simply scowled and changed the subject.

“Let’s get back in the house, it’s freezing out here, Evie,” George complained, folding his arms across his chest for warmth.

Evelyn smiled knowingly at George as she wheeled him back inside the house. She knew George well enough to know that sudden changes in conversation were his way of agreeing with her without actually saying so.

While most of the villagers of Pelican Town spent their morning in town square, talking excitedly about the new farmer and already making speculations about what she might be like, others were not so enthusiastic to broach the subject. Shane gave the memo a quick glance on his way to work that morning, giving nothing more than a grunt in acknowledgement before continuing on his way toward JojaMart for his morning shift. Pam read the first half of the announcement and scoffed, rolling her eyes as she headed back home. She hardly saw what the fuss was all about, a new villager in town wasn’t enough to lose your head about. Willy and Clint had also seen the notice, but shrugged as they returned back to their work. Perhaps they could discuss this new development over a drink at the saloon that evening, but unlike many of the villagers in town who could somehow find time away from their work, Clint and Willy felt that their time would be better spent returning to work rather than gossiping in the middle of town square. Emily, sadly, had missed the announcement altogether. She had stayed overnight with a friend in the Calico Desert and wasn’t due to arrive back home until later in the afternoon. Emily would find out soon enough, most likely that night for her shift at the Stardrop Saloon.

~*~

“I can’t believe I missed such exciting news!” Emily moaned once she arrived at the saloon for her shift. Gus had broken the news to her the moment she stepped through the doors, he was too excited about the prospect of a new member of the community to contain himself.

“Apparently her bus is scheduled to arrive late in the afternoon on the last day of winter,” Gus said excitedly. “Mind helping me prepare a small gift basket for Farmer Michele?”

“Ooh, I’d love to!” Emily replied excitedly. “I think I can real quick knit a scarf for her, plus I’m sure we can find some treats around the saloon!”

“I’ll also need you to hold down the fort in the saloon by yourself for a bit that day,” Gus went on. “I’d like to deliver the basket personally, you know I can’t turn down the chance to welcome someone new. Doesn’t happen every day.”

“Of course, Gus,” Emily answered immediately. “I can handle things here, you got it. You should be able to hand Farmer Michele the basket in person.”

From across the bar, Gus and Emily could hear a loud, annoyed groan. They both turned to the source of the sound and saw Pam seated in her usual spot with a sour look on her face.

“If I hear the name ‘Farmer Michele’ one more time, I’m gonna throw this beer stein across the room,” Pam grumbled to Gus.

“Hey, c’mon, you can’t fault everyone else for being a little worked up, it’s an exciting time!” Gus said with a smile.

“They can be excited all they want, doesn’t mean I have to be,” Pam scowled. Gus simply shrugged and turned his attention to the other side of the bar to Shane whose beer stein was almost empty.

“Ready for round two?” Gus asked Shane.

“You know I am,” Shane answered, downing the remaining contents of his beer stein as Gus poured another.

“So what do you think of all this news about Farmer Michele?” Gus asked curiously. He swapped Shane’s empty tankard for the fresh one he had just poured.

Shane didn’t answer, he simply grunted and shrugged.

“Why am I not surprised that you and Pam are the ones turning your noses up to a new face around town,” Gus sighed, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

From across the saloon, Clint had his head perked up, unable to stop himself from overhearing Gus’ conversations with Pam and Shane. He took a quick swig from his beer before turning his attention back to Willy who was clutching his mead.

“All this talk of the new farmer, can’t even escape it at the saloon,” Clint sighed. He was taken aback when Willy’s face lit up in excitement.

“Always happy to have a new face in town,” Willy commented, looking pleased. “Maybe the lass might be interested in learnin’ a thing or two about fishing from an ol’ fisherman like me. Fishing’s becomin’ a dying art and-” Clint immediately let out a long sigh and shook his head, interrupting Willy.

“Oh, for Yoba’s sake, old man, nobody wants to learn how to fish, give it up!” Clint said loudly, clapping Willy hard on the back. “You’ve asked the entire town if they want to learn how to fish, no one wants to.” Clint started chuckling at Willy, but Willy just shrugged.

“You just never know,” Willy replied cryptically, taking a swig from his mead. “Never hurts to ask.”

“Well you’ve asked everyone in Pelican Town at least a dozen times and been turned down, what’s one more?” Clint joked, elbowing Willy in the ribs.

Without missing a beat, Willy replied, “At least I’ve asked and been rejected, tell me now how things are working out with you and Emily?”

Clint’s face turned bright red and he mumbled a few curse words at Willy under his breath as he buried his face in his beer stein, leaving Willy laughing heartily.

Luckily for Shane and Pam, the remainder of that night was spent with very little mention of Farmer Michele. However, with each day that passed, the town became more and more abuzz with excitement and anticipation for her arrival. By the time the last day of winter arrived, it was almost impossible to escape the name ‘Farmer Michele’.

~*~

Robin arrived at the bus stop late in the afternoon on the last day of winter, ready to greet Farmer Michele when her bus was scheduled to arrive. Mayor Lewis had entrusted her to meet the town’s newest arrival at the bus stop while he remained at the farmhouse, working on last minute details to turn the rundown old house into a proper home. As Robin stood waiting at the bus stop, dancing anxiously on the tips of her toes, she could hear footsteps walking down the cobblestone path that led into town. She looked up in surprise to see a small welcoming committee consisting of Gus, Jodi, and quite surprisingly, Sam.

“Hi there, Robin!” Gus called out, waving his hand jovially to her. His other hand was clutching a large basket, filled to the brim with goodies from the valley. Behind him, Jodi was walking with Sam close to her side, he was looking a bit awkward to be there.

“Hey there, gang!” Robin said excitedly as they approached her. “What brings you all here?”

“Oh, you know I can’t resist the excitement of welcoming a new member to the community!” Gus said happily, his large, bushy mustache curling upward in his excitement. “I prepared a welcome basket for Farmer Michele, just a few things to help her get settled in.”

Inside the basket was a bottle of wine, one of the pricier bottles that Gus had on hand at the saloon. A few coupons were sticking out near the front, one for a free meal and one for a free drink at the Stardrop Saloon. Also included was a colorful scarf that Emily had made, a freshly baked loaf of bread, a tin of Evelyn’s famous chocolate chip cookies, as well as a few non-perishable snacks and other goodies. Gus couldn’t resist making a little extra effort to help the new farmer feel welcome, it was an exciting thing to welcome someone new into their tight-knit community.

“What about you, Jodi?” Robin asked curiously, turning her attention to Jodi and Sam.

“The kids made a beautiful card to give the new famer, but they couldn’t make it in person to greet her,” Jodi explained with a small frown. “Penny has them on a field trip in the forest today so she asked if I could hand-deliver the card personally.”

“And you, Sam?” Robin asked, the most curious of all. Sam did not look thrilled to be there and she had a feeling that he was here against his will.

“Mom dragged me along to help in case the new farmer had a lot of luggage to unload off of the bus,” Sam answered with a shrug. “She figures if she had to come here, might as well bring some backup in case the farmer needs help.”

“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Robin began, then chuckled as she went on, “even if it’s against your will.”

For a few minutes, Gus, Robin, and Jodi began talking excitedly about the new farmer’s arrival, it seemed to be the only topic of conversation throughout town over the last week. Now that her arrival was closer than ever, they could feel a palpable excitement in the air as they waited eagerly for her to arrive. Sam spent his time at the bus stop kicking the stumps of trees out of boredom and chuckling in amusement as snow fell off of the trees and landed on the ground with a ‘thump’. Winter was almost over and the layer of snow that had covered the town through most of the season was finally starting to disappear as the warm sun began to make itself known in preparation for spring.

All of a sudden, Robin jumped when she heard the sound of a large, rumbling bus engine headed down the highway right toward Pelican Town. Robin, Gus, Jodi, and even Sam all snapped to attention and stared down the road. The moment the bus became visible in the distance, Jodi danced on the tip of her toes in anticipation and Gus let out a loud whoop of excitement. They all stood back as the bus approached, giving a considerable amount of space to allow the new farmer some room to disembark. When the bus came to a complete stop, the doors slowly opened and out walked a charming young woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair, holding only a single suitcase. She appeared slightly nervous, though anyone would be under these circumstances. For a moment, everyone stared at each other awkwardly, poor Farmer Michele looked even more nervous as her welcoming committee simply stared at her. Finally, Robin shook her head back and forth to snap herself out of it and gave Farmer Michele a proper greeting.

“Hello! You must be Michele,” Robin said with a warm, welcoming smile. “I’m Robin, the local carpenter.”

“H-hi there,” Michele stammered, timidly holding out a hand. Robin took her hand and shook it rather enthusiastically.

“This here would be Gus, owner of the Stardrop Saloon,” Robin said, gesturing toward Gus who gave a small bow in greeting.

“On behalf of the residents of Pelican Town, I’m thrilled to welcome you to our community,” Gus said with a warm smile, handing Michele the gift basket.

“Thank you so much, that’s so thoughtful!” Michele said appreciatively, setting her suitcase down to take the basket from Gus.

“Over here we have Jodi,” Robin went on, signaling to Jodi who looked positively delighted.

“Such a pleasure to meet you,” Jodi giggled excitedly, extending a hand forward to shake Michele’s hand.

When Jodi released Michele’s hand, she reached into her purse and pulled out the card that Penny had made with Vincent and Jas. Glued to the front cover of the card were a few twigs and flowers that they had found around the valley and inside, the children had scrawled ‘Welcome to Pelican Town, Farmer Michele’ with crayon. Jodi hadn’t noticed until now that the ‘h’ in Michele had been written backwards, probably by Vincent.

“This is so sweet,” Michele commented with a smile. Jodi noticed what appeared to be small tears in the corners of Michele’s eyes as she read over the card.

“My son, Vincent, and his friend Jas made that for you,” Jodi explained. “They’re really the only children here in town, but they’re very excited to meet you.”

“I’m sure I’d love to meet them,” Michele said kindly, carefully stowing the card safely in the outside pocket of her suitcase.

“And lastly, this is Sam, Jodi’s other son,” Robin finished, gesturing to Sam. “He’s here to help in case you need assistance getting all of your belongings to the farmhouse.”

No one had noticed until now, but Sam was staring at Michele in awe from the moment she had stepped off of the bus, there was something about her that simply entranced him. When Robin gestured towards him, his cheeks flushed at the sudden attention on him, awkwardly waving a bit over-exaggerated as though he temporarily forgot how to wave.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Michele said politely, extending her hand once more. Sam’s hand continued to wave for a few moments before he flinched, realizing that her hand had been waiting in front of him for a handshake.

“Oh, hey, sorry, mice to neat you! I mean, nice to meet you!” Sam exclaimed, shaking her hand with as much enthusiasm as he had displayed when he waved to her, causing Michele to chuckle slightly. “Need any help with your stuff?”

“I think I’ve got it,” Michele answered, looking back at her solitary suitcase. “But I appreciate the offer.” Sam looked slightly crestfallen as Michele turned back to Robin to collect her things. She had her suitcase in one hand and cradled Gus’ gift basket in the other.

“We should probably get you on your way!” Robin said excitedly. “Mayor Lewis sent me here to fetch you and show you the way to your new home. He’s there right now, tidying things up for your arrival. The farm’s right over here, if you’ll follow me.”

All at once Gus, Jodi, and Sam began bidding simultaneous ‘farewells’ to Farmer Michele, waving excitedly as she and Robin headed down the cobblestone path toward the farm.

“Nice to meet you!” Gus called out to her with a large wave.

“Welcome to Pelican Town!” Jodi hollered, clapping her hands excitedly.

“Bye!” Sam yelled, a bit louder than he had intended.

Michele turned around briefly to wave back to Gus, Jodi, and Sam, then continued on her way down the path to Hidden Farm. As she and Robin left the path and stepped onto the soft dirt, Robin gestured toward the overgrown farmland and looked at Michele uncertainly, hoping the poor girl wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sight of her farmland in such disrepair.

“This is Hidden Farm,” Robin announced in a slightly high-pitched voice, trying to sound as positive and upbeat as possible. “Welcome home!”

Michele looked out at the field full of overgrowth and debris and a look of fierce determination spread across her face.

“I’m home,” Michele replied with a nod and a small smile.

#stardew valley fanfic #stardew valley farmer #farmer michele #stardew valley villagers #all of them #this is great

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thatcrazysonicchick · 5 years

Text

Come Back to Me, a FanFiction by That Crazy Sonic Chick

~ Act IV ~

Sonic, 21

Anastasia, ??

Augustus, ??

Only a few moments later, in another world…

“Augustus,” The woman called, entering a large corridor. The owl’s feathers as white as snow, her blue eyes almost piercing. She was wearing an elegant, yet simple, light blue gown, which flowed behind her as she approached the leopard, who sat in his throne, greeting her with a smile.

“Ahh, Anastasia, you’ve returned.” He welcomed with a smile. “Are you ready?” She gave a nod.

“Yes, Your Grace.” He gave a silent nod in return.

“Is he ready?” He prompted, with a serious look in his eyes.

“He is, Your Grace.”

“Bring him to me.” He ordered kindly. She gave a quick nod, and placed her hand on her amulet, closing her eyes. The second she opened her eyes, a portal opened, allowing a gust of wind to pass through. A blue figure flew out from the other side, and sped straight into a nearby pillar, tumbling down with a loud crash to the ground.

“OW!” He yelled, sitting up and holding a hand against his nose, eyes squeezed shut. “Hey, what gives?!”

“Hello, again, Sonic.” Augustus spoke, his expression unreadable. Sonic ceased his groaning and whipped his head around, and realized where he was. He scrambled up to his feet, dusting himself off and giving his nose one more rub before approaching the man. He stood before him, hands on his hips, tapping his foot.

“Hey there, Gus. Long time no see!” Sonic said, giving his good old, lopsided grin. He saw Anastasia shoot him a sharp look from the corner of his eye, and cleared his throat. “Ahem! Uh, sorry, I mean…” he shot the wise owl a look for help, but her eyes were focused on Augustus. “... You called?” He heard the lady behind him groan under her breath and gulped. Augustus hesitated, and looked at the woman questioningly.

“Umm, Sonic, we’ve summoned you here because we have matters to discuss.” She spoke slowly, not wanting to give him any chance to make things more complicated.

“Uh oh, what did I do?” Sonic said, his eyes widened, ears laying back. “Did I tear up the grass again? I tore the grass up again, didn’t I?” Anastasia let out a heavy sigh and covered her eyes with her wing. Sonic pressed his lips together in a tight line, hands folded behind his back and bouncing lightly on his feet, eyes angled with worry.

“It has… come to our attention that you are needed elsewhere.” Augustus spoke heavily, hinting a bit of dread in his voice. Sonic crossed his arms, tapping his foot impatiently.

“And where would that be?”

“Anastasia?” Augustus motioned her way, and she stepped up, standing where Sonic faced her.

“Sonic, did you ever wonder why you were sent here, and not Heaven?” Sonic shook his head, shrugging his arms.

“I figured I’ve just been in a coma, and this is some crazy dream.” Sonic said, before his eyes lit up. “Am I about to wake up?!” She shook her head.

“No, Sonic. You really did die, and this is not a dream.” She spoke, somewhat sympathetically.

The blue blur’s ears drooped back down, his mood suddenly changing.

“Then why do I remember everything? My home, my friends, my family?”

“Because we knew it wasn’t your time yet.” Augustus answered, showing the same sympathy as his lady in waiting. “And now the time has come for you to-” the speedster gasped, throwing his hands over his ears.

“I’m gonna die?!” I’m going to the afterlife?!” Sonic panicked, his whole body fidgeting. He paced back and forth. “I’m gonna forget everything! I’m not gonna remember anyone! Amy, Tails, Knuckles, everyone is gonna be wiped from my memor-” Sonic finished in a muffled voice. He stopped in his tracks and looked down towards his mouth, but saw nothing. Anastasia lowered her hand, and Sonic’s lips were free.

“Sonic, please, stop making this difficult. Just listen for a moment.” Anastasia ordered. Sonic took a deep breath and untensed his body, looking at the lepard, who was waiting for his attention. Once he knew he had it, he pushed himself out of his seat, and walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder and looked down to him.

“Sonic,” Augustus acknowledged, a small smile curved his lips. With a short squeeze to his shoulders, he said, “You’re going home.”

~ ~ ~

“Home?” Sonic said, his voice and eyes filled with unbelief. “Home, where I was before here? Back on Mobius with my friends and family? Home, home?” The two nodded, smiling. Sonic couldn’t stand still. He drew in a deep breath and opened his mouth and began to cheer.

“Whoo-HOOOOO!!! Aw man, this can’t be happening! Is this a dream? Please tell me this isn’t a dream!” He stopped in his tracks and brought his hands back in, and simply flicked his nose, still sore from his recent collision a moment ago. He yelped in pain, but a bright smile continued to shine on his face. “Oh, thank Chaos!” He said, finally calming down. He looked to Augustus expectantly, then Anastasia.

“Well? What’re we waitin’ for? Let’s go! Hocus pocus!” He said. The two looked at him confused.

“Abracadabra!” Nothing. “Bippidi Boppity Boo?” What the heck was taking so long? Where was the faith, trust, and pixie dust? “Uhh… Am I missing something here?” Sonic said, looking around for answers. Augustus motioned for the wise owl to explain to him the conditions and consequences for the series of events to take place.

“Sonic,” Anastasia spoke, stepping up to his side, hooking her arm in his. “Let’s take a walk, shall we?” Sonic threw his head back, groaning.

“There’s no time to walk, Ana, I gotta get moving!” He said, revving his feet, readying to dash off. Suddenly his feet froze, sticking to the floor, throwing him off balance and tipping over, landing forward with a thud as the rock material dissolved from around his feet. He pushed himself up off the ground, brushing himself off. “You know I hate it when you do that.” He muttered.

“And you know not to call me anything but Anastasia.” She said, standing with poise before him.

“Now, where were we?” She asked, tilting her head with a raised eyebrow. Sonic let out a sigh, holding his elbow out. And in a dry tone, he answered,

“Let’s go for a walk.”

~ ~ ~

The two walked through a garden out in the courtyard. It was a beautiful day out, but so was every other day there. Sonic didn’t bother hiding the fact that he couldn’t care less about the rules of going back home. He just wanted to be back with his friends and family. He pictured everyone in his mind; Tails, Knuckles, Amy… He smiled at the thought of seeing them again. To hear their voices, to hug them, hold them, and just being back with them. Sonic wanted nothing more than to get out of this place and return home, where he belonged. Anastasia looked over to him, noticing his smile, the hint of excitement and anxiousness in his eyes. She cleared her throat, calling Sonic’s attention to her.

“Sonic, there’s more to it.”

“What? To going home?” Sonic said, the owl nodding her head. “What’s the catch?” Anastasia’s eyes grew serious, and just told him straight forward,

“You can’t tell them who you are.” Sonic laughed, kicking a pebble into the nearby pond, folding his hands behind his head.

“I don’t have to.” He said, chuckling. “They’ll recognize me the second I get to them.” He scratched his ear, eyes looking up in thought. “So… How am I going to explain where I’ve been for the past…” he trailed off, not realizing how long he’d been there.

“Year.” The woman finished, lifting the skirt of her dress up above her ankles to step on the stoned path.

“Whoa, really?” Sonic said, skipping rocks across the pond, looking at himself in the rippled reflection. “I’ve got a lot to catch up on.”

“...Sonic, this isn’t easy to tell you, but there’s no other way to say it. They aren’t going to know who you are.” Sonic stopped in his tracks, getting annoyed and impatient.

“Of course they are. They’re my friends! Tails is like my brother, Knuckles, my best friend. And Amy…” He paused, spotting a rose bush a few feet ahead of him. “Amy’s my wife. They couldn’t have forgotten about me. That’s impossible.”

“Of course it is, Sonic. Of course they’ll remember you. No one has forgotten about Sonic.”

“Then what are you trying to say?” Sonic demanded. He stopped himself from telling her to just spit it out. He was not about to get on the bad side of the holder of his ticket back home.

“You’re not going to be you, Sonic. Yes, your heart will be the same, and your spirit.” She waved her hand in a spiral motion, a thick sparkling mist appearing around him. Before he could ask what was happening, his view was cleared, looking at Anastasia. “But your appearance, will not.”

“Wha-” Sonic spoke, throwing his hand to his mouth. Why did he sound like that? He took his hand away, looking down at himself. Whoa. He was no longer in his royal blue body. His fur was now the shade of the summer grass around him. He felt taller, seeing the ground further than it was before. He turned back to the pond, its surface now calm and still. His eyes, staring back up at him from the reflection were now an ocean blue, his nose smaller. He raised his hands to the back of his head, feeling the new quills. They were shorter, and pointed upward. He looked back up at the lady who was observing his transformation.

“What is this?!” He cried out, not liking it one bit. “Change me back!”

“I’m sorry, Sonic, but I can’t.” She answered. “This is the only way you can return home.”

“But how are they gonna know it’s me?” He asked, gesturing to his figure.

“They can’t.” She said. Sonic froze in place, his eyes still.

“What?”

“They can’t know who you are, Sonic.” She said. “There are consequences if you reveal yourself.”

“And what would that be?” He asked, too many emotions going through his mind to pick just one.

“If anyone finds out you are you, it will change the whole timeline going back from the day you were born.” She explained.

“But… why?” He asked. This wasn’t making any sense. “What will happen?”

“Your existence will be erased from all time, meaning everything and everyone will be different, and the world will be doomed.”

“How?” Sonic asked, eyes growing wide.

“If you don’t exist in the reformed timeline, evil will conquer not just the world, but the universe. The world and the life on it will simply cease to exist with time... destroying existence of everyone and everything.”

Sonic thought this over, taking it all in. His eyebrows connecting, looking down at his reflection. He didn’t even recognize himself.

“So… let me get this straight,” The now green hedgehog started, checking his tone before continuing. “I get to go back home, be back with my friends, my family, my wife and…” Sonic’s eyes grew wide. “Amy! The baby! Oh my God, my kid! Is it a boy or girl? What’s their name? How old is he- she- whatever!” Sonic could feel his breathing increase. He went back to pacing, freaking out, and rightfully so. A sound of a portal materializing turned Sonic’s head, showing him the real world. Sonic’s breath got caught in his chest. It was only a few steps away, he could feel the cold winter air blowing in the wind nipping at his skin. He stood there and took it all in.

Is this really happening? Sonic thought. He reached to pinch himself, but quickly pulled his hand back to his side. Who cares if it's real? I have to see them. He straightened himself, getting ready to go.

"Are you ready, Sonic?" He jumped at Anastasia's voice, forgetting he wasn't alone.

"Y-Yeah." Sonic said, mentally encouraging himself to enter the cold world in front of him. "But, uhh… Where is this taking me?" All he could see was snow. She leaned forward from Sonic's left, tilting her head up to him.

"Only one way to find out." She said, reassuring him with a smile. "Let your journey begin" He looked forward, through the portal awaiting his entry. He shook his body, preparing himself for whatever came next.

Alright, Sonic. He thought. "Time to go home."

#sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #sonamy fanfiction

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carlisle980 · 4 years

Text

Just Dance

It’s still Bangtan Day here in the US, and I did something I never imagined I’d do. I wrote Bangtan fic. I haven’t posted it anywhere, because ff.net is where the bulk of my work is but there’s no Bangtan archive there, and while I do all my reading on AO3, I haven’t posted there in years. I can, if the consensus is that it’s a good idea.

Anyway ... here it is. Apologies to the usual crowd. Well, more like, sorry ... not sorry. I love all my old faves. And BTS too.

+++++++

Hey, dance with me dance with me Any kind of bounce is fine, dance with me Where are you from, why are you dancing A natural conversation, say something —J-Hope, “Trivia: Just Dance”

She stands in the center of the cold grey floor feeling small and overwhelmed and old. The studio looks the same as it did twenty years ago, when she spent eight hours a week here. In this very space. Learning. Her horizons expanding. Experiencing a world that made her heart pound with expectation. The sky seemed the limit then.

It smells the same. That combination of sweat and disinfectant with a hint of central air conditioning that she’ll forever associate with this room, with this craft. She couldn’t believe her luck when the question of using the space was as easily answered as it had been half her life ago. Now, as then, all she had to do was ask the director. Is there a chance I might use the studio sometime, when there are no classes and the company doesn’t need it?

It was easy to come by, but that doesn’t mean she can have the space indeterminately, she reminds herself. There’s no grand objective to her being here; she just wants to see if there’s still the same pull. The fascination, the exhilaration. Why, precisely, is a question she cannot answer.

She’s thinking too much, and that won’t do. She plugs her phone into the studio’s sound system and turns on a playlist she works out to at home. It’s high-energy, if eclectic. Avicii is on there. OneRepublic, Maroon 5. “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson and a bunch of vintage Art of Noise. Those are there because they were part of her teacher’s playlist back in the day. Her German-born teacher, a former student of Gus Giordano; a geologist-turned-dancer whom she idolized to the extreme. Sigh. Those were the days.

Knowing it isn’t wise to just start dancing cold, she tries to remember how they used to warm up in class. What a dumb thing not to recall, given that she was advanced by the time she stopped. School loans and weddings don’t pay for themselves, after all, and once she had her degree she could no longer justify the indulgence. Putting off adulthood to linger at the college and take dance classes, to no particular end. So she’d got herself a big girl job out in the real world. One with a salary and health insurance and, in time, a corner office with windows and a door they let her shut so she could concentrate. Pretty sweet gig for a twenty-year-old. Sweet enough that she and her husband had bought their first home —in the overpriced Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area of the early 2000’s, no less— when she was 24. Sweet enough that by the time she left to have their first child, she was making enough that she could’ve bought a Mercedes. If, you know, that had been her priority over becoming a mother.

In the absence of any grand recollection, she sidles up to the barre and starts with the basics. Plié, relevé, plié with a push through to relevé. Relevé down into plié. Coupé, frappé, dégagé, rond de jambe. She puts a leg up on the barre and leans sideways towards it: first one, then the other. Wiggles her shoulders a little, rolls out her lats on the foam roller. Back flexibility is a tough thing but she’s working hard. It’s better than it’s ever been, and compared to other people that’s not saying much, but for her it’s the hallmark of progress.

That’s warm enough, right? You’re really not supposed to stretch before dancing. Cold muscle is shorter and more likely to tear, and all that. The music continues to play and she progresses to chaîné turns. This is where she begins to get frustrated. It’s the same story as it was all those years ago: she can turn to her left well enough (though spotting still doesn’t work the way it should, as evidenced by the room spinning when she stops), but turning to the right is an exercise in futility. She under-rotates and falls out of the turn and no matter how slow she goes, it doesn’t improve. It’s the same with fouettés. Pirouettes in the center go a little better, but she only lands a double once or twice out of several dozen attempts. She practices those turns from modern class that her teacher never had a name for and always referred to by sound effects, like the sound you’d make if you were suddenly punched in the stomach because that’s the mechanism: a core contraction into a spin, propelled by gravity. There was a lot of that, dancing under Lena. Sounds and gestures filling in where words failed. Those turns are still her favorite; they look pretty without the dancer having to do much besides knowing when to work with gravity and when to resist it. That’s why modern was always her preferred style: it doesn’t take a perfect body to finesse the principles of contract and release, of fall and recover.

Little by little she begins to pull things from memory: a crazy penché-drop-spin from advanced modern class that was easy when she was nineteen and is significantly less so now; bits of the Ailey-inspired choreography they learned one semester. She is struck out of the blue by the same desire that characterized her girlhood. Whenever she would encounter a large swath of open floor, her first instinct was always to leap across it. But she knows that one doesn’t simply grand jeté indiscriminately when one has not done so for the better part of two decades. Despite Kathryn Morgan’s advice to just sling the front leg out there and go for it, she holds back. She’s already come back from a groin tear once; never again, thank you very much!

The music decides for her what will happen next when it begins playing “Black Swan.” She hauls herself to the center of the floor in what she imagines is a comedic fashion and gets herself into position.

From there it just flows. She feels it, the struggle of which Martha Graham spoke; the one that inspired the song. It’s all too real for her.

A dancer dies twice; once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.

She’s danced this piece a thousand times in the privacy of her bedroom, and she nails every count, trying to make it expansive, to fill the vastness of the studio.

Killing me now, killing me now. She has felt that. The despair, the slow death of a precious part of her soul when she’d given up her dream in favor of security. She doesn’t speak Korean —not yet, anyhow— but she’s taken every syllable to heart, knows what each one means.

Sinking slowly like in a trance nah, nah, nah Struggle but it's all ocean floor nah, nah Every moment becomes eternity yeah, yeah, yeah Film it now, film it now Do you hear me, yeah

She’s breathing hard by the end. Tears are streaming down her face and she hadn’t even been aware she was crying. Oh, my God, what was that? That was … like a religious experience. Why did I ever give this up? Why did I let go of me?

It’s as she’s wiping the tears away with the back of her hand, taking gulps from her water bottle like she’s spent the last year in the desert, that she becomes aware she is not alone.

Her head snaps around sharply when someone clears their throat and she gasps. There, seated on the bench above the cubbies where students stash their bags, is none other than the Jung Hoseok. He is barefoot, sitting with his legs criss crossed, in an orange t-shirt and blue shorts, pushing a hand through his dark hair like she’s seen him do countless times on YouTube.

Surely, she’s dreaming. Because she has dreamt of situations like this, both literally and metaphorically. Many times. But in dreams, be they the daytime variety or at night, she never sees him blink, or hears him breathing. But nothing about this makes sense. What is Jung Hoseok of BTS, arguably the world’s busiest man, who cannot walk to get coffee in Seoul without being mobbed by stampeding multitudes, doing here? In the States, on the campus of a community college, and, by all appearances, alone?

Even if he is real, it isn’t as if she can ask him. She knows his English is getting better and better as time goes by and BTS’ influence in the West continues to balloon. But where he can speak a bit of her language, she only knows random words in his.

Still. They’re staring at one another now, and she feels incredibly rude. He can’t be a dream, because he’s infinitely more beautiful in real life than even the best photographs have made him out to be. All angular, with impossibly long lashes, and yes, there’s that adorable mole just above his top lip.

“You’re very good,” he says suddenly, breaking the silence, and isn’t that just characteristic of him? “Dance was … wow.” His accent is heavy but his meaning is clear. And oh, that smile. He really is the sunshine incarnate.

She wants to brush off the compliment, to explain to him that maybe she was good, once upon a time, but now she’s just somebody’s mom. But she doubts it would be easy for him to understand. She wrinkles her nose, shakes her head almost imperceptibly. “I …” she stammers. She’s talking to Jung Freaking Hoseok —WHAT?! “First time really dancing in many years.”

He smiles again. “Really good,” he repeats, nodding his head for emphasis. “Serious.”

She’s not sure whether he’s saying that she looked serious while dancing, or that he’s serious about her doing well, but either way. If anyone knows the inner workings of the “Black Swan” choreography, the sentiment behind it, it is this man.

“Thank you,” she says softly, her cheeks hot. “I love Black Swan.”

There’s so much she wants to ask him. Why are you here? Are you traveling alone? Are there security guards outside the door ready to handcuff me to a lamppost? Because I asked the program director if I could use the studio and she said yes! But the language barrier would make it impossible, and anyway, isn’t there some saying about not looking a gift horse in the mouth? She hasn’t taught that one to her kids, but she’s pretty sure her grandmother said it to her at some point.

He smiles once again in response to what she said about “Black Swan” and makes a short humming sound in the back of his throat. “I’m Hoseok,” he says in perfect English. “Hobi.”

She almost laughs aloud. As if there was any possibility she wouldn’t know who he was. But then, hasn’t that been one of the things she’s loved best about him from the start: his humility.

So she introduces herself, and he bows from his seat and tries out her name. It’s adorable. And now she knows the answer to one of those questions she just figured she’d ponder for eternity: her name falling from his lips sounds like angels singing.

“Dance with me?” he asks as he rises from his seat and holds out his hand to her.

If this is a dream, please don’t wake me up.

‘You don’t understand,’ she almost says. ‘You’re … you, and I’m old. I don’t pop and lock, unless you wanna talk about my hip joints when I try grand battement. I don’t b-boy. Modern’s all I’ve got.’ But how many times has she said it: My dream is to dance with Hobi for a day. What kind of absolute idiot would she be to pass up an opportunity like this?

So she says, “I would love to.” And means it more than she’s meant anything since she said ‘I do,’ as a twenty-year-old kid. Nineteen years, two houses, three children, countless ups and downs later, and look how that turned out. Sometimes good things just happen.

She was already warm, but since he isn’t, she stretches when he does, and now it’s safe to stretch hip flexors and hamstrings and they definitely need it. He watches her a little. She watches him a lot. Sometimes he copies what she’s doing, as if there’s anything she could possibly know that he doesn’t. He does these crazy boneless things, dropping to his knees and seemingly floating back up to stand, and she just shakes her head. It looks even more effortless —and even more impossible— in person.

She whips out the chaîné turns again. Her good side, of course. She can fake spotting well enough to make it from one corner to the opposite pretty quickly.

“Oh!” he exclaims. “Like Jimin!”

She giggles. “I wish!” she says, and watches as his expression turns to a question mark.

“Wish?” he asks.

How to explain? “My style?” It comes out as a question because she wants to be sure he can follow.

He nods, so she continues.

“My style, like Jimin’s style. But Jimin … WOW. Me? Just okay.” She makes the hand gesture that means ‘so-so,’ because some things are universal, right?

He laughs, shaking his head. “Aish! No, no, no. Not ‘just okay.’ Very strong. Very …” He thinks for a moment, and there’s another question answered. Pensive Hobi is breathtaking. “Very … grace?”

She is floored. “Graceful?” she asks. He nods emphatically. “Me?”

“Yes, yes, yes! Arms.” He gesticulates wildly with his own. Which, she knows, he would do even in the absence of a language barrier. “Pretty.”

How can she tell him she’s not built like a dancer, that that knowledge has always made her feel heavy and ungainly? That she’s always wanted to be tall and delicate, like him. “My back.” She gestures behind herself. “My spine?” BTS have a song called “Spine Breaker,” even if they call it something else, so maybe it’s a word he knows.

He nods again, echoing, “Spine.”

She reaches into her bag for a pen and paper and draws a likeness of her spine, double curves and all. “Not straight,” she explains, handing the sketch to him. “Makes dancing hard.” It affects everything. I can’t turn properly; I have no extension. My hips are a mess. Every time I lift my leg it clicks.

“Hurts?” His eyes are soft, his expression sympathetic.

“Yeah,” she answers. “Yeah, sometimes. But dance makes it better.” Ironic, right?

“Keep going,” he says with finality. Insistent. Like he’s solved every mystery of her life.

Perhaps he has. He’s only been witness to a half hour out of her entire existence, but in that short time he’s seen a side of her that few others have. He’s watched her dancing, smiling, throwing herself full-force into something she loves. Maybe she never got to perform. Maybe she gave up on training to become a dance teacher. But if dancing makes her feel this level of satisfaction, how can she afford not to give it a prominent place in her life?

She studies him for a long moment. Does she dare ask anything of him? She answers that question with another: will she ever have an opportunity like this one again?

“Hobi?” she ventures timidly. He nods. “Teach me?”

“Yeah!” He says it like it’s a forgone conclusion.

“DNA?” She’s never been able to work that one out on her own.

He grins in answer.

They spend the next hour speaking the universal language of dancer and choreographer. “Pah! Pah! Pah!” “Five, six, seven, eight!” She gets on the wrong foot a time or two, turns and collides with him once, all of it to gales of laughter from the pair of them. He corrects her body position and he’s hands-on but ever the consummate gentleman, and by the time they stop she knows the entire choreography well enough that she can perfect the rest at home.

All too soon it’s over. “I have to go,” she explains sadly, pointing to the schedule on the director’s office door. It’s printed in English, but he gets the gist. There’s a class coming in soon; her time is up.

They sling their dance bags over their shoulders at the same time and it results in another shared laugh.

“Hobi,” she says at the door, “thank you.” There’s so much more she wants to tell him. As long as I live, I’ll never forget this. You’re my favorite dancer. You’re a legend.

“Don’t stop,” he tells her in a tone of voice that brooks no argument, squeezing her hands in both of his own. “Always dance, friend.”

When she performs “DNA” with the company the following semester, she dedicates it to him.

#ejb writes #uncharted territory #fanfic #bts #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #bangtan boys #hobi centric #jhope #j-hope #hoseok #jung hoseok #dance fic #just dance #jimin is mentioned #hobi is my love #what can i say #bangtan day

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rami-hoe · 5 years

Text

The Soldier and the Nurse

Part two

Pairing: snafu x oc

Word Count: 2.1K

TW: war, injury

Nurse Fort worked twelve hour shifts, and made her rounds once an hour. So twelve times a day, she would come to my bed, check my vitals and my bandages, and we would have a chat. And twelve times a day, I would bust out my best lines, and she would laugh and humour me. Maybe it was all in my head, but I thought she spent longer with me than she did with her other patients. But that might have just been because I was one of the few who could actually speak. I’d say seeing her was the highlight of my day, but honestly, it was the only good thing about my day. Those fifteen minutes I got to spend with her were the only distraction from the constant pain that covered my at least fifty percent of my body on my best days. I spent the rest of the day lying in that bed, listening to my comrades groan and cry out, wondering if I would ever be able to get out of bed without pain erupting in my side. They gave me some meds for the pain, but they didn’t do all that much to help. They numbed me up for about half an hour, then I was right back where I started and I couldn’t get another dose for four more hours. So I’d have to lie there and grit my teeth to stop myself from screaming until Nurse Fort came back with my next dosage.

It would have been easier to just let it all out, but I couldn’t bring myself to do that. I hated the screamers. And I hated myself for hating them. I knew they were screaming because they were injured fighting for their country, fighting just like I had, but that didn’t make any difference when it was two in the morning and they wouldn’t shut the fuck up. The relief I felt when the guy with the bandaged face, CPL. Jersh, a married man with two kids as I later found out, finally stopped screaming long enough to die made me sick. But the peace didn’t last long. He was replaced with another, then another after that one and the cycle kept on going. I’d been in this place over a month, and we were on our fifth screamer. Nurse Fort said he wasn’t expected to last more than a couple days, but I just wished he would hurry up and die. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t just help him get on with it. You put down your pets when all that’s left for them is suffering; why couldn’t we do the same for these men? Put them, and everybody around them, out of their misery. It seemed like the kinder option. Although that might just be what I told myself to make myself feel better about the whole situation, the thoughts running through my mind.

I didn’t know why I could sleep with bombs falling but not with some guy screaming, but I didn’t want to get into the psychological aspect of it all. It was four in the morning, and the latest screamer was still going strong. Seemed like it was going to take him longer than expected to “pass away.” I dragged myself out of bed, my muscles screaming almost as loud as the Private. As much as I despised using it, I grabbed my cane. My leg just couldn’t take the weight without it. I slowly but surely limped my way across the room. My intended destination was the hallway- I just meant to get a little quiet for a couple minutes, but the light in the nurse’s station made me pause. Nurse Fort sat there, head buried in a book until I tapped on the window. She gave me a tired, but warm, smile and waved my into the station. I closed the door behind me. It muffled the screaming a little at least.

“What’re you doin’ out here? You work the day shift,” I said. She pushed out the chair next to me and I lowered myself into it.

“Nurse Kyle came down with something.” She slipped a bookmark between the pages and shut the book. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Don’t know how anyone can,” I said. It was hard not to sound bitter.

“Those earplugs I gave you not work?” I shook my head and rested my aching back against the chair. The cane sat between my legs and I bounced from knee to knee absentmindedly. “I’m sorry. I’ll see what I can do.”

“There’s nothin’ you can do,” I said. “Unless you can stop that guy from screamin’ all night.”

She sighed. “We’ve given him all the meds we can,” she said. “There’s nothing more we can do for him. It’s just a matter of time.” “You got any idea how much time?” I knew it was an insensitive thing to ask, but I couldn’t help myself.

Madeline didn’t miss a beat. “I didn’t think he’d last this long,” she said. An abrupt shot of pain up my leg made me hiss and Madeline jumped up. “What is it?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, although it was more of a string of grunts than an actual sentence. “I’m alright.”

“Merriell-” She was one of the only people in my life who still called me by my given name. It was nice to hear it, even if it was in that lecturing tone. “-I’m a nurse. It’s my job to help you. Let me do that.”

If it didn’t hurt so bad, I would have brushed her off again. “It’s my leg,” I forced out. Under normal circumstances, a woman kneeling in front of me and pulling down my pants would have been something to get excited about. As much as I would have loved Madeline taking the route I was a little more used to, I needed what she was about to do even more. Her hands found my bare thigh and started to massage it. She had a way of doing this where she reached the muscle without aggravating the still sore wound. When I asked the usual night nurse to do it, she always put her thumbs right on where the shrapnel had gone it. She insisted the wound had healed and the pressure shouldn’t hurt anymore. It hurt like hell whether it was supposed to or not. But Madeline’s hands were magic. They could ease my pain like nothing else.

“That hurt at all?” She asked.

I shook my head. “No, that’s perfect.” I looked down and watched her work. She was so concentrated on what she was doing, even though all she was doing was rubbing my thigh. “Ain’t this the kinda grunt work you’re s’pose to pawn off on the people under you?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she said. I could see her smile even though she didn’t look up at me. “But I don’t mind doing it.” Her fingers moved from my knee up to the top of my thigh, rubbing the muscle all the way along. “Not for the right person, at least.”

I chuckled. “So you don’t just go around massagin’ every guy’s thighs,” I said.

“Oh no, of course not,” she said. “What kinda girl do you think I am?”

“I feel so special,” I said.

“You should, Mr,” she said with a wink. Once my thigh was nice and relaxed, she braced herself on the arms of the chair and stood. “That leg of yours should be feeling strong enough to walk on in a few weeks. Another month or so and you’ll be outta here.”

“Outta here and back out there,” I muttered. I gazed out the window out the men lying in their beds. Half of them were too injured to be shipped back out. They would either die here or be sent back home to live the rest of their lives crippled and in pain. Death, war, or unbelievable pain. Out of the three, death seemed like the best option.

“Yes, you should be fit for duty.” She settled into her seat and I yanked my pants back up.

“Any way you can talk to the manager about getting me a late check out?” I did my best to make it sound like a joke, but I knew she didn’t buy it. But she was nice enough to laugh along and pretend like she did instead of calling me a coward like most people would. It was cowardly. I didn’t want to go back out there just to die. And there was no doubt in my mind that I would die. Alone, face down in the dirt, left in the dust because anybody who came back for me would end up lying right beside me. My Mama would get a letter my CO wrote in five minutes and spend the next week lying in my old bed and sobbing. My dad would spend every waking minute working and pretending he was fine with it all. He would stand stoic as his friends patted him on the shoulder and told him how lucky he was to have a hero for a son. My comrades would raise a toast to me, if they were lucky enough to have any booze on them. My friends back home would reminisce when they heard the news, share their favourite stories of me. And before long, all I would be to them was a story. A friend they had who died in the war. Then, each in their own time, they would all move on. They would stop thinking about me, stop crying over me. Maybe after the war was won, they’d bring my body back home. I’d be buried next to my grandparents and my folks could visit my grave on my birthday to leave flowers.

Madeline’s hand covered my own and squeezed, drawing me out of the morbid fantasy. I blinked away tears and laughed, as if that would make her forget what she had seen in my eyes. But she didn’t humour me this time. “There’s nothing wrong with being scared to go back.”

“Who’s scared?” I asked, pulling my hand out of her grip. “I ain’t a fuckin’ coward.”

“I’m not saying you are,” she said. “But anyone who’s been out there would be scared of going back.” The tears were getting too big to blink away, but I was still determined not to let them fall in front of her. I turned my head to the side and tried to focus on breathing. I would have gotten up and walked away if I wasn’t sure the sight of me struggling to stand and limp out of here would be even more pitiful than sitting here and crying. “Merriell?” It was the softness of her voice as she said my name that pushed me over the edge. I covered my face with my hand to preserve at least some of my dignity as I sobbed like a child. Madeline scootched her chair closer to mine and ran her hand up my arm while the other one rested on my knee. If it were anyone else I would have pushed her away, but her touch was nothing but reassuring.

When I started laughing this time, it was real. “I’m a Marine,” I said between bursts of laughter. “We’re s’pose to be tough.”

“You’ve survived this long,” she said. “I’d say you’d have to be pretty tough to do that.”

I dropped my hand and met her eyes. “I think your idea of toughness might be a little off,” I said.

Madeline shook her head. “No, I know a tough guy when I see one,” she said. “And I know it takes one hell of a man to cry in front of a woman.”

“So-” I sniffed and wiped my cheek with the back of my hand. “What you’re sayin’ is: I still have a shot with you.”

The look on her face when she laughed was heavenly. My eyes blinked like a camera shutter, capturing the expression. I wanted to remember it for a long time. She pressed her palm to my left cheek and leaned in to kiss my right. “Why don’t you sleep in here?” She nodded to a cot in the back of the room. “It’ll be quieter for you.”

“Won’tcha get in trouble for that?”

She shrugged. “You’re worth a little trouble,” she said. She stood up and helped me do the same. I held onto her arm as she walked me over to the cot. “Or I can just wake ya up before the shift change.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said as I lied down on the cot. Madeline drew the blanket up over my chest. “You gon’ tuck me in too?”

She chuckled. “Nah, I figured a tough guy like you can handle that on your own,” she said. “Goodnight, Merriell. Sleep well.”

#Merriell Shelton #Snafu Shelton #the pacific #rami malek #snafu x oc

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