#i tried to draw her with her bow but it didnt work out

[anonymouscheeses]

Big fckn redesigns here. Well mostly Charlie but Vaggie somewhat too 🥰🥰

Blue fits Charlie soooo much and I cease to see that many redesigns with this color. I still want red to be used in most of their designs because well. They are in hell, but not too present so to make way for other unique colors. Charlie has several physical traits from her parents but also she has some details in her clothes that match with them. When I uhh, introduce their designs you'll see lmao. I also tried to make her have a more roundish design, I jst LOVE those typ of designs omg. I just want the characters with not too many sharp corners pls Viv bro... 😔 oh yeah she's mixed cuz her mom's are darker in their redesigns. Alot of their genetics went down to Charlie so she doesn't look like an exact copy of Lucifer, I kind of hate that trend with hh and hb characters, like did the moxxies dad give birth to him bro 😭 also I kept her bow because it looks so cute and silly on her it just fits, I wish they made it bigger in her show design because it would fit her silliness so much. She has a cape with stars because morningSTAR smh why didnt they do something fun with that, missed potential but whatevs yknow I still love og designs no matter what anyone sayss. Did you know I love Charlie, I could ramble for days. I think I love Charlie guys. Maybe jst a hunch idk... also... s-snake fangs.. jeepers anddd..... snake tongue.... shiver me timberz

The wife ever. I had animation in mind more when I designed her, not like in a "How easy or hard would this be to animate" way. But I like to imagine when she's shocked her hair kind of fluffs out plus her actual fluff, when she's mad her bow turns into kind of horns and then her jacket expands like wings. Gave her a more hotel like outfit, she likes to work for fun (ew). Her socks are socks but she has some fluff under them she just tries to cover it up because she hates herself 🤪 (she doesn't hate her bigger body she actually feels much more comfortable chubby than when she was skinny with Adam. She was burdened with the weight of Adam's image of women... In this sorta rewrite she gained weight when she goes to the hotel because she's more happy. I'm dying I love chub Vaggie so much guys please) headcanon: she kind of likes fashion, it's like a fun hobby of hers to stitch together clothing and go out and buy clothes she'll never wear. She taught Charlie how to stitch and she SUCKS so you can jst see it on Charlie's pants.

Second outfits! Charlie's hotel uniform for. Well. Hotel stuff. She usually only wears it when new people come to the hotel, which.... isn't often, if at all. She still likes to keep it just in case. Also she goes really cartoonish when it happens, she does the looney tunes run and changes into her clothes in like 2 seconds. Can you see my vision? 😭😭

Vaggie's is in her armor. She has several pairs of armor lying around in the hotel in completely hidden spots. It's kind of surprising uhh. Yeah she wears it alot more than Charlie wears her alt uniform but still rare to find her in it. I don't get the whole thing with the exterminators and them not being able to fight according to Carmilla. Which is kinda stupid, I'm not gonna lie. So, instead of that, Vaggie has just let her guard down and has gotten much more comfortable in her surroundings so she feels like she doesn't need to fight anymore, she's just gotten rusty 's what I'm sayin. I have no idea how to draw armor. You can tell...

Extra below cut vvvv

BABY CHARLIE!!! With the heads of my redesigns for Luci, Eve, and Lillith. Haha you still cant see them. Uhh, ill definitely finish the thing one day. Its not even that big of a project thing, i think i jst keep going to other drawings so im like not focusing on one thing lmao. Lucifer has heterochromia because he was cursed to forever be reminded of his betrayal. I only explained that because Charlie has it too, it's kind of a curse on the entire blood line where at least one eye is red. This is like. Slightly older Charlie than the baby Charlie in show? I jst wanted to put her in overalls cuz omg that's jst so cute ughhh 😭😭

[radioisntdead]

Psst

Since we have a hat gremlin- what about other hat wearing Characters?

Sir pent., husker, Lucifer... SUSAN (angel wore a hat one time and so didnt vaggie- do they count?) and Valentino?

My only note is that if Valentino has one it is the equivalent to the most angry lil devil that bites his bald ass head like a rabid flea.

Good evening my dear! I GOT THIS ASK IN THE MORNING AND I KID YOU NOT IT HAS BEEN ON MY BRAIN SINCE. Switching between third person and referring to the reader as you

I'm thinking Sir Pentious's hat creature is like a little lizard, like the gecko lizard that tries to sell you car insurance but instead of car insurance it's just insurance, for what you ask? No idea it's probably a scam don't buy anything from hat lizard, Lil' hat lizard likes to take out with Sir Pentious's hat when he's sleeping, freaks out the eggy Bois, hat gecko totally tries to be a wingman and set him up with Cherri bomb! They are the best winggecko

Huskers hat creature is SMALL, they like the warmth from his fur, you take a lil' nappy nap, snoozy time, when he was a overlord they would help him win casino games, how you ask? I don't know, I don't know how it works but probably by stealing cards or something, his hat creature is probably drunk off their rockers too! Probably chill in cups when not in the hat.

Lucifers hat creature is a duck, 100% a regular duck, a duck that likes to vibe in a hat, that's all I got, the hat quacks. [Lilith gave you to him before leaving.] He likes to show you off to Charlie and the other sins "LOOK AT MY DUCK! THEY REALLY LIKE MY HAT HAhaA"

ANGEL'S CRIME HAT, his lil hat creature is just a lil' guy! He treats em' like a second child [the first is fat nuggets obviously] takes you out of the hat to dress you up, you probably ride fat nuggets like a horse when out of the hat, crime hat creature is totally small enough for that,

I despise Valentino so the bastard is, as per usual dying.

[Warning for mild implied suicide, it's not in depth but It's implied, just a sentence not the reader or the grapist.]

He doesn't have a hat gremlin he has a hat cursed demon leech.

Cursed leech wasn't always cursed, they originally clinged to one of Valentino's victims who ran out during extermination day and you can guess what fate they met.

You, the little hat thing wanted revenge for your fallen friend and so you exited the hat you were originally attached to and infested Valentino's.

Valentino has a constant headache because you bite, sharp teeth piercing his skin, he can't take the hat off because you latch on like a leech, you probably have some diseases that transfer to Valentino so he has to go to the doctors often.

Hat leech will eventually lead to Valentino's permanent death and only then will they be satisfied in taking revenge for their fallen friend, they will exit Valentino's hat and return to the one they left, maybe they'll move on to someone else and be their friend but until then they're on their own.

Vaggie doesn't have a hat gremlin, she has a BOW gremlin, allegedly came from heaven, you are the bow itself. Unraveling to be a bow creature that helps taking people out.

Bonus for Vox because he has a hat right? Or am I delusional we'll find out.

Lil robot creature, totally doubles as a spy, vox's hat is sometimes seen around the hotel stalking Alastor.

SUSAN MY BELOVED OLD GRUMPY LADY, I gotta write for her again soon!

Her hat creature is just like her! Old! her hat will rise up for a moment curse someone out before shrinking back down, similar to Rosie's gremlin, maybe they're related? They probably get into fights, the folks of cannibal town just see Susan's hat and Rosie's hat going at it, dueling probably with weapons I can see them using guns or sticks, sharp sticks,

Susan likes her hat creature, treats em' like a pet and feeds them sinners.

DOODLES TIME, I can't draw anyone's hats for the life of me.

My handwriting sucks but we don't talk about that

[maplecaster]

i dreamt that there was this mansion that was also a school, actually this was a recurring dream. i had the power to speak to “lost children”, kids that have been forgotten by time and space. there was this series of rooms where each one was a trial, and within each trial i would save a lost child by remembering them. they would be a ghost, and then i’d have the power to resurrect them fully once i complete the whole thing.

here’s an example. one child was a 7 year old girl, i think she was the youngest out of them all. she played the viola and in her room was a viola bow, a small piano keyboard, and some sheet music inside a drawer. you had to play what was written, but i couldn’t read the sheet music.

one of my pursuers, i forgot why they were chasing me but they were akin to bullies. i locked the door to the trial room and they teased me by pulling out a viola and playing a scale upwards. on the last note, they played the wrong note, and i knew that they did it on purpose, and that the girl played the same exact wrong note. in fact, playing that was the answer to the trial and i could move on, but they did it maliciously. they told me they wish they had her real viola so they could smash it, and when they saw i had her bow they tried to take it.

before i left the room, i saw the girl’s ghost. as i did with all the other children, i asked what her name was. ofc i dont remember it now but they were all japanese.

the next trial was the last one, and actually this one didn’t have a lost child because it was a repeat of the first child. also a girl, maybe around 10 years? i was able to communicate with her regularly through cryptic drawings that appeared on my phone. i got really stuck on what to do in this room. i asked her if we should leave before finishing (as i said it was a recurring dream, so canonically i kept leaving and coming back) and a drawing appeared of a large tree with children surrounding it. some of its branches were red and bent towards one child, the one i was speaking to, going inside her face. i figured this meant i should stay, but then i saw a new drawing which i mostly forgot by now. the next one i saw was the girl standing at the edge of a windswept cliff, a door behind her open with the other lost children coming through it. it was one of those magic doors where it was just a frame and a door, no wall, but it still lead somewhere. i interpreted this as that this was the last trial (i didnt know that before seeing the drawing)

the room was the size of a storage closet with some stuff wrapped in plastic near the far wall. i ripped open the plastic, hoping for a doorway to come, but there was nothing. btw i havent mentioned them yet but there were like 2 people with me and one of them was able to figure it out while i was stuck. he told me he said a little poem, the fifth line being “open the mansion of new york city.” now, nyc isn’t a mansion but its big and theres a lot of space so it counted. when he said that the plastic i ripped open became a portal to nyc. i figured if that counted as a mansion, and this portal can only be opened to mansions, i thought to try “open the mansion of your mind”. i dont remember the full poem, maybe it didnt even contain real words lol. it worked, and i went through the portal, but i wasn’t in the lost child’s mind, i was in a car of a teacher. the same teacher that set me on this quest. he thanked me and told me to remember all of the children. as i remembered their names, they each emerged from the same spot as me and my group did, no longer ghosts. it was really sweet ok.

[hatgame]

Hat kid please hat kid

Okkk sooooo

species hc: she and bow are both sentient time pieces of sorts, rewinding time when damaged enough to when they were fine and thus being kind of immortal. the only people aware of the rewinds are the undead

more under the cut

i really like shane frosts backstory for her: her parents forced her to grow up earlier than necessary and she made the decision to run away, which, leaving her to fend for herself, forced her to grow up as well. its a sad story, but hat kids not necessarily a sad kid.

i used to commonly portray her as sleepy and calm, her head in the clouds, and while i still think of her that way a lot, shes become much more multifaceted to me nowadays.. i think this part of her is mainly evoked to me thru her being showed in bed both at the very beginning and end of the game, as well as (mainly blue) time rifts feeling like dream worlds.. as well as the game always feeling incredibly dream like to me.

shes also definitely impulsive and mischevious, often growing childishly malicious. refuses to view adults as an authority and so makes fun of or otherwise doesnt take seriously any who try to assert their dominance. if another kid tries to do that it might work though

also, while understandably not a skill most kids have, shes pretty good at not taking things to heart or otherwise distancing herself from situations or people. this is something she developed early when she ran away from her parents. that doesnt mean her fallout with mu didnt hurt her though..

shes a lonely kid craving recognition and attention despite sometimes willingly pushing people away. in the very beginning of the game, although very quietly, her alarm clock voices her todo list for the day, with one of the points being something along the lines of "draw faces on rocks and pretend theyre people" which, while obviously meant to be humorous, still hints at (or outright states) hat kids loneliness and lack of desire for solitude.

that said i do not think that's why she did the bff contract lol i think she did that out of pettiness and because she thought thatd be really funny. i dont think she wanted to genuinely befriend snatcher from seeing some hidden heart of gold in it. i think it was a bit

you could say shes canonically scared of them because shes portrayed as such in one of the final journey storybook pages

i agree but actually disagree. i personally believe this is her after their first encounter, before properly understanding what his deal is, not even necessarily tragic backstory wise.. in her diary entries she expresses infinite confusion and disbelief at being forced to do evil community service. which doesnt even seem to directly benefit the scary person thing. its making her deliver mail to its among us babies. also the justification for vanessas manor is so funny hes like steal something from there. and then he doesnt even ask to keep whatever hat kid takes. also she calls snatcher weird on multiple occasions like it just completely saturates her view of him. whatever initial intimidation she had just melts away because hes just some weird person thing. not even really malicious just abnormal

which is why its very hard for me to believe shes hurt by death wish. frustrated and gamer raging? sure lol. but i feel like its like Ohhhhh so this is just genuinely what dead people hanging out equivalent is like? trying to kill each other? (quality time w snatcher) ummmmm ok.. kind of weird though lol. but fun. she ❤️ outfit

ok now regarding the tsundere thing. i do not think she is sincere there. at all. i think shes making fun of him. with the only genuine implication being that the way he is behaving is not sincere. hes not necessarily soft just different. also shes like i do not know what this thing thinks of me. were friends i think. i dont know. (i think they become actual friends later on :) )

with empress i think shes actually intimidated by her, regards her pretty highly and gets actually scared and embarrassed when trying to get what is very clearly her stuff back. but not scared enough to not return to the metro or mess around eating food on the clock. i think they eventually make up

[astrangeavenue]

decided to share some of my thought process for these designs! for any of you behind-the-scenes nerds interested

warning for spoilers of like. all of isat. and twohats. also implied self harm

i feel like i should preface this by saying these designs are moreso inspired by the general sadness enemies/bosses than mal du pays (kind of obvious). i love mdp its such a good encounter. atmosphere is impeccable. however i wanted my sadness designs to be goopy and weird and follow the one-word-name trend. so no inverted party members for you! like i said in tags this is like character analysis in the form of creature design

ok on to specifics

ENVIE (siffrin) you may be thinking 'damn you named it envy? thats a bit harsh' and Yeah its a cognate but i chose it for other meanings!! such as: longing, yearning, craving, desire, wish, and hangnail design wise i heavily referenced the nostalgie sadness in the game for its relation to wish craft, hence all the sharp straight edges. however that also means no hair sorry sif (though the darker outline around the brim of the hat is meant to seem a bit like his dyed ends). its claw shape is based on the shape of siffrins dagger. the closed eye is that of a tragedy theatre mask (matching epuisements comedy), and its tears are black because i noticed all the boss sadnesses had black tears and thought it was fitting to include for sifs (and loops) sadness. powerful and all that. also just a good contrast cause its almost all white. its pose is supposed to be somewhat dramatic, and it nearly forms a circle. one hand is against its neck because well you know how it is with daggers

ÉCHEC (mirabelle) name wise i likely wouldve chosen anxiety, but that was already taken so i chose failure instead! based on how worried mira can get about failing this design probably fought me the most of any of them... it bears the most resemblance to that of the tristesse sadnesses which i think is appropriate. i also snuck some of anxietes spikes onto its back. its eyes are pretty unsettling and contrast miras lovely dark ones pretty well! rings for the change belief of course. the bow made of tears was something i came up with randomly and i didnt hate it so i kept it... theres probably some symbolism to it that i cant put into words right now. its hands are in different signs to represent miras cool dual typing of course (scissors on top cause that represents her resistances/weaknesses), and are in front of where her mouth would be to mirror that portrait of her with her hands over her mouth in shock

COUARDISE (isabeau) name choice is pretty obvious... cowardice is a big part of isabeaus story! huge fists come together to block its face as a way to visually represent how isabeau hides himself behind this big strong personality. if i were to draw a hurt sprite of it, i would probably make just one terrified eye visible. a kneeling pose just feels appropriate. making it look like the king wasnt intentional but theres something there! honestly most of this design speaks for itself i feel

ALIÉNATION (odile) lack of belonging you know how it is. i think the fact that the word is nearly the same in both english and french fits quite well too; it stands out from the other french words itd be weird to draw it not standing odile is such a stander. it needs a very dignified and neat pose. the chunks missing reference how odile feels like some parts of her are missing. its hands are positioned as if to hold a book, but are distinctly empty. its supposed to be ambiguous to whether its a closed eye or glasses frames; either way, a pupil is not visible to suggest a lack of perception

INUTILITÉ (bonnie) name translates to 'uselessness'! i know bonnie tries to be useful so badly. 'helplessness' is also a good one but uselessness translated better this design is pretty simple and small but i think it works very well. bonnie tries very hard to be big and brave and loud and helpful, and hates being helpless. this sadness looks like a small, scared child. the hat is meant to look like a sort of shell in this case, something to hide under. having the left eye hidden wasnt an originally intended detail but it works nonetheless

ÉPUISEMENT (loop) exhaustion! i dont think i need to say more similarly to envie, this design is very sharp and pointed. the tears are black for the same reason envies are, and one eye is the eye of a comedy theatre mask to correspond with envies tragedy. its open eye's shaky pupil has a vague star shape in it. its arms twist into an infinity sign, hands in scissors signs meeting over the eye to form a diamond-or star-shape (i dont think loop technically has a craft type when you fight them but they have slicey attacks and make the scissors sign in their just attack portrait so their sadness is scissors now). the negative space between its crossed legs make a similar shape. some of the stars bleed because im sure you know why. the pose is exaggerated and nearly manic to contrast with envies calm somberness. i nearly made its bottom half like tree roots but decided against it. anyways isnt it so cool that loops sadness looks remarkably like normal loop? isnt it so cool guys? im sure loop can be very healthy about this

bonus: the pattern i DID make the bg pattern myself by hand. it took me way longer than it needed to. but i wanted to include all the partys Signature Shapes so we have circles (within circles), squares, rhombuses, and four-pointed stars! shoutout to the clever one for helping me get a baseline idea

anyways thats about it. there may be things i dont mention specifically here that you might notice and find symbolism in. theyre not mentioned because i either forgot or theyre unintentional but i hope you enjoy them nonetheless!

drew some totally normal sadnesses

blank bg and individuals below the cut

[pan-princess-levy]

courage, power, wisdom

i cant believe i finally got to posting this but!!! 

i’ve been working on a legend of zelda au for almost this whole month and im extremely excited to introduce it to the world. featuring:

natsu dragneel as the accidental farm kid turned hero (link);

levy mcgarden as the unfortunate princess with too many responsibilities (zelda)

and gajeel redfox as the gerudo prince with anger issues and literal demons to fight (ganondorf)

there is a lot more to come of that au and i have so many things to draw and write and just!!! pls send me an ask if you’re interested 

also, in general: whose idea was to give a magical weapon of mass destruction to a bunch of children???? wtf triforce???????????

[yandearest]

MTOBEIYF Planned Ending

Apologies for not writing in a long time. I haven’t been able to work on my fic due to personal reasons. Not sure if I will have time in the future but didnt want to leave people hanging so here is the planned ending:

May come back to this one day, so obvious spoiler warning

CH 8 Hide and Seek

The girl from 6 attempts to kill YN but YN wakes up hearing the sound of twigs snapping as she climbs the tree. She feigns being asleep only to swing her knife when 6 gets close, causing her to lose her balance and fall from the tree to her death.

At the sound of a canon Hoseok awakens – immediately seeing Athena, Namjoon and Yoongi all still in the tent. Realizing it could only be 6 or YN Hoseok rushes out and starts screaming her name over the edge of the fall. When there’s no answer, he immediately grabs a bag along with bow and arrow, and leaves camp. Namjoon says he’s coming too and this time they won’t return without her – brings a sword.

Athena notices the boys leaving and follows without them realizing.

Back in the forest YN hasn’t eaten since the games began and is beginning to starve. In desperation she makes her way back towards the cornucopia to gather food but comes across a bush filled with berries. Remembering the training she spent on foods she can’t decide if the berries are blueberries or nightlock and decides to nibble just a little bit first. The taste is initially sweet so she swallows the mouthful before a numbing effect on the tongue and throat- making her realize it’s the poison nightlock. Quickly she shoves her finger down her throat and induces vomiting to bring up as much of the poison as possible, but some is still in her system. She forces herself to throw up again before drinking all the water left in her bottle to try and rehydrate only to throw up again. Makes a run for the river.

Athena sees the nightlock and vomit and thinks YN has gone to the waterfront to try and wash it out of her system given there was no canon – so she’s still alive – but no one is there. Athena tracks. Meanwhile Hoseok and Namjoon are both near the bottom of the hill – they make a truce to not attack each other until Yoongi and Athena are dead before splitting up to cover more ground. Namjoon takes the forest, Hoseok goes towards the water.

YN drags herself in and floats on her back, scooping water into her hand to try and drink before Athena suddenly appears above her. YN is weak, with no will to live, and can tell Athena is about to kill her and asks for a quick death to which Athena promises a stab to the heart. Athena tells her she really does look like an angel and YN responds that Athena is her angel of death, a mercy killing saving her from a much worse fate with Namjoon or Hoseok. Athena agrees and steadies her with one hand under her rib cage, YN holds onto her arm with her closest hand and stares up to the ‘sky’. But before Athena can strike a blow an arrow is launched into the side of Athena’s head and her dead body falls onto YN, who is too weak to push her off. Hoseok sprints out from his hiding place to rescue YN, meanwhile Namjoon, watching from inside the forest, decides to head back to camp before sunset – knowing Hoseok and YN will be safe together.

YN is barely conscious as Hoseok drags her out of the water. Shouldering her bag with the blanket inside, along with his own bag, he carries her over to the waterfall and to 7’s old camp inside. He lays her down before running off to fetch dry twigs and branches in order to build a fire. As the sun sets and the temperature drops YN is still wet from the river and beginning to freeze. Hoseok strips her of her clothes and wraps her in the thermal blanket before another gift from a sponsor arrives of a container of hot soup. Hoseok feeds her and YN becomes more conscious but increasingly depressed about having survived.

She blames him for taking away her painless exit from the games and he asks her what kind of death she wants. Remembering how sweet the berries were she tells him she wants to die by nightlock. She asks him to promise to let her eat nightlock if they are the final 2 and he doesn’t answer. She then asks how he would want to die and he says he doesn’t plan on it and tells her to instead imagine being old together. She jokes about growing old and living in the arena forever before saying the capital would force them to kill each other somehow.

Still shivering under the blanket Hoseok strips off his remaining clothing to warm her up with skin to skin contact from behind. Initially starts with rubbing her arms before his hands circle around to her breasts.

YN feels ashamed at how quickly she responded and tries to push Hoseok away only for him to push her onto her back. She puts her hands against his chest unsure if she was trying to pull him closer or away. Looking her in the eyes he sees them glassy and in shock as he tries to sooth her, running his fingers through her hair lovingly. The other hand holds hers before moving his hand to wrap her thigh around his hip, kissing her as he pushes in. Hoseok wipes a tear from her cheek, a combination from the shame and how good the sex is feeling. Her eyelashes flutter close and she sighs her head tilting to the side resting her forehead against their joined hands letting out whimpers whenever he pushes inside of her.

His other arm braces himself by the side of her head, caging her underneath his body. She stares up at him entranced by the warm light of the fire casting a golden glow on his tan skin, as the shadows emphasize his sharp cheekbones, pointed nose, and strong jawline. If she was an angel then Jung Hoseok was the devil himself and she was being dragged to hell.  Hoseok uses his shirt to wipe her down before holding her tightly against him as they both fall asleep by the fire.

X

CH 9 A fate worse than death

They’re awoken by the sound of a canon early in the morning and quickly realize that they’re now down to just 3 people. YN wants to stay in the cave and wait for the last person to try and find them here but Hoseok wants to confront them at camp, telling her to wait for him. She refuses and follows him. He warns her of traps they set around the camp and holds her hand to guide her through the forest.

Nearing the camp they see Yoongi’s body floating face down in the river, ‘Namjoon wants us to know it’s him’ YN wants to walk through the river to avoid leaving tracks but Hoseok says it’s too visible and steers them back into the forest to take another way around to the camp, along the area he set the traps up in. Hoseok becomes suspicious the traps he set have been moved only to trigger a rope trap that he dodges only for YN to be caught in a net. As Hoseok tries to find the rope to cut her down Namjoon appears, severing the back of his leg with a knife. YN screams and Namjoon remarks that he looks forward to hearing more of that sound after he finishes with Hoseok, saying sharing time is up and that he wants to have his way with his district mate before securing his victory. He toys with Hoseok, making deep cuts that are painful, but not lethal – taunting him. It becomes increasingly clear that Namjoon deliberately toned down his skills in the training and assessment and is even smarter and stronger than his 10. Meanwhile YN is inside the net cutting a hole. As Namjoon teases Hoseok, telling him he’s going to force her to watch him die, then he’s going to fuck her and finally gut her like a fish from their district, YN falls out from the net and breaks her arm on impact – alerting Namjoon. Namjoon decides he wants to force Hoseok to watch and stabs his him through the hand with an arrow pinning him to the ground.

‘Silly little dove,’ Namjoon taunts as he reaches her laying on the ground – falsely thinking she’s cradling her broken arm – but she really has a knife. When he grabs her by the hair and yanks her up she swings her arm and slashes him across the chest, drawing blood. Namjoon sneers and goes to hit her but remembering their sparing session from training YN dodges the attack and is able to land another slash in with the knife, this time across his arm. Namjoon acknowledges his mistake in underestimating her and promises it won’t happen again. YN attempts to surprise him by attacking first but he blocks the knife and slams her wrist against a boulder until she drops it. YN slams her knee up in Namjoon’s groin who retaliates by gripping her broken arm and slamming her against the boulder. In too much pain from the broken arm she can’t defend herself when NJ backhands her across the face, sending her to the ground. She reaches for her knife but he steps on her arm and she screams in pain as Hoseok snaps the arrow in half and pulls his hand out of the broken stem, biting down on his shoulder to try and smother his scream. Namjoon leans down to grab her knife, holding it to her throat as he straddles her waist and tells her he’s going to claim her as his, and if she behaves then he’ll give her the quick death. YN sobs as he reaches for her pants only for Hoseok to appear behind and stab Namjoon in the neck with the tip half of the broken arrow. Namjoon drops the knife in shock and YN quickly picks it up and stabs him in the heart mockingly saying she’s granting him a quick death. She kicks his body off of hers and he floats down the stream towards the edge of the waterfall before disappearing off the side. – a canon sounds

Both injured, YN and Hoseok collapse into each others arms. Hoseok has multiple stab wounds, a bad one on his leg and the hole in his hand from the arrow. YN has her broken arm, a bruise on her face from the hit and a cut on her throat from where the knife had been held. Hoseok confesses he loves her as he cradles her in his arms, YN with her eyes closed and leaning against his chest can’t bring herself to admit her love but instead asks him to let her eat a nightlock berry like she tried to make him promise. Hoseok holds her tighter and asks if she trusts him. She says yes and Hoseok leans down to kiss her one last time which she returns. ‘close your eyes angel’ she does. With his injured hand he wraps his arm around her neck to cut off circulation, his good hand covers her nose and mouth, smothering her. She tries to struggle but passes out within 10 seconds, he keeps the hold for another 10 and the canon sounds

Hoseok is declared the winner of the games

 *

 YN awakens inside of a medical bay. Confused she wonders if she is in a strange version of hell, or if the capitol has somehow found a way to harvest souls, before a nurse realizes she is conscious. She is informed that the trackers injected into the body detect when the heart stops beating which sounds the canon. Hoseok had refused to leave her body and demanded she be taken with him on the ship that came to claim him as the winner and remove him from the arena. Immediately on board he began to resuscitate her and is able to start her heartbeat again. He convinces the capital workers to let him keep her. She had died, he had won the games, if he could revive her afterwards it wouldn’t make a difference to them, they could continue to let everyone think she had died. The capital agrees on the conditions she is to live with him and never able to leave their mansion in the victors’ village and Hoseok is to comply with any future demands of the capital to do with his obligations as a winner. He accepts and the medical team take them both away. YN asks where she is now and the doctor tells her inside of the train. Hoseok is on victory tour of all the districts and refuses to let her be taken away from him – fearing the capital will dispose of her. He fears she could still be killed whilst inside the train but he would also raise hell during one of the stops if that happened. YN is confused, distraught and traumatized when Hoseok walks in to see her awake. He runs to her side and envelops her in a hug, kissing her. He repeats how much he loves her and that nothing can ever take her form this world without him following right behind her. YN is in shock, not believing she is alive, not believing Hoseok is real and struggling to speak. The doctor tries to explain to Hoseok she may have brain damage and it’s a possibility she could never recover. The only thing Hoseok cares about is that she is alive.

A summary of the tour continuing with YN recovering although her speech is permanently impaired (aphasia). When they finally conclude and return to 2 she is moved in a van that is disguised to look like a delivery and transported inside of a box from the van to the house, so no one can possibly see her.

Inside the blinds are shut and all the doors are locked before Hoseok appears again and forces an ‘engagement’ ring on her finger, but there is a device inside that tracks her location. YN begins to panic, she went from being trapped in one arena to trapped forever in this house. She tries to run but there’s nowhere to run to. She runs to the kitchen to search for a knife but Hoseok restrains her before she can injure herself. She goes limp in his arms losing all hope as he whispers in her ear how much he loves her and now they can always be together forever.

[thespiantherepist]

Devoted Devotee Yandere Bakugou x Superfan reader!

{Warnings: Blood, obsession, creepy vibes. Yanderes, jealosy. Be careful here if youre not one for uncomfy themes. 18+ minors DNI. Enjoy the story! ~Nugget!} Ever since his debut you were obsessed. You had never heard of him until he lit up the city streets with light reminiscent of a newly born sun god. You were mesmerized. You watched him catapult through the air. His face and teeth shown with a sense of danger. He looked ready to kill if nessasary.  It drove you wild. SURE for a while your friends made fun of your newfound obsession. That was until... you didnt have friends anymore. You were a nice enough person! Sure, that wasnt the problem. They just got tired of not hearing about YOU. They always heard yap of the hero. “GROUND ZERO.” This, and, “GOD EXPLOSION MURDER!” That. It was time for  you to take a rehab... but you were’nt aware. You were part of his cult. The highest follower.  Papparazi. Spicy fan theories. FAN FICS. Oh how many nights you drooled over the scandelous drawings you blew much of your crypto currency on just to perfect. Your mind was in a haze and your heart was set on him. You went to almost every live viewing. And you were perfectly happy, and healthy... until you were’nt.  You started becoming sick more often. A sense of dread filling you if you were’nt able to snuggle up to your pillow with Ground Zero’s voice. Straight. In your ear. Insomnia would creep in. But you still woke as enthusiastic as ever, because you needed money for these meets... and money, comes from work. Your co-workers, were not as polite as your friends. While you rarely spoke to them, and mostly just to the clients they could always hear it.  Same as your friends. You would go to work and then be sent back home for being too sick sometimes. On one occasion your boss sent you some food, just so you’d eat. She used child tactics on you. “Ground Zero would like it if you ate your food dear.” She’d say, her soothing voice in front of you as you looked up. She’d give you a big smile. And you would eat. These. Were the only times you wouldnt talk of him. The womans heart broke everytime you talked of him. She would run her dark hands across your cheeck and softly tell you that he wasnt worth your love. She was never in the position to produce children. And she never wanted a husband. Nor did she want a wife. You were the closest to a grandchild the old woman had. So. To show your graditude you stopped. You chatted with her for hours. About you. Only you... and yourself. And that made her happy. You never thought you would get the chance to actually meet him. FOR REAL.  Your eyes buldged out of their sockets. You pulled your phone out, snapping pictures of him gliding through the air. HE WAS SO GRACEFUL! He looked like an angel and you thought of crying. He roared so loud you thought he’d damage his beautiful vocal cords. He finally after a greuling battle was able to take down the stupid villain. You swooned. Eyes filling with hearts as you leaned back wistfully. If only you could touch him. Then your life would be conten- “DUMBASS LEAVE ALREADY!” You felt a harsh prod at your forehead. Blinking you righted yourself. Awestruck at the sight before you. In fornt of your own two eyes. Touching you. Was Ground Zero. You fell to your knees. Hugging his boots.  “OMGOMGOMG!!!!! YOURE GROUND ZERO, I AM LITERALLY YOUR BIGGEST FAN. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG IVE WANTED TO MEET YOU!”  Behind his eyes there was a look of pure malace as he stared at his feet which were covered by your body. He was tempted to blast you to peices before realising. You were just a civilian. Just a weak, little, pathetic- You looked straight up at him. Eyes of admiration glistening back up at him. A hole night sky encapsulated in the precious lenses that were your eyes. He was taken aback. Suddenly noticing the adorable smiling face that peered up at him. He was almost confused. ‘When will they stop looking at me like that?’ He thought. But the longer he stared at them... the more enrapturing they got. He shook himself form the thought and pryed you away from him. “Fuckin what?” He said almost winded. Watching as you spryly lifted to your feet. Barreling back towards him before skipping in one spot.  “YEAH YEAH YEAH! OOH OOH.” You plucked a pen and notebook from your bag and shoved it towards him. He looked at it in discust. But at you? He just couldnt look away. “PLEASE PLEASE PRETTY PPLLLLLLEEEEASE SIGN THIS! YOURE MY FAVOURITE AND I ADORE YOU!” The amount of praise you put out almost nullified any sense of discust now.  Witht the crowd gone and the sky darkening he sighed. But just before he could grab the objects. ‘Ill sign it! Mr. Fun Zero here wont take a chill pill for one second!” A flirtatious and somewhat goofy voice chimed in from behind him. A flash of yellow,and black passed the two of em. Chargebolt quickly wrote his alias... and his number. Followed by a black and yellow heart. Pikachu ears poking out at the top. He winked at you and handed the book back. “Youre a cutie, ya know?” He asked you retorically as you stared at the signature in confusion. “Haha! What am I asking of course you know.” He said in a friendly way.  Ground Zeros fists clenched. Noticable sparks flaking out. He wanted you to whine. And to complain. To bawl and cry about how that dumb pikachu stole HIS spot.  Bit you just awkardly and kindly nodded. The vibe kind of ruined now.  “I uhhh... I’ll get going.” You said jabbing a finger at the opposite road. Before you could even turn around Ground Zero snatched your book and held it over his head. You almost pouted. But he motioned for the pen. You squealed in joyous glee, as you handed it to him. He turned his head around. Sticking his tounge out angrily at Denki. He wrote three things.  His real name. His number. And a note...  “Ill always watch over you.~Ground Zero.” You watched in absolute astonishment at the scene. He gave the book back to you. Leaning in to close a distance, ‘Why the fuck are you doing this?’ He asked himself. Furious. ‘It feels right.’ He rebuttled. As he handed the book back to you he made sure to graze your fingertips. Keeping his serious, and stern look on.  “You better be going back home soon Teddy Bear. Dont want you getting hurt.” He turned you around for good measure. Making sure to lightly tap right above your ass to make you flustered.  Which you were. Immensely. Your face heated up like the surface of a blue star. Blood pouring from your nose to your cheeks. You whipped around and bowed several times. Getting a bit of blood on the ground. “THANK YOU SO MUCH. Uhh I UUHH. BYE BYE!” And with that you zipped off. Zooming straight back to your apartment and falling asleep straight as you locked the door and collapsed on the couch. Bakugou stayed behind. An inner quarrel raging in his mind. ‘TEDDY BEAR WHAT THE FUCK? “WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT! ‘You tapped their ass what the fuck you perv? ‘They liked Denkis more than yours. ‘I wanna see them writhing beneath me. He tried to shake them. Flustered horribly by these thougts. HE HAD ONLY JUST MET THEM! He needed to calm down. Then a voice breached all his other thoughts. “Their blood looks tasty.” Denki was taken aback. And now was moonwalking all the way back to his other patrol area.  Bakuhou didnt care, and insteasd just knealt down. Swiped a bit of the blood off the pavement and licked his finger. He could physically feel his pupils expand. Wider than they ever had before.  He smirked. A tastse of something sweeter than kicking a villans ass, or dragging Deku through the mud. Now he had a target... and they werent getting away. Why would they want to anyway? “

[offtopicoverload]

Hope Dumps Noah

I have no logical explanation for what this is, but @bubblybabynailpolish had an anon bring up Noah + Hope = Jade + Beck from Victorious a while ago, and it’s been living rent free in my head for weeks so here’s some bullshit. It’s loosely based on that one episode where Jade gets Tori to win back Beck except gayer and more litg and exists purely to appease the gremlin that is early 2010s me yelling in the back of my mind. And thanks to Anne for answering my weird asks, this is what they were for lmao

T Rating (fluff and angst, some elements of the show kinda? i tried at least)

Hope x MC (Rosie)

~10k (got super carried away but didnt wanna make multiple parts so take it as you will. on the bright side, it'd be longer if i edited properly but im tired so no)

Rosie’s front door shakes on its hinges, a pounding, thundering sound echoing from the other side, berating the wood as it quivers and quivers. Her head flies up in surprise, half expecting an army to spill into her flat, battering ram in hand as they shout orders. But no such event occurs, and she leaps up from the sofa in the corner, pocketing her phone and hurrying across the room before yanking the door open. She immediately freezes in place, meeting bewildered, watery eyes standing on the other side of the threshold.

Tears are streaming down splotchy cheeks, a throat bobbing as it fights to maintain some sort of composure, even as bones tremble beneath skin, shivering regardless of the heat of the building. “Um, uh, hey?” Rosie tries awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot in the doorway and gripping the knob with pale knuckles.

“Can I come in?” the words waver as they leave messy, tear-muddied, brightly stained lips, pouring out like broken shards, creating their own trail alongside tears. Red eyes glance down the hallway, paranoid as they search for something, even in the late night, “I don’t - I don’t want to be out here where -” a sniffle “- where people can see.”

Rosie blinks a few times, her mind still slowly working to process the situation that’s just presented itself to her. But dark eyes are glimmering with shed and unshed tears, pleading beneath lashes and shadows from poor corridor lighting, and she startles into action, “Yeah! Yeah, er, yeah,” she mumbles, moving aside and holding the door open in invitation.

The threshold’s crossed, hurrying inside the flat with arms crossed, making a beeline for the upholstered sofa backed against the wall and dropping down onto it. Rosie closes the door, locking it carefully, neurotically, slowly, just to give herself time to think, to make sense of what to do with one of the last people she ever expected inside her flat: Hope.

Hope’s sitting on her sofa, curled in on herself to take up as little space as possible, cheeks covered in the remnants of despair that Rosie can’t even explain, let alone prepare herself for. Hope’s sniffling in her living room, palms running up and down her biceps to calm herself, her throat struggling to stifle sobs she’s ashamed of. Hope’s crying in her flat, gaze pinned to the floor to avoid the world, makeup streaked and smudged on all of her features, features wracked with inexplicable pain.

Rosie turns from the door, brushing her clammy palms on her sweatpants over and over again, a distractionary stimuli to calm the nerves slowly bubbling beneath her skin. Nerves she hasn’t felt in months, and was determined to never feel again, not after weeks and weeks of the constant feeling of insects crawling beneath her skin, burrowing and biting and squirming. She glances up, finding Hope’s eyes trained on her, hesitant and terrified from across the room, the flat’s lights reflecting in them, her damp cheeks shimmering in the warm colours.

Rosie forces her lips to curl in a tiny smile as she approaches, somewhat slow and cautious, until she can fall into the cushions beside Hope, bloodshot eyes never straying from her movement. Rosie risks a hand on her back, gently skating up and down her spine, an attempt at comfort she doesn’t have a reason to provide. But she provides it anyway, praying it’ll help, it’ll keep the tears from dripping down Hope’s jaw and dampening her top.

Only it doesn’t, only Hope begins to crumble, falling against her and burying her face against Rosie’s shoulder, sobs shaking her shoulders, trembling like the door on its hinges. Rosie wraps her arms around the quaking body clinging to her, murmuring a few quiet assurances, an offer of a lifesaver in the raging sea drowning her. Her hands draw circles on Hope’s vulnerable back, shapes to distract herself with, to ground herself with.

Hope bawls and whimpers and sobs and shakes for what feels like forever to Rosie, a forever that’s odd and uncomfortable, a forever that she doesn’t know what to make of. It’s not that she’s necessarily upset with it - she’s done this for girl friends in the past, she knows how to help a heartbroken woman - it’s just who she’s helping. She hasn’t seen Hope since the finale, since she walked away with her hand clasped in Noah’s, since Rosie split the money with Arjun, just to appease the audience.

He was sweet, sure, but they just didn’t fit. She didn’t feel like he was her other half, her perfect match, a missing piece in the puzzle that constructs her life. She didn’t see herself sacrificing things for him, didn’t see herself working for her relationship with him, didn’t see herself with him, point blank. And Rosie doesn’t do things she can’t see, can’t envision, can’t rationalise.

Which is exactly why she has no idea what to make of the woman dampening and wrinkling her sweater, face pressed to her shoulder and hands fisted in her shirt. “Hey, it’s okay,” she murmurs against Hope’s head, her breath hot where it brushes skin, a shiver running through Hope at the exhale.

This is unfamiliar territory to Rosie, unknown ground as she slowly steps into no man’s land, wary of land mines sitting beneath the dirt. Land mines of glares and scoffs and dismissals, land mines that sat in every corner of the Villa. Maybe in another life this would be normal, be commonplace, but not in this one.

Not in the world where Rosie kissed Noah in the Villa’s lounge that fateful day, that day that she’s regretted ever since. It wasn’t meant to mean anything, it was only supposed to help Priya and Bobby. It wasn’t supposed to cause the end of the world or hurt Hope as much as it did. It wasn’t supposed to confuse Noah as much as it did or leave him dragging things on for ages. It wasn’t supposed to be anything at all, anything but a blatant mistake.

But it was, it was so much, and now here they are, months and months later. Hope hasn’t spoken to Rosie since the finale, and Rosie didn’t even mind. She’s barely kept in touch with anyone, the only people she speaks to being Chelsea and Priya, since they’re always first to reach out. Even in the Villa, Hope would barely speak to her, and it hurt for a while. It hurt that they had been so close and were suddenly so far, but she always forced that hurt away. It was her own fault, it was her actions that led to Hope hating her guts.

Except, maybe she doesn’t hate Rosie’s guts. Maybe she doesn’t want her dead or wish she was never born. Maybe she still thinks about when they were friends like Rosie does. Maybe there’s a reason she’s crying in Rosie’s arms in this moment, that she showed up at Rosie’s door, that she sought out something only Rosie could presumably offer.

Hope swallows thickly, her head turning until her cheek’s resting against Rosie. “We broke up,” Hope croaks, stifling another sob as she forces her voice out again, “I - I dumped Noah.”

“Oh, um…” Rosie fumbles, her hand tracing the length of Hope’s spine beneath her heavy, navy, patterned sweater, “I’m sorry,” she whispers, the words still warm as they settle on Hope’s skin.

“It’s my fault,” she whimpers, turning her face back to Rosie as another tremble courses through her, a barely suppressed noise of anguish dying in her throat.

Rosie resumes her reassurances, her small whispers into Hope’s scalp, her tight hold on Hope’s quivering body. She cycles through every calming technique or phrase she can think of what must be a hundred times over, until Hope quiets, until Rosie stops feeling tears on her neck, until steady, even breathing fills the flat.

She swallows to stabilise herself before asking the all important question, one she’s a little nervous to hear the answer to, “Can I - Can I ask why you’re here? And, uh, so upset? If it was your decision?” she trips over her words, a flower of nerves blossoming in her stomach, and she wants to stamp it out, to stop it from pulling her in once more.

Hope pulls away from, her face set in malleable stone even with tears glistening on her cheekbones, sparkling in the overhead lights Rosie had on, diamonds tumbling down her skin, soft enough not to cut. “I didn’t know who else to go to. I - I didn’t know what to do,” she confesses, her head bowing and eyes staring into her lap.

“Okay,” Rosie nods, a palm still skating up and down the length of Hope’s upper arm, “That’s okay. You don’t have to know. You can just stay here if you want?” she offers uneasily, shifting awkwardly in her spot.

Hope’s eyes flicker up to meet Rosie’s, a cautious hopefulness in them, “I can? It’s not, like, weird?” she mumbles, averting her gaze once more.

“Not if you don’t think it is,” Rosie counters as coolly as she can manage.

Hope shakes her head adamantly, “No, no, I’d… I’d rather not be on my own right now.”

Rosie smiles in what she hopes comes across as encouraging, “That’s cool. You want me to stay out here? We can watch a movie?” she proposes with pinched brows and squinted eyes.

A gentle, hesitant smile quirks Hope’s mouth, “Yeah.” She pauses, contemplative and nodding distractedly, “That’d be great, thanks.”

Rosie rises from the sofa, crossing the living room to flip off the lights and grab the remote and a pile of blankets sitting in the corner. She drops them beside Hope in a heap, crashing onto the opposite side of the sofa a second later. She flicks through streaming services until Hope points out some random romcom, Rosie turning it on as Hope relaxes into the sofa with one of the blankets.

Rosie doesn’t pay much attention to the film, playing with her box braids distractedly and only having a loose grasp on the cheesy plot, but she notices every time Hope laughs, the sound becoming more and more relaxed as time goes on. Rosie sinks into the cushions, her legs folded and arms wrapped around her torso, head lolled against the back of the sofa.

It’s hard to tell when her eyelids fall shut, or when the movie ends, or when Hope moves, but Rosie wakes up to a dark screen flickering through backgrounds and ads for streaming exclusives. She wakes up to Hope’s head resting on her shoulder and a blanket splayed across her lap, as if Hope was worried she’d be cold without it.

She blinks a few times in the dark, taking in the scene around her and slowly processing what her night has become. She only wanted to sit on her phone before going to bed early after her long day at work. She didn’t expect a crying woman to show up at her doorstep or to watch a bad movie until too early in the morning, or to fall asleep in the living room. A sigh shakes her chest, and she reaches for the remote, turning off the telly and settling back into the sofa, Hope shifting beside her with the adjustment.

---

Rosie wakes up to sunlight pouring into her flat and a deserted sofa, blankets the only remnants of Hope’s night spent in the living room. She slumps forward, head in her hands as she adjusts to the too-bright sun and the noise of London already filtering inside, honks of car horns and a hum of people on the streets providing a familiar soundtrack to her wake up.

“I want to get him back,” a voice declares, the words wavering slightly as they fall from lips set in a frown.

“Hmm?” Rosie hums groggily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she lifts her head, blinking to clear her vision. She finds Hope standing across the room, arms crossed and expression determined as she meets Rosie’s gaze.

“I want to get Noah back, I want to tell him I’m sorry for the breakup,” Hope repeats, her voice sturdier now.

Rosie nods, her mind still foggy but the haze slowly clearing, “Okay. That’s good,” she rationalises slowly, rising from the sofa and stretching her muscles; she’s made a point to avoid sleeping on the sofa normally. She stalks into the kitchen, falling into her usual morning routine easily.

Hope follows behind her, eyes widening, “It is?” she sounds surprised, stopping a ways away from Rosie, feet on the wood.

“Yeah, if you were happy together,” Rosie nods again, turning to her kitchen appliances. She starts with coffee, collecting beans and supplies meticulously as always, setting them out in a particular pattern beside the fridge.

Hope crashes into a barstool at the counter behind Rosie, her voice coming out softer now, “We were,” she confirms.

“Okay,” Rosie shrugs. “So go get him back,” she turns, forearms dropping to the counter beneath her to support her weight. She watches Hope curiously, expecting some explanation or excitement or something of the like, but Hope’s gone silent, her lip slipping between her teeth to worry the skin. Her gaze is trained on the pale countertop, hands clasped tightly in her lap. “Hope?” Rosie asks gently.

Dark eyes fly up to meet her own, snapping up too quickly, “Yeah?”

“You okay?” Concern wells in Rosie’s gaze before she can prevent it, her upper body unconsciously leaning forward to inspect Hope and find what’s suddenly irking her.

“Yeah,” Hope nods.

Rosie isn’t quite convinced, her brows knitting together, “You sure?”

Hope’s eyes flicker around the kitchen for a minute to avoid the deep eyes watching her before her shoulders slump, defeated and exhausted, “No,” she mumbles dejectedly.

“What’s wrong?”

A heavy sigh lifts Hope’s shoulders, twitching them lightly “I don’t think he’ll talk to me, not after yesterday.”

Rosie pauses. She hadn’t really considered that, just assumed Noah would be as torn up about the breakup as Hope had been, that he’d been jumping in place if Hope said it was a mistake. Her fingernails tap at the counter as she considers, weighing her options before diving right in, “Do you want me to try?”

Hope’s eyes dart to Rosie again, still just as surprised as earlier, as if everything Rosie does is entirely unbelievable, “You’d do that?”

“I guess?” Rosie gives an awkward shrug, averting her eyes and turning around to continue making coffee. She grabs milk from the fridge before finishing the process, pouring everything into a mug, “Yeah, sure,” she mumbles when she faces Hope again, swirling the dark liquid in a whirlpool.

It’s a long, almost painful amount of time before either of them utter another word. “Thank you,” Hope whispers the words, a tiny break in the quiet of the flat, of the bubble that’s formed in the kitchen.

---

The next day, long after Hope leaves her flat, long after Rosie made eggs and coffee for the both of them, long after Hope gave Rosie a quick hug in thanks, Rosie grabs an Uber to the other side of the city, to the library Noah works at. She strides into the building with her hands knotted in the pockets of her jacket, nerves clamming her palms as she scans the open area she’s found herself in. It’s relatively empty, only a few people sitting and working or browsing shelves idly in the middle of the day.

She searches a few aisles, glancing down empty passageways and passing shelf after shelf loaded with books. A few patrons give her odd looks, some outright glaring at her for her behaviour, but she eventually finds Noah in a back corner, restocking a few shelves in practiced motions, a cart loaded with books parked beside him.

“Hey,” she greets from down the aisle, waving slightly with an uneasy smile when he glances at her in surprise.

He adds the books in his hands to the shelf before turning to face her properly, his expression slightly stunned, “Hey,” he greets back, his tone puzzled as one hand falls to the book cart to lean against.

Rosie ventures further into the aisle, her eyes darting around as she attempts to figure out how to broach the tender subject of a breakup from only two days ago. She stops before him, folding her arms and rolling up and down on her toes, “So…” she starts, looking up at him from beneath her lashes in hopes that he’ll understand what she’s getting at.

He doesn’t, only blinking as he looks at her expectantly, waiting for an explanation for her presence. She sighs, one hand fiddling with the tips of her braids nervously, rolling them between the pads of her fingers, “You and Hope broke up?” she eventually asks, meeting his gaze with as much confidence as she can muster.

His eyes go wide, his jaw falling open, “Um, yeah, but I - Look, you’re really amazing but I think I need a little time, you know, and if you’ll wait, that’s great, but I don’t want you to feel obligated or anything, but again, you’re amazing, I just…” he trails off as he takes in the confusion on her face, a blush growing on his cheeks.

Then it clicks, “Oh!” she startles. “No, no, I - mate, I didn’t come to hit on you,” she clarifies, somewhat taken aback by the conclusion he so quickly jumped to. “I’m not here to ask you out, no,” she reiterates.

He nods swiftly, muttering a few apologies under his breath before clearing his throat. “So, um, why are you here then?” he asks, careful and wary of saying something else wrong.

Rosie shifts on her feet, hands falling back to fidget in her jacket pocket’s, “Well… I kinda got the impression that Hope regrets the way things went down and wants to try again,” she forces, drawing herself to her full height, still a few inches shorter than the man before her.

Confusion flickers on his face, “How’d you get that impression?”

“I talked to her.”

The confusion grows, a crease splitting his eyebrows, “She talked to you?”

“She showed up at my flat,” Rosie answers casually.

“Why?”

She shrugs, mumbling out an “I dunno” in response.

“And you’re fine with that? And you’re helping her?” his arms cross over his chest as he asks, staring down at her intently, intimidatingly.

“Yeah,” she shrinks under his gaze, drawing her jacket tighter to block out the sudden chill coursing down her spine.

Noah’s lips twist, though in frustration or anger or upset, Rosie can’t tell. “Why?” he repeats.

Rosie sighs, shrugging again at the lack of a better answer, offering her best explanation, “She was really torn up about it.”

“She dumped me,” he states calmly, matter-of-factly, dismissively.

“I know.”

He watches Rosie carefully for a moment, taking in her appearance as she shuffles on her feet, unable to conceive of where this conversation is going next. “Do you know why?” he finally asks, Rosie stilling at the question.

“No,” she admits reluctantly.

“I got lunch with Priya, alone.”

“Well, yeah, that’s not great,” sarcasm soaks her words, coating her throat as the syllables escape.

Noah blinks at her, still stern and calm, “Because Ibrahim and Marisol had to cancel.”

“Oh,” Rosie freezes, her body tensing uncomfortably. That changes things. She swallows thickly, eyebrows raising and curving together, “Does she know that?”

“I tried to tell her.”

“Maybe she’ll listen now.”

“She never does,” Noah shrugs, his demeanor unchanged and unaffected.

She looks to him in disbelief, “That can’t be true.”

He heaves a heavy sigh, his guard finally cracking as his arms fall back to his sides, disappointment radiating from him like warmth from a fire, “For my birthday she got me The Old Man and the Sea,” he looks at Rosie as if he expects her to understand what that means.

“Okay…” she squints. She knows enough about literature to know it’s a classic, that most students have to read it at one point, herself included. “Why’s that bad? You’re a librarian.”

Noah’s lips curve in a slight frown as he straightens impossibly taller, “I hate Hemingway,” he nearly spits the name, a frown splitting Rosie’s own lips at his obvious displeasure.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

---

Hope shows up at Rosie’s flat again that night, her features fraught as she hurries in, hugging herself tight with her coat. She drops onto the sofa after she enters, Rosie following a beat behind and folding her legs on the cushions, Hope nearly vibrating in her skin as she watches Rosie expectantly.

When Rosie only meets her gaze, she sighs exasperatedly, “Well? What’d he say? He didn’t text me or anything,” she leans forward, eager to learn.

Rosie shifts under the excitement presented to her, excitement she knows is about to die, “He, uh, he wasn’t really on board with you guys getting back together,” she mumbles, avoiding shining eyes.

Hope visibly deflates in only a heartbeat, her bottom lip poking out as tears well in her eyes, every part of her depressed and hurt, “He wasn’t?” Her voice is small, painfully so to Rosie’s ears.

She forces herself not to cringe at the tone, at the way Hope’s fighting tears once more, “No, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, you’ve done a lot,” Hope sniffles, wiping at her nose and blinking back tears to calm herself, to prevent another onslaught of sobs on Rosie’s sofa. “You’ve done a lot,” she repeats, eyes trained on the fabric of the cushions beneath them, staring intently just to have something to focus her energy on. “Did he say why?” she finally asks after a minute, breaking the brief silence that had settled over them.

“Er -” Rosie squirms, fidgeting nervously, “He said he didn’t think you really listened to him,” she draws out the words, not wanting to speak them.

Hope is absolutely appalled, her jaw falling open in horror, “That’s - That’s not true!” she eventually manages the words, her mouth fumbling them.

“I know, but -”

“I listen!” she insists, hands flying up to grip Rosie’s forearm desperately, in search of confirmation that she’s a good person, a good partner, “Why would he say that, Rosie?” she’s panicked as her grasp tightens, falling away only a second later, “Why would he say that?” she repeats, softer now, a whisper.

“He said for his birthday you got him a Hemingway book,” Rosie chances.

Hope’s arms fold over her chest protectively, “He didn’t have any Hemingway.”

“‘Cause he hates Hemingway,” Rosie explains as gently as she can, Hope immediately slumping again, any retorts or defences forgotten.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

It’s quiet, Hope staring at nothing and Rosie staring at Hope, waiting for something to change, waiting for her to get sad or angry or maybe just leave all together. But she doesn’t, meeting Rosie’s eyes with a fire inside her own, “I need something else.” She’s determined as she sinks into the cushions, thinking raptly of some solution. “What if I get him a gift?” a lightbulb seems to explode above her head as she sits up again.

Rosie blinks at the quick change in mood, taken aback at the grin sitting on Hope’s lips. “Like what?”

“He likes Greyhounds?” Hope proposes with a tilt of her head and a quirk of an eyebrow, “He always said he’d love to have one.”

“You’re gonna buy him an entire dog?” Rosie asks in shock, her tone stunted and sharp.

Hope scowls at her in irritation, “He likes them!” she defends, “He’s talked about them a lot, and it’ll show I listen, right?”

“I guess?”

“What do you mean you guess?”

Hands fly up in self-defence and attempted placation, “This is your relationship, I don’t know him or what goes,” Rosie gestures in the air separating her from Hope, working to diffuse the tension.

Hope huffs, crossing her arms and collapsing into the cushions behind her, “Fine.”

---

Hope spends the next few days looking up shelters and breeders, trying to decide on a puppy or an adult or even an elderly dog, researching proper care for a Greyhound and what they need. Rosie doesn’t see or hear from Hope until her phone’s ringing incessantly as she gets out of the shower, scrambling to answer it and silence the buzzing, “Hello?” she asks without even reading the Caller ID, fumbling to turn on speakerphone.

“Hey!” Hope’s voice crackles through the speaker, bright and energetic. “I found one!” she announces, clearly pleased with herself and her findings.

“Hmm?” Rosie questions distractedly, tightening her towel wrapped around her body and grabbing skin and hair products to set them on the bathroom sink.

“I found a dog! I went to a shelter!”

Rosie nods, only realising afterwards that Hope can’t see her, sighing as she coats her face in moisturiser. “That’s great,” she hums again.

“Can you come over tonight? And we bring him to Noah’s flat? Please?” her voice is begging as it rings through the phone, Rosie glancing to it as Hope draws out the vowels of her plea.

“Uh, yeah, I think I’m free,” she mumbles, her mouth twisting as she applies products.

She’s reaching for the end call button after a long silence when a quiet murmur surprises her, “Thank you,” Hope whispers into her phone from the other side of the line.

A small smile curves Rosie’s mouth, “No problem.”

---

“You’re the worst,” Hope groans as she tugs on a leash, glaring at Rosie and her amused smile beside her.

“Says the one that dragged me into this,” Rosie grins, popping her eyebrows for effect. She’s refused to assist with the dog the entire time, forcing Hope to try and wrangle the full grown animal.

It darts forward down the street, yanking Hope along, “Hey!” she chastises, Rosie laughing unabashedly from behind her, jogging to catch up. “You could help, you know! He listened to you earlier!”

Rosie smirks, “Oh, I know. This is much more fun, though,” she teases, falling into another fit of laughter as Hope digs her heels into the pavement, working to pull the dog back.

He doesn’t listen, carrying on in the direction of the library. Noah wasn’t at his flat, so they’ve been forced to take a short detour to find him without waiting. “At least he knows where he’s going,” Rosie comments, still grinning.

Hope shoots her a scowl, “How lucky,” she spits through gritted teeth, her jaw tight as she uses all her strength to keep the dog from running off into London’s streets.

Rosie sighs as Hope nearly trips over her own feet, crouching down and whistling sharply. The dog turns, bolting for her, nearly tackling her to the ground until she grips his fur to keep upright, cooing over him the entire time. Hope’s gaze is a mix of disappointed, annoyed, and mildly impressed as Rosie grins up at her, scratching the dog behind his ears.

She pops back to her feet, stealing the leash from Hope in one smooth motion, “You’re welcome,” she hums, setting back off on their path, the dog following obediently on her heels.

She hears Hope groaning about it behind her until she catches up, muttering a ‘thanks’ under her breath, much to Rosie’s enjoyment. The rest of the walk is relatively quiet, only a few good natured ribbings from Rosie or complaints from Hope filling the space as they work their way to the library, street lamps illuminating much of their path in the dark evening.

Noah spots them before they spot him, the pair distracted as Rosie laughs at Hope’s grumbling, Rosie nearly walking into a post as she struggles to stay upright. “Stop it!” Hope chides, slapping her shoulder, which only makes Rosie laugh even harder.

“Um, hi?” Noah calls out to them, earning their gazes simultaneously. Hope stiffens, Rosie sobers, and the dog slobbers onto the pavement beneath their feet.

Rosie passes the leash back to Hope, taking a step back and away from their reunion, much to Noah’s confusion. “Hi,” Hope greets back, his eyes settling back on her.

“What are you guys doing out here?” he asks, his tone slipping into something adjacent to wariness, maybe light caution.

A bright smile curves Hope’s mouth and she sticks her hand out, offering the leash and the dog attached to it, “I got you a dog!” she announces eagerly, “I know how much you’ve always wanted one, so…” she trails off at his expression.

His eyebrows are drawn tight, lips working to form some words, “You got me a dog?!” he balks, his expression soon slipping into anger, almost a snarl, with his eyes blazing. Hope taking a step away from him, blinking rapidly as her mind audibly whirs.

“You always said you wanted one!” she explains, a spark igniting in her own dark eyes, threatening to start a fight.

“That doesn’t - What were you thinking?!”

Hope’s jaw sets tight, but it’s not enough to hide the shimmer in her eyes, “You like them, I know you do! And you don’t think I listen, but I do, so I’m proving that to you!” she counters, her voice raising.

Noah looks baffled, his hands flying and mouth opening and closing as he searches for words, “He won’t fit in my flat, Hope! He’s big and - and has a ton of energy!” he gestures wildly to the dog that’s found his way to Rosie, sitting in front of her as she scratches behind his ear.

“I thought that’s what you liked about them!” Hope’s own arms are waving, in both exasperation and irritation. One hand rises to fidget with her braids, tugging on and fiddling with a few.

“Yeah, for when I’m in a house, not a tiny flat!” Noah shouts back, “I can’t have him! I don’t want him!”

Any fire that had been blazing in Hope’s dark eyes dies out at that, at the way Noah’s glaring at her, at the way he’s dismissed her peace offering, her attempt to fix things between them. “But -”

“You can’t just -” he huffs sharply before trying to school his expression into something calmer, “You can’t just do these things without asking, it’s like you don’t even care what I think.”

Hope looks horrified, like her world is turning to ash right before her, and maybe it is, maybe this is the end of everything for her, “That’s not - I care! This is how I care! I - I pay attention and try and do things for you!”

“I don’t want you to do things for me!” Noah counters, hands balling into angry fists at his sides.

“Why not?” Hope asks indignantly, head tilted back to meet Noah’s gaze directly, her chest puffed out in a show of confidence.

Noah flounders, his jaw snapping shut, visibly rolling with tension as he searches for a reason, exploding when he can’t find one, “I just don’t! I can do things myself, Hope, I don’t need you railroading me like you always do! I’m tired of it, it’s not worth it!” he accuses, his last words effectively severing any chance at reconciliation.

Hope slumps, her shoulders sagging and face drooping, every muscle in her body going lax, as if she’s melting from heartache. Noah exhales sharply, his own shoulders dropping, losing some of the tension keeping them upright as he drags a hand through his hair, playing with it to calm himself further.

Rosie keeps to the side, not sure of her place, not sure if she’s meant to intervene, and only watches Hope stand with her head turned to the ground, braids blocking her face from view as she remains frozen, unmoving, her feet stuck to the ground and her body tense. “I’m sorry.” The words are barely audible, fractures of the typical strength in her voice, before she turns on her heel, dropping the dog’s leash and running away with tears in her eyes.

Noah deflates as she leaves, his hands balled up tight to steady himself, his face scrunched up in thought and frustration and likely a dozen other emotions as he struggles to process them. He slumps forward, his previous fight and irritation dissipating into the air, the dog still sitting at Rosie’s feet, tongue lolling and a whine echoing from him.

All the while, Rosie struggles for words, for a reaction, for something appropriate, but all she can think about is the way Hope collapsed before him, like the sight is imprinted on her mind. “Come on, mate,” she finally breaks the quiet, “You didn’t have to be that harsh,” she comments, deep creases in her own forehead and between her brows.

“I didn’t mean to be,” Noah mumbles, head down in shame as he stares at the ground, blank and empty save for the rise of his chest with each breath.

Rosie steps closer as the silence drags on, scooping up the abandoned leash and glancing over her shoulder and finding Hope long gone as she does. Her hand rises to his shoulder, gripping it loosely, “I know,” she shrugs weakly, squeezing the muscles beneath her palm. “Sorry about the dog,” she offers.

Noah laughs a little, but it’s splintered on the edges and lacking any real joy or amusement, “It’s fine. My mum’ll love him, I’m sure.”

Rosie nods sagely, retracting her hand carefully before gesturing over her shoulder, “I’m gonna, uh, go after her,” she mutters, turning on her heel and hurrying after Hope.

She finds her slumped against a wall half a block away, staring at nothing with tears streaming down her face as her lip quivers with barely restrained sobs. Rosie skids to a stop beside her, earning Hope’s attention momentarily, before she turns back to staring at nothing. She’s hollow, her gaze empty, barely there as she drifts through her mind and the storm that must be filling it like a hurricane. Rosie doesn’t say anything, only leans against the wall beside the destitute woman, eyes trained on the glimmers coating her cheeks, lit by street lamps around them.

“I just,” Hope finally begins after a long, painstakingly silent moment, “I don’t get it.” She sniffles, “I - I know we weren’t perfect, but I just… I thought we meant more than we must have.” Her voice falls apart on the last few words, cracking and splintering into a tiny, fragile whisper.

Rosie nods in understanding, pulling Hope into her arms without uttering a single word, holding her close and letting her fall apart once more, shaking under the weight of Rosie’s arms around her, burying her face in her shoulder. Her hands fist in the fabric of Rosie’s shirt, an anchor to attach herself to as the hurricane blows and wrecks and destroys her insides.

Hope’s tired of letting go, of giving in or giving up, of letting her world dissolve in her hands because fighting’s too much of a risk, a hazard, a danger to her. She’s tired of ignoring the things that rub her the wrong way, that send a cold chill down her spine, that fill her skull with a swirling mass of dark and awful thoughts. She’s tired of all the hurt and the fighting, of the way her skin turns a sickly green every time someone gets too close, of the headaches and nausea that accompany one of his unbothered shrugs.

She’s tired of it, she’s done with it, she’s not going to fight anymore, not when he doesn’t fight for her. Not when Rosie is the one she’s been leaning on, not when Rosie is the one that’s been consoling her, not when Rosie is the one that’s been nice, and caring, and sweet, and gentle, and there.

Hope shifts, freeing her face from Rosie’s top as the tears come to a stop, but keeping her head resting against her shoulder. “Why couldn’t it have been like this?” she whispers into the air, a quiet pondering that’s directed more to herself than the woman wrapped around her.

“Hmm?” Rosie hums, pulling back to look down at Hope, finding her gaze distant as she stares into the space before her, eyes piercing into the street stretching before them. “What do you mean?” Rosie murmurs down to her, finally drawing dark eyes to her own.

They’re averted just as quickly, Hope pressing her cheek even further into Rosie’s shoulder, and Rosie swears she sees some colour rush to Hope’s face. “I dunno,” she mumbles, gaze trained on nothing in particular. “It’s just… easier. Comforting. You let me do this and you’re sweet about it.”

“Noah seems pretty sweet,” Rosie mumbles awkwardly, still unsure where the line is, how Hope feels about him, how she wants to feel about him and their relationship.

Her shoulders raise in a miniscule, half-hearted shrug, “Yeah, but he doesn’t really get it. He doesn’t get it when I’m upset or mad. He’s too calm,” her lips twist at the statement, displeased at the memories.

Rosie snorts, above her, Hope’s eyes darting upwards, “What, and I’m a raving madwoman, is that?” she grins, the tension of the moment falling away with ease.

Hope’s mouth curves at the edges as she slips from Rosie’s grasp just enough to slap her arm, a common reaction to the older woman’s antics, Rosie feigning pain and rubbing at the spot instantly. “No!” Hope chides, “But you get it,” she settles back against Rosie, “Or at least you get what to do. Noah would try and fix it or tell me to ignore it or whatever, but you just let me be.”

Rosie shrugs, some heat rising to her cheeks as she glances towards the empty street beside them, fumbling for a response. She defaults to finding somewhere that will bring Hope some sort of solace, “Okay, let’s get you home,” she sighs, ignoring the heat on the back of her neck to the best of her ability.

Hope removes herself from Rosie’s hold entirely this time, stepping back and folding her arms while shifting from foot to foot. “Can I stay at your place tonight?” she asks with a twist of her lips, looking to Rosie from beneath her lashes.

“Sure,” Rosie grins, slinging her arm over Hope’s shoulders to guide her through the streets to her car, Hope leaning into her with ease as they trade some small conversation.

---

A day later and there’s a knock on Rosie’s door from across the flat, a short, sharp knock. She sighs, grabbing a dish towel and dusting off her hands before exiting the kitchen and the mess of ingredients within it. Another knock sounds on the wood, impatient as it continues on and on, Rosie hurrying to reach the door.

She jerks it open to find Hope on the other side of the threshold, beaming with her fist still poised in the air and a bottle of wine in her other hand. “Hi!” she greets, stepping past Rosie into the flat and scanning the open area curiously.

“Hey?” Rosie tries, shutting the door behind Hope and leaning against it, arms crossed and towel in hand. “Should I have been expecting you?” she asks, cycling through her day in her mind to double-check.

“Nope!” Hope turns, still grinning, “But I brought wine!” she offers the bottle proudly, swinging it for emphasis.

Rosie nods, one brow raised, “I can see that.”

Hope’s smile dims, slowly falling away as Rosie doesn’t say anything more, evidently a sign of annoyance. “Sorry,” she bows her head. “I shouldn’t have come, should I? I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what to do tonight,” she confesses, her words rushing in a hurry to explain herself.

Rosie pushes herself upright from the door, stepping away from the threshold and closer to Hope, “I take it you usually spend evenings with Noah?”

Hope only nods in response, head still down in embarrassment and resignation. Her arms are slack at her side, the wine bottle dangling loosely in her grasp as she awaits Rosie’s harsh words telling her to leave and not come back.

“Well, I’m making dinner right now and I always make too much,” Rosie states, no edge in her voice, no malice in her words, “Take your shoes off and it’ll be done in about a half hour.” Rosie turns, striding back into the kitchen and leaving Hope to collect herself.

She joins Rosie a few minutes later in her socks, her smile repaired as she drops into a barstool across from Rosie, placing the wine bottle on the counter, a glimmer in her eyes as she presents it, pushing it across the counter. Rosie laughs in response, nicking it and pulling out wine glasses. She pours a drink for each of them, Hope draining hers rather quickly as she talks about her day, Rosie stealing a few sips as she cooks.

Rosie presents the finished dinner with a flourish to Hope, earning a laugh as she takes the plate. Rosie rounds the kitchen, dropping into the stool beside Hope and taking a swig of her wine. “So what’d you do today?” Hope prompts curiously, cutting into the chicken Rosie made and taking a bite.

“Usual stuff. Trained today, the new player’s are adjusting pretty well, and then ran a few errands. Usual stuff,” she shrugs, taking a bite of asparagus.

“That’s fun,” Hope hums encouragingly, smiling wide when Rosie glances to her. She nearly chokes on her food at the sight, coughing and laughing at the same time as Hope watches in confusion and concern, “What’s happening? Are you okay?” she turns in her seat to face Rosie directly, hands hovering, unsure of where to land.

Rosie waves her off, still working to catch her breath and stop laughing, something made infinitely more difficult by Hope hitting her on the back to presumably help her dislodge something. “I’m fine!” she croaks, working to suck in deep breaths.

“Are you sure? What happened?” Hope asks again, hand on the back of Rosie’s seat, just in case.

Rosie chuckles briefly before pressing her lips together, forcing neutrality that barely holds together, “You were just very serious in your excitement over groceries.” She bites her tongue to keep from laughing again.

“Is that really it?” Rosie nods to confirm, suppressing more giggles. Hope’s eyes roll, a groan escaping from her throat, “You’re the worst.”

Now Rosie can barely hold it back, dissolving into giggles as Hope scowls, picking at her meal as Rosie struggles to find air. “Says the one eating my food,” she grins when she finally catches her breath.

“What’s that mean?” Hope turns with a glare.

Rosie draws herself taller, even sitting down she’s got some height on Hope, “It means you showed up at my door unannounced and stole all my hard work,” she accuses coolly.

“I brought you wine!” Hope frowns, gesturing to the bottle in her defence.

Rosie raises an eyebrow, a knowing smile on her lips, “Who’s the one drinking it all?”

That shuts Hope up, Rosie earning a scowl as they turn back to their dinners, Hope staying quiet until Rosie brings up her job. Then she’s beaming and telling every detail of her workplace she can think of, every coworker that’s weird or mean or nice or funny, every aspect of career that she loves.

The conversation flows alongside the wine, until the bottle’s empty and the pair’s slouched on the sofa, facing each other on opposite ends. Hope fumbles for her phone, pulling it out and wincing at the time, “I need to go home.” She turns, standing up what must be too quickly because she drops back to the cushions.

Rosie shifts forward too, folding her legs before her, “Did you drive here?”

Braids jangle as Hope nods, her eyes falling shut as she slowly leans back into the cushions again. Rosie sighs, finding it much easier to stand than Hope, and grabs a blanket, draping it across her lap, “Just stay here.

Hope’s eyes squint open, looking up at Rosie with dilated pupils, “You sure?” she mumbles, her words slurring together from the alcohol that had coated her tongue.

“Yeah, you’re not getting in a wreck on my watch,” Rosie hums, collecting their glasses and the empty bottle before striding into the kitchen. She puts the glasses in the sink and the bottle on the counter beside it to deal with tomorrow, then retraces her steps to the living room.

Hope’s curled up on the sofa already, the blanket tucked under her chin, and Rosie smiles at the sight and absurdity of a drunk Hope asleep in her flat. She shakes her head, turning to her bedroom and stalking inside, collapsing on the bed as soon as she can, passing out as soon as her head hits the pillow.

---

Hope continues coming to Rosie’s flat a few times a week, sometimes with an offering of wine or takeaway in hand, sometimes with nothing more than herself. They watch movies and talk and laugh about stupid things from the Villa or stories from their lives until their tired from long days or it’s three in the morning and they still don’t stop talking.

Sometimes Hope sits in an armchair and responds to emails while Rosie paces the length of the flat with her phone pressed to her ear, talking down one of her players or fighting with managers. Sometimes there’s not a single word spoken between them, sometimes all they do is talk, sometimes Rosie makes dinner, sometimes it’s late enough that they’ve both already eaten, sometimes Hope shows up after Rosie has already gone to bed, sometimes Hope even beats her home in the afternoon.

There’s no pattern to any of it, there’s no rhythm, nothing concrete to Hope’s appearances, but Rosie soon finds that she doesn’t even mind. It’s actually kind of nice, to have someone around without any expectations. It’s kind of nice that Hope brings her soup when she gets a cold, or how Hope somehow always has wine on hand for when they need it, or how Hope tidies the flat when she’s especially busy.

It’s a casual night tonight, popcorn and drinks sitting on the coffee table as a movie plays across from them in the dark. Rosie picked tonight, a drama about a hockey team one of her players always recommends, since she couldn’t think of anything else but was not definitely not watching another of Hope’s romcoms twice in a row. They’d been snacking all night, splitting a pizza in the evening as Hope worked on some project and Rosie scrolled her phone, a silence seeping into the flat.

Rosie watches the film in a similar silence now, watches the flickering of light as it reflects and refracts off every available surface in the room. A contented sigh vibrates in her throat as she settles further into the sofa, pulling the blanket she’s enthralled within tighter. She sinks into the cushions, shifting her legs and letting her knees brush against Hope’s thighs.

Speaking of, she can see the other woman watching her in the dark, eyes trained on Rosie’s features, inspecting them carefully as blues and yellows and reds and dozens of other hues play in her dark irises, glinting off and mixing with them. Rosie glances over, finding a crease between Hope’s brows as she stares at something below Rosie’s eyes that she can’t quite place. She smiles softly in the dim lighting, teasingly, “What?” she asks, “Something on my face?”

Only she doesn’t get the chance to ask the second question, because suddenly there is absolutely something on her face, something that she doesn’t think should be there and was not at all anticipating, but honestly doesn’t entirely mind. Hope’s lips are on hers, soft and nice and there.

Hope’s kissing her. Hope’s kissing her, and it’s tentative and cautious and careful, like Hope’s gaze was a moment ago, and it all makes sense in an instant. She blinks, stunned and shocked, until her lashes flutter shut and she’s kissing Hope back. She melts into her, a hand rising to cup Hope’s cheek and draw her closer, a hand fisting in the front of her shirt to close the space between them.

When they finally break for air, a sigh slips past Hope’s lips as their lips separate, still brushing against each other, their breath mingling in the small gap. “Um, what…?” Rosie whispers against the lips on hers, unable to find a conclusion to the question.

“I - I don’t know,” Hope whispers, just as quiet, “Sorry,” she murmurs, pulling back.

Rosie watches her go, hurt welling inside her gut at the regret evident on Hope’s face, “Why?”

Hope shakes her head, like she’s frustrated with something, though Rosie doesn’t know what. “Didn’t ask,” is all she says, leaning away and turning back to the film still playing.

Rosie’s following her retreat without even realising, chasing after Hope unconsciously. “Didn’t mind.”

“Really?” Hope’s eyes snap to her, wide with clear surprise at the admission.

“I mean, maybe a little warning next time, but…” Rosie shrugs, unbothered.

Dark eyes glimmer, lit by the films rainbow of lighting, “Next time?”

“If you want.”

Hope shifts, facing Rosie head on, “Do you want a next time?” she asks carefully, emphasising the importance of the question with wide eyes.

A smirk lifts the corner of Rosie’s mouth, “First time was pretty good, so yeah.”

“Only ‘pretty good’?” Hope teases, leaning closer again, close enough for Rosie to see faint specks sparkling in her irises.

“Yep,” Rosie nods, resolute as her face solidifies into sharp stone. “Not about to stroke your ego.”

Hope groans, “You’re the worst.”

“Says the one that kissed me first,” Rosie teases right back, her smirk only growing at Hope’s annoyance, however played up it may be.

“Shut up,” Hope whines.

“No thanks,” Rosie grins, ready to start a spiel about everything she’s learned annoys Hope in the past few months, everything that earns a groan or a sigh or an eye roll, everything that makes her glare or scowl or slap Rosie’s arm even though it doesn’t hurt. “I think I’m -”

Hope’s kissing her again, only this time it’s deeper, filled with fire as Hope’s hands slip around to cup the back of her head, pulling Rosie ever closer and holding her there. Rosie’s own hands slide along Hope’s body, landing on her thighs and tugging her forward on the cushions, until their bodies are pressed together, with lips locked together. A groan slips from Hope��s throat, Rosie humming at the noise and sending her hands exploring in search of more sounds, palms grazing Hope’s exposed navel, muscles twitching beneath skin.

Hope splits them apart, her forehead pressing against Rosie’s gently, her panting breaths sending a shiver down Rosie’s spine. “What are we now?” her words only amplifying the effect.

“Whatever you want us to be,” Rosie answers easily, the question seeming unnecessary, “You’re kinda taking the reins here.”

Hope pauses, her hands clasped behind Rosie’s neck and thumbs brushing her skin idly. “Are we already dating?” she asks after a long moment.

“What do you mean?”

“We do a lot of coupley stuff,” Hope shrugs a bit, her lips twisting in contemplation, “We hang out all the time and I stay over and you make dinner and we watch movies,” she lists off.

Rosie pulls away, putting enough space between them to take in all of Hope, “Do you wanna carry on like this?”

Hope blinks, like she wasn’t expecting that question, “Yeah,” she answers, a little indignantly.

“Okay,” Rosie nods along, “Do you wanna call it dating?”

Hope stalls, eyes falling away as she considers, her voice coming out smaller than before when it finally does, “...Yeah.”

“Then we’re dating,” Rosie smiles sweetly at her, Hope’s expression softening at the sight.

Until it sharpens quickly, determination building in her eyes, “We have to go on a date,” she states evenly, matter-of-factly.

“Does that make it official?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Rosie shrugs, falling back against the arm of the sofa casually, a wicked grin splitting her lips, “But you’re taking me out,” she warns.

Hope’s brow furrows at the declaration, the surety of it, “What? Why?”

“You started this, now it’s your problem,” Rosie smirks as Hope frowns, her eyes narrowing into a glare in the dark of the flat.

“You’re the absolute worst.”

“Says the one taking me on a date,” Rosie wiggles in her spot, falling back further and slipping her feet into Hope’s lap, Hope harrumphing and shoving them off with a scowl, much to Rosie’s amusement.

---

Hope drags Rosie out to a cafe in the morning, grinning the entire time she avoids telling Rosie where they’re even going, laughing at all of Rosie’s off-base guesses and humming ‘warmer’ when she gets something right.

She holds Rosie’s hand the entire time, occasionally swinging their interlocked digits between them or fiddling with Rosie’s fingers, as if they’re the most fascinating thing Hope can conceive of. And maybe they are. Maybe the way their hands fit together is strange, maybe the way they’re so close in size is odd, maybe the way Rosie squeezes her hand or traces circles along her knuckles idly is puzzling.

She pulls Rosie to a stop at the mouth of an alley, earning a confused expression in turn as Rosie looks around, “What are we doing here?” she spins in a slow circle, taking in the desolate street around them, a backroad with a small boutique, a pawn shop, and an auto body place. “Are you going to mug me?” she asks with twisted lips when she faces Hope again.

A laugh bubbles out of Hope and she swats at Rosie’s arm, a pleased smile curving Rosie’s mouth. “No!” Hope chastises, before pausing, her jaw clamping shut. “Close your eyes,” she demands a beat later.

“Okay, you’re definitely mugging me.”

“Just do it,” Hope whines. “Please?” she smiles, sweet as candy, Rosie immediately giving in with a roll of her eyes. “Perfect,” Hope squeezes Rosie’s hand tight, gently tugging her further into the alley.

“This is a very elaborate ruse to mug me, you know,” Rosie comments, eyes still squeezed shut, a hand on her lower back leading her.

Hope huffs exasperatedly, “Would you stop it?”

“Just saying. You already know where I live and when I have work, you don’t have to mug me.”

“Stop it or I really am gonna mug you.”

Rosie grins victoriously, reveling in the way she doesn’t even have to see Hope’s face to know how irritated she is, that she can tell from voice alone, “Knew it.”

“Shut. Up,” Hope’s teeth are gritted as she glares at Rosie with her dopey smile and closed eyes.

“Fine, fine,” Rosie concedes, “Just leave my money alone.”

“Just your money?”

Rosie faces Hope regardless of sight, “What’s that meant to mean? You want my phone, too?”

“Just checking if you’re available then,” Hope teases playfully, still gently leading.

Rosie pauses to consider, “Depends,” she finally lands on.

“On what?” Hope challenges.

“What you want out of me,” Rosie answers carefully, “I’m not mugging people with you.”

Hope barely suppresses an eye roll, “You’re the worst.”

“Aw, you really care,” Rosie coos, her hands clasping above her heart dramatically.

“I care about your money.”

Another victorious smile, “Knew it. Golddigger.”

“Arsehole.”

“Says the mugger.”

A sigh’s Rosie’s only response as they come to a stop somewhere, Hope’s arms draping around Rosie’s shoulders and her lips pecking Rosie’s. Her hands instinctively land on Hope’s hips, “Okay, open your eyes,” Hope hums.

Rosie obliges, blinking a few times to adjust to the sunlight, smiling down at Hope as her vision clears. “This it? Lotta theatrics. Coulda just stayed in for this view,” she teases.

Hope shakes her head exasperatedly, but it’s not enough to hide the smile on her lips, “Look around.”

She does, lifting her head away from Hope and finding them on a busier street the alley emptied onto. There’s a little café right in front of her, somewhat secluded from the rest of the street, with fogged windows and blurs of colour inside. No one’s moving in or out of the building, and it’s small enough that only a few patrons could possibly be inside.

Rosie’s eyes fall back to Hope and her smile, “What is this place?” she asks softly, bewonderment lessening the edge of her tongue at the quiet little escape she’s been led to.

“My favourite café. It’s really small and has the same regulars and everyone’s super nice and wonderful.” Hope bites her lip, as if she’s hesitating or nervous about something, “I found it after the show, when there was so much attention everywhere I went, and no one even knew me, so I started coming all the time.”

Rosie nods along, staring into Hope’s eyes intently to ground her, to show she understands. And she really does. She understands how hard it was with the editing and the pressure of the show. She understands how bad the backlash online was at times, when people would shit on them for anything. She understands how necessary it was to find a place to withdraw, to have people that didn’t care and just let her continue on with her job.

“Well, let’s go,” Hope’s arms retract from around Rosie’s shoulders, hands sliding down to grip Rosie’s and pull her along to the café. She swings the door open with a grin, a bell ringing above their heads. Not a single patron glances their way, most typing away at laptops or scrolling their phones as they sip drinks and slowly pick at food.

Only an employee takes notice, waving at Hope with a welcoming smile as he wipes down a countertop. She gently leads Rosie to the till, immediately falling into a conversation with the man as Rosie scans the menu and the shop. There’s booths on one wall, most empty, small tables filling the front, and a mural of different climates and natural environments on the wall opposite the booths.

“What do you want?” Hope asks, turning to Rosie as the employee stands waiting, his hands on his hips and a slight smile curling his mouth.

She smiles back before glancing at the menu and the dozens of items written across it. “Um,” her eyes scan over drink after drink, the letters whirring together. “Iced vanilla latte for now?” she tries, meeting the employees eyes.

“Ooh, me too!” Hope chimes, squeezing Rosie’s hand excitedly.

The employee - Chris, on his name tag - smiles even brighter, “Coming right up.”

Hope tugs Rosie away before Chris has even turned all the way around, pulling her along to a booth and collapsing into one side. Rosie follows, settling across from her, their hands still loosely linked together on the table, Hope’s thumb tracing the lines of Rosie’s palm.

Something sparks in the back of Rosie’s mind at the contact, in the pit of her stomach, in the thump of her heart, and she can’t quite place it, but she knows she likes it. She knows she likes this moment, too, the way Hope looks so at ease and relaxed, the way Hope brought her to her hidden spot, the way Hope tried to make breakfast before opting for the café. She likes the way this is going, they way they work together, even from before they realised there was something more to them than platonic movie nights. She likes how casual it was, how easy it came about, how relaxed she is as long as Hope’s there.

And she likes the way they just fit. They fit like one another’s other half, their perfect match, the missing pieces in the puzzles that construct their lives. And she can see herself sacrificing things for the woman sitting across from her, can see herself working for this relationship and all its inevitable flaws, can see herself in this moment forever, without a doubt in her mind. And Rosie doesn’t do things she can’t see, can’t envision, can’t rationalise.

But she can see Hope’s smile, can envision countless Sunday mornings spent at this little café, can rationalise the way her heart flutters at every laugh. This makes perfect sense, every detail and every second is reasonable and real and means so much more than Rosie ever thought they’d mean.

[degeneratekitten]

Breeding Woes (edited)

EDIT: I just wanted to make sure I gave credit to bitesized-degeneracy for posting this originally, I was hesitant to post at first because I’m not a big fan of tumblr, but it didnt take much for me to be convinced to make a blog.

This is a whump story, read the tags and don’t read if you don’t like it.  There is an alternate ending to this that I wanted to post, I only gave this one an ending so I could end it if I didn't have the inspiration to continue. Turns out I did have the inspiration and wrote the other ending.

!!!WARNING!!! READ TAGS BEFORE READING. BITTY TORTURE. DONT LIKE DON’T READ.

“Through a stroke of luck you’ve come into possession of pregnant pygmy bitty. Now all you have to do is put up with his misbehavior until he gives birth.”

“Thank you for taking him in, I just couldn’t handle him anymore.” The guilty face of the middle aged woman gave you pause. You felt slightly bad for her, after all, the snivelling pygmy in your arms, simply would not stop crying out to her.

“Mommy please, I’m sorry, I know I’m a bad bitty but I love you so much!” It cried, its swollen pregnant belly adding an extra layer of tragedy to this. The woman gave the bitty an exasperated, helpless look.

“Don’t cry Bud. This woman right here will take good care of you. She’s agreed to be your new mommy.” She started holding out a finger to wipe away “Bud’s” tears.

The bitty violently shook his head crying out. “No mommy please I’ll be a good bitty I promise!!!” The response was typical, a common phrase that the woman had no doubt heard a million times. Bitties tended to have a very limited amount of phrases that they shot out at times like this, “Bud’s” being the most common.

An exasperated sigh escaped from the woman's lips. She couldn't help but to turn her back away from the bitty her shoulders slumping into defeat. Instead of letting this charade continue on, you placed the  pregnant bitty into a small house.. “Don't worry Bud, I’ll take good care of you.” You assured the bitty, giving it a charming smile as you closed and locked the door, effectively sealing him in.

Turning back to the woman you continued your conversation. “It’s not a problem, I know how expensive pregnant bitties are. Let alone ones who misbehave as much as Bud. But I can guarantee that he’ll be taken care of while here.” You smiled, placing a hand on the poor woman’s shoulder as you led her to the door.

The woman let out a relieved sigh as soon as the lamia bitty was safely locked away. A few hours before the lamia had managed to slither its way into her purse before she left, causing her to come back an extra time. “Really I can’t thank you enough. My son just couldn’t handle him, with his pranks, his escapes, and whenever he would have his heats he would just say and do the worst things to my son.” She shuddered at the mention of the pygmy’s heat before continuing. “I just couldn’t let him be around my son for any longer. Then when he got pregnant.. Really it was just the last straw.” Shaking her head she smiled one last time at you before finishing. “But anyways I need to get to work, his little escape has already made me late. Goodbye.” She waved allowing you to say a quick goodbye before hurrying out the door. Leaving you alone with the cries of a pregnant pygmy.

As soon as the middle aged woman left you closed the door behind you, and glanced back at the bitty house the sounds of cries were coming from. From what the woman had been telling you earlier, this bitty was in serious need of training. Especially for during its heats.

The bitty in question was a stray, found by the woman's son during a storm. He was trapped inside of a plastic Tupperware container slowly filling with water. It had been holding on for dear life before being found. Apparently it had been abandoned, with useless, and slut scratched onto the container. Showing just how much it had angered the previous owner.

However despite having had a previous owner, the bitty in question was also quite disloyal. Quickly latching onto the son as his new “daddy”, while also having quite the proclivity to switch its love between the mother and son.

The most troubling part however was how it projected its sexual attention onto the son, constantly saying wildly inappropriate things to the son before, during, and after its heats. Humping, pleas for sex, and even attempting to wiggle its way towards the sons pants during these times not at all uncommon. During its last heat the mother had been so disgusted with “Bud’s” behavior that she had thrown him out the window during the night. Which had resulted in the bitty’s pregnant status.

Sighing to yourself you approached the bitty house, unlatching the door and giving the lamia a calculating look.

The clothes the bitty wore were stained with various things, mostly makeup that he’d apparently gotten into while inside the woman’s purse. The woman had commented on how expensive her makeup was, and just how much she would have to replace because of him, she also lamented on the loss of her bag, which had previously been white, but was now stained from the inside out with various hues of red and black. She hadn't been happy after reaching work to discover Bud had not only stowed away in her bag, but also tried to make himself “pretty” in an attempt to change mommy’s mind. His so called attempt to make himself pretty involved drawing flowers on his skull and tail in rouge, scribbling eyeliner onto the rims of his eye sockets, and staining his teeth and clothes in lipstick. The clothes in question that he’d ruined were actually rather nice, having previously been a nice white button up shirt with a cute blue bow tie in place of his signature blue handkerchief.

In addition there was also a rather disproportionate puddle of blue tears staining the floor of the bitty house. The floor was made out of smooth stone specifically for this type of situation. Many bitties found their way into your home, always in some state of distress, but you were nothing if not prepared. Reaching in with your gloved hand you gently picked up the pygmy, noting wryly to yourself the strange look it sent your way.

“You’re my new mommy?” It asked, showing its rather disloyal nature once again. You knew that you’d have to fix that little problem, and honestly it was something that would have to be done towards the end of your training.

You were a professional bitty trainer, your methods were “unique,” but also extremely effective. You took full advantage of the manufactured origin of bitties with your training. That didn't mean however that you were happy with just how much work Bud was going to be.

The history of bitties was actually rather unique, they had started out as a manufactured products, ones that had ended up as little more than a fad, and quickly fizzled out. The manufacturers of bitties had very quickly discontinued the product as liabilities of many bitties classified as more of a “protection” variety had been advertised very poorly, resulting in many unsuspecting families adopting dangerous bitties like pure bites, edgies, errors, and even poisonous varieties of lamia’s. There were very few disclaimers, and the company had been under the mistaken assumption that families would understand that the “protection” bitties were simply not meant to be family pets. 

After a disastrous wave of accidents, maulings, and even deaths at the hands of the protection variety bitty, the company found itself drowned in lawsuits. It very quickly was forced to declare bankruptcy before simply imploding from within and going out of business.

The bitties themselves were expected to completely disappear outside of niche communities who had managed to get a hold of the manufacturing process of the bitties, but as is the nature of products created by magic, the bitties surprisingly after about 5 years developed the ability to reproduce.

At first it was more of an asexual reproduction, but soon later generations of bitties developed the ability to reproduce sexually, developing heats, ectoplasmic genitals, and creating larger amounts of offspring than asexual reproduction could yield. Many studies dedicated to this anomaly were launched only to yield the same unsatisfying result. Magic is weird.

Despite the evolution of bitties however they still retained their “manufactured” traits. Their fierce dependency on caretakers had remained, their infantile and limited cognitive abilities, along with their seeming inability to stray from specific personalities that the original bitties were programmed with. Their newly formed ability to reproduce had caused quite the stir, and their numbers climbed to staggering rates, flooding the streets, and overrunning animal shelters. Soon they became one of the most common household pets with many stores from the original fad reopening to sell dedicated bitty products. Their quick evolution sparked a fierce debate as to whether or not they had basic human rights, however their childish nature and dependency remained the biggest obstacle for such rights.

Either way you made your money from breeding and training bitties for more specialized positions, seeing eye bitties were sorely needed, and you very specifically offered special deals for disabled children of struggling families. You yourself previously had a beloved Chain bitty that went with you everywhere. Bitties were some of the easiest to train simply taking advantage of the “programmable” nature of bitties to made the process easiest.

As for your interest in Bud, despite the fact that bitties could reproduce now, it was still rather difficult to find one that could reproduce in captivity. Which was why this new bitty was so interesting to you. It looked as if his clutch would be one of the biggest you’d ever seen, furthermore this was his first.

Grinning down at the pregnant lamia you brought him closer to you. “Yes, I’m your new mommy.” You stated a genuine loving smile gracing your lips, watching as the lamia’s eyes widened in wonder. Quickly the sniveling pygmy erupted into chatter, tears no longer streaming down its face. You listened to his mindless chatter, stunned by how quickly it had gotten over his previous “mommy.” You’d been prepared to spend a long time bonding with him in an attempt to form at least some trust. 

“You’re not upset anymore?” You asked carefully, taking your hand and moving the lamia’s skull in your hand and moving it side to side to examine the flowers on his skull. 

A sad look crossed the baby blues face “I’m still sad, but I know you’ll take care of me. After all, I am the greatest. Mwehehe.” He laughed, looking at you confidently. 

Shaking your head in disbelief at the pygmy’s answer you started walking towards the bathroom, making a decision to get the pregnant lamia cleaned up before continuing. You continued asking the pygmy simple questions, such as what his favorite food was, his favorite music, what he liked to read. Unsurprisingly many of the questions were the standard pygmy responses, the same answers you’d heard from countless pygmies.

His excited chatter didn't stop at all, and you really weren't the talking type so you let him speak, while you cleaned him up. Although your annoyance at the repeated phrase of “Mwehehe” grew as the bath went on.

After the little guys bath you didn't immediately give him clothes, you had to search for clothes that would fit his pregnant frame, the size of this lamia’s clutch was decidedly incredibly huge simply due to the fact that it was even distending his belly and not just limiting itself to his tail. You really couldn't wait for him to give birth to his clutch, after all properly trained lamia bitties were worth quite a pretty penny. Furthermore it was clear that you would have to wait to start the baby blue’s training after he gave birth.

However many problems arose after the first greeting, ones that you’d never had with previous pygmies. 

You thought that you could let him roam for a bit to get used to his new surroundings, but quickly it became apparent “just” how misbehaved this bitty was.

He did not stop talking, not an entirely unusual trait for pygmies, but he always spoke over you, interrupting your sentences when you did decide to speak, and getting upset if you talked for even a little bit longer than normal. You corrected him a lot, scolding him for interrupting you, and giving him time outs when he refused to stop. However none of it seemed to help, and unfortunately corporal punishment was simply off the table as long as he was pregnant.

He peed everywhere, really it was quite astonishing how resolute he was in “not” using the bitty toilet. You tried asking him why he didn't like using the toilet only to be given what the bitty thought was a “cute” laugh.

“Mwehehe. Awww, I didn't mean to mommy it was an accident!” Or “The bathrooms just so far away, carry me mommy!” And even. “But then I would have to stop having fun!”

Despite your best attempts at trying to convince Bud to use the bathroom in the bitty house, it became apparent that he simply enjoyed “marking” a trait typical of stray bitties.After about 5 days you ended up having to discard the bitty house you had for him, and instead moved him to an easily cleanable enclosure you usually kept baby bitties in. Which led to your next problems. 

He threw tantrums. Phrases such as  “MOMMY IS THE WORST!!!” or “I HATE YOU MOMMY!” and even “GIVE IT TO ME!” Were common. 

He would throw himself onto the floor wailing and crying, and when you tried to approach to calm him down he would often bite, scratch, and hit you in his tantrums. He seemed to know just how much you were holding back on punishing him because of his pregnant status and seemed to take pleasure in pushing the boundaries of your tolerance.

Furthermore, he was an escape artist. If you had to leave for even a moment you would typically leave him with plenty of activities that he would enjoy, puzzles, coloring books, mini i-pads, and lots of books. In spite of this he seemed to find escaping to be the best puzzle and short of duct taping a lid over his enclosure would result in him finding a way to escape, usually to try and cause trouble in what he thought was a “cute” or “helpful” way. He would try and do your dishes, usually as an apology for throwing a tantrum, breaking most of them or using dangerous chemicals in cleaning. He would try and cook, usually setting something on fire as a result. He would draw all over books, using markers, and pens on books and ripping out pages to make hats and swords. Usually ones he would proudly give to you saying “Mommy I made this for you.” You found yourself having to hold back your anger in attempting to explain just how bad the things he was doing were, but he was incredibly petulant, refusing to admit mistakes and seeming to get stuck in a loop of typical responses.

He was a horrible prankster, or rather, his pranks were dangerous and destructive. He liked to set “traps” up that would oftentimes lead to nasty falls and deep cuts. He blubbered whenever he saw you get hurt, but would usually follow up with blaming you in childish petulant tones, rather than being sorry for setting up dangerous “pranks.”

There was even one instance in which he left you crying for a solid hour. He had somehow gotten a hold of your previous Chain bitties dust, and dumped it out the window, exclaiming proudly to himself. “Mwehehe! I’ve given him a proper funeral! You can rest easy Sir Clementine!”

Perhaps that instant is when you’d truly gotten fed up with him, as while you were crying into the empty urn he simply couldn't understand your grief and in response tried to be what he thought was “comforting.” 

“Mwe, Mommy don’t be sad! It was bad to keep him in a jar! He had to be free!”

You’d managed to hold your anger and grief at that moment, but your resistance to him couldn't last for long, as after weeks of torment he finally did something that caused you to snap.

“Mommy! Drugs are bad, I got rid of them for you! Mwehehe” He exclaimed, grinning at your stunned look. Proudly leaning over the toilet as he flushed your medication. At least five bottles of medication with birth control packet littering the floor. Four of which bottles contained your medicine for a deadly congenital condition.

Your face paled as you saw the pills going down the drain, dread at how you might not make it through the week and anger at his incredibly thoughtless action. Your mind stalled and the proud grin of the pygmy seared itself into your mind. It was as if all the torment he’d subjected you to in the past 4 weeks came flooding back to you, the forefront of which was your beloved Chain bitties dust. You nearly bashed him into the door, before an icy calm feeling flooded your mind and suddenly a chilling plan flew into your mind.

“Bud… Do you know what you just did?” You asked calmly, staring at the gigantic form of the pregnant bitty. He was undoubtedly ready to give birth any day now.

Bud grinned at you placing a fist proudly on his chest. “I, the great Bud! Have saved you from the evils of drugs! You don’t have to worry I will help you through this terrible time!” He stated, causing your eyebrow to twitch involuntary. Slowly inching forwards you shook your head.

“No Bud, what you did was very bad. Mommy needed those “drugs” you got rid of.” You said quietly, causing Bud to falter, but ultimately double down on his actions, completely sure that he could do no wrong.

“No! They were drugs, and all drugs are bad! That's what daddy used to say! But you don't have to worry momma! I’ll make sure they can’t hurt you anymore!” He exclaimed looking at you with stars in his eyes.

Rubbing your eyes you felt a headache coming on, as you walked forward to pick up the bottles and trash that Bud had dropped to the floor. Luckily it seemed like he was careless and had dropped enough pills that you could last for a few days while you sorted out getting more.

“My doctor gave me these Bud.” You said, watching a look of uncertainty cross Bud’s face. “Drugs given by a doctor aren’t bad. They’re actually very good. They’re medicine.” You explained, picking up the remaining pills on the floor and putting them in their corresponding bottle. “In fact four of these bottles had medicine that keep mommy healthy.”

“Mweh?” Bud said, looking very confused. “But daddy sai-”

“ENOUGH!” You shouted, slamming the bottles onto the bathroom counter with a resounding bang. Bud flinched at this, looking at you with fright.

“I can’t believe how selfish you are!” You bellowed, quickly grabbing Bud by the tail and whipping him in front of your face. He tried to talk over you but you were simply too overbearing.

“I’ve tolerated your behavior up until now! Mostly because of your clutch! BUT THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!” You shouted, shaking Bud violently in your hands, causing him to cry out in pain.

“MOMMY YOU’RE HURTING ME!!!” He shouted, tears starting to form in his eyes, and a putrid stench emanating from him as a blue liquid dribbled down his tail running over your hand and his face on its journey to the floor.

“UGH!” You shouted, thoroughly disgusted that he would piss on you. Quickly flinging him into the toilet and shoving the lid shut. You planted your foot firmly on the toilet as you contorted yourself to wash your hands. Splashing, crying, and weak pushes came from under your foot as you ran the water. You sat glowering at the toilet once you were done.

You had so many calls to make and certainty weren't in the mood to deal with him so you quickly ran out of the bathroom and grabbed a roll of duct tape. Returning to the toilet only to see Bud gasping as he attempted to climb over the toilet seat onto the floor. 

Sneering you grabbed Bud’s skull pushing him right back into the toilet, holding the lid shut as you taped it closed. Preventing him from escaping. You heavily sat down on the seat afterwards, putting your face in your hands and screaming into them, pointedly ignoring the plea’s that came from the toilet.

It took awhile for you to calm down enough to think about what needed to be done. You couldn't let Bud’s, misbehavior continue for any longer. Hell you could barely look at him anymore. You had wanted to wait for a natural birth but it didn't look like that was possible anymore. Taking a deep breath you grabbed your phone, and the nearly empty bottles of medicine, first thing was first, you needed refills. Bud was one thing, but this, this was a matter of life and death for you.

----

A few phone calls, and a trip to the doctors brought you home with a week's supply of three of your pills. You would have to sort out the details of the fourth with your insurance company, and most likely would have to visit the pharmacy every day at noon to get your dosage for the day of the fourth in the meantime.

It took quite a while of mental preparation but eventually, you made your way back into the bathroom to finally let Bud out of the toilet. Taking a deep breath, you ripped the duct tape off the toilet, slowly opening the lid, to see and smell a sorry sight. 

Bud looked absolutely despondent, as he sat in the water of the toilet, a deep blue colour swirling all around him, as a few glops of feces floated around him too. He looked up at you with fear, and hope in his eyes, reaching out his hands to be picked up.

“Mommy why did you leave me!” He asked, causing you to roll your eyes, anger and disgust flashing in your eyes.

“Save it!” You stated, pulling out a box of floss from your medicine cabinet and holding a long thread over the toilet. “Hold on to this, we’re going to clean you up.” You sneered, watching Bud all but ignore the string as he struggled to leave the toilet, tears starting to run down his face. “Mommy up!” He demanded, holding his filthy digits out to you, he looked on the verge of a tantrum, one you wouldnt be tolerating.

“Where do you think you’re going?” You asked, glaring at the now confused bitty.

“We’re going to the bathtub right?” He said, looking even more confused, but even more insistently pushing his arms up in a gesture of “up.”

You laughed at him coldly. “HA! You think a bitty as awful as you get to have a nice hot bath? Fat chance!” You stated, wiggling the string to get his attention. “Hold onto the string.” You started again, before closing the lid of the toilet again, and pushing the flush valve.

“MOMMY!” Bud cried out alarmed and frightened by the sudden action. The string suddenly pulled tight against your hand. “MOMMY HELP ME!” You heard again, as he strained against the lid.

“We’re cleaning up a piece of shit” You said coldly, all love and tolerance for this bitty having dissolved the moment he dumped your Chains ashes. “Maybe if we’re lucky it’ll be better once we’re done?”

“NO MOMMY! MO*Gasp* MMY! MO *gasp gurgle* MMY! MOOOO*gasp, gurgle*OOOOMMMY!*gurgle*” Bud cried desperately, frequently getting a mouthful of water as he strained to escape. He did manage to lift the lid and poke his head out desperately during the process, only to have his head shoved back in and you sit on the lid. His cries continued, even after about 5 flushes, before you finally let him out.

He wasn't much cleaner after the process, only shivering, and waterlogged, but a large portion of piss was washed away. He looked at you with a betrayed look. 

“Mommy why?” He asked pitifully as you reached down with a gloved hand to pick him up.

“You know why.” You clipped out, grimacing as he started to snivel and desperately cling to your hand. 

“Mommy please I promise I’ll be good, I prooooomise! Don’t flush meeeeeeeee.” He wailed, causing you to fling him into the sink with a wet thud. He wailed harder, really you were more surprised that he hadn't given birth yet, you were trying so hard after all. It looked like you’d need more stimulus to force his labour.

“You’ve promised me that so many times, I don't believe you.” Really it wasn’t a lie, after every tantrum, mistake, and pissing he would always promise the same thing. You had never really believed him, he would never change on his own, but his pregnant state had prevented you from stressing him too much. Now it just didn't matter, the clutch was coming today whether he was ready or not, and after that, well if you just trained him instead of dusting him he would be incredibly lucky.

Bud looked shocked at your response, as if he’d never considered that you wouldn't forgive him. He didn't have a lot of responses though so he continued to snivel, sprinkling in pretty words to try and sway you.

“But I love you mommy! And I know you love me too! Please mommy forgive me!” He blubbered, not seeming to notice when you turned on the sink.

Ignoring his attempts, you got out a pair of scissors, cutting his clothes off, making extra sure to destroy his favorite blue neckerchief. Of course he wailed and flailed trying to get you to stop, but in the long run he only managed to get you to accidentally cut a piece of his tail off. 

“AHHHHHHH!!!!!” He screamed, much to your annoyance.

“Well it's your own damn fault for struggling so much!” You screamed, violently ripping the remains of his shredded clothes off his body. His wails didn't stop.

“MOMMY IT HURTS!!!!” You were getting so sick of his screams, so much so that instead of responding, you balled his remaining clothes up and stuck them in his wailing mouth. Earning a muffled scream.

His tears came back in full force, as he clutched at the dusting flesh of his tail, what looked like blood congealed over the cut, the bits that dripped off turning to dust. Grimacing at the sight you reached for a bottle of soap on the counter, generously lathering the baby blue’s engorged form. Then none to gently rubbed the soap into his wound, earning a long muffled scream from Bud. Really the relative silence was a blessing for you, furthermore you didn't even have to worry about him destroying something again because he was right in front of you.

He tried to push your hands away, but it wasn't good enough, so instead he tried to remove the cloth from his mouth. Clawing desperately at the piss soaked clothes, gagging noises coming from his form. Just as he was about to wrench the cloth free however, you savagely shoved him under the ice cold water that had finally reached a high enough point in the sink. You held him there for a good while watching as he flailed desperately against your hand. Bringing him back up you were amused at his attempts to cough, watching him choke against the cloth instead. You waited for the moment just before he caught his breath to shove him back under. Making sure that all of the soap was off of him before bringing him back up again.

His heaves and cries, gave way to more shudders, as you finally saw your desired effect. His clutch was coming.

Grinning wildly to yourself you gripped him around his torso, holding him up to your face.

“It's about damn time, I can't believe you made me wait so long for this.” You stated, quickly wrapping him up in a towel and shuffling him out to the pre-prepared birthing room you’d made just for him. The change in demeanor was quite shocking, and Bud was thrown for a loop when you suddenly started cradling him and cooing about how good he was.

“Awww let me take that out for you.” You stated in the kindest voice you could choke out, restraining yourself from torturing the little shit more. You might have needed to stress him out to get him to go into labor, but now, now you needed him less stressed. You gently removed the cloth from his mouth, throwing the bundle into the trash and gently stroking the pygmies back as shudders wracked through his body.

“Mommy? Mommy it hurts? Did you do this?” He asked, warily looking at you, as you set him down in a soft nest of blankets he himself had prepared during his nesting phase.

“Sweety you’re giving birth! You’re gonna be a mother.” You said, mustering as much enthusiasm as you could. You sounded incredibly forced, but the stupid pygmy didnt notice, because instead of being angry, he grew excited eyes beginning to sparkle, the stupid thing had already forgotten the torture he’d suffered. You were astonished how quickly his demeanor changed, but pushed that thought aside when his body was wracked with more shudders. YOu let him slither deeper into the nest of blankets, letting out coo’s and praises as he slowly started pushing out the first of many eggs.

---

It took nearly a whole night for Bud to finish his birth, many times you needed to feed him monster candy to help heal some damage the larger eggs did on his body. The first clutch a bitty produced was never usually viable, so you were pleasantly surprised to find that most of his eggs were intact. Bud was fast asleep, curled around his staggering clutch of 36 eggs. You were even more surprised just how many eggs he’d yielded. Your previous brood mother’s record was 15, Bud’s clutch was nearly the maximum most Lamia’s were known for producing.

Alas your surprise could only stay for so long, and the searing hatred you felt for the lamia came back in full force. Staring disdainfully at Bud,  you started really debating the pro’s and cons of keeping such a troublesome bitty. You knew how profitable he was, but was he really worth it, could you really stand to look at him after what he’d done? What he’d done was similar to what edgies were known to do, but with edgies, you’d at least had the ability to “prepare.”

The answer eventually came out to no, and with that revelation you very quickly, very quietly moved all the viable eggs to an incubator, leaving about 6 deformed and cracked eggs in front of the bitty.

Eventually the pygmy stirred, looking in front of him, quickly becoming distressed as the sight of only 6 eggs, he started wailing again much to your annoyance, shouting out. “Mommy my eggs! My eggs are gone!”

Rolling your eyes you grabbed him by the tail, picking him up, then picking up one of the deformed eggs and making sure to wave it in front of his face. “You want your eggs so bad. Here.” You said, before shoving the deformed egg into his mouth. 

Shock and panic flashed across his face, as he tried to stop your hands, but you were too strong for him, and despite his resistance you eventually made him swallow it.

He choked and sobbed, trying to reach into his own mouth for the egg, but you didn't give him that long, as you grabbed another and repeated the process. He flailed harder, trying to bite you, and he even drew blood, but you really didn't care. Standing you held onto him in a crushing grip, breaking a rib or two in the process, searching around for a roll of duct tape, you eventually found one and sat back down next to the remaining eggs.

“You know I really should just feed them all to you.” You stated, watching the pygmy as he cried and begged. “NO MOMMY PLEASE! PLEASE DON’T KILL THEM!!! I LOVE YOU!!!” You narrowed your eyes at his pleas, before a cold smirk graced your lips. “But you said you wanted your eggs… Could it be that you want to give birth again?” You chuckled not letting him respond, before you taped him down, making sure to have his limbs spread out and tail held firmly still. 

He wailed more. “Mommy I don’t like this, please let me go! I have to find my eggs!”

“Don’t worry Bud I’m giving you your eggs.” You stated, before picking up one of the remaining 4 deformed eggs and shoving it slowly, painfulling, back into Bud’s cloaca.

His screams were incredibly loud, louder than any he’d done before, he tried very hard to struggle, but with the duct tape holding him in place he couldn't resist. The egg ended up breaking and leaving a goopy mess all over the place, causing you to frown and chide Bud. “That's no good sweetie, your struggling broke it. We’ll have to try again.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” He screamed, as you started to push another egg up his cloaca, this one did manage to go in, but the shivers wracking the bitties body didn't spell anything good, the edges of his cloaca were beginning to dust, goop and shell bits leaked from the orifice. Bud had stopped communicating, only sobbing uncontrollable. You didn’t stop though, you grabbed another egg and repeated the process, becoming a little satisfied with yourself when it didn't break once inside.

There was one more egg left and you planned to do the same thing with it, but first.

“Do you know why this is happening?” You asked, watching as Bud shivered and stared at you with tear filled sockets. He shook his head. “N-n-n-n-nnnooooooooo!” He shouted.

“I don't know why you would do this to me mommy! I love you! You love me too!” He stammered, asserting the last bit with such certainty that it made your stomach roll. 

“Idiot, I don’t love you, I just wanted your clutch.” You stated, before carefully shoving the last egg into his cloaca. You managed to firmly fit it in there, before grabbing more duct tape and covering his cloaca. After a moment of just watching him squirm and struggle to push the eggs out again, you firmly grabbed his torso, and violently ripped him up from the floor.

The duct tape was firm enough on the ground that it kept his arms and tail on the ground as you ripped upwards, detaching his torso and head from his arms and tail. Immediately he burst into dust, a few bits of egg shell remaining in the mess.

Staring down at the mess you made, you wrly thought to yourself. 

“I suppose I’ll just have to tell your old family you died giving birth.”

[voltsdolt]

Can you tell us more about Tolstoy and his girls, please?

OOF - sorry I did not see this; but I sure would love to!!! Reminder though, I suck at explaining Characters well lol

Tolstoy is a purebred Turkish Van and lived in the street for only a short time as a kitten. His mother was murdered a week later after his birth and soon Tolstoy found himself being adopted by an old man who raised him and loved him as much as a mother would. Tolstoy didnt mind being a housecat as his owner allowed him to leave the house from time to time. This made him discover the Junkyard and it took a bit for him to be official into the tribe and have friends.

• Tolstoy is a mute (caused by a terrible injury on his neck during his mothers death) and will later become deaf due to his breed

• Due to his inability to speak, Tolstoy taught most of his friends how to sign so they don't have any problems in understanding him - this became more helpful when Tol lost his hearing

• Tolstoy grew a large crush on Tumblebrutus after a few weeks of meeting the other Tom; at first, Tolstoy thought of him to be annoying - this of course was quickly diminished the more Tol accompanied Tumble

• Tolstoy has many friends, but his best and closest friends are - Domoria (@magical-marvelous-mistoffelees), Damus (@your-missing-period), Kash (@incorrectcats), Nouvel, and Palette

• He has two sisters, both from different mothers - his closest is his sister, Rosemary (a Turkish Van/Russian Blue mix)

• Jennyanydots is seen as a mother in Tolstoys eyes and the older cat doesn't mind one bit if he sees her as one

• Tolstoy is called The Tinkering Cat - inventing many new and weird things amongst the tribe. Sometimes they are successful, most of the time they blow up

• Tolstoy and Tumblebrutus later on become mates and adopts Aurora and Bu Xing later

🌱🌱🌱🌱

Aurora is a munchkin mix and was found half dead in a pipe during the coldest day of winter. Tolstoy was the one who found her and quickly took her to Jenny to get her properly treated. After everything settles, Tolstoy took it upon himself to keep an eye on Aurora and to make sure she is doing well while she heals. Tumblebrutus heard about what his mate is doing and helped him watch over the munchkin. Both taking turns in making sure she is fine. Later on, when Aurora began to feel much better, Tolstoy didnt wanted the kitten to be left abandoned and asked his mate if they can take her in. This took a lot of convincing and pleading on Tolstoys end, which he barely does, but eventually Tumble wavered and agreed on being the kittens fathers.

• Aurora is known to be very ambitious and despite her short legs, she still wishes to be an amazing dancer like her parents

• Before Tumblestoy made Aurora officially their daughter, there was a lot of doubt from the older cats in the tribe about the two able to properly raise a kitten - as they were still young and new to this experience (Tol was 20 while Tumble was just reaching 22 in human years) . This made Tolstoy doubt his ability as a parent and almost gave Aurora up to an experienced mother. This likely never happened.

• Aurora is always wearing a bow, the bow wearing formed from her papa (Tolstoy) who thought of his best friend, Domoria, as she wore it - he thinks its cute to see his bff have a mini her lol

• She is definitely spoiled by everyone she knows!! No matter how many times Tolstoy and Tumblebrutus tries to make sure that she doesn't get too spoiled, it always fails in the end. She's just got everyone wrapped around her little finger

• Aurora began to learn how to sign language at a younge age

• She usually hangs out with her dads and the other boy kittens

• She is around 4 years, so there isn't much about her just yet

• Aurora has a lot of family; she basically adopted half of the tribe

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Bu Xing came into the family a bit later, it was a rough transition for the older kitten but the Tumblestoy family tried their best to make sure that she is safe and comfortable. Before Bi Xing became a part of the family, she used to work underneath other cats who had ill intentions towards the Jellicle Tribe - one of them being her father. It wasn’t a great experience for her and Bu Xing had many difficult nights where she would be afraid of turning back to a doll. So sleep, in the end, never came. Eventually though, Bu Xing enjoyed her new family and loved her new sister who takes great care in protecting her.

• Bu Xing was originally a lucky cat doll before she was brought to life by Merch, a mischievous magical cat who works for a cruel tom who only wants death and mayhem

• The lost arm of hers happened when she was a doll that was mishandled

• Whenever Bu Xing gets her terrible nightmares, Tolstoy would come in quickly to help calm her down by bringing the crying kitten into his arms and staying with her until morning

• Most of the time, Tumble and Aurora would come in a bit later and join Tol in comforting Bu

• Before she was adopted, Bu Xing was mean and cruel - even hissing and scratching at anyone who would pity her. Now though, Bu is shy and a bit kind, but scared of her actions might hurt others

• Bu Xing enjoys her time a lot with Aurora. The two of them enjoying playing pretend, house or even adventures

• She loves sitting on her dad's (Tumblebrutus) shoulders, getting the feeling of being tall

• Bu Xing rarely smiles, but when she does, its comforting

• Bu Xing would be the reasonable one out of a friend group, of course though, she would try not to be too strict on their fun - she wants to have fun too

Thats all I can think of! I am currently drawing more interactions of the Tumblestoy family and I am excited to share them all in @voltsart !!

[kayleebreanne09]

I feel so sad!

John b x reader. With a little bit of ex Rafe x reader.

So I was listening to the song You should be sad by Halsey. I’m lowkey obsessed with it & I immediately thought about this blurb idea. So the reader was with Rafe, they had a really toxic relationship & she ran away. John b saves her & puts her back together. Obviously Halsey wrote this amazing song but just for the sake of the fic, the (Y/n) character writes it. Alright I hope y’all like this because it was really fun to write. Love yall💜

It’d been 3 months since you’d ran away from everything kook related. 3 months that a certain messy haired brunette pogue had spent trying to piece your heart back together. 3 months since you ended the most toxic relationship you’ve ever had in your life. You sat on the log, curled up against John B in front of the nightly fire y’all had at the chateau. On your other side was Kie, smiling happily at you, & across the fire, JJ & Pope goofed off. These were your people now. They’d put you back together when it seemed impossible that all the pieces would ever fit right again. JJ made some stupid joke & everyone just groaned but I couldn’t help but laugh. He jumped up & ran over to me to high five me! He threw his hand up in the air a little too close to me & my body automatically flinched. My heart started to race & my vision started to go fuzzy. I ran inside, desperately trying to get air into my lungs. I raced into the bathroom, jumping in the shower & turning the water on. I sank to the floor of the shower, all my clothes still on. I sat there with my knees up to my chest & my arms curled around them, trying to keep myself from breaking. I heard footsteps & a deep sigh that I knew belonged to my boyfriend. I felt John B step into the shower behind me, sitting down with his legs on either side of me & leaning up so his head was resting on my back. “Baby, breathe. You are safe. You aren’t with Rafe anymore, no one will ever touch you again. I will always protect you” he whispered slowly drawing words on my back. He sat there drawing random shapes as the water soaked ya both. “Let’s play a game...guess what I’m writing” he then drew what felt like 12 letters. “J” I guessed for the first letter. “Yes!” He replied...we went on like that until I figured it out. “JJ is a dumbass? Really John B?” I let out a small laugh. “Okay next one” John B said as he started drawing his fingertip along the sopping wet back of my shirt. “I love you” I guessed once he’d finished the last letter. He pulled me back against him & I felt some of the tension leave my body. “Yes. & I’ll never stop loving you. I will always be the best I can for you, I’ll never let you go through what you went through before” he stated, pressing a kiss to my cheek. “I love you John B. So much” I said turning & giving him a long kiss, hoping that he could feel just how much I needed him.

The next day, I was sitting on the kitchen counter watching John B make pancakes. My gaze kept drifting out the window to the calm water. Last night had stirred up some memories that were hard to deal with. Poor John B had been up half the night trying to soothe me back to sleep from my stupid nightmares. “Hey babe” John b said pulling my attention back to him. “Yeah baby, what’s up?” I asked smiling at him. “If you’re getting overwhelmed with stuff from the past, maybe you should write about it” he offered, looking back to the pan to flip the pancake. John b knew that I loved writing. It helped me get everything out. I wouldn’t call myself a song writer but I did love taking things that I’d been through & putting them into lyrics that maybe other people could relate to. If I could just help one person get through something, it’d be making a difference & that was all that I wanted. I jumped down & went to hug him from the back. I rested my head against his warm skin & just enjoyed the feeling of having John B in my arms. “That’s a good idea!” I said pressing a quick kiss to his back. “Good! Because I already texted Kie & she’s bringing her ukulele over to help” he said spinning around & swatting me on the butt with the spatula. I stood on my tip toes & pressed my lips to his as he pulled me into him. “You really are the best” I breathed out.

Kie & I sat in the hammock together, legs intertwined. She had her ukulele in her lap & I had my lyric book in mine. She reached over & pulled my pencil from behind my ear, & slid it into my hand. “Get to writing sister, I need to hear what these lyrics sound like before I can come up with a melody. Also, I’m sorry about JJ last night. He didn’t know your history with Rafe & pope chewed his ass pretty good about it.” She said as she laughed loudly. “It’s fine Kie. I just, I know what I want to say...I guess it’s just putting it into actual words is hard. Like I’m not conflicted, I’m 100% over Rafe, I just feel like none of his friends will tell him the truth. They won’t tell him that he’s turned into this monster & I feel like maybe if someone would just be honest with him, maybe he could change & find happiness in his life like I have with John B” I smiled toward the dock where John B was cleaning out the HMS Pogue. “Start there then!” Kie replied. & I did. My mind drifted back...

“Rafe, you’ve got to stop with the drugs. I can help you! You aren’t you anymo-“ I was cut off my his hand grabbing my throat & shoving me back against the wall. “Don’t tell me what I’ve got to do bitch” he snarled. His eyes were dark & pupils so dilated that I didnt even see the man that I’d grown to care about anymore. “I NEED the money, the drugs, the nice cars...I don’t need you. So you better watch the way you’re talking to me” he said, finally releasing my throat. I sank to the floor rubbing my neck where I knew bruises would form later. I took a deep breath & stood up. “I won’t do this anymore. You’ve broken me enough. You are toxic & I’m done. I’m gone & don’t you dare try to find me” I took one final look at the monster he’d become & walked away.

Kie watched as I stared off, my eyes tearing up. I felt her grab my hand & squeeze, just letting me know she was there. “I know what to write!” I said quickly scribbling down everything I wanted to say.

“I wanna start this out and say

I gotta get it off my chest

Got no anger, got no malice

Just a little bit of regret

Know nobody else will tell you

So there's some things I gotta say

Gonna jot it down and then get it out

And then I'll be on my way

No, you're not half the man you think that you are

And you can't fill the hole inside of you with money, drugs and cars

I'm so glad I never ever had a baby with you

'Cause you can't love nothin' unless there's somethin' in it for you

Oh, I feel so sorry

I feel so sad

I tried to help you

It just made you mad

And I had no warnin'

About who you are

I'm just glad I made it out without breakin' down

And then ran so fuckin' far

That you would never ever touch me again

Won't see your alligator tears

'Cause, no, I've had enough…”

Kie leaned over eyes scanning over what I’d written. “(Y/N) this is good. No, it’s amazing. I mean, I don’t even know what to say” she said hugging me tightly. “Thanks for always being there Kie” I said, leaning my head on her shoulder as the hug ended. “Now let’s get to work on this melody!”

A month passed & id been hired to play at midsummers. JJ had heard the song Kie & I came up with at the chateau & while working one day, he heard about talent tryouts to play at midsummers. He relayed the message & Kie & I went & tried out. Apparently they liked us because we were one of the acts that were hired to play. Everything went so fast & suddenly, it was a couple hours before midsummers was supposed to start. I stood in John B’s room, sliding on the dress that I’d gotten. It was a deep vneck off white dress with silver beading. John B walked in & wrapped his arms around me, looking at our reflection in the mirror. “You are so beautiful baby. You are going to be amazing tonight” I smiled at his reflection. “Are you sure you & JJ can pull off sneaking in as waiters?” I questioned. “Of course sweetheart, we are total badassea at going incognito” he said smirking. I turned around, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Good. I don’t think I could get through tonight without you” I whispered. He leaned down & brought his lips to mine. “You’ll never have to go through anything without me” he said squeezing my hips, pulling me closer to him & refusing to let me go until it was time to leave.

The lights facing the stage were blinding. I felt way too many eyes on me & way too many kooks judging me. Kie nudged my arm, smiling over at me & started to play. I put every ounce of emotion that I had into that performance. All the sadness from an ended relationship, & all the hope that I had that one day Rafe would find happiness. He & I were never meant to be, I understood that now. I just wanted him to get the help he needed. A single tear slipped down my face as I sang the last line. I wiped it away, grabbing Kies hand & bowing as the crowd cheered. I scanned the crowd to see Pope, JJ, & John B cheering in the back! “That’s my girl!” John b hollered. Security saw him & started making their way over. “Shit. Come on guys! Mandatory pogue meeting at the chateau!” JJ yelled. Kie ran to JJ as he spun her around & she then threw her arms around JJ & Pope. “Cmon baby!” John b yelled. I yanked up the bottom of my dress, kicked off my heels, grabbing them off the ground & took off running....Launching myself into his waiting arms. He kissed me long & hard. “Time to go!” He said pulling my hand & dancing away right as the pissed off security guard dove at us. I threw my head back laughing as John B bent down & I jumped on his back. He carried me all the way to the waiting HMS Pogue & we all rode off into the night.

Rafe stood in silence staring after the girl he had lost. He knew he’d done everything wrong in the relationship. Maybe she was right. Maybe the drugs couldn’t fill the hole he had inside. He decided then & there that he would get clean. He would fix things with his dad. He finally had closure, & maybe one day, he would find the love that he knew she had found.

[dazeyrains2]

Ready, Aim, fire.

Wrote a lil Caryl thing to go with my Caryl thing....

....

Carol threw down her bow.

She closed her eyes, lifted her head up towards the sun and shouted out at the top of her lungs

"Fuuuuck!"

Her arm was done. But what frustrated her the most was that she felt 'done' aswell. Ever since they'd defeated Alpha and her skin freaks, the last part of herself felt gone and it sickened her. Sickened her to think that she might actually be missing the chase, the thrill of the enemy.

How sickening to think she might be bored now.

She cursed again, this time silently and fetched her left hand across her chest to the tip of her right shoulder.

"You good?"

Carol dropped her hand and turned, surprised that he had stalked her out.

"Daryl..."

His name slipped off her tongue in a whisper. It was the first time he'd spoken to her since it all happened.

"You good?" He repeated, leaning against an old tree, looking dangerous.

"Its just my arm...the one I fell on when we..." she didnt have to finish that scentence. She knew he knew already. He'd been the one to pop her arm back in to her socket after they'd all fallen into the pit. He knew.

"You're making excuses, pick it up"

She blinked, half stunned by his tone, half by his words.

"Excuse me?"

Daryl pointed to the bow at her feet

"Pick it up"

"I told you, my arm"

"Yeah, yeah" he waved towards her, stepping out from the foliage, into the light. He looked towards her earlier target in the distance, noting the failed attempts at hitting her center mark.

"Its not your arm, it's your head" he said, folding his arms. "Its too far up your own ass"

Carol exhaled an irritated sigh. If the only reason to seek her out was to chip away at another layer, he could go fuck himself.

She snatched up the bow and shoved it into his chest

"Thanks for the gift, I don't need it any more!" The bow clattered back down to the floor as he refused to take it and when Carol tried to move passed him he grabbed her wrist, snorting a laugh at her attempts to free herself.

"Will you just stop" he laughed placidly "Stop, stop"

After a few feeble attempts, she gave in, allowing him to guide her in front of him, his hands placed gently on her upper arms as he tried to make eye contact with her.

"Would you look at me?" He asked softly but Carol pouted her lips and focused past his right arm.

He wasn't giving in.

"Hey"

"What!?" She snapped, finally meeting his eyes. "You dont talk to me in over a week and suddenly you want to joke around and be buddies again, what?"

He dropped his head, smirking playfully. It only irritated her further.

"I was mad at you" he squinted "Ain't I allowed to be mad too sometime?"

"And suddenly what? You're not mad at me anymore?"

He dropped his hands and shrugged "I got over it"

"You got over it?"

"Yup"

"Just like that?"

Daryl folded his arms, looking down at her through his fallen hair "Just like that"

Carol mirrored him, folding her arms and eyeing him suspiciously

"So... what. You wanna be friends again?"

He chuckled "Friends, sure. Why not." And Carol pretended not to read into that response too much

"C'mon" he continued, nudging her good arm "Pick it up"

He wasn't taking no for an answer, so like a scalded kid, Carol huffed and picked up the bow.

"Its not in my head, Daryl. I'm damaged. I can't do this anymore"

She wanted some sympathy but she wasn't getting any from him. He ignored her excuses and gestured towards her to lift the bow into position.

Carol rolled her eyes and lifted up her aiming arm, drawing back on the string

"Ow!" She cursed, dropping her arms again "I told you, I can't-"

She stopped, suddenly aware of his hands at her waist, her back gingerly touching his chest as he spotted her.

"Up" he said again, guiding her aiming hand up with his. His other hand left her waist and drew a slow line from the base of her spine up towards her neck. "Straighten up, you're slouching"

"I'm not slou-" He pressed a spot between her shoulder blades and she straightened up

"You're slouching"

Carol rolled her eyes again but she couldn't work out it she was irritated or frustrated. But she didnt want his hands to leave her body, that much was for sure.

"Chin down, drop your shoulders"

His hands slid to both of them, left shoulder and right.

"You're too tense, drop your shoulders" he repeated, squeezing them gently but her concentration was lost in his touch. She closed her eyes.

"Carol"

She gasped, feeling herself falling backwards into his chest, and opened her eyes again.

"Concentrate"

She was, but on the wrong thing

She cleared her throat and looked at the tree ahead, at the numerous chips in the bark where her arrows had skimmed by, missing their target.

She felt his breath on the back of her neck as he continued to spot her.

"Take a deep breath, concentrate" he muttered and it was like a soft growl in her ear. She could feel her cheeks turning pink and all of the hairs on the back of her neck were erect. Her heart was racing and not because of the pain still stabbing at her arm. They'd never been this close before. Had he any idea what this was doing to her. It had surprised even her.

"Fight through the pain" he whispered "Mark your target"

Carol hoped he hadn't seen her glance back at him for a second after that instruction.

"Draw the bow"

A hand slid from her shoulder, underneath her drawing arm

"Lift up, keep your shoulder down"

She lifted and untensed her shoulder and suddenly the pain started to ease.

He had been right, she was too tense.

"Good, now aim...right there" he leaned into her vision, pointing out a spot on the tree but it only distracted her further, she took aim...

"Now fire"

She fired, pressing her lips to the corner of his mouth.

The arrow zoomed off as Daryl blinked in shock. It only took him a second to come back to his senses, pry the bow out of her hands, throw it to the ground and pull her face towards his crashing their mouths together in a heated kiss.

They parted after a minute, catching their breaths.

"Just friends huh?" He jested "friends dont kiss like that"

Carol grinned, combing her fingers into his hair

"Guess we better stay mad at each other then?"

"Guess so" he kissed her again, pulling her tight against him, holding her with everything he had.

They left the bow and the trees behind and headed back to camp, and Carol's arrow stayed stuck, perfectly central in a chipped old tree for the rest of time.

[blkmxrvel]

Haven’t Forgotten My Way Home - [8] (CONVERTED)

Pairing: Kara Zor-El x Female!Reader

Summary: In the D/s society of National City, men and women abandoned by their Dom/mes or otherwise deemed unfit for life “outside” end up at the Mount Overland House for Orphaned Submissives. It is here that Kara Zor-El finds Y/N Hastings, broken and fearful from mistreatment at the hands of her former Dom. Can Kara coax Y/N back into the world that once so terrified her, and show her the true meaning of care and submission?

Warnings: Domestic Violence (Flashbacks, Mentions and Descriptions), Misogyny, Domination/Submission.

A/N: I didnt give up on this story, lol. I said I was going to finish it and I will! Expect this being update more than my fics because I hit a majors writers block Whew. I hope you all enjoy this!

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |

Masterlist | Fandom List/Who I Write For

“And don’t speak too loudly to her; she doesn’t like that, of course. Don’t touch her, she flinches still and I don’t want to upset her. Don’t make any comments about the chair because I know she’s self-conscious, and really she’s been doing a good job with learning to walk again. She’s gotten a lot of her strength back so I really don’t think it’s necessary to—“

“Do you think perhaps we could continue this lecture while I am not standing in your doorway? The chairs in your living room are very comfortable and I’d be most happy to let you ramble on from there.”

Kara stopped mid-sentence, her mouth open slightly, before she flushed pink and nodded. “Come in, Alex, Maggie, I’m sorry.” She stepped back from the door, allowing them entrance, and then shut it behind them.

“Put the wine in the refrigerator,” Alex said to Maggie, and then moved to sit on one of the aforementioned chairs, staring at Kara  with an amused expression on her face. “Are you always this nervous?”

Kara  huffed and sat on the couch opposite Alex. “Thank you, Maggie,” she said to the woman, as she nodded at her with a smile, then dropped to Alex’s feet in front of the chair. “I’m nervous,” she admitted, “Because she’s nervous. She’s terrified you two won’t like her.”

Y/N was still in the bathroom getting ready; she’d been in there for the last thirty minutes and Kara  had decided to give her just a little while longer before she retrieved her. Y/N had been apprehensive all morning, so much so that she would barely eat and Kara  had had to remind her more than once to finish her breakfast. Then it had been another two hours while she had tried to decide on what to wear, and finally, though she wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, Kara  had picked out the outfit. That had seemed to put Y/N more at ease, though not by much. Kara  had tried to calm her down, but no amount of reassurances she could offer seemed to work. Finally she’d just let Y/N hole herself in the bathroom so she could fix her hair and talk herself into the headspace she needed.

She was a little worried about that headspace.

“Well, she needn’t be nervous,” Alex said, reaching down to run her head over Maggie is straightened hair. “Any friend of yours is a friend of ours, right, Maggie?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” she readily agreed. “Except that one guy. We don’t like him.”

Kara  rolled her eyes; “that one guy” had been a stalker that had followed her home one night, begging for her to claim him. She’d called Alex, and after 5 minutes alone with him… she’d never seen the guy again.

“Let me go get my girl.”

“Your girl?” Alex raised an eyebrow. “Kara …”

“It’s just a phrase, Alex,” Kara  said hastily. “Just a phrase, that’s all.”

She avoided her saying anything else by walking quickly to the bathroom down the hall, and knocking on the door. “Y/N?” she called softly. “It’s time to come out.”

“Don’t want to,” came the muffled response.

Kara  sighed. “I know you don’t, but really, the bathroom can’t be all that cozy.”

“Yes it is. You have very nice tile.”

Kara  thumped her head on the bathroom door and tried not to laugh. “Y/N Hastings, open this door right now,” she commanded gently. “We have guests, and I don’t want to keep them waiting.”

A few seconds passed, and finally the door swung inward. Y/N looked at Kara , anxiety written all over her face. She was beautiful, Kara  realized again, wearing her new yellow-and-white striped sweater and blue jeans, with a white bow holding back her hair on the right side.

Kara  smiled softly. “Look at you,” she said. “I think you must be the prettiest girl I’ve ever met.”

Y/N blushed, ducking her head. “You think so, Miss Kara ?”

“I know so,” Kara  declared. She reached to put her arm around Y/N’s waist and pull her into the hall, shutting off the bathroom light. “Now, do you want to use your chair?”

Y/N shook her head. “No, Miss Kara . I can walk.”

“Good. Ready? Green, yellow, red.” Y/N was so nervous Kara  couldn’t help but fall back on the old system, even though they hadn’t had to use it in nearly a week. But it seemed to steady Y/N immediately, and she took a deep breath.

“Green, Miss Kara .”

“Good girl,” Kara  praised in a whisper, close to Y/N’s ear, and she was both surprised and pleased when she felt the woman shiver in her embrace. She walked Y/N slowly into the living room.

“Kara !” Alex said, springing to her feet. “Maggie, stand up when a lady enters the room.” Kara  stared at her, wondering what she was up to as Alex waited for them to sit at the couch, and Maggie  stood to her feet. “Kara , you told me Y/N was beautiful, but you didn’t tell me she was a goddess.”

Kara  rolled her eyes again. First of all, she hadn’t told Alex much of anything about Y/N, just a few details here and there because she knew Y/N probably wouldn’t feel comfortable having Alex know too much about her. Secondly, if Alex started hitting on her girl… Her friend. Not her girl.

Definitely not her girl.

“My dear Y/N Hastings,” Alex was continuing, grinning from ear to ear, “I am Alex Danvers, esteemed best friend of your Kara , there—“ She winked as Kara  mouthed “’Your Kara ?’” to her. “And allow me to say that I have never seen someone as absolutely stunning as you.”

“Hey!” Maggie said, trying to appear irritated, but she too was grinning.

“Of the Y/H/C variety, pet, relax,” Alex said to her. “But yes, Y/N, you are simply exquisite.”

“I, um… thank you?” Y/N said, and Kara  squeezed her waist.

“Let’s sit down, shall we?” She sat on the couch and pulled Y/N down to her, the other girl nestling so close Kara  thought she was trying to get into her lap. Alex and Maggie resumed their normal places, and Kara  saw Y/N eyeing Maggie with open curiosity. For her part, Maggie gave Y/N a thumbs-up, and Kara  giggled.

“Miss Kara ?” Y/N whispered into her ear, and now it was Kara ’s turn to shiver.

“Yes, Y/N?”

Y/N looked at her worriedly. “Do you want me at your feet?”

“What?” Kara ’s eyes widened and she shook her head vigorously. “No, of course not, Y/N, why would you—“ Her gaze fell on Maggie , who had her head leaned against Alex’s thigh, a contented look on her face, and Kara i immediately understood.

She shook her head again. “Guests who are not claimed sit in this house,” she said, repeating what she had told Y/N that first day. “They sit in chairs or on the couch, not on the floor.”

“But you might like it if I did…”

Kara  glanced at Alex, who looked as if she was trying hard not to listen to the conversation, and at Maggie, who was in complete bliss with Alex’s hand lazily stroking her head.

“No,” Kara  said firmly, but cuddled Y/N closer to her to soften the word. “I like you just where you are.”

She felt Y/N hesitate for a split second, just before she nodded and rested her head on Kara ’s shoulder. Kara  smiled, tucking her head on top of Y/N’s and breathing in her scent.

Alex smiled at them both. “You really are a lovely girl, Y/N,” she said, and Kara  felt like hugging her for the gentle, complimentary way she was speaking to her. “It really is an honor to meet someone who has captivated Kara  so.”

“I don’t know about captivated,” Y/N said softly.

“Oh, I do,” Alex affirmed, nodding. “Just look at her, she’s positively glowing in that… sweater with the bow on it, really, Kara , where on earth did you get that?”

Kara o opened her mouth, about to speak when Y/N beat her to it, saying indignantly, “I like the sweater. Miss Kara  looks beautiful.”

Kara  smirked even as she blushed crimson, and Alex laughed. “Defending Miss Kara  already, now I know I really like you. What do you think, Maggie Sawyer Danvers?”

“Don’t you mean Maggie Danvers Sawyer, Ma'am?” Maggie asked, but the light tone indicated she was teasing. Submissives in National City, once claimed and collared, were required to take on their Dominant’s name, either before or after their own.

Kara  wondered whether it had been Y/N Hastings Olsen. She perversely hoped it had been the other way around.

“I like her,” Maggie was saying. She smiled at Y/N. “Miss Kara  seems happier with you.”

She wanted to point out that she wasn’t with anyone, but once again Kara  was interrupted.

“Care to tell us anything about yourself, Y/N? Where did you attend school?”

Kara  felt herself tense, and she glared at Alex. This wasn’t an interrogation, she wanted to say. This wasn’t a girl on her first date, submitting her intended to her fathers for approval. Her dads really ought to meet Y/N, though, Kara  thought, then pushed that out of her mind. She knew what Alex was doing, knew that she was observing them both and making sure neither of them was doing something detrimental to the other, but she wanted to scream at her that it wasn’t her place, even if she had been her best friend for years. But she was surprised when Y/N answered her.

“I didn’t go to school,” she said quietly. “My father believed that it wouldn’t prepare me adequately for… life with S- him, and so I had tutors. Mostly it was about, you know, but one of my tutors, Miss Grant, she brought me things that I liked. Music and pencils and paper so I could draw. Comic books.”

Ah ha, Kara  thought, so that’s where the love of comic books had started. She’d have to find out which ones Y/N liked. She tightened her arm around Y/N, and Y/N smiled gratefully at her as she continued to answer Alex’s questions.

None of them were as nosy as they could have been, just casual questions about her family and what things had been like when she was a child, and Kara  suddenly realized what Alex was doing. She was just… talking to her. Talking to Y/N as a woman, as a Dominant, as someone who was kind and non-threatening, and genuinely wanted to hear and learn about Kara ’s new friend. And in the same way, the easy way she spoke to Y/N seemed to make her want to talk more, and Kara  found herself learning more about Y/N than she had in previous days. She felt a sudden surge of love for her best friend, as she kept her arm around Y/N, and continued to listen.

Y/N’s voice was low, quiet, as she spoke about her parents. Mr. Hastings had been distant and cold, while her mother, though loving, had been bound by her husband’s rules and thus unable to care for her daughter as well as she would have liked. Y/N found her respite with her grandfather, a kind man who “reminded her of Santa Claus,” Y/N said, and Kara  smiled, hugging her close. Y/N’s weekdays were filled with learning about the life she had been meant to live since she was a baby, bonded to a boy she’d met only a few times. She fell short of elaborating on James and moved on to describing the weekends with her grandfather, days full of laughter and going to the park to draw or watch the birds, then home to eat whatever she wanted to and play board games.

“I wish I’d known you were such an expert before I challenged you to Monopoly,” Kara  muttered, then blinked in surprise when Y/N giggled and nuzzled her neck a little. Kara  flushed pink, and stuck her tongue out at Alex’s knowing smirk.

But things had changed just before she turned sixteen, Y/N said, a heaviness creeping into her voice that made Kara  sit up and wrap her arm tighter around her. Her beloved grandfather had passed away suddenly, and she hadn’t even had time to grieve properly, to recover, when all too soon it was her 16th birthday and she found herself on her knees in James Olsen’s house.

She trailed off then, and Kara shot Alex a warning look; she lifted her hands, palms out, at her, and she nodded, relieved. The last thing she wanted was for Y/N to relive those days before she was ready. She’d done some poking around and discovered that while James had been arrested months ago for what he’d done to Y/N, he was currently free and happy on bail, awaiting trial. It would come soon enough, and Kara  wasn’t sure Y/N would ever be ready to face him.

“Did you have any friends?” Alex asked, smiling encouragingly at Y/N. “Any girls with whom you could tell your deepest, darkest desires?”

She was teasing her, Kara  knew, but still her lips curled in disapproval. It was fine for her to have friends, but she should only be telling her deepest, darkest desires to… anyone she wanted to. You’re being an idiot, Kara  scolded herself, and reached down to pet Theo, who had just padded into the room and flopped down in front of her.

“Not really, no,” Y/N admitted, not looking at Alex. But she was no longer as curled against Kara , which gave the brunette some satisfaction. Y/N was slowly becoming more comfortable in her own skin, in Kara ’s house, and Kara  knew that meant progress.

She should have known that it wouldn’t last.

“I had a few girls who Si- he permitted me to talk to, every now and then. They were collared to some friends of his and they were allowed to come over, I c-couldn’t leave the house.” Kara  squeezed Y/N gently; Y/N smiled sadly at her before continuing. “But they weren’t really friends; I think they were jealous and just wanted to get me in trouble…”

“I know what that’s like,” Maggie said sympathetically. “Maybe not jealous, although who wouldn’t be jealous of the SawyerSaurus?” Alex snorted, causing her girl to grin up at her. “But yeah, girls who only wanted me to get in trouble, so Ma'am doesn’t like me to talk to some of them anymore. Man, Sarah just did not get that when she called last week.”

If Kara had been paying attention to anyone but Y/N, she would’ve noticed that Maggie had suddenly turned white, and Alex’s expression hardened as she looked down at her submissive.

“There was one so-called friend who—“

“Excuse me, Y/N,” Alex said, “I apologize for interrupting, but…” She was staring down at Maggie , and her voice was cold.

“You spoke to Sarah?”

Oh dear. This was not good, this was very bad. But when she felt Y/N tense and began to shake a little at Alex’s tone, Kara hastened to hold her closer.

“It’s all right,” she whispered into her ear. “It’s okay, Y/N.”

But judging by the look on Maggie ’s face, it was anything but okay. She was instantly in her space, with her head down and her eyes lowered.

“Y-yes, Ma’am,” she answered. “But it was last wee-“

“Have I recently given you permission to speak to Sarah?”

“No, Ma’am, but she called-“

“And you’re unfamiliar with her number, is that why you pressed the Send button on your cell phone? Because you didn’t know who it was?”

“No, Ma’am. I knew.”

Alex was Kara’s best friend, and so she knew a lot of what Maggie had been up to before she’d been with Alex, details that sometimes she wished she didn’t know at all. She knew that Maggie  had been on the streets, and that she’d chosen some less than stellar ways to survive. Some out of necessity, and others… because she could. Dealing had been the quickest way for her to earn money, but it could’ve also landed her in prison if Alex hadn’t found her, and given Maggie  help in turning her life around. She’d even agreed to help some of Maggie’s friends – a decision Kara hadn’t been exactly happy with, but, as Alex said, “Love makes us do crazy things.” Some had accepted the help and two of them had even found their own relationships. But some, like Sarah, refused to be helped and in fact kept trying to lure Maggie back onto the streets, back to her old “job.” So Alex had made it a rule that Maggie wasn’t to speak to them.

A rule that, apparently, Maggie had broken.

“Right, then.” Alex nodded, her jaw set. She turned to Kara, saying apologetically, “Kara , I am sorry to have to cut our evening short, but as you can see I have a situation to deal with.”

Once again, Kara was only paying attention to one person in the room, so she wasn’t able to see Y/N’s own face grow pale, or to feel the girl’s breathing become rapid and shallow in her arms.

“Of course, Alex, I understand.”

“Aw, come on, man,” Maggie protested, and Kara almost gasped in shock. She didn’t think she’d ever heard her address her master that way. “It wasn’t that big a d—“

In seconds Alex was on her feet, and so was Maggie, her collar grasped in Alex’s fingers.

“You will not,” Alex said, sounding deadly, “Speak to me that way, girl. Have I made myself clear?”

Maggie nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry, Ma’am.”

“Then I think now I will—“

“Stop!”

“Y/N, don’t!” Kara said, but it was too late.

The Y/H/c girl had hurled herself at Maggie, knocking her out of Alex’s grasp and holding on to her. Shielding her. She was shaking violently, her eyes lost and wild as she clung to her.

“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” she babbled, her words coming out in a rush. “Don’t hurt her, she didn’t do anything wrong, it’s okay, i-it’s my fault?”

Kara drew back in confusion. Why on earth would she say… “Y/N, sweetheart, let go,” she tried, but Y/N either couldn’t or wouldn’t hear her.

“Don’t hurt her, she doesn’t deserve it, don’t beat him!”

“Y/N!” Alex reached out to grab her arm, and Y/N cried out in terror, wrenching away.

“Alex, stop!” Kara commanded, panicked for the small girl.

She snapped back, staring at Kara and running a bewildered hand through her hair. “I don’t know what—“ She managed, then stopped.

Maggie, who had been standing helplessly, her hands flailing a little as Y/N clutched her, cleared her throat. “Ma’am?” she said softly. “May I speak to her?”

Alex shrugged, and Maggie nodded. Slowly she moved so that her hands were on Y/N’s shoulders, and gently she lowered them both to the ground so that she was kneeling with her.

“Y/N, uh, hey, what’s going on?” She said, feebly shrugging at Alex, who grinned a little.

“I don’t want to see her punish you,” Y/N said. “You don’t deserve it.”

Maggie shook her head. “Yeah, I do.” Y/N drew back and looked at her in surprise, and she offered her a half-hearted smile. “And you wouldn’t see anything? Ma’am’s going to take me home. Your uh… your guy did a number on you, huh?” Y/N looked away, and then nodded. “In public?”

Y/N’s eyes met Kara ’s before she looked back at Maggie . “With his friends.She said I shamed him in front of them, so now they deserved to watch me be shamed.”

Alex slipped an arm around Kara and hugged her as she growled.

“Well, he’s a dick,” Maggie proclaimed, and Kara had to fight back a giggle as Y/N’s mouth dropped open. Maggie shrugged. “He’s a dick, but Alex? She’s not like that. She’s mad, but she has a right to be. I broke a couple of rules. And man I am going to get it when I get home,” Maggie  groaned, and Alex nodded at her.

“But know what else I’m gonna get?” Y/N shook her head forlornly, and Maggie actually pulled her into a hug. “After it’s done I’m going to get cuddled and loved and all that sappy shit she insists on afterwards. Just between you and me I kind of love it too, but don’t tell her that.” Alex rolled her eyes, and Kara playfully punched her shoulder. “She loves me, and she doesn’t want me in trouble. She’s my Ma’am.” Maggie’s chest puffed out proudly. “She’s my Ma’am, and she’s the best one.”

“Don’t start crying now, Danvers,” Kara muttered.

“Shut it, Zor-el.”

“She doesn’t beat me, Y/N,” Maggie said seriously. “At least not the way things happened to you, okay? You don’t have to worry about me. There are bad ones out there, but there are good ones too. Like mine. And like Miss Kara .”

“She’s the best,” Y/N whispered.

“Don’t start crying now, Zor-el.”

“Shut it, Danvers.”

“Eh, she’s all right,” Maggie said. “Really bossy for someone so old, but uh, you know, not too bad,” she added quickly, as Y/N began to glare at her. She grinned and waggled her eyebrows. “Seriously, Y/N, it’s all good. I can take what she dishes out. Just have a few pillows ready for me when I come visit next time, okay?”

Y/N looked at her, then up at Alex, considering. “You’re good to her?” she asked.

Alex nodded. “As good as I can be.”

She stood up then, and walked over to Kara , who instantly wrapped her up in her arms. “All right.”

Maggie  stood up as well and moved to Alex’s side; Alex clapped her on his back and kissed her, which made Maggie  grin in spite of the apprehension in her eyes for what awaited her when they got home. Kara noticed that Alex’s hand was strong and capable against the back of Maggie’s neck as she led her out Kara ’s front door.

“Just for that,” Kara heard her say as she shut the door behind them, “You’ll only get 24 instead of 25.”

“Gee, thanks, Ma’am.”

Kara chuckled to herself and turned to Y/N, who was sat on the couch petting Theo.

“It’s been quite a day,” she said, sitting next to her. She smiled at Y/N and gently patted her knee. She could tell Y/N had things on her mind, but she’d wait for the woman to tell her, on her own time. “Do you want some dinner?”

Y/N shook her head. “Not yet, Miss Kara .” She glanced over at the stack of Broadway books that Kara had sat on the table against the wall in the living room.

“Do you want to read?”

Again Y/N shook her head. “Do you think you could read to me?” she asked shyly. “I don’t… I don’t want to be away from you right now, Miss Kara .”

Kara ’s heart swelled a little, both at the request and the fact that Y/N had felt comfortable enough to make it. Y/N needed her, and was telling her she needed her. “I can do that,” she said, then got up to retrieve one of the books.

She thought for a moment, and then sat back on the couch. “Come here,” she said, drawing Y/N forward so that they were both lying down, Y/N on her back between Kara’s legs, her head on Kara’s chest.

“There we go,” Kara said quietly, daring to nuzzle the top of Y/N’s head gently.  “Now, let’s see.”

She opened the book, holding Y/N in her arms. “’How can a book even begin to describe that wonderful, magical world, that fifteen mile stretch of road in New York known as Broadway?’”

-

previous | next

[allthefandomloveandimagines]

❤️I SHIP YOU WITH JAIMIE LANNISTER ❤️

I ship you with Jaimie Lannister because you seem to have a firm moral compass which is something he struggles with. Your ability to act on the things you like (such as dancing & being outside) is something that draws him to you. I imagine you working best with Jaimie when he is younger (while he lives on casterly rock) and him being taken by you.

So without further ado.... ❤️Story time❤️ this is set with young Jaimie before Cersei is married off❤️

You were betrothed to the nephew of Tywin Lannister

It was a marriage proposal you house had prayed for and something you dreaded

The Lannister family was nothing good as far as you were considered

The proposal wasn’t in person, or at least the first one wasn’t

You parents had come to tell you that a letter had come asking for your hand

And that a party would be held at casterly rock to celebrate your acceptance

The only problem is

You didn’t accept

You parents did it for you and you defiantly didn’t agree

You tried to fight the idea of marrying into that family and begged your parents to reconsider forcing you to go

They only shut you down, packed your dresses and forced you on the ship

They tried to make you feel better by describing the party to you but even dancing didn’t sound fun to you

When you arrived at casterly rock you were taken straight to a room where you were to prepare for the party

Your ladies brushed and pinned your hair up and added small amounts of makeup to your face

The women tending to you knew that you would fight them if they put a completely constricting dress on you

So instead they decided to slip you into a gorgeous light f/c dress with an open flowy bottom and a corset top

You smile and one of the girls winks at you before fluffing up the bottom of your dress

“Your parents said they would like you down in 30 minutes. They are meeting with the Lannister’s now and the party has started.”

You frowned and looked out the window

“You will have to come down eventually my dear.” One of the said quickly

You sigh and motion for them to leave

And they do

You walk to the window and look out at the setting sun

You had no intentions of going to that party

Night had had fallen and you found yourself wandering about outside

You looked at the garden and the stone structures that guarded the island

There were guards scattered around in high towers and by doorways but they didn’t look as threatening as you expected

None of them paid you much attention which brought you a little relief

That just meant you parents weren’t looking for you yet

You could hear music coming from the heart of the island and you wandered closer

You still didn’t want to attend the party

But you knew you didn’t have to be in there to enjoy the sounds coming from it

You stood outside the Lannister home, off to the side swaying to the music by the edge of their garden

You felt a little weird dancing alone outside in the dark

But you figured no one would see you anyway

So what’s to stop you

You carefully removed your shoes and placed them neatly on the stone floor

You then picked up the edges of your dress and began to twirl about

The more you focused, the louder the music seemed to get

And the more pleases you were

You had always loved dancing out late with your friends

Without the adults, without being judged

It was something you knew you’d probably never do again

After all, you’d eventually have to marry the poor sucker who was in there waiting for you to make an appearance

You did a large twirl, letting the soft fabric of your dress create a full colorful circle around you before watching it gracefully skirt the floor

You continued dancing for what only seemed like minutes but had to have been hours

Suddenly a crunch by the bushes behind you stopped you in your tracks

You gasped and stopped

You could see a male figure only feet from you

He was young, like you, but you couldn’t make out his features in the dark

“Who are you?” You ask defensively

Looking at the door to see if you had a clear shot if you had to run

“I’m sorry, just avoiding the party I’m afraid.” He seemed to grin “I’m not one for crowds”

You agreed with him there

And he was invited to the party, so you naturally assumed he wouldn’t hurt you

“Do you dance?” You ask abruptly

He’s caught off guard and looks around and scratches his head

“No I’m afraid I’m not quite good at-“

“But it’s no fun dancing alone. Are you rejecting me?” You ask cocking you head

“Well I wouldn’t want to do that”

“Good,” you step forward and carefully take his hand, “it’s easy, I’ll show you” you place his second hand on your waist and gently soothe him in to moving with you

He picks up clickly and it’s obvious he has had to do this before

It’s not long till he almost seems to be doing it better than you

You step on his toe which causes him to pull back

“I’m so sorry!” You whisper shout giggling

“It’s fine!” He laughs back and takes your hand again “I have a sister who I swear does that on purpose”

“She sounds awful” you flash him a toothy grin and do a little twirl “round two?” You bow slowly and he follows suit before placing his hand back on your waist

Of course

You two danced as long as the songs continued and when the Rhythm slowed you found yourself inches from his lips

The soft sound of violins placed in the background and a single beam of moonlight illuminated the right side of his face and the left of yours

You looked eye contact and slowly held eachother while swaying to the dying violin notes

And without another thought

You both leaned forward and sealed a gentle kiss

When you both opened you eyes, smiles invaded your pink cheeks

“Well” you said quietly

“I’d say this was quite some party” he took a step back and held out his hand

“People will be leaving soon, shall we continue our dance in the courtyard?” He smiles and the moon lights up him up entirely

You study his gentle yet sturdy features and strong eyes

You reached your hand out to take his when you noticed his well groomed golden hair

“Wait, What is your name?” You didnt move your hand any further and ceased all other movement

“Well it’s-“ he started and you quickly cut him off

“Are you a Lannister?” You half heartedly shouted

“Um, yes, my name is Jaimie, im the son of-“

“Tywin Lannister.” You finished, and took note of your heavily beating heart. “This is bad.” You look around in a panic

“Bad? I know my family has quite the reputation but-“ he seemed a little hurt and confused

“It’s not your fault!” You snapped at him and felt pity for the boy “it’s mine, I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have hid from the party, I shouldn’t have kissed you.” Tears started to fill your eyes

“If my parents find out what I’ve done” you hold a hand over your mouth to muffle your cries

“Surely, they will understand! Can’t I speak to them? Can you give me a name... or?” He desperately stepped forward and tried to help

But you pushed him away and listened to the sounds of people coming close to the door

“I have to go.” You grabbed your shoes, picked up the front of dress and took off around the back of the gardens, trying to avoid any leaving party attendants

You succeed in making it back to your room and you immediately throw your shoes across the room and run to the mirror

You look at your pink cheeks and smeared makeup

“Why did this have to happen to me.” You watched the tears fall freely down your face

You heard heavy footsteps down the hall and knew it had to be your parents

Without a second thought you threw yourself into your bed and curled up in the blankets pretending to be asleep

You the door swung open but your prents said nothing

“Of course! There she is!” Your father hissed stepping beside your bed

You held your breath and remained silent

“Look at her dear, she’s exhausted. I bet she wasn’t feeling well. She can’t avoid the young man forever. “ she placed a hand on your forehead

“She’s warm dear. She at least seemed to get dressed. You can assume she planned on going”

Your mom brush a strand of hair out of your face and escorted your father out of the room

They must have had a good night because they typically weren’t that understanding

The next morning was rough

Your ladies in waiting were on you as soon as the sun reared it’s head up from the ground

One of them practically had to drag you from the bed

You were not having it after the bad night you had

It wasn’t all bad, in fact, it was one of the best nights you had ever had. But if Jaimie figured out who you were

And told

You life would be over

The marriage would be terminated, you would be shamed

And you parents would never forgive you

You couldn’t live with the reprocussions

You were prepared and cleaned up for the day and hastily met you parents for breakfast

You knew you’d have to play the sick card in order to squeeze you way out of trouble with you soon be husband and his family

When you arrived downstairs in the large dining area all eyes were on you

You gave a weak smile and courtsied

You parents ran to your side and introduced you and listed off your accomplishments since before you had arrived

Tywin raised a brow and your betrothed smoothly moved in

“It is an honor to see you my lady, and in good health.” He kissed you hand and stepped back

You nodded and thanked him for forgiveness for your lack of attendance at the party

He forgave you immediately and took a seat at the table

He was younger than you expected and quite ill mannered

He immediately tore food apart and did not bother to keep food on the table where it belonged

It wasn’t long until his mother appeared and scolded him for his behavior

She brought along two other young Lannister’s

Two of which Tywin immediately stood up and introduced

“These are my two children, Cersei and Jaimie. “ they both bowed and tools their seats

You did everything you could to avoid looking at Jaimie

But naturally he took a seat beside you, not realizing who you were

“Welcome to casterly rock my lady.” He flashed a smile while Tywin and your father struck up a conversation

“Thank you” you mumbled quietly

“I know that voice,” he quickly looked down at you and you look back at him with eyes

“Do you?” Cersei snapped from across the table

You both look at her

All attention turned to the two of you

Tywin, your parents, the little lord you were to marry...

“Perhaps not.” Jaimie looked down and took a shaky breath

“No, have you two met before?” Tywin hissed, “perhaps last night when you weren’t at the party?” Jaimie looked up at him with pleading eyes

“I’ll give you a head start.” Cersei whispered to you from across the table “10 seconds.”

You furrowed you brows

What was she talking about

“No father, I told you I stepped out to get some air.” Jaimie shot out

“Alone?” Tywin inquires

“Wasn’t y/n sick and alone last night?” Cersei added

She looked back at you “five”

You heart started racing

“Is that so?” Tywin barked

“She would never do something questionable!” Your parents shot out immediately

“How dare you accuse her of being anything but loyal!” Your father clenched his fist and you could feel how nervous Jaimie was

“Did you tell your sister.” You growled in an almost silent tone

“No. I didn’t she was upstairs when I-“ he stopped and both of you watched Cersei play with her food

“Up stairs where?” You growled again

“Probably—outside”

“Where we were.” Cersei looked up and gave you a wicked grin

“3.” She Leaned forward and looked at Tywin

“They were there together.” All eyes were on Cersei and she was loving it

“I saw it myself.” Everyone at the table made horrendous noises and the little lord pushed back in his chair

“And they shared a kiss.” Cersei’s eyes focused in on you

“This is outrageous!” He shouted

“1.” Cersei looked at her dad

“How dare you bring your harlot here” Tywin hissed standing at the foot of the table

Your father had your arm in an instant and pulled you from your chair

You looked desperately at Jaimie

His face was filled with guilt

You didn’t say anything you just looked at him

“Leave before I have the guards do it for you!” Tywin shouted

You turned and briskly exited the building while your parents tried to plea in your name

You didn’t wait for them and in fact

You started to run

And you couldn’t stop

Tears flooded your eyes as they had done the night before and you found yourself and the docks alone

“What has happened?!” You screamed at the water

Footsteps cam in quickly beside you

You grabbed a paddle from the ground and swiftly turned around holding it out

“Stay away!” You screamed

It was Jaimie, looking as gentle as the night before

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know she-“

“What, that she was there? Or that she would do this? I’m ruined!” You threw the paddle at him and walked to the edge of the dock where a little boat waited floating by itself

“I should run.” You looked down longingly at the boat

“You could.” He said quietly

You turned and looked at him “I had a great time last night”

“I did too.” He looked back into you eyes with sympathy

“Why do things like this have to happen?” You asked

He stepped forward and closed the space with you

You gazed into his eyes

“I have to leave don’t I?” He took your hand while you tried to have a conversation with him

“Jaimie, I have to leave, don’t I?” He just looked at you

“Please tell me. Tell me to go.”

“Your parents can convince my cousin it was an accident. They can tell him you thought I was my cousin. They could believe him. That’s probably what is happening now.” Jaimie focused on your eyes

“But.” You furrowed your brows

“But, Cersei will not let you go. She’s different, my sister, she will do everything in her power to get rid of you.” Jaimie bit his lip

“What? That’s crazy! Why would she-“

“I don’t know. You should go. She will get you killed.” Your heart sank, your stomach tightened and your breathing got heavier

“Where do I go? What do I do?”

Jaimie pulled a large pouch from his belt and placed it in your hands

“It’s all gold peices.” You saw the look in his eye

He knew there was no other option

You spent a long moment on the dock together but not much else was said

Your simple Night if defiance had changed your life forever and though you thought maybe you should stay with your parents, if Jaimie was right about Cersei

It would have been only a matter of time

You did escape

And found yourself actually enjoying your life in Westeros

It was much more welcoming than you had hoped and you thought about what your life would have been like at casterly rock

You had made the right decision

But you missed that night with Jaimie

You missed Jaimie

You only knew him so shortly but there was a lot to that young man

Maybe you’d see him again

[dontreadthistrashgarbage]

Pt.1

"Is that foreigner the manager from that viral video?" Byeongkwan wondered aloud as a new boy group and their staff hustled down the hall to their waiting room.

The other boys of A.C.E craned their heads to look after the receding backs of the rookies. "It has to be right? There's not exactly a lot of foreigners that work as managers." Chan said thoughtfully.

"What video? What?" Jun asked, clueless as to what his younger members were talking about. Seyoon and Donghun turned back as well as Byeongkwan pulled out his phone.

"This video went viral last week cause a sasaeng tried to grab a member but their manager stepped in." He pulled up the clip and showed it to his hyungs.

The video showed the rookie group making their way into a building when someone rushed up and grabbed one of the younger members, he didnt look to be older than maybe fifteen. Before the boy had any chance to react beyond an obvious expression of fear, a tall female foreigner with light brown short hair in a wolf style cut, and a very fit physique, stepped between him and the fan, forcing her grip to break. The manager didnt break step at all as she put her arm behind the boys to keep them moving, a quelling expression on her face as she maintained eye contact with the sasaeng for a few seconds before security stepped in to remove the troublemaker. The sasaeng had looked startled herself for a moment before becoming visibly upset at the interruption.

"Woah, awesome." Jun responded, eyebrows high, "That was so smooth."

"That was cool." Seyoon nodded in agreement and instinctively glanced up to see if any of the staff was still in sight, though they were long gone.

"She didnt get in trouble did she?" Asked Donghun with a slight frown.

"I don't know, she was just here so maybe not?" Byeongkwan shrugged, putting his phone away and also glancing down the hall again.

"She didnt get in trouble." The boys jumped, not noticing their own manager, Minseok, having come up behind them as they were watching the video, "Sorry, didnt mean to scare you." He grinned.

"Aaahhhh, you scared me hyung." Chan whined, rubbing his beating heart.

"How do you know she didnt get in trouble?" Donghun asked curiously.

"I've chatted with her in the manager room. She's an interesting person." Before the boys had a chance to ask what he meant he changed the subject, "anyway get ready to go, it's almost our turn." They wasted no time switching to work mode and moving out.

"To a successful third week!" Guerin called out, holding up her shot glass. The two other managers met her cheers and they all drank their soju.

"For you! It's only been one week for me." Minseok shook his head as he automatically refilled the shots for the other two. Guerin chuckled and immediately refilled his as well. Politely speaking it should have been Jinyoung's job to do that but Guerin was an enthusiastic foreigner so neither of then bothered to correct her this time.

"Well thanks anyway for meeting me out. It's been fun but very tiring!" She added, setting the soju bottle down, then picking out one of the many late night snacks they had ordered and munching happily. While officially working she kept her makeup and jewelry fairly neutral she took socializing as an opportunity to match her looks to her personality. Today she wore an orange lip stain with light orange and yellow on her eyelids. Her normal earlobe studs were replaced with fun mismatched dangling earrings drawing attention to the rainbow feather tattoo behind her right ear.

"Ya, why do you keep looking at your phone?" Jinyoung challenged Minseok as it buzzed again. It had been going off fairly frequently for the past twenty minutes.

"Is it your girlfriend? Tell her to join us! The more the merrier." Guerin mentioned through her chewing.

"Funny you should say that..." Minseok trailed off with a guilty expression. The other two paused to look at him, Guerin already with another bite halfway into her mouth. "Its not my girlfriend, but I've just been informed we're getting company."

Her expression quizzical, she shrugged and stuffed the large bite of food into her mouth. It turned out to be poor timing.

"Hyung!" A man's voice exclaimed, approaching their table. Guerin, with chopsticks still in her mouth, cheek bulging, peaked up to see three members of Minseok's charges, A.C.E, coming toward them. She dropped her chopsticks as Minseok and Jinyoung stood to greet the newcomers. "Oh shi-" she started in english stopping just in time and jumping up as well, hitting the table with a loud clatter. She covered her mouth as the others and some surrounding people looked at her and hurriedly tried to swallow while bowing apologetically. Now standing at their table with alternating combinations of hoods, hats, masks and glasses was Seyoon, Byeongkwan and Donghun.

Minseok and Jinyoung looked amused, Byeongkwan and Donghun seemed concerned and Seyoon had his standard smile in place as she managed to quickly choke down her food at greet them. Minseok introduced everyone in the meantime, before turning to them after everyone sat back down.

"Guerin? Isn't that a Korean name? Where are you from?" Byeongkwan asked curiously.

"Oh, I'm from America but my name is difficult for Koreans to pronounce so I chose a Korean name." Guerin explained.

"I was going to bring food back." Minseok said almost defensively to the trio of unexpected guests.

"We know we just didnt want to wait." Donghun said.

"We also wanted to meet your friends." Seyoon said, looking at Guerin.

"You've already met me." Jinyoung responded looking at them as though waiting for the full story.

There was a beat as Guerin looked around and just as she filled in the blanks Byeongkwan confirmed, "We wanted to meet Guerin."

"What? Why?" She asked, confused.

"You're famous." Donghun said before turning to Minseok, "Can we join you? Should we order more Soju?" Minseok sighed and nodded, signaling to the server and calling for more Soju.

"Let's order more snacks too." Seyoon piped up.

"Oh, please help yourself, eat as much as you want." Guerin gestured to the selection of food.

"They need to keep to their diet-" Minseok started and Guerin gave him a look, "They're healthy, active young men. They work hard and they deserve to eat."

Minseok rolled his eyes, he had heard this before. Jinyoung piped up jokingly, "She just wants to make them fat to decrease competition."

Guerin gave the same stern look to Jinyoung, "Excuse me I make sure my boys eat very well. I refused to allow them to be unhealthy for aesthetics. Besides. A splurge once in a while never hurt anyone." She finished the sentence with another mouthful of food.

Seyoon looked at Minseok, "Can she be our new manager?"

Byeongkwan and Donghun raised their newly filled shot glasses for a cheers the Guerin heartily joined with the three boys while Minseok and Jinyoung shook their heads pretending to be offended.

"We got a glimpse of that famous expression you made." Donghun said after the cheers.

Guerin set her glass down and proceeded to refill everyone's shot glasses.

"Ahhhh I see. You're talking about that video with the sasaeng." There was a reserved tone to her voice as she glanced at each of their faces to read their expressions. No one spoke for a moment as she waited for their confirmation and they struggled to find the words they wanted. "Please dont worry about offending me, you can be... ah what's the word I want? Frank? Direct? Honest? Straightforward? Aahhh informal?" She settled on the word she knew after floundering in English for a moment.

"Direct." Byeongkwan added helpfully.

"Yeah, exactly. You can be direct." She smiled taking another sip of soju.

"Did your company scold you?" Seyoon asked.

"Hmmm, not really? They understood my reaction but there was some negative feedback from netizens so we had a talk about what to do next time." Guerin frowned and took another bite of food.

"What were people complaining about?" Byeongkwan asked around a mouthful of food.

"Mostly that I looked scary or acted to aggressively. Honestly most of the responses were very positive and supportive. They saw I was trying to protect the boys. I was very touched by a lot of comments." She smiled softly glancing away with an almost shy expression. "I was really only bothered by the ones criticizing Seungbin for not standing up for himself." Her expression changed again as she frowned the shrugged and looked up.

"It could look bad to some that a man needs to be protected by a woman." Donghun added thoughtlessly. Both Seyoon and Byeongkwan looked at him in alarm. He immediately panicked seeing their expression and the raised eyebrows on Guerin, "I didnt mean it like that I just meant that's what other people migh-"

"I get it." Guerin finished her shot then indicated Donghun to fill her glass with a playful wink as he obliged looking guilty. Seyoon shoved him playfully.

"It was one of the sentiments. As a man he should have done something himself. For starters he's very young, he is only fifteen and a very slight frame at that. Even then, an idol has to be careful with their image, they cant be seen being rude to fans, even terrible sasaengs. Additionally they've just debuted, so not only is their image even more impressionable, but it's not something he has experienced before. He was frightened and shocked. There is no shame in that. Lastly, I used to work in security so my response wasnt planned, I just saw someone who was in trouble and reacted." She gestured to Donghuns glass encouraging him to drink with her. They clinked glasses and drank together.

"Noona, you're drinking a lot." Jinyoung nagged playfully.

She looked surprised, "It's just soju and I've only had about five shots." She looked at the alcohol content on the bottles and laughed, "this is nothing! I'm feeling very pleasant right now."

Minseok sighed, "Noona you sound like an old man." She stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"Maybe if you babies were better at drinking you wouldnt need to shame my talents." Minseok pretended offense and Jinyoung raised his hand with a fake attempt to smack. "Aaahhh see what happens." She teased him and he sighed and looked away, calling for another bottle of soju.

She turned back to the A.C.E members that had been digging into the food on the table, "I love seeing our kids eat well." She patted her own cheeks with a cute smile.

"AWW NO NOONA not your aegyo ugh." Minseok complained loudly.

"I didnt mean to aahhh it just happened I was so happy." She covered her face but couldnt hide her embarrassed laugh.

"Hyung no, it was cute!" Seyoon interjected.

"You only say that cause she wants to stuff you full of food!" Jinyoung interjected, "you wouldnt say that if you had to see that all the time."

Guerin smacked Jinyoung lightly on the arm and ignored him as he pretended serious injury, "yah, you heard him. I'm CUTE." She shot Seyoon a cutesy wink and peace sign and his smile froze in place before he shot back his own wink and finger hearts. Byeongkwan and Donghun jumped onto scolding him while Guerin held a hand to her heart, as she played along.

Once they finished goofing off Byeongkwan spoke up again, "Guerin-SSI-"

"Just call her Noona, it makes her happy." Minseok sighed, looking at his dumb foreigner friend as she shot him an exaggerated scrunched face smile before turning back to Byeongkwan.

"You dont have to call me noona if you dont want to. But you dont need to be formal with me, I prefer to be friendly." She clarified.

"Noona, you said you worked security? What was that like?"

"Ah! Yes! It was rad! It was awesome. I worked as an independent contractor so I did everything from bouncing at bars, to private events like wedding and fundraisers, or even big fancy events like fashion week." She pulled up a sleeve and flexed, flashing an impressive bicep and patting it proudly, "I liked the work, and I was good at it." She pulled her sleeve down, preening slightly at the impressed expressions on the faces of the men joining her at the table.

"Cool! Why did you stop?" Seyoon asked.

"Well I moved out here to teach English, but then I really loved it so I wanted to stay. A lot of security work here only pays well if you can be armed, but getting my license for that would be tricky because I'm a foreigner. So I wanted a job that would still let me help people but pay well and my friend suggested this to me." While she talked she served a piece of food to everyone at the table, gesturing that they eat more. "Now I just get my jollies by giving piggyback rides and challenging men to arm wrestle just to put them in their place. And also feeding babies." She teased, feeding Minseok directly as she said so.

"Ya." He protested around the food in his mouth.

"Shhhh baby, or I'll tell your boys how many times I beat you at arm wrestling." She said, posing cutely with her finger to her cheek and fluttering her eyelashes.

The table erupted in a mixture of approval and dismay, Guerin cackling at the response and ending with everyone doing another cheers and shot.

"Darn! We should have gone with you, she sounds cool." Chan said with a slight pout. It was the next day and they were all in the waiting room getting ready.

"She's just what Minseok said. Interesting." Seyoon nodded.

"Were a lot of foreigners like that when you lived overseas?" Jun questioned Byeongkwan.

"Not really. She definitely has taken up some Korean traits well but even then she's really forward and comfortable and..." he paused.

"Loud?" Donghun offered.

"Definitely loud." Seyoon nodded in agreement.

"Arent all foreigners loud?" Chan asked.

"Not as loud as me. Hi guys!"

"Noona!" Byeongkwan jumped up. Donghum and Seyoon looked shocked and embarrassed.

"Noona, we didnt mean it as a bad thing." Donghun said as he and Seyoon bowed. Chan and Jun bowed in greeting as well along with Guerin after she patted Byeongkwans shoulder fondly. She smiled in response.

"Not at all, I know I'm extra. It means I'm extra, I'm above and beyond the normal level. I'm not offended at all, most of all because it's the truth." She waved off their guilty expressions.

"Noona, this is Jun and Chan." Seyoon introduced the remaining A.C.E members.

"It's nice to meet you! You'll have to join us next time so I can feed you too!" She grinned at them, "You can call me Noona or Guerin, whichever you are most comfortable with."

"What brings you here?" Jun asked politely.

"Minseok said he was here, he left his airpods behind last night so I brought them to him, the lightweight." She joked.

"Stop talking trash behind my back." Minseok complained walking back into the room and handing each of the boys a beverage from the vending machines.

Turning to face him directly, "hello my favorite lightweight. You drunkenly left your toys behind after one bottle of soju but I'm here to save the day!" She held out his airpods, the pulled back abruptly, "hey wheres my drink?"

Minseok sighed, "Seriouslyyyy?" He whined and pouted lightly.

"Oh my god. No. So cute. Aahhhh." She handed over his airpods and averted her eyes, fanning herself. Minseok looked proud at his win for a fraction of a second before he met the gazes of all five A.C.E members.

"Hyung..." Jun said in shock.

"You've never..." Byeongkwan started. Seyoon and Chan just started giggling while Donghun visibly cringed.

"Oh you guys stop, it was cute. He did it for me cause I'm weak for that sh... that stuff." She pressed her lips together at her catch. "Anyway its time for me to head back to HEET. It was nice seeing you guys again, and nice meeting you Jun, Chan." She bowed and left.

The boys waited a moment before Chan spoke up, "Okay I think I see what you mean."

"She makes me feel like I've been in a pool too long." Minseok grumbled disingenuously before going to put his airpods away.

"I like her." Jun stated, "She seems fun."

The boys of A.C.E were surprised by the unexpected reception in the party room. As soon as the five boys entered there was loud cheering, shouts of "surprise!" And "congratulations!". For the first time since their debut they had finally gotten their first, second and third wins. It was an emotional time, and seeing so many familiar faces cheering them on didnt stop the tears.

Unexpectedly, outside of their usual staff and friends was HEET, Guerin (their manager) who had become more familiar and a second foreigner.

Guerin waited until last, sporting bright pink lipstick this time, then offered a hug of pride and congratulations to each of them that they accepted before she introduced her team HEET and her friend, "A.C.E, this is my friend Charlie." She grinned, "She works at the zoo as a vet intern, I've known her for a while and I think you'll get along."

The members were instantly interested, "The zoo?"

"That's incredible!"

"How cool!"

"Do you treat all the animals?"

Guerins pretty friend smiled shyly but proudly, her pink and purple hair standing out against her fair freckled skin. "I'm just an intern but I'm learning so much, and I'm getting a lot of hands on experience."

"Your korean is so good!" Donghun offered excitedly, smiling genuinely.

"What's your favorite animal to work with?" Jun asked, pushing past Chan and Donghun as Charlie blushed.

Guerin hung back, smiling proudly at her friend, Seyoon close by while his members grilled Charlie.

"It must be nice to have someone from a familiar culture close by." Seyoon said to the short haired woman, easily his equal in height.

"Yes! And she's amazing! I wanted to be a zookeeper too but..." Guerin's smile became somewhat forced, "Well, it didn't work out."

Seyoon didnt know how to respond to that. It was a public place and seemed like a sensitive topic so he said the first thing that came to his mind, "You should give me a piggyback ride."

Guerin almost choked as she was shocked into laughter, "A wh- you want a piggyback ride?"

"Yeah. We got our first three wins. You should give me a piggy back ride to the snacks."

Without any hesitation whatsoever Guerin offered her back, "Hop on the snack train."

Minhwan, the leader of HEET, saw her motion, "Noona no, please that-".

Before he could finish his sentence Seyoon had hopped on. If he had stopped to think for a fraction of a second he might have caught the panicked and frozen expressions of most of the other guests in attendance but there was a person to be cheered up and snacks to be had so he missed it until he had been dropped at the buffet table.

He was reaching for a plate to demand Guerin load it up for him as well before he caught the faces of those around him and hesitated. Guerin, however, either didnt notice or care as she took his plate. Seyoon watched as she loaded the dish with all kinds of foods, paying no attention to their caloric value or sodium levels before shoving it back to him.

"Here. Eat." Her face lit up with joy, from what he couldnt exactly tell. As she ushered him away he noticed she did the same thing for all the members of her group, loading them up with food and happily encouraging them to eat. HEET was a talented group from a new company, the boys had an age gap from 15 to 23 but all seemed well fed and athletic despite differing body types. Seyoon noticed these details through catching up with members from his own staff and munching through his heaped plate.

"So you've only been in korea for a year?" Chan asked in disbelief.

"Well, living here. I've taken language classes and visited Guerin while she was here so I knew I wanted to do more." Charlie looked shyly down, "I'm sorry, I know my korean isnt good."

"No, its amazing! You're doing so well!" Jun responded enthusiastically, "you must be excellent to be able to intern in the vet field!"

Charlie blushed and covered her face.

"Boys if you could let my friend breath that would be amazing." Guerin cut in.

"Ah, I'm sorry we didnt mean to embarrass you." Donghun turned polite as the three bowed apologetically.

"Just be nice to her. I know you have it in you. Chan, come here let me feed you." Guerin continued, dragging the maknae away toward the table where Byeongkwan hovered. Guerin wasted no time feeding up the two young men, ignoring any protests from Minseok about their diet.

"Can we make you a plate?" Jun asked Charlie, suddenly inspired.

"If you want to, if you're hungry too..." she trailed off, overwhelmed by shyness.

"We can share." Donghun said, stepping up with her and Junhee. Her face flushed a little at their proximity, they either didnt notice or didnt care.

As the party progressed A.C.E. made sure to make their rounds and thank their staff. Thrpughout the night Seyoon found himself with a desire to drift to Guerin over and over. Whether she was with Minseok or her charges or her friend he was drawn to her side. The downside is it often ended with what might be considered inappropriate interaction. Besides the piggyback ride she had given him, they had exchanged cringey aegyo to each other, clung to each other laughing and finally he had challenged her to arm wrestling.

"Really? You want to in front of everyone?" She asked with an expression of concern.

Seyoon waggled his eyebrows, "Loser buys meat."

"Oh, I guess we'll find out the limits of your food budget then." Guerin laughed.

Charlie didnt outright cheer Guerin on but she did let out a muffled laugh of anticipation heard only by Jun and Donghun who happened to be near her.

"Do you think Guerin can win?" Jun asked Charlie skeptically.

"Oh, yes. He might have a chance in leg wrestling. But Guerin focuses a lot on strength training. Dance will do a lot but..."

Donghun nodded, familiar with the concept from his period in the military. His psyhique had changed when it went from soldier to idol. Junhee nodded as well, a bit more idly as though he didnt quite buy it.

A table and chairs had been located as Seyoon refused to back down. The two contenders clasped hands and for a moment gazed directly into each others eyes.

Guerin inhaled and said quietly so only Seyoon could hear, "Ah, its cheating for you to be so handsome." After which she clinched her eyes shut and pressed with all her might. Seyoon, despite his surprise, recovered and fought against her as best he could but ultimately he lost.

Guerin was not a gracious winner. She stood up, both arms in the air and walked around the room to calls of support while Seyoon recovered. It was easier for him to pretend to wallow in shame than to acknowledge the flutter he had felt in his chest from her unexpected comment.

"Maybe he could beat you in leg wrestling!" Byeongkwan proudly shouted from the sidelines, completely uninvited.

Guerin paused for only a moment before Minseok put the kibosh on that idea. Guerin laughed and propped an elbow on the shoulder of her friend. "Poor Minseokie, I've been thwarting you all night. I'll have to respect your wishes at some point." She secretly felt relieved, the brief eye contact she had made with the younger idol had made her heart race and wasnt sure she wanted his legs on her like that... [lies] a traitorous part of her brain added. She quickly pushed the thought down.

"Minseokie, have you eaten? Let me feed you." She tugged playfully at his arm.

"Do you ever think about anything other than food?" He grumbled but passively went along with her.

"What else is there?" She joked as she lead him off.

Seyoon watched them retreat as Donghun, Charlie and Jun came up to him.

"It was a close match!" Charlie said politely.

"Are you okay? You look weird." Jun asked.

Seyoon gazed up at them forlornly, "You've seen how much she loves food. I'll need to get a loan to feed her meat."

"Oh yeah you're totally screwed." Donghun said with a nod.

"You might as well close your bank account now." Charlie said with feigned sympathy this time.

Seyoon groaned dramatically and sank to the floor, covering his eyes, "I was so looking forward to my first paycheck."