#i used it for some of the shading on orion and i think its cool!

[isaacathom]

First two attacks from ArtFight - Cailín and Orion!

[indigobackfire]

HPHM OC Profile ✧

Phoenix Nobleworth

" You're like a poisonous flower, Phoenix. Beautiful and inviting with all your colors and aromas and deadly force. "

Full Name: Phoenix Lazar Nobleworth Silverwood

Nicknames: Pheny. Birdy (by some of his Hufflepuff friends). Nobleworth. Silverwood (by Snape out of spite).

Gender: Male.

Birthday: 12th of May, 1973.

Born: Deva, Transylvania, Romania.

Mother: Biological: Antonia Lazar, full Veela. Adoptive: Clarin (née Tramer) Silverwood.

Father: Biological: Emilian Nobleworth, Scottish, Half-Veela, Gryffindor. Adoptive: Palmer Silverwood.

Siblings: Jacob Silverwood (b. 1968), Indigo Silverwood (b. 1973).

Ethnicity: Romanian, Scottish.

Species: Veela.

Sexuality: Heterosexual.

MBTI Type: IN(TorF)P-T (I can't decide, so he's both).

Blood Status: Half-blood (I think.)

Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff.

Appearance

Eyes: His eyes are a shade between green and blue with very light tones of lilac depending on the light. But due to his Veela powers he can change them into an shape or color he likes.

Hair: A light shade of golden blonde, wavy, usually grown below his chin. (At some point, he dyed a strand turquoise to impress his crush, I know, wild.)

Height: He's reasonably tall usually towering by little other boys, with long legs.

• He's got those handsome looks expected from a full Veela, structural face but round features give him a soft look. He's very strong despite his slim figure. His skin is pretty fair but he has a myriad of scars from past transformations.

• He's told he's a perfect mixture of his parents which gives him a friendly and suave look that easily turns authoritative and seductive when he uses his Veela powers of seduction.

Veela Form: Different from what's described in canon, I like to imagine Veelas having feathers that differ from people to people. Phoenix's feathers are fair golden with the inner side of his wing in shades of red, the feathers go up to the knees and elbows while hands and feet become bird-like with long black talons. His features and ears become sharper, and his teeth, fangs. His eyes turn silver-white when he turns by his will and bright yellow when forced to turn.

Transformation is hardly ever painless and he often hurts himself and takes longer to heal because of the Veela blood. Both spells and potions don't work as effectively, which is why he fights to control his temper, beyond the fact he can end up hurting somebody else.

Transformation occurs when he's either angry, instigated or when someone pulls out a string of his hair. Unless for the latter, he has partial control over his transformation/consciousness (nevertheless requiring practice and focus).

Magical Aspects

Wand: Pearwood with Veela hair core and an amber stone for stability, 14'' and flexibility. "Pearwood produces wands of splendid magical powers, which give of their best in the hands of the warm-hearted, the generous, and the wise, also among the most resilient." Veela's hair core is known to be temperamental — which is why Olivander had trouble making Phoenix's wand, having to insert molten amber to the torn wand for stability. The hair came from one shed by his mother which they used to keep stored for such use.

Patronus: Thunderbird. The Thunderbird is a large, magical avian beast native to North America. A close relative of the Phoenix. They can create storms as it flies and is highly sensitive to danger. They possess three pairs of powerful wings and have feathers that shimmer with cloud-like patterns.

Patronus memory: The day his wizard powers started presenting themselves — he stopped a sculpture from falling on his dad's head within a beat of his heart — and they had a real feast that night.

Veela Abilities: Beyond the popular ability to seduce - which really began when he turned 14 -, Veelas can also dwell and create fire from their hands in human form but requires training to control.

Boggart:

Penny (in specific because he hates to see her cry) holding his dead sister, hurt and bleeding, and hearing Penny say how could he have done that, because he's terribly afraid of losing his control and hurting Indigo.

Riddikulus: Penny tuns into Tonks and Indigo wakes up saying it was ketchup and makeup all along.

Amortentia: Regular burning candles, purple passionfruit, the smell of the house/apartment he lives in with his family, Peppermint tea, and the smell of fresh clay.

Once he gets over the fear of losing control somewhere around the end of his 4th year, his boggart in year 5 turns into Inferius versions of his parents after he learns about them in DADA, but even worse than described in the textbooks, with bugs crawling out of their mouths, a half-rotten dragon head on their lap and clothes stained with nearly black blood.

He has a hard time using Riddikulus on that one.

Miscellaneous

Pets: A Flama Squirrel (I made up from a real one), a magical squirrel that sets itself on fire when threatened, mostly predated by smaller breeds of dragons and Chimeras. The Flama's liver is commonly used in Erumpent potion with the intention of increasing its property but its lack doesn't spoil the potion, and their glands used to be common in perfumes for aphrodisiac fragrances until they started going extinct from excessive hunting.

Things he always carries with him: His wand, a chocolate bar, his favorite quill, a flask of water, and his class schedule cause he forgets them very often.

Lucky Amulets: A feather from his mom and another from his dad that he can wear on his hair and does on special occasions.

Best Friends

His sister, but as I did for her, I want to write their relationship in another post.

Aspen: Not only his cousin but also one of his best friends. Their personalities clash, her being outspoken and feral, and him being softer and more collected, yet they can't live without each other. He considers himself her protector, but from how savvy she is, it's her who ends up protecting him most times.

Boy!Rowan: His first Hufflepuff friend having met at the Hogwarts Express on their first ride. Rowan is his best friend and partner in crime. They usually spend time reading, walking open fields, and helping his sister with her plans of finding the cursed vault. Rowan supports him with tests and homework when his personal life gets overwhelming.

Chiara: They easily bond after he finds out her secret about being a werewolf, and they share support and help in times of instability. They like going out on picnics and to watch the creatures in the reserve. They actually enjoy dueling each other for fun, it's cute.

Penny: His first crush while still a boy in Hogwarts, he enjoys her company from her confidence and overall bright personality. Despite growing out of his affection for her, they're still good friends and enjoy each other's company. He offers a comforting shoulder when her relationship with her sister gets tricky.

Diego: He and Diego take a long time until they officially hit it off. Diego's personality being too grandiose and extroverted for Phoenix's taste. But as soon as he discovers that Aspen has a mad crush on him, goes out of his way to find out more about him, not trusting him to be a proper suitor for her. Despite his opinions, with time, their relationship evolves into a sincere friendship from Diego's good humor and adventurous heart.

Badeea: The one person he never thought he'd be friends with considering her intellectual (Ravenclaw-like) demeanor and collected attitude. But one day, when she gathers the courage to call him to pose for one of her paintings, he finds out she shared the exact same thoughts about him. Their friendship is quiet-like and profound, they share their thoughts about recent reads and go stargazing.

Orion: He first interacts with Orion when his sister joins the Gryffindor quidditch team and never he would've guessed how much Orion would mean to him. But with time he learns that Orion's presence is a suave and soothing one, and when he confronts Orion about how he can be that way, he decides to guide him into spiritual and mental balance. They meditate, chill and bond over shared experiences -- both being orphans, cool-headed, and deeply compassionate people.

Dormmates: It's him, Rowan, Diego, and two muggle-born boys, Lance and Edward, through which they learn a lot from the muggle world.

Academics

Favorite Classes:

History of Magic (when his friends are teaching)

Herbology

Ancient Runes*

Divination

Least Favorite:

Potions

Arithmancy

Favorite Professor: Minerva McGonagall. She's just so thoughtful and poise, the coolest animagus and the most powerful witch he knows.

Least Favorite: Snape for obvious reasons. He doesn't hate Snape but he also rather not be in his presence in potions class.

Quidditch: He cheers for Gryffindor when his sister is playing against the other houses, but his allegiance is to Hufflepuff. Imagine his excitement when Cedric Diggory joined the team and came down slaying with his abilities.

Yum,yum my Hufflepuffy boy, I love him. Can't wait to get into more detail about his past and romantic relationships.

[asunshinepuff]

Secrets of the Darkened Seas

🧜🏻‍♀️ Hello! Welcome to chapter three! Please please please give a like and follow to my co-author and best friend Luna ( @ladynightmare913 ) because this story would not be where it’s at without her help!

She’s incredible and deserves so much credit for working on this alongside me cause she works so hard. And I feel horrible that she isn’t getting the credit deserves.

Especially since this chapter includes some of her own ocs in addition to my own! There’s a lot of new faces to join us! All credit for creation goes to each other for our respective characters because we’ve both worked so hard to create our ocs and I wouldn’t dare want to take credit away from her.

As always, a reminder that there is some lore included within this, however, it will be explained over time so no worries. There’s no mention of lore for right now.

The Included lore on different types of merfolk will be taken from the book “The Secret World of Mermaids” by Francine Rose. We will not take credit for it’s writing. It’s a childhood book of mine that I adore dearly and sincerely think you should all check out!

Also! Please let me know if you want to be added to the tag list so that you don’t miss a new chapter!

Anyways, that’s about it. I hope you enjoy!

If you’ve missed any chapters here’s the link to the masterlist for this story Secrets of the Darkened Seas 🧜🏻‍♀️

Small warning at the start here, there is a minor character death included in this chapter.

.

Chapter 3: A Sea of Fireworks

Three years passed as The Dragon’s Pearl sailed the seven seas. There had been many fierce battles and grand adventures as Remus learned the ways of the sword from both Captain Hua and First mate Sandoval. During the past few years, Remus found a particular fondness for literature that grew further than when he was younger. Along the way, there have been many new companions to join the shipmates, and the secrets of a certain young man were revealed. A year on his own at sea taught Remus many things, but he couldn’t help but miss the company of those upon The Dragons’ Pearl. 

Now at seventeen summers old, the once young boy has grown into a fine young man. 

Under the sea, there was a mythical creature with bright shimmering amber scales, varying in shades of accent tones from the top of his tail, to his fluke. The moonlight breached the surface of the darkened sea, the light reflected off of his amber eyes, as if they began to shine and glow under the moon’s pale beauty. His medium length tawny colored hair flowed around him in the cool waters. The mer turned down before his arms moved forwards as he dived down deeper into the sea. The deeper he went, the darker it became. 

As he reached the seafloor, he swam at a leisurely pace, brushing a clawed hand against the seagrass. Looking up, the seagrass became littered with life, crabs, small, fish, seahorses, an octopus, and coral. He chuckled to himself as the fish scattered when he swam near them, a green sea turtle by his side seemed to follow him, wherever he went. It had felt too long since he had last been in the sea. 

Remus’ head turned sharply upwards as he picked up the sound of a muffled screeching noise coming from the surface. Then a muted bang before a flash of scattered gold light. With a strong flick of his tail, the floor beneath him vanished from sight as he neared the surface. 

Breaching from the water, he looks up to the familiar ship with concern, “Opal! What’s happening?!” He yells up to the deck. 

In an instant, a tall beautiful greek woman, around the age of twenty-three, with long light brown hair, hazel green eyes, lightly tanned skin peered over the railing of the deck to respond. She was dressed in a sea-blue off the shoulder long-sleeved shirt that was tucked into her light brown pants, with a black corset vest on top, and black boots. At her hip was a wide sword with a dark blue sheath, and its hilt had the detailing of a trident. 

“Min-Jun received a letter! We have to make port in Portland! The Blacks and Greyback were spotted off the coast of Dorset!” She lowers the rope ladder and opens the small gate, “Get your tail up here!”

Remus catches the ladder with ease and pulls himself up onto it, “What’s the sudden hurry? We’re currently off the coast of Dorset ourselves.” He comments, looking back up to his friend. 

“Quinn’s family lives in Portland, he thinks they’ll be going after them!” Opal replies, tossing down a blanket for Remus to dry his scales with.

Remus winces as the blanket lands upon his head, frowning as it blocks his view. Pulling the soft cloth from his head, he sets to work on drying himself and his scales, “But why would they go after his family?” He yells out. 

Opal pauses, a somber look upon her face as she watches Remus make his way up the rope ladder with his two legs, scales now nowhere to be seen. She shakes her head as he reaches the deck, “I don’t know. But I think something’s wrong.”

Two-quarters of an hour pass with The Dragon’s Pearl sailing at full speed to Portland. The sea seemed to be at their side that night, the sound of cannon fire reached the members of the crew. The lifeboats were lowered with First mate Sandoval and Remus inside one of the boats. 

Remus’ eyes widened when he saw the pitch-black sails of The Ophiuchus which could barely be seen from a distance. The ship’s colors had a black flag with a white skull with a snake coming out of an eye socket. The Blacks. The ancient pirate ship passed down from generation to generation of Blacks. Rumors and tales continuously traveled from sailors aboard many ships about the family, the ship gaining the nickname of Grimmauld amongst the gossiping sailors. Remus had heard many tales himself in the past. 

The Blacks were ruthless in their pliage for gold, leaving no survivors. There were tales of The Ophiuchus battling The Dragon’s Pearl when Captain Orion Black attempted to steal the other Captain’s ship. Although Captain Hua was young, he forced the Blacks to flee when their ship suffered too much damage. The Captain of The Dragon’s Pearl had given them a warning years ago that should he ever see them again, he would kill the Captain of The Ophiuchus.

The boats reached the docks before everyone ran up to the small town of Portland. Quinn cut down any pirate who foolishly stood in his way. Remus followed close behind, sword drawn at the ready, and cut down any pirate who tried to go after Quinn whilst the man’s back was turned. Remus had grown used to the occasional battle, but hardly ever were the stakes this high. Opal and Captain Hua had stayed on the ship with a skeleton crew, while the other sailors joined Remus and Quinn to shore. 

Remus stopped in his tracks when one of the pirates was running straight for him. With the sword in his hand, Remus quickly stabbed the pirate in the abdomen before pulling his sword free and running to catch up with Quinn. Who was running up a hill towards the Lighthouse faster than Remus had ever seen the man move. 

Up close the lighthouse was rather beautiful for its old age, time had been kind to it, yet the years have clearly made their marks all throughout the house. The lighthouse more than likely had many stories to tell. Standing tall with red and white patterns, a small quaint cottage at the base of the lighthouse became visible as Remus neared the property. The house was alight with shadows dancing across the windows as pirates breached the door, the sound of clanging swords could be heard coming from inside the house. Quinn cut down pirates until he finally managed to enter the house. 

Quinn’s eyes widened as he surveyed the state of the house, there were countless pirates from both the Black’s and Greyback’s sailors engaged in sword fights. There was hardly a break as he entered the fray of battle, cutting down unsuspecting men from behind and never letting his guard down.

A middle-aged woman with black hair tied into a messy bun, bright brown eyes, fair skin, and rosy lips gripped the rapier in her hand tightly as she slashed down another pirate. She twirled expertly, her white nightgown and dark robe twirling with her, to dodge a blow from another pirate before she stabs them, she pulls the sword free before she raises it to the man who just entered the cottage, freezing as her eyes widen in surprise. “Quinn!” She exclaimed before her eyes darted to a pirate behind him who began to stir awake. 

He smiles at the exclamation before following her line of sight, turning behind him he sees the pirate that began to stir awake. Flipping the hilt of his sword in hand, he stabs the newly conscious pirate in the chest before turning back to the woman, “Mother are you alright?” He looked over the cottage, objects just laying scatter on the floor before he looked back to his mother. 

“I’m perfectly alright, it’s your father I’m worried about, that blasted Greyback cornered him to the basement!” The woman turned her gaze to the young man who just reached the door, quickly assessing him before offering him a small nod. “And you must be Remus.”  

Remus nods in return, “I am. How did you-” He cuts himself off as the answer was obvious and gives his First mate a pointed look, “Quinn. You’ve told them about me haven’t you?”

“Remus. Who do you take me for? Of course, I did.” Quinn mirrors the same pointed look back, “How else do you think Min-Jun and I were able to help you as a child?” He looks back to his mother, “We better move quickly. Hopefully, father is using the basement to his advantage.”

“Quinn, this is your father, of course, he is.” The woman turns to a door that leads to a staircase to the basement. Quickly lifting her skirt the woman rushed down the stairs. 

The three rush down the stairs and into the large dimly lit basement, which could only be described as a very large study with storage. Bookshelves lined the walls and the shelves themselves were stacked with a variety of mythical things one would only believe to be within the tales. Color bottles and vials littered the shelves of the room, various plants were in every corner of the room. In the center of the basement, a large man with a cutlass scoured the room with a harsh glare for the man who was hiding. 

The man wielding the cutlass was large, nearly the height of Min-Jun and Quinn, he had a vicious looking face, with very long matted grey hair in dreads, a scar going across his right eye, the iris pale compared to its twin which was pitch black. His left ear had a gold hoop earring, his teeth were visible as he sneered at others who interrupted his dual. 

Remus’ eyes could only widen as he looked upon the large man, his breathing quickening and grip tightening on his sword. Every part of him grew defensive and fearful, his instincts screaming at him to get out. To run. He’s heard of this man before, Fenrir Greyback, a notorious and ruthless hunter of mers alike, capturing and selling mers for profit, or simply to just experiment on them. Other times he’d simply slaughter any merfolk he could find.

Greyback’s knuckles looked raw and battered with blood as he gripped his weapon tightly, his long yellowish nails were easily spotted as his right hand pressed against his chest, a wound with fresh blood seeping through his grey shirt. “This isn’t over.” He snarled before he ran out the basement door. 

Hidden behind a bookcase, was a middle-aged man with tousled red-brown hair with long bangs parted to the left, light-colored skin, and blue eyes. He wore a simple navy blue shirt underneath a grey robe, light brown pants, and dark brown boots. Eyes trained as he watched the burly man closely, sword drawn at the ready to continue the duel. He made no motion to move as Greyback snarled in warning, back pressed flush against the wood until he could hear the pounding footsteps a safe distance away. 

Relaxing marginally, he exits his retreat behind the bookcase and sighs, “That man is repulsive.” He mutters under his breath.

“You’re not wrong about that father.” Quinn chuckles as he gently pats his father’s shoulder. 

“Why would Greyback come all the way out here? Why would he attack you?” Remus looked at the older man.

“Probably because my husband has something he wants.” The older woman looks to her husband. “Are you alright?”  

The older man looks to his wife and nods, “I’m alright. If anything Greyback’s in much worse shape. That wound is going to leave quite a scar if untreated.”

“What was he after?” Remus looked between the older couple. 

“Something no one should know exists.” The woman looked around the room. Muttering under her breath at the state of the room. “But rumors are a powerful thing, especially when they hold truths.” 

“And especially if it makes you incredibly well known in the nautical world.” The man continued with a sigh. Moving aside his robe, he pulls free a rather thick leather book from an inner pocket and looks down at it. “He’d be a fool to think I’d just leave it lying about.”

Remus’ eyes looked over the leather book. At first glance, it was nothing out of the ordinary, but Remus knew better than to judge a book by its cover. It was what’s inside the book that Greyback took a slash to the chest in order to obtain. And failed. Whatever information that was contained inside the book was important. Why else would such a siege upon this small home occur? Enough to bring both Greyback and the Blacks themselves here. 

“This book is the only one in existence.”  The woman looked at Remus as she stood beside her husband. “It’s about your kind.” Gently taking the book from her husbands’ hands, she holds the book to Remus. “My husband wrote everything he learned about the magical creatures of the sea.” She smiles as she encourages Remus to take the book. 

“About my kind…” He repeats at a whisper before a realization comes to mind, amber eyes widening at the thought, “That’s why he wanted the book. To hunt more merfolk.” A cold shudder runs down his spine at the thought of Greyback getting his hands upon this book. No wonder the older man fought to protect it with his life. Mers alike would be in even more danger than in the past. And after seeing the man in person, Remus felt as though the rumors didn’t give any accurate insight as to how gruesome the pirate actually appeared, and the snarling tone of his voice would most likely echo in his mind for days. 

At the older man’s nod in confirmation, he looked back at him. “How long have you been working on this?” Remus asked as he took the book, with careful hands.

“Many years. I was a bit younger than you when I first started writing the beginning pages.”

Remus looks down to the worn leather book and opens to a well-kept page, Fantastic Nautical Creatures, by Newt Scamander. Remus’ eyes widen at the title and familiar name, pausing mid-turn of a page. Wait. Remus looks at Quinn with wide eyes, before he looks back to the older couple. 

“You’re Newt Scamander,” He looks to the woman, “And you’re Porpetina Scamander!” 

“Please, call me Tina dear.” She rubs Remus’ arm in a comforting manner. 

Remus looks to Quinn, an unreadable expression upon his face. Quinn had called them mother and father. That means… “You’re their son?!” 

“Quinton Scamander is my real name,” Quinn answered with a simple shrug. “Sandoval was the first thing I could come up with when you asked for my name. I’m not exactly used to keeping an alias.” He looks at his parents. “Why couldn’t you have just kept it at Quinn?” 

“And leave the Scamander tradition of giving horrible names? I couldn’t possibly.” Tina chuckled.

“Oh, you wound me, mother. What a way to keep tradition.” Quinn replies with a wince. 

“It’s not like my family did any better.” Tina retorts just as the sound of cannon fire boomed, echoing throughout the basement. Tensing, everyone turned their heads to the back door, and with a nod from Newt, they exited the damaged basement and headed to the cliffs.

As the group ran back towards the shoreline, Remus could see The Dragon’s Pearl exchanging cannon fire with The Ophiuchus. The ships both suffered blows from the other, only the Dragon’s Pearl wasn’t on fire. And what appeared to be Min-Jun, swinging on a rope, from the Ophiuchus back to the Dragon’s Pearl.

Quinn only groaned at the sight. “And he gives me lectures about swinging from a rope.” Hypocrite. “Why are you like this…” He mumbled under his breath.

Tina and Newt only chuckled as their son scowled at the captain. They ran to the docks just as the Ophiuchus began to make their retreat, and the Dragon’s Pearl making its way to the loading docks. Opal was the first rush down to welcome Quinn and Remus back. 

Quinn had a strange feeling, one that he couldn’t place as he looked over Opal. Relieved that the woman wasn’t injured in the crossfire, although he was well aware that she could easily handle herself. “Ti synévi?” What happened? he had asked.

“To shorten it: Min-Jun snuck onto Greyback’s ship and found two gorgónes. Mermaids. Brought them back to The Dragon’s Pearl, then snuck onto the Ophiuchus, rescued the second Black heir and brought him back as well.” Opal said with a shake of her head, “How that was possible, I have no idea.” 

“Sounds about right,” Newt replied with a chuckle.

The older couple looked at their son, who had never told them he learned and spoke greek. Newt and Tina looked at each other before sharing a knowing smile. Tina looked to the woman with the greek accent. “I’m Tina Scamander, Quinn’s mother. I wonder why my dear son would fail to mention a lovely lady such as yourself in his letters?” She turns her head slowly to glare at Quinn, who found the sea far more interesting at the moment. Tina looked back to the young woman. “What is your name dear?” 

Opal watched Quinn’s gaze quickly turn to the sea in embarrassment. Oh this awkward man. She fought the urge to tease the poor man, there was time to mess with him another time. Not in front of his parents. She smiled as she looked at Tina. “Opal Teresi. It’s nice to meet you.”

Remus looked to Quinn with a teasing smirk, “Really? You mention me in your letters but not Opal?” 

“Shut. Up.” Quinn says with wide eyes that seemed to promise pain with an unnaturally wide smile.

“You’ll have to write to me dear, Quinn hardly ever writes what’s going on in his life. I have to rely on Min-Jun for that.” She tsks she pats Opal’s hand affectionately.  

“I will,” Opal replies with a nod. 

“May I see them?” Newt asks the young woman. “The mermaids.” 

The young woman pauses for a moment and looks to Newt, “They’re terrified, so please. If there’s any way you could help.”

“Maybe I can get them to calm down?” Remus suggests looking to Opal and Newt. 

“That may be for the best.” Opal agrees, “We better hurry, Min-Jun wants to leave as soon as possible. Before the Blacks notice their son is missing.”  

Opal leads the group to the cabins, walking past many doors until they finally stop at one door with a circular window. Remus peered inside and froze when a pair of glaring eyes locked to his. Inside the room, there was a tall beautiful Asian woman with wet long dark brown hair, brown eyes, fair skin, and bright red lips. She looked to be about Opal’s age. Her tail was a dazzling array of soft blue scales that looked like misshapen spots, with white scales as the base, her fluke was nearly a translucent shimmery white. Her skin was pale, her arms were wrapped tightly around the smaller mer. Her tail coiled around them protectively. Remus nearly gasped. The mermaid only clutched the child tighter, her glare never leaving Remus’ face.

The mer in her arms was tiny. A child, who couldn’t have been older than four. The mer child had short soft silky black hair that was in disarray, brown eyes, light sun-kissed skin. The child clung tightly to the older mermaid's neck, their tail had pale teal and shimmery white scales with the same patterns as the older mermaid, safely tucked under her arms. The mer child’s shoulders were shaking, pearls littered the blankets beneath them. Tears. They sat alone in the room, laying on top of a few spare blankets for the cabin beds.

Remus’ gaze was pulled away at the sound of running footsteps, a sailor running past them in haste, to the infirmary. On impulse, Remus followed the sailor as they walked through the door. 

There Min-Jun sat on a chair, looming over a deathly still figure, his face pale. Min-Jun was holding the still figure’s hand. 

Remus gulped, scared to find out who the figure was. “Who…” 

Min-Jun looked up to see Remus. With pained eyes he looked back down to the figure. Gently putting the cold hand to rest on their chest. 

“Ethan’s dead.” 

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Tag List: (Let me know if you wish to be added!)

@whataboutmyfries

@sunflowerfox87

@spookypotato​

[peachy-beomie]

Yellow <TAEGYU>

Genre: Light Angst

Pairings: Taegyu (Kang Taehyun x Choi Beomgyu)

Word Count: 1,829

Warnings: None!

Synopsis: In a world where you cant see color until you meet your soulmate, Kang Taehyun lives his life in monochrome. He’s never experienced color. But one particular boy makes him realize that maybe color isn’t all about what you see.

A/N: This is one of my FAVORITE ideas I’ve ever come up with. It was intended to be much longer but I struggled to write the whole thing and this actually turned out really good! I might write a second part so maybe be on the lookout for that 👀

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29409198

Taehyun’s POV

People tend to take for granted that which they have no fear of losing. Things so constant and ordinary in life, like hope and freedom. But some people are not blessed with the luxuries of consistency, and even those who are can learn just how quickly things can be ripped away. In this world of soulmates and colorless lives, people learn very quickly to cherish what they have.

Color, a word which here means: varying pigments and shades; is a concept unknown to me, as it is to many others. Everyone has a soulmate, our ‘perfect match’ or ‘other half’, the person who will complete us. It’s said that when you and your soulmate first lock eyes, the world explodes with colors, vibrant and dazzling. My parents used to tell me stories of blazing sunsets that would leave them breathless, and of endless fields filled to the brim with flowers who’s hues outmatch the very sun. They talked on and on about colors, and they’d always tell me: “One day, you’ll see them too, with someone you’ll love more than life itself.” 

As a kid, I’d dream of meeting the person who’d make my world come alive with countless tones and hues. But as I grew up, I began to worry less about finding my soulmate, though I never stopped dreaming of a world beyond the monochrome I’m all too familiar with. 

And as I’m sitting at my desk at 3 am, nose buried deep in the history texts I’m memorizing, color, soulmates, and all their mystery are the last thing on my mind. 

Nonetheless, my thoughts are interrupted by the pale white light of my screen revealing a text from Choi Beomgyu, my best friend.

3:48 a.m.

gyu the annoying hyung

are you awake?

i can’t sleep

baehyun

why?

gyu the annoying hyung

just thinking too much. you?

baehyun

homework. are you ok?

gyu the annoying hyung

it’s nothin hyunnie-bunny don’t worry your pretty lil head about it :)

Ignoring the slight flutter of my stomach at the nickname (and the fact he called me pretty), I continue to mull over Beomgyu’s texts. Despite his protests, I can’t help but worry a little bit. Beomgyu is the least sad person I’ve ever met, always full of ear splitting grins and melodious giggles. It’s what makes him so endearing. The warmth of his smile, and the brightness in his eyes, it’s unmatched in its beauty and splendor. I have never met anyone as refreshingly themself. Beomgyu lives as though he has nothing to hide, and no shame to carry.

baehyun

you cannot stop me, i will worry if i want to.

gyu the annoying hyung

well if you’re going to worry anyway, can you at least come over?

please?

I can practically see Beomgyu’s pouty face and puppy eyes through the screen. I sigh almost defeatedly, knowing instantly I’ll never be able to say no to the charming boy.

baehyun

you’re lucky we’re friends

gyu the annoying hyung

love you toooooo <3

I groan lightly as I grab my coat and exit the building. It’s not like his apartment is too far away, only about a 10-minute walk from my own. I quite enjoy the serenity of the streets at 4 am. It’s quiet, save the soft bustling of stray cars, the cool air wafts towards me in light bursts. I take in the city and all its wonders, giving into the quiet mystery.

It should be odd that I gave into Beomgyu’s requests so easily, but truthfully this is just habitual at this point. Even though we’ve only known each other a couple months, we’ve fallen into an easy routine. Friendship with Beomgyu is just that: easy. He makes me feel comfortable

My phone buzzes sharply in my pocket.

gyu the annoying hyung

hurry uppppp >:(

I giggle quietly at his impatience but quicken my pace all the same.

Upon arriving at Beomgyu’s door I only get to knock once before Beomgyu appears before me, grabs my hand, and walks pointedly out the door with me in tow.

“Beomgyu wha-” I try to ask as I’m dragged to the stairs. I’m met with no answer .as we trudge up the narrow stairway to the roof. As we burst through the door, the crisp night air envelops us. Beomgyu calmly walks towards a desolate corner of the wide expanse of roof and motions for me to follow.

“Come stargaze with me,” he says as he lays down to look at the sky. I take my place beside him and stare at the stars. I’ve never been good at astrology but I can spot a few constellations. Andromeda, Orion, and Cassiopeia smile down at me from their perch up in the boundless night. It’s calming, finding the constellations. Knowing each star has a purpose, instead of just being placed in the sky at random. I imagine I’m one of those stars, lost in the infinite infinity of space. I think about how I too will find my constellation, my purpose, my home, and I’m placated by this knowledge. 

Beomgyu and I sit like this for what feels like hours, comfortably silent; aware of each other’s presence without really acknowledging it. This is one of the best things about Beomgyu and me: though we talk consistently, we don’t need to say or do anything to feel comfortable with each other. 

Beomgyu is the first to break our silence. 

“The stars remind me a lot of my soulmate.” I turn my head sharply to face him, ignoring the way my stomach sinks at this news.

“You’ve found your soulmate?” Beomgyu nods quietly.

“Yeah, a long time ago. His name was Zhong Chenle. He loved astronomy and he’d always make me come out to view the stars with him,” Beomgyu smiles slightly at the memory. “I met him when we were kids. He was so bright and energetic, he used to bounce around a lot because he just couldn’t sit still. He made the whole world seem less dull. Not only because I could see colors, but his existence simply made me happier. He was like the sun in my universe. But then-” Beomgyu hesitates, tears falling silently from dejected eyes onto tanned cheeks. I grab his hand and give it a light squeeze, trying my best to let him know that I’m here and it’s okay. He stutters a bit before continuing, “It didn’t happen all at once, but the colors just began fading. First the yellows, then reds, each one dissipated until I was only left with black and white. I tried calling his house for hours but got no response. Finally, his mom called me, in tears, saying that he and his father had been in a car accident. His father sustained a lot of injuries, but Chenle died before they even arrived at the hospital.” Tears are now streaming down Beomgyu’s cheeks. He closes his eyes tightly as if it’s all too much. My thumb rubs soothing circles on the back of his hand.

“The worst part,” he says suddenly. “...is that later I realized his favorite colors were the first to go, as if his soul had died before his body even gave out.” Beomgyu looks at me, and my heart just breaks. He looks so empty. I open my arms for him and he all but jumps into them, burying his head in my chest. I feel his tears soaking through the fabric.

The quiet returns after that, but this time it’s far less comfortable. I try my best to comfort Beomgyu as he sobs into my chest. I feel each light gasp he takes as he struggles for air. His body shakes like a leaf and his fists curl tightly in the fabric of my black sweater.

I eventually hear his breathing steady and I pull away to look at his face. His cheeks shine from leftover tears, but his eyes shine brightly in the dim starlight. A strange warm feeling nestles itself in my chest, and I find myself at a complete loss for words. 

Beomgyu pulls away and returns his gaze to the stars. My mouth opens and closes like a fish as I continue to struggle for words.

“I’m sorry.” I blurt out because it seems like the only fitting thing to say. Beomgyu smiles at me, though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes like it usually does.

“It’s okay. I miss him, and I’ll always love him, but I have you now. You make life brighter, despite the greys and blacks. You make me happier than you could ever know.” I look down, hoping he won’t notice the blush on my cheeks.

“You do the same for me you know,” I meet his eyes. “You make me happy too. I’ve never met someone who can make me laugh like you can.” He smiles again, a little wider this time, and it makes my heart flutter.

“Do you miss seeing color?” I ask suddenly.

Beomgyu shakes his head almost immediately. “Not really. Colors were cool and all, but they’re just superficial. I think the world can be beautiful in black and white, you just need to look for the hidden wonder.”

“Did you have a favorite?” Beomgyu chuckles.

“Yellow,” He states simply. But noticing my confusion. “It’s a lighter color, the color of the sun actually. But to me, it means warmth and safety. Yellow is like laughter and smiles with friends or a happy ending. Yellow is simply: happiness and light.” 

I spend the rest of the night pondering Beomgyu’s words. They resonate within me as we return to our comfortable silence. They continue to fill my brain even as I hug Beomgyu goodbye at 5 am, they remain while I walk home, and they’re still bouncing around in my head as I climb into bed back at my apartment.

I’m still thinking them over when I hear my phone buzz on my bedside table.

gyu the annoying hyung

thank you for being here with me. you’re truly a blessing kim taehyun, i hope you know that.

That simply text ignites a new and unfamiliar feeling in my body, one I couldn’t begin to describe. It starts in my toes and gradually moves up until each part of my body is engrossed with this strange new sensation. It wraps my bones in warmth and slithers it’s way into my stomach making butterflies erupt inside of me. It continues to my heart making it beat slightly faster in the best way possible. It fills my lungs with air much fresher than any I’ve ever inhaled. When it finally reaches the top of my head, my body is relishing in this amazing feeling. My senses are alive with wonder and lust and I just keep wanting more and more and more and more. I try and try to think of what this feeling is but all I can think of is: yellow.

TAEGYU PIC OF THE DAY:

The only taegyu pic ever 😌✨

[cheshiresense]

More on the Hadrian and Orion in Narutoverse AU please!!!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I don’t actually have that many more ideas for this AU, none that really focuses on the two of them anyway. Like, they found each other again and it was a done deal so there’s not really anything to add to that. But let’s see…

Edit: Ugh I give up, I ran out of inspiration for this one, I just didn’t know what else to write for it, sorry.

1. Ok so first off, Minato makes Hokage and stays that way and nothing terrible happens because I say so, and because I have no patience for the disaster that was the Naruto plotline, and also because lbr no way is Hadrian letting anybody muck shit up in his new home, he’s already lost one village, he isn’t going to let Orion lose his too, plus Danzo is dead which automatically solves like eighty percent of all problems and the world is just a hundred times better without him in it.

Kushina makes it Very Clear that their child will be placed under an Uzushio shinobi. Like, it’s part of their vows. She refuses to marry Minato unless he swears it (for a love match, it also couldn’t be more perfect politically, satisfying clans and elders alike by tying the two villages together, tying an Uzushio Jinchuuriki to Konoha, a union of talent and royalty, right before the Hokage Apparent ascends to the throne). Relations between Konoha and what’s left of Uzushio is a lot better than they were after Uzu was destroyed, but there’s still some tension, some mistrust, some resentment, and it’s not like anyone other than an Uzushio-nin can teach seals properly. It doesn’t help that some Konoha-nin still turn their noses up at Kushina and her people because they’re foreign, and others sneer at her because she’s a Jinchuuriki. She refuses to let someone like that teach her child.

Minato agrees of course, and ten years later, Naruto graduates near the top of his class, bright and cheerful and so very loved. He’s the son of the Hokage but also one of the first children born to the Uzumaki Clan after they’d finally finished picking up the pieces of their lives, and he has Minato’s colouring but Kushina’s determination and creativity and vindictive sense of humour.

In this world too, Naruto gets Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura as his teammates, but he’s known Sasuke since forever - his mom and Sasuke’s mom are best friends, one of his dad’s closest advisors is Sasuke’s dad, and his uncle (technically a cousin) is married to Sasuke’s uncle, so their families are a lot closer than most other clans in their villages. It was a shock to everyone, for the Uchihas of all people to have a close relationship with the Uzumakis, but their bond has stayed strong over the years despite many people’s doubts, and as a result, Naruto and Sasuke have been attached at the hip practically since birth.

As for Sakura, she seems like a nice girl too, a quieter counterpart to her best friend Ino, and they both know she’s upset at not being on the same team as the blonde, but she also beat both their academic scores and she doesn’t fall over herself trying to suck up to either Naruto or Sasuke, so they decide very quickly that they’ve lucked out with their third.

Naruto isn’t at all surprised when their sensei arrives. His mom’s been hinting at Uncle Hadrian for weeks because she is not subtle, and Naruto is absolutely thrilled because Uncle Hadrian is an S-rank Jounin with a flee-on-sight order and one of the strongest shinobi Naruto knows (Uncle Orion is almost as good, and he supposes his dad is okay too). He’s good at everything, better at seals than even Naruto’s mom, and his idea of babysitting is always an adventure - pranking someone mean and framing Kakashi-nii for it, setting up scavanger hunts in the village with a cool prize at the end, and taking him out for ice-cream or extra ramen that Naruto has solemnly sworn to keep secret from his parents. Hadrian is the best, and Naruto just wants to be him, him and Kaa-chan because Uzumaki really are the best, and his mom and uncle are the best of the best. And because he’s a good friend, he tells Sasuke beforehand about who’ll be teaching them and even tells Sakura the day of, so none of them are anything but excited when Hadrian sweeps into the classroom.

Uncle Hadrian just smiles at them, amused, and motions for them to follow. “Come along then, my new minions. Let’s see what chaos we can inflict on the world together.”

If Naruto had looked back, he would’ve seen the utterly horrified expression painted across the other Jounin senseis’ faces.

2. Team Seven gets a two-for-one deal. Orion outright rejects all offers of sticking him into the sensei rotation. The three times Minato tries, Orion fails every team and sends the kids back to the Academy within the hour.

It’s not as if he doesn’t like kids. They’re fine. But he doesn’t want to be solely responsible for them, especially in a world that’s literally out to kill them, and he’s no good with them for extended periods of time anyway.

He doesn’t mind helping Hadrian with his team though, and Fugaku definitely approves of having his brother help keep an eye on his youngest son. So the day after he returns from a courier mission, he tracks down Hadrian in one of the training fields and possibly enjoys it more than he should when he appears in a rush of Shunshin and makes all three kiddies jump or shriek.

Hadrian rolls his eyes at him but also reels him in for a welcome home kiss. “No complications?”

Orion snorts. “Of course not. It was barely B-rank.”

They turn back to the genin. Sasuke is rolling his eyes, more than used to their mostly subtle but easy displays of affection, and Naruto grins and gives Orion a wave because he’s as good as an uncle to the brat as well. The pink one though has her hands clapped over her mouth and is peering at them with big green eyes, like she’s never seen two men kiss. Then again, Orion’s already read the files on them, and she’s from a civilian family. They can be as weird as muggles about this sort of thing. Orion hadn’t cared in his last life, and he isn’t about to start now. At least she only looks surprised and not disgusted.

“This is Orion,” Hadrian tells his new students, for Sakura’s benefit. “My husband, and Sasuke’s uncle. He doesn’t have a team of his own, so when he isn’t busy, he’ll be joining us for training and missions. You’ll be seeing him a lot, and if for whatever reason I can’t meet up with you that day, I’ll probably send him in my place. Understand?”

He gets affirmatives from everyone and an “Awesome, dattebayo, we get two senseis!” from Naruto. Orion rolls his eyes and then smirks. “Twice the number of teachers, twice the amount of training.” He’s gratified when both boys pale a few shades, and Sakura - clever girl - takes her cue from them and has the beginnings of alarm creeping into her expression. He glances at Hadrian. “What’s on the menu for today?”

After they’ve sent Team Seven off for ten laps around the village (to start with of course, the day is still young), Hadrian remarks, “You’re a terrible person, and I never know what Minato is thinking every time he tries to shove a team on you.”

Orion’s smirk only widens.

3. Shortly after they get married, Hadrian and Orion move into a house in a quiet(er) part of Uzushio territory. They like their privacy, and they’re both quiet people by nature. Orion in particular only has so much tolerance for the Uzushio’s collective rambunctiousness and explosive personalities. They still get regular visitors, but at least they also get time to themselves without needing to escape into the surrounding woods.

A decade down the road, and they suddenly have three more children underfoot than either of them ever planned. then again, Naruto was around at least five times a week practically since he was born, and Sasuke had been allowed to drop by for almost as long, accompanied by his parents or Itachi.

Sakura is the last addition to their household, timidly shuffling in one evening when she’d let slip that her parents - merchants - were out of the village and wouldn’t be back for at least another three weeks.

Hadrian had always been a bit of a bleeding heart for strays, and this one is already his, so Orion hadn’t been at all surprised when - after treating everyone to dinner at Ichiraku’s - they ended up escorting all three kids back to Uzushio. Orion sends one of his wolf summons to the Uchiha compound to inform Fugaku that Sasuke would be staying over, and Naruto whirlwinds into the main house to hug his mom before sprinting back out and shouting back that he’d be staying with his uncles that night. Sakura smiles more as the night goes on and she finds herself ushered into a spare bedroom beside the boys’. She chatters more once she got to know her teammates better, and she’s more than a little awed by how much larger the house is on the inside compared to the outside.

“Seals can do all sorts of things, and my style is more versatile than most,” Hadrian tells her, and her eyes light up in a way Orion hadn’t seen in anyone but Hadrian himself.

“Can you teach me?” Sakura asks, flushing at her own gall. “Or- Or is it a clan secret?”

But Hadrian only smiles and promises to pull some reading material for her tomorrow.

“Orion knows some but he prefers kenjutsu,” Hadrian says, and Orion grunts. He likes offing his targets quickly and efficiently with sharp pointy things, so sue him. “Sasuke isn’t interested, and Naruto is but he has his mother to teach him. I’m glad I might have a student of my own if your interest lasts.”

Judging by the way Sakura begs Hadrian for a beginners’ book on sealing right then and there, and then spends the rest of the night - until Hadrian shoos them off to bed - curled up on the sofa in one of Naruto’s spare duck pajamas with her nose between its pages, she won’t be losing interest anytime soon.

Sakura becomes a regular fixture in their lives and in their house. Orion thinks she probably hasn’t realized it yet, but after a month of crashing at their place, the guards don’t even check her at the gates anymore whenever she swings by, even when she’s on her own.

4. Minato has the ANBU for the extra dangerous missions. But he has Hadrian and Orion for the ones that guarantee almost zero chances of survival. In the aftermath of the attempted kidnapping of one Hyuuga Hinata and the subsequent demand for reparations after Hiashi kills the kidnapper, who also happens to be the head ninja of the party sent to sign a peace treaty with Konoha, Minato refuses to hand one of his own over, A sends bolder and bolder threats of war, tensions between Konoha and Kumo haven’t been this high since the Third Great Shinobi War, and the eyes of the rest of the world are focused on them as they too count their numbers and stock up on weapons and supplies.

Three weeks in, after countless failed attempts at diplomatic talks and fairer compromises, Minato summons Hadrian and Orion to his office.

“I do not want war,” He says, features grim and somber, a far cry from his usual easygoing smiles and laidback nature. “It has barely been half a decade since the last one ended. But we are not in the wrong, and I refuse to bow to Kumo’s whims. If I cede ground now, the Hyuuga will never trust me again, and it will make Konoha look weak, not to mention it sets a precedence for Kumo and even other villages to try and pull something like this again. I won’t have it.”

Hadrian hums thoughtfully from where he’s sipping tea in one of the guest chairs. Orion is lounging against the far wall, eyes narrowed, features cold.

“So you want us to go and send a message,” Hadrian surmises. “But quietly.”

“Make sure A knows who it is,” Minato agrees, and nobody who’s seen the ice in his eyes when he’s like this would doubt his capability as Hokage. “But otherwise ensure that it can’t be traced back to us. I’ll deny everything on the public front. The rest, I’ll leave to your discretion.” He smiles thinly. “Let’s see how long it takes to make the Raikage bow.”

It takes six weeks. Six weeks of a plague that sweeps through half the towns along Lightning’s border at a terrifying speed, leaving civilians and border patrols alike puking their guts up for days. Nobody dies, but it’s a miserable, panic-stricken month for all involved when all they can do is ride it out, no cure to be found.

The Raikage does not bow.

Overnight, the guards stationed at various watchtowers all across Lightning fall prey to some invisible enemy, and all are found comatose or on death’s doorstep in the morning. Half of them die within the week, and all attempts at replacing the guards are met with the same result. A chunk of Kumo’s military is crippled in seven days.

The Raikage does not bow.

People within Kumogakure begin to die. No civilians or Genin, and the school and hospital are never hit, but Chuunin and Jounin are all free game, some in their homes, others on the streets or training grounds, and their T&I building blows up one day along with every ninja inside it who hadn’t gone out for lunch. The coup de grâce is the Raikage going in for work and finding a lock of Yugito’s blonde hair, his brother’s sunglasses, and his own vambraces - the ones he’d been looking for since he woke up this morning and found them missing from his bedroom - laid out neatly on his desk. A familiar leaf symbol glows on the wall behind it just long enough for A to get a good eyeful, and then it erases itself as if it were never there, leaving the Raikage bellowing his rage and fear.

The message is clear: no one in your village is safe, not your civilians, not your shinobi, not your Jinchuuriki, not even you. The next move is yours. Choose wisely.

The Raikage bows.

“Good job,” Minato says in way of greeting once Hadrian and Orion are home again, none the worse for wear. “A sends his apologies and has even agreed to a few import and trade concessions.”

“Ooh, make him send over some people from Cloud Confectioneries,” Hadrian pipes up. “Their cakes are divine, and you can’t get them anywhere else.”

Orion rolls his eyes, nods at Minato, and then grabs his husband and Shunshins them home. It’s been a long five weeks and he wants nothing more than to sink into a hot bath with Hadrian.

5. Literally everyone knows Hadrian and Orion are a couple. They’re not particularly over-the-top in their displays of love the way Minato and Kushina can sometimes be, but their marriage was the first one between a Konoha citizen and an Uzushio citizen since Uzushio’s destruction. And it was hard to miss when the two of them went out for meals, side by side, never flaunting what they had but quietly content in each other’s company in that way older people are after spending decades together and still being perfectly in love. Orion was a second son too, with no expectations (at least not too many) for producing children, so as far as a lot of clan elders were concerned, he’d definitely married well by tying another much-needed sealmaster to Konoha, one who actually stayed in the village (or close enough) and had a repertoire of skills that outstripped even Jiraiya’s.

(Orion scoffed when he’d first heard that going around and didn’t bother telling them that if Hadrian up and decided to become a missing-nin tomorrow, he’d be packed and gone with him by morning, no questions asked.)

Over time, some people do wonder - it isn’t normal for two people to fall together so easily, so quickly, comfortable around each other the way only those who’ve known one another their whole lives should be. There’s a level of instinct there that takes time and life to create, and yet Hadrian and Orion had that, from the moment they met. So people do wonder, even if they don’t ask, mostly because what kind of question would one ask anyway?

Still, sometimes, especially in the early days, Kushina sits and watches her cousin and his new husband move around the kitchen as they cook dinner like one soul in two bodies, gracefully in tune together in a way that goes beyond their shinobi training. it’s a dance, and a beautiful one, and she secretly hopes that one day, she’ll be able to have that with Minato.

(Almost twenty years later, Sakura will do the same, more at home in her senseis’ house than her parents’, watching Hadrian laugh at a deadpan joke Orion cracks, or watching Orion let Hadrian reel him onto the makeshift dance floor of their living room when Naruto brings home his latest record of whatever ridiculous tunes he’d found on a mission and insists on inflicting it on them. She’ll watch them and think of Ino and the way they’d been circling each other for months (years, really) and wonder if they might achieve something like this one day.)

Kushina will always remember their wedding vows - “-in this life and the next, and in every life we’ll ever share-” - and it wasn’t particularly profound or intimate, but there had been a weight in them that carried some hidden meaning known only to them, and it had struck a chord in her, especially when she sees them together and once again considers the niggling suspicion at the back of her mind that whispers reincarnation.

The next date she goes on, Minato comes to pick her up, another clumsy bouquet in hand like the ridiculous romantic he is, this time of salvia and mallow and lavender. She sighs and accepts them and doesn’t tell the moron that not all girls are automatically born knowing flower language or even pay much attention to the classes back in the Academy. But she’d bought a book on it after their first date, threatened Inoichi into silence because she knew exactly who Minato was taking flower advice from, and she doesn’t say a word about the album of pressed flowers she’d started ever since Minato started giving them to her.

Hadrian finds out, because of course he does (because Kushina had failed miserably at pressing flowers even with an instruction manual, and Hadrian was the only person she knew who could teach her and wouldn’t laugh at her first, especially when she confesses how she might’ve felt just a little bit guilty for not understanding what Minato was saying with the flowers every time). Hadrian hadn’t laughed, but he’d smiled and told her of the bouquets Orion had given him when they were still courting (that’s another tick in the reincarnation category because Kushina had never once seen either of them give flowers to each other), and how Hadrian had had no idea what they meant either when he’d first received them.

“And I think flowers can just be flowers sometimes,” Hadrian says as they work on Minato’s latest slightly ragged-looking roses. They look like he’d accidentally let an Inuzuka dog chew on the stems. “They smell nice and they look nice, and Minato took the time to get them for you, and you like them. Sometimes, I think that’s enough.”

And if Hadrian can say that and Orion still looks at him like he’s everything he needs in the world, then Kushina thinks he probably knows what he’s talking about. Hadrian usually does.

(Later, on their wedding anniversary, Kushina grins when she spots Hadrian exiting Yamanaka’s Flower Shop with a bouquet of his own, and she makes sure she has a good view of him presenting it to Orion at their favourite restaurant.

The way Orion’s expression goes soft and warm, wrapped in something like wonder - Kushina immortalizes it on camera and makes a mental note to give a copy to Hadrian later.)

[spookyspaghettisundae]

Not Killing Him

Orion Crown sat in his big, mean-looking SUV in the old parking lot. The dry heat of Vegas had ripped up the asphalt here over the past years, leaving it pockmarked and littered with potholes. His own car and one other vehicle in the lot were the only ones parked there, immobile, like silent steel corpses, cooling in the shadow of some abandoned warehouse.

The thick windows shielded him from the noise of traffic in the distance, so Orion sat in a weirdly muffled silence. Staring at the entrance of the derelict warehouse with its crooked, ajar doors. He felt sick to his stomach because he had slept little more than a few hours per night and his forehead was burning up.

He picked up his phone from the passenger seat, snatching it from where it was resting next to a loaded semi-automatic pistol. He thumbed through the display, checking his recent direct messages on your social media platform of choice.

Orion Crown, social media darling and super-giant of the statusphere. He flipped through business proposal messages from other influencers, something marginally important from his YouTube video editor, and an array of annoyed passive-aggressive texts from his producer-slash-partner. He let the list slide to a stop, with this finger hovering over the display. Hovering just over the message from “The Glass King” with the preview field only saying that it contained a GIF.

The internet star dithered. He could refuse to walk into that warehouse and refuse to use that gun. His career and life would be over, though.

The alternative was sucking it up, gripping the cold metal of the pistol in his palm, walking in there, and blasting away. Didn’t matter who it was. Didn’t know, didn’t care.

Even though seeing the message’s contents disturbed him every time he reviewed it, his thumb descended in slow motion. Like time almost ground to a halt, like the universe was trying to stop him from watching it again.

He tapped the message and it flicked onto full display on his screen.

The animated GIF flashed with disturbing imagery, all of it cut so quickly and abruptly that it became impossible to take it all in. Words and symbols displayed for fractions of seconds so that the mind could not really grasp what it read, and video footage that may or may not contain clipped recordings of overt violence. Violence he, himself, had authored.

The glare of his phone reflected in Orion’s glassy eyes, pupils dilating with dread and disassociation. Knowing that he recognized some of the things presented here so subliminally and viscerally, feeling guilt even though he had always rationalized the terrible things he had done in the past.

How was anybody better? How could anybody be better?

I am not a bad person, Orion thought. Nobody is.

After watching the animated GIF loop countless times, glued to the phone’s display as if bound in a trance, he put the phone back down onto the passenger seat, a hand’s breadth away from the gun. He barely registered the words that followed far down below the window of animation.

The threats. The instructions.

The sentences that had brought him to the locker where he obtained the gun. The address of this warehouse. And his mission, to kill anybody he saw inside this place.

Why didn’t this “Glass King” person just ask for money? Why this? How did the Glass King even get that footage? It had been destroyed long ago.

None of it made any sense.

No matter how many times he mulled it over, Orion Crown—born with the more unglamorous name of Kyle Howard—his sense of self-preservation, greed, and existential dread always won out. Always looped him back to doing as he was told as long as it served his own purposes. To get this over with, and walk away, and never let anybody know of his dirty secrets.

If the Glass King put any of that out—if they aired out any of Orion Crown’s dirty laundry—then he would be out of the game. Done. Probably also in prison.

Orion looked over to the gun. Stared at it, taking in every hard and unforgiving edge and angle of its sleek industrial design.

He had before, and he pondered it again, now: to just pick it up and stick the nuzzle right into his own mouth. Pull the trigger and end it right now.

But his vanity and pride, masked with religious guilt and eclipsed by copious amounts of doublethink, led him to believe that this was the only way.

He grabbed the gun and weighed it in his hand. Orion licked his lips and they felt funny. Not chapped, but uneven. Slimy. He bit his lip and chewed without realizing it, while his gaze swept up and down the crumbling building of this damned warehouse.

In one fluid motion, he got out of his car, slammed the door shut, and walked towards the entrance of the warehouse. The heat outside his car, even here in the shade—combined with the inexplicable fever he was running—made his head swim as if he had been drinking nonstop for the past day and night.

He gripped that pistol in his fist like his life depended on it. And as far as Orion was concerned, it did.

The rusted hinges on the big metal double doors squealed and he cringed at the sound of it, freezing in place. His heart raced, his pulse thundering in his ears. Eyes darted back and forth, looking for a sign of anybody in there. Whoever had parked the other car had to be in here, and Orion’s job was to gun them down.

Something heavy, like a brick hitting a pile of rubble, echoed through the decrepit and dingy halls.

Orion’s hand jerked and he pointed the gun out in front of himself, aiming at every dark corner and little thing he could perceive. With nobody in sight, the adrenaline pumped through his body, suffusing him with a quiet rage and driving the sweat to erupt from his pores, clouding his senses and sapping his reason.

He sidled through the entrance and crept through the abandoned place, twitching at any possible sound he thought he heard and any shadow he saw in the corner of his eyes, expecting someone, anybody, to jump out at him.

Something chugged and sputtered, causing him to freeze once more. He continued sneaking on when he recognized those sounds to be coming from a gas-powered generator, hidden somewhere deeper within the warehouse’s bowels.

He kind of hoped that someone would jump out at him from a blind spot. Thinking it would be much easier to pull the trigger if it felt like self defense.

Instead, he found a large, wide, pillared hall, awaiting him at the end of a long twisting and turning through claustrophobia-inducing corridors.

Someone had arranged seven door frames in a perfect circle, bolted down with plywood feet to support their weight, sawdust and power tools littering the dirty floors, and that distinct smell of freshly cut wood hanging in the air.

Each door frame held a door, closed and looking far too new to fit into this warehouse. An array of four construction site spotlights illuminated the doors from their center, connected to a tangle of bright orange power cord extensions, leading his sweeping gaze to the generator he had been hearing chug away all this time.

The doors were just standing there, out in the open, connected to no walls. Leading nowhere.

Orion gripped the pistol in both hands, holding it outstretched far in front of himself. He had never fired a gun before in his life. Without realizing it, he both wanted the thing to be as far away as possible from himself, but also wanted to use it and for things to be over fast.

But nobody was here. Right?

Wrong.

Arriving in the center of the seven doors, he blinked and inspected a small pile of objects heaped up in between the four spotlights.

A bunch of broken smartphones, a black wig, a small cracked hand mirror, a pile of about twenty credit cards that had been sloppily cut in half, a bunch of different keys that looked far too old to fit the locks on the doors here, and all of the objects rested on top of a local city map that someone had drawn all over with a black magic marker.

A pebble crunched underneath a boot. But not Orion’s shoe. He swiveled, almost getting dizzy at his own speed as he pointed the gun at the source of the noise.

Standing only steps away from the other person, he held the pistol out and swallowed. No matter how many times he had tried to mentally prepare for this moment, he hesitated and his index finger trembled instead of squeezing around the trigger.

Nobody jumping out at him. Just standing there.

She stared into the barrel of his gun for a split second and then met his gaze. A woman in her twenties, dressed like a man. Or—at second glance—androgynous, like she was in some sort of getup for a rock or punk band from the 1990s. Clad in a ratty leather jacket and dark jeans; covered in studs on her clothing, a chain hanging from her belt, and spikes protruding from a choker around her neck; way too much makeup on her face; and a poorly-cut hair-do of shaved sides and long top that could constitute as a fashion crime.

More distracting, however, was the hand she held in her hand. Orion did a double take on that before he fully absorbed what he saw there. A waxen hand with candlewicks sticking out from the fingertips, gripped firmly in her slender hand.

“Who the fuck are you?” she asked Orion. She squinted at him.

He squeezed the trigger. It didn’t work. The fucking gun refused to work.

Orion turned it over and looked at it and realized that it had a safety setting which he had forgotten to take care of before walking into the building.

Clink. Snap.

The woman flicked a lighter on and guided it to the waxen hand in her hand and he had flicked the safety and pointed the gun at her and the next thing Orion knew, his wrists hurt. And so did his neck. And his lower back.

Chafing against exposed skin, coarse rope and the smell of burnt candles still filled his nostrils. He began thrashing but found that his limbs did not obey his instinct to struggle against his bonds because of how tightly he was tied down. He scraped his skin against something like rough rock or rusty metal behind him.

Blinking and fighting the fever back down, the taste of iron clung to his tongue. His vision blurred here and there and reality caught back up to him with disjointed delay. She had tied him to something in sight of the circle of seven doors.

The woman crouched in front of one of the doors, her back turned to him.

With a loud PLOP, she opened something in her hands and whatever she was doing, it resulted in the door being splattered with something dark and red.

Hoarse, the words croaked out of his throat and left him sounding more like a toad. “Hey,” Orion emitted. “Let me go!”

The woman whispered something and it dawned on him that it was no response to him.

“What the fuck are you doing? You’re gonna get into so much trouble if you don’t let me go,” he said. But it really was just pathetic pleading, masquerading as feeble threats. “Police’ll be all over your ass, lady.”

She continued whispering and splashed more of the dark crimson liquid over the next door, to its left.

Something crunched. It drew both Orion’s attention, and that of the woman. They both stared at the thing crawling into the large hall, emerging from the corridors he had entered from. The way they paused, paralyzed with disbelief—and the failure of the human mind’s capability to process what they were looking at—took in the thing moving along the floor.

It looked like a pile of trash, like someone had kicked over a garbage can and the contents of four weeks of refuse had spilled out over the ground. With a stench to match. But parts of it looked fleshy, or sponge-like. Wobbling but staying whole, like a block of jello. Other bits, like stalks, or tentacles, tiny and too many to count, coiling and recoiling and almost like they were looking in every direction, but seeing without any discernible eyes.

Death and evil incarnate, crawling over the filthy floors. Hungry, but slow. Creeping. Part of the world’s abandoned things, coalesced and fused into something awful, something trapped in between the realm of the living and the realm of non-existence; a vessel to something worse, something spawned in the darkest recesses and the deepest abyss of human sin. Crawling, and more than one. Another pile of living muck and vomit-inducing presence followed. And another. And another.

Rejects.

They headed towards the seven doors with painful slowness. But one of them began veering away from the rest, inching closer towards Orion.

Thwuck. Shlack. Scrape.

Orion wanted to throw up. He started wriggling, thrashing, fighting against his bonds, but none of it helped. He looked back at the woman in desperation.

She breathed through her teeth, “Shit.”

Haste colored her every movement now and she haphazardly sprayed more liquid onto the doors. One by one. She whispered all the while, though the whispers had made way to hectic chanting. Orion had no chance in understanding it, for the words sounded nothing like any language he had ever heard before.

Almost matching the sounds made by the Rejects, creeping forth.

Scrape. Flesh. Shlef. Thwuck.

The Reject crawled closer. Ever closer to him.

Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes, first blurring his sight a little, and then a lot. Orion had no time or space to realize how that might have been better, he only felt the deep-rooted dread in his stomach. The certainty of death by this abomination, crawling up to him. Only an arm’s length away from his kicking feet.

The stench intensified as the thing got closer, robbing him of any speech, making him wretch.

Images of the GIF on his phone flashed in his mind. The violence he had inflicted, captured on camera—his own recordings, not meant for public consumption—sent to him by the Glass King.

Just like these monsters had been sent by the Glass King.

Orion screamed for help.

A figure in a long black duster emerged from the corridors, standing still at the edge of the large hall, staring at the seven doors. Orion screamed for help from him, now. But within just a few beats of his heart, pounding so hard that it wanted to burst from his chest, he knew deep down that this man was the master of the Rejects.

No—this man was the Glass King, and he cared nothing for Orion’s plight. Hell, he probably enjoyed it. Orion sensed that just much malice from the presence of his man, and his imagination ran wild in response to the evil emanating from his body, hitting his entire being like a truck.

“Will you even be you when you return from that place? If you return from the house?” asked the man, directing his words at the woman by the doors.

Cold and uncaring about Orion, who was now screaming at the top of his lungs. Because something cold and wet and slimy slapped against the bottom of his shoe. And slithered up it, tugging at shoe laces, wrapping around the leg of his pants by his ankle, and applying pressure. Pulling itself upwards.

Onto him.

The woman never stopped chanting, flinging blood at those doors and then sticking something white and misshapen into the keyhole of one of the brass knobs, exposed by the glaring cone of light from one of the spots. She stopped chanting.

“You can’t stop change. Everything changes. That’s all you’re really afraid of, isn’t it?” she shouted. Anger making her voice tremble. Also something insecure. Or fear.

She ripped the door open and ran through it and slammed it shut behind her, but she didn’t emerge from the other side.

Just gone. Vanished into thin air.

Orion had neither eyes nor mind for this phenomenon, however. He only felt the many tiny tendrils of trash touching, feeling, finding their way up his limbs. A path of disgusting discovery, exploring his body like an alien creature trying to figure out human anatomy, but in reality just so depraved and sinister that it pretended to be doing so when it fed on his festering dread and despair.

Was this what it was like to be helpless? To be used, and chewed out?

To cry for help, but be ignored?

He had no capacity left for clean, deep thoughts. Only terror filled his being. The Reject crawled up over him, exerting the weight of a full-grown person, pinning him down and amplifying his sense of helplessness.

Some part of him expected to feel tiny teeth from tiny mouths chewing away at him, but the slithering and worming motions only reflected the darkness in his own heart, mirroring the corruption that had always haunted him. His screaming died down, petering out into a hoarse unintelligible something that transformed into whimpering.

The man in the duster—the Glass King—clicked his tongue but ignored Orion, approaching the seven doors.

“You didn’t answer my question, Kimmy. You fear the answer, or you’d say it out loud,” muttered the Glass King.

Orion expected the sensation of cold metal to be cutting his flesh, but the wet something was more like saliva dispersed from tongues, oozing across his skin. He expected for those rubber bands and spongy stalks to wrap around his neck and choke the life out of him, but they only squeezed a little bit. Just enough to be uncomfortable, and just enough for the Reject to enjoy it.

It breathed on him. The Reject engulfed him, not killing him.

The man in the duster turned on his heels.

Eyes wide open, stricken with unnatural knowing accumulated from a thousand lives and a deep-seated and all-devouring madness—staring into Orion’s eyes. The Glass King’s stare reached deep inside, prying away at his secrets like a lunatic ripping away at the fabric padding lining the walls of a forgotten cell, for those crazy eyes had seen the same GIF as he had. Knew what he knew. Knew his every dirty secret.

Much worse was the grin plastered across his face. Toothy, sadistic, and stretched far too wide to look fun or what was natural for that human face.

“Oh, Kyle, my boy,” said the Glass King, with the grin never wiping itself off his face. “You had one job and you bungled it. But no worries, I still have use for you. Your name, your reputation—your face. Enough mojo there for me to milk for a far greater purpose. Good on you for at least coming here, huh?”

The Glass King took a few steps closer towards Orion. Neared. Menace echoing with each step of his boots thumping against the dirty floor.

Orion wasn’t even whimpering anymore. Before a sheet of paper with something cold and wet and fleshy clinging to its underside had fully crept up the side of his face and covered it—before he closed his eyes and lost sight—he wanted to protest.

But he had no words.

Some part of him, matched only by his urge to vomit, knew he deserved this. Every second of it.

The Reject breathed on him, hot and damp and unpleasant. It almost entirely engulfed him, satisfied with the almost.

Not killing him.

—Submitted by Wratts

[darkmindsthinktwistedthoughts]

Something wicked this way comes.

@umbralaperture

I played around in the land of Limbo for this holiday short. Forgive me for my terrible sense of humour, my dear. 

Warnings: fluff and ominous forboding

Masterlist

---

Something Wicked this way comes

Holidays and seasons were creations on Prime. They served to mark the passage of time and stave off the boredom of existence whilst creating distractions from daily obligations such as work and paying bills. At least that was how most of the residents in the twelve realms saw it. Here holidays that were celebrated on Prime were not common and treated as a kind of novelty. They were lavishly over emphasised versions of whatever was deemed the norm for mortal humans.

When the Princess of Limbo came into power these events that hitherto had only been recreated through descriptions passed on from word of mouth by someone who had documented the drunken ramblings of returning foot soldiers that had spent a full cycle on Earth and were eagerly regaling the scribes with the tales as more welcoming ales were handed to them. Now there was someone who had lived the events first hand and could present the real deal to them.

“I really don’t get why we are doing this.” Yukimura grumbled as he sunk the dagger in his hand into the tender flesh of the bright orange gourd.

“Oh, quit complaining and just do it already. Quicker it’s done the quicker we can get back to doing everything else.” Hideyoshi replied even though he was also struggling to understand why this was a fundamental part of a holiday. But it if was what the Princess wanted; he was more than happy to oblige.

“What are you carving anyway?”

“It’s a face. Sadie said you carve faces into these things.” Hideyoshi held the pumpkin to head height turning it to face front and show off his handy work.

“That’s a face?” Yukimura hid nothing of his shock allowing his jaw to drop at the creation being displayed.

“Of course. Why what do you think it looks like?” Hideyoshi arched his brow questioningly.

“You really don’t want me to answer that.” Yukimura muttered returning to his own creation, whittling away layers of the skin to produce a more three-dimensional look to its design.

“Have you two finished your little task yet?” A cheerful voice called out from the door as the owner entered with all the grace of a slithering snake.

“Nearly. How did setting up the audience hall go?” Hideyoshi replied while he added in a few things he had just thought of that should clear up the confusion over his pumpkin.

“Finished. I had a little bother removing some stains from the large cauldron but after Masa’s dragon helped jet wash it, it was a piece of cake. I must say Yukimura that is a splendid looking Pumpkin.” Mitsuhide bent down and peered over the to men’s shoulders showering praise on the younger one.

“Thank you.”

“And Hideyoshi…?” Mitsuhide turned to look at the second pumpkin for a little longer. Yellow eyes taking in the details carved out of the giant vegetable.

“Yes?”

“… well at least you tried.” Mitsuhide patted Hideyoshi’s shoulder as if consoling a child that had just lost some sort of race in school.

“Why you!”

“How’s it going in here?” Sadie entered carrying some candles.

“It would appear the pumpkins you have requested Princess are complete.” Mitsuhide turned ignoring the imminent threat from Hideyoshi who had stopped at the sight of Sadie from pointing his dagger at the white-haired menace.

“Really? That’s great let’s see them then they need the candles.” Sadie beckoned for the pumpkins taking Yukimura’s first and looking at it happily.

“You could just use some of your talents to create the light, couldn’t you?” Yuki picked up one of the candles and looked at it as if checking to see if it was really just a candle.

“I could but that would be like taking the heart out of the holiday Yuki. Wow, this is great!” Sadie traced over the intricate carving with her index finger.

“You said it had to have a face on it.” Yuki blushed a shade of crimson and rubbed his hand at the back f his neck avoiding eye contact. It made Sadie giggle as even after all this time he still could get so embarrassed easily over nothing much at all.

“I had no idea you could carve like this though it almost looks like a real gargoyle. And Yoshi…” Sadie put down Yuki’s pumpkin in favour of Hideyoshi’s turning it over and over in her hands as she tilted her head this way and that to look at the pattern.

“Before you say it I know. I have been told it doesn’t look like –” Hideyoshi began what was about to become a formal apology for failing in his task only to be cut off in his endeavour.

“It looks just like a Picasso. How fabulous! I mean there is an eye there and one here too. It’s wonderful.” Sadie beamed a happy smile that had any retort from the others dying in their throats.

“I thought you said they had to be faces.” Yuki asked as he was the first to snap out of his confusion and drew closer to get a better look at the “fabulous” pumpkin.

“Well, they are just different styles. Besides faces is tradition on pumpkins but lots of other things are also carved on them too. Dragons, bats, witches…” Sadie happily explained as she placed another candle into the second pumpkin and lit it.

“I wonder what our dear Hideyoshi would pleasure us with on his next attempt…” Mitsuhide drolled teasingly.

“Say that again snake and I’ll show you first hand.” Hideyoshi muttered just loud enough for the other man to hear him.

“Promises, promises.”

“What is up with you two today? You are fighting worse than usual.” Sadie asked. Both men had been like this all day. In fact, it had been since the previous night where she had asked Mitsuhide to help with the planning and decorating as Hideyoshi was busy with other work and Mitsuhide had requested some time to ask her questions about the requirements so they had spent a half-hour alone in her office discussing it all.

“Nothing at all.”

“Uhuh. Well anyway. Let’s go put these at the gate so the visitors can see them.” Suddenly realising the reason behind the tension Sadie smiled and sent out some calming emotions to them through the bond. The men visibly relaxed and followed after her.

“Oh, Sadie!” Hideyoshi called out about to grab back his pumpkin that was being carried by the Princess.

“Yes?”

“No nothing…” He pulled back his hand and tried to ignore the new sensation bubbling up in him.

“Feeling a little embarrassed are we Prince?” Mitsuhide hissed.

“Shut up!”

“If you two are going to start kissing or something can you warn me so I can get out the way? I have enough dealing with Shingen and all his antics without that as well today.” Yukimura cast out his words as he brushed past the bickering men and made his way to the gates with Sadie.

*

The audience chamber was decorated in coloured paper streamers and bunting, the autumnal harvest display alongside the abundance of candy looked like something out of a glamour magazine on Prime. It was perfect.

There was a bucket set up to bob for apples. Sugar doughnuts hung on strings from a washing line so you could eat them with your hands held behind your back. Mitsuhide had even cleaned up a few cells in the dungeon and set them up as a part of a haunted house. Something that was later inspected and deemed too dangerous by Orion and therefore shut down.

Creatures from all over the realms had paid a visit and received their treats and now it was down to the last few guests. The ones that would stay and drink till dawn. Dannie came bouncing in her vibrant hair offsetting the rainbow spiderweb pattern on her costume perfectly. Her luminous pink wings fluttered as she ran into the room.

“BOSS!” She practically jumped into Sadie’s arms as she wrapped her up in a big hug. You would have thought they hadn’t seen each other in years not just a few months.

“Dannie! I’m glad you made it.”

“Well, I had a little help.” Dannie looked over at the devil that entered the room. He had put on a pirate costume for the evening and Sadie had to admit it suited him, and not just because of the eye patch.

“Thanks, Masa.”

“No problem. I found her jumping around in the street.” He laughed patting Dannie on the head before moving towards Yasu and joining him in grabbing a candied apple.

“In the street?” Sadie looked worriedly at Dannie.

“I was not jumping around in the street! Ok, you know the Irish pub on the corner by work? They were having a singles night and –” Dannie animatedly tried to dispel the worry albeit in a rather flustered fashion.

“Ha-ha, it’s cool honestly. You look nice. Cobweb fairy?”

“Rainbow cobweb fairy if you please.” Dannie put her hands on her hips giving her best sassy attitude performance she could. The heels of her flower-patterned combat boots clicked on the stone making it seem even funnier.

“Well, naturally I apologise.” Sadie laughed causing Dannie to start laughing as well.

“AUNTIE!” Happy voices shouted loud in the room bouncing off the vaulted ceiling.

“Alcaeus! Saffie!” Sadie turned to scoop up the two little Angels. Alcaeus had the same flame-red hair like his mother, his father’s eyes and smoke grey wings. Saffie was the perfect representation of an angel, fluffy white wings with silver hair but she had the same magnetic amber flame hued eyes as her mother.

“Hey, you two little monsters don’t just run off from the gate leaving your Dad and me behind!” The angel of mercy appeared a little out of breath but smiling.

“Good to see you Aerion.”

“You too Sis.”

“Aerion!”

“Wha—Ack! Orion you’re going to dislocate a wing.” Orion in a slightly drunken display had grabbed his big sister in a bear hug. Sadie made a mental note to check the level of alcohol in the punch bowl or at the very least check to see if Orion’s cup had been spiked with something that affected only angels. It might be a family gathering but they were all living with demons and devils after all.

“Oh thank heaven’s you found them.” Uriel rushed in behind his wife openly sighing when he saw the two children clinging to their aunt.

“Uriel this is my plain you can hardly lose these two and even if you did I would find them.”

“I know I’m sorry.”

“Such a worrywart.” Aerion elbowed him in the ribs something he took easily before helping to get her released from her brothers embrace.

“Hey, you cherubs want to bob for apples?” Shingen called out from over by the games. Kenshin was sitting opposite him waiting for the tall redhead to make his move on the chessboard.

“YAY!” both angels ran over and were joined by Masa and Ieyasu. Masa explaining what to do and Ieyasu standing by with a towel reminding them not to drown or it would give him more work in the infirmary.

“Nobunaga don’t eat all the candy.” Hideyoshi could be heard with his usual reminder.

“Shingen that goes double for you two.” Yukimura echoed the demand causing everyone to chuckle.

“Hehe, it’s hard to see who the kids are and who are the grown-ups isn’t it?”

“Vad you made it.”

“Well large crowds are not my thing but you make allowances for family.”

“Well said.”

*

In the courtyard, the soul beasts were enjoying their own collection of treats and looking fondly at the bipeds as they partook of games and drinks. One by one the creatures began to drift into sleep.

Mochi curled up into a purple smoke ball held close by Kyrion. Ugo and Gualtero were laying side by side the great hellcat pulling on the furry ninetails to use some of it’s tails as a blanket. Savrog and Kirek had fallen asleep side by side on a branch above the collection of critters their wings touching making their glow look like it was shaped in a love heart. A fact that no one wished to say to the two bickering birds for fear of scorching. 

Takeshi-Akshai and Vode were close by. The former in his usual corgi sized form was curled up on one of Kenshin’s capes. Zilli was enjoying the dancing shadows in the audience chamber and played a few pranks on the children where they would make things float around and tickle them.

Sheverosh waited for a time before he moved away from the group and made his way to the roof. Something that Sadie had not failed to sense. As soon as the party had lulled into something close to the end she made her way to join him.

“Did you enjoy your holiday Sadie?” The great dragon enquired from the battlements.

“Yes, it was great. I mean it wasn’t exactly as it was on Prime but it was better than nothing. Why are you up here?”

“Clearing my head. I find that there are times that it is a little difficult to maintain myself in large groups. I have been alone for some time after all.” Sheverosh explained eloquently something that was certainly relatable.

“You too huh? I mean I get it. I obviously prefer to be surrounded by people I care for than to be alone but I get it there are just sometimes you want to be alone and hit that reboot button.”

“Reboot?” The dragon turned to look at Sadie his golden scales shimmering like golden grass in a summer breeze.

“It means to recharge and have some you time so you can get up the next day and be you again the next day. So, I guess we aren’t dissimilar.” Sadie smiled and looked out over the castle wall to the land that had become her home.

“No, we aren’t. I too would prefer the company to being alone but you are right there are times you crave solitude in the chaos.” Sheverosh nodded solemnly.

“Think we’re in the wrong plain for that.” Sadie chuckled maintaining her focus in the distance. Something was on the horizon she felt almost sure of it but for the time being, it was beyond her sight.

“Perhaps we are. But it’s a good balance.” Sheverosh turned to look in the same direction joining her in her nightly observations.

“Yes, it is.”

---

[jadekitty777]

The Fox Trap

Unofficial Taiqrowweek: Day 7

So last Taiqrow week, I had written a Soulmate AU story, The Matching Set. This “drabble” is a prequel to that story, taking place when the boys are younger. I do recommend reading The Matching Set first, simply because it better establishes the rules of the soulmate AU.

Rating: K+

Word Count: 2,800

Ao3 Link: The Fox Trap

Summary: Everyone knew it was forbidden to grab another’s spirit animal without proper consent. So, when Solaris gets snatched up, Tai isn’t sure what to do. Lucky for him, he has a best friend looking out for him.

~

On the first day of the festival, the Vytal Fair was bustling. There were students and adults alike standing at the game booths, trying to win prizes, and kids running between the stalls, screeching their excitement. The smell of cooking corn dogs and sugary cotton candy was heavy in the air. There were a few rides way back, mostly hidden behind a tree line. The Ferris Wheel was turning lazily.

Perched securely on his shoulder, Solaris gave a chirp of surprise when she spotted the head of a dragon peek up through the trees, before falling back down. It was golden-colored, just like her.

“Ah, I see it!” Tai said, brimming with excitement. He trotted forward to catch up with Qrow’s longer strides. “We need to go on the dragon swing!”

“The what?” The other man looked uncomfortable, his posture more huddled than usual. From the crown of his head, his crow spirit, Jynx, was nesting, but her head was twisting about constantly, trying to watch everyone at the same time and fluffing up if anyone drew nearer than she preferred. Crowds definitely weren’t their thing.

“It’s a ride. Goes back and forth like this.” He curved his hand, rocking it back and forth.

“Uh, looks, exciting.” Qrow replied unconvincingly.

He pat his shoulder. “It’ll be great, trust me!”

He brushed him off. “Yeah, alright sure. After we find Summer and Raven.”

Tai just nodded, but Solaris gave away his excitement as she let out a little roar and did a backflip.

Qrow raised his eyebrow at the both of them, before quickening his pace. “Come along children.”

In tandem with her person, Jynx beckoned them with a song-like trill, before returning to her vigil on the crowd.

“I think they’re looking forward to it,” He secretively told his own spirit, scratching the underside of her scaly chin.

He sauntered on after his teammate, drifting his gaze to and fro as he passed the sights. He spotted a ring toss game that had some giraffe plush prizes he knew Summer was going to go nuts over. There were also a bunch of shooting challenges that he had no doubt Qrow would dominate. A nearby fortune teller was currently staring deep into the eyes of an orangutan that had the mane of a lion, trying to predict the origins of its person’s soulmate. If only it wasn’t a bunch of rubbish, he might have tried to convince Raven to give it a shot with him. At least then they could know once and for all if their spirit animals were a match.

After all, there were a lot of blackbirds in the world.

“Oh wow, a dragon!”

Off-handedly, he figured they were talking about the ride.

It was only after Solaris screeched he realized how wrong he was.

He felt like his chest was suddenly being compressed, and as he spun around, he realized that was because it was. Solaris was squirming about in the tight grip of the hook-nosed man that held her, her black wings pinned so she couldn’t even fly. Tai faintly recognized him; Orion, one of the visiting students from Shade Academy. He knew Vacuons had a very loose policy about how to treat others’ spirit animals; but for Mistralians like himself, it was completely taboo unless the animal themselves initiated the act.

So to see his dragon in the other’s grasp was so many levels of disgustingly wrong, he could hardly comprehend it.

“Ah, she’s cute.” Orion said, reaching out a finger towards her head. Solaris recoiled, snarling and spitting at him. He gave her a little retaliatory flick on the nose. “Did you just hiss at me? Aren’t you rude.”

Tai wrinkled his own nose that still felt the sting, hissing himself as he said, “Let. Her. Go.”

“Huh? Cool it mate, I ain’t hurting her.” He said, acting as if he didn’t notice how the dragon was trying to gnaw through his glove.

You’re hurting me! He thought, growing more distressed as Solaris started to wail. He felt trapped. He couldn’t get violent; if he started a fight out of the arena, it could get his team disqualified. He couldn’t disappoint them like that.

But if he had to stand the other’s touch all over him much longer, he was going to lose it.

“I don’t care.” He grit out. “Let her go. Please.”

“Ah, don’t be like that. Look I’ll even let you pet Scarlet.” He nodded down to the butterfly-winged fox at his feet.

Tai sucked in a sharp breath, so outraged he was certain he was about to scream.

That was when Qrow’s hand clapped down onto Orion’s arm, digging his nails into the inside of his wrist as he twisted it sideways. Like a dark, red-eyed shadow, Jynx stood up on his head, sharp beak pointing at the Vacuon’s eyes.

“Look buddy,” Qrow’s voice was venomous, “He asked you nicely, now I’m telling you. Let her go or I’m going to break your fucking arm.”

“Ow, ow, alright!”

Tai could breathe again as the pressure finally, blissfully, let up.

Instantly, Solaris tore away, launching herself into his chest. His hands immediately came up to cradle her, petting her gently along her shivering wings.

Qrow scowled, shoving Orion back. “Get the fuck out of here.”

“Tch, buncha freaks.” He bit back, disappearing into the throng of people.

Had there been this many people before? Tai watched him go, his fingers tightening around his spirit. His eyes flickered towards Qrow as he came over.

“Y’alright?” He asked.

He soothed a finger between the little horns on Solaris’ head as she whimpered. Beyond the scare though, she was unharmed and that’s all that mattered. “Yeah. Thanks.”

He frowned, studying him like a surgeon about to perform an operation before cupping a hand around his elbow, lightly as if he didn’t quite want to touch him. “Let’s get out of here.”

Why? He wanted to ask as he followed him through a gap in the stalls, but he couldn’t quite make his vocal chords work. What was even more peculiar was how Jynx started to coo at him, the way she only would when one of them got hurt. It didn’t make sense. He was fine.

Qrow took him out of the heavy traffic of the fairgrounds into the quieter atmosphere of Beacon’s deserted campus. As they drew close to the cafeteria, he finally let go, glancing back at him with that same, over-analyzing expression. “Do you wanna sit down or something?”

“What? No.” This whole thing was started to get uncomfortable. Since when did Qrow treat him like he was made of glass? “What’s your deal? You’re acting weird.”

His eyes narrowed, and he was almost certain he was about to yell at him, but all he said was, “Tai, you’re shaking.”

He was? Tai looked down. Solaris had curled into a ball between his hands. They were barely able to hold her they were trembling so bad. “Oh.” He said dumbly. How had he not noticed that? “It’s fine. I just feel strange.”

“Yeah, alright.” Qrow agreed. “You should still sit down.”

He wanted to argue, just for the sake of it – he wasn’t a child for maiden’s sake – but it was overwhelmed by a sudden sense of exhaustion. Maybe… just for a minute.

He settled against one of the columns that lined the overhang for the exterior of the cafeteria, carefully depositing Solaris into the crook of his crossed legs. She settled her chin on his knee, shutting her eyes as he pet her along her back.

Qrow watched him, shifting on his feet awkwardly. “Do you want something? A drink? Food?”

He snorted. Well, at least he could give him points for trying. “Just sit with me man.”

Obediently, he settled down beside him. His legs were a bit too lanky to sit comfortably, so he just let them sprawl over the grass. Jynx alighted from his head to settle on his thigh, just close enough to touch her beak to Solaris’ snout. The dragon gave a little purr in return, flicking her tail.

Tai smiled faintly at the sight. He’d always known his spirit’s bond with the crow to be particularly special; and in little moments like these, it was the most obvious.

Qrow was watching them as well as he leant back, their shoulders brushing. “I’m sorry.”

The apology caught him off-guard. “About what?”

“I noticed that guy was running around, messing with people on the other teams. I think he’s trying to piss everyone off before the matches start.” He was twisting the white ring on his hand, the way he did whenever he was nervous. “Never thought he’d grab at Sunshine like that though.”

Solaris lifted her head at the sound of her nickname, chuffing happily.

“It’s not your fault.” Tai assured. “It wouldn’t have made much of a difference. I never even saw him coming.”

“Still I – know how awful that feels.” His red eyes went wide the moment those words left his mouth.

“Wait, what?” Tai said, dumbstruck.

He looked away. Jynx fled, hiding back into his hair.

He twisted towards him, “Qrow, what?”  No way was he letting this go though.

Neither was Solaris as she bound up the front of his shirt until she too was perched on his head, beseeching her friend with a small chirp.

He spotted the little head of feathers turning her way. They were getting somewhere. “Come on man, you can talk to me.”

“Ugh.” Qrow finally groaned, shoulders slumping. “Why do you have to be so you?”

“I’m sorry?” He offered, not sure if that had been a joke or not.

In return, he only sighed. “It’s not that big of a deal.” Except, both of them knew that wasn’t true. “It happened awhile back, in one of the towns Rae and I tried to live in before the bandits picked us up. We weren’t there long before my semblance did it’s work and the rumors started. It was always the same stuff; how we were omens who came to wreak havoc and all that shit. Usually someone would chase us out of town but this time, it was different. Some older kids cornered me in an alley.” He drew up a leg, holding it protectively as he recounted the story. “I don’t know if they knew I was the cause or if they just happened to spot me, but before I knew it, two of them had me pinned on the ground. I was pretty sure they were just gonna knock me around a bit – but then one of ‘em started spouting about how ‘things’ like me shouldn’t exist. And then, he grabbed Jynx. And another kid, he… he had a lighter.”

Tai’s stomach dropped out. “Oh god…”

Qrow shut his eyes taking a long, steadying breath. “Nothing happened. Raven got there before they could set her on fire. But I,” He laid his head against his knee, mumbling, “I wasn’t really okay for awhile after that.”

He swallowed, feeling sick inside. How could anybody of ever…? No wonder Qrow didn’t trust people easily. He doubted he would either, if he had to go through something like that.

Words completely failing him, not that there would be any that could really make this better even if he could find them, Tai just silently placed a hand on his shoulder, hoping the gesture of comfort would be enough to ease him even a little.

Solaris seemed to want to do the same. She leapt down onto his arm, walking along it until she stood on his hand, whining.

The noise caused the man to turn his head just enough to look at her.

She looked back at Tai, almost questioningly, then back to Qrow and, to his shock, hopped right up onto his shoulder.

Tai stared, jaw falling open. While she had always happily accepted an occasional pat or scratch from another of his teammate’s, not once before had she ever willingly gotten this close to someone – and especially after what just happened, he could hardly fathom how either of them were comfortable enough for this right now.

It seemed Qrow was equally unable to comprehend what was happening as he sat up, looking between her and Tai. “U-uhh?” His stutter became slightly more alarmed when she nuzzled her face against his cheek. “Uhh?!”

“It-It’s okay.” Tai managed to reassure, his own heart pounding. Because it had to be; she was his soul, and while he didn’t always understand her, if this was what she wanted, then it was what he wanted too. “Just pet her.”

“You sure?”

It was so surreal, realizing he was able to feel every sensation – from the hold on his hands and feet where she stood on Qrow’s shoulder, to the brush of warmth along his cheek. The idea of more left him a little dizzy, but he met his gaze, nodding. “Yeah.”

Hesitantly, Qrow rose his hand, deliberately slow as he stared between her and Tai for any sign to stop. But when none came, he finally allowed his hand to touch along the back of her wings, smoothing his hand down them much the same way he did with Jynx.

Tai shivered from head to toe as he felt the feeling ghost along his back. It was strange, but not unpleasant.

Qrow pulled his hand back quickly. “Is that, okay, or?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s fine. Do it again.” As he pet her again, Tai felt himself relax into it this time, melting against the column. “It’s really nice, actually.”

“Should I uh, keep going?”

He felt a few taps along his chin and peeked an eye open, seeing how Solaris was nudging her face between Qrow’s fingers. He chuckled at the sight. “I think that’s a yes.”

As he continued, Tai had to wonder if he should be more freaked out. While the touch itself wasn’t invasive and unwelcome like Orion’s had been, it was still intimate. Well, sort of. It wasn’t like he would ever expect Qrow to place his actual hands on his back and give him what was basically a massage – but in this context, with everything more disconnected from his physical body, he could almost pretend it wasn’t quite as lewd as it was.

Yet, as Solaris started to purr, the contentment rolling through him as well, he couldn’t find it in him to be too concerned. A glance up revealed Jynx had come out of hiding, feeling reassured when he noticed her preening at Qrow’s hair. She only did that when he was relaxed.

For just a moment, he wished the little crow had a dragon tail instead of antlers.

He brushed the thought off just as quick. Maybe they weren’t soulmates, but they didn’t have to be. Qrow was part of his life as his teammate and best friend, and even if that’s all they ever would be, that was enough. In fact…

He grinned as a thought occurred to him, a chuckle bubbling from him.

“What? Did that tickle?”

“No, no,” He said, grin stretching further, “Just wanted to tell you how glad I am that you’re in my life.”

“H-Huh?!” Qrow’s face went bright red and Jynx froze, tucking her face under her wing. “You can’t just say stuff like that!”

Tai laughed more, cupping his hands out for Solaris to jump into. Little chirpy roars were echoing from her throat. “I think I just did.”

He groaned, running a hand over his face in a poor attempt to wipe away his smile. “You’re the worst.”

“Yeah, I know.” He crooned back, springing to his feet. “Come on, let’s head back. I still gotta get you on the Dragon Swing.”

Qrow took his hand when he offered it, saying as he was pulled up, “What, is it the best ride they got or something?”

“Oh no, no. There are way better ones. Wait ‘til we get on the Gravitron and the Zipper, then you’ll really lose your lunch.” He threw his arm over his shoulder. “But you’re a rookie, so we’ll start small.”

He rolled his eyes. “I think I can handle it.”

“We’ll see.”

As they headed back into the crowd, Tai pretended not to take notice of the way Solaris scurried up into his hair, much more wary than before. Equally Qrow made no mention of how Jynx consoled her with song-like trills. And if they stayed a bit closer to one another this time around, they definitely didn’t breathe a word about that either.

But if anyone had asked, Tai would have been honest when he told them that having a good friend like Qrow by his side made him feel like he could take on the worst of what the world might throw at him.

-

A/N: Prompt used was 22: "Did you just hiss at me?"

[theroyalwords]

Teen Olympians, Ch 29

-Apollo-

The sun god had seen his fair share of mortal bravery. Hercules, Achilles, and Hector were some of the first names that came to find. In recent years, Percy Jackson was placed among their ranks. Their acts on the battlefield and successful endeavors were impressive by even immortal standards. It took a lot to leave an impression on an immortal. It was evident that now Cassia Woodard's name would be forever ingrained in his and his family's minds as well.

It had been a long time since a mortal stood among Apollo's family with such calm and careful assurance. It was a little unnerving, if he was honest. There were many things they were privy to as immortal gods and goddesses. Not knowing something was extremely annoying, and try as they might, they didn't know the future as well as the myths led on. The girl was one of those annoying unknown things. Her future, her role in all of this madness, was yet to be revealed. Cassia was a wildcard, an ace in the hole. Apollo didn't fail to notice the knowing gleam in his families' eyes as she told her tale. She could be very valuable, and his family would take advantage. There was admiration beside that greedy glint in their eyes, something Apollo would have to be careful to watch.

Apollo would not let them use her. She was no pawn to be brandished about on a whim. She was a queen, and he had a feeling would run the board, if given the chance. She only needed support to do so.

Cas kept out a lot of personal details, which Apollo understood. She handled their questions gracefully, artfully. He suspected that she knew what they would ask, especially with Athena.

"So, can you call your vision at will?" Athena inquired.

"I can, my Lady, but when I do, what I see isn't as reliable," Cas murmured with her brow furrowed, "the odds are better the closer to the actual event in that regard. And to answer your question, Lady Aphrodite, I didn't rat you out because I knew it would make Orion happy in the end. I'd just hoped to avoid the shit show that most likely came with it."

Aphrodite just grinned and shook her head. "Amazing. And how do you know how likely the outcome is? Is it a feeling?"

"Not exactly. Some are more solid and defined, clearer in quality, than others. They feel like reality, but then it ends, like I've just woken up. It's more like…dreaming, I suppose. The clearer the vision, the more likely its outcome."

Apollo wondered if she'd ever used her gift for personal gain. Cas looked in his direction with a knowing grin. She didn't answer his question aloud, only gave him a glimpse of the mischief in her eyes before covertly nodding her head. He suspected that what she wanted to say would make him laugh, which brought an even wider smile to his face.

"Now I remember your grandmother! Ha! She went to work for one of the merchant guilds in New Rome! That's why you looked familiar. I think her name was…Emma? Eve?"

Cas bit her lip, looking a little uncomfortable. "Evelyn?"

"That's it! She was a lot of fun, while it lasted. I'm sure your mother picked up her no shit attitude."

"She did," Cas murmured as her eyes glazed slightly.

"Too bad it didn't last. She got rather put out with me when she realized I'd been with someone else, and that woman-"

"Stop talking, Hermes, you are making this awkward. I'm sure she doesn't want to hear how her grandfather slept with half the Californian population in the 70s," Aphrodite chided.

"The 70s were fun," he mused with a grin. "I think you know what I mean. Weren't you and Ares getting along swimmingly back then? Seem to remember nothing but love and war." Aphrodite pursed her lips as her eyes narrowed in distaste.

"Don't even mention his name. He's pissed me off for the last time."

"And how many times have we heard that?" Athena scoffed. "I'm sure yours and Hermes's list of conquests is quite extensive, but I don't particularly want to hear about them."

"My conquests?" Hermes scoffed. "I know you didn't stay holed up in Olympus the whole time that decade. I seem to remember the Athena cabin having a lot of children popping in around the latter part of the 70s."

"At least I remember what their names are! I don't whore myself out!"

"This isn't awkward at all," Cas muttered under her breath. Apollo snorted. Being the only mortal around immortals had to be disconcerting. They might look her age, but they were eons older, which left almost no topic uncovered.

"Trust me, I've heard worse," he muttered back to her. "This is tame."

"Oh, I believe that."

"Hermes! You can't just talk about that!" Hestia yelped. Apollo and Cas both tuned back into the conversation. All the color had left Hestia, leaving her pallor ghostly. Apollo's sister had gone an uncomfortable shade of red, which Orion nearly matched. Even Athena, who kept her head cool in most situations, was staring at Hermes with her mouth gaping.

"I'm telling you, it's been years. I bet you could do it if you want to!"

"Oh no," Cas whispered, her own cheeks turning a flaming red.

"What?" Apollo muttered. Cas shook her head violently before looking down at the floor.

"We can't just…we made a vow, Hermes," Athena stuttered.

"It's the twenty-first century, for crying out loud! I think we are long past there being repercussions for breaking a vow that no one worships you for anymore. Besides, we all know that Hestia just took the vow so that Poseidon and Apollo wouldn't start fighting!"

"Do not question my honor on this," Hestia snarled in response. Her eyes lit up, flames dancing in them. "I do not go back on my word."

"I'm sure you have served it faithfully since then, but I bet that wasn't the case before, now, was it?"

Hestia's color muddled. They all knew that her and Poseidon had a thing when the younger generation was still small. Unlike Aphrodite and Hephaestus, Hestia wouldn't openly cheat with him while he was married to Amphitrite. Still, there were rumors that before Poseidon had married, that the two of them had a few intimate encounters.

"And look at these two!" Hermes huffed while throwing a finger in Artemis and Orion's direction. "Artemis was being a snot nosed little punk before he came back, and you all know it. He's already made her bearable, so maybe taking it a step further might do her some good!"

"I w-would never," Orion stammered out.

"Damn right he would never!" Artemis countered. "Maybe I'm just glad that I'm no longer being lied to!"

"Maybe so, but I must say, Hermes has a point. A good rendezvous does do something for the soul," Aphrodite mused with a knowing grin. "Perhaps Apollo could more eloquently explain?"

"And feel my sister's wrath?" Apollo scoffed. "No thank you. I'm not in the mood to piss her off."

"That's wise," Artemis agreed. Apollo stole a glance at his sister, who glanced suspiciously at the girl beside him. Cas had turned a deep shade of red beside him, looking intent on memorizing the grain pattern in the wood flooring.

"I just think that maybe these three need to let loose and experience some pleasure in their existences! I mean get that stick out of your ass and," Hermes trailed off, a huge grin erupting. "Actually, that's a good place to start."

"First of all, what in the actual fuck," Artemis snapped. "and second of all, that's a little intense, is it not?" Artemis looked to her brother.

"Ah, well, it depends." Sex really wasn't all that embarrassing to him. He'd been with many people in his existence, men and women. Despite the numerous about of encounters he had, there were a handful that left a lasting impression. Some encounters faded over time, while others involved people he would never forget. Daphne and Hyacinth were a couple of the more prominent ones. And Cassandra…

"I don't think that would be a particularly good experiment for one's first time, but it of course depends on the couple. For some, it's the only option."

"Oh," Artemis huffed as realization hit her.

"You are telling me you three have never thought about it? Never saw someone that made you just want to lose yourself in them? Someone that made your semblance of a human heart beat wildly out of control, where every single inch of you comes undone at a mere touch?"

The three of them looked thoughtful, which was more telling than they realized. Apollo concluded that they had indeed thought about it. By the dreamy look in his sister's eye, he suspected that those thoughts had been rather recent.

"Absolutely not," Athena stated.

"Liar!"

"I need a drink," Cas whispered, just loud enough for Apollo to hear. She slipped away from the arguing immortals. Apollo followed her into the kitchen. Cas sat at the island with a bottle of water in her hands, staring at it. Her vision was glazed, lost in some vision.

"Are you okay?" Apollo laid his hand on her back.

Cas shook her head, clearing it of her thoughts. She turned to Apollo, searching his face for something.

"Yeah, I think so."

"I'm sorry for the talk. When you've been alive for as long as we have, no topic seems to be off the table."

"The talk didn't bother me," she muttered. "What I saw as a result, however, did."

"Sounds like something you didn't particularly want knowledge of." He wanted to ask what she just saw, but her closed expression and the blush on her cheeks told him that it wasn't something she really wanted to share.

"Not really. It's just a possibility; nothing concrete yet."

Apollo removed his hand and grabbed a drink for himself. His family was arguing passionately now, their heated words garnering some of their gifts. Athena kept making weapons appear, and Hermes kept finding a way to take them from her as they argued. Artemis had her daggers in her hands, while flames kept erupting from Hestia.

"You wanted to marry your Aunt?" Cas questioned with a raised brow.

"Long story," he responded, cringing slightly. Hestia's denial hadn't bothered him for long. It was a long time ago, and really, he only wanted it for the power it would have given him. Hestia was beautiful, and there was no doubt he would enjoy himself, would be happy, and maybe she would have been, too. In the end, Apollo thought her refusal was for the best. She wanted something that he just couldn't give her.

"I know godly DNA doesn't exist, that it really doesn't matter, but still, it's all a little weird. Reminds me of a soap opera."

"Imagine being in it."

Cas laughed at that. "I'd get killed."

"I wouldn't let that happen." For a moment, Apollo allowed himself to think about it. If Cas stuck around, if the promise he made to protect her turned into something that lasted…what would that be like? What if she became immortal? What if, in time, their friendship turned into something more? Apollo's human heart stuttered at the possibility. He wasn't sure how deep his affections for Cassia Woodard ran, but he knew one thing. He didn't want to be parted from her, not yet.

"I've wondered," Cas whispered.

"Wondered what?" Apollo studied her as she played with the label on her bottle.

"What it would be like."

A blush stole Apollo's cheeks. He'd never felt ashamed at what he's done. He'd openly talk about it around anyone, really, but talking about it with Cas felt different, more intimate. Talking to her about it made butterflies explode in his stomach, made him almost queasy with nervousness.

"You have?"

Cas dipped her head. "I've seen what falling in love is like, seen what mortals and immortals will do for pleasure. I've wondered what it would be like to trust someone like that, to have someone trust me. But with this curse?" she stopped, a harsh huff of breath leaving her.

"You'll get it."

Cas turned towards Apollo, her expression neutral. However, there was a hint of hope in her eyes, something that made Apollo desperate to see on her whole face. He wanted to touch her again, to lay his hands on her neck and feel the stuttering pulse beneath her skin, the shaky way she breathed at his touch. He'd longed for it since yesterday morning, since he'd felt how warm and soft the skin of her waist was. It was unwise to get any more involved, but the line had been crossed a long time ago. He reached out, laying his hand on her forearm. The world seemed to sing at the connection, at the inevitability of it.

"I'm going to find a way to ease your burden, Cassia Woodard. And when you find that person, be it mortal or immortal, do not settle for anything, nothing less than care and devotion that you deserve. They should treat you like the queen you are."

A devastating blush rose on her cheeks. "Doesn't it go both ways? What of my care and devotion? What should I give them?"

"Cas," Apollo sighed. Her lips quirked to the side.

"You do have more than enough experience."

"Why are you asking me?"

Cas shrugged her shoulders. "I don't have many friends. Orion is just as inexperienced as I am. Plus, you see what he turns into when the subject come up." She gestured to Orion, who was currently covering his face with his hands as Artemis and Hermes went at each other above him. "I know you will be honest with me."

"So you consider me a friend?" he questioned with an easy grin. Cas laughed.

"Yeah, I think we are to that point. It won't stay that way if you avoid my question."

He turned towards her. A strand of hair had fallen into her face, begging to be moved. He fought moving any closer. "In the ideal situation, you would give equally, but that is not always the case. Some conquer the need for gratification, hold out for those they deem worthy of intimacy. They take their time with the relationship. For others, it is purely physical. I've had both. The biggest thing is to know what you are getting into, which situation are you in. When motives are unequal, that's what leads to heartache. If you question it, don't give them anything you feel uncomfortable parting with until you are sure of what they want."

She nodded her head in thought. Apollo hadn't always been clear with his motives in relationships. He'd hurt people. Most were collateral damage, caught up in immortal games. He didn't want that for the girl beside him. He was going to fight to make sure that this girl stayed out of his families' schemes.

Apollo only hoped that was possible.

Monday morning started out as dreary as the rest of them.

Artemis and Orion left the previous night, something about getting in a forest jaunt before class on Monday. Apollo had taken the hint not to pry, which he was only too happy to oblige. That left the burden of responsibility of dealing with their houseguest, which he didn't exactly mind. Cas was an earlier riser, just like him. They'd trained again, Apollo consistently winning. He wanted to challenge her, make her better. They were working on using her sight to assist her in fights. The visions might not be as clear, but they offered her an advantage that could save her life.

The drive to school was quiet, but the silence was comforting, easy. When they made it to the school, Apollo appeared at her door, opening it for her. Cas bit her lip as she stepped out of the vehicle.

"Thanks," she mused.

"Want coffee? We have time."

"Are you trying to make up for the ass kicking you handed me this morning?"

"Partially," he jested. "I really didn't mean to knock you out." His tone might be light and joking, but Apollo was terrified in that moment. He pushed her too hard, overestimating the amount of force he used. He didn't even breathe until her eyes opened back up.

"I know. Really, it's kind of handy to have your trainer also able to instantly heal you. Dealing with a concussion today would have sucked."

"I've yet to hear my thank you." Apollo waited for her to start towards the nearest coffee shop, which happened to be only a block away. Cas glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, a smirk growing.

"I'll say it if you buy me coffee."

"I'm beginning to think you are using me, Cassia Woodard."

"Just now figuring that out?"

"Hey! Where are you two venturing off to?" Hermes practically collided into them, Athena not far behind.

"Much needed caffeine," Apollo explained. Being stuck in a mortal form got exhausting at times. "Want to join?"

"I'm in."

"I have to organize some notes, but I will take a Grande soy vanilla latte, extra shot of expresso," Athena added in a huff.

"Is there a please there?" Apollo questioned. Athena shot him a withering glare before heading towards the school. "Guess not."

"You know you have to get it, right?" Cas hinted. Apollo gave her a resigned sigh.

"I deserve an award for proper sibling behavior."

"Yeah, right," Hermes chortled.

Together, they headed towards the coffee shop. There was a narrow alleyway that cut through two buildings, saving them from having to take the long way around the block. Thankfully, the line was short. They quickly ordered their beverages and headed back to the school, caffeine in tow. Zeus was keeping a better eye on them since Artemis's disappearance, and it wouldn't surprise Apollo if he had some underling charged with verifying they showed up every day.

"Thank the gods for espresso," Cas sighed as she took a sip.

"Actually, only one god to thank," Hermes pointed out. "Athena inspired that one."

"Really?"

Hermes and Cas began chatting back and forth, Apollo watching them with careful amusement. There was something in Hermes's eyes that bothered him. Maybe it was just an overreaction, but –

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Cas swore.

They had just entered the alley. At the end stood three men, all looking menacingly in Cas's direction. She sighed heavily beside Apollo.

"Can you please hold this?" She held out her latte, which Apollo warily took from her. The three weren't gods, that he was positive of, but they were still powerful. Magicians, ones that honed the magic of the Pharaohs they descended from. They were young for adult mortals, all in their 20s, from what Apollo gathered. While he had no doubt that Cas could protect herself, he knew she was sore from training this morning. He didn't want her to injure herself again.

"Cas, maybe I should-"

"Thanks for the offer, but I need to send a solid message. I've got this."

"You sure about that?" Hermes questioned, his eyes narrowed in the men's direction.

"I don't need anyone to fight my battles for me," Cas swore. She strode forward, looking agitated beyond belief. "Really, Joseph? You've sunk to hunting teenage girls now?"

"You got a mighty large price on your head, darling."

She stopped and put her hands on her hips. "I'm going to ask nicely for you to leave. Tell all your magician friends that this is between me and Isis, which means you need to keep your abnormally large noses out of it. No bounty is worth the pain I will inflict."

"No can do."

Cas shrugged her shoulders and pulled out one of the daggers Apollo gave her from the inside of her jacket before taking it off. "Have it your way, then."

She vanished.

Joseph's eyes narrowed while the other's widened in terror. Cas appeared behind one of the men and snatched him up before disappearing again, only to reappear on the fire escape and drop him a good twenty feet. Apollo expected the sickening crunch of bone when the man hit the pavement, the bones not able to handle the force of the fall. A shattering scream left the man as he hit, spurring the other two into action. Cas was already on the other one, quickly disarming him of his weapon and knocking him out with a swift hit from the hilt of her dagger. Joseph yelled out something in Egyptian, a symbol forming over his palm, which made Cas clutch her head. Another word from Joseph sent the weapon flying to the other end of the alley, well out of Cassia's reach. She hit her knees as Joseph strode forward, a satisfied look on his face.

"They talk all about how skilled you are, but you are nothing but a"

Joseph didn't finish that sentence. As soon as he was close enough, Cas shifted, swinging her legs around, sending Joseph falling to his back. She whispered a few words, her blade flying back to her hand before she placed it against Joseph's throat.

"She faked it," Hermes laughed. "Smart, conniving girl."

"We both know that if I really wanted to kill all three of you, that you would already be dead. Consider this the only warning I give to the magician guilds. Attack me again, and I won't hesitate to end a life. Keep sending assassins, and I will destroy all that you hold dear. Do I make myself clear?"

"You are a monster," the man breathed. Apollo noticed the brief flick of pain in her eyes before her jaw tensed.

"We are all someone's monster." Cas rose from the man, keeping her dagger pointed in his direction. "Leave before I change my mind. And get your guy some medical attention," she added as she pointed to the one who she dropped.

Cas stepped over Joseph, walking back towards the two Olympians. She took her drink back from Apollo and drank deeply. When she finished, she looked back at her attackers, who were making a portal to leave.

"Mind if we go around?"

"Not at all. That was impressive," Hermes pointed out. Cas simply shrugged her shoulders. He gave Hermes a look. Apollo needed to talk to Cas. Something about the morning seemed to impact her more than usual. Plus, that gleam in Hermes's eyes had strengthened considerably, which left Apollo uneasy.

"Hermes, can you go ahead and take that to Athena?"

"Uh, sure." Hermes vanished on the spot, leaving Cas and Apollo alone. She began walking back towards the school, her brow furrowed in thought. They walked in silence for a while, until the school was back in view.

Apollo cleared his throat. "Are you okay?"

"Not really."

"You shouldn't feel guilty for that."

"You really think so?" she murmured.

"They were trying to harm you, Cassia," Apollo reminded her. "You gave them fair warning." Cas took a sip of her drink, letting the silence speak for her. "And how often are you expecting attacks like that?"

"Not often," she muttered. "They didn't realize that you were with me. The immortals aren't going to try anything unless I'm alone, at least for now. Hopefully, that ended whatever magicians planned on coming after me."

"Cas," Apollo began. He could hear the deception in her words, the careful way she worded herself. Something was wrong.

"Thank you," she blurted, turning towards him. "For everything this morning. For everything you may do."

Before Apollo could reply, she quickened her pace, leaving him behind in front of the school.

Hope you enjoyed! I'm trying to work on this story more, but be patient with me as I'm also dedicating a lot of time to my original stuff.

Please like/reblog! :) Thanks for reading!

[peachbruhlee]

Like The Sun

A/n: Hey guys! Coming at ya ;) I got an idea for this fic last night and I stayed up writing this. Please send me feedback, it means a lot to me :) I hope you guys like it ! -Gia

Word Count: 1.4k

Pairing: Philip Hamilton x Reader

Setting: Modern AU

Warning: Character Death, and a bit of sadness

I could see the puff of my breath in the cold winter air. Fortunately, the park was empty this late at night, meaning I could think freely without any interruptions. The worn leather-bound book in my hands was only in case someone would pass by and attempt to speak with me. My head leaned back to look at the sky. Despite it being the midst of winter and the snowstorm we had earlier, the sky was surprisingly crystal clear. My eyes could see the three stars that lined up to make Orion’s belt. I let out a humorless laugh as I remembered what he used to say to me back when we were  together.

“ I don’t understand why you don’t like your freckles,” He said as he looked down at me. I had my head in his lap as we were both reading books while lounging at home.

“It’s because I used to get teased about them in middle school and high school,” I shrugged as I turned the page of my book.

“Well I think they look like constellations, each freckle is a star in the sky.” He traced a few of them with his fingertip, “These specifically look like Aquarius. Y’know aquarius was named after Ganymede, the cupbearer to the gods in Mount Olympic. In the myth, Ganymede was the most beautiful boy alive and Zeus was so enchanted by him that he took the form of an eagle and abducted the Ganymede.”

I smiled up at him, “You’re such an astronomy dork.”

He smiled at me as he continued, “But I bet if Zeus saw you, he’d say Ganymede is nothing compared to you.”

Blood rushed to my face as buried my face into his stomach, “Stop it, Philip, you’re being cheesy.”

“But it’s true; well I’d pick you over Ganymede any day,” He chuckled softly.

I smiled as I remembered that day; that’s when I had stopped worrying about what others had thought of my freckles. But my smile faded as I realized that it didn’t matter if Philip wasn’t here to tell me that. I shook my head and closed my eyes, exhaling slowly to calm myself down.

Once I deemed myself calm, I opened my eyes again, opting to look at my surroundings instead of the sky. Everything was covered with a blanket of clean snow, completely untouched. I was the only person insane enough to be outside, meaning everything was silent, except for my breathing. No longer being able to feel my nose, despite the thick scarf I was wearing, I decided it was the right time to go home.

The snow crunched under my steps as I walked out of the park and made my way home. But I wasn’t going to walk straight home, a much needed detour to get something to warm me up was needed. One of my favorite cafes was open all day and ran by local university students, a lot of other students came to study and relax for the night while they enjoyed the drinks and pastries they had.

I sat down in one of the booths as I held the ceramic mug in both of my hands. Cafe Cubano con Leche. A soft sigh left my lips as I brought up the mug to my cold lips, already feeling the warmth flow through my body. One would think coffee this late at night, rather this early in the morning, wouldn’t let me sleep, but I’ve had coffee enough that I could still go to sleep after drinking this if I wanted to.

But I didn’t want to, lately I’ve been having too many dreams, well not dreams, memories of Philip and me, and it seemed that everything I did somehow reminded me of him. I smiled bitterly as another memory began playing through my mind.

“Come on, love, we’re almost there, just a little bit longer,” he chuckled as he pulled me along. Philip told me he had something to show me, a surprise of some sort. It was the midst of summer, meaning it was very hot outside. He had insisted to drag me out of our air-conditioned home and I had refused, until he had pulled my weakness: his sad puppy eyes with a pout on his lips.

“Please be worth it. We were perfectly fine in our cool home, but now we’re outside in this heat,” I whined as I walked behind him.

“It will be, I promise,” he smiled back at me. We walked through the green field that was littered with wild flowers until we reached a giant willow tree and a basket and blanket had been neatly set in its shade.

“You did this for us?” I asked wondrously as I slowed down and took in the sight.

He shrugged, “I knew you were getting a little stressed inside the house, so I wanted to help you relax by doing something nice for us.”

I smiled up at him as my arms wrapped around his torso, resting my chin on his chest. “I love you so much, you’re the best boyfriend anyone could ask for.”

He smiled as he placed a kiss on the tip of my nose, “I love you too, doll. Now come on, let’s enjoy our picnic.”

We walked to the blanket and sat down in our usual position, one of us sitting up as the other laid their head in our lap. Philip had his head on my lap this time as I leaned against the trunk of the willow. I ran my fingers through his curly hair as I listened to him talk about something that had happened the other day.

I smiled down at him as he talked animatedly, then he stopped talking and only looked at me.

“What? Is there something wrong?” I asked him as I tilted my head at him.

“How do you do it?” He asked me seriously.

“Do what?” I was even more confused now.

“Smile like… Like the sun is in your eyes,” he continued as a smile formed on his face.

“Philip!” I hit his chest with my hand lightly as my face turned hot and red, embarrassed at his comment. It was too much for me.

He chuckled as he held the hand that I had on his chest, intertwining our fingers.

I gulped as I could feel my breath stagger and tears form in my eyes. I left the coffee shop hastily before anyone could see that I was on the verge of tears. My breaths came out short as I began to silently cry, but I had to make it home before an actual sob left my chest. The tears would have made it difficult for me to navigate my way home, but I had made the walk so many times I memorized the directions.

Finally arriving home I slammed the door behind me and slid onto the floor as I finally let my sobs out. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, making myself as small as I possibly could. 

The only thing I could hear was my ragged sobs in the silent home. But it wasn’t my home anymore; Philip was my home and he wasn’t here anymore. I cried until I turned numb and sat alone on the wooden floor.

My arms dropped as I let my legs go and extend on the wooden floor. I was tired, weak and lonely. But I couldn’t do anything for Philip to return, he was gone, forever. My legs wobbled as I stood up from my place on the floor. I trudged to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water. Leaning against the counter to support myself, I took a sip from the glass.

I wonder if Philip knew, I had dropped so many hints. My hand unconsciously came up to my stomach and began rubbing it slowly, I was pregnant with Philip’s child and I didn’t have the chance to tell him before he left.

But I swore that I would love our child with both of our loves and that they grew up knowing that they were loved and cared for and that their father died a hero. I was going to put everything I had to raise them and let our legacy live.

I closed my eyes as I imagine our child growing up to be a split image of us.

I miss you so much, Philip and I hope you’re watching over us.

[cgpsimpromptu-blog]

Psychick (Pt. 1)

By Ben Togut

Snow sugarcoated the towering evergreens. The man lay sprawled on the cool pavement, his limbs twisted beyond recognition, forming an ironic snow angel in the dusted fluff, a pained expression on his ghostly face. The Shell gas station sign flickered above the words “never forget” spelled out in a gasoline rainbow semicircle around the body.

I never expected him to come. I never expected the friendly creaking of the bright orange door to awaken me from my morning daze. I thought I’d sit on a coy, oak stool near the window, my pale face pressed against the frozen glass, the dark clouds forming an eerie halo over the sleeping city. I had just started unpacking after returning from my three month tour of India, teaching ESL and making underprivileged children feel like they’re worth something. A wispy voice whispers my name Vera in my ear like a distant lullaby I had once known. I spin around but no one is there. Must be the wind, I think. Must be the soft welcoming of the tiger we call morning, purring, inviting you into that indigo crescent of silence known as peace. I continue nibbling at my bland, lumpy oatmeal, unperturbed. Hughes, an Abyssinian cat I’d adopted from Chennai, purrs, curling his velvety body against my bare leg. I haven’t taken the poison in ten days. I’m ready. I pace to the bathroom, and flinging open my medicine cabinet, slam down the remaining three bottles of Zyprexa onto the countertop. Opening the lid to the toilet, I waterfall the pills into the bowl, each falling with a soft thunking sound. “Bye bye,” I wave as the toilet swallows my last remaining chance at sanity.  I grab the wrinkled note off of the coffee table and find Hughes’ favorite blue-tinged magenta pashmina underneath the expensive meerkat rug in the living room, wrapping it around his shivering skin. I can feel his walnut sized heart beat through the thin fabric as I walk out the door, leaving Hughes ensconced in his little nook where the wall meets the forest green Steinway piano before tapering into the claret walls of the hallway.

I live in the beating heart of Seattle, where the brisk ocean breezes fuse with musky pine cones, making a mélange of salty, wasted tears that fall in the unrelenting torrents of mid-October rain. Leaves of many colors, crimson, pumpkin, purple, casually coast to the ground, making a crunch squeak crunch against my beige UGGs as I clumsily fumble with my oversized velvet purse for the heck of it. Something my psychiatrist suggested was to keep myself occupied. Then again, my psychiatrist is a bald, oval headed man named Carl who always wears hideous maroon sweaters from the Gap. He thinks that “kick-ass brunette, schizophrenic, aspiring playwright, ” is an “unwise and detrimental personal description on your résumé,” but I disagree. I think it’s brilliant.

The rusted brick building is hugged by dead ribs of ivy and moss. Above the rotting rainbow wood door hangs an askew, pipe-cleaner sign that reads Saving Yourself from Yourself. I stare at the man who calls himself Devon, with the misshapen, closely cropped cherry mohawk. He leads me into the mismatched corridor of aubergine and peach and into the room of bleached concrete. People of varying degrees of chaos sit on dark bean bag chairs, sipping steaming beverages out of styrofoam cups. The calm one, Orion, sits in the center, raven hair elegantly framing his piercing emerald eyes.

“Welcome, welcome,” Orion projects.  He then goes into a recap of last week, hands whirling around each other, a clumsy windmill. “Janice,” gesturing to a wrinkled women with dirty, blond hair, “overcame her fear of… Goldfish?”

“No, no, NO ya silly!  Trail mix,” she screams; “TRAIL MIX!” she shrieks with more intensity, a witch burning at the stake.

“Chill out,” Orion responds, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder.

“Chill out…? Chill out…! Ok, ok. I’ll chill out when you stop patronizing me. You’re not my dad. I run the show, mister! I don’t need some teddy bear to cuddle…” With a crazed but collected look in her deep, sea blue eyes she jerks her head to the left, a glass doll with a broken neck, and begins talking as if to a small child. “I don’t need some low-class, wannabe therapist to tell me how to live my life. My psychosis is a beautiful thing, and who do you think you are, in your right mind, to try to take that away from me. Huh? HUH?!” Janice clutches a fistful of his shirt, squeezing with such intensity her inflamed knuckles turn a ghastly shade of white. With the other hand, she traces the outline of Orion’s olive features, gliding in circles around his prominent jawbone, where the hints of dark stubble have begun to creep along his face like a spider.

Orion maintains a serene expression, and staring straight into her poisonous glare, retorts, “Take your paws off of me and get out.”

“Fine. FINE!  Henry,” she shouts into space, “you can come out now. It’s time to go.” A prickly silence envelops the room.

“Leave now.”

“I’m looking for my son. I’m looking for my son. I’M LOOKING FOR MY SON!”

“Well, keep looking. The door is that way.”

Janice briskly strides across the room in four paces before whipping her head around from behind the door. She opens her mouth, but is silent. The look of a puzzled monkey comes across her face and she deftly shapes her fingers into small circles over her eyes, before ducking out of the room.

Silence is a funny thing. Not the absence of noise, but the stillness of being: when thought thins out into a fine layer of steam, reducing to the nervous grinding of gears, before ceasing to exist. Silence haunts you, a specter caressing your face with the back of its hand, invisible, but you almost shiver from its presence. Not me. Never. Silence is my soul mate, as I drape myself across my white-feathered ottoman, holding my hand as I stare at the peeling navy paint of my ceiling. A leak in one of its corners has caused a single drop of water to continuously drip, turning the carpet soggy. Its constant, pendulous motion almost hypnotizes me. Drip. Drop. Drip. My eyes become heavy and start to flutter.

Flashes of black and white blur before me, rapid at first, animated cartoonish legs pinwheeling across a blinding surface, slowing down to the clicking of a film reel in an antique projector. Click. Click. Vera. The voice  nears me, encroaching on the most distant corners of my mind. I try to move away from this devil, this monster, but my legs are suspending in time, swimming in syrup. My eyelids soar open, eyes transfixed on my rusting red alarm clock, registering 4:15 , before locking shut. Vera. Open. 4:28. Shut. Vera. Open. 5:00. Shut. Vera. Click click click. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Click click click click click. My body is paralyzed in an awkward fetal position, only my fingers in motion skittering across the couch, whose once soft fabric pricks my skin. A cool sweat breaks out across my body. I jerk my head against the solid arm of the couch, pain blossoming from my head as I feel it smack into a substance with the metallic consistency of monkey bars. Finally, after what feels like centuries, I wake up. The alarm clock reads 9:00. Shit, I’m already an hour late for work.

I’ve worked at Dripping Hand Candles for six months now, named after our logo, a hand holding a candle with wax that drips down from the bottom and envelopes the hand. Approaching the store, I can already spot the manager, Phil, a man with faded paper white skin and stringy blond hair, glaring at me. The bell fixed to the top of the door jingles as I enter. Phil sets down a dark blue candle before coming towards me.

“Vera-”

“Chuck, I’m sorry-”

“It’s Phil.”

“Right, Phil, I’m sorry. This won’t happen again. I think my alarm clock is broken or something-”

“Vera, I am tired of you making excuses. It’s the third time this week that you’re more than an hour late.”

“I-”

“Sorry won’t cut it. Go in the back and help Regine with the candle puns.”

I step out of the aromatic store and into the brisk night air, my light, maroon sweater doing nothing to shelter me from the wind-chill. Vera. I turn around, but nobody is there. I keep walking, thinking my mind is just playing tricks on me like it always does. Vera, you know I’m here. Don’t deny it. I start walking faster, covering my ears with the palms of my hands to stop the noise. Vera. Don’t be silly. You know you can’t shut me up. I start screaming, screaming for him to stop talking, but he won’t, he never will. I frantically take my boots off, leaving them on the ground, and barefoot, I start to run. I don’t know where I’m going, and I don’t care, as long as it’s away from him. I run from bright yellow taxis and angry mobs that don’t exist. I run from dirty old men and beech trees and shrieking babies and black cats, but it’s no use. You can’t run away from me.  My head smacks into a black telephone pole, and my body violently jerks backward towards the ground.

[mrevaunit42]

Hey everyone

Mr.E here, still alive with a special surprise. Since this is the month i gave nova her own story, i decided to give you amazing people a small preview to a chapter that is coming up pretty soon. I’m still working on some things and also my idea behind the creation of Connor but hey, i hope you enjoy this in the meantime. I would love your opinion on the character that is introduced here. still getting a feel for his character and i would love feedback. Have an amazing week and keep being awesome

Nova couldn't wipe the little grin off her face. Watching Connor interact with his lifetime hero was an amazing treat to witness.

Out of everyone, Connor was consistently the calmest. Whether facing a flaming rainbow or a rampaging pack of llama out for blood, it took a lot for Connor to lose his cool.

On the other hand, Connor really didn't 'fan' out. His natural composure was too ingrained for him to lose it at the sight of some deeply beloved in his heart. Connor didn't gasp, squeal, hyperventilate, turn different shades of red or any of the other sort involuntary action that came with facing a beloved person or fandom.

Except now.

Nova didn't know what was cuter: The way his eyes twinkled with unrestrained joy, an excitement unrivaled by anything previously seen before or how nervous he was.

To everyone else, Connor was just a young inventor talking to his elder but Nova knew him better. The subtle shaking of his hands as he motioned with them vigorously, the light scratching of his cheek while he eagerly and anxiously waited for Mr. Pines to inspect his device, every twitch, every waited breath held with the highest of exceptions and fear of disappointment. There was no doubt: Connor was nervous.

Not that he had any real reason to be aside his modesty. Connor's inventions, even when they were hit or miss, were impressively complex and well built and it showed on Dipper's face. His face was impassive but she could see the way his eyes followed the design, taking in Connor's handy work with great interest. Whatever he expected to find out here, a 14 year old's homemade invention had not been it and it was a pleasant surprise.

“Well, that's a surprise.”

Nova blinked, surprised there was another person on the outskirts rather than attempting to gather the attention of Mr. Pines.

Nova turned and found herself staring at a teen about her age: He was just standing next to her, seemingly appearing from nowhere, his rather developed arms crossed as he watched Mr. Pines inspect her best friend's device eagerly.

The teen had reddish-brown hair tucked under a baseball cap with a tree drawn upon its surface. He wore a short sleeve red and black checkered flannel shirt with black thick pants folded nto matching hiking boots and a hand ax tucked into his belt. His hazel eyes peered carefully at Nova, almost like he was judging her reaction to his comment.

Nova bit. Her gaze was fixed on Connor and Dipper but she replied to the mysterious teenager’s comment “what's surprising?”

“I didn't think I'd run into a cute girl here.” the teen replied with some sort of accent.

Nova's eyes snapped to the teen, eyebrow raised as he gave sheepish, uneasy smile, a pink tint spreading throughout his face and the handful of freckles splashed under his eyes and cheeks.

“Do you use that on all the girls?”

The teen chuckled nervously, rubbing the back his neck anxiously “No. I mean I don't usually talk to girls and I never try to hit on them but you're really cute so I figured there's a first time for everything and now I just can't stop talking and I'm embarrassing myself to death.”

Nova suppressed a giggle at the sight of the timid half grin the boy gave her, his honesty oddly charming in way he hadn't expect.

“and what exactly was your goal with the half hearted flirt attempt?” Nova couldn't keep the smug smirk off her face, leaning closer and enjoying his nervousness.

“I” He answered slowly “was hoping to talk to a pretty girl and since I am and you haven't ran away screaming I'm a creepy, I'd say I'm doing better than I hoped.”

Nova snorted, covering her mouth as she chuckled at the stranger.

“Well.” Nova admitted with a shrug “you're honest, so that helps with the whole not running away part.”

“Sorry. I'm not used to this.”

“How about you stop trying something you don't know and go with something you do?”

The teen gave nod “Fair enough. Hi, I'm Tyrone Ford Pines!”

Nova took his hand in hers and gave it a firm shake, surprised the amount of callouses she felt under her touch.  

“I'm Nova Butterfly...wait, did you say Pines?”

Tyrone gave a bashful smile “Yeah, Dipper's my dad. I....don't know why I told you that....”

“Because I'm cute?” Nova chimed in helpfully

Tyrone glanced away, scratching cheek nervously “Those are some pretty cute hearts. Birthmarks?”

“Yep!”

“Awesome” Tyrone gave a small nod “All I got is Orion's belt on my back.”

“I'm sorry?”

“Birthmarks” Tyrone explained, a sense of embarrassment and fear overcoming as he went on “I've got a few on my back that actually form Orion's Belt. I mean my dad has the little dipper on his head. Or was it the big dipper? I mean that's weird, that's so weird. And I can't stop talking and I'm just going to go now.”

Tyrone turned to leave but Nova found herself gripping his hand lightly.

“I think you need to calm down” Nova gave him a reassuring smile

Tyrone pulled his hand away from hers quickly, the blush on his face worsen “Sorry, psychologists say people have nervous ticks and mine are I can't stop talking when I'm too anxious and I'm already doing it again and I really know I should stop but...”

“How about we talk your dad? Like why you're here.”

“Oh....easy. My dad heard this place was magical and since he's a big myth hunter, he couldn't resist coming down here. Echo Creek, home of the magical butterflies.”

“Oh” Nova replied simply “That's me and my mom.”

Tyrone blinked once, twice, a third time

“Wait, what?”

[kimyumbin]

The Fallen Star Ft. Park Seungjun | 1 | 2 |  Sypnosis: When Soo Mi finds the naked body of a man washed up ashore, she didn’t expect to take him in and nurse him back to health. But as the days go by she notices the strange way the man behaves, leading her to believe there’s something more mysterious than the weird tattoo like markings on his back that move.

An ebony canvas lays above me as I trace my fingers over the strings of white dots scattered across the darkness. Stars, hundreds, thousands if not more gleaming in the night sky. I begin to trace the outlines, connecting them one by one as I call out the names of the constellations my grandpa had taught me when I was younger.  

Aquarius, Aquila, Canis Major, Leo and my personal favourite...Orion.

It was a hobby I had picked up from our countless late night sessions, where we would stargaze under the universe, feeling insignificant in size compared to what could possibly lay outside of our world. Space, was much more vast and the unknown intrigued me. The thought of what could possibly lay outside our universe excited me.

But all things aside, it had been a long time ago. It had been three years since I had sat on the front steps that lead to the wrap around porch of the small farmhouse I had grown up in. The crazy amounts of times I had ran up these very steps seemed so long ago now that I found myself sitting on them alone. It almost felt wrong to do so, since this had been the place grandpa and I used to sit on those hot summer nights and admire the wonders above us.

It had been three years and a day since grandpa had passed away, leaving me the old farmhouse in his memory. It was the only thing I had left of him to hold on to. He was the only family I had ever known after my parent's had passed away in a car accident when I was younger. I felt guilty for suffering more during his loss than I did with my parent's. But the truth was, I was very young when my parent's died that I actually couldn't even remember what they looked like. Now, the harsh realization that I was truly alone in this world was every bit terrifying.

Trying to juggle the ridiculous idea that sounded ludicrous to even say out loud, I search for comfort in the thought that perhaps somewhere up there in the vast sky, he is watching over me. It's a silly idea but it brings me much comfort, enough to want to get out of bed every morning and not let the old farmhouse fall apart. Even though at times, I felt like that was all I wanted to do. But instead, I made sure to listen to my grandpa's last wish: To continue on living happily. Whatever he meant by that.

Hundreds of white streaks begin to adorn the sky as they wisp by so rapidly, they vanish towards the horizon. Shooting stars weren't rare this time of the year, but it was the first time I was seeing them on such a clear night. Amazed by the phenomena above me, I stand up in excitement as I watch them wisp by in the blink of an eye. The view is astonishingly beautiful and otherworldly. If grandpa was still around, I bet he would have loved seeing this.

Even though I was tempted to make a wish upon the shooting stars, I stopped myself for fear that The Great Foolish Warrior might be listening. It sounded crazy but, The Great Foolish Warrior is a true story, or so my grandpa claimed it was. It also happened to be my favourite one he ever told me,

Billions of years ago there had lived a warrior by the name of Orion that was so brave and strong, no one could measure up to him. His kingdom loved him and worshipped him, they had even decided to make him king. His grandeur was admired by many, even thousands of years of battles, he never lost a single one. Everyone knew of him, he was a kind hearted king that cared for his people but then one day he heard the cry of help from a girl of a far away kingdom. He was conflicted about the situation, he didn't know if he should leave his kingdom to help the girl but he felt it was the right thing to do in his heart and so he left his kingdom. It took him a very long time to get to the girl, but when he did he met with a beautiful human girl and he fell helplessly in love with her. She became his muse, he loved her so much there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her. Some would argue that she became his weakness, and that he was foolish because in the end he gave up his life to save the very woman who had betrayed him. The people of his kingdom were devastated at the loss of their great warrior. But their love and loyalty towards him was much greater that they even dedicated a spot in the sky for him. Now as the legend goes some people say that it was his punishment for turning his back on his people, but others argue that it was out of respect that he now rests in the sky, and has become known as The Great Foolish Warrior, Orion.

Even though it's just a story, I never once made a wish on a shooting star for that very same reason. I felt bad for him, for having the woman he loved so much betray him like that. But that's the way tragic love stories end. I sigh, admiring the sky above me as I trace my fingers along Orion. The poor foolish old man.

Hours go by before I realize that I have been sitting outside for too long. It must have been just past midnight when I decided that it was time to go to bed since I had to be up early to feed the animals. I stood up from the creaky steps, dusting myself off, I looked back up at the sky but stopped in place when I noticed something bizarre in the sky.

An orange blazing light is flying in front of me, and just by looking at it I can tell that it's different from all the shooting stars I had just seen. It flies differently, as it seems to be a lot closer than the rest. I quickly reach down to grab my binoculars to get a better look but i'm too slow. The strange orange light dashes into the horizon before lighting up the whole sky in shades of yellow and orange. How peculiar. I had never seen something like that before in my life. I wondered if perhaps it was debris of some sort that had decided to call Earth it's final stop.

One last look at the night sky, I offer the foolish old man an innocent smile before running up the front steps and into the house.

__________________

By the time I opened my eyes again, I could already see the sky being painted in hues of light pink and orange as the sun was beginning to wake up. It must have been the crack of dawn when I got out of bed and readied myself to go outside to feed the animals.

The morning was much chillier than I had expected it to be, the sweater I had decided to wear was proving to not be enough so I made sure to be quick. I wasn't necessarily ready to freeze to death. I made my way over to the small pen where the goats and sheep were and changed their water for them. Half of them laid lazily on the pasture, still dozing away in dreamland.  I was almost envious of them. It must be nice having someone to look after you. Not that I knew what that was like now a days.

At the beginning it had been a job I hated doing, I wasn't a fan of waking up before the sun, but over time I realized that the animals depended on me. After that day, it sort of stuck and I got used to it.

I walked around, cleaning out the chicken's coup before heading over to the washing station to rinse my work boots free of mud. The sun was now shy of being above the sky, I figured it must have been around seven in the morning or so now. Which was the time I always went to the beach for my daily morning run. I quickly changed out of my work clothes and sprinted my way down to the sandy beach.

The cool salty breeze entwines its way through my hair, making it become tousled but it didn't bother me. I liked coming down here in the mornings for runs, it had been an advice the doctor had suggested would help me deal with my depression and he had been right. Since I had started coming out here in the mornings, I noticed that my depression had improved significantly. I hadn't cried in a long time, and each day I felt like I was able to deal with things better than I first did when grandpa passed away.

I had held a lot of resentment towards him, I had been very angry that he had left me behind but I accepted the fact that it wasn't grandpa's decision and it was bound to happen sooner or later. Each day had become a step closer at living life normally, no matter how hard it had originally seemed.

I stop by the old log to start my stretching before my morning run. Raising my arms over my head, I gaze into the distance with the sun momentarily blinding me. I squint my eyes when I notice something in the distance. It's bulbous and on the shore, seconds turn to minutes as I try to make out what it could possibly be. Slowly, my vision adjusts itself to the light and I take the shape's in little by little, every single dip and curve, it doesn't take me long to realize that it's a body.

Panicked, I search around the beach, finding it strange for there to be a random body since the property is private and no one ever came down this way. I nervously walk towards the body, getting closer and closer I become alarmed when I notice that it's a human's body. An unconscious man lays washed up ashore and.... naked. I look around him for any signs of his belongings thinking that perhaps he is one of the town's folk who had a rough night drinking and passed out on the beach but there isn't any sign of his belongings anywhere.

Worried, I kneel down beside him. Now getting a better look at him, I can tell that he is young, perhaps in his early twenties. I bring my face towards his, searching for any sign that he is breathing, I feel relieved when I hear him breathing quietly and shallowly. I quickly grab a hold of his wrist to search for his pulse, but immediately let go when I'm greeted by his body temperature. The young man is burning hot. He has a fever.

I look back at the man, realizing that I need to get him inside where he can rest. I estimate the distance from here to my house, figuring out that I'll have to carry him or drag him to get him there but it's something that I have to do. I can't leave the man out here by himself, not when he's like this. I brace myself, getting close to him, I tap on his shoulder to see if I can get him to respond but there's nothing. Growing frustrated I grab a hold of him and sit him up, although he's thin in shape, he weighs like a ton of bricks. I bring him towards me, letting him fall on my shoulder and expose his back to me. I freeze in place.

Something peculiar has caught my eye. Strange markings on his right shoulder that look a lot like a tattoo move around. I stare at it puzzled, thinking that it's ant's or something I try to get it off off him but it doesn't budge. I feel the young man begin to regain some sort of consciousness when he moves around in my arms. He begins to cough, slow but painful sounding coughs before he opens his eyes and gets a look at me.

My eyes are met by a pair of light brown ones. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out, instead he passes out again. His fever keeps raising as the minutes go by and I force myself to power through it and get the man to my house. I'm up and struggling with his weight on my shoulder as we leave the beach and make our way to the house.

____________

“Do you know him?” The doctor asks as he shines a flashlight into his eyes.

“No” I answer.  

I lean against the far wall to stay out of the way of the doctor as he examines him. I had gone to fetch him the moment I brought the young man into the house. I was glad he hadn't hesitated even for a second. He was the only doctor within a five mile radius of me. That was the bad thing about living out in the middle of nowhere. Everything was far away.

“You just found him on the beach?” He asks again.

“Yes”

I watch as he steps away from the young man and sighs. Taking off his glasses, he look at me with a disappointing look.

“His fever is very high, it seems like it's knocked him right out”

“What should we do?” I ask him.

“Well, he will probably be knocked out for a couple of days. If it's okay with you, he could stay here until he regains consciousness. We can then figure out what happened to him and why he's....” The doctor pauses as he looks over towards the young man on the bed. “not decent” .

I pause, momentarily thinking over his request and nod.

“That's fine. Should I keep trying to lower his fever?”

“Yes. Call me if it gets worse or if he wakes up. I'll stop by in the morning to check on him anyway” He says.

I nod.

I watch as the doctor packs up his things and heads out of the room. Following behind him, I lead him out of the house. Feeling thankful to him that it's nothing more serious than just a fever.

“Thank you so much for coming to check on him” I say.

“No problem, what kind of doctor would I be if I didn't?” He answers.

I smile, offering him a wave as he gets into his car and drives out of the driveway.

I make my way back into the room. Sitting on the edge of the bed I run my hands through the young man's messy dark hair. He hasn't moved since I brought him inside. With his eyes still closed, I notice how long his eyelashes truly are. It was the first time I was actually getting a good look at him. He looked very sick and weak. It reminded me of the last few days I had spent with grandpa before he passed away. I had taken care of him since he decided he didn't want to be in the hospital but rather at home.

I felt motherly towards the young man in front of me, even though we were probably around the same age, I felt like I needed to protect him. He needed me and I was all he had at the moment.

“Don't worry. I don't know know what you've been through but I'll be here to help you” I whisper as I run my hand along the side of his face.

___________________

I didn't get much sleep that night since I was up pacing back and forth between my room and his room. I was so worried that I constantly kept checking on his temperature to make sure it wasn't getting worse but I was comforted when I checked on him and it seemed that his fever was subsiding.

I sat by his side all morning, making sure to quickly do any housework before coming back to being by his side incase he woke up. I wandered what he could have possibly been through. How he had ended up on the beach, it was almost crazy to think that he had washed up ashore. Perhaps he had been on a boat near by and it sunk, that was the only logical reasoning I could come up with since I held no actual answers. But it didn't explain why he was nude.

The doctor came by around lunch time to check on him. He had seemed happier with the results of his fever going down. He had told me to keep on doing what I was doing, to let him rest because his body needed it. To try and keep him hydrated whenever I could and to keep trying to cool him down. So I did just that for the next couple of days, it became a routine for me. By the second day his fever was basically gone but he showed no sign of consciousness. It worried me a bit but the doctor reassured me that he would wake up soon. His body was just resting and regaining it's strength.

I almost had developed an obsession with the mysterious boy in the guest room. It wasn't because I was in love with him or anything like that, but it was a motherly instinct I had towards him, even when I was outside doing work, I'd occasionally glance towards the back window wondering if he was ever going to wake up, or if he was already awake and looking at me. It was a bunch of silly fantasies that pestered my mind, but it was all innocent.

Around evening time, I found myself in the kitchen, washing up the freshly picked vegetables I had gathered from the garden for tonight's dinner. I could already see the last bit of sun sneakingly hiding behind the horizon. It was unusually quiet this evening, it wasn't like other evenings when the crickets would be outside playing their usual orchestra. Instead, I was greeted by the crappy sound coming from the old radio I had in the kitchen. I often forgot how incredibly lonely it felt to live out in the middle of nowhere by myself, even with company whether he was unconscious or not didn't help. I even found myself debating whether it would be a good idea to get myself a dog as a companion. I had heard it from several people in town about how it was dangerous for a young girl to live by herself out in these parts, but the truth was I had never felt unsafe here. Nothing unusual or unsafe ever happened here.

Bending down to get the cutting board, my ears are met by a strange static like sound coming from the radio. Annoyed by the disturbance over the song that was playing, I got up and walked towards it. Giving it a good old smack, I got it to stop but only for a second before the old radio started acting up again. How strange, I thought to myself. This had never happened before, it almost sounded like something was trying to get through or was interrupting the radio waves. The sound became so loud, it was practically making my eardrums want to burst. I bring my hands to my ears, not being able to withstand the frequency that is coming through the speakers. Quickly allowing myself to suffer for a split second, I yank the cord out of the wall socket and I'm glad when I'm greeted by silence.

With my heart now pounding like a jackhammer, I let myself relax for a second before i'm on edge again. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when the sensation of a pair of eyes are studying me. I stand frozen in place, trying to get myself to look behind me I slowly allow myself to turn. Someone is standing in front of me, but it's not just a random stranger, it's the young man who had been unconscious for the past few days.

Relieved that it's him and not some strange deranged weirdo who had broken in, I let a small nervous laugh escape from me as I bring my hand to my chest.

“Oh my god!” I cry out. “You scared me! I thought someone broke in and -”

I pause. Momentarily studying the young man in front of me and then I realize that he is standing before me without any clothes on. I gasp, bring my hand to my mouth, I quickly close my eyes.

“Could you please put some clothes on!” I yell but it's no use. The young man stands in place not uttering an 'excuse me' or an apology. I momentarily peak through one eye.

He stands in the middle of the door way, just looking at me with the most intrigued look I have ever seen on a person. He cocks his head to the side as his eyes leave me and now begin to take in the room he is standing in. I swallow nervously, wondering why he's just standing naked in front of a girl or  not saying anything. I quickly look away, feeling uncomfortable with the situation I glance towards the kitchen table, the old floral table cloth my grandma had made stares at me right in the face. I bite my lip, regretting the decision i'm about to make.

Without a second thought I walk to the table and pull the cloth off it. With my face looking away from the young man, I walk towards him holding the table cloth in front of me. I stop before him, hands in the air with a cloth that remains unattained, I bring it closer to him and press it against the boy's very hard bare chest. He stares at it, before looking at me. He doesn't seem to understand that I want him to cover himself up. I sigh in frustration, was this man for real? I quickly wrap the cloth around his finely chiselled waist, tying it on the side and stepping away from him.

I'm sorry grandma, If you're out there listening, I hope you can one day forgive me.

“The least you could do is cover yourself in front of a girl” I mumble but he show's no reaction to the gesture. He gawks at me with those light brown eyes of his without saying a word or a thank you.

Now growing worried as the silence extends, I wonder whether the man is some deranged weirdo who is trying to freak me out or if indeed he can't actually talk. I cross my arms in my attempt of closing myself off from him and walk towards the counter where the knives are incase he decides to attack me, I'd have a weapon of defence. But as the seconds turn to minutes, he remains in his original spot, not uttering a single word.

“Listen, you're probably confused” I finally speak up, and wait for a response from him but nothing ever comes. No “Where am I?” or “Who the hell are you?” questions ever left his mouth. Which made me wonder if the boy was actually...mentally okay.

I wipe my hands on my jeans and walk towards the boy, grabbing his arm I walk him over to the dinner table and sit him down. He obeys my command. He sits in front of me, looking at me like a lost puppy, with those large eyes of his. He almost made me feel sorry for him.

“You're probably wondering why you're in my house” I begin. “I found you unconscious on the beach just down the road from here. You weren't decent and well when I found you, you had a very bad fever. I didn't know who to contact apart from the doctor down the road from me and let you stay here until you woke up”

Still no reply. Weird.

“Anyway, I'm glad you're awake now....Do you want to tell me what happened?” I ask but to my luck he just sits there in absolute silence.

“Did something bad happen to you? Do I need to contact the authorities?” I ask, growing worried that there was more to his story that met the eye, but still nothing.

Growing frustrated with him, I exasperate a loud and long sigh.

“Listen, i'm here to help you. If someone did something to you, you can tell me. I will help you” I try for the last time but still not a single squeak from the young man.

I look at him, and decide that perhaps if I act motherly towards him he might decide to open up. I crouch down before him and put my hand on his knee, looking at him straight in the eyes I offer a friendly and welcoming smile.

“Do you have a name?” I ask but there is no answer.  I decide to break the barrier and try to make him feel comfortable. “I'm Soo Mi”

But still, nothing. He just stares at me.

I try to fight off the frustration I am feeling right now. It's almost as if I'm talking to a two year old, but even a two year old would be more vocal than him. I close my eyes as I can't believe that I'm about to go me Jane you  Tarzan on him.

When I open my eyes I find him in the same position, bringing my hand to my chest, I point towards myself.

“I'm Soo Mi” and now pointing at him “And you are?”

It's still no use. Frustrated I groan and stand up, throwing my hands up in the air I announce it to the world that I have given up in my attempts to get the young man to talk. A few minutes go by as I still find myself studying him, but he is no longer interested in me but instead is too occupied and fascinated by the salt shaker on the dinning room table. I watch as he cautiously touches it, grabbing it in his hand, he begins to shake it. Puzzled by the action, I decide to make a call to the doctor to come check up on the boy.

“Stay put, I'll be right back” I tell him, feeling the need to treat him like a little kid.

He seems to be too distracted by the object in his hand to even pay attention. I walk out of the kitchen and into the hallway to where the phone is and quickly begin dialing the doctor. I wait impatiently as the first ring goes through and then the second and lastly I hear the sound of shuffling on the other end.

“Hello?” A voice comes through the speaker and I let myself relax.

“Hi Doctor, it's me. He's woken up” I announce.

“Great! That's great news!” He yells through the phone.

“Yeah” I answer, wondering whether I should tell him what I've seen. But decide that it's probably for the best.  “But something's wrong” I add.

“Really? What's wrong?” He asks with concern.

I sigh, letting all my worries eat me alive as I reminisce about what just went down in the kitchen.

“Well, he doesn't seem to want to talk. I tried to get him to talk but he won't answer. I even tried approaching him like a mom and still nothing. He seems kind of child like in mentality” I reply.

There's a long pause before I hear a sigh come through.

“I wouldn't worry too much Soo Mi, his fever was really high. There's a possibility that he's suffered from temporary amnesia”

“Amnesia, what? Are you serious?” I ask suddenly realizing that this could become a huge burden for me.

“Yes, but in this case, I don't think it should last for more than a couple of days. Do you think you can keep him with you until then? Or would you like me to get him to stay at my place?”

I pause and think about it for a minute. Looking back towards the kitchen, I feel a pang of sadness hit my stomach as I wonder what the poor young man must be feeling, he's probably scared and he would be more freaked out if he went to a place he didn't recognize or had gotten comfortable with. I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose because I can't believe what I'm about to bring myself to say.

“Okay, that's fine. He can stay here for a few more days” I answer.

“Great! Make sure he eats to regain his energy and give me a call if anything else happens. I will try to come by later to give him a check up” He says.

“Alright. Thank you so much Doctor”

I hang up the phone and stand in place for a second. Not believing that I'm allowing a conscious strange man stay in my house. It took me a couple of seconds to get over it and walk back to the kitchen. I should probably explain the situation to him, so he has an understanding of what is happening. I mean after all, he did say it would be temporary, I could deal with the man for a couple of more days right?

Setting foot into the kitchen, I freeze the moment I notice that the man is no longer where I had originally left him. The backdoor from the kitchen is wide open and the floral table cloth he had been wearing now lays on the floor. The young man is gone and is in the nude.

[jesworkman]

A Walk

I went on a walk tonight for more than a few reasons. The strongest being that it was the only thing that sounded good. I’ll listen to some good music, go out right before sunset, enjoy the view of the ocean and walk back as it starts to get cold. But iPhones don’t have headphone jacks anymore and God knows where the box for it is and did they even come with headphones? Why does technology change so fast? Guess it’s a good thing and you know what, the sounds of nature, as much as this suburb has, is probably better anyway. I’ll just listen to the birds and the wind.

The clouds are out. The fog, the smog, the marine layer. Just a few patches of grayish blue appear some layers up with just the faintest shade of pink on the edges. The sun has set. It’s somewhere in the thickness above the sea just beyond sight. Oh well, it’s still nice out.

Shut it down. Shut your brain down. Stop thinking of work, of clients, of money. Stop thinking about problems and how answers to them seem impossible. Stop thinking about today or this week or the past few months. Stop thinking about how you can’t stop thinking. Just relax. Listen to the air. Listen to your footsteps. These shoes are finally comfortable, that’s a good thing. A family of three ride by on their bikes and I think how cool, she doesn’t have training wheels, good for her. But I don’t say anything because the world is weird right now. Or maybe I’m just weird right now.

The hill feels good on my legs. Breathing gets harder and I start to think about that. How I should be out here every day. How I should go further today. How I should workout when I get home and lift some weights and have a protein shake for dinner and why did I buy chips today? I shouldn’t have bought chips. Shut up.

I pass a house with a wall of jasmine and my eyes tear up. It smells like the sidewalk in front of my grandparents house and the air is humid with a slight hint of rain and for a second it smells exactly like the desert, like home. Their front door is open and someone yells bye and an echo of voices say bye, be careful, call us when you get there. I imagine a still warm dinner on their table, just eaten and waiting to be put away in tupperware and tucked into the fridge. A kid with a fresh bag of laundry getting into his new car, already checking his phone as his parents watch from the doorway. I wonder if he’s headed to campus. School might start this next week or maybe it already did. 

I turn the corner onto the main street and a man with headphones in says hello and I say hi back probably a little too quickly and nod my head down. Why is it so awful to just acknowledge someones presence? 

I reach the intersection and decide to head home instead of going up to the top of the road. It’s getting darker quicker than I thought and I’m thirsty. A car slowly rolls through the intersection with its windows down and a strong whiff of vanilla air freshener rolls out. The same one my sister always has. 

It’s midnight and I’m in the passenger seat of my sister’s Honda Accord and the moonroof is open and she’s blasting BPM on XM Radio and tapping her fingers to the beat on her steering wheel. I lay my head back onto the headrest and stare up. The desert sky is dark, moonless and filled with more stars than I’ve ever seen. I reach my hand outside and my fingertips graze the warm, whipping wind. I point to Orion and trace the belt, the swords, his arms and legs. The big dipper. I see what I think is a big dog in the stars, or a cat. Something takes shape. I shut one eye and the other, wondering how far we really are from them. What’s in between. What’s where they are. 

I round the corner to my street and the same man with the headphones is there, talking on the phone this time. I nod again and cross the street to my apartment. Up the stairs, in the door. Shit, I left my back door open. Everything’s fine though. Coco is asleep on the bed still, not even knowing I left. My room is a mess, my desk still has plates and the bag of chips from lunch. I should work out. I should shower. I should clean up. I should, I should, I should. 

But now I’ve been sitting and writing this for twenty minutes and I feel lighter. A little more clear. A little more me. A walk was the only thing that sounded good and I think it did the trick.

[pocket-size-gay]

Asteri Tale Chapter 25 Orion

I didn’t originally plan to have this included but the idea came to me as I was writing 24. It’s cute and adds more to certain characters’ development.

   Kelly dragged Kid along until they met up with the rest. After Alex and company's plans failed a message was sent out about the decoys.    "Ey! You alright?" Ria ran over to Kid and Kelly. Pella calmly followed behind.    "Ah! And you are?" Kid blinked rapidly as the young girls flitted around him.    "Riiight, we were never formally introduced." Pella bowed her head politely.    "Shit! You're right!" Ria grinned. "I'm Ria, Imani Ria!" she winked.    "Evaline Capella." Pella bowed again.    "Ah-um, how do you know me?" Kid staggered around. "D-do you know them Dunley san?"    "Yes, their Kanamura's sister's friends." Kelly calmly recited the rehearsed response, in order to keep the guardian business from Kid.    "OH!" Kids eyes lit up. "Nice to meet you then!" The sound of a large group filled the air.    "Geez, why do you have to gt in all these fights with Arlin?" Kori chastised Syrus. He groaned and turned to the side. There were new bandages on his hands.    "Please go easy on him Kanamura chan, its been a long day." Skai chuckled to himself and adjusted his glasses.    "Hearing you say 'chan' is so weird, Noriko!" Jem laughed along with Mini.    "Seriously!" Mini gave Skai a sly grin. He averted his eyes and blushed. Anya giggled and looked over the group gathered then to Kelly.    "How's Tamsin doing?"    "Haven't heard. Saveli and Hiroko were with him." Kelly stated bitterly.    "WHAT?! Something happened to Tamsin after we left?!" Kid panicked.    "The injuries were all superficial but there seemed to be some underlying problem no body knows about." Syrus scrolled through the messages on his phone. Kid sank to the ground. "It's not your fault..." Syrus paused and crouched down next to him. "No one knows why Sevan snapped like that."    "Sevan? That quiet guy in the other class?"    "Yeah, he was pretty out of it all day from what I gather..." Anya thought back to gym.    "He lost it when Hiroko mentioned Yuli." Kid pouted harder. "Tamsin and Yuli were fighting when I got there..."    "They are resting at the park near here if you want to check up on them." Skai waved his phone to Kid with a message displayed with one hand and adjusted his glasses with the other. He offered a sympathetic smile. Kid pursed his lips together and reluctantly stood up. They tried to cheer him up as they walked. Gradually Kid opened up to Ria and Pella. As they entered the park, Owen jogged up to them.    "Right this way!~" he urged in a cheerful tone. Kid stared at yet another unfamiliar face and wandered over tot he shaded bench where Aren and Sal sat. Dread washed over Kid's face.    "T-T-Tamsin!" Kid reached out to touch the bandages on his cheek.    "S-st-stop!" Sal reflexively slapped away Kid's hand. His breathing was still labored. "S-sorry..." Kid unsure of what to do with them, waved his hands around frantically and backed away.    "Did you take care of them Owen?" Pella tugged at his sleeve.    "Obviously." Owen gave a bright grin. "Hiroko helped of course!~"    "Oh?..." Kelly looked around. "Where is she now?"    "She went to get us water." Aren lounged back, propping his elbows on the back of the bench. Owen turned his attention to Kid.    "So, I gotta ask," he paused. Kid looked up terrified. "What were you doing down town? That's not a place for your kind." Owen pushed Kid's chin up with his finger.    "Oh...uh, Murasa took me on a date! We went to this quaint little cafe, the food was really tasty!" all the negative emotions melted away, as Kid recounted his supposed 'date'. The group gawked in disbelief.    "D-date? Uh, Sharpe...that wasn't a date, he was trying to KIDNAP you!" Aren grumbled. Skai face palmed. Various others giggled.    "But, but! He treated me and we talked! He's really nice and super funny!" Kid whined.    "That guy probably doesn't even know the meaning of a 'sense of humor'!" Jem sneered.    "No...that actually sounds about right for him." Syrus confessed contritely.    "Uh huh!" Kori nodded along. Everyone, including Sal looked to Syrus in awe.    "Seriously? We are talking about the same 'Murasa Alex' right?" Skai asked for clarification and adjusted his glasses.    "SEE! He's great!" Kid cheered. "You should try to get along better with him."    "What's so great about that haughty asshole?" Mini struggled to contain her distaste for Alex.    "He's always so nice to me." Kid pouted."If only you'd give him a chance!"    "The feeling would have to be mutual, Sharpe san." Kelly shrugged. "He has no desire to get close to others at all."    "You all aren't trying hard enough." Kid crossed his arms and turned away. "He's like an angel, he even fell from the sky!"    "A-angel?" Anya chuckled, "Sure..."    "He did, it was so cool!" Kid insisted.    "He fell off the roof; that isn't cool, its lame." Sal mocked.    "See...this is why he doesn't like you!" Kid frowned.    "I keep telling you his problem is with me, you all have no reason to hate him so much." Syrus sighed. Mira timidly approached from behind, listening to them bicker.    "And who's fault is that?!" Kori glowered at her brother.    "Mine! I know already..." Syrus bared his fangs. "I had no idea things would end up like this though!"    "What did you do?" Kelly poked Syrus on the arm.    "I-it doesn't matter now...and I wasn't the only one, either." Syrus huffed.    "But you were the worst!" Kori growled. "It was totally uncalled for."    "W-wat-" Mira tried to push her way through.    "Heh, you're always like this Kanamura chan!" Ria laughed.    "Reminds me of my brothers." Pella giggled.    "Totally see it too! Lance is always causing trouble!" Owen snickered.    "I b-brought th-" Mira stood on her tiptoes trying to make her way in.    "Oh, I never got your name!" Kid went to Owen.    "Is that so?" he perked up. "I'm Syvzanna Owen, the little Miss's caretaker." he pointed to Pella.    "Fancy way to say 'babysitter'." Aren jeered.    "Ack..you!" Owen jokingly glared at Aren.    "You should be thanking me for taking care of you so excellently!" He grabbed Aren's cheeks and tugged them.    "Mmrah shtawp et!" Aren whined.    "Quit being weird Owen." Pella sighed. Mira furrowed her eyebrows and took a deep breath.    "You guys sure are friendly with each other!" Kid giggled. "That's so nice."    "I BROUGHT THE DAMN WATER!" Mira shouted at the top of her lungs. The massive crowd all jumped and turned to the petite girl in silence. "How do you feel Tamsin?"    "F-fine...thanks..." Sal put his hands to the sides of his head. She stepped forward and offered a bottle to Aren, then to Sal. Aren took it and chugged half of it in one gulp. Sal looked up to Mira skittishly. His breathing had calmed down. He reached out to grab the spare, his hands shaking. He tried to drink it but couldn't keep his hands steady. Aren got up and let Mira sit next to Sal, to help him. Aren shuffled over to Kid.    "How you doing?" he lightly patted Kid's shoulder.    "I...uh, okay!" Kid answered pensively. "What about you?"    "Starting to get used to this, sadly..." Aren rubbed his abdomen shamefully. "Must have been a lot to take in all at once."    "Why can't everyone get along?" Kid sulked. "Murasa's really not that bad." Aren grimaced. Jem put her hands on her hips.    "What's so great about such a vain ass like him?!"she interrupted. Kid gasped. "You should forget about him and play with me!" Jem grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off. Syrus watched as she pulled him out into the park with a subtle smirk, before walking over to Mira and Sal, who were talking about the fight.    "Uh..h-how..did you do that?" Sal eyed her skeptically.    "Do what?" Mira pursed her lips unsure of what he meant.    "M-my asth-eh?" he started timidly when he noticed Syrus. "You here to laugh at me?"    "No...what do you think about it?" Syrus's red eyes peered deep into Sal's. Sal turned away.    "I don't know, its why I asked!" he snapped.    "Hiroko, do you know what your power is?" Syrus shifted his serious gaze to Mira.    "N-no?" she tensed up.    "Do you get hurt often?" Syrus asked and observed her reactions.    "N-not really?" she answered quizzically, "Why?"    "How long does it normally take your injuries to heal?" his eyes trailed down to his arms, covered by his jacket sleeves.    "Not very...I think?" she cocked her head to the side. Syrus smiled and rolled up one of his sleeves, revealing bandages covering his arm. "Oh my go-"    "It wasn't from the fight earlier, just testing something." Syrus pulled the bandages on his hand loose exposing wounds along his palm and the back of his wrist. Sal's eyes shot open. Mira's face went pale. Syrus put a finger to his lips to shush them then grabbed Mira's hand to place it on his injuries. The wound receded from where her fingers touched him. Reflexively, Mira pulled her hand back, a thin layer of blood coated the tips of her fingers.    "WOAH!" Mira looked to her hands then to Syrus's arm.    "You have healing powers, like i thought..." Syrus readjusted the bandages around his hand.    "W-wait! Th-then I should-!" Mira panicked.    "Its fine." Syrus sighed dismissively.    "There's no way Akseli is responsible for all that." Sal uttered, thinking back to Tuesday, when he caught a glimpse of bandages under the blazer Syrus wore.    "Hush, everyone here has things they'd rather not speak about, even you." Syrus shot Sal a cold look. Sal retreated back then turned toward Mira.    "Well, th-thanks. Now I won't have to hear it from my brother for leaving 'that' at home..." he gave a timid smile and bowed his head.    "What? N-no..its no problem at all!" Mira jumped up and backed away. "My transformation isn't meant for combat, at least this way I can be of some use to everyone!"    "Don't say that!" Syrus barked. "If you hadn't been there things could have ended much worse than they did."    "I-I didn't do much...except piss off Sevan." Mira sulked.    "Heh...you helped more than me." Sal chided himself. "If Murasa hadn't been there to clean up, things would have turned out worse..."    "A-Alex did?" Syrus gasped in surprise.    "He protected Sharpe..." Sal glanced over to Kid. Him and the twins were playing around on the slide. Kid perked up when he noticed Sal watching him.    "That's...something he would do..." Syrus thought out loud. Sal sunk in the bench. Kid leapt off and dashed over.    "It would have been better were I not involved." Sal sighed. "I didn't contribute anything, it was all Saveli out there."    "What! No, don't say that!" Kid pouted. Sal jumped at the expected declaration.    "But its the truth." Sal objected.    "Mmm." Kid groaned and grabbed Sal by the arms. The usual color returned to Sal's face. He stared at Kid in awe as his fatigue dissipated. Syrus shot Sal an inquisitive glance. Sal shook off his uneasy expression and returned a smile to Kid.    "A-as long as everyone is ok, right?" at this Kid beamed brightly. Syrus continued to watch Sal skeptically as Kid dragged him and Mira off to the others in the park. On Kids urging, the rest of the group joined in. After an hour or so passed, everyone gradually went in their separate ways home. Skai's mother picked up Kid and Skai in her car.    "That was so fun!" Kid cheered in the back seat. Skai shifted his gaze away and let out a breathy laugh then adjusted his glasses.    "That's good, dear." Skai's mother chimed in. "That's an amazing gift you have."    "G-gift?" Kid stiffened up in his confusion.    "You're able to gather all different kinds of people around you with ease, I have to thank you for that." she glanced at the boys in the rear view mirror.    "Mom..." Skai scoffed. Kid looked back and forth between them.    "Because he met you, my son's made so many new friends."    "Oh! Haha!" Kid laughed bashfully. "I wish Arata could have been there!" he whined, changing the subject.    "They had things they needed to attend to at home." Skai forced out an excuse and adjusted his glasses. He had almost forgotten the events that transpired earlier in the day.    "I know!" Kid groaned. "Still sucks..." he sulked in his seat. Skai couldn't help but grin at his friend's innocence. "Oh! and Murasa too! I'm sure everyone would like him too if they could get to know him!" Kid eyed Skai expectantly.    "S-sure..." Skai didn't feel like arguing in front of his mother so he agreed and adjusted his glasses. "Not like he beat up your friends or tried to kidnap you or anything..." Once they arrived at Skai's house, they settled in for their sleepover as his mother prepared diner. After eating the day drew to a close.    In the morning, Kid and Skai met up with the group in the plaza. Kid regaled his 'date' with Alex to Tori and Sai. Tori laughed nervously as Kid talked. Sai just snickered to herself. Kid jumped up once he spotted Alex, who happened to be passing by.    "HEEEY, Murasa san!" Kid waved frantically. Alex flinched and stopped walking. "Come heeeere!" Kid beckoned him over. Alex rolled his eyes and reluctantly headed over.    "What is it?" he put his hands on his hips and sighed. Everyone watched with unease.    "Thanks for yesterday, I had a lot of fun on our date!" Kid smiled back. Alex gasped and jumped back, his entire face flushed red. The twins suppresed giggles and Anya chocked on her drink.    "Th-that w-wasn't a d-d-date!" Alex shrieked and ran off.    "Ah..." Kid stared into the space Alex had occupied, gradually growing depressed. Jem and Mini burst out laughing.    "WHAT WAS THAT?" Aren howled laughter. Sal snickered along.    "I never imagined he could make such a face..." Kelly uttered bewildered at everything.    "Sh-Sharpe?" Syrus questioned hesitantly, "Do you even like him enough to want that to have been a date?" Skai and Jem looked up, waiting for the answer.    "Ah...um...w-well, I like girls...so, no" Kid slowly came to the realization of the implications of his excitement, "But that expression was pretty cute."    "...whatever floats your boat, I guess." Sal huffed. Kid frowned while others acted with distaste about Alex. "Why won't people just get along with each other?" Kid pouted as they waited for their lunch orders to arrive.