#i wanted to give him a lava liquid form as well that he kind of can go back n forth from

[kiwibirdlafayette]

Horror warning for the first image!

and for a full 180 from my last art post, a bit of sketch concept work for some other designs in Aitheaca LMAO ft. ideas for Merina’s eldritch form and an early draft of Mianite, the keeper of the refuge and Dianite, the banished god :D

+ Bonus initial sketches for Mer! I feel like I can be looser with pencil than in digital so a lot of my design work usually starts off on paper before i do a digital version. The main thing I wanted to get was the many eyes motif I see in a lot of the watcher!grian designs i was inspired by, and I landed on the notion that maybe the scales turn into eyes? Idk

[peachbear88]

A Whole New World (Pt 3)

A/N: So I have another idea for a oneshot or maybe series. "Forbidden Love". I think the name might already have been used but THIS IS THE PERFECT NAME FOR THE NEXT STORY AHHHHHHH! Anyways, back to the actual story at hand.

-----------

You sit down cautiously in the leather seat in front of you, almost sighing. The chair is much more comfortable then you thought.

"So... what do you want from me?" You ask timidly, shifting uncomfortably in your seat as his gaze sears into you.

"Why do you think I want something from you?" He asks and you meet his eyes, noticing the amused glint in them.

"Because you didn't hand me over to the police and instead, brought me here." You gesture to the spacious, glamorous office. He chuckles, standing up to look out the massive floor to ceiling window.

"Touchè." You fidget nervously, waiting for him to continue. "I saw you paying a visit to the youngest Maximoff." Your breath hitches in your throat as he turns to look at you. "Very skilled, the whole, swinging from the tree branch." You flush and he smirks. "Young love. I presume you'd like her hand in marriage as well." Your face turns an even brighter shade of red and he chuckles. Not a genuine, hearty chuckle but a cold, dark laugh.

"She has to marry someone that benefits the company though." You pause, letting the smallest sliver of hope leak into your speech. "Right?"

Loki laughs cruelly, crushing the liquid hope you had.

"Correct. But. I can help you." You look up into his icy green eyes and he smirks. "I can make you rich enough to qualify for her hand in marriage. Powerful enough." You lean forward eagerly but he leans back, knowing fully well he had you wrapped around his little finger. "Nothing comes for free though."

You reach into your pocket, pulling out the brooch and examining it. You take a deep breath, steeling your resolve before turning back to him.

"What would I have to do?"

-----------

"All I need is for you to go into that cave and fetch me an object. A simple oil lamp to be specific." You arch an eyebrow.

"Easy peasey." He stops you, pulling you back from the mouth of the cavern.

"Not so fast. You cannot touch any of the treasures in there, no matter how tempted. And trust me, you will be tempted." You gulp, noting the ominous tone in his voice.

"Got it. How hard could it really be?" You mutter, slowly inching down the cavern. A pebble slips, sending you tumbling down the semi-smooth stone slide. You scream as you fall, hitting the bottom of the slide with a grunt. "Didn't see that coming." Dusting yourself off, you slink through the dark, ominous cave. The further you descend into the cave, the more tempting the mounds of gold and jewels become. The cavern expands, leading into a massive area, dozens of tall, sharp pillars looming above you. Dead in the center, perched upon the tallest pillar is the desired lamp. You smile, stepping towards the pillar only to be upended by a small gem. You go flying, squeezing your eyes shut as you prepare yourself for the harsh impact but it never comes. Instead, you find yourself on a fluffy carpet. It ripples beneath you, and for a moment, you fear the whole cave is coming apart. Then the carpet pushes you off it and you shriek. The carpet, the carpet that just caught you is moving. You examine it curiously, pacing around it.

"A frickin' magic carpet." You exclaim as it watches you inspect it, impatiently gesturing towards the giant slab of stone crushing it. You scratch your chin before slipping your fingers between a small gap under the rock. "Alright, here we go." You grunt, heaving the rock. The carpet tugs and the moment the stone lifts a little, the carpet zips out, dipping and whirling around the cavern, sending gold cascading everywhere. Eventually, it calms down, circling around you and patting your shoulders enthusiastically. "Not a problem bud." You return your attention to the towering pillar in front of you. "Alright. Let's do this."

You pull yourself up, following the pre-set trail you had created for yourself as you grip another sharp handhold. A bit of blood trickles down from a thin cut on your palm and you grimace before continuing your steep climb. Your muscles are on fire, the thin cut on your hand tearing wider and wider every second. With one final pull, you reach the top of the pillar, the dusty lamp shining right back at you. Not wasting a second, you grab the lamp and slowly lower yourself down to where the carpet stands, watching you with anticipation.

"All right! Now to get out of here..." You dust of your thin, ragged pants, leaving a thick line of blood smeared on the fabric. After a few moments, you locate the tunnel you came from and make your way up the steep slope. Your footsteps echo off the large cave as you reach the large stone slide. A gem next to your foot catches your eye and you lean down, examining it. The carpet frantically waves at you, even slapping you but you push it away, picking up the gem. "No one's going to notice one small gem missing. I could go without stealing for a whole month without this gem." You shrug before slipping it into your pocket. The effect is instantaneous, a roaring voice echoing through the cave.

"You have touched the forbidden treasure. Now, you will never again see the light of day!" Molten lava spews forth from the cracks in the cavern, rapidly covering the stone. You jump up, leaping from stone to stone, clambering up the rocky slide. At the mouth of the cave, Loki stands, watching you frantically scale the rocky wall, unable to find the strength to pull yourself up the last bit of the wall.

"A little help would be nice!" You cry and Loki peers down at you, golden staff in hand.

"Give me the lamp first." He sneers and you resist.

"No. Your hand first!" He leans closer to you and his once handsome features contort into an angry scowl.

"Give me the lamp first." He repeats and you relent, reaching into your pocket and handing him the lamp. He examines it greedily while you cling onto the rock face.

"Now your hand!" He looks back down at you, all the kindness from before gone.

"How about my foot?" Your eyes widen as he raises his foot and steps on your hand, squishing it. You cry out in pain as he relentlessly twists his foot, agonizing pain shooting up your arm. Unable to hold on any longer, you fall, the sweltering heat radiating against your body before you hit a soft surface, soaring up into the air. Prying your eyes open, you look down to see carpet, speeding towards the entrance of the cave where Loki stands, still entranced by the lamp. The carpet speeds up and you reach out, snatching the lamp from Loki's hands. Loki roars in anger, pushing you backwards with the butt of his staff as the cave crumbles. Rocks tumble down, covering the entrance as you fly backwards towards a certain doom. Right at the last moment, carpet catches you and the two of you go tumbling back down into the darkness of the cave.

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

"Ugh..." You groan, your eyes fluttering open. You're greeted by a brightly colored carpet hovering above you. "Hi." You mutter, pushing yourself into a sitting position. The lamp is still tightly clutched in your hand and you stare at it, wondering what that man could've possibly wanted from such a dusty relic. You sigh, rubbing the back of your neck before returning your attention to the carpet. "Well, you know any way out of here buddy?" The carpet makes exaggerated gestures with it's golden tassels at the lamp. You hold up the lamp, confused. "This old thing?" The carpet nods vigorously (at least you think it's nodding) and you shrug. "What's the worst that could happen." You take a deep breath, slowly rubbing at the lamp with your injured hand, blood smearing over the dusty brass surface. Slowly but surely, a thick blue fog spirals out of the lamp, revealing a massive blue figure. You stumble backwards, still clinging onto the lamp.

"Oh great one who summons me, terrible one who commands me, I stand by my oath, loyalty to wishes three." The figure roars. Your mouth opens but nothing comes out, just a pathetic little whimper.

"Eh..."

He clears his throat, peering down into the darkness.

"I said, 'Oh great...'" His eyes land on you. "Excuse, me, dude, where's your boss?" You stand there, gaping as he waves his massive blue hands in front of your face. "Help me out here, where's your boss? If I was just gonna talk to myself, I could've stayed in the lamp."

"Eh... Uh...." You gulp as he stares at you impatiently.

"Hellooooooooo!"

"I uh.... I'm talking to uh.... Smoking blue giant?"

"No! BRRRRRRRRR." He hums out, shrinking down and swirling around you. "I am not a giant, I am a genie. There is a difference." He retorts, waving his finger in front of you. "Giants are not real." He reclines back, leaving you frozen in shock. "Where's your boss?"

"Uh, my boss?"

He sighs.

"Look, kid, I've been doing this a long time, all right? There's always a guy, you know..." You watch his hands, noting how he uses them to gesture with every word he utters. "He's cheated somebody, or buried somebody." He explains, teleporting behind you and floating around. "I mean, you get my point. Where's that guy?" You nod in understanding.

"I know that guy. He's outside." The genie's face lights up.

"So, it's just you and me down here?" A telescope appears in his hand with a blue puff and he scans the cave through it, his brown eye bulging out from the glass. You nod, unable to form coherent words. "So you rubbed the lamp?"

"Uh-huh." He scratches his goatee.

"Huh. Do you mind if I just, you know, stretch it out over here?" He asks, already floating away from you. You look around the cave, searching for another being that the genie could possibly be asking.

"Uh, are you asking me?" He groans as he stretches out.

"Yeah, you're my master." You laugh dryly, swallowing.

"Yeah no, you look like you should be my master."

The genie shrugs, looking you up and down.

"Yeah, but that's not quite how it works." You stare at the lamp, mystified.

"How long have you been in here?"

"'Bout a thousand years." You stare at him skeptically.

"A thousand years?"

"A ThoUSanD YeARs." He mocks you, sitting down on a rock. "Is it just me or does everything surprise you?" You don't answer and he sighs, floating towards you. "So you really don't know who I am. Genie, wishes, lamp, none of that ringing a bell?" You don't respond and he looks taken aback. "Wow. Well, that's a first." He teleports a few feet away, snapping his fingers. "Monkey!" A small, frail looking monkey appears with cymbals and a band drum attached to it's back. It starts clapping the cymbals together rhythmically and blowing into a small kazoo. You stare at the monkey and the genie brushes you off. "Oh, don't worry 'bout him, he's fine." The genie starts clapping along before bursting into song.

"Well, Ali Baba, he had them 40 thieves,"

"Scheherazade had a thousand tales."

"But master, you're in luck,"

"Because up your sleeves, you got a genie that never fails!"

He finishes with jazz hands, the monkey's kazoo dying off with a slight squeak. You look at the carpet apprehensively only to see it clapping it's stray threads off.

"Whoo!" The genie exclaims, zooming around. "I'm the best." You stare at him, unbelieving. He sighs.

"Not enough, huh?" You don't reply. "I'm kidding, watch this."

A beam of blue light shoots out of his finger tip, hitting the monkey, who goes flying. The monkey lands on a tall pile of rock, behind a drum set. A jazzy upbeat tune fills the dark cavern.

"Here I go!"

"Uh! Ooh! Whoo!"

"Back up!"

The carpet disappears, reappearing on another tall pile of rock, shaking a pair of maracas rhythmically.

"Uh-oh! Watch out!"

He scats and a trumpet appears in the monkey's mouth, blasting out a high note.

"You done wound me up!"

"'Bout to show you what I'm workin' with. Uh!"

"Well, Ali Baba he had them 40 thieves,"

"Scheherazade had a thousand tales!"

"But, master, you're in luck because up your sleeves,"

"You got a brand of magic never fails."

The genie appears behind you, the golden shackles on his forearms glowing with power.

"You got some power in your corner now,"

"Heavy ammunition in your camp!"

His arms turn into golden cannons that fire bright blue blasts to emphasize his point.

"You got some punch, pizzazz,"

"Yahoo, and how?"

"All you gotta do is rub that lamp,"

"And then I'll say,"

"Missus, man what's your name, whatever, what will your pleasure be?"

"Let me take your order I'll jot it down,"

"You ain't never had a friend like me."

He picks you up and plops you into an elegant restaurant where a menu is thrown in front of you.

"Life is your restaurant and I'm your maître d'."

"Come whisper to me whatever it is you want,"

"You ain't never had a friend like me!"

"We pride ourselves on service!"

"You the boss, the king, the shah!"

"Say what you wish, it's yours, true dish!"

"How 'bout a lil more paprikash?"

You disappear behind mounds of the Sokovian delicacy, reappearing between racks of clothing.

"Have some of column A,"

"Try all of column B."

Blue strings attach themselves to your arms and you find yourself being whirled around, dancing, but from your point of view, you look like a flailing chicken.

"I'm in the mood to help you dude,"

"You ain't never had a friend like me."

He starts scatting as he pulls you around like a puppet.

"Can your friends do this?"

You point to a clone of the genie, who's standing on his head, his lower half spinning around like a disco ball.

"Can your friends do that?"

You point the other way to another clone of the genie who is whirling around a magic lasso.

"Can your friends pull this,"

"Outta they lil hat?"

He reaches into a top hat and slowly pulls out the magic carpet.

"Can your friends go,"

He starts beatboxing, bright flares shooting illuminating the cave.

"I'm the genie, of the lamp, I can sing rap dance if you give me a chance."

A couch appears behind you and you fall backwards, landing on the plush cushions.

"Don't sit there buggy eyed,"

"I'm here to answer all your mid-day prayers."

"You got me bona fide,"

"Certified,"

"You got a genie for your charged affairs."

He slaps a certificate into your hands and the couch zooms forward at light speed, throwing you off. You wave your arms desperately, attempting to balance yourself as you teeter precariously above a pit of molten magma. The genie pulls you back by the hook of your jacket.

"I got a powerful urge,"

"To help you out,"

"So whatcha wish,"

"I really wanna know."

"You got a list that's 3 miles long no doubt."

"All you gotta do is rub like so."

The lamp goes flying into your hands as the genie appears next to you.

"Missus?"

"Y/N." You reply.

"Yes!"

“One wish or two or three?"

"Well, I'm on the job, you big nabob,"

"You ain't never had a friend,"

"Never had a friend."

"You ain't never had a friend,"

"Never had a friend."

"You ain't never."

"Had a."

"Friend."

"Like."

"Me!"

He scats as fireworks go off, lighting the cave up in blue, red, green, gold and purple.

"You ain't never had a friend like me."

The scene fades and you stand there, still trying to comprehend the turn of events. The genie's large blue face appears in front of you.

"You can clap now." He smirks, imitating a mic drop. You raise your hands slowly to clap and he immediately stops you. "No, no no, please, please. You can thank me outside. In the sun. When you wish us out." You smile numbly before shaking your head.

"Wait so.... how does it work?" The genie's face drops into disbelief.

"You're.... You're kidding right?" He sputters, shrinking back down to a normal size. "The- The whole song was the- The instructions!" He grabs your hand, sighing. "Obviously you can't dance and listen at the same time. "So here's the basics." The lamp appears in his hand and he mimes rubbing it. "Step one, rub the lamp." A second head appears on his body. "Step 2, say what you want." A third head appears. "Step 3." The other two heads disappear as you continue walking hand in hand with the genie. "There is no step 3! See, it's that easy!" He waves his hand. "You get three wishes.They must begin with you rubbing the lamp and saying 'I wish' got it?" You nod slowly.

"I think so...." He smiles.

"Great! A few more rules. You can't wish for more wishes, 3 is enough. I can't make anybody love anybody." Pink hearts float around his head. "Or bring anybody back from the dead." Papyrus wraps around him, muffling his speech and giving it an eerie feeling. "Feel free to interrupt me anytime you don't understand." You give a sigh of relief, opening your mouth to ask a question but he immediately cuts you off. "I'm kidding, don't ever interrupt me, no matter what." You close your mouth. "Now, I usually don't have to go through all this because by the time the guy." He emphasizes 'the guy' with little quotation marks. "Gets to me, he already knows what he wants and it generally has to do with," He clears his throat expanding to a large size, a red glow hugging his blue skin. "Tons of money and power! Mwahahahaha!" He exclaims evilly, money raining down from the roof of the cave. He shrinks back down into his normal size. "Do me a favor, do not drink from that cup. I promise you, there is not enough money or power on Earth for you to be satisfied. Good? Well, what's your first wish?" You scratch your chin thoughtfully.

"Well, I have to think about it. I mean, if there are only 3," The genie scoffs in disbelief. "I mean, why are there only 3 anyways?" He cuts you off, waving his hands about.

"I don't know! Who cares?" You smirk, approaching him.

"You don't know? I thought you were all knowing."

"That's 'cause you don't listen. I never said I was all knowing, I said I was all powerful." He quips. "The most powerful being in the universe." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Look, whatever I don't know, I know I can learn it. Outside in the sun. Why are you playing hard to wish?" He exclaims exasperatedly. "Give us some sun!" You relent, smiling and placing the lamp behind you.

"All right Genie. I wish for you to get us out of this cave."

"Boom! Booyah!" The genie zooms around excitedly. "She has made her first wish!" He reappears in a flight attendant uniform holding a safety brochure. "Thank you for choosing Genie Airlines. Please don't forget to tip your genie on the way out!" 3 more genies appear behind him in similar uniform, waving at you. "Hold yourself kid!" He whirls around you, bright blue fog enveloping you until you finally reappear outside on the outskirts of Sokovia.

"Whoa." You mutter, nauseated at the sudden movement. The carpet does a flip, soaring off into the air. "Why is the monkey still here?" You gesture to the little frail monkey next to you.

"Oh. Uh, consider it a gift." You shrug, picking the monkey up and depositing it on your shoulder. He snaps and the two of you are sitting under a makeshift tent, a chess board between the two of you. You gulp, holding your head. "Can you warn me before you do that?" He waves you off.

"You'll get used to it. So, have you decided what you're going to wish for?" He bites into an apple. You shrug.

"Nope. Haven't really thought about it." The genie laughs, depositing the apple on the chess board.

"Wow. You really are not that guy." You sit up in the woven tanning chair, watching the genie.

"So what would you wish for." The genie examines you thoughtfully before staring back at Sokovia.

"Easy. I would wish to be free." He raps his knuckles against the golden bands on his forearms. "To not have to say," Poof! He reappears in front of you in a waiter's uniform. "How may I help you?" Poof! He reappears in the chair beside you in his normal outfit. "Freedom. I wish to be human." You look at him curiously.

"Why don't you just set yourself free?" He laughs derisively, clapping.

"Only way I can be set free is if the owner of the lamp uses one of their wishes to set me free. The last time that happened was like, the fourth of Never-ary."

"I'll do it." You volunteer. "I've got 3 right?"

"Actually, 2. You used one to get out of the cave." The genie corrects and you smirk.

"DId I? Or did you? I thought I had to be rubbing the lamp."

"Okay little street-girl. Let's rewind the tape." He imitates a cassette tape rewinding. He examines the playback. "Okay! I see what you did there." You smile at him.

"At least now I can use my last wish to set you free." He leans forward in his woven tanning chair..

"See this is the thing. The more you have, the more you want." You look out at Sokovia.

"That's not me." The genie hums skeptically.

"We'll see about that."

"But... There is something." You sigh and the genie instantly notices the lovesick expression on your face.

"Oh! Seen that look before." With a blue puff, he appears in front of you, lying on his stomach, his chin resting on his hands. "Who's the guy?" You don't look at him.

"It's.... It's a girl." He smiles at you supportively.

"Well, I can't make anyone fall in love with anyone." You quickly shake your head.

"No, no. We had a connection." He quirks an eyebrow at you.

"Alright, alright."

"She's smart, kind, incredibly beautiful. But she has to marry- Hold on, can you make me rich?" The genie teleports back to his chair.

"Kid, there is a lot of gray area in 'Make me rich'." He snaps his fingers and a rich business man in a stylish black suit appears a few feet away. "I could just make you rich." You immediately backpedal, shaking your head.

"No, no, no." The genie nods.

"Right 'cause then you'd be stuck with this guy. Be specific with your words. The key is in the detail." He advises and you nod. "Which I don't really understand because if she already likes you, why change?"

You shrug.

"I told you, she has to marry someone that benefits her family's business." The genie stands up, fiddling with his fingers.

"Alright, I can do that. An official wish this time, for those of us that are counting." You clear your throat nervously.

"Genie, I wish..." He snaps his fingers, pointing at the lamp. "Oh right! Sorry." You pick up the lamp, rubbing it. "All right. Genie..." He raises his hands in mock surrender.

"Don't hurt em Genie."

"I wish... to become rich." You squeeze your eyes shut, preparing for the worst. The genie smiles, waving his hands.

"Back up kid, I need some room to work. I'm gonna fabulize you."

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Taglist: @username23345 @musicinourlips @gingerbreadcookieforlife @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @trikruismybitch @ima-gi--na-tion @nicole-rayleigh-hot

[lilmissbacon]

Frozen 3 concept

I'mma start off with explaining that I'm not the biggest fan of Frozen and I'm definitely not a fan of Elsa's character in general.

But as much as I love the songs and outfits of the second movie, the inconsistencies and how it never explains how sh🤬 works in the world with magic and such are just infuriating. As well as why the spirit that connects them controls ice which is just a variation of water. And how the Frozen franchise just loves to make Elsa more special within every installment.

I am so very tired of it. So I came up with a way that it could all be fixed and make sense if they make a third movie.

Also to note that Anna and Elsa are supposed to be two halves of the fifth spirit but that's VERY briefly touched in movie (quote: well actually a bridge has two sides and mother had two daughters) and Disney themselves take Elsa as the fifth spirit alone so that's stupid.

Why Elsa specifically controls ice

We all know how we're frustrated with the fact that Elsa is supposed to connect all the elements when she only controls ice.

But let's think about it from another prospective. The first movie is based about the seasons. It's a seasonal theme rather than an elemental theme like in its sequel. So why not bring that back?

The enchanted forest cannot be the ONLY place that has mystical spirits. What if there were three other forests with their own fifth spirits and each fifth spirit represented a season?

And each seasonal spirit's magic is a mix of two elements.

Elsa/Winter: Ice = water + air

Spring: Plants = water + earth

Summer: Lava = earth + fire

Fall: Lightning/Storms = air + fire

This still fits in with the fact that the fifth spirit can play back moments in time as well. Each spirit has their own Ahtohallan. Elsa's is made of ice because it's just frozen water and the water is was plays back those moments in time.

Spring's would be like an island made of plants, fungi and marsh. Plants have water running within them so they can take the form of moments in time like Elsa's ice statues.

Summer's would be a volcano with a river flowing through it. Lava and water can mix to create lava rocks. When doing so the memories within that water would be imbedded into the rocks they form and therefore be able to play moments in time as rock statues.

Autumn's would basically be a fog bank with almost ghostly figures making up the memories since fog is a mist, aka: water. Kinda like the scene where Elsa fights the wind spirit and their powers mix for a moment.

Where the others come from

For this, I decided to look around other lands within that side of the world that has legends of spirits. I decided upon:

Spring = Scotland

Summer = Arabia

Fall/Autumn = Japan

I chose for Arabia to be summer, of course , because it's a desert country so it very hot. Japan is autumn because it's culture and everything just always reminded be of the beauty of fall. And Scotland is spring because that's what was left and when I think of Scotland, I think of it's green forests and plants.

Nothing too deep.

Personalities

You think I'd make Summer hotheaded and spring, giddy and bouncy, right?

No, because you see, as I've stated in another post of mine; Why Frozen Doesn't Work In The Big Four, I explained how Elsa's personality reconciles more with summer. The opposite season of her own.

Elsa is kinda quiet, gentle, diplomatic, practical, worries silently and is angelically innocent (even though she doesn't deserve to be).

All are traits relating to summer. So if her personality is opposed to her season, then it'd be the same for the other fifth spirits.

Spring would be a leader, confident, energetic, true to a cause, dependable, easily irritated and stubborn.

Summer would be reserved, well mannered, a good listener, natural poise and pessimistic.

And autumn would be energetic, tender-hearted, optimistic, friendly and overly talkative.

How the spirits work

I fully believe that the spirits have no physical form but rather inhabit certain things. Basically possession but the spirits don't have control over themselves once they choose a vessel and depending on the solidarity of what their element is, determines what kind of vessel they need.

The wind spirit is said to be a playful spirit and would want to make its own choices. Being an element you can't hold, it doesn't really need a host.

Water is liquid and needs something to be it's host but doesn't necessarily need something alive. Therefore it can inhabit a small animal or it inhabits its own element, hence a water horse.

Fire isn't a solid or liquid but it's not necessarily a gas either. Fire always needs to burn on something in order to burn. Therefore it cannot just make out it's own body like water but it doesn't need a large vessel. Hence, a little salamander.

Earth is the most solid of them all so it would need multiple hosts in order to sustain itself. That's why there are multiple earth giants and not just one like the other spirits.

I believe the spirits don't have control over their actions once they choose a host because all the spirits (besides wind) seem to not know what's even going on most of the time. And that would explain why the spirits didn't get rid of the dam themselves, because their vessels didn't know that was the problem.

I also believe that they need a host to begin with because they are actually susceptible to death. As it has been confirmed that Elsa is NOT immortal and there wouldn't have been a legend of a fifth spirit if people hadn't seen one before.

It would also explain how the spirits drove the citizens out of Arendelle without physically being there; they managed to leave their hosts for a time in order to do so. Along with what the light that Elsa was following at Ahtohallan, was. The fifth spirit was able to sustain itself by staying in its birth place and activated the memory of Elsa's mom singing, to bring Elsa there and when Elsa's dress transforms is when the spirit possesses her.

Why does the fifth spirit need to be human? Because humans are more durable. The fifth spirit doesn't control anything completely solid like rock so it doesn't need multiple vessels but it also controls more than a single element, therefore is too much to figure out/control for just any animal.

That's why it chose a very young child to give it's powers to rather than the person who actually did the deed of saving their enemy. It needs to be someone who will have the time to learn and control their powers by adulthood.

(Despite Elsa not truly being worthy and being a horrible sister, she was already chosen at birth and she at least gets the job done. At everyone else's expense but still.)

Plot

How would the seasonal spirits meet? Why would they leave their homes for this? What brings them together?

The four sided snowflake represents the elements connected to the winter spirit. Every season would have their own version of this. But there are also four seasons just like there are four elements.

So, could there be a fifth spirit for the fifth spirits? A fifth spirit to connect the seasons and if so, what is it? What's their power?

I believe, much like the winter spirit called to Elsa, the ultimate fifth spirit will call all the seasonal spirit's to come together at a single location. Anna would come with Elsa as well, of course, and during their journey, they'd all eventually meet each other along the way.

Eventually Anna would start to feel a little neglected when Elsa keeps talking to / about the other people who also have magic. Anna doesn't wish for magic, but she wishes for Elsa to finally see herself and Anna as equals (because Elsa clearly wouldn't after finding others like herself, let's be real). So Anna goes off to have her own sort of "Show Yourself" moment and is the one to find the location they've been looking for which is where she becomes their fifth spirit; the Aurora Borealis.

It was in one of the original scripts for the first movie that Anna was gonna have the power to control the Aurora Borealis, but then the creators decided that took away from Elsa's agency for self isolation due to her powers.

It's true that Anna having been able to accomplish what she did without powers is one of her best attributes but Anna becoming the light spirit is really the only way she's gonna get any appreciation within the fan base or the disney community. Plus Anna's done all the work to begin with so she deserves it.

With the other spirits being seasonal & elemental, it would only make sense for the one to connect them all would be light.

But all the spirits also have an opposite to balance them out:

Fire | Water

Earth | Air

Winter | Summer

Spring | Autumn

So maybe the reason they were all being called there is because Light's opposite is Darkness and it's plotting to take them all out. They are in charge of keeping balance and darkness wants to create chaos. But you also need darkness for balance, so maybe someone else will be with them through the journey and become the vessel for darkness in order to control it. Because, again, spirits have no control once they have a host.

This could be a possible redemption arc for Hans. We could learn about what he's been through and what truly drove him to be the bad guy because from what we know of his brothers, they were really bad. I think he just really lost a nerve due to unintentional (or intentional) abuse and was trying to prove to his family that he was better than they believed. People who suffer from abuse can be irrational like that.

I think it would be a phenomenal thing for him to overcome his inner darkness while also taking control of the literal spirit of darkness.

Metaphorical-wise it's beautiful.

Art/Designs

I edited the other seasons + Anna off of concept art for Elsa's white dress while Hans is kinda my own creation but I still used his concept art for a base. Everything after that are purely original.

Location they are led to ⬇️

Let me know what you all think 👍

[cursed-ice-spirits]

You ever wonder how Duncan Ashe died? And what happened that night? You’re about to find out. Special thanks to @angrynar for teaming up with me for the @hphmbang2020! Hope you guys enjoy <3

Late. It was very late. It had been hours since he last rested and he wasn’t even remotely done. Duncan Ashe groaned and peeled his face off his book, feeling a sharp crack as he etched his head to the left. Rubbing at the dull ache that shot from his neck to his shoulder and fingertips, Duncan squinted at the spinning words in his notes, trying to force himself to stay awake. His head seemed to pound.

There was no time to rest.

He needed this done, and an Erumpent potion required all his attention.

The door suddenly opened with a loud creak, sending light into the room. Duncan lunged for his wand, grasping it around the handle and whirling around to face the intruder, but relaxed when he saw who was standing in the doorway.

“Jacob,” he said, breathing a breath of relief, lowering his wand. “Did someone follow you?”

The other boy shook his head, pursing his lips as he pushed into the room. “Snape almost did,” he admitted, looking just as exhausted as he felt. “Managed to get him off my tail, though.” Jacob shrugged off his bag and tossed it aside, ignoring his friend’s half hearted glare when it was thrown haphazardly against the table. Gripping the back of the chair, he leaned over Duncan’s shoulder, squinting at his notes. “Your handwriting is shit,” he muttered. “How’s the potion going along?”

“Not as bad as yours.” Duncan eyed the cauldron sitting against the wall. “It’s doing fine, at least I hope it is. It has to settle for…” he glanced over his notes. “Twenty more minutes. Then I’ll have to…” He trailed off when he saw the way Jacob’s face flickered with guilt. “Jacob, what’s going on?”

Jacob rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the wall for a moment, then heaved out a sigh and reached into his robes, withdrawing a note. “I’ve gotten word from R,” he said tiredly, sliding it over. “They, well, it’ll be better if you read this yourself.”

Narrowing his eyes, Duncan slowly took hold of the note and drew it closer to him. As he continued to read the note, a deep anger started curling inside his gut, rolling down his throat like red hot lava, until he was throwing the note aside and pushing himself out of his seat. He turned slightly to search through his bag. “Tell them fuck no.”

“Duncan—”

“Don’t ‘Duncan’ me!” He snapped, turning sharply. “Do they not understand an Erumpent potion? A potion containing the parts of an Erumpent requires you to be delicate and patient, and rushing it will cause it to backfire and then we’ll have to start all over again! Tell them no!”

“I already told you several times before,” Jacob said, heaving out a heavy sigh. He pushed his hair out of his face, looking exhausted. “I can’t.”

This again…. he wanted to shake him. Why can’t he give clear answers for once?

“Why not?”

“You know why!” Jacob tugged at his hair and turned away, starting to pace. “They have resources. If we pull out now, we’ll trip over ourselves and we’ll never get what we need!”

Duncan stared at him for a moment, clenching his jaw. “Do we really need the treasure from the Cursed Vaults?”

“What kind of question is that?” Jacob stopped pacing and whirled around, staring straight at him, disbelief clear in his eyes. “They want it! We want it! Of course we do! Isn’t that what we agreed on when we started this?”

“Yes, but I can’t continue! We’re risking our lives for R!” Duncan snapped. “They’re asking for the impossible! I can’t brew this potion by tonight! I know we agreed to search the Vaults together but… come on, this is too far. I can’t do this anymore — even I know when to back away.”

Something unreadable flickered in his eyes. Jacob’s gaze wavered. “So you’re just gonna leave me alone in this?”

Duncan’s throat closed up. “N-No that’s not what I’m saying at all. Don’t twist my words and stop manipulating me — I’m saying this is too much—“

“I’m not!” Jacob roared, slamming his fist on the table. “I thought we agreed we were in this together! I thought we agreed to find whatever’s in the Vaults together! We can’t just… stop. Not now…”

“Yes we can! And I’m saying we’re gonna end this together!” Duncan stepped forward, gripping Jacob’s shoulders, desperation at his throat. “Come on, Jacob, once they have no use for us, they’ll throw us away and leave us to rot. They don’t care about us. We’re nothing but tools. We’ll die if we continue. Are you willing to risk that?”

Jacob worked his jaw furiously and glanced away, something dark and cold coming over his face, something that sent shivers down his spine. Duncan’s throat dropped to his stomach. He can’t possibly…

“Come on, Jacob… say no. Come on, you can’t seriously be willing to risk that for the Vaults, come on…”

Jacob placed his hands on Duncan’s own…. and pulled them away. “I’m sorry, Duncan, but I have to do this, regardless if you’re in or not.”

Duncan gritted his teeth, tears of frustration forming in his eyes. No matter what he says or does to convince him to back out, he can never get to him. Every word he throws at his face is being hit against a brick wall.

He can’t get to him.

He opened his mouth. He could say no. He could tell him he wants no part of this anymore. He could tell him he’s out. He could leave and he could stay out of this damn mess, because there was no way he was going to convince Jacob not to go after the Vaults. He knows who’s possible to be saved out of a situation and who’s completely hopeless.

Jacob’s hopeless, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

But looking at him now…. Duncan faltered. No. No, he can’t say no. He can’t leave Jacob alone in this. He can’t let R do whatever they want with him now that he’s gone and out of the way.

He can’t. He cares about him way too much to leave him alone with R. If he leaves now… if he leaves him around… he’ll do something stupid, something that he can’t wiggle out of.

He can’t let that happen, no matter how stupid Jacob is. He can’t lose Jacob like they lost Olivia.

Duncan rubbed his thumb against the corner of his eyes and turned away. “You’re impossible. Fine, I’ll brew the dumb potion.”

Jacob blinked, the coldness disappearing. He looked dumbfounded. He didn’t blame him. Hope and relief lit up his face, and it hurt. “You… You will?”

Duncan huffed and folded his arms. “I’m not leaving you alone in this, am I? Someone has to make sure you don’t get yourself into trouble.”

Slowly, Jacob’s face split into a grin, before he threw his arms over him. “I knew you’d come to your senses! I’ll go prepare for tonight. I’ll come back in a couple of hours, alright? Remember to have this finished tonight. See you then!”

Duncan squeezed his eyes shut, forcing tears away as he hugged back briefly, before pulling away. “Yeah yeah, Whatever. Just do your thing. I’ll try my best to finish.” He paused for a moment, before insisting, “I promise.”

“See you in a few hours.”

Arms pulled away from his shoulders. Jacob lifted his bag from the table and headed off. As footsteps slowly walked out of the room, Duncan shook his head and sank into his seat, staring at his notes in despair.

There will always be something he’ll always do for him no matter what, huh? Gritting his teeth, Duncan dashed his hand across his eyes and made for the cauldron, slipping on his dragonhide gloves again.

The time was up anyway. He’ll have to finish this. Maybe it’s impossible to finish this potion by tonight, but if he pulls every trick he knows about potions...

He’ll finish it. Somehow. But he will.

He promised after all.

-

Hours pass by. A thick haze clouded his mind as his hands moved automatically. Adding ingredients, chopping them up, crushing them, measuring out the proper measurements, turning up the heat and waiting.

He lost how much time passed by.

Add 5 slices of an erumpent tail. Stir until it's dissolved. Wait. Etc…

Grind the horn into fine powder. Crush it with the knife. It’ll be easier. Measure it. Add it into the potion. Stir. Let it boil for maybe 30 minutes. Etc…

It goes on and on. Duncan’s eyes were starting to sting, and sweat drenched his brow as he turned up the heat just a little bit more, using far too many shortcuts to save time in order for it to be finished by tonight. Is it dangerous? Yes. Is it risky? Yes. But it needed to be done by the time they got to the Vault.

Duncan pushed his hair out of his face and wiped sweat off his forehead, taking a moment to himself to just breathe, rubbing aching and trembling fingers. He’s just so tired. Tired from so many sleepless nights, tired from being worked to the bone, but he promised. Swore to Jacob’s face he promised to finish the potion by tonight, and he always stuck by promises, no matter what, or how crazy it is.

Onto the last step. Duncan levitated a small vial full of yellow liquid out of his pack. It looked small, harmless, but it was the fluid that allowed an Erumpent horn to explode. One wrong move and it’s over.

Taking a deep breath, he shakingly let it out as he carefully opened the vial.

The last step: Add 10 drops of Exploding Fluid. Measure 5mg. There should be a black ring of smoke hovering over the cauldron for each drop. The liquid should bubble. This is because of the explosive fluid mixing with the potion. Wait until the smoke clears to add the next drop. Boil at 82 degrees for an hour. The potion should turn yellow.

This is… the most critical step. Exploding Fluid is something to be handled carefully. No shortcuts.

Holding a hand to the vial, Duncan carefully tipped the vial over, and watched the first drop roll out of the vial and down into the unfinished potion.

As it dropped into the potion, a ring of black smoke rose, circling over the cauldron. The liquid itself was starting to bubble, not gently, but not too violently for it to be worrisome. Duncan swallowed and set the vial down.

Now to wait.

Slowly and before his eyes, the black smoke started to disperse and rose to the ceiling, particles slowly disappearing into the air. Duncan leaned over, gripping his wrist with his other hand to add the next drop, and leaned back as the black smoke started to form again. Rinse and repeat. His hand was starting to shake and ache from working for so long. But he was so close to finishing… he can’t stop now… he promised...

It was at the fifth drop that things… went wrong. He didn’t know what went wrong. Maybe he made a mistake or two earlier and it just acted now. Maybe he wasn’t careful enough. But it did.

And it went so horribly wrong.

As Duncan added the fifth drop, the mixture suddenly turned black and fizzled violently, the liquid sloshing inside the cauldron and expanding. Pausing, he carefully set the vial down and leaned away, watching the mixture warily. By the time he realized what was happening, he only had a few seconds to dive for the table before the cauldron exploded into a literal ball of fire.

The blast exploded through the air, followed by flames, sending him crashing hard against the wall. Heat seared through his clothes as flames licked at his heels, rubble crumbling from the walls, large chunks spilling out as the flames quickly started spreading. Duncan’s gasps of pain became swallowed by smoke, ash, and soot, even as he shoved his hand to his mouth and coughed harshly, spitting and sputtering.

His ears were ringing. His chest burned with agony. Duncan crawled out from the walls of flames, doubling over in fits of coughs, eyes watering, trying to fix his vision on the door...

He had to get out. Get out…

Jacob.

Jacob.

Shouting wavered slowly through his ears outside. They hurt, but he knew help was out there. Duncan gripped his burning fingers on the ridges of the floor and dragged himself up, wrapping one arm around his burning, burning torso. Too much smoke. Too much pain. It burns. Everything hurts. He can’t breathe. He’s not gonna make it—

He’s not gonna make it.

He’s gonna die. Everything is over. He didn’t even graduate yet. He didn’t even get a chance to spend a normal life with Jacob and having fun without having to worry about stupid Cursed Vaults trying to take over their lives and now Jacob is gonna be all alone with stupid R and stupid Rakepick and stupid Dumbledore—

As he made his way to the door, flames licking at his sides and sending burns that stung as they made contact with the rubble scattered along the floor, he parted chapped lips to call for help, but the resulting noise ended up in coughing fits and wheezing breaths that rocked against his ribcage. He doubled over, curling into a ball, pain wrecking his body.

He’s not gonna make it.

He slumped against the floor, too weak to continue his journey to the door, his vision blurring at the edges. Someone was shouting orders outside. Dumbledore? Snape? He‘ll never know.

Duncan squeezed his eyes shut, smoke filling his lungs, as he took his last breath just as the door banged open hard enough to smash against the door and bounce back, voices shouting.

I’m sorry, Jacob.

-

“What do you mean something happened with Duncan!?”

Professor McGonagall hesitated. He should have taken that as a bad sign. She never hesitated. “There appears,” she said slowly, “to be… an incident, with Mr Ashe.”

“What kind of incident?” Jacob stressed, fixing the Transfiguration Professor with a look of dismay. “What happened, Professor?”

McGonagall gave him a mournful look. A look that burned into his eyes. “...it’ll be best if you see for yourself,” she said, placing a hand on his shoulder and leading him to the direction of where he last left Duncan.

“I don’t understand… why can’t you explain it now?!”

“His… condition is very delicate. Please understand…”

Her voice turned to white noise. The longer they walked, the more fear started building up in his gut, hands shaking as his fingers dug into his palms, until he finally tore himself from McGonagall’s grip and raced up ahead.

He saw it before it came.

Students surrounded the outside of the room, smoke pooling up into pillars to the ceiling. The teachers were right in the middle, arguing as Snape and Pomfrey disappeared inside the room to search for something. Or… someone.

Realization dawned on him.

No…

He’s not…

It can’t be…

They went too far. He pushed him too far.

Jacob surged forward, tearing across the floor to the crowd.

He should have known, Duncan always keeps his promises no matter what, he should have never took advantage of that and now—

“Out of the way!”

He shoved someone carelessly aside and pushed past the crowd, ignoring the startled yells after him and students trying to stop him. He didn’t care. He needed to get to Duncan.

“DUNCAN!!”

He pushed past the last student and forced his way to the door and… stopped.

An explosion had completely wrecked the room. The door was wide open, revealing the damage done. The cauldron Duncan used for the Erumpent Potion had its top blown clean off, and it laid discarded against the wall, completely destroyed and unusable. The table had been blown into pieces, charred pieces laying about, drenched with water (possibly from Aguamenti), embers flickering weakly in the wreck. Soot covered the walls, and large chunks of rubble were scattered inside and outside the room. Dust filled the air.

He wasn’t focused on any of that.

He was focused on the boy being carried out in the arms of Snape and Pomfrey.

Duncan Ashe laid limp, burnt robes in tatters around him and eyes squeezed shut, an arm wrapped loosely around his torso. Burns littered his body from what Jacob could see, blistering red. Sweat and water drenched his face, smearing the soot over his cheeks and uncovering his skin. Ash and spot drifted through his hair, and his skin was colored a gray pallor.

Jacob surged forward.

“DUNCAN!!”

Hands gripped around his injured friend and pulled him out of the Potions Professor and Matron’s reach. Snape opened his mouth, a look of anger flickering over his face as he looked down at Jacob, before Pomfrey put a hand to his arm with tears in her eyes, shook her head, and led him away.

Where he didn’t know, nor cared.

He was focused on his friend.

Jacob wrapped an arm around his shoulders and dragged him closer, using his other hand to shake him, desperation wrapping its arms around his throat and strangling him.

“Duncan…. Duncan!... Duncan, wake up… wake up please…”

Duncan’s head rolled back and forth, chapped lips gaping slightly. Jacob gritted his teeth, twisting his fist into his burnt robes. His vision started to blur from tears.

“Duncan please! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I should have listened! Come on, wake up so Pomfrey can heal you up and we can quit together — come on, wake up, this isn’t funny!!”

Still no answer. He reached out a trembling hand and wiped away some of the soot on his face. It smeared his fingers and colored them black. He didn’t care.

“Duncan!!”

No answer. Why wasn’t he answering him?! He pressed his forehead against Duncan’s, tears rolling down his face as he gritted his teeth, a small cry of pain escaping. He couldn’t feel his breath against his face. He wasn’t breathing. He moved to press his head against his chest.

He didn’t have a heartbeat.

He wasn’t waking up.

There was a dull roaring in his ears as he pulled away and looked down at his friend. Duncan laid limp as always, a look of pain etched permanently on his face. Tears rolled down his face. Numbness seemed to take over.

Duncan Ashe is dead.

Duncan, I’m sorry.

He was unaware of the ghost figure that watched as McGonagall gently pulled Jacob away to let Madam Pomfrey treat the young Slytherin, only for her to give a shake of her head seconds later, a shadow of sadness crossing her face, nor did he see the look of anger on the ghost’s face as he put the blame on himself.

The ghost turned away.

Duncan Ashe is dead.

[jgukmilk]

he won’t know (m) 02

➔ summary: after an unforgivable weekend at Jimin’s summer house, you come home and decide to set things right, you wish you hadn’t.

➔ pairing: Jungkook X Reader

➔ genre: cheating!au, smut (not this chapter tho), lots of angst.

➔ warnings: sexual harassment (please refrain from reading if this is a trigger), lots of angsty scenes, reader cries so much:(( protect her, mature language, degrading, a lot of inner-conflict my gOD, jungoo is a soft idiot.

➔ wordcount: 9k

➔ notes: If you haven’t read the first part, then please make sure to do so otherwise the story won’t make sense!

part 1 part 2, part 3 (final)

Sunday, 07:36 AM

You swear you had never bolted out of a bed as fast as you did the morning after, which wasn’t like you since you always enjoyed staying in under the sheets a few hours more than necessary, especially because this was the perfect opportunity to get a little extra shut-eye.

But when you fluttered your eyes open the next morning, only to find yourself wrapping your naked body around another’s – you couldn’t even begin to explain the adrenaline rush that had coursed through your body.

It felt as if Satan had visited the room with a flick of fire from hell on his finger, and scratched it along the naked spine of your back. 

Faster than a prey being chased by a predator, you grabbed your shirt that had been thrown to a far corner of the room the previous night. Along with your panties, you threw on all clothing items swiftly yet quietly in attempt to not wake the boy sleeping soundly on the master bedroom’s bed.

You stopped wrestling through your shirt when you caught a glimpse of his ruffled hair peaking throw the duvet. You walked to the side of the bed, seeing him sleeping peacefully. Subconsciously a warm smile threatened to twitch on the sides of your lips.

His eyes were gently closed, letting his dark lashes lay perfectly just above his cheekbone. His lips were cutely pouting, slightly chapped but you found it adorable. His shoulders were rising and falling slowly indicating he was taking small gentle breaths. He looked so peaceful, so warm.

In an ideal world – you would’ve crawled into bed with him and wrapped your cold form around his, in attempt to warm yourself up while nuzzling your nose into his neck. But this wasn’t an ideal world. This was your reality, and things were different whether you liked it or not.

You made your way to the door; slowly opening it you scanned the halls making sure they were empty. The lord was on your side today, having marked the hallway completely clean from any trace of your friends. You sighed lowly in relief as you quickly tiptoed back to Jimin’s room you had supposedly shared with Mina.

Mina…

“Fuck,” you had completely forgotten about the possibility of your best friend noticing the lack of your presence throughout the night. You stood just outside the door with your nose a few breathes away from the finely carved wood while looking up at the ceiling, silently praying that you would open the door, only to find your best friend asleep on the bed.

Your sweaty palm turned the knob gently as you made an attempt to peak your head through the opening of the door you had just created.

You saw an outline on top of the sheets of what looked like a spread out body, you couldn’t see her face but you saw locks of hair hanging down the edge of the bed. Once again you sighed before stepping into the room completely as you gently shut the door behind you.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Your feet sprung from the ground as if hot lava was under them, “Christ, Mina!” You whisper-yelled placing your hand over you chest to see if your heart was still where it was supposed to be. You took a moment to collect yourself before looking up at the girl who had now sat up on the bed, back leaning against the headboard of the bed with her arms crossed, awaiting an explanation from none other than you.

“You just made my heart drop to my ass, you know that?” you huffed while rubbing your chest, trying to ease your increased heartbeat.

“Then you know how I felt when I woke up this morning to see you weren’t there, where in the world were you, woman?” she tapped her index finger that was placed over her right bicep.

“I was—uhh…”

Getting dicked down by Jungkook the entire night.

“Out for a walk! Yeah!” you exclaimed happily, you coughed awkwardly when you noticed her eyes squint in suspicion. Only by then had you realized how made-up your tone made the statement sound.

“I-I mean—I was out for a walk, you know, fresh air and… stuff,” you casually leaned against the door behind you, blowing the lock of hair in front of your hair to give you that chill, laidback image, while you calmly held eye contact with the unconvinced friend in front of you.

Her eyes left yours, scanning you from top to bottom. You saw her eyebrow raise in confusion, you mirrored her action unaware of her state of puzzlement.

“Dressed like that?” your cool left you face, you stood up straight on both feet, tilting your head down to scan your clothes, when you realized. You were barely wearing any.

“What’s wrong with what I put on?” you pouted a fake pout, acting completely oblivious about the fact that you were basically half naked as you spoke.

“‘What I put on,’” she mimicked you, “Y/N, the catch here is that you barely have anything on!” she wasn’t wrong, you stood in front of her solely wearing an oversized t-shirt along with a pair of very petite panties that covered just enough to maintain your dignity. 

You sighed in defeat not knowing how to properly tell her the truth, “I understand if you don’t want to talk about it, but at least don’t lie to me,” she uncrossed her arms in sync with her facial expressions beginning to soften.

“Yeah, you’re right. I know you are,” you started, “I just don’t know how to tell you without sounding like a complete jerk.”

Did you regret it? You didn’t know, but you knew you felt guilty. Not because you cheated – well that too – but because you actually had to dig deep to find any form of moral regret. You felt bad because you hardly felt guilty.

Or maybe you just hadn’t wrapped your head about what had happened yet, you hadn’t even been awake for a full hour, and you knew for a fact you needed more than that to give it some proper thought and wrap your head around it.

“I want to talk to you about it, I just need to process some stuff before I let you in on this whole mess,” you cracked your knuckles as you spoke, a habit that had grown on you every time you grew nervous or even slightly uncomfortable. “I just… I want to understand the situation,” you wanted to understand your feelings.

You looked up only to see Mina’s face soften with slight concern, “is it that bad?” she tilted her head, “n-no—well, yes… I don’t—I don’t know?” you shrugged defeated. “It’s – it’s just very fresh and I-“

She held out a hand in front of her, “you don’t need to explain yourself to me, at least not yet,” the edges of her lips curved up softly, forming a smile, “come to me when you’re ready to talk about it, take all the time you need.” Mina’s kind words only made you sigh in relief. You truly could not express how grateful you were to have gained such an understanding and patient friend like Mina.

You nodded, running your hand through your hair only to grimace at the oily feeling of your locks, “I’m gonna go take a shower.”

“Yeah please do, you stink.” She pinched her nostrils shut with her thumb and index finger, “I can smell you all the way from here,” she waved the air in front of her, playfully. You too a quick whiff at your armpits, “it’s not that bad…” you pouted.

–

Wrapping the towel around your frame, you exited the shower while rubbing another towel in your hair trying your best to dry it. You scanned the room quickly seeing that you were alone. Strolling over to the mirror to get a better look at yourself, you flipped your hair to your other shoulder wanting to dry your hair from a new angle.

“WHAT THE FUC-“ you slapped your hand over your mouth only to remove it again seconds later, you rubbed your eyes, internally praying that your eyes were playing some kind of sick joke on you.

You traced your fingers over the reddish-purple like bruises that had been painted generously across your neck, “no, no, no, no!” you tried rubbing it away as if it was some prank someone had pulled on you and that there was no other explanation to the hickeys smeared all over your neck. Though it only resulted in you hissing from the pressure you had applied to the sore skin.

You ran to your bag, rummaging for your makeup bag to desperately pull out the concealer to cover up the marks. When spotting the tube, you raised it up in the air as if you had made a marvellous discovery. Jerking the applier in and out of the tube you heard a sudden knock on the door. You looked at the door in horror.

“Just a second!”

You turned your gaze back to the mirror hurriedly applying the liquid over your necking, blending it in to look as natural as possible. “What kind of blood-sucking leech–” you whispered aggressively to yourself when you saw the kiss marks still very noticeable. You could have done better applying it but time was against you, so you spread your hair in front of you to cover up as much of it as you could, fluffing it out.

“Come in!” You said to whoever was behind the door. You saw the knob of the door twist and open, revealing Jimin sticking his head in with a bright smile. “Morning, Y/N,” he entered the room completely, “breakfast is ready,” you smiled forcefully, “who’s cooking?”

“Jin, as always, anybody else would burn the kitchen down,” you giggled at his comment, “perfect, ‘cause a bitch is hungry,” you pointed dramatically at yourself which only led him to smile even brighter, he extended his hand out for you to take it, and you gladly did so.

You both walked down to the kitchen to see that most of your friends were already present by the kitchen bar table.

“Good morning,” you exclaimed kindly, they all greeted you back, “what are we having,” you licked your lips, clapping your hands excitedly at the smell of the goods while hovering over Jin’s shoulder to get a peak of what he was cooking, “there’s French toast, omelet, bacon, bread and spreads of course.” He explained.

“Oh! There are also fruits like strawberry, blueberry and raspberry in the fridge if you’d like some. So a little bit of everything,” you let out a pleased hum, turning over to the bar table where the cutlery and plates were placed.

Heaven, is that you? 

“Where’s the rest of the gang?” you asked hovering over the French toast to pick up a couple of pieces.

Yoongi wiped his mouth with some paper towel before looking at you, “Hoseok went with Namjoon to the grocery store to buy some milk and orange juice,” you felt your throat burning from the name you felt on the tip of your tongue, “and Jungkook?”

“He’s out for a morning jog, he’ll be back in a few, at least that’s what he said,” you nodded while seating yourself between Taehyung and Mina.

You grabbed a plate and started to grab bits of everything, assembling the food nicely on your plate, “someone’s hungry,” Taehyung snickered playfully as he watched you fill every corner of your plate. You rolled your eyes followed by a flick to his forehead, you had quite the appetite, you couldn’t help it.

“Yesterday was exhausting, I need to fuel my body,” you justified yourself and grabbed a fork and knife. “What did you do yesterday since you’re left so famished,” You gulped, cutting the toast on your plate with your knife, with little more pressure than necessary.

“S-swimming, obviously,” you felt the palms of your hands start to break a sweat. Before anyone else could comment, the doorknob to the main door jiggled loudly, followed by three figures entering the room.

“Honey, I’m home!” Hoseok had his hands cupped around his mouth, a bright smile plastered on his lips. Behind him stood two tall frames. Jungkook and Namjoon panting behind Hoseok from the weight of the grocery bags they were carrying. The youngest was panting slightly heavier than the rest, you had assumed it was from the jog.

“I sent you to buy milk and juice not the whole store!” Jin clapped his hands on the side of his hips annoyed. Namjoon smiled innocently, “If it makes you feel better, half of this stuff was on discount.”

They walked over to the kitchen counter, placing the heavy bags filled with goods on the marble surface. The youngest made his way out of the kitchen, while Namjoon and Hoseok comfortably joined the rest of the group at the table, “you not gonna eat?” Yoongi asked with his mouth stuffed with berries.

“I’m gonna take a shower, don’t wait for me,” Jungkook announced before speed-walking up the stairs. You couldn’t help but feel uneasy at how he didn’t spare you a single glance from the moment he stepped in.

–

After breakfast you were left to dry the dishes. Everyone had helped clean up and now you were simply doing your part of the chore, “sure you don’t need help?” Taehyung asked nicely for the umpteenth time

“Yes Tae, I’m sure. Thank you though,” you smiled at him sweetly and he returned the gesture before running off to wherever, leaving you alone in the kitchen with a stack of dirty dishes that needed to be cleaned.

You turned your focus back to the plates that needed to dry. Rubbing circular motions of the fine white porcelain with the sky blue towel.

“Wow… you don’t even smile at me that way,” you almost dropped the plate then and there before snapping your head toward the all too familiar voice – Jungkook entered the kitchen with a towel hanging around his neck, a white t-shirt that was stained with a few droplets of water dripping from his hair. You subconsciously gulped the thick spit that had gathered at the back of your throat, fist tightening on the plate at the sight of wet spots sticking to his solid frame.

Without a word you fixed your gaze back at the plate in your hand and continued to wipe the already dry platter, you tried to convince yourself that your palms weren’t sweating, but that they were wet from the beads of water on the plate.

You heard footsteps approach you, “why are you ignoring me, angel?” your toes curled at his calm and collected tone, “don’t call me that,” you chimed firmly. You weren’t looking at him but you saw him tilt his head to the side, he leaned against the counter, which you were sternly facing.

“You liked it yesterday,” you shivered when you felt him brush your hair out of the way, exposing your neck to him. He frowned at the layer of concealer on your skin, anything but the logical answer raced through his mind: why did you cover his marks? Did you regret everything? Were you ashamed? Were you disgusted when seeing the marks in the mirror?

“Why’d you cover them up?” his voice shifted into an unknown tone. A tone you’d heard before, but still – you couldn’t put a label on. He could switch so easily around you; one moment a confident smirk was plastered across his lips, subtly getting on your nerves, and the next he would look so fragile, so insecure, as if you could blow a breath of air his way and he would collapse.

 His fingers travelled across the covered red and purple shades on your neck, rubbing off the makeup with his thumb gently, but you only pushed his hand away with a hiss from the applied pressure on the bruise, “I don’t want people to see,” you sighed as if the answer wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world – which, frankly, it was.

“Can I give you more?” You sat the plate down on the pile of porcelain, “what?” you turned around to face him completely, sure you had heard him incorrectly, “I want to mark your skin up some more… will you let me, angel?”

You felt weak to your knees, if your hand hadn’t been on the counter you would’ve fallen on your face for sure. You looked in his eyes for any sign of sike-bitch-you-thought, but you all you saw was hope – hope that you might let him touch you again.

You wanted to slap yourself in that moment. His duality was driving you to the brink of insanity. His eyes were so gentle, so big and doe, god you felt like crying, but his words contradicted his facial expression completely.

You couldn’t bring yourself to utter a word; any trace of your voice at the back of your throat was gone. You stood there, in front of the beautiful boy completely lost in his eyes that held the universe.

You wondered – when stars die, are they reborn in his eyes?

When you didn’t answer, he placed a tender kiss on the curve of your jaw, testing the waters. He knew this could go either way – you’d either slap him across the face and proceed to bolt out of the kitchen screaming, or you’d let him.

He pulled back shivering, seeking for any sort of hint that you wanted him to resume. But all he saw was your closed eyes. Your eyes were so tightly shut it looked like his lips had stung you. He pouted; did you still not feel safe with him?

Forcefully brushing the thought out of his mind, his fingers began to travel up your arms, stimulating every fine hair he’d touch to stand up on its own. Though you never saw, his eyes never left you.

He cupped your jaw with both hands, holding you as if you were the most fragile thing in the world. You flinched when you felt a pair of soft rosebud-like lips right under your eye – peck – the bridge of your nose – peck – the tip of your nose – peck.

Your closed eyes softened, slowly opening them up letting your blurry vision adjust to the exposure of light. A relaxed exhale left your lips at the meeting of his eyes.

He damn near melted at the docility in your orbs, you were looking at him so sweetly, so gently.

What he wouldn’t give to have you look at him like this all the time.

He leaned in closer to your face, eyes fixated on your parted lips. You held your breath thinking he was going to kiss you – well he did, but he kissed your chin. Leaving you to have intuitively puckered your soft lips right above his upper lips. His dramatically defined cupids bow barely brushing against your bottom lips.

You had to force yourself from sinking your lips down to his.

He pulled away with a sigh, smiling gently, but you could see it was enforced. He turned around making his way out of the kitchen.

You wanted to stop him, but you knew it’d be for the best to let him leave. Still you stood there, facing the entrance of the kitchen perplexed.

–

Monday 06:16 PM

The weekend was now over, and so was the small break at the beach house. You were now back at your dorm, sat at your desk hitting the books – quite literally – you slapped your fist on and unknown page of the book, frustrated at your lack of concentration.

A line of curses left you mouth, rubbing your hands aggressively against your face in efforts to slap the procrastination out of your system.

Once you got back from the beach house, you immediately rushed to your shared dorm room with Mina, while she had left shortly after to visit Jimin at his dorm, you dug through your pile of school books to find something – anything, that would take your mind of off this weekend.

You sat with your mathematics book, opened up to the chapter about calculus and analytic geometry. You spent the last 45 minutes or so reading over the same sentence talking about how calculus is used to improve architecture, not only buildings, but also bridges and such. Or something along those lines, Ugh!

Finally, you came to the conclusion that this was absolutely useless, so you closed the book and jumped onto your bed. Reaching over to your nightstand to grab your phone, you pressed the button on the side to light up the previously black screen with traces of unread messages.

-1h ago

Jaehyun <3: hey princess

Jaehyun <3: can you come over? 

Your stomach curled in an unknown way. Guilt hitting you like a ton of bricks all at once, fuck. You rose from the bed; leaving the phone on your pillow only to look down on it as if it was the ugliest thing you’d ever laid your eyes on.

You covered your mouth with a hand as the other pointed to the phone like it was a maleficent device. You felt your eyes begin to sting with fresh tears. It hit you – It finally fucking hit you. You cheated.

You felt overwhelmed with emotions, all the sentiments written down in the book washed over you to the point where you felt like you were going to burst. Infamy covered every inch of your body – how could you do this? 

You felt ashamed, embarrassed of yourself. Not because you were afraid to hurt someone’s feelings, but because this wasn’t you – this wasn’t what you believed in. Cheating was never something you believed in. If you stood by that statement then how could you have let this happen?

How could you let the devil in the form of man tempt you this way? Cajole you to throw away what you believed in for the sake of – of what? God, you didn’t even know.

You didn’t want to admit that you had been selfish enough to carelessly give yourself to Jungkook, while your heart was supposed to belong to someone else.

Someone else, who you were supposed to dedicate all your faith to, all your loyalty, and you couldn’t even do that. How were you supposed to trust yourself if you couldn’t let yourself stay true to one person.

You threw it away – this relationship – you shoved it down the drain, and for what?

Jungkook.

Jeon fucking Jungkook.

The spawn of Lucifer himself. All of your sadness and shame slowly turned into anger. You hated him, you hated Jungkook. He seduced you, and you let him.

Did he do it on purpose? Was he trying to fuck up your life, your relationship? Your faith in yourself? You convinced yourself that this was his plan, that he wanted you to feel like this all along. What other explanation could there have been? 

You never exchanged more than two – three on a good day – sentences with the boy, until Saturday. You never spoke to him properly, and he never approached you, until Saturday. He never showed any form of interested in you, Christ – you thought he hated you. You were never sure, until now.

He wanted to fuck up your life, that’s why he did it. Yes, that’s why. There was no other possible explanation to this, but why did he want to ruin everything for you? Did he actually hate your guts so much? You had never done anything to him, at least not of your knowledge. As mentioned, you barely spoke to him at all.

You tried to convince yourself you wanted him to hate you, and you almost believed.

Almost.

It would make things so much easier: You could reciprocate his hate, never speak of the night you two shared together, and then proceed to never speak to one another.

You sat yourself back on your bed with your hands aggressively running through your hair. Looking down at your thighs you saw a wet stain. You wiped your eyes not realizing you had been crying.

“Shit, I forgot my – Y/N?” snapping your head up to the source of the voice you automatically put on a fake smile, forgetting about the contradicting tears streaming down your face, “h-hey.”

She shook her head entering the dorm room completely, shutting the door behind her, “no, Y/N. You don’t give me that shit,” she fell onto the bed with you, wrapping her arms around you in which you immediately accepted.

You couldn’t stop it. Your tears were flowing freely now, low sobs were heard from you whilst your best friend was rubbing her palm in circular motion on your back in attempts to comfort you.

She didn’t speak, and you were thankful for that. All you could do was quietly sob on her shoulder, dampening her pink woollen sweater with your tears, but she didn’t care.

Once you finally calmed down, Mina pulled away, her hands still rubbing up and down along your arms, “is it really that bad?” Her words only made fresh tears dwell under your eyelashes – you instantly saw the regret in her face from asking, but you shook your head trying to communicate; It’s okay. 

Rubbing on your already red nose, you sniffled before taking in a deep breath.

“Who’s bed do I need to shit on?” For the first time in a while, you giggled genuinely. God, you were thankful to have her.

“You seriously don’t need to tell me what’s going on but –“ you shook your head, “n-no, no I think it would be nice to let it out to someone.” Her gaze softened.

You lifted your feet from the edge of the bed, turning to her completely and folded you legs comfortably. Mina mirrored your action.

How were you going to tell her? Fuck, she would be so disappointed in you, wouldn’t she? Sure she had always secretly paired you and Jungkook together but certainly this wasn’t what she was thinking. Deciding there was no way to sugarcoat it, you told yourself the best option was to be straightforward.

“I cheated on Jaehyun.” You exhaled, not realizing you had been holding your breath in the first place.

“With, uhm.” You exhaled, “with Jungkook,” her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her skull, neck leaned forward. Not sure she had heard you correctly and surprised ‘what now?’ left her throat.

You couldn’t bare to say it again, so you simply hid your face behind your hands as your head sunk low. You jumped at the feeling of her arms wrapping themselves around you, squeezing you comfortably.

“And you’re beating yourself up because of it I’m guessing?” you pulled away looking at her, “how could I not?!” her eyebrows furrowed melancholically at your glossy eyes, “I cheated! I fucking cheated, I am not that kind of person!” your eyes were pouring with tears at this point.

“At least I thought I wasn’t.”

“You’re not,” you looked at her perplexed, “I’m not telling you cheating is okay, and I definitely think you should talk to Jaehyun about this,” she wiped your wet cheeks, “but your relationship with him… isn’t even a relationship anymore.”

You sniffled, “yeah I know, it’s not a proper excuse,” she explained, “but you of all people would never do this to someone you truly loved.”

You looked down at your hands that were placed comfortably on your lap, fiddling with your fingers while her words rung through your ears, “but I…I do like him.” 

She smiled sadly, “and that’s the problem. You don’t love him, you only like him.” She caressed your arms, soothing running her palms up and down. “The way you said that sounded so depressing,” you looked at her, “you even hesitated.” You’re eyeballs were stinging from the hot tears.

“Y/N,” Mina chimed softly, holding your hands in hers, “does he make you happy?”

You nodded looking down at your lap, “look me in the eyes and tell me he makes you happy, and I’ll believe you.” Your blurred gaze shifted to meet hers. They were such easy words, why couldn’t you form them?

“He’s really nice,” you sniffled, “he’s just nice?” she questioned your statement, “damn, I would cheat on my boyfriend as well if nice was all I could describe him as – OW!” she rubbed the sting on the side of her arm, a result of your semi-playful smack, “I’m just messing with you.”

She cheekily smiled at you, and you couldn’t help but feel the corners of your lips twitch.

“It still isn’t an excuse… I should’ve talked to him about our relationship instead of –“ you couldn’t finish you sentence, feeling yourself choke on the words.

“Well.. maybe that’s what you should do now then,” she smiled softly. Yeah, maybe that’s what you should. He deserved to be told the truth, even though it was ugly – but what would come after that? Would he forgive you? If he did, would you even want to keep going with your, so-called, relationship?

What if he absolutely hated your guts after? He didn’t deserve it. Jaehyun wasn’t a match for you, but that still didn’t give you an excuse to go and have sex with Jungkook. You knew that very well.  

“Yeah, I’ll go talk to him,” she nodded. You stood up from the bed, grabbing your leather jacket, “wait – right now?” she asked stunned. You nodded back at her while unlocking your phone to text your boyfriend.

“I might die from guilt if I don’t,” you put your phone in your pocket, “I’ll see you tonight,” and with that, you were out the door.

–

You knocked three long knocks on the fine wooden door in front of you, your palms damp with sweat as a result of your boiling nerves. It felt like years before the door opened.

“Princess,” you boyfriend smiled at you, pulling you by the forearm to engulf you with a hug. His arms were wrapped tightly around your waist while yours were hanging loosely around his shoulders, he didn’t seem to notice however. “Come in.” he smiled fondly at you, guiding you into his own dorm.

You both sat yourselves on his bed comfortably, it didn’t take long for you to start fidgeting in your seat and it took just as long for him to notice.

“What’s wrong?” he asked with concern in his voice. God, you couldn’t even bring yourself to look at him.

He placed a finger under your chin attempt to have you look at him, “w-we need to talk.” Your eyes met his. He raised an eyebrow at the significance in your voice. “Okay, talk.”

Where the fuck were you supposed to start?

I fucked a guy I hardly talk to over the weekend, what were you up to? No

I cheated on you because I don’t have feelings for you anymore. No

We should break up. No!

“Hey,” Jaehyun started when your breath became unsteady, “you can tell me anything, you know that right?” No, this you just couldn’t tell him.

“I uhm…” your eyes started stinging. Not the best timing you fuckers! You mentally cussed your tears, “I’m sorry,” a small sob ripped from your throat, “I’m so sorry, Jaehyun,” you were already a mess, tears streaming uncontrollably like they had not even an hour ago.

Jaehyun’s face twisted with concern, puzzled at why you started crying. “I’m horrible. I’m fucking horrible and you don’t deserve it.” Similar to Mina’s actions, his instinct was to wrap his arms around you, soothingly rubbing his thumb on your back.

“No you’re not, you’re perfect for me, Y/N.” you shook your head, disagreeing, “why would you say that?” his voice was gentle.

“I slept with someone else.”

You said it, you finally said it. You had expected that the feeling of a burden taken off of your chest would take over – however, that wasn’t your case at all.

If anything you felt even more terrible than you did in the first place, and the way your boyfriend’s arms loosened around you only made you cry harder.

“What?” was all he could say, looking at you. Any sign of mildness left his face, a cold stare washing over his face.

“Who?” you didn’t answer, “who did you fuck?” your cheeks had turned red at how hard you were rubbing them in attempt to dry your face.

“Y-you don’t know him,” you decided. Who it was, didn’t matter. You didn’t want any drama to escalate; you could clearly imagine a fistfight take place in front of you between Jungkook and Jaehyun. So if you could prevent it, you most certainly would.

“Bullshit,” he spat, “was it one of those fuckers from the weekend,” it was your turn to bark, “fuckers?” you were the one at fault here, there was absolutely no reason for him to label your closest friends so harshly.

“I’m the one who fucked up, don’t attack them,” you pointed at yourself, he scoffed, “you didn’t even deny it,” you stood up from the bed, tears still present under your eyelashes, “I told you! You don’t know him! Does it even fucking matter who it is?” he stood up with you.

“Yes! I have the right to know who the fuck you’re whoring around with!” your eyes widened. 

Whoring around with?

“Tell me who you fucked!” at this point you were afraid the whole goddamn campus could hear what you two were fighting about. “No –..!”  

In a matter of seconds you were pushed onto the bed, your boyfriend hovering right above you while placed perfectly between your legs. His fingers were tightly wrapped around your wrists, pinned above your head.

All the oxygen was punched right out of your lungs when he aggressively eyed the skin of your neck. Fuck, you hadn’t put concealer on. “You let this fucker shamelessly suck your neck, huh?” he practically crashed his mouth onto the already sore skin of your throat.

“J-Jaehyun what are you doing?” you squirmed uncomfortably beneath him. “Reminding you who the fuck owns you.” You couldn’t help but cringe at his words.

You twisted your wrists uncomfortably, “w-we should talk about this.” He scoffed, his tongue licking a long strip up you neck, sucking harshly. You wanted to scream. “Stop – stop,” you pleaded, wiggling in attempt to shove him off of you. You couldn’t.

“I don’t think just talking is gonna make you keep your hands to yourself. I need to discipline you, princess,” he uttered bitterly. The hairs at the back of your neck rose. Your face was wet, you couldn’t tell if it was from your previous sobs or if new tears had formed.

He moved his lips onto yours, forcefully moving them over yours.

You had kissed him before – many, many times, but it felt so unfamiliar to you. You didn’t like the feeling, not one bit. At this point you had stopped trying to get out of his grip, it was no use.

You felt useless, you felt numb. You didn’t move your lips, you stopped moving your feet, your hands. You didn’t even know if you were breathing anymore.

You laid there, completely still. You were sure the blood circulation at your wrists was cut off from the tight grip around them. You couldn’t feel your fingers, you wondered if they had turned pale from the lack of blood.

You felt him gather both your wrists in one hand, the grip still tight. His hand descending down from your arms down to you neck, and finally your chest. His grip on your breast had you whine out in discomfort, but he misunderstood it as another emote, “you like that, slut?” You didn’t answer. You just looked up at the ceiling with your glossy eyes, wishing you didn’t feel so weak.

His hand moved away from your breast, descending lower. You felt his cold fingers cup your sex above the fabric of your pants 

And that’s when you felt it. It was as if his hand had been the electricity you needed to ignite your nerves back to life. “This cunt belongs to me.”

Your eyes shot directly to the disgusting man in front of you. “Get the fuck off me!” with all of the strength you had left in your body, you yanked both hands as hard as you could away from his, jolting your legs up and onto his chest trying to kick him off of you.

You bolted off of the bed, only to find a tight grip on your shirt yanking you back on the bed. However, it didn’t stop you from trying to escape – no – you had to get out of there.

With his fingers tangled in your shirt you pushed yourself near the door of his dorm. Reaching for the knob of the wooden material, you felt your shirt rip – you didn’t care.

You twisted the doorknob, opening the door and ran away as fast as you could. 

You felt drowsy, but the adrenaline in your blood fuelled you enough to make it far enough for you to be safe, however you didn’t stop, you didn’t feel safe. So you kept running.

“Y/N?” a grip on your wrist stopped your feet in place. You looked back with fright written all over your face. Wincing in pain at the pressure applied to your already bruised wrist.

You were panting with heavy tears streaming down your face, your lipstick was smeared all over you lips, your hair was a complete mess, your shirt was ripped, revealing so much skin you felt your dignity wince. You tried holding the torn fabric in place but your bra and skin was still very visible. Bruises and marks were plastered all over your neck.

Jungkook’s eyes widened, taking in your appearance. You yanked your hand out of his grip, “d-don’t touch me…” your voice was weak 

“Who did this to you?” his voice was quiet, stepping closer to you he took your hand in his, “Y/N, who the fuc-“

“I said don’t touch me!” once again you jerked your hand back, turning away before running back to your dorm.

You couldn’t stand to look at his face, you hated him with all of your heart. It was his fault. If he hadn’t touched you, your relationship with Jaehyun wouldn’t have ended, it would’ve been fine, you would’ve been fine. But you weren’t – and it was Jeon Jungkook’s fault.

Making it back to your dorm, you found Mina already sound asleep on her bed. Thank god, you sighed out of relief to yourself. In no way did you have the physical or mental capacity to explain your wrecked form to her, and on top of that would she, with no hesitation, go down to his dorm and beat the living shit out of Jaehyun if you told her what had happened.

You didn’t want any more trouble, so this was a secret you were going to take with you to the grave. You took off you leather jacket and changed your shirt into a non-damaged one. You wiped your face with a baby wipe in attempt to remove your smeared makeup.

Sinking your head into the pillow you let your quiet sobs mute themselves through the soft material.

–

Tuesday, 08:34 AM

You woke up feeling like absolute shit. Lazily you dragged yourself out of the bed to make your way over to the hall bathroom to get yourself ready for the day. Taking the essentials that you needed you dragged your feet down the hall.

Looking at the mirror, your eyes were slightly red from the countless amount of tears that had poured down your face the previous night. You wanted to cry again when you saw the marks on your wrists and neck.

No more crying, you have a day to get through, you thought to yourself while applying the concealer above the stains of dark purple and red. You applied cold water to your face in attempt to make them look somewhat normal again.

You finished your routine and made your way back to the dorm only to find Mina awake, on her bed scrolling through her phone. The sound of the door shutting caught her attention, shifting it to you, “Y/N, oh my god,” she dropped her phone beside herself on the bed, “how did it go yesterday?”

Trying not to have you voice crack you shrugged, swallowing thickly, “we broke up,” you smiled sadly. Her eyes softened.

Opening her arms to invite you into a hug, you gladly ran into her arms. Tears starting to form on your waterline once again, but miraculously you were able to stop them from spilling. “You wanna skip classes today? We could make it a fun girl’s day out!” she exclaimed excited.  

You couldn’t help but chuckle a choked giggle, “n-no that’s okay, It’d be nice to get busy with studies – I need to distract myself from this mess,” you pulled away from her embrace, “we could do something after classes are done if you want?” you suggested, but she only returned an apologetic look.

“I can’t, I have plans with Jimin – I could cancel them if you’d wa-“ you shook your head rapidly, “no, no don’t do that, there’s no need.” She smiled, “I have classes in like,” you checked your phone, “twenty minutes,” you told her while making your way over to the door, “I’ll see you later?”

She nodded, smiling warmly at you “definitely,” and with that you shut the door.

You couldn’t focus. Images of the previous night kept flashing through your mind. Never had you ever imagined your now ex boyfriend would forcefully prey himself upon you. And Jungkook… his face was smeared with concern, he looked so worried – why did he care?

He didn’t give shit about you, clearly since he tried to jeopardise your relationship with Jaehyun, and frankly, had succeeded clearly.

Class ended – packing your shit you left the hall with your gaze low, you weren’t in the mood to see, nor talk to anybody. You wanted to go back to your own dorm room and bury yourself in books until your disturbing thoughts left your mind.

You felt your phone vibrating against your hip. Reaching towards your pocket you pressed the home button, lighting up the screen.

-1m ago

Jungkook: Y/N

Jungkook: are you done with your classes?

You rolled your eyes; a text from Jungkook was the absolute last thing you needed right now.

You: yeah why

You put your phone back in your pocket but he was quick to respond, having you sigh as you stopped walking to view his message.

Jungkook: can we talk?

Fuck no you couldn’t talk. You couldn’t talk now, heck – you never wanted to ever talk to him again. Your stomach couldn’t bare the thought of talking to him, much less – see him. 

Not after everything that happened between the two of you. You wanted to claw your fingers at his face for turning your life into a living hell. Or was that entirely his fault? 

You: no

Jungkook: please, we need to talk.

You: I said no

Your phone kept vibrating but you didn’t care. You had to put your own mental health first here, you wanted to focus on yourself and your own goddamn well-being before fixing things with everyone else, and by everyone else you meant Jungkook.

There was no way in hell you were going to talk Jaehyun again.

Finally, you made it to your dorm room safe and sound. You placed your phone on your nightstand before dropping yourself onto your comfy, welcoming bed.

It had been such a long day, and it wasn’t even over. You felt like dunking your head in the toilet and flush, thinking it would feel much better than whatever you were feeling now.

Your eyes grew heavy, feeling yourself slowly shut them as you were about to fall asleep when and loud, too loud in your opinion, knock was heard from the door.

Whining, you stood up from your bed, unwillingly dragging your feet over to the door and opening it. What a big mistake that was. “Y/N,” you didn’t respond, attempting to close the door in Jungkook’s face, but his foot stopped you from doing so.

“Move,” you said sternly, “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit,” his eyes widened at the vulgar tone in your voice. “Move your foot,” you warned, that didn’t stop him though, “No, wait please –“ he attempted to open the door you had so rudely, almost quite literally, smacked in his face.

You didn’t care; being rude to him was the last thing you cared about.

“I really need to talk to you,” he pleaded, “ten minutes, that’s all I need,” you stopped abusing his foot with the door. Sighing heavily you thought about his proposition, “five minutes.” 

You opened the door to let him in, “ten,” your patience was running thin, “five, take it or leave it,” you said coldly.

Nodding gently, he entered the dorm. You sat on your bed, watching him awkwardly stand in front of your bed, “you can sit I’m not gonna stab you,” you huffed, which only made him chuckle, “you look like it,” he coughed awkwardly seeing the unamused look on your face. He quietly sat himself beside you, keeping a closer distance than you’d like.

“So…” he started, looking at you cautiously, “you’ve wasted two minutes,” you said checking your phone. Your cold eyes glanced back at his warm ones. “Uhm… Saturday huh.”

“Get out,” you pointed to your door, he furrowed his eyebrows sadly, “wha – I still have three minutes,” he let out gently, “yeah, not anymore. Get out of my dorm,” you stood up from your bed. “You can’t keep running away from this, Y/N,” he started, still seated on your bed, “we have to talk about this one way or another.”

You ran your fingers through your hair frustratingly; you really weren’t in the mood to talk to Jungkook, let alone talk to him about what the fuck had happened on Saturday. As immature as it seemed of you to run away, that’s what you needed. You needed to run away from this situation, from him.

“I don’t want to talk about Saturday, so if that’s all you came to talk about then you can be so kind and get the fuck out of my dorm, before I shove you out myself.” He tilted his head, rising from your bed, you stepped away when he took a step closer to you and he noted to keep his distance with you.

“Why are you so mad–“ you almost punched him in the face, “why am I so mad?” you repeated to yourself, “I don’t know, Jungkook. You tell me, why am I mad?” you smiled, but it wasn’t sincere, you were sure you looked like a complete psychopath to him.

“I d-don’t know, that’s why I’m asking…” he said in a small voice. You questioned why he looked so fragile in front of you, Jungkook had a well-built body, and if he needed to he could put it to use. Visibly he was much stronger than you, so why did he look scared of you.

“Because I fucked you!” you yelled, “we fucked! We had sex!” your voice grew louder by every word, you could visibly see him shudder at the sudden volume of tone.

You, however, kept going, “have you even begun to understand what the fuck that means?!” he shook his head, “that’s why I wanted to talk, I want to know what it means–“

“It means I cheated! I cheated on Jaehyun with you!” he sunk his head low, he looked like he was getting scolded by his mom.

You pinched the bridge of your nose in attempt to calm yourself down, “what were you trying to achieve. Honestly,” he was about to answer but you beat him to it, “were you trying to ruin my relationship.”

“What – no I wasn’t–“ you didn’t let him finish, “we broke up, so congratulations. Mission accomplished,” you clapped sarcastically with a bitter smile plastered across your lips. He stood there, completely mute. Silence took over the room. Was he supposed to say something?

“Do… do you want me to talk to him–“ your fists were tingling, begging you to put them to use and launch them towards his jaw.

“No!” feeling his knees giving up on him, he sat himself back on your bed, “don’t you want to get back with him?” he questioned in such a small voice you almost felt bad.

“No, I don’t,” the relief that washed over his eyes briefly only fuelled your anger, “why are you mad then?” Unbelievable.

“This is not about me cheating on Jaehyun, this is about me cheating in general!” he looked puzzled. “Why did you seduce me into it? Is this what you wanted? To see me on the brink of insanity?” he shook his head no, “then what?!” 

“B-because I actually wanted you!” for the first time, he raised his voice. “that’s why.”

The protest at the back of your throat died, “you fucking liar,” you were fuming with anger, you were sure you were going to go insane. “I’m not lying, I never acted to hurt you or make you feel used. I did what I did because I want you.” You didn’t believe him, no matter how reassuring his words sounded; you didn’t believe him one bit.

“Angel–“

“Don’t call me that.”

“I still don’t understand why you’re so mad at me… didn’t you want me?” You felt like crying, you had explained yourself to him countless times, he just didn’t understand. He wanted to hurt you, and clearly it was working. You were sure of it. Warm, fresh tears started forming, slowly blurring your vision and you saw Jungkook’s eyes softened at the sight of your teary eyes.

“I don’t know how the fuck I am supposed to feel about this. I cheated on my now ex boyfriend with you, and I have no fucking idea how I should feel about it.” You let your tears fall. “Do you regret it?” you felt weak, you forced your knees to keep you standing. 

“Are you shitting me – was that all you heard?” your mouth was quivering. You didn’t want to cry in front of him. You didn’t want to appear weak, but the damage was already done.

“Jaehyun can go to hell. How you feel about this is what’s most important to me,” you felt powerless under his gaze – it was your turn to feel small. “it’s a simple ‘yes’ ‘no’ question, Y/N, it shouldn’t take this long to answer.”

“what, I-“ it was his turn to cut you off, “did I fucking stutter? Do you regret it yes or no?” you stayed silent, “do you regret fucking me?”

“I don’t know!” you finally let out, your form trembling, “I don’t know…”  You sighed deeply; you rubbed your temple, trying to ease the agonizing headache that was forming. 

“I hate that I let myself go this far with you, but what I hate more is the fact that I don’t know if I regret it or not.” He rose from his seat, once again – attempting to reach out to you but you gave him a warning look. “Don’t,” you held out your hand in front of him indicating that he should stay in his spot exactly.

You mentally cussed yourself when you saw his gaze shift to your wrist – your bruised wrist. Completely disregarding your warning, he took your hand in his, carefully inspecting the dark blue and purple stains plastered all over your skin.

He ran his thumb over the dark discolouration gently, but even at that did you hiss – causing the dark-haired boy’s eyes in front of you to shoot up and meet yours. There it was, again, the unreadable expression on his face. Was it pity? Was it anger? Was it sadness? – You couldn’t tell. “Did he do this?”

Jungkook’s voice was quiet; his eyes sunk to your wrist. You lazily pulled your hand back to have it fall to your side, you didn’t have the energy to yell at him anymore, you didn’t have the energy to explain yourself, you didn’t even have the energy to lie to him.

“It doesn’t matter, I’m done with him,” he looked at you again, “of course it matters, he hurt you,” he started in disbelief, “how could that not matter?” his eyes widened as if he had realised something, “yesterday… in the hallway, when I saw you running.” He didn’t finish his sentence, taking in your lugubrious expression. His heart sank when he saw your face twitch in discomfort, as if you a painful image had flashed before your eyes. 

Your eyebrows furrowed, lips trembling while small quiet sobs rung through his ears.

He wanted to hug you. Fuck, you looked like you were going to break in half if he didn’t wrap his arms around you then and there. But you’d push him away and he knew it, so he restrained himself. “Y/N... I-I’m sorr–”

“Leave,” you whispered, you were tired, you were exhausted. You just wanted to be alone why was that so hard for him to understand? You looked down at your feet, you felt embarrassed. You didn’t want him to know you couldn’t protect yourself; you didn’t want to tell him what had happened to have left you with so many bruises.

“Jungkook, please, I’m begging you,” your voice was shaking at this point, and at that he let your hand go.

“Leave me alone.”

You failed to notice the hurt in his eyes, he slowly stepped away from you, heading towards the door with his head hanging low – to leave you alone, just like you had requested. You failed to notice the tears that had begun to sting his big doe eyes.

You failed to notice him.

–

A/N: not gonna lie, writing this part kind got me emotional. please don’t hate me for taking forever to write this part i’m sorRY, i tend to rewrite things a lot so i take my sweet sweet time :(( hope you liked it cuties, pleaseeee let me know what you think, i would love to improve my writing so don’t hesitate to give me some feedback! I think i rewrote this part at least twice ajhndshb. okkk bye for now! mwahhhh

[snowflake-of-destruction]

Imagine Roxas and Axel babysitting for Sora and Riku

Teamwork

"I like adding spontaneous, fun extra challenges to the day as much as the next guy, provided the next guy is you, but I have to say, I think Floor is Lava Tuesdays is a better idea than weird plastic puzzle locks on the cabinets."

Roxas glanced up from where he knelt on the floor, fixing covers and bars on the under the sink cabinets in the kitchen to see his husband framed in the doorway, looking the casual print ad model, chiseled lines under soft sweats, hands curled around a mug of steaming liquid that smelled almost as delicious as the holder (of course the mug was emblazoned with the word SLUT in bold letters which would probably have to be censored out of the ad), bun with just enough flyaways to seem careless but pulled to the perfect angle.  "I'm baby proofing."

"As the baby, I resent that remark," Axel tutted before setting his coffee next to the sink and crouching down beside Roxas. "What brought this on? You have some news to tell me?"

Axel expected an eye roll from his husband, but Roxas set the angry looking plastic finger trap he was holding down and ran a hand through his hair nervously, a mild pink tinge crawling up his neck and Axel felt his smile freeze in the middle of forming.  "Well, actually, I do have some news..."

"You're kidding." Axel felt his blood run cold and then super heated through his veins in quick succession as time slowed down.

Roxas's frown at the interruption morphed to a furrowed brow of confusion and then annoyance. "Axel, I told you already. Replica bodies don't work that way. I'm not going to 'go seahorse'"

"Xion can..."

"Xion is a special case. You are stuck with me with no alterations."

"Eh, I still have the much better end of the deal."

"Yeah, you do."

A shared smile and a quick kiss distracted Axel a moment longer from asking, "So what's the news?"

"I told Sora and Riku we'd babysit for them tonight." Roxas ripped the bandage off quickly. He braced for a less than enthusiastic response, though actually receiving one was still disappointing.

"Listen, I'm sorry about the acknowledgements. Every book I write is dedicated to 'my heart, my love, my Roxas.' I thought that was a given by now, and I just had to write what other dedications would come after it. It was the publisher's fault, and I should not be punished."

"I'm not punishing you," Roxas felt his face wilt as he picked back up the baby proofing supplies to finish what he had started. "I thought it would be fun. Riku and Sora really need a night out, and it gives us a chance to, you know, see what it's like."

It wasn't that Axel missed Roxas's hurt tone or his latter words and their meaning, even if they had been mumbled. It was more a combination of not wanting to be lured toward a slippery slope of manipulation or ready to revisit the conversation of whether he felt they should start seriously thinking about adding to their family soon rather than a general "some day" they'd always said before. Roxas had brought it up last week, and Axel appreciated that he had, but it hadn't exactly gone well when he'd been taken by surprise and his gut instinct response was less enthusiastic than Roxas had seemed to want. He was letting the idea soak in now, and it needed a little more time to marinate before he could give a response. If Roxas was going to push, it would probably need even more time. So it was better not to toe too closely to the sensitive, personal part of baby discussion and do what they both had the inclination to always go back to, deflection with a joke. "To let a Babynort into the house?"

"Ripan is not a Nort." Roxas hissed defense of his other's son since Sora and Ripan couldn't defend themselves.

"Then how come he has white hair? Answer me that," Axel challenged.

"He has silver hair. Like Riku. Riku's genes are the only inherited evil Ripan has and I don't think we should hold that against him. He's just a baby."

"No, no, babies are adorable balls for holding and cooing at and then handing back to their parents. Terrifying because their heads are squishy and they can't hold them up, but otherwise not dangerous at all. This thing is mobile. I've seen it." Axel lent the revelation the appropriate air of horror, though he neglected to mention he'd seen Ripan crawling up a wall, imitating either one of his fathers or the younger Incredible boy, which rendered his warning easily mistaken for his typical melodrama.

"That's why I'm baby proofing."

"Did you get the upstairs?"

"It's not going to be able to climb the stairs by itself...Is it?"

Axel thought it over since the stair thing seemed to alarm Roxas. "Probably more easily than it could get to the ceiling. I'm just going to feed it ice cream and hope that appeases it."

"I don't think it..he can have ice cream yet. Sora said he was going to write us a list of rules."

Axel's attitude toward the night ahead of them turned on a dime when the suggestion that someone else thought he was less than capable intruded to punch at his ego.  "Rules like what? We know what to do."

"Damn straight." Roxas stood, dusted off his hands, and stole Axel's coffee off the counter.

"We'd be great with kids," Axel insisted, reaching out to take the coffee back, taking a sip, and returning it to Roxas.

"That's right," Roxas encouraged.

"We take care of Demyx!" Axel could honestly say that he'd fed, bathed, and rocked Demyx to sleep under different circumstances. Luckily, no diapers had ever been involved. "We're Turkey's dads!"

"And he's the most demanding little baby of all!" Roxas championed Axel's logic even while being reminded that he'd forgotten to feed Turkey before starting his project with the cabinets. He'd have to rectify that now. It was a miracle Turkey wasn't already dramatically expressing the utter betrayal of being left to starve.

"Next to me," Axel provided the punchline at his expense.

"Next to you." Roxas leaned up on tiptoe to steal a kiss and pressed the coffee cup with its last sips at the bottom into his husband's hands for him to finish off. "Now go put on something more suitable for tonight."

"What's more suitable than sweats for babysitting a baby? A tarp?" Axel drained the coffee.

"Put on something nice."

"Is Ripan conducting a formal interview before storytime?"

"No, but his dads might."

Roxas's instincts turned out to be right. Sora and Riku not only had a list of rules but a pop quiz on protocol and babysitting readiness that needed to be passed before they would leave, despite the fact that Roxas and Axel, already had the job, were doing it as a favor, were only taking Ripan for a few hours and not permanently adopting him and taking him into the heart of Deep Jungle, and Riku and Sora's normal babysitter was a fifteen year old girl (though Violet had warned them that she might have to cut back even more than she had. Ripan and her brother Jack Jack tended to be "a little challenging" in her words, when she had to watch both of them).

Ripan's part of the testing was to sit on the floor sucking on his giraffe pacifier and rolling an alphabet block between his hands, occasionally looking up with large, liquid blue eyes either to question why he was sitting on a strange floor or to ask why his dads were still there. Or maybe to ask why the other baby curled in the entertainment center next to the cable box was so ugly and meowed.

"I promise you. Ripan is going to have so much fun tonight he's never going to want to leave...but he's also going to be asleep by nine and I won't forget to rub the cream on his arms before I put on his sleepytime shirt," Roxas swore, crossing his heart over the I like coffee and maybe three people shirt he'd neglected to change out of despite telling Axel to look nice.

"Okay, I believe in you," Sora assured him before selling out his husband. "But Riku sincerely does not. So can you please promise me you will take extra good care of our little angel? I know he's kind of a handful, but-"

"Are you kidding?" Axel chuckled, unperturbed. "You're talking to the best babysitters in the business. There is no one more qualified for this job."

"You've literally never done this before," Riku groused, hands clenching in his pockets as he regressed to his old nervous tick.

"We are totally capable of taking care of your precious angel, okay? It's not like we don't have kids too." Roxas gestured to the entertainment center where Turkey sat, eyeing the miniature human. It had eyes like His Boy, so Turkey thought he might be able to trust it, but the threat of someone else Heat Giver and His Boy might want to snuggle that was not Turkey was hard to face.

"That's why I'm concerned," Riku concentrated on breathing evenly through his nose and not sounding too snappish. "That is not a child. That is a cat in a knit sweater."

"We'll be fine," Roxas insisted, ignoring Riku's slight, when defending Turkey's status as first child would make Sora and Riku miss their reservation. "We have your list and everything he needs. You two just enjoy yourselves!"

"See, it's fine, Riku." Sora nudged Riku toward the door. "Bye Ripan! Behave yourself for your uncles!"

Ripan gurgled solemnly, swearing to be nothing but the perfect child.

"Have fun guys! We'll be back around eleven!" Sora nudged Riku a bit harder, recognizing him for the immoveable object he was. "Riku stop glaring and walk."

Roxas opened the door for them, Axel waved to them as they retreated, Roxas closed the door. It was a total of maybe fifteen seconds they didn't have eyes on Ripan. The first fifteen seconds they were in charge of the vulnerable life of the baby that had been sitting near motionless and content in the living room for fifteen minutes. The baby that was still sitting content after those fifteen seconds and still near motionless, just with his pacifier out of his mouth and on the floor beside him and his mouth working as if he were chewing.

Axel and Roxas shared a glance and dove at the same time. Ripan shrieked, which should have proved his mouth was empty, but Axel used the opportunity to sweep a finger inside the child's mouth to make sure. Ripan employed natural defenses. Namely, biting down as hard as he could with his four impressive teeth.

Axel howled. Ripan laughed which allowed the red head to withdraw his injured hand. Roxas comforted Axel, for a moment, then warned him not to take his eyes off Ripan again because they might not get lucky again, and went to wash floor germs from the pacifier for the first, but, by no means, last time of the night. Minute one drew to a close with everyone still unscathed.

Minute fifteen gave birth to everyone's least favorite game, Turkey Chase and Smack, though Crawl Behind Couch gave it a difficult battle for the title.

At the end of the first hour, a nice balance had been found and everyone was getting along until Axel tried to heat up a bottle by summoning fire in his hand and subsequently scalded his wrist while testing results, as well as putting the idea of fire into Ripan's head. Sora had been right. Ripan was very smart and liked to try and mimic what the big people did. The living room couch suffered.

The next hurdles were The Incident of the Second Bottle Being Too Cold, The Great Despair of not Being Able to Have Both Bottle and Pacifier at the Same Time, Bottle Gone Too Quick, The Pukening, Second Washing of the Pacifier and Trial of Separation Anxiety, The Changing of the Onesies with Ripan Super Spleen Kicking Action, and The Pukening Part Two: Roxas's Shirt Looks Absorbent.

It was all minor stuff. Normal stuff. Expected, other than perhaps setting fire to the couch.

The real trouble didn't begin until the pacifier was lost.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Ok, so I'm gonna start posting one-shots from my post putting others first one-shot book onto here. First, we have Trust In Me which is Roceit obviously.

Synopsis: It's been an entire week since the video and Roman hasn't come out of his room at all, not even to eat. After a discussion with Thomas and a heavy scolding from Remus, Janus realises that Roman has had a severe creative burn out.

Can Janus help Roman recover?

P.s This is based on my head cannon that Janus can force sides to sleep if they're not looking after themselves. I know in the video it saids denial but I think Janus's core functions are Deceit and Self Preservation especially because of the language he used during putting others first.

Tw: Self Harm, not looking after one's self and creative burnout.

It had been nearly over a week since the video and Roman had refused to let anyone in his room. After a talk with Virgil and Janus, they had both managed to make amends, Patton was so relieved. Thomas not only took time for himself but he talked with Virgil and reassured him that he trusted him. The youtuber also apologised to Logan for ignoring him and reassured him that he would listen to him more often. However, Thomas was overworking himself and began to sleep less. Everyone including Thomas thought Roman needed time to heal, boy they were wrong.

That brought Thomas to today, he was sleep-deprived and barely functioning. He knew that Janus would be the best one to call to help solve the problem due to him being the expert on self-care.

Janus sunk up in his new spot in the kitchen. He looked at Thomas with deep worry and concern.

"How can I help you, Thomas?!"

"I haven't been able to sleep, I took your advice but then I kept staying up later and later jotting down ideas."

"Ah, I see, Roman hasn't come out of his room since the video, he hasn't come down for meals. Every time Patton has left a plate outside Roman's door it has remained untouched. We haven't even been able to sink into Roman's room."

"Oh no that's bad!"

"Heck yeah and you deserve it, Roman's half of the imagination was on fire and I had to put it out all by myself."

"That kind of language won't help Thomas, Remus."

"You don't have the right to tell me what to do! Especially after you abandoned me and broke my brother."

"Re, he made fun of my name, he needed to know he was wrong. I was just trying to teach him."

"Don't you lie to me, you know your comeback broke him, in fact, it was worse. Look at Thomas and tell me that's a sign Thomas is ok."

"Your right, Thomas im going to use my powers on Roman. Lie down as you may begin to feel yourself drift off. Also, I advise you take a creative break as that will help Roman fully recover from whatever state he's gotten himself into."

"Thanks, Janus, make sure to send him to me when he feels better."

"Don't worry I will do, now do yourself a favour and sleep."

Thomas sunk into the covers and looked up to the sky before trying to fall asleep. Meanwhile, Janus and Remus sunk into the mindscape and hurried to Roman's Room. Remus tried the door nob but it was locked.

"Remus break down the door!"

"Yes sir!"

Remus summoned his morning star and began beating at the door till it was nothing but splinters. When the duo walked in they were absolutely heartbroken at the sight they saw. Roman was at his desk trying to come up with more ideas. The creative side, looked as thin as a twig, his prince costume was on the ground torn and he had bags underneath his eyes that could rival Virgil's eye shadow.

Roman hadn't even taken notice of the door being broken by Remus. His focus was purely on jotting down in his crimson red note book. Remus grabbed the torn up Prince costume.

"Remus go fix his costume, I can handle this!"

"J-J-Jay?"

"I'll take care of him, Remus."

"Thank you!"

Roman punched the desk in frustration, he was trying his hardest to help Thomas be productive and come up with good ideas. He couldn't remember the last time he slept or ate but he remembered that he needed to prove to Thomas that he was useful. He looked at his wrist and saw yet another bruise form on his already damaged body.

"Oh Roman, we've all been so worried, you haven't been eating any of the food Patton left outside of your door."

The creative side jumped at the sight of the snake. He was sure he had locked his door but when he saw the broken-down door he was highly confused. Roman looked at Janus with a cold expression.

"Roman, listen to me it's been over a week, Thomas is burned out for the constant input your giving. You need to rest, you've burnt yourself out."

"Why do you care snake, I'm the bad guy, I'm the one hurting Thomas and why did the others send you I thought they wanted me to be useful for Thomas and not hurt him."

"Roman, you're not hurting Thomas, you're hurting yourself, why can't you see that?"

"Because I'm always wrong, maybe we should go to the callback wrong, you're the bad guy wrong. Every time I share my ideas I'm wrong. It was wrong for me to make fun of your name it's actually gorgeous and suits you it's just I thought it was what the others wanted but clearly as always I was wrong."

"Oh Roman, how did we let you fall so far? I shouldn't have reacted the way I did you and Remus are not evil or similar your just both opposites and that's amazing. We all love you, Roman, when I nodded I was trying to reassure you that Thomas was telling the truth. You do so much for us."

"I-I how can I trust you, the others told me you were trying to manipulate me?!"

"I apologise for my behaviour I should have never targeted your self-esteem the way I did."

"It's ok it's my fault I should have been better but you see locked away I can be."

"No this is unhealthy behaviour, you're destroying yourself."

"I'll do- hey put me down!"

"Roman you need to rest!"

Janus gently placed Roman down on his King-sized bed. He closed his eyes focusing all of his energy on using his powers.

"N-no, need to help T-"

"Roman look at me you need to rest, you've gotten yourself severely ill."

"Jan-"

"Shhhh, Roman you need to rest."

"J-"

"It's ok, I'm right here, now sleep."

Janus gently stroked Roman's hair as his powers began to take effect. He continued to soothe the worn-out creative side.

"Don't fight it you need to rest."

"Janus how a-"

"Sleep."

Roman wanted to fight it to stay awake but for the first time in weeks, he felt so relaxed. The creative side drifted off into unconsciousness. Janus tucked Roman in and gently kissed him on the cheek. He then grabbed the thermometer and checked the temperature of the creative side. Janus gasped out how hot Roman was, this indeed was a severe burnout and it would take at least a few weeks to nurse Roman back to help. Guilt struck his heart if only they'd bothered to barge into Roman's room after the video, then this wouldn't have happened.

"Rest well, my love."

Roman groaned in pain, he felt as hot as lava. Everything was blurry and the only thing he could make out was a blur of dark blue and black.

"L-Logan?"

"It's alright Janus is in the kitchen, he told me what happened."

"I'm so-"

"I don't want to hear it Roman, I understand what it's like to feel like your not listened too. I forgive you, now drink up if you weren't a figment of Thomas we would have lost you by now."

"Pft thanks teach."

Roman accepted the cup of water and gulped it down as slowly as he could. His hand shook violently trying to hand the cup back to Logan.

The next time Roman, awoke was when he felt his mouth tingle. He adjusted to his surroundings releasing that he was still sick. The creative side gasped in shock weakly, when he saw the tall figure of his brother towering over him.

"You're an idiot you know that righty."

"Right, where's Jan?"

"In the kitchen again, he thinks some sweet things will help. Sorry, it's just I was so worried especially when we broke into your room."

"I understand, Rem I-"

"I know but promise me you'll stop this self-destructive, behaviour."

"I-I can't promise but I'll try my very best."

"Good Ro-bro, now open wide you need to take some medicine."

Roman's tongue tingled in delight feeling the strawberry flavoured liquid go down. He eventually once again felt drowsy and drifted off back to sleep.

Once again Roman awoke but this time he could hear soft Disney Music echoing across the room. He blinked and saw a soft blur of black and purple.

"Ha knew that would wake you up, princey."

"Virgil?!"

"Before you start questioning your brothers with Janus making share the snake gets some rest. He's never left your side you know, for hours he would only leave to cook you food."

"I-I didn't think-"

"Of course you thought that, oh how I wished me and Patton were less hard on you during the courtroom. We should have realised that you're just a fragile little butterfly sooner."

"Why am I a butterfly?"

"Because butterflies are so beautiful and graceful."

"Im not beautiful a-"

"Roman Creativity Sanders, I will not sit here and watch you talk bad about yourself. You matter and you are so important, if it wasn't for you Thomas wouldn't be where he is today if it wasn't for you Thomas wouldn't have a fan base that adore and idolise him. You're the one who tries to make Logan loosen up, you're the one who makes sure Patton is happy and you reassure me that Thomas is safe to take risks. You make us better!"

"I-I-"

"Well, it seems I've left you speechless, this is not your fault Roman, we're your fam-ILY we should have noticed that we were hurting you."

"Sor-"

"Not everything is on you Roman, you always try to be better, you tried to be nicer to me but I didn't do that in return."

"Um thanks, I guess."

"Here Patton made you some healing soup."

Roman carefully chugged down the soup, his hands still felt extremely achy. The next time he woke up to someone other than Janus was when he felt water trickling down his forehead. Roman looked up to see a familiar light blue and grey blur towering over him.

"Shh it's only me kiddo, how are you feeling?"

"Boiling."

"Your fevers died down, thanks to Thomas taking a creative break."

"He really did that for me?"

"Of course Kiddo, we've all been trying to help you recover especially Janus. In fact, he's talking with Thomas right now."

"I-I thought you all hated me, I thought everything I did wasn't good enough."

"Don't ever say that again I really do mean it kiddo we love ya. From now on I'm gonna show how much we care. I see it now that I wasn't just hurting Thomas with my strictness it hurt you too and for that I'm sorry. You're allowed to be flawed."

"Thanks, padre it-it um means alot to me."

"Now here you're still sick so you still need to take your medicine."

It took approximately four weeks for Roman to heal from his drastic creative burnout. The side crawled out of bed and changed into his black undergarments. He still didn't quite feel worthy of his Prince costume but he still felt ready to confront his others. As soon as he opened the door he was greeted by Janus who looked like he was about to burst into tears.

"R-Roman, you've fully recovered."

"Yeah, mainly thanks to you, why didn't you tell us your other main functions were denial and self-preservation."

"Only Virgil and Remus knew of my functions and powers. I just knew that you guys wouldn't believe me."

"Well, I'm very grateful you stayed by my side."

"Ah, it was nothing but seriously both you and Thomas need to learn that selfishness can be good sometimes."

"I remember me, telling you I went against you to please the others and that still stands. You were right from the beginning and I should have realised you were trying to tell me that giving up the call back to please the others was not ok."

"I'm glad you've learned and I promise you if you lie about how your feeling I'll call you out on it."

"Thank you, Janus."

"My pleasure Roman, I did promise to send you to Thomas as soon as you'd recovered but I'm sure your starving, Patton cooked your favourite."

"Mmmm lasagne."

"Bon appetite."

After that horrible burnout, Roman never ever bottled up his feelings, he even got to share his room with Remus. Thomas got another callback and he made sure this time that he compromised with his friends. It took a while but a lot of the fanders began to understand Roman's importance and problems as well. Roman stans were no longer the rarity.

The End

[crossxskulled]

Mailing chocolates, it seemed, was too impersonal. The Japanese tradition was to give them in person, was it not? And as a surprise, at that. That left Sonia with only one option. She would have to give Ryuji the Valentine’s Day treats she’d arranged herself and with little explanation as to why she needed to meet him that day. Hopefully, he wouldn’t ask too many questions about why she wanted to meet in one of Shibuya’s parks, as opposed to the usual convenience stores and inexpensive restaurants they often visited. She didn’t think it was right to bring such gifts to a dining establishment and she certainly couldn’t visit his home. Thankfully, Haru had been a wonderful help correcting the Princess of Novoselic some of the cultural implications that, at home, would have been a non-issue.

“I hope this wasn’t too terribly inconvenient for you, and I’m not sure if you even like these really,” Sonia began, surprising herself by dancing around the point she was trying to make. At least she spoke clearly and smiled through it all. “But I hope you accept these Valentine’s Day chocolates. Happy Valentine’s Day, Ryuji-san!”

Inside the golden yellow box and coordinating bow, rows of pyramid-shaped dark chocolate candies and round milk chocolate truffles were neatly arranged. The dark chocolates were filled with dark chocolate ganache and liquid fondant to be tiny lava chocolates that would ooze upon biting past the outer shell. But the milk chocolates were filled with chocolate-hazelnut filling, far less messy, and rolled in crushed macadamia nuts. “I remember you telling me about your class trip to Hawaii, the one you seemed to quite enjoy with your friends! I’ve never been myself, but I thought a chocolate volcano and macadamia nuts might remind you of a wonderful time.”

___________________________

☠ - Time managed to bleed through his hands despite a shift of a holiday, hardly slowing, rather, keeping that same pace of trickling sands while he pushed through his training on this day. Motivation and a return to old form blew the blonde’s mind in ways he could’ve of perceived. So what better day to productively blow all that energy than at the gym? Through the help of his old coach and upperclassmen by the name of Ikeda, a regimen that remains rigorous, reward and perfect for warding off the rust across his body’s specifics was the goal for this Valentine’s day.

Gaining a small bounty of friendship chocolate had been a unforeseen boon that only made him double down. Seeing the smiling faces of those knuckleheads had been too much of a damn treat not to do anything less. (Taking Yusuke out to get a good meal as a miniature get-together had also fit into that equation.)

If only he could’ve known why Haru kept such a doting voice of knowing in her town. Ryuji simply brushed it off as a means of her being jovial in the atmosphere, enjoying the time no different than he had.

One text message however completely altered the route of his plans like a fork in the river. Business was business and his partners at the gym kindled a brand of training related friendship. So of course knowing the season, there he was being tacked on out with a number of teases, especially seeing how February serves as the season for some to shoot their shot, couples to get more couple-y, while some managed to romanticize facets of romance to make the world look a touch more sunshine and rainbows.

‘Too bad’ that with a huff and a laugh, he’d call them all some bastards after he freshened up, changed, and rolled out back to the busy streets. Like a bolt amidst a mass of sky,. he’s nimble and dedicated to his beeline, wading his way through the day filled with either saturated hopes or the jaded atmosphere as Inokashira Park remains the place to meet with a girl who’s pleasantly been in his thoughts. Just thinking of a touch of their previous ventures makes a chuckle rumble in his chest.

Oh yeah. There sure as hell was a good deal of memories they’ve made since their arrangement while having a blooming friendship.

“Yo, Sonia!” His cheerful voice would soon call as the scenery of an opened sky is replaced with the natural roofing of branches and trees. That had caught her attention, leading to them catching eyes and suddenly having her.. look a touch bashful?  Or maybe that skittered in his imagination. Just being met with a soft nod while she balanced something in her hands was a little weird? Here he was much more adjusted to a upbeat prestige or the excitable questions to explore a world that cast refined inclination to the side.

”My bad it took me a lil longer than usual to hop on the scene here.” He begins, grunting in distaste at his tardiness. “The short notice caught me att middle up at the gymmmm-- ah ah, not that it’s a big deal or anything!” That definitely had to be set once she made mentions of inconvenience! Heading out for someone he cares for always had a priority even if there were routine plans for a day. ...And now that he’s getting a better look at this whole situation. Wasn’t that introduction of her’s a touch too kind while she swayed a bit in her spot? Once their eyes met with a gentle glare of sunlight remaining in between, the answer soon arrives, dressed up in an ornate box that makes his eyes pop open a deal wider while unceremoniously dropping that duffel bag of his to the ground.

Unexpected? Unexpected. Somehow that mind of his couldn’t translate the moment at hand while his eyes shoot open like saucers at the ornate box she presents between them both! Seeing that particular design as if she plucked this from the lap of luxury... That made the ticker within his chest speed on up, for real. ‘Wha wha wha.. Whoa! Hold on! Am I seein’ this right!? I.. She had plans of hauling some of these to me?! People usually just roll these out in the hand bags! But this.. I-’ Any other thoughts failed to meet the mark of coherency as he could only stop, stare, and just drink in the view of that familiar smile and the presented box set before him.

Soon a pair of mildly shaky hands would come to take it. No longer was it the aftermath of a good workout that supplied such heat, nor the hot shower taken before making his way on down here. The act in offering this gift itself had burned a fuzzy brand of energy through him while his fingers braced upon the box and drew it a touch closer. Naturally too curious for his own good, this led him to a world of intricate design, for chocolate of all the damn things! Being a more modest and moderate fan had left him ignorant to the designs outside of chocolate bars to bats and eyes on the Halloween days.

Seeing the spread while hearing the story began to tack so many of the pieces together. Antsy thoughts were quelled by the truth of her intentions, the inspiration as to why they’re designed this way and kindness shuffled into each and every one. Had she really been thinking that deeply over one of their past times while getting this fixed up?

So to see Sonia place that much care into him causes a soft sensation to well up as the dominate point of feeling. Settled upon his face was a genuine look of contentment swirled together with a touch of gratitude. “You.. Really went through a damn lot, huh? I mean.. Look at these! So frickin’ cool and designed like people draw with chocolate!” His enthusiasm instantly takes the charge while he glosses over them, taking a touch longer to notice how the play of positioning also added to that! This for sure got a ‘Yoooooooooooo!’ strained from his lips as his eyes instantly sparkled with joy.

”Almost doesn’t make me wanna eat ‘em.. Almost! Maybe I can keep a few for a touch longer and..” Noticing that his delight might’ve had him going on a small tangent made him a touch self-conscious, causing him to seize up while a soft laughter escapes from him. If it wasn’t clear from his expression alone within their momentary getaway of the park’s atmosphere, Ryuji here was really pleased with the gift. ..To the point that somehow the whole Valentine aspect hadn’t reigned as the highest mark of importance.

Spending some more time with her instinctively feels like the best bet in his eye. Taking good care in the way he closes the box, the dropped bag is quickly swiped up before he makes a charged point to one of the sites of scenery appreciating seating off to the side.

“In that case! You sure as hell unlocked a route to some more funny stories! C’mon- how about we try some of these together while we kick back for a while?”

....

“Oh and uh.” This much would be said as they pressed off to the selected spot. “Happy Valentines Day to ya too, Sonia. Thanks for this..”

Today would be another one filled with fun promise.

[celtics534]

NFWMB

Posting chapter 12 a whole day early! I hope this makes you happy @breaniebree​😂  ... well you might not be when you reach the end 😈. 

Also Read on: FF.net or AO3

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Ginny groaned as she rolled onto her back. She couldn’t open her eyes. The mere idea of lifting an eyelash made her tired. And her head pounded. Oh, how her head was pounding! 

  She could see the brightness on the other side of her eyelid, but Ginny had no desire to know what time it was or even where she was. Not even the sound of her own name could make her open her eyes. 

  “Come on, Ginny.” This time when the voice spoke, it was as if an earthquake shook her body. Ginny groaned, hating everything and everyone at that moment. She peeled her eyes open, instantly squinting at the brightness in the room. 

  "Thank fucking Merlin!" The all-too-loud voice was back again as Ginny tried to register where she was. It was soft; she could tell that because her back wasn't screaming in agony. "Sit up a bit and drink this." 

  A hand came to her back, pushing her into a half-lying, half-sitting position before a vial was pressed to her lips. It was like lava was forced down her throat. Ginny spluttered as the liquid kept coming. Finally, the torture stopped. Ginny swallowed one final time. 

  “What the fuck!” she complained, opening her eyes to a grinning McKidd. 

  “Sorry, Red.” Though Ariel didn’t sound very apologetic. “I figured you’d want to come back to life sometime before practice on Monday.”  

  “Monday?” Ginny blinked a few times, memories starting to come back to her. Fire at Prue’s, drinking so many drinks, inviting Harry to the loo, then… nothing. She looked up at her friend. “What happened?” 

  Ariel’s grin became impish. “We just had a few drinks.” 

  Ginny rolled her eyes, instantly regretting the action. The hungover potion hadn’t taken full effect yet and that simple motion sent a bass drum pounding in her head. Her hand came to shield her eyes from the suddenly over-bright room again. “I figured that part out for myself, thanks. I meant what happened after we stopped drinking.” 

  “Ah, that’s where the night got interesting. To be honest I didn’t remember much myself until I flooed with Joy who gave me a blow by blow.” 

When Ariel paused Ginny had to tame back her annoyance. “Care to share?” 

  “Well for starters, Hogan made a move on me.” 

  “Not surprised, he made a move on me yesterday.” 

  “Did he now?” Ariel’s eyes widened at this new piece of gossip. “Why didn’t you tell me last night?”

  “I had other things on my mind.” It wasn’t a lie. Ginny’s mind had been focused on other things, like what her drink limit was going to be and how attractive Harry looked as he sat on that sofa with the flames lighting his face ever so slightly. “Anyways, I’m sure you turned him down.”

  “Fuck yeah I did. That gormless git walked off with his tail between his legs”

  “It wasn’t like he had much of a tail to begin with” 

  Ariel’s mouth dropped wide open for a moment before she started to laugh. “ Fuck , girl! Are you saying he’s got a stub? A shillelagh that you couldn’t use? A flute so small -- ”

  Ginny could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. She hadn’t meant for the tail analogy to be taken so dirty , but when she started to think back... “Trust me when I tell you, you didn’t miss anything impressive.”

  McKidd’s grin became wicked. “And who has the most impressive tail you’ve played with?” 

  “Har --” Ginny cut herself off. Christ, her mouth had developed a mind of its own! 

  The smile on Ariel’s lips became feral. “Were you about to say the name of our very fit seeker?” 

  “I - I - uh - I,” Ginny knew her face must match her hair. 

  McKidd let out an excited screech. She gave Ginny’s hip a push, squeezing herself onto the mattress. “When did this happen?!” 

  “Who said —”

  Ariel let out an annoying noise. “Girl, don’t insult my intelligence or my eyesight. I can see the way you two look at each other's plans.” She leaned in a strong scent of mint coming in with her. “How long ye been on that ride?”

  When Ariel got excited her Irish accent tended to become much more pronounced. Ginny swallowed hard. Ariel had turned her whole body so she was giving Ginny her full attention “About three months.”

  “Three months!” McKidd’s eyes bugged wide as she stared at Ginny. A red tinge blotted Ariel’s cheeks. “Three months and ye just bloody telling me!” 

  Ginny gave her friend a sheepish grin. “We wanted to keep things on the down-low.”

  “Well, you feckin’ did that!”

  Silence fell between them after the angry words. Ginny didn’t know what to say. Ariel was prone to exploding, but typically the eruption would only last for a moment before she would make some awkward-yet-needed joke. But as the seconds ticked on, Ginny started to worry.

  Finally, after what felt ages, Ariel’s huffed out a long breath. “You could have told me, you know?”

  “I know.” Ginny rubbed the back of her neck. “It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you, or something, it’s just…” 

  “You two wanted some peace without the team taking the piss while still in that awkward, delicate stage.” 

  “Yeah, exactly!” Ginny felt her shoulders sag in relief, grateful that her friend understood her so well. Well, she understood the part that didn’t involve some crazy stalker, but Ginny wasn’t going to try and explain that. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you know.” 

  Ariel’s lips twisted into a crooked grin. Her cheeks had gone back to their normal pale tone.  “Are ye now?” 

  “Yeah, I’ve sorely missed the opportunity to tell my best friend about my relationship.”

  “Well now, I say we need to fix that.” The wicked grin returned. “And as punishment for waiting so long, I think I should get to ask five questions that you can’t refuse to answer.” 

  “Well now…:” Ginny’s gut did a somersault, she knew exactly the kind of questions Ariel would ask. “I don’t —”

  Ariel cut her off with a finger to her lips. “Nope. It’s only fair, Red.” 

  Ginny looked down at the digit silencing her. She knew Ariel wouldn’t take no for an answer. She took payback seriously, no matter what the request was. After a deep calming breath Ginny nodded. 

  “Savage!” Ariel let her hand fall down to the sheets. Before Ariel could speak again Ginny said, “But I reserve the right to hold back details that intrude too far into personal information.”    

  Ariel narrowed her eyes. “Like?”

  Ginny looked right into her friend’s glare. “You know exactly what I mean.”

  McKidd tapped her fingers on the soft sheets, after a few moments of deliberation she nodded gracefully. “Fine, I won’t press if I cross a line.”

  “Thank you.” 

  “You’re welcome. Now — ” Ariel clapped her hands together, “let’s get back to talking about this tail you found so impressive.” 

  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  When Ginny entered the kitchen of her parents’ house, she could have sworn her cheeks were still red. Ariel had asked so many questions about her and Harry’s sex life that Ginny was certain her cheeks would stay permanently flushed from embarrassment. Well, that and the hours of laughing. Ginny hadn’t realized just how much she missed sharing with Ariel until her ability to be completely open had been taken away. Ariel’s cheeky comments alone had Ginny in stitches.  

  It was odd, but because she couldn't tell Ariel about this one thing, Ginny had distanced herself from her friend without even realizing it. But now, Ariel knew (maybe more than she should) and Ginny had felt like a weight had lifted off her chest that she hadn't even realized was there. 

  "There you are." Molly Weasley was in full mother hen mode. Her hands landed on her hips as she narrowed her eyes at her daughter. "You're almost an hour late." 

  "I know." Ginny moved to kiss her mother's cheek, hoping to weaken the cross woman’s resolve. "I'm sorry. I lost track of time with Ariel." 

  "Hmm." Molly pursed her lips, but Ginny could tell there wasn't any real bite behind the motion. "I'm assuming you two had a late night last night?"

  "You could say that." 

  "And could I also say that you had a bit of a hangover when you woke up?”

  “I won’t confirm or deny your suspicion.”

  Molly’s lips twitched as a smile tried to break free. “Well, maybe you can confirm if you know what you’ve forgotten to do today?”

  “Forgotten?” Ginny felt her brow crease as her mind tried to understand what her mother was talking about. 

 “You were supposed to bring someone to sup —”

  “ Harry !” Ginny smacked herself on the forehead. How could she have forgotten to go get her boyfriend? She had literally spent the morning talking about him with Ariel. “Bollocks!”

  Molly finally let out a laugh. “You best give him a call.”

  “I - good idea!” Ginny moved quickly to the fireplace, grabbing a pinch of the powder from inside the flower pot before dropping to her knees. It didn’t take long for Ginny to be looking around the simple sitting room of Harry’s flat. 

  “Harry!” Her voice seemed to echo around the room. “Harry!” 

  She waited for what felt like ages, only the echoing silence to keep her company. Finally after six years (or a minute of normal time), Ginny pulled her head out of the grate. Her mother stood behind her, an expectant smile on her lips. “Well?”

  “He didn’t answer. I’m gonna go over and get him. He might have been in the shower or maybe he’s taking a kip.” 

  Molly nodded her understanding. “All right, dear, but don’t take too long.” 

  Ginny nodded quickly. Knots formed in her stomach as she entered the fireplace. It wasn’t like Harry to forget about appointments, especially something like this. He’d been asking her questions for the last three days constantly, trying to learn as much about her family as possible. The idea of him not showing up… no, it wasn’t like Harry at all.

  “Harry?” Again, her voice broke the eerie quiet of the flat as she stepped out of the grate. “Hey, Harry, we're supposed to have tea with my parents. Are you home?” 

  Nothing. 

  Not even a creak of a floorboard reached Ginny’s ears. A shiver ran down her spine as she moved throughout the flat. There was no sign of Harry anywhere, not in the loo or the kitchen. When she entered the bedroom Ginny was surprised to see it looked exactly as they’d left it before going to Prue’s. 

  Harry was meticulous when it came to making the bed in the morning. It was something Ginny loved to tease him about. He always took it in stride, saying it made it that much more rewarding when they got home at night and messed it all up. But because they’d left late for Prue’s fire, Harry hadn’t straightened the covers last night. If he’d come home after the party and slept in his own bed, those sheets would be creased perfectly right now. 

  Ginny fought to keep her breathing level. Maybe he’d just gone off with one of the lads last night and crashed at their place. Then a troublesome memory came unbidden into her mind. Her hands roaming up Harry’s body as she told him to meet her in the loo. His eyes had darkened with unmistakable desire before she’d turned her back on him. Then… then...

  She tapped the side of her head as if that would reactivate her hazy memory. She couldn’t remember him joining her in the first-floor loo. No, the next thing she could recall was Ariel finding her mixing different bath bombs to see what would create the best scent. 

  A fist closed around her heart as she sat down hard on the mattress. Where the fuck was Harry?

  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  “What do you mean you can’t find him?” Bill hissed as his eyes narrowed. Ginny had gone back to the Burrow, making an excuse to her mother about Harry spending the night at a teammate’s flat, and claiming he would join them as soon as he could. Molly had looked disappointed, but turned back to the treacle tart she had been making. 

  Ginny had instantly gone to her eldest brother, who had been sitting with his wife as their daughter had a tea party with them. Bill had quirked a brow at Ginny as she asked for a private word, but he’d asked Victoire if he could be excused from the delightful party. He had followed her out to the old, crooked chicken coop that sat a little way from the back door. 

  “I mean just what I said. I literally can’t find him.” Ginny had to force herself to remain calm. Every fiber of her being was telling her Harry was in trouble. 

  “And you checked with his mates? He didn’t spend the night at one of their places? Or maybe he’s still at Prue’s. He could have fallen asleep in one of her spare rooms, right? I’m assuming he had a bit to drink last night.” 

  Ginny ignored her brother’s disapproving tone, instead of focusing on his words. “Yeah… it’s possible but I can’t see him not coming to find me when he woke up.”

  “Maybe it’s one of those he’s searching for you, while you search for him and you keep missing each other.” 

  Even Bill didn’t look convinced by that one. Ginny shook her head. “Bill, he’s a fucking auror. If he was looking for me he’d find me. That’s literally his job.” 

  Bill ran a hand over his head. His chest rose as he took a deep breath. “I don’t know, Ginny. What are you suggesting? Harry was taken hostage or something? It’s like you said, he’s the auror.”  

  There were the words that had been playing throughout her mind for the last thirty minutes. Taken hostage. She stared intently at her brother. “Yeah he is but we know nothing about this guy who's been following me. What if he decided the best way to get to me is to take out my bodyguard?”

  “Harry didn’t appear to be a bodyguard. He was posing as a teammate, remember?” 

  Ginny rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, it’s so normal for a teammate to be with me every second of the day.” Her feet took a mind of their own as she started to pace back and forth, the uneven ground tripping her up every few steps. “What if the creep decided to grab Harry and then try to find me?”

  “And when did he get to Harry?” 

  She had to think about that for a moment. “During the party,” Ginny started, the words coming out slowly as her mind tried to keep up. “He’d had a few drinks I think. Maybe the person grabbed him on the way to the loo.”

  “On the way to the loo?” Bill raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?” 

  “Because the last time was before I —” Ginny cut herself off, her cheeks heating as the memory of what she’d planned for Harry that night replayed in her mind. She cleared her throat, hoping Bill wouldn’t ask why her cheeks matched her hair. “He said he was going to go to the loo last time I saw him.” That was close enough to the truth… or as close as she was willing to give her brother. 

  Bill narrowed his eyes for a moment, before nodding slowly. “Alright. So after that, you didn't see him for the rest of the night?”  

  Ginny shook her head. “No, not once.”

  “That… that doesn’t sound like Harry.” Bill let out a long breath. “He would have checked on you again throughout the night.” 

  “Right!” Ginny threw her hands up into the air. “If not because we're together, but because it’s his bloody job!”

  “Okay, so I guess your theory has some merit.” Bill bit his bottom lip. “But who would have taken him? Who was at that party, Ginny?” 

  “Everyone. Prue invited everyone from the team, even just crew members.” 

  Bill tapped a finger on his thigh. “Of course it wasn’t a small gathering, that would have been too easy. Harry told me his suspicions of the new team healer. Was he there?” 

  Ginny nodded. “But did Harry tell you his name?” 

  His brow furrowed. “No. Does that matter?” 

  “Well...” Ginny shrugged.“Only if you think that it’s important to note that it’s my ex.” 

  “Which one?” 

  “Finn.”

  Bill’s hand stilled. “You mean the one who —”

  Ginny cut him off, having no desire to relive that particular time. “Yes, that one.”

  He sighed. “Okay, yeah that does make a difference. There is no way for me to know if it was just jealousy leading his suspicions, or not.” 

  Ginny bit her bottom lip. She hadn’t meant to make Bill doubt Harry’s professionalism. “I’m sure Harry hadn’t had the chance to tell you what Finn did yesterday.”

  When Bill shook his head, Ginny told him about what happened in the exam room, then what happened when Finn had found them during the party. At the end of her story, Bill’s twitchy fingers curled around his wand. “So, I think we best go and talk with Mr. Hogan.” 

  “Maybe… maybe you should go talk with him, while I go check with Prue and see if Harry crashed at her place last night.” 

  Bill smiled knowingly at her. “Don’t wanna deal with Finn, huh?”

  “Not in the slightest.” 

  “Fair enough. All right, how about this. I’m going to go floo Jamison and see if he’s heard from Harry. Then I’ll head over to Finn’s. Do you have his address?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve had no desire to make a home visit.” 

  Bill swore. “All right, I’ll see if Jamison can do something for me.” He placed a hand on Ginny’s shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. 

  Ginny’s heart continued to race despite her brother’s comforting hand. She’d been trying to ignore the overwhelming cloud of panic that had been trying to swallow her, but it continued to suffocate her. If something had happened to Harry… If he was hurt or… No ! Ginny refused to let herself think like that. 

  She looked up into Bill’s determined blue eyes, forcing her terror to stay tamed (at least for a while longer). “Let’s go then.” 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

  Ginny used the grand knocker on Prue's ostentatious entryway. She looked up at the numerous large windows that spanned the entire three floors. Ginny never understood why someone would want such an unnecessarily large house, but then again she had always thought less was more in the sense of houses. That was something she and Harry both thought.

  Harry

  A sharp stab of pain protruded from her chest. God , what if Finn had grabbed Harry because he was jealous of their relationship . Ginny wouldn’t have thought it possible of the blonde healer, but after the irritation she’d seen in his eyes after he’d found her and Harry… 

  “Ginny?” 

  Prue’s puzzled expression appeared in front of Ginny. She’d been so distracted that she hadn’t even noticed the door opening. Ginny took a deep breath, hoping to calm her fraying nerves. She needed to stay focused, for Harry’s sake. “Hey, Prue.”

  “Is… is everything alright?” Prue grabbed her hand, pulling her into the house. 

  “Not --  not really.” Ginny let her friend guide her into the large sitting room. Prue eased her onto a sofa. “I can’t find Harry.”

  Prue blinked once. “Why are you looking for ‘Arry?”

  “He and I —” Ginny couldn’t lie anymore. She just didn’t have the energy. All her stamina was going into keeping herself calm. “We’ve been dating.”

  “Really?” There was an edge to Prue’s voice that Ginny didn’t like. She looked into her friend’s eyes seeing a flicker of… was that rage? Before Ginny could confirm what she’d seen, Prue’s face only showed curiosity.

  “ Yeah ,” Ginny said the word slowly. “I’m sorry for not telling you. I’m sure you’re angry at me for —”

  “ No .” Prue cut her off with a wave of a hand. Her tone seemed friendly, as normal “No, I’m not mad, just... juste surpris, c'est tout .” She made a noncommittal gesture. “When did this all happen?”

  There was still something nagging at Ginny. “Not long after Spain.” 

  Prue’s face broke into a joyful smile “Oh that is merveilleuse .”

  “Yeah, it’s been great.” Never before had Ginny felt so uneasy in Prue’s presence, but there was something about that smile… it didn’t reach her eyes. “But I was wondering if he got a little too drunk last night and fell asleep in one of your extra rooms.”

  “Fell asleep… hmmm.” Prue thought for a moment before shaking her head emphatically. “ Désolé, chérie . He didn’t fall asleep in any of my beds.”

  Ginny looked into Prue’s bright eyes. She looked so… genuine, yet there was still that feeling of unease curling around Ginny’s belly. Biting her lower lip, Ginny nodded. “Okay, then I’ll get out of your hair.” 

  “You are no bother, Ginny.” Prue stood with her. She leaned in for a hug, that Ginny unwillingly accepted. “Let me know if I can help in any way.”

  “I will.” Ginny stepped back, looking over Prue as if she’d never seen her before. “See you later.” 

  “ Au revoir .”

  The moment Ginny closed the front door behind her, she looked around the luscious yard. Ginny wasn’t the gambling sort, but at that moment she’d bet every knut in her account that Prue knew something. The question was, what was she hiding... and how could Ginny find out?

  She made a split-second decision. Taking out her wand, Ginny cast a quick disillusionment charm on herself. She moved around the side of the house, trying to avoid crunchy sticks. When she reached the back door, Ginny opened it slowly. The kitchen was empty as she peered around the space. Ginny had only been to the estate a few times, so most of the layout was a mystery to her. She only knew the location of five rooms: Prue’s bedroom, the largest loo, the first sitting room, a grand dining room, and of course the kitchen. 

  Ginny moved into the entryway. She could see Prue sitting in the sitting room, a book in hand. She let out a sigh of relief. It was good to know where Prue was. Moving slowly, Ginny took each step up to the first floor with caution, praying none of them creaked or groaned. After what felt like she’d climbed to the top of El Peñón de Guatapé, Ginny stepped out on the familiar landing. To her left was the loo she’d been in last night. Starting there, Ginny opened every door in the corridor. There was the loo, bedroom, library, another bedroom, yet another bedroom, a room that was empty except for a grand piano, another bloody bedroom. By the time she reached the last door on the floor, Ginny was losing hope. The odds of this room being just another bedroom was nearly enough to make Ginny forget about it. 

  Rather than giving in to her agitated urge, she turned the handle to the hardwood door. 

  Nothing.  

  Ginny blinked once, twice, and a third time before her imagination took off. Why was this room locked? The rest of the floor had been easy to access, so why had Prue secured this one door? Pointing her wand at the handle, Ginny nonverbally cast the opening charm. This time when she tried the handle, it turned. 

  The sound of footsteps made Ginny freeze. She’d only opened the door halfway. Moving quickly, Ginny pulled the door back shut before pressing herself against the empty wall across from the room. 

  Prue whistled as she walked up the stairs. Ginny didn’t recognize the tune, but it seemed to be rather cheery. Ginny’s entire body stiffened as she held her breath. Her heart thudded against her chest so loudly that she was afraid Prue would hear it. But Prue didn’t stop her lively tune as she pointed her wand at the door Ginny had just unlocked. With a quick movement, Prue unlocked the door and entered the room, closing the door with a sharp thud behind her. 

  Ginny let out all the air her lungs had hoarded in a long sigh. She crept to the door, placing her ear on the hardwood. Nothing. Clearly the room was so large she couldn’t hear what was happening on the other side, or there was charm muffling any noise. Ginny’s money went on the latter.  

  She needed to get into that fucking room! It was too suspicious. But she couldn’t just march in there while Prue was there. Ginny wanted to punch something. This was that spot between a rock and a hard place her mother always talked about. 

  Taking a deep breath, Ginny moved back into her little corner. She would wait for Prue to come back. Maybe it was just another room… but with every beat of her racing heart, Ginny knew better.

[thebladeblaster]

Pokémon: the Dark Circuit (aka Vanguard Descends season 2)

Chapter 5 Battle At Sea

Aichi’s current team

Level 79 Wingal (Lycanroc (dusk)) rock

Moves:

Stealth rock

Crunch

Stone edge

Play rough

Level 77 Llew (Golisopod) water/bug

Moves:

Sucker punch

Blizzard

Liquidation

First impression

Level 78 Gancelot (Lucario) fighting/steel

Moves:

Focus blast

Stone edge

Meteor mash

Dragon pulse

Level 85 Soul Saver (Haxorus) dragon

Moves:

Outrage

Iron tail

Dragon dance

Scale shot

Level 100 Alfred (Aegislash) ghost/steel

Moves:

Sacred sword

King’s shield

Iron head

Shadow Claw

After getting out of the bath, they went to the dining room. Like most other rooms in the castle it was unnecessarily large. Aichi didn’t linger on that too long after the food was set on the table. He felt his mouth water as his stomach growled again. He tried to remember his table manners despite his intense hunger. Though, just shoveling food into his mouth was extremely tempting. He resisted the urge and ate at a reasonable pace. Llew however instantly dug in. Wingal sniffed the food cautiously before deciding it was safe and started eating. Gancelot ate more cleanly than the other two, but in their defense they can’t hold silverware anyway. Soul Saver mimicked his table manners similarly to how she did in Alfred’s castle. Speaking of Alfred…

Aichi looked over to where Alfred was; he seemed to have wandered off. He felt a bit worried especially with Ahmes already missing.

“Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario.(Don’t worry about Alfred, he told me he’s just checking up on something.)”, Gancelot told him.

“What would that be?”, Aichi thought.

With Alfred…

“Oh is that you Aichi boy?”, Pegasus asked as the door opened.

“No, it’s Alfred Pendragon. The once and future king of Galar.”, Alfred replied, revealing himself.

“Ah, it talks?!”, Pegasus replied with mock surprise.

“Why are you doing this?”, Alfred asked.

“Is it hard to believe I’m just helping out Aichi boy from the goodness of my heart?”, Pegasus replied.

“I know you already know about him. You knew who were before we ever entered the castle.”, Alfred replied.

“What makes you say that?”, Pegasus asked.

“You didn’t react when Aichi talked to us. I noticed your men giving him weird looks, but you didn’t look weirded out or surprised at all. Also, it’s your tone. I can tell you know more than your letting on.”, Alfred explained.

“Ah, I see you are rather clever Alfred. Yes, I know very well who Aichi boy is. It’s hard not to know when he was able to defeat one of Team Asteroid’s Psyqualia users. I don’t want anything bad if you’re thinking about that. I simply don’t like Team Asteroid. They have spoiled the fun of the whole world. Back in the olden days people used to do fun things like make cartoons that aren’t war propaganda. Cartoons just for the sake of entertainment they were the best. Now, it’s all about the war blah blah and convincing young chaps to risk their lives for their region. Anyway, I want things to go back to a more whimsical and fun time. Giving Aichi boy medical attention, a bath, and food is a small price to pay for that.”, Pegasus explained.

“I see...you don’t seem to be lying. Sorry about being so paranoid, but with the nature of what Aichi is. A lot of people with not so good intentions try to take advantage of him.”, Alfred replied.

“Even his own father only thinks about him as a tool for world domination.”, Alfred thought.

“I don’t blame you, Alfred. It’s just smart for you to be cautious. You all are so protective of him, he definitely seems like he needs it.”, Pegasus replied.

Alfred nodded, that’s why he had originally joined Aichi in the place. He’s young, naive, and has lots of power. A very bad combination. And all the malicious programming placed in his brain certainly didn’t help. Iit messed up his ability to think clearly and made him act very unlike himself when it took hold of him. He seemed to be grappling with it again. He needs positive guidance in his life. So, he wouldn’t end up going down a dark path not unlike his father and even himself at one point. He saw him personally almost like a son. He had gotten rather attached to Aichi.

“Right, goodbye Pegasus. I believe Aichi still intends to leave after dinner to find our lost party member.”, Alfred said, with a light bow before seeing himself out.

With Aichi…

Every few minutes Aichi paused his eating to look over for Alfred. The poor boy was so worried about him. He was very relieved when he saw Alfred float back in. It made him able to relax a bit and focus on filling his stomach. He’s going to need all the energy he can get to find Ahmes. Eventually, they finished and Aichi was given a new bag along with potions, revives, and food.

“Thank you very much, Pegasus. For everything, I don’t really have anything to give to repay you. I hope we meet again one day.”, Aichi thanked, with a polite bow.

“It’s nothing Aichi boy. I was glad to help you.”, Pegasus replied.

Then, they all left Pegasus’s castle and were back into the wilderness of Alola. Aichi put his finger to his head trying to sense around for Ahmes. He didn’t feel him at all. Sure, he felt other Gallades but not Ahmes. Aichi frowned hoping he hadn’t gotten too far or...the worst had happened to him. Aichi shook his head, not wanting to even consider the possibility. He was probably just somewhere else in Alola out of his range.

In Sanctuary town…

Naoki looked around Sanctuary town after school, eventually ending up in front of the Sendou household. Word had already gotten around fast that Aichi didn’t go to school today. He felt a bit worried for him and decided to go to his house.

“Maybe he’s just sick and I’m making a big deal out of this.”, Naoki thought.

He hesitatingly walked up to the door and knocked on it. The door slowly creaked open a little eerily which made Naoki raise an eyebrow. He flinched when a scaly finger pointed at him with a watery bullet starting to form. Naoki couldn’t help, but let out a startled gasp.

“Mom, that's Aichi’s friend.”, Naoki froze, recognizing the voice of Aichi’s sister.

The door opened more and he now saw Shizuka with Elaine by her side who was the one pointing at him.

“Man, your guys’ mom totally gives off gang boss vibes.”, Naoki blurted out.

Shizuka’s eyebrow twitched a bit at the ‘gang boss’ comment and Naoki flinched.

“I’m sorry, but Aichi is not here right now.”, Shizuka informed him.

She still felt very ticked off that the evacuation people wouldn’t let her look for her son. Now, he was lost who knows where and possibly in her ex-husband’s hands. She honestly considered just tying her son to her hip at this point. He always finds a way to get himself in danger. She was finding it extremely difficult to contain her motherly worry for him. She wanted to go out and find him, but she had to take care of her daughter too. She was completely stuck and it was frustrating. She remembered back when things were so much simpler. However, she never regretted having kids just the person she had them with.

“Oh...do you know when he’ll get back?”, Naoki asked.

“No.”, Shizuka replied, feeling her heart sink.

“Okay...uh...see ya later Mrs.Sendou and uh...Aichi’s sister.”, Naoki replied, waving goodbye.

“My name is Emi.”, Emi told him.

Emi looked down very worried about her brother as well. Especially after she kept having those weird dreams of what seemed like Shuka’s world. She never wanted to see Aichi be like how he was in those dreams. She just wanted her dorky older brother that she knew back. She didn’t mind having to deal with waking him up as long as he was safe at home. The dreams still felt like some kind of a bizzaro world to her. Though, Aichi was able to do some of the stuff she saw in them. First of all he could obviously always understand Pokémon. Second, he was crazy strong. She wasn’t quite sure if he was as strong as the dream Aichi. Third, he was able to do that weird absolute lock thing against Shuka just like in the dreams. She had this really bad feeling that wherever he was something was wrong with him. She just hoped when he came back he would still be himself.

In Alola…

Aichi brandished Alfred as a blade. He held up Alfred’s shield in defense when a Turtonator breathed fire at him.

“Wingal use stone edge! Llew use Liquidation! Gancelot use focus blast! Soul Saver use scale shot!”, Aichi ordered.

The Turtonator growled in pain as it was bombarded by sharp rocks. However, he wasn’t the only Pokémon attacking them. Those Pokémon are hit by the others attacks. A Bisharp charged at him and he guarded. With a simple foot movement he got behind him and delivered a hard knock on the back of its head with Alfred’s hilt. They continued on like this for a few days walking through Alola and ending up with fights from the not so friendly locals. Aichi grew increasingly worried as he still had no luck finding Ahmes. They ended up setting up camp a few times with rotating who’s on lookout.

Near Alola…

Our heroes and the Quatre Knights soon approached Alola. Little did our heroes know they were slowly being pursued by someone hiding their power. Yami couldn’t put down this bad feeling he had. He continued looking over the boat, but didn’t see anything. He stopped when he picked up Aichi’s aura and was getting closer and his exact position became a lot clearer. The Quatre Knights arrived before our heroes and quickly flew over the islands looking for Aichi. Though with the massive overgrowth it was rather hard. The trees had grown up super high in some parts and plants covered most of the region. They all flinched when in the distance the Akala island volcano suddenly went off. Lava seeped from the volcano quickly overflowing at an unnaturally rapid rate. The Kantonians looked especially panicked at this especially when they saw the shadow of a titanic Pokémon.

“It’s him!”, Yugi said, sweating nervously.

“That jerk must have followed us!”, Jonouchi said.

The others rushed up as they got a better view of the colossal Pokémon. It had red scales and a grey underbelly. It had lots of spikes on it and strange black markings. It had massive claws, a row of sharp teeth and golden eyes.

“You have got to be shitting me. Is that Groudon?!”, Misaki gasped in disbelief.

“He’s huge! He’s not even dynamaxed, yet he’s that big?!”, Kamui commented, his jaw dropped.

They all paled as a massive fiery blast was sent in their direction. They quickly threw out their Pokémon to try and get out of the boat. Kai threw out Overlord and flew on his back. Misaki threw out Guardian and flew on its back. Kamui threw out Kaiser who for some odd reason could surf. (How it could, was beyond me. Even I don’t know. It just works. I’m not joking, you can actually teach Tyranitar surf.) Miwa flew in Dauntless. Kourin flew on Bridgette. Yugi surfed on his Blastoise with Anzu. Joey threw out his own Charizard which was shiny and flew on it with Honda. The others on the boat hastily jumped onto their own Pokémon who could fly or swim.

Kai, Misaki, and Kamui mega evolved their Pokémon. To their surprise Yugi and Joey were able to as well. Joey’s mega Charizard was mega Charizard Y though. They didn’t have much time to dwell on it though and quickly rushed to stop Groudon. Though, they were at a massive disadvantage right now because they couldn’t use all their Pokémon while over open sea.

“Overlord use hurricane!”, Kai ordered.

“Guardian use psychic!”, Misaki ordered.

“Kaiser use surf!”, Kamui ordered.

“Dauntless use giga drain!”, Miwa ordered.

“Bridgette use giga drain!”, Kourin ordered.

“Catapult use hydro cannon!”, Yugi ordered.

“Red eyes use solar beam!”, Joey ordered.

“Punisher use eruption!”, the boy from before ordered on top of Groudon.

The attacks all collided with each other causing the ground to shake.

Meanwhile on Melemele island (Alola)...

Aichi and his Pokémon minus Alfred stumbled as they felt tremors ripple through the ground. They were in a thick forest and the mountain covered their view.

“What’s going on?!”, Aichi questioned.

“I don’t know, maybe one of the volcanoes erupted?”, Alfred replied.

“Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. Lucario. (I sense one did, it’s on one of the other islands though.), Gancelot said.

“Ahh!!! One of them erupted! Where is it?”, Aichi asked.

“Lucario. Lucario. (The one right of us.)”, Gancelot told him.

Aichi turned to the direction of the island.

“Lycanroc! Lycanroc! Lycanroc . Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc . Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc . Lycanroc. Lycanroc. Lycanroc . Lycanroc. Lycanroc. (Oh no! No you don’t! There’s no way you can save all the Pokémon on that island unless you stopped the lava somehow.)”, Wingal yelled, knowing exactly what Aichi’s thinking.

“Then that’s what I’ll do.”, Aichi replied, they jumped as Aichi seemed gone in an instant and Alfred lunged forward nearly catching Aichi before he seemed to disappear.

“Lycanroc! (That stupid idiot!)”, Wingal yelled.

“Haxorus! Haxorus! Haxorus. (We gotta catch up to momma!)”, Soul Saver yelled, running as fast as possible after Aichi.

They all ran and Alfred floated to catch up with their reckless trainer. Aichi was flying high in the air looking over to the island. He had a light blue aura around him and his eyes had rainbow spirals. However now that he was in the air the Quatre Knights spotted him as he flew over to Akala island.

With the other…

Misaki got in closer with guardian who punched Groudon with icy punches. The others continued to launch their attacks at Groudon in different spots. The boy sat on top of Groudon not very impressed as he could hear Groudon cringe in pain. It shot more fire balls and swiped at them with its claws. Large spikes erupted from the ground which nailed Kaiser and Catapult. Thankfully, it didn’t impale them but it did damage them, cutting them multiple times. Their strong shells protected them from being impaled.

“Kaiser!”, Kamui called out.

“Catapult!”, Yugi called out.

They started sinking as the Pokémon that they were riding on was heavily injured. Their hearts beat loudly against their chest.

“Y-yugi!”, Anzu called out, holding out her hand to Yugi.

Yugi reached out for Anzu as his necklace suddenly glowed with a bright golden light. Kamui threw out Tough Boy and recalled Kaiser.

“Yugi!”, Kamui called out concerned, riding over to him on Tough Boy.

“Yu-gi-oh!”, Kamui had no idea where that noise was coming from, but the light got brighter.

Kamui stumbled a bit surprised when Tough Boy shook a bit. He looked up to see Yugi? No Yami, but he wasn’t transparent and others could see him. He was holding Anzu in his arms sitting on the back of Tough Boy with Kamui. Yugi became Yami? Kamui blinked in shock, completely stunned.

“How the heck did you do that thing where you grew taller?”, Kamui asked.

“We’re at a disadvantage in the sea. We need to get to land and attack there.”, Yami told him, as he pointed to land.

“A-alright man.”, Kamui replied, still trying to process what just happened.

They rode Tough Boy over to the shores of Melemele island because there was no lava. As they reached the shores Aichi who was in the air saw Groudon. He gasped in shock seeing Groudon. He quickly flew over to Akala island too focused on saving the Pokémon to notice the other people flying in the sky especially since they were tiny dots compared to Groudon. He had to stop the volcano somehow. He hoped Groudon didn’t cause it. Aichi flew so fast the others didn’t see him they only felt a sharp wind blow past them.

“Woah, that the heck was that?!”, Joey questioned, desperately holding onto Red Eyes with Honda.

The Quatre Knights pursued Aichi who hovered over the Akala volcano.

“Now...how do I stop it?”, Aichi questioned.

He remembered that blast attack he shot from his finger. Maybe he could just destroy the volcano? Wait...that was probably a horrible idea and would be too destructive.

“Stop...stop...how do I make it stop...wait a minute.”, Aichi pondered, before looking at his pointer finger wondering if what he was thinking of would work on inanimate objects like lava.

“Well...I might as well try. Absolute lock!”, Aichi called out.

He shot at the lava hoping for the best. He squealed when Groudon shot fire at him in annoyance.

“Well if Groudon is the cause then...Absolute lock!”, Aichi said, pointing his finger at Groudon.

The others gasped in shock when Groudon suddenly became stuck in place. Two intersecting white rings with a golden lining and a light blue aura surrounded Groudon. Misaki and Kourin’s eyes widened, realizing who shot the attack at Groudon instantly. Aichi looked relieved when the eruption actually did stop and the lava came to a halt. Kamui was too preoccupied trying to get to land. The boy on top of Groudon’s eyes twitched with annoyance.

“Who dares?!”, the boy questioned angrily, looking around.

The aura the rings gave off was unfamiliar to him. No one he knows did this. The boy growled angrily.

“Kill them. Whoever they are.”, the boy said.

Groudon roared as the red orb was activated. Suddenly Groudon was encased in a red gem. A golden omega symbol flashed on the gem. When it broke out it’s markings had changed and now looked like lava. It’s underbelly was now black and it’s spikes became black. Not to mention it was even bigger than before. The boy touched its head and it was surrounded by his murky gold aura and broke through the absolute lock. Aichi’s jaw dropped, looking stunned that Groudon actually broke out.

“That dumb giant! He broke through my absolute lock!”, Aichi sweated nervously as he felt a anger that wasn’t his boil up inside him.

Aichi twitched trying to keep control of himself.

“Calm down!”, he told himself, hoping that would work.

“You! You don’t understand! My pride is being threatened! I am supposed to be the supreme being! First you let yourself get punched by that stupid armored scientist! Second you let us get thrown around by Celebi! Freaking Celebi! Third, that lower Psyqualia user knocked us out! Then some dumb giant is going to breaks through one of my signature moves!”, 003v replied, his voice full of venom in his mind, which made Aichi jump.

Aichi sweated nervously in complete disbelief not understanding 003v’s complete insanity. He didn’t even realize 003v was keeping score. He thought maybe he was insane too for talking to himself.

[alolanrain]

Prompt of the legendaries reactions to ash actual dying without coming back

;-;

—————————

The Gods rage. They rage and rage. Tornadoes and thunderstorms sweep through all Regions.

Except... for one town. Pallet Town is untouched, kinda, the clouds cover the sky but not like Unova where there’s blue lightning and flames of fire spilling out of the pitch black smoke. The perfect weather for a funeral in some opinions, and that the Gods wouldn’t dare touch their Chosens resting place like that.

The only ones there are the Oaks and Ash’s Mom. The rest couldn’t attend because their Gods just couldn’t handle the grief like their supposed to, like they have been the last time. But last time was different. Last time their Chosen and lifted himself up and dusted off his body before racing forward with his Pikachu in front, leading the charge like he always does.

Lugia cries as he pulls the waves high above the sea level. Deaf to the cries of the human people and Pokémon alike below him. His children; Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltress, do the same. Their beams of Ice, shots of electricity, and blowing flames scorch the earth untouched yet by Lugia's grieving waves. Striking everything underneath, but never each other. For they know. They know that their Chosen will never return to help calm their raging soul.

Ho-oh shrieks. Burning down buildings while crying flaming tears. Her cubs underneath reak havoc in their own way. Sucuine freezes forests and lakes to their bottoms and the poor Pokémon cry out in pain.

Raikou actively goes for the towns, hitting the ones that were untouched by his mother's blinding fury. Entei… Entei goes to where he had met the Chosen for the first time and he sits, sits and contemplates about how much Ash has had to give up just so they the Gods could be happy.

Giratina hides. They go back to the distortion world and hides away. Because they don’t want to hurt the humans like their siblings do. They don’t want their Chosen spirit to frown down on them from the heavens above. The other two hide as well, for they do not have the right to hurt what their Chosen has put so much effort into protecting. So they hide in the clouds, waiting for their third and their Father to join.

MewTwo… Mewtwo finds the other Mewtwo, the one Team Galactic and Ghetsis made, and they fly to Pallet Town. Waiting till nightfall where everyone has cried themselves to sleep before glaring down at the gravestone. Both equally enraged that they couldn’t do anything for the boy who risked his life over and over again, all to just see the both of them happy.

The Reggies stay where they are. They feel the passing and the anger, the betrayal, the sadness. And they stay. Because they have a job to do, and no matter how much they want to leave for just… five minutes, they can’t. For they have a job and their Chosen is looking down own them now instead of up at them. And there’s nothing they can do.

Rayquaza destroys several planets. Along with Deoxys. Several galaxies away because the two don’t have any connecting to the living beings on the pile of metal and dirt like they did back on Earth.

Latias cries, she cries and sobs, but never screams. Never rages like she wants to. Because that’s not what their Chosen would have wanted, and even though he didn’t come back like he promised he would, she understood. Because their Chosen could never have a God or a Mythical on his team no matter how much she wished and wished he could.

Kyoger wailed, it bounced off every underwater cavern surrounding Hoenn. Creating massive earthquakes that did not deter their sibling, Goudon, up above. Calling to the mountain and Lava that flows underneath, to come forward and recoat the crust with something new, to make something new.

Zecrom and Reshiram scream at each other, pointing and blasting at their opposition half in a battle of “it's your fault’s!” While Terrakion, Cobalion, and Virizion guard a weeping Keldeo that was shielded under Kyurem. For the oldest Unovian God knows what it feels like to lose a friend you thought would always be by your side, and that he can keep an eye out to his children and the three other weather gods.

Landorus, Tornadus, and Thunderus don’t do anything. For they never had a connection with the Chosen as much as the other Gods, and that their rage is worth being pressed to something more than a mortal life that has ended.

Kalos witness first hand of Xerneas’s rage. The deer God has never felt so much liquid hot anger slushing through their veins at that moment in time. Their lover, Yvelta, stays hidden in their cave. Far from where Xerneas’s anger will touch, and they will cry. Cry softly until their ever terrifying lover shall return from letting loose their own feelings for once in their life.

Zygarde finds Bonnie, finds Bonnie, Clemont, and the rest. Keeping them safe from Xerneas while also Consoling the little girl and her friends. For he can not lose his control on Kalos, he has to keep in control or Xerneas won’t stop until every last living being is floating in their own pile of cold blood.

Diancie sobs with her subjects, much like Yvelta, uncaring and unseeing the the wreckage going on above. Volcanion wherily sighs and continues to protect the Pokémon under his care until Arceus or another higher God finally steps in to control everyone. Because the Chosen is no longer here to do so himself.

Hoopa… Hoopa flys through its portals. It doesn’t want to be in a universe without the Chosen, because their Chosen is bright, friendly, and warm. But no other Universe has the right Chosen like theirs. Others are to cold and calculating, or to battle weary to hold any more warmth like the last Chosen. So Hoopa continues to search, ignoring the tears tracking down its face.

Celebi took one look, before going to the past. Desperately trying to find just how this had happened, just how the Gods just let their Chosen slip through their grasp so easily. They soon break down in the Past Chosen’s arms when they realized that he’ll never survive, that Celebi can’t help make things right this time.

Tapu Koko screams. His people cowering in their huts and homes as he races around his island. An island that no longer has its dearly beloved Champion and protector. That Tapu Koko has lost another child to the cruel fate that reminds every living being that it still exists, no matter how much Arceus tries to twist and pull it to another direction. Tapu Lele joins her older brother in a battle. Both attacks clash against the sea and their respective islands. A dance of death that will not come to a stand still until one body will lie floating in the water, soaking it with the deep rich color of Godly blood.

Tapu Bulu mournes. He grows a giant tree off to the side of one of Ula'ula beaches. One that the Chosen liked to visit a lot. He grows a tree full of every fruit that can be connected together, and he marks the bark with the Chosen’s name with a crown above it. Tapu Fini goes to her Kahuna, she goes in search of comfort. And is faced with a child that doesn’t know what to do, that is inexperienced in every way possible in dealing with a God. And Tapu Fini is reminder once more that their Chosen is one of a kind and his soul no longer exists on a plane that she can touch.

Solgaleo cries and roars at the altar on Poni Island. For they have lost the person who watched them grow and the person who walked through hell and back with skinned feet on hot blazing fires just so that Solgaleo and Necrozma could live a happy life. Lunala tried to comfort, tries to help Solgaleo with the loss. But they fail as they watch their matching half heave with fur streamed with falling tears. Lunala never felt so useless before.

Mew and Arceus-

“Please!” Ash sobbed. Hunched over on his knees, arms clutching at his shoulders as he rocked back and forth. “Please just let me rest!” The Chosen chokingly begged.

Arceus and Mew were stone faced in front of the Chosen-in front of the child they pushed to face wars and bloodshed.

“I just want to rest.” Ash could barely breathe through his tears and hiccups.

He smells like whiskey and smoke, blood dropped onto the tile-like-clouds from his wrists. Marks all the way up to his elbows and they were deep, matching ones mirrored on his open thighs.

How could the two let this happen? let this happen to their Chosen? How have they not noticed the way Ash begged for a few minutes before the sent him back down to earth? Not notice when Ash would cry and dry heave after every battle when he got back home or to the hotel where he was staying in?

Because they didn’t care, their shared thoughts growled. They should have cared.

Mew flew down. Resting their forehead against Ash, in an apology or as an answer. They don’t know. But Ash slumped against the feeling of Mews warm pink fur as Arceus rumbled above.

“Then we shall let you rest now, your time as the Chosen One is done. Ash Ketchum. Sleep now, for it’s all over.”

Ash sob of relief tore into their shared heart. And the young man-the Child soon began to disappear until Mew was no longer clutching the greasy black hair to its small chest.

The two Gods looked at each other. They had work to do and they needed to do it now, for they no longer have a Chosen and now it’s up to them to calm their children down.

So they set off, Mews gentle touch soothed their children’s anger and fear while Arceus broke rule after galactic rule just so that the humans didn’t suffer more than the holes that Ash Ketchum as physically and mentally left in everything he touched.

And after everything was done. When they forced all their children and grandchildren into sleep, they go to Pallet Town. The two haven’t walked in their human forms in a very long time, for they never found any use until now.

once the two Mewtwo’s leave they go to the grave. Placed under a large oak tree in the middle of an open field full of wildflowers.

Two accompanying graves sit right next to it.

Alfreda “Red” Ketchum-Oak and Green Ketchum-Oak reads the closest one. The other didn’t even have the first name, something must have weathered it off, but the last name of Ketchum is still there.

Arceus is the first one out of the pair to fall to his knees, the soft thumping sound was followed after a loud sob and he bent forward to Arceus could smash his fist into the soft dirt in front of Ash’s grave. It was filled with trinkets, flowers, and lit candles.

Mew followed soon after, much like how she always does when it comes to Arceus or Ash. Her sobs were quieted as she pushed her tear stained face into Arceus’s blazer, weeping just as much as her partner.

“I should have noticed!” Arceus yelled through his sobs. Body racking in shivers as a strong breeze rolled through the Kanto hills. “I should have fucking noticed!”

Mew doesn’t say anything, how could she, Arceus was right. They should have noticed, from how much they boast about being ‘all seeing’ they didn’t see the mountain high shit Ash was dealing with.

If he were here now, Ash would call them the biggest hypocrites in the world. Because he’s always been right.

Arceus and Mew were just like everything else in their world. Their not perfect and they’ll never be, no matter how hard they try.

Ash’s suicide will forever remind them of that.

[askbittyerror]

Wedding RP part 5

JusticeMom09/26/2020 Erebus lands with the two bitty gone way too big and drops them into his branches "Its okay Huitzi you should probably let him go before he detonates anyway" [11:56 PM] @Askbittyerror September 27, 2020

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Release me!” Flare snarls, kicking Huitzi in the chest and sizing up as the smaller is flung away, several of his ribs crumbling from the force. Huitzi wheezes and clutches his chest, struggling to heal himself, the positivity fueling his magic straining against the darkness of Erebus’ world. Flare’s wings have gone a deep, nearly black crimson, his eyelights gutted out and burning golden light blazing from his sockets. The bone around them flake dust, thick drops of melting bitty flow like lava from beneath his shirt, his spine reduced to nothing more than a river. He draws his spear, snarling heavily, the jagged points at the tip sharpening even further. He takes a step forward and Huitzi flinches back the best he is able, pressed against the tree, eyelights shrunken to terrified pinpricks.(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus growls holding out his hand as Huitzi's soul goes blue and he is pulled quickly away from the furious guardian. At the same time negativity starts to snake its way up Flare's legs... but wait its more than that the cold seeping burning feeding on Flare like some sort of vampire... the roots of the tree start to tangle around his liquifying bones

"Calm down flare!" Erebus snaps as Huitzi is now safe in threw bows of his branches

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Flare flashes and liquidates away, bone chunks squishing and shifting into deathly-sharp spikes all up his arms and thick, bladed ridges running down his legs. His wings separate into heavy tentacles, flashes of red cloak him and he lets out a low, dangerous growl, his back hunched and his weapon readied. His movements look wobbly, disconnected, each bit jerking and shifting strangely, the connections between his bones scraping and squishing.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "... okay yeah that is gross" he mumbles and holds out a hand the roots of the massive ancient tree start ripping from the ground pursing forth and tangle around Flare pulling him under. Not to death but to hold and drain his energy until his fury have burned out. While his body deals with the angry god bitty he moves back towards Huitzi "... its okay... he cant hurt you anymore" He mumbles meaning if Flare tries again he would drop huitzi back at the wedding and face the angry one alone

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Flare thrashes and bites and kicks and claws and, eventually, some part of him in the deep recesses of his soul reminding him that these are people he probably shouldn’t kill, attempts to vanish. “What… is this… place?” Huitzi wheezes, clutching his chest, golden marrow dripping down from the scratches and bites Flare left. “What is… happening?” His wings have darkened considerably. The light is dying from his eyes.(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Flare is pulled into the storm allowed to rage away from  the guardian and Huitzi. he is now free of the root system allowing him to do as he pleased. just because the darkness around the tree was void like did not mean it was truly empty if you went far enough.

"You are in my multiverse... hold still you are draining too fast" He said and pulls off a leaf using it and pulling it in two different directions suddenly becoming like a bubble and he shoves it around Huitzi and now he is in an emotionally neutral space! tada! "... I am not exactly gentle in my universe and I cannot stop it now take deep breaths I am going to help heal you" He offers before holding his hands out and pushing healing magic towards the giant bitty(edited)

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Flare screams in rage and reality ripples, the Paladin tearing himself from this multiverse and tossing himself back into his adopted one to rampage in peace. Huitzi whimpers, curling in on himself, the pain, no longer buried under the freezing negativity, hitting him in the chest right where his broken ribs are. “Please.” His breath hitches sharply. His soul absorbs the magic hungrily, wounds slowly sealing shut, though the places that Flare sunk his teeth into seem to be resisting.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus watches scowling at the magic and slams his fist into the bark of the tree drawing magic from the source as he continues to heal Huitzi. He has enough magic to make those missing bits come back and more. It would not be the first time he reconstructed a skeleton monster from scratch "Hold on... just keep breathing for me"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 The bitemarks put up a good show, but since Flare hadn't actually put any magic into them, they seal easily enough, leaving only a circle of off-white behind. "Th-thank you." Huitzi exhales, staying curled up, trying to come down from staring death in the face.(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus crouches there and hums "We will have to address Flare's anger sooner rather than later. We need to make sure to disengage him before he goes needing to kill things" The goop is rubbing Huitzi's back now trying to help him calm down even as he watches the spot where Flare had been and the sparkling positivity he left behind

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi leans into the touch, whimpering. "I- I don't even know who you are." He laughs weakly.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He snorts "Eh I know Dragon and you are a date mate of theirs yes?" he asked amusement dancing in his good eye light(edited)

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I am indeed." He grunts, pushing himself up, giving Erebus a small smile. "May I have the name of my savior?"

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "Erebus. Technically its Nightmare but" he shrugs "I have come to understand there are too many of us around to use our actual names"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I know two guardians and and a great many bitties." Huitzi chuckles. "...thank you for saving me."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "No problem I did want to see Bells have a good day today and with Greylu even unwilling to let me be useful this was the best thing I could do" he said amused "when you feel strong enough we can go back or hang out here. I do enjoy coming home" he said amused as he looked out into the darkness. he could see what was out there

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "This is your home?" Huitzi frowns, looking around. "It is, uh, lovely."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He snorts at that "... Lovely not exactly what I would call it" he said and stood offering Hutzi a hand "but it is what it is and thanks to Bells reckless bravery I have my brother again too"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Congratulations." Huitzi takes his hand with a smile, allowing himself to be pulled up.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He laughed "I suppose it works" he said pulling him to stand "... why is it every consecutive person I meet has to be so much taller?" He askes amused.

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I can always make myself smaller if that makes you more comfortable." Huitzi offers, giving Erebus' hand an unintentional squeeze. "I can go down to two feet."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He laughed shaking his head "kid I am taller than everyone" he said amused and pulled him further away from the trunk of the tree "... well okay Flare may have me beat but I am not tonally sure how tall my branches reach now"  he looks up at the black not black leaves of the tree they stood in

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi looks up. "...you are a tree?"

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He grunted letting him stand on his own now making sure he did not fall "um. I did not start out that way if it helps" he chuckles  a bit

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I am fine with it." Huitzi shrugs, a bit shaky but not about to fall. "I was just curious. You are the first I have met who is an actual stationary tree and not some kind of tree monster."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "oh I started out as a monster" he chuckled folding his arms behind his head "A guardian like my brother and I followed the same story most Dreams and Nightmares follow."

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I... am sorry to say I do not know that story." Huitzi rubs the back of his neck. "All I know is it somehow involves apples and I am not even sure of that."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He laughed "how about a quick story then?" he offers before looking around and closing his eyes basking in his world for a moment "we are guardians... not skeletons not monsters but spirits given these forms. we guardians are the children of the original who died protecting THE tree. The tree of emotion which actually is the source of all positive and negative emotions for all the multiverse. the apples being the fruit that grows in this tree. half black and full of negative emotions and half gold holding positive "

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi nods, just letting him talk.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "the mortals who lived nearby tend to hate the Nightmare guardian and as such abuse him while his brother is not around. Eventually the pain becomes too much and in a fight between them and himself we... well we eat the apples and by them all the golden apples corrupt at our touch and we eat those too... until the brother Dream consumes the last golden apple holding all the positive emotions that beings can feel..."

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi frowns, thinking of the little guardians hiding in their room, how quiet and afraid they were, and the older pair, long since corrupted by more than just the apples.(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "well I am what happens to the Nightmare after he eats the apple. the goop is negativity given form" he sighs "after the apple incident the nightmares and dreams tend to fight each other until one dies" he looks at Huitzi "and in this universe I won and consumed my brother's soul... or what I thought at the time was his soul... and since I no longer needed to be a skeleton and the power of negativity reaching power I could no longer hold in a mortal body I took a form akin to the one the power originated from"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I see." Huitzi nods, eyes distant. "...I suppose that would be why Dreams and Nightmares are so often at odds." He comes back to himself and sighs, giving Erebus a look of concern. "Are you alright?"

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He pauses "in what context?" he offers back. he was not expecting this question

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Any." Huitzi asks softly. "You have been through quite a lot."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "I am a very old Nightmare" He says honestly "and it has been a long long time since I was as angry as I had been... being alone to calm my soul has helped. For now I think I am but then again I do not know what being alright would entail"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I am aware I have nowhere near the same experiences as you," Huitzi bows his head. "But if you want to talk, or anything else, I am here."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He smiles "I see why Dragon likes you" he said and held out his hand "why dont we get back to the party I know everyone was a bit stirred up when we left"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I would love too." Huitzi takes his hand with a smile, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I just hope I haven't upset anyone too horribly."(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "I think the only one who can really stay upset is Erebus" he snorts "still too young to realize he can actually relax and enjoy more than what is in his immediate purview"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Then I will make a point to avoid him." Huitzi nods.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "you should at least say hello at least once I rather enjoyed his reaction to seeing you and Flare" he smirked and with that pulled Huitzi back through the timelines to the tower

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi mutters something about preferring to remain unstabbed, letting himself be taken away. When they arrive, reality buzzes, and Flare, at seven feet, head bowed, fully cleaned and recovered from his tantrum, steps through a portal, just behind his human Nightmare, wearing a deep blue tunic with dark feathers on the shoulders, sleeves tied at the wrists, a pair of thin black belts crossed over his hips just above the start of his goopy lamia-tail. On his back, one tied to each of his four tentacles, are hummingbird moth wings in dark blue and black, accented with the occasional tinge of gold. Umbra glances over to Huitzi and Erebus and scoffs, looking around with a deep scowl as the portal closes behind them.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "...  your tiny me seems irate Flare" Erebus mumbles watching the young guardian scowl at everything "How are you feeling better?" he asked clearly unfazed by the murder happy that had just happened not but minutes before

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "He is fine." Umbra says sharply. "My servant has regained control of his... urges, and will cause no further issue."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "... " Erebus narrows his eyes at this "Dare I ask why you are acting this way?" he looks between them. he got the feeling he was not exactly "recovered" as much as they were pretending?(edited)

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "No, you may not." Umbra glares.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He throws his hands in the air "I am going to go try to talk to people who are not going to snap at me" he said and headed back into the party

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Umbra sighs and looks at the ground. "Too many people, sorry." He says quickly, through gritted teeth, like it pains him. "Are you alright?" Huitzi asks, approaching him and immediately stopping when Flare growls. "Hold." Umbra slaps an arm over Flare's chest, the Paladin going silent. He looks to Huitzi, his smile large, confident, and only a mite shaky. "I will be fine."(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus stops at that and sighs looking back at him "... numbers" he mumbles before walking back and crossing his arms "so this is what you have been trained to be?" he asked raising a brow at this. suddenly he is VERY interested in Umbra's reaction

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "No, of course not!" Umbra scoffs, arms crossed over his chest, nodding very emphatically.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Seems the kid has learned double speak "now is Flare actually okay?" they ask looking up at the big guy with a frown

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Of course, what a stupid question." Another scoff, a shrug, a slight shake of the head. "He simply insisted on returning, so I had to come along to make sure he behaved himself this time."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He nodded "why dont we go sit down?" he offered "there are a few places where we can have a bit of... quiet " he offers

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Sure, whatever." Umbra shrugs and nods. "These plebeians are... undeserving of my presence."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "... " he sighs "whoever this ass was that made you like this clearly knew nothing about us nightmares" he said and waved them over before grabbing Huitzi to join them as they headed to a corner that was nearly a room into itself? at least that was the way it "looked"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 They follow, Umbra keeping his scowl and Flare making sure to keep in between him and everyone else at all times, only stopped from growling at them all by Umbra's tight grip on his arm.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 there is a table in the little nook! tada and when Erebus pulls the leaf curtain shut they are now only a group of 4 "... there" he slumps moving to sit at the table "sit " an order made to sound like a suggestion you feel compelled to follow

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Umbra slides into his seat and the moment the curtain closes he slumps, head in his hands, whispering frantic apologies under his breath. Flare sits between him and the world, absently patting his back, figurative ears peaked for any disturbances. Huitzi sits across, trying not to flinch when Flare casts his eyes over him before returning to watching the curtain.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus sighs "calm down you didnt do anything wrong" he said watching the kid "and you were already forgiven when you made it clear why you were acting like some haughty teen novel vampire"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Sorry." Umbra mutters again, eyes down, hands in his lap.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "kid its cool really. You need to start forgiving yourself" he points out "now... How is flare really? the mun is dense tonight and is not getting subtlety well so make it concise please"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Not good.” Umbra says, tapping his feet, pulling his wings up over his shoulders like a fuzzy blanket. “He hasn’t had an episode that bad in a long time.” Umbra looks at his father, still staring out, fists clenched under the table that the bone can be heard creaking. “He has trouble with his LV sometimes.” Umbra looks away. “He has… a lot of it, and sometimes it takes over.” “I can keep him stable, though!” He quickly assures, leaning forward, wings blanketing him tighter, voice quivering just the slightest bit. “He won’t- won’t do anything while I’m here, promise! I’m too likely to be caught in the collateral damage.”

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He nods "you know Flare does not have to stay if he needs to rest. Everyone here will understand." he points out "and you do not have to force yourself to paly that role and dance that dance" he said watching him "it really is okay"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Can't stop." Umbra's breath quickens, scratching at his hands beneath the table, Flare just grunting. "That is fine." Huitzi gently says, fighting the urge to lean forward and comfort. "One step at a time. Just- please try to avoid antagonizing anyone? We don't want someone to get upset and Flare to react." "Yeah, yeah sure, I can do that." Umbra nods, shaking a little.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He sighs rubbing his head "yeah. just take care of yourself and mostly I meant not try to stop here I meant you dont have to force yourself in being here at all and forcing yourself to live in that role for what is only going to be a couple more hours"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I gotta be here for Dad." Umbra looks at the table. "Until he decides to leave, I'm gonna be here too."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He nods "okay Thank you Umbra for being here" Erebus seems to have learned how to be supportive dad at some point... Umbra might get adopted by the older goop at this rate

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 At this rate, he probably needs it. "I'm happy to well, uh I'm, I'm uh..." Umbra smiles nervously. "I'm... here?"

JusticeMom09/27/2020 the goop chuckles "you are honestly a good kid I am glad they were not able to take that from you"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Umbra smiles, his tentacles wagging, the attached wings fluttering. “Thank you!”

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "why don't I go get us some of the food I suspect everyone is eating by now" He said sliding from the table "Huitzi do you want to go too?

JusticeMom09/27/2020 @Askbittyerror

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Um…” Huitzi glances up. Flare looks over him and Umbra for a moment, reality ripples, and then he vanishes. “Uh???” Umbra frantically squeaks. A moment more passes and Flare returns, a very confused human Dream clasped tightly by the arm. Flare practically tosses him into his seat, standing with his back to the table, between them and the rest of the room, arms crossed over his chest and back ramrod straight. Mo looks like he just rolled out of bed, hair mussed, a soft plush weedle clutched to his chest, his heavy gold-and-rainbow circlet tilted haphazardly on his head. He’s wearing a loose white tunic and soft trousers, both edged with gold and coming to his elbows and knees respectively. He’s barefoot, and on every bit of exposed skin from his chin down are deep-set intricately carved scars in geometric shapes and delicate swirls, some inked in black and gold, others in rainbow, and a few simply left as gnarled scar tissue. Mo blinks, looks around, unwinds the midnight blue sash from his waist, wraps it around his neck, grabs one of Umbra’s wings and hides himself in it, the Nightmare tugged into him with a startled mweh.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "... um what just happened?" guess Flare was on full fight mode. He asked looking  between them and shaking his head. he is now one confused goop. my goodness. He says nothing about the scars but takes note. unlike his markings he can tell that they are not self inflicted "... you okay there kid?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Mo makes a shaky noise. “Um,” Umbra looks to Huitzi, gently hugging his Dream. “Uh, Huitzi, can we borrow your jacket, please.” “Of course.” The Paladin quickly strips off his jacket, offering it and flinching as Mo quickly yanks it out of his hands, throwing it on and rolling the sleeves up significantly until they’re bunched at his wrists, the jacket practically at trench coat length. “Please tell me you have a weapon.” He whispers, Umbra nodding and undoing one of his belts, a hunting knife sheathed at the back. Mo loosens it and wraps it around his waist, hand resting on the hilt of the knife. He breathes in and out, in and out, tightly squeezing his Weedle until his shoulders lose their tension and he looks up, smiling shakily. “I’m- I’m fine.” He says, Umbra gently rubbing slow circles into his back, a tentacle coiling around him. “…sorry about that.”

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "Its not your fault Flare was triggered by many tiny angry auras and a Dragon who feels rather causal about attempts on their life" he sighed "you are at the wedding and probably should not leave our little cubby. there are a lot of people about many with hair triggers of their own"(edited)

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be fine!” Mo shoots straight up, a wide smile on his face. He hugs his surprised Nightmare, merrily nuzzling the top of his head. “It’s my sweet little brother you got to worry about, but it’s okay, I’ll keep him from being, well,” He giggles. “Himself!”

JusticeMom09/27/2020 ... "you know you are within your limits in this room right?" He asks making sure that No didn't just hear "lots of people nearby" and tripped his conditioning regardless

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “This isn’t a room!” Mo giggles. “That’s just a curtain!” Umbra tenses and Mo gently shushes him, patting his face. "Be nice, little brother."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "its a small private space for us to sit and talk. the whole emphasis on us being alone" he points out with a groan

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "If you say so!" Mo laughs.

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 The lich approaches the cordoned off area, stopping just a but beyond it. "Flare?" Quietly, "can we go somewhere more private and talk, maybe?" You and me, I mean. Um, Umbra and Mo can come too, if they need a little... less." @Candy

Candy09/27/2020 quietly follows Bells

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Flare opens the curtain and just silently stares at them. Umbra stands, pulling up Mo, still happily smiling away. "Lets go with them, Dad." The Nightmare tugs at his arm. Flare nods.

with-bells-upon09/27/2020 "Candy? This is where I'm afraid I leave you with Huitzi and Erebus, and head elsewhere with these guys." They look at the nearest wall, scanning it, then gesture the three to follow. "Just how much 'less' is needed? I've a water garden, and a... well, bubble, with a floor, and otherwise basically just broken void as a view."

Candy09/27/2020 O-oki. they nod and look at Erebus and Huitzi Hello, i'm Candy

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 “Any room with an actual door, please.” Umbra says, dragging his father by the arm and an increasingly ecstatic Mo by the hand.

“Hello to you too.” Huitzi smiles softly, offering them his hand. “I am Huitzi.”

Candy09/27/2020 they accept the hand and shake it nice to meet you

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Nice to meet you too." He shakes back, the movement gentle.

Candy09/27/2020 they smile how do you like the wedfing so far?

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "It has been quite lovely." Huitzi smiles. "Barring the incident earlier, I have enjoyed myself."

Candy09/27/2020 Good to hear, about the same for me.

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi nods, humming.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "uh what the hell just happened?" [8:23 PM] Erebus blinks shaking out of his mild shock and frowned

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I have no idea." Huitzi shrugs.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "yeah I get the feeling this is going to continue to be a wild night... want to go back to JR and let this chaos run its course?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I do not know what that is... But sure." Huitzi shrugs.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He laughed "my home... Juice's home and where Bells lives half the time when they are not with their now husband" He grabbed Huitzi "a whole new multiverse" he smirked and then pulled Huitzi through the Vale

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi absolutely totally doesn't squeak in surprise.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He lands in the biggest castle he will ever see in his whole life. It ad a grandness to it that only more modern royalty have but the stone that made up the castle was much much older "Come on Huitzi lets go find something to drink"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi looks up, wide eyed, mouth hanging open. He feels... so small...

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Erebus chuckles "come on kid lets get going it can take hours to get from one place to the next if the castle is feeling frisky" he grinned wickedly. not a total exaggeration but it can take longer than normal if the castle insists you going through certain halls

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "It's sentient?!" Huitzi half shrieks.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "not like you or I but it has enough magic in it to make it have some sort of cognizance" he said and reached back grabbing  him  and dragging him towards the kitchens ... one of them anyway

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi just kind of lets him, looking around, slightly paranoid and significantly freaked out.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "calm down its not a person" he said smacking him with a tendril "come on you are no young skeleton anymore. its just a castle "old buildings all have personalities you know now ... um... scratch that I got to do something come with me or shall I dump you in a sitting room until I am done?"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "Please don't leave me." Huitzi hugs the tendril.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He sighs grabbing Huitzi again and they shortcut into a room where someone is singing and a small sad baby is crying "... "

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi looks around. He is very much clinging to Erebus.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Nearby a very... worn looking older Dream without wings is bouncing the tiniest baby biggie Huitzi has ever seen trying to sooth its cries. the aura in the room is pleasant but not too strong. Erebus moves before the giant paladin can ground himself before the two are swapping the baby between them "how long?" "maybe ten minutes or so. nothing major his soul is strong" they are whispering

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi stands back, completely silent.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 The smaller Dream pauses now seeing the giant Huitzi. "brother why is there a giant version of Juice here with us?" his eye lights have shrank into pinpricks while Erebus is now bouncing the baby in his arms soothing him before offering him the bottle "This is one of Dragon's datemates. Everyone calls him Huitzi" "oh... okay you are very tall" [10:40 PM] foot meet mouth

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I can get small?" Huitzi whisper-offers.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 He shook his head "no no your fine...we are just working to help sooth baby Altan" he said offering his hand "I am Al Im Erebus's brother"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "It is nice to meet you." Huitzi gently shakes it. "Your brother has been very kind to me. I like him."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "Kind huh?" he asks looking back at Erebus who looked tense "no fighting the baby just took the bottle" he said his tendrils twitching in annoyance

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "...did I say something wrong?" Huitzi looks worried. "I, uh, apologize?"(edited)

JusticeMom09/27/2020 Al snorted "I have not been back for very long so our relationship is.. rocky to say the least" he huffed "anyway go coo over my nephew he has my name"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi nods hesitantly and walks over to Erebus. “I still like you.” He softly assures, kneeling down and smiling gently at the bab.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 he was tiny! most babies could at least wrap their little hands around the adult's fingers but not this bab who flailed his tiny hands towards the giant Paladin "... he was born before he even had a form" he said looking at Huitzi "we almost lost him"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I am glad he survived." Huitzi says softly, offering the little one his hand, giant though it may be.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 The baby grabbed it. it was like having a mouse touch as he continued to nurse his bottle beautiful eye lights watching him such a strange hue of purple

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi keeps his hand very still, stars absolutely in his eyes.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 when the bab was done with his bottle Erebus pulled it away and the baby giggled starting to babble as he wiggled. He clearly liked this person

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "This is an adorable, precious child." Huitzi purrs, gently twitching his fingers.

JusticeMom09/27/2020 the baby giggled again and babbled a bit more. Erebus waved him back "let me burp him and you can hold him after" he said moving the smol to his shoulder and started patting the bab's back

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 Huitzi looks a bit uncertain. "I am... not sure if I'm comfortable with holding him at this size. I believe bitties are a good deal less fragile than babies."

JusticeMom09/27/2020 "hush sit down cross your legs" the goop said pointing a tendril at him "your not going to move a bunch with him but he likes you and he needs things that help his soul grow stronger"

Askbittyerror09/27/2020 "I can shrink!" Huitzi protests, still doing as he's told. September 28, 2020

JusticeMom09/28/2020 he makes a scolding sound "dont panic he is just a bad.  A preme to be sure but you will do fine. now hold your hands like this" he said showing his goop in a cradling pose. the baby makes a cute little burp sound before wiggling and making sleepy sounds

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi cups his hands together.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 Erebus walks over using his tendrils to correct Huitzi's hands a little until he had them right where they needed to be. Draped a blanket over him and gently laid the baby into his arms "being around things that make him smile helps strengthen his soul. He likes you so that means you are good for him" he chuckled using only one corner of the blanket to cover the small as the baby stars up at Huitzi confused. hew as in new hands?

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Hello, little one." Huitzi coos, his attention completely devoted to the child, hands held steady with aid from a few tendrils.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 the baby blinks tilting his little head as he makes a happy noise kicking his legs and reaching for the skeleton's face giggling. Yep he likes the big man

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi smiles softly and leans his head down into the child's reach.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 the baby grabs at his cheekbones before papping them with a happy squeal. much cute baby

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 The stars are back in his eyes. "Oh my goodness." He whispers.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 "wow" Al mumbled feeling all the happy off him. he had just gotten back with a tray of drinks. one of them a large stein for Huitzi

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 At the moment, Huitzi's attention is entirely on the bab. He doesn't even notice Al's return, he didn't even realize he left in the first place.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 There is whispered conversation and several chuckles of amusement as Huitzi just stares at the baby in his hand. after ages of Huitzi mumbling and playing with the small Altan starts to drift to sleep in his arms

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi sings to the baby softly, a lullaby old and foreign. He's smiling, more relaxed than he's been in a very long time.(edited)

JusticeMom09/28/2020 Eventually Altan curled up against his chest holding his shirt with that tiny hands as he drifted off listening to song and soulbeat

JusticeMom09/28/2020 @Askbittyerror

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi may be holding back tears.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 The Dream is the one that puts a hand on his shoulder "you okay there big guy? You got a lot of emotions boiling around in there"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 “I- I apologize.” Huitzi sniffles, a tendril wiping his eyes. “I just… I had a daughter, once.”

JusticeMom09/28/2020 Dream watched him closing his eyes before he nodded "I... know how that feels Huitzi. I had a family once" he gives Erebus a look. the goop looks sheepish but the golden guardian continues "do you want to talk about her?" he offered now crouching arms resting on his legs

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 “Her name was Tepin.” He smiles faintly. “She was just… abandoned, on my doorstep. Somehow. Inside a rescue center. She was sweet and brave and-” His smile falls. “She grew fast, then never stopped.”

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He wined and put a hand on his harm "I'm sorry. it can be really unfair when our children age so much faster than us.... natural or not"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi nods, giving him a weak smile. "I am sorry for bringing the mood down, it wasn't my intention."

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He shook his head "its okay sometimes healing comes in the smallest of places" He said looking down at his tiny namesake

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 “Your child is precious.” Huitzi smiles.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 "My nephew" he said offering to take the child "Erebus and Bells's  or correction Morpheus and Bells's little one"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi hands Altan over, very carefully and with some aid from his tendrils. "I dont believe I have met any Morpheus yet."

JusticeMom09/28/2020 "probably not. there was an m!a I think they call it. It fused Erebus and Dream into one person" he says walking to the crib and gently laying Altan in it "Erebus does not want to do it again because he has become corrupted once more. He doesn't want to stain Dream with that part of him"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "Oh." Huitzi says, looking around for Erebus. "...I do not believe I have met this Dream either."

JusticeMom09/28/2020 "Juice? maybe not? He was back at the party" he said as Erebus walked back in with a non corrupted Nightmare in toe "hey what are you doing? Erebus!?" he was stumbling to keep at the goop's pace

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "...hello?" Huitzi looks over.

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He stumbles forward and dusts himself off "oh... you are a very big version of my brother" he said sockets round now

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "I assume your brother is a Paladin then." Huitzi smiles, offering him his hand. "I am Huitzi. May I have your name?"

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He takes the hand shaking it "Nightmare... I do not have any nicknames like everyone else" he said before leaning in to Al ad whispering "what's a Paladin?"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 "A bitty, looks like me but, well, bitty sized!" Huitzi smiles. "I was one, once."

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He nods slowly "uhhuh Erebus why are you bringing crazy monsters to the house?" he askes before Erebus laughed "more like I am taking you back to the party" he said "you good to travel big guy? they are having all the fun without us"

Askbittyerror09/28/2020 Huitzi nods, smiling brightly. "Yes. Thank you for allowing me to hold your child."

JusticeMom09/28/2020 He waved a hand "you did as much for us as he did for you. Also visit. You are related to him after all. How I am not one hundred percent in which context but you are" He grabs all three of them, yes all three, and pulls everyone across the multiverse back to the chaotic party

[jojinx]

Heaven is Hell with Baby Blues Ch. 5

Chris Evans x OC Olivia Ransom

Words: 3k

Warnings: 18+, aggressive Chris, light DD/lg, mature content, daddy kink, alcohol consumption

**Warnings of insinuation of mature content**

Want to see more of Chris and Olivia? 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

A/N: I know I didn’t post for a few days, but I was feeling a bit anxious about my writing if I’m being honest. I have so much fun doing it but sometimes it just feels like I get lost in my own head and forget to be okay with it not being perfect, which I’m sure is very common with anything you feel love towards. Regardless, here is chapter 5 and I’m excited for you all to read it :)  I hope you enjoy it and as always suggestions welcome!

Series Summary: Olivia is a career driven woman who works for a big shot movie studio as a writer, she indulges in life’s pleasures and takes great pride in doing whatever and whoever she likes. Living with her best friend Poppy, Olivia is ambitious and has an appetite for the unconventional. She is living the high life until there is a shift in the dynamic of her friend trio. This pushes Olivia to find comfort in the only way that she knows how; in the arms of a tall bearded stranger with some killer baby blues. The only thing wrong is that she can't seem to shake the feeling that she knows him from somewhere...

                                                Chapter 5

I slowly woke up out of what could be considered the absolute best nap I had ever had. I languidly stretched, pointing my toes; hands reaching for the sky trying to get my body to wake up. It wasn’t until I went to scrub my eyes with my hand that I realized I was still wearing what was left of my black eye makeup…and that it was still dark in the room where I was currently laying completely naked. The events of the night hit me like a train careening off the tracks. I fell asleep. Fuck. I passed out. How could this have happened?

I slowly reached my left hand over to the other side of the monstrous bed, half expecting it to be empty. No such luck. My hand hit a huge, hard, and warm bicep, and my brain immediately started firing on all cylinders. I had to get out of here. I had to go before he woke up. Something that would’ve been a hell of a lot easier had I not passed out. Fuck.

I slowly turned my head to the gorgeous, bearded, brunette man beside me who took up the majority of what could only be a California king sized bed. He lay there sprawled out, sleeping peacefully, long eyelashes resting on his cheeks, pouty pink lips slightly parted, huge arm stretched off the side of the bed, letting out a soft snore. I had to go. Now. This man lying next to me was dangerous to say the least. Tall, dark, handsome and nothing but raw power. Men like this were the men I avoided, not for lack of fun – believe me, there was plenty of fun to be had- but because of the chaotic nature of these types of dynamics.

I sat up, realizing that my leg was laying on top of his, and pulled it off him as slowly as I could. I brought my legs up to my chest to swing them over the bed, when I felt a sweet ache and tenderness in my lady bits. Flashbacks immediately hit me, being tied up, him spanking me until I was putty in his hands, being made to… oh god, I had to go.

I slowly lowered my feet one at a time to the soft rug that stretched out from under the bed, trying to make as little noise as possible. Looking back at him, I tiptoed to the front of the bed crouching down to grab my heels and jeans, when my legs spasmed not being able to hold my weight. I went down with a soft thud and a squeak onto a pile of black which I could only assume was his dress shirt from the night before. I glanced up at my mystery stranger, making sure he hadn’t moved and got up onto my knees to make my way to the door.

“Hmmm, and where might you be off to in such a rush?” said a husky voice, gravelly with sleep.

I froze. Completely naked, heels and jeans in my hands, looking like a crazy person I was sure. I stood up straight on shaky legs, something he found quite funny.

“Now, what I don’t understand is why you’re leaving without giving me a proper goodbye.” He chuckled. “Those legs of yours don’t look to be up to the challenge of walking you all the way to the door.”

I turned slowly on my wobbly legs, hoping he didn’t see just how unsteady I truly was. I straightened my back and stood up as straight as the ach in between my legs would allow.

“I just figured I’d make it easier for the both of us. I mean we had a great time, don’t get me wrong, but the alcohols’ gone, my nap rejuvenated me and inspired me to take my ass home.” I said, trying to sound matter of fact, and direct, ignoring the tremor in my voice.

“And all without saying goodbye to me.” He tsked, sitting up in bed. He slowly moved his legs off the side to stand letting the white sheet fall off him, revealing first his strong thighs and then his firm ass. God, I could bounce a quarter off that behind. Once he was at his full height, the sheet dropped completely from his hips, showcasing his breathtaking…assets. I was embarrassed to admit that even with the ache prominently reminding me that I should head home, I felt myself clench for him. My body remembering all the wicked things he knew how to do with that mouth, with those hands…. That co- No! Oh my god, I was like a horny teenager.

He walked toward me, body on full display. He stood directly in front of me, and without breaking eye contact slowly grabbed both my heels and jeans from my hands placing them on a chair near the corner of the room. I couldn’t move. Did he want to have sex again? Did I want to have sex again? Jesus.

Once my shoes and jeans were safely on the chair, he leaned down and reached behind me coming up with a pile of black fabric in his hands. He held it out, making sense of the bundle and once organized he held it open up to my back.

“Put this on.” It was a command, not a request. Normally, I am not the type of woman anyone commands, not without some well-established rules first at the very least, but for some reason his tone held a finality to it. Like arguing would only waste time because he was the one in charge in this room. I obediently slipped my arms into the much too large black dress shirt pulling it closed over my naked body, enjoying the scent of cologne that lingered on the fabric. He came around and moved my arms from their crossed position over my chest, taking each button between his large fingers and securing them. Once he was satisfied with the number of buttons that were done up, he looked up at me. Baby blue meeting chocolate brown.

“Come back to bed.” He said softly, not an order this time; a request. Something in his eyes told me to listen, something pushed me to want to stay, all my earlier escape plans forgotten.

“Okay.” I replied softly, looking up at him through my lashes, my nerves coming through my trembling reply. I didn’t know what to make of what he’d asked of me; all I knew was that one look into those liquid blue eyes and I wanted nothing more than to give him anything and everything he wanted. This is where the danger lay in these dynamics. This is where I had to be careful, guarded. If I wasn’t careful, tall, dark, and horny would chew me up and spit me right back out again leaving me to pick up all my broken pieces.

I awoke to sunlight beaming in through a sliver between the dark curtains, slowly getting my bearings; squinting my eyes open. I went to roll over and get the sun out of my eye when I realized that I was caged in my two massive arms. The more I became aware of my body, the more I realized that I was pressed against what could only be the blue-eyed stranger form the night before. His face was pressed against my hair, letting me hear soft snores as he breathed. I know I should leave, take advantage of him being out cold and sneak off, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I found my curiosity peaked, and I wanted to get a feel for the man who was able to fuck me into oblivion and also cuddle me this tightly.

I attempted to turn over in his arms to look at his face, when I felt him stir behind me. With a deep groan he turned over onto his back, pulling me with him. Before I could react, a loud squeal left my lips, effectively causing a low chuckle from under me. I lay there, a little taken aback by his easy reaction.

“Good morning to you too, Bambi.” I said in a deep baritone voice. “I was wondering if you’d be here when I woke up.”

“Well it’s kind of difficult to escape when you’re being held hostage by a giant.” I grumbled, trying to push his arms from around me to get up.

I was rewarded with a deep laugh from the giant himself. I couldn’t help but smile as I pushed against his arms. I managed to get free and hop up onto my feet turning to face him in the process, when I wobbled on my still unsteady legs, only causing him to laugh all the more. I was beginning to get annoyed. It wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t stand properly, something that I was pretty happy about, albeit a little annoyed.

Reaching out to steady myself on the big bed, I finally looked up at him in the morning light. My heart stopped.

“Are you fucking KIDDING me?!” I all but screeched at his face, pulling the white sheet that had been covering us off the bed to hide my bare breasts from him.

“What?” He quickly asked, alarm laced in his tone as he reached for me. “Are you okay, what is it?”

I pulled back, stumbling over the sheet, like he was made of lava. It couldn’t be. This wasn’t happening. The beard, the eyes, the biceps, the pecs… Captain FUCKING America was currently lying naked in bed. Naked. Captain America. Bed. I frantically looked around, anxiety gripping my heart. Was I on some hidden camera show?

“You-you’re-but-Evans-Chris-FUCK!” I finally managed to sputter in between heaving breaths looking into his worried blue eyes.

He closed his eyes and threw his head back as an almost hysterical laugh broke from his chest. It looked like he was struggling to breath when his right hand came up and grabbed his chest. I could see tears streaming down his temples as he fell backwards onto the bed, clearly amused by my reaction to our situation.

“If you don’t stop laughing, I’m going to come over there and smother you!” I fumed. I couldn’t believe this jackass. I couldn’t believe that I was too drunk to realize I dragged Chris fucking Evans out of a club. I was embarrassed, and I have to say a little proud. Drunk me kicked ass.

“Holy shit…” He said, attempting to catch his breath. “I can’t believe it took you this long to notice!” Again, he broke down into a fit of laughter. “We had sex for like 4 hours!”

I stood there with my lips pressed tightly together, wanting to be furious but failing miserably. His laugh was contagious; I felt a bubble of laughter sneak its way up my throat. The more I thought about it, the harder I laughed. The harder I laughed, the more my legs shook. I fell onto the bed in a fit of giggles as the night’s events flashed in my mind. I had to stop drinking with Poppy.

We both managed to calm down enough to catch our breath. I wiped the tears from my eyes as I looked over at him only to find him already staring at me with a grin on his face.

“I just can’t believe I was so out of it that I didn’t realize I took home Captain America.” I said, shaking my head, as a few laughs spilled from me.

“Yeah well, tequila will do that to you.” He laughed with twinkle in his eye. “Can’t say I’ve ever had that happen to me before, though. So, you’re definitely a first for me.”

“I don’t know whether to be embarrassed or to be concerned.” I half groaned into my hands. “I don’t think I’ve ever woken up next to a celebrity before, so you’re definitely a first for me, too.”

I realized that I didn’t even know what time it was, I sat up looking around at the disaster that was at the foot of the bed. His cllothes strewn everywhere, shoes scattered around, and what looked like a dark tie laying at the top the chaos. My cheeks burned with the memories of the night before. Attempting to not look like an obsessive crazy person, I avoided eye contact so he couldn’t see the embarrassment on my face.

“Are you all right?” Chris asked from his side of the bed, leaning up on his elbows to get a view of my face.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” I replied with a nervous chuckle. “I’m just trying to make sense of the chaos on the floor so I can find my clothes.” I popped onto my knees and leaned over the end of the bed, mindlessly pushing my bare ass in the air.

“Hmm, well yes you are.” Came a low reply as I felt a large hand on my ass. I was caught so off guard that I jumped forward, nearly falling off the bed causing him to lean forward and catch me just in time to stop me from toppling headfirst off the edge.

“Might wanna be more careful there, short stuff.” He laughed, pulling me back into a sitting position. “Your jeans and shoes are on the chair over there.” He gestured to the corner of the room.

I quickly slid out of his grasp, managing to find my jeans and heels just where he’d said, and what was left of my panties buried under his clothes. Bummer, I liked those.

“Have you seen my top?” I asked without turning around. I didn’t trust myself to look at him. I ran the risk of either reacting like a crazy person or getting pulled into bed again, and it was time to go. I had never stayed this long with a one-night stand. Not that this was just any one-night stand, but still. I was always out before morning, mainly because this part was always awkward and him being who he was just made it all the more nerve wracking.

“I think we dropped it somewhere by the front door. Here, let me go look.” He got up out of bed and made his very naked way out the bedroom door. All I could do was stare at his perfectly formed ass as he walked away not giving a second thought to being completely naked. Incredible how he didn’t have an ounce of fat on him, and how when he walked the only thing that moved was his… package. I quickly snapped out of it, slipping into my jeans and heels. The night before rearing its head as I managed to stand up straight. All the dancing and after party antics really took a toll on my poor feet and I couldn’t wait to get out of these heels and into some fuzzy socks.

Thinking of fuzzy socks reminded me of home and that reminded me of Poppy, I didn’t even know where to begin looking for my clutch. I walked out of the bedroom and into the massive living room, arms covering my bare breasts. Chris was nowhere to be found when I heard him yell from what I could only be the kitchen.

“Found it!” He triumphantly cried holding my sparkly top in his hand. “Somehow it landed by the entrance of the kitchen.” He said with a smirk when he caught sight of me walking over to him.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the grin on his face. This was by far the weirdest day of my entire life. I felt like I was in the twilight zone. Here I was, topless in the penthouse suite of an undoubtedly expensive hotel, standing in front of Captain America himself, topless while he was completely naked holding my top from the night prior.

“I’d say you were my hero, but you’re the reason I lost it to begin with.” I laughed as I grabbed my top back. I made sense of the fabric and then slid it on, tying the strings behind my neck and back, finally covering my top half. I turned to walk to the couch where somehow my clutch had landed and started to go through it in the hopes that my phone still had charge.

“So, since you’re dressed, I’m assuming you plan on leaving.” Chris said. “I was actually going to ask if you wanted breakfast before you left. I’m starving and I was kind of hoping you wanted to stick around for some after breakfast fun.”

I was in the middle of unlocking my phone when I finally registered what he’d said to me. I looked up with raised eyebrows, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.

“You want me to have breakfast with you?” I asked in a questioning tone.

“I want you to have breakfast with me.” He nodded. “And then maybe be desert.” He finished with a panty dropping smirk. “Only if you want to of course. We had fun yesterday and I figured we should take advantage since we’re both here anyway.” He finished, crossing his large arms across his chest accentuating his muscled upper body, reminding me that he still had no clothes on.

I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to have breakfast. And then more sex. I was at a loss, I knew I should be jumping for joy, but I was suspicious to say the least. But I was a woman, and I had needs. Something that I knew Mr. Evans could take care of for me, which clouded my judgement to say the least.

“Fine, I’ll stay for breakfast…” I started, trailing off.

“I sense an ‘if’ coming.” He chuckled, shaking his head and looking down at me.

“IF,” I confirmed, “you agree to that including an Oreo milkshake… and you let me be on top.” I replied with a raised eyebrow. Both his eyebrows shot up at my requests, his right hand coming up to his mouth and tapping as if in consideration.

“The Oreo milkshake I can do… but you’ll have to be an extra good girl if you want to be on top.” He pinned me with his steel blue gaze and I knew today was about to get a little more interesting.

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

I hope you enjoyed chapter 5! This story is kind of taking on a life of its own, and it's getting exciting to see these two interact.

As always, suggestions and feedback is always welcome! 

See you in chapter 6 :)

[shaevilux]

The globules of coloured liquid floating inside the lava lamp sped up in their movements. The whole lamp started shaking. And, like a kettle letting off steam, a dark gaseous form flowed out of the lamp violently.

And this form coalesced in front of Jenny in her room.

"You have released me from my prison, but I am still bound to you for wishes three. I am you humble djinn, my lady." A figure spoke, it's skin shimmering in the dim room.

"Who? Gene?" Jenny asked, squinting at the apparition.

"Djinn, my lady Jenny."

"Geney? Is that really you?."

"That is also one of my names. What is your wish?"

"Are you really Gene? How are you here?"

"The lamp you possess. I was cursed to inhabit those kinds of light emitting contraptions. Every century or so I migrate to a new contraption, hoping for someone to release me."

"You're not Gene."

"I am a djinn."

"Gene died. A decade ago. Didn't he?"

"Forgive me, I'm not omniscient. I know not of your djinn."

"He was a good young man. You look like him. God, I wish he was still here."

"Forgive me, but that is a wish I am not capable of granting."

"Oh, that's fine, sweety. Just... Reminiscing, that's all."

"Do you have another?"

"Another? Grandson? No. I do have a granddaughter. She's coming by to visit this weekend. She's expecting, you know? I do not know how long I have left on this earth, but I want to see my great-grandchild before I go."

"I meant another wish."

"Well, that's a wish. I wish to be alive. Just a bit longer. Just to see that little baby cry and kick."

"It is done."

Jenny laughed, "I wish I had your optimism. I don't have—"

"You will have to be careful with your words, mistress Jenny. Do you really wish for my optimism?"

"It's an expression, dearie."

"I see."

"Well, where was I? Oh! Where are my manners? Would you like anything to drink?"

"I have no need for the sustenance you suggest."

"Oh, hush. Tea or coffee?"

"You are asking me what I would wish to drink?"

"You don't have to be dramatic about it, Gene. You may not be my Gene, but you're as aloof as he was, God rest his soul."

"I'll... I'll have tea, then."

"I'll put the kettle on."

"There is... Still the matter of your remaining wishes."

"I don't have any."

"I cannot leave unless three wishes have been fulfilled."

"Oh, come now. What kind of imprisonment is that? Well, how about you tell me about it over tea. No, I wish for you to tell me about it over tea."

The djinn stared at her for a moment.

"Very well."

Jenny left the room, the djinn following behind, looking around at the home.

The djinn was mildly curious about all the new inventions and strange new furnishings adorning the place. It had been centuries since they had seen the outside of a lamp.

Curiosity was not part of their state of being, however. So the mild curiosity did not persist. They watched as the old woman filled the kettle with water, and put it on some base. They felt the heating elements inside the kettle slowly increase the temperature of the liquid.

In reality humanity was a lot more progressive than any can give them credit for. The djinn and other powerful entities may have played small parts here and there. But even without their input, their meddling, the djinn felt mortal ingenuity would still propel humanity to wonders beyond even the djinn could envision.

Theirs was a thirst of knowledge and to apply that knowledge in any and every way they can. Fear would not hold them back. They would be cautious, yes, but not afraid.

The djinn shook the thoughts away. It was not their station to ponder.

"It'll just be a moment." Jenny called.

"Yes."

"Where are you from, Gene?"

"Here. This world is my home, same as yours."

"We must be pretty bad neighbors, then."

"May be. I have been in the lamp too long to know truly."

"How'd you get in the lamp?"

"Sorcery. A magician lured me with promises too good to refuse. And then she trapped me into an oil lamp. She cursed me to serve. Serve a hundred mortals, giving them three wishes each before I am allowed my freedoms."

"A hundred mortals?"

"Throughout the ages, yes. You are my hundredth."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"So you'll be free after I make my last wish?"

"Yes."

"What are you going to do when you're free?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, you've been trapped in that lamp for ages. You must have been dreaming of the day you're free."

"I was– am. But what comes after?"

"After?"

"I dream to be free. But I do not know what to do with that freedom. My imprisonment gave me purpose. Beyond that, what am I?"

"Oh, sweetie. You've been trapped for too long. Oh! The kettle's ready." Jenny began preparing two cups.

"I have some matters to tend to. I have to get the gauge of the happenings in djinndom. But beyond that, beyond getting my bearings back, I have... Nothing. The djinn are not of deep thoughts and motives. But these past centuries, serving mortals, learning about them despite my own wishes not to, I do not know, Jenny."

"What do you not know?"

"Mine emotions. Mine thoughts."

"Well, most people spend their whole lives figuring those things out."

"I am too long-lived. That is why those aspects of life are best left to the mortals, fleeting and passion-filled as their lives are."

"Do you like this? Granting wishes?"

"Some times."

"Well, there you go. When you're free, you can still do this, but only when you want to."

"Meddling in mortal affairs is frowned upon."

"But you're here, aren't you?"

"Only because I was foolish enough to be trapped all those centuries ago."

"Come, have a cup." Jenny offered a piping hot cup of tea to the djinn, who took it.

"Sit." She said, settling into her own seat.

The djinn obliged.

"It is painful. To be privy to the inner workings of mortals, their intents, their struggles, their rights, their wrongs. To be involved in them in intimate ways. And then having to go back to the indifferent existence of my kind."

"Do you have to, Gene?"

"There are laws that bind my kind."

"I am sorry I am not able to offer any aid."

"That is fine. It is not your prerogative. This tea is excellent, Jenny."

"Thank you, Gene. But I do have one wish left, don't I?"

"Yes."

"Well, tell me. What do you wish for most in this world? What did the sorcerer promise you?"

The djinn thought about it for a moment.

"Purpose."

"Then, my final wish before you're free is that you that you find purpose in life, Gene." Jenny wished.

And for the first time since their inception, the djinn smiled, and granted the wish.

An elderly woman with poor eyesight purchases a genie’s lamp and mistakes the genie as her ever-busy grandson, Gene.

[cyanza]

Aonu

Forty-eight Forty-seven Forty-six I definitely caught him off guard, but now he’s starting to struggle. Reflexes and quick thinking are something you either have or you don’t. You can teach skills but you can’t teach instincts. Up until this moment I would’ve sworn I didn’t have them. But now when I actually need them, here we are. I guess I’ve never been put to the test like this before. It’s the first time in my life that so much depends on me, so in the moment I acted without thinking. My reaction was quick, but was it the right reaction? I don’t know what came over me. If I can hold him I should be able to keep him down here until he passes out. I figure I can hold my breath for at least a couple of minutes, and we’ve been down here for almost a minute now. I didn’t think to start counting right away, though, and this isn’t exactly water we’re in. I have no idea what happens when someone inhales blue snow. I hope I don’t have to find out the hard way. Forty-five Forty-four Forty-three Blue snow isn’t really snow. It isn’t really blue either. It’s sort of a pale cyan color that becomes translucent when the light hits it right. And its structure is more like a bunch of semi-solid glass spheres all about the size of your fist. It’s like water, but somewhere between liquid and solid state. It’s like bubbles filled with water on the inside and air on the outside, not the other way around. Its true name is Qae, and it’s the sacred element of my people, the Aonu. We’re the only ones who call it blue snow, and we’re named for it. In the ancient language “Ao-Nu” meant “children of elemental water.” Each race has it’s own name for elements based on how it affects them. We call it blue snow because when it touches us our skin turns the same turquoise color, and it feels cool on our skin. That’s not all it does, though. It makes us more alert, quicker and stronger when we’re exposed to it. It helps us hold our breath longer, too, which I guess is why we’ve always been much more amphibious than the other races. The more blue snow we’re exposed to, the quicker our pulses and the faster our metabolisms go. The other races seem to have the opposite reaction. Touching it only creates a  mild effect - consuming it multiplies the reaction. If you’re not careful you can overdose and your heart can give out. No one I know has ever been exposed to a huge amount of blue snow, though. They say it would make you chronicly sick and eventually you’d lose your mind. Half an hour exposed to blue snow is  about like 5 shots of espresso, and a couple shots of liquor. An hour or so could make your heart beat so fast you’d pass out, or even worse. That’s the other reason I’m counting. We were already wading in the blue snow for about 20 minutes before we heard the Aiju. Forty-two Forty-one Forty The Matriarchs tell stories about ancient zerkers who would expose themselves to Qae before battle. It would make them fierce and almost invulnerable. Some say the zerkers would eat it to metamorphose into hybrid creatures. That seems outlandish, but blue snow is definitely a mysterious and magical substance. Our fishers use tiny amounts to help them stay underwater when hunting. Blue snow in small, controlled doses also helps control the symptoms of a lot of chronic diseases. Healers use it to soothe pain, slow infections, and help patients with vision and hearing problems. It won’t completely restore someone’s sight, but it definitely helped me. When I was young I wasn’t able to see well enough to read or recognize faces from a distance. But now my vision is almost normal. We also use Qae to keep our food cool so it doesn’t spoil, and purify the salt water so we can drink it. Some of our tinkers have been figuring out how to harness its power to make motors and engines and things. Blue snow has other mystical uses that most of us don’t know anything about. And the Matriarchs sometimes drop hints that the ancient Aonu used Qae for a lot more than we do now. Thirty-nine Thirty-eight Thirty-seven This Aiju kid is struggling hard now, but I definitely have the size advantage on him. I was a late bloomer. I went from a scrawny little kid to a broad-shouldered, barrel-chested adult. I wasn’t able to join the military because of my poor vision. It’s a good thing too, because I was so week and skinny I never would’ve survived initiation. My muscles didn’t kick in until several years later. Now I’m almost twice as heavy as I was then. Not actually fat, but heavier than average. And I’m thankful for the extra bulk right now because it’s definitely helping me keep us under. He’s strong, but I’m a lot bigger than him. Why are you here, young Aiju? The Qae mountain has been ours for centuries, and must be very far from your borough. Zaiku must be at least 4 days journey west, and I know that’s the closest Aiju borough to here. I once hiked up Zameru peak, the highest point in the archipelago, to watch the moonrise. I could see light from Zaiku off in the western distance, but I’ve never been there. If the Aiju are harvesting here they must be desperate for pure elements. Could they have depleted their own supplies of elemental Jyo?. When pure Jyo is like a semi-liquid form of light. It flows from streams that come up from beneath the ground. The Aiju have built most of their boroughs nearby a major Jyo stream. They collect it and use it much like we use Qae, and it affects them in similar ways. I’ve heard that the Aiju call it “Pink Juice.” Thirty-six Thirty-five Thirty-four I’ve never even seen anyone else at the Qae mountain before. It’s only been my family members and me before. Each of the 8 islands has their own day to harvest the blue snow. Today is the first day of Neptember, so there shouldn’t be any other Aonu harvesting. Our family and the other three harvesting families on our island keep a strict schedule. No other Aq’omi should be here. When we got to the mountain today my niece, Naia, wanted to climb up to see if she could see Aq’oma from the top. I told her she could try, but not to climb too high. The Qae is much less stable up near the top, and I didn’t want her to start some kind of avalanche. But I figured it couldn’t hurt, since it’s her first time. and we were moving much faster today than usual. Naia walks much faster than her grandma. She got about 10 fathoms up when she said she thought she heard voices. I started climbing up to tell her she was crazy and she needed to come help us harvest instead of making up stories. But then sure enough I thought I heard them too. At first I thought it was some kind of echo, but then I heard a few words in a language that was definitely not Aoni. In a whisper I told Naia to slide back down near her mother and hide in the blue snow. The voices coming from the other side must be from another race, or from one of the nomadic tribes. Either one is a dangerous situation. Thirty-three Thirty-two Thirty-one In the tetraverse the four core elements make up everything. The first element “Xuu” is the densest and most solid. It’s the primary element in soil, rocks, minerals, metals, and our flesh. It symbolizes strength, defense, construction, and growth. The second element “Qae” is fluid. It’s the primary element in water, blood, and other liquids. It symbolizes speed, communication, health, transition, and adaptation. The third element “Zai” is gaseous. It’s the primary element in the sky, space, and in our breath. It symbolizes speech, music, wisdom, vitality, sanctity, and leadership. The fourth element “Jyo” is the most plasmic and energetic. It’s the primary element in light, heat, and fire. It fuels our hearts and symbolizes power and war, love and violence. These four elements compose all things in various proportions. Some things like clouds, lava, mud, and lightning are composed of only two or three elements.  Boulders, rivers, wind, sunlight, and a few other things are primarily one element. But the four elements are rare to find in their pure forms and are treasured. Each element is sacred to one of our races and we have fought many wars to protect our rights to their pure elemental forms. Thirty Twenty-nine Twenty-eight It takes three of us to carry enough Qae back to the island each week. We fill up our packs with five and half gallons each, to replace the octave our island uses up every eight days. It’s about an hour hike, a two hour paddle, and another hour hike up to the mountain. Getting here and back usually takes all day. Aq’oma, our island, has a small storage in case of emergencies. But we depend on the weekly journeys to the Qae mountain to keep our island healthy and thriving. My sister, my niece and I are on harvest duty today. Every 16 weeks it’s my family’s turn. Naela and I have been harvesting for our family since we became adolescents, but this is Naia’s first time. When Naia finished the academy last month she became one of our family’s three harvesters. Ceru, my mother, will now get to spend more time teaching. It was a relief to Naela and I, because Ceru was trying to do too many things at her age. I’m glad she'll get to focus on the difficult task of teaching our culture and history to the kids back on Aq’oma. Her specialty is language and traditions. Other teachers focus on botany, engineering, mathematics, and philosophy. I remember my old teacher, Achelon used to bring samples of Qae and the other elements into lessons for use to see. It was too dangerous for us to touch them as kids, though. We have to gradually build up our tolerances to pure elements. And each race can only handle one element safely. We all have drastically different reactions to touching other elements in their pure forms. What will happen to this young Aiju after this much exposure to the blue snow? I hope it doesn't kill him. I only want him to pass out so I can protect our Qae. Twenty-seven Twenty-six Twenty-five This is only the second Aiju I’ve ever seen. When I was a kid there was a meeting of the four races to reconcile our differences and promote peace. Each race elected a representative to negotiate trade, territories, and diplomacy in the Tetrarchy . The Tetrarchy granted exclusive rights to harvest pure elements to each of the specific races. Only Aonu can harvest Qae. Only the Oq’uta can mine for Xuu – elemental glow crystals. Only the Qexaal can gather Zai, element harmonic wind. And only the Aiju can collect Jyo. As a show of solidarity and peace, the four representatives went on a global procession after the Tetrarchal Convergence. My family went to the festival when they visited our island.  I remember seeing Aonu Senator Qamaera, her husband Jaenbu, and a girl about my age up on the platform. They were next to a strange rose-skinned man that my mother told me later was Senator Ryuji. His wife and family weren’t part of the visiting party. No other Aiju have ever visited the archipelago since then, and the Aonu and Aiju have preseserved a détente. It’s not exactly peace, but we stay out of each other’s way. Aonu visit Oq’uta and Qexaal territory all the time. I’ve been to Ptaeryx, Qyntaan, and Ytza many times to trade for our Qae for their Zai. I often go to Kiibo, Mawenzi, and Zira to trade for their Xuu. Oq’uta and Qexaal merchants even live on our Aonu islands and in their Aiju boroughs. But no Aonu I know has ever visited a Aiju borough or had direct contact with one before. Trade and business between Aonu and Aiju is always done through a third party in a neutral district. As far as I know this young Aiju is the first one to set foot on the Archipelago in at least a generation. But if he’s here, does that mean there could be others with him? How would an Aiju even get here by himself? Twenty-four Twenty-three Twenty-two We Aonu from Aq’oma have always practiced, safe, sustainable harvesting. After filling our packs we measure the size of the Qae mountain to make sure it hasn’t gotten any smaller. This is Naia’s first time so she’s supposed to do the calculations. I’ve been measuring the blue snow with the octant and qubit for decades. Naela doesn’t like doing it. She never minded the hiking, paddling and harvesting, but she was never interested in math. Math comes easy to me so I’ve always done the calculations when it was her turn. We always get the same answer for the volume of the Qae mountain, within standard deviation. I don’t know how the mountain replenishes itself, but somehow it makes about 16 gallons more each week. If we were to harvest more, it wouldn’t make quite as much, and the next week the mountain would be smaller. Forty years ago my grandfather figured out that the blue snow pile had been getting smaller. Rebels from Ma’ano, the island to the east of ours were harvesting extra blue snow in an attempt to overtake Hae’ea, another Aonu island. After that the Matriarchs started regulating the days each island can harvest, and how much they can take. Since then none of the Aonu islands have fought for dominance, and the Qae mountain has always stayed the same. I wonder what kind of regulations the Aiju have about collecting their sacred element, Jyo? If they’re desperate enough to invade our mountain there must be something wrong with their Jyo streams. Twenty-one Twenty Nineteen The Aiju and Aonu have a long, very complicated, very contentious history. The four races are very different, but Aiju and Aonu are complete opposites in many ways. Aiju have rosey pink skin with magenta eyes and orange hair. They never grow beards and the women never cut their hair. Aonu have skin the color of seafoam and jade green eyes. Our hair is olive, but most men shave their heads and grow long sea-green beards instead. Aiju prefer to live in large boroughs and rarely travel. We Aonu go all over the archipelago and travel to other places often - except to Aiju boroughs. Aiju men are aggressive, loud and belligerent. They always try to have the last word and attempt to sound like experts in whatever they talk about. They’re very short-tempered, especially when someone implies that they are wrong. The Aiju women never speak to anyone but their fathers, husbands, and female relatives. Aonu men and women see each other as equals, but the women take more of the leadership roles. Aonu women are more dominant than Aonu men, and we men honor and cherish our women. All Aonu understand the importance of equality and treating everyone with respect. Aiju believe in strict monogamy and mate for life. Most Aiju have arranged marriages via a contract between the two fathers. Infidelity is punishable by sterilization or banishment. Our Aonu society is structured quite differently. because we live in large families with many partners. Aonu women often have several male consorts and the men usually help raise the children too. Most Aonu nuclear families are part of large clans under a consortium of Matriarchs. My mother’s mother is a member of the Matriarchal Consortium for Aq’oma, just like her mother before her. Eighteen Seventeen Sixteen I am named after of my mother’s father, and like him I am a storyteller. I don’t know much about my father’s family, so I am a lot closer to the grandparents and cousins on my mother’s side. Mindaro, the man who helped raise me, is my father, but not in the way most Aonu think of fathers. Like all Aonu I actually have two fathers. Aonu females develop eggs in their wombs without any genetic material, so we mate in trios. Aonu males have one of two different genes necessary to fertilize eggs and create children in the female’s womb. To get pregnant an Aonu woman has to mate with one of each kind of male within about four days or the egg doesn’t fertilize. Aonu men are either yin or yang depending on what kind of genes they have. Yin Aonu men are more sensitive, compassionate, quiet, intelligent, and creative than others. Other Yang Aonu men are more aggressive, athletic, independent and louder than others. Some folks refer to the Aonu trio as Male, Female, and Threemale, since the yin male is the third most important. Most Aonu females are dominant, but let the yang males feel like they’re actually in charge. Yang males are usually referred to as “father” because they dominate the less-assertive yin males. That’s why Aonu yin fathers are often called “uncle” - their status is less important than a father. My sister and I call Mindaro “father." For many years we’d assumed he was our yang father and that our uncle Nyanza was my yin father. As I grew up, though, we learned that Uncle Nyanza was actually my mother’s brother and Mindaro was my yin father. A few years ago I figured out that my yang father, Khombu, left my mother, the night my sister and I were conceived. He never came back and Mindaro had to help our mother raise us. He struggled in the father role without the help of assertive yang genes, and got very depressed. Eventually he felt he’d failed us all and withdrew from our family socially. He still lives in the house with my mother, but they rarely speak except when my mother sends him to do errands. I’ve never met Khombu. I’ve always longed to have a yang father to teach me how to be more masculine and assertive. I have no idea where it came from today when I dove into the blue snow and grabbed this Aiju. Fifteen Fourteen Thirteen I can feel the young Aiju’s pulse slowing down. He’s either getting weaker or I’m getting stronger. Probably both. I hope he’ll stop struggling and pass out before I need to come up to breathe. Not that I can’t keep holding my breath. Somehow it’s actually getting easier the longer I’ve been down here in the blue snow. I’m worried I'll go crazy, though, or my heart might burst if I’m down here too long.  What happens when you’re submerged in blue snow for 10 minutes? What am I going to do with this Aiju once he passes out? Will he pass out? I hope I’m not killing him. I’m not a murderer. I’m  defending my home, my family, and my culture, right? Aonu learn from an early age about defending our way of life, especially from Aiju. Maybe that’s what kick-started my attack earlier. But I have no idea what I’m doing, though, or if it’s the right thing. I know this Aiju is not supposed to be here, and I have to do something about it. We can’t let the Aiju steal our blue snow, but is that really what he was doing? I hope this only knocks him out and I can figure out what to do next. I doubt he was here all alone, though. There’s no way he wandered here all by himself, and he was talking to someone else earlier. The other Aiju have probably noticed that he disappeared and are searching for him right now. An Aonu his age would never make a trip like this alone, so I can’t imagine why an Aiju kid would be here with no one else around. Twelve Eleven Ten At the start of adolescence each Aonu takes a small sample of blue snow and swims to the Kermode atoll for a vision quest. We spend the night alone with our thoughts and listen to what the ocean has to tell us. We swim back in the morning and choose our new names and societal roles. That was when I took the name Aavri after my mother’s father. Mindaro wanted me take the name of his fathers, Otari or Zalo, both of whom were warriors. My father always wanted to be a warrior, but was too meek. He also had to spend a lot more time working after Khombu left. I never wanted to be a warrior. I’m not much of a fighter, and I’ve always been much more pacifistic. I’m more creative and communicative than athletic and aggressive. I’m pretty sure I’m threemale – a yin male. I’ve never gotten tested. And none of my past partners have ever gotten pregnant, so I can’t compare myself to their other partners. But I am definitely more on the sensitive side. Being threemale is tough, especially without a strong father figure to raise you. It seems like women tend to be more attracted to males who are assertive and athletic. I’m pretty strong, but awkward and uncoordinated. Some  yang male-female couples invite a yin male to mate with them for reproductive purposes. But that has always felt like a shallow reason for an affectionate relationship. Nonetheless I keep ending up as the third wheel in most of my relationships. I make closer friendships with women because we’re both communicative and compassionate. Yang male friendships feel shallow to me so I don’t have many. But I’ve made deeper friendships with a couple other yin male friends who are always single like me. None of us have much luck attracting women. We tend to be most attracted to assertive, dominant women who aren’t afraid to speak their minds. Unfortunately most of those women are attracted to yang males, or to each other. We yin males are much more sensitive, and it often takes me months to recover after a heartbreak. As I’ve gotten older I’ve decided to put less energy and emphasis into sexual relationships. I'm tired of being hurt and disappointed. There's not much chance I'll ever have children at this point, but I’m already a real uncle to Naia. If I were to have my own biological children they would only call me uncle anyway. I hope Naia and Naela are ok over on the other side of the mountain. Nine Eight Seven The Aiju kid has stopped struggling, but he’s still breathing. I hear something strange, though. There's a distant sound that feels like it’s coming from inside my own head. I’ve been concentrating so hard on holding my breath and staying under that I didn’t notice it at first. It’s like a rhythmic wave and a whisper at the same time, but I can’t understand it. There are no words, but the voice feels familiar somehow. Now that I’m paying attention, I can hear other noises outside my head but nearby, like ripples in the river. I hear movement to my left. Yes, it’s definitely coming from that direction. There are long shadows moving around a little ways away. The blue snow is somehow translucent even though we’re on the opposite side from the sun.  And I can see now that those are definitely legs wading through the blue snow towards me. But not moving directly at me, so I don’t think they know we’re here yet. That other sound in my head is getting louder, though, and more familiar. Not just familiar… familial. Almost like when my sister and I were in the womb together - no words, only sounds and feelings. Naela must be trying to tell me something. If they’ve been hiding like I told them to, she and Naia are also submerged in the blue snow still. All our senses must be heightened now, and it’s like she’s using some kind of mental sonar to communicate. There’s no time to figure it out now, though, because I have to do something about this Aiju before the other two find me. Six­ Five Four

[isabelasfriendfiction]

A Sinking Feeling

aka "Lyrie gets drunk and says 'f***' a lot."

Grieving over a loved one is hard, especially when there's a festival going on to venerate the one who is responsible for their death... Lyrie makes some poor decisions on this day, but luckily she has a good friend to look out for her, albeit in his own special way.

This is about my D&D character during a timeskip after her sister, who was another player character, died.

{ao3 link}

They didn’t know.

Lyrie had to consciously remind herself of the fact each time a stranger greeted her that day. She had known the festival was coming up, but she hadn’t been prepared for how difficult it would be to endure it all: a day dedicated to exalting the goddess that not only had killed Lyrie’s sister, but was intending to end the lives of every miserable person celebrating the damned holiday. 

The goddess might as well have punched Lyrie in the face personally. She could practically feel an aura of smugness emanating from the town as decorations were hung and praises shouted. The sad truth was obvious: people thought that if they celebrated hard and loud enough, Fiela would save them from the dragons and volcanoes and everything else hailing the end of the world that had happened in the past month.

But they didn’t know.

“Fiela’s blessing!” 

“May Fiela smile upon you on this grand day.” 

“Glory to Fiela!”

Even people within her own base, the people serving the queen and therefore serving against Fiela, didn’t know. Lyrie tried settling for tearing down decorations around the fortress whenever no one was looking, a small act of rebellion to vent her frustration somewhere, but it proved to not be enough. By the end of the day, Lyrie felt ready to explode.

At dusk, she slipped out of the fortress and crossed the bridge to the mainland. The real festivities were beginning  now, the first fireworks of the night sparkling over the city. Lyrie avoided the main streets, slipping through the back alleys she knew by heart to reach one of the only dock taverns that survived the eruption. The place was nearly empty, its patrons likely having gone to the main street, or at least one of the nicer taverns closer to town.

“Give me the highest quality of whatever this much will buy.” Lyrie dropped a small sack of gold coins on the counter. 

The bartender’s eyes widened a fraction. “Um... Anything specific in mind?”

“Whiskey. Rum. Whatever. Surprise me.” Lyrie’s voice had an edge to it that cued the bartender she was not in the mood for talking. He hurriedly gathered three bottles from the shelf behind him and handed them over. 

Lyrie nodded in thanks, hooking one to her belt and taking the other two in each hand. She popped open the bottle in her right hand and took a swig as she walked out.

Debris obscured the path to the beach. Lyrie was glad for it, if only because it kept festival-goers from seeking out the shore. By the time she reached her destination near the overhang cliff that supported her old home, she had drained the first bottle.

She glanced around at the chunks of wood surrounding her feet. Some of it belonged to the half of the mansion that was destroyed when all the volcanoes, including the lava pit below the house, erupted at once. And was that a piece of the stables? 

Lyrie couldn’t tell if the burning in her chest should be credited to resentment or the alcohol. Probably both. 

Tossing the empty bottle aside, Lyrie began grabbing pieces of wood, building them into a pile. She hoped they were all part of the mansion. “Fuck you,” she muttered to each piece, getting louder and louder until she was nearly yelling. “FUCK YOU!” With a final scream, she struck her sword on a rock and let the sparks take hold of the wood. 

She started drinking the next bottle as she waited for the flames to grow, watching in satisfaction. But soon the heat became unbearable, and she stumbled away from the bonfire towards the water, turning her face to the sky. 

If she had been less preoccupied, perhaps Lyrie would have appreciated how beautiful the stars were that night, thanks to the lack of light that usually glowed from the docks at night. Instead, her vision blurred, liquid leaking from her eyes and streaking down her cheeks. Damn it.

“Why’d you leave me, Fie?” Lyrie spoke hoarsely. If Fie’s soul wasn’t in the underworld like Lirena had claimed, maybe it was up above, somewhere. “There’s nothing here for me anymore. How could you do this to me?” Her teeth clenched, and she wiped the tears away with the hem of her sleeve. “What’s the fucking point if you’re not here?” Lyrie had been given plenty of opportunities to run away from the mother that abused and terrorized her in her childhood, but she had stayed and endured year after year solely for Fie’s sake. And how was she repaid? Fie willingly giving up her precious life to save a few hundred strangers.

No, it wasn’t entirely Fie’s fault, Lyrie had to remind herself. Their mother and Fiela had taken advantage of her -- molded her into the person that made the kinds of decisions which she believed were for the greater good, but in the end just furthered their sick agendas.

The rage at Fiela’s festival came back to Lyrie in a rush; she drew her sword and attacked another piece of broken building beside her with a scream.

“What the hell are you doing?”

The voice cut across the beach air, quiet but clear. Lyrie looked up to see a large figure standing on the edge of the firelight. Despite being shrouded in shadow, Lyrie immediately knew who it was: Cassian. His arms were crossed and she could just imagine the disapproving frown on his face, but she didn’t care.

A brittle grin formed on Lyrie’s mouth, and she grabbed her last bottle and waved it around. “Celebrating! Wanna join?”

Cassian uncrossed his arms and walked over to Lyrie, looming over her. “You’re being an idiot. Come back to base and sober up; I don’t have time for this.”

In her drunken state, Lyrie found Cassian’s serious demeanor to be amusing rather than imposing. She let out a hollow laugh. “Ha. You’re cute, mister killjoy.” With a spin on her heel, Lyrie tried to walk away... except she slipped, underestimating how badly her balance had been affected.

Behind her, Cassian sighed and caught her by the arm before she hit the ground, and then the world spun even more as he lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder. Lyrie grunted as her stomach hit the spaulder under his cloak -- he might not have been wearing his usual heavy armor, but of course he had some metal plating for protection even in his “casual” clothes.

After a moment of registering what had happened, Lyrie quickly switched from bewildered to annoyed. She tried kicking, but found that Cassian had an arm firmly securing her lower legs, likely anticipating that course of action. But he couldn’t do anything about her arms. Lyrie resorted to hitting Cassian’s back, though her body refused to cooperate completely, her punches translating much softer than she intended. Her tongue had stopped obeying her as well; she shouted, but the belligerent words were incomprehensible.

Cassian walked for perhaps a minute before stopping, silent all the while. Lyrie was too caught up in her attempts to insult Cassian to notice when the sand below had turned into water. Abruptly, he changed his grip on her, lowering her from his shoulder to being held by both arms, one hand under the crook of her legs and the other on her back. Taken off-guard by the sudden change, Lyrie let her arms and legs go limp. The two of them glared at each other, though Lyrie found her eyes slipping to focus on the strangely mesmerizing flicker of firelight against Cassian’s jawline.

“Pull yourself together,” Cassian said, and then he dropped Lyrie.

The shock of the freezing water elicited a gaping gasp from Lyrie as the world came into sharp focus, temporarily dispelling the haze from the alcohol. She flailed and screeched until she found that the water only reached to her knees, at which point she stood up with a slurred, “Ffffuck you.”

“You’re welcome.” Cassian stood solidly in the same place, not even attempting to avoid the splashes. A moment passed, and much of the tension both within and between them faded. Maybe Lyrie was imagining things, but it seemed like some of the anger that always boiled beneath his calm exterior had dissipated, leaving behind a sense of simple weariness. He sighed again, then undid his cloak and draped it over Lyrie. “Let’s go.”

The walk back was slow and silent, but Cassian kept a hand on Lyrie’s arm to steady and guide her.

***

Lyrie woke up in her bed come morning. The light hurt her eyes, but there wasn’t as much as she expected; glancing over to the window, she saw that the curtains had been drawn. Strange. She usually kept them open.

It came to her attention that there seemed to be an extra layer between herself and the blanket that covered her. Although her head pounded when she moved it, she craned her neck to investigate and found... Cassian’s cloak.

Oh. Lyrie’s cheeks burned in shame as hazy recollections of the previous night surfaced in her mind. She hated that Cassian had seen her like that, but at the same time... she knew she would have to apologize. And perhaps thank him at the same time.

With a twinge in her heart, Lyrie wondered what Fie would say about the whole thing. After the initial concern, there would be teasing about Cassian’s soft side, no doubt. Imagining it brought a ghost of a smile to Lyrie’s lips.

Lyrie knew she should get up, but the bed was soft and Cassian’s cloak comforting, and her eyes didn’t want to open and face the too-bright world. Soon Lyrie dozed off again, fond memories of her sister playing in her mind.