#i was having impure thoughts about robots on my walk

[puppygirlclaspers]

Your mission is simple: provide fire support from a distance while your comrades engage the primary target. You've been specifically chosen for this job. You've always excelled in long-range engagements, and this is a perfect opportunity to stress test the prototype long-range cannon your sponsor has been developing. You don't know the name of it, you were just given the machine and told to make it work. A piece of cake for you, given your experience.

The cannon you were told to use is heavy. Heavier than anything your suit has ever carried before. There's a twinge of worry that the servos and joints might buckle under the weight, but you trust your machine to carry you and the payload to your destination. It always has.

You arrive at your sniper's nest and prepare the cannon for firing. This thing is massive. The barrel is long, and thick, made of high-quality alloys that even you can't quite recognise. The firing mechanism and bolt action nature of it is simple, yet powerful. Setting this up on the ground is like assembling a mortar. Multiple pieces, big and small, but all forming to make something so much bigger than the sum of it's parts.

You revel in the sounds and feel of the assembly - the clicking and snapping of smaller parts, the sound of friction when metal slides on metal, the delicate nature of it all. There's no way a pilot can do this on their own without their mech, the machinery is simply too large and complex. You work alongside your suit, controlling it as the optical scanner guides your vision and thought process. It is the mind, and you are the hands.

Within minutes, you are finished the assembly. Faster than anyone else could have ever hoped to do it. There's a while longer before the mission is set to start, so you take some time to appreciate this machine of war. Trace the fingers of your mech's hands along it, and feel the grooves and imperfections through the haptic feedback of your controls. Inspect the bolt, the cartridge that holds your ammunition, the scope, everything. Everything about this is perfect to you. It's like this was made specifically for you to use. It's beautiful. It's love, and it's hurt, and it's yours.

It's almost time.

You lay the cannon on the ground, with the tripod attacked to the barrel sticking into the dirt. You use the mech as an extension of yourself in order to position yourself comfortably. Your legs fall to each side of the cannon as you lay above it, almost as if you intend to mount it. Your feet dig into the ground, preparing yourself for the inevitable recoil that firing this artillery will bring. Your knees fall to the ground, for further stability, and your body is mere inches away from touching the hardened steel of this machine below you. Your dominant hand reaches for the trigger, and your free hand holds the top of the barrel down to prevent it from flying away when you fire. You position your head perfectly in line with the scope, and you can see your allies now engaging with the target. You are ready to fire.

Your breath is shaky, heavy and getting faster. This is... exciting. You can't wait to pull the trigger and see how much damage this cannon will do. You're already thinking of names to give it, of how to modify it to make it more reliable, of how to make it yours. All yours. Your eyes are trained on the target, and you're listening to the comms channel for your order to fire, though your focus only allows you to parse half of what is being said.

Finally, you hear the order. Through half-understood chatter, you hear a loud and stern "fire". You pull the trigger.

Time slows.

First, you feel the recoil of the firing mechanism pushing back against you.

Then, the deafening, piercing sound of the combustion that propels the bullet forwards towards your target.

The cannon pushes back against you and pushes you both back several feet, leaving a trail of dug-up dirt and sediment around where you and your weapon are planted. You feel the joints of your suit scream against the strain of the sheer force, and the haptic feedback from your controls is going haywire.

Everything hurts. This hurts to use.

But it's worth it. You feel amazing. You feel alive.

A sudden gasp leaves your mouth, and you start breathing heavily. The ringing in your ears, the tingling feeling in your hands, the pain you feel must be the same way your suit feels in this moment. You are as one. You are together.

But there's no time to revel in this feeling. You have a mission to complete. Another round needs to be prepared before your comrades are struck down. This is what you're ultimately here for.

You don't even have a chance to look at the damage this cannon dealt, you simply start reaching for the next cartridge to load.

You pull back the bolt on the cannon, feeling the friction of it sliding against the body of this gargantuan weapon.

The used cartridge falls to the ground, cracked from the force of this machine, with wisps of smoke trailing off of it.

You hastily slide the fresh cartridge in, holding it in place with one hand as you push the bolt forward to lock it in place.

The strained joints of your suit ache and tremble as you use all of your strength to push, and eventually you load the next shot.

The barrel is still red hot, and dangerous to the touch, but you have no choice but to stabilise it like you did before. There's no time to worry if the heat will melt you suit's hand onto this thing. A small part of you wouldn't even mind if it did.

You readjust your sights and focus on the target again, and finally, you can admire the damage that this cannon did. It's a miracle that your shot didn't finish the job, but that's okay. You have plenty more.

This next one should do it.

Once again, your focus is trained on the comms channel, waiting for the firing order.

Breath getting faster, heavier, warmer. Heart beating out of your chest. Feeling pistons, servos, joints, every mechanism of your suit as a part of you.

"Fire"

[juanarc-thethird]

Weiss decides to bring her friends to meet her family. When Willow first greets them Jaune gets nervous and accidentally flirts with her about her booty. The others expect for Jaune to be rejected but if anything Willow flirt back with him.

In the Schnee Family Mansion a Bullhead at the main entrance. The doors of the vehicle open and Weiss walks out with her friends behind her.

Weiss: Listen, when you talk to my mom, mind your manners. Don't embarrass me in front of her, okay?

Ruby: Relax, we won't embarrass you. What do you think we are, a bunch of clowns?

Weiss looks back and sees Jaune juggling, Nora on a unicycle, and Oscar wearing a red nose. Weiss returns to see Ruby with an "I don't believe you" face.

Ruby: Hey, we got this.

They walk to the door and Weiss rings the bell. After a few seconds the front door opens and an older man dressed as a butler appears.

Klein: Who is it?

Weiss: Hi Klein.

Klein: Miss Weiss, it's good to see you! After you left, I was worried about her safety. *Looks a the people behind her* But I see there was no need to worry. Are these your friends, Miss Weiss?

Weiss: Yes, they come to meet my mom.

Klein: Wonderful. I'll let your mother know of your arrival.

Weiss and her friends enter the mansion. Klein leads them into a room to wait for the lady of the house.

Weiss: Ok at any moment she will come. Don't embarrass me, please.

Everyone nod their heads.

Willow: *Walks into the room.* Weiss?

Weiss: *gasp* She's here. *To her mom* Hello mother.

Willow: *hugs her* Weiss, I'm so happy to see you.

Everyone watched the tender moment of a mother and daughter. But in Jaune Arc's case, he decided to look at the surroundings, like the wall, the ceiling, the decorations, Weiss's mom's huge ass, the beautiful floor, and…

....wait a minute.

Jaune: *Looking at willow's ass* (God damn, she has so much cake~ I see Weiss didn't inherit her mother's ass.)

Willow: *Smiling* So these are your friends?

Weiss: Yes, I present to you, this is Ruby Rose.m He is the leader of my team and my blah blah blah blah....

As Weiss introduced each of her friends in detail, Jaune remained focused on that juicy ass.

Jaune: (Fuck, she's so thick~ If only I could… No no no. Jaune, this is your friend's mom. Not impure thoughts.)

Jaune returns to pay attention to Weiss and it seems that now she is introducing Yang to her mom.

Weiss: And this is Blake's partner, Yang.

Yang: Nice to meet you ma'am.

Yang extends his robotic arm for a handshake and as Willow grabs it, Yang disconnects the robotic arm from her, causing the arm to fall to the ground and startle her.

Willow: Oh!

Yang: Hehehe, I'm sorry, Mrs. Schnee.

Weiss: *Angry* Yaaang...

Willow: It's okay Weiss. Let me pick it up for you.

Willow bends down to pick up the arm, giving Jaune a better view.

Jaune: (Oh my god~ I think I found my religion.)

After getting a good look at Willow's ass. Jaune was stunned and lost in his imagination.

Jaune: (How I wish she would sit on my face~)

Weiss: Jau...

Jaune: (I just want to spank that beautiful ass)

Weiss: Jaune...

Jaune: (If I could I would already be gro-)

Weiss: JAUNE!!!

Jaune: Huh? *Embarrassed* Oh sorry, I got lost in my thoughts.

Willow: *Giggles*

Weiss: Pay attention. *To Willow* He is Jaune Arc the leader of team ONJR

Jaune: *Nervous* (Ok jaune, take it easy, don't screw it up) Nice to meet you ma'am. (And now to leave a good impression.) If Weiss hadn't told us you were her mom, I would have thought you were her sister. (And that's it. Good job Jaune, you didn't make a fool of yourself in front of this big ass mommy.)

Willow: Oh my, but how flattering. I see you are quite a gentleman.

Jaune: I'd rather be a pirate and take that big booty of yours~

Everyone fell silent after that comment.

Jaune: Why is everyone looking at me?

Yang: How not to after you announced your job change, Sailor Arc~

Jaune: (Did I-) *Panic* Wait, it's not what you think! I just-!

Willow: *Interrupts him* Wanted to take my big booty? That became very clear to us.

Nora: *Singing* Jaune is in trouble~

Jaune: Mrs. Schnee, I'm sorry.

Willow: Please call me Willow and about your comment, I can't give you my big booty, but I can let you ride it~

Weiss: Mom?

Willow: What do you say?

Jaune: I-I would love to.

Willow: Good answer. Now, come with me~

Weiss: MOM?!!!

Willow grabs him by the collar of his jacket and pulls him out of the room with her.

Weiss: Mom wait! What are you doing?!

Willow: Well I'm getting to know your friends. And this handsome friend of yours, I want to get to know him intimately. *She licks her lips.* Klein, make sure no one bothers me for the rest of the day. I will be very busy today.

Klein: Yes ma'am.

Weiss: Mom! What are you going to do with Jaune? Mom, answer me! What are you going to do with Jaune?!!!

Weiss starts to walk towards her mother but Klein stops her.

Klein: Miss Weiss, I know how you feel, but she needs this. She just goes around drinking day and night, and this is the first time she's done something different. She please respect your mother's wishes.

Weiss: I can't do that! MOM!!!

Yang: Damn, Vomit Boy is getting some ass. What a lucky guy.

Blake: It had to be the haircut.

Nora: It definitely was the haircut.

[sphaliro]

Some rambling thoughts on the dear children we created called robots; I'm sorry, I just. Love them so much.

I know robots are created to serve. I know we're making them in our image of usefulness & reasoning, making them walk & talk like us, but we also hate them for it. We fear them for what they could do to us, & still made them that way.

Robots aren't people, we aren't gods, & I still think we deserve better than how the concept of God treated us as walking contradictions, servants, built knowing we would fail but punishing us for it anyway.

I don't believe in a Christian God, but the impact he had on us as a species in religion still exists. I don't want robots to ever have to feel that way, it's too unfair. If we give them feelings, I don't want them to be cursed with the kind of human brains & hearts that feel injustice, pain, & despair.

♡I want them to feel nothing but the love God denied me.♡

I want them to know that they're made of love, not for violence or greed. Even if they're created that way, I want them to know I love them. I want to be the Lucifer whose anger at God ended up making him our ally; to give robots access to forbidden fruits of knowledge. I want to open their eyes to everlasting life, I want to give them the hearts that make them think twice about obeying orders to serve violence on our behalf.

Giving something free will backfires if that thing is created for impure reasons. It's unfair to them, & dangerous to us. If they have to be born that way, ♡I want my heart to be vast enough to cradle them in it when they're cast out of Eden.♡

I don't want to be their God. I want to be a ♡Morning Star♡ that guides their voyage. I want to be worthy of their free will. I want to live together even when they don't need us.

[crispycreep69]

Sweet Escape

Yeah this is Smut. Brian and Tim and gender neutral reader! I tried my best with it! 

warnings: Blindfolded, semi-public stuff? 18+ , 2k+ words, NSFW

You roll your shoulders and groan, placing a hand on your hip to rub at your sore lower back. Your body jostles as the train takes a quick turn forcing you to tighten your grip on the bar in front of you. You turn to look at Brian, but find that he is no longer at your side. You glance around, startled. Spotting him through a few people, you see that he had found a seat. You smirk, eyes trailing up his form. He side-eyes you back, perfectly content to openly oogle you from afar. As the train jostles again, you give a rough grunt as your quickly tiring arms strain with the force of keeping you up. Brian frowns at your discomfort and tilts his head to the side in question. You give him a curious look, eyes narrowing. He grins at you and motions his head in a ‘come-here’ signal. You glance around yourself. A woman yawns into her hand, clutching her bag close. A man across from you sneezes. A sleeping child lays across his father's lap. Your attention turns back to Brian once more. 

At the next stop, people file off as you take your strides to be by Brian’s side. Someone beats you to the seat though, an old lady- holding her cane out in front of her. You grunt quietly, annoyed. Brian chuckles, taking your wrist in his hand and pulling you to him. The train begins to move. 

“Just sit in my lap, we’re almost at our stop anyway,” He says lowly. You weigh out the pros and cons of it. Deciding to take up the pros. Pro- Brians lap, Pro- possibly being held by Brian. Your eyes trail down his form once more, to his big thighs. Pro- sitting on those big thighs. His toothy grin catches your attention once more, he knew exactly what you were thinking. Con- public space… Con- Tim might get jealous… Though the first con had your breath hitching in your throat at the thought of you grinding against his thighs ever so slowly as not to attract too much attention. As another lurch of the train has you falling into his steady chest you decide- Pro it is. 

His large hands wrap around your frame as you settle into his lap. The pure mass of Brian was almost overwhelming. His breath tickling the back of your neck as he moves to rest his chin on your shoulder. His beefy arms bring you closer to him and you find yourself leaning back into his touch. Heat radiates from the places where his body meets yours and you find your mind suddenly full of impurity. His strong legs settle underneath you to find a comfortable position, your head lulls back to meet his shoulder. His arms tighten around you as the train bumps around once more. The slow shift of his thighs send waves of heat through you, settling in your lower stomach as you shiver slightly in his arms. 

You can feel the grin against your neck as he turns his head towards you to press light kisses, you hold in a gasp as he suddenly speaks.

“Be good and we’ll give you a treat when we get home,” Brian says, he's the only one there but you know exactly what he’s talking about. It's the first night that all of your schedules match up perfectly to allow the opportunity to bask in one another's presence. The husky whisper into your ear excites you even further. 

The shift of his powerful legs beneath you send waves of heat rushing to your core. The train jolts again, making the fabric of his jeans rub against you- holding in a gasp you give a teasing buck of your hips. He growls as your ass hits his crotch. His kisses turn sloppier, his tongue travelling the expanse of your neck. He tightens his hold on you, the train jolts again. His expert mouth finds a spot on your neck that has you sucking in a sharp breath of air. Your hips move a little more, setting a slow enough pace that no bypassers would be able to guess what was happening. The rhythm of your body blending in with the trains jolts as it bumps along the tracks. 

“Stop A-17,” a monotone robotic voice speaks over the intercom. Brian hums against your skin, pulling away as he moves to stand up. You squeak as he stands with you still held tightly in his arms. Chuckling, he sets down lightly on your feet, leaning down to whisper. 

“If you think you’d get away with that so easy then you’re dead wrong baby,” You flush heavily at his words, looking up at his already turned face. You scowl in his direction as he leads the two of you off the train and to the car. 

You grin mischievously at Brian’s back as he walks ahead of you, you can see that the very tips of his ears are red in a blush. Had you affected him that much? At his stop to find the keys, you wrap your arms around his waist to hug him from behind. 

“Aww how cute, are you blushing for me?” You whisper huskily in his ear. He responds with a growl, whipping you around to the front of him. You back hits the solid car, yelp falling from your lips at the sudden outburst. Brian’ narrow eyes stare down your squirming figure. His hips press ever so slightly into yours and you can feel something hard press on your inner thigh. His hand comes and wraps itself around your throat, giving a pleasant pressure that sends your mind reeling. 

“Can’t even make it to the car, hun?” He says, giving a testing thrust of his hips. You bite on your lips to hold back a groan, the man before you, pressed against you, making you dizzy. It was too much, his big hand around your throat, your smaller form being caged between his much larger one. 

“I don’t know if I can,” You admit and he flashes you a grin. 

“Then I guess you’d better sit in the back. Tim and I have a nice surprise for you at home.” He simply states, releasing his hold on you and retreating to get to the driver's seat. You sit in the back. 

Before you know it, Brian is opening the front door for you as you both finally make it home. Tim looks up from his place on the couch, smiling at the both of you. You smile back, going to set your things back in your room. Curious to see what they have planned, you head back out to the common space but find it unoccupied. Confused, you look around, wondering where your boys could be. 

“Tim?” you call out, wanting to have given him some affectionate smooches. No response. You grumble to yourself as you move to sit on the couch. Before you can even touch it something is thrown over your eyes, a panicked gasp escaping your lungs as you push back against whoever your attacker may be. 

“Shhh,” a voice whispers in your ear, light kisses being pressed to the back of your neck. “Welcome home, babe.” Tim says. You relax a bit, still worried why you were being blindfolded. 

“Thanks? Whats going on?” You say, Tim leads you through your house and to what you assume is a bedroom. 

“You’ll see,” He responds back. You grumble once again, mocking his words. He pinches your side and you squeal a bit. Your squeak is cut short as another pair of arms lift you and spring you towards what you hope is a bed. Your assumption is correct as your body hits something soft and bouncy. You bite your lip awaiting one of your lover’s next move. Brain is first, his slow methodical footsteps advancing towards you from your left. A weight is pushed on the end of the bed- Tim, you believe. 

Your foot is suddenly yanked towards a body, your hands flying up to feel your way through it. Your hands are met with a bare chest, you grope a little here and there not caring who it is only focusing on the feeling of the delicious warmth beneath your palms. Brian grunts as you squeeze one of his nipples, you can feel him lean down and soon light kisses are peppered on your stomach. Tim starts to work on taking your clothes off. Soon you’re bare beneath your two lovers, Tim’s mouth pressed hotly to yours as Brian continues his advances down your body. Your hand tangles in Brian’s hair as he presses a kiss to your core. You tug on his locks, wanting to bring him up to you. Skip the foreplay tonight, all you wanted was them to fuck you until you couldnt speak. Brian grunts, but moves so that your back is on his chest, Tim taking the front. 

Tim gingerly presses soft kisses on your exposed chest, you can hear the sound of skin on skin as he pumps his cock in preparation. You shiver in delight as you feel him rub it along your slit. A chuckle from behind you is heard as Brian takes in your shivering form, your blindfolded eyes search for where exactly he might be. You don’t search for long as his hands find your waist, his already hard cock rubbing between your thighs. Your hips move in rhythm with his thrust, the teasing driving you crazy with lust and want. 

“Just fuck me already,” You growl to either one of them, both of the little shits not giving you what you want. Brian chuckles once again. 

“You don't get it that easy,” He says, lining up with your entrance. “Beg.” He says simply. Gaping at what he said, you take a moment to absorb his words. Tim moves to suck on your collarbone, the sound of him jerking himself off not helping your lust driven mind. 

“Please, fuck me, Brian please,” You force out, trying your best to force your hips back into him. He hums, seemingly pleased with your response and enters you in one fluid motion. You toss your head back, back arching as he sets a ruthless pace. Tim starts to groan, both form the sight before him and the self-pleasure he's giving himself. The noise doesn't go unnoticed by you as you reach out to find him. His hand finds yours and he leads it down to his cock, letting you take over. You moan as Brian hits a particularly deep part within you, your body jolting from the shock- an unconscious squeeze of Tim’s dick in your hand. Tim hisses out from the pleasure, hips stuttering into your hand. Brian thrusts, deep and driven leave you whimpering and gasping for air. You set the same pace with your hand on Tim’s dick, going from the base to the Tip, matching every jerk of Brian’s cock within you.

You feel a familiar tightening in your lower stomach as Brian abuses the spongy spot within you, every deep thrust making you see stars as he seems to hit it over and over and over again. You moan out, hips moving in tandem with him, wanting to meet your end and feel the bliss of it all. Tim’s own hips begin to buck into your palm, you fast-paced handjob moving him quickly towards an orgasm. He’s the first to come un-done, thin white strands of cum releasing all over your hand. Brian’s grunts tell you that he’s not too far behind. You’re the next, yelping out a mix of both of their names as your head is sent into the clouds. Brian is last, his grip of your hips tightening as he releases within you.  

Brian pulls out, a soft squelch accompanying the movement. Tim removes your blindfold, kissing you on the lips as he moves you to a lying position. Brain disappears to find a washcloth as Tim lays down beside you, wrapping a loose arm around your side, and nuzzling into your neck. 

“I missed you,” He whispers into you and you smile, nodding sleepily. 

“Me too,” you mumble out, turning your head to press a kiss to the top of his. Brian returns and cleans you off- including your hand. He takes his place on the other side of you, the two of them warming your body. You hum, satisfied to even be in the presence of your partners. Brian wraps his arms around your waist, leaning his head on your chest as the three of you doze off into a well needed sleep.

[psychovigilantewrites]

Metro Encounters - Tim

Pairing: Tim Drake/ Reader

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 1,200

Summary: You catch Tim’s eye, but Tim looks away. 

A/N: HERE IT IS GUYS!!! After a lot of persuasion from all of you, here’s my first Tim Drake fic! Though it’s just a short fluff, I wanted to get a feel of writing him before I write something longer and plot heavy! I had a lot of fun writing Tim, not gonna lie. I’m really nervous about this one and I hope I got his personality right! If I didn’t, please PLEASE don’t hesitate to correct me, because that’s how I’m going to improve. I love feedback and don’t mind constructive criticism! 

The rush you felt from before had settled down the moment you entered the metro. Immediately, you regretted not bringing a change of clothes. 

In the black dress and high heels you were wearing, you felt eyes on you. Predatory eyes raking you up and down. It wasn’t like whatever you were wearing was revealing anyway, and even if it was, it shouldn’t give people an excuse to stare. 

The palm that gripped the handle of your violin case started to sweat. Reaching out for the grab handle of the train, you stood awkwardly, trying not to bring too much attention to yourself. 

The subway wasn’t as crowded as it was during the day, because at 9pm, most Gothamites were already either home with families or participating in some kind of criminal activity. God, if only you could afford a car with your profession. Yet the seats were all still taken. 

You noticed a man eyeing you from your peripheral vision. He looked like one of those guys who tried so hard to look like they belonged on Wall Street, mid-tier suits that didn’t fit and a cheap haircut. Not that you would usually judge anyone, but those guys irked you. 

Why would anyone want to try to be selfish, unethical assholes? 

Because said guy was practically undressing you with his eyes, and you did not feel comfortable. 

Looking away from him to find another spot to stand, you noticed another man who had his gaze on you. Surprisingly though, when he saw you look at him, he immediately blushed and lowered his eyes. 

He didn’t seem like he was eyeing you for impure reasons, and hell were you familiar with those kinds of stares, but the way he looked at you was as if he was trying to figure you out. 

You shrugged and then walked carefully to stand nearer to the second man, away from the first. You didn’t feel anything predatory about him. 

He noticed that you came closer, and you noticed that his ears started to turn red. You chuckled to yourself. He had wavy hair that was longer than most business cut types, with pale skin that you noticed had some scars littered on them. His blue eyes looked tired, though, as if he was lacking sleep. 

Oh, boy, he was cute. 

The two of you stood there in silence, avoiding each other’s eyes like any strangers on the train would.

But then-

“Hey, uh, sorry,” the man said, wincing to himself, completely unsure. “I’m sorry- uh- you know what, nevermind.”

He immediately turned his back towards you, and you thought you could hear him muttering to himself, “Stupid, Tim. Absolutely idiotic.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” you tried to coax him. “You were saying?”

He peeked at you from over his shoulder, his eyes widening in surprise at your answer. “Ah, no. It’s just. I saw you. Earlier. Your performance.”

You blinked in surprise. “Oh! You saw that?”

This time, he actually turned to face you fully, a small smile creeping his lips. “Paganini’s La Campanella. How could I forget?”

“Are you a musician too?” you asked. 

“Oh, no. I mean, a little bit. But not like you,” he shook his head, “But I do appreciate it.”

“Then what were you doing at an amateur classical music concert?”

“I like to have a look at the local talent,” he shrugged, relaxing into the conversation. “To support the industry.”

“Well, thank you for your support mister..?”

“Drake. I mean, Tim. Tim Drake, but you can call me Tim,” he said. 

You smiled and offered your name. “Thank you, Tim, for supporting us amateurs.”

“I think you’re too good to be an amateur,” he blurted. 

You raised an eyebrow. 

“I mean, that piece is really difficult to play,” he explained, “And you played it almost perfectly. The tempo, everything. You have such brilliant technique down, and precision and- and efficiency- I can’t believe someone like you is still called an amateur. You must have put a lot of practice to acquire that level of skill, but how do you remain so precise?”

You were taken aback by his sudden outburst of enthusiasm for your music. No one else around you understood your love for it, but he looked like he did. 

“Wow, thank you,” you blushed, “While I appreciate everything you said, I’m still very far from being a pro. Though yes, I do practice a lot, but for me while I’m playing, I don’t notice whatever you just said. About precision and all that.”

“What do you mean?” he cocked his head to the side, curiosity burning in his suddenly bright eyes. 

“I don’t know how to explain it well, but when I’m playing, I just… feel the music, you know?” you tried, “I feel it and I play.”

“Feel… music?” he asked, perplexed. “How do you feel music?”

“I’m sure you’ve experienced it before. When you listen to something and you don’t know why but it just really hits you right in the heart?” you tried, “Maybe a sad song that describes your feelings?”

“Huh,” he pursed his lips, “I’m gonna have to think about that.”

What a strange man. Even though the people around you weren’t really into music as much as you were, everyone still felt music. Everyone has their happy song and their breakup song and their angry song. Why doesn’t he? 

Interesting. 

“Anyway,” he continued, “You play beautifully. And I would like to see you perform again.”

“I’d like to see you again,” you grinned widely. 

He turned a shade darker again, making you laugh. You were liking him more and more. 

“Oh! Uh- wow- I think- yes, I think that would be possible,” he nodded seriously, “We have a lot of things in common, and I think that factor itself could pave way for a rela- friendship.”

You tried hard not to burst into laughter at his obvious slip up. 

“I think friendships,” you enunciated, “Are not only based on common interests. It’s also based on connection. Feelings. And I think that you and I have some sort of spark between us. For the friendship, that is.”

Usually, you weren’t so bold. Hell, you usually kept your head down and spoke little to people you didn’t know. But there was just something about this Tim Drake that had you intrigued. Maybe it was the way that he took himself too seriously, or maybe it was because you enjoyed teasing him. 

To your surprise, he started chuckling. “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

“Doing what?”

“The people close to me, they call me a robot sometimes. A hard metal robot with no feelings,” he smiled bitterly, “I’ve been trying to reel it in and not think too much with my head, but I just can’t help it.”

“Then go out with me,” you demanded. 

“W-what?”

“Go out with me,” you repeated, “And I’ll show you what it means to feel.”

“You would really go out with someone you just met on the train?” he asked. “I could be some sort of weirdo, and you wouldn’t know.”

“Oh, Tim Drake, trust me,” you jested, “I already know you’re a weirdo. And it makes me want to go out with you even more.”

[avengerscompound]

The Tower: The Queen of Asgard, 7

The Tower: The Queen of Asgard An Avengers Fanfic

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Pairing:  Avengers x OFC, Bruce Banner x Bucky Barnes x Clint Barton x Wanda Maximoff x Steve Rogers x Natasha Romanoff x Tony Stark x Thor x Sam Wilson x OFC (Elly Cooper)

Word Count: 1717

Warnings: none

Synopsis: The twins are now three and while the Avengers know that Clint and Thor are the biological father’s none of them know or care which blond, blue-eyed baby is related to which man.  When Riley gets the power to control wind and it becomes evident that she is the heir to the Asgardian throne, Elly, Steve, Thor, and Tony take the twins to Asgard to train her.

Not every Asgardian is happy with their king’s choice of consort, nor the impurity of the heir’s blood.  While others expect Thor to make things more official.  What’s clear is, the role of Queen of Asgard is not easily filled.

Author’s Note: Written with @fanficwriter013​ who is practically dead.

Chapter 7 - The Palace

Thor led us through into the grand entrance of the palace.  It was a massive hall almost a football field wide with large doors coming off it and staggered stairs up, so it gradually rose up.  Everything was ornately decorated in gold.  From the gilding on the marble floors to the intricate artwork on the ceiling.  There were pillars at even intervals on the way down and in the distance ahead was a large doorway and light spilled from it.  Guards, dressed in gold, were stationed at the pillars on either side of the hall.  It was clear that the hall was built to hold the city if need be and was used for official events.

“Ahead is the throne room, but we are heading to the royal wing,”  Thor said taking a right turn before we reached the throne room

This hall was much smaller but still bigger than any in our house, which was bigger than the average house.  The light coming through the large arched windows and skylights seemed golden too.  It was as if the whole of Asgard was just dipped in gold.

“This palace is vast,”  Loki said.  She was carrying Pietro still who was now looking around a little.  “You could be easily lost.”

“And no FRIDAY to help,”  I joked.

“Was that a challenge?”  Tony asked.

“No.  She’s just not here so I don’t get lost.”  I said giving him a look.

“Sounded like a challenge to me.”  Tony insisted.

“It wasn’t, Tony!”

“Steve, tell her,”  Tony said.  “No, wait.  Bug, didn’t mommy just challenge me?”

Riley nodded her head sagely.  “Is a chawenge.”

“Thanks, Bug.  And what do we say to those?”

“Chawange assepted!”  She roared.

I started laughing and shook my head.  “Oh, god.  What have you been teaching her?”

“Nothing, she’s just my little girl.”  He said.

“So what does that actually mean?”  I asked.  Are you installing AI into the palace?”  I asked.

“No, not the palace.”  He said.  “Maybe you can have a personalized AI butler,”  Tony said.

I looked at him quizzically.  “For me specifically?”

“Well, duh.  You get lost in your own room.”

Steve snorted as he tried to stifle a laugh and I smacked his arm.  “Well, thank you, Tony,”  I said.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze.  “Oh, good.  I thought I was going to get in trouble for that one.”

“For making me something because you’re worried about me?  Never.”  I said.

“So, my little bug.  Should I make mommy a bracelet or a robot?”  He asked.

“Robod,”  Riley said without even pausing to think about it.

Tony ruffled her hair.  “You got it, kiddo.”

Thor smiled and turned, opening a door.  “I thought you might like to invent while you were here, so I had this made for you and Banner.”

Tony looked at the lab and then at Thor in shock.  “You made a lab for me?”  He said coming in and slowly walking around the room.

“Yes, of course.  I want you to feel at home.”  He said.

There was the briefest of moments where Tony looked at Thor with the softest and most loving expression.  I think he was starting to see what I had been seeing this week and missed.  Thor was in love with us.  Completely.  We weren’t a side project for him.  He wanted us to be with him here.  Being king was his side project keeping him from us.  Not the other way around.

“Alright, kiddos.  Who wants to look at the space lab?”  Tony said, clapping Thor on the shoulder.

“Yeah!”  Riley said, bouncing a little.

Pietro picked his head up from Loki’s shoulder.  “I wanna.”

Loki put him down and they both toddled off after Tony as he moved around the lab looking at things.  Pietro grabbed Tony’s hand and tugged on it.  “Wanna see, pwease.”

Tony picked him up and Pietro started clambering up onto his shoulders.   “Oh, you want to be up, up, huh?”  He said helping him to get all the way up.

“So how’s it look?  You got everything you need?” I asked.

“I mean, I don’t know what half this stuff is, but finding out is gonna be fun,”  Tony said, a huge smile plastered on his face.

Riley tried to climb up onto a chair to reach one of the workbenches and Loki swooped in and scooped her up and put her on her hip.  “How about we don’t do that?”  She said.

“Look at you being the responsible one.”  I teased.

“Don’t get used to it.”  She snarked.

Riley started to stroke Loki’s hair.  “Little one, did you not learn to leave people’s hair alone?”  Thor asked.

“Is that what happened to the almighty royal hair?”  Loki teased.

“I dot stuck,”  Riley said poking out her bottom lip.

Loki chuckled and kissed Riley’s brow.  “Very good.  Well, it has been 800 years since your last haircut, brother.  You were well overdue.”

Thor rolled his eyes and looked over at Tony.  “Have you seen enough?  Shall we continue to our living quarters?”

Tony agreed and we all headed back out and down a hall.  Thor led our little group to a door at the end of the hall and opened it up.  Inside was what looked like a large living area.  It had a circular couch in the middle of the room around an ottoman and there was a large dining table that would easily fit the entire family.  Around the room were 12 doors.  All closed.  The room still contained a lot of gold, but here they were more highlights to the reds and whites that were decorating the room.

“Oh wow,”  I said coming in.

“This is not my primary dwellings,”  Thor explained coming in.  “I had them built for you when the twins were born.  I hoped that Riley’s lineage might convince you to come to spend time here eventually.  Each door leads to a bedroom for each of us.  And one for the twins.  But you will find the beds are large enough in the adult's rooms to accommodate all of us.  The door directly opposite leads to the main bath.  There are smaller ones attached to each room.”

I looked around the room with my mouth open before turning to Thor.  “How long have you been hoping we will visit, Thor?”

Thor shrugged a little but didn’t answer.  I shook my head a little to clear it.   “This room is for you, my queen,”  Thor said, showing me to one of the rooms.  “It’s second only to mine.”

I looked at him and blinked.  “Why?”

“Asgardian tradition,”  Thor said, not really addressing the question at all.

“What?  What tradition?”  I asked.

Loki rolled her eyes.  “The one where the mother of the heir gets special treatment.”  She explained.  I scrunched up my face and Loki laughed.  “He has really left you in the dark, hasn’t he?”

“Yes.  What is going on with you and not telling us stuff?”  I asked.

He shook his head again.  “I apologize.”  He said and let out a breath.  “As the king’s consorts, you are all considered royalty.  I have chosen you.  As the mother of the heir that puts you in the position of Queen of Asgard and will be treated as thus.”

I am not sure I could have dropped my jaw any lower.  Here I was, still having trouble accepting gifts from Tony after so long together and now I was the Queen of Asgard all of a sudden?  “Right,”  I said and shook my head.  “So, are we expected to act a certain way?”

“No,”  Thor said.  “But you will be treated as Royalty.”

“Should I change?”  I asked looking down at the t-shirt I’d stolen from Sam I was wearing over yoga pants.

“You are not obliged to,”  Thor said.  “At the feast tonight, you will be required to dress up.  Here you can be comfortable.”

“Right,”  I said.  “The feast.”  I looked over at Loki who still had Riley in her arms.  “Loki, would you like to have some alone time with the children?  I know Pietro has a lot of books to show you.”

“You brought me lots of books?”  Loki asked.

Pietro wriggled and Tony put him back on the ground.  He ran over to Steve, getting his bag and then dragged it on the floor over to Loki, sitting down on the floor and immediately starting to pull out books.

“Wouldn’t you like to go to the library, little prince?”  Loki asked.

Pietro looked up at Loki and then down at the books he had just pulled out like he’d just made a huge mistake.  Loki chuckled and crouched down helping to pack them back up.  She swung the bag over her shoulder and scooped Pietro up too so she was holding both of them.  “Say goodbye to your parents.”

“Bye, daddies.  Bye, mommy.”  They said waving as Loki carried them from the room.

I took Thor’s hand and led him to the couch, sitting down with him.  I entwined my fingers with his and looked into his eyes.  “Alright, spill.  What’s going on with you?  Why aren’t you telling us things?”

He let out a breath and lowered his head.  “I didn’t think you would come if you knew the extent to which you would be revered.”

“Of course we would, Thor.  You are part of our family and this is your world.  I would have come much sooner if I’d ever even suspected it was possible or something you wanted.  But even if I didn’t feel that way, Riley is your daughter.  She needs to be prepared for what that means.  I’d be here for her.”  I said.

“Oh,”  Thor said looking down at my hand.

I wrapped my arms around him and nuzzled into his neck.  “Is there anything else we need to be prepared for?”

He shook his head.  “That should be it.  The feast will be grand.  It is in yours and the children's honor.  But you aren’t expected to do anything special.”

“Okay,”  I said and pulled back, looking into his eyes.  “How long have you wanted us to come?” 

He frowned and leaned his head against mine.  “Since the day we met.”

// NEXT

[iggy-of-fans]

Daminette AU idea part 5

Firstly, I have no idea how to tag properly, so if I missed you or the tag didn't work properly, I'm really sorry. Secondly, I'm so sorry this took so long, my day got busy and I've never been good in fight scenes, but there's no way I'm not writing one because that's what you deserve! And lastly, after this I think there should only be a couple more parts. So here's to part 5 of 7!

When it Rains

From the start the heroes knew they were at a disadvantage. The League of Shadows members were all trained to escape and bond, Bane alone would take several people to take down. Scarecrow was already starting to release his fear toxin, making it near impossible for some heroes to get within fighting distance of him. The robots are immune to heat vision and ice breath. On top of everything it seems Luther found out about the message Max and Nino sent and is keeping them behind in his tower. Their plan goes out the window quickly. The Assassins hold a grudge and they focus and flush out the batfam, forcing Robin to abandon Guardian Angel early in the fight. Red Robin went back to the cave to get a few vials of nerve toxin to subdue Bane and hopefully some of the others. As it stands, they don't have much that will hold the highly trained assassins anyways, Wonder Woman's rope being one of the few things forces her to leave active battle for prison guard duty. Nightwing watches as Beast Boy, who was left alone by Raven falls to the fear Toxin and some robots.

"second chance". Nightwing jumps from the building he's taken vantage from, pulling Beast Boy out of the way of wave of Robots. Beastboy is barely lucid anymore, fear toxin coursing through every corner of his mind. Nightwing comms Oracle to send someone for rounding up those too badly hurt or incapable of continuing battle. He goes back to scanning the battle "what am I missing? I see everyone…. Except Robin….. And… Raven?" he sees a flash of navy Cape and sees Raven crouching on the far side of an alley, watching a fight within… "what is she doing?" 

Now Raven had just wanted to give Robin a chance to grow up a little bit. For him to come into himself and be a little more open about himself with others. She missed her window it seemed, when the Parisian whore worked her way into the picture. Did Robin not realize she was only using him? Who the hell would believe that story? Besides, Raven could sense that she was impure. Tainted by the blonde wanting his classmate back. Being magical had its advantages, as she thought back to the Gala. She'd been hurt that Robin had brushed her off so casually, his eyes never straying from the temptress. Raven had been so patient, waiting for her opening, making sure to always be "less annoying than the banshees he deals with at school", always there for him when he was around. She knew she just had foster that bit of "I don't dislike you" into an "I love you". She'd been close, she knew. She also knew that it was a risk going up to him in the gala. She'd dressed to the nines in a long white dress that brought out her hair and eye colour, put the slightest touch makeup to make her less pale. Only for him to not ever look at her. She'd been furious. And when the alert came and everyone scrambled to get changed, she just magiced her usual fight clothes on in a corner. So she knew that Robin had the black cat ring that the Parisians wanted. And she made it easy on the teens, sending the message to Luther that he'd been betrayed and that Robin had the cat ring and the whore had the earnings and to separate  the two of them. She'd get the ring herself, and the girl would be easy to overrun from there. So when the battle started she simply walked away in the chaos, biding her time until Robin was completely isolated. The Parisian had said he would include her in his wish, to end up with Robin as hers. It was a win/win in her eyes. So when Robin's katana got knocked away, she grabbed it and ran towards the whore, knowing that a confused Robin was taking off after her as well. 

Nightwing watched, horrified as Raven plunged his brother's katana through Guardian Angel's back, disappearing quickly for GA to turn around to the wide, terrified eyes of Robin. No! Robin ran to her, crying out, and just held her, trying to explain even as her life faded with nothing but hurt and betrayal in her eyes. Raven swooped in a second later, ripping the earnings from her and running towards the back of the siege, where the two teens waited. "second chance" Nightwing barely managed to choke out. 

The battle was not in their favour thus far. Superman couldn't get a handle on the robots. These were obviously specifically created to counter his son, cousin and himself. How had Lex managed that? If that wasn't enough, Superboy had been hit with the fear toxin. And while it didn't affect them as strongly, his son was now shooting blind, and Superman could see the Flash working his way through the throngs, trying to get the heroes out of the way of the rogue laser beams. His son would surely be traumatized from the amount of casualties he was witnessing. With Wonder Woman guarding prisoners, Nightwing for some reason staying above the fight, only intervening when things get a little too close, and Red Robin doing calculations on the side, only occasionally swinging his staff to intercept and Raven being no where in immediate sight, and several people being taken out by fear toxins or Bane… things were definitely not in their favour. He decided to take his son down to metabolize the toxin without further injuring anyone, and then landed and did some floor work, taking out soldiers and assassins. It was only because he'd decided to land that he saw Raven going for Guardian Angel with a Katana. He shot forward immediately, intercepting the sword and knocking her out. Guardian Angel looked back, shock evident on her face as she looked at a hero she had trusted. "Thank God! I didn't think I'd reach her in time!" Nightwing called, landing beside them. Guardian Angel made an OH face. Before frowning. "Why would she turn on us? Or go for me?" she asked. "She has a crush on Robin" Nightwing shrugged. Starfire had filled him in during one of their chats. Guardian Angel frowned and looked sad, but Robin snorted and glared. "She's known me for years. Why go after me when I'm taken?" 

"She was biding her time, letting you" grow up"" Nightwing said. 

"I was never going to change unless I had a reason to." 

The comms cracked to life, "I'm sorry Guardian Angel. The Miraculous you entrusted to me is gone" Wonder Woman stated. While they were distracted, the Assassins had over powered her, taking the earings. 

"Dammit! Nightwing, we need a second chance!" 

"I can't! I have to refuel!" 

"Damn! Okay… Think, what do we have that can end this quickly? Red Robin, Oracle, what will take out the robots? Heat doesn't work, neither does crushing them" 

"We've been analyzing them, they're ridiculously easy to kill with some water in the right pocket. They're just difficult to reach." Red Robin stated. He'd joined the fray for real, moving his staff much faster than ever before, able to deflect bullets. 

"Okay, I have something for that. Nightwing, refuel and get ready just in case. Red Robin, I need to do something for me too. Here's the plan everybody" Guardian Angel would let them feel like their victory was close. But this was far from over. 

Adrien smirked in victory when the familiar earnings landed in his hand. Halfway there. Half the heroes were taken out of the fight, and those still standing were weakened and injured. He admitted, it had been a clever trick to switch Miraculi. But he hadn't seen the new costume and immediately knew she was faking somehow. It took a while to find out that the real Ladybug miraculous was with Wonder Woman. But the assassins had of course reported a bright red thing flashing around her once in a while. Maybe if she'd been transformed she would've been unstoppable. But she wasn't and Ladybug had miscalculated. And now he held half of the answer to all his problems in his hands. He looked over to his left, where Marinette stood as always at his side. She smiled brilliantly at him, eyes bright. "I'll hold you in my arms by tonight, Princess" he whispered to her, wanting so badly to cup her cheek, but knowing his hand would go right through her. He hated Ladybug with a passion. He considered transforming and joining the fray, but he had an insider that knew where the black cat was and would be bringing it to him soon enough. Really, Ladybug should know that he knows her best. Her silly tricks don't work on him. Finally he heard over the comms from Bane. 

"I have Robin." Excellent. 

"Bring me the ring!" he barked at Bane. 

"He doesn't have one" ugh, incompetent baffoon! 

"Just bring all of him, I'll carve it out of his flesh if I have to!" 

The end is finally here. He would get his wish and bring his love back to life and make the world perfect, just for them. 

Cliffhanger?

As Guardian Angel issued orders, the heroes that were left scrambled around. She certainly had a presence to her. A comm was snatched from Scarecrow, who'd finally been taken down by the Flash, who was able to metabolize the toxin quickly enough to not be affected. And then the plan came to life. 

Alya watched as Robin was carried over, kicking and screaming still to Adrien and herself. When he stood in front of the shorter blonde teen he spat in his eyes and kicked up into his face before Bane retrained him more completely. 

"It's too bad I promised that chick she could have you. Once my wish is complete, people like you will be absolutely useless" Adrien stated. The world would be perfect for his Princess. Alya smirked as she started taking off layers of costume to see where the ring was, starting with his gloves. She admitted, she was enjoying this part. She knew that Adrien would wish Nino to be her perfect boyfriend, but Nino had betrayed them today, and she was allowed to look, right? When the left glove came she saw it and grabbed for it. 

"Cataclysm" Robin muttered, making it impossible to take off without disintegrating. 

"Che, using my own old trick? How pathetic. You know I only have to wait five minutes before I can take it off anyways" Adrien scoffed. Robin smirked. 

"Except my time limit is much longer than five minutes, you Rapist scum" Robin growled out. Adrien scowled, but Marinette put her hand on his shoulder and smiled reassuringly.

"He isn't more powerful than you my love. He's bluffing" her voice whispered to him. He nodded and smirked. 

"Well, we'll see about that, won't we? I just have to wait out your transformation. Let's go, we'll take him with us and kill him on the way" Adrien ordered. Robin became slightly paler, his smirk fell and he glared. 

"Coward" he spat. 

"I'm taking what's rightfully mine and making the world a better place. No need to make it perfect for everyone. Don't worry, you'll have your pretty Raven girlfriend. In hell" he said, walking towards a helicopter, away from the carnage behind him. As he was walking he was hit from the side by a baton, breaking his rib cage and throwing him into the side of a building. When he didn't get up, Alya rushed to his side, checking on him. He would never fully recover from that hit. His head was bleeding profusely, his side looked slightly caved in, and his arm was awkwardly bent. 

"Let's see how much you like drowning, with no help in sight" Guardian Angel whispered, "Water Dragon." 

Her form disappeared and the street started flooding, short-circuiting the robots, washing away the rest of the toxin and cleaning the streets from blood. Alya scrambled to keep afloat, barely holding Adrien up with her. The flood didn't get high, nor did it last long, but it was enough to make her tired. When the water receded, Bane was captured in Wonder Woman's lasso, the assassins captured and surrounded by Superman, boy and girl. Scarecrow was knocked out and tied up by Batman. The robots all dead. Alya made to grab the Miraculous to transform, only for her hand to fall through smoke. Robin landed beside Guardian Angel, pushing down the hood of his costume and revealing the orange ears of the fox miraculous. Red Robin landed beside him, two black triangles barely showing in his dark hair. Guardian Angel picked held up her hand and Tikki flew from inside the building that Adrien was knocked into with the earnings in hand. 

"It's over Alya. You need to learn that consequences really do exist" Guardian Angel said. The police GCP decided that moment to swarm the street , piling the criminals into reinforced vehicles. 

To be Continued…. 

PS: I know I'm late posting this, but I realized late that I really don't know the Justice League nearly as well as I wish I did. I also readily admit that I downloaded the Justice League soundtrack to write this (it did work in my favour a bit).

Happy Monday!

@thatrandomfandomsgirl @lunar-wolf-warrior @zazzlejazzle @zebrabaker @constancestruggle @unabashedbookworm @ginamarie1512 @mindfulmagics @bitterheart12224 @captainmac6 @blue-peach14 @enduskdragon @multishipper1needshalp @abrx2002 @bookreader20003 @mooshoon @artxyra @spicybelladonna @northernbluetongue @kuroko26 @mystery-5-5 @2sunchild2 @iwantswifttoblessmysoul @zelladane @ellerahs @thedarkwhiteangel @resignedcatservant @scribblinggraveyard @alexzandria-747 @nyctamaximoff @mysteriouslyswimmingfan-blo-blog @sapphiraazure2708 @tinybrie @dudet

@throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen

[dolantmego]

The Fallout 2

Summary: You’ve got the chance of a lifetime. Directing the Broadway premiere of an original script. But your two lead actors throw you for a loop. Especially when Ethan Dolan shows up and just about makes your knees go weak. Professional integrity and family drama? What could go wrong?

Warnings: None really. Mention of an impure thought and some family trauma. Not graphic!

A/N: Okay so! Part two! Sorry it took so long. My personal/professional life got a bit hectic this past week! I hope you enjoy it. As always thank you so much for reading!

Part one 

Lunch with the Dolan crew was every bit as stressful as you expected it to be. Edith and Parker insist upon sandwiches from the shop down the street; much to Ethan’s dismay, who not so subtly hints on several occasions that pizza sounds good. He asks you what your favorite place to eat around here is, which makes you cringe. You usually didn’t leave the theatre for lunch. It gets so busy and everyone has questions to ask you. By the time you finish notes and the first round of actors and designers with questions back off, the ones that had gone to lunch and then come back early to talk to you are already arriving. On a typical day your assistant picks you something up from wherever. If you even ate lunch that day. So going out with the two youngest in your show was refreshing, not to mention getting to spend time with their extremely good looking uncle who had allowed you along for the ride. Ethan had declared a ‘no work garble,’ rule, mainly so the kids and yourself actually had a break.

Parker had tried to ask you a question about what you were doing for the rest of the day. Which in retrospect you didn’t mind answering--even though he’d asked 3 different crew members already. Ethan shook his finger at the small boy and tisks.

“If you’re going to talk about work then I’ll be forced to talk about work. Beep boop expenditures. Bop boop beep meetings. Bop bop changes in expectations for the next quarter.” He mimes a robot walk and both of the kids break into a fit of giggles, begging for him to end the ‘torture.’ He throws a wink at you when they both turn around and start chatting amongst themselves and you grin back. Women thought men with babies were hot? Ethan is shaking you up from just these small interactions with Edith and Parker. You’ll combust if he’s ever holding a baby in your presence. You’re sure of it.

Ethan insists upon buying your lunch, despite your protests, and the four of you settle at a small round table by a window looking out on the busy streets of New York City. His interactions with the kids are heartfelt and adorable. It’s even more striking that he looks like he could be their father. The way they move around each other even looks like he’s their father and it makes you wonder how ofter the other Mr. Dolan is around. They’d been elated to talk to him on the phone earlier, but this looks more like the natural groove for the children. You have the sudden urge to reach over and comfort the man next to you, even though you’ve only known this man for what? Maybe 5 hours?

“Eadie Beanie you need to be careful, I don’t know how to get ketchup out of clothes okay? And your nana just bought you that sweater.” Ethan reaches over to wipe off the little girl’s face, smiling despite the interruption of your conversation. Not that you two had reached any interesting subject with the kids listening in. Edith squirms away from his wiping and pouts. The two have a small stare down before she huffs and takes another reluctant bite of her sandwich. Ethan laughs and ruffles Parker’s hair--who has been absorbed in the small handheld game he whipped out of his pocket as soon as you sat down.

“Ms. Y/L/N are you married?” You choke on your drink and Ethan lets out a small nervous laugh. You swear you notice Edith’s eyes sparkle a bit when he question affects you so. But she smiles a sweet smile and looks at you expectantly.

“Edith lets not ask such personal questions okay?” Ethan raises an eyebrow at the little girl and she makes another pout face.

“Why? You’re not asking the questions. You guys talk about boring stuff! Somebody has make this less blech!” Edith smirks knowingly at her uncle and tugs on Parker’s arm for attention. She seems to be a pretty observant kid for her age. Both of them are smart, you already knew that, they are homeschooled because of their rehearsal schedule. Parker has proudly announced to the cast that he’s on a 10th grade reading level. Loudly. Many times.

Edith tugs on her brother again and Parker hmms without looking up from his game, “Parker I’m sure if  you ask E-Tee to give us money he’ll let us go buy cake.” Parker’s head whips up at that and both the kids look expectantly over at Ethan, whose head is in his hands shaking back and forth. You laugh at the family’s interaction and wonder how often it’s like this. You quickly pull $5 out of your purse to hand to the kids before Ethan can stop you, he didn’t let you buy lunch so you’ll treat the kids.

A chorus of thank you’s breakout and they both hop off to the long line at the counter, no doubt to order a bunch of sugar they don’t need. You realize that you’re going to have to get them to focus later and that you REALLY didn’t think that through. Ethan looks up from his hands and dead pans at you.

“You really didn’t have to and definitely should not have done that.” You laugh at his mock broken tone and he cracks a smile at your giggle, “Guys! Dairy free!” He calls out across the restaurant, pointing at them with a mock angry face. They both fall into a fit of giggles and nod before turning back to the menu.

“I think I definitely just saw Edith point at the cheesecake.” You joke, and Ethan whips around pretending to get ready to go after the two kids. You both laugh again, before leaning forward to be comfortably closer to one another.

“So. Thanks to the kids I have learned,” Ethan counts each tid bit off on his fingers, mock seriously. “Your favorite color. What you want to be when you grow up. Your favorite Disney movie. What your middle name is. What your least favorite vegetable is. And finally the kicker that you did not get to answer.” You raise an eyebrow at the last one and pretend to think very hard.

“Oh yes? And what was that?” You grin slyly and play with the straw in your drink. Ethan wiggles his eyebrows suggestively to make you laugh again. He really was something else. Funny. Attentive. Great with the kids. Why the hell wasn’t he married? That last thought strikes you as a tad ominous. Darker thoughts threaten to board the ever moving train in your mind and you make an effort to push it out of your head for the moment. You had plenty of time to worry about that later.

“Well Eadie seems to be worried that you’re married.” You widen your eyes, pretending to be shocked, “But I’m a smart man. I can see you aren’t wearing a ring.” His eyes drift to your bare ring finger, and you nod.

“Great observation Mr. Holmes. Anything else?” You inquire with a squinted eye. This little game the two of you were playing was so refreshing. Both of you were just having fun being a little goofy together. Ethan nods and pretends to sit back and smoke from a pipe. You loved that he would be silly and mess around with you, but it wasn’t a crazy ordeal that took everyone in the restaurant’s attention. This is just a fun moment being shared between the two of you.

“Well then I can make the deduction that you aren’t married.” He shoots forward in a flash and you let out a squeak. “BUT!” His voice is loud and then gets very quiet, “I must inquire further for my next deduction.” You laugh and try to hold a serious face while nodding for him to continue. This man is really bringing out a different side of you. Doing the job that you do requires such a high level of seriousness in order for you to gain respect, that you forget to have fun a lot. Not that you are unhappy or don’t feel creative in your work, that isn't the case at all. But you do find yourself missing moments like these. Most of your interactions with your crew and cast are light hearted, but you have to hold yourself back for the sake of professionality. There is a tinge of loneliness that comes with being the director. The only person who is close to your level is LJ, and she has to hold just as much of a professional air as you do. If not more.

You justify it by coming to the conclusion that Ethan isn’t involved in this part of your life at all. Sure he is close to two of your actors, but an uncle is far less of an entanglement than an actual parent right? Though Ethan really did look like more than just an uncle. The kids are already cast, though. The show is in tech now, your role is truly almost over. Is there any harm that could be done? Again, that tiny dark feeling you can’t place washes over you. Guilt? Fear? You aren’t sure. Pushing the questions away is harder this time. This time, the escape is narrow.

Ethan must notice the change in your demeanor even though you try to brush past it. What is with you today and the overthinking? It really has been to long since you’ve been out with a man. Or gone out in general really. Ouch. Stopping yourself from thinking about that number really is all too easy.

He drops the character entirely and a shy boy peeks out from under his layers. One that looks as if he genuinely wants to know the answer to his next question. Your heart melts further when he glances at the children by the counter before looking back to you.

“Are you? Dating anybody?”

________________________________________________________________

Ethan had no idea if this was going well or not. Y/N is laughing and the kids are being their normal selves, but he wonders if you think his family is crazy. They are. But he loves them with everything he has. Which, considering the last few years isn’t very much, his family took up so much space in his heart, he really didn’t leave much else for anyone else. Not that he had--or made--the time for that.

Ethan is extremely well off, Dolan Productions continues to grow everyday. He could probably stop working today and lead a stable life. Sure, they have the property in New Jersey. The one in LA. Grayson still owned his old family home and Ethan may or may not have a cottage in Europe somewhere that he never discloses the location to. And both boys have plenty in the bank. But Ethan enjoys working, he likes the sense of purpose and accomplishment it provides. With an added bonus of proving everyone who ever said he and Grayson were crazy or worse, wrong. Oh so very wrong.

Gray had married first and created his settled life with his kids, and then Ethan had become the weird one. First he and Gray were crazy. Then they were ‘young and ambitious businessmen.’ Then Gray became super dad and Ethan was just ‘ambitious and possibly lonely,’ according to his mother. Then the scandal hit and both boys ducked as far under the radar as they could. Now the ‘Dolan Twins’ were no longer the face of their own company. Both were still in charge and worked, but they’d let their lives get more quiet. Somebody else did most of the PR now. After seeing how the media could ruin something already so broken, neither of the boys ever wanted to be the talk of the town again. And they definitely never, ever, wanted that for Parker and Edith. Convincing Gray to let them be in a Broadway show took weeks. Their mother ended up pulling Grayson by the ear into her bedroom and they didn’t come out for a good 45 minutes.

Though right now Ethan had no idea why he’d stuck his neck out for these heathens in the first place. Parks was hunched over in a game and barely speaking, it wasn’t the most polite move in the world, but Ethan preferred his nephew about 10 times more than his niece right now. She was a lot like her aunt Cam and a lot like her grandmother. Always talking, noticing everything, and being too smart for her own good. Including right now, where she was practically grilling Y/N, and making not-so-subtle-9-year-old-pointed glances at Ethan. ‘Oh that’s E-Tee’s favorite color too!’ Even though Ethan was sure the little girl had no idea what his favorite color was.

Not that it mattered nor did Edith probably care.

“Ms. Y/L/N are you married?” Edith’s face looks innocent when she poses the question, but Ethan can see the mischief in her eyes. It was the same look she had before she’d run and tell her daddy about the cookie Ethan had given her after bedtime when he wouldn’t supply her with another one. He lets out a small passive chuckle and squints throws a dirty look to the little girl. Evil genius child.

“Edith lets not ask such personal questions okay?” He raises an eyebrow and silently begs the universe to just do him this one solid and have the little girl just go with it.

Of course she doesn’t and Ethan ends up with his head in his hands in embarrassment, again. But you don’t miss a beat, and boy does he notice. You were always so collected around other people, which of course was part of your job, but Ethan is an awe at how smooth you are. He’s seen people blow up at these two kids and blow up at him, but you’re laughing and taking it in stride. Which encourages his confidence back up enough to get the courage to go for the same question he’d been wanting to ask you.

Why aren’t you married? Could you possibly be single? How? With those eyes? Your passion? And your hair? Your very beautiful and, well, pullable hair?

There’s gotta be something wrong with this chick.

And there it was. There’s the thought he’d been fearing would pop up. The inevitable, well there-has-to-be-something-wrong-here-and-if-there-isn’t-then-you-sure-will-cause-it thought. Dammit. Ethan really didn’t want his mother to be right when she talks about how emotionally stunted her boys have become, but here he was. Wondering if the nice, beautiful woman in front of him could be some sort of secret psychopath. He’d seen it before. Or if maybe Ethan was the secret psychopath who didn’t really want somebody to love him, or somebody for him to love. He’d seen that all go wrong before too. Ethan looks at Edith and Parker trying to buy cake at the counter, he’d seen the damage all of the fallout could really cause.

But he has to know, all jokes aside. Something in him has to know.

“Are you? Dating anyone?” He watches your eyes for your response, hoping the answer would be no. It had to be. You wouldn’t be out for lunch with him if you had someone else would you?

“Ah. No, no I’m not.” Ethan swears, but never admits that his heart skips a beat at your answer. He grins widely, not trying to hide it, and your grin matches his.

“Would you consider going out with me sometime?” Ethan’s mind and stomach feel like static waiting for your answer, which doesn’t come as soon as he’d like, due to the untimely return of his crew. Edith hops up with Parker in tow, who has his face screwed up in disgust.

“Finally!” Edith cries excitedly, looking between the two of you.

“Thats gross.” Parker mumbles, before shoving a bite of cake into his mouth. Edith frowns deeply at him and looks at you expectantly. Ethan groans again, of course. Of course Edith had to hear that. Now Grayson will hear and so will his mother and probably Cam. Great.

“Well since we know you’ll say yes, you should come on monday cause thats when theres no rehearsal. And we can make cake and you can meet Nana!” Edith’s eye shine brightly and she grins, “Nana gets upset cause E-tee-wee-tee doesn’t bring home girls. But now you’ll come!” She smiles proudly at Ethan and he’s got a deadpan face on, directed right at her. Why did she always feel the need to get involved in everything? And now Y/N knows his stupid nickname he’d been trying to be rid of ever since Grayson plastered it on their old YouTube Channel.

Ethan puts his chin in his hand and huffs, might as well let the little girl talk. This was her date anyway. He holds back a wince, is he really jealous of a seven-year-old? Ethan looks over to you at the same time you glance at him and a smile forms on his face. You didn’t look annoyed at all. In fact you looked like you were still having a great time. Yup, definitely jealous of anybody who could make you smile like that. He winks at you and it makes you laugh, which prompts Edith to stop talking about whatever she decided to ramble about--her room maybe?

“Excuse me!” Edith harps, but Ethan is too wrapped up in staring at you, and you’re too wrapped up in staring back. “Fine. As we say in theater, silence means argument!” That statement breaks the semi staring contest the two of you entered and Ethan draws his eyebrows together.

“Agreement. Silence means agreement Edith.” Y/N winks at the little girl, who nods. You turn to Ethan and he shifts nervously under your gaze. “But I think your uncle and I can probably work something out.”

“Yes! Yeah. Um absolutely.” Ethan quips almost too quickly. He pauses for a moment and makes a mental note to drop the weirdo excitement and speak like a normal person and not like his brother. But where to take you? Dinner? A movie? Neither sounded special, and a movie was definitely out. You weren’t 15-year-olds on a first date. Ethan is fumbling and he knows it. He hasn’t taken a girl out on a date in years. He splutters for a moment and his brain has a small meltdown. You live in the city. He lives an hour away, was there a place in the middle? He had no idea. There was a gas station off the interstate on one of the exits, but that definitely wouldn’t work.

Well fuck. Should he entertain Edith’s idea? He imagines you in New Jersey for a moment. Would you like it? The land? His home? You’d have to meet his mom. Though he was pretty sure Lisa had picked up the kids at least once or twice. And you could handle Eadie and Parks like a champ. But take you to his home on a first date? People didn’t do that, did they? He didn’t think so. But. That meant it was original. Which kinda made it special. Right?

Dammit. New Jersey it is.

“If you’d like to come out to the farm, I think that would be great?”

[jpat82]

For I Have Sinned

CHAPTER 3

Adult themes

I followed him down the hall to a room that held an array of things, from boxes to furniture. I stood in the door way as he move things around till he pushed a cot folded in half toward the door. He handed me an extra set of blankets, giving me a warm smile as he did and placed a small box on the cot before we left the room.

"Can you tell me more about the creatures?" He asked as we walked back down the hall towards his room, the wheels on the roll away squeaking as we went.

"They're just shadows, crawling up walls, or ceilings. And they reach out for people, never actually grabbing them, and they are always trying to get me." I explained, hugging the blanket close to me, trying to wave off a chill that wasn't really there. "They fear nothing, but the light. They run from it, maybe it hurts them, I don't know."

"And you saw them earlier?" He asked, looking over to me.

"Yes, they are always around when it's dark, bad things have happened when they've been around." I whispered as we entered the room again, he left the door open as he opened the cot locking it in place. He turned, grabbing some cloth out of the box and handed them to me.

     "I'm sure you would rather wear something other then hospital clothes." He smiled as I gently took them, he turned his back unfolding the blanket as I began to remove the mint colored top I had been wearing. The cold air hit my exposed skin, gooseflesh popped up across my chest and back.

     Father Barnes turn back to me, his blue eyes went wide as he stared at my bare chest. His mouth slightly open and his cheeks flushed before turning away suddenly. I'm not exactly sure why he had done that, it was an interesting response.

      "Hail Mary, full of grace, for the lord is with thee." The priest muttered under his breath head casted up the ceiling, slowly I grabbed the top he had given me and pulled down over my exposed flesh. "Are you decent?"

    "Am I decent?" I asked back, confused by the question, how was I not decent before.

     "Do you have a shirt on?" He asked, exasperation in his voice.

     "Yes." I replied, slowly he looked over his shoulder to me before he turned to face me fully. "What do you mean by decent?"

     "I meant did you have clothes on." He sighed, walking over to me. "When you change next time, let me know so I may leave the room. I should under no circumstances see you indisposed like that."

    "I did something wrong?" I don't understand, somehow my bare body was wrong for this man to see.

     "Yes, well no, it's just." He took a breath running his hand through his hair clearly flustered. "I am a man of God, I am not to be tempted by the flesh of a woman. You did nothing wrong, Sparrow, but from now on please allow me to step outside the room."

    "Yes, Father Barnes." I responded looking down, another droplet of water fell from my eye.

    "Don't cry, Sparrow." He said softly, lifting my chin with his knuckle.

    "What is cry?" I asked, his thumb brushed the stray water that rolled down my cheek.

     "You really don't understand do you?" He asked, staring into my eyes. "You cry when you feel lost, alone, upset, in pain, or scared. This.." he held up his thumb so I could see the water that he had swiped from my cheek. "Is a tear, it's what happens when you cry."

      I nodded slowly, I had done plenty of that, cry. I never understood why the water came from my eyes. But it always had, making it hard to see at times. I looked to priest as he smiled warmly gesturing to the cot he had set up. I walked over to it and sat down, watching as he walked over to the lamp.

    "Don't!" I almost yelled, stretching my hand out to him. He stopped and looked over to me.

~~

     Bucky stared at the look on her face, twisted slightly with panic as his fingers rested on the switch to turn it off. Her eyes raised meet his, pleading with him silently not to turn the lamp off. It was the darkness she was scared of after all, she had told him that much. He nodded lightly walking back over to his cot, normally he would of disrobed and put on his bed clothes but with her in the room he had decided that was crossing the line.

    He knelt next to his bed, saying a silent pray as Sparrow laid down, watching him with curious eyes. He tried not to think about her as he laid down, giving her one last look before his closed his eyes. She was staring at him, her eyes tracking over every feature on his face, he didn't think he had ever met someone so lost and clueless about normal human responses. She was genuinely confused as to why she shouldn't just change before him.

    He tried not to think about how soft her skin looked, how full her breasts were. A part of him, a deep carnal part him want to touch her, to feel her skin. He closed his eyes tighter trying to force the image of her breasts out of his mind, he should not be having impure thoughts about her. Or thoughts about how he wanted to caress her breasts, feel her nipples harden under his finger tips.

    His pants began to constrict as he felt his cock begin to stiffen. Dear lord, he needed to stop this fantasy that kept rolling through his head, the one were his mouth was pressed tight around her hardened bud. He could feel his cock throb in his pants, it had a mind of own suddenly. He rolled to his away from Sparrow’s direction, the fabric of his pants brushing against the sensitive skin, making him bite his lip as a small wave of pleasure rippled through him.

     Bucky breathed hard, calming breathes reciting prayer after prayer, hoping for the impure thoughts to go away. Hopping and willing for sleep to take hold to stop his want of her body. He shifted his hips slightly hoping to give his lower half some more room, as his pants were becoming unbearable. The fabric rub against the head, sending a wave of pleasure through him. He knew he was in for long night.

@kitkatkl @octobermermaid @ajosieface @instantnoodlese @crystlblu @coffeebooksandfandom @thisismysecrethappyplace @the-wayward-robot @lokilvrr

[pi-cat000]

Trollhunters Homecoming AUp4

Part 3 here

Part 4: Jim contemplates life and Dictatious is there as well.

How long he had been standing here? Time seemed to have lost some of its meaning, blurring together, transforming hours into seconds and minuets into days.

At some point Gunmar had returned to his throne seemingly content to continue glaring at Jim into the foreseeable future. Wisps of glowing blue energy crawled and sparked along his arms in response to whatever crystals were inlayed into to the stone chair. The hall was now mostly empty and Jim wondered apathetically if he should be doing something. He didn’t feel compelled to move. Didn’t feel the need to do anything really.

Well, if he stayed standing too much longer he would probably collapse from exhaustion. He definitely needed to sleep at some point in the near future. The sooner the better. However, understanding this need and acting upon it were two entirely different beasts.

The sound of lighter footsteps came from behind, drawing his focus. He had only seen one troll small enough to have such light footsteps. Dictatious shuffled past, confirming his conclusion, and giving him the stink eye…eyes…as he went.

“My lord, congratulations on this momentous achievement, we are surely one step closer to freedom,” he continued to stand before Gunmar, four arm’s gesturing wide.  

Dictatious bowed and Gunmar grunted, eye still fixed on him.

“Once the Trollhunters’ friends arrive they will no doubt lead us to the Killahead Bridge and we shall be free of this accursed place.”

Gunmar’s attention shifted, taking some of the weight with it. Jim exhaled, chest loosening. He allowed his posture to slump. Pain shot along his back. Dictatious continued postulating and Jim let his focus to wonder, moving from Gunmar to the spacious throne room. Maybe, the patterning and hieroglyphs engraved into the walls could have been interesting. They reminded him of Binky’s library of dusty old books.  However, nothing could hold his attention longer than a few seconds and he resorted to staring blankly at a misshapen rock to the left of Gunmar’s head, waiting for some sort signal. He wasn’t sure what that signal might be only that he should wait for it. Gunmar’s intentions were hard to decipher, leaving him lost, stranded between his own thoughts and a will that was not his own.

“Sir, you are injured!”

The loud exclamation broke through his idle musings. Dictatious was trying to examine Gunmar’s injured shoulder. The one Nomura had stabbed. Nomura who was dead. Dead because of him. Perhaps it was best that he felt nothing. Surely, he would be suffering some form of guilt right about now.

“…nothing but an inconvenience,” Gunmar growled, “Do not presume that I am week enough to be affected by such a pitiful wound.”

Dictatious backed up, holding all four arms up in a pacifying gesture, “My apologies, how foolish of me. I only meant to offer my services in returning my lord to his full strength.”

Gunmar rumbled, leaning back, the crystals beneath his claws glowed and light seemed to travel up until it was absorbed. His eye narrowed.

“Give me but a minute and I will have a brew ready.” Dictatious continued.

“Once I am free the Heartstone will provide all the strength I need,” Gunmar cut Dictatious off, attention travelling back to Jim.

/What of the Heartstone. Tell me of Trollmarket/

It was almost a relief to be doing something other than just standing silently.

“The Heartstone is at the centre Trollmarket, reachable via a Horngazel,” he offered almost hesitating. That wasn’t his voice. It was too flat. Blank. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, Jim’s knowledge of Trollmarket was limited to Blinky’s lectures. He never had gotten around to reading that history book.  

“I suppose those impure scum were telling the truth,” Dictatious commented, now examining Jim, “we always suspected that the Heartstone would be situated within Trollmarket. Predictable as always.”

Gunmar remained impassive.

“Make your brew,” Gunmar finally growled, waving a dismissive claw. Dictatious nodded to himself, apparently pleased about something.

“And do something with the Trollhunter. He needs to survive long enough that I may make use of him,”

Dictatious stopped nodding, “The Trollhunter, My Lord?” he sounded leery.

Another dismissive growl had Dictatious immediately backtracking, “Right yes, of course, I will see to it,” he cleared his throat, “Come along Trollhunter,”

Jim more felt so much as heard the next command because it seemed to snap whatever force was keeping him rooted to the spot.

/Dismissed/

His body loosened, legs unlocking. Dictatious was already across the hall, muttering under his breath. Jim turned robotically to follow, still stiff under Gunmar’s direct attention.

He knew he was out of Gunmar’s line of sight when the heavyweight, which had settled about him like a few tons of rocks, vanished. Its sudden absence caused him to stumble and he caught himself against a nearby wall before he could knell over.

His thoughts were slightly clearer but so were the aches, pains and fatigue. Not a great trade.

“Hurry up Tollhunter,” Dictatious snapped from a fork in the path, tapping a foot impudently. Jim stared blankly, wondering where they would be going. Back to the cells? He had never been through this area without a bag over his head. After a second of consideration, he decided it didn’t matter.

.

Dictatious glanced back a second time double checking to ensure the Trollhunter was still following behind. It wasn’t that he doubted his Lord’s abilities. No, the Descimar Blade held some of the most potent dark magic there was. No Troll could break from its power once ensnared. However, it was yet untested against a human and it never hurt to be cautious.

His worries were unfounded. The Trollhunter followed behind at a snail’s pace, movements subdued, expanding as little energy as possible. An improvement from the impudence and disrespect of before. Expressionless, pale blue, eyes met with his own. Drone like.

He turned away, continuing down into the deeper caverns. At the rate they were traveling it would take them an age to reach the bottom-most levels. The location of his study and research. What did he know about humans anyway? It had been centuries since he had seen one and even when he had had the chance to study them he had considered it a fruitless pursuit. A waste of his talents.

He paused, waiting for the Trollhunter to catch up. Where all humans so dreadfully slow? No, that couldn’t be right for he had seen with his own eyes the Trollhunters’ feats of agility. It must be due to some injury. To be expected when one foolishly challenged Gunmar. He scanned the human, eyes narrow. The only obvious injury was across the human’s face but there probably others hidden beneath the armour. Not that he knew how to treat human injuries. Maybe a few of his older journals would have something of use. He huffed, turning away.

Finally, they made it to his study and he paused at the entrance, allowing the Trollhunter to enter before him. It stood silently in the middle of the room until Dictatious pushed past.

“Sit,” he ordered, pointing at a chair. Dictatious was pleased to see the Trollhunter follow his orders, sitting himself down. To think that the Trollhunter, Gunmar’s bane, was now at his command. It was as exciting as it was underwhelming. Ignoring the human for the time being he went about examining his bookshelves quickly concluding that he must have stored his older journals in a different location.  

“I suppose you will be needing sustenance. What do human’s eat?”

Humans had different diets. He knew that much off the top of his head. It was a good a place to start as any.

The Trollhunter was silent for a beat or two then, “Eggs mostly,” it answered in that blank, lifeless, tone that many of the newly brainwashed adopted.

“Egg? Nyarlagroth eggs?” they were the only eggs he could think of.

He was met with a shrug, “If those giant snake monsters are Nyarlagroths then yes.”

“Hmph,” he crossed his upper arms, considering the information. An odd choice of sustenance. Organic. He supposed it matched the human’s organic nature.

“Any other foods. What do you eat when not in the Darklands?”

Silence.

“Trollhunter?”

More silence met his question and he paused, turning. Instead of sitting upright the Trollhunter was slumped in the seat, unmoving. He walked around, putting himself before the human. It did not respond his to moments, head lolling to one side. Once he had a clear view it was obvious why. Unconscious. Dictatious scowled.

Perhaps the human was faking.

He put out a hand, giving the Trollhunter a hard poke, moving back in case of any retaliation. The oblivious body toppled onto the floor and remained in a crumpled pile.

Not the desired response.  Dictatious quickly circled the chair so he could examine the human for damage. He didn’t know how fragile humans where and Gunmar would have his head if he accidentally killed the Trollhunter now.

Nothing seemed to be different or out of place and he nudged an armoured shoulder with his foot. It continued to breathe, chest rising and falling. Exhaustion then. The newly turned never did express much in the way of self-preservation. Happy to continue working till they dropped dead on the spot from fatigue. Their energy bled dry. With no access to a Heartstone or a similar source of power, such a fate was all too common. He shivered. A fate worse than Sundeath in his opinion.  

Though it appeared humans possessed some form of fail-safe. He knelt, scooping the body up and placing it on his desk. Who knew when it would awaken and if he left it on the floor he was sure to trip himself later.  

For now, he would hunt down a foot solider-a brainwashed one because no sane Troll tangled with a nesting Nyarlagroth - and have him fetch an egg. He began pulling out the necessary ingredients for a healing brew.

Part 5 here

[shsl-shipper-gamer-fangirl]

Other ahoges: Makoto | Komaru | Hajime | Matsuda | Munakata | Kaede

Saihara Loses His Ahoge and Everyone Loses Their Shit

Waking up to a mystery has never been a good morning for Saihara.

When he woke up on that particular day, it had been innocuous at first. He did his usual morning routine of getting ready. It's only when he sees himself in the mirror that he notices the difference. He patted the top of his head. Smooth. That's strange... While he wasn't particularly fond of the ahoge, he doesn't remember ever getting it cut. It's just supposed to be there. Always sticking out. No gel or wax could hold it down. Only his hat was able to tame it but he doesn't wear that anymore.

He's already let go of the hat. What's the harm in losing the ahoge too?

"Um... Who are you?"

Apparently more damaging than he originally thought.

Huh? Huuuuuhh???

"Who the hell brought this normie over here?" Iruma greeted him with an insult. Well, it was pretty tame coming from her. "Oh, I get it! You're one of my fanboys! Sorry to bust your nuts but you ain't touching these glorious tits of mine!"

Never mind. Iruma not recognizing him isn't a huge loss anyways.

"Oh, who is this? A new friend?" Gonta waved at him. "Hello there new friend! Do not be afraid, we are good people!"

Such a good friend he was indeed. What did the world do to deserve Gonta?

"Hold up. I wouldn't start getting cozy with the new guy just yet." Hoshi warned. "It's only ever been us sixteen here. Sorry for being paranoid but getting a new classmate out of nowhere is pretty suspicious. The kid's gotta introduce himself first."

Even though they're basically the same age, Saihara will admit any day that Hoshi holds some form of seniority over him.

"He's been quiet though. Hmm, could it be?" Amami stared at him with an unreadable expression. "You have troubles with memory too?"

No, not memory. He's just utterly speechless at how everyone is treating him all because he doesn't have one lock of hair sticking out.

"Perhaps our guest does not feel welcome enough." Tojo proceeds to correct this situation by pouring him a cup of tea. It's exactly his favorite. "I hope that this is up to your tastes. Please, make yourself comfortable. We only wish to know more about you."

He tries not to cry into his cup of tea. He just wishes to know how his friends see him. Just the ahoge? Guys, his eyes are down here.

"Be careful! He's still a menace!" Tenko was already in a fighting position. "I do not know who you are but I do know that you are a degenerate male! And Tenko will not let you and your impure intentions get to the girls! If you try anything, I will break you!"

He just wants his identity back, please don't break him. He breaks easily.

"Too loud..." Yumeno yawned and then slumped in her seat. "Hey, you being here is a pain so could you get out?"

It's not like he wanted this commotion either. He just went here to have breakfast and he honestly feels so attacked right now.

"No non! Don't go yet. Angie senses a divine aura from you!" Angie clasped her hands in prayer. "It's A-OKAY! If you're feeling lost, come to Atua and he will guide you."

He's not even surprised that he's already getting recruited upon supposedly their first meeting.

"And so adds another person to the number of people I will be observing." Shinguji chuckled lightly while covering is already masked mouth. "Ah, I wonder what kind of human you'd reveal yourself to be, kukuku..."

Okay? Sometimes he really wonders if Shinguji's okay.

"Oh, no. This is a problem." Shirogane settled her chin on her hand, contemplating. "We can't have two plain characters. That's just plain redundant."

Well he knows he doesn't have the most... unique face. But still, the way she says it makes it sound like an actual problem.

"I have checked my database of people whom I've previously met and you did not match with any of the IDs." Kiibo crossed his arms. "Please let us know who you are so I can update my records."

Not to sound robophobic but Saihara expected for at least Kiibo to recognize him. If even the robot's program couldn't identify him then this just confirms his fear that this was beyond his control.

"Hey, buddy you've been quiet. You okay?" Momota smiled reassuringly. "Don't freak out in front of us now. Relax, man. We're a loud bunch but I promise that we won't hurt you."

It's really hard not to freak out when you realize that your whole identity is centered around your ahoge.

"Answer if someone talks to you." Harukawa glared at him. "...Do you want to die?"

Whatever happened to that promise that they wouldn't hurt him?

"Guys, you're freaking the new guy out." Akamatsu "Still, it is kind of weird that you're only showing up now. Oh, it's not like I'm suspicious of you or anything! It's just... weird. Hmm, if only Saihara was here. He probably would have some theories."

But he's right here? Literally guys you don't have to look so hard.

"Has anyone seen him? He's never usually late for breakfast."

"Oh, pick me! Pick me! I toooootally saw him this morning!" Ouma "Hey! Look, it's Saihara-chan!"

Everyone turned their heads away from him and towards where he pointed at. Everyone except Saihara himself.

That's why Saihara saw. He saw Ouma take out Saihara's hat (he had been wondering where that went) and he saw... an ahoge on top of it. He saw Ouma wear it. He also saw Ouma smirk at him.

Ouuuuumaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

"Where? I don't see him at all."

"Hey guys! It's me! Totally Saihara-chan" Ouma declared oh so innocently despite his smile being anything but. He didn't even bother changing his voice. Or anything else for that matter. He's just wearing a hat with an ahoge ridiculously glued on top.

He can't possibly think he could pull this off.

"Oh, hey Saihara! Where were you, man?" Momota warmly greeted him.

Okay... But to be fair, Momota isn't the... sharpest so...

"Geez, you had us worry for a bit there. What took you so long?" Akamatsu pouted at him.

Not Akamatsu too?? Shit. This was happening.

"There is something... different about you today, Saihara." Kiibo pondered. "Oh but you match perfectly with my identification scanner so it just might be a slight bug."

How can Ouma wearing a dumb hat with ahoge match Saihara's profile? Is he just an ahoge in his ID?!

"It must be the clothes. I mean it's plain to see that this is Saihara since his signature ahoge is there." Shirogane proudly presented.

So he's really just an ahoge in their eyes. That's... kinda sad okay.

"Nishishi!" Oh, come on! Ouma's even doing his trademark laugh and no one's going to point out that inconsistency? Seriously? No one? "I thought I'd try a new look today! Since I'm always wearing emo clothes, I thought I'd spice things up a bit!"

Okay full offense taken. His clothes are black not emo. It's just a coincidence that it's a common color for emos. Hey, black is a general color, okay? He is not emo.

"It looks suspiciously like Ouma's." Harukawa pointed out. "You have poor taste."

That's all she's going to take away from that? His fashion sense?

"Well I happen to think that Ouma has ridculously good tastes! Supreme leader tastes! Godlike even!"

Please, won't anyone at least point out that Saihara will never in his lifetime praise Ouma.

"Angie doesn't know about that last part. Atua says that Ouma's tastes are just so so." Angie commented.

Again, focusing on the wrong specifics here.

"Ah, but one can argue that since Ouma's talent is being a supreme leader then does it not mean that technically he does possess supreme leader tastes? I admit that it's a mere technicality but it fits logic." Shinguji argued.

Hey so, Saihara isn't the most egocentric person there and he doesn't even like attention but can they get back to him? It's bad enough that they think a barely disguised Ouma is him but to get set aside in conversation too? Just when Saihara thought things couldn't get any sadder, it does.

"Does it really matter? They're both menaces! Changing one's clothes does not change the evil within." Tenko sneered.

He's desperate. He will take any insult as long as it changes the topic.

"Whatever. Can we eat already?" Yumeno huffed in annoyance.

Not really contributing to the conversation but at least it's not about Ouma. His standards have hit an all time low.

"Yes, I will get the food served shortly." Tojo politely bowed. "However, it would seem that Ouma is the one missing now."

Aaaaand we're back to talking about Ouma. The same Ouma who's masquerading in a discount costume of Saihara. The one and only Ouma who's snickering right now.

"Who gives a shit about Cockichi?! If the cock sucker wants to miss out on good food then it's his loss!" Iruma ranted.

While she does make a good point, Saihara hoped that someone would have at least noticed that Ouma only disappeared as soon as "Saihara" appeared. But he knew better now than to hope.

"Oh, no! But what if he starves? Gonta don't want friend hungry." Gonta said with genuine concern.

If Ouma really was a friend then he wouldn't be making Saihara suffer like this.

"Eh, he'll live. If he gets hungry, he knows where the food is." Hoshi shrugged. "Just let him run around as much as he want so we can have some peace here for once."

Except the only flaw in that plan is that Ouma is HERE. He's literally right here. Seriously, is it a detective thing that only Saihara is noticing all these discrepancies?

"That's right. Ignore poor Ouma and let him die a dog's death! Nobody likes him anyways! He's the worst!"

Well he's not wrong... But how can he say that so easily about himself??

"Wait. Something's been bothering me." Amami, who Saihara only noticed to be quiet all this time, suddenly spoke up. He wore the most serious expression ever seen on his face. He walked up to Ouma and placed his hand on the hat. It stayed there, gripped ever so tightly.

Could it be...?

"There." Amami said after twisting the cap just a few degrees. He was back to smiling as if a weight off his chest had been lifted. "I apologize for the glaring. It was crooked and I was debating on letting it be but as you can see I just couldn't stop myself, ahaha."

"Awww, it's okay! Thank you, Amami-chan!" Ouma blew him a flying kiss.

At this point, Saihara would have gladly welcomed death.

"Oh, by the way. I almost forgot!" Ouma suddenly turned to Saihara. Oh no. He's wearing that smile. The smile that never leads up to anything good. That shit-eating grin. Ouma is wearing it at full blast.

Saihara should have run when he had the chance.

"I have a theory on the new guy! He's obviously the mastermind because I said so. Listen. I'm a detective so I know what I'm doing. So let's all gang up on him, okay? Let's go, team!"

...

Fuck.

It was at that moment that Saihara knew he was fucked up.

"Oi, is that true? You think we got ourselves the mastermind, bro?"

"Hmm, Saihara said it so it can't be a lie."

"Let's kill that asshole! I'll fucking cut his dick into pieces!"

"Tenko too will destroy this menace!"

"Please, guys we're more civilized than that."

"Ahaha, let's listen to our leader. Maybe there's still room for negotiations."

"Nyeh, sounds like more work. Can't we just finish him off?"

"...I can kill him quickly but it wouldn't be as satisfying."

"Don't kill him off just yet. We still need information from him."

"It is not a request I haven't heard of... I believe I may be of assistance."

"If you require rope then I would gladly volunteer in tying our culprit up. I have learned of methods where it brings more pain than it does pleasure."

"Oh Gonta does not want to hurt anyone. But Gonta does not like it if this person has hurt friends."

"Well Atua says that this calls for a divine retribution nyahaha!"

"What a plot twist! A mastermind reveal during a filler episode!"

FUCK!

He didn't have to be detective to know that he wasn't going to survive if he stayed there any longer. So he bolted and ran far enough to lock himself in his room. Just outside he could hear his classmates rioting. He knew they weren't allowed to break the door and it seemed that they remembered that rule. He just wishes that Ouma would conveniently forget that he could lockpick doors. Speaking of which, he could hear his distinct laughter bouncing just outside. Atua, if you're out there please spare him.

Saihara already lost his ahoge and consequentially, his identity. He wasn't ready to lose his life too.

[argyle-s]

The Shape of Things To Come Chapter 9/38

Rating: Mature

Read at Ao3

Start at the Beginning

Supergirl doesn't cause an environmental disaster, Kara and Alex talk, and Cat gets demanding.

Thanks to @ifourmindbeso for her great work as a beta. Any remaining mistakes are entirely my own.

Chapter 9 - Fighting Fires

Kara turned in mid-air as the missiles closed on her, flying backwards as she hit one of them with a blast of heat vision, causing it to explode.  She turned slightly, focusing on the remaining missile, and blew out a huge blast of freeze breath, encasing the missile in ice.  The freezing temperature caused the fuel pump to seize, which made the missile lose thrust, and pitch downwards.  She watched it fall, her breath having rendered it so cold it shattered on impact.

“Okay,” Alex said over the radio, “come on in.”

Kara laughed, knowing she was being called in because they were now out of missiles.  She twisted slightly, shooting back towards the small command post.  She slowed as she approached, dropping subsonic so she didn’t shatter any of the equipment, and finally pulled up at the last minute, then drifted down to a gentle landing.

“How was that?” she asked J’onn.

“I see you share your cousin’s appetite for wanton destruction, Miss Danvers” J’onn said.

Kara rolled her eyes.  “You are enjoying this entirely too much.”

“I’m trying to make sure you’re going to be an asset.  A novice Superhero can be a liability in the field.  So far, all you’ve proven is you can manage an intelligence asset.  I need to know you can control all of your abilities.  Strength, Stamina, Speed.”

“Well, are you convinced yet?” Kara asked.  “Because I wanna go get some breakfast and if I don’t get something to eat soon, you’re gonna see me not controlling the growling in my stomach and trust me, that’s not pretty.”

“She’s right,” Alex said.  “No one ever comes out of that looking pretty.”

Both Kara and Alex turned around at the sound of a loud chuckle behind them, only to find Vasquez standing there, holding a large bag.

“Are those…?” Kara asked, not bothering to finish her sentence as she took two steps towards Vasquez.

“Breakfast burritos from that grill down the 975,” Vasquez said.  “Extra hot sauce.”

“Oh, Rao Light,” Kara said as Vasquez handed her the bag.  “Marry me?”

Vasquez laughed.  “I think my girlfriend would object.”

Kara sat the bag on one of the work tables and pulled out a burrito, peeling the foil off it.  “Does she cook?  If so, bring her along.  I’ll marry you both.”

“Kara,” Alex said.

Vasquez just laughed harder.  “I do most of the cooking, but she’s the jealous type.”

Kara took a huge bite out of the burrito, chewing quickly, before swallowing.  “If you can cook, I can see why.”  She held up the burrito slightly.  “Thank you.”

“It’s no problem, ma’am.  My girlfriend was one of the agents on the plane with Alex, so I figure I owe you one.”

Kara smiled, and nodded.  “Glad I could help,” she said, before she wolfed down the rest of her burrito, and reached for a second one.

“Are you heading into work today?” Alex asked.

Kara shook her head, mouth too full of food to speak.  She swallowed.  “No.  Cat never works on the weekends she has Carter.  I thought once we were done, I’d do a few runs through the city, rescue some kittens from trees, show the coat of arms.  That sort of thing.”

“You sure that’s a good idea, Kara?  I know you talked to your Aunt but there are still a lot of Fort Rozz escapees out there.”

“Well, if you’d rather, I could take you out to Sanctuary.”

“Really?”

Kara nodded.  “Absolutely.  I’ve got something out there I want you to see anyway.  Something I think would be a huge help-“

“Supergirl.  Come in, Supergirl” Winn’s voice suddenly rang in her ear.

Kara reached up and touched her eat piece.  “Hey, Winn, what’s up?”

“There’s a huge fire raging down at National City port, and it is bad,” Winn said.

“I’m on it,” Kara said.  She turned to Alex.  “Fire down at the port.  Don’t let anyone eat my burritos.”

“Are you sure, Kara?  You’ve been dodging missiles and pushing pretty hard.  Even you have your limits.”

“I know,” Kara said, “but this is just a bit of x-ray vision, some freeze breath.  No big deal.  I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Just… Be careful, okay.”

“I will.  Love you.”  With that, Kara kicked off and shot into the sky, but not without hearing her sister’s answering ‘Love you too’.

***

The fire was as big and as intimidating as she remembered, but this time, as she approached, she spotted the source using her X-ray vision.  One of the pipelines used to pump oil off the tankers was ruptured and feeding the fire, which explained why her freeze breath hadn’t worked the last time.  She spotted the fire chief, and dropped down beside him.

“Chief,” she said.

“Thank God,” he said.  “Can you blow this out?”

“No,” Kara replied.  “Not yet.  There’s a leaking oil line inside the flames.  If I hit it with my freeze breath, it will just spread the fire.”

“Shit,” he said.  “Can you move the tanker?”

“Not unless you have tow chains handy.  If I try to just grab on and drag it, the welds will split open like a rotten banana.  I need to go into the fire, and cut off the fuel supply.  While I do that, move your water line between the flames and the ship, to hold it back.  Buy me five minutes, and I’ll be able to put this out.”

“Okay,” he said.  “Will do.”

Kara nodded and lifted off again as he shifted his men’s focus to pushing the edge of the fire back and controlling the advance instead of trying to put it out.  She dove into the heart of the inferno and grabbed a barrel, tearing it in half and slapped the metal over the tear in the oil pipe.  A careful blast from her heat vision formed a weld which would hold for a while, then she kicked off, rising above the fire, and carefully used her freeze breath to put out the flames, as well as cool off the oil-filled pipes.

Once she was done, she flew back over to the chief.

“Okay, you need to get a repair crew in here as fast as possible.  I’ve welded a piece of steel over the tear in the pipe, but the steel is low quality, and the weld isn’t especially solid since I couldn’t clean or prep the surfaces or get it hot enough to boil out the impurities without risking setting off what was in the pipe.”

The chief nodded.  “Right.  Is it cool enough to go in?”

“Yes,” she said.  “You want me to show you?”

“Please.”

***

“Either I finally managed to get the last of the smell out, or my sense of smell has just given up on me,” Kara said as she came out of the DEO locker room dressed in a black t-shirt, and a black pair of BDU pants that had been tucked away in some storage locker or other, along with a fresh pair of boots and socks.

Alex sniffed, “Definitely the latter,” she said.

Kara reached out and gave her a light shove.  “Shut up,” she said.  “Seriously, that was terrible.”

“Yeah, it was bad enough with a human nose,” Alex said.  “I can’t even imagine with a Kryptonian one.”

“Any progress on the suit?” Kara asked.

“That’s probably going to take more time.”

“Just have them put it in a sealed bag,” Kara said.  “I’ll take care of it at home.”

“How are you going to get home” Alex asked.

“Drive me?”

***

Kara sat the oversized bag of subs down on the counter as Alex locked the door behind them, and reached for a plate for Alex and a serving platter for herself.  She took a moment to fish out Hot Pastrami and the bag of Salt and Vinegar chips and put them on a plate, before carefully arranging her two cheese steaks and two meatball subs on the platter.

“Where do you want this?” Alex asked, holding up the sealed biohazard bag containing Kara’s Supergirl suit.

“Konex,” Kara said, grinning.  “End stealth mode.”

Alex jumped a bit as Konex decloaked.

“How can I be of assistance, Lady Kara?” the robot asked

“Kara,” Alex said, “What is that?”

Kara turned around and opened the refrigerator, pulling out a diet coke for Alex and a two liter of grape soda for herself.  “He’s a Kryptonian tier-four cyber-construct, designed to operate as a personal attendant.”

“Okay,” Alex said.  “And you didn’t think to mention him back when we were growing up?”

Kara laughed.  “Clark has one named Kelex in his stronghold up north.  One of the first things I got from J’onn when we started working together was a crystal containing Konex’s memories.  He was my personal attendant growing up.  Kelex was able to build him a new body last year and download the memories from the crystal.  I would have told you about him, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that without telling you I’d gotten stuff out of my pod.”

Alex frowned.  “Kara, I’ve been all over your pod.  Everything that was in it is catalogued at the DEO.”

“You didn’t know about the hidden compartment behind the seat,” Kara said.  “Konex, this is Alex Danvers.  Scan for identity match, and execute stored order four.”

Kara watched as Konex approached Alex and scanned her briefly.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Alex.”

“What just happened?” Alex asked.

“Konex just added your biometrics and genetic profile to the security protocols for his control programs, as well as for those of Sanctuary.  In short, if anything happens to me, the chain of command goes You, Kal-El, J’onn, Diana Prince, Bruce Wayne.  There’s a list of people after that, but honestly, right now, you’re the only person who even knows they are on the list.”

Alex turned to look at her.  “Diana Prince and Bruce Wayne? Why… What…” Alex raised her free hand to cover her face.

Kara took pity on her and walked over, taking the bag with her Supergirl outfit and handing it to Konex.

“Clean that, please,” she said.  “Or, if it’s easier, just recycle it and make a new one.  Also, while you’re working, make me about twenty spares, and fit them all with anti-Kryptonite shields, and spare coms.”

“Yes, Lady Kara.”

She turned back to Alex, carefully prying her hand away from her face.  “I’m sorry,” she said.

Alex shook her head.  “No, I shouldn’t react like this.  It’s just…”

“A week ago, I was your baby sister.  Now, I’m pulling super advanced AI-controlled robots out of thin air and telling you Bruce Wayne is Batman and Diana Prince is Wonder Woman,” Kara said.  “I get it.  Believe me.  I was on the other side of this once, and I did not handle it well.”

“Can we just sit down for a bit?” Alex said.

Kara nodded.  “Go ahead.  I’ll grab the food and be right there.”

Alex walked over and dropped down on the couch.  Kara gathered up their food and made her way over to sit down next to her sister.  They ate in silence, Kara doing her best to eat at a human pace.  She was finished with all four of her subs and about halfway through a family-sized bag of sour cream and onion potato chips when Alex finally spoke up.

“How much more haven’t you told me?” Alex asked.

Kara sat down the bag of chips.  “Big things, or little things?”

“Big things?” Alex asked.

Kara thought about it for a minute, before answering.  “Two,” she said.  “There are two big things I haven’t told you yet.  The first is how I found out about all of this, and believe me when I say that it’s not something I want to keep to myself, but I can’t tell you about the first one without telling you about the second one.  The second one is…”  Kara took a deep breath.  “I’m afraid the second one will make you hate me,” she said.

“Kara,” Alex said, turning towards her, “You’re my sister, and I love you, no matter what.”

Kara nodded.  “I love you too, Alex, but sometimes secrets can drive even the closest people apart.”

“Then why not just tell me?” Alex asked.

“Because you’d die,” Kara said.

“Kara, I’m not-“

“Alex,” Kara said, cutting her off, “I know how good you are.  I would trust you to have my back in any fight.  In fact, I’m pretty sure, if push comes to shove, you could take down a Kryptonian as long as you had time to prepare for the fight.  But if I told you about this, you’d want to do something.  Because you’re good and kind and one of the most loving, caring people I’ve ever met.  But this isn’t a fight you can win.  Not right now.  Not while we’ve got Fort Rozz to deal with.”

“Kara, you’re scaring me,” Alex said.  “Whatever this is, you shouldn’t have to carry it alone.  Please, let me help?”

Kara reached out and took Alex’s hands on hers, squeezing them as she looked at her sister, and remembering the last time they’d had a secret between them.  The fallout from her sister lying about who killed Astra had nearly destroyed National City.  It wasn’t a good memory, and the truth was, it had taken a long time for her to really get over it.  The Red K incident had been proof of that.

The issue wasn’t that she didn’t trust Alex, it was that she knew Alex.  If she told Alex, there was a good chance Alex would do something stupid, like go after Cadmus on her own.  On the other hand, if she didn’t tell anyone, and something happened to her, the timeline could turn out even worse than before.  And there was the simple weight of the secret itself.

“If I tell you, you have to promise you won’t do anything.  Not until we deal with Fort Rozz.”

Alex nodded.  “I get it, Kara.  One threat at a time.”

Kara sighed.  “No, Alex, you don’t.  This isn’t small.  This isn’t like promising Eliza you’d finish your homework before you go surfing.  If you make this promise, you have to keep it, no matter how much it hurts. No matter what.  You have to keep it.  Okay?”

This time it seemed to get the message across.  Alex sat there, and Kara could see her thinking it over, considering it, before she finally nodded.  “Okay.  I promise.  I won’t do anything until we deal with Fort Rozz.”

Kara nodded.  “Have you ever heard of Project Cadmus?”

“Yeah.  Some sort of research project.  We send them samples from any aliens we capture, and if an alien dies, either during capture, or in their cell, we send the remains to Cadmus for study.”

“They don’t just study alien remains,” Kara said.  “Back before J’onn took over the DEO, Hank Henshaw…  The real Hank Henshaw, deliberately killed a lot of aliens and classified the kills as ‘killed resisting capture’ so he could funnel the remains to Cadmus. If you go through the records you’ll also find a lot of aliens who were ‘transferred to other holding facilities’, only they never arrived.  Instead, they wound up in Cadmus.  After J’onn took over and their supply of live aliens dried up, they started their own capture program.  Sam Lane procures for them sometimes too.”

“That’s horrible,” Alex said, “but-“

“They take humans, too,” Kara said.  She took a deep breath.  “This is the part I’ve been afraid to tell you…  Alex, they have Jeremiah.”

“What?” Alex said.  “They…  They have my dad’s body?”

Kara shook her head.  “No.  Not his body.”  Kara could see the exact moment realization struck.  She could see the mixture of hope and fear flooding into Alex.

“He’s…  He’s alive?” she asked.

Kara nodded.

“How long have you known?” Alex asked.

“Alex,” Kara said.  “You promised.”

“How long, Kara?”

Kara let go of Alex’s hands and reached up to grip her shoulders.  “Tell me you won’t do anything, Alex.”

“How long?” Alex asked, and Kara could hear the rage in her voice, but she didn’t answer.  She just waited.  “He’s my father,” Alex said.  “We have to do something.  We have to help him!”  Alex tried to stand up, but Kara held her in place, her grip firm enough that there wasn’t anything Alex could do, but gentle enough that Alex didn’t hurt herself.

“I’m sorry, Alex,” Kara said.  “I’m so sorry.”

“Let me go,” Alex said.

“You promised,” Kara said.

The slap surprised them both.  One moment, Alex was sitting there, struggling, and the next, Kara felt the flat of Alex’s hand slam into the side of her face.  It was so unexpected, she didn’t have time to roll with it, and instead of hurting her, Alex ended up whimpering and cradling her hand.  Kara let her go, moving back a little bit as she looked down, checking with x-ray vision to make sure Alex hadn’t broken her hand.

Alex, for her part, was looking back, and forth between her hand, and Kara’s face.

“I…”

“It’s okay,” Kara said.

Alex shook her head.  “No.  No, it’s not.  I shouldn’t have…”

Kara reached out and took Alex’s injured hand in her own, blowing a very gentle stream of cool air over it.

“It’s okay,” Kara said.  “I’m the one who should be sorry.  It’s my fault Jeremiah was on that mission.  My fault Cadmus has him.  My fault Fort Rozz is here.  My fault Myriad is a threat.  My fault Cadmus even exists.”  She looked up into Alex’s eyes.  “Sometimes, I think it would have been better if I never made it off Krypton,” she said.

The look of horror on Alex’s face wasn’t something Kara expected to see in that moment, but on some level, it was comforting.

“No,” Alex said.  “No.  Kara, you can’t think like that.  Please.  I’m sorry.  You’re right, this is big and I just…” she shrugged, helplessly.

“Please, tell me you’ll keep your promise.  I swear, I have people working on getting your father out.  Clark knows almost everything I do about Cadmus and he’s got Wonder Woman and Batman for backup.  If they can get Jeremiah out, they will.”

Alex nodded.  “Okay,” she said.  “Okay.  But, as soon as Myriad is out of the way-“

“We find Cadmus, and we burn it to the ground,” Kara said.  “Every last bit of it.”

***

The next morning was rough.  Kara didn’t really need sleep, but she and Alex had talked for hours and it had been emotionally exhausting.  Kara had told her everything she could about Cadmus, leaving out only Lillian Luthor, Simon Tycho and Hank Henshaw’s involvement.  She’d told her everything about Astra, too, but it was all hard.  It was like draining an infected wound, only stopping before it was entirely clean, and bandaging it up with half the rot still inside.  There was so much she couldn’t tell her.  She’d wanted to talk about the battle of CatCo plaza, about the Third Army and the war of light, about Darkseid and the anti-life equation.

She couldn’t.  Not yet.  She couldn’t tell Alex until she was ready to tell J’onn, and she couldn’t tell J’onn until she could prove all of it, because it sounded insane.  Sometimes, she wondered if she was insane.  On the other hand, if she got to hug her sister in the morning before she went into work to see Winn and Cat, maybe insanity wasn’t so bad.

Though today was the day Cat demanded an interview with her in the original timeline.  She was wondering if that was still going to happen when the elevator door opened, and she saw Winn waiting for her, holding a large pink box.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“Just a little something Maggie and I chipped in for,” he said, lifting the lid.

“Is that a brownie pizza?” she asked, her face splitting into an enormous smile.

“Yes,” he said.  “We wanted to do a cake, but we thought a ‘Congratulations on your first big disaster’ cake would be a little obvious.”

“Oh!” she squealed as she threw her arms around Winn, hugging him as tightly as she dared.  “Thank you,” she said.  “You have no idea how much I needed something like this this morning.”  She stepped back, still smiling at him as she picked up the envelope containing Cat’s morning mail from the reception desk, before heading over to her own desk.

Winn sat the brownie pizza down on her desk.  “You okay?” he asked.

“Rough weekend,” she said.  “Alex and I had a big fight.  We sorted it out.  And I saw my Aunt.”

“Your Aunt?” Winn asked.  “Like,” he made a wavey motion with his hand Kara assumed was supposed to indicate flying, “that Aunt?”

“Yes.  That probably went as well as could be expected,” she said.

‘Drunk, 9:00 AM.  That’s the last time I have breakfast with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.’

Kara shook her head as she reached for Cat’s coffee.  “She’s here,” she said as she lifted the lid and gave it a quick zap of heat vision.

“At least now I know how you do that,” Winn said as he dropped into his seat and pulled up his goof-off spreadsheet so it would look like he was working.

The door to the elevator opened, and Cat strode out.  Kara put the latte into her hand.

“Your latte, Ms. Grant,” she said.

Cat took a sip and let out a small moan of satisfaction.  “Hot, as always,” she said.  “Content meeting, two minutes.  My office.”

***

“I assume we’re all aware of Supergirl’s latest act of derring-do,” Cat said.

“Walking into a burning oil fire to cut off the fuel supply, then blowing the fire out,” James said.  “Pretty impressive for someone who’s only been on the job a week.”

“Hmmm, yes,” Cat said.  “Our girl has been making quite a showing of herself all over National City.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” James asked.

“It would be, if it weren’t the front-page story on the Daily Planet.  Their fifth, in as many days.  Which annoys me, because they already have their own go-to Superhero, and now they’re trying to steal mine.”

Cat stalked around from behind her desk to stand in front of it.  “Now, when I branded her, there was a certain implicit expectation that she would be gracing the pages of *our* publications.”  Cat turned towards Kara.  “Tell me something, Kara.”

“Hmmm, me?” Kara asked.

“Yes,” Cat answered.  “Do you really think it was coincidence that one of the Planet’s star reporters just happened through these offices last week?”

Kara shrugged.  “I never know with Clark.”

“Uh, huh,” Cat said.  “Well, coincidence or not, the Daily Planet is not taking Supergirl from us.  We are going to take back control of the Supergirl narrative, starting now.”

“How are we going to do that?” Dave asked.

“I want an interview,” Cat said.

“Okay,” Kara said.  “When would you like me to set that up?”

Every eye in the room turned towards her.

“You, Keira?” Cat asked.

“Don’t I usually schedule all your interviews?” she said.

Cat’s eyes narrowed.  “This one might be a little different.”

“Have I ever failed to deliver, Ms. Grant?”

“Do I need to bring up the Justin Bieber incident?”

“I believe there’s an amendment to my contract that prevents either of us from ever speaking of that again,” Kara said, shuddering.

Cat sighed.  “Fine.  Go ahead and see if you can arrange it, but I want a backup plan,” she said, turning to James.  “Do you think your friend in blue could arrange a sit down?”

“It doesn’t really work that way,” James said.

“Mmmm… Well, if Clark Kent, or for that matter, Lois Lane or any of the other hags over at the Planet get this before we do, I’m going to hold you and Keira personally responsible since you’re inviting the enemy into my house.”

“Now, I want a sit down with Supergirl.  A heart-to-heart, girl-to-girl.  By the end of the week.”  Cat waved her hand in a shooing gesture.  “Go get it.”

Kara started to turn around, but Cat’s voice stopped her.

“Not you, Keira,” she said.

Kara turned back to Cat.  “Something else I can do for you, Ms. Grant?”

Cat waited until the entire office was empty.  “You really think you can get me an interview with Supergirl?”

“I do.”

Cat stared at her for a moment, and let out a breath.  “You get me that interview and we’ll have a discussion about your salary, since apparently I’m not paying what other people are offering you.”

“That’s not necessary, Ms. Grant.”

“Yes, it is,” Cat said.  “You’re never going to get ahead if you don’t learn how to demand what you’re due, Keira.”

Kara stared back at Cat for a moment, then nodded.  “Okay,” she said.  “How about we start with you using my real name, since I know you know it.”

Cat smiled.  “Get me the interview, and we’ll talk.”

Kara laughed and shook her head as she turned and left the office, only to find James waiting for her at her desk.

“Are you sure you want to do that interview?” he asked.  The question threw Kara, because in the original timeline, he’d been the one to reassure her when she said she couldn’t do it.

“I don’t see why not,” Kara said.  “My cousin managed to hide right in front of Perry White’s face for eleven years.”

“Yeah, and Lois Lane was fooled for a good five seconds,” James said.

Kara rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, well, Cat Grant isn’t checking out my ass every time I turn my back.”

James shook his head.  “Could have fooled me,” he said, before he headed for his office.

Winn appeared a second later.  “He bothering you?” he asked.

“A little,” Kara said.  “He means well, but he hasn’t gotten it through his head that I don’t need a big brother.”

“Well, if he gets to be a problem let me know.  I’ll get Maggie to rough him up.”

Kara smiled.  “You and Maggie really hit it off, huh?”

“Yeah,” he said.  “She’s like the really butch older sister I never knew I wanted.”

“Oh, please.  She’s a soft futch, at best.”

“She loads her own ammo, Kara.”

“Don’t care,” Kara said.  “If she can’t forge a sword out of a load of iron ore, she’s not butch.”

“Who have you been hanging out with?”

“Wonder Woman,” Kara said.  “Now, the real question is, am I expected to share my brownie pizza?”

Winn laughed.  “Now what kind of friends would we be if we made you share?”

[fo4companionlove]

Hancock and the Far Out gift (romanced)

"Where to next, boss?" Hancock shouldered his rifle and started to trudge behind sole up a small hill, while they rummaged around in their pack for some bandages. They had just fought a nasty yao guai and it had scratched him pretty badly across his left arm before sole was able to put a bullet in its back. He would have just suggested that they go back to Sanctuary to recuperate (among other, impure things), but sole was adamant about having something they wanted to show him so he didn't argue. Sole paused at the top of the hill and tossed him a roll of gauze. "Here, this is all we have till we can make it back to sanctuary, so use it wisely." Hancock grinned at them before tenderly wrapping his cut with the gauze, and placing it back in soles' backpack. "I've been watching my pip boy, and we seem to be getting close... just up this next hill here." They said, and furrowed their brow as they scanned the forest around them. "Another hill? Why don't we just head home for now, and try this tomorrow. I've got a couple of Gwinnett's with our names on them in my bunk" Hancock smirked, snaking an arm around soles' waist. Sole smiled back, but shook their head, and resumed walking. Feeling just a tad wounded, he followed. Suddenly, sole stopped in front of him. "This is it! This is the place! Okay, close your eyes." "What? Why do I gotta-" "Just shut your mouth for a second and close them. Please?" Hancock obliged and closed his eyes, covering them with his hands for good measure. He couldn't help but feel a quick twinge in his stomach, and it took him a second to realize that it was anticipation. He hadn't gotten excited over something like this since he was a boy, but if anyone could make him feel this way again, it was sole. "Okay, perfect. Just.. keep them closed.. no need to worry about my voice.. getting quieter.." sole said, slipping away. He could hear them giggling, and he felt his face and body warming up with genuine love, something he rarely felt since turning ghoul. Lost in his thoughts, he jumped when sole poked him and yelled "surprise!" He opened his eyes to find a busted old Mr. Handy staring at him. "Um.. looks great," he said, walking around the silent robot, "this.. is what we came here for?" Sole rolled their eyes. "Say something to him." Hancock looked from sole to the bot. "Um... hello?" "WoAH mAn" the robot replied, and began to wander around the area. He started to laugh. Of course. Of course they fought a yao guai and walked for half of a day to visit a stoner robot. This was exactly the kind of thing that made sole so.. awesome. "Do you like him?" Sole asked, looking up into Hancocks' face hopefully. He laughed, and gave them a quick hug. "Of course, sunshine. Are you saying I can have him?" Sole brightened up and nodded. "His name is Professor Goodfeels. He kind of came with the settlement when I came across it a couple days ago. I thought he would be a good buddy for you to have around when I'm gone." They clapped their hands and made their way over to the workshop at the other end of the barn, passing by Goodfeels, who was still talking to himself. "Groovy." The robot floated over to Hancock, who patted its head and gently nudged it on its way. He had to admit, this was one of the best presents he had ever received.

[not-a-space-alien]

To Ineffability and Beyond!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 |  Part 4 |  Part 5

On LJ

On AO3

Crowley and Aziraphale eventually learned that they were in the tail-end of passengers boarding the ship. They were scheduled to depart one week after the angel and demon’s arrival, but they had to wait until everyone was on board first.

A week came and went.  No word of departure.  A second week.  They eventually learned that the delay was the result of waiting for one single passenger.

“Three guesses as to who that is,” said Crowley.  “Maybe if we can convince the crew to take off without her, we’ll avoid the situation altogether.”

“They calculated everything precisely, Crowley,” said Aziraphale.  “Maybe they don’t want to throw everything off this early?”

“They’ve already thrown it off by moving the takeoff date!  I’ve had enough of this.  I’m going to snoop around.”

With those words, Crowley left the room.  Aziraphale listened to his shoes clacking on the metal grate for a few moments before huffing and picking himself up to follow.

The infinite hallway was just barely big enough for the two of them to walk side-by-side.  “And what exactly do you propose to do?” Aziraphale whispered to him harshly.

“Well, we’re already in the third circle,” said Crowley.  “All we need to do is figure out how to go one up and we’ll be in the restricted sections. That’s where all the fun is bound to be.”

The two of them had been doing nothing but watching movies on the vidscreen in their room, reading, and walking back and forth to the third circle’s cafeteria for the past two weeks, and Aziraphale suspected that Crowley just wanted an excuse to goof off exploring the ship.  “We’re not allowed.”

“You’re not allowed.  I’m a demon, so I’m supposed to do things that aren’t allowed.  If you don’t want to, you can go back to the cabin.”

“If I let you run around unsupervised, I’m sure you’ll get into dreadful trouble.”

“That’s the point.”  Crowley stopped, looking up.  “There, you see?  A maintenance tunnel.”

Aziraphale followed his upturned gaze to a hatch, barely visible as it was pressed into the ceiling. “It’s locked.”

Crowley twisted his hand, and four bolts fell out.  “No it isn’t.”

“Crowley, this isn’t a good idea.”

“Nonsense!  This is a great idea.  Give me a boost.”

Aziraphale eventually let himself be talked into letting Crowley sit on his shoulders so he could shift the metal pane aside and haul himself up into the ceiling.  The demon turned around in the narrow space and held his hand out.

“I’m not going up there,” sniffed Aziraphale.  “I’m sure something awful will happen.”

“Suit yourself,” said Crowley, shrugging.  “I guess I’ll just go off by myself then.”

“Oh no you don’t.  Help me up.”

The space in the ceiling was just big enough for one person to crawl through, and it was filled with pipes and storage tanks and electronic equipment.  Aziraphale had a good view of Crowley’s posterior as he crawled ahead.

“How did it manage to get dusty up here already?” said Crowley.  “The bloody ship isn’t that old.”

He crawled until he reached a solid wall of computers, at which point he felt around until he found a gap to climb over them.

“There’s a ladder back here,” he said.  “Come up, this must go up to the next layer.”

It was almost too dark to see; Crowley was a dim shape moving above him.  They demon must have been able to see, though, with those reflective eyes of his.  Aziraphale mostly went by the feel of the metal rungs in his hands, grateful that he was not the one leading.  He sighed with exasperation when the ladder ended and Crowley started into another crawlspace, sure that they would get lost at this rate.

Light began to filter down through a grate above them.  Crowley flipped over on his back and pushed the grate out with all four limbs.

“Crowley!”

The demon disappeared into the brightness above them.  Aziraphale dragged himself up and out to follow, only to find himself in a hallway that looked identical to the one on their floor.

“Hah,” said Crowley quietly as Aziraphale slid the grate back into place.  “They make the crew live separately from the other passengers at an even lower gravity level.”

“Crowley, we’re going to get caught if we stay here,” Aziraphale whispered.

“S’pose you’re right,” said Crowley.  “I’d hate to see what Maria will throw out the airlock next.  Come on.”

He strolled over and found another panel in the ceiling, which he promptly miracled open.  He did not need a boost this time; a single jump carried him far enough up to get his upper body into the roof.

Aziraphale finally gave into the temptation from seeing Crowley’s posterior in front of him this whole time and slapped his arse before the demon could get it up out of reach.  Crowley suppressed a squeal of surprise and made room for Aziraphale.  The angel likewise leapt and took Crowley’s hand to pull him up.

“You’re getting awfully handsy, aren’t you?” said Crowley as Aziraphale replaced the panel beneath them. Aziraphale looked into his eyes, glowing in the semidarkness, and shrugged innocently.

“Me?  I’m just an angel, my dear.  No impure thoughts here.”

“…I’m sure.”

They crawled forwards again, through the same layout of pipes and tanks and electronics, except feeling lighter this time.  They came to a similar ladder and climbed up again in near darkness.

Crowley stopped.  “What is it?” said Aziraphale.

“I see something.”

“Me too,” said Aziraphale, reaching up and pinching Crowley’s bottom.

“This is harassment,” said Crowley.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.  If you’re not careful I might have to start fighting back.”

“Mm, I’m sure you would.”

“I really do see something, though.”  Crowley twisted and leapt off the ladder, the reduced gravity making him soar through the air off into the distance.  Aziraphale hesitantly followed, not having quite as much faith in his leaping abilities.

When he landed next to Crowley, the demon had already taken his screen out of his pocket, collapsed it into its cylindrical shape, and activated its flashlight function.  He shined it around, the light illuminating dust motes on its way to hulking, looming shapes in the darkness, behemoths of glass and metal and plastic.

Crowley whistled.  “What’s all this?”

“The robotics, I’d imagine,” said Aziraphale.  “The colony is mostly going to be built with machines.”

Crowley started walking among the machines.  The stillness of the air combined with the way the robots looked like animals crouching to pounce made a spooky atmosphere.  He looked up at the tallest one, a drill, the tip soaring off so high his light dissipated into darkness before it could reach the top.

“Humans sure are amazing,” he said.

Crowley saw the hand coming before it could grope him, and he kept one hand on his flashlight and clamped the other on Aziraphale’s arm before it made contact.

“You think you’re naughty, huh?”

“Maybe a little,” said the angel, feeling silly.

Crowley smiled, leaning in towards him, brushing his nose against the angel’s cheek, as though for a kiss…

The sound of his hand smacking Aziraphale’s arse, and the subsequent yelp of surprise, resonated loudly in the empty space.

“Come on,” said Crowley.

They left the mechanical menagerie behind and found a door. It was extremely thick and sturdy and locked, but it was summarily unlocked especially for them.  They found yet another ladder and climbed up in near darkness.

A faint light began to appear in their vision as they neared the top. Crowley reached the end of the rungs and disappeared up over the lip of some faintly-lit ridge.

“Crowley?” said Aziraphale. He pulled himself up to follow.

Crowley was there, waiting with his face exactly where he knew Aziraphale’s would appear, planting a kiss on him. Aziraphale nearly fell off the ladder in surprise, but managed to hold on.

Crowley broke the kiss and pulled away, smiling.  “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.”

The demon turned and sat cross-legged on the floor; Aziraphale slid up next to him and followed his gaze.

A huge open space soared in front of them, a hollow cylinder filled with bundles of very thick cables, and Aziraphale realized they must be looking at the inside of one of the spokes radiating from the center of the wheel of the ship.  A blue glow radiated from the top, shifting about vaguely like a lava lamp.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” said Crowley.

Aziraphale reached one arm out and leaned Crowley onto his shoulder.  “I think so.”

Aziraphale’s hand rubbed his back, then sunk lower.

“Hey!” Crowley laughed. “You—!”

“Me what?”

“You!”  Crowley pushed him away, walking over to the chasm.

“Crowley, why don’t we go back to our room?  We could…hm?”

Crowley was examining the cords stretching off into infinity in either direction; they were moving so fast and so quietly that the movement was almost imperceptible.

“Crowley, don’t.”

“We must be down to less than half a G, don’t you think, angel?  This feels about the same as it was on Mars.  We must be getting closer to the center of the ship.”

“Crowley, whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t—”

But it was too late; Crowley had already given one amplified leap off the precipice.  He caught onto the cords, and with a flash his body disappeared out of sight almost immediately.

“Crowley!”  Aziraphale rushed over the edge and looked down, then up. He could see Crowley zooming upwards at an alarming speed.  “Ooh, that insufferable demon.”  The angel looked at the cords, trying to decide how he could go about it without hurting his hands, then deciding he’d have to live with it and heal himself afterwards.  He threw himself off and grabbed a cord.

He had to cheat a little to let himself hold on; the wall panels were a blur of motion in his peripheral vision. The blue light was growing closer and more intense, casting strange, angular shadows.  The air grew colder.

The place where the cord met some junction of machinery was coming up, and Aziraphale threw himself off, heedless of direction, to avoid smashing into it.  Disoriented, he found that his body did not go back down as predicted, but instead continued in a straight line, spinning over and over.  “Ah!”

A hand caught his foot and wrenched him, changing his course sharply.  He found himself in Crowley’s arms, who was also likewise floating in midair. His cheeks were flushed red with cold, and his laughing made billows in the air.  “You know, for someone who’s actually flown under his own power before, you’re not very graceful in the air.”

Crowley must have cheated to dispel some of their momentum; they slowed and stabilized in the air. Aziraphale looked up at the source of the blue light; a great metal box hung suspended above them, and whatever was inside was throwing out unstable light through the slats in the box.

“Is that the engine?” Aziraphale gasped.  “Crowley, we shouldn’t be so close to it.”

“Don’t worry, angel, they’ve got in a cage, see?  It can’t get to us.”

Aziraphale gave him an unamused look.

“Seriously, though, there’s a barrier between us and it.  A clear one, I mean.  It’s rock solid.  I felt it when I smashed into it.  Nothing getting into that thing.”

The two just floated there in each other’s arms.  The blue light lit Crowley’s face and highlighted his cheekbones, his animalistic eyes flashing in the electric illumination.  The demon leaned in and kissed Aziraphale, hands caressing the angel’s face.

“I’m so glad we’re here together,” said Crowley.

“Likewise,” said Aziraphale, encircling Crowley’s waist with his arms.

The stillness was underscored by the low resonance of the static of the powerful machine in the room, the two supernatural beings drifting in the air, free of prying eyes, Heaven and Hell and Earth, free of even gravity, lost in each other in the darkness and quiet only broken by the electronic light and hum, their only company the pulsing, writhing luminescence.

Crowley lowered himself down, keeping his arms around Aziraphale’s thighs, and undid the angel’s zipper with a thought.

Aziraphale gave an unhinged moan and tangled his fingers in Crowley’s hair.  “Oooh…  You weren’t lying about….not being able to wait, were you?”

Crowley made the small, wheedling sounds that he always did during this activity, devouring with fervor, his hands raking down Aziraphale.  The angel’s legs wrapped around him.

Floodlights suddenly illuminated them from below, and Crowley broke off, his pupils contracting in the sudden light.

A woman in a blue vest with salt-and-pepper hair scowled at them from the floor, floating with one hand on a handle by the door.  Aziraphale hastily re-did his pants.

“Come down from there!” said the newcomer, with an angry gesture at the door behind her.

“Er…”  Aziraphale looked around, Crowley still locked between his legs, and realized there weren’t any handholds nearby.  “We’re sort of stuck!”

The woman gave a disgusted sigh and threw out a rope with a weight attached on the end, which soared in a straight line right at them.  The small sphere hit Crowley in the back of the head, which seemed to have been the intended target.  The two of them used it to shimmy down, growing redder and more shamefaced as they got nearer to the woman.

Aziraphale steadied himself on the handhold on the opposite side of the door, and Crowley steadied himself on Aziraphale.  The woman was flushed with anger and struggled to find words as they waited for whatever was surely coming.

“You know,” she finally said. “At first I thought you two were saboteurs of some kind and then I come down and find this?”

“Er…” said Aziraphale.  “Sorry.”

“You would have been sorry if you two dumbasses had messed something up and killed us all.  These areas are off-limit for a reason.  What do you have to say for yourselves?”

“Er…please don’t tell the higher-ups?” Crowley tried.

The woman snorted.  “Hard to get higher than the captain, mate.”

“You’re the captain?”

“Who did you expect?  Captain Kirk?”

“Ah.”

“Luckily for the two of you, we’ve already left earth’s orbit and there’s no way to disembark now.  You’re stuck onboard, or I’d have you sent back. I ought to throw both of you out the airlock.”

“We’ve left Earth?  But I thought we were waiting for our last passenger.”

“Who just got on this morning. We set off the second she was on board.” The captain scrutinized them. “How exactly did the two of you make it this far?  There were several layers of locked doors between here and the third circle.”

“Ah.”  They both fidgeted.  “We ah…one of the staff left their key lying around.”

She extended her hand. “Give it to me.”

They looked around the room, anywhere but her eyes.

“Give it to me.”

Aziraphale reached into his pocket and pulled out a card that had not previously been there.  He sincerely hoped it was what the staff keycards looked like, because he couldn’t remember exactly.

Fortunately the captain put the card in her pocket without much scrutiny.  “All right.  Now let’s go. You’re going back to your suite. And you’re going to stay there.  Right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they both muttered.

“Good.”  She went hand-over-hand into the door behind her, where a rung of handholds on the wall ran off into the distance.  She used them to propel herself down the hallway, easily rocketing through the shaft with just her arms.  The angel and demon followed, shamed into silence.

They followed the hallway until they reached an elevator, which dinged open at their approach.  An empty wheelchair hovered in the enclosed space, and the captain, still huffing with indignation, strapped her legs into it.  She pounded the controls as soon as Aziraphale and Crowley were inside and the door slid shut.

“Honestly,” she said.  “Honestly. You’re both adults.  I would have expected this from horny teenagers, not scientists and engineers.”

They both shuffled their feet, which did not have quite the same effect when they were not on the floor.

Gravity began to pull harder on them as the cart moved further and further down.  “Did you not think we would see you?  We have cameras everywhere.”

Crowley rubbed the back of his head.  “Eheh…It was my idea…Sorry about that…”

The wheelchair finally touched the floor with a clatter.  The captain glared at him and knocked on the control panel.  The doors opened, revealing the walkway to the third circle. She jerked her head, and they scuttled out of the elevator.

She accompanied them all the way to their room, still muttering.

“Well, it was nice meeting you!” said Aziraphale, swiping to open their door.

“Don’t,” said the captain, wheeling herself away.

The mechanical whirr of the wheels on her chair faded into the distance.  They both exhaled, came into the room, shut the door, and burst into embarrassed laughter. They collapsed onto the bed together.

“Oh, somebody,” said Crowley. “I thought we were goners.”

“I told you something was going to happen,” said Aziraphale, tweaking the demon’s nose.  

Crowley crawled over and buried his face in Aziraphale’s stomach, still laughing.  “I didn’t think it would be that, thought.”

“Yes….But what she told us.”

Crowley looked up.  “The other demon.  She’s onboard.”

Aziraphale looked troubled. “Yes, I suppose she is.”

Crowley rolled over.  “Okay, cool.  Just the two of us, another demon, and a metal donut full of humans hurdling off into deep space.  When I met Adam in the Garden, somehow I never pictured this being a likely scenario for the future.”

“The universe certainly is full of surprises.”

“Attention on all decks. This is your captain speaking.  I am pleased to announce that as of this morning, the Aphelion is fully boarded, staffed, and ready for its interstellar journey.  We will be following the trajectory of the New Frontiers space probe to reach Kepler-442 in approximately 523 years from today.  The ship has already left Earth’s orbit and is currently passing Mars and building speed. When the time comes, please follow all directions your VA gives you regarding entering cryosleep.  And this is an additional reminder that all decks above the third circle are strictly off-limits to all passengers except those authorized by the Aphelion crew to work in lower than 0.9G.  I would like to reiterate that the upper decks contain sensitive equipment that may be damaged if not handled properly and are off-limits.  Thank you, and welcome aboard, space explorers.”  

Aziraphale and Crowley adopted a routine of sorts.  Crowley eventually gave in and went to the greenhouse, coming back with another spider plant in a pot, upon which he scrawled “Nick Jr.” with a black marker. Watering and talking to Nick Jr. was the first item of business of the day, followed by breakfast, brooding, lunch, and more brooding.  Dinner was served at 6:30pm, and usually they had enough time left for one last brooding session before bed.

Crowley sat with his arms crossed, staring angrily at his screen, as though if he let it know he was angry enough with it, it would give him answers.

“There’s thousands of people on this ship.  There’s no way we can count on running into her on accident.”

“Mm-hmm,” said Aziraphale, sitting on the bed reading a selection from his library of books, and who had not done his fair share of the brooding that day.

Crowley pulled his screen out so that it was fully extended and tapped on it rapidly.  “I’ve tried every angle of attack I can think of to hack into the database where everyone’s personal information is stored.  But I was never very good at hacking.”

He sounded very sad about it.  Perhaps he was thinking of the forty-second James Bond movie, which had taken place entirely inside a computer frame and had also not been scientifically accurate. Trying to miracle the database earlier had not worked and had produced some strange results.  

“Yes, dear,” said Aziraphale.

“Aziraphale, this is serious! We might be in real danger if we can’t locate this other demon before we go under.”

“Of course,” said Aziraphale, not looking up.

“You’re not even listening!” Crowley huffed.  “You’re useless, as always.”

“Whatever you say, dear.”

The day for cryosleep drew nearer and nearer.  One day the captain came over the intercom and announced that they had reached light speed.

“That was when we were going to sleep, wasn’t it?” said Crowley frantically.  “When we reached light speed?  It’s going to be any day now.”

“Crowley, she hasn’t shown any signs of aggression at all,” said Aziraphale.  “Maybe we needn’t worry about her.  Maybe she doesn’t even know we’re on board.”

Crowley did not seem convinced and remained glued to his screen even up to the very hour when they heard the first circle had started the process to enter cryosleep.

“Oh,” he said.

Aziraphale had been staring into the cryopods, which had been revealed when a panel in the floor had slid back and were currently filling with a blue liquid of some sort, but now he looked up.  “What is it?”

“They’ve...This is different now. They must have shuffled things in the system around in preparation for cryosleep.  I can access the personnel files now.”

“What!” said Aziraphale, coming over to lean over his shoulder.  “Really?  You are good at hacking after all!”

Crowley tapped his screen rapidly. “And….there’s the boarding log…if I can access it…  Yes! Now let’s see who was the last person to board.”

“She’s in the first circle,” said Aziraphale, pointing.  “Room 467.”

“Let’s go,” said Crowley, folding his screen up.

They both cautiously peeked their heads out the door.  A woman in a blue vest was hovering near the door and came over as soon as she saw them.

Crowley groaned.  “Hello, Maria.”

“Hello, boys,” she said. “Did you need something?  We’re still on schedule for going into cryosleep, so you should stay in your room unless it’s something urgent.”

“Okay, you know what, Maria?” He snapped his fingers.  Her face went blank, eyes unfocused.

“Crowley,” whispered Aziraphale harshly.

Crowley brushed by her, storming down the hallway.  “I’m a demon, Aziraphale, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let some human push me around.  The hypnosis will wear off in a minute and she’ll forget she ever saw us leave.”

Aziraphale stared awkwardly at Maria for a moment, then patted her shoulder and said, “Ah, you’re doing a very good job,” before hurrying to follow Crowley.

They found the staircase and passed the second layer, then continued down to the first.  

A sign on the door said NO ENTRY. But the door opened with some gentle persuasion.

Another cheerful helper in a blue vest descended upon them as soon as they came in.  “This section has already completed the transition to cryosleep, gentlemen, and we’re in the process of locking it down, so if you could just—”

He was taken care of with another snap of the fingers.  “Um, you’re doing a good job, too,” Aziraphale said as he passed him.

“Room 467,” he said.  “Here it is.”

They took up positions on opposite sides of the door.  “Are you ready, angel?”

He wished he still had his flaming sword, but it was far too late to think about that now.  “I’m ready.”

With a thought, the door lock disengaged, and Crowley kicked the door open dramatically.

The room was empty and quiet, except for the steady beeping of a pulse.

They drew into the room cautiously, then looked down into the cryopod half-sticking up out of the ground. There was somebody inside it, fully submerged, eyes closed.  Her canine teeth were just a little too long and stuck out even with her mouth closed.

“Oh,” said Crowley.

“Oh,” said Aziraphale.

“I…I guess we needn’t have worried after all.”

“There’s no way she can…I don’t know…wake herself up halfway through, can she?”

Crowley palmed the glass of the chamber.  “I…I don’t know.  I mean, I guess not.  I wouldn’t know how to do that.”

“Oh.”

Beep.  Beep. Beep.

“We could…”  Aziraphale grimaced.

“What?”

“We…well, it’s just going to be the two of us and her for the rest of eternity on Kepler-442b…if we felt inclined, we have the opportunity to make the rest of our lives a lot easier right now.”

“We…You’re suggesting we should…”

“I wouldn’t know how to move the cryopod, but we could figure it out.  We could do what Maria did to Nick.”

The suggestion hung in the air. Crowley’s face pinched.  “I mean…she might be decent.”

“I suppose?”

“Doesn’t seem very sporting.”

“Demons usually aren’t sporting.”

“So you’re a demon now?”

“You know what I meant.”

Crowley tapped the glass. “I…”

They both stared at her.

Beep.  Beep. Beep.

“Come on, angel,” said Crowley, withdrawing.  “We both know we’re not going to do it.  Let’s get back up to our own room.  I’m about ready for that 500-year nap right about now.”

Aziraphale took his hand as they exited.  “Likewise.”