#i was telling my friend about the nonbinary heart and cookie scenes

[butchnavi]

I miss one day at a time:(

[gay-otlc]

Keeper (1) Recap

Everything I say is 100% true, if you were wondering.

Sophie's trich is so bad I'm so sorry honey

The driver from the beginning deserves a spinoff series. He also apparently has a tumblr account that he posted about this on, and that's how the Neverseen found Sophie in the human world.

Fintan lent Alvar his boyfriend's books (LOTR) and Fitz read them too.

There's a tribunal taking place at the beginning of book one. It's never mentioned again. Whose is it? Good question. Maybe Linh's?

All elves are canonically nonbinary. Elf is a gender in itself.

Sophie isn't a girl, she's an elf. Elwin isn't a man, he's an elf. Those two in particular are extra non of binary.

Sophie's place in her human family is totally a metaphor for being queer I don't make the rules. Could also be a neurodivergent metaphor- or both!

Sophie's favorite kind of cookie is E L fudges, her mom gives her some at the beginning.

The lost cities has so many gender roles, which is bad for Sophie who, as mentioned previously, is nonbinary.

Sophie is not a lady.

Alden IS a lady.

Alden is *winks* friends with Quinlin.

Seriously, he refers to Quinlin as his "friend" a LOT, who is he trying to convince? That's kinda gay ngl.

It's honestly so iconic of Tiergan to yell at Alden for two pages and then decide he doesn't want to interact with anyone ever. What a mood.

Sophie is really, really gay for Biana.

Sophie saying goodbye to her human family is so fucking sad no one talk to me

Biana is really, really gay for Sophie but denying it vehemently

Dex and Sophie friendship supremacy

Marella has a pretty homoerotic crush on Biana

The Deck scene -> Dex calling Fitz "his royal highness" -> rwrb au

As she should be, Marella is a Tiertice shipper.

The dadwin dynamic has been going on since pre-keeper and I love this so much.

Biana is avoiding Sophie because she’s terrified of catching feelings for a girl, in this essay I will-

Keefe and Fitz are dating.

Like, they are very much dating.

Biana gets so nervous asking Sophie to be friends, she's a gay mess and it's so cute.

Marella "giggles and stares" when the Vackers eat lunch with her, but Shannon never actually specifies which Vacker.

Clearly it's Biana.

It's so homophobic that Tiergan has to talk to Alden, honestly.

He enjoys spilling the Alden/Alina tea a little too much. We stan.

Shannon just decided to through in a little Marella/pyrokinesis irony.

Tiergan has to talk to Alden three whole times this book, and is therefore entitled to financial compensation. Or punching him. Either works.

Very cool of him to "forget" to return his leaping crystal to the forbidden cities.

Either Tiergan is terrible at keeping secrets or just Does Not Care if Sophie knows he's with the Black Swan. Or both.

TIERTICE ANGST

Biana is a lesbian.

Sophie tells Grady and Edaline she loves them and it's the sweetest fucking thing.

Fitz says "no reason to worry" and then has an internal crisis about turning into his father. Mood lmao

The scene where Sophie and Grady/Edaline talk about the cancelled adoption is so good, it has so much raw emotion and it completely shattered my heart. 10/10 I hate it.

Sophie's trich is so bad I'm so sorry honey, part two, electric boogaloo

Fintan has stayed close friends with most of the councillors, in conclusion, Fintante.

The scene where Stina tells Sophie why Biana initially became friends with her… just… oh shit

KOTLC is really not a kids book, just... why.

Because I'm not done screaming about Sophie & Grady & Edaline, the scene where Sophie unfades? And they talk to each other? Very sweet I love it.

Sophie broke so many laws... I'm a little gay for her ngl

(Biana is too)

SOPHIE & GRADY & EDALINE FAMILY (violent sobbing)

[boopypastaissalty]

We Are Not Broken

The Session

Dr. Flemmings cleared his throat. “Now that all of you are here, let’s begin. The first thing I want you all to do is tell everyone what happened to you. It’s okay that you are here and you all have had similar experiences. This is a LGBTQ+ safe zone, so don’t be afraid. Who wants to start?”

Everyone looked at each other, none wanting to go first. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Logan took a deep breath, “I was kidnapped and tortured because of my gender and sexuality, along with Roman and Remus,” the twins both flinched at the statement, remembering all too well what had happened and what they had all been through together, “I have scars all over my body from the various weapons and beatings. It was hell, we were all malnourished and suffering, and I remember having to watch our kidnappers beat the everloving, pardon my language, f*ck out of Roman and Remus, I don’t remember the times I was beaten all too well, but it was all because some people thought not being cishet was a crime, found the twins and then found me.”

Dr. Flemmings nodded, “Use whatever language you need to, Logan”

“Does Spanish count?” Roman piped up, both twins were multilingual, both parents being native spanish speakers, their father from Spain and their mother from Mexico, in high school Roman took French and Remus took German and begrudgingly, at their parents request, taught each other and had become proficient in both languages. Sometimes the twins talked to each other in a strange mix of English, Spanish, French, and German, something they called Enspanchan.

“Preferably a language we all can understand, Roman”

Roman slumped a little, “Ay, lo siento” he said under his breath.

“Logan, do you have anything else to say?” Dr. Flemmings asked.

Logan shook his head and fidgeted with his hands, he had never been good at processing strong emotions, he usually distracted himself by researching and educating himself on random topics, incorporating them into his Sign Language lectures at the school he worked at.

“Uh well, I guess it’s my turn,” Patton said, interrupting Logan’s train of thought, “I was taking a walk, and some guy noticed the strap to my binder and commented on it. I didn’t think much of it, I ignored him and kept walking, but then he grabbed me and started calling me… horrible things and he dragged me into the nearby woods and…” Patton took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, “He took off all my clothes and destroyed my binder. He told me I’d be beautiful if I didn’t try so hard to be a man. He called me an ‘exotic beauty’ and kept asking me what kind of asian I am. And then he started touching me and…” Patton started full fledged crying, not wanting to say it. He got quieter and almost whispered, “He r*ped me… And now I’m pregnant.”

Everyone was silent for a few long seconds, Virgil finally broke the silence “That’s… horrible. What are you going to do with the baby? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Patton took another deep breath and said “I’m probably going to put them up for adoption. Someone out there probably really wants a baby and can’t have one themselves. I’m not saying everyone should do that, though, I mean everyone’s different.”

Dr. Flemmings took note of how much Patton was crying, “You feel broken, don’t you?”

“I feel broken, violated, I wish time would just stop for at least a little while. I wish I could turn back the clock to last month and tell myself to not go on a walk that day, but I know I can’t. I feel like I’m not trans enough, like maybe I’m not actually a man.”

Virgil looked at Patton, “Bullsh*t. You’re trans enough. You are just as manly as you need to be. You’re f*cking valid.” He clapped for emphasis. This was unusual behavior for him, as he didn’t like to have attention drawn to himself, but he hated it when other trans people didn’t feel valid, mainly because he knew how it felt.

“Well, kiddo, I don’t know about all that, just look at me”

“You. Are. A. Man. And. That’s. What. Matters.”

“Fine, you win”

During this exchange, Janus had been writing out their story and held up their hand in a sort of “Stop dooting your horns, you middle school band class” gesture. Everyone looked at them, they just seemed to have that presence, the type that made people shut up and pay attention without really trying. Janus passed around the notepad, which said: After a concert, a lady came up to me, nothing new there, and was haggling me about being nonbinary and how I’m just a “broken man” and then all of a sudden, I don’t really remember this well, I felt something swipe across my throat and there was a strange warm liquid coming from my neck and then it started to hurt. The next thing I knew, there was yelling and I was on the ground with my friend Ethan, he’s the drummer, Hel, pressing down on my neck. Lola, our bassit, Truth, was calling 911. I think I passed out, and when I woke up in the hospital, I was very confused. I was on so many painkillers that I was basically high out of my mind and the most important thing to me at that moment, for some reason, was chocolate chip cookies. I specifically remember being distraught that no one would bring me cookies because I couldn’t communicate that I wanted some. Anyways, that’s not important. This person probably ended my career, the one thing I actually wanted to do with my life, and I don’t know what to do about it. I might never be able to talk, let alone perform, ever again. Also some dumb*ss took a video of it and put it on YouTube and so the whole world knew before I had even arrived at the hospital.

Once everyone had read what was on the notepad, they all stared at Janus. They looked down at their legs. After a moment, Patton got up and walked over to Janus and touched their shoulder. “What else do you like to do?” he asked.

Janus shrugged.

Virgil suddenly blurted out, remembering the chaos after that concert a few weeks ago, “Wait someone put that on YouTube? How has that not been taken down?”

Janus shrugged, not knowing why either, and pulled out their phone. They found the video and played it, looking away. Patton and Virgil looked away from the video, while Logan and the twins watched, all three feeling bad that they couldn’t seem to pull away from the chaos happening on screen, like some sort of morbid scene in a TV show.

When the video finished, Logan, Roman, and Remus were in stunned silence while Janus fumbled to keep the next video from playing, the “What’s in your pants?” meme, which was when one time Janus and the rest of Duality were on a talk show, all in costume, and the host asked Janus the dreaded question, “What’s in your pants?” and Janus had immediately responded by pulling things out of their pockets and listing them, the items getting more obscure as they went “Phone, wallet, keys, worm-on-a-string, tiny rainbow plastic babies, a dead mouse, Quetzalcoatl? [Quetzalcoatl is Janus’s pet hognose snake], and a barbie head.” the clip had spread like wildfire and had become a large part of what Janus’s stage persona, Deceit, had been known for. Everyone in the band had their own costume, usually involving half of the face being different from the other, Janus’s Deceit costume had a Jack the Ripper vibe and they had makeup to look like scales on the left side of their face. Ethan’s Hel was an all black suit and the left half of his body was made to look like dead, rotting flesh. Lola’s Truth had a black and white lace dress and her makeup was meant to make her look inhuman and had several extra eyes on the right side of her face. The final member, Tori’s Valhalla looked like a norse warrior, the right side of their face looked scarred and they wore an eyepatch over their right eye, like Odin.

“That kind of reminds me of what happened to me,” Virgil said with a shudder once the video was over. “I was hanging out with my friend, May, after your,” Virgil pointed at Janus, “concert and ended up crashing at her place. I tend to sleep pretty heavily, so I was surprised when I woke up on the autopsy table for the mortuary science program at the college I used to go to. I had barely woken up before I felt something that felt like a punch in my abdomen. I saw May, she had a knife and looked angry, she stabbed me four more times, repeatedly calling me a dirty tr*nny. I don’t think she realized I was awake. Thing is, she was the one who supported me the most during my transition and always had my back when I had first come out. That’s what hurt the most. She had apparently secretly hated me all these years and just now was releasing all that. I didn’t dare move until she had left and I started to crawl towards the desk phone at the professor's desk. I was almost there when I passed out. I woke up again to the professor shaking me, he’d always liked me and was concerned about me. He told me he had called 911 and shortly after I was hauled into an ambulance and carted away to the hospital, swimming in and out of consciousness. I think May was planning on killing me and having me be found dead on the autopsy table as a morbid surprise for the mortuary science teacher and his first period class of that day.” He was trying to control his breathing and he felt his heart rate speeding up. Virgil hoped that no one would notice and call him out on it.

Janus started writing and then showed Virgil: Was May at the concert too?

“Yeah why?” Breath, dammit, breath. Virgil chided himself

Janus scrunched their eyebrows and started writing again: What does she look like?

“Do you think-” Virgil cut himself off, took in a deep breath, and found a picture of May on his phone. She had a black bob with straight bangs and wore dark makeup.

Janus looked at the picture, That’s her, they wrote. One thing I didn’t mention before was that she had gotten away.

Suddenly Remus started talking “I’d stim and they’d hurt me.” Roman looked at his brother, remembering how Remus would make weird sounds, start shaking his leg, or drumming his fingers on whatever surface he could get to, and after a while their kidnappers had realized that Remus’s fidgeting and sounds were him stimming, one of his ways to try and calm himself down, started beating him more when he did. “And it started happening more and more because I was more stressed and then I had to force myself to not and I had so much pent up, that everything was a million times louder, even the smallest touches were too much, and my head felt so light and it was like I was feeling everything and nothing all at once, like I was both on fire and numb and I don’t know how to describe it.” Even now, Remus was trying to keep himself from stimming, he had his hands firmly grasped together and his legs were crossed unnaturally tight and he was visibly getting upset.

This was the first time Roman had even heard Remus talk about it. He hadn’t realized how much Remus had suffered and how different it was from how Logan and Roman had suffered. No wonder he was so despondent. He was overloaded in every way. Roman noticed how tight Remus was wound up and pulled something out of his pocket, a long, green silicone fidget toy that had small bumps on it for texture. “Hey,” Roman addressed his brother and handed him the fidget toy, “breath.” Remus took it and fidgeted, reminding himself that it was safe to stim now. “You never said how bad it was for you.” Roman said quietly.

Remus nodded, “I didn’t know how to say it.” He had nothing else to say.

Roman looked around after a long moment of silence. “I felt powerless. I’m almost always able to help, but I couldn't do anything. It was so awful only being able to watch, almost worse than getting beat regularly.” Roman fell silent again, not knowing what else to say.

“You feel like you have to be the hero, don’t you? You feel obligated to do it?” Dr. Flemmings asked. Roman thought for a moment and then nodded. “Since we’re coming to a close, I want to tell you all that you all did a good job today. Here’s what I want you all to do: Patton, read Galileo by Pual Tran, I think you’d benefit from it. Janus, I want you to write, I don’t care what you write, whether it be a song, a poem, a backtrack, whatever, as long as you express yourself with it. Virgil, I want you to use methods to regulate your breathing like the 4, 7, 8 technique and I want you to try carrying around a stress ball, same goes for you, Remus. Logan, I want you to express yourself more and come up with a way for you to get your feelings out in a safe manner. Roman, I want you to think about why you feel obligated to be the hero. And lastly I think you all can benefit from each other, as you have all had similar experiences. Thank you all for attending.”

Everyone started saying their goodbyes and started leaving. Janus met up with an older guy in the lobby who nudged them and said “Happy birthday, kid.” The older guy looked a little sad, like he was remembering something tragic. Everyone heard him wish Janus a happy birthday and started wishing them a happy birthday as well.

Patton looked at the guy and said “Is this your dad, Janus?”

Janus shook their head no and at the same time the guy said “I’m their brother. John, by the way.”

“You guys are siblings? Wow! I never would have guessed!”

Janus looked slightly embarrassed, everyone always confused John for their dad, which wasn’t too far off as John and his wife had raised them. “Yeah the twenty-one year age gap doesn’t help,” John said, lowering his gaze somewhat, just wanting Patton to change the subject.

Janus broke off from John for a moment, wrote something down and handed it to Patton. It said: He’s a little sensitive about family history. Mom died while having me and we don’t know who my dad is, so he had to raise me. That’s why he looks a little sad today.

Patton’s mouth formed a silent ���O” as he slipped the paper into his pocket and waved goodbye “Have a nice day!”

John looked at his sibling, “What did that say?”

I said you were having a bad day.

“Oh, okay” he believed the white lie.

Logan was on the phone “I know dad, you’ve told me the story every year for as long as I can remember. I’m about to get in the car, so I’ll call you back”

John looked at Logan and whispered to Janus “What are their pronouns?”

He/him Janus wrote

“He looks and sounds a lot like the doctor who delivered you.”

Janus shrugged and started walking towards their car, a black Jeep, and got in, deciding to go to the cafe that John worked at, knowing that John had to go to work, and besides, they were hungry.

Masterpost

[rivertellsstories]

The case of the demon’s den #3

If you can’t find part 1and 2, feel free to shoot me a message!

Words: 2432

Editing: nope

Ships: JOJOBUTTONS CHAPTER WHOO, eventual Javid, eventual Spromeo, eventual Newsbians, Blush

Things you should know: Buttons, Smalls and Sniper are girls, JoJo is nonbinary, Race, Romeo, Jack and Smalls are adopted siblings. There are horror elements in this fic.

Chapter 3: The only logical thing to do in a haunted house, is to watch Barbie movies.

By Sunday noon, the demon’s den living room had traces of every newsie all over it and they decide to throw a modest housewarming party. Henry and Buttons have taken over the kitchen and are baking cookies, Finch and Sniper are outside, trying to teach Smalls how to use a slingshot. It’s not going well, but at least they aren’t inside with those slingshots. A bunch of people are lazing around on the couch and on chairs. The unfortunate ones have to sit on the floor. Race and Albert are trying to make the DVD-player work and it seems like they’re succeeding. Romeo and Specs are having a heated discussion over which Barbie movie they should watch.

  “Princess and the Pauper!” Romeo yells and hits Specs with a pillow he found somewhere. “Three Musketeers!” Specs shrieks back and wrestles with Romeo. Jack silently inserts Barbie & the Diamond Castle before either of them notices it and when the movie starts to play, they break up their fight to glare at the tv. “Who is the fool that wants to die?” Romeo growls and Specs glares too. Wisely, Jack stays silent and sits down in front of the couch. Grumbling, Specs and Romeo sit down too and angrily snack on the potato chips that Mush brought along.

Speaking of Mush, Jack is fairly sure that he and Blink are making out somewhere. Ah well, who cares.

  Halfway the movie, the two of them return and Blink drapes himself across all the people who are sitting on the couch and steals a cookie from Elmer. “This is cosy.” The sentence is barely understandable through the cookie in his mouth and Mush gives him a disgusted look. “Really Blink? I’ve got to kiss that mouth.” With his mouth still full of cookies, Blink grins. “You’ve got to do exactly nothing.” “Okay then”, Mush says and leaves for the kitchen. Promptly, Blink clambers from the mountain of people he had placed himself on and trails after Mush. “Babe, come back!”

  “Whipped”, Specs whispers as soon as Blink is out of earshot and Tommy Boy snorts. “Like you are any better.” Specs turns to him with a confused look on his face. “What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t have a boyfriend. I wish I had a boyfriend. I’m lonely.” Romeo reaches up to pat his head. “Same bro.” Their friends watch the scene, but decide not to comment on it. Eventually they’ll figure it out. Maybe. Who knows. Probably not.

  “You know what this evening-“ “It’s afternoon” “Shut up Jack. Do you know what this evening needs?” Buttons asks, when she gently pushes JoJo out of their chair and claims it for herself. “Candles!” JoJo, who’s now on the floor, gives her a smile. “I can get you those, wait here for a minute.” After JoJo left the room, Tommy Boy smirks. “Whipped nr.2”, he announces and Buttons kicks him for it. “Shut up, dickwad.”

  Within record time, JoJo is back with some candles. “The first time we went here, I discovered these”, they inform Buttons. “Now get off my chair and enjoy your candles.” Childishly she refuses to return their chair. “Nope it’s mine now. Nothing you can do about it.” They give her a flat look before picking her up and lifting her high above their head. “You weight literally nothing”, they remark before sitting down on the chair and placing Buttons on their lap. “There we go, place for two.”  

  Nothing out of place happens, and in the late afternoon, before the sun begins to set, they say goodbye to each other and plan to meet up here the next Saturday with the whole group. Some people want to come back earlier in the week and Jack advises them to go in groups. “In case you fall down the stairs”, he adds as a joke, but it falls flat as all of them pointedly stare at his right leg, where is his pants are hiding a massive bruise. Then their gazes travel up to his forehead, where a faint line indicates the place where he headbutted a step. “Just be careful y’all.”

  Later that night, when JoJo is staring at their ceiling, trying to fall asleep, they suddenly come to a conclusion. They recall grabbing the candles, and dropping them again because they had been hot. They are fairly certain that none of the newsies had gone upstairs, which means that someone else must’ve lit those candles. The sound of their phone alerts them of a new message in their group chat. ‘Anybody want to go to the DD (demon’s den) w/me after school tomorrow? I need to fill up our snack cabinets.’

  Immediately they want to tell Buttons not to go, but then they remember that Blink and Mush had been gone for a suspiciously long time during the movie. Also, aren’t candles supposed to be a mood setter or something? Relieved that they simply have a very active imagination, they shoot a message back. ‘Sure, count me in.’

-

“I’m going to fucking kill Denton” rages Buttons as she enters the ‘DD’. “Who deducts points for grammar mistakes?” “Well, he is our English teacher”, JoJo points out and they get a glare in return. They raise their hands in surrender. “Don’t mind me stating the facts.” Grumbling, she admits that they are sort of right. “I’m craving some cookies and this house has a working oven. Want to help?” Despite never having baked cookies before, JoJo quickly agrees.

  “Jorgelino Josephino De La Guerra” The use of their full name shouldn’t get to them like this, but JoJo’s heart skips a beat and their breathing stutters for a minute. “Yeah?” they answer when they’re sure that their voice isn’t going to sound like that of a six year old. “What in God’s name are you doing?” Buttons’ voice is filled with amusement and JoJo sticks out their tongue. “I’m making cookies, Yasmin Davenport”, he retorts and she tries to keep herself from cracking up. “I see”, she says and eyes their clothes, which were black half an hour ago. Now they are streaked with flour.

  They even managed to get some of the stuff in their hair. “Bow down, skyscraper. There’s flour in your hair.” They bow down and as Buttons reaches for their hair, JoJo places their arms around her legs and hauls her up. “There we go”, they giggle as they set a shrieking Buttons on the kitchen counter. “That’s better for my back.” “What are you? An eighty year old?” “Slowly getting there.”

  Sitting on the kitchen counter, Buttons is finally taller than JoJo and as she looks down at their messy hair and lazy grin and feels the warmth of their hands on her thighs, she leans down. JoJo meets her halfway and for a few seconds it’s merely their lips touching. Then JoJo growls and pulls her close, while she tangles her hands into their hair and gives an experimental tug. That, combined with her softly tugging on their bottom lip, draws an obscene sound from their lips and Buttons groans in return.

  “Fuck JoJo”, she breathes and kisses their neck. “I’ve been wanting this since sixth grade”, she pants. “Remember when someone pulled the arm of my favourite teddy bear off and you tried to stitch it back? Your stitching was awful, but damn if it wasn’t sweet.” She presses another bruising kiss onto their neck and JoJo keens. When their eyes cross, JoJo brings out: “Me since eighth.” They gently rub circles into Buttons’ thighs and she sighs with pleasure. “That fucking teacher wouldn’t stop misgendering me no matter how much I asked him to stop and you plainly started screeching whenever he opened his mouth. That’s when I first thought: yup, she’s the one.”

  While they are busy staring at each other, they hear the sound of a door opening. Quickly they spring apart and Buttons calls out: “Hey! Who’s there?” When she gets no answer, she and JoJo trade glances. “Wanna go look?” she asks and they nod. “Wait, let me take this along.” Out of their backpack they grab a 12 inch cross. “JoJo, I’m 90% sure that ghosts don’t exist.” JoJo grins and mischief sparkles in their eyes as they reveal a blade hidden within the cross. “This one ain’t for ghosts.” With an aghast expression on her face she eyes the cross-dagger in JoJo’s hand. “Why do you have such a thing? Where do you even get something like that? Whatever, just don’t give one to Race. Ever.” Their grin widens. “Bold of you to assume that I haven’t given him one yet.”

  Nothing seems out of the ordinary as they wander around the house and every door they come across is closed. Even the doors upstairs aren’t open. Confused, JoJo enters the attic bedroom and plops down on the bed. As Buttons sits down next to them, the door locks itself. Immediately both of them rush to the door and try to open it in vain. “What the fuck”, Buttons whispers as she peers through the keyhole. “There’s no key in here, but we both heard a key and this fucking door won’t open. There’s nobody in the hallway and we heard no one. What the shit is going on?”

  Before JoJo can answer, a high and feminine scream rings through the house. In a moment of clarity, JoJo pulls out their phone and calls the first person in his contact list. For a moment they fear that nothing’s going to happen, but then they hear that the call is going through and after three rings, Finch picks up. “Sup JoJo.”

  “HeyButtonsandImightbedyingsoonpleasehelpus” They spit the words out at a nearly impossible pace and Finch is silent for a minute. “What? Speak slower buddy.”

“We’re in the demon’s den and we’re locked into the room. There should be nobody here except us, but we just heard someone scream. Please help us.”

  “Shit, I’m coming. Where exactly are you guys?” “We’re in the attic bedr-“ Once again, a scream is heard throughout the house and judging by the sharp intake of his breath, Finch had heard it too. “Fuck, I hope you guys have something to defend yourselves with. I’m on my way.” Finch hangs up and JoJo clutches their dagger-cross tighter.

  The minutes go by slowly and both of them sit on the bed in silence. Their hands are intertwined and JoJo runs their thumb over the back of Buttons’ hand in what they hope is a comforting manner. A smile graces Buttons lips as she gives them a brief kiss on the tip of their nose. “You’re a sweetheart” They want to tell her the same thing and about a million things more, but the words get stuck in their throat and all they can do is blush and press little kisses all over Buttons’ face.

  “Would’ya look at that”, Finch comments as he enters the room, a grin plastered on his stupid face. It’s hard to tell whether JoJo or Buttons is glaring more at him, but he ignores it.

“This one” he raps his knuckles against the door “was open. If you weren’t busy” he waggles his eyebrows at that part and continues “maybe you would’ve noticed. Also, you guys left the tv on and some horror movie was playing. I shut it off.”

  From downstairs, the sound of voices travel up and as Buttons and JoJo tense up, Finch quickly waves away their fears. “That’s just the guys. I called everybody and they all wanted to be involved in the JoButtons rescue mission.” The tension drains out of their shoulders and Buttons grabs JoJo’s hand and speed walks out of the room. For some reason, JoJo looks back and their eyes land on a mirror. They can’t make out a face, or even a person but when they close their eyes, hauntingly blue eyes are imprinted in their mind.

  As JoJo goes down the stairs, they see something move out of the corner of their eye and turn to look at it. Their own image stares back at them from a mirror, but the view is distorted, like in one of those houses of mirrors at the carnival. As they stand still to watch their comically warped reflection, it changes. Its amused smile moulds itself into an unnaturally wide grin and when it opens its mouth, it reveals two rows of teeth on both the upper- and lower side of it’s mouth. The image unravels its long, sharp tongue and licks the second row of teeth in the upper side of its mouth. Completely caught in a mix between horror and morbid fascination, JoJo keeps watching until Finch’s voice breaks them out of their trance.

  “What’cha looking at JoJo?” When Finch looks at the mirror, JoJo’s reflection has turned back to normal. “That’s a pretty funny thing, but if we keep standing on these stairs, the others will worry. Let’s go downstairs.” JoJo complies to Finch’s request, but as they turn their back to the mirror, they feel a gaze following them. It feels awfully wrong and merely thinking about it makes them nauseous. “JoJo”, a mangled voice garbles and judging by their lack of a reaction neither Finch nor Buttons heard it. JoJo pretends they don’t either and they have never felt more relieved than when they set a foot into the living room and get surrounded by a heap of newsies.

  The first person who comes into view is Romeo. He runs towards them, opens his arms for a hug, sees the cross-dagger in JoJo’s hand and immediately retreats. “Excuse my wording, but what the fuck is that?” From the couch, Race holds up a necklace with a cross and clicks it open. “Look Romeo, JoJo gave me one too!” Befuddled, Buttons rakes a hand through her hair. “I thought you were kidding when you said that Race had one too. Why did you think that was a good idea?” They smile sheepishly at her. “Sorry babe, but since Albert handled his responsibly, I thought Race would be able to do the same.”

  As Jack shouts: “Babe?” in utter confusion, Buttons looks like she’s on the brink of a breakdown. “Albert has a dagger-cross too? JoJo you can’t do that.”

  “That’s right”, a new voice speaks up and the room falls silent. All of them stare at the new boy leaning against the doorframe with Hello Kitty socks on his feet, as he casually eats the chocolate that was supposed to go into JoJo and Buttons’ cookies. “No crosses”, he continues. “This is a nice and respectable Jewish household.”