#im gonna go throw myself back into keys to try and shake this weird feeling of worried excitement off

[ilovepaigebueckerss]

mystery roommate PT.2

paring: p.b x fem! reader

summary: Paige finally asks reader out and it goes perfectly

yeah i dont like this either but yk😭😭 HOPE YALL ENJOY IT THOUGH!! not proofread y’all already know.lmk if yall are wanting a pt.3 where they go on the date cause i wasnt planning on doing rhat but i will for my pookiez

———

“Okay but whats stopping you from asking her out?” KK asks me popping a chip in her mouth. She was giving me a weird look, kinda like a, “you’re a coward” look. “First off” I begin, “Dont look at me like that.” I continue, KK laughs and puts her hands up in surrender. “And I” I pause trying to find an answer to the question. “I don’t really know..” I finish my statement causing KK to groan loudly.

“It’s difficult” I defend causing KK to kiss her teeth in annoyance. “You’re PAIGE BUECKERS” She says emphasizing my name. I roll my eyes, “So?” KK throws a chip at me, “I can’t with you.” She laughs.

——

YOUR pov

“I can’t believe you’re fumbling PAIGE BUECKERS” My best friend Addie says emphasizing her name. I roll my eyes and laugh, “Me too”

i’ve always had feelings for Paige ever since I’ve moved in with her. But I never wanted to admit it because I couldn’t tell if she liked me back. But after re-watching the live my delusions are through the roof.

“She obviously likes you” Addie practically yells through the phone, “If I was here right now I would smack some sense into you!” She says groaning. I just laugh and flip her off.

“Okay I get it” I groan. I don’t even know what to do about this whole situation myself. Just a couple days ago I was barely even known by her fans and now everyone is making edits and finding old ass videos of me.

“Im gonna talk to her like tommorow or something” I say in attempt to get her to leave me alone. Addie gives me a look that screams, “I know you’re lying you stupid bitch” but I decide to ignore it. “K night Y/N” She says hanging up the phone.

I could tell she was annoyed with me. Honestly if I were her I would be annoyed too. But to be fair if her dream boy was practically dangling in front of her face with a sign that says “I want you” she wouldn’t make a move either.

3 DAYS LATER: PAIGES POV

“What if she says no?” I question myself bouncing my leg up and down nervously. I stare at the romantic gesture I set up in our dorm. “Are you kidding?” Ice says laughing, “I would ball my eyes out if someone did this for me.” I chuckle lightly and shake my head knowing I’m just overthinking it.

KK had finally convinced me to make my move. I knew Y/N liked me back but something was telling me that I was being delusional and she didn’t. I spent 2 days studying what Y/N likes and what she thought was romantic (through her tiktok reposts ofc).

“Whatcha thinking about?” KK says snapping me out of my thoughts, “Nothing just a little nervous.” I say giving her a small smile.

A COUPLE MINUTES LATER: YOUR POV

I jiggle my key in the lock of my dorm ready to relax after a very stressful day. My professor thought it was a grand idea to give us a last minute essay adding onto the piles of work I already had.

I walk into the dorm and notice all the lights were off which was weird cause Paige is usually awake during this time. I continue to walk and then start to see lit candles and rose petals. “Shes fucking another girl.” I think to myself, “I should have just made a move.” I think out loud this time.

I then see a sign right beside her room that reads, “Come inside Y/N” I stare at the sign for a couple seconds before finally processing what was going on. Was Paige trying to ask me out? I walk in and see a bunch of my favorite things in a basket with a teddy bear and a sign that says, “Will you go on a date with me?” (this)

“Oh my gosh Paige.” I say trying to hold back my tears. She walks up to me and smiles, “Do you like it?” She asks. I crash my lips onto hers in response and she immediately kisses me back. Her lips are soft and sweet. I pull away hugging her tightly, “Thank you so much”

Paige smiles and kisses me again.

————

if you made it this far ty and ily



[comicglitterr0909]

Confused. Vanessa Shelly/Afton x Fem!Reader

Vanessa Shelly/Afton x reader who is really bad with emotions. Reader basically had not the best life, and wasn't allowed to show emotions growing up, and so when reader starts catching feelings for Vanessa, you don't know what it is so they are really confused and awkward around Vanessa, also Mike kinda just doesn't exist in this lmao :D

Even though the pizzeria might not have been my first choice, it's really not that bad. Or maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that…oh well. I close my car door, careful not to do it too hard, the door would probably fall off. I really needed this job, I have maybe 100 dollars to my name. Sighing I use the key that Mr Raglan gave me, I try to unlock it one way, it doesn't unlock.

“Shit..” I mutter to myself, I turn the key a different way, flip it around, I try everything and it just isn't unlocking. I stand there for like 30 minutes fumbling with this stupid fucking key, and just my luck. A cop car pulls up, oh cool they can probably help me, wait oh shit, they are gonna think im trying to break in. I worriedly look at the cop car and wave, the windows are tinted and it's dark out so I can't see who's in there. Fuck fuck fuck fuck, I try to use the key again, glancing back at the female cop who just got out of her car. She looks nice… she can help, wait, all cops look nice, that's their tactic. 

“Hey. What are you doing?” The officer says as I quickly turn around, I can feel my heart start beating faster, I'm usually fine around cops though, whatever it's just nerves. “Officer! Hi um I'm the security guard here, the key I was given isn’t working. I've been trying for like 30 minutes haha…” That was convincing and definitely not suspicious. Shit. She raises her eyebrow, looking me up and down, and glancing at the lock behind me. “You're really lucky that the owner said there was a new security guard, or I'd probably arrest you. Here let me try.” She says with a smile, I hand her the key without saying anything. Woah my stomach feels weird, am I sick or something?? It feels like my stomach has like… horses running around in it. Weird description but whatever…taking a step back I watch as she unlocks it on the first try. 

That's awkward. “How did you do that?? I swear I... I tried for like 30 minutes…” She turns around and gives me back the key, looking me up and down again, god what happens to me? It feels like I'm going to throw up every time she does that. What is happening to me?? “It’s fine, keys can be difficult sometimes.” She smiles at me, fuck I feel like a fool all I can do is just stand there looking at her, I think im having a stroke. No wait, a heart attack, that more likely feels like my heart is eating itself. “Um, thank you Officer.” Why did I say that so weird, god she must think i'm drunk or something.

“Please, my names Vanessa, Vanessa Shelly.” She holds out her hand for me to shake, AND I STARE AT HER HAND FOR LIKE 3 SECONDS BEFORE AWKWARDLY SHAKING HER HAND OH MY GOD. I'm freaking out, is it hot? No, it's cold, why am I sweating?? “Right, uh, y/n, y/n y/ln. It's really nice to meet you.” It's really nice to meet you? Did I really have to put the really, whatever i can't go back in time. “You too, mind if I stick around for a bit?” YES, wait yes what the fuck is happening why do I feel this way? “Yeah no problem.” I say like a fool, I don't usually overthink things like this. Or do I? Have I just not noticed? Huh, whatever. 

The night goes on, and my heart doesn't slow down, the odd feelings in my stomach continue as she talks to me, and asks me a couple questions. It feels like the night goes way too fast, and I find myself upset when it turns to 6am. Driving home all I can think about her, why? I think I just really want to be friends with her, probably, that's all it is. I get home and lay down on my bed staring at the ceiling, maybe this job won't be as bad as I thought it would be. 

The next day Vanessa doesn’t show up, maybe she never will. I also find out how creepy the pizzeria is and even though my life is practically in danger, I just keep wishing that I’d get to see her again, but just as friends though. Just friends. 

I pull into the parking lot of the pizzeria. Walking up in my goofy looking security vest, I sigh. Yesterday I was actually able to unlock the lock, after 10 minutes…but at least I got it. Ugh, time to try to unlock this for half of my shift. And just like I said, it's been 5 minutes and I still can’t get it. “Does it…go the other way or..” I mutter to myself, before I see headlights shining at me. SHES HERE. Oh god I feel like I shoulda put more effort into myself today, does my hair look okay. I zone out thinking about every possible thing that I could ever overthink, before finally getting snapped out of it by her. “Hey, need help with the lock again?” She says teasingly, grinning at me. Woah, my heart just went to the moon and back okay that's normal. “Uh yeah haha, still can’t seem to get it right.” She takes the key from me and just like before, unlocks it with ease, before handing the key back to me. “I'm gonna hang out again today, hope you don’t mind.” “Hah no, I don’t care, I enjoy the company.” Finally I said something without sounding like a 5 year old. 

We both walk into the pizzeria, without saying anything, as we are walking her hand brushes against mine, there it is again, that fuzzy feeling that only happens with her. Maybe I should google my symptoms. “So how's your day been?” She asks me, with a smile. “Oh, pretty good, better now that you're here haha.” I pause, DID I JUST SAY THAT, holy shit oh god what? What was I thinking?? “That's funny, I was going to say the same thing.” She says with a wink, before continuing to walk down the hall. Everything in my head was screaming at me, I had to remember that walking is something that you do if you wanna follow someone. So I started walking again, maybe I should ask her? She's a cop, she might know what's wrong with me.

We go over to the showtime area. “Hey, have you seen them perform yet?” “They perform?” “Yeah watch.” Vanessa presses the showtime button, and the animatronics jump into a song. I watch them with intent, probably the first thing I've thought about that wasn't Vanessa in 3 days. We both walk over to a booth and sit down, just watching and listening to them do their thing. “So this is cool isn’t it?” She asks, looking at me, I look over at her. That feeling again, I swear I'm having a stroke. “Y/N?” Yup this is a stroke why can’t I answer her? “Y-yeah, right, um yeah this is super cool.” I say looking down at the table, smiling and looking back at her. “Are you okay?” Vanessa asks me, looking genuinely worried.

I gulp and look at her nervously. “Um, not really? I don't know.” “You don't know? What do you mean what's going on?’’ She stands up and squats down in front of me, looking up at me. She takes my hands and holds them. I swear my heart just stops at that point. “Hey, talk to me, what's going on?” “Do you um” I clear my throat. “Do you ever get this weird feeling? Lately my heart has been beating faster than normally, and I'm really nervous and anxious and my stomach feels like it's being twisted up.” She looks at me, with those doe eyes of hers, with genuine care and worry. “And the weirdest part of it all, is it only happens around…well���you.” And with that, the worry on her face disappears into a softer one. She laughs and looks back up at me with a smirk. “Y/N have you ever had a crush before?” “A crush? What's that have to do with this, I’ve never had one before but I’ve heard- oh” And it finally clicks, all those movies i’ve seen are like this, a crush, I have a crush on her. Oh shit. I just admitted to her that I have a crush on her. As she watches me come to realization, I feel my face heat up. “Don’t start stressing yourself out, y/n, I like you too.” She says grinning and looking at me sympathetically. I’m still processing all of it, so I don’t really say anything for 10 seconds. “That's good, I um I like you too…a lot.” “Yup, I realized that.” She teasingly smirks at me. “So are we dating now?” I ask genuinely as she laughs again, standing up. “Wow, you really haven’t ever done this before huh? It’s cute, and yeah, we are dating, cmon.” Vanessa holds her hand out for me to take, and finally, it feels right. No more confusion, it feels right, being with her. I’m finally happy. With her :)

[vtoriacore-rbs]

tw. ed + whatever the fuck is wrong w me in general. id actually advise against reading this but this helps get things off my chest.

me slipping back into old ed habits bc my intrusive thoughts actually ended up triggering me 💀💀💀 i went on a 2 day fast and only had mineral water and i feel both proud and horrified that ive allowed myself to do that so now im eating healthy things to kinda make up for it but anyways i weighed myself too even tho i said i wouldn't. like i know i shouldn't feel happy over the fact i starved and weakened my body on purpose but it feels nice to stick to something and actually have some discipline back in my life.

had a breakdown too earlier for no reason (altho im on my period so maybe that's why, fuck you uterus btw there is no us only u someone remove this thing PLEASE). like bro some bitch in college also was telling me how she was losing weight and she deadass told me that my ribcage sticking out was so aesthetic and it just enabled me, we only spoke 3 times before that and im pretty sure she has an ed too bc she kept trying to get my measurements??? she also said she'd sacrifice two of her ribs to get a waist like mine and i know she meant it as a compliment but i wanted to cry and felt low-key ashamed like i hate when people point out my physical appearance and i was stretching i didn't even mean for my shirt to go higher up it was so uncomfy. it's weird tho cause when i starve myself i feel happy abt it but when other people point it out and praise me for it i get really mad. maybe it's bc i discourage eds and im very pro-recovery but anyways that was a weird comment™ i think it played into the breakdown. she tried grabbing my wrist several times and i told her to stop trying to touch me but she wouldn't stop either and was like "just for a second please" like i felt so icky bc of that too like bitch hands off before i retaliate <3 so yeah now im trying to eat again but honestly i feel like im gonna throw up bc i didn't eat for 2 days lmao and the entire day today i felt so dizzy. like yesterday was fine but today ?? no. my muscles hurt so bad so im gonna have a 50g protein shake too ugh im so tired. gonna try get up to 1000 kcal at least and make the deficit up over the weekend bc my stomach physically hurts when i try to eat (but this strawberry yogurt bangs even tho im half full already).

ive been slipping back into an ed mindset over the last month tho even with my binges and i just wanna look ill enough for one of my doctors finally tell me im underweight enough they didn't even acknowledge i was severely underweight 3-4 years ago that felt so humiliating and now im thinking along the lines of "i need to be a better anorexic" even tho its fucked up and like im trying to just snap myself out of this mindset but it's not working so im gonna have to get a therapist potentially. bc i don't want my organs and bones failing but at the same time, i wanna make sure doctors take me seriously this time and maybe it'll be a fucking reminder to take eds seriously. it actually pisses me off hos insensitive some doctors are about eds and the fact they indirectly fucking allow it sometimes too like. just bc im not in a critical condition and only like 3/4kgs underweight doesn't mean i don't have an ed or that it isn't "severe enough" smh this annoys me so much.

if you read it up to here don't worry ill be fine, a bitch always pulls thru and these are just momentary lapses in judgement im not letting mental illness win im too fucking good for this (<- motivating myself kinda feel better after writing this NGL).

[minijenn]

Anyway now that I am awake fully and coherent, here are some Thoughts (and not all of them are nice): 

I’m very meh on Sora’s new design; his outfit is very simple and bland and nowhere near as memorable as his other designs 

The overall art style is also very meh for me; it doesn’t stand out as much as 3′s does. I’m hoping that look is only really present for Quadratum and things go back to looking a little more Disney-esque outside of that (like Donald and Goofy looked normal at the very least) 

STRELITZIA IM CRYING SHE ACTUALLY LOOKS GREAT AND I CANT WAIT TO WATCH HER AND SORA INTERACT I WANT THEM TO BE BESTIES 

GAMEPLAY LOOKS SICK KEYBLADE TRANSFORMATIONS HHHH GRAPPLING HOOOK KEYBLADE BRUHHHHH

Who the fuck that other black coat wearin motherfucker vibing with MoM? Luxord? Demyx? Some other rando? 

If Quadratum is like the afterlife for Keyblade wielders, then I wonder who else we might see there. Ava maybe? (idk if she’s actually dead but if she turns up there I’d be really hype) 

What the fuck Riku boutta look like in Quadratum tho 

So apparently Donald and Goofy are going to Hades for advice about how to find Sora??? I swear to god if Hades somehow transports them to Quadratum I’m gonna need hyper realistic Donald and Goofy in modern Japanese fashion ASAP 

I’m... worried about if there will be Disney worlds and how they’ll be included; Disney has been putting out a lot of bangers lately and it would be a shame if we had to wait to see the likes of Moana and Zootopia in a later game; granted this is a numbered title so I feel like Disney worlds are a given; I just hope that it’s Sora going to them because I love watching his dumb ass interact with the Disney characters 

Still very worried about how characters like Roxas, Xion, Terra, Namine, ect, will factor into the series moving forward, I’m really worried about them being sidelined and forgotten about 

Another fucking KH prologue mobile game... yay... :/

Dark Road being put off till August is wow like wtf are they putting in this damn thing to need so much time on it 

Very fucking worried this will be a PS5 exclusive no way in hell am I buying a PS5 just for this sorry babes

Not a goddamn Yozora in sight, my life is happy again, now the fandom can maybe shut up about the More Boring Riku for five fucking seconds 

There are CARS IN THIS GAME PLEASE NOMURA LET SORA DRIVE A CAR BADLY 

And finally, never before have I related more to an NPC before in my life: 

[nozumonagito]

Overwhelmed

Naeleon (Makoto Naegi/Leon Kuwata)

(minor)emotional hurt/comfort fic. cw: yelling, demeaning of self, emotional outbursts. ~2k words

tldr; Leon is very overwhelmed, luckily he has Makoto there to help him

Based on this submission from @naeleon-headcanon-blog

Books? Check. Notebooks? Check. Blankets and a change of clothes? Check and check. Rucksack full of snacks he had stolen from the kitchen? Check!

Everything for operation date night was ready.

Carefully placing everything into his emptied school bag, Makoto slipped it onto his back and stuffed his room key into his pocket. A glance at the clock reassured him that it was only 9:20, there was still half an hour before he had to be heading out. But he had already finished his homework for the night, and there wasn't enough time to get started on a new project… it'd be fine to show up early, he reasoned.

He settled on the thought, locking his door behind him. With a smile on his face he turned to head down the hall, and almost ran straight into Yasuhiro. The clairvoyant was immediately on edge, jumping back from their barely-avoided collision and almost dropping his phone. They stared at each other for a moment, a look of understanding passing between them before the mystic smiled at him. "You gonna tell Taka I'm sneaking out?"

"I won't tell if you don't, Hiro."

The taller laughed, patting his shoulder and wishing him the best before running past him down the stairs. He could faintly hear him meeting up with some upperclassmen in the stairwell before their voices faded away.

Shaking his head, Makoto adjusted his bag and headed down the hall. It was always a little weird walking through the empty halls at night, but he could sometimes hear an exceptionally loud laugh from Mondo's room, or the sound of an anime opening from Hifumi's, and the sliver of light from beneath doors was enough of a reminder that everyone was there. He slowed down as he passed Ishimaru's room, trying to make his footsteps as quiet as possible. He really didn't want to be late for movie night because Taka caught him near curfew again.

But there was no light coming from behind the door, meaning he had either gone to bed early or was somewhere else, and it was enough of a confidence boost to let Makoto hurry the rest of the way to Leon's room. With midterms coming up they hadn't had much time to hang out lately, and he was eager to finally relax together. As he got closer to the door though, he was concerned with what he heard.

"-can't possibly be that fuckin' difficult! Piece of shit!"

There was no doubt it was Leon yelling, and he hesitated by the door. He could hear the distinct thud, thud, thud of something hitting the wall, and could picture the Ultimate throwing a tennis ball against the wall. One of the first years, Ryoma, had given him one after he put a hole in the wall from throwing his baseball at it. Using a softer ball was definitely an improvement, but there were still dents in the wall from the frequency and he could only imagine how it bothered other students.

Was… that why Hiro had left? They shared a wall, and he'd seen the clairvoyant take walks before when his neighbour was stressed, but for him to make plans for the night and leave? How long had Leon been at it?

The cry of "Motherfuc-" broke off into silence as Makoto knocked on the door. The banging against the wall stopped, and it was growing eerily quiet. He waited a few seconds, but when there was no answer he knocked again.

"Leon…?" No answer. He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he grabbed the handle. "Hey, I'm coming in, okay?"

The door swung open easily, it was hardly ever locked. Inside, he could see a textbook open on the desk, crumpled balls of paper overflowing from the waste bin next to it. Leon was standing by the chair, tennis ball in hand as he stared down at the book. As he walked in, Makoto couldn't help but notice there was a new dent in the wall by the bed. He set his book bag on the bed slowly, not wanting to startle Leon.

The ball in his hand bulged as he squeezed it, knuckles turning white as his other hand gripped the chair. He hadn't looked up once since he'd walked in the room, but his chest rose and fell quickly, as if struggling to get enough air. "Makoto… 's not a good time…" he mumbled, head turning slightly towards the lucky student. "Gonna need to, uh… cancel tonight..."

Regardless of his words, Makoto sat on the bed, pulling his legs up beneath him. They'd been in this situation before, each time Leon quietly asking him to leave. But he knew better than that, knew that the baseball star would only spiral further if left to his own devices. Instead, he just asked "What happened?"

He could see Leon freeze up, see the tension that coursed through him as his hands twitched, gripping the chair beside him as if it was a lifeline. The tennis ball dropped to the desk, bouncing a little against others in a bowl. "...Homework. Was tryin' to get it done before you came over, but I-" he broke off, running a hand through his hair.

Frustration was worming it's way into his voice. "Was tryin' to do these math problems but every time I start I fuck it up!" His voice was growing louder, frustration turning into anger as he grabbed a ball from the bowl and tossed it between his hands. "It shouldn't be this fuckin' difficult, right?! I mean, what the hell! Chi can do this shit in his sleep, and I can't even do one problem without fucking it up!"

Makoto's eyes darted to the ball, quickly returning to his face to show he was paying attention. The redhead's face was twisted in a sneer, and his eyes were focusing on nothing in specific, looking through whatever was in his line of sight. "Doesn't Chihiro usually help you with math?" he asked quietly, watching his classmate pace from one end of the room to another.

"Yeah, usually. He had some dumbass council thing tonight, asked if I could do it myself. Told him yeah, what the hell else would I tell 'im?!" Leon groaned loudly, running a hand through his hair again as he turned on his heel and paced back the way he just came. "Dude takes time out of his day to help me out all the time, can't just tell him no! Figured we'd done enough that I could manage one night on my own. It's just one night! Just three fuckin' problems! I shouldn't have this much fuckin' trouble-"

"Leon, wait, that's-!"

"-With an easy ass REMEDIAL CLASS!!" The baseball whizzed through the air regardless of Makoto's warning, hitting the lamp on his nightstand dead center and sending it crashing to the floor. Both boys stopped to look at it, the light flickering from behind the broken lampshade. "SHIT!!" Leon smacked his head, covering his eyes as he tried to calm himself down. "Can't believe I just did something so fucking stupid!!"

"Don't beat yourself up, you didn't-" Makoto started to say, but stopped himself as he saw Leon stop pacing and pull at his hair, eyes squeezed shut.

"Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid!!"

"Leo-"

"STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPIDSTUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID!!!"

A gentle hand resting on Leon's arm made his eyes snap open, watery grey eyes searching Makoto's face desperately. He led the baseball player to the bed slowly, sitting him down and grabbing a thermos from his bag to offer him a drink. "Here, take a sip" he spoke softly, his hand never leaving his arm as he squeezed it reassuringly.

Leon took a long sip, taking a shuddering breath like he had forgotten how to breathe. He was practically hyperventilating, tears streaking their way down his face and Makoto sat beside him, making Leon look at him. "Hey, it's okay, I'm right here. Can you count with me? 10… 9… 8…" Quietly, Leon's voice joined his own, continuing with him down to one.

Squeezing his arm, Makoto took the thermos from his shaking hands, setting it on the nightstand. "There we go… Can you tell me what day it is?"

"...Wednesday."

"Where are we?"

"...Hope's Peak."

"What's your talent?"

"....Fuckin' baseball."

"Who am I?"

Leon's breathing had started to calm down, blinking as he looked slowly up at his companion. "Koto… my boyfriend…"

Makoto gave him a gentle smile, nodding his head and taking shaking hands into his own. His fingers ran over the decorative rings his boyfriend was still wearing, and he felt Leon grip his hands like he'd disappear. "Yep, I'm right here for you. Always."

It wasn't the first time Leon had had an overload in front of him, and it certainly wouldn't be the last, but he knew the boy was afraid of scaring him off. The first time he'd thrown something in front of him, Leon had avoided him for a week, paranoid that he wouldn't want to be around him anymore. Makoto would be lying if he said it wasn't concerning, but he was determined to understand, setting aside time to sit down privately with Leon and talk to him about it.

He was easily overwhelmed if he felt he wasn't good enough at something, and his relying on baseball to get him through school had meant he never really learnt how to study. Now that he was in Hope's Peak, surrounded by people who were all experts in their field, he was finding it harder and harder not to get angry at himself when he couldn't do something. Usually he could push the feeling inside, but it would keep building and building until he couldn't keep pushing it down, and if something particularly difficult happened, or he heard too many of what he labelled as "bad sounds", or he was having an off day, his brain would go into an overload and he'd shut down, unable to control his anger at himself.

This was something that Makoto was sort of familiar with, as too much stimuli or conflicting sounds could send him into a sensory overload, and he could relate on some level. He didn't get angry, like Leon did, but he'd had his fair share of crying sessions in his dorm after a particularly difficult day with stimuli. He'd made extra-sure that Leon knew what he experienced was valid, and reassured him that he wasn't scared. Since that day, he'd caught Leon on the verge of breaking a few times, and once in the middle of an episode. Each time he sat down and helped him work through it, reassuring him that he wasn't stupid or an idiot like he claimed.

"Why do you keep helping me, Koto?" Leon asked suddenly, his face buried in Makoto's hair as he held him close. His voice was barely above a whisper, cracking as he spoke. "Nothing makin' you deal with me when I'm like... this… hell, half the time I'm yelling at you to leave. Why bother?"

Makoto hugged him tightly, pressing a chaste kiss to his shoulder. "Because you're worth it, Leon... I wish you could see that."

He felt him laugh, but there was no humour behind it. The loud student was tired, having worn himself out emotionally. He leaned back against the wall, pulling Makoto with him. There was a moment of silence as they situated themselves, neither one wanting to destroy the comfortable silence they found themselves in.

"...I love you, man."

Though his eyes were closed, he could practically hear the smile in Makoto's voice. "Love you too, Leon."

[goosewhisker]

this crooked posture (is all you’ve ever known)

read this on ao3 || read this on fanfiction.net

i wrote this whole thing in a span of about 5 days :pensive: as u can maybe tell i have a lot of feelings abt that one conversation btwn scourge and jules...there is so much potential here and im sad we never got to see it

as far as timeline goes- this would probably take place in the pre-boot universe about six months or so after scourge & co escape from zone jail. the destructix are camping out on mobius for the time being to avoid drawing zonic's attention and knothole has wrapped up the ixis naugus/metal sally arcs.

Summary: Fiona heads off with a wave, and he's left where he started - staring through a window into a nearly-empty kitchen, looking in on a life was never his and never will be. Inside, the robian sets bacon on the stovetop to fry and starts making toast, blissfully unaware of the hedgehog just outside. It's hard to tell on a robot, obviously, but he looks perfectly content with his life. Happy, even.

Pathetic. 

Or: Scourge avoids his problems, Fiona is exasperated, and Jules is mostly oblivious.

It's the early hours of the morning. So early, in fact, that it shouldn't even technically be called morning because it's still basically nighttime and no one sane is up right now.

Which is probably why the idiotic robian is up at five o'clock in the morning, puttering around in the kitchen and making breakfast. There's literally no reason for it. It's not like he can eat anything, after all, and his stupid son lives off chilidogs, so he's not going to eat it. And his stupid wife isn't getting up for like two hours, so she's not eating it either. See? Idiocy.

Yet another thing that their universes seem to have in common.

"What are you doing?"

Scourge almost shrieks - key word is almost, 'cause he's too cool to scream like a dork - and tackles Fiona into the bushes. "Shhh!"

Fiona splutters indignantly and a second later her fist bounces off his jaw, which, ow. "Are you nuts? Get off me!"

"Shhhut up!" Scourge throws a quick glance over his shoulder at the window. No one's come outside to investigate, so hopefully no one's heard. He rolls off her a second later. "You wanna get us arrested, woman?"

"Hey, I'm a legal citizen of this universe!" Fiona protests. "If anything, it's you who's getting arrested, Mr.-Snooping-Through-Other-People's-Windows. That's so creepy."

"We're both wanted criminals here; if we get caught, we're going down together," Scourge points out, graciously ignoring her last comment. "And anyway, I'm... gathering intel."

Fiona snorts. "Pull the other one, Scourge. That's not gonna work on me." Crossing her arms, she adds, "You've been gathering intel every night for the past week. And I know you're technically the same person, but watching Sonic sleep is really weird."

"I'm not watching him," Scourge snaps before he can help himself.

"Oh?" Fiona's eyes glint and it's then that Scourge realizes he's slipped. "Then who are you watching?"

"Uhhh..." Scourge fidgets while trying not to look like he's fidgeting. "No one. I'm just passing through, not watching anything. Why'd I want to do that anyway?" He forces a laugh. "So lame."

Fiona regards him with a flat stare. "Your fingerprints are smudged all over the window."

"What?" Scourge whips around to check the window. He'd been so careful not to leave any traces of his visits, but-

Waitaminute.

"Very funny," Scourge growls into his gloved hands. Fiona snickers.

"Look, if you don't want to tell me, I won't make you," she says, standing up and brushing the dirt off her pants. "But I'll find out eventually. And if this new obsession of yours endangers yourself or the team, I'm going to put a stop to it."

"Yeah, yeah," Scourge mutters, waving her off. "Get lost."

"Mhm. We still on for that movie night?"

"'course. See you there, babe."

Fiona heads off with a wave, and he's left where he started - staring through a window into a nearly-empty kitchen, looking in on a life was never his and never will be. Inside, the robian sets bacon on the stovetop to fry and starts making toast, blissfully unaware of the hedgehog just outside. It's hard to tell on a robot, obviously, but he looks perfectly content with his life. Happy, even.

Pathetic.

Scourge kicks the side of the house, suddenly incandescently furious with everything. Inside, Jules looks up in surprise, but Scourge is already gone.

"I need to stop," Scourge says later. The movie is over - some samurai flick that Simian had picked out and Lightning had ruined with his constant nitpicking - and they'd gone out for ice cream afterwards (read: robbed that nice gelato place downtown). Getting used to having teammates again is... something, Scourge supposes. But it's not completely terrible.

"You need to stop," Fiona agrees. She's texting furiously, slouched into the ratty couch in their current hideout with Scourge's head on her lap.

"It's just weird seeing him alive, is all," Scourge tells the ceiling. "That's all it is. Like, when you see something weird, and you just gotta look at it. It doesn't mean anything."

"Are you trying to convince yourself or me?"

"Not tryin' to convince anyone. I'm just saying what it is."

Fiona sets down her phone with a sigh. "Look, you gotta stop hurting yourself like this."

Scourge sits up a little too fast. "Hurting myself? What? Babe, have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm Scourge the Hedgehog, I don't hurt."

Fiona gives that all the acknowledgment it deserves, which is none. "I told you about the... the prison, when I was a kid," she says. Scourge falls silent. "I went back there a few times, after I was big enough to handle myself. There wasn't a reason, really. I just thought I had to see it. And it sort of helped the first time - I cleaned out all the bots and made sure that place couldn't hold anyone ever again - but after that, I just went back again and again because it made me hurt and that felt good. Because I was hurting anyway, and being able to make it worse when I wanted to made me feel like I could control it."

Scourge doesn't say anything.

"But that wasn't true," Fiona says. Her voice shakes just a little, and without thinking Scourge takes her hand. It's stupid (sentimental) but she smiles faintly. "I wasn't healing or in control or anything. I was just hurting myself. And I can't stand watching you do the same."

"Babe," Scourge begins hoarsely.

"Tell me it's not the same," Fiona says flatly. "Or tell me- tell me that if I went back to that prison and crawl through that tunnel I dug with my own hands and relive every moment of the hell I went through, that you wouldn't stop me. That you would watch me do it."

He can't tell her that. He can't tell her that and she knows it.

Scourge looks away.

Fiona sighs and runs her hand along his spines. "He's not your dad, Scourge," she says quietly. "He's an entirely different person. Hurting yourself isn't going to make anything better."

"Okay," Scourge agrees. "Okay." Then, after a moment, "Thanks, babe."

Fiona smiles again, and there's something so sad about it he squeezes her hand again (uncool, but it's not like there's anyone else to see it). "No problem, hun."

He goes back again the next day.

This time, the wife is there too.

Scourge crouches in the massive oak tree beside the window, pretending he doesn't feel like a massive creep. His green fur blends neatly with the leaves, rendering him all but invisible to any casual observers, particularly when it's not-quite-light. With luck, it'll fool robian eyes as well.

Anyway.

Scourge doesn't remember his mother. She was simply never in the picture; whether because of death or divorce he never knew. Generally, he suspects the latter - months upon months of neglect, of being constantly passed over and ignored for the more important burdens of the state and the good of the people - yeah, he can see how a divorce would happen. Not that he'll ever know now.

The hedgehog in the kitchen doesn't look neglected. She throws her arms around the robian, not seeming to mind the cold metal, and dances around him as they prepare breakfast. The robian, in turn, leans into her touches and takes advantage of a moment of distraction to dab pancake batter on her nose. It's disgusting. Scourge gags.

Part of him wonders what he's gaining out of this. Hiding in a tree, spying on some losers and their dumb domestic life - not exactly fitting behavior for the former king of Moebius, after all.

It's not... It's not that Fiona's right. It's not like he's hurting himself - like he told Fiona, he's Scourge the Hedgehog. He doesn't do that emotions garbage. That kind of wimpiness is more Sonic's thing.

(Let alone that Fiona had said it happened to her. Let alone that she's usually right, and that she's one of the strongest people he knows.)

He's just curious. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

(The voice in his head sounding suspiciously like Fiona whispers, Yeah, right.)

Inside the kitchen, the robian starts flipping pancakes. For a second, Scourge tries to imagine his own father like that: Jules the Hedgehog, king of Moebius, flipping pancakes in a frilly pink apron and laughing with his wife. Arguing over who gets to wake up their son. Talking and hugging and laughing and living -

- and the illusion dissipates. Jules wouldn't set foot in a kitchen. He had servants to do that kind of thing, just like he had servants to take care of his son.

Scourge drops down from the tree branch and lands lightly on his feet. He's done here. He slinks off into the streets, hiding his face from the strengthening sunlight as synthetic laughter rings out behind him.

"Hey, Simian," Scourge says a few days later.

Simian continues lifting weights without slowing. "Yes?"

Scourge likes Simian, as much as he likes anyone. The ape is steady and has a solid head on his shoulders, and while it's kind of a drag most times, he does occasionally have helpful bits of advice. And when he goes loose on the battlefield, he can be really fun to fight alongside.

So that, plus the fact that Hawk doesn't care and Lightning would probably make fun of him and he'd rather eat his own shoes than talk to Fly, makes him Scourge's best option.

Scourge swings his legs back and forth as they dangle off the chair and tries to think of a way to broach it. He just needs to be subtle, right? "When was the last time you saw your parents?"

And maybe that wasn't super subtle after all, because Simian stops in the middle of his workout session (he never stops in the middle of a workout session) to stare at him. It feels... extremely uncomfortable, actually, wow. Scourge hops up and starts his stretches (anything to avoid looking back).

"When I last left my village, I was eighteen," Simian says at last. He sounds thoughtful, which is never a good sign. "That was several years ago... six years, I believe."

"That long, huh?" Scourge moves to quad stretches. "You're pretty old, man. Slowing down anytime soon?"

He's rewarded with a sharp grin. "I'm not that old. Though I suppose most people look slow next to you."

"Damn straight!"

"Why do you ask?"

And that's the issue - when even Scourge isn't sure why he's asking. He takes his time answering. "Oh, you know... just curious. Ever think about 'em?"

There's another ponderous silence, which mostly just succeeds in making Scourge antsy. Well, antsier.

"Sometimes," Simian says. "But I am a dedicated member of this team. You can rest assured of that."

And that's nice, but it's not what he's asking-

"...but that's not what you're asking, is it?"

Scourge freezes. Is he just that transparent? Why can everyone suddenly read his mind now? "What're you on about, man?" he deflects.

Simian shakes his head. "I do miss them, sometimes. It is natural for children to miss their parents."

"Not me!" Scourge laughs, and if it comes out a little too sharp, well, who's to blame him?

"Of course," Simian says, sounding vaguely indulgent. "Does that satisfy your curiosity?"

"Uh, sure," Scourge lies. "A little heavy on the oversharing, but it's cool." And then he scarpers, because if super speed's good for anything it's for escaping uncomfortable conversations. Simian doesn't say anything about it later, and thank Chaos because he doesn't think he'd be able to face Fiona if she ever got wind of that little talk.

The next time he's in town, Scourge picks up a new set of woodworking knives and leaves it on Simian's equipment. It's not like he's gone soft, buying presents for his friends or whatever, Scourge tells himself. He's just... buying Simian's silence. It's a bribe, is all.

(Simian saves him some extra ice cream the night after and that's that.)

It is natural for children to miss their parents, Simian had said. Ha! As if. Scourge hasn't missed his old man a day of his life and he's not about to start now.

... that'd carry more weight if he wasn't spending two or three mornings a week moping outside their kitchen.

Scourge sips his frappe and pretends he's not sulking. Right now, he's outside some random diner in Knothole in full disguise, complete with a trenchcoat, fedora, and sunglasses. He was honestly expecting someone to stop him before now - this kind of garb is about as suspicious as it gets - but no one seemed to even notice anything out of the ordinary. Idiots.

Fiona would kill him if she knew the kind of risks he's taking - which, of course, is why she doesn't need to know.

Scourge checks the time. Seven o'clock, meaning the wife is just getting up and they're having breakfast right now - Chaos, he has their entire morning schedule memorized, doesn't he? Fiona was right, he is obsessed. Scourge slumps over the table and buries his head in his arms.

He can still turn this around. Knowing their schedule is useful, from a strategic standpoint; he could threaten them, take them hostage... even kill them. Sonic would be taken completely offguard. It would be simple. Easy. The smart thing to do.

Scourge's groan is only partially muffled by the table.

"...you alright, son?"

What-

Something electric shoots up his spine. Scourge's claws dig into the edges of the table with a crunch as he bolts upright. And there, before him, with a look so familiar but so foreign in his eyes is-

He's not the same.

His skin is metallic where it should be flesh, plated where it should be furred. His eyes burn a bright pixelated red when they should be brown. That stupid tuft of fur on his head is shining chrome that glints under the bright sun.

But the way he stands - colored though it is with a hint of a soldier's posture - that proud tilt of his chin, the gentleness in his hands as they reach out to him -

It's Jules.

It's different from seeing him in that dim, lamp-lit room. In the daylight, the differences are exaggerated - and so are the similarities.

For a second, Scourge can only see his dad standing there.

He reacts on instinct. Scourge rears back and smacks Jules' outstretched hand away. "Don't touch me!"

Jules straightens up, virtual eyes widening with shock. "I'm- I'm sorry, it looked like you were unhappy. I only meant to-"

"Well, don't," Scourge spits. "Get lost."

Jules looks at him longer and then, for some Chaos-forsaken reason, doesn't leave. Why isn't he leaving, Scourge thinks furiously, and only realizes he's breathing heavy when his breaths start coming too fast and harsh in his ears. Jules says something, but the words don't make sense and he can't tear his gaze away from the polished metal. Beneath his fingertips, the table starts to splinter.

And then there's warm hands on his shoulders, and a steady voice in his ears, saying, "Listen to me. Do you want me to leave?"

Nothing comes out of his throat. Scourge shakes helplessly. He wants him to leave, he wants him stay, he wants to never see him again. He wants his dad.

Jules must take it as permission to stay, because he doesn't leave. The grip on his shoulders is a solid, unmoving presence, and Scourge can't help but lean into it. "I'm going to count slowly. Try to match your breathing to my voice - it's alright if you can't. Starting now. One, two..."

For some completely batty reason, he tries, and it helps some. His breathing is a little too fast and a lot shaky, still, but it settles into a more even pace instead of the uncontrollable rush. Sense comes back slowly, and with it, an acute, uncomfortable awareness of what just happened.

Well. At least he's not crying.

Scourge stands abruptly, tearing himself from Jules' arms. The robian raises a brow but doesn't protest. "Are you feeling better?" he asks instead. It's entirely casual, with no hint of pity, and Scourge hates himself a little for being pathetically grateful.

"Peachy," Scourge snaps and whirls around, hiking up his collar. Jules isn't screaming yet, so he clearly hasn't realized who he is, and Scourge is in no hurry to correct him. Honestly, this hedgehog's stupidity knows no bounds.

"Well." The robian stands up, reaches for a grocery bag that Scourge only just realized was there, and adds, "Stay safe, son."

Scourge's vision briefly whites out from fury. "Don't call me that," he snarls and takes off running before Jules can reply.

He finds a secluded place in a lonely corner, throws his warp ring, and promises himself that he'll never go back.

Scourge does some research.

It's called a panic attack, apparently. Common among soldiers, which is probably why Jules knew what to do - he said he'd been on the front lines, hadn't he? Common among victims of PTSD, the website says, and Scourge scoffs and closes the tab. Trauma - ridiculous. Scourge doesn't do trauma. If anything, he gives it to other people.

He's still snickering at his joke when Hawk comes in to tell him that Finitevus called in with another job. Normally, Scourge would tell him to screw off, but he's offering a massive stack of Anarchy beryl in return - something they've been in short supply of since they ditched Moebius.

Scourge's body itches at the thought of going super again. He accepts.

Thirty minutes later, they're waist-deep in smashed Eggman bots and struggling to fend off a fresh wave while Fiona and Hawk bicker over the terminal.

"I'm telling you, if we do that, we'll get locked out of the system entirely!" Fiona snaps.

Hawk throws up his hands. "Fine! Ignore me! It's not like you literally just have to enter the code or anything!"

Scourge spindashes down the line of Eggpawns, smashing through them like paper. He hits the wall at the right angle to bounce right off and uncurls in midair to land on his feet.

"Wrap it up, guys!" he yells and ducks beneath a stray kunai. "Watch it, Lightning!"

"Thought you were supposed to be the fast one," Lightning calls back.

"And I thought you were supposed to be able to aim!"

"I can." Lightning flicks a wrist and Scourge drops backward into a roll to avoid the next kunai that comes his way. When he springs back onto his feet, ready to chew out the idiotic trigger-happy lynx, there's a Badnik pinned to the wall right where he'd been standing. Lightning shoots him a smug grin.

"Right back atcha," Scourge mutters and barrels through the cluster taking potshots at Hawk and Fi.

"Ugh, fine!" Fiona shoves Hawk away and starts typing furiously.

Scourge drops another five Badniks and skids to a stop as an Egg Launcher smashes through the wall directly in front of him. "Fiona!"

"Give us a minute," Hawk snarls back.

The Launcher brings its arms down to eye level and Scourge leaps into the air as its targeting system locks on - and then Fly drops out of nowhere onto on its shoulders. "Need help?" the frog giggles (sweet Chaos Scourge hates him) and rips the thing's head off. Scourge blitzes right through its chest.

As its body slumps bonelessly to the floor, another Launcher steps through the wall behind it... and another one. And another. Chaos.

"If those things unload all those missiles in here, we're going to have a problem," Lightning says, echoing Scourge's own thoughts.

"Out of the way," Simian grunts, swinging the first bot's disembodied missile launcher-slash-arm onto his shoulder and taking aim.

"Are you nuts, man?" Scourge yells. "Didn't you hear Lightning? You fire that thing and this whole building's going down!"

"Better have the exit ready, then," Simian returns evenly.

"Got it!" Fiona announces, jumping up from the terminal with a chip in hand. Hawk follows, looking severely disgruntled. "Turns out we really did just have to enter the code. Hah."

"I told you," Hawk begins, but Fiona waves him off.

"You were right once, don't go getting a big head. You got the ring ready, sweetie?"

"Everyone over here! You miss the ring, we're leavin' you behind!" Scourge doesn't wait for a response and throws the warp ring. The portal spins into existence, glistening faintly in the electric light, and they all pile in. Simian fires off a final missile salvo before the ring vanishes and they tumble haphazardly into the Doc's lair to the sound of the entire base going up.

For a second, no one moves, too tired and bruised and tangled together to bother getting up. Lightning sighs heavily from the bottom of the heap. Scourge laughs.

"I trust you have what I asked for?" Finitevus asks from literally two feet away, and Scourge isn't even going to question how he knew where they'd end up. After all, they are at his mercy inside his weird evil lair, and Scourge knows how to be tactful.

Scourge props himself up on an elbow. "So do you like, practice being creepy, or is it natural?"

Without looking, Fiona smacks him in the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"We have it," Fiona says, extricating herself from the tangle. Scourge considers tripping her as she walks past, decides against it, and settles for hooking his ankle around Hawk's heel as he stands up. The bird goes down with a satisfying squawk right on top of Lightning and the ensuing chaos lets Scourge hop up onto his own feet.

Fiona ignores it.

"All the files relating to the roboticization process are on this USB," she says, holding it out. Finitevus takes it and, after a moment's inspection, slips it into his robes.

"So why'd you want that, Doc?" Scourge asks, adjusting his sunglasses. "Woulda thought that robot stuff wasn't quite your style."

"It is true that roboticization is a perversion of the natural order and representative of that which I seek to destroy," Finitevus concedes. "But I am not opposed to much that will give me the advantage against my nemeses. And I must admit the idea of enslaving your opponent's will to your own has a certain... charm."

Scourge and Fiona exchange a look - of the literally why is he like this and the why do we talk to him again variety - and Scourge shoves his hands in his pockets and steps up. "Uh... yeah, man. Totally. Anyway, if we're done here, can we have the beryl now?"

"Of course. But first, I have one more task for you."

Scourge scoffs disbelievingly. "Are you kidding? The deal was we break into Eggman's lab, steal your stupid information, and hand it over. We've done that. It took like forever and it was a massive pain in the butt the whole time, we are not adding anything else onto that and that's final."

"...I'll double the amount of beryl."

Scourge hesitates.

... which is how they ended up here. Scourge crouches on the windy rooftop, tugging his dumb fancy suit jacket closer and hoping idly that something happens soon. "Can we go in yet?" he asks.

Hawk, who's busy adjusting his own disguise, shakes his head. "You really have no patience at all, do you?"

"Nope!" Scourge tugs on his overly-tight tie and mostly just makes it worse. "How 'bout now?"

"If you were any good at infiltration, Fiona would've let you go in already," Hawk says. He's typing on his communicator, syncing all their devices into something they can actually use. It's not that Hawk's particularly adept at technology, or anything; it's just that all the rest of them are so abysmal at anything electric that tech duty usually falls to him or Fiona. "Unless Plan C falls through, you're not headed in 'till the last minute."

Scourge sighs loudly, letting his feet dangle off the edge of the building. "I could just walk in and grab him. They wouldn't even see me coming. Then we wouldn't have to spend a million years sitting out in the cold."

Hawk doesn't look up. "And then Sonic would pursue, and then we'd have to fight him off while trying to kidnap a geriatric former soldier without killing him. Which, given our previous track record..."

The bird trails off and Scourge grimaces. Yeah. They'd given up on kidnappings for a reason. They wouldn't have even considered this one if not for the offer of Anarchy beryl - which has been in extremely short supply recently, given they can't hop dimensions without instantly snagging Zonic's individual attention. And it's not like Scourge isn't flattered that the self-important dimensional cop will drop everything for a chance at catching him, but he's not planning on seeing the inside of Zone Jail ever again.

Anyway. It's a small blessing that Zonic hasn't come looking for them personally, or sent Sonic after them, but it's one Scourge isn't willing to throw away just for a power-up. Thus the kidnapping mission.

Scourge swings his legs contemplatively and longs for Fiona to hurry up so he can bash some heads.

Right on cue, their communicators ring. "Alright, boys," Fiona's voice comes through a little tinnily. "You ready?"

"Heck yeah," Scourge says immediately.

"Ready to go whenever," Hawk confirms.

"Roger. Meet me where we agreed." The comms unit crackles and goes silent. Scourge hops up and starts stretching quickly, trying to limber up his half-frozen muscles. Hawk sets his communicator down and picks the lock on the trapdoor they'd been sitting next to. Once it's open, they slip down a small flight of stairs and through an empty hallway. At the end, they take a right through another hall and stop outside a janitor's closet.

Scourge raps on the door. "Knock, knock," he says.

There's a moment of silence. Then Lightning opens the door. "Hurry up," he whispers, peering over their shoulders.

Scourge clicks his tongue in disappointment. "Dude, you're supposed to say 'who's there.'"

"Yeah, Lightning," Fiona says from inside. "You're ruining the script."

"I- what?" Lightning sputters. "You people are so immature. Simian, can you tell them to shut up?"

There's a good fifteen seconds of judgemental silence. "...you should've said 'who's there.'"

Lightning rolls his eyes and Scourge pushes past him into the room. Simian nods as he enters and Fly, who's doing something he can't quite make out, cackles in a corner. Scourge spreads his arms wide. "Alright, I'm here now, the party can start!"

"Good to have you," Fiona says. She's sitting on an overturned bucket, one ankle folded over her knee and eyes glued to her phone. "Alright, so Plan A failed."

"Yes!"  Scourge cheers, pumping a fist in the air.

Fiona shoots him a glare. "We weren't able to get him away from his bodyguards and the speech is about to start soon. I didn't want to do this in front of a crowd, but we may not have a choice. Right now, we only have to deal with the normal security and Sonic. After the ceremony, they're going to meet up with a bunch of Sonic's friends before going back home to Knothole."

"Wouldn't it be better to wait, then?" Simian asks, folding his arms.

Fiona shakes her head. "No for two reasons. We can handle the normal security easily, especially if we use the crowd for meatshields while Scourge is distracting Sonic. Sonic's friends are, frankly, a much greater threat than the security, and they will not be holding back. And if we wait until they go back to Knothole, we have that... woman to deal with."

Everyone shudders at the mention of Nicole. Their last attempt on Knothole is not a memory anyone wants to relive.

"So if we use the crowd for cover and Scourge's able to distract Sonic for long enough, this is doable," Fiona resumes. "We'll just have to time it right. And we can not let Sonic know our target at all costs. If he realizes we're trying to kidnap his uncle, he won't let the old man out of his sight, and our job will get a lot harder. Got that?"

A quick briefing on everyone's roles later and it's time to go. Scourge starts to follow the guys out the door and is caught short by Fiona's hand on his wrist. "Sweetie, can I talk to you for a second?" she asks and drags him back inside before he can answer.

She turns him loose and Scourge spins around, rubbing his wrist. "Alright, if this is about what I think it's about-"

"Don't worry, I'm not yelling at you. Just..." she trails off to stare at him.

Scourge tries not to fidget and goes for a confident smile, propped up against the wall. "Babe, don't worry about me. This'll be a lark."

"It's... you know." Fiona shrugs and apparently decides to just go for it. "You've been having issues about your dad. I need to know if that'll affect your performance here."

"What?" Scourge is almost kind of offended. If it was anyone but Fi asking, he would be offended. "Babe, my uncle was a total nutjob. Like, worse than my old man. No issues here."

Fiona looks at him a second longer. "Alright," she says at last. "If you say so. I'm counting on you."

She brushes past him on her way out, squeezing his hand on the way, which is nice since she's weird about stuff like that. Scourge follows a minute later.

I require one more thing for my research, Finitevus had said. Charles the Hedgehog. Inventor of the roboticization process. He is receiving an award for his technological advancements in Central City in two days. Bring him to me alive and you will have your full reward.

Scourge scans the crowd for Charles now, leaning on the fancy railing of the fancy indoors balcony overlooking the fancy banquet hall. There's a name for a balcony like this - a mezzasomething - but he can't remember what it is. Maybe Fiona would know.

Scourge tugs at the collar of his unbearably fancy suit jacket and longs for his sunglasses.

He'd told Fiona the truth earlier - his uncle was a wackjob. Paranoid, jittery, simultaneously ravenous for power and terrified of it - no one had liked him, least of all his nephew.

Jules had liked him, probably. Enough to give him a home and a laboratory for his crazy experiments and to turn a blind eye when they started getting darker and more deadly. That had gone on up until Charles had invented a machine that turned moebians to robots, and its first (unwilling) test subject had been Jules.

Yeah. After Ivo managed to save Jules' life, they'd put a stop to that real quick.

They'd told Scourge that Charles had gone far away to someplace he could be happy. He still remembers that scene - Jules crouching down before him with mournful eyes, one arm cold and stiff where the roboticization process had gotten it before Ivo had pulled him out. His flesh hand had been warm and comforting on his shoulder, and Scourge had been so distracted by the touch that he hadn't even cared that his uncle was gone. He'd faked tears just to get Jules to stay with him a little longer.

Scourge shakes his head wildly, dissipating the memories. Anyway, it was painfully obvious in hindsight that Charles had either been jailed or executed for treason. Not that Scourge would have cared either way. Mostly, he's just vaguely curious to see what Charles is like in this world. Still a mad scientist, or something more benevolent?

A mass of whispering erupts at the main entryway of the hall. Scourge straightens up.

A bunch of bodyguards in black enter, followed by a few people who could be family or friends. Sonic's there, obviously, and next to him can only be Uncle Charles.

Scourge doesn't really remember his uncle; he was, after all, a kid when the guy vanished, and he avoided him whenever possible. But the face before him is undeniably like his own. He has the same sloping forehead, the same pointed muzzle. Honestly, he looks exactly like Sonic with a mustache.

Scourge leans forward, intrigued, as the old guy says something that has Sonic pitching forward in laughter. It's weird, seeing him. Not like seeing Jules, or even like seeing the mom. Just... weird.

Not the kind of weird that Fiona's worried about, thank Chaos. No, he'll have no problems handing this schmuck over to the Doc.

Charles and his little squad sit down in the front row while the bodyguards split up to cover the exits. Scourge tracks their positions automatically, mostly focused on the target. Charles claps his nephew on the back and leans over to whisper something in his ear. Scourge looks away with a sneer.

The ceremony starts. A bunch of people Scourge doesn't know talk about a bunch of things he doesn't understand, blah blah blah. Scourge yawns and taps a tattoo on the railing with his claws. Luckily, all the civilians seem to have gone down to the seating area, so he's alone on the balcony. As long as the security doesn't notice him, he should have no problem staying under the radar until it's time to make his move. Until then, he amuses himself trying to find the rest of the Destructix hidden in the crowd.

Down below, the speeches start wrapping up. Charles ruffles his nephew's quills one last time and heads up to the stage. Scourge straightens up as he accepts his award and takes the mic.

"First, I'd like to thank you all for being here today," the hedgehog says. Scourge taps his foot impatiently. "I know it's a bit of a long way for a lot of you - we've got some visitors from Holoska, even! - and it means a lot to me that you'd take the time to make it here today. So thank you."

Ugh, so boring. Can't Fiona hurry up? At this rate, they'll be doing the audience a favor by sparing them all this drivel.

"- of the University of Spagonia for funding my research and going out of his way to help me whenever I needed it. Thank you, old friend."

Scourge taps his communicator and almost jumps when it crackles to life.

"Alright, everyone's in position," Fiona says. "On my mark, Scourge, you're going to distract Sonic. Jump down there, challenge him to a fight, anything. His sole concern needs to be beating you up."

"All he has to do is be himself and Sonic'll be jumping at the chance to tear him a new one," Lightning interjects. "Works on me."

"Oh, shut up," Scourge says. "Fiona, tell him to shut up."

"...well, he has a point."

Lightning's amused huff is audible over the comm. Scourge rolls his eyes. Traitors, all of them.

Fiona's voice goes serious. "But for real. Get him mad and get him out of here. Make him chase you 'till I call you back, and don't give him a second to realize there's more going on. If he comes back here before we're done, it's over. Okay?"

"I got it handled, babe," Scourge says. "Worry about yourself."

"Believe me, I am." The comms go silent a second later. Scourge stands up, shakes the stiffness from his limbs, and hops up to crouch on the railing. It's showtime.

On stage, Charles is still talking. Does the hedgehog not know how to shut up? "And finally, I'd like to thank my family, who loved and supported me every step of the way, up to and including being here with me today as I accept this award. Sonic, my amazing nephew - you've grown so much and, while I wasn't there for all of it-"

Well, that's enough of that. Scourge leaps into the air, curls up, and lands a perfectly executed homing attack on the podium. Splinters, chunks of wood, and a massive dust cloud fly everywhere. Someone in the audience screams, and behind him he can hear Charles stumbling back and coughing furiously.

"Uncle Chuck!" In the front row, Sonic rockets to his feet and dashes forward, only to come skidding to a stop. As the dust dissipates, Scourge grins. He can feel the light glinting off his fangs.

"Long time no see, faker," Scourge spits. He pulls his sunglasses out of the stupid suit jacket's pocket and slides them on with a flourish. "Can't exactly say it's a pleasure seeing you... then again, I always look forward to a chance to kick your butt."

"Wh- Scourge?" the blue idiot sputters. The shock only lasts a matter of seconds before fading, as the flabbergasted expression turns into something more like a smirk. "Well, well. I haven't heard from you since I demolished you and left Zonic to drag your sorry carcass away. Did they let you out on good behavior?"

Good behavior. Hah. As if Sonic knows anything about what goes on in Zone Jail. "Please. I smashed my way out of there the first week. The Zone Jail's in shambles; just ask Zonic! Oh wait - you can't." He laughs.

Sonic's smile slips a notch and the quills on his back bristle. "What happened to Zonic?"

Scourge keeps laughing.

"Alright, pincushion. Maybe you'll tell me when I beat it out of you!" Apparently done talking, Sonic curls up into a spindash. Scourge, still laughing, topples off the wrecked podium and leaves Sonic to smash into the stage where he'd been standing. People are screaming, someone's escorting Charles off the stage, and Scourge is reveling in the chaos.

"Slowing down, blue boy?" he mocks him. "You'll never find out about your stupid friend if you can't even touch me." Zonic's perfectly fine, actually, unless you count the truckload of paperwork Scourge saddled him with after his escape from Zone Jail. Not that Sonic needs to know that, 'cause if anything ticks him off, it's a threat to one of his friends.

And, true to form, Sonic snarls wordlessly and Scourge knows he's got him.

"You're looking kind of slow today - let's see if those legs of yours still work," Scourge calls over his shoulder and takes off. The world blurs around him as he taps into his speed, rockets between panicked partygoers and confused waiters and angry bodyguards. Out of the corner of his eye, he briefly spots Fiona crouching behind a pillar before she's blown away in his wake. Like this, outside sounds, sights, everything drops away, leaving him alone with himself and the wind.

It's nice. Peaceful, even.

And then the only other being who can keep up with him barrels into his side, sending them tumbling over each other right through the big open doors outside. Scourge lands a kick to Sonic's chest, sending him spinning away, and sprints down a sidestreet towards the marketplace. A moment later, the sound of footsteps running at 300 mph picks up behind him.

Scourge grins. The plan's working, then - Sonic's so ticked that he hasn't even stopped to wonder why Scourge isn't stopping to fight, or why he crashed the party in the first place. Now he just has to play this out 'till Fiona's done.

"Been slacking your exercise regimen lately? 'Cause I thought you were faster than this!" Scourge calls out.

"That so?" Sonic returns. The sound is unexpectedly close and Scourge looks back to see Sonic running only a few paces behind him. "I could say the same for you."

Scourge growls and vaults a fruit cart, sending it flying with a back kick. Sonic dodges the cart and dives through the onslaught of flying fruit, coming up without a scratch. Scourge's gained a precious few seconds, but in a contest of speed, those seconds mean everything. He blocks Sonic's path - kicking over trash cans, dodging in front of moving cars, knocking a baby out of its mother's arms with a well placed swipe. Sonic dodges the trash cans, goes over or around the vehicles, and loses a good fifteen seconds saving the baby. By the time they've cleared the marketplace, Scourge is about thirty feet ahead and gaining.

"What's wrong?" Sonic yells. "Scared of a little fight?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Scourge yells back. "Dunno 'bout you, but I'm not wasting my time fighting someone too slow to keep up!" Up ahead, a pile of trash bags is stacked against a sloping wall, reaching up to the edge of the roof. Scourge leaps up in a single bound and sprints along the rooftop. Behind, the trash bags crinkle as Sonic races up, and tiles creak as the hedgehog fights for balance. Scourge snorts and picks up speed.

The rooftop run is fraught with near-misses and almost-falls. This area of town has a mixture of buildings; some are modern and boxy, with flat tops, but there's a number of older structures with pointed tile roofs. Scourge skids down the sloping ridge of one of these, slips off the building, snags a flagpole on the way down and turns his fall into a launch point. He lands upright on the narrow ledge of a skyscraper and darts along the line of windows, flashing a mock salute at some goggle-eyed kid in its bedroom.

Sneakered feet hit the concrete behind him as Sonic pursues, grinning despite his ferocious eyes.

Scourge hooks a fast right as the ledge ends and drops down to the top level of the parking garage nestled against the 'scraper. Mostly he's planning on going back down to street level, but Sonic puts on a burst of speed and tackles him right there.

They roll head over heels across the concrete, colliding with a dusty pickup truck hard enough to dent in the side. Scourge throws himself out of the way and rolls onto his feet just as Sonic picks himself up. The blaring car alarm is the only sound as they stare each other down.

Sonic moves first. He doesn't bother curling up, just lunges fist first at Scourge's face. Scourge ducks the punch and goes in low for Sonic's solar plexus, narrowly dodging a knee to his face. Sonic slams his heel down on Scourge's foot and drives an elbow into his neck. Scourge stumbles back, falling into a roll to avoid Sonic's left hook, and comes up on his feet with room to spare.

There's another moment of staring and circling as they pant heavily and pretend they're not.

And then Sonic steps something that crunches and looks down.

Scourge lunges. Sonic sidesteps him easily and snatches it up - and wait, Chaosdammit that's his communicator-

"Is this a mic?" Sonic asks disbelievingly and then the pieces click.

He stares at Scourge blankly, and Scourge can practically see his train of thought - comms means accomplices, accomplices means there's a plan, a plan means Sonic was intentionally drawn out here away from the ceremony, and if Sonic's out here then -

Then -

Scourge swears and moves to tackle Sonic but the idiot's already gone. Instinctively, his hand goes to his ear - "Fiona, he's coming your way, I-" No, wait, Sonic's got the communicator and it's broken anyway, dammit. The plan's falling apart and it's entirely his fault.

Well. It hasn't fallen apart yet.

Scourge takes off, running full-tilt after Sonic. The irony of the situation isn't lost on him, not that he appreciates it. Sonic's trail is a direct beeline back to the hall. It should be easy to follow, but for some reason Scourge can't catch up those last few feet.

"I thought you wanted to fight, you dingus!" Scourge snaps. "Make up your mind already, sheesh!"

"You tricked me," Sonic growls.

"Uh, yeah? I'm the bad guy. It's kinda what I do."

"What's your actual plan?"

"Thought you were gonna beat me up and find out?"

Sonic snarls and, impossibly, picks up speed. Scourge has to drop the conversation entirely to focus on just keeping up.

They hit the convention hall scarce minutes later. There's clearly a fight going on inside; explosions and the faint sound of screaming accompany the flood of people battering down the doors in their desperation to escape. The Destructix are clearly having fun... and more importantly, haven't escaped yet. What on Moebius are they doing?!

Sonic zips through the crowd, dodging panicking mobians with practiced ease. Scourge doesn't bother; he kicks one middle-aged cat into the heart of the rush and vaults over the resulting pileup without missing a step. "Babe! Hope you're wrapping it up in there!" he yells as they burst into the ceremony hall.

The Destructix are more than holding their own. The security has been almost entirely cleared out; fallen guards litter the area while none of their own are even scratched. Fiona, wielding a G.U.N. issue stun pistol, jerks up in surprise as Sonic skids into the room. "Scourge, you had one job!" she screeches.

"So did you!" Scourge rams into Sonic from behind, sending them both flying into a row of seating. Scourge comes out on top. "What happened to Ch- the target?" he asks, pinning Sonic down with an elbow to his throat.

"Escaped," Fiona says grimly. "We've already informed the Doc... and, uh, we have a new objective now."

Sonic makes a choked-off sound and Scourge leans down harder. Something shifts behind him but he ignores it. "Alright, what is it?"

Fiona hesitates.

And then cold metal claws clamp down around his shoulder and tear him off Sonic, lifting him bodily into the air. The hedgehog wheezes for breath on the ground, but Scourge isn't paying attention. He's not paying attention to anything anymore, because in front of him-

"What the hell are you doing here," Scourge breathes.

Artificial red eyes burn into his own. "Don't touch my son," says Jules, and the anger in his voice causes every limb in Scourge's body to lock up with instinctive fear.

Of course Jules is here, Charles is his brother, why wouldn't he attend the ceremony - hadn't the blasted hedgehog said as much during his speech? Scourge should've realized it then. This was a bad idea, they need to get out of here, why did Scourge even come here in the first place-

Something in Jules' mechanical expression thaws.

The clawhold on his shoulder eases as he's lowered to his feet, but Scourge's brain is still spinning in circles. He's gone completely unresponsive, some part of him knows, but he can't think.

"Get away from him!" Fiona yells and plants a high kick right in the center of Jules' chest. The robian goes flying, pursued by Simian, and Hawk swoops down behind them to tackle Sonic away. "Babe," Fiona says, kneeling down beside Scourge, feeling frantically at his shoulder. "Did he get you?"

The world shifts a little bit back into place. "No," Scourge mutters. "Fiona, I don't-"

"Save it." Fiona's eyes are full of worry as she grabs his wrist and hauls him to his feet. "I think you need to sit this one out, sweetie."

"What? No." Scourge grips her hand like a lifeline. "I can fight. I can still fight."

"Scourge... the new target is Jules."

Something in his chest catches. Scourge stares at her, and around them, the noise of the battle seems to fade. "...what? Why?"

Fiona grimaces. "We lost the inventor of roboticization. Next best thing is its last survivor."

"No. We're not doing that." Scourge has no idea what he's doing, only that they cannot hand his- hand Jules over to Finitevus. He catches both her hands in his own and squeezes them tight. "Call off the mission, we're going home."

Fiona stares at him. "What? Scourge, you can't be serious! After all the work we've put into this? And what about the beryl?"

"We already got the beryl from the first mission. We'll be careful and save it until we can restock. We've gotten this far without any beryl at all, we don't need it that badly!" Scourge hesitates. "...Fiona, please."

It's the last word that breaks her. She knows how bad he hates saying it, knows how much this means to him that he's saying it now. Her shoulders slump in defeat. "...fine. But you get to explain this to the Doc - and please, let's try to avoid burning that bridge again."

Scourge squeezes her hand one last time before letting go. "Thanks, Fi. And don't worry about the Doc; I'll take care of him."

"That's what I'm worried about," Fiona grumbles, but she's smiling. "Alright, team," she calls out, pulling out her warp ring. "Mission's off. We're going home."

"Wait, what?" Hawk asks and nearly gets clobbered by Sonic for his trouble. "Why?"

"Ask questions when we get home," Fiona says and throws the ring. As the portal whooshes open, Scourge turns to survey the troops. Lightning and Simian are slowly retreating back to the portal, fighting Jules every step of the way, while Hawk and Fly are trying without much success to fend off Sonic long enough to run.

Scourge spindashes into Sonic, knocking him off-balance. "Get to the portal, idiots!" To Sonic, he adds, "Sorry, but it looks like we're cutting this date short." If Chaos has even a drop of mercy in its unforgiving soul, Sonic will have been too thoroughly distracted by the fight to have overheard his exchange with Fiona.

And it looks like for once, his prayers are answered, because Sonic's grin, strained with exhaustion though it is, hints at nothing off. "I'm not letting you get away this time," he says and launches into another spindash. "I still have some questions for you to answer!"

"Then they'll have to wait for next time." Scourge ducks the attack and slams his heel into Sonic as he passes, boosting his momentum to slam into the opposite wall. "Alright, time to go!" he yells, scrambling for the portal. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the rest of the Destructix doing the same.

Fiona's already waiting at the portal, with one leg halfway through, and-

"-aaaaaAAAUGH, WHAT THE HELL," she screams and falls back, pinwheeling wildly.

"Fiona!" Scourge yells and then the world blurs briefly and he's at her side, hauling her to her feet. "Fi, what's-" and then he screams too, because Finitevus is literally right there, climbing through the ring like a monster in a horror movie.

The battle cuts off. A few feet away, a newly recovered Sonic skids to a stop, staring incredulously. The Destructix are sort of ranged out behind him, looking to Scourge and Fiona for the next move. And who knows where Jules is.

"Dude," Scourge says emphatically, putting a hand to his chest. "Don't do that."

"What are you doing," Finitevus hisses.

Scourge makes a show of looking around. "Uh, escaping? I mean, what does it look like?"

"I should have known better than expect you lot to pull through," Finitevus mutters, and hey, that's actually kind of offensive.

"Hey! Screw you, man!" Scourge yells, shaking his fist. "We're leaving 'cause we want to, not 'cause we're losing!" Fiona slaps a palm to her face.

"Oh? And what possible reason could you have to do that?" Finitevus asks, but he doesn't seem very interested in an answer, because his hands flare with dark energy a second later, and Scourge knows what that means.

"Scatter!" he yells and hits the ground with Fiona as a bolt of Chaos energy goes right over their heads. Fiona rolls out from under him as he leaps to his feet.

Sonic seems to have switched targets. Currently, he's hammering away at Finitevus' defenses, running his mouth the whole time. The ring portal is still open behind Finitevus, but they need to get the crazy echidna out of the way first.

Fiona, as usual, is two steps ahead. "You're going to need to team up with Sonic."

"What, seriously? Can't we just let Sonic take care of the Doc and ditch?"

She gives him a flat look. "I don't know how he did it, but Finitevus must have hijacked the ring's signal and keyed it to his lair. I need time to reset it before we can leave. Just, you know-" she waves a hand vaguely. "Move the fight away. Whale on Finitevus. Keep them both off my back long enough for me to work."

"Ugh. Fine." Scourge turns around on his heel. "Hey, loser!" he calls out, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Five minute truce?"

Sonic uncurls in midair long enough to yell, "Make it two!"

Fiona had better work fast, because this isn't going to take long. "Destructix, watch Fiona's back," he orders and throws himself into the fight.

Finitevus was clearly anticipating something like this, because he moves smoothly into defending against the both of them without hesitation. And it's - frustrating. Whenever Scourge throws a punch, a ring portal swirls into being in just the right place to take his hit. If he tries a kick, the same thing. And Chaos forbid he spindashes, or he'll wind up on the opposite side of the room (or, more accurately, slamming into Sonic).

Between the ring portals and the constant misdirection, the two minute mark passes and they haven't landed a single hit. The guy isn't on their level, exactly, but he's unpredictable with enough tricks that he could probably take either of them on their own. Against both of them, he doesn't stand a chance - or he wouldn't if Sonic would get out of his way.

"Dude, we're supposed to be working together!" Sonic snaps.

Scourge flicks his ear (it's been ringing since Finitevus dropped a portal that sent a spindashing Sonic on a collision course with Scourge's face) and ducks beneath a Chaos-infused punch. "Not my fault you can't keep up."

He sidesteps a second punch and follows up with a roundhouse kick that comes inches from the Doc's face before another ring portal intercepts. Dammit.

Sonic, of course, chooses that moment to go for a homing attack, which takes him right into the portal as Finitevus dodges. From somewhere on the other side of the room, the moron makes a faint oomph sound as the portal spits him out.

Scourge rolls his eyes and sweeps his legs under Finitevus' ankles, forcing the echidna to stumble back. "You make a remarkably disloyal minion," Finitevus says and drops into a portal.

On a hunch, Scourge spins around and slams a haymaker into Finitevus' face when the echidna reappears behind him. "Calling me a minion was your first mistake, Doc," Scourge says. "I'm the king, baby."

Finitevus snarls and vanishes again. "I must wonder at the cause of this particular instance," his voice says. Scourge whirls around, fists up before him, but the scientist is nowhere to be seen. "You were, after all, so eager to serve at first. What changed your mind?"

"You really gotta learn the difference between serving and making a deal, bud," Scourge says. "This why your friends always leave you?"

Finitevus ignores him. "Nothing changed between then and now. Nothing... except the target." Something flickers in the corner of Scourge's eye and he starts to turn, but he's met with a blow to the jaw followed by one to the shin. Scourge crumples to his knee with a cry of pain and looks up to see Finitevus' Chaos-powered boot swing for his face-

And then someone's hand snags his wrist and they're moving.

The world blurs just a little as Sonic hauls him across the room at lightning speed to drag him behind an overturned table. Scourge clutches the lapels of his jacket and tries to force his racing heartbeat to settle. For a second, they just breathe.

"Okay, we need to coordinate," Sonic says belatedly.

"Don't tell me what to do," Scourge says, mostly on reflex.

Sonic rolls his eyes. "If you draw his fire, I'll go behind to take him offguard. Think you can do that?"

"What? No. You draw his fire and I'll sneak up behind him."

"Yeah, maybe I'd do that if I had any faith at all in your stealth. You aren't exactly subtle, bud."

Scourge thinks back to every mission that involved some level of sabotage/stealth/general sneakery and their inevitably disastrous ends and winces. Unfortunately, he has a point. "Fine, whatever. Don't mess this up, dweeb." A blast of chaos energy rocks the floor beneath their feet - time's up. Finitevus is here.

Scourge breaks for the left.

"Hey old man, having trouble keeping up?" He leaps into the air as Finitevus goes for a sweeping kick and curls into a spindash, aimed at the scientist's head. Predictably, he sails right into a ring portal and falls out several feet away. In midair, he uncurls and kicks off the ground to rebound towards Finietvus.

The Doc raises his hands coated in Chaos energy and actually catches the spindash. For a moment, they war against each other - dark energy to living buzzsaw - before Finitevus shoves back and they break apart.

Scourge hits the ground in a crouch and lunges again. This time, he feints an uppercut followed up with a knee strike to the gut. The echidna stumbles back, but recovers almost instantly. As Scourge goes in for another strike, Finitevus snags his collar and yanks him off-balance, slamming him into the dirt. Scourge tries to wriggle out of his grip, but the Doc pins him to the ground with a hand on his throat and a knee on his chest.

"I can't say I haven't been waiting for this," the mad scientist breathes, and raises a handful of swirling black energy.

Scourge scrabbles helplessly at his wrist and wonders, briefly, if this is it.

And then a blue ball of spikes rockets out of nowhere, smacking into the back of Finitevus' head so hard the floor creaks when he faceplants. Scourge kicks him off and rolls back onto his feet, smacking away Sonic's outstretched hand. The echidna staggers upright, but his shield is broken and Sonic and Scourge poised on either side of him. The echidna eyes them warily, rings at the ready, and for a second no one moves.

"Got it!" Fiona's voice breaks the spell.

Sonic's concentration slips. Scourge can see it; the way his posture straightens slightly, the way he half-turns to face her. Finitevus sees it too.

And then Finitevus' hands are up, radiating dark energy, and Scourge drops into a defensive stance 'cause the blue buffoon can get himself killed if he wants but Scourge is going down fighting- but Finitevus isn't looking at either of them.

He's looking behind them.

At Jules.

Jules, who has no Chaos abilities, can't break the sound barrier on a whim, can't dodge bullets point-blank.

Jules, who both is his father and isn't, who's a machine but still alive, who stood across from Scourge in a dark room and didn't flinch though Scourge held his life in his hands, who loves his wife and child and wouldn't hesitate to die for either of them.

Jules, who would walk a random stranger through a panic attack on the street but can't dodge a Chaos spear if it's pointed at his chest.

Time slows down to a crawl. Scourge doesn't think.

He just moves.

The last thing he sees, as pain erupts from his chest like lightning and the world is drowned out by the black of corrupted Chaos energy, is the bright red of Jules' horrified eyes.

There's a beeping noise somewhere near his ear. Fiona's phone, probably (even though it sounds nothing like her alarm). Scourge reaches up to shut it off and is stopped halfway by the clink of cold metal.

...huh?

He opens his eyes to dim electric light and a pounding headache. There's a hard surface beneath his back, thin sheets around him, and a metallic chill around his wrists, ankles, and throat.

Through the haze, something about the last one feels familiar.

Beside him, something rustles, and a soft voice says, "Awake, then?"

"Dad?" Scourge mumbles foggily. For a moment he's eight again, in the hospital after a near-drowning, and his dad took a whole day off from work to rush to his bedside and hold his hand. It was the first time he'd seen him in a week.

Then reality catches up and reminds him that no, his dad is dead and whatever's going on here is something to worry about. The fog is gone in an instant.

Scourge's eyes snap open and he throws himself as much he can to the far side of the bed from the figure standing there now. Jules is there - a little scratched and dinged up but very much alive.

There's a flicker of something like relief inside him before Scourge stuffs it down and crushes it very firmly. Chaos, Fiona was right. He let his stupid hangups about this robian get out of hand, and now look what's happened - the mission went south, Scourge is chained to a hospital bed, the rest of the Destructix are nowhere to be seen, and worst of all, he made a heroic sacrifice like he's Sonic or something.

Chaos, Scourge is never living this one down.

"It's good to see you're moving around already," Da- Jules says in that same too-soft tone. "Some of the doctors were convinced you wouldn't live another day. I suppose any son of mine, even from another dimension, is just too durned stubborn to go out like that..."

"Don't," Scourge rasps.

Jules blinks at him. "Pardon?"

"That." Scourge lets go of the bed's railing just long enough to gesture irritably. "I'm not your son. Don't call me that."

Instead of rearing back in offense or dropping the nice act altogether, Jules tilts his head slightly, as though in recognition. "Ah," he says after a moment. "So that was you."

Scourge freezes and tries to play it off. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"That day in front of Chuck's diner," Jules says. "That was you. I wasn't sure, since you were still supposed to be in Zone Jail then."

"Chuck's diner? What?" Scourge forces a laugh. It comes out entirely fake and just a little unhinged.

"You had a panic attack," Jules continues, unperturbed. "I walked you through it. Honestly, at the time, I thought it was because of me."

It was because of you, Scourge wants to say. Instead, he asks, "Whaddya mean?"

Jules gestures vaguely to himself. "I'm a robian," he says. "Robotnik put Knothole through a lot when the roboticizor was still functioning. Plenty of people have had... adverse reactions to my body in the past. It's unfortunate but can't really be helped, except through time and patience."

...for some reason, that stings. Scourge pushes the thought away and snorts. "Sucks to be you. Don't see what that has to do with me."

"You did ask," Jules reminds him, which is fair. He supposes. They lapse into silence.

Scourge slumps against the bed, a little more relaxed with no attack evidently imminent, and holds up a hand to the light. The dangling cuff glints coldly. He can't reach the collar on his neck, but he suspects it shines the same way - like the inhibitors back at Zone Jail. "You guys already talked to Zonic, then?" he guesses.

He's not really expecting an answer, but Jules gives one anyway. "We did. He gave us that inhibitor collar you're wearing right now." Nailed it. "He wanted to take you back with him to Zone Jail right away, but with the condition you were in, we didn't want to risk moving you until you were stable."

Scourge flexes his fingers, watching the muscles move. He'd suspected already, given how drained he feels right now, but knowing that he's wearing the collar is... disheartening. That level of powerlessness is something he'd never wanted to feel again. "I'm stable now. So when will you be moving me?"

Jules hesitates. "Now that you're awake, we'll probably call Zonic to pick you up sometime tomorrow. It's nighttime right now."

"What? How long was I out?"

"Two days."

Two days, and he's still here? Either the Destructix got nabbed too (possible), are planning a rescue mission (unlikely), or ditched (most likely). That... also stings. A lot. He'd liked Fiona, and he was getting used to the rest of the idiots, too.

"What about my team?" he asks.

"Vanished. They tried to retrieve you but retreated when reinforcements arrived."

It doesn't mean much - he is, after all, their strongest fighter and tactically it makes sense to avoid losing him if possible - but it makes Scourge feel better to know they'd at least tried. He lets his hand fall back to the bed with a metallic jingle.

"I still don't understand," Jules says, and Chaos, why won't he shut up? Is this something inherent to Sonic's family? "Why did you save me?"

Scourge inspects the patterns of cracks on the ceiling. That one looks like Sleuth Dog's face. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he mumbles.

"You took an attack meant for me. That much concentrated Chaos energy would've killed me - it's likely the only reason you survived is because you're a very adept controller."

"Sounds like you already have an answer to me."

There's a brief pause. Scourge continues avoiding eye contact. "I do have an idea," Jules says softly. "But I'd like to hear a confirmation from your own mouth."

Scourge doesn't say anything.

What's he supposed to say - that every time he sees Jules some stupid, long-dead part of him longs for his approval? That Jules is dredging up memories better left buried? That when he saw his dad - any version of him - in danger, that his first instinct was to protect him, despite everything he'd done?

Ha. Yeah, right.

"Think what you want, old man." Scourge bares his teeth. "It doesn't mean anything. It was an accident."

Jules doesn't waver. "I think we both know that's not true."

Can't this guy take no for an answer? Scourge huffs and rolls over as much as he can so his back is toward Jules. "Leave," he says. It's what you're best at, after all.

"Sonic heard that you attacked the ceremony to kidnap Chuck."

Scourge has a sudden, sinking feeling he knows where this is going. "I don't care. Go away."

Jules marches on, implacable. "He said that halfway through, after Chuck escaped, Finitevus told you to switch targets. That the new target was me."

"Shut up!"

"And that when you heard I was in danger, you-"

"So I called it off, alright?" Scourge bolts upright. The handcuffs snap back against his wrists painfully and his ankles scream as the cuffs cut into his skin, but he's too furious and aching and raw to care. "Yeah, I called off the mission. Yeah, I took that stupid attack. It doesn't change anything! I'm still your enemy, I'm still going to kill Sonic, I'm still going to tear apart your world and everything you love! So what if I- if I..."

"Risked all that to save one broken-down, tactically unimportant robian?" Jules finishes quietly.

"Yes! No!" Scourge tries to bury his face in his hands and can't even do that, damn this tiny range of motion. "Will you leave me alone?" Metal glints in the corner of his eye as Jules reaches out a hand. Scourge growls deep in his throat until the hand is slowly drawn back.

Mercifully, the robian is silent while Scourge desperately tries to keep himself from falling apart. Chaos, what is wrong with him?

"What do you want from me," he mutters.

This time, it's Jules who looks away. "There's not much time before I have to call Zonic in," he says. "Before he left the first time, there was talk of... life in solitary confinement. Or execution."

Breathe. It's fine. Scourge has been in worse scrapes before. "I can see where the similarities between you and my dad come in," he says softly. Venomously. "He never hesitated to lock me away, either." Sure, it hadn't exactly been tossing him in a prison cell and throwing away the key, but the perpetual grounding to an empty mansion, the total abandonment of him to an endless stream of nannies... and then, of course, that fiasco right before he died.

Dads. So eager to foist their screwups on other people, wash their hands and move on.

"Doesn't any of this setup seem odd to you?" Jules asks abruptly.

Scourge blinks, thrown. "What? You hit your head somewhere, old man?"

"Think about it. You're a top-priority prisoner. You've broken out of Zone Jail. And yet your only security here is an inhibitor collar, some handcuffs, and a broken-down old robian."

...there's a trap here somewhere, Scourge knows it. "Yesss?" He eyes Jules warily. Is this some kinda reverse-psychology thing?

Jules laughs wearily. "You're not the only one with emotional ties he can't quite cut, son."

"Don't call me that," Scourge says reflexively before the weight of Jules' words catch up to him. "Wait, what? Are you saying-" and then he cuts off, because that's so ridiculous it shouldn't be said out loud.

"Yes," Jules confirms. "I volunteered for guard duty because I had to ask, first. To make sure for myself that something of my son is in there."

"I am not your son," Scourge snaps. Distantly, some part of him recognizes that he's being actively detrimental - that if he plays his cards right he could actually walk out of this free - but he's past that kind of rational behavior now. "You're chasing ghosts, old man! Stop looking for stuff that isn't gonna happen!"

"You're not my son," Jules agrees. "You're not my Sonic. But you're a Sonic, and somewhere... that potential for great good is inside you."

And isn't that exactly what Sonic had said on their last birthday - the day he'd finally ditched that lame Anti-Sonic moniker, had finally stepped out of Sonic's shadow into his own light - that all it'd take is a bit of decency, and Scourge would be just like him? The echo stills him.

"You're making a mistake," he says hoarsely. He's not going back to Zone Jail, he'll die before he goes back to that hellhole, but he needs Jules to understand this. "I'm not Sonic. I'm no hero. If you let me go, I'm just gonna go right back to doing what I did before. People will die because of you."

"No, they won't," Jules says, half-smiling. "I've done my research. The Destructix don't kill. You wreak havoc and destroy things, but... no bodies. I understand it's to avoid trouble with G.U.N.," he adds, holding up a hand to forestall Scourge's protests, "But you don't have a body count. That's important."

Shows what he knows - but Scourge can't bring himself to point out the obvious. "I still ruin lives," Scourge says instead. "There's other ways to kill people without holding a gun to their heads."

"I know. And that's where I'm being selfish." The half-smile turns into a full smile, but it's so sad and wracked with exhaustion and bitterness that Scourge has to look away. "I... I lost my son once. I can't help it... I can't watch a son of mine - from any universe - be destroyed while I can do anything to stop it. I'm not a good person, Scourge. I've lost too much to try. So I'm going to be selfish, just this once, and hope you don't make me regret it."

Scourge is silent. He's silent when Jules stands up and unlocks the cuffs, one by one. He's silent when Jules reaches up to his throat to unlock the inhibitor, and he's silent when it falls away and power rushes freely beneath his skin once more.

His boots are on the floor, suit jacket draped over a chair. He pulls on the shoes and digs through the pockets until he finds his sunglasses, but leaves the jacket behind.

"Scourge," Jules says quietly, as Scourge pushes the window open. He hesitates over the window sill, half inside and half out.

If Jules asks him to stay, he doesn't know what he'll do.

But he doesn't. In the end, Jules looks down and whispers, "If you ever need somewhere to rest, my home is always open. Till then... be safe, son."

The words catch in Scourge's throat. He nods, wordlessly, and drops out of the window to land lightly on his feet on the ground below. For a moment, he dallies beneath the window, waiting for-

For...

He doesn't know. Scourge shivers in the cool night air and starts running.

...thanks, Dad.

He finds the base a few hours later, jogging to the next town over and hopping a train the rest of the way. When he walks in, the base goes dead silent.

Fiona leaps up from the circle of Destructix - planning a rescue mission, he later finds out - and tackles him, hugging and pounding him in equal measure. She cries a little too, which he only discovers when she points out he's tearing up himself. The Destructix surround them, yelling over each other and clapping him on the back until Simian picks them all up in a group hug. It's at that point that Scourge declares he's done with all this mushy stuff and if they don't knock it off he won't bother coming back next time. Fiona announces that if there is a next time he won't have to worry about coming back because she'll kill him first, and Simian gives them all one last squeeze before turning them loose.

Scourge retrieves his leather jacket with a sense of great relief and they all end up watching another trashy samurai movie, which Lightning ruins again. Fiona holds him tight the whole time and doesn't chew him out like he deserves, for which Scourge is unendingly grateful.

He doesn't go back to the house. He pulls jobs with the Destructix, they beat up on Sonic and his lackeys, they have one run-in which Finitevus that they come off much worse for. And they watch crappy movies, eat ridiculous amounts of junk food, and get personally banned from every arcade and amusement park across the continent. He's... not gonna lie, it's actually pretty fun.

But in the back of his head, the house is always there. The robian bustling around the empty kitchen in a pink apron. The scent of pancakes frying. Till then... be safe, son.

It takes a long time - months of denial, of wondering and longing and furious self-restraint - but he caves eventually.

He shows up on a morning he knows Sonic and his mom won't be there. He doesn't knock on the door, or ring the bell. Mostly, he just hovers outside, unable to work up his nerve to do anything.

He's about to leave when the door swings open. Jules stands there, looking exactly the same as he did that night by the hospital bed, with eyes too soft for his wayward not-son. Scourge, half-frozen on the sidewalk, searches for something to say and comes up empty. They stare at each other silently.

Scourge shoves his hands in his pockets and forces back the lump in his throat. "I was in the area, so I dropped by," he mutters. "Don't think this means anything."

Jules looks at him for a long moment and Scourge forgets to breathe. Slowly, softly, his dad smiles. "Welcome home, son."

[gardenia-angel]

Chapter One:

𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓜𝔂 𝓛𝓾𝓬𝓴

(First chapter is a little longer than I planned oops! Sorry not sorry but please let me know what you think of the story so far in comments!)

‘God I wish I could go home.’ I thought to myself as I worked. Today I had an early morning shift, which meant I had to be up at 5 am. As a non-morning person that took a lot of effort and a lot of coffee to get me up. I mainly worked by myself so it was just me and my wandering thoughts during my 7 hour shift. My mind mainly focused on what I finished binge watching last night. The Umbrella Academy. I was shocked but also excited with the ending. Even though the thought of what happened to ghost Ben broke my heart, I still cant wait for what’s in store for season 3.

I began to wonder what it would be like to live a world such as the Hargreeves siblings. I thought it be way more exciting than my normal boring life.

My phone buzzed signaling that it was time for me to take my break. I didn’t realized how much time went by while I was daydreaming about my Umbrella Academy fantasy. As I entered the break room, I realized I was the only one with a break at the time. I sighed contently. I find it rather peaceful being alone all the time. It beats having to be in a cramped room with all your other obnoxious coworkers. My break was ending soon so I decided to leave the room and head over to the restroom. When I opened the break room door however, it wasn’t the store I worked in at all. I stared wide eyed into a blue vortex that was blowing air everywhere. I put my hands to my face trying to shield my eyes from the bright lights flashing when suddenly I felt my whole body being lifted up. Im not the type that screams when im scared, I’m the type that cant let out any noise when im truly frightened. So with a gasp, I was sucked right into the vortex.

I dropped down into an alleyway. I groaned as I laid on my stomach for a few moments as I tried to piece together what the hell just happened. For some weird reason my mind felt all fuzzy and I couldn’t exactly remember anything. I decided to get up now and take a look around. Stepping out of the alleyway I glanced around. I seemed to be in a downtown area with stores that looked..outdated? That’s really weird. I walked down the sidewalk until I stumbled upon a very familiar scene, although I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I saw a boy in a school uniform sitting on a bench next to an older man in a suit. I watched from the side as the two talked. I started to get a bad feeling, like something was about to shift. Across the street I watched as a bus pulled up to a stop. In the back of my mind I could hear gunshots. I got goosebumps all of a sudden as I rushed to the boys side.

“Excuse me but you need to move right now!” I said to him while shaking his shoulder slightly. He looked at me in confusion and with a slight anger in his tone he asked “who the hell are you?!”

I shook my head. “Please you have to listen to me! Three men are about to get off that bus and start shooting at you!”

Just then, the three men did come off the bus. They began walking towards us.

“Who the hell are those guys?!” The boy said, trying to get a good look at them.

“Shit.” The older man said as he put something in the boys pocket.

“FIVE!” I shouted. In a matter of moments the men started shooting at us. The older man had shoved a briefcase in front of us and somehow the boy and I found ourselves behind a car. The briefcase now having bullet holes in it. “How many times did I say bulletproof briefcases.” The boy said in disappointment.

“I think I’m going to be sick..” I groaned as I held my stomach. Did we really just teleport from the bench to this car?! The sound of guns cocking and footsteps nearing us made the boy grab my hand and teleport us again. This time on a roof.

“Oh my god I’m going to throw up!” I groaned again. This time we were laying down on top of a roof. The boy quickly shushed me. “If you don’t shut up they’ll find us and kill us.”

The thought of being shot to death quickly made me stop complaining. He stuck his head up a little to see if the coast was clear. When it was, he grabbed my hand and teleported us both back down into the alleyway.

I ended up vomiting up a little bit. “Sorry about that, didn’t mean to make you sick but if I didn’t, well then you’d be dead.” His way of trying to comfort me did not comfort me in the slightest. “Thanks?” I said as I wiped my mouth and turned back to face him. “Who are you and how did you know that was going to happen before it happened and how do you know my name!?” He bombarded me with a whole lot of questions. I stared back at him in confusion as I stuttered trying to find the answer to these questions i truly did not know. His attention was then directed elsewhere. He looked towards a window in suspicion. “Hold that thought. I’ll be right back.” He said before heading towards a door into the back of a building. “Hey wait! Don’t leave me here.” I said before he teleported away inside. “Wait here my ass..” I mumbled before following him inside. Luckily the door was unlocked. I followed him up some stairs where he knocked on a door. The door next to the other one opened up and a man poked his head out. “What do you want?” The man asked suspiciously.

“Hi I’m selling encyclopedias for my youth group. I was wondering if you —“ The man shut his door without a word. Five then teleported into the mans home without a second thought.

“He really needs to stop doing that.” I said to myself as I tried to open the door. To no avail, it was locked. I sighed as I waited for them to open the door for me. I could hear the other man let out a small scream. They were talking some more until the boy finally came and opened the door for me. He teleported back into the other room where the man was. He jumped a little at how close the boy appeared to him.

“Listen to me I —“ The boy began.

“E-Elliot Elliot, m-my name is Elliot.” He said while backing up.

I looked around at all the newspapers and things plastered on the walls. Guess this guy is super into SciFi.

“Whatever, alright! I got 10 days to find them and save the world, and I’m gonna need your help to find them.”

I looked at him when he said that. Something about what he said rang a bell in my head. God why I can’t I remember anything clearly!

He turned to me. “And you? What’s your name?”

I shook my head solemnly and looked down at the ground. “I really wish I could tell you but I just can’t remember anything clearly.” I said truthfully.

“Well what was the last thing you do remember.” He said, this time his tone was more sympathetic.

“I remember being somewhere and..and opening a door, I think. The next thing I know is falling onto the pavement in that alleyway.”

“Hmm..” was all he said before taking a sip of coffee.

“I know I sound absolutely crazy but it’s true!”

“Well, my whole life is crazy so I understand” he sighed.

“I must’ve accidentally time traveled you too along with the rest of us.” He muttered before looking me up and down. “I can tell you’re from my time, your clothes don’t match the sixties fashion.”

My eyes widened. “Wait hold up..did you just say the sixties?!” I looked over at the other man. He waved at me but I just stared in disbelief. “Plus you also have a cellphone in your back pocket.” I reached down to my back pocket and pulled out my phone. “Oh shit maybe this could help me..” I tried pressing the home button but it wouldn’t turn on. “Just my luck, it’s dead. I doubt there’s a charger around here.” I said sadly as I put it back in my pocket.

“What I don’t understand is how you knew what was going to happen. Is that your power?” He asked nonchalantly. As if having powers is normal.

I knitted my brows is confusion. “My powers?! What are talking about, I don’t know! How do I even know your name? I’m not sure about that either Five!” I crossed my arms around my torso and held myself tightly. “It’s like I know you somehow..all of you. This all just seems so vaguely familiar.”

“You know my siblings names too?” Five asked.

“Yeah there’s..” I ondered on the thought for a few seconds before I could clearly say each of their names. “Diego, Vanya, Klaus, Allison, and Luther.” I said without a second hesitation.

Five looked up at you in curiosity. He’s never met anyone quite like you. Suddenly I got flashes of what seemed like memories. Of the brother Diego. He was in a hospital of sorts and he seemed to be sitting in a circle of patients, talking.

“I think I might be able to help you look for one of your brothers?” I said sounding more like I was asking a question.

Five nodded. “Where do we start?”

“I wanna say he’s in a sort of hospital or something. l don’t really know where for sure though.” I shrugged.

“She right actually!” Elliot chimed in. He went over to a desk drawer and pulled out a newspaper clipping. “Disturbed man with multiple knives arrested outside 1026 N. Beckley.” I read aloud.

“Diego.” Five muttered as we looked at the article. Five then took the paper from Elliot and put it in his pocket. “Let’s go, you’re gonna help me find all of them.” He said to me.

He began walking away towards the door, ready to start his mission.

“Woah woah woah! Hold on mister, what makes you think I should come with you? Have you forgotten about the three men that were shooting at us? There’s a fat chance that they’ll still be hunting us!”

Five turned back to me and shrugged. “They’re hunting me not us. They’re the Swedes as everyone would call them. They’re brothers and they work for my former employer at the Commission. I already know how to handle them. That won’t be our problem.”

“I don’t know Five. I might just slow you down. I’m a liability..”

He shrugged again. “Maybe you can actually fight, we don’t know that yet.” He smiled and I rolled my eyes. I decided to follow anyways.

“Key word Five, ‘yet’. And I don’t think I wanna know if we really do get in trouble.” I said as we walked out the door

In a short time we found the hospital Diego resided. So are we breaking him out of here or what’s the plan?” I asked as we went inside the large building. “I’m not entirely sure yet..” Five said.

Five talked to the front desk lady and she led us to a visiting room where we waited for them to bring Diego to us.

The orderlies led Diego in the room a few minutes later. “Five.” Diego stated as if he didn’t believe it was really him. He glanced at me as he sat down on the chair across from us but quickly put his attention back onto Five.

“Hey Diego.” Five replied back. All were quiet until Five broke the silence. “You look good in white.” He sarcastically remarked. Diego rolled his eyes. “About time you show up.”

“How’d you know I’d be back?” Five questioned.

“Because that’s the kind of shit you pull.” Diego said as if it were obvious.

“Where are the others?” Five asked.

“They’re not with you?” He said then glanced at me again. “And who’s this?” He said confused.

I smiled slightly and put my hand out to shake his. “Hi, I’m...well actually I don’t know who I am.” Diego shook my hand and gave me a skeptic look and turned back to Five.

“It’s a long story but basically when we teleported, I accidentally teleported her too. I don’t know how exactly, time travel is a roll of the dice. I haven’t exactly worked out all the quirks..” Five explained.

They went on talking to each other as I started to drift into my thoughts. Why am I here? What’s wrong with my memory? None of this is making sense. I don’t belong here. I need to find a way home. All Five seems to care about is this doomsday thing. It all just seems too unreal!

I was brought back to reality when I heard Five stand up and shout. “Guard! My brother here is plotting an escape. The bars in his room have been shaved down.”

In a matter of milliseconds Diego jumped up and pranced forward trying to strangle Five as the guards tried to hold him back. I quickly stood up trying not to get in the way. A nurse then came in and injected Diego with something causing him to knock out. Five tugged at my shoulder and leaned in to whisper something. “We’ll come back for him later.” He said and began walking away with me following right behind.

“How could you let them do that to your poor brother?” I said. He doesn’t look like he belongs in a nuthouse.

“Diego’s fine, he knows how to take care of himself. Like I said we’ll come back later.”

I sighed as we walked out the building. I gasped as a sudden flash of memories passed through my mind. I had to stand still afterwards. It had caused my head to start aching. “I need to sit down Five.” I said wearily. He led me over to a bench just outside the hospital entrance. “Did you just have another vision?” He asked with hope in his voice.

“Yeah Luther..” I groaned as I massaged my head.

“Well then let’s go.” He stood back up. Oh god how can he be so active all day and not rest for a minute?! I thought as I looked at him.

I made a tsk sound and shook my head. “No no no no, you can go find your other brother, I’m just going to stay right here.”

“What? Why!?” He frowned.

“Because Im tired Five! I can’t do this all day. I need to stop and think. It’s frustrating when you can’t remember shit!” I yelled and put head in my hands. Five looked down at me in sympathy. “I know it must be tough but don’t give up. I’m sure your memory will come back to you in time.”

“I sure hope so...” I said while looking back at him. “Which is why I think I should stay here. You said yourself you wanted to come back later on to get Diego anyways.” I said making a valid point.

“Hmm..I guess you’re right. You’re sure you’ll be fine here?”

“I’ll be good. There’s people all around here too so it’s not like the Swedes can just come up and shoot me.”

With that, I told Five the name of the Club Luther was at in my vision and he took off. Hours went by and soon it was night time. Five was nowhere to be seen. My memory didn’t come back yet either. I let out a huff as I waited on the bench. What do I do if Five doesn’t come back? I can’t break Diego out by myself. I can’t go back to Elliots because I don’t even know my way back. All I could was stay there. A few more hours went by and soon there were no more people walking about. I now started to regret not going with Five. It’s sketchy as hell out here by myself. Suddenly I saw a truck pull into the hospitals parking lot. It looked like a milk truck. Why the hell would a milk truck be here in the middle of the night? My question was answered when I saw the three men from earlier get out of the truck and load up their guns. I jumped off the bench and quickly tried to hide myself, scared that they were going to spot me. I watched as they made their way into the front doors. Shit they must be after Diego! What do I do? I don’t think I can fight. Five said Diego could take care of himself though. I trust that he can. My best bet is to try to make my way to Elliot’s home. I got up and began to walk away from the hospital.

It felt like I had been walking for a very long time with no final destination. I got myself lost. I ended up walking in a neighborhood. I could tell it was started to get very late because mostly all the house lights had turned off. As I turned down a street I saw flashing lights coming from the left of me. Police cars were surrounding someone’s house. They seemed to be arresting a man. I wondered what was going on. Before I could ponder on the thought any longer, something else caught my vision. I saw a fucking milk truck parked down the way. No way in hell thats them. The moment I saw the truck they seemed to have spotted me because the head lights turned on. “Fuck.” I said under my breathe and sprinted off down the street on my right. The car then began to chase me. I ran and ran as fast as my legs could take me. I tried to turn down every street I could so that I could loose them, but they always seemed to be on my tail. I made my way into a narrow alleyway. I took a right and then a left and then another left. To my surprise I had just lead myself into a dead end. “Just my luck..” I breathed out.

I turned to look to see if they were coming as I breathed heavily. All this anxiety wasn’t helping me catch my breathe. I looked around me to see if there was anything I could use to defend myself. Looking through a dumpster I luckily found a metal pipe. I held it up ready to swing at who ever tried to come near me. In the next few moments they came down the alleyway. With guns. How could I forget they had guns?! None the less I still remained calm with my metal pipe. As they approached me they saw that all I had to defend myself with was a metal pipe. They smirked and the one in the middle let out a small chuckle. The one in the middle that seemed to be like the leader put his gun away. The other two just lowered theirs. The leader made his way towards me. “Don’t you come any closer!” I yelled, tryingto sound mean but all I sounded like was scared. He went in for a swing but I dodged. I then went for a upper hand swing with the pipe but he quickly grabbed it. As if it were a reflex I picked up my leg and kicked him in the chest which caused him to fumble backwards. He looked taken aback for a quick second before resuming to fight me. How I had all these moves, I have no idea! I guess Five was right. Maybe I did know how to fight. Not good enough though. I went in with a high kick almost hitting his jaw but his reflexes were way faster than mine. He caught my foot before I could touch him and with the slightest effort he spun my whole body and I crashed onto the hard cement. I let out a groan and tried to crawl away to the wall to try and pick myself up. When I got to the wall the man turned me around as I stood there. I looked up at him with tears forming in my eyes. “Please don’t kill me..” I said in a hushed tone as I shook my head slightly. He looked at me with curiosity. His two brothers slowly approaching from behind him. He turned to look at the taller one and gave him a nod. I looked at them in confusion. What was their none spoken agreement?! Before I could think any longer the taller one turned his gun around and knocked me on the head causing me to pass out.

[yaneyanedaze]

Don’t you remember?

(A SDC Jotaro x Oc +DIO fanfic )

Hi guys! This is a commission piece that I have done for @fyrestrike , I hope that you enjoy this fanfiction! This is a good example of what you could get when you commission me!~

I will get back to my regular ways of posting very soon! With that, on with the fanfiction!

Some things may be different,but the plot is mostly the same and the ending is mostly the same!

Also I apologize if any of the characters seem out of character! ❤️❤️❤️

———————————————————————

 It was cold, very cold. I didn’t expect Egypt to get so cold this quickly. I was with Jotaro Kujo and his group of friends, I could call them that. They called themselves the Stardust Crusaders, and from what I know, they were searching for a man named DIO. That’s all they told me at least, and I could barely remember how  I ended up with the group anyways. Mr. Joseph told me they found me wandering the desert by myself. I found that hard to believe because I hated the heat of the desert, but I just went along with it and decided to stay with them.

Jotaro and Kakyoin were the only ones I stayed closed to really, with all of us being around the same age, and with I apparently attending the same high school as them. They helped me understand the situation that was going on and the reason why we were in Egypt. I felt bad for Jotaro, his mom is in bad condition, and he had to drop everything and go on some wild ass adventure in order to save her. I tried to be as much help as I could be, I do have a stand, that I know, but I don’t know how to use it at all.

But all that out the way. Stand user after Stand user. Attack after Attack, we finally reached Cairo, Egypt. I cheered happily as I ran up to the hotel that we were going to be staying in. Mr. Joseph chuckled as he went up to the desk and prepared the rooms for us, Leaving the rest of use to chat and talk. I yawned and leaned on Jotaro, who was pretending to be annoyed, “Yare yare, What the hell are you doing?” He asked, gaze shifting down on me. I smiled at him and let out a small giggle, “Im resting on you until we can get our rooms straight, I don’t see how you guys can do it!” I say throwing my hands up, being playfully dramatic. Polnareff laughed and I knew even before he began talking what he was going to say.

“ Well Dearie, Maybe it’s because you’re a girl~ This mission is built for strong men! It’s our job to protect you anyway!” He said, flexing slight only to get hit on the back of the head by Jotaro. “She’s strong, why do you think we brought her along, She can handle herself. Last time I checked you cant defeat anyone without our help” He said back, a smirk appearing on his features as he watched Polnareff try to gather his comeback. But before he could get it out, Mr. Joseph came over giving everyone their room keys.

Joseph was with Avdol, Polnareff with Kakyoin, and……

Me and Jotaro.

A part of me wanted to speak up and say: ‘CAN I CHANGE PLEASE?!’ Because being in the same room with Jotaro for a long period of time like this. I don’t think I could take it. But alas, I didn’t same a damn thing and here I was, walking to the room with Jotaro beside me. It was a quiet peaceful walk, Jotaro was a quiet person I discovered. He didn’t talk much and when he did, it usually was a one-liner, his signature catchphrase or snark. I loved the silence to be honest, I think it added more to his personality, I thought it was sweet that he is out here risking his life for his mother, even though he doesn’t know what lay ahead.

When we reached the room, I unlocked the door and pushed it open, the room was nice, it was room, had a couch with a television in front of it, a small kitchen and dining area. But there was one problem that stuck out the most.

There was only one bed.

I felt a blush rise up on my cheeks but I tried to be calm about it, but it seemed that Jotaro could read my emotions. “I’ll take the couch, “ He muttered walking past me. I grabbed his coat stopping him and shyly looked up at him. “hey, we can share the bed, I don’t mind. I usually stay on one side curled up in a ball” I said trying to make light of the tense environment, He  let out a small grunt which I could only imagine was an “Ok’. I smiled as I went over to unpacking my small book bag, I only had a small amount of clothes with me. From what I remember, I packed two changes of clothes and night clothes along with the necessities. But everytime I try to remember where I came from, it leads to a massive headache. One that’s trying to basically tell me that the memory isn’t there.

It bothered me, and while I was changing into my night clothes I tried very hard to think and think trying to see if I could bring it back. I let out a frustrated yell as finished getting dressed and I walked out, but as I walked back into the bedroom, I got a surging pain in the back of my head, plopped down on the bed and it felt like someone else had a control on my body, and a voice that I have never heard before starting talking.

“It seems that my little devil is missing me…don’t worry, I’ll be waiting for you, you’ll remember me soon, you will…”

I let out a scream, one made of confusion and fear, as I couldn’t move my body, I felt like someone was just sitting on me, all of their weight pushing down upon me. I must’ve spooked Jotaro because he came rushing in the room and shook me, I could feel him shaking me, but I couldn’t move. Finally I found the strength to rise up and shake make head. When I opened my eyes up again I was staring into Jotaro’s baby blue eyes. He didn’t even said anything, he just hugged me and held me tightly. He lifted me up and placed me in bed correctly, I tried to move and show him that I was alright. But he held me in place, he wouldn’t let go. “Jotaro I am fine, that was just a little scare okay? Nothing too serious” I said, he shook his head and his grip on me tightened. “Quiet. Don’t say anything , just go to sleep.” He muttered. It was severely out of character for Jotaro to act like this, but I guess I really scared him with what happened. I felt horrible and I wanted to say that I was sorry for letting myself get like that but sleep took over me before I even could.

(TimeSkip. two days later)

We were up and on the move again.

Neither Jotaro or I talked about what took place that night , but I noticed he was closer to me more then he ever was before. He kept a close eye on me, which earned light teasing from Polnareff and Joseph. He brushed it off but I could see the blush that was coming up onto his face. He said his signature catch phrase before walking ahead from the group. I knew better though, and I tried not to let the teasing get to me as we pushed forward.

I felt ominous feelings coming from the large building in front of us.

And it seemed like another one of those moments like I had last time except that instead of me just not being able to move, I completely blacked out. It was dark, I could see Jotaro and the others anymore, but I could feel someone’s arms picking me up from the ground. I tried to scream but nothing came out, only a chuckle, a deep chuckle that couldn’t have come from any of the crusaders. I froze, it was the same tone of the voice I had previously heard. His footsteps were heavy, and his voice had a velvet like tone, “Fyre…I’ve been waiting for you…those Joestars brought you right to me…Like a little present~” He spoke. His voice was so familiar, Like even before my little black out.

All I know that I am scared.

My vision slowly started coming back, I could see that I was no longer with Jotaro and the group but i was with some weird man with blonde hair. When he realized I was awake he smirked wide, showing me a wide toothy like grin. “My darling is awaken now~ tell me, how did you enjoy your time away from me darling?~” He says placing me down in what felt a a plush like bed. It felt soft, I’m not gonna lie, it was really soft, I regained motion in my limbs and I made myself sit up so quickly. I glared at him, if looks could kill, he would’ve been dead.

He chuckled, turning fully to get a good look at him. He was about as tall as Jotaro, he was shirtless and very built, having a strange scar around his neck that made it look like his body was just attached with a needle and thread. I backed up as far as I could to the wall. He walked (more like sassy step) towards me before stopping at the end of the bed. “Don’t you remember me? Fyre, I made you what you are. My little Devil. That stand you have, it’s because of me. You are mine. I don’t care what that Jotaro fool says or does for you.” He growled. “Liar!! Jotaro found me! He took care of me! I don’t know who you are!!” I yelled back, but with brute force, I was held against the wall by a humanoid looking figure, he was a bright yellow and had muscles of steel. I struggled against him before sighing but not giving up totally.

The male must’ve saw and laughed. “Foolish. Foolish Fyre...Don’t you remember, How do you think you got out there in the first place~” he said getting close to my face. Now staring me down with those bright, crazed green eyes. For some reason, a memory that was laying deep in my mind came barreling back full force.

(Flashback Start)

“Where are you going!? You can’t get far, Little Devil!!”

His voice was taunting, he was taunting me, he knew that he could catch up to me if he wanted to. DIO was a damn bastard, a horrible excuse for a living- no an monstrous being. I kept running, refusing to fall prey for this damn man ever again, he kept me just a trophy, no one ever coming to visit me except him. The look on his servants faces when they say me run past shows that he never let anyone know that I existed.

I kicked open the door with one swift move and kept it moving, the desert sand kicking up behind me. I could feel his gaze on me, the thing he had on my forehead was weakening. His powers on me were not working, he made a mistake of stabbing me with the Stand Arrow, my stand was powerful an it allowed me to go against his will.

I ran and ran and ran until I felt my body slowing down, I couldn’t see anything and I collapsed, panting heavily as my body finally gave out, the adrenaline gone. I turned on my back and laid there looking at the sky as I closed my eyes. My breath slowing down and my conscious slowly slipping away.

“Oi, Is that a girl on the ground?...”

“Yea, I think you’re right Jotaro! What shall we do?”

“....Gigi..she’s coming with us.”

(Flashback End)

I tried to head butt him once my memory started coming back. I knew who he was. I knew what he did to me. He took me away from my family, kept me captive for god knows how long. DIO, His name now ringing a bell in my head. I growled and glared daggers at him. “Fuck you!! Fuck you bastard! You caused this! You made me like this you fucking bastard!!” I yelled kicking and thrashing about, He just stood there laughing at me, that same fucking taunting laugh that he used before. He snapped his fingers, and the ghost (stand that I now remember as ‘The World’) disappeared making me drop to the floor. When I went to stand up he pushed me back into the wall, his hand wrapped firmly around my neck.

“Listen here Little Devil. I don’t like the way that you are acting right now...You either shape up or else I’ll have to punish you severely for disobeying me.” He practically growled. I clawed at his hands gripping and trying to pull his hands away as I began to get light headed from his grip. “Fuck..you..” I muttered out, only making his grip tighter making him madder. A loud bang and a rush of footsteps made him release his grip.

“Lord DIO!! The Joestars have reached here! They’re currently fighting Vanilla Ice!”

He groaned, clearly annoyed but I saw it as an opportunity to run.

And so I did.

I took off out of the room, speeding past the servant. This speed was inhuman to me, I didn’t know where I came from but I just chalked it up to my adrenaline rushing as i was scared. I could hear his yelling but couldn’t make out the words that he said. Everything was a blur to me until I came to a skidding halt when I saw what I could only make out to see as Jotaro.

“JOTARO!” I yelled. ‘God I hope I don’t sound too desperate..’ I thought as I ran over to him, out of breath and scared. He look up and then rushed over to my side, he checked my forehead and checked all over my head before finally hugging me tightly. He let go and pulled his hat over his eyes letting out his signature catchphrase. “Yare Yare, We’ll talk later. We have to go and find-“ “DIO! He’s here! He’s the one who took me!” I blurted out. He looked at me then pulled me along, and off we went again. I was scared beyond belief, I can’t believe that this want the man, or well, thing, Jotaro and his Grandfather had been searching for all along, and he knew me!

Little did I know the carnage along the way that happened. While we were chasing after DIO, Polnareff ran into the them. And we lost two members of our group, Muhammad Avdol and a little French bull terrier named Iggy to one of DIO’s toadys. We didn’t have time to grieve, we didn’t have time to cry or anything. We had to keep moving on! I kept quiet as DIO’s words kept ringing in my ears.

“I made you. My little Devil, Don’t you remember?”

I shook my head as we entered the city. It was busy, as it was night time. Probably filled with tourists and natives alike, all of them unknowingly putting themselves in danger. It was now Joseph, Jotaro, Polnareff and I together. Kakyoin was no where to be found, and they didn’t tell me what happened to him. But I didn’t ask questions at all, I just kept my mouth shut and moved along, but DIO was eating away at my thoughts, I wanted to question him, but was afraid of what he might do to me if I did.

But my time to confront him came quicker than ever as now Jotaro, Joseph and DIO we’re locked in a heated battle. This was it, Jotaros mom (Who I figured out before, was named Holly!) layed on the line along with the entire worlds fate was on their back. I stood on the side with Polnareff watching the battle take place, I felt helpless though. I wanted to help, after all, I have been a liability during this entire thing! I at least needed to get out and do something. I got up and began walking over to where they were only to get a bad feeling going up my spine. I looked over at DIO just to see his stand come out. I quickly picked up my past before yelling to him.

“JOTARO LOOK OUT!!”

“Za WARUDO”

Everything froze around me, everything was still. I don’t know how I was moving, and it seemed DIO was just as confused but he was too focused on Jotaro. Knives now heading towards and lodging themselves into said male. While time was still frozen he looked at me and it seemed that I was a look of surprised. I was confused before I felt something, or rather someone behind me. I turned and there it was, or rather their she was, as it looked like a female. She had curly horns that could rival with Satan himself, large bat like wings with a shiny gleam coming off them, a short black dress with her entire back out along with small bats on her tights that looked like they were very much alive. She had light pink skin with red blush in certain spots, full pink lips , top and bottom fangs that could probably cut through diamond if she wanted to. she had bright lime green snake like eyes, long curly lilac purple hair that falls behind her knees hair. Finally there was a large tail swishing back and forth with a heart on the end, spikes lining the tail leading all the way up to her back.

I stood up as time started over again, Jotaro fell back , knives all over him. I wanted to scream but I knew that would show weakness, and especially to him, it would give him a huge ego booster. I watched as Jotaro laid motionless on the ground, DIO places his head on the ground trying to hear movement or heart beats of any kind and smirked once he didn’t. He began laughing as he made his way over to me, “Your darling hero isn’t with you anymore. And I’m so glad, his death made you finally show your stand. Might I say, it’s quiet beautiful perfect for a queen like yourself.” He said, now barely a foot away from me. I smirked myself, a thing I don’t normally do. “The Queen part you’re right about. But I wouldn’t celebrate to quickly.” I said. Landing a quick blow to his head myself, making him stumble back. He growled at me but kept a smug smirk on his face. “My little Devil..You think you can stop me! Your puny Stand means nothing to me!”

“But mines does.” I smiled as Jotaro was behind him now. Star Platinum now behind him as well looking madder than ever. I stepped back quickly to avoid the fist fight between the two stand users. I had to admit, it looked beautiful, the colors clashing together, the raw strength of both of their stands clashing and fighting each other. It was amazing. I crouched down using my stand to make a shield for myself to dodge oncoming debris coming my way, I closed my eyes because another part of me didn’t want to see the end result. It was painful, very painful, I didn’t want to see anymore of my friends get hurt anymore, I panted slightly, my vision getting blurry, I don’t know if it’s a side effect from my stand or I’m just tired. I felt my body falling to the ground after hearing a blood curdling scream and the sound of something splitting apart, before everything fades to black.

⬛️TimeSkip⬛️

I shot straight up only to see myself connected to hospital IV’s and looked around. I looked at my arms and touched my face to make sure I was in one piece. I sighed once I figured out I was all fine and sat back on the bed. The door open and first came in was a Nurse coming to make sure I was okay, checking all my vitals, blood pressure , all the medical stuff, then following was Mr. Joestar. “Hey! Look who’s arose from the dead! I’m glad you’re okay!” He said walking up to my bed side, a hand on my arm. “Did we win? Is he dead?” Is what I asked first.

He nodded slightly and stood up. “Yep! We sure did...We’re gonna be heading back to Japan once you get all better, Trust me, My grandson has been worried sick about you, you gotta stop passing out on us!” He said jokingly. I tilted my head in confused. Jotaro was worried about me? I found that hard to believe, but when the male came into my room with a large bouquet of flowers, I believed it then.

He handed them over to me with a blush gracing his features. They were beautiful shades of blue with some red in it. “this is for you..” He muttered, I grabbed and smiled softly, pulling him close and placing a kiss on his cheek. I smelled the flowers and hugged them close to my chest.

“Hey Jotaro, When we get back..Can we hang out more?..”

“...Sure, I wouldn’t mind that at all..”

———————————————————————

AHHHH I APOLOGIZE FOR BEING SO DAMN LATE OMG

So many things have been coming up in my life between family, Boyfriend issues, health issues, but I wanted to finish this because I loved the character, thank you so much for the opportunity!

If you want more and probs another part going on to part 4 because I loved so this much! ❤️

[andimack-crack]

A christ-mack story: Andi Mack

read part one here

read part two here

Part 3: Merry little crisis

[Word count 1910]

Cyrus POV

Everybody was sat in the park me, Andi, Buffy, Jonah, T.J and Marty all squished onto one park bench drinking hot chocolate Andi was filling us in on the drama going on at home.

"It's just Bex is so nervous all the time and she's also very emotional feeling sick and tired I hope she's not coming down with something I'd hate to catch it." She rambled

I turned my head a little towards Jonah who sat quietly staring off with a blank face I could tell he wasn't really listening I waved a hand in front of him and he came alive

"Are you alright JB?"

"Y-yeah I-i mean look" he pointed over to an old looking man on the street who was clearly homeless he was begging for cash Jonah looked really sad and somewhat guilty.

"I didn't have a house not that long ago but at least I had family somewhere to live I mean food wasn't good but I was able to kind of continue life but the feeling never leaves you" he closed his eyes taking a deep breath I put a hand on his back

"Now that it's over and I see people that are still going through it... I don't know it feels like I'm not entitled to what I have" by now the conversations everybody else was having had stopped we were all listening to him.

"Jonah you are more than entitled your family went through so much  hardship these past few months you've been dealing with a lot of personal demons yourself you don't have to feel guilty" I reassured he nodded sighing

"Yeah I know I just feel like I should be doing something" he looked at his lap

"Jonah remember when we gave away all those clothes that mint chip threw away?" Andi said

"You mean do I remember going to jail my parents getting really mad at me and doing 72 hours of community service yeah I remember" we all laughed a little

"Yeah well we knew that it was wrong to just throw away those clothes and you know it's wrong that millions of people are sleeping rough on the streets" Andi explained

"It's even worse considering it's winter and Christmas" Buffy said sadly

"But the question is what are you going to do about it" I said Jonah started thinking and his face lit up all of a sudden

"I... I think I have an idea" he smiled

"Hold up... you guys went to jail?!" T.J and Marty said simultaneously in shock we all giggled.

Bex's POV

"Thanks for meeting me I was really hoping you would" Gabriel commented sitting opposite me in a cafe outside of town. He looked worse than when I left him like he hadn't slept or been around good people

"Yeah well just know I'm not doing this for you I'm doing for me" I said trying to keep my self together "I want to know why you emotionally abused me when you knew I was vulnerable because I had just left my home and my daughter"

"H-how is she?" He said awkwardly

"No don't you dare talk about her you don't get to I just want to know if it was me or-"

"No it wasn't please don't raise your voice" he said cutting me off "I... I was under a lot of pressure you really wanted to get out of Shadyside I didn't have money I had to work I always tired needed a drink"

"You can't use that as an excuse I felt like shit everyday when I was with you too the point where I'd do anything to avoid you" I was turning red and tears where stinging in my eyes

"I-i know I was awful b-but I wanna fix things you see I'm in a bit of debt with some old friends and I was thinking you could give me a loan and-"

"Seriously" I yelled standing up "You got back in touch with me to ask for money. I should of known you haven't changed stay away from me and my family if I ever see you again I'll go to the police"

I stormed out the cafe getting on my motorcycle to get back to cloud ten I should of never trusted him the tears fell from eyes but I smiled to myself I've been wanting to stand up to him for years I finally did it.

Jonah's POV

"Jonah where are you taking us?" Marty groaned impatiently

"You'll see" I had an idea of how I could help people that where sleeping rough how we could all help we reached a small shelter on the far side of town.

"We're here" I gestured as we all stepped inside

"What is this place?" Buffy questioned

"It's a food bank I went too a lot the people are really great here they listened to me and when I felt like I couldn't take much more of it there would always be someone here to calm me down"

"That's really sweet but why are all here?" T.J said confused 

"To volunteer I spoke to someone and they said they don't get enough people during the holidays to help out with handing out food, clean clothes  or just talking to them"

"If it'll make you happy Jo I'll do it" Cyrus said patting my shoulder 

"It's for a good cause I think we should all do it" Andi said.

"Can I help you guy- oh hello Jonah how's the new apartment?" A tall brown haired woman said walking up too us

"The apartments nice  things are a lot better now"

"Glad to hear it" I swivelled round to my friends

"Guys this is Carla she runs this whole operation during the holidays" 

"Nice to meet you all" She said shaking there hands one by one

"We are all here to volunteer" I said smiling brightly 

"We'll do anything you want" Buffy said her hand interlocked with Marty's

"Oh well that's lovely I need some people to pick up an apron and dish up food and I need some people to go out and find a few people to give clothes too and invite them in too eat" She said checking her list

"We're on it" She smiled and walked away to check something else 

"Me, Buffy and Andi will be on kitchen duty maybe you guys and can go out and find some people" Cyrus ordered 

"Sounds like a plan" I said happily

*******

Bex's POV

I got back home later in the day thinking about what happened with Gabriel less and less I had more important things to think about some news I needed to share with the family. Bowie was sitting on the couch looking a little upset nearly angry.

"Hey... is something the matter?" 

"I went to cloud 10 to ask if you wanted something to eat you weren't there"

"I was out getting some products I needed" I quickly said as a cover story

"Oh okay that's weird because your friend Gabriel came by earlier" Uh oh

"Look Bowie I can explain..."

"What is there to explain Bex you lied to me... I'll ask again who is Gabriel?"

"Bowie I didn't tell you the truth to protect you he's not important I swear" I said taking his hands but he snatched them away

"Protect me from what?" 

"I-I" The words on my mouth died  I couldn't tell him. He picked up his keys and jacket

"Where are you going?" I demanded to know 

"Out" with that he slammed the door.

I just buried my face in my hands in defeat I have to make this right and I knew exactly how too. That is if Bowie give me a chance to speak to him.

Meanwhile...

Jonah POV

Marty, T.J and I managed to gather some people we found sleeping rough there were way more people than you would expect actually but I'm just really happy we were able to help out. By now we had given everybody some hot food and we were going round giving out clean clothes and blankets they also offered showers I handed this younger looking man a warm tracksuit and a thick coat he took it gratefully trying to smile but it was more like a grimace I pulled up a chair to talk to him.

"Hello I'm Jonah what's your name?" I said sticking my hand out he shook it

"I-I'm Tyler y-you're awfully young to be working here how old are You?"

"I'm 15 but a volunteer so are my friends" I said gesturing at them

"O-oh yeah the tall blonde one wouldn't stop following me until I agreeded to come here" I smirked

"Sorry about that how old are you? if it's okay to ask"

"I-im 20 in a few days and before you ask I've been homeless for two years" he said visibly embarrassed

"Wow um... how come i-I'm only asking to try and fix things don't answer if you don't want too-"

"I got into an argument with my mom after my dad died I-i blamed her and started doing dumb things and I... really wanted to go out of town for a weekend and she said if I go I might as well not bother coming back" his lip quivered I felt horrible

"Well parent say a lot of things they don't mean but they love us unconditionally it's Christmas almost your birthday call your mom" I said putting a hand on his but he took it away

"I can't I don't have my phone" I quickly took out mine

"If you know her number call her on my phone" Tyler was hesitant but he took the phone and dialed her number

"H-hello...hi yes mommy it's me...I-I miss you too" he choked out he stood up to go talk to her.

"You did a good thing Jonah" Carla said walking up behind me "Tyler came by a few months back no one could get him to talk to his mom"

"Well it was obvious he missed her it was probably just pride getting in the way" he came back tears still falling from his eyes he pulled me into a tight hug

"T-thank you Jonah" he said handing my phone back

"What did she say?"

"She's gonna come out here and we can go back home for Christmas" he smiled

"Good"

"There's a bed here for you to sleep on tonight or at least until she gets here I'll show you" Carla said leading him away.

I joined the rest of my friends who were huddled together smiling.

"So Jonah how do you feel now?" Buffy said

"Good really good like I made a difference"

"Were all happy for you and this did feel great reminds us to give back during the holidays" Cyrus said.

We were interrupted by Andi's phone buzzing

"Hello... mom slow down...really oh okay" she hung up "I gotta go there's am emergency apparently" we all said goodbye and she left abruptly.

Whatever happens to having a peaceful holiday?

[gleamingseok]

My calico cat - 04

Author’s note: helloo hellooo finally posting another part hope ull like this one !!

genre: fluff , hybrid , smut smut smut smut smut

u throwed urself  on the sofa relaxing after a tiring day while massaging ur temple  , jimin was busy arranging the clothes in his wardrobe , u were slowly drifting off until u felt jimin presence next to u

" oh sorry did not mean to wake u up " he said , sitting next to u

" no i just closed my eyes for a bit " u replied while getting up

he said "okaay ill go take a shower now and ..hmm ..."

" is something wrong ? u want something ? "

" can u please buy me these pills cus i need them today " jimin said while handing u a paper

" yeah sure ill get them for u now " u replied while reading the name of the pills

" thank u ! ill go take  a shower now also don't forget to take ur keys i might not hear u when u knock "

" okay im leaving now " u replied and left the house  

after 5 minutes of walking u finally arrived to the pharmacy , u got in and asked for the pills written on the paper , the woman started looking for them , and the curiosity almost killed u, u had to know what are these pills for, what if jimin is sick or not feeling well ?

" can i know what are these pills for please? " u asked the woman

" oh dear these are heat suppressant for hybrids " she replied while handing u the pills

" h-heat ?? " u whispered

" oh i guess this is ur first time having a hybrid ? well usually hybrids needs a partner to make them go through heat easily but if they cannot find one they just take these pills to calm them a little down until its over "

" oh now i get it , thank u so much " u said, then paid for the pills and left the pharmacy

on ur way home all u was thinking about is jimin going through his heat ......a partner ? is it painful to go through heats with no partner ? only pills ? ugh i had to ask her these

u got home after buying some food because someone forgot that the fridge was empty, u took off ur shoes , placed the food on the kitchen counter , while taking the pills to put them on jimin's bed u passed by the bathroom

" jimin i got u the pills , im gonna put them on ur bed " u said through the closed door

no reply , that's weird

maybe he couldn't hear u,  u started to worry a bit until u heard the water stop, u were still leaning over the door , and u could hear some heavy breathing .......again some HEAVY BREATHING

holy shit whats happening to him " jimin are u okay ??? " u started knocking

" ..........y/n "  jimin whispered on the other side

panicking u started banging on the door " at least try to open the door its locked !!!! " u said

u could hear some shuffling and water splash , until the door was unlocked

u opened the door with shaky hands u saw jimin laying on the floor,  pale , shaking ,breathing heavily , looking as if he was about to faint oh god please help me

u grabbed the big white towel next to u ,u dried his upper half and tried wrapping it around his lower half until a pained moan left his lips 

" fuck .. p-please i n-need ur help "  u froze  

feeling the hard thing against ur hand u then knew what was wrong , u started wrapping the towel faster and tried lifting him so u can put him on his bed  , u placed his arm over ur shoulder and started dragging him to his room , u opened his bedroom door  and u placed him on his bed u started to unwrapped his medicine quickly , u grabbed the glass of water next to his bed

" jimin i need u to open ur mouth , u need to drink this " u said while helping him to sit

" i-it hurts ... please help me " jimin whispered while holding ur hand he was about to cry he was sweating and in pain

oh god what am i supposed to do !!!! this is all my fault if only i came home earlier this wouldn't happen and he wouldn't be suffering now

" okay sweetie ill help u but u need to drink these first "

" c-can u hurry " jimin whined

" okay okay i-ill help u but i need u to drink this first " u replied while lifting his head and lining his lips over the cup , jimin took the pill and drank the whole cup of water , u then helped him lay down on the bed , not knowing what to do u were about to leave the room until he grabbed ur arm and pulled u toward his tired body

" u-u said u will h-help me .. so why are u leaving " he said , tightening his grip , his eyes full of lust , pain and desire ..... god i have to control myself

u stayed quite for a seconds not knowing what to say or what to do,  its now or never , u started leaning over him softly stroking his fluffy ears , a moan left his pink kissable lips , placing ur left hand over his chest while ur other hand was still caressing his ears , u got closer until u could feel his hot breath against ur lips , and that was it that was all what u needed to lean over and finally crash ur lips against his soft plump ones , he heatedly kissed u back expressing how much he needed u ,a small whimper left ur lips , jimin positioned ur body on top of his heated one and started attacking ur neck with his hot kisses while pushing ur hips harder on his so u can feel his fully hard dick , he started sucking too hard on ur neck when he felt ur soaked panties pressed against his painful erection

" f-fuck i can't " and with that said jimin flipped u over so he was on top of u , looking at u hungrily he started removing ur shirt and pants , throwing them aside , he took a moment to admire ur body , he leaned over until his lips were brushing ur ears and he sensually breathed     " u have no idea how much i waited for this moment , having u under me  " u could feel him smirking against ur cheek , u were too shy to tell him that u wanted it too since the first day u saw him in class

he then started kissing his way down ur breast removing ur bra all along with ur panties and started teasing ur wet entrance , ur heart was beating loud that u thought he might hear it too  " is this all for me ? what a lovely kitten " he purred while inserting his finger "a-ah fuck" u moaned ,  " shit ur so wet and i didn't even touch u properly .. f-fuck i cant wait to put my dick inside of u and fill u with my cum , would u like that kitten wont u ? " jimin breathly said

" yes p-please " u whined , jimin inserted a second finger stretching u and started pumping his fingers faster , u started moaning loudly grabbing the bed sheets under u , ur legs started shaking from the feeling of his fingers filling u , ur breath hitched , eyes rolling back , jimin knew u were close reaching ur orgasm but he had other plans

"f-fuck im so c-close " ur back arched feeling ur orgasm so near , suddenly , jimin quickly removed his fingers , u were surprised and just about to start complaining when he said

" i would love to see my kitten cum ... but fuck i would love it more if my dick is inside of u " with that said jimin was already pumping his dick using his precum as lube and started   slowly filling u , u moaned enjoying the feeling of him inside of u and stretching u u clenched around him  and jimin froze , head between ur breasts his right hand about to rip the bed sheet under u " fuck .. im gonna cum faster if u do that again .. p-please don't" , even tho he was in pain he still wanted to enjoy the feeling of ur warm tight pussy , just by imagining that u moaned and pulled jimin's face until ur lips met in a heated kiss , both ur tongue and his fighting for dominance but u gave up once he started pinching ur nipple sending electricity down ur core

" u have no idea how good u look under me  " jimin whispered while thrusting harder  , u were about to reply and tell him how hot he looks with his hair sticking to his forehead , his swollen lips and eyes full of lust but jimin interrupted u by rubbing ur clit in a quick pace " come for me baby .. i wanna hear u moaning my name " jimin said while kissing ur neck

" f-fuck jimin don't s-stop " u said while pulling his hair until ur foreheads were meeting , jimin seemed to enjoy the feeling of u grabbing him by his hair and pulling him closer which caused him to quick his pace and thrust harder than before , he was a mess and he loved it , he was grunting and moaning into ur temple , feeling ur walls tightening around him , he knew u were too close especially that u were moaning his name nonstop

" let me feel u kitten , come for me " and with that said u let out a strangled scream , ur body shaking under him as u cum , his mouth attacking ur neck once he felt u tighten around him

"fuck im gonna c-cum " jimin moaned onto ur collarbone , it took him a few thrusts until he reached his high as well , feeling his hot cum filling ur pussy , jimin pulled his dick with a whimper watching his cum dripping down ur entrance , too tired to get up and clean the both of u he pulled the blanket and then layed down next to u wrapping his arms around u and pulling closer enjoying the moment

u had too many questions and things to say but too exhausted to even open ur eyes, so ur just enjoying the warm feeling of jimin's skin next to urs , last thing u remembered was jimin kissing ur forehead while mumbling something .

[gentlemanmendes]

Philophobia// s.m chapter 1

01:

*Adee*

"Are you even listening to me?" Mia questions me causing me to look up at her blankly, her brown eyes practically burning holes into my soul .

"No." I answer honestly turning my attention back to the roof of our shared dorm.

Letting out a sigh she drops the dress in her hand on her bed before making her way towards me. In one swift move she throws herself on my bed causing me to bounce slightly as she wraps her arms around me.

"I wish I could give you advice but I don't have any." She replies honestly, her tone showing how much it truly disturbed her. I respect Mia more for openly telling me she doesn't know what to say than giving me horrible advice and empty promises that she knows will not help. I suppose she knows me well enough now.

Mia and I met when we where thirteen years old. Her mum had moved into the house just down the street and I was curious and bored. Soon the two of us became friends and would meet up after school to see each other. We never went to the same school though, my mum insisted on me going to a private school where as her mum never had that kind of money. I don't think my mum ever really like Mia which probably made me like her more. At school neither of us had friends but that was okay because we had each other and as soon as we graduated we looked into colleges together so we could start a new life. It was our own new adventure and so we did just that.

Unfortunately our plan didn't go the way we expected it. We always wanted an apartment with a good view, turns our in New York that is a little harder than we expected for two eighteen year old girls who barley had enough money for the tuition let alone a place to live. But as Mia said, it's something and something is always a better start than nothing.

The only problem of rooming with Mia now was the fact that she saw and heard practically   everything that happened in my life. So the argument I had with my elder brother on the phone fifteen minutes ago, she witnessed that. Well what I was shouting back into the phone anyway. But Mia new better than to ask which was why I had always appreciated about her, she respects the boundaries of the things I do not want to share.

"Come on, the party will help take your mind off it." She tells me as she jumps off the bed. She rushes over to her bed and picks up the dress she was previously holding, extending her arm towards me as if signalling for me to take it.

"I'm not wearing that." I inform her, refusing to wear a dress. It is something my mother and I fought about many times. She hated how I refused to dress like a lady but I reminded her that what you wear doesn't define the gender that you are, however she was too close minded to accept my answer.

"Well what are you going to wear?" She huffs slamming herself onto her bed as she looks over at me.

Jumping up, I make sure I am standing so he can see me clearly.

"This." I send her an innocent smile as I gesture to what I have been wearing all day. High waisted boyfriend jeans with a black crop top paired with a pair of good old black low cut converse.

Rolling here eyes she pushes herself off her bed making her way to her wardrobe where she places the dress back on the hook before slipping on a pair of ballet flats.

You know how they say opposites attract, well I never ever believed that until I realised just how different Mia and I truly are but I wouldn't have it any other way. I think we balance each other out. Like salt and pepper; although extremely different in taste, they somehow compliment one another when put together. We bring out the best in each other and protect the worst from others.

"Should I call an uber?" I question picking up my phone from the charger as I make my way to the door.

"No. Tyler said he'd pick us up." Mia cheers as she skips past me with the keys in her hand.

Tyler is Mia's boyfriend of three months. They met online almost two years ago and once she graduated high school she finally agreed to meet him so he flew from New York to San Francisco, where we used to live, to meet her and sure enough the two hit it off. She hadn't wanted to start anything serious with him until she was positive we were moving to New York, which I can't say I blame her, long distance relationships look like they suck. He is turning twenty one and I believe he  is in his second year of studying business management. His mother started some online clothing line and he plans to take it over.

Mia seems happy with him and he is honestly a great guy but it is still early days.

***

The music was loud and my mind slightly buzzing from the drink in my hand but I didn't feel much in the party mood. Usually I would love dancing in the crowd of sweaty bodies but today it just didn't seem too appealing to me.

"Adee." Someone yells but I only notice when I feel someone jump on my shoulders.

Cocking my head to the side slightly I see Mia clinging to me from behind, no doubt a little tipsy. She always becomes childish when drunk, it's honestly quite amusing to watch.

"I want you to meet someone." She cheers excitedly causing me to roll my eyes.

Here we go again.

Mia has a very bad habit of trying to set me up with guys even though she knows very well I don't want a relationship. She thinks it's just a act, that I just want someone who will try harder , but she doesn't get it. She is a lovesick puppy and thinks of life as nothing without love. I can't blame her though. Both parents showered her with love and affection even though they had very little.

When her parents divorced they were civil and did everything in their power to get rid of any tension between them so they could raise Mia happily together. They are actually best friends and went to all of Mia's sports events and even graduation together. Sometimes on Christmas he would join in on their Christmas dinner . At first, Mia admitted to me, that it was weird for her. She was used to seeing her parents fighting but as she got older she learned to respect them for it and is now beyond grateful that even though she has moved on they still remain civil.

I think it gave her hope. Hope that happiness could come from every relationship, failed or not. I on the other hand failed to see things that way.

But being friends with Mia for so long I learned that no matter how much I tell her I don't  want to meet a guy she will go out of her way just to make sure I end up on a date. Surprisingly one trait we both share, she is just as stubborn as I am. When we decide on something we will go through with it no matter what.

Getting off of me, Mia steps in front of me gripping onto my wrist as she pulls me through the crowded house of one of Tyler's friends.

We make our way to one of the back rooms where it is less noisy and sure enough in the corner I see Tyler standing and talking with some random guy dressed in black skinny jeans and a red flannel with the sleeves rolled up  and I immediately know that's where we are heading.

"Shawn." Mia shouts loudly over the music. "This is Adee." The way Mia is smiling makes me want to tackle her to the ground but Mia isn't the violent type which is the only thing that has ever stopped me from hitting her.

She pulls me forward so I am standing directly in front of the stranger who is towering above me. His face is attractive, I must give Mia that. His brown waves on top of his hair are a little messy, his brown eyes warm against his fair skin.

"Hi." He smiles down at me his facial expression brightening as though he was bored and suddenly became interested in being here.

"Hey." I greet awkwardly raising my hand in a small wave.

"I'm shawn." He introduces.

"Adee" I offer.

I have gone through enough of these awkward introductions to know how it plays out. We will awkwardly exchange names, Mia will see that as her cue to leave taking tyler along with her, then the stranger will try hopelessly to start a conversation which I will openly act uninterested in, and then I will make an excuse and leave. I have rehearsed this scenario so many times that I am now a pro at it.

"Well I think Ty and I are gonna go and get a drink." Mia announced as I had predicted. Although she could have come up with a more reasonable excuse considering both her and Tyler had drinks in their hands. But before I could point this out she was already across the room pulling Tyler behind her.

Letting out a reluctant sigh I turn my attention back to Shawn who is awkwardly shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

When shawn notices my attention on him he opens his mouth to speak but I quickly cut him off.

"Look Shawn. Im going to spare us both the pain of the awkward small talk and let you know that I'm not the relationship  type. So I think it's best if we just go our separate ways  and never see each other again." I summarise watching his face clearly to see if I can read his thoughts. The human face gives away everything a person is thinking. I had to learn the hard way to turn that off and it took years of practice, it is hard to control something that comes out of habit but I eventually learned.

He shakes his head as though he is waking himself from a daze before he smiles over at me.

"Great!"he chuckles and I have to stop myself from frowning in response. "Cause I'm not a relationship guy either." He shrugs and I know he is lying which causes me to giggle slightly. He's not a very good actor that's for sure.

"Really?" I quiz not bothering to hide the coy smile playing on my lips.

"Nope not one bit. Zero romance for me please." He over does it causing me to laugh.

"Well Mr Zero Romance, what are you here for?" I wonder, interested to see how he will play this out. In less than ten seconds he has managed to catch my attention which is a very first for me, even maybe an unknown feeling. There is just something about the unknown that tempts me. A mystery with no right or wrong answer. No telling whether you will succeed or fail.

His eyes widen briefly before flickering around the room as though hoping to find an answer written on the walls or something and judging by the way he straightens his posture, I can tell he has found it.

"Sex." he shrugs, in what I think he is attempting a cool way causing me to raise my eyebrows in disbelief.

When I don't respond he looks at me as though he is trying to figure out whether I see through his 'cool boy' act or not which of course I could. I'm pretty sure anyone could. This guy came off as innocent as a butterfly.

"Well then, lets go." I push and have to bite down on the sides of my cheeks to stop myself from laughing at his expression. His eyes have widened to the size of tennis balls and his face has gone blank. In all honesty I'm surprised his mouth isn't hung open to the floor the way they over exaggerate in animations.

When he doesn't respond I press on.

"So your place or mine?" I taunt and that seems to bring him back to reality. He blinks a few times before responding with a mumbled 'mine' that I had almost missed as he eagerly led me out of the party.

He leads me to a black jeep and is quick to get in. I don't pay much attention to the radio that is drowning out the silence, enjoying watching how he was eagerly tapping on the steering wheel and his leg was shaking in anticipation and I knew that I was in for an interesting night. This guy was defiantly not used to having one night stands, I was sure of it.

"Wow, nice place." I breath out in awe as I look around the dark apartment. The only light coming through is the city lights the wide glass windows let in. I had not expected someone so young to live in a place as nice as this.

"Thanks." He says standing next to me as I stare out the window at the city that surrounded us. This was the New York I wanted to be in. This was the New York I fell in love with. Although I had only seen this kind of view from picture I knew this was my dream. And now standing here in this strangers home I knew that I would stop at nothing to get here, not my parents, not my lack of money, nothing.

Reaching into my back pocket, I take out my phone and take a quick picture so I could look back and remember what I was thinking right now.

"So, where's the bedroom?" I wonder turning my attention to Shawn realising that he had just witnessed an intimate moment for me. Even if he hadn't realised it, I still felt emotionally exposed to him and I didn't like that one little bit.

"Oh, right, this way." He says as though he just remembered why we were here. He keeps the lights off as he leads me to the bedroom which is fine with me.

When he turns around I immediately smash my lips against his. He stumbles back, slightly taken off by guard, but quickly regains himself. His hand grips my waist firmly letting me know he has no intentions of moving them causing me to furrow my eyebrows slightly. My hands fumble with the buttons of his shirt before pushing it off of his body. In one swift move I take charge, not that I hadn't been doing that before, by pushing him onto the edge of the bed before removing my crop top and straddling his lap. Wrapping my arms around his neck I'm glad when his fingers begin to make there way to the clasp of my bra but that relief is soon gone when he struggles.

"Don't worry I'm pro at this." He breaths out heavily as I begin to suck down his neck.

Growing in patient, I swat his hands away before un clasping it while still working on his hickey. In one swift move I slide my bra off and pull away to find him looking at me impressed.

"Really pro." I sarcastically snort before placing my lips roughly on his again.

Pushing him back so he is now lying on the bed, the last thing I expected was for him to flip us over so I was down bottom and he was hovering over me. Something about taking a jab at a guys ego really gets them annoyed. They feel the need to show off and prove that they are worthy of there masculinity or something.

"Got a condom or would you rather give me half of everything you own?" I quiz and for a few moments he stare at  me confused before realising what I was implying and hurrying away to get what I had asked for.

***

"Wow." Shawn breathed out in awe causing me to bite back a laugh. "That was... That was really good." He stutters slightly causing me to roll my eyes.

Instead of responding I slide off of the bed pulling the sheets with me to cover my naked body even though he had just seen me naked, something about being naked in front of guys at any time other than sex made me feel exposed.

"What are you doing?" Shawn wonders as I begin to get dressed awkwardly behind the sheet.

"Getting dressed." I state the obvious giving an eye roll though he couldn't see because of the lack of light in the room. Dropping the sheet from my body now that I am dressed I crawl around the room to find my socks and shoes. Shawn is watching me from the bed now hoisted up on his arms.

"But I thought that was good?" the hurt in his tone is obvious which causes me to sigh.

Reluctantly, I use the bed to help push myself up so I am now standing in front of the bed. The only problem in going for the nice guys is that they get attached way to easily, besides that they are perfect! They are gentle and sweet and in some ways caring when it comes to sex almost like the appreciate it more, but they just don't understand how it ends. They are innocent to the hurt that this world can cause which is why I stay clear of them. They don't understand what it's like to feel alone like I do. The bad are just those who have suffered a broken heart, the good are just those that have remained unharmed by reality.

"I told you, I don't do relationships." I remind him of what I told him when we first met over an hour ago.

"No. Yeah." He shoots up off of the bed before realizing he was the only person naked in the room and using his hands to cover his member. "I mean no I don't want a relationship but yeah I remember you saying the same thing." He babbles causing me to let out a small chuckle.

I see him frown slightly as though he wasn't sure what he had just said made sense to him let alone anyone else, which only causes me to let out another muffled laugh glad that it is dark so he can't see me clearly.

"I was more suggesting coffee." He shrugs innocently and for a moment I consider it. Something about the blank innocent look playing on his fair features deceives me for a split second to take up his offer. But just as quick as the thought came, it also left.

"I need to get to bed, I have to get up for work tomorrow." I sigh checking the time.

It was already one am and I needed to be up at six if I wanted to make it to work on time. By the time I called a uber, got home, and in bed it would probably be two- thirty. It's a shame I couldn't stay the night in this strangers place the place was gorgeous but it would be weird.

"Well, I'm going to go." I awkwardly state making my way towards the door.

"At least let me give you a ride home." I stop in my tracks at Shawn's offer. It would be good to save a couple of dollars and I wouldn't have to wait for the uber to come here so I would be saving a few minutes as well.

"Just letting you know I hate small talk." I inform him. He nods his head furiously like a little kid agreeing to behave right before they do something wrong.

"Psh, I hate talking.  I will have the music blasting so loud we won't even be able to hear the cars passing by." He assures me. "Let's go." He heads past me through the door, only to look back at me in confusion when I don't follow him.

My eyes trail down his body and quickly back to his face hoping he would understand what I was implying. His eyes widen in shock and a small smile of embarrassment forms on his lips.

"I should probably put some clothes on." He affirmed as though it hadn't been obvious.

"Most likely a good idea." I commented as he walked past me yet again only this time making his way back into his bedroom.   Giving him his privacy I wait out in the main area of the apartment where I admit I snooped around a little while I waited. Though the room remained dark, I stood in the spacious lounge room that was set up so you could get a good view of the city while still getting a view of everything else in the room. The open kitchen and open dining room made the room look a lot bigger and the fact that the room wasn't overfilled with decoration probably helped a lot.

"Now we can go." He assures me, dangling the keys to his jeep in hand as he slips on his shoes.

I want to ask him how he managed to afford a place like this at such a young age but decide against it. It would probably come off as rude, intrusive, or even make it out as though I was interested in him. I learned a long time ago that if you want a guy to know your not interested don't ask him anything about himself. I remind myself that I don't care as I follow him into the lift, downstairs to the underground car park.

I sit in the back seat causing Shawn to give me a funny look as he hops into the drivers seat.

"Where to madam?" He attempts a posh accent and I can't make out whether this is just his goofy personality or if he is mocking me for sitting in the back seat like a snob. Deciding not to over think it too much,I give him my address but he doesn't type it in to his navi confusing me a little but then I wonder if he knows where the campus is from dropping previous girls off at their dorms.

"So what are you studying?" He wonders, watching me from the rear-view mirror as he stops at a red light. I give him a knowing look causing his eyes to widen. "Right! no conversations for little miss anti-social." He recalls as he begins to play around with the radio. I was about to reply with a sarcastic remark but decided against it. I had managed to get him to shut up, if I spoke that might encourage him to start up a conversation.

Before the car has even fully stopped I have already pushed my door wide open and am already out of the car when he puts it in park. However before I have the chance to run away he has pulled down the window and called out to me causing me to reluctantly turn around on the balls of my feet and make my way up to the passenger side window. He is leaning over the passenger seat as though eager to talk to me causing me to roll my eyes. This boy doesn't know when to quit.

"So I'm assuming we will never see each other again."He voiced,his tone giving away that he hoped I would tell him otherwise. Unfortunately you can hope all you want but that won't change anything, seems like that was a life lesson that he hadn't learned yet. It will happen sooner or later, he will get hurt and hope that things would change but realize that the only way things will change is if you try and change them and even then you may not get the response you had hoped for.

"You assume correctly." I summarized hoping to leave no room for him to think or say otherwise.

Rocking back and forwards on my heels with my hands shoved into my pockets, I hope he is an expert at reading body language and knows that I just want to walk away from him.

"Well then, I guess I will never see you again." He smiles causing me to frown slightly. He is smiling, why is he smiling?

"That is the plan." I reply coldly hoping he will somehow read my mind and know that I hate stretched out goodbyes. Why stretch something out over five minutes when it could be over and done with in two seconds?

Knowing that he was enjoying this, I turn away from the car and walk towards my dorm.

"Bye!" He yells loudly once I am a good twenty feet away from the car. The few people who are walking around the campus look over at the car but I refuse to give him the satisfaction. Instead I keep my head down as I hurry away from him to my bed.

When I step into my dorm I am met with only the dim light of the fairy lights hanging over my bed illuminating the room. In the dim light I make out Mia's body crawled up in a ball as she cuddles into her blankets like a child causing me to mentally thank Tyler. For a moment I contemplate on sending him a text to let him know that I was thankful but decide against it. I shouldn't have to thank him for bringing his girlfriend back home safely. Besides I'm sure Mia thanks him for that kind of stuff in other ways.

Mia stirs in her sleep as I pull off my jeans and place them at the end of my bed followed by my bra leaving me in just my underwear and crop top, I should probably shower before work tomorrow but I am too lazy. I suppose that is what dry shampoo and Victoria secret body sprays are for .

"Adee, is that you?" Her eyes stay shut as she mumbles making me stop and wonder whether she is asleep or awake.

"Yeah, it's me." I whisper gently slowly making my way towards her, not wanting to wake her if she is indeed still asleep.

"Were you with Shawn?" For a moment I consider lying. I don't know why but I suddenly felt ashamed of being with him for the past hour and a half.

"Yeah." I answer honestly, uncertainty clear in my voice but thankfully in her drunk, passed out state Mia didn't notice.

"That's good. Shawn's nice." She hums turning over and pulling the blanket tighter to her chest reminding me of an innocent child who still believes in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy.

"I'm sure he is." I answer with doubt as I brush the few messy strands of her blonde shoulder length hair out of her face. "Now get some sleep." I encourage before tip toeing into my bed and switching off the lights.

[onlyjihoons]

collegebf! daniel

a/n; happy birthday to kang choding hehe,, dedicated for my dearest mother @mongniel aurora until she disowned me so im trying to validate myself and also the loyal mom, ariane @deepdickdaniel

(repost bc the tags werent working)moodboard will be uploaded in a seperate post soon!

major: vetinary

minor: sports science

honestly took up vetinary bc of peter and rooney

so he could save on the fees to the vet

though he puts up a strong front he is often a kultz and actually really soft??

likes kids too and often swings by the early childhood department to visit minhyun

but let’s face it, animals like him better than the babies do

has a phobia of insects, especially flying ones

hence cant join practical lessons that involves specimen or live insects

his classmates would be kind enough to share with him the notes they took in class, but he would rather fail the topic than look at notes of insects

there was once his friend, ong threw a fake spider whilst daniel was studying and he screamed, pushing off the seemingly 1 ton table and chair away from him

ong was like,,, “are you sure he wants to be a vet next time”

despite his phobia of insects, he will actually grin and bear it when he needs to remove lice from animals

red bull and gummy addict, but more likely to die of shock from insects than diabetes

you will always spot a can of red bull on his lecture desk, and bet 10 bucks it has a love note attached to it from his admirers

fairly popular in school, because a soft, tall and cute guy doing vetinary?? he just screams boyfriend material in that white lab coat

and glasses slipping down his nosebridge just makes him look even more cuter

loves dancing as a hobby so he took it up as his minor

does b-boying and modern dance, looks equally hot in both

when the school hall is filled with girls, it is either some kpop boy band is performing, or daniel and his dance group, wanna one are performing

has so much charisma in his dancing, the idea of “cute daniel” gets thrown away

but a cute bunny most of the time who is addicted to gummies

surprisingly, hasn’t dated a lot as contrast to rumours that he’s a fuckboy

he really hates fucking around with others’ feelings… despite being choding(childish) around his hyungs of wanna one

meanwhile you,, a medicine student trying to keep up with the expectations of society

to be honest, you’re doing well

but not well enough to enter the top hospitals of seoul

and you’re here on scholarship anyway, might as well make use of it to make your parents proud

you’re your parents’ only child too, the pressure to do well is also quite high

you barely dated, the only time was in high school where you were a foolish teenager dating your best friend

you did have classmates confessing to you though, but everything stayed platonic

they weren’t upset surprisingly, they were more than willing to be friends with you too

eventually they found their other halves, but are still good friends with you

you were glad guys in your faculty were understanding,, unlike some that disliked you after that

you were friends with jaehwan, your old friend since the both of you were in diapers

he took up music, and ended up having lots of college scholarship offers

he eventually went to your college, despite it not one of his first few choices

“my friend would die a lonely virgin if i didnt help her with her love life”

“shut up jaehwan, 80% of your girlfriends broke up with you because your laugh is annoying”

“i dId NOT aSk for this sLaNdEr”

anyway, you had no idea how jaehwan ended up in wanna one(and daniel’s roomate), depite his “boom boom-bastic” dance skills

winkwonk

but that boy’s vocals can reach to the gods in heaven and appease them

he tried to matchmake you with all of the members of wanna one(excluding the minors of course) but it all failed because your friend was the worst at being discreet

the lords of venus eventually shined upon you when daniel was sent to your faculty for “emergency” treatment

“y/n,,, we need you to fix daniel, quick.” jaehwan said breathlessly over the phone

“if he needs a one night stand, im not an option, you know that, kim jaehwan.”

“no, that stupid boy accidentally cut himself while trying to disect a frog… and he’s bleeding a lot.”

“oh the flower boy from vetinary?” you nodded as you took your first aid kit, “but you aren’t even majoring in vetinary, jaehwan, what are you doing with daniel?”

“he called me to call you– ok nevermind, i’ll explain to you later, we’re on our way to your faculty. wait for us outside the medicine labs.”

“uh okay.”

so there you were, waiting outside the medicine labs with your first aid kit

seconds later, you saw 3 boys running towards you, one visibly taller than the other 2

you could finally make out their faces, it was jaehwan, daniel and another boy, wonwoo whom you were friends with due to jaehwan’s failed matchmaking

“y/n,, i think daniel is gonna suffer from anaemia…”

you tried to stifle your laughter as you examined the cardigan wrapped around daniel’s hand

“he won’t. don’t worry.” you assured them as you unraveled the cardigan, “let’s just hope it’s nothing too deep…”

when you revealed the wound, it was just a minor cut, though not as minor as a paper cut but definitely bleeding

you glared at jaehwan, who smiled sheepishly and resigned to his death after you treated daniel

you dressed the wound quickly, lips pursed in concentration

what you didnt notice was daniel’s gaze, which was on you the whole time

he had a weird feeling in his stomach, he wanted to use his other hand to run it through your hair

he tried to shake it off, but he got more and more attracted to you when he saw your eyes meeting his to make sure he isnt uncomfortable

this wasnt the first time daniel saw you though, he often saw you on jaehwan’s lockscreen, as your friend had set the selca both of you took as his lockscreen

as much as daniel wanted to meet you, he didn’t want to give you the wrong impression because of his rumours

and now he finally did, but he was pretty sure you’re gonna hate him for being over-reacting

“done,” you patted his dressing and pushed his hand towards him, “it’s nothing too deep, don’t worry. but make sure to take it off when you’re showering, if you need any help just give me a call.”

daniel shot you one of his signature eyesmiles, “thank you so much, i’m sorry i had to make you rush down for me…”

“no its fine! just call me whenever. i hope you get well soon.” you smiled, then tiptoed to daniel’s ear, “just don’t tell jaehwan though, he can be a little, nosey.”

you were lying if you said daniel wasn’t attractive and totally did not win you over with his eyesmile in the span of 3 seconds

“and kim jaehwan, you owe me a meal. for helping your friend and putting up with your drama.”

at this point, daniel was totally smitten

everyone could see it, even the members of wanna one started teasing him about it

“i can set you up with a date with y/n if you want–”

“no i dont like her peter and rooney are my girlfriends”

daniel totally did not ask almost everyone in his faculty for your number

when he finally had the guts to text you, he was all giddy when you replied, jumping up whenever he heard the personalized notification just for your contact

meanwhile, while you were talking to daniel, you really loved it when he talks about animals, it seemed like all time has stopped in the world and his passion for taking care of animals is just so attractive

and he didnt seem like the usual fuckboy everyone perceived him to be

one day, daniel asked you out for a pizza date, and you immediately agreed

because free pizza and a cute date, why not

the both of you ended up going to laundry pizza, just bc daniel said ioi went there to take their album jacket photos there LOL

but the pizza there was good so you weren’t complaining

daniel ended up paying for the both of you, after 15 minutes of rentless argument over who should pay

the both of you also went to the arcade, wasting your money on those claw machines

you didn’t get anything, but you had fun throwing airballs at the basketball machine thingy

daniel walked you back pretty early, because he knew you had a morning lecture the next morning

not gonna lie, you wanted to stay longer but daniel was not gonna have any of it

daniel walked you till your doorstep, and your hands were fumbling through your purse for your keys

looks like someone forgot their keys,,,

you laughed humourlessly as you tried to open the locked door, but only for daniel to giggle along with you

your roomate was out too, and she wouldn’t be back till the next morning

“i dont think its safe for you to be sleeping outside, why dont you stay over at my place?”

“im–”

“ok let’s go”

you didnt even say anything and here you are, at daniel’s dorm, unsure of what to do

just watching daniel hastily clean up his dorm is quite amusing

“jaehwan wont be back till really late, he has an event to attend to.” daniel smiled as he proceeeds to kick the sweet wrappers under the sofa, “i’m sorry you have to put up with this, y/n.”

“no, no, thank you for letting me stay here, or i’ll be freezing in the cold right now.” you shook your head, yawning

“do you want a change of clothes? i have a hoodie you can wear…hopefully”

you never knew you would be staying in daniel’s dorm, on his bed, in his hoodie

until today

you slept fairly well, with daniel’s scent invading all your senses

until you felt something on your foot

you woke up, scared

the thing kept probing at your feet, and soon it was licking it

you screamed, and soon enough daniel ran into his room to see what happned

“y-y/n?” he rubbed his eyes as he turned on the lights, “what happened?”

“s-something was at my foot”

daniel moved the sheets, and he found rooney peacefully sleeping on the foot of the bed

“i’m sorry, rooney always likes to invade the bed in the middle of the night,,, i should’ve told you earlier”

“it’s fine, i was just too shocked hahaha”

silence

“maybe i’ll sleep with you, so peter and rooney wont disturb us”

you stared at daniel, as he quickly waved his hands, “no, no, i wont do anything, i swear, you can end me if i do.”

neither of you could sleep, so daniel nudged you

“y/n… i know its weird to say this but,, i like you”

well that was really weird

“i don’t expect you to accept me and all but i just wanna let you know that i–”

you cut daniel off with a kiss, as he sneakily snaked his arms around your waist to bring you closer

after a good like, 20 seconds, you pulled away, “me, rejecting kang daniel?? no way.”

ever since the both of you started dating, jaehwan started to brag about himself, saying that the both of you were a couple thanks to him,,,

but would shut up immediately after he sees you in the vicinity because he would be running away from you

a very cute relationship, daniel would always wrap his arms around your shoulders and snuggle you close to him

instant ramen dates are a big thing and you always have to clean up after daniel

but he helps of course, after hearing you nag at him for the nth time

he would always make you a bento before your papers, with a note that says, “with this bento, you will do well! fighting! love, daniel”

and vice versa, you would bake him muffins too

sweetest boyfriend, but the type to say pick up lines to annoy the heck out of you

they arent even smooth, theyre hella bad

and yes, kang choding still exists

you have to physically stop him from buying/eating more gummies or his teeth would rot

since daniel is relatively bigger in size, you would always steal his clothes and he would always wonder how his clothes would mysteriously go missing

he would know the answer when he sees you the next morning

the whole campus ships the both of you sm

please love kang daniel

[alotta-lovin]

I'd really love to know more about you and Dean!! Are you a hunter? How did you two meet? How do you get along with Sam? What's your relationship with Dean like? Do you have pet names for each other? What was your reaction to his first (and other) deaths? How does he react to you getting hurt? Has he ever let you drive baby? How do you both like to relax after a stressful hunt? Have you had any really bad fights? -💜

SURE THING ANON!!! Just so you know its long…as fuck.

Are you a hunter?

I am– i’m a witch as well not a great one or anything either just…small things. So mostly hunter?????

How did you two meet?

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH HO HO HO HO HO– ACTUALLY, On a hunt— it was… something. I believe it was a run of the mill Vampire nest if im remembering correctly how we met– i was already pursuing the nest at this point no hell and let alone the knowledge that they were pursuing it at the same time i was and just kinda we came in from different sides and saw each other last minute before the fuckin doors shut letting everyone in the nest know that we were there… So start fighting and killing off the nest one by one when possible…and because im small and i was caught up in my own brain and confused about how i didn’t know others were pursuing this nest that were a team at that and would more than likely have a better chance with it as well than with me goin in on it alone like i originally planned and what i had found out it was a lot bigger than what i fuckin though’ so you can imagine how many times i would snap back to reality when he was yelling “Behind you!” or other directions “Left!” “Turn the fuck around!”.

After a few minutes of it i kinda got annoyed by being demanded after i was actually registering what i was doing and where they were coming from, and with that annoyed anger i started becoming sharper with my swings and hits when needed and I did get hit a few times of course cause im small and maybe got a lil too cocky when getting into the zone more– and Sam was the one to take on the Head of the nest– and after finishing up and with me i burn the bodies of the monsters i kill so i made them help me drag them all out to the back to burn the bodies and such..  And standing there with my hands in my pockets, my machete at my side on the ground from tossing it there and watching the flames glow and trying not to get a headache from the smell of flesh fuckin burning he walked up put his hand out and said “I’m Dean.” and with his other hand using his thumb to point back to his brother “And that’s Sammy”. i took a minute before i wiped the semi dried blood off my hand and onto my jeans as much as i possibly could i grabbed his hand and shook it, cleared my throat and spoke up “And I’m Faith.” letting go of his hand i then put it back in my pocket and turned to face him “Didn’t know you were pursuing the nest at all- sorry if i fucked up any plans you had” which was followed by “Don’t worry about it, i just think a tiny gal like you shouldn’t be going into big cases like that–” “And i don’t think you should be telling me what i can and can not do here, Darlin’. Make sure it burns out for me.” which i then leaned down and pulled my hand back out of my pocket and grabbed my machete and started heading to my Blazer (something probs like this) and waved to Sammy before shaking his hand introducing myself to him and actually exchanging numbers with him if they needed “A tiny gal” to help with a case. then headed towards my car unlocking it and throwing the Machete onto the other side of the seat and getting then proceeding to drive away basically. 

How do you get along with Sam?

Not gonna lie– Sam and i get along really well– like the replacement big brother i never had to replace the shit one i got??? its nice. Hell he was the one that fuckin straight up told Dean to stop being a pussy and admit that he had feelings for me cause he wouldn’t shut up about how he was demanding Sammy to message me to see if i was okay and or if i needed help just so he could see me or always asking Sammy “Have you heard from Faith lately” and just– as much as Dean and i get on each others tails about things and annoy the other with small things Sam knew i had feelings for Dean and thats because i told him but it was also the way i treated him??? i guess?? but Sam was the one to fuckin tell Dean to man up and tell me and mean-time-in-between-time IM FUCKIN SITTING RIGHT THERE AND JUST WITH A “wait whut” look on my face before registering what the fuck is happening and hiding my face in the table 

What’s your relationship with Dean like?

Its— How do i put this– Okay, so i like doing my own thing, ill listen by rules if needed you know, and ill respect others and i have my own rules too so i follow by those and i have rules for other people, And same goes for Dean you know?

So sometimes things like that get in and sorta make us fight– but its mostly because we aren’t used to feeling like this feeling???? For him its, “Everyone ive loved so far has died and i dont want this to happen but shes being so fuckin— Stubborn about doing this ONE THING!” and for me its “I don’t want to lose this person i feel so strongly for but i dont understand this feeling and he wont listen to this ONE THING and i get that he has his ways and i have mine but…i dont want to lose him…at all.” So its fighting because we love each other but then that leads to lots of love building up more and more worry but also more trust in the other after proving that we’ll be okay. Its..a little all over the place but its also held together well??

Hell if he’s angry and fucking beating a tree with his bare fists im that fuckin girl to sit there and grab a drink and watch him do it while talking to Sam..that or if im working on like something to make me relax like lets say– a Flower necklace and i finished the spell on it ill walk up behind him and put it around his neck and he instantly relaxes…maybe too much cause he ends up falling back onto me and i have to catch him– its a weird but nice relationship if that makes sense?.

Heck– man if he fuckin flirts with a chick im that person to walk up and start flirting with someone as well– It gets him to stop and when he stops ill stop. so he’s slowly learned and is learning “Okay no flirting other than with her” but still does it from time to time.

Do you have pet names for each other?

We have to keep in mind i use pet names for everyone– and when i say everyone i mean EVERYONE. sometimes stuff like “Lil fucker” “Fuckin bitch” “Dipnap” for some odd reason to things like “Sweetie” “Sugar” “Babe” not even kidding. BUT! i have special ones for him.

⁃ Dreamboat (From Me to Dean)⁃ Casanova (From Me to Dean)⁃ Little Darlin’ (From Dean to Me)⁃ Baby Doll (From Dean to Me)⁃ Pain in my fuckin ass (From Me to Dean)(In a loving, irritated/annoyed way)⁃ Tiny Brat (From Dean to Me) (In a loving, irritated/annoyed way)

Phone Contact names : (Both Phones)

Dean:

Phone #1 ⁃ Angel Eyes (Faith)Phone #2 ⁃ Lady Luck

Faith:

Phone #1 ⁃ Hotshot (Dean)Phone #2 ⁃ Knockout

Bonus!:

⁃ Champ (From Me to Sammy) (Sisterly way)⁃ Peaches (From Sammy to Me) (Brotherly way) (His definition for calling me it in his words are : “I think you’re delightful and you’re a sweetie like a peach so, instead of just sis; you know…Peaches?”)

What was your reaction to his first (and other) deaths? :

Okay they basically killed me and each time he fuckin came back i always thought for some fucked reason that some fucking demon or shape shifter was always trying to fuck with me so– you can imagine how many things have been thrown or shot at him– or splashed with holy water as well—

How does he react to you getting hurt? :

Oh god–  Okay, so …not good?? but also like a huge worry-wart and if its really bad (I.E. gunshot wounds, deep stabs or extreme wounds) hes not hesitant to start calling for Feather butt–.

Has he ever let you drive baby? :

Yeah actually- a few times, the first time he was very– demanding that i do things a certain way and i got annoyed and fed up with it so i took my foot of the gas and my hands off the wheel, going down hill and crossed my arms and looked over at him while Sam sat in the back mortified and scared cause the car started to drift to the other side of the road with on-coming traffic and all i said with a dead-pan look “You wanna drive then? Be my guest. ill wait” which was followed by “OKAY DO WHAT YOU WANT JUST DRIVE DAMMIT BEFORE WE GET HIT!” “Okay then, thank you” and – it was an experience..needless to say he doesn’t try to boss around my driving. In baby or my Blazer.

How do you both like to relax after a stressful hunt? :

Hot. Showers. even more over if its a bloody hunt too– just…Hot Showers most of the time…and for him lots of drinks while im just having a few here and there and more so drinking tea more than likely. that or…other things.

Have you had any really bad fights? :

Yes. a few actually– they were more so while we were both denying our feelings… The first one was when i was still confused why i got so jealous about him talking to other girls/guys all around and when he would gloat about what pussy he got the night before. but continuing on he started flirting with our waitress while we were at a Diner, i ordered my food, then Sam..then Dean– and of course she was very much okay with it and with how small i am and how i look the age im not which is that of a young child– She more than likely thought i was their little cousin or somethin of that nature, and when she came back with our food after a little while he said thank you and bit his lip as she waved and walked away which was followed by him watching her walk away….I picked up my plate slid out of the booth and dumped it into his lap and threw the plate into his lap as well which i then leaned over the table and grabbed my car keys (we took my Blazer) and walked out driving back to the hotel leaving both Sam and Dean there to walk back with no key-card to get back in….i i think it was over reacting personally but Sam things he deserved it since a few hours before picking me up he was so worried and excited to hear about what had been going on with me and all this other bullsnaps…but that was our first big/really bad “Fight”???? theres more which some have lead in either me getting into my Blazer and driving off and going ghost on him but not Sam for a month or two or if i was holding a bat (most common for me) or a machete and i was close to baby… As much as i hate myself for it but at the time i didnt really care ive put dents in the hood or ive broken the windows or scratched the pant— it was bad… but yeah.

[defineyourlimits]

August 15, 2019

In a text to Sarah:

Hi sorry it’s so late i just remembered that I never told you the Koby update. I think the last time I talked to you about it was before he had asked me on a date. So not last Saturday but the Saturday before I was at home and we were texting and he asked me on a date for the following Wednesday so of course I said yes. When I got back into town on Monday he came over and everyone was hanging out then slowly people left and everyone went to bed so it was just him and I in the living room.

We put on a movie and we start flirting and stuff back and forth and he ends up kissing me and stuff so we like cuddle and make out for the rest of the movie. He stays until 3:30 so I finally end up going to bed at like 4:30 ish because I’m just flipping out over us kissing. I wake up pretty early the next day so I had like 5ish hours of sleep. Then Tuesday all the girls were hanging and I stay up late and wake up early again. So I have another night of 5 hours then it’s Wednesday so it’s date night. I get dressed and nervous and what not and we have a cute date. He took me to this Chinese place he loves then we came back home and hung out. We went to Walmart with Magen and Carrie Grace for awhile. Everyone goes to bed so we go to my room and we make out and talk until 3:30 again. The issue is, I have to wake up at 5 because we’re going to 6 flags.

It wasnt an entire issue though because honestly I would have let him stay until 5. So I have one hour of sleep and get ready and go to six flags. We talk through out the day and then I invite him over after we get back. I hop in the shower and I just randomly get this overwhelming feeling that he is going to end things with me and that he doesn’t really like me that much. I tell Magen and she like calms me down and what not. So we’re all hanging out and he’s not acting any differently or anything but I’m still low key freaking out that he’s gonna end things. We watch disjointed and this scene comes on where this dude tries weed for the first time. He has issues with depression and ptsd so they show this like cartoon depiction of the weed like going into his body and brain but it ends with these like unsettling images and it just took me directly back to the night I was high at Anna’s and realized what had happened with Colton. So I try to shake that off and what not. After that episode ends, Magen goes to bed so Koby and I go to my room. After a few minutes we start making out and I start feeling panicky because I’m thinking about Colton and Koby and I are kissing and he’s touching me. I get to where like I almost can’t breathe so I get off of him and sit at the foot of my bed as far from him as I can and try to catch my breath. I try to like play it off but he can tell that I’m freaking out so he’s like asking what’s wrong.

I tell him nothing so he was like well come here and cuddle me so I do. And he’s like are you sure nothings wrong, and I say yes but he said that I hesitated. So I tell him like, look koby, it’s a really big thing like it’s a big deal. I’m just trying to like not tell him what happened. But he wants to know so I literally say “so we were watching disjointed and they were showing that guy getting high then having the like PTSD episode and it took me back to when I was high at Anna’s a few months ago and realized that back in November I had gone to rounders and gotten drugged and you can assume what happened from there.” I just really didn’t want to say the word to him. He like paused for a second then asked if he could hug me and I said yes.

He basically said that he was sorry that it had happened to me and that he had friends who had gone through similar situations and that he never wanted to make me feel uncomfortable and what not. And he had said that to me before that night had happened too. We keep talking and stuff for awhile and he mentions that he didn’t want to rush anything and make stuff official because he wanted to take things slow and do it right because he didn’t want to fuck things up. He stayed until 3 again (I’m really trying to emphasize the lack of sleep I got) and I had to wake up at 8 to go back to winfield because my dad and I were suppose to go to South Carolina to go white water rafting.

I lock the door behind him and I can’t even make it to my room before I start crying. I like go to my room and ball my eyes out for almost an hour before my exhaustion kicks in and I fall asleep. So I sleep for like 4 hours, wake up, pack my shit, and drive home. I stop at Jacks and get a biscuit and coffee. And I love Jack’s breakfast like normally I down my biscuit within 5 minutes of getting it not even exaggerating. But I’m so sick over what happened the night before that I’m shaking the whole drive and I don’t even touch my biscuit until I’m out of Tuscaloosa. And even then I only ate half of it. I cry the whole way home because I’m freaking out because that’s the first time that I’ve been in a situation where I had I guess like a flash back almost to Colton. Because we were even in a position that Colton and I were in when I freaked out so that didn’t help.

And I was freaking out that Koby was gonna end things and think I’m dumb or weird or crazy or lying or something idk but it scared me because I really like him and I’m just really afraid of being alone because I hate it and I felt like I ruined my chances with being with him because of my freak out and Even though I knew deep down that I was glad he said he wanted to take things slow and not make anything official I was also afraid that he had said that because he basically already had one foot out the door. So by the time I make it home I had made myself so sick that I had to throw my car in park and swing my door open and I dry heaved twice into my front lawn. Nothing came out but I felt so upset and sick. I was at home for an hour before I was suppose to have lunch with my parents. I calm myself down then go to where we’re having lunch. I get my food and I’m still so sick that I don’t even pick up my silverware. I tell my parents that I ate breakfast late and that I will eat my food later.

I was texting Magen and Carrie Grace the whole morning about everything that had happened. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t text you. I think I was just so overwhelmed and you weren’t here so I didn’t even think about it. Well I’m sitting in the restaurant and I get a text from Magen and I’m reading it and feel myself start to get overwhelmed again so I tell my parents I’m going to the bathroom. Well someone is in there so I stand outside trying to calm myself down but I start crying so I walk outside of the restaurant and sit on a bench outside. I try to stop crying but I can’t so I just try to stay quiet. I finally call my mom and tell her to bring my keys and meet me at my car. We sit in the parking lot and I explained to her what happened. My dad and brother ended up heading back home while we were talking. She like comforted me and told me I should talk to my counselor soon. She tells me that if I don’t feel like going on the trip that dad would understand. I tell her that I don’t think I will go.

I drive her back to work then cry the rest of the way home. I get back and hug my dad and tell him that I don’t feel like going. I go to my room and sleep for 5 hours. I get up and go tell me dad everything that happened. My mom gets back home so we eat dinner then I go back to my room. Im messaging Koby and he asks if we had made it to South Carolina and I told him that we weren’t going because I wasn’t feeling well. He asked what not feeling well meant. I basically said that I was freaking out over what had happened last night and that I hadn’t talked to him much about it but that he was the first guy I’ve talked to since I realized what happened and that everyday is like a process for me and that I know this is a lot and that he didn’t ask for any of this and that if he wanted to go back to being friends that we could and it wouldn’t change anything between us. I also said that he didn’t do anything to make me uncomfortable, this is just kinda my life now.

And he just like straight up said that he like me for me and that nothing I said had changed his mind about anything. He said that he was an open book with me and that he wanted me to be one with him. He said that he wanted to go through this process with me but if that I felt like I could only handle a friendship that he would be willing to do that. I told him that I really liked the pace that we were going at now and that I would be as open as possible with him and that if he had any questions I would be willing to answer them. So that eased a lot of my anxieties and stuff and since I’ve been back everything has been so natural and wonderful with him.

I’ve gotten to see him at least for a little bit everyday and like nothing has made me happier. We haven’t really had the chance to talk about it in person because he has band camp all week but I assume we will soon. I just feel really lucky that I’m going through this with him and I really like being with him. He makes me feel so comfortable and he and I have been friends since last summer so we know a good bit about each other and I feel like our personalities click so well together. I literally can’t say enough about how happy I am that we’re together (even if we aren’t official yet).