#is such a useful measuring tool. The guy stands next to everyone! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

junko-and-riri-domain · 4 years ago

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push and pulls | ot7

↬ ᴘᴀɪʀɪɴɢ: ot7 x reader ↬ ɢᴇɴʀᴇ: fluff | requested | headcannon (paragraph form) ↬ ᴡᴀʀɴɪɴɢs: none ↬ ʀᴇQᴜᴇꜱᴛᴇᴅ ʙʏ: anon ↬ ʀᴇQᴜᴇꜱᴛ ᴡᴀs: “cat and dog relationship with classmate!enhypen ? hehe headcannon or any format that you're comfy with :3 they could be highschool sweethearts in the end too 😭” ↬ ᴀ/ɴ:

i tried i'm sorry if this sucks 🤧

jake and jay’s are are like semi-suggestive (i think?) imma just say that they are semi-suggestive to be safe

i aint gonna lie i’m a sucker for Jay cooking 😪

jake & hoon’s are kinda short bc it’s like 1 am rn

Heeseung

Heeseung has always been good at everything no matter what it is. It isn’t to discredit any of his effort whatsoever, but as the school year continues everyone knows that things are just natural for Heeseung. Ever since your freshman year of high school, you’ve seen him as your main competition for 1st place in school. The problem? This man isn’t even aware of it. To you, he just breathes and wins the competitions, gets all the attention, and is at the top of everything. To him, it’s the only way you’ll even notice him. The competitions? It gives him a chance to stay after school to be with you. The attention? He’s only focused on yours. Him at the top of everything? Well, that one’s just because he’s Lee Heeseung. It’s after school one day and the both of you have stayed to help clean up the classes for extra credit. Like a thief with a bagful of stolen glances, his eyes drift to you whenever you don’t notice. Except for this one time.

“Stop looking at me!” you say, your eyes glaring at him. He’s taken aback as he never meant to offend you.

“Sorry,” he said, thinking that you’d just leave it at that. But instead,

“I know you’re fricking judging me Lee Heeseung.”

“What?”

“I can feel it in your eyes. I’ll always be second to you and I get it, you don’t need to rub it in, so just stop!” You throw the rag at the window, walking out of the classroom and he’s left alone wondering what the hell just happened. And suddenly the gap between first place and second begins to grow. To him, staying after school to study for competitions are no longer fun when you won’t even tell him to be quiet when he starts to sing. Your attention is gone just like his sanity. Being at the top never felt so lonely when you weren’t next to him. To you, staying after school becomes something you dread because of the silence in the room that you caused. Your attention seems as if it’s on everything but him but every day you have a hundred thoughts and all of them are infected with him. The two of you enter yet another school competition, making it to the top 3. Yet, unlike previous times, neither of you is in first place.

“In first place, we have Sim Jaeyun!” the announcer says. You and Heeseung look at each other in shock that the other wasn’t on the podium. Yet, you couldn’t care less. Because not getting first place causes you to go off on a rant that Heeseung joins in on. Staying after school turns into study partners at the nearby cafe which becomes study dates. Both of your attention is openly on the other. And while you’re both at the top academically, you become the couple goals everyone wishes they could achieve.

“ace of my heart 💞” you caption an Instagram post of a picture of Heeseung.

rest of the boys under the cut!

Jay

Culinary class is peaceful for Jay. He has control of everything, knows where the ingredients and cooking tools are, can do something he loves, and did we mention control of everything? As a chef, he learned what you were like the first few weeks of class. You were messy with apple peels next to the lime squeezer, engaging in a way of cooking that you defined as “organized chaos.” You didn’t use measurements, cooked things by eye, and used whatever seasonings felt right. It wasn’t that you were bad at cooking, he actually enjoyed your dishes. But your process was just something he couldn’t stand. And maybe he doesn’t really like you since you accidentally used the last of his honey when making cupcakes but that’s a story for another day. The culinary teacher decided to try something new to promote teamwork and for a week, the class would be in partners and cooking a dish new to both people. And who did Jay just have to end up with? You. As the two of you read the recipe for your first dish which was a dessert of sorts,

“What do you wanna use first, jackfruit or durian?” he asked. You looked up at him, a teasing smile on your lips,

“Durian, because it looks like you,” you said before making your way to the table where all the ingredients were.

“Inner peace,” he muttered to himself as he watched you walk off. The next day, you were making peach tarts.

“Yah, Jay, look here,” you said as you held up your phone and the peach. In the photo you took, the peach was next to Jay’s face, sort of comparing the two.

“Why’d you take a picture of me?” he asked. He didn’t really mind photos, knowing full well how good he looked but you taking one of him came completely out of the blue. As you glanced up from your phone after hitting post, you were unable to stop your laugh,

“Your hair looks like a peach,” you said with a wink as you went back to cutting the ingredients.

“Do I just, do I just look like food now?” he muttered to himself with a huff.

“I mean… I wouldn’t mind eating you,” you teased. You were smooth, he’d give you that. But, damn, he wanted to make you feel the way you were making him feel right now.

It didn’t take long for you to learn that Jay’s way of teasing made you flustered as hell. If you’d ask him to hand you something, he’d hold it above your head forcing you to have to jump up. It just so happened that he did this once right in front of someone else’s station and as you jumped, you almost knocked into them which led to his arm around you,

“Watch where you’re going,” he warned with a teasing edge as he handed you the carrots.

When you handed him something, he’d take it in a way that his hand held yours for a second but that second was enough. As the two of you cooked together, you entered your own world with no one else but the other in it. He was patient with your organized chaos, his own habits finding a place alongside your cooking routine. For the last day of working as partners, you two were to bake cookies. You put in a pinch of salt then some sugar when suddenly,

“YAH!” you hear from next to you. Met with Jay’s wide eyes as he looked in the bowl where you put the salt and sugar,

“What’s wrong?” you asked.

“I told you to taste the salt and sugar before you used it.”

“The first one tasted like salt so I put more of the second one.” He took a pinch of the sugar already in the mixing bowl then tasted it, a disgusted look appearing on his face”

“You put salt then more salt, good job y/n.”

“Huh?” He took another pinch then brought it up to your lips and as you tasted it,

“Why the hell is there two kinds of salt here!”

“One’s fine, the other’s coarse. I wanted to eat these y’know.”

“Fine, head over to my place after school and we can make cookies together.”

“That’s not funny. You can’t mess with cookies,” he muttered.

“Who said I was joking? We can even drizzle honey over it.”

Jake

Perfection doesn’t even begin to describe Sim Jaeyun. A gentleman, kind, smart, has an accent that you can’t help but sometimes tease him about, and obsessed with Layla were all things you couldn’t fault him for. But sometimes, just sometimes, he could be a little too nice. You couldn’t help but feel jealous at the sight of the girl chatting with Jake by the benches and her feeling his arm up.

“Geez, tell her to go away!” you wanted to say to him as you started walking towards them.

“Hey,” Jake said with a smile as his eyes landed on you. The same smile he smiled at her with.

“Are you ready to go?” you asked, trying not to sound pissed but couldn’t help yourself.

“Yeah hold up.” Jake looked at the girl, “Just text if you need help with anything else on the homework,” he said before walking off with you.

“Who was that?” you asked as the two of you made your way to the cafeteria.

“New girl, needs help with physics so she asked me for help.” Jake was supposed to help you with physics.

“You gonna help her on Tuesdays?” you asked, referring to the day Jake always helped you. If he did notice your jealousy, he didn’t say anything about it. Oh, but he did notice. And he kind of wanted to edge it on to see how far things would go.

“Should I? She can hangout with me and Layla.”

“See if she likes me better than Layla.”

“Might take you up on the offer, watch your words, y/n,” he said with a chuckle.

“Yeah? You introduce her to Layla and I’ll divorce you then take full custody.”

“I didn’t know we were married, don’t we gotta go out on a date first?”

“I don’t know, do we?”

“Let’s do it right now then.”

“Fine! Wait what-?”

Sunghoon

On the ice, you and Sunghoon went together like sugar and tea. Off the ice, you two were like the coarse salt that ruined the cookies in Jay’s fic. You and Sunghoon skated well together, putting on a performance that typically got you first place, but that’s exactly what it was. A performance. An act. Nothing more, nothing less. Neither of you talked when you saw each other after practice the next day at school. Neither of you actively told anyone that you knew each other more than most couples did. But there was just something about talking to Sunghoon outside of ice skating, acknowledging that there you had an ice skating persona as well as the persona you showed to everyone else, that frightened you. So both of you made an unspoken agreement that you’d keep your ice skater lives in the rink and outside of it. Except for right now where the transfer student who coincidentally just so happened to be an ice skater and was wondering if you’d be his partner for the upcoming showcase.

“Y/n already has a partner,” Sunghoon said, cutting in as he stood next to you. The transfer student’s eyes settled on Sunghoon,

“You’re Park Sunghoon, the guy who-”

“Almost made it into the Olympics? Yeah. And y/n and I are gonna do it together this year.” You weren’t quite sure how to feel about Sunghoon suddenly “claiming” you (not in a toxic way whatsoever, we don’t condone that here). But you did know that this meant Sunghoon knew of your existence outside of the rink.

“Says who?” you said, trying to see how this would go. He looked at you, fear flashing in his eyes at the thought of the two of you not doing this together.

“I thought, I thought we were? Are we not? We have our outfits planned and everything.”

“I mean… plans change, Hoon.” That nickname, the one only you were allowed to use for him.

“Do you not wanna do it together?”

“I’m just gonna… go,” the transfer student said.

“I do wanna do it together.”

“So then what’s the problem?”

“We kinda don’t have a relationship outside of the rink, Hoon.”

“We can make one, then. Right now.”

“Right now?”

“Right now.”

Sunoo

You’ve always held a level of jealousy towards Sunoo. Sunoo has always been the guy who’s everyone’s friend even if he’s popular, the type of guy who waves at everyone, greets them with a smile on their face, and gets people to attend class/school events. Whereas you’re more on the introverted side, not really liking people. When it’s lunchtime, you tend to eat alone not really giving a damn about everyone else. You’re not exactly an outcast, just more comfortable by yourself. You’ve always been jealous of how Sunoo’s open to people, talkative, and just overall likable. Because unlike him, people think you’re being mean when you’re quiet and it looks like you’re not listening to whatever it is they’re saying. Around school, Sunoo has earned the nickname Sunny while you’ve been given the nickname Winter. Everyone sees how you walk away whenever Sunoo waves at you in the halls. Everyone is aware of how you scoff whenever Sunoo does aegyo in front of you. Everyone notices how you get mad whenever he links his arm with yours. But it’s Sunoo who sees the glint in your eyes the second they meet his by your locker. It’s Sunoo who notices the slight smile that plays at the corner of your lips whenever he calls himself “ddeonu.” And it’s Sunoo who’s aware that no matter how much you protest when your arms link, you’re never the one to let go first. So he sits at the desk in front of yours during lunch, chatting his butt off about his day while stealing bites of your lunch. He gives you face masks with the excuse of “it was a buy one get one free deal and I don’t know who else to give it to.” He asks if he can style your hair playing it off as “practice.” Little by little, you begin to open up. When you see him in the halls, you start to give him a smile reserved only for him. When he does aegyo you tease him by saying that Jake does it better. And when he links his arms with yours, your pinkies intertwine. You bring an extra bag of chips for lunch and start making your portions larger to share with him. You invite him to the mall since you saw an online promo while walking by. You start to enjoy the way he plays with your hair, sometimes even craving his touch. Because we all know, the sun has its way of melting ice.

Jungwon

Yang Jungwon, the class president, has a 100% success rate in getting field trip forms submitted on time. Well, it would be 100% if it weren’t for you. It seems as if you’ve made it your life’s mission to do everything and anything that’ll piss off Jungwon. Every time there’s a permission slip that needs to get signed, he constantly finds himself having to remind you of it so that it’d get turned in on time. Yet despite this, you always turn it in a day later. When things are kind of slow in class, you’re always talking to someone and have earned the title of the chatty kid no matter where the teacher makes you sit. Jungwon has no clue how someone as big of a procrastinator as you, always chatting with people when you don’t need to, and has your music playing so loud that everyone else hears, gets the good grades that you do. But regardless of what you do, you don’t bring down the class average so he’ll give you that. It’s time for a new seating arrangement and where does the teacher have you sit? Right next to him. So he’s dreading it, knowing that for the next 2 weeks he won’t get any work done, have to deal with you chatting to everyone, and has to be the one to catch you up when you enter class late.

“Hey,” you say with a smile as you settle in the seat next to his. He likes your smile, he won’t lie. But you’re annoying as hell. One week goes by as a back and forth of you constantly making efforts to get on Jungwon’s nerves but he returns the favor while teasing you back. With the two of you as partners, he starts to notice some things about you. Things like how you play with your thumb before raising your hand to answer the question. He sees that your notes are full of rushed scribbles and you dot your i’s close to the center but not just there. Your binder is covered with artwork of things you like and photos of you and your friends. Amidst your chattiness and tardiness, he finds himself looking forwards to certain things. He looks forward to your messy hair as you rush in 15 minutes late and start scribbling your notes in an effort to catch up. He looks forwards to how your conversations become a distraction from lectures. And he wonders to himself, what it’d be like if he were a photo in your binder.

As the second week continues, you start to see things differently with Jungwon. His reminders become less annoying and more useful as you take it in mind. When you’re late, he already has a second copy of the notes waiting for you on your desk. He buys you stickers for your binder using the excuse of “I stole it from my sister.” Before either of you realize it, it’s time for a new seating chart.

“Guess you’re happy to get rid of me, Wonie,” you joke as the two of you stood up to head to your new seats.

“I want you to sit across from me,” you hear him say.

“Huh?”

“At the Eggy Cafe on our first date,” he says before heading to his new seat.

Ni-ki

Dance class, it’s exhausting. Countless hours spent practicing a choreography that only lasts for a few minutes. Constantly getting yelled at by your teacher when you take a wrong step. Continuously in an unspoken competition with the best dancer of the school, Nishimura Riki. Ni-ki fools around during practices, usually to get on your nerves. Whenever you buy bungeoppang at the stall in front of the school, half of it instantly belongs to Ni-ki as he takes a bite when you’re not looking. Whenever the two of you are the only ones who’ve got the choreography down, sometimes you’ll slow things down to piss him off. There’s a flow to Ni-kis dances that no one else can replicate, a flow he was born with and can never be taught. Everyone, including him, is aware of this. But you’ve always been different from everyone else. All his life, he’s been told how good at dancing he is but you criticize him. While the others applaud his performance, your eyes are watching his every move. He almost hates how well you can spot the mistakes he can’t even see on himself. But as time goes on, these little competitions start to develop between you two, even outside of dance. When dance class ends, the two of you race to see who’ll get to the bungeoppang stall first. Last one there pays for bungeoppang. This is the competition you let Ni-ki win, using “I’m already tired from dancing” as an excuse. In the mornings, you compete to get to first period. Loser pays for lunch. This is the competition where there’s a middle ground between you two. Sometimes you win, sometimes he wins, other times you enter class together. When walking home, you compete to get to the bottom of the stairs at the subway station first. Whoever loses has to carry the other’s bag until you get home. Ni-ki lets you win this one, using “If I ran any faster I’d trip,” as an excuse. These small competitions become the things you look forward to throughout the week, enjoying the thrill of small moments with Ni-ki. At one point, the two of you (on separate occasions) talked to Jungwon about the competitions, telling your side. To the both of you, he says the same thing. “Why don’t you see who asks the other out first and plans the better date?”

❦ written by riri (@enhykkul) | blog masterlist

requests are currently open! rules can be found here | anon emojis

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findingjoynweirdstuff · 4 years ago

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Dream SMP Recap (March 16/2021) - Worst Day

“May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.”

—-

VOD LINKS:

Ponk

Foolish

Tubbo

Ranboo

Quackity

Badboyhalo

Captain Puffy

—-

- Foolish continues work on the mansion.

- Ranboo goes mining and talks about his ARG plans while getting chat to gamble. It’s the calm before the storm.

---

WORST DAY.

---

- Quackity’s stream opens with a shot of Schlatt’s Grave. The sound of a chest opening can be heard.

“Alex...you know, you and I? You know I wouldn’t do anything disadvantageous...”

Chapter One.

- Quackity climbs up to the roof of Punz’s tower, where he comes face to face with Bad.

Bad: "You keep getting in my way, Quackity...”

- Quackity asks why Bad brought him up here. He tells Bad he’s just an asset to the Egg. Bad replies that he’s not just an asset -- he’s serving a purpose Quackity could never understand.

Bad: “You call it the Egg...that’s just the surface. That’s just what you think it is. It is so much more than that. It is something you cannot even comprehend.”

- Quackity asks if all Bad is is an “asset to power.”

Quackity: “You don’t know what power is, Bad, then that’s your issue. That’s why I’m getting in your way. It’s ‘cause I know the ins and outs of business, I know the ins and outs of power. And I’m sorry that’s something you’re never gonna understand yourself.”

- Quackity tells Bad to not waste his time. Bad replies that he called Quackity to tell him to stay out of his way.

- Quackity then says he can show Bad what he’s been working on: real power.

- A cutscene shows Quackity and Bad riding off into the distance, making their way to:

Las Nevadas.

Chapter Two.

- At his cow farm, Quackity finds a book in the chest, wondering who put it there. It gives instructions to follow a railway track above.

“You had the fattest ass in my cabinet.”

- Quackity follows the line down into a cave where Glatt is waiting for him. It’s...a gym? The Big Man Gym.

- Austin from Austinshow is a dead guy with Glatt.

- He can’t go upstairs or else his skin starts falling off, so he stays down in the gym with his dad.

- Wilbur goes to the gym every day in his beanie.

- Tommy also came down to the gym.

- The dead all come down to the gym to lift weights.

- Quackity asks who else is up there. Glatt says he just wants to reconnect with Quackity.

- Glatt has apparently been learning Spanish.

- Mexican Dream also comes down to the gym. Neither Quackity nor Glatt know who he is and Quackity asks if Dream’s been visiting. He hasn’t helped Glatt learn Spanish.

- Quackity tells Glatt he hates seeing him, so he’ll give him five minutes.

- Glatt gives Quackity a preposition: He wants to escape the confines of the gym and wants to be revived. He knows of a thing that exists that could help him: a book.

- The green guy who comes down to the gym sometimes has this book.

- Quackity tells Glatt he has a business venture, and is willing to offer him a bet:

If Quackity loses, he goes to Dream and gets the revive book and gives it to Glatt to use. If Quackity wins, Glatt never gets revived and works for Quackity forever.

They agree on the bet and start walking, Quackity asking Glatt about his other adventures...

Chapter Three.

- It’s raining. Quackity is standing outside Bee ‘n’ Boo as Sam walks up to him. He apologizes for calling Sam in on short notice.

- They head into the Big Innit Hotel, and Quackity tells Sam it’s time for him to visit Dream.

- Sam is hesitant. The last visit didn’t go well.

- Quackity says that there are issues with the prison, and that’s that Tommy died in there, and as Sam’s business partner, he wants to know Sam is reliable.

- Sam replies that his job isn’t to keep the visitors alive, but to keep Dream there.

- Quackity asks, even though Sam has Dream locked up, what stopped him from killing Tommy? Nothing.

Quackity: “He has power, Sam. He still has power. Why haven’t we killed him?”

Sam: “We can’t kill him, Quackity, he’s the only one who can bring people back to life. It’s the whole reason we put him in the prison in the first place.”

- Quackity suggests, then, that they go in, take the book from Dream and then they won’t need Dream anymore.

- Sam points out that he’ll refuse to give anyone the book, since Dream knows that’s the only reason they’re keeping him alive.

- Quackity asks that he at least be allowed to try.

- Sam says it’s not that he doesn’t trust Quackity, it’s that he doesn’t trust Dream. But, as Quackity points out, that’s the safety issue.

- Sam still doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Quackity starts backing away from the hotel slowly.

Quackity: “So how am I supposed to rely on you for any business opportunities, when you won’t even grant me one simple visit?”

Sam: “What is that supposed to -- I assume you’ve seen the work Awesamdude Constructions has done in Las Nevadas?”

Quackity: “Yeah, but Sam, that’s...You’re good at what you do, you’re just not cooperating though. That’s what I need from a business partner, cooperation.”

- Quackity has an idea. He places two item frames on the wall with an axe and a sword and asks to bring them in with him. That’s all he needs to get the last bit of power Dream has.

- Sam is still doubting, but Quackity brings up Tommy’s death, asking if Sam is going to let Dream get away with it. He assures Sam that he won’t kill Dream, just talk with him.

Quackity: “Sam, there’s an underlying safety issue, he killed Tommy. Do you really have any control of him right now? Is there any control you have over him right now, Sam? I can fix that, I can fix that! All you gotta do is let me in and bring these two in.”

- Quackity assures Sam that he knows what he’s doing and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get that book.

- Sam finally agrees, and they walk over to Pandora’s Vault. They enter the prison and Sam asks Quackity the entry questions:

“When’s the last time you visited the prison?”

“This is my first time. I’ve never visited the prison before.”

“Where is your place of residence located?”

“Las Nevadas.”

“Do you believe the prisoner deserves to be locked up?”

“No doubt about it, of course I do.”

“What are all your prior relations with the prisoner?”

“We don’t get along, I’ll leave it at that.”

- Quackity seals the waiver book without signing it.

- They go through the security measures and Quackity does the same with the other waivers.

- They make it to the lava wall. Sam gives Quackity some food.

Sam: “The tools you have are whatever, but...if you’re gonna do this Big Q, do it right.”

- Sam throws Quackity shears, Warden’s Will, Warden’s Hammer and some item frames. He tells Quackity to not hold anything in his hand.

- The lava lowers, Quackity crosses on the bridge and comes face to face with Dream.

- Quackity asks Dream how it feels to be in there. Must feel bad.

- He brings up what Dream did to Tommy. Dream asks what people think about it. Did they think it was cool? What were they saying?

Quackity: “What matters is the very concept of it. You have a book that can bring people back.”

Dream: “And now people will believe me!”

Quackity: “Yeah...I know you have that book, Dream. Everyone at this point knows you have that book.”

Dream: “Yeah! That’s good!”

Quackity: “I mean, depends on the eyes of who you see it.”

Dream: “Well, I mean...it’s good for me.”

- Quackity tells Dream that he wants -- needs the book.

- Dream tells him that he burnt the book. Now it’s just knowledge in his head.

Dream: “I’m the book.”

- Quackity asks him to tell him what he knows, or else. He puts up the item frames on the wall and puts Warden’s Will in one of them.

Dream: “How did you -- “

Quackity: “I’m asking the nice way, Dream, and you didn’t want to tell me.”

Dream: “You’re not gonna kill me.”

Quackity: “I”m not gonna kill you, but --”

Dream: “SAM!”

Quackity: “I’m gonna make your last days in this fucking prison hell, Dream.”

Dream: “SAM! HOW DID YOU -- “

Quackity: “Don’t fucking touch me man, alright? It’s simple, Dream, alright? You’re gonna tell me all the knowledge you have in that fuckin’ book or I’m gonna come here every. Single. Fucking. Day. To make your life hell. That is exactly what I’m gonna fucking do, and I”m gonna stick to it until you give me that fucking book.”

Dream: “I’m not gonna tell you anything!”

Quackity: “You have no other choice. If you want me here every fucking day, then you’re gonna give me the fucking knowledge on the book. I’m not fucking around, Dream, you’re gonna tell me!”

Dream: “SAM!”

Quackity: “You can scream for Sam all you want, Dream.”

Dream: “How -- there’s no way -- How did you sneak it in?!”

Quackity: “Alright, alright, you know what? There’s been enough talking. There’s been enough talking, Dream. You’re gonna tell me, or we’re gonna do this the fucking hard way for as long as we need to do it.”

- The screen fades to black.

- Quackity walks to the El Rapids poster, his clothes splattered with blood. One by one, he takes down the faces of Sapnap, George and Karl. He leaves his intact.

- As Quackity goes to the peak of El Rapids and begins to take it apart, voices can be heard in the background.

...

Quackity: “This means nothing, George, this means nothing in comparison...to a challenge to power.”

“At the end of the day, what this is is a new beginning, okay? This is a new beginning for the country El Rapids. Ready? Let’s just hit each other at the same time, ready?”

“Three...”

“Two...”

“One...”

“Yeah!”

Sapnap: “I wanna fight Dream.”

Quackity: “Step by step, Sapnap, step by step. We’ll get there someday.”

Ghostbur: “What is Mexican L’manburg?”

Quackity: “Mexican L’manburg was a little place we made next to L’manburg, to kind of commemorate...”

“It’s time to say goodbye and rename it to El Rapids, baby! Have you heard of Cedar Rapids, Ghostbur?”

Ghostbur: “Yes, I’m just chilling there! Most of the time.”

Quackity: “YES!”

...

- Quackity removes his face from the picture.

- There’s a final shot of Quackity from the back, looking at the picture...

It cuts to live-action as Quackity crumples the shot into paper, puts down a whiteboard calendar with all the days marked “Visit Dream,” crosses off the first and throws his briefcase down, spilling its contents of poker chips and a pair of scissors.

- End of stream.

---

- Bad gets a pet horse named Pebbles!

---

Upcoming events remain the same.

#dream smp #dream smp recaps #prison arc #tw torture #long posts

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cassanovancats · 3 years ago

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felicitate. one.

WARNING: JJK spoilers. canon-typical violence.

prologue < current > two

Nov. 2016

“Didja hear about the new transfer student starting today?” Panda asked, poking his head into your room. You push him out of the doorway and lead the way outside where you collect Inumaki and Maki to walk to class together.

You hummed slightly before answering, “Not really. Nii-chan said he wanted to surprise us with him.”

“He stuffed four - four, you guys! - of his classmates into a locker.”

“Killed them?” Maki asks, shifting her weapons case to sit higher on her shoulder. Inumaki leans over, interested.

“Nope! Only ‘severe’ injuries,” Panda explains, using his claws to make quotation marks around the word severe.

“I wonder what his lineage is. If he’s a transfer then he probably doesn’t have an inherited technique. Maybe we both can train together!” Your steps get a little lighter at the thought of adding to your harem. Maki glares at you as if she heard your thoughts and gives an audible hmph.

“If he’s cocky about being the strongest at some bumpkin junior high, I’ll rough him up.” Maki declares. “I bet you’re too tired to even train today, (y/n).”

“Salmon.”

You gasp dramatically. “Even you, Toge-kun? I can’t believe my favorite partner would do me like that. You both know it’s a Monday, I only did five kilometers this morning, thank you very much. And if you would actually join me sometime, you would understand that’s an easy distance.” You toss your hair and point your nose upward sarcastically.

Inumaki rolls his eyes, “Bonito flakes.”

“What he said,” Maki nods. “It's bad enough you convinced Gojo we have to run laps to warm-up before training.” You pout at such blatant rebuffs. Another failed attempt to get a workout buddy. Not that any of your classmates were weak, quite the opposite, they just kept training to what they saw as most essential - cursed techniques and fighting.

“You wouldn’t want them on your run anyways,” Panda says, trying to cheer you up, “You’d just leave them in the dust and end up alone on your trail anyways.” You chuckle at the annoyed noise Maki makes and move to enter the classroom first. As always, you claim the desk furthest from the door and closest to the window. Inumaki sits next to you, a habit from when you both met as children at clan meetings, Maki next to him, and Panda by the door.

You toss your jacket across the back of your chair and breathe in relief. The terrible things were so heavy and while it was great in the winter, November was still too hot to be covered in fabric. You smooth your skirt across your thighs to cover more skin and turn to ask Inumaki a question about the homework when Satoru slams the door of the classroom open. “Transfer student incoming! Let’s get this party -,” he trails off seeing the bored look on everyone’s face, “-started? (y/n), explain why you’re not totally pumped.”

You raise an eyebrow, “Are you asking as my brother or my teacher right now?”

“I heard he’s a punk. I have no interest in being nice to that kind of guy.” Maki interrupts.

“Salmon.”

Satoru pouts when you nod and Panda remains silent. “Whatever.” he turns and cups his hand around his mouth to yell at the closed door. “Come on in now!”

A deep sense of dread settles in your stomach when the door inches open. You and Inumaki share a look and he is already reaching to push up his sleeve and pull down his zipper. The boy who walks in is hunched in over himself and would be cute if not for the enormous curse hanging onto his back. The monster sneers with elongated teeth over his shoulder while he makes his introduction. Although neither makes an offensive move, every student makes one choreographed movement to circle around him in a defensive measure. Maki thrusts her blade into the blackboard behind Yuta Okkotsu. “Don’t you know you’re cursed?” She sneers at him down the staff, “We learn about curses here. It’s not a place for people who are cursed.”

Satoru doesn’t move an inch when he begins the spiel you’ve heard a million times: where curses originate, how sorcerers exorcise them, and how Jujutsu High trains each generation of sorcerers. It’s clear he didn’t explain this to Yuta, as the already pale boy becomes almost translucent. You take a step back, still hesitant about what must be a special-grade curse, but trusting that your brother would never endanger you. Well, at least not to the point of possible death. If he brought Yuta to your class, there must be a reason.

But then two giant arms emerge from the blackboard to grab Maki’s weapon from her hands. An ominous voice that makes you suddenly nauseous warns, “Don’t bully Yuta!” The arms swipe your friends onto their backs in one smooth movement. Panda thumps against the wall and Inumaki slides across the floor, hitting his head on an upturned desk. Maki stumbles backwards, shocked at the easy strength of the curse.

“Stop!” The technique you borrowed from Inumaki forces everyone in the room to freeze and you fall to your knees coughing, suddenly exhausted. Your brother breaks your hold and moves away from where he leaned against his desk when he first entered the room to offer you a hand. You stand on shaky legs as he explains how Yuta came to be cursed. Satoru allows you to clasp both hands onto the one still supporting you, allowing his technique to be borrowed and releasing the hold you had on your classmates.

You move to stand with them in solidarity as they gather to their feet. Maki takes the role of your pillar, allowing you to stand slightly behind her and grip the back of her jacket, while Inumaki hands you a cough drop from his pocket. You nod a thanks, still unable to speak. God, you need to train with his technique more. He can get at least three strong commands out before being incapacitated.

“They’re going through a rebellious phase, so let me introduce everyone. First is my precious lil sister, Gojo (y/n). She copies techniques by touch, so ignore how handsy she gets.” Satoru smiles and winks behind his blindfold, “Maki Zen’in. Cursed tool user; she uses special tools to exorcise curses. Cursed speech user Toge Inumaki, (y/n) copied his technique in that little show. His vocab is limited to rice ball ingredients. And Panda.” He points at each of you as he travels down the line. Yuta moves to join where the four of you had previously stood united against him. “Wow! Five first years! That's the biggest class in a while. Yaga must be so jealous the great Gojo-san can recruit so many talented young ones.” Satoru mimes wiping a tear from his blindfolded eyes and you roll your own at his self-praise. Yuta nervously (maybe curiously? nervous is the most common reaction) eyes Panda.

By now, you can mostly stand on your own, but gesture for another cough drop from Inumaki. He indulges you, though reluctantly. You make a mental note to buy a pack to refill both your own and his pocket stashes. But first, an afternoon practical where you’re paired with your brother. A pairing which means you two will just take the Gojo family card for a trip around whatever district you’ll be traveling to. Not that you’d ever complain about that. Inumaki and Panda are paired together, which leaves Maki and the new kid. Yuta moves to stand in front of Maki (and you, by default, since you’re still slightly hidden behind her) and says quietly, “I’m, uh, looking forward to working with you.” He manages a shaky smile.

Maki narrows her eyes. “You were bullied, right?” He visibly shakes but doesn’t respond. “Thought so. You’re totally bully-able. Probably because of the curse. You act like such a good person but it feels fake; it feels gross. You’re being protected, why act like a victim?” You elbow her side with a frown but she carries on. “I bet you’ve been passive your whole life. No goals. No aspirations. Jujutsu High ain’t that easy.”

Panda takes a step to stand firmly next to Yuta and places a giant paw on his shoulder. “That’s enough, Maki.” Inumaki agrees sternly.

“Fine. Whatever,” she scratches at her head, embarrassed at being reprimanded by each of her classmates. She is the first one to leave the room, not waiting for Gojo’s dismissal. Not like each of you don’t know the routine for missions.

The class begins to trickle out slowly and you hesitate before grabbing Yuta’s wrist to tug him gently back into the room. “I wanted to apologize. Maki isn’t always nice, but I promise she’s one of the kindest souls I know. I’m glad you joined our class, Yuta-san.” You smile in a way you hope reassures him. You walk away quickly, hoping to still have time to grab a pair of shorts from your dorm. You think you might just let a curse kill you if you have to fight in a skirt again after accidentally flashing your underwear at Panda last mission. Due to leaving so fast, you miss the sight of Yuta’s frozen body burning up in a deep blush.

The six of you arrive at an elementary school without any more fights in the car. Just a thick, awkward silence. Yuta seems sweaty and is constantly wiping his palms on his pants as the group approaches the building. Gojo-sensei gives the usual mission brief, explaining how children have recently started going missing and two curses are responsible. Team Panda will be responsible for one, Team Maki for the other. “And what will Team Gojo be doing?” Maki asks, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.

“Keeping an eye on the perimeter, of course! (y/n), if you will.” You nod and begin the chant to create a curtain.

“W-what is that? it’s turning to night!” Yuta yells.

“That is a curtain. It’ll make you guys invisible to the outside world and reveal the curses inside.” Gojo-sensei pats Yuta reassuringly on the shoulder. You follow him to stand outside of the curtain. Before it closes your classmates in, Gojo adds, “Don’t go dying on us now.”

You snort and hit your brother's arm. “You shouldn’t scare him like that. Poor boy looked like he was going to faint. So, are we leaving or actually keeping an eye on them?”

“I’m curious about how Rika will react when Yuta is in actual danger. Let’s wait,” he replies. You nod and move to sit cross-legged on the hood of the car while Satoru leans against the side. “...This also gives time for your precious Nii-chan to catch up on gossip. Has sweet Toge caught onto your crush yet?”

You flush and cross your arms across your chest. Moving to angle your body away from him, you pout and petulantly say, “There’s no crush. We’re just good partners. He's the only one of my classmates I can actually take a technique from, so of course I spend time training with him!”

Satoru smiles and hums, “No need to be so defensive. You know I approve if there was a crush though, right?” You just nod, relieved he was letting it drop so easily. “Although, your poor brothers might get jealous if we get even less time with you. We’re your best partners ever, after all.”

“Of course, Nii-chan. You know Team Gojo is undefeatable,” you say. Suddenly, both of you startle and whip your heads towards a point behind the curtain. Even without copying Satoru’s six-eyes, you can see the sudden burst of cursed energy. The wave of power makes you so nauseous, you turn your head and gag slightly.

“Freaky,” Satoru chuckles. “So that's the true identity of special grade cursed spirit Rika Orimoto. Women sure are scary.”

“If he lost control of her, something must be wrong,” you hop up from your seat and step forward to dismiss the curtain.

Yuta steps through the curtain right as your hand reaches out to dash the veil away. The sight startles you. He's covered in the usual grime from missions but it’s how he collapses on top of two children he obviously carried out and the unconscious Maki draped over his back that scares you. You move to untangle the limbs and check Maki for injuries while Satoru steps forward, in teacher-mode again, and says, “Welcome back. You did it.”

You stick your hand out impatiently gesturing for the first aid kit kept in the car. When Gojo places it in your hands, you rush to tourniquet Maki’s leg where there’s an obvious gouge in the flesh. Gojo continues to talk with Yuta, likely a debrief, while you move onto the two children. Neither has any wounds that you can treat - they’re obviously cursed but that requires Auntie Shoko’s technique. You report all of this to your brother and he instructs the driver to be sure to take everyone back to school. He tells you to be sure to help ‘Ieiri-san’ with the children, and while you wrinkle your nose at the formality (Auntie Shoko has never separated her role in your personal life from her role in your training), you easily agree. With some effort and not much help from an exhausted Yuta, you manage to get all four into a car. You slide into the passenger seat and nod to signal the driver to start the car.

After copying her reversed healing cursed technique, the pair of you don’t take long to heal the children and Maki. Maki regained consciousness while you were working on her, nearly kicking you in the face. She gave you a short debrief of what had happened and, knowing she was now okay, you took great delight in teasing her for messing up her first chance to impress your new classmate. “Oh man, Toge-kun is going to love this. I can't believe Miss ‘I’ll rough him up’ got swallowed! You completely fucked up a first impression,” you cackled and dodged her kick. Shoko gave you an exasperated look from across one of the kid’s hospital beds.

“Leave my patients alone, (y/n). Go tell your idiot brother everyone is fine.”

taglist: @rowanthefox

#felicitate #cass.writes #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk x reader #inumaki x reader #yuta okkotsu x reader #inumaki x reader x yuta #female!reader #jjk spoilers #jjk volume 0 spoilers

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ptergwen · 4 years ago

Text

last christmas

w/c: 2.0k

warnings: a few descriptions of dizziness

summary: someone might be able to get you back into the holiday spirit

a/n: hi hi hi i’m really excited about this :,) i’ve had the idea for a while and i like where it’s going! it’s based it off of the movie last christmas and this is only part one, so if it feels a little slow that’s why AND on that note i hope you enjoy

━━━ *:･。.

“you’re late,” harry comments as the coat room door bursts open. he’s not wrong, but he doesn’t have to announce it. you slip behind the counter while tying up your apron. “only ten minutes. besides, we’re never busy this early.” he presses his lips together and grabs a large cup.

that’s the face he makes whenever you say or do something stupid. you’ve learned a lot about harry in your year of working together. he’s a pretty laidback guy. funny, too. you’d consider him a friend and not just your coworker. the only time he isn’t chill is when your coffee shop has what you like to call its rush hour.

it’s in a pretty prominent area in london, and it gets packed every afternoon. people like to pop in for a muffin or some tea on their lunch break. with it being christmas time and all, the shop is way more chaotic than usual. the seasonal flavors clearly draw a crowd. you take that as a compliment since you came up with a few of them.

the point is, harry can get stressed and pretty mean. you’re afraid he’ll explode if you ask him a question sometimes. he turns super red. but, he also knows more than you do. he’s had to fix countless machines you’ve almost broken. you two make an interesting team. it’s just you and harry who work mornings.

your mouth drops open when you see the line of people squished into the shop. “oh, shit,” you whisper to yourself. harry hears it and hums smugly. “rush hour came early. get out there.” you quickly take your spot at the register. a man with a fuzzy red sweater and judgy look steps up. “hi, sorry for the wait. what can i get started for you?”

the rest of your morning is exactly the same. you deal with the crabby customers, harry makes the drinks. it gets better once your other coworkers clock in for the day. orders get done faster, and you have someone to joke around with from time to time.

you and harry eventually switch because he’s bored of making hot chocolates. you’re in charge of drinks while he rings people up now. it’s not too bad at first. all you have to do is dump some mixes into water and call names. then, everyone starts shouting at you. the drinks gets harder, you keep messing up, and customers aren’t happy.

harry is about to tell you off when he sees you stumble. he rushes to your side before you hit the ground. you grab his arm with an apologetic smile. “thanks.” “is it...” you nod, not wanting him to finish his sentence.

he’s your only coworker you told about your accident. it happened last year, almost a full one to date. you got this job a few months after. harry has always been understanding of it all, and he accommodates you however he can. you’re grateful to have his support.

“i’m just a little lightheaded. i’ll be fine,” you wave him off. he clicks his tongue. “you can’t stand if i let go of you.” you’d try to prove him wrong, but you don’t feel like falling on your face in front of all these people. “go take your break, y/n,” harry says softer this time. you give in, letting him take you to the coat room.

━ ❆

it’s finally the end of the day. your shift ended fine, and now you’re walking out with harry. you’re laughing at something he said inside. you pull your coat up around your face, smiling as you say your goodbyes. harry looks off to the car you assume is his before returning it. he waits until you’re out of sight to get into the passenger seat.

“who was that?” tom asks before harry can even shut his door. “y/n. we work together,” harry replies casually and buckles his seatbelt. the car engine is the only thing holding off silence. he raises an eyebrow at his brother.

“why do you ask?” “dunno. looks like you’re friends,” tom says quietly, pulling out of the spot he parked in. “you haven’t mentioned her.” “i have. you’re never home when i do,” he deadpans. tom drums his fingers on the steering wheel as they stop at a light.

there’s that void begging to be filled again. harry gives him a small smile. “thanks for picking me up, by the way. you’re cheaper than uber.” “does that mean i’m getting paid?” tom looks over at him. “joking. anytime, bro.”

harry can tell he’s waiting to bring you up again. all he did was look at you, and he’s falling. he’s never been subtle about his crushes. harry knows the two of you would get on well, but he’s not sure if you can handle a relationship right now. this year hasn’t been easy for you. you should be focusing on your health, not his tool of a brother.

at the same time, you could use some cheering up. you haven’t sang along to one christmas song playing at the shop. tom gets so into christmas every year, so maybe some of his festivity could rub off on you. it’s possible to work on two things at once, right? you’ll be happy and healthy for the new year. that’s all harry wants for you.

he wouldn’t mind the same for tom, either.

“she’s in all day tomorrow,” harry sighs. tom scrunches his face up in the side mirror. “who is?” “y/n, div. i knew you were going to ask.” there’s no denying that one. “right. i’ll stop in for a drink.”

he smiles about it the whole way home.

━ ❆

the next day is just like the last one. harry seems more on edge than usual, but you don’t know what that’s about. he does let you stay on register today so the chances of you passing out are lower. that all changes when your next customer walks in. you recognize him immediately, even with a scarf covering half his face.

what the hell is tom holland doing in your café? he pulls his scarf down and walks up to place an order. you sort of forget how to act. “you... you’re...” you stammer, eyes wide on him. smiling, he presses a finger to his lips. all he wants is a coffee, and you’re about to get him mobbed. you raise your hands in defense and focus on the register.

“sorry. can i get you anything?” you try again, lowering your voice. he’s still smiling. “sure, thanks. i’ll try an iced peppermint mocha.” a smile takes over your own face. “cool, i suggested that one.” you punch it into the register, keeping your eyes on tom. “i’ll bet it’s good, then. i trust your judgement.” he sounds genuine but teasing at the same time.

“hey, harry.” tom waves at him while he makes something in the blender. harry unenthusiastically waves back before getting to work again. you turn to harry with your eyebrows knitted together. “you know each other?” “really well. we’re brothers,” tom replies, your eyebrows now raised to the top of your head.

“what? how come you never told me?” you almost yell at harry. he awkwardly dumps the contents of the blender into a cup. “it never came up.” “you don’t talk about me, baby bro?” tom jokes, getting his card out. you give harry one more look before turning back to him. “oh, don’t worry about it. it’s on the house,” you dismiss him.

“he’s a multimillionaire, y/n. i think he’ll be fine,” harry chimes in. “family discount,” you decide. tom chuckles and shoves his wallet back into his pocket. “you’re a funny one. can i make it up to you somehow?” his eyes lock with yours. you feel fluttery, like your heart is going to jump out of your chest. there could be a few reasons for that.

“um, can i get your autograph?” you murmur out. “easy. do you have something to write with?” he watches you scramble to get a piece of paper. you pull a pen from behind the counter and hand them both to him. a line is starting to form, but you can’t even pretend to care. there are more important things going on.

harry starts making tom’s drink while he signs the paper. he leans on the counter, his tongue poking out. he’s so sweet for doing this. your alarm goes off before you can tell him that. you quickly shut it and peek over the register to see. harry comes up to you.

“isn’t that for your medication? you should probably go take it,” he says so only you hear. you shrug a shoulder. “i set it a few minutes early. i’ll be fine.”

“here we go.” tom grins and hands you the paper, then the pen. you put it down with another smile before looking over his signature. you’re confused when you don’t see one. instead, he wrote down a bunch of numbers.

it can’t be...

“it’s my number,” tom explains, glancing over at harry for a second. he scoffs and puts the lid on his drink. “i figured you’d like it more than my terrible cursive.”

your whole body feels hot. whether it’s from putting off your meds or getting hit on by tom holland, you’re not sure. you wouldn’t mind the latter, though. it’s the safer of the two. in all seriousness, the fact that he has any sort of interest in you is pretty insane.

“wow, for real? thank you.” you look at the piece of paper in your hands, then at tom. “does this mean i can text you?” he’s practically beaming at you. “or call.” “tom,” harry calls from the pickup counter. he rolls his eyes for good measure. “i guess your drink is ready,” you laugh out. tom adjusts his scarf again.

“i guess it is. i’ll talk to you later?” you hold up the piece of paper. “that’s what this is for.” he breathes out a laugh and turns to go. you’re about to call up the next customer, but he looks back at you. you shake your head. it’s going to be impossible getting through what’s left of your shift. “enjoy.” tom nods confidently. “i will.”

━ ❆

the first thing you do once you get home is call tom. your roommate is out with friends, so you’re spread out on the couch. all the lights are off to help the headache you got. with your luck, you’ll wake up with a migraine. you’ve become too familiar with nursing those. it’s given considering everything that happened.

tom picks up on the third ring. you hold your phone to your ear and sit up. “hello?” he asks sternly. you cringe at yourself for not texting him who you are first. “hi, it’s y/n. i probably should’ve texted.” his tone softens. “no, you’re fine. i was waiting for you to call.”

“were you really?” you lay your head back on the arm of the couch. he hums proudly. “tom holland was waiting for me to call him?” “he was.” you can hear the smirk in his voice. “he really enjoyed your conversation earlier.” sighing, you look at your reflection in the tv. “i did, too. i don’t think harry could say the same.”

“he hates having me around. i’m embarrassing, apparently,” tom laughs at his brother’s behavior. you press your lips into a pout. “is that why i’ve never heard about you?” “probably,” he confirms. it seemed weird that he wouldn’t want to tell the world his brother is spider-man. then again, harry isn’t like that.

“that’s nice, though. it’s like i’m the same me before the movies,” tom lightens the mood. “not that i know you, but i feel like you are,” you agree with a small smile. he’s grinning at his phone. “speaking of not knowing me, when are you free?” he smoothly transitions to the asking you out part. you were hoping you’d get there.

“saturday. why?” “i was wondering if you’d want to go out with me.” you hold the phone away from your face and silently squeal. tom didn’t need to witness that. “that would be fun, yeah.” “anywhere special you want to go?” he asks. he’s hoping there isn’t because he already has a place in mind. you actually don’t.

“surprise me.”

i made a new taglist form, so fill it out if you want!! the link is in my bio

#tom holland #tom holland fluff #tom holland imagine #tom holland x you #tom holland smut

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flooffybits · 4 years ago

Text

You And I

At the end of the day, your heart will come home. Even through the darkest nights, I’ll be your light

Warning: violence, horror themes

Back || Next

A/n: this was supposed to be longer but i decided to cut it since i didn’t want it to be too long

Blinking up at the bright and partially cloudy skies, you squint before bringing a hand to prevent the sun’s rays from blinding your vision before a voice meets your ears, the sound of a familiar music box playing somewhere nearby when a shadow comes over you, effectively blocking the sun.

“How long are you going to lay there, unnie? The food is almost done.” Yoohyeon tells you and you groan before turning on your side, forcing your eyes to close once more. But the younger girl had different intentions as she let her entire body land on top of yours.

You let out an ‘uff’ at the sudden weight before whining, pushing at the younger girl in protest as she wraps her arms around you. “Unnie, come on!” She calls and you try to worm your way out from under her.

“Yah! Kim Yoohyeon, I swear, this is not funny!” You shouted, but she laughs at your attempt to escape before sticking her tongue out at you, her chin resting against your chest before she’s poking your cheek. “To me, it is. I told you that the food is almost ready but you still wouldn’t get up.” She huffs and you roll your eyes while pushing her hand away from your face. “Unlike you and Jiu unnie, I don’t love food as much.”

“Talking about me, are we?” Another voice comes in and you look up, spotting Minji standing upside down in your position before throwing her a lazy grin. “And if we are?” You playfully ask and you she grins while walking over. “Just because you guys are younger than me doesn’t mean I’m going to be holding back.”

Your eyes widened and before Yoohyeon could even react, Minji had placed herself on the younger girl’s back, making you both groan at the additional weight. “Girls! Help me wake Y/n up!”

“W-Wait! I’m sor-” Before you could even get the words out, all of the girls came running over when they saw the three of you, Bora jumping right in, making Yoohyeon whine. “Unnie!” But Gahyeon was already joining, followed by Siyeon, then Yubin, and finally Handong, who made a point to hop just for extra measures.

Despite having the girls crushing her, Minji was laughing as she saw the grimace on your face. “What was that?” She asked as you struggled to even move your arms since it was pinned between Minji and Yoohyeon since you were hugging the latter before this dog pile happened.

"Is she awake yet?" Siyeon asked before shifting her head a bit in the only space she can and you try to shake them off, but none of them budge as Bora cackles at your poor state. "Oh, Y/n, you know you're no match for all of us like this." She tells you and you huff. "Okay, okay, now get off because I can feel Yoohyeon's nails digging into my sides."

Said girl's eyes widened and she tried to get up quickly, squeaking, and the sudden action seemed to cause a chain reaction because all of the girls began to slide off you and settled on the ground instead. Minji took a seat next to the two of you as Yoohyeon sits up and apologizes profusely. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" She asks while checking at your sides, only for Minji to lightly swat her hands away when she tried to lift your shirt.

"Off limits." Gahyeon snorts in amusement while Handong chuckles at the eldest's antics. "Calm down, unnie. It's not like Yoohyeon isn't satisfied with seeing Dami." The comment causes said girl to shove the Chinese woman, her cheeks tinting a bright red as she glared at her friend. "Stop being weird." Yubin complains and you laugh while patting Yoohyeon's head in an affectionate manner.

"I'm okay, don't worry." You assure the girl before Minji rests her head on your shoulder. “Well, seeing as we’re all up and ready, why don’t we head to the table where the food is waiting for us?” Yubin gestures to the perfectly set up table, along with a picnic blanket spread nearby since the table was too small to fit all eight of you.

“Come on, kids. Don’t make the food wait.” Bora calls, helping Handong to her feet before offering a hand to her girlfriend and then pulling her to her feet. Gahyeon crinkled her nose at her older sibling and Handong laughed lightly before she helped the maknae up and then dust her off from any dirt and grass.

Minji, while wanting to bring you over to the table earlier, decided that laying on you was her priority for now as she nuzzled her face to your neck with a soft sigh passing her lips, tickling your skin as she wrapped her arms around yours and Yoohyeon furrows her brows at the two of you when Yubin grabs her hand to pull her up.

“What are you sulking about this time?” Her girlfriend questions and the taller girl pouts in your and Minji’s direction. “Jiu unnie is hogging Y/n unnie.” Yubin could only roll her eyes at her poor girlfriend, chuckling before she pulled at the older girl’s hand. “Oh, come on. They’re dating, of course Jiu unnie is going to want her attention.”

“But I want her attention, too!” Yoohyeon complained as she was being pulled away from you. Siyeon ended up laughing at her antics, clapping her in the back when she was close enough. “Oh, let them be. You know that it hasn’t been long since Jiu unnie’s confessed to Y/n.”

“I think Dami is getting a bit jealous again.” Handong teases and the said girl quickly shook her head, sticking her tongue out in retaliation. “I’m not falling for that again.” Gahyeon grinned as Yoohyeon continued to sulk away. “Why is unnie being so clingy?”

“Considering how she’s closer to Y/n than the rest of us, I guess you can say it’s the same with you when it comes to Singsing.” Bora explained when she took a seat and the two sisters looked to each other before quickly looking away and shaking their heads.

“Siyeon unnie is mean.”

“Gahyeon tries to ruin my ears.”

“Your girlfriend is literally the loudest out of all of us!”

“Yah!”

The remaining three just watch as they continue to go back and forth with each other and Handong took that time to start grabbing her own plate before Yubin did the same for both her and Yoohyeon, who kept watching the three bicker with a slightly amused expression on her face.

“Excuse me! We want to eat!” Handong called out when she went to take a look at you and Minji, only to catch the older girl peppering your face with kisses until she had eventually claimed your lips. That was when Handong decided to break you two up before you actually forgot to eat and join them.

Pulling away, Minji giggled in delight when she saw the bright blush on your cheeks before standing up. “Sorry!” You replied bashfully and the older girl laughed louder as she stood up and wrapped her arm around your shoulders. "Ah, you're so cute!" She coos before pecking your lips one more time and then joining the rest of the girls.

Gripping the lamp tight in your hand, you pass through the empty hallway in search of at least one of the girls.

It was late at night, yet the rumbling of the house had woken you from sleep and, assuming that something had happened, you quickly got out of bed to check on the girls, only to find their rooms empty.

"Guys?" You call out quietly. "Where are you?" You try again, only to be met with another round of silence.

Shutting your eyes, you try to locate at least one of them, reaching for their consciousness until you spot the camera Yoohyeon would have set up in one of the rooms. It was knocked over, so you decide to check there, hurrying down the stairs and making a quick turn to the room only to find it empty.

"What…"

Picking up the camera, you set it back up, checking to see if it was broken. However, upon closer inspection, you soon realize that it was empty. Checking for one of the girls again, you're not too surprised to see the red lights of the darkroom and the undeveloped photos.

You head to the direction of said room, which wasn't too far away since it was only two doors to your right. But when you knock, no one answers. "Hello?" You peek your head inside, squinting when you find not a single soul inside before huffing.

"What the heck? It's late and you guys are playing?" You mutter under your breath before leaving the lamp outside. Making sure not to touch any of the things set up in the room since you aren't the most knowledgeable when it comes to photography, you check to see a lone photo left in the water, probably left to remove any excess fixer.

However, the image on it had your brows pinching together. Grabbing one of Siyeon's tools, you gently pick it up before moving to clip it along with the previously developed photos.

You look closely at the picture before blinking when Yoohyeon's face turns clearer.

These were her clothes before she had gone to sleep. You don't remember her taking this photo or her even coming here with either Siyeon or-

"Y/n!"

You turn around when a voice hisses your name and your eyes land on the mirror near the door.

Rushing over, you see Handong looking around before her eyes settle on you. "Where are you?" You question and she looks like she's struggling before she's able to speak to you. "I'm in the living room, near the door that heads to the basement." She replies. "I'm stuck and I need your help."

"Where is everyone?" You question but she shakes her head. "That's what I'm trying to know." You nod your head before quickly heading out. "Wait for me, I'll come get you."

You run out of the room, failing to see the photo of Yoohyeon being burned behind you as the door closes when you leave.

When you find Handong, you were more than surprised to see her entangled in some sort of web and needles keeping her clothes pinned to the wall.

"What happened to you?" You ask when you reach to pull the needles off her, ripping the webs as you did. Once her arm is free, she helps rid herself of any webs before you help her up. "To be honest, I have no idea. I was trying to look for everyone but the next thing I know, I'm stuck to the wall." She explains while dusting herself off and you let out a sigh before looking around, the darkness of the house seemingly more ominous.

"Can you find the others?" You ask while looking around and the slightly older girl nods her head before facing the window while you hold the lamp up, closing your eyes once again to try and find one of the girls.

When minutes pass, you grunt before Handong reaches for your hand. "Jiu unnie and Sua unnie are together in the living room." She informs you and you rub your temple when she releases your hand. "The others?"

"I don't know. But I think it's best we meet with them before finding the rest." The worry begins growing in your chest when you have yet to locate Yoohyeon's whereabouts especially after finding the photo of her earlier.

You grip Handong's hand up until you find Minji and Bora both pacing around the living room. And upon seeing the two of you, Minji stops before running over, taking you into her arms after you release Handong's hand.

"Are you okay?" She asks when she pulls away to look at your face and you nod your head before looking around. "What's going on? Where are the others?" Minji breathes out while holding you. “Siyeon went to grab Gahyeon because she said her, Yoohyeon and Dami were together.” Bora replies and you furrow your brows, pulling away from your girlfriend to look around.

“Y/n?”

But you don’t respond, looking at your friends currently present in the room. “Who was in the darkroom?” You question and Handong turns to you. “Oh, yeah. Why were you there in the first place?” She asks and you felt a chill run down your spine at their clueless expressions. “Because I tried looking for one of you and I saw the camera and then the film cartridge in the room.” You respond, hands shaking as you stare at your friends and Minji purses her lips.

“Y/n, are you sure with what you saw?” She asks you and you nod. “The camera was on the floor when I got there and when I got to the darkroom, there was a picture of Yoohyeon in the same room with the camera.”

“Yoohyeon should have gone to bed already.” Bora says confusedly and you look back to Minji. “Are the three of them really together?” You ask and she shakes her head. “I don’t know. Siyeon just said-”

“Y/n!”

Minji’s voice rings loud in your ears and you look towards the archway before looking back at the person who wore your girlfriend’s face. “Who are you and where is Jiu unnie?” You demand, making the two other girls look to the other woman inside the room.

“What are you talking about?” Bora asked carefully as she backed away from ‘Minji’ and you glared at them with your jaw clenched. “Where is she? What did you do to her?” Your voice grows louder and Handong places her hand on your elbow while Bora stands to your left when Siyeon comes running into the room with Gahyeon and Yubin in toe.

Upon seeing the lack of two people, your jaw clenches before you hear Minji’s voice again. “You girls prove to be more fun than I thought you were.” The fake Minji chuckled before they slowly melted into the shadow just as a thud came from outside the living room.

“Where is Yoohyeon?” You ask and Yubin points outside when you run to the source of the sound, only to find your girlfriend sprawled on the floor.

“Jiu!”

“Unnie!”

All of you hurry to her side and help her sit up while she groans and rubs her forehead from the growing ache in her head. “Where… where is he?” She muttered and you eye her warily while rubbing her back and making sure that she wasn’t injured. “Who is he? What happened to you?” Siyeon asked, having witnessed what just transpired before Minji arrived.

“Haneul. The person they’ve been calling a hunter, he’s here.” Your girlfriend replied before looking at all of you, her eyes noticing the absence of one member and your eyes widen when you look up. “Take Jiu unnie to the living room, make sure she’s okay.”

“Where are you going?” Minji grabbed your hand just as you stood, but you give her an assuring squeeze to tell her that you’ll be fine. “I need to find Yoohyeon.” You turn to Yubin and she nods her head at your unasked question.

She didn’t need you to verbally say anything, but she knew by heart that you wanted to find the younger girl, whether it was on your own or with one of them tagging along.

“Y/n, he’s dangerous.” Minji tried to reason, but you purse your lips, fists clenched on either side. “Then it’s more of a reason for me to find Yoohyeon and make sure we get her back here.” You retort and Siyeon rests a hand on her friend’s arm. “I’ll go with them.”

Siyeon turns to her girlfriend with a meaningful look before nodding in her sister’s direction. “Take care of Gahyeon.” Bora looks conflicted, but Siyeon understands your concern for Yoohyeon the same way she worries about Gahyeon, so she knows that there was no talking her out of this.

“Be safe.” Is all she can say before the three of you head for the door and the girls help Minji into the living room to sit down and recover from whatever it was she had just gone through.

Yubin shuts the door when all three of you exit the house and you turn to the other two. “Dami, where did you see her?” You ask and the younger girl looks towards the gate. “I saw her near the exit, but she didn’t look like she was heading out.” She replies, nibbling on her lower lip as she anxiously pulls at her shirt.

“What would she be doing out here?” Siyeon asks when the three of you start to look around in hopes of finding Yoohyeon quickly. Yubin sticks close to you, close to grabbing your hand as she tries to spot her girlfriend and you try to pay attention to anything that may give off where she might be.

Siyeon stands to your right, keeping watch over you and Yubin. A single flame appears at her fingertip, keeping her guard up just in case the person who tried to impersonate Minji was still around.

She keeps your path alight, too and it doesn’t take much searching before you see Yoohyeon passed out right in front of the gates.

Yubin gasps and the two of you run towards her unconscious figure and Siyeon’s fire grows a bit, just to possibly scare whoever or whatever was around to hurt any of you.

“Yoohyeon!”

You try shaking her awake, but her eyes remain shut and Yubin checks her neck for a pulse, which she luckily does. "Why isn't she waking?" Siyeon asks while crouching next to Yubin to get a better look at the sleeping girl when you press your hand to her forehead.

The pair watch as your eyes turn white for only a split second before you look down at Yoohyeon with concern swimming in your features. "There's nothing there…" You mutter while glancing around, finding Pie running to you.

You welcome the pup into your arms and run your fingers through her fur. "What happened, buddy?" You ask and the pomeranian whines, your lips pursing together as you nod your head. "We need to get inside. It's not safe, and Yoohyeon is clearly under some sort of spell."

Siyeon helps Yoohyeon onto your back, deciding to walk behind you as Yubin assists you just so you don't drop her girlfriend as the three of you head back inside. Pie barks a few times but comes along until you're in the safety of the house and then runs off to the living room where everyone else was.

When they see you, all the girls are on their feet as you gently lay the younger girl on the couch. "Is unnie okay?" Gahyeon asks when she sees no movement coming from the girl and the three of you look at them. "Pie said something attacked her, looked like a spider or something." You inform them before gesturing to the girl. "I can't get into her mind. It's blank."

"What can we do?" Handong inquires and Yubin breaks from the group to grab some of her spell books. "Right now, we have to be careful. Aside from whoever is hunting us down, it looks like we have more than one company." Minji grunts when she looks around.

"But Yoohyeon-"

"Until we can figure out what is wrong with Yoohyeon, we can't do anything. Right now, we have to worry about whoever caused all this." Bora stated with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and her girlfriend glances at her with a small frown.

You let out a sigh while staring at Yoohyeon's still frame, grimacing as you all gather in the living room and Minji looks at each of you, her gaze lingering on you and Yubin. "This is the only way we can bring Yoohyeon back, but you all know this is dangerous." She began and you kept your head down whilst Yubin clenched her fists.

"We've been working on everything we can, so we need to stay focused." Your girlfriend reminds you all and everyone nods. "As soon as we get Yoohyeon, bring her out. We don't know what might happen if this fails, so do whatever you can."

You suck in a deep breath and all of you stand in position as Minji grabs a handful of sand before she walks behind Yoohyeon's body.

Everyone keeps watch, even as the winds begin to pick up despite the closed doors and windows and a dark figure begins to appear above your friend when Minji begins the incantation.

The sand spills to the floor and you brace yourself as a strong gust of wind comes into the room just as the figure emerges from Yoohyeon and your body quickly reacts.

You nearly break from the formation, but Bora already sent you a look and you stop in your tracks. She frowns because she can see you struggling just to bring Yoohyeon back, but you all had to endure completing the ritual before you could do anything else.

But the idea strikes you when you catch a glimpse of something and Yoohyeon's voice is faint in your ears. Closing your eyes, you let your shoulders relax and Gahyeon makes a small noise when she notices what you’re doing, and in turn, Siyeon steals a quick glance at you, pursing her lips before she turns back to Minji.

“Yoohyeon! Where are you?”

You’re surrounded by a white wasteland with no source of life anywhere.

While you don’t understand where this place was, this was where Yoohyeon’s consciousness led you and you were willing to use any means of getting her back.

“.. re you?” You try and focus on where the sound is coming from. The wind was howling in your ears, almost as though it was preventing you from reaching the younger girl. But you were persevering as you walked aimlessly towards where you believed she was.

It didn’t matter right now that you were the only one there. At least you knew where she was.

“Yoohyeon!” Spotting the younger girl, you sprint in her direction as she turns to the sound of your voice, her terrified expression melting into relief when she sees your familiar face before she meets you halfway, running into your arms and burying her face into your neck.

She’s trembling in your arms and you hold her tight while running your fingers through her hair. “You’re okay, I’ve got you.” You whisper and she looks around in fear of what this void kept her in. “Are you okay?” You ask and she nods her head, tear tracks on her cheeks before you wipe them away.

“I-I’m okay.” She sniffles and you nod your head. “Thank god. How did you get here?” You question and she shakes her head. “T-There was a… a woman. I don’t remember what happened, but she was at the mansion. The next thing I know, I was all alone here.”

You purse your lips at her answer.

Woman? What woman?

Pie told you that there was some sort of spider that attacked Yoohyeon. Could there be more than just that? Or was the spider manipulated by the woman Yoohyeon saw?

“We have to get back to the others. We’ll deal with whoever the person is.” You tell her but she shakes her head. “I can’t get out. Not from here.” She informs you and you frown while holding her hand. “I’m not leaving you here.” You argue and she shakes her head again. “Unnie, you’re still outside of this realm. Use whatever is in Dami’s books, she’s been studying portals to help with her powers.” She explains while squeezing your hand.

“But I…” You don’t want to leave her alone. The whole place looked so barren, yet it felt far too ancient at the same time. It was like you were being thrown to and from the past and present despite the unchanging environment.

“I know you’ll be back. I trust you.”

When you open your eyes, everyone is looking at you. Blinking, you steady yourself before shaking your head.

“That was really reckless of you.” Handong sighs and you notice how no one is in their original positions anymore. Yubin was standing beside Yoohyeon’s body and Minji was now facing you with her arms crossed across her chest.

"I found her." You breathe out and for some reason you feel woozy after exerting that much power in finding the other girl. "She's stuck somewhere and-"

"I told you to stay focused." Your girlfriend cut you off and you look at her in confusion. "But I found Yoohyeon and I know how to get her back." You argue before she shakes her head. "Y/n, we're in danger and what you just did could have been much worse." She chastised and your lips turned downwards. "But we're fine and I was able to find her."

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that you put yourself, and possibly Yoohyeon, in danger." The girls looked like they wanted to intervene, but decided to stay out of the argument brewing between you. "Don't you get it?" She spoke before you could even open your mouth.

"This whole thing isn't a joke. It's too dangerous!"

Minji was never once to raise her voice at you. Maybe she would reprimand you or any of the girls when you did something a little over the top, but she's never yelled at you.

"I think we need to-" But you don't listen when Bora tries to mediate the tension growing in the room as you glare back at your girlfriend.

"Call me selfish for wanting to go after Yoohyeon in my own way, I get it. But if you think that I'm taking all of this as a joke when it's her life on the line, then you must think so little of me." You say with a scowl before turning on your heel and stomping away to find whatever book Yoohyeon told you about, mind set on doing this on your own.

"Y/n, wait!" Bora hurries after you while Yubin glances at Minji's still figure, breathing heavily as she stared at the spot you previously stood.

After hours of reading and flipping through various books, Yubin came to help you when she was sure Yoohyeon's body was safe with the others, helping you find whatever spell you were looking for.

It was easier when you had help. It was also easier when the one helping you was the same person whose powers and knowledge you needed in performing the spell properly.

However, you know that there's something bothering the younger girl when she keeps glancing at you when she thinks you don't notice how her thoughts spill into your own. When you grow tired, you let out a breath before setting your book down. "Okay, out with it." Your sudden statement caused her to lift her head, blinking owlishly as she looked at you and you rub your eyes.

"I know you want to say something, Dami. Go ahead and let it out." You clarify and the said girl chewed on her lip, fingers playing with the corners of the page she was previously reading as her eyes landed on it. "I just… are you okay?" She murmurs that you barely catch what she said.

"You and Jiu unnie never fight and with Yoohyeon being gone… I wanted to know if you were alright." She says carefully and your expression softens before you let out a breath and lean back against the bed, touched with the younger girl's concern for you. "I'm okay." You reply quietly, brushing your fingers through your hair out of habit.

"I guess I was just a little hurt by what she said. Worrying about Yoohyeon, I guess it all just piled up and what she said ticked me off." You explain as the younger girl listened attentively. "I'm not mad at Jiu unnie. I understand why she was upset, and I was thinking carelessly for doing that earlier. I just…" You struggle to properly say the right words before letting out a heavy sigh.

"I just want Yoohyeon back."

Yubin shifts in her place until she's sitting beside you, rubbing your arm before resting her head on your shoulder in a comforting manner and you nearly cry at how similar her and Yoohyeon really are. "I understand." She mumbles while squeezing your arm.

Later when you prepare to go after Yoohyeon and open the portal, the rest of the girls come into the room where you found the knocked over camera.

"What's going on here?" Gahyeon asks when she observes the room's setup and you and Yubin don't bother looking up when you finish as quickly as possible. "We know how to open the portal. Since Y/n unnie was able to get to Yoohyeon before, it's easier for me to locate her and we can open the portal for her to come through." Yubin explained as you placed the camera aside, pulling the cover over it just to keep it safe for Yoohyeon.

Minji eyes you warily, taking note of how you avoid looking in her direction when you walk back to join Yubin at the center of the room. "I'll be back as soon as possible."

"What?" Bora intervened while taking a step closer. "Y/n, don't tell me you're going alone?" It's more of a demand, but you know that they're all hoping for the same answer.

"I have to. The portal won't be able to hold for long, which is why Dami and I agreed that only one of us will go in to get Yoohyeon." You explain and Minji quickly cuts in. "But what if you get stuck?"

You meet her eyes briefly before shaking your head. "I'm going to get her out of there, one way or another." You state firmly and your girlfriend bit her lip before she looked to the rest of your friends, silently pleading for them to give you some time and they all silently leave the room, except for Yubin.

When she sees the younger girl watching her, she seems hesitant. But Yubin nods in her direction before stepping out of the room to let the two of you talk before you proceeded with your plan.

"Y/n." The older girl gently takes your hand when she calls your name and you allow her to turn you around, though still refuse to lift your head to look at her.

She sighs at your stubbornness but circles her arms around you nevertheless while her chin rests on your shoulder.

"I'm sorry for what I said… it was insensitive." She apologizes when she feels your hands clutching at her shirt in the same manner you usually do. "I know that I can't take back what I said, but I want you to know that I really am sorry. If it were you and I had the choice to do what you did, I would have done the same." She whispers when she feels your leaning more against her frame.

She can feel your hands trembling as you grip at her shirt and she knows enough that you're more than terrified going into this alone.

But you weren't one to back out.

So with another sigh, she pulls away until she can see your face before cupping your cheeks in her hands, her thumbs gently caressing your skin before leaning in to press a gentle kiss to your lips, soft and sweet like always, and your hands wrap around her wrist while letting her take the lead.

When she pulls away, she places a tender kiss to your forehead before resting her own against it, both your eyes shut as you squeeze her wrists. "Come back to me." Her voice is barely a whisper, lacking confidence as she lets her fears finally surface when her voice wavers.

It's a plea - desperate and needy.

You look into her warm brown orbs before pressing another kiss to her lips. "Always."

When the rest of the girls come back, you look at them, watching their weary eyes when Yubin approaches you and takes your girlfriend's place.

The younger girl stares at you before offering her hands. "Be safe, unnie." You give her a smile before taking them. "I'll bring her home." You respond before the swirling gray portal slowly comes in the form of smoke until it eventually turns an icy blue.

You all look towards it and your heart rages against your chest as you take a deep, calming breath.

Gahyeon holds on to her sister's hand and Bora squeezes Handong's shoulder as they all watch you step away from Yubin as she stands next to Minji, both of them holding their breaths as you disappear into the portal and leaving nothing but smoke in your wake.

Right after you have stepped through the portal, you're once again welcomed into the white and empty nothingness that contained your friend. Squinting, you cup your hands around your mouth before calling her name and listen as your voice echoes when you walk further away from the portal.

Your heart has yet to calm down. You doubt you're able to do so while you're still here.

But Yoohyeon was a priority and you needed to find her with the limited time you currently had.

"Unnie!" You see her not too far away and your expression breaks into a smile of relief as you run in her direction, catching the younger girl into your arms and squeezing her. "I knew you would be back." She mumbled against your shoulder and you breathe out before finally pulling her in the direction of the portal.

"Come on. We don't have much time, so we need to hurry back before the portal closes." You tell her and Yoohyeon nods her head when you point to the opening you came through just earlier, seeing the interior of the mansion through the smoke and feeling her own relief fill her lungs.

But after taking a few steps, the ground begins to rumble and Yoohyeon turns to you. Your eyes widen and you feel your heart jump to your throat when you notice the portal slowly shrinking.

"Whatever happens, don't stop running until you get out, do you understand me?"

You make sure she nods her head to know that she's heard you before you gave her a squeeze and then urged her forward, letting her go first as you sprinted to the direction of the portal.

You can see more smoke coming from a different direction and you look at Yoohyeon who's running a bit ahead of you. The portal was closing far too soon than you had anticipated and there was something else present that was almost warning both of you about what you were attempting to do.

With Yoohyeon in your sights, you clenched your jaw, running as best as you could until you were both nearing the portal. But just a few feet away, something grabs at Yoohyeon's leg far too for you to see what it was, but as soon as she stumbles to the ground, you react and reach for her, sweat running down your forehead as you help her, draping one arm over your shoulders.

"Come on, kiddo. We have to go home." She nods her head with a grunt, doing her best to keep up and not slow you down. You do your best in carrying her, panting when you reach the barely opened portal and you know that you have to make a quick decision.

Looking at the tired girl in your arms, you purse your lips before giving her a tight hug. "I love you. Stay safe." You whisper into her ear, and before she has the chance to even properly process your words, you push her into the portal before it's completely swallowed in smoke and eventually vanishes into nothing.

The ringing in your ears is loud when your eyes open. Everything is blurry and you can only see faint outlines of the people around you.

The sounds are muffled, but you can tell that there's conflict happening with the figures that you're seeing.

Grunting, you roll over to your side and slowly lift yourself up, right hand clutching your head as the ringing grows louder and the headache continues to throb, making you a bit disoriented before you try opening your eyes again.

Though this time, you can see the flames of Siyeon's arms, large and angry as she slams her fists against the man that stood smugly in front of them, deflecting each of their attacks. Even when Gahyeon tries to trap him in place, he uses Yubin's abilities to avoid them, dodging Minji and Handong when they charge at him, flipping them on their backs before harshly stomping on their stomachs.

There are deers and bears off to the side, and you see Yoohyeon trying to get closer to Haneul with an eagle flying by her side, circling around the male before diving in to scratch at his face, but he quickly forms a plate of ice to shield himself and then ducks down to swipe his leg under Yoohyeon's before jumping away right as Yubin appears on his right, causing her to stumble forward and collide with the taller girl.

Bora, you can see, is standing off to the side, keeping one hand to the gate's direction and keeping it locked from where she stood just to keep Haneul from reaching you. At the same time, she's trying to use whatever she could to hurl at the man and hopefully damage him in any way.

But with most of the girls out of breath or off their feet, he was able to approach her before grabbing her neck and harshly shaking her to the side.

"Let go of her!" Siyeon's voice is raw as it echoes in your ears, replacing the ringing and you finally find the strength to stand back up despite the struggle of it. Siyeon makes an attempt to throw another set of flames at him, but you react quick enough when you see how he puts Bora in front of him just as Siyeon fires.

"No!"

The desperation reaches your ears and pierces through your mind. The pain that laces Siyeon's voice and the way it cracks as she watches her own flames racing towards the love of her life as the memories of how she had burned her past home village mirrored in your own mind when it replays in hers.

Shutting her eyes tight and bracing for impact, Bora waits for the pain to hit her body, but instead, she feels herself being pushed aside.

When she opens her eyes, Haneul's hand is no longer enclosed around her throat, and instead, he's at the receiving end of Siyeon's flames.

Looking over, her eyes widen when she sees you carrying her, panting with your eyes shifting until they settle to the same pure white ones she's used to seeing long ago as Haneul stops moving and the fire burns his clothes.

Gently putting her down, you check to see if she's okay. "I'm fine." She croaks out and you stare at her for a while before she offers a smile and then nods in the other's direction. "I think you better ask them that." She chuckled and you look back to see all six girls getting back on their feet, watching as you faced Haneul again.

He turns his face to look at you, seemingly impressed by your quick response before dusting himself off. "Well, isn't that interesting." He chuckles before turning back to you with his whole attention. "And here I thought we could keep you in the dark much longer."

You sneer at him and the girls feel a bit of hope in them when they see the familiarity in your expression. But that hope only skyrockets when they hear your voice ringing in their heads.

"I'll keep him distracted, but I need some help."

Your eyes meet Yubin's and she holds your gaze for a minute before nodding her head.

"Blocking me out, are we?" Haneul tsks and you glare at him as Siyeon cracks her knuckles before letting her hands be enveloped in flames and while Gahyeon has ice crystals forming at her fingertips.

"Just returning the favor, boss." You feel something come in contact with your hand and you grip it without question as Gahyeon forms walls in various areas of the field.

You move first, running in Haneul's direction with the pipe Bora had given you, ready to swing, but before you did, you waited until he moved before sliding on your knees, stabbing the pipe to the ground to maneuver your body so you can land a kick right behind his knees.

Seeing the opportunity, Siyeon jumps right in and sends a fireball his way when Gahyeon manages to trap his leg in ice.

"That's for my girlfriend." The blue haired woman spat but Haneul slips out of the ice after melting it and then appears elsewhere, though thanks to Gahyeon's walls, Handong immediately catches his reflection when he appears before Yoohyeon is sending a pack of wolves his way, all growling and ready to bite.

"How about you play fair?" Haneul mocks you when he summons his own animals, bigger and stronger to take down the wolves Yoohyeon sent after him. "Since when were you one to play fair?" You retort while tapping the pipe against one of the walls and then swinging it in his direction when you hear the sound of it through his senses, Bora helping in propelling it to his direction with greater force.

He's quick enough to deflect it, but it crashes against one of the walls and completely destroys it.

When he's distracted enough, he doesn't notice as Yubin appears behind him with Minji next to her until the older woman manages to grab his arm, twisting it behind his back before speaking. "You look a little paralyzed, Haneul. Are you in pain?" She asks in a taunting manner, mocking him the same way he's done to all of them for the past years.

And it does the trick.

You watch as he crumbles to his knees, body convulsing in pain and Minji lets go of him before she and Yubin join all of you.

"He won't be down for long." Handong informs you and you nod your head. "Then we should go - somewhere where we can buy time." They all nod and you look at Yubin, smiling as you offer her your hand. "Mind doing the honors?"

She grins as she clasps your hand with her own and the rest follow, grabbing each other's hands as the two of you bring all eight of you to a farther, safer, location.

You and Yubin were able to transport all of you to a peaceful looking city. Though you aren't exactly sure where this is, the quietness and the less amount of people assured you that there wouldn't be that big of a chance for Haneul to find you that quick this time especially after you decided to cover your tracks.

And there was no doubt he wouldn’t start checking a small city like this.

Right after your feet settle on the ground though, you were met with seven curious eyes when you released Gahyeon’s and Yubin's hands. "What?" You ask when you dust yourself off and Bora is the first to approach you, scanning you from head to toe before she let a smirk take over her features right as she shoved your arm. “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?”

She laughs in that same manner she usually does before she’s engulfing you in a tight hug. “God, I missed your stupid ass.” She muttered and you can’t help but smile while returning the embrace, which soon prompted all the other girls to do the same, minus Yoohyeon and Minji.

“You remember everything?” Gahyeon asks with a spark of excitement in her bright eyes and you grin while ruffling her hair. “I guess so.” Siyeon gives you another big squeeze and you rub her back as you hear her hushed voice.

“Thank you.” She murmurs against your shoulder and you smile while patting her back. “You’re welcome.” You whisper back before finally letting her go and watching as she headed to check on her girlfriend, seeing the shorter woman cupping her face when she was close enough and you hear the quiet assurances Bora gave her.

You feel a squeeze on your arm and Handong eventually pulls you into another hug, swaying your body from side to side and you laugh lightly at her before she squeezed your cheeks. “Sorry for scaring you before.” But the mischievous look in her eyes tells you that she wasn’t fully apologetic until she ends up giggling when you give her a stare at her. “Okay, maybe just a little.” She adds before moving aside when she feels the burning stare at the back of her head and Yoohyeon comes crashing into you without warning.

Your arms loop around her waist when she buries her face to your chest and you immediately feel as her body begins to shake and her sobs pierce through the quietness of the room.

The girls all watch with gentle smiles on their faces, some with tears in their own eyes as they watch with wide smiles on their faces as Yoohyeon cries into your chest and her fists lightly push against you in some form of way to get rid of the burden she’s been carrying all these years.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid! You’re so stupid and I hate you so much!” She sobbed and you let her hit your chest with her fists balled up as she continued to cry her poor heart out. “You said we were going home. You were supposed to come back with me!” She continued and all you could do was tighten your arms around her, rubbing her back to soothe her until she stopped hitting you and her crying had reduced into sniffles and small whimpers.

Breathing softly, you run your fingers through her hair and press a kiss to her forehead. “I’m so sorry.” Was all you could say, but those were all enough to bring her back into a crying mess in your arms that you had to gently lower yourself to the ground when her legs gave out.

You hold her while running your fingers through her hair and wait until she's tired herself out and cries everything out of her system, because that was obviously something she needed. And from all the thoughts you were able to hear, all the apologies, all the replayed memories, you know she needs it.

Eventually, Pie comes running out of a corner and she jumps into Yoohyeon's lap, barking, and you smile while reaching down to pet her head. "I've missed you, too." You tell her as you turn back to Yoohyeon with a gentle smile. "Are you okay now?" You ask without releasing her yet and she nods her head against your shoulder, taking in a deep breath and inhaling your scent before she finally lifted her head and looked at you.

"And here I thought I was your girlfriend." Yubin jokes, earning a few giggles from the girls as she attempts to lighten up the atmosphere. You look up at her and she smiles happily at you before she helps the two of you back on your feet. "Oh, Dami, you know that I could never be more than an unnie for Yoohyeon. Plus, I gave her to you, so I don't plan on taking her back." You joked back, earning a smack from thee said girl as she pouted.

"Oh, mean Y/n is back. I like this." Bora smirked and Yoohyeon's pout deepened as she looked at the shorter woman. "No."

As everyone breaks into laughter, you turn your head to the only person who has yet to approach you.

Minji's soft eyes meet yours and you immediately catch the way that they gloss up with unshed tears that she's trying so hard to hold back. And knowing that she wouldn't make the first step at that exact moment, you take it instead, opening your arms a bit as you offer her a small smile.

"Am I too late to come back home?"

Your voice is soft, careful, yet it's exactly the same as the last time, right before she lost you without, and it forces a tear to run down her cheek before she let out a wet laugh and shook her head. "Of course not." She chokes out, accepting your hug and pulling you into her taller frame.

"Your home is always going to be here, waiting for you."

The way she holds you is somewhere between desperate, that if she held you too loose, she'd lose you again, and gentle, as though she were scared she'd break you if she held you any tighter. But she buries her nose into your hair, basking in your familiar warmth as she tries her best to stop crying before she looks at you again.

But they don't stop because she's just undeniably relieved to have you back in her arms and that she doesn’t have to keep second guessing whether you’d remember her or not.

Years.

She’s spent years just to be back in this moment and she was glad to finally have it after all that you’ve been through.

Minji is mindful of all eyes on you and so, she pulls away with little hesitance, but her hand reaches for yours immediately, her heart skipping a beat as you lace your fingers together and give her a squeeze when you face your friends.

"I'm making the assumption that this is one of your various hideouts?" You ask curiously while glancing around and Yubin shrugs her shoulders. "We've all been busy. I had to be sure." Yoohyeon gave her girlfriend an odd look. "When did you find this place and how?" She questions. "It looks sketchy." She added while holding her dog closer to her chest and Siyeon hums as she studied the room you were all in. "We get tv, so I'm not complaining much."

Bora rolls her eyes at the comment but leans into her girlfriend while she hugs her arm, her fingers gently running over the slight burn marks on her skin from the earlier fight. "Do we, at least, have everything that's necessary? Food, water, enough beds?"

Yubin scoffs playfully at the question and Handong giggles. "Unnie, that's like insulting everything Dami's studied." The shorter woman shook her head. "I'm just making sure!" Siyeon laughed as she kissed the top of her head and Gahyeon let out a tired yawn.

"I don't know what time it is, but I'm exhausted." Just as she had said that, a faint light came from Yoohyeon's hand as she extended her hand to the floor. After a few seconds, Cherry comes running out, along with a little grey cat who, instead of running to her owner like Cherry, stretched and just sat down to look at everyone in the room.

Handong's face lit up before she crouched down and raised her arms to the feline. "Nannan! Come here!" Gahyeon sighed softly as she watched her girlfriend’s cat come bounding over for the Chinese woman to scoop up in her arms. “Why?” Gahyeon complained as she watched her girlfriend cuddle the cat and smother it with kisses. “It’s better that she’s with you guys than somewhere else.” Yoohyeon replied before turning to her own girlfriend.

“Can I-”

“Go ahead.” Yubin doesn’t let her finish talking before she nodded in your direction. “Just be sure they’re both okay with it, first.” You face the pair in curiosity and Yoohyeon huffs before speaking. “I was wondering if I could… stay in your room.” Her voice grows quieter at the end of her sentence but Bora was already snickering and you blinked before looking at Minji, who smiled softly and squeezed your hand. “I don’t see why not.”

You could feel yourself smiling as you turned back to the younger girl and then nodded your head. “Of course, you can stay with me tonight.” You look at Yubin to be sure of her decision and she nods her head while smiling back at you.

“She needs you right now.”

Later that night when you’re all settled in your respective rooms, Minji rooming with Yubin, the latter knocks her lightly against the opened door with a light smile when she sees you already dressed for bed. “Mind if I come in?” She asks softly and you sit up, shaking your head as you patted the space next to you.

“Yoohyeon is still saying goodnight to Dami.” The dark haired woman informs you when she takes a seat and you giggle while adjusting the blanket on your lap. “That doesn’t seem surprising. How are the others?” Her fingers fiddle with the edges of the blanket, humming. “They’re okay. Siyeon’s arms are a little burnt and aside from the bruises, I guess we’re all okay.”

She lifts her head to look at you, her eyes landing on the little cut on the side of your face before she carefully reached out, the tips of her fingers gently coming in contact with the wound after Haneul had hit you right before you were able to retrieve your memories.

“Do you trust me?”

You stare at her and the warmth washes over you before you slowly nodded your head, swallowing while your hands clenched into fists to steel your nerves and stop them from shaking. “I do. I trust you.”

“That’s such a shame, really.” Haneul sighs mockingly while shaking his head. “I thought you were smarter than this, Y/n. And you were one of my best employees.” His eyes meet yours before his smirk returns to his face. “It’s just too bad that you never learn.”

Within the blink of an eye, you see all of your friends all standing on the opposite side of the garden where Haneul was standing just a second ago, and Minji’s eyes widen as she sprints over to you. “Y/n!”

“Watch out!”

Right as you went to turn your head, a hand grabbed you from behind before you felt yourself thrown to the ground with brute force, your head colliding with the ground that it causes your vision to blur when the pain shoots through you.

The last thing you see are flames coming closer as the girls’ voices fade and everything finally turns dark.

“Sometimes I wish my abilities were different, more helpful.” She mutters and you gently hold the hand resting against your cheek when you lean against it, shaking your head as you stare at the older woman. “Your powers are fine as they are.” You assure her and she sighs, looking a bit weary. “But what good are they if I can’t even protect you and the girls?”

You lower both your hands to your lap and glare at her. “I told you, it isn’t your job to protect the whole group. We look after each other, it isn’t your responsibility alone.” But it doesn’t erase the frown on her face. “But you got hurt and the others, too. We’re constantly moving from one time and place to another and there’s been nothing I could do to stop any of this.”

“Stop that, what happened wasn’t your fault. We didn’t know.” You reply while squeezing her hand. “I put myself in danger when I knew the risks, Haneul coming after us wasn’t something you could control either, so please… stop carrying everything on your own when you don’t have to.” You tell her and she could feel tears building up in her eyes as she slowly nodded her head.

The time apart may have made her even more emotional than she already was, but she didn’t bother hiding that fact as she rested her forehead against yours with tears falling down her cheeks and you reached up to gently brush them away. Just making sure that you were really there with her, knowing who she was, that was all she needed right now.

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starlightshore · 4 years ago

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hi sorry if this seems a little rude, if chara isn't really bad, then why do they kill them on the soulless route?

(I always wanted to know about it)

(not rude at all! feel free to ask questions like this its no skin off my back) which “them” are you referring to? that could mean different things like: the underground, the player, Frisk ect. its a little vague)

but I’ll try to answer this with the above being vague anyway

---

hoo boy this ended up long LMAO. coming back from the bottom to say Sorry this ended up this lengthy. here’s some

content warnings: discussions of canon and implied dark topics such as: abuse, murder, death, suicide, and self harm

---

TLDR: Chara is a complex character with a rich backstory and motivations. by looking at the full game, you understand they’re a mentally ill child who is just following the player’s directions. YOU do the killing, Chara is your partner in crime because you force them to be.

Chara is the narrator in ALL routes. they are the UI, stats and narration.

it is Chara’s memories that convinces Asriel to remember how they met and how much they loved each other when alive. Chara is key to Asriel freeing the underground, they are a god dang hero

let’s look at canon Chara pre-game to fully understand what’s going on though.

-Chara lived in a village close to mt.Ebott. they decided to climb mt.Ebott for “a not happy reason” and hated humanity

-once underground, they become the sibling to Asriel and become a full fledged Dreemurr. They love their family. “it’s a dusty photo. everyone is happy.” (which, if you believe is the photo of Chara holding the flowers next to Asriel, implies Chara is smiling under them and their bangs) + the Mr.Dad Guy sweater + baking a pie for their dad

-in the underground, there’s the Deltarune prophecy. it reads as follows: “There is a prophecy. The Angel... The One Who Has Seen The Surface... They will return. And the underground will go empty.“

-Toriel and Asgore are both strong believers of the Deltarune as seen by the symbol on their clothes and homes.

-Chara has been to the surface and therefore, most believe Chara is the angel that will free them.

-Chara is a small child, who hates humanity, loves their family, and by fate is destined to free monster-kind. they are determined.

-Chara and Asriel decide to prank Asgore by making a pie with buttercups instead of a cup of butter. They learn the flower is poisonous and Asgore gets sick, but ends up fine. Chara laughs it off, but if one is paying attention to the game, you will see that their is a very common theme of smiling/laughing when distressed.

Toriel smiling, laughing when being killed in no mercy

Migospel’s whole game-play is about how one acts around others vs. alone “ Laughter hides the pain. [Alone]”

sans can be seen as a broad example

a VERY good example is the snowdrake’s mother fight:

“You laugh, and keep laughing. It's SO funny, you can't stop. Tears run down your face. | ... what? You didn't do that? [Laugh]

But it's not funny. [Laugh again]”

-Chara hates humanity (epilogue Asriel says that) and by extension, would hate themself. you can read into the tools being worn down to being blunt + no knives in the kitchen as being precautions Toriel put in place to prevent Chara from self-harming. Chara attempts suicide twice in the game’s story.. Also! It’s implied Chara was abused before coming underground. “ If you're cuter, monsters won't hit you as hard.-faded ribbon flavor text” and the fact Chara thought to kill the villagers in the first place, they didn’t get the “kill or be killed” mindset out of nowhere. + abuse can manifest in depression, anxiety, and Chara displays behaviors of coping with abuse. (harder to explain that detail, but Chara’s control-issues and distrust just SCREAMS abuse to me)

Chara is a kid with severe mental illness, implied to be abused, and all while younger than 13. that’s a lot to take in. which is also why a lot of people are upset at “Chara is evil” theories because it ignores that context and demonizes them. which is. bad. for lots of reasons. but mainly for how it handles the topic of survivors of abuse and mental illness and they’re just a freaking kid.

-anyway, long tangent aside... so this next point is more so how I interpret the order of events: Chara climbs the mountain to die, but trips and meets the Dreemurs. They become beloved by the kingdom and believed to be their savior. Chara can’t escape humanity’s history of trapping monsters or their own history of their horrible village, and when Asgore is poisoned they realize they’re bad too. It’s a common mindset of suicidal people to want to die before their image is tarnished. die while things are still “good,” when they’re still remembered fondly.

to cross the barrier, you need to have a human soul AND a monster soul. if Chara wanted to, they could of killed any of the Dreemurrs and absorbed their soul. But instead, the buttercup plan is a really freaking horrible way to die. Buttercup poisoning is awful. seriously, look up the symptoms. it’s bad. which is also why i believe Chara hated themself so much to put up with that form of death. -then they die, and become part of the Asriel and Chara fusion. (it should be stated they did not know Chara would be conscious.) the plan they agree on is to kill enough humans to break the barrier and free monster-kind, but Chara wants revenge, which is why they want to kill the humans and not negotiate like Toriel suggests Asgore could of done.

-Humans of course freak out at seeing them + their corpse and attack. Asriel realizes Chara was wrong and doesn’t want to murder, lets himself be killed. As they’re dying Chara screams “its kill or be killed” and both die. -years, possibly a century later depending on what side of the time-skip debate you’re on, Chara awakens in Frisk’s body and interacts with You, the player.

-they likely see you as the True Angel, and follow your orders just as Frisk just kinda vibes and does so as well.

-if you keep murdering, frisk distances themself from the world. (implied by what sans says about LV): * LOVE, too, is an acronym. * It stands for "Level of Violence." * A way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. * The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. * The more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. * The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.

-Frisk, NOPEing out of the whole thing, just leaves Chara, who feels like they are the literal stats of the universe. THAT is why Chara is only really fully present in no mercy, and only narration otherwise. Frisk’s autonomy and how much control they have are directly tied to your LV. Frisk is only named in the pacifist ending because they’re rewarded with the acknowledgement that they’re a person.

-The biggest detail is that it’s not Chara who kills, but YOU. Chara is your partner in crime, and only attacks the player when you refuse to ERASE the world and they kill you themself. it is your power and your determination that brought them to this world, and it is through your actions they believe power is the only they must fight for.

-also, both Chara and frisk are influenced by the player and react differently depending on your actions. (the dog food bag is described as “half full/half empty” depending on your LV, a reference to how one looks at glasses of water to be more optimistic/pessimistic and Frisk will feel good/bad depending on LV when punching the mad dummy in waterfall.) Chara is always just following your lead. they’re not controlling Frisk, you are. however, they are in control of the choices (as confirmed in no mercy you don’t get to choose answers for papyrus’ question and he calls you out on it. personally i like to think each choice answer is from each kid)

anyway yeah that's my overly long analysis of how Chara’s backstory is used to define who they are and then how being revived from the dead, they follow your steps to apply the “kill or be killed” logic to it’s extreme end.

also, its not like Chara is happy about following your orders either.

they think a plant is judging you. they talk about your sins in the sans fight. they call Undyne a hero despite fighting her. Chara doesn’t want to kill Asriel, but once it happens they go ballistic, stabbing repetitively, clearly upset. that then instantly gets them powerful enough to destroy the world, as with how LV is described as distancing yourself and such. Asriel meant the MOST out of everyone, he was their best friend, forever.

#Anonymous #personal stuff #sams replies #long post #undertale analysis

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yandere-daydreams · 5 years ago

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Another Yandere!Dabi/Reader piece for the very lovely @goretillery, as a spiritual continuation of this commission. For the sake of clarification, assume this takes place after the manga’s current arc is over, when Dabi is left with a few more issues than friends. For the drama alone, really.

Word Count: 1.7k

TW: Minor Spoilers, Mention of Injury, Implied Death, Imprisonment, and Wing Clipping.

It was all you could do to stay still.

The pain hadn’t faded, not in the slightest. Your fight with Dabi had been hours ago, days ago, maybe. You couldn’t be sure of time down here, splayed across a bare mattress in the basement of one of the League’s hideouts. True to his word, he’d found somewhere so deep and so desolate, even the air carried a lonely chill, your cell absent of window or clocks or much of anything, spare a few of your captor’s personal items, mundane and sentimental and meaningless to you. Entertainment wasn’t a problem, though, not right now. Two broken ribs ached in your chest, a dislocated ankle limiting your movement to short, stumbling steps. Minor scratches and bruises made it so you never had to search for a new source of petty irritation, but you could hardly summon the energy to care about any of that.

Your wings were all you could focus on.

Or, what was left of your wings, rather.

Dabi hadn’t been careful. He was angry, he was furious, and he wasn’t thinking. You could only be glad they hadn’t been completely incinerated, really, considering just how hot everything had felt in the moment. The roots of each were charred and blackened, stripes of burnt down and insulating-feathers drawn across the once perfect pair. He’d pulled out handfuls at a time, leaving sporadic, bare patches littered across your appendages, scarred over flesh currently struggling to heal itself. If your arches hadn’t been broken in the struggle, it would’ve been a miracle, considering the fractures that seemed to run through every other microscopic bone. You could hardly roll over without bringing yourself to tears, let alone moving your wings in any meaningful way. You’d tried to fold them, when Dabi first left you alone, tuck them into your back in order to wallow in your self-pity a little more comfortably. You thought it couldn’t be too bad. That even if they were hurt, the numbness should've set in, by then.

You’d started crying as soon as you made the first crease. You hadn’t really stopped, yet.

If Dabi felt any sort of sympathy, he didn’t make a show of it. You heard the solitary door close in the distance, but any greetings or footsteps were lost on you, your pulse still beating deafeningly in your ears. He clicked his tongue as he saw you were still curled into the same ball he’d left you in, and space your body could’ve taken up occupied instead by your outstretched wings, laid sloppily across any surface they could think to cover. He tapped your shoulder as he passed, watching as you recoiled and winced, before moving on seemingly unaffected, dropping whatever he was holding onto a splintering, decaying table, one that looked like it may collapse under more than a handful of pounds.

“Still pouting?” You didn’t answer, curling further into yourself, and he sighed, shaking his head. If you didn’t know better, you’d say that was his interpretation of an empathetic response. “Must really hurt, then.”

There was a rustling of plastic, the scratch of rough fabric against leathery skin. The room smelled like a bonfire, after a few seconds. How’d you ever get used to the burning smell? Did he even notice it, anymore? You felt the mattress dip under his weight, Dabi seating himself behind you, reaching over the small space and hooking his arms under yours, dragging your crumpled body onto his lap. You hissed as he did so, every bone under your skin rejecting even the smallest movement, but Dabi didn’t seem to take notice, only positioning you to sit facing him, left to lean against his chest and hide your face in his shoulder. He supported himself on the bare wall, in return, leaving your dependency mercifully unspoken.

“It doesn’t really stop. The pain, I mean,” He admitted, running an idle finger down the length of your spine. You reacted before you could think, operating off instinct and letting your wings tense at your sides, straightening despite the sharp, jagged needles that seemed to embed themselves in your skin. You didn’t dare let them drop, fearing the inevitable outcome, and he seemed satisfied with that, draping an arm over the crock of your neck and tracing meaningless shapes into whatever his hand landed on. “Everything heals over, or… scars, I guess. You learn not to whine about it, but it won’t go away. Not if it’s bad enough.” He paused, sighing. “It doesn’t hurt as much, though. You’ll start looking forward to it, eventually. Anticipating it.”

“I don’t want to enjoy it,” You mumbled, your voice muffled by a soot-stained shirt. “I want it to stop.”

He chuckled, softly, his fingers closing around one of the smooth, glossy feathers that covered the exterior of your wings. He gave it an experimental tug, and you whimpered, but Dabi acted before you could spit out protest. One harsh, steady pull was all it took to drag the feather out by its stem, the sting etching itself into your flesh, seeping downward with each passing second. He brought it to your side, letting you peek at it out of the corner of your eye. Bent and broken. You weren’t sure what you’d been expecting. “Then you’ll have to tear it out,” He explained, finding his next target. A newer one - a blood feather. It barely put up a fight, when he plucked it. “The faster you get rid of whatever hurts, the faster everything else’ll get better.”

You groaned as his attention shifted, moving towards your left wing. With his free hand, he jabbed at the peak of your arch, and you screamed as the appendaged drew back, leaving the points of each within arm’s length. You grit your teeth, your eyes already beginning to tear up. “Someone should’ve flayed you, in that case,” You grunted, fighting to keep your voice even. “I’d be happy to do it now, if you’re up for it.”

“Aw, baby, you know how riled up I get when you talk like that.” Nails scraped against the base of a primary feather, sending a shudder up the length of your spine. You noticed you were trembling, then, shaking like a leaf in the wind, but steeling yourself wasn’t an option. Instead, you grit your teeth and told yourself Dabi hadn’t noticed, yet. “I used to do this kind of thing for a friend of mine. One of those real laid-back guys, the type to take worse care of himself than you do.” He paused, stopping to think. “You’ve heard of Hawks, yeah?”

“You know I have,” You said, your irritation making itself apparent. “Everyone has.”

He didn’t seem to care for your tone. Dabi chose that moment to reveal what he’d been hiding, and suddenly, you weren’t sure how you hadn’t noticed it before. The shape in his pocket, long and pointed, a handle just the right to fit the shape of Dabi’s hand at the end. It didn’t take you long to identify the tool, already preparing to ask him why he’d brought a pair of scissors, but something was off. They were longer than an average pair, sharper. More similar to garden shears than anything. “He was a stand-up guy, wasn’t he? A hero, an idol…” He trailed off, slipping his fingers into the grip tentatively. As if he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them, yet. “I’m sure you looked up to him. Similar quirks and all.”

You did. You’d been convinced you were going to be just like him, when he was still a rising-star. Quirks like yours were so rare, and considering how fragile wings tended to be, only a handful of Flying Heroes had ever made it into the spotlight, even with the secondary abilities they tended to have. But, Hawks was gone, now, and you wouldn’t be surprised if you followed a similar fate, sooner or later. You shinked into yourself at the thought. “He was amazing.”

“He was,” Dabi confirmed, his touch ghosting over your waist. Remembering the minor weapon, you attempted to straighten your back, to move and get away from him, but your muscles were already growing sore at the thought alone, every cell in your body rebelling violently. Dabi only chuckled, taking hold of the thin root of your left wing, where the appendage attached itself to your back. You didn’t doubt that he could shatter the delicate bone with his bare hands, if he tried.

“And I’m sure you wanted to be just like him.”

You nodded. You couldn’t think of anything else to do. “I didn’t--”

“You’re nothing like him.” There was a new fire in his voice, passionate and firm, but he dragged you into him regardless, holding you tight as he made a grab for your wingtips. “He was a liar, and a spy and a bastard. The only person he ever cared about was himself and his little Hero Commission.” The words were spat with enough disdain to startle you, your struggle taking a turn towards a full-blown frenzy. Dabi only bared his teeth, his silent threat doing more than enough to pacify you. “You’re nothing like him. You’re not gonna fly away the moment something better comes along.”

The shears were raised, the clippers, and you stopped trying to hold yourself back, sobs racking through your chest and choking you, your terror as obvious as it was ugly. Luckily, that seemed to reach Dabi’s cold, shriveled heart, but all it earned you was a fleeting kiss to the top of your head and a soft hum, neither doing much to comfort you.

“Let’s call it a ‘safety measure’, alright?” You felt him choose his target, the closest feather to your wingtip, sharp edges soon entrapping it on either side. One of many that’d soon be cut short. “Just a little something to ease my mind. It can't hurt worse than what I tried last time.”

He was lying. You knew he was lying. All he ever did was lie.

But, all you could do was hold still and make sure the damage wouldn’t be permanent as the blades snapped together, a severed feather falling silently to the floor.

You wondered why you’d ever bothered trying to leave the ground in the first place.

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k7l4d4 · 3 years ago

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Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 7 Part 2

Hello all, I’ve returned for another piece of Midnight Striga! Everybody Clap Your Hands!!

Scowling to himself, Hunter ducked away from the human. He… wasn’t supposed to be in Bonesburough, not really, but it was one of the few days off he got, so he decided to make the most of it with some research. Events had shifted. What before everyone would’ve laughed off as some kind of joke, or the words of a deluded fool, were proven true when a group of human rogues decided to raze the Covention, using magic!! Hunter wouldn’t deny, he burned to know how they did it, how did they overcome the biological limitation? If ever questioned, he could and would easily decry it as Wild Magic, something to be locked away for the heresy against the Titan it was… but in private, he craved that power for himself. Not for glory, or conquest, no! He wasn’t an idiot.

He wanted to be normal.

“Stupid human, thinking I would buy a cheap excuse like that.” He muttered. It burned, it truly did, that she somehow thought he would fall for a ploy, even if she had no clue who he truly was. ‘The Emperor’s most trusted agent, The Golden Guard himself!’ He puffed out his chest, smirking in pride at what he’d accomplished. And it WAS an accomplishment. Anyone who knew the truth of his situation would no-doubt cry about how he had it all handed to him by his uncle, and if they did he would have no problem laughing at the fools, behind their backs of course, no need to start a fight when he could finish one.

For as long as he’d been in his Uncle’s care, he’d worked and slaved to obtain his position. He’d studied, trained, honing his body and his mind to be the best. If someone crossed him, he found ways of getting even, and without even having to get his own hands dirty half the time. Seriously, he understood the need to maintain the Coven’s image of being the best of the best, but most of them were just stupid!! ‘Even Clawthorne.’ He scornfully smirked to himself. He was ecstatic at seeing the cocky witch being taken down a peg, especially by her own hand. The fact that it showed the Isles what she really was, a worm and a cheat who slinked her way to the top, made it all the sweeter, and not to mention that her actions unleashed the most dangerous Wild Witch in generations into the populace. He knew that’s not how it actually worked, but it was a convenient lie that people would reach of their own free will, and would make an excellent tool for getting her out of the way when she finally outlived her usefulness.

But that’s besides the point. He shook his head lightly, clearing his thoughts as he leaned against a bookshelf. The human was here, in the library, and that was an opportunity he wouldn’t let pass. He wouldn’t stalk her or anything, but he’d be watching, waiting, and listening to see just what exactly she intended for the Isles. The mad laughter of those maniacs who had been brought in echoed in his ears, his eyes hardening into stone at the memory. If she turned out to be a threat, he would destroy her. Even if he never gained the secret to the humans’ ability to wield magic, he would gladly sacrifice it to protect the Isles. He swore it.

“This place is both amazing, and kind of ridiculous.” Luz commented, having put aside any thoughts of that rude guy from before, determined to make this a good day. She ducked under a book flying overhead, glaring at it as it shrieked at her. “I wonder if anyone would be willing to help me navigate this place.” She murmured, rubbing her head at another near miss.

“I believe we can help with that!” A voice that seemed to mix charming and cheese together in a corny mess sounded out behind her. Turning around, Luz raised an eyebrow at what she saw. Two Witches, a male and a female, and by her guess twins, if the incredibly strong resemblance and similarity in age was anything to base her decision off of. The two were standing back to back, the boy shooting a cocky grin that he probably thought made him look “so cool!” beneath his deep green hair and golden eyes, his apparent sister tilting her head in a different direction, gazing off in thought, a mysterious look in her eyes.

Luz turned on her heel, already done with these two. “Yeah, if you’re trying to flirt with me, I prefer homemade food and some shopping,” She said, not watching as the two collapsed in shock. “Also, you guys kind of come across as desperate.” She added, turning her head back to shoot them an eyebrow.

“W-we weren’t flirting with you!” The girl shouted, face flushed, even as her brother sat in a heap, poking at the ground with his finger. She marched over, her flush fading as her look shifted from it’s brief moment of outrage to some measure of control. “We just overheard you saying you’d appreciate someone showing you around, and we happen to know someone. We’d be cool introducing you.” She explained, looking Luz up and down as she did so. She shrugged. “But yeah, we probably would flirt with you normally, but we don’t have time for that today. Ed!” She called, her brother raising his head in response. “Let’s go find Mittens!” Her brother nodded in agreement, still seeming a little dazed from Luz’s snark from before.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Luz rebutted, raising her hand in a halting motion. “Did I say that I agreed? Because I don’t think I did.” She said, crossing her arms.

The girl huffed, hands on her hips. “Do you have a reason to actually refuse?” She challenged.

Luz paused, thinking for a moment, before shrugging. “Fair. Okay, let’s go.” She stopped, causing the girl to groan.

“What now?” She asked.

“I just remembered I never got your name.” Luz sheepishly admitted.

The girl blinked, before chuckling, some of the tension in her face bleeding away. “Yeah, I did too.” She stuck out her hand in a shaking gesture, leaning forward at an angle that honestly looked a little silly. “Emira Blight, at your service.” She smirked.

“And I’m Edric!” Edric called out, popping up behind his sister.

Luz laughed. “Heh! Good to know! Since we’re formally introducing ourselves, not that I don’t believe for a second that you don’t know who I am,” She said, shooting the two a challenging smirk. They had the good sense to accept it with a shrug and a nod without putting on airs. “The name’s Luz. Luz Noceda.” She declared, shaking the slightly older girl’s hand. Her grin turned mischievous. “So, I’m assuming that Mittens is Amity?” She asked gleefully, leaning forward, even as the two siblings did the same.

“You know Luz, I think we are gonna get along just fine.” Emira declared, an equally mischievous smile on her face, mirrored by her brother. With that, the trio rapidly began plotting how to best fluster the composed youngest Blight. Hey, Luz more or less liked her, but she thought a little harmless goofiness would get her to destress some. Not too much though, she liked her head on her shoulders. The trio walked off, heedless of their watcher in the isles.

Boscha breathed out a sigh of relief. “They’re gone.” She muttered. Not only was she here, but so were Amity’s older siblings!? Yeah, she wasn’t gonna stay and get caught in whatever craziness those two decided to get into. With a spine-cracking stretch, Boscha pulled away from the Isles, pulling a book to her chest. She breathed in deep, sighing out, before freezing at the sight of flame licking out of her mouth. Clamping her jaw shut, she rapidly shifted her eyes back and forth, already feeling paranoid at anyone having seen that. She clambered off towards the checkout, the book white-knuckled in her grip.

The book’s title read “Mysteries of the Mind, and Other Dark Truths.” Maybe now Boscha will be able to get some answers.

Luz rounded the corner, arm slung over Emira’s shoulder, chatting away with the other girl. “-And that’s why I never date a girl with fire magic without asking if they are medicated or not first!” She boldly declared, completely unbothered by her own past misadventures. Admittedly, she and Azzie probably would’ve still been together, if she wasn’t head over heels for a childhood friend who ran away with the circus.

Edric sprayed out his drinking, choking on his laughter. “And she let you live!?” He asked incredulously, choking and wheezing all the while.

Luz sheepishly shrugged. “Yeah, maybe trying to tell her that I wanted to break up while she was waiting for her medicine to be refilled, and while she was practicing her spells to boot, wasn’t my smartest move.” She was SOOO lucky she dodged that initial attack, her butt still felt like it was singed at the memory!!

Emira gave her an amused smirk. “Oh, I wonder why?” She playfully ribbed the other girl. Her look of amusement softened. “You know, I was honestly all geared up to tear you apart at first.” She casually admitted, even as Edric stared at her in shock and Luz raised an eyebrow at her admission. “Yeah, after I got a rundown about what you accidentally dragged Mittens into, and trust me, I know you wouldn’t be able to stop her, I was totally prepared to dismember you and bury your corpse so you could never get involved with her again.”

“Eh, not the worst thing anyone’s admitted to wanting to do to me.” Luz said, shrugging the casual death threat off. Edric just wordlessly worked his jaw, somehow at a loss for words.

“But… as much as I want to blame you, I get that it wasn’t your fault, what went down. So I’ll be keeping an eye on you, but I’m not gonna try anything. Especially not now that I know how fun you are!” She finished, giving Luz a chipper wink, getting a friendly smirk in response. As the next area caught her eye, she perked up. “Oh! I think we’re here!”

“Finally!” Edric cheered, having gotten bored of the place a few stacks ago, with only Luz’s stories to keep him going. Who knew you could cause so much chaos with Cheese, a banjo, and a juggler!? He must find a way to top that…!

Peering around the corner, Luz’s eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?” She asked, her voice tight with awe and fervent hope.

“Yeah.” Emira squeaked, equally overcome.

Edric just raised his eyebrows. “I don’t get the big deal, but you guys do you, I guess.” He said, shrugging.

Before them sat Amity Blight, her normally stern look having fallen away, a look of innocence and kindness gracing her features, as she read from the book in her lap to the children surrounding her, Skara standing to the side with a happy smile of her own.

“‘What do you think you’re doing?’” Amity read along, keeping pace with her place in the book, her eager audience leaning in closer, with Skara sidling up too, a sheepish grin on her face at how captivated she was with the simple reading. “‘We’re your friends and we wanna help!’ said the Tin Boy with a yelp. Otabin smiled and paced the floor. ‘I’ve never had real friends before.’”

Luz suddenly found herself very much identifying with a children’s book character from a story she never read, just from that one line. She turned to the twins with starry eyes. “Amity reads to kids?” She stated more than asked, getting an enthusiastic nod from Emira and a playful smirk from Edric.

She watched in slight awe as Amity continued. “‘Then we’ll be your first.’ The Chicken Witch Clucked. Otabin couldn’t believe his luck.” She turned her gaze to the kids, eyes glowing in delight at this simple kindness she was performing. “So, Bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that’s the end.” She finished cheerfully, the children cheering and applauding, while Skara threw an arm over her friend’s shoulder, which Amity playfully shoved off.

“Yay!”

“Thank you so much.”

“Goodbye.”

One particular kid walked up to Amity and hugged her legs, before speaking in a strikingly deep voice. “Thank you for the story Miss Amity.”

Amity gave the little demon boy a kind smile, reaching down to return the hug. “Ah, thank you Braxas. Have a good day, and give your dad my wishes while he heals up. See you next week.”

The little demon, Braxas apparently, cheerfully ran off, waving in reply behind him. “Okay!”

Skara gave a soft laugh, clapping her hands. “That was so sweet, Ams!” She cheered. She shot Amity a mock critical look. “And just why haven’t you shown this to me before?” She asked faux-haughtily, even as Amity snorted.

“I think what I do to destress is my own business.” Amity replied dryly, getting a sheepish laugh from Skara in response. Her smirk softened into a smile. “But still, I’m okay with you having shown up. The kids really liked you.” She gave Skara an appraising look. “I honestly didn’t expect you to be cool with something like this.” She softly admitted.

Skara gave Amity a stern look. “Amity, I get that I can be judgy, but I’m not gonna bust your chops for being nice to kids.” She said sharply, before shifting into a teasing smirk. “Still, you know that now you have to do something I like to do without other people, right?”

Amity spluttered. “I don’t remember agreeing to that!” She said hotly, her face flush.

Skara spun on her heel, pulling Amity along with her. “Ah, don’t be such a buzz-kill! It’s nothing illegal, and I promise, you’ll enjoy it.” She said, giving Amity a wink, prompting the other Witch to roll her eyes.

At that point, Luz decided that it was about the right moment to reveal herself. “Well, well, well! It looks like Hexside’s number one lemon drop has a secret sweet center.” She commented, stepping into view.

Behind her, Edric and Emira shared matching looks of glee, mouthing the words ‘lemon drop’ to each other in delight. Oh yeah, they liked Luz, for sure!

#the owl house #fairy tail #owl house au #fairy tail au #owl house crossover #fairy tail crossover #luz noceda #amity blight #emira blight #edric blight #braxas the owl house #skara the owl house #magic

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 5 years ago

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My Little Secret (Part 3)

Summary: When a tragic accident happens, Dean takes a drastic measure in order to save the person he cares about most…

Pairing: Mechanic!Dean x reader

Masterlist

Word Count: 2,900ish

Warnings: language, time in hell/injury, death

______

“Good morning sunshine!” you heard. You slowly opened your eyes, Alistair kneeling down beside your cell. “How’d the first week go kid?”

“Screw you,” you said, closing your eyes again.

“Want to take a guess how long you been here?”

“Um, a week, asshole,” you said.

“Here yes. In the real world, it’s only been a few minutes,” he said. You opened your eyes, Alistair smirking at you. “Oh, yes. Time’s a bit different down here. Ready to get off the rack yet?”

“Screw you asshole,” you said.

“Always tomorrow to change your mind.”

“How was it today?” asked Alistair, stopping by your cell not long after you’d been dumped in there for the day.

You didn’t move, not that you wanted to. He opened the door and knelt down beside you, cocking his head.

“Want to get off the rack?” he asked, same as he did every day. You stared at his shoe, Alistair poking your shoulder. “You haven’t felt like talking in a long time. You get off the rack, you can get cleaned up, relax in a bed, become my star student. There are perks to that.”

“Promise,” you said quietly.

“Sure I promise,” he laughed.

“No,” you said, closing your eyes.

“Fine. Back on the rack you go.”

“Y/N,” said Alistair as he visited you maybe a month later. It could have been a year. You weren’t paying attention anymore. You knew a month up there was a decade down there but your ability to keep track of time was more skewed than not lately. “What do you say? Off the rack today?”

“Promise,” you mumbled.

“What do you want to do?” you heard Abbadon say. “Almost everyone breaks by now.”

“Put her on a rack for a few years. See how she’s feeling after that.”

“I see you eyeing my knife more often,” said Alistair one day, your gaze flickering over slowly from it to him.

“What’s it like?” you asked.

“Tearing into flesh? It’s an art form, not a science,” he said.

“I meant what’s it like being the big bad demon and you can’t break me. You must be the laughing stock of Hell,” you laughed, hearing a few other demons turn away from their own racks. “Aren’t you guys embarrassed of this old hack?”

“I will-“

“You’ll what? You’ve already done everything. Face it. You’re washed up,” you said.

“You’re having your second wind. Don’t worry. No one ever has a third.”

“Rack?” asked Alistair what felt like an eon later. “It has been decades kiddo. It’s okay to say uncle.”

“I wonder how long your little ass lasted before you gave up to Lucifer. A week?” you smirked.

“Dean doesn’t care about you. If you want to continue this charade that’s your choice. He is never coming for you.”

“Rack?” asked Alistair once again at the end of the day. You sat up in your cell, staring at him. “Hm?”

“What do I have to do?” you whispered, barely able to hold yourself up.

“Work the rack. Under my tutelage,” he said. “What do you say?”

You gave a single nod, Alistair smirking.

“Come now. One quick lesson to start and then you can rest,” he said. For the first time, there was no one dragging you through the halls, no hand on you as you followed him through a maze and eventually into the open vastness that was the rack room. He hummed and waved for you to follow him to an occupied one, a trembling man on it. “This is a purely innocent man. He made a deal. George, this is Y/N. She also made a deal but now she has the opportunity to not be in your position. But enough chit chat, Y/N needs to learn and you’re going to be a very good boy and help us out.”

You watched his table of instruments appear, Alistair handing you his favorite curved blade.

“You know the hunter special?” he asked you. You nodded, staring at the tool. “Show George here how it goes.”

You stared down at the man, holding up the blade.

“I’m sorry,” you said. You spun around and stabbed it into Alistair, sighing when he disappeared in front of you, appearing off to the side unharmed. “It was a trick.”

“You tried to trick me first,” he said, your body back on a rack, George free and on his feet now. “So George. Would you like to try?”

George stopped apologizing a while back, just slid up, did his thing and moved onto the next person. You didn’t blame him. It was hard to blame someone that had lost their humanity bit by bit. It was easier that way.

“What do we say today?” asked Alistair. You shook your head and heard him leave you, a few hours of sleepless alone time your one reprieve of the day.

You heard your cell door open and you didn’t even care that they weren’t giving you a break this time.

You just didn’t care anymore.

You sucked in a deep breath, darkness surrounding you. Something was wrong. You weren’t on the rack. You weren’t in your cell. Something just felt wrong. The air felt wrong. Space felt wrong.

You slammed your hand and scraped it on something, a stinging pain hitting you.

A very different kind of pain than you were used to. You tried to sit up and smacked your head immediately, groaning at the dull throbbing.

“I’m alive,” you said to yourself, letting out a shaky breath. “As long as I don’t run out of air.”

You suddenly realized how cold you were, hands feeling around more slowly this time, smooth metal all around you.

“I’m in a morgue drawer again. I’ll be interested to know how…” you said to yourself, quickly realizing you were starting to freeze to death. “Shit.”

You felt around over your head, finding a little string somehow and you pulled, the door flying open. You caught it and pulled yourself out, dropping to the floor with a shake. You righted yourself, finding a doctor standing over an open body. He stared and gave a little wave.

“Uh hi,” you said, wrapping your sheet around yourself. “I’ll just...see myself out.”

You jogged out of the room and down a hall, discovering you were in a county clerks office after a moment. You slipped into a breakroom and found some old clothes in a donation bin, stealing what you could before you were out of there on bare feet.

“Mom? Dad?” you called when you got to the house, opening the door with the spare key. You went inside and to the kitchen, grabbing some water before your glass went flying and you were tackled to the floor.

You spun around on your back, staring up at a very angry looking Dean.

“Dean! Dean, it’s me!” you said.

“That’s what the shifter two months back said,” he snarled, holding up his arm, a big knife in his hand.

“Get off!” you shouted, kneeing him hard as you scrambled away, smacking your head on the corner of the kitchen table in the process. You fell to your hands and knees, rolling to your side as Dean walked in front of you. He knelt down and grabbed your wrists, staring at you before he made a small cut on the back of your hand. You stared up at him when nothing happened, some water tossed on you next. “It’s me!”

“Sweetheart?” he asked. He tossed the blade aside and pulled you into the most earth crushing hug you’d ever had.

“Dean. I need to breathe,” you said. “Also some water and food would be nice.”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Here,” he said, pulling you to your feet and sitting you down at the kitchen table. He ducked into the fridge and pulled out half of an uneaten sandwich, sliding it in front of you. He was quick to get another glass of water for you, picking up the broken pieces of the other one while you dove in. You were nearly finished when he grabbed a chair and sat it next to you, watching you carefully.

“You make this?” you said with a mouthful.

“Yeah,” he said.

“You always make good sandwiches,” you said, wiping off your hands. He waited a few seconds before he was hugging you again, pressing you to his chest. “How long has it been?”

“About a year and a half,” he said.

“Are you okay?” you asked, reaching a hand up to his face. He chuckled and held on tight.

“You’ve been in hell a year and half and ask if I’m okay,” he said. “Yeah, I’m good sweetheart. I missed you so much. Longest 18 months ever.”

“Yeah,” you said with a hard swallow.

“You want to get cleaned up?” he asked. You nodded, pausing when you turned to leave. “What?”

“You didn’t make a deal, did you?” you asked. He shook his head. “You promised.”

“I kept my promise,” he said quietly. “No matter how much I didn’t want to.”

“Me too,” you said.

“You didn’t sneak out then I take it?” he asked.

“No. You don’t know how I got out then?” you asked.

“No. I’ll call your dad. They’re away right now. Let’s have you take it easy for a little bit. You need to rest,” he said.

“Alright,” you said, holding out your hand. “Come with me?”

“Of course, sweetheart.”

“Sh,” you heard Dean say when you stirred awake in your old room after your shower, head nestled on his chest. You curled back into him, Dean quiet for a few minutes but he was obviously texting someone. You blinked open your eyes, Dean dancing his fingers up and down your arm. “Go back to sleep, Y/N.”

“I don’t want to,” you said. “Who are you talking to?”

“No one,” he said, putting his phone aside.

“S’okay if you have a girlfriend now. Probably shouldn’t have taken a shower with me if you do but-“

He pressed a kiss to your lips, fixing your hair after a moment.

“The only girl I have is you, my fiancé,” he said. You stared up at him, Dean moving you to rest your head on a pillow before he sat up. “I may not have told the whole truth earlier.”

“You sold your soul you-“ you said, ready to give him the ass kicking of his life when he turned his head, so confused looking you stilled. “You didn’t.”

“I got close. I...I may have gone to a crossroads and even talked to a demon about it but I didn’t do it,” he said. “But I never went back to Lawrence.”

“What do you mean?” you asked, taking his hand.

“Your parents trained me. To hunt,” he said.

“What?”

“I’m a hunter now. A pretty good one too,” he said. You dropped his hand and stood up, going to the bedroom door. “Y/N, wait.”

“Where are they? I’m going to kill the both of them,” you said.

“No, you aren’t and they didn’t put me up to this. I asked, willingly,” he said.

“You what?” you shot back. “I asked you not to.”

“I know. But I also watched those dogs rip you apart. I didn’t want to be helpless again so I learned. I was texting another hunter earlier. I told him I couldn’t meet up on a hunt a few hours from here. That’s all it was,” he said.

“All it was?” you said with a laugh, looking him over. “Look at you. You’re so much bigger and stronger than I remember. You practically killed me downstairs.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I am,” he said.

“You know why I left hunting? Because people die and they get hurt and it fucks them up. I wanted a normal life away from this Dean. I never wanted this for you,” you said.

“Well it happened. Now I know how to protect you,” he said.

“Alistair will try again,” you said, a tiny shiver running down your spine. “It doesn’t matter. All you did was give yourself nightmares for no good reason.”

“I already had ‘em,” he said. “I help people. Maybe this job sucks sometimes and it’s hard but I help people. I have spent all of this time trying, for you. I didn’t get you out but I’m sure as hell not letting you spend another year and a half there again.”

“Did you ever get close?” you asked.

“Not really.”

“I need some air,” you said.

“I-“

“I need some air,” you said, leaving the room and going outside, wandering to the far garage and taking a seat on the workbench. It didn’t take long for Dean to find you, quiet as he leaned against the table.

“You mad at me?” he asked quietly.

“No,” you sighed. “I just didn’t want you to wind up like me.”

“You’re amazing. Why wouldn’t I want to be like you?” he asked. “Total badass on top of that. You held out for a year and a half in hell. That’s-“

“It wasn’t a year and a half,” you said.

“How long was it then?”

“Hundred and eighty,” you said softly, Dean’s face losing its color.

“Years?” he breathed out. You nodded, grabbing his arm when you thought he was going to fall over. “Oh my God.”

“Dean, sit down before you pass out,” you said, helping to sit up on the bench.

“A hundred and eighty years?” he whispered, looking you up and down. “What-“

“It’s not like, normal years. It is but it isn’t,” you said. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Sweetheart,” he said. “Sweetheart, no one could last-“

“I promised,” you said, gripping the edge of the bench hard.

“How bad.”

“Dean.”

“How bad did they hurt you?” he asked.

“Worse than you could possibly imagine,” you said, ducking your head down.

“Did they-“

“Yes. They did it all Dean,” you said. “And then some.”

“You could have broke,” he said. “Sweetheart, you could have and no one would have blamed you. No one could last that long.”

“I just remembered I made a promise. I couldn’t remember what it was sometimes but I knew I made one. I held on to that one little scrap for dear life,” you said.

“I’ll never hunt again,” he said, grabbing your hand. “Never.”

“He’s gonna come back,” you said.

“I’m gonna kill him,” said Dean. “I’ll kill ‘em all. Lock them away.”

“That’s not possible,” you sighed.

“We don’t know that. One way or another, I’m making sure these things leave you the hell alone.”

You jumped up in bed that night, Dean’s hands on you only a slight comfort as you looked around the room.

“S’okay. Just a bad dream. You’re safe,” he said.

“Yeah,” you said, pinching yourself, knowing you were still back home.

“You’re awake, I promise,” he said, wrapping his arms around you.

“Pain is different here. I can’t explain it but it is. It’s how I know I’m back,” you said.

“It kinda makes sense. It’s another plane of existence, right? Hell?”

“I suppose. A really sucky one,” you said. You sighed and leaned back against him, Dean rubbing your arm. “I’m okay. Go back to sleep, Dean.”

“You’re not okay,” he said, keeping you close, kissing the top of your head. “You don’t have to let it out tonight but whenever you decide to, I’m here, alright?”

“You don’t sleep in hell,” you said quietly. “All I wanted was a night of sleep and I can’t seem to even get through one.”

“You will. You’re safe here. You try to relax and I’ll make sure nothing happens to you,” he said. “Promise.”

You smiled and closed your eyes, Dean shifting the two of you to lay after a minute.

“So where do you want to go on our honeymoon?” he asked quietly.

“Somewhere warm,” you said.

“We can do that,” he said. “You want like a blowout wedding or a small backyard kind of thing?”

“I don’t know,” you said. “We can figure it out.”

“Do you still…” he trailed off, your gaze going up.

“Yeah. I still want to marry you,” you said quietly.

“Me too,” he said as you yawned. “I’ll be quiet. You rest now. It’s okay. I promise. He’s not coming near you ever again.”

______

#supernatural #spn #dean x reader #dean winchester #supernatural fanfiction #dean winchester x reader #dean #winchester #dean spn

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celstese · 4 years ago

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Torchwood Christmas secret santa 2020

for @laylainalaska

Hi this is your secret santa. Happy holidays Both fics are under the cut and on ao3. I haven't figured out how to embed pictures so the pics just on this post. I dont have access to a scanner right now. (Will update the picture when I do soon)There is a bit of swearing in the first fic but its not that much.

ao3 posts- Ianto and Owen / Gwen and Tosh

It was early in the morning when the messy situation began. Since Lisa was discovered, I hadn’t been back at work. That was a terrible night. It happened so suddenly. I didn't feel happy when I realized what I had overlooked. I noticed we were running out of coffee beans. As soon as I could go, I went to go where I kept the rest of the walk in storage. This was the same floor where she inhabited for several months. It started sometime after I had joined after finding Myfanwy. That night I was exhausted. It was worth it in the end. While I didn't prefer being down there, I had to do something about the problem I had found. As I walked further towards the supply cupboard, the more uneasy I felt, almost like I knew something would go wrong. My fears were not out of the blue, but objectively I knew no one else could have done the same thing as I had. When I got there, the storage door was wide open and I could hear Owen Harper's loud voice. I sighed then spoke up loudly, enough that he could hear me from wherever he was inside. “Are you close to the coffee? We’re almost out upstairs.”. I didn’t wait long. It seemed he was close to where I was. Odd, the room seemed to be much bigger on the inside. That might have just my mind playing tricks on me. Though I wouldn't have been surprised if it was. “Can you repeat that? I don't know why not having galoshes would be a problem. ” Owen sounded confused. “No where almost out of coffee. Is there any in there still?” I replied louder than I had done previously. “I passed it on my way to the office supplies. I think that's all the coffee we have right now” Owens voice was apologetic. I could tell he meant it. It was then and there, for the first time in ages, that I felt scared. Not only for me but everyone on the team. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, I had become dependent on coffee. My team was no different. That didn't mean any would do. Drastic times call for drastic measures. After a short conversion, we decided to go upstairs and find Jack. Getting the bags of coffee to the car would require more than one person. It was a slow day so Owen could come and help for once. We walked together to the large elevator at the end of the hall and, after finding that it wasn't working, we sighed and took the stairs. I guess it was about time for a new elevator anyway. Nothing really lasts forever. When I got out of the stairwell, I was met by a relieved Jack who was happy to see me. “Ianto about the coffee…” “We have none in storage right now so the stuff upstairs is all we have at the moment. Me and Owen were going to go get more right now.” “I'd be happy to help if you asked, but that's fine.” I could tell from Jack's tone of voice that he would like to spend that time with me, but we'd never get anything done if he came with. He is a real trouble magnet on top of that. We walked inside the garage with the keys already in Owen's hands. I got in the driver's side on the right side while he got in the passenger side. The quickest route I knew could be confusing. If I was on the passenger side giving directions wouldn't help at all. It was hard to find a place and the directions were the oddest I have ever followed. As they drove out it was still raining as it had been when they entered in the morning. By the time they had taken a left turn towards a block of warehouses, the rain had vanished, to Owen’s surprise. He thought the weather man said something about the rain lasting until the next day. He shook his head and told himself he must have misremembered what week that was for. The car made a sudden stop parking at the side of the road. Ianto spoke saying “I know it might look weird, but this is really where I get all of the coffee. It's like the opposite of a Slitheen. It's the building on your side. Let's go.” While Ianto stepped out of the car ,Owen took a deep breath and opened the door quickly then closed it just as fast. His face was drawn to the massive eyesore in front of his face. The building that once held a clothing warehouse full of books was now filled with rows and rows of coffee. Owen didn't know what to think. He turned his head and said to Ianto “ You go to a building that's bright orange called Groovy Moods to get coffee that we drink everyday. Something about that sentence just sounds wrong.” “It's better than it sounds. They used to have a different name, but they were inherited by the old owner's hippy son. I miss the old building, but the stuff is still the same. My mouth would know the difference.” Owen Harper then said in response “So it's a rebranding. Lets just go in and get this all over and done with. I heard it was supposed to rain today.” The inside was clean as a whistle and the colors were more muted, though, the wall art wasn't. Owen couldn’t say he was surprised at the abstract art on the wall above displayed bags of various kinds of coffee. He followed Ianto to a window at the back of the store and found something unexpected, visible behind the glass. “Well shit.” I couldn't agree with Owen more. Some kind of face hugger was on the workers face and they were trying to tear it off. That was a poor bloke. “Did we bring anything in the car or did you grab something? I don’t think a gun will help us with that.” Owen was panicking and so was I. “ I always have medical supplies on me, and I also have some food. You?” I leafed through my pockets and groaned. “I grabbed the wrong jacket. This spray might make it worse.” “Why?” “It's novocaine in a can. I don't know what it will do to it. It could do nothing.” “It's worth a shot. At least the guy won't feel anything if something goes wrong.” Owen, with a medical tool, opened the door and I sprayed the face hugger. The weirdest thing happened. “I think I made it horny”. I was embarrassed. Instead of sucking the man's face, it was now humping my foot. Owen laughed while I sighed. “We have a carrying cage in the car right? Get it. I think we might have to retcon this guy when it's taken care of.”

Fic 2 It was a Friday when I finally had some time to myself. I had some great plans including going to this nice curry place and eating what I couldn't while I was at home since Rhys was allergic. My day didn't go as planned after I managed to get that one thing out of the way. As I was walking to my car, out of nowhere I got pulled into an alleyway. I almost kicked them, knocking them out before I saw who it was. It was Toshiko, but she was a mess. Concertedly, I watched as she panted.

“What happened?" I said plainly as she stood wobbling in front of me.

Her eyes wide, she spoke a few words before fainting onto me “Aliens smuggling cocaine into space.”

I had just enough time to catch my weight and Tosh by sheer will alone. A few seconds passed before I could catch my bearings.

My mouth gaped as I was shook by what she had just said. I guess I'm going to hold off on those plans for another day. This, I could feel, wouldn't be easy. She looked at Tosh's wrist and sighed. Maybe she would have a day out. Whatever had happened hadn't happened yet. On Toshiko's right wrist was a vortex manipulator. For all Gwen knew Tosh was going to then say and time if that one wasn't Jacks. It wasn't like he was unique in the cosmos. It was mass produced. From what she had gathered after Jack came back after a year in tandem with the radiation scare they were similar to company cars. While not totally unique, there are a limited amount.

Though for all I know I am already involved in what happened and will have to sit it out to keep out of sight. That might possibly be some good news. I haven't signed up for overtime, but I was due for a break as well. Whatever the case I had to get Tosh to wake up somehow. For all I knew it would come today and we needed to start walking now. So, out of my pocket I grabbed what I always kept on me and what I knew she couldn't stand.

“Peppermint, really Gwen?”

It had worked after all, to my delight.

“We are in an alleyway and I had it on me. Now, do we have to hide somewhere or was I involved in what got you here?”

“I have to stay out of sight, but we need to call Jack so I only knew one thing you did out of the next three days.”

“Well that's short, but what are you getting at?”

“Well what we need to do exactly is this.”

Tosh's game plan was not something I would do if I didn't have to. There were parts she had to repeat since to be perfectly honest was plain odd. I guess I could blame the rift for this.

So, here I was now, with Tosh in a bar in the middle of the day at the start of winter. There was barely anyone inside which was definitely not a good sign. We went to the restroom and waited for a few minutes. Then I heard that noise that had to be what Tosh had told me about earlier. So I kicked down the restroom door and chucked a can of mayo at a sabretooth tiger. While it layed there unconscious, Jack stared at me, dumbfounded for the first time since I had met him.

“Thanks Gwen but how did you time that so well? It's your day off you didn't mention going to a bar” He was scratching his head staring at the jar of mayo on the ground.

“It's kind of you from a few days laters fault. Tosh said she came back to perverse the timeline to ensure I did what I did. You gave Tosh your vortex manipulator 3 days away. I guess i'm going to have more time off than planned. This was the only thing you saw me doing with everyone else while the alien cocaine smugglers were dealt with. I'm having trouble saying their name. It's a mouthful.”

“Can you tell me something about them so I know what i'm dealing with?” Jack responded quickly.

“ She did say that one of the people who took them back to their homeworld used to be mayor Blaine. Tosh said she was cute.”

He started laughing for a second then the image of what I was describing finally got past his processing for how ridiculous it all sounded.

“Even for torchwood this sounds..”

“Insane I know. I'm the one who was dragged into an alley by a chip shop's trash cans by a future Tosh and had to wake her up. She seems fine, even after passing out. I don't think she got a concussion, but it's even more of a reason for me to stay out of this one. I wouldn't want to be home alone if that happened to me.“

“You do that Gwen, you do that.”

Tosh walked up right next to me and said, “We have five minutes until my past self walks by. We need to head out. Nice seeing you Jack.”

We finished saying our goodbyes and Tosh headed out first, initially going left while in the distance I heard a familiar voice talking to him. While I knew I could relax, I wouldn't be able to do everything I could.

“I haven asked yet, but are you okay with sleeping on my couch?”

“Gwen, I’ve slept in worse places before, it's fine.”

Tosh opened up the fridge while I was cleaning dishes. “Gwen, when's the last time you ate something that wasn't takeout? There's only milk in here and I think it's gone off.”

“Well, I guess we'll have to go get food. Rhys usually does it, but he’s at the funeral I was talking about before all of this. You didn't go to a grocery store did you?”

“No, so we can go anywhere.”

I didn't feel the need to change so we went out in both of our pajamas. The sight of her in my pajamas brought a smile to my face.

I hadn't gone here this time of night or this particular place, but Tosh seemed pretty familiar with it. There was some stuff I hadn't seen in person before, but it was pretty clean. I grabbed something called a dragon fruit and put it into the cart as well as some pasta and additional stuff to put on it. Can't forget the wine either. This kind of opportunity doesn’t happen as often for me anymore.

I don't know how, but we ended up at a rec center painting. It was a small place nearby with a blue façade. It felt nice actually, to my surprise. It's not the best representation of a pear, but at least I tried.

I looked at my watch and realized how much time had passed.

“This is the last day we have to stay out of this.” I didn't know how I felt about that just yet.

Tosh pulled down the newspaper and sat in silence for a bit. Then she simply said . “I'll miss this break, but it had to end sometime. It will be all okay.”

“I hope so.” I thought to myself. The last few days had been calm but I don't think I can relax much longer anyways.

#celstese #laylainalaska #torchwood 2020 holiday gift exchange #swearing #Gwen Cooper #toshiko sato #Owen Harper #ianto jones #jack harkness #fanfiction #torchwood #torchwood fanart

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bluedemon1995 · 4 years ago

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31 | Free Space

Thank you for all your support! Happy Halloween!!!

“You love her don’t you?”

I froze. Closed my eyes and took a measured breath, replying, “Was it that obvious?”

“No, not really. It’s not obvious but I KNOW you. Anyway, when it started, I couldn’t be sure. You guys have always had your own weird dynamic, close and similar in ways that just didn’t happen with anyone else. But, it’s been slowly growing. And it’s burning in your gaze when you look at her now.” Shiro frowned, “It’s just you seem to come to life when she’s around, in way that I’ve never seen before.”

Keith nodded. He couldn’t argue that. He has felt his feelings growing even though he was keeping it under the guise of just friendship. Keith knew what he was feeling was more. And it was akin to what Shiro said. They’ve always been close. They always stayed in touch. But slowly, her calls just meant more. They caused a smile, his heart beat faster, and he made an effort to be in touch with her.

He scheduled visits. He invited her to ‘help’ upgrade things on his ship or tools they had. He made sure to attend family and group events that he knew she’d be at. But, it wasn’t enough. He wanted to see more. Daily. He wanted to hold her hand and hug and kiss her. He wanted a real relationship.

Fear. Rejection. That’s what was stopping him. He valued her friendship too much to just throw it all away on a game of chance. He studied Pidge from the shadows. They were at Matt’s first house, his first party-for Halloween.

Everyone was dressed up. He knew Pidge was going as witch so he chose to go as a wizard. Earlier when they took pictures, he enjoyed standing next to her and imagining they were a couple.

Shiro bumped his shoulder causing him to refocus. “Huh?”

Shiro pulled him further into the the shadows. “I said, what are you going to do about it? You aren’t a coward. And you both deserve a chance to explore this.”

I sighed, “There is no this.”

Shiro groaned “Keith, don’t do this. Don’t run. You deserve happiness and I think you need to take a calculated risk.”

Keith nods.

“Now.”

“Um, now-now?”

Shiro smiles, “PIDGEEEEEEE”

Keith feels his heart stop. “NO! Shut up!” He pushes Shiro who just grins and steps away giving him a thumbs up behind his back.

Pidge, laughing, boops Shiro on the nose with her wand. She looks at him with a wide infectious grin. “I’m so glad you were able to come! Hunk said you were supposed to be off planet.”

Keith nods, “Yeah, I’m glad I could make it too.”

Pidge comes even closer to him and trips over a crack in the patio. She stumbles into him, where he automatically holds and steadies her. Except he doesn’t let go right away and she doesn’t move away. She snuggles into him and he pulls her closer, and she sighs, “You are so warm.”

He grins, softly stating, “Is that the only reason you like to be by me?”

Pidge shakes her head and looks up at him earnestly “Of course not! Don’t be dense.”

Keith arched his brow, “Dense? Are you insulting me Holt?”

Pidge giggled, “Noooo. Stop being so sensitive.”

Keith tilts her head up with a finger to her chin. “How much have you had to drink?”

He can actually feel her sigh. “Okay, Keith, here’s the thing. I have a couple of drinks so I can do this.”

Keith is instantly concerned, “Do what? Is everything okay? What “

Suddenly Pidge’s lips latch onto him. Holy shit. He hasn’t had anything to drink but he feels like he’s drunk. Her lips kissed him but more than that, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, fingers clenched in his hair, body pressed to his body.

He groans, holding her close, maneuvering her against the house and dragging his hands down her sides, this was a dream. It had to be. There was no other explanation for it but he wasn’t going to stop.

His hands gripped her hips and pulled and like magic her legs wrapped around his hips, causing a growl to erupt. He groaned and she moaned and he was interrupted.

“Keith,… OH SHIT, KEITH!! What the hell?!”

Fucking Lance. Keith moves back, keeping his focus on Pidge and hoping that Shiro grabs fucking Lance. “Katie, please tell me I’m not dreaming. Please tell me, you…me…shit, I like you a lot. I want you and a me…to be real. I want us but a different version of us that”

Pidge laughs, “Keith, that kiss was me telling you that. I like you. A lot. And I just hope that this was just the beginning. What do you think?’

Keith smiles, “Honey, you are so smart and I don’t know how I forget that. Yes. I like you and I want to be yours. So desperately even though apparently you are so much more brave than me.”

Keith looks down, suddenly serious, “Katie, I just want you to know, if we do this, I’m not going back. I don’t want to lose your friendship, it means the world to me. But I want so much more. I want it all.”

He holds his breath, waiting, fearing her response. He looks up and then he feels her cold tiny hand on his face, pulling his gaze down. Looking at her, he holds her gaze.

“Keith, you’ve always been it for me. I was just waiting for you to catch up.”

He laughed. “Pidge, I’m here.”

Behind them they heard cheers, he looked over, and saw the gang smiling and cheering. Smiling he grabbed her and kissed her again. He knew he loved her, he just needed her to catch up…

#@kidgetober #katie holt #keith kogane #kidgetober2020 #kidge #kidgetober

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divineluce · 4 years ago

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The Champs || Frank & Luce

Timing: Flashback to August

Location: Soul on the Rocks & Al’s

Tagging: @frankmulloy & @divineluce

Description: New to the job, Frank gets to know one of the regulars. Luce is as charming as ever.

Warnings: Alcoholism

There was nothing particularly distinguishing about being one of many of White Crest’s bartenders, but Frank has learned that being one who knew how to handle Soul’s more rambunctious crowds afforded him a degree of influence, and that was even without the use of his pheromones. He also learned that Soul’s patrons would sooner bend under a firm fist than a kind word--of course a kind word from him was a force within its own right, so it was just as well that he was just as competent in wielding the former. Unfortunately for Frank, he liked the use of neither, and the result was a bartender who mostly communicated through monosyllabic grunts, and lost more fights than won them. But he kept coming back for his shift the following night with no complaints and no apparent scrapes or bruises and while his pacifist method served him ill in a brawl, he always got the troublemakers out, so they kept him on. As long as they kept paying him, Frank was happy to stay on.

It was Frank’s second week into the job, but as far as anyone was concerned he was a regular fixture in the beer-soaked tapestry of Soul on the Rocks. In return Frank was also starting to recognise common faces; who was there for a drink, who was there for a fight, and who wasn’t meant to be there at all, then there was Creepy-Joe, and finally coming to the conclusion that Jake was a massive tool. His first memory of one, Luce, was not what she looked like, but of heat. Literally. And Frank, perpetually cold, was like a moth to flame, conscious of his distance and yet unable to help himself all the same-- heat, and the stink of cheap tequila. He put another shot glass down in front of her, which was an anomaly in itself considering Frank never got near enough to anyone to actually put their order down in front of them, but rather slid it to them across the bar top from a safe distance of at least 6 feet. “Your fifth shot...or is it your seventh? Who’s keeping count.” He wiped his hands down on the towel that was draped over his shoulder. “You sure that’s wise?”

Like so many other nights before her, Luce had been looking to get fucked up the night she’d walked into Soul. After all the shit she’d been through, with the Ring, with Remmy and Erin and Adam and her sister… The horrible, terrifying fucking conversation she’d had with Nadia, or rather, whoever was controlling Nadia’s body. And, as the final garbage cherry on top of it all, they’d been excommunicated. The threat of death at the hands of some of the women she trusted most, at the hands of her mother? It had shaken her up. Their mother had done… so fucking little to keep them safe. She’d abandoned them, banished them, went along with the whims of the goddamn council. And, on top of it all, there was all the normal shit. She was hauling ass all day, every day, trying to stay afloat. Bills had been coming in non stop and it was all she could do to keep her head afloat. After getting out of a particularly long session of tattooing, Luce had headed straight for Soul on the Rocks. She needed alcohol. Lots and lots of fucking alcohol.

Waving a hand at the bartender-- a new guy, she’d seen him around a few times, but never paid much attention to him-- Luce took the shot with a nod. But, his question made her pause and Luce stared at him over the rim of the small glass. Glancing at him blearily, she stared at the shot glass full of tequila. Fifth or seventh was a good question. But fuck him for asking. “Not me.” She said, tipping the liquid down her throat. It hardly burned, but alcohol never really did. Perks of being a fire witch. Swallowing, she set the empty glass back on the bar and stared at him. “Do they pay you to ask if people’s drinking habits are wise?” She replied.

He met her drunken gaze with his own measured one, undaunted and undeterred. Yet there was a softness that blunted the edge; the good intention behind a stern word, though Frank was never great at dishing out the latter either. He answered her blunt edge in the way he did with most harsh words: an untiring patience and sometimes even a smile. This time, it was a slight upward tilt to the corner of his mouth, as he relieved her of the empty shot glass. “No. They pay me to kick people out when they’ve had one too many, but I like to give them the courtesy of asking before I start lugging bodies out.” Well that sounded horrifically ominous. “Alive bodies. Obviously. Just unconscious--most of them are passed out by the time I get them into a cab.” Frank said with some good-humour, a trace of a chuckle on each word in the hopes of easing the slip of the tongue that was more menacing than he meant. “It’s a lot easier for everyone concerned if I just walk them out instead of carrying them, and it helps the driver find the right building when they’re awake enough to give the right address.”

Frank had his head tilted to one side, quietly observing the woman that sat in front of him. He recognised her to be a regular, he also noted that she seemed off today. Albeit an easy conclusion to make for anyone that used Soul as their regular haunt. Tonight she looked like she brought a history with her and it was etched across her brow, and in her eyes, in a silent language he was not versed in reading. The temptation was to ask if she was alright, but at the risk of making himself over-familiar, he said instead, “should I be getting a cab ready?”

Rubbing the back of her neck, Luce let out a long sigh. Her fucking neck hurt from spending so long hunched over at the table. The piece had turned out great, just like all her work, but christ. It’d been five long hours of nothing but tattooing. So, a drink or five was what she’d wanted. Not some random bartender getting up in her business. “Lugging bodies, huh? Did I step into the funeral home on accident? This tequila or formaldehyde you’re pouring?” She joked, her words running together just a bit as she spoke. Shrugging, she sighed. Either way, it didn’t really matter much to her. She just wanted to get the fuck out of her head, at least for a little bit. And, with Nadia definitely not an option and Remmy… even less of one, Luce had gone for the old stand by. Alcohol. “Fair. Probably works out for the uber driver too.”

At his words, Luce shook her head. “I’m good.” She said, stubbornness apparent in her voice. She wasn’t dumb enough to drive-- she wasn’t interested in wrapping her 4x4 around a tree and having to deal with more fucking bills. But, she wasn’t ready to go back to Bea’s house just yet. Bea was never there anymore and Nell… who the fuck knew where Nell was most nights. Which meant that Luce would be alone. No, she wasn’t interested in going back to that place, the house that felt more like mausoleum than a home.

“A funeral home is probably a lot cleaner for one,” Frank said, wiping a spill off the bar top as he does. In fairness, you need only step inside of the pub and he was sure that his point was made on first impression, and she seemed comfortable enough in her seat to suggest that she was a frequent patron of the establishment (that information alone had a whole story to itself). He was asked once why he bothered to clean the place up after the close if it was just going to end up being exactly as it was the following night. His answer was something along the lines of: he was more concerned with what the place might look like if he didn’t clean it up at all. “And if you can’t smell the difference between tequila and formaldehyde, let alone taste it, you are a lot more drunk than I thought.” There was a pause. “I mean...not that I would know what formaldehyde tastes like but I would imagine that it is significantly worse than tequila. Like, cancer-level bad. I would assume.” And this is where you shut up Frank. And fortunately for everyone, he does. Her reply hinted at a stubbornness that was both inherent and unyielding, and Frank’s been in enough fight to recognise those that he wasn’t going to win. Of course, that never stopped him from trying either.

“Look,” he began, the single phrase intermingling with his exhalation until they became one, “I don’t know you. Obviously. So you do whatever you want. But I’m just saying, I’ve served people enough tequila shots to know that the solution to your problem—whatever that is—isn’t going to be found at the bottom of the fifth or seventh or fifteenth shot.” He concluded by collecting any abandoned and empty glasses, loading them onto a plastic tub to be brought out to the kitchen. “But like I said, you do whatever you want.”

Snorting at the man’s joke, Luce’s expression sobered slightly at the thought of Erin. She didn’t know the funeral home attendant well, but she was very aware of the last conversation they’d had. Fuck. “I’d hope so.” She gestured to the stains on the bartop, the familiar wear on the wood grain, the slightly ripped and faded stools next to her. “Can you imagine a fucking wake in here?” She said with a slight curl of her lip. As the man continued to talk, she quirked an eyebrow. “Uh huh. Sure you haven’t.” She replied before running a hand through her hair. She fucking… didn’t want to deal with the world outside the doors of Soul. For now, she could just sit and pretend like nothing was happening. She could joke and drink and push aside all the stupid fucking feelings and responsibilities that weighed down on her.

But, this shitty fucking bartender just kept talking. Talked about how drinking wasn’t gonna help her-- like Luce didn’t already know that. It wasn’t about helping her, or finding answers. It was about forgetting. Glaring at him, she drummed her tattooed fingers on the wooden bartop, her skin burning hot with simmering anger. “Yeah, you don’t know me,” She paused, the alcohol flowing through her system making her head spin slightly. Squinting at him, she shook her head. “Who the fuck even are you? Shit, I’d rather deal with Creepy Joe instead of some Pop Psychology bro.” She said with a grimace.

Frank took in her anger with a calm appraisal as he continued to dry the newly cleaned glasses with practiced efficiency. While most would reasonably shrink from the fire, he was almost somehow more drawn to it. Like moth to flame—quite literally, it felt as if heat was just pouring out of her in waves. He could not pinpoint exactly when this happened but his 6 foot rule had been abandoned and Frank was now standing close enough that he could touch her. He just needed to take his hand away from the glass, reach out across the bar, and touch her. Boy did he want to, and he almost did, but then she shook her head. Frank found himself almost doing the same as his attention was snapped back into reality and his focus was drawn back to the intensity of her glare. He took a conscious step back and realised with overwhelming awareness how much he did not want to. “Fair enough.” He resigned with a nod. He looked around. A quiet spell had settled over the bar, and the threat of a brawl was distant enough that if he was quick he could probably get away with ducking out the side door for a couple of minutes. He grabbed the towel from the shoulder and tossed it aside, from his jacket pocket he produced a small white cigarette packet.

“Keep drinking then, see if that helps you, I’m sure Joe wouldn’t mind the company. I’m going for some air.” An invitation could be heard in there somewhere; Frank was seldom ever cordial enough to properly extend the invitation…or any invitation. “Do whatever the fuck you want. You’re right. I don’t know you.”

What the fuck was up with this guy? He was leaning across the bar and, maybe the alcohol was messing with her depth perception, but he seemed way too close. Luce pushed back in her seat, just to get a bit of space between her and the bartender. But, he seemed to realize that he was being a fucking creep and backed off himself. Good, she didn’t feel like throwing hands with someone tonight. For one, she wasn’t sure how well she’d be able to do, the alcohol clouding her vision and loosening her hold on the fire magic that dwelled within her. For another, she’d had… enough of fucking fighting lately. She just wanted to drink and sit and not think about all the shit that’d been going on in her life.

“Yeah, you don’t fucking know me.” Luce repeated. The bar wasn’t as busy as it usually was, but her anger had her blood boiling in a literal way. It was too goddamn hot in here. And fuck it, if this guy was going to be bartending at Soul, she might as well try and talk to him. Even if he was weird. The same could be said of most people in the bar, and of her too. Sliding off the barstool, Luce steadied herself on the bar for a moment has her vision swam. “But air sounds like a smart idea.” She said, more to herself than to him. Walking out of the bar, the cool night air washed over her. Thank fuck summer was over and done with. “Need a light?” She asked, leaning against the brick wall of the bar.

It seemed Frank’s entire existence was damned to fight his most basic instincts: to hand his customers their drinks, to close his distance when he was with friends (to have friends), to help steady a stranger who has had one too many drinks and was maybe not as steady on her feet as she first thought. Even as she swayed Frank did not so much as stir, even as every part of him itched to. He let her out first, following behind at a measured distance. “Look at that, a solution to your problem that isn’t alcohol.” He grinned around the stick of cigarette as he brought it to his mouth, “but what the fuck do I know.”

The air was cool, and with the door closed behind him he was acutely aware of how warm she felt, even at his distance. He made home against a wall a little ways down from her, shaking his head at her offer with a polite thanks, “I’m good,” and he had to be. Mostly because if he wasn’t, that was an invitation for her to come closer, to hand him the lighter, and then for him to hand it back, and that was altogether too many hands for comfort. Frank didn’t smoke for the taste. He didn’t care much for the nicotine either. Like the alcohol, it never lingered long enough in his system to become a proper addiction, but with every inhalation of the hot smoke that was a few more precious moments between him and the undeniable hunger to feed, whether it was happiness or heat. Prolonging the inevitable, as he liked to call it. Not that he ever told anyone why he smoked, most of them were more interested in telling him why he should stop. Frank wasn’t interested in doing either. “So what is your problem?” He said finally, turning to face his new smoking companion, “you were downing your seventh tequila shot in a span of less than an hour in one of the biggest shit-holes in town. That could not have been an inspiring journey.”

“My solution to my problems so far,” Luce let out sigh, her breath coming out in visible trails in the mild fall night, “Have been paying the bills for you. So…. you should be thanking me.” She muttered as she pressed her back against the wall a bit more firmly. Her legs felt like jelly under her, courtesy of the tequila that ran through her system, as well as the run she’d taken earlier that morning. Running. She’d always liked running, but it felt like that was all she was doing now. Wake up, run, work, drink, and then collapse into bed, to try and snag a few fitful hours of sleep if she was lucky. And if she wasn’t lucky, she’d run and run and run until she was too tired to do anything else.

At his question, Luce glanced over at the man for a long minute before shaking her head. “Oh you know. The usual.” Being kicked out of her coven for resurrecting her sister from beyond the grave, nearly dying herself. “Family drama.” The fact that one of the women she’d been sleeping with had been possessed by a ghost, hell-bent on keeping her body. The fact that the other was a zombie who just kept getting themselves in fucking trouble? “Some people I care about have a knack for getting into trouble.” How she was so goddamn tired all the time? Well, that one she didn’t have to lie about. “Insomnia. Take your pick. All of them are good reasons to drink in the biggest shithole in this town.” She corrected. The Ritz Soul was not.

“Right,” Frank’s mouth shaped into a smirk. A gesture accompanied by a faint laugh that almost, to perceptive ears at least, sounded like a scoff, “yours and everyone else’s in that damn bar.” The solution to most of Soul’s patrons, it seemed, was found either at the bottom of a glass or at the end of a fist, the former was usually a lot less messy. Neither seemed to make anyone any happier come day light. It was a temporary salve to a much deeper wound, and they come back the next night, and the ritual repeats itself again. Frank was no stranger to this particular practice and so, it seemed, was she.

Frank gave the woman a long, appraising look, as she proceeded to divulge the source of her problems. It was as vague as it was short, its details hidden by their unfamiliarity. He didn’t blame her, and a part of him wondered whether it was in his best interest to find out. Probably not. Distance, advised caution. He took a long drag of his cigarette, comforted by the warmth, and eased of his awareness of hers. She looked so tired—more than that, she felt tired. There was plenty of heat (strangely) but with his own cravings temporarily satisfied by the cigarette, there was not much happiness to be attempted by. He could feel the ache in her bones, the very weight of. He recognised it in himself. “Hmm,” his eyes returned to hers, attentive and empathetic. Oh he tried so hard to be hard, but he was always very bad at it, and worse at following his own advice. “You want a burger or something?” He said very suddenly. “You look like you could use a burger.”

“Well, means business is booming for you.” Luce said glancing back into the bar through the dirty windows, her head listing as her body tilted just a bit more than she expected. Stumbling slightly, she caught herself on the wall. Her elbow smacked into her side, and she let out an involuntary yelp, “Siktir, motherfucker…” She mumbled, rubbing her side. Fuck, her head was spinning, the wall felt like it was shifting behind her back. And unless there was some new kind of fucked up wall monster that was going to… what, absorb her into the wall? No, she’d just drank too much. Again. It seemed like more mornings than not, she’d woken up with a foul taste in her mouth and started the morning with a few aspirin. Christ.

As the man looked over at her, Luce felt her lips tighten into a thin line. There was something she didn’t like about the way he looked at her. It felt like the way that people had talked to her when she’d revealed that Bea had died. Something halfway between pity and judgement, was what she would guess. And she didn’t really fucking want either. But, at the mention of food, her stomach growled loudly. Her stomach didn’t have the same reservations, apparently. “You know what? Sure. Why the fuck not, it’d be a quick walk. Al’s isn’t far from here.” She said, before remembering. Al’s. Celeste, she’d worked there before... Remmy, they’d had that conversation where they told her what they were in a booth tucked in the corner of the diner. Fuck. Maybe not Al’s. That’s what she wanted to say, but now her lips remained stubbornly shut.

“Al’s it is.” Frank smiled. It was pleasant. Amicable. It was a smile that might have come paired with an offer of a hand to shake or an equally pleasant gesture, but since it didn’t (it never does) Frank had become practiced in making it so that a smile was just enough. Not that he got much use out of this particular skill. Most people couldn’t even get the slightest hint of an upward lift let alone a fully realised smile. Maybe it was his off day. Maybe because when he looked at how tired she looked he saw a reflection of himself. Whatever it was, it remained there as he pushed himself off the wall, extinguishing the last of his cigarette under his boot. Kindness was in short supply in a place like Soul, and this served as a good reminder that Frank was not the place he worked at. Which reminded him—“oh and by the way, when you say business is booming for me, you do realise that just because I serve the drinks there, doesn’t mean I actually run the place, right?”

The walk, as she remarked, was blissfully short, and quiet. This served Frank just fine considering he wasn’t much of a conversationalist, even if his previous insistence might suggest otherwise. She also seemed absent, as if occupied by distant memories, he didn’t need to see the downward tilt of her mouth to know that they weren’t pleasant, he could sense it. He could also sense that no talking, at least on his part, was going to make anything better, although some carbs to soak up some of the seven tequila shots she’d knocked back in the few short hours might. Thankfully Al’s didn’t host a great many customers in the early hours of the morning. “Get a booth,” he told her, which shouldn’t be any hardship considering only one or two were currently occupied, “and get whatever you want. You look like you could use it...no offense.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m familiar with the dickhead who owns Soul.” Luce replied as she made her way down the sidewalk, her feet stumbling slightly as she walked. It was fine. This was fine. The way the world was rotating around her, the way the pavement seemed to rise and fall like cresting waves? Totally fucking fine. She was good. So fucking good. Just another fucking day. “You’re a bartender. Tips. More people, more tips. I know half the guys in that bar and they tip just fine when I work on them.” She said, the words coming out in more of an innuendo than she intended. “Tattoos.” She explained, gesturing to the dark ink that covered both of her arms. “I do tattoos.”

As they entered the diner, Luce looked around at the place-- it wasn’t all that busy, which was good in its own way. “Don’t tell me what to do.” She growled before deliberately walking over to the counter and settling down there. Across the way, Luce heard a startled cough and, before she knew what was going on, a young man had tossed a twenty on the counter and was hurrying out of the door. She spun around in the plastic seat, scrutinizing the man as he hurried away. The light of the diner caught on his face as he opened the door of his car and Luce’s stomach lurched. Will. One of the members of the coven-- her mom’s coven, the coven that had… “Fuck.” She muttered, shaking her head doggedly. She wished she was back at the bar. As the waitress cast a skeptical look at her, Luce quirked a crooked smile. “I’d like a number five. Extra fries. And a large water, please.” As the bartender sat next to her, Luce cast him a long look. “I’m paying for this myself.” She didn’t need his charity.

Frank grinned, but his laughter remained stifled, the only hint of its existence was in the silent vibration of his entire frame. Tips. At Soul on the Rocks. Now that was a joke. “Right, see…Soul is known for a lot of things, but never for their generosity, especially when it comes to tipping their bartenders.” This was not entirely fair. Of course Frank could, as she did, work on them. Being what he was, he could have probably completed the task with even greater success, and with the profits to prove it. Alas, that was never Frank’s style. In his short time working there, he had already created an image of himself as the grumpy new bartender that would sooner bite your hand off than shake it. This was not an accurate assessment of his character by half, though it had more truth in it than Frank pretending to be pleasant and charming. He was bad at it, and he didn’t have the taste for it to try and be better. He turned to her arm as she gestured toward it. “It looks nice.”

Her sharp demand elicited an amused grin as she pushed past him toward the counter. He might have said something, a smart ass reply already half way formed on his tongue, were it not for another stealing his attention. A young man, his plate and drink unfinished, tossed some notes on the counter and hurried out. Strange. More interesting still was the woman’s reaction. They knew each other, more than that, there was a history there. Very strange. Alas, Frank said nothing on this, but noted it quietly as he pulled up a seat next to her (respectably distanced, of course). “She’s paying for herself, and I’ll have a black coffee. Thank you.” He said, handing over what he owed. The waitress accepted it with a very pretty smile. Frank acknowledged this with a single nod and did not notice the string of numbers scribbled on the back of the receipt, and what was most likely her name followed by the letter ‘x’. The coffee was the first to arrive, blissfully hot. He took a ginger sip, not because he was bothered by the heat, but normal humans weren’t usually as tolerant to scalding hot coffee as he was. “Odd reaction,” he murmured around the rim of the cup. His head tilted ever so slightly in the direction of the waitress who was just now collecting the bill left behind by the mysterious man. Or perhaps not so mysterious if the woman’s reaction was anything to go by, “a friend of yours?” He paused for a moment, “or maybe not so friendly?”

As the man explained his situation, Luce nodded in thanks as the waitress set a large glass of water in front of her. Forgoing the straw, she took a long drink of ice water, the temperature soberingly cold. Well, not sobering, she thought to herself as she regarded the slightly slanting walls of the diner. “You could always go for the ‘grin and bear it’ tactic.” She said, pressing her finger into her cheek and twisting it, offering a fake smile she reserved for her mother and particularly stupid clients. “You could try asking the boss-man to throw on a “Hey, if I’m gonna be an extra bouncer, pay me like one” bonus. Or don’t, whatever. It’s your wallet on the line.” At his comment about her tattoos, she nodded. “I know. I designed them.” It wasn’t a brag, not really, just statement of fact. She did her own shit and she was good at it. That was her whole MO, right? She stayed in her lane and did what she was good at.

Watching the way the girl cast a bright, beaming smile, Luce rolled her eyes. Did this guy think he was some kind of player? But, if he was, he didn’t comment on the receipt. He didn’t even really talk about it. Instead, he gestured towards the seat the Will had previously been sitting at. Scowling at the ice cubes in her glass, Luce’s knuckles flexed around the glass. “Family friend. Bit of a shit, but that’s how it goes.” She muttered, thinking back to August. He’d been a family friend, before he’d decided to come for her sisters. And now, he wasn’t much of anything at all. She could still remember the way he’d fallen to his knees, how he’d willingly submitted himself to Lydia’s commands. A shudder ran down her spine and she took another drink from her glass. “What’s your deal, huh? You like being some kinda… bartender Superman or something?” She asked, glancing over at him.

The twisted smile that warped around her mouth, strangely enough, inspired a more genuine one to shape around his own. “Yeah, the whole fake-it-till-you-make-it thing isn’t really my m-o.” Sure he could be reserved and withdrawn—cold and severe were a few more of the choice descriptors that people often had assigned to Frank. He could be a lot of bad things but one could never say that Frank was ever disingenuous. As much as he might speak ill of his work, which he does when he was ever in the rare position of wanting to speak at all, he’d rather it be him than another person who might be more liberal in using the end of their own knuckles to finish a fist fight. Even, as she rightfully pointed out, if it was his wallet on the line.

Her knuckles tightened around the glass, and her words bit into an old memory—an old wound. A small gesture, a small shift in tone, but neither went past Frank’s notice. Probably best if he kept that particular observation to himself, and he does. “Right. That’s how it goes.” Translation: sore subjection, duly noted. She sought comfort in her glass of water, and he continued to nurse the heat out of his cup of coffee, looking up only when she spoke again. An amused smile flitted across his lips, half hidden by the mug as he lifted it to his mouth, as he mentally traded his wings for a red cape, and his jacket for a blue costume with a giant S on it. He looked fucking ridiculous. “I don’t like being anything, I just want to do my job, get paid, and get the fuck home. Frankly if your standard for Superman is breaking up drunk bar fights, then it is tragically low. Besides,” he took another drink of his coffee and put it back down. It formed a wet brown ring around the receipt, he noticed for the first time black ink stains peering through the damp ring, but didn't bother investigating further, instead returned to the thought at hand, “you’re the one sitting next to me, what does that say about you?”

“You do you. Like I said, it’s your paycheck.” Luce shrugged. She didn’t give a shit, it was this guy’s loss either way. Didn’t affect her any, as long as he kept pouring her drinks. And, given how many she’d had at Soul, he didn’t seem to have a problem with that. The waitress slid her plate in front of her, a large burger with a mountain of fries on the side. “Thanks. Could I get more water, please? ‘preciate it.” Luce said before taking a large bite from her burger. As fucked up as she was, she wasn’t gonna be a fucking dick to people who were just trying to do their job. Which meant the waitress. But, Superman here? Different story. He at least had the sense to drop the fucking topic of Will. “Mhm.”

Glancing over at him, she raised an eyebrow. Swallowing her mouthful of food, Luce replied thickly, “That’s bullshit if I’ve ever heard it.” She pointed at him with a fry. “You just wanna do your job and go home? Unless you’re working double shifts between here and Soul, this,” She gestured to the two of them, “seems pretty fucking off the clock to me.” Luce said before popping the fry in her mouth. Lifting her now full glass of water to her lips, she shook her head. “It says I’m drunk on a Wednesday night and I need more carbs. Needed.” She deflected, looking at her already half-empty plate. “I guess you were right about the burger.”

Frank took a sip from his coffee, his eyebrow cocked up from behind the mug in a silent answer to her accusation. He didn’t say anything for a moment, mostly because he wasn’t sure how to, which probably meant that to a certain degree, she was right. Of course, just because he knew she was right, didn’t mean that he also knew the answer to why he did the things he did. Why he warned her against that seventh shot, why he invited her out for a smoke, why he would’ve probably paid for her burger too had she let him. Whatever it was, he wasn’t about to find answers tonight. That was what he paid his shrink to figure out and then tell him about it so he could ignore it completely. Because caring for someone else was just too fucking hard sometimes. Caring for himself infinitely so. “Mhm.” Another sip from his coffee.

“I know.” She had positively tore through her burger. Frank exhaled a short, barely formed, chuckle. “I’m really good at my job.” She was also not the first drunk he’s had to deal with. Although, speaking of jobs, he also had his actual job to return to. Someone was bound to have noticed his absence by now…or not. It was Soul they were talking about after all. He finished the last of his coffee, scrunched up the napkin with the receipt and then dropped it into the now empty mug. He took out his phone from his pocket, pushed it across the space between them and drew his hand back. “Do yourself a favour, call a cab. Spare yourself that eighth shot and call it a night. If you’re lucky you might even hate yourself a little less in the morning.”

“Sounds like it.” Luce said as her eating began to slow, picking at her fries. Grudgingly, she had to admit that this guy had a point. He’d called her out on how fucked up she was. And, though the room still shifted around her, was still fuzzy at the edges, it was better than it had been. The water and food was making all the difference. As the waitress left her receipt on the counter, Luce glanced over at the tall bartender. Soul wasn’t a nametag kind of establishment and she hadn’t bothered to ask his name when she’d rolled up to the bar and ordered shot after shot. “What’s your name, anyways? I’m Luce.” She said, sticking out her hand. At his advice, Luce let out a small snort. A cab? What, and go back to Bea’s house? The house her sister hardly even stayed in any more? With all of it’s baggage and it’s memories and quiet, cold stillness? No fucking thanks. She was gonna crash on the couch at Ink Inc and call it a night there. But, Mr. Superman Bartender Bro didn’t need to know that. “You’re not wrong about calling it a night. Jury's still out on the hating myself bit.” She mused, the last sentence coming out of her mouth without her intending to.

“Frank.” He said, but didn’t take her hand. He almost did. The smoke and the coffee had offered some relief but it did little to distract from the fact that she was still very very warm, and never once did the awareness of her heat escape his notice. His hand hung awkwardly for a split second, unable to touch her but unwilling to pull away. He let his hand fall in the end, but by then the split second was a split second too long, though he managed to cover it by pushing the phone further toward her, as if he was meant to do that all along. He drew his hand back very quickly, and wrapped it around his coffee mug, clinging to any heat that may still be lingering. Jesus H, he always fucking hungry.

Frank could sense that her thoughts were not meant to have formed into words, and even as she said them, it didn’t look as if she realised that she did. That the guard that she had maintained through harsh words and sarcasm had cracks in them, and tender thoughts were slipping through, and she didn’t notice. Perhaps she was more drunk than he thought. Alternatively, maybe she was sobering up, and sobriety was a tiring thing to have to deal with. Frank doesn’t say anything, but he noticed. And now, she wasn’t just some drunk woman he would have sent home on a cab and forgotten about until the next night she came stumbling back into Soul (the way she spoke about it, it was obvious that she was a regular), she had a name. Names were powerful things, and terribly intimate. Frank squeezed his eyes shut, ran a hand over his face. “Or…I could drop you off. If you would like.”

“Frank.” Luce repeated. The name suited him. Short, to the point, and… well, frank. For a second, he left her hanging, as though he didn’t want to touch her hand but then seemed to think better of it. He nudged his phone closer to her which was fucking… Weird. He couldn’t just hand it to her like a normal fucking person. Shaking her head, she pulled her hand back from his and pushed it into her jacket pocket, pulling out her own phone. “It’s not the 90’s, I’ve got a phone of my own. I don’t need you to call anyone.” She growled, though the words lacked their usual bite. At this point, she was just tired. Tired of this town, tired of the well-intentioned people who kept trying to help her, and tired of the fact that she couldn’t do anything to change any of that. As he offered to drop her off, Luce scowled at him as she tossed a bill onto the counter. He really was trying to play that “Knight in shining armor” card, wasn’t he? First his phone, now a ride?

Shoving her phone back into her pocket, Luce stood up from the counter. “I think the fuck not. Listen, you seem like a decent enough guy, which is why I’m just gonna say, you’re barking up the wrong tree here.” She said, shaking her head. “Trust me, this is nicer treatment than what Jake got when he made a move on me the first time.”

Luce’s reaction was not an uncommon one. The registering of rejection as they realised he would not answer their offer of a handshake with his own, the confusion that inevitably followed because what person was that much of a dick to refuse a simple handshake? Sometimes even outright offence because who the fuck does he think he is? The corner of Frank’s mouth twitched. Perhaps he should attempt an encouraging smile. Jesus H. He had done this a hundred times before yet it never became any less tedious. For his efforts it seemed, rather predictably if her prior behaviour around him was of any indication, she seemed to follow the ‘outright offense’ route as she growled her reply. He thought it wisest to not add acid to fire and opted to silently pocket his phone instead, wondering all the while why he even tried in the first place. Why he kept trying.

She stood up. Very suddenly. He’d thought he was being kind, but clearly Frank wasn’t very good at it. He was silent at first and then, with a start, the weight of what she’d said came flying back to him. “Oh! Ohhh…no. I mean—” He stifled a laugh and it came out as a choked cough. Frank pressed a hand to his face and shook his head, a smile visible between his fingers as his shoulders quivered through a silent laugh. He should be offended that she had made the comparison with him to Jake of all people, but it seemed fatigue had imbued the whole misunderstanding with a strange sort of amusement where there usually wouldn’t be any. “Yes ma'am,” he said once he had recovered some degree of solemnity, “duly noted.”

#p: tc #p: frank mulloy #chatzy #wickedswriting #alcoholism tw #//just to be safe rather than sorry given luces drinking habits are not... healthy

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anika-ann · 5 years ago

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Lessons in Rule-breaking - Pt.1

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 4100

Warnings: ...nothing major? Swearing, fluff, mention of death.

Summary: Working part-time at Smithsonian for a while now, you knew you could get in trouble when breaking the no-newcomers-after-30-minutes-before-the-closing-time rule, but you sure didn’t expect the trouble to look like this.

Story Masterlist

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You were bored. Enormously. The clock was telling you there was still twenty minutes until the closing time and that time was always filled with boredom – half an hour ago, impressive crowds were still flooding the Captain America’s exhibition as if it was The Independence Day aka Cap’s birthday. Now, with the well-known rule of not letting any newcomers in less than 30 minutes before the closing time, the counter desk was painfully empty. Hence the boredom and the idle hands.

As far as you heard, idle hands were the devil’s tools and maybe it was the truth – but here in Smithsonian, there weren’t many things for the devil operate with. Sure, you could go to another level for a different exhibition and mix up some captions to artefacts, but that seemed like too much work and with how crowded the space was, it was next to impossible. Another option was to pull the fire alarm, but you weren’t that much of a punk.

So, most of the time, you settled with watching people around you – unlike when the insane number of people was flowing in and if you hadn’t had an ID shoved into your face allowing a children discount you wouldn’t have known if a kid was coming or an adult, a man, a woman, a farmer, the freaking president or Captain America himself – finally having the time to relax. You weren’t proud of barely paying attention during the busy hours, but… well. You made up for that in the free time in the evening.

There was a kid with a backpack with Captain America’s shield on it, watching what could be his brother in his father’s arms as he was holding the kid up right next to the panel showing Captain’s transformation from the skinny boy to a walking rock. Very cute rock. Anyway, in the corner, an incredibly bored-looking girl was pulling her mother’s sleeve, impatient to get out, perhaps looking forward to seeing a cartoon instead of a war museum exhibit. There was a guy rolling his eyes at his girlfriend, who was standing by the display of authentic outfits (and mannequins, the source of the man’s annoyance, if you could take a guess), making heart eyes at the Captain’s figure; you couldn’t hold back a giggle and looked away.

Which was exactly when you noticed the pair on the different side of the gate, outside of the space of exhibition. It was a woman with a boy who couldn’t be older than six years old. He would have been cute, a ginger with several freckles on his nose and cheeks, looking like he would have dimples when smiling, but he wasn’t exactly in the mood for smiling. In fact, he seemed wrecked. Glassy tears were rolling down his cheeks, welled up in huge eyes and he sniffed from time to time. The woman whom you assumed was his mother was trying to comfort him, herself wearing a helpless expression.

Alright, you were leaving your post right now. Perhaps it was the devil’s handiwork indeed, maybe it was none of your business, whatever the kid was crying for. But it was breaking your heart. You approached them rapidly, and being just few steps from them, you could see the mum pointing at a sign – the sign that was telling them that they could no longer enter the exhibition.

Ah, damn.

“Can I help you?” you asked politely, the woman’s gaze immediately snapping your direction, startled a bit. She eyed your nametag.

“No, no thank you,” she brushed you off, an apologetic smile on her lips. The kid sniffed again.

“Alright. If you’re sure…”

You backed off quickly, spinning on your heels and mentally slapping yourself. Why had you come to them again?

“But mommy-“

“No, Jamie, sweetheart. We’re late, we spent too much time in the park. We’ll have to come here another time-“ the woman explained patiently, her voice gentle but firm.

You bit your lip but started walking. Rules. There were rules.

“But you said we’re coming home in the morning! I’ll never see Captain America,” he sobbed and your heart sank. They must have been tourists.

But nope. No exceptions. You would do it once and then it would become a standard. Not to mention you could also get freaking fired for it— well, probably not fired, just punished, but still. Rules.

“We do, honey. We’ll have to come-“

“But you promised!”

Yeah, that was enough. You turned to them again and squatted to the kid. He frowned at you, his lower lip trembling. Oh boy, now you were lost to him.

“There are rules that need to be followed,” you said quietly and the kid sobbed again. The mother looked at you, caught between apologetic and angry about you moralizing her kid. You quickly continued. “But, we have one more rule here that not many people know. Can you keep a secret?”

The boy seemed intrigued enough, which was good. You eyed the woman; she was watching you in anticipation, probably ready to report you for harassment, but curious about what your play was.

The kid nodded.

“Good. I’ll tell you, but I’m gonna ask you a question first, okay?” Another nod. “Who’s Captain America?”

“A hero!” the kid replied immediately, his eyes lighting up with a spark of excitement. You couldn’t help but smile.

“And why is he a hero?”

“Because he’s strong! And he has the shield! I have a Frisbee like him! He’s the best superhero!”

You bit the inside of your cheek at the idea of what the big hero would think about his shield being compared to a Frisbee – it certainly wasn’t the first time you heard this, but it never failed to amuse you.

“Really? That’s great. But do you know why he’s a real hero?”

The boy seemed thoughtful for a second before he measured you with wide eyes, clueless.

“Because,” you whispered, leaning closer to him conspiratorially, “he has a good heart and he’s helping people.”

The kid was in awe. The mother stared at you, still unsure of what you would do.

“Now the secret – we have one more rule here. If someone has enough strength to open the ticket barrier, he can come in even if there is only 20 minutes left.” Jamie’s eyes widened, his mouth falling open. “But, he can’t only open it for himself. He needs to be of a good heart and let someone else in. Do you think you can do that? Are you good?”

The kid immediately nodded in agreement, taking his mum’s hand. You smiled at him and looked at the woman hesitantly. Did you just screw up?

“Can you really let us in?” she asked you lowly when you levelled yourself with her. You just nodded wordlessly. You would have to put in someone’s year pass, but it would work.

The boy practically pulled his mum to the ticket barrier, impatient. He tried to push before you even took your place by the computer. The barrier didn’t move, of course. You mentally grinned at his confused expression and quickly entered a pass. He tried again, an amazed smile on his lips as he went through. Being on the other side, he pulled so his mum could get in too. He had an extremely focused expression on his face and he was too cute for his own good. The way he lighted up when the woman got in was simply priceless.

“Mom! I’m strong and good like Captain America!” he exclaimed enthusiastically and the woman patted his head lovingly.

“Yes, sweetheart. Now, let’s thank the nice lady-“

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome. Now go to see your hero,” you whispered encouragingly, anxious to get them moving. You were suddenly worried that your interaction might attract someone’s curious eye. You prayed it hadn’t.

The mother shot you one more grateful look and let her son to drag her away. You went to throw the tickets away to destroy the evidence, picking few more on your way – why did people throw these on the floor when the trashcan was like three meters away?

"That was really nice of you."

"Crap!” you cursed, nearly jumping out of your skin at the fright. Someone had seen you let the kid in. Definitely. Oh shit. You quickly spun to the male voice. “I— please don't report me. I’m-“

You froze when you saw the man who had witnessed your offence to the regulations, recognizing him immediately despite his baseball cap and casual stance.

“OH CRAP."

"You seem to swear a lot though," he noted, the smile on his lips amused, cheeky even.

Captain America was a cheeky man. Who would have guessed? Not you, that was for sure. You slowly let the impossible fact of Steve Rogers being here sink in. It was not an easy task, your mind kept screaming ‘holy shit, Captain America is here and talking to me’, but that was not the main problem – the rule-breaking was. Captain America caught you breaking a rule. You were so fired.

"Well, someone who is not just anyone, caught me breaking a rule that is written in huge-a-“ you closed you mouth before another curse could leave you mouth, remembering his… teasing? “-huge letters for everyone to see. The American symbol of righteousness did, actually. I count myself entitled."

You were honestly proud of yourself for saying so many sentences without a stutter despite freaking out.

His smile turned a bit bashful, the amused spark remaining in his eyes only. Really? He was self-conscious? And now? Wow. Did he notice his face was all over the walls? The entire exposition was about him for god’s sake.

"I won't report you. I told you – I think it was really nice of you."

You hesitantly smiled back, still unsure. "Uhm... okay."

And then you did something you excelled at. You spun on your heels and returned behind the counter, pretending you didn’t exist. You didn’t even say goodbye; yet, you would swear that when was Steven Grant Rogers disappearing behind a corner, he glanced at you over his shoulder with a smile.

The moment you couldn’t see him anymore, you let your elbows hit the counter desk and your head fell into your palms with a whine.

You had talked to Captain America. He had been ridiculously nice despite – or because – of what he had seen you doing. And you ran away. You were such an idiot.

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To say that you forgot about the incident before it was time to kick people out would be a big fat lie – mainly because it had been only tens of minutes. It was time to close the exposition for visitors. The guards always took care of people, reminding them that it was time to go and by eight o’clock, the last individuals were leaving so you could close the gate. Today was your turn to check on the space once more as the guards were switching shifts and so you rose to your feet to perform your duty as your sort-of-friend Mia waved you goodbye.

Usually, there were no ‘left-overs’ as you called people who somehow managed to escape the security and stayed in. But naturally, with your turn being today, there had to be an exception.

You slowly approached the man standing by Sergeant Barnes’ panel, realizing who he was within several feet distance. You stopped dead in your tracks, unsure what do to.

What would anyone else do when finding Captain America standing by his dead best friend’s panel after clock? ‘Cause you sure as hell had no clue how you should proceed. You nervously bit your lip, continuing your way with no plan.

You stopped two steps from him, opening your mouth and-- no words came out. You closed it again, clearing your throat.

“Captain Rogers, uhm…“

He glanced at you, seemingly surprised, as if he only acknowledged you now, when you were standing at arm’s length – well, his anyway. His blue eyes measured you, a bit confused until he looked around only to see no one else was here. How the hell did the guard miss him? Or had he left him here? Should you do the same?

"Sorry, I'm leaving," he whispered with a forced smile, sparing one more glance at the board. You did the same, your eyes landing on the date of birth of the soldier. Your heart sank. Oh. It was suddenly very clear whether you should leave Captain alone here or not; it was the anniversary of his best friend’s birthday.

"You don't... you don't have to,” you blurted out hastily, waving it off in a wannabe casual gesture. He tilted his head, confused. “I need to do some… administrative stuff anyway. Have your moment."

"Really? Bending the rules again?" he asked, the teasing coming out much less challenging than he probably intended. You shrugged.

"Only if it's okay with the Star-Spangled Man."

He lowered his gaze to the floor, but a tiny grateful smile played on his lips. "It is. Thank you."

"It's nothing."

"It's a lot. And... my name is Steve."

He peeked at you from under his unnaturally long eyelashes, his eyes saying more than his words or tone. You felt your heart jump nervously, blood rushing to your cheeks. He actually extended his hand for you to shake. His hand was freaking huge – yet, it closed around yours rather gently despite being able to crush your bones to dust or something.

"Nice to meet you… Steve. It's an honour." One corner of his lips rose higher at the note and you just wished to disappear into thin air before you would turn into a puddle of lovesick jelly with rapidly beating heart. You took your leave hastily, whispering over your shoulder. “Take your time.”

It was only few minutes later when you were dully staring at the computer screen on the counter that you realized you hadn’t even introduced yourself to the man you apparently had a crush on – you were fucking working at his exhibition, how had you missed that? You whimpered silently and resisted urge to bang your forehead against the desk.

Almost thirty minutes later, you really needed to leave and kick Capt— Steve out. You really, really didn’t want to do that. You had secretly hoped he would pass your desk during ‘administrative stuff’ time, but he hadn’t.

Approaching him by the very same board you had left him at, you felt like a monster.

“Lots of memories?” you tried out, minding to whisper so you wouldn’t startled him like the last time.

“Yeah, more than I can count. Mostly the good ones though. He saved me from getting beat to a pulp multiple times. Often dragged me out to dance, because he met a new girl and she was generous enough to bring a friend – not that she was interested in a guy who was barely reaching her shoulders,” he hummed, remembering his pre-serum times probably. There was nothing malicious or envious in his words. He seemed melancholic. “Bucky was a true ladies’ man.”

You couldn’t help but grin – sure, with Bucky’s looks and him being excellent at about everything, you could imagine. But it was a little different, hearing it from Captain America himself.

“Was he now?”

“Oh yes. The first time a beautiful woman looked at me rather than at him, he said he was living a nightmare becoming me.”

“He didn’t,” you whispered incredulously, silencing the giggle that wanted to escape your lips. Damn, some best friend he was; you were sure Bucky only had been teasing and it felt so casual, so normal, just two friends making fun of each other. It wasn’t exactly easy to imagine that when all you had ever heard were legends of their bravery.

Steve glanced at you with a corner of his eye. “He did.”

“That’s mean. What did you say?”

His smile grew wider. “Not to be sore about it, because she sure had a friend.”

You burst out laughing, feeling like Mr. Righteous suddenly stepped into a column of light which made him someone completely else. Cheeky. Mischievous. Friendly in the most common way. Human. Just a guy. Just a kid from Brooklyn.

“I take it I really need to leave now,” he noted, his hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans as if he truly was a regular guy walking down the street. Unbelievable.

“Depends,” you hummed, not sure where that came from. “You have more fun facts like this to share? Or not funny ones, just interesting?”

He tilted his head curiously, examining you, trying to figure out whether you were serious.

“You won’t get into trouble?”

You shrugged. “I don’t think so.”

“In that case, I actually do. Follow me, madam.”

An hour later, your cheeks hurt, your tear ducts were probably dried up completely and your head was full of so many new information it should hurt, but instead, it was just buzzing pleasantly. Also, you were sure you had a heart condition, because that constant flutter could not be healthy. You were tired, yet, you found yourself being disappointed that the special tour was ending.

"Okay, now I feel really sorry we don't do guided tours. I would be so popular..." you exclaimed, rewarded by a grin from Steve.

"It's a thing to consider. You should offer it to your boss."

You let out probably very unattractive snort. "Sure. And why would we wanna do that, miss? Because Captain America took me on a tour and told me very interesting details. He would probably want to run blood tests to check for drugs or something.... Thank you, Capt— Steve. I imagine it couldn't have been all easy."

"It's memories. It still... still feels more like home," he admitted and after so many rather light facts, you were reminded of just how heavy his destiny was.

"I can't imagine that. Waking up after seventy years. It's..."

"Insane?" he offered, eyebrow raised.

"I was gonna say ‘lonely’, but sure, ‘insane’ works. Everything has to be so different."

"It is. The progress of technology... I mean... just phones and computers. It's… a lot."

"Yeah... I wonder how much the world would change if I fell asleep for 70 years now. Theories? More like flying cars or a huge garbage bin like in Wall-E?"

"Wall-E?" he questioned, looking a bit confused. Only then it hit you – he probably hadn’t seen it.

"Oh, right. It's an animated film set in the future. A robot named Wall-E is on Earth, searching for a sign of life, fauna, flora, anything, while the rest of humanity is on a huge spaceship. Not your typical Pixar movie. I remember seeing it as a kid and being bored out of my mind when the first twenty minutes was just the robot moving between trash and occasionally saying ‘Wall-E’. It gets better though. Still, it's pretty far from movies like Finding Nemo."

"…I don't know what that is either.”

"Dude! You gotta check out Finding Nemo!" you called out, half outraged, half excited. Then you froze. "I mean— sorry. Jesus, I just called you a dude-"

What was wrong with you? You had had troubles to switch from Captain to Steve, and now he was a dude? Talk about respect, young lady…

But Steve just laughed at you, a full-belly laugh with his head thrown backwards and it was so normal and relaxed that you found yourself starring incredulously and possibly a little bit in love.

"That's okay, really. You got very excited."

"It's an amazing movie! Do you... do you catch up with pop culture?" you asked, honestly curious.

Seventy years’ worth of books, movies, TV series, music, theatre… wow. You couldn’t imagine that.

"I'm trying," he admitted, pulling out a small notebook and a pen. For a split second, you thought he was gonna give you his phone number, which was ridiculous of course. He wrote something down, smiling. "Now I have other tips.” Now that made more sense. “Do they still play that?"

"Yeeeah... no. Not by a long shot. You can always downlo— how does Captain America feel about downloading stuff from the internet? I mean..."

"That's like... putting it into your computer without paying a single dollar, right?" he asked, just to be sure. It was cute.

"Yep. Which I don't do. At all."

His laugh was more subtle this time, but his eyes were locked with yours, causing you butterflies, so there was that. "Well, Captain America is very disappointed in you. Steve understands."

"Thanks, Steve. Is it offensive to say that it somehow matters to me more?"

"Not really."

His eyes shined and his smile was wrapping you in a soft warm blanket and you knew that if there was something you definitely didn’t want it was saying goodbye and never seeing this man again. In flesh, that was, the exhibition didn’t count. Your mind raced.

"...I just got the craziest idea."

"If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it,” he quoted god knew who. You assumed it was a quote, not that you wanted to underestimate this wonderful man. “Hit me with it."

You gulped nervously. This was as terrible idea as it was an amazing one.

"There are old slide projectors in here, sure... but there are digital projectors too. If you... if you wanted to... have a cinema-like atmosphere, I can download the movie for you to watch it here,” you offered reluctantly, carefully observing his reaction. “Hell, we have a microwave in personal’s, I can even make popcorn!”

He blinked at you, the shiny baby-blues baffled.

“Or not. It's a silly idea-"

"No!” he protested quickly, smiling reassuringly at you. “It's... it sounds really nice. Do you think the guards would be... okay with that? You did mean after closing time, right?"

Did he just say yes?

"Yeah, of course! And yes, I mean... it would be for Captain America. How could they say no?"

His cheeks seemed to flush – but that must have been the lighting only, right? Captain America was not freaking blushing. Though he did look a bit timid. "You would really do that?"

"Sure. I mean... I can try."

"Alright — but only if it's not too much trouble. I wouldn't want you to have problems with your employer," he said sincerely, his eyes locked with yours again and your heart honest to god stopped.

Christ, was he trying to give you a heart attack?

“ ’kay,” you breathed, completely lost, mesmerized by the intensity of his gaze.

What was your name again?

“If I give you my phone number, will you text me when you would have time?”

It was official; you had died and went to heaven. An incredibly attractive man was standing in front of you practically shoving you his phone number and it might have been purely friendly, but still. Oh. My. God.

“Yep.”

Really? ‘Yep’?

He pulled out the notebook again, tearing one page and writing down the digits. You forgot how to breathe. This was really happening. He handed you the paper with a shy smile and whispered ‘here you go.’ When he added your name, you were about to swoon.

He wrote down not only the number, but his name too. You found it adorable, chuckling at that.

“You think I’m carrying lots of phone numbers in my pockets, Steve?” you teased him about it a little and he seemed confused at first, until something that was not a flirtatious smile for sure settled on his lips.

“Wouldn’t surprise me.”

Your breath caught in your throat, some inner voice screaming at you not to interpret it in a wrong way. Steve was a very nice person, that was a fact. He probably didn’t even realize how that sounded. Yeah, that was it.

You laughed it off. “Sure. Thanks, Steve, I’ll let you know. Hopefully, you won’t be busy.” Alright, backpedal, backpedal. “Thank you for the special tour, Captain.”

“You’re very welcome, ma’am,” he saluted and you chuckled silently. Who was this guy? Did you imagine this? Were you high? Maybe you really needed the blood tests… “Have a good night-- you need a ride?”

You almost choked on your own spit. BACKPEDAL.

Oh yes, you could use a ride. Whatever that meant.

You smiled awkwardly. “Uhm… no thank you. Goodnight, Steve.”

He returned the goodbye with a tiny smile.

You held the delighted shriek inside until five minutes passed since the door closed behind him.

You were in so much trouble.

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Part 2 (final)

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Tags: @mermaidxatxheart

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Awww, this one is an oldie of mine. Even more fluff than usual and that’s saying something...

#marvel #fanfiction #mcu #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers x reader #captain america fanfiction #captain america imagine #captain america exhibit #fluff #lessons in rule-breaking #anika ann

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