#it aint hell but it froze over all the same

[sirowsky]

I'm at work and it's currently -34,4 °C outside.

I'm a bit concerned that my car might not start... 🥶🥶🥶

[villainsimpqueen]

Worth the Risks

Recom Lyle x Human reader.

Subject- Fluffy and weed/edibles.

When Lyle met you, it was at the cafeteria. 

He and the Other recoms in his unit got done with their training and headed to the cafeteria for lunch before they had to go back to training regiment.

He was late to lunch starting later than the others and when he came through the line up his eyes caught sight of some cupcakes in a container on a counter. 

"Can I get one of those?" He asked the cafe worker and he nodded towards you. 

Lyles eyes moved to you, You were finishing up with another soldier, bright smile and eyes gleaming. 

"Blue, purple or red?" He overheard you say.

"Red. I'm off tomorrow." The soldier said and you moved, grabbing a cupcake with bright red icing that had flowers piped onto it.

"Your lunch will be 25 Cybergrams and the cupcake is 15 Cybergrams." You told the soldier who slid a card into the thing and Lyle watched the soldier transfer you the rest of the funds separately. 

This caused him to raise a brow but continued down to the checkout area. 

"Hello-ooooooo" You blinked as you strained your neck to look up at him, your eyes slightly widen in surprise. "Ooohh your fucking huge." 

Lyle's ears twitched as he allowed a snort to leave him, amusement filled him quickly and the urge to hold his resolve left him as the idiotic immature side of him came out.

"That's what she said." His ears twitched with delight hearing sweet charming laughter leave you.  

"You ain't right!." You said giggling and began to ring him up.

"What's the deal with the cupcakes..I heard they were expensive.." Lyle questioned raising a brow.

"Oh! There are edibles." You said looking up at him with a smile.

Lyle blinked looking down at you momentarily confused.

"Yea…There cupcakes?" He questioned, your smile seemed to grow in your own amusement.

"Laced with Weed." You answered him.

Lyles Ears perked up and his eyes widened. 

How the hell did you get weed? 

The RDA does checks on all deliveries and strictly prohibits any form of drug….Besides alcohol. 

"If you tell me you're gonna have a lot of enemies." You purred as you looked at him.

Lyle could only remember taking weed a few tes when he was human, all of it was during his adolescent years. He wondered how his new body would handle weed. He wondered if it would even affect him the same way and he considered it for a second. 

"Don't worry i wont say a thing." He told you and paid for his food. Deciding to eat his lunch in his room instead of the cafeteria.

 He learned your name was y/n and the cupcake flavors you made changed weekly so did the potency of the bake goods. 

The next time he saw you He was walking up to the checkout counter Lopez and Ja were checking out and when they turned they froze looking at him wide eyed. Lyle raised a brow at them before he noticed you grabbing two cupcakes putting them in separate containers and walked back putting them in front of the other recoms. You gave them a questionable glance as you looked over to him. 

"Oh hey Lyle!" You said cheerfully catching his eyes.

"Hey y/n." He greeted

"Oh Lyle…um." Ja rambled and Got elbowed By Lopez a silent 'Shut up' notion.

Lyle walked over to them, setting his tray down.

"I aint see shit." He muttered to them watching their eyes oerk up and grins form on their faces as the two unit official dumbasses grabbed their food trays and cupcakes and left. He did notice your questioning look.

"I'm not filling out paperwork tonight. If they get caught by our Colonel, that's on them. " He told you and you snickered.

"Breaking rules so you don't have to do more work?" You teased as you began ringing him up.

"More so turning a blind eye so i don't get stuck with more work." He replied, his eyes moving towards the cupcakes. 

It wasn't like he was against weed. 

He would try it, but not knowing how his body would react made him anxious. 

"Do you want one?" You asked his eyes to look into yours.

'Yes.' he thought.

"No, I can't get caught with it." Is what he said. "Idiots don't knock, they barge in." He muttered.

You seemed to look at him for a moment before looking back at the computer finishing ringing up his items.

"I get off in two hours, if you're free, you could come to my place. If you want to try some." You said eyes are not moving from the screen.

Lyle felt his ears perk up and tail swayed. 

The offer was very tempting. 

He could spend some time with you, getting to know more about you besides small talk daily when getting his lunch and the few times you took break to join him. 

He could also get high, if his body would in fact get high.

Though there were more risks to that notion.

Like him being missing and Quaritch coming looking for him.

What if he has a bad reaction and has to go to the medical bay.

What if they have to do a surprise examination…

"You don't have too…I don't wanna pressure you." 

His ears picked up on your soft voice, eyes moving towards you again.

'Fuck it. I can have one fucking night to live.' He thought.

"I would like that." He told you and he didn't missed how your face brighten.

"Great, come pick me up at 7." You told him and prompted him to pay.

 Lyle took his food to his room where he got out of his uniform. Pulling a soft tank top and some looser fitting sweat pants on he sat down and ate his food. His tail swayed in excitement as the two hours ticked by quickly.

Throwing away his disposable plate he freshened up and his eyes landed on some of his old cologne. 

'It's not a date.' He thought to himself but he grabbed the bottle and sprintz himself anyway. He reckoned he could at least smell good if he was just gonna go over to your place in basically pajamas. 

When he walked out from his room he was greeted by the sight of Lopez and Ja. Their eyes were dilated wide and their ears perked up as they "Sneaked" Through the quarters common area. Both seemed to be shushing each other anytime the other made a loud noise.

Lyle let out a sigh as he left moving quickly down the halls back to the cafe.

'Those idiots are so gonna get caught.' He thought but he felt his tail sway eagerly. The cupcakes seemed to work on them and it didn't look like it was too bad, so perhaps it will go well for him as well.

 Your face lightened when your eyes came across him and you gleamed at him.

"Didn't think you'd come." You told him and Lyle gave you a playful grin.

"Your offer was too tempting." He told you.

He enjoyed the small talk and joking as you led him to your quarters. 

you laughed at him having to bend down drastically to get inside of your apartment and when he stood up he took in your smaller space.

Bean bags.

You had a lot of fucking bean bags.

"Was there a bean bag shortage?" He asked you as he followed you deeper into the common space of your apartment.

"Yes actually there was!" You playfully snided back. "Had to fight tooth and nail because I nearly lost my arm!" 

Lyle snorted, shaking his head as he watched you seem to be pushing the bean bags into a larger pile.

"For you!" You told him, He smiled and went to make himself comfortable while you seemed to vanish into your kitchen.

While sitting his eyes roamed around your living room. 

You didn't have couches, he figured because of your bean bag obsession. You had some paintings hanging up and some string lights dangling from your ceiling. Your bedroom  didn't have a door but beaded ropes hanging from the top.

You had a few small bookshelves with different nick nacks on them as well as some books. 

It surprised him to see physical books, They cost a very pretty penny and too see you had a bit of curiosity about him. 

His eyes ran over titles and some of them didn't have titles but were brightly colored. 

Curiously he grabbed on and looked at it.

'Deveined places.' 

Was all that was written on it. The back was blank, not giving any description. 

Lyle flipped open the book to see if the description was inside.

"Okay I decided to give you a medium strength one to see how it goes. If you don't feel anything I'll get you like a half of a stronger one and we can see from the-Whoooahhh!" His ears twitched hearing fastening footsteps. Your smaller hand snatching the small book from his hands. He watched you in surprise as you slammed it back onto the bookshelf, your face turning flushed.

Lyle blinked before he began to grin, 

"Soooo y/n what's in the book?" He questioned, your eyes looked at him as your face darkened more with your flustered state.

"Trust me dude. You don't wanna know." You warned him before going to your bean bag.

"...Now I do." He teased as he went back to his bean bag pile.

You made a noise before holding up a cupcake with purple frosting.

"Here you go." You told him.

Lyle looked at the cupcake, he felt slightly nervousness move through him but he already came here, it would be stupid for him to back out now.

He grabbed the cupcake, it looked so tiny in his hands but he moved it to his mouth taking a smaller experimenting taste.

His ears perked and purr left him, It tasted amazing.

Sweet creamy strawberry and blueberry hit his tongue.

He heard your sweet laughs as you watched him.

"That's good?" You asked and Lyle popped the rest of the cupcake in his mouth munching on it slowly nodding with a hum. His tail swayed behind him as he finished the cupcake.

"That…That was a fucking cupcake." He announced getting your giggles in turn.

He watched you grab a jolo tablet and slide a finger across from it. The holotv on your wall turned on and you seemed to have selected a movie. 

You both talked about anything as you both watched the movie, it seemed to have been a comedy. Some of the jokes landed but most of them were pretty terrible. 

Lyle enjoyed the atmosphere though and how you were explaining what got you into baking in the first place.

"And since the pies came out good i was like fuck yea let me try making cakes." You rambled, he wondered if your cupcake had hit you because you seemed very talkative and excited. He smiled, enjoying how lovely you seemed. He felt nothing and it had been well past thirty minutes. 

He supposed he wasn't affected by weed. 

His eyes moved from you to the tv and his ears twitched as the tv seemed to be getting further and further away. 

His tail stopped swaying in his containment, laying pressed against the bean bags the tip of it slightly lifting from the bags. He felt how his hands twitched into fists and unclenching them. His ears slicked back as everything sounded so loudly and a ringing buzzed obnoxiously in them.

His neck felt tingly, infact his whole body felt tingly and he found it harder to breathe.

He felt like his chest was caving in on him. 

Everything seemed too bright, too blurry and too sharp at the same time and he struggled to gasp for air. 

He felt pressure on him and he hissed, he tried moving whatever was on him, whatever that would crush his chest off of him.

His tongue felt like it was stuck to his teeth and he felt like he would choke on it. 

His eyes stinged and his body trembled.He closed his eyes tightly as if he was trying to wake up from a nightmare but he felt stuck in it.

He felt something rub, almost pet his head and his ears twitched as he heard soft, quiet humming. 

His chest didn't feel as heavy, but he still felt something on him. 

He could breathe more easily now though. 

Lyle opened his eyes to see your pretty ones looking at him. His sight cleared as he noticed you were rubbing his head sitting in his lap and leaning on his chest dome as you softly rubbed his head.

You softly hummed some tune as you did so and he felt himself melting into a calm.

"What happened?" He groaned and he still felt funny.

"I think you gave yourself a panic attack when the edibles kicked in your system." You told him. 

Lyle ears slicked back and he felt his face warm, he felt like an idiot. Maybe he should have just done this in his room by himself instead of with you. He could have saved himself from embarrassing himself in front of you. You probably thought he was some lightweight or a coward.

"It's okay! I had a bad trip the first time too. Everyone is different!" You told him, which seemed to comfort him.

"This is fucking embarrassing." He muttered to you and you giggled.

"You know if you just wanted me to cuddle you, you could've asked, you didn't have to pretend to die on me." You teased him and Lyle felt his heart quicken its pace and his tail swayed.

"Oh um..sorry about that." He said softly as he looked at your face. 

You looked so pretty and you felt so warm.

You let out those sweet giggles as ypu shook your head.

"Oh it's fine." You said your eyes looking into his yellowed green ones. 

His ears twitched as he looked to your eyes down to your lips. 

They looked soft and inviting, but he quickly snapped his eyes back to yours.

You were his friend. 

This isn't some hook up, it was just a hang out. 

Plus you were younger than him…..kind of. 

He knew you were in your twenties….Technically so was he…His body anyways. 

But he still did have the mind of a man in his fifties… .Though he did find himself and the others to do more immature things. 

Lyle jumped when he felt soft warm lips against his, His tail whacked around the air and a loud purr left his throat. 

If you were going to try to move away, you missed that opportunity as one of his arms easily wrapped around your body and another caressed your head as he kissed you back. 

You were so warm and soft, and he felt safe. 

Pulling away he heard you panting as you gasped for air. 

Purrs still left him as he moved back to lay back into the bean bags, your weight following after him as his arms laid lazily around you. He heard your soft giggles and it warmed him even more.

"You could have asked instead of stared." You whispered and his ears fluttered to how warm and welcoming your voice was.

He vaguely thought if you were only acting like this due to the drugs, But he pushed the thoughts away as soon as they came.

You always flirted and were playful with him.

He felt you nuzzle into his chest and more purrs left him as he heard you give a warm breathy sigh of relief.

"So for our next date you should take a gal to dinner." You told him playfully and Lyle felt his heart skip a beat.

"This was a date?" He asked, he heard your giggles.

"You think I just let people into my home and get high for free? Yes it was a date. Why do you think I was so nervous asking you here!" You exclaimed, pushing up, your hands on his chest as you looked down at him.

Lyle felt so warm in his chest, It was almost embarrassing at how giddy he felt and he decided to blame it on the weed in his system.

"I thought you were just being nice." He whispered.

"No!" You said softly slapping his chest. " i've been flirting and hinting at you for weeks, I thought you knew since you flirted back but you never a s k e d me out or anything." 

Lyle thought back to the tiles and he pursed his lips. He had taken it as friendly banter like the other recoms did to each other, not as genuine interest.

"Oh." He said before he began to snicker.

You seemed to huff and lay back down into his chest causing more purrs to leave him.

His tail twitched happily as he held you to his chest, he liked this..

"I'm glad I said yes to this." He told you to look down at you as your eyes moved towards him. 

"oh?" You asked him and he nodded.

"This is nice…This is worth the risk of getting caught." He told you before moving his head down softly kissing your forehead he watched at how cute you smiled at him.

"You're worth the risks." 

And he loved how brightly you smiled at him.

[wildcatofgreen]

"You said her artifact can teleport her, correct?"

"Well, yeah, but--"

"Then there is nothing more that needs to be said. If you can be with her, then call her to you. Failing that, go to her. Enjoy her presence, bask in her love.

"You might never know when it's your last time to do so. I would rather you not suffer the same fate as me."

The centurion stood, and without another word, left the metallic chamber, left this personal hell, to move on to another.

That wildcat...

It reminded her too much of Cordelia. From how the hatchling described her, she had that same snark and joy, even down to having a similar stone, though, her's sounds much more powerful than Cordelia's.

Curious. How a stray like her landed upon power like that?

The centurion can only hope she doesn't abuse it, or let it fall into the hands of bastards.

Hmph.

---

Anonymous asked: So, are you gonna go visit her?

"I mean... I wanna, right?

"But that ain't how the gem works!!! Like, I like Cory's idea as much as the next guy, but it ain't like I can just think really hard an' be brought 'ta her!!! It ain't how it works!!!"

#''stupid cory. she doesnt understand anything.'' #''think she's hot shit yeah well TOO BAD YOU AINT NOTHIN' SIS. 3:<''

---

Anonymous asked: How are you gonna see her again?

"I... I don't know. Outside of just telling her to fly over here.

"I'm not even sure if what Merga said to do was a good idea. I mean, Carol's probably super busy being the Battlesphere Champion by now. I wouldn't want to interrupt that. Especially for something not important."

#I have this pit in my stomach... #Was I really so easy to read...?

---

Anonymous asked: Do you think she feels the same?

"Noooot even slightly, bub. She's 'prolly smoochin' with some guy down there, wherever she is.

"Stones, she's probably not even gay!!! What the hell am I thinkin', man??? Cory's got all these stupid ideas in my head now. Stones damn it!!!"

#''when this is all over im kicking her ass.''

---

Anonymous asked: Do you think she feels the same?

"I don't know. I mean, I've thought about it before. She always gets a little bit flustered around me, whenever I get too close.

"I didn't think much of it back then. But, maybe...

"Oh, who am I kidding? That girl's probably straight as a board. I think she just wasn't used to being touched back then. Last time we were together, she was perfectly fine."

#This whole idea is stupid anyway.

---

Anonymous asked: Do you want to be with her?

"More than anythin', really.

"But I jus'... I can't even see it happenin'. It dun't feel possible."

#''she's gonna reject me i already know it i already know it i already know it''

---

Anonymous asked: Do you want to be with her?

"I didn't realize it before, but all of those feelings... all of those times I felt safe and fuzzy around her...

"I guess I do.

"But it's too late now, isn't it? It's not like I can talk to her again without going mainland."

#Maybe /this/ is my biggest regret...

---

Anonymous asked: Isn't there ANY way you contact her?

"Look, I'mma text her right now. An' when it says ''service unreachable'', y'all can get on all fours an' eat my ass, got it?"

#''y'all're stupid as shit i swear'' #''what part of ''i havent talked to her in weeks'' are y'all not gettin' here''

---

wildcatofgreen: sup lyli i know this message aint gettin to ya but im try'na prove a point.

The water dragon froze.

Her phone just lit up.

Was that... Carol?

But... how??? What???? She doesn't have reception!!! How is she...

lilmissheropants: Lol! Idk how you're texting me right now but whatever you're doing, keep doing it!!!

--

The wildcat froze, almost dropping her phone out of her hand.

Excuse her??? She responded??? But, what? How??? She doesn't have reception!!! How's she supposed to--

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught something.

That stupid green gemerald--it's glowing brighter than usual.

Hell, of course this would be that thing's fault. Of course.

Well, she can actually thank it for once. This was only purely a good thing.

---

wildcatofgreen: kkay i figured it out on my own blame the gemerald lilmissheropants: Again? How much trouble has that thing gotten you in??? wildcatofgreen: lmao how much do you think lyli lilmissheropants: Way too much!!! lilmissheropants: You should totally get rid of that thing sometime. wildcatofgreen: girl we literally wouldnt be talkin rn if i didnt have it wildcatofgreen: be thankful lilmissheropants: Good point LOL

The two had texted each other for hours, speaking about the past couple of weeks, catching each other up on their lives. Lilac would tell a story about foraging, Carol would tell a story about Neera. Lilac would tell a story about all the pretty sights and the new people she's met, Carol would tell a story about another one of Milla's potions. On and on and on this would go, until the dragon finally said something different.

lilmissheropants: Hey... can I tell you something? wildcatofgreen: duh. we wouldnt be besties if you couldnt

They both would wince at the word--Carol for having to use it, Lilac for seeing it.

lilmissheropants: I...

The dragon stroke her fingers across the phone's keyboard, a collection of characters appearing in the bar--the letter combinations made nothing but words of gibberish. It seems like she was stalling.

lilmissheropants: Merga told me something. wildcatofgreen: big fish lady droppin the DEETS wildcatofgreen: what she say? what she say? lilmissheropants: That you should come visit!! wildcatofgreen: i aint stealin another plane that shit's exhaustin lilmissheropants: No like, with you're gemerald! lilmissheropants: Dummy! wildcatofgreen: *your :3c wildcatofgreen: sdi this is what cory said too lilmissheropants: She wants you to visit? wildcatofgreen: somethin like that wildcatofgreen: she wants me to just teleport to you usin the gemerald but how tf am i gonna do that wildcatofgreen: you and i both know i cant CONTROL this thing wildcatofgreen: last time it threw me anywhere i was neck deep in an alternate brevon's business and you KNOW you dont want me to go through that shit again lilmissheropants: Don't remind me. XC lilmissheropants: I don't know then lilmissheropants: Maybe I could go over there? wildcatofgreen: lmao with what money girl wildcatofgreen: you got enough money to catch a plane? lilmissheropants: I mean, I don't need money to go over there. I got over to Parusa by ''hitching a ride'', if you know what I mean! X) wildcatofgreen: never thought id see the day where MY lyli is stealing free plane rides wildcatofgreen: for shame for shame lilmissheropants: You'd do it too and you know it! wildcatofgreen: yeah and stealin's like wildcatofgreen: my THING wildcatofgreen: you'd think you'd know that by now. ;/ lilmissherpants: LOL I'm gonna beat your BUTT when I get back up there! wildcatofgreen: mhm yeah okay try me lyli wildcatofgreen: im an amazin kung fu kitty ill be all like WATCHA WAHBAM WHABLAM!!!! and youll be on the floor like ''oh no carol please have mercy wah wah wah'' lilmissheropants: LOL XD lilmissheropants: Suuuure you would! Like I don't win most of our sparring matches!!! wildcatofgreen: and besides i dont think itd be a good idea for you to come back up here for like wildcatofgreen: what wildcatofgreen: a day? wildcatofgreen: you got your dragon stuff i got my battlesphere stuff wildcatofgreen: we'd just be wasting each other's time really

...

A pit fell into both of their stomachs.

The dragon stared at the feline's words, solemnly rubbing her thumb against the screen. She... she had a point, didn't she? Why would she bother? Her time would be better spent just... studying. Figuring out that language, learning about her people, things like that.

A groan, a whimper. When she's right, she's right.

Meanwhile, the wildcat was holding her head in her hands, screaming (internally, for once). What the hell was she doing??? Why was she just pushing her away like this??? What the hell's the point? To make herself even more miserable than before? To create her own special hell, to dig herself deeper to that pit???

She wants to see her--she desperately wants to see her. It's the least, the very least she can do. And hell, if Lilac's offering, then...

The two responded, their timing near identical.

wildcatofgreen: i mean ofc this aint to say that you shouldnt come i think you probably should lilmissheropants: Yeah I don't know what I was thinking. It was a silly idea anyway.

They blinked. A lull in their response time as they looked over the other's sent words.

Then, they responded again.

wildcatofgreen: i mean shit we've done sillier but if you dont wanna come im cool with that that's fine lilmissheropants: Though if you WANT me to come I'm not opposed to it.

Another lull, another blink.

The wildcat was the first to respond this time.

wildcatofgreen: okay okay okay what the hell are we doing here wildcatofgreen: are you visiting or not we cant keep going around in circles like this lilmissheropants: If lilmissheropants: You want me to come? I'll come! wildcatofgreen: alright then its settled wildcatofgreen: but like wildcatofgreen: when?

A final lull, and a final identical timing.

lilmissheropants: I could come over tomorrow if it's not a problem? wildcatofgreen: maybe tomorrow so all this can be done faster

This caused the two to erupt in laughter. They knew each other so well, been around each other for so long--they were just steps away from finishing each other's sentences. It was so stupid, so very, very stupid.

But it was great--incredible, even, that they were like this. That they were so in sync like this. A bond that could never be broken. A love that could never be stomped.

wildcatofgreen: well alright then guess tomorrow it is! lilmissheropants: Alright! lilmissheropants: It's a date!

---

Anonymous asked: You two are dating now?

"What? No. She didn't mean it like that, you dope.

"A calendar date. Get your head out your ass."

#''wait'' #''could she...?'' #''nah thatd be stupid'' #''its just a normal friends thing thats all''

---

Anonymous asked: A ''date''?

"Do you think that was too forward? Do you think she'll know before tomorrow...?

"I don't know why but, the thought of her knowing, it just..."

#I shouldn't be so scared #But I am... #I don't know why #It doesn't make sense...

---

Anonymous asked: Do you think you're ready to see her again?

"As ready as I'll ever be. Stones, Iun't even know what 'ta say. Do I jus' like, act normal? Or do I like say somethin' right off the bat? Or maybe I jus' dun't do anythin' and act like it's just friends bein' friends! Right?"

#''fuck dude you got no idea the anxiety runnin through my head rn'' #''i know she doesnt like me i know she doesnt like me i KNOW she doesnt like me'' #''but why is this givin me so much fuckin' HOPE?'' #''UGH''

---

Anonymous asked: Do you think you're ready to see her again?

"I don't have much of a choice but to be ready, right?

"Whatever happens, happens. And I gotta deal with it."

---

Anonymous asked: How will this affect your Battlesphere Champion try out?

"Right. Those things are on the same day, y'know. Almost forgot about it, really.

"I'm thinkin' I jus'... skip it, right? Like, if it comes in between me and her... it should be her everytime. No matter how cool it is."

#''and if shit falls through i could always ask to do a redo right'' #''or i can jus focus on my mechanics stuff more'' #''like i got options i aint gonna be broke if i dont do this thing'' #''i think.''

---

Anonymous sked: How's this going to affect your learning?

"It's just a day off, right? Leave tomorrow, come back the next day.

"And... Merga told me to do it, so I should be fine both ways, right?" Right?

#It'll be like I never left. #I just hope everything goes well tomorrow...

------

The wildcat rolled over in her bed, groaning all the while. She's never felt more dread in her life. This idea was stupid, just exceedingly stupid. Damn it, why'd she convince herself into this!!! Why'd she convince Lilac into this??? It's just gonna end in regret and sorrow she knows it she knows it she knows it!!!

Fuck!!!

She knew she had to get up, she knew she had to get up, but stones she really, really did not want to.

Hell, Lilac might not even come, right? Who knows how many planes there are out of Parusa? That place is barely an island!!! No way would it have consistent flight schedules--

lilmissheropants: Good morning, sleepy head! lilmissheropants: Just got on the plane! I think I'll be up there an about an hour. lilmissheropants: Wait for me, okay? Talk to ya soon! <3 lilmissheropants: Oh! And don't tell anyone I'm coming, okay? I don't want to hang out with anyone but YOU today!

The dragon clicked her phone off then shoved it in her pocket. A sigh escaped her maw. She looked up at the plane's hull, then nodded to herself, encircling herself with her latent energy and using it all to boost herself on top of the hull. She landed with only a little bit of trouble, steadying herself upright only after a moment or two. She smirked to herself, rubbing her nose with her index finger in a fashion much like Carol would.

She can run faster than this thing can fly. This is gonna go without a hitch.

wildcatofgreen: talk to ya soon lyli wildcatofgreen: your secret's safe with me :3c wildcatofgreen: have a safe flight <3

Hell, this was really happening, wasn't it? She was already coming up here, as if it wasn't a thing at all.

Well, if she was the only one who didn't show up, it'd be embarrassing on both their parts.

So, with a sigh, she'd drag herself out of bed.

She was gonna see Lyli again! She needs to calm down.

Because seriously, what's the worse that could happen?

--

"Okay, okay, okay, but like," the wildcat couldn't help but wave her hands at the dragon as they walked, "I expected ya 'ta be in the plane, girl! Not on it!!!"

"What, you've never seen a flying dragon before?" There was this aura of smugness in the dragon's tone, with an equally smug smirk attached.

"Not one like that! That's dangerous!!!" She elbowed the dragon's shoulder, "What, 'cause ya been on one giant flyin' dragon ya think ya can tame planes, too?"

She put her hands on her hips and stopped to stare at the feline. "This is coming the girl who does wheelies on her motorcycle on guardrails for fun. On the highway!"

The feline does a heel turn, putting a hand on her chest as she moon walks away from the dragon. "Y'see, that's different! You can easily fall off of a plane. I could never fall off my bike~." She radiated that same smugness the dragon did just a moment ago.

And to this, the dragon crossed her arms against her chest as she walked forward again, an eyebrow raised at the cat. "Yeah, sure, tell that to the walls."

"Oh come on!!!" She threw her hands in the air! "You know walls are my mortal enemy. They'd put a stop 'ta me no matter what!"

The two couldn't help but burst in shared laughter, the feline turning back around and waiting for the dragon to come next to her again. And, once she was in range, she'd put her arm over the dragon's shoulder, walking along with her as she does so.

It felt so nice to be together again, even if it was just for a day. It felt so comfortable, so relaxing, to have your best friend by your side. Knowing that she'd always have your back, knowing that you could always chill out and not have to worry about anything anymore. As long as she was there.

"So, Lyli, what'cha wanna do first? Go to our favorite sushi place? Or maybe we can get some udon? Oh, oh! Maybe we can be fancy and get some unagi, too!!!"

At this, the dragon had to think, putting a hand to her chin.

"Carol, have you ever had Adobo before?"

And to this, the wildcat stared blankly. "I... dun't think so? What is that?"

The dragon wasted no time, grabbing the wildcat's arm wrapped around her and running off to... somewhere. "Then lets not waste any time!!! I wanna show you all the awesome foods I had in Parusa!"

"HEY WAIT WHAT. WHERE ARE WE GOING. LILAC???"

--

Apparently, Parusian food's been around the three kingdoms for a while. Lilac and Carol remembered seeing some of their food spots way back when, but never bothered actually going in and checking it out. Thankfully, because of Lilac's time on Parusa, and finding what little bits of crystals she can around the area, she had a pretty decent knowledge of their food going in. Sure, most of the time she ate fish, but whenever she could she'd buy something from the restaurants. It was just that good.

Carol seemed to think so, too! She gobbled up everything that was thrown at her--adobo, sinigang, kaldereta, longganisa, she loved it all!!!

Meanwhile, Lilac noted that, while it was good, it seems like Parusian dishes had a certain charm if they were made in Parusa.

After their little food escapade, the two just hung out! As if they hadn't been separated to begin with. They raced, watched T.V., hit the local arcade, people watched--they tried to do anything and everything they could in the time allotted!!

Though, they did have a mutual agreement--nothing too close to the Royal Palace or Shang Mu. Which, Shang Mu wouldn't be too hard to avoid--it's an entirely different kingdom, all they had to do was not go on that highway.

The palace, however, was a different story. A lot of times, they sort of just absentmindedly wandered over there--one would think that, with these two being in Shang Tu so much over the years, they'd know the layout by heart. But apparently not--or if they knew it by heart, it very obviously wasn't well.

But, luckily, it seemed like they weren't spotted, at least.

Eventually, the sun started to set and the lights of Shang Tu started to turn on. Their time was running out.

Yet, there was one more place, one last place that the dragon wished to visit. A place she hasn't been to in a while, frankly.

She wanted to go see an old friend.

[aineirisha]

What I confessed while daydreaming

Kakashi x reader

Summary: Coming back from a mission early means one thing to him, more time with you. 

A/N: I was writing some angst for Treachery and hurt myself. So I needed some fluff to balance and this happened :3 hope you like it. This is set before team 7 and you and Kakashi are not dating... yet.

He was crossing Konoha's gates at exact midday. Asuma pad on his shoulder. 

"Another great mission. Aint it, Kakashi?"

They smiled at each other. 

The black-haired left jumping on the buildings. Kakashi took a breath and looked up to the sky letting the wind caress his skin. He was finally back home. They wouldn't meet up with the Hokage to deliver the report until the evening which gave him a few hours for himself, so he decided to stop by your house. 

He could listen to your music from the gateway. Good thing you lived on the outskirts of the village and you practically had no neighbors. He knocked on your door accidentaly pushing it open. 

He glanced through it to find you dancing as you cleaned, just like that first night he spied on you, though that night you were cooking. A wide smile drew beneath his mask. You were exactly the same person. Except you weren't, not to him, not anymore. You were no longer a stranger in his eyes, to his heart. 

He walked away to leave you be. He could come back later.

"Kakashi you're back," you said, excited. And turned the volume down. 

"Hey YN-san, I didn't mean to intrude-"

"Don't worry I'm just cleaning. How did the mission go?"

He shrunk his shoulders, "Same as always."

"I'm glad you are back in one piece," you smiled as you looked into his eye. "Can I offer you something to drink?"

It took him a moment to understand what you said. Kami! he had missed your smile so much.  "Uh, sure..." 

You leaned the broom on the wall and got into the Kitchen. "Would you like to stay for lunch?" you turned to see him, "I'm cooking," you said as you wiggled your brows, "Naoki-san taught me this recipe and I decided I had to put my lack of skills to the test..."

He stayed silent, smiling.

"Can't promise it's gonna taste good but..."

"Sure, I'd love to." he finally concluded. He sat down on the couch and you started to sweep again. 

"Are you sure I'm not interrupting, YN-san?"

"Does it make you uncomfortable that I'm cleaning?" you stared at each other. "You can help me if it makes you feel less awkward," and you tossed him the broom. You turned on the volume a little and danced your way to the kitchen to keep an eye on the food. A happy feeling in the air. He stared at you. His heart was probably not beating, or maybe it was beating too fast, he couldn't tell anymore. 

"How do you do that?" he suddenly asked.

"Do what?" you glanced at him while you kept corky dancing with the ladle in your hand.

"That. Make everything feel like a celebration..."

"Oh Kakashi," you sighed, "if I didn't make my life a celebration I would've killed myself when I was seven," and awkwardly laughed. 

Your words hit him. He never, not for a second,  would've thought that someone like you could even consider taking their life away. It was like Guy not screaming around about the power of youth. It never crossed Kakashi's mind that maybe you have had a hard life. But... After all, what the hell were you doing in Konoha anyway? It was something he asked himself often. 

But he could understand. If he hadn't been so frightened to follow in his father's footsteps, he would've killed himself too a long time ago. Maybe that was why he enjoyed your company so much, maybe you had found the way that he had needed. 

It's in the little details. 

The situation was a little surreal to him. He was helping you sweep your floor while you danced, jumping on your tiptoes, singing to the ladle as if it was your mic, and you pretended to check on the food. Your voice wasn't that bad, though.

"AAAAH!" you screamed. 

"What is it?" he turned around. A small fire had lit on the stove.

"I think I burned myself," you said covering your eye with your hand. 

"Let me see," he took your hand away gently and softly placed his fingertips on your cheek to set your eye under the light. Your gazes falling on each others’. 

He was so close to you, you could hardly breathe. It would be a lie to say you didn't yearn for his touch. Your lips parted and tickled at the need of his. 

God! Why did I ask him to be my sensei?! 

You were getting tired of respecting 'The Line'.

For a fraction of a second, Kakashi's gaze fell on your lips. 

"I- I think your eye is fine, YN-san," he stuttered and let go of your hand, "Do you want help with that?" he pointed at the food. 

"Yeah..." you said in a childish voice. 

He smirked and took over the kitchen. 

"So you really can't cook, huh?"

You shrunk your shoulders and looked at him with puppy eyes. 

"So all those nights I saw you dancing in the kitchen, what were you actually doing?"

"Hhmm.. dancing?" you looked away, pouting, "I can cook ok? just... very simple things... like..." the puppy face intensifying, "...instant ramen and stuff like that," you muttered.

He chuckled. Your sweet voice had his heart melted. You were cute. Hella cute. "I'm learning, ok? I always had someone cooking for me."

"Rich family?"

You froze. You were being too chatty, "Yeah... something like that... Oh! I love this song!!" and avoided the subject. Now the broom was your mic. 

Kakashi chuckled again. 

You looked at him from the corner of your eye as you pretended to not pay much attention. He looked fucking hot cooking. God bless you! You didn't know if you'd be able to focus on anything after this. 

He seemed happy. You knew hugging him was out of the table so you increased your vibrations to reach his chakra and feel him closer. 

After a while, his hips loosened a little and started dancing with you to the rhythm of every song as he cooked. You with the broom in hand, and him with the cooking tools. 

When the food was ready he helped you set the table. 

"I didn't know you could dance," you said as you sat down. 

"Can I?" he giggled. Yeap, life with you was easier. For the past hour, the stress of the mission had abandoned him, in fact, he hadn't even remembered he was coming back from a mission. It seemed like life outside your living room didn't matter. 

"Guess what?" 

He looked into your eyes. 

"I already finished Icha Icha," you smiled proudly.

"All of them?" he asked. The fanboy in him popping out. You nodded, "And? What do you think?" 

"I liked some chapters more than others. I hate how she's portrayed as an excuse for him to surpass himself because I think she's a great character and could have sooo much potential. She's beautiful and smart, and brave, and strong... and I get the story is not about her, but sometimes she seems like an ornament, you know... I just wish female characters were not just there to make men better cause it is not our responsibility, and I know so many women in real life that feel that their ONLY purpose, the only thing they can aspire to be, is the rehab center for some troubled dude. Though I get it's pretty romantic when you meet someone that makes you wanna overcome yourself but... I dunno. It's just not women's responsibility. We are so much more than pretty faces and hot bodies...” you paused, “On the other hand... I absolutely love him. He's just so... full of hope. He never gives up, no matter what, he never stops believing that he'll get her, and he does absolutely everything he can to deserve her. And he is hilarious. Funny how romantic these porn books can be... I feel that's just how Jiraiya sees the world in general. Because Naruto, the character from the other novel, has a very similar approach to life but with much more honorable intentions," you tilted your head and raised your eyebrow. 

Naruto...

The image of your blond kid crossed your mind making you smile.

Kakashi listened to you astonished, "And you got all that from a porn book?!"  emphasizing the 'porn book' part.

You shrugged as if it was obvious. 

He was looking at you completely amused. "I always knew those books are pure art," he scratched his head smiling.

The way his eye narrowed every time he smiled left you breathless.

Lord, I'm so screwed!

"What happened to your fence, by the way?" Kakashi reminded you of the messy paintings you hadn't fixed since that day with Naruto.

"I... I... was making life a celebration?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CH 7 (prev)    CH 9 (next)

MASTERLIST

@ren-hatake @howcanibreathewithnozaire @strawberrycakesstuff @strangerfoundmahblog @kakashishoekage @spnningtop @attsm @feelingsandemotionsnotexplored @honeypirate @keigelsss @witch-o-memes

[goodvibesprompttime]

Oooh god I need Phil-Wilbur-Techno reunion angst right this second

Ask and you shall receive! It’s pretty short-

He was going insane. 

Truthfully, Wilbur didn’t want to admit it, but he was going insane. He couldn’t have seen them, but who could mistake their eyes - one pair, a light blue, matching the ice from so long ago. The other, a deep red that if they saw him, Wilbur knew, their pupils would narrow into a perfect slit, giving the illusion that there was no pupil at all. 

No, no, he told himself. They couldn’t be on campus, they were still trapped in the ice, if not in Hell. How would they be on campus anyways, why would they choose to be on campus. There’s no college elective in learning modern advancements. Wilbur paced in his dorm room, his place of escape when he saw the people who looked like his fam... his enemies from long ago. His dormmates, a brown haired guy with heterochromia, who slept a lot, and another guy who wasn’t there 90% of the time, thankfully weren’t in the dorms. He doubt George and Manifold would understand anyways. 

He needed a distraction.

Wilbur quickly texted Tommy, who he considered a good friend, asking if he was doing anything. Ten minutes later, Tommy replied:

Big T: Sorry man! Nah aint doing shiiiiiiitttt

Wilbur smiled a bit, relieved and amused. 

GhostingYaBur: Cool. Can I come over and play MC or somethn?

Big T: Hell yeah, man! Hope u wont mind my r00mmates!

GhostingYaBur: Beeboy and Ranman? Never!

Big T: Nah, my new r00mies. They be odd.

Wilbur wasn’t aware Tommy had gotten any new roommates. Surely the blonde would’ve told him. Did they even have the room for other people? He pushed aside that gut feeling, that little voice in his head that said to run. Odd or not, he knew better than to make opinions of people before he even met them.

GhostingYaBur: Doesn’t bother me! Be over in 20 :)

On the bus ride over, Wilbur had to drown out the voices with music. 

Twenty minutes later, he got off the bus and walked a couple blocks to get to Tommy’s place. Wilbur saw that the car wasn’t parked in the driveway, he figured Tubbo and Ranboo must’ve went on another “quest” to prove the paranormal. He lived long enough to know that the paranormal was hibernating. They couldn’t do anything against the overwhelming turn of the modern age, and most of them either blended in or hid. Coward’s choice to hide, in Wilbur’s opinion, but he doesn’t have an ounce of mortality in him. 

Wilbur texted Tommy that he arrived, and Tommy texted back that the door was unlocked. Wilbur went inside and was instantly greeted by a barking dog and fox - both with white fur. Wilbur knelt down to them, petting the two until they were calm, and called out to Tommy. Apparently, the blonde was finishing up an essay he had due, but would be in the living room in a moment. Don’t mind the pets, the blonde said, they were his new roommate’s. Wilbur didn’t mind, they were adorable. Besides, Wilbur knew where the snacks were, that’s enough to entertain him for ten minutes. He know he shouldn’t be stealing Tubbo’s snacks, but the beeboy always kept the best in the hou...se...

“You...” The word made Wilbur’s tongue dry, although it was barely a whisper. Keen hearing always served him wonders, and Wilbur watched those pointy ears move downwards. Wilbur felt cold, his heart sped up, he knew his hands were shaking violently at his sides.

Wilbur thought himself losing to madness, but no. There, sitting on the counter, legs crossed in a manner Wilbur could described as relaxed. Relaxed. That pink haired tyrant? Relaxed! He wasn’t in his royal garbs, but a pair of jeans and a sweater he recognized as Ranboo’s. His mouth was half opened, head tilted back, ready to eat a small cupcake. 

The tyrant wasn’t alone either. Standing right besides the pink-haired tyrant was the Angel of Death himself, dressed just as casually, holding a polar bear cub - gods, they always loved polar bears, didn’t they... Apocolae and Amalidae were their beloved steads, more than once Wilbur saw them ride the two into battle. The Angel’s wings were always stretched out behind him, ready to take off at any moment. But here, in the kitchen, those same raven-colored wings were loose, relaxed, just barely touching the floor.

For a moment, no one moved or said anything. Wilbur darted his eyes from looking at the Angel and Tyrant, they, themselves, glanced at each other before staring back at him intensely. Then, suddenly, the Tyrant grabbed the nearest glass, one in the sink. He stood up and threw it harshly at Wilbur’s feet. It shattered and the pieces scattered into a brilliant rose of anger. The sound bounced off the walls, and rattled Wilbur’s skull.

“You!” The Tyrant roared, the pupils in his eyes disappearing into the red. His hands balled into fists at his side. Wilbur took a step back, finding that he couldn’t run. He had no control here. “You’re a traitor! We raised you as our flesh and blood, gave you everything you could ask for. We donned armour and weapons, drank potions until the effects burned our tongues, we charged into battle so you would never have to! And you raised our people - friends, allies - against us! My godchild... betrayed us... wrote us in songs and stories as the villains with our own blood... And for what...” 

Silence.

“Answer me, Wilbur.”

“Techno.” The Angel stepped to be by his side, tilted away from Wilbur. Setting a gentle hand upon Techno’s shoulder, the Angel glared daggers at the person he once called son. “He know what he did. Knows what he lost.” 

If Wilbur still had his wings, he knew they would be curled around him.

“Phil...” Techno said, hushed under his breath. “He froze you for two thousand years.”

“And you as well. My friend,” Phil turned himself entirely away from Wilbur, his wings ruffled from adrenaline and anger. “We have nothing to say to him. He made his choices, he can have the consequences of them.”

Techno glared, his face scrunched up in rage, but he inevitably nodded. The pink-haired man followed the Angel into the next room over. 

Wilbur took another step back, finding the confidence to breathe, only to run into Tommy. The blonde looked at him confused.

“I heard something break - what the fuck happened?”

Quietly, Wilbur responded: “Why the fuck is my dad and godfather your roommates?”

[glamrock-jre]

detour

chapter 1: the end of the beginning

“you really did fall in love with me, huh?” a soft, husky voice asked as it cracked.

keigo laid on the ground, tattered up and bruised. “i hate to say it but...yeah i really did.” keigo confirmed as he gave a weak smile.

———————————————————————

Three Months Ago

Now Playing: Ferrari by The Neighborhood

smoke filled the air as the outline of a dark figure stood on a balcony, contrasting the bright lights of the city that laid in front of the silhouette. the figure exhaled as they looked down on the city, taking in the sounds of the cars passing by right along with the bustling people who held conversations and were heading to their destinations.

the door to the balcony opened as the figure didn’t bother looking as they took a long drag of a neatly rolled blunt that rested between their index and middle finger.

“what?” the figure’s low and husky voice boomed softly through the air, the smoke sneaking into the air. they rested on the fence that the balcony provided, not sparing even the slightest glance towards the door.

“that’s not how you talk your momma..” a small brown skinned woman rested on the doorframe. her jet black hair was in a small curly bob as she wore a baby blue robe around her small frame.

the figure seemed to tense up for a moment and then relaxed soon after.

“i didn’t know it was you ma..” the woman walked onto the balcony and walked in front of the figure, which is her presumably her son.

before the mysterious male could take another drag from the blunt he held, his mother grabbed it and took a drag from it, blowing the smoke out.

“i told yo ass i don’t want you smokin this shit.” the woman said in a soft but firm voice as she threw it off of the balcony, witnessing it fall into the lights of the city.

“i know ma. im sorry-“

“no no no baby boy. i don’t want you sayin that sorry shit either.” the mother interrupted as she rested her finger over her son’s lips gently, shushing him.

the unknown male seemed to visibly tense at his mother’s words once more.

“stand up baby.” the unknown male stood up almost instantly as the small woman sat down on the lounge chair the figure was previously in.

“come rest your head in my lap and tell your ma wassup wit you.”

“ma-“

“wasn’t askin. if you not gone tell me, at least let me calm your nerves cause you standin over there like you nervous and shit.” the figure seemed hesitant for a moment but eventually sat beside his mother and then rested his head on her lap.

she immediately caresses her son’s head as she ran her fingers though his hair, her fingers getting caught in some parts because of the kinkiness of her son’s hair. this same process went on for a few moments until the unknown male spoke.

“you ain’t gone ask nothin ma?” his soft, smoky voice questioned as the woman sat there in silence.

“you a grown man, not a little boy. it’s up to you if you gone tell me or not.” the unspecified male relaxed and sighed softly.

“i got something that’s gone benefit you and the family.” the woman hummed softly, urging the male to continue.

“it’s a real good plan that i been thinkin of for a while now and i think it’s gone work.” the woman breathed deeply as she pat her son’s head softly.

“sit up honey.” the unidentified male sat up and the mother snapped her fingers. water appeared suddenly and molded into a brush. she grabbed the brush and started to brush her son’s hair.

“watashi wa watashitachi no shinpai ni tsuite o shiri ni nani o tsutaemasu ka?”(“what i tell yo ass about worryin about us?) the sudden language change startled the unidentified male as he let out a shaky sigh.

“yaru ni kono detaramena basho kara dete moraitai..“ (“because i want yall to get out of this bullshit place..” he started as he took a deep breath.

“koko de yaru no tame no tawagotode wa arimasen. korera no hitobito wa karera ga yaru o fakku suru koto ga dekiru to omoimasu, soshite watashi wa finade wa arimasen korera no guchi ni karera ga yaru o hashira seru to omowa semasu-“ (“aint shit for yall here. these people think they can fuck yall over and i aint finna let these bitches think that they run yall-“

“mite yo kuso kuchi no shōnen.” (“watch yo damn mouth boy.”) the woman scolded as she yanked the male’s hair. the male let out a small yelp of pain as he whined slightly.

“gomen'nasai, okāsan.” (“sorry ma.”) the male apologized as the woman continued to brush his hair.

“listen baby...” the mother twisted the male’s hair with intense care. “i told you ain’t gotta about worry about us. you need to worry about yourself and what you gone do. you worry about other people too damn much that you don’t focus on yourself.”

“i don’t care about myself ma-“

“well i do dammit. plus, there won’t be a you to care for others in the future if you don’t take care of you-“

“i KNOW ma.” the sudden outburst made the atmosphere tense. the mother sighed as she put her son’s hair in a messy bun.

“look at me son.” the unrevealed male turned to his mother. the woman wrapped her arms around her son’s small physique. the male learned into her touch.

“i got your twin brothers and sisters to take care of me.” the male opened his mouth until his mother spoke again.

“they strong enough to keep me and yo daddy safe, okay?” the male nodded softly.

“i know you my lil tough one and the second man of the house...” the small woman smiled softly. “but you ain’t always gotta be strong and fight for us. we can hold our own.”

“you believe in your brother and sister’s strength right?” the unknown male nodded and the woman laid a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“okay then. you should rest baby.” the figure grabbed his mother’s hands and cradled them against his chest gently.

“you gone head ma. imma sleep in a few.” the woman gave a slight nod and stood up, walking to the balcony door. the mother turned around a bit and gazed at her son once more.

“i love you, son.” the unspecified male strides over to the fence of the balcony. the woman looked away and walked through the door. she froze when her son spoke.

Now Playing: Mount Everest by Labrinth

“watashi mo anata o aishiteimasu okāsan.” (“i love you too ma.”) the mother smiled gently, a tear riding down her cheek. she disappeared behind the door as she locked it. the son sighed softly as three pairs of wings sprouted from his back. his wings soon turned into two bodies, one of light and the other of darkness.

“hmm...what you gone do my lil cobra?” the dark body questioned, its deep and sensual voice spoke softly to the unspecified man.

“why are y’all two here?” the man questioned in annoyance as he gazed at the city again, resting his face against his hand.

“aww don’t be like that. we’re just your two split personalities tryin to see if you finna go through wit this plan you got goin.” the dark one spoke once more as he casted his distorted hand around the male’s neck, applying a bit of pressure.

“seduction ain’t gone work on me, kurumi. you get it from me after all.” the dark body, kurumi, let out a distorted fruity laugh.

“you finna give me a lecture or somethin, kioyoshi? you just there bein silent and shit, which is dry of you.” the light body, kioyoshi, shifted slightly as it stayed quiet for a moment. there was a tense silence for a moment until kioyoshi spoke softly.

“you know ma is right...” the man sighed disapprovingly and shook his head.

“ma just be sayin that shit to keep me from doin shit that she think is stupid-“

“well it is kinda stupid doe-“

“nobody asked you, kurumi.” the man rolled his eyes slightly as he continued to speak.

“what i came up wit ain’t gone only benefit our family but it’s gone benefit us too. y’all need to show some more trust and faith in me.”

“me and kurumi do trust you-“ kioyoshi started in a soft, deep voice that was also distorted before the unspecified male growled lowly and slammed his hands on the fence of the balcony, shutting kioyoshi up.

“WELL LET ME DO WHAT THE HELL I NEED TO DO DAMMIT!” a silence enveloped the three beings in a stiff quietness. it felt like it lasted forever until the man spoke once more, breathing deeply. he put his weight on the fence of the balcony.

“i ain’t mean to yell at you, kioyoshi. but i want y’all two to be with me on this shit. i feel like im doin the right thing this time. i just need at least y’all to agree to help me go through with this.”

another stiff silence. after a few minutes, the two bodies molded back into wings.

“kioyoshi? kurumi?” the man called out to the two. each of his wings fluttered when he did so.

“thank y’all...” the man spoke contently as he stood on the fence, closing his eyes.

‘this time...i won’t fail..’ that was the man’s last thought when he fell from the balcony, leaving a black feather and a white feather with blood splattered on them on the fence.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Three Months Later (Present Day)

Now Playing: W.A.B by Megan Thee Stallion

keigo walked down a sidewalk with his hands in his pockets, gazing at his surroundings.

the ringing of a bell whenever someone entered a cafe, the erupting conversations that went on between two or more people as they walked down the sidewalks, the cars that occasionally zoomed down the streets of Japan, and let’s not forget- the commotion that surrounded him when he was noticed by his fans.

keigo gave a smug smile as he bathed in the attention he got. he started interacting with his fans, taking pics with them, showing off his wings and all of that jazz.

“can you take a picture with me? please?” an excited girl asked as keigo smiled and put up a peace sign.

“say cheese.” the camera flashed as the girl thanked him and ran off.

keigo looked around as he smiled in content then he saw an outline of a figure on top of a building. he tilted his head softly as the figure walked away. keigo shrugged it off and went back to appealing his fans.

suddenly, gunshots went off and civilians started shrieking and running away from the source. keigo looked around, seeing everyone panic and run around.

“i need for everyone to get to safety as quick as they can!” keigo yelled over the crowd as they kept running to safety. keigo flew into the air and looked around to spot where the bullets were coming from. his sharp eye snapped to a woman who held a gun. she had a psychotic grin on her face that was very disturbing right along with her pink dilated pupils.

a sweet but sinister giggle erupted throughout the rowdy crowd.

“come on hero~ aren’t you gonna save your sweet little civilians or just let them die?” she started blindly shooting at the civilians. some of the targeted civilians fell to the ground due to getting a shot in the back, leg, or the head unfortunately.

keigo sent his feathers off towards the armed woman. the woman laughed once more and her eyes glowed brightly as she pulled her head forward as another head came out of her neck, then her arms, and then finally her entire body. the feathers pierced the first body as it fell limp on the ground.

“well that’s something you don’t see everyday.” keigo stated in an amused tone.

the woman giggles once more as she did the same action with much more swiftness than before, creating more replications of herself.

“you heroes make my job too easy~” she started running around everywhere, making more clones as she went.

keigo quickly flew after her and shot more feathers towards the woman. he kept hitting clones as the woman laughed more.

“i would’ve thought that you were more sharp than this, hero.” keigo gave a look of confusion for a moment as he heard more of the civilians scream. he quickly looked and noticed the replicas of the woman shooting the civilians.

“dammit..” he shot some feathers toward the previous replicas as they fell one by one.

‘shit...im running out of feathers..’ keigo landed on the ground softly as he struggled to keep up with the clones and the actual person.

“the hero’s in a pretty tough situation...~” the woman laughed hysterically as she stood on a mountain of her replicas.

“just like my sister...who was just as helpless as these dumb civilians who somehow gets to get their lives saved.” she snarled as she shot a bullet towards keigo.

Now Playing: What’s New by Megan Thee Stallion

“these damn heroes..” a small male flipped from the top of a building and glided down towards the ground. he took a deep breath and opened his mouth.

a grating scream resonated throughout the street as everyone covered their ears.

“what the hell!” roared the psychotic woman as she covered her ears.

keigo winced as his ears started ringing as he looked at the ascending figure.

the momentum of the unknown male’s body seemed to slow down as he landed on the ground with grace and swiftness.

“now who’s the crazy lady tryna kill civilians and shit?” the male looks around at everyone as he pops a red lollipop in his mouth, fixing his outfit.

keigo watched from afar as he made a quick observation of the small man.

the man wore a tight fitting red and black jumpsuit with his chest out (which showed his smooth brown skin) and it snuggled against his curves rather nicely, long red bottom open-toe heels that reached up mid-thigh, black gloves that fanned out at the wrist, four red spiky thigh chokers, silver chains decorated the black belt and the silver zipper at the top of the jumpsuit, and a red and black mask covered his face.

the male’s semi-kinky hair seemed to be in a low messy bun as two curly strands hung in front of his face. lastly, his piercing two-toned eyes had a playful intent in them.

everyone looked at the unknown male in awe and perplexity. the unknown male finally finished fixing his outfit and looked at everyone.

“uh hello? ain’t nobody gone say nothing?” the male waves his hand and gave a perplexing look.

“it’s me.” the woman spoke out and smiles sinisterly. the male looked up at the woman and broke out into laughter as the woman gave a look of confusion.

“oh you deadass?” the male asked in slight surprise as the woman growled a bit.

“you little-”

“so you gonna come down here and fight like a real woman or are you gone stay there bein a pussy?” the still unknown male swirled his tongue around his lollipop. “you’re gonna get your ass beat anyway so lets get this over wit already.”

“you’re mocking me!” the woman screamed as some of her replicas from the pile got up and aimed their guns at the unknown male. he shined a toothy grin as his fangs showed. he tossed away the lollipop stick from his mouth, the candy part being gone.

“you think surrounding me with yourself is gone stop me from gettin to you? tedious much?” the small male rolled his eyes out of boredom as he rested one of his hands on his hip and the other playing with a strand of his hair.

the woman snarled as she yelled, “you cocky bastard!” each of the woman’s replicas shot their guns as bullets headed straight for the male.

the brown skinned male licked his lips and chuckled softly.

“stop.” the bullets slowed to a complete stop in front of his face. the small male pushed a few bullets aside with two fingers as he walked towards the clones, shining a smirk.

‘that’s not something you see everyday either.’ keigo thought as he (and the crowd) observed the male’s actions, recollecting his feathers.

“go.” the bullets hit the building behind the male, causing the window glass to break. the woman scowled as all of her clones ran towards the male as quick as they could. the small male sighed as he effortlessly dodged each of the clones’ attacks towards him.

keigo’s gaze stayed glued onto the male as he watched the small male dodged the attacks with swiftness.

“you gone do somethin, hero?” the male’s eyes connected with keigo’s as he parried a clone’s attack. “last time i checked, heroes ain’t supposed to be standin ‘round when there’s conflict happenin.”

keigo broke the eye contact and looked at the woman as she started to flee. keigo quickly fell to her and sent his feathers to knock her down.

“i hate you fucking heroes so much!” the woman shot at keigo as he quickly dodged the bullet and sent more of his feathers and knocked her gun out of her hand.

the woman grunted as the gun flew through the air. the small male caught the gun and looked at it.

“disassemble.” as soon as the small male spoke those words, the gun fell apart in his hands. he walked up to the woman in her vulnerable state as he stomped his heel into one of her hands, causing the woman to yelp in pain as she tried to push his foot.

Now Playing: Hmp by Micah

“who are you?” keigo landed on the ground as he strides over to the male and the struggling woman. the male looked at keigo for a moment and then casted his gaze back to the woman.

“who’s askin?” keigo let out an amused sound, shining a smug smile.

“pro hero hawks. number-“

“okay hawks. imma need for you to deal with this woman already.” the woman who was still struggling decided bite the male’s ankle. the male gave a glare and grabbed the woman by her hair, picking her up off of the ground.

“ow! let go of me!” the woman thrashed around in his grip as the male went to her ear, softly whispering inaudible words to her. the woman resistance slowly came to a stop as her body fell limp.

“you’re a defiant one.”

“i get that a lot.”

“are you a civilian?” keigo questioned as the police arrived to get the unconscious woman.

“i don’t believe that’s any of your business.” the small male put another lollipop in his mouth as he glanced at keigo.

“well i gotta make sure you aren’t using your quirk without a license. it’s a penalty for that type of stuff, yknow.” keigo took a few steps towards the unknown man.

‘he’s definitely not as small as i thought he was.’ keigo thought as he noticed that the man was almost the same height as himself, just an inch shorter. he also took notice to his mismatched eyes, which were red and hazel.

“what’s your quirk?”

“that’s not your business either.” keigo let out a soft laugh and looked the male.

“that attitude of yours is entertaining. i like it.” the brown skinned male raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms slightly, smirking a little.

“i see you one of those heroes that don’t let people get under your skin....” the small male gave keigo a down-up look.

“heh i guess you could say that.”

“but eventually they would fuck you over.” the male finished as he played with a chain on his outfit.

“no one can fuck me over so that’s where you’re wrong.” keigo disagreed confidently as he tilted his head slightly. the male let out a sound of amusement as he scratched his head.

“nah cause i know when a cocky, arrogant, selfish bastard is nearby. my radar’s goin off a mile a second right now.” keigo once again laughed with a slightly bitter tone.

“and i know when there’s a cocky, bratty, little bitch when i see one and they’re right in front of me.” a vein popped out of the brown skin’s forehead and he clenched his fists slightly.

“you know what? im not finna entertain you.” the still unspecified male laughed it off as he turned away from keigo.

“it’s not like you haven’t already i mean look at you.” keigo provoked with a smug tone.

“my self control holdin me back by a thread. a skinny, weak, thin thread so you might wanna watch your mouth.” keigo smirked and spoke once more.

“you feelin’ froggy? then leap.” as soon as those words came out of keigo’s mouth, a high roundhouse kick was delivered to his face. keigo grunted as he stumbled a bit. the male delivered a kick to his chest soon after, causing keigo to collapse to the ground. the male walked up to the winged man, resting his foot on his chest and leaning on his knee.

“this is somethin to remember me by.” keigo looked up at the male, noticing that he was holding a yellow lollipop. the brown skinned male applied pressure onto his chest, making keigo groan in pain as he tried to push the man’s heel off of his chest.

“imma let you slide because you don’t know me and i don’t know you.” the male raised his heel off of keigo’s chest and stood up. keigo gasped for air and coughed harshly for a moment.

“and imma just give you this.” he tossed the yellow lollipop onto keigo’s chest and smirked slightly. the police arrived at that moment and aimed their guns at the unknown man.

“ima sugu te o agete kudasai!” (“put your hands up now!”) the brown skinned man sighed and rested his hands behind his head, stretching softly.

“it must be because im half black..” the man spoke to no one in particular as he heard the police cock their guns. he glanced over at the psychotic woman’s body, noticing that she started to wake up from her short slumber.

“watashi wa anata ga anata no jū o mukerubeki monode wa arimasen...” (“im not the one you should be pointing your guns at..”) he nudged his head towards the woman on the ground, making the police look and aim their guns at her. the woman grunted as she looked around tiredly, quickly rising to her feet. she looked around frantically and then snarled as she saw the brown skin man.

“im going to KILL YOU!” the woman screamed as she aimed her gun at the male. wings grew from the male’s back as he leaped into the air.

“ima wa saru watashi no kyūdesu.” (“now’s my que to leave.”) keigo gazed at the male and the man connected his eyes with his. he winked at keigo and shined a toothy smile. the woman gritted her teeth and started shooting at the male. he flew around, dodging the bullets swiftly.

“taka no mawari ni aimashō.” (“see ya around hawks.”) the police tackled the woman down, causing her to struggle once more. keigo stood up and wiped the dirt off of his face, grabbing the lollipop and putting it in his jacket pocket and watched the man fly off towards a building.

Now Playing: West Coast by Lana Del Ray

“you’re not getting away that easily.” keigo quickly flew after the man. the male looked behind him and frowned a bit, noticing that he was following after him.

“i said see ya around for a reason.” the male flew faster as keigo was gaining up on him.

“i can’t just let some random person who decided to use their quirk get away like it’s just something to do normally when they should know that there are laws for this type of shit.” the male rolled his eyes in annoyance and landed on the building and started to sprint. keigo also landed and continued to chase the man.

“if you want your ass kicked again you could just say so cause i’d do so gladly.” the man leered as he noticed keigo keeping up with him.

“you caught me off guard so that doesn’t count.” keigo reached out to grab at the man until the man hopped to another building. he rolled so the landing wouldn’t be rough in his ankles. keigo skidded to stop himself from falling off the edge.

“well you heroes s’posed to have yall guards up no matter how safe you think the situation is. that’s your fault.” the man spoke from the other building as he ran off again.

‘what is with this guy?’ keigo pondered as he flew after the man once again. the man leaped from building to building as keigo wasn’t too far behind.

‘what is with this guy?’ the man thought as he saw keigo chasing him once more. he sprinted quicker whenever keigo got too close for comfort.

“well you didn’t seem like a threat to me. i mean you’re so small.” keigo mocked as he flew beside the man, throwing a smug look his way. the man looked over at him and glared as leaped over and jumped at keigo. the man landed on keigo’s back and stood on it.

“you talk a whole lotta shit for a man to be ridin on your back.” the man made known as he started stomping on the winged male’s back, making keigo grunt in discomfort as he struggled to keep flying.

“my wings are back there so watch your step.” the male smiled as he looked down at the flying man.

“oh you mean these?” the man stepped on one of keigo’s red wings as he groaned painfully. his balance was thrown off and the man stumbled upon his balance being thrown off too.

“mind you, you’re on top of me and im the one flying so if i go down, so do you.” the male let out a deep chuckle as he grabbed onto a streetlight pole and he balanced on top of it like a cat would with a beam.

“you might wanna watch ya face.” the man warned as keigo looked in front of him. he would’ve face planted into a window if he didn’t fly upwards in time. he went on top of a building and looked for the man once again. he searched around everywhere until he saw a glimpse of long kinky hair on another building. keigo quickly soared to the building in seconds and landed on top of it.

“im done playin cat and mouse, actually, bird and prey. you can come out and come with me or im gonna have to use my feathers.” keigo stated as he was greeted back with silence. he cautiously grabbed two of his feathers and peeked around a fragment of the roof, seeing no one there.

suddenly, keigo jumped away from the building fragment and looked at where he stood before.

“you really startin to piss me off.” the man walked out of the shadows as he glowered at keigo.

“there you are-“ keigo dodged a punch from the man and grabbed the man’s wrist. the man turned as he threw a kick at keigo, only for keigo to push his leg away and twist his arm behind his back.

“ah!” the man gritted his teeth and growled as he tried to wiggle out of keigo’s iron grip. keigo pulled the man’s hair, making the man cry out in pain and grab at keigo’s hand.

“it’s the hair every fuckin time..” the man muttered as keigo pulled his hair enough to make the man look up at him.

mismatched eyes gazed at golden ones. for a moment, they both were just the only ones there, which they actually were but like they were in a different world.

“if you wanted my name you could’ve just asked.” the man broke the silence as his voice got a bit shaky. keigo snapped back to reality and showed a complacent smirk.

“but it wouldn’t have been my business though, huh?” the man rolled his eyes, letting out a small laugh.

“touché. but can you at least let me stand up and introduce myself?” keigo raised an eyebrow slightly.

“im deadass not gone do nothing, i swear.” the man assured with a smile.

“that smile of yours says otherwise.”

“you gone have to trust me?”

“i just met you.” the man sighed deeply.

“fine. fine i won’t actually do anything for real.” keigo hesitated but in the end he let the man go. the man breathes deeply and stands up, looking at keigo.

“where’s my lollipop?” the man suddenly asked as he scratched his head. keigo look perplexed for a moment and then he thought for a moment, flashing back to when the man gave him a lollipop after he kicked him earlier.

“i have it.”

“good i want it back cause that’s my favorite flavor.” the man was about to grab it from keigo until he moved it away from him.

“ah ah ah~ not until you tell me your name.”

“really?”

“it’s only fair. you gimme your name, i’ll give you your lollipop back.” the man rolled his eyes again, crossing his arms. keigo smiled as he started humming patiently.

“rubae.” keigo paused and smirked at the man, now known as rubae, humming in satisfaction. rinse reaches for his lollipop and keigo shrugged and gave it to him.

“you looked like you was about to some slick shit.”

“for a moment but im a man of my word.” rubae bit his lip a little and opened the lollipop. he walked up to keigo and looked up at him.

Now Playing: Talk to Me by Matthew Bento

“why you take a sudden interest in me? i could be a villain, maybe even worse.” keigo breathes deeply and opens his mouth to speak.

“because i saw you lookin at me earlier. yknow from that rooftop.” rubae tsked and shook his head.

“how would you know if that was me?”

“because i remember seeing that kinky hair of yours. it looks really nice too.” rubae smiled and looked down.

“we just met and you over here flirtin and shit..” keigo chuckled softly and leans towards rubae.

“what? don’t know how to take a compliment?” keigo pointed out as rubae took a few steps back.

“no. i mean yeah, but...“ rubae stammered as keigo laughed softly.

“buuut?”

rubae shook his head and stayed quiet. then keigo raised rubae’s face up by his chin, sending shivers down rubae’s body.

“what happened to that confidence all of a sudden? you went from talkin’ shit to being a bashful mess.” rubae realized how close their faces were to each other.

‘he comin at me strong as fuck...” rubae thought as he took a deep breath and put the lollipop into keigo’s mouth. he walked past keigo and stood on the edge of the rooftop.

“i thought you wanted this back.” keigo remarked as he turned to rubae, taking the lollipop out of his mouth.

“you look like you needed to try somethin new.” rubae replied, making keigo laugh once more. rubae walked forward, preparing himself to fall.

“watashi wa sugu ni anata ni audarou to kanjimashita.” (“got a feelin i’ll be seein you soon.”) rubae smiled slightly as his mismatched eyes glowed in the sunlight, his kinky long hair dancing in the wind.

“sorenara minakereba naranai nodesu ne?” (“just gone have to see, huh?”) rubae ended with a playful tone. he fell back off of the rooftop of the building. keigo quickly ran to edge, only to see that rubae wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“hm..” many thoughts came to keigo in an instant as he walked away from the edge going back to the street where he and rubae met.

A/N: wassup y’all kazu here !! this the first chapter of detour and i decided to do this story because it really just popped up into my mind and i wanted to just share my creativity with y’all. tbh, i feel like im also writing this story cuz i wanted to make my poc/black people and the males feel included bcuz y’all very much deserve to feel included. i know it’s my oc but i still hope that y’all will enjoy the story. hope y’all enjoyed and look forward to the second chapter of detour. thx for readin <33

[uniquecreations]

“Clueless”

 I don’t know why I agreed to go out to a house party on a damn Thursday night knowing we had school in the morning. I guess that’s the price you pay when you lose a bet playing 2k against a known cheater. I knew Dylan cheated because there was no way in hell someone could come back from a 20-point deficit with 5 minutes left in the game unless they cheated. It was my fault, I looked away for a few seconds to check my text and when I looked back at the game, he was catching up to me.

     “That was such a bitch move Dylan, you couldn’t just take an ass whooping like a man huh?” I said turning the game off.

  “Liam bro, you couldn’t beat me if I gave you a full half worth of scores so shut that shit up and go pick out your clothes……... Loser.” He said smirking.

  “Fuck you.” I said walking back to my room.

       I was glad my parents were out of town on business and my grandma kept my two siblings because there would have been no way in hell I would have been able to talk them into letting me stay out past curfew on a weekday. I heard my shower in the hall turn on letting me know that Dylan was about to get in there. I would have to use my parent’s bathroom to shower. 20 mins later I had showered, lotioned up my body, put on my underwear and jeans. I was walking back to my room when I saw that my bathroom door was open. When I got to the door, I saw Dylan standing in the mirror taking selfies, I noticed that we had the same Express underwear on. I stepped inside the bathroom with him and we both took a selfie with our shirts off.

                                 Dylan (Left) & Liam (Right)

“This was a solo pic.” He said shoving me a little.

  “My house, my bathroom, my mirror, so I do what I want.”

  “I know you not still salty about losing that game?”

  “Nope now hurry up because I’m not trying to be out all night, we both have school in the morning, or did you forget about that?”

   “Nope that’s why I brought my school uniform with me.”

 “Oh, so you are staying over here tonight?”

 “Duh nigga”

 “Whatever.” I said walking out the bathroom and back to my room to finish getting dressed.

   We made it to the party, and it was more people than I expected it to be here for a weekday party. Once we made it inside, Dylan disappeared probably to go dance with some girl or find out where they had the liquor at. I walked around trying to find a spot to post up in when I literally bumped into Zakaria, this guy from school. He and I text often also he is the only guy I have experienced anything sexual with. It wasn’t anything to extreme just a few jackoff sessions afterschool in the boy’s bathroom.

  “Oh shit, I would’ve never expected to see you here.” Zakaria said looking at me.

  “Yeah, I lost a bet to Dylan cheating ass so I’m here.” I said trying to avoid any eye contact with him.

  “Oh, he is here?” He asked with a hint of malice in his voice or maybe it was jealousy I don’t know.

  “I don’t understand what’s yall beef with each other, yall was close at one time and yall are on the same football team.” I said shaking my head.

  “Because that nigga thinks he is entitled since he made starter.” From the way he shrugged his shoulders after that comment led me to believe that there was more to it than just that bullshit excuse.

  “Whatever, I’m going to get me bottle water and some fresh air, I will catch you later.” I said about to turn to walk off but he stopped me, he leaned in closer so that only I could hear him.

  “You wanna get together later on?” I looked at him after he said but before I could respond to him, Dylan came out of nowhere.

  “What’s going on over here?” He said giving Zakaria a death stare.

  “Just chatting with the homie, why you so worried bum ass nigga?” After Zakaria asked that, I noticed Dylan fist ball up and I knew I had to separate this two before a fight broke out in these folk’s house.

   “Ayy chill out with all that.” I said pulling Dylan back a bit, then I looked over at Zakaria who had a smirk on his face. “I’ma holla at you at school Zak.” I said before walking away with Dylan.

  Once we were far away from Zakaria, I looked at Dylan and I could tell he was still fuming from that lil altercation. After that, I knew it was time to go because if we stayed here any longer, those two would be probably go at it again. I still don’t get why Dylan got so mad at him in that short amount of time, but I was damn sure going to get to the bottom of it before this get to far out of hand. I didn’t say anything to Dylan, I just started walking towards my car, so he already knew I was over this shit. He walked to the car with an even more pissed off look on his face, but I didn’t give one damn.

  “I don’t know why I gotta leave, that bitch ass dude started with me……… I didn’t get a buzz yet.” He said scoffing in the passenger seat.

  “No, you were the one came over there with the shits, we were just talking, but since we on that what’s the reason behind this beef yall got going on?” I said pulling off and heading towards my house.

  “Cause he a fake ass nigga.” He said looking out the window.

  “You see the funny thing about that is your lying and so is he because when I asked him what yall beef was he told me something different. He said it had to do with football and you starting this season.”

  “Oh, well it had my fault that nigga trash……. I don’t wanna talk about his bitch ass no more so drop it.” He said pulling out his phone.

  “I just don’t get it Dylan, yall was cool at one point and now yall enemies, shit don’t make sense at all.”

   “Whatever Liam I don’t wanna talk about this because its pointless and all it’s going to do is piss me off so leave it alone.” I decided not to press the issue anymore for right now, but this was far from done with.

Once we made it back to my house, I went inside and upstairs to my room. I pulled off my clothes and put on some night shorts. I laid across my bed, turned the tv on and began looking for something to watch when I got a text on my phone. It was from Zak, he asked could he come over or could I meet him somewhere for one of our sessions. I didn’t bother responding to him because there was no way in hell, I was going to let him come over here while Dylan was here and second, we weren’t close like that for him to be coming to my house. The other problem was me going somewhere with him would bring up a lot of questions from Dylan ~ not that I had anything to explain to him~ that I wasn’t in the mood for. So, I finally text him back telling him another time. After a little back and forth with Zak, I sat my phone down and began watching tv when I heard music coming from the guest room down the hall. I paid it no mind because usually when he was mad, he would listen to music to calm himself down. The music that he was playing was old 90’s r&b, the kind of music our folks would listen to at cookouts. It was after 11pm by this point and if he wanted to stay up then that was on him but he would have to turn that music down so I could get some sleep.

  I walked down to where the room was and walked in, he was laying in the bed shirtless with a pillow covering his head. “You good?” I asked from the door.

  “Why don’t ask your best friend Zakaria if he is good or not?” He said not moving the pillow from his head.

  “What kinda fucking question is that? I was checking on yo punk ass but you trippin right now, anyway I’m going to sleep so turn that music down or put some headphones on.” I said walking back to my room. I walked in my room and slammed my door close, great now I was going to bed mad. About 20 minutes later I heard my room door opening. “Don’t come fucking with me Dylan or I’m putting yo bitch ass out my house.”

  “Don’t get beat up but I gotta question for you……... you wanna know what my problem is with your lil friend?” I sat up in the bed.

  “I really don’t give a damn at this point just get out my room.” I said getting irritated. He took a deep breath before he started talking again.

  “He tried to come on to me in the locker last year and I turned him down. I thought we were good until he started doing slick underhanded shit while on the field like purposely not block for me or cutting into my plays to get the ball.” Hearing him say that instantly made me think back to those games and how their friendship had changed during that time.

  “Why you aint never tell me? We been boys since elementary school, if that nigga tried you like that then I woulda beat his ass.”

  “Beat his ass or jackoff with him some more to keep him from trying his bullshit?” He said looking me in the eyes. It seemed my whole body froze, and I couldn’t find words to speak. “Yeah I know about that.”

  “Ummm I don’t know what you talking about.” I said looking at the blank tv screen.

  “So, we lying to each other now, maybe you should be careful who you do shit with and you wouldn’t have to worry about your business getting exposed.”

  “Who else knows?”  I asked.

  “From my understanding it’s just me because your lil boyfriend thought by telling me that it would make me want him. But my other question to you is why him?”

  “I don’t know it kinda just happened one day and been going on ever since ………. I can’t believe that hoe ass nigga ran his mouth like a bitch.” I said shaking my head but what I wasn’t expecting was what came out his mouth next.

  “Yeah that may be true but that’s not answering my question…… why him when I’ve been here all along?” I looked at him and once again I was speechless. “I’ve always held out hope that one day you would notice me, but it never came and when he told me that I was pissed.”

  “Why you never said nothing to me about it if you were feeling that way towards me?”

  “Because I thought maybe it was stretching because I’ve seen you pull more hoes than a lil bit, so I kept that to myself.” He said looking at the floor, for some odd reason I felt my body being drawn to him.

  “You should have told me D.” I said walking towards him. “What the old saying your mom use……. Close mouths don’t get fed.” I said lifting his head up, the look in his eyes was something I never saw before from him. We stood for what seemed like forever just looking at each other but it was a few seconds before he leaned in and place his lips on mine. The kiss began to get even more passionate as the seconds rolled by. Somehow, we ended up on my bed with me on top of him still kissing him, our hands roamed around each other bodies in perfect sync with one another.

  “We should stop before things go to far.” He said rubbing my face.

  “Yeah you right……… Dylan I’m glad you finally said something to me and I’m sorry that I didn’t notice this awhile ago.” I said kissing him again.

  “Its ok, we have the rest of high school and college to make up for lost time.” He kissed me again and got out the bed.

  “Where you going?” I asked looking at him confused.

  “To the guest room nigga duh.”

  “Sleep in here with me.”

  “You sure?”

   “I’m sure.” He walked back to the bed and got in behind me. I don’t know what the future has in store for us but I what I do know is that first in the morning I’m beating Zakaria ass. Once that’s done then I’m going to focus on making up for lost time and stop being so clueless with Dylan.

(Pictures used does not reflect the actual Characters just as visuals for the story)

©uniquecreations 2020

[sergeant-donny-donowitz]

The Distraction (Inglourious Basterds Imagine/Fem!Reader)

Requested by @perawuat

@owba-chan @war-obsessed @inglourious-imagines @tealaquinn @struggling-bee @frozenhuntress67 @kwyloz @sodapop182

Let me know if you wanna be added to the IB or OUATIH taglists! :)

___________ You were pacing around in the abandoned inn across the way from the tavern. You weren't worried at all about Operation Kino until Aldo pointed out that fighting in a basement was a terrible idea. You also weren't thrilled when Aldo decided you couldn't go with Hugo and Wicki.  For a moment, he was worried you'd do something stupid.

Wicki and Hugo were your best friends, after all, but at the end of the day, you were soldiers. Still, you'd begged to be there with them, but Aldo just couldn't risk losing all his German speaking basterds at once.

The boys' speculations weren't making things any better. "What if Wicki was right? What if she ain't even in there?" Utivich was the only one trying to stay positive, though you could tell he didn't even believe what he was saying. "N-no...she's gotta be." You looked out the window, and muttered, "That's what I'm worried about..." Hirschberg looked around with his eyebrow raised, "Hugo seemed eager to use that knife, didn't he?" Omar frowned, "Did he?" Donny shrugged, "Who cares, we can never tell with him anyway." You rolled your eyes. Smitty said, "Well, he seemed calm enough." You sat down, and it kind of relieved Aldo. But you weren't. You knew Hugo. That man hadn't been calm since 1936.

You were just kids then. You were what? Sixteen, maybe seventeen years old when the whole world around you turned upside down. But...Smitty had a point. Relatively speaking, Hugo was calm at the moment. "That tommy's right...They can handle themselves." Donny chuckled, "You're kiddin' yourself. They're all outta their goddamn minds." "Y/n." You looked up. You'd been too quiet for Aldo's liking. You usually had an opinion or two, and he was worried that you hadn't said a word. Usually, you kept your head in the worst of it. When there were shellings, or air raids, you were the one that held them together. But, when worse came to worse, you were also known to be one of the more ruthless basterds. When the boys lost Michael, Simon, and Andy, you went on a sort of rampage. Needless to say, you'd paid off your debt to Aldo long ago. "Where the hell you think you're goin' private?" You had that look on your face. The same look in your eyes as when you wanted revenge for the three lost basterds. "To get a drink." You pushed past them, and looked in front of a dust covered, cracked mirror. They all recognized that look. That insatiable, basterdized grin. Those vengeful eyes blinded by the whims of Nemesis. "Y/n, what the hell are you doing?" You smirked, as you undid the top button of your shirt, and sighed, in a mocking lament, "Boys are the same on any side of war."

Donny sat up slowly from the creaking bed. "Wh..what?"

You turned to meet Aldo's stern gaze, and the privates' confusion. You gestured to Donny's gaping eyes and mouth, and you grinned, "See?" Aldo rolled his eyes, "This ain't gon' work, Y/n." "You're right." You undid two buttons. And you walked to a dust covered desk, and picked up Wicki's pack of cigarettes. Knowing if you escaped at all, it would be quick, and he'd be pissed without them. You knew the only thing to help Wicki keep his head was a cigarette.

You took another step closer to the door, and the basterds were too awed and shocked to say anything. They knew you, and they knew Hugo and Wicki were like your brothers. You'd be damned if a botched rendezvous was how they went out. And without you? You wouldn't give the nazis that satisfaction. You smirked as you packed away the cigarettes in your pocket. Aldo stood directly in front of you, with his hands at his hips. He could order you to stay. There were two outcomes to that. One, you'd stay, and....worst case scenario, you'd silenly hold resentment against your lieutenant for the rest of your life. Two, you'd disobey direct orders and whatever happened after, be it a victory or defeat, would go down in history. Aldo knew you.  You knew there were consequences to disobeying direct orders, but you weren't scared of dishonorable discharge, or being imprisoned. Not when it meant that Hugo and Wicki had a chance. You were halfway out the door when your lieutenant said, "Y/n?" You sighed, and stopped in your tracks, bracing yourself for orders, or even the boys being ordered to pull you back. Aldo smiled a little, "Leave the bat. Don't wanna get more attention than you need, aint that right?" You looked down, seeing Donny's bat in your hands. You'd hardly realized you'd taken it. Frankly, neither did Donny.  His mouth was still hanging wide open, and he managed to shake his head, "I didn't even n-" Hirschberg chuckled, "Yeah, we know, big guy."

Aldo nodded, admiring you. He was a lot like you when he was younger. A trouble maker. So, he couldn't in good conscience, let you go out there empty-handed. "Take this with you." He handed his knife over to you, and you took it carefully in your hands, the dim lights creating a bright silver glint. You looked up at him... No other basterd had ever touched his knife. "You make sure you bring that back to me, ya hear?" That was his way of saying he couldn't lose any more basterds, so you'd better be around to give it back to him yourself. You nodded with a slight smirk, and saluted him, "Yes, sir." So you went down what seemed to be endless stairs, and crossed the eerily silent street, with only the muffled, distant tavern chattering, and muted warm lights to guide you over. You stepped into La Louisiane, and walked down the steps. The further you went, the more you understood. By the time you reached the bottom of the steps, and saw a table full of drunken nazis, you thought you understood it all. Then, you turned to find your basterds. One, two, three, four.....five. Five?! You eyes widened, when you saw the British spy beginning to raise his hand with a sign any German would spot a mile away. "Lieblings!" You practically jumped forward, catching him off guard. Archie froze, and never asked for those three drinks. Still, he sputtered, "Y....Y/n?!" There was no time or reason to give you a codename, and...he kind of blew it. Hugo prayed that nazi didn't connect any dots, because at the time of his arrest for thirteen murders, you were interrogated along with him. You knew if they tried to come up with explanations on the spot, they'd all contradict each other, so you did the work for them. "There you are, brother!" You basically chastised Hugo, tutting and shaking your head. And you turned with a smile, "Ah, Bridget! Such a long time! What's it been? Two years? Three?" She was nervous, though she laughed. She was an actress, she could handle some improvisation. With a passive look from Hugo, she understood it was alright. Wicki shut his eyes, and exhaled. Only so many things could go wrong that night, he thought. Losing you was not something that had crossed his mind until that moment, and he was not ready for that possibility.  You wedged yourself between  Hugo and Dieter, your palms pressed down on the table, as Hugo managed to sincerely utter, "Y/n...what are you doing here?!" "Now, now, you think I'd let my brother have all the fun?" You looked to Dieter, "Especially with such a..." It took everything in your heart to not kill that nazi right then and there, "handsome friend..." You spoke through gritted teeth and a forced smile. Dieter didn't notice. His did notice something else.... His eyes wandered to the top few undone buttons. You then grinned sincerely, because something told you at that moment that you'd be getting one last scalp for Aldo. Dieter shook his head suddenly, "Please sit fraul..." You nodded, with a smile, "Fraulein," guaranteeing him you were untethered. Dieter looked to Hugo and joked, "Ahh keeping secrets from me now Lieutenant?" Hugo mustered a smile, and the others laughed to cover up for him. Dieter turned his full attention to you, "Y/n, right?" You nodded, "Ja..." Dieter held up his drink, and asked you a question. It wasn't the same interrogative tone that he'd taken with the others, but it was something that could blow holes in your cover up. "How is it that you came to find us here?" You tilted your head side to side, with a playful grin, "Rumors go a long way." He laughed, obviously smitten with you, "Secretive like your brother, are you?" You laughed, and took a dig into reality, as you turned to Hugo to quietly reassure him, but also to solidify your cover. "Oh please, I  know how to have fun." Dieter's eyes wandered again, and he nodded with a sly grin, "Indeed..." Hugo cleared his throat, and clenched his teeth. Taking on the role of a protective brother came naturally to him because he'd been the protective one for so many years. Case in point, you were both arrested for the murders of the gestapo officers, but he took the fall for you, and convinced everyone that you were innocent. Still, you were a strategist, and always had been. You had played a part in the basterds' rescuing him. And this was now the fourth or fifth time that you were snatching Hugo away from death's door. Hugo muttered, starting to stand, as he gripped your wrist, "Please excuse us, sir. We really must be going or-" You shook your head, knowing it would seem ot hasty. "What?" You tried to liven the mood to distract Dieter again, "Mother'll have a fit? She's in Frankfurt, relax!"

Hugo glared at you, but he'd been doing that since kindergarten, so you glared right back at him.

Wicki sighed, and glancing to the ceiling, praying for patience and a cigarette. He cleared his throat,

"Please excuse our friends, sir. You know how siblings are."

Bridget giggled, encouraging the whole charade. If she didn't know any better, she'd believe you too.

You nodded,

"Yes, please excuse me for my impertinence. I've only been waiting for my brother and our dear friends for four hours."

Dieter shook his head and his hand,

"No, no. This is inexcusable. I apologize for keeping you waiting longer still, fraulein... Go on, officers, I understand why you were in such a hurry now."

You grinned, knowing you had that son of a bitch eating out of the palm of your hand.

After the niceties and the tabs were settled, you hurried out.  

Wicki threw his arms around you, "Y/n you've done it again."

Hugo rolled his eyes, "Ja. Nearly got yourself killed."

"Myself? MYSELF?!"

Archie wasn't too pleased, "We were doing perfectly fine, thank you very much, private." "Oh were you, Hicox? When I walked in, you were getting the third degree from that nazi." Wicki sighed, and shook his head, "Y/n..." it was an eased warning to remind you that Archie may not have been a basterd, but he still outranked you. You muttered a quick, "With all due respect." "Private L/n, I'll have you know were were covering our tracks perfectly." You shook your head, out of patience, "This is the German three?" You held up your thumb, middle and index finger. "Because what you were about to do was going to sign your death warrant." You looked to Bridget, because when you walked in, she had a horrified expression because she saw what was about to happen. "Ain't that right, Frau von Hammersmark?" You nodded, "The girl is right, Archie..." Before anything else could be said, you heard something across the street, "Warte!" "Wait!" You sighed, "Oh for fuck's sake..." Dieter wanted to 'talk' to you. You looked to the others, "Go on ahead, lieblings." Hugo and Wicki hesitated, and Dieter chuckled, "Oh come now, boys. I'm sure Y/n is old enough to be left alone for a moment. I'll be honorable." You giggled to hide your seething, and you nodded to them, promising "I'll catch up with you." So, to stop any suspicions, they went ahead, down the street without anywhere in particular to go. As soon as they were out of sight, Dieter lost all sense of 'honor,' and forced a kiss on you.

As soon as Dieter did that, you forced Aldo's knife into his lungs. As soon as the blood flooded in, and he sank to his knees, he couldn't scream for help, he could only look up at you in sheer terror, as everything went black. In a matter of minutes, you found Hugo, Wicki, Archie, and Bridget. She jumped back a little in disgust seeing the mangled, bloody scalp in your hand. Wicki chuckled, though, "That Aldo's knife?" You nodded, "Figured I'd get him a little thank-you gift for letting me borrow it." Hugo took the first relieved breath of the night, and smiled a little. For real, this time, as he said, "I'm sure he'll appreciate that." You crossed your arms, "Told you I'd catch up." Archie nodded, "We'd better start moving, and get to the others before somebody finds....that...." Moving back quickly through the shadows, you collected the basterds, and made an escape. Wicki started patting down his pockets, searching for a cigarette. You held out his pack, though your hand was covered in blood. "D...danke..." He sighed as he wiped the blood off on the stolen uniform, and pulled out a cigarette to ease all the worries of the night. He glanced at you, as he took his first puff, and mused with a smile,  "What would we do without you, huh?" As you moved toward Paris, to a little cinema's premiere, you simply laughed, and looked to the basterds, your brothers. "Without me?" You wondered out loud... You didn't want to know the answer to that. What would have happened if you walked in a moment later than you had? You laughed, forgetting about the things that didn't happen, shook your head, and lit a cigarette of your own, "Not on your way to Paris, that's for fuckin' sure."

[fandom-necromancer]

1024. Part 2

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Reed900

[Part 1]   [Part 3]   [Part 4]   [part5]   [part6]

Work went on as usual. He had too much to do to worry about anything but his cases and at home he was far too exhausted. Only his commute to work and back left him with time to think. Seeing the tower lurking in the distance while waiting for the light to turn green didn’t help either. This android had struck something inside him, the one part that had caused him to become a police officer in the first place: His sense of justice. And everything about that unit confined to x square metres of a public lobby screamed at him to do something about it. He had tried to convince himself time and time again that this wasn’t his business and that he should forget about some damn android that still lived better than some humans out there and that every machine that wasn’t out here was one less to worry about.

Still he stood at that junction and thought about the Connor-lookalike. I don’t know anyone. I was told I was dangerous. I like to imagine what they do once they left. I would love to meet new people and see the world, but I can’t. ‘It’s not your phcking problem Reed!’, he cursed at himself in the empty car and accelerated a bit to hard once the light was green. ‘It’s not your damn problem. Since when do you care about a phcking machine? Cyberlife built these plastic shits, so they should know best how to handle them, right? Shut up and drive home!’

Gavin sighed while sorting his case files. All he had to do now was waiting for a warrant, so his work hours seemed to stretch endlessly. But for now, his shift was over, and he spent the last half an hour to organise his desk and look busy. ‘I have to get some spares from Cyberlife, Hank. There is something wrong with my upper arm. Nothing major, but I want to make sure nothing happens when we are out there.’ Connor’s voice always felt like grinding on his nerves was its initial purpose and Gavin grumbled something under his breath. ‘Okay… Are you sure it’s nothing major?’ How could someone be that worried over a damn tin-can, Gavin wondered. Sure, Hank had always been a huge sap, but really? To him it felt like crying over a broken car. You just repaired it and that was the end to it. ‘Yeah, I’m certain. I just wanted to tell you, because I will be late to dinner today. But that’s fine, start without me.’ ‘Can’t you contact Markus?’ ‘Unfortunately not. RK800. Cyberlife has the monopoly on these spares. But it’s fine, I’ll survive. Just feels weird going back there after what happened during the revolution…’ Hank laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Should I come with you?’ ‘No, no need to! I’ll manage.’

‘I could get them.’ Gavin had spoken before thinking about it and now stood next to their desk being stared at as if he had just declared to marry Connor. ‘You… what?’, they both spoke simultaneously. Phck. Well, there was no going back now, was there? ‘Hey, I just live near the damn thing, okay? That’s all.’ ‘Gavin, you sure you didn’t hit your head today?’, Hank asked. ‘I mean, it’s unlikely with your height, but you just offered to help Connor.’ ‘Hey, phck off, okay? Thought you wanted to have your damn tea-party at home. But fine, forget I said anything!’

>Maybe that’s his way of apologizing for how he behaved during the revolution Hank. The Lieutenant read the message on his screen, whilst Connor was already on his way to follow Gavin. ‘Reed!’, he called and the Detective turned with a deep scowl on his face. ‘I would greatly appreciate it if you could get them for me. We planned this dinner for a long time and-‘ ‘Hey, spare me the details, what do you need?’, Gavin interrupted, hoping no one would see them. ‘Oh, I… I just reserved them, it’s for Anderson and this is the number.’ The android fetched a note from their desk and scribbled a twenty-digit number onto it. ‘Thank you a lot for this!’ ‘Yeah, whatever. Don’t make such a fuzz.’

Gavin regretted it already, driving over the bridge towards the tower. Connor wouldn’t leave him alone now, thinking he suddenly had a change of mind about the android. Like hell he would ever stop hating the phcking tin-can. No, this was only one trip to stop his raging thoughts every time he drove home. Meet the android, ask more questions about why he was imprisoned and then get on with his life. Easy as that.

He went up to the reception handing over the paper with the number and telling the receptionist why he was there. Of course, he was told to sit down again, because the package had to be fetched from the warehouse first. Gavin instead walked past the reception again and searched for the RK900. Although he was actively on the lookout for him, he was surprised again. ‘Detective Reed! I didn’t think to see you again.’ As Gavin turned to look at the android, he found him positively delighted. ‘Err… Yeah, just here to pick up some spares for the precinct, you know?’ ‘Of course. The reception is right there if you-‘ ‘Yeah, already was there. I have to wait for the package to arrive.’ ‘Oh.’ The little LED at his temple flickered yellow. ‘You came to… speak with me then?’ ‘I guess so.’ ‘That is… I don’t know what to say. What do you want to speak about, Detective Reed?’ Gavin stepped from one foot to the other, before speaking up again. ‘It’s Gavin, okay? You don’t need the full title.’ ‘Thank you. I was never on first name basis with anyone before.’ ‘Did you know anyone’s name before?’, Gavin asked deadpan. ‘… No.’ ‘Phck, that’s phcked up.’ ‘I… I don’t understand, I’m afraid…’

Gavin sighed frustrated with his own feelings. ‘Fine, tin-can, why do they think you are dangerous?’ ‘I’m a killer.’ Gavin laughed loudly. This naïve idiot? A killer? ‘Oh, that’s a good one, plastic! Come on, for real, why do they keep you here?’ The RK900’s eyes darted around in confusion. ‘I… just told you.’ ‘Bullshit. You aren’t a killer. I met enough of them in my life to tell you that. Did you feel exceptionally murderous towards anyone who ever entered this tower?’ ‘No! Of course not! I don’t wish anyone harm!’ ‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. You aint a killer, toaster.’ ‘But that was my intended purpose. Before I was deviated. I am still able to use this programming.’ ‘Yeah, well, I can harm others too, doesn’t mean they keep me locked away somewhere.’ ‘It is better like this!’, the android emphasized and this was the first thing told with anger. Or was this just frustration? ‘It is better like this and they know best what to do. I am content with this. I have to. Please, don’t try and convince me otherwise, alright?’

Gavin shook his head. Couldn’t that android see he lived in denial? But he kept quiet. ‘Reed? Detective Reed to the reception please.’ That was fast. ‘Err… have to go again. It err… was nice talking, I guess.’ ‘Yes!’ The android was quick to take a step towards him, before seemingly realising what he was about to do and stopping himself. ‘I’m sorry for being that harsh.’ Harsh? God, that android really had never met a human before, had he? ‘Don’t worry about it, tin-can.’ ‘Erm… Detec- Gavin? Will I… Will I see you again?’ The toaster avoided his eyes saying that. Gavin felt extremely bad about leaving already. ‘Yeah. Sure.’

-

Life went on. The warrants had been granted, the bad guys caught, cases closed, and new ones dropped on his desk. Connor surprisingly didn’t bother him more than usually after he had dropped the package with the spares on his desk. He still thought about that RK900 at the tower when he drove past the bridge and well, it had just become another part of his routine by now. There hadn’t been another opportunity to drive to the tower, until Tina came up to him one time after work. ‘Hey, you live near to Cyberlife, right? Could you do me a favour? Please? Pretty Please?’ ‘What is it, T?’ ‘You know that reception android?’ ‘Yeah, barely.’ ‘Well, I know her a little better and… Let’s just say I would like to know her even better than that…’ ‘You got a crush on her? Why does everyone I know fall for a damn toaster?’ Tina smacked her hand on his wrist. ‘Hey! She is beautiful! And clever and funny and… and she makes the best muffins, the best! You know I can’t resist that!’ ‘Yeah, fine, what can I get your android girlfriend? A third arm?’ ‘Oh shut up, will you! She’s not my girlfriend yet… She just complained about her joints becoming worn by now and that she has to buy some new lubricant soon…’ ‘T, that’s something you can buy anywhere, it doesn’t have to be Cyberlife-branded’, Gavin sighed. ‘Hey, idiot, I want to land it with her, okay? Only the best for her! I’ll pay, too, I just don’t know the first thing about it and…’ ‘And what?’ ‘There are rumours going around that you want to polish your image towards androids a bit.’ She elbowed him in the side. ‘Didn’t know the great Gavin Reed would stop being and asshole and try playing nice.’ ‘I’m not-‘ Gavin froze. Shit, that wasn’t really the rumour, was it? ‘I’m not playing nice.’ ‘Whatever you say…’, she chuckled. ‘Now will you do this for me?’ ‘Of course’, he sighed. ‘You’ll have it tomorrow morning.’ At least he could use this to keep his promise to the android.

-

‘Gavin! You came!’ The smile on the android’s face was sickening. And strangely suiting him. ‘I promised, didn’t I?’, Gavin half-snapped. ‘More spares for the precinct?’ ‘Just lubricant this time. Our receptionist complained about stiff joints.’ ‘That’s very nice of you.’ Oh, phck. He had worked hard so no one would find one thing on him to call “nice”. So, he shrugged it off. ‘Yeah, I guess.’ ‘Well, what did you want to speak about?’, the android asked then and Gavin realised he didn’t really have anything he wanted to know from the RK900. But why was he here then? Not to let the silence stretch too long, he threw the same question back: ‘What do you want to know?’ ‘What do I want? Oh. Err… What is being a Detective like? What is your favourite place in Detroit? Are there a lot of androids in your precinct? How do stars look like? Is the ocean really that big? How-‘ ‘Okay, stop, please. That’s… a lot of questions’, Gavin chuckled. ‘I’m sorry.’ ‘No, don’t apologise. Just. One after the other, shall we?’

-

Gavin smiled mindlessly, putting the can of lubricant on his kitchen counter to take it with him tomorrow. The android had hung on his lips the entire time, near childlike in his simple questions. But as he had told him more about police work, he had proved to be very intelligent and it was evident what he lacked was experience, not intellect. Gavin would never admit it, but he regretted not to have more time.

The rumour Tina had told him about had spread through the precinct and more and more androids came to him asking for small favours. Gavin didn’t like that new development, but it gave him more opportunities to meet the RK900 and that was what really mattered in the end, didn’t it?

So far he had smuggled in a deck of cards to play and show the android tricks, they had talked about anything the android wanted to know more about and Gavin in turn had begun talking to him about what bothered him. Someone at work annoying him to no end, his cat being sick and getting better, Tina having less time for their bar nights because of her new girlfriend. Without realising they had become friends and Gavin still denied those thoughts to get to the surface. He was just getting parts for the precinct and while waiting he had nothing else to do than kill the time with conversation.

‘Gavin! More spares to get?’ ‘Dunno, does Thirium count as a spare?’ ‘Probably… But can’t they just get that delivered?’ ‘I guess. But that costs extra and takes longer. Easier for me to come and get it.’ ‘I see. Well, what do we do while waiting?’ ‘I got you something. Trust me, you’ll love it!’ Gavin was just as excited to show the tin-can as he was to see it, but he would kill anyone who would say that to his face. ‘Come, let’s sit down.’ They went to the small wall encasing the plant area and sat down. Gavin took out his phone and opened his gallery. ‘Here. This is my cat.’ He handed his phone over to the android who held it in his hands as if it was made of gold. ‘Your cat?’ ‘Yeah, I have one. Love these little shits.’ ‘Are they as soft as they look?’ ‘If they let you pet them? Yes.’ ‘Wow.’

Gavin leaned in to flip to the next images and the android took them all in as if they were some impossible wonders. The human changed to the next folder showing him pictures of him and Tina in some bar, the park across the street, his car, pictures from way back when he had been younger and on vacation with his brother. The android was fascinated by all of them and surprised Gavin by hugging him when he was called to the reception. Immediately he stepped back and apologised: ‘Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. But I’m just so happy. I never thought to see this, and you made it possible! Thank you.’ ‘Hey, don’t worry. I gotta go! See you soon!’

It wasn’t that soon, unfortunately. Gavin often thought about visiting the android just for him, not pretending to just go because of spares or something. But work kept him busy. The last months a lot of protests had shook the city: Androids protesting about Cyberlife’s conditions. New Jericho had unveiled just how the company treated their customers. The homes they sold them severely overprized were dilapidated, infested with mould and at the edge of decay. Repairs for rare models cost far more than those for more common ones, leaving several androids walking around damaged because they couldn’t afford it. It was injustice and a violation of their rights. Had they been human, someone would have acted far sooner. The police were out to stop these protests from becoming violent and mostly they didn’t. But as always, there were groups who had no qualms using force. Gavin jumped from one job helping out to the next and his own cases were still waiting for him. It had been a month of him not driving up to Cyberlife tower and he hoped the android would be patient with him. He would make it up to him, he swore to himself. He didn’t know how yet, but he would.

Exhausted from a day of standing next to his colleagues watching over peaceful protests and added overtime to do his own job, he let himself fall on his bed. He would just lie here for a while, before getting up to take a shower. Just lie here a bit and maybe… taking… a quick nap…

But of course, his phone stepped in between him and his much-needed rest. He picked up the buzzing brick of disdain and grumbled into it: ‘Reed here.’ ‘Gavin?’ That had him immediately sitting in his bed. ‘Tin-can?’ ‘Yes.’ There was some noise in the background Gavin couldn’t really place. ‘How did you get this number?’ ‘As you showed me the pictures. Sorry. I should have asked. But…’ ‘What is it? Why is it so loud over there?’ ‘That’s why I’m calling you. There are… people out there. They stormed in and… And I don’t know what they want, I hid. I hid in some… broom closet I believe. I don’t know what is going on and I’m scared. What if-‘ ‘They won’t hurt you, I’m on my way! I’ll just call the DPD for backup and then I’ll be there, okay? Stay where you are.’ ‘Thank you. But what if I do something? All this talk about me being dangerous…’ ‘Hey. You are not dangerous. Let me tell you that. Just stay there and don’t make a sound, okay? I’ll be there. I’m already out of the door now. Fifteen minutes!’ ‘Thank you Gavin. I don’t think I was ever scared like this.’ ‘And you won’t be again, trust me. I’m on my way!’

[>next part]

[doctorwhoclive]

Doctor Who - Clive

Prologue

In the final moments of the nightmare, just before he awoke, Clive Finch wandered though a multi-storey car park, cradling in his arms a sleeping newborn baby. 

“Don’t you worry now, we’ll be home soon,” he whispered softly. “Daddy just needs to find the car.”

He wandered back and forth, anxiously scouring the vehicles lined up under the florescent strip-lights, but no, none of them were his car. He was certain he’d parked it here, on Level 3, but now was having second thoughts.

It was then he had an idea. Carefully moving the baby up over his shoulder he used his free hand to rummage around in his trouser pockets. 

What he was searching for was the ticket the machine at the barrier gives you when you drive in. See, Clive had a novel way of documenting the level he’d parked on. He’d indent the side of it with his teeth. One little indentation for Level 1, two for two, and so on. It was something his wife Caroline had been mortified by the first time he’d done it, but over the years she’d grown accustomed to this strange habit, and as they’d never once had trouble finding their car she could hardly complain.

His fingertips traced his keys and the thin rectangular surface of his phone, but no ticket. Maybe he’d put it in his wallet. Yes, that must be where it was. 

He quickly retrieved the dog-eared brown leather wallet from his inside jacket pocket and flicked through the wad of credit cards, old till receipts, bank notes, and way too many half stamped coffee loyalty cards. But no ticket. 

Now not only was he unable to find the car, but he wouldn’t be able to get out once he had.

“Damn!” 

His loud cursing caused the baby to stir. Clive felt the little tremors and wriggles on his shoulder, before hearing the soft sniffs and groans that meant his time was running out. He had to get home quick. It had been hours since he’d left and Caroline would be worried sick. 

He’d have to call her. Call her and let her know he was just having a little spot of bother with the car, and not to worry. Quickly he retrieved the phone from his pocket. 1% battery, great. 

“Oh, please let there be enough to make one call,” he pleaded as he unlocked the home screen and scrolled through his recent calls. 

He found her number sandwiched between his mum’s and a Chinese take-away he’d called the night before. He was just about to select it when the light of the screen suddenly diminished, and with the darkness that followed came that little rotating circle in the centre, the one that looks like a white snake eating its own tail.

Dead

Clive sighed and confined the now dormant device back to his pocket. His thoughts were now becoming more frantic with every second.

Once again the baby gurgled and spluttered. Those cries of hunger were coming any minute.

“It’s OK,” he said to the infant, gently patting its back to try and soothe it back to sleep. “Shhh, don’t cry, I’ll get you home… somehow.”

It was then he heard the first crack.

He spun around, at first certain it had come from somewhere behind him, but no, nothing was there.

Then came a second, louder this time, and closer. Again he turned around, still trying to locate its source. He thought maybe some construction was going on. Were some workmen perhaps doing something nearby?

“Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing through the cavernous space. “Is anyone else here?” 

No reply. The baby was now making its first faint cries. The warm up for a full recital of screams.

The third crack Clive had no trouble locating, as with its sound he felt the ground beneath him shift. He looked down and to his horror saw the concrete floor had split apart.

He quickly staggered back to a safe distance, fearing that some kind of earthquake was taking place. 

But if it was an earthquake there’d be tremors, Clive thought. This is like something’s pushing up… 

To make things even more bizarre a thin mist had started pouring out up from this new opening. A cold white mist not unlike the one you’d see when you open a freezer door on a hot day.

Though every instinct was telling him to flee, Clive let curiosity get the better of him, and peered down inside this new crevice. 

Just a quick look, then we’ll get out of here, he thought.

It was as he leant over to get a closer look that a fat three-fingered hand, with long taloned claws lunged up out of the bright fog. Clive leapt back, and instinctively pulled the baby in closer to him.

“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed in shock. “What that!?” 

It was then the concrete floor began to crack in several other places, and just as before first came that cold mysterious mist, followed by similar long sharp claws. 

Whatever these things were they were burrowing up through the ground, and, if their hands were anything to go by, Clive didn’t want to stick around to see the rest of them. 

“Tell you what, let’s just get a cab,” he said as he quickly began moving towards the green illuminated exit sign at the far end of the level. 

Once there he gave the door handle a sharp tug. It didn’t budge. He tried a few more times each with increasing effort. 

“Locked?” he despaired. “We’re trapped!?”

The ground continued to be torn apart by the creatures. In a matter of seconds it was now being displaced to such a degree that even cars were starting to buckle and sink below. 

Clive felt helpless. All he could do was try and reassure the distressed child. 

“There there” he said, rubbing and patting its back. “It’ll be alright.”

It was then he heard it - the distant roar of a car. 

Oh thank god for that! Someone’s coming.

He looked to the ramp at the far end of the level as a black vehicle suddenly came careering down, before turning sharply and hurtling towards them at great speed. Clive’s warm fantasy of a rescue soon turned to stone cold dread as the vehicle grew ever closer, erratically swerving and bouncing as it navigated the now fractured and uneven concrete surface beneath it. 

It was just seconds away from impact when it suddenly screeched to a halt. 

Clive let out a sigh of relief as the car door swung open.

“Oh, thank god, we’re trying to get out of here and-” The words froze in his throat as he watched in amazement as Elvis Presley briskly exited the vehicle.

“Whoa! That was some ride, man,” Elvis said, taking a moment to dust down his extravagant white jumpsuit, embroidered with orange and red flames. 

“Elvis?” Clive said, astonished. 

“Well, sure, that’s my name - Elvis Presley. You heard of me?”

Despite the horror of the situation, Clive couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, course I have.” He replied, suddenly becoming immensely star struck. “But how can you be here?”

“Well, I dunno,” Elvis replied, removing his large gold framed sunglasses and casually tossing them back into the vehicle.  “One minute I’m somewhere, next minute I’m somewhere else, you know what I mean?” 

Clive didn’t know what he meant but smiled and nodded anyway. 

“Hey man, you wanna hear a song?” Elvis asked retrieving a black acoustic guitar from the passenger seat.

Under any normal circumstances, Clive would have answered a resounding ‘yes’ to that question. He would have liked nothing more than to have a personal concert from one of his all-time favourite musical legends, but as numerous strange clawed creatures were appearing from the ground perhaps now wasn’t the best time.

“Errr… maybe later, yeah? For now let’s just get in the car and get out of here?”

“Oh, this aint a car, baby cakes, it’s a hearse. Check it out.”

Elvis leant back into the vehicle and pulled a chord hanging infront of the rearview mirror. In doing so the the black curtains covering the vehicle’s long back windows slid back. 

“Go ahead, take a look."

Again, Clive let curiosity get the better of him, and moved around to peer inside.

There he saw a coffin, with a flowered wreath arranged in the shape of a name beside it. As he got closer to read the name a chill shot down his spine. 

It was his. Clive.

Aghast, he looked to Elvis who was now nonchalantly combing his slick black hair.

“B-but I’m not dead!?” he stammered.

“Oh, maybe I’m early. Well that’s OK, I can wait.” 

“Wait for what?” Clive asked nervously.

Elvis didn’t reply, instead continuing his personal grooming whilst humming the first verse to Jailhouse Rock. 

It was then that the ground around Clive’s feet was suddenly torn apart with tremendous force. His wide eyes looked down to see two of the grotesque clawed hands had now locked themselves around his ankles, tearing through his clothes and into his skin. 

Elvis glanced over as he writhed and fought to free himself. “Oh, looks like I didn’t have to wait too long,” he said with a smile.

As Clive was pulled down into the ground with incredible force he gripped the baby tight, and joined the infant in letting out a loud bellowing cry.

He awoke from the dream with a jolt. After his painful eyes slowly adjusted to the bright overhead light, he realised he was lying on a bed in some kind of hospital. He squinted, and slowly this new environment, with its tiled walls and cabinets filled with medical supplies, came into focus.

It was then the young woman’s face appeared, looming over him. Her bright yellow hair glowed like a halo. It took a second for him to focus on her features - her elf-like face with it’s investigative eyes, and thick black eyebrows angled into a concerned frown.

A nurse, Clive thought, somewhat relieved. He licked his dry lips before speaking. “Hello,” he croaked, his voice thin and raspy. “What’s going on?”

The woman’s big hazel eyes darted about, scrutinising every part of his round face. 

“I was just asking myself the same question,” she replied.

Clive tried to sit up but suddenly felt an overwhelming nausea. He laid back down and tried to recall what had led to him being in this unusual place.

“What’s happened to me? I remember being out with Caroline and Ben, we were shopping and then…” Suddenly it all came back to him in vivid detail. The mannequins that had come to life in the shopping centre, bursting out from the shop windows like they were escaping glass cages. He’d seen the people run and scream as those once-lifeless dummies had started murdering people. Shooting them with guns somehow growing out of their hands. 

“I remember now! I was shot!”

“Were you now,” the woman replied suspiciously.

“Yes, yes by a mannequin! A living mannequin! Oh, I need to find out if they’re OK. I need to find out if they got out of there.”

“Of course you do, let’s make that a top priority, but first we need to get to the bottom of something very serious.”

The woman produced a handheld device from her pocket. It looked like a few TV remote controls glued together with an array of protruding multicoloured wires. It made a high pitched buzz as she waved it over his forehead. Clive looked puzzled, it certainly didn’t look like anything the NHS would use. In fact, now he gave her a closer inspection, her clothes weren’t like any nurses uniform he’d ever seen before, with her long grey coats, rainbow t-shirts and quarter-length trousers.

“You are a nurse, aren’t you?” he asked.

“No,” she replied sternly before leaning in closer. “I’m The Doctor.”

Chapter 1

It was as Clive sat up on the bed that two realisations came to him. First, that the bed wasn’t a bed at all, but a long metal table with handles at each end. The second was that, aside from the white sheet that was covering him, he was completely naked. 

“I don’t have any clothes on!?” he announced, quickly pulling the sheet tightly around him. “Why don’t I have any clothes on?!”

The Doctor didn’t answer. Instead she was laid on the floor examining Clive’s toes with a magnifying glass. 

“They do look like human feet,” she muttered before wiggling his little toe. 

Clive pulled his exposed foot away, and promptly shuffled himself to the other end of the table.

“Shouldn’t I have some clothes on?! I mean, what kind of hospital is this?”

“Morgue,” the Doctor replied as she got back to her feet and began pressing buttons on her device. After a stunned silence from Clive, she eventually looked up and realised it might be helpful to elaborate more. 

“Oh, you’re in a morgue? Not a hospital. That’s why everything is so, morguey around here” 

To illustrate her point she grabbed the nearest item to hand, which turned out to be a gleaming silver hacksaw. She smiled as she held it aloft, but then in a split-second realised the horror of its purpose, and with a look of distain promptly put it back down.

Clive was shellshocked. “A morgue!?” he repeated as he took in his environment with a new sinking feeling of dread and confusion. “But that’s where they put dead people.”

He felt his throat tighten and his heart beat faster. “Oh no, this is awful… I need to let people know I’m OK. Where are my things? And where’s my clothes!?”

“Oh, I know just what you’re going through mate. I’ve been in your position.”

Clive shot her an incredulous look. “You’ve woken up in a morgue?”

“Oh yeah,” she replied in an oddly casual tone. “New Years Eve 1999. I’d been shot by a street gang in San Fransisco. Bit harsh. Actually, I keep meaning to check in on one of them. Ever such a lovely boy.”

Clive let out a nervous laugh. He was certain she was joking. People in the medical field probably develop a very odd sense of humour, he reasoned. She’d probably just worked a really long shift and this was how she liked to unwind, by having a laugh with the dead bodies in the morgue.

“So, Doctor, what’s happened to me?” he said, keen to anchor the conversation back to his alarming predicament. “I mean, how can I be dead and then alive again?” 

“Good question!” she said, hopping up on the table to join him. “Another good question is why does this say you’re a highly dangerous alien organism.”

Once again she waved the device around. It made a series of pulsing bleeps which intensified the closer it came to Clive.

“Well, I promise I’m not an alien organism.” He said half defensively, half jokingly. 

“I’m Clive Finch, 32 Victoria Street, Stoke Newington. I work as a site manager for a construction company. I’m as human and as boring as they come.”

“Well, this is telling me otherwise I’m afraid,” she said, holding up her device as if it were evidence in a court case.

Clive looked at it closely. The strange bundle of buttons, dials and wires, didn’t look like something you could rely on for accuracy. 

“Well, I don’t want to be rude but that thing doesn’t exactly look, well, top of the range?” He’d tried to choose his words carefully so as not to offend. It hadn’t worked.

“How dare you, Clive Finch!” she said, hopping back down off the table and pulling the device into her chest as if to shield it from the insult. 

“I made this I’ll have you know. It’s one of a kind. Not only can it detect alien organisms at a range of over five thousand miles, but it can also emit a gravity bubble that’ll suspend any object with a weight of up to 53g.”

Clive took a moment to think of an object that weight would apply to. 

“53g? So what, like an egg?”

Her boastful expression dissolved into a wounded nod of the head.

“Yeah, like an egg. If you wanted to suspend an egg then you could do it with this.”

She looked away, clearly keen for that to be the end of it, but Clive couldn’t let it go.

“But, why would you want to suspend an egg? I mean, why wouldn’t you just pick it up rather than have a thing to-”

“Yes, yes, alright,” she conceded loudly. “In hindsight it was a feature I could’ve not bothered adding.”

Suddenly the alien detector, with added egg lifting feature, made a new sound, a loud bleep not unlike a text message notification. The Doctor studied the screen before a look of concern appeared across her face. 

“Oh, that’s interesting. It’s now saying there’s three non-terrestrial lifeforms in this building.”

“Oh dear, another two aliens have shown up have they?” Clive joked.

“No, just one. Taking us into account, of course.”

“Us? Oh, that’s right because I’m not human. Yeah, I forgot. But wait, so that means you’re not human either?”

“No,” she replied. “But I’m very fond of humans. You were my first favourite species for ages actually, but you’ve recently been knocked off the top spot by baby Foamasi. Oh, they are so adorable. I mean, as adults they’re a nightmare, big horrible war mongering reptiles who just want to kill everything in sight, but the babies… The babies are just a joy! They’ve actually started to be traded illegally thoughout the galaxy as pets, which I am not happy about at all. But I’ll get back to sorting all that out once this is over with.”

War mongering reptiles..? Illegal Galactic trading…? For Clive, this latest explosion of nonsense was the final straw. 

There was now no doubt in his mind that this woman wasn’t a doctor at all. In fact, he was certain she must have just wandered in from the street, or maybe out of a nearby psychiatric ward. He decided then and there that he had to get away from her as fast as he could. Every second he spent humouring an unhinged person pretending to be an alien-tracking medical practitioner, was precious time he could be using to get home and see if Caroline and the kids were OK.

“Well Doctor, thanks for everything. I feel right as rain now so I think I’ll just pop off if that’s OK,” he said, as he eased himself off the metal table.

The Doctor instantly moved to block the doorway. “No no no, that’s a very bad idea. I can’t let you leave my sight till we get this sorted. You could be in grave danger Clive Finch. Best you just sit tight till we figure this all out.” 

“Right course,” Clive said sitting back down. He now realised if he were to escape he would first need to distract her somehow. He decided that given her love of alien-related things he decided to go with a ruse of an other-worldly nature.

“Oh look!” Clive announced, eagerly pointing to the far corner of the room. 

“I just saw something alieny over there!”

The Doctor spun around, stooping low to see where Clive was pointing.

“Where!?” 

“Just down there, it looked like a, err… little green man!”

“Fascinating,” she said moving in slowly to investigate. “Did it have a tail or legs, or did it just float in the air?”

Clive pretended to think for a moment. “Legs? I think.”

“How many?”

“Erm… Two?”

“Fascinating. Might be a baby Slitheen. Though what would that be doing here? It’s a long way from Raxacoricofallapatorius.” She rushed off with a childish excitement to peer in cupboards and draws. 

Whilst preoccupied with her search, Clive seized the opportunity to get away. He eased himself off the table and inched himself towards the door.

“You best stay back, it could be dangerous,” the Doctor shouted over her shoulder as she rummaged through the contents of the bin.

“Err… Yeah, right you are. I’ll stay over here.”

Clive tossed the sheet to one side and grabbed a nearby medical coat. Sods law it was two sizes too small for him, but it was better than trying to get home looking like he was wearing a toga. The Doctor was still far too consumed with her alien hunt to notice as he carefully turned the door handle and slipped out.

Once in the corridor he let out a sigh and then slowly began moving towards the lift. His head was pounding and his legs felt strangely numb, like the feeling you get when you have pins and needles. 

“Come on wakey wakey,” he said, gently slapping the sides of his calfs in an attempt to bring the limbs back to life.

He’d only managed a few shuffled steps when the lift doors opened and out stepped a tall woman in dark green scrubs. 

“Oh, thank goodness,” he exclaimed, relieved to see an actual member of the hospital staff.

“Right, this is gonna sound a bit mad but I just woke up in the morgue, because I died, but I’m not dead now, but I was, I think, for a bit.”

The woman stared blankly at him. Clive was suddenly worried he must sound, and look, a little crazy.

“Well, anyway I’m OK, so I’m just going to go home now but there’s a woman in there who isn’t quite right, up top, you know? So I dunno, you might wanna check in on her.”

Clive waited for a reply but the woman remained silent. It was then that he realised something wasn’t quite right about this hospital employee.

Firstly her big blue eyes, which looked oddly glazed like a doll’s eyes, hadn’t blinked once since he’d approached her. 

Secondly, there was her skin, which up close seemed to glisten with an artificial silver tinge.

And thirdly, there was the object she had in her hand, which Clive now realised was very similar (although much more high-end) to the device the crazy woman in the morgue had just been waving around in his face. 

“Oh, you’ve got one of those thingys too, eh?” he asked timidly.

It was then she held her device aloft and pointed it to his confused face. It made a low ominous hum before making a series of bleeps. 

The woman smiled, a big broad grin that also looked weirdly artificial.

“Vermin located,” she said in a deadpan voice. With a swift hand she then

reached into her pocket and produced a small black oval shaped object. Clive at first thought it was some kind of large pebble, but as she held it aloft its centre began glowing red.

“Eliminate vermin.”

Clive didn’t like the sound of either of those words. “Oh, I think you must be mistaken,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I’m not a mouse.”

It was then that the mortuary door flung open, and the Doctor came crashing out. She sprinted towards them, carrying in her hands a small fire extinguisher.

“Down!” she yelled, as she pulled out the safety pin and angled the canister’s thin black hose ahead. 

Clive did as he was told, and quickly ducked, instinctively covering his head with his hands. 

A moment later a thick jet of white smoke sprayed overhead, as the Doctor covered the woman from head to toe in the dry powder foam.

A short time later and the small canister’s roar became just a splutter, before petering out to nothing more than a timid hiss.

Feeling relieved that the attack was over, Clive looked up, but to his horror saw the Doctor was now poised to lob the empty extinguisher into the woman’s path. 

“What are you doing?!” he shouted, but his protest was ignored as she went ahead and flung it with all her might. 

Clive braced himself for the inevitable scream of pain upon impact but instead, bizarrely, he heard a loud clang. It was certainly not the sound you’d expect to hear when something metal hit flesh. He squinted into the white mist and, as it began to clear, saw the woman emerge twitching and stammering.

“V-v-v-v-v-eeeer-min lo-c-c-c-c-atttted.”

As it cleared a little more he then saw to his astonishment that there was a large split down the centre of her face. 

Clive shook his head. Was the dry powder foam making him hallucinate perhaps? He rubbed his eyes and looked again. To his amazement he was not hallucinating. The crack was still there, and now parts of the skin’s surface were splintering away, falling to the floor like flakes of old paint. The woman reached up, and with a firm hand tightly took hold of her jaw. With a sharp tug she pulled her broken face off like it was a mask, revealing behind it a flat black mirrored panel.

Clive was still trying to get his head around what on earth was happening when his vision was once again filled with the blonde woman’s face. She knelt down and grabbed his hand.

“Run!” she said with glee.

“Oh, I don’t think I can,” he said apologetically. “My legs have gone a bit funny.”

The Doctor’s face dropped, clearly disappointed that her plans for a dramatic exit had been scuppered. 

“Oh, alright then. Hobble?”

Chapter Two

With Clive hanging off the Doctor’s shoulder it took about a minute to get to the opposite end of the corridor.

“Well, this is winning the award for the slowest getaway ever,” the Doctor breathlessly remarked as she jabbed the button to summon the lift.

Clive felt bad, he wasn’t the lightest man and the strain he must have put on the young woman was probably quite significant. 

“Sorry, I do think I’m getting a bit more sensation back now.”

Both of them gave a worried glance behind them. Thankfully the woman was still frozen to the spot, holding in her hand the face she had just removed. 

Just as Clive thought things couldn’t get any stranger, the flat black mirrored panel that had been exposed behind the woman’s original face started to bubble and pulsate. Soon bumps and curves started to protrude from the inky blackness, bumps and curves that soon became cheekbones, a nose, eyebrows and a chin.

“It’s activated its secondary visual display, we don’t have much time!” the Doctor said, jabbing the button again.

“Secondary visual display? What the hell is it?”

“Mimic Droid. Working for the IPC.”

Clive didn’t understand anything in that sentence but decided to ask for clarification on the last thing. “IPC?” 

“Intergalactic Pest Control,” the Doctor answered matter-of-factly. “Very rare to see one actually. They’re a bit like albino alligators or Bigfoot, or purple carrots.

They scour the galaxy tracking down aggressive parasitic alien organisms, and then eliminate them before can destroy entire planets. Very helpful actually, has saved me some legwork in the past.”

“So, why is it trying to kill me!?”

“Because, Clive Finch, like me, it’s identified you as an aggressive parasitic alien organism.” She moved in closer and once again suspiciously looked him up and down.

“Are you one hundred percent certain you’re not.”

“Yes!”

“OK, well in that case you’re gonna need my help.”

The lift finally arrived with a ping, and after the doors slid open they hurried inside. Once in the Doctor eagerly pushed the button for Floor 0. 

As they waited for the doors to close, Clive and the Doctor anxiously watched the Mimic Droid. 

With its second face now fully grown, skin tones began to appear on the surface, followed by hair, teeth, and lastly came another pair of those piercing blue eyes. 

The repair was was complete.

She held aloft her old damaged face mask to examine it. There it was, twitching and blinking back at her, with a downturned mouth continuing to speak. 

“V-v-v-v-v-eeeer-min…” 

Swiftly she began scrunching it up like it were made of paper, and once satisfied it was fully crushed, let the pulverised remnants fall to the floor like grains of silver sand. 

She then turned her attention back to the Doctor and Clive. 

Panicking, the Doctor hit the button a few more times. “Anytime today please!”

“Vermin located,” the woman announced again, before holding aloft the strange black oval device. 

“What is that thing?” Clive asked.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “Watch out!” she yelled and pushed her body flat against the side of the lift. Clive did the same on the other side just as three laser blasts then impacted against the back wall, each fizzing and clanging on contact.

The Doctor was now frantically pressing the button. “Brilliant! From the slowest getaway to the slowest lift ever made!”

It was as the fourth laser blast was fired that the soft announcement came. Doors closing.

“Oh, finally!” the Doctor exclaimed, allowing the tension to leave her shoulders as the lift doors finally sealed shut.

Once they were in motion, Clive looked at the four smouldering holes in the back wall. If they’d burnt through metal like that he dreaded to think what they’d do to a human body.

“I’m not sure I can take much more of this,” he said, slumping into the corner.

“Sorry, my brain has just caught up - did you say mannequins came to life earlier?” 

the Doctor asked, suddenly adopting quite a light conversational tone. 

Clive found this transition to casual chit-chat more than a little bit jarring, but, realising what constituted as normal and abnormal was now somewhat up in the air, he went along with it. 

“Yeah, that’s right. Shop dummies with guns.”

“So, that must mean it’s, 2005?”

Clive nodded.

“Oh, great year. Cracking year!” A warm nostalgic smile grew across her face before being replaced by look of mild concern. “Actually, must try not to run into myself while I’m here. That’s always awkward.”

Clive was just about to ask what on earth she meant by that when, suddenly, there was a loud thud on top of the lift causing it to jolt sharply before grinding to a halt. 

“Uh oh,” the Doctor lamented. “Looks like we’ve got company.”

There then came a thunderous pounding from above, as if a jackhammer was being used to drill through the lift’s roof.

The Doctor and Clive cowered down low and covered their ears from the deafening sound. 

“What do we do!?” Clive shouted over the din.

The Doctor looked to the display panel and saw it was fluctuating between Level 1 and 0. Wasting no time she lunged towards the doors and began trying to prize them apart. Clive watched her efforts, his thoughts momentarily lost in the chaos of the situation.

“I know about your legs, Clive, but how’re your arms doing?”

Realising this was a subtle dig at his lack of help, Clive stumbled to his feet to assist. He’d only taken one step towards her when he saw layers of the metal ceiling come crashing down around him. Moments later he felt something grab the scruff of his lab coat and raise him up off the floor and into the air.

“Help!” he shrieked as he was pulled further up. The Doctor threw herself at Clive’s legs, grabbing them tight and trying to anchor him back down, but it was no use, since with complete ease he was hoisted up into the darkness above.

Chapter Three

Clive didn’t think this day couldn’t get any stranger. Since he’d woken up in a morgue, he’d been accused of being an alien, and been attacked by a creepy robot with multiple faces. However as he now found himself dangling in a dark lift shaft, face-to-face with a giant spider, he realised the day still had some strange surprises to offer.

“OH MY GOD!” he shrieked, as he thrashed around in the air trying to free himself from the creature’s grip. “THERE’S A GIANT SPIDER UP HERE!”

“That’s not a spider!” the Doctor shouted up from below. “It’s the mimic droid! It’s just taken a new form, look at the eyes!”

Clive did as she said, and sure enough its eight beady eyes glowed the same iridescent blue as the nurse who had attacked them just minutes earlier.

“I must have damaged its central server,” the Doctor continued. “It’s got the dimensions a bit wrong.”

“NO KIDDING!” Clive shouted back.

The creature’s large hairy fangs quivered as if in anticipation of a meal.

“Vermin detected,” it announced, before a compartment in its abdomen slid aside, and a small clamp extended brandishing its oval gun.

As the weapon once again glowed red Clive snapped his eyes shut. This was surely it, he was about to die - again! How unlucky could one person be in the space of twenty-four hours - first murdered by a deadly shop dummy, and now blasted by a giant robot spider.

“I don’t think so!” the Doctor yelled defiantly from below. 

Clive opened his eyes and peered down to see that she was now waving what appeared to be some kind of mini-torch in the air, which made a strange buzzing sound as the tip glowed with a bright yellow light.

The Mimic Droid’s weapon spluttered and sparked in response before leaping out of its grip. 

Its eight eyes narrowed at this setback, but losing the firearm was not going to stop it achieving its objective.

“Manual annihilation activated,” it announced, and lunged forward with its huge mandibles to grip Clive tightly by the throat. He let out a desperate gasped cry. 

“Doctor!” he wheezed. “Help!”

With a sense of urgency the Doctor quickly adjusted her peculiar device, before angling it up high again. Its bright light shone once more but this time it emitted a higher frequency buzz than before. 

“Hold on!” she shouted. A second later the heavy mechanisms of the lift overhead clanked and groaned to life before it jolted up, ascending higher and higher at increasing speed.

The Mimic Droid was so focused on squeezing the life from Clive’s neck that it hadn’t noticed the rapid speed that the lift was now making as it fired upward towards the top of the shaft. Clive, however, was painfully aware of the imminent impact.

What kind of rescue plan was this!? he thought. “Save me from dying by strangulation by squashing me to death!?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sensation of falling. He landed back down into the lift with a thud before taking a desperate breath of air. 

The lift had stopped suddenly, and the force had jolted him free from the arachnid’s jaws of death.

He looked up to see the Doctor maintaining her position, holding the strange torch aloft as if it were some kind of magic wand. It buzzed and whirred as she kept her focus on the lift’s mechanisms above.

“C’mon! Just a bit more!” she said through gritted teeth.

Clive looked up to see the droid now wedged between the roof of the lift and the large gears at the top of the shaft. Its spider body strained and wobbled as it used its eight legs to try and push itself free from the press it was now stuck in.

The gears of the motor creaked and ticked as the pressure mounted.

“C’mon! C’mon!”

The immense strain it was under clearly started to effect its camouflage, and soon its body started to flicker - from hairy arachnid to metallic robot.

“It’s gonna work!” Clive said, sensing it was about to buckle at any moment. 

Seconds later the tension finally broke. The lift jerked upwards, and in doing so crumpled and flattened the droid with a loud crack. 

Clive looked up at the droid’s body, which was now nothing more than a tangle of scrunched up mechanics and circuitry, all squashed between the lift’s roof and the ceiling.

“Right,” the Doctor said, brushing off some debris from her coat and returning her device to her pocket. “Now we’re in real trouble.”

Chapter Four

As they entered Level 2 of the hospital car park Clive suddenly felt like he was going to faint.

“Can I have a second?” he asked, slumping against the hard concrete wall.

“No,” the Doctor replied sternly. “We’ve got to get a shift on, no time to relax.”

“But you’ve squashed it now,” Clive reasoned. “Whatever that thing was it’s as flat as a pancake now! It can’t have survived that.”

“I’m not worried about that one, I’m worried about the next lot.”

Clive gulped. “Next lot? You think there’ll be others? Like that one?” 

“‘fraid so. The IPC build good droids. That one will have had an SOS function hardwired into its mainframe. Prior to self-destruction it will have activated it and called for backup.”

Clive decided now was the time he’d ask the question that had been on his mind for quite some time now. “How do you know all this stuff? Who are you?”

“I’ll explain everything when we get inside. Now, where did I park it.” Her brow furrowed as she scanned the vehicles nearby.

“What’s it look like?” 

“It’s blue and white with a big light on the top,” the Doctor replied. “Let’s try this way.”

Still unsure what type of vehicle he was looking for, Clive trailed behind the Doctor as she darted and weaved in and around the cars in search of her own.

“Oh, where is it!? I’m sure I parked it on this level.”

“This is just like my dream,” Clive said, suddenly reconnecting his present circumstances to the narrative of his sleeping state. 

“I say dream, actually it was more like a nightmare.” 

Not picking up on the Doctor’s obvious lack of interest, Clive carried on. “I was in a car park and I had a baby, and there were these creatures coming up from the ground. Oh, and then Elvis was there.”

The Doctor suddenly spun around and rushed back to face Clive. “Elvis!” she shouted. “Elvis Presley? The King of Rock-n-Roll? That Elvis Presley!?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.”

“How strange. I was just with him.” the Doctor replied, her mood once again shifting from serious to playful.

“You were with Elvis? Last week?”

“Yeah! Market Square Arena, Indianapolis. Last show he ever played. Huge show,18,000 people. Course that’s why The Master chose it. See, he’s a big Elvis fan, just like me. You’ll find mortal enemies often have way more interests than differences. Anyway, it was his plan to watch the concert before unleashing it to devour the audience, and then the rest of the planet.”

As was becoming a running theme, Clive grabbed onto the last part of what the Doctor had said and asked her to elaborate. “Unleash what?”

“The Telograde,” the Doctor replied. “The reason I’m here now.”

Clive’s head was spinning. Aliens, Elvis, shape-shifting robots… It was more than a little overwhelming.

“You know, thinking about it - can I just go back to being dead?” Clive asked, only half-joking. “It was a lot easier than being chased around by Terminators.”

“Terminators?” the Doctor asked, suddenly intrigued.

“Yeah, y’know. The robots who travel in time, to kill people?”

The Doctor looked mystified.

“It’s a film?”

“Oh, a film!” she said, somewhat relieved. “Well yeah, I suppose they are a bit like that, only these ones can’t time travel, and they’re only interested in killing vermin. Ooooh! Verminators! Shall we start calling them that from now on?”

Clive was just about to challenge her on whether this was really the best time to be coming up with funny puns when out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of light which left in its wake two car park attendants. 

This sight would have been a worry under normal circumstances, but here there was even more cause for concern, as Clive soon realised they both had the same glowing blue eyes. 

Then the Doctor noticed them too.

“OK, that’s not good.” 

Suddenly there was another flash of light, announcing the arrival of two more.

“OK, that’s really not good.”

“Vermin located,” they announced in unison as they began marching towards them. Clive and the Doctor crouched down.

“What do we do?”

The Doctor’s wide eyes locked eyes with a nearby motorcycle. Then she locked eyes with Clive.

“Really?” he asked apprehensively.

“Really!” she answered with a broad grin. 

Clive was starting to suspect that she was actually really enjoying all this, as once again she produced from her pocket the peculiar silver torch she’d used earlier to manipulate the lift. Pointing it to the ignition, she activated it. This time though its light was significantly dimmer than before, and the sound it omitted was nothing more than a faint and fractured buzz.

“Oh no!” the Doctor said, slapping the device against her hand before putting it to her ear. “Drained all the power! It’ll need to recharge.”

Seeing this as a moment he could be of some use, Clive quickly ushered her aside and began fumbling with a panel near the key switch. With a tug he pulled it away and reached in. 

“Misspent youth. Give us a minute.”

The Doctor peered over a top of a car to see where the wardens were now. She got her answer in the form of a laser blast which shattered the windscreen.

“How about twenty seconds instead,” she said, shaking the tiny shards of glass from her hair.

Clive worked as fast as he could, his fingertips pulling out the two wires he would need to trick the engine into starting. More laser blasts followed, each shot landing closer and closer.

“I think I’ve got it!” Suddenly the engine burst into life. Clive let out a joyous laugh. He’d been taught that particular skill by his Uncle Tony when he was thirteen years old. Tony had taught him some other interesting life-skills too - like how to pick a lock with a hairpin, how to cheat at poker, and how to use a magnet to always win on a fruit machine. It was only when Tony was imprisoned for a botched bank robbery, that Clive realised these skills might have been questionable. 

“Well done, Clive!” the Doctor said as she promptly mounted the bike. 

Clive got behind her, his arms gripping her waist. 

“You can ride this, yeah?” 

“Oh yeah, I had a great teacher. What was his name again? Oh yeah - Evel Knievel.” 

The Doctor kicked down the pedal and the motorbike roared away. Clive gripped even tighter as even more laser blasts ricocheted around them as they sped towards the exit.

“This is sooo 1999,” she shouted back with delight. “Hold on Clive!”

Chapter Five

The sun was setting as they pulled up on Victoria Street. Clive was overjoyed to see his home again. The little terraced house was his first glimpse of something normal since, well, since he’d been shot in a shopping arcade by a possessed department store mannequin. 

On the Doctor’s instructions, though, this was just a pit-stop to pick up some clothes and some supplies and then get somewhere safe. The Mimic Droids, in whatever form they’d adopted, would kill anyone getting in the way of destroying him, and being so close to his family was making the Doctor nervous. 

Rather than go into the house, Clive led the Doctor up a narrow pathway beside the property. From there they were able to access the garden gate and then get into his shed. 

Of course, this was a bit more than an ordinary shed, this was the head quarters for all his research into those mysterious men. The men who’d inexplicably turned up at every disaster and crisis in human history. 

He’d first discovered them whilst researching for his book on conspiracy theories. There, looking out from the crowd moments before John F Kennedy was assassinated, had been where Clive had first clocked those haunted eyes. They seemed to burn into him, and it wasn’t long before he was finding them everywhere, in every history book he looked in. Soon he found others too, incongruous characters out of place and out of time. One had wild curly hair and an overlong scar. Another had blonde hair and cricketer’s clothes. More and more came, each increasingly eccentric, and more anachronistic than the last. 

For Clive, it became like a never ending game of Where’s Wally, where he’d obsess over photos with a magnifying glass, working night and day to find those men. 

It had become an obsession, one where he’d lost countless hours and days in that shed, trying to understand more of these enigmas, these impossible men sometimes referred to in official documents as… the Doctor. 

Of course, what Clive didn’t realise as he walked into his shed with his new otherworldly friend, was that he’d never been closer to solving the mystery that had consumed him for so long.

Chapter Six

Clive entered the shed and quickly pulled down the blinds before turning on the light. 

“Welcome to my Head Quarters. Or the Mad House, as Caroline likes to call it.” 

As Clive rummaged through a bin bag full of charity shop clothes, the Doctor took a little tour of this cluttered environment.

“Do you live here?” she asked, first noticing the microwave and bin overflowing with empty ready meal packets.

“No, but I do spend a lot of time in here. Working.”

An array of photos and maps sellotaped to a whiteboard then caught the Doctor’s attention. “Well well well. This is interesting.”

Whilst she had her back to him, Clive took off the ill fitting lab coat and quickly slipped into some more comfortable grey jogging pants.

“These are all related to UFO sightings if I’m not mistaken,” she continued, as her eyes darted around the multitude of blurry saucer shaped objects and strange lights in the sky.

“Oh yeah, I was researching them as part of my hobby,” Clive replied whilst searching for a suitable top amongst the old musky smelling clothes. 

“I’d say it’s a bit more than a hobby, Clive,” the Doctor said, examining a mountain of dusty files stacked floor to ceiling. 

“Well yeah, suppose I might have got a bit carried away with it all. UFO’s were the first thing I got into, then I started looking into all the conspiracy theory stuff - JFK, 9/11, and then that led me to him. Or rather them.”

“Them?” the Doctor asked, genuinely intrigued.

“A group of men. They’re like a collective of enigmas,” Clive explained. “Eccentric anomalies if you like, that turn up whenever disasters strike. Everywhere you look throughout history, all through time, they’re there! It can’t be just a coincidence. I’m certain of it. I know there’s a pattern, or some explanation. I just have to find it!”

“Eccentric anomalies! Sounds like my kind of people,” the Doctor said, now leafing through a book on the Titanic.

Clive pulled a baggy dark blue jumper over his head. He was just about to tell her more when it occurred to him how crazy he must seem. He’d spent the whole day treating her like she was the mad one, and now the tables had turned.

“Sorry, I’m going off on one, aren’t I? You know I just realised, I don’t know your name.”

“Yes you do, I already told you it,” she replied, now revealing in a book on Yeti sightings.

“Did you?” Clive was certainly forgetful, but he was sure she never told him it. He wracked his brain, thinking back to that first meeting in the morgue. Once again the Doctor decided to give him a nudge.

“You asked if I was the nurse? Remember?”

“Yeah, and you said you were a Doctor.”

“Not a Doctor, the Doctor,” she corrected him.

Clive’s face dropped. He felt as if someone had just thrown a bucket of cold water over him. 

“The Doctor?”

She looked up from the book to give him a little wave. “Hiya!” 

Clive’s jaw dropped. He felt like he’d been handed the missing piece to a jigsaw puzzle, a jigsaw puzzle he’d been trying to finish for a lifetime. 

“It’s you? You’re him. But he’s…? And you’re…?”

The Doctor watched as Clive frantically began gathering together an assortment of papers dotted around before eagerly presenting them to her. 

She started leafing through them, her expression muted, as if her guard had suddenly come up. Meanwhile, Clive moved around her, examining her in a whole new light. This woman in her odd attire was The Doctor! She had to be. He felt so stupid for not joining the dots before.

“It is you, isn’t it? You’re one of them. See, I thought the title was passed down from father to son, but it’s not just a male inheritance, is it? It’s also passed from father to daughter. Or should that be from alien father to daughter.”

The Doctor looked up, and Clive realised that, though the faces might change, those piercing eyes were always the same.

The Doctor put down the photos and reached over to a book on the Hindenberg disaster, the hydrogen-filled airship that caught fire and crashed in 1937. 

“Page 112. Third photo down.”

Clive eagerly did as he was told and located the page. The photo she’d referenced was of a survivor of the crash being assisted to safety. As he looked closer he saw the face of that survivor appeared to be a young woman, with short cropped hair and a long grey coat. 

“It’s you!” 

“I tried to help,” she said, her tone now solemn. “I saved as many as I could, but the fire… it just got out of control so quickly.”

Clive sat down in his tatty office chair, his brain spinning. “I’ve got so many questions. There’s so much I want to know.” The Doctor took the book back and tossed it to one side.

“I’’m sure you do, but now’s not the time, Clive.” 

“No, please, I can’t wait, I’ve waited so many years, you have to tell me-”

“Later!” she interrupted, now becoming stern. “We don’t have much time so now is about figuring all this out, and to do that I need to understand your connection to all this.”

Clive got to his feet, suddenly agitated. He paced around before leaning against the wall. “I don’t know my connection to this! I wish I did. I woke up from a nightmare only to find myself in a real life one.”

This remark clearly caught the Doctor’s attention. 

“Your nightmare. Yes… The baby, the clawed hands, and Elvis.”

“Good memory. I didn’t think you were listening.”

“I’m always listening, unless I’m not.” It was then that an idea came to the Doctor. She quickly ran over to the white board and started pulling down all the UFO photos. 

“Hey, that’s years of research!” Clive protested.

“It’s OK, none of them are legit. Oh, apart from this one.” The Doctor paused to hold up at a faded photo of a black flying saucer. “But that’s not a spaceship, it’s just an alien drone delivering supplies to Mary Berry.”

Clive had just began getting his head around the idea that the nation’s favourite celebrity chef was an alien in disguise, when the Doctor thrust a pen at him and urged him to come closer.

“Now, draw me what the claws looked like.”

Tentatively, he took the pen. “OK, I’ll try,” he said, as he began sketching out the long talons sprouting out from the three-fingered clawed hands. 

Once he’d finished he looked to the Doctor. She gave him a worried stare before taking the pen and sketching in the rest of the creature's body around what he’d drawn. After she was finished she stepped back and Clive saw she’d drawn a terrifying worm-like creature. It had eight stubby legs like udders, each with long protruding claws and a strange circular mouth.

“What’s that?”

“That is a Telograde. A very rare and dangerous species. You have a cousin of it right here on Earth, only that one is a micro animal. This is substantial bigger.

Think of it like a great white shark in space, no, actually a Megalodon, drifting through the airless vaccum absorbing radiation and devouring anything that comes into its path.”

Clive scrutinised the drawing. “And that’s what these robot thingies think I am?”

The Doctor nodded. “Oh, and just for scale-” She drew a small stick man beside the large creature. “That’s how big we’re talking."

“But I’m not that! I’ve never even seen one of those things! And I know I’m big but I’m not that big.” 

“And yet your subconscious is showing them to you. What else did it show?”

The Doctor paced up and down in front of him as she worked hard to understand what all this meant.

“Dreams are full of symbolism, so what did everything in yours mean? There was a baby, that could represent something new? Something growing, embryonic maybe? What else… Elvis. Well he’s connected to all this through my experience with him, but you weren’t there for that. Think Clive, do you have any connection to him any at all?”

“No, apart from being a fan of his music when I was younger.”

The Doctor sat in the office chair and rubbed her hands over her face. “Alright, maybe the dream meant nothing. Weird coincidence. In which case we’re back to square one.”

A moment of silent despair passed between them.

“Actually, I do have his scarf.”

The Doctor looked up. “His scarf?”

Chapter Seven

Before they hastily left 32 Victoria Street, Clive couldn’t resist peering in through the lounge window. He hadn’t seen Caroline or the boys since the night of the shopping centre attack and was desperate to see that they were all OK. 

Just before they’d gone down the path towards the shed, he’d been relieved to see the car was back in the driveway and the lights were on in the house, but that wasn’t enough. He had to see them. He had to be sure.

It was just before he craned his neck to see inside through the lounge window that a moment of panic overcame him. What would they all be doing? He imagined they’d all be in mourning, all huddled together sobbing over his death the night before. But what if they weren’t? What if they were having a great time, laughing and enjoying themselves? They might even be glad to be rid of him…. It suddenly occurred to Clive that he’d not been much of a husband, or father, these past years. His obsession with conspiracy theories, and his research into the Doctor, had robbed him of so much time. Time he should have been spending with them. It made sense that they might now be unbothered by his death, or even relieved he was gone.

He felt a profound mix of sadness and shame as he apprehensively tip-toed up to look in. 

Of course there was no celebrations going on at 32 Victoria Street, and his sense of relief was followed by heartbreak as he saw a scene just like the one he’d first imagined. There was Caroline, slumped on the sofa, tearfully looking through photos of their wedding day. Ben and Michael were sat nearby, their heads hung low as they occasionally typed messages on their phones or answered calls. Death admin. 

Clive felt the overwhelming urge to run in there and embrace them all, let them know he was OK and apologise for the past. He could make a fresh start there and then. But he knew he couldn’t. Not now. Not with these robots tracking him. He made a vow that if he survived this he would change. He’d no longer be a ghost in their lives. 

The distant roar of the motorbike reached his ear, followed by the Doctor’s whispered call. “Clive, c’mon!”

He took one final look at his family before kissing the tips of his fingers and gently touching the glass. As tears welled up in his eyes he whispered one word before leaving his home for what might be the last time.

“Sorry.”

Chapter Eight

Roy was so immersed in the newspaper article about shop dummies coming to life that he didn’t pay much attention to the motorbike, or the two passengers it was carrying, as it pulled into the car park. He’d only worked at the storage facility for a week, doing the nightshifts, but in that time he’d got very familiar with the nocturnal comings and goings of people as they ferried their belongs in and out of the large building.

As Roy read that the death toll from the inexplicable attack in the shopping centre the previous night was now at fifteen, he had no idea that one of those fifteen fatalities was currently making their way towards the entrance, alongside a time traveling alien. 

If he had had any idea about the extraordinary nature of the pair he certainly would have given them more than just as cursory glance as they hurried past his desk and into the large loading bay.

Instead, he continued reading, taking great interest in one theory that tests to do with 4G network were responsible for the dummies reaping havoc on the general public. 

Even though the accounts sounded terrifying he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of the people who’d witnessed the bizarre attack.

Wish something that exciting would happen around here, he thought, before dipping a Jammy Dodger into his lukewarm cup of tea. 

It was at that exact moment four identical Irish Wolfhounds appeared in the carpark. Motionless and silent, their bright blue eyes glowed in the darkness as they observed the building.

Roy had no idea, but he was about to learn a valuable lesson - be careful what you wish for.

Chapter Nine

The Doctor and Clive moved through the maze of corridors searching for Room 237. Each corner they turned presented more rows of identical yellow doors, all tightly padlocked shut. 

Clive stopped for a moment to get his bearings. “Actually, maybe it’s the next level up. Sorry, all these corridors just look the same to me.” 

“Story of my life,” the Doctor muttered before wandering towards one of the doors.

“So, people keep things in these little rooms?” she asked, clearly struggling get her head around the concept.

“Yeah. People use them if they don’t have enough space for all their stuff. My shed is just the tip of the iceberg, I’m afraid. I rent one for the rest of my research. Have you never been to a self-storage before?” Clive asked in disbelief.

“No. I love the idea though, all these rooms full of things! I love things. What’s in this one?”

She waved her strange silver torch at the lock, and a second later it pinged open. The Doctor then eagerly darted inside. 

“Ooooh, look, this ones full of clothes!” she re-emerged holding a brown suede Fedora hat. “I used to have one of these!” she put it on but it was far too big for her, with the brim resting on the bridge of her nose.  

Clive removed the hat and put it back in the room. 

“You can’t just do that!” he said, checking no-one had seen before shutting the door and snapping the lock shut again. “That’s people’s private things. Plus I thought we were in a hurry?”

“Oh right, OK, yes sorry, let’s stay focused. Sometimes I get quite distracted. Show me a maze full of tiny rooms full of stuff and it’s gonna be incredibly hard for me to restrain myself.”

As they continued looking for his storage room a thought suddenly came to him. 

“That hat… one of the other Doctors wore one just like it! I have photos of him from 1975, when there was that sighting of the Loch Ness monster near the Thames. And accounts of him in 19th century London, when there were those sightings of a giant rat in the sewers.”

It was then the penny dropped.

“Wait, are you…? No you can’t be… or can you?! Are you all the same person?”

The Doctor said nothing but her silence spoke volumes.

Clive’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, you are aren’t you! But how can you be?” 

The Doctor stopped, taking a deep breath before answering. She’d been here before, many, many times, and knew it was best to defer the more complicated explanations about her identity, or rather, identities.

“I feel the answer to that might generate a lot more questions, and like you said we really need to get a move on.”

She walked on ahead. “237 did you say?”

Clive lingered for a moment before following her. She’s a shape shifting alien, he thought. His book on conspiracy theories was suddenly looking a lot more appealing to publishers. If he lived to write it, that was.

Chapter Ten

Clive had been rummaging around in amongst the piles of boxes and stacked up furniture for a short while when eventually he found it. 

“Aha!” he said, holding aloft a small wooden box. “Here it is. This is Elvis’ scarf, or so my grandfather said.”

Setting it down onto of a stack of dusty ring binders, he unclipped the brass clasp. The box opened with a creak and inside there lay a neatly folded white silk scarf. 

The Doctor produced a magnifying glass from her coat pocket and moved in closer to examine it. 

Clive looked over her shoulder as he continued to explain its origins.

“My mum would take me to visit him every Thursday in the care home. He had dementia, you see. I remember him giving it to me in secret. ‘Don’t tell your mum,’ he said, ‘but this is Elvis’ scarf and it’s worth a fortune.’ I asked him how he got it and he told me he’d been working at a venue Elvis performed in. He said he’d given it to him after the show. I believed him at the time, and I kept it in that box under my bed for years. It was only later, when he got really bad, that he started telling me other things, like how he knew The Queen, and how he’d written all the Beatles’ greatest hits. That’s when I realised it was all nonsense. Still, I kept hold of it. Didn’t have the heart to throw it away.”

The Doctor stopped her inspection of the garment.

“Well, I’ve news for you, Clive. This is 100% authentic.”

“You what?”

“No doubt about it. This is the scarf he wore at the concert I told you about, the last time I saw him - Market Square Arena, Indianapolis! The time the Master lured the Telogarde to Earth. The time Elvis and I saved the world by luring it into my ship and getting it to swallow a keg of nitroglycerin. Bit messy that. Very messy, actually. But how did Elvis end up with its DNA on his…” Her voice trailed off before her eyes lit up in a moment of sudden realisation.

“Oh, of course!” she exclaimed, once again slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand. “I wiped his memory but I didn’t wipe his clothes. Oh, what a rookie mistake! Gotta be so careful with alien DNA.”

Clive took a deep breath and decided he would attempt to summarise the madness before he developed a headache.

“So, if I’ve got this straight, you’re saying some bloke who doesn’t like you very much dumped a big alien worm thing into the middle of an Elvis concert in 1971, and then you and Elvis then went on some romp to kill the big alien worm thing, which ended up in it getting exploded and showering him with big alien worm thing DNA?”

She mulled over his summary before answering. “Well, I mean it sounds a bit daft when you put it that way, but that’s the gist of it, yeah.”

Clive took another deep breath and continued.

“And then my grandfather gives me the scarf years later and I become infected with big alien worm DNA?”

“Yes. But I what I don’t know is how. It would’ve needed to be exposed to your skin for a prolonged period of time. The dry residue would’ve needed moisture, something warm and-” She suddenly stopped as a very obvious realisation came to her. 

“Oh, Clive. Did you maybe wear this scarf and dance around in the mirror pretending you were Elvis?”

Clive looked a little embarrassed. “I used a tennis racket as a guitar.”

“Well that’s that then! It got into you through the pores of your skin and it’s been laying dormant in you ever since.” 

“But why’s it come to life now?”

“Good question. Let’s think… The night you were killed, just before the Auton’s gun fired your heart would’ve started beating so much faster than normal. That combined with the inevitable burst of adrenaline, plus the increased blood sugar and hormones must have activated it. And once it got started it set to work rebuilding your cells, repairing, renewing, and eventually jump starting your heart! Then you lit up, Clive. You became a loudspeaker to the universe screaming I’M A DANGEROUS WORLD-CONSUMING ALIEN LIFE FORM, and just like the me the IPC came running to stop you.”

“But I’m not any different,” Clive said, retrieving an old dressing table mirror from a nearby cardboard box to examine his reflection. “I look the same, I sound the same, I’m not a… Telograde.”

“Maybe not in appearance, but I’m willing to bet that like them you’re now immune to radiation and air deprivation. You wouldn’t bat an eyelid at being in temperatures of over 150 degrees celsius, and you could probably go without food for thirty years.” She glanced down at his rotund stomach. “Which might not be a bad thing.”

“Oh nice, kick a man when he’s down, why don’t ya,” Clive said, dropping the mirror back down and slumping down into an old armchair.

“How do I get it out of me, Doctor? I don’t want to be some weird alien-human hybrid. I wanna go back to normal.”

The Doctor closed the case and knelt down to look him in the eye. “I’m not sure you can, Clive Finch. But it’s not such a bad thing.”

“It’s not?” Clive asked, struggling to find any positives in his new predicament.

“No! I mean, not ideal, admittedly, but having this in you doesn’t mean you’re suddenly going to grow claws and eat a whole town. The change could be completely subtle. The Telograde DNA saved your life, what it does next I don’t know. You might live for a thousand years, or you might have superhuman strength. Or you might just have very crazy dreams.”

“Or I might grow claws and eat the whole town?”

The Doctor scrunched up her face and shrugged. It was then they heard the chorus of emotionless voices echo all around them.

“VERMIN DETECTED."

Chapter Eleven

The Mimic Droids’ hands burst through the corrugated metal walls of the storage unit as if they were tinfoil. Moments later they were inside, and this time they no longer appeared as humans, but rather in their true form - tall black and gold skeletal robots, with featureless flat faces. 

“Run!” the Doctor screamed.

This time Clive had no trouble complying with the instruction, and the two of them sprinted out of Room 237 and down a metal staircase leading back to the loading bay.

Once again their journey was accompanied by deafening bursts of laser fire.

“Why do they look like that now?!” Clive shouted over the assault.

“Since we squashed one of them you’ve clearly become an upgraded threat, which means they’ll be taking more drastic measures now.”

He knew the answer was going to be something awful but asked anyway.

“Drastic how?”

As they found themselves back at the loading bay Clive got his answer, as there, scattered on the floor, they saw an array of lifeless bodies. 

They stopped dead in their tracks.

“Drastic like killing anyone within the immediate area so they don’t have to waste precious energy mimicking human form anymore.”

She leant down to examine one of the corpses. It was impossible to tell the age or gender of the carcass, as the skin was completely charred. Strangely, though, the clothes remained perfectly intact. 

“What’s happened to them?” Clive asked, horrified at the sight. “Looks like they were all burned.”

“Organic matter incinerator. Only causes living tissue to burn.”

“That’s horrible.” 

“Yes, yes it is.”

She took a moment to observe the name on his badge, and though it could mean nothing to him, she gave her condolences. “I’m so sorry, Roy.”

As the Doctor rose, Clive saw that her face had become enraged. 

“OK, now I’m angry,” she said, pulling up her sleeves. “Nobody else dies tonight.”

It was then the clatter of the droids metal feet could be heard as they descended the staircase in pursuit.

“Come on, let’s move!”

The Doctor ran outside into the adjacent car park, where she promptly re-mounted the motorbike. “Let’s get back to my ship. I do my best thinking there. I’ll come up with a plan.”

She looked up, expecting to see Clive close by, but instead he was still lingering in the doorway, his head hung low.

“You’re right,” he called out to her, his voice laced with sadness. “No-one else should be put at risk now. That’s why I’m not running anymore, Doctor. Nobody else dies now, not for me.”

The Doctor dismounted and rushed back to him, her eyes pleading for him to reconsider.

“Clive, no, I won’t let you do this.”

“You know it makes sense,” he said, clearly resolute in his decision. “If they’ve done their job they all go away, right? It ends, yeah?”

The Doctor nodded solemnly.

“Right, well that’s that then. I’d ask you to get a message to Caroline and the boys but, well, I think that would only be a bit confusing, given that they think I’m already dead.” He let out a little nervous laugh before continuing.

“I’d rather you didn’t see what comes next, if that’s OK.” The Doctor felt a surge of desperation course through her whole body.

“Clive, please, I can find a way out of this. You mustn’t give up, please!”

“It’s my decision,” he said firmly. “I’ll do this next bit alone if that’s OK.” 

The Doctor felt stunned. She helplessly watched as Clive pressed a button, which activated the large roller shutter door. It lowered slowly, long enough for her to see the four droids appear behind him. Standing apart, weapons raised. A firing squad ready to kill. Clive gave her a sad smile as the tears welled up in his eyes.

“Goodbye, Doctor.”

Once it had fully closed the she was left alone. There was the briefest moment of silence before she heard the guns fire, followed by Clive’s muffled screams of pain from within. Then nothing.

“No,” she whispered defiantly. “I won’t let it end like this!”

Chapter Twelve

He had screamed more in anticipation of the pain that was to follow, but a second after the shots were fired Clive realised he was still very much alive. Still stood in the same position. Still breathing. He had felt something as the laser blasts had hit his body, but it wasn’t what he’d class as pain. More a tingle, a flutter across his skin, as if a warm stone had been briefly pressed against it.

He looked to the droids who, even though they were expressionless, seemed as confused as he was. Moments later, they spoke again in unison.

“Vermin resistant to weaponry.”

Clive felt relieved. “Thank you alien worm thing DNA!” he exclaimed. “You can’t kill me! Ha! I’m indestructible!”

His celebrations were short lived though, as the next announcement from the droids sent a cold chill down his spine.

“Superior fire power required.”

As Clive anxiously contemplated what that might mean there was another brief flash of light which left in its wake a new droid. This one was similar to the others with one major difference - in its hands it held a huge bazooka-like gun.

Clive’s heart sank. 

“Oh. Something tells me this is gonna hurt.” 

The gun fired a constant beam of white light which came at him with such power and ferocity it propelled his body backwards. He crashed into the wall before landing on the hard concrete floor. The pain inflicted by the weapon was immense, a burning sensation like being stabbed with a million hot pins over and over again. 

He writhed around on the ground, his whole body spasming in agony. 

As the blast intensified so too did the pain, and Clive knew that this was one death he wouldn’t be returning from. 

Chapter Thirteen

The Special Weapon Droid had never been to Earth before, but it had been programmed with information on the Category 4 planet. It knew about the ape-descended dominant species. It knew about the weather systems, its lunar cycles, natural elements, air density, and gravitational pull. 

Like the worker droids, it had a default cloaking model (for earth it was a white male in a suit) but it was instructed not to use it. This was very common. It was rarely needed to be in disguise on account of the substantial gun it was carrying. It was mainly called upon when hardy vermin needed extinguishing, and in those instances, a cleansing of the immediate environment would already have taken place, making discretion no longer necessary. 

In all its 9,876 missions, its time on each planet had been very short. In the nanosecond after it was activated at the IPC’s control station, it would teleport there, identify the vermin, blast it with its particle incinerator for as long as it took to eradicate it, and then teleport back to its recharge station. Simple. This Earth-bound assignment had begun just like all the rest. It had arrived on the planet and immediately identified the vermin - in this case a Telograde hybrid. As it opened fire on the creature it thought of nothing out of the ordinary. That was until the object appeared above it. 

It took a nanosecond to scan and identify it as a mode of transport on this particular planet. A simple land-based motorised vehicle. 

Although there was something about this motorised vehicle which the Special Weapons Droid didn’t understand. 

Why, if it was classed as a land-based, was it in flight? 

Before it was destroyed in the inevitable impact, it made a note of this error in the IPC’s database, and seconds before its vital signs diminished it received the following response: Thank you. Records updated. 

Chapter Fourteen

The Doctor leapt back off the bike just before impact. Where she landed gave her a front row seat as the vehicle continued its trajectory - crashing into the bazooka welding droid head-on, before hurtling onwards to knock down the remaining four droids like they were skittles.

“Yes!” she exclaimed with glee. “Like I said, Evel Knievel. Taught me everything I know.” She briskly got to her feet and turned her attention to Clive, who remained incapacitated on the floor. 

“W-what are you doing?” he whispered, his body still ravaged with pain from the attack.

“Yeah, sorry about that mate. I was all set just to pop off and let you crack on with your noble act of self-sacrifice, but then I thought, nah, that’s not my style. So I hope you don’t mind, but I’m gonna save your life.”

Clive was dumbfounded, and even though the agony was overwhelming he managed a half smile at the Doctor.

The droids were soon back on their feet, and with their special weapons comrade now destroyed, the Doctor knew they would first kill her, then request a replacement.

As the firing squad lined up to eliminate their new target, she wasted no time retrieving her alien tracker and her sonic screwdriver from her pockets.

“So, if I’m perfectly honest, this plan is a bit of a work in progress,” she said whilst attaching the two devices together. “But I’m hoping if I can boost the power on my little gadget here with my sonic…”

The droids raised their weapons as they took aim. The Doctor took this as a very clear signal to work, and speak, faster.

“Then I might be able to turn it’s questionable add-on feature into something more useful. So, fingers crossed.” 

She flicked the final few switches just as the core of their weapons began to glow red once again.

With a look of anticipation she then activated the device. It whirred and sparked to life and a second later all the Mimic Droids’ weapons flew out of their hands, ascending high into the air. 

The Doctor let out a laugh of relief. “Ha! That’ll teach you to have guns shaped like eggs!”

The droids looked helplessly at their oval-shaped weapons now spinning in the air overhead. 

Knowing the gravity bubbles couldn’t be sustained for long, she quickly twisted a dial to manipulate the weapons, guiding them to point back at the droids. 

They looked back to the Doctor, their faces a blank flat void, but somehow, even though they were unable to display any emotion, it was clear they knew what was coming next.

Every droid felt the full force of their own weapons as they flew backwards from the blast, crashing onto the ground with a tremendous thud.

The Doctor blew the end of her device as if it was a smoking gun.

“You’re verminated.”

Chapter Fifteen 

Clive knew he was close to death. In fact, where dying was concerned, he was getting to be quite a pro. With his lungs taking short breaths and his slow heartbeat thick in his ears, this was just how he’d felt in the shopping arcade, as he laid on the floor with Caroline and Ben by his side. Only now the echoey voice telling him to hold on wasn’t coming from his wife. It was coming from the Doctor.

“Stay with me Clive!” she pleaded. “Just one more thing and then we’re home and dry.”

He rolled his head towards her and spoke with great difficulty.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” he said, his voice nothing more than a thin murmur. “You should’ve left me.”

“Well, I said no-one else was gonna die tonight, and that included you, OK?” she said, pressing her first and middle finger to the side of his neck to check his pulse.

“But if I’m alive, they’ll just keep coming, they won’t stop.” 

“I know, but don’t worry, I have a crazy plan. Came to me at the very last minute. Happens like that sometimes. Well, actually, all the time.” 

The Doctor took off her coat and covered his shivering body before rushing over to one of the nearby droids. It lay motionless on the ground, still smouldering from the laser blast to its chest. 

“See, whilst you had a misspent youth with motorbikes, I had one with androids,” she said, tracing her sonic screwdriver around a panel at the top of its head. 

“And one thing I loved doing was reprogramming them. You see, the more complicated they are, the more complicated the things you can do with them."

The sonic did the trick, and a panel slid open exposing a small keyboard within the droids’ cranium. Without wasting a second she began feverishly typing.

“Take these ones for example, their brains receive information from the IPC’s database. But of course that means, if you know your way around, you can reverse it and send information back.”

Clive trembled. His breathing was now very shallow, and his eyelids so heavy that he felt like he had to sleep. The Doctor noticed his deterioration and quickly offered him some motivation.

“Stay with me now, Clive! We’re almost there.” 

He did as she said, making a concerted effort to open his eyes wide and concentrate on her voice as she continued to explain her plan.

“I just have to pop in and tweak something. First, I’m going to make the Telograde a protected species. Protected under Article 5 of the Shadow Proclamation, and then I’m going to backdate that new status making what’s happened here completely unlawful. Then I’m gonna make every alien right’s organisation, every Galactic Justice Department, aware that this has happened, and capitalising on their outrage, I’m going to demand an immediate response. Oh, and just to put the wind up them even more, I’m going to sign off with my credentials.” 

She hit one last key triumphantly, before turning to scour the loading bay. 

“C’mon, c’mon. Do it. Do it now.”

A moment passed but nothing happened. Clive looked to the Doctor, who was biting her bottom lip in anticipation. 

Another long moment passed. Still nothing.

Eventually, Clive let his head roll back towards the ceiling. Whatever she had tried had failed, and there was no reason to hold on any longer. He allowed his eyes to close, and listened to his heart as its rhythm slowed to just a distant thump, as gentle and as fragile as the flap of a butterfly’s wing. 

He was close to losing consciousness when her voice pulled him back from the void.

“Look!” she yelled. “It’s working!”

Clive dragged himself back from the brink and opened his eyes once more. It was then that he saw the familiar bright light, the same one that had marked the arrival of the droids, only this time it was here to signal their departure. 

Soon all four of their smouldering metal bodies had vanished, evaporated into the air with no trace remaining.

“Yes! It’s started!” the Doctor exclaimed with a childish excitement. “Now c’mon and do the rest.”

It was then a gold mist appeared around the scattered dead bodies. It swirled and danced over them like a sea of fireflies, till suddenly their blackened charred skin began to return back to its fleshy hues.

“Nanogene technology,” the Doctor explained. “Now that’s what I call effective damage limitation.”

Once they’d all been restored back to normality, the gold mist dissolved into the air, and time resumed as if nothing had happened.

Roy sat up, his face awash with concern about what had just transpired.

“I was laying on the floor. Why was I laying on the floor?” he asked, quickly getting back to his feet.

“You fell over,” the Doctor said. “Let’s just go with that.” 

Roy looked to the handful of Big Storage customers as they too started getting up from the floor, their faces mirroring his look of confusion.

“Oh, they all fell too,” the Doctor explained. “It was a mass fall.”

She helped him to his feet before her eyes narrowed.

“Wait a minute, are you Roy Hanson? The Roy Hanson?” she asked, moving in closer to him.

“I am Roy Hanson, yeah.”

“Oh wow, what a pleasure. Big pleasure. I’ve always wanted to meet you. First man on Mars. What a thrill.”

The Doctor shook his hand enthusiastically. Roy could do nothing but give her a frightened smile and pretend to go along with whatever was happening. It was then he noticed the lifeless man’s body on the ground behind her. 

“Why’s he not getting up?” 

The Doctor turned, her expression melting from joy to dread. She left Roy and sprinted towards Clive.

“No no no!” she said as she skidded down beside him to listen to his heartbeat. 

“Should I call an ambulance?” Roy asked, edging closer.

The Doctor looked deep in thought, her mind lost on why the nanogenes had failed to revive him. After a moment the answer came to her.

“Of course! They were only programmed to repair human life. With alien DNA he didn’t scan as human!” 

She cradled him in her arms and squeezed his cold hand tight.

“C’mon, Clive. If you can hear me stay with me! Stay with me!” 

Despite her efforts it was no use, and as the final breath left his body Clive let go, and allowed the darkness consume him.

Chapter Sixteen

Clive wandered along the empty beach and took a moment to enjoy the feeling of the warm soft sand under his bare feet. It was a beautiful day, with the glare of the hot sun offset with a cool breeze. 

He closed his eyes and took a lungful of the fresh ocean air, reclining his head euphorically as he listened to the soft sounds of distant seagulls, and the rustle of palm trees.

“Paradise,” he whispered.

“Yes sirree, you bet it is.” 

Clive recognised the rich Southern American accent immediately, and turned to see the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, now wearing an extravagantly bejewelled purple jump-suit, reclining on a nearby sun lounger. 

“Just pretty as a picture aint it. Oh, feel free to join me if you like.”

Elvis gestured to the empty sun lounger beside him. 

“Well, I don’t mind if I do,” Clive said, enthusiastically taking him up on his invitation. He would have assumed that a celebrity of Elvis Presley’s calibre wouldn’t want to be bothered by fan whilst relaxing on holiday, but he was happy to be proved wrong.

“Nice change from the last time we met, eh?” Clive said, as he thought back to their earlier meeting during the car park attack. 

Elvis lowered his sunglasses to shoot Clive a confused look.

“Sorry man, we’ve met before?”

“Yeah, in that car park. You were driving a hearse? And there were these creatures coming up out of the ground?”

Elvis looked deep in thought for a moment before shaking his head. 

“Hmm… Nope. I don’t think I remember that. Maybe you’re confusing me with someone else?”

Clive was gobsmacked that such a traumatic occasion hadn’t been committed to his memory, but decided not to press any further on the matter. 

It was then that Elvis reached under his sun lounger and produced an acoustic guitar.

“Oh, you don’t mind if I play a little?” he asked. 

“Oh no, please do,” Clive said, trying to downplay how excited he was.

Elvis strummed a few chords whilst looking up to the piercing clear blue sky above.

“I’m thinking Blue Moon might be appropriate, what d’you think?”

Clive joined him in looking up at the sky, but in doing so was alerted to something distinctly unusual. As there, instead of just a moon, he saw that two planets were visible. One a light sapphire blue colour, and the other a deep vermillion red.

Astonished, Clive got back to his feet and walked towards the shoreline to get a better look. 

“But that’s not possible,” he muttered.

“Oh, don’t go too close to the edge,” Elvis replied, momentarily taking a break from singing. “You don’t wanna fall off.”

Clive looked down and to his horror the sea had disappeared, leaving in its place the black emptiness of space.

“What!? Where am I?”

“You’re wherever they are baby.”

“They?” Clive asked, his voice laced with apprehension. 

It was then that the Telograde appeared the distance, its vast bulbous body undulating through the blackness as it eerily glided towards them. 

This was the first time Clive had seen one up close and they were a truly terrifying sight. With its caterpillar-like body, eight fat-clawed hands dangling underneath, and it’s wide open mouth, framed by a series of razor sharp teeth.

Clive looked around the small island but knew there was no safe place to evade the path of the gigantic creature.

As it opened its mammoth mouth he succumbed to the inevitable.

This creature was his destiny, and he could never escape it.

Chapter Seventeen

He awoke from the dream with a jolt and once again found himself lying under a bright overhead light. 

He felt his body. Thankfully this time he was still clothed. Perhaps they hadn’t got round to undressing him yet. Had he just arrived in the morgue? If so, some forensic pathologist might be about to get the fright of their life.

It was as he squinted to get his focus that a familiar blonde halo appeared overhead. A second later the Doctor’s smiling face came into sharp focus.

He licked his dry lips before speaking. “Died again, did I?”

She nodded. “But on the plus side, you’re getting good at this resurrection malarky. Only took you three hours this time. To put that in perspective, Jesus took forty.”

“Great. I’ll pop that on my CV,” he said with a wry smile.

Clive took in his surroundings. There wasn’t much in the small room, aside from a large wicker chair, a dressing table, and a tall silver dress rail, adorned with a variety of extravagant dresses. What was unusual, though, were the large illuminated oval tiles indented into the light grey walls, and the constant low level hum, like the pulse of something electrical. 

Clive sat up, relieved to discover he was in a comfy four-poster bed this time, not the cold metal slab he’d woken up on the previous morning.

“What kind of morgue is this?”

“Oh, it’s not! I don’t have a morgue. At least I don’t think so. Never checked, actually. No, this is a bedroom of an old friend of mine,” the Doctor examined one of the dresses from the rail.  

"You know, these might suit me now I’m a woman.” She took a green and pink garment off the hook and held it up against her. Upon seeing her reflection she grimaced. “Or maybe not.”

With some difficulty Clive sat up. “I had another weird dream. Elvis was there again, and there were these two planets, a red and a blue one…”

“Yeah, the dreams are interesting,” the Doctor said, continuing to peruse the garments. “The Telograde must be psychically linked. Now you’re part of their collective you share their experiences. Their past, their present. Fascinating.”

“I saw it,” Clive continued. “I saw that creature - the Telograde. It was terrifying, and enormous, and it’s in me, isn’t it. That’s who I am now.”

The Doctor stopped browsing and sat down on the bed beside him.

“You mustn’t think like that, Clive. The Telograde isn’t who you are. We’re not our biology, we’re so much more than that. It’s the things you say and the actions you make, that’s what really matters. What you did back there - that unselfish, brave act of heroism. That’s who you are, and that had nothing to do with anatomy or genetics. I promise you in the end its who, not what, you were that people will remember.”

It was then that an alarm clock sounded somewhere in the distance.

“Oh, it’s ready!” she said, rushing out of the door only to poke her head back in moments later. 

“Oh, join me whenever you feel up to it. First door out of here then take a left by the Helter Skelter, down the corridor, right at the Japanese rock garden, up three flights of stairs, and then take the tenth door on the left.” With that she was gone.

Helter Skelter? She had to be kidding, right?

Chapter Eighteen

Clive was realising that whenever the Doctor said something daft or just plain ridiculous, it always turned out to be true. So as he took the route she’d explained he did indeed see a Helter Skelter, and a Japanese rock garden. Not only that but he also saw a swimming pool, a library, and an indoor archery range. 

What kind of a ship is this? he pondered, as he continued to navigate the maze of interconnecting windowless corridors.

As he reached the door she’d instructed him to get to, he paused to wonder what strange environment lay behind it. Where would he find his shape-shifting alien friend? On a Crazy Golf course, perhaps? Ice-skating? Nothing seemed too absurd at this point. He took a deep breath, and went inside. 

The first thing that came to his mind, as he crossed the threshold into the vast cavernous space she’d directed him to, was bees.

The arched walls that loomed up around him were like fragments of a broken honeycomb - layered octagons which overlapped and dovetailed to encase the interior in a dome. Around its centre huge glowing orange stalagmites grew up from the floor, arching inward towards a central control panel. 

That low drone was louder here, as if this were the heart of a machine generating huge amounts of energy.

“Doctor?” he called out. “Are you here?”

Her head poked around from behind the central stalagmite. 

“Ah, there you are! Up and about, good stuff. Now, I’m sure you’ve got a few questions, but before we get into all the dimensionally transcendental stuff just give us a minute to finish this, yeah.”

Clive moved in closer, walking around the circular panel of levers, dials and switches. 

As he came closer to the Doctor he saw her hunched over a mini spindle, working to sand down the edges of a small green stone.

After a minute of two of intense concentration, she turned off the small machine and held the jewel up to the light. “Aaaaand I’m done,” she said proudly. “Pretty good, yeah?”

“It’s lovely. What is it?” 

“This is a very rare piece of emerald quartz crystal from Glasson Minor. I popped there to get it while you were having a nap.”

“Oh,” Clive said, pretending that he had any idea where that was.

“And aside from looking very pretty, emerald quartz crystal has one very useful property - it deflects bio-detection signals.” She screwed the stone into a small clear vial before threading it onto a thin gold chain.

“In short, it acts as a natural DNA blocker, making you, and your alien DNA, totally undetectable.”

She held this new custom made piece of jewellery out to him, and with a nervous hand he took it.

“So, I should put this on?” he asked tentatively.

“That’s the idea,” she said, retrieving her homemade tracker from her pocket. 

Clive looked at the small green stone for a moment before putting the necklace over his head. Aside from a wedding ring he wasn’t really into jewellery. He was just imagining how he was going to explain to Caroline his new accessory when the Doctor activated the device.

“Now for the moment of truth.” 

She waved it around him, but this time the device made no sound as she passed it over his body. 

“Look at that! You don’t register at all, it’s like you’re dead,” the Doctor jubilantly announced before rushing over to a keyboard on the far side of the console.

“That’s… great,” Clive replied, his half-asleep brain still trying to process everything she was saying.

“And now you’re effectively invisible,” she said, typing at lightning speed. “I can just hack into the IPC’s systems and make the Telograde their number one pest again.”

She hit enter and then let out a sigh of joy.

“Done.”

“So, as long as I wear this I’m OK?”

“Completely fine. Just don’t ever take it off, or a hoard of Mimic Droids will come to come to destroy you.”

Clive gripped the stone tight, suddenly it wasn’t just a fashion accessory, it was a lifeline. “I’ll keep it on, then.”

The Doctor placed her hands on her hips and smiled, clearly satisfied with how everything had panned out.

“Right! All’s well that ends well. How’s about a nice cup of tea and a custard donut to celebrate? I’ve got such a craving for custard donuts.”

Chapter Nineteen 

“It’s smaller on the outside!?” Clive said, gawping at the blue box he’d just exited.

“Yeah, that sentence usually sounds better the other way round,” the Doctor said stepping outside to join him on the street corner. 

Clive walked around the box just to see if it was some kind of trick, but knew it wasn’t. The Doctor’s ship was an entire city somehow squashed into an old police telephone box.

“Nothing about you makes the slightest bit of sense,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Thanks Clive. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

They smiled at each other before taking in the scene. It was dawn on Victoria Street, the early morning sun had just started to melt the dew from the grass, as bird song mingled with the sounds of distant traffic and dogs barking.

A new day had begun.

Even though Clive had a thousand questions he still wanted to ask the Doctor, about herself and her impossible ship, suddenly all of them became insignificant at the sight of his home, and the thought of what was coming next.

“Not sure how I’ll explain this,” he sad, once again gripping the green crystal around his neck.

“Ah, you’re good with conspiracy theories,” she said, nudging him with her elbow. “I’ll sure you’ll think of something.” 

She wandered back to the Tardis before turning sharply.

“Actually, come to think of it - did I mention this is also a time machine? How about we get some answers, eh? First stop, moon landing? You know I’ve always been curious about that flapping flag as well."

The corners of Clive’s mouth turned up into a broad grin.

“Oh, you have no idea… NO IDEA! How much I’ve longed of an invitation like that. For a chance to know the truth. Uncover all those mysteries. See what really happened. Know the unknowable… But, I can’t. I was obsessed with not knowing but I’d be even more obsessed with knowing. I wouldn’t know where to stop. I’d never be satisfied. I’d just wanna see it all. But that’s not what’s important. What’s in there is important. Just before I died, both times, I realised that. They’re the ones I thought of, not JFK, or 9/11, or you. Them. I feel like I’ve got a second chance. I feel like a new man. Well, a new mutated part-alien man. I don’t wanna pass it up, not even for the whole universe.”

The Doctor nodded and gave him a tight-lipped smile. 

“You know what, Clive Finch. I think you just knocked baby Foamasi off my number one spot.”

She turned once again, and took a few steps back into the TARDIS before spinning back around.

“Oh wait! No! Brain just catching up again - did you say you saw a red and a blue planet together in your dream?”

“Yes.”

She thought for a moment, tapping her finger to her lips.

“Yes! Must be Magaladorius Major and Kandoria! If a Telograde is in that star system it could wreak havoc. Clive! Your psychic link could have just saved millions of lives!” 

The Doctor got out her notebook and scribbled a long number, then tore the page and eagerly handed it to him.

“If you have anymore dreams like that you buzz me. Night or day. Past, present or future. I’ll answer and I’ll follow it up. Right! Better get out there now, there’s no time to waste.”

He watched her race back to the blue box, full of vigour and excitement for her next mission. 

“Doctor!” he called out, catching her just as she was about to re-enter her ship.

“You know a girl came to see me a few days ago. She was asking about you. I think I scared her off telling her she should be careful. See, I always thought you were an omen, a bad omen. But I got that wrong. You’re a good omen, because you do your best to make things better. To help people.”

“Thank you, Clive,” the Doctor said, swallowing the lump in her throat.

He’d slowly started to walk away when she called out to him one last time.

“Clive. What was her name? The girl who came to see you?”

He thought for a moment. It was something floral… Lilly? Poppy?

“Oh yeah, I remember now. It was Rose.”

With that he turned and walked up the driveway to the house. 

The Doctor lingered in the doorway of the Tardis for a moment, a wistful expression crept across her face.

“2005. Like I said, brilliant year.”

[pacifistofpatience]

Again, can't access Masterlist for some reason so kindly ignore this if it's already been done please. Ut, Uf, and Ht Sans who meets said SO by the SO working at Grillby's (weather this is on surface or not depends on you)

((I hope I fixed themaster list thing! But thankfully this is not on it!!

ugh gosh, idk where i wanted to go with this. I started writing out a story for each one but then got distracted and started doing bullet points and it turned into this mesh. I think i may need to stop for the day cause Im running low on my creative energy)) 

Undertale

Sans

The first time you saw him,he had already seen you many times before

Most of your day was spentin the kitchen, cooking away as Grillby served the customers and only coming outwhen you felt like he was lagging behind

(that was rarely an issue,but you also knew business was booming now that monsters were on the surface. Afterthe initial tourists made their rounds to the monster shops you thought things woulddie out. But people quickly gained a taste for the little bar on the outskirtsof town. Enough so that the bar could very quickly get busy) 

Sans saw you in passing,carrying plates of food and rushing to and fro. Despite his aversion to crowdshe found himself going on the busier days, hoping to see you again as you bustledaround the bar 

And gosh, was it weird thathe might have started to get a crush on someone with so much energy? You alwayswere so full of life as you moved around. You chatted with the costumers animatedly, all while keeping pace with Grillby and somehow taking orders at the sametime??? How the hell did you do all of that??? He was getting tired justwatching you!

Eventually, though, hegets his chance to actually meet you

He had been walking intoGrillby's when he found you outside, sitting on the ground with your chefs hattilted downwards and he just froze up. This was his chance to talk but he didn’tknow what to do??? He couldn’t just say “hey ive been watching you work for thepast few weeks and I really want to get to know you and stuff but please donethink im creepy”

Of course, all thatworrying was for nothing when he heard you let out a loud, obnoxious snore

Were you… Had you just…fallen asleep? The big ball of energy out like a light in the middle of the day?! 

He checked under your capto see your eyes closed. Either waiting for your shift to startor -by how disheveled you looked- probably taking a break after a long day. Hewondered how many times you had worked yourself to the bone just to fall asleepthe second you had a moment. That maybe, more often then not, your boundless energywas diminished by the end of the day

And by accident (or somegod above that wanted to completely embarrass him) you woke up in the middle ofhis staring

“Oh!” you had said, withouta hint of malice, “You’re Tab Guy!”

“I’m the what!"

Underfell

Red

You were pretty sure hewas an alcoholic

The first few times youcame to work, he was already drunk. Bordering on black out. He slurred hiswords and made very… unnecessary comments at some of the patrons. Eitherlooking for a fuck or a fight. Whichever he could get

But never to you, whichwas both relieving and somewhat confidence shattering

(it wasn’t like you wantedto be catcalled (Or instigated)… but from the conversations you had with hisdrunken self when the bar was closing and the last patrons left you learned afew things about him

1: He liked puns

2: he was actually prettydang sweet

3: You were gaining a big crushon him very fast)

Grillby didn’t want todeal with him all that often (Something about a swiftly growing tab and hisbrother refusing to pay it off because he needed to learn responsibility) soyou became the go to deal with him. And it wasn’t like you were going torefuse, mostly because Grillby would handle the whole bar as long as you dealtwith Red for the rest of the night. It was like an all day long break!

Of course, after a wholeof getting to know him you had tried to cut him off. Just once.

“aint nothing…” he slurredto you, “ya see tha-tha alcohol… goes right thru-thro-through me…watch this…”

He proceeded to knock backanother drink, tipping both himself and the stood far enough that he toppledover onto the ground

For a long while he just laidthere, groaning in pain as you practically vaulted over the bar to check on him.Once you were down there you were greeted with his unapologetic snoring

After a quick chat withGrillby, who came out to find you hovering over the skeleton, he sent you offearly given you take Red home. So you slugged his arm around your shoulder andthen one of your own around his waist and headed off (after getting his addressfrom Grills, thankfully)

Most of the walk was spentwith him mumbling nonsense before nodding off, only to wake up a few moments laterand start rambling again

But something did stickwith you

“yer—” he said, all slurredwords and, “yer a gud human…all sweet an’ stuff… ya-ya listn ta me an… and yanever kick me out like grills does…a real sw’et’art. real gud an’ nice and..an...an--”

*SNORE*

Well... now you had to have his number

Horrortale

Jupiter

It’s a long while beforehe goes back to Grillby’s

You heard stories before,about these big skeletons in the underground that one day just came in and… assertedthemselves there. How one named Papyrus was the sweetest thing, even though so muchhe was the light of the town

And.. And then when theytalk about Sans- the other skeleton- it’s always in reverent whispers. Sure,they’ll tell you things like how he’s funny, a real sweetheart once you get toknow him, that he used to spend weekends at MTT resort before the incidenttelling jokes.

But then there’s thethings they didn’t tell you, hushed conversations of with only a whisper of hisname that would die out as you came by. It sent a shiver up your spine, because fromwhat you knew the guy was good but… 

...But there was somethingthey were keeping, some secret the whole Underground refused to let anyone inon, especially the humans

When you met him it was towardsthe end of your shift, on a quiet Wednesday night where it was too early to close,but far too late out for anyone to want to come in. So you were surprised whenyou heard the bell ring

The guy was big, hulkingwith a hole in his head the size of a crater, and you would have been terrifiedout of your mind had it not been for the fact he seemed so small in thatmoment. One big eye light darting every way and only relaxing when he caughtsight of no one except for little old you

He sat at the far end of abooth, and you bounded over to him with the kindest of smiles (Despite thesmall amount of fear still going through you) and spoke to him.

The conversation flowed easilyfrom there. Even though he spoke slowly and with a nervousness you knew well, hewas witty when he wanted to be, and his jokes had you laughing

(He beamed when he got youto snort, eye light flickering to a heart for just a second)

The rest would be dealtwith later but, for now, it was just you and this sweetheart of a skeleton in abar

(That is… until Grillbyfinally exited the back and practically engulfed Sans in a warm ‘welcome home’hug)

[ladyboltontoyou]

Arthur Morgan x Reader: Farmer’s Daughter. 2

Warnings: Cursing probably. Smut. 

Pairing: Arthur Morgan x Reader

A/N: HELLO AGAIN. Listened to ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros while I wrote this lmao.(Okay I listened to it like three times in the span of the three hours it took me to write this) You should all listen to it, gave me young Arthur x reader vibes tbh, it’s super cute and happy. RIGHT OK so I hope you guys like this one as much as you enjoyed the first one, didn’t plan this to be more than a one-shot but more than one person wanted it to be so here I am. Hope the smut didn’t feel too rushed! I was going to do a few time skips but this just felt right to me. Thanks so much for your notes, comments, and reblogs, they mean the world to me.

It had been a week without any sign from Arthur, and on the seventh day you had almost given up hope. But he showed up right when you were about to fall asleep, knocking over a vase on your table when he climbed through the window it sat in front of.

You sat up in bed and pulled the sheets over you, frozen solid in fear for a good ten seconds before your eyes adjusted to the light and you made out Arthur picking up the vase from the floor. 

“You scared the daylights out of me.” You whispered as you calmed down from the near heart attack.

“Your doors were locked, so I uh, knocked on the window. You didn’t wake up and, well, here I am.” He sounded slightly embarrassed, taking his jacket off to put on the floor. “Sorry about that.”

“You don’t need to do that, a little water is okay.” You said as you climbed to the foot of the bed, but his jacket had already soaked up the spilled liquid. 

“Exactly. I’ve got other coats. At least it ain’t leather.” You both laughed a little at that and then you lit your bedside candle. 

“Close the curtains, will you?”

He looked over his shoulder and realized he’d not only left the window open, but he gave a good view to anyone who looked up at the balcony. He quickly did as you asked, closing the window too. “You draw anything while I was gone?” He asked as he walked back over and sat in the chair at your table. 

Another reason he was such a good man, he sat a respectable distance away from you when there was a whole bed he could have taken advantage of. 

Which damn, you wished he would. 

If there was anyone in the world who was sexually frustrated, it was a tie between you and Arthur. You had sex only once in your life, and it wasn’t even good. You had many other opportunities with pretty attractive people, but your family was almost constantly on you so you had no time to sneak away. And for Arthur, well, it’s self explanatory. 

“A few things.” You admitted and crawled back to the head of your bed and pulled out the drawer of your nightstand. Your brand new sketch pad laid in there, your father had bought it for you a few days before since you had already filled up your last one. 

“Really? Well, I’d love to see them.” He hated how vulnerable he felt then. Snuck into some girls room, knowing damn well he was a fool for being there. He fawned over you a little too much for his liking, last time he had butterflies over a girl he was very, very, very young. But that was the last thing on his mind for once. All he cared about now was the farmers daughter in her silk night-dress with the sketch book in her hands. 

You opened to the first page where a simple sketch of a cat waited to be praised. “This is my cat Scully.” 

Arthur got up from his seat and walked over to where you sat on the edge of the bed, squatting down at your knees so he could see properly. “Well, look at that.” He grinned and you handed the book over to him, which he gladly took. “How’d they get that?” He pointed to the right ear which was missing the top half. 

You leaned over to look at what his finger pointed to and sighed. “One day when I was real young, I was playing outside and the neighbor's dog came over, guess he didn’t like how I smelt so he started growling at me. Scully, she saw me crying and came over, kicked its ass then chased it off.” You laughed when you remembered how your parents treated the cat afterward, taking her to the most expensive vet they could find. She was queen of the house from then on out. 

Arthur snorted, his head bobbing slightly as he did so. “That so? She’s braver than any man I’ve ever met.”

You smiled and nodded in agreement. “You can go through them, there's only two more in there.” Your heart sped up in excitement when you remembered the last picture was something you’d done for him, a silhouette of him standing on your balcony overlooking your farm land. 

He turned the page slow as to not wrinkle the expensive paper. When he saw the next one he raised his brows. “Christ, girl. You need to be selling these.” 

The one he was looking at was a more detailed sketch, one you had done the day before. You still needed to do a little more shading on it, but it was mostly done. It was your parents sitting outside at the bench in your garden, they were both laughing and holding wine glasses. Your father had told your mother something funny and she was almost doubled over, one hand in front of her mouth and the other holding the glass outwards so she didn’t spill any on herself. They were surrounded by their roses and jasmine. 

“How do you remember something like this?”

You shrugged with the biggest smile on your face and a blush in your cheeks. “Something like that just sticks.” 

He looked up to you and shook his head before looking back down. “You’ve got me speechless.” He flipped to the next page and completely froze. He didn’t say anything for a minute, which worried you, but then he just let out a huff-like laugh of disbelief. “This me?” He knew it was him but for some reason he felt like he had to ask, just to hear you say it.

“Yes, it’s not weird, is it?” You asked while you chewed on your bottom lip nervously. 

Arthur scoffed and stood up before sitting down on your bed next to you, his eyes on the paper the whole time. “I’ve never seen myself the way you draw me. Even though this is just my damn figure.”His words really hit you. You knew what he meant by it and although you wanted him to explain it himself you knew it was something he wouldn’t go into detail about. He probably didn’t even mean to say it, it was most likely a slip of his tongue. 

After what seemed like several minutes he closed the book and handed it back to you. “No, this is for you.” You opened the book back open and cleanly tore the page out, handing it to the man sitting next to you. 

“I appreciate it. I really do.” He said and walked over to the table, setting it down on top of his satchel. His hand lingered there momentarily, considering taking out his own journal and giving you the paper he had spent days perfecting. Anxiety gnawed at him and he pulled his hand away, turning back to you. “Sorry I didn’t come back earlier, by the way. Got caught up in some business and ended up in Valentine for a while.”

“No, don’t apologize.” You waved him off. “You didn’t even have to come back, we barely even know each other. You got what you came for the first time anyways, you could have taken my hundred dollar drawing and sold it to make yourself a rich man.”

He laughed and sat down at the foot of your bed, making sure to keep a proper distance from you so he wouldn’t scare you off. If only he knew you wanted the complete opposite. “Now, a hundred-dollars isn’t very rich, why do that when I could keep coming back and get more? That would be one hell of a business.”

Where on this cold earth did this man come from? How were you so lucky to know such a good person? Given, you had only seen him two times, but he had still made a name for himself. He had a good sense of humor, he was polite, and goddamn he praised your art like it was god. If there was one sure way to your heart it was through that. And not to mention he was incredibly attractive. Fit as could be, well-groomed yet he had this dangerous look about him that said he could put you down in two seconds flat if you tried him. 

You wished he would.

In an attempt to clear the dirty thoughts that had flood your head you brought up a new subject. “The last time you were here you said my drawing was better than yours, you never answered me when I asked if you drew too.” You said and tried to look casual as you watched him for a reaction. 

He cleared his throat and looked away from your gaze, his eyes landing on everything in the room besides you. “I said that? Of course I would. That sounds like something I’d say.” He laughed to try to chase his anxiety off. “Sure, I do. A little bit.”

“Do you have anything you could show me?” You asked and pulled your legs back up onto the bed, making yourself comfortable as you continued watching him. It was hard not to, every single thing he did was mesmerizing.

He scratched his chin and sighed. “Yeah, I do.” He reluctantly grabbed his satchel from the table and pulled his own journal from it. “They’re not the best, but, well, look for yourself. There’s some writin’ in there too, pay no mind to that.” He handed you the worn leather book and you flipped through it. It was mostly full of wildlife, plants and scenery. 

“These are really good. This wolf looks like a photograph.” You said as you went through the pages. Some of his work was way better than anything you could ever dream of drawing, but he probably thought the same about yours. There were a few small doodles that made your heart melt, like one of a poodle that looked like he drew under sixty seconds. 

You had gotten so wrapped up in looking at the pages you didn’t even notice the way he was looking at you. He looked at you like he was seeing something so magnificent, and if he dared look away he would miss something. The way your eyes scanned over the paper, the way you would smile when you saw something you found his drunk doodles, it made him feel like he was drunk then and there. He had almost forgotten about what he drew you, on the newest page. When your expression changed to something unreadable his heart sped up and he shifted anxiously on the bed.

“This is me?” Your voice was barely a whisper. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing, it was the most beautiful thing you’d ever seen. Not because it was you, but because you knew it was the way he saw you. You were wearing that pretty white sundress you had worn the day he first saw you and you had jasmine flowers in your hair. You looked like you were in the middle of walking, your left hand trailing through the tall grass he had drawn you in. You had a small smile on your face and you were looking directly in front of you as if you knew you were being drawn. It looked amazing, so beautiful you couldn’t believe that was actually you. But sure enough it was identical. “I look so pretty.”

Arthur scratched the back of his head, torn between feeling utterly in love with you and feeling disgusted at how sappy and vulnerable he was. “I draw what I see.” 

That was all you needed. You set the book down beside you and threw all your inhibitions out the window, crawling to the foot of the bed to kiss him. You took his face in your hands and pulled him towards you. His trimmed beard felt rough in your hands but you loved every bit of it. His lips felt even better against your own, they were hot and tasted raw as if he had been chewing on them for hours. 

Arthur inhaled sharply through his nose, his eyes wide and his hands raised off his lap in surprise. He wanted to push you off because he knew it was wrong and you’d regret it later. He told himself you had to have been drinking, there was no way any woman like you would kiss someone like him. 

You were the one to end the kiss, but only because you were running out of breath. It seemed he had been too, since when you parted he sucked in a breath. 

“Now why did you do that?” He asked immediately, his voice faultering.

“I don’t know.” You admitted with a shrug and a soft laugh. “I just wanted to. I’m sorry, I should have asked. I just, really… really like you, Arthur. I know we haven’t been in the same room as each other a total of ten hours… but I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this. I don’t know what the normal thing to do is when you like someone like this.”

Arthur shook his head and sighed. “Don’t do that. Please. Don’t.” 

“Give me a reason.” You were still so close you were practically touching, your knees a hair length apart. “Because I don’t see any good reason not to.”

“(Y/N), I’m not a good person. I don’t know if I’ll stay around here long, I don’t normally stay in one place for too long. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, you’re a young beautiful woman. You could have any man, hell, any man or woman you’d ever want.”

“Really? Well, I want you.” 

He sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head again. “Don’t say that.”

“But it’s true, I want you, Arthur. I don’t want anyone else, not right now at least. And right now is all that matters.”

At your words he groaned, hearing the sentence ‘I want you’ coming from your mouth was too much for him. “But-”

You shut him up with another kiss, this one shorter but more heated. “Listen Arthur, I’m a big girl, okay? I won’t be heartbroken if we never see eachother again. I’ll be sad for a while, sure, but like you said. I’ve got my whole life. I’ll get over it.” You smiled and took off his hat, setting it beside him. “You think pretty highly of yourself if you think one night will be the end of me.”

Arthur laughed and finally looked at you. “You’re stubborn. You know that?”

“Of course I do. But now you’ve got me interested, what’s so good about you that you want to protect me from missing?” You questioned with an innocent smile, placing a hand on his knee. 

He grew serious again and the playful smile disappeared. “(Y/N), I don’t think this is such a good idea.” He warned while he still had the mindset to think that deeply. Your hand on his knee wasn’t helping his good intentions. “If your folks-”

“Don’t worry about them. They sleep on the other side of the house with the river right outside their window. The only thing that will wake them is screaming, or the dogs outside. But don’t worry, I can be quiet.” You winked and took his hand in yours, impressed by how huge they seemed compared to you. “Please?” 

There was no way of explaining how you got the idea to start kissing his fingers, it just felt right. Arthur closed his eyes and groaned in the ‘What have I gotten myself into’ type of way. There was no way he could say no to you, not when you were doing… that. “Christ, woman.” He hissed when you pulled him forwards towards the head of the bed. 

He took a quick second to take his boots off and blow out the candle, providing you with a more comfortable sense of safety. There was no way anyone besides the two of you could see what was going on in your room.

He climbed back on the bed and kissed you, one hand on your cheek and one on the bed beside you. Arthur kissed so sensual and deep that you felt like you were kissing someone you had been married to for your entire life. Your heart swelled and all the blood made its way between your legs in a hurry. “Take this off.” You whispered against his mouth as you unbuttoned the front of his shirt. 

He finished the rest of the buttons, sitting up on his knees to pull his arms out of the shirt. Once it was off he hurried back to kissing you like his life depended on it. He loved the feeling so much he totally forgot about the rest of his clothes and only stopped when you placed your toes on his belt buckle and gently pushed him back. 

You smiled when he laughed and shook his head at you. “What? Don’t like taking your time?” He teased and lowered his hands to unbuckle his belt. The imagery mixed with the gentle clink of metal as he took his belt off drove you mad.

“I do once the clothes are off.” You meant to tease him back but you sounded far too serious. He had nothing to say to that so he just finished taking his belt off, laying it with his hat at the foot of the bed. When he leaned forward again you stopped him with your foot on his chest. “Keep going.”

“Maybe you should've been the one warning me.” He breathed and pulled his pants down his hips, standing from the bed to pull them off the rest of the way.  “There’s no way I could have you just once.” 

Good. You thought. You didn’t want him just once either. 

Once he finally got his pants off you felt it was unfair that you were still fully clothed so you reached under your dress and pulled down your panties. He watched as you pulled them off of your raised feet with a look that just screamed sex. “Am I dreamin’?” He asked with a laugh, sliding back onto the bed in front of you. 

“Come here and find out.” You grinned and spread your legs a bit, just enough to notice but not enough for him to see anything exciting.

“Jesus, woman.” His voice was barely a whisper and he leaned back into you, grabbing your waist gently to pull you flat on your back, his hips pressed flush against you. You could feel how hard he was through the thin fabric of his underwear and it drove you fucking crazy. He finally started taking the lead then and he slipped his hand between the two of you, sliding his fingers down your slick folds to your entrance. When he pushed a finger inside of you the both of you gasped, he didn’t expect you to feel so good around him. 

“Oh, fuck.” You muttered and closed your eyes, grabbing onto his biceps. His arm muscles tensed under your touch, mostly his right arm since that was the one with its fingers inside you. 

He kept at that for a while, curling it inside you in sync with the beat of his heart. You came just from that. When he felt you tense up around him mixed with the feeling of hot cum oozing down his hand he lost any patience he had left. He took his hand out from between your legs and kissed you again, using his right hand to take the last article of clothing he had off. When he pressed back down into you the breath hitched in your throat. 

“God.” You moaned and moved your hands from his arms up to tangle into his hair. “I want you so bad, Arthur.” 

As if he couldn’t be in any more of a hurry, you had to go and say that. 

“You have no idea.” He said with a grunt and used a hand to guide the tip of his cock against you. He rubbed it up and down your slit a few times and you let out the filthiest sound he had ever heard. You locked your ankles around his back and pushed him into you, catching him by surprise. 

The feeling of his cock fully inside of you was indescribable. You arched your back and rolled your head back into the pillows. He groaned and grabbed the bottom of your nightgown to pull off of you. You had to help him get it off your shoulders. After it finally came off he sighed, looking down at your body.

“You’re going to be the death of me.” He whispered and leaned back down into you. His thrusts were slow, but only for a few of them. Once he was sure you were ready he let himself go completely. You pulled his head down to yours and kissed him again as his cock drove in and out of you at a quick steady pace. He felt so amazing inside you, the feeling of his cock rubbing against that one special spot gave you your second orgasm. 

Your third came when he rough handled you a little bit for the first time, he had grabbed your thighs roughly and slammed himself inside you about four times. The sheer force of it all knocked the air out of your lungs and left you paralyzed. The fourth time you came he had flipped you onto your stomach. The way he could manhandle you to easily was so hot to you that you swore you fell in love with him then. 

When he pushed his cock back into you at the new angle was when you came, and god, he felt it. He almost came with you but he thankfully had the will to pull out and give himself a few seconds to calm down. Once he had enough time he continued fucking you into your mattress. 

This all went on for what only felt like a few minutes. You had no idea that you’d actually been at it for nearly two hours. You probably would have gone longer if you didn’t decide to sit in his lap, that had been what finished him off. 

When you were on top of him his cock reached deeper inside you than it had ever been before. He was stunned for a second, unable to move as you rode his cock and pulled his head back by his hair. When you sunk your teeth into his neck was when he truly lost it. He came undone in you, grabbing you by your hips and forcing you down further onto his length. 

The noises that came from him sounded so primal it led you to your final orgasm. Thank god you came with him because there was no way he’d be able to go again after that. He’d be surprised if he had the energy to climb down that lattice and onto his horse. 

No one said anything for a good while but that was okay. You couldn’t talk if you tried. You were too busy gasping for breath to form words.

Arthur was the first to speak. “I should probably leave now, I told Dutch I’d only be out a few minutes.” He sighed when he remembered that the older man had told him not to stay out too long since the law was keeping an eye out for them. You had no idea who Dutch was but you nodded anyways. 

“Alright. I should go to sleep anyways, I’ve got to wake up early in the morning to go to town with my mother.” 

Arthur nodded and ran a hand through his sweaty hair, noticing how messy it had become. Before he came over he had made sure it looked nice but now he was sure it looked as if he had no idea what a comb was. 

You watched him pull his clothes back on, almost forgetting his hat and belt. He slipped your picture for him in his journal and safely secured it, sliding it back into his satchel. 

After he gathered his things he gave you one last kiss at the doors, full of more passion than any others you had previously shared. “Could I come see you again sometime?” He asked after you parted with the most adorable smile on his face. 

God. He was right in his warning, there was no way you could get over a smile like that.

“Arthur, you know the answer to that.” 

[pixieungerstories]

Housemates - 4

Thea was watching his friends carry furniture up to the attic. He was keeping out of the way. Kogan and Bazur and Derick and Tristan had the carrying thing down. The dresser and a desk had already been manhandled up the stairs. The one that was giving Thea some pause was that he could tell that Vinny’s mattress was not going to fit up the stairs.

He thought about that as he climbed up the outside of the back of the house and started building a winch system for raising the big stuff to the third story windows. Thea might have bulk from his spider half, but his human half wasn’t muscular.  He was used to watching construction workers wanting to do things by brute force when there were safer and more efficient options for anyone who would stop and think for a moment.

Once he was set up, he cornered JJ and the two of them snuck the mattress around to the back of the house. Thea got it set up with lifting straps and then sent JJ up to the third floor to open the windows. From there it was all about mechanical advantage to get the mattress up the outside of the building. Thea carefully maneuvered it in through the windows.  He managed to get it in and disengage the webbing he had made for lifting before he realized Vinny was watching him.

“Um, it’s wrapped in plastic. I was careful not to leave any web residue on it.”

She smiled, “Thank you, Thea.”

He nodded awkwardly, then climbed out the window to dismantle the winch system he had made.

Awkward became his go to word for the next few days. Driders weren’t naturally social. This coupled with working in a male dominated field left him completely unprepared to talk to her. While the others would ask her about her day and find ways to include her in the conversation, Thea went completely tongue tied around her. The food was awesome. The house was clean. Life was better with her here.

And it wasn’t even that she was doing all the cleaning. She was very clear. They got two hours of her time each day. She could either spend that meal planning, shopping for groceries, and cooking. Or she could spend it cleaning the kitchen. It was entirely up to them what she spent her time on. But if the kitchen wasn’t clean when she sat down to menu plan, or cook, or left the house to go buy food, she would do that instead. Occasionally, she would trade shopping time to any of them in exchange for doing other chores. Kogan regularly negotiated for her to clean the bathroom as he went out with the list. Derick hated the vacuum, so he worked out something similar.

Thea was very impressed that she managed to get them to do their chores without resorting to shame or nagging.

“There are underwear on the floor of the bathroom.”

Tristan got up from the couch to go deal with that. But it was a simple statement of fact. No accusations, no comments about them being disgusting. Merely, they are on the floor. She was like that. “There aren’t any clean glasses,” to remind who ever was on dish duty to fix that. And she wouldn’t nag.  

Kevin had cost them a dinner once, learning that she didn’t nag. She came home from work at 5 and sent out a group text message that the kitchen wasn’t ready for her to cook. Then she planned dinner, went out and bought groceries. When she came back the kitchen still wasn’t ready for her to cook. So she put the groceries in the fridge and cleaned the kitchen.

Then she handed the recipe to Bazur and went out for supper with her friend.

The guys had a discussion about how Kevin had been home all day to clean the kitchen. In the end, he bought pizza for everyone.

The next day, since she didn’t have to menu plan or shop, she vacuumed the floors.  

She was definitely working the agreed upon hours. It was just that the house was a bigger job than they realized.

And now it was Friday night. They were eating steak and mushrooms, green beans and risotto. Vinny cleared her throat. They all froze and looked at her.

“I understand you are all busy, but I made a list of maintenance that hasn’t been done on the house. How is that sort of thing handled?”

Bazur cleared his throat, “What kind of maintenance?”

Vinny shrugged, “The gutters need to be cleaned. The carpets could really do with a steam clean. The windows need the outside cleaned. There is dust matted on the walls, they need to be cleaned. Some of the grout in the bathrooms needs to be repaired before you get mould. The hardwood floors need to be waxed at the very least. I’m too short to check the batteries in the smoke detectors, but someone should. You know. The kind of stuff that needs to be done every few months.

In the end, they agreed to spend part of Saturday afternoon with everyone pitching in for a few hours. Vinny said that if they were all working on the house, she would too, but it wasn’t stuff she could do on her own.

That is how Thea ended up cleaning the gutters. Bazur was doing the windows on the main floor, but Thea was in charge of the upper floors. Kevin was washing walls. Kogan was running the rented carpet cleaner. Derick was re grouting the bathrooms and Tristan was using a restorer on the hardwood floors.

About the time that Thea was washing the windows, Vinny started washing the same window, but on the inside. That way she could point out streaks he might have missed. He was about to go on to the second window when she opened the first one.  

“Can you tell me where I miss too? It’s hard to see from this close to the window.”

Thea nodded, but spent the rest of the afternoon pointing out where Vinny had missed. He wanted to just hide in his room and die. He was pretty sure that girls didn’t respond well to constantly pointing out their mistakes. They did her room last. For Bazur’s room and hers she needed to go up and down the step stool to get the top half of the windows.

Vinny was decidedly out of breath and a little sweaty by the time they finished. She headed to her shower. Thea went to his room. Kevin was sitting in the corner.

“What’s up?” Thea asked softly.

Kevin cleared his throat. “I don’t know how to not be an asshole around her.”

Thea nodded. “I never know what to say.”

“I wasn’t trying to piss her off by leaving a mess in the kitchen. I just lost track of it. And I didn’t get the text until it was too late.”

Thea frowned, “Really? Because if any of us where going to test the boundaries-”

“I know!  And I did. But not like that.”

Thea felt a little worried about that. “What did you do?”

“I hid in her room. I wanted to know if she could spot me. She didn’t. But I over heard her talking to someone named Jenn about how she wasn’t sure this was going to work. That she wasn’t cut out to be the house mom to the lost boys.”

“Was that before or after you skipped dish duty?”

Kevin didn’t say anything.

There was a knock on the door and Kevin was instantly a side table.

“Come in.”

It was Vinny, “Thea? Is there something you need to tell me?”

He panicked. His brain completely blanked except for an overwhelming sense of dread.

She sighed and closed the door. “I get the feeling that you don’t actually like me all that much. Is it something I did?”

Aw hell! He was cornered in his own room there was nowhere to run.

And Kevin was snickering too softly for her to hear.

“Um... You are fine. I like you. I mean, I don’t like you but you, um, make really good cannoli. Uh… yeah, so… um.” He wasn’t helping. Her eyebrows had done that thing where they tense up over her nose. No quite a frown but just a forehead frown. “Are you mad at me?”

She shook her head slowly. “I’m old enough to know that not everyone is going to like me. But you never even say hi.”

Thea looked at the floor. “I’m not good at people. Um. Girls. Um… Women! I just…. Yeah. Ugh. Way to be coherent, Thea.”

Now she cocked her head a little and asked, “Did you mean to say that last bit out loud?”

Thea replayed what he had just said. Then he panicked and ran up the wall to hide in his nest in the top corner of the room.

Eventually, they all went to eat at the pub where Derick worked. Vinny sat next to him and they laughed and chatted and she took his advice on what to order. Derick waved as he headed to the back room to start his shift. Kogan leaned over and nudge Thea, “You are staring lad. It’s a little rude.”

Thea ducked his head. Kogan clapped him on the back. “C’mon. Let’s head home.”

“I don’t know how to talk to her, Kogan.”

“Just talk to her the way you talk to me.” Kogan said as they headed out to the van that had been retrofitted to carry a drider.

“But she isn’t you.” Thea said.

Kogan snorted, “Right. I aint that purty.” He exaggerated the mispronunciation to make his point.

Thea cringed, “Yeah,” he admitted.

Kogan gave him a long look, “Shit, son, you got get past that. We can’t run off another one.”

[stusbunker]

For Two

A Supernatural Fan-fiction

Featuring: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Gabriel x Rowena, and Jack

Word Count: 1580

Entry for @winchesterprincessbride ‘Jen Said What?’ Challenge

Prompt #22: If you loved me you would have bought me ice cream.

Summary: Predictable Whammied Winchester Silliness.Do not read too into this. xoxo Stu

“I mean, it can’t be all bad,” Dean cocked his head as he watched the woman across the hallway. They were waiting outside a hospital room to speak to the latest victim in a series of bizarre hallucination sparked panic attacks. The young mother, with a very pregnant stomach, was entertaining a three-year-old girl as they waited for the elevator. “Otherwise we would have died out long ago.”

“Dean, it’s like possession, but for ten months,” Sam shook his head at his brother’s line of reasoning. “And then you have another person to take care of on top of it.”

“Jack turned out okay,” Dean muttered. “Plus, I am great with kids.”

“Well, good thing you can’t get pregnant, otherwise you would be even more moody,” Sam hissed, confounded that this conversation was still happening.

Dean didn’t say anything but the way his face pinched, then softened, as the idea of mindless eating surfaced, earned Dean one of Sam’s bitchiest faces.

“Don’t-”

Luckily for them both, the nurse invited them into the victim’s room.

^*^

Gabriel and Jack returned from the morgue with matching Dum Dum suckers in their mouths. Jack was grinning and trying to balance the candy in his excited mouth without drooling. It would have been gross, if he wasn’t so adorable. The nephil had started to grow on his blood Uncle. Even though the Winchesters only trusted them together in small stretches, those boys were para-noid.

“So, Jack, you settled on being a hunter or are you keeping your options open?” Gabriel watched the innocent young man with the mischievous of millennia in his eyes.

“Uh, well, Sam and Dean help people. I want to be able to do that, like Cas though, since, we have some powers still.”

“Yeah, but won’t it get boring? Always having to go to everyone else’s rescue, not much fun if you ask me.”

“But hunting is a job. Jobs aren’t supposed to be fun. There’s fishing and music and friends for that.” Jack gave Gabriel a serious look, explaining to him as if he was the man-child.

“Yeah, okay, well, looks like you’ve made up your mind,” Gabriel smacked his lips dramatically. “Oh well.”

“Is that bad?”

“No, I was just curious if you wanted to hang out with your Uncle Gabe for a while. Road trip, see the world, get an Archangel’s tour of the family land.”

“That could be very insightful,” Jack pondered. “Could Cas come? He seems like he could use a vacation.”

“Uf! Man, I don’t know, that one has had so many sticks up his ass I don’t know if he will ever have fun,” Gabriel groaned. “We’ll see.” He folded when he saw the bright hopefulness in Jack’s blue eyes.

Finally, the dark suits of Winchesters in uniform crossed the street and met the equally dressed up celestial beings. “I’m thinking Tulpa,” Sam looked to Gabriel for his take.

“Ooooo, a manifested deity, nice. But, no. Sorry, boys, there were no symbols and everyone had a different hallucination before either croaking or being sedated.”

They retreated to a nearby dinner for lunch and continued to piece together the case. Sam tutted over Dean’s sodium intake and Gabriel flirted with the waitress. In all, the case went smoothly, which Gabriel was grateful for, because he wanted everyone to be nice and relaxed once they got home.

^*^

“Who let you in?” Dean snapped at the tiny woman waiting for them in the library. Sam and Dean shared a look, which ended in a Winsynced, “Maggie.”

“Hell-o, Gorgeous,” Gabriel crooned, sneaking a kiss to the witch’s neck.

Dean’s mouth gaped like a fish as Sam and Jack gave him wilted looks.

“Uh, Gabe, buddy, you gotta let us know when you have, *cough* skanks *cough* over,” Dean said to the angel’s back as he continued to snog Rowena.

“What’s that? Oh, sure, you got it, Dean-o,” Gabriel agreed all too quickly, while Rowena cast daggers at the surly hunter trying to keep some semblance of order in his home.

“At least get a room, guys, geez!”

“He’s right, though I do love the, ambience of ancient tomes, pet. A little privacy would be nice,” Rowena purred as she let her magic tickle Gabriel in all the right places. Gabriel snapped his fingers and they were both naked behind locked doors.

^*^

The next morning, Dean woke up feeling like he was wearing a dwarf as a fanny pack. After a quick shower, during which he could have sworn he felt his nipples leak beneath the heat of the water, he became grouchy. When the smells of breakfast hit him, he nearly gagged, choosing to bypass the kitchen entirely. He spent the morning with Jack in the firing range, though his back got increasingly sore the longer he stood.

“Everything okay, Dean?” Jack’s soft voice shouted over the earmuffs.

“I’m good, kid.” He wasn’t.

Later that afternoon he had to restart his show three times because he kept missing parts of different scenes. He had kicked off his socks because they seemed to be pinching at his feet. He was bored and restless, so he decided to wash his Baby. But his legs nearly gave out when he leaned too far over to scrub the rims. He was not suddenly this old, was he?

^*^

Eventually, Dean lumbered into the kitchen, finding Sam back from a supply run. Finally. He rifled through the grocery bags before groaning and turning back to the hallway.

“What?” Sam tisked at the look of disappointment on Dean’s face.

“Nothing, forget it.” He turned and shuffled out of the room.

“You’re leaving the pie untouched?” Sam’s voice tightened.

“You know, if you loved me you would have bought me ice cream,” Dean whined. Actually whined, not growled or barked. Sam froze and then he swallowed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Dean shifted uncomfortably, bowed legs in a wide stance and his stomach jutted out. “Nothing, I just wanted ice cream and now I will have to get it myself.”

“Since when do you pick ice cream over pie?!”

“Since I can’t keep a thought in my damn head, my feet are swollen and my back hurts. I just needed ice cream, Sammy. Just ice cream.” Dean snapped.

“Dean?” Sam approached with caution.

“What?”

“Are you having any other, uh, symptoms?” Sam was still crouched in concern.

“I keep getting these like phantom pains in my gut and my clothes feel tight, but everything still looks okay.” Dean huffed, “I just figured it was gas.”

Sam grimaced at the thought. “Uh, this might sound crazy, but I think you’re pregnant?” Sam pursed his lips and cocked his head.

“Shut up, very funny.” Dean rolled his eyes, noticing too late that he was fondly stroking his stomach.

“No, I’m serious, everything you just said sounds like pregnancy, man.” Sam pulled out a chair to catch Dean just in time. “I mean, obviously it is a psychological pregnancy, because you look the same, but you got whammied.”

And before Dean could say anything else, realization dawned on both of their faces.

“Witch first, ice cream after.”

“What? Why?! You won’t want the ice cream after.”

“Good point.”

^*^

They stared at Rowena as she glared back, hands raised, ready for anything they threw at her.

“Whaaaaaaat is going on here?” A well-timed voice interjected. Gabriel sauntered into the War Room, eyes squinted as he took in the impending battle between the hapless hunters and the ginger witch.

“She hexed me,” Dean barked, free hand pinching the small of his back.

“Uh, no, tub-o, that was me,” Gabriel snapped his fingers, the phantom weight and emotion falling off Dean like a bucket of ice water.

Dean gasped, rolling his shoulders as he straightened to lock eyes on the angel. “What the hell would you do that for?!”

“Perhaps, Gabriel, knows when a man needs to be knocked down a peg or two,” Rowena sniffed at Dean, who was still flummoxed.

“What even gave you the incentive, man,” Sam asked, curiosity always beating out better judgement.

“Um, hello, I am the archangel, Gabriel. You have read about me,” he prodded. “I may have turned a young girl’s entire life upside down by informing her of a similar circumstance?” He plopped down on the nearest table, leaning against his elbow in a dramatically inspired lazy importance.

“You’re talking about Mary, the Virgin Mary?” Dean demanded.

“Ding-Ding-Ding! Very good, Mama, now there are some things men think to be a breeze that they have, no, justifiable, claim to. Childbearing is one of them, cuz it aint all binge eating and being waited on. Dean-o here needed a little dose of reality, with a side order reminder to be R-E-S-P-E-C-T-ful,” Gabriel quipped.

Rowena’s deep chuckle broke through the awkward glances and sheepish stammering. “Well done, I’d say, couldn’t have thought of a better lesson myself, dear. Now, shall I be on my way?”

Sam and Dean shared a look and shrugged, Rowena clipped away up the winding staircase without waiting for their permission. Sam waved after her, remembering too late that she wasn’t giving him the time of day.

Jack entered, intrigued by the raised voices. He remained puzzled but smiled sadly as Rowena closed the door. “I didn’t get to say goodbye. Hey, is she going to come with on our World Tour, Uncle Gabriel?”

Sam and Dean both turned on the Archangel in alarm.

^*^

@madlu45 @dontshootmespence @because-imma-lady-assface @mrswhozeewhatsis @mogaruke

[kamari333]

How would Edges react if they meet? What would Edges say to each other(or give advice) if both worlds meet?

THIS REMINDS ME OF THAT ASK MEME I THOUGHT OF WAY BACK WHEN!!! XD

Resonance Underfell Papyrus: EdgeBurlesque Underfell Papyrus: Boss

because thats easier for me to read and write

WARNINGS for vulgar language, booze, and sad

Edge and Boss appeared in an empty room together, black for as far as the eyes could see, and no visible light source. However, they could see each other just fine, as well as the two comfortable chairs that had inexplicably been provided.

Edge was in his armor, his black and red and gold armor that he never really took off as the captain of the royal guard.

Boss was clad in jeans and a plain black button up shirt, over which was a leather biker jacket with spikes on the shoulders. He still had the same scarf, belt, and stiletto leather boots, although his heels were half the size of Edge’s.

Edge summoned a weapon, taking a stance of aggression against Boss. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU AND WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?!?!”

Boss crossed his arms, raising a brow ridge. “AS IF I AM THE REASON WE ARE HERE. PUT THAT THING AWAY BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELF, DUMBASS.”

“WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A DUMBASS?!?!”

“THE DUMBASS WHO DREW A WEAPON FIRST WHEN THERE WAS NO FUCKING VIOLENT INTENT. YOU KNOW. THAT DUMBASS. WERE YOU RAISED IN A GOD DAMN BARN?!?! RUDE!”

Edge flushed a vivid crimson, whether from rage or embarrassment (or both) was hard to say. He scanned the void once more before crushing his magical construct in his hand, dispelling it in a shower of red sparks.

Boss nodded curtly before taking a seat in one of the chairs. “NOW SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND TELL ME THE LAST THING YOU REMEMBER BEFORE ENDING UP HERE.”

“WHY THE HELL SHOULD I TELL YOU ANYTHING?!?!” Edge snarled, refusing to sit.

“BECAUSE HOW THE FUCK ELSE ARE WE GOING TO FIGURE OUT HOW WE GOT HERE?! WHY DO YOU THINK?!?!” Boss rubbed his temporal with two fingers of one hand. “I NEED A DRINK.”

“BOOZE DOESNT JUST APPEAR ON COMMA-“ Edge started, only to stop when a coffee table appeared out of nowhere, and upon it, a six pack of fruity cocktail beers in tapered necked bottles. “WHAT THE FUCK-?!”

Boss smirked, snatching one up and inspecting it for tampering before popping it open and taking a long drink. “SEEMS WHATEVER POWER BROUGHT US HERE IS AT LEAST BEING HOSPITABLE. OR THIS IS A LUCID FEVER DREAM. IN EITHER CASE I NOW HAVE A DRINK.”

“THIS IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING I HAVE EVER-“ Edge stopped mid sentence once more. “DID YOU JUST- WAS THAT A PUN?!?!”

Boss smiked wider. “IF THIS IS JYST A DREAM, THERE IS NO POINT KEEPING IT BOTTLED UP.”

“OH MY FUCKING STARS YOU FUCKING DID WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!?!” Edge howled. “THIS IS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE!!”

“YOU KNOW, JOKES ARE MEANT TO LIFT ONES SPIRITS, BUT I GET THE FEELING MINE HAVE ONLY SOBERED YOU.”

Edge howled in outrage, which only had Boss howling with laughter. Edge sat down and swiped up one of the beers, downing it in one go. When he slammed the then empty bottle on the table, he only looked mildly less incensed. “THAT HAS GOT TO BE THE GIRLIEST FUCKING DRINK I HAVE EVER HAD.”

“THESE ARE DELICIOUS FUCK YOU.”

“WHO DO I HAVE TO KILL TO GET A REAL DRINK?!?!” Edge grumbled, only to perk up seconds later when a bottle of Spirytus Rektyfikowany appeared at his elbow. He snatched it and started taking shots.

Boss made a face. “IF YOU WANTED TO DRINK GASOLINE WHY NOT ASK FOR RUBBING ALCOHOL??”

“IF I CAN STILL TASTE IT AFTER THREE SHOTS IT ISNT STRONG ENOUGH.”

Boss watched for a few more drinks, only halfway through his own bottle. “SLOW THE FUCK DOWN BEFORE YOU KILL SOMEONE ELSES LIVER BY PROXY.”

“FUCK YOU!!” Edge snapped. “I HAD A SHIT FUCKING DAY AND THIS IS JUST THE SHIT CHERRY ON TOP OF IT ALL!!!” He was starting to slur his words already.

Boss finished his bottle before picking up a second one, tapping the glass idly as he sized his counterpart up. He considered his options carefully. Obviously this other him was a fucking mess, and while Boss was relatively certain he was just hallucinating, knowledge was power and the more he knew about the other the better he would understand his situation. “THEN PLEASE, DO GO ON. ENLIGHTEN ME AS TO YOUR PLIGHT.”

“YOU REALLY WANNA FUCKING KNOW?!?!” Edge snarled, before taking another swig. “FIRST MY FUCKING ASSHOLE BROTHER GOES MISSING FOR OVER A WEEK, THEN HE COMES BACK AND IS AN UTTER DICK, THEN HE DISAPPEARS AGAIN WITHOUT A GODDAMN WORD, THEN HE COMES BACK AND-“ He took another drink, expression flashing to guilt and then back to indignant fury. Boss clenched his fists, recognizing that guilt, although he hadn’t ever known it to quite that degree. It reminded Boss of the guilt he felt on his Bad Days.

“AND I FIND OUT HE IS JUST FUCKING AROUND WITH SPACETIME, PARTYING HIS ASS OFF WITH A BUNCH OF FREEXP FROM OTHER UNIVERSES, LIKE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO STARS DAMN HARD TO JUST FUCKING- FUCKIN’-“ Edge swayed in his seat. “AND- AND THEN, THEN HE STARTS UP ON FUCKIN’ MOVING LIKE HE FUCKING EXPECTS ME TO FUCKING LEAVE!!! LEAVE THE FUCKING FIREBALL, THE WEED, UNDYNE...”

Boss leaned over the table, gently prying the bottle out of Edge’s hand. He knew too well when a monster had had enough and Edge was well beyond the line.

“AND THEN HE HAD THE FUCKING BALLS TO USE A NET ON ME!!!” Edge continued, spitting with indignation. “AND STUFF ME IN A GODDAMN BAG!!! DROPPED ME IN THE MIDDLE OF ONLY FUCK KNOWS WHERE, THANK FUCK THE ASHTRAY COULD BE BULLIED INTO SUBMISSION, THANK FUCK THE SLUT COULD SEE SENSE!!! HE ALMOST-“ Edge hiccuped a bit, a dull glow pooling on his socket rims. “ALMOST... AND F-“ Edge started jabbing a finger in Boss’s general direction. “FUCK YOU!!! FUCK YOU IT AINT NONE OF YUR STARS DAMNED BUSINESS YOU FUCKING- FUCKING-“ He faltered, fumbling for a proper insult. “...NOT ME!!!”

Boss corked the bottle and set it under the table. “CLEARLY NOT, BUT I THINK I WILL MAKE IT MY BUSINESS ANYWAY. LOOK AT YOURSELF. YOU’RE DRUNK OUT OF YOUR MIND.”

“FUCK YOU!!”

Boss rubbed his teeth, trying to figure out if this was more funny or sad. He decided ‘sad’ was the correct answer. “I AM SURE WHATEVER YOUR ISSUES WITH YOUR BROTHER ARE CAN BE RESOLVED BY TALKING TO HIM. FOR FUCKS SAKE.”

Edge’s entire body froze, then seem to spasm. He gripped his patella like he was trying to crush them. His voice cracked. “WHY THE FUCK DO ALL OF YOU MULTIVERSE BITCH ASS CUNT SUCKING NUT SNIFFERS KEEP SAYING THAT?!?! DONT YOU FUCKING GET IT?!?! HE WONT... HE WONT TALK TO ME.” A single bead of moisture slid down his maxilla from his eye socket to glisten on one of his fangs.

Boss had just enough time to think ‘oh fuck me’ before Edge curled in on himself, doubled over to hide his face despite his shoulders clearly shaking. Boss sighed, rising to his feet to move over and sit on the arm of Edge’s chair. He paused a moment, tolet the other acclimate to his presence before placing a gloved hand on Edge’s skull and rubbing soothingly, an action he’d had to do for his brother once too often (and had had done to himself more than he could remember). It was a common thing, this simple act of kindness and compassion, the barest minimum they had been able to consistently provide each other while underground.

Given how Edge’s breath hitched and his shaking only increased, it was a luxury he had not been afforded.

Boss kept it up until Edge passed out, wondering what the hell Edge’s brother was thinking, and if his own brother would be able to set him straight.

Assuming he was wrong about the picture he had built in his head about their relationship, or, better yet, that this was just a sick nightmare. Boss kept one hand steady on Edge, but used the other to pick up his second beer and drain it. He decided he deserved a bit after all that.

[eliniei]

Those Hard Days - Chapter 21

Summary: Rae’s brother always made sure she was tough as nails. But when her father flips her world upside down, will she find that there’s a limit on how strong she can be?

Warnings: Rape/Non-con (non-graphic, fade-to-black), child abuse, underage drinking, underage smoking, drug use, violence, major character death

A/N: Two in one day?! What kind of sorcery is this? No sorcery, just boredom. I really love this chapter. Enjoy!

AO3: here Fanfiction.net: here

Masterlist

Previous Chapter |  Next Chapter

Chapter 21 - Love

Half an hour later, Rae and Carrie were gathering their things to head out for the night. Dally put his hat and shirt in his room upstairs and came back down the stairs shrugging into his leather jacket.

"I'm gonna walk ya’ll home," he announced as they were going out the door. He let the girls go out first and then closed to door behind him. As they were walking, he pulled Rae back to have as private a conversation as possible. “Look- ya know I ain’t tryin’ to be hard on ya or anythin’ right?”

"Yeah you are," she answered and watched as he lit up a cigarette. “But I get why you’re doin’ it.”

“I just don’t want ya to-to be mad at me alright? I’m just doin’ what’s best, ya know?”

“I ain’t mad at ya, Dal,” Rae started. She gripped the straps of her backpack tightly. “I thought- I thought, maybe at first I would hate ya for lettin’ this happen. I thought maybe I would blame ya for not bein’ there. I was so...mad.” He watched her for a few seconds, blowing smoke out of his nose. “But I think that- No, I know that it ain’t your fault. It’s not my fault, either.”

“You’re finally startin’ to make some sense, again, kid.” One side of his mouth lifted upward as he took another drag.

“Dally,” she began again. His small smile disappeared at the seriousness in her voice. “I know that you’ve protected me for all these years. I know and that ya can’t do it all my life, so I better start usin’ my brain. I, uh, I just- Thank you. I know it ain’t been easy.” He flicked his finished cigarette away and gave her a slight shrug.

“What else are big brothers good for?” She looked up at him to find a rare, gentle smile overtaking his face. “And what the hell ya talkin’ about? I don’t care if I’m eighty. You need me to rough someone up for ya, I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“I guess you’d better be livin’ next door to me, then,” Rae laughed. He chuckled and put his hand on the small of her back. She thought it was meant as an endearing motion until he pushed her forward a few steps, closer to Carrie.

“Go on, keep your friend company.”

"What was that all about?" Carrie asked, quietly, as Rae caught up to her.

"Nothin’," Rae responded, with a shrug. "Just a little heart-to-heart, I guess."

“Oh, Rae?” Dally’s voice called from somewhere behind them. She turned, but continued walking backwards.

“Yeah?”

“Would it kill ya to wear the same clothes tomorow? I can grab ya some from Darry’s later, but-” He caught up with the girls and she turned back around.

“Nah, don’t worry. I packed a change, figurin’ I wouldn’t be back there tonight. I’ll call up Ponyboy and have him bring the rest to school.”

“Good job,” he praised and tousled her hair. She jerked her head away from his hand and moved so Carrie was between then.

“Wish ya’d stop doin’ that,” she complained, running her fingers through her long hair. “Ruinin’ my hair.”

“Your hair?” he spat with a laugh. “Ya ain’t turnin’ into a girl on me, are ya?” She heard Carrie giggle, quietly.

“Fuck no.”

“God, ya sure got a dirty mouth.”

“Only learned from the best, didn’t I?” He lifted his eyebrows and gave her a feline smile.

Once they’d arrived at Carrie’s house, they went around to the side door. Carrie pulled out a key and unlocked it, then headed inside, leaving Dally and Rae to say their goodbyes.

"Alright, Buck's tomorrow after school," her brother commanded before leaving. “Bring your knife.” Rae nodded her agreement. “And stay inside- no goin’ out. Make sure to bolt the-”

“Dally,” she interrupted him. “I will.” He blew out a breath and nodded.

"Fine. See ya tomorrow." He turned to leave, but before he made it off the first step he paused.

"What's-" Before she knew what was happening, he’d turned back and wrapped his arms around her. Her eyes went wide and she froze. He hadn’t hugged her like this since...since… “D-Dally-?”

“Just shut up, already,” he said, his voice muffled by her hair. She felt him inhale, deeply. “I just want you to know that you ain’t alone, okay?” After the shock, she smiled and hugged him back, breathing in the scent of his cigarettes. “I-I know that it’s been hard but, I promise I’ll make it better.” He gripped his sister tightly for a while, but finally released her. When she looked up at him, Rae noticed his eyes were rimmed with red.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, ‘course I am," he said and cleared his throat. "I need to get goin’. Do your homework and, uh, ya know, don’t go to bed too late." He turned to leave again.

"I love you, Dally," she whispered as he made his way down the steps. She wasn’t sure if he heard until he stopped and turned his head off to the side, looking towards the Merrill’s flower garden.

"You too, kid." He took off again and Rae watched until he was out of sight.

She went inside and found her friend waiting for her at the small table sitting in the kitchen.

“He ain’t as tough as he pretends to be,” Carrie noted, as she took a book out of her backpack and set it down on top of the bright tablecloth. Rae didn’t argue as she started unpacking her books as well. She didn’t disagree. Lately it felt like everything in her life had just been flipped upside down completely. After tossing everything she’d needed for her homework onto the table, she dropped into a chair. Her friend went to the fridge. “D’ya want a drink?”

“Sure, got anythin’ good?” Carrie swung the door open and Rae felt a gust of cold air wash over her.

“Hmm,” she hummed looking over the shelves. “Milk, 7-Up, I guess you could even have a beer if you wanted? Oh- looks like we got a couple bottles of cream soda, too.”

“Cream soda,” Rae responded as she flipped open a notebook. “Haven’t had one of those in a long time.” Carrie grabbed the bottle and a can of 7-Up for herself. She closed the fridge, set the drinks on the table and sat down to start her homework.

Once their homework was done, the two girls sat, shoulder-to-shoulder, on the floor at the foot of Carrie’s bed, watching The Twilight Zone in the dark. Rae had her hair in a low ponytail, pulled over her shoulder and she was chewing on a lollipop stick. Carrie was popping a stick of gum between her teeth.

“I love it when mom and dad ain’t here,” she laughed. “They hate it when I watch this. Think it’s ‘too scary for a young girl’s mind.’”

“It ain’t even that scary,” Rae remarked, taking the stick out of her mouth and tossing it into the small trash can by the desk. “Just a little weird sometimes.” She laid her head back on the quilt behind her and stared up at the white ceiling. “Carrie?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m…” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I dunno.” He friend stopped chewing her gum and turned to her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think-I think I’m scared.”

“Rae, he ain’t gonna get in here,” Carrie tried to reassure her, pulling her blonde hair over her shoulder. “Don’t you worry, my dad installed real good bolts-”

“No-I aint-I mean, I am but-” Rae lifted her head again and criss-crossed her legs. Her stomach was twisting in knots. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen and I...I got a bad feeling about it. Nothin’ ever goes right for Greasers. Why should it start now?” She picked at the carpet between her legs. Carrie gripped her arm, gently, her face softening.

“Ya can’t think like that,” she instructed. “It’ll just stress ya out, and ya don’t need more stress than ya already got.”

“I-I know, but it’s so hard to think of anything else when it’s quiet and-and when I’m alone.” Carrie’s hand dropped away from her arm but she grabbed at Rae’s hands and squeezed, tightly.

“Well, ya ain’t alone. You can always talk to me. Even if it’s three in the mornin’ and my dad yells at me for gettin’ a phone call in the middle of the night.” She smiled wide, white teeth almost glowing in the light of the TV. “I won’t mind.” Rae smiled as well, her eyes starting to burn. She grasped her friends hands as well, and then turned back to focus on the show again.