#it was when she was mad earlier after having to wear the cone

[piknim]

Milton has never really liked me beyond to play with until i laid on the floor with her this morning bc she wasnt feeling good. She just chose to cuddle me instead of my mom for the first time

[whatisthiswritingthing]

Lost in the Mall - Alex Morgan and Charlie x Reader

Prompt: you should do reader x alex morgan and charlie where charlie gets lot in the mall or something

“How do you lose a child?” Alex yelled at the group of young players in front of her.

“We looked away for a minuet Alex! Nothing more,” Lindsey tried to defend.

“She’s three! You don’t look away at all!” Alex scrapped her hand down her face, pacing back and forth.

“Breath Al, we’ve talked to security, stores are locked down, police are on their way, no one in or out of the mall,” Kelley grabbed both of Alex’s biceps to stop her pacing, soothingly rubbing them up and down.

“You! You were supposed to be watching them watching her!” Alex ripped herself from Kelley’s arms, pointing a finger in her face.

All the young players looked properly guilty, shuffling on the spot, looking at the ground. They had been all wandering around the mall and Charlie had gone with several younger players to go to a toy store while Alex had gone to continue moving through clothing stores. Y/N would be joining them later.

Alex let out a loud sigh and continued to pace back and forth while police and security worked around her; they already had several pictures of Charlie, were told what the toddler was wearing, all important physical characteristics. And now, there was nothing else for Alex to do except wait.

“Have you been able to get a hold of Y/N yet?” Christen attempted to sooth now.

“No,” Alex grunted out, frustrated. “She was meeting with the trainers; she probably doesn’t have her phone on at all. She was supposed to meet us here after.”  

Christen nodded along reassuringly, stepping close to Alex to pull her into a hug.

“Breath Alex, they are doing everything they can; they will find her,” Christen rubbed her hand up and down Alex’s back. Alex let out a sigh, trying to release some of her tension in her shoulders.

Suddenly there was a loud commotion in the hallway, police yelling at someone to stop moving. Alex thinks she hears Charlies name and rushes out towards the noise.

Alex immediately dropped to her knees at the site. Charlie was clinging to Y/N’s leg, terrified, Y/N had both her hands in the air, looking confused and nervous at the police yelling at her. Two ice cream cones forgotten on the ground next to them.

Y/N tried to reach down to sooth the now crying toddler.

“Do not move!” One of the officers yelled out, causing Charlie to cry harder, squeezing herself behind Y/N’s legs. Y/N immediately brought both hands back up.

Alex stood back up, pushing herself in front of the officers.

“Charlie!”

“Mommy!” Charlies head popped out, grip not loosening from Y/N’s leg. When she saw the amount of people around her, she burrowed her head back behind Y/N leg.

Alex and Y/N made eye contact, both could see the fear in each other’s eyes.

Alex rushed over to the officer that had been in charge.

“That’s my girlfriend, it’s ok, she’s ok.”

The officer stared intently at Alex, making sure everything really was fine.

“Everyone stand down!” the officer called out, everyone following the command, but remaining alert.

Alex immediately ran towards Charlie and Y/N, skidding to her knees on the ground next to Charlie. Y/N squatted down with them, wrapping her arms around both.

“What happened Alex?” Y/N whispered into her ear.

“We thought Charlie was missing,” Alex had tears streaming down her face, pulling Charlie in even tighter.

“I’m sorry Al, I finished early and came to meet you guys.”

At the approach of feet, the trio stood up from the ground; Charlie still wrapped in Alex’s arms, Y/N with an arm around Alex’s shoulders, while Alex leaned into the touch.

The officer in charge asked a few questions to clarify the situation, both adults answered, Y/N explaining that had come early and Charlie had gone over excited at her presence.

After the police had given them space, the young players approached the young family.

“Again, we are really sorry Al. It will never happen again,” Emily said softly.

“Damn right it’s never happening again! You are never being left alone with Charlie every again,” Alex said firmly, eyes hard at she stared down the young players.

At Alex‘s slightly raised voice and tense body, Charlie whimpered into her neck, gripping tighter.

“Shh it’s ok Chalrie,” Alex hushed into Charlies ear, rocking her back and forth.

“Let’s leave them alone,” Tobin suggested, guiding them away. “We will talk to you at the hotel Alex.”

The couple nodded as they watched their friends walk away, many looking relieved but still guilty for the entire situation.

Y/N slid her hand down Alex’s arm until she could interlace their hands, tugging her forward. Alex not loosening her grip on Charlie in her arms.

“Let’s get out of here, love.”

Alex nodded and let herself be guided out of the mall.

“I drop my ice cream,” Charlie mumbled against Alex’s neck.

“You dropped,” Alex corrected, “that’s alright, we can pick some up on the way to the hotel.”

“Yay! Two ice creams!” Charlie perked up now that they were out of the mall.

The rest of the walk to the car, Charlie rambled about everything, as if nothing had happened earlier. Y/N encouraging her, asking more questions, and laughing along to the story Charlie was trying to tell.

Alex gently put Charlie in her car seat as they got to the vehicle.

“Ice cream?” Charlie asked, smiling wide, dimples popping on both cheeks.

“You bet kiddo!” Y/N leaned over from the driver seat, tickling her belly, causing her to giggle.

Alex was quiet the entire drive to the small ice cream shop along the way to the hotel.

“What are you thinking babe?” Y/N pulled Alex’s hand to her lips, kissing the back of her knuckles.

“I want to be mad at you, but I know it’s not your fault,” Alex huffed, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. “Where did you even come from with her? How did you get Charlie? Why didn’t you answer your phone?”

Y/N glanced to Alex, watching her while she stopped at a red light, trying to gauge if Alex was done rattling off questions. When Alex turned to stare back at her she began answering them.

“We had gone to the small cart by the food court for ice cream. I finished with the trainers early, so I came here and saw her with the rest of the youngins in the toy store. She ran over to me as I walked in, I thought they heard her call my name; guess not. And I didn’t answer my phone because I forgot it at the hotel; I forgot to charge it last night and left it plugged in when I left.”

Alex slowly nodded along. Y/N grabbed Alex’s hand again, rubbing her thumb along the back of her knuckles.

“Don’t get too mad at the youngins, they messed up for sure, but I should have made sure they knew I was taking Charlie.”

Alex sighed and nodded but remained quiet as Y/N parked the car.

“What should I tell Charlie?” Alex asked as they got out of the car.

“Try not to freak her out, don’t tell her everything, just tell her she needs to make sure people know where she is before she leaves; even if it is with someone she knows.”

[hamueltobin]

behold! i didn't see any otgw icebergs, so i made my own :)

if you think i should add something, lmk!!

Explanations under cut :)

First layer:

▪︎Beast!Wirt au - very popular au in which Wirt stays in the Unknown, possessed by the Beast to some extent.

▪︎Bad End Friends - Crossover AU of Beast!Wirt teaming up with Ice Finn from Adventure Time and Bipper from Gravity Falls; sometimes other 'bad end' au characters are thrown in such as a glitched Gumball from TAWOG

▪︎Irl Copies of the For Sara tape - Limited copies of the For Sara tape were sold at two points. They have yet to sell for a third time. (🤞🤞🤞)

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (pilot) - The Pilot of the series. Can be watched on YouTube.

▪︎Wirt Staying in the Unknown - In a scrapped ending, Wirt was to stay in the Unknown, saying that facing your real problems was scarier than staying there.

▪︎Mystery Kids - Crossover AU with other child-late teens aged characters from sources based on mysterious and supernatural themes such as Gravity Falls and Psychonauts.

▪︎Quincy Endicott's grave - Quincy's grave can be seen in the graveyard that Sara and the others are hanging out in.

▪︎Original Beatrice Voice Actress - Beatrice had a different VA in the pilot, Natasha Leggero. Melanie Lynskey voices her in the actual series.

▪︎The Woodsman's Daughter is Named Anna - The comics have several issues focused on his daughter, in which her name is revealed to be Anna.

▪︎Jason Funderburker's Ax Murderer Story - At the gathering in the graveyard, Funderburker is telling a story about a man with an ax; this story is believed to have influenced the existence of the Woodsman.

▪︎Full Versions of Songs in the OST - A handful of the songs are cut down for their appearances in the series and can only be heard in full on the OST. The most notable example is Old Black Train , which is actually 2 minutes and 15 seconds long, but is only in the series for about 15-20 seconds.

Second Layer:

▪︎Sara is named after the Fleetwood Mac song - Listen to it here :) it is notable that it includes lyrics about "drowning in a sea of love" and that Sara is "the poet of [the singer's] heart."

▪︎OTGW Reanimated - a reanimated project for the first episode. Got taken off of YouTube, but can be viewed on Dailymotion.

▪︎Baby Wirt Audio - In the For Sara cassette, there is a small section of audio that can be heard in about the middle of the recording of Wirt's father talking to him as a baby.

▪︎Funderburker/Funderberker - The two Jasons's surnames are spelled slightly differently to avoid confusion.

▪︎The Brothers Never Ate or Needed to Rest - Although Greg expressed being hungry, neither of the boys actually ate anything (outside of one spoonful of bland potatoes and inedible items such as dirt and leaves) and never laid down to rest, only sleeping when night came.

▪︎Book on Interior Design in Wirt's Room - In Wirt's from, a book on interior design can be seen laying on the floor, backing up the knowledge he displayed when analyzing the interconnected mansions.

▪︎Mad Love was Based on a Dream - The plot of Mad Love came from a dream that Pat McHale had about house hunting. In the dream, while exploring one of the houses being shown, he ended up wandering into someone else's home.

▪︎Beatriceoftheday - A blog dedicated to our lord and savior Beatrice, known for its strange shitposts and intense praise of the titular bird girl.

▪︎Wirt is Jealous of Greg's Popularity - Shown in the Circus Friends issue of the comics, Wirt is jealous of Greg's ability to make everyone laugh and have fun. This may factor into his dislike of his brother.

▪︎Greg was Feeding Fred at the Tavern - At first watching, one may be confused as to where all the food Greg was gathering went, why Fred was wearing lipstick and why he was refusing to talk to Beatrice. Shown in a deleted scene, this all explained, as Fred tells Beatrice that he didn't talk to her because Greg was feeding him.

▪︎Elijah Wood Voiced the Crazy Driver - Exactly what is says on the tin, the nutty driver was voiced by Wood.

▪︎Cloud City is Heaven - A popular theory that Cloud City actually represents Heaven.

▪︎Greg is Greg Universe - A headcanon/theory that has mostly died out that Greg is the same Greg in Steven Universe.

▪︎Bee Beatrice - Beatrice was originally cursed to become a bee, but was changed into a bluebird to match better with the seasonal autumn theme.

▪︎Pat McHale Voiced Wirt's Voice Crack - Wirt's voice crack when asking the Beast Are You? was actually done by McHale, not Wood.

▪︎The Other Actors Harassing Elijah Wood When Singing Wirt's Song - In order to make the performance as awkward as possible, the other actors were asked to yell and demand Wirt to sing. This can be heard in the episode.

▪︎Come Wayward Souls Has the Same Melody as O Holy Night - The song shares a cadence with "O Holy Night", and can be sung to its tune.

▪︎Black Turtles Origin/Purpose - No one knows why the black turtles exist, and McHale has said that they're just one of the unexplainable things of the Unknown.

▪︎Anna Never Left the House - In the aforementioned comics, it is shown that Anna had never left the house, living on her own until the Woodsman's return.

▪︎Sailor Suit Greg - Greg originally wore a sailor suit, but was changed later on to his current, Johnny Appleseed inspired outfit .

▪︎Beatrice Missing Being Able to Flip People Off - In the Art Book, Beatrice's introduction states that one of the reasons she hates being a bird is because she no longer has hands to flip people off with.

Third Layer

▪︎Jason Funderberker is Visually Based on a Teen Pat McHale - As seen here, Funderberker was designed after McHale.

▪︎Babes in the Wood is Based on an Old Alice in Wonderland Cartoon - You can view the original 1923 cartoon here! Starts at 4:25.

▪︎Wirt and Sara are Dipper and Mabel's Parents - A popular AU/hc where Dipper and Mabel of Gravity Falls are the future kids of Wirt and Sara.

▪︎The Tune of Wirt's Song is Improvised - In addition to the aforementioned harassment, in a further attempt to make the performance as awkward as possible, Elijah Wood was not given a tune to sing, only the lyrics.

▪︎Wirt's Costume Origin - As said in the art book and on his tumblr, Wirt's cone and cape come from an attempted rock and roll persona from McHale's teen years.

▪︎Greg is Based on Pat McHale's Son - It has been claimed that Greg is based on McHale's son, but Greg existed before him. The similarities are simply coincidental.

▪︎Old Scratch - The original name of the Beast.

▪︎The Beast Killed the Woodsman's Wife - Shown in the comics, The Woodsman's wife was mortally injured, with her attacker implied to be the Beast.

▪︎Wirt and Greg Staying in the Unknown Until Christmas - Another scrapped ending, in which the brothers stay in The Unknown until Christmas, with their absence unexplained.

▪︎Tome of the Unknown (original plot) - Early concepts had the Beast ( then known as Old Scratch as mentioned earlier ) scattering the pages of the titular book for the brothers to collect. Each page would come to life and the brothers would explore each story.

▪︎Dante's Inferno Comparisons - Check out these videos for full analysis!

▪︎Wirt Panty Shots - In the aforementioned Circus Friend comics, Wirt dons a dress as part of a disguise. Later on, he rips off the bottom half off, revealing that he is wearing bloomers.

▪︎The Beast's True Form was Inspired by Trypophobia - As stated in the art book, The Beast's hole-filled appearance was inspired by Trypophobia, the fear of many small holes.

▪︎The Fight is Over is About Drowning - Give the lyrics another read.

▪︎The Beast Last Minute Design Change - The Beast had a very different design, and it was changed into the current one at the last minute.

▪︎Gnome in Cloud City Representing Wirt - Many people believed that the Gnome with the lantern in cloud city was a parallel to Wirt, or a glimpse into his future. However, this was debunked.

▪︎Send Me a Peach - This song is included in the ost, but isn't in the actual series.

▪︎Fred and the Highwayman's Backstory - The comics expand upon the story of Fred the Horse and his involvement with the Highwayman.

Fourth Layer

▪︎Babes in the Wood Title Origin - The name of this episode comes from an old story of a pair of children getting lost in the woods, dying, and being buried in leaves by robins.

▪︎poorlydrawnotgw - This was a blog created during the poorly drawn series meme period. It consisted of poorly drawn and very strange shitposts and has since been deactivated. I was a part of it as mod Goopy Wirt and only have a handful of images saved from it.

▪︎Read and Listen Book Lost Audio - A read and listen book was created, with the book being read by Greg's Frog, who would stop every now and again to talk about being a frog. The pages can be found online, but the audio is currently lost.

▪︎Skinless Witch - A scrapped episode concept involved a skinless witch that kidnapped Greg and rode him like a horse.

▪︎Gentleman Burglar Wirt - A scrapped concept in which Wirt breaks into a woman's home, who is charmed by this young man who has come to visit her.

▪︎Animal Transformation - It was originally planned for Wirt and Greg to be turned into a bear/dog and a duck and remain that way for several episodes. This was later used in the comics.

▪︎The Unknown is influenced by Wirt's mind/interests - The Unknown is influenced by those who walk in it, in this case, Wirt. This includes the old timey mystical nature of it, as Wirt has been stated to have an interest in old folk tales.

▪︎Good Guy Beast/Black Train Scrapped Concept - In an earlier draft, the brothers were on a train, heading to what they assumed was death. They jump off, ending up in the Unknown. The Beast tries to get them back on the train, which turns out to be heading back to life.

▪︎Evil Woodsman - At one point, the Woodsman was intended to be under the influence of the Beast and tried to sabotage the brothers's attempts to return home.

▪︎Lorna Reading the Tome of the Unknown in the Epilogue - In the epilogue, Lorna can be seen reading the titular book from the aforementioned scrapped plot.

▪︎The Beast was Originally the Devil Himself - The Beast was first designed as a devil-like character, the aforementioned Old Scratch.

▪︎The Brothers Never Went Home/The Hospital is Part of The Unknown - a theory based on the fact that the edges of the screen are still blurred at the end of chapter 10, the rushed narration, and the lack of consequences of nearly drowning.

▪︎Beatrice Seeing Wirt Nude - In one of the comics, Beatrice accidentally sees Wirt while he is washing his clothes in the river.

▪︎Sara is a Descendant of Lorna - A theory that Sara is a distant relative of Lorna.

▪︎Exists in the Same Universe as Clarence and Home Movies - The most well known piece of evidence is the overhead shot of the town matching the town that Clarence is set in. Wirt and Greg also have a cameo in another episode, and one of the final episodes shows Brendon Small of Home Movies runs a movie rental store in the town, connecting all three series together.

Final Layer

▪︎Beast x Wirt - Also known as Poetree.

▪︎Candycone - Greg x Wirt.

[fandom-collective-writers]

Dine on Me (Soryu Oh x MC)

Fandom: Voltage (Kissed by the Baddest Bidder)

Pairing: Soryu Oh x MC (Female)

Warning: NSFW Smut

Requested by: Anonymous

Written by: @voltage-vixen​

“I’m so sorry again, Princess,” Ryosuke bowed his head in remorse. “Please don’t hate me! I swear I’ll do anything you want to make it up to you! Anything at all! I know, I’ll run out and go find you a new snow cone. It will be the best snow cone you’ve ever laid eyes on; I guarantee it!”

“No, you’ve already caused more than enough trouble,” Samejima scolded. Glancing over at Soryu, who was silently fuming behind his desk, Samejima firmly gripped onto Ryosuke’s suspenders and dragged him out of the mob boss’s office.

“Please accept our apologies once more,” Samejima nodded in atonement. The two younger members of the mafia then disappeared out into the hallway. As the office door slammed shut behind them, Soryu’s glare shifted down to the melted puddle of MC’s snow cone on the carpet.

Soryu and his fiancé were spending the day in the park relaxing, when an urgent call requesting they return to the Ice Dragon’s Headquarters for him to sign a document for an ongoing negotiation with a rival gang interrupted their date. While Soryu was giving the paperwork a quick final review, Ryosuke and Samejima had engaged in an argument about who was packing the bigger weapon. The tossing around of verbal words soon escalated into the exchange of shoves, resulting in Ryosuke stumbling back into MC, and knocking over the snow cone Soryu bought for her.

“Soryu? Soryu, don’t be angry with them,” MC’s soothing voice snapped his attention back onto the woman standing beside him. The tension released from Soryu’s shoulders, and the stiffness knotted in his body relaxed when she linked her arm around his elbow. Feeling her head relax onto his arm, the frown on the mafia boss’s face slowly curled into a neutral expression.

“Today hasn’t quite seem to go as planned now, has it?” he sighed. “You’re right, I shouldn’t be upset with them. It’s my fault we even had to come back here in the first place. I’m the one who owes you an apology, MC.”

“No, you really don’t,” MC reassured, sliding away from Soryu’s arm. She slipped in front of him and ascended on her tip toes to wrap her arms around his neck. “Today has been perfect. Me being here with you right now is perfect.”

A cast of forlorn was shadowed onto the handsome features of his, as Soryu’s gaze drifted to her frozen dessert now stained on the plush of the carpet. Soryu was always his own harshest critic, and it came as no sudden shock he was still hung up on the events from earlier failing to go as planned. Resolved to offer her comfort and assurance that everything was indeed fine, MC curled her fingers around the black collar of his casual shirt, and lightly tugged on the fabric to draw their faces closer together. With the distance no longer separating them, the sugary scent of Soryu’s own snow he had consumed emanated from the natural crease of his lips. A wisp of the jet-black hair fell and swayed over his pupils. MC witnessed the blinking of his revelation when her eyelashes batted suggestively. Leaning closer, her tongue inclined playfully along the bottom of his lip.

“And you taste perfect on top of it,” she murmured, evoking a groan from the man by dancing her tongue against his.

The frenzied pounding of Soryu’s heart echoed loudly when a surge of heat flooded him as MC’s body nestled intimately against the tautness of his chest. Their kissing grew hotter and heavier with each passing second, resulting in the buckling of MC’s knees. She wrapped one arm around her fiancé’s neck for support and smirked at the abrupt feel of his cock brushing against her thigh. Breaking away from their kiss, MC leaned down to provocatively nibble on his neck while her other hand ventured down south to cup at the bulge straining to be released from the constriction of the tight pants.

“If you get a taste of me, it’s only fair that you allow me to return the favor,” Soryu growled out.

Nudging MC backwards towards the solid wood desk behind her, Soryu swiftly swiped the large stack of papers down onto the floor, and then grabbed onto the curve of her waist. Lifting MC with no ease, the mafia boss dropped her onto the surface of the desk. Placing his hand over the dress covering her thigh, Soryu’s gaze coated in lust was fixated on MC, as her chest heaved in a mad anticipation. Gripping MC’s wrist, Soryu guided her hand and pressed it back on his erection.

“Now you’ve gone ahead and done it.”

MC licked her lips at his declaration, but then uttered a discontented whine when he released his grip on her hand. Her disappointment was short lived when she saw Soryu fiddle around with the buckle on his belt, and she impatiently rolled her hips up to discard her own panties to the floor. Once unclothed, Soryu tightly clenched his fist and fought the urge to slam into MC to make her his then and there. Rather his lips collided down onto the exposed area of her chest peeking from the neck of the dress she was wearing and hitched the fabric up the length of her thighs. A breathy moan trickled from the back of her throat while Soryu’s teeth left vivid crimson marks just above the curves of MC’s breasts. His hand grazed against her skin, traveling lower and lower until……

“Soryu!” the maid mewled, thrashing her hips in an enamored desperation as an electrifying connection was ignited. Tears of bliss wetted MC’s eyelashes, and dripped down the side of her cheeks as the friction of Soryu’s fingers curling inside jolted waves of pleasure causing her coils to flutter.

“I-I won’t last much longer if you keep touching me like that,” she hissed, encasing her legs around Soryu’s torso. “I want you to make me really melt away. Soryu, don’t make me wait any longer!”

Along with MC’s frantic palm slapping down on the desk, the blessing of consent awoken the animalistic desire he had been working on keeping tamed for her own sake. All bets were off when Soryu heard the soft whimpers of begging from his love, prompting him to toss one of her legs over his arm, and aligned his hips at the entrance of her pussy. He groaned as his cock pressed beyond the slickness on her swollen folds and was enveloped by the warmth of her heat. His thrusts were purposely slow and languid, reveling in the way MC’s walls would clench around the thickness of the mobster’s erection.

“Perfect,” Soryu muttered, grunting as he felt himself grow harder. “Everything about you is perfect. You’re so tight and you feel so damn good.”

“You feel incredible too, Soryu,” MC huffed, her nails digging deep into his wrist. “Keep fucking me. Fuck me until I’m nothing but a puddle underneath you.”

That did it. Those words unleashed the beast within Soryu. Clutching onto MC’s hips to hold her in place, Soryu crashed into her with such a fierceness, at one point he was concerned that he was going to break her. Dampened with sweat and panting heavily, the pair was unsure of exactly how much time had passed when their eventual cries of relief resounded around the circumference of Soryu’s office. MC’s body was violently trembling, causing Soryu to lift her upwards and embrace her in his arms.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he questioned, his tone laced with concern. Soryu’s hands hovered on her body, as he glanced her over to check for any obvious signs of injuries. “I lost control and may have been a bit too rough. Forgive me?” Soryu hung his head in shame, but MC cupped his chin to lock eyes with him.  

“Nothing you do could ever hurt me,” MC promised, nuzzling at his nose. “And too rough? Babe, I’m always down to handle anything you throw my way.”

To prove her point, MC reached around to give his ass a solid squeeze, along with a lighthearted tap. Before she knew it, MC was flat on her back again, and screaming out when Soryu plunged back into her without any warning. Her head was arched back at the edge of his desk, where she caught a glimpse of the spilled snow cone on the carpet.

Remind me to thank Ryosuke later.

That was MC’s final thought as her eyes rolled to the back of her head, succumbing herself to the rapture of climax after climax Soryu spent countlessy delivering upon her.

[atlafan]

Take it Slow - Part Eighty-Three

a/n: okay this is my first shot at a harry:y/n fic, and it will be multiple parts. y/n had a bad experience with an ex over a year ago, and finally accepts her coworker and good friend Niall’s invitation to go on a blind date with his friend Harry.

Warnings: fluff

Masterpost (all previous parts can be found in the masterpost)

You wake up to Harry’s crushing weight on you. You had no idea how you could have possible ended up like this since you thought you fell asleep on him. Your eyes slowly open, and you’re met with the headache you figured you’d have. You look around and see everyone else still fast asleep. Harry rolls over and you feel the air come back to your lungs. You were cozy and didn’t feel like getting up just yet so you decide to spoon Harry for a bit.

Eventually you all sit up and try to come back to life. Harry sits up and smiles at you.

“Happy birthday, angel.” He says into your ear and kisses your cheek.

Before you can say thank you, Rachel and Sarah dog pile on you and scream happy birthday. You giggle and playfully tell them to get off you.

“We’re gonna make pancakes for breakfast.” Rachel says.

“And mimosas. Need new alcohol to flush out the old.”

“Good idea.” You smile.

They go into the kitchen while the rest of you clean up the living room. You go upstairs just to brush your teeth and wash your face. You didn’t feel like getting dressed yet. Harry did the same. You both plop on the couch while you wait for breakfast to be made. He throws his arm around you and you snuggle in close.

“So, that was your ex at the bar last night?” Harry’s face goes pale.

“Surprised you remember.”

“I was fucked up, but I certainly wouldn’t forget threatening someone.”

“That was pretty cool.” Niall says.

“That was the girl you saw before me though?”

“You make it sound like I was with her and then with you right away. It was like three years ago.” He groans. “I have no idea why she got so mad either.”

Sarah comes over with a plate of pancakes, topped with plenty of butter and a little syrup, just how you like it.

“I’m so spoiled, thank you.”

“You’re the baby of the group, you deserve to be a little spoiled.”

She laughs and sits with Niall with their breakfast. Rachel and Mariah sit down as well. Rachel hands Harry the banana he requested for his own breakfast.

“Seems like it must have been a bad break up if she was so aggravated to be running into you.” Mariah says.

“There wasn’t much to break, honestly.”

“Harry.” You look at him. “You were with that girl for seven months, come on.”

“Wasn’t in love, didn’t see it goin’ in that direction, and she thought it was more than it was. Remember, I told you I ended it when she wanted a key to my place? Didn’t want it with her.” He shrugs and bites into his banana. “Clearly she found someone else, good for her.”

“She said you only liked being called by your name.”

“I did, at the time. Pet names would have just led her on more.” Everyone’s looking at him. “I…was not a very nice person back then, okay? Can we drop it?”

You place a hand on his knee and give him a little squeeze.

“I thought she was going to wet herself when you got in her face.” Rachel laughs. “I love when you get feisty.”

“She was disrespecting my man! What could I do?” You shrug and finish up your pancakes. “That was so yummy, thanks guys.”

“What time do we need to be at the ferry?” Harry asks Sarah.

“In like an hour and a half. It won’t take long to get there, but we should all probably get dressed.”

You all go upstairs to get dressed. Harry watches you take a pair of spandex shorts out, along with a pair of shorts to wear over them, ones you would wear to the gym. You pull out a sports bra, and a tank top you would also wear to the gym. You look up at him.

“We’re gonna be doing a lot of walking, might get sweaty.”

Harry nods, and picks out a pair of shorts a graphic t. You flip your hair over and put it up into a messy bun. Your phone goes off after you get dressed and your face lights up.

“Hello?” You put the phone on speaker so he can hear your Nannie sing happy birthday to you. Your eyes fill with happy tears. You take it off speaker once she’s done. “Thank you.” You giggle.

“How are you, baby?”

“I’m great!”

“What are you up to?”

“I’m at the Cape with all my friends, and Harry. We’re going to the Vineyard in a bit.”

“Oh how nice! Good weather?”

“Mhm, it’s been beautiful all weekend so far. We got lucky.”

“Oh, I’m so glad honey. Well, I’ll let you get back to it. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“Thanks Nannie, I love you.”

“I love you too, precious.”

You hang up and smile.

“That was really cute.” Harry says.

“She’s done it forever.” He kisses you on to top of your head and you both head downstairs.

You all pile into Sarah’s car, and Niall drives to the ferry. You get on and take pictures with your friends. You all find places to sit, and Harry puts his arm around you. When you get off you walk around for a while. There was a neighborhood with all of these brightly colored homes, and later you come to the house with all of the Betty Boop stuff out front. You and your friends all pose like her and Harry takes your pictures. Him and Niall pose too, causing you all to laugh.

None of you wanted to eat too heavily since you’d be going out to eat later, but you had to stop into the ice cream shop that seemed to have a million flavors. Plus, sitting for a bit didn’t sound like a bad idea. You get cookies and cream in a dish with some whip cream. Harry gets a strawberry cone. You all sit down outside the ice cream shop.

“How about a walk on the beach after?” Mariah asks.

“Great idea.” Niall says. “Work off this heavy ice cream.”

It was super hot out, and all the ice cream was melting quickly. That’s why you opted out of getting a cone. You look over to see Harry trying to lick at his ice cream so it doesn’t make a mess, but a little drips onto his hand. You giggle and lean down to lick it off him. He raises both his eyebrows.

“Should have grabbed more napkins.” You say with a smile. “Thought I’d improvise.”

“Like where your head’s at.” He chuckles.

All of your friends had seen you and Harry interact plenty of times, but never for this long of a stretch. This was almost a trial weekend for Sarah and Rachel. Rachel had told Sarah about the deeper conversation her and Harry had when painting. Sarah knew Harry wanted to marry you. Your friends were very over protective, and this was a great way to just really make sure he was right for you.

Your phone blows up with texts from friends and family wishing you a happy birthday. Sarah and Rachel had posted cute things on Instagram earlier in the day. Even Harry made a post, using some pictures you didn’t even know he had. It made you tear up when you first looked at it.

When you’re all done with your ice cream, you all make your way to the beach. You all carry your shoes so you can walk along the water.

“Sarah, what time do we have to check out tomorrow? Will we be able to go to the beach in the morning?” You ask.

“Yeah! We don’t have to be out until like 1PM, so plenty of time.”

“Perfect! I’d like to get a little more sun in before we have to leave.”

“Agreed.”

You all agree it’s been a great day, but you’re exhausted and wouldn’t mind just chilling out before going out to dinner later, so you make your way back to the ferry. Harry stands off to the side with you as you make your way back to the main land. You have an arm around his waist and he has one around your shoulders.

“Quick get a picture of them.” Rachel says.

Niall takes his phone out and snaps a couple of pictures of you two looking off. Harry tilts your chin up to look at him and he puckers his lips. You smile up at him and kiss him. Niall gets a shot of that too. You all hang out in the living room for a bit, just watching some TV. You were sitting up against the arm rest of the couch with Harry laying at your side, his head in the crook of your neck. Your baby was tired. You stroke your hand through his hair as you hear his soft snores. Sarah takes your picture with him and you giggle quietly.

“So, we’re gonna go to that seafood place you really like, and then we’ll come back here to do cake and gifts and stuff.” Sarah explains to you as she flips through a magazine.

“Sounds good, I hope you guys didn’t go too crazy with gifts, this has been gift enough.”

“No, just some small things like we usually do.” She smiles and looks at Harry. “How can he sleep like that? Niall and I have to sleep butt to butt to be comfortable.” She laughs.

“Hey, you make it sound like we don’t cuddle at all.” He says with a frown, putting a hand on her thigh.

“No! We cuddle all the time, but we never sleep like that.” She points at Harry who is absolutely passed out.

“He’s always been like this.” You look down at him and smile. “Sometimes I wake up and he’s all the way on top of me. If I’m not sleeping next to him, like if he’s napping he sleeps with his arms crossed. I think he likes having something to hold onto.”

“It’s true, if he fell asleep on the couch in school he’d either be cross armed or spooning one of the cushions.” Niall laughs. “When we were campin’-“

“Niall, I swear to god.” Harry groans against your neck.

“Ohhh, I love when there’s something Harry doesn’t wanna share.” Mariah says. “Go on Niall.”

“It was really funny. Harry and Lou had to share a tent because Lou didn’t have one, so-“

“Niall.” Harry turns over onto his back and sits up slightly. “Here I am havin’ a nice nap, and you have to go and bring up campin’?”

“I’m gonna end up embarrassin’ myself just as much.” He laughs.

“Please, I need to hear this.” You say. “What happened?”

“I woke up cuddling Louis both mornings.” Harry says. “And both mornings, Niall came into the tent and joined us, so there.” You and the girls all look at each other with soft faces.

“That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Sarah says.

“Yeah, we cuddle all the time.” Rachel says. “Nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“You’re such a snugly sleeper Harry, it’s cute.” You poke one of his dimples. “I personally really like it, it makes me feel safe.” He looks up at you and smiles.

//

Later you all go upstairs and get ready for dinner. You pick out a flowy yellow sundress, and put your hair up into a high pony. You pull some pieces out like always to frame your face, and you put a little makeup on.

“You look so pretty.” Harry practically squeals. You giggle as he kisses your cheek.

You step back to look at him. He has a pair of tan capri-style pants on with a pair of loafers, and a salmon pink silk shirt.

“So do you.” You smile, and grab his hand to go down the stairs.

You all weren’t sure if you’d be drinking a lot, but you’d be drinking nonetheless at dinner, so you uber to the restaurant. You’re seated at a nice size round table when you get there. Harry was off speaking to one of the waiter’s quick, but you didn’t notice. He sits down next to you, and Niall is on your other side.

You all order your drinks and a few apps for the table before deciding on what you actually want.

“What are yeh thinkin’, sweetheart?” Harry asks you.

“I’m dying for a lobster roll to be honest.”

“Then you should have it.” He smiles. “Think I’m gonna get this veggie burger, it’s an avocado aioli, sounds good.”

You pick at the calamari that’s on the table when the waiter comes back over to take your dinner orders. You all talk about how you’re dreading to going back to reality soon.

“This seriously has been the best trip. As much as I miss Buster, it was so nice to get away.”

“You act like you weren’t just in London like three weeks ago.” Rachel laughs.

“Yeah, I suppose that sounded stupid.” You laugh, taking a sip of your drink. “But that wasn’t a beach getaway.”

“Very true.”

“And we only have to go back to reality for like a week and half until we’re off to Ireland.” Niall says, squeezing Sarah’s hand.

“I’m so excited, what a perfect thing to do before school starts back up.”

“God, I’m not looking forward to getting into a hot and stuffy classroom that smells like old paint.” Rachel laughs. “Although, I have missed my students a little.”

“Same, I can’t wait to meet my new kids.”

“My next class starts in September, this’ll be my fourth one. It’s already flying by, thank god.” The waiter brings all the food over and you lick your lips before diving into the lobster. “Mm, oh my god, now I remember why I liked it here so much last time. This is a damn good lobster roll.”

You all enjoy your meals and more drinks. When you think the night couldn’t get better, you start to hear the restaurant’s birthday song, and your mouth falls open. All your friends were filming you and you smile and laugh as you’re sung to by everyone. You had no idea when someone had the time to bring your cake to the restaurant ahead of time, but you didn’t question it. It was beautiful.

“Thank you everyone!”

One of the waiters leaves a knife at the table, and Harry cuts the came for everyone.

“This was all Harry’s idea, but the way.” Sarah says and you smile at him as he takes a bite of cake.

“Thank you sweetie, this was so nice.”

“He had the cake made at this really nice bakery too.” Rachel says.

“It was all the two of you would let me control out of this whole weekend, I had to do something big.”

You all enjoy the cake and pack up the leftovers. You uber back to the house and your friends have you sit on the couch while they all grab their gifts for you.

“You guys really didn’t have to do anything more for me, honestly.”

“Oh stop it.” Rachel hands you a drink and you smile. “Of course we did.”

Sarah hands you her gift first.

“I’ve been working on this for months so I hope you like it.”

You tear open the wrapping paper and gasp when you see the homemade scarf she knitted.

“Oh my god, I love it! This is beautiful! I love the patterns.”

“I know you can’t wear it for a while, obviously, but you wore so many this winter, I thought I could add to your collection.”

“Thank you so much, I can’t wait to…hold on.” You wrap the scarf around your neck. “Well?”

“It’s perfect!” You hug your friend and giggle.

Rachel hands you a big, and you dig into it. You laugh immediately, and pull out the t-shirt she got you.

“You can only wear that for a year.”

It was a white t-shirt with a picture of that episode of Spongebob, and the caption says, “I thought of something better than being 24…25!”

“I got it off Etsy, I just couldn’t resist.”

“I love it! I’m gonna wear it all the time, this is hilarious, Rach.” You slip it on over your dress and scarf. “I’m really feeling this vibe.”

Mariah hands you a card.

“It’s just a gift card…” She blushes.

“Thank you so much!” You open it up and smile at the card. “I’m glad we’ve become such good friends too. Wouldn’t want anyone else as my boyfriend’s work-wife.” You both laugh.

Niall looks at you and hands you his gift. You smile and unwrap it. You had no idea what it could be. You tear open the wrapping paper, the same Sarah used so she must know what he got you. You gasp and look at him in shock.

“You got me a Stranger Things version of monopoly?”

“For the next game night.”

“I love it! Thank you.” You hug him.

“Okay, Harry, your turn.” Sarah says to him and he sits next to you.

“I had a tough time with this. I’ve gotten yeh earrings, a chain, and even that watch.” Your heart starts to race. The only other piece of jewelry he could possibly give you was a ring. Was he going to propose in front of your closest friends? How sweet! “And we already went to the concert, but I still wanted to get you a little something.” He slips a card out from his back pocket and hands it to you. You open it up and see an itinerary for a round trip ticket. You look up at him confused.

“Another trip?”

“Not for you…you were really sad that your Nan couldn’t come up for our house warmin’, even though you had gotten to see her in Aruba…and you always talk about how much you miss havin’ her around for your Jewish holidays, so I’m flyin’ her up for the New Year in September. And she’s goin’ to stay with us so you don’t have to share any of your time with her, cause I know you hate that.”

Tears well up in your eyes, and you start sobbing. You covers your eyes with your hands. Harry isn’t sure what to do, and neither is anyone else.

“That is…” You say in a high pitched voice between your tears. “The sweetest things anyone’s ever done for me.” You lunge on top of him to hug him. He chuckles and rubs your back. “I love you, thank you so much.” You kiss him.

“You’re welcome, happy birthday.”

You look at everyone and wipe your tears away.

“Thank you all so much, this all means so much to me. I’m so lucky to have all of you.” You all share a group hug.

You had thought to use the fire-pit tonight, but it was drizzling outside, so you all opt for getting cozy in pj’s, drinks, and another movie. You went to call your Nannie again to tell her how good she was at being sneaky. You talked with your mom for a few minutes too so she could wish you a happy birthday. Your siblings had all texted you during the day.

You were all hanging out and just being cozy, and you loved it. Sarah had made frozen margaritas, your favorite. You also dove into a much needed second piece of cake.

“So we’ll go to the beach for a bit in the mornin’?” Niall asks.

“Yeah, if it’s not still raining.” Sarah says. “Then we can come back and pack everything up. The kitchen is all cleaned up, and the air bnb people said they would send a service in to clean out the fridge and what not. We don’t even need to make the beds up.”

“Love when they make things so convenient.” Rachel says. “Harry, don’t you use air bnb for your flat in London?”

“Yeah, my sister is the cleanin’ crew though.” He laughs. “We just tell the people to strip the bed and take out all their trash. She’ll do some of the easier things, but will hire a maid if she thinks the mess is too much for her to take care of.”

You all decide to watch I Love You, Man, another one of your favorites, before going to bed. There were a few times you laughed so hard you cried.

“It’s just the way he says Jobin, it kills me.” You wipe some tears away.

“Nice that both of your boyfriends are in this movie together.” Harry jokes.

“I regret ever telling you I liked them.” You shake your head.

“Honestly, as gay as I am, I would fuck Paul Rudd.” Rachel says and you all burst out laughing. “I mean, look at him!”

“That’s what I’m saying! And look at baby Andy, he still had the curls! Oh my god, next movie night we have to watch Hot Rod, please, we have to.”

“Yes! I haven’t watched that in years.” Sarah says.

When the movie ends you all go up to bed. You couldn’t wait to just wrap your arms around Harry. He lays his head on your chest.

“I love you so much, thank you for everything.” You kiss the top of his head.

“I love you too, you’re more than welcome.”

“How did you even pull all that off?”

“Asked your mum for her phone number. It was a bitch gettin’ her to let me buy the plane ticket, she started yellin’ at me, but I yelled back, I stood my ground. She started laughin’ and gave in. She was really excited.”

“It’ll be so great, she and I can make her brisket together. We used to have the New Year at my house growing up, it was so much fun.”

“I’m glad I could do this for you then.”

“My boss is gonna think I don’t like working anymore with how much time off I’ve been taking. I’ll definitely take a few days while Nannie’s here.”

“You won’t need too much, just Friday and Monday.” You hum your response.

Harry had another reason for wanting your grandmother there around that time…but that would be revealed to you later.

[adventuresinfarming]

A Story a Day Series - Chapter 3

A Story a Day Series ~ Chapter 3 Spring 3, Year 1 Word Count: 2,340 Summary: Avian learns about geodes and the library/museum.  A weird noise creeps her out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (WEDNESDAY) SPRING 3, YEAR 1 And just like that – she woke up with the most brilliant idea – why doesn’t she make a Field Snack? She was mad at herself that she didn’t bring that survival book with her – if she even still had it.  But she had thought she read it before: Pine Cones, Maple Seeds and...what was the last thing? OH YEAH! Acorns!  If you mashed them together, it was a surprisingly good source of energy.  She didn’t want to forget this and scrawled a quick note on the notebook besides her bed to put into the blueprint binder for later.

She didn’t even need to look out the window to know it was raining outside.  She was pretty exhausted from the past two days so she figured what’s another hour to sleep in?  However just as she rolled over and got comfortable, there was a knock at the door.

She signed and quickly threw on whatever clothes she had nearby and opened the door an inch.  A taller man with brown hair and brown goatee wearing a heavy apron stood outside the door under an umbrella.

“Uh…Hi there.  Good morning,” he began.  “Welcome to the Valley, I’m Clint – I run the blacksmith shop in town.  Uh, I apologize for the early morning visit but I noticed that you’ve been breaking some rocks open and finding ore – that’s good!  If you want to get the mo-“

“Huh?” she interrupted.  “I’m sorry -  Clint, was it?  I haven’t broken any rocks?” she was so confused, she didn’t remember breaking rocks – aside from the small stones on her property that is.

“You haven’t?” he also seemed quite puzzled.  “You mean you haven’t come across any small orange-looking stones?” he stopped to think for a moment.  “Or maybe you fished some up?  They’ve been known to get hooked on bottom-feeder fish lately.” Now that jogged her memory – she remembered getting something like that in a chest attached to a fish yesterday.  “Oh yeah, now that you mention it, I did catch a fish with some yesterday!  Sorry for the interruption.” She gestured that he could continue.

“No, that’s okay – uh, anyway if you want to get the most out of the ores you find, you’ll need a furnace.  Just happens I had an extra set of blueprints lying around.  Here, I want you to have them.”

With this, she opened the door wider.  “Really?  That’s awesome!  I’ve been wondering if anyone had extra blueprints I could add to my binder,” she hooked her thumb over her shoulder back towards her table.  “I really appreciate you sharing these with me.”

 He looked down, almost embarrassed, his face growing just the slightest shade of pink.  “Y-you’re welcome…just in case you don’t know, it allows you to smelt metal bars.  The bars can be used for crafting, construction and tool upgrades.  When you’ve smelted a few copper bars, consider having me upgrade one of your tools.  It can make your work a lot easier.  Well, okay.  I’m heading home now.  Take it easy and stop by my shop any time!”  He took his leave after this, Avian watched him go.  Kind of a strange man but he seemed nice enough.  As he passed the shipping bin, she completely forgot about her shipping!  She grabbed the umbrella that sat in a box (she had yet to finish finding a place for everything) and ran out to see if anything was still there.

She looked into the shipping bin and found a note and a small pouch.  Written in the same hand as her earlier note from Mayor Lewis, was an itemized list of everything she had put into the bin the night before along with an amount that she received for each item.  Huh, 596g – Not too bad!  She stuffed the note and pouch into her pocket as she ran back inside to properly get ready for the day.

She checked the TV – sunny tomorrow and mildly perturbed spirits today...she still didn’t understand what that meant but oh well – before sitting at the table to examine her new blueprint and thought about what it’ll take to upgrade her tools.  Would be nice, they were so worn and she really needed to lay into the tool in order for it to work properly – she was using too much muscle.  But then again, it might not be a bad thing to bulk up a little.  She chuckled to herself, envisioning herself looking like a bodybuilder in a few years if she didn’t get these tools upgraded.

Clint didn’t really explain how to get ores other than breaking rocks (and fishing them up) so maybe she’d pay him another visit today for more information – hey, maybe he knew what those 2 oval rocks were too?  Since she didn’t need to water her crops today, she gathered some things into her rucksack, grabbed her umbrella, then went to go find Clint’s shop.

***It was a longer walk to Clint’s than she had expected not realizing he lived on the complete other side of the town and but as she got closer, she followed the racket that radiated from the massive machine behind his shop.  Although it didn’t open for another hour so she decided to do a little fishing in the mean time but she fished up more trash than fish (and of course, this had nothing to do with juggling a fishing rod and holding an umbrella)

 Once 9am rolled around, she went right in.  It was a larger shop which made sense as she saw the Blacksmithing forge at the back of the shop with the billows working keeping the flames alight. A large selection of hammers and other types of tools were hanging on the wall beside it.  “Hi Clint!” she said cheerfully as she walked up to his counter and started digging through her bag. ***

“What are you doing here? Er, I mean..Welcome.  How can I help you?” he looked nervous as she walked up to him.

“After your visit this morning, I was wondering if you knew what this was?” she pulled out the oval rocks she had found yesterday.

“Of course I do.  Those are Geodes.  They typically have some kind of gems or materials inside them.  I can easily break them apart for a small fee of 25g each.  Is that something you’d like to do?” he held up one of the geodes, examining it as best he could with the limited light in his shop. “Yeah, why not?”  She took out the amount he mentioned and followed him over to his anvil as he placed the geode on it and went to the wall to select a large hammer from the wall.  He gestured for her to stand back as he swung the hammer, demolishing the hardened material to reveal granite, Jagoite and Orpiment.

“That was awesome!” she exclaimed as he picked up each one to look at them.  “Now what?” she asked.

“Uh, well..you can do whatever you want with them.  I thought I heard something about Gunther  looking for things like this so maybe check with him?

“Who?”

“Oh Gunther.  He’s the curator that runs the Library and Museum in the building south of here”

She thanked Clint for his help and exited his shop to pay this Gunther a visit.  No one was at the counter as she walked in but she heard a voice coming from further in the building. 

“Abysmal…” a voice trailed off.  She walked past a couple of large book cases and found a dark haired man with a goatee and bright blue uniform was muttering to himself.  He was standing amongst a large collection of empty tables.  “Not a single piece in the entire collection.” “Hi…I don’t mean to interrupt but Clint said you might be interested in these minerals?” Avian spoke softly, as the acoustics of the empty room caused her voice to echo.

“What’s that?  You found something?  Let me see it!” She pulled out the items that were hidden inside the geodes and laid them down on the table in front of him.

He picked one of them up immediately and started examining it intently. “Remarkable!  This is very old.  I’d love to study these in greater detail…but they are yours. Hmmm…” he handed them back to you and tapped his chin in thought for a moment. “I’ve got a favor to ask you.  Would you consider donating any new artifacts or minerals that you find? We could make a groundbreaking discover together!  Oh, and who knows…if you keep donating I might come across some interesting items to send your way.”

She didn’t even need to think about it and agreed immediately.  “Of course I’ll donate them – I don’t know what I’d do with them otherwise!” she handed the items back to him.

“Oh thank you! You’re doing a great thing for science.  Once I examine these, I’ll have a description of them so please come back to find more information on your extraordinary discoveries.  Actually, to thank for your donations so far, please take this.”  He reached into his pocket and handed you 250G. Avian stared up at him in amazement.  “Just like that?” she asked. 

“Just like that.” He replied.  “And remember, we could discover other useful items that would be worth more than that!” ‘Thanks! Yeah I’ll bring anything else I find to you.”

She left the shop and wondered what she should do now.  She had more room in her rucksack so she decided to grab some seeds as she was close to Pierre’s then fish a little bit more.  Plus it was raining a bit harder now so maybe by the time she was done choosing seeds, the rain would die down a little.

However, she tried to open the door to Pierre’s but it just didn’t budge.  She pulled back a bit before seeing the sign that says “Closed on Wednesdays”.

Well, crap. She thought.  Guess she’d just skip to fishing then. She thought she heard mentioned that there was a lake in the mountains and even though it was raining, that sounded like a really relaxing place to spend the rest of the rainy afternoon.

She followed the path North East towards the mountain, passing a large decrepit building that looked like it was on the verge of collapsing.  It had a weird, calming aura about it, though.  She continued on the path, finally coming to a large house and realized that this must be Robin’s!  She didn’t really feel like talking with anyone so she continued on and saw the lake not too far away. 

There was a nice little island that looked cozy but the wooden planks leading to it looked suspect and slippery so she stayed on regular land and cast the line into the water.

It was actually quite a great fishing day – got a ton of fish, plus some interesting some items in chests like rice shoots, more squiggly worm bait and coal.  Her rucksack was full to bursting and unfortunately, it was getting a bit dark.  She started to head back the way she came before she saw a guy standing underneath the eaves of Robin’s house.  He was in all dark clothes and she couldn’t see him that well.  Cigarette smoke hung in the air as she stopped a little ways from him.

“Hi, I’m Avian – I just moved here.” She called from beneath her umbrella. “Do you by any chance know if there is a shortcut back to the farm?  I don’t really want to have to walk all the way back around in the dark.”

“Oh, you just moved in?  Cool.”  He sounded bored and took another drag of his cigarette before continuing on, his voice taking on a sarcastic tone.  “Of all places you could live, you chose Pelican Town?”

Kind of taken aback by his comment, she tried to defend herself.  “Well...yeah, I’m continuing on my Grandfather’s legacy…is there something wrong with that?”

“No.” he said simply and threw the cigarette butt to the ground before stepping on it.  “If you continue back this way, there’s a path to the left that’ll lead you directly to your farm.” Without another word he went inside the house, leaving her alone in the rain.

What was with the crabby people in this town?  She didn’t even get his name to add to the crabby list alongside Abigail and Shane. How many more people even lived here?  She was annoyed by his comment but she just shrugged it off.  She took his instructions up around the mountain house and easily found the path that lead to the left.  It was so dark though and she wished she had a flashlight with her.  Luckily the path was easy to follow as it turned south to an overpass across the road that lead to the bus station and realized that was the entrance to her farm was right there – good to know she had a path that lead directly to the mountains behind her property. 

Just as she got to the entrance, the frog and insect songs that had accompanied her throughout the day, suddenly stopped.  The complete silence (other than the rain) was eerie as an otherworldly sound echoed around her a moment later.  She’d never heard anything like it…it wasn’t like it was close to her but it seemed to echo all around her, stretching throughout the entire valley.  To be quite honest, she nearly jumped out of her skin and flat out ran the rest of the way, barely throwing her haul into the shipping bin and slamming the door behind her and triple checking it was locked.

~~Throughout the night, her dreams were filled with fish.  Different techniques of casting, reeling in…a variety of fish that inhabited the various  waters in the valley…then it came to her.  She finally understood how to craft the perfect squiggly bait.  Oh wait..no.  The perfect contraption for trapping crabs, snails, lobsters and prawns..no wait..the most delectable ‘Dish o’ the Sea’… ~~

[jtsfavslut]

✧ 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔠𝔢𝔡 ✧

                                                     ✧NO SMUT ✧

Y/N's POV:

"I'm not marrying someone I don't know mom," I strictly told my mom (Eva) in hopes that she would change her mind.

"The deal's already made y/n, now go get ready we're meeting them in an hour."She replied

I groaned running up the stairs, slamming my room's door once I got inside trying to make a statement.

Even tho I was mad, I wasn't going going to look bad, I took a shower, straighten my hair, I decided to wear a black turtle neck shirt, with a plaid shirt and docs.

I did a natural makeup look, and a cat eye liner and some gloss.

Putting on my favorite necklace which happened to be a silver lock chain, my mom knocked on the door telling me to hurry up.

I quickly put on some deodorant, sprayed on perfume and put lotion on my hands.

I looked at myself in the mirror, and took snaps that I wasn't going to post.

I left my room, walking down the stairs and sat on the couch.

I take out my Airpods playing some Tyler because he's just a vibe. After my mom came back we got in the car and left.

We arrived at a really fancy restaurant, whose name I couldn't pronounce. Too fancy for my liking, we could've gone to Chick-fil-a instead.

We walked into the restaurant, a lady immediately asking who the reservation was for, my room replied with Dolan making me roll my eyes.

She nodded walking us to a table, from what I could see there was a blonde lady, next to her was a brunette girl, and 2 guys but I could only see their back.

"Eva," The blonde lady spoke with excitement once she saw us approach the table.

"Hi Lisa, how are you," my mom spoke sweetly making me roll my eyes at her fakeness.

I felt someone's eyes on me making me make turn around to see the most breath taking face I've ever seen.

I quickly turned back around placing my attention on Lisa.

"Y/N, honey you can sit right here next to Grayson," She said pointing to the chair in front of me, and told my mom to sit down next to mine.

I pulled the chair, sitting down while pulling my skirt so it doesn't rise up.

I placed my phone on the table along with my phone, I cleared my throat due to the awkwardness in the air.

"Right, so we all know why we're here," Lisa said making all of us nod our heads, "ok, Y/N, do you know what's going on," she asked looking at me.

"Ummm, I'm being forced to marry someone I don't know...?" I asked, confused on the entire situation since I received the new a few hours prior.

"Well not exactly," she replied, making me look at her in confusion, "you're marrying Gray," she said pointing at the boy who was starring at me earlier, "you guys knew each other when you were younger, in fact you two were inseparable, and you both cried when we moved away."

I slowly nodded my head trying to process what she said.

"Is there a reason as to why I need, to umm marry him," I softly asked turning to look at the stranger who wasn't a stranger.

"I wanted you to get out of this town, and live a much better life than I could provide you with and I knew Grayson could give you that," my mom responded before any else could her reasoning making me upset.

"So I don't get a say in this at all huh, you want me to live a better life yet you keep making decisions for me eve tho I'm seventeen, I have a job that I enjoy, friends that I like hanging out with, college classes that start this fall, I was making a better life for me by myself, and I never intended to sell myself for money, yet you had to come in and metaphorically speaking sell me to someone," I raised my voice slightly not wanting to cause a scene even tho I had every right to.

"It was a pleasure meeting you again, but if you excuse me I'll be outside enjoying the last few minutes of my peaceful life," I spoke nicely to the family across from me grabbing my stuff and heading outside.

Luckily for me there happened to be a bench a couple of feet from the door.

I sat down taking a deep breath, running my hand through my hair.

Since music helps calm me down, I put in one of my Airpods, clicking on my Tyler playlist.

About a minute later a deep 'hey' was said next to me making me slightly jump up in fear. I looked up to see Grayson.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he said chuckling at the end.

"It's ok," I weakly replied.

"Mind if I sit down," he asked pointing to the space next to me.

"No, not at all," I replied shaking my head.

"Listen about what happened in there-," he began saying before I cut him off.

"It's OK you don't have to apologize, I just freaked out I guess," I said shrugging my shoulders. "So I guess we know each other," I said trying to break the awkwardness in the air.

"I have this picture," he said taking out his wallet pulling out a small picture, "I always asked my mom who the girl was, and she always replied with 'it's a special girl, that will hopefully be in your life again' and I believe that girl is you," he continued speaking while I paid close attention, he handed me the picture our fingers brushing once I took it from his hands.

I looked at it closely, it was a small boy kissing a little girls cheek while she was blushing licking an ice cream cone, the little girl was me, and I'm guessing the boy's Grayson, they looked about 5 years old.

"It is me," I said looking up, examining his face, all of the sudden he looked so familiar, and it made me miss him, I looked at the picture everything coming back to me.

Flashback:

"Gwayyy, I want some," I whined to the boy who was eating an ice cream in front of me.

"Hewe," he replied handing me the ice cream cone.

"Thanks Gwayy," I replied licking the ice cream.

"Kids let me take a picture," Mommy Lisa spoke holding up her camera.

Grayson kissed my cheek while I like the ice cream and Lisa took the picture.

"pwomise me you gonna mawwy me, when we oldew" I looked up at Grayson.

"I pwomise Y/N" he replied.

Present:

"I remember you," I said looking up at him, my eyes glossy from the tears that were trying to escape, emotional bitch problems.

"Good, because I do too," he said pulling me into a hug, which I returned.

"You promised you were gonna marry me," I softly said, the smell of his cologne over powering any scent that was near.

"And I kept my promise, didn't I," he asked while softy rubbing my back.

"You did," I replied while nodding my head, "maybe marrying you won't be so bad after all."

[ceruleanwhore]

MLB rant

     At this point, I am genuinely pissed at Miraculous. Among other things, Thomas has wrecked the quality of the show over shipping bullshit with episodes like weredad and, in the process, fucked everything over so that now, no matter what happens or who ends up with who, it’s going to be shit. In a lot of ways, he’s done to Miraculous what Bryke did to Avatar in the comics- ruined established characters and the overall story by trying and failing to take care of the relationships/shipping. At this point, Marinette’s character is so awful in relation to this that I truly can’t fathom how Adrien and Luka can still tolerate her, never mind actually like her. Where she should have been steadily improving this whole time, she is instead getting much worse. This, of course, is because the show is constructed such that there is only the few main plot aspects everything revolves around (Hawkmoth and the love square) but, even though Astruc is clearly trying to drag the show out, he isn’t adding any other layers to the show to make up for how flat it is, so in the process of keeping those main plot points static, he has ended up fucking over his own show and dragging Marinette’s character down. At the start of the series, Marinette was clumsy and socially awkward but in a somewhat endearing way. Now, a school year or so later, she hasn’t improved at all and, in spite of now being Ladybug which would be the perfect catalyst for her character development, she’s genuinely getting worse to the point where, as we see in Desperada, she now acts like she has brain damage or something. 

 The degradation of Marinette’s character is a direct result of Atruc trying to shut down side ships, including some within the love square, in spite of how completely unnecessary it was. He shouldn’t have been doing stuff like that at all, honestly, but things like that should have only been done if and when he was going into the endgame and setting up to finally put them into canon relationships. There are a few ways he could have done this more successfully:     

1. In season 2, after Ladybug flat out rejects him, have that be enough to initiate the process of Adrien moving on and have him be completely over her by the end of the season but leave him single. Meanwhile, from the beginning of the show, it should be shown how the way Adrien constantly says that Marinette is “just a friend” wears on her over time, plus Luka showing up adds another element that would shake things up and leave her feelings for Adrien unsteady. Eventually, maybe later season 2, Adrien would make another comment like that again and that would be the last straw at which point she’d be done. Shortly after that, she’d get together with Luka.

     2.Kinda like what I just described but after Adrien gets over Ladybug and Marinette gets over him, they could get together as Marichat in some rich dramatic irony. 

     So then there is the matter of character development. I’ve already lamented Marinette, but I’d argue that basically none of the characters have any significant character development. Chloe had the opportunity that got royally fucked over, which was probably also for the sake of maintaining stasis, but other than a couple people here and there, there isn’t much to be found. I think this is because there isn’t actually much content, when it comes to this show. About half of each episode is taken up by the akuma and what’s left tends to be more concerned with cute things like Marinette facetiming Alya about Adrien or bringing some macrons somewhere or whatever and, like I said earlier, there are no subplots that would provide more depth to the show and help promote character growth. I think it would work better if a) there were subplots and b) there wasn’t an akuma every episode, maybe just every couple. It gets really boring and repetitive to have half of every episode be basically the same and take up so much space so that there isn’t room to put in real shit and character growth around it. 

     Regarding Chloe, if they were going to give her a fucking miraculous, they should’ve been planning on using that to kickstart her redemption arc. It makes absolutely no sense to trust her with it and then have her proceed to not change at all. All it does is create a shitty situation where this bitch is now a superhero but she’s still a mega bitch so then when she no longer gets to be a superhero, that adds to her being a miserable bitch. Honestly, it doesn’t even remotely make sense why Marinette gave it to her in the first place and when I look back on it I think it’s literally nothing more than pure pandering in response to what people were posting on Tumblr. It would’ve made a lot more sense for her to have had some level of preliminary character development first before Marinette presented her with the miraculous. Also, maybe it could be after she’d made a bitchy comment about Chloe that then got a response that showed Marinette how she was wrong and made her feel bad and this is her way of making it up to her but, more importantly, showing how she’s getting over her prejudice and now choosing to put faith in Chloe and support the progress she and those around her have witnessed. Then, the miraculous and the responsibilities that go with it (plus Marinette’s inevitable end of episode apology) would catalyze Chloe’s continued growth and development but like the amount of growth she’d have already would be enough for her to act more maturely and keep her identity a secret, which would be A Thingᵗᵐ. 

     However, along that same vein, I think it’s absurdly stupid how they really went with the “everyone gets a miraculous (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ *:･ﾟ ” thing. It makes sense to bring in one more but not this bullshit where everybody gets one but only sometimes. Bring on one more, permanently, maybe even add another later on (MUCH later on) if necessary but don’t just have this bullshit where Marinette just picks the flavor of the day. Also, her now being the guardian is the genuine worst decision, period. If it’s really that important to boot Wu and bring in a new guardian, have it be someone else like Alya, idk or, even better, a new character entirely. Wu said he had to be trained so I’d like to propose to have it so that he’s been training one for a while but we just don’t see them because since their training is incomplete, Wu can’t trust them with Ladybug and Chat Noir’s secret identities yet. But jesus fuck, Marinette should not be that person. She’s already quite Mary Sue already, she really doesn’t need that and the episode where she’s able to weild all the miraculouses to just throw in more shit about how she’s so good and so powerful and all that stuff. 

     So, then, there are inconsistencies in the writing, mainly in regards to their secret identities and shipping. In one of the episodes in season three, Master Wu told them they would have to give up their miraculouses if they ever learned each other’s identities, which is incredibly fucking stupid since he then just hands her all the miraculouses and makes her the new guardian. So she’s just supposed to hold that boundary because he told her to when she’s now the one who’d be enforcing it and taking the miraculouses if that ever came to be? So if (when) they learn their identities, she’s supposed to, as the guardian, take Adrien’s and give up her own miraculous but then keep on being the guardian? I think the line from Master Wu was supposed to add drama and suspence but that only works if you don’t go and negate it three seconds later. The other inconsistency that, to me, was glaringly obvious and just as annoying was when Marinette, Adrien, and Kagami went to Andre’s. Back when this guy was first introduced, the way it all worked was that when someone came up, he’d make them an individualized ice cream cone based on the person they love. In season three, all of a sudden, for no reason whatsoever, the fact that it’s three people coming up to get ice cream changes the entire system to some other bullshit all so we can get some over done, in-your-face adrienette vs adrigami tension in which Marinette is a Good Girlᵗᵐ. 

     Then, lastly, I find it extremely odd how there are practically no background characters and that the few there are tend to be recurring. If there are going to be 77+ episodes of “oh no that dude got akumatized”, it would be prudent to have more throwaway background characters to use for the akumas and then only use the main/recurring ones for that intermittently and only when it adds something to the episode and/or the plot as a whole. The classroom kids shouldn’t be the default, they should be used sparingly and with care. Not to mention how it also would be good to have more background characters just so stuff like scenes where they’re in the hallways in between classes don’t look so awkward because there’s just this one class of kids in this entire school (plus Marco) and literally nobody else. It’s a thing in every film or show that has ever been made but in this one, for no reason, there just are no extras and it feels so awkward at times. 

     The way that every single episode is set up the same and how there is that lack of background characters to akumatize so there ends up being a bunch of reakumatizations, plus the way that nothing much actually happens, in terms of plot progression, after season one all make it so that the show as a whole after the end of season one feels really stagnant. It’s like Astruc is trying to hold out and wait to drop actual resolution to any of the main plot points until later on but he hasn’t sufficiently constructed other layers to the story, like subplots, to have it still be engaging. In my opinion, MLB could’ve actually been completely tied up with the whole Hawkmoth business back in the season one finale, based on the content of the show, because there’s just not that much there. It makes me mad because the show has a great concept and I love the characters, but it’s just been shit and it’s not getting better.

[bbrandy2002]

Happy Birthday Burnsy!

@burnsoslow​

Burns,

You probably don't remember this, but the first time I ever talked to you was a reply to your comment on my fic, The Breakfast Club, in early July. I'm not sure what possessed you to reach out to me a week later in chats but, you did and its been one wild and crazy ride since then. You've certainly come a long way since we were new and mulling over those earlier stories-or in your case-Heavier Things, Chapter 1 (YOU ARE STILL WRITING THAT...LOL) . And while you have sooooo many friends here, for some reason you chose me to be your Tumbler Bestie. I hope you know you are so much more than that though ... you're my sister, my twinsie, a truly good friend. You've inspired me in ways you'll never know. I have watched you grow in your craft and reach an unprecedented level of talent that is evidenced in the quality of your work and through the amount of enthusiastic readers who can't wait for you to post the next epic chapter. You did it all through a tremendous amount of hard work, lot of tears and because you have a likeness that draws people to you. You're just truly an incredibly, special person who possesses a certain spark that makes this crazy place even better. And I think I tell you enough, but you really are one of the best writers in this fandom. And as you say to me all the time, I'm gonna say to you ... I'm one proud TBFF!! I can't thank you enough for all the late night laughs, bull sessions, real talks, 6 hour chats about nothing, letting me know when I'm being a dumbass or just being there when things get really, really tough. The fic I wrote isn't anything special and definitely could have been better, however I hope in some small way it captures the essence of our crazy friendship. Keep growing and shining and being your amazing self.

Love you my friend and Happy Birthday!!

Brandy

**You asked for Drake, Alyssa, Riley and Liam shenanigans. I don't know if this will be what you were expecting, but its what I came up with after 20 different versions. You'll recognize some of this as inside jokes or dialogue and situations from your own stories (yep, I stole them...lol). This is wacky and crazy and makes no sense. Okay Im shutting up now.

Thank you @sirbeepsalot for gutting the hell out of this on Monday night and @emceesynonymroll for SO MUCH of your help and suggestions. Also to my lovely pre-readers/keep me saners @jessiembruno and @loveellamae

Song Inspiration: You're Still The One by Shania Twain. **Drakes final dialogue will come from these lyrics.

Alyssa pulled her black mini-van through the palace gates, running over a cone and nearly taking out Michael, the security guard, in the process. Her hair was swept up into a very messy bun and her sunglasses were perched atop her head. She was wearing a blue, faded Bears sweatshirt, black leggings with a small hole in the crotch, and a mismatched pair of flip-flops -- both were for the left foot. Unable to find a close parking space, she double-parked her van in two handicapped-accessible spaces. She checked her reflection in the rear view mirror and wiped away the smudges of mascara that had run below her eyes. 

She was hurt and mad as hell, yet waited until, 'DIRRTY’, finished on the radio before shutting the van off and tossing the keys in her oversized mom purse. Alyssa’s dainty fingers fumbled hastily as she tried to release the lock on her seatbelt with no luck. "You son of a bitch! Let me go!"

After pulling and tugging, twisting and karate chopping at it as hard as she could, she finally freed herself.

“HAHA! MOTHERFUCKER! GOTCHA!”

Alyssa snatched her purse and cell phone before she swung the door open, hopped out, and kicked the door shut. Still mumbling obscenities, she walked a few paces before turning back around and hitting the van’s hood with her swinging purse. “Fucking hold me hostage like that again and I’m driving your ass into a ravine!” 

Everyone who knows Alyssa Walker would say she is generally a fun, loving, and sociable little woman. She’s a devoted wife who has been married to the man of her dreams for several years and a wonderful mother to their children. She's very successful professionally, having served as the Royal Education Director for 8 years. A social butterfly of sorts, she’s been known to give Maxwell a run for his money, in regards to being considered the life of any party. On most days, Alyssa is typically outgoing and joyful.

Today is not one of those days.

Her flip flops were barely hanging on as she trudged across the lawn that led to the palace gardens,  thoughts of her morning crossed her mind. 

For every single birthday since marrying Drake, she would wake up to the smell of bacon, scrambled eggs, and french toast wafting through the cabin. She would lay in bed and pretend to sleep until Drake and the kids burst in with a tray full of freshly prepared foods, a hot cup of coffee, and a glass of orange juice. They would shower her with kisses and hugs, sing Happy Birthday, and then wait anxiously as Alyssa took the first bite to see if their mother approved of the time and effort they put into making her birthday morning special. When she finished, like clockwork, Drake would send the kids outside with the eldest child and give Alyssa a gift that only he could give her; one that required the skilled use of his lips, hands, and the colossus that was his … well … colossus.

Except, there were no bacon, eggs, or french toast. There were no kids jumping on the bed to wish her a happy birthday and fighting over which one hugged her first. Drake did not send the kids away when she finished her breakfast nor had she risen from the bed barely able to walk from the most mind-blowing sex she’d ever had. 

None of the things she expected happened. 

When Alyssa woke up this morning no one was home. All she found was a letter by the coffee pot from Drake, telling her the kids went with Maxwell for the day and that he would see her after work. To make things worse, her 20 attempts to call him that morning went straight to voicemail.

Drake had been working late and acting shady for months, telling her he was helping Liam take care of some horses they were preparing for next month's derby. Lately, she was beginning to wonder if there was something more he wasn’t telling her.

Now she was late for her luncheon with Riley.

As Alyssa rounded the corner that entered the gardens, she saw Riley on the patio arranging a tray of fresh fruit and sandwiches on the table. An array of metallic birthday balloons danced and bounced from the chairs with the changing breeze. Alyssa frowned with resentment towards her best friend of over 20 years. Bitch is still in her 30s.

Riley’s focus was averted when she heard the sound of rustling leaves behind her. She turned on her heels and said, “Happy 40th Birthday, Old Lady!” Her cheery voice trailed off when she caught sight of her disheveled friend. 

“Lyss? What the hell happened to you? You look like shit.”

Alyssa strode past Riley and threw her purse on the ground beside a chair before she slumped down into it.

Riley furrowed her brows with a snicker. “Bad day?”

Alyssa reached for a strawberry and dipped the entire berry, stem and all, into a dish of melted chocolate before leaving behind a trail of droplets from the dish to her mouth. As she chewed, she mewled. “Ma life if ofer!”

Riley scrunched up her face and arched back in an attempt to avoid the spittle of food that sprayed from her friend’s full mouth. She sighed heavily, grabbed a napkin, and wiped away the chunks of fruit-and-chocolate-mixed saliva that landed on her arm. “Oookaay, what’s going on? Why is your life over?”

Alyssa threw the stem on her plate and leaned forward into the table, gesticulating dramatically. “He didn’t tell me happy birthday, Ri! There was no breakfast, there was no spoiling, there was no fucking, colossus dick! There was nothing!”

���Who? Drake?”

“No, fucking Santa Clause! Of course Drake.”

Riley bit into her sandwich as Alyssa complained about Drake’s lack of attentiveness over the past few months. It wasn't the first time her friend had mentioned this to her; however, judging by how upset she was and the fact that she was dressed like a $2 hooker, she knew it was really serious now. 

Alyssa continued to point out how Drake was always working and, supposedly, was helping Liam out with the horses too. When he returned home each night, his clothes were sweaty and dirty but never smelled like horse shit. To make things worse, the sex had dwindled. Alyssa could give up a lot of things in life, but Drake's dick was not one of them.

“I know he’s cheating, Ri,” she lamented, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.

“Nooo.”

“YES! He’s found another woman … someone younger, sluttier, who hasn't popped out a bunch of kids!”

Riley scoffed. “Lyss, everyone knows Drake worships the ground you walk on. I’m sure there is a good reason why he hasn’t paid as much attention to you lately.”

“But he KNOWS I’m needy and clingy and desperate for love!” she wailed.

Riley lifted the napkin from her lap and tossed it on the table. Her friend was a hot mess -- a more than usual hot mess -- and she wanted to help. She stood and walked around the table to her grieved friend and grabbed her tiny hand. “Come on.”

Alyssa’s weepy eyes stared up at her in confusion before she let out a small sniffle. “Where are we going?”

“We are going to the stables. You said he is there today, so let's go talk to him.”

Alyssa sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. “I’m not going, Ri. He needs to come to me!”

Riley began pulling on her friend's arm, but Alyssa was not being very cooperative with her efforts. “Get your ass out of the chair, Lyss, and go get your man.”

Alyssa pulled back harder. “Get off me, you skank ass ho!”

Riley continued to tug at her, surprised there was so much strength in such a little body. “Bitch, I will drag your ass and this chair all the way to the stables!” 

“I’d like to see you try, dumbass!”

With a hard jerk from Riley, Alyssa’s chair tipped over and she landed on the ground. Her resolve never once faded. While Riley continued to tug at her arm, Alyssa reached over and grabbed her broken flip flop and began smacking vigorously back at her. 

Riley immediately let go of her and stumbled backwards. “You have gone insane!” she groaned. “I tried to help you and, if this is how you’re gonna act, leave me out of it!” She turned to walk away and glanced back quickly. “You know the way out.”

“Ri … wait.” Alyssa called out softly to her.

Riley stopped and quirked her brow with a huff. “What?”

“Can palace security take us down? You know my ass ain’t walking that far.”

Riley called for a guard to take the 30-second drive to the stables. Both girls hopped off the cart and entered the empty barn. Riley called out for members of the stable staff while Alyssa’s eyes roamed the perimeter for her husband.

“Your Majesty? Did you need something?”

Riley turned to face the man in charge as he walked around the corner wiping his hands off with an old cloth. Before she could acknowledge him, Alyssa popped in front of her, nearly knocking her over.

“Eric!! Where’s Drake?”

The Queen smiled at the stable manager. “Eric, we’re looking for Drake.”

He looked between the two women, confusion etched across his face. “Is he supposed to be here, ma’am?”

Riley looked at Alyssa, who looked like she was ready to snap at his question, then back to Eric. “Um … yes. He told Mrs. Walker here that he would be helping in the stables today.”

“Hell … I’d say its been a good --” Eric paused to calculate before turning his attention back to the women. “--three  … maybe four weeks since I last saw Walker here. Came down with King Liam to take the newest horse, Driam, out for a ride … it made me real hard ma’am”

“Hold the fuck up!” Alyssa yelled with one hand on her hip and the other covering her forehead. “He told me he has been helping out here for the last several months. Is that not true?”

Eric, realizing what is going on, backed up defensively. He could sense this was not something he wanted to be a part of. “Nope. I'm not getting in the middle of your marital woes, Ms. Alyssa.” I just want in the middle of your husbands.

Alyssa approached him and aggressively poked at his chest. “Oh, you are in so far in the middle of my woes now, Ricky boy! So drop the bros before hoes bullshit and spill what you know.”

Riley grabbed both of Alyssa's shoulders from behind and pulled her aside. “It’s not his fault, Lyss. Plus … I think Eric’s the ho in this case”

Alyssa shrugged her away and began to pace back and forth frantically. “I’m seeing sounds, Ri. I am seeing fucking sounds all over this bitch!”

“Oh God, Lyss! No!  Don’t look at the sounds ... Don’t look at the sounds” She turned her frantic friend around to face her, squeezing her arms soothingly. “Look at me.”

Alyssa’s lips quivered as she stared back at her best friend. “I’ve lost him, Ri. I’ve lost him.”

“No, you haven’t.”

Alyssa sniffled through her tears and wiped her nose on her shirt sleeve. “Can me and the kids live with you now that I’m a single mother with a cheating ass husband?”

Riley pulled her into a hug, rubbing comfortingly along her back. “Of course you can, but maybe we should talk to Liam first.”

Lyss wiped her tear-stained face on Riley's shoulder and pulled back. “Liam loves me. He won’t care if I stay with you.”

Riley smiled with a nod. “Yes, he does love you, but Drake loves you too and you know that. There has to be a good explanation for everything.”

“Then why did he lie? He’s never lied to me, Ri.”

Riley gave her friend a sympathetic frown and shrugged. “I don’t know, girl, but let’s find out”

Palace security was once again summoned to haul the girls back to the palace.

Liam was in his office taking part in a video conference with Queen Elizabeth when his door burst open.

“WHERE IS MY HUSBAND?!”

His eyes went wide as he cut them to the flash of Alyssa barging in and stopping behind him at his desk; Riley was just a step behind her. Liam’s face flushed as he looked back at the camera and apologized for the interruption.

“Alyssa, dear,” he whispered. “Now is not a good time.” He motioned to the video feed on his laptop.

Alyssa turned to the laptop with the 106-year-old Queen’s face still illuminating from it. “Turn the hearing aid down, Lizzie! Unless you know where Drake is, this conversation doesn’t concern you!”

“ALYSSA!!” Liam stood, towering over her petite frame. “Are you coming for your King?” (had to put that in there lol).

“Liam, she's had a rough day and, remember, we love Alyssa,” Riley interjected with an innocent smile.

“We do, but she can’t just barge in here while I’m working!”

Alyssa grabbed his tie and yanked him down closer to her face. “Please, just tell me you know where Drake is. He said he was working for you and he’s not. He didn’t tell me happy birthday, he didn’t make my breakfast, and he didn’t fuck my brains out this morning!”

“Oh My!”

Alyssa turned back to the laptop. “I thought I told you to turn your hearing aid down, you old coot!”

Liam’s hands covered his face in embarrassment as he fell back into his chair. 

Alyssa crouched down in front of Liam and pulled his hands from his face. “Real talk, Li. Did you or did you not ask Drake to work for you?”

He stared at her for a moment with a deer-in-the-headlights look. He knew exactly where his best friend was and what he was doing -- he had known for months -- but he couldn’t tell her that. 

Nervous, Liam knew there was one way to solve this problem. He reached over to his intercom and pressed the call button. “Bastien.”

A split second later, the door to Liam’s office opened and the head guard entered. “Your Majesty?” he said as he bowed.

“Yes, could you see Alyssa and my wife out, please.”

Exasperated with Liam's request, Alyssa stood back up and eyed Bastien with a steely glare. “I’m not afraid of this bitch! He’s the one who raised the man whore my husband became with all his hookers and shit. My children are fatherless now because of you!”

Refusing to leave, Alyssa plopped down on Liam’s lap and gripped the armrests of his chair tightly with both hands. Her bony ass caused him to yelp as it dug into the muscles of his thigh. She reached for Liam’s scotch  and took a sip before leaning down so that her face could be picked up by the camera.

“Alright, Liz, help a fellow girl out here! You have a lot of experience with a cheating ass spouse and son … should I rip his big, beautiful nuts off? Orrrr … just take it up the ass like you did?"

The Queen of England clutched her chest with an exasperated expression. "Little lady … your behavior is simply prudish and insulting. I highly suggest you learn proper etiquette when addressing me … and, as for your husband, I can see why the poor man's eyes have roamed with such an immoral and, need I dare say, crazed woman such as yourself for a wife."

"Conversation over, bitch!" Alyssa threw the rest of Liam’s drink at the screen, hoping it drenched the queen and slammed the laptop shut.

"God Dammit!" Liam yelled out while he wrapped his arms around her from behind before standing up and handing her off to his guard.

With Bastien holding Alyssa in his arms, her little legs dangling and kicking at his shins, Riley took action.

The Queen grabbed her friend's feet, which were now bare from her crumbled flip flops, and tried with all her might to pull her back.

"You’re gonna break her hip, Bastien! She's an old, feeble woman now! She could have osteoporosis or the menopause!”

Giving their best efforts to escape, including Alyssa's teeth being firmly sunk into Bastien’s upper arm, neither were able to overpower his strength. 

While carrying Alyssa and dragging Riley -- who was still holding onto her friends legs -- Bastien was able to get the two of them out of Liam's office and into the main corridor.

Alyssa followed Riley back to her quarters, where she was given a pair of flip-flops and new leggings from Riley’s 12-year-old daughter’s closet. The hole in the crotch of her leggings had completely blown out during the struggle with Bastien. There were still no answers or replies from Drake, and Alyssa was beginning to feel utterly hopeless. 

Alyssa started to raid the royal couple’s liquor cabinet, happy to swipe a bottle of Balkan vodka, when Riley had an idea. She snapped her fingers with a sly grin. “I know someone who can help us find Drake.”

“Who?” 

The ladies left the quarters and walked downstairs to the ballroom. Once inside, Alyssa took a hard swig of vodka and eyed the utility closet Riley stopped in front of with a questioning look. 

The Queen gave four quick knocks followed by two slow ones and the door unlocked. Mara had been working out of this closet for years, having been fired after a fall out with Alyssa during a costume ball that nearly got her killed. The former guard walked in there during that ball and just never came back out. Riley and Bastien were the only two people who knew about this and told no one -- Bastien purely for comical reasons and Riley for a certain skill the woman possessed.

Alyssa was surprised to find the woman hiding out there after all these years. "I thought you fired her ass! I nearly got a traumatic brain injury and hearing loss from her incompetence!" 

"Shhh!" Riley pulled her friend inside, peeking around the ballroom to ensure no one was looking, and shut the door quickly. 

Riley explained how Liam revoked her cell phone pinging privileges with the guards before the costume ball all those years ago. Apparently, he wasn't too keen on her stalking the entire cast of Friends. He did what he had to do when a restraining order from Matthew Perry came across his desk. Mara, however, was still able to ping into anyone’s phone, thus, the Queen allowed her to stay.

“That's amazing,” Alyssa remarked. She pursed her lips as she scanned the tight space of the closet. “Can she find … maybe … Dwayne Johnson?”

Riley nodded. “Bitch can find anyone.” She looked to Mara, who was sitting at her desk, and winked with approval.

“Okay,” Alyssa clapped and leaned over Mara’s shoulder. “Let’s find him … I wanna know where Drake is!”

Within several seconds, an unfamiliar address popped up on the screen. It was close to the Walker cabin but still not somewhere Alyssa knew of.

She reached for a pen and a pad of paper from Mara’s desk and started to write down the location. “I can’t believe he lied to me this whole time! I must be really stupid for him to think he could actually get away with this.” Alyssa tossed the pen back on the desk and ripped the sheet of paper off the pad. “They’re gonna write a country song about me, Ri,” she cried. “Poppa’s in the graveyard and Momma’s in the pen! I just need a shotgun and for my damn dog to run away and I’ve got a hit!”

The two snuck out of the utility closet and ran to Alyssa’s van. Alyssa pulled the ticket for double parking in handicapped spaces from her wiper blade and threw it in her glove box with the rest of her parking tickets.  Riley shoveled away the piles of empty, diet coke cans and cheese whisps bags from the passenger seat  into the parking lot when she opened her door. 

Alyssa squealed her tires as she burned rubber down the palace drive, taking out the same cone again, nearly running down Michael again, and driving straight through the lowered arm of the security gate.

“WOOOO!” Riley yelled as they sped through the streets of Cordonia into the countryside. “This is just like old times in college, huh, Lyss?”

“I suppose. We’re just not high as fuck.” Alyssa raised her eyebrows and grinned slyly with an all too familiar gleam in her eyes that Riley recognized immediately. “Say … grab my purse, Ri.”

“Oh God! I know that look. We're gonna get smashed aren't we?"  Riley extended her arm behind the driver's seat. Alyssa reached into the side pocket of her purse and pulled out the rolled up, clear baggie and tossed it to her friend.

Unrolling the bag, Riley began to bounce in her seat with anticipation of smoking weed for the first time in 15 years. The excitement quickly faded.

“Um, Lyss?”

“Hmm?”

“I know I haven’t smoked pot in a while, but this looks like a bag of carrot sticks.”

“Give me that, dumbass!” Alyssa glanced over and snatched the bag. She held the bag over the steering wheel and examined it for herself. “Well fuck!! Looks like one of my kids had a really interesting snack yesterday at school. Oh well”

After a twenty-minute drive from the palace into a forested section of Cordonia, Alyssa and Riley stopped in front of a long gravel road. Riley double-checked the address on the van’s GPS with what was written on the paper.

“It says this is it. Look’s kind of desolate,” Riley mused, not sure where the isolated road would lead.

Alyssa turned the steering wheel of her van, probably a little too tipsy to drive considering she had consumed a quarter of a bottle of vodka (that the author of this story forgot about). They made it there, nonetheless, and no one was hurt. Never drink and drive!!

Lush, plentiful trees and a wooden fence lined the gravel road that seemed to lead to nowhere until they came upon a clear view of Lake Cordonia. Drake’s truck was sitting in front of a large wooden cabin with a huge, flat yard and one of the most stunning views of the lake either woman had seen anywhere. Alyssa tried to keep it together ... until she didn’t. When she saw Drake standing on the front porch, casually drinking a beer, shirtless and wiping his forehead with his denim shirt, she skidded the van into park next to his truck. 

Drake’s eyes widened when he saw his wife get out of the van wielding an ice scraper in one hand and a tire iron in the other, a look of pure hell in her eyes. 

He took a small step back. He hadn’t seen her like this since a drunken Olivia grabbed his ass at a Beaumont Bash two years ago. Drake waved his hands in front of her defensively. “Baby girl … wh … what’s going on right now?”

“Don’t you baby girl me!” Alyssa threw the ice scraper and Drake ducked just in time as it flew over his head.

Drake had no idea what the hell she was so pissed off about, but she was approaching him quickly and twirling the tire iron in her hands. He jumped over the railing of the porch and took off running around the side of the house. As he rounded the rear corner of the home, he ran directly into Riley, who was waiting to block him. The plan was a good one -- it really was -- but her thin frame was no match against the much larger Drake. With a hard thud, Riley fell backward, which caused his body to trip over her and land face down on the ground.

Drake rolled over on his back and shook his head in an attempt to get the daze out of his frazzled brain. There she was, standing over him, holding the tire iron like a bat, ready to pounce him without a second thought.

“Baby! Please tell me what’s wrong.”

“You … you’re a cheater and a liar!”

Drake went to sit up but laid back down when Alyssa flinched the hardened steel at him. “The fuck you talking about, Lyssa?”

With months of building suspicions and hurt, Alyssa took a long, deep breath and let it all out with a wail.

“I’m talking about the late nights, the shady-as-shit lies you have spewed to me over and over again. I’m talking about you missing out on dinners, coming home and falling on the bed without a word to anyone. I’m talking about only having sex with me every other day and forgetting my birthday. Now, me and the kids have to live with Liam, who hates me now because I told Queen Elizabeth she got fucked in the ass! It’s because I’m old now, isn’t it? You wanna be a Bastien and have bunga bunga sex parties with skank ass whores who have big boobies and wear their panties around their ankles! And … I just can’t compete, Drake … I just can’t.”

Drake held his hand up to block any sudden swings in his direction. “Can I get up?”

Alyssa nodded her head before she turned away from him and dropped the tire iron to the ground. “Just tell why, dammit?” she whimpered. “Was I not enough?!”

“Not enough? NOT ENOUGH?!!” He quickly rose to his feet, twisted her around and brought her flush against his hard body. With tears in his eyes, he kissed the top of her head, his thick hands sunken into her lush, brown hair.  He was barely able to mutter a single word. He was visibly shaken and broken by her accusations and that she held those feelings about herself for so long.

With both hands now on the sides of her face, he tilted her head so that she was looking directly at him. “Alyssa!” he sobbed softly. “Don’t you dare ever say you aren’t enough for me … ever! You’re literally my whole world. In every single life, in any alternate universe … I choose you every single time. And you wanna know what I’ve been doing? Look!” He turned her around to face the house.

“This is what I’ve been doing all those months! I built it, with my bare hands, just for you, for your birthday. I wanted you to have a bigger home so you could get out of that small cabin and have the view and the yard you always dreamt of. I wasn’t cheating and I didn't forget your birthday.  I just wanted you to have everything you deserve”

Alyssa gave Drake a quizzical look. “But … you’re terrible at woodworking.”

Drake chuckled. “Maybe I love you enough I learned.”

Alyssa sunk to her knees, not to give a blow job, but realization and understanding of the last few months had set in. She stared up at the beautiful, two-story log cabin that had every bit of her husband’s heart and soul for her in it and wept. “Drake.” Her voice was raspy and full of guilt. “I’m so, so sorry.’

He crouched down behind her and wrapped his loving arms around Alyssa before placing a gentle nip at her ear. “You've nothing to be sorry for. I guess I gave you plenty of reasons to think that, but I was crunched for time and wanted to surprise you. Just hope you like it.”

“It’s magnificent … and it’s our home?”

“It's our home. Happy Birthday, Baby girl.”

Drake and Alyssa checked on Riley, who was still knocked out cold. After assisting her and giving her a moment to collect herself, Alyssa thanked her friend for all of her help and gave her the keys to the van to return home in.

Drake showed his wife around their new cabin, pointing out the lowered cabinets in the kitchen that would be easier for her to reach. He had built her a library where she could work from and read without the noise and chaos of a house full of children running around. She was thrilled over the balcony that sat just off their bedroom, overlooking the lake and featuring private jacuzzi tub where they could relax together and, of course, have sex in.

Drake took her outside and walked down to the lake, where he had  put a gazebo in overlooking the water and ushered her to the center of it. 

“Drake! This is amazing. How did you know I wanted this?”

He drew her closer to him and kissed the tip of her nose. “I know everything about you, Lyssa … there’s nothing I wouldn’t give you.”

She smiled up at him lovingly. “And I love you so much for it.”

He reached for one of her tiny hands, brought it to his chest, and wrapped his other arm around her back. With very little room between them, he kissed her lips tenderly. “Dance with me, Alyssa.”

Alyssa gave him a knowing look with a grin. “Drake Walker doesn’t like to dance.”

He began to sway with her to music that wasn’t there, but he felt it in his heart. “Drake Walker will always dance with his girl.” Kissing her once more, they began to slowly dance together and Alyssa had never felt more alive or loved in her life. He has that effect on her--always had and always will.

He spun her in a twirl and pulled her tiny body back into his own. “Ya know, Lyssa … when I first saw you, I saw love.”

Drake reached down and lifted the bottom of her sweatshirt over her head and tossed it on a nearby bench. He caressed her cheek and trailed a gentle line down her neck and across her shoulder. “And the first time you touched me, Baby Girl ...I felt love.”

His lips found that sweet spot just behind her ear before he whispered to her. “And after all this time ...”

Drake’s thumb grazed across her bottom lip before he stared into the blue eyes of his yesterday, today, and forever. “You’re still the one I love.”

What happens next? .......

[cherishingstydia]

Summer Lovin’

The Diaz family and Buckley family lived hours and states away but their summers  were spent at the same resort. They both had sons Eddie Diaz from Texas and Evan Buckley from California. The boys quickly became close friends Eddie was just 2 years older than Evan or as he liked to call him Buck. They met when Buck was 8 and Eddie was 10. After Eddies mother passed away when he was 17 he wasn't at the resort for the past 6 years. Now he was back.( Buck was 21 and Eddie was 23.)

"Oh I’m so sorry man!" Buck said after knocking into the most beautiful man he’d ever seen.

"Its all good I wasn't really paying attention. I haven't been here in a few years and i got a little turned around.'' Eddie smirked.

Buck would recognize that smile any day. Buck had thought Eddie was cute when they were younger, but he was even more beautiful now.

"Eddie!" Buck exclaimed before embracing him in a tight hug.

Eddie pushed Buck away.

"Um do I kn---wait a minute...Buck is that you?'' Eddie inquired.

"Yeah I know I look a little different" Buck smirked.

Eddie couldn't believe just how different. The once about a foot shorter than him scrawny kid was now a few inches taller than  Eddie and his arms were bulging out his t shirt. One thing that hadn't changed were those beautiful blue eyes.

"More than a little" Eddie bit his lip looking Buck up and down.

"So I gotta run but we should catch up its been awhile.”

Eddie agreed so they exchanged numbers.

Eddie wanted to text Buck, but he didn't know what to say or what they should do. He would recommend swimming since that’s what they always did as kids, but they weren't kids anymore. Eddie wasn't sure why he was so nervous him and Buck had hung out lots of times. Eddies phone buzzed.

new text from: Buck

"Hey I was thinking for old times sake we should do swimming and snow-cones like we did as kids. How about 2:00?''

Eddie replied immediately

"Sure, but your treat😉"

Eddie regretted that response immediately. Was it flirty...why didn't he just say "ok" or "sounds good.”

"haha 😂 you always were a mooch, but sure my treat!” Buck replied.

This playful response calmed Eddie down a little.

Eddie was waiting by the pool when he saw Buck walking down the steps laughing with a beautiful woman who seemed several years older. Eddie sighed and thought of course hes taken I mean hes funny,kind and good looking.

"Hey Eddie this is my sister Maddie" Buck said

"Oh yeah I remember hearing about you Buck used to say his sister thought she was too cool for family vacations'' Eddie sighed feeling relieved.

Maddie rolled her eyes "Oh I remember hearing all about you too Eddie. Evan was always going on and on about how cool Eddie was. My little brother was so bored and sad all the summers you weren’t here.”

Buck nudged Maddie as his face began to turn red.

"It's really hot so I'm gonna go for a swim'' Buck said before ripping off his shirt and diving into the deep end of the pool hoping Eddie hadn’t noticed him blushing.

Eddies jaw dropped when Buck emerged from the pool dripping wet the water just accentuated all his muscles.  Eddie knew he probably shouldn't but he couldn't help, but stare he'd never been this attracted to anyone before.

Eddie grabbed his phone pretending to have a call.

"Hey Maddie could you tell Buck I gotta go but I’ll talk to him later.'' Eddie asked

"Sure!" Maddie smiled

Eddie ran off.

"Maddie what did you do? Wheres Eddie?" Buck demanded

"Nothing and he said he had to go.'' Maddie shrugged.

Buck loved his sister but she was always scheming and always ended up causing trouble unintentionally.

"Please tell me you weren't trying to play matchmaker for me again!'' Buck whined

"Well I wasn’t, but would it really be so bad if I was? I mean Eddie is gorgeous, and I only spent 5 minutes with him, but hes very sweet and totally your type.''

"Yeah he's basically perfect for me in every way, but he's straight'' Buck frowned

"I saw the way he was looking at you...pretty sure he isn't straight'' Maddie smiled

"Whatever you say sis" Buck rolled his eyes grabbing his things to go back to his room.

Buck tried to think about all their interactions they'd had. The more he thought the more he realized...maybe Eddie could be into him. He knew when they were kids there was a special connection but he always thought it was just a friendship and one sided crush. Buck thought back to that final summer when He was 15 and Eddie was 17. He remembered how he thought Eddie and him would kiss during that late night swim. Bucks phone buzzed.

new text from: Eddie

''Hey I'm sorry about earlier. Can we talk later tonight maybe over dinner. Ricardo's @ 7?"

Dinner with Eddie...Like a date?? Buck had no idea what was going on. Was it a date or not? What should he wear. It’sat Ricardo's the nicest place on the resort so it must be a date...Right.?

Eddie paced around his room with anticipation waiting for a reply. Buck immediately had to talk to Maddie to see what she thought.

“Hey Mads would this be like a date?”Buck pondered passing her his phone.

“Evan ya know for someone so smart you can be really clueless sometimes” Maddie laughed “Obviously this is a date!”

Buck was reluctant to believe her, but he missed Eddie and even if it was just a hang out he still wanted to see him.

new text from: Buck

“Ricardo’s at 7, sounds perfect’‘

~later that night~

Buck saw Eddie already at the table when he arrived. Eddie looked so hot. Buck thought if this isn’t a date I’m in way over my head. All those feelings Buck had at 15 were back but stronger.

“Hey” Buck smiled nervously

“Hey yourself” Eddie smirked

Eddie stood to greet Buck, but he wasn’t sure if they should hug or shake hands. He didn’t even know if Buck thought of this as a date. After an awkward minute of just staring at each other they both sat down.

“So do you still live in Texas?” Buck asked

“Yeah,but actually I’m moving to LA in 2 months” Eddie smiled

“I’m actually still living there! So we will have to hangout some more once you get settled” Buck was trying really hard to keep his cool but he was so excited he couldn’t stop smiling.

“Definitely” Eddie smiled.

After a little small talk Eddie finally got the courage to say something to try to figure out if it was a date, it was to him but he wasn’t sure if Buck even liked guys.

“So are you seeing anyone’‘ Eddie questioned nervously.

“Well not anymore, my last relationship did not end well. My ex was kind of crazy he always had to know where I was and what I was doing. Honestly this is actually my first date in almost a year” Buck froze “I mean not that this is a date...or is it?I mean I wasn’t sure. I hope it is tho.” Buck stared at the floor he was so nervous.

“Oh I was actually wondering the same thing. Glad to know we’re on the same page’’ Eddie reached across the table placing his hand on Bucks.

Buck looked up at Eddie with the same look he had in his eyes that night years ago in the pool.

“So how about after dinner we go for a late night swim, since we didn’t get to earlier’’ Buck grinned.

“A swim sounds great! Sorry about that I was sort of freaking out because of the way I was feeling and I didn’t know how you felt so I just bolted.”Eddie sighed.

“Speaking of bolting.....You know the last summer you were here. We went for a late night swim and I ran off. Well the reason was because I really wanted to kiss you, but I didn’t think you felt the same way.” Buck smiled nervously.

“I wanted to kiss you, but I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to actually go for it’ Eddie smirked.

After finishing up dinner they met down by the pool.

They both wanted the same thing right? So what was the reason to be so nervous. They both got into the pool slowly getting closer and closer.

Eventually they were side by side and alone underneath the beautiful moonlight. They turned to face eachother.

“So um about that being to scared to kiss you” Eddie said “Well I’m not scared anymore”

“Me neither” Buck placed his hand on Eddies cheek

Buck smiled at Eddie before leaning down for a kiss. The moment their lips locked they both felt something they’d never felt before it was the best kiss either of them had ever had.

“We should of done that years ago” Buck chuckled.

“Actually I’m kinda happy with how things have turned out. If we had kissed all those years ago we might not have this moment right now, this moment right now with you Is perfect. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

“Wow I’m really glad you’re moving to LA, I think I’d like to continue whatever this is” Buck said fluttering his eyelashes just like he did when they were kids.

“I’d like that too.” Eddie grinned kissing Buck again.

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (124/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[15 June, 233 Before Age. Planet Yars.]

The Jindan Cult's war against the Federation was essentially a coordinated series of raids. Small groups of Saiyan cultists would attempt to invade a planet, usually along the Federation's frontier, and the defenders would be forced to respond before they could entrench themselves. The Saiyan Free Company, led by Princess Seltiss, could be counted on to handle one or two Jindan cultists, and the Federation fleet could intercept the cult's ships and destroy them before their crews could bring their powers to bear. But when six or more of the cultists landed on a planet together, it was a job for Luffa. Only the Super Saiyan had the power to cope with so many of the alchemically-enhanced warriors. And even then, they managed to wear her down, battle by battle, to the point where she needed time to recover.

During Luffa's convalescence, the cult managed to conquer Yars and without Luffa available to stop them, they went to work on fortifying the planet to serve as a base of operations. All the Federation and its allies could do was to intercept any Jindan reinforcements before they could reach the occupied planet.

But the cult had other ways to strengthen its position. Later, Yartian witnesses would tell stories of a gruesome ritual they performed, where one of their priestesses vomited red liquid onto the ground, and then an enormous earthen figure emerged from below. Then they worshiped this walking idol with cheers, songs, and sacrifices. The Federation's defenders knew this creature was an avatar of the cult's leader, Trismegistus, also known as the Saiyan King Rehval III. These avatars were immensely powerful, and now that the occupiers had one of them on the planet, there would be no way of removing them without Luffa's help.

"I would have thought she'd have been here by now," the rock-Rehval said. He was seated upon a giant stone throne that his followers had built for him in what used to be the planet's capital city. "Fifteen of my followers would be tempting enough bait by themselves, but I was sure she'd jump at the chance to destroy another one of my bodies."

One of his flock stood on the armrest of his stone chair. His job was officially to oversee construction projects in the area and to see to his master's needs, but the rock creature needed nothing, as the real Rehval was controlling it from many light years away. He was mostly there to let the avatar know when it was time to fight.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Thrice Blessed One," the man said.

"Well, it can't be helped," Rehval said with a mighty shrug. "I'll just go dormant for a while and check in again. It's not like she can get close to the planet without one of you sensing her approach or detecting her ship."

And so the great stone form of Rehval grew still. And just as the attendant turned to consider his other duties, he was decapitated by a beam of red light. Had he survived this, or if his master had not withdrawn his presence from the earthen figure, one of them might have recognized this as Luffa's signature technique, the Vengeance Cannon. Instead, his headless body tumbled to the idol's feet, while the idol itself remained motionless. Luffa approached it a few seconds later, and waited patiently for the other fourteen cultists to sense her power and find her. Civilian witnesses would describe the yellow glow of her hair and tail, and a sense of unease. Most Federation citizens appreciated Luffa as a benevolent protector, but many had seconds thoughts after seeing her in action. The news media tended to edit footage of her battles for the sake of decorum, but those who saw her fight in person had no such filter.

"You fools make it so easy," she gloated when they finally arrived. "You thought I'd rush in on a battleship, full power, give you plenty of warning. It never occurred to you that I'd do it all sneaky-like, did it? Suppress my power, coast my way into the system, reconnoiter for a few days."

"We still should have detected your ship!" one of the cultists protested. They all surrounded her as she floated above their earthen idol, daring them to chase her away from it.

Luffa laughed. "You call yourselves Saiyans?" she scoffed. "You must have forgotten everything you know about warfare when you went for this magical nonsense. You took this planet, sure, but you're still behind enemy lines. All the defense systems are enemy tech, aren't they? Including the early-warning outpost on the twelfth planet in this system. You didn't think those guys were much of a threat, but they've been scrambling your sensors since before I got here. So if you didn't detect my ship, blame those guys. I'm surprised your 'all-knowing' leader didn't mention it to you earlier."

"You're still outmatched, infidel!" one of the cultists cried as she brandished her spear at Luffa. "Even if you could defeat all of us, we only have to touch Trismegistus' form to summon him back to aid us!"

"Yeah," Luffa said. "I'm counting on it. Should make things really interesting. How long would it take for him to get here? A minute? Two minutes? And how many of you will be alive to help him once he's ready? And that's assuming you can get past me long enough to touch this thing. So many variables. I'm getting excited just thinking about it."

Without warning, she suddenly pounced onto one of the Jindan Saiyans and wrapped her legs around his before any of them could react. As she locked in the hold, he cried out in agony.

None of then had expected her to do this. It was folly to use a jointlock on a single opponent during a battle with so many enemies. And yet Luffa had done it anyway, leaving herself wide open for an attack. Only the attack never came, because her foes were too confused to seize their chance.

When one of them finally did react, he got as far as crying "For the Glory of Trismegistus!" before Luffa flew into the air to dodge his blast. Then she slammed into him, dragging her captive behind her as she continued to torture him with her hold.

"She's mad!" one of the Saiyans said in a panicked voice.

Luffa's raucous laughter did little to dissuade them from this opinion. She flew around her enemies like a hornet weaving through a group of frightened picnickers. When they finally gained the sense to try to intercept her and box her in, she used her arms to fire back on them. A Saiyan tried to cone up from behind her, but she flipped around as he approached, and swung her captive into him like a club.

His now constant wailing had taken a severe toll on their morale. Only a short while ago, they had been confident about their mission, but now, they all felt they were in a battle for survival, and they were losing. None of them dared to go for the earthen giant below. As powerful as the avatar could be, they each feared that Luffa would pick them off unless they all fought together.

As Luffa dodged their attacks, one of them stood still, struggling to prepare an energy technique. A ball of light coalesced above his right hand, and he growled and gritted his teeth as he willed it into existence. When the moment was right, he would unleash the power, and then--!

Before he could finish, a plasma bolt struck him on the side of his head, and he collapsed. He was dead before he hit the ground. Six hundred yards away, Zatte smiled as she looked at his dead body in the scope of her rifle, then shifted her aim to pick out a new target.

On the battlefield, the Jindan Saiyans saw one of their own fall, and believed it was Luffa's doing. They began to fear that her attacks could come without warning, and their panic forced them to go on the defensive. Luffa had killed the man she had caught in her leglock, and now she was seeking out a fresh victim. No one wanted to volunteer. In this way, the Jindan Saiyans gave up their sole advantage over Luffa. Their numbers could only overwhelm her if they attacked her together. Now, as thy scattered and kept their distance, they were unable to coordinate anything. One of them went for the avatar on the throne. Luffa fired a ki blast that got there first, reducing Rehval's graven image into a cloud of dust.

Luffa grabbed a Saiyan woman and broke her neck with a single kick. Another Jindan Saiyan tried to fight back, but he was cut down by Zatte's sniper fire before he could act. Luffa spared a backward glance to where the plasma bolt had come from, but quickly turned around in time to block an elbow strike and reverse it into a hammerlock. She used the man as a shield for a moment, then fired a ki blast through his torso, killing him and one of his comrades in the same shot.

That left just six of the original fifteen. With the power of Jindan running through their veins, six Saiyans were more than a match for nearly any force in the galaxy. Against Luffa, six were nothing at all. Under different circumstances, Luffa might have toyed with them, but she felt that they had held this planet long enough, and deemed that their occupation would not last a moment longer than necessary.

Civilian witnesses would later speak of the brutal efficiency of those final moments of the battle, but also that Luffa was laughing with joy the entire time.

*******

[15 June, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

The Federation had managed to thwart or repel every Jindan invasion into their territory. The casualty rate on the cultist's side was 100%. They continued to send warriors anyway. The prevailing attitude among the Federation's military leaders was that if they could easily win this war, if only they could take the fight to the enemy. But the cultists' home base was its most carefully guarded secret. Here, on Nagaoka, if King Rehval knew or cared that Yars had been liberated, his fifteen warriors slaughtered, and his earthen idol destroyed, he did not show it. Instead, he spent his day poring over scrolls he had gathered over the years, choosing which would offer the best education for his new student.

For her part, Treekul had no interest in learning anything from him. She had only come to this planet because three Saiyans wanted to find the Jindan Cult, and she had been intrigued enough by the opportunity to join their quest. She was an archaeologist, one specializing in ancient alchemical texts and artifacts. She joined the Saiyans for the challenge, and because she knew that Saiyans tended to find a handsome profit whenever they wanted to do something. But the Jindan Cult was no ancient puzzle to be excavated and studied. There was no payday at the end of their search. Instead they were stolen away to a secret lair. Her Saiyan partners had been indoctrinated into the cult, while their leader, Rehval, or "Trismegistus" as they called him, decided to make her his apprentice in the alchemical arts.

It could have been much worse, she told herself. The cult only accepted Saiyans, so it stood to reason that an alien like herself would have been executed on the spot. Her only advantage in this predicament was that Rehval seemed to enjoy keeping her around. He often told her that he found her attractive, but he also seemed impressed with her alchemical knowledge, and maybe he found it refreshing to have someone to talk to who wasn't brainwashed into worshiping the ground he walked on.

And so, her best chance of escape lay in exploiting his fancy. He made her a priestess in his mad religion, and commanded her to wear a sort of dress made of torn robes, and so she did. He wanted to teach her his secrets, and so she played the eager student. He flirted with her constantly, and she did everything she could to hide her disgust. Because she knew that if she did this long enough, he would eventually come to trust her, and that would be when her opportunity would present itself.

That was her greatest strength on a planet full of mighty Saiyans. They all spoke highly of their pride, but Treekul didn't have much use for it herself. "Pride" was just another word for "stubborn" in her book, and she knew far too many stubborn, brittle people who broke because they refused to bend. A little flexibility went a long way. For one thing, stubborn, brittle people had a nasty habit of mistaking compromise with surrender, which made them careless. She didn't like wearing red rags, or being forbidden to cut her own hair, or having to listen to Rehval's lectures, but she could tolerate it if she had to, and Rehval would assume she had already submitted to his will.

As she sat in the underground cavern that served as his laboratory, he went on and on about his discoveries and achievements. She knew the type well. He wanted a woman to hang on his every word, to nod in fascination, and tell him how brilliant he was.

"What is Jindan?" he asked aloud. "The word 'jindan' is easily defined. It's simply another name for mercuric sulfide, commonly known as the mineral cinnabar, or the pigment vermilion. Common chemists would say that it's a toxic substance, and they're... mainly correct. Most carbon-based life forms are poisoned by mercury salts. However, alchemical thought sees beyond the mere physical nature of mercuric sulfide, and explores the deeper truth that the salt represents.

"In alchemy, the element mercury is considered an important symbol. Unlike most metals, it is liquid at room temperature. It flows like molten silver, which is how it came to be known as "quicksilver". It is rather slow to react with most chemical reagents, although it has a number of interesting interactions with other metals. Gold is soluble in mercury, which made it very useful for the ancient mining industries of many planets. With enough heat, a gold/mercury amalgam can be separated. The mercury boils away, leaving purified gold behind. Mercury also dissolves aluminum. It almost seems to devour these metals, which may have been what has fascinated ancient alchemists since the dawn of time.

"Then there's cinnabar. The deep scarlet color of mercuric sulfide is also of great importance to alchemical philosophy. Red, the color of blood, the color of fire. The color of change and life itself. The earliest practitioners of alchemy knew that it held the secret of the great mystery, the mystery that governed all changes in nature. Copper and tin could be refined from mineral ores. Nature provides the minerals, but the metals must be taken through artificial means. The process must be sped up to a time scale that is practical for mortals. That is the power of alchemy. To accelerate or manipulate the natural processes. Mercuric sulfide represents that power in its most basic form. Mix metal mercury with hydrogen sulfide, and they form red mercuric sulfide quite readily. Distill the mercuric sulfide, and the elements can be separated, and the mercury recovered once more. Just like with copper and tin and iron, only mercury can be refined much more easily."

Treekul had heard much of this before, as a college freshman. The professor who taught that course only offered one class every other semester, and only on two days a week in the middle of the day, which had been extremely inconvenient to her schedule. What struck her was how passionate Rehval was about it, as though he wanted to make love to a mercury atom. She had to suppress the urge to laugh at that image.

"The dream of alchemy," he said, finally coming to the point, "is to reduce all natural processes to the same simplicity of refining mercury from cinnabar."

That got Treekul's attention. Simplicity. The core tenet of alchemy was that every process was a natural reaction that could be sped up, slowed down, or even reversed. It was just a matter of knowing how, of discovering the "cheat codes" that made such miracles possible. Know the right shortcuts, and one could do the impossible.

Treekul began to wonder if there was an alchemical shortcut for escaping a Saiyan cult.

"Let us consider the other component of cinnabar, which is sulfur," Rehval continued. "It is native to fire, earth, air, and water. Volcanoes spew fire and air and geysers spew water, all rich in sulfur, which eventually deposits as a waxy yellow material resembling earth. From within the earth, sulfur is born, and to earth again it returns. Molten sulfur turns blood red, hinting at its ties to cinnabar. When sulfur is set aflame, it produces a blue color. Colloidal sulfur is white. The colors illustrate sulfur's connection to the sun. It is the principle of the sun.

"Likewise, mercury is the principle of the moon. Take a bottle of mercury and spill it across a surface. It scatters into droplets, both large and small, like the many moons of different sizes throughout the countless worlds of the universe. These droplets can be bound to sulfur, just as the moons of the universe are bound to their respective suns. However, the moons are defined by their connection with the planets they orbit. Just as the planets exist as the intermediaries of the suns and moons, so does life exist as an interface between the Principles of Mercury and Sulfur. Those with wisdom can recognize this sacred relationship, and thus study the nature of cinnabar, or jindan, in the search for the power over life. For what is life but a natural process, no different from the refining of metal from ore, or the burning of wood into smoke and ash? By manipulating the Principles of Mercury and Sulfur, an elixir can be prepared, one that reacts with the reagents of life itself, accelerating some processes, while slowing others. The ideal elixir would grant a being immortality, but the wise know that this is not a thing to be pursued for material gain, or as an escape from death. No, the elixir of life is an end unto itself. Discover that ultimate secret, and all other secrets, the Whole of the Great Mystery, will be laid bare. What is immortality, when weighed against that perfect and total knowledge?

"Though sulfur represents an equal portion of Jindan, we must consider mercury to be the superior portion. Mercury has the greater density, and its atoms are larger and more massive than those of sulfur. Every planet has a sun, but only some are blessed with the moonlight, of which mercury is a symbol. For this reason, the alchemical notation for mercury is depicted as an arc atop a ring atop a cross. The arc is the crescent moon, the ring is the sun, an the cross is the life on the planet sustained by them both. The cross represents the veins that carry blood through the body, sustaining life with the same color as jindan. Mercury is the moon, placed above the sun, which is Sulfur, placed above the planets, which are Life.

He paused here to write the symbol on a handheld electronic tablet: "☿". It was the only modern technology Treekul recognized in this laboratory. Everything else looked either archaic or unfamiliar, or both. She had seen the symbol before, of course, and the one for sulfur as well, which was a triangle atop a cross. But something about Rehval's fervor in describing it made her uneasy. To her it was a piece of trivia, but it was clearly something deep and meaningful to him.

"All of this," Rehval said, "Is a very elaborate way of saying that Jindan, my Jindan, is a way of harnessing planetary energy as a supplement to ones own ki. Cinnabar represents the connection between the Principles and living beings, but it's also just a mineral you dig up from the ground. Ancient scholars would drink potions of cinnabar and die, or go mad from mercury poisoning, because they took the connection too literally, too directly. The truth is more sublime, more complex.

"You see, there are three types of ki in the universe. The ki of living things is what makes the Saiyan race mighty. We Saiyans have more of this energy than most beings, which makes us stronger, better. Then there's the ki of the heavens. The sun and the moon. The stars themselves possess a ki which is inaccessible to us. Oh, the moonlight allows Saiyans to transform into giant apes, but the moonlight is only a catalyst for releasing latent ki we already possess. That's why I cut off my tail a long time ago, because I learned to harness that latent power without transforming. It's why I ask my followers to do the same. We don't need the moon. We don't need tails.

He pointed at the cavern floor. "What we need is the third ki, which is found in the ground beneath our feet. This is the interface where life and the heavens meet. Mercuric sulfide. The moon and the sun combine to form a mineral, which resembles lifeblood but can kill the uninitiated. My Jindan is the ki equivalent of that elixir. My technique is to draw power from within a planet. Done properly, it can magnify your strength many times over. But if the power is harnessed recklessly, it can destroy the user completely. Do you understand, Treekul?"

"Not entirely, but I get the general idea, I think. How'd you figure all of this out?" she asked.

"Alchemy has long been one of my passions," he said. "I wasn't blessed with great ki like other members of my family, and I sought an explanation for that injustice. Alchemy teaches us that the universe is governed by rules, but those rules can be manipulated by those who know how. Thus I was able to become as strong as I wished, as powerful as I wished to become. I turned lead into gold by transforming my base self into the golden King of the Saiyans. Soon to become King of the Universe. There remains only one obstacle, one stubborn impurity to be purged."

"Luffa," Treekul said.

"I've seen enough divinations to know that our destinies are intertwined, hers and mine. She is the Sun, bright and yellow and powerful. I am the Moon, lurking in the shadows, sublime and contemplative. The key is that our genders don't line up to that analogy. In alchemical thought, the Sun-Sulfur Principle is male, while the Moon-Mercury Principle is considered female."

"Cool, but what's that got to do with it?" she asked.

"It means that I must join with her, to complete the intermingling of our essences," Rehval said. "Well, that sounds a bit esoteric, doesn't it? The simpler explanation is that I need her, or some part of her, to complete my legacy. If she won't join me, then I'll have to take from her what I need. The Golden King must have the Super Saiyan power along with everything else. As a Saiyan myself, it stands to reason that if I defeat the Super Saiyan, that would mean I become the Super Saiyan."

"Wait, you think killing her would suddenly cause you to absorb her transformation into yourself?" Treekul asked.

He chuckled at that suggestion. "No, not really, though it is an interesting possibility. Perhaps the Super Saiyan only emerges once every thousand years because there must be one and only one. If the one that emerges were to die, would the power automatically go to another? Another natural process in the universe, one that I can study and master, but only when Luffa has been neutralized once and for all. I don't need to become a Super Saiyan literally, Treekul. Not when I can learn what the power is and how it works. If I find a way to make Super Saiyans at will, then I would be more powerful than any Super Saiyan before or after. That's the power I want. If my descendants can benefit from it, then the Saiyan race will have surely triumphed over all."

Treekul wasn't sure what to say. "You're a hell of a guy, King Rehval," was all she could manage.

"Thank you, my dear," he said. "And I think you'll make an excellent courtesan. It'll be nice to have someone to discuss spagyric theory with."

She made an audible gulp.

*******

[15 June, 233 Before Age. Planet Yars.]

Luffa's star-yacht, the Emerald Eye, had fifty cabins, most of which rarely ever saw use since Luffa took ownership of the vessel. She had occasionally used the extra living space for guests, though the only time it had approached the maximum capacity was when she had hosted strategic conferences between the Wist-Extraliga Wars. Among the many aliens on board during that time, there was once a Solarian monk who had left a letter on the bed during his stay. He had sensed great turmoil in Luffa's spirit, even by the standard of most warriors he had encountered, and his intention was that she would discover the letter at some later date, and perhaps find a measure of comfort in the words he had written. Also on the bed were a pair of the monk's headphones, which had no special significance. He had left those behind purely by accident.

When Luffa finally entered the cabin, she only noticed the letter and headphones long enough to sweep them aside as she laid her wife on the bed. The monk's letter fell to the floor, where it would never be seen again. They were too preoccupied with each other to worry about it.

"You... never... should have... got...gotten... so close to the....mmph... battlefield," Luffa said as she started pulling off whatever articles of clothing she could manage. She had some trouble speaking, as Zatte kept kissing her between each word.

"You're right," Zatte said. "But you were there, so I went in anyway."

"I almost didn't make it," Luffa whispered into her ear. "One of them was all set to blast half the city. The half you were in. He would have killed you--"

"But he hesitated," Zatte replied. She grabbed the front of Luffa's sleeveless shirt and pulled on it until it ripped apart. "They always hesitate, because they don't know who I am or what I'm doing there. More than enough time for my golden girl to come to my rescue."

"I was fighting twelve of them," Luffa panted.

"Eleven, after the one I shot," Zatte said. "Ten, if one of them managed to run off looking for the shooter. And they never find me until I want to be found."

"That's still too close, young lady," Luffa said. "You took a big gamble..."

"It felt like it," Zatte said. "But I wasn't really in any danger. Or are you saying those twelve Saiyans were too much for you?"

"You... ah!... you want the truth?" Luffa asked.

"I wouldn't be asking if I didn't," Zatte asked.

She inhaled sharply and gripped Zatte's shoulders tightly. "I have no idea," she said.

"Say that again," Zatte said.

"I don't know for sure if I could have beaten all twelve of them or not," Luffa said, an octave higher than she usually spoke. "Not if one of them managed to bring that rock creature back to life. Dammit, your hair smells amazing."

"Thanks, but don't... wow... don't change the subject."

"I thought I was in a pinch," Luffa said. Her voice began to tremble as she went on. "I was actually... glad when you shot one of those guys... but then I wasn't sure I could hold them off and help you at the same time."

"But you did," Zatte said. "You won, just like always."

"Thanks to you," Luffa said. "Without your courage I... I..."

For some time after that, they each found they had little else to say, so they used their bodies instead. There was a great deal of theatrics to their intimacy. Luffa alternated between her transformed and normal states depending on the mood. Occasionally, Zatte would become invisible, or alter her own body temperature using her ability to manipulate energy, mostly for the novelty of it. Telepathic communion had proven corrosive to their relationship, though Luffa had recently discovered a way to work around that. Instead of opening their minds to one another completely, she could establish a connection very briefly, allowing only a very small exchange of their thoughts. Mostly these mental quanta were too small and random to be of any meaning. It was for fun, more than anything else. A way for each of them to hear the other's voice in her head, even if it was gibberish like "laundry", "perpendicular", "beloved", or "leftovers".

There was no clock in the room, and neither of them had any interest in asking the computer to tell them the time. The battle of Yars was won, and until there was any word on another attack, there was nothing to do but wait. At some point, Zatte stood by the cabin window and admired the view of the planet's dayside.

"Was this how you thought it would be?" she asked Luffa without looking away from the window.

"What do you mean?" Luffa asked.

"I mean, was this how you wanted your life to turn out?" Zatte asked.

"Well, the last couple of hours have gone great," Luffa said with a satisfied smile.

"I mean, the whole thing, dummy," Zatte said. "When I was a kid, this was pretty much how I thought it would be. I had this old book my uncle gave me before he died. It was all about space battles and all the characters in the illustrations weren't really dressed for it. There was this one picture of a princess staring out a window on a ship. I guess that's why I'm standing here right now."

"Yeah, but you don't really like to fight," Luffa said.

Zatte nodded. "I guess it's not exactly what I had in mind, but most of it worked out for me. You and me, together, roaming the stars in our ship." She turned from the window, and gestured to the ocular implant where her right eye used to be. "I guess I pictured myself having two eyes and a lot fewer scars, but I think it's worth it. I may not like to fight the way you do, but I take a lot of satisfaction in the results. I have a holy cause. Someone to belong to. That's worth a few injuries, I think."

She sat down on the bed and patted Luffa's shoulder. "So was this anything like what you expected?" Zatte asked.

"I don't want this to come out the wrong way," Luffa said. "But when I was a kid, I figured you'd be a Saiyan man, and I'd have six or seven brats underfoot."

"Oh, right," Zatte said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked--"

"No, it's all right, Zattie," Luffa said. "It's just... I had no idea what I'd become. I still don't know what I am. I wasn't kidding before when I said I didn't know if I could beat those Saiyans. It was like, one minute I wasn't strong enough to take them, and the next minute I was. Maybe knowing you might be in trouble was what did it. It pushed me over the edge, like when I first transformed."

"That's wonderful," Zatte said. "If I helped you get stronger, then I'm honored..."

"Before, I would have died before accepting help from anyone in a fight," Luffa went on. "Now... well it doesn't bother me as much. I just sort of shrug and keep going. I've fought battles and won victories that would keep most Saiyans satisfied for a lifetime. But I see all the people who suffer on the sidelines, and that bugs me more than I thought it would."

"You're helping those people," Zatte said. "You should take pride in that."

"Maybe. It's just hard for me to say it's worth it, when I don't really know what 'it' is. Seems like it keeps changing on me. But one thing I do know..."

She took Zatte's hand and drew her closer. "There's a lot I'm not sure about, but hearing you say this is how you hoped it would be... well, that puts my mind at ease. People tell me I'm doing the right thing, and it's hard for me to know if that's true, but at least they're saying it. You guys can't all be wrong."

Zatte lay down beside her and put her head on her shoulder. "You'll see," she said. "One day, you'll understand what you've become. Until then, well, it's kind of cool that you don't get it, but you keep plugging away at it anyway."

*******

[15 June, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

The acolytes waited on her hand and foot, as they always did. Rehval had arranged for Treekul to be a priestess in the cult, which granted her considerable freedom and privilege. Rank-and-file cultists had almost every aspect of their lives micromanaged. Their diet, exercise, sleep patterns, even their sex lives were strictly regulated by Rehval's priests. In turn, the priesthood answered to Rehval, though she had found that they were so thoroughly indoctrinated that they needed little direct guidance from him. Treekul was the only exception. She was mostly exempt from priestly duties, which was fortunate, since she had little understanding of what those duties were. Even so, the cultists treated her with the utmost devotion, if only out of respect for the office.

Rehval had multiple reasons for arranging this. First, it kept his followers off-balance. They had been taught to view outsiders as inferior or even wicked, and yet he had allowed an alien in their midst and given her a place of honor. Contradiction was one of many tools he used to control them all. Second, it suited his ego to work his "apprentice and/or consort" into his private religious order. Third, it kept Treekul off-balance. She was a prisoner here, and the "apprenticeship" made her feel more like a slave than a student. And yet, when she was dismissed from her lessons, she was treated like a queen, and free to do whatever she liked... except leave.

"Is there anything else we can do for you, mistress?" one of her attendants asked. The anxiety in his voice was depressingly typical for this place. It was the sound of a man who was constantly terrified of displeasing his superiors. Like all of the Saiyans here, he had come seeking power, only to find that it would be taken away if he displeased his benefactor.

Treekul finished her meal--a bland stew made with artificial proteins-- and shook her head. "Not unless you know where I can get a haircut," she said. "I could use my ki for that," the other Saiyan volunteered. He raised his hand and the tips of his fingers glowed with blue light.

"S-so could I!" the other man quickly added. Treekul was too tired to look at him, but she could tell from his voice that he was worried that he hadn't thought of the idea himself.

"I may have to take you up on that," Treekul said, "but I'd much rather do it myself. There's something pleasant about using a hair trimmer, you know? Too bad I don't have it..."

She was about to mention that her hair trimmer had been confiscated when she was brought to the planet, but then Treekul had an idea. "I mean... it's too bad that it broke down on me the other day," she said. "I haven't slept well since it stopped working."

She ran her hand over the shallow field of green hair on her scalp. "It relaxes me, is all. I know it's not that long, but there's a certain length where it's just right. Too short, and it's rough, like sandpaper. Too long, and it feels too soft. So I trim it constantly, or I used to, anyway."

"Perhaps the technicians could fix it," one of the Saiyan men suggested.

"Technicians?" Treekul asked. "Oh, I'm sure they're much too busy maintaining Trismegistus's more important equipment. It'd be selfish of me to impose."

"Not at all," he said. "I know one of the technicians, and she would be honored to serve you, mistress. She's my... well, she used to be my wife."

Treekul tried not to react to the barely-repressed emotion in his voice. Rehval had very strange notions about breeding practices. She wasn't entirely sure how he ran things as King of the Saiyans, but as Trismegistus, he dissolved all family ties and commanded his followers to participate in communal sex rituals. And yet, Treekul had never seen any children or pregnant women on this planet. Rehval seemed to want a new generation of Saiyans, but she had no idea where he was keeping them. Maybe he had a second underground facility for that.

"I'd like to meet her," Treekul said. "You know, just to see some of Trismegistus' followers working for his greater glory. Yeah, that kind of thing."

What Treekul really wanted was to get as much sleep as she could before reporting to Rehval for another lesson. But this was too good an opportunity to pass up. It had taken days for her to learn enough about the cult's inner workings to confirm that spaceships were routinely moving to and from whatever planet this was. Ships required regular maintenance, and if Treekul could find the maintenance crews, she could find a docking bay, or perhaps a flight schedule or cargo manifest. Even if all she found was a star chart to tell her where in the universe she was, Treekul believed it was worth losing a few more hours of sleep.

"At once!" he blurted out. Then the other Saiyan nudged him with his elbow, and he thought better of it. "Er, I mean... after we've finished our duty shift, that is," he said.

"With your permission," the other man offered, "we could take the device to her and bring it back once it's repaired."

"Nah, that's all right," Treekul said. "I'd really like to meet her in person, and I'm in no big hurry. We can work something out later."

They exchanged awkward pleasantries, the two men apologizing for any inconvenience, and she halfheartedly assuring them that she wasn't displeased with their work. Then she withdrew to her quarters, a space roughly the size of a studio apartment that had been hewn out of solid rock.

It wasn't a total loss, she thought to herself as she lay in her bed. At least she had learned that the technicians weren't off-limits to her. She just had to wait a little longer before seeing them. And once she knew where to go, she could return whenever she pleased

And there were other possibilities. She had hoped Endive might help her once she learned the truth about Trismegistus being Rehval, but so far nothing had come of that. If anything, her devotion to the man seemed to be even stronger for some reason. But maybe Endive just needed time to let the truth sink in. And there was still Lesseri, and Guwar, although she hardly ever saw him anymore.

And there was always the chance that Rehval's enemies might somehow track him down and invade the planet. Treekul wasn't sure she would survive a battle like that, but at least it was one more chance. She was building quite a collection of chances. One of them was bound to pan out.

An hour later, she fell asleep, in spite of the uncomfortable length of her hair.

NEXT: Fytpall.

[in-tua-deep]

Inktober day one: Birthday

Prompt list by @totallyevan​, here ;3c

below the cut bc long

“Happy Birthday to us!” Klaus cheers loudly, passing out the party hats that Five suspects he’d stolen from the dollar store. Klaus himself is wearing two, having explained unprompted that clearly he was wearing Ben’s hat for him as well.

“I’m not wearing this.” Diego tells them all severely, glaring at the bright paper cone. “Absolutely not.”

“C’mon, D.” Klaus rolls his eyes, “Be a good sport!”

He’s inching closer to Five as he says this, causing the boy to squint suspiciously out of the corner of his eye. The fact that Klaus is gripping another party hat in his hands gave more than the necessary hint as to what he was up to.

“If you even try,” Five informs his brother serenely, making Klaus freeze in place, “Not even the buzzards will find your body.”

“Five,” Vanya says admonishingly. He gives his sister a scowl and crosses his arms. He’s not going to bow to this idiocy just because his favorite sister is looking at him like that. He’s not.

“If Diego doesn’t have to wear one then I don’t have to, either.” Five declares, and as one the entire family swings around to stare at Diego, who pinks at the attention and hunches his shoulders defensively. 

“If I have to wear one, everyone has to wear one.” Luther scowls, and he really does look ridiculous with the tiny party hat against his big body. However, this input has the opposite effect of getting Diego to fall in line and he tosses the hat onto the table.

“Everyone has to wear one anyway, because it’s our birthday! Birthdays! We have to celebrate!” Klaus exclaims, leaning so far over the table that it’s a very real possibility that he’s going to tip over and crash. “We’re all together! For the first time in ages! Together birthday bash!”

“It’s not even your birthday.” Five’s voice cuts through the noise, making everyone blink and turn to him. Not expecting the attention, Five takes a small step back. “I mean - Klaus was in Vietnam for ten months. Technically his 30th birthday was… ten months ago. His 31st is in two months. It’s not today.”

Klaus blinks as the rest of the family turns towards him. “Hey hey, that’s not fair. That’s not what a birthday is! A birthday is the day you were born, and I’ll thank you all to remember that I was born on October 1st just like the rest of you.”

“A birthday is the celebration of surviving another 365 days,” Five rebuffs, “Otherwise people born on leap years would be legally toddlers their whole lives.”

“Is it the days that your mind has gone through or your body?” Vanya interrupts, looking contemplative. “Because you ended up in your younger body, Five. Does that make this your 59th birthday or your 14th?”

Five sputters with incoherent rage, as he always does when his physical vs. mental age is brought up, but the other siblings are picking up that thread now.

“If he has the body he left in,” Allison muses aloud, “And he left in November, right? We’d only just turned thirteen, right? So from April 1st to now is what, six months? So wouldn’t Five still be thirteen?”

“I am not thirteen!” Five hollers and is generally ignored by the rest of the family. As he always is when he tries to protest against being treated like a child.

“Your body is still thirteen.” Luther attempts to soothe, “We know you’re not actually thirteen.”

Five does not appreciate this. Five has never appreciated this argument. No one is sure why Luther thinks it might work this time when the evidence against it is so strong. 

“I think everyone is getting off topic right now!” Klaus yells, slamming his hands on the table enthusiastically, right before he picks them up and rubs at them with a small whimper. Probably not his best idea, but at this point he’s committed. “What Five was really saying - is that I’m totally the oldest sibling now and by rules of oldest sibling I get to make everyone wear a party hat.”

There’s a short pause as they digest this information, and then absolute chaos as everyone immediately starts protesting as one. 

“Absolutely not,” Allison is saying, shaking her head and looking vaguely horrified at the fact that technically Klaus is the oldest of them.

Luther and Diego seem to be attempting to compete with one another with sheer volume of their arguments against Klaus’s claims to the point that no one can understand either of them. 

“I’m the oldest!” Five howls in outrage, slamming his own hands against the poor table and not even flinching. It’s much more impressive than Klaus’s earlier similar gesture.

“Nuh uh!” Klaus shoots back, very maturely. “In body! I have the body of an almost-32-year-old! Everyone else is 30, and you’re 13! That makes me the oldest!”

“He has a point.” Vanya, the only sibling still sitting calmly in her party hat, shrugs. Since coming off her meds she’s kind of become a little shit - giving the illusion of a neutral party while absolutely stirring shit within the family. Everyone figures it’s only fair after everything that’s happened though. 

“No he doesn’t!” Five looks a little bit like he’s going to hurl himself across the table and physically fight Klaus, just that tiny mad gleam in his eyes, “I did not spend fucking decades in the apocalypse to be delegated to youngest siblings because of a fucking math error!”

“Well maybe ya shouldn’t have made the error!” Klaus shoots back, sniffing and crossing his arms like he’s the offended party in this discussion. 

Five makes a strangled noise and then does launch himself across the table. Klaus yelps and stumbles backwards, tripping over his own two feet (albeit helped somewhat by the long rainbow feather boa that also looks like it came from dollar tree) and lands with a thump on his ass. He only has a few seconds before Five is making a grab for him and he starts outright screaming.

“Five!” Allison shouts, which Luther takes as his cue to at least try and resolve this situation. Of course, he does it in the worst possible way by scooping Five up by his armpits and physically trying to yank him off of Klaus.

This might have worked, if Five didn’t have a death grip on the brother he was currently most furious with. As it is, Klaus is yanked up alongside Five. Klaus was still screaming. 

“What is going on in here?” A voice cuts through the insanity and everyone freezes.

Grace stands in the doorway with a cake in her hands, blinking at the absolutely chaotic scene before her.

Luther is halfway through folding in pain because one of Five’s sneakered feet is buried in his gut, while Five holds Klaus in a chokehold and refuses to let go, and Diego has come around and has his arms on Klaus’s arm to try and yank him away from their feral brother.

Allison is standing with her hands on her hips, mouth snapped shut where it was previously yelling at everyone, and Vanya is balancing precariously on two legs on the chair that she hasn’t yet moved from as she contemplates the insanity involved with being included as a member of the family. 

“Hi mom.” Vanya offers into the silence.

“It’s Klaus’s fault!” Five bursts out before Grace can even answer.

“Is not!” Klaus shoots back, slapping at Five’s arm that is still wrapped around his neck.

“Is too!” Five shoots back, tightening his grip and making Klaus yell. This almost sparks into an entirely new scuffle as Diego starts to move and Luther unfolds - but thankfully they are interrupted.

“Boys,” Grace tuts, looking almost disappointed. “Can you not all try to get along, on today of all days?”

That makes Five finally release his grip on Klaus. Unfortunately, Klaus was not expecting this and shoots into Diego, making them both tumble to the floor. Luther was also not expecting the sudden loss of weight and Five shoots up in his arms like a jack in the box and is very nearly tossed across the room, and would have been if Luther’s grip had been any less secure. 

“Five!” Diego snaps, hauling himself to his feet and bringing Klaus along for the ride. Klaus now only has one party hat perched precariously on his head, the other one having vanished to places unknown. His remaining one looks like it has seen better days.

“Diego.” Five shoots back, mockingly.

“Boys.” Grace says firmly, making them both look abashed. “Luther, put Five down. Diego, Klaus, why don’t you two take a seat. You can all tell me what this was about.”

“Klaus was trying to get us to wear his stupid party hats.” Five offers as soon as his feet hit the ground and he pulls out a chair. 

“They’re not stupid!” Klaus squawks in outrage, “And Five said it’s not my birthday!”

“It’s not my fault you time traveled that first time! You did that all by yourself.” Five shoots back, leaning forward to better engage in the argument, but pauses when he sees the looks Grace is shooting all of them. Disappointed. He slumps back down in his chair and crosses his arms resentfully. 

“Klaus,” Grace says gently, “Why are the party hats so important to you?”

Klaus crosses his arms as well, looking at the table. “‘Cause it’s our birthday. An’ it’s our first birthday together for seventeen years. I just wanted it to be special, and we never got proper birthdays as kids.”

The table is silent for a minute before Diego sighs loudly and snatches up his previously discarded party hat and jams it on his head. “Happy now?” He demands gruffly. 

Klaus gives him a watery smile in response.

“Five?” Grace asks, “Why is it so important for you to not wear the party hat?”

Five shuffles in his seat, not making eye contact. “‘S childish and dumb.” He mutters under his breath, but the silence at the table means that it’s heard loud and clear. 

“Why?” Grace asks again, gently. 

“I’m not a child.” Five says, scowling at the surface of the table, “The others all want to - I dunno, vicariously live their childhoods through me or whatever but they don’t care that it’s not what I want. I’m not a kid and I don’t want to be childish.”

“Everyone else is wearing the dumb hats and none of us are kids,” Diego points out, rolling his eyes. The other faces at the table look a tiny bit more thoughtful. Allison’s is going through some interesting mental gymnastics in the corner. 

“None of you look like kids. It doesn’t matter if you’re childish or whatever because no one is going to mistake you guys for dumb kids.” Five scowls.

“But,” Grace interrupts, raising a finger, “Everyone here is well aware that your physical body does not match your mental state. So no one here would mistake you for a real child for partaking.”

“Except they do!” Five protests, voice cracking embarrassingly. But he forges on regardless, “They’re constantly treating me like a little kid! And every time we go out and someone says something they all tease me like it’s all one big joke to them, but this is my life! This is reality for me, and it sucks!”

Deafening silence follows this outburst. 

“Five…” Allison says, but the sentence doesn’t go anywhere. 

“You don’t have to wear the party hat.” Klaus offers after another beat of silence.

“It’s not about the stupid hat at this point, Klaus.” Diego hisses, elbowing Klaus none too gently. 

Grace holds up a hand and everyone quiets down. “Five,” She says, “Is it just the hat, or is it something else about all this that makes you feel childish.”

Five’s shoulders are up around his ears and he hunches down in his chair even further. “I dunno. The hat yeah. And the decorations. And the stupid paper plates. And the cake. It’s all just… stupid.”

“The birthday party itself is childish.” Grace clarifies. 

“Yeah I guess.” Five shrugs. “I mean, I haven’t celebrated my birthday since I was…”

“Since you were thirteen.” Grace supplies softly. 

Five can only shrug again. “I mean, I didn’t exactly know when I landed - only that it was after April 1st I guess. I only really counted like, summers and winters? Instead of months that is.  Because there weren’t months or days or whatever anymore. So it’s not like I knew whenever October 1st rolled around.”

“And the Commission?” Grace asks.

“The Commission was - ” Five frowns to himself, “It was timeless. There weren’t really seasons? And when I went on missions there were seasons but there weren’t constant seasons, or months, or days, or anything. I’d have a missions one day where it snowed and the next week I was sent somewhere in the height of summer. It was weird. I think they do it on purpose though, to keep everyone off balance.”

“So this is your first real October 1st in a very long time.” Grace nods sympathetically. “So, do you know what an adult birthday party looks like?”

Five pauses, frown deepening. “No one in the Commission celebrated their birthdays and they were adults.”

“But you’ve mentioned you didn’t socialize within the Commission,” Grace points out, “So isn’t it possible that there were birthday parties you just didn’t get invited to?”

“I guess.” Five concedes.

Grace presses on, “So isn’t it possible that all of this,” She gestures at the paper plates and the party hats and the cake she set down with the delicately frosted letters, “Is in fact typical of an adult birthday party and that key features between child and adult birthday parties don’t change?”

“Diego didn’t want to wear a hat.” Five maintains his stance.

Grace tilts her head, “Is Diego your role model for adult life, Five?”

Five instantly is sputtering out denials and the others are laughing into their hands. Diego, for his part, looks incredibly offended by the direction this conversation has taken. 

“If you had to pick one of your siblings to say who was the most adult,” Grace continues on easily, “Who would it be?”

Five actually looks thoughtful at the question. He looks up in thought before finally offering, “Vanya, I guess? She actually has a steady job. And a home. And she pays taxes.”

“Is Vanya wearing a hat?” 

Vanya is indeed still wearing her bright and colorful birthday hat. 

There’s a beat of silence, before - “Fine, I’ll wear the stupid hat. But if anyone says the words cute or adorable or young man or anything along those lines then I can’t be held responsible for my actions.”

“No one is going to treat you like a child today, Five.” Grace assures him, giving the rest of the family a look which there’s no arguing with. They sheepishly nod their heads in agreement, even though there was almost certainly teasing planned at the beginning of the day. 

Grace smiles benignly at her children and claps her hands, “In that case, it’s time for the cake! I have the candles here, though I’m afraid since there’s only one cake you’ll all simply have to blow out the candles together.”

The kids gather round as Grace dims the lights to make the fire of the candles stand out all the more brightly. Mercifully, the group as a whole elects to skip the birthday song since it’s pretty much everyone’s birthday.

“Make a wish!” Grace commands, stepping back. Without needing further prompting, the group leans forward to blow, and the candles flicker out as quickly as they were lit.

Diego brings out a knife and starts a debate to the side about whether his knives should be allowed to doubly function as food knives. Allison stands up so she can straighten Luther’s party hat where the earlier fight knocked it off kilter. Grace moves to stand behind Five, placing a kind hand on his shoulder.

He looks up at her, looking contemplative. “Aren’t wishes for children?” He asks her, even though he participated along with the rest of them.

“Wishes are for everyone.” Grace informs him with a smile, leaning down and and pressing a kiss against his forehead. He made a face at her, so reminiscent of when he was younger, but didn’t move to scrub the kiss away like he might have done back in those days. 

“Happy Birthday, Five.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

[misskikuwrites]

A Sweet Summer

This is my gift for @rolierose for the Kacchako Secret Server Swap~

I hope you enjoy it~! 

Under assault from the sweltering heat of summer, Uraraka was beginning to regret asking Bakugou out on a date to the beach. The searing heat basking down on them was unbearable. The sun blinding. The beachfront was crowded and busy and loud. Children were screaming and laughing. Seagulls were diving for scraps of food and flying off in a scurry as people approached. And yet the discomfort of the heat, of the sun and the crowds, was nothing compared to the regret Uraraka felt at the sight of Bakugou’s glare.

The burning glare wasn’t aimed at her, but at everything else in sight, and that somehow made it worse. At least, if he was openly angry at her, she would be able to do something about it. But this? Irritable Bakugou with his sizzling glare ready to snap at the next person who inevitably bumped into his shoulder, was much harder to deal with. It made Uraraka feel responsible for his discomfort. It had been her idea after all.

A beach date.

It should’ve been romantic. Fun, at the very least, but Bakugou’s glare hadn’t faded in the slightest since they’d got off the humid bus and arrived at the overcrowded beach. He hadn’t replied to anything she’d said with more than a huff or a grunt. He had barely looked at her; she now felt silly worrying over what to wear, fretting over whether to wear a cute skirt or a comfy pair of shorts. She tugged down the hem of her skirt absently and tried to keep the heaviness of her heart from showing on her face.

Sure, Bakugou wasn’t exactly romantic in the slightest. She knew that. He’d made her painfully aware that he wasn’t that kind of guy when they started dating and she was fine with that. She was fine with him. But Bakugou usually made a comment, a teasing jest at least, whenever she seemed to dress up for him.

When they met up at the station, he didn’t say anything except for a gruff “let’s go.”

Uraraka sucked in a deep breath as they squeezed through the crowds towards the shoreline. Towards the refreshing embrace of the sea that was now almost within their grasp. They just needed to find an empty spot on the sand to place their stuff when they got down there–

“Oof!” Someone walked smack into Uraraka’s shoulder, knocking her back a foot and away from Bakugou, who kept walking. A hasty apology muttered, she scanned the sea of moving bodies in the direction they were heading and hurried after Bakugou’s quickly disappearing head.

He hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t beside him anymore.

Uraraka wasn’t about to let that happen again. She caught up to Bakugou, reached out to take his hand so they wouldn’t get separated, and he yanked his hand away, shoving it deep into his pockets.

The air rushed out of her lungs. Her cheeks flared with heat as if they’d been burned, the shock enough that she almost stopped walking, staggering in her step as she struggled to keep up with him.

He was mad at her.

He had to be.

And it stung. Tears sprung in Uraraka’s eyes as if he’d slapped her. As if he’d yelled at her or snapped at her with frustrated, biting words.

He hadn’t said anything at all and she was reduced to tears.

She couldn’t do this. She stopped following him. She stopped weaving through the crowds and stepped away to lean against a wall in a sliver of shade. Her eyes burned with tears, she rubbed them away with the heels of her palms as she tried to calm herself down. In and out. In and out. She took deep breaths one after another, staring at the ground beneath her feet.

Stupid Uraraka, she chided herself. What was she even doing? She should’ve said something at the start. Called off this silly little date the second she saw that frustrated glare on Bakugou’s face. She should’ve done something. Anything. Instead, she pushed through, pushed and pushed until she couldn’t and now she’d lost Bakugou in the crowds.

Stupid.

“Oi, roundface. Had enough already?”

Bakugou’s scoff snapped Uraraka from her stupor and she glanced up to see him standing in front of her with a deep frown on his face. It was enough of a surprise, to see him standing there, that a tear she’d failed to blink away slipped from her eyes.

Bakugou’s eyes widened. “What happened? You trip or something? Are you hurt?” He stepped closer, scanning her up and down.

“N-No.” She shook her head hastily, her mind spinning as she tried to come up with an excuse. She hadn’t expected him to actually seek her out.

Bakugou huffed, folding his arms, but it came out like a sigh.

A sigh of relief?

“Then what are you doing, snivelling and crying your eyes out for?”

Uraraka flushed and wiped her eyes again. “I-I wasn’t crying my eyes out!”

Bakugou raised an eyebrow. “Could’ve fooled me.”  He looked away from her then, gaze cast towards the ocean, a hint of that aforementioned glare returning in the lines drawn tight between his eyebrows. It faded, slightly, as he muttered, “you’re the one who wanted to come here…”

Uraraka’s throat clenched tight. “Sorry.”

Now he was looking at her like she’d grown a second head. “What’re you apologising for?”

“Forget it,” Uraraka shook her head. “This was a bad idea. Let’s just go home.” She stepped off the wall and headed to re-join the crowd when Bakugou caught her wrist. She hadn’t expected him to, and when she whirled and looked at him, he seemed just as surprised. He stole his hand back quickly, snatching it away to his side, but he’d held her wrist long enough for her to feel the heat of his palm and the sticky sweat that now lingered on her skin.

His sweat.

“Shit,” Bakugou cursed beneath his breath and wiped his palms hurriedly on his shorts.

His sweat.  

Everything clicked into place all at once. Bakugou’s discomfort. Stealing away his hand when she’d gone to take it.

He was sweating. And it wasn’t ordinary sweat either. Uraraka had seen Bakugou’s quirk enough to know the potential that lay in his sweat alone. And now, it all made sense.

“Oh.” Uraraka looked up from the patch of sweat around her wrist and met Bakugou’s eyes.

He frowned instantly, a glare hardening in place. A challenge. “What?”

Uraraka’s heart lifted. As if the heavy weight clinging to her like a thick coat had been thrown off, she suddenly felt light. “Nothing,” she said, and wiped away the sweat on her wrist, smiling. “Let’s get some ice cream.”

Confusion washed over Bakugou’s face as Uraraka strolled past him with a smile. Even the harsh click of his tongue as he followed her made her smile. It made a rush of bubbles form in her chest.

He wasn’t mad at her. He’d gone out of his way to try not to leave any of his potentially dangerous sweat on her. That was the reason he’d been grumpy and irritable. Not because of her. Not because of the date.

Bakugou huffed for the umpteenth time beside Uraraka as she scanned the wide assortment of ice cream flavours, some she’d never even heard of before. The comforting embrace of the working air-conditioning system made the ice cream store a very popular destination, and it felt like half of the beach had crowded in the small shop. Uraraka had half a mind to use her quirk to get a better view of the flavours, deciding against it because she was wearing a skirt.

“C’mon, roundface. We don’t have all day,” Bakugou huffed, though there was no edge to his voice. The cooler temperature had softened his mood dramatically.

“All right, all right.” She gave the various flavours one final scan, and caught the eye of the very patient worker. “I’ll have the caramel malteser one. Thanks.”

Uraraka fumbled with her bag, trying to dig out her purse from beneath her towel and sunscreen, and finally brandishing her money only for the worker to say, “your boyfriend already paid for it.”  

Uraraka took her ice cream with a flush and whirled on her feet to follow Bakugou from the store.

“You didn’t have to pay for it,” Uraraka said when she caught up with him. Tucking her purse beneath her arm, she held out her money to Bakugou. “I’ll pay you back.”

Bakugou scoffed. “I’m not taking your money.”

“But–”

“Just shut up and let me pay for the damn ice cream!” Bakugou snapped, a rising blush colouring his cheeks.

Uraraka stared at him in shock after his outburst, wondering if the heat on his cheeks was from the sun or something else.

She wondered if his cheeks burned as hotly as hers.

Bakugou turned away from her, focusing on his ice cream as it began to melt beneath the sun. “It’s the least I can do for making you cry earlier,” he grumbled, Uraraka barely catching his words muttered beneath his breath.

Her face flared hotly once more. So much for not being romantic, Bakugou was sweet in his own ways. Ways that made her heart flutter and sparks shoot through her veins.

The heat on her cheeks was definitely getting to her head. She tried her ice cream, licking it frantically as it melted down the side of the cone. It tasted as good as it looked.

“What flavour did you get?” Uraraka asked. She hadn’t thought Bakugou would be one to like ice cream, or sweets in general. “Is it chocolate?”

“Chocolate chili.”

Uraraka balked. “Chocolate chili?” She didn’t even know that was a thing.

A flash of a smile appeared on Bakugou’s face. “Want a taste?”

It was a challenge. Uraraka knew that. She also knew Bakugou’s taste for chili and all foods spicy. She glanced between Bakugou and the ice cream held out towards her. The teasing glint in his eyes. The sliver of white teeth showing in his taunting smile. His ice cream.

She would’ve taken up the challenge immediately if her brain didn’t instantly alert her that taking a bite – or a lick – from his ice cream would be like an indirect kiss. Of all the stupid things to get flustered about.

And it wasn’t even like they hadn’t kissed before. They had. On multiple occasions. But this – this was different. Somehow. Sharing food.

It was stupid. Uraraka shoved down her trepidation and took a tiny bite from Bakugou’s ice cream, staring elsewhere so she didn’t have to see his eyes on her.

Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good.

“Good, huh?” Bakugou said proudly, the smirk on his face unfading.

“Weird mixture, but it’s good.” Spicy and sweet. Wasn’t a combination she’d thought would work but it did. The flavours of the chili and the chocolate seemed to complement each other perfectly on her tongue.

“Want to try mine?” Uraraka held out her ice cream, Bakugou leaning forward to take a bite without replying. Her heart sped when their eyes locked, a strange heat jolting down her veins.

Bakugou leaned back and scrunched his nose as he tasted it. “Too sweet.”

“It’s so good, though!”

“Bit like someone I know.”

Uraraka’s brain stopped working.  

Bakugou left that comment hanging in the air as he crunched through the remainder of his ice cream cone and headed towards the beach. “You coming or just going to stand there with your mouth open all day?” he called over his shoulder. The corners of his mouth were upturned in an amused grin.

“Wha– I’m coming!” Uraraka finished the rest of her ice cream and followed Bakugou down the steps and onto the burning sand.

Had he just complimented her?

Her mind was spinning, heart fit to burst. She was glad she pushed through the discomfort now. Glad she didn’t give up.

Seeing the smile on Bakugou’s face was worth it.  

They found an unoccupied patch of sand not too far from the water’s edge and set down their stuff. Uraraka got out her towel and spread it out, removing her shoes to stand on it.

This was what she had been waiting for. It was the perfect weather for swimming. A hot sun glaring down at them and not a shred of wind blowing. The waves were lightly cresting, rolling onto the sand at around knee-height. She didn’t have to worry about being dumped by a wave and losing her bikini top in waves like this.

It was perfect.

Uraraka was about to comment as such to Bakugou, turning to face him, only to see him taking his top off. The muscles on his arms rippled and flexed as he pulled his shirt over his head and Uraraka absently swallowed at the sight. His bare chest was a magnet for her eyes. Smooth, well-defined muscles usually hidden from sight now on display.

Her mouth went dry.

“You gonna ogle me all day or what?” Bakugou teased, an amused smirk on his face.

Uraraka snapped her gaze away. “I wasn’t!” Her voice cracked as she denied it and knew instantly she’d been caught. The flush on her face, burning red right to the tips of her ears, was a dead giveaway.

If only she didn’t flush so damn easily.

If only Bakugou wasn’t so damn attractive.

Uraraka breathed a tight huff and faced away from Bakugou so she could take off her shirt in piece. With the public bathrooms packed, it was only natural for them to come to the beach with their bathers on underneath their clothes, but it still felt awkward taking her top off in public. In front of Bakugou.

She tried not to think about the fact that she might be doing the same thing in a very different setting sometime in the future.

With that thought pushed far out of her mind, Uraraka stepped out of her skirt and shoved her clothes into her bag. She didn’t dare look at Bakugou, even as every fibre of her being screamed at her to. Not just to ogle him again, but to see what he thought of her new bathers. She’d spent hours searching the shops to find a pair that fit her correctly, and finally settled on a cute pink-and-white polka dot bikini. It was simple but cute. And, although she bought it primarily for herself, a part of her wanted to know what he thought. What his reaction was.

Finally, with all the effort she could muster, Uraraka grabbed the sunscreen from her bag and turned to Bakugou with the excuse to offer it to him, only to find him already applying his own to his arms. He wasn’t even looking at her.

Uraraka deflated, sighing as her fantasy faded and her mind returned to reality. This was Bakugou, remember? He wasn’t going to outwardly shower her in compliments or anything. Uraraka shook herself back into reality and began lathering herself in sunscreen. It wasn’t long until she’d finished, except for a tiny, frustrating area on her back that she couldn’t reach. She tried and tried and tried, stretching her arms this way and that in an effort to contort herself into reaching it, to no avail.

Just as she was about to give up, Bakugou huffed. “Let me do it before you dislocate your shoulder, idiot.”

Uraraka jumped as Bakugou came behind her and ran his fingers across her back. She was hyperaware of every movement of his fingers, the coolness of the sunscreen and the heat of his touch. She was burning up inside with every passing second. Every moment it felt like his touch was lingering a little longer than necessary.

Or was it all in her head?

It had only been a few seconds, but Uraraka felt dizzy by the time Bakugou stepped away, his fingers dropping from her back as if they had never been there at all, though she could still feel his touch, still feel the ghosting of his fingertips across her back. Nonchalantly, Bakugou stepped around her and thumbed his finger to his back.

“Your turn.”

“R-Right.” Uraraka tried to focus as Bakugou turned his back to her. His bare back. Skin she had never seen before let alone touched. She tried to think about anything except what she was doing, and poured a small amount of sunscreen onto her hands before smoothing it over the hard planes of his back.

It was just applying sunscreen and yet Uraraka was burning up inside. Her fingers were alive with heat as if every nerve in her body had concentrated to the very tips of her fingers. She tried desperately not to press the round pads on her fingertips across his back, realising how easy it would be to activate her quirk on him.

She realised just how easy it had been for Bakugou to activate his quirk on her.

It was a strange thing, their hands. How self-conscious Uraraka was that Bakugou would be able to feel the soft pads on her fingers. How self-conscious and – dare she even think it – afraid Bakugou was that he’d put her in danger with the sweat from his hands.

And yet, here they were, having touched each other in such a simple, normal fashion, with their hands. As if there was nothing different about them at all.

Uraraka dropped her hands from Bakugou’s back when she’d finished, once again feeling lighter than before. A weird understanding that she’d never realised or thought about before settled in her mind. An acute awareness of the insecurity they shared.

It made her smile.

“What are you smiling at like an idiot?” Bakugou remarked, an eyebrow raised.

“Nothing!” Uraraka’s lips pulled up against her will, even as she tried to force away her grin.

Bakugou just clicked his tongue and headed for the water. Unsurprisingly, the second his feet hit the water, he dived right in and swam out a few feet. Never one for being cautious or taking things slow, that’s for sure. Uraraka smiled at that thought, until she jumped at how frosty the water felt on her feet.

Now she just thought Bakugou was insane for diving right in.

“You coming in or what?” Bakugou called from where he bobbed in the waves.

Uraraka stepped a further foot into the water, feeling the cold biting her skin. “It’s cold!”

“Wimp!”

Uraraka rolled her eyes and stepped further into the water until it came to her knees. She felt like shivering. As if her teeth were going to chatter any moment. She shook out her fingers, danced from foot to foot. Even under the scorching sun the water felt like ice. Every wave that knocked into her was another rush of cold through her bones.

“You’re taking forever,” Bakugou groaned. “Who knew you were such a wimp, roundface?”

Uraraka wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m not, it’s just really cold!”

Bakugou came towards her until he could stand, a sharp grin forming on his face. Uraraka recognised the glint in his eyes and stepped back. She held her hands up and levelled a glare at him.

“Don’t. You. Dare.”

Bakugou’s grin turned sinister. “Watch me.”

He lunged at her with a spray of water around his legs and Uraraka squealed, whirling and wading away from him as fast as she could in knee-deep water.

“No! No, no, no, no!”

She’d almost gotten away unscathed, save for the water splashing onto her as she ran, until she overbalanced and tripped, ending up completely submerged anyway. Uraraka surfaced with a yelp, wiping the water from her eyes and her hair off her face.

“It’s freezing!”

Uraraka had a mind to complain more until Bakugou’s laugh reached her ears. It was a laugh rarely heard, one that sent her blood buzzing and humming and thrumming through her veins with glorious heat. It was a brilliant laugh that was completely worth the humiliation of stacking it in front of him.

It was a laugh that made her smile, a laugh that made her laugh as well.

It was worth it. Worth the discomfort of earlier, worth the grumbling, the glaring, the tears and the heat.

The date had been worth it.  

[aiimaginesbts]

Race Against Time: Chapter 4

Jungkook feat. Reader and the rest of BTS

Genre: Angst, Thriller, Darkfic

Warning: This fic is about murder cases, and may include some graphic imagery. Please read with caution.

Word Count: 3,274 words

Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Epilogue

Moodboard

Disclaimer/Copyright

“Do you think they’ve been killed?”

Maintaining a calm and unaffected exterior is exceptionally difficult, especially when a panicked boyfriend of a missing student is frantically trying to get answers out of him. Answers that Jungkook doesn’t have. Until Taehyung, an undergraduate student from Burghley University barged into the department early that moaning, demanding to see the agent in charge of the murder cases, they weren’t even aware that more girls have gone missing.

“Calm down and tell me everything you know,” Jungkook says instead of answering his question. “Why do you say that your girlfriend is missing?”

“I was supposed to meet her at the bar last night,” Taehyung starts, collapsing into a chair that Jungkook gestures for him to sit in. “But I got there late. Like, really late. I kind of dozed off. I didn’t mean to, it’s just that I had soccer practice in the afternoon, and I was pooped, you know?” At Jungkook’s understanding nod, he continues, “when I got there, she was already gone. There were tons of missed calls, and she left a message that she was going home with her best friend – that’ll be Linda, they’re attached at the hips, I swear, you wouldn’t even know that I’m her boyfriend sometimes – anyway, since she didn’t answer any of my calls, I thought she was mad at me, so I came around to her dormitory to apologise.”

“Then her roommates told me that they haven’t returned. They were starting to get worried too. It’s not like Dinah and Linda to stay out all night. We can’t reach either of them. That’s when I thought, what if…” he trails off helplessly. At this point of his story, Taehyung hangs his head and Jungkook’s heart immediately goes out to him. It’s obvious that the young man feels guilty about his tardiness playing a part in the disappearance of his girlfriend.

Jungkook isn’t feeling much better about this himself. Two girls in an inebriated state leaving a bar then not turning up is extremely worrisome, considering the similar circumstances that surround the girls who have been previously kidnapped and killed by their serial killer. He is at a loss about what to tell Taehyung though, as he has no information on the missing girls himself, but before the distressed student can ask him again, they are interrupted by a call for him.

It’s one of those situations where he feels both relief and dread at the same time. The call provides a temporary escape from the worried man’s questions, but considering the matter that he brought up, Jungkook’s reprieve will probably provide the answer in the form of a news he doesn’t want to hear.

Sure enough, less than an hour later, Jungkook, sandwiched between Jin and Namjoon, are making their way from the parking lot of the high school not far from his office to the school field. Memories from his own time in this place make Jungkook frown. It isn’t that he didn’t enjoy his high school days, but a sense of familiarity is creeping up on him. Perhaps it’s just the location where so many sweet and bitter memories were made that is making him feel uneasy about it being marred by the presence of a dead body.

The only upside to this is that he managed to leave Taehyung behind at the bureau. If you can call that an upside, Jungkook thinks to himself sourly. A scowl threatens to tug between his eyebrows when he sees a number of people he doesn’t recognise milling around on the school field. They approach a flustered-looking officer, who explains the situation to them.

“The school principal and some of the teachers,” the officer gestures to a group of men and women surrounding another officer a few paces away, some of them clearly gawking at the body sprawled on the ground. “We had a hard time shooing the students away earlier – even some teachers wanted to stay and watch, they weren’t much help.”

Jungkook’s brown eyes flick up to the three-story building facing the field. A number of faces peering down at them puts him in an even fouler mood than before. “What do people think this is, a circus?” He mumbles as he makes his way towards the dead girl with Namjoon and Jin following behind him.

A quick examination of the immobile form on the yellowish, trampled grass of the field is enough for Namjoon to confirm that it is indeed the work of their killer. Certainly the usual trademarks are easily seen; the clean yet cruel slash across the pale girl’s throat, the simple shirt and shorts that she’s wearing, the absence of shoes and another pair of earrings decorating her earlobes, but it’s always necessary to make sure.

Again, the victim’s hand is the source of one of the clues. Her right hand is wrapped around a pine cone. After checking with Namjoon that Hoseok is on his way to the crime scene, Jungkook bags the evidence and turns towards the jewelry that the victim is sporting. He won’t lie and say that they are not the first details that caught his attention, especially when it is obvious that they are horribly mismatched.

The long, silver chain that circles her lacerated neck holds a small vial of dark red liquid. It’s obviously something that has been left for them. Carefully unclasping the necklace, he hands it to Jin. “What does that look like to you?”

The miniature glass bottle painted almost vermillion by the liquid glints in the morning light menacingly as Jin examines it between his gloved fingers. “It’s blood,” he confirms. “However, since it’s supposed to lead us to the next girl, I highly doubt it’s hers.” He nods his head to their latest deceased and Jungkook acknowledges his point with a nod of his own.

“Can you tell whose blood it is?”

Jin cocks his head to the side in thought. “To be honest, I think the question you should be asking is what blood this is, not whose.” With that, he drops the necklace into a clear bag and seals it. “And the answer is; it is possible with the Uhlenhuth test. I’ll be able to determine the species this blood sample belongs to. If it does belong to a human, to specify exactly whose it is would take more time, which is why I doubt that we’ll have to even do so.”

The zoologist makes a good point; by now they know that the killer means for them to solve these clues quickly, so Jungkook doesn’t argue. Instead, he addresses the earrings lacing her earlobes. “What do you make of these?”

Namjoon shrugs, having nothing to contribute, while Jin only says, “Fancy. Is that one pair of earrings or two?”

“It’s one pair,” Jungkook gently flips the flesh with his index finger to show the two men the two pierced holes in one of her earlobes. “See, it’s a chain that enters one hole, then is looped and inserted into the second hole.” Craning their necks to get a good angle, Namjoon and Jin let out soft oohs upon seeing the way the thin chain of the earring is looped into the holes in each ear. “Y/n has a pair just like this one. But that’s not the point. Just look at the necklace. They don’t go together.”

Sure enough, even if they don’t take the leaf motifs dangling at the end of the earrings into account, they are clearly made of gold, whereas the necklace is decidedly silver in colour. “The question is, do these earrings belong to the girl, or did the killer plant it there?” It is really more of a rhetorical question, as Jungkook knows that neither Namjoon nor Jin knows more than he does. However, he lets the thought hang in the air for a few seconds before asking, “That makes two. What are we missing? Was her purse around when she was found?”

He is swiftly presented with a large, light brown handbag by the unnerved officer that greeted him earlier. As he has expected, there is no ID to be found. However, there is something else that is clearly out of place in a young woman’s bag, bulky as it is; a large, sharp hook. Before he can show it to the others, a panting Hoseok runs up to them, and the cone they found on the dead woman is thrust into his hands.

While waiting for the botanist to catch his breath, Jungkook holds up the hook for them to see. “Doubt this belongs to her.”

“I know that people are worried that a serial killer’s on the loose, but someone should tell her that a pepper spray would do the trick,” Jin guffaws, then chokes on his laughter at Jungkook’s stern look. “Ahem. That looks like a dressing hook,” he amends, trying to sound as sober as possible between his coughs.

“A dressing hook?”

“Yeah. These dressing hooks are used to suspend animals that have been slaughtered so they don’t touch the floor. This one looks like it can be attached to a roller, but this part must be stainless steel –”

“So this second girl is in a slaughterhouse?” It looks like Jin will prattle on if he isn’t stopped, so Jungkook takes it upon himself to interrupt him before he gets off topic. “Isn’t that a little too simple?”

“It is…” Jin’s handsome features distort into a frown as he thinks about Jungkook’s comment. “But this definitely belongs in a slaughterhouse. There’s hardly any around the city, but that’s good, isn’t it?”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Hoseok cuts in. “While I want to find the second girl just as much as everyone here, I have to tell you, this didn’t come from anywhere around here.” He indicates the egg-shaped cone in the bag that he’s holding to clarify what he is referring to. Without waiting to be asked, he launches into an explanation. “This is a pine cone from Pinus radiata, also known as Monterey pine, or radiata pine. It is cultivated in certain places, but not here in the city.”

“Where can you find them then?” Namjoon asks his friend before Jungkook can demand for the answer himself.

“All over the county, but only in rural areas,” Hoseok declares, and under Jungkook’s orders, quickly sits with Jin over a laptop to cross-check the existence of the trees in the vicinity of abattoirs.

“Where’s Yoongi?” Namjoon questions Jungkook as they watch the two experts urgently discuss the map on the computer screen. The agent grunts grumpily at the doctor’s inquiry. He has been trying to reach Yoongi ever since he received the news earlier this morning, but every call has gone into the post-doctorate’s voicemail. “I couldn’t reach him.”

“What about y/n, don’t they go to the same university?”

“She didn’t answer either. Probably still asleep.” Jungkook feels sorry towards you, knowing that you had burnt the midnight oil to write a paper and planned to sleep in this morning but you’ll understand. So he fishes his phone out of his pocket and when he’s directed to Yoongi’s voicemail again, he hangs up and dials your number instead.

“Kookie?” Your groggy voice greeting him when you answer the phone tells him that he did disturb your sleep.

“I’m sorry for waking you up, baby, but this is important. Do you know where Yoongi is? I tried calling him but it keeps going to voicemail.”

He can hear the bed sheets shuffle from your end as you rouse yourself up at his tone. At this point you don’t even need to ask him what he needs Yoongi for. “He must have stayed at the lab overnight and didn’t charge his phone,” you say briskly, completely awake now. Soft, distant bangs of the closet transmits through the phone and Jungkook assumes that you’re changing into fresh clothes. “I’ll drive to the university and find him now.”

“Great. I’ll let you know where to find us. If we can ever figure out where we’re going.” Jin, who is listening in on the conversation, lifts his hand up in the universal language to wait just a little more. On the other hand, Hoseok is too absorbed in the map to focus on anything else.

“Sorry, baby,” Jungkook apologises again, and after you assure him that it’s fine and wish him good luck, he hangs up. Just then Hoseok beckons for him to come closer, pointing at the marked red squares on the monitor.

“I don’t know what animal we’re looking for, so there are quite a few slaughterhouses to check out,” the botany expert explains the numerous red spots on the screen, and Jungkook bites back a curse. The closest one has to be an hour’s drive away from their current location.

“Let’s get moving,” Jungkook quickly doles out commands to the search teams, mostly ready and waiting, their response now getting faster as they gain more experience with each case. There’s no time to wait for Yoongi. Besides, the last evidence; the necklace with the blood vial, is going with Jin to the lab, so they can proceed without the pedologist.

As Jungkook presses his foot on the accelerator pedal of the car harder than necessary, speeding towards one of the nearest destinations, he mentally compares the dead girl they have just left to the photo Taehyung has shown him earlier. A proper identification still needs to be done, but she is definitely Linda, who is best friends with Taehyung’s girlfriend. Jungkook’s heart grows heavier, knowing that this means that the girl they are now looking for is most likely Dinah, the girl Taehyung didn’t manage to meet up with last night.

Hoseok points out the first Monterey pine that they come across, describing the features of the tall tree; the needle-like leaves growing in threes, thin and blunt at the tips, the long, brown cones attached to the branches at oblique angles, and the dark grey bark. Jungkook quietly stores away the information should he need it in the future, but he is more driven to find the second missing girl. The search teams move from slaughterhouse to slaughterhouse, most of them medium in size, but some large, and all of them empty. As Jin has informed them before they parted ways, slaughtering of animals is usually done in autumn or early winter, so that large quantities of meat can be preserved more easily.

Precious minutes pass into an hour, then two, each making Jungkook more anxious. His phone is clutched tightly in his hand, desperate for a call from Jin, but is quickly forgotten in the frantic search until it finally rings.

“Hello?” Jungkook picks up the call, but he can hardly make out the reply due to the horrible cell phone signal in the rural area they are presently in.

“Tried to… can’t reach you… the blood…” The voice is a garbled version of Jin’s normally melodic tone.

“What?” Jungkook raises his voice, although that hardly helps the bad connection.

“… pig! PIG!” The older man shouts the most vital information through the phone, and Jungkook runs to find Hoseok immediately.

“It’s pig’s blood,” Jungkook relays the detail to Hoseok, who pulls up three addresses at once.

“They’re not very far from here,” he says, and Jungkook thanks his lucky stars, even though it may be premature as he ropes in the botanist with him to head to the furthest pig abattoir. The other two teams are investigating the other places Hoseok has listed. Jungkook supposes that ‘not very far’ is relative, since it takes them twenty minutes to reach the building, which is small in comparison to the previous slaughterhouses.

As with the other abattoirs, this one is empty except for the equipment and tools stored for when the place is used to butcher pigs. Jungkook walks across the enormous room next to Hoseok, passing the overhead rail where the dressing hooks are fastened, all dangling without the burden of the slaughtered pigs, past the dehairing machine and scalding vat, all empty, right to the stunning pen.

“Ugh, I’m not so sure I want to know where my meat is coming from –” Hoseok’s mutters stop when they round the corner into the holding pen. The sight that awaits them there is the most gruesome that Jungkook has ever seen.

Afternoon sunlight shines into the otherwise dark room, illuminating a towering wooden frame standing in the middle of the space. An honest-to-God guillotine. The sound of Hoseok’s footsteps rushing out, retching is hardly registered by Jungkook, as his ears are drowned by the loud, furious thumping of his angry heart.

The weighted blade has been released, the wood surrounding it now stained red by the blood of its kill. No container has been placed to catch the severed part. Therefore, a sickening lurch threatens to turn Jungkook’s stomach inside out when he spots Dinah’s decapitated head lying not far from the contraption. Before he weakens and joins Hoseok in vomiting the contents of his stomach outside, Jungkook quickly canvasses the scene and leaves the building, barking out orders for the other crime scene officers to follow up.

As soon as they start the drive back to the city, Jungkook and Hoseok, now joined by Namjoon, dissect the latest case. Before leaving, Jungkook has managed to keep his wits and cool about long enough to examine the holding pen. A candle had been placed underneath the rope holding up the eerily sharp blade. Namjoon estimates that they only had four to six hours before the flame from the candle burnt through the rope, releasing the heavy blade and killing the poor student. Explaining to Taehyung that his girlfriend has been killed so mercilessly isn’t going to be easy.

As a result, Jungkook is physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted when he finally drives home, but his mind refuses to stop thinking about this series of murders. This time, the clues were fairly easy to decipher, however, it comes with a cost. It doesn’t slip his notice that the time allotted for them to find the second girls are growing less with each case. They had five days at the start, cut down several for the second one, then the time was shortened to one night, and this time they only had several hours. Likewise, the cool down period between the kidnappings are also growing shorter. He can’t help but lament the fact that the rush to find the second victims distracts them from finding the root of the problem – the killer.

“Kookie! I tried to call, but I couldn’t seem to reach you,” your voice is both anxious and hopeful at the same time as you open the door with Yoongi standing right behind you. A rueful shake of Jungkook’s head tells both of you all you need to know; with his failure, the body count has increased.

“I’m so sorry. I was so busy with work that I forgot to charge my phone,” Yoongi apologises as you grab Jungkook’s trembling hand with both your own. Jungkook assures your friend that his presence wouldn’t have helped much in this instance, but before he can go into any details, another figure emerges from inside the house.

“Don’t you guys think it’ll be better to talk inside?”

Guilt fills Jungkook when he sees Jimin. He can’t even remember when he last saw his best friend since his childhood days. However, Jimin’s sweet smile hasn’t changed, and it assuages the tumultuous emotions raging within Jungkook as they all move the discussion indoors.

[mintchocolateleaves]

Cost of Freedom (28/52)

Summary: In which, a murder occurs and a date is set for KIDs return. Prison!AU

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The thing about cases, Heiji thinks, is that detectives can't prevent them from happening. They can't fix what's going to happen without knowing about the potential risks, and most cases are impulsive, the cause of spur of the moment decisions.

Perhaps he's not really a detective then... because between him and Kudo, they could have prevented this. They  should have known that people would find out about Kudo – that they'd have to keep up the facade of Kudo being a serial killer – but they'd disregarded the fact.

And now there was no way to fix things. Someone was dead.

The case fell into their laps, already broken.

“I didn't-” Kudo heaves out a breath, brings both hands up to his neck and scratches. He digs nails into skin, picking away at steadily fading bruises. Heiji doesn't know how exactly, but in between him seeing the phone and Kudo raising his hands, Kazuha has reached forward, taking Kudo's phone from the other boy.

She passes it to Heiji, and after a brief moment of hesitation, he reopens the text message, seeing the picture that Kudo hadn't turned his phone around for them to see. Beside him, Kazuha cranes her neck to see as well, lets out a small gasp before burying her head into the nook of his shoulders.

“It wasn't me,” Kudo breathes, and he moves back until he's curled in on himself on the bench he'd been sat at moments before. “I didn't-”

“I know ya didn't.” Heiji says, and maybe his voice wavers a little bit, but it's not fear of Kudo, but rather a fear for him. “We're gonna solve this.”

And then, he takes a moment to fully look at the message. Since the first image, three more have been sent, all of the same crime scene but from different angles. All four pictures, however, depict the murder victim – an older man, one that Heiji recognises as Numabuchi Ki'ichiro from the news – suspended to a wall, blood dripping down...

Heiji has to turn away. Holds his mouth to avoid being sick. He's seen plenty of murders in his time, some even more gruesome than this, but they've never been personal before. Not like this.

“They brought that man here yesterday,” Kazuha whispers, “so that he could show them to the fourth body he killed...”

Heiji knows – they'd read the back of someone's newspaper on the train from Osaka, read about how a famed serial killer was being brought into police custody from prison to bring the police to one of the victims that had never been retrieved. Apparently they'd be going into the woods...

“He was a serial killer...?” Kudo asks, and drops his hands away from his neck, placing his feet back down onto the floor. He's pale, and he pushes away from the bench with a slight stumble in his step. His gait is one that Heiji's seen before with witnesses to crimes, melancholy jerking their bodies as they try to smother their grief.

“You don't know who he is...?” Kazuha asks, taking Heiji's own phone from his pocket and searching for an internet article. “He was caught a while back, near Osaka, after having killed several people.”

She passes the phone to Kudo, and Heiji has to watch as he skims over the article, lips slowly forming a tight line. Kudo brings a hand up to his neck again, digs his nails further into his bruises, and – and his throat is bleeding in a similar manner to how Numabuchi is, in the picture.

He'd always thought the scratching was unconscious – but...

“Shinichi-kun,” Kazuha says, and Heiji startles at just how familiar she is, when seconds ago he'd been the person she most despised. She takes a step forward, takes the phone back, and wraps her other hand around the wrist he's using to scratch at his neck. “yer hurtin' yourself.”

Kudo glances at her, and Heiji forces himself to move, to offer some sort of help as well. He's not good with emotions, so he hovers instead, helps Kazuha lead Kudo over to some grass where the three of them sit; Heiji with his legs crossed, Kazuha on her knees, holding both of Kudo's wrists away from his neck. And Kudo – staring at nothing, eyes wide and dull.

“It's because I went to the police station.” Kudo whispers after a moment. His voice isn't loud, but somehow it echoes, sends a shudder down Heiji's spine. “They found out which city I was in and now they...” He chokes on the words, turns his head so that he's staring away from them.

Kazuha turns to Heiji, swaps his phone for Kudo's. She bites her lip, pockets Kudo's phone and scrunches her nose as she attempts to think. Good, Heiji thinks, at least one of them is thinking. Because he doesn't know what to do. He is not good at being on the other side of crime – breaking Kudo out, seeing bodies before the police do...

Heiji has to suppress a shudder.

“We're gonna figure this out.” Kazuha says, and she lets go of Kudo's hands long enough to reach into her bag. She pulls out a small first aid kit, unzips it, and pulls out an antiseptic wipe. “Heiji's gonna go back to th' station, to find a way onto th' case. And Shinichi-kun and I are gonna search through whatever files tha' he has.”

Kudo nods, almost half heartedly.

“I thought ya were mad at 'im,” Heiji says after a while, “why are ya bein' so....”

Kazuha rips open the antiseptic wipe, uses one hand to lift Kudo's chin up while wiping his blood away. There are crescent marks where his nails have dug into skin, but luckily it isn't too deep.

“Kind?” Kazuha asks after she's finished wiping Kudo's neck, moving down to brush off any flecks of blood on his hands. “I'm not like you, Heiji, I have the capability of feelin' more than two or three emotions at a time. I'm still mad, but there are more important things.”

Heiji bites his cheek, nods.

“I'll head back to th' station then.” He says, “and find a way onto th' case. If there are two versions of the case, I'll send pictures. That'll help, righ'?”

Kudo nods, looks back at them both with focused eyes. The expression he wears... It's determined, and somehow, Heiji knows that Kudo will solve the case he's been trapped with, even if it kills him.

“It'll help a lot.”

“Are you sure you're okay?”

Saguru turns at the voice. It's not that he likes worrying people, but he almost can't bring himself to respond. Instead, he glances across at Ran, bites into the inside of his cheek and nods his head. He'd been late – which, well, Saguru doesn't do late – and maybe he'd had a bit of a panic attack inside the car, relying on Baaya to calm him down, but he's certainly fine now.

“I'm fine,” he says when Ran's frown remains on her face. It's a stupid question though, Saguru thinks. No one asks if someone's okay, without knowing they're not. Without having at least a slight inkling that someone might need some reassurance. Without needing to have the question asked in response... “And you? Are you alright?”

Ran shakes her head, and for an almost heart-stuttering moment, Saguru wonders what's happened. Then, he reads the creases beneath her eyelids, takes a second to notice that she's slightly pale – such a distinct reaction. It can only be-

“What's happened with Kudo-kun?” Saguru asks, moving forwards. He leans forward, hesitates from where he's gone to put a reassuring hand to her shoulder, letting his hand drop. If something's happened with Kudo, then she's not going to want comfort. She's going to want to act.

“He was here.” Ran says.

Saguru stiffens. “Here, as in Tokyo?”

“No.” Ran shakes her head. “Here, as in the station.”

The inside of his stomach flips, acid churning against his stomach. Of course, on a day that he's late because of car problems, he'd miss out on something so important. It's not like it's a big deal or anything. He steps forward, glances at the police officers that are swarming the department, and decides that this must be the reason for the buzzing in the station today.

“Tell me everything,” Saguru says, and she does. She talks about how she and Aoko had found themselves chasing after the escaped convicts after two detectives had been found tied up in a cupboard by a traffic officer on a search for traffic cones. Says how together with Hattori they'd tracked them down to the second floor, to a seemingly dead end, where both Kuroba and Kudo had jumped from the window.

“Something doesn't feel right...” Saguru mutters when she's finished telling the story. Beside him, Ran tugs at her ponytail and glances across at him, a dip between her skin where she's frowning. “I... need to see videos from earlier.”

He needs to see the chase from the security tapes because something just doesn't add up.

“Let's go ask Inspector Megure for access,” Ran says, and grabs his wrist. “He'll let us in, if it'll help...”

The inspector is shrugging on his jacket when they knock on his office door, opening to face him. He's unnaturally pale, almost the same colour of Kuroba when he's playing the part of phantom, and Megure turns to face them without so much as a greeting.

Instead, he asks, “You're trying to prove Kudo-kun innocent?”

They both nod. Somehow, words stick to Saguru's throat, making him unable to form any response. He bites at his cheek until he tastes blood, nervousness oozing from every pore.

Inspector Megure nods his head, glances away from them. His fingers clench as he looks towards the exit, where Detective's Sato and Takagi sit outside, answering questions by their fellow detectives. He sighs, a long suffering sound, echoing regret and frustration.

“You'll probably want to try and solve this murder then,” the Inspector says.

Murder?

“Let's go then,” Megure says, and he pushes himself forwards, weighed down by the stress Kudo's escape has brought to him. It's only been days, but somehow, the case has aged him several years. “Before the reporters catch wind of everything.”

Another murder?

Saguru doesn't know what to think. It's like a punch to the gut. Just looking at Ran shows him that she's got the same feeling settling in her stomach as well, and he reaches forward to grab her hand, squeezes it with some form of reassurance. Ran offers him a small smile.

“Let's go.” Ran whispers after a moment, “we need to prove him wrong.”

They need to – and yet, they've been failing at proving people wrong for months.

“You came here for a reason,” Aoko says, after they've spent an hour lying back against the bed, laid beside one another, trying to catch up. “Didn't you?”

So far, Aoko has told him about entrance exams and the new book series Keiko has forced her into loving, and Kaito, in return has told her about how they'd gotten out of prison – excluding all mention of Hattori and Shinichi's prison guard contact – and about how he'd originally been thrown into solitary confinement.

“Yes,” Kaito says, and his shoulders tense as he senses the oncoming questions. Why? What for?

“Related to the heist you're going to hold soon?” Aoko asks after a moment, and it's still odd that she's acting so seriously, but Kaito thinks he can adjust to it, if only for now – Maybe she's not childish like she used to be. Kaito isn't sure whether it's current circumstances that have changed her speech patterns, or whether Aoko's simply... matured since they've last spoken.

“I thought you didn't like hearing about KID,” Kaito asks, pushes himself up on his elbows to look Aoko in the eye. His lack of an answer is confirmation though, and instead of staring back at him, Aoko's gaze flitters across the room as she tries to figure out what exactly is out of place.

Kaito would have to be a fool to think that they hadn't searched the house shortly after his capture, but he's certain that they've not found the secret room – he'd only ever found it out of pure luck. From the lack of police tape over his fathers painting, it's obvious that he's still lucky in one regard.

“I don't,” Aoko says at last, facing him when her search comes up empty. “But you've announced a heist at a very bad time.”

Raising an eyebrow, Kaito shrugs, pushes up completely from his bed. He crosses the space to his dresser, picks up one of the photo frames that rest there – an old one, from back when his father was alive.

“Did I?” He asks, as he unlatches the photo frame, folding the photo up and tucking it into his jacket pocket. He moves on to another photo, one with him an Aoko, which he also pockets. “I think it's a good time.”

Aoko pushes up from his bed, frowns. “The police think you're working with Kudo Shinichi. They'll be more pressed to catch you at the heist if it leads them to him. People put more effort into catching killers than thieves.”

Kaito turns. “But I am working with Shinichi.”

It takes a moment for Kaito to process the fact that Aoko flinches away from the fact. It's almost like she's been burnt, and he wants to reassure her of the truth, but she's the daughter of an inspector and without proof she won't believe in a person's innocence – or their guilt.

How else had he been able to keep the facade of not being KID for so long? She'd had her suspicions several times, yet he'd only been able to keep her unknowing because she wasn't the type to believe without seeing.

It's probably the reason she'd always loved magic tricks. She'd seen the trick, and believed in magic because it had been there, before her very eyes...

And yet... Aoko forces a calmer expression onto her face and says, “you think he's innocent too?”

“He is innocent,” Kaito says. Then, after a pause. “What do you mean too. Who else thinks he's innocent?”

Aoko scrunches her nose, crosses her arms. She nods her head absent-mindedly as she speaks. “Kudo-kun's girlfriend, Hakuba-kun, and Hattori-kun. They're working to try and prove his innocence.”

Hakuba...? To think that after refusing him... So Kaito really did get through to him. Somehow, it leaves him feeling slightly less riled than before. Had Hakuba just said no to get a reaction, or more information from him? Or had he really not intended to...

“You're working with them too?” Aoko dips her head yes. “What are your thoughts on Shinichi?”

Aoko leans back, brushes her hair behind her ear. Her shoulders tense, not much, but enough to say that she doesn't think he's innocent. Not by a long shot.

“I don't know,” Aoko says after a moment. “All I do know, is that working with him puts you in more danger than working without him.”

She has a look in her eyes that makes Kaito want to turn away. It's hot, more fiery than the usual chilling worry he's seen her wear in the past – almost as if she's angry that he's consciously putting himself in danger. Maybe she knows that he'd much rather crash and burn than force himself to do something boring.

Aoko knows him, knows him well enough to know that to him, life is a performance, and the more risks... Well, the more risks he takes, the larger the applause he'll receive when the curtain falls.

“I'm in danger either way,” Kaito says. “At least with Shinichi, I have someone in a similar position to me.”

There is a nod, almost as if Aoko had known, almost as if she's expected to hear such a thing. Kaito expects that one day he'll explain, maybe when they've got time, when he can fully explain without putting Aoko in danger herself.

She rises from the bed, crosses her way over to him, resting her hands on his arms. For a moment, Aoko simply looks up, almost as if she's trying to memorise his true face, as if she won't see it again. Then, she tears her gaze away, staring down at the carpet.

“Call off the heist then.” She whispers, “wait until everything's calmed down.”

Kaito shakes his head, lifts a hand up to trace her name against her skin, hoping she'll remember the trust she'd had in him once, to survive against the odds. He smiles, sadly, a melancholic mixture of stuttered heartbeats and forced happiness. A mask, despite the fact that he just wants to be himself around Aoko. “No.”

“Why...?”

There are too many reasons and Kaito can't just pick one.

He thinks about how he needs to find Pandora, thinks about how his father would have found the gemstone already if he were alive. He wants to say that the heist is a smokescreen to more dangerous things, something to keep people's eyes from the real reason they visited the station. He wants to say that he enjoys heists, that they're too interesting to just put off.

Instead, he asks, “if I give you a proper heist notice, with the date I have planned, will you give it to your father?”

Aoko blinks away tears. “You're going to get yourself hurt. Or caught. I'm not sure which is worse.”

“No,” Kaito says, “I'm not.”

It doesn't offer any reassurance to either of them, but it does lead to Aoko saying she'll hand a note in, if only because she can't destroy evidence that the police might need in catching him. They're quiet, as Kaito reaches into his desk, scrawls kanji onto a blank card, offering a time and date for his heist.

In two days, he decides. Another quick move – impulsive, maybe, but also effective in stealing police attention – and he knows that Aoko has to keep the surprise from her face as she realises he's not even going to take weeks to prepare, just days.

“It's a bad idea.” She says again, when he passes the card over.

“Will you deliver it for me now?” He asks, “So that you won't lose it?”

The way Aoko's lips purse together, tightening, brings a sickening feeling to his stomach. Skin pinches around her eyes as she frowns, but ultimately, Aoko nods, accepts that she's got to leave soon anyway. He doesn't want her to go, but Kaito knows that he needs to focus on the heist now, not Aoko and that there will be time...

He'll find time – it's not like he has a fully functioning life that's going to demand something of him any more. Just a life on the run, wasting time until he can fulfil the goals he's set for himself.

“You'll be gone though,” Aoko says, “if I come back.”

Another smile. From the way it falters after seconds, it's not exactly a mask, and Kaito feels vulnerable in a way he's not exactly used to. He shakes his head, “you'll look for me at the heist though, I'm sure.”

“I won't just look,” Aoko says, and she places her hands on her shoulder, stands on tiptoes so that she can plant a kiss on his cheek, “I'll find you.”

She retrieves her phone, places the battery back inside, and slips it into her pocket. And then, with one final look, Aoko leaves his room behind, taking with her the heist note declaring KID's return in full detail.

Kaito watches her from his bedroom window, takes the risk of peeking out of curtains, before setting off into the room his father had hidden, closing the door behind him.

The safe house that Kudo's – or should she refer to him as Shinichi now? After breaking the law and not turning him in immediately, Kazuha feels almost like they have a certain degree of intimacy, as if referring to one another by surnames isn't right – is larger than expected.

Kazuha doesn't know what she'd been expecting, maybe a single room, maybe something more hidden, but the safe house is strangely large, empty, but not lacking in space. There's a small table in one of the corners, and Shinichi pulls up a chair as he removes the case files he'd received from the police station. Begrudgingly, Kazuha copies him.

“I...” Shinichi doesn't talk much, keeps breaking off whenever he wants to say something, but frankly, Kazuha doesn't blame him. She wouldn't be capable of saying much if her actions had just resulted in the death of a man. Despite the fact that the victim had been sentenced to death as well... Kazuha knows that it's not going to offer any comfort. “I can't...”

She doesn't say that it's going to be okay, because such words would be empty promises. Instead, she waits until Shinichi opens the folder, says that they'll work on the case until they find a breakthrough.

“I don't know where to start,” Shinichi sighs, shaking his head. For a moment, he flicks through pages of information, skin pinched together into a frown, but then, he lifts his hand to scratch at skin again. Kazuha pulls on his wrist, tries to stop him before he can reopen the cuts that have dried on their way back.

“Start at th' beginnin'.” Kazuha says, “and explain it t' me. You'll familiarise yerself with th' case, while we wait for Heiji to send us updates on th latest murder.”

Shinichi leans forward, plucks up the paper and after skimming over each, he compiles an ordered list. Offering a small smile, he says, “Let's get started then.”

[after-skies-ananthology]

I'm a member of the President's new space force, here's what I've seen so far

BLACK SKY WARS

the second part

approx. 5 yrs ASE

You ever been inside a Colorado police station before? Here’s a better question, have you ever had to pick up your troubled brother from a Colorado police station before? If you have, then you may be able to sympathize with my plight that day. I had been waiting there since 1300 for him to be released. Our parents died about a year after I left for the Army. We have very few relatives who cared about us (my parents were pretty much the blacksheep of their families), so it was of course down to me to take care of him. It’s probably for the best that it happened this way I suppose. Being in the military, I get all sorts of benefits and on-base housing necessary to help raise him until he’s an adult. Which makes one side of that equation easy. The other side, the actually parenting him side, well, I just don’t know. He’s about 16 now. Gets in fights all the time. I think he may be apart of some anarchist punk gang that spray paints public property and vandalizes abandoned areas or some shit like that. I can’t really keep up with it. We barely see each other. He’s never home. I think - well, I mean, I’m never home.

I had volunteered for an earlier transition into the Space Corps than the rest of my unit after being offered a lucrative bonus. I’ve been an E-6 for three years now. And I’d say with confidence that I’m pretty good at my job. My military job, not my parenting one, that is. I suppose the military offered me that bonus for my skills in tracking space objects and directing joint partners against spaceborne threats - not my skills in guiding my brother through life and giving him a chance to feel like a happy, successful adult. I apologize for how depressing I must sound. But I’m doing the best I can. And I’m starting to think the best I can do is not good enough. I feel like the more successful I am in the military, the more I fail my little brother as his guardian.

The cops had called me while I was at work. Me and the newest member of my section were going over Counterspace Academics, which is the term we use for the death by powerpoint sessions we put our people through every now and then just to make sure they still know their job. It is ungodly boring stuff sometimes. Basic shit everyone knows out of tech school. The NCOIC for our flight was droning on about one of the first anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) tested by the United States back when women still wore shoulder pads. The ASM-135 Bold Orion II. Basically a converted nuclear cruise missile with it’s warhead taken out, and replaced with a hardened micro-satellite that would detach from it once in orbit and then proceed to smash into its target like a hockey player. The Air Force was even successful in taking out one of its own failed satellites with the 135, proving it could work. However, due to the death of the Soviet Union, and increasing skepticism surrounding the Strategic Defense Initiative, the project was quietly cancelled. That was until defense industry executive and weapon designer “extraordinaire” Frank Monterrey stuck his nose in it.

Mad Monterrey cried foul before the ink even dried on the cancellation orders. He then proceeded to cry foul for over a decade after that. In the 90s and early 2000s, he would even buy late night air time on a few of the major networks to present his case for renewed ASAT development and even - you guessed it - an independent space branch of the military. Today, my unit is responsible for the direction and employment of the fruits of his ‘labor’. The General Systems ASM-270 Orion’s Revenge. This one is not only faster than the 135, but it has more destructive potential as well. After passing through the mesosphere and into the thermosphere, its first stage detaches allowing its second stage to engage briefly for several seconds in a wild fireball. After this initial burst of flames is over, the rotors attached at the nose unfold from the missile’s remaining fuselage like a parasol. Small angled tip jets located at the end of each rotor blade then ignite, allowing the weapon to adjust its velocity as it enters orbit.

As it approaches the vicinity of its prey, the tip jets deactivate. At this point, the missile’s rotors (made of a special hardened alloy) can be used to permanently damage or completely destroy whatever they impact. After a few goes, whatever rotors remain can be used to steer the ASAT to its final target using its last bit of fuel - killing the adversary space object with a kinetic blow via the tungsten encased cone that constitutes its nose. Using this method, the 270 is capable of targeting a small constellation of targets (usually three to five objects, depending on size). Because of how it unfolds after launch, those in our unit have taken to calling it the The Killer Umbrella.

Sorry, I feel like I went off on a tangent there. We’re supposed to be talking about my brother. His name is Jerry. Our mom named him that because... Um, well, I’ll be honest I can’t remember now. She told me once when I was younger but, I don’t seem to have soaked it in. Let’s see, I know he skateboards. And, well, I think he likes to vape (maybe?). I know he listens to that genre of music on the internet, vaporwaver, or something like that? That’s... probably why I think he vapes. This is kind of embarrassing to admit but - I’m supposed to take care of him, and I’ve been taking care of him for quite some time now, and yet I don’t know a thing about him with any certainty. I can talk for days about this missile I’ve only seen pictures of in a class room, give you every little detail of its development and even the politics surrounding it, but I can’t be bothered to even invest a minutia of time into figuring out who he is or the kind of young man he’s developing into. I guess I shouldn’t blame anyone other than myself when he gets in trouble like this.

It took me about thirty minutes to leave base and arrive at the police station. I walked up to the sheriff’s deputy sitting at the front desk and asked him my question, “Hi there, my name is Wesley Fervek. I received a call telling me my little brother Jerry has been arrested?”

The deputy looked me up and down, dressed in my OCPs, with new Space Corps regalia adorned upon it. He replied, “Uhh yeah, the little skater asshole, spat at me when they brought him and his punk friends in.”

I scratched the back of my head and tried to save face, “I’m really sorry he did that. I think he may just have a lot of adrenaline and peer pressure going through him right now. He’s really not like this.”

“Right.” The deputy said as he rolled his eyes, picking up the phone at his desk. “Ray, its Diaz, skater asshole’s brother is here to pick him up...“ He looked back up at me, noticing the name tape on my left chest that read U.S. SPACE CORPS. He joked to his friend over the phone, “Oh, scratch that, Buzz Lightyear’s bottom bitch is here to pick him up.” He began to chuckle as he threw the phone back down into its place, forming a shit eating grin as he looked at me and said, “Hey man, relax. I’m just having a little fun at your expense. He did spit at me after all.”

I kept back the urge to throw my fist through the glass that separated us. “Right.” I said back to him. “So I take it he’s not being charged with anything?”

He said, “That’s right, one of his little friends was the one that actually assaulted someone. With a knife no less. From what the victim told us, your brother tried to calm things down. Anyways, you can have a seat over there while my friends finish questioning him.” He pointed to rows of wooden chairs behind me, arranged to face the bulky box TV that belonged to some other era of history.

I furrowed my brow and said “Thanks” under my breath, trying to prevent my anger at this prick from swelling out of control. I sat down in one of the front chairs and checked my phone, I saw that I had received a text from one of my troops. Her name was Space Specialist First Class June Alvarez, and she was one of many to be the first to attend Space Corps basic training at Lackland Air Force Base. Her text read, “Sergeant, I know you had to go to the police station, but could you hurry back? The powerpoint is over and we’re back to work now, but I’m still pretty lost on some of the telemetry stuff you were showing me earlier and no one really wants to help me at the moment.”

I texted her back, “I’ll be as fast as I can but these cops are being assholes right now. Go get Sergeant Flores, I know she’s studying for her 7-level test, but if you really are in dire need of help right now she shouldn’t be too mad that you’re interrupting her.”

I sat back and stared at the blurry, horribly antiquated machine in front of me as it spewed out ad after incessant ad. One featuring a beautiful young bikini-clad blonde sipping a Sodaco amidst a conga line on the beach - Introducing Sodaco Lime, the voice-over said, the familiar taste that America trusts with a refreshing twist. Another featuring footage taken from the Armstrong moon base, with the ERAS logo in the corner, finally centering on the company’s CEO with a drink in his hand as the music from 2001 plays in the background. This time the voice-over said - Mental is now the official soft drink of ERAS CEO Hood Fisher, what’s yours? Get Mental or get out! Finally, a less annoying one appeared after that was over. This time featuring supersonic airliners elegantly passing through clouds set to the tune of a soothing score. The voice-over asked, With a safety record and time to destination like ours, just remind us again - Why wouldn’t you fly Air Virginia?

After that hell of hokey commercials was past, the news returned. The commentator was grey-haired, bespectacled, and wearing a dark blue tie, signifying his well-known outspoken support for the Alliance Party. “Breaking at the top of the hour, our coverage continues on the situation in the Indian Ocean as it now appears attack boats belonging to the New Indies Construction Front have besieged a Navy hospital ship attempting to relieve wounded and dead from evacuated American and allied forces that escaped Diego Garcia last week...” He then proceeded to go into a long rant about the President and the Homeland Party while talking over a reporter who was live from the scene. The TV signal must have become distorted somehow, because eventually I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. It was as if he was mumbling. The picture on the screen blurred out even more, making the images depicted indiscernible. I began to feel weird physically. Light headed. I’m not sure if it was the stress of the day or the fact that I had been sitting there a while or what, but I had this gnawing sense of danger in the pit of my chest. The room became bright, and for a second, I thought I saw some sort of indescribable shape appear out from behind the TV.

All of the sudden, I heard a voice speak to me. not from any direction, but as if from all directions.

“You must wait to hit your target until 1935. No later. Do not let the girl with the long legs see what you are doing.“

I woke up out of my trance, shouting “What?” as I realized nothing was behind the TV. I was in a cold sweat now. I felt as though I had just woken up early in the morning. I looked outside, the sun was beginning to go down. How long was I out? Was I ‘out’? The program I was watching was over now, the blue haired woman with the FPML button on her lapel was on instead. Knowing that she comes on quite a few program slots after the old guy with the dark blue tie, I inferred that I must have napped for... four hours? “What the fuck?” I said out loud as I quickly took out my phone. It was dead. “Not good.” I said to myself.

Just then the door to the detention area opened. I turned my head and saw Jerry. “Alright, we’re done questioning the little punk.” The deputy from before said, pushing Jerry forward into the waiting room. He was holding his favorite skateboard in his hands, gifted to him by our dad many Christmases ago, now broken in half.

Jerry turned around a gave him the middle finger. “Lick my ass, pig!”

I shouted at him. “Jerry! Knock that shit off. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

He turned and saw me, now becoming even angrier. Everything became silent for a moment. Finally, he spoke up and said “Can we just get the hell out of here? I’m tired of smelling pork.” He looked back at the cop and gave him a scowl.

I grabbed him by the shoulder, “Be quiet so we can leave, moron.”

He flinched and brushed my hand off. “I don’t need your stupid ass advice.” He said angrily, and walked threw the doors outside to the parking lot. I followed him.

As he approached my truck, I unlocked it for him so he could get inside. But before he did, he slammed the remnants of his board into the bed of the pick-up. I yelled at him again, “Could you not throw shit around like that? This is my truck! I paid for it. It’s what gets you to school!”

He yelled at me in turn, “Could you shut the fuck up for once? Goddamn you’re so fucking annoying.“ Slamming the passenger side door on me before I could say anything back.

Not wanting to take this any further, I walked around to the driver’s side. As I started the engine, I realized from before that my phone was dead. I plugged it into to my car charger. I noticed then Jerry had a tear rolling down the side of his face. I know he must have been upset by the whole ordeal. I tried to speak to him, beginning to verbalize his name, but before I could get anything else out my phone reactivated and alerted me with a series of text message and missed call alerts. My attention was fixated on that now as I realized I had missed over thirty text messages from seven different people and eighteen phone calls from Alvarez, Flores, and my NCOIC.

I opened Alvarez’s most recent message. “Sergeant, where are you? The NCOIC has been trying to call you for two hours now. He needs you to get down here quick! I’m not gonna say why because OPSEC, but get down here! Please!”

I let out one long “Fuck!” as I read that. Jerry wiped his face with his shirt and asked “What now?”

Without answering I bolted the truck out of the parking space and started driving back to base twenty or thirty miles over the speed limit. Jerry kept trying to ask me questions on the way there, realizing there was something wrong, but I refused to talk to him. I just kept dropping F bombs over and over as I swerved in and out of potential car crashes on the way back to the squadron control room. We finally got to the gate, and I hurriedly took out my CAC card and gave it to the Security Forces guy standing outside my truck. The airman scanned it and said, “His too please.” Pointing at Jerry.

I screamed at my brother, “Come on give me your goddamn ID!”

He screamed back “Alright! Calm down. Jesus.”

The airman looked calm as I had my episode. I gave him the ID to scan, and he let us on our way. Arriving at my unit’s building, I cut someone in a muscle car off before they could take the space that I wanted. I left the windows rolled down, turned the engine off and hopped out. Jerry was still inside. He shouted at me, indignant, “How goddamn long are you gonna be?”

I cringed, turning to him as I took my wallet out, removing my CAC card and security badge from it. I threw it at him and said “If you want dinner, walk down to the BX and get something from the food court!” I booked it into the building.

As I ran up to the polarized bullet proof glass doors protecting the world of my profession from prying eyes outside, I saw the sign placed just before the steps proudly displaying our squadron’s battle cry below our new service’s motto. The former read “WE MAINTAIN THE BALANCE”, with the latter exclaiming “SECURE THE HIGH GROUND”. I pulled on the door handle, rushing inside as I was met with another Security Forces airman who needed to check my security badge before letting me through. After being let inside, I sprinted down the hallway to the control room where my work station was. There were five people crowded around it. The NCOIC, Alvarez, and two women in Class B uniforms who were unfamiliar to me. There name plates read “Hayek” and “Hayek-Song” respectively, which made me wonder if they were siblings or something. The one with the hyphenated surname was an E-6 like me, which is called a Color Sergeant in the Space Corps. The other one was an officer, O-3, a Captain. They were almost twins, I thought to myself. And extremely attractive to boot.

The NCOIC looked at me and yelled, “Where the hell have you been?“

I tried to explain, exasperated. “I’m sorry Sergeant my phone died and somehow I got knocked out-“

He cut me off. “I don’t want to hear it right now. I’m frankly shocked you’d display this kind of behavior. We’re gonna have a long talk after today, I can tell you that much. Sit down and help Alvarez out. She needs it.”

“Roger Sergeant.” I said, defeated. I sat down next to Alvarez in my swivel chair as he walked up the steps to where the commander and the other higher-ups were. Sergeant Flores was at the work station in front of us tracking something else.

I asked the Space Specialist, “So what the hell happened?”

Alvarez explained, “Well after I texted you, me and Sergeant Flores started tracking one of those Chinese space flights they’ve been doing for awhile now. I know they’re just testing, but this time they went near New America. Two of them in fact. It was kind of like that thing they did last week when they overflew Armstrong, but not as bad as that time when they almost smashed into that damaged MS-1A we were monitoring.”

I asked, “Ok, so... what happened? Did they do something belligerent?”

“No,” she said, “they’ve just been sitting there doing some EVA. Sergeant Flores is still tracking them. I think they’re about to pack up and leave right now actually.”

I was confused. “Ok, then what’s the problem exactly?” I demanded to know.

She groaned, “That!”, pointing at the big screen in front of the entire room.

Depicted on it was an amorphous object. I can’t really describe it effectively. But it looked strangely familiar. It was black, resembling a cloak without a wearer maybe. I’m not sure. I was looking directly at it, but it was also as if I wasn’t at the same time. Like how things blur out in the periphery of your vision, only this was smack dab in front of me. I asked, lost for words, “What is that Al?”

She responded, “After we were able to get a fix on them Pine Gap contacted us. They wanted to know if we could check to see if there were any foreign space assets near one of their surveillance satellites that had become unresponsive. That’s when we found it. It wasn’t doing anything really, it was just sort of, near it. We gathered some basic information about its position and size as it moved on towards a commercial satellite in the vicinity. It stayed there for a while, but then it just darted out of view towards L5 without any warning.”

“Towards the Chinese?” I asked. She nodded her head. “Well, what is it then? Some PLA weapon we’ve never seen before?” I asked again.

“No, I-” She stuttered. “I-I think they’re as confused as we are. As soon as it showed up behind the construction site for the orbital settlement, they stopped doing maneuvers and started observing it. It detached... something just before you got back and one of them got out to capture it we think. But whatever split off from it seems to have disappeared somehow. I don’t know. This all very strange Sergeant.“

I looked up at the two women with the similar last names. I leaned over to whisper in Alvarez’s ear. “Who are those two?”

“They’re from Virginia, or something.” She said under her breath.

“What?” I said. I began to feel as though this was too much for a day like today.

“That’s what I said. I think maybe they’re Intel people, but I’m not sure. But the thing is they showed up with all this data on the object. It’s usual orbit trajectory, flight path history, more detailed dimensions, frequencies it operates on, tons of stuff we would have never figured out ourselves. It’s almost like they’ve been tracking it for years.”

That’s when the Captain interjected. “Talking about us kids?”

My eyes widened. “No Ma’am! I mean... I’m sorry, I forget my rank.”

She reassured me, “It’s quite alright Sergeant, I know this must be a lot to take in. I don’t blame you.” She turned to her friend next to her and said “Constance, go chat up the commander for a bit I think he feels left out. I have this handled over here.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The Color Sergeant affirmed, and walked off.

The captain sat down in an empty chair next to me, crossing her legs and planting her heels on the desk in front of us. For a second, she managed to distract me. Alright, cut me some slack. I am a guy after all. But she didn’t distract me for long. Her voice broke my concentration. “Specialist, we’re probably going to need you guys to start making some calls to get something scrambled here pretty soon.“

“Yes Ma’am, I’m sending a request out to NORAD right now.” Alvarez responded.

“Good girl.” The Captain complimented (or belittled) her. I could tell it irritated Alvarez somewhat. “Sergeant could you double check something for me?“ She asked.

“Yes Ma’am, what?“

She went on, “The commercial satellite the object interacted with earlier. Could you find out who it belongs to?“

“Roger that Ma’am.” I typed away at my keyboard, collecting the information for her. I pulled the satellite’s designation up on my screen. “ERAS-1212-0“ I said aloud. I crosschecked its name on the government’s registry of civilian-owned space assets. “It says its owned by ERAS ma’am, but it has some sort of note under its listing... let’s see... Here, it says its a broadcast satellite operated by ERAS and contracted out to a television provider.“ I lingered on those last few words. Television provider. My mind went back to what I saw earlier before. I wasn’t sure if I should tell anyone or not.

“Hmm... Thank you Sergeant.” The Captain said, and pulled out her government phone to begin texting someone on it.

Just then Sergeant Flores spoke, pointing at the screen in a panic. “Look!” The object was suddenly in front of one of the Shenlongs she had been tracking. The other Shenlong, it seemed, was running away from the situation - leaving its comrade behind.

“How the hell did it get there?“ The NCOIC said out loud. “Flores are they still doing EVA?“ He asked.

“I can’t tell Sergeant, that thing’s messing up all our sensors. I can’t even contact the other monitors we have nearby... Wait! Look what it has!” The Sergeant blew up what she was referring to on the big screen. It was a tungsten rod, used for construction of one of the orbital settlements. It wasn’t holding it, but it was as if it were orbiting the object itself, like it was its own planet or something.

The Captain stood up from her seat and started to sound a bit panicked. “Holy shit. Sir, it’s what I said before. It’s going to conduct a kinetic strike. Probably for here!”

The commander nodded at her and took control. “Alright people, it’s the fourth quarter, and this is the ten yard line with our backs to our own end-zone. Sergeant Fervek, what’s going on with NORAD?”

Alvarez butt in before I could respond. “They just got back to us Sir. There’s a couple of F-15s out of Oregon that can be ready to go in 90 minutes.”

“Not good enough, we need something in less than 60 or we aren’t gonna make it out of this alive.” He informed her.

I looked at the information NORAD had supplied us with, and interjected. “Sir, there’s a pair of Aggressors out of Nellis on TDY flying back from Miramar right now.”

“Yeah, so?” He questioned me.

“Well Sir, they’re less than 10 minutes away from Edwards at the moment. We could have them land there to be fitted with the 270s Edwards still has on hand. They could be armed and back up in the air within 40 to 50 if everything goes right.“ I explained.

He looked unsure. He gave a skeptical glance to the NCOIC. Just before he could say something back, the Captain intervened. “Sir, this sounds like the best option we have at the moment. If the information I briefed you on earlier is right then I don’t think we have a lot of time on our hands to play footsie with NORAD all day.”

He looked over the room contemplating her answer, reading all our faces. “Alright... Alright, call them up and get it going. No more screwing around with this thing.” He said with a cautioned tone in his voice.

About 60 minutes later we were ready to go. The F-15s had taken back off from Edwards, and headed towards Death Valley at supersonic speeds. An AWACS from NORAD patched in their position to us, and relayed a comm link with the flight lead. I had everything at my station ready to go. Alvarez would keep tabs on the object’s movements, while I would guide the F-15s into position and provide them with the necessary targeting information to input into the ASM-270′s ‘brain’. Captain Hayek would continue to observe and advise us from behind. I looked back at the commander for a quick second, he saw me and said “You got this Sarge. Take this bastard out.“ I nodded to him in affirmation.

I put the headset on and keyed up the comm link with the pilot. “Breaker 11. This is Bighorn Control. Do you read me?”

“Roger that son, this is Breaker 11 and 12, we’re packing heat now and ready to enter our climb.” The pilot explained.

“That’s perfect Sir. Object hasn’t moved so far, and if it stays that way we shouldn’t have to waste a second shot.“ I brought the object up on my screen, taking note of the information Alvarez had just collected on it. “Alright Breaker 11, Bighorn Control says you can initiate your climb. Please notify me when you reach angels 30.”

“Copy that Bighorn. We should be there in about 15 to 20 mikes.“ The pilot radioed back.

The wait for them to get into position was shorter than expected, but grueling all the same. We were at 75 minutes now with a gun pointed at our head. The object stayed in place, tungsten rod still circling it like a late night mugger with knife in hand. My chest was pounding, throat lumpy, head splitting open from all the stress of the situation. Finally the pilot radioed back in. “Alright Bighorn Control, angels 30. Awaiting orders.“

“That’s great news Breaker 11. Pulling the target’s orbital position up now.“ I then gave him the necessary numbers. After a small conversation between him and his wingman I could hear through the headset, he responded again.

“Alright Bighorn, Breaker 12′s telling me he’s locked and loaded.” He said.

“Alright Sir. Hit angels 32 and fire away!” I informed him.

The aircraft climbed a bit more. The sky must have been the darkest shade of blue anyone could imagine at that point, I thought to myself. The wingman screamed over the radio, “BREAKER 12, FOX 5!“ The missile detached from the centerline pylon of the aircraft, the F-15 breaking away and turning around back towards Earth as its first stage ignited. We picked the missile’s location up on our side, tracking it on the big screen. At my work station however I had more specific information about the weapon’s speed, velocity, its ultimate target, and when its first stage would separate. I looked at the clock on my computer. 1908 hrs.

Again I thought back to the events earlier that day. Something was gnawing at me again, deep in the pit of my chest. At this rate, the object should be struck before 1935. That should be good. But why do I feel like it’s not? Perhaps it’s just the stress again. I’m sure. But... God, oh God. I can’t. Something isn’t right. I can’t let this continue. I can’t let it happen before... Before. Before 1935. I looked over my shoulder at the Captain, she was acting as though she was watching the missile’s flight path on the big screen like everyone else. But I knew she was taking glances at what I was doing here and there... Why? Did.. she know? How could she know? I hovered my cursor over the control for the missile’s first stage. I typed in what I knew to be the incorrect separation point. My ring finger glided over to the enter key and stayed there. I looked back over my shoulder again. She was locking eyes with me now. I looked past her, glazing my eyes over, as though I let something inside of me take over my actions.

“Sergeant?” She questioned softly. I don’t think anyone else could hear her. “Sergeant!“ She said again, under her breath.

I pressed the enter key.

The first stage detached before the correct altitude could be reached. No matter what the second stage tried to do at this point, it would never be able to reach orbit, and was thus a failure. Everyone in the room began to scream, questioning what happened. I threw Alvarez under the bus, saying that she must have given me the wrong altitude. She looked confused, and upset that I would betray her like that. Why was I doing this? What was wrong with me? Could it really be the stress? Captain Hayek didn’t say anything, or call me out. But somehow, I think she was well aware of what I had done.

I radioed back to Breaker 11, letting him know the shot was a failure, and ordered him to turn back around in order to reach 32,000 feet again. He affirmed and proceeded, but before I could relay the targeting information to the pilot like before, Captain Hayek spoke up. “I think Specialist Alvarez should take this Sergeant. Give her your headset.”

“I...“ I didn’t know what to say.

The officer narrowed her eyes. “I said... Specialist Alvarez should take this one. Sergeant. I don’t want anyone interfering with our little game.” She said it softly but forcefully as though I were her errant child. I didn’t say anything back, and handed Alvarez my headset.

The Specialist took the reins, guiding the flight lead as I had done before. “Breaker 11 that should be it. You’re cleared to fire as soon as you hit angels 32.“

And as before, the pilot called in his shot as he reached the requested height. “BREAKER 11, FOX 5!” We could hear through the speakers in our control room. I checked the time again. It was 1929 hrs. Good. I thought to myself, though I still couldn’t figure out why. The missile detached its first stage at the correct altitude this time. As it was designed to do, the second stage ignited and boosted the weapon into the necessary velocity for the rotors to take over. The tip jets guided the Killer Umbrella towards our anomalous hostage taker. We watched on the big screen as it tracked the kill vehicle’s jaunt to the object’s position near New America. I fixated my eyes on the feed we were still receiving from the surveillance satellite that had it in view. Just what was it? I looked back at the time on my desktop. 1935 hrs. I felt relieved somehow. But again, I didn’t know why exactly. Just as I took a sigh of relief, Alvarez spoke up.

“The rod! It got rid of it!“ She screamed.

Indeed, the monster loosened whatever invisible grip it had on the piece of tungsten and it floated away back towards New America. It wasn’t threatening us any more, thank God. But we were still threatening it. “We’re not giving up this kill. That thing tried to fire at us. Continue with the trajectory Specialist.” The commander ordered.

“Yes Sir.” Alvarez responded. “Second stage kill vehicle is within range, icing tip jets. I’m going to go for a direct strike with this one. 3...2...1... Out. Tip jets deactivated. We’re still on the money, one more minute to kill.” Alvarez had obviously paid attention this morning in Counterspace Academics. I was proud of her, as was everyone else in the room. Captain Hayek beamed at her, while giving me the cold shoulder. A cold shoulder I suppose I deserved. But then everyone’s joy at Alvarez’s accomplishment quickly dissipated with what we saw happen on screen. The object... was back behind one of the hollowed out asteroids of New America. It just suddenly wasn’t where it was. The remaining Shenlong however, not so much. The missile was less than 15 seconds out now.

The commander interjected “Fire the tip jets! Reorient! Move it out of the fucking way!”

Alvarez panicked, cracking her voice “I-I can’t Sir! It’s not accepting the signal! I can’t move it! It’s going to hit!” She was beginning to tear up.

The missile impacted the underside of the Shenlong with its rotors, veering off from it and being forced by its kinetic energy into the side of one of New America‘s asteroid habitats - shattering the weapon to pieces and obliterating several facilities constructed along the front end of the settlement. Everyone stood up out of our chairs, a few wincing and others letting out desperate screams as the impact happened before their very eyes. It was over. We had failed. Whatever that thing was, had bested us. I tried to console Alvarez, but she didn’t trust me anymore and rejected any effort I made to let her know it wasn’t her fault. I looked over at Captain Hayek. She just stared at me, not saying anything, and walked away. The NCOIC grabbed me by the shoulder as I sat back down and informed me that my actions from today would likely be investigated by a third party and that I should probably start getting in contact with JAG. Not only had I sacrificed the trust my apprentice had in me, but it seems as though I sacrificed my entire career for this thing. How am I going to be able to take care of Jerry now? I thought to myself. That’s when I remembered that I had left him in the truck outside.

I got outside to check on him. It was just after dusk now. He was gone. With his broken skateboard, and my wallet. “Jerry, I’m sorry.“ I said to myself out loud, and hung my head over the open window on the passenger side. “I’m so sorry.” I heard some foot steps from behind and turned around. It was Captain Hayek and Color Sergeant Hayek-Song, exiting the building and walking towards their car. As I watched them pull out of their parking space, someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind. I turned and saw three men in plain clothes, one of them sporting an Air Force Office of Special Investigations badge.

“Hi there Sergeant. I’m Agent Williamson. These two men are with the National Scientific Intelligence Administration. They have a few questions about the day’s events. As do I.” The Agent explained.

Before I could respond, the one with balding grey hair and wearing a white dress shirt pointed at Captain Hayek’s car as it turned down the street and drove away. He said, “And if you could, I’d like to know exactly everything you saw those two do the entire time they were here. Especially those two.”

I'm a member of the President's new space force, here's what I've seen so far