#just noticed a honestly pretty big injury on my other cats face. like what the fuck happened there idk!!!! he wasnt like that an hour ago!!!

[globodamorte]

why does this keep happening to me

[sadlittleratboy]

People always seem to think Tomura is shy and like...I just can't see it. He has this unwavering confidence in himself, paired with just generally not giving a fuck what people think.

I mean, he's not smooth or cool by any stretch of the imagination, but he also wouldn't try to be. He's a weird NEET that doesn't like people much. You knew you were signing up for. Tomura would probably have to be pretty comfortable with you to develop feelings anyway, which means you two are way past probably everyone saw it coming before he worked out what it really was.

Also, you definitely don't get special treatment over the league. You're just as important, of course, and likely a member of the league yourself, but he cares about his people. He probably takes care of you the same way he does them, just buying you random things and lurking around you like a cat. In that same way, he trusts in your skills, and isn't any more protective of you than he is the rest of the league, unless you genuinely need it. He's strong enough to protect you, so it's not a big deal to him.

Tomura doesn't flirt, but if you're the shy type you probably will wish he did, because instead he just looks at you and says whatever he's thinking. "You're kind of needy, not that I mind." "You make such a cute face when you want attention." "I know full well you know the controls, but if you need an excuse to sit in my lap then I'll teach you again." He will tease you whether you're a boy, girl, or other. It doesn't matter if he's the top or the bottom in your relationship, or if you're bigger than him (which let's be real, he's a 5'9" twink weighing in at 130 pounds, so it's likely that you'll be bigger in some way). He's just like this. Honestly he's not teasing you on purpose, this is just how he shows affection. These moments are unprovoked, and impossible to see coming.

He doesn't really talk much, but he will listen to you go on for hours about whatever you want, joining in only if he has something to say. He likes sharing space with you. Quality time and casual touch is important, so it may come off that he's possessive, but it's actually the opposite. He's not the jealous type, because he trusts you. He's also not really likely to notice any flirting (towards either of you) unless you tell him, and even then you would have to ask him to deal with it (or the person would have to be clearly bothering you) for him to do anything. God help you if you're the jealous type.

You can't really embarrass him either. If you try to tease him by asking why he's done something romantic (romantic for HIM, anyway), he'll simply say it's because he wanted to, or he'll straight up say it's because he likes you. "I did it because we're together. Isn't that obvious?" That doesn't mean you can't make him blush or fluster him, though. Tomura isn't used to affection, much less anything unconditional. Compliments, sweet words, and physical affection that you initiate are bound to get to him, but the most effective is just simply taking care of him. If you make sure he eats or take care of his injuries he kind of forgets how to do anything other than nod. He's flustered and overwhelmed with affection, and the best part is that he's AWFUL at taking care of himself, so you can do this as much as you want honestly.

Generally Tomura would be a good partner. He notices things about people and remembers them. He takes care of the people around him and considers their dreams and wishes. He's not a normal boyfriend by any means. Dates are rarely an outside thing, because even with hiding his appearance he just doesn't like being around people, but you still spend a lot of time together. He's not good at communicating the way other people do, but he does communicate. Sometimes he's genuinely lost as to how to help, especially if you're upset about something, but he WILL try.

Also arguments wouldn't be that difficult to solve, because he will straight up state his issue, and if it gets too heated he'll just walk off and come back when things have calmed down. He doesn't work up easily (we can see this with how patient he is with league members, so a pre-league Tomura might be a little worse in this area), and would rather just talk and find a solution. We don't see him yell often, so I think he probably doesn't like to, but also won't let you yell at him either.

Basically you're dating a loser gamer with zero shame and so much love for you, and that loser also just so happens to be Shigaraki Tomura, one of the largest villains in Japan.

[mammonswhore]

Brothers get the COVID vaccine (and the side effects)

a/n: i was not going to whine about the side effects of the vaccine but this is my blog and i can whine and cry as much as i want to so enjoy this,love.

For the sake of this headcanon I am going to state that in order to go to the human world every demon has to get the vaccine in case someone is half or part human and the virus mutates and becomes a pandemic in the Devildom.

✒Lucifer

Very much the easiest of them to get the vaccine. He just went in,talked a bit with the nurses and didn't even flinch.

Come on,he is Lucifer,what were all of you expecting if not grace and a very fancy facade?

Because yes,it is a facade.

Everyone in the House knows that he is suffering some of the side effects of the vaccine yet they can't say shit because there's a small chance Lucifer would kick their butts and let them sleep on the streets for two nights at least.

He acts calm and collected when he is around other people tho (MC and his brothers are family so they have to suck it up and deal with it,he is done making an effort for today so shut up and let him groan in peace).

He is only apologizing with MC after but only if they stayed with him and pampered him a little.

8/10 because he won't apologize to his brothers for sucking up and try and help him. (Maybe Beel on)y).

✒Mammon

As much as I love making fun of Mammon (very lovingly,ofc) I really think he would not make a fuss out of it,he only had to look away from the nurses when he got the vaccine and that was it.

But he is whining and complaining about the fever,the pain and itching spots all day when he gets home.

Same as Lucifer,acts cool ad if nothing happened when he is out of the House but damn,his brothers want to kick him out for all the noise he is making.

He wants to be pampered and for once,he is going to say it.

He wants a blanket,MC,some soup and a thermometer so he can check on himself every hour and half,thank yooooou.

Really clingy and adorable,his cheeks are constantly red because of the fever but he is not shy to acknowledge it to keep MC for himself a little bit more.

10/10 because he is acting like a grown man and voicing his needs for once.

✒Levi

I love you I love you,right? You are very whiny and you are going to have a rough week buddy.

He tries to suck it up so no one can make fun of him but he let's out a choked gasp when he sees the needle pinching through his skin.

"Lucifer you need to take me to therapy after this."

He is crying silently,he is in the back of the car cleaning his tears with the back of his sleeves while Lucifer drives them to the House again.

He wants to be left alone but not completely, more likely to scoop MC out of the ground and lock both of them on his room for a day.

When his fever hits he just goes to his tank and stays there until he can calm himself down. Probably the only brother who doesn't even have to think avout getting problems with his breathing since,um,well,sea monster.

10/10 when he is not whining complaining.

✒Satan

He is acting super calm,only closes his eyes and furrows his eyebrows when he gets the vaccine. Thanks the nurses and tells them to have a great day when he is about to leave.

Satan is the most polite and under control between his brothers so he is trying to keep his itching,difficult to breath and lost of taste on check while not making a whole deal about it.

Very chill when because of the fever some cats lay on top of him wanting some of his body warm. Happy boi.

He did his research and made sure not to get something that could injury him (and his brothers but you better sit and wait if you want him to admit that).

Overall 10/10,he doesn't need anyone to pamper him but he won't refuse to it if it's MC asking.

✒Asmo

He is sad when he gets his vaccine and has go leave,he loved chatting with the nurses! Didn't even noticed when he got the dose because he was too invested talking.

He says goodbye to everyone with a smile om his face,honestly the best person the nurses ever saw when getting the vaccine.

So well behaved afterwards,he checks his fever,massages his arm so he won't get sore and makes sure no one hits his arm so it wont be painful.

He wants to be pampered (if he could pick he would choose MC but actually anyone is good) and he is not afraid to voice his needs.

Wants to have a spa night while talking about things he likes and checking his arm.

100/10 best boy ever I love him.

✒Beel

Only says "oh" when he gets the vaccine then acts unfazed. He is a strong man so he knows how to keep his feelings in check.

He gets ice cream for himself when he is done hearing about what he has to do to take care of the vaccine and how bad can they side effects be.

Talks Belphie and Lucifed about it, Belphie helps him sleep through the fever and offers a shoulder to cry on if he looses his sense of taste and Lucifer is researching a few arm workouts that would avoid his arm to go sore.

Besides the fever and random lost of senses he is fine and acts normal,not a big deal for him.

15/10 he won't make an act about his pain unless he needs to.

✒Belphie

He gets very dizzy when he gets the vaccine, something about it makes him extremely calm.

Most likely to have a fever,I just have that feeling. Beel cuddles him and makes sure he is well fed and rested so Lucifer won't have to.

He gets more sensitive than other times so don't even try to wake him up because he will lash out and it won't be pretty,'kay?

Makes a burrito of himself and his brothers have to carry him around the house either for changing his sleeping spot or for him to shower,eat,interact with other beings.

Inside the burrito there's only person allowed by his side,MC. He is not asking for permission,he is bringing MC with him whenever he has to go somewhere.

9/10 because he practically kidnapped MC and is taking advantage of the youngest child privilege.

[nonbinarychaoticstupid]

fifteen (hugging each other) if you want? (any ship/pairing/anything you feel like) aaaa

:0 skjckiskjdshd i was going to do carulia bc AA but then i fell into the lumity hyperfixation and this was born dksjdjksdjknjf this is the fastest i have ever written for a prompt

ft amity being ridiculously soft and in love and probably a lot of spelling mistakes idk

They drop Willow and Gus at their respective homes before midnight sets in - Amity even helps Gus crawl in through his window, which is nice of her, Luz thinks. She's too sore and tired to do anything except stand behind her, watching the street in case Odalia comes tearing down it on top of another abomination (probably with teeth this time, because who knows what happened after they ran away from the warehouse), gripping her sore arm and thinking about how her heart started pounding in her ears earlier, how she flushed when Amity grabbed her shoulder and hurried her outside and had to stare determinedly at the stars for a good ten minutes before she could look her in the eyes again, how -

"Luz?"

She jumps. It's Amity - of course it's Amity, she's been anxiously hovering around her and mumbling apologies for her parents since they were sure they weren't being followed - and she's holding out her hand and offering her a small, awkward half-smile, and Luz's heart gives a funny little jump, and then a second as she takes it and laces their fingers together.

And then a third, this time for a different reason altogether, when Gus pokes his head out of the window above them and waves.

Amity waves back (She really likes us now, Luz thinks, grinning up at the illusion of Gus's disembodied head propped on his balcony), and when they set off down the street, she feels her own grip tighten ever so slightly around her hand.

She lets out a long breath. Everything is fine. It's a beautiful, silent night, and she's wandering down the prettiest street in Bonesborough and holding Amity's hand, and there's still abomination gunk in her hair, but everything is... fine. Great, actually. And Amity is smiling, which is awesome, because Luz has never seen her smile at anything like that before.

She could get used to it, honestly.

Amity glances at her and smiles again, softer, slower. "You're making your idea face."

Luz blinks, resists the urge to reach up and feel exactly what face she's making. "Oh, am I? I have an idea face? That's pretty cool, actually. Or is it? Because then everyone knows what I'm thinking. Nah, still cool. I have an idea face. Yeah. I'm intimidating and cool. A bad boy, if you will."

She laughs. (Luz's heart does the funny little jumping thing again. She wonders, distantly, if it shows.) "The literal walking definition of a bad boy, you goof."

"Baddest boy in the Boiling Isles. Lesser witches cower before my star power."

Amity laughs again. She has a really nice laugh (like, wow), and it's still making something in her chest feel funny. "Luz the Bad Boy," she says, somewhat giddily.

"Azura the Good Witch and her edgy cousin." She squeezes Amity's hand, swinging their interlaced fingers between them. It's not often they get moments together like this, and she's starting to understand now what it is that's making her heart race and her breathing feel funny, and she thinks, a little distantly, that spending time alone with Amity is going to be - weird now, and - "I'd read that book."

"Please don't tell me the next thing we do is write it."

"Oh, we?" Luz turns to grin at her. "There's a we now?"

And Amity - Amity flushes.

"Yes - I, um - a - a we, sure, I don't - I dunno, uh - we as - as in - um -" She bites the inside of her cheek, glancing away, and Luz's heart does the jumping thing again.

"Wow, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she mumbles, grip loosening on her hand, and she chews on her lip and squeezes it tighter. It probably isn't the best move, but Amity... Amity seems to respond well to it - she squeezes her hand back, and when they round a corner and officially make it out of the main town, Luz notices that they're walking in sync. The realisation makes her smile.

"Amity," she begins, and Amity jumps.

"Hm?"

"Are you gonna go back to your parents tonight? I - I don't think that's really safe. You - you could - uh, you could stay with us, if you want. Just until school tomorrow. King won't sleep on your clothes if I tell him not to, I swear."

She smiles at her over the space between them - the same soft, slow smile that made Luz's heart do the Thing again earlier. "I - thanks for the offer, but I'll probably go to Skara's. She's used to it. Me coming over after an incident, I mean."

"Stuff like that's happened before?" Luz whispers, and she meant it to sound casual, not... tense. "I'm - I'm really sorry, Amity. I'm sorry for pushing you earlier."

Amity shrugs. "You didn't know. It's not like I go around telling people. And it's not - it's not a big deal, anyway."

"Amity, that necklace -"

"Luz," she mumbles, not unkindly. "It's not a big deal. I can handle it. I've got Edric and Emira."

"And your father?"

She shrugs again, slower this time. "He doesn't care. Mom could dangle us over the edge of a cliff and he'd be more concerned with the soil density than, you know, his children."

Luz can't think of anything to say except "I'm sorry." She reaches out with her free hand, touches Amity's shoulder, and she gives her a long, warm look. And they fall silent.

And Amity's head falls gently onto her shoulder.

--

The silence lasts for the majority of the walk home, right up until they make it into the woods, and then Amity lifts her head from Luz's shoulder and murmurs, "It's really pretty out here at night, isn't it?"

Looking over at her and saying yeah, it is would be the obvious and cliché thing to do, and also Amity would notice and probably laugh at her, so Luz stares determinedly again at the sky for the second time tonight and chokes out, "Yup. Really pretty. Love living out here. Especially at night."

Amity giggles, and it's the most undignified and adorable sound she's ever heard come out of her mouth. "You're a dork."

"Biggest dork on the Boiling Isles. Baddest boy around. My list of qualifications just keeps on growing."

She laughs again. And Luz realises that ever since they escaped the warehouse, she's been... relaxed. Not happy, because dealing with a mother like that probably couldn't leave her feeling particularly cheerful, but... open. Softer, warmer. And she thinks it's because of the absence of the necklace.

They stop not far from the Owl House, in the shelter of a large tree she knows, logically, isn't oak, but looks too close to be anything but. Amity's head falls back onto her shoulder again. She makes a soft, contented noise (and the Thing happens again, and she thinks, wow), and mumbles, "You're thinking about the necklace, aren't you?"

"I didn't say anything. That was all you. But yes, I am curious. D'you - d'you want to talk about it?"

A long, almost languid shrug. She reminds Luz of a cat sometimes. "She used it to talk to me. And, uh - and keep me in line, I guess. Threaten me where no-one else could hear it. Where Dad couldn't stop it. Yeah, he did try to stop it sometimes. Mostly because he seems to draw the line at physical injury he can't explain to the authorities." The corners of her mouth twitch up, and Luz has to shake herself.

"That's awful," she breathes, feeling small. "That's horrible, Amity, I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Amity detaches herself from Luz's side, and her hair is messy and sticking to the side of her face and when she steps away and turns to face her she keeps a hold of her hand. "Come on, I'll walk you to the door."

Luz smiles at her.

--

Amity lets go of her hand when they get to the porch. (Luz tries not to visibly frown at the loss of her presence.) She makes it all the way to the door, Amity trailing behind her with an odd, uncertain expression, and then something shifts a little within her ribcage and she spins around and flings herself into her arms, and Amity yelps and stumbles back a little, and then she loops her arms around her shoulders and hugs her back.

Luz likes hugging Amity.

It's such a simple thought, and it makes her feel so strangely delighted. They fit perfectly between each other's arms, and in the half-dark, lit only by the dim, guttering light from the lamps inside the house itself, and she has the feeling that the only reason Hooty isn't directly behind them making some snide comment is because Lilith is inside and entertaining him, thank G0d.

Something like five minutes pass - I've been hugging Amity for five whole minutes, oh my gosh - and then she hears, somewhere to her left, "Uh, Luz?"

"Hm?"

"This is nice."

She settles her head on Amity's shoulder. "It is."

"I think I have to let go now."

"Nooo..." She buries her head in Luz's hoodie, just gently enough to make her heart do the Thing again, and sighs, and Luz laughs.

"You okay there?"

"Don't get a lot of hugs."

"Mm. You can still stay with us tonight if you want." ('Don't get a lot of hugs.')

Amity shakes her head. "I'm good. Thank you, though."

"Thank you for saving my life today. You were awesome. You are awesome. I can't imagine doing anything like that."

"Luz," she says, warmly, softly, "You do it all the time."

And with that, she steps back, lets go of her entirely, and practically skips into the night, leaving Luz to stare after her and wonder why she left so fast, and spend the rest of the night agonising over this weird, warm feeling buzzing away in her chest.

[imonthinice]

are you taking requests? if so can you pls use the line "is there a problem here, gentlemen?" in a story?

BONUS STORY! 2ND UPLOAD OF THE DAY?? CRAZY. (if there is a second upload it’ll be at 6pm EST)

Author's Note: You fucking bet your bottom dollar that I'm going to do that.

Y/N - Your name

Batfam + batsis story. Y/N is the newest daughter of Bruce Wayne and is following in everyone’s footsteps as the youngest, in years of service, vigilante of the crew. They hold a gala with villains.

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: LMAo Angst whoops, no spoilers but injury and description of injury, Swearing, no beta bitch we die like Jason Todd amen

One-Shot. Not in the Criminal Psychology Majors Continuity.

Y/N packed up her knives into her thigh holsters, apparently, Bruce thought it was a good idea to hold a gala with the known villains of the world. And the kids had to handle it if it got out of hand, Why the fuck are we doing this, She thought, This is a stupid idea.

"Kids, I know you all think this is stupid-" Bruce tried to say before he was cut off.

"You could fucking say that again." Jason snapped at him.

"Kids, I know you all think this is stupid." Y/N mocked Bruce.

"Okay, okay, I get it. It’s a dumb idea.”

“Again, no fucking shit, Sherlock Holmes,” Tim said.

“You guys really don’t need to gang up on me like this,” Bruce tried to say.

“Gang up on you?! You’re the one all like ‘Hey kids! We’re going to do a gala with villains hehe! I hope u don’t mind xoxo.’ Shut the fuck up, Bruce,” Y/N snapped.

“Do you even want to go with that attitude?”

“No! I think that’s pretty fucking obvious!” she snapped again as she went to go grab one of her guns, but Bruce grabbed her arms.

“No. Guns,” he said, trying to be stern with her.

“No. Villains. In. The. House. Oh wait. You’re an idiot, I forgot, silly me,” she mocked before struggling out of his grasp and grabbed her guns and holstered them, one on each side, ambidextrous shooter because she had learned from Jason, quick with knifes and throwing them as well.

“Y/N, there’s no need to be so violent with me,” Bruce tried to say to get her to calm down.

“You just better hope none of those villains make a fucking move, Bruce.”

--------------------------------------

At the party, she wore combat boots and a cat suit under her dress, just so she could slip it off and go into action just as quickly. Her vigilante name was Syndicate, because when she named herself she thought she had the same values as Bruce and his kids. After time progressed, she realized that she was a lot more like Jason than she cared to admit.

They both carried guns into that party like no one was watching and telling them not to. They didn’t trust the villains in their house in any capacity, and that was obvious from both of their outbursts earlier in the day. They were the outliers in the batfam. The ones who did agree with some of what they were shown, but guns and death were necessary sometimes. She and Jason were the true Syndicate.

It was a masquerade ball, so everyone’s faces were hidden, but Jason had his white hair streak, so she knew where to go to talk about the gala and what they would do if the villains attacked the rest of them, and she did so.

Walking over to Jason, she could feel the eyes of many men around her, not everyone recognized her as the newest daughter of Bruce Wayne, so eyes were hungry and they wanted to dance the night away with the temptress. She thought that dating was idiotic, though. And especially if it was a villain trying to sweep her off of her feet.

“May I have this dance, milady?” Jason asked.

“Yes,” she said while accepting his outstretched hand and they went to twirl around the dance floor when she leaned into his ear, “I don’t trust these fucks, Jason,” she whispered.

“Who the fuck does trust it,” he whispered back.

“We need to be on our toes.”

“You’re already on your toes, dancing with me,” he joked.

“You’re the worst, Jason. I mean it.”

“When do you not. But I’m your favourite brother and you know it,” he said as he dipped her.

“While that may be true,” she stopped when she caught some of the people leaving to the backdoor, “We have an issue,” she whispered and pointed towards the people leaving.

“Son of a bitch.” 

And they were off as fast as they could without drawing suspicion.

----------------------------

“Is there a problem here, Gentlemen?” Jason asked when they met up with the people trying to snoop, they assumed.

“Yes, there is,” one of the mystery men said as he pulled a gun and pointed it at Jason, “And it’s you, son.”

“Cute! He even brought his little girlfriend with him!” one of the other men exclaimed as he snooped closer towards Y/N and pulled a gun on her too.

“Festive, truly, you three are,” she said, staring down the barrel of the gun.

“Shut it, girl,” the second man commanded.

“No thanks,” she said as she grabbed the barrel of the gun and struggled it out of her face, it misfired and hit a few different areas of the wall behind her, at the same time, Jason had managed to get the gun out of his attacker’s hands and was pointing it back at him.

She continued to one-hand hold the gun while she tried to find the handle of one of her knives. She managed to grab it and fling it into the shoulder of the third, not speaking, man’s shirt and pin him to the wall. The struggle for the gun was still on though, but she was able to get her other hand onto the gun when it fired off.

 Jason was busy attacking the other two men to notice that Y/N had been shot in the shoulder, and too busy to realize that the party had been evacuated and Bruce was up his ass in texts asking where he and Y/N were.

Y/N slumped to the ground, clutching her wound when the man turned his gun on Jason, she used her boots to her advantage and kicked the man to the floor as hard as she could. Jason ended up being able to tie the three men to each other within 10 minutes, while Y/N was bleeding out on the floor, he didn’t notice she was shot till she was clutching on for her life.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” he whispered as he tried to lug her off the ground and run to the front entrance, where he could hear the ambulances going off. When she whispered to him, “I’m...” she breathed, “Sorry...” she breathed again, “Jay,” she didn’t breathe again.

He sat there in shock,, clutching his dead sister’s body in his arms and making no noise when the paramedics rushed in and saw the damage. The called in for the coroner, and went to get Jason off of her.

---------------------------------

In the police station, they told Jason that they just needed him to explain his story, even though they had the footage. Bruce was pressing charges against the men, later to be Harvey Dent and two of his accomplices, for the death of his daughter.

Bruce had not seen his son since the incident, but things were moving quickly and he would get to see him again when the police finished their interviews. But Jason was struggling to get his words out, so they let Bruce go see his son and try to comfort him.

“Jay?” Bruce asked, trying to see if Jason would even look at him, he didn’t, so Bruce went and just hugged his son while he cried into his dad’s shoulder, “I know, son. You did your best.”

---------------------------------------

The funeral for Y/N involved a lot of crying from every batfam member. Even Damien, who struggled to show Y/N a lot of love, cried like no one was watching at his big sister’s grave. He actually laid beside her grave once she was buried for a while as everyone was telling stories about her. Dick found him and picked him up to take him inside. 

No one held resentment for Jason and him not noticing, they all saw the tapes, she didn’t make a damn noise until she was dying in his arms. Stubborn bitch, Jason had joked and everyone had laughed. They could at least remember Y/N for who she was before she died.

------------------------------

The trial was long and winded. Harvey, thank god, confessed in his interigation so he pled guilty to being an accessory to murder. However, both of his accomplices, even the man who shot her, pled not guilty to all charges. So the trial was hard.

Jason testified in court about how he thought she’d be okay, she could carry her own, but the gun shots were so loud and he very easily shot her. Then his lawyer started saying it was self defense.

The rest of the trial started to blur for all of them. But all of them were found guilty for the murder.

The victim’s statement to determined the death penalty was said by Bruce.

“Your Honor, these men took away my daughter. And I honestly don’t want them to get the death penalty. I want them to rot away in a prison. The poor girl was only 19, I want them to spend at least 20 years behind bars, sitting there, knowing they killed my baby girl,” he paused to wipe a tear, “I wish we weren’t here and she got to grow up and have kids. She’ll never know her nieces and nephews, the people her siblings marry, or even get married,” he paused again.

“I want my daughter back, but we’ll never get that. So, Your Honor, I ask for you to not give mercy for these men, Your Honor. Thank you.”

The men got life in prison without the possibility of parole.

----------------------------

Damien actually took his partner to meet his big sister first, before explaining the story to them. He still finds it hard to talk about how she died.

Tim goes to her grave a lot and tells her stories about his life and how he’s doing without her. He always leaves telling her that he loves her.

Barbara visits often as well. Just to talk to her. She says a lot about the missions they go on without her and how the team isn’t complete anymore, and how she worries Jason will never recover from this event.

Cassie doesn’t go often, the memories of Y/N are enough for her most of the time, but she goes every holiday and on Y/N’s birthday just to greet her and say that she loves her.

Steph seems to still have trouble accepting the fact that Y/N is gone. Maybe it's because they fought the night before and it would have been resolved so easily had she not died. It hurts everyone to see Steph talk about it.

Dick will sit at her grave for hours, he’s the one to clean her grave when it gets dirty. He doesn’t always talk to her, but when he does he asks her if she’s met his parents and if they’re proud of him. He’ll probably never know the answer to it, but he likes to think the wind that hits him after that is Y/N saying that she loves him and that his parents ar proud of him.

Jason doesn’t go to her grave on the day she died. He refuses to admit that she died in his arms, so he doesn’t go on the anniversary of her death. He bottles himself up in his room and cries. He has nightmares about her death.

Bruce wishes he could have done more, but when the trial ended he went to her grave and told her about it. He actually laid her to rest by his parents so that she could be near her grandparents. 

Alfred misses her but knows that he couldn’t have done anything, but he leaves nothing in front of the doors and windows so she can enter if ghosts are real.

[reidingandwriting]

Home

Word Count: ~4,100 words

Ship: Emily Prentiss x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Mention of injury (concussion), drinking (all characters of legal age)

A/N: Since there are quite a few flashbacks, and some of them are long, I’ve set off the flashbacks in dashes (------) instead of having big blocks of texts in italics. I might change them to italics depending on how they read!

Emily Prentiss didn’t believe in soulmates. Well, she didn’t believe she had one. Except for the occasional fling, Emily’s love life was practically non-existent. Maybe it was for the better that way. She was a strong and independent woman, thank you very much, and she didn’t need a man or a woman to complete her. Besides, she could always get a cat.

Y/N Y/L/N was a hopeless romantic. You loved the idea of having a soulmate, someone who was made for you, someone who just gets you. You hadn’t met your soulmate yet, but you were a strong believer in fate. When the universe was ready for you to meet your soulmate, you’d meet them. God, you hoped you’d meet them soon. But it’s not like your soulmate was the only thing on your mind. You had gotten your masters degree before you applied for the FBI Academy. You then were assigned to work in the Violent Crimes Against Children department, where you worked your ass off until you got the news you had been waiting for since you graduated from college: you were joining the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. 

Working with the BAU was a dream come true for you. The cases were hard and long, the criminals involved really made you question if there was any good in humanity at times. But the good moments? You would never forget them. 

------

You laid back in your seat on the plane and closed your eyes with a sigh. You had just finished your first case and you were on the flight back to headquarters. You couldn’t wait to see your bed again. You opened one of your eyes when you heard someone sit beside you but closed it again when you saw Derek.

“Hey, pretty girl. How do you feel?” You dragged your hand over your face and looked up at the man you would soon grow close to. 

“Exhausted. Happy the case is over and that we saved the last victim. I wish we could have saved the others.” You sighed. “But at least the families of the missing women have closure now.” 

“Unfortunately we can’t save everyone. But with everybody we save, it makes the job easier. You did great, kid. And you’ll get better with every case.” You smiled at Derek’s words and leaned your head against his shoulder. 

“Thanks, Morgan.” You felt your eyes grow heavy and you yawned. “I’m using you as a pillow now, hope you weren’t planning on moving anytime soon.” Derek’s shoulder shook with laughter, and he rested his head against yours. 

“Rest up, Y/L/N. You’ve earned it.”

------

Over the last eighteen months, you had grown close to the team you now considered your family. There were many lows and many highs during your career, as well as many unexpected twists. The best unexpected part? Meeting Agent Emily Prentiss. You had just gotten back to headquarters when you met her.

------

“Hey, Y/N. Garcia, JJ, Reid, and I are going to Freddy’s for dinner. We’ve got room for one more if you want to come.” Derek asked as he gathered his things from his desk. You were seated at your own desk, papers strewn across the space. 

“I think I’m gonna head home once I handle,” you gestured to the mess, “all this.” Derek chuckled and put his jacket on.

“Don’t stay too late, we don’t need two people living here.” Derek nodded up towards Hotch’s office. You looked up and your brows furrowed when you saw two silhouettes in the office.  

“I’ll head out soon. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.” You and Derek exchanged goodbyes, your gaze not leaving the window as you heard everyone leave. You shook your head to clear your thoughts and began to organize your desk. You strained to decipher the muffled voices coming from your boss’s office and perked up when you heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice.

“I promise you won’t regret this.” You heard her footsteps as she walked out of Hotch’s office and you looked up as she walked down the stairs. Your eyes traveled up her body until you saw the box in her hands and then met her eyes. Her beautiful brown eyes. Her dark hair fell to her shoulders, and there was a smile on her face. She looked proud, but also relieved, and she tried to appear neutral. You didn’t know how long you had been watching her before she spoke to you. “Hi. I’m Emily Prentiss.” Emily shifted the box in her hands to prop it against her hip and held her hand out. You stood up, shook her hand, and offered a polite smile.

“I’m Y/N Y/L/N. Oh! You can set your things on my desk.” Emily smiled gratefully at you and set the box down. “Facilities management has probably left already, they won’t be back until morning. You’re more than welcome to keep everything here if you want, they’ll be safe. Unless you have coffee stashed away in there, then I might have to charge a storage fee.” Emily’s laughter filled your ears and your heart skipped a beat at the sound. New life goal, make this gorgeous woman laugh as much as you can. “The coffee here is less than appealing, so I recommend buying your own. There’s a shop across the street, they make amazing lattes. I’m sorry, I’m rambling, and you probably have places to be.”

“You’re fine, I promise.” Emily reassured and her phone buzzed in her pocket. “But I do need to take this.”

“And I should head out. I can hear my bed calling my name from here.” You picked at the sleeve of your shirt subconsciously, which of course Emily noticed. Gotta love profilers. “I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow?” 

“Bright and early.”

“Don’t remind me.” You groaned before you grabbed your bag from your chair. “Goodnight, Prentiss.”

“Goodnight.” And if you came to work the next morning with a cup of coffee on your desk, that was no one’s business except for yours and Emily’s. Little did either of you know that you had met your soulmate. You were getting ready for a run the first time you noticed something was off.

------

“Yes, Derek. I’ll be in the lobby in five minutes. You know, you’re really impatient.” You teased as you walked to your closet to grab a pair of shoes. 

“And you’re late.”

“Am not! You said we’d meet at six, I still have a few minutes.” As you bent down to grab your running shoes, your brows furrowed when you noticed a red tank top on the floor. “Huh.”

“Everything okay?” Derek asked.

“Yeah, yeah. I just found something I forgot I bought. I’ll be down in a minute, and I’ll buy smoothies after. Since I’m so late.” 

“Chop, chop, pretty girl.” Derek hung up and you grabbed the shirt from the floor and examined it. It had been worn quite often, so you knew it wasn’t yours. Or was it? You shrugged but tossed the shirt towards your laundry hamper. That was a problem for another day. You quickly slid your shoes on and left your apartment. You made your way downstairs, Derek and you being the only ones in the lobby at the time. 

“I’m here, I’m here. Sorry, late start.” You said as you walked over. “Our usual path?”

“Lead the way, Y/L/N.”

------

You brushed off the shirt as simply being forgetful. You had bought a lot of clothes when you moved for your job, it must have been forgotten in the back of your closet. You figured it was a one time thing, and the possibility of soulmates never even crossed your mind. It had been nearly a month since the red shirt incident, and nothing else odd had happened since. Until…

------

“That’s a new necklace. Where’d you get it?” Penelope asked as you both stepped off the elevator. 

“I honestly can’t remember buying it.” You shrugged. “I must have gotten it a while ago, but I don’t remember wearing it before.” As you walked towards the conference room, Prentiss walked out of the mini kitchen with JJ. 

“Yeah, I don’t know what happened to it. I thought I had it on my nightstand, but I went to put it on this morning, and it was gone.” Emily said and ran her hand through her hair.

“We can go to my favorite store to look for a replacement tonight if we aren’t on a new case.” Jennifer offered. Emily smiled gratefully at her as the pair walked towards the conference room. Rossi left his office and walked towards the stairs. As he reached the stairs, he met Aaron who stepped into sync with him. 

“What are you thinking about?” Hotch asked as he looked at Dave. 

“Oh, not much. Just wondering who we’ll be chasing on our next case.” Rossi said. Just the fact two of our profilers are oblivious soulmates, he thought.

------

Over the next couple of weeks, you and Emily both found little things scattered across your homes. It sounded weird to admit, but it made Emily’s days better when she found something of her soulmate’s in her apartment. Everything you had lost helped her understand you more- she really felt like she was getting to know you. Emily smiled when she found (your favorite book) in her room, and she couldn’t help but read the book with a dopey smile on her face. God, she couldn’t wait to meet you, whoever you were. Little did either of you know, that day would come closer than you thought.

*Baddies of the BAU group chat*

Pen: girls!!!

Pen: it’s someone’s birthday monday

Pen: @ Y/N

Jayje: our baby’s turning 30! 

Jayje: all grown up

Em<3: we’re celebrating, right?

Y/N: i’d honestly be happy with the weekend off

Y/N: or some of rossi’s scotch

Pen: i can’t promise that, but i can promise you a night of drinks

Pen: our usual time and place tonight?

Jayje: i’ll be there!

Em<3: so will i. Y/N?

Y/N: how could i say no?

Y/N: see you tonight my loves!

*End of chat*

“Derek, I need a favor.” Emily said as she paced across her apartment. Derek’s brows furrowed as he heard all the noise in the background. 

“Of course. Is everything okay?”

“No.” Emily groaned. “Well, yeah, just… shit. I can’t find my keys. And yeah, I could call an Uber, but-”

“I’ll give you a ride. Wonder if your soulmate found your keys.” Emily could hear the smirk in Derek’s voice, and she rolled her eyes.

“With my luck, they’re an ocean away. Thanks, Morgan.”

-

“Spence, what are the odds of me actually meeting my soulmate?”

“Statistically,” Spencer trailed off, “not the greatest. Soulmates aren’t guaranteed to be living in the same geographical area as you, not even the same timeline really. There’s theories about past lives, it’s actually really fascinating.” A pause. “Sorry, that wasn’t an answer. There’s a 3.7 percent chance of you meeting your soulmate. An even lower chance you actually make the connection that they are your soulmate.” “So the chance of me living in the same city as my soulmate and knowing who they are is practically impossible.” You said as you held a familiar keychain in your hand. A keychain that was nearly identical to yours. You had thought it was yours, absentmindedly grabbing the set of keys from your coffee table as you started to leave, until you tried to lock your door. 

“You know who they are?”

“Uh huh.”

“Are you going to say anything to them?”

“Oh yeah.” You tucked the keys into your bag before you grabbed yours. “Sooner than later.”

------

You were seated next to Rossi, talking to Penelope from across the table, and you laughed when Rossi chimed in, agreeing with you. You rested your hand on his shoulder and Penelope grumbled something about favoritism under her breath while JJ laughed.

“You’re my favorite person, Pen.” JJ said, which then caused Reid to protest from his seat. Hotch shook his head, but everyone saw the fond smile on his lips. The energy at the table was light and carefree, something that didn’t happen often enough.

“Got room for two more?” You looked up and smiled when you saw Derek walk in, Emily a few steps behind him. 

“Hmm, I think we’ll take you. If you get our first round.” Derek playfully sighed.

“Deal. Only because you’re the birthday girl. Almost the birthday girl.” He ruffled your hair before he walked towards the bar, and Rossi stood up. 

“I’ll go help him carry everything. Take a seat.” Dave patted Emily’s shoulder as he walked past her to help Morgan. Emily took a seat beside you, and it didn’t take a profiler to notice the change in your demeanor. She noticed how your movements were more calculated and thought out. Any other time you wouldn’t be afraid to be handsy with her, your shoulders would brush together a little more often than necessary, your legs against each other’s. But today, there was distance. Not enough to be noticeable to anyone who didn’t know the dynamic between the two women, but to Emily, you might as well have been worlds apart. After a few drinks, Hotch and Rossi had made their way to the bar, and they watched their ‘children’. Morgan and Garcia were dancing together, Reid in between the pair, much to his protesting. 

“Come on, boy wonder, we aren’t leaving until you’ve danced at least once.” Garcia had said as she pulled Spencer to the floor. You stirred your drink as you leaned against the upholstered booth, Emily and JJ on the other side of the dance floor. You smiled at everyone and didn’t notice Dave walk up behind you.

“You can’t avoid her all night.” You jumped at the sound of his voice and looked back towards him. “I’m not the best person to give advice on love, but I have been married a few times. So I know a little something.”

“I’m not avoiding her- wait, how did you know?” “I watched. And she happens to be missing the necklace you wore tonight.” You felt your cheeks heat up and you looked back towards Emily.

“I didn’t know it was her. Not until I found this.” You pulled the keychain  out of your bag. 

“I’m guessing there’s a story I’m missing.” Rossi took a seat beside you, and you began to explain. 

“It started when we had a case take us to Los Angeles.”

------

“I hate how my first trip to L.A. had to be when we’re chasing a serial killer.” You sighed as you opened the case file. 

“We’ve been to Los Angeles on a case before. It was your third case with us.” Spencer said absentmindedly as he read, eyes darting rapidly across the paper. 

“My second trip, my bad.” You rolled your eyes, but there was a fond smile on your lips. “But we stayed at the hotel, police department, and crime scenes. Not a second of time off.”

“What’s time off?” Gideon asked and you chuckled. 

“I really want to go one day, not as an agent, but as a tourist. Maybe when I retire.” As soon as the conversation started, it ended as Garcia popped up on screen to further discuss the case. 

-

“You would be fine if you flew, but it’s up to you ultimately. It is a long drive back, though.” The EMT spoke, and you were seated on the back of the ambulance with Hotch standing beside you. 

“Could she fly tomorrow? If she feels up to it, of course.” Aaron asked, and there was an emotion in his eyes that you couldn’t quite decipher. 

“As long as her symptoms continue to get better as time passes, she’s clear to fly. It’s all preference at this point. Just be sure to follow the instructions we gave you, and you should start feeling better soon.”

“Thank you.” The EMT dismissed herself to go check on the injured victim, and Hotch turned to you. 

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I ran into a wall.” You chuckled then winced. “I’ve had worse. The medicine will help, and I’ll feel better after some sleep tonight.”

“I’ll have Prentiss drive you back to the hotel so you can rest.” Aaron paused. “There’s a few tourist-y spots near our hotel, but they’ll be crowded until later tonight. There’s a restaurant on Fifth just a few minutes from where we’re staying, not many tourists know about it. I can send you the address if you want it.” You blushed as you looked up at Hotch. 

“Thank you, sir. Uh, how did you…?”

“You said you wanted to visit the city as a tourist, and for the Prentiss part? Let’s call it intuition.”

-

“Remind me to thank Hotch for sending us to that restaurant. That was the best dinner I’ve ever had.” Emily said and you hummed in agreement. 

“If I got this treatment every time I got injured on the field, I’d let our unsubs pistol-whip me more often.” You laughed as she shot a playful glare at you. “Easy, Prentiss. I do not enjoy any restaurant enough to have another concussion.”

“How is your head feeling? We can go back to the hotel if you’re ready.” Emily paused. “Unless you feel up for another adventure.”

“Please, take me anywhere but the hotel.” And in that moment, the whole city seemed to brighten when Emily smiled. 

“I’ve got a few places in mind.” 

By the end of the night, you had walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame (and took countless pictures), stopped by the Kodak Theatre (“Em, it’s like we’re a part of the Academy Awards!”), and now you were in a gift shop. 

“I remember when I was younger.” You spoke, your voice soft as you looked at a display rack. “I was on a trip to New York, my high school journalism class took the entire group of us up to the city. We went to a little gift shop before we came back home. All the girls went off together, bought those little matching keychains that ‘best friends’ had, except for me. I know it’s stupid to be upset about now, but fifteen year old me felt so lonely. I just joined the school my sophomore year, everyone else had made their group of friends. And I had no one.” 

“Look at you now.” Emily said as she wrapped her arm around your shoulders and neither of you mentioned it when you automatically leaned into her touch. “You’re a profiler for the FBI, and we have some pretty amazing people we’re working with. I think it’s safe to say you’ll never have to worry about being lonely again.” Emily reached forward and grabbed a pair of keychains from the rack. “And now, you can show off your glamorous ‘I survived my trip to L.A.’ keychain to everyone.”

“Look, you can even get the back engraved. We can get something matching, we’ll be the best friends of the BAU.” You teased and Emily gasped. 

“You, Y/L/N, are a genius.”

------

You thumbed over the engraving and read it out loud. “If you ever feel alone, you can always run home.” And in the bottom corner, yours and Emily’s initials were engraved. “We promised each other. No matter how crazy this job gets, if either of us leave, if we just need a break… We can always go to each other, go ‘home.’” You let your eyes wander over to Emily, who was now dancing with Reid. The smiles on both of their faces made you smile before you turned towards Rossi. “I don’t want to mess everything up.”

“Bella,” Dave smiled sympathetically and rested a hand on your shoulder, “I haven’t ever seen someone look at each other the way you and Emily do. If anyone in the world are soulmates, it’s you two.” You stood up and wrapped your arms around him and hugged him tight. 

“Thank you for everything.” You whispered and Rossi returned your tight hug. The man was affectionately nicknamed the dad of the group, while the rest of you (with the exception of Hotch) were his children. But the role of “Papa” Rossi applied especially to you. You two had formed a bond over the months Rossi had been on the team. You were often paired together, your personalities meshing well while working on the field and during interrogations. You often went to him for advice, and Rossi was sure to offer the best hospitality possible. You’d drink the best wine and help him cook dinner while the two of you joked around and talked, Tony Bennett playing over vinyl in the background. 

“Go get her, bella.” You smiled before you stepped away from Rossi and walked over to Emily, keys now tucked into your pocket. 

“Hey, pretty girl! Look who decided to join us.” Derek said as he saw you walking over, causing Emily to look over at you. 

“I will in a minute, you better have saved me a dance. But first, um. Em, can I talk to you?” Emily’s brows furrowed but she nodded. 

“Let’s step outside, get some fresh air.” You nodded and walked out with Emily, and you chewed your lip nervously. This is it. As you walked out the door of the bar, the cool autumn air hit your face, and you took a deep breath. 

“You know, I had this big speech planned. I dreamed of the day I’d be able to meet someone, and tell them all about how I had been waiting for this day for years. And even though there’s the smallest, microscopic chance of me meeting them, I finally did. I met them. My soulmate.” You pulled the set of keys out of your pocket. “I believe these are yours. As is my necklace, according to Rossi.”

“So the extra remote I found in my living room, that was yours.” 

“That’s where it went! I really went out and had to buy a new remote, that was so annoying.” You two laughed and a comfortable silence fell over you. 

“Y/N-“

“Emily-“

“You first.” You smiled. 

“If I were to ask you on a date, let’s say for tomorrow, would you say yes?”

“I like to think I’m a pretty good cook, props to Rossi for the recipes he taught me. And I’ve finally got my Wi-Fi fixed. Dinner and a movie?” You stepped closer to her. “And maybe,” you gripped Emily’s jacket and pulled her to you. Your eyes flicked down to her lips then back to her eyes. Emily nodded and suddenly your lips were on hers. 

You always heard about that first kiss soulmates shared. How it felt like two became one, how in that moment you knew you were where you belonged. Your kiss with Emily? God, it was so much better than that. Neither you or Emily would ever forget this kiss for the rest of your lives. 

———

Some time later….

“Move over, Serg. Pretty sure she’s my girlfriend, not yours.” You settled onto the couch, balancing a bowl of popcorn, careful of the black cat taking over the couch. “Diva.” You tapped the cat’s nose lightly, and Sergio swatted at your hand before he jumped off the couch and wandered off. 

“You can’t be mean to my child, it’s against the rules.” You shot a playful glare at Emily and covered your body in a blanket, the bowl in your lap. 

“Your child? Excuse me, he’s ours.”

“Too bad he likes me more.” There was a taunting tone to her voice and you huffed.

“Alright, Prentiss. You just lost popcorn privileges because of that comment.” Emily wrapped her arms around your waist and pulled you into her, and you squealed before laughing. “Get off me!”

“Oh, you love me.” 

“I tolerate you.” You buried yourself into Emily’s side, tucked in between her and the couch, the bowl now in front of her. Emily poked your side and you giggled softly. “What’s tonight’s movie, Em?”

“50 First Dates. Penelope acted like I insulted her personally whenever I told her I haven’t seen it.” 

“Well we can’t disappoint our girl much longer. Press play, birthday girl.” 

By the end of the movie, Emily had fallen asleep. Sergio was curled up at the end of the couch, and Emily’s back was pressed to your chest. You pressed a gentle kiss to her neck before you laid back and closed your eyes. 

“Goodnight, lover. Happy birthday.”

Taglist for CM: @spidey-reids-2003​ and @ssa-sugar-tits​  ❤ If you’d like to be removed/added to a taglist, let me know!! Requests are open but may take a minute, my midterms start soon!

[shibalen]

Hi! I’m so sorry about the earlier request! I misread the rules (._. ) I’d like to request from Akatsuki No Yona and Haikyuu. I prefer a romantic type of matchup. I’m a Capricorn and infp. I have a fairly large social circle and quite talkative with others. But there are times I prefer my own time and silence. I trust people easily and am loyal to my friends. I’m a left hander. My hobbies are writing, reading and watching anime. I listen to various types of music. It depends on my mood. (😁)

I’m a literature student and love to learn about technology. I have three cats and one dog. I adore animals, even insects but not spiders XD. I like dark colours and dark themed movies and stories. My ideal type of date is chilling inside a cafe or walking along a forest or a silent place talking with each other. I’m into carefree guys who get serious in the time of need. (😁)

The type of a guy who would dance around with me in the kitchen and jam to songs with me in the car and also be there when I have a breakdown. I’m an impatient fellow and tend to lose my focus easily. I’d like to request music box and dark box uwu. That’s it! Thanks! And sorry again for the earlier request! Love your blog! (😁)

♡︎ matchup for 😁anon

heya howdy doodle doo! how're you? i hope you didn't get too tired of waiting and actually see this. hehe. i gave these results lots of thought so i'm happy if you like them too!

akatsuki no yona: i match you with . . .

jae-ha !!

• you guys match so well i can't— your zodiacs, mbti, personality and your type of person are simply pointing at Jae-ha with a big red arrow!

• Jae-ha is chill and social by nature. that paired with your love for talking with people makes you a really social couple. i can easily picture the two of you being the life of most conversations.

• also when there's a crisis or any more serious situation going on you're both usually the ones to calm others down. your presence makes them feel at ease and honestly Jae-ha admires that so much in you ♡︎

• he knows he can trust you with his burdens and count on you to be there for him. he may not always voice them out loud but you know he needs your comfort when he silently lays his head on your shoulder.

• of course this goes both ways and he will never let you be alone during a breakdown. somehow he always finds the right things to say or do to help you find yourself again. his voice is deep and soothing and he will happily put it to use if it makes you feel at ease.

• though he does have a sharper intuition when it comes to strangers and therefore makes sure nobody takes advantage of you. however there was definitely one time where he let you buy something extremely overpriced just to tease you about it later

• the worse the scam the more poisonous the words he speaks to them with that lazy smile. then he escorts you away while waving a hand.

• "you have to be more careful, flower. i don't want some guy eventually making you give your heart away too, " he flirts

• "too late," you respond. "this one green-haired guy with stupid jokes already has it."

• BOOM

• ahem.

• at first you thought he was the worst case of a womanizer, and you preferred your possible partner to reciprocate your loyalty. unfortunately otherwise he was just your type so you couldn't help but be drawn to him.

• Jae-ha was attracted to you too from your smart and fun personality to your hobbies and taste in music. he loved how you stood your ground yet how flexible you were with your likes.

• obviously he didn't give up on you despite your little façade. he proved his loyalty runs deeper than most when he's fallen for the right person. you're his special, dear person and won't let anything or anyone come between that.

• will wear matching dark outfits with you! claims it's not his style but likes it surprisingly a lot. you might do ridiculous poses just to embarrass Hak.

• can be heckin annoying when it comes to your writing though. "are you going to write me into your story? of course you are ;)" "is the main character me?" don't get him wrong, he adores your writing and that's why he gets so excited about it. other times he does it on purpose to get your attention smh

• overall, light-headed teasing is something he will always do just to see you flustered. it's so adorable he can't help it. leaning in extra close to you while you're cooking together, highkey boasting about you to his friends, starting and winking at you, plus all sorts of cheesy one-liners.

• but Jae-ha is smart and knows when to give you space. when you're ready to interact again he's already prepared for a date!

• Jae-ha is romantic even on daily basis, bringing you flowers or small trinkets that he knows you like. just seeing you smile at his loving gestures makes his cheeks warm and heart beat fast (though he tries not to show it)

• please listen to him playing the erhu, he does it especially for you. when you're out on a rooftop on a moonlit night he'll serenade you with his songs.

• your dates include: walks around the outskirts of towns, moongazing, him leaping through the sky with you securely in his arms, dinner at different inns and travens with music and parties or by a bonfine and you two just being silly. also creative activities like pottery and sketching ♡︎

❦︎ ink box

— this happened before your relationship even started, back when Jae-ha first realised his feelings for you.

— you wouldn't expect it, but he struggled with these emotions a lot. this was the first time he had ever felt this way towards anybody, after all. his natural reaction was to distance himself from you because he was scared, whether he admitted it to himself or not.

— he was afraid of being tied down and tying you down. he knew love required commitment and you valued loyalty. he dreaded he wouldn't be good enough for you, instead becoming the source of your pain. you deserved much more than he was, and he was a coward.

— there was also the problem of putting you in danger because of the group's mission. any injury you'd get would be his fault and that was too much a thought to bare.

— he thought he was being smooth avoiding you, preparing for his leave without hurting you. he thought. but you were smarter, you knew Jae-ha was kind. he wouldn't do this to hurt you—not after all those fun memories you'd made together!

— refusing to beat around the bush, you tried confronting him. however, by that time he'd already set out to the next destination. he had left, without a word of goodbye.

— thankfully, Zeno was the quickest to notice Jae-ha's broken demeanor. it was heartbreak which he himself knew too well. he pulled the green dragon aside the next evening as they were gathering wood and stubly hinted Jae-ha shouldn't do anything he would regret for the rest of his life.

— the rest of the gang was quick to join after Kija happened to overhear the conversation. they all (even Ao) swore to take care of you if Jae-ha wouldn't be able to.

— you were halfway up the mountain chasing after him when Jae-ha landed directly in front of you. he was out of breath and dishevelled but the desperate glint in his eye shone brighter than any star in the sky.

— you embraced and shared a sweet kiss under the night sky. he apologised more times than you could count but after almost shattering your heart you didn't let him off the hook that easily. well, he had the rest of his life with you to make it up to you ♡︎

♡︎ runner up: Hak

⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

haikyuu: i match you with . . .

rintaro suna !!

• Suna is a little different from the previous match but my instincts told me to put you together regardless! i think your personalities balance each other out while sharing the same core basics.

• you're both laid-back and have no problems interacting with people but still like your alone time. as in infp you seek new knowledge and Suna, being the smartass he is, will never bore you. he can be both silent and talkative, whichever you prefer.

• will definitely join you in being social but in a subtle way. he'll stand/sit next to you with an arm around you while you're talking to your friends. really chill but also knows how to hold a conversation and chime in with a clever comment.

• once he notices you becoming tired he casually steers you away from the rest, saying you two have to go now. how is this guy so smooth? really though he just wants to be alone together with you.

• you guys met when your social groups came together. it's that 'friend of a friend of a friend' chain and thus somehow you ended up going to one of his games because a person you knew didn't want to go alone.

• they knew Kita so y'all went to congratulate him on the win later. he then introduced you the team and therefore, of course, Suna.

• you thought he was pretty and you chatted a bit but nothing much happened. it was through these continuous meetings afterward that eventually pshed you two together ♡︎

• you had so much to talk about! stories, technology, hobbies, music, a little gossip. he liked how opinionated you were and how much you knew, then found it amusing how easily distracted you got.

• his advances were really subtle yet continuous and efficient! though some of them were kind of teasing. made sure you were comfortable with your friendship first before stating his exact feelings for you.

• Suna isn't afraid of pda and if you are too, he'll be holding your hand, having you sit on his lap, giving you kisses on your face and hand. yet although others mifht see, it feels as though every touch is a secret language meant for bust the two of you.

• his advice is quite blunt but he does it out of love, plus his actions are much softer and really patient when you're at rock-bottom. i assure you anyone neglecting your feelings is not safe.

• you're both into dark-themed stuff! y'all go to movies, festivals, bookshops and alike looking so hella aesthetic, i swear. what a beautiful couple (☆ω☆)

• your pets love Suna after they've gotten used to him. sometimes when he comes over the cats will come chill around him. it's like he's one of them and it's hilarious. you have a bunch of pictures on your phone of him and your dog.

• you like showing those photos off to his teammates because they're just that good, but instead of getting embarrassed Suna will either just agree or jokingly ask why haven't you made it your background yet.

• overtime he's learnt how to keep your focus from going too astray, though you can't say he's always vigilant himself. he slacks off during boring lectures and would much rather talk to you. the teacher had to seperate you pfft—

• can and will jam to all times of music with you in the kitchen, even if just ironically. one time his little sister caught the two of you vibing to an opera preformance and homeboy just shrugged it off and continued because you both thought it was funny.

• your dates include: going on hikes especially after a stressful period (Suna most definitely did not look up the best places near your home and prepared your favorite snacks), cat cafés, staying at home and cooking a meal cause this boy probably only knows how to pour water over noodles, and long drives and blasting music ♡︎

♫︎ music box

— I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys

— Caroline by Crash Adams

— Blinding Lights by The Weekend

— Your Dog Loves You by Colde

— Hey Boy by Sia (what you'd jokingly lip-sync to for him)

♡︎ runner up: Atsumu Miya

thank you so much for requesting and i apologise for the huge delay (ಥ﹏ಥ) still, i hope you enjoyed! have a lovely day and please stay safe ♡︎

[cluelessnamelessao3]

But It’s Not Funny

1. Look, I Know

You had a pretty bad habit of laughing at everything.

Like, a really bad habit.

The world wasn’t actually as funny as you made it out to be, but honestly, how could anyone fault you for trying so hard to be happy? You were just trying to get by. Though, maybe avoiding serious topics by laughing it off wasn’t exactly the best of strategies—and avoiding feelings by pretending nothing bothered you?

Hah… You knew it wasn’t healthy. You knew it wasn’t funny. But what else could you do?

It was either pretend nothing was wrong or cry hysterically. And... you didn't like to cry.

You needed to be strong. Needed to be strong for everyone… and so that meant you smiled when you felt like crying, laughed when you felt like dying, and you let no one know your true pain.

Years back, when you had gone to your mother’s funeral, well, suffice it to say that you were a little too light-hearted about it. You just couldn’t take it as seriously as you knew you were supposed to. It was a problem.

(But it was so much easier to hide from your feelings than confront them, right?)

Though, no one who actually knew you would blame you for that—they’d never blame you for your oddities. They all knew… the things that had happened. They didn’t understand, but they knew. To them, you were pitiable.

You’d gone through some shit in your life. Shit that wasn’t just an everyday occurrence. You’d been to the doctor many times, too many times, for too many reasons (both within your control and completely out of your control). Technically, you were in trouble with the state—though not the kind of legal trouble most would expect. It was more of the kind of trouble that you weren’t allowed to go out of the state, mostly because the state—and your family, for that matter—did not want you to endanger yourself (more than you already had).

There was a bunch of legal jargon that went with it, but at the moment all those long words and fancy terms just seemed like mush to your brain—all you really needed to know was that they didn’t trust you on your own. (You didn’t really trust you on your own either).

To make a long story short, one too many trips to the hospital meant that you needed to be watched.

It wasn’t such a big deal though, you really weren’t planning on doing anything else but live in this small town by the infamous mountain and spend your days grooming animals. After all, with the lovely and comforting company of your service animal, what more could you have asked for?

Well, some friends might be nice, and the ability to travel and explore other cities and towns would be cool. (You'd always wanted to see more of the world). But it was your own fault you couldn’t leave, not that you really had the money to do so anyway. Traveling took money, and money was just something you didn’t have.

The door to your shop chimed, someone came in and peered at the supplies before ducking back out. You didn’t notice them, but Luna did.

You must have been standing there, looking dumb and lost for quite a while, because your service dog, Luna, whined before nudging your hand with her wet and cold nose. You glanced down, an apologetic smile on your face, as you absent-mindedly patted her head. She was too good to you, and you knew you were lucky to have such an attentive dog.

Part of you was still bitter about the fact that it had taken so long for you to get her.

It’d taken so long for this lifeline—this wonderful, loving, caring lifeline to be given to you.

At the risk of sounding too-angst filled and too-woebegone; it’d taken too long for someone to recognize that maybe the only thing you really needed was a reason—a reason to live, something (or someone) to live for, and something (or someone) to help you in your day-to-day life.

Maybe if you’d gotten her earlier you wouldn’t have had so many self-inflicted trips to the hospital—maybe if you’d been treated properly the first time, you wouldn’t have been struggling as hard as you had been—maybe if you’d never had been a victim of—

There were too many maybe’s, what was done was done, and what mattered now was the fact that you were here, and Luna was right here beside you.

She kept you safe and she kept you happy—or, she did her best, at least. (And her best was enough. It was more than enough.)

The door rang once more and a short child walked in, their hair cropped to land just above their shoulders and dreadfully, miserably tangled (you felt the strong urge to hand them a brush). They looked less than put together, their overly large sweater stained with what looked like ketchup, and their face covered with a myriad of scuffs and scratches. They looked almost familiar, but you couldn’t place it.

It took you a second to realize there was a squirming cat clutched in their arms. They wore a self-satisfied smile and seemed to be completely ignoring the cat scratches that littered their face—in fact, they seemed completely unconcerned by the cat’s violent attempts to escape.

You tried not to wince at the sight of them and their minor injuries, some of the cuts still oozing blood.

Taking a deep and calming breath, your dog’s comforting presence grounding you, you called out a hearty hello, introducing yourself and offering your assistance. After a second thought, you laid a small wash cloth on the counter, gesturing at the cuts on their face with a sympathetic look.

The kid, though now that they were up at the desk you realized they weren’t nearly as young as you had originally thought, they seemed to be around fourteen or so, shifted the cat in their arms in order to grab the damp cloth and dab at some of the cuts.

Something about their bright and shining face, that little self-satisfied grin, and the determination sparkling in their honey brown eyes still tickled at the back of your mind. You felt like you’d seen them before, but the reason why remained elusive.

The cat was visibly struggling in their arms when they spoke, and their voice was so soft and gentle.

For a moment you allowed that sweet tone wash over you—reminding you of happier memories: of the snow you used to love to play in as a child, your face red and warm despite the chill in the air and the scenery around you untainted, but instead pure and shimmering with the powdery white snow covering it. Their voice was soothing, and oddly mature sounding despite their childlike appearance.

They seemed so much more weathered than the average kid their age, and they seemed almost otherworldly, in a way you couldn’t quite explain. Either way, it was obvious they’d had experiences that most ambiguously aged children (teenagers? You still couldn’t tell) had ever even dreamed of having.

“Can you groom cats?”

You nodded, placing a business-like smile on your face before stepping forward to reach for the now hissing cat. It batted a paw at you as the messy haired teenager (child?) handed the struggling cat over.

Once you had it, him, in your arms, though, he seemed to calm down fairly quickly.

You’d always had a knack with animals, especially ones like this little guy who were angry and bitter and seemingly tired of existence—maybe they just sensed that you were of a like mind. Or maybe they could see you already had gone through too much; they clearly didn’t need to add to the ever growing list of issues in your life.

Whatever the talent was, or wherever it came from, you were plainly relieved, because it made your job immensely easier.

“I don’t suppose you brought money to pay for this grooming,” you paused, considering them, then asked, “Actually, is this even your cat?”

You snorted upon seeing their sheepish grin, which was an answer enough in itself, as they shrugged in response.

“Well, that’s okay, kiddo, since it’s your first time, I’ll do this on the house, okay?”

The kid nodded with a somewhat reverent expression on their face.

“My name is Frisk, by the way,” the small kid (teenager, you chided yourself. It was so hard to see them as anything but a child) said in a quiet voice, “He’s so calm with you…” they trailed off in wonder.

You smiled and nodded proudly, “I’ve always loved animals. I get on with them, you know? People are difficult… and well, people can be fake. But like, animals are real. They’re not hiding their intentions; they have no need to. Animals are cool, yeah?”

You realised you were rambling but didn’t feel as awkward about it. Something about the actual interest on Frisk’s face was making you feel like what you were saying was actually worth listening to. It felt nice to have someone make more than just polite small talk with you.

Frisk was nodding in agreement as the cat, having sensed he was being ignored, yowled for attention.

You scoffed, rolling your eyes at the cat’s antics before turning to Frisk and asking “Do you have some place you need to be, Frisk? Or do you want to hang out here while I finish this little monster up?”

The cat in question didn’t seem exactly pleased at being called a monster, but he stopped his indignant protest when you moved to scratch him lightly on the chin. You felt Frisk’s eyes on every interaction between you and the cat. It seemed they had something on their mind when it came to the grumpy feline. Or maybe, it was something you were doing?

Either way, they seemed almost confused, or calculating.

Frisk shrugged in response, and to you it didn’t seem like they were about to be going off anywhere, anytime soon, so with that question answered, you set the cat down on the table and began to work, slipping him into a harness that would—hopefully--make grooming less of a hassle, before you set up a small lukewarm bath and gathered the electric trimmer.

His fur was a dirty orange colour, darker spots dotting it along with a few stripes along his spine—he looked to be some sort of tabby cat colouring, though not like anything you’d seen before, his eyes shone a brilliant green and you tried not to question that knowing look he gave you as his narrowed eyes flicked between you and the bath.

It was almost unnerving how much intelligence you could see reflected behind those eyes.

You gingerly picked up the cat and he fell limp in your arms, as you carried him over to the waiting tub, you called over your shoulder “What’s this pretty kitty’s name?”

Frisk shrugged, though you didn’t see it, before calling back, “I don’t know, I want to name him Princess.”

You tried not to laugh at the name, though you couldn’t help but snort at the offended look that the cat was giving Frisk from his perch on the edge of the tub.

He looked at you, and you looked at him. His tail flicked in agitation. You blew the hair away from your face, “okay ol’ boy. I’m going to need you to work with me here. Tub. You. You’re gonna be pals. We’ll get you looking like fire again, okay?”

Frisk snickered at your little pep talk. The cat did not look amused, however, when you gently pushed him back until he slid into the tub and aside from a few hisses and a couple yowls that announced his displeasure, he didn’t fight you too much.

Frisk and you chatted back and forth as you ever so carefully washed and picked through the cat’s matted fur.

Normally on an animal with such terrible mats you’d just cut them off the best you could and give them a good bath, but after seeing how cold the weather outside was and knowing this little guy was a stray, you had been determined to save most of the fur you could. You couldn’t let the poor, angry, little man freeze to death.

Besides, he seemed to like the gentle massages you were giving him, the suds rolling off of his back and into the now murky water.

Frisk paused your conversation, after their phone rang once, then twice. They promptly excused themselves to go answer it. You just continued to work through the heavy tangles in his fur.

They came back in a second later though, seemingly hyped over something. Frisk asked excitedly and without any preamble, “So, you have a sign out there for help wanted! Right?”

It wasn’t as much of a question as their upward curving tone indicated it was, but you nodded in response anyways.

“Well, uhm, I don’t, uhm, have a lot of exper—” They stuttered out before you interrupted them with a hand up, the soap dripping off your fingers and onto the floor.

You didn’t normally hire strangers—you normally didn’t talk to strangers, but something was pushing you to do this. Something was telling you that it was of the highest importance to offer Frisk some work. You recognized this feeling, it was the same feeling that helped you find Luna, and helped you start this small business as a pet groomer. You’d trusted the feeling then, and you would trust it now.

“Frisk, you seem super sweet, and I could use some help, okay? How about we start you as an intern or volunteer of sorts and we can see where to go from there? I can’t offer you any payment yet, but if you like the work enough and are willing to get some certification or training, I’d be happy to take you on.”

You couldn’t help but smile brightly at their beaming face, their eyes wide with apparent happiness. In a flurry of motion, they seemed to be signing excitedly, and your eyes studied their hands for a moment trying to piece together the words.

It’d been so long since you’d seen signs—and even longer since you’d tried to sign. It was something from your mother’s time, something the two of you had done as you’d grown up.

After a second’s pause, they coughed awkwardly and were about to repeat the motions, this time attaching their meanings with words, but you waved the gesture away and instead signed back, your hands clumsy from lack of practice.

“I would love to have you stop by tomorrow. May I meet your parent, to talk over details with them?”

You didn’t think Frisk could look any happier as they quickly nodded before bounding out of the store, their (new) cat momentarily forgotten.

You merely shrugged before returning to the task at hand.

Once the fluffy little monster was washed and dried you placed him back on the cool metal table and clipped him into the little cat harness before grabbing some trimmers and a small pair of scissors—it may be cold outside, but you couldn’t risk the fur getting tangled and ruined like that again, a quick trim would ensure he stayed warm and his fur stayed healthy.

He shied away from the buzzing trimmer at first before you won him back with a well-placed treat (or two).

An hour later with a freshly cleaned and cut cat, you turned around with a large smile on your face to see… a skeleton? You’d seen various monsters before (and had even groomed a few of them) but you’d never seen a skeleton monster before…

He was really tall and surprisingly thin for such an impossibly tall being. Well, you supposed with a slight sigh, anyone would be considered impossibly tall compared to you.

You weren’t exactly… well, by any standard, you were far too short for your own good—for god’s sake, you even had a small stepping stool at your register just so you could use it comfortably.

People always thought you were cute and spunky (often belittling you, both physically and mentally)—or they just assumed you were a bratty, little child that spoke out of turn far too often. You weren’t really sure which idea you preferred.

The monster was bouncing back and forth, looking between the leashes hanging on the wall and the treats in a bowl on the counter. He was very clearly excited, and you couldn’t quite understand why. All his movement and activity was making you somewhat anxious.

Upon noticing that you’d finished with the orange and rather grumpy cat, the large skeleton bounded forward, closer to the counter, with a huge grin plastered on his face. For some reason, his presence gave off the feeling of warmth and kindness and boundless energy. However, his size screamed to your senses “DANGER”.

While he seemed sweet in his own way, Luna recognized your slight vestiges of fear and padded up to your side to sniff and lick at your hand.

You greeted the skeleton in a small and shy voice, which was completely drowned out by his boisterous and booming yell, “HELLO, SMALL HUMAN! You are nearly the SAME SIZE as my TINY HUMAN!”

You smiled weakly, unsure of what the correct response would be, that was, until you spotted a meek looking Frisk behind the tall skeleton, who continued to speak and announced that his name was the GREAT Papyrus, or something like that—you weren’t paying as much attention as you should have been, the noise and yelling was a little more frightening than you’d like to admit.

Frisk seemed to sense that and placed a gentle hand on Papyrus’ arm. He cut his monologue short and after receiving a stern look from what he called the “tiny human” he continued to speak in a much softer tone—it was more of a yell whisper, which you figured was good enough, at least he was trying.

You tried to breath in and out as slowly as possible, attempting to calm your rapidly beating heart, it was hard though, his yelling, his height, his stature and appearance in general—you tried not to over think it.

Now was not the time to panic, you were in your shop, there was a wriggling cat in your arms, a warm Luna at your feet, and the whining sound of a very lonely dog in a pen coming somewhere from the back area. You were in your twenties, you were with Luna, you were not alone, you were in your shop, there were noises, and they were okay. You were okay.

Running these words through your head again and again as you gently handed the cat over to Frisk, you began to calm down. Papyrus didn’t even seem to notice your momentary panic.

“WOWEE! That cat SURE is CLEAN!” You nodded and gave a soft smile while Frisk handed the angry cat to the large skeleton monster.

You couldn’t help but burst into laughter at the scene that unfolded before you—all tension leaving you at once.

Something about cats and their strange instinct to viciously and repeatedly attack anything they didn’t understand had always been a point of hilarity for you but this… Well, this was just too funny.

Claws do nothing on bones, and it didn’t matter how many time the cat slapped Papyrus’ face with his paws, the skeleton didn’t even seem to notice, or maybe he didn’t care about the cat’s obvious aggression, instead he just shoved his face closer and cooed loving words to the increasingly frustrated Princess. Thinking about the absurd name only made you laugh more.

It was hours later after the sun had finally set that you were home, cuddled up in the largest sweater you could find, your ridiculous fuzzy socks making you look more childlike than ever. You lay, draped over the couch in an almost dramatic fashion with your hand poised unintentionally dramatic over your face, covering your eyes from the burning light of the floor lamp. Luna laid on top of you, her heavy body crushing your legs, but you didn’t want to move.

You’d rather let your legs shrivel up and fall off than risk waking her up just because you were a little uncomfortable. She was too cute; you couldn’t do that to her.

Overall, your day at work had gone fairly well, aside from one angry customer who bitched you out about washing their dog with shampoo that smells of coconuts rather than one that smells like vanilla—you had tried your best to stand your ground, but folded fairly quickly, a laugh and a discount later and they left the store. Honestly though, who the fuck cares whether their dog smelled like vanilla or sunshine or some other shit? As long as they were clean, wasn’t that enough?

You really needed to work on the whole “sticking up” for yourself thing… or at least you needed to stop laughing when people got angry.

You couldn’t help it though. When people were angry your first instinct was to cry, and ever since you were a young child, you’d been adamant on never crying…

You didn’t like the messy way tears were. The way they made your eyes sting afterward, and the way that your throat would hurt from your sobs or the sticky feeling of your face after crying for a particularly long time.

Screw the stress relief it supposedly provided, crying was too messy, too weakening to be considered useful.

Plus, people would worry, and that was the last thing you wanted to happen.

With that last tired thought, you roused Luna and the two of you waddled off to bed.

Morning came and Luna bounded out of your arms and off of the bed with such enthusiasm that you could only groan your jealousy. She was too much for you, honestly, how could anyone or anything be that god damn excited to wake up?

(She wasn’t normally this excited, either! Usually, she was just as grumpy in the morning as you were.)

Apparently, you hadn’t gotten up in time because soon the bed shifted from Luna’s added weight and before you could utter a protest her face was in yours and her nose snuffling all of your hair and face and neck and then god, that damn pink tongue was licking you until you finally sat up, pushing her away.

“I’m up, I’m up, god, can’t you let a girl sleep in a little?” She merely blinked at you with those puppy eyes of hers. “No? Figures.” With a sigh you reached over and pet her big blocky head.

She was way too cute. Her slightly bowed legs coupled with the slight chubbiness—probably your fault, you were too lenient when it came to treats—and her pretty little, short coat, she was a sweet looking dog, short floppy ears, long clumsy tail, warm brown eyes. She was too precious.

But the licking thing…

It was less than precious.

You sighed with resignation. It was time to get up, you only had an hour until you needed to be opening the store anyway.

“Okay, fine, you win, Lu, let’s go.” She snorted with satisfaction and you quickly got ready for work, making sure to grab a small snack to eat on the way there.

Today was going to be a good day, you hoped.

Author’s Note: I started this fanfiction in 2016, but due to personal circumstances I ended up leaving it for a while. Now, it is 2021 and I am starting to write again on the daily. I am several chapters ahead of what is posted on AO3 and hope to remain that way. I have no idea on an update schedule, but there will be continued updates.

[thewritewolf]

The Search for Halloween Chapter 6: Lost + Ghost

The gang decides to check out an old abandoned house at night.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 (Final)

@unusual-october

Enjoy!

Read on Ao3.  My ko-fi.

Art of this chapter by the always-wonderful @noanieactuallydrawingalot

“Hey, guys!” Adrien rushed up to where his friends were huddled together. With the darkness, he hadn’t been sure at first that it was them, but spotting Marinette’s pink winter jacket set his mind at ease. “Are we ready for some spooky times?”

“I gotta say, sunshine, I’m impressed,” Alya said as the four of them started walking.

“Well, it’s not that hard to be brave this time.” Adrien stood a little closer to Marinette when he noticed her slight shivering. “It’s just a big, empty house after all. I’ve got plenty of experience with those.”

“I guess, dude. But this isn’t just any old abandoned building.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Nino. “That’s not what you said this morning. And I should know, since you called me to scream about how you’d found ‘this cool place to go exploring in’.”

“What Nino means to say is that we’ve done a bunch of research on it since then,” Alya cut in. “We’ve found some scary stuff that we’re sure is gonna freak you guys out.”

“Just for the record: I know that you’re lying,” Marinette said. “But I’m curious about your ghost stories.”

Alya pouted. “Well that takes half the fun out of it.” She shrugged. “Oh well. Let’s start with the story of the screaming girl in the walls…”

---------------------

Entering the house hadn’t been as difficult as Marinette would have hoped. Maybe it was because no one was really expecting someone to want to go exploring in a crumbling wreck, but regardless, it didn’t provide much of a deterrent to the teens sneaking inside. Marinette almost wished that it had been better locked down - maybe then they could’ve gone home early. While that would’ve meant she had snuck out for no reason, it also meant she wouldn’t have to explore a possibly haunted house close to midnight after listening to a bunch of ghost stories.

Somewhere deep in her bones, Marinette suspected that Alya and Nino were going to do their best to scare her and Adrien. They took way too much pleasure in that. Maybe that was the spirit of Halloween possessing them? Those fears seemed well founded at Alya’s next suggestion.

“Okay, gang. I think we should split up.”

Marinette shot her best friend a withering glare that she resolutely ignored.

“Oh, don’t give me that look, M. Look at this place!” Alya spread her hands to encompass the grand staircase leading upstairs and the corridors spreading out in three directions on this floor alone. “It’ll take us ages if we do this as one group and you know it.”

Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose. “So the groups will be-”

“You and sunshine down here, me and cappy upstairs, yes.”

That suspicion returned, although now she was wondering if Alya and Nino weren’t just going to sneak off and make out somewhere. At this point, they felt like equally likely possibilities.

Before Marinette could present her misgivings, Adrien said, “That sounds fine. You two have fun… ‘exploring’.” He waggled his eyebrows, prompting Alya to roll her eyes and Nino to grin.

Once the other two disappeared upstairs, Adrien bowed to Marinette and gestured towards the right hallway.

“Shall we?”

Marinette giggled and flipped her flashlight on. “We shall.”

Her courage nearly evaporated when she thought she heard tiny voices, like those of children, coming from somewhere nearby. It sounded like they were whispering to each other.

“Something wrong?”

She looked toward Adrien and his concerned eyes. Try as she might, she didn’t hear anything now. She shook her head. “...It was nothing, I think. Come on!”

After trudging through the darkness and over creaky floorboards, they came to a stuck door. Between the two of them, they managed to pry it open. A big, decaying table sat in the middle of what appeared to be a kitchen. Marinette picked up the sturdy looking candlestick that sat at the edge of the table.

While she hefted it in her hands, Adrien paused in his exploration of the cupboards to glance over to her. “Grabbing a souvenir? I didn’t realize you were the sticky fingers type, bugaboo.”

An embarrassed blush spread across her cheeks. “Um… about that... remind me to tell you about your phone later, okay?”

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment.

There was movement to her side and the quiet was broken when the table suddenly collapsed. Her own terrified squeak added to the noise as she dodged out of the way. Not that she needed to - none of the rotted wood got close to her.

Adrien was at her side in a moment, carefully looking at her feet and legs for any signs of injury. He breathed a sigh of relief.

“...Let’s keep moving, okay? I don’t really want to be in this room anymore.” He glared at the ruined table, as if daring it to try and attack her again.

She nodded mutely and they continued their search.

------------------

Alya let her light rake across the walls of the room, giving only a cursory glance at her surroundings. So far, exploring the house hadn’t been quite the adventure she had been hoping for. It made weird noises and smelled weird too. If they’d come during the day like the scaredy cats had wanted, she would’ve been bored to tears. As it stands, she was intrigued and her heartbeat was a little faster than usual.

Then again, she thought as she squeezed Nino’s hand, maybe that last part wasn’t because of the house at all.

“You really think we’ll find anything worth talking about here?” Nino tugged at his hat as he searched the corners of the room. “Dunno if we’ll even be able to put this in the presentation.”

She shrugged. “We might be able to if we keep it vague. But, honestly, this is more about freaking out Mari and blondie than anything else.”

“You’ve really got it out for them.” Nino chuckled. “You got a mean streak under all that sugar.”

“And don’t forget it, babe.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “But no, I just don’t get the excuse to mess with her a lot. At least, not like this. She’s pretty good at avoiding horror most of the time.”

“Oh man, you should have seen their faces during that sleepover when-”

They were both startled at the sound of a door slamming shut. Specifically, the one that led into the room they were in. After a moment of hesitation, Alya rushed forward to pull at the handle. Despite her fears, the door opened as easy as it had when they came in. Some of the tension left her. Not a lot, but a little.

“That was, uh…” Nino swallowed. “...Spooky.”

“Yeah…” Alya narrowed her eyes at the door. “Must have been-”

“Babe, I swear if you say it was just the wind I’m divorcing you right now.”

Despite how her heart was pounding, she smirked. “A shame we aren’t married. But seriously, these houses have weird air flow. One strong gust from outside and,” she clapped her hands together. “Door slams.”

“If you say so… Back to it, then?”

“Well, duh. It’s getting interesting now.”

---------------------

Nino definitely wasn’t having a good time now. Something about the place put him on edge. Like there was someone (or something) watching from the shadows. An omnipresent scratching sound that Alya had claimed was probably just some trees outside. The only light in the building was the one from the flashlights, which meant he was blind in almost all directions.

Atmospheric horror at its best. Exactly like he enjoyed out of a movie.

But also way too real for him to really appreciate.

“We’ve been in here like, what? Half an hour?” Nino whispered to Alya, one hand latched onto her sweater sleeve. “We can probably call it quits now, right?”

“Come on, babe! Things are just getting interesting now!”

To his dismas, he realized she was leading him towards the scratching sound. He mentioned this out loud.

“Well, it’s our only lead right now. It could just be a tree or an animal or whatever.”

“Yeah, well, if it isn’t? What then?”

“Then we have some real ghost action up in here!” Alya put her ear close to the door they’d reached. “Now, shush. Whatever is making that sound is on the other side.” She put a hand on the door knob and grinned.

When she pushed open the door, her grin immediately vanished, replaced with a mask of horror. It wasn’t an animal or a tree. But they found what the scratching was about.

Carved into the wall in big, scrawled letters were the words, “STUPID GHOST.”

-----------------

Adrien and Marinette had doubled back to the staircase and went down the big, central hall. A lot of little things had started piling up on their minds - faint cackling, weird smells, small things crumbling like the table - and suddenly they didn’t want to stray very far from the entry any more. The only thing still keeping them there was bullheaded stubbornness and not wanting to leave their friends behind.

That brought them to what Adrien assumed was the living room. At least, that’s the sense that he got from the mouldering couches and the dead fireplace. Any other hints about what had been here had long since been eaten up by time.

They both heard a scraping noise, like metal on stone, and froze. It was really getting to them, but Adrien was having just about enough. So he did the one thing he knew would take both of their minds off of it. He put his hands on Marinette’s shoulders.

“Mari?”

“Hm?”

“We should go on a date after this.”

She stopped and looked wide eyed at him. “I- What?”

“You and me, flowers, chocolate, you’ll wear a pretty dress you made. It’ll be great.”

“That…” She swallowed and gave a weak smile. “That sounds amazing. I’d love to.” Marinette hugged herself and shivered. She jumped when Adrien wrapped an arm around her, but shot a grateful look up at him. “Th-thanks, Adrien. I hate the cold.”

At that moment, the fireplace flared to life, startling both of them. Carved into the stone in the back, where they couldn’t see before, was a single sentence:

YOU DIDN’T SAY GOODBYE.

With that, the two of them bolted from the room into the hallway. The house was suddenly alive with sound as Alya and Nino rushed down the stairs at the same time. Everyone began talking excitedly all at once. Adrien risked a glance behind him, towards the abandoned living room. His eyes widened and he pointed a trembling finger at the shadowy figure behind them.

“G-ghost! Demon! Thing!”

Which was more or less accurate - he couldn’t get a good sense of the shape of the creature, but there were tendrils of inky blackness that caused things to rot and crumble when it brushed against them. There was a wall of sound that he belatedly realized was the four of them screaming at once before they were suddenly a flurry of limbs rushing towards the exit. There was a sound of metal hitting wood as Marinette dropped the candlestick in her haste.

The main doors slammed shut behind them.

--------------------

They didn’t stop running until they’d put a couple blocks between them and the house.

Alya managed to speak between gasps of breath, “So that was… something. Very spooky.” The combined glares of the other three proved deafening. “Okay, fine, fine. I’ll take full blame if we get permanently haunted ‘cuz of this. Let’s just go home, alright?”

“You mind if I come over to your place, babe? I, uh… Don’t want to be by myself right now.”

“I’m very glad you asked first. Yes. Let’s watch a rom com or four.”

“Throw in a spy flick and we’ll call it good.”

Trailing a little behind the other two, Adrien weaved his fingers between Marinette’s and whispered, “So does Saturday sound alright to you?”

She blinked up at him. “Huh?”

“For the best date of our lives?”

No response except more blinking.

“Mari, say something. I already promised flowers and chocolates and I can't break that promise now-mmmmph!"

He was suddenly cut off by her pulling him down to her level and pressing her lips to his.

She sighed against him and whispered back, “Saturday sounds wonderful, kitty.”

---------------------

An hour earlier...

“Come on, Sugarcube! It’ll be fun.”

Plagg floated around Tikki in an abandoned closet under the staircase. He’d dragged her off while their chosen had been focused on entering the house.

“I don’t know, Plagg… It seems awfully mean.”

“But, sugarcube, when was the last time we got to celebrate Samhain? It’s been centuries! Opportunities like this don’t come around that often.”

Despite herself Tikki smirked. “Well… I don’t see any jack o'lanterns around. If they didn’t want to be haunted, they should have taken the proper steps against malevolent spirits.”

“That’s the spirit! Why don’t you go after the spectacles gang. Take some revenge on behalf of your little bug.”

Tikki’s eyes narrowed. She hadn’t been very appreciative on how they’d been pushing Marinette into these situations.

“I think I’d like that a lot.” She started to phase through the floors before quickly returning. “Oh! I almost forgot - Happy Samhain, stinky sock.”

Plagg grinned back at her. “And a happy Samhain to you too, Tik.”

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 41

Time for Maverick to meet Conor!  I’ll be honest, the initial meeting was not what you think it will be.  Honestly, it wasn’t what I expected, but I can’t always control them...

Maverick decided to hang around for a while and keep me company.  To be honest, I was more than a little grateful for it – after the unexpected heart-to-heart, I was feeling a little too raw to be alone. The conversation quickly turned to much lighter topics, such as my plants and the history of black cats in my family.  He told me about how he became a pilot, and about his life Before in return.  I was sitting in the general living area of my quarters, telling Maverick about how I fell in love with cooking, when Conor arrived after his shift.

Still sweating and stinking – nothing new, he usually came directly to my quarters and showered there – he scooped me into a fragrant hug before holding me at arm’s length. “How did it go? Did you meet with Grandma Kim?”  His head snapped up to look behind me right as I heard Maverick stand from where he had been on the couch.

“Sophia, are you okay?” Maverick asked cautiously.

“Who the feck are you?” Conor asked with a glare.

“This is Maverick, the pilot who was on Level One. He is the only person who can fly this ship on manual, and is teaching Tyche to fly anything she wants to get her hands on,” I responded, stepping back to stand equally between them. “Maverick Okima, this is Conor MacMaoilir, construction worker, botanist, and my personal protector whether I like it or not.  He’s one of my closest friends, loves to eat, and is a lot smarter than he gives himself credit for.”  I walked past Maverick and sat on the couch, waiting patiently.  After a moment of both still standing and glaring at each other with suspicion, I crossed my arms. “Sit down if you’re staying. You are both entirely too tall for me to keep looking up at, so either sit down or leave.”

To his credit, Maverick shrugged and sat on the other end of my couch. After a moment, Conor relented and followed suit.

He also made a point to sit squarely between me and the other man in the room.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” I nearly shouted. “Stop the damned pissing contest! Conor would die rather than let me get hurt, and Maverick was one of the people who interrupted the attack on Level One. Seriously, if you two would just chill the fuck out, you would get along great. I promise. Conor, tell Maverick about Antoine’s project.”

Unable to resist a chance to nerd-out at his leisure, Conor started to explain.  At first, he was hesitant, but finally his enthusiasm got the better of him.  As I had expected, Maverick was immediately enthralled with the idea. After a technical interlude that I could just barely follow, Maverick’s eyes lit up with an idea. “Sophia! You should have this installed in your implant when it’s ready!”

Conor jerked with realization before snapping his head around to look at me. “He’s right. You and Tyche, both, probably.  No more startling noises or unexpected close contact setting of your anxiety and trauma.”

I smiled at the success of the ice-breaker before gently shaking my head. “I may get it eventually, but I want Derek and Sam to be the first. But the idea did cross my mind, trust me.”

“Oh! That reminds me. How did your meeting with Grandma Kim go?” Conor turned to fully face me, only to swing his head back around when Maverick clutched his ribs and laughed.

“Dude, you should have seen her!” he gasped. “When I got here, Sophia was apparently taking a nap. This ‘nice elderly lady’ let me in, one hand reaching for her hip, showed me to Sophia’s room to wake her up.  I open the door, and this big damned dog is on the bed and growling at me like a freaking demon or something. I thought I was gonna die! Then, she wakes up, tells the dog to chill out, and wants me to sit on the bed, with the thing that was about to kill me.  When she told me Grandma Kim has combat training, I realized the ‘nice elderly lady’ wasn’t reaching for her hip because it hurt… she probably had a freaking knife!”

Conor turned back to me, wide-eyed. “So it went well, I take it? You actually took a nap?”

I nodded, a small smile on my face. “Yeah.  I was exhausted after speaking with her, and she told me I should get some rest.  When I explained the issue with sleeping, she offered to stay while Lyric took a nap with me. It worked better than I expected, honestly.”

“And the knife?”

“I had no clue, but it definitely adds points on how seriously she takes her job and what she knows about me.  She didn’t know Maverick from a hole in the ground, so waiting to see how I reacted to him was smart, and playing it off as a hip injury was clever.”

“You aren’t going to say anything about the dog that nearly tore my throat out?” Maverick sounded a little put out.

“Lyric was part of the reason Sophie even met with her,” Conor admitted. “Professional nurturer with a trained guard and support dog?  Big bonus.”  Conor reached out and squeezed my forearm gently before putting his hand on my knee. “She takes care of everyone, so we’ll turn her quarters into Fort Knox if that’s what it takes to make her feel safer.”

Maverick collapsed slightly as tension I hadn’t even noticed left his shoulders. “That’s good.  It’s the whole reason I wanted to stay until someone else got here. I’m glad you appreciate her.  She’s nice.”

“She’s also sitting right here,” I grumbled, ears turning red. “Is that what the pissing contest was over?  Making sure I’m safe from each other?”

“Yes,” they answered in unison before glancing at each other and smirking.

Groaning, I covered my face to hide the flush. “Oh gods, now there’s two of you! I’m going to have to agree to Grandma Kim being here just to get any privacy!”

They laughed, but I didn’t miss the nodding between them in agreement.

“Okay, okay, new topic,” I waved my hands at them. “Conor, how is the general attitude of the ship?  Everyone seems on edge whenever I’m in the corridor, but that could just be because it’s me.”

He shook his head. “Nope, not just you. Don’t get me wrong, things have calmed down some since the trial, but folks are still on edge. The whole ship is quiet and tense.”

“Maybe they just need food,” Maverick’s face twisted into something like confusion. “I know I’m probably the last person to mention that, but trying different foods with the guys has cheered me up a lot. I’m just saying.”

Conor cocked an eyebrow at me, so I explained the other man’s history with eating and Team New Foods to him.  He nodded. “That actually isn’t a bad idea.  The food festival for Insert Winter Holiday was a huge success, and that was done on short notice. Depending on when Bash decides to open his pub, you could try to schedule it for the same time as that?”

“Wait. Sebastian Reed decided to open a pub after all?” I asked, astonished.  He had been rather reluctant when I originally spoke to him about it.

“Oh, right, I forgot to tell you,” he rubbed his neck in embarrassment. “Yeah, I ran into him in one of the cafeterias and we got to talking.  I told him how much good it would do for morale, hashed out a few things to prevent any alcohol abuse, that sort of thing.  He agreed that, in the long run, it would do more good than harm to have something like that, and at least if it was him, he could keep a close eye on anyone who was trying to drink away their problems instead of talking to someone.”

“Right,” I agreed. “And who better to tend bar and keep an eye on people like that than a professional nurturer?”

Maverick got off the couch and came around to crouch next to us so he could join the conversation. “A professional nurturer? Is that like Grandma Kim?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We have quite a few on the ship, actually.  Antoine was one, now he co-ordinates them, apparently. Which, again, no-one told me…” I scowled at Conor.

He threw his hands up in defense. “First I’m hearing about it, love. So don’t give me that look. Take it up with Tyche.”

I shook my head with a sigh. “Honestly, it’s not like anyone was required to tell me. I just… I don’t like hearing about things like that from a stranger, that’s all.  I used to get to hear all this during family dinners, and now…”

Conor patted my shoulder. “I know the feeling.  We all go so used to ‘oh I’ve got something to tell everyone Wednesday’, that we don’t think to tell each other any other time, right?”

“You said you hoped you would be able to do your family dinners again,” Maverick pointed out. “Maybe having Grandma Kim here will help?”

“I still can’t cook yet,” I explained. “Until I’m not on a medication schedule anymore, I have to eat food from the console so Noah can make sure I’m getting everything.”

“You do remember Tyche can cook, too?” Conor looked at me pointedly. “And we can start small. You, your sister, me, Antoine at first. Then add one or two extra seats when you feel better.  We can run it by Antoine to see if it would add to or slow down your recovery, from a mental perspective.”

I threw my head back on the couch. “Ugh!  That’s the worst part about having a therapist in the family, now. I can’t get away with anything.”

Conor and Maverick just laughed at my antics.

With a chuckle, Maverick pointed at me. “You could just mom all over him until he caves.”

That set Conor howling. “That’s perfect! ‘Mom’ all over him!  I’ve never heard it put like that, but it’s perfect!”

“Whoa, slow down, guys,” I held up my hands with a smile. “There’s a problem with your idea.  Have either of you ever seen that work on Antoine?”

They both sobered up and glanced at each other.  Conor looked like he was getting a brain cramp trying to think about it. “Okay, that wouldn’t work. He’s pretty dote-proof,” the Irishman admitted. “Unless it’s Tyche, but I don’t see you convincing her, either. Those two are immune to your wily cooking ways.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you and Antoine disagree….” Maverick rubbed his face thoughtfully. “You usually work together like a team.”

I nodded. “Exactly.  Tyche and I work well together out of practice and lots of trial and error.  We didn’t even really speak to each other until she was almost twenty, to be honest. Antoine and I work well together because we are willing to admit when the other is right and we’re wrong. Despite how incredibly professional our relationship seems, we both love my sister, and we have a lot of respect for each other.”  I groaned again. “Which means I can’t argue when he says something will or won’t help my recovery, because I know he’s right.”

“Small dinners at first,” Conor repeated.  “We already know the four of us, together, won’t set off anything.”

Maverick nodded. “I hope that works, because I really want to come at least once.”

“I’ll put you on the list,” I promised.

Our conversation was interrupted by an alert to my data band.  It was from Simon: “I know it’s your day off, but I need you to come to the Council Chamber tomorrow. They have approved your new assistant.”

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[childofthemoon86]

@francisandtheworldweek Day 3: Teaching each other to dance

Two Steps to Dance

Pairing: (pre)FrUk Characters: France, England, America, Gaul, Britannia. Rating: T for language Word count: 3509 Cross posted on FF.net Summary: France has a secret. A few in fact, but one of them is that he’s not a very good dancer. But that’s not going to stop him from stunning everyone with his move at the Dance Festival. He just needs someone to secretly teach him first. Time to pay England a visit…

“Absolutely not.” “Please Angleterre.” England huffed, angrily throwing down his needlepoint to glare at France. “Just what part of ‘no’ don’t you seem to get Frog?” France bit his lip in worry. Of all things, he was certain he’d never beg England of all people for help, but, here he is. He considers leaving, after all, it’s not like Arthur is the only one who could teach him. He could always ask Spain, Toni is bound to know how to teach him right? But if he goes to him, Toni will definitely tell Prussia about his eh, lack of skill, and then he’ll never hear the end of it. And he dare not ask America, lest he risk throwing out his back, or gaining some other painful injury. No, Francis sighs, anyone else he goes to is bound to turn him into a laughingstock for the next decade. So, as much as it pains him to have to ask England for anything, he’s the only one he can trust to teach him, because there’s no way Arthur would admit to being an expert. Dropping down onto the sofa next to the green eyed man, Francis pleads, “Come on Arthur, I really need your help.” Raising a bushy eyebrow at him, Arthur scoots back, putting as much distance between them as the three seater allows. “Why is it, every time I have a day off, you always turn up to ruin my day?” It takes a lot of self restraint for Francis not to snap at Arthur for being his usual unhelpful self. Or to tease him that if he didn’t what Francis to come visit, then why’d he never ask for the spare key to his house back. Arthur knows he has it, and it wasn’t like it was hard to steal. Instead, he forces himself to stay amicable. “I don’t always visit on your days off.” “No, you also feel the inexplicable need to bother me on your days off too.” Finally growing too annoyed, Francis snaps, “And why can’t you just do this one nice thing for me?” “Oh what sort of fool do you take me for?” England snaps back, glaring at Francis, “Do you honestly expect me to believe you, of all people, can’t dance?” “Please Angleterre, I’m begging you!” Francis cries, throwing himself onto the other man’s chest, “Teach me how to square dance!” Rather than answer him, Arthur twists around, swinging a leg up to kick France off of him, sending the man sprawling back over the arm of the other side of the couch. Why Francis expected any other reaction, even he’s not sure. He watch’s as Arthur angrily stands, but before he can storm out of the room, Francis lunges at him again, tumbling off the couch to grab England’s legs as he lies on the floor. “Pleassssse!” He continues to beg, fighting to keep a hold on Arthur while the other attempts to break free. “Let go Frog!” “No! Not until you agree to help me!” “What even makes you think I know how to square dance?” “I’ve seen you! Please, just teach meeeee!” “Oh for the love of-” Arthur growls, halting in his attempt to kick Francis off of him, “If I agree to help you, will you leave me alone?” Francis grinned happily up at him, putting on his best charm, “Oui, I promise I won’t bug you anymore. Just as soon as you teach me.” Huffing in barely contained contempt, England gives in. “Fine. Now let go of me.” Smiling wide at his success, France jumps to his feet, dusting himself off before looking expectantly to Arthur. “So, when do we begin?” “Well not in here, obviously. We’ll need to go somewhere with more space.” “Lead the way then.” Arthur sighs again, making this out to be such a hassle. Honestly, France wonders how this man enjoy’s anything besides arguing all the time. “Just why exactly do you want me to teach you? And why square dancing of all things?” Francis blinks in surprise, “You haven’t heard yet?” “Hear what?” Arthur looks highly suspicious, and suddenly things start to make sense to Francis. “Hasn’t Amérique messaged you yet?” Arthur frowns, looking around for his phone, “Probably. But it’s my day off, and I refuse to spend it going through the mindless drivel he sends me every twenty minutes.” That… is actually something France can agree on. The strange humour of the younger nations these days is beyond him. Finally England locates his phone, it having fallen off the coffee table during their scuffle, and starts to sift through all the messages from Alfred since yesterday. Francis comes over to help, raising an eyebrow at the number of ‘memes’ the boy seems to deem necessary to send. “What is ‘Big Mood’?” “Don’t ask.” Arthur sighs that long suffering sigh of a man given up on trying to understand. “Ah, this one!” Francis points, happy to find the right message, while Arthur frowns down at the one of dozens of annoying texts sent from the boy. Dudes check this out!!!! 👀👣👣🤩 url “I’m not clicking some random link from him.” England huffs, moving to just delete the text, but Francis beats him to it, opening the link. A second later and an annoyingly bright and flashy website fills the screen, proudly proclaiming Summer Dance Festival. “See?” Francis asks, scrolling down the page to the invite list and those already signed up. “What the?!” Arthur roared at seeing his own name listed, along with pretty much the rest of the world. “Why the hell-? Oh, when I get my hands on that boy!” Francis temporarily ignored, England furiously dialled America and, much to France’s amusement, noticed that Arthur has him on speed dial. Deciding it’s best to get out of England’s immediate striking range, Francis heads for the kitchen. While he busies himself with making tea, the sound of angry shouting filters through to him. “Alfred F. Jones, what the bloody hell do you think your playing at?!” … “Don’t you ‘hey dude me’!” … “…oh what ever gave you that idea?” … “…I sound upset do I?... No I’m furious! You-” … “Fun?! When have I ever-? …You didn’t consult-… oh and I suppose you have everyone else’s blessing for this?” … “That’s what I thought.” … “Good cause or not-! …Yes… No… Well now your just-… Argh! Fine!” The volume slowly decreases, and Francis smiles in wonderment at how Alfred can so easily convince Arthur. Perhaps he should ask him sometime… Tea made, France heads back into the living room to find Arthur resignedly slumped on his sofa once more, sighing into the phone. “Fine, fine. I’ll see you Sunday, but don’t expect me to like it.” Once he hangs up, Francis smiles softly and sits beside him, offering the tea in Arthur’s favourite mug to him. It’s times like this that Francis remembers just how well he knows Arthur. Without even thinking, he’d made Camomile tea just the way England likes it, knowing it’s the blonds go-to for de-stressing. He blinks out of his thoughts, sipping at his own drink, but still he can’t help but see the thankful glance Arthur sends him as he sighs into his tea. Moments like this are some of the few times things can actually be genuinely peaceful between them, and Francis wonders at his strange longing for more moments like these… He shakes himself out of such thoughts, setting his drink down and forcing himself to end the moment. “So?” He asks. “So?” Arthur parrots back. “The festival? You agreed?” “Well I can’t very well back out now can I? What sort of nation would I be to not turn up for a charity event.” He sighs, leaning back and holding his cup in his lap, “So this is why you want me to teach you square dancing?” “Oui, it is the main event.” “Alright. Well, we don’t have much time before Sunday, so you better be ready for a crash course.” He sighs again, though this time he sounds much calmer, a good sign for Francis, “Damn that boy. Why on Earth did he pick Cumberland Squares as the main dance?” France tries to hide his grin as he thinks to himself, probably because he knew picking one of your dances would make you more likely to turn up. Suddenly sitting up, Arthur turns to Francis and frowns, “Alright now shoo.” “Eh?” “Go on, get out. I now have to go arrange somethings, and I can’t have you under foot all day, so get!” “What am I to you, a cat?” “No,” Arthur smirks cheekily, “cat’s are useful.” X “Arthur?” Francis called quietly as he entered the lobby. When Arthur said he’d find a place for them to practice, he didn’t actually think he’d get a dance hall for them. “Hello there, can I help you?” The receptionist asks at seeing him looking lost. Switching on the charm, Francis smiles warmly as he walks over, “Oui, I am supposed to be meeting someone here today. Do you know if Arthur Kirkland is here yet?” The woman blinks, them smiles back, “Oh, you must be the last one then. Mr. Kirkland is in Hall B with the others.” Francis nods, thanking her before wandering off to find England, while also wondering what she meant by ‘the others’. He soon finds out however, when he enters hall B, finding Arthur along with six other humans milling about. “Arthur?” He asks curiously as he walks in. “Finally. Your late.” Is the first thing England says to him, before calling out to the room, “Alright, places everyone.” Francis is starting to feel a bit out of his depth as like a switch being flipped, everyone moves at once. He watches as they form three pairs and stand like a square; two pairs facing each other one way, and the other facing Arthur the opposite way. Impatiently, Arthur looks over at Francis, raising an eyebrow at him, “Well? Are you coming?” Slowly, Francis makes his way over to Arthur’s side, guessing that he’s going to be paired with him, and Arthur quickly shoves him to stand on his right. Once at his side, Arthur turns to address the group. “Everyone, this is the Frog I mentioned, Francis. Frog, this is the Two Sisters Dance Troupe. They kindly agreed to help your sorry arse out, so be grateful.” Despite Arthur’s sour attitude, none of the dancers seem put off by it, in fact, a few of them seem more amused than anything. The first to introduce themselves is a short blond girl to Arthur’s left. “Hi! I’m Sindy and this here’s my boyfriend Markus.” She beams, hugging the taller teens arm. “That there’s my big sis Clara and our cousin Jamie.” She continues, pointing to the pair at Francis’s right. “And the last two here are Yasmine and Sonya!” She ends, indicating the pair of young women across from Francis and Arthur. “Bonjour.” He nods to the group, relaxing more as he sees how easy going they all seem. “Yes, yes,” Arthur huffs moodily, “We don’t have all day, so let’s get started. Try to keep up Frog.” He then glares pointedly, “And if you step on my toes, we’re done, got it?” “Oui.” Francis winks, smiling when Sindy and Yasmine giggle at the act, making Arthur grow flustered. “Good. We’ll go through the step slowly first, then try the full thing with music later, got it?” “Anything you say mon cher.” Arthur glares at the pet name, no doubt suspecting Francis is acting up for the groups amusement, but begins anyway. “Well then, first thing you need to know for the Cumberland Squares Frog, is we have top couples; those who have their front or back to the music, and side couples; those who have their side to the music. So Markus and James are top pairs, we and Yasmine make up the side pairs. We’re doing it this way so you can see the moves before trying them, and also because those two have a male/female paring, makes it easier to demonstrate with. Now this dance works in a sequence of Tops, then Sides copy, Tops repeat, then Sides again, get it?” Arthur explains. “Oui, I think I follow so far.” “Good, then let’s try the first part. Tops face each other in an elongated pose side on.” Arthur orders and Francis watches as the two pairs turn, spreading their arms out wide and clasping hands. “Now the guys slide back to back for eight, then back again with the girls back to back. Go.” Just like that the pairs are off, side stepping toward the centre, Markus and James pass back to back just like Arthur said, all while the two ladies and Arthur clap to maintain a rhythm, with Arthur counting out the timing. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and back, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and stop. Good, then when they return to home, we Side pairs do the same.” Francis blinks, jumping to face Arthur, surprised that the other man isn’t putting up any protest at holding hands. But Francis becomes so distracted with this that he fails to keep up with the sudden movement, resulting in Arthur half dragging him for the first few steps before he forces himself to pay attention to his feet. With Arthur taking the lead, Francis Just has to follow along with his moves. It should be easy, but no matter how hard he tries to focus, the feeling of Arthur’s hands in his and how close their bodies are is just too distracting. The trip was inevitable. Francis isn’t exactly a bad dancer per-say, he’s taken part in plenty of court dances in the past, but now it’s like he has two left feet as he stumbles over himself and tumbles to the ground, almost bringing England down with him. “For God’s sake!” Arthur grumbles as he catches himself, cheeks oddly tinted pink, “Can’t you at least try to have some semblance of coordination?” “Sorry, Sorry!” Quickly jumping to his feet, Francis rejoins hands with Arthur, and they restart the move. Thankfully for both their dignities, Francis is at least able to focus long enough to follow the steps through without falling again. “Right,” Arthur huffs, stepping back slightly from Francis, “Next part is the right and left hand stars. Pretty simple, top couples step into the centre, raising their right hands first to touch at a point in the middle, and then do eight walks to the right, then back again with left hands to the left. Go.” Carefully Francis watches as the pairs move just like Arthur said, this time also clapping along to the beat. “…2, 3, 4, 5, 6 And left hands, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and back to home. Then side couples.” Taking the cue, Francis moves in, raising his right hand up to join the star and walk the circle. This one, he’s happy to do without trouble. “Good, now the next part is the most difficult of the dance, so pay attention frog.” Arthur glares pointedly at him again, before going on to explain, “This part is called the Basket or The Helicopter. First top couples move in to a tight circle in the middle, then the guys link hands behind the ladies waists, and the ladies hold on at the shoulders for grip. Next we do what’s called a heel and toe polka. Place the right foot forward and put your weight on it, then do a cross step to the right. The point of this move is to spin fast enough to lift the ladies feet off the ground as you spin for eight. Then when you finish, guys make sure to keep a hold of your partner so no one goes flying. Now go.” Francis blinks, Arthur wasn’t kidding when he said this part was complicated. The others make it look easy as they rotate, Markus and James easily lifting Sindy and Clara up, their feet swinging out behind them to Arthur’s counting. They separate and return to base, making room for Francis and Arthur to join Yasmine and Sonya in the middle. As Arthur clasps his hand with Yasmine at Francis’s waist and Francis is forced to hold onto the blonds shoulder, he becomes hyper aware of just how close Arthur is. Heat rushes to his face of it’s own accord, and dread fills him as he just knows he’s going to mess this up. There’s no way he can concentrate like this. The deep frown remains on Arthur’s face as he begins counting, and immediately Francis loses all sense of footing, tripping into Yasmine and breaking the circle apart, this time, actually pulling Arthur down too. “God damn it Frog!” England roars, face red as he pushes Francis off of him. “Why don’t we take a break?” Sonya suggests before a fight can start. Without a word Arthur storms out, leaving Francis bewildered on the floor. As soon as he’s gone though, Sindy grins wide and laughs, “Ha! Toooooold you~ Pay up Jamie!” France watches in confusion as the lanky teen sighs, before going over to the bags in the corner and fishing out a £20 note to hand to his cousin. “Don’t worry about them.” Clara smiles, offering Francis a hand up. “They made a bet?” “Yeah,” she nods slowly, shifting from foot to foot. “Am I really that bad?” Fran sighs. “Oh no, it’s not that! Well, I mean, your not great, but not terrible! Just…” She trails off, seeming unsure if she should really be talking about this. “Just?” He presses, but Sindy jumps in before she can answer. “So when’s the wedding?” “Sindy!” Clara cries in shock, slapping a hand over her sisters mouth. “Oh don’t be so prude.” Sonya huffs, rolling her eyes at the pair. “It’s plain as day for anyone to see,” she turns to look up at Francis, “You like Mr. Kirkland right? He sure likes you.” “Eh?” Francis balks, shocked at the suggestion. “Don’t play dumb! You like him~” Sindy sings from behind her sisters hand. “Non, Non, you’ve got it all wrong! We’re just…” Francis tries to explain, but finds himself unsure what to say. Just what is England to him? A friend? Enemy? Occasional drunken night fling, forgotten by the morning? He’s always tried to avoid labelling their relationship, it’s just too complicated for him to think about. And he always thought he and Arthur had an unspoken agreement never to discuss, well, them. But how does he go explaining that to a bunch of young humans? “Here,” Yasmine suddenly says, bringing Francis out of his spiralling thoughts, “Let’s do a test. Pair with me, Sonya, you go with James. Let’s run through the Basket again.” Francis thinks he knows what they’re up to, and the logical part of him is screaming at him not to do it. You don’t want to know the answer, it’ll only make things more complicated than they already are! But, he’s always been a man to be ruled by his heart over his head, and his hearts telling him to go along with them. It’s just like his head was warning him, he does the move perfectly, no distraction to be found. Yasmine beams, voicing what Francis has dread being true, “You like Mr. Kirkland. That’s why you’ve been messing up.” “And he likes you~” Sindy pipes up again. This is suddenly all too much for Francis to reconcile with. After centuries of skirting around each other and denying his feelings, to have a group of kids telling him the truth he’s tried so hard to avoid… He needs air. As he rushes out, an old, long forgotten memory flutters back to him. X The sea breeze ruffled Francis’s hair as he held his mothers hand, following her to the small settlement ahead. There, they met up with a woman with hair like fire, and the fiercest green eyes he’d ever seen, carrying a bundle of cloth nestled in her arms. She’d be scary, if it weren’t for the warm smile she shared with his mother. “Gaul,” the woman sighs tiredly, “you came.” “Anything for you Britannia dear.” His mother smiles. The woman, Britannia, then turned to him, and smiled, “You must be Francis. Look, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Her eyes were soft as she kneeled down, holding out the cloth bundle to him. And in it he saw a  sleeping baby, an infant no more than a few days old, but instinctively Francis could tell he was just like them. And when those bright green eyes opened at him for the first time, Francis instantly fell in love. And he’s been in love ever since… X As he bursts out the lobby, Francis halts on the steps to the street, coming face to face with those very same eyes. He takes a deep breath and steps forward. Moment of truth…

[fairstarlights]

Influence - Chapter 7

Summary: With everyone gone and out of the way for a couple days, Patton was looking forward to a few quiet days by himself. Nothing can really be that easy. Pairings: Moxiety, (one sided) Prinxiety, Logince (eventually) Chapter Word Count: Long Genre: Romance/A bit of angst General Story Warning: Depression, anxiety, intense fear, slightly graphic descriptions of nightmares (death,injury), overwhelming feelings, supportive Virgil, eventual fluff and happy ending. Chapter Warnings:  A brief Deceit mention, that’s it. This chapters tame. Notes: As you will see. It’s starting to get romantic. Kinda cutesy, still a bit of angst cause I can’t seem to let go of it yet hahaha. But its almost over and I’m pretty much gonna make you wait as long as possible for the really big outcome to happen. I mean you’re gonna get all the romance and fluff I can possibly dish out in 8 to half of 10 but you also get a surprise in this chapter. 

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3] [Chapter 4] [Chapter 5] [Chapter 6] [You are here] [Chapter 8] [Chapter 9] [Chapter 10] (crossed out if not yet posted)

“Crap crap!” Virgil whispered. He didn't have much time to think or do much else before his door was thrown open.

“Roman, calm down!” Came Patton's voice from behind Roman, who was now standing in the doorway.

“Who else would have gone to Thomas?” Roman said, turning to Patton. “He is Morality now. He probably thinks its his moral obligation to get Thomas in on this.” Virgil frowned.

“Hey! Don't forget I was once Morality too, I wouldn't have done that in this situation.”

“Yeah, but this is Virgil, not you.” That stung and Virgil felt the anger bubble up in his chest.

“I don't understand why you hate me.” Virgil kept his voice calm, but there was a hint of hurt in his voice. Roman turned to him. “I haven't even done anything to you or anyone else. This Influence thing, yeah, I could have told you. That is my fault, but I didn't expect in my wildest dreams that Patton, of all people, would return my feelings.” Virgil looked at Patton, who was barely visible, then back to Roman, who held no expression. “I didn't expect you to-” Virgil paused. What word could he use? De-humanize? No. They weren't human. De-Side? Virgil eyebrows shot up and his lips turned up. Oh my god. That was an actual word. Virgil covered his mouth as a laugh almost escaped him. It wasn't that funny, it really wasn't.

“Virgil?” Came Logan's voice and Virgil turned around. “This really isn't the time for laughter.” After a few seconds Virgil composed himself but didn't turn around. Man, he was still really tired. He rubbed his eyes then paused. Wait. He turned around so fast it started everyone. “Uh, sorry, but I gott-”

Tug

Okay, that one hurt and it showed on everyone's faces.

“You guy's go to Thomas, see what he wants. I'll join you in a few minutes.” Virgil said as he headed toward his bathroom.

“Uh...what are you doing?” Patton asked.

“I'm just curious.” Virgil paused at the entrance of the bathroom, “Oh, Patton. I don't know how you should arrive. You can try rising up or just appearing, if you can even do that. I'm not sure if the appearing is something I can do because I've always been a darker side, but do whatever feels natural.” He didn't wait for an answer as he walked in and closed the door behind him.

He was in the bathroom for about five minutes before he finally sunk out and rose up Thomas' living room. Huh. He didn't get light-headed. He was in his usual spot on the stairs. It was unnaturally quiet, everyone was staring at him and Thomas was giving him a concerned look.

“Sup?” He said casually. No one answered, just more staring. “Okay, now you're making me feel self conscious.” Thomas was the first one to speak.

“I think, I can fairly speak for everyone here when I say we are all just a bit...surprised.”

Virgil shrugged, “Does it look bad?”

Thomas blinked and put his hands up, “No! It's just unexpected. You always have your eye shadow on.” Thomas went to look away but he looked over Virgil a bit more then looked at everyone else. As if looking for answers. No one said anything, till Logan finally spoke up.

“I expect you summoned us here for a reason, Thomas?”

“Well, yeah.” Thomas as he pushed his hair back. “I feel kind of off. I though I'd check in. Is something up?” He seemed to look directly at Virgil when he said the last part. That wasn't completely unexpected, though he wished he had kept the eye shadow on now. He didn't need it now, but it was apart of him. Like Patton's cat hoodie. He wanted to sink down and reapply it.

Patton eyed Virgil and he had caught it but didn't say anything. Roman was being unusually quiet and it was going to give the impression something was wrong away. Although, they really should tell Thomas. Virgil was conflicted. If he was asked, of course he wasn't going to lie. None of them lied to Thomas. No one that currently had a physical presence in the room was going to anyway.

Thomas looked around at everyone and when he realized he wasn't going to get an answer he sighed. “Okay, I get it, its a Deceit thing, right?” Still no one answered. Virgil internally groaned, of course they were going to leave this up to him and Patton.

“No, its not Deceit. There is something going on, you're not wrong about that.” Virgil looked at Patton who was covering his eyes with hand, his glasses pushed up. Virgil looked back to Thomas, who had followed Virgil's gaze and was staring at Patton.

“What's wrong with Patton? He doesn't look like he feels good.”

“He probably doesn't, honestly.” Virgil looked back at Patton. “He is- I mean...” Virgil closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Patton isn't Morality and I'm not Anxiety anymore.”

“Whoa, hey! Hold up!” Virgil opened his eyes and looked at Thomas, who looked beyond confused. “How did that happen? What does that even mean? Does another Side have it?”

“Yeah, meet the new Anxiety.” Virgil tilted his head towards Patton. Thomas looked at Patton, who smiled sheepishly. Thomas just looked lost. “I'm the new Morality.” There was a long silence. Roman looked bored and Logan was looking on in interest.

“How?” Thomas finally asked. How was Thomas going to react to his own aspect of his personality falling for each other? He was apart of Thomas, he was Thomas' Morality now, he should know how he would feel about it. But he didn't. Instead he felt every emotion in the room. Confusion, anger, curiosity, anxiousness but yet a lot of love. It was overwhelming. How did Patton do this everyday?

“I feel in love with Patton. When darker sides have feelings for another side their, uh- trait or their aspect, becomes shared.” He explained the rest to Thomas in full detail. He even explained the transfer that happened not that long ago. Thomas opened and closed his mouth a few times, making him look kind of like a fish. Virgil looked around the room and noticed that Patton was gone. Virgil looked around the room, had he sunk out already? Oh no.

“I'm right here.” Virgil jumped and looked down. Patton was sitting on one of the steps, leaning against the banister. Virgil couldn't see Patton's face as he was faced away but his emotions were all over the place, Patton needed to calm down. Virgil sat beside Patton but didn't look at him. He looked to Logan  and hoped his eyes convey the words he was thinking. Logan didn't seem to understand at first. Virgil looked back to Thomas who was still looking on in silence. Logan sighed.

“We will take it from here.” Virgil nodded and took Patton's hand.

“Come on, Pat. Let's go talk.”

“Yeah. Leave us to work out your problems while you two love birds go talk about your feelings.”

“Roman. I know you're angry with Virgil, but you're being extra inconsiderate and rude. I've given situation more thought and I don't believe Virgil did anything wrong to warrant any of your words or behaviors towards him.”

“What words and behaviors?” Thomas piped up, looking at Roman. The Prince looked down at the floor, arms crossed tightly against his chest.

“He hasn't been the kindest towards Virgil since this whole ordeal began.”

“I thought you two were getting along now.”

“I did too.” Virgil said. “But then he turned around and called me a monster.”

“I called Anxiety a monster.” Roman grumbled.

“Roman, I am- or was Anxiety! When I was Anxiety, I used to be treated awful. When Patton became Anxiety you didn't treat him badly, You felt sorry for him and babied him. I don't know why me being Anxiety is different than Patton becoming Anxiety. No matter who has it, its the same thing!” Virgil snapped. “Come on, Patton. Neither of us need this right now.” Virgil looked up at Thomas, regret in his eyes, “I'm sorry, Thomas. I'll fix this. I promise. Then they both sunk out.

Patton turned to Virgil, “We shouldn't have left.”

“I know, that probably wasn't the best decision but I was kind of thinking in your best interest at the time, which is also Thomas' best interest. The more anxious you become the more taxing it is on Thomas.” Patton sighed and made his way to the kitchen, Virgil followed but stopped at the entry. Patton started gathering ingredients and tools he needed for whatever he was going to make. Virgil leaned against the wall as he watched.

Before long Patton had many things going. Dinner was being prepared and desserts were being prepped. He knew Patton stressed baked, but was this going to help the anxiety? Virgil wasn't going to object to it or voice any doubts. If Patton thought it would work, he would at least let him try. Although, Patton still looked pretty tense. He hated seeing Patton like this, it made his insides twist and he wanted to fix it. Virgil turned around and ran up the stairs. He came back a minute later and tapped Patton on the shoulder. Patton turned around and his eyes widened.

“What- what happened to you?” Virgil shrugged and handed the two ipods to Patton.

“Just use one of these. Music used to help me when I was stressed out.” Patton looked down at them, he looked angry almost instantly.

“You went into my room!” Virgil put his hands up.

“Hey, I was just trying to help.”

“You know what my room does to you!”

“Yeah, I know better than you do. It used to be my emotional influence..” Virgil said defensively. “The other influence. Not the one we are going through now.” Patton rolled his eyes and turned back to what he was doing.

“Patton. I know this is going to be hard, but you have to work with me. We are practically opposites here. You are a ray of sunshine and I'm this ever looming storm cloud.”

“Except now you're the ray of sunshine and I'm the storm.”

“No! No our personalizes haven't changed! Patton-” Virgil reached out his hand but Patton spun around and Virgil stopped, Patton was crying.

“No! We have changed! I'm not ‘Happy- Pappy-Patton’ anymore. I'm not good anymore Virgil. I'm useless.” Virgil gritted his teeth.

“Okay. Stop.” He gets this now. This is how he always acts, self defeating, putting himself down. Feeling like no one loves him when they actually do. Okay. He may still feel that last one, except when with Patton. If Patton could make him feel loved, he could sure make Patton feel that same. 

He going to woo Patton so hard, with friendship and love, Patton will never doubt how Virgil feels about him. He would make Patton feel like his normal self again, even with Anxiety within in. He would smile again, make those stupid yet adorable puns, giggle and laugh. He missed those giggles already. Virgil walked over beside Patton and looked over the ingredients. “It looks like you're making cookies. Cinnamon?”

“Snickerdoodle.”

“Can I help?” Patton blinked in surprise but nodded. Together, they spent the evening cooking dinner and baking three batches of cookies. There was a lot of laughter, flour being thrown around, Patton smeared cookie dough on had whispered 'Simba' and they had laughed so hard that Virgil slipped on something on the floor and fell, taking Patton down with him.

Now they were am awkward mix of limbs on the floor. Patton was still giggling and so was Virgil. He still had cookie dough on his head and it was starting to feel weird. “It is bothering you?” Patton asked as he looked down at Virgil, who he was laying on top of.

“Kinda. It feels like its getting kinda stiff.” Virgil paused and adverted his eyes. He may be Morality but unlike Patton, he wasn't clueless to the innuendos he would accidentally make.

“I can fix that.” Virgil looked up at him.

“Uh, I just get-” Patton leaned down and licked the cookie dough off his forehead. Whoa. That must have been all over his face because suddenly Patton looked horrified and untangled them, sat back with his eyes wide.

“I don't know what came over me. That was so impulsive!” Patton stood up, so did Virgil and Virgil caught is arm before Patton could run off. He knew this game, he's done this his whole darn life. He wasn't going to let Patton do this. He loved him way too much to let Patton go down these hills.

“Patton. It's okay.” He said softy. He was shaking a bit inside himself and he knew it was from the physical contact. He could feel the anxiety coming off of Patton in sharp waves.

“No, Virgil. We aren't even toge-uh. Nevermind.” The anxiety was starting to drain away and was doing into defeat.

“Patton. You know this already, cause I told you and we are going through this, but I love you. We wouldn't be going through this if I didn't. If you didn't. I wouldn't be trying to help you if I didn't care. I may not be Anxiety anymore, but you know how much I hate working or trying too hard on anything. It's still the same. I still don't like working cause that's me. I'm just lazy.” 

Patton gave a small giggle and Virgil smiled. “You're Anxiety now, but yet you're making yourself go into the kitchen and make dinner for everyone. Even if it is stress baking, its still doing something. If it was me? I would have gone into my room and never left until someone forced me out. That or I became desperate for food.

You're already doing so much better than me and I'm so impressed and proud of you, Pat. Sure, I have to stop you from running away because I don't want to suffer. If you are going to suffer, don't do it alone.” Patton had tears in his eyes and then he began sobbing. Virgil wrapped his arms around Patton and the other, who was only a few inches taller, buried his face into Virgil's shoulder. After the crying had stopped they didn't let go of each other but Patton said something, quietly, and Virgil wasn't sure he'd ever hear after they had switched. “I love you too, so very much.”

No one appeared in the living room/commons at all that evening and if Patton was worried he didn't show it or feel it. They had finished dinner hours ago and were watching movies. They still had their same preference (“See, Pat? I told you we wouldn't change that much.”). Sometime during a movie Patton had confessed he hadn't felt right using the word 'kiddo' anymore. Virgil wanted to say it was all in his head, but no one wanted to hear that, ever. Especially people who lived inside of someone elses head. Instead, Virgil told him to give it time. Eventually, Patton fell asleep, his head was on Virgil's lap. His breathing was stable and he felt relaxed. No nightmares tonight. Virgil ran a hand through Patton's hair and played with it between his pointer finger and thumb idly. He couldn't bring himself to take Patton to his room. He would just have nightmares. Virgil had nightmares in his own room all the time.

Virgil couldn't Patton to either of their rooms. They couldn't visit each others rooms too long, but, did that really matter right now? Patton needed some peace. Carefully, he scooted out from under Patton and picked up Patton's sleeping form bridal style. He walked up the steps and made his way towards his own room. He paused when he heard a cough. Virgil turned to see Roman standing in his own door way.

“Can I talk to you.” He looked at Patton. “When you've dropped off Pat.” Virgil didn't say anything for a long time. “Look, I know I haven't been the best to you recently. I just want to talk.” Virgil nodded his head back down towards his room. He tucked Patton in, giving him a kiss on the forehead, whispering that he would be back soon and left the room, leaving the door cracked slightly. He met Roman right where he left him.

“Okay. I'm here.”

“Before you make you make any snarky, mean sarcastic comments-”

“I won't.” Virgil interrupted. Roman eyebrows shot up and looked slightly amused.

“I appreciate it I guess, but may I ask, why the hell not?”

Virgil crossed his arms, “I am Morality. I may want to say mean sarcastic things at you but it makes feel guiltier than usual. So I'll just think it and just feel guilty that way instead.” Roman looked confused and concerned.

“Alrighty!” Roman smiled forcefully. “Anyway. I feel like I should apologize for how I've been acting. I guess certain stuff has been getting to me lately and then you and Patton happened and it just- it took me by surprise and then-” Roman laughed. “-its just stupid.”

Virgil frowned and crossed his arms, Roman was sad and it was getting worse. “Roman, I don't know what you're talking about, but if you need to talk I'll listen. I'm not great at advise, that's not really not something I'm good. I'm good at listening though.” Virgil smiled. Roman's cheeks flushed and his eyes widened.

“That might not be a good idea.” Virgil shrugged.

“Whenever you're feeling up to it, if ever. We've spend a lot of time hanging out, Ro. I've enjoyed our adventures if your realms, even if they could they could get intense sometimes. I don't want our friendship to end over a miscommunication.” Roman stared intensely down at the carpet.

“There was a huge miscommunication. I'm sorry I didn't speak up sooner.” Virgil had a feeling they weren't talking about the same thing anymore, but he wasn't going to push it.

“It's fine, it's all in the past anyway. You didn't mean those things you said, or you did I know you regret it now. Either way, we all make mistakes. Let's just call this a day, Roman, it's late and I'm exhausted from earlier.” Virgil turned to leave but paused. “If you're hungry, go to Lo that Pat and I saved you both a plate.” Virgil smiled. “Goodnight, Princey.” He walked towards his bedroom when Roman's voice stopped him.

“I was in love with you.” Virgil spun around.

“What?”

“I thought...I thought we bonded over our trips.” Roman whispered. “That's why I invited you to go with me all the time. You always looked so impressed. You thought I didn't see it, the way we would team up to fight the monsters and beasts. Or the way I would always try to find ways to take down the DragonWitch but would always end up...heh...” Roman rubbed his arm at the memory. “That was the first time I really ever hurt myself trying to do something and all because I was doing to try to impress you.” Roman's smile faded. “When I felt those feelings of love, I was- I was so happy. My feeling were requited. Then I felt the same feelings around Patton later down the road, then Logan. It was all really messed up and it was all jumbled. I couldn't connect the lines! I couldn't tell who was in love with who. There was something interfering with my connection.”

“It was probably me and Pat.” Roman remained quiet. Virgil sighed and scratched his nose. “Ro, I'm sorry things didn't go down the way you had hoped and planned. Things don't always happen the way you think it will. You probably know that better than any of us.” Roman chuckled.

“Yeah. I guess I do. It doesn't make it hurt any less.”

“No. Prolly, not.” Virgil frowned at a thought hit him, “You said Logan you felt Logan having some sort of romantic feelings, right?” Roman nodded. “Did you tell him that you were in love with me?”

“Of course I did! Who else was I going to tell?” Virgil rolled his eyes and turned back around.

“You're an idiot, Princey.”

“Hey, I though you said no snarky remarks!”

“That wasn't snark. It was a fact.” Virgil gave Roman an amused look over his shoulder, “I would suggest you think about who Logan has feelings for, when you figure it out, well I guess the rest is up for you to decide what to do with that information.” Virgil did his two fingered salute and shuffled sleepily into the room. He climbed into the bed and got as close to Patton as possible. He had never been the 'big spoon' before, or any kind of spoon. It was nice. He wrapped his hands around Patton's waist and then kissed the back of Patton's head. If anyone heard what he said next, he would deny it will his and Thomas' very last breath.

“I'm going to right here with you, I won't leave you. I'll protect you. You're safe. Until you are back to normal, I will be the sunshine that comes in on your dark and stormy days. I promise.” Virgil closed his eyes and dreamed about a smiling Patton, with no anxiousness coursing through the core of him. He was the light again, but there was something else. Something stepped out of Patton, it was grief, cold, angry, hurt and lonely. Virgil shivered, that was so much. The image before him began to waver and and form into something else. It burred briefly, Virgil only blinked once and the forms had changed completely. There was no more Patton. It was him. He was staring at himself. Virgil reached out to touch the hurt parts was stopped by some invisible force. How was he supposed to deal with it, if there was a invisible wall?

'Virgil' Wait... what was that?

'Virgil...” the voice sounded familiar. Who was it?

'Virgil wake the hell up!'

Virgil jolted awake and sat up. He looked around. This wasn't his room. His mind replayed last nights events. Oh yeah. He looked over to Patton who looked concerned.

“Mornin'” Virgil said with a small smile. Patton didn't return it.

“You sounded like you were having a bad dream. I think it was because you were holding on to me all night.”

Virgil shook his head, “Don't think so.” He rubbed an eye with the palm of his hand, “I always have nightmares. That's not abnormal.” Patton pursed his lips then sighed, seeming to let it go.

“Want breakfast?” Patton asked with a soft smile.

“Heck yes.”

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[leo--chimaira-blog]

Possess Me Daddy||Owen&Leo

The fact that this wasn't the weirdest bet Owen had ever accepted spoke volumes about his betting tendencies. It was however, the vaguest one so far. There had to be some reason he was being 'summoned' to this stuffy looking mansion in the middle of nowhere, which he'd reluctantly used his newly acquired, shitty little Toyota to get to. This Leo hadn't seemed like the type to be looking for a fight or to secretly be a serial killer but you never knew. What a kick he would get out of this guy turning out to be a Hannibal Lecter type. Either way, Owen was driven on by his curiosity and inability to turn down a bet, shady or not. He didn't care about the prize (whatever was in the guy's pockets? Most likely just lint), the bet itself was the real fun. And so was winning. Knuckles rapped on the big front doors, wondering if he'd been sent to some random address. That could very well have been the catch to this bet, honestly, and Owen chuckled to himself at the thought. A nice practical joke; but one he'd have to get back at Leo for if that was the case.

Who in their right mind came to someone's house so late at night? Leo glanced at the clock, running a hand through his hair and muting the silly game show he'd been watching on TV, finding his way to the front door carefully. The brand on his back was still angry, pulsing even when he laid still, but he no longer wanted to curl up and die when walking, so there was definitely improvement. Hand on his hip, shuffling like he had the sore body of an elderly contortionist who'd been stuck in a small box for ten hours, Leo swung it open. A man stood on the porch looking slightly lost, but at the same time, devious and hungry, as if waiting for Leo to step outside and be eaten alive. He was also incredibly handsome, he realized, struggling to stare at something other than his lips, which were about at eye level thanks to his slouched posture. Leo cleared his throat and stood up straight, ignoring the fire up his spine. Crap, had they met before and now he was going to look like an ass for not remembering his name? But no, the man wasn't initiated, with no link to speak of. He also didn't seem to be there to drag Leo out of his house and demand he give back someone who'd... well, he couldn't quite recall exactly why the vampire and werewolves had come to his property, but he knew they were trouble. Why was this new person here after dark? If he could calm down and remember his manners, maybe the answer would come. Sticking out his hand to shake, he grinned, this time able to make eye contact without shying away. "Hello, I'm Leo. I don't think we've met. How can I help you?"

The door finally swung open and Owen wasted no time in sizing up up his betting companion for the evening. Taller than he'd expected, obvious despite his awkward posture, and a bit ruffled. Oh dear, was it late? He'd just shown up straight after work, not really taking notice of the time. Leo finally straightened out, a crying shame since Owen had been pretty damn amused by the other man's awkwardly wandering gaze, but at least he could now see the panic behind the dark orbs. Worry that Owen had actually taken the bet and driven up or just plain confusion? The latter, it seemed, as Owen was offered a casual handshake and a cheery greeting. Oh, man... "I take it back, you're definitely just as adorable as I first pinned you to be." His hand clasped the other's, grin matching Leo's and beating it by a landslide, green eyes lit up with amusement. "I'm Owen. Here to claim..." His gaze trailed down, a second once over that was much slower and more visibly deliberate than the first, ending around Leo's waist, "whatever's in your pockets, I believe?" He shifted his stare back up to meet Leo's, finally letting go of the man's hand.

Oh. This was the guy who wanted his... betting virginity (he still shuddered to call it that). Thank god. But also, what the heck was he doing here so soon after making the deal? Would he just show up anywhere with no warning if it was staged like a bet? And why'd he feel the need to keep calling Leo adorable? "Shut up!" He shot back, because how could be possibly accept the nickname from this handsome fiend? Again, he scrubbed a hand through his hair, mouth twisting into a wide grin despite himself. As soon as Owen's heated, deliberate gaze flew up and down his body, he took the hint and joined him on the porch, shutting the door behind them so the Family or, god forbid, Dharm woke up and came to see who was here. "Owen," he said, less than enthusiastic. The bet... Well, in that moment, Leo thought he was clever, as his off hand had been resting in his pocket during the exchange, so he offered it back, palm facing up, trembling slightly, and probably sweatier than it had any right to be. "Here's your prize. My hand was in my pocket when I made that bet with you, so for now, it's yours. There's also a piece of hard candy if you feel like something sweet." Crap, as soon as the words left his mouth, he felt awkward, cheeks mantling with color, but it was too late to take them back (not that he really wanted to). Leo shuffled, glancing into the darkness and again at the door to make sure they were truly alone. They were. He wasn't sure if he should feel grateful or hunted. "Did you find the place okay?"

It was definitely amusing, seeing the guy get all flustered when Owen had just barely scratched the surface. He already liked where this bet could be taking him; if the guy was getting all squirmy and sweaty from this two minutes exchange... well, Owen was eager to see what he could do given more time. The door into the mansion closed, a clue that there was someone inside other than Leo. Not that Owen particularly cared since his current object of interest stood out on the porch with him. Owen huffed out a laugh as the shaking hand was offered, one eyebrow quirked at the guy. Very interesting indeed. "Pretty racy thing to wager on your first bet. And I never say no to something sweet." His fingers flexed it a 'give it here' motion, eyes still reading Leo even as the promise hard candy was passed over. He carried himself in a way that indicated an injury and he looked strong, no doubt about it, but much too flustered and reserved to be part of Owen's line of work (the first idea that had popped into his head, finding an equal was always nice). "Giant house in the middle of nowhere? Kinda hard to miss." Popping the bright red thing into his mouth with absolutely no regard for the fact that it was literally candy from a stranger, Owen rolled it around his tongue for a moment; a moment that was just a little too long for comfort considering that he was just letting his eyes roam. "So, what's it do? My prize?" he finally asked, head nodding towards Leo's previously offered hand, lips raised in a smirk.

"Racy? How so?" Leo asked, coy, but the guise was easy enough to see through. He'd known exactly what he was doing bringing Owen here, and while he sometimes got a little distracted over the words and lead-up to situations like this, he was more than willing to play the game. Cat and mouse. Except this little mouse was going bring the poor cat into the ranks of his hoard. "I'm glad. It's easy to get lost out here." Thank god it'd been Leo to open the door and not some other member of the family, or things would've gotten a lot more complicated fast. In fact, Owen was either incredibly lucky or smart to have made it to his porch without spotting another initiate or ending up in a leghold trap. Probably the former, since he didn't exactly look like the type to do anything but chase prey and follow his own whim. He tilted his head to the side, taking the initiative to play with the buttons of the man's shirt. "It does whatever you want." The whole thing would've gone over smoothly if his voice hadn't cracked with embarrassment over even saying those words, much less meaning them, not to mention the fact that Owen was watching him, unblinking, ever amused as he worked the candy in his mouth, and if that wasn't intimidating enough to throw him off, Leo was a pacifist. He dropped the limb back to his side, twining his fingers together nervously and clearing his throat, gaze finding the ground.

This was a slightly unexpected turn of events, Owen had to admit, but definitely a pleasant one. Most people were so stuck up about 'getting to know each other' and what not, that finding someone who was willing to play his game at the drop of a hat was always a surprise. One that you wouldn't catch him complaining about, messy emotions always just got in the way. Leo might not have been as... polished as Owen, awkwardness constricting at the man's throat, but it would be easy work with. "Sounds perfect." The hand previously working at his shirt retreated and Leo pulled back into his shell. Alright, mostly easy. "Since I've won the bet, we can take this somewhere else than your weird mansion? I know I said I'd make you pay but I might just be persuaded to buy you a drink."

Go somewhere else? No, that wouldn't do at all. Leo wanted to stay within the Family's reach, both because he planned on calling one of them as soon as Owen was... more at ease, and in case something went wrong. Not that he thought it would, but he was injured, and Dharm liked to keep a close eye on him these days. "Another time. I threw my back out a few days ago, and as good as a drink sounds, I probably shouldn't. Sexy, right?" He laughed to drive the lie home. "But if you drove here, we can take this to your car." Despite everything, excitement was bubbling up in his tummy, Owen's masculine scent of cigarettes, cologne, and something vaguely rusty mixing pleasantly with the melting hard candy, wafting off him with every exhale. They should definitely take this somewhere, Leo decided. Was he staring?

Owen's head cocked as Leo spoke, contemplating where this nicely unexpected night was going. 'Another time' definitely didn't fit into Owen's MO of 'do now, wonder about the consequences later (or never)'. "Pity, throwing out your back was literally what I had in mind." Maybe flirting was useless if this whole thing was being postponed, or maybe it wasn't; Leo was still looking like a candidate for a late night call some days from now. Alternatively, they could just go with Leo's giddy little idea and take this to the car. A bit unusual seeing as they were standing on the doorstep of a place that looked like it hid more than dozens of rooms but whatever. Might as well but that stupid car to use. "Look at you, taking a bet and then agreeing to immorally use a car I got in a very immoral way." He didn't waver from Leo's stare, the last of the hard candy that had made this situation that much more hilarious melting in his mouth. "I'm almost impressed, betting virgin." Long legs carried him back down the first of the steps, towards the driveway and car in question. And yes, fitting the two of them inside would definitely be a hassle but Owen had worked - and succeeded - in worse conditions.

God, why did this guy have to point out everything he was dutifully trying to ignore in order to keep some semblance of his reputation intact? "Owen! Shut up! That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble one of these days." Leo huffed, folding his arms, but turned to follow him to the parking lot. Of course, he had no plans of doing anything about the things coming from his mouth even as the dirty talk continued, much less arguing since it all sounded like fun to him, even as his nose was still scrunching up and his face was hot. Everything was going smoothly. Owen became more and more handsome the more he spoke. But, all wrong (but good) things must come to an end, and the moment expired before it'd really begun. The link behind his ears, fresh and bloated like a leech after the earlier reminder to stay in his place, vibrated unhappily, and he twitched. Dharm was awake, probably pulled out of slumber by Leo's loud, anxious excitement over Owen, and instead of following the taller man off the porch, he froze in place, staring in the direction of his dad like if he tried hard enough, he'd see him through the walls. Fuck. And here he'd been hoping to see where this bet led before the serious stuff could happen. "Actually, you go ahead. I need to brush my teeth." Leo made his excuse and retreated back into the house, barely shutting the door behind him when he nearly ran into his dad, slightly rumpled, with the lantern in one ruined, burned hand and a pistol in the other. "Leo. Don't tell me I have to put the fear of God into that boy and chase him off my property," Dharm gritted out. Exhalation burned into shame, and while he hadn't necessarily been caught doing something wrong, the intention had been there, and Dharm knew it all too well from their connection. Leo avoided eye contact like the plague, taking the gun, flicking the safety back on; better it was in his hands than Dharm's, not wanting him to shoot on sight over something as trivial as attraction. "Let's go get him. He's strong. He'd make a great addition to our numbers," Leo said, almost pleading. He didn't realize how precarious the situation would become once Owen arrived, but it'd be worth it in the end, for all of them. Dharm nodded begrudgingly, and together, the two of them set off for the parking lot, one leisurely strolling and one wincing as the movement pulled at the brand on his back. There was Owen, looking like a picture of sin seated in the vehicle, waiting for him, and here he came with his dad, a weapon, and a Gift which would change his life forever. Dharm grew cold with anger, gaze shifting between the two like he was putting pieces of a puzzle together. Leo ignored the elder, grinning apologetically at Owen as he knocked on the car window with the handle of the pistol. "Owen, sweetie, I think this is a great time to introduce you to my dad. This is Dharm. Why don't you come out and meet him?" Leo tried to mimic the easy tone the two had earlier, but it was gone, instead replaced with something slightly frantic. He wanted so badly for this to go down without bloodshed. Dharm was silent, punctuating with an intense glower of disapproval aimed straight at Owen.

What a weirdo. Luckily, weirdness wasn’t enough to put Owen off, Leo was good looking and the slayer had nothing better to do. So he waited for Leo to return with dwindling amusement and considered driving away after being kept idle for a moment too long (patience was not one of Owen’s very few virtues) until Leo finally returned. With a gun and some company. Alright. Never a man to run from any sort of conflict, especially conflict that now had him mildly aggravated as he’d been promised something very different from a fight, Owen got out of the car with his hands raised and palms showing. “Shotgun wedding?” he asked as soon as he got out, looking the angry stranger up and down. No family resemblance there. Leo’s exact plans and motives were currently very unclear to Owen, who looked from this Dharm character to the gun to Leo’s panicked gaze. “Or is this some sort of cult thing? Letting a virgin kill an innocent?” Not that he was exactly innocent.

Leo's mouth twisted as Owen continued to mouth off, Dharm laughing short and bitter over the wedding comment. Then, quick, almost past what he could keep track of, with a single impulse echoing between them, Leo clicked the safety off and aimed the weapon at Owen's expensive, shiny shoe, firing, and striking true. It was a warning. He wanted to cry. His hands were shaking, but it refused to fall from them. This was bad, this was so much worse than anything he could've imagined, but at least the bullet went into his limb instead of his head. There was still hope that they could make it out of this. "We're not a cult, and you're not innocent," Dharm said in the way he did when he was growing very short on patience, needing everyone to listen close and cut the bullcrap. Grip tightening on the Relic, the elder wordlessly called on the spirit within. Leo's head swiveled to follow its invisible motion, from the lantern straight to Owen's head, curling around his mouth first, then his nose, and finally the rest of him, oozing, dripping with the dark intention of possession. Fleetingly, Leo wished he had a Gift of his own, so he could've just done the same thing minus the pistol, but as always, Dharm knew best, and it was far from his place to question that, even if it meant shooting his crush through the foot. "Fear makes believers of us all. You'd best embrace it," said his dad, now slightly smug.

Owen had always been warned that his big and ever-flapping mouth would get him in trouble, which it had, but it had never gotten him shot. He’d been shot, of course, but usually just through pure muscle and under circumstances of extreme stress where the adrenaline had made the bullet feel like a scratch. The shot hadn't been aimed at his chest or head, which was pretty important, but with the gun in Leo's hand the slayer hadn't been expecting it to go off, for some reason now completely unclear to him. Because the gun had gone off and it hadn't been raised high enough for his instincts to kick in and make sure a lead slug didn't travel through his fucking limbs. Owen's body tilted until it hit the car, pain surging up his leg for the briefest of seconds before the adrenaline kicked in to numb it. Not for long but long enough for his brain to come to the conclusion that mouthing off further was the best course of action here. "Noticed there was no correction on the 'virgin' part," he gritted out. A bad decision, obviously, but the searing ache in his foot and the fact that someone had made him dependant on a shitty fucking Corolla to stand was making him pretty pissed off. Bullet through his foot or not, he could definitely take down Leo and the old bag of dicks holding a lantern for some fucking reason, and Owen's arm braced against the car with offence in mind when something... else happened? Neither man had moved but it felt like acid (it? What was it?) as it attempted and then easily succeeded in shoving its way in through Owen's orifices. A hand to his face assured him that there was nothing present to cause the sensation but he was still choking on the nothing until he just wasn't. Without realizing it, the situation had brought him down on his ass, back leaning against the car as he panted and yeah; that bullet wound was really making its presence known now, wasn't it? Dharm spoke and the curse Owen had meant to spit back felt like it had been tugged away on an invisible string. Blood loss? Or just... sense? Believers... believing in whom? The faint and brand new echo in his head provided the answer; it was towering over him with a smug expression on his face. And for the first time since he could remember, Owen nodded - nodded meekly, even. Something deeper down, deeper even than the tugs and pulls and what felt like phantom emotions, the slayer could tell something was a bit off. He just couldn't quite grasp at the what.

Really? Owen was on the receiving end of a bullet and he still found the willpower to talk back? Leo sighed, free hand running over his temple as Dharm, somehow, grew angrier, twisting his hand cruelly to twist the spirit further into Owen, then called it back. Luckily though, as their newest initiate slid to the ground, seemingly cowed at last, Dharm was satisfied, straightening up and letting go of his anger. Leo was finally allowed to drop the gun, pity and concern surging up as the chokehold over his free will was finally ended, but still, he didn't move a muscle, didn't dare while his dad was still speaking. "Welcome to the Family, son. You should thank me. Without me, you'd be full of chaos." The words were accompanied with a proud grin and a swift kick to Owen's injured foot. "Watch how you talk to my son. Leo, bring him home and patch him up. I'd hate for him to suffer too long under our care." Dharm's expression, however, stated that he'd enjoy exactly that fate, and he turned on his heel, heading back to the house, apparently satisfied enough to seek sleep once again, leaving Leo to pick up the pieces. Only when the man completely fade from sight did Leo dare to move, stepping guiltily closer. Poor Owen. The Gift was a hard one to receive, and on top of being shot... but at least now he understood.

Welcome to the Family. The Family. A family Owen was sure he wasn't supposed to recognize but... he did. In a way. Or at the very least he felt them (somehow) and consequently knew his place within these ranks. A place he wasn't used to being in but there was no fighting back now; Owen was reminded of his worst encounter with the incubus and honestly, he felt similar as to when his soul had been pulled halfway out through his mouth. Just tired. And hurting. Apparently not enough, it seemed, as Dharm's foot made contact with Owen's. They slayer clenched his jaw, stifling a low growl that threatened to crawl up as a response. Whether he choked it down because of his regular stubbornness to not show he was in pain or just to not be insubordinate, he couldn't be sure. Everything was getting a little bit hazy. Had the bullet gone all the way through his foot? Was it blocking the bleeding just a bit or... probably not, he realized, as his attempt to drag himself to his feet via the hood of the car ended in his body failing him - the fucking traitor- and slumping into Leo's. The guy who had just shot him. But who had also given him a higher purpose, it seemed, so maybe it was okay. Thank fuck he was tall. "Gonna need... a raincheck on that bet," he wheezed out, throat feeling awful despite nothing corporeal having actually entered it. It was the angry little buzz inside his brain that made him finally shut up more so than his sore throat, so he reluctantly let his weight be hoisted by Leo. His bruised ego would be tended to when he wasn't literally bleeding out from his foot.

Leo bit back a groan as he caught Owen before he could fall again, back protesting loudly. If he were at full strength, he could've just hoisted him over his shoulder and walked him home, but for now, slinging his arm around his shoulder and holding him up by the waist would have to do. It could've gone worse, he reasoned, yet seeing the spitfire man silent, pale, and boneless was disconcerting. He shifted him, trying to find an angle that didn't pull so direly at the brand, only to be rewarded with something sharp and stiff to to the ribs. Right, it was probably a knife or something for defense, and Leo, not wanting to be prodded further, made the decision to pull it out and keep it in his pocket for safekeeping, only to find ... stakes? And a tiny skull-printed flask which seemed to be full of holy water? Was Owen a vampire slayer? If so, the whole situation just lightened up considerably. Along with hunters and wardens, slayers were treated exceedingly well within the Family, given purpose beyond what the average unskilled human received, allowed to rise through the ranks and become more equal, know more secrets, and have more power. "Don't worry about it. I'll be here." There was so much to talk about, but with Owen fading fast, it looked like their conversation would have to wait for another day. How on earth the attempted tryst lead to someone so perfect for their cause to join ranks was a mystery, but Leo was just glad Dharm didn't kill him. Patching up his poor bloody foot was an easy task, but to do it, the two of them needed to be somewhere safe and clean. Pocketing Owen's gear, he pulled him towards home.

[elleberquist6]

Stray Cat - chapter four

Rating: Mature Word Count: 2176 Warnings: Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut Summary: Phil Lester believes that if he does good things then good things will happen to him, so on one of the worst days of his life he invites a rain-soaked Neko boy named Dan into his home. Phil has never met a Neko before and he knows nothing about the dark system that has molded Dan. Dan is part of a repressed population with few rights, and as Phil gets to know him he can’t understand why – Dan is the most amazing person he has ever met. — They walked to the bathroom, and Dan waited in the hallway while Phil brushed his teeth. As Phil was putting away his toothbrush, he realized that Dan didn’t have one, but luckily Phil had a spare. He handed Dan an unopened toothbrush and Dan beamed at him. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Phil left the bathroom, heading to his bedroom to get dressed since he was still wearing his pjs. He heard the bathroom door shut behind him and the water being turned on. Before he could walk into his bedroom, he realized something else that Dan didn’t have: clean clothes. Phil walked back to the bathroom door and knocked loudly to be heard over the running water.

“Yes?”

Phil turned the knob and pushed open the door. “Hey Dan, I just realized that—”

He stopped talking as he realized that Dan had already taken off his shirt and jeans. He was standing there in only a pair of boxer briefs, which were riding low. Phil stared at him, but not in appreciation of his body – all he could see were the bruises on his body, in particular a matching set of bruises on Dan’s hips which look like they must have been made by hands that held him roughly.

Dan’s face flushed and he grabbed a towel to hide his body. “What is it?”

“I… came to ask you if you wanted some clean clothes. We look like we wear about the same size, so you could borrow mine. But Dan, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

“No. Could you get out please?” He refused to meet Phil’s eyes.

Phil didn’t argue, and he shut the bathroom door. He returned to his room and sat on his bed, shaking slightly as he couldn’t get the image of those bruised handprints out of his mind. His phone, which was sitting on his night table, buzzed. Hoping for a distraction, he checked it and saw his brother had sent him a text.

Martyn wrote, Hey, are you up? Haven’t seen you in a while. Do you want to catch up today after you get off work?

Phil sent a response, I don’t have work today. I got fired last night.

He put his phone down then because the conversation with his brother wasn’t distracting him from what he had seen. Someone had hurt Dan. And the places where the bruises were – did that mean what he thought it meant? Phil wanted to help him, but he wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed he had already messed up by staring at Dan until he kicked him out of the bathroom.

Finally, Phil decided to get dressed since sitting around in his pjs wasn’t helping anything. He picked one of his brightest t-shirts since he always felt better for some reason when he was wearing bright clothes. Phil returned to the hallway. He was tempted to stand by the bathroom door because he wanted to apologize to Dan for his behavior as soon as possible, but he knew that would be creepy. Phil went into the lounge and turned on the TV. A cooking show was on the current channel, and it wasn’t interesting, but he didn’t change the channel. He stared blankly at it, waiting for Dan and trying to decide what to say.

What if Dan felt that Phil had invaded his privacy too much and he left? What if after he left he got hurt again? Phil had to convince him to stay. He was startled from his thoughts some time later by a knock on the door. He had no idea who it could be, so he peered through the peep hole and was shocked to see his brother on the other side of the door. As he opened the door, he said, “What the heck are you doing here?”

Martyn snorted. “Good morning to you, too.”

Phil stood to the side so that Martyn could enter his apartment. “Sorry. Morning.”

Martyn was carrying a six-pack of beer, which he carried to the kitchen and placed on the counter. “When you told me you were fired, I sent you like a dozen texts and I called you. I got worried. I thought you might be wasted, so I grabbed some beer from my fridge and I came to check on you and join the party.”

“Oh, sorry, no party. I didn’t mean to worry you. I left my phone on vibrate in the other room.” Phil hadn’t realized how much time had passed since he was texting Martyn. Martyn lived 15 minutes away, so did that mean Dan had been in the shower for 30 minutes? 45? He wanted to go check on the Neko. Or would that make things worse?

Martyn pulled a beer from the six-pack. “Well, did you want to start a party? I know you hated that job. Getting fired sucks, but at least you didn’t like working there, so maybe that’s your silver lining.” Martyn’s use of their mum’s favorite phrase distracted Phil from his concerns about the Neko, and Phil gave him a smile. He accepted the beer that his brother offered him and cracked open the can. After they both had a sip, Martyn asked. “So, do you want to tell me what—” Martyn’s eyes bugged out of his head as he looked at the kitchen doorway.

Dan walked into the room without looking at Phil, and it seemed like his eyes were purposely averted to avoid eye contact. He was wearing a towel wrapped around his head and another hitched high up on his hips to cover most of the bruises. Phil took the opportunity to check Dan over for more injuries, and he saw another bruise on Dan’s bicep and some on his ribs. He also couldn’t help noticing how lovely Dan looked, but given what had most likely happened to the boy, Phil felt angry with himself for noticing.

Still without looking into the room, Dan said, “Phil, I think I’ll accept that offer of some clean clothes.”

Martyn made a sound in his throat, and Dan finally looked up. His eyes widened, and Phil noticed they were a bit red. He wondered if Dan had been crying in the shower. Phil then realized that both of the other men were now staring at him. Martyn seemed to be waiting on an introduction, but Dan looked like he was trying to figure out how to run away without being rude, so Phil spoke only to him. “Sure, you can go in my room and take anything you want from my dresser. I’ve even got an unopened pack of underwear in the top drawer if you want some.”

“Thanks,” Dan said, turning to leave.

Martyn gasped, making Dan look over his shoulder. Martyn said, “Sorry, man. I just noticed… the tail.”

The tip of Dan’s tail, which was visible under the towel, twitched. He left without further comment. A moment later they heard the door of Phil’s bedroom open and then shut. Phil closed his eyes and leaned against the kitchen counter, exhausted at the thought of explaining this all to his brother. He wanted to be alone with Dan so that they could get over the awkwardness of what he’d seen because then they could talk about the real issues. Who had hurt him? Was he okay? What could Phil do to help?

Martyn coughed to get Phil to open his eyes. He was sitting at the kitchen table now, rolling his beer between his palms. “Um, Phil… what’s going on? Where is Linda?”

“Dunno where she is,” Phil said. He joined Martyn at the table and took a sip of his beer. It was getting warm now and he grimaced, pushing the can away. He’d only accepted the beer to be polite and he didn’t really want to get buzzed this early in the day. “Linda broke up with me last night.”

Martyn glanced at the door that Dan left through. “Did it have something to do with…?”

“No! I met Dan after. Linda broke up with me when I told her I lost my job.”

“Oh,” his brother said with sympathy. “Well, at least you have him.”

Phil felt like groaning in exasperation, but he tried to explain it calmly, “I don’t have him. It’s not like that. I just met him and I’m trying to help him out.”

“Oh, okay. He looks like he needs it, what with those marks.” Martyn’s eyes shifted to Phil’s face, and he knew that Martyn was looking at his eye.

“This didn’t happen at the same time. I got the black eye at work right before I was fired. I don’t know yet who did that to Dan.” Phil bit his bottom lip and decided to ask Martyn something, because he had never outgrown that little brother phase in which he believed his big brother to be knowledgeable in all things. “Mar, what do you know about Nekos?”

Martyn shrugged. “Not much. I’ve only met a couple of them.”

Phil’s eyes widened. “Really? Where? I’d never met one before Dan.”

Martyn blushed and looked away. “At a stag party for a friend. We went to a strip club and some of the girls there were Nekos. They hung out at our table for a while, but we didn’t really talk about anything, so I don’t know that I can tell you anything useful.”

“No, that is kind of useful. I’m trying to figure out what it’s like for them, out there in the world, and the stripper thing kind of fits into the picture I’m getting. And it’s not a good picture. I want to help Dan get somewhere safe, and I don’t know…”

Martyn shrugged. “What if he wants to be a stripper? They make a good living.”

“I don’t know, Mar. I guess it’s a possibility, but…” Phil started to mention the bruises and what he suspects happened to Dan, but he stopped himself. “But is that all they’re allowed to do? Aren’t there normal jobs for Nekos?”

Martyn rubbed his chin. “I honestly don’t know. Maybe minimum wage? Education will probably be an issue. I’m pretty sure that schools don’t accept them, not even primary school. There was a story on the news a few years ago about a Neko who managed to attend an online university and was arrested for fraud when she tried to use her degree to get a job.”

“That’s awful,” Phil said with a sigh. He decided that he was getting ahead of himself, since he didn’t even know if Dan wanted to get a job. “We’ll figure something out. I’m letting Dan stay here until we can get it sorted out.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s all very you. Sounds like you had the worst day yesterday, and you didn’t wait a moment before finding someone to help. You’re always happiest when you have someone to help.” Martyn smiled. “Hey, let me know if there’s anything you guys need. I’d like to help, too.”

Phil returned the smile. “Thanks, Mar. You’re the best.”

Martyn took another sip of his beer and he glanced at the door. “Do you want me to leave so that you guys can try to work on things?”

Phil shook his head. He had wanted to talk to Dan, but he still hadn’t decided what to say. Also, he really had missed his brother and he was enjoying the company. “No, stick around for a while if you can. Want to play Mario Kart?”

Martyn smiled. “Sure.”

They go to the living room, where Phil had left the TV tuned into the cooking show. Phil was surprised to see Dan there since he hadn’t heard him leave the bedroom. Dan was wearing one of Phil’s darker t-shirts that had bats on it, but he was still wearing his own jeans, probably because he didn’t ask Phil if it was okay to cut a hole in borrowed jeans to accommodate his tail.

The Neko’s ears swiveled when they entered the room; he had removed the towel. Then his ears started twitching nervously when he caught Martyn staring at them, which only made Martyn’s stare intensify. Phil let out a startled laugh at the sight, and then he covered his mouth when Dan’s cheeks got that rosy patch again. “Sorry, Dan. I wasn’t really laughing at you. I like your ears.”    

Dan’s face flushed fully at this, but he said, “Thanks.”

Phil removed his hands from his mouth. “Hey, Dan. My brother and I were going to play Mario Kart. Did you want to join us?”

He glanced at Martyn. “Your brother?”

“Oh!” Phil shouted before belatedly jumping into introductions. They settled onto the sofa after that and the awkward tension started to leave the room. “Sorry, so, did you want to join us at Mario Kart?”

“Sure, I’d love to. Thanks.” Dan looked away, seeming unsure about something. “I just have one question, though.”

“Yeah?”

“What’s Mario Kart?”

[horrificramblings]

Please, please let this be a dream...

Have you ever had a head injury? A serious injury, one that was difficult to recover from? I have. The story of the injury itself is not a great one, I was hiking early one morning with my boyfriend when a dog came barreling up the trail between us from behind - I was knocked sideways, slipped on the dew moistened two-by-four at the top of a small retaining wall on the trail edge and fell about seven feet down the side, hitting my head pretty decently on the protruding edge of a huge rock in the ground before coming to a stop. My boyfriend, Lyle, went a bit green later when recalling the sound my skull had made as it hit the jagged edge of that boulder. I was out for a couple of minutes until he and the owners of the dog clambered down and were able to gently rouse me, their faces open in horror at the sight of my blood soaked hair. Head wounds like to bleed, a lot, and this was a big one. I earned eighteen stitches behind my right ear and a few nights in the hospital for observation, along with a temporary neck brace and all the tests and scans that come along with a serious knock to the head. Once it had been determined that there was no injury to my spine and I was alert and coherent I was released with a prescription for T3’s for the headaches that came in waves and lasted for what felt like hours, with instructions to use them sparingly and only for the worst pain. The rest would have to be controlled with Aspirin.

The worst part was that this wasn’t my first concussion. I suffered two mild ones during my teenage years - mild but both serious enough injuries to have momentarily knocked me out. If this hiking doozy had been my first head injury my post concussional symptoms might not have been quite so bad, however as it was my third they are nothing short of terrible. The headaches are definitely the worst part. I don’t want to constantly be taking pain medication and try my best to be sparing with the Aspirin and extra sparing with the T3’s unless they’re really bad - which they often are. Besides the headaches though I am prone to irritation, I have a hard time focusing and my short term memory has become non-existent. I’ve also found myself doing things like staring out the front door, or into an open cupboard with no recollection of how I came to be there or what I was looking for. It’s so frustrating and I feel so useless sometimes. I work as a receptionist in a busy hair salon and, since my multitasking abilities have suddenly gone down the toilet, it became nearly impossible for me to do my job. After my fourth horribly botched cash-out left me in frustrated tears I decided to spare my boss from having to let me go and told her I needed a break from work. She, who had been watching me mis-book appointments, blank out on calls with clients and forget to pass tips on to the correct stylists, agreed without hesitation but not without regret. We’re close and I’m generally very good at my job. She helped me to fill out all of the necessary paperwork to submit to apply for Employment Insurance and so here I am, managing on a percentage of my salary and dealing with my symptoms as best I can.

It’s been almost two months since my injury. The headaches are still regular, my memory hasn’t improved in the slightest and concentration is difficult. My days are frustrating. Lyle leaves for work at seven. I usually sleep until around 9, trying to get as much rest as possible. My day is spent puttering around the house doing the few small chores that two tidy people create, and walking as much as possible. This is because I simply don’t have the focus to read a book, read the news, watch a movie or even an entire episode of a television show. It’s horrible. I’m usually a big reader, it’s my go-to way of passing the time, and Lyle and I are huge movie buffs. It’s so frustrating having had two of my biggest hobbies ruined for me. So I go for walks. I stick my earbuds in, listen to music or try to pay attention to an audiobook or podcast, and get out of the house for as long as possible, headache permitting.

Two weeks ago I returned from a walk to the grocery store, and when I took the laundry detergent I’d bought downstairs to the basement laundry room I was surprised to see that the back door, which leads to our unfenced yard, was unlocked. It doesn’t sound terribly out of the ordinary, except that we don’t ever really use that door in the fall. It’s too cold to use the yard much, and even if I were to open it for some reason I would never leave it unlocked for fear of intruders. Our yard backs out onto a deep green belt and my imagination can go wild conjuring the kind of weirdos that might hang out in there. Honestly, I’ve always been more than a little creeped out by that stretch of woods, it seems sort of unnaturally dense and dark. Like I said though, my memory is garbage and I very well could have heard our cat, Nancy, scratching while I was doing laundry, let her in and forgot to lock it. Stranger things have happened. I locked the door and told myself to try to remember to ask Lyle about it. I didn’t, but I had strange and frightening dreams that night, of dark and wind, that I only half remembered afterwards.

A couple of days later I was doing a load of Lyle’s work coveralls when I happened to glance at the basement door and saw that the deadbolt was unlocked again. He was home this time so I called him downstairs.

“Did you leave this door unlocked?” I asked him, pointing to the door that, for some reason, I suddenly didn’t want to get too close to.

“No, I haven’t even used this door in ages. Did you maybe let Nancy in down here?”

“I don’t think so…” I replied, and the look on Lyle’s face told me he thought that was exactly what had happened, which annoyed me. “I really don’t think I did” I said with a bit more conviction.

“OK, well, it’s no big deal” he said, flipping the deadbolt home. He kissed my forehead and went back upstairs while I stood staring at the door, trying to remember the last time I had opened it and feeling dismayed as well as irritated when I came up blank.

Within a few days of that door episode I developed a new symptom in the form of minor visual hallucinations. They started as occasional small spots or cloudy shapes in my periphery and over the course of a couple of days increased to larger, shadowy, human sized shapes that still just hovered at the edge of my vision. I knew that these weren’t real figures that I was seeing but they came unexpectedly and made me jumpy and uneasy - two new states of being that I really didn’t need added to my already taxing daily life. I told Lyle about them and made an appointment with my Dr, who I saw yesterday. She assured me that this was nothing of concern but told me to come back if they progressed into more detailed hallucinations. When I came home from that appointment and shrugged my coat off I noticed that it was much cooler than usual inside the house and I could smell the crisp, earthy fall air. I went around the main floor, checking for windows that I might have left cracked open, and when I realized that they were all closed my heart jumped into my throat. I could see cloudy shapes forming at the edges of my vision, probably brought on by stress, and I crept over and peeked down the basement stairs to see the back door standing open a couple of inches, one of my imagined shapes huddled off to the side of it. Rushing back to our entranceway I grabbed my jacket and cell phone, slipped outside and hurried down the block a few houses before dialing Lyle at work. He answered on the third ring.

“Hey babe, I’m just about to meet with the homeowners can I -”

“The door is open” I blurted out, interrupting him.

“What? What door?”

“The basement door, Lyle. I just got home from the doctor and it was cold inside and I looked downstairs and it was open!” Lyle was quiet for a moment.

“Well, did you close it?”

“What?!”

“Did you close the door, Lane.”

“No I didn’t close it, I don’t want to go down there! It was even worse because I could see one of my stupid new shadow things down by the door.” Lyle sighed audibly.

“Ok, babe, where are you right now?” My eyes began to brim with tears as I sensed the exasperation that he was trying to hide from his voice. I could also feel the onset of what would likely be a vicious headache.

“I’m just down the street a bit, a few houses away.” I drew a shuddery breath and tried to calm myself.

“Ok. I’m not going to be home for another two hours or so and you sound pretty shaky. What’s your plan? Are you just going to wait for me outside?”

“Lyle, I didn’t open that door, I swear I didn’t. I wasn’t even in the basement this morning.” I could hear him talking to someone with his hand over the mouthpiece of his phone, he wasn’t really listening to me.

“Lane, I really have to go. Look I know you don’t remember opening the door, but this wouldn’t be the first time you’ve done something without realizing or remembering. There is no other explanation, is there? I think you should go home, lock the door and lie down. I’ll be home soon, OK? I’ll see if I can take off right after this meeting.” Tears tumbled down my cheeks.

“OK” I whispered.

“Love you, see you soon” he said and ended the call. I stood, glancing around me for a minute, the houses on either side of the street all looking vacant this weekday afternoon. Most of the driveways were car free, and I felt very alone. Lyle was probably right, though - it probably had been me. I’d become a bit fixated on the door, it wasn’t too out there to imagine myself opening it and peering outside during one of my weird “spells”. I turned around and headed back to the house.

When Lyle got home late yesterday afternoon I was napping in our bed, Nancy curled on my chest. The headache that had indeed come on full force by the time I’d locked both doors had abated a bit, but still lingered on the right side where my injury had been. Lyle sat on the bed beside me and smoothed my hair from my eyes.

“Hungry?” he asked, “I brought thai home. I got a bottle of wine too, if you want a glass.”

“Sounds good” I replied, easing an unimpressed Nancy off of my chest and slowly swinging my legs out of bed. “I’ll be out in a second.” Lyle stopped in the doorway and turned back to face me.

“You were still too nervous, huh?” I shook my head at him, perplexed. “The door, babe. I know you were a bit freaked, but you should have run down and closed it. It’s not safe to sleep with an open door.” He turned and walked into the kitchen.

The evening found us wandering the aisles of Home Depot after a lengthy argument in which I swore I had closed and locked the basement door before lying down, while Lyle shook his head and muttered his concerns about my memory problems. After conceding that it wasn’t my fault, that all of this was much more frustrating and life affecting for me than it was for him, we decided to at least stop the basement door from being a problem going forward. We bought an automatic closing hinge for the door, as well as an expensive bluetooth activated deadbolt that could only be opened with either the traditional key or key fob that it came with, both of which we agreed Lyle would keep, or with an app on our phones which we set so that it would automatically lock again once the door closed, as well as sending an alert to both of our phones any time the lock was triggered open. I felt much more relaxed late last night when Lyle had finally finished installing and setting up our new back door security. We sat in bed drinking red wine and watching funny videos on YouTube for a while before turning in and I felt much better than I had in days.

“So what did the doc say about your vision? We didn’t even talk about your appointment.” I put my empty glass on my bedside table and leaned my head on Lyle’s shoulder as a man on the laptop screen punched a moving bush that suddenly charged towards him.

“She said it’s not that unusual, it’s likely caused by stress and I shouldn’t worry unless they start to look less splotchy or cloudy and appear more real.” Lyle nodded.

“Makes sense that they would be caused by stress, especially if you saw one downstairs by the open door. Poor babe, that’s actually really creepy.” He giggled a little and shivered.

“Uh yeah, it is. It’s really creepy and I don’t really want to think about it now that the door thing is sorted, OK?”

“Right” he said, closing the laptop and leaving the bed to go to our ensuite bathroom to wash up. “There is definitely no creepy door opening ghoul in this house, no ma’am.”

“Definitely not” I agreed and followed him into the bathroom.

Despite feeling much more reassured and at ease last night before bed, I had a terrible nightmare. In my dream I awoke to frigid cold, a breeze was stirring my hair and I sat up to find myself alone in the bed. “Lyle?” I called out, looking towards the dark ensuite. There was no reply and I tried again, “Lyle? Where are you?” My voice seemed to echo in the cold room. A noise startled me, an insectile chirruping sound and I looked over at my flashing phone to see notification after notification of the basement door being opened. “Lyle!” I called again, louder this time. Again there was no reply and I got out of bed, the icy breeze wrapping around my bare ankles as I crept from the bedroom. There was another sound, a beeping noise, not from my phone but from downstairs. I peered around the dark living room, startling at the shadowy shapes that disappeared from my vision as soon as I looked at them full on. They seemed to be everywhere. I hurried to the basement stairs and stood at the top looking down, the stairway lined on either side by shuddering, blurred, vaguely human shapes. Lyle stood at the basement door, fob in hand, unlocking the deadbolt with a beep and opening and closing the door over and over with his back to me. “Lyle, stop!” I shouted. He froze for a moment at the sound of my voice, then opened the door as wide as he could and stepped into the dark opening before turning to look back at me, eyes bulging, a huge, silent scream twisting and contorting his features. I stared at him in mute horror, then screamed as he was suddenly and violently pulled away into the night and the door slammed noisily shut.

The phone woke me this morning.

“Hey” I answered, groggily.

“Hey, how are you feeling? You sure were tossing and turning last night” Lyle said, clearly from around a cup of coffee.

“I had a really bad dream” I told him, closing my eyes against an incoming migraine and trying not to recall the way his face had looked at the end of my nightmare.

“Yeah I could tell, I could hardly even shake you out of it. What are your plans for today? You should try to get out of the house, do something fun.” I laughed without humour.

“Honestly it’s looking like a T3 morning for me, I’m going to try to eat something quickly so the pill doesn’t kill my stomach.” A shadow figure flickered in the doorway at the corner of my vision. “Shadow guys are showing up early today” I said quietly, wincing as I sat up in bed. “Probably not a good sign.”

“Shit. I’m sorry babe. Ok, well, I mean at least you don’t have to worry about that stupid door, right? That’s something. Tell me if you want me to bring anything home, ok?”

“K, thanks. I’ll see you later.” I disconnected before another of his sweet words could drill into my already hammering brain.

After forcing myself to meticulously chew and swallow a piece of buttered toast I chased my little white pill with a sip of ginger tea and took my mug out onto the front steps for a bit of fresh air. The cool breeze helped a bit to lessen my encroaching nausea and I closed my eyes, inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth for a few minutes and trying to will the pain away. The pill was kicking in and I could feel the migraine beginning to loosen its grip and decided to go lay down on the couch for a bit.

Well, according to the clock that was more than twelve hours ago. I somehow slept through the entire day and don’t even remember dreaming at all. I hope that, maybe, that means that I’m dreaming right now. Because Lyle should have been home hours ago, but the house is dark, and cold, and my phone is showing that the basement door has been unlocked thirty-two times tonight. The shadows have formed a flickering corridor, two rows of vague figures leading from where I am on the couch to the top of the basement stairs, they appear to be swaying in the wind that blows up into the living room. I can hear the door down there, beeping unlocked, opening, closing. Maybe, hopefully, if I just lay here with my eyes closed I’ll eventually wake up, because I know what I’ll see if I look down those stairs, and I don’t think I could stand it again...

[sodokachi]

The Haunted Night

Gift fic for @amynchan

Slight blood and language warning.

Genre: Adventure/Mystery

Word-count: 6934

AO3 LINK

Relationship: Marinette Dupain-Cheng & Chat Noir

Summary: Marinette and Chat Noir are enjoying each other’s company on the day before Halloween when an akuma turns all of Paris into its own personal haunted house. They go on an adventure to find out why the akuma is attacking Paris and to figure out how to beat him.

"Claws out!"

Chat jumped out of his window and grinned as the wind washed over his face and ruffled his hair. He was heading over to the Dupain-Cheng bakery to see Marinette. It was the day before Halloween and she had been keeping her costume a surprise. He was hoping to at least get a glance at it, or maybe even just a hint as to what the costume would be about.

He stopped on a rooftop when he noticed someone walking down the street below him in an angry manner. He saw that the man was dressed in a blue jumpsuit and red ball cap. Deciding the odd outfit warranted a closer look Chat jumped down and put on his best superhero grin.

"Is there something wrong good citizen?" He asked as he channeled his inner hero.

The man glared at him. Now that Chat was closer he noticed the man had a grizzled face with an unlit cigarette in his mouth.

"The only thing wrong is the lack of good morals amongst the people of Paris." He frowned darkly.

Chat blinked in shock at the dark statement. "Why do you say that?" He asked curiously.

"They're shutting down the best damn haunted house in Paris to build housing." He grumbled. "Why do they got to do such a horrid thing?"

Chat frowned in sympathy but cringed at the man’s vulgarity. "That is unfortunate." He shifted uncomfortably at the man’s intense stare.

"What I wouldn't do for that Hawkmoth fella to fix this." He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and started playing with it.

"What? Hawkmoth is the bad guy!" Chat felt the need to point out.

"Don't matter to me kid." He lit the cigarette.

Chat grimaced and wrinkled his nose at the smell. "I'm going to go. Sorry about the haunted house!"

He used his baton to vault back onto the rooftops and breathed a sigh of relief. That guy weirded him out. Why in the world would anyone willingly want Hawkmoth's help?

He landed on Marinette's balcony and rapped his knuckles against her skylight hatch.

"Come on in Chat!" He heard her call. He opened the hatch and dropped onto her bed. He shifted his feet so that they hung off the side. She preferred him not to get it messy with his leather boots.

Marinette's head popped up from where she was standing on the ladder. "Do you want something, Chat? Or are you just here for food? Again." She smirked haughtily.

Chat grinned. "Both. I want some of your infamous company and some of your finest pastries." He chuckled and the girl smiled.

"Coming right up your highness." She said dryly as she rolled her eyes.

She didn't move to get them and Chat pouted and glared into her eyes.

She returned the glare. Seconds turned into much longer as Chat struggled to keep his focus on her eyes. A blur of something pink darting in the corner of his eye had him blinking.

"Ha!" Marinette smirked victoriously. "I win." She hopped off the ladder and did a little victory dance.

He laughed. She was so cute when she was excited. He still wanted his pastries though.

He schooled his expression into a pitiful pout. "Does that mean I don't get any pastries?" He even managed to wiggle his lip like he was about to cry.

Marinette gaped at him. "Um. No I." He widened his eyes further. "Fine!" She caved. "I'll be right back. Don't touch anything!" She warned and left to go get them something to snack on.

As soon as she left Chat moved toward her sewing supplies and looked to see if he could find any clues to what she had been working on. The work bench was surprisingly untidy. He thought Marinette was more organized than this. Maybe it was because she was in a rush? Whatever the reason it made it impossible to find out anything about the outfit. He would just have to ask her directly.

He heard her coming up the stairs just in time to cross the room and lean against her chaise in his best ‘natural pose’. Which, considering he was a model, was actually pretty good.

She sat the plate of cookies down on her desk and he wasted no time in walking over and talking a big bite out of one. "tanks pincess!" He said with a mouthful of cookies.

She frowned. "Don't talk when you're eating." She grumbled and then glanced softly at him. "You’re welcome." She quirked her lips into a smile.

He beamed at her and finished off his first cookie. "So?"

Her brow furrowed. "So what?"

"What is the wonderful, amazing, and absolutely stunning-?"

"Cut to the chase Chat."

"-Princess wearing for the pawsome holiday tomorrow?"

She giggled. "Not telling!" She sing-songed the words.

He pouted in an attempt to get his way once more.

This time she just rolled her eyes. "Honestly Chat, do you really expect that to work-"

A sudden wave of darkness rolled through the room. Everything transformed as it traveled. Her chaise turned black, the cute grinning cat on her desk came alive, and her room was now lit by nothing more than some candles and the now glowing eyes of the grinning cat.

Chat looked around in dread. This was definitely an akuma's work. He glanced at Marinette and gaped. She was now dressed like a witch with a pointy hat and a long black dress.

"Do you have powers?" He asked the most important question first.

Marinette glared at him in annoyance. "No." She stared at him with a flat look on her face as he admired the coolness of her outfit.

When he didn't say anything else she sighed. "Shouldn't you be going after the akuma that caused this?"

Chat shook his head. "I can't just leave you here! What if it's dangerous?" He asked dramatically.

"Then we'll go together. Can't wait for Ladybug to fix things you know?"

"Of course." Chat nodded. "Let's go see if we can find the akuma, then you can hide while Ladybug and I deal with it."

Marinette agreed and they quickly left through the hatch.

As soon as they got outside it became hideously apparent that the whole of Paris had been caught up in the transformation. The streets looked like something right out of the middle ages, made of brick now instead of pavement, and the normal street lights had been turned into oil lampposts.

The river seine looked to have been transformed into blood and the Eiffel tower now looked like it was made of bones.

"Chat," Marinette stressed his name. "What in the world did this akuma do?"

He thought back to that weird guy. "I think... the akuma made Halloween come early."

His friend grimaced. "How in world do we find someone if they have changed the entirety of Paris already?"

Chat looked up. "Maybe we should try the bonefel tower?"

She stared at him. "That sounds like a purrfect idea." She smirked.

Chat grinned and gestured forward like a prince of yore. "Ladies and witches first."

"Good thing I'm both of those now." She said dryly.

They arrived at the tower after a few minutes of walking. Most people seemed to have already gone home. Although they had run into a couple that were running away from what they said was a 'terrifying ghost!'. They weren't sure if that meant the akuma was a ghost or what.

The answer became clear as they got closer to the base of the tower. Under the tower floated a pale eyeless man in a suit and jacket with a locket around his neck.

They glanced at each other knowingly. The akuma was in the locket.

Marinette watched as Chat pulled his baton out. "Stay here, Princess, I'm going to try to get that locket." He said as his face dropped into a much more serious expression.

She nodded and watched as Chat launched himself forward using his baton. She hoped he would be alright without Ladybug.

"Kick his butt, Chat!" She called out. He turned his head and grinned at her.

Just as Chat entered reaching distance the ghost quickly dodged and then flew away. Chat gave chase as quickly as he could. He jumped over several obstacles that had been cars, but now looked like some sort of death themed racers. He gained on the ghost as they moved towards some buildings. His fingers reached for the locket. He just about had it…

His hand passed right through along with the rest of his body a second later. He only realized there was a wall behind the ghost when he rammed face first into it. To add insult to injury the ghost let out cackling wail as it fled.

Marinette came running up to him and put his head in her lap. "Are you alright?!" She asked worriedly.

Chat looked up at her dazedly. "I'm as good as a kitten drenched in butter."

Marinette's eyes crossed. "What? That doesn't even make any sense."

His eyes closed.

Thankfully, Marinette could still feel his warm breath on her hands. She took off her hat to talk to Tikki. "What do we do now?" She whispered.

"You'll have to wait for him to wake up, Marinette. He's tough so there won't be enough time to do anything before he does." Tikki glanced at the small bruise that was already fading on Chat's head. "Not that you'd leave him alone anyway." The little Kwami smiled.

"Yeah." Marinette murmured softly in agreement. "Guess I'll just have to wait."

Tikki nodded and then hid under her hat.

Marinette passed the time by mussing with Chat's fake ears.

Chat blinked lazily. That had been the best nap he could ever remember having. He purred at the feeling of the fingers running through his hair. The hands abruptly stopped and he opened his eyes to pout at Marinette.

"Why'd you stop?"

She stared at him. "Are you an actual cat, because I swear you just freaking purred." She shook her head. "Am I losing my mind?" She wondered.

Chat laughed and sat up. "Nope. I purr when I'm really happy as Chat Noir. Purretty cool eh?" He elbowed her gently in the side. "Eh?" He poked her again.

She shoved him smoothly away from her. "If by cool you mean an affront to all that is holy, then sure, I guess." She tried to frown, but ended up smiling instead.

He grinned back at her. "So, where'd the akuma run off to?" He looked around to see if he could spot it.

"Don't know and it doesn't matter." She said and he turned his eyes back to her. "What do you mean it doesn't matter? I need to catch up to it. Ladybug is probably already fighting it."

Her eyes softened at the mention of Ladybug. "We need to figure out why the akuma can just phase through things and hopefully how to stop it from doing it again. Well, at least long enough for u-Ladybug and you to beat it."

Chat frowned. "And how are we going to do that?"

Marinette slumped. "I don't know. If only we knew why this guy had been akumatized, but he didn't even say anything!"

Chat smiled reassuringly at her. "I met a guy earlier that said they were shutting down a haunted house and he even said Hawkmoth should do something about it."

She looked at him and grinned. "Well there's our lead then!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him. "Let's go! I think I know where the haunted house you're talking about is!"

He let her pull him down the street with a bemused smile on his face.

As they neared the haunted house they noticed a man dressed in rich clothing looking rather bothered. They glanced at each other and nodded.

"Sir!" Marinette waved him over. "We would like to talk to you please."

The man grumbled, but he still acquiesced. "What is the meaning of this? The entire world has gone mad and there's a ghost attacking people." He turned his eyes on Chat and glared. "Aren't you supposed to be fixing things?"

Chat frowned. "Yes sir, and we may need a little bit of info from you to do exactly that."

The man snorted. "Yes, yes. You must need some information because it seems Paris is lacking its true hero."

Marinette seethed. "Don't say that about him you-!" Chat pulled her back as she tried to lunge forward. She struggled in his grip. "Not now, Marinette, please." Marinette stop struggling, but continued to glare at the man. Chat let her go and sighed.

The man looked at the girl with surprise. "She's a feisty one." He muttered. "Fine. What do you need to know?"

Chat straightened up. "Do you know anything about that haunted house?" He pointed just down the street at the old and rickety looking haunted house. It had a small sign saying it was out of business on the door.

The man blinked in surprise. "Why yes, yes I do. I just bought this run down establishment so I could build a nice new house on the land." He nodded pleasantly.

"You bought it?" Chat mumbled. "The ghost is probably after you." He said strongly.

The man's eyes widened in surprise and horror. "Why in the world would it be after me?"

"The haunted house shutting down disappointed a lot of people." Marinette said quietly.

The man grimaced. "Shoot. I need to hide then. Any more questions oh illustrious hero?" He rolled his eyes.

Chat just shook his head and watched the man leave.

"What a jerk." Marinette grumbled as she crossed her arms and glared at his retreating back.

He didn't disagree. "We still don't know enough." his eyes flicked back toward the haunted house. "Let’s see if we can find anything else out from the house itself."

She nodded.

They arrived at the large haunted house and were surprised by the man sitting on the curb outside of it. His clothes were a mixture of greys and blacks and looked like they were made up of rags.

Chat looked at him in concern. "You feeling alright?"

The man looked up at them with cold grey eyes. "You're Chat Noir." He sighed. "What do you need?" He asked softly.

"Well," Marinette gave him a polite smile. "We were wondering if you knew anything about the sale of this haunted house." She pointed to the house behind him.

He frowned darkly. "I do know." He glanced at the house forlornly. "My name is Louis and I own... owned that house."

Marinette and Chat shared a glance. They were finally getting somewhere, hopefully.

"Until that damnable Alexandre came I managed this place perfectly well." He ranted. "But no! This grade a jerkoff just shows up and runs me out of business, smug self-centered little-!"

"Who is Alexandre?" Chat cut in. He glanced worriedly at Marinette whom had covered her ears.

Louis snorted. "Alexandre is the man who stole my business."

Marinette uncovered her ears cautiously. "The buyer?" Chat asked.

"Yeah." Louis muttered. "That guy needs to pay somehow."

Chat frowned. "You may just get your wish. Hawkmoth's akuma is most likely after him."

Louis grinned. "Tch. Serves him right."

Marinette growled. "What is wrong with you?! This is a man’s life we're talking about!"

He scoffed. "Who cares! The guy forced me into a position where I would have to sell! He ain't worth sh-"

"Enough." Chat said clearly. "Thank you for your time."

With that said Chat gently grasped Marinette's hand and pulled her away from the infuriating man. He didn't stop until they were in front of the door to the haunted house.

"You alright Princess?" Chat asked in concern.

Marinette shook her head. "I just hate people like that." She grumbled. "I feel like he should have been the akuma. It would have made sense."

Chat hummed in agreement and then turned to the door. "Think we should go inside?"

Marinette nodded and Chat reached out and turned the door knob.

"Chat Noir! Give me your Miraculous!" The ghost screamed. It flew over the rooftops and started circling the two teenagers.

Chat took a step in front of Marinette. "What's up ghost? Besides you anyway." He smirked.

The ghost wailed. "I am not ghost, I am Plutus!" He then dived towards them.

Chat dove forward while swinging his baton. As he expected the baton went straight through Plutus and hit the ground with a loud clank. "Still can't hit him." He muttered. He turned his head and his eyes widened in alarm.

Plutus flew quickly toward Marinette with a wicked grin. She yelped and dodged to the side, rolling into the dead grass lawn of the haunted house. Plutus shot straight through the door.

"You alright, Marinette?" Chat looked worried.

She groaned and stood up. She looked down at the grass stains on her witch outfit. "I'm fine, Chaton, and also glad that I'm not wearing my regular clothes." She picked at her clothes.

Chat smiled in relief. "That's go-"

Plutus screeched as he shot out from the top window of the house. "You can't take my home from me!"

Chat growled in frustration. "We're not trying to!" He yelled.

"Lies!" Plutus dived towards them again. Chat readied his baton to try and strike at him again and Marinette hid a couple feet behind him.

This time Chat smoothly spun his baton in the hope it would somehow clip the untouchable ghost. Plutus laughed as he went straight through his baton and then Chat himself a brief moment later. Chat shuddered at the cold feeling of the ghost moving through him before his eyes widened in sudden concern. "Marinette!"

Marinette tried to dodge as she had earlier but Plutus was too fast. He clipped her shoulder as he shot past her sending her sprawling into the ground face first. Her pointy witch hat fell to the side and landed next to her.

Plutus shot up into the air as he prepared to dive at Marinette again. Chat moved to stand over her protectively and raised his hand above his head. "Cataclysm!" Dark power coiled into his hand. He pointed it straight at Plutus.

He glared at the ghost. "I won't let you hurt my friend again you good for nothing ghost!"

Plutus laughed and started to dive towards him. He aborted his dive halfway as Hawkmoth's sigil materialized on his face. He seemed to argue with him for a moment before screaming in frustration. He then flew away quickly, disappearing amongst the rooftops.

Chat glared after him until he heard Marinette groan behind him. He quickly dispersed his Cataclysm using a nearby bush and kneeled down to check his friend.

He put his hand on her shoulder as she shifted herself into a sitting position. "Are you alright Princess?" He asked softly, concern shining in his eyes.

She kept the side of her face covered with her hands. "Hurts." She whimpered.

Chat's face grew more worried. He shifted his hand from her shoulder to her uncovered cheek. "Can I see it, Marinette?" He asked gently. His other hand came to gently pull her hands away. With little resistance he managed to move them far enough away from her face to see the damage.

Chat would normally describe Marinette's face as cute, maybe even adorable, but right now it could only be described as an ugly patchwork of reds and blues. One of her eyes was sealed shut by the bruise slowly forming around it, her cheek was scraped badly and her forehead had a curved cut along her brow. Her nose dripped a little bit of blood that he quickly caught with his gloved hand. He glanced down to where her head had hit and grimaced as he realized that she had clipped the sidewalk leading up to the house with her face.

Chat looked in her good eye as he gently cradled her face in his hands. "Marinette, do you have any bandages?"

Marinette made another sound of pain. "Yeah." She groaned. "There's some in my purse."

Chat grimaced. "You didn't bring your purse." He glanced around the neighborhood. "I see what used to be a convenience store. I'll be right back. Okay, Marinette?"

Once she nodded in agreement, he shot off towards the store. It looked like a gothic church with the words 'Convenience Today!' plastered on the top of it in stone letters. As he grabbed the bandages off the shelf he memorized the location so he could come back later and pay. He grabbed a bit of antiseptic as well and started heading back.

"Stupid! How could you let her get hit you idiot!" He muttered to himself.

He arrived to see her muttering something to herself that sounded suspiciously like Ladybug. He grimaced. Of course she wished Ladybug was here. If she had been here Marinette wouldn't have gotten hurt like she had under his protection.

He landed softly next to her and she glanced up at him in surprise. She was once again covering the damage with her hands.

He gently removed them as he held the bandages up to her. "I'm going to patch you up the best I can. If that's alright with you?"

Marinette looked a little confused at his question. "Of course that's alright." She huffed.

Chat let out a little, almost pained, chuckle. "It's nice to see you haven't lost your fiery spirit." He said dryly.

She tried to roll her eyes and then hissed in pain. "That hurt." She whimpered.

Chat's face twisted in guilt. "Alright, let me bandage you before you end up hurting yourself." He said softly.

He cleaned her cheek with the cotton swabs that had come with the bandages until her cheek looked a little less red. He applied a bit of antiseptic to the bandage and then gently applied it to the mass of red on her cheek. She hissed a bit at the feeling of the antiseptic and this time she noticed when he winced guiltily.

Marinette frowned and stared at him with her one good eye. "Chat, I know what you're thinking and this isn't your fault." She stated strongly.

Chat just grimaced and started cleaning up her black eye. He wouldn't be able to bandage it up, but he could hopefully stop her from getting an infection. He dabbed a cotton swab into the antiseptic. Just as he was about to start applying it Marinette stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Chat." She glared at him with her good eye and he looked away from her. "Look at me Chat." She grabbed his cheeks with her hands and forced him to look at her. "This. Is. Not. Your. Fault!" She pushed and pulled on his cheeks as she spoke. She let him go.

"Ow." He muttered. He rubbed his abused cheeks and frowned at her. "Was that entirely necessary?"

Marinette almost scowled before remembering her bruises and settled for frowning sternly instead. "Stop feeling guilt over things that aren't your fault and then I won't need to do that."

"Fine." He pouted. "I still need to do your eye." He muttered.

"Not until you admit it's not your fault." She said stubbornly.

He sighed. "I know it's not." He gave her a soft glance. "I just feel like you’re my responsibility, Marinette." He shrugged. "I'll try not to feel guilty, okay?" He said uneasily.

Marinette sighed. "Guess that's the best I'm getting." She muttered. "Go on now." She gestured to his hand that held the swab.

He gently dabbed around her eye and she tried her best to hold in her hisses of pain. He finished applying another bandage on her head cut and one across her nose. One he was done he put all of the leftover bandages in the bag the bandages had originally been in and picked it up.

"So, what now?" She asked curiously.

He grimaced and glanced down at his ring. "Right now you're going to hang here while I go recharge. I'll see you in less than five." He gave her a pleading look. "Please stay out of trouble Princess."

She cringed. "Ugh. I tried to roll my eyes again. Just go Chaton. I'll be fine." She smiled reassuredly.

He smiled hesitantly and then quickly moved away.

As soon as he was gone she picked up her pointy witch hat and put it back on her head. She then turned to talk to the kwami. "We should see if there's anything in that haunted house that could explain this akuma."

Tikki beamed at her. "Let's do it!"

Adrien sighed. "Hurry up Plagg. We need to get back to Marinette as soon as possible."

Plagg glared at him. "The best cheese cannot be eaten in a rush, Adrien, you should know better."

"I've seen you eat an entire wheel in one bite!" Adrien argued.

Plagg just rolled his eyes at him.

Adrien grimaced and was about to start grumbling when he heard two voices arguing. He vaguely recognized the voices as the buyer and seller from earlier. What were their names again?

"Leave me be Louis! I paid you plenty enough for that house of yours." Right the sellers name was Louis.

"Screw you Alexandre, you lying sack of-" Right! The buyers name was Alexandre and he totally hadn't needed them to tell him to figure it out!

Plagg shook his small head. "Idiot." He said as he swallowed the last bit of his cheese.

Adrien frowned. "They're getting too close Plagg, hide." Plagg darted into his waistcoat.

Adrien took a deep breath. His pirate clothes were not helping his confidence. "...Even if the brown waistcoat looks cool." He mumbled to himself.

He moved closer to the two men so that he could listen in. Maybe they would say something they weren't willing to say to Chat and Marinette.

"You can't do this to me, Alexandre. My wife-" Louis groused.

"Your wife is the only reason I bought the stupid thing!" Alexandre griped.

"I want my house back!" Louis yelled.

"Too bad! You're not getting it back. Now if you'll excuse me, I was just leaving until this whole akuma thing dies down." Alexandre and Louis parted ways after that with Louis muttering darkly under his breath while clutching at the rags near his chest and Alexandre with his chin held up high.

Adrien frowned. "What in the world is up with those two?"

Plagg came back out of his waistcoat. "The better question is: Where is Ladybug?" He asked with an annoyed expression.

Adrien blinked. "I... don't know?" He frowned again. "I hope she gets here soon. I bet her Lucky Charm would be helpful." He sighed. "She's smarter to and stronger. She wouldn't have let Marinette get-" Plagg growled and then flicked his head.

"That Marinette girl is right. You need to stop blaming yourself and focus on the task at hand." Plagg said wisely.

Adrien stared at him in surprise. "I guess even you can sound smart occasionally Plagg."

"Exactly. Wait." Plagg looked at him in confusion. "D-did you just insult me?"

"Nope." Adrien rolled his eyes. "I was just saying how great you are!" He smirked.

Plagg looked at him skeptically. "...Good then." He nodded in satisfaction.

"Let’s get back to Marinette. I don't like leaving her for too long when there's an akuma around." He thrust his hand into the air and posed. "Claws out!"

Marinette searched throughout the surprisingly boring haunted house, even if the outside looked so lackluster, she still had had hope there was something of interest inside. She expected more than just a couple of skeletons and fake candles. She had already searched the upper rooms and the bottom floor without finding a thing. So when she stumbled upon a cellar door with a lock on it she had to stomp down her grin of excitement. She still needed to find Plutus’s weakness after all.

"Tikki can you-?"

Her Kwami was already ahead of her. She unlocked the wooden door and grinned happily at Marinette. "Done!"

Marinette smiled. "Good job, Tikki." She patted her kwami on the head.

Once inside she looked around and frowned when she saw (or didn’t see) how dark it was. Tikki beamed brightly. No wait she was actually beaming, like a lightbulb, and moved deeper into the cellar.

Marinette grinned at her little friend. "You're the best, Tikki!"

Tikki giggled. "I try~"

Marinette looked around. There were a couple of barrels and old furniture. A couple of old fake skeletons and a single desk.

Tikki sat down on the desk. "Marinette, there's a book over here!"

Marinette made her way over with a curious look on her face. She sat down at the desk and looked at the book. It didn't have a title and its cover was made of a tough red leather. It was also incredibly small and unused. She doubted there would be much of anything written in it.

She opened it and noticed no one had signed their name. She sighed. "Guess I'll just have to read it."

 Dear Journal,

My wife has given this to me along with a locket. I have decided to humor her this once about writing in you. Since I need to be down here for more than a minute I suppose I should tell you about my day.

This is our tenth anniversary and we spent it joyfully. Even though we have failed to have any children I believe we are as happy as a couple can be. Especially as I took her out for a fancy dinner and we spent the evening walking along the Seine.

When we arrived back my wife gave me this journal and the locket. While the journal seems a little strange the locket is actually an old one of mine. I had given it to her on our first anniversary. It broke a while back and we had never gotten around to fixing it.

It is amazing that such an old thing has transformed so much over the course of our lives. I'm happy to have it back.

 Transformed? She frowned. Was that it? She flipped the paged and found little aborted attempts to write on more normal days until one day he wrote another full(ish) entry.

 Dear Journal,

My wife has passed away. This journal and her locket is the last of the things I have left of her.

The locket will forever remind me of her. I have decided to sell everything of ours in Paris and move away. An old friend of mine has agreed to buy this place.

I miss my wife.

 Marinette stared at the last sentence.

"Are you alright, Marinette?" Tikki asked worriedly.

"I think so Tikki." She said softly. "It's just sad that this man lost his wife."

Tikki hugged her uninjured cheek. "You’re so kind Marinette!" She smiled.

Marinette smiled back at her. They both started when they heard a yowl.

"He's back." Marinette murmured. She would have transformed if he hadn't already been diving through the ceiling above her.

"Leave!" Plutus screeched. "That is not yours!"

Marinette dived out of the chair. She didn't wait to see Plutus go straight through the chair and then the floor. Tikki darted to hide under her hat as Marinette left the cellar. As she exited she heard Plutus screech again and threw herself up against a wall just in time for Plutus to shoot out of the floor where she had been standing. Without watching him once again disappear through the ceiling she started running towards the front door.

Right before she reached the door the ghost floated down from the ceiling and blocked her. "Now now, little girl, you’re in my house touching my things. You need to be punished." He said scathingly.

Marinette's uncovered eye darted around as she tried to figure a way out of the house. "Mind getting out of the way for me, Plutus?" She asked with a small smirk.

Plutus laughed. "Dumb questions all you got now, eh? Where's your pet kitty now, girl?"

"That'd be behind you ghosty." Chat as he jumped through the ghost and picked up Marinette in a bridal carry. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he ran up the stairs. They could both hear Plutus scream in frustration as he tried to follow.

Chat ran through the main hallway on the second floor and held Marinette up with one arm as he used the other to throw his baton at a window. It shattered and a moment later Chat jumped through it with both his arms and body coiled protectively around Marinette.

He landed on one knee and reached out with his hand to catch his falling baton. He used it to immediately shoot them onto the nearest rooftop.

He covered distance quickly as he made to get as far away from Plutus as possible. He ended up on Marinette's balcony. The haunted light of several candles lit up the balcony in an orange glow.

He put her down. "Are you-?"

"Yes, Chat." She rolled her one good eye. Seeing his put out look she sighed. "I'm fine Chat. Thanks for the save." She said softly.

He lost the look and smiled. "No problem, Princess."

"What took you so long anyway?" She asked curiously.

"I ran into Alexandre and Louis having an argument about the sell." He told her. "Louis brought up his wife and Alexandre said that's why he bought the haunted house in the first place." Chat shrugged. "I wish Ladybug was here. She could probably figure this all out."

Marinette's brow furrowed in thought. "She probably already di-would have figured it out, Chaton."

"That doesn’t matter though." Chat nodded to himself.

She blinked, which looked more like a wink with only one eye. "Why not?" She asked.

"I'm going to Cataclysm the locket." He explained. "He seems to fear it, so hopefully it will work."

Marinette bit her lip to stop herself from disagreeing. "I guess I'll stay here then. So I won't be in any danger!" She smiled brightly at him. "This time kick his butt for real, Chat." She patted him on the shoulder.

Chat chuckled. "Can do Princess!" He vaulted off her roof with a jaunty salute.

Tikki popped out from under her hat as she watched Chat move back towards the haunted house. "Ready to transform Marinette?"

Marinette grinned. "I was born ready, Tikki. Spots on!" With a flash of light Ladybug went swinging after her partner.

Ladybug arrived just in time to see Chat Noir being thrown into the Seine.

Plutus hovered over the river, cackling, and was jeering down at Chat. He turned his body toward her. “Oh? The bug finally shows up to the party!” He laughed.

Chat dragged himself out of the river and Ladybug let out a sigh of relief. She tuned to Plutus and started spinning her yoyo. “This isn’t really the kind of party I like.” She smirked. “My kind of parties have fewer stupid ghosts.” She told him.

Plutus scoff echoed through the air. “Spare me the inane retorts. You’re sidekick has already made enough of them.”

She scowled and winced slightly. “He is my partner, not my sidekick.” She said flatly.

“He’s trash.” Plutus snickered. “He couldn’t even protect his little friend.” He grinned viciously.

Chat Noir used his baton to jump over to Ladybug. “Maybe not,” He said with a lopsided smile. “But I’m still gonna kick your butt.”

He looked over at Ladybug and did a double take. “My Lady you…?”

She smiled at him. “Sorry I’m late, Chaton.”

He shook his head as if to clear it and his look turned determined. “What’s the plan?”

She smiled grimly. “I managed to run into Marinette before I got here and I think we figured this guy out.”

Plutus laughed and both of them turned to him. “Figured me out? What does that even mean?” He sneered. “Stupid brats.”

Ladybug smirked. “Really Louis? Surely you can do better than that.”

Plutus froze. “How?!”

“Marinette found that journal of yours.” She told him. “A locket that transforms the user at will isn’t that strange for an akuma.”

Chat glanced at her. “Is he doing this because he got run out of business?” He questioned.

She shook her head sadly. “He wanted to sell it because it reminded him of his late wife.” She turned and frowned at the akuma. “He regretted his decision and Hawkmoth took advantage of him shortly after.”

“That is some impressive detective work, but-” Chat gestured his baton towards the hovering Plutus. “How are we going to actually get the locket?”

“He has to become tangible to hit us.” She looked at him with regret. “One of us is going to have to be bait.”

Plutus laughed. “I do like some tasty bait.” He grinned.

Ladybug shook her head at his words. “Follow my lead, Chat.”

“Of course, My Lady.” He smirked.

Ladybug threw her yoyo and swung herself in an arc towards the akuma. Chat ran towards the akuma from the other side.

“Pointless!” Plutus snarled.

“Lucky Charm!” She shouted and blinked at the large cloth she had been given. “I know what to do.” She smirked. Chat stopped and stared at her. “What do you need me to do?”

Her smirk widened. “Get ready to grab the locket.” He nodded.

“Hey Louis! You suck!” Chat looked at her like she was crazy. “It’s too bad you’re such a boring akuma. Maybe if you were more interesting I would have shown up sooner.”

She held the cloth and both hands as she watched Plutus shake in anger. “What’s wrong? Bug got your tongue?”

He screamed and flew straight at her.  She held the cloth out. “Come on! I’m not even going to defend myself!” She glanced at Chat. “Chat, use Cataclysm!”

He did as she asked just as the ghost reached her. She dodged to the side and let go of the cloth. Plutus yelled in frustration as got tangled up in it. He phased through it and turned towards the smirking Ladybug. “How dare you-!” Ladybug pointed down. He blinked and looked down just in time to see Chat. He was holding on to his extended baton as he reached out to grab Plutus’s locket with the same hand that held Cataclysm.

“No!” He yelled and tried to move away. He was too late and had to watch as the locket disintegrated. The akuma floated out of the remains as Chat caught the now tangible and non-floating Louis.

“Bye-bye little butterfly!” She smiled as the now purified butterfly flew away.

She grabbed the cloth off the ground and threw it into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

The wave of red and black scattered across Paris and changed everything back to normal. Some of it even ran around Ladybug’s head and healed her scrapes and bruises.

She held out her fist towards Chat Noir and smiled confidently. He completed the fist-bump with a soft smile on his face. “Pound it.” They said at the same time.

Beep beep. “That’s my queue to bug out!” She said cheerfully. She quickly swung away with her yoyo.

Chat sighed and smiled. “See you in a minute.” He murmured.

The large glass door to Hawkmoth’s inner sanctum closed as the purified akuma came to rest on his shoulder.

He glared darkly at the ground. “Curse you. If it wasn’t for that meddling hat girl I would have won. Next time you won’t be so lucky.” He clenched his fist in front of him and scowled. “Next time I shall have your Miraculous! Ladybug!”

Marinette grinned as she put the finishing touches on her costume for Halloween. Chat would be in for a shock when he sees it for sure.

A knock sounded on her hatch and she quickly hid the ensemble in her closet. Tikki hid as she called for Chat to let himself in.

Chat tumbled down from her bed and grinned at her. “Hey Prince-” he yawned mid-greeting.

She smiled at him. “Hey Chat Noir, long day?” She giggled.

He chuckled. “You were there.” He reminded her calmly.

She blinked. “Well, it was tiring for me too.”

He sighed and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I meant…” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Are you feeling better now?” He asked smoothly.

“I’m purrfectly fine now, Chat Noir.” She smiled coyly. “When you defeated him that light came and fixed me up.”

Chat smiled tiredly. “I’m glad you’re feeling good enough to steal my puns, Princess.”

“Your face okay from that run in with the wall you had earlier?” She asked a flash of concern on display in her bluebell eyes.

He nodded. “My face is magnificent, as always.” He said cheekily.

They both smiled and stood there for a moment, just enjoying the companionable silence.

Marinette glanced at the time. “You should probably go, Chat. It’s really late.”

“Of course, Princess. Have a good night.” He smiled and bowed. He hopped up to her bed and was about to leave through the hatch when Marinette stopped him to say something.

“Chat… Thanks for keeping me safe.” She said softly with her hands clasped in front of her.

Chat grinned widely. “That’s my job,” He jumped through the hatch and landed on her balcony. “My Lady.” He whispered and then leapt off into the night.