#like his own kids and grandchild sure gets to be known to and respected by the public as his progeny

[woodblxssomcrowned]

.

[amity206]

Random Elder Headcanons

Thinking about the Sky elders and what they would have been like when they were fully alive (I use he/him for Daleth and she/her for Teth based on things the devs have said when talking about them but given the elders canonically don’t have biological genders I just go with some of them decided to use gendered pronouns while others didn’t - everyone is free to their own interpretation of the lore)

Daleth / Isle Elder

Likes solving puzzles

Stargazes and knows the constellations by memory (as the guide / ferryman elder I imagine he would be skilled in navigating by stars)

Takes a really long time to make decisions but usually makes good ones

Very supportive (concept stuff compared him to a kindergarten teacher), knows how to talk to kids (though he can sometimes get overwhelmed by the noise he’s super good with children)

Actually very skilled in both combat and magic. In his old age he’s getting weaker but he can definitely still kick ass

History geek

Blames himself for the King’s corruption. He thinks he could have prevented it, that he didn’t do enough. He still loves the King like a grandchild and wants to make sure he’s okay.

Ayin / Prairie Elder

Really good at cooking, even though the Elders probably had staff to cook for them

Loves baby mantas (baby light creatures of all kinds really)

Likes to make miniature models of things. would really enjoy those several thousand piece Lego sets if spirits had legos

Vegetarian

super patient. Almost never mad. Absolutely terrifying when they do get mad

Listens to everyone’s opinions on things, very thoughtful

Gives the best hugs

Very hard worker, incredibly strong. The kind of person who does not procrastinate

its canon that they snore loudly

Very sad over how the light creatures were drained under their watch, filled with guilt about it. Wishes they could have found another way that didn’t involve trapping the King in Eden.

Teth / Forest Elder

Could be bossy or stern sometimes, but actually cares very much about the people around her

She will snap at you for annoyances like handing her a shipment of improperly prepared darkstone. Everyone around her deeply respects her though

Introvert at heart, secretly enjoys cheesy romance novels as well as like. Business / mining manuals

Originally called the shaman ancestor so probably had a deeper connection to Megabird, at least at first

Nothing scares her (at least, that’s what she says)

Inner turmoil about her role in the Fall - knowing she played an instrumental role in the Kingdom’s downfall, but also unwilling to place the blame on herself. Despises the former King

Samekh / Valley Elders

Very focused on maintaining their public image and being seen as great by the Kingdom

Sibling Banter™️ with constantly trying to out-perform each other. Despite this in the face of a threat they fight almost as if they were the same person… or used to be

Former bodyguards of the King, watched him become corrupted. As the youngest Elders they looked up to the King more and didn’t know what to do

Liked to throw massive parties/spectacles

Because of this and their playful/occasionally flirtatious streak, some regarded them as more shallow and less intelligent than the rest of the Elders. Sah and Mek were actually geniuses, though prone to making impulse decisions

they judge you by how well you perform in the races / other tests laid out by them. Very dismissive of those who don’t do well.

Because of the “maintaining public image” thing, even in a dead Kingdom they don’t want to let anything be known about the extent they had to do with the corruption

Tsadi / Wasteland Elder

Got seriously corrupted by darkstone like they did in concept art. Used to be super in control of their emotions, as the corruption took hold they became more short-tempered and angry

Long-term planner, very good at military strategy and also strategy games like the Sky version of chess. Has an amazing poker face. (Ignore that the spirits wear masks okay)

Really needs someone to talk to, finds it hard to open up but has a lot to get off their chest- loss, regret, pain, things they could have done better, people they could have saved. Before the Storm they used to talk to Ayin, but now they can’t anymore

Doesnt talk much. Enjoys the company of Teth because they’re both introverts and Teth also likes strategy games.

Wanted to be seen as a hero, not a monster. Thought they were fighting for the good of the Kingdom

Enjoys books on military history and strategy

Cares a lot about people, bad at expressing it

Feels like the King used them as a weapon, incredibly angry about that

Lamed / Vault Elder

The kind of person who will silently judge you instead of confronting you about something

Always uses inside voice

Knows so many things. Passion is searching for obscure and forgotten history

Doesnt get involved in other people’s drama, would serve as a mediator in debates between Elders. Has never needed to raise their voice because a stern look is enough to get everyone to shut up. No one wants to see them get mad.

Fluent in sign language and several ancient languages

Good friends with Daleth, they have tea and share stories

MASTER at strategy games, better in many of them than Tsadi. Sharp-witted too, good at the occasional pun and knows if you’re hiding something/lying

Feels bad for skykids. Doesn’t know how to tell them they were basically created to die, so does their best to prepare them for the storm instead

[terrence-silver]

Okay but like past twig and John having a sleepover with tiny da eun and watching her over the summer they would be the best caregivers with her

---

Realistically, I think Terry Silver would hate that. 😬

Not the spending time with John Kreese bit in whatever capacity said time might be spent, but the fact that there's this little kid there...taking up all the damn attention. And he doesn't like sharing. He wants to be the focus. He wants him and John to be the focus and them hanging out. Sure, he charmingly tolerates her for John's sake (and for their Sensei's sake) because John seems taken with her and Terry, he follows John's lead, always, doing everything to appease his friend, but at the same time it's like a clear distraction for the two of them, the adult men, to actually go and do adult men things while out in Korea. They survived Vietnam, for god's sake! They're going through some of the most torturous, backbreaking training known to man under this Master. They've earned their leisure and their fun. Terry's thinking a night out, hookers, blackjack, cigars, some unhinged underground sex club somewhere, down in some nearby city where they preform the craziest things and booze and he'll undoubtedly insist on paying the entire bill for all of these activities too, because why not, but here's this little girl John's playing house with and mothering. Oh, he's a caregiver alright, it is just that Terry thinks John should, you know...stop. It's like, first it is Johnny Lawrence being his hyperfocus back in the States and now it's Kim Da Eun in Korea. They could go out into the jungles of Borneo and Terry swears John would found a pet project for himself there too and there he would be, good, devoted friend that he is, entirely indulging him in it. If he wants to adopt, he should've just said so. Terry knows some people who know some people who can make all the right calls. Sheesh. And what's worse, Master Kim Sun-Yung might just agree with Terry's sentiment and think Da Eun has no business taking up his student's time because this isn't a kindergarten, this is a dojang --- they're his acolytes and not her play-dates, nannies and friends --- leading to punishment possibly ensuing for the little girl. Children with children. Men with men. Keep the two separate is what Master Kim Sun-Yung could say. If Terry discreetly rats her out (which he just might if it means this whole summer camping nonsense is put an end to) he thinks it is well deserved and Terry's convinced it was well deserved too seeing as how this kid downright got in the way of everything, mainly John and him. Master Kim doesn't consider John that good of a student not based on skill, but perhaps due to this lingering softness that should just die already. And it definitely does die by the 80's --- we know that. Terry doesn't have it. That's why he's the actual star golden boy of the dojang. He's duplicitous, he tells on people, he schemes, he's cruel, he's slithery, he's so disciplined and self-content about it he's almost too rigid at times and these are, ironically, top notch Cobra qualities their Master appreciates even at the expense of his own grandchild.

Because Silver knows the creed and ways of things around here.

A little too well, I might add. Takes to it like a fish to water.

He just stands by and blankly watches Da Eun get flogged by her grandfather, even going as far as trying to stop John from intervening. That man doesn't give that many damns for that girl. Perhaps he was only ever just nice enough to warrant Da Eun wanting to fly in to to States decades later, but even that, by the looks of her, she did begrudgingly. First thing she does is ask for John. Woman wasn't at all tremendously pleased to see Terry. Sure, she and her goons immensely respect him and bow to him, but there's no visibly grand warmth there.

But, like, not that we'll ever know for sure, but I feel there's an obvious reason Kim Da Eun likes John Kreese much better in later years and it is the clear fact he was somehow, in ways we'll never see, more genuine towards her. Kids have a way of sensing this. And the adults later on carry this realization forth with them through life. John liked her and Terry was only pretending to, and in fact, probably not even pretending that hard. He never once interacts with her as a child and possibly cordially ignored her and was only ever that typical, artificial manner of faux-polite for the Master's and John's sake. I could be reaching with the characterization but I feel, somewhere deep down, in the vaguest of ways, Kim Da Eun remembers.

Not that Terry dislikes Da Eun, he probably only ever liked her around because John liked her around (And anything for John, right?) but that is probably simultaneously the reason he didn't like her around too much.

[blood-injections]

I would love to hear some father figure Doctor D headcannons..

FATHER FIGURE DOCTOR D. YEAH HES YES OF COURSE

He is THE dad of the zones honestly, he literally adoped cherri, he basically adoped the fab four and later down the line vaya and vamos and the girl is like literally his grandchild not literally but as the fab four are his kids so shes his grandchild plus he's like been there since the start he probably knew her mother.

Anyway I've made a post about this bit before ! Show Pony is his biological nephew ! And they grew up visiting him and being a little helper around his radio station in LA and when they hot older, theyd spend their summers staying with him, and he was always a lot funner and when Pony was like ten and realized they felt genderweird. He was way more accepting than their lameass probably transphobic parents so Dr D's their cool uncle but really they see him more as their father figure, and Ponys staying with him one summer when theyre twelve and the helium wars start and stuff shuts down and eventually he has to fight, but he's officially taken in Pony since they cant get in contact with their parents and man, Ponys twelve and its war, they don't want to go back to their sucky parents anyway. And Dr D fucking loves that kid and always hated his stuck up brother, so he never complains.

In the wars he gets really close to another older man he fights beside, a partner, they never label anything but dr d kinda loves him, but things go wrong one day and he loses his legs and his friend all at once. His partner had a son, though, one a little older than pony, and it was just the two of them and so dr d promised his partner he'd look after his son, make sure he wasnt sent to one of the orphanages popping up with bad vibes

So he takes in that 14 year old boy, who will later be known as Agent Cherri Cola, and he loves that kid like his own, because if cherris father and him had both made it through to the end of that war cherri probably would have been his own, if he got to marry that man. Cherri misses his dad like hell but he loves dr d too, and with time sees him as a father and pony as a sibling, for his dad may have raised him but it was dr d and pony that he was with when the war ended and Battery City was erected and when they settled in the desert and watched the zones as we know them be born.

And then its Jet Star, after the zones have been the zones for a while, when cherri and pony are practically grown up, 17 and 20 respectively, Jet's a sand pup, old enough to remember the wars but barely the world before it, so the deserts his home, he grew up out there with his family, on a ranch, and his family then became his crew, who was then lost in a tragic firefight, and jet was alone, drifting the zones at sixteen, its pony that brings it to light, that knows jet and says a friends been drifting since they lot their crew, asks dr d if he can stay with them for a bit at he station. And well, dr d loves his kid, so he says yeah, who is he to deny a joy that needs help.

Jet lives with them for a year, and then moves on to find their own place when they arent so lost, arent grieving their family as hard, but the thing is dr d just has this affect on people, and jet sees him as a sort of father figure too, and he sees jet as another kid, especially when he watches them go stay in the diner, and then take in ghoul, whos just a little fukin kid, ran away from the city at eleven, and somehow survived, not to mention somehow made it all the way out to zone five on foot, and with a gun but hardly being able to shoot it. And jets just seventeen still but they take in ghoul at the diner and kinda teach him the way of the zones, and theyre always over at the station, and ghouls this little kid thats lost everything but hes a fucking spitfire, he reminds dr d of cherri when he first took him in, and of course he helps out jet with teaching him stuff, and ghouls young but hes crazy good at engineering and coding and electronics and stuff, since he grew up with androids and learned early how to help them out, do repairs, hes good at that shit and he fixes some of the old equipment around the station and like seriously, dr d just adopts any kid hes known for more than like a week so hes fucking proud of this smartass kid, and then he gets to see him grow up too and he just loves them all more as time passes.

And then its the venom brothers, two years later, they're older when they get out of the city, and poison at least is already a decent fighter. Jets nineteen and ghouls thirteen and the two of them run into the brothers in a firefight, where poisons shielding their little brother with their body, just them against a group of dracs, and of course jet and ghoul see them just in time and sweep in to help. The brothers have been in the zones for just a few weeks aparently, poisons seventeen and kobras fourteen, and they still haven't found a base, so jet invites them to stay in the diner while they figure things out, who they are, how the zones work, and they agree. And since jet and ghoul already visit the station every other fucking day, now kobra and Poison are tagging along too, and they're fucking weird kids and dr d loves them. Poison and pony take a natural shine to each other and to his surprise, cherri becomes a sort of mentor for kobra, whos a real little shit by the way, like ghoul but angry instead of just.. ghoul. Lashing out because he didnt know hat else to do, but with kobra its a different kind of fire, a melting pot of discomfort with his teenage body and figuring out who he is and neurodivergency and getting overstimulated and just hating society and the world in general. Cherri teaches him how to fight with his fists, channel the rage the kid has, thins poisn cant teach him, not really, theyre protective ayway, dont want him holding a gun yet, like ghoul wasnt learning soon as jet took him in because if youre gonna have a gun, you gotta use it right, and out here, you need a gun.

Kobra kind of idolizes Dr D too, cause he's this wicked cool old dj thats like, zones famous, and talks cool and has cool stories, so hes learning to fight from cherri, and this kid thats know nothing but battery city and pills for his whole life gets to hear about the world befoe and music and the wars they only skimmed over in the schools in the city. Kobra talks all city too, kinda hates how he sounded, cause everyone could tell hes from the city from it, but listening to dr d so much, he picks up his accent, old california native/plain old like, fun radio guy kinda accent, yaknow, he says vowels weird somtimes and does the zonestalk thing where ya' smush words t'gether or slur 'em a bit, like that. And he picks up a lot of slang from dr d too.

And once again dr d watches these kids grow up, choose names, watches kobra kid learning to ride a bike and in a couple years he'll be there at his first race at the crash track and fucking cheering, because theres a ton of older joys like him and theres a ton of kids, but this is one of his. These kids chose him, really, and so he's their family, a friend, a father figure, whatever they need.

[duhragonball]

JoJolion Ch. 23-25

Okay, hear me out...

Last time, Yasuho was screwing around near Meditation Pine, near the Higashikata Mansion and the spot where she first met Josuke, when she got pulled into a hole and some shadowy figure licked her ear. We pick up now in the "Paper Moon Deception" arc, which finds her in what looks like a finished basement, except the Higashikata's home is like a hundred feet away from it.

With her is Tsurugi Higashikata, the grandchild of Norisuke Higashikata IV. Yasuho presses the kid for an explanation, but Tsurgui just gives cryptic non-answers, and when Yasuho gets physical, Tsurugi reveals that he's actually a boy. Yasuho's known the family for most of her life, but she didn't know this.

Tsurugi explains that this is an old Higashikata family tradition. We learned from the legend of Johnny Joestar that there's a curse that runs in the Higashikata family. The curse manifests as a "Rock disease" which afflicts the firstborn children of the family. Johnny's wife Rina Higashikata had it, and it was so deadly an incurable that Johnny resorted to using the Saint Corpse to try to save her.

It's possible that when Johnny purged the Rock Disease from Rina (and their son George), he may have broken the curse on their side of the family, and their descendants were spared its effects. It's also possible that the curse affected the Joestars the same way, since the symptoms Rina experienced in 1901 seem similar to what Holly Joestar Kira is dealing with in 2011.

But the main Higashikata line is definitely still stuck with the Rock Disease. Norisuke I returned from America to invest his prize money into the fruit import business, which he left to his eldest son Norisuke II, who passed it on to his son, Norisuke III, and on down to Norisuke IV. Jobin is the next in line to inherit the family business, and Tsurugi is the next in line after that.

Incidentally, in case you're wondering why Jobin and Tsurugi weren't named Norisuke V and VI, the tradition is that each successor changes his name when they assume control of the household. Norisuke II, III, and IV's birth names were Johei, Josho, and Josuke, respectively.

Anyway, I'm getting off track. The curse hits the firstborn child with the Rock Disease. If the firstborn is a girl, it seems to happen later in life, but with boys, it always strikes when they reach the age of ten. Norisuke II and III had older sisters, so they were spared, but Norisuke IV and Jobin are the eldest of their generations so... hmmm. And Tsurugi is the eldest child of his generation, so he's probably going to die of the Rock Disease by the age of ten. He's nine right now.

One trick the family has used over the centuries is to raise the eldest son as a girl until the age of 12. I'm not sure what the point of this is, unless it's just a desperate attempt to trick the Rock Disease into thinking Tsurugi's a girl, so he won't get sick. Then when he turns 12, he can live as a boy again, and the Rock Disease can't touch him because now it's too late. And you know, it might have worked once or twice, which is why the tradition continues into the 21st century.

Anyway, Yasuho just wants to leave this place, but Tsurugi hid her cell phone.

As she searches for the phone, she gets desperate to make contact with Josuke, probably from the stress she's under, and this activates her Stand, Paisley Park. It makes some sort of subtle contact with Josuke, and he "realizes" that he could send Yasuho an e-mail. He's using Joshuu's phone, and Yasuho won't take Joshuu's calls because he's a terrible person, but Josuke thinks an e-mail might work if he can convince her he's not Joshuu. So he signs it off as "4 Balls" which seems like a weird thing to use as an in-joke.

Meanwhile, Yasuho gets her phone back, but Tsurugi has used it to activate his Stand, Paper Moon King. Yasuho doesn't even know about her own Stand yet, so she doesn't understand what he's talking about, but she does know he did something to her. She leaves, but not before checking out the other rooms in the building. There's one with a bunch of toys and what looks like a replica of Josuke's sailor suit for some reason. It also has a toilet in the room, which reminds her of a prison cell.

Also she sees a weird dog on her way out.

She finally gets Josuke's message and realizes its him because he wants to meet at the Sesame Honey Cafe, which she recognizes as a reference to the snacks she got him in the hospital in Chapter 2. The "4-Balls" thing is completely lost on her, though. Now I'm wondering if Josuke even noticed he had written that the way he did. The translator note said he wrote something using characters that could be read as "4-Balls" so maybe the pun was unintentional.

On the other hand, it's funny that Yasuho doesn't seem to recognize the significance, since she was the one who couldn't stop thinking about it when she saw his groin for the first time. I guess she finally got over it.

Anyway, Paper Moon King affects Yasuho's perception of people's faces. On the way back to town, she notices everyone has the same weird face, but she thinks is her contacts, so she heads home to get new ones, and when she sees her mom she thinks some stranger broke into their home. It's not until she sees her own face distorted like this that she begins to understand something strange is happening.

Now, recently I read that there's a real-life condition very similar to this. It's called prosopometamorphopsia, also known as PMO or "demon face syndrome", and people who have the disorder will see people's faces as being distorted in certain ways. CNN did an article about it a few weeks ago, and the first thing I thought of was this arc in JoJolion. I don't know if this is where Araki got the idea for Paper Moon King, but it seems like a strange coincidence.

Upset by all of this, Yasuho decides her best bet is to head for the Sesame Honey Cafe right now, even though it isn't dinnertime yet. But she keeps running into Tsurugi, who offers to help her if she wants it. Yasuho angrily tells Tsurugi to stop following her. She knows whatever's going on is Tsurugi's doing. I mean, for one thing, Tsurugi's face is the only one that she can still recognize.

Again, Yasuho doesn't know this is a Stand power, nor is she aware of her own Stand, or she might try using Paisley Park to find some way to break the spell. I guess knocking Tsurugi out would cancel the effect, but I don't think she's desperate enough to punch a kid. PP could probably come up with an alternative, but Yasuho doesn't know that yet. As it is, she thinks Tsurugi slipped her some kind of drug.

Tsurugi offers an alternative explanation: Maybe the reason she can't communicate with her mother is the same reason she's investigating things like Josuke and the Higashikata Family. She doesn't know who she is or where she belongs, so maybe she's projecting those feelings onto Josuke, which is why she's so invested in his predicament.

Speaking of Josuke, he's approacing the same cafe, because Yasuho called and asked to meet her there early because she's scared, but he steps on one of Tsurugi's origami frogs, which puts him under the same spell as Yasuho. But Josuke's kind of used to not knowing who anyone is, so this doesn't bother him as much. Also, this is like the fourth or fifth Stand he's had to deal with, so this isn't anything new for him.

Joshuu finds him in the street and takes back his cell phone, but Josuke doesn't recognize him so he doesn't even know what's going on.

Well, at least they're heading for the same place, so that at least gives them a chance of linking up and dealing with the problem together, except, no. Yasuho's in the wrong place. The sign said "Sesame Honey Cafe", but when she goes inside she finds a record store. It's not just faces that have become unrecognizable. Now she's got some sort of aphasia, where everything she reads looks like it says "Sesame Honey Cafe".

Things get even worse when she runs into Joshuu, and mistakes him for Josuke. She even calls out Josuke's name, and Joshuu thinks she's saying "Joshuu suki", or "I love you, Joshuu." Or maybe Joshuu is just hearing what he wants to hear.

Yasuho asks him to take her someplace away from people, where they can be alone, and Joshuu thinks she wants to have sex, so he takes her to a men's room. Classy as ever.

Then he takes off his pants and tries to corner her in the stall. He uses his new Stand to dismantle her clothes, which... Man, this guy is the worst. Eventually she realizes it's not Josuke, but I don't think she ever finds out this is Joshuu.

He only stops when she finally says Josuke's name loud enough for him to recognize it, and while he tries to figure out why, she bashes his head in with the toilet tank cover. This is one of the best panels in the story.

Yasuho then tries to seek help from some nearby policemen, but when she gets in their squad car, she finds out they're not cops at all, but just a trio of... well, I don't know what their deal is, but their immediate reaction to Yasuho is to drive off with her and force her to swallow drugs so they can have their way with her. In her desperation, she subconciously uses Paisley Park to escape. It comes out of the floorboard of the car and breaks the ankle of the driver, and this causes them to crash into a telephone pole.

I think Yasuho runs into her mom again, but at this point I'm not sure of anything she sees. By now, the effect of Paper Moon King is so intense that Yasuho can't discern words, faces, voices, or even clothes and vehicles. If she thought those creeps were police officers, then how can we be sure that woman in the dress is her mom?

And that's why Yasuho finally begs Tsurugi to help her. Before she was blaming Tsurugi for doing this to her, but now she's so lost and confused that she'll accept anything to get out of this mess.

And that seems to have been Tsurugi's goal all along. He wanted her to stay in the underground building, and when he couldn't stop her from leaving, he used his Stand to torment her until she had no other alternative but to follow him back. That's pretty damn cruel, but we see a mysterious figure watching them from one of the other rooms, and it seems like that guy might be the one pulling the strings here. For some reason, Tsurugi wants a sample of Yasuho's hair, and I bet this dude is the one who asked for it.

Oh, and Josuke's still back in the city. The Stand effect wore off when Tsurugi left, so Josuke realizes that he was never the target. But he knows Yasuho was also in the area, which means whoever was behind Paper Moon King was using it against her. So at least he has some idea what's going on...

[quinnfabrcys]

he loved her, he loved her, he loved her. she was a like breath of fresh air, he told her, she made him feel normal. where have you been all my life, quinn fabray? carter loveless. as in jane austen's if i loved you less, i might be able to talk about it more. but all men do is lie. and let their mothers treat their supposed love of their lives like shit. let it be known, quinn fabray is a certified feminist. but celia loveless is a certified cunt. the older woman who hired a private investigator to look into her son's girlfriend and decided to throw it back into her face, use it to embarrass her. did you know quinn was a teen mom? oh, yeah. then she just gave up the poor thing. couldn't even take responsibility. we don't have to worry about you giving up a future grandchild, do we? and that stupid rich person laugh. followed by her daughter's stupid laugh. now she wanted to jump over the table and in her best friend's words go all lima heights on her ass, that's what santana would've done. carter immediately moved the knife on her plate out of sight. as if he knew. "mom —," "you know, celia, we have a lot of common. i didn't raise my kid, you definitely didn't raise your kids, so i don't think you should be giving anyone parenting advice, you cunt," how dare you. where do you get off talking to me like that? "oh, are you upset? you have so much botox and fillers i couldn't tell," her attention moving to his sister right after, "and they had to pay half a million dollars to get you into usc because they thought you were too stupid to get in on your own and they were right!"

"you called my mom a cunt, my sister stupid, quinn, and you don't see anything wrong with that?" the man ran his hands over his face because of course this was so stressful for him. "i'm sorry, were you there when beth was brought into it? how it was so funny that a sixteen year old girl gave her baby up for adoption? i had to defend myself because you sure as hell weren't gonna do it. she did it to embarrass me, carter," the blonde immediately shot back. ""babe, she didn't mean it, that's just how she is sometimes. okay? i just think if you apologized first and were the bigger person —," and in that moment she understood why so many women snapped and killed their boyfriends and husbands because jesus christ. men were the worst. santana was always telling her to get a girlfriend for a reason. "not only am i not apologizing to leather face and her dumb ass daughter, i would never have children with fucking a pussy ass momma's boy, carter," santana lopez would be proud. she'd be even prouder if her best friend let her beat his ass, but that wasn't really an option at the moment.

dainty gold ring cladded hands ran over the yale university diplomas in their respective frames. two degrees in social work. lima, lima, lima. she put six hundred and seventy miles between her and lima when she went to new haven. then it was eight hundred when she moved to boston. lima, ohio. typical middle america. she tells people she's from columbus when they ask. well, it's close enough, because people from big cities would rarely know where a little town in the middle of ohio is. the town that she so badly wanted to escape once upon a time. she no longer thinks of her hometown like that. something to run from. instead it's something that welcomes her home no matter what's going on in her life. and right now she needed to be home. so there she was. in what once was the office of emma pillsbury, making it her own little piece of mckinley. maybe it's true what they say, that one way or another, you'll always find your way back home.

william mckinley was like a time warp. and finn hudson was everywhere. ten years felt like just yesterday and a million years ago all the same time. her chest hurt so bad the last time she was here as if it often did. the past summer. her friends always keeping their promises. by now, most of them were married or had kids. yet, quinn was content with being aunt quinn, aunt q, or 'inn, for the littlest ones. her baby was thirteen and she still remembered how much that shit hurt, so she was fine, thank very much. by now, all the students who ever knew finn hudson had graduated and moved on. to current students, he was solely the name on the auditorium. time was such a weird thing. with the sound of footsteps coming closer and pulling her out of her thoughts, the blonde turned around to see who it was. a smile immediately etching on her lips, sam evans. a magnificent duet partner, an even more amazing person. maybe the one that got away. "hi, sam," she spoke up, green eyes settling onto his blue ones. "you think this school's big enough for the both of us?"

[toaverse]

Disney modern au

So, I got a bit inspired by @alloutdisneyfan and their Hyper Pop AU, and thought; "Hey, maybe a Disney crossover, but then in a modern AU, would be nice!", and here we are!

Let's start with the Madrigals!

The Madrigal family lived in Colombia, in a nice town close to the capital city Bogotá.

Alma, the matriarch of the family, was retired from her job as a school council member, and focused her time on making sure her grandchildren have successful jobs. She didn't always have it easy though. Alma fled her hometown with her husband Pedro and their three newborn babies from the political conflict in their country, and Pedro unfortunately lost his life in the process. Being in an unknown town without her husband, Alma vowed to make sure her children would get important and high paying jobs so that their family's status would remain high and respected.

Julieta, the oldest triplet, was a nurse in the biggest hospital in Bogotá. Despite having been pressured by her mother to enroll in medical school and working in a medical field, Julieta loved her job. But while she was often busy with her work and taking care of patients, Julie would always make time to make and cook breakfast and dinner for her family. She would eventually marry the love of her life, and have three daughters.

Her husband Agustín sold honey in his shop, and it was well-liked by sellers and visitors. Before his current work, Agustín was a part-time pianist and often played in local coffee shops and restaurants. But Alma didn't approve of his job, and told him that he needed to change to a full-time and respected profession, otherwise she would't let him marry Julieta. Agustín agreed, and quit his job as part-time pianist with great sadness, but he enjoyed his current job as well. He would eventually have three beautiful daughters with his beloved wife.

Pepa, the middle child of the triplets, was a well-known TV weather reporter. She was well loved by viewers and colleges, and her job payed really well. Pepa would eventually marry her beloved husband, and have three children with him.

Her husband Félix was a beloved dance teacher who taught his students South-American dances. His students would be from all ages, from elementary school kids to elderly people wanting to live their lives to the fullest. He would of course marry his lovely wife and have three children with her. When their first two children were born, Félix was a stay-at-home dad and looked after them until they started school while Pepa worked. But when their youngest was born, they gave him to their youngest niece to babysit for the day whenever they both worked.

Bruno, the youngest triplet, had dreams of becoming a writer for theater plays or films. But Alma didn't approve, and demanded him to enroll in law school and become a layer, or at least a well payed and respected job. Bruno refused, but he got pressured and judged for it by his mother, Pepa and their friends, saying to just give in and that he would get nowhere in the arts. At some point, Bruno had enough, and moved to the US in search for better opportunities for his future, away from his family. He basically got shunned anyways after “ruining” Pepa’s wedding, so why not chasing his dreams away from them?

Isabela, Julieta's oldest daughter, was a florist working in a flower shop owned by one of Alma’s friends, and was looking forward to own the shop one day. She was well loved by clients and the shop was quite populair. At first, Alma didn’t approve to Isa’s desired job choice, and wanted her favorite grandchild to be a model, but one of her friends was looking for employees in her flower shop, and Isa really wanted to work around plants and flowers, so Alma approved. It surprisingly paid well, which both Isa and her Abuela were happy with.

Dolores, Pepa’s oldest child and only daughter, worked at a populair clothing store of a famous brand. She also attended a bookclub with her friends on the weekends whenever she had time. Dolores was also engaged to her long-time boyfriend Mariano.

Luisa, Julieta’s second daughter, was working at Bogotá’s local gym and was a personal trainer for elderly people. She would also help her Abuela, parents or Tío and Tía with chores around their respective houses whenever she could.

Camilo, Pepa’s second child and oldest son, was one of the most populair kids in high school. His jokes and pranks would make everyone laugh, he had lots of friends, and quite a few girls had crushes on him. Camilo was in the school’s drama club and aspired to become a famous comedian, which Alma approved of.

Antonio, Pepa’s youngest child and son, was only 5 years old, and was barely in elementary school, but he already knew he wanted to take care of animals when he grew up. He was the baby of the family, and everyone gave him attention, especially his parents and older siblings.

But Mirabel, Julieta’s youngest daughter? She didn’t feel special like her family. She had nothing to offer, and her peers and even her Abuela, Tía and oldest sister let her know that. Mirabel often got bullied in school for “being awkward” and for liking embroidery, and her primo didn’t bother standing up for her. Julieta, Agustín and Luisa tried to comfort her, but they were busy with their work most of the time. Mira felt like she couldn’t do anything other then having to babysit Antonio whenever her Tía and Tío were working or went out, which she had to do since she was 10. Mirabel did have dreams of going to the US and becoming a fashion designer, but Alma immediately shut that idea down, saying that she wouldn’t get anywhere in that field, and that she should be more like her successful mother and sisters. Mirabel was quite saddened by this for awhile, and considered giving in to her abuela’s demands and become a therapist instead, but then Bruno reached out to her, and the two began talking in secret. Mira told him about his dreams of moving to the US and becoming a fashion designer, and he fully supported and encouraged her to go through with it. At least Mira had someone who supported her.

I really want to do a modern AU for other Disney films as well, such as Lightyear, BH6, maybe Raya. So send me some ideas!

[bibbykins]

Penumbric Commitments (M)

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day!! I wrote this up real quick yesterday, so please forgive any lacking in quality, but I had the idea and absolutely sprinted with it! I hope you all enjoy and look forward to the next full length fic I post, which I gave a not so little hint in here to!

Warnings: 18+, unhealthy relationship, manipulation, yelling, rough sex, light bondage, the usage of a belt as wrist restraints (consensual), brief fingering, male cumming inside, talking about not wanting a child, daddy kink, threatening to leave, offering to kill someone, semi-graphic talks of killing someone

Word count: 3.8k

Genre: Soft Yandere, Mafia! Au

Summary: Hindsight says Namjoon so easily complying with not having children was too easy considering his position in the business and the nightmare his parents had readily become. What you didn't realize was how far Namjoon was willing to prove to you he meant what he said that day: all you both ever need is each other.

Note: this is a canon drabble apart of the Silhouetted Bonds fic linked here

It's times like these that you regret getting a traditional clock. The ticking was incessant and daunting. It felt like it was getting closer and closer to your ear with the deafening silence it was slicing through. Analogs had to be the way to go, or better yet, none at all. The last thing you needed right now was a reminder of how much time has been spent at this table. Namjoon had sprinted home the moment his mother called him after your meeting with her. 

----

"Mrs. Kim, always a pleasure." You shook the older woman's hand with a tight smile. 

She returned yours with an equally fake smile, "Please, you know you can call me mother." She chided, but nevertheless you stayed silent as you sat back down at the table in your home. It used to be mom.

It was 8 a.m. your mother in law wanted to meet, so to be petty, you stated 9 a.m. would be great. It's a shame that your relationship with her came to this, but truthfully, it was far from your fault.

While in the beginning she had been like a mother to you, things quickly took a steep downturn the moment Namjoon reintroduced you into his life. The woman who had once been lively, rebellious, and took charge became a demure, stoic, and merely content wife. She had given you talks about your duty as the wife of the boss and the expectations she expected you to fulfill nowadays as opposed to telling stories of her youth and teaching you how to bake eccentric treats. She had even admonished you for leaving Namjoon, an idea she gave you really. Since then, she had always stated your allegiance to the business and your own husband had yet to be proven in her eyes. The notion struck you to only provide her with business professional talks.

You had always known her and Namjoon's father had been a marriage of convenience, but there seemed to be intense love between them, at least at one point. You're not sure when that collapsed in your absence, and sure you felt bad,but you did not care for her patronizing tones. If Namjoon wouldn't retaliate, she almost definitely would've had you killed the moment you decided to leave her precious son. 

"Now, I understand you're a busy woman, so I'll be chaste." She spoke as she took her seat, giving you a pointed look, "Do you feel as though you've made up for your betrayal?" This was obviously a trick question in her eyes, the simple answer being no.

However, you couldn't care less, "I have never betrayed anyone close to me, including Namjoon, if that's what you mean." You met her eyes with valor, "I don't see why you feel the need to ask such a silly question each time I see you." 

She laughed humorlessly, "Maybe I'm hoping for the right answer to cross your stubborn mind." Truly, if Namjoon didn't love and cherish his parents so much you would've told her to fuck off and mind her business, maybe focus on her own shitty marriage, by now. Alas, Namjoon was a people pleaser and fiercely intent on being a filial son.

"You mean your answer to the question about how I feel?" You raised a brow, "Even when apart from Namjoon, I took no other man. I've never even lied to Namjoon, I've been nothing but an honest and hardworking wife after forgiving his own shortcoming in honesty." You watch her fist clench in her lap at the suggestion of her precious boy having a shortcoming of any sort, "A shortcoming well remedied, seeing as I'm still here." You chided lightly in spite of the heavy tension. You pitied your staff in this moment for having to watch this battle of wills.

"Sometimes husbands lie to… protect, their wives." She struggled to find the right words as she regurgitated what Namjoon's father undoubtedly told her one too many times. Misery loves company, and goodness, did she want you to be as miserable as her.

You returned her fake smile two fold before speaking, "That's lovely, but I don't need protecting from my husband, I need trust, honesty, respect." The final word made her back straighten, "I'd like to live in reality with him, not be shielded from it, but I respect what you wish for your own marriage, but this is what I like for mine." 

She hummed in faux thought, "Very well, I can leave you to reflect on what marriage should be, you're still so young." You fought the urge to roll your eyes, "However, you're not that young…" This was a new addition, "When will I be receiving a grandchild?" 

Your brows furrowed. Namjoon told you she took the news of no grandchildren quite well. He told you that she was informed of your no children rule mere days after you spoke the words. The radio silence on the topic of children each time you met with either of his parents confirmed much for you, and you had even found yourself quite proud of him for standing his ground with you. Surely, his parents are not nearly old enough to be so forgetful.

This was the first question in a while that made you falter, and you could see the satisfaction she gained from it, "Grandchildren? I'm unsure what you-"

"Namjoon told me the last time I visited him in prison, you wanted to wait for your fifth wedding anniversary before trying for children, isn't that coming up quite soon?" She raised a brow and you felt your heart shatter. 

He lied to you. Again. He lied to you mere moments after you were ready to forgive him for lying to you the first time.

You let out a bitter laugh, "He did now?" She nodded and you shut your eyes for a moment, "It seems I've been made a fool of again." You sighed before looking as confusion crossed your mother-in-law's features, "I told Namjoon the very last time I visited him in prison that I did not want kids, ever."

"You know that's not possible for him, he's a successor." She laughed at your boldness.

"You know that he is an adult man with 6 brothers, biological or not, who will all marry one day, surely one of them will adopt or have a child." She scoffed at this, "I got my tubes tied years ago." This wiped the smile off her face.

"Does Namjoon know about this?" She snapped and you nodded with a bitter smile.

"He accompanied me to the appointment for moral support." You shot back.

"Well, your tubes can be untied and-"

"No." You deadpanned.

"No?" She mimicked in disbelief.

 "If Namjoon requires a child, he will also require a new wife." Your voice was cold and you watched shock settle into the woman across from you, "With his habit of lying coming to light, he may have to find a new wife regardless."

She stood, "Don't be-"

"Please, do not waste your breath on orders I will not be following." You held your hand up to silence her.

"I'll call Namjoon, he can talk this out with you, so you can see things our way." She tried to sound reassuring as one of your staff rushed to see her out respectfully when you did not budge from your seat.

You stayed seated at the mahogany table, staring at your wedding ring. You didn't want to get a divorce. You loved Namjoon, more than anything, and yet, did he love you more than anything?

----

You're not sure how long you stayed there, questioning everything, but it was enough time for Namjoon to come home. He ripped the door open, eyes searching frantically, ready to make sure you had not already left him before his eyes landed on your figure. From there, he took his seat across from you at the table and waited until he could no longer take the silence.

"Are you going to say anything?" Your husband's voice was calm, although fear was evident in his timbre.

You sucked your teeth and shrugged, continuing to look at your freshly manicured nails, "What's there to say?" Your voice was short, as if you were already tired of the conversation before it could even start, "You lied to me."

Your husband dropped his head into his hands and sighed, "Junebug, I'm sorry, I-"

"You embarrassed me, again." You look at him for the first time all night with a sharp glare, "Are you trying to find an excuse to divorce or do you just not care about me?" 

"Neither!" His head shot up and he met your eyes with deep regret when he realized you were looking at him with the anger and hurt he found you with all this years ago, "I love you, more than anything-"

"Obviously not!" You snapped, "Do you have any idea how it feels to explain to your shitty and judgy mother in law that, in spite of what her precious son said, you had no plans to have children, that you got your fucking tubes tied?!" Namjoon sighed, either in shame or pain, "Were you just hoping that would come around? That I'm such a fickle woman that I don't mean what I say?" 

His brows furrowed, "No, if I thought that, why did I let you get your tubes tied?!"

"Let me?" Your voice was mockingly soft, "You let me, huh?" You cocked your head slightly and he closed his eyes in frustration, "How fucking charitable of you, my sweet husband, master of the fucking house, to let your dumb little wife make a choice for her body!" You stood, "How considerate of you to play supportive husband only to fold the moment your mother asks you a question-"

"You know what my duty as the only son is!" It was his turn to raise his voice, but he immediately regretted it as he saw your eye twitch.

"And you knew my stance on kids before you got out of prison." You seethed, "You know why I don't want a fucking kid, nor do I plan to fold on my stance, because I'm all I've got left there." Namjoon's mouth parted slightly before he pressed his lips together.

"It's not my fault you don't want a kid because you'd be a bad mother just like your own." The words left his mouth before he could even begin to consider the repercussions. He was about to open his mouth again to back track wildly, but it was far too late as you took a step back, the weight of his words being too much to take from across the table.

He watched hurt consume your irises for only the second time in his life, the first time being mere hours before you left him for years, before you made him promise to never betray you like that again as a condition for you to come back to him. A condition that he evident did not adhere to in your eyes. "Do you want to know what made my mother such a bad mother?" He watched as the embers of rage within your eyes were only stoked by his reflection in your pupils, although he could see a thin layer of moisture begin to build up, pain, "You know, like I would be?" Your words were almost mocking as he stayed eerily still, "An unsupportive, isolating, and shitty sorry excuse for a fucking husband." Your word hit him like a truck.

Unsupportive. Isolating. Sorry excuse for a husband.

You weren't wrong right now. He felt shitty. He knew he should've just stood his ground. His parents didn't matter if it meant losing you, "I didn't mean that, what I said about-"

"You're right." A tear fell and he felt his heart shatter, "So if you want a kid, it'll have to be with someone else."

"I don't want anyone else, I never have!" He made his way to you as you weakly stepped back, "You're all I need." His voice was soft as he went to grab your hand, but you pulled away.

"You said that last time." Your tears were beyond your control as you wiped at them in vain, "You said that mere days before you told your mom that we were going to have kids and you told me your mom took the news well." You sniffled, "You lied to me, I can't believe that you lied to me and let me just walk around like a fool believing you, again!" 

He was stunned silent again. You were right. He had lost his back bone under the strict gaze of his parents and folded under pressure. He betrayed you, and all he could do was hope for your forgiveness.

You shook your head as he remained mute, "I need some time." You went to walk past him and to the door but he engulfed you in a hug, "Namjoon!" You struggled weakly to pull him from you but froze when you heard a sniffle.

"Please, don't go." He begged as he held you close, "I can't lose you again, I'm so sorry, please."

You fought sobs from escaping your mouth, "You lied to me, and your mom-"

"I'll kill her if you want me to." He spoke and your blood ran cold at his tone. He was serious, "My mom and my dad, I'll tell them we're not having children and if they can't handle that, they can leave us alone or die."

Your eyes were wide, tears frozen in time. Namjoon loved his parents. He was always a kid intent on surpassing their expectations, and he had made that clear to you when you started dating in highschool. You were his only sign of rebellion. He was intended to marry a woman from an affluent family, but he met you. You had figured that would be where his rebellion ended, but here he was, handing his parent's hearts in your hands and awaiting orders.

"Joonie, y-you can't mean-" You sputtered to reason but he only held you tighter.

"Or even if you just want me to kill them, I will, with my own hands of course, nobody else can know." His remained headstrong in his resolve, stroking your hair, "I don't care what I have to do to keep you with me." He kissed the top of your head, "You are the only person, the only thing on this Earth that matters to me I cannot live without you." 

A sick, and extremely twisted part of you wanted to call your mother-in-law and say, "Hah!" You wanted to rub it in her face that her son, in spite of everything, chose you. Her precious boy has been yours for years now. However, your sanity slipped through the cracks as you shook your head again.

"You love your parents." You shook your head as you cried into his chest, "And if you felt that way, why would you lie to me?"

He sniffled, "I was weakened, not 100% sure you would truly accept me with open arms and I panicked when they asked." He sighed, "I know it's pathetic and I know I seemed like I knew we would make it, but I didn't know that. They never brought it up after that so I naively thought they would forget and when they asked me again, I would tell them the truth and-"

"You're so stupid." You cried harder into his chest and felt him nod, "If you're scared to face your parents, tell me, and we'll do it together." You were surely ruining his dress shirt, but he stroked your hair soothingly, "Your mom has been calling me a shitty wife for years and after today, she must truly believe it, and I-I should take some time-" Namjoon held you, arms sliding down your body as he got down to his needs and you felt your heart drop, and you gasped, "Stop, don't-" 

You tried to help him up but he grabbed your wrists as he looked up at you with tear stained cheeks and eyes as wet as yours, shaking his head at your frantic protests as he kissed your hands and your wedding ring tenderly, "I can't lose you again." His voice was weighty with sorrow at the thought of you being away from him, "You matter more to me than my duty as a successor does, than my parents do, even more than this whole fucking business." He rubbed his cheek against your hand in desperation as you stood frozen from the shock of Namjoon begging on his knees with the utmost humility. The most powerful man in the city, undoubtedly the country as well, was on his knees crying and begging you to stay, "If killing my parents is what I have to do to prove it, I will. Name how you want it done, when you want it done, and I'll do it." He was dead serious and he could tell you knew it as tears spilled onto your cheeks even more, "You're a better wife than I deserve, and all I can ever hope is to be even a fraction of the husband you deserve, and I'm sorry I've been missing the mark." This made your face twist in pain, regret. Namjoon, up until today, had been nothing short of perfect, and even now he was making up for it, "Almost losing you nearly killed me, and-and I get that sometimes people need time to calm down but I would just prefer you beat the shit out of me instead-"

"I didn't mean that either!" You cried out as you sunk down to your knees to hug the sobbing man before you, "You aren't a sorry excuse for a husband, you're just a goddamn idiot, and I didn't want time I just didn'twant to see your stupid face because I was so angry." You laughed as he did for a moment, "Above all else, you're an amazing husband. I love you, always have, I just hate when you lie-" Your voice in his ear was like heaven as he felt a weight lift of his shoulders.

He grabbed your legs to wrap around his waist before you could properly settle onto your knees. He held you close and he soothed your cries, "I haven't lied to you since, I can promise you that." He sighed and you scoffed, "You don't have to believe me. I'm just asking you to stay with me so I can prove it over time." 

"I'm...I'm not leaving you." You sighed into his neck before he pulled you back to trap your lips between his as he kissed your with a vigorous passion. When you returned his kiss with an equal amount of desperation, he began to stand with you in his arms before promptly laying you on the couch, never detaching his mouth from yours the whole time.

You settled into the velvet cushions as he ground himself into your sex, making you gasp, "I love you, my darling." He murmured into your mouth while one of his hands slid your dress up and your panties to the side before brushing his fingers across your pussy and groaning at your wetness, "Oh fuck, you're so wet, baby." His mouth went to your ear as you moaned, threading your fingers into his hair, "Was it me promising to kill for you or me getting onto my knees that did it, hm?" He rubbed slow circles over your clit and you gasped, "You get off on me spilling blood for you? You get wet by me demeaning myself to keep you right here, where you belong?" 

"Yes, daddy, I do- fuck!" You clutched his hair harder as his finger slipped in and your hips wiggled impatienly, "Just fuck me, I don't care about being stretched, fuck me." 

Too desperate to even hesitate, Namjoon undid his belt, ripping it from his trousers as he secured your wrists within the leather garment, as he had done many times before. He undid your belt as he pushed your arms up and his pants down with his boxers. He slid into you with a deep groan that you matched with a wanton moan. He fucked himself into you feverishly, wasting no time in chasing your high as his nimble finger went down to stimulate your clit, "I love you so fucking much, y/n." He groaned as he felt you tighten, "I don't care who I have to kill to prove it, I'll even let you watch the light drain from their fucking eyes if it means you'll stay with me." 

You moaned out as he whispered gruesome threats to the outside world intermingling with sweet nothings as he held the belt around your wrists,using it as leverage to fuck you harder. If you were sane, you would not be getting closer and closer to orgasm as he cursed the rest of the world into painful deaths just to have you as his wife, but here you were, clenching around him and opening your legs further so he can go deeper, "Shit, I'm gonna cum!" You cried out, arms going over Namjoon's head so you could pull him down to you by the neck and kiss his lips messily.

His hand went from your clit as he wrapped his arm around you to hoist you up and slam himself into you further, "That's right baby, cum for daddy and I'll give you my cum." He cooed in spite of the strain to keep himself from busting you before you get your release. His words only threw you over the edge as you climaxed, hurdling him into his own. He fucked his cum into you like always and you moaned lightly until he was done.

He held himself inside of you as you both gained your breath again, exchanging occasional kisses, "You don't have to kill them, you know." You spoke finally "Although, I won't be so cordial with their bullshit anymore."

He nodded, "I'm by your side, Junebug, forever and always." You smiled before kissing him.

"And I, you." You hummed blissfully.

"We have everything we need between just the two of us, I promise." He smiled against your kiss while you nodded, "You'll be the only one calling me daddy for the rest of out lives- hey!" You smack his chest lightly as you both laughed blissfully, letting the seriously twisted shit that just transpired be a simple part of the past.

"Your mom is a bitch." You giggled tiredly as he chuckled.

"Don't worry about being nice to her if you don't want to, I have my priorities straight." He gave you another kiss that you returned with glee.

As he was cleaning you up, your hazy mind allowed you to feel smug at the fact that you just saved your shitty in-laws from certain death. You were their ticket to life. You were their precious successor's priority. You were his only true love.

Namjoon watched with nothing but love as he tucked your sleeping form into bed. Thinking on it now, he doesn't know if he could even stand the idea of you loving a child as much as you loved him. He enjoyed his monopoly over your affection, and a child would only throw a wrench in that for him. Taehyung liked kids, Jungkook seemed like a family man, maybe even Hoseok if that new girl he's saying is as serious for him as he says. All it took was one kid to carry on the business, so you didn't need to worry your pretty little head about it.

All you had to worry about was staying by his side and all he had to worry about was being a good enough husband to keep you there. He kissed your forehead as he held you closer to him, texting his mom the next time she disrespects you or his marriage, there would be consequences. 

You were the only person he needed. He would do anything to make you understand that. 

The ticking of the clock was nowhere to be heard as you laid in Namjoon's arms. You snuggled into him as you caught sight of the thinly veiled threat he sent to his own mother on account of your feelings. He was yours just as much yours were his and the victory of it all had never tasted so sweet. His heartbeat was all you could hear, steady, loving, and to the beat of the drum you commanded. 

You both wouldn't have it any other way.

Masterlist

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[sandosango]

"Missing Piece"

Chapter 1: Eternal Bonds

“But I don’t wanna…”

A small young girl with slightly tanned skin and pinkish brown hair cut so short she could be mistaken for a boy looked up at her not-so-pleased grandpa.

“Sango!” The older man yelled loudly which caused the small girl to fix her posture so now she was standing straight. “I was being considerate all this time but it is finally time for you to go out and play with other kids instead of hiding here in the dojo.”

The small girl pouted and turned her head slightly to cut the pressuring eye contact with her grandfather. “You wanted me to train kendo so that’s what I’m doing grandpa.”

“Don’t try being a smartass with me here, young lady.” The man tried to sound angry but shortly after he let out a resigned sigh.

He took a few steps forward and kneeled in front of Sango to be on the same level as her. “Look, I know kids make fun of you because my idiotic son keeps cutting your hair so short you look like a boy.” He ruffled her hair gently as he continued. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t kids out there that will accept you and play with you, just…”

He stopped for a few seconds looking for the right words to say.

“As your grandpa, I don’t want to worry that you will be lonely, okay San-chan? Can you try for your grandpa?”

The small girl’s greenish-gray eyes widened from bewilderment.

Sando Masaru, her grandpa, was known to be very strict with everyone, with his son, with his students, with Sango herself. Since his wife died quite early on, he had to raise his son from his rebellious teen phase on his own. It wasn't as easy as he wished it was. He always was stoic and strict but after his beloved wife's death, he become even more distant and cold. No matter how much he loved his son and granddaughter, it was hard to just break his emotionless mask.

You could say that with Sango's birth he became softer, especially knowing that his stupid son in no way was ready to raise a child.

The small girl wasn't planned, she was how you call it 'an accident. An accident that was unwanted by her mother. That's how his son - Sando Izanagi ended up becoming a single father. For two males to raise a small girl was already hard when she was a baby, now that she was at the age of asking many questions, it wasn't getting easier.

But it was a fact that Masaru grew a soft spot for his grandchild. She reminded him so much of his wife, he even let her carry her name. That's why for Sango to see him in such a state, was something rare, which meant that the situation was plenty serious for him.

“I...:” she started hesitantly. “I will try.”

Masaru let out a small sigh and combed his silver locks with his fingers. “As long as you try, it will be enough." He scratched his head few more times and looked back at Sango. "Now go and have fun.” He stood up from the kneeling position. “I will make sure my idiotic students will finally learn how to properly hold a shinai…”

Sango watched as her grandfather made his way to the practicing students, fixing their postures and stances. It was quite amusing for her to see how others struggle with such a simple thing as keeping the right pose but then again, she was a prodigy, they were not.

The girl then turned her head towards the screen doors of the dojo that were slid open to let in some fresh air and let out the unpleasant smell of sweat produced by everyone training inside. Slowly and hesitantly she made her way towards the exit. Sango wasn't in a hurry at all, she knew that the longer she will take, the less of a chance there is that any kids will still be there so she would be able to come back without having to interact with anyone but she also made a promise to try, therefore, she still attempted to at least look as if she was trying.

She slowly sat down to put on a pair of sandals. Such a simple thing that usually took her a few seconds now she tried to do for as long as possible. Only out of respect for her grandpa’s wish she was doing that. It didn't change the fact that she still was just a small anxious girl who was scared of not being able to make any friends. Afraid of rejection and humiliation. Feelings that as a four-year-old she wouldn't be able to name.

What if the girls once again will make her play a role of a bad guy or a knight just because ‘she wasn’t girly enough to be a princess’ or what if those boys who always pick on her will be there? She didn’t want to go through that again…

Sango really didn't mind not playing the princess part but she felt like other girls weren't even considering a girl, that's why it hurt her so much. They also liked to compare themselves to her, how their hair are long and shiny, how cute their frilly clothes looked next to Sango's unisex t-shirt and shorts. The boys on the other hand either didn't want to play with her because she was a girl or simply because they also were training in her grandpa's dojo and out of jealousy of her skills just liked to bully her occasionally. Of course, the poor innocent girl wasn't aware that was the reason.

But once again, she promised to try, so she stood up ready to face her fears just for her caring grandpa that she loved a lot. Though before she could make a step forward, a deep voice that belonged to her grandfather stopped her.

“Sango!”

She quickly turned around only to see a long object flying towards her. Thanks to her quick reflexes developed through kendo training, she managed to catch the mysterious thing that was thrown at her.

It was a bokuto, a simple wooden katana. She examined it slowly, turning it around in her hands and caressing its smooth texture with her fingers. It looked so simple yet so beautiful. Maybe because the wood was of a pleasant bright color, or maybe it was the length that made it look more impressive.

“If any kid tries to bully you, just hit them with it.” Sango’s grandpa said with a serious tone.

Hitting other kids her age didn’t sound like the right thing to do to solve the bully problem but she didn’t want to question her grandfather so she only nodded in response and turned around to finally leave the dojo.

There was no turning back now, she was going to find some kids and at least attempt to befriend them. In the worst-case scenario, she would fail and she may be laughed at but somehow with the bokuto, she felt a little bit more secure, safer than just going out empty-handed to the 'battlefield' that was the local playground.

=+=

The playground wasn’t that far from Sando’s Dojo. It was perfectly placed in between their and Sano’s Dojo so it was quite common that some kids came here during their breaks. Even though both places had entirely different practices, at one of them you could train kendo while on the other one it was martial arts, it didn’t stop both of the older men who ran the places from competing against each other. Who has more students, who got more medals and cups from the tournaments, etc.

The park itself was nice.

There were enough trees to throw some shade and still let in enough sunlight to light up the surroundings. You could find a few swings here and there, one slide with some ladders and ropes to climb around it and in the center, there was a tall climbing structure. Nothing was new but the community living nearby made sure that there was no rust to any of the metal parts and no splinters could be endangering their children either. Kids loved it here but not Sango.

She felt so out of place.

There were groups of kids already playing around but it was just so stressful to try and join them. What if they once again don't want to play with her? Does that mean that she will never have any friends? She didn’t want that at all. Originally she was there to fulfill her grandfather's wish but deep inside Sango really wanted to have playmates. The problem was that it was just… Hard. Most of the kids knew each other because they were neighbors and their mothers were friends so they became friends too.

Sango didn’t have a mom who would have a bunch of housewife friends and the rest of the family didn’t really… Interact with others. Her dad was working a lot in the restaurant, trying to save up money to one day open his very own ramen place. Their closest neighbors were Sanos, the ‘enemy’ of Sango’s grandpa so obviously they weren’t really on speaking terms either.

Slowly the motivation to keep the promise to her grandfather started to waver. The anxious little girl gripped her bokuto tightly with her small hands. She took a few breaths to calm herself down. She closed her eyes for a moment to clear her mind, just like she always did before her kendo matches against other students of their dojo. Once she opened them again she decided that it would be the best idea to approach the smallest group.

Once she spotted a fairly small group of four kids just throwing a volleyball around. She slowly made her way towards them but even before she could take one full step, someone yelled out pretty loudly without caring that they may be disturbing everyone around.

“Whoa! Your sword is so cool!”

Sango turned around to see two boys looking at her. One of them who complimented her sword had messy black hair and brown eyes that had a gold spark to them. He looked really impressed by the girl’s bokuto. The other boy looked quite indifferent, maybe bored? He had light blonde hair and black eyes that at the first sight looked quite lifeless.

“You are the kid from that kendo dojo, right?” This time it was the blonde one who asked.

Sango fully turned around to face them and only then she noticed that both boys were wearing martial arts training clothes. They had to be from Sano Dojo. The so-called enemies.

But then again…

More important to her grandpa right now was for her to make friends, right? Surely it didn’t matter that they were from a rival dojo anymore. Plus they were the ones that wanted to talk to her so it would be rude not to respond.

“Yeah, it’s my grandpa’s dojo.” She shyly answers.

“Oh! My grandpa hates that dojo!” The blonde boy points it out without considering whether or not it could come out as rude. “I’m Sano Manjiro! And this guy here is Baji.”

“Hey! I can introduce myself, Sano!” The black-haired boy yelled out.

Sango looked at both of them in bewilderment. They started talking to her so casually and they didn’t care if she was a kid from another dojo even though they were clearly aware of the rivalry that has been going on between them. It was… Something she has never imagined happening to her.

“I’m Sando Sango, but just Sando or Sango is fine.” She said and gave them a small smile but then immediately looked down observing her feet as she fumbled feeling mixed emotions of shyness and embarrassment for what she was about to say. “I don’t really… Have friends… So I was thinking that maybe…” She stopped for a moment, uncertain. “Maybe I could play with you guys..?”

That was it, the moment has come.

Will she get rejected or will she somehow manage to befriend two boys? If they try to do something funny to her, she always could just hit them with her wooden sword, after all, that's why she got it in the first place. But it would be a mean thing to do... Plus those two boys looked actually quite friendly. The loud one, Baji, more than the other one, Manjiro, looked like he was almost always bored. Still, she felt a pleasant aura around them so she really hoped that they would become her friends.

“Will you let me play with your bokuto?” Baji asked immediately as if he was waiting for her to ask this question.

“Yes..?”

“Will you bring snacks with you when we play?” Sano asked as there was a visible drool running down his face.

“I can bring some sometimes.”

“Great!” Sano shouts out happily. “Then from now on you can play with us and bring us snacks! I like dorayaki the most, you should remember that!”

“Hm, but something is still not right…” Baji muttered as he had his arms crossed, seemingly thinking deep about something.

That made Sango quite nervous.

Was it something wrong with her? Or maybe Baji changed his mind about being her friend? She took one step back as if to prepare for dodging some sort of attack coming her way. It didn’t take her long to realize that the boy was unsure about something that she certainly didn’t have to worry about at all.

“Sando… No… Sango… Nah, both sound kinda boring!”

“Eh?” Sango looked at the boy full of confusion. “But you call each other by your last names?”

“No no no, you don’t get it!” The black-haired boy said with a serious tone. “You are our first girlfriend and you have a cool wooden sword, also you are from the enemy dojo so we need to give you a nickname!”

“A codename like in the movies?” Sano joined in, sounding quite excited about the idea.

“Yeah, exactly!” Baji grinned happily that his friend understood him. “Sando Sango, Sando Sango, San… San…” He kept muttering until his eyes widened and sparkled as if he discovered something incredible. “Sansan! That’s how we will call you from now on!” He stepped closer to Sango and put his hands on her shoulders. “How do you like it? Pretty cool, right?”

The girl blushed slightly at the physical contact. She wasn’t really used to it but it felt quite nice and pleasant. Sango quickly smiled and nodded. “Sansan sounds nice! I like it!”

This day, the day when Sango befriended Sano Manjiro and Baji Keisuke, the day she gained her nickname ‘Sansan’ would forever stay one of the most important days in her life. Three innocent children created a bond with each other that would strongly impact their lives.

[icerosecrystal]

Marijon - My Secret Older Sister

Her name is Marinette Amani Al-Ghul. Marinette is the first grandchild of the demon-head and the daughter of Talia Al-Ghul. She is also the older sister of Damian Al-Ghul by two years. Despite what others may think, both she and her brother came from the same man. Bruce Wayne. Although Damian has no idea who his father is, Marinette has known for eight years. Despite the young age of 12, she was an incredibly smart girl. She also possessed the ability to be happy and feel love. But not in front of anyone but her brother and sometimes her mother. She and her brother had a great relationship. They were always there for each other. Damian was there for Marinette when her grandfather Ra's would sometimes beat her for not doing well on a mission. And he would base it solely on her gender. Marinette was there for Damian the first time Damian had to kill someone. It disgusted him, but he continued doing it for the sake of his title.  

Then the day the League fell came. Slade had attacked when Ra's was showing the whole League to Damian and explaining that it would all one day be his. Marinette was standing behind them next to her mother. Ra's had told her mother to grab both of them and run. Marinette protected her brother throughout it all when suddenly, Marinette got shot in the stomach. She collapsed in pain. She saw her mother running back to them, so Marinette let go of Damian, who was looking at her worriedly, "Damian, my akhi, go run, save yourself. Tell Mother to take you to Father. I'll be fine."

Damian was crying now, "NO, I won't leave you, you have to come with me. Please don't leave me, ukhti."

Marinette smiled sadly. She then hugged Damian and kissed him on the cheek, "I love you. And I promise I will find you one day." She let go of his hand as Talia quickly grabbed his arm and lead him to the docks, glancing at Marinette once in worry.

Marinette was lying still for a little bit before she heard a voice say, "Tom, I found her!" Marinette turned her head to the side and saw her godmother, Sabine Cheng recently Dupain-Cheng, hurrying over to her, with her godfather Tom not too far behind.

When they reached her, they gasped at the wound in her stomach. Tom picked her up and quickly walked to the docks with Sabine following. "Where we going?" Marinette said her voiced slurring, herself only half-conscious due to the blood loss.

Sabine answered, "We're going to Paris. We had a house there just in case we ever had to escape the League."

Marinette nodded in turn before she closed her eyes, letting the exhaustion take over. "Good night," she heard before she was fully asleep.  

Marinette woke up to an unfamiliar scene. She tensed, but when she caught sight of her godparents, she relaxed, "So what's the plan?"

Sabine was the one who answered", Well, you aren't allowed to act like the devil in disguise." Marinette scoffed, but she didn't argue, knowing Sabine was right. She may be sweet with her family, but with strangers and acquaintances, she wasn't the nicest. "Also, you are going to be Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You are the daughter of two bakers, Tom and I, and you are a designer. You will also be clumsy and stutter a lot."

Marinette nodded in understanding, "Okay, but what about Damian?"

Sabine sighed, "You're just going to have to hope that one day you find each other again."

Marinette nodded in understanding. She then went up to her new room, ready to put on a mask for the rest of the world to see.

(Time Skip)

It was now the start of the tenth grade for Marinette. She was now thirteen-years-old, and she was ready to play her part of the clumsy baker's daughter. She took some macaroons for her new classmates and then walked outside. While she waited to cross the street, she caught sight of a man crossing the street. A car was heading right to him. Regardless of who she was pretending to be, she wasn't going to let a man get hurt. She ran and quickly pulled him to the sidewalk, effectively using it as an excuse to trip over her feet. She handed the man a macaroon and then ran to school.

At school, she sat down quietly in her seat. When a dark girl, with brown hair and auburn highlights, picked a fight with a blonde girl. The blonde girl was supposedly bullying Marinette. Marinette and the blonde girl exchanged looks, acknowledging that the girl before them was a load of bull. Marinette then found out that the blonde girl's name was Chloe, and she was a bully, and the other girl was Alya.

Marinette looked around the classroom, analyzing everybody.

She then heard a voice scream, "Kim!"

She looked behind her to see a big, burly blonde kid, look like he wanted to beat up somebody. The teacher then asked him, "Ivan, what is going on?"

The blonde kid replied, "It's Kim! I'm so going to get..."

The teacher then pointed to the door and shouted, "Ivan, go to the principal's office."

Before Ivan could stomp off angrily, Marinette spoke up, quite surprised by the way the teacher was handling things, "With all due respect Miss, you didn't even listen to Ivan's side of the story. It could be Kim that's bullying Ivan, but you're rather playing favoritism."

The teacher sputtered, not knowing how to react, "Who gave you the authority to question my teaching skills?"

Marinette smirked, replying, " Common sense."

Mrs. Bustier walked out of the classroom to calm down, pure fury clear on her face. That day she turned into Zombispect. When she kissed them, they would automatically obey and respect her. That was also the day Lady Spots and Chat Noir resided in Paris.

While Lady Spots was a great superhero, Chat Noir was an incompetent fool. Marinette hated him. He would always flirt with her and never get anything done. And in many cases, if he didn't get what he wanted, he would either threaten to quit or sit out. Marinette never told him, but she honestly thought that she did better in battle when he wasn't around.

In terms of her civilian life, Alya convinced herself that she was Marinette's best friend and that Marinette had a crush on Adrien. In actuality, Marinette's best friend was and is her brother, Damian, and Chloe. While Chloe was spoiled, she was also neglected by her parents, which made her act rather bitchy at times. And she for sure did not have a crush on the spineless Adrien Agreste. No one in the class knew anything about the real her. But her godparents and even Chloe, who knew a bit about her. But, the one person that Marinette wanted to talk to was her precious little brother. She needed to hug him, spoil him, and talk with him about everything. But most of all, she wanted to know that he was still alive and happy somewhere.

Marinette would cry herself to bed every day, hoping that one day she would see him again. Thankfully, Tikki was on her side.

(Time Skip of one year. This is after Volpina, but before Chameleon)

It has been two years since Marinette last saw her brother. Alya was still going strong, coming up with ridiculous plans for her to date Adrien. She was still a "clumsy" baker girl. And while designing was her supposed hobby, after about a month, she really got into it. What pissed Marinette off the most was that she had to wear pink, have her room pink, and wear pigtails. Why? Because it strengthened the fact that she was an innocent, little, naive girl. While it did help people underestimate her, it annoyed the heck out of her. She actually ranted to her godparents one day about how bad her appearance was, "How can one color be so bright?! How could anyone like looking at it?! Why the hell do these pigtails make me look like a short-ass baby?! I look like a fucking moron! Where the hell is Damian when you need him?!" It was about three days later when her question was answered.

Marinette had been walking around town when suddenly someone bumped into Marinette.  Marinette caught herself and caught the person she bumped into. But the words that came out of the person's mouth had her reeling, "Tt, what type of imbecile are you to be bumping into people on the street?" Marinette would know that voice anywhere. And sure enough, when she actually looked at the person that she bumped into, she was staring into the face of her brother. When he realized who she was, he let out a timid, "Marinette," that had Marinette practically sobbing.

When she found that her face was wet, she realized that she was sobbing, but she didn't care. Damian was alive. She strangled him with a hug, cooing softly into his ear once he too started crying. They stayed like that for a while before they released each other. It was then that Marinette saw the boy standing behind Damian.

She blushed when she noticed his features, black hair like her own, the bluest, purest eyes she had ever seen. He was wearing glasses that gave him a nerdy look, but his body begged to differ. He was very tall, probably 5ft 11, and had huge muscles that gave off more of a jock look. He had so many characteristics that Marinette felt insanely attracted. She snapped out of her thoughts and offered the boy a hand, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, or Marinette Al-Ghul, Damien's older sister by two years."

He gave her a blinding smile that could rival the sun and then kissed her hand, "Jonathan Kent, Jon for short. It's nice to meet the sister of my best friend." The more she studied him, the more she realized that he looked familiar. It was then that she realized he was Superboy, the superhero Alya had been raving about last week.

Marinette blushed at him kissing her hand. She then decided to let her inner devil come out to play. Leaning closer, she whispered, "It's nice to meet you too. I hope that you have been nice to my brother. Because if I found out you haven't, I might get my katana and skin you. I know that you might be invincible, but with the kryptonite, which I do have, you would be weakened within a second. So make your decisions carefully." She then leaned back and watched how his expression changed. His face went from happy, to confused, to shocked, to scared, and the surprisingly, love.

He smirked, "Well, you are better than I expected." He then pulled out a piece of paper and wrote his phone number. "Call me, you're hot and a little devil, I like it." He then winked and gave it to her.

They both heard Damian scream, "KENT! Stay away from my sister before I skin you!"

Marinette giggled and took the piece of paper from him. She then asked, "You look to be about my age. Why are you with Damian?"

Jon replied, "I'm 15-years-old. So one year older than you. (I know that Jon is actually three years younger in Super Sons, but for this to work, Jon is three older, not younger. If you have any problems with that, fight me.) And Damian and I work together a lot. We're considered the Super Sons, so we're best friends."

Marinette nodded in understanding before suggesting that they all go to a coffee shop to talk. Damian and Jon agreed. Damian told Marinette all about their father, their brothers, and sisters, him being Robin. He told her everything. She offered him support and asked questions about their family.

When it was her turn, she explained how Tom and Sabine saved her and how she came to Paris. And how she is pretending to be a clumsy sweet girl who likes pink. (She wasn't totally over the whole pink thing along with the pigtails.)  That coaxed a laugh out of both Damian and Jon. But when she got to the part about Alya, Damian wanted to skin Alya. He was Marinette's best friend, not some dumb harlot. When she explained how she was Lady Spots, and Chat Noir had some major failings as a partner, it took both Jon and Marinette to hold him back. He continued trying to escape while shouting, "LET ME AT HIM, HE DARE FLIRT WITH MY SISTER!!! I'LL SKIN HIS SORRY ASS BEFORE RIPPING HIM INTO SHREDS AND DUMPING HIM IN A RIVER!" He then continued to explain exactly how he would kill Chat Noir. Marinette knew that he was capable of going through with his plan, so she distracted him by asking for his phone number so that they could stay in contact. Damian calmed down enough to give it to her.

When she realized how late it was, she gave a hug and promised to meet up with him for the rest of the week. She also promised that once he left Paris, she would stay in contact. She wasn't going to leave her brother again. She then went up to Jon and kissed his cheek before saying goodbye. She then turned around and went home. If she had stayed a second longer, she would have seen Jon blush and then touch the cheek that she kissed with his fingertips, a goofy smile adorning his lips. Although Damian wanted to keep Jon away from his sister, he supposed Jon was better than the mangy cat or the spineless model.

For the rest of the week, the three met up every day and did different activities. One day they went to the Lourve, another an arcade, the day after that a carnival, and so on. On their last day, they went to the park and then went for Andre's ice cream. When they arrived, Andre greeted Marinette, "Bonjour Marinette! Would you like a sweetheart ice cream."

"Oui Andre. This is my brother Damian, and his friend Jon." She then turned to the boys, "Andre is the sweetheart's ice cream maker. He essentially gives you icecream based on the characteristics of your soul mate. Damian, how about you go first."

Damian stepped in front of the cart, "Ah, Damian, one scoop of violet and honey for her eyes, coconut ash for her hair, and cherry for her mysterious and complicated past. Here you are." (There is actually such a thing as black ice cream. It's made with coconut ash that people sometimes flavor with burnt honey vanilla.)

Damian took the ice cream and looked at it. He then realized that it looked like Raven, his crush. He blushed. "Ah, I see the love fair and true. I suppose you know who is right for you?" Damian nodded and started eating his ice cream, a small smile gracing his lips. He then paid attention to his sister and his best friend. They were now getting their ice cream.

Andre looked at the two and said, "Ah, but here's the truth, the two of you are the right match. You complete each other just like one, so come, let Andre supply you with love." Marinette and Jon were both surprised by the turn of events. But they both just blushed and agreed. Andre then said, "Blueberry for both your eyes, strawberry for her lips, cherry for his secret, and cotton candy for your personalities. Enjoy!"

Jon and Marinette waved goodbye and then ate their ice cream. They were still surprised about the turn of events. Neither knew what to say to the other until picked up some courage and asked, "Would you like to be my girlfriend?"

Marinette was surprised but agreed. They shared a chaste kiss. They then heard Damian gagging in the background. They broke apart, and Jon raised an eyebrow, "You're one to talk. I saw your ice cream. It really represented, mmph." Damian covered Jon's mouth before he could blurt out the name of his sweetheart.

"Kent looks like it's time to go! By the way, if you hurt my sister, I won't hesitate to kill you." He then dragged Jon off, leaving Marinette to chuckle to herself. The next day, she said goodbye to Damian and Jon. She gave them both a quick hug along with an extra kiss for Jon. She was so happy that she had found her brother again.

(Time Skip of three years)

It has been three years since Marinette bumped into Damian and Jon in Paris. The two visited whenever they could, the same with Marinette. But they never told their families. Marinette didn't tell her family because they didn't know she was Ladybug. Damian didn't tell because he wanted his sister to himself. Jon didn't tell because the other two didn't. Jon's and Marinette's relationship was still going strong. They loved each other very much. Jon loved how playful and happy Marinette could be, but she wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone. She was his little devil. Marinette loved Jon because of how pure and sunshiny he was. She loved how he cared for her and was always there for her no matter what. Damian actually started a relationship with Rachel Roth otherwise known as Raven as Andre's ice cream had indicated all those years ago.

During the three years, many things had changed, though. A girl named Lila came and turned everyone against her except Chloe. Marinette pretended that she was sad, but really she was ecstatic that she didn't have to hang out with morons anymore. She found Lila quite pathetic. Lila let others do her dirty work for her. She hid behind lies and morons. Marinette never found her as a threat.

She also defeated Hawkmoth a year ago, but it was because he surrendered. So, she didn't take him to jail, she made him donate thousands of dollars to people who needed therapy from the akumas and do community service. He agreed, so she let him go. She was glad that Gabriel Agreste had learned his lesson.

Yeah, for the most part, everything was going fine, she wasn't stuck with morons, and she had her brother and boyfriend. Until her brother and significant idiot forgot that her bio family didn't know about her.

It was the end of another shitty day for Marinette. She collapsed on her chaise. She looked at the time and realized that it was time for her's and Damian's video calls. She groaned before getting up and getting her phone. She dialed his number before waiting for him to pick up. Once he did, she saw that Jon was with him. They all talked together animatedly. What Damian and Jon forgot to do, was make sure that the Bat-family didn't come back from patrol while they were still on the call. But naturally, the two idiots forgot.

So, two hours later, when the three were still talking, they didn't realize when Jason came into the room. They only did when Jason screamed, "Demon Spawn and Supes Junior are talking to a girl on the phone!" This alerted the rest of the Waynes, so they all ran into Damian's room. When they entered, they were met with quite a sight. A confused Jason was watching a small pixie-like girl screaming at Jon and Damian in what seemed to be Arabic, Urdu, Russian, English, French, Spanish, Romanian, and Greek.

Once she calmed down, although she was still glaring at the two boys, she introduced herself, "Hi, my name is Marinette."

Dick asked her, "What's your last name?"

Marinette replied, "It depends on who your asking. Here in France, I would be Marinette Dupain-Cheng. In the league, I would be Marinette Al-Ghul. But, my real name would most likely be Marinette Wayne."

Jason yelled, "Your married to Demon Spawn!"

Marinette scowled, "No, Tt, are you always this incompetent? I am Damian's older sister by two years. I am also Jon's girlfriend of three years."

Bruce took a deep breath and pinched his nose, "And the reason none of you said anything was because?" He looked directly at Damian when asking the question.

Damian snapped, "I didn't want to share my beloved sister. She is too good for you imbeciles. She is also too good for Kent. But Kent is better than the mangy cat or the ugly model."

Everyone looked at Marinette confused except for Damian and Jon. She quickly shook her head, "Don't ask. If you want to ask me some questions, I'll be there in a minute."

Damian realizing that she was going to use the horse miraculous to transport to Gotham quickly said, "Wait, no, don't!" But she had already ended the call making Damian curse in Arabic.

Seconds later a portal appeared and a girl stepped out. She then spoke, "Kaalki, dismount." A flash appeared around her and they then saw the same girl on the phone now in front of them.

This left Wayne's gaping, while Alfred asked, "Mistress Marinette, would Kaalki I assume, need anything?"

Marinette replied, "Oui, she prefers sugar cubes to recharge. Merci, Alfred."

Then Jon got up and shouted, "My little devil!"

"Sunshine", Marinette exclaimed in joy before kissing him with full force. He kissed her back passionately. She placed her arm on his shoulders while he held her waist and lifted her a little off the ground. After a little bit, there was an awkward cough that reminded them that there were others in the room. They gave each other one more peck, before reluctantly pulling away. Although, Jon's arm was still around her waist. Marinette tried to not focus on the aching in her chest that was telling her to pounce on Jon and smother him in love and kisses while he did the same to her.

Marinette sighed and tried to focus on the situation at hand, "It's nice to meet all of you. My name is Marinette Al-Ghul Wayne, and I am Damian's sister as mentioned."

They all stared at her strangely until Tim asked, "Are you sure you grew up with Damian, or that your mother is Talia Al-Ghul? You seem a lot more different from Demon Spawn."

She smirked at them viciously, "First of all, I am for sure Damian's biological sister. Second of all, I may seem like an angel, but I'm the devil in disguise, hence Jon's nickname for me. Third of all, I'm not as arrogant as Damian because Ra's was always abusing me since I was a girl. So, I am a lot worse than Damian, I just don't show it."

No one knew what to do with this information. Sure Damian already knew about the beatings, but no one else did. They stared at her in worry, but she just waved them off, "Don't worry about me. Ra's is dead, I'm living with my godparents, and I'm happy."

Damian then rose an eyebrow, "What about your moronic classmates?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you. This pathetic girl who threatened to take my friends away, made it so that no one talks to me anymore. So, yay! Oooh, also I should probably explain my life to you?" She then went on to talk about everything, how her life was at the league, what happened when Slade attacked,  her life in Paris and when she became Lady Spots, how she met Damian and Jon, what happened after that.

By the end of her story, everyone looked like they wanted to kill her classmates and Chat Noir. Well, almost everyone. Bruce was on the ground muttering to himself, "Why, why, why? I just wanted one of my kids to not be a superhero. Is that too much to ask for?"

While Bruce had his breakdown, Tim asked her, "Did you defeat Hawkmoth?"

"Yeah, I did. He surrendered, so I let him off with some requirements in place. I actually was thinking of doing something to expose Lila. As much as I hate the morons, their future will be horrible if they keep on listening to that pathetic bitch."

Damian looked at her curiously, "What were you thinking?

"You are going to invite my class to the Wayne Gala. There we are going to introduce the whole family, including me. Damian, you are going to bring Raven. I'll bring Jon obviously. If we disprove that she knows the Waynes, the rest of her lies will come crashing down." Everyone smiled obviously pleased with the idea.

So they spent the next month getting the gala together. They organized a contest that Bustier's class won. During the month, the Waynes got to know Marinette. While Damian did have a problem with sharing her, everyone still go to know her. They were officially scared of her after she won after sparing against everyone and then cussing at Damian in many languages. It made Jon fall more in love with her though.

Another problem was that the Waynes would walk into Jon's and Marinette's make-out sessions all the time. Once, Jon, had Marinette pushed up against a wall and he was kissing her passionately. Marinette had her hands in his hair, one of them playing with the ends of his hair. She had taken off his shirt and was kissing down his neck. Jon had groaned and had stopped her so he could kiss her neck as well making her moan in want. He was whispering about what he wanted to do with her at the same time. Through dazed eyes, Marinette looked up and finally saw her family looking at her, both Damian and Bruce had their jaws clenched. When Jon noticed them, he quickly let go of her. Dick, Jason, and Tim started laughing, cooing, and teasing them, making Marinette hide her head in his chest. This made Damian launch himself at Jon, but before he could, Marinette had already disarmed him. She screamed, "Don't hurt my boyfriend, Damian." He just huffed, but let it go. From then on, they made sure to lock the door.

It was finally the day of the gala. Marinette saw all of her classmates. They mostly looked nice, but Lila was wearing an incredibly revealing dress.

It was then time for the reveal. Bruce went up to the stage and announced, "Good evening, everybody. I am pleased that you could all attend. Today, I would like to introduce all of my children along with their significant other. To start, my oldest son Richard Grayson, also known as Dick Grayson along with his wife Kori Grayson."

(Bruce's suit)

(Dick's Suit)

(Kori's Dress)

"My son Jason Todd."

(Jason's suit)

"My son Tim Drake."

(Tim's suit)

"My son Damian Wayne with his girlfriend Rachel Roth."

(Damien's suit)

(Rachel's dress)

"Finally, my new found daughter, also Damian's biological older sister Marinette Wayne. With her date Jon Kent."

(Marinette's dress) 

(Jon's suit)

When her classmates saw Marinette they started screaming insults. She just raised an eyebrow at them, "Is there a problem?"

Alya yelled, "Yeah there is. You're not a Wayne, you never told me that you were."

Marinette replied, "We were never best friends so I was under no obligation to tell you anything. I am a Wayne. I just lived with my godparents in Paris until my dad found out about me. I am dating my handsome boyfriend, Jonathan Kent. I have given you so much proof. How about you question Lila. She claimed that she was dating Damian. Damian is two years younger than her and he is dating Rachel. She isn't close to the Waynes, I am. So, stop questioning me and question her."

Everyone looked at Lila, but she was incredibly pale. That showed everyone that she was lying. They started yelling at her. Bruce then spoke up, "Security, escort this class out of the gala." As security did so, no one stopped yelling at Lila.

Marinette and Jon then turned to the reporters and Marinette said, "Five questions go."

She pointed to one reporter, "Where do you live?"

"Paris like I mentioned earlier."

She pointed to another, "How old are you?"

"I am 17-years-old, almost 18."

She pointed to a third one, "Were you surprised about being a Wayne?"

"No, I knew that I was a Wayne my whole life. But I was sent to my godparents instead of my dad like Damian. But I still knew." She pointed to her family, "They were surprised about my existence."

She pointed to a fourth reporter, "How do you like being a Wayne?"

"I really enjoy it. They are so nice to me. I really cherish them and we all have a lot of fun together. "

She pointed to a final reporter, "Do you like being Jonathan Kent's girlfriend and how did you meet?"

"We met when I bumped into him and my brother in Paris. We spent the week together. We got this thing called sweethearts ice cream. The ice cream tells you who your soulmate is. The guy who runs it Andre said that we were meant to be together. Jon asked me to be his girlfriend after. We have been a couple for three years. I love Jon a lot. He's really sweet and considerate. I wouldn't trade him for the world." Everyone awed.

Jon then picked her up bridal style, "Now that this is over, we'll be going home to have some fun." He winked at everyone.

Marinette blushed at the implications, "JON!" But, Jon silenced her with a passionate kiss, carrying her off the stage.

As Marinette kissed him back, she felt so happy. She had a loving family and boyfriend. They accepted her and cherished her.

She didn't know that the league was going to be attacked, but it helped her grow as a person and escape abuse. She didn't know that she would get a boyfriend. She didn't know she would ever meet her little brother ever again or meet her family. She didn't know what the future had in store for her. But she did know that she was going to spend it with her boyfriend and her family, and nothing was going to stop her.

(Sorry for the pictures smack in the middle of everything!)

[klarolijahs]

Thomas and Colin

Part II of Thomas in Future Bridgerton!

1851

It was a Sunday afternoon when Colin realized that even at sixty and fifty and five respectively, he and Penelope weren’t done parenting their eldest children or specifically, second-eldest child.

This moment right here was one of Colin’s favorites; a belly full of the delicious breakfast from his famous cook, a good book in his hands and Penelope and Jane lounging with him in their favorite sitting room.

As he idly played with a lock Pen’s hair he wished someone could quietly immortalize this moment on a canvas. He had many family portraits, but they were all staged. The kids harangued into behaving had led to several awkward and inconsistent portraits. In one Jane had been so young she’d refused to sit still on Colin’s lap until they finally asked the artist to leave her out of it. But this moment, serene and calm and of total contentment is what he wanted drawn for him.

He’d close it close to his heart and memories. He’d always tell Penelope that if his memory faded as mother’s had towards the end, he’d be fine if he could remember these quiet moments of bliss with Penelope. As if cued into his thoughts - and he wouldn’t be surprised if she was - she curled further into him and kissed him lightly on the chest, the briefest of smiles on her face.

Somehow, Penelope still looked like the radiant eight and twenty year old he’d fallen in love with. Yes, her hair had greyed, her face had lines and her body had changed with four children. But her eyes still sparkled with the same mirth and love, her smile was just as blinding it had been decades ago. Seven and twenty years of marriage and Colin was happy to report to anyone and everyone that he was still terribly besotted with his wife. Not that anyone needed proof, they were famously touted as the sickeningly lovesick parents at every ball.

Rightfully so, people wondered why it had taken Colin Bridgerton thirty and three years to conform to marriage, seeing as he was quite possibly born to be a husband and father. Colin had long since realized that he’d been born to be Penelope’s Husband and father to their children. He wasn’t quite certain he’d be such an enamored husband to anyone else.

They were meant to be, quite simply.

Colin had never been against marriage, he had been against a dull marriage. He wanted a marriage he wouldn’t want to stray from. He’d found that and more with Penelope. Not something she needed reminders of either, seeing as he’d very thoroughly and passionately declared his love for her this morning. As was evident in her little smile as she abandoned her book and simply rested her head against his chest. They weren’t young after all, if he was only ten years younger he would wipe that smile off her face with a kiss that invited further vigorous activities.

Sometimes having only one child still living with them was a blessing. As much as he missed them, he knew this next chapter of their lives was him and Penelope spending their wrinkly old days with each other.

That current child was sprawled across the floor, lying on three pillows -  from the sofa opposite them - and half dozing as she attempted to read her book. Jane at three and twenty was their last child still living with them. George had moved into his bachelor house last week and Jane was terribly missing her brother. Penelope was eager to get Jane settled, wanting her to experience the same joys of marriage that she, Agatha and so many of her cousins had. But Colin was more than happy to let his little janey stay unmarried.

Giving away Agatha had been torturous, but he’d been secure knowing that Agatha had known how to take care of herself long before she found Malcolm. With Thomas, he’d just been so surprised that he’d managed to get Lily to marry him that Colin hadn’t pondered much on another child leaving the nest. George was still too green. And Jane, Janey was his little girl. Often touted as his favorite child - by the rest of his children - he always rolled his eyes and said he had no favorites. But Janey was a carbon copy of Penelope; from her shy caring nature to her fiery red hair and big blue eyes. He didn’t love Jane any more than the others, he simply was more protective of her.

He was about to ask Jane if she wanted to go see how George was settling in when Thomas burst into the room. His second born had never much cared for etiquette, which was clear in the way he frowned at a surprised Jane and quite literally stepped over her to reach the sofa. Upon seeing that all the cushions had been repositioned for Jane’s make-shift bed he unceremoniously yanked one from under her and placed it behind his back. Settling in, Thomas stared right at his parents with an expectant yet anxious look on his face.

Penelope leaned forward, her mouth open in what was sure to be a reprimand for Thomas. But she gave up, huffing and collapsing against Colin and shrugging her shoulders at the affronted look on Jane’s face. They were all adults, they could fight their own battles.

“Thomas,” Colin worked to control his snort at the glare his son was currently receiving, “To what do we owe this pleasure?”

“How’s Lily doing? And the babe?” Penelope asked excitedly. Even though Agatha had given birth nine months ago, she was still giddy at the thought of another grandchild. Thomas’ face broke out into a wide, vivid smile. But there was a tension behind his body language as he nodded in response and said, “Splendidly. I’m driving her insane with my hovering. And we’re quite certain the baby kicked yesterday.”

Even Jane relaxed her fighting stance and brightened at the news. “Or at least,” Thomas said with a thoughtful look, “That’s what Isabella said the baby was doing.”

Read the rest on Ao3

[rocking-space-dragon]

Alrighty, so.

Philza, Phliza, Philza. Philza Minecraft.

What to make of you?

To start, I think it's important to talk about Phliza's first major appearance on the server - at the end of November 16th.

It's important to think about this Canonically, as it's incredibly impactful to his character.

Now, Phliza, from what we can gather, raised Wilbur and Tommy - Alongside his best friend/surrogate kid, Techno. They're best friends and not related, sure, but you're not gonna tell me Philza didn't raise Techno and Wilbur like they were both his kids.

I guarantee Techno accidentally called Phliza dad at some point, but we're getting off-topic.

What's we do know is that, at some point, everyone left. They went off to do their own things, and this is, to me, incredibly important. I wish we had a timeline of how long it's been since everyone left, because that would help, but the reason why I think this is so important is because I believe it contributes majorly to The way Phliza acts in regards to his kids - but I'll get to that later.

:readmore:

Back to the topic at hand - Philza shows up to find what?

One of his sons is broken down and losing his mind, ready to blow up a city he helped found. The other two are fighting to the death, both utterly convinced they're in the right - and before he can convince his first son to do the right thing, he blows everything up and forces him to kill him.

IMMEDIATELY after that, he's got to help fight off the monsters one of his sons summoned, in the ruins of this town.

It's been less than two months since that day. No wonder Philza says that governments take genuinely nice, kind-hearted people and turn them against each other with power and corruption. He's not just talking about Tubbo and Tommy.

He's talking about Tommy and Techno.

He's talking about Wilbur and Schlatt.

All that Phliza relates L'Manburg to is pain. He doesn't have memories like Tommy and the others do. To him, L'Manburg is the place which drove his first son to madness and eventually led to his death, exiled the second, trapped him under house arrest and tried to execute his best friend right in front of him.

Can you blame him for wanting it gone?

I can't. I genuinely can't think of a single good memory Phil had in that place - apart from a few with Ghostbur and Fundy, but I kinda doubt memories made with the ghost of your son and his son would help lessen the resentment you feel towards the town that killed one and orphaned the other.

Now, I want to move on from L'Manburg and toward Phliza's feelings toward his kids.

See, people say Phliza is a bad father, and I think they're... Not exactly right. Philza isn't so much a bad father as he is an absent one. Let me explain.

I mentioned earlier that Phliza, in canon, had his kids leave, and this is important because it's a show of independence. Sure, they're still young, but that's not the point - the point is that they'd already gone and proven to Philza that they were fine on their own, that they were ready to head out and make their own decisions.

And Philza respects that. He says, very plainly, that if Tommy wants his help he'll come get it.

Philza has the utmost faith in his kids that they'll come to him if they need him, but the issue, I believe, is that this faith has given way to a sense of ignorance. He's so confident that his kids are alright without him, that he's hesitant to make sure they're okay most of the time. Not all of the time - remember, this is the man who left house arrest and went all the way to Techno's base to make sure him and Tommy were okay without them knowing.

It's obvious Phliza still -cares- but he's been gone so long and he's given his children so much freedom that he's practically fallen out of touch with them, and doesn't really know how to fix it. People talk a lot about him not going to Tommy when he was in exile, but what was he supposed to do?

Not only did the majority of the server have no idea what was happening in Exile, he -knows- Tommy. He knows that if he'd shown up and tried to be all fatherly and comforting, Tommy would have most likely taken it as an insult, or as pity.

This brings me, tangentially, onto Ranboo - because Ranboo was someone who needed help, and Philza was happy to help him. He saw Ranboo wasn't okay, so did what he could to help him, after asking if he wanted it - if that's not a fatherly instinct, what is?

It's similar for Technoblade. Techno allies himself with Phil, spends time with Phil, talks to Phil; it's little wonder that he has preference to Techno. This doesn't mean he doesn't love his kids, but you're probably going to spend more time and be more inclined to side with a friend you've known all your life, who's still around, rather than your kids who left on their own journeys.

And it only makes sense you'd hate the people who tried to kill said friend - even if they were members of a town your son loved, and one was your grandchild.

See, I get the feeling that if Tommy or Wilbur went to Philza and told him they wanted help, or that they needed reassurance, he'd give it. He'd be there for them as their father - but the problem is, people treat Phliza like he's a father who's been living in the same house as them this entire time and ignoring his kids in the next room as everything burns down.

In reality, Phliza is a father who's kids have left home already, gone out and carved their own paths. They're young, sure, but they're stubborn, strong willed, independent. He's got faith that, if they need him, they'll come to him and he'll be there.

Fundy is actually a good example of this - when he came to Philza, talking about the adoption, asking for help, Philza let him live with him. He took him fishing. He spent an entire day with his Grandson because he needed it. But Fundy's also independent - Phil isn't the type to check in on him any time he's around because he has faith in them.

Most of all, I believe Philza thinks he's doing the right thing. I believe he thinks that blowing up L'Manburg helped his sons, because to him, all that town ever did was hurt them... Regardless of what the outcome might have been.

Is this due, in part, to the fact that he's likely still grieving over Wilbur? Most likely.

After all, It's only been two months.

At the end of the day, I don't think Philza is a bad father. I think he's a father who watched his kids leave, watched them carve out their own path in life together, and then had to watch one die in front of him. He's a father who cares deeply about his children, but respects who they are and their own independence and has faith they'll come to him if they need him.

The issue is that sometimes, that faith leads to him failing to see when his kids truly do need him - but don't have the words to say it.

[llendrinall]

What would Harry and Draco be like if they were parents? How would your take on it be from their child/ren's birth to adulthood?

Sorry if my English doesn't sound right.

Well, on the one hand I don’t think either of them would want to have children. Or rather, neither wants to be a parent. Harry knows too well what a bad childhood does to you and I imagine he would be terrified at the prospect of something happening to Draco and him and leaving his child an orphan. Sure, Ron and Hermione would take that hypothetical kid, but what if something happened to them too? And to the rest of the Weasleys? And Luna? And Neville? What would happen to the kid them? James and Lily gave Harry a godfather and it didn’t stop Harry from growing up in an abusive home. So Harry would be super anxious about that, imagining more and more elaborate scenarios in which anyone remotely capable of raising a kid without giving them life-long trauma would be unavailable, and Harry’s kid would end up in hard and uncaring hands, just like Harry and Neville.

(And I’m sure Neville doesn’t help on that respect when he says he won’t be having kids and if he has any, he wants them to have their mother surname. No Longbottom will have a claim to them).

Draco knows his parenting role models are awful. He was extremely spoiled while also suffering immense pressure. Draco got all the candy and gifts he ever wanted, but he was also expected to excel at school, be a powerful wizard and become a Death Eater. It’s not that he doesn’t have a frame of reference, it’s that the one he has is really, really, bad. How do you go not giving your child a mix of anxiety and self-absorption? He would sure like to know.

On the other hand, I’m sure that Harry will adopt anyone who stands still long enough. He is not one to let pain make him hard and cold. Rather, his suffering made him more compassionate.

So he and Draco would eventually adopt a kid (or two or three). Although they might also get an accidental biological magical child too. Let’s give the kid a name, just to make writing easier. Say, Celeste. Celeste the most likely adopted, but still possibly biological magical child.

Celeste would be happy and loved. Probably an only-child for a long time, because both Harry and Draco would still be scared at the notion of parenthood. Celeste would learn quickly to entertain themselves and relate to adults better than to other children.

Harry would stress about Celeste’s wellbeing and having them be self-reliable. Draco would insist on letting the child express themselves and find their own interests. There would be a lot of mistakes and doubts, but overall they would do fine.

Celeste would grow up under the assumption that candy exists only as a Weasley family tradition. Like, candy is something that the Weasleys do but no other household has it. Celeste has certainly never seen a candy treat that didn’t come from Weasley hands.

It’s because Draco has this weird crusade against treats. He got so many as a child! It’s a wonder Draco didn’t develop an eating disorder. There were many other aspects where Draco was spoiled silly, but since he wants Celeste to have a broom and learn to fly young, and also play an instrument and what’s the word? A game-boy, Celeste ought to play muggle games too, Draco is focusing on treats and candy which are completely banned at their household. The Weasleys just ignore the prohibition. It evens out. Celeste has some candy, but not as much as they would otherwise get.

I love the idea of Celeste developing magic (especially if they are some sort of magical biological child, because people would see them as Potter 3.0 Malfoy edition) receiving the Hogwarts letter, going to Diagon Alley to buy a wand, everything, all the little traditions and rituals, and once they arrive to Hogwarts… they don’t like it. Beautiful magical place, yes, but it’s still a boarding school. Putting aside that everyone, from teachers to students, looks at them weird because of who Celeste’s parents are, Celeste misses home, isn’t making friends because it takes them a while to open up and overall is having a bad time.

So Harry and Draco take Celeste back home. No questions. Their child wrote saying they didn’t like it there, so Harry and Draco removed their child from that situation immediately. There is no reason they can’t apparate every day for lessons and even if there were, even if there were all kind of obstacles… Their child wrote asking for help and harry and Draco want to do better.

They take Celeste home, where Celeste has all their stuff, is happy and can see Oso. (Oso is the family dog. A huge mastiff so called after a picture in a children’s book. The picture was of a bear, but to be honest Oso does look like a bear to any well informed three-year old).

Of course Hogwarts doesn’t agree with the new arrangement. Harry reminds them that on Halloween of his first year they had a troll roaming inside and things only got worse after that. Harry is told that most of those unfortunate events where a consequence of Voldemort. Nowadays Hogwarts is perfectly safe and perhaps Harry is letting his anxieties take undue hold of him.

“What about the student bullying?” Harry says, with heroic calm. He would rather set the desk on fire.

“What about it? There are centaurs in the forest, but no bulls, I assure you, and as you well known, Mr Potter, students are prohibited from wandering the forest. I do think you are seeing threats where there are none”.

Ah, of course. The wizarding world isn’t familiar with the concept of “bullying”. The application and execution, they know it well, but they don’t’ have a word for what is considered normal conduct.

Celeste attends the rest of the year as if it were a normal school, which is widely criticized although there are also many other parents interested.

And then… The academic year ends and Celeste drops out of Hogwarts. The whole wizarding world comes to a stop, although one should specify that in this case “the whole wizarding world” means “English wizarding society”. The continent doesn’t care if a child attends school or not. Welsh and Scotland care, but not enough to come to a halt. They do discuss it, but they go on with their business. It’s the English wizards who seem to have a problem with it. From September to December the papers write about nothing else.

The things is, Celeste has acquired some of Harry’s anxieties and is concerned with how little they were learning at Hogwarts. A lot of magic, yes, but nothing on language (and Celeste loves reading and learning languages) and even less about math. Not that Celeste likes math, but they worry about not knowing how to adequately manage the family fortune when their parents are gone. You know how wealth does not last three generations? Well, it certainly won’t if Celeste doesn’t learn how to balance expenses. Celeste wants to learn enough that they won’t be vulnerable to their solicitor., and when they put it that way even his gransfather has to admit there is a point.

(And maybe Harry failed Celeste here, letting his child worry so much about becoming an orphan, but Harry routinely receives dead threats and Draco has suffered two attempts on his life, so).

Harry couldn’t be more proud. No benevolent-looking wizard will take advantage of Celeste. Draco is also very happy because Celeste’s muggle school has art lessons in the curriculum and they have Drama as an extra-curricular. Celeste doesn’t want to sign to Theatre, but the mere fact it’s there pleases Draco immensely.

The ministry makes Celeste sits the OWLs in order to keep their wand. There are parents asking about educations alternatives, so the Ministry hopes that once Celeste fails people will accept Hogwarts as it comes, none of that day-school nonsense and hiring qualified teachers.

Except muggle school prepares you really well for the study process (or maybe, it simply prepares you better than magical schools do) so Celeste excels at the written exams. They do really, really, well, which is something Hermione Granger had been predicting for the last four years but nobody listened to her, so she is even more chuffed than Harry and Draco. Hermione has won sixteen different bets and is going to bring parliamentary reform to the education system.

Celeste’s spell work could see some improvement, but they have no trouble conjuring a corporeal patronus and that still qualifies as an automatic O in DADA. With that and some luck in Transfigurations, Celeste graduates Hogwarts having only attended a year. Lucius Malfoy, who is still racist but above all is a social creature and social climber, gives a week-long ball to celebrate his grandchild academic achievement. He also gifts Celeste a summer trip around Europe. Correction, because Lucius knows both Harry and Draco, but specially Draco, are very strict with gifts, he makes a donation to Celeste’s school language club. Did Lucius pay so thirty-odd muggle teenagers can spend three weeks around Europe practicing their foreign languages? Why, he sure did. And you won’t disappoint said children, will you Draco? I will take the money back if you ask me to, but little Prisha will be crushed.

There is a Prisha in Celeste’s school. Lucius is either weirdly stalkerish or paying attention to Celeste.

So maybe Celeste has inherited some anxieties and complexes, like many children do, but Lucius has become a better person and a pretty cool grandfather, so overall I think Harry and Draco are good parents.

[finstermond]

Witcher Ranch AU

Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer of Vengerberg

Ciri, Vesemir, Eskel, Lambert, Jaskier

---

Geralt gazed upon the vast grassland that belonged to him - or the horses, as he would say. It had belonged to his father before he gifted him his inheritance early as a wedding gift.

Almost hidden by the bushes grazed some of the horses. He could see two heads of adult ones and one of a foal but only one of the adult heads was discernible. A white mare - Endrega, he was sure of it. What a beautiful one. Her fur glistered in the sun as fresh snow. Riding her canter felt as if riding a breeze.

The Morhen Ranch bred horses for some generations now. It was his life, the only one he knew. The only one he ever wanted to know.

“Hey,” his brother Eskel disturbed his thoughts, “think you can actually hold the post or do you want to keep looking at the horses and make your wife jealous?”

Geralt grunted and readjusted his grip. Eskel sighed and struck the hammer on the post.

“Thank you, Eskel.” said Geralt.

“No problem, it’s my job after all. If your son can’t even hold a post up I need to chime in!” teased Eskel his older brother. “Ah fuck you,” answered Geralt, “you know his mother wanted to show him something today.” They walked back to their horses and put the hammer, the old posts they had renewed now, planks and the nails back in the cart Eskel’s pinto was strapped to. Eskel’s wolfdog Bann waddled his tail, ready to run back to the farm.

“She did?” asked Eskel while mounting. Geralt went up to his riding horse Roach. Originally he wanted to name all horses Roach - followed by numbers. Several people intervened. The brown mare greeted him with a soft snort.

“Yeah, she took all of the kids with her after school. They’re riding to see a plant that only blooms for a few days a year.”

“Flowers?”

“Yup.”

“I don’t understand your wife.” Geralt squinted towards Eskel.

“Rarely anyone does.”

---

“Daddy!” a wall of shouts arrived Geralt as he came back from the field. Eskel had taken a turn to look for the chicken fence. Geralt almost didn’t manage to climb down from Roach before a wall of children hugged him. Well, apart from his oldest son, Eric, who had a phase of being too cool for his dad. He had his arms crossed, smiled nonetheless and stood close. It was understandable behaviour being 13 and all but Geralt couldn’t stop being a tad bit sad about it. At the same time he mirrored his mother so much. A gaze that could kill, hair as black as the night, his smile. Apart from that his stature was more like his. He’d grow up to be broad and tall, Geralt was sure of it. The second eldest, Leo was 11 and like a younger twin to his brother. It seemed like he’d grow even taller for he was about the height Eric had been a year ago. Casimir - their third son - just turned eight and currently wants to grow long hair which keeps getting into his face. Geralt kneeled down to pick up Roger, their youngest son at five who was born hunched and tried not to groan. Gwyn, their only daughter at age seven - and a mirror to her mother in all but character - took the chance of her dad kneeling and gave Geralt a peck on his cheek. She had made her brothers flower crowns which all of them - except Eric who had it bound to his belt - proudly wore. Gwyn handed her father one sheepishly. “I made you one too!” she exclaimed. Geralt happily tried to put it on but his daughter had over measured his head and it was more of a necklace. He beamed nonetheless and walked towards the main house, children following him. Eric ran behind after he finished unsaddling Roach and let her into the paddock.

Nearing the house, Geralt smelled stew and got excited. With his free hand he opened the door, put out his boots and walked towards the kitchen. “I’m home!” he exclaimed.

Two of the kids detached from him and ran towards the stew and the raven haired woman standing before the pot.

Yennefer turned around and greeted Geralt with a fleeting smile and a kiss. The kids all let an exasperated “Ew” be known.

She looked him up and down, noted his necklace and grinned wickedly, “Your daughter thinks you’re bigheaded.” she said. The kids took off around the kitchen and Roger wanted to be let down so Geralt kneeled again to put him back on his feet. Yennefer turned towards the stew. Geralt hugged her from behind.

“Wonder if her mother keeps telling her that.” he said. She let herself loose in his arms.

“Might be.” she closed her eyes for a second.

“How was the flower?” Geralt asked.

Yennefer chuckled. “The auraris scenoloptis? Beautiful. Our kids got distracted by wolfbanes, moleyarrows, blowballs and ginatias though.” she told him. Geralt looked down on his necklace, made up of those flowers. “Yeah, right.” he said.

“I’m drying some petals and hope I can use them for a salve soon. The fishmonger's daughter needs some help getting pregnant.” she explained.

“What’s so different to using white myrtle?” he asked.

“Well it’s more potent in its aphrodisiac agency and acts as a booster to the female cycle by activating-” she realised Geralt was more interested in sniffing her hair than letting her explain in detail, “- in other words you have a couple more fertile days.”

“We didn’t need that.” he added. She turned towards him.

“Be glad, could have been different in another life!”

---

Lambert had returned from the city. His carriage was full of groceries, metals, fabric and leather. Eskel helped him unpack. Eric and Leo joined while Casimir, Gwyn and Roger had disappeared in the stables. “Everyone’s buying stuff as if a plague’s coming.” Lambert exclaimed. “Well maybe some are blessed with prophetic dreams or just like to prepare for winter early, like we do.” Eskel answered. Eric and Leo carried a big package to their storage house. Lambert’s two wolfdogs and Eskel’s greeted each other and proceeded to run around the cart and ranch.

Vesemir joined the unpackers, “Like we do? Those kids would eat those horses up in two weeks if we won’t buy food!” and kneeled down to pick something up which stopped both Eskel and Lambert to shout “Stop it!” and basically rip what he tried to pick up from his hands.

“Stop it, old man, you know it’s not good for your back!” Lambert shouted again.

Geralt and Yennefer, hearing commotion, walked out and soon were greeted by this scene. Vesemir put himself back up and made a sour face.

Yennefer called out to him, “Come on and help me inside, Vesemir.” after that she greeted Lambert with a quick “Hello!” which he answered with a “Hey, Yennefer.” She turned to got back inside.

In passing Geralt who sped to help unload he murmured, “My own sons don’t think I can do anything anymore and my daughter-in-law just gives me one command after another. I am not inept, I’m just getting a bit old!” Geralt patted him on the back. Vesemir had not been as quiet as he thought since Lambert quickly added a “I’ll be damned if there is a person one day she doesn’t order around. So don’t feel bad about that part.” which handed him a grunt and a sour look from Geralt.

Lambert shrugged. “Don’t tell me it’s not true!”

Without a word, Eskel threw something heavy at their youngest brother for him to shut up. There was silence for a few seconds. The boys returned and began carrying another package towards the storage hut.

“How was the town?” asked Eskel.

“Good, hectic. People are going a bit crazy. Emreis bought the Cintraen Stables. Ran ‘em out of business I say. I mean, crazy coincidences - Calanthe and Eist died a few weeks ago. Pertussis they say. Their granddaughter is missing. I mean she has nowhere to go, no family left anyways. Wolves probably got her. Hm. Old hag apparantly died. Can’t say I miss ‘er, had a few debts. Ah, I managed to have two of our foals of next year reserved. An Craite wants one of Alps and Foltest wants either one of Kayran or Eredin - maybe even both he’s not sure. Ugh Friday, finally!” Lambert told his brothers.

“Calanthe and Eist died?” Geralt asked.

“Yeah, pertussis apparently. Emreis already had a signed contract weeks before but I still get why people are thinking it might have been on purpose. Even more so that Cirenella or whatever her name was ‘s missing. You’d think they’d have prepared for it.”

They hadn’t been friends but lived in silent respect as almost neighbours and hearing about the tragic story around Calanthe’s daughter and her young grandchild had been the topic of many conversations with Yennefer. She had often remarked whether or not Pavetta was actually Vesemir’s daughter as a joke since Geralt and Pavetta had shared the same white-colored hair. Since Pavetta’s daughter was born a bastard with no known father it had led to some distressing silence.

“Hm.”

---

After having everything from Lambert’s shopping trip stored and packed where it belonged, they ate. Having ten mouths to feed was not something Yennefer ever imagined to do but she did it with glee - and she didn’t have to do it daily since both Lambert and Vesemir loved to cook. Geralt was good at it but he would rather feed the horses daily than his children, to put it briefly. “Horses don’t play with their food.” he’d say to Yennefer as an excuse not to cook. “Well then I won’t play with your meat!” was the whispered reply that usually took great effect.

Lambert told tales of the city with his nephews and his niece hung on his lips while eating.

Geralt only scooped a few spoons in, his mind occupied with the child of Pavetta. Only Roger who had snuck in the pantry and stolen some sweet pie and therefore wasn’t quite as hungry as his siblings noted his father being absent and tried to smile at him. Yenenfer who kept an extra eye on her criminal son to check whether he was eating anything healthy at all thus noticed Geralt being absent minded. He felt her gaze and looked up towards her. They exchanged a few facial expressions as married folk tend to do and Yennefer understood he would come up to her with it in time but later.

Yennefer returned to give Roger a stern gaze and he hastily put another spoon full of stew into his mouth, then smiled, mouth full of stew at her.

---

Beer in hand, children in bed, freshly bathed Geralt stood next to the fireplace. Vesemir was dozing off in his rocking chair. His ale stood beside him on the ledge.

Roger had a phase of direly needing his mom to sleep and while Geralt had read them all a story it was Yennefer who was needed to hold Rogers hand until he slept right now. Sometimes she dozed off too and then came up later to the parlor.

Eskel and Lambert washed up, he could hear their voices softly getting to his ear. They would drink a quick beer together, then go to their houses. Eskel as the ranch’s smith above his furnace and Lambert next to the storage hut. Vesemir took turns sleeping at Eskel’s or in his house which was way smaller and originally planned as a guest house. On colder nights he stayed at Eskel’s.

Originally they had all slept in the main house but with one child after another place grew scarce soon. And then again Geralt and Yennefer were grateful for every bit of privacy.

Geralt was still recovering from a leg injury he got when taming last year's horses. He had taken the children with him. Leo and Casimir almost got in harm's way when they groomed an already tamed horse of theirs, Morvudd, and his wild horse almost crashed into the other one. Morvudd jumped and left space for the wild one to crash into Leo and Casimir so Geralt got it to turn again and crash into a splintered fence, causing his leg to cut open.

The children had been horrified of course. Eric and Leo quickly ran back home to get help from their mother. It was resolved rather fast but since then his leg wasn’t healed completely and his duties on the ranch got split and taken over by his family.

After a while Eskel and Lambert came into the parlor and laughed at their sleeping father “No, I am not getting old.” Lambert mimicked his tone of speech and they all chuckled. They drank their beer and then wished each other good night. Eskel woke Vesemir and they left together. Geralt sat down into the rocking chair when he heard steps coming downstairs.

“Look who’s still awake.” he said with a low voice.

“Ha-ha.” Yennefer fake laughed. “Your son was scared you’re still hurting and cannot eat because of this.” she explained and then yawned.

She sat on his lap, carefully avoiding his hurt leg and began stroking his beard. No words were needed, no further inquiring.

“Lambert told us about Calanthe and Eist dying.” he began. He began caressing her back.

“Cintrean Stables?” she asked while closing her eyes. He nodded. “Yes, he said Emreis bought it. Didn’t mention they died though. What about -” he cut her off.

“Went missing, he said. She has no family left. She’s probably just a thorn in Emreis’ eyes.” Geralt added. Yennefer turned to look at him. “You...?”

He shrugged, “I don’t know do you…?”

She smiled, “What’s one mouth more to feed?”

One moment in silence then they started giggling. “Oh, Eric’s not gonna like this.”

Geralt looked towards the fire, sad about this prospect. Yennefer turned her body more towards him. “Hey. He’s having a phase. Just like Roger who needs me to sleep right now because he thinks if I am not there monsters will come. Eric is in a phase where he thinks he doesn’t need his dad and can protect himself from all the monsters in the world. The boys in school teased him because he told so much about you in school and then you got hurt even though being immortal according to Eric, the teacher told me.”

“Oh.” Geralt’s eyes widened.

“Geralt, it’s not your fault.” Yennefer tried to reassure him. “It’s a phase. He will get over it soon enough and then it’ll be me he hates. He’s starting puberty. It’s gonna be - fun.”

“Fun.” Geralt repeated.

“I need to convince myself or else I am gonna get crazy. We really had five children in eight years which means that they’re gonna be pubescent at the same time at one point.”

They both stared into the fire.

“It’s gonna be six children, Yen.” Geralt remarked. Yennefer smiled, then her gaze saddened. “We’re gonna have to find her first.”

---

They were awoken by a loud stomps on the stairways and shrieks of playing fetch. Yennefer went from sleeping to a commanding tone in mere seconds. “No running on the stairs!” she shouted, silence followed, quickly to be exchanged with a trail of steps running towards the two of them who had slept on the rocking chair, covered in fur and a quilt.

“Mommy! Daddy! Good morning!” they exclaimed and threw a ball between them. A game Geralt didn’t get the rules of. “We don’t have to get the rules,” Yennefer once explained to him, “what’s important is a) that they’re playing at all b) they are playing together and c) they’re letting us be for five minutes”.

They got forehead kisses from their parents - even Eric who Geralt just grabbed and pulled towards him. Yennefer saw Eric smile afterwards and was reassured he just had a phase.

Breakfast was bread with cold meat and jam. And telling their children about the plan of adopting another child.

“She doesn’t have a family anymore - do you guys think we could be that for her?” Yennefer asked the children.

“But who is gonna protect her if Daddy’s away? I already have to protect all of them. And you!” Eric got worked up.

“First of all, I am perfectly capable of protecting myself and you,” Yennefer got serious, “second of all, your father has a job that means he has to stay with the herds several nights in a row. It’s not as if he’s gone forever or will leave forever. He’s never going alone and won’t ever go alone. And third of all, we are fine. I know you hear a lot of the jokes Lambert makes about you guys eating everything up one day but no it’s not the truth. We have enough for all. Hell, we would have enough if Lambert and Eskel finally got a -”

Geralt stopped Yennefer. “I think it’s okay now, Yen.”

Eric looked a bit beat down and angry at the same time, Geralt wondered why he hadn’t left yet but he guessed Eric was too proud for that.

“Hey buddy,” Geralt started, “I know you’re feeling a bit like I am not your friend anymore these days but I am. I don’t know what I did to make you feel this way but this is between us and shouldn’t -”

“Yeah yeah I know. Just keep on getting more children like I am not enough!” Eric stormed off, closing the door behind him by smashing it. Yennefer looked as shocked as rarely ever before.

Eskel peeked into the parlor. “Your son just crashed into me and then ran off? Are you alright -” he saw Yennefer's expression, Geralt being quite unhappy and the other children mildly confused. “Okay. I guess not. Uh. I will look for Lambert.” he left again.

Leo, after holding a “conference” with his siblings and being the eldest with Eric’s vanishing, told his parents that they were alright with another sister, should she “wish to join, be okay to make flower crowns, race towards the forest and back, accept the rules of ball-throw-game” and, most importantly the task they all hated but someone had to do “help folding bed sheets” which had Yennefer and Geralt fall out of their moment of shock and return to smiling. “Sure. We will present her with your demands.” Geralt told his son.

---

“Are you sure you won’t rather take the carriage?” Yennefer asked as Geralt mounted Roach. Vesemir already sat on his horse, a white gelding.

“Yes, Yen. We will be faster that way. She is alone out there and every minute might count.”

“I just worry-” Yennefer got interrupted by Vesemir: “His leg won’t fall off and I may be older than you all but I can ride a horse faster than you all can. Now stop being cheesy and give him a goodbye kiss.”

Yennefer did, presented Vesemir with a stern gaze and then waved them goodbye with the children, up until they got bored doing so.

Geralt and Vesemir took on a quick trot and reached the town soon after high noon. The town hall delivered a quick message in the form of Julian Alfred Pankratz alias Jaskier, one of the council members. “Geralt! Vesemir!” he exclaimed , “it is nice seeing you here!”. He came closer, leaving a waiting and now angry couple waiting for their meeting behind. “How is your leg? How are your children? How is… the witch doing?” Vesemir laughed at that last remark. “How are you, old man?” he asked Vesemir who visibly didn’t like being called ‘old man’. Geralt smirked at that, had he been okay with his wife getting insulted seconds before.

“Getting better each day, getting bigger each day, getting more beautiful each day.” Geralt answered. Jaskier shrugged. “Wow I really need to visit again.” he said.

“Yes, they miss their uncle.” said Vesemir. “And to be frank we could use a day of singing again.” Jaskier beamed.

“We’re here because of Pavetta’s child though.” Geralt chimed in.

“Who?” asked Jaskier.

“You know the child of surprise.”

“Ah. Sure. What a tragic story, isn’t it? I really need to make it a song. ‘Last flower of Cintra’, maybe? Hm. Sounds too floral. Lion? They had lion decor. But they still were a ranch. Rose? Yeah yeah sounds better. What are the odds of both grandparents dying mere days from each other?”

“Jaskier.” Geralt cut his evasions short.

“Right. Cirilla. What about her?”

“Lambert said she went missing and doesn’t have a family.” Geralt explained.

“Well at least the family part is true.” Jaskier said.

“What do you mean?”

“She doesn’t have any further family. Well except - surprisingly - a father should surface,” he noticed Geralt's stern look, “but no she doesn’t have any living family and no one willing or possible to take her. Alas she is not missing - okay yes she went missing for a quick moment but was quickly found and lives with the teacher for now.”

“Oh.” Vesemir and Geralt shared a look. They both were glad she was sfe for now.

“We spoke about maybe taking her in,” Geralt stated, “can I meet her?”

“Sure,” said Jaskier, “just maybe bring Yennefer next time. The council decided we would only let someone take her in after both had met them. You know it didn’t go well with the Jaromir boy last time and now he’s living on Emrais Ranch getting fed lies about how inept we are. And Emrais hasn’t even adopted him. I think it’s a bunch of kids just living off the ranch’s supplies.” Geralt wasn’t so sure that was the whole truth but he didn’t care.

“I think it’s best we ride back, Geralt. You and Yennefer can still ride back here today and meet her then. It’s no use going there alone. You shouldn’t make the decision yourself anyways. Would have been different if she still ran around in the forest.” Vesemir opined. Jaskier nodded consensual. “Yes I won’t be here for long anymore but you know where to meet me. I will have the papers ready should you decide to take her in.”

---

Yennefer and Geralt rode as fast as the wind. Her black stallion was called Aretuza and one of the fastest in the bunch. Roach had been tired out so he took Plotka, another brown mare.

“Remember when we got married in the town?” Yennefer smiled.

“Barely.” Geralt answered. Yennefer's smile vanished.

“You’re teasing me!” she turned sour. Geralt’s eyes widened in glee.

“Yen, I am just reminding you of the time you told me you were pregnant.”

“Oh,” she laughed, “I remember, you didn’t recall our wedding at first. To be fair they had you quite… drunk at the end of the night.”

The conversation had been barely a week after their wedding. Istredd, a study friend of Yennefer who didn’t make it to the wedding, congratulated them and then, after winking at both of them for seeing Yennefer's situation, asked whether they had chosen a name already. After he left Geralt asked her for what he congratulated. She had told him that they had wed which got Geralt confused.

“I wore white and had flowers? All our friends and family were there? You wore a dress shirt? You said ‘I do!’?”

His answer back then didn’t stem from being reluctant rather than actually not knowing what had been going on. “How was I even supposed to know? You always smell of lilac, wear white, black or black and white - also I still can’t believe any day I wear those horrible fancy clothes is a chance you take? I honestly thought it was a normal sunday. I mean okay, the drinking got out of hand but it happens, right?”

“Please tell me you at least remember what we need a name for?” Yennefer had asked, getting aggravated. His eyes had grown even more panicked.

“A horse?” Geralt had asked, confused.

“I’m seven months pregnant, Geralt.”

“Fuck.” Anxiety over having an unwanted child had now grabbed Yennefer. “We don’t have a name,” He took her into a deep hug and then started kissing her, “But well we have about two months, still.” Between her tears, Yennefer still had managed to laugh.

“I still can’t believe I forgot most of our wedding. It sucks to be honest.”

“At least you feel bad about it,” Yennefer said, “and I am so glad you didn’t suggest ‘Roach’ as a name in that moment. We wouldn’t have made a week of marriage.”

“I know.” he answered.

It was late afternoon when they rode into the town. Jaskier told Geralt he would alert the teacher of the situation and he would expect them at their home. The teachers house was small by comparison to the ranch but right next to the school which had its own advantages. They knocked on the door and were greeted by the teacher's wife and one of their children.

“Ah, Geralt and Yennefer. Come in!” she said and made room. As they walked in she asked a lot of questions about the room size for the children, how old they were, whether they were healthy. Geralt made some remarks about the size of the ranch to make known that some worth lied there. The teacher’s wife openend the door to the parlor where the teacher sat with Cirilla and one of their children. Cirilla looked about eight, was dressed in a blue dress and had white hair. Yennefer and Geralt exchanged a look and almost began to laugh. At first sight she looked more like his child than any of his did. Cirilla locked eyes with them and after everyone greeted each other and Geralt and Yennefer told her who they were she greeted them with: “I am Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon but you can call me Ciri. Will you take me with you now?”

She stood before them smiling sheepishly. “We could if you want to? We have a ranch with horses.” Geralt told her.

“And we have five children.” Yennefer added, asking herself why he always had to mention the horses before his children.

Ciri nodded.“Yes Jaskier has already told me about all that. Mr. Teacher has already explained to me that I cannot stay here.” she told them.

“I think we’re settled then? I am sure you will love our home.” Yennefer said, beaming while doing so. Ciri seemed to warm up quickly and they hoped it wouldn’t stop once meeting the wall of children they had at home. Her bag was packed quickly since she didn’t have a lot of stuff. Most important was the stuffed lion her grandmother gifted her which she held firmly.

“Can I ride with you?” she asked Geralt.

“Sure.” he smiled as he answered and promptly placed her on Roach who whinnied.

They talked about some basic stuff on the way back home. Her favorite food, color, animal. Stuff to get to know her and ease her into a situation she seemed to accept rather quickly.

---

Back on the Ranch they were greeted by all of them including the dogs standing together and waving. Geralt and Yennefer stopped their horses and got down. The children came nearer but were pretty shy. Eric stood before his siblings and greeted Ciri first. “Hey Ciri, I am Eric.” he said. Lambert and Eskel fist bumped which meant they prepared him for this moment. Geralt gave them a quick thumbs up. Everyone greeted Ciri who stood next to a squatting Yennefer. Ciri whispered in her ear “How am I supposed to remember all of those names?” Yennefer giggled once, then said “Don’t worry you can always ask, we won’t bite.”

Ciri nodded, still a bit unsure of the situation.

Lambert exclaimed: “Who’s hungry? I cooked.”

Geralt then noticed he hadn't eaten all day. His stomach growled, “I am hungry.” he said just as Ciri bravely expressed her hunger as well.

“Follow me!” said Lambert and the whole bunch followed him put.

Vesemir walked up to Geralt. “Sure it wasn’t you that got Pavetta pregnant?”

In another life, Yennefer's anger could kill people as easily as a storm. We’re glad it’s not this.

[alolanrain]

God I want to expand more into this AU but I’m fucking SICK. It’s ironically called the Found Dragon Fam! AU, or just FDF!AU, because it just Raihans getting to meet all the famous, or just well known, Dragon type trainers. And they help him build up his own team and a bunch of other family fluff. But there’s Bby!Ash and Bby!Gary.

Also if you want the three, or the rest of the fam, to some how take down Rose. Then y’all are free to write that part if ya want!

———————————————————————

“Rai! Rai!” A little boy shouted. Zooming through throngs of people just to tackle a boy who had just boarded off a plain.

“Ash!” Raihan greeted. Dropping his bag and backpack onto the ground so he could easily scoop up the six year old in a tight bear hug. Ash’s fit kicked the air lightly since he was up so high, due to Raihan growing a good foot since last summer.

This was just the second summer that Raihan was going to spend out of five here in Kanto. Working with Champion Lance, Unovas top gym leader Drayden, and a few more dragon type specialtist. It was something old Lindy set up for him, since Raiahan is taking over her grandmother’s gym back in Galar once he’s done shadowing the other dragon trainers.

Raihan soon found out that he would also be dealing with a hyperactive kid Lance takes guardian ship over for the summer. Along with another boy, Gary Oak who was Professor Oaks youngest grandchild. Though Raihan didn’t mind at all, both boys did what they were told and only really got in the way when Raihans Pokémon didn’t want to leave the two to go train.

Speaking of the other boy. Gary followed Ash at a much slower rate, choosing to drag a chuckling Lance behind him.

“Ash!” Gary whined when the younger boy was, regrettably, set back down on his own to feet. “Lance told us to stay by him! And to not go running off!” The taller’s was quick to reprimand Ash, who slumped and turn to quietly apologize to Lance.

The spoken man just chuckled once more, patting Ash’s head before turning to Raihan with an easy going grin. “They get more energetic every year they come up, don’t you?” The Champion turned to look at both boys. Ash looked up to his pseudo uncle, a bright smile stretched across most of his face. Gary didn’t answer, to focused on getting his own bear hug from the Galarian Trainer.

Raihan just laughed. Feeling more free than when he was in Galar. No cocky Leon appearing in the corner of his eyes, no Rose to purposely try to antagonize him every time they meet, no Oleana to look down on him like Raihan was nothing but dirt under her high heels, no paparazzi and long interviews.

No, now it was sweet scented Kantonian air and even sweeter foods. The thought of tasting Elite Four Member Bruno’s delicious sushi once more made Raihans mouth water.

Lance scoffed, moving to clench one of Raihans slimm shoulders. “Look how thin you’ve gotten!” The Champion chose to be dramatic as he looked Raihan up and down. He couldn’t really see the boys body, since Raihan had chosen to wear baggy clothes onto the long ten hour flight from Galar to Kanto, but Lance was always the one to over embellish things. “We need to feed you pronto!”

Both Ash and Gary shouted in joy as they each took one of Raihans hands and slowly lead the trainer and Champion out of the crowded airports. Lance was lucky to grab the younger trainers bags before loosing the three of them in the crowd.

Raihan slowly felt like he was being folded into something more, something big and important. It warms his stomach in a way a thrilling battle can’t. Lance honestly treats him like a nephew, or that’s what Raihan hopes because his actual Uncles don’t want to deal with his part of the family, just like the rest of the Kanto and Johto Elite Four Members. Ash and Gary has started to refer to him as Cousin Raihan just after the first two weeks he had spent at the castle last summer. He had met the warm spirited that was Delia Ketchum, Ash’a mom, that could easily spit fire hotter than any kind of fire type dragon Raihan had ever seen.

Raihan was important. Something that dawned on him after Lance and a few others left Gary and Ash in his care with Agatha. Who then said that the others would never do this if it weren’t for the love and family bond they had made with Raihan in the last month out of the three. Raihan was important. And that’s all he ever wanted to be.

——

Raihan didn’t stop to say hello to his fellow Gym Leaders like he normally does when it’s finally time to start the beginning ceremony for the Galar Pokémon league season. Instead he opted to barge all the way through until he had gotten to the back of the gym leaders locker room.

“Ash.” The name flew out of Raihans mouth like he was punched hard in the gut by one of his own Pokémon. The name made the other person in the back of the room to swirl around with bright happy eyes.

“Hey Rai,” was Ash’s response, slow and easy in Galarnese with a hint of a Kantonese accent, “long time no see, huh?”

Last seen each other in general? Five years. Last seen each other in person? Since Raihans last summer in Kanto before he took over the position of gym leader in Galar.

“Ten years,” the dragon trainer mumbled, eyes roaming Ash’s looks, “ten years since we last stood in a room together.”

That made Ash flinch, his eyes glanced apologetics up into Raihans own eyes. “Yeah.” Aah muttered lamely. one of his feet dig into the tile, or tried to really.

“Come here.” Raihan didn’t even give the boy, no young man now, a chance to even say anything. Hauling Ash into a tight bear hug that lasted a good few minutes. The other gym leaders whispered and talked behind Raihans back. But he didn’t care. Not one bit. Ecause Ash was here, in Galar, the bastard who faced a God for his champion title in Alola and won.

“You crazy mother fucker,” Raihan breathed, bending his body enough to tuck his face into Ash’s wild hair, “I thought you were a goner. Fucking God.” The gym leader had to pull back and take a few deep breaths to calm down his emotions. It’s not the time to cry since it’s so close to the opening ceremony.

Ash didn’t say anything, he just buried his head further into Raihans chest. Trying his hardest not to cry as well. He missed Raihan so fucking much. Missed how in the past Raihan would easily picks him and Gary up, running around the castle gardens without losing breath. Missed how he would let the two curl up, one on each side, for their nap when Agatha dragged the Galarian to her side of the castle for tea. Missed watching him get into a friendly banter back and forth with Lance while they trained their respected Pokémon. Missed helping him out in the kitchen with Bruno and Lorelei, making all sorts of food and sweets Raihan never tried.

“It’s so fucking cold here.” Ash muttered as they finally pulled apart. “Alola’s heat spoiled me to much.” And it was true. Alola heat felt good on Ash’s battered bones, it’s made him faster and more vigilant. Especially when he had become the TA in Professor Kukui’s class, Gods that class had gotten into so much trouble and they dragged him down as well. But it’s all good and Ash already miss those scamps.

The gym leader just chuckled, pulling Ash once more into another bear hug so he got the chance to rub his cheek into Ash’s hair. Something they’ve done way back then, Lance was the one who had started it with Ash and Gary which got the boys to transfer it over to Raihan after the end of the second summer. Ash happily rubbed his own cheek into his shoulders, the younger trainer standing on his tippy toes.

They pulled back once more. Ash curled his arms around his mid section. it was way colder in Galar than Alola, even in Sinnoh, the weather had more frosty bite than Ash had ever felt with.

“Where’s Pikachu?” Raihan asked with a raised eyebrow. He never got to meet the electric mouse, but damn him if he didn’t ducking want to. That Pokémon had turned into a beast the size of a Houndoom.

Ash shifted back and forth with a frown. Looking around the room. “Shit.” Aah whispered. Raihan laughed loudly at the, throwing his arm around Ash’s shoulder.

“He’ll turn up eventually. Can’t miss a big bright yellow Pokémon.” Raiahan rejoiced a little as he got a smile back onto Ash’s face.

“Yeah, your right.” Aah replied. He was about to say something once more before the intercoms turned on and informed that all gym leaders, plus Champion Ash, need to start heading towards the pitch right this second.

“Rose.” The gym leader couldn’t help but snarl under his breath. Making Ash perk up right beside him with a glint in his eyes, something familiar that Raihan had seen every time before Ash dragged him and Gary into a prank against a league official.

“Guess my stay in Galar is getting extended!” Ash chirped happily. Whipping out his phone as Raihan easily went into guidance mode, dragging Ash out of the way of other people and making sure the boy didn’t crash into any walls or trip over his feet.

“If your going to dethrone Rose,” Raihan murmured into Ash’s ear, keeping his eyes in front of him and the rest of his colleagues who had left the room first, “let me help you.”

“That’s the plan!” Ash sent a blinding smile up at Raihan, who smiled softly back before letting the shorter trainer go back to rapidly texting on his new Rotom Phone.

They both entered the pitch together, for once Raihan was behind the rest of the other League members, which will definitely bring some kind of questions for their fans and News sites. But Raihan didn’t care at all. bumping shoulders with Ash before moving to stand next to Piers, who showed up for once and that might have to be because of Chairman Rose grilling all the gym leaders for showing up to this ceremony. Ash moved towards Milo with a cheery greetings on his lips for the grass gym leader.

Rose stepped out on the pitch with Leon right behind him. Even far away Raihan could see the Galar Champion was walking swiftly with a stiffer smile than normal. Probably a little scared with the thought of battling out with another Champion he had never met before. But damn him if Raihan didn’t hush about Ash and Gary when some one let him, making Leon the other half stuck for a few hours while listening Raihan rant and rave about the two younger boys and their accomplishments.

So Leon might be scared, and Raihan couldn’t fault him. He would also be scared facing off Ash. He watched Rose and Leon faulted and Raihan chose to take a glance down the line, using his height advantage to see the end of the lien up.

A large yellow body had appeared next to Ash, and the other Champion had crouch down to silently reprimand Pikachu in timing and probably how they should have walked out into the field together.

As Leon and Rose got closer, Raihan noticed how Rose’s shoulders were tense and even though he was smiling, Rose’s eyes were tracking Ash’s every movement. Which made Raihans nerve set aflame for reasons that he coud list for an hour.

Oh, Rose is so going to fall off his throne before Ash. And Raihan would help Ash with anything the younger trainer needed.

[floosies]

Series: La Munenca del Barrio

Warnings: NSFW, Blood, violence, smut, strong language, and drug use

SIdenote: Spanish text (this chapter will focus on Maritiza and Rafael)

Rocio Cruz lives in a Brooklyn block best known for its vibrant and ignored community. What she always ignored though was the underground scene in the borough, the evils that lay in it and its people. That all comes to an end when she’s introduced to those things she ignored.

Chpt. 6: Estoy Pensando en Ella

Series Masterlist

Maritza Dolores Rosales was born into a small town in Guerrero, Mexico in 1968. Her parents were people who didn’t make much but lived day by day. When she was 9 they moved to America, where her papa started working as a cook in restaurant and her mama made dresses for gringos. By the time she was 18, her father took over the restaurant from the old man who used to own it. 

Rafael “Pajarito”  Mateo Cruz was born into a similar situation in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico in 1965. His father had left him and his family when he was 6 for another women. In time he would be the one who’d have to provide for his mother and two younger siblings. By the time he was 20, he’d leave his home for search for more money.

(1988)

It was a busy night at the restaurant and she was on her shift, working so she could have some Friday’s off with friends to go see the other side of New York. Pajarito was going to have dinner with a couple of the guys from work. They knew the right spot to go get something quick and see pretty girls. That was where he saw her, in her red apron and white dress. He swore he saw an angel in the flesh. 

He kept an eye on her while he ate. She was too important for him in that moment and his friends caught on, “te gusto la nena? Es hija del dueno de aqui, cuidado que ella no se deja con quien sea.” One of them said to him, but she’s caught him staring at her enough for her to notice. She went back to the kitchen waiting for her next order to be ready, a girl who gossiped more than the senoras verduleras around the block worked with her as a waitress as well, “tu sabes algo del prieto sentando en la ultima mesa?” She looking at the man she’d fall in love with. The girl looked a bit concerned as she followed Maritza’s stare, “cuidado con el, que trabaja con ojos azules.” He was cute and that piqued her interest enough.

Behind her parents’ back she took the risk. Somehow the whole working with the mob didn’t faze her at all. Maritza was far more invested on him as a person. He was sweet, gentle, and honest with her. Of course he was, he adored her and her way of being. With money saved, he bought an apartment. Something they could call theirs and not have to worry about her threatening papa who said he’d slice Rafael into two if he saw him near his daughter again after they got caught kissing behind the restaurant one night.

It wasn’t much later that they were engaged, mainly because Maritza had become pregnant with a girl. To say her parents were beyond upset was an understatement pero que hacer. On the other hand by the time she admitted it to everyone, Rafael was doing good financially, enough to bring his family over. They didn’t like New York though, “mami pero tengo los chavos para que tenga un lugarsito serca de mi.” He tried to plead to her, but she wasn’t alone. He’d brought over his siblings too, sus manos Matias, Beatriz, y Lucas. They were kids unlike him, the eldest of the three was Beatriz but she was only seventeen.

He couldn’t get them to stay but they didn’t go back. Turns out some of his father’s family who’d got to America years before Rafael was willing to help his mama find a place in Florida. They hated his father for being a deadbeat, that was their answer as to why they were helping. Rafael was just glad he got them out of Puerto Rico and somewhere nicer. He’d send them money every other week. When the wedding came, it didn’t come easily. Everyone wanted a say on the music, the church, the guests, whatever they could basically control. Rafael tried to comfort Maritza who was beyond aggravated with all of it.

That wedding was a masterpiece though. Ojos Azules made sure que todo sea al puro cien, nothing was cheap. The reception made Maritza cry with happiness. She’d married well, even her parents agreed. Doña Constancia was very happy too, her son had made a good life for himself and never left his family out of his wealth, plus she had a grandchild on the way. In her head, Maritza was getting everything she’d ever wanted from life.

Money wasn’t a problem, the apartment was nice, and she was going to have a baby girl. For a good while, she even forgot what her husband did as work. Until it got bad. Right before the baby was born, there was a fear of traitors in Ojos Azules “corporation” and that led to more dirty work for her pajarito. 

He was loyal and where she admired him for it, at the same time she’d wish he wasn’t. Because his loyalty was to that old man just as much as it was to her. Sometimes he’d be brought home by his co-workers so that he wouldn’t get hurt. See Rafael was quiet but not stupid, he always spoke spanish to make the gringos think he didn’t understand shit. He knew everything though and he’d always report back to his boss. Like a little parrot or song bird, he’d ruin people before they even got the chance to begin their plan. (You could see why his arrest was a celebration to many)

Some nights he’d be home covered in blood, not his, but that didn’t matter when it was dripping all over the floor, off his shoes. Thankfully it died down for a while. A good while, that allowed for Rocio’s birth to be a beautiful peaceful occasion. When Maritza found out that her family would be blessed with financial help that would span a lifetime to Rocio, she was beyond thrilled. Her daughter would never grow hungry like she did many times. Rafael thanked his boss profusely with tears in his eyes. He really believed that God had heard his prayers after all. 

When Rocio was five though, all hell broke loose. Ojos Azules had died and a new guy was in charge. Rafael hated him with a passion, the man wouldn’t let him go home until he felt like it. The “paychecks” would come late or missing the full amounts and what was supposed to be for his daughter never showed up. Maritza knew hard times were coming, pero todo se trueno when at a block party they were at was balasiado by a man working with Rafael, they were after him and his friend. His friend was shot and died in front of her daughter. That’s when her blood boiled and she hated him Mika too.

Did she support the coup to kill him? Legally? No, never she was a respectable women and mother. If anyone else was asking, she would’ve killed him with her bare hands and made sure he knew who he’d fucked with. Mika died pleading like the little bitch he was. She was happy when he died, she prayed to God for forgiveness about those feelings but he’d ruined her daughter’s life, technically. Months after his death and Rubio taking over as the youngest boss in Brooklyn’s history, Maritza was pregnant again, with twins. 

Rafael felt at ease again, his life was calm again. Then it came, in a whirlwind, while Rocio was at school. Maritza pleading that they had the wrong man, cried for her them to let go of her husband. It was too late, he was gone. An anger built up, a pain so strong that never died so much as it dulled into sadness. Rocio would never find out what really happened, she knew better than to hurt her that way. 

The beautiful apartment was gone. Steve Rogers had sent her a message to go into hiding for awhile as they interrogated Rafael. Her parents didn’t say much about their son-in-law. Any money that Rubio would send would be sent back. Her pride and her resentment made her despise that type of life even more. Then came the news that he wouldn’t be coming home anytime soon. She worked her hands raw and raised three children, still holding hope that he’d be back soon

-Present Day

As she cooked dinner in the small kitchen of the apartment, a knock came at her door. Outside stood an old friend of Rafa’s. Quintero held an envelope for Maritza. As she opened the door and saw him, the color on her skin drained, “que haces aqui.” She whispered with a bit of anger and fear. He held out the envelope, “tu pajarito va a volar otra vez muy pronto. Quiere el que estes ahi.” He spoke quietly but with a stern voice. Inside the envelope was the court hearing date and place for the release of Rafael Mateo Cruz.