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yikesharringrove · 2 years ago

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Okay fuckers episode 5.

The sound design of this season is the best of all the seasons. They’ve taken some cues from the soundtrack of horror movies and I think they’ve created a soundscape that’s super intriguing.

Stranger things has a habit of going for body horror and gore and just. Not hitting the mark. They don’t make it gross enough or they don’t really take the time to show the damage. Like the kid that gets vecna’d over the water, they don’t relish those scenes of his body being fucked is when they should. I want these people to be having videodrome or re-animator level fucked up deaths.

(Merlin and I spent hours last night talking abt this and we were both saying season 3 would’ve been totally improved by upping the disgust factor in the meat monster by having it LOOK like it was made of body parts. Like if there were recognizable limbs and shit or if the characters made comments on the rotten horrifying smell of it. Think Tusk)

I also am just sick of cgi. What makes old school horror movies so scary and revolting is how real practical effects look. I know you can’t really crumple someone up like Vecna does without creating a fake body and that’s expensive and difficult, but it looks so much better

I’m still loving the scary vibes, especially the haunted house kinda thing but I just really really miss the season 1 low budget b horror energy. The show has lost all the things that made it really stand out to me as something exciting in the beginning

Notes:

I literally dread the moment someone in the California gang suggests going to Utah. It’s probably to use Suzie’s radio and I’m gonna throw up when they cross that state line.

Why is el constantly wearing like twelve layers of clothing

Idk this Nina project thing is giving me bad vibes

NO FUCKING WAY

Dude Bren we was fucking killed WHAT is going on I don’t need this I don’t want this

This man makes my fucking skin crawl “let us work together, daughter and papa” BITCH EW

Bro how many times is this child gonna be traumatized before I can sleep again????

Let hopper rest challenge

“I have a family, I have three kids waiting for me” YES YOU DO, JOYCE. THREE OF THEM I’m getting emosh

Eddie slamming his way through this house like he isn’t a murder suspect

NOT STEVE CURLED UP ON THAT CHAIR LIKE A LITTLE KITTY I love him I love him he’s perfect in every way someone please send me a high res photo of this (and I ignore my dirty laptop screen)

“Cold beer would really calm my jangled nerves”

Lmao Ted telling these kids to fuck off

Max literally listening to ONLY kate bush and ridiculous volumes that’s the vibe

HOLLY IS SO FUCKING GROWN WHAT

Loving Max’s shitty art skills

“Maybe the answer is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing. God, we need Will.” I actually love this. How wills drawings were so important to figuring shit out in season 2 and max is trying to use that same process but she’s terrible at art bc she’s just a person love this I don’t know why it’s just making my heart happy

Nancy origami-ing this house together. Lowkey would’ve lost my shit if that had been Steve putting it all together. He needs a moment to be smart and I think something visual like this could really be in his wheelhouse. I’m gonna do a fic where it’s Steve that puts it all together

Also bc I could totally see him and tommy and Carol daring each other to go into the Creel house and shit (Ted bundy had a house in my home town and we used to dare each other to go to the porch and knock on the door and shit and Hawkins kids would totally be the same)

WAIT DID THEY SHAVE ELS HEAD AGAIN OR IS THIS A FLASHBACK??? I hate flashback story telling it’s so fucking confusing gd

Is this a truama response? I guess. Bro idk what’s going on

What is with those weird little shoes the older kids have on?

Okay this plastic face bitch needs to get out of my face I literally can’t stay him he’s like fucking Michael Langdon I wanna punch him

STOP calling her sleepyhead I can’t deal

I’m kind of here for this sucked up time loop though

NOT THESE FRUITS BURYING A BODY

Will is literally using a hoe to dig he’s a nightmare

Obsessed with argyle’s very real reaction

Lmao D.A.R.E. Officer will

I KNEW something was gonna be hidden in the pen these guys suck

Some of these Russian guys are super hot and for WHAT

WAIT SO MUCH OF WHAT I HEADCANONED FOR HOPPERS BACKSTORY WAS JUST MADE CANON him fighting in Vietnam (I mean that obv) but it being spurred on by his shitty father that ‘thinks he’s a piece of shit’ I mean. I’ve written shit where billy and hop bind over their fucked up dads and the way we REALLY could’ve had hop seeing through Billy’s facade I’m gonna scream

This agent orange story is so so fucked up and the way that this is REAL are you kidding? I’m freaking out

Oh rip Sarah

THEY DO NEED YOU HOP AND YOU NEED THEM IT GOES BOTH WAYS

I’m gonna cry omg

Oh Christ Chrissy’s mom can fuck RIGHT off

I have to say the music they use when someone sees the clock, and the chimes are like bassed up and slowed it’s really cool

Jason needs to fuck off i fucking can’t with him

Stupid fucking Jason writing reefer ricks instead of reefer rick’s

“Should I knock? See if anybody’s home?” Steve you just pried off the wood that was keeping this place boarded up

“I found a key” queen of chaos robin Buckley

Thank god Steve has the limbs of a giraffe so someone in this group could reach the knob

Okay but Steve’s blank look when Dustin “do you need to be told everything? You’re not a child”joe keery sometimes just goes so dead in the eyes sometimes and it’s my favorite thing in the world

Also “thank you” “you’re welcome” he’s my baby boy I love him

“Why’s this wizard obsessed with clocks?” Idk Steve why am I obsessed with you? Sometimes people are just obsessed with things

Let Steve hit Dustin over the head like real brothers would challenge

“Why’d you sigh?” “I didn’t sigh, just come on dude” love Steve playing this off like it wasn’t the biggest most dramatic sigh in the whole world

We had a very similar lamp in my childhood home lol

THIS CONVO ABOUT MURRAY’S KARATE CLASS IM OBSESSED Jeremiah is my new favorite side character

If I have to hear this whore say “well well…” I’m gonna go on a murder spree

These flashes between cgi little el and old el is making my vertigo act up

“Good morning children” “good morning Miss Hannigan”

Brenner can choke on the biggest fattest dick

Sensory deprivation tanks are one of my biggest fears ngl

Argyle is the queer that can’t drive we all needed in this show

no. No no no no NO olease DONT please don’t

They showed that map of Utah and I ralphed

Will singing never ending story lub him

Eddie looks like if Alex Horne and Erin mcgehey had a child

This fucker that wears a trucker hat everywhere, even while wearing a suit is such a douchebag jock vibe I love

Why do NONE of my green colored pencils function FUCK

“If there’s a spider nesting in there you’re never gonna find it u too it lays eggs and all the babies spill out” ROBIN PLEASE

I love Steve constantly being like “we’re friends we’re friends we’re friends” and saying how he WOULD date robin but she wouldn’t date him. I hate that he and Nancy are sniffing around one another but he makes it very clear that he doesn’t think he’s too good for Robin or that she’s not attractive, but that she actually wants nothing more than platonic with him without outing her. I just think it’s very sweet

STEVE STARTED TO TRY TO QUOTE THE SHERLOCK HOLMES QUOTE DUSTIN SAID QND I HAD TO LEAVE THE ROOM HES SO EMBARRASSING

And then he just walks away he’s such a baby such a baby

Kate bush will NEVER lose her magic powers that wuthering heights video is fucking amazing

Lucas being a lil dork I’m so so glad he’s a real character again after last season

I think the sound design is my favorite of all the seasons. The clock noise is cool and the way they’re using running up that hill to play quietly and distorted in certain scenes is really interesting

This whole flashback is like some umbrella academy rip off shit

Not them vying for brenners pocket taffy

Anytime this gross waxwork lookin bitch speaks I am filled with unspeakable rage

Bro where’s Kali in all these flashbacks??? I’ve been honking that since the beginning that first flashback really bothered me bc of all the kids besides 11 were killed how did Kali survive/did she escape earlier than that when she was like 4???? I hate it

“My fingers are like arrows!” The theatre if it all what a whore I love Murray

The karate has really payed off good for you dude

And then Murray and Joyce were frozen for sixty years like captain America

Yes Steve being the Scooby gang leader for five seconds loml

Eddie I promise you can paddle faster than he can swim

If Vecna can fuck with the flashlights he could totally fuck with the Walkman too

Lmao Eddie falling overboard

Good job girl FUCK brenner I hate him I hate him

Why did they reshave els head??? I don’t get it and bc it’s a wig it makes her head look oddly shaped

“Papa” “daughter” 🤢

#also I just tried to spell apocalypse as ‘apocylyspse’ so that’s how my nights going #yikes talks #st4 #stranger things spoiler #strangerthingsspoilers #I’m probably gonna stop tagging spoilers come Friday since it’ll be 2 weeks since release

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imgoingtohellsofuckit · 4 years ago

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Baby Reid

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary - Reader finds out she’s pregnant and has to tell Spencer.

Warning - pregnancy

word count - 3.8k

I’ve been binge watching Criminal Minds and reading hella Spencer fics and I’ve been loving Dad Spencer so here ya go.

"Pregnant?" Y/n looks at the doctor in slight horror. The doctor nods.

"Seems so Miss L/n," The doctor says smiling lightly, "congratulations."

Y/n's eyes drift over to her sister.

"Yeah congrats," Her sister says softly. A light smirk covering her expression.

"How far along?" Y/n asks the doctor.

"8 weeks," The doctor shares, "it's not uncommon to find out around the 4-12 week mark. We recommend doing an ultrasound today. Just to make sure that everything is alright. Is that okay?"

"Sure," Y/n says softly. The doctor nods moving the machine towards the girl. Prepping her for the ultrasound. Y/n's sister takes the girl's hand gently. Trying to offer some sort of support.

"There is the little guy," The doctor says, "and that's the heartbeat."

The faces remain tense. The doctor sighs lightly.

"I can get the ultrasound pictures for you- I'll be right back," They tell the pair of girls before heading out. The second they leave the room Y/n's sister starts.

"Holy crap you're pregnant!"

"Kate shut the hell up," Y/n says harshly, "God you're such a bitch sometimes."

"I mean I'm right," Kate says chuckling lightly, "well how do you feel?"

"Terrified," Y/n sighs.

"How are you gonna tell him?"

"No clue yet," Y/n says softly, "he's supposed to be flying back tonight too. They finished their case earlier than they thought they would..." She fidgets with the edge of her jacket. "What am I even going to tell him?"

"'Hey Spencer turns out you knocked me up,'" Kate says chuckling lightly, "pretty boy couldn't keep his hands to himself. You think with all those FBI cases he'd be too busy to rail you huh?" Y/n rolls her eyes harshly. "Did you at least enjoy your last time with him before you split from hole to hole?"

"Are you really going there?" Y/n asks harshly.

"Always," She says smirking lightly. Y/n scoffs. "Are you okay?"

"Nervous," Y/n says moving her hand over her stomach, "I don't know how I'm going to speak to him about this ya know? We never really had that are we gonna have kids talk? Figured it was after we finished talking about the marriage thing."

"Which you still aren't done with huh?"

"Clearly not Kate considering we haven't gotten anywhere with that," Y/n huffs, "I mean we want to get married- that's as far as we got with looking into our future. I mean he's so busy. He's doing so much with his job right now that planning a wedding in all that is kind of a nightmare ya know." Kate nods lightly. "I mean we've been talking about getting engaged for like almost 8 months now and we haven't even started looking into the whole wedding part of the thing." Y/n looks to her sister at once. "If he can't even stay home long enough to talk to me about the wedding I highly doubt he'll have enough time to worry about a baby-"

"What about that Hotch guy? His boss he has a kid right?"

"Yeah- a kid he never sees and an ex-wife," Y/n says harshly. Kate raises a brow.

"Okay put Spencer isn't Hotch," Kate points out, "he's Spencer. He's different - In a good way. Obviously right." Y/n's eyes fall to the ground. "He's Spencer he's not going to leave you. You two are joined at the hip."

"How do you talk to people about this stuff?" Y/n asks, "I mean how do you tell someone you've given them 18 years minimum of responsibility-"

"No not you've given him- it takes two," Kate starts at once, "and I'm sure he was all about it."

"You're disgusting."

"But?"

"Of course he's all about it," Y/n says smirking lightly. But it drops immediately. "That's not the point. Jesus, Kate -"

The door opening ends the conversation. The doctor hands over an envelope. "There are the ultrasound pictures and video. We recommend setting up a follow-up appointment at 12 weeks. There is a pamphlet in there that goes other recommended appointments and other tips like foods to avoid all the basics with pregnancy." Y/n nods. "You should be set to go."

The sisters use this to finally leave the hospital. When they reach Kate's car Y/n opens up the envelope to look over the ultrasound photos.

"That's inside of me?" Y/n asks.

"That's what she said-"

"Kate," She says harshly. The sister laughs loudly.

"Fine fine I'll stop," Kate says as she leans over to look at the pictures, "wow it's so small. Kind of blobby looking- I guess it takes time before they get cute huh?" Y/n gives her sister a harsh glance. "Maybe put the pictures in a card? Give him that."

"Yeah, I'm sure that'll go over great," Y/n says. She groans slightly. "What am I gonna do?"

"How's your fiancé?"

Spencer looks up from his book to meet the pressing eyes of JJ. She's not trying to push in any regard rather she's just curious. Wondering how the couple was doing with everything. The job is high stress and JJ knows how much that can weigh on the partners.

"Oh Y/n she's alright," Spencer tells his friend, "she hasn't been feeling great the last couple of days. She thinks flu- her symptoms match enough that it could make sense however there hasn't exactly been a fever. But she won't let me close enough to know. She says I get overbearing when she's sick- that I'm not exactly helpful."

"What? No way," Morgan says chuckling lightly looking up from his own book to join the conversation, "I don't believe that."

Spencer smiles lightly. JJ chuckles.

"I can understand what she means," JJ says brightly, "don't take what she said to heart. You know how girls get when they aren't feeling well-"

"Except I don't," Spencer says, "I only really have experience with Y/n I mean before her I never lived with a girl that wasn't related to me."

"Still you know enough from her and the girls here," Morgan says, "I think you've picked up on enough." Spencer disagrees but he doesn't argue. He's a little too busy in his own head to care about Morgan's remarks. He's worried about his girlfriend. He wants to be there for her- even if she wouldn't actually let him near her.

"You alright Spence?" JJ asks.

"I'm fine just worried about Y/n," Spencer admits, "If it's not the flu it could be something else- and she hates the hospital so she's not exactly trying to go to do anything about it. Despite how many facts I give her about how dangerous the flu could actually be." Spencer rambles on. Morgan and JJ exchange an amused look. "That's why she doesn't want me around when she's sick huh?"

"I'd imagine," JJ says.

"You stress her out," Morgan says, "in a time you don't need to stress her out."

"He's wording it harshly," JJ tells Spencer, "you just make it a little bit harder for her when she's already going through it. Don't worry plenty of people do that. It's just cause you are worried about her." JJ gives Spencer a soft smile. Trying to show some support.

"Her sister was supposed to take her to the hospital," Spencer tells them, "but knowing Kate I'm sure that they never actually went."

"Y/n doesn't like hospitals?"

"Not since her dad died," Spencer shares, "it's not the hospital itself but what it represents. It's common for people who lose parents in adolescence to have mild phobias of places like hospitals or police stations." They nod along. Spencer sighs. "She made that face the first time I told her too. Her words were 'thank you for mansplaining my trauma Spence'." Morgan chuckles lightly.

"Yeah, I can imagine," Emily says, "I don't think anyone would exactly love that."

"Normally my rambling doesn't bother her it was just that time really," Spencer goes on, "her sister hates hospitals as well so I don't know why I let her talk me into letting Kate take her to the hospital."

"Because she's pretty and your whipped," Emily says with a big smirk.

"She's got you there," Morgan says. Spencer chuckles lightly.

He smiles lightly as he looks over to his phone.

"That her?" JJ asks. He moves flipping it open.

"Yeah, she wants to know if she should pick me up or if I'm taking the train," Spencer tells them.

"Anything about the hospital?"

"She didn't say anything about it," Spencer tells them, "how long until we land?"

"2 minutes," Hotch chimes in, "Reid you should make her go to the hospital if she hasn't yet. It could be more than just the flu. You know that."

"I know," Spencer says, "If she hasn't gone today I'll take her for sure." Hotch gives him a careful nod. They start gathering their things. Prepping for the landing.

The second Reid collects his things from the office he meets his fiancé at her car.

"You didn't have to pick me up," Spence says as he and his coworkers file out. His fiancé is leaning against the hood of her car smiling lightly at the man. "You should be in bed resting."

"I got my second wind," Y/n says simply.

"Go to the hospital like a normal person," Garcia says teasing the girl. Y/n chuckles.

"Kate took me to the hospital," Y/n informs the others, "it's just a minor bug. Don't let Spencer get you all worried." JJ exchanges a quick look with Garcia. It goes mostly unnoticed as the others watch as Spencer takes his partner's hand. He pecks her cheek. Making sure not to be too close or too touchy in front of the others. Y/n smiles at her partner. Moving to tuck a piece of his hair behind his ear. "I'm fine Spence."

"Look at how in love they are," Emily teases, "it's disgusting."

"Loverman," Morgan teases.

"Classy," Spencer says, "if you guys are done harassing me and my girlfriend I'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Bye Guys it was nice to see you again," Y/n says brightly. Hiding her nerves slightly. As they climb into the car she looks over to her partner. Her mood ever so slightly dropping. If Reid wasn't a profiler he wouldn't have picked up on it. However, in his line of work, he was able to read people like a book- even if he missed slight social cues.

"You alright?" He asks. Y/n keeps her eyes focused on the road. "Did I do something?"

"Spence you didn't do anything," She says softly, "I'm fine. Just a little stressed babe." His eyes don't move off of the girl. He's watching her so intently. Clearly using his work skills in an attempt to read the girl. "Stop profiling me, Spencer."

"I'm sorry," He says apologetically. She chuckles lightly. Moving to pull his hand into hers. Pecking it lightly.

"Spencer my love you didn't do anything," She says sweetly, "I'm simply working through some things. We all have our moments."

"We should work through things together," Spencer starts, "We're a couple."

"I'm aware we're a couple, Spencer," She says giving him a quick glance, "I know we should work through stuff together but you know sometimes we have things we aren't ready to talk about yet." He looks over nervously. "You didn't do anything... What do you think you did?"

"I don't know what I did," He says honestly, "I just didn't know if I said something wrong or did something wrong."

"No, you didn't do anything," Y/n assures him, "listen I've just been thinking today... Do you still want to get married?"

"Yes of course," He says, "I know we've had a problem planning everything but I still want to get married. Do you?"

"I want to get married," She says.

He nods.

"So what got you thinking about it?" He asks, "I mean you don't typically get worried about this stuff."

"I've been thinking a lot about the future-"

"Uh oh."

"It's nothing to be worried about Spencer," She says as she tries to focus her eyes on the road. "I'm just trying to think about things you know. You're in the FBI, you work a lot and I stay behind a lot. It works out fine now- but that kinda stress ruins relationships."

"What are you talking about?"

"50% of marriages end in divorce Spencer," She goes on, "do you ever think about that? I mean we both come from broken homes. Is there a point in all this?"

"What are you saying?" Spencer asks. Clear distress in his voice. "are you trying to break up with me?"

"NO no!" She exclaims, "I'm not trying to break up with you actually the complete opposite. I'm just being cynical because I'm scared."

"You aren't making any sense," Spencer says softly.

"I don't know how to say it, Spence," She says quietly. She sighs. Thankful to see their apartment. "Maybe we should have this conversation inside."

"Are we fighting?"

"We aren't fighting Spencer," She says as she climbs from the car, "come on."

"Seems like we are about to fight," Spencer says under his breath. She sighs taking his hand. Leading him through the hallway to get to their apartment. Once inside she moves into Spencer's arms. Helping him shove off his bag. "Woah that was a dramatic shift-"

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you," She says as she cups his cheek. He seems very clearly confused. "Don't twist my words. That's not me confessing to trying to run away or anything. Okay?" He nods lightly. "How was your day?"

"You're deflecting- how bad was the hospital?" Spencer starts. Worry filling his expression. "Are you okay?" She chuckles lightly. "Why are you laughing?"

"Spencer, what are you thinking?"

"Somethings wrong- you're sick," He starts, "are you?"

"No," She says simply. She pulls her hands away from him. "I started thinking about our future today- because when I went to the hospital they realized my symptoms aren't flu. They ran a bunch of tests. Trying to figure it out." His face is coated in worry.

"Y/n?"

"Have you ever thought about having kids?" She asks. His eyes scan every inch of her face.

"No, not really," He admits, "why-" His eyes widen. "Are you?"

"Spencer I'm pregnant," She says softly. He seems scared. She moves to cup his cheeks. He looks like he's gonna pass out. He pulls back. Moving to sit on the couch. He's just staring past her. A whirlwind of emotions across his face. "I'm pregnant... Spencer say something." He doesn't. He looks up at her. "Spencer how dare this be the time you are speechless."

"How-how far along?"

"8 weeks," She tells him.

"I'm gonna be a dad," He says softly. He meets her eyes. A slight smile across his face. "I'm gonna be a dad."

"Yeah," She chuckles. He moves to wrap his arms around her. Holding on carefully. As he pulls back he moves his hand down onto her stomach. As if he could already feel the baby. "We are gonna be parents." He chuckles. A big smile across their faces. "Is that okay?"

"Yes that's okay," He says brightly, "more than okay."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," He says brightly.

She moves pulling the envelope from her purse. Handing the pictures over to Spencer. He looks over them brightly.

"Cool right?" She asks.

"Yeah- you know the ultrasound is actually sound waves the frequencies are higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing," Spencer starts, "Ultrasounds in this form is actually called acoustic microscopy-" He stops as he meets her eyes. "We're gonna have a baby."

"Kate says that we'll have really cute kids," She says as he looks back down to the pictures, "she wants them to have your eyes."

"Why?"

"She likes your eyes more than mine apparently," She shrugs, "I think the baby will be cute either way." He nods lightly. She moves beside him to look at the picture. "it's so little."

"Rough weights .04 ounces and measures about .63 inches," Spencer says, "about the size of a raspberry."

"A raspberry?" She says as she moves her hand down to her stomach. "That's so small. Kind of hard to believe." He chuckles. "Can I see your hand?" He nods. She moves to place his hand on her stomach. "When they did the ultrasound the baby was right here- I know we can't feel anything but-" He nods lightly. "Spencer?"

"Yeah baby?"

"Are you really happy about this?"

"Yes I'm actually happy about this- I mean I'm nervous sure terrified even but I'm happy," Spencer assures her, "am I not supposed to be?"

"No no that's not what I meant- I mean I was so scared to tell you I didn't want you to feel trapped or that I ruined your life-"

"Ruined my life?" Spencer asks, "you've made my life a hundred times better- and sure this wasn't planned but it doesn't mean I'm not excited... It brings up practical problems like we don't have the space here- so we'll have to look at new place. Child care when we both are working. Do we want to look at nannies or daycares? But I figured we could worry about the questions later. That now we should just be excited." She smiles lightly. "I don't feel trapped either- I mean kids is a natural progression of things and we've mentioned wanting them before."

"Yeah but out of nowhere like this it can make you feel a little trapped-"

"Around 9 out of 100 women would become pregnant in a year of taking the pill- it's only 91% effective," Spencer starts, "in general unplanned pregnancies' are fairly common in long term relationships where the women is on the pill. We knew it was possible."

"Possible and it happening are two separate things-"

"You were nervous so you created reasons on why I'd be upset," Spencer says, "you wanted me to be upset."

"No- Spencer stop profiling me," She says at once.

"It's not profiling," Spencer says, "I'm not mad- or upset. I'm happy. Stop trying to make that a bad thing."

"I'm not making it a bad things," She sighs, "I was just worried you'd be upset. I'm glad you aren't. Makes me feel a whole lot better." He nods. Moving to take his fiancés hands "This will be a fun change from looking at wedding things... Now we get to look at a new place... House or another apartment?"

"I enjoy apartment life but space wise it would make more sense to look at houses," Spencer says. Y/n nods clearly satisfied with that answer. She smiles as she drags her partner towards the couch. "You eat yet?"

"No not yet wanna order something?"

"Sure," Spencer says as he grabs his phone to dial one of the takeout places. "Got a preference?"

"No I'm sure you can pick for us," She says as she grabs her laptop, "3 bedroom?"

"3?"

"Office space maybe," She starts, "library space? Huge walk in closet- you could have a nice tie wall." Spencer chuckles loudly. "Extra space in general pretty boy." He chuckles. "I think I found a place- look at this cute huh?"

"You're getting a little ahead of yourself-"

"Always Dr. Reid," She says brightly. He smiles. "I hope the baby has your smile."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah you have a cute smile."

"You have a cute smile too," Spencer says as he moves his arm around his wife, "Thai sound good?"

"Thai sound great," She says, "and thanks love." He moves reciting their order like he's done hundreds of times. She moves looking through the houses.

Despite all her original fears. It went right. Spencer was happy to hear about a baby. Excited even. It was working out for her.

"Thanks," Spencer says, "40 minutes."

"We should hold off on telling anyone until I tell my mom," She says, "and we should plan to go see yours." Spencer tenses lightly. "I think she should hear this in person."

"Alright I'll look at weekends I can take off," Spencer starts, "we can fly out then."

"In the meantime I need you to keep this on the down low," Y/n tells him, "don't go sharing this around. I don't need the entire FBI to know before I even get to tell my mom." He nods lightly. "But I know they are your family- so you can tell them after Friday. That good enough for you?"

"Perfect with me," Spencer says.

She smiles pulling him into a quick kiss. She knew they would be fine.

Bonus

The next day Spencer could hardly keep the dopey smile off of his face. Everyone knew something was going on. They weren't trying to press too much. But ultimately Spencer let it out on his own.

"What is Reid over there reading?" JJ asks as she leans closer to Emily. The girls try looking over the desk to see the man holding his book. Clearly trying to be discreet. He placed the book on his desk hoping to cover the book's title.

"Here is the best way to find out," Emily says standing from her desk. She moves pulling the book from his hand.

"Hey give that back!" Spencer exclaims.

"'What to expect when you're expecting a guide for new parents' You're having a baby!"

"What?!" JJ exclaims rushing towards them, "you and Y/n are expecting! Oh, that's amazing!"

"We haven't told anyone yet so keep it quiet-"

"Why are you three screaming?" Morgan asks as he and Garcia gather, "it's way too early for that."

"Reid's gonna be a dad," Emily says with a smirk.

"You knocked her up!" Garcia exclaims, "awe genius babies!"

"My man I didn't think you had it in you," Morgan says with a cocky smirk, "nice one Pretty boy."

"We were supposed to be keeping it quiet," Spencer says clearly getting annoyed with the others. He reaches to grab the book from Emily. However, she yanks it back. "Well so much for waiting til friday- any chance we can at least keep this from Hotch and Rossi? Make it seem like I tried not to get it out."

"What are you hiding from us?" Hotch asks firmly. He and Rossi were walking down from their offices.

"Baby Reid is own it's way," Garcia announces.

"Or let's tell Hotch and Rossi," Spencer says, "why listen to me huh?"

"Sorry Reid," Garcia says, "it's just too exciting! A baby!"

"Congratulations Reid," Hotch says, "how far along is she?"

"8 months," Spencer tells them, "she just found out yesterday."

"Solved the mystery illness," Rossi says.

"Yeah," Spencer says, "like I was telling them Y/n and I were trying to keep it under wraps because she hasn't told her mom yet- Then Prentiss and JJ decided they needed to know what I was reading-"

"You were being suspicious Reid," Emily says in her own defense, "And I was curious." Reid rolls his eyes. "You know the gender yet?"

"I'm done talking about this," Reid says as he yanks the book away from Emily, "I've got reports to work on."

"He's right everyone should get back to work," Hotch says forcefully. Spencer sighs as he looks back to his book. He slips something from the page he left off on. The ultrasound picture. He smiles lightly.

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid #criminal minds #spencer reid criminal minds #dad spencer reid

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dweetwise · 3 years ago

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i can’t stop writing them, send help. this was based on an idea from @gooobert, hope i could do it justice! ship: ace x felix word count: 1330

More than a thousand words

Meg was sitting by the campfire and busying herself with changing the shoelaces of her sneakers. The new ones were a different color and only marginally cleaner, and the whole thing was mostly a pointless attempt at any sort of change. It was kind of pathetic that the eyesore of the once-blue laces clashing with Meg’s red running shoes was the most interesting thing she'd seen in weeks.

The Entity's world was a lot of things. It was Meg's worst nightmare, a living hell, a home of unspeakable horrors that drained every last bit of hope from her piece by piece—

But in between those moments, it was indescribably boring.

Had anyone told Meg five years ago that she'd get used to being brutally murdered on a regular basis, she wouldn't have hesitated to give them a piece of her mind and maybe even her fist. But disturbing as it may be, after all this time it had become the new normal. The trials weren’t pleasant but at least they were something to keep her mind occupied and her reflexes sharp.

Between trials she was stuck at the campfire, which offered nothing in the way of entertainment save for Kate's guitar, Ace's playing cards and Bill's perpetually half-empty pack of cigarettes. Meg’s companions were both a blessing and a curse; some of them she was happy to call her friends and others she'd rather avoid. She had never been much of a people person and while it was nice to have the option to talk to someone if she wanted to, more often than not she just wanted to shove a sock in people's mouths when they just wouldn't shut up.

Hearing a familiar laugh, Meg's nose scrunched on instinct as she looked up to see one of those very people walk up to the fire. Ace sauntered up to a small group tending to the flames, earning a few words from Jeff and a smile from Kate, all the while running his mouth at a way louder volume than necessary.

Then, Ace proceeded to walk up to Felix.

Meg hadn't even noticed Felix return from his latest trial. She didn't know the man very well but he was one of the few who rarely got on her nerves, pulling his weight in trials and staying blissfully quiet at camp. She'd even go as far as to say she kind of liked the guy.

Of course, that respect flew out the window every time Felix spent time with Ace.

"Hiya, Pumpkin!" Ace chirped obnoxiously to the architect, effectively proving Meg's point. "Whatcha doing?"

Ace sat down next to Felix and Meg glared daggers at the gambler's smug face. So much for the blissful silence of the campfire.

"Ah, neat," Ace suddenly continued. "That looks like fun!"

Meg frowned; she hadn't even heard Felix say anything. Why was Ace talking to himself?

"How are you holding up after what happened back there?" Ace asked.

Felix still didn't reply, but this time Meg saw him give a pointed stare to Ace.

"I was going to heal myself so I could go for the rescue!” Ace protested. “That’s why I was in the basement, looking for a medkit—”

Felix huffed out a pointed breath.

"Or a map!" Ace continued. "I know you like to bring one into trials, and I thought it'd make a nice gift!"

Felix only raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, alright!" Ace relented, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was looking for a key so we could bail through the hatch once Yui and David died."

"Hmm," Felix replied.

It was a quiet sound that—combined with Felix's resting bitch face—gave absolutely nothing away.

"You're not mad, right babe?" Ace asked, casting a sickly-sweet pleading look at the German.

Again, Felix neither did or said anything, but soon Ace was breaking into a relieved laugh anyway.

"I knew you had a soft spot for me," Ace grinned.

“M-hm,” Felix commented.

“I know, I know—don’t make a habit of it,” Ace said.

The more Meg listened to the one-sided conversation, the more confused she got. There was no way Ace was able to decipher any of Felix’s weird sounds or barely-there facial expressions. It had to be some kind of joke.

She glanced around the campsite, but nobody else seemed to be paying the duo any attention. Jane was sitting on the log next to Meg’s, so she scooted over to the woman and leaned closer.

“Are you seeing this shit?” Meg whispered, getting Jane’s attention.

“What?”

“Those two!” Meg said, pointing to the offending pair.

“You think the Entity will throw another party for us before Halloween?” Ace asked Felix, still running his mouth and oblivious to Meg’s staring.

Felix hummed again; in agreement or in thought was anybody’s guess.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ace concluded despite this. “She’s gotten lazy. Wouldn’t surprise me if she even forgot Christmas this year.”

“I’m not sure what you mean,” Jane said.

“Really?” Meg asked. “You don’t see anything wrong with…”

Felix huffed, and Ace gasped in mock offense.

“Excuse you, my Christmas sweater is fabulous,” Ace said.

Felix’s mouth quirked up in a smirk.

“That was one time, and I only borrowed yours because it looked comfy!” Ace protested.

“...That?” Meg asked Jane, gesturing in the couple’s general direction.

“Not really,” Jane said, infuriatingly unbothered by the display. “I know Felix’s family situation isn’t ideal, but as long as they’re happy, I don’t think it’s our place to judge.”

Wait… what?

“Huh?” Meg asked.

“I can’t really fault someone for finding joy in a place like this,” Jane said. “I know Ace sometimes gets on all our nerves, but Felix seems happy with him.”

What the hell was she—oh. Oh.

“Oh god no,” Meg said with a grimace. “I don’t care that they’re together or—whatever.”

Jane looked at her, frowning in confusion.

“I’m just weirded out that Ace is always just, like, talking to himself,” Meg explained. “Felix barely gets a word in.”

“Ah, I see! My bad,” Jane apologized. “Still, I don’t really see anything weird in it; Felix is a quiet person and Ace is good at reading people. I think it’s natural they communicate in their own ways.”

“You’re shitting me,” Meg deadpanned. “You really think Ace understands all those weird ‘aah’s and ‘hmm’s?”

“Body language is easier to read than you’d think,” Jane said. “Take Jake for example; he doesn’t talk a lot, but you always know what he means, right?”

“Yeah, because Jake only has two moods; ‘I’m listening’ and ‘fuck off’!” Meg protested. “It’s not like he’s telling his goddamn life story in that death glare.”

“Maybe you’re not listening,” Jane said, giving her a cryptic smile. “Either way, I think it’s sweet when people know each other well enough to not need words.”

“—I’m serious! You should have seen the look on his face!” Ace exclaimed to his companion way louder than necessary.

“...Though maybe I’d like it more if the roles were reversed,” Jane sighed, rubbing her ear.

“I hear you,” Meg snorted.

She looked back at Ace and Felix, who were still engrossed in their weird conversation. Felix had leaned closer to his boyfriend, listening raptly and offering acknowledging sounds every now and then as Ace recounted one of his trials. For some reason, the German seemed to enjoy Ace’s incessant babbling, and who was Meg to stop him?

She watched as Felix reached over and grabbed Ace’s hand, making the gambler pause mid-sentence. Slowly, Ace’s shit-eating grin changed into a soft smile.

He clasped Felix’s hand and lifted it to his mouth, giving the knuckles a quick kiss and in response, Felix lowered his head and returned the smile.

"I love you too," Ace murmured.

Meg rolled her eyes and grabbed another pair of sneakers to continue her project. She’d never understand those two, but maybe that was for the better.

And maybe she should give Jake’s death glare another shot.

#riconti #meg thomas #ace visconti #felix richter #dweetwrites #dbd #dead by daylight #dbd fanfic

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 4 years ago

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Top 5 Character Deaths That Made Me Side-Eye the Writers

There are a lot of character deaths in TWDG... obviously. It a series about the literal dead walkin’ around and eating people, so as you’re playing, one of your favorite characters is bound to meet such a fate. To give this series credit, it does have quite a few well-executed deaths that, while I hate them, they have a purpose in the story that works.

The best example of this is Lee’s death-- we all hate that Lee dies, but it’s well-done. It serves its purpose, it acted as both a shock and a slow-burn for the player, and left us all an emotional mess.

However, we’re not talking about the “good” deaths today. No, we’re talking about the character deaths that are poorly executed, cheap, lazy, and just plain dumb... they’re the deaths that make me side-eye the writing team and wonder what the fuck happened there.

By the way, it was reeeeeeal fun narrowing it down to only five deaths, because it seems like for every great death, there’s at least two bad ones.

5. Mariana and her death that ruined ANF’s potential story

I’ve talked at length about Mariana’s death and how much I hate it. Like, I get it TWDG... you love your sudden deaths and you’re so edgy for killing off a child character because you’ve never done that before... but maybe consider things a little further before pulling the trigger?

Yeah, killing off Mariana the way they did got a reaction outta people when it happened, and we got the burial scene if you stayed with Clementine... but you didn’t consider the future of this storyline? You pretend you did by name dropping Mari when it’s convenient, but then throw it out the window when it comes to characters like David or Gabe.

Listen, I know that ANF is a mess and what’s the point in telling the mess that it’s a mess? Well, I’m still annoyed at the writers for wasting the biggest opportunity for this game’s story, something that could’ve saved it from being a mess.

And I get it, you gotta make a death quota, so instead of killing Mariana off... why not kill Kate off instead? Oh no? We don’t get the stupid love triangle that no one actually enjoys or is engaged in?

Instead of this dumb story about Javi falling in love with his sister-in-law but oh no David’s back.... we could’ve had a story about Javi losing Kate and being left to care for two children by himself. Mariana and Gabe are all he has left, and he going to do whatever he can to keep them safe all while the three of them are mourning Kate.

Then David comes back, and he immediately takes these kids away from Javi.

There is no stupid storyline with Kate, but an actual conflict between two brothers who were never on the same page and two kids caught in the middle.

Plus, Mariana herself as a character really could’ve brought something to the table. She could’ve brought out a lot in David’s character since she seems to be more like Javi.

Her death is just... annoying. It’s frustrating when you know they could’ve told a better story with her alive, something ANF desperately needed.

My side-eye is one of disappointment and annoyance.

4.Luke and his easily preventable drowning

Ugh.... where to even begin?

Luke really just gets butchered as a character throughout the second half of S2, and the writers end up demolishing the set up they placed at the beginning of the season for a Luke vs Kenny thing.

Why? Well, Luke vs Kenny was the initial ending they were gonna go with, but because this season went through all kinds of bullshit, they scrapped that and replaced Luke with Jane... and it’s so dumb.

Hell, it kind of ruins a lot. Not only did it ruin Luke, a character that many players loved, but it forces the new character of Jane, who we only get two episodes to get to know, so they can fade Luke out.

But that’s not all.

His death is so... ugh. It’s stupid, okay? Stupid and easily preventable, but noooo... we gotta kill Luke off for reasons because all we know is that S1 killed off a lot of characters and we’re gonna do that again but worse because we failed to understand what made those deaths impactful in the first place.

Lots of character death and despair = good game.

Yep, uh-huh. Okay.

So we all know that Luke’s leg is hurt, yeah? Great, so you’d think that the group that has an injured man and a new born baby would be extra cautious and go around the frozen lake. Yeah, Arvo says that it’s safe but let’s not take any chances.

But no. We gotta go across like a group of dingdongs and whattya know-- the ice begins to crack beneath Luke’s feet. Now, even here, we coulda got him outta there safely... if Bonnie wasn’t a dingus.

Think about it. If we shot the walkers who were coming towards Luke with all their weight, he could’ve slowly scooted away, even if he’s already fallen through. BUT NO. Bonnie either guilts Clementine into going towards him, adding more weight to the already fragile ice as Luke tells her to stop, or Bonnie will go over there herself... and she’s a full grown woman soooo her weight breaks the ice.

Good job, you dipsticks.

When you have to make your characters into morons in order to move the plot along and kill off characters....maybe do some rethinking, yeah?

3. Mitch and his shock-value death

This death is so dumb... so incredibly, dumb. Even now, I can’t help but give full side-eye to the writers every time one of them tries to justify this death.

I’m sorry, but this death didn’t have the impact you wanted it to have. And because there’s always someone who says, “Mitch didn’t die for shock value, you just can’t tell the difference between a good and bad death” lemme tell you a thing.

What was the point of killing of Mitch? Well, according to those who worked on TFS, it was to show that Lilly and the delta are serious. This is when shit gets real, and when Lilly is established as a bad bitch who will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. We should be scared of her now.

Except no.

This scene doesn’t tell me that Lilly is a bad bitch. It tells me that she has good reflexes, and going off her reaction after killing Mitch.... I’m not fucking scared of this dumbass. If anything, this scene says more about Mitch than it does Lilly. It says that Mitch is also a dumbass for running at her like he did.

Y’know what would’ve been more impactful? If Mitch didn’t immediately get stabbed in the throat, but instead, actually got her on the ground and struggled with Lilly. Then, Lilly gets the upper hand and when you think she’s about to send Mitch to the cart, she fucking murders him in front of everyone to prove a point.

There’s no remorse, it’s slow enough for Lilly to actually process what’s happening and show that she does know what she’s doing. That would scare me. That would show me that these people aren’t fucking around and they’re willing to kill some of them if that means getting the rest for their army.

You still get your shock value death but it actually does something other than kill a character off.

I’m really supposed to believe this is the same Lilly who can order to have Louis’ tongue cut off?

But it doesn’t end there. No, no... there’s another part to Mitch’s death that annoys me, and it’s how insistent everyone was that his death is going to have a greater impact on the second half of the story. It had a purpose within the story, we did it for a reason.

...I mean, it has an impact on Willy and his arc for the second half.

But that’s it.

Oh... oh, what’s that? Oh, you were referring to those throwaway lines about Tenn? “He was screwing up again, just like when he got Mitch killed.”

OOOOOH.... I see, that’s what Mitch’s death was really amounting to... some lines dealing with whether or not AJ shot Tenn. Well, I guess I was wrong. Mitch’s death wasn’t just shock value. It really had a big purpose. In fact, Mitch’s death has the biggest impact on the series. Fuck Marlon and Brody’s deaths, and Lilly and James, and hell, fuck Tenn’s death, too. They’re meaningless compared to Mitch’s death. You did it, guys. You really did it.

....Okay, I’m done. I’m just... salty, I fully admit.

Being serious again, Mitch’s death is probably the worst in TFS as far as unpreventable deaths go and the real reason I side-eye the writers is because they tried to tell us it was going to have this huge impact in the future and it just... didn’t.

2. Nick and his offscreen death.

I’m sorry, but what the fuck happened here? Why- what are you- how the hell did this happen??

I’m actually baffled.

Someone wrote this.

They set up at the end of ep3 that Nick is shot.... then ep4 comes and we find him like this. I just... did someone on the writing staff not wanna do their job that day? Someone was working on the story and at the last minute forgot Nick was a character, so they were like “Eh, he’s not important anyway, and it adds to the shittiness of everything so we’ll pretend this was 100% intentional.”

Nick was one of your more interesting characters and you really thought killing him off like this was the way to go, huh?

Like, his first death is shitty, but in the very least it kind of makes sense.

But this?

This is horrible. If I wrote this, I’d be embarrassed.

I just... I’m so tired of S2 right now.

This is at #2 because it’s just lazy, bad writing. At least with Luke, Mitch, and Mariana, we got to see their deaths and they had some, even if just a little, impact on the story afterward.

But Nick?

Nothin’.

Even Luke, who is the closest person to Nick, name drops him maybe twice? It’s just.... nothing.

And yeah, you can come at me with the “oh well not every death has to have meaning!”

This is a story, okay? This is a story crafted with characters who have arcs by people who wanted it to be a success, and usually that means having satisfying conclusions.... or, intentionally unsatisfying if that acts as a natural conclusion to their story or is a reoccurring theme.

Nick’s death is just the writers falling flat on their faces and hoping no one would notice.

1. Sarah and both of her shitty deaths.

Ugh. UGH.

Okay.

I’m not even side-eyeing anymore-- I’m fully glaring.

I don’t have to tell you how shitty both of Sarah’s deaths are. We all played S2, we all know that no matter what you do, Sarah dies in ep4. You can try to save her, she lives a little bit longer, and then falls to her death... and both deaths have her being devoured alive by walkers.

Now, this is enough to annoy me. First off, I guess my choices don’t really matter. Sure, you can justify this as one of those “sometimes you can’t save someone, no matter how hard you try” ...and fine. Sure, if they had bothered to execute that point well, then great.

But I disagree that the writers had that in mind when they were killing Sarah off.

In fact, I know what what going on in their brains-- “God, can’t wait to kill Sarah off! Give us any reason to do it! She’s so damn annoying!”

The writers have openly admitted that a lot of the team were just waiting to kill Sarah off, waiting for any reason, so when the major part of the community who take everything at surface level because why think? kept complaining about Sarah, they jumped on the opportunity to kill her off.... but the deaths are dumb.

Listen, this isn’t like when the writers planned on killing Lee off. You can plan a death and even be excited about it because you’re excited about the story and execution of it all. You can be excited to see the heartbreaking end of this character’s story that you crafted because you know you put everything you had into it.

These deaths were lazy and the product of a team who didn’t care about the character. Sarah dies and no one cares.

Sure, you leave her to die the first time and Jane does her thing about how you can’t save everyone, she talks about Jaime, and then Luke exposes himself as the fake Luke by agreeing that leaving Sarah behind was probably the right thing. Like what?

Now as much as I hate that first one, the second one is even worse.

For some reason, Sarah is standing in the corner while they’re trying to fight off the walkers instead of being inside with Rebecca... y’know, where she would be if this was logical.

Then the deck breaks and Sarah falls, trapped under a pile of wood. Jane, despite being the one who sees Sarah as a liability, goes down there to try and help her after Clementine begs her to.

But because the writers don’t know what they’re doing, Jane gets hit by a random piece of wood and can’t get Sarah out in time, leaving her to be eaten alive by walkers.

Then AJ is born and no one cares about Sarah ever again.

I just....

Could’ve had an interesting story arc with a character who just lost her father in such a gruesome way, a character that already deals with anxiety and other problems that you never bothered to explain other than “she isn’t like Clementine” and you could’ve had her grow.

But I guess that would’ve taken effort.... and screen time away from Kenny, and god forbid we ever do that.

---

Honorable Mentions

-Ava falling to her death in the most comedic way possible, made even more hilarious by David’s two seconds of mourning. -Omid.... because hope is dead. Do you get it? Hope? is dead? Because Omid means hope? Do you get it?? -Honestly you could put most of S2′s deaths on this list because oh my god. -Ben because I’m still a salty bitch. -I also wanna add Louis and Violet’s deaths on the bridge mostly because they die, Clem is sad for two seconds, Tenn says sorry, and then no one cares. Yeah, yeah, they mourned off screen and I call that lazy bullshit. -Hell, throw Tenn’s death on here, too, for similar reasons-- no one but Louis/Violet and AJ seem to care. Even Clementine is like “whatever” after it happens.

---

Y’know, picking this one seemed like a good idea at the time, but by now I’m just annoyed by all these dumb deaths. So, what are your thoughts? Are there any deaths that make you question the writers that didn’t end up on the list? Do you agree or disagree with my list? Lemme know, we can have a friendly discussion about it.

Have any suggestions for future T5F’s? Feel free to send ‘em in! :D

---

Next week’s T5F Top 5 Favorite Louis Moments

#twdg t5f #twdg clementine #twdg javier #twdg kate #twdg mariana #twdg gabe #twdg david #twdg luke #twdg jane #twdg kenny #twdg nick #twdg sarah #twdg mitch #twdg willy #twdg louis #twdg violet #twdg tenn #after this i need to talk about muh boy #louis content coming next friday

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youngerdrgrey · 3 years ago

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the only way to get over someone... // a Batwoman fic

About: SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON TWO FINALE / post-2x18 / season two finale — After the s2 finale, Ryan tries to be a good 'friend' to Sophie, but it does not go the way she planned (feat. an extended cut of the similar tastes in conversation).

Notes: Don’t read if you haven’t seen the finale. This picks up at the end of the Kate and Ryan scene, then continues on from there because my WildMoore heart wanted to. Under the cut because spoilers + read on ao3

Kate Kane is leaving, and Ryan might need some time to fully process that. Kate’s opposite her, comfortably seated on the corner of their desk. The beer bottle clinks against the edge of it as Kate covers her bases. The suit’s staying with Ryan.

Kate starts, “As for Mary and Luke….”

Ryan jumps in with a smile. “They are my family, and I am going to take care of them.” No questions asked. Though, with Luke and his new super suit, she will definitely have help in keeping their family safe.

“Thank you.” Kate smiles back at Ryan. “And Sophie?”

Not family. Not in the traditional sense, at least. She’s family-adjacent at best. She’s… she’s Sophie, the same person who ruined Ryan’s life and relationship multiple times, and the same person who helped Ryan build them both back up.

Ryan quirks her head from side to side. “Can I get back to you on that?” The repetition gets another grin out of Kate. Worry still shines in Kate’s eyes though. Ryan admits, “She’s saved me a lot more than she’s hurt me, so, I guess I can look out for her too.”

Kate sighs in relief. “Good. She’ll need it. She’s not invincible, Ryan. Mary told me all about the two of you going back and forth over Cluemaster. She’s tough, but Sophie’s a lot more fragile than she seems.”

Ryan has seen a bit of that. Sophie does her best to hide the cracks in her armor, but Coryana in particular stripped down a layer. Her fear for Jordan took another, even her concern for Ryan in these last few days wore at it. “And you’re about to break her heart.”

Kate nods. She seems so sure that looking for Bruce is the right move. Maybe that’s what a good trip of Snake Bite can offer: clarity. Not that Ryan’s interested in joining Kate on that other side.

“Help her through it?”

Ryan jokes, “I’ll make sure she finds a suitable rebound. There’s a pretty great lesbian bar here.”

Kate’s eyes twinkle. “Keeping it close to home?”

Ryan does not like the implication in that question. She redirects the conversation. “Call us every once in a while. And make sure to tell Mary how much you miss her. She won’t admit it, but she loves to hear it. And maybe text Parker too. That girl is so hungry for gay mentorship. And —”

“I get it. I will keep in contact.”

Ryan aims her beer bottle at Kate like a threat. “You better. Don’t make me come find you. I almost died the last time.”

But Sophie saved her then. Ryan can always do the same.

Sophie does not know what to do with herself now. There’s no guidebook on what to do when the love of your life comes back from the dead, then promptly leaves to search for her cousin. No FAQ with tips on how to handle making out with said love of your life either.

There’s a knock on her door. A hopeful part of her immediately thinks it’s Kate. Sophie will open the door, and Kate will drop down her duffel bag and helmet and say, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Sophie rushes to the door. Throws it open and — oh, of course. Ryan gives her an apologetic smile from the other side of it.

“I know I’m probably not who you want to see right now….” Ryan starts. Her arms shift around two resusable grocery bags with overflowing snacks and wine bottles. A backpack bumps them from her shoulder. She offers another smile. “I brought supplies. And I’m here to keep you company through the heartache and to take you up on your offer.”

That explains the backpack. Sophie checks, “Kate’s leaving tomorrow?”

Ryan nods. “Tonight’s her last night in the loft, and my only night crashing on your couch. If the offer still stands?”

She seems hopeful too, and nervous, like she’s bracing herself for Sophie to close the door in her face.

Sophie hasn’t exactly had any company at her place. Not since Julia. It wouldn’t hurt to have someone here tonight. Make her laugh, make her smile.

Sophie steps back to let Ryan in. Ryan glides forward. Sophie closes the door and leans back against it so she can watch Ryan take in the space.

Ryan does a full turn in the entrance. “Damn, you got it like this?” She whistles low in appreciation. Her platform converse pad along the hardwood flooring between the front door and the living room. It’s spacious with the most comfortable couch Sophie’s ever owned, her favorite coffee table, and a large TV, courtesy of a Black Friday sale two years ago. This place isn’t as nice as her old apartment with Tyler, but it’s still one of the nicer places that Gotham has to offer.

Ryan glances back at Sophie, and she realizes she should probably answer the playful question.

“I barely got it like this. Say what you want about my comphet marriage,” Sophie pushes off the door to approach Ryan in the living room, “the dual incomes made life a lot easier.” She winces. Any income. “I may have to downsize again now that I’m unemployed.”

Ryan sets her bags down on the coffee table. “Just work with Luke.”

Sophie’s eyebrows raise in confusion. “In real estate?”

Ryan gives Sophie an equally confused look. “He still daylights as Head of Wayne Security. If you work there too, it’ll make Bat stuff that much easier.”

Oh. “I… hadn’t thought about that.”

“Bat stuff or what comes next?” Ryan asks.

“Honestly? Any of it.” Sure, Ryan has called Sophie now that Sophie knows the truth. They’ve teamed up, and they really did a great job last night during the blackout. All signs point to Sophie officially being a part of the team. She simply doesn’t want to assume and get hurt in the process.

Ryan reads her silence and rolls her eyes. “Consider this your Bat Team orientation. We mostly work nights, though there are the occasional work trips. We went to a beautiful island this year for a company retreat.”

Sophie can play along. “I think I’ve been there. Shame about the fire.”

Ryan nods with a faux somber expression. “Beautiful sight, even if it did almost kill me. Oh, and we have full medical benefits, so long as you go to Mary and Mary alone. No overtime. No days off. But you get to make Gotham a better place.”

Sophie pretends to think it over. “Is there a uniform?”

“Only for me. The rest of the staff comes as they are.”

“Lucky them.”

Ryan pops the collar on her flannel shirt. “You should see me in my suit.” It fits Ryan in all the right places for being protective wear. Sophie will never say that though. Ryan’s cocky enough without being complimented.

Sophie eyes the bags. “So what’s the plan?”

Ryan perks up, their earlier bit forgotten. “Anything we want. I’ve got face masks —” She tugs them out to show Sophie. “Candy and snacks. Most of it’s vegan, so I can enjoy it too. I brought wine that I took from the bar. We can blast angry, pop music, or do sad girl karaoke. Ooh, you can call Kate a bitch again.”

“I called Circe a bitch,” Sophie clarifies.

Ryan waves that off. “She deserved it.”

“Well, she’s gone so….” Sophie shrugs because that is the point, isn’t it? She glances around her one bedroom apartment — the effects of her last break-up — and logs the empty spots on the walls where old art would’ve gone. There’s space on the bookshelves from the books Tyler took with him. After the divorce, Sophie had to physically sort through her life. What does she do now when there’s nothing to pack up, or send away?

Sophie admits, “I’ve never had another person for this. Though, Kate and I did have a better goodbye than we usually do.” Even saying that puts a little smile in the corner of Sophie’s lips.

Of course Ryan clocks it. “Oh, y’all had a good-bye then.”

Sophie’s smile gets bigger as she licks her lips. A very good bye. As the rest of the conversation filters back in, Sophie’s smile shrinks. “She wants me to go for something easier.”

Ryan hums in understanding. “Long distance isn’t great, especially when you have no idea where she’ll be.”

“Are we still talking about Kate?” Sophie asks. Angelique’s out there somewhere. Ryan spent the majority of their working relationship hating Sophie because of Angelique. If Ryan’s still hung up on her….

Ryan shrugs. “We’re all getting over someone. I am just much further along than you.”

Honestly, direct communication is not something Sophie is interested in right now. She doesn’t want to think about whether Ryan misses Angelique, or how much Sophie will miss Kate when the reality sets in. She doesn’t want to think about Imani, or the fact that Ryan has had a whole mini-relationship in these last few months while Sophie’s been frozen in grief and time.

“You know what they say, the best way to get over someone…” Sophie lets the sentence hang a moment as Ryan’s eyebrows inch higher and higher up her hairline. Sophie laughs before finishing, “is to watch a movie with a friend. You pick.”

The way Ryan’s face lights up with the power is absolutely worth whatever disaster will take up the next two hours of Sophie’s life. “Let me see what you got.”

As Sophie brings two glasses of wine over to the living room, Ryan puts a throw pillow on the ground and tells Sophie to sit on it.

“But the couch—”

“Is for me!” Ryan plops down with her feet on either side of the pillow. She looks like they’ve got church in the morning and the hot comb’s smoking on the tray beside her. “You know the set up,” Ryan says.

“True. Care to tell me why?” Sophie’s hair is fine.

Ryan’s nose quirks up the way it does when she needs to keep her emotions in check. She shrinks into her chest. “When I was sad, my mama used to play with my hair. She’d claim that she was oiling my scalp, but mostly, she ran her fingers through it. Gave me a little massage until I felt better, or went to sleep. I am willing to do that for you, if you want to actually relax.”

Relaxing does sound better than drinking a lot of wine and crying. Besides, Ryan studies Sophie’s face like she wants to find every crack and smooth it over. How could Sophie say no?

She sets the wine down and sits onto the pillow. Instinct takes over as she scoots back until her back’s to the couch and rests her neck against the side of the cushion. Ryan does a little happy dance that shakes the couch. She presses play on the movie, and Sophie watches the credits. She does. She sees that much for sure. But once Ryan slips her fingers into Sophie’s hair, Sophie tunes all the way out.

A light lavender scent hits her nose each time Ryan’s hands shift towards the crown of her head. Did Ryan put on a perfume, or is that an essential oil? Lavender’s meant to be calming. Soothing. Sophie wants to drown in it.

As Ryan massages her way along Sophie’s scalp, the world melts away. No pain, no drama, just a weightlessness that eases down her body and makes her want to cry. Her body sinks into the softness. The peace and stability of knowing hands and the right amount of pressure to send tingles through her skin. Then Ryan’s short nails get involved, lightly scratching, and Sophie barely bites down on a moan.

Ryan must still hear it. A little chuckle shakes the couch. She doesn’t comment thankfully. Sophie doesn’t have the energy to be embarrassed right now. Too lost in the feel of Ryan’s hands on her. If this is what Ryan can do with just Sophie’s head —

Sophie’s eyes fly open. She needs to get a grip.

Ryan’s fingers snake down to Sophie’s shoulders. Again, the only grip Sophie can focus on is Ryan’s. Sophie lasts another few minutes of this high before sighing out, “Marry me.”

She figures Ryan will laugh at that too. They’ve joked enough about dates, both in and out of the cowl. Ryan doesn’t even stop touching her. Ryan leans down rather than keeping the distance. The shift in position tightens her thighs on either side of where Sophie sits. She waits until her breath is a warm whisper against Sophie’s ear to let out the sexiest little laugh. Sophie genuinely stops breathing.

“If you think this is good, you’re not ready.”

In an instant, Sophie would really like to be. Ready, willing, anything and everything if it feels this good and Ryan stays this close to her. Her face is on fire as she turns her head to see Ryan. Fuck, Ryan’s lips are right there. Teasing and parted, and Ryan’s tongue dips out to wet them. Sophie drags her gaze up from Ryan’s lips to meet Ryan’s hooded, sparkling eyes. Oh she knows exactly what she’s doing to Sophie. She’s enjoying this.

Ryan’s voice still sounds teasing. “Watch the movie, Sophie.”

“I’ll watch what I want to watch,” Sophie shoots back.

Ryan takes that as the challenge it is. She holds the stare and kneads her thumbs into the backs of Sophie’s shoulders. Sophie’s eyelids flutter, and she struggles again to keep from audibly moaning. At least this time, she catches the little gulp Ryan does.

Ryan scoots back onto the couch, up to her full — albeit little �� seated height. Sophie turns further, and she tries not to think too hard about looking up at Ryan from between Ryan’s legs. It must be on her face though since Ryan actually averts her eyes.

“Soph....” Ryan’s voice strains. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?” Ryan started it with that ‘if you think this is good’ comment. She is not putting this back on Sophie.

Ryan groans, flustered in a way that should not look as cute as it does. “You know what! You — we — just look over there.” She takes a hand off Sophie to point back at the TV. “I am trying to be a good friend right now. To both of you.”

And there goes the fun. Sophie turns back to the TV. She really has no idea what’s happening in this movie. She doesn’t want to ask either. They’re damn near fifteen minutes in. She’s not going back in the movie, or with life. She’s not going to break down over losing Kate again. She has no reason to. She’s spent more time with Ryan this week than she did with Kate. She’s fine.

Ryan clears her throat. “Talking with her today was, like, everything I’d imagined it would be. She’s funny and witty, and she has great taste in everything. Present company included. I can see why you’d love her. And why it would be easier to not try to deal with those feelings of loss all over again.”

Sophie drops her head back against the couch. Her ceiling’s not nearly as interesting to look at as Ryan. Or Kate. “Do we have to do this?”

“We’re not doing anything else so….” Her narrowed eyes say exactly what she means by ‘anything else.’

“There are other things, Ryan.” Besides giving in to the tension that flares between them, besides shifting an already unstable dynamic past its breaking point. Probably many, many times.

Ryan holds her hands together in her lap. “Well, you’re clearly not interested in the movie, so: your call. What does the great Sophie Moore want to do with her break up night?”

Sophie’s eyes dance as she gets up to kneel in front of Ryan. (Yes, Ryan glances at her through what looks like a haze of lust and concern. Yes, she blinks, and all that emotion slips back under the base gleam in Ryan’s eyes. No, Sophie does not want to think about how many times Ryan might’ve looked at her like this without ever noticing.)

“Well, Ryan Wilder, there is one thing that I have been dying to do.”

“You have to— Sophie, please listen before we end up falling.” Ryan glares up at Sophie. They’re standing on a building that Ryan says is the best jumping point to the Bat-roof. It’s lower down, which is probably why Sophie has never seen either of the Batwomen coming.

Ryan’s face is torn between excitement and dread at sharing her red and black baton with Sophie. She repeats for the third time which button to press to shoot the grappling hook, how to angle the body, and how to land so they don’t fall off the roof.

“I’m listening,” Sophie swears. She adjusts her stance so her feet are wide like Ryan instructed. She angles her body towards the other roof — their roof. She takes a steadying breath and gently plucks Ryan’s hand off the other end of the baton.

Ryan steps in to wrap her arms around Sophie’s waist. “You have to brace yourself for landing. And please do not let go of me. I’m holding on, but—”

“I won’t let go,” Sophie assures her. She wraps her left arm around Ryan and holds tight to the baton with her right. Okay, another steadying breath, and she jams her thumb into the button. The wire flies out, and in a breath, they soar up through the air. Wind whips around them, and Ryan squeezes so tight that her face is nearly in Sophie’s chest.

For her assurances, Sophie does not stick the landing. She stumbles the moment the wire ends, and Ryan stumbles with her. Both of them clatter onto the Bat-roof with a groan and a laugh and a tangle of limbs that ends with them side by side on the roof’s floor.

The air around them is quiet and warm and still has a hint of the smoke from all the fires in Gotham yesterday. Sophie has the fleeting thought that it might be easier with Ryan than she ever expected. What ‘it’ is, well, Sophie blinks that away.

She props herself up on her elbows. “Can we go again?”

Ryan laughs. “No recovery period with you.”

Sophie gets up and offers her hand to Ryan, who takes it without hesitation. She tugs harder than she needs to. Ryan pops up with little more than a breath between them. She uses her free hand to tuck Ryan’s hair behind her ear. Lets her finger trail down Ryan’s neck.

Sophie whispers, “Oh, Wilder, you have no idea.” Ryan’s dramatic groan of reply makes Sophie laugh harder than she has all day. "Come on, round two."

Ryan pouts as Sophie heads for the stairs. Ryan points out, "I normally just jump off."

"What's the rush?" Sophie holds the door open for Ryan to come with her. "We've got all the time in the world."

a/n: We made it through season two, and I love these two so much. What about you?

#batwoman #batwoman fic #wildmoore #ryan wilder #sophie moore #ryan x sophie #mine #batwoman: s2 #batwoman: 218 #kate kane #kate x ryan #but not in a ship way just in a tag way

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luca-moreno · 3 years ago

Text

Operation Asteria (sidebar to x)

---

Kate scans his wrist and smiles when the result comes back clear.

“Well, there you go. You’re all clear to fly, Luca.”

He exhales a sigh of relief. “I’m glad, I need to get off the ship.”

Kate tucks her gear away but the concern in her eyes is hard to miss. Luca almost regrets saying anything. “How are you feeling? After everything that happened?”

“Um, okay I guess. Everyone has been really good about it. And Captain says he’s gonna be dealt with. So…” Luca shrugs.

“Well, I’m working on a solution for your aids but it’s going to take me a little time to pull it together.”

“That phoenix tech you were talking about last time?”

“Yes, it seems Huntsman’s other half is onboard and he was always the brains behind this little operation,” she gestures around at her small lab. “If anyone can help, it will be him.”

“But I’m okay to go now, right? You fixed them?”

“It’s a short term fix, but yes, it’s enough to get you out of trouble. Go enjoy yourself. Bring me back something fun.”

Luca chuckles. “You’ll have to be more specific, Doc. Fun can mean a lot of different things to different people. What if I bring back the wrong thing?”

Her eyes narrow playfully. “Just make sure it’s not something I can’t fix.”

It’s a smooth flight, without any drama and Luca knows he’s nailed all the necessary maneuvers needed for a seamless docking, but as soon as the clamps hiss and settle into place on the dock, he breathes a sigh of relief anyway.

He’s the last one to leave the shuttle, hoisting on his pack and stepping down the ramp. The planet’s gravity pulls on him, and his pack feels far heavier than it should. And above them, it’s wide, open, terrifying sky and that doesn’t even begin to include the multitude of scents and smells that assault his senses. He pauses halfway down, taking in a deep breath to steel himself but his tiny crisis must play too vividly across his face because suddenly Eva is at his side.

“Are you alright, Luca?”

Luca blinks his eyes open and squints at her with a rueful smile as he adjusts the pack on his back and pats his pockets. He only brought Neebo today, and only under duress. Marie had been clear that they weren’t expecting trouble but there’s no reason to assume it wouldn’t come looking for them.

“Yeah, just… takes a minute to adjust I guess. Gravity’s a bitch. The real stuff, I mean.”

“You’ll be fine,” Eva chuckles lightly and loops her arm through his as she leads him the rest of the way off the ramp and towards the others. “Come on, Captain is waiting.”

Luca keeps half an eye on Isaac and Eva as they wander further away through the market stalls, switching to tracking them on his omnitool’s systems when they disappear from sight. He didn’t want to get too close to them, knowing how rare this time alone for them would be. Well, as alone as they could be in the crush of the marketplace throng.

He’s jostled by a large, dark skinned human man and a cranky asari as he tries to tuck himself away from the flow of the crowd and into the side of the soup stall. Ben seems to be arguing with the vendor about what he wants but Luca had taken one look what seemed suspiciously like an eyeball floating and decided he wasn’t hungry.

Instead he powers up his omnitool and scans the ‘shopping lists’ Harris and Davis had both slid him that morning in the mess and laughs at the blinking, late notice addendum from the commander: Find me chocolate and you’ll get a promotion.

He probably could, he thinks to himself.There was a lot about this place that reminded him uncomfortably of Kithoi, where anything could be found and bought and traded for a price. Maybe that’s what it was that was muting his excitement too much - memories of being small and hungry and worried every moment he turned around that c-sec were about to haul him back to his father for another beating.

He shakes that off and looks around, eying the asari and her booth of loose parts across the aisle and decides to take his chances. She scans her eyes over his armor, but the hostility he half expects isn’t there. He supposes she’ll tolerate him if he has the credits.

He rummages through the pile of parts on the table and she watches him with shrewd eyes.

“What are you looking for exactly, Alliance?”

Luca cuts straight to the chase.

“I need a triolic charge drive plates, chroniton splitter, iridium alloy caesium ramscoop and glob bio-tubing, depolarized of course. Got any of those?”

“If you have the credits, I have everything.”

“Here? Right now?” Luca narrows his eyes. Sometimes the definition of having something varied greatly. And sometimes ’having it’ meant it was actually in transit somewhere in a distant solar system.

The asari seems amused by that. “I have a warehouse by the docks. But you’re not really here for that, are you?”

He looks at her sharply, wondering what exactly she means by that. “Excuse me?”

She leans in. “What’s the Alliance doing here, and with Cerberus in tow?”

She jerks her head over his shoulder and Luca knows instantly she means Ben. “Gonna go kill some reapers,” he says with more bravado than he feels. Something prickles at the back of his mind but he pushes it aside. “Can you help with the parts or not?”

“Of course I can.”

Luca pauses. “And… what about information?”

Her eyes glitter. “What are you looking for, human?”

“Not what. Who. I... I want to find my brother.”

#luca moreno #eva novakov #i had to give him something to do that wasn't trailing after the lovebirds or ben like a lost needy puppy ok lol #scooter roosevelt #operation: asteria

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ms-rampage · 4 years ago

Text

Eden's Gate: Left Behind Chapter 4 - Bonding

Warnings: Some swearing, slight cuteness between Kate and Wheaty, slight angst

Word count: 1.8k

Alissa (FC: Rhea Ripley)

Sarah (FC: Toni Storm)

Morgan: (FC: Kathryn Newton)

Ashley (FC: Chloë Grace Mortez)

Layla (FC: China Anne McClain)

Becky (FC: Taissa Farminga)

Ryan (FC: Ryan Potter)

Kevin (FC: Evan Peters)

Ivan and Isaiah (FC: Dylan & Cole Spouse)

Dylan (FC: Joe Keery)

********************************************

5 YEARS EARLIER

March 2013

Payette National Forest

McCall, Idaho

18 year old Paige and 14 year old Kate drive down the quiet lonely roads of Idaho. Working a case on a potential "animal" attack.

Paige driving, and Kate searching the attack.

"So what's the case?" Paige asks keeping her eyes on the road, Kate clears her throat and reads the report from her laptop. "4 people 2 male, and 2 female go camping one night, they hear an unusual sound, typical teen werewolf movie, the 2 guys and 1 of the girls are attacked, and killed.

The other girl gets away bruised but uninjured" she stops reading the report. "Sounds like an animal attack to me" Paige says

"That's what the coroner's said, but they examined the bite marks and they don't look like bites from a bear, wolf or a mountain lion. They said the bones were broken, and the flesh was torn clean off".

Paige thinks for a moment "So a Werewolf? Vampire? Leviathan?".

Kate shrugs, and says "Possibly the bite marks look like ones of a werewolf".

They drive down the road, and stop at a gas station, Kate goes inside the market, and Paige fills up the Impala, as she’s grabbing snacks and drinks, the TV behind the cashier plays the news "In local news the McCall police department have found two more bodies at the Payette National Forest, the identities of these bodies are of George Fillman and Robert Peters".

Kate pays for their stuff and leaves the store, Paige is done filling up the car. "Well they found 2 more bodies in the forest".

Paige sighs as she puts the pump back "Son of a bitch" she says frustrated. They get into the car and drive to the forest.

END OF FLASHBACK

__________________________

Kate is with her friends Morgan, Sarah, and Alissa hanging out in the grass area of the quad of their college campus. During their mandatory 1 hour lunch break from work.

Talking to their friend Sarah about what happened at the diner the day before.

“Yeah for real. Holly was pissed” Morgan says to Sarah.

Kate and Alissa, laugh at this.

“Yeah, she was pissed off because this guy. I guess him and Holly had a thing in the past. He was flirting with Kate” Alissa adds.

Sarah turns to Kate “For real?!?”

She nods her head “Yeah. I felt his eyes on me the whole time”.

“I told you. He wants to fuck you!!” Morgan exclaims.

Kate shrugs, and says “Well he did ask me out”.

They all stare at her in shock, “Yep, he definately wants to fuck you” Alissa says.

“When are you two going out?!?” Sarah asks.

“Tomorrow. After work, he’s gonna take me for a ride in his plane” she replies.

They all gasp at the same time. “Are you sure that’s not code for something else??!” Morgan asks.

Kate shrugs as a reply. Unsure but kinda hoping it is.

“Well maybe, he does wanna have sex with you!!” Sarah says.

“What was his name?!” Morgan asks.

“John. I didn’t get his last name, but he also mentioned he’s a lawyer” Kate replies.

“Damn girl, going after the rich ones” Sarah jokes.

They all laugh. None of them don't know of the Cult that’s growing in Hope County. They’re all new to the whole town, and its residents.

Kate has known Sarah, and Alissa for 4 years, they met in University back in Wyoming. Morgan, she’s known her pretty much her whole life, she’s a hunter as well. Their mothers were childhood friends.

Alissa changes the subject to something else.

“So, about tonight?!. The get together!! The Whitetail Mountains!!!” she says.

“Yes, we’ll be there” Morgan says.

“Kate are you going?!” Sarah asks.

Kate hesitates on her reply. Not sure if she wants to go after all.

“Of course, she'll be there. I’ll pick her up, and take her home” Morgan says before Kate could answer.

“Who else is gonna be there?!” Kate asks.

“Becky, and Ashley the Junior Deputies, Ryan, Kevin, Dylan and a few others” Alissa says.

Sarah checks the time on her phone, and immediately stands up. “Shit, my next class starts in 5 minutes. I’ll you guys tonight” she says, running to class.

They bye to her, and head back to the diner. Having to deal with Holly for another 5 in half hours.

*******************************************************

At Joseph’s compound, John enters the church, and sees his older brother sitting at one of the pews. He approaches him, and stands next to him as he remains sitting down.

“The girl?” Joseph asks. His voice soft, and calming.

“I’m seeing her tomorrow” John replies.

Joseph stands up, faces him, placing his hand on his younger brother's shoulder.

“I’ve seen her. Make her a wife. A mother. God has plans for the both of you” he says.

He nods, “Yes, Joseph. I will".

“What do you know of her?” he asks.

John tells him everything he knows about Kate.

“Her name is Kate. She works as a waitress, she’s a student and from Phoenix. Lived in Jackson, Wyoming”.

“God was right. Make her a part of our family. The Lord knows. He knows what he’s doing. Don't let her go."

John nods again, “Yes Joseph”.

“She must not be harmed in any way. Tell my Children not to do her any harm. I don’t want her to be scared away. You must protect her” he adds.

He nods once more, “Yes, Joseph I'll tell them, and I will do everything to protect her".

*****************************************************

Several hours later, Kate, Morgan and Alissa leave the diner, finishing their shifts. Walking to their cars.

“I’ll pick you up at 7:30!!” Morgan yells out to Kate.

“Okay!!! See you then!!!” she yells back, and enters her car. Driving home.

10 minutes later, Kate pulls into her driveway, and goes inside her house.

Dropping her stuff to the floor in a dramatic fashion.

Haley wagging her tail excitedly at her owner.

Kate lets out an overly exaggerated groan, “Fuck!!!!’ she says, tired.

She drops herself onto one of her chairs. She really needs to get a couch in this house.

After a few minutes, she gets up and takes a shower.

The warm water feels fantastic against her skin, relaxing her muscles. After 15 minutes, she gets out, drys off and changes into some clean clothes.

Jeans, high top Vans, and a flannel shirt. Her usual attire.

She chills on her chair, watching tv, waiting for Morgan to pick her up. 7:30 rolls around, and she hears a honk outside her house.

She gets a message on her phone “I’m here!” - Morgan.

Kate gets up, grbs her jacket, locks up her house and goes into Morgan’s car.

“Sup” she greets her, followed by a smile.

“Hey” she responds, with a smile of hers.

They drive to the Whitetail Mountains, catching up, laughing and reminiscing.

“Remember when we were 10, working a case with our moms in Rogers, Arkansas and we put a mix of horseshit, dog shit and cow shit in that racist old man’s gas tank of his car!?!” Morgan asks laughing.

“Shit, yeah I remembered that, and we never got in trouble” Kate says laughing.

“So how’s Paige doing?!. How did she react to you wanting to leave the hunting demons, and ghosts life behind?!” she asks.

Kate stays silent for a moment, looking down, then out the window. Then back to Morgan.

“She’s doing good. She wasn’t mad, but umm”. She goes silent for a moment.

“She-she was disappointed,” she says hesitantly, looking out the window again.

Silence fills the car once more. Morgan breaks the silence, asking her.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way. But, you know I love Paige, I think she’s an awesome person. But do you think she holds you back?”.

She stays silent again, looking down at her hands.

“Sometimes” she mutters. “Sometimes” she says again, slightly louder.

“But she’s my sister. She basically raised me, protected me, and I know all the times where she held me back was because she wanted to protect me”.

*************************************

They make it to the campsite. The only bonfire in the dark wooded area.

They get out, and approach the bonfire.

Alissa, and Sarah arrive at the same time they exit their vehicle. They stop and wait for them to catch up.

“So how do you feel about not hunting monsters anymore?” Morgan asks her, practically in a whisper.

“It feels great. I’ve been wanting this for a long time now” she answers.

“You know, even if you call it quits. Those bastards don’t stay away” she reminds her.

Nodding her head, “Yeah, I know but I have faith that they won’t come around” she responds.

Alissa and Sarah catch up with them, and they walk the rest of the way to the fire pit.

They approach their group of friends, who are sitting around a bonfire near the lake.

The moon shining off the water.

"Hey guys" Morgan says, approaching the group.

"Hey, it's about time you 4 showed up" Ryan jokes.

Their friends group is Hope County Junior Deputies Becky Taylor, Layla Michaels and Ashley Saunders.

Classmates Ryan Cho, Dylan Paulson, Kevin Baker, and the Wren twins Isaiah and Ivan.

Lastly, Wheaty who is a member of the Whitetail Militia, and host of the Whitetail radio. Playing pirated music.

"Yeah, well I had to make a multiple detours to pick up Sarah because of some stupid redneck fucks" Alissa says annoyed, rolling her eyes.

Wheaty who is looking down, looks up and his eyes immediately go to the short brunette of the group, Kate. Staring at her, unable to look away from her.

"Wow, she's really cute" he thinks to himself.

The 4 of them sit around the fire with their friends, and Kate sits next to Wheaty.

She gives him a little smile as she sits next to him, and his heart skips several beats.

"H-Hi" he says nervously.

"Hi" she replies with a smile.

"Are you new here?" he asks, trying to keep his cool.

"Yeah I just moved here last week" she answers.

"You go to the University?" he asks.

She nods her head, "Yeah, I'm a psychology major".

They talk for a few minutes, as well as everyone else, and Ashley steps away from the bonfire.

"That damn heat" she whines exaggerating, waving her hand in front of her face.

Morgan looks over at Kate and says.

"Girl, don't say anything about heat, or hot weather around her" pointing her thumb to her.

Ashley looks at Kate with confusion, and a slight head tilt.

"Yeah I'm from Phoenix, Arizona. So if anyone knows hot weather it's me!" she jokes, chuckling.

"So you're from the desert?" Wheaty jokes.

"Yeah basically, I was born there in August, where it's literally Hell, and then my family moved to Jackson, Wyoming" she replies.

“How’s life in Wyoming?!” Ivan asks.

“It’s pretty boring” she jokes, “But it’s really peaceful, you get used to it after awhile”.

Everyone talks, gets to know each other. Kate and Wheaty spend the whole time talking. Getting to know each other. Wheaty can feel his feelings for Kate grow by the second.

They even exchanged numbers, as well with everyone else.

Wheaty has never had a crush on anyone until he saw, and met Kate. He got more information about her, than John did researching her.

After 12am, everyone parted ways, said their goodbyes and went home.

Morgan dropped off Kate at home, and she practically passed out the second her head hit the pillow.

#far cry 5 #john seed #kate winchester #john seed x oc kate winchester #kate winchester x wheaty #joseph seed #my ocs #my writings #fc5 #the seed family #paige winchester #my ocs are my children #eden's gate: left behind #john seed x kate winchester #far cry 5 wheaty #wheaty x kate winchester

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purplesurveys · 4 years ago

Text

1111

Something a little bit random and silly for my 1111th, just because.

survey by joybucket

List three things you love that start with each letter.

A: Art and most forms of it; anchovies, in most cases; and Angela.

B: Burgers, Beyoncé, and buffets.

E: Escargot, the name Eloise, and elephants.

F: FISH, Friends, and some folk indie.

S: Sleeping, signing off work at the end of my shift, and all kinds of seafood.

T: I’m obsessed with tteokbokki; trying out new food; and table tennis.

Q: I like the quiet time I occasionally give myself; quail eggs, especially in the form of kwek-kwek; and quattro formaggi pizza.

R: Rainbows, the rain, and riding planes.

O: Old movies, the ocean, and Okinawa milk tea.

List a phrase including an adjective, noun, and verb for each letter. Examples: "angry artist anticipating", "rude rascals running", "dirty dogs dancing", or "empty elephants eloping." Have fun!

A: Adorable animals appearing.

F: Fabulous fingers frolicking.

C; Chummy classmates cooking.

S: Suspicious self salivating.

R: Rambunctious raccoon running.

T: Tired turnip tumbling.

Q; Questioning quail quipping.

J: Joyful joggers jamming.

I: Inquisitive igloos imagining.

L: Luxurious lemonade luminescing.

Z: Zesty zebras zoning out.

E: Ethereal eagles embracing.

List three different occupations starting with each letter.

O: Orthodontist, oceanographer, opthalmologist.

E: Engineer, equestrienne, elementary school teacher.

F: Firefighter, flight attendant, farmer.

S: Scientist, singer, seamstress.

T: Talent agent, tricycle driver, tennis player.

I: Illustrator, inspector, IT technician.

E: Economist, editor, electrician.

L: Lawyer, librarian, lifeguard.

A: Accountant, actor, architect.

Y: Yoga instructor, youth pastor, yogurt maker?? if that counts, lol. Otherwise I got nothing else.

List three adjectives that begin with each letter.

A: Affable, abrupt, adequate.

B: Broken, blunt, bleary.

C: Crazy, clear, clingy.

D: Daunting, delirious, dark.

E: Existential, enraged, exemplary.

F: Fantastic, far-flung, flavorful.

G: Ghastly, gentle, gigantic.

H: Harrowing, healthy, hopeful.

I: Intelligent, identical, impervious.

J: Jovial, jaded, joyous.

List three nouns that being with each letter.

K: Kangaroo, keychain, kiwi.

L: Lemonade the album, lemon the fruit, and Liz Lemon.

M: Mall, maple syrup, and mop.

N: Nightingale, nest, napkin.

O: Ogre, olive, orange.

P: Piano, panini, and pizza.

Q: Queen, quill, quilt.

List three verbs that begin with each letter.

R: Running, raking, reliving.

S: Singing, sailing, surfing.

T: Tricking, tossing, teeming.

U: Understanding, urging, unwrapping.

V: Villifying, venerating, vaccinating - get vaccinated, folks.

W: Wandering, washing, wriggling.

X: I don’t know if there are any and I can’t bother to look it up.

Y: Yawning, yelling, yearning.

Z: Zipping, ziplining, zapping.

List three...

girl's names you love: Olivia, Mia, Emma.

boy’s names you love: Mason, Jacob, Lucas.

girl’s names you dislike: Karen, and our local versions of Karen, Marites and Marivic.

boy’s names you dislike: Chad, times three.

things you hate about summer things you hate about winter things you hate about spring things you hate about fall things you love about spring things you love about winter things you love about fall things you love about summer Crossing these out because my Southeast Asian ass can’t relate, but if you do decide to take this survey feel free to un-strikethrough them!

things you miss from your past: Having more freedom to make mistakes; not having to worry about the future; and friends I’ve since lost.

people who have really hurt you in the past: Gabie, my mom, Marielle.

names of people you have had crushes on: Gabie, Andi from 5th grade...and that’s it, really.

names of people you have gone on a date with: Only Gabie. And I guess maybe Mike? Since he asked me to go with him to his ball as his date.

places you've been and would love to go again: Sagada, Jeju, Bali.

places you want to visit before you die: Morocco, Spain, Thailand.

items on your bucket list: See Times Square, live in a condo, plan a solo trip.

health conditions you have: Scoliosis, lactose intolerance, and very possible depression.

health conditions you've had in the past but don't anymore: Dehydration, UTI, and some kind of weird low-platelet-count thing that was just that, and never diagnosed as anything.

things you are allergic to: Possibly some types of grass, and maybe face masks. Idk how to confirm it really; I just know my skin gets irritated around them sometimes.

youtube channels you love to watch: Good Mythical Morning; the KBS YouTube channel mainly for clips of Return of Superman and 2 Days 1 Night; and Binging With Babish.

favorite drinks: Water, coffee, Long Island Iced Tea.

favorite foods: Sushi, chicken wings, pizza.

favorite desserts: Cheesecake, MACARONS, cupcakes.

favorite holidays: The only one I care for and get super excited about is my birthday, if that counts. Christmas is fine, but I only get the excitement for it on the actual day itself.

favorite colors: Pastel pink, white, maroon.

people you would like to meet: Ysa and Bea, my teammates at work. I’ve met them only once before, and I wish we can be allowed to report to the workplace physically soon so that I get to see them more often and strengthen my relationship (both working and personal) with them. I’d also love to be able to chat and chill with Hayley Williams even for just 30 seconds.

people you want to meet in Heaven: I don’t believe in that, but I’d love to have met my great-grandfather on my maternal grandfather’s side. Also, Audrey Hepburn and Princess Diana.

good names for a dog or cat: Depends on their personality.

reasons why you get up each morning and keep on living: Because I’ve been able to see myself get better, and why stop all the progress?; because I’d want to be able see if the future will get better; and because I’m afraid of what will happen to/who will look out for my dogs if I’m suddenly gone.

For each name, think of three people you know with that name, and list their occupations.

Amanda: I only know one Amanda, and she’s a friend of my ex’s younger sister. She’s only in senior year of high school. I know an Amandine which is close enough I suppose?? and she’s a dentistry student.

Sarah: She’s a media contact and I’m constantly in touch with; she’s the editor-in-chief of a local magazine. I think she’s the only Sarah I know.

Ashley: Also a media contact. I’m not sure about her title, though.

Beth: @bionic-beth is a teacher! :) But I don’t know any Beths in real life, I think.

Katie: Well I know Kate, and I’ll sometimes playfully call her Katie. She works in a government agency and she’s one of their PR people. The HR person who recruited me to come work at my current employer is a Kate, but I have never and have no plans to call her Katie.

Matt: That’s too foreign-sounding a name where I live.

Emily: Don’t know any Emilys, either.

Chris: Media contacts. They run blogs or news sites of their own.

Mike/Michael: The one Mike I know is currently a med student. Not sure if he’s working on the side - I think he is, since I saw him post about a job update on his Facebook a few months ago; but I can no longer remember what he does, or if he’s still doing it.

Jessica: I went to high school with a girl named Jessica but I don’t follow her on social media, so I have no clue what she’s up to now.

Becca/Bekah: Rita’s sister is a Becca. I think she is currently a grad student.

For each name, think of three people you know, and list one adjective to describe each person. (Skip if you don't know anyone with that name.)

Laura

Michelle: Hilarious.

Victoria: Strong.

Tessa: Friendly.

John

Claire: Influential; motherly.

Briana/Brianna: Bitch.

Vanessa

Brittany/Britney, etc.

Allison/Allie/Ally, etc: Kind.

Olivia

Jordan

Jo/Joe: Ambitious; pretty.

Corey/Kori

Sophie: Sweet; quiet.

Mitch/Mitchell: Tall.

Madison/Maddie/Maddi

Out of all the people you know or have met, list three...

redheads: Yeah, you’re not going to find them in most of Asia. West Asia and some parts of East Asia, probably, but definitely not for the rest.

tall people: Jo, Chesca, and Shaun.

people with really curly hair: I know Kleo has naturally curly hair from her Aeta roots, but it’s been straightened for a very long time now. I think Chesca also has curly hair, albeit slightly. There is also Liana.

sets of twins: My sister had two sets of twins in her high school batch, but I can no longer remember their names. I also had an English class with a pair of twins named Ardy and Thirdy.

of the cutest babies you've seen on social media: My workmate’s baby. My friend Jar has a super squishy niece/nephew pair of twins as well.

people you miss: Angela, Kate, my grandpa.

people with beautiful eyes: I can only think of my ex.

people with nice hair: God I have not been around people for so long, I can barely think of anyone for this.

people who are the same height as you: Aya, Hannah, Tina.

own one of the same clothing items as you: Angela since we went to the same high school and have several of the same school shirts; Laurice since we share a college org and we have our own trademark polo shirt; and my brother and I have our own pairs of Nike Cortez shoes.

make you laugh: Andi, Hans, and this girl I had a couple of history classes with, Rose.

List three celebrities who...

are the same height as you: Lady Gaga and AJ Lee are the only ones who are coming to mind. I wouldn’t call AJ a celebrity though.

have the same hair color as you: Mila Kunis, Kelly Rowland, Dita Von Teese.

look like you: Only based on comments I’ve gotten in the past and not because I necessarily claim these for myself, Lucy Hale, Anna Akana, and Kakie.

List three....

adjectives to describe you: Timid, stubborn, sensitive.

academic courses you enjoyed: Philippine social history, international relations, anthropology.

words you always forget how to spell: Rhythm, committee, accommodate.

things you wish you were better at: Singing, dancing, drawing.

things you are really good at: Writing, reading people, and knowing the best things to order at most restaurants hahahah.

jobs you'd like to have: Ideally, a lawyer or doctor. But realistically, I’d love to have a leadership position in the PR sphere.

jobs you've considered having: ^ Again, lawyer and doctor. Also a journalist or news anchor, back when I still thought I was passionate about journalism.

jobs you'd hate: Journalist, an LTO clerk, an assistant to an asshole celebrity.

things you miss: Being a student, many parts of the past, and deceased family members.

names your mom considered when naming you: Ariel, Kathleen, Katrina.

things people call you: Robyn, Byn, Bynbyn.

*Bonus*: what is your name? (first and middle)? I always feel like just sharing Robyn.

#survey #surveys

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mor-beck-more-problems · 4 years ago

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The Paths We Choose || Morgan & Blanche

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @harlowhaunted & @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: Morgan has a request for Blanche as she helps ward off her and Deirdre’s home.

Blanche sped far too fast to Morgan and Deirdre’s house, practically peeling up the driveway. She could be nostalgic for all the times she and Morgan laid on the floor watch Kate Walsh save lives and deliver babies in heels - and hell, maybe they could even do more of that - after Blanche was done ghost proofing Morgan’s house so a probable-poltergeist didn’t try to stab anybody. She had yet to meet Constance, but Blanche was absolutely certain that she didn’t want the displeasure of the trouble. She hopped out of her jeep, slamming the car door as she struggled with her too heavy bag. “Morgan?” Blanche called, banging on the door. Her senses weren’t going off, so that was good. It meant that she wasn’t here - for now. “It’s Blanche. I have wards. And a lot of salt. And a lot of iron - but well, I guess iron was kind of stupid. Sorry.”

Morgan couldn’t keep still. She had already swept away the glass and changed the sheets, started on laundry, and excused her class for the day. But eventually, even with as quickly as she’d messaged Blanche, she ran out of things to do and was left standing in her kitchen, just as helpless as she’d been in the night. Fuck, she should have known. She should have trusted herself when she saw the woman at Lydia’s. She should have reached out to Blanche sooner, or called Rebecca, or done...anything but waltz stupidly down to sleep like everything would be fine just because she wanted them to be.

Blanche’s knock shook the door. Morgan darted to answer it, not even checking her hair or the haggardness in her face. Infinite stamina, my ass, she thought. If she could squeeze a whole fucking week without her world exploding out of White Crest it would be a miracle. “Oh, good, you’re here,” she said. “We need to ward up...everything. All the things. Every wall, drainpipe, the grass, the fence, I don’t even know what the range is on these things or how they do their thing, but if we have to burn them into the ground for it to stick, I’ll get a shovel, a wheelbarrow, torches, whatever!” It was only after her voice cracked, lacking enough oxygen to go on that Morgan realized how deranged she sounded and how much Blanche almost certainly did not need someone else to be falling apart in front of her. She stopped herself. Breathed. “Sorry. I’m a little...rattled, I guess. We can...um, I don’t know...settle in first. I have lemonade. The good stuff, not the watery crap I leave out for Urk. Do you wanna come inside, set some stuff down? Also, Deirdre won’t mind the iron under the circumstances, I don’t think, just don’t leave it where she’ll run into it on accident.” She beckoned Blanche inside. “And thank you, for coming over so fast.”

“Uh -” was Blanche’s intelligent response to Morgan, looking half crazed as she ran out of air. But then she kept talking. Blanche snapped her mouth shut, and shook her head as she followed Morgan inside. “I’m, uh, not too hungry. Thanks though.” Besides, taking a moment to drink lemonade while they had more important things to do seemed sort of foolish. Or maybe she was just a little freaked out about Constance still being around. Blanche would have thought that the stupid bitch would have fucked right off after impaling Morgan on a pole. Was that not enough for her? Blanche shook her head, swinging her backpack off her shoulders as she put it on the counter. She began taking everything out - first a long metal rod. “This is made of iron. It should be able to fit in a backpack or something. Keep it on you - one swing of this if she gets too close will cause her to dissipate for a few hours and give you a chance to run.” Blanche had considered giving Morgan her dagger than she had gotten from Nell, but decided that was perhaps not a good idea. Blanche started pulling out the ward slips. Rebecca had taught her how to make them, and now she had plenty on her at all times to keep ghosts out. “These need to go on inside of each of the perimeter walls around the house. That will make the barrier that ghost can’t cross. I’ll come check them every two days or so, just in case. That’s sorta over-kill, but just in case a disaster happens and one of them falls.

Morgan took the rod and hefted it gently. She had one similar, out of cold iron, but it hadn’t been anywhere near by when Constance had burst in. Maybe it was time to start leaving spares in different places. A ‘work’ iron weapon, a ‘car’ one, a ‘just in case all hell breaks loose while you’re at home’ one… She should have known better than to exhale and think she’d get to have anything. Even in death, a fucking shriveled up, numb, eternal living death, how dare she even try to be okay, be nearly happy. Morgan grimaced and took the iron rod, walking into the great room to stash it near the couch where she and Deirdre spent most of their time together. This was fucking ridiculous. A ghost. Some bloodthirsty bitch who didn’t even bother getting to know her long enough to get a good grudge going. Just once, once, Morgan wanted to show her what retribution really looked like.

“Great. We have a lot of walls to cover, so that’s something we can start with. Does it matter what we stick them with? I mean, I’ve got tape, sticky tack, push pins, you name it…” Morgan said, marching back into the kitchen for the junk drawer and knocking around for what she needed. She took out a handful of everything and held them out. “I know this is just step one in what is going to be a painfully, obnoxiously long process, but at least we’ll be able to, you know, rest easier. It’s not exactly going to be easy looking up how to give her what she deserves and knock her out of existence if I can’t even be safe in my own home.” She headed toward the outermost wall in the kitchen, gesturing for one of the ward slips. “I don’t really like dragging you or anyone else into my personal bullshit and I know you’re not an exorcist or anything, but, will you help me, Blanche?” She didn’t exactly know many other ghost watchers or ghost-be-goners. Not well, certainly.

Blanche pulled out a couple things of double sided tape. “These will work. I usually stick them behind things - like paintings or stuff to hide them. It prevents people from taking them down or people from asking too many questions. Feels a little national treasure-esque too.” Blanche was considering Morgan’s options in her head. Connor could get rid of Constance, assuming she was a poltergeist. She had to be by now, right? Even if she wasn’t, an exorcism might be enough to push her over the edge if she thought her unfinished business wasn't done - and from the sound of it, that was making sure Morgan was good and dead and wasn't going to come back.

“Well, as you said,” Blanche said as she started to lay the wards gently on they backs, sticking tape to the back of them for easy sticking purposes, “I'm not an exorcist. And I don't particularly have a need or want to become one.” And maybe that was selfish of her, but Blanche wasn't sure could physically handle it. She couldn't handle having to deal with souls that she was too late to properly help. “So I need to see her, and… uh… well, get a feel for her, I guess. Poltergeists and regular spirits feel different.” What a strange sentence, but she wasn't wrong. Neither felt particularly nice, but the feeling was different enough to help her tell the two apart. “And I can help if she isn't a poltergeist… as much as I can, at least. I don't think she’s really… uh, talkative. Otherwise you'll definitely need an exorcist.”

“No need to worry about anyone in this house taking things down.” Morgan said, taking a strip of tape and mounting the first slip. “You know, as long as it’s out of reach from the cats, which…” Morgan looked behind her at Anya, who glared at her suspiciously from the top of the couch. She had come around to claiming this house as her own, including the fridge, and anything else that had a flat surface. “Yeah, we’ll hide them.” She shimmied over to the fridge and stuck one behind it, then went to the wall by the back porch door and slipped another behind the clock. She smirked a little as she tucked the clock carefully back into place. They did look a little like they were hiding secret treasure clues. If only this was as fun and wholesome as all that, she might have actually been able to enjoy having Blanche around again.

As they moved onto the next room, Morgan asked, “What’s the difference in how they look? I mean, would I be able to tell, if I knew what to look for? She still seemed, you know, normal for being a ghost. Still looks like tall, evil, Laura Ingalls. Has all of her evil fingers and toes and creepy woo-woo ghost power. Still hates me for no reason. And--” Morgan let out a long sigh. She didn’t like the idea of dragging more people into this than she had to. Blanche was one thing. As much as Morgan hated to pile more on her, she had at least been in this almost at the start. But others? Some random exorcist off the road or Craigslist? “I could use any exorcist recommendations from you whether she’s gone polter or not. I want her gone, permanently. And I want her to pay for this, for everything. And that’s not going to be something I can call Becca back here for.”

“They look largely the same,” Blanche said apologetically. She was slipping a ward behind a painting. “The difference is more… ah…” She wasn’t sure how to describe it. “In the feeling. An itch, I guess. Like little needles pricking my skin whenever a ghost is around. They do it differently when a ghost is more powerful or when a ghost is on the verge of being a poltergeist or has completely turned onto a poltergeist.” She explained. Blanche didn’t think that Zombies, while they were able to see ghosts, could feel spirits like that. At least, Remmy had never mentioned being able to when Granny was around. But she didn’t get the chance to ask Morgan when she continued on. She wanted Constance to pay. “To pay?” Blanche had read something while researching with Connor. In one of the ancient looking scribe books - the kind where she sort of felt like she should be wearing gloves when she turned the pages - there was a mention of a to the pain ritual. They hadn’t paid much attention to it, it hadn’t been something Blanche was interested in. Why would she or Connor want to cause a spirit pain when getting rid of a poltergeist already destroyed them. For once, the information Blanche had was held on the tip of her tongue, and she didn’t know if she wanted to share it.

Rebecca’s words echoed in her head. She will never exist anywhere as Lauren Langley ever again. She felt sorrow for Kaden’s mother, even if she was a horrible person. Even if what she had done in life was horrible. The idea of having a soul being stripped away until they were nothing at all wasn’t something she liked to think about, and it was the reason Blanche wasn’t interested in learning how to do exorcisms. She couldn’t handle having to do that on a daily basis. There were souls much better than Lauren Langley who wouldn’t be able to stand being on this plane for too long that would turn, and Blanche wouldn’t be able to do it. Constance was likely a poltergeist, so the destruction of her soul was unavoidable. “How do you mean? Like... More than getting rid of her soul if she’s a poltergeist?”

Morgan didn’t make much of Blanche’s silence. She was still trying to rewire the part of herself that felt safe in this house, that remembered something other than the previous night. But nothing in the house looked right in spite of all her efforts to clean it. All she’d wanted was her own fucking life, with no one’s mistakes or bullshit floating over her but her own. If her own miserable death had given her anything good at all, it had at least ended her curse. But apparently that was just a pipe dream. There was no getting free of Constance’s shadow. Stars, it wasn’t like the past few months had been free of suffering for herself. Heck, aside from the dying part, you might say her normal, un-cursed friends had it worse. Her freedom hadn’t amounted to all that much in death’s shadow. All she had to show for it was her Wellbutrin and spinal fluid cocktail, an amethyst buried in the flowerbeds out back, and this house. This house that had once looked like a magazine spread to her that now marked the absurd, tender movements of her life with Deirdre. If either one of them had been a second slower last night, Constance would’ve taken it all away for good. And then what would there be? What would she crawl out of the hole inside herself for when she was too heavy and tired to be of use to any of her friends?

“I mean I want her gone, and I want to give her back as much of the pain as she’s given me over the past thirty-nine years. And a downpayment of what’s in store for me down the road. And, you know what, maybe some interest on how her bullshit probably fucked up my mother into becoming the nightmare she was to me. And hers, before that. I know there’s no equivalent exchange for that, but I’ll take whatever I can squeeze out of her on the way out. She’s not worth keeping around for chaotic shit’s and giggles, I don’t mean like a game or anything, I just...I need this from her, after everything that’s happened now.” Morgan cleared her throat and did her best to will away the gravity that had hung from her words and slumped her shoulders. This wasn’t the time to curl up on the floor and wish for some benevolent non-existence. This wasn’t the time to let Constance win, or even think she’d won. Morgan had to push through. “There’s gotta be something for that, right? Some exorcisms that hurt more than others? And is it really that different if she’s a poltergeist or not? Whatever state her spirit’s in, she still did this, all of this, to me.” Morgan gestured vaguely for emphasis and went to the next wall.

How was what Morgan wanted to do any different than what she did to August? Blanche was silent for a long time in thought. They hadn’t destroyed August’s soul. They had traded his life for Bea’s. August was free to go where he pleased in the afterlife, free to move on to Heaven or Hell or whatever existed on the other side. They hadn’t destroyed him completely - they could accomplish their goal without it. His murder was a means to an end. What was the end here? Was this more about revenge or being safe from something that was after her? And what made a monster? What was Constance’s true unfinished business? Blanche was having a hard time wrapping her head around it and her own hypocrisy. August was chosen as a sacrifice because he killed Bea. It was his fault she died, and in a way, it served as perfect revenge, even if Blanche viewed it as an inevitable sacrifice. It was Constance’s fault that Morgan had died, and it was clear her spirit wasn’t planning on her to come back. But what would it do? Morgan was already still here. They just needed to keep her safe. The exchange didn’t make sense to Blanche, and for a single moment, she thought about what her Granny would tell her to do. And as the words responsibility and gift echoed in her head with Granny’s voice, Blanche knew what the answer was.

Blanche swallowed hard, shifting on her feet as she glanced over at Morgan, almost guilty. “I… will help keep you safe, Morgan,” Blanche said, quietly. “But… I can’t do what you want me to be a part of. What you’re talking about… Destruction of her soul even if she’s a normal ghost isn’t… I can’t be a part of something like that. I can’t stop you.” But if she didn’t take action, wasn’t that as good as doing it herself? Blanche hadn’t done anything when she knew Erin was selling organs because Erin was her friend, and that ended poorly on all accountsShe couldn’t think like that, though. That wasn’t fair. Things weren’t that black and white and she knew that. She wouldn’t be friends with so many hunters if she didn’t know that. Blanche wasn’t responsible for her friends actions and it wasn’t her job to police them into following her exact ideals of what was right or wrong. “I can’t knowingly destroy a spirit that may not have to be destroyed. And I don’t want to torture her, either. I just want her gone, so she leaves you alone.”

Blanche’s words had a chilling tone of certainty that reminded Morgan of Rebecca and why she was determined not to reach out to her on any of this. For what felt like a long time, Morgan didn’t have any words. It was okay for Blanche to help facilitate human sacrifice, but not to get payback on a ghost that had died over a hundred years ago. Constance didn’t even have a body, and she had outstayed the invitation Morgan has extended by summoning her in the first place. Morgan tried to math out whether or not she had done something to Blanche to find herself on the outside of her alignment. They had so much in common, sometimes it was jarring when the girl said something Morgan couldn’t understand at once.

“I see.” She finally said, her attention fixed stubbornly on the wards. She picked up another slip and went to a new wall. “Are you going to tell me why?” She couldn’t help a bitter edge from creeping into her voice. This was what happened. This was what always happened to her: the moment she needed something desperately, something big, all that nice comfort and support she thought she had disappeared. But Blanche had seen her fair share of shit. It was probably better for her, in the long run, that she tap out of this. The last thing Morgan wanted was for Constance to set her sights on the girl. She wouldn’t know how to protect her, she could barely protect herself. Morgan cleared her throat, doing her best impression of Deirdre’s coping apathy. “It’s your business, obviously, but I would prefer it if you tell me. If it’s just because I haven’t earned something like that from you yet, or if you draw a distinction on revenge when it comes to killing humans or wrecking ghosts. Or something else.” She shrugged. “You can tell me.”

“Earned?” It was hard not to miss the bitter edge in Morgan’s voice. Guilt gnawed at the edges of her insides as her nails dug into the palm of her hand. Blanche was going to stand her ground. She did so much to help people, but she drew the line here. “Morgan, it’s not about what anyone has earned. It’s about the end result. What will torturing and destroying Constance do? I want to keep you safe and alive and here. Constance has to go, and there’s - it isn’t going to do anything. It’s more work, more research, more everything for something that’s awful.”

Blanche didn’t want to watch that. She turned her back on the resurrection for a reason, even if she had gotten a little too trigger happy with the taser when apprehending August. “I don’t get pleasure in torture or revenge or anything like that. What happened with Bea…” Blanche pressed her lips together, and she shook her head. “I did what I had to do. And I would do it again if we went back in time because it means she’d be here.” Morgan was still here. She had died, but Constance’s soul was not a needed price to pay for her to rise up again. “Doing this isn’t going to undo the pain or the hurt that she’s caused you and your family. It isn’t going to make things better. Nothing is going to be better after this.” Things were even arguably worse after the resurrection. But at least Bea was alive. Blanche wrapped her arms around herself. I’ll help keep you safe. I’ll help you find an exorcist that will do a regular exorcism. But I… It’s my job to help spirits. Not to torture them.”

Morgan grimaced as she went back from another slip and left the latest room to find a new one. She was bad at pretending like she didn’t care, and in all her months at White Crest, she’d gotten even worse at pretending like she wasn’t hurt when she was. “Fine,” she said shortly. It was one of those awful, hurtful things to say that didn’t actually tell anyone anything. Morgan stopped and turned and slouched against the wall, finally facing Blanche. “I mean-- I accept what you’re telling me. Obviously, not what I expected. I thought...I don’t know. Differently. But that’s on me.” Becca sure would be proud of you though, she said silently, looking at the difference between them now, Blanche full of her idea of fairness and conviction, Morgan fraying at the seams after two hard nights in a row and off to do some contraband ghost torture. Back when she was alive, she’d embraced her crybaby tendencies because no one else would cry for her, so why not. It made for a kind of narrative symmetry for revenge to be the same in death, at least where Blanche was concerned. But this was okay. She would be okay. “I don’t need to convert you to my perspective or coerce you into something. I don’t want that for you, or us. I uh…” She sniffled and reached inside herself to see if she had one of her smiles left. (She didn’t.) “I’ll take care of finding an exorcist for what I need. Just… if you can not get in the middle of this one way or another, and maybe...don’t tell Becca? Can that be okay, with where you stand on things? I won’t ask you for any more favors related to Constance now that I know how you feel. Just...I would appreciate it, if you wouldn’t do anything, or tell anyone to stop me. Because I need this, for me. She thinks she’s fate and justice, and she is the reason I grew up hating myself and the reason my mother was so broken inside she couldn’t...she’s the reason I died, Blanche. And if she wants to play bloody justice, then that is what I will give her as she is wiped from the earth. I need this.”

You thought wrong. Blanche wanted to say, but she knew that would just escalate things into a fight. That was the last thing she wanted. Honestly, it wasn’t what she expected either. Especially that sick feeling in her stomach that churned over and over again at the thought of torturing a spirit - even a bad one - til the point where they didn’t exist anymore. The hypocrisy was clear, and Blanche wondered if she was using the afterlife as an excuse. She didn’t even know what lay on the other side. No one did. Maybe she was using the tangibility as an excuse because she couldn’t put her money where her mouth was and actually do it again. Maybe she wasn’t strong enough to do it again, even for Morgan. But Morgan was still here. Morgan was still here and her head was on straight and she could do this for herself. She had a body. Blanche could make sure she was safe, and if she didn’t want to do this, no one was going to force her. Grow a backbone, dear. You are not any less for not doing this. You are allowed to say no if you believe it’s wrong, no matter the reason. A voice, similar to Granny’s echoed in her head and she squared her shoulders as she picked up more warding slips. As for telling Becca… “I haven’t really talked to Becca since she left town,” Blanche admitted quietly, though she did hesitate…. But Blanche already knew she wouldn’t run to Rebecca, not for this. Then she really would be a hypocrite. Blanche shook her head. “Do what you have to do, Morgan. For yourself and only that. That’s… That’s all any of us can do.”

#wr blanche #wr chatzy #wr blanche chatzy #the paths we choose #wickedswriting

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ttooccaa · 5 years ago

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The impeccable timing of Everything - Chapter 2

2/5

First off, I fixed a small mistake in the first chapter, I had absolutely forgot that Intergang actually makes an appearance in YJ, so yeah, sorry. All I did was change a small portion of dialogue. Re-reading is not needed, again sorry for absolutely forgeting about them...

Now that that's out of the way, this chapter turned out way longer and much more detailed than I excpected.

Rating: Teen

Ao3 link

Chapter 2: Casual Sabotage

Taos

November 23, 12:01 MST

Ed was running only on a few hours of sleep and was currently nursing his second cup of coffee. He didn’t like it at first, but he quickly developed a taste for the bitter drink after the opening of the Meta-Human Youth center. He tucked his white T-shirt into his jeans and tried smoothing down his light yellow flannel.

Ed hadn’t managed to really talk with the three newly arrived metas, as soon as they had answered all the basic questions and had gone through a quick medical check-up all three of them had fallen asleep. Nathaniel had just informed him that all three were awake and wanted to talk. Ed decided that it was best that he teleported in the beginning of the hallway leading to the medical wing. That way his sudden appearance in the room wouldn’t cast the newly arrived teens any unwanted stress.

Ed drank the last of his coffee and threw the disposable cup in the trashcan. He gingerly opened one of the two large, white doors and entered the medical room. It was a large room with a lot of medical equipment in it, all of the beds could be separated with so called privacy curtains. There were separate rooms as well, though only a few. He leaned against the door when he closed it and started thinking of what to say and how to best help Wayne, Kate and Kole, but quickly his thoughts started to go astray. Stray thoughts of Bart began filling up his head. He definitely liked Bart, there wasn’t any question when it came to that, but damn it if feelings weren’t complicated. Voicing them, even more so. The fear of rejection never goes away even when you’re almost sure the other person will reciprocate your feelings.

Closest to the door he noticed Leslie also known as Livewire and Andy or Mist, Leslie was sitting on one of the beds while Andy was putting a bandaid on her finger.

“Don’cha think that’s a little much?” Livewire asked while looking at the neon pink bandaid with a unicorn on it.

“I think it’s quite cute.” Andy chuckled, then placed a chaste kiss on her girlfriend’s forehead.

Leslie blushed, but quickly recovered and noticed their peer counselor’s daydreaming form leaning against the door “You gonna stay there all day, sunshine?”

This quickly snapped him out of his thoughts and he turned towards the couple. Ed walked over to them. “Really? Sunshine?” He asked dryly.

Leslie grinned, then shrugged “Well, “golden boy”‘s a bit too obvious.”

“And as we all know you are a master at subtlety.” The Argentinian said rolling his eyes.

Andy smiled “I’m guessing that what’s bringing you over to the med wing are those three over there behind the curtain.” She pointed at the back of the room, without turning around.

“Yeah. New additions… hopefully.”

“I’m sure they’ll stay.” Andy said, reassuring him.

“I mean, we did and we weren’t exactly easy to deal with.” Leaslie shrugged, then put her arm around her girlfriend’s waist.

Ed smiled “Dully noted, now if you’ll excuse me, duty calls.”

Both Leslie and Andy rolled their eyes.

Ed continued his short walk over to the other side of the room. He slowly pulled the curtain separating the three teens from the other side of the room.

“Hey!” He greeted.

Neut was with them already and Wayne, Kole and Kate were talking. Nathaniel excused himself, than pushed Ed outside the curtain.

“What’s up, man?” Ed asked.

“They’re a bit on edge.” Neut gave Ed a half dissolved piece of plastic.

He looked at it, confused.

“That used to be a fork.”

“Geez. Which one of them…?” He waved the white plastic around trying to illustrate his question.

“Kate.”

“Okay.” He took a big breath “We can do this.”

Neut nodded and they both pushed the curtain open once again.

The teens turned towards them. They were dressed in clothes issued from the Meta-Human center, while their original clothes and belongings were on the cupboards next to the beds.

There was a beat of silence then Kate spoke “Thank you for saving us.” She was playing with the split ends of her long, blonde hair. “I really don’t know what would’ve happened to us if you and rest of the Outsiders hadn’t come.”

Ed nodded, then took a breath “How are you all feeling?”

Wayne shrugged “Peachy.” His midwestern accent clear even from a single word.

Ed looked at Neut, hoping for some help. He gave him a reassuring smile.

The Argentinian sighed “Okay, I’m sure Neut already told you everything you need to know, but let me at least formerly introduce myself, my name is Eduardo Dorado Jr. and I’m a peer counselor at this center, known as the Meta-Human Youth Center.”

He continued “You already know what we do or?”

Kole answered “Yeah, Nati over here told us everything!” She was smiling brightly.

Ed smiled and raised an eyebrows at the nickname, he turned towards Nathaniel who was rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’m happy to hear that, I know I will probably be repeating Nati’s words, but you are free to go whenever you feel like it, though I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Wayne narrowed his eyes at that “And why is that?”

Kate rolled her eyes in restoration “I don’t know Wayne, maybe because we were almost human trafficked.”

“Bitch.”

“Twat.”

Ed took a calming breath. “I know you’re probably all scared-“ Wayne’s narrowed eyes turned towards him. “Even if you don’t feel like admitting it, but right now here is probably the safest place for all of you. I looked through your results and you’re meta-gene has been awakened, which means -.”

“That now I’m even more of a freak than I used to be.” Kate muttered.

“Hey, you’re not a freak, none of you or us for that matter are, okay?” Es put his hand on her shoulder, doing his best to reassure her.

He put his hand back at his side, then leaned against a heavy machine “In the beginning I wanted my powers gone more than anything, but I started to accept them. Yeah, it was hard, but it was worth it. What I’m trying to say is that if you decide to stay you can get help with everything, not only from me or Neut, but also everybody in here and medical professionals such as doctors, psychologists-“

“I don’t need no shrink.” Wayne’s midwestern accent cut through his words.

Ed sighed “Again, it’s completely up to you.”

“I’d like to stay.” Kole said, her expression determined

Kate nodded “Me too.”

All eyes turned towards Wayne.

He sighed “Not like there’s any better options out there.”

Both Ed and Nathaniel smiled wide.

“You won’t regret it.” Neut said.

Now came the hard part, Ed turned his attention once again to the three teens “I’m sorry that I have to ask this, but can you please tell us everything you can about how you ended up being trafficked, anything at all will hopefully save everybody else who were in your situation.”

All three of them tensed.

Ed continued talking, while running a hand through his unruly curls “We will talk one on one if you wish and anything you tell me, stays between us and the Outsiders so that we can stop this organisation. Please think about all the people you can help.”

Kate smiled “That’s some hardcore guilt tripping, Ed.”

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.” He was stumbling over his words, blushing hard.

Kate chuckled “Haha, so you are human after all.”

Ed looked puzzled for a second, then Kate continued talking “I’ll do it. Where are we going to talk?”

“It doesn’t have to be right away-“

“I’m a big girl Ed, I can handle it. Better to do it sooner rather than later, that way the info is as fresh as possible.” She got up from the bed and just now did Ed notice that she was half a head taller than him. “Let’s go, yes?” She pushed open the curtains.

Central City

November 23, 13:38 PST

Bart had just finished a quick workout, trying to get his head straight… well that wasn’t exactly possible. Anyways he went into the living room where Jay was sitting on the couch watching Tv. Bart was glad to be back home. He had missed it.

He leaned on the back of the couch next to Jay “What are you watching?”

“Just that prick G. Gordon Godfrey cause panic for no apparent reason.”

Bart turned his attention over to the Tv “The League and the Outsiders were silent during the months when poor meta-human were disappearing, but now! All of a sudden it they are taking down a ring and not only that they have “saved” three meta-humans! Really makes you think what is truly going on.” The tv host gave the camera his signature sleazy grin, then continued to speak, but Bart had already tuned him out.

“He’s insufferable.” The younger speedster muttered under his breath.

Jay grunted in agreement. He turned the volume down and looked at Bart “So how are you doing, kid? Anything new.”

Bart shrugged “Same old, same old.”

“You know, Bart, between you and me, Joan was always the more perceptive of the two of us, but even now I can tell something is bothering you.” The first Flash had a warm smile on his face.

Bart took a big breath, then sat down on the couch next to Jay “It’s just, a lot.”

Jay laughed “Ah, you’re spending too much time with Batman and his wards, you’re becoming vague like them.”

Kid Flash chuckled, then relaxed into the couch. So many conflicting thoughts were going through his head, he loved Jay, he was family, but still this time, it’s way of thinking, people’s mentality, everything was so different, he should be used to it by now, but sometimes he was still amazed at how different everything was.

Jay tapped him on the shoulder “You’re thinking too hard, son. Whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be now or ever for that matter, but if you ever want to share, I’ll be here, ready to listen.” He was smiling, his eyes were gentle and trusting.

Bart slowly placed his hand on top of Jay’s which was resting on his shoulder and smiled “There is this, teeny weeny thing.” He was squinting behind his index finger and his thumb illustrating how small the thing was.

The first Flash brought his hands to rest on his thighs and chuckled “Well if it’s that insignificant you shouldn’t have a problem with getting it out.”

Bart laughed nervously “Yeah...” A thought went through his head ‘Here goes nothing. I guess.’ He then looked at the ground then back at Jay “I kinda have a crush.”

Jay blinked at him “That was it?”

Bart made an unsure expression “Ehhh, not quite.”

The other Flash just continued to look at his ward.

“It’s on a guy.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Jay looked at the ground for a second, then nodded and turned his attention back to Bart, smiling once again “So wanna tell me who it is?”

Bart blinked a couple of times, but then recovered “It’s uh Ed.”

“Never heard of an Uh Ed.”

“Not funny.”

Jay’s smile brightened at Bart’s slight annoyance.

“So Dorado’s kid?”

“The one and only.” His lingering unease was showing.

Jay nodded once again “He is a fine young man.”

Kid Flash chuckled at that “Be careful, your age is showing.”

Jay just smiled and ruffled Bart’s hair “Listen, kid, I’ll love you no matter the gender of your partner. As long as you love them and they love you that’s all that matters.”

Bart smiled, but couldn’t help himself “Even if it’s a villain?”

“Okay, now you’re pushing it a little.”

They both laughed and Jay pulled Bart into a tight hug “I meant what I said, I love you, Bart and I’m glad you told me. Does anybody else know?”

They pulled apart “Well Jaime and Cassie, but I haven’t explicitly told anybody else.”

Jay nodded “That’s fine too, now go take a shower, no matter the gender, nobody wants a boyfriend that stinks of sweat.”

Bart got up from the couch “Geez, thanks, Jay.”

Jay shrugged and turned towards the Tv.

Just as Bart was at the door he turned back to his legal guardian “Thank you.”

“I’m always here for you, son.”

Bart nodded and with a soft smile made his way towards the bathroom.

Taos

November 23, 13:00 MST

“Wait, so this isn’t your office?” Kate was sitting on the leather chair opposite to Ed.

He rested his hands on the desk “Technically, it’s my dad’s but me and Neut use it more than him.”

“Cool.”

“First off, any family that you want to contact or that has been looking for you?” Ed already knew the answer to that one, but he had to ask anyways.

Kate had a humourless smile on her face “They kicked me out on their own, so I would say no.”

“I’m sorry… you were saying before, that you were in Midway City, when you were kidnapped.” Ed marked the city located in Michigan on a card, displayed on a tablet.

Kate nodded “Yeah, I was living on the streets, the prostitutes there were nice enough to help me.”

“Can you tell me exactly what happened when they took you?”

“I remember that a couple of punks stormed under the bridge with guns and took me and a few others. They knocked us out, next time I woke up, I was tied up and in the trunk of a car. I came to a couple of times, but I don’t recall anything specific.” Kate’s expression was pained.

Ed’s eyes softened “I know it’s hard, but this could really save a lot of people. Was there anything weird that happened in the days leading to your kidnapping?”

Kate shrugged “Not really… actually, yeah, there did, there is this truck that comes every other Friday night okay? It brings condoms, HIV tests, all of that. I usually didn’t go, because there wasn’t a reason, but last time it came, they had this new test, if they test you, you get 20 bucks. Sounded like a steal back then.”

“That was a meta-human gene test.” Ed said, his voice hollow.

“Seems like it. They took a little blood, some hair and ran a cotton swap on the inside of my cheek.” Kate looked really deep in thought “I also remember one time I woke up, they injected this thing into my neck, it hurt so much.”

Es nodded “That must have been what awakened your meta-gene.”

“Most likely.” Kate sighed “Is that all you need, I’m tired.”

The Argentinian said “Yes, thank you so much, Kate.” His eyes were sincere and full of gratitude “I promise it’s only going to get better from here on out.”

The blonde smiled “I sure hope so.”

They both got up. As they were heading for the door Ed said “Let’s pray I will manage to convince somebody else to also share their experience.”

Just as Ed opened the door, the figure of Wayne was waiting on the other side. Ed couldn’t help the small sound of surprise that escaped him.

Kate smiled at the shorter boy, then ruffled his mohawk “You’ll do great.”

The pale boy pushed her hand away, embarrassed “Yeah, yeah the greater good and all that.” He turned towards Ed “Let’s get started?”

The superhero nodded and bid Kate goodbye, as he closed the door he motioned for Wayne to sit in the chair that just a moment ago was occupied by Kate.

The black haired boy sprawled himself on top of it and turned his icy blue eyes towards Ed.

Ed smiled warmly and Wayne squinted as if he was being blinded by the sun.

“Just ask me straight away, don’t sugar coat it.”

The Argentinian nodded “Okay then, any family I should be concerned about?”

Wayne shrugged, playing with a loose string on his white meta-human youth center issued T-shirt “I lived with my uncle, he was my legal guardian, but considering he hasn’t looked for me this long, I doubt he cares.”

Ed furrowed his brows “Okay, but we still have to inform him about your current whereabouts?”

The pale teen shrugged, though looking more uncomfortable than before.

Ed decided to let that be at least for now “Where were you when you were kidnapped?”

Wayne cringed “Kansas City Juvenile Detention.”

Ed was quite surprised and looked up from his tablet “You were in juvie?”

“Aye, aye, captain.”

Ed bit his tongue just as he was about to ask why and settled on a different question “How did they get you, I guess?”

Wayne was rotating his lip piercing with his thumb and pointer finger while answering “One of the guards told me that the doctor wanted to see me, so he took me to his room, next thing I know I’m blacking out.” He made a sound with his lips then continued talking “I wasn’t even that long there, about a month.”

Ed nodded “Did anything weird happen while you were there, like tests?”

Wayne shrugged “I don’t know, man. There were a lot of rumours though, about people disappearing, didn’t think they were true… but yeah. Also they check you up before they throw ya in there. They took blood and all that good stuff.”

“They probably used those tests to test you for the meta-gene.”

“Guess so.”

Ed looked thoughtful ‘Dios mío, just how deep does this whole thing go?’

The other teen tapped his hands on the desk impatiently “We done here?”

Ed snapped out of his spiralling thoughts “Yeah, at least for now, thank you, Wayne.”

Wayne looked a little flustered under Ed’s sincere gaze, but shrugged nonetheless “Yeah, whatever. I’m pretty sure Kole is waiting outside.”

And she really was, when Ed opened the door. He was greeted by Kole and Neut talking, while Kole was trying to braid Kate’s hair.

Kate’s blue eyes shone mischievously “Was it that hard?”

Wayne rolled his eyes at hair “Oh, shut up. C’mon it’s your turn with Dr. Dorado over there.” He sat on one of the white chairs attached to the wall.

Ed looked at him as if he’d heard that joke a million times already “That’s literally my father.”

Wayne shrugged, not an once of regret in his posture.

The young superhero turned his attention towards Kole “Only if you want to, of course.”

The ginger nodded and got up from the chair, carefully manoeuvring around Kate who was sitting on the ground.

She marched past Ed and sat on the chair, Ed looked at Neut who smiled reassuringly. The golden one closed the door and moved to sit opposite to Kole.

He started talking “So, Kole, I’m gonna ask you some questions, but don’t feel pressured to answer them.”

Kole nodded.

He had already learned that Kole was an orphan, so he skipped that question and moved no to the next one “Okay, where were you when you were kidnapped?”

“The Rising Sun Foster home in New York.” Came Kole’s immediate reply.

‘First, the streets, then juvie, now a foster home, things are truly escalating.’ Ed wrote the name down and continued asking “Okay, for how long where you there before you were kidnapped?”

Kole looked thoughtful for a second “Not that long really, perhaps two months or so, I was moved there from another foster home in which I spent three years.”

“Did anything different than usual happen there?”

“Yup, upon arrival they did a couple tests on me and the others.”

“Such as?”

“Hair, spit, blood, the usual. I remember going to bed as usual, then panic and then I was in a truck. I woke up once and saw a couple more of the kids from the foster home with me. I haven’t seen them since, I hope they are well.” She looked extremely sad.

Ed reached out and put his hand on her shoulder “Maybe right now, they aren’t, but thanks to you we can help them.”

She smiled brightly at him.

She left the office and Ed laid his head on top the desk, utterly exhausted. He closed his eyes for a second and thoughts of Bart came flooding through. It seemed that all the time he didn’t spend working, he spend thinking about Bart. He was so conflicted on one hand, he wanted to be with him, on the other his doubts and insecurities couldn’t stop eating away at him.

After a few more seconds spent in self pity, he summarised all the information on his tablet and texted Oracle and Garfield everything, informing them that it would be good if they had a meeting. He got a response soon after, apparently Barbara also had found some very intriguing things regarding Intergang’s weapons. Garfield called everyone to an immediate meeting at the Outsiders’ HQ soon after.

The peer counselor left his father’s office and teleported to the cafeteria, hoping Neut was there. Just his luck, he teleported right next to the table being occupied by the three new meta-humans and Neut, though Wendy was also there talking excitedly with Kate. Ed’s sudden appearance made Wayne, Kate and Kole jump. He smiled sheepishly.

Wendy rolled her eyes then turned her attention back to the trio “You’ll get used to it.”

Wayne looked embarrassed, bordering on angry, while Kate looked amused. Kole was looking at him with wide eyes, as if she hadn’t seen him teleport already.

“Good to see you too, Wendy. Anyways, I’m here to tell you I’ll be leaving, I’m sure it won’t be for long, but-“ Ed started explaining.

Neut cut in “Don’t worry, man, we’ll make sure the place doesn’t burn down while you’re away.” He looked amused.

Ed rolled his eyes “I sure hope so.” A second later bright, golden light engulfed him.

Hollywood

November 23, 12:48 PDT

The Argentinian arrived and noticed that the Outsiders had almost all gathered, he quickly noticed Bart sitting on the couch energetically talking with Jaime and Cassie. He smiled at the sight.

“God, you’re whipped.” Virgil’s amused tone cut through his little daydream.

He blushed brightly and narrowed his eyes at Virgil “I have no idea what you’re on about.”

“Yeaaahh, right. Are you ever going to do anything about it?”

Ed sighed deeply focusing his attention on his forest green converse “It feels like every time something is about to happen, we get interrupted or there’s something more important going on. At this point, I have no idea if everything is all just in my head.”

“Believe me, it’s not.” Static’s voice sounded as if he’d had to say that a million times already.

Ed looked at him pouting. Just as he was about to say something Beast boy caught everybody’s attention and all conversation died down.

He started talking “As I said already in the text I sent you, we have developments regarding Intergang.” As he finished Barbara appeared on the large screen “Hi, guys!”

Beast boy waved at her and continued “Ed will be first, then Barbara, okay?”

All nodded.

“Perfect, okay Ed, the floor is yours.” Garfield bowed theatrically and winked at Ed. The Argentinian scoffed, but took the green skinned teen’s place anyways.

Ed quickly summarised everything Wayne, Kate and Kole have told him and moved to the conclusion “Those are the three places where they were kidnapped.” Pictures of the detention center, the foster home and the bridge under which Kate lived appeared on the screen. He continued “I think it’s pretty obvious that Intergang is targeting people nobody would look for – orphans, hookers, prisoners and so on. Unlike Granny Goodness and her goons who didn’t exactly pick out their victims so carefully, because they knew they could cover their tracks better.”

Cyborg’s expression looked grim “That’s truly low, taking those people, thinking nobody would miss them.” A flicker of anger was seen in his eye.

Ed agreed, sadness washing over him. He moved to a spot near Bart, suddenly he felt a warmth on his lower back and realised it was Bart’s hand. He looked at the shorter teen and smiled, his mood truly improving even if by a little. The speedster always had that effect on him. Bart’s eyes were warm and welcoming as they met his.

Garfield looked thoughtful “Sadly, that just makes our mission even harder, Oracle, what did you find?”

Barbara started typing “First of - their weapons, I am certain that they are alien technology. I think even the same one as the Orphanage.”

“So Granny Goodnes has something to do with all of this?” Garfield asked, memories of the evil lady coming back to haunt him.

Barbara shook her head from side to side “It’s not out of the question, but keep in mind, that Intergang has always worked with alien technology, they could’ve easily gotten it another way…”

“Anything come out of that tracker on Ugly’s car?” Superboy had his arms crossed over his muscular chest.

Oracle sighed her round glasses sliding down her nose “Not really, left in a garage, hasn’t been used since.”

Jaime looked at Barbara “Please, tell me we have some good news.”

“Well, not really, but in the grand scheme of things, it is good news. The information on the computers were catalogues and a few bases.”

Ed blinked “Catalogues?”

Barbara continued “Here’s one an example.” A picture of Kole appeared with information around here. Oracle started explaining “Her age, sex, weight, but most importantly her superpower, it says it all right here.”

“Crystallisation?” Jaime questioned, more to himself rather than anybody else.

As if she hadn’t heard him Oracle continued explaining “Down here it says to whom they were sold, my best guess is that they give such “catalogues” to buyers so that they can better decide what they need.” Her expression was disgusted.

Ed swallowed hard and looked at Bart for comfort, who was also wearing a grim expression on his face.

Bart piped up “That’s quite the interesting name.” He was looking at the buyer.

“Kanjar Ro? It sounds familiar.” Jaime was squinting at it, as if that will help him remember it.

Barbara nodded “As it should, we’ve seen him before marked as one of Intergang’s clients.”

‘Intergang deals with aliens… does that mean?!’ Ed looked up at Barbara with wide eyes “They are selling the metas to aliens.”

Oracle swallowed, but then nodded “It would seem that way.”

The realisation of just how complicated this mission suddenly got dawned on all of them, settling around them in a heavy silence.

“At least we know Granny isn’t involved, she wanted all the metas for a giant army, not to just make a quick buck out of them.” Beast boy concluded.

“Exactly.” The redhead agreed.

Static sighed, then asked “You said there were bases?”

Barbara opened up a map for them then started marking places “First off, we have a base in Star City, then Detroit and last, but not least Blüdhaven. From the info I gathered they are much like the one in Happy Harbour, only operating when they need to make a … uh…for lack of better words “delivery.””

Ed’s accent flowed after Oracle was done talking “But there must be a main one? One in which they keep all the metas?”

Barbara pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose “Yes, it would only be logical after all.”

“And we don’t know where it is?” Bart asked, already predicting the answer.

“Nope.” Barbara was kind enough to affirm.

Jaime leaned against the couch “What’s the plan?”

Barbara smirked and turned towards Garfield, which made everybody else also turn towards him.

The green teen blinked once, then quickly walked over to the big screen and started formulating a plan of attack “Our best chance is to act as soon as possible, they already know we’re after them. We have to check out the three bases, Star City has Green Arrow, while Nightwing’s in Blüdhaven, if they can they will join us. The attacks will be at the same time, that way they won’t be able to warn each other.”

Garfield turned towards Ed “Will you be joining us?”

Ed shook his head from side to side “No, amigo, I have to look after our new trio and help them with their powers.”

A sudden wave of sadness washed over Bart.

Beast boy nodded “So, we’re one man down, we will attack tomorrow, Star City is alpha, Detroit is beta and Blüdhaven’s omega. Alpha will be Terra, Forager and me. Beta will be Kid Flash, Superboy and Cyborg and Alpha will consist of Blue Beetle, Static and Wonder girl. This will be further discussed with the League to see if any of them can join.”

Barbara smiled, proud, then Beast boy continued to talk “That will be all for today, I will go to the Watchtower to inform Black Lightning and the rest of the League of our plan. If any changes are made, I’ll text you.”

After saying goodbye to Barbara, most either went to their rooms or home, Ed turned to Bart whose hand had been unconsciously rubbing soothing circles on his lower back. Bart quickly snapped back to awareness and in a flash moved his hand away, blushing brightly. Ed smiled, colour also blooming on his cheeks. He cleared his throat “Want to join me on the balcony? I need a breather after all of this.”

Bart grinned “Sure thing, amigo.”

Ed caught Virgil winking at him from the corner of his eye and promptly, but so Bart wouldn’t see showed him the finger. Virgil’s muffled laugh was heard even as they stepped outside in the warm November weather.

“My wardrobe just can’t keep up with the weather around me. November in Hollywood has nothing to do with November in Central City.” Bart grumbled, while shrugging of his red bomber jacket, leaving him in only jeans and a french tucked T-shirt whit three white stripes – orange, green and yellow going in the middle.

Ed stole a peak at Bart’s lean, but toned arms, then casually looked the other way.

Bart smirked and looked at Ed “Although, the weather ain’t the only hot thing around here.” He winked and fingerguned at the end.

The Argentinian blushed, before quickly erupting into giggles “Real smooth there, amigo.”

“The language is my canvas and words are my paint.” Bart had that overly dramatic starved artist look in his eyes.

“Make sure nobody else hears that, Shakespeare, or you’ll be drowning in dates.” Ed rolled his eyes leaning on his elbows against the railing.

‘I only want to date one person though.’ Bart thought while looking at Ed’s profile.

He quickly changed the subject “How’s it going with the magnificent trio?”

“Eh, they’re all still pretty shaken up, even if some pretend like they aren’t… I still have to contact their relatives. Tell ‘em where they are.” Ed had a pained expression on his face, looking exhausted all of a sudden “Anyways, what about you? You seem in good spirits, hermano.”

“Well let’s just say that Jay’s pretty incredible.”

“The original Flash? I bet.”

Bart smiled, but then turned towards Ed “You on the other hand – not that you ever could – look terrible.”

Ed tsked “Thanks, man.” Bart opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off “Yeah, yeah, I know, you didn’t mean it that way.” He had a playful smile on his face. “I only talked to Kate, Kole and Wayne, but I feel exhausted, as if I’ve gotten my ass handed to me by Canary one too many times in a row.”

“Sometimes conversations can be more mentally exhausting than actual manual labour.” Bart mused.

Ed rolled his eyes good naturally “You’re so profound. I know I shouldn’t be taking everything to heart, but I just can’t help it.”

Bart placed his hand atop of Ed’s “I don’t think you should stop, your compassion is what makes you so strong.”

The other teen blinked then grinned, turning his hand over so he could hold Bart’s “For a natural airhead, you’re pretty smart.”

Bart grinned “I’ll have you know I come from a family of scientists!”

“Me too, but those genes definitely missed me.”

Bart busted out laughing.

“What?”

“I just imagined you as a smaller version of your dad, running around in your white lab coat, always serious.” Bart was still grinning, his hand feeling hot from where he was holding Ed’s.

Ed had a look of horror on his face “Phew, I’m glad that didn’t happen.” He then smiled, his eyes catching Bart’s.

None of them said anything, they just looked at each other.

Until Ed broke the moment “Hey, Bart, I-“ he was cut short by his own telephone ringing. ‘What? For real?!’ He grabbed the phone and less then gently picked up “Is something wrong, Neut?” Concern already dripping from his voice. “Okay, I got it.” He turned his attention back to Bart “I have to get going, things are getting fun at the center.”

Bart tried to keep his expression cheery as he asked “Is everything on fire?”

“Not yet, but Wayne apparently made Kate trip over herself and melt off part of the floor.” Ed was already thinking about the Center’s budget and how that would affect it.

“Made somebody trip over themselves, eh? I think I already know who he’ll get along with.”

Realisation hit Ed hard, but then he grinned “Those two together would be a complete disaster.”

Bart chuckled.

Just as Ed opening his mouth to once again say something, his phone started ringing “Jesus, okay, I have to go.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He tried not to sound too disappointed.

Just before disappearing in a flash of gold, Ed quickly put his arms around Bart’s neck and hugged him “Thanks for always making me feel better.”

Before Bart could react Ed was gone and the speedster was left standing flushed, but grinning. ‘I think I’ll consider this a win.’ He thought as he sprinted towards Central City, trying to get his beating heart under control.

#bartuardo #zetaflash #eduardo dorado jr #bart allen #el dorado young justice

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dweetwise · 4 years ago

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day 21: i don’t feel so well

prompt from: whumptober pairing: felix x ace notes: the hanahaki au nobody asked for. i’m still a little confused about the trope but i tried <3 warnings: descriptions of illness, injury and blood, temporary character death word count: 3130

“That was awesome! She didn't stand a chance!” Steve cheers.

“That's what she gets for camping. What a bitch!” Nea laughs

Ace grins despite the pain, steadying himself against Jeff's sturdy form while the four of them are making their way back to the campfire after a successful trial.

His head is swimming and there's blood staining his teeth, his back stinging from numerous bloody gashes from the killer's katana. But he's alive, even if he had to crawl out through the exit, his teammates not letting the Spirit secure the kill on him.

When they get back to camp, Steve and Nea are off to spin the tale of their rescue to the others, and Ace can't help but smile when they generously color the experience; just like he would.

Jeff supports him to sit down against one of the logs, offering a somewhat awkward "There you go, buddy" in encouragement.

Ace sees Quentin hand Claudette one of his med-kits and then the group's resident healer approaches him with determined steps.

“Hey, sweetheart—” Ace starts with a grin.

“Stalling isn't going to work,” Claudette shoots him down quickly, seeing right through his act. So Ace sighs dramatically and shrugs off his jacket, and the girl immediately hikes up his shirt to start cleaning the wounds on his back.

Ace hisses from the sting of some kind of alcohol, turning his attention back to the others to try to distract himself from the pain.

Most of the others are listening to to Steve's and Nea's story while the rest are scattered around camp, doing their own things. Kate is tuning her guitar, Jake is stocking one of his toolboxes, and Cheryl seems to be practicing the card trick Ace taught her a couple of days ago.

And then there's Felix.

Finally giving himself permission to look at the handsome German, Ace's heart immediately starts beating faster. He's not even doing anything, just sitting by the fire engrossed in a conversation with Zarina, but Ace is so infatuated even just Felix breathing is almost enough to make him blush.

He thought he was too old for schoolboy crushes like these, but then again how could he not fancy Felix? The guy has some absolutely god-tier genes, a chiseled face and ice blue eyes and a body to die for. He’s also smart, and sophisticated, and filthy rich.

And god knows none of those qualities had ever been Ace's strong suit.

At first Ace had thought his hyperfixation on the man was jealousy, but then his body showed him that was definitely not the case; he didn't want to be Felix, he wanted to be in Felix. The realization didn't phase him as much as it maybe should have, because even the straight-as-a-board Ash had commented on Felix's good looks. And Ace sure as hell wasn't even straight to begin with.

No, his panic had come from when he'd caught himself looking at couples like Jeff and Adam being mushy together and imagined himself and Felix in their place.

Ace had a healthy amount of confidence, though the others might not describe it that kindly, but he wasn't blind. Felix was younger than him, maybe not by an impossible amount but still enough to be noticeable. He was also model-tier gorgeous with a body to match, and while Ace wasn't bad-looking he also had a crooked nose and a build solely used for drinking and gambling.

All in all, he recognized when someone was out of his league, and even though he couldn't resist a cheeky flirt ever now and then, he knew his feelings would never be returned.

But he still allowed himself to look; sue him.

He's in the middle of an indulgent daydream about laying his head on Felix's lap like Kate is doing to Yui on the other side of camp, all the while effortlessly keeping up small talk with Claudette tending to his wounds.

And then he starts coughing.

It's not a normal dry cough, it wracks his entire body and keeps going, and he curls in on himself because damn it’s making his throat hurts and his lungs ache something fierce.

“Ace, what's wrong?” Claudette's worried voice cuts through the attack. He tries to reply but it just makes him cough more, and it's not stopping—

Something slimy lands in the palm he's using to cover his mouth and then he can breathe again, taking sharp gasps of air while his throat tingles from the abuse.

He looks at whatever piece of his organs he managed to cough up, the Spirit's blade probably having rearranged some of his guts. He opens his hand and sees—

A flower?

It's absolute covered in blood, but there's no mistaking it, a single flower sitting in the palm of his hand with some loose petals surrounding it.

Why did he cough up a flower? Where did he even get it? It looks like some sort of cherry blossom, a far cry from the Entity's pustulas or the forest bouquets they pick and use for offerings.

“Are you okay?" Claudette asks, moving to kneel beside him in worry. When she sees the flower, she gasps in surprise.

“What happened?” Meg is quick to join her friend, coming up behind Ace to peer over his shoulder. “Uh… did that flower come out of you?”

“I… guess so?” Ace says, his voice raspy and throat protesting being used.

“So you just, like… ate it? Before?” Steve cocks his head in confusion.

“Come on now, I'm not that stupid,” Ace snorts, some of his worry giving way to amusement over the incredulous situation.

“Then what the hell was that?” Meg asks, scrunching her face up in thought while poking at the gross flower.

“I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong,” Adam raises his voice from across camp, straightening his back when all eyes turn to him. “It’s an illness, I recognize the symptoms."

“Can't say I've ever heard of a disease that makes you barf petals,” Ash offers, clearly skeptical, and Ace shares the sentiment.

“Shh, hear him out!” Laurie scolds.

"It's a Japanese folk story,” Adam explains. “Flowers start growing in a person's lungs, causing coughing and bleeding and..." he hesitates.

“Well?” Meg demands.

"And ultimately resulting in death, unless the condition is cured," Adam says grimly.

“Are you talking about hanahaki?” Yui pipes up before anyone can question the weird statement. “You know that's just a shojo manga trope, right?”

“It's also mentioned in historical literature,” Adam argues, though from the way he refuses to meet Yui's gaze, he seems to be embarrassed over the subject.

“Dude, nobody cares if you read girl comics, just tell us what the cure is,” Feng snorts, and that's probably the most concern Ace has ever seen her display over his well-being.

“It's—” Adam starts, before faltering, awkwardly scratching at his neck while looking at the ground. “Supposedly caused by unrequited love.”

There's dead silence in the camp.

And then Nea bursts out laughing.

“Jesus, what a story!” the tagger snickers. “Can you imagine Ace as a fairytale princess?”

“Honey, I think you might have gotten some myths mixed up,” Jeff says diplomatically, patting Adam's knee affectionately.

“Yeah, you probably just inhaled a flower in your sleep or something,” Steve encourages Ace.

“I'm pretty sure this is just a practical joke from our dear spidery overlord,” Ace chuckles and pointedly doesn't look Felix's way. Come next trial, his injuries will have healed anyway, including the weird burn in his lungs.

But they don’t.

Trial after trial, the Entity resurrects him and heals all of his wounds but the coughing persists, more and more flowers following.

Even the others are getting worried.

“That's it, bud,” Ash offers, patting his back while Ace is wheezing for breath after coughing up some more petals. “It's just a weird flu, you'll be good as new soon.”

“At least the flowers go with my shirt,” Ace jokes, voice reduced to a rasp, clearing his throat. “Pink was always my color.”

He's trying to keep his and the others' spirits high, since there doesn't seem to be anything they can do to fix the situation.

“We need to do something,” Ace hears Laurie hiss to Dwight, apparently disagreeing with his sentiment.

“B-but how can we even help him?” their leader, bless his heart, looks genuinely upset over Ace's condition.

“Maybe we should try Adam's suggestion," Laurie says.

“Yeah, except you know he wouldn’t tell us even if he did like someone,” Yui huffs from beside them. “Good luck getting an answer out of a compulsive liar.”

Ouch, but also fair. Ace sure as hell isn't going to reveal his dumb little crush, especially since Felix has avoided him since this entire goddamn flower thing started. He knows there's only a slim chance that Felix realizes what's really going on, but it still feels like rejection nonetheless.

He can deal with this. Even if it kills him, the Entity will just bring him back anyway. It's not even that bad.

But then it gets so much worse.

After a week, Ace is laying on his side while black spots dance around in his vision and he struggles to draw enough wheezy breaths into his lungs. His chest hurts, and his throat is so sore even just the air passing through burns like fire. He hasn't been able to speak in days, and that's almost worse than the pain, not being able to use his only coping mechanism of running his mouth until something sticks to lighten the mood.

His head is cushioned on Kate's thigh and he gets a tiny bit of satisfaction from the knowledge that at least he managed to lay in one pretty blonde's lap before dying, even if it’s the wrong one. The touch is comforting nonetheless, though the fact that it’s accompanied by Kate's girlfriend practically screaming in his ear kind of puts a damper on the whole thing.

“I swear to god, I will make every single person in this camp kiss you, do not test me,” Yui threatens, one of the few who haven't given up on curing him. “Is it Jane? Bill?”

If Ace had the energy, he'd probably laugh about her choices, curious as to why those two were the ones she picked. As it stands, he merely stares at her, wondering if his eyes look as dull and lifeless as he feels.

“He's going to die,” Jake says from somewhere to his side, but Ace doesn't even bother turning his head or denying the statement. Hurried voices shush the saboteur while Kate starts humming a melody to distract him, Yui glaring absolute daggers in Jake’s general direction.

His next trial, Jake's prediction comes true.

Ace collapses to the ground in the midst of a coughing fit. The flowers are growing even bigger now, he can feel them tearing at his throat and vocal cords, retching when they trigger his gag reflex on their way out. His vision blurs and then goes black, body finally giving up as the illness consumes him.

He's not even injured from the killer, but the pool of blood he falls into is big enough to cover the entire side of his face. He lays there, not sure if he's even breathing, just thankful that the awful coughing has stopped for at least a moment.

When he comes to, he expects the small comfort of the campfire before he has to go through the same thing again. Instead, he doesn't have enough energy to even open his eyes, slowly realizing he's still in the trial.

It takes him even longer to realize he's being held partly off of the ground, his body hanging limply in someone’s grasp. He idly wonders if a killer is going to mercy hook him, but then he hears something.

Crying.

Focusing on the sound, Ace realizes he's not just being lifted, he's being held in someone's arms. Someone is holding his near-dead body and crying.

With both his mind and body broken from suffering for so long, he allows himself to imagine it's Felix, even though he knows it's not true. Felix has shown he doesn't care, not talking to him and being so grossed out by his symptoms he’s barely even looked at him—

“Das tut mir leid,” is whispered against his hair, and Ace wonders if he's hallucinating or if his brain has given up on speech comprehension, because that sounded an awful lot like German.

Suddenly, he gains some of his strength back, his chest not feeling nearly as tight as it has for the past few days.

“Felix?” Ace asks, and even though it comes out as a raspy whisper, it's impossible to miss in the stillness of the quiet moment. The surprised hitch of breath he gets in response sounds impossibly loud, and he manages to blink awake just enough to see the tear-streaked, wide-eyed face of the person he never thought he could have.

And that's when the Entity decides he's bled on the ground long enough and he blacks out from blood loss.

When Ace comes to, he's no longer in pain. He can breathe. And he wants nothing more than to get back to camp and be reassured that he wasn't imagining Felix being there for him in his final moments.

He runs to the campfire, panting from exertion once he's illuminated by the familiar glow and shocked faces turn to look at him.

“What the—did you run here!?” Meg exclaims incredulously.

“Yeah,” Ace says, eyes scanning the small crowd of familiar faces, so focused on finding a particular one he doesn't even realize the implications of managing to speak without issue.

“Your voice!” Kate exclaims happily, and Ace pauses to collect some of his thoughts.

“Shit, you're right,” he says, a smile tugging on his lips for the first time in what feels like weeks.

“Welcome back, you bastard!” Nea cheers and flings herself at him in a sideways hug, and Ace stumbles to catch himself from falling, chuckling at her antics.

Claudette is sobbing, looking impossibly relieved, and the others are cheering among themselves, though Ace can't make out the contents because he sees a familiar figure making its way to camp and his entire world zones in on that person.

Felix looks up at the sound of the commotion, and Ace's heart breaks a little over how puffy his eyes still look, but then their eyes meet and Felix looks so hopeful—

“Hey,” Ace says, and it probably gets drowned out by the others, but Felix's eyes widen in recognition and he starts walking faster.

“Are you…?” Felix asks, close enough for Ace to hear him over the others shouting.

“He's fixed!” Nea answers for him, finally letting go of the almost painful hug in favor of smacking Ace on the back encouragingly.

Felix glances at Nea but quickly looks back at Ace, waiting for confirmation.

“Yeah, I… guess I'm cured,” Ace says, and it almost feels weird to hear his own voice again. “Or... You know, I hope so.”

Because he's still not sure about Felix's feelings, and he has no idea where they're going to go from here.

But he doesn't need to worry, because Felix's face lights up in a way he's never seen before, letting out a disbelieving, genuine laugh. And then he's stepping forward and cupping his cheek and Ace only has time to blink in confusion before his head is tilted up into a kiss.

“Woah,” Ace hears Nea exclaim, her hand leaving his back like burned. “This, uh… this is new.”

Ace smiles into the kiss and tunes out the rest of her and the others’ surprised babbling, grabbing Felix by the collar of his dress shirt and pulling him deeper into the kiss.

When neither of them are making a move to pull away, their friends seem to be getting fidgety from the show.

“Why don’t we go for a stroll in the woods?” Kate suggests, and the chorus of “Sure!” “Great idea!” and “Oh fuck yes get me out of here” that follow are enough for a laugh to bubble up in Ace’s throat and get swallowed by Felix’s mouth.

When the last pair of footsteps have hurried away, Felix deems it appropriate to finally break away from the kiss. Though he doesn’t go far, burying his head into the crook of Ace’s neck and shoulder and wrapping his arms around him in a tight hug.

“Welcome back,” Felix murmurs against his skin, and the warm affection spreading through Ace’s chest is a welcome change from the constant pain he’s been in for way too long.

“Didn’t expect such a thorough welcome,” Ace can’t resist flirting, hands sneaking up to rest on Felix’s incredibly firm back. The chuckle he gets in return reverberates through both of their bodies due to how close they are, and Ace wonders if Felix can hear his heart frantically beating in excitement.

“I’m… shit,” Felix eventually sighs, lifting his head to meet Ace’s eyes. “I don’t know how to make up for being an idiot. I just watched you suffer and didn’t know what to do.”

“It’s okay,” Ace says, but now he’s curious. “Why did you avoid me?”

“Because I was afraid that I'd get the illness too,” Felix says, looking at the ground in shame. “I thought any one of us could get it, and because of how I feel about you… I was scared I was next.”

The confirmation that Felix had feelings for him even before this whole clusterfuck started is enough to make more butterflies dance in Ace’s gut, a flush creeping up his neck over how the other is openly spilling his heart.

“If I’d have known I was the one causing it, I would have done something sooner. I’m so sorry," Felix murmurs, looking at him with sad puppy eyes.

“Hey, it's not like I was being very cooperative,” Ace points out, giving his most encouraging smile. “It's not your fault, it's the dumb flower sickness.”

“I'm sorry you had to go through that, regardless,” Felix frowns. “But… I'm glad it lead us here,” he adds with a bashful smile that makes Ace’s heart do a couple leaps.

“Figures the best and worst things of my life would happen simultaneously,” Ace flirts, and apparently Felix enjoys being called the best thing in his life, because his sappy smile widens even further.

Ace can’t resist diving in for another taste, capturing smiling lips in a kiss that lasts even longer than the first one and makes their friends groan and complain about “Geez, you’re still going?” when they rejoin them at the campfire.

#whumptober2020 #no.21 #i don't feel so well #dead by daylight #fic #blood tw #death tw #riconti #ace visconti #felix richter #dweetwrites #dbd #dbd fanfic #prompt #felix x ace #illness cw #vomiting tw

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peterthepark · 5 years ago

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crush culture - [two]

call it fate, call it caffeine

pairing: steve harrington x reader

summary: coffee can help with a lot of things - and one of them entails becoming closer to your crush.

warnings: strong language, caffeine, FLUFF, uses of social media and brief mentions of cheating

A/N: loved writing this chapter a lot. hope u enjoy everyone! :)

Drumming your fingers against the counter, you began to adjust the obnoxious green hat on your head, frowning at the long line of customers before you. It wasn’t that you hated your job - you just... preferred not doing it (which in your opinion, was completely valid, despite how ridiculous it sounded). However, you did like caffeine and the perks that came with being an employee at your favorite shop. You’d see cute guys sometimes - they’d order the most blasphemous things off the menu - and sometimes you’d gain the courage to ask them out after your shift. Most of the times, they’d say yes, recognizing you from their classes or in the hallways on campus. Exchange numbers, plan the first date, show up, and let it all unfold naturally - yet nothing progresses.

Your love life was bitter, unlike how you liked your coffee.

You squeal excitedly when Nate Mendoza walks through the double doors, calling out your name with a sing-song voice. Of course, you cherished your dear friendship with your roommates, but Nate was just that one friend you couldn’t shake off or forget - no matter the circumstances.

He was also undoubtedly attractive: his blue eyes, a stark contrast to his dark hair. But despite the many rumors and claims that the two of you have been dating, he had a girlfriend back home; you had a strictly platonic relationship with the boy, who was almost like a brother to you.

“What’s up, Y/L/N?” He high fives you over the counter, attempting the handshake that you had developed over the course of your friendship. “Can I get, uh...”

“One chocolate chip cookie with a vanilla latte?” You smirk proudly, having memorized his order as well. He nods with a wide grin, handing you his credit card. “Coming right up, Mendoza.”

Conveniently, you were nearing your break. So after you had gotten Nate’s order sorted, you approached him with his pastry and mug, setting it down on the little corner table that he loved to sit by. You complimented his outfit, and cooed at how long his hair had gotten. Living in Chicago made it difficult for you to hang out with Nate, but he mostly would drive down for the holidays to visit.

“Has it been that long?” You nod your head, counting the amount of months that he’s been M.I.A. “That’s crazy! Alright, tell me about college. Give me the whole experience.”

“Okay, well. It’s not too great. Lots of coffee and studying - a lot of them being for pointless shit that I’m pretty sure I won’t need when I get my actual job. Uh, parties. I literally went to a party like yesterday! You should’ve told me you were in town! I would’ve brought you along.” You nudge his hand from across the table, smiling when he offers you a piece of his cookie.

“Fuck, man. I’m too tired for parties.” He smacks his lips together, wagging his index finger at you as he waited for the right words to come to him. “Ah! Have you gotten a boyfriend yet? Or - or a girlfriend for that matter?” You shake your head with disappointment. “It’s probably cause your game is weak.”

“Okay, okay!” You laugh at him, covering your mouth as you chew on his food. “I’m not - I don’t know, Nate. I guess I just haven’t been looking for anyone? M’too busy for that shit.”

“That’s because you aren’t supposed to look.” Nate scoffs, causing you to glance up at him in interest. “That - that special person is supposed to come to you. Trust me, when the-“

“Time is right, it’ll happen.” You give him a small smile. “Hopefully I won’t have too wait that long.”

Sadly, your break is over after talking to Nate for what felt like ages. You retreat to the register once again after washing your hands, putting on a cheery front for customers. Nate insists that he’ll stay for the rest of your shift, wanting to spend more time with you afterwards.

Collecting your things, you sling your purse over your shoulder, nodding your head towards the door so that Nate follows. The frigid air bites at your skin, and you curse yourself for not bringing a jacket.

“Here, take mine.” Nate shrugs his off, draping it over your smaller frame.

“God, have you even washed this shit?” You joke, tugging it tighter around yourself for warmth.

“Yeah, I have. Like maybe four months ago.”

“You disgust me.” You chuckle, shoving his arm.

You’re rounding the corner of the sidewalk when you see a familiar face approach: brown fluffy hair, denim jacket, and a red bike - yeah, that’s definitely Steve Harrington.

“Oh, we should go back,” You’re about to turn around until Nate glares at you, narrowing his eyes at you suspiciously.

“Alrighty, then. I’m not gonna question it.” He shrugs, following you once again.

The universe is a fucking bitch. You take it all back.

“Y/N?”

You and Nate pause in your steps, and you have no choice but to face him.

“Oh, hey, Steve. Funny, uh, funny seeing you here.” You grin, ignoring the dirty look that Nate was sending him.

“Hey, yeah. Um, what are you up to? I was just - just gonna go get coffee at Fran’s.” His eyes flicker to Nate, visibly eyeing him up and down.

This was the guy who was in the picture with you.

Steve masks the scowl on his face with a easy smile, pulling his earbuds out of his ears.

“I actually just finished my shift there.” You sway from one foot to the other, hands tucked beneath Nate’s jacket. “Sucks we didn’t get to see each other.”

“Well, good thing I ran into you then.” You dip your head at the remark, and before you can continue again, Nate is holding his hand out for Steve to shake.

“Don’t think we’ve ever met. I’m Nathan.” There was a tone in your friend’s voice that you couldn’t place, and suddenly, he seemed intimidating. Poor Steve seemed uneasy. You don’t miss the tiny twitch in his eye when Nate squeezes a bit too hard. “And you are?”

C’mon, Nate. Why do you have to be such a fucking asshole to him?

“Steve. Uh, you guys are... friends?”

You nearly jump when Nate’s arm snakes around your waist, pulling you into his side. “Something like that. Yeah.”

Oh, this dickhead. This overprotective, complete, idiotic dickhead.

You glance away from Steve, trying to avoid his questioning gaze as it bounces from you to Nate, then back again.

“Um, well - well, it was nice running into you, Y/N... and, uh, you too, Nathan.” Steve clears his throat, rubbing at the nape of his neck. “Hopefully I’ll catch you at work one day. Maybe hang out or something.” He chuckles, running a hand through his hair.

He wanted to hang out?

You exchange an excited grin with him. “Yeah, of course. Have a good day, Steve.”

“Right. Bye, again.” He hops back on his bike, pedaling away. You don’t hesitate to look back at him as he rides off - maybe your eyes are playing tricks on you, but he looks back as well. And you smile.

That is until Nate starts interrogating you, causing you to get a bit pissed.

“Dude, what is your deal?” You huff at him, shaking your head with irritation.

“That’s Steve Harrington.”

“Okay, and?” You cross your arms against your chest, protesting when Nate pulls you closer to him as he frowns at the people who decide to walk right through your conversation. “Nate, what about him?”

“He’s an asshole.”

“And so are you.“ You gesture at him, letting your hand fall lazily against your thigh. Nate raises his eyebrows at you, patiently waiting for you to quit talking. “Fine, then. What do you mean?”

“I’ve heard some shit from - from a few people. He cheated on Olivia with that sorority girl.”

Cheated? He was a cheater?

“Those were rumors. And besides, why are you telling me this? It’s not like I care.”

Oh, but you do care. You care immensely.

“Really? Because the way you were looking at each other said otherwise.” You’re about to interject, but Nate holds a hand up, shushing you. “I’m just lookin’ out for you, kiddo. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a crush on him-“

“I do not have a crush on him.”

Liar.

“You sure?” You nod confidently, squaring your shoulders. “Just don’t come crying to me if he decides to break your heart, Y/N.”

“You’re a very mean person. And I’m suddenly not cold anymore.” You shrug his jacket off, handing it to him with a dramatic pout.

“I’m only mean because I‘m trying to protect you.” You nod gratefully at his words, but the thoughts at the back of your head don’t stop swarming you.

You didn’t want to believe Nate’s claims of Steve being a cheater, but then again, who’s to say that they aren’t actually true?

“Do you guys know anything about Steve and Olivia?” You turn the sink on, soap roaming around your hands as you scrub delicately at the dirty dishes.

“Steve and Olivia? Girl, that’s ancient history.” Kate cackles, throwing her head back against the sofa to give you a look of attitude. “Why are you asking?”

“Heard some stuff about them. Just wondering.”

“All that crap is bullshit.” Robin pipes up through a mouthful of cereal, chewing obnoxiously as she gestures at you. “His ex-girlfriend started those rumors to get back at him. It’s stupid. Reminds me too much of high school drama.” She scoffs, shaking her head.

“Speaking of Steve, have you texted him?” Kate cocks her brow at you, smirking mischievously.

Robin nearly spits out her Lucky Charms at the question.

“You have Steve’s number?!” She squeaks, holding the back of her hand to her mouth with shock. “Oh, my god. I see it now.”

“Right?” Kate turns to her. “I saw it from the beginning.”

“What the fuck are we seeing? What is there to see?You shut the sink off, placing your hands on your hips as you move to stand in front of the TV. “Am I supposed to be seeing something? Because if you don’t know, I’m actually fucking blind.”

“You like Steve!” Robin says in a sing-song voice, pointing her spoon at you. Giggles fill the room as your face turns red, and you begin to pace back and forth.

“I do not like him! Why is everyone thinking that I like him?”

“You’re being-“

“I’m not defensive!” Your chest heaves as Robin and Kate exchange knowing look, both sharing identical smiles as they look you up and down. Clearing your throat awkwardly, you ruffle at your hair, bunching it up into a mess. “Okay, maybe I do. Just a little.”

You wince when a ear-piercing scream escapes from Kate, who runs up to tackle you in a jumping embrace. Robin makes kissing noises in the background, squishing her cheeks together.

“You have to text him, Y/N.” Kate lets go of you, grabbing your hand in support.

“No, no, no way.” You toss your hands up, waving the idea away as you plop down onto the beanbag in the corner. “I’m surely not gonna text him.”

“What are you so afraid of? You have nothing to lose!” She points out as Robin hums in agreement. You bite down on your thumb, training your eyes onto the grey carpet.

“What if he doesn’t like me? What if - what if when he gets to know me, he’ll be disappointed?” You ramble.

“Okay, well, how are you gonna answer that question if you haven’t given him a try?” Robin shrugs at you, standing up to hand you your phone. “Take a risk. Fuck everything.”

Yeah.

Fuck everything, right?

“I’m doing this alone.” You chuckle, taking your phone into your bedroom.

“Don’t send nudes, please!”

“And no sexting in this apartment!”

You huff at the wolf whistles of your two roommates, teasing you from the living room. Switching on the lamp on your nightstand, you slide under your covers as you pull up Steve’s contact. You groan aloud, feeling a build-up in your nerves as you stare at the string of numbers.

Texting seemed too formal. You curse at yourself for backing out, resorting to the confines of pointless Instagram stories to free your mind. Almost as if the universe had heard your cry for help, a colored ring appears around Steve’s profile picture, and without hesitation, you excitedly tap on it.

Based on the photo, Steve seemed to be in one of the campus’ libraries, pulling a late-night study session by himself. You pause for a minute, before you slowly swipe up on the screen, which brought you the option to send him a message.

need a coffee refill? ☺️

Sent.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

You instantly lock your phone after it sends, holding a pillow to your face as you let out a muffled scream. You kick at your sheets with heart-pounding anticipation, trying your hardest not to peek at your phone for another five minutes in fear of getting no reply.

Then, a notification pops onto your lockscreen, and your hands fumble to open it.

i would love one

Typing...

from you specifically :)

With a dreamy smile, your limbs shift with giddiness as you move to lay on your stomach, legs swinging mindlessly in the air.

want me to come over? 😂

Maybe you shouldn’t have said that.

ur serious?

Fuck. Was that appropriate? Did you force him into a situation that he’d have to awkwardly say no to?

i don’t mind

i could rlly use the company then 😁

so what’s your drink of choice?

hmmmm

surprise me 😩

You chuckle, shaking your head at the suggestion.

just don’t be mad if i get u something terrible

on my way 😇

With a sigh of relief, you hastily move to slip on a sweatshirt, grabbing your phone and car keys as you tiptoe out of the bedroom.

Robin lays on the sofa, snoring lightly as you try to quietly unlock the front door.

“Mmm... where you going?”

Ah, shit.

“Gonna go for a walk.” You reply casually.

She turns onto her side, peering at you with droopy eyes. “It’s midnight.”

“I’ll be back. Don’t worry.”

Okay, you do like Steve.

You like him a lot.

That‘s pretty fucking obvious enough... because who the hell gets out of bed at twelve in the morning to go buy coffee for some boy they’ve just started talking to?

You hiss when your palms come in contact with the steaming hot coffee, one carried in each hand. There aren’t many students left in the library - most of them cramming for exams or either falling under the cursed spell of sleep. You double check Steve’s message, searching for him towards the back of the building. Your heart beats faster when you catch sight of his profile, nearly walking right past him from how nervous you were making yourself. His earbuds are in, obviously unaware of your arrival as he rapidly types at his laptop.

You set the two coffees down, laughing softly at how Steve jumps in genuine surprise. He looks up at you, mouth agape. He suddenly realizes how much of a mess he looks, and he quickly runs his hands through his hair to fix it.

“Y/N, what - you actually came.” A smile tugs at his lips, and he pulls out the chair beside him for you to sit in.

“You wanna get rid of me already?” You joke, finding amusement in Steve’s distraught expression.

“No!” He says a little too loudly. “No, no, s’nothing like that. I just didn’t think you’d go out of your way to see me. Especially at...” He checks his watch. “...one in the morning.”

“Well, how else are you gonna make it through this night? Or morning, technically?” You hand him his coffee, warning him that it’s a bit hot. “I hope you like white chocolate.”

He takes a sip from the lidded drink, nodding his head at the sugary flavor. “Shit’s good.”

“Seriously?” You chuckle.

“You got taste, Y/N.” He gestures, subconsciously bumping his knee against your thigh as he returns to working, yet still taking the time to hold a conversation with you.

“Okay, so fill me in. What’s going on here?”

Steve explains that he’s got a big essay to work on for one of his minor subjects, and at the same time, he’s stuck with studying for a huge test from his criminal justice course. You listen attentively, trying your best to understand the complex terms he uses in his rambling state.

“Sorry if I went overboard. I just really, really like my major, even if it stresses the fuck out of me.” He scoffs nervously, running his hand through his hair.

“No, it’s great to hear someone so passionate about their studies. It’s super inspiring. I think it’s cute.”

Oh, hell.

You did not just say that he was cute. Sure, you said it in a completely indirect way, but you still fucking called him cute.

Steve blushes, dipping his head down to avert his eyes from you. “Uh, y-you wanna listen to music with me?”

You nod with enthusiasm (slightly embarrassed on the inside), before putting the left earbud into your ear as Steve hits the play button on his playlist. You smile when you recognize the song, it being from one of your favorite artists.

“No way! I love this one!” You sway in your seat, chuckling as Steve mimics your movements. You whisper-shout the lyrics to one another, creating microphones with your fists as you hold it to your mouths. You ignore the weird stares from the other students in the room, only having eyes on Steve as you reach the ending of the impromptu duet.

“Oh, my god, that was - that was great.” He doubles over onto the desk with laughter, feeling himself already perk up from the caffeine. “I didn’t know you had such amazing taste in music. First, coffee, now this? You’re the best.” He points his pen at you, raising his eyebrows with clear satisfaction as you continue discussing your favorite songs.

The best.

He called you the best.

“Thanks, Steve.”

After another hour of conversation and studying, you both begin to wrap things up. Steve tosses the empty cups of coffee into the nearest bin, thanking you as you help him pack up his textbooks and laptop.

He kindly holds open the door for you on your way out, letting it swing shut behind him as the windy air nips at his ears. He walks you to the parking lot, driving his bike with his hands as he comes to a stop by your van.

“W-would you like a ride back to your place?” You offer, rubbing at the sleeves of your sweatshirt. “It’s really cold and dark outside, so...”

Steve smiles. “Yeah, thank you, Y/N.”

“No problem.”

The turn signal ticks loudly as you round the street towards Steve’s apartment. His bike rattles in the backseat, folded over to fit the van.

“I hope your, uh, your boyfriend is okay with this.” Steve sniffles from the heater, scratching the underside of his jaw.

“My boyfriend?”

“Yeah, that Nathan guy from earlier today? He’s your boyfriend, right?”

Well, shit.

“Oh, jesus. He totally isn’t. Trust me.” Steve sends you a questioning look, doubt written all over his features. “I’m serious, Steve. He’s just my best friend, and he’s protective over me, kinda like a brother.”

“That’s good.”

Why was that good? Good that Nate wasn’t your boyfriend? Good that you weren’t dating anybody?Steve couldn’t have possibly liked you back.

Unless... he did?

You shut the engine off when you arrive at his place, walking with him into the lobby. The elevator ride is mostly silent, but there’s an unrecognizable tension that wavers in the air.

He stops you for a second before he unlocks the door to his apartment, twirling his keys between his fingers.

“Uh, I wanted to say thank you for keeping me company. I had lots of fun with you earlier.” He smiles down at you.

“Me too, Steve. You’re a really sweet guy.” You chuckle, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear.

“And you’re a sweet girl.”

Oh, woah.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Steve clears his throat, continuing with a casual tone of voice. “Listen, I was wondering if I could... if I could get your number? Maybe we can hang out again or something, if you’re like available, you know.”

Holy fuck.

Say something. Say anything.

“Yeah, I would like that.”

Steve nods happily, taking his phone out from his pocket. He pretends as if he didn’t have your number in the first place, re-entering it into your already saved contact.

“Okay, great! Thanks. Uh, thank you for... for walking me here. And earlier, which I already mentioned - okay! I’m gonna go now.” He points at his door, cringing at himself with a disappointing sigh.

Confidently, you pull him into an embrace, making the butterflies in your stomach rejoice when he returns the hug with a tighter squeeze.

“Good night, Y/N.” He mumbles into your hair before stepping away.

“You as well, Steve.”

A smirk forms on his lips. “I’ll text you, yeah?”

“I’ll be waiting.” You lightly bounce on your heels, biting your lip as you finally lock eyes with him.

Suddenly, Steve’s hand reaches around behind you, causing your eyes to widen with surprise. He pulls the hood of your sweatshirt over your head, letting it cover your ears and parts of your hair.

His fingers trail down the uneven drawstrings, gently tugging on them.

“It’s cold outside.”

“I know.”

“Don’t want you to get sick.” You can’t fight the grin on your face, watching carefully as Steve turns open the door to his apartment. “Well, get home safe, Y/N.”

Flustered, you start to stutter over your words, forgetting all the right things to say. “You too!”

Idiot.

With one final smile and a sweet gaze in your direction, Steve slowly shuts the door, leaving you in the hallway. You slap at your reddened face when you hear the lock click, scolding yourself for saying something completely idiotic at the last minute.

Meanwhile, Steve leans on the other side of the door, resting his head against the smooth surface as he stares up at the ceiling in an enchanted state of mind. Silently, he begins to jump joyously before he victoriously pumps his fists into the air.

Who ever thought that coffee could draw two souls closer together?

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