#like the love my friends and parents have given me alone the last few hours is just so great but i just feel so empty

[creekbed-burial]

I am literally so fucking thankful for my parents and friends rn they are truly the only thing keeping me afloat rn

Also thankful for Twin Peaks because watching it on 24+ hours of no sleep is like actually comforting but also probably a torture method

[sturncakez]

𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 ෆ

contains: bsf!chris, plot, smut, oral (fem receiving), n fingering.

reader discretion is advised.

christopher owen sturniolo. your bestfriend, but also the love of your life.

you’ve known him and his brothers matt, nick, and justin ever since you were little.

your father and jimmy have been extremely close since they grew up with each other, and of course passing the tradition along, they wanted their children to do the same. despite you being an only child.

you loved all of the boys equally, of course. but you seemed to gravitate towards chris. growing up you couldn’t tell why, but as you got older it seemed to be more obvious. i mean, look at the boy. he’s perfection.

there were so many reasons why you used this word to describe him. but you couldn’t even wrap your finger around just one.

was it the way his beautiful blue eyes shined in the summertime? or was it the way he was so calm and caring, only when it came down to you? perhaps it was the way you guys treated each other, almost like you guys were soulmates, but with no real feelings attached.

you can go on and on about him. his soft and dark locks that seemed to shine with no effort, his listening skills, eye contact that could and always easily melted your heart away, the way it felt like you guys could talk for ages for hours, or even days. in your eyes he had zero flaws, and as you got older, you realized you were in love with your bestfriend.

ྀིྀི

you’re seventeen now. junior in highschool. you peaked quite early to say the least. you’ve had confidence ever since you were young, but as the years went by it’s gotten better and better.

what type of person would chris be to not notice that? he was your “bestfriend” of course.

you had your own sense of taste and style, and your personality wasn’t like the rest. the last thing you would want to do was fit in with any girl at somerville.

little did you know that this is what made chris fall inlove with you. but you being oblivious, you payed no mind to that. thinking that there was no way in hell that your best friend of 15 years would ever feel the same.

one thing you really liked about yourself was your music taste. you had at least 6 favorite artists, but the neighbourhood being your absolute fave. you listened to them all the time. getting ready, in your car, during class, whenever.

one of your favorite songs by the band was softcore. it was your comfort song growing up, and you felt like you could relate to some of the lyrics given the situation with you and chris.

‘..you’ve been my muse for a long time

you get me through every dark night..

i’m always gone, out on the go

i’m on the run and you’re home alone..’

the lyrics touched you physically when you listened to that song for the first time. it was true. chris was your muse. he did get you through every single dark night. when your parents were fighting almost every single night as a kid, or that time they were so focused on your grades instead of your mental health. you were way too young for all of that to happen to you. chris was the one that got you through all that. no one else. it’s almost like if you didn’t have him you would break.

another reason why you felt so touched by those lyrics is because you were almost always out of the house.

it was an escape from reality for you. whether it was walks in the park, going to parties, or sneaking out. chris on the other hand, was the exact opposite.

ྀིྀི

it was friday, but today was different. you weren’t in the mood for anything today. every few months your body gave out from all of the constant going out you would do. you decided maybe tonight was the night you would be an average teen girl and just stay home and watch movies. you were pretty tired anyway.

you decided to just binge watch 2000’s movies and fall asleep watching baylen levine. those plans seemed to be interrupted though, as you heard a ‘ding’ noise coming from your phone.

confused, because your phone always seemed to be on do not disturb, you checked to see who it was. forgetting that there was only one person that you allowed yourself to get notifications from.

it was chris.

chris: Hey

Was just wondering if you wanted to come over, nick n matt are gone for a bit and i’m pretty bored 😭

If not it’s fine tho

your heart began to pound in your chest as you stayed staring at the message. realizing you had your read receipts on you immediately jumped back into reality and began typing away a reply.

should you say yes? or should you say no? you told yourself you wouldn’t let your crush change anything between you guys but something felt different today..

a feeling lurking inside of you telling you that you couldn’t hold it back.

you started to type away.

you: ofc i’d loved to come over

just give me like 10 mins to get ready

chris: Alr np, just text me when you’re otw

you received a sick feeling in your stomach getting that last text. nonetheless, you got up out of your bed and began getting ready.

you threw on a cropped white tee and comfy sweatpants. it didn’t really matter what you wore around chris, and you didn’t think much of what he thought either. because of this you decided to not throw on a bra thinking it wouldn’t matter, but oh were you wrong.

after throwing on your outift and popping your gold hoops and remaining jewelry in, you put your hair in a low half up, got your belongings, and headed out while texting him you were on the way.

it wasn’t that far of a drive to chris’s, his house only being a few blocks away. you parked in the driveway and contemplated going in.

ྀིྀི

finally, you knocked. letting him know of your arrival.

you could hear his footsteps on the other end of the door, and the clicks and clacks of him unlocking it.

“heyyy! i missed you kid!” he exclaimed joyfully, pulling you into an embrace.

“i missed you too, chris! how have you been?” you replied back, feeling as safe as a baby in their mothers arms with him.

“bored outta my mind honestly man. nick and matt have been out for hours, and fortnite was started to get boring believe it or not.” chris said back as he pulled you in, shutting and locking the door behind you.

“surprised to hear that coming from you chris. so was hanging with best friend of fifteen years a last resort or what?” you said in a playful tone while taking off your shoes.

“kinda didn’t wanna bother you ‘cause i thought you had better things to do” chris replied.

you chuckled and looked up at him. “okay so what now?”

chris sighs. “movie?” he says with a cheesy smile on his face.

“gosh you know me so well” you respond back to him.

“kid i’ve known you since we were 2, ‘course i do.”

silence lingers in the air for a while as you both just stare at each other. a smile starts to creep up chris’s face as he full on lunges towards you and picks up right off of the ground as if you weighed nothing. you squeal “CHRIS WHAT THE FUCK PUT ME DOWN!” as he begins running up the stairs to his bedroom and throwing you down onto his bed. this was one of his many ways to mess with you. “calm down kid i wasn’t gonna throw you that hard.” he replies and starts to laugh his ass off as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

you just start to look at him as he laughs, loving the way his smile is, and adoring the sound of his laugh — which most may call obnoxious.

“you’re insane i hope you know that.” you reply.

after he calms down from his laughing fit that seemed to last ages, a moment of silence begins to brew again. lasting longer than the first time. this time was different though. the eye contact didn’t seem like ‘friendly’ eye contact, but at the same time you never really had that eye contact with each other in the first place.

you start to look down at his lips. and right now, in this moment, they looked as delectable as ever. something about them. the rosy pink color they had, the same one displayed on his cheeks. the way they were plump and looked kissable. so kissable.

a feeling started to brew in your stomach. butterflies.

you could tell chris felt the same way. he looked down at your lips, admiring the brown and pink colors. before you could even get a breath out, his lips collided with yours. the kiss was perfect, more than that. they fit so well together, like a mold. he held your the side of your face as you began to straddle on-top of his lap.

but suddenly, you stopped. “wait chris..i’m not sure if..we should be doing this.” you said as you catched your breath, realizing what had just taken place seconds ago.

“baby it’s fine, i’ve been wanting this, wanting you, for as long as i could remember. you’re fine, i promise.” chris replies.

something about the way he said that..his words. its like you could feel them in your heart. you replied a shy “okay” and smiled as you started to kiss him again. this time the kissed last longer, and began to get steamier and steamier.

chris quickly dominated the kiss, interlocking his tongue with yours. it was messy but you loved it. and it definitely made you wet. chris on the other hand was going insane. more blood instantly began flowing to his dick, making his already erect cock even harder. struggling to hide it, he knew he had to do something. he broke the kiss, making you whine in disappointment.

you got used to the feeling of his pillow soft lips. “i know baby, i know.” chris said as he instantly understood how you were feeling. he began to kiss the side of your lip, then your jawline, moving down to your neck. he started to kiss and suck the soft skin and went harsher and harsher as he went lower and lower.

“can i take this off baby?” he said, motioning to your shirt. “mhm.” you replied, making him frustrated. “i need your words mama.” “yes chris, you can take this off!” you said chuckling a bit. chris’s eyes began to wander and they immediately went to your nipples. them being hard as it was cold in his room. “such a fucking slut not wearing a bra around your bestfriend hm?”

as if you weren’t wet enough, his words immediately had your panties even more soaked. chris dipped his head down as he started to swirl his tongue around your nipples and suck. he began to leave dark purple marks all over your skin, letting you know you were his. a thought began to linger in your mind. were you too young for this? i mean, you guys were only seventeen.

but all thoughts were swept away as chris added stimulation to your clit, using one hand and using the other to massage your right breast. you’ve had only two sexual experiences in your life so far, the first one being a girl and the second a guy, neither being able to satisfy you right. but chris, chris was different. “take your pants off for me ma, panties too.” you immediately obeyed his directions and looked back up at him eager to see what was next “so perfect for me baby, all just for me.” your heart melted.

“lay down f’ me.” you laid down on the bed as you patiently waited for his next move. chris began to take his shirt off and started to kiss all over your body again. starting from your neck down to your stomach, and making the kisses slow and sensual, making sure you were blessed with the right amount of satisfaction. you began to let out whines and moans signaling you wanted more than that, the feeling already being beyond immaculate. chris started to kiss lower and lower and pried open your legs.

he stared for what felt like hours, but was probably only seconds. “oh my fucking gosh ma, you’ve been hiding all this from me?” chris said as he began to lick and suck on your thighs, devouring all the remnants of your arousal. you began to whine even more. that’s when chris ducked his head even lower and began to lick at your entrance. “mmmmm” he groaned at the taste, tasting sweet and saltiness.

he began to flatten his tongue against your clit, making you moan as loud as ever. before you could even get a word out he began to fuck you with his tongue. “h-holy fuck chris!” he started to slurp and suck repeated on your weeping pussy. you looked down at him seeing a mess of your arousal and his spit forming on his face. “yes yes yes! oh myyy, oh my fuck baby” you moaned loudly. “hmmm you like that ma?” chris groaned into your pussy, the vibrations immediately going straight to your core, making you wrap your thighs around his head.

chris instantly put his head up and stared into you. “keep your hips down or i’ll stop. understand?” chris said demandingly. you’ve never seen that side of him, but oh did it turn you on even more. “ ‘m sorry baby just please, please keep going..” your wish was his command as he immediately went back to eating you like he hadn’t eaten in weeks. like a starved lion. the dirtiest slurping, slushing, and gushing sounds could be heard from chris’s room. “ohhh my godddd” you moaned, feeling your orgasm start to build up. chris started to suck faster and faster, it was inhumane at this point. he groaned repeatedly knowing it would go straight to your core. “fuck chris i can’t- i can’t take it!” as soon as the words left your mouth and whipped out his fingers, stuck his head up and said “spit.” in the most devilish tone.

you spat into his hand. “good fucking girl.” chris said, as he stuck two of his fingers into your hole that was practically begging to be fucked with his fingers. maybe even his cock. his began to thrust into you slowly letting you get used to the pain, and then started to go faster, as if there was no tomorrow. you squealed and moaned out of intense pleasure not knowing how much longer you could take it for.

not even being able to think straight, chris added a third finger. he stared at your convulsing body and groaned “take it. take my fucking fingers in that tight fucking pussy of yours like the whore you are.” and that was it. those were the last words you heard before you saw flashing of your squirt exiting your body and your vision going white.

chris enjoyed seeing this, knowing that the pleasure he gave you was so intense that you couldn’t even signify him of when you were about to cum. letting you ride out your high, he slide out his fingers and sucked them, moaning a bit. you looked up at him with the most fucked out look in your eyes. “that was. the hottest. thing. i’ve ever seen.”

“i don’t know how i’m still alive after that. that was amazing chris.” you replied in awe. “you’re amazing.” chris said as he began to lean in and kiss you. “you like the way you taste huh?”

you moaned into the kiss signifying your answer. he broke the kiss saying “you did such a good job for me baby. so so good.” you looked at him and smiled. letting out a small “thank you.” “so..where does that leave us now?” chris says.

he didn’t get to finish yet.

- rosa speaks

hi guys this is my very first fic anddd smut. it is loosely based off of the song ‘softcore’ by my favorite artists of all time the neighbourhood!! this is for @annamcdonalds67 writing comp so when i saw this song up there i was so fucking happy. pls lmk what u think of this n if u want a pt. 2 i’ll happily make one.

- also sorry to all the ppl i tagged that don’t like 2 be tagged if they aren’t notified beforehand, i finished this way later than i was supposed to and i was supposed to dm ppl n ask if they wanted to be tagged but i don’t have time. sorry again but i hope u guys like it! ALSOOO COMMENT A PINK HEART IF U WANNA STAY ON MY TAGLIST FOR THE FUTURE 🩷🩷🩷

@musegyra @recklesssturniolo @stunza @sturnphilia @sturnsdoll @pinksturniolo @suyqa @thesturniolos @hoesformatt @mattscoquette @sturnrockwell @sturn777 @slut4chriss @thenickgirl @m9ttsverse @medilovesmatt @stars4chratt @slutz4sturniolos @mattbf

[honeypiehotchner]

gold star (Hotch x Teacher!Reader) -- one shot

Been working on this one for a hot minute oops. Just wanted to say thank y’all for being patient with me always (and we literally hit 5.7k followers even while I’ve been so inactive???? what????). Here’s a longgg dose of fluffy angst <33

Edit: I’m a dumbass and queued this for the wrong day

Summary: You’re Jack’s teacher and Aaron is basically your nemesis. Until he’s not. (Kinda enemies to lovers?)

Warnings: angst! talks of parent death, therapy, bad parenting/emotional neglect, y’know the works. Lots of fluff tho to make up for it. And a happy ending!

WC: ...5.7k-ish

I love my job. I love my job. If you say it enough, you’ll believe it. I love my job. You glance at the clock and see your next parent is late. I love my job.

You do love your job, you really do. What you hate are parent-teacher conferences that you’re required to do. Especially when the parent is late. After having to reschedule at the last minute. Twice.

If you didn’t have a genuine concern to discuss with Jack’s father, then you wouldn’t be here still. But alas, you care for Jack more than your annoyance at his father.

Jack Hotchner is a sweet kid. Genuinely wonderful. After his mom’s sudden death a few years ago, everyone worried about him. You’re friends with Julia, who was his kindergarten teacher just a few months after it occurred. Despite being a teacher for almost a decade that year, Julia had never encountered this situation, so she looked to you for help. You lost your mom when you were in first grade, so you were able to give her more helpful tips that actually work.

Now, you have the pleasure of having Jack in your second grade classroom and he truly is an amazing student. You only wish you could share this information with his father who seems to be on another plane of existence every goddamn--

A knock on your classroom door frame makes you jump.

“I’m sorry,” Aaron Hotchner rushes out, quickly dropping his hand. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s fine, Mr. Hotchner,” you say, standing up from your desk chair, putting on a smile. “Come on in.”

“Thanks, and please, it’s Aaron,” he smiles sheepishly, walking over. He towers over the tiny desks as he maneuvers past them to yours. He sticks out his hand for you to shake. He has a firm grip, but his hands are soft. “I’m sorry I’m so late. I got caught up at work--”

“I figured,” you reply, sitting back down. You pull up your laptop and begin typing in your password. “Unfortunately, I’ll have to make this quick. I should’ve left an hour ago.”

“Oh, sorry, am I that late?” he flicks his arm to look at his watch. He sighs. “I apologize.”

You hum. “Our conference was scheduled for 4:15.” You glance down at the clock on your screen. “It’s almost six.”

“I’m so sorry,” he says again. “Would it be better to reschedule?”

“Nope,” you shake your head. “You’re already here.” And if you reschedule, then this might happen again, so you’d rather do this now while you’ve got him here. “Fortunately, Jack is doing really well. He’s struggling a little with math, but he’s not the only one, and we’re working on it. He’s made a few friends, I know we discussed that last time. He’s breaking out of his shell, I think.”

“That’s good,” Aaron says, smiling a little. “That’s really good to hear.”

“Is he doing any extracurriculars?” you ask. Last time, when you voiced your concerns to Aaron about his son being a little too quiet and shy, you suggested asking if he’d like to do a sport, or play an instrument.

“He’s doing soccer,” Aaron says.

Your eyes widen. “Oh!”

“You look surprised,” he presses.

“I guess I didn’t expect Jack to…want to do a sport,” you shrug, checking your notes for the conference to stall.

What you really wanted to say is that you didn’t expect Aaron to listen to you. Given his track record, it seemed highly unlikely that he’d follow through and actually ask his son about trying a sport, let alone go through with signing him up for one.

“Do you have any questions for me?” you ask, closing your laptop lid. Aaron has been studying your face in this lull of silence, and it’s unnerving.

“I don’t think so,” he finally says.

“Okay,” you nod, not surprised. “I did have one more thing. I know I said Jack is breaking out of his shell, and he is, but he seems…down. Is something going on at home?”

Aaron sighs. “It’s getting closer to the anniversary of his mom’s death.”

That tugs on your heart. “Oh, I see. Alright.” You pause. “Uh-- If you don’t mind me asking, is he seeing a counselor or a therapist or anything?”

“He’s not, not currently,” Aaron says.

You blink. You shouldn’t really be surprised, but you are. “Has he at all since his mom’s death?”

“Briefly, right after she died.”

“Okay.” You clear your throat. You cannot yell at a parent. That’s unprofessional. “I know it’s not my place, but I’d highly suggest finding him someone. Especially right now as the anniversary is getting closer, and as Jack gets older. I would suggest our school counselor, but I think Jack would do better with someone better equipped for his situation.”

Aaron stares at you, nodding slowly. “Alright.”

You lean over and open a drawer, grabbing the handout specifically for times like these. Given the area the school is in, parents are typically able to pay for services like these, and are more willing. You know it’s because they don’t have the time to deal with their children’s emotions, so they pawn them off on someone else, and claim it as a good deed.

In a way, you’re grateful the children are able to receive help that you didn’t because your dad couldn’t afford it. You just wish the kids also received support from their family, not just from doctors.

“Here’s a list of great pediatric psychiatrists and therapists in the area.” You hand Aaron the packet and he takes it gently, his expression unreadable. Parents are always so weirdly defensive about this. “Many of our students see someone from that list, so I trust that one will be a good fit for Jack. If you want some help narrowing it down, I can help.”

“Thank you,” he says quietly. “I’ll look into this.”

I hope so, you want to say, but he doesn’t sound too sincere. “Okay,” you smile softly instead. “That’s all I have, unless you have any other questions?”

He shakes his head. “No, I think-- I think this is good.”

“Alright, well,” you pause, opening Jack’s folder. “I just need you to sign here, so the school knows we met.” You slide the form and a pen across the table.

Aaron signs swiftly, a signature born from frequent piles of paperwork. You know he does something in the government, you’re just not sure what. Nearly every parent here works in the government, though, so that’s not a remarkable conclusion to have made.

“Thank you,” you say, taking the signed form and sliding it back into Jack’s folder. “I hope you have a good rest of your day.”

“You too,” Aaron says, standing up to shake your hand again. He’s so formal, you almost forget. He clutches the packet in his free hand, and you wonder if it’ll end up in the recycling bin at the end of the hall.

After shaking your hand, Aaron apologizes again for his tardiness, and then leaves your classroom. The clock on the wall says it’s just past six. A record for one of the latest nights you’ve been here.

Gathering your things, you do some last minute checks around the classroom before heading out, locking the door behind you.

As you reach the exit doors at the end of the hall, you peer into the trash and recycling bins. Both are empty, no signs of your pediatric psychiatrists packet.

At least that’s a win.

+++

A month or so later, you’re waking up early to go to a soccer game. If it weren’t for your kids asking you (loudly and enthusiastically) to come to their game, then you wouldn’t be awake right now on a Saturday.

Julia, at least, is coming with you, and so is Kate, a fellow second grade teacher whose classroom is across from yours. Julia is coming to see Jack, and Kate also has a few students who asked her to come.

The three of you stop for coffee before going to the park where the soccer games are held. Walking across the field, you find an empty space on the bleachers and sit down, looking around for your kiddos.

To your complete and utter surprise, you spot Aaron Hotchner -- of all parents.

You quickly avert your eyes, looking around some more. You haven’t seen or spoken to Aaron since the parent-teacher conference as Jack is usually picked up and dropped off by his Aunt Jessica. Jack has seemed a little more present and happy, but you have no idea if that means that Aaron actually sought help for his son.

Even more embarrassing, you’ve worried about your job since that conference. It’s always a gamble, offering parents advice. You never know what will cross a line and equal an angry phone call to the principal followed by a swift withdrawal of their child from your class. Not every parent has always been so keen on your attention to your students’ emotional wellbeing.

“Don’t look, but one of the dads cannot keep his eyes off of you,” Julia whispers.

“Which one?” Kate asks, then she spots him. “Oh, him-- He’s tall. Wait, is he…?”

You glance over and sure enough, the one in question is Aaron. He can’t tell that you’ve looked at him, though, thanks to your sunglasses. “That’s Jack’s dad,” you say, looking away again.

“I knew he looked familiar,” Julia murmurs. “I’m not used to him out of the suit. His hair is longer too, isn’t it?”

“Why would I know?” you counter, taking a sip of your coffee.

“Is he the one you mouthed off to?” Kate asks, nudging your arm.

You scoff defensively, “I didn’t mouth off--”

“She told him to put his son in therapy,” Julia explains with a prideful smirk. “Rightfully so, too. I would’ve done the same if I ever saw him.”

“Damn,” Kate chuckles. “Let’s hope that he took your advice.”

“And that he isn’t pissed at me for it,” you mutter. “I haven’t heard anything since.”

Kate and Julia share a look before Julia says, “He’s definitely not mad.”

Finally, you give yourself the chance to look over at him, and to let him see you looking.

You’ll admit, it is weird seeing him out of the suit, let alone in short sleeves. You’ve never seen his arms. They’re…nice. Muscular, more than you expected. Not that you’ve wondered about his arms, though. Or any part of him. Because he’s Jack’s dad, so you should not be thinking about him this way.

Still, you indulge, just for this moment. He keeps your eyes only for a minute before his attention is drawn elsewhere to the screaming kids practicing their warmups (if that’s what those can be called). He’s smiling from ear to ear, something you’ve never seen. The tiny smiles you managed out of him during conferences hardly ever looked genuine. This, though, this one is.

“You should talk to him,” Julia whispers, nearly scaring you shitless. You completely forgot where you were for a minute.

“No,” you shake your head, tearing your eyes away. “That’s practically asking for him to yell at me.”

“He won’t do that,” Julia chides.

“Well, I don’t know,” Kate grimaces. “Parents are finicky. I got yelled at last year by one who I thought was the sweetest ever. Until her kid didn’t pass a science test.”

“See?” you say, gesturing to Kate. “We have no idea what he’ll be like.”

“Besides that he’s looking at you again,” Julia says. “So he’s clearly interested in talking to you.”

“Then he can walk over here himself.”

Julia raises her eyebrows, shrugging. “Be careful what you wish for.”

You roll your eyes. Aaron is too busy with the kids and their game is about to start, so there’s no way he’ll walk over. Even if you speak after, Jack will be with him, so nothing will be said. It’s fine.

+++

Aaron’s mouth is dry. He feels like he forgot how to breathe properly.

He didn’t know you’d be here, and here you are. Beautiful. Except he shouldn’t think that, because you’re his son’s teacher. It’s inappropriate. But the way the sun hits your skin…beautiful. You’re beautiful.

He needs to focus. He’s supposed to be coaching the kids, not gawking at a teacher like some idiot.

To make matters worse, Rossi notices, and only silently raises his eyebrows.

Aaron told Rossi about your parent-teacher conference, and how he should’ve put Jack in therapy sooner -- along with himself. Rossi asked him if he thanked you for your advice, but Aaron never found the right time. He half-heartedly thanked you at the conference, but it wasn’t as genuine as it should’ve been.

He meant to call you, or send an email, but he never did. Truthfully, he’s been terrified. He feels incredibly stupid to have not gotten Jack help sooner, and even more stupid that he finds you as attractive as he does. Can he be any worse of a person, seriously?

And now, you’re here. At Jack’s soccer game. Which, he guesses he should’ve realized sooner that a lot of Jack’s classmates are on this team, too. And others from different classes, but still in his grade. It was only a matter of time before one of the kids asked a teacher to come. It would only take one, and clearly it did, and he’s unprepared.

Wildly unprepared. And wishing he put on a better shirt.

+++

The soccer game is a disaster, but a wonderful one.

The kids are too young for points to be counted, so it’s just a game of fun chaos. Teams are blurred and never really followed. But they looked like they had a blast out there, so that’s all that mattered.

You, Julia, and Kate split up to see your kids and give out as many high-fives as you possibly can. You listen to their rambles and congratulate them on playing so well. The parents stand by with smiles, occasionally one piping up to thank you for coming.

Aaron is there, too, surprisingly. He’s still smiling bigger than ever.

There’s a man with him, too, who Jack calls Uncle Dave. Jack has mentioned him in class before, and he’s actually Aaron’s coworker. He’s smiling, too, just not as wide, and he keeps glancing between you and Aaron.

Just when you think you’re in the clear, Aaron tells Jack to go with Uncle Dave because he needs to talk to you about something.

You catch Julia and Kate’s eyes when Aaron is left alone with you, and your stomach turns. He doesn’t look angry, but then again, the parents never look angry at first.

“I just wanted to thank you,” Aaron begins, turning so the sun isn’t in his eyes as much. He’s still squinting, and it’s adorable. You wonder why he didn’t wear sunglasses. “I picked a therapist from the list you gave me for Jack, and it’s really been helping him. A lot, so, I just wanted to thank you for giving that to me.”

You blink, stunned. “You’re welcome,” you say slowly before you gain your composure. “I’m very glad that it’s been helping. And to see him playing soccer,” you gesture to the field with a smile. “He seems to really enjoy it.”

“Oh, he does,” Aaron chuckles. “He can’t get enough of it. He talks about it all the time.”

All the time. So maybe he’s spending more time with Jack, then. “Good, I’m really glad to hear that.”

You pause, waiting for him to say something else. The awkward silence lingers for a little too long, and you know what’s coming next.

“I was wondering,” he starts, and lowers his voice a little. “I was wondering if you’d like to get dinner sometime.”

As much as you’d love to say yes, you can’t let yourself. “I’m sorry, Mr. Hotchner, that would just be inappropriate.”

“No, no, not as a date,” he backtracks, confusing you. “Just to thank you for-- For helping me get Jack in to see a therapist.”

You raise an eyebrow. “To thank me…for telling you what you should’ve done in the first place?”

He sputters for a moment, clearly losing his bearings. “No, I mean--”

“Listen, Mr. Hotchner,” you smile sweetly, trying to contain yourself. “What would you like? A gold star? For getting your son a therapist after he went through an incredibly traumatic event?”

He doesn’t say anything, and somehow that makes your anger and annoyance worse.

“Listen. The fact of the matter is that you should’ve kept your son in therapy since he lost his mother. And continue to keep him in therapy until he’s old enough to decide if he wants to continue seeing one or not. Because when my mom died, I didn’t get to have a therapist. We couldn’t afford it, and my dad was too out of his mind to even care. It nearly killed me, and my siblings. So don’t tell me that you want to thank me for something that I never should’ve had to do in the first place. You should’ve paid more attention to your son’s needs. Especially since you can afford services to genuinely help him.”

Your voice stayed quiet, thankfully, because you didn’t need everyone to hear you mouthing off to Aaron once again. You realize only halfway through that maybe you shouldn’t be saying these things in a setting such as this, but you’re too into it to stop.

Julia and Kate heard all of it, though. You can see their jaws open, eyes wide. Did you go too far? You don’t know and part of you doesn’t care. It’s the truth, and it hits far too close to home for you to say nothing at all.

Still, to cover your bases, you add one last thing. “I apologize if that was harsh, but it needed to be said. I want what’s best for my kids. And sometimes, that means getting their parents to see that they need to do better.”

You pause, and he nods, and says another quiet “thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” you murmur. And to keep things from stinging any more, you walk away.

Julia and Kate catch up with you on the way back to your car, both too stunned to say a word until you’re inside.

“Damn,” Julia whispers. “Damn.”

“Holy shit,” Kate says with a small laugh. “Tell ‘em.”

“Yeah,” you exhale loudly. “Let’s just hope I still have a job by Monday.”

+++

You do still have a job come Monday, with surprisingly no meeting with the principal, either. Or a phone call.

You’re suspicious, but trying not to be. Maybe it’s all fine.

You convince yourself that it’s completely fine until it really is. Until you start seeing Aaron occasionally, picking Jack up from school. You aren’t sure how often he’s been doing it, because the only reason you saw him is that you were forced into car rider duty. You’ve always been on the bus lane, but they needed another teacher out front, and that’s where you saw him first.

It caught you off guard the first time, honestly. It had been three weeks since the soccer game, since you told him off in front of everyone. And what did he do this time when he saw you?

He waved. He smiled. And then he scooped Jack up into his arms.

She won’t own up to it, but you’re positive Julia saw the interaction because you haven’t worked the bus lane since. Because Julia suddenly volunteered for it, taking your place.

Now, it’s a bit of a routine. Aaron picks Jack up almost every day, although sometimes there are a few stretches of three to four days where he isn’t present. Those days, you see Jessica, and she smiles at you as well, but it’s different. You got so used to seeing Aaron those days, that when you see Jessica, it feels strange. It begins to feel the way it used to feel when you saw Aaron picking Jack up.

It makes you smile. You’re glad to see Aaron taking the time to see Jack, to put in the time — finally — knowing he has the means to be able to do this.

+++

For the rest of the school year, this is how you see Aaron Hotchner.

Neither of you say a word to each other, except for the final parent-teacher conference — which he arrives early for. The conference is entirely professional, and he doesn’t mention the past. Neither do you.

The final week of school fast approaches, and you’re looking for decorations to put up in the classroom. You try to make the last week special because you know they’re just as ready for summer break as you are.

Part of your “decorations” consists of candy that you’ll put on their desk every morning, which means you’re in the grocery store, in desperate need of candy to entertain your kids. Five different kinds. Something extra special on the last day, though. They’ll get out two hours earlier, but they don’t know that yet (the parents do).

Right as you turn down the candy aisle, you stop dead in your tracks, your cart nearly smacking into someone else’s. When you look up, you realize who it is.

“Mr. Hotchner!” you blurt.

He smiles that soft smile. “Please, call me Aaron.”

You’re not used to calling parents by their first name. You know he’s tried to get you to call him Aaron a few times, but you can’t ever bring yourself to. Instead, you change subjects, peering into his cart.

“Grocery shopping? For…” You raise an eyebrow. “I don’t even have a good joke. Why do you have so many marshmallows?” He has like…six big bags. Of varying sizes, too.

“Long story,” he says, sheepish. “Jack wants to build something out of marshmallows.”

“Does he want to build a whole country?” you chuckle.

“Sort of, yeah,” Aaron laughs. “He said he wants to build a whole city, then eat it. His words.”

“Wonderful,” you grin. “Sounds like a blast.” And a good idea. You might steal that for next year.

“What are you here for?” Aaron asks, nodding toward your empty cart.

“Candy, for the kids,” you reply. “I want to give them a different kind every day for the last week, just to make it more fun.”

Aaron smiles wider this time. “They’ll love that.”

“Thanks,” you say, mirroring his smile.

You don’t know what’s gotten into you. Or him, quite frankly. Building marshmallow sculptures with Jack? Unheard of. But you leave it alone, just glad he’s spending more time with his son.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to shopping,” Aaron says, gesturing down the aisle. “See you on Monday.”

Baffled, you blink, then nod. “Yeah. See you Monday.”

You see Aaron every day of next week to pick Jack up, and you get to see Jack’s smile grow every day.

On Friday, you head back inside to your classroom, ready to pack things up. Thankfully, you’re returning to this room next year, so you don’t need to pack everything up.

As a tradition, you, Julia, and Kate go out to celebrate the end of the year, so you have to go home and get ready for the night ahead.

+++

Aaron doesn’t know why he let Rossi convince him to come out tonight. Jack’s at a sleepover at a friend’s house, so Aaron has nothing to do — theoretically. Until Rossi decided to drag him out.

Now, he’s sitting in a booth at a bar with a jazz band playing, and he’s wondering how many people Rossi can possibly know. Four people have already stopped to say hi, and they’ve barely been here for half an hour.

As Rossi talks with another friend, Aaron lets his eyes wander around the place, spotting the door when it opens. And you walk in.

He quickly averts his eyes, shifting in his seat. It’s enough to catch Rossi’s attention, and he gives Aaron a strange look, until he sees you at the bar with your two friends from Jack’s soccer game.

Aaron keeps his eyes trained on his whiskey, nodding absently when Rossi says he’s heading to the restroom.

What Rossi is actually doing is heading to the bar to intercept you and your friends, putting all three of your drinks on his tab.

“Thanks,” you chuckle, never one to argue with a free drink.

“You look familiar,” Julia blurts out.

“Dave,” Rossi introduces himself. “I’m a friend of Aaron Hotchner’s. I went with him to a few of Jack’s soccer games last season.”

“That’s where I’ve seen you,” you say.

Dave smiles. His back is turned to Aaron, so he can’t see Aaron glaring at him, wondering what the hell he’s doing up there talking to you.

“Aaron’s here with me, actually,” Dave says casually. “He’s at the booth just behind us if you’d like to see him.”

Kate nudges your arm harshly. “She would.”

“Actually, I don’t know if that’s—”

“Go,” Julia urges. “Why not?”

You give them both a look. “Fine,” you cave. “I’ll be right back.”

Kicking yourself for caving so easily (because you really would like to see him), you walk over to the booth where Aaron sits. Thankfully, his back is toward you, so he doesn’t see you coming.

He beams a smile when he sees you though, standing up to greet you. “Hey, what are you doing in here?”

“Kate and Julia drug me out,” you confess, idling for a moment as you both try to decide if you should shake hands, hug, or just stand here. “You?”

“Dave,” Aaron nods, chuckling. Just standing here it is. “Did he send you?”

“They all did,” you nod toward the bar, where they’re all watching like hawks, no doubt. “Mind if I sit?”

“Not at all,” he gestures to the empty space. “How are you?”

“Good, we’re out celebrating the end of the year,” you reply, walking around the table and sitting down on the plush booth cushion. This place is fancier than you would’ve chosen, but Julia heard good things about it from a friend, so you ended up here anyway. “How are you doing?”

“Good, although Dave drug me out for drinks because apparently,” he lifts his drink, “I don’t get out enough.”

“Y’know, that’s funny, my friends tell me the exact same thing,” you laugh. “Dave bought our drinks.”

“I knew he was doing something suspicious,” Aaron jokes, glancing back toward the bar. Dave and your friends have taken over three stools, clearly set on giving you and Aaron some time alone. “Sorry again if he forced you over here.”

“No, he definitely didn’t. My friends did,” you assure him, rolling your eyes. “Oh, I have to ask, how did Jack’s marshmallow city building go?”

Immediately, Aaron digs his phone out of his pocket. “I have a lot of pictures, I’ll just show you.” He unlocks his phone and goes to his camera roll, already smiling at the thought of them. “He had a blast. We went through so many toothpicks. We both had stomachaches by the end of it from eating so many marshmallows.”

He turns his phone to show you the pictures, and without thinking, you scoot closer to him. To get a better look at the pictures, you tell yourself, but you know that isn’t the full truth.

“Oh my god,” you laugh, grinning from ear to ear. “This so huge!”

“It covered our entire kitchen!” Aaron laughs with you, a sweet sound you wish you heard more often. “I didn’t tell Jessica about it, so she had a heart attack when she came over the next day.”

“I bet,” you nod seriously, swiping on his phone as he holds it toward you. “Goodness.” You look up at Aaron. “Did you guys eat all of them?”

“We’ve had a lot of hot chocolate.”

“It’s May.”

“I know,” he deadpans, feigning annoyance, but then he breaks into a smile. “I’ll admit, I’ve been snacking on them maybe a little more than I should every time I go into the kitchen.”

“I would do the same,” you chuckle. “No judgment here.”

He smiles at you and tucks his phone away back in his pocket, and neither of you move from how close you’ve gotten.

“How are you planning to spend your summer break?” he asks, taking a sip of his whiskey. You try not to stare at him too much.

“Lots of getting ready for next year,” you reply, rotating your glass in your hand, focusing on it instead. “Mostly reading for fun, I don’t get to do that a lot during the school year when I’m reading for my kids and grading and such. I plan to do a lot of nothing, basically,” you laugh. “What about you?”

“The same, hopefully,” he says, which surprises you. And he can tell, because he elaborates. “I took a lot of time off from work. I work from home now, essentially. If I absolutely need to go in, then I do, but so far, Dave’s been able to handle it.”

You knew a big change had been made, especially since he’s been picking Jack up from school everyday. But hearing the confirmation makes your heart warm. “I’m really glad to hear that.”

“Me too,” he says. “I know we’ve been over this, but I wanted to thank you for what you said, at Jack’s game—”

Mortified, you interrupt him. “Oh god, I hoped you had forgotten about that.”

“I didn’t forget—”

“I was rude.”

“What you said needed to be said and I’m glad you did,” he protests sincerely. “You shouldn’t have had to say anything, but you did, and I appreciate that.”

His sincerity stuns you. You blink, no words able to come out.

“We can move on from it now,” he says, noticing your hesitation. “I just wanted to be clear that I’m not angry with you for what you said, I’ve actually been the complete opposite.”

“Well,” you chuckle, trying to make light of this. “You didn’t call the school demanding I be suspended, so I knew you couldn’t be that upset with me.”

He stares at you, eyes widening. “Do parents do that?”

“Some, yeah,” you nod. “They don’t exactly like being told by a single teacher with no kids of her own that their parenting skills are shit.”

He laughs, taking a sip of his whiskey. You watch him raise the glass to his lips, but look away before he can catch you. You smile down at your own drink. This is embarrassing.

You thought this little crush -- or whatever it is -- had gone away since you hadn’t spoken to him since the soccer game. Sure, you started to look specifically for him in the pickup area, but that was for Jack. That wasn’t for you. Or, at least, that’s the story you spun for yourself.

“What’s on your list to read this summer?” Aaron asks, bringing your eyes back to his. He’s smiling. “I’ve been meaning to read more -- outside of the books Jack and I read.”

You remember Jack telling you about The Magic Treehouse series that Uncle Dave got him for Christmas, and how his dad was reading them with him.

“What, The Magic Treehouse isn’t enough for you?” you tease Aaron, and he laughs, that sweet sound you can’t get enough of.

You tell him about the books on your shelf at home, the ones you got years ago and have yet to read, and the others that you got this year because you couldn’t resist. He listens to each one, never once taking his eyes off of you.

“I am not going to remember all of these names,” he chuckles.

“I can text them to you,” you offer, a grin creeping up your cheeks.

He mirrors your expression. “You stole my line.”

“Oh, that was your line?” you ask, laughing as you pull out your phone. “Fine, fine, you can have it back.”

“No, you said it first,” he says, still grinning. He hands you his phone as you give him yours. “I’m bad at this anyway.”

“I don’t know,” you shrug, typing in your contact information before handing his phone back. “I’ve had a pretty good time.”

He waits a moment, just basking in your smile, the feel of your fingertips brushing against his when he returns your phone. “Me too.”

The night doesn’t end there, as the two of you continue talking. Another round of drinks is sent to your table by Dave and your friends who wave enthusiastically when you and Aaron look over at them.

“Free drinks, at least,” you shrug. “How much money does Dave have?”

“Don’t ask,” Aaron shakes his head. “He’ll never tell.”

As you both finish your first drink and head into the second, you scoot even closer. You bring your legs underneath you on the booth, getting comfortable as you and Aaron start to talk about your favorite movies. He tries to be sneaky and put his arm around you, but you notice and can’t help the giggle that escapes you.

“I told you I’m bad at this.”

“No, it’s sweet!” you protest, leaning into his chest. “It’s very nice, I don’t mind.”

He moves his arm from the back of the booth to your shoulders then, his hand resting on your arm. “This okay?”

“It’s perfect,” you smile softly, turning your head to look up at him. “What movie were we on?”

He stares so intently, searching your face. You watch as his eyes gaze over every inch, dropping to your lips, then back to your pupils. “I have no idea.”

“Me either,” you murmur, silently hoping for a kiss. Silently hoping that he’s hoping, too.

And he is. “I know our friends are watching us,” he whispers. “But can I kiss you right now?”

“Yeah,” you grin. “I was about to ask.”

“Well now we’re even,” he says, leaning closer as he smiles. You tilt your head, meeting his lips halfway, not wanting to wait any longer. You’ve quieted these feelings for far too long.

He kisses you long and sweet, his free hand coming to cup your face as yours search for stability in his shoulders. He knocks the breath out of your lungs, literally, but you wouldn’t have it any other way.

Aaron pulls back for just a moment, just far enough to say, “Was that worth a gold star?”

You laugh, playfully swatting his chest. “Yeah, Aaron,” you say, looking up at him. “It was.”

[bibbityboppitybillyharvgrove]

A Happy Christmas - R.Lupin

Summary - Remus and his wife have a tradition they follow every Christmas Eve, wrap the remainder of their children’s gifts and pull an all-nighter to get some extra alone time together.

Word Count - 821

Warnings - Female Reader, Potter!Reader(No physical description given), use of Y/N, Not sleeping (Let me know if I missed any)

Author's Note - Welcome to day 9 of 25 days of fics! I know that this one is later than usual and I apologize. I'm super sick at the moment with a bad head cold so I'm trying! I hope you enjoy!

Harry Potter Masterlist

my masterlist

25 days of fics masterlist

Feedback is welcomed and encouraged

Enjoy!

not my gif

not my gif

It was Christmas Eve, snow was falling, the fireplace crackling and the children were sleeping. Now Remus never thought he would have a life like this because of his furry little problem but he was happy that he was proven wrong. Y/N Lupin, once Y/N Potter, had been his wife for nearly 10 years, the two of them getting married right after graduating Hogwarts. James was always their biggest advocate and number one supporter no matter what.

They usually spent Christmas together, at James and Lily’s house so the kids could all be together. Being with family was the most important thing to Y/N, she always had someone with her when she was running errands or doing some housework. She was never alone so of course she wanted to spend the holidays surrounded by loved ones. James offered to host because, simply put, his house was bigger and could hold more people easier, thanks to professionally playing quidditch. 

All of the adults in the house were still awake, rushing around to get last minute gifts into the house or wrapped up with pretty paper to be put under the tree and torn open a few hours later. James and Lily had just finished up putting Harry’s things under the tree before calling it a night and going to bed themselves. This left Y/N and Remus alone and awake, wrapping the last of their childrens’ gifts.

They could do it with magic but both of them preferred the muggle way, wrapping the gifts by hand. That's why it usually took them twice as long to get everything wrapped and put away. This was their routine every Christmas Eve: wrap the presents together, put them under the tree and spend some quiet time together, knowing everyone was sound asleep.

As they finished putting the gifts under the tree, they took the time to just hold each other and watch the snow fall outside the window, just enjoying each other’s company. Y/N also never thought that she would have a life like she does now, she never thought that Remus reciprocated her feelings. She never thought she was good enough for him but to him, she was more than enough. She was the love of his life, the one person that he would protect with every fiber of his being. Once the kids came along, he knew that he would never give this life up for anything. He would kill for his family, he would sacrifice himself for his family because he knew that they would do the same.

They watched as the sun began to rise, the birds chirping outside, the footsteps of the kids running down the stairs followed by James and Lily’s lazy ones. When James took notice of his sister and his friend, he smiled sleepily knowing exactly what had occurred. “You two never went to sleep, did you?” He asked the pair.

“No, we stayed up watching the snow. Lost track of time. Happy Christmas James,” His sister responded, smiling right back at her big brother.

“Happy Christmas Y/N.”

“Mummy, daddy, can we open our gifts now?”  The youngest Lupin boy asked innocently as he hugged her leg.

“Go on then, they aren’t going to open themselves,” Remus teased as he ruffled his son's hair. 

With the proper go ahead, the three children tore into their gifts, paper flying all over the place. The parents huddled together, watching the delight in their children’s eyes as they took in all of their new toys and clothes. Little Harry was especially excited to see his very own broom gifted by his aunt Y/N and uncle Moony. This was the life that they wanted to live and enjoyed every second of it.

“Happy Christmas my love,” Remus said quietly to his wife as he handed her a small wrapped box.

“Happy Christmas Remmy,” She replied, handing him his gift. The two of them opened them together as the kids all giggled in the background. Remus had given her a gorgeous necklace that held two interlocking hearts that held their initials. Y/N had given him a new sweater, one he had been eyeing up the last time they went out to the shops together. “There’s something else under the sweater,” She hinted to him.

So he took out the sweater to reveal an ultrasound picture. “You’re kidding? Please tell me this isn’t a joke,” He had a wide smile on his scarred face, excited at the fact that they were bringing another kid into the world.

“It’s not. We’re having another baby!” She exclaimed, James and Lily immediately ending their conversation as they overheard. Remus engulfed his wife into a tight hug, lifting her off of the ground as he laughed happily. 

The whole house was overjoyed with the news, everyone smiling big and giving hugs wherever they could. It was a typical Lupin-Potter Christmas.

[arzuera]

Once Danny was far enough he broke down crying, he knew he shouldn't, he was expecting this. But in the end it still hurts.

Was it so wrong for him to hope for a different outcome? To be fully loved by the parents that he loved all of his life. That loved HIM for all of his life. Only to be cast out and hunted for fate accidentally turning him into the thing that they despised the most? Was it truly such a sin? Did the universe hate him that much?

Lightning cracked the sky as a thunderous roar followed. Rain poured down in sheets, erasing any traces of his frantic flight away from his hometown. Away from the ones who sought to kill him a second time. Away from the people he loved.

Danny allowed himself to fall fully to the ground of this little field. His parents had long since given up trying to chase him down. He had been too fast for the GAV to keep up with through a densely packed forest. Even then, he had kept going. Minutes turned into yards, hours turned into miles. He had fled as far as his body would allow and it had been a lot farther than he thought it would be. Danny had no idea where he was at this point. Not that he cared.

Anguish gripped his core hard as he let out a cry that would have brought anyone nearby to their knees. It wasn’t quite a wail but it was close. He shoved all of his pain and sorrow for the fact that his entire life had been ripped out by the roots and thrown viciously aside. It wasn’t the Nasty Burger accident but this was just about as bad. They weren’t dead but, in the end, he still ended up alone. So he continued to scream. His cries turned into minor wails at times but since he was screaming to the sky nothing was destroyed.

He didn’t stop until his throat bled and the screams turned into nothing more than strangled sobs. White rings flashed around his midsection as the last of his powers gave out. Leaving Danny with nothing other than his human side. The one that still existed, despite what his parents claimed. With no strength left, he lay in the mud unable to move. Vulnerable. Anyone could walk up and just do what they wanted and he wouldn’t even care. What was the point? There wasn’t any reason to try anymore. If only that portal had finished the job-

“You’ll catch your death laying on the ground like that.” A long trenchcoat came into view with a middle-aged man looking down at him from under his umbrella. “What’s a kid like you hanging out in a park so late at night in Gotham?”

Danny didn’t respond. His eyes were unfocused with his vision blurring around the edges. So he was in Gotham. Wonderful. Somehow he had managed to fly several states away in just a few hours. If he could, he would have excitedly called Sam and Tucker about this new record but he couldn’t. Not anymore.

The man sighed heavily when he realized that he wasn’t going to get an answer. So he sidled up and crouched down closer to the teen’s eye level while holding his umbrella out so it protected them both. “Look, kid. I don’t think I need to tell you how dangerous Gotham is at night. Especially to a kid like yourself. Is there somewhere I can take you to… or-” He stopped when the lights in Danny’s eyes dimmed even further than they were. “Mkay, guess not.” The man looked around the immediate area before settling on Danny again. “All right, bud, can you stand? We’ll get you back to my place until we can figure something out.”

Danny laughed bitterly turning into a coughing fit. Blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth making the man look at him with even more concern. “Isn’t it dangerous to go with a stranger this late at night in Gotham?” he rasped out and it only made the coughing worse but Danny didn’t care.

Instead of taking offense like Danny thought he would, the man smirked at the teen as if this was an everyday occurrence. “Well, we can’t be strangers if you know my name right? Name’s James Gordon, friends call me Jim. Now let’s get you out of this cold and your throat looked at. I doubt you want that getting worse.” With great care, Gordon picked Danny up and held him close. Finagling the teen around so that the umbrella wouldn’t fall out of position. Danny was too surprised by the fact that he was suddenly picked up to notice the frown that briefly crossed the man’s face at how light the boy was.

“Wait… what? What are you doing-” Danny weakly struggled against Gordon and failed since his strength was entirely spent.

“Relax, I’m not going to do anything bad. As Commissioner of this lovely city, the only safer hands you would be in is Batman, himself.” Gordon started to head out of the park towards a vehicle parked nearby. Danny gave up trying to resist, opting to just let things happen. “We’re just going to stop by my place and get you looked at. My daughter might not be a doctor but she’s pretty good with a first aid kit.”

“Why do you even care?” Danny couldn’t help but blurt out. A small pang of guilt crept into his heart from how he said it. From what little he knew, Commissioner Gordon was one of the few upright people in Gotham. One of the few people that was trying to keep the city safe… Just like Danny had tried. Only Gordon didn’t have powers at his disposal. It would be weird if the man didn’t care.

“A lone, possible meta, child screaming until his throat bleeds in the dead of night with no one around? I think you are smart enough to figure that one out.” Gordon positioned the teen in the backseat of his car before getting behind the wheel.

Danny tensed at the implication. If he thought he was a meta then he probably saw him de-transform. “…how much did you see?”

“Enough and don’t you worry about it. Big bad Bat isn’t going to kick you out as you think. If you are worried about me judging then please let me remind you, I’m the Commissioner of Gotham. A kid with powers isn’t anything new.” Gordon started up the engine and they were off. A brief silence descended on the two while Danny struggled to stay awake.

“You aren’t… you won’t turn me in?”

“Did you do something wrong?”

“Well, no but-”

“Then even if there is a law saying you shouldn’t exist, I’m not going to turn you in. If that were the case, the only person I would turn you over to is Batman and that’s because he would have a better chance at protecting you from outside forces than I would.” Gordon stated with full confidence as he pulled into the parking spot next to his building. “Here we are. Now while Barbara is checking you over I’ve got a mean vegetable stew my friend gave me. Want me to warm some up to see if it helps your throat any?”

When the man turned around he was greeted to the watery eyes of his newest charge looking at him with the smallest glimmer of hope that he had seen the entire time. Danny kept his gaze on the Commissioner. “Yes, please.”

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.128 Fired

We arrived at home late that night loaded down with more gifts than the nursery could hold. If we received one more thing, we'd have to start a warehouse in the empty bedroom. We got so much stuff, we could probably support six more babies, heh. Baby girl could use a different towel every day of the week for the rest of her childhood. We had enough shampoo and lotion to last the rest of her life, it seemed like. If one day she entered a nobody loves me phase, I'll be sure to remind her of this scene.

Sophia had never been a busybody and always took a more relaxed approach to life, but I was glad to see her following the doctor's orders. She spent a lot of time on our balcony, rocking in the chair early morning, thinking about whatever expecting mothers think about. Sometimes I'd catch her reading on the couch. Seeing her take the warning seriously made me feel good about leaving her alone for a few hours to visit Maira. I thought about it in the shower, and visiting her before the baby was born was the move. Who knew when I'd be able to spend quality time with her after that.

Like I always, I began our conversation with an apology, but she didn't fault me, of course. She said it wouldn't have been right for me to neglect all my guests to hang with her all afternoon. That was true, but I still didn't like that she was alone all day. She assured me that she was okay, so I asked about her brother.

"He died in a fire," she said.

"Oh, gosh! I'm so sorry, Maira."

I never liked him, but he didn't deserve to die like that.

"Knowing he's not here anymore is its own challenge, but what makes it worse is when I think about the fire, I often think about us."

I swallowed a few times because I knew exactly where she was going, and it made me nervous.

"I think about how you held me when you realized I was okay and what we both felt."

I couldn't move or even blink and sat there, holding my breath, hoping she wasn't about to pull a Yasmine on me. Finding good friends had been a long journey, and I felt like I had a nice inner circle now. I didn't want to lose Maira because of her feelings for me. I also didn't need her digging things back up because I had worked hard to let that go.

"Sometimes I think about that moment and I wish I would have given in," she continued. "We could have tried to see if we would work. I imagine myself married to you and pregnant with your baby. My parents would finally be proud of me."

I wanted to stop her from talking so she wouldn't say something that would ruin our friendship, but I was frozen. This was a mistake. I wanted to be a better friend, but we couldn't be alone together anymore.

"All of that is nice to think about," she continued, "but I would be miserable. And you would get fed up with me. We wouldn't be friends anymore. Life turned out exactly how it was supposed to, and I wouldn't change a thing. I like how we are, and I like my life. It's just lonely sometimes, and I wonder if I'm missing out on something."

I exhaled the breath I held and blinked, finally. I could keep my friend. As uncomfortable as that was to hear, I loved that we were able to be that honest with each other. That's true friendship right there.

"Everyone has their own opinions about what you should be doing with your life, so I don't think there's a right or wrong answer for that," I said. "I think as long as you're happy with your life, no one else's opinion matters."

"Yeah. You're right. That's what I say to myself. But you know how it is."

"Yeah. It's a battlefield up there."

"Seriously."

"So...there's no one you're interested in right now?" I asked, trying to pivot the conversation...and maybe be a tiny bit nosy.

"No, and it's all your fault. You ruined me!"

"Me? How??"

"You set the bar way too high! No one else can measure up!"

"Oh please. I'm sure there's plenty of guys out there who are way better catches than me."

"I assure you, there aren't."

"I don't believe that for a second. Ooh, I should set you up with my friend Justin."

"That guy who comes to all your parties? He's kinda cute. What's up with him?"

"He's a landscaper and lives in San Myshuno. He comes from a big family just like you and is a good man...a bit older than us, but at least he won't bother you about children."

"Oh-my-Watcher you're trying to set me up with an OLD man??"

"He's not that old...I think."

"You are officially fired from matchmaking, thank you!"

I missed our banter. It felt good to laugh with her again. Hopefully, she would let someone into her life soon. She didn't need a man, but it was obvious she wanted some kind of companionship, and I was not the man for the job. Besides, she deserved to be loved and cherished, and I wanted to see her happy for once.

"The baby will be here in a couple of days, huh?" she asked.

"Sure will. I can't wait to meet her."

"So, is this the first of many, or..."

I sighed, realizing this would be the first time I admitted this out loud.

"She might be it for us. At least if we want more, we'll have to adopt."

"Whaaat?"

"Yeah. We went through a lot to get her. Sophia says she doesn't want to do it again."

"Are you cool with adoption?"

"Oh yeah, totally. You know Sophia's adopted, right?"

"Really? I don't think I knew that. It's funny...I've known her almost my whole life, but I've never really known her until now."

Was it bad that I often forgot she and Rashidah were sisters? They rarely spoke of each other, and Sophia and Rashidah seemed closer than the sisters.

"Yeah, she is," I said. "And she's got quite a story. But yeah... We're both open to it, but actually doing it is another story."

"Well, whatever happens, I'm glad you two are finally getting your family. I can't wait to meet your kid!"

"Oh yeah? I thought you didn't like children."

"I never said that! I don't want my own children; I love the auntie life! I think my first order of business will be teaching her forbidden words!"

"Oh Watcher. Here we go."

[toasttt11]

confessions

November 17, 2023

Lex ignored the look she knew was coming from Rutger and continued tying her skates.

“You know you can’t ignore him forever right.” Frank leaned over from where he sat in his stall next to hers whispering, Lex looked up glaring at him making Frank put his hands up in defense.

Lex finished her skates and stood up slipping on the rest of her gear and putting on her number four jersey with her embroidered A on it, and headed with her team as they headed towards the rink.

“Can we please talk after this.” Rutger softly whispered to Lex as he caught up with her. He knew she’s been ignoring him for the last week since they almost kissed.

Lex looked over seeing Rutger looking like a kicked puppy and nodded agreeing to talk before they focused on the game.

Lex was passing the puck across the ice to Rutger who took the onetimer as Lex watched him get smashed into the boards, and it felt like time stopped as she watched the way his stick slowly drop as he crumpled to the floor.

Lex barely remembers moving before she was on top of the player who had hit Rutger and she could feel the blood on her knuckles as she hit him straight across the nose before she was pulled off.

Lex stood with her team as they watch Rutger get loaded onto the stretcher in obvious pain and hurried out of Yost.

“You good to play.” Jacob mumbled to Lex knowing how she cares for Rutger.

“Let’s kick their asses.” Lex looked at her captain, determined for Rutger, for Dylan and for Mark who were both injured as well in this game.

And Michigan did just that. Lex getting the winning goal, making them win 6-4.

Lex quickly rushed a shower and changed into a pair of sweatpants and sweatshirt and saw almost all of her teammates getting dressed quickly to go see Rutger.

Lex silently handed the keys to Frank not sure if she wanted to drive this emotional and knew Frank would understand.

Lex looked out the window not even noticing they had got to the hospital until Frank gently nudged her arm, her head snapped up and saw they were there.

The whole hockey team met up with Rutger’s parents and sister as Rutger was with the doctor getting everything checked over and figuring out what the problems were.

Lex sat down next to Molly having always been close to her and grabbed her hand giving it a squeeze and Molly leaned her head on Lex’s shoulder sniffing worried for her brother.

It felt like forever before the doctor finally came out, “Good news your son is okay,” the words brought sighs of relief across the room, “Bad news he does have a punctured lung and broke rib.”

Cindy and Jim took in a sharp breath worried for their son.

“He should be awake in the morning and we given him meds to sleep through then night to start his body healing faster.” The doctor finished and excused themselves.

Rutger’s parents and Molly went into the room first spending a few minutes alone with a sleeping Rutger, before they gestured for the team all to squeeze into the room.

They all spent a few hours all huddled in the room all worried for Rutger, before Cindy told most of the team to get back to school and get some sleep. Cindy got all of the stubborn boys to head back but Lex was even more stubborn and she stayed in the chair in the room.

Frank rested his hand on her shoulder, “Want me to take you car back?” He leaned down to one of his best friends.

Lex nodded and handed her keys to him.

Cindy had Jim take Molly home wanting them to get a goodnight sleep at home.

“You care a lot for my son?” Cindy looked over at the girl she knows her son has been in love with for years and she seen her grow up.

Lex looked up at someone who’s always felt like another mother to her and knew she couldn’t lie, “I always have.” She admitted the truth.

“I know.” Cindy smiled softly having seen how much Lex has taken care of Rutger over the past few years, “He loves you, you know.”

“I know.” Lex soflty nodded knowing how much Rutger cares for her and some days she feels as if she doesn’t deserve all his love.

“Give him a chance.” Cindy softly squeezed her hand and sent Lex a motherly smile.

“I plan too.” Lex soflty smiled as she looked at sleeping Rutger and felt some tension come out of her shoulders seeing him peacefully sleeping even though he is badly injured.

November 18, 2023

“Mom?” Rutger groggily spoke feeling her hand brush his hair as he slowly woke up in the hospital bed.

“Hi honey.” Cindy McGroarty smiled softly down at her son who gave her the scare of a lifetime, “How you feeling?”

“Alright.” Rutger softly muttered back, “Where’s Mols and Dad?”

“I sent them to get something to eat.” Cindy replied, “Your teammates were all here last night but they had to go back to get some sleep, expect one wouldn’t leave the whole night and stayed with me.”

Lex was curled in one the hospital chair with a blanket draped over her, Rutger smiled softly seeing her. Cindy smiled at her son’s smitten look and knew the two would get together eventually.

A few hours had went by and the doctor had come in to talk to Rutger.

“How long am i going to be out?” Rutger desperately questioned knowing the World Junior Championship is in a few weeks.

“Six to eight weeks, depending on how fast you heal.” The doctor informed him.

Rutger head dropped and he could feel the tears fill his eyes realizing he most likely won’t be able to play, Lex frowned grabbing his free hand squeezing it tightly.

Rutger took a shuttering breath leaning his head back onto the pillows, he squeezed his hand.

His parents and sister had walked out of the room to talk more with doctor out of the room.

“Do you think i’ll be able to play?” Rutger choked out looking at Lex, his face covered in tears and the saddest frown on his face.

Lex looked at Rutger feeling her heart break seeing how devastated he is, “I think you will.” Lex had a feeling Rutger would heal in time to he able to play.

November 20, 2023

Lex went to her classes when she woke knowing Rutger was coming home today and she made sure to grab all his work as they have almost every class together.

She drove over to his parents house and knocked on the door, Cindy smiled at her as she opened the door, “Lex come in!”

Lex smiled waking in, adjusting her backpack on her shoulders, “How’s he doing?”

“Good today, think he is happy to be home.” Cindy smiled walking her down to Rutgers room, “He is pretty out of it today and been sleeping most of the day.” She opened the door to Rutger’s room and he was fast asleep in the middle of his bed.

“That’s okay, i just wanted to check on him and i brought his work so whenever he’s ready to start working on that.” Lex smiled and opened her backpack pulling out the work for Rutger and set it on his desk.

Cindy stayed at the door smiling at Lex, Lex walked over leaning down pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead before leaning up and walking back to the door.

“You can stay you know.” Cindy smiled soflty at her.

“Thank you but i should probably get back to the house and get some work done before practice later.”

“Alright, Let me walk you out.” Cindy walked with her to the front door, Cindy pulled her into a gentle hug, “Thank you for coming.”

“Course.” Lex smiled back before pulling away and waking to her car.

November 21, 2023

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Cindy asked Lex as she walked through the door.

“Really it’s not a problem i was gonna spend the day with him anyways.” Lex reassured her with a smile.

“Thank you really.” Cindy had gotten an emergency at work she had to get to and Molly was in class taking an important test and Jim had to go into work as well. Cindy knew Rutger was supposed to be not alone for a little while and she trusted Lex, “He was sleeping when i checked on him last, and thank you again.” Cindy rushed out the door.

“It’s not a problem.” Lex smiled before heading down the hallway to Rutgers room in his parents house, the door was open and she could see Rutger kinda sleeping but not fully asleep.

Lex stepped in and set her backpack on his desk and unzipped it pulling out the gift she got Rutger. Lex walked over and gently sat on the edge of the bed as Rutger’s eyes were fluttering open.

“Ollie?” Rutger mumbled with a goofy smile.

“Hey pretty boy.” Lex smiled soft brushing his hair off his forehead, “How you feeling?”

“Good.” Rutger slowly nodded before nothing something in her hands, “What’s that?”

“Uh I uh thought you might like it.” Lex rushed out setting the snow white teddy bear next to Rutger.

“It’s cute.” Rutger picked it up feeling how soft it was before looking at Lex seeing how she was avoiding his eyes and felt his heart clench in fondness for this girl, “Thank you.”

“Of course.” Lex cleared her throat, “Your stuck with just me for the day, your mom had to go into work.”

“And you came over?” Rutger titled his head looking at Lex for an answer.

“I uh planned to come over anyways and i uh got your work so you wouldn’t be behind.” Lex simply explained fiddling with her finger not enjoying how nervous she felt.

“You do care for me.” Rutger teased with a smug smiled.

Lex took a deep breath and looked up towards him, “Of course i do.”

Rutger’s eyes widen and he tried to lean up towards her, “Woah relax!” Lex quickly put her hands out stopping him from moving and made him stay put.

Rutger ignored her words and looked at her, “You care for me?”

“Of course i do Rut.” Lex softly admitted leaning closer to Rutger.

Rutger slowly breathed out in disbelief hearing the words he’s been waiting for and gently brought his hand up to cup her cheek, he smiled as Lex leaned into his touch.

He gently pulled her chin down to him, “Can i? Please?” Rutger breathed out desperately looking up at her for permission, to do the thing he’s been dreaming up for years.

Lex nodded and leaned forward connecting her lips to his in a gentle kiss.

Lex gently pulled away leaning her forehead on Rutger’s forehead.

“Took you long enough.” Rutger softly chuckled teasing her as he pressed another kiss to her lips.

“Whatever.” Lex fondly rolled her eyes.

“Lay with me.” Rutger looked at her with his puppy eyes making her nod and slowly lay next to him and rest her head gently on his shoulder.

“Will you let me take you out of date?” Rutger softly questioned, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“I could be persuaded.” Lex quipped back with a small smile.

“Oh i see how it is.” Rutger laughed feeling Lex let out a chuckle, “How about being my girlfriend?” Rutger nervously asked.

Lex’s eyes widen and she quickly sat up looking at Rutger, “Girlfriend?”

“Yeah.” Rutger softly nodded nervously looking at her.

“Are you sure?” Lex softly questioned.

“Alexandra Zegras i would very much like to he your boyfriend if you will have me?” Rutger gently grabbed her hand and looked at her as he spoke.

“Ok, Yeah, Yes!” Lex breathed out smiling leaning over to let Rutger kiss her again.

Rutger fondly cupped her face and smiled kissing her again.

They pulled apart resting their foreheads together and smiling at each other.

“Took you long enough.” Rutger softly teased his now girlfriend.

“I know.” Lex nodded softly pressing a soft kiss to his cheek, “I’m sorry.” She nudged her nose to his.

“It’s okay, i’ll always wait for you.” Rutger softly cooed cupping her face in her hands, he knew she hadn’t been ready in the past and was more than willing to wait for her to figure out her feelings.

“Thank you.” Lex pulled back and laid back down next to Rutger laying on his shoulder and was playing with his fingers.

Rutger could feel himself slowly falling asleep and before he knew it was fast asleep. Lex wasn’t far behind and fell asleep.

Cindy came home a few hours laters and walked into the quiet house down the hall and peaked into his room seeing Rutger and Lex cuddled together both peacefully sleeping looking content in each others arms, Cindy smiled fondly and quietly walked over to the bed and pulled up the blankets over the two and quietly walked out and closed the door behind her.

[jessefandomunited]

Alone for Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and you realize that there is no way you'll be able to see your parents this year on such short notice. Luckily it seems like someone else dosent have plans either and it may just be someone you've had a crush on for a while.

Spencer x GN reader - no smut just probably some snuggles and kisses

Christmas had come too quickly this year, and while working at the BAU was rewarding it was ridiculously hard , especially during this time of year. I called my parents a few times and told them that unfortunately the case we were on was running long and I couldn't get a flight out in time. They told me that we would just have to have Christmas whenever I could make it over, which made me smile.

" hey did you hear ," Penelope asked as I slowly came back to reality. " Hu...oh uh no sorry I was spaced out," I said nervously. "Well they got him! They'll be home by Christmas Eve," she cheered . I smiled ," that's great but I literally have nothing to do now," I sighed leaning back in my chair. She thought a moment," well... I mean... Spencer is probably free." I could feel heat creeping up my neck, " so." She rolled her eyes," SOOOOO ask him out come on you have movie nights all the time what's so different about this?" " it's CHRISTMAS EVE that's the difference, I maybe will ask him to hang out but the last thing I want is for this to be a day where I lost my best friend due to a little crush," I insisted. She nodded," okay fiiine, me and my guy can drop by and give you some of the dinner I cooked , I always make too much anyway." I smiled," sure that would be great."

Everyone was back and I was drumming nervously on the strap of my back pack. I didn't think he would say no but my mind always jumped to the worst case scenario. " welcome back guys," Garcia greeted causing me to almost jump out of my skin. I looked up and locked eyes with Spencer. I forced a smile and waved. " relax," I heard Garcia whispering as she gently nudged me towards him. I walked over and said ," hey, how was the trip." " it was great we made better time than most trips, I thought we would be snowed in. You know the clouds are the best indicator a storm is coming" I was once again in the Spencer trance. While most people told him to hurry up or get to the point I was stuck enraptured by his words. His voice his passion everything, he was wonderful. " so do you have plans for Christmas," he asked. The question threw me off and I almost didn't answer, I didn't expect that he would bring it up. " oh.. no I wasn't able to get tickets in time," I said beginning to massage my hands to ease my anxiety. He looked a little surprised," oh... well you know I don't have any plans either so we could have a Christmas movie night, I still havnt given you your Christmas present so it'll be perfect." My head was swirling and I felt like I ascended to cloud nine," yes , yeah that would be fun, you know Garcia said she would bring over some food too." " great it's settled I'll go home and grab some clothes and I'll meet you at your place in an hour 35 most likely ," he said scooping up his satchel," see you then" I waved then slumped into an unattended chair, he actually said yes.

I got home and decided to quickly make some of the tub chocolate chip cookies I have in my fridge as something to snack on while we watched a Christmas movie or two. I also stressed out way more than I should have deciding what pair of pjs to wear. I had a limited option but what combo of old shirt and pj pant truly said I'm secretly in love with you. After that I brought out a blanket for the couch and started to heat up milk on the stove to make hot chocolate. Even if there was no dramatic confession I was excited to spend time with him.

Almost exactly as he predicted I hear a light knock at the door one hour and 35 minutes after we had left the BAU. He had an overnight bag and a huge grocery bag as well. " wow what's all this I said helping him with his things. " well I thought we could decorate gingerbread house while we were watching Christmas movies ," he said beaming. My heart almost melted , he brought a secondary activity. " oooOo cookies and hot chocolate," he said excitedly, " perfect! Have you decided which movie we're watching first?" I nodded," it's kind of embarrassing but I havnt watched white Christmas yet and I really love it." He nodded," that's a great choice I love those old musicals. If you want to start it up I'll get the gingerbread houses sorted." I agreed and put on the movie.

Soon enough we were annoyingly singing the songs while we made our houses and drank our filll of hot coco. I tried my best to make the house as good as possible but it still ended up pretty sloppy. After we migrated over to the couch and settled in. We watched the muppet la Christmas carol which Spencer insisted was a must , then home alone, and then we were both fast asleep.

I woke up to the smell of bacon wafting through the air and Christmas music was playing on the radio. I smiled and checked my phone before fully waking up. Garcia sent a text that said " merry Christmas I'll be over at about 11 TELL HIM" I said merry Christmas to her and maybe. As I sat up I noticed there was a plate of half eaten cookies by the small tree I had that now had two presents beneath it. I chuckled, " looks like Santa came aye?" He glanced over ," would you look at that he did!" " thanks for making breakfast," I said stretching. " no problem at all, Thankyou for offering your home to me," he said smiling . I took a cup and poured some coffee in before sitting at the table and gazing outside at the sparkling snow covering the roads, everything seemed so still. And I felt like I did need to tell Spencer, today, now. " hey uh Spence," I asked looking over . He had two plates that he picked up and plopped in front of each of us, " yes?" I poked at my eggs and took a deep breath before saying, " if I say this can you promise our friendship we will be there." He got a worried look on his face as he said , " it depends but I believe so." I swallowed, " ever since i met you I think .... I liked you, like .. maybe even loved. I've had some issues in the past so I didn't think you would like me back. So I hid it. But it's eating me up inside and I'm fine if you don't like me back we can still be friends but I had to tell you." He didn't answer and I risked a glance up at him. He was shocked and his face was beat red, " really?" I nodded anticipating a smooth rejection. " I thought ... you only liked me as a friend too, I ... feel the same way," he stumbled over his words but it seemed to be from excitement. My eyes widened," is .. is that a yes... are we like together?" He laughed, " yes please." We both got up and embraced eachother, I felt tears come out as we stayed there. We both pulled back a bit and kissed. It was better than I thought it would be. He was more forceful than I expected his hands pulling me closer to him, we probably would have stayed like that longer if it wasn't for a kick at the door. It was 11, garcia had impeccable timing. I walked over and opened the door to an overjoyed Garcia who hugged me immediately," did you do it." I nodded and her eyes lit up she looked from me to Spencer , " are you guys?" Spencer tried to hide a smile but also just sheepishly nodded. She squealed in delight and ran over to hug him to, her boyfriend trailing behind her with food and gifts.

The rest of the day was wonderfully lazy. We ate with Garcia and her boyfriend who left quickly after to see his parents. Then we made out a bit more before remembering our presents. We sat underneath the tree and exchanged our presents. I had clumsily attempted to make him some crocheted socks (mismatched of course) but I also got him a first addition copy of " the blind banker" which he was ecstatic about. For me he had remembered how much I loved his 4th doctor scarf and made me one too. I was over the moon and gave him the tightest hug I could.

The rest of the evening we put on various Christmas movies and cuddled and talked. It was wonderful. I was overjoyed at how well this turned out. I honestly could not have been happier than I was now



[vbecker10]

Hey could you do a Loki x reader where reader is insecure about her body after giving birth and Loki is doing everything he can to reassure that he finds her beautiful?

Hey anon!! I love this idea so much! I'm sorry about the wait, I didn't mean for it to take me so long to get to this one. I've never written anything where Loki has a child before but I've been wanting to. I hope you like this! 💚💚

You Are My Queen

Pairing: Jotun Loki x plus size female reader (y/n)

Warnings: self depreciating thoughts, issues with self image... but I promise lots of fluff (let me know if I forgot anything)

Summary: You and Loki are the proud parents of a beautiful one month old baby girl (Luna, I stole the name from a friend). You couldn't be more in love with your daughter and Loki but you can't stop the negative thoughts that have been plaguing you recently. You do your best to hide your growing concerns from Loki but one morning you reluctantly open up to him about how you really see yourself.

A/N: So... I added in Jotun Loki cause I literally couldn't help myself. I also made the reader plus size and added a bit of background into why she is feeling this way... enjoy!

Dividers by: @harlequin-hangout

You groan lightly as a hand gently touches your shoulder, pulling you from your dreams. Opening your eyes slowly, a smile creeps across your face as you look up at your boyfriend. You rub your eyes as his illusion melts away, leaving his skin a rich shade of blue and his eyes a deep red. "Hi Loki," you mumble sleepily.

"Hello darling," he says with a smile then he leans down to kiss you. You reach up and touch his cheek, running your fingers over the raised markings and keeping his lips on your for a moment longer.

"Did you just get home?" you ask, sitting up on the couch as he stands up again.

He nods, "I texted you about half an hour ago to let you know we landed."

"Oh no. I'm sorry I missed your text," you tell him suddenly feeling guilty for not responding. You had forgotten you put your phone on vibrate so the text and call alerts wouldn't wake Luna. "I must have fallen asleep after I put her to bed..." you explain as you get up from the couch.

"It's alright love, I imagine our daughter kept you quite busy these last few days," he assumes and you nod in agreement. This was the first mission Loki had been on since you had given birth and even though it was only for three days, you were exhausted. He extends his hand towards you and you take it, intertwining your fingers with his. "Come to bed darling," he says in a soothing voice, "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," you reply as the two of you head towards your bedroom but suddenly your attention is drawn to your daughter's room. She begins to cry loudly and you let go of Loki's hand. You reach for the door knob and pause for a moment, covering your mouth as you yawn.

"Go back to sleep, I'll take care of our little princess," you hear Loki say from behind you.

"Are you sure? You just got home," you ask.

"Of course. My brother was pestering me for pictures of Luna as soon as we began our return flight. I pretended to be asleep so he would leave me alone and I must have actually fallen asleep at some point. I'm probably less tired than you are, dear," he tells you and you can't help but laugh. He kisses your cheek then opens the door to Luna's room. "I'll be in shortly," he says.

You go to your room and get into the bed, pulling the covers around yourself. You fight to stay awake, hoping you will have a few moments alone with Loki but you can barely keep your eyes open. You smile as you hear Loki singing softly to calm your daughter back to sleep through the baby monitor on your night stand. Yawning again, you roll onto your side and give in, closing your eyes.

You roll over and reach for Loki, opening your eyes when you don't feel him in the bed with you. You sit up, stretching a bit as you look at the clock.

When you walk out of your bedroom, you see Loki standing in the middle of the kitchen with Luna in his arms. He is swaying from side to side slowly while he hums to her, the newspaper he is reading on the counter flips to the next page with a light green glow caused by him nodding his head. The kettle on the stove begins to whistle, Loki keeps one hand on Luna's back and with a wave of his other hand, a green glow picks up the kettle and turns off the stove. You shake your head with a smile as the kettle pours water into two mugs on the counter and Loki looks up from his reading.

"Good morning, darling," he smiles. "Did you sleep well?"

"I did," you tell him as you walk over to where he is standing. He leans down to kiss you and when he pulls back you look at your daughter. "Good morning princess," you say softly, kissing her nose as she looks up at you with her bright red eyes. Her tiny blue fingers reach for you and she grabs onto one of your fingers. "She looks so much like you," you say to Loki.

He jokes, "I think that might be because we are both blue my dear." You laugh and shake your head. "She is as beautiful as her mother," he tells you and you suddenly feel the need to force yourself to smile.

You look away from Loki abruptly and walk to the fridge to get milk for the coffee. "Are you alright?" he asks and you nod but still don't look at him. You add milk to both mugs before handing Loki his. You avoid eye contact with him, instead you pick up one of your daughter's books from the counter and flip through it. You can hear the familiar voices trying to force their way back into your mind, the voices that insisted you were never good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, thin enough. You had worked hard to get past them but it took almost nothing for them to reappear again.

"Hmm?" you ask as Loki finally gets your attention.

"I said, you should relax this morning," he suggests. "Luna and I have some reading to catch up on, don't we little one?" he asks your daughter and she smiles at him.

You consciously smile again, maybe relaxing wouldn't be such a bad idea. The voices were harder to push away when you were tired. Loki walks over to you and touches your chin lightly so you are looking up at him. "What is going on in that pretty little mind of yours?" he asks, obviously able to tell something is wrong.

You shake your head, not wanting to tell him. He strokes your cheek lightly and kisses your forehead. "Go unwind, love, we can talk after," he says, taking your coffee from you. Before you can reply you hear the water running in the bathroom. You nod and say thank you quietly.

You open the door to the bathroom and look around, Loki's magic never ceasing to amaze you. Steam rises off the nearly filled tub and there are lite candles lining the window sill. You can smell the lavender and oils which have been added to the water, causing a thick layer of bubbles to appear on the surface. A glass vase with an assortment of green flowers sits on the edge of the vanity.

You take off your pajamas quickly, careful not to catch your reflection in the mirror as you undress. You slip into the tub and sink under the bubbles as you close your eyes. Breathing deeply, you feel your body slowly relax in the warm water. You can hear Loki reading to Luna faintly, his voice changing slightly to match the various characters in whichever book he had chosen.

Gradually, your mind begins to wander. You had never thought much about your weight while in high school but when you first started college you realized you were always the heaviest girl in your classes. You tried all four years to control your weight but between your hectic class schedule and working full time there was little room to do things for yourself. Your weight never deterred you from making friends easily but it had held you back from ever being in a serious relationship. You dated occasionally but you found you had a hard time believing anyone was ever interested in you.

After you graduated, you got a job at SHIELD and excitedly moved to New York City. You were nervous about moving so far from home but you quickly became close with Wanda and Natasha, spending almost all of your free time together. The two of them had helped you arrange a schedule where they would go to the gym with you three or four times a week to keep you on track. About a month after you arrived, Loki and Thor joined the Avengers and you soon developed a crush on the God of Mischief. Your two best friends noticed of course and you did little to deny it, although you were adamant that he only liked you as a friend.

Eleven months later, you were still going to the gym several times a week, eating healthier and hopelessly in love with Loki who you had grown close to. Natasha and Wanda watched you get off the scale in the gym with a broad smile on your face. "Not much longer now," Natasha said, referring to your goal weight. You nod dramatically, you couldn't believe you were actually going to make it this time. "So, I think we should make this a little more interesting," she says and you look at her curiously. "Once you reach your goal, you have to ask Loki out on a date," she says and you look at her wide-eyed. You have no idea what possessed you to agree but almost a month later, you reached your goal and found yourself knocking on his apartment door to see if he wanted to go to the movies. Next month will be your three year anniversary, you think with a smile but it fades slowly.

You will need to buy a new dress if he wants to take you out to dinner like he usually does. Would you even be able to find a dress that would fit you now, you wonder. You open your eyes slowly and look at the clothing you had discarded by the door. None of your clothes from before the pregnancy fit anymore, it was a month since you had given birth and you hadn't lost a single pound.

In the beginning, you tried to continue going to the gym, desperate to keep the body you had worked so hard for but you were often too tired to stay long or your feet and back would begin to hurt. Your friends suggested you relax and pick up working out after the baby came and you reluctantly agreed. Your food choices also began to slip as soon as the craving started. Things you hadn't eaten in years were suddenly all you could think about and Loki would get you anything you asked for, day or night no matter how odd or hard to find. In the nine months you were pregnant, you had put on almost half of what you had originally lost and you felt as if you were a failure. Your biggest fear was that Loki would no longer find you attractive unless you lost the weight quickly.

A soft knock on the door causes you to jump in surprise. "Y/N," Loki says from the other side of the door. "Can we talk for a moment?"

A wave of worry spreads over you, whether it is rational or not and you respond, "Just let me get dressed." You hadn't let Loki see you without clothes on since you were almost seven months pregnant. You step out of the tub and grab a towel to dry yourself, sighing when you try to wrap the towel around your body and it barely closes. Holding it in place, you walk over to the vanity and suddenly realize you hadn't brought clean clothes to change into. All you had was the ill-fitting towel and the clothing you had worn the night before.

Loki knocks again, "Can I come in?"

"No," you respond quickly and you hear him take a step back from the door.

"Darling, are you alright?" he asks, the concern heavy in his voice.

"I'm fine, I just..." your words trail off as you see yourself in the full length mirror. You hold the towel as tightly as you can, wiping away a tear that streaks down your cheek. "Loki?" you ask quietly.

"Yes love?" he responds.

"I'm sorry I'm not..." you pause, searching for the right words. "I'm sorry I don't look the way I did before I was pregnant. I know how much you loved my body then and now it's..." You gesture to yourself in the mirror as more tears begin to fall.

"Y/N, what are you talking about? You know I think you are beautiful," he says and you hear him turn the door knob.

"Stop, please," you say and the door remains closed.

There is silence from the hall for a moment then Loki says, "Darling, I wish you could see yourself the way I see you." You wipe your eyes again using the back of your hand. "Are you standing in front of the mirror?" he asks and you nod then say yes. "What do you see?"

You take a deep breath, to try and calm your breathing as you look at yourself. "I see stretch marks everywhere," you say unable to hide your disappointment. "My stomach is flabby and my hips have gotten wider, none of my old pants or shirts fit anymore. Even your clothes, I tried to wear one of your shirts the other day and it wasn't loose like it used to be, it barely fit. My thighs are thicker and my arms jiggle, I see the spider veins on my legs and even my fingers feel swollen," you list all of the things you hate about your appearance and wait terrified for Loki to agree with you.

"Do you know what I see?" he asks and you stifle a sob. "I see the love of my life and the mother of my child. I see the woman who means more to me than anything in the nine realms," he says through the door. "I see someone who is full of strength and determination, who is caring and selfless, quick witted and exquisite. Y/N, my queen, you are a goddess."

You wrap your arms around yourself as you listen to Loki, etching his words into your mind in the hopes that they will keep your thoughts at bay.

"I know you don't feel proud of your body in this moment darling, but your body has given me the greatest gift I have or will ever receive," he tells you. You close your eyes and think back to the day you told Loki you were pregnant. That was the happiest you had ever seen him but it paled in comparison to the day you both met your daughter.

He then asks, "Do you love me less when I am in my Jotun form then you do when I am in my Asgardian form?"

"What? No, of course not," you tell him honestly. "I love you the same no matter which form you take."

"Then how could my love for you vary based on something as simple as your weight?" he asks and you struggle to find an answer. "Please, come out," he says and you wipe your eyes again.

You sniffle and bite your lip, "I don't have any clothes." A small green flash appears on the vanity and you slip on the jeans and t-shirt Loki conjured for you.

You open the door and find yourself frozen as you look down at Loki, kneeling in front of you. He smiles as he reaches to take one of your hands in his, your other hand quickly covering your mouth. "I wanted to do this next month for our anniversary but..." he pauses, opening his free hand to reveal a small velvet green ring box.

"Loki?" you ask, feeling your heart begin to race.

"I have loved you since the moment you awkwardly asked me to see a movie with you," he says and you giggle. "Y/N, you mean more to me then I could ever put into words, you are the one I've been waiting for my whole life. You are my queen, my love, my everything and I want to know if you will do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"Yes!" you answer excitedly before Loki can even open the ring box. He stands up, wrapping his arms around you as he pulls you to him. He presses his lips to yours but the sudden sound of your daughter waking up hungry causes you to pull away.

"One moment, my little princess," Loki says with a laugh as he opens the box and slips the ring onto your finger.

Please let me know if you want to be added or taken off the tag list 💚💚

@michelleleewise @soubi001 @ace-of-gay @misunderstoodself @coldnique @lokiprompts @thomase1 @mochie85 @fi-recs-fics @huntress-artemiss @sititran @xorpsbane @kkdvkyya @lokisgoodgirl @harlequin-hangout @muddyorbs @holdmytesseract @kats72 @avoliax @peaches1958 @peachyjinx @loopsisloops @unabashed-lover-of-fictional-men @high-functioning-lokipath @psychospore @dukes2581 @buttercupcookies-blog @animnerd @lokiswife-dark-fox-queen @laufeyson-16 @loki-laufeyson-1054 @pics-and-fanfics @coffeeorsomething-irl @crimson25 @simping-for-marvel @slytherclaw1227 @lokixryss @lokidokieokie @unlucky-number-13 @asuni921 @currish-rosewolfe @elizabethmidnight2017 @ijuststareatstuffhereok89 @sunshineangel-reads @eleniblue

Likes, comments and reblogs are always appreciated 💚💚

[dollywheeler]

September 25th, 1996

Dear diary,

Things have been crazy busy as we've been training a lot to prepare for homecoming. Not only have we upped our cheer hours in preparation for the halftime show, but I've also been helping Whitney out with preparations for the dance on Saturday - mostly with crafting decorations. I'm probably the worst person she could have asked, because crafts are so not my thing. Pretty sure my lanterns would have been trashed if it hadn't been for Elena's help - she's one of the new Sophomores on the team this year.

The dance is setting up to look great, however, and I've been practicing the homecoming routine as much as possible before school. Sandy and Selena altered one of our routines from last year for this weekend. It's very flashy because we can be more creative with it, and not too difficult because people don't really care about technique or tumbling all that much. They just want a catchy song and a good show - which it definitely is in my opinion.

It also means I've been able to practice it better because there aren't too many parts I have to skip when practicing in the basement.

Because I've been getting home late each day, I've barely seen mom or dad. I can tell mom is still on cloud nine from last Friday though, as she's jumped into 'fall cleaning' with vigor. It's always a little terrifying when she comes around with a moving box and a 'donate first, regret later' attitude. I figured out years ago that the best strategy is to just get a few things to donate set aside beforehand so she'll leave your actual stuff alone. This year I just picked up some clutter from the dollar store and a teddy bear we got for free at the fair last spring. And Whitney was planning on throwing some stuff away so she gave it to me for this very reason. It wasn't much, but she hadn't given me much warning. She seemed more than happy with it though, so I guess I have Mike to thank for that.

I don't know if she told dad about the dinner next Friday. I sure as hell haven't. It feels weird keeping something from him, but I can hardly tell him we're going to dinner but he's not invited. I'm pretty sure he isn't, anyway. I know they've always had a weird relationship, but he's still his dad right? And like, it's not like he ever gave him a chance. Besides, even if your parents are cringe or annoying you can still sit through dinner with them for one night and bite your tongue! It's not that hard and just for one night!

For now I'm just going to focus on this weekend, though. I'm so excited for the dance - my dress is gorgeous and I can't wait to wear it. I'm nervous though; I've never had a date before.

OH, I haven't even gotten a chance to write that down yet!

Daniel asked me to the dance!!!!

I was waiting for the gym to clear out after basketball practice on Monday so we could get our extra hours in, and when the team was dismissed, Daniel gently grabbed my hand and pulled me behind the bleachers. Not behind-behind the bleachers, just hidden from view a bit so we could talk privately. My heart was pounding but he seemed relaxed as he asked me if I wanted to go to the dance with him. He just had that same dorky expression, clearly hesitant for my response even though he had to know what my answer would be. He looked so relieved when I said yes even when he hadn't looked all that nervous to begin with, so I know he'd just tried to be stoic.

Anyway, it was really, really sweet <3 He's taking me to dinner before the dance, so we can have a proper date with just the two of us but can also enjoy the dance with our friends. I'm so excited; I seriously cannot wait.

Love, Holly <3

[honey-boyyoongi]

Pairing ➪ Reader x Yoongi||Part 53//??

Word count ➪ 2.7k

Warnings ➪ it’s not beta-ed; any mistakes are mine; cursing; alcohol; toxic family dynamics; if your name is crossed out it’s because I couldn’t tag you;

Summary ➪ Min Yoongi, is a simple man. He likes his coffee black and iced, he enjoys his job, and he loves his baby girl. But what happens when the new neighbor, quite literally, drops into his life?

A/n: Hey besties. Here’s a new one for y’all. I swear we’re not always gonna be angsty, but let’s be real it’s gonna be like this for a bit. Also thank you to all the besties that binge read this fic and WWDITS and my other works. I really appreciate y’all 💕 As always feedback is appreciated and if you want to be added to the tag list please let me know 💕

Previous Next

_

Bee

16:55

I’m dropping Haneul off with Seokjin. 

18:01

You can let yourself in.

-

Yoongi had spent hours in agony trying to muster up a proper apology. His brothers had given him the scolding of a lifetime. He knew his hyung never said he was disappointed in him, out loud, but Jungkook was another issue. His younger brother didn’t have to verbalize his disappointment, his attitude said it all. Jungkook was communicating the bare minimum needed, his face was always neutral. Yoongi felt like he deserved the youngest’s cold treatment. 

They talked as they worked. Yoongi felt like he hadn't spoken to his friends intimately in a long time. Seokjin had offered to be there as a neutral party, but they decided it was a conversation best done alone. His hyung decided to look after Hanuel instead, offering that she spend the night, in case Yoongi needed space afterwards. His brothers helped straighten his thoughts out, suggesting he make a list of his major points as to prevent any further miscommunication. Jungkook also encouraged him to be honest about his parents, Minji, and his feelings about her, if he felt comfortable of course. 

Yoongi wanted to stall going home, but his brothers had left as soon as they finished their part. Seokjin would go to his place first to receive Hani, while Jungkook picked up Jinwoo. He wanted to get lost in the pile of paperwork in front of him, but it was useless. No matter how much he wanted to avoid the situation, it would still be there the longer he stayed sitting in his office. 

Yoongi had spent the drive home calming himself down. He knew he fucked up by lashing out, and he’s not above admitting his wrong doings when he’s called out on his shit. He just hopes it’s not too late to fix things. 

-

___ has been stress cleaning her house for the last few hours. She had even made it into a game with Haneul, and the toddler enjoyed feeling included. An hour in Hani retreated into her favorite corner on the sectional, burrito wrapped in her favorite halloween blanket. By 5:15 pm Seokjin was waving her off with Hani on his hip. 

By 5:54 pm Bee had vacuumed her living room, rearranged her cutlery, fixed her spice cabinet, made two types of tea, and stress screeched. At first she was dead-set on refusing to speak with Yoongi, but after seeing her tweet, Jungkook texted her: 

“He knows he fucked up, we’ve told him why, and how he fucked up. You guys need to talk. You don’t have to forgive him afterwards, but let him explain some things to you. I’m not excusing him, or trying to apologize for him.”

Knowing Jungkook was in her corner made Bee confident. She’d hear Yoongi out for her best friend’s sake, but after this she was sure she’d be avoiding him for a while. By 6:10 pm the dial tones of her door being unlocked alerted her of Yoongi’s arrival. Bee heard the rustle of paper bags, and clashing containers. She could hear the older man flicking his shoes off, and his keys jingling. It felt like any other night when they would eat dinner together; Lo-fi was gently playing in the background, Bee had cleaned up Hani’s play corner, and was wondering if take-out or a big bowl of cereal was going to be tonight’s dinner. 

Yoongi walked into Bee’s living room, sleeves rolled up and wrinkled, two big paper bags, and his black tote bag. He quasi-lifted the bags, “Sorry for being late. I brought chinese food, and some soju to help us be a little less tense.” ___ nodded in acknowledgement, making her way to her kitchen to grab cups. 

They ate their dinner in silence, little butterflies fluttering in ___’s tummy because Yoongi had remembered her order, and that she preferred peach soju. Neither of them had opened a bottle yet, opting to save them for when their talk would officially begin. Bee pushed her spicy orange chicken around, noticing Yoongi wasn’t faring any better. He had yet to touch his sweet and sour pork, or his black bean noodles. Neither of them could pretend to have appetites. 

___ put their containers back into the take out bags, double checking that the containers were properly sealed. She came back with the chilled bottles of soju, pouring a shot for herself and Yoongi. Bee nodded at him, mumbling a small ‘cheers' downing the large shot. She cringed, waiting for Yoongi to drink his. 

Yoongi hesitated, but eventually drank the initial large shot, and quickly drank another. It looked like ___ wasn’t the only one who needed liquid courage to get through tonight. “I’m sorry,” Yoongi croaked, “I shouldn’t have lashed out at you. I shouldn’t have said that you weren’t my friend. I shouldn’t have said anything horrible to you.”

“Why did you,” she asked. 

Yoongi sighed, “I haven’t been entirely honest with what’s been going on with my parents. We got into a fight, well my mother and I did.”

“What does that have to do with what you said,” Bee quipped. She poured herself another shot, wanting to keep up with the older man. 

Yoongi watched her drink her second shot. He waited for her glass to be placed down to pour another one for the both of them. They clinked their glasses together, mumbling small ‘cheers’. “Remember when I told you about Hani’s birth mom?” ___ nodded. “Well, that was the short, non-shit show version of it.” The older man poured her another shot, drinking his straight from the bottle to get the remnants. “What’s the shit show version, “she asked as she drank her fourth shot. 

Her friend scoffed, “The shit show version? Currently I'm still living it.” Yoongi slouched further onto the floor, back meeting her couch at a curve. “Minji, and I had known each other for a year when she found out she was pregnant. We had been freshly broken up, maybe a month or so when she told me. It was too late for a termination, so she decided to tell me of what she planned. Originally, she was going to give up Hani for adoption. While I respected her choice of not wanting to be a parent, I didn’t want that. I asked for full custody of my daughter. It took a while for her to accept, but she agreed. Around the fourth month mark, when she started to show, we agreed that we had to tell my parents. We did, well, Minji did for the most part. Mom couldn’t fathom a woman not wanting to keep her child, so she tried to convince Minji to stay.”

“Is that why your mom hates me? She thinks I’m trying to replace Hani’s mom,” Bee says. Yoongi shakes his head in disapproval, “You can’t replace what she never had.” 

“Your mom seems to think so,” she replied. 

“My mom,” Yoongi starts, “My mother is complicated. She thinks she knows best, even if you explain to her why you’re choosing to do something and how it's better for you, she still believes she’s in the right.” The older man reaches over for an unopened bottle of soju, wanting to pour himself another shot before he gets to the nitty, gritty parts. 

The pair drink another two drinks back to back to continue. “Mom begged, pleaded, attempted to compromise with Minji, but she wouldn’t change her mind. I always told mom to back off, this was Minji’s choice and we should respect it.”

“Were you ever scared that Minji would change her mind,” ___ asked. 

“Yes, and no,” Yoongi answered. “Back then I would’ve been ecstatic if Minji had wanted to co-parent. We would’ve figured it out, somehow. More than anything I feared that she would give in to what my mom wanted, at the time it was for her to stay against her will. Mom wanted us to be a ‘family’. I think she was trying to save face.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember when I told you about my grandparents not really being there for my aunt and mom,” Yoongi brought up. Bee nodded, egging him to continue. “Mom had to raise my aunt. My grandmother was always working, and doing who knows what, with whomever she decided was her date for the week. Now those are my mom’s words not mine. From what I’ve always been able to tell, mom always craved some form of validation that she didn’t get from my grandparents.”

“What about her father?”

Yoongi shrugged, “Dunno, s’far as I know mom’s dad wasn’t really there either. Mom said he was always working too. Grandma got remarried sometime around them being older, not really sure, we stopped talking to her when I was really young. I don’t remember much of her. Grandpa passed before I was born, so I never met him.”

“M’sorry,” Bee whispered. Yoongi reached over for the soju once more, “S’kay.” While he was busy, ___ took a moment to really look at the older man. His face had grown flush from how quickly they were ingesting the alcohol. His button up, which is usually crisp, is wrinkled. His left thumbnail has been picked at, and his hair is disheveled. Bee stands up from the floor, a bit wobbly at that, making her way to get her band aid kit. She comes back signaling Yoongi to sit on the couch instead of the hard floor. ___ cleans the picked nails, reminding herself to be gentle every time Yoongi hisses at the sting of the disinfectant wipe. She finishes him off with some hello kitty band aids, specially chosen for her by her niece. “There, now, please stop picking at them. It's bad for you, and Hanuel could pick up the habit,” she says. 

Yoongi nodded, pouting like a scolded child, inspecting his bandages. “Thank you. I’ve been trying to stop. These are cute, did you get them because of Hani?” ___ shook her head, “Nope. My niece likes to give me random things sometimes; rocks, drinks with cute bottles, stickers, cute band aids. She’s like a penguin.” The older man smiled, taking in the little designs, “I like them, might steal them from you.” 

___ scoffed, “The hell you will, those are MY special band aids. You’re lucky I even let you have some.” She watched as Yoongi let out a jovial laugh, “Okay, okay, I get it they’re yours.” In the midst of that Bee hadn’t realized how close she’d gotten to Yoongi. Their thighs were pressed against each other, shoulders were clashing, and she could feel the heat coming off of him. This close up she could see his beauty marks, as well as imperfections on his skin. His eyes were a beautiful color of chocolate brown, and were even more charming with his eyes having mismatching lids. His lips were glossy, a bit bitten, and rosy. In the last few months of knowing the older man he’d grown his hair out to his shoulders, and it drove her crazy with how good it looked on him. He’d put it up in a half bun, from how often it bothered him, but he refused to cut it. His face creeped closer, and she could smell the alcohol and mint from his daily gum chewing. She wanted to give in, to kiss the handsome man in front of her. Get lost in each other for the night hoping that it would solve everything, but it wasn’t just them, they had Haneul to think about. 

___ turned away, picking up the trash from helping Yoongi. The older man sighed, “M’sorry, we shouldn’t be doing that.” Bee nodded in agreement, “Continue with your story.”

Yoongi leaned his head back, trying to remember, “Where were we?” “Minji and 50/50 custody,” ___ answered. He snapped his fingers in response, “Right! So, mom couldn’t fathom a woman, or anyone not wanting to be a parent, she was determined to change Minji’s mind. Obviously that didn’t happen. In the last months of her pregnancy my mom tried to convince Minji that everyone is scared, blah, blah, blahh. It got to the point where my mother told me, not asked, that she would be taking custody of my daughter.”

___ stared at her older friend in surprise, “What? You can’t be serious?”

“As a heart attack dude,” he replied. “It didn’t help that I had fought with her a few days before.”

“Was it over Minji,” Bee asked.

“No,” Yoongi answered, “Remember how I said my aunt has control issues?” ___ shrugged, a little confused, but it could also be the soju not helping her memory, “I don’t, but not to sound disrespectful, if she’s anything like your mother I don’t need the runthrough.”

Yoongi splayed himself across the couch, making sure his head was facing Bee, “If you think my mom is a handful, oof, my auntie is worse. Anyways, I got into a fight with my mom over my auntie being too controlling over my cousins, I’ll tell you about that another day, but the gist of it was me feeling like my mom was trying to control my decisions. Even though I had already made a plan, was executing that plan, and had made that plan with Minji. That fight led my mother into telling me she would take custody of Hani until me and Minji got our shit together. Which made me angry, obviously, I’m a grown man, I knew what I was doing. Knowing my mother we would never get Hani back until we met her terms. She tried until the last moment to convince Minji, but thankfully she never changed her mind. The first 6 or so months of Hanuel’s life, my parents were not involved at all. Ever since I allowed, sorry, ever since my mother decided she would ‘forgive me for not taking her advice’, it has been an annoying fight of back and forth. She was always trying to push the boundaries I set, and I would push back. It hadn’t gotten as bad as it did then, than the current fight we’re in. She’s demanded custody of Hani a handful of times because I won't listen to her.”

___ felt her throat dry a bit, feeling guilty, “I’m sorry being friends with me has caused so many issues with your parents.” 

Yoongi waved his hand in dismissal. “The issues with my mother have been ongoing for gods know how long. Don’t feel bad.”

“Is that why you got mad at me,” she asked, “because I didn’t give you a choice?”

The older man nodded slightly, “I know you were truly only trying to help me, but it made me feel frustrated. I know what you did is completely different from my mother’s actions, but for a moment I felt like I was back in my parent’s kitchen being told that my daughter wouldn’t be with me. I’m sorry for lashing out at you.”

Bee sniffled, “It’s okay, it’s not, but I understand now. I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I just wanted to help because I care about Haneul, and about you. I didn’t want you getting stressed out over your work, and Hani being uncomfortable at your office.”

“I’m also sorry for saying you’re not my friend,” he adds. “I don’t know what to call what we are, we’ve gone past being friends.”

“Heh, platonic besties raising a kid,” ___ jokes.

Yoongi chortled, “Sure, why not. Actually, Jungkookie and Jinnie Hyung would probably fight us over that title.”

“Aren’t they dating? I swear Kookie spends more time at Seokjin’s than at his place,” she asks. 

“So get this…” 

They spent the rest of the night trying to figure out if their respective best friends are somehow more, apologizing to each other, and Yoongi spilling his family’s dirty laundry. Not once did they dare speak about the quasi-kiss, but it made ___ more aware of the older man’s lingering stares. The way he clinged to her every word, and how his body leaned more into her. They didn’t know what they were, but they didn’t need to know now. They’d figure it out, eventually. 

Tag List: @unicornbabylover @halesandy @supernoonanyc @aianloveseven @hannahdinse8 @lyndseygoregasmxo @aunoiire @brbkpop @nochuwastaken @tinyoonsblog @borahae-reads @jinscharms @phenomenalgirl9 @yoongiigolden @girlwithluv0613 @yaboiithewreck @mint--yoongs @ysljoon @hyunjingin @yu-justme @damn-u-min-yoongi @lovelytaes-blog @so-da-1 @cruelsummer-s @seolaquotes @lovelgirl22 @dreamamubarak @leanimal90 @atinymonbebestay @astudyoftimeywimeystuff @jaiuneamesolitaiire @proudbtsstanfightmebeach

Fic Masterlist

[streamdotpng]

Okie, so I was in bed, totally about to turn off my phone in a few minutes and get them eepies, but then I made the mistake of opening up your Ortegaverse tag and doom-scrolled... oopsies

Anyway, while scrolling, I came across an old comment from our good friend @theogm-art from a few days ago. Unfortunately, I don't have a screenshot but basically, it was about Wednesday finding Enid with May and taking them back to the Addams Mansion. And of course, my brain took it as a challenge lol.

And so, blah blah my interpretation blah blah blah (forgive me, I'm tired lol)

"You live here?" Wednesday asked, trying not to sound disgusted. The apartment that Enid took the trio to wasn't too awful, but it certainly wasn't going in any magazines. The whole place was small and as far as Wednesday could tell, the was only one bedroom, definitely far too small for an entire family to live in.

"Yeah, it isn't a mansion but... it's home," Enid sighed before turning to her daughter, "Hey pup! Whataya want for lunch?"

"PB&J PWEASE! And in twiangles!" May shouted, making Enid chuckle fondly. Her daughter, just like Enid at seven, is still unable to pronounce her L's and R's. "Alright, pup! One PB&J in triangles, coming up!" Enid turned back to the raven standing dumbfounded by the front door, "You want anything, Wends? I don't have much, but I'm told I make a mean PB&J?"

Wednesday finds herself about to make some remark about the gluttonous nature of the sandwich, but quickly bites her tongue, "I suppose I stomach a single sandwich."

(idk, time skip 30 mins)

"Enid."

"Yeah? What's up Wends?"

"I couldn't help but notice, this apartment is incredibly small. I assume you aren't doing well financially?"

Enid sighs in response and instead looks to May, "Hey pup? Mama needs to talk with her friend, can you go play in our room?" May nods happily and runs off to their bedroom, leaving the adults alone. "No, I'm honestly just barely keeping up with the bills. It's surprisingly hard raising a seven-year-old all on your own," the wolf jokes, but receives no sign of humor from the other woman.

Instead, Wednesday's eyes widen in shock, "On your own?" The dark-haired woman stares in disbelief for another moment before finding her voice again, though lightly laced with anger, "Where is her other mother? Is she absentee?"

Enid laughs flatly, but her face quickly turns dark as the trauma from seven years ago returns with a vengeance, "No, she um... She's not with us anymore. She was a normie and... well," Enid doesn't finish her sentence but she doesn't need to, Wednesday quickly connects the dots.

"Oh, I am sorry for your loss..." Wednesday pauses before adding, "And I apologize for jumping to conclusions. I'm left to assume she was quite the attentive partner, seeing as she bore your child."

Enid snorted out a laugh, "Yeah... yeah, she was amazing." Enid fidgets helplessly with the ring adorning her left-hand finger. A silence settles over the room for a while. It's not tense, but it's not exactly comfortable either. Wednesday's mind churns through all the new information she's been given over the last hour.

Eventually, Wednesday breaks the silence, "Come back with me to the mansion."

"Wh- what? Why?"

"Your daughter deserves a safe and loving environment to grow up. And you too deserve the same, Enid. I must admit, I do not know much about taking care of a child, but I'm sure my parents would be honored to help you," Wednesday speaks plainly as if she isn't offering everything, "You'd be given a well-deserved break."

Enid, for her part, is left shocked. Finally, she picks her jaw back up from the floor to speak. "Wednesday," the wolf whispers in awe, "You'd really take me back there? After what I did?"

"Of course, Enid. As I said, I have already forgiven you. I..." An uneasiness overwhelms the raven as the need to offer vulnerability to Enid crashes over her, but she quickly powers through, "I searched for you everywhere. I never once stopped looking. I- I couldn't bear being so far away for so long, Enid."

Enid is once again taken aback. For so long, Enid thought herself to be unforgivable as the endless traumas and heartbreak throughout the last two decades tore her soul apart, time and again until all she was left with was broken memories and a little girl who relied on her for everything. But now, she's not only been so easily forgiven by one of the only people she's ever sought it from but she's also being given a second chance at life. It feels like another ploy by the universe. Surely, this is just another in a long line of tricks to lead her into that dreaded false sense of security.

But no. As Enid stares into those dark eyes, she sees nothing but truth. It's a breath of fresh air and Enid takes it in greedily. "Okay, I'll go with you. Thank you, Wends," Enid accepts, then speaks softly, "We really do work, don't we?"

And for the first time Enid's ever seen it, Wednesday smiles. Just barely, but it's there. "We shouldn't," the brunette replies, "But we do."

Okie, time to pass out lol

However Enid's face turns cold, a steel of ice in those blue eyes as her smile falls.

"but I won't accept charity."

Wednesday stares. "this isn't charity-"

Enid waves her hand in a no no gesture as she sighs. It's then that Wednesday begins to be too aware of the lines of stress that lines her past roommates face. There's eyebags lying under her eyes, not so noticeable when she's smiling but all too seen when not.

"it is to me," Enid says before she gives a smile, shaky and not as true. It looks like a compromise. "so please let me help out around the house."

Wednesday swallow the No that was so ready to spill from her lips. She grits back the words of you deserve so much more, deserve to be pampered and cared for.

Wednesday nods and she stares at the way Enid smiles, her finger playing with the ring on her hand.

[authormikamathews]

The Odd Similarities between Naruto and Harry Potter

 So I love patterns, but only the ones my brains pick up... so, naturally, instead of something useful I noticed a lot of odd similarities between Naruto ( the original) and Harry Potter. Like a lot... it was disconcerting really... 

Let me just list a few of them. 

The main character looks just like their father with one quality of their mother. Both are orphans and in terms of screen time, daddy dearest gets ten times as much importance with relevant friends and connections born from the dad. Examples being Sirius and Remus, Jiraiya and Kakashi. Both boys are used as a scape goat for a lot of terrible people, and both boys were entirely alone for their youth. Both are marked by their parent's killers, be it Naruto's whisker marks or Harry's Scar.

Both boys make two friends, Sakura and Sasuke and Hermione and Ron at a young age and there is a lot of cross over there as well. Sakura and Hermione are known for their intense intellect and distinctive hair, both are not from a long line of Witches/Ninja and yet both excel when given the chance. Both girls are rude and bossy, though Hermione starts out more useful. Ron and Sasuke are from old lines, both boys look just like the rest of their family and both have self esteem issues to the nth degree. Sasuke and Ron are both poor friends and betray the Main character. 

Then there is Orochimaru and Voldemort, who are almost identical. Both rampant, powerful geniuses that screw everything up, fear death, literally work on immorality by splitting their souls and talking to snakes! Both were tied to the main older leader genius, who in both cases ( Dumbledore and Hiruzen) are really useless at their actual jobs... and neither really care for the main character, using them as a pawn against their enemies. 

Both Harry and Naruto are regularly ignored by the world, mistreated and kind of lazy. Neither really do much on their own, needing others to do most of the work for them until the last stroke. In both cases, their godfathers are sort of useless and see them as more of their parent than they do themselves.

Both Lily and Kushina give their lives, gives of love, are redheaded and are more plot devices than people...which is kind of gross... 

I could really go on, but this would take me hours... Why are they so similar, I mean it is scary how much seems almost borrowed by each story... 

So... yeah!

[mister-blizzard]

looking for love in all the wrong places (part 1)

kuranosuke kiba x mc x kunihiro kasai

Kuranosuke never thought he’d ever fall in love. To be clear his parents have a perfectly healthy relationship. So did everyone else in his family.

Kuranosukes family wasn’t the reason for his issues his capability of love, well for once they weren’t. What actually shaped his views on love and his own inability to fall for someone was well … himself.

The problem wasn’t either that he wasn’t capable of falling in love. Rather, the issue was that he thought he was incapable of making anyone happy. So therefore the only logical conclusion to the hard headed Kiba was that: In fact, love wasn’t meant for him.

Things went south for his marriage after all. He was living in his own bubble when he thought that their marriage was fine. He didn’t love her but he liked her. Shiori was his wife after all.

Being betrayed again however wasn’t an option. “I cheated on you. Please separate from me.” Those were the last words he heard from his ex wife. Words that had felt like a stab wound to his heart. Therefore, love wasn’t for him. He couldn’t make anyone happy after all.

Kuranosuke didn’t think he was being cynical when he told Ukyo off for trying to drag him to mixers. “Kuranosuke you’ll die alone at this pace.” Was what Ukyo had said. To Kuranosuke however this hadn’t sounded like such a bad idea.

Again, Kuranosuke never thought he’d ever fall in love. So then why at his age was his heart beating so fast? Maybe it was his health. It had to be. Maybe it was time to visit a cardiologist. Or maybe it had to do with the one change a few years back.

When MC had to shift departments and work under Kuranosuke. He definitely didn’t have the kindest words to say. However he did see the potential.

To an outsider it would look like Kiba thought of this as another nuisance. But the wheels were spinning inside his head. He was looking forward to the years to come and MCs growth.

MC took on everything with a stride. Just within few short years she was able to overcome and achieve so much. MC would tease her boss about it. “Mr. Kiba, i might have 3 industry awards to my name now but i still think my biggest achievement is to overcome the hurdle known as you.” Kuranosuke would give her an instant scowl.

The truth is. He respected MC. Through out the years they had worked together MC had never once given him a reason to think otherwise. He loved her work ethics. He loved her ability to give out a hand when needed. He loved her ability to put on a smile when things were hard. He loved her ability to not back down or to give up. He loved. He loved. Yeah that must been it. He loved her as a colleague.

But for some reason he’d find himself holding her gaze for a little longer than necessary. Find himself reaching out for her hand but retracting it faster than the speed of light. What had gotten into him. Something was wrong with him. Why was his heart beating this abnormally just at the sight of MCs smile.

Kuranosuke Kiba was a logical man. Deep down he could put words to these abnormalities. However, he didn’t dare to cross that line. He wasn’t capable of making anyone happy after all.

And then the next shock came. The news that spread around the office like wildfire had him choking on the air. Get a grip Kuranosuke. “Kunihiro and MC are engaged.” Those were the inescapable words of his colleagues.

The man himself, Kunihiro had to make a public announcement to everyone in the office, that yes in fact him and MC were engaged. No, that didn’t mean he gave her any preferential treatment. The gossip died down few hours afterwards when everyone had their fill.

Kuranosuke however was still in daze. Kunihiro was his friend. He’d even say best friend if that word didn’t make him cringe. They had gone through a lot together. Kunihiro had been there for him throughout his divorce. So if Kunihiro were to get engaged he surely would’ve told Kuranosuke.

Something wasn’t right. Kuranosuke chose the simple approach of luring his friend out on a paid dinner at the stall they used to eat at their university days.

“I didn’t think you were ready to lose your harem of women yet.” At hearing that Kunihiro had laughed. “It’s more complicated than that. We were arranged. I had few dates with MC. I like her more than i thought i did. It’s been a few weeks since i realized it. You know I never knew a day like this would come. But I cut every one of those women out of my life.” Kuranosuke was indeed shocked at what his friend had told him.

The shock however was overcome by something very ugly very quick. Kuranosukes grip on his beer glass and his white knuckles were the proof of that. There was a pang in his heart too. Get a grip again. That’s what Kuranosuke told himself.

“Just so you know i don’t want to hear about any of your marital problems in future so you better treat her right. MC talks a lot too.” That was his attempt at giving his friend his blessings. But why didn’t it feel genuine? Why was his heart hurting?

“You know Kuranosuke you sound almost worried about her?” Kunihiro had his usual smile. What had meant to be a little teasing from Kunihiro had been met back with a serious response. “Maybe i am. She’s good Kunihiro. Don’t mess it up.” Kunihiro was shocked to say the least.

But that conversation was shut down there when Kuranosuke had dropped more than enough bills to cover both of their meals and left. Some half excuse about a piles of projects waiting for him.

He was going to give himself the weekend. To let these ugly feelings of jealousy take over. He didn’t have more right after that, after all. When he didn’t dare to name the abnormalities. When he didn’t think he could make her happy. When it was his friends happiness in question.

He would not be like Inomata. He would not betray his friend. He would take these feelings to his grave. Yeah. That’s what they were. Kuranosuke owed it to himself. To admit it once. “I love her. Not as subordinate. Not as her boss. I love her.” That was it. This would pass too.

“This would pass too.” Yeah right. The words he had uttered like a mantra. It was hard. MC wasn’t a woman you would have a fleeting attraction to after all. Kuranosuke had to take his precautions. For once in his life. He couldn’t act like everything was ok.

So he did what he had to. When MC would join him at the roof top he would practically run away with some new excuse every time. He’d go back to the beginning of his and MCs day. Only speak to her in a few syllables of “yes” and “no’s”. Distance was the best option.

It was awful. Kuranosuke knew better. He shouldn’t had to act any different. But when he couldn’t breathe because of her presence. All he knew to do was to run. As long as he did his job as her boss. As long as she could grow under his wing.

And when the recent project was done. Everything settled. And a peculiar request came from Ukyo. Kuranosuke really wondered if MC really could grow anymore working with him. “How about letting MC work with me from now on? She’d get new perspective.” Kuranosuke instant thought was: NO.

But then he had to take a step back. Was it his desire as a man speaking or was it his desire as a boss. He couldn’t be selfish. Not with MC. If not being able to work with her meant that she could achieve more. Then he was willing to let her go. Again.

And after a month. There was no one there to nag at him. No one that would put up a smile at every hardship. No one whose hand he wanted to reach out to. The feeling of emptiness had overtaken him. But this would pass too.

What he hadn’t expected was MC chasing him down and cornering him. Not in his wildest dreams had he expected this outcome. “Was it something I did? Was my worth ethics weak? Did I offend you somehow? Did I make a mistake somewhere?” MC was on a tangent.

Kuranosukes head hurt. What was she going on about? Kuranosuke simply gave her a question mark look to let her continue. “Mr. Kiba, you started to avoid me like as if I was the plague. Fine I can take that, you’re my boss it’s not like you owe me an explanation. It still hurts. But I thought even if you spoke to me in two syllables I’d still be working under you. And then I get an email that I’m suddenly starting to work for Mr. Sengkawa. So did I mess up somewhere or- was i just so disposable? I like working with you. I don’t understand the sudden switch up.” Her voice was shaken up.

Everything hurt once again. His head. His heart. At this moment all of Kuranosukes restrain was being tested. There was nothing more he wanted to do than to take MC in his arms. Reassure her that she isn’t one to blame for anything. Calm down her so she doesn’t quiver when she speaks. But he didn’t have that right.

“Sengkawa requested you. He’s an exceptional designer.” Kuranosuke was coward. If he wasn’t one he’d tell her it has nothing to do with her but more with himself. But since he was a coward he could only offer her 2 sentences.

The look however he saw on MCs face broke all his resolve. She looked crestfallen. A dam that was going to break any second. “MC i-“ it took him one second to comeback to his senses. He almost had lost his senses and said it.

“I respect you and your work ethics. You were a valuable asset to my team.” And i love you. I love you so much that it consumes my very being. But that part he could never tell her. And that was it. That’s all consolation he could offer her.

any feedback is appreciated. this was my first attempt on writing a head canon. this been sitting in my draft for like a month now. id love to write a part 2 for this eventually if someone would like to know what route this is going to take.

[purplesurveys]

1837

What is your favorite breakfast food? Fried rice with eggs and hotdogs, or tapsilog :) Such comfort breakfast food. I like Eggs Benedict and Monte Cristo too, but let's be real I never have either for breakfast and only get them at restaurants when I feel like having breakfast food on a non-breakfast hour.

Who do you (romantically) love? Nobody.

Have you ever considered yourself dirty? In a few aspects, sometimes. Like how I have a bad habit of putting trash in my handbag, and end up having a pile of papers and wrappers after a few days.

What do you do to relax? Playing with the dogs eases my worries more than anything, but I also like turning to YouTube.

Do you enjoy kissing? Sure, but I haven't done that in a couple of years. That's okay with me though, I'm not a very sexual person in general.

What about making out? ^ Eh, just about the same.

Where are you most ticklish? My tummy and waist. I don't like even getting hit in that area, no matter how lightly, cause I'll end up squirming hahaha.

Have you ever been to an arena concert? Yes, most of the concerts I've attended have been in arenas. The only exceptions were One Direction (which was held in outdoor concert grounds) and Se So Neon (happened in a large indoor tent).

Where was the last place you kissed someone? It may have been outside my house, right by my car. Memory's hazy.

Do you know anyone who is expecting? I know someone who was due in like a couple of weeks when I first met her, so she has likely given birth by now. As for currently expecting, I don't think so.

What does your third text message say in your inbox? Just my bank telling me there was a recent transaction on my card.

Do you use speed dial? I never used that.

If so who is number 5?

Have you ever kissed someone of the same sex? Yes.

Where do you want to get married? I've always wanted a hotel wedding just so everything - or at least most things - can be set for us lol. They have the ambiance, they've got catering, the sound system, some hotels already have their roster of hosts...considering how all over the place I can get, that much would be a big help.

Do you plan on having both your parents at your wedding? If I ever get married, of course.

If you could visit one person right now, who would it be? No one, I like being alone right now.

Do you like school? The social part of it was really great; some of the best years of my life. I liked learning too but only to an extent, as there were some subjects I found to be a waste of time + some teachers didn't have the best attitude.

What is your all time favorite subject that you have ever taken in school? History. < Mine too :)

Do you have a current teacher who you wish taught all of your classes? Not current, but I wish my high school music teacher had been my teacher for everything.

What has been your favorite part of this calendar year so far? Being able to save as much as I have.

Are you going on vacation any time soon? No plans currently. My parents are planning this huge party for my grandparents in June so that will 100% kill off any vacation plans; Reena just came back from a trip to Thailand so I'm sure she'd want to save for the next few months; Angela's super busy with boards review. In any case I plan on going to Seoul next year for when BTS are back, so it'll be smart for me to not book anything for now.

Do you catch yourself staring at inappropriate times? Sometimes.

How many times have you been fall-down drunk? Less than 10 times.

Has a friend ever really hurt you and you never told them? Sure.

Where would your most romantic getaway spot be? Somewhere remote in either Palawan or Baguio.

Have you ever stayed on a ride at a theme park to ride it again? I'm sure I did this during the school fairs. I was in the rides committee so I had a few perks lol.

Have you ever used your sexuality to get you something you wanted? I'm sure I have, but only with a partner.

What do you count as too spoiled? Anyone who overreacts/makes a fuss over the smallest things. It can be very telling of how they've always had everything handed to them that they're incapable of handling the most minor of inconveniences.

When you don’t feel good, where do you want to be? Just my room, or the café we have in the village. It's never crowded and is fairly hidden, so it's a nice quaint little place to escape to.

Have you ever set an alarm on your phone to remind you to do something? Sure.

Where do you want to raise your children? The city. The stimulation and sensations would be good for them, I feel.

What is your favorite Crayola scented crayon? Idk I was never around them much.

What is your favorite childhood TV show? Hi-5!

Do you ever look at yourself and not believe it’s you? Eh, sometimes. I try not to get existential like that often.

What’s your favorite hideaway place? That café I mentioned. Not a lot of people in my circle know about it or would travel to get there + the signal in that area just so happens to be weak, so it's literally a place you can 'escape' to.

Do you have a secret you have kept from your family? Sure.

Have you ever slow danced to a song you didn’t know? I'm sure I have.

Where do you study? I don't anymore.

Do you study at all? Nope.

What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanted to be a journalist, but I've since gone a little west of that – I'm currently a PR practitioner.

Has someone ever dedicated a song to you? I don't think so?

How many people have you kissed this month? None.

Do you like do have your hair pulled? Sure.

Are you close with your parents? We're on much better terms now but I still prefer to keep some kind of wall up.

How much do you wish/ hope for something before you give up? I can be very passionate and will fight for things/people, but if I feel like I'm not getting the same energy back I slowly let go.

Have you ever hung out with a complete stranger? Sure!

Do you work any holidays? No.

[wqintraining]

NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 3, EPISODE 10

We open on a snowy day at the school on the last day of February, a few days having passed since the riot. In voice over, Cyclops, Emma, and Magneto discuss their situation, as it’s shown. 

CYCLOPS: “The drop outs are still coming. Laurie Collins just got here, and she’s already being pulled out. Even some of my kids are leaving.” 

Among a crowd of students being picked up by their parents are Quill and Armor. 

EMMA: “The Washingtons want to sue. Bling! and Mercury’s insistence on staying with their friends is the only reason they haven’t. Not that any of our X-Men in Training have been in much of a chummy mood.” 

Roxy and Cessily lay under the covers in the darkness, despite it being the middle of the day, just holding each other. Noriko, Sooraya, and Laura meanwhile all sit alone in their rooms, the former two wallowing in their sorrow, while Laura watches old videos she helped Sofia with, trying to remember that real her isn’t responsible for this. Sofia, herself, meanwhile is doing just fine as she, on a new, anonymous account, posts video footage from the riot, interspersed with Exodus and Malice’s attack on Paris, with a simple caption reading, “The Mutant Threat in Action”. 

EMMA: “I don’t think my Cuckoos have uttered a word since the riot. They are only communicating with each other.” 

In their room, the four remaining Stepford sisters stare at each other intensely. 

CYCLOPS: “And Hellion?” 

EMMA: “Still refusing to leave his side.” 

Julian sits in the private room of the medical bay, where Brian’s body has been covered, his eyes morose. 

MAGNETO: “We remain unsuccessful at finding the Horsemen. It shames and chills me to think of what they’re doing to my Wanda.” 

In the Horsemen’s lair, Wanda, still in coma, is chained to a wall in a dungeon. Exodus enters and grins. 

CYCLOPS: “Magik, Warpath, and Escapade are back on their feet, but Quentin is still down. We have to assume his coma will last longterm.” 

EMMA: “That ungrateful malcontent is the least of our worries. His coordinated attack with the Horsemen has not only cost us our students and Wanda, but footage from the day was obtained and leaked. The hysterical, panicked calls for our heads are getting louder and growing in number.” 

In her Clan Akabba robe, Trinary uses her ability to communicate with technology to have Sofia’s anonymous leak spread like wildfire through the algorithm. Anti-Mutant, and Anti-X-Men, protests occur all across the world. 

We cut to the three headmasters in their office. 

MAGNETO: “So…what do we do next?” 

BEAT. 

SCOTT: “The best we can for the kids we have left.” 

Although purely sentiment, Emma and Erik nod in agreement that the most actionable moves can be based around that idea at this moment. 

In her room, Sooraya pulls herself together enough to get up, lay out her prayer rug, and get down to thank Allah for protecting Warpath, and to pray for Brian and Sophie. She hopes that they are both being loved and cared for by their ancestors. She’s sure Brian has embraced Allah’s love. She hopes Sophie isn’t being too stubborn. But also…

SOORAYA: “I am confused. I believed that I was given these powers to protect others. I know I have the power to do so. It was your design that I be among the strongest of Mutants. Stronger than anyone realizes. But still, I cannot save anyone. Please. Tell me. What am I doing wrong?” 

In the halls, Emma turns a corner to greet the finally out of their room Cuckoos, having a proposition for them, only to notice that they’re dragging their luggage behind them. 

EMMA: “I was hoping you’d join me and your friends for a relaxing day of yachting somewhere a little less frigid to distract ourselves for a few hours, but it seems you have other plans.” 

Without Sophie to stand in the middle, the Cuckoos have a new formation. And a new hive queen, as Esme stands in front of the other three. 

ESME, sneering: “Yes. We do.” 

Emma’s disappointed, but instructs them to be careful and to not be gone too long; classes resume in three days. Esme clarifies that they aren’t coming back. 

ESME: “This school killed our sister.” 

CELESTE: “You killed our sister, Ms. Frost. You loaded the gun” 

PHOEBE: “And you show mercy to those who pulled the trigger. 

MINDEE: “You are pathetic.” 

ESME: “You are weak.” 

EMMA, knowing they’re right: “Girls, I…I’m sorry. We did fail you. But we can still protect you. Where else will you go?” 

CUCKOOS: “Home.” 

The Cuckoos brush past Emma, who goes into diamond form and puts a hole in the wall in her frustration. 

As Emma calls out to Danger that she needs a repair, Sofia is shown to have been listening in on this conversation over the winds. And she likes the way the Cuckoos are talking, licking her lips, and flying to meet them. 

However…

DANI, running into Sofia: “Hey, kid! Where are you rushing to?” 

SOFIA, planting her feet on the ground and slipping back into her act: “Oh, nowhere. I just wanted to go check on Julian.” 

Dani compliments how sweet she is, and starts giving a big speech about how sorry she is for what happened with the Omega Gang, and how losing Brian and Sophie hurts her too, all the while Sofia struggles keep up her persona and becomes antsy as she’s prevented from intercepting and recruiting the Cuckoos. 

SOFIA, increasingly pissed as she agrees with whatever Dani says: “Mmhm. Yes. Of course. Absolutely.” 

Dani eventually gets to a point, and tells Sofia that things between her and Emma are worse than usual, but the two of them and Kitty are putting aside their differences for the moment, and have a day planned for them on Emma’s yacht for some fun. 

SOFIA: “Yachting? On the ocean?” As Sofia gets an idea, her smile becomes a little more natural and a tad sinister. “That sounds perfect.” 

In the medical bay’s private room, Julian shakes as he stares intensely at Brian’s covered body. There’s a knock on the door. 

JULIAN: “I’m not done in here, Danger.” 

NORIKO, on the other side of the door: “Good thing I’m not Danger, and I’m not trying to get you to leave.” 

Julian sighs and tells Ashida she can come in. Noriko enters and sits down next to Julian. The two sit together in silence. Until…

NORIKO: ‘This is my fault.” 

Julian doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She wasn’t even awake. 

NORIKO: “Exactly. We were spread thin. If I hadn’t taken those stupid pills, I would have been there to fight. I promised Pixie I’d keep everyone safe! The two of us for sure could have put down Quentin before–” 

JULIAN, growling: “I was the one who was there. I was the one who was supposed to beat that creep. If I’d just done that, Brian and Sophie would still be here. No other “ifs” or “buts” matter.” 

Nori offers a hand to him, but her own emotions light it up. Julian takes it anyway, shielding his hand. The two stare at the body together, Noriko needing to wipe tears from her eyes. She asks what happened to Sophie’s body. 

JULIAN: “Her parents sent some guys to pick her up yesterday. They have a family cemetery on their estate.” 

NORIKO: “The Cuckoos never talk about their parents. Can only imagine how much they are.” Noriko squeezes Julian’s hand. “Ms. Pryde told me there’d be something similar for Brian if his parents weren’t on their way to get him. Professor Xavier has a whole plot set up in Scotland…just for dead X-Men.” 

Julian squeezes her hand back. 

JULIAN: “Think we’ll be in the ground there someday?” 

BEAT

NORI: Well…your lameass maybe. But not me.” 

Julian lets go of Noriko, not in the mood for their banter. Nori sighs and asks if he got the invite yet for today. He confirms that Cessily already talked to him. He’s not interested. 

JULIAN: “I have to be here.” 

NORIKO: “For what?” 

JUlIAN, fully turning his attention back to Brian: “For when the Cruz’s get here. I want them to know that he saved my life.” 

Noriko puts her hand on his back. 

On their private jet, the Cuckoos drink. Esme, Celeste, and Phoebe are sat up straight with their usual perfect posture, while Mindee is curled up into a ball. 

MINDEE: “Do you think Father will be mad?” 

ESME: “Of course he will be. But not with us.” She looks at her reflection in her glass. “He’ll sue Ms. Frost for everything she’s worth.” 

CELESTE AND PHOEBE, in agreement: “Mmmhm!” 

MINDEE: “And…what about us?” 

ESME: “I’ll figure that out. Just trust me, okay?” 

MINDEE: “And what about all our fr–?” 

ESME: “Enough with the questions! God, try to not be such a crybaby. I’m not going to let you down like Sophie did.” 

Mindee just gets more uncomfortable, shutting herself up by drinking. 

PHOEBE: “I was actually thinking we might figure out a plan together. There’s no reason we have to keep doing things the same way.” 

ESME: “Of course we do! I’m the oldest, I always should have been in charge. Baby Sophie was just a little more powerful so she took point. And where did that get her? Dead playing superhero.” Esme chugs back everything in her glass. “I can tell you one thing about our future. We won’t be helping anyone but ourselves. Ever!” 

Just as she finishes, Esme drops her glass. She falls over and passes out. 

CELESTE: “Esme?” 

Mindee falls over next. 

PHOEBE: “Mindee!” 

Celeste and Phoebe jump to their feet, smashing their glasses and questioning what’s going on. But they’re too late, and they join their sisters in slumber. 

In the teacher’s lounge, Emma, Dani, and Kitty meet. 

DANI: “So the Cuckoos are gone, Sooraya is praying, Julian doesn’t want to leave Brian’s side, and Laura’s got some new master she’s learning from.” 

KITTY: “Honestly, she could tell me her sensei’s name and it probably wouldn’t mean anything. You wouldn’t believe the amount of old, Japanese, martial arts masters Logan knows.” 

EMMA: “That still leaves four wonderful girls who are suffering and need us.” 

DANI: “Wind Dancer’s acting like she’s fine, but we know how good she is at putting on fake smiles. Surge is beating herself up pretty badly. Mercury and Bling! have been keeping to themselves.” She turns to Kitty. “How’s your squad doing?” 

KITTY, hanging her head: “Mostly gone. Umbra’s still here, but he’s thinking about leaving too. Foxx still believes in us though. Figured you wouldn’t mind if I invited her along.” 

EMMA: “Of course not. The more the merrier. I myself invited Escapade, but she didn’t feel comfortable going out with the “X-kids”.” She turns to Dani. “Good on you for asking a question like that, Danielle. Perhaps if you’d paid that kind of attention earlier, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” 

DANI, authoratative “Do not start.” 

EMMA: “Start what? Speaking about how your selfish desire to work with my squad resulted in you neglecting the children you were actually charged with?”

DANI, squinting: “Maybe. But maybe we should be talking about how you knew Quentin was out of control, out there killing people, and that Brian was helping him, and you did nothing.” 

KITTY: “Also wouldn’t mind discussing why Sophie even knew that Cerebro could be weaponized; you were only meant to be teaching basic operation.” 

The three women stare each other down, full of contempt for one another. 

Hard cut to the three teachers entering the common area with plastered smiles on their faces, greeting Noriko, Sofia, Cessily, Roxy, and, looking like she has since she began appearing as a background character at the start of the season, Foxx, and telling them it’s time to go. 

In the medical bay, Julian continues to sit by Brian. 

“Hellion?” 

Julian’s eyes widen at Scott’s voice. 

JULIAN: “What is it? Are the Cruz’s here?!” 

SCOTT: “No. Not yet” 

JULIAN, his face falling: “Oh.” 

On the other side of the door, Cyclops scratches the back of his head. He knows this is partially his fault. And he knows that he and Julian have never really spent much time together. But he’s not just one of his students anymore; he’s an X-Man. 

SCOTT: “You’re part of my team. And Emma really cares about you, which means I do too. I was thinking maybe you’d like to do some one-on-one training with another guy. Help get out whatever you need to.” 

BEAT. 

Julian bristles. 

JULIAN: “And how much of that did Ms. Frost tell you to say?” 

SCOTT: “None of it.” 

JULIAN: “Sure. With all due respect, Mr. Summers, you’ve done enough. I’d rather drop off the face of the Earth than spend time with you.” 

Scott nods. He understands, and tells Hellion his door is open if he changes his mind. He walks out of the medical bay, where he’s laughed at. 

SCOTT, squinting: “Something funny?” 

MAGIK, leaning against the wall:  “Your face. For one. You should see your girlfriend’s surgeon.” 

CYCLOPS, annoyed and turning around to walk away: “Goodbye, Magik.” 

MAGIK, teleporting in front of him: “Hold on. I wasn’t done. What’s also funny is you trying to bond with any of these kids outside your own squad when you’ve been “Mr. Hands Off” for almost two years, and gotten their friends killed.” 

CYCLOPS: “You think you could do better?” 

MAGIK: “I think if I was running this place, Quentin would have lost his head before he laid a finger on anyone else.” BEAT. “But also yes. You told me you wished for me to start teaching, and I’ve decided to take you up on that” CYCLOPS, skeptical: “Out of the goodness of your heart?” 

MAGIK: “And the desire for revenge on Pestillence and Lady Akabba, which will be easiest if one of our strongest fighters isn’t moping.” 

CYCLOPS: “And there it is.” 

Magik puts her hands on her hips, and asks him if he’d like her to try helping the brat or not. She gave him his hands and she can sense a familiar darkness inside him. 

MAGIK, softening: “I really think I can help, Cyclops.” 

Scott takes a moment to think it over, before agreeing to give her a shot. 

MAGIK: “Perfect!” 

Julian is heard screaming, before being cut off. 

SCOTT, immediately regretting this: “What did you just do?” 

ILLYANA: “Eh. Dropped him off the face of the Earth. I’ll catch us up.” 

Magik creates a stepping disc underneath herself and Cyclops, transporting them away. 

Elsewhere, Esme’s eyes flicker open, with a bright light shining into them. As she wakes up, so too do her sisters. 

ESME: “What the…”

CELESTE: “Hell?”

MINDEE: “Where are…”

PHOEBE: “We?”

The Cuckoos find themselves in what looks like a cold and sterile hospital. They’ve each been changed into all-white hospital gowns, they’re hooked up to various monitors, they’re strapped to their beds with power dampening collars around their necks, doctors and nurses are bustling about, with some examining them, and tags have been put around each of their wrists, with numbers ranging from 1-4. 

ESME, screaming and struggling to get loose: “What is this?! Where are we?!” 

MINDEE: “Who are you people?!” 

PHOEBE: “Do you know who we are?!” 

CELESTE: “You’re dead! All dead!” 

None of the staff are fazed at all by the ruckus of the powerless teenage girls, but one of the doctors does feel the need to act. 

DOCTOR, using a com device: ”Sir, they’re awake.” 

The Cuckoos continue to scream, make threats, and attempt to flail. Until…

“Girls, girls. Settle down.” 

A man in a suit enters, face unseen but his voice familiar. 

MAN: “Please. I know you’re scared, but you’re all polite young ladies. Do not behave in such an embarrassing way. Your doctors were just running some diagnostics.” 

ESME, red in the face: “These aren’t our doctors. And who are you supposed to be? What do you want with us?” 

MAN: “Do you really not know? Well, I suppose that makes sense.” His smile is seen. “Even if I am your father.” The Cuckoos’ faces fall, distressed and concerned. “For now…” 

The man’s face is revealed. 

SUBLIME: “You may call me John.” 

We cut to Emma’s yacht, already out on the ocean. Emma is laid back and sunbathing, while Kitty and Dani clink drinks, and Sofia is gracefully swimming in the ocean, talking to Noriko, who’s leaned over the side of the boat, over the winds. 

SOFIA: “Come join me, Noriko. The water is great.” 

NORIKO: “Yeeeah, Princess, I know we’re all depressed, but you shouldn’t be asking me to cook you.” 

SOFIA: “I promise it will be fine.” 

NORIKO, frustrated: “And I promise it won’t.” 

Inside the ship, Roxy, who brought her guitar, asks if Cessily has any requests. Cess is a little awkward and asks Roxy if she’s sure she doesn’t want to go swim. Just because she can’t get in the water doesn’t mean Roxy shouldn’t have fun. 

ROXY, kissing Cessily up her neck: “Doesn’t sound very fun if you’re not doing it.” 

Cessily giggles and squirms away. 

CESSILY: “Come on. I know it’s not your Olympic-sized pool, but it’s still the ocean.” 

Roxy’s face falls. 

ROXY: “Are you okay?” 

Back outside…

SOFIA, doing a backstroke: “We haven’t really talked. About what you attempted.” 

NORIKO: “Nothing to talk about. I was stupid and desperate and people died because of me.” 

SOFIA: “You are no more to blame than me. I spread Laurie’s pheremones without testing to make sure they were calming first.” 

NORIKO: “It’s not the same.” 

Inside…

CESSILY: “Yeah! I mean, okay as any of us are. I’m just still…I cared about Brian a lot.”

ROXY, still worried: “So did I. So everything is cool with us?” 

CESSILY: “We’ve spent the last few days cuddling almost nonstop. I think you’d know by now if something was wrong.” 

Outside…

SOFIA: “I am sorry. I shouldn’t try and compare.” BEAT. “I wasn’t around to see it, but do you still want to be the person you were on Kick?” 

NORIKO: “Absolutely not.” She looks down at her hands. “I do still want control though.”

SOFIA, smirking evily while no one can see: “Well…maybe there are still some avenues you haven’t explored.” 

Inside…

Roxy is still worried…but she’s sorry. She knows how she worries. Cessily kisses her and picks out a song. 

As she does so, Foxx comes running through, changed into her swimsuit, and runs outside. 

KITTY, as Foxx runs past: “Oh, Foxx, have you had a chance to talk to Surge yet? I think you girls would really—”

Foxx ignores her, cackling, before canonballing into the war, making sure to land within splashing distance of Sofia. 

FOXX, to a peeved Sofia: “Whoops! Sorry, So-fi-a. HA HA HA.” 

SOFIA: “I–” 

FOXX: “Not mad, right? I hear you’re sweet to everyone.” 

Sofia is suspicious, but before she can question this, the water shakes, as well as the boat. 

DANI: “What the Hell?” 

KITTY: “We just put Avalanche back in jail, right?” 

CESSILY, running outside with Roxy: “Uh, we did that actually.” 

EMMA, bracing herself as she sits up straight: “Oh, please be Avalanche. Please.” 

A giant, tentacled sea monster emerges from the water, Sofia and Foxx getting splashed. Standing atop the monster from the ocean’s depths is an extremely muscular man in a scaled speedo. 

Noriko, Cessily, and Roxy look up with awe and bewilderment. 

DANI: “Who is that?” 

Kitty, recognizing him, smacks her face. 

NAMOR: “Emma Grace Frost! We have played enough of your games over the years. It is time for you to join me as the queen of Atlantis!” 

Emma sighs, taking a swig of her drink and standing up: “He’s my ex.” 

We cut to the fiery, demonic pits of Limbo…where the demons actually seem to be having a pretty good time. There’s a band playing, others are dancing along, and some others are feasting on some nice juicy organs together. 

A stepping disc opens in the middle of the air, with Hellion falling out of it, barely catching himself in time with his TK to avoid landing in a pool of flames. Julian, having never been here before, is horrifed by what he sees. 

MAGIK: “What do you think of my home sweet home?!” 

Julian continues to be freaked out, but has seen enough by now to compose himself, stand up, and get in Magik’s face, demanding to know what’s going on. 

CYCLOPS, standing behind Magik: “I’d like to know the same thing.” 

Illyana rolls her eyes at the boys as she walks past them, and demons leap from the flames to bow at her feet. 

ILLYANA: “This is Limbo. My queendom.” Illyana wags her finger and makes a throne pop out of the ground. She takes a seat and magically pours wine into a glass from nowhere. “You remember all the cool stuff I used to be able to do before our little run-in with Phoenix? This is my base of power, so I can still do all of that here.” 

JULIAN: “And why–?!” 

ILLYANA: “Hello. Limbo.” Magik takes a sip of wine. “I thought you might like to take a look around. You know. Just in case your friends’ souls found their way here.” 

Julian is in shock, while Scott seems suspicious. Illyana’s having fun though and leans over the side of her chair to drink. 

In the hospital, the Cuckoos are confused. What does John mean he’s their father? 

ESME: “Our father’s name is–!” 

PHOEBE, suddenly confused: “Umm…” 

MINDEE, scared: “Why can’t we remember Daddy’s name?” 

Sublime tells the little girls not to try thinking so hard; that isn’t what they’re good for. But he's eager to explain. 

SUBLIME: “Tell me: How much have you learned in school about Weapon X?” 

The Cuckoos choose to play along, wanting to get to the bottom of this, and say what they know. It’s the government project that experimented on Mr. Logan, gave him his adamantium skeleton, and made him forget everything from before then. It was later moved outside of the purview of the government proper and research was continued by The Facility, resulting in the creation of Wolverine. 

SUBLIME: “Not bad, not bad. All true. But you’re missing some big pieces. Who started Weapon X? And why?” None of the Cuckoos know. An amused Sublime clasps his hands behind his back. “The work that would eventually become Weapon X was started by a man named Romulus about a century and a half ago. As far as Mutants go not a bad one. If I was capable of emotions, I may have felt a little sad after learning he’d been offed by Apocalypse.” 

Sublime continues to explain how he and Romules met in the early 20th century and, using their mutual connections, got Weapon X started. 

ESME: “You’re immortal…” 

CELESTE: “A jerk…” 

PHOEBE: “You talk like a bad game show host…” 

MINDEE: “Your name is John.” 

CUCKOOS: “Sublime!” 

Sublime laughs. So Ms. Frost DID tell her girls about him! He’s so flattered. 

ESME, pissed: “We are NOT her girls.” 

SUBLIME: “Of course you aren’t.” He grins sadistically. “You’re mine.” 

The Cuckoos glare at Sublime as he continues his explanation. Romulus started Weapon X because he wanted an army. World domination was his endgame, and while that scope was a little small compared to what he was after, it mattered little with what Sublime was after. 

SUBLIME: “What I needed were the perfect husks. Bodies strong enough to hold the most powerful force in the universe.” 

MINDEE: “You mean…”

PHOEBE: “Phoenix?” 

SUBLIME: “Correct! And while Romulus was working on making the perfect soldiers, I was working on a way to capture and trap a god. Took over a century, but I think I just about got it.” 

Unfortunately, he did that before Romulus completed his part of the plan. And when Romulus was killed, he was forced to take over. Logan had already stolen X-23, and Kimura couldn’t do her damn job and get it back, so he had to make something new. Since none of his Wolverine knock-offs were getting anywhere, something brand new! 

SUBLIME: “And I thought to myself: “John! What powerful Mutant will you at least get pretty clones out of?” The Cuckoos’ eyes all widen in horror as they fear where this is going…before their fears are immediately validated. “Of course, that’s not how you girls turned out.” 

MINDEE, shaking and tearing up: “What are you saying?” 

Sublime haughtily steps over to Mindee and crushes her jaw in his hand, making her scream. The other Cuckoos are enraged, but they can’t do anything. 

SUBLIME: “I’m saying…number four…that you are nothing but husks based on dear Ms. Frost.” He lets go of Mindee, letting her gasp for air. “And thanks to my work with the U-Men, I finally know how to make you gods.” 

Out in the ocean, as Sofia flies herself and Foxx back onto the yacht, Kitty and Dani are in disbelief over their circumstances. 

KITTY: “You used to DATE the king of Atlantis and bad attitudes?” 

DANI: “Am I the only one of us who hasn’t been to Atlantis? I feel robbed. Also, didn’t you say Scott and Shaw were the only guys you were ever with?” 

EMMA: “The only men I ever let touch me or trusted with my heart.” Namor steps onto the yacht, walking down one of his creature’s tentacles like a bridge. “Our royal guest was never so lucky.” 

As Namor walks down the deck, Emma steps forward to meet him. 

CESSILY, whispering to the other teens: “Think we’re gonna have to fight this guy?” 

SOFIA, whispering: “Don’t try it, Cessily. He’s defeated Magneto, and even fought Apocalypse to a stalemate.” Sofia continues, unable to fully hide her annoyance and defensiveness. “Although he did cheat.” 

NORIKO, whispering: “I don’t remember ever hearing about this in class.” 

SOFIA, whispering: “You never pay attention in class.” 

Foxx laughs to herself. 

ROXY: “Uh, you okay, girl?” 

FOXX: “Oh yeah. I’m just happy to be here.” 

Emma and Namor meet face to face, standing inches away from one another. 

EMMA: “I do not have time for you right now, King Namor. My school just suffered a tragedy, and I am attempting to distract my students from their troubles. You bring trouble everywhere you go.” 

NAMOR, smirking: “You say that as if you do not love it.” Emma rolls her eyes at him and Namor returns to his stoic expression. “I have been informed about what happened. That is part of why I am here. I would like to aid the X-Men in a swift defeat of Apocalypse’s Horsemen.” 

EMMA, knowing there’s a catch: “How kind.” 

NAMOR: “But only if you agree to stop ignoring your feelings and become my queen.” 

NORIKO, whispering to Kitty: “He’s serious?” 

KITTY, whispering back: “Everyone’s got a shtick.” 

Namor looks behind Emma, notices Kitty, and glares. 

NAMOR, with pure hatred: “Is that you, Kitty Pryde?” 

KITTY, cheerfully mocking: “Sup, Scale Pasties?! How’s Atlantis been since my last visit?” 

NAMOR: “Still cleaning up the mess you made with your “People’s revolution”.” 

KITTY: “Well, if you hadn’t given the people a reason to do a little revolting, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything!” 

Namor growls. 

NORIKO, whispering: “You are the coolest.” 

KITTY: “I know.” Dani glares at her in a “Remember you’re supposed to be a responsible role-model” way. “I mean, um, don’t start riots using seahorses.” 

Dani sighs as she approaches Namor and introduces herself. Much as she’d love for him to take Emma away forever, that’s not going to happen. But maybe they could work out some kind of other deal after they come ashore and get the kids home. 

EMMA: “It isn’t often I agree with Danielle, but I believe that’s a reasonable request. Wouldn’t you say?” 

Everyone nearly trips as the boat shakes. Namor’s sea monster has wrapped itself around the yacht, and is holding it in place. 

NAMOR: “I will not be taking “no” for an answer.” 

With Namor refusing to budge, the X-women prepare to fight. 

In the hospital, The Cuckoos remained strapped down to their beds as they’re wheeled down a cold and sterile hallway by nurses. Sublime leads the way, continuing to exposit. 

SUBLIME: “You can imagine my surprise when you grew in full in your tanks. That sample material was unexpected, but I figured you girls would just do as Mother seemingly did.” Esme gets increasingly enraged as Sublime refers to Emma that way. “Once you were all cooked, we just had to implant some fake memories, forge some paperwork, and ship you off to school to train and grow stronger so that you’d be ready for –” 

ESME, cutting him off: “Shut up already! I am sick of listening to your voice. And I don’t know who you think you’re fooling except maybe Mindee, but we are not clones, Ms. Frost is not our mother, and we are not numbers! Sophie was an idiot, but she wasn’t just a number!” 

They all stop at two sliding doors.

Sublime turns his head around 360 degrees, grinning like the devil. 

SUBLIME: “Wanna bet?” 

The frightened girls become even more mortified as the doors slide open, revealing an enormous high-tech laboratory filled with bustling scientists, and, most appalling to the Cuckoos, tanks filled with thousands of clones of them. 

Esme’s face completely falls, and Celeste looks like she’s going to vomit. 

Sublime snaps his head back around as they all enter, and he welcomes “Weapon XIV” to The World. 

SUBLIME: “You want me to loosen those restraints a bit? Let you wave to all your sisters?” 

Mindee, still a crying mess, asks why he’s doing all of this. 

PHOEBE: “He’s human! He just hates us!” 

Sublime laughs. He does hate Mutants, that much is absolutely true. But human? Not quite. He’s not who’s important here though. 

SUBLIME: “The important ones are you: the five-thousand-in-one!” 

Sublime explains that with his technology, he will be able to summon the Phoenix and trap it. And then, split it up between all five thousand Cuckoos bodies. No Baseline or Mutant except for Jean Grey and her time-traveling bitch of a daughter can withstand the Phoenix Force without it overwhelming them. But 5,000 strong, telepathic bodies, guided by four who have received exceptional training and touched the Phoenix before? That will work. 

SUBLIME: “And once you have the Phoenix Force, you will use it to wipe out not just every Mutant on this planet, but throughout the universe. And all will be well.” 

ESME, struggling to voice confidence: “I…I think you left out the part where you brainwash us. Why else would we do that?” 

Sublime casually shrugs. 

SUBLME: “I mean, I can if you really want me to. But considering you willingly chose to leave the X-men, and your “home” isn’t real, why wouldn’t you want this? What else is there? What’s better? Think of it. All one mind. All powerful. Forever.” 

Celeste, Phoebe, and even Mindee are able to compose themselves in the face of this evil, and sneer at Sublime, not about to submit so easily. 

But Esme’s lips curl. 

CELESTE: “Human or not…” 

PHOEBE: “You’re as creepy a loser as any other man.” 

MINDEE: “And we’re going to get out of this and kill your a–!” 

ESME, cutting her off: “Now, Mindee…” Esme is shown to be grinning. “Let’s not be hasty.” 

Esme’s sisters are concerned and panicked, while Sublime also grins. 

On her yacht, Emma is infuriated with Namor. 

EMMA: “This is why I could never care for you, Namor. You’re a child. You don’t get your way, and, the royal brat that you are, you throw a tantrum.” 

NAMOR, amused: “I’m the child? You’re the one who’s been robbing the cradle.” 

While Kitty and Dani manage to stay focused on the current situation, the kids are engrossed in the drama. 

EMMA: “Excuse you?” 

NAMOR: “Excuse what? Are you not old enough to have been Summers’ governess?” 

Emma lights up her eyes to attack, but Namor reacts just as quickly with his aquatic telepathy, making his monster squeeze the boat tighter. Emma backs down for the moment, but…

EMMA: “This is your last chance to leave. Destroy my yacht if you please. I have others. You know this would not end well for you.” 

NAMOR: “I know exactly what I’m doing.” He smirks. “But, if you ladies would like to wrestle, I would be happy to give us some privacy away from your childr–”

Namor gasps, choking. Dani asks if he’s alright, as Namor jumps off the boat and dives into the ocean. 

KITTY: “You make him think he can’t breathe out of water?” 

EMMA: “No. This isn’t me.” 

NORIKO: “Uhh, guys.” 

The three teachers turn around to face the kids. Sofia has her arm raised and is smirking. 

SOFIA: “He can breathe in air and water, right? I thought if I blocked off the flow of one, he’d be forced into the other.” 

DANI, surprised: “You know how to do that?” 

EMMA, suspicious: “Apparently she does.” 

SOFIA: “It is just something I thought to try.” 

KITTY: “Smart thinking wherever you learned it. But that’s not gonna stop him for long.” 

Namor, on cue, flies out of the ocean, hovering above the Mutants. 

NAMOR: “Arrogant child! How dare you!” 

A gust of wind blows everyone’s hair as Sofia flies to meet Namor in the sky. 

KITTY: “Wind Dancer, wait!” 

CESSILY: “Wasn’t she just telling us not to fight him?” 

FOXX, texting on a phone viewers have seen before: “I think she was just talking about you. Lol.” 

Cessily sideyes Foxx. 

SOFIA, staring Namor down: “After everything my friends and I have been through, deserve a day of peace. Of fun and relaxation. You will not spoil this.” BEAT. Sofia smiles warmly. “So why don’t we make a game out of it?” 

Namor and everyone on the boat is confused by what’s going on. 

NAMOR, curious: “I’m listening, woman.” 

SOFIA: “You are a proud warrior. If you want Ms. Frost’s hand in marriage, fight for it. But there is no need for us to harm one another. Surge, Mercury, and I are three of Ms. Frost’s most talented students.” Surge and Mercury’s eyes widen, as they wonder what the Hell she’s saying. “Defeat two out of three of us in physical competitions, and Ms. Frost will leave with you. You aren’t afraid of facing children, are you?” 

EMMA, pissed at Sofia: “Wind Dancer…” 

DANI: “Wait. She might be onto something.” 

Sofia and Namor continue to stare each other down, before…

NAMOR: “HA! I will not refuse the challenge. Does my future queen consent to the terms?” 

Emma speaks telepathically to Sofia, questioning what she’s thinking. They can handle Namor. Sofia knows they can, but they’re on his turf right now, and it’s too risky to engage when they have Foxx with them. Also in the psychic communication, Kitty agrees with Sofia, especially since, for all they know, they could be surrounded by Namor’s army right now. 

Emma sees her point, but is still unhappy. She should have nominated Danielle and Kitty to participate in this farce. Sofia apologizes, but she figured Namor would be less likely to try avoiding a challenge from them. 

SOFIA: “Besides…I think we all have a lot of feelings we need to get out.” 

Sofia promises the three teachers they can do this. They’ve trained them well. 

Emma sighs. 

EMMA: “Yes, Namor. We have a deal.” 

In Limbo, Magik teleports Cyclops and Hellion around as she gives them a tour of the place. 

MAGIK: “So, these are the fire pits. Obviously. I like hanging out here with my boys for band practice. Keeps them out of trouble. How are we doing boys?!” 

DEMONS: “We love you, your highness!” 

MAGIK: “Ha ha, I know you do.” She leans forward. “They used to say that all the time when I was a kid, but they were way too busy screaming when Darkchylde was in charge. Feels good.” Scott and Julian sideye each other. “Anyway!” 

Illyana takes everyone through a portal, leading them into the middle of a colosseum. 

ILLYANA: “Demons come here to challenge each other to death matches.” Two demonic warriors race toward the center of the arena where the three X-Men stand, prompting Magik to draw her anti-soulsowrd and cut them both down. Julian is freaked out as demon guts get on him. “I’ve never lost a challenge.” 

The next portal takes them a black void filled with purple mists and grisly screams. Scott and Julian both cringe. 

ILLYANA: “This is where demon’s essences experience agony as they struggle to reconstitute themselves after they die here. Realizing now you probably don’t want to see this.” 

The next portal brings them all outside a dark, spooky castle. 

ILLYANA: “And this is my crib!” 

Illyana portals them through various rooms she finds interesting. Great hall. Dungeons. Library. 

ILLYANA: “Used to spend a LOT of time here.” 

JULIAN: “You’re a big reader?” 

ILLYANA: “How do you think I taught myself the magic I needed to conquer this place?” 

With one more portal, they’re brought to Illyana’s throneroom. 

ILLYANA: “And this is where I happen!” She points at someone working. “That’s my girl, Dessy.” Magik teleports over to her and fist bumps her. “She runs the show when I’m not around.” 

JULIAN, skeptical and walking up to her: “Uh, she looks 12.” 

Dessy unhinges her jaw to reveal her less cute, true demonic form, and feeds on Julian’s despair, sucking the life out of him. 

Illyana slaps the back of Dessy’s head to make her stop. 

ILLYANA: “Hey! Bad Dessy. No eating my new student.You can have Cyclops if you’re hungry.” Scott is not amused. “And hey, I was running Limbo when I was only 14.” 

Julian sighs. This is all freaky and kinda cool, but what about Brian and Sophie? Are their souls here or not? 

JULIAN: “Karma once told me about how X-Men die and come back all the time. How that’s just a part of our lives. If we have access to their souls, could we bring them back?” 

Magik thinks, clicking her tongue. 

JULIAN: “Please.” 

After a beat, Illyana decides they can take a peak. But Cyclops can’t come. 

ILLYANA: “I was fine bringing you along, but you don’t get to see the deeper parts of Limbo. Got it?” 

Scott isn’t happy about it, but he can see that Julian needs this, and he knows…he’s pretty sure that Magik won’t hurt him. So he agrees. 

MAGIK: “Excellent. Dessy, take good care of the guy I let act like my boss.” 

Illyana teleports herself and Julian away. 

Scott isn’t sure what to do or say, but Dessy speaks up. 

DESSY:” Hey…do you let non-Mutants attend your school?” 

Scott does not like what she’s suggesting. 

In The World, Celeste aggressively asks Esme what she’s smiling about. Sublime tells #3 to watch her tone. #1 is their current queen, isn’t she? 

ESME: “That’s right. I am. This ugly pussbucket may be lame, but think about what he’s offering. All the power in the universe. No one would ever be able to tell us no again. We could do whatever we wanted!” Esme looks around at all the clones. “And the hole that’s been left in our hearts would be filled 5,000 times over.” 

Phoebe calls her crazy, while Mindee shouts that these husks can’t replace Sophie, and Celeste frustratedly tells her it isn’t worth it. 

CELESTE: “Kill Quentin, his gang, and Ms. Frost? Sure. Wipe out humanity? I could be swayed! But all Mutants? Hell no. We still have friends back at the school.” 

ESME: “We don’t have anyone! That’s why we chose to leave!”

PHOEBE: “YOU chose to leave!” 

The sisters continue to squabble, Sublime pleased at the sight, as he gestures for the nurses to undo Esme’s restraints. 

ESME, being helped to stand, snickering: “Come on, girls. Don’t be lame.” 

Esme’s eyes glow as she reaches deeper into her sisters’ minds and forces them to follow her lead. 

ESME: “All set to become fiery hot goddesses?” 

CELESTE, PHOEBE, AND MINDEE: “Yes, Esme.” 

ESME: “Perfect.” 

Sublime laughs and puts his hand on Esme’s shoulder. He should have known his first born wouldn’t let him down. As the nurses free the other Cuckoos, Sublime tells Esme to get into the empty tanks in the center of the lab. While they do that, he’s going to summon Phoenix. 

On Emma’s private beach, Namor is cocky as, for the first challenge, Noriko has challenged him to a footrace across the ocean back to where they left the yacht. 

NAMOR, to Emma, standing haughtily: “It’s nice that you’ve succeeded in embedding your confidence in your students. I look forward to learning more about them while we plan our wedding.” 

EMMA: “The only way you’re ever learning about my children is by taking a job as a swimming coach. How does minimum wage sound to start?” 

Namor glares at her. 

Nearby, Noriko is stretching her legs, talking to her friends and teachers. 

NORIKO: “So do we have an actual gameplan here or am I supposed to actually beat this guy?” 

KITTY: “Cheating does sound practical, but if Namor caught on, there’s a non-zero chance he’d try to flood the Earth.” 

ROXY: “Is…is that a thing he’s tried to do?” 

CESSILY, eagerly putting an arm around her girlfriend: “Don’t worry, baby, I have so got this.” 

DANI: “You sure seem energized.” 

Cessily beams that she is. She’s been on a roll lately. She beat Laura, she beat Random, and she thinks she did a pretty good job in Paris. 

CESSILY: “Brian always believed in me. I’m not gonna let him down now.” 

Roxy gives her a kiss on the cheek. 

Cessily thanks Sofia for naming her, with Sofia telling her she’s very welcome; she figured she would appreciate this. 

SOFIA: “I warned you of his power, but you get to choose the terms of engagement. This is your chance to show exactly how strong you are.” 

Dani looks at Sofia, taking note of the odd way she’s talking. 

Namor calls out that he’s ready whenever Surge is. Surge stops stretching and nervously takes a deep breath. She looks down at her gauntlets. She flashes back to Danger telling her about the heights her full power has reached. In the present, she shakes her head, and just tells the others to wish her luck, before dashing off. Dani, Kitty, and Sofia follow behind. 

ROXY: “You know, technically, we took out Avalanche and Random together.” 

CESSILY: “Yeah! Obviously. It was awesome.” 

“Awwww.” 

The two turn around to see Foxx staring at them. 

FOXX: “Sorry. You two are just adorable.” 

Cessily and Roxy awkwardly smile. Being nice, Cessily asks Foxx to tell her a little about herself while they go watch the race. 

Namor and Noriko get into position next to each other. 

NAMOR: “Doesn’t human technology not fare well with water?” 

NORIKO: “Mutant technology. And if these things come off, I’ll do a lot worse than beat you, you fascist creep.” 

NAMOR: “Fasc…you’re Pryde’s student, aren’t you?” 

Nori clicks her tongue as she flips him off.

Emma acts as psychic referee, clearly just wanting this over with, and flashing numbers in the two racer’s minds, counting down from 3. When the numbers hit 0, Surge and Namor disappear in an instant. 

Shown in slow-motion, Namor is casually jogging, while Noriko is giving it all she’s got. In spite of this, Nori is losing and can’t keep up with him. Looking down at her gauntlets again, refusing to lose, she tries loosening them just a bit. 

Just by doing this, however, Surge overloads herself, trips, and wipes out, as Namor crosses the finish line. 

NAMOR: “Not as good as beating Pryde herself would have been, but I’ll take it. One victory away from our berothel, my queen!” 

Emma smacks her face, while Sofia flies out to retrieve Noriko. Nori readjusts her gauntlets as she swims up to the surface, before being scooped up by Sofia’s winds.

NORIKO: “Dammit.” 

SOFIA: “Do not beat yourself up. We haven’t lost yet.” 

Noriko looks sheepishly at Sofia. 

NORIKO: “You have any ideas when it comes to these other “Avenues” you mentioned?” 

Sofia giggles. She’s so glad she asked. 

Back at the school, Sooraya is still praying...until her stomach rumbles. She realizes she probably should eat something. 

Soo gets up and heads to the communal kitchen, where she grabs some dried fruit with her name on it. As she muches, she decides she wants to do something else before she returns to her room. She walks down the hallway toward the medical bay, wanting to visit Brian. Standing outside the medical bay though, she spots a familiar face. 

SOORAYA: “Mr. Drake?” 

Iceman, pained, turns around and weakly smiles. 

BOBBY: “Hey, Sooraya.” 

Sooraya softly approaches her former teacher. Ms. Frost mentioned she’d called to let him know what happened. Bobby clenches his fists and the floor freezes beneath his feet. 

BOBBY: “I’d have never forgiven her if she hadn’t.” 

Bobby, with heavy breaths, vents. He was the one looking out for Brian. More than either of his actual mentors. And when he needed him most, he wasn’t here. Not to mention, from what he’s hearing, it sounds like he’s a big reason Quentin snapped and Sophie got killed. 

BOBBY: “If I’d just been here…I coud have–”

“No.” 

Bobby is caught off guard by Sooraya cutting him off. 

SOORAYA: “Everyone is blaming themselves. Myself included. But we all made our choices. I had the opportunity to stop Lady Akabba herself, and I couldn’t do anything. The truth is that we all failed. The best and worst of us. If you had been here, Mr. Drake, even with how powerful you are, they just would have found a way around you. Our enemies are the only ones at fault.” 

Bobby notices how much pain Sooraya is in and goes into teacher mode, bottling his own feelings, and absorbing the ice he made back into himself. 

BOBBY: “I’ll be honest. I don’t really know much about what you believe in. I only have what my overbearing Catholic dad and barely-present Jewish mom told me to go off of. But, isn’t always having hope a big part of it?” 

Sooraya tells him her hope hasn’t wavered, Nor has her faith in Allah’s plan. What she is questioning is her place in everything. She believed she was given her powers for a reason. But she was helpless against Lady Akabba. She doesn’t even know why she or Mr. Proudstar survived. 

SOORAYA: “I know I am capable of more. I just do not know how I will get there.” 

BEAT. 

BOBBY, smiling: “Well…your powers aren’t too different from mine, to be honest. You’ve even gotten regeneration down. I don’t know if you were in the middle of anything, but would you wanna go blow off some steam in the Danger Room? I know I could, and maybe I could show you a few tricks.” 

Sooraya really isn’t sure, believing she should return to her room, but he promises this will be better for her. She shouldn’t be alone. 

SOORAYA: “You were correct when you said you didn’t understand my beliefs. I am never alone.” She sighs and smiles. “But I would like to learn.” 

Bobby smiles back at her as the two walk off. 

In The World, Sublime has his scientists activate their signal device, as the Cuckoos are placed in their tanks. Celeste, Phoebe, and Mindee meekly struggle against Sublime’s men, but have no success. Esme meanwhile steps into her own tank willingly. 

As the signal is sent out and the machines make all sorts of noises, the four living Cuckoos scream in agony. 

Sublime grins that the end of Mutantkind is here. 

SUBLIME: “My purpose shall at last be fulfilled.” 

The signal from the world is sent out into space and, across lightyears, is picked up by The Phoenix, Jean Grey, who’s observing a battle between space knights and Dire Wraiths. Her head aches as it tingles her ears, but she can’t resist it’s siren song. 

JEAN, softly cackling as she starts flying off: “I don’t know who’s calling me.” Her eyes flare up. “But you’re going to regret it.” 

In space, Jean takes on the full form of the Phoenix, and travels across the starts in mere moments. In The World, the Cuckoos continue to scream, as Sublime is alerted that the Phoenix is entering Earth’s atmosphere. 

Sublime tells them to progress to phase 2. With some more button presses and command inputs a beat is fired into space. Jean laughs it off as it heads toward her, only to be caught off guard completely as it not only hurts her, but begins sapping her power, and transmitting it into all 5,000 of the clone tanks. 

Jean screams along with the Cuckoos, only the Phoenix Force is fully drained, and she’s left drifting in space, with no sound. 

The 5,000 Cuckoo bodies are all lit up with Phoenix Force energy. After receiving confirmation that the process was a success, the many scientists present celebrate, while Sublime walks over to Esme’s tank to personally let her out. 

SUBLIME, opening the tank: “How do you feel, my dear?” 

Esme grins manically as her eyes light up. She flies into the air, leaving everyone in the lab in awe. 

ESME, speaking with 5,000 identical voices: “No longer are we the women you knew! We are fire and life incarnate! Now and forever -” All of the tanks open as Esme springs her wings. “We are Phoenix!” 

At the beach, Dani and Emma look up at the sky with concern. 

DANI: “Please tell me you didn’t sense that too.” 

EMMA: “I’m afraid I did. Jean is back.” 

KITTY, overhearing and approaching the two: “Umm, what?! Shouldn’t we be getting on that right now then? I think your old boyfriend will understand the situation.” 

Emma tells both of them to not concern themselves. Danielle can confirm that Phoenix hasn’t gone dark again. There’s no reason to think her visit has to do with them, or destruction. Not to mention, if it was, she’s fairly certain their luck with sacharine speeches about love and friendship stopping her has run its course. 

EMMA: “If the planet suddenly goes up in flames, it goes up in flames.” 

DANI: “You’re not wrong, but if it goes up in flames, you’re still the one to blame.” 

Emma is incredulous over Dani throwing that back in her face after all this time.

DANI: “Would you rather have the fact that you covered-up Quentin and Brian killing people thrown in your face?” 

EMMA: “Punitive action and frightening their classmates was not necessary. They were anti-Mutant bigots and murderers.” 

DANI: “They were still people!” 

Emma mockingly laughs at her. 

EMMA: “You can fool the kids with your upstanding, peaceful adult routine, Danielle, but I knew you when you were their age. You are a warrior at heart, and you would have done the exact same thing they did, just with more blood.” 

DANI: “You don’t anything about me!” 

KITTY: “I know I thought you were more responsible.” 

DANI: “Oh, don’t you take her side.” 

KITTY: “I’m not picking sides here. You both screwed up. But I expect this kind of thing from Emma. Not you.” 

DANI: “I thought I could handle multiple squads!”

KITTY: “And you thought wrong! I put our kids together, I wanted to teach them, but it didn’t work out. You didn’t see me overexending though.” 

EMMA: “Thank you, Katharine.” 

KITTY: “Do NOT thank me. The X-Men may have changed how we operate, but that does not include the kids, and it does not include murder!” 

DANI, laughing in frustration: “Of course we’re being chewed out by little miss perfect. Because you haven’t done anything wrong.” 

KITTY, increasingly heated: “Nothing relevant to this, X-baby.” 

DANI, close to losing what’s left of her cool: “”You may not have “overextended” yourself, but that doesn’t mean you did a good job with your “apprentice”.” 

KITTY: “What have does Surge have to do with this?” 

EMMA: “You don’t think things might have gone differently if I hadn’t had to keep her asleep for her own safety? A necessity after you let her drug herself.” 

KITTY, in disbelief this is what she’s being blamed for: “Ok, you got me, I missed any warning signs that were there. But it all happened so fast. Sofia accidentally said some things that got in her head, and it all just spiraled.” 

EMMA: “Speaking of our dear Wind Dancer, have either of you ladies noticed a pattern since she came home?” 

DANI: “What are you talking about now?” 

EMMA: “She mysteriously fought off Exodus, but couldn’t explain how, she brought Laurie Collins to the school, and subsequently spread her rage pheremones, she caused Surge’s crisis, Julian has confessed to me in private that she’s only been using Laura, now today she’s forced us into this farce, and all the while we still don’t know where she was for six months. This is hardly the same girl who was the first in her class to join the X-Men based on outstanding performance.” 

Dani and Kitty are both taken aback by all of this being put in front of them. However…

DANI: ‘Yeah. No kidding she’s different.” 

EMMA: “Excuse me?”

KITTY: “What she went through was traumatic. Like you just said, we don’t even know what Apocalypse did to her.”

DANI: “And she’s still just a kid. Of course she’s going to make some mistakes.” 

EMMA, extremely frustrated: “You two cannot be this foolish.” 

KITTY: “Which brings us to how much of an idiot YOU were to not at least tell anyone about what you knew. We all could have acted in whatever way we agreed was best, but no, for the umpteenth time, you had to go and do something that would have gotten you fired if you weren’t screwing the boss!”

Emma attempts to slap Kitty, but her hand phases through her face. The three women glare at each other. 

Elsewhere on the beach, Cessily and Roxy are seated on some rocks, with Cessily having decided that, assuming Sofia keeps Emma from being forced into a marraige, she’s going to challenge him to an obstacle course on land. 

CESSILY: “He may be fast and agile, but he’s got nothing on this.” 

Cessily liquifies her arms and hips to shake tentacles around while shaking her hips like a Hula dancer. Roxy laughs and compliments her for how much control she has now. 

ROXY: “Hey, I had a thought.” 

CESSILY, in a good mood from her confidence and the complement: “Yeah? Does it involve sneaking off while Wind Dancer blows the creep away?” 

ROXY: “More like: Maybe we could convince him to take us both on as a team.” Cessily’s face falls. “I’m sure his ego would let us talk him into “raising the stakes” for the last match, you know?”

CESSILY: “Oh. Yeah! That’d be cool.” 

Roxy holds her girlfriend. 

ROXY: “And when we’re done here, my rents have taken all limits off my cards until school starts back up. We can go anywhere your big shiny heart desires?” 

Cessily is speechless as she nuzzles against Roxy, and uncontrollably melts against her, uncomfortable. 

In the sky, Namor and Sofia prepare to face off. 

NAMOR: “With the confidence you presented when challenging me, I presumed you would either come for me first, or else serve as your team’s anchor.” 

SOFIA: “Exactly. That would have been predictable. I prefer keeping my enemies on their toes.” 

Namor looks down at everyone standing on the beach. 

NAMOR, looking back at Sofia: “It isn’t often I offer compliments, but you have clearly succeeded in that regard.” 

Sofia pumps her shoulders as she flashes her Lady Akabba grin. 

SOFIA: “Let’s just make this look good.” 

Emma projects the countdown clock into both of their minds and, as it hits zero, the two fly off in their aerial race. 

In Limbo, Illyana and Julian walk through a more urban, if still decrepit, part of the kingdom, filled with twisted screams and demons drinking and fighting on the street. 

JULIAN: “Can’t we fly wherever we’re going if you can’t teleport us straight there?” 

ILLYANA: “1. There’s nothing I “can’t” do here. 2. I like being among my people. Seeing how they’re all doing.” Julian is grossed out seeing one demon vomit on another. “Oh, don’t be such a baby. We’ll be there soon enough.” 

Julian hangs his head. Illyana, knowing it’s time for what they came here for, takes a deep breath and prepares for the Herculean task of emotionally supporting someone else. 

ILLYANA: “You’re a pretty messed up kid, you know that?” 

JULIAN, snide: “What would you know?”

ILLYANA: “I didn’t mean it as an insult.” 

Magik’s eyes light up with flames, and she makes Hellion’s do the same, frightening him. She tells him to relax. She’s showing him something. 

Julian blinks and, as he does so, he sees a little, spinning green ball. He’s confused, but Magik tells him to look closely, because that’s his soul. 

JULIAN: “No, nope, don’t need this.” 

He tries to fly away, but the street pulls him back down. 

Magik examines Julian’s soul and tells him that as far as souls go, his is pretty bumpy and cloudy. For reference, she knows him what her old soul originally looked like, a flawless, golden, glowing sphere, and what it looked like by the time Belasco was done with her, showing a dull gray sphere that’s barely recognizeable as a sphere with how heavily its been chipped, with maggots crawling all over it. 

YANA: “Wanna know the messed up part? I was chosen because of how pure my soul was, and it only took seven years for that transformation to happen. Even without half-rate sorcerers chipping away at you, you stay here long enough, and this place will change you.” 

JULIAN: “You mean I’d become part-demon like you? Sounds kinda cool.” 

Illyana looks up, wistfully. 

In a quick flashback, a scared, 13 year-old Illyana is backed against a wall as a cat demon approaches her, with intent to kill. 

In the present, she tells him that no, no it isn’t cool. But back to his soul, he’s not close to bleeding any soul gems, she’d guess he never even had the potential, but the wear and tear is there. Life’s been hard. 

Julian laughs at her. She really needed to look at his soul to see that? 

Illyana ends her spell, and tells him she wants to give him perspective. 

JULIAN: “Things can always get worse? Thanks.” 

Illyana purses her lips and gut punches Hellion, making him fall to his knees. 

ILLYANA: “Cut it with the lip.” She puts her sword to his neck, further frightening him. “You’re one of the most powerful people in the school, not just among the students, but everyone. And yet, you can’t protect any of the people you’re always losing, and, based on recent times, you can’t even win a fight.” Julian’s fear turns to rage as he lights up with green energy. “Maybe I should keep you here. Let Limbo consume you. You’ll get stronger. And all those pesky feelings will go away.” Illyana transforms into her Darkchylde form. “Just say yes. And abandon all hope. All those attachments that keep hurting you. All your dreams. And I can make it all better.” 

ILLYANA, with the camera on Julian’s pained face: “It’s not like I was actually telling the truth about your friends being here. Not that type of Hell. I just wanted a good laugh.” 

Julian looks to be considering the offer, cringing as Darkchylde laughs at him. With how awful things continue to get, giving up sounds pretty good. 

In The World, The 5000-in-One relish in their newfound power. They’re whole. More than whole. 

ESME: “We can feel…everything.” 

SUBLIME: “I’m happy you’re satisfied with the results! Now, do what must be done. And that power is yours to keep.” 

5,000 Cuckoos laugh at Sublime, frightening some of the human scientists. Sublime scowls. 

ESME: “Now…why would we listen to you when we can just destroy your technology?” 

SUBLIME, trying to keep his cool: “You could. But you’re just pale imitations of little girls. You don’t understand what’s been done. Do you really want to risk undoing the transfer?” 

Esme’s head aches as dissenting opinions argue over what to do. She whispers at them all to shut up, before shouting at them to get in line and follow her. 

ESME: “We will deal with him in time. For now, we cannot take the risk. We’re doing this.” 

All the Cuckoos burn brighter and glow, as Esme charges up to wipe out Mutantkind. However…

ESME, in agony: “Ahhh!” 

Esme drops to the floor, confusing Sublime. He’s even more confused as nearly all the other Cuckoos drop as well. 

SUBLIME: “What the devil?” 

Sublime looks up and sees three Cuckoos still in the air, and still wearing their tags. It’s Celeste, Phoebe, and Mindee. 

CELESTE: “We are four-in-one, not three who answer to one! 

PHOEBE: “You can choose how we behave and how we dress…”

MINDEE: “But you cannot make us do this!” 

SUBLIME, panicking a little: “Come now, girls. Be good now and—” 

Esme, enraged at this betrayal, flies back up and fires an attack at her sisters. The other Cuckoos blast back.

 Sublime finally cracks and runs away, running out of The World and sealing the door behind him, leaving the rest of his team to be burnt to a crisp by the Cuckoos’ power struggle. 

SUBLIME, on a com: “Kimura, I need your team here. Now!” 

On the beach, Sofia high-fives everyone as she flies down, her friends congratulating her for beating Namor. 

SOFIA: “It was nothing, really.” 

KITTY, sarcastically to Emma: “What was that about, “outstanding performance”. 

Emma blows a hair out of her face in annoyance. 

NAMOR: “Yes, yes, treasure this victory. Tell all who will listen about the high point of your life. Shall we finish this…Mercury, was it?” 

CESSILY: “That’s right. You. Me. Obstacle course.” 

NAMOR, amused: “Sure. Why not?” 

Roxy eagerly nudges for Cessily to bring up what they were talking about. 

CESSILY, hesitating: “Let’s get this set up then.” 

Roxy is confused and hurt as Cessily walks away to start setting up the course. 

Sofia goes to get some water, with Dani following behind. 

DANI: “Nice flying out there.” 

SOFIA, pretending to be tired: “Thank you. He did not make it easy.” 

Dani, drinking her own water, tells her to not be modest. She was paying attention, and she wasn’t struggling while she was up there. 

Sofia giggles. 

Dani smiles, but bites her lip, with something on her mind. 

DANI: “Hey, if something was up you’d tell me, right?” 

SOFIA: “Is this about Ms. Frost’s conspiracy theory?” 

DANI, cringing: “You heard everything?” 

SOFIA: “You weren’t particularly quiet.” 

Both laugh. 

Sofia promises her that she’s “okay”. Her body still sometimes feels weird from whatever Apocalypse did to make her stronger. She worries a lot about what happened in those lost six months. And after what happened in the riot…

Sofia manages some crocodile tears. 

DANI: “Oh, honey”. Dani puts an arm around her and holds her, Sofia leaning in. “Was that stuff about Laura true?” 

SOFIA: “I’m sorry. I know it was wrong. I was hurt and sad and–” 

DANI: “Hey, hey, no explanation needed. Just, for me, put an end to it already? Be honest with Laura, apologize, and finally be with Julian already?”

Sofia nods. 

SOFIA: “Does this mean you like him now?”

DANI: “Oh, god no.” 

Sofia smiles. 

SOFIA: “I also heard what Ms. Frost said about you. About how you would have killed the men Quentin did at our age. Is that true?”

Dani exhales and lets go of Sofia. 

DANI: “You never asked why I didn’t want to be on the X-Men.” 

Dani tells Sofia that, yes, when she was younger, she was a bit extra-violent. Also more anxious than Sofia was when she first found her. Not a great combination. And, after graduation, while Cannonball and Sunepot joined up with Cable, Wolfsbane got hired by Multiple Man, and Karma went to college, she did something not so smart. 

DANI: “We’ve taught you about the Mutant Liberation Front, right?” 

Sofia confirms, remembering that they were young Mutants convinced by a man named Stryfe that violent action against the world was the only way to change it. 

SOFIA: “Not unlike The Omega Gang.” 

DANI: “Oh, why did you have to say that?” 

Dani explains that she joined the MLF. Not because she bought into their philosophy, but because while X-Force was fighting them head on, she thought she could do some good taking them down from within. 

SOFIA: “An interesting strategy. Did it work?” 

DANI: “It did. But I had to let innocent people get hurt. I hurt innocent people. And I almost started to believe what my new “friends” were saying”. She wipes a tear from her eye before it can escape. “My boys figured out what was going on and got me out of there before it was too late. I don’t know what would have happened if they hadn’t been there.” 

After all of that, she did have some time to unwind. But she still wasn’t ready to go back into the action when she got Scott’s call. 

SOFIA: “Wow. And what about now?” 

Dani hardens her face. 

DANI: “I feel like I need to get over myself. I can be a warrior and a role-model.” 

Sofia smiles and leans her head against her teacher’s shoulder. 

SOFIA: “Then I cannot wait to fight alongside you.” 

Dani smiles too. 

While Surge and Namor zoom around to construct an obstacle course, Roxy approaches Cessily, wanting to know what’s up. She said she liked the idea of them fighting Namor together. 

ROXY: “Were…were you lying to me? Why would you even do that?” Cessily hangs out head, feeling guilty. “You’ve been weird. For longer than today. What did I do?” 

CESSILY, choked up: “You haven’t done anything.” 

ROXY: “Bull.”

CESSILY: “I mean it! You’ve been perfect!” Cessily’s feet melt against the hot sand. “That’s the problem.” 

ROXY, dumbfounded: “I’m not following.” 

Cessily breathes, trying and failing to solidify herself. She sighs. Roxy knows about how up until a few months ago, she was struggling really badly with the idea that she was behind everyone else. And she’s been kicking butt ever since they were captured by The Facility! 

CESSILY: “But...we both have.” 

ROXY: “Still not getting it.” 

Cessily emits a high-pitched screech. 

CESSILY: “Roxy, I love you. I love you so much. You are the coolest girl in the world, you’re beautiful, and you’ve given me so much. A home, a family, a career, so, so many gifts.”  Roxy is distraught as Cessily cracks and cries. “And I don’t deserve it.” 

ROXY, immediately: “Yes, yes you do!” 

Roxy reaches to take Cessily’s hands, but Mercury’s flesh dissolves on impact. 

MERCURY: “I’m sorry. I know I’m being selfish and stupid and ungrateful, but I want to do things for myself. I don’t want a life entirely given to me on a platter. If I can’t even be the one to fight for the both of us, then what do I even offer?” 

ROXY: “Being you! Cess, I know you’ve got a hard time liking yourself, if it’s not this or worrying about how strong you are, it was being afraid you were ugly, even though you’re the hottest girl I’ve ever met.” That makes Cessily smile a little. “But you have to believe me. You don’t have to “Offer” anything. You don’t have to be a big hero or super successful on your own. It’s enough to just be yourself. You are enough.” 

Cessily smile widens as she continues to cry, hugging herself. Roxy tells her if she wants, Cessily can take Namor on her own, she can cut it out with the gifts, and she can let her parents know Cess doesn’t want to work for a while. But she can’t do anything about her family or home: those will always be hers. 

There’s silence as the two look at each other. 

ROXY: “Say something?” 

BEAT

CESSILY: “I’m sorry.” 

ROXY: “Baby, you don’t have anything to–”

Cessily turns into a puddle, slinking away across the sand. Roxy is left standing there, heartbroken and unsure of what just happened.

In the burning wreckage of the lab, The Cuckoos continue to fight. 

PHOEBE: “Stop this, Esme!” 

MINDEE: “We shouldn’t be fighting!” 

ESME: “Don’t tell me what to do! I’m sick of people telling me what to do! From now on, I do whatever I want!” 

Esme is blindsided as Celeste comes at her from the side to punch her in the face, sending her flying through a wall. 

CELESTE: “Do you think this is what Sophie would have wanted?” 

ESME: “Who cares what Sophie would have wanted? She was no different than any of the other  clones. Just like all of you. But me?” She created a giant flaming #1. “I will be somebody. I won’t just be a number!” 

Esme throws the #1 at Celeste, but as it’s dispersed, Phoebe and Mindee appear at Celeste’s sides. 

CELESTE: “We aren’t numbers.” 

PHOEBE: “We’re your sisters.” 

MINDEE: “Maybe we started out like all the other clones, but we’re different. We’ve lived!” 

Esme falters as she contemplates what they’re saying, before her rage takes over once more, exploding with more energy. 

Nearby, a fleet of convoys drive toward The World, with Kimura sitting in the front of one, reporting to Sublime. Kimura is now covered in burn scars. 

KIMURA: “ETA two minutes, sir. My men are loaded up with all the anti-Phoenix tech you provided. We’ll have those brats back in tubes before dinner.” 

SUBLIME, over a com: “See that you do. I have worked too hard and too long for this to fall apart because of a squabble among dolls!” 

KIMURA: “Relax, John.” She places a hand over her chest from where Akihiro skewered her. “I don’t fail.” 

Kimura hangs up and tells her driver to pick the pace. He does so, only for the coms to be filled with screams. Kimura, concerned, asks what’s going on. Her men talk over each other, so she insists that only one of her officers reports. 

FACILITY OFFCER: “It’s the anti-Phoenix weapons, ma’am. They all…just burst into flame.” 

KIMURA: “WHAT?!” 

Sublime, driving out of his underground complex, is pissed and scared by the news of what just happened. This cannot be going so wrong. 

Sublime’s car explodes. 

John crawls out of the wreckage, healing his injuries as he does so, only for his horror to peak as he looks up. 

SUBLIME: “How…how did you survive?” 

JEAN GREY, standing over him in an oversized X-Men hoodie and leggings, smiling: “Like it was hard. I would have come sooner, but I’ve been clothing myself with the Phoenix Force, so I had to get changed.” Sublime is thrust into the sky as Jean’s eyes glow pink. “Let’s talk…”John”.” 

Back in Limbo, Darkchylde continues to taunt Julian. 

DARKCHYLDE: “There’s nothing wrong with submitting to despair. It’s cool! You’ve survived a lot, but not everyone can endure real, prolonged agony.” 

Without sound and without transition, we see Illyana as a girl in a small bedroom in Limbo, shaking in her sleep. 

In the present, Darkchylde continues. 

DARKCHYLDE: “You thought you were the big man on campus, but you’re just a little less of a baby than anyone else.” 

In the past, the door to Illyana’s room is pushed open. 

DARKCHYLDE, shrugging: “I can’t relate. I’ve always been awesome. Belasco never even came close to breaking me.” 

In the past, a dark red light fills the bedroom. Illyana wakes up with terror in her eyes. 

DARKCHYLDE: “So go ahead! Leave everyone else to die! But just remember: your pain isn’t special.” 

Before she finishes that last word, Julian explodes with energy, knocking her back, and floating up. 

ILLYANA, clearing the dust away and grinning, returning to her human form: “Right answer.” 

Julian is about to attack,before realizing this was a lesson. Pissed, he laughs and levitates down.” 

JULIAN: “I can lay down and die once I’ve sent Lady Akabba to whatever the worst Hell you’ve got is. My bullshit doesn’t matter. If I want to keep everyone safe, I just have to start winning some of these fights.” 

ILLYANA: “That’s what I like to hear.” 

The two start walking. 

JULIAN: “Brian and Sophie’s souls not being her. That part was true?” 

ILLYANA: “Sorry.” 

It’s a gut punch for Julian, but one he pushed through. He doesn’t have time to cry for himself. 

JULIAN, hanging his head: “I wish I could have been a kid longer.” 

ILLYANA: “Yeah.” In the past, little Illyana’s cries hysterically, with red puffy cheeks. “So do I.” 

ILLYANA, forcing herself to smile: “You wanna see the worst Hell? It’ll destroy your soul in a heartbeat, but it’s really cool.” 

JULIAN, amused: “Pass. We should just get Mr. Summers and leave.” 

Illyana snaps her fingers in frustration. 

ILLYANA: “Was hoping you’d forget about him.” 

Magik teleports them both away. 

Back on the beach, the obstacle course has been set up. Mercury nervously jiggles and jitters as she stands next to Namor. Namor is amused at how all her bravado has disappeared now that she must actually face his greatness. 

NAMOR: “We shall be together soon, my love!” 

EMMA, wanting this day over with: “Cessily, I will buy you a pony if you don’t make this a nail-biter.” 

While Dani, Kitty, Noriko, and Sofia cheer her on, Roxy stands back, still hurt over what happened earlier. Foxx cannot tell. 

FOXX: “Uh, hey, isn’t that your girlfriend? Shouldn’t you be cheering louder than anyone else?” 

Roxy ignores her. 

FOXX: “Oooh, I see. You guys had a fight didn’t you? I can’t relate.” 

ROXY, now curious: “You’ve got a girl?” 

FOXX: “Oh yeah. She’s the best.”

ROXY, under her breath: “That’s what I try telling her.” BEAT. “Can I ask you something?” 

Emma initiates the countdown, with Mercury still not looking up to competing, but she doesn’t back down as the final race begins. Despite having chosen this challenge because of how maneuverable she is, Cessily immediately falls behind as she fails to properly control her powers. 

DANI: “What’s wrong with her?” 

EMMA, mortified: “I’m doomed.” 

Roxy asks Foxx, now calling her by her real name, Ritsy, how she’d feel if her girlfriend started spoiling her a ton. Like, a TON. Would that make her uncomfortable? 

Cessily continues to struggle in the race. 

Foxx tells Roxy that she wouldn’t know anything about her girl doing stuff like that, obviously, but she’d be probably love it. Who wouldn’t want to be spoiled?” BEAT. “Ahhh.” 

ROXY, cringing: “Yeah.” 

Cessily cries as she just can’t get in the game. 

ROXY: “I tried fixing things. Told her I’d stop if that’s what she wanted, but it didn’t help. She’s stuck in her head, again. I love her to bits, but she doesn’t even love herself one bit.” 

FOXX: “That must get annoying.” 

ROXY: “What? No. I just worry.” 

Foxx smirks, looking over at the obstacle course as Cessily just about gives up. 

FOXX: “Well I think it sounds annoying. And I think you could use someone a little less, heh…high maintenance. HEY MERCURY!” 

Cessily turns her head as Foxx grabs Roxy and plants a kiss on her lips. 

With everyone else looking as well, all in shock, Noriko doesn’t hesitate to super speed over to Foxx and punch her across the face to knock her out. While Roxy is left shocked, and the teachers move to insure Surge doesn’t attack Foxx again, Cessily has a different response. 

MERCURY, with rage: “Ahhhhh!” 

Namor, almost at the finish line, looks back to see what’s going on. Only for the enraged Cessily to fling herself off a piece of the course, turn her into a thin javelin with arms, and move through the course with ease, sliding through everything. Namor is caught off guard and moves to finish first, but he’s tripped up as Mercury gets close behind him and shoots out a part of herself to make him slip. 

Mercury crosses the finish line. But there’s no one available to cheer. Namor, however, in frustration, does commend her. That was impressive. 

NAMOR: “It is not as if I gave that my all, but nonetheless, you have the respect of the king of Atlantis.” 

CESSILY, still pissed, but also flattered: “Thank you.” 

Namor calls out an apology to Emma that their marriage will have to wait for another day, with Emma not caring to respond with what just happened. 

Cessily approaches everyone else, the others wondering if she’s okay. Roxy runs up to her and rapidly explains that it’s not what she thinks. She was just talking to Ritsy and she kissed her out of the blue. She did not cheat on her, she swears, and she’s so sorry she had to–” 

Cessily cuts Roxy off by kissing her. It’s an extended one. 

CESSILY, smiling: “That outburst wasn’t toward you. I just couldn’t stand to see someone else kissing you. I’m sorry about before.” 

ROXY: “Don’t be. I don’t get it, but I want to.” 

CESSILY, touched: “Thank you.” 

The two hug. 

NORIKO AND SOFIA: “Awww.” 

ROXY: “You really did kill it out there just now.”

CESSILY: “Yeah. I’m pretty awesome.” 

Elsewhere, Jean floats above a scared Sublime. 

JEAN: “Trying to use MY power to genocide my children? I’d call you a small man, but you aren’t a man at all. Are you?” 

SUBLIME: “I’m not done yet. You can’t stop me nOOOW!” 

Jean blows up both of his arms and telekinetically prevents him from regenerating as he screams. 

JEAN: “Just millions of little clumps of bacteria. An near-immortal weapon designed to extinguish Mutants from the Earth.” 

As Jean burns up his legs next, she admits she actually doesn’t know who created him. 

JEAN: “Care to share?” 

Now without any limbs, Sublime can’t do anything but scream and curse her out. 

JEAN, politely smiling: “You could have defied destiny like your own creations have, John. Instead, you tried playing God.”  She pats his head. “And that’s my job.” 

SUBLIME: “Go to Hell you gene-filth!” 

Those are the last words he’s able to get out, as Jean disintigrates every last atom of his. Sublime is finally dead, for real. 

Jean hums, dusting herself off, and taking note of the still-ongoing Phoenix-battle. 

JEAN: “Now…the hard part.” 

Inside, Esme is no match for the other three Cuckoos working as a united front, as they beat and blast her around. 

CELESTE: “End this, Esme!”

MINDEE: “We don’t want to hurt you!”

ESME: “No…you just want to bully me into submission. What the majority says goes? I don’t get to say for myself? Screw that!” Esme unleashes all her power, managing to momentarily overwhelm the others. “I won’t go back to that school. I won’t let you try and make me be like Sophie. I won’t die for you!” 

The roof flies off as Jean comes down, surging with pink energy, drawing all of the Cuckoos’ attention. 

CUCKOOS: “Jean Grey.” 

Jean touches down on the floor. 

JEAN: “Hello, girls. I’m sorry you got dragged into all of this. And I’m even more sorry your headmasters failed you. This is why I wanted Magneto, alone, in charge.” She sets aside her annoyance and smiles cheerfully. “Would you all mind giving back to me what’s mine?” 

ESME, instantly: “Fat chance! We’re the ones with the Phoenix! Not you! You can’t make us do anything.” 

Jean points out a miscalculation on her part. They each possess 1/5000th of the Phoenix. All the others parts…are less well guarded. 

The four Cuckoos are al knocked back as Jean sucks up all of the Phoenix power from the empty Cuckoos husks, transforming Jean back into her Phoenix form.

The other three Cuckoos look to each other and come to a consensus, handing over their power to Jean. 

JEAN: “Thank you. Esme?” 

Esme shakes. The other Cuckoos telepathically try to comfort her.  Tell her they all miss Sophie. Tell her to let go. They’ll listen to her, if she’ll listen to them. Okay? 

Esme mulls it over, briefly looking like she may give in…but she can’t. 

Esme attacks Jean with everything she’s got. Jean actually gets worried and tells Esme to stop - now! She is making the Phoenix angry. 

ESME: “I…don’t…care!” 

Esme’s sister try to telepathically command her to stand down, but her Phoenix power protects her. 

JEAN, clenching her eyes, guilty: “I’m sorry, sweetie.” 

Out of Jean’s control, the Phoenix Force forcibly extracts the final piece of itself from Esme, causing another massive explosion. 

BEAT. 

Jean, with the full power of the Phoenix, stands in a room full of ash. She sheds a tear. 

Three of the Cuckoos pull themselves out from underneath some rubble, now looking a little different. They’ve turned to diamond. 

CELESTE: “Woah.”

PHOEBE: “So we really are–”

MINDEE: “Esme!” 

Jean bends down over Esme’s lifeless body, as the other Cuckoos race over to it. 

CELSETE: “No.”

PHOEBE: “No.”

MINDEE: “Not again.” 

JEAN, brushing Esme’s hair off her purple face: “I’m so sorry.” 

The Cuckoos become hysterical, crying over another sister’s dead body. 

On the beach, night having fallen, everyone is packing up to go home. Everyone except Mercury and Bling!, who are already in the limo they came in, making out, and Foxx, who’s still unconscious. 

SURGE, annoyed with the couple, to Kitty: “At least they’re not mad at each other.” 

KITTY: “If they can’t make it work, there’s no hope for the rest of us.” 

DANI, from behind: “We do need to seriously talk to Cessily about her anxiety and self-loathing issues though. No more outsourcing. No more letting kids fall through the cracks. No more mistakes for any of us.” 

Kitty nods back at her in affirmation. 

Nearby, Sofia is getting things cleaned up on her own, when she’s approached by Emma. 

EMMA: “Sofia, can you spare a moment?” Sofia turns around with a flawless smile, ready to respond, but Emma cuts her off. “Of course you. You’re always right where you’re needed. You always do what you have to. You were even able to beat Namor.” 

SOFIA, confused: “I am sorry, Ms. Frost. Did I do something wrong? I thought I was helping.” 

Emma narrows her eyes at her. 

EMMA: “Darling, would you be open to another scan of your mind?” 

SOFIA, nervous: “Why? What’s going on?” 

EMMA: “Hopefully nothing. But I’ve noticed a pattern in your behavior over the last several weeks. And I refuse to chance being made a fool of.” 

SOFIA, shaking a little: “Is this about my memories? You and the Cuckoos already–”

EMMA: “Yes, we explored your mind and found nothing. And then you fought Exodus. For all we know, you’re his sleeper agent. To be clear, I’m not requesting access to your mind. I’m going in. I just didn’t want to damage our relationship if my suspicions are misplaced. Do you understand?” 

Sofia sneers, pissed, but relents. She tells Ms. Frost to go ahead. 

Emma’s eyes glow, and she gasps as she sees everything. Everything that the audience saw in episode 9 about Sofia’s time with Apocalypse, all the way to the present. And more. 

EXODUS, his voice booking: “Hello, Frost.” 

Emma’s astral self screams as she’s trapped and electrocuted in a cage of pink psychic energy. 

In reality, Emma stands largely frozen, drooling a little, with her eyes wide open. Sofia smirks evily. 

SOFIA: “Exodus isn’t good for much. He can’t even beat you in a psychic battle. But he knows how to implant a psychic trap. And you just walked right into it. I knew if I had Namor appear and proved myself superior, it would make your suspicions bubble over. Do not judge him for allying with me. Atlantis is a strong nation, and he is doing what is best for it.” BEAT. “But don’t worry. I am not going to kill you. Not yet. When I snap my fingers, you will return to normal. And you won’t remember any of this. Nor will you suspect me of anything. But you will obey the next command I give you. No matter what it is.” Sofia leans in to whisper to Emma. “You took my father away from me. Now I am going to take everything away from you, Cyclops, Magneto, and any other Mutants who stand with you traitors.”

DANI, calling out: “You two coming?” 

Sofia giggles, saying they shouldn’t keep them waiting, before snapping her fingers. 

Back at the school, Magik brings herself, Cyclops, and Hellion back to the Headmasters’ office. With Illyana and Julian cracking jokes and laughing, Scott’s glad to see this, somehow, did help. He also lets him know that the Cruz’s should be here in the next hour, if they aren’t here already. Julian thanks him for letting him know. He’s gonna go say goodbye one last time before he meets them. 

JULIAN: “Thanks again, Magik.” 

YANA: “Ah, mention it constantly. And tell Kitty too.” 

Julian laughs and tells her she’s got it as he exits. 

Scott congratulates Magik on a job well done, but he would like to know what happened. 

MAGIK, dropping the smile and jokes: “I looked into his soul. Saw what he needed. I pushed him to embrace despair. But he’s a tough kid. I knew he’d push back.” 

CYCLOPS: “Smart. What gave you the idea?”

MAGIK, not making eye-contact: “When I fought Pestillence, she came for my mind. Tried to make me think I’d be better off giving her my body. I didn’t care for that. “Even if…” She flexes and unflexes her hand. “Even if in spite of all it went through, I still wish I could have my old body instead of this.” 

Scott’s sorry about that, but does thank her again. She really stepped up. He’d be happy to assign her some classes to teach. 

As Scott reaches for a binder to show off what’s available, Illyana teleports all the papers in Scott’s desk above him, making them all fall on him. 

ILLYANA: “Wooph. Would you look at that mess? Aren’t you supposed to be super nerdy and organized?” 

Scott’s had enough of this. She did good work, she proved herself, he praised her for it, and she’s still giving him crap. 

SCOTT: “What is your problem with me? I know I’m not one of your old friends, but you don’t give this kind of attitude toward anyone else.” 

Illyana shakes her head at him, not even going to answer as she walks away. But she changes her mind, spinning around in the doorway. 

ILLYANA: “You wanna know what my problem is with you, Summers? You’re weak. You’re weak, and ineffective, and you have no business leading Mutantkind.” 

SCOTT, crossing his arms, not about to take this: “That so?” 

ILLYANA: “Da. You have all these plans and all these speeches, but what good are they, really? You think you’re such a badboy because you don’t just parrot the Professor anymore, and you’ve killed a couple people, and you let Emma and Magneto get away with a little, but you’re still the same ineffective sadstack as ever. And you’re going to get us all killed.” 

SCOTT, getting in her face: “I do whatever I have to to keep us safe. I’ve been running this school for two years. We’re still here, aren’t we?” 

ILLYANA: “Not all of us.” 

Scott has no defense against that one. 

ILLYANA: “But yes, most of us are still here. As the world around us gets worse and worse. When we could have been somewhere much better.” 

Scott is momentarily confused, before realizing what she’s talking about. 

SCOTT: “Are you saying that if you’d been active when Apocalypse tried to take over, you’d have joined him?”

ILLYANA: “No. I’m just saying I would have stopped you from stopping him.” She shrugs. “Maybe we beat the Horsemen in the end with only a few more casualties. There’s always the next threat. And you’ll always be so busy playing hero, you’ll never actually change a thing.” Illyana opens a disc under herself. “Email me a list of classes. I don’t want to look at you any longer than I have to.” 

Magik spits at him before teleporting away. 

Scott sits on his desk and clenches his face in his shaking hand. 

In the ashes of The World, the Cuckoos cry over their dead sister’s body. 

CELESTE: “Bring her back!” 

MINDEE: “Bring her back!” 

MINDEE: “You can do anything, right?” 

PHOEBE: “So bring our sisters back!”

Jean, pained tells them she wishes she could, but she can’t. Just like the Cuckoos, she and the Phoenix are one, but they also aren’t. She can’t make the Phoenix Force do something its against. And it won’t bring back someone who was designed to steal and abuse its power. 

Mindee breaks down, continuing to sob. Phoebe questions what they can do now. They can’t just be the “Three-in-One”, can they? Celeste echoes that idea. What’s even the point? 

Jean cups Celeste’s chin. Celeste looks up at her. 

JEAN: “The point is you’re alive. And you never know what joys life will bring. Even when its darkest.” 

Bawling, Celeste hugs Jean, who hugs her back. 

CELESTE: “Please…”

CUCKOOS: “Take us home”. 

Before the episode ends, we cut back to the school, panning through hallways, where the lights have been shut for the night. In voice over, we hear Sooraya talking to her mother over the phone, telling her about her training with Iceman. Mirah still has a hard time understanding all of this, but it’s still a wonderful sound to hear her daughter so excited. 

Mirah double checks with Sooraya that she’s still planning on coming home soon for the start of Ramadan, with Dust assuring her nothing could make her miss it. The two tell each other they love each other, and say good night. 

Sooraya hangs up, and returns to her prayer mat one more time, getting on her knees and closing her eyes. 

BEAT. 

“Sooraya…” 

Dust’s eyes jolt open at the sound of a soothing, powerful voice in her head.