#like they will go on a shouting spree one day and next day act as if everything is okay

[nullians]

Father telling my grandmother to not apologize to me for making stupid assumptions is like. Wow. Just say you are not capable of saying sorry to your kids and go lol. If you’re going to undo all progress I’ve hammered into that woman’s old brain I’m going to maim you verbally for real real the next time we talk 🤷

[mccall-muffin]

The things you don't know - Part 1 // Carwood Lipton x OC

Summary: Being in the army as a woman can be challenging. That's what Tori needed to learn as well. Four weeks in, she has no friends, no one to back her up, and she is living in the constant fear that her brother finds out that she enlisted. But one day, everything changed.

Warnings: Language

Taglist: @liebgotts-lovergirl, @softguarnere

Here is the prologue!

October 5, 1942 - Camp Toccoa, Georgia, USA

"Name?" "McNeil, Victoria M." "What exactly are you doing here, Private McNeil? You're a woman. You don't belong here. Or are you trying to prove me wrong?" "Yes, sir!" "We'll see about that." With only her eyes, Victoria pursued Lieutenant Sobel. She had never hated anyone as much as she hated this man. For four weeks, Tori had been at Camp Toccoa and Easy Company, and still, this son of a bitch acted like he had forgotten her name every time. That he didn't want her here, she was well aware of.

Sobel went through the ranks and picked apart one soldier after another. At least it cheered Tori up a bit to know that Sobel wasn't just out to get her. Finally, he ended up revoking all of their weekend passes.

"Put on your PT gear; we're running Currahee," were his last words, and Tori groaned softly. That was the second thing she hated. This mountain they ran up and down at least once every day. She followed the other soldiers back to the barracks and briskly changed her clothes. "You better get home while you still can, doll," someone suddenly said to her. As she turned, Bill Guarnere looked at her with pity yet slight irritation. "Why should I?" was all she returned. Bill just shrugged his shoulders. "Would be better for ya, I guess. Women don't belong in the Army." Inside, Tori was already boiling. She had a temper, she knew that, and it was very easy to bring it out, depending on the subject.

Before she could reprimand Bill, the door opened, and Carwood Lipton entered the barracks. "All right, let's go. On the road, in PT formation. Let's move, move, move," he shouted, then looked briefly at Tori and Bill. "Guarnere, McNeil! Come on!" demanded Lip looking at Tori for a moment before she walked past him.

Carwood was impressed with Tori from the start. After all, she put up with Sobel for four weeks, even though he made her life hell. With her ash blonde hair, small height, and blue eyes, she didn't stand out much out, but something about her captivated Carwood. However, they were preparing for war, not for a dating spree. Besides, fraternization among soldiers is strictly forbidden.

As they ran up the hill, Tori was among the furthest behind. Physically, she was weaker than the men, and her legs were shorter. And yet she gave it her all. "Come on, Victoria. You can do it," she heard Lipton next to her. He was the only one who called her by her first name. Everyone else addressed her only as McNeil.

McNeil. That was the other thing... Because that wasn't even her real name. As it was her mother's maiden name, Tori went by a different one. And this one was Victoria Martha Speirs. But no one was supposed to know this. Above all, her brother should not see that she was here. When Ron told her about the paratroopers, Tori was blown away. Of course, Ron volunteered and also for the paratroopers. Ron wanted to be one of the best. And it was a good fit for him, too. But when he had already been gone for some time, Tori felt useless. She kept reading about the troop her brother had joined in various magazines, and the desire to do the same grew. Finally, she had gone through with it. Even though it wasn't effortless for a woman to even get into the army, let alone the paratroopers, Tori had somehow managed it.

In the last letter Ron had written her while she was still at home, he had told her that he was being transferred to Camp Toccoa, Georgia, and assigned to Baker Company. At the time, those words didn't have much meaning to Tori, but panic set in when she learned that she was also being assigned to Camp Toccoa. Her brother would have a fit if he knew she was here. At least Tori was assigned to Easy Company and not Baker. However, it would have been funny to see Ron's face's look if he spotted her. Whereas he probably would have kicked her out the door himself.

When they returned from Currahee, Tori was out of breath and sweaty. Her face was red, and her hands and feet were swollen. Quickly she went back to her barracks to get the shower things, but when she came back out, she found herself in a group of soldiers from a strange company. "Hey, sweetheart, are you lost?" she heard the first chatter. "What are you doing here?" it continued. She was used to the catcalls by now. And then something happened Tori didn't expect at all.

"Victoria?"

Tori jerked her head up and looked for the soldier who had called her name. "Jesus Christ, David?" she asked when she spotted him. David Webster. The Harvard boy. "You know the doll, Webster?" one of the other soldiers asked, looking at Web. "Yeah, I do, so shut up, Thompson," Web glared at him. "What are you doing here, Tori?" asked Webster, striding toward her. His comrades didn't seem to find this exciting anymore, so they continued walking. "Eh, we're off, Web," they called after him some more, and he gave a half-hearted wave.

Web quickly had his attention back on Tori. "So? What are you doing here?" asked Web again. "I volunteered," Tori said with a shrug. "And your brother just let that happen? I thought he was so protective of you?" "Well, he doesn't know anything about it," Tori said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. A grin settled on Web's face. "Victoria Martha Speirs..." he began, but Tori immediately put a hand over his mouth to silence him. "Shh!" She looked around to make sure no one heard her. "Mhmhmhm," Web asked under Tori's hand, which she took back from his mouth. "What?" she asked, confused. "What was that about?" "No one here knows my real name, David. And I want to keep it that way! And they are not supposed to know who my brother is!" whispered Tori. She points to her name tag on her ODs.

"What, why is that?" "Isn't it obvious? I thought you were the smart one of the two of us," she said, frowning. "Ron's in the paratroopers, too. But I don't want him to know about this. If I'd signed up with my real name, he'd have had me out of here in a day. That's why I signed up with my mother's maiden name." Web nodded slowly. "I see, and your brother is here too?" he asked, looking around for a moment. "Yes. At least here in Toccoa. He's a platoon leader at Baker Company. But enough about me. What about you? What about your studies? Don't tell me you dropped out?"

Web laughed at the sudden change of subject, but that was Tori's way. "Well, I felt obligated to help. And why not be one of the best when you have the opportunity? They assigned me to Fox Company. And as for going to college... Harvard can wait. This is more important." Tori smiled at David's words. Then she takes him in her arms. "Oh, I missed you, Brainy."

"Hey, McNeil! If you want some more hot water, you should move your butt now!" They heard someone call out. Tori broke away from David and saw Joe Toye nodding his head toward the showers. "See you later?" Tori then asked David, who nodded. "Sure thing. We could go out this weekend?" he asked, and Tori pressed her lips together. "My weekend pass was revoked. The whole company's." "What?" "Our CO's an ass. But I've got to get going. See you, David." She waved goodbye to him, then headed for the showers with her things.

When she got back out of the shower, she bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry," she said quickly, seeing that it was Wayne Sisk. He was one of Easy Company's first soldiers, she had learned. "No, I wasn't paying attention," he said quickly, smiling at Tori. Tori smiled as well. She had never really talked to Skinny, as they called him. "You... Your name is Victoria, right?" he asked a little shyly, and she nodded. "I'm Wayne, but everyone calls me Skinny," he said, extending his hand to her, which she accepted. "Nice to meet you," she smiled back.

She eyed Skinny for a moment. He was really cute; she had to hand it to him. "We're playing a game of cards tonight. Are you in?" he asked out of the blue, and Tori looked at him in surprise. The boys had never invited her to play cards with them before. "Uh, yeah, sure, why not?" "Well, good...", Skinny said thoughtfully and smiled at Tori again. He'd never admit it, but the blonde made him nervous. And Skinny was far from that otherwise. At least not when it came to girls.

In the evening, Tori was a little nervous. Not about Skinny, but about the other guys. After all, she didn't know how they would react if she suddenly stood among them. "Hey, Vic. You ready?" she then heard a voice from the entrance. Amused, Tori turned around. "Vic?" she asked, addressing Skinny, who stood grinning in the doorway. The latter just smiled at her and shrugged. "Well, I thought Victoria was so formal, don't you think? Or do you have another nickname?" Tori laughed. "Well, most people call me Tori," she explained, but Skinny cringed. "I kind of like Vic better. I'll call you Vic." "Well then," Tori said. "Do what you can't help doing."

"So, are you ready? The others are waiting. " Tori nodded. "Yep," she said, zipping up her jacket before following Skinny out the door. "Do the others actually know you invited me?" asked Tori as the two headed toward the dining hall. "Sure," was all Skinny said. "Skinny?" asked Tori again, causing him to stop. He turned to look at her before taking a step toward her. A faint scent of whiskey rose to Tori's nose. "Fine, I didn't tell them anything. But it doesn't matter, because you're coming with me now to meet the guys. We're a company; why should you be any different just because you're a girl?"

Tori faltered for a moment before nodding slowly. "Come on," Skinny said, pulling her by the arm. "You're not afraid of Sobel; why would you be afraid of the boys?" "I don't know, Skinny. But they don't seem too pleased with my presence..." "Who couldn't be pleased by the presence of a pretty woman? They just don't know you yet."

Tori didn't reply to anything more. Had Skinny just called her pretty? Skinny had let the words slip from his lips faster than he could have stopped it.

The boys were already looking up as they entered the mess hall together. "Skinny, there you are at last!" shouted Malarkey to him already. "And you've got McNeil with you?" he asked. Tori's nervousness rose at the questioning look Malarkey was giving her. " Folks," Skinny said, pushing the young blonde in front of her. "This here is Victoria. Or rather, Vic," he introduced her, and she had to stifle an eye roll at her new nickname.

"We know what her name is, Skinny," Joe Liebgott said, annoyed, looking at Tori with raised eyebrows. "Yeah, but we don't know her. And we're going to change that now," Skinny said, pushing Tori into an empty chair. There was silence for a moment, and everyone looked at Tori. "Maybe this was a stupid idea, Skinny," Tori whispered to him uneasily. "Oh, bullshit!" Skinny looked around at the faces of his friends. "Come on, guys... She's part of our company. She's one of us, so treat her that way." Grateful, Tori looked to Skinny, who pulled a flask from his pocket and took a sip.

Joe Liebgott looked at Tori for another moment before he began shuffling the cards and shrugging his shoulders. "Fine by me. You play poker?" he then asked, and Tori nodded.

Six years earlier:

"I'll never learn," Tori whined as she lost again to her big brother. "Eventually, even your birdbrain will understand, Tori," he laughed as he dealt the cards again. "Why are we still doing this anyway, Ron?" "So you can learn. Poker is fun, and you'll learn."

"All right..." said Malarkey then, sitting down on the other side of Tori. Also sitting at the table with them were Muck, More, Alley, and to Tori's surprise, Lipton. She glanced briefly at him, and he smiled encouragingly at her. A wry smile also appeared on Tori's face as she looked at her sergeant. She didn't tear her gaze away from Lip until Skip placed a beer in front of her. "Sorry, we don't have anything else," he said, and she nodded her thanks. "That's okay. That works for me."

They'd been on for a few rounds when only Tori and Lipton were left in a game at one point. Everyone stared at their sergeant, whose turn it was. Lip studied his cards before turning his gaze to Tori, who was trying to keep her best poker face. "I'll raise you two," Lip says, tossing two dollars into the middle. Tori briefly glances at the center before looking Lip in the eye again. She licks her lips and bites down on them shortly. Lip's eyes automatically moved to Tori's lips, and he got slightly nervous.

"I'll call your two and raise you two more," Tori said, smiling mischievously at Lip. "Come on, Sarge, you're not going to put up with that, are you?" asked Malarkey, grinning at Lip, who was studying his cards again. "Hey, why don't you make it a little more interesting?" then interjected Liebgott, who looked at Tori with an interested grin. His sentence tore Tori away from Lipton so that she was now looking at him. "What do you have in mind?" she asked.

"All or nothing. All in!" Liebgott then said, and Tori looked back at Lip, who was also looking at her. 'Jesus, this game has too much eye contact,' Tori thought as she averted her gaze from Lip again. She then pushed her cards together and placed them face down on the table before folding her hands over them and looking at Lip again. "All in," he said, rummaging in his wallet and then tossing a few dollar bills into the middle. "Twenty dollars."

"Fine by me. But I want something else if I win," she said perkily, taking out $20 and putting it in the middle, and Lip raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, and what would that be?" "A dance." "What?" "A dance when we finally get to keep our next weekend pass." "If it's just that," Malarkey laughed, and everyone looked to Lip. The latter nodded before tossing his cards into the middle. "Flush," he said mischievously, as much as he ever could, and then looked at Tori, who looked at his cards in shock for a moment. Then she looked back at him. "That's too bad," she said, and the guys were already starting to cheer. Tori looked briefly at Skinny, who looked at her with pity, but then she threw her cards into the middle. "That's too bad, but I'm afraid you owe me a dance, Lip. Full house!"

There was silence for a few seconds, but laughter and cheers erupted. "Whoa, Lip, she just tore you apart," Malarkey laughed, patting Tori on the back. "Not bad, McNeil!" Alley congratulated her, and she took a sip of her beer while grinning at Lip, who probably still couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

"You're really all right, Vic," Skip laughed, toasting Tori. Tori smiled contentedly and slumped back in her chair. The guys around her were still clowning around, teasing Lip about his loss. Tori couldn't hide a laugh and felt like she belonged for the first time since she'd been in Toccoa.

The following day, when Tori entered the mess hall to have breakfast alone, as usual, she was surprised when a few voices suddenly called out to her.

"Hey, Vic! Here!" Looking up, she quickly spotted Skinny, Liebgott, and Alley sitting at the table with Tipper. She looked at them for a moment to make sure they meant her. But then she nodded and gestured briefly toward the food counter.

She approached the boys with her tray when she got the food. "Hey Vic, we saved you a seat," Joe said directly, pointing to the empty chair next to Skinny. Tori sat down and smiled at the guys. "Thanks... That's nice of you guys," she said hesitantly and started eating the grayish-looking oatmeal. "No biggie, you're with us now," Alley grinned at her, which made Tori laugh. "That sounds like, like, a gang or something," she laughed, and the others did the same. "More like a company," Skinny said, nudging Tori briefly.

"You still have to answer me one question, Vic," Joe then butted in again. Tori looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. "Huh?" "Why a dance with Lip?" he asked, and Tori almost choked on her coffee. She coughed twice and then looked at Joe again. "Well, I uh... I don't know," she said, briefly considering why she'd asked him for a dance. "Because if you're looking for a good dancer... Then you better take me," Joe continued, and the boys around him laughed. "Yeah, sure, Lieb. That would suit you," Tipper laughed, slapping Joe on the shoulder. "What? I'm just speaking the truth. You could ask the girls at the bar, and they'll tell you."

Renewed laughter erupted at their table before Joe turned back to Tori, who had hoped he had already forgotten about the question. "So, Vic? Why Lip?" Tori glanced briefly at Skinny next to her, who was also looking at her with interest. "Well... I thought it would be funny. Sergeant Lipton has always struck me as a bit - how shall I put it - reserved, and I just can't picture him twirling girls around or anything, which is why I wanted to get him a bit... Out of his shell."

Tori's gaze traveled straight down the mess hall, stopping briefly at her sergeant. Then she looked back at Joe and shrugged. "I still think the idea is pretty funny." "And believe me, everyone probably wants to be there because we're definitely not missing the show," Alley laughed now, and Tipper nodded in agreement. "Oh, for sure."

Suddenly someone sat down across from Vic. "Fucking hell, what's this crap again?" the soldier, who turned out to be Frank Perconte, got annoyed. Suddenly he looked up and realized that Vic was sitting across from him. He paused in his movement and opened his mouth to say something. "Since when are you sitting here?" he asked after a while of silence. Tori frowned for a moment, then looked over at Joe, Skinny, and the others for help. "I, uh..." the blonde stammered uncertainly. "Let her, Frank. She's with us now," Skinny said quickly, getting Percone's attention. "Uh-huh," was all he said then, silently continuing to eat his food while Tori sat uncomfortably across from him.

A few minutes later, Tori's attention was drawn outside. There stood David, gesturing with his head for her to follow him. She nodded barely noticeably and then slowly stood up. "Uh, if you'll excuse me," she said absently, then headed for the door. "Hey, Vic. Stay," Skinny called after her, but Tori was already out the door. "Way to go, Frank," the private reprimanded his friend. "What? I didn't do anything!" the latter defended himself with his mouth full. "She's having a hard enough time with Sobel picking on her all the time. Why do we have to do this, too, huh?" "What's the matter, Skinny? Are you in love?" now quipped Malarkey, who had also just sat at the table. "Fuck, no!", Skinny immediately defended herself. "But still, I think we can be nice to her." "I agree with Skinny," Skip spoke up, who had taken the seat next to Malarkey. "I think she's great. There's something about her - I don't know how to put it. She seems so proper somehow, but something tells me she's not at all."

"Oh, believe me, she's probably all wicked in bed," Liebgott said, laughing, and Skinny rolled her eyes. "Of course, that's what you're all about." "What? She's not ugly, after all. And if I have to look at you guys all day, why not at least imagine something beautiful? With that son of a bitch fucking up our goddamn weekends all the time by taking away our fucking passes, I haven't seen another woman in weeks, Skinny."

"And yet I don't think she'd get involved with you," Malarkey now grinned, causing Liebgott to throw a piece of bread at his head. "Oh yeah, and you think you have a better chance?" the latter shouted back. "Better than you, definitely!" "Well, I don't think either of you has a chance because our dear Victoria must have her eye on Lip," Skip now interfered again. "Now, what makes you think that?" asked Alley. "Well, because of the dance." "Nah, she explained that to us earlier, and it makes total sense," explained Skinny.

"Well, whatever. It still wouldn't be a good idea. Fraternization among soldiers is strictly forbidden, remember?" then Tip asked, and Joe rolled his eyes. "Meh, it might still be worth the risk if the soldier looks like her." Skinny eyed Joe. Even though he was rather a skinny man, he had already made a point or two with his looks. The idea that he could throw himself at Vic didn't appeal to Skinny. Maybe he just had to be faster now.

[inxspacetime]

@pcrtrait​ sent: 🔫 from THIS meme.

Things were looking pretty grim for Richie, even before the masked figure made itself known. There was yet another killer on loose, even when they were across the country from Woodsboro! And even worse, this was a killer who knew his secret; and one who wanted to see him burn for it. Life as he knew it would be over, whether or not he survived this latest murder spree. And if there was a chance for that to come out, he wanted it to be on his own terms. Well, not entirely. If anyone asked him, he’d deny it to the grave no matter how early he fell into it. But Wes, he needed to be out in the open with him. If they were going to spend a life together that didn’t end in either a) the younger resenting him for the rest of their days when he did find out, or b) Richie allowing the guilt to physically swallow him whole, then he was going to need to toughen up and own up to what he did.

And, as expected, the news wasn’t taken well. Not that Wes reacted irregularly for someone who just found out their boyfriend took part in a middle plot that got his mom (and nearly himself) killed, but… he didn’t immediately call the cops on him. That had to mean something; it did for Richie. Things wouldn’t okay that night, and likely not for a while, but he was willing to do just about whatever it took to prove himself to Wes. And he first did that by giving him some space, despite the fact that he really didn’t want to. He needed some time to be alone, to process the news without pleading eyes constantly out him, and truthfully he felt as though he were the bigger target. Just another reason he had no business being around Wes in the first place, it seemed.

He went for a walk for some fresh air. He didn’t have many options of where to go - it wasn’t like he could really get into detail on why Wes was upset with him. But that was cut short when he got a phone call from a very familiar voice changer. The conversation was short, the killer wasn’t looking to play games —- but they did want his help. They wanted him to kill. Richie felt as though he’d finally lost it. That he was in a padded cell somewhere dreaming that Amber had come back from the dead in order to either finish what they started or drag him back to hell with her. But he’d never be so lucky, what was happening was a hundred percent and it was about to get worse. Because the consequence for not joining in on this next attack would be for them to turn the knife to Wes — and this one didn’t plan to miss.

But it was a trap. Richie knew that, but he didn’t realize just how deep in in he already was. He didn’t waste a second turning back the way he came and going into his contacts to call and warn Wes. But before he could make the call, before he’d taken more than three steps, a hunting knife was quickly lodged into his gut and yanked out. He yelled, a bit too in pain to defend himself as he was wrestled to the ground. He’d taken a slash into his upper arm, but aside from that he was able to keep himself from dying for a short while. But he was growing tired, his arm felt as though it was on fire, and no matter how loud he shouted for help, no one was there to react. Which

The figure released his grip on him and raised their red-stained blade in the air. It was a familiar sight, though he was used to the roles being reversed. He truly thought he was going to die, so he used his arms to protect what he knew to be important and hoped for the best. And the best did happen, and it was something he never would have expected in a million years. The sound of glass shattering caused Richie to look up just as Wes struck the killer over the head with a glass bottle, what was left of it soon jammed into their side. He used the advantage to kick them off and scramble to his feet. He wanted to fight back harder, to really try and put an end to this if they could. But he’s seen it happen before, people get overconfident, they act without thinking and end up like Dewey or his sister.

What he did know in that moment, was that he passed a few decently-filled stores on his walk that they could easily hide out in until help arrived. He was starting to feel a bit weak, but he had enough in him to get them to safety. He hoped.

[king-candy-lovemail]

ACE VENTURA X READER chapter 5

warnings: someone yelling at and getting kinda physical with reader (never like getting hit but getting grabbed and stuff like that). along with a lot of swear words & empty threats of violence thrown at them

lucky for you, no one inside the office had noticed your crazed driving spree. you went inside and clocked in without any delay. making your way into your new office, you noticed milton was standing next to arthur's desk.

"...with such disrespect! it's terrible, it's awful, and you should be ashamed that you-" milton's rant was cut short as you opened the door to your new workspace.

"oh, milton! what are you doing in here?" you questioned, sending both men a quizzical look. milton cleared his throat, stepping forward before arthur pulled him back with a single hand on his shoulder.

"ya see y/n, milton was just checking on some business statistics with me before he was gonna leave and get back to work; right, milton?" he sneered. milton's previously bold disposition deflated into one of utter defeat.

"yes, sir." milton dragged his feet as he exited arthur's office. you sent a look to arthur, and he waved off the situation.

"nothing important, just that dumbass spewing his bullshit as per usual," arthur growled. he rolled his eyes, lighting another cigar. "y/n, you can take a seat now. don't just stand around."

you quickly took your seat, getting to work on the stack of arthur's papers on your desk. the entire time you were distracted by whether or not you were safe.

and then came the bang on your desk.

"Y/N!" arthur roared, and you broke out of your trance to see your pen ink dripping all over the important paperwork. you gasped loudly, jumping up from your seat. your haste in jumping up caused the desk to jolt forwards into arthur, and he let out a string of curses as you hurried out of the office to go find something to clean up with.

"OH NO, WE'RE NOT DONE YET, YOU BITCH!" arthur shrieked. he grabbed your wrist tightly, and you instantly knew he had bruised it.

there you were, in the middle of the office, being loudly berated by your supervisor who had just been singing your praises the day before.

"YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FUCKING ACT TOGETHER, YOU DUMB CUNT! YOU'RE DISRESPECTING A SUPERVISOR, YOU KNOW THAT?!" he continued to shout in your face. you cowered a bit; arthur was unpredictable, and you weren't completely convinced he would never hurt you.

"arthur! that's enough, let them go!" you mentally facepalmed as you saw milton stand up and begin to approach you two.

"milton, shut the hell up before i beat your head into the wall," arthur growled, but your coworker didn't listen in the slightest.

"no, i don't care, let them go now! this is beyond cruel, y/n doesn't deserve this!" he cried. arthur only laughed at him.

"this bitch deserves every bad thing that comes their way, you best believe it! ruining my paperwork after i'm nice enough to take them off the streets and give them the highest promotion i can offer from an entry level position, and what do i get in return? someone taking advantage of my kindness!" arthur shouted again, and the entire office was silent. milton shook his head.

"no, no, you're wrong about y/n, you're wrong about everything! y/n is the best thing to ever grace this office," milton sighed, a dreamy look filling his eyes.

honestly, this is beyond humiliating. i'd rather have arthur rip me a new asshole than go through whatever THIS is.

arthur let out a terrible laugh, wheezing and hacking and coughing. "oh god, don't tell me! you have a workplace crush on them, don't you?!" arthur cried. the entire office erupted in laughter as milton's face went red and he responded, "s-so what if i do?"

you wanted nothing more in that moment but to die.

arthur, overcome with laughter, let you go. your shaky legs barely let you stand up. milton rushed to your side, but you shrugged him off.

"get the hell off of me!" you hissed. milton reeled back, looking hurt.

"i'll be in my office, y/n, you best be back in a minute! milton, don't make too much of googoo eyes at them, alright?!" arthur cackled again before slamming his office door.

you rubbed your bruised wrist and forearm tenderly, wincing slightly. milton rushed over to you, already bothering you once again.

"y/n, i-i saved you from him, didn't i? i-i protected you, i helped you!" milton exclaimed, clearly proud of himself. you looked into the crowd of officegoing onlookers, all staring you two down.

dammit all to hell! can't this guy take a hint to save his life!?

milton kept going, even after you quietly pleaded him to stop. he wouldn't quit, and so, you snapped.

"i didn't need your help, i can take it! you made things worse! now i, who already isn't taken seriously in this office, am going to be made a mockery! you had to step up with your faux-valiant act, didn't you? well, asshole, it didn't work! leave me alone, i don't wanna see your face again," you cried, storming off into your (and arthur's) office.

milton held a hand out pathetically, watching you leave.

arthur never apologized to you, but made sure to keep things lighthearted. you really didn't care at this point; you had bigger things going on in your life.

"'ey, i'll see ya tomorrow, y/n! bright and early, right?" arthur joked, and you forced out a chuckle.

"you got it, boss!" you faked a smile, finger-gunning him on your way out. he seemed to find that hilarious, as his barking laugh stuck with you until you reached the receptionist's desk.

god, tell me this day can't get any weirder!

well, seems you forgot who was gonna be there to pick you up.

as you walked out into the parking lot, feeling the chill of the night, you noticed a brightly-dressed man.

ah, right. ace.

"HEY, Y/N! I'M OVER HEEEEERE! GET IN, C'MON, QUICK!" ace shrieked, causing a scene. fellow coworkers in the parking lot all looked his way, then to yours. even milton was lurking near his car, staring down the man gesturing towards you obnoxiously.

you looked around, shrugging. "no idea who that is!" you shouted for everyone to hear. ace looked embarrassed at this.

but, of course, instead of taking his loss like a man, he just had to one-up you.

"C'MON, Y/N! WE GOTTA GET HOME; VETRENARIAN'S ORDERS! HE SAID A LITTLE 'RAW DOG' WOULD DO YOU SOME GOOD, EH?" he loudly teased, making sure everybody in the parking lot heard. your head hung low in defeat, you made your way over to ace's car.

you slammed the passenger's door as you got in, groaning.

"you asshole! did you really, really have to embarrass me in front of all my coworkers like that?!" you cried out, throwing your hands up in exasperation. ace just slid into the driver's seat, sticking half his body out the window and waving goodbye to everyone as he made his way out of the parking lot.

"jesus christ, watch the road, ace!" you exclaimed. he looked at you, a smug look on his face.

"ohh, really?" his voice took on a mocking tone yet again. "well i seem to remember a certain someone NOT following that rule earlier this morning, hmm, i wonder who that could be?" ace stroked his chin in faux-wonder, and you hid your head in your hands.

"it was a moment of weakness, ok?! i was pissed and didn't wanna be late; you just happened to be a passenger to such an event!" you laughed, and ace seemed to relax at your now-easygoing nature.

"alright, any clues today at the good ol' fieldpool n' co.?" he questioned, his intonation already becoming apparent from one simple question.

"nope. but there was a lot of drama, i guess you could say," you mumbled the last part, yet ace still heard it.

"judging from your tone i guess you, ah, don't wanna talk about it?" you scoffed.

"yeah, it's better if we don't touch the subject for now."

pulling into ace's apartment complex parking lot, he sucked in a breath.

"i already dropped your stuff off here. you can uh, take the bed. i've already settled in the living room," he admitted, seeming a bit embarrassed. you tilted your head, before cheesily putting a hand to your chest.

"aw, wow, how considerate and thoughtful. the pet detective, who doesn't do humans, making room in his livingspace for me. how could i be so lucky?" you joked. ace huffed and looked away, parking the car.

he fished his keys from his pocket as you two walked through the hallways, eventually reaching a brightly painted teal door at the end of a hall.

"we ah, we're here," he stammered slightly, struggling to get the keys into the lock. he looked to you and chuckled nervously, then rolled his eyes at your smirk.

"no, no, take your time," you teased, and ace mocked your words with a high-pitched voice. you smacked him on the arm, which finally motivated the door to unlock.

bursting through the door, ace announced himself.

"JUNGLE FRIENDS, COME TO ME!" he ended his shouting with a high-pitched whistle, and you watched as animals scurried from every corner of the apartment.

"w-woah!" you giggled, and a cat came up to you, rubbing against your leg.

"aw, hi baby!" you cooed, picking it up and cradling it in your arms. the cat relaxed, and you pet it gently.

ace watched you out of the corner of his eye, admiring how your brash demeanor completely melted away around the animal.

"that there is callie," ace started, and you could barely tear your eyes away from the feline in your arms.

"aww, the baby's name is callie-wallie! little schnooky-wooky baby booboo pie!" you baby-talked, and the cat began to purr at both your touch and praise. you kneeled down on the floor, allowing the cat more comfort.

"you're just the cutest thing i ever saw," you sang to callie, and she rubbed her face against your hand. ace chuckled, sighing.

"why, thank you. you know i, get that a lot," he mused. you glared up at him, scoffing, before turning your attention back to callie.

soon, most of the animals had practically swarmed you for your attention.

"woah, woah, woah guys, calm down!" ace exclaimed, trying to usher the animal crowd away from you. you just threw your head back and laughed, being bombarded with so many pets.

"a-ace, it's fine," you began in between giggles. "i... i love animals, believe me!" ace studied how gleeful your expression was; you usually were stoic, if he forgot your 'psychotic breakdown' in the car that same morning.

"well, it seems the animals love you, too," he muttered. the sight in front of him was one to behold.

eventually, you stood up and made your way back over to ace (with callie still in your arms).

"alright, so what'd you wanna talk about?" you asked, still mindlessly petting the cat which you cradled. ace stifled a laugh.

"well, despite the insanity of your ramblings this morning, you did reveal some useful information to me," he began, swiveling around suddenly and coming nose-to-nose with you. "you helped me narrow down this investigation to three main suspects!" he announced, doing some sort of weird dance thing. you cocked your head.

"r-really? but, i don't suspect any of them to do something so... heartless," you murmured. ace sucked in a breath.

"on the contrary, y/n!" he pointed a finger in the air, mimicking a detective's stance. "they sound quite unstable already."

you scoffed at him, rolling your eyes. "psh, whatever! they are not." ace once again briskly turned to you, growing closer.

"well then, shall we review our options?" you shrugged.

"first!, we have the heartbroken loverboy himself. you rejected him the day the crime took place, and left him utterly gutted," ace explained. you winced. harsh.

"then, the jealous colleague. worked her ass off to get to where your job was at entry level, and then watched her most promising promotion be snatched away from her, in front of her own eyes!" you crossed your arms, beginning to feel self-conscious.

"and finally, the unstable boss. walking on eggshells, can't mess anything up. one wrong move and you'll invoke a seething wrath; isn't that right, y/n?" ace interrogated. you gazed up at him, innocent.

"why are you treating me like a suspect?! why am i the one you're interrogating here?!" you cried out, shame filling your core. "i sound like the bad guy in this situation, when i'm not the one who paralyzed and gutted a cat!"

ace clicked his tongue. "so defensive, dear! i wasn't trying to, ah, attack you. just my style, i guess," ace chuckled. you sent him a death stare.

"well, even if those are my three main suspects, your arguments have some serious flaws." ace stared you down before asking, "and what would those be, exactly?"

you stuck your head up, smirking. "well, milton is harmless. and even if he wasn't, he doesn't know where i live. he wouldn't have followed me home that night, as i was more on edge than ever. he didn't know i had a cat until that day, and certainly wouldn't have known her name was snuffy!" you exclaimed, continuing. "and laikyn, while she was pissed, she also wouldn't have known my cat's name, nor where i live. again, i was too on edge for anybody to follow me home that night. and as for arthur, his mood swings come and go so fast that he wouldn't have the time to set up such an elaborate scheme."

ace rubbed his chin at your words, nodding. "while all very sound arguments, y/n, these are the only people in your life who would've had any sort of motive," ace explained. you sighed.

"well, i guess it wouldn't hurt to investigate; we'll have to be nonchalant, though. the note talked about snuffy's demise reaching quicker if the perpetrator knew i was onto them..." you trailed off, screwing your eyes shut at the thought of snuffy being harmed.

ace came closer to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulder. "it's alright, mx. l/n, your kitty is as good as saved thanks to me," ace bragged. you rolled your eyes, patting his hand resting near your chest.

"of course, thank you so much for taking the couch tonight, by the way," you teased, and his head dropped in disappointment.

"ah yes, i... forgot about that," he huffed dramatically. "is there any chance i can... scootch on in with you?" he winked.

"nope. not a chance, sherlock. but you have fun out here with all these animals," you mocked. 

"well, make sure to get plenty of rest tomorrow! you'll need your energy!" ace called, watching you disappear into the bedroom.

ace plopped down on the couch, looking over at his monkey, spike.

"y'know spike, they're pretty nice to have around, huh?" he wondered aloud, before settling in on the couch.

tomorrow's gonna be a long day, you thought to yourself before drifting off to sleep.

[whiteqnn]

PURE [4] - Corpse Husband x Fem! Reader

A/N: I’m back. Shout-out to my sister @mojajasnoscmrokirozproszy , who encouraged me into finishing this part.

part 1 

part 2 

part 3 

part 5

PURE [4] 

Corpse was confused, to say the least. He stared at the screen with his brows furrowed, not exactly understanding what just happened, or what caused Y/N to leave so suddenly. He thought they were all having fun, or at least that’s the impression Y/N gave while interacting with other players. 

Was she just pretending she’d had fun when in reality, she didn’t want to spend time with them? 

He knew it was none of his business. They didn’t even know each other, outside of these two short games they’ve both been part of. But Corpse was quick to get attached to new people, and Y/N’s sweet voice, her innocent demeanor, and pure personality made him instantly like her... 

Perhaps it wasn’t exactly a good thing that he felt so worried when she left, given the fact that two of them have spoken maybe for a few minutes since they met each other. But Corpse couldn’t help it, and certainly couldn’t stop this weird feeling that something was wrong and that he needed to make sure that Y/N was okay. After all, he was the only one who knew that she left. Except for his audience, of course. 

So the moment her white little astronaut suddenly disappeared, Corpse went on a killing spree. He didn’t even care about that whole finish my lyrics thing he decided to terrorize his friends with, he just wanted to finish this game and check on Y/N. It was obvious that she wasn’t telling the truth. Even though it looked like she was trying really hard to contain her emotions, he could still hear her quavering voice. It was too hard to hide, and he knew it firsthand. That’s why he made it his point to at least check on her.  

“Jesus Corpse, you just went full berserk on us...” Felix murmured when the last person was killed, and Corpse could see a sign victory on his screen. It didn’t make him smile though, not how it usually would. 

“It was great though! Let’s do it again, but maybe on the other map?” Sykkuno suggested, clearly very excited about this hide and seek game they’ve come up with. 

“Sure, let’s get the first one maybe?”

“Actually, would you guys mind if we had a little break?” Corpse asked before they could start another game. “We’ve been playing for a little while now...”

“Ah, yeah! Bathroom break!” came Rae’s response, followed by a few hums of approval. Corpse sighed in relief. He was afraid his worried voice would draw the attention of other players, but they didn’t seem to notice it. 

“All right, is ten minutes good?” asked Sean, and when everyone agreed, Corpse excused himself from his audience and muted his mic. He grabbed his phone and unlocked it, only to be hit by a sudden realization.

He didn’t even have Y/N’s number. 

“Fuck...” he cursed quietly under his breath, running a hand through his hair. How the fuck was he supposed to check on her? He couldn’t use discord, he was still streaming after all... Maybe Twitter would work? Nah, she probably wouldn’t even notice his messages. What was left then?

Of course. 

Sean.

Corpse didn’t even think about any explanation as he quickly typed in a message to the said man, asking if he had Y/N’s number. The response came almost immediately. 

“Yeah, I have. Why?” 

Okay, now what? He couldn’t just tell him what happened. Corpse knew that Sean and Y/N were close, but he felt like it wouldn’t be fair towards the girl if he told Sean what happened. Maybe she didn’t want anyone to know... Maybe she didn’t want to speak to anyone. 

Him included. 

But Corpse felt as if he had to do it because that was something he wished someone would do for him if the roles were reversed. To at least show that he cared, that she wasn’t alone with whatever it was that bothered her... 

Was he being intrusive, for wanting to make sure that everything was okay? And what if she was totally fine and he’d just end up making a complete fool out of himself?

“Not that I haven’t already made a fool out of myself...” he mumbled under his breath, his fingers quickly typing the response to Sean. However, before he could finish it, the said man’s name appeared on his screen with an upcoming call. 

It was so unexpected that Corpse almost dropped the phone.

“Um, hey man” he said after picking up, his hands trembling as he tried to come up with some good explanation as to why exactly he needed Y/N’s number. “Look I-”

“Does this have something to do with her disappearance?” Sean cut him off, leaving Corpse with his mouth hung open, utterly shocked.  

“I um- no. I just wanted to call her and... cause I don’t have her number...”

“Corpse, I heard what she had told you...” Sean sighed into the phone “I was flying around you after you murdered me.”

“I...” Corpse tried once again and again found himself at the loss of words. His brows furrowed suddenly as he realized something “Wait- are you still streaming?” 

“I left for a moment to grab something to drink and call Y/N. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t say anything on the stream.” 

Corpse sighed in relief. If Sean managed to somehow play it off, then his fans maybe haven’t figured out what was going on. He didn’t want them to attack Y/N’s social media with tons of questions she obviously wouldn’t answer. 

“Do you know what happened?” Corpse asked quietly, hoping that maybe Sean knew something more that would ease his nerves. He hoped that it wasn’t anything serious, that maybe Y/N just had a bad day. “She left so suddenly and I got a little worried...” 

For a moment there was silence between the two of them, Corpse impatiently awaiting an answer and Sean thinking about the right words... or wondering whether he should tell him the reason for Y/N’s disappearance in the first place. 

“It’s- ugh.” Sean groaned, before letting out a heavy sigh “It stays between us, all right? I don’t want others to start texting her out of nowhere, asking if she’s okay. She would probably kill me.”

“Yeah, absolutely” Corpse nodded his head rapidly, even though Sean couldn’t see him. 

“Okay... So I don’t know the exact reason of her disappearance...” he began, and Corpse felt his heart sink in disappointment. “But I have some suspicion.”

“Can you be a little more specific, Sean? We don’t have much time before the next game...” Corpse didn’t want to sound rude but he was slowly growing impatient, and even more nervous when he still wasn’t able to check on Y/N and make sure that she’s okay.

“She received lots of hate after our last stream.” Sean finally explained, although his voice sounded quite reluctant. “And when I say lots, I mean lots, Corpse.”

“What?” Corpse grunted, his brows knitted together in confusion “What do you mean?”

“Oh you know, man... Comments on Twitter, on her Instagram, even under her latest video...” Sean let out an exasperated sigh “Apparently, some people are not happy that she’s playing with us.”

“Why?” Corpse managed to utter, completely shocked at the news. For some reason, it was the last thing he expected Sean to say. It didn’t even cross his mind that someone as sweet and polite as Y/N might have to deal with this kind of issue. 

She was always so kind, why would anyone hate on her? 

“You know how some people act online...” Sean murmured, his voice clearly gloomy, as opposed to his usual cheerful tone. “They think she shouldn’t be playing with us cause she’s not popular enough. Some consider her annoying, not funny enough, and so on...”

“What does popularity have to do with who we’re playing with?” Corpse almost growled these words, feeling anger slowly bubbling up in his stomach. He couldn’t comprehend why anyone would act this way towards Y/N, towards this little angel as Sean put it last time they played, towards this sweet, innocent girl, his partner in crime... 

“That’s what I told her before the stream” Sean explained with a sigh “And that she shouldn’t worry about what strangers think of her... but it’s easier said than done.” 

“You think she received another text or something?”

“I don’t know man” Sean sighed “I tried calling her like ten times already and she didn’t answer. It’s not like her to leave so suddenly, without saying goodbye. I’m worried something happened...” 

Corpse clenched his jaw, closing his eyes for a second. If Y/N didn’t answer Sean’s calls, why would she answer his? They barely knew each other, while Sean was her best friend.  

“Maybe... I’ll try calling her?” Corpse suggested anyway, his voice low and almost shy. He figured it was worth at least a try. 

Sean was quiet for a moment as if contemplating what to do. They were already running out of time, and Corpse didn’t know what to do. On one hand, he didn’t want to end the stream and leave his fans, he felt bad at the thought alone of disappearing so soon and disappointing them... But on the other, he couldn’t just leave Y/N like that. Especially, since as Sean explained, it wasn’t like her to act this way. It only proved that whatever happened was rather serious.

“Y’know what?” Sean suddenly said “I’ll give you her number, maybe she’ll pick up from you.”

“Thank you, Sean” Corpse said quietly, ready to end the call, only to be stopped by Sean’s words. 

“Look... I know I shouldn’t be asking you to do it, but... could you maybe try talking some sense into her?” he asked, clearly uncomfortable with this request “I feel like you’d be able to calm her down...”

“I...” Corpse stuttered, running a hand through his hair “I’ll try, okay? I’m not sure if she’ll want to talk about it though, I’m basically a stranger, so...”

“Corpse, she agreed to join us only after reading your last tweet.” 

Oh. 

His heart fluttered with something that didn’t seem like growing panic. And even though his face was expressing his worry, his lip corners formed a small, bashful smile. And whether he liked it or not, his cheeks turned completely red.

“I’ll... I’ll see what I can do” he managed to reply, before ending the call. 

Corpse ran a hand through his locks and down his face, releasing a heavy breath he didn’t know he was holding. He considered getting Y/N’s number a difficult task which, however, turned out to be the easiest one. Now came the real challenge. Calling her. 

For a moment, he just stared at the screen of his phone, scanning the new message from Sean, which consisted of Y/N’s phone number. It looked as if he was memorizing the number when in reality, he just felt panic overtaking his body and complete chaos in his mind. 

Let’s say she picks up the phone, and then what? Should he just say hi? Introduce himself? 

“Hi it’s me, the guy you basically don’t know and who became paranoid after you disappeared from the game” 

 Yeah, sure. Perfect introduction for the pep talk he was supposed to deliver. 

Why was it always that he acted almost as if on instinct one second, only to start having second thoughts a moment later. He couldn’t back out now when he had already got her number. Not when there was also another person counting on him. Not when he still didn’t know what the fuck happened, and for some reason was determined to find out. 

And then was the problem of his voice, which suddenly seemed stuck in his throat. It was a very weird feeling, typical for one to get while being on the verge of a panic attack. As if there was a need to talk, but the body refused to. As if his vocal cords were paralyzed and not eager to cooperate. 

As if it was him who just experienced something strongly upsetting, not Y/N. 

Corpse fidgeted with his phone for a moment, before deciding against the idea of calling the girl. He figured he wouldn’t be able to utter a single word if she picked up the phone from the unknown number in the first place. If she did though, she’d probably consider it some misdialed call or some prank. Which was the last thing he wanted her to think.

Instead, he opted on sending her a text. 

He sat still for a moment, thinking about a message that wouldn’t right away reveal the cause of his concern, but which would say enough to figure out who sent it. His thoughts drifted back to the game they were both playing, remembering his stupid comments and her gentle voice. His fingers typed out the message almost automatically. 

“Wanna jump into the lava with me?”

He hesitated just for a second, before sending the text, his heart doing a backflip in his chest the moment he pressed the send button. Corpse gripped the phone tightly in his hands, his eyes staring at the screen and waiting impatiently for those three little dots indicating that the other person is typing a response to appear. He waited and waited, and a lump slowly formed in his throat when Y/N didn’t respond immediately. 

Was he really getting paranoid? 

Maybe he was just tired. Or she had a bad day. Or she just found this game boring.

Or she didn’t want to play with them. Or she thought his comments were annoying. 

“I’m an idiot” Corpse muttered to himself and slapped a hand on his forehead, pushing those thoughts away. Deep down he knew that wasn’t the case, but the longer Y/N didn’t respond, the louder was the voice at the back of his head, telling him that her problems were none of his business and he shouldn’t be asking for her number in the first place.

But it was the right thing to do. He knew it, Sean knew it, and Corpse also hoped that Y/N did not perceive his text as some pathetic joke. He waited for a couple of minutes, before typing another message:

“I’m here, partner, if you need to talk.” 

He felt the need to assure her that despite the ongoing stream and the other players probably already waiting for him to return, he was there for her. That’s what he considered the best option, not to force her into talking, but to let her know that she wasn’t alone. And that it would take just one word from her to make Corpse drop everything and listen to her. 

After what seemed like an eternity of staring at his phone and analyzing his own messages, Corpse put his phone away, realizing that Y/N wasn’t going to reply anytime soon. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed in himself, and guilty as well. Perhaps it would be a better idea to call her, but at that moment he wasn’t able to trust his own voice. He thought about sending her another message but decided against it. Another new text was probably the last thing she needed, with her phone being drowned by hundreds of notifications from angered, and worried fans. 

All Corpse could do was hope that she saw his texts and that she knew she wasn’t all alone. He sure as hell wasn’t going to make her feel as if she was obliged to confide in him. After all, he was a stranger. 

Then again... sometimes to understand a problem and look at it from a different, new perspective, what one needed was, indeed, a complete stranger. 

-

The next two hours felt almost like an eternity. And a complete hell to Corpse. He tried his best to focus on the game and interacting with his fans, but no matter what, his eyes would drift towards his phone every now and then. Hoping to see Y/N’s name pop up on his screen, with a message saying that everything was fine. 

But then again... would it be enough to calm his nerves? Maybe she’d write something like that just so he wouldn’t worry. Just so he would leave her alone.

She might as well just tell him to fuck off...

The fact that he received so many notifications all the time, especially now, during a stream, didn’t really help. Each time his phone lit up with a new notification, he would crane his neck with the hope of seeing Y/N’s response, only to be disappointed when it turned out to be just some new comment or someone tagging him in an instastory. Something that usually made him really happy now was the reason for his irritation. 

He couldn’t focus on the game itself either, finding it difficult to do his tasks and form some logical arguments during discussions. He didn’t really care, to be honest, when people threw him away almost at the start of the game. Winning or being the best Impostor was currently the last thing on his mind.

So when he said his goodbyes after the last round of Among Us and ended the stream, after thanking his fans, Corpse didn’t know what to do with himself. The game, even though he didn’t really pay much attention to it, provided at least some distraction from his phone, which was still silent when it came to Y/N’s texts. She either didn’t see them or didn’t want to see them. Corpse could only guess what was her reaction if there was any. 

He’d exchanged a few messages with Sean though, the man asking about Y/N during the stream and after it ended. Corpse couldn’t stop the guilt from growing even more when Sean expressed his concerns regarding Y/N and her absence. He knew the older streamer counted on him when it came to checking on the girl, but, obviously, he failed at getting a simple message from her. 

What was he even hoping to achieve in the first place? That she will text back right away, telling him everything that bothered her, confessing all her problems? He would have to be a total idiot to expect this girl to react to his messages.

It was all so overwhelming and frustrating at the same time that he felt almost nauseous. 

Leaving his phone in his room, Corpse walked to his small kitchen to grab a glass of water. The cold liquid brought much-needed relief to his burning throat, giving him a momentary sensation of comfort. He tested his voice, clearing his throat carefully and mumbling some nonsense under his breath. A sigh left his lips once he realized he could talk again and this weird feeling disappeared. 

He splashed his face with cold water and returned to his room, plopping down on his chair and giving his phone a quick glance. Perhaps he didn’t expect Y/N to reply to his texts at all because at first, he didn’t even notice her name on the screen of his phone. He looked back to his computer, almost out of habit, glancing between the tabs he had opened on his screen before. 

And it struck him suddenly, making him almost jump out of his skin when he realized that she did text him back. 

Grabbing his phone quickly, he unlocked it and opened the messages, almost hitting the one with Y/N’s name on it. 

“Hey, partner.” was all the message said. And yet it made Corpse’s heart almost jump out of his chest, both from relief and a sudden feeling of panic. 

She texted him back. Now, what the fuck was he supposed to do?! 

He stared at her text for a second as if trying to convince himself that it was real and he didn’t accidentally pass out on his desk, dreaming that Y/N takes his comments and texts seriously. 

When he came to the conclusion that the text was, indeed, real, and Y/N probably expected him to write something back, he thought about the best way of asking her what happened. On one hand, he knew from Sean what could possibly be the reason for her disappearance. On the other, what obviously mattered was Y/N’s version. How to get it out of her though, without being too intrusive?

Corpse decided that the best option will be to make some dumb, small talk, which would ease her (and his) nerves.

“Y’know, I almost didn’t manage to finish the mission without you” he texted her, concluding that playing along this partner thing would maybe work. In his text, Corpse referred to the one time he was the Impostor after Y/N left, and which happened to be completely boring without her running around “Had Toast and others suspecting my every step all the time.”

This time, much to his relief, the three little dots appeared almost immediately.

“I’m glad you managed to kill’em all nevertheless.”

He imagined her saying it with that sweet voice of hers, which made him snicker, whether he liked it or not. While thinking of some right response, Corpse couldn’t help but wonder how did she know that he managed to kill every crewmate during that round... she wasn’t playing anymore then, so that could only mean she watched his stream.

“Not gonna lie though, everything would go way smoother hadn’t my partner in crime left me on the battlefield all alone :/” he texted her back. Corpse watched intently as the three dots danced next to Y/N’s name and suddenly disappeared, then appeared back again after a few moments, only to disappear again. And for a second he panicked, that maybe this text sounded passive aggressive, or that it made Y/N blame herself for leaving the game... 

However, when her response finally came, he realized he was wrong.

“Can I call you, Corpse?” 

For the first time in a really long time, Corpse was so eager to agree on a phone call.

He replied frantically, telling her that of course, she could call him, and then waiting impatiently for the call. And when she didn’t call immediately, like he expected her to, he found himself wondering if she suddenly changed her mind and decided against the idea of calling him. 

But then his phone buzzed and her name appeared on the screen.

The device almost flew out of his hands, his heartbeat quickening and a lump forming in his throat once again.

Relax, man. It’s Y/N, your partner in crime. You’ve heard her voice before. 

But this was different. The circumstances were different and the reason for a call was different too. And now it was just the two of them, as opposed to a lobby full of friends. And Corpse tried so hard to figure out how to convince her that all the hate she receives on social media didn’t mean anything, that for a moment he forgot she was still calling.

He pressed the green button carefully, as if he was defusing a bomb, and found himself unable to utter a single word, just like before. There was silence on the other line too, as if Y/N expected him to speak up first. 

So Corpse build up the courage and took in a deep breath, before letting out a quiet, almost shy:

“Hi”

 The word left his mouth almost as a whisper, and for a moment he thought that the girl didn’t even hear it, but then her voice told him otherwise.

“Hey... Corpse” she mumbled. She sounded so different, almost as if she was sick. Her calm and soft voice was so quiet that Corpse had some trouble hearing her at first. She sounded so tired, so hurt, so defeated, that he completely forgot every advice he had managed to stock in his mind before this call. 

“It’s good to hear you, partner.” he said after a moment, realizing that asking what’s wrong wasn’t the best thing he could do at that moment. He felt that she’d probably hung up on him if he did... “I didn’t think I’d hear from you after you aborted the mission.”

He heard her sigh out a laugh at his words, his tone playfully accusatory. The girl cleared her throat and wondered for a second, before replying:

“It wasn’t exactly my mission... And if I remember correctly, you were the one who broke our partnership, chasing me around the ship.” 

He could almost hear the smile behind her words, which made his lip corners curl up slightly. He was glad she still managed to joke with him. It meant that, perhaps, it wasn’t that bad. 

“Did I kill you, though?” 

“You would if you had a chance.”

“I had plenty of chances Y/N, and I never took one” he replied right away with a chuckle. “I may be the murderer, but I’m no traitor.”

“You say that after luring me to that lava pit and killing me and Sykkuno? It was a trap all along, wasn’t it?” she asked suspiciously, but he knew she was joking “I bet you were conspiring with MrBeast all this time...”

“How dare you” he scoffed, trying to hold back his chuckle “I took you there cause it’s a special place, it was no trap! It just happened to be the wrong place and the wrong time...”

“Sure, partner”

“I’m serious!” he laughed “Besides - I apologized, and if I remember correctly, I think we both agreed that I jumped into that lava pit for you after all...”

“After they voted you off! You didn’t have any other chance!”

“Maybe it was all planned?” he said, changing his voice to more mysterious “Maybe I conspired with MrBeast so I could jump into that lava pit... and the only way to do it is by being voted off. So, either way, I kept my word.”

“Fine... whatever.”

Their laughter died down and was replaced by surprisingly comfortable silence. Corpse was happy with how the conversation started - he believed it would be easier for Y/N to explain what happened now, if she wished to explain, of course. 

“Y’know...” he began after a second, deciding to change the subject and finally address the issue. “Partners are supposed to help each other... and be there when the other person is in need...”

He was careful with his words, being full aware that Y/N might find it uncomfortable to share her problems with him. He wanted to encourage her, just slightly, if his previous texts weren’t enough. 

She sighed quietly and he could sense her reluctance. 

“But only if the other person wants partner’s help.” he added after a moment, keeping his voice as soft as he could. Y/N didn’t respond right away, but she didn’t hang up either, which Corpse took as a good sign. He gave her a couple of seconds to collect her thoughts, before asking another question: 

“What made you so upset, Y/N/N?”

He could hear her inhale the air sharply as if she had trouble breathing steadily. The line went silent, not that Corpse was surprised. He waited patiently, giving the girl the time she needed to decide whether she wanted to answer that question and what words should she choose if she did. 

And when she finally spoke up, Corpse felt as if his heart could break.

“They are just so mean...” she almost whispered, her voice cracking. He didn’t have to ask whom she meant, it was obvious. “And I don’t even know why... I didn’t do anything to those people, and yet they are so mean towards me.”

Corpse hummed in response, allowing her to keep talking. If there was one thing he knew that helped coping with stress, it was sharing it with someone else. And even though he himself had a lot on his plate, he felt the need to be that someone for Y/N. 

“I... I don’t want you to think that I’m some crybaby, who takes everything super seriously and can’t take a joke, but...” she stuttered for a moment and Corpse fought the urge to cut her off and tell her that what he thinks of her is the complete opposite. “But those comments... those weren’t jokes, Corpse. I don’t think anyone would find them funny.”

His heart ached at the sound of her quiet, weak voice. And then it angered him, that some anonymous haters managed to upset this cheerful, innocent person. How could anyone do something like that to Y/N?

“I... I’m sorry for telling you this...” she suddenly trailed off, sounding rather awkward and uncomfortable. “I shouldn’t be bothering you with my silly problems...”

“They aren’t silly as long as they are problems to you, Y/N.” 

“Yeah, but... I’m sure everyone from the group has received such comments at some point of their career... or maybe they still receive them...” she murmured almost embarrassed. “Maybe it’s no such a big deal after all...”

“Let me ask you something” Corpse said, feeling anger bubbling up in his stomach. Not directed at Y/N, of course, but at the people who made her think this way. “Imagine that someone, let’s say me, calls you because of the same reason. Would you consider telling me that online hate, or any hate for that matter, is not a big deal? That those are just my silly problems” 

She was silent for a moment, thinking about his question, and probably not expecting it in the first place. However, after a few seconds of initial surprise, she replied firmly:

“Of course not.” 

“Then why are you trying to convince yourself that they are?” he asked in what would sound like an accusatory tone, but in reality was just his voice laced with worry. “There’s no such thing as a silly problem Y/N, as long as it bothers you. If you consider it a problem, then it is a problem. And the fact that other people receive similar, or even worse comments, doesn’t mean anything. Maybe just that they are longer on Youtube and they’ve learned to deal with this kind of stuff... And your reaction? It doesn’t make you a crybaby and please Y/N, don’t ever think that way about yourself.”

He said it all so quickly and almost on one breath, letting all his frustration out and trying to form his babbling into some logical statement. 

“I understand what you’re going through...” he confessed after a moment of silence between them. “I know what it’s like to go through the ocean of positive comments and find those few which say something completely different... something that is meant to hurt you and humiliate you... Something that ruins your day, or even a couple of next few days or weeks... Something that completely overshadows everything else you’ve read about yourself. Something that people write from the safety of their own computers or phones, without showing their faces and remaining completely anonymous.”

For a moment, Corpse allowed himself to speak about his own experience, thinking that maybe when Y/N realizes that he knew exactly what she was dealing with, it would make it easier for her. “And that is the key fact, Y/N, that they are anonymous. They do what they do because no one can see them because it is comfortable for them to leave a hate comment and not face any consequences. Because they don’t have to face the person their hate is directed towards.”

“Some of the accounts were not anonymous...” Y/N mumbled, and Corpse could clearly hear that she was speaking through the tears. “People were using their public accounts, with photos and everything...”

“But let me guess, those comments weren’t even about your videos, huh? They weren’t about any of your work?” 

“Well...” she whispered, thinking about Corpse’s question. “Truth to be said, no. Most of them just looked like some kind of a personal attack on me...” 

“Exactly. It’s not even criticism, it’s just plain bullshit cowards are sharing online. They probably aren’t even able to form some logical sentence, they just combine some random words which are supposed to hurt you.”

“It works...”

“Y/N...” Corpse sighed into the phone, hearing her defeated tone. “Let me ask you another question, okay?” she hummed in response, and Corpse cleared his throat. “Tell me, whose opinion matters to you the most?”

“My friends... and my fans’“she said.

“Okay.. and whom do you consider your fan?”

“Someone who finds the content I create interesting and entertaining and takes his time to watch my videos.” she replied right away.

“Okay. Do you think that people who left those comments took their time to even watch your videos?” 

“Probably not...” she replied after a second. “Look, I know what you mean Corpse... That I shouldn’t worry about it because they are not my fans and therefore their opinion shouldn’t matter... but that’s not the case. It’s the fact alone that for some reason people spend their time hating me when I didn’t even do anything to them.”

“You didn’t do anything to them.” Corpse repeated her own words in his deep voice. “And they didn’t watch your videos. It seems like they don’t have any reason to leave those comments, right?” he asked. “I know that it’s hard Y/N, I really do, but the truth is, you can’t really have everyone leaving positive feedback under your content... There will always be someone who will consider it a good idea to send you a hateful message, just because they can, not because they have any specific reason to. Now I don’t say that’s okay... but it’s in a way like some disease. The one there’s no cure for. Even though you can’t cure it, you can make yourself immune.” 

“How, Corpse? How do you make yourself immune to messages saying that you’re a fucking annoying bitch, that you don’t deserve what you have? That you don’t deserve your friends, and you are not good enough to play with them? To spend your time with them? How do you deal with comments suggesting that you should go and kill yourself, because you’re not famous enough, and you will never be?” 

Her voice suddenly rose, and Corpse felt as his heartbeat quickened with each comment she described. He gripped his hand around the phone, his knuckles turning white and his brows furrowing in an expression of pure fury. 

He considered her words for a moment, trying to come up with the best advice, but realized there wasn’t any that would satisfy her. He could imagine the state she was in, she probably wouldn’t take any of his advice seriously. And he wouldn’t blame her for that. 

“I’m sorry for snapping on you...” she suddenly said, her voice back to its soft tone. “It’s just too much for me to handle...”

“It’s all good, Y/N, don’t apologize. You have the full right to be angry and to show it. I just want you to remember that...” Corpse gulped the lump in his throat, feeling his cheeks getting warmer. “Those comments are not what define you. As a matter of fact, they’re not even about you. You know why? Because people who write them don’t know you. They don’t even take a moment to acknowledge what an intelligent and talented person you are, not to mention how kind... but I do. A-and everyone else too.”

She was silent for a moment, and Corpse panicked, that maybe he said too much, or made things awkward again. But then she spoke up, her slightly less weak than before.

“I suppose... maybe you’re right, Corpse.” she said, still sounding a little bit unconvinced. He understood, it was clear his one pep talk wouldn’t suddenly make her forget about it. It would be like telling a person with depression to stop having depression and expecting them to suddenly feel better. “Thank you. For listening to my pathetic babbling... and for not telling me to just pull myself together.”

“First of all, your babbling is not pathetic...” he began “Second of all... I know we don’t really know each other, but... If you ever feel the need to talk to someone, I’m here.”

“And for that I’m grateful, Corpse” she said, clearly smiling. “Sorry, I mean, partner.”

“Partner.” he chuckled into the phone, smiling from ear to ear. 

“It’s getting late...” she yawned into the phone. “Sorry. I think I’ll go to sleep, I’m really tired...”

“Of course” Corpse replied, hiding the disappointment in his voice. He really enjoyed talking to her, just to her alone, but he understood that the whole conversation and the event preceding it probably exhausted her. 

“Hey...” she suddenly said, and Corpse could swear that her voice sounded as if she unexpectedly became shy. “Um... it was really great talking to you, you’re a really good listener, Corpse.”

“Glad to hear that” he smiled happily.

“Um... would you mind if I called you tomorrow too?” she asked so quietly that he almost didn’t catch it, his breath hitching in his throat. “If you have time that is... if you don’t, or if you have some super plans, then I understand, it’s fine-”

“I don’t have any super plans, Y/N” he couldn’t help but chuckle, finding her nervous banter adorable. “Call me whenever you want.”

“Okay...” she sighed, almost in relief, but Corpse didn’t want to point it out to embarrass her even more. “So... let’s say, around 2 pm?” 

“Sounds good to me.”

“Great.” she said, her voice trailing off a bit. “I’m falling asleep here, Corpse... Thank you once again, for everything.”

“Anytime, Y/N.”

“Good night, partner.”

“Goodnight, partner.” 

-

Part 5 coming soon. It will probably be the last part of this series, I’m not sure yet though.

TAG LIST FOR PURE IS CLOSED. 

TAG LIST FOR CORPSE REQUESTS/OTHER FICS IS OPEN (if you want to be tagged, please send me a text)

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[astaroth1357]

The Brothers Dropping Hints to a Remarkably Oblivious MC

I liked this idea and wanted to flesh it out a bit before I bury my head in research for requests. Maybe I'll make a part two later? Who knows.

Intro:

Seven demon brothers, one human. All seven want their attention… So the family agrees to a challenge: Can they get their human to return their affections without actually confessing first? Perhaps… but there's a catch. The MC is denser than a bag of bricks in the love department...

Good luck, boys.

Lucifer

If it weren't for this silly challenge, he'd have considered hiring a sky-writer because he couldn't think of anything more obvious and unavoidable than that…

It honestly astounded him how utterly unaffected the MC seems to be by all of his flirtations. It'd be impressive if it weren't so frustrating.

He could praise their appearance and they'd seemingly forget the compliment.

He could offer them all manner of gifts or meals and they'd think he was just being nice.

He could probably straight up give them a diamond ring and they'd assume it was a late birthday present… 

He was so out of ideas he was considering just ripping off the bandage and asking them directly, brothers be damned, but then that'd be admitting defeat and that’s just not on the table for him.

No, no… He just had to be more patient… Maybe offer them a dance next time? He'll win this challenge yet... maybe…

Mammon

Of course the Great Mammon can get his human to notice his feelings! He's their first man, he knows them more than anybody else! This will be a piece of cake. Right?... right…??

It is not. It is not a piece of cake.

First off, Mammon's already shot himself in the foot because of his tsundere-ness. Turns out when he says, "It's not because I like you!" they actually believe him… 😰

Secondly, he's terrible at expressing his affection in ways that aren't material or possessive...

When he buys them things, they think he's acting sweet and just… pay him back or buy him something in return…

Like, he's not complaining (much) but that's not the point!!

Then when he tries to spend extra time with them they assume it's Mammon being Mammon and not, like, because he's trying to show them how crazy he is about them.

And now he can’t even be honest about his feelings if he wants to because of the damn challenge!! 😫

This seemed like a lost cause for him really… Looks like someone else is going to have to win…

Leviathan

He's been cursing their name to here and back for stealing his heart so thoroughly while still having no idea that they actually had it!!! He'd almost swear they were mocking him but eventually, he genuinely started to think they were just that clueless… 🤦‍♀️

At first he thought that he found a loophole because he could just act out a bunch of obvious anime tropes to not-so-subtly hint at his affections!

...but each time he tried to make a move, he lost his nerve and chickened out at the last minute…

"MC! I just bought some pocky off of Akuzon, do you want to try some?"

"Sure, Levi! 🙂"

"Oh u-uh… Great! H-here you go.. " *hands them the whole box...*

When these efforts failed, he went to plan B, which was again not-so-subtly throwing hints at how special they were to him.

"Hey MC, do you remember that game you were looking at? I got it for us! Come on, let's play together! I'll even let you use my favorite controller!"

"MC, why don't you sit over here? W-wait not that close…! No wait, don’t go!! Urgh!! 😫"

At first he thought it was working until he overheard them talking to Mammon, "Mm? Oh, of course Levi's been so nice to me! We're best friends!"

… Ouch, but not unwarranted. He'd have to try something else or just admit defeat…

Satan

He still truly can't get a good read on them. Are they interested? Just nice? A chronic sufferer of selective blindness?? What does he have to do here???

Satan took a page out of Levi's playbook at first, but replaced anime tropes with what you find in old romance novels.

He was on his best behavior whenever MC was around. Downright gentlemanly, right down to kissing their hand and putting his jacket over puddles for them to walk.

… Unfortunately, Lucifer refused to be outshined by his little brother in the princely courtship department and the two started butting heads (almost literally).

If Satan gave up his jacket for a puddle, then Lucifer would take their hand to "help" them across it. If Satan held a door for them, then Lucifer would hold it too and insist that he go in first. If the MC was cold they suddenly were covered by two coats… It was infuriating!

And you know what's even worse? It was counterproductive.

After a while the MC just thought that it was some kind of game or challenge between him and Lucifer and not him trying to express his actual affections…

Looks like he wasn't going to be winning this either…

Asmodeus 

On one hand, he kind of gets it because he's lovey and feely with everybody but, sweetheart, please take a hint every once in a while…

Asmo comes into the game with both an advantage and disadvantage. He's far more versed in the art of wooing than any of his brothers, but he was so close with them to begin with it's going to take a lot to get the point across…

Confident boi starts inviting them out more, lunch "dates," spa days, shopping sprees, any excuse to be alone with them really hoping they'd get the idea…

...but they didn't. It was just some fun time with Asmo and not any particular special treatment…

His compliments all seemed to bounce off of them too. They never seemed particularly touched and he wouldn't be surprised if they forgot about them within five minutes of hearing them…

Kicking it up to drastic measures, he tries to initiate even more cuddles and hugs than usual… But it feels like he could literally sew himself to their clothes and they'd think he's just being friendly! How do they not see what's going on here, are they just messing with him??

After a week of trying to monopolize the MC's time he had to throw in the towel, certain if he couldn't get through to them then no one could! 😣

Beelzebub 

Well, Beel's a little oblivious himself sometimes so it's not like he couldn't relate… He just wished he could be upfront and ask them because they really didn't seem to notice.

Chances are he was already cuddling with them, sharing his food, taking them places, and doing all the stuff he'd usually do when he likes a person... They probably just considered that to be his normal behavior by that point…

So. He just does what he normally does, but MORE.

Suddenly he's giving the MC half of his meals instead of a third. (Which is what? Enough for a family of four?)

His hugs have gone from just firm to full on bear-snuggles.

He's always offering to take them to a new restaurant or some other place he likes and showing them the best things on the menu (written or hidden).

But it's not exactly going anywhere… 😥

They seemed happy and liked spending time with him but if they were actually noticing feelings for them at all, he couldn't tell…

After a while he kind of gives up on getting them to notice and just starts to enjoy making them happy. Sure, he won't win the challenge, but for now a smiling MC is enough for him 😊

Belphegor 

Look. He may be the King of Mixed Signals, but he's considering just giving up his crown but nothing he's tried has been working...

Similar to Mammon, he’s starting at a disadvantage by regularly being more than a little cryptic about his feelings…

To be honest, it was sort of a reflex for him by this point which didn’t help matters at all. He’s not that used to being completely open with his emotions so he has to fight the urge to downplay things all the time...

Oh, the MC agreed to go with him to the botanical gardens? Cool.

Wait, no, not just cool. It’s great! Really great!! He’s really happy about it, MC, can you see his smile?? He’s smiling! That’s rare! Please notice!!

(They don’t seem to notice…)

Eventually he got even more frustrated than Satan or Mammon and nearly just asked them point blank, but he knew his brothers would flip if he tried…

By the end of the challenge he thought it was a dumb, stupid waste of time and energy and he regrets ever agreeing to it (and he’s not just being pissy because he couldn’t pull it off or anything......)

Bonus: 

After a couple weeks of zero progress for everybody, the brothers seemed to snap. The MC woke up one morning for breakfast only to find their seven demons waiting intently for them to walk into the dining room. What followed was a cartoon squabble of kicked up dust, flying limbs, and thrown objects as each desperately tried to climb over the other in order to get to their human first (even Lucifer nearly flung Satan across the table by the foot at one point). Poor MC was so confused that they had to shout at them just to break up the fighting…

When asked what's gotten into their demons so suddenly, the brothers have only one response:

"WE LOVE YOU!!!" 

…. Eh? 

*MC.exe has crashed*

Back to square one, guys...

[obeiii-mee]

How will the bros react to MC self-doubting themselves? Like saying bad things about them or can't be serious someone give them compliment.

Supportive demon bois coming right up! Sorry I took so long to write this anon! Thank you so much for the ask! (Also, thank you all for the love on my previous posts!)

————————————

The Brothers with an MC who self doubts themselves:

Lucifer:

-As the embodiment of pride itself, Lucifer has an overwhelming amount of confidence, almost all the damn time

-So, he was flabbergasted to learn that you weren’t the same

-He always insisted that you aren’t anything but perfect, yet you always seemed to brush the compliments off with a shrug and an awkward smile

-Well, shit, we can’t have that

-Lucifer just got 10x more serious about the matter

-He pulls a really stupid concerned face whenever you insult yourself and he looks more and more like a 48 year old man/dad each time it happens

-He, as of late, increased the number of pet names he has for you and the amount of compliments he gives you each day

-He refuses to let you talk badly about yourself anywhere, at any point in time and encourages every little step you take towards bettering yourself like crazy

- Lucifer wants to prove to you that you are an absolute ray of sunshine and he will go to any lengths to do just that (do not ask)

-He’s even more affectionate than usual which confuses just about everyone in the House of Lamentation, yourself included

-His brothers are feeling a disturbance in the force and they don’t know how to feel about it

-You are possibly the best thing that’s happened to him since he fell as angel and Lucifer is ready to do whatever he can to help you realise that

Mammon:

-“You’re an idiot!”

-“*Sigh*, I know.”

-“Wha-Wait! Y-you can’t say thAT!”

-The Great Mammon is seriously worried about his human

-Being the dense motherfucker he is (i still love him tho) it took him weeks to realise you’re not all that confident in yourself

-At some point in your relationship, he jokingly called you annoying and you just went “Yeah I’ve been told. Sorry.”

-His jaw literally dropped and he almost cried

-He would have choked if he was drinking something

-Tsundere Mammon has gone bye bye and here comes the cuddling teddy bear that is your boyfriend

-He also doesn’t have as much self love for himself as he sometimes pretends to have so he’s kinda in the same boat

-Which means your boat is leaking and you’re perfectly fine with it while he’s panicking and trying to throw water overboard with his hands

-His brothers call him an idiot a lot but he’s a very sociable guy with people skills that he uses all the time in order to coax you out of your self pitiying shell

-Will whine every time you call yourself ‘useless’ or disagree with his compliments because what the hell, you’re literally the most gorgeous being ever let me love youuuu

-When it comes to you and your happiness, he ain’t fucking around. He will snarl at anyone that even looks at you in the wrong way

-Did that to Lucifer once, guess a what happened

-You’ve definitely helped him come to terms with the fact that he is loveable and not a good for nothing scum

-So now it’s your turn!

-Let him kiss your insecurities away please

-Your presence makes him feel wanted so he wants the same for you!

Levi:

-Well then

-It takes two to tango ya know?

-He is the KING of self loathing and no confidence whatsoever in anything he does so every time you put yourself down, he counters it with a self deprecating insult as well

-“I suck.”

-“Nah, you’re pretty awesome normie. I’m the shut in, disgusting otaku who can barely set foot outside his bedroom without having an anxiety attack.”

-It’s like you’re trying to outdo the other on who is worse

-Truth is, he really admires you, especially knowing you chose to date him; an anime nerd with no social life and no communication skills whatsoever

-It hurts a bit, every time he builds up the courage to actually compliment you and you not taking it seriously

-That’s because he recognises that he’s the same and just as harsh on himself as you are

-Levi knows self hatred is something that takes time to demolish

-But you are his Henry after all (also his partner but whatevs)

-He’s not gonna leave you hanging when you need him the most

-He also gradually stops calling you a normie as your relationship progresses, though it still slips through every now and again

-Basically, the first time he realised that you think negatively of yourself, his immediate reaction was: Haha lmao relatable

-But now, every time it happens, he gets all serious

-Puts his controller down and everything, it’s like witnessing a very rare phenomenon and it’s creepy as shit

-He’s also made an effort to be more physically affection though he is kinda shy about it because damn it he just wants to hug you every time you speak badly of yourself

-Probably writes a list at some point stating all the reasons why you are better than him and Ruri chan combined, it’s rlly sweet

Satan:

-He’s a bit curious as to where that mentality has come from

-What triggered you to be so self doubtful?

-He’s basically your psychotherapist and asks you a lot of questions trying to find different causes and solutions for your issues

-Honestly, he puts so much effort into trying to understand, reading books about it from the human realm and whatever he can find in order to help you

-He scrunches up his nose every time you call yourself an idiot or anything of the sort

-Satan knows that insisting you’re wonderful won’t exactly help you overcome this problem of yours

-But that doesn’t stop him from doing it

-It’s not like you can ignore his comments because he will keep complimenting you until you accept them

-He also repeats a lot of pick up lines but that’s just part of being his partner

-What do you mean you’re worthless?!! He would literally give away all of his books and his hatred for Lucifer in exchange for your well being!

-Satan is possibly the smartest out of all of his brothers, so he uses a tactical approach on this one

-Direct affectionate gestures don’t work on you so he’s gonna be more subtle

-Would slightly hint that you are amazing every time you do something for him, like fetching him a book or something

-“Ah thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you love.”

-He’s a lot smoother than he gives himself credit for

-He just appreciates your existence and that there’s someone out there that he doesn’t need to be act hostile or fake toward

-Satan is ready to sit down and listen to you talk about your insecurities for hours on end

-You would quietly say something bad about yourself and he would run through the House of Lamentation before bursting into the room you are in, shouting ‘No! That’s wrong!’ (going Danganronpa on your asses)

-“Welp, I fucked up again. I can’t do anything right.”

-And then, in the distance you hear boss music starting

Asmo:

-*Shocked Gasp*

-How could you say such things about yourself???? Is that even leGAl?

-Of course, the literally prince of Lust, with all of his narcissism, has never experienced things like ‘self doubt’ of ‘bad self esteem’

-Pfft, the fuck is that?

-He only uses the most positive of words when he describes himself

-So obviously he almost falls off the bed when he hears you insulting yourself for the first time

-But ya know, that would leave bruises on his beautiful skin

-“Oh darling, you’re not annoying or a moron! You’re not anything like Mammon!”

-That was a below belt fatal hit, press f in the chat for the second eldest

-At some point, he just genuinely believes you’ve been spending too much time with Levi and that his negativity started rubbing off on you

-But then you tell him you’ve always been like this and he almost has a crisIS

-He’s like ‘Haha, no, we’re going to get a spa day out tomorrow and a few shopping sprees so I can prove to you that you are magnificent in every way imaginable.’

-Asmo loves pampering you in general but on the days he sees you feeling extra sorry for yourself, he goes above and beyond

-Gets very hurt when you brush off his compliments because he just wants you to accept the fact that you’re beautiful

-He’s like a supportive mom lmao, whenever you’re feeling self doubtful, he goes “You’re doing great sweetie, keep it up I’m really proud of you.”

-It’s up to you to decide whether that helps or not

-He’s such a sweetheart in reality, it’s hard to remember that he’s supposed to be horny all the time

-Well he is but that’s not the point, you’re way more important

-Asmo is so much fun to write cuz I can make him so dramatic it’s hilarious

Beel:

-Oh no :(

-He gets very sad everytime you self deprecate yourself

-You can’t do it with him in the room because he’s going to start crying and give you this kicked puppy stare, it will break your heart

-Beel kinda comes over and goes “If I give you some of my food will you please stop saying bad things about yourself? Because it’s not true.”

-Well you can’t say no to that face

-He feels like it’s his fault you’re this self doubtful even though you’ve tried to explain to him you’ve always been like this

-He goes crying to his twin half the time because he doesn’t know what to do

-“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to drop it! Fucking hell, I’m such a fucking klutz.”

-“Sniffle no you’re not.”

-He’s like, giving you large portions of his food now

-Because food makes him happy so he wants you to be happy too

-🙂

-His brothers go in shock every time because the only other person Beel has ever shared his food with before was Belphie

-Physical affection goes through the roof with this guy

-Bone crushing hugs btw

-Your self worth is so immeasurable with him, you can’t even measure it

-W h o a

-I’m being serious, don’t talk badly about yourself in front of him unless you want to be hugged into next week

-You are a literal angel in his eyes, of course he thinks highly of you

-He’s just hoping his presence isn’t making your self esteem worse, that’s the thing that keeps him up at night

-Idk why but he does think that he is a bad influence on your mental well being since he’s a demon

-Beel gives you compliments all the time and it confuses him when you laugh them off uncertainly because he wasn’t joking or lying??

-He’s always supportive of your choices and encourages you to be more confident

-The same way you show your support everytime you come to his games to cheer him on

-Overall, he just wants you to feel special and appreciated

-Because you deserve it

-IneedmyselfaBeel

Belphie:

-He feels like absolute shit

-Becuase he’s well aware he‘s called you a few...not so nice words in the past

-Back then, he only thought he meant everything he said but now that he’s hearing you accept his insults and actually repeating them yourself?

-It hurts his brain and he wants to smash his head against all four walls of the room for being such a cretin

-You do tell him it’s not exactly his fault you think so badly of yourself

-But he still believes he fueled it

-So now he needs to fix it

-He’s tried everything and I mean everything

-It’s kinda working, slow progress is made which he’s really happy about but you know, it’s gonna take a while

-He finally settles on physical affection as the best way to communicate his gratefulness for you being youself

-Oh, he wasn’t hugging you before? He is now, get your ass next to him and let him cuddle you

-Handholding has increased by 69% in the last month, sorry for the loss of your right hand with how much he squeezes it

-Sometimes, he can’t help but a throw an insult at you in a playful manner, because he’s an asshole

-But he always makes sure you understand that he was just joking

-He’s such a little shit, you would be having a chat with him and you would subtly drop a insult at yourself hoping he wouldn’t notice

-But then he stops dead in his tracks, kisses you, says “Shut up, you’re stunning” and then he goes right back to the previous conversation like nothing happened

-Accept his compliments damn it otherwise he will continue to bug you about it for the rest of the day

-He’s an eboy and he’s a dickhead a times, but he just goes soft for you tbh

-If you’re feeling really bad about yourself, he won’t even say anything

-He will just big spoon you for the next 24 hours, good luck going to the bathroom or any meals during that time

-Because once you’re in his grip, you’re not getting out that easily

-He gets so pissy if anyone says something even slightly negative about you to your face

-One time, a random demon called you stupid in one of the classes at RAD and he was like ‘bïtch excuse me what?’

-Snapped his head around at him and everything

-He would have done something worse but he was lazy and feeling really petty

-So Belphie kicked him in the privates from under his desk like a damn spoiled brat

-And then he turned his head back to you, all smiles and rainbows and puppies

-I’m simping so hard for a fictional character wtf

-I had to write more protective Belphie cuz I can’t find anything of the sort anymore and I need flUFF

(Haha, I don’t know what this post is, my writing has officially taken a shit lmao. Sorry this took so long to finish, I kept going back to edit all of them)

Al~

[zengeko]

Movie nights with the aot characters

Genre: Fluff

Characters: Jean, Connie, Sasha, Levi, Hange, Erwin, Mikasa, Armin, Eren

Levi

One word: Tea

most definitely makes tea for the two of you

he has to pick the movie

says your suggestions are “dumb”

will comment on the characters behavior from time to time (but usually just silently judges them in his mind)

quiet for a majority of the movie,, but it’s comfortable silence

smiles to himself when you fall asleep on his shoulder

will gently stroke your hair when you rest your head on his lap

8/10 experience

would be a 10 if he wasn’t so moody all the time (can’t blame him though)

Hange

Cue loud shouting

they will literally make loud outbursts throughout the movie when something peaks their interest

“Did ya see what just happened (y/n)!!!”

holds onto the side of you for no apparent reason

random forehead kisses

spills popcorn everywhere (like why)

rants about how much they liked/disliked the movie afterwards

you two will probably fall asleep on the couch

7/10 experience

love the quality time,, but why’re you so loud?

Erwin

your comfortability is his #1 priority

lots of blankets, and cuddles

will definitely let you choose the movie

talks about what he would do if he were in the characters positions

likes romcoms,, he’s a big softy

for some reason he hates horror movies,, it’s not evident but you can tell

if he likes the movie he will recommend you watch it together again somewhere down the line

might fall asleep ngl

10/10 experience

Mikasa

like levi she’s quiet for most of the movie

save the occasional “are you ok?” or murmur under her breath

doesn’t really care if you choose the movie or not,, she just likes spending time with you

lowkey touch deprived,, so she craves cuddles during movies but won’t ask

she might lightly nudge your side, or brush her hand against yours to hint at it

literally shows no emotion whatsoever

like you could watch a horror movie and she’d barely flinch

or watch a sad movie and she wouldn’t cry

kinda concerning...but she says she feels it all on the inside

9/10 experience

-1 because she brung up eren again

Armin

vv awkward at first

like erwin he wants to make sure you’re 100% comfortable before starting the movie

will agree to watch literally anything you recommend

he likes watching documentaries

blushing the whole time,, nods feverishly when you ask if he’s ok

super adorable

constantly asks if you’re alright

explains the whole movie night in detail to eren and mikasa the next day

9/10 experience

he thinks too much...it’s cute tho

Eren

lazy...

if you have a movie night together you best believe he’s not moving a muscle the whole time

he won’t even get up to use the bathroom,, says he doesn’t want to miss anything

he also might fall asleep

it’s unlikely tho because he’ll make you watch an action or thriller movie every time

the types of movies that keep him on the edge of his seat

doesn’t want to stop

you’ll be on the 3rd movie,, and he just sits there like “so....another one?”

it’s like an annual thing btw

he will pull you aside every Saturday to watch movies with him all night

doesn’t take no for an answer

8/10 experience

eren please go use the bathroom

Connie

Did you say pillow fort?

“Are you 5??”

“It’ll be fun!!”

finds every blanket and pillow available,, and makes a fort out of them

makes you recite a password before you can enter

something along the lines of “Jingle-bells, sasha smells, jean looks like a horse”

n e wayss

misses like half the movie due to bathroom breaks

loves comedies, i mean have you seen him

oml...please don’t watch sad movies with him,, he will make jokes at the worst times

holds competitions to see who can stay awake the longest, or who’ll laugh/cry first

he’s a goofball

10/10 experience

he makes you feel like a kid again

Sasha

food.

do I even need to explain

you’ll have to do a full fledge shopping spree before hand

Popcorn? check, Candy? check, Soda? check, Nachos? Check

ok we’re good for now

be prepared to feast lol

what can I say? the girl loves to eat

doesn’t really care what movie you watch, as long as she has her popcorn

always leaning on you somehow

like personal space? what’s that??

she’s also kinda loud

sobs during romance movies, screams during horror movies

very spontaneous

will fall asleep after eating everything

7/10 experience

she just doesn’t like to share

Jean

this mf

he’ll be like “oh you wanna watch a movie with me??”

Tries to act nonchalant but his facade doesn’t really hold up

it’s hilarious

encourages you to get closer to him,, then malfunctions when you actually do it

opts for you to choose the movie 90% of the time because he thinks he’ll embarrass himself

will hold you while watching horror movies (even though he’s lowkey scared himself)

likes those corny hallmark romance movies for some reason

really needs the quality time tbh

8/10 experience

stop being so flirty if you can’t handle the reciprocation

[truecrimesstuff]

The Columbine High School Massacre:

Columbine High School is a public school situated in Columbine, Colorado, United States. It was the place where one of the deadliest mass shootings of 20th century United States history occurred.

Columbine High School in Littleton, Columbine.

The day was April 20, 1999, and was a normal Tuesday for the students and faculty of Columbine High, who had absolutely no idea the nightmarish things that the day had in store. Referred to mostly as the Columbine High School Massacre, it unfolded as two 17 year olds namely Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris attempted to detonate a bomb and went on a shooting spree that resulted in 13 deaths and 20 others severely injured.

Eric Harris, one of the perpetrators.

According to reports, Harris and Klebold became friends during seventh grade and were considered inseparable as seniors. Though there were speculations that they conducted this massacre as they were subjected to bullying and remained isolated most of the time, these claims were later said to be untrue by many of their classmates and Dylan's mother herself who claimed that Dylan had a small circle of friends of which Eric was only one. Klebold and Harris had started planning for the massacre from a year prior and had acquired two 9mm firearms and a further two 12 gauge shotguns. In addition to the firearms, the two teens had also constructed improvised explosives with the help of the internet and an infamous book named "The Anarchist Cookbook." Together they constructed a total of 99 bombs including Pipe bombs, Molotov Cocktails, Crickets, Propane tanks converted into bombs, and many others. Harris and Klebold's actual motive isn't properly known but they planned and hoped the massacre would cause the most number of deaths in U.S. history, which then meant exceeding the death toll of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Dylan Klebold, another perpetrator.

On that infamous day, Eric and Dylan arrived at school in different cars at a little past 11:00 A.M. They then parked their respective cars in separate locations. They had already planted bombs at a distance from school which they thought would act as distractions, they had further improvised their cars into explosives and had also planted bombs in the cafeteria. These homemade bombs had the potential to kill and injure everyone who was near. But except for one bomb which was planted as a distraction at a distance from the school, all the other bombs failed to detonate. When the bombs failed, Harris and Klebold who had armed themselves with firearms hiding under the black trench coats that they had worn to school that day, prepared themselves for their ultimate act.

The ones first to be tragically targeted by the perpetrators were two 17-year-old students named Rachel Scott and Richard Castaldo, sitting at the west entrance to the school and eating lunch. Dylan Klebold who was approaching them threw a pipe bomb at the parking lot which only partially detonated giving out smoke making onlookers believe it was just a stupid prank. Without wasting much time, Harris shot Scott four times killing her instantly, while Castaldo was shot eight times in the chest, hand, and abdomen leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.

Eric then pointed his gun at three students who were standing at the stairs down West Entrance. Those three were: Daniel Rohrbough, Sean Graves, and Lance Kirklin. Harris fired at them, instantly killing Rohrbough and severely injuring Graves and Kirklin.

They then targetted five students sitting on the hillside grass at a distance from the West entrance. Of the five three escaped without any injury, while one named Mark Taylor was shot in the chest, arms, and legs and feigned death to escape while one other student named Michael Johnson was shot at his face, leg, and arm but was able to run and escape the shooters.

The two boys then walked inside the West entrance. Klebold went inside the Cafeteria but didn't shoot at any of the students who were already inside. Meantime, Harris started shooting at Anne Marie Hochhalter who was trying to flee, which severely wounded and paralyzed her. Klebold came out of the cafeteria and accompanied Harris up the stairs all the way shooting at students and throwing pipe bombs which didn't detonate properly. Several witnesses heard them say "This is what we always wanted to do. This is awesome."

At 11:22 A.M a custodian called the assigned resources officer to Colombine, Neil Gardner to assist an injury in the senior parking lot. At 11:24 as he was exiting his car, he heard another call on the school radio informing him about the shooters. At the same time, Harris who was at the West entrance turned and fired shots at Gardner who fired back. No one was injured in this firing and Neil immediately reported on his police radio regarding the ongoing shooting. The shooters then started walking through the North hallway shooting anyone and everyone they encounter. Klebold shot Stephanie Munson at the ankle but she escaped the school without any further injury.

By this time six deputies had also arrived and were trying to assist the wounded at the entrances when Harris again came back and tried firing at them. The authorities fired back at him and he retreated inside the building. No one was injured in this gun battle.

Dave Sanders, a teacher, and coach at the school along with two custodians named Joe Curtis and Jay Gallatine initially told students in the cafeteria to remain under the tables, thereby saving many lives. After some time they tried to evacuate students up the staircase into the second floor. The stairs were located in the Main South hallway where unfortunately Harris and Klebold were heading from the North Hallway. Sanders and the students encountered them face to face. They fired shots that hit Sanders twice in the neck and back but missed the students. The students ran into a science classroom while Sanders remained unconscious at that very place and later when gained some consciousness crawled into the science area where a teacher brought him into a class with 30 students. The teacher also brought in Aaron Hancey, a student with some knowledge of first aid from another classroom even when the commotion was ongoing behind them. With the help of a teacher named Teresa Miller and another fellow student Kevin Starkey, Aaron Hancey administered first aid to Sanders and was able to keep him alive for three hours.

Harris and Klebold now entered the library where 52 students along with two teachers and two librarians were hiding. Harris fired his shotgun at a desk and a student Evan Todd was hit in the eye and back by wood splinters but wasn't severely injured. They then walked towards the two rows of computers where Kyle Velasquez, a disabled student was sitting. Velasquez was shot in the head and back and died at spot. While shooting at the roof and glass panes they were saying how long they had been waiting for this and it seemed as if they were enjoying themselves and even were heard shouting things like, "Yahoo!". They were also asking the students to stand up by themselves as the library was about to explode anyway but no one did.

Klebold removed his trench coat and fired at a table nearby which injured three students named Daniel Steepelton, Patrick Ireland, and Makai Hall who were hiding under it. As Harris moved away, Ireland who was himself injured tried to assist Hall whose neck was severely wounded. While doing so, Ireland's head slightly raised above his table and Klebold shot him twice in the head but he ended up surviving. Harris instead walked down the computer rows and shot under a table, which hit a 14-year-old Steven Curnow on the neck and he later succumbed to his injury. He then fired at the adjacent table under which 17-year-old Kacey Ruegsegger was hiding. The bullet that hit her severed a major artery and went completely past her shoulder.

Harris then moved to another computer table with two students named Casey Barnall and Emily Wyant who were hiding under it. He taunted them initially and later on shot Barnall on her head, thereby killing her on the spot. At this time, Harris's gun had recoiled and hit him on his face and the students recall seeing him with blood around his nose and mouth.

Dylan Klebold too set into momentum and started going around the tables. Under one table he found 18-year-old Isaiah Shoels, 16-year-old Matthew Kechter, and 16-year-old Craig Scott who was also the brother of Rachel Scott, the first victim of the massacre. Klebold taunted Isaiah Shoels with derogatory racial remarks and was later on joined by Harris. Both the shooters fired under the table. Harris shot Isaiah Shoels in the chest and killed him while Klebold shot Matthew Kechter who was also later found dead. Scott was left uninjured in the blood of his friends and he tried to feign death.

The shooters then moved towards the east side of the library and Klebold shot at a nearby table injuring an a 17-year-old Mark Kintgen in the head and shoulder. He then turned to another table and fired shots injuring 17-year-old Lauren Townsend, Valeen Schnurr, and Lisa Kreutz. Townsend died on the spot.

The shooters moved from table to table searching for people to kill. Harris moved to a table that hid 16-year-old Nicole Nowlen and John Tomlin, he shot at them twice. It was reported that Tomlin who moved out of the table after his injury was shot repeatedly by Klebold which ultimately killed him. A 16-year-old Kelly Flaming was huddled next to a table and not directly under it due to lack of space. Harris fired from behind her and hit her on the back, killing her. He kept shooting in her direction which later injured 18-year-old Jeanna Park.

The perpetrators then moved to the central part of the library where they spread their weapons on a table. Harris didn't stop even now and fired at a table, which injured 15-year old Daniel Mauser in his ear and hand. Mauser tried to defend himself by shoving a chair at Harris who in turn fired another shot point-blank at Mauser's face killing him. They again shot some students under a table at the south side of the library severely injuring three 17 year-old students Austin Eubanks, Jennifer Doyle, and Corey DePooter. DePooter succumbed to his injuries and was declared dead. Many heard Klebold tell Harris about knifing some students but they didn't implement it.

The victims of the massacre.

Both the shooters walked out of the library at 11:36 A.M. After they had left, the injured along with the uninjured students and faculty started carefully evacuating the library through the North Entrance. Craig Scott helped Casey Ruegsegger leave the library which ultimately saved her life. Patrick Ireland who was unconscious and Lisa Kreutz who was unable to move had to be left behind.

Klebold and Harris aimlessly walked around the school firing shots in the air moving from the cafeteria to the hallways. At 12:00 P.M they re-entered the library which was now empty except for those injured. At about 12:02 P.M, they engaged in another gun battle with the police through the library windows. At 12:08 P.M both the shooters pointed the guns to their heads and took their own lives

The infamous photo of Harris and Klebold in the cafeteria 8-10 minutes before their suicide.

SWAT teams were stationed outside the school at about 12:00 P.M. At 1:00 P.M two squads moved inside the school looking from classroom to classroom for survivors and dead bodies. At 2:38 P.M a partially paralyzed Patrick Ireland crawled from under the table where he had laid unconscious and dangled out of the window with a hope to fall on the arms of the SWAT team members but instead landed painfully on the roof of a vehicle. The authorities were severely criticized for this incident. At 2:40 P.M the authorities found the room full of students in the science area along with the severely wounded Dave Sanders. By 3:00 P.M Sanders was moved to a more accessible room by the SWAT team and a paramedic was rushed in who later declared that Sanders had no pulse. Patti Nielson, an art teacher hiding in the adjacent room to the library, and Lisa Kreutz who was left bleeding in the library was later evacuated at 3:22 P.M with four others. The authorities discovered the bodies of the perpetrators in the library at 3:30 P.M. The total death count was 15 along with the perpetrators and another 24 were critically injured.

At 5:30 P.M bomb squads were called in due to the numerous explosives found around the school and they were successful in disposing of the bombs along with those the shooters had attached to their cars. On 21 April 1999 at about 10:00 A.M the bomb squad declared the school to be safe for officials to enter. On April 22, the officials discovered the bombs in the cafeteria. USA Today referred to the Columbine massacre as "planned as a grand, if badly implemented, terrorist bombing."

In the aftermath, classes at Columbine were held at the nearby Chatfield Senior High for the last three weeks of the school year. In August 1999 students returned to the school which had undergone some renovations. Many faculty and students developed PTSD and a 17-year-old student named Greg Barnes who witnessed Sanders death committed suicide in May 2000.

Later on it was found that both Harris and Klebold had kept regular journals where they had written about their plans of the massacre. Moreover, they kept tapes detailing their plans and reasons for the massacre. Since most of them were shot in the Harris's house basement, the tapes were called Basement Tapes. Examining these tapes and journal entries, many experienced personnels as well as the FBI concluded that the killers were victims of some mental illnesses. Harris was claimed to be a clinical psychopath with a messianic level superiority complex and Klebold was depressive and was also claimed to be schizotypal according to some other professionals. Harris was later given the title of the mastermind behind the attack and Klebold was seen as someone who used the massacre to end his life. Most people have varying views on this.

After the Columbine High School Massacre, many US schools enacted zero-tolerance rules regarding provoking or threatening behavior of any type. Mark Manes, the person who was later found to have sold a gun to Eric Harris along with ammunition was sentenced to 6 years in prison, along with another man named Philip Duran, who introduced him to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In subsequent times, the Columbine shooting influenced many other school shootings across the USA. Fear of similar events arising led to sometimes closing down of entire districts. Ralph Lurkin who examined twelve major school shootings said that in eight of those the perpetrators made direct reference to Columbine shooting along with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.

After the attacks, the police authorities was severely criticised over the slow response and progress of the SWAT teams during the shooting and police departments reassessed their tactics and now train for Columbine-like situations after criticism.

Picture Courtesy: Pinterest.

[lifeofkaze]

When Stars Ignite - Chapter 14

HPHM Rockstar AU

A/N: Katriona Cassopeia (in mention) belongs to the gorgeous @kc-and-oc

General Warning: This whole fic has a general warning of being NSFW / 18+. We will give specific warnings for every chapter in itself, but several adult themes will be more or less present in every chapter, may it be explicitly or in mention. These include sexual topics, drug abuse, (ab)use of alcohol, smoking and a whole lot of cursing.

Specific Warning:

~~~

Find the masterpost here, the previous chapter here and the next one here. The songs featured before every chapter can be found on this pretty badass playlist here.

~~~

This work is a collaboration with @the-al-chemist

Taglist: @slytherindisaster @carewyncromwell @night-rhea @thatravenpuffwitch

Man, we were killin' time We were young and restless We needed to unwind I guess nothin' can last forever Forever, no… ~ Bryan Adams - Summer of ‘69 ~

Much to his relief, Orion’s fear of having been discovered seemed to prove unwarranted. Skye was a direct person, never shy to speak her mind; if she had truly seen something not meant for her eyes during the interview, Orion was sure she’d have already come and spoken to either of them.

But nothing of the sort had happened. She had acted just like she always did and his first surge of worry had died down again. Sometimes even the most focused mind was prone to being tricked and, as he had to admit to himself, focus was something he found himself lacking in these days.

It wasn’t only because of Lizzie’s teasing getting riskier that he found his mind wandering more often than not. Ever since the show they were meant to be playing for the children from the foster system had shown its face on the horizon, an ever present restlessness had been growing in Orion.

Dreams that he had pushed to the edges of his mind a long time ago had started haunting him again; they kept coming back whenever they held an event stirring the buried memories of his childhood. He loved seeing the light in the children’s faces when they were spending time with them; he knew it was a rare sight, after all. The emotional mess Orion carried back with him afterwards was the dark side of the coin, however.

The charity event was scheduled for the next day; they were to play a small acoustic set for the children in the afternoon and their regular show only a few hours later on top. To keep their spirits high before the double load, Ethan had scheduled a day off for them.

The weather was still uncharacteristically hot and so most of the band and crew had found themselves at the small pool on the rooftop of their hotel. Much to everyone’s surprise, even Artemis had joined them.

Charlie had followed Skye’s advice to take Artemis for drinks a few days prior. He had been unusually tight-lipped about it when they had asked him how it had gone down.

“It was good,” he had shrugged, “told you she’s not as bad as you all think.”

While the young pyro tech still kept her distance from the rest of them, Orion had seen her chatting with Charlie outside of their work on stage since then. He was glad she seemed to be taking a step into the right direction, lowering her armour even for the tiniest bit.

But Artemis’ tentative attempts at integrating herself with their group lounging by the pool were counteracted as soon as she took her shirt off. Everett audibly wolf-whistled at her black bikini with surprisingly colourful patterns crisscrossing it. Her withering glare was met with a lewd grin as Artemis picked up her stuff and dumped it on the deckchair farthest away from them.

Lizzie gave Everett a smack on the back of his head. “Well done, Ev, you’ve scared her away. I wanted to have a chat with her.”

Everett looked at her over the rim of his sunglasses. “I’m not stopping you. Two beauties in bikinis getting close? Who would I be to object? You could rub her back with sunscreen.”

He laughed to himself. “If Artemis isn’t up for it, I’m always here for you, gorgeous.”

A hint of the same irritation Orion felt flickered over Lizzie’s face. “You’re a real mood today.”

She got up from her own deckchair and started over in Artemis’ direction anyway, but was stopped by Charlie catching onto her wrist.

“Woah, where are you going, little rockstar?”

“Go and talk to Artemis, see if I can convince her to come over if Ev shuts up.” She gave the singer lounging in his chair a dark look.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Charlie said and pulled her down next to him. “Trust me, if you push her you’ll be the one scaring her away. She’ll come over if she wants to.”

Lizzie opened her mouth to object but Charlie shook his head. “You can’t force her, sunshine.”

“Fine,” Lizzie snorted, not pleased by the situation, “so what’re we gonna do now?” She nodded in the direction of the pool. “Anyone up for a round of water polo?”

Everett declined, preferring to seek a better place to tan, while Merula did the opposite and withdrew to the shade with a book. So it was Charlie, Lizzie, Andre and Skye who made their way to the water. Orion would have joined them, but he was preoccupied with some ideas that had been floating around in his head since that morning; he wanted to write them down before he’d forget them.

He was lying on his stomach on his deckchair, notebook open in front of him, but found it hard to concentrate. The match of water polo going on in the pool had turned into some kind of wrestling match, like it always did eventually. Lizzie and Skye were sitting on Charlie’s and Andre’s shoulders respectively, trying to knock the other into the water; a lot of giggling and shouting was involved as they fought for the upper hand.

What really distracted him though, was the way the sunlight was refracting in the water droplets on Lizzie’s skin when she moved. It let her slender body shimmer, her tan she always got so quickly in the summer months a beautiful contrast to the vibrant red of her bikini. Her wet hair looked a lot darker than it actually was and it was clinging to her back.

Skye almost managed to knock her off Charlie’s shoulder and Lizzie laughed as she righted herself again. It was the kind of laugh that made her stand out amongst all the others, bright and captivating. It gave her an aura that was impossible to escape, drawing eyes whenever she entered a scene. She had the ability to light up a whole room with her smile, as fresh and beautiful as a sunrise.

“I’d say I’m 95.9 % sure what you’re staring at, my friend,” Orion suddenly heard the voice of Murphy next to him, “or should I rather say who?”

Orion tried not to let his surprise show; he had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t heard his best friend approach. “Your meaning is obscure to me,” he answered evasively. “I’m simply trying to work here.”

Murphy couldn’t hide his smirk. “When you’re working, your attention is usually 87.5 % focused on your work, more if no one is distracting you. Four out of five times you don’t even react when spoken to.” He glanced down at the mostly blank page of Orion’s notebook. “Today I’d say your focus is reduced to abysmal 30.9 %.” Never missing a detail, his eyes flicked to the still on-going wrestling match in the pool.

With a sigh, Orion closed his notebook and rested his head on his arms. Murphy was far too observant to be lied to, but he didn’t have to know all the details either.

He indicated their laughing friends with a slight nod of his head. “It is good that our friends are having a great time, it strengthens their bond of friendship. But they are making a lot of noise, it’s bound to draw attention.”

The dismissive sound Murphy was making clearly showed that he wasn’t buying it. “It’s obvious they’re distracting you. But from what I’ve seen, 95.5 % of the time you’ve spent looking at them were devoted to one of the pairs, and while I do have to admit that Andre’s new gold bangles are surprisingly flashy and apparently water resistant, I highly doubt it was him that drew your attention, same goes for Skye, although her hair usually is an eye catcher, I’ll give you that. That leaves Charlie and dear Lizzie, and last time I checked, you weren’t one for redheads, that’s more my thing. Not that I want to say I find Charlie particularly attractive, although some might say so, but I digress. So only one option remains, and as the one and only master of logical deductions, the great Sherlock Holmes, once said, ‘Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable…”

“...must be the truth’,” Orion finished with a sigh. “I know the quote. You're quoting numbers all day every day, do you really feel the need to go into literature as well now?"

Ignoring him, Murphy was grinning from ear to ear, clearly satisfied with his conclusions. “Is there something you want to tell me?”

Orion wasn’t answering immediately; he didn’t like Murphy’s prying at all. “Are you done, Detective McNully?”

“Fine, don’t answer me then, I don’t need confirmation,” Murphy snorted. “The stats never lie, my friend.”

Orion rolled his eyes, hoping Murphy wouldn’t delve into another one of his statistical sprees. Although he was right in that his numbers were seldom wrong, Orion himself preferred a more open-minded view of his surroundings to Murphy’s cold, analytical observations; especially, if these observations were directed at his own behaviour.

But of course, Murphy wasn’t deterred. “To the attentive observer, which of course you know that I am, all the facts are there. Eight out of ten times your mood changes for the better when Lizzie enters the room. Seven out of ten times she starts smiling when she looks at you. You two look at each other during shows and soundtracks 46.4 % more often than at the others and yes, I factored out the times when you need to because of the cues she’s giving you, thanks a lot for asking. You hug each other at the end of the shows significantly longer as well. When you leave the backstage area, you’re never leaving together but almost always in close succession.”

The blond sound technician crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Are you really sure there isn’t anything you want to tell me?”

Orion was more than a little shocked at all the facts Murphy had just thrown at him. “I had no idea it was that obvious.”

Murphy shrugged, a sly smile appearing on his face. “Only to me. You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember, and my above average observational skills, which of course not everyone possesses, solved 82.3 % of the mystery.”

“What’s with the rest?”

“What I can offer in facts, I sometimes lack in interpreting. Katriona connected the dots.”

“Obviously,” Orion sighed.

“So, what’s the deal with you two? Are you dating?” A frown appeared on Murphy’s face. “I thought you had a clause about this in your contracts. Ethan’s not going to like this.”

Orion vehemently shook his head. “No, you got that wrong. We’re not dating, everything is just like it has always been. We’re just enjoying additional pastimes, which - I’ll give you that - may exceed a regular friendship.”

He looked at Murphy intently. “No one besides you knows about this, and I would appreciate it if it stayed that way.”

Murphy made a non-committal sound. “Of course this doesn’t include Katriona.”

“As if any of us could keep a secret from her.”

“I normally don’t go for absolutes but that’s 100 % true,” Murphy laughed. He looked at Orion curiously. “So how long has this thing between you and Lizzie been going on now?”

“A while,” Orion answered evasively.

“The definition of ‘a while’ ranges from two weeks to up to a year. Judging by my numbers, it’s definitely not the former. Doesn’t sound like a short lived fling to me.”

“I wouldn’t call it a fling,” Orion said; it was surprisingly hard to put what was going on between them into words. “But we’re definitely not emotionally involved with each other. It’s not a matter of the heart, more of a physical extension built on the base of our friendship.”

Murphy leaned back into his wheelchair and grinned. “The old classic, friends with benefits.”

“If that’s the label you want to stick on it.”

Murphy hummed in response, following Orion’s gaze to the pool again. His voice was quieter when he spoke this time. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? We are both on the same page about it.”

“Just saying, things like these seldomly work out as well as they start. Approximately 89.6 % of physical relationships end in chaos, tears or both.”

The memory of his own initial worry emerged in the back of Orion’s mind. He watched as Skye gave Lizzie a final push that sent her toppling from Charlie’s shoulders. She shrieked before she crashed into the water, but was already laughing again when she resurfaced; Orion firmly pushed his concerns away.

“It won’t escalate with us,” he said. “Both of us value our friendship, and the fate of Equinox even more so. We’ve established very clear rules. I appreciate your worries, but they are misplaced.”

“As much as I love rules for the structure they’re bringing, rules can easily be broken,” Murphy said. “Just be careful, okay? Mixing friendship with sex can be a lot of fun but the devil’s in the detail.”

They both watched Lizzie climbing out of the pool and heading over into their direction. When she passed Everett, he pulled down his sunglasses and watched after her, his eyes very slowly travelling up and down her body. He said something to her Orion couldn’t hear, but Lizzie only rolled her eyes, shot something back and continued on her way. Murphy's eyes flicked from her to Orion.

“Aren’t you bothered with Ev hitting on her?”

Orion shrugged. “Why would I? She’s not my girlfriend, and she can perfectly handle herself, as you’ve just seen.”

“That she undoubtedly can,” Murphy laughed, “I’ll better be off now and leave you two alone. I wonder where my beautiful wife is. I haven’t seen her in quite a while now.”

[basicjetsetter]

Part V

♡ Pairing: Peter Parker x Black!FemaleReader

▹ Warnings: Fluffy scenes, anxious moments, cliff-hanger

▹ Words: 3.3k

▹ A/N: We are reaching the eye of the storm. Happy reading!

“ ‘Kay, so there’s no way they’re gonna win this game without him turning into the Wolf, right?”

“Finish watching it, Peter.”

Peter musingly shakes his head, mouthful of his fourth slice of pizza. “There’s no way.”

You level a patient smirk at him and point to the television, wordlessly telling him to see for himself.

The screen’s brightness fills your otherwise dark living room, casting shadows along the angles of Peter’s concentrated face. His body is sloped forward, and if he didn’t possess the body control of an enhanced being, he’d fall face-first into your carpet.

Tonight’s movie selection was your choice, and you didn’t want to disappoint. So when Peter said he’d never seen Teen Wolf, you were over the moon. Usually, you’d watch every single second of the classic film, but with Peter sitting cross-legged next to you, his hip pressed against yours as your crossed leg rests on top of his, you spent the entire time covertly peeking at his fascinated expressions.

Well into the third month of your friendship, Peter’s presence in your apartment remains to be an odd sight in a good way. Out of your ordinary. His first time in your apartment came on a day you both chose to escape the sun’s sweltering heat with A/C and ice cream, and like your first conversation in Hal’s, he never made it weird.

It was effortless. Every moment with Peter was like breathing.

If anyone else suggested Friday-night movie nights, you’d have spared no time shutting them down. But your yes to Peter harbored no resistance.

“No way!” An excited smile spreads across Peter’s face as Scott steps to the baseline to take the game-winning free throw shots. “Is he seriously gonna make these?”

You seal your lips, choosing not to spoil the moment, but Peter doesn’t see. His eyes never stray from the screen, and his lips slightly part from the nail-biting suspense. As the last shot falls through the hoop, Peter’s whole jaw drops.

When the end credits roll, he slowly claps. “That was awesome. Like I’ve got some serious chills. How am I going to top that?”

“Eh, you probably won’t,” you reply with a boastful grin. Hidden joy thrums through your body from his excitement. “Might as well call a wrap on movie nights.”

Peter playfully nudges you with his elbow, then checks his watch. “Ah, man, it’s late. I needed to be on patrol half an hour ago.” He’s up in a flash, slipping his shoes on and chewing up the rest of his pizza.

“Do you have to go?” A hint of sadness tinges your words. 

“Yeah, the city would be a mess without me,” he jokes, but you weren’t remiss of his undertone sincerity. “Oh! That reminds me. Some bad guys are out on a robbing spree lately, tailing people at night, so if you work late, can you ask Chris to walk you home? Y’know, just in case I’m not there.”

He does this every time he’s over. Each week, there’s a new thing or group to be leery of, and each time he asks, you immediately nod to erase the gut-sinking concern in his brown eyes.

You rise from the couch and follow Peter to the door. He turns just as he’s about to twist the handle, stalls for a second, then envelopes you into a small, reluctant hug, leaving his arms lax just in case you wanted to pull away. 

Hugging is new, something you’ve only done about five times. The first was an unplanned disaster featuring a hard shove, repeated apologies, and a long, awkward moment of silence. 

You didn’t mean to push him away. It was one of those moments where, even though the urge to reciprocate was there, you couldn’t allow yourself to find comfort in such an innocent gesture. You weren’t ready. He respected that.

You knew your rash reaction bruised Peter more than he let on, but he learned to ease his way into your comfort zone with small touches. An intentional brush of his hand against yours, scooching closer to you on the couch, hi-fives with minimally laced fingers.

It took a while for the second hug-attempt, but you were cautiously prepared when it happened.

This time around, you return the gesture, winding your arms around his middle and setting your chin on his shoulder, resisting the urge to nuzzle your nose against his warm neck. His closeness frazzles you, even more so when he diminishes the gap between you, holding you tighter to his chest before releasing you and clearing his throat.

“Be safe,” you warn softly.

He puffs out his chest. “I have nothing to fear except fear itself.”

“That confident, huh?”

“Comes with the job. You get knocked down enough times, you get pretty confident once you realize you can always get back up.”

You raise an eyebrow. “Uh-huh. And yet you still have a fear of heights.”

“Never said I wasn’t afraid of falling. Just that it gets easier getting back up. ‘Sides, most of those petty offenders scare easy. All I gotta do is say I can plant eggs in ‘em.” He shudders at the idea himself.

“Please, Peter,” you implore, a smile sullying your stern frown.

Peter’s grin, always so wholesome and calming, blankets over your nerves. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

“Well, I think Spider-Man needs someone to worry about him, sometimes. Even if he can get back up. Just… let caution work alongside confidence.”

He heeds your words with a more allayed smile, curtly nodding. “Vigilance. I can do that.”

You’re tempted to wrap him back into your arms to protect him from whatever dangers lie outside of your apartment. Instead, you exchange simple goodnights and shut the door once he reaches the stairwell.

The room and your shirt preserve his crisp evergreen scent long after he’s gone. It lingers as you crawl into bed. An aromatic reminder of his caress and warm skin.

As far as friendships go, you’ve never had one quite like this. The line you drew in the sand moves. Accommodates. Shrinks. Whether he’s aware of it or not, the time you spend cracking jokes with Peter at Hal’s, listening to his adventurous feats, becoming comfortable with his physical proximity, seeing his smile and the way his eyes light up when you smile at something funny or interesting he’s said, you fall just an inch.

He's growing on you. His presence. His laughter. His beaconing smile. His tentative touch. His uncanny ability to endear himself to your foreclosed heart.

It was easier to deny the connection when you didn’t know Peter. But now that you do, every moment you’re with him intensifies what you’ve painstakingly tried to avoid.

You’re falling in love with your Soulmate.

✦ ✧✦ ✧

Once again, it’s the Saturday brunch rush, and once again, Hal’s is up to its neck in bloodthirsty customers. All the booths are packed, as well as the stools. Some of the parties compact a seat meant for two with four people, and the aisle clogs with those who just came to grab a cup of coffee and conversation.

Chris is in his element, swinging from one booth to the next like a controlled tornado collecting orders, while you and Wendy are the unfortunate bunch who have to clean up desecrated tables and feed the greedy.

“If someone asks me what the specials are one more time, I’m going to rip my hair out,” Wendy grouses behind the counter as she puts away five menus.

You grumble back the same sentiments. Menus exist for a reason. And most of these people aren’t new to Hal’s, so the fact that they always have to ask grinds your gears.

11:30 a.m. is your saving grace. If you can hold on until Peter gets here, you’ll be fine.

Chris stops by the bar, pocketing what appears to be a twenty-dollar bill. “Lighten up, ladies. At least you’re off tomorrow.”

Wendy, in her 5’3’’ stature, looks feral. “I want to be off now.”

A rowdy group of high-schoolers sitting in the farthest booth is holding a contest to see who could drink a milkshake the fastest, and the two unlucky contestants shriek like banshees from self-inflicted brain-freeze. All three of you wince.

“We don’t get paid enough for this.”

Hal shouts from the back. “Order up! And stop slackin’ off out there!”

Wendy’s eye twitches as she marches to the back to pick up the orders. You’d have acted the same way if you didn’t have something to look forward to.

“They’re not going to tip me. I just know it,” Chris says to you, despondently looking over at the teens’ table again.

“They’ll come around. No one can resist this moneymaker.” You lightly bump him on the chin to indicate his smile. Heck, his whole chiseled face is a moneymaker, but that exuberant smile sells it all.

Over the last three months, just like your friendship with Peter, your friendship with Chris has improved. Even with Wendy. You aren’t at each other’s throats nearly as much as you used to be. Last week, she complimented your hairstyle, though it was immediately followed up with a snide comment: progress, either way.

Chris laughs. “And here I thought my friendly personality racked up all the tips.”

“It’s a bonus.”

He chuckles again, then blows out a hesitant breath. “So, Y/N…”

“So, Chris…”

“There’s, um, there’s gonna be another music festival in Cunningham Park tonight, and I was wondering if, y’know, you and Peter might want to come and hang?”

You and Peter… As if you were a pair. An item. A couple. To unsuspecting eyes, you knew you and Peter seemed to be just really good friends. Not even Hal questioned why you spent half an hour talking to him every weekday. If he had an inkling of who Peter actually was to you, he’d have confronted you by now.

Chris, on the other hand, kept a sharp eye on you when Peter was around. As meticulous as you were about keeping up pretenses in public, sometimes you’d slip. Your smile would be a tad too bright when Peter walked through the door and took his usual seat. You’d giggle at his jokes too loud. You’d stare into his eyes too long. Signs too blatant for Chris to miss.

You’re just waiting for him to put the last piece in the puzzle.

“I’d… I’d have to ask Peter.” You take a deep breath. Here goes nothing. “But, yeah, I’ll go.”

“Wait, seriously?”

“Sure. Sounds like it’ll be fun. What time is it?”

Chris lays a hand on your forehead. “Temp seems fine. Pupils aren’t dilated. How many fingers am I holding up?”

You swat his hand down with a laugh. “Shut up.”

“Look, I know you probably don’t want me saying this out loud, but I’m glad you met Peter. We all are.”

“Why?” Evidently, you’re not that great at hiding your feelings as you thought.

Chris leans against the bar top, keeping an eye on the door just in case customers walked in. “Well, for starters, you literally just agreed to hang out with me for the first time since you started working here, which was—what—two years ago. And… you… I don’t know. You’re more open, y’know? Smiling and such.”

“I smiled before,” you say, a little defensive.

“Not like you do now. Before, it was all—,” Chris screws his mouth up. It’s strange. Alienated and wire-tight. The corners of his lips don’t fully come up, and it barely reaches his eyes. You instantly recognize it—the smile you hid behind.

Did you really smile like that? How is it that you never noticed how off-putting it was? If a server ever smiled at you like that, you’d assume they wished you disappeared off the face of the earth. Is that the smile people saw? More importantly, when did you stop putting it on?

“Two more strawberry milkshakes over here!” shouted one of the brain-freeze victims.

Chris hops to it. Always the perfect server. On his way to make the shakes, he says, “7 p.m.”

“I’ll be there.”

You weren’t going to confirm for Peter until he was there to answer for himself, but he doesn’t show. 11:30 a.m. and the rest of your shift flies by without a sight of him, which is strange, but not uncommon. Homework might have him tied up. September is a pretty busy month for schoolwork, and mid-terms are approaching, so he might be buried in assignments.

Worry doesn’t settle in until you’re getting ready for the music festival at 6:30 p.m., and Peter still hasn’t sent so much as a voicemail.

Evening summer sunlight filters in through your open window, the active sounds of Queens’ busy streets and subway station not allowing your room to fall quiet. Nights like this are perfect for outdoor festivals because it’s warm enough to sit in the grass and not bring a jacket.

Rather than enjoy the idea of getting out for the first time in years, your mind remains hooked on Peter.

It’s not like him not to leave a text if he’s caught up in other things. He’d make sure to tell you where he is, how far away. Since the beginning of this friendship, starting with his little notes, Peter’s constant communication wasn’t something you expected. But now that you do, this behavior just doesn’t match what you’re used to.

You pace the floor of your small bedroom, back and forth, wall to wall, abusively chewing your lower lip and turning your phone around in your hand, working up the nerve to call him, summoning up the will to voice your concern if he did answer.

When you do call, you get his voicemail. Trying again, you end up with the same result. Okay. He’s not picking up his phone.

Fear foregrounds your frustration. It bleeds into your words as you leave your fifth message. One after the other, they morph from mild concern to despairing panic. As the sun dips lower and lower on the horizon and the orange sunlight dwindles, so does your desire to go out.

Because… maybe you shouldn’t go. Maybe you should search for Peter. Finding any trace of him at all would be a stretch, and Chris might be upset about you ditching your plans the next time you see him, but you can’t possibly go out knowing something may be horribly wrong with Peter.

No. No, you won’t cancel plans like that. Peter is fine. Of course, he’s fine. He’s Spider-Man. His duties as a hero come first, no matter what. And he wouldn’t want you to stress so much about him.

Wherever he is, whatever he’s doing, he is okay. He’s alive. You feel it.

Somehow, you break the trance of your pacing and convince yourself to grab a cab ride to the park. When you arrive, the festival appears to be at a content standstill. It’s not as crowded as you assumed it would be for a Saturday night. Many of the attendants, ranging from all ages, are sitting on the grass, soaking up the fading rays of the sun while the bands finish up prepping. You’re greeted by the distinctive smell of hotdog vendors intermingled with ripening leaves.

There is nothing truly scenic about Cunningham Park, aside from the interspersed trees and trails. You’d been here a handful of times when you were younger, hanging out with friends during summer break, and one thing you loved about the park back then is how the sun shone through the leaves, casting an ethereal glow on nature.

You’re more appreciative of its beauty without the sun’s effect.

It wasn’t that hard finding Chris. All you had to do was look for the person most likely garnering friends from other groups. He’s on a blanket, seated in the center of the crowd and chatting with a group of three people.

When you’re close enough to be spotted, Chris’s face mouth out into a wide smile.

“You came!” Then his eyes roamed around. “Where’s Peter?”

You try for a carefree grin but let it fall when the effort became too much. “He couldn’t make it. School stuff.”

“Oh, well, that’s fine.” His smile drops fractionally, less joyful and more sympathetic. “I’m really glad you made it. Hey, guys. This is Y/N, my friend from work.”

You wave a little and hope for a genuine smile to grace your lips as they all scoot to make room for you on the blanket.

Chris introduces them all. He points to a buff, curly-haired guy named Dez, who you wouldn’t have guessed would be the type of guy to enjoy small park festivals. He looks like the kind of person who regularly crowd-surfs at huge concerts and somehow always winds up with a VIP pass. The next person is a slender girl named Asha, who has thick black hair knotted into a messy soccer bun and a glowing smile. 

The last person Chris introduces you to is his Soulmate. You knew just by the way he said his name. Resounding. Reverent. Borderline fanatic. His name is Quint, and unlike the others, he wraps you up in a surprising hug. What’s even more surprising is you hugging back.

“Nice to finally meet you.” His voice is richly robust, exactly how you would expect someone with his Adonis-like face to sound. Two gorgeous, outgoing Soulmates just seems unfair.

“Nice to meet you, too.” You can’t help looking from Quint’s face to Chris’s, then back again, and wondering if this is what people see when they see you and Peter—a perfect match. “Chris has told me a lot about you. All great things.”

“He better,” Quint says, jokingly gazing at Chris as a blush flared across Chris’s cheeks. “And he’s told me a lot about you and Peter.”

There it goes again: people pairing you two. It’s hard not to notice how natural that sounds, as though you two were meant to be spoken about as an inseparable whole.

You brush off your startled expression as best you can and ask, “Good things, right?”

He nods, then shares a smile with Chris. “I would’ve liked to meet him.” You roughly translate that to mean, ‘I would’ve liked to meet you both.’ The blush on Chris’s face deepens into an embarrassingly bright shade of red when he catches your eye.

A plucked, low-pitched guitar string echoes out to the crowd and effectively commences the start of the music festival. You must’ve missed the band's introduction because they got right into their music, playing a melancholic pop song that sounded pretty good. You were more interested in the guitar riffs and melodic piano notes than the lyrics, but they’re no doubt about love.

Halfway into their set, your stomach growls, and you remember that you didn’t have anything to eat since you got off work. The whole thing with Peter staved off your hunger. He’s still in the front of your mind, but you’re doing your best to enjoy the night with Chris and his friends.

Standing up, you tell Chris, “I’m gonna get a hotdog.”

He tilts his chin up in acknowledgment, then goes back to swaying his head to the music.

You got up just in time to beat the line. There are only two vendors in the park, and they’d be slammed once the music hits its intermission. The one you’re at resides near the outskirts of the crowd, closest to where you left the group, and two people are in front of you.

You wish Peter were here.

Your hand touches the outline of your phone in your back pocket while you wrestle with the idea of calling him again. Maybe he’ll pick up this time.

You’re just about to unlock your phone when you hear someone calling your name—a girl.

The voice gets closer and more breathless, like they’re running at you full speed ahead and couldn’t reach you fast enough. You turn to the sound just as the body slams into you, yanking you out of line and clutching you to their frame.

“Where the hell have you been?!”

You pull away and stare straight into her face, not trusting your own eyes. “Manda?"

...

Taglist: @alexandria-euphoria​

[enigma-im]

The Less I Know The Better

Rating: Explicit Relationship: Imp!Black x F!Yellow Warning: Attempted murder, Among us fanfic, Monster sex, horror, comfort, angst, i’m not sorry

Word Count: 4916

      Boyfriends can bring comfort, monster boyfriends can bring...

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

"Hey, Blake, can you help me with coms? I've been stuck on that silly little radio for a while," I rock on my toes, hands clasped behind my back as I await his answer. For a good moment, he looks mostly confused, brows furrowed and mouth slightly open. It's curious, what is there to be so conflicted about?

"What," he gawks.

"Coms," I answer slowly," can you help?"

Blake stares down at me, looking sort of angry under the blatant confusion. I grow embarrassed having asked him. We don't talk much or anything, merely coworkers and nothing more. Perhaps I'm pushing a boundary I had no idea existed.

"Uh, sure," he answers almost like a question.

"Great," I perk up, twisting on my heel to walk away. I feel him reluctantly follow, throwing his hands into his tied off jumpsuit pockets. I toss a glance over my shoulder, giving him a bright smile of appreciation. He grunts in response.

We walk- more like I lead- to coms, awkward silence occupying the time. I stop over by the little frustrating radio to wait for Blake. He stops in the middle of the room, looking nervous but still. It's strange seeing his shoulder tick and his fingers fidget in his pockets but his face is so neutral.

"You ok," I ask. His forearm stiffens, barely noticeable fists clenched within his pockets.

"I'm fine," he says terse," what do you need my help on?"

I jump on the topic change, turning back to the radio. I turn it on, the horrid static blaring around the silent room. Wincing, I turn the volume down and begin fiddling with the knobs.

"Layla switched jobs with me this week because she is trying to get close to Bucky- which is understandable- and now I have the task of making sure the radio is up and operational. Which shouldn't be a hard job, just turn it on and off. Yet, lucky me, I have a radio that doesn't want to connect to anything and I don't know what to do," I answer, flicking the knobs this way and that. Listening closely to the change in static I just barely catch the sound of something wet snapping. I stop, curious above all else. The sound echoes again with a rip.

I twist around to the room, looking to Blake who is standing still in the middle of the room. He looks tense and his black shirt is askew with a single tear by his hip.

"Oh," I gasp," Your shirt? What happened?"

"Nothing," he answers shortly," let me see the radio an-"

I walk over, interrupting him," nonsense, I'm pretty good with sewing as my mother taught me when I was young. I'm sure I can fix that up. Accidents happen and I'm pretty sure Dax keeps an extra shirt around here." as I ramble I grab his shirt, looking to the tear with trained eyes. I'm sure I can fix this by tomorrow.

"uh," he keeps his arms away from me, uncomfortable to the max," ok."

I look to him, smiling sweetly before walking away in search of a clean shirt. I fiddle in a drawer, finding a dark green t-shirt for him to wear.

"This should do, you and Dax are big dudes," I hand him the shirt," I know you prefer wearing black but green would still be a good look for you. It will bring out your eyes and make you look quite handsome."

Blake seems lost as he grabs the shirt. He mutters a thanks, looking away flustered. I want to coo but keep the urge to myself. He grabs the hem of his shirt, hefting it over his body. I squeak, turning around with my own flustered face.

He changes quickly, handing me the shirt in his normal bored expression. Not wanting to dwell on the matter any longer he walks to the radio, twisting the knobs expertly.

It seems like ever since that day in coms Blake is always nearby. It's a huge comfort as conflict engulfs the crew. Rumor has gone around that there are two imposters aboard the Skeld. People barely paid it any mind till the first body was found in the med bay. I hardly knew the lad, only recognized them by their bright orange jumpsuit. Since then I have appreciated the company of Blake.

An alarm rings around the ship as Blake lends a hand in Reactor. We both look around, me more nervous than him. It's when a neutral voice calls for an employee meeting that I settled a bit. Blake and I walk to the cafeteria, meeting with the rest of the crew at the center table. Once we all are seated, Charlie talks.

"Another body has been found between electrical and the engine," Charlie says solemnly. I stiffen at his words, worried above all else that it was so near. "Was anyone near there, did anyone see anything," he asks.

The group murmurs amongst themselves, giving each other alibis and recounts. I look around, thinking to myself that I should speak up. Lifting my arm to speak of my whereabout Blake grabs my wrist.

"Don't," he whispers.

"Don't?" he nods, clenching my hand down to the bench. I curiously look from him to Charlie, conflicted. "Why not," I ask," We were near and if we can bring any information then it's a start in finding the imposter."

"It also puts a big target on your back so just keep quiet unless specifically asked," he snaps through clenched teeth. I gawk at him, not paying a bit of mind to a few crewmates recounting what they were doing while the body was being discovered.

I silently seethe to myself, feeling like a traitor by keeping information to myself. We didn’t see anything, having our backs to the hallway, but telling Charlie that could help figure out which way the imposter could have gone. It's not good to keep such information to yourself at a time like this.

With no details added the meeting is dismissed with everyone more on edge. I quickly depart from the cafeteria, wanting to get away from Blake for now. Marching to my room I don't even notice when the man I wish to avoid is standing at my door. I flop down onto my bed, feeling stressed and anxious.

"You're mad," Blake grunts. I startle, twisting to my side to look at him. He stands tall, unfazed by the announcement of another dead crewmate. His dark grease backed hair is immaculate like usual. The fact that not a single hair is loose seems unfair to the situation.

"Yes," I bark," I'm mad."

"Why," he asks, stepping further into the room.

I gawk at him," why do you think I'm mad? One of our crewmates is dead and you don't want me telling anyone where I was because you think it will put a mark on my back! It shouldn't matter, I didn't kill them but I was close by. I could have been useful."

Blake's lip twitches towards a sneer. His hands leave his pockets in favor of crossing his arms. He looks annoyed, which is better than looking bored. Good, he finally acts like he feels something about all this.

"Did you see anything? Did you hear someone walk by? Truly, do you think you have anything important to say that won't paint you as a potential suspect," he snaps, leaning towards me as he angrily shouts his point. I sit up in bed, throwing my arms up in exasperation.

"No, but i-," I try to explain.

"No," he walks over to the bed," you don't have anything that could have been even remotely useful. Saying nothing was almost the same outcome as saying anything. The only difference is you would have been watched and targeted by the true murderer. It's easy to paint you as the imposter when people are already looking your way and I will not let that happen." he is nearly face to face with me, towering over me easily. His ire is almost enough to silence me. He makes good points but it's not enough for my frustrated self.

"Why should it matter to you if I want to let myself be targeted like that? It's not your job to keep me safe," I stand strong, keeping myself confident in my argument.

"It is my job to keep you safe," he snaps, growling under his breath.

I get up in his face, feeling his breath over my cheeks," Why?"

He stutters," Because- it's cau- I- fuck." his shoulder sag, sighing as he grabs my shoulders. Before I can even blink his lips are on mine. My heart stutters along with my breath, shocking me to my core. I don't have time to react before he is pulling away, the ghost feeling of his warm lips on mine.

Blake opens his mouth to answer, lifting his hands off my shoulder as he struggles to speak. Before he can get too far I panic, reaching out and grabbing his shirt collar. I tug him back, leaning up to kiss him.

It's not magical or special but it feels right. The comfort he gives makes everything disappear as our mouths dance together. I like his warmth, I love his taste. Though my anger dwells in the back of my mind I don't care enough to split. Right now is perfect, even though a true surprise.

The next week is easier to deal with as I have Blake by my side. His ever-present self brings a sort of ease to the chaos around us. The bodies stack up as the killer continues their spree and when the stress becomes too much I can rely on Blake to calm me down.

"This is getting ridiculous," Charlie snaps, running his fingers through his hair for the hundredth time," soon we are going to be outnumbered by theses dickheads, we have to pick someone. Randy, you have had eyes on everything, who do you suspect?"

We all look to Randy," I don't want to be the one pointing fingers here but I have barely seen pinkie here on cams."

Peter gasps, sneering at Randy," So you think I did it just because you don't know where I am every second of the day? How about Lesha? She has been the one to report the body almost every time, seems kind of sus to me."

"Fuck you, Peter," Lesha shouts," don't be pointing that finger at me. I can't help that none of you walk the ship, like, at all."

"Walking the ship and killing people seems like a better waste of your time than fixing the constantly sabotaged O2," Peter barks back.

"Yea, well how about bumblebee over there," she points to Blake and I," those two have been together nonstop, looks like we found our two imposters right there."

"What," I gawk," we have been keeping an eye on one another, doing our tasks. Blake has helped me with so many difficult jobs."

Charlie hums," interesting that you don't seem to understand how to do these simple tasks. The fact that Blake has to basically do them all for you seems rather sus. Clearly, an imposter wouldn't know how to accurately know how to do the jobs us crewmates have been trained for." the group nods, agreeing with his statement. I can only sit back in surprise as everyone turns their gaze to me. My crewmates, people I have worked with for a while, are now turning on me. All of them pointing their fingers to me. What can I do now? I have no alibi or excuse.

I fall to my misfortune, gawking at them all. I have nowhere to run or to escape. These people I have shared so much with is going to shoot me out the nearest airlock without any regret. All I can do is hang my head in defeat.

"She has been with me and hasn't off-ed me," Blake answers casually," clearly if she was the imp then she would have slashed my neck when she had the chance. Believe me, she has had many chances." I don't dare to hope.

The group mutters amongst themselves. It's ultimately Charlie who they all look to, waiting for his final verdict.

Charlie hums in thought, watching me with eagle eyes. "That is very fair. You two have been alone often, it seems like a likely excuse. Our best bet is to keep an eye on her, wait for her to make her move."

The sigh of relief is short-lived as the accusatory eyes lock on me. I think I'll be having a great deal of company this day forward.

In just a few days my ultimate stress has been reached. Every turn I take I'm watched by crewmates, laser focus on my every move. Blake does his best to settle the crew, keeping them at a distance while I work. It's a little relief but I appreciate it all the same. Though walking out of my room every night to someone lounging against the wall nearby brings everything to a head. I will live like this till I'm truly accused or murder by the actual killer.

Blake and I walk to my room, two crewmates following further behind. When we reach my door Blake shoos them away with a promise to watch over me tonight. The two grumble in agreement, marching off.

"Thanks," I mumble, walking into my room.

"hardly something that needs thanks," he grumbles as he follows me in.

We lounge in my bed, looking at my tablet a bit. It's when I'm left staring at the screen for a solid minute that Blake bumps my shoulder.

"You alright," he asks. I chew my cheek, not wanting to reveal the true levels of stress I'm living with.

"As alright as I can be," I shrug. I look back to my tablet, flipping through messages. Blake grabs the tablet from my hands, tossing it aside.

"You can talk to me," he turns on his side," I can't say I'll be much help but I can lend an ear." I turn to him, meeting his charming green eyes. He truly is handsome. I try to tell him that often, adoring the blush that gifts me every time. Though he has bags under his eyes and a rather rude disposition, I treasure his constant presence.

I sigh, closing my eyes," it's hard dealing with all this distrust. Like, I've worked around these people for months. We have joked and laughed together, taught one another. It's depressing."

Blake doesn't answer, making the words linger for a bit. Anxiety bubbles in my chest until I feel him shift closer. He grabs at my hips, turning me towards him. I open my eyes in time to see him lean up and press a kiss to my forehead.

"I'm sorry you have to deal with all this," he mumbles, laying back down against the pillow. Minimal relief floods my chest. He may not have a way with words but he nails the tenderness.

"it's ok, we will figure this out in the end," I reach up and pat his cheek. He turns and kisses my palm, his thumb petting at my hips as he does. I can't help myself, I lunge up to kiss him. He startles when my lips touch his, his fingers clenching my body a bit too tight. Despite his preparedness, he eagerly returns the gesture.

We have made out like a bunch of teenagers before but right now I need more. I crave more from him, greedy as it feels. I pull at his collar, leaning back while guiding him over me. He catches on, pressing his body over mine while sliding his tongue into my mouth. I mew in approval, gripping his shirt to bring him closer.

"Blake," I groan into his mouth. He stiffens, retreating a small distance. I meet his eyes, seeing his confliction. Reaching around I pet at his cheek, softening to his blight. "You alright," I ask," we don't have to do anything you don’t want."

He shakes from his stupor," No, it's just- no, we can keep going."

He falls back into the motions, kissing and licking my lips with more eagerness than before. His hips grind slowly into mine, pressing his hard-on into my crotch. We groan and grope, reaching under the other's shirt. I scratch at his chest while he slowly pets up to my chest.

Before he can touch at my bra I push him up. He goes, stiffening once more in worry. Instead of comforting him, I take off my shirt, tossing it aside with a teasing smile. His eyes dart towards my chest, gulping while his fingers curl near my waist.

Worried, I reach for him," You alright?". His answer is to drop his head and bury his face in my cleavage. "I'll take that as a yes," I laugh. He kisses and nibbles at my boobs, reaching around and unclasping my bra. Leaning back he throws the pesky clothing away, falling back to take a nipple into his mouth. His warm mouth and soothing tongue makes my back arch, pulling a groan from my mouth.

"you like this," he asks, nuzzling his cheek to my boob.

I pet his head," yea, but I think it's your turn now."

He sits up," my turn?"

"yep," I pop the p, fisting his shirt in my hand to give it a tug. He catches on, swiftly pulling off his shirt. I eagerly look him over, admiring his firm chest and light pooch of his stomach. I reach out and trace a finger down his chest towards his pants. Hooking my finger over the waistband I tug, throwing a cheeky eyebrow raised in question.

"You first," he asks, grabbing my waistband. I smile in answer, pulling my feet up as he tugs my jumpsuit bottoms down. After he tosses the bottoms away he swiftly removes my underwear, not paying them a bit of mind as he looks at my crotch with awe. In a trance, he falls to his stomach, tugs at my thighs, and dives in.

"Oh-oh damn," I say shocked at his hunger. His tongue danced over my clit, lapping up my slick with great vigor. I can't help but writhe under his assault, reaching down to grasp his head. I grind into his mouth, almost tormented by his tongue. He lathers my cunt in sweet, sweet attention. It's shocking how quickly he drives me out of my mind. I can hardly believe it.

His tongue soon circles at my entrance, exploring the space timidly. He then shoves his tongue inside me, giving the same vigorous attention. He thrusts and wriggles, bringing me closer and closer to a climax. As I lose myself in bliss I can faintly feel his tongue reach deeper, swelling in girth. I can't bring myself to care as I cry out, nearly ripping his hair from his head as I cum on his face. Choking on my cries of pleasure.

"Blake, oh- stop," I pant, lazily pressing against him. It takes a second for him to catch on, drinking from the new tap. He shoots off, lifting his head sharply.

"Sorry," he grins," was a… tasty experience." his eyes drop back to my crotch, drooling a bit as he gravitates towards me.

"no, no sir," I grab his arm and lift him back over me," I have a different craving than your tongue right now."

"Is that right," he chuckles, leaning in for a kiss.

"oh yeah, you think you can supply me with what I need," I cup his head, kissing him. He hums in answer, awkwardly kicking off his pants. I don't get a chance to say anything before he is resting at my entrance, his tip nudging excitedly. He leans back enough to meet my eyes, asking without words. I nod.

Not looking away he bucks forward, sheathing himself swiftly. We both cry out, startled at the pleasure. His head falls to my shoulder, panting hard. I come back to myself in the meantime, petting at his back. I can feel his body flex, his shoulder twitching and tightening. His chest feels like it swells as his labored breathing ghosts over my chest.

"you alright, dear," I ask, pressing my cheek against his.

"yea," he answers quickly," just- just need a second."

"Take your time," I hug him closer.

He needs longer than a second to reel himself in. slowly his body stops twitching and tightening. Timidly he arches his hips back, bucking forward with a relieved sigh. He repeats, arching back and bucking forward. His tempo is timid but nice. I let him go at his own speed.

Blake holds me snuggly as he slowly fucks me. His cock glides smoothly in and out, squelching lightly each time he goes all in. I find pleasure in his body, listening to his grunts and sighs. I echo him, panting against his shoulder. Though I have to fight against the urge to buck my hips.

"Blake," I sigh, question sitting on the end of my tongue. As I say his name his body stiffens again, his hips stuttering with restrained vigor. It's clear now why he is so apprehensive. I turn to his ear, whispering," let go."

He stops breathing for a moment, his hips freezing as well. Frustration grows in my limbs as I wish for him to keep moving. With a kiss to my cheek, I get what I wish.

Blake's hip draws back almost far enough for him to fall out, slamming forward in a body shaking thrust. I yelp, my nails biting into his shoulders. He draws back again and quickly fills the space he departed. His tempo ups to an amazing degree, plowing into me. Our hips clap as I cry out over his shoulder.

We cry out together, rising in pleasure till we are damn near breaking. I hold him tightly, clenching up as my second orgasm of the night washes over me. He chokes, grunting as he fights through my tightening channel.

Blake is still chasing his finish as I fall back onto the bed, closing my eyes as I ride out my high. I listen to his grunts, pleased above all else.

His hips finally stutter as he cries out. He pumps a few more times till he stills, flooding my insides as he cums. I hum in content. Before I can open my eyes to watch him I hear a loud wet crack. I snap my eyes open looking up to a horrid sight.

"Oh my god," I shake. Blake is perched above me, looking less like himself. His face is cracked down to his neck, his tongue long and extruding from the gap. Sharp teeth line the wet appendage, some teeth visible within the gash. In the darkness behind him, I see an even larger appendage writhing around in the air. Some drool drips off the tip of his tongue, splatting against my sternum. It's enough to shock me into action.

I kick at his thighs, getting his cock out of me while crawling up the bed. As my foot nudges roughly against his thigh he opens his eyes to see my terrified face. With another crack his face rights itself, the gash snapping shut. The appendage behind him slithers back from where ever it came from with a wet snap.

"No," he grabs at me," no, no, it's ok." his tightly clasps my shoulders, pulling me back under him. "It's ok, I won't hurt you," he says panicked. I wiggle in his hold, trying to getaway. I slap at his chest, kick at his legs. He stops this by pinning my body. As I sit tightly in his arms he drops his head to mine, "Please, I won't hurt you. I won't hurt you, you are safe." he rambles these words over and over till I lose my fight.

I fall lack, sighing," Blake?"

"yes, it's me. It's Blake," he tries to smile," I'm me, it's ok."

We both take a moment to calm down, though my heart doesn't catch the message. I manage to convince him to let me go, though it took a lot of promises. It took a moment to find our clothes, putting them on as a reason to put off talking. Soon I'm sitting on the bed and he sits across the room in a chair.

The silence is awkward.

"So," I start," you're not human."

He chuckles without amusement," that's one way to put it."

"Well," I fiddle with my fingers," What are you?"

He sighs," an alien is a good enough term." him actually saying it makes my head hurt. He is an alien, I had sex with an alien. Oh god, I had sex with an alien. I drop my head into my hands with a drawn-out groan.

"This is a mess," I grumble in my hands. It's the truth, where do you go from here. I shake my head in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," Blake says, his chair screeching as he stands," I wanted to tell you but it's hard to just bring that up. Then I thought I could control myself during…well, that."

I scoff," you didn't seem to have control there at the end." I can't help but laugh at that, finding minimal humor in all this.

"Yea," he chuckles," I did not." we laugh a bit together, having a bit of normalcy before we fade off. We sit in silence once more. My brain races as thoughts creep back in. something clicks as I look to him.

"You're the imposter," I startle back," you killed those people, oh my god." I scramble back away from him, hitting my back against the wall. He panics, walking over to me with raised hands.

"No, I didn't do that. Yea, I'm the imposter everyone is hunting but I'm not like the other one. I couldn't even get the guts to kill you, how can i-," he freezes, straightening with tense shoulders.

"What," I curl up," you- you tried to kill me?"

"No," he answers quickly," well, yes, but I couldn't do it. You were so nice and peppy, too lovely to kill."

"Too lovely to kill? So if I was mean then I would be one of the dead launched out the airlock," I scoff," why should that be so special? Were you just trying to get in my pants or something? How can you expect me to believe any of this, this is outrageous."

"Don't accuse me of something I never did. I like you, plain and simple. Sure, if situations were different then maybe we wouldn't be here but we are now. You humans always ask 'what if' but don't settle with what is happening now. I'm sorry for not telling you, that will stay with me for a long time, but it's out now. So all I can say now is that I will keep you safe and I will never hurt you."

His outburst lingers in the air for a bit. His promise is heartwarming. Looking at him now I can nearly feel his sincerity. It's easy to believe him, though doubt wishes to taint it. I watch him for a moment, trying to fight for my ire. It's a losing battle. I sigh, dropping my head as I know I will forgive him. God, I hope this won't go wrong.

Blake and I become closer than ever as the crew searches far and wide for the true murderer. Blake swears up and down he has barely a clue on who the other person is, just having a faint idea. He keeps his suspicions to himself though, telling me that I have a bad poker face. Which… is true.

One night closes to an end with Blake walking me back to my room. We pass by electrical, hearing a strange noise. Sneaking inside we catch a glimpse of someone jumping out of the vent below. Swiftly Blake grabs me and runs out the room, whispering to me that the imposter dwells within the room. We shuffle out, hiding around by storage as the footsteps echo closer.

"Got to play casual," Blake suggests.

"How do we do that," I silently yell. As the steps near Blake grabs my shoulders, forces me against a storage bin, and kisses me. I catch on quickly, cupping the back of his head and hiking a leg over his hip. We listen closely to the steps, ready for the confrontation.

"I believe you two have a room for this kind of thing," a man calls from behind Blake. I pretend to startle away from Blake, laughing as I look over his shoulder.

"Sorry Charlie," I giggle," we got a little sidetracked."

"Yea, sorry Charlie," Blake mumbles as he sets me down, keeping himself between Charlie and me.

"Eh, all's well. Just head back to your room, it's late," he smiles kindly.

We depart from him, nodding as we pass. Our rush to my room is tense, listening for anyone following until we reach the sanctuary of my room.

A body is found that same night, a meeting taking place early the next morning. As we sit at the table Blake and I share a look as Charlie asks the group if they have any suspicions. Blake speaks first.

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

I wrote this strictly for the sex part. Everything else after that meant nothing to me. Also the guy taking control of the situation should always be sus. No one wants to be the leader in an Among us game unless they are the imp.

Didn’t like this one either, but i did have fun with the sex. cause i’m a thot.

Check out my Archive | Masterlist | Main Blog

[infernwetrust]

Never Enough [Jim Mason x Fem Reader] Pt 1.

Summary: The one where you and Jim have been dating for about a year and a half. And even after a year and a half, he still feels like he’s not enough for you, but of course you know he’s more than enough. 

Warnings: drug use, swearing, mentions of drug use, mentions of drug abuse, teeny bit mentions of domestic violence, mentions of smut, (don’t worry it’s coming)

WC: 2.1k 

A/N: First time writing about Jim. Honestly, he came to me in a dream a few nights ago and I just had to write something. Part 1 of a 2 part series. Thank you for reading! -Juno

Jim had finally convinced you to come to a party hosted by one of his friends. The music was loud and the only thing that lit up the room was a set amount of strobe lights. As you danced next to Medina, you watched your boyfriend closely. It made you warm to see him so happy. Drink in his hand, joint between his lips, he shared laughs with his friends. His hair was a sweaty mess from dancing all evening or engaging in stupid stunts.

He noticed that your eyes were burning into him. He looked up from his cup, his blue eyes meeting yours in a haze and whirlpool of emotions. You could tell sober Jim was far gone, but he was still your Jim. Jim has had sex with you not sober more times than he was sober. Shrooms were his favorite. He liked how sometimes he felt like a feather and sometimes he felt like a brick.

Removing his lips from his cup, he smiled at you, motioning for you to come over, but as you told him, this was his night. You two spent most of the days wrapped up in each other and decided that a few hours not being down each others throats were okay. You shook your head no, biting your lip at him.

"Have fun with your friends." you mouthed causing him to give you a drunken grin.

"You are my friend." he mouthed back, motioning for you to come over again and of course you shook your head no again, turning your attention from him and back onto Medina. It's not that you didn't want to be around him, because trust me, you did. You wanted to walk over there, take a sip of his drink, and press your lips to his. You wanted to jump into his arms and carry you away, but, you meant what you said.

"He can't get enough of you, can he?" she asked, running her hands through her hair.

"I would hope not." you replied. "But it's also good to give the boy some space. We haven't had any time apart really and I know he's been wanting to hang out with his friends."

"Well, I'm getting pretty tired of being inside. Beach house, beach party. Did you remember to bring your surf board?"

"I did! It's in Jim's car and he has the keys.. which means I would have to go ask him for the keys."

"And you know that comes with 21 questions."

"Orrrrrrr, you could go ask him."

"Where's the fun in that?"

"It's not gonna be fun when I get trapped with Jim."

"As if you don't want to. I know you've been staring at him all night."

"Will you please just go get them? Pretty please." Medina giggled knowing that she was just messing with you. She made her way off to Jim, engulfing her brother into a hug before engaging in conversation. After what about 5 minutes but seemed like 30 due to your own mild intoxication, you assumed she asked for his keys because he darted his eyes back and forth between Medina and you. He took his keys out his pocket, placing them in her hands before running his hands messily in her hair and sending her on her way.

"Okay, come on." she said, grabbing your hand. "Let's go get that surf board and change into our suits." Changing, you and Medina stood on the beach, staring at the ocean as the sun set.

"I'm glad I met you." you say to her. "And I'm glad you introduced me to Jim. Surfing was never something I thought I would be doing, but look at me now."

"Do you always have to make me cry, Y/N?" she asked. "We love you, so much. I'm glad I met you too and that you haven't turned your back on Jim and I. Especially, Jim. He's so fragile nowadays, especially with, you know. I don't like to bring it up at all. You convinced Jim to stop abusing those pills, something I've been trying to do for a while. You saved his life, Y/N."

But all of that came with its consequences. In the beginning of your relationship with Jim, the two of you fought constantly. Argue, fuck, and then makeup. And that's all it was for about 2 months into your year and a half relationship. If you were fighting Jim about his pills or trying to throw them away, he was fighting you about another boy that talked to you that day. No matter how many times you tried to reassure Jim that you weren't going anywhere, for the first 2 months of your relationship, he didn't believe you. And of course, that crushed you, but it wasn't enough to make you leave him.

Jim has only ever gotten physical with you once. High off of whatever he did that day, he shoved you a little too hard, causing you to hit your head on the side of the door frame a little too hard. You saw stars before you blacked out and from that day on he never touched you in a way that wasn't caring. Of course you forgave him. When Jim wasn't acting crazy, he was the sweetest boy in the world. Beach campfires, dinners, shopping sprees, Jim showed you nothing but love, because you did the same for him. In reality, you and Medina are all he has.

But Jim doesn't know how much he's helped you either. He was your first. Your first love too. You love him. You are in love with him and he knows that. Because he feels the same about you. Yes, you've dated other guys, but they were no where close as worthy as Jim was to having you. He rushed nothing. You didn't want to be touched right now? He was okay with that. You wanted to make out all night and not go any further? He was okay with that. You wanted to dry hump him just enough for the itch even though you weren't ready? He was okay with that.

4 months. You made Jim wait 4 months for you and when you finally told him you wanted to go all the way, a fire ignited in him. He took care of you. He made it all about you. He made sure you came first and more than once. You still remember his sweet voice asking if this and that is okay or if he was hurting you, but all you kept telling him was that you need to feel him and that you need to feel him now. And once the pain turned into pleasure, you got lost in him. For the next week, all you wanted was Jim inside of you. He was covered, back, chest, arms, and ass, in scratches that stung like hell to touch. He would laugh as you apologized for it, kissing on them, cleaning them up so they wouldn't get infected, but he loved that you loved to mark him up. The two of you caused a great concern, being covered in hickeys. Your parents thought he was abusing you and Medina thought that he was on the streets fighting, but the both of you know why. Jim, he was, he was made for you.

"Medina." you said, snapping yourself out of your own thoughts.

"Hmmm?" she questioned as the two of you continued to stare off into the water.

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"Everything. Now let's go hit these waves." The evening, well into the night was spent with you and Medina laughing as you toppled over on your surf board a few times. You played in the sand, drawing random things, even playing tic tac toe. As soon as the two of you dried off and decided that you wanted to get back in the water again, just to swim, you felt a strong pair of hands around you. Whoever grabbed you smelt heavily of beer and weed. You were about to freak out when you saw the pair of hands that were wrapped around your body. Jim.

"Heyyyy." he slurred in your ear, wobbling as he struggled to hold himself up. "You two enjoying the ocean without me?" You turned around to meet him, he was so sweaty, not just his hair, but his whole body. His eyes were super red and bloodshot.

"Jim." you said. "Are you okay? You're burning up. Let's get you out of these clothes. Medina you can go ahead and get back in the water, I'll be out there with you in a minute."

"I'm fucking thriving, baby." Jim answered you, almost falling back into the sand, but you grabbed his shirt to hold him up.

"How many have you had and what did you have?"

"Shit, I don't fucking know. Maybe like 9. I smoked a little green. Just kidding, I smoked a lot of green and I took a shroom, baby, I am on cloud nine right now. They tried to get me to take a pill, but I said, no no no, Y/N wouldn't like that." He started to giggle.

"Jim you look like you're about to expire."

"Expire from happiness!" You sighed, getting Jim to sit down in the sand. You took his jacket off, followed by his shirt, moving his hair out his face so it wouldn't get into his eyes. You fought for a little bit to get his pants off, but he did let you take them off of him.

"Come on." you said, struggling to pick him back up. "Let's sit a little closer to the water, cool you down."

"Mhmmmmk." was all he said as stumbled getting up, falling back down hard into the sand. "Mmmph, shit. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Is he gonna be okay?!" Medina shouted to ask you from the water.

"Yeah!" you responded. "He's just fucking out of it!"

"Hey, don't you talk about me." he slurred, finally getting back up on his own two feet. "I'm doing just fine." You wrapped your arm around his waist and the both of you, mostly because of him, stumbled closer to the water, sitting on the beginning of the sand bar. "You are so fucking pretty, has anyone told you that? Well no one besides me should be telling you that anyways."

"You do, all the time, baby." you replied, giving him a warm smile. As the waves came on shore and went, you made sure that Jim got wet to cool his body down. You got water in your hands to put on his hair, making sure none of it got in his eyes, because it is ocean water after all. And all while you were doing this, he was sitting there thinking how he didn't deserve you. He was sitting next to you, a drunken and high mess in the sand, wondering how he got so lucky.

"Why do you do this for me?" he asked, swaying a little bit.  

"Because I love you, Jim. No matter what. We all still have some demons to fight and we're going to fight them together."

"I'm so tired of fighting my demons." You could hear that he wanted to start crying. "I'm so fucked up. I feel like I'm never enough for you. You deserve so much more than what I give you."

"Jim do you remember what we said to each other the first time you ever spent the night at my house?" Well he probably doesn't because he's too intoxicated. You questioned yourself as to why you even asked, but then he gave you answer.

"If it ever gets too much, or you want out, or you feel like you can't do this anymore, the first sign, so we don't hurt each other, say something."

"And I haven't said anything and I don't plan on saying anything. Jim you are more than enough for me. Behind your hard exterior, is a caring guy and that's who I fell in love with." He sighed, slowly laying back into the sand, not caring how many times the water brushed up against him. You did the same, turning your head to meet his gaze. You ran your hand across his cheek, running your thumb over his perfectly shaped jaw. You could tell his was trying to calm down, trying to ride his intoxication, rather than letting it ride him. His breathing slowed from being erratic to almost normal. He grabbed onto your hand, giving it a gentle kiss before placing it on his chest.

"I love you so much, Y/N. And I know I'm a little fucked right now, but I mean that. Sober or not sober." he slurred. "I m-m-m" He hiccuped.

"Ssssh." You put your finger to his lips, just wanting him to focus on calming himself down. "Relax, baby. Close your eyes if you need to. I know and I'm right here with you."

I'll always be right here with you.

Taglist: @jimmason @angelicmichael @whatcodysaid

[p-artsypants]

I’ll Handle This (5)

In Which There is an Akuma

Ao3 | FF.net

Plagg was laying on the bed when he returned. “Oh good, you’re back. I was kind of worried about you—“ 

“There’s an Akuma!” Adrien interrupted. 

Plagg’s eyes lit up. “An Akuma, you say? How interesting...” 

“Yeah yeah, just do the thing that sucks me in the ring!” 

“I’ll warn you ahead of time, when I’m in your body like this, the suit becomes factory default. Oh, and you’ll be able to see and hear everything I do.” 

“Great. This whole ‘Invasion of the Bodysnatchers’ episode is getting better and better.” 

“Adrien, Claws out!” 

That was an odd sensation. Now Adrien knew what Taffy felt like. He felt his whole body grow long and thin, before spiraling smaller and smaller. There was every color in the rainbow, flashing in a nauseous wave, and then, he was looking through his eyes again. 

“Ha!” Said Plagg with a little satisfaction. “Feels good to be on the other side.” He walked over to the mirror, where Adrien could finally see what ‘factory default’ meant. 

He looked like a ninja. Not like a Naruto ninja, but like a real Sengoku period, 15th century ninja. An all black, cloth ensemble, with foot wraps and a thick belt. Instead of claws on his fingertips, there were long blades attached to the back of his hand, almost like wolverine. Instead of a mask around his eyes, he wore one over the lower half of his face, and only left his eyes exposed. But his eyes looked different enough. The sclera was a toxic green instead of white, and his pupils were slit. Thick black eyeliner traced the eyes and framed them, making the color pop. His hair was a complete disaster and stood up in every direction. 

Finally, the ears. They were real, genuine cat ears. Complete with fur. 

“Not too shabby, if I say so. Though, the first guys that wore this had black hair, which made the ears less jarring. But I can’t complain. We mustn’t leave our lady waiting!” 

Plagg threw open the window and leapt into the city. 

He rushed over the rooftops, doing impossible feats of parkour and agility. It actually made Adrien dizzy. 

“Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention,” Plagg said aloud. “You know how when you’re in the suit, you can be body slammed into a building and be okay afterwards?” 

Yeah? 

“Well...you’re going to feel all that pain instead. That’s why I’m always so wiped after a fight.” 

What?!

Plagg glanced at his baton, the screen looking more like parchment than the usual LED screen, and found where Ladybug was. 

A hop skip and a jump, he landed next to her. “What are we up against?” 

She didn’t look at him, eyes glued to the akuma. “Stretchy guy. Like Mr. Fantastic. Can’t figure out what ticked him off, but he’s able to reach anything and even shape shift. Might be difficult to fight.” Then she finally looked at him and her eyes bulged. “Chat? What’s with your suit?” 

“Plagg’s having a hard time right now, so I’m factory default.” 

“O...Kay...are you going to be okay fighting like that?” 

“It feels fine, my Lady. Nothing to worry about. In fact, do you mind if I take the lead on this one? Give you a little break?” 

She chuckled. “You know I could always use a break.” 

“Great! We need to lead him over to the construction site over at Notre Dame, where all the scaffolding are.” 

She smiled at him. “I think I know what you’re planning, Kitty. Lead the way.” 

He dropped the bottom part of his mask, and wolf whistled quickly, before Ladybug could place his face. “Hey stretch!” He shouted. “You up for a little race?” 

“Ladybug and Chat Noir! You’ll give me your Miraculous as soon as I reach you!” 

“Good luck with that!” And he vaulted backwards on to the street and darted towards Notre Dame. 

Plagg was fast. Faster than Chat Noir normally was, and Ladybug was surprised at how hard it was to keep up with him. 

“H-Hey Chat! Don’t leave me behind!” 

He only stopped a second to scoop her up into his arms before running off again. Her added weight didn’t even slow him down. 

“Sorry, Bug. The Akuma has long legs, so he’s faster than usual. I can’t slow down, so hang on!” 

She did, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. 

Adrien was going to kill Plagg if he didn’t die from ecstasy first. He could feel Ladybug pressed tightly against him, and he loved every bouncing second of it. 

Soon they reached the construction site, with the Akuma hot on their tail. 

“Split up,” Plagg commanded and Ladybug gave a firm nod, following right along with him. 

While Adrien was basically on autopilot, he noted that this fight felt a lot like being on the jungle gym when he was a kid. He swung on the bars, twisting up levels onto the scaffolding, the akuma chasing after with each turn. 

Except, the akuma was long, and he was starting to get tangled in all the bars. 

“Oh no!” Ladybug feigned a cry. “I’m stuck! He might be able to get my Miraculous!” 

“You’re mine!” Called the akuma, twisting around a pole and darting for her. As he was about to snag her, she dropped and spun on her bent knees away. 

“Whoops, not so stuck after all!”

“I’m going to—“ The akuma reached out their arm, stretching and stretching to grab at her ears. But he never reached her. He was out of length, and hopelessly tangled in the mass of wood and metal. “No! No!” He wriggled, trying to untie himself, but Plagg had already found the akumatized item in the akuma’s back pocket. A roll of measuring tape. 

“Akuma, coming in hot!” He called, as he smashed the tape. 

The black butterfly emerged, and Ladybug caught it and purified it easily. “Bye bye little butterfly!” 

One cure later, the relative damage done to the scaffoldings was repaired, and the akuma victim, a short man, was returned to ground level. 

“Wow! We didn’t even have to use our powers today! Great work, kitty!” She praised as he raised her fist.

He bumped her back with a grin. “Thank you, Bug. Hope you didn’t mind me taking charge. I just figured with you being the guardian and all, having some shared responsibility would really help you out.” 

She exhaled with a breath, her shoulders relaxing. “Ugh, you have no idea. When that akuma alert went off, I was already dreading it. It’s been a long day.” 

Plagg frowned. “A long day?” Even after their shopping spree and awesome lunch? “Do you need to talk about it?”

She ground her toes on the roof of the church. “Are you busy? Plagg said you were doing something…” 

“Oh, I was napping. I have all the time in the world for you, Ladybug.” 

“Want to get some ice cream, then?”

“Only if you let me pay.” 

She dramatically put a hand to her forehead, “oh, if you must!” 

Plagg chuckled with her, and then took off running.

“Hey! I never said it was a race!” She called back. 

“You never said it wasn’t either!” He shouted back.

When she finally located Andre’s ice cream cart, he was already sitting and waiting with her order. “Your ice cream, my lady?”

“You’re so fast! Have you just been holding out on me all this time?!” She huffed, taking the cone from him. 

He shrugged. “Oh, I have a couple of tricks up my sleeves.” 

They enjoyed their ice cream in comfortable silence for a while, before Ladybug asked, “hey, you’re a boy, right?”

“Last I checked.” 

She shook her head at her dumb question. “Right. Um…I have a friend. Guy friend.” 

Plagg crossed his legs. “OoooOOoooo is it him?”

Ladybug blushed. “Yes.” 

“Tell me everything.”

Inside his head, Adrien started to panic. This could only end badly for them!

“Well today…he was acting really weird. Usually, he’s really nice and reserved and polite…I know he can be silly and rambunctious, but…today, he was larger than life. He took us out for an expensive lunch, and then shopping for clothes that would make his dad angry. I think it’s a rebellious streak, but my gal friend said his money has gone to his head…” She scuffed her foot on the floor. “I’m just worried. I don’t want him to change…but I don’t want him to fake being someone he’s not just to make others happy. I guess I’m just confused. What do you think?” 

Plagg finished his cone in one gulp, hiding his face right after. “I think it’s just puberty.” 

She did not think that was amusing. “Yeah right.” 

“Has handsome rich boy ever shown signs of materialistic superiority?”

“No, he wears the same clothes all the time, and never flaunts the things he owns—“ 

“Then I think your gal pal is off base. It probably is rebellion. Just…be a safe place for him, and I’m sure it’ll end up okay.” 

“A safe place? What do you mean?” 

“I’m not sure what this dude is rebelling for. You’d probably know. Is his family…strict?”

“Very.” 

“And controlling?”

“Extremely.” 

“Okay, so if I was in his shoes, I’d want a friend that was trustworthy for me to confide in. Rebelling is liberating and exciting, but also extremely scary, because it’s risky. He needs to have someone to have his back in case things go south.” He massaged her shoulder. “And it would be best if that friend was soft and smelled nice.”

Ladybug smacked his shoulder. “When did you get so wise?”

“I hide a lot of wisdom under my ‘dumbass’ veneer.”

Ladybug cackled loudly, making Plagg smile and Adrien swoon.  

“You can be a dumbass sometimes,” Ladybug admitted. “But you’re my dumbass.” 

“Aww, thanks bug!” He grinned. “So, handsome rich boy is all that’s on your mind? I know identity clues have to be avoided and all, but I like knowing stuff that’s going on in your life. And I think I can manage another golden nugget of advice as well, if needed.” 

Ladybug frowned, obviously something else cropping up in her mind. “Actually…there’s something I haven’t told you that I probably should have.” 

“I’m all ears. I literally have four of them.” He twitched his cat ears.

She reached up and rubbed them, an affectionate look on her face as she felt the fur under her fingertips. “Not too long ago, I was expelled from school.” 

“Ladybug is a bad student in her civilian life?” He joked.

“No! I’m not!” She damn-near cried. “Sorry, I just…ugh. I was framed. There’s this girl in my class that…she lies with every breath. I know she has a crush on my crush, but she’s lying and manipulating to get her way to him. She works with him now too.” 

Plagg knew there was certainly more to the story than that, but he had to play dumb as Chat Noir. “Lying is bad and all, but it’s not really your problem, is it? She’ll get caught in her web eventually.”

“Argh, that’s what Ad—my boy said too. Take the high road. And it made sense, for what he knew about her at the time…but what he didn’t know was that she threatened me. Threatened to take all my friends and him away, just because I told her to stop lying.”

This was a shock to both kwami and holder. “She threatened you?” 

“Yeah. And she went through with it. She got me expelled. Apparently, according to my boy, he sort of convinced her to double lie to get me un-expelled. She’s been quiet ever since, which has been a few weeks, but…she keeps staring at me. It’s unnerving.” 

“I suppose it would be, with her track record.” 

“I didn’t want you to find out about this, but I have to tell you. She’s almost gotten me akumatized, twice.” 

Plagg slapped a hand over his mouth with a gasp. 

Lila was a nuisance for Adrien, but she was a problem for Marinette. No, an imminent threat. This changed his attack strategy…though it started to look like Adrien’s three problems were weaved together. The whole situation was a little more delicate than he had considered at first. 

“I’ve beaten both akumas off, but I worry about the future. I’m trying to come up with a contingency plan, but for right now it’s just ‘don’t get upset’.” 

“I’ll try to come up with a plan too. Maybe next time, you could hand your earrings off to Tikki for a little while, if things start to get dicey. She can bring them to me, since she knows who I am.” 

Ladybug gnawed at her lip. “Tikki’s been my greatest ally in fighting them off. If she’s not there…” 

Plagg rested a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Bug, you’re the practical one here. What happens when you don’t give Tikki your earrings, and you don’t fight it off? When you’re so consumed with pain you don’t even see the Akuma coming? What then?” 

She shook her head. “You’re so right, I hate it.” She sighed. “That happened the last time too…I was only spared because Hawkmoth suddenly stopped his attack. That was the day I got expelled.”

“And I’ll follow the plan too. I haven’t gotten akumatized or anything, but it might only be a matter of time.”  

“Yeah…” It was awful to think about. Having to fight her partner was not something that Marinette wanted to do. But this loose plan was better than no plan. “Hey, it’s getting pretty late. I have a project I have to finish up.” 

“Oh, of course, go on home.” Plagg insisted. 

“Thanks for the Ice Cream, and for lending an ear. You’re the best, Kitty.” 

Plagg smiled at her, though she couldn’t see through his mask. His eyes crinkled in mirth. “I try.” 

“Tell Plagg I still have that cheese danish if he wants it. Night, Chat.” 

“Night, Bug.” 

And she swung off into the distance. 

Plagg took out his baton and made his own way home. He knew Adrien didn’t really want to be transformed any longer than he had to be. 

He landed inside the mansion, and called, “Claws in.” 

Adrien came flying out of the ring, and Plagg caught him carefully in his hands. “How you feeling, kiddo?”

“Like I got hit by a truck,” said Adrien, weakly. “You didn’t even use my power, why am I so tired?” 

“How much cheese did you eat today?”

“None.” Adrien scrunched up his nose. “Come to think of it, I didn’t eat anything today.” 

“That would certainly do it.” Plagg said, with a sigh. He took out a wheel of camembert and took out a wedge for Adrien, holding it in front of his face. 

Normally, Adrien couldn’t stand the smell. It was putrid and foul and moldy…but this…this was on a different level. Curse Plagg’s disgusting body! He sat up and helped himself to a nibble of cheese. A nibble turned into a bite, and a bite turned into a full inhale, almost taking off his fingers. 

“Better?” 

Adrien sighed as his energy started to return. “Remind never to complain about your eating habits.” 

Plagg grinned. “Oh it's a deal!” 

Adrien’s phone rang, and Plagg reached to answer. 

“Who is it?” Asked Adrien. 

“It’s Marineeeeeeetteeeee~!” Plagg sang, and connected the call, putting it on speaker for Adrien to hear. 

“Hey Pooh Bear.” 

“H-hey uh, Tigger? No no that was dumb. Sorry, hi Adrien.” 

Plagg and Adrien shared a look of fondness. She was just too cute sometimes. 

“Whats up?” Pried Plagg. 

“Uh, not-not much! I just finished your second shirt! I can do more tomorrow, but for now…” 

“I’ve got an outfit picked out for tomorrow, don’t worry. And you’ll love it.” 

“Will I really? Or will it turn me into a pillar of salt?”

“Have a little faith in me, Mari.”

“I—of course. Did you just call me Mari?”

“Yeah, I thought it was about time I gave you a nickname. Is that okay? Or are you okay with Pooh Bear?”

Marinette’s giggle was adorable, as it was filled with thinly veiled embarrassment. “Call me whatever you like! I don’t mind!” 

“Great! What’s my nickname?”

“I don’t know? Do you want one?”

“Only from you, Pooh Bear!” He sang. 

“Um…I’ll have to think about it. I think I’ve heard Lila and Chloe both call you ‘Adri’, so I’ll try to come up with something else.” 

“I appreciate that.” Plagg said, as Adrien smiled fondly at the phone. It sure was considerate of her to think about that.

“And Adrien?” Her tone conveyed so much. So much more than Adrien could understand. But it brought a warmth to his face. 

“Yes?”

“I’m here for you. You know that, right? Whatever you need. An ear, a h-h-hug. Whatever. I…I care about you.” 

Adrien wiped a paw under his eyes, fully prepared for tears to take him. 

“I care about you too,” Plagg said, not faking the genuine appreciation in his voice. “I appreciate everything you do for me.”

“I-…” She trailed off, and Adrien wondered if she was going to say something else. But instead, she just exhaled and said. “It’s getting kind of late. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course, Pooh Bear!” 

She laughed. “Thanks Adrien, goodnight.” 

“Goodnight.” And he ended the call. 

“She took your advice.” Adrien noted.

“She took Chat Noir’s advice. She trusts him after all.” 

Adrien sat on the desk, still feeling a storm brewing inside of him. He was still upset about Plagg’s behavior with his father…but he was starting to come around. Marinette never called him, and her conversations with him were never so easy. Was this actually working?

“Adrien,” Plagg started, scratching between his ears. “I’m sorry for hurting you. If there was a way to humble your father without hurting you in the process, I’d do it…but right now…”

“I understand, Plagg.” Adrien said with a hopeful smile. “It sucks but…that Chloe-tantrum you threw was really funny.”

Plagg beamed at him. 

“And,” Adrien added. “After hearing the whole truth about Lila, I’m fully on board with whatever you want to do to her.”

“Fully?”

“Absolutely. This bitch needs to go.”

The mansion was nearly silent in the night, so Plagg’s evil cackle echoed and echoed, sending goosebumps down the neighbor’s spines.

[a-crash-in-time-collection]

Chapter 1: The Crash

She was floating in space. Only it didn't seem like normal space, which she knew all about. It seemed to shine with different colors. She couldn't move much, it was almost as if she was forced into her current position. Voices of old filled her head. Voices she wanted to remember. Voices she never wants to forget. But at the same time, the voices brought back memories of a different time. A different time...

"Us kids should stick together, not stalk one another. I mean, Mafia Town can be a really dangerous place" "If you want it, we'll have to settle it in true Mafia style!" "You Moon Penguins are just gonna write some loud, noisy drivel!" "This last time piece is all for me, darling." "Your contract has expired, sleep now in the fire!" "And do it quickly pup."

Her face formed a smile, before tears started to fall. Wait... why was she...

"Don't leave us!" "Hey kiddo, let's make another contract!" "Don't you dare leave, lass!" "Let's watch our movie, darling!"

That's why... she couldn't have just stayed. She at least needed to try and get home. And her kind weren't keen on creatures from other planets... who knows what would have happened to them? But with the end result, did it even matter-

A large ringing brought her out of the space-like place, finding herself sitting on the soft surface of her bed. Glancing around as she stopped the ringing of the clock, everything was in place. Her relics on their podiums, toys she made based on her time on that planet on the shelves in her room. Most of her badges she bought from the strange badge guy on a pin board beside her bed. Her umbrella was next to her dresser with the mirror.

A glance out the nearby window showed the mostly green and blue planet. It reminded her a lot of the planet that she could now only visit in her dreams. Unlike that planet, there was little if any magic. Talking animal creatures were only heard of in movies. Ghosts were just tall tales. So similar, yet different at the same time...

She got up, yawning as she stretched and walked over to her closet. Opening it, she grabbed a purple blazer and yellow scarf. She paused, looking at them both slightly. The blazer was taller than she used to be, when she first found herself crashed on the planet...

She remembered checking the vault as she passed by, only one time piece was left. She knew that wouldn't be enough to make it home, and she didn't know if she would pass another planet she could survive on in between them. So she grabbed it, and braced for impact. The ship crashed on 'Earth' in the middle of the night, and looking back on it now, she was lucky no big place caught sight of her. She remembered bleeding, maybe having a broken or fractured bone with the sharp pain coming from the left side of her body. She found herself being too hurt to move on her own right away... it was possible that she would have died...

But then two people entered her vision as she picked herself up. Both wore hats like she did, one of them actually had two. Apparently the two hat man, Reginald, had seen the ship pass in front of his airship while it fell from the sky. The two were naturally confused on why she was there, and concerned if she was alright. She remembered them offering to take her to the airship's medbay, but she was more worried about her relics, which were not the only things she had of her time with her old friends. The one with his orange hair in a ponytail that hung over his shoulder, who called himself 'Right Hand Man', offered to do it for her. However, she took liberty and carried them all herself to the airship. Needless to say, the two were surprised by the child's strength.

She now called these two 'Dad' and 'Papa', and they called her their daughter.

She allowed herself to exit her thoughts as she pulled her brown shoes over her purple socks and pants, standing up and walking over to the door of her room. It was a new day.

"I was wondering when you were going to wake up." An energetic voice spoke as soon as she opened the door. She was met with a more-humanoid Topbot, with a face that smiled at her, and silver hair that helped make them seem more like a teenager. He wore a blue and orange jacket, with the faintest hint of a green shirt being seen, and dark dull indigo pants that ended in his metal shoes that were literally his feet.

A few years ago, Hat Girl had found herself more lonely. Her dads, while they made time for her, were often busy at work. Most of the younger kids aboard the airship didn't let her play too often, and the teenagers were often on training missions or just plain avoided her. In an attempt to give her someone to hang out with, Reginald took aside a random Topbot, redesign and reprogrammed it to act as a brother to Hat Girl. He spent so long and hard on it that it felt like part of his soul belong to the machine in the end. Which could possibly explained how Platinum wasn't just following an interactive script, but was fully self aware and alive. He did have a small panic attack at first due to the sudden self awareness, but soon after he was able to cause trouble with Hat Kid.

"You ready for today, brother of mine?" Hat Girl asked, a smile forming on her face.

"Uhh, yeah." He said, a smirk forming on his face as well.

"Good, we can get started on our prank plans after breakfast." She stated, passing him and walking down the hall, humming a slight tune as she glanced out at the seemingly-night sky.

"Aww, come on!" Platinum said, racing next to her quickly, rolling his bright orange eyes. "You always have to eat before we can have fun. I don't see what the big deal is."

"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, Brother." She said, sticking her tongue out playfully. She never fully grew out of her childish phase. "I pity you sometimes, food is great and you're unable to experience it."

"Please. I got my Tanks and Family, that's all I need." Platinum replied, rolling his eyes as the two walked into the cafeteria area, which was currently a bit busy as you would expect from it early in the morning. "I honestly don't see why your body decides you need food. Just seems inconvenient in my option."

Hat Girl shook her head slightly with a chuckle as she walked over to the sideboard, where Burt and Fredrick were talking.

"I'm starting to get concerned over your coffee obsession, Burt." The Cheese wearing Toppat said, arms crossed as he glared at the man in front of him. The man always sounded like his throat was sore, at least to Hat Girl it did. She remembered questioning if he was alright when they first met.

"Coffee is nice, Fredrick." Burt said, the dyed orange part of his black hair covering one of his eyes, as per the usual. He always seemed to act like he had no emotions, and spent most of his days in his office or grabbing himself the drink that was currently the topic of their talk. "The fact that you never tried coffee worries me."

"I'm more of a Hot chocolate person, and besides, the smell alone is enough to turn me off." Fredrick stated, grabbing the lake of floating marshmallows in a cup along with the plate of 'Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Bombs' he liked. "But I know all that coffee isn't healthy for you, I swear you drink more coffee then you eat actual food."

Burt rolled his eyes at the statement, before glancing around the area as he grabbed his coffee and toast. "Fine. I'll eat a little more today." With that, temporarily balancing his plate on his other arm, he grabbed one of the muffin-like items off Fredrick's plate and walked away.

Fredrick was frozen in shock for a few seconds, before huffing and glancing to the side. It was only then he realized the children of the leaders. "Oh, sorry you two, I didn't see you there. Off going to cause some trouble later I assume?"

"Possibly, possibly not." Platinum shrugged as Hat Girl chuckled, before giving her breakfast request to the cook-toppat that came by.

"I'll be taking that as a yes." Fredrick said, shaking his head. "Just uhh, do me a favor and don't go on a spree of spray-painting the inside of the vents, again. Took me and Sammy nearly the whole day to clean it last time."

"Alright, no spray paint in vents..." Platinum said, raising his arms in front of him slightly in defeat. He watched as Frederick left, before turning to his sister. "Want to finally see how many people we can surprise with airhorns tape to their chairs and doors?"

"Oh heck yeah!" Hat Girl said, giving her brother a thumbs up. And the Toppats that heard her shout began to feel a faint feeling of fear among them. They knew then that chaos caused by those two would come later that day.

-------

What they didn't know was on earth, a conversation was happening. About the true chaos.

"You sure this is... safe?" One government person asked another as they glanced at the cannon. Although cannon felt like an understatement. The place where the 'cannonball' would come out of look like it itself was 27 miles long. "For Earth I mean."

"Should be." The other replied, hoping away from the gears they were adjusting. "The material should begin to burn up after it makes contact with the toppat orbital station. The worst we should have to deal with are burning pieces of metal and stuff falling down to earth in the size of normal meteoroids."

"Am I the only one who feels this is a bit... extreme?" The first asked as they hop into the tunnel to the underground control system of the cannon. "I understand they've been a pain to deal with since they got up, but can't we just set up traps for them on earth."

"It's not just about the Toppats alone." The second stated as they followed the first, wanting to be as far away from the cannon before it blew its canon ball. "If other criminal organizations see what the clan has done, they'll likely follow in suit. Soon all crime might be unstoppable because those who caused it are up in space. Is that the world you want to live in?"

"No."

"Then we need to make a statement. And this is the only way. Now let's get to the control room, and get this party started..."

-------

Hat Girl had found herself staring out the cafeteria window as she finished her plate of breakfast, slightly blocking out what Platinum was talking about as he sat in front of her. This was a bit normal for the two, half the time they were inseparable during the day. Especially since the incident where Dad was captured, and Papa had to be turned into a cyborg to live. It was a bit of a struggle for the clan then, and even with Dad back it was a lot of work to make up all the money that had been stolen the night before they were meant to launch their station-

Her train of thought stopped as she faintly spotted something outside the window. She got off her seat and walked over to the window, placing her hand on it faintly as she glanced down at the planet they raided. There was some sort of... gray and slightly green ball thing. At first it was just a speck of dust, but it was getting bigger.. and bigger... it was coming to them, faster and faster.

"Hattie?" Platinum questioned, walking up next to his sister in confusion. "What's going on, you don't just leave a plate of food alone suddenly like that." She was a bit wordless at first, but managed to point to the strange thing. Platinum had to squint his eyes to see it. "That's... just a space rock."

"Coming FROM Earth?" Hat Girl asked, looking at her brother. "As a former space traveler, I have NEVER seen that happen, and I know that's not a normal occurrence for this planet. And not to mention it's perfectly... in the path of.. hitting... Get Dad and Papa and warn them, NOW!"

"Time to act serious for once then." The topbot said, quickly racing away from his sister and the group of toppats.

She glanced at the ball again, seeing it was getting closer and larger with each passing second. She found herself frozen like the poor souls in Vanessa's Manor, or the times she used her ice hat years ago. What was she going to do?

"Dad, Pops!" Platinum called as he reached the Cockpit of the rocket, taking an unneeded breath as he reached the door.

"Platinum?" Reginald asked, turning away from his cyborg husband as he glanced at his Robotic son. "What's going-"

"We need to move, or use Supreme Dominance." Platinum cut him off, with worry in fear shining in his orange eyes. "Now-"

At the very seconds, the 'cannonball' of metal and small bits of trash collided with the orbital station, hitting the middle of the rocket.

Hat Girl fell to her feet as the station twisted and chaos fell around her. Everything outside the window became a blur, as Toppats screamed in panic. She suddenly found her grip from the wall she'd grabbed onto slip, and she was slammed against another wall. Everything went black to her after that.

-------

It took a bit for her mind to process things as she awake, her body aching in places like she had a faint sunburn. She slowly opened her eyes with a groan, scanning the mix of dark and light. She appeared to be where the window of the cafeteria once was. Keyword there being once was because now it was a pile of glass on the grass below her. Some of the glass were close to her arms, and likely was responsible for the small cuts she saw on them. She glanced around as much as she could without getting up.

Chaos was the best word that could describe the current state of the station. Well, other then 'destroyed'. Parts of the orbital station the Toppats called home where broken and scattered across what she could only assume was a forest clearing. The earth was dragged up from a few parts finding themselves lodge into it. She was able to see a few Toppat members getting up or helping others up, while trying to take in what had just happened. Not like she could blame them, she knew exactly what happened, but was still trying to process it herself.

Their home was attacked, and was sent far from earth. Yet, judging by the fact none of them were suffocating, it meant this planet had oxygen or some other air humans could breathe in. Which made sense, they did land in a forest. But that meant they were out of the solar system...

Her train of thought was cut off by a sliver of a blur that entered her field of vision. At first she was a bit spooked out, until her vision adjusted, and she saw the familiar metal hand, only with a few faints scratches. She took the cold hand, although by now she was used to the chill, as Platinum helped her to her feet. "You ok, sis?"

"Y-Yeah." She said, letting go of his hand as she rubbed her arms slightly. She picked up her nearby fallen top hat, and made sure to check the side. She sighed in relief as her hand made badge, one that had the hats of her fathers on it, was still there, and placed that hat back on her head. "Some shards of glass cut me a bit when the window broke."

"Well... considering what just happened, it could have been a lot worse." Platinum looked around. "This is all so unreal..."

"Yeah..." She slowly walked past her brother as she glanced up at the sky, then around at all the greenery around them. Why... was she feeling like she had been here before? Her mind told her it was simply because it looked like earth, but her heart was insisting it was something more.

"Oi. Are ya ok, Reg?" Right Hand Man asked, as he helped the Chief onto his feet, worry in his human and robotic eyes.

"I'm fine. But... the others..." Reginald coughed slightly, before looking around the crash site, as much as he could without moving from his spot anyway.

As the leader of the Toppats, one skill he gained over the years was being somewhat-able to get a rough estimation of how many clan members were in his sight. And after seeing at least 100 Toppats in his vision, he knew others were likely on the other side of the rocket. Assuming at least 88 toppats were on that other side, it meant that a few were still stuck inside, likely injured or, worryingly, dead. Not to mention the children...

"Right Hand Man! Check the rumble for any trapped members!" He ordered, his voice and tone clear that there was no time to waste. He was still not fully used to his lover's cybernetics, watching his legs turn into a booster as he flew into one of the openings near the top. But he loved him all the same. He glanced at a nearby group of Toppats. "See if you can find anything from Medbay, and get it setup for any injured members!" The toppats seemed to be slightly surprised by his tone, but they quickly got to work, scanning the nearby areas.

"Sir." A voice appeared behind him. He turned around to see a man in a black jacket with his white shirt visible. "I know you likely don't want anyone else going into the wreckage, but-"

"Yes Quincy, go find the kids. Just be careful." Reginald answered, the fellow father wasting no time to do so in response, likely worried for his own daughter. The kids were in a pod similar to the leader's pod, it was one of the first things Reginald planned out when he made the blueprints. They would spend most of their days in there, it was the safest for them, especially if the place was to below up, they would already be in a pod and on their way to earth.

Hat Girl found herself walking near the nearby Woodline. That's when she noticed the traces of purple deeper down, and found herself frozen in realization.

Reginald noticed his daughter near the Woodline, and walked up to her. "Are you alright, Hattie?"

"I recognized this place." She said, looking at him. "I been here before."

Reginald's brown and blue eyes showed sudden confusion, tilting his head to the side ever so slightly. "You... what?"

"This was the planet I was on before I crashed onto earth." She responded. She then pointed out where the green of life and calmness turned into the creepy purple and black of dread and the unknown to all but her. "That ghost who's song Papa sings lives there."

"Really, the one with that Mafia, one of which went into space to try and get a toll from you?" Reginald question. He never thought his daughter was lying about the planet, but he figured he never find himself on said planet so he mostly just consider it stories.

"Yeah!" She exclaimed, childlike joy in her voice. She never really outgrew her childish side.

"Well... I suppose that means there's a town nearby, at least We should be able to get resources there." Reginald sighed, turning over his shoulder as Right Hand Man landed behind him. A look over the cyborg's shoulder showed some toppats in a little medbay-like area, some medically skilled Toppats using their skills to help the more injured Toppats, the 3rd in command Sven among them. He looked back at his partner in crime. "Was that everyone... alive in the rumble."

"Got everyone t'at was in t'e rubble." Right Hand Man stated. "Surprisingly, everyone lived."

Reginald was a bit surprised at this, but a smile formed on his face. "That's very relieving."

"So... what's the plan Dad?" Platinum asked, glancing at the Toppat leader slightly. "We can't just stay here with no place to rest, or prepare food." He paused for a second. "Well, you guys can't, at least."

Reginald brought his hand to his chin in thought, before dropping it and walking up a nearby rock. He cleared his throat, before calling out. "Can I have everyone's attention!?"

The clan members stopped whatever they were doing, except the few tending to the hurt Toppats, but he knew they were listening as well.

He took a breath before speaking. "As your Leader, I would be lying to you all if I were to claim I knew how to fix this, or the exact steps we should take next. We are the first of our kind to find ourselves stranded on a planet that can maintain life. But we cannot let this disturb us. It may be a long while, but I promise you, we will find our way home. But for now, survival is our goal, to watch after one-another, as clan and family." He paused briefly as he glanced at them all, lost souls unsure of what to do, before resuming. "Those of you who are well enough, see if you can move the walls detached from the station in order to make a temporary form of shelter. We do not know when a storm will come by, if this planet has storms at all. Look for supplies that fallen outside of the ship, only go in to retrieve items that are necessary for our survival. Go along the Woodline and look for wood for a fire. And trust in one another." With that, he backed up from his position on the rock.

Platinum watched as the clan members took a few seconds to process the orders, and the fact they were on another planet, before most started to look around. He spotted Burt and Fredrick walking up to a broken piece of wall, and seemed to start debating where the best place would go to serve as shelter. He saw Calla Fox, the one who stole the Ruby alongside Sven, slowly walk away from the Swedish man to help others look for supplies. He found himself glancing to where the purple part of the woods were hidden, his curiosity growing.

Reginald began to walk over to the wreckage that a few hours ago was the base of operations for the Toppat clan. "Hopefully we stolen enough we can sell in order to pay for what we need to fix the station..." He placed his head in his hands. "It's going to be so expensive..." He let out a muffle shout, not wishing to distract his clan members.

"Still t'ink ya s'ould 'ave let me 'unt after t'at pink-'aired government-kissin' t'ief." Right Hand Man grumbled, glancing at him. "Especially since we lost two members t'anks ta 'im."

Hat Girl watched her dads walked closer to the broken station, and went to follow them to help, before feeling a chilly hand grabbed her hand. "You said one of your friends lived in the creepy woods, right?"

She turned to look behind her, taking a second to glance at where the woods were before returning to her brother. "Yeah."

"And the creepy woods is in the direction of that purple stuff, riiiight?" Platinum voice showed intent, and seems to show he already knew the answer.

"Yea, The forest is kinda pretty in it's own way though, if memory serves me right-" She suddenly looked at him, processing the grin that appeared on his face. In response, she gave her own smart smirk. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"We sneak away from the clan while they take care of the crash rocket mess and chill with your old pals?"

"YES!" She said, high fiving her brother as she bounced in the air slightly. "I been wanting to see them all again, but never thought I actually could until now! I just... hope they aren't still mad at me for sweeping them off of my spaceship."

"Come on, with your cute face as a child, and you still a bit childish face now?" Platinum asked, warping an arm around her shoulder. "They'll forgive you in a heartbeat."

She nodded, a smile on her face as removed her brother's arm around her shoulder. "Catch me if you can then, brother." She said, sticking out her tongue with a 'bleeh" and raced into the woods. She heard a shout from her brother, something about 'cheating' by 'not telling him' and heard his metal feet click ageist the ground to catch up to her. She let out a giggle before shouting once they were a safe distance away from the clan. "Snatcher, here we come!"

[anubislover]

Not So Easily Replaced

(Ikkaku is pissed at how idiotic her crew has been while on Amazon Lily, so she does what she's always done - vents about it to Law to let off some steam. Unfortunately, when an argument breaks out between them, she's left to wonder if she's really appreciated by her nakama)

“Ugh!” Ikkaku growled, stomping into Law’s office with his second afternoon coffee and a selection of onigiri on a tray. Normally lunch delivery wasn’t her job, but since all the men had been “too busy” fawning over the women of Amazon Lily outside, the menial task had fallen to her; otherwise their workaholic captain wouldn’t eat. “I swear, Boss, if we don’t set sail soon, I’m going to strangle every guy on board!”

“Hmmm,” Law grunted absently as he poured over his notes. Ikkaku didn’t hold his monosyllabic response against him—he’d spent the past few days fixing up that Straw Hat kid and the Fishman. On top of that, the extensive treatments had basically depleted their medical supplies, Straw Hat’s freak-out upon waking up had wrecked more than half the operatory, and the Kuja had been pretty stingy with letting them replenish their food and water from the island, so she was sure he had plenty on his mind. The dark bags under his eyes attested to that.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to vent, though. Honestly, if she didn’t, she’d probably snap and end up going on a killing spree or something. Only Bepo and Law would be spared; the Mink had no interest in human women and thus hadn’t been an obnoxious Neanderthal, and Law had been too focused on keeping his patients and crew alive to drool over Boa Hancock.

Hell, when her captain was like this, Ikkaku could literally say anything and he wouldn’t even register it. It took a lot to snap Law out of his thoughts, and he’d never really seemed to mind when she ranted at him to let off steam. Mainly because once she was done, she was usually calm enough to take care of the situation herself, leaving Law in peace and with a non-murdered crew. A happy engineer made for a happy submarine, after all.

Setting the coffee and onigiri down onto the desk, Ikkaku continued, “They act like they’ve never seen a hot chick in their lives. I mean, what am I, chopped liver? They should be thanking the gods that they get to look at my gorgeous face every damn day!” The statement was accompanied by a dramatic toss of her curly hair. When Ikkaku felt strongly about something, she tended to gesticulate a lot, and this was no exception.

“Uh huh.”

She leaned against the edge of Law’s desk, hands waving about as she ranted. “Not that I want them to start lusting after me, but it hurts a girl’s pride, ya know? They could at least acknowledge what a hot piece of ass I am instead of acting like I’m some ugly hag.” She clenched her fist as she recalled how, just that morning, Shachi and Clione had basically given a lecture to the whole crew over breakfast about the superior physique the Kuja displayed compared to the average woman. There had been charts and everything, and to her dismay the silhouette for the “average” woman looked suspiciously like her.

“And that’s not the end of it!” she rambled on, smacking her hand against the desk for emphasis. “When I’m not ignored or insulted, they try to convince me to go out into the jungle to talk to the Kuja for them! I mean, I’m probably the one least likely to be killed outright, but it’s not guaranteed! They might fill me with arrows just for being affiliated with men! Are they really willing to risk my life like that?”

Her question didn’t get an answer—not because Law wasn’t paying attention, but because at that moment, her emotive gesticulating accidentally smacked her wrist into his coffee mug, knocking it over.

“Mother fucker!” Law shouted, scalding coffee spilling all over his crotch and papers.

“Oh my god, Law, I’m so sorry—”

“Will you shut up?!” he snapped, grabbing his nearby lab coat to frantically soak up the scalding coffee that had spilled across his crotch. “Don’t just stand there—get some towels!”

Nodding mutely, she ran to the en-suite bathroom and snatched up every towel she could find in the cupboard. “Here,” she said, trying to hand them to him so he could clean himself up.

“My desk, damn it! Save my notes!”

Immediately she swept the pile furthest from the spill to the floor and began patting down the desk, but she knew it was already too late; the coffee had completely soaked through several of the papers that had been strewn across the stainless steel surface.

“Law, really, I’m so sorry!” she apologized hoarsely, flinching as he turned the full force of his sleep-deprived glare upon her.

“Maybe if you’d fucking been watching what you were doing instead of ranting on and on, none of this would have happened!” he shouted, well and truly pissed. Not that she blamed him—a week’s worth of important medical and inventory notes was now a brown, sopping mess. On top of that, first-degree crotch burns would sour anyone’s mood, especially when they were only running on an average of three hours of sleep.

“It’ll be ok,” she assured, assessing the damage. To an average person, the mess was a disaster, but while the charts and notes that had been in the immediate spill zone were soaked through and ruined, many of the others could be salvaged thanks to Law’s powers. “Just Room the coffee out of the papers—”

“Do you have any idea how much time and effort you just flushed down the toilet?” he snapped, even as the familiar blue bubble filled the office. Drops of coffee were pulled from the sheets of paper like magic, but to Ikkaku’s dismay, much of the ink left behind was still smudged beyond recognition. “You’re lucky that wasn’t Mugiwara-ya’s medical file you just destroyed!”

“Law, really, I’m sorry,” she said, trying to calm him down. Her usually chill captain was far more volatile when stressed and sleep-deprived. “It was a stupid accident on my part. I’ll help you rewrite all of this.”

“Hell no,” he growled, gold eyes narrowing furiously, the tendons in his thin neck tightening as he ground his teeth together. “The last thing I need is you going on another stupid rant and ruining my notes again. Get the fuck out—I’ve got more important things to do than listen to you bitch and moan about how the guys aren’t paying attention to you.”

“Tha—that’s not what I’m angry about at all!” she snapped.

“Then what is your fucking problem?!”

“My problem is that the guys were being jackasses and I’m not appreciated around here!”

“Well if you don’t like it, leave!”

Ikkaku’s back stiffened, each syllable cutting into her heart like Law’s sharpest scalpel. Those words…it was the exact same thing her old boss would say whenever she complained about her asshole coworkers’ creepy leers or “accidental” groping. The greasy old mechanic was a sexist pig, but still the only one in that shit port that had been willing to take her on as an apprentice. It had always been an unspoken threat—if she left, no one else would hire her, so she could kiss her dreams of becoming a world-class engineer good-bye.

Trafalgar Law had changed that with his offer to join the Heart Pirates.

And now he was telling her to leave, too. To give up her dream, her nakama, and her home because she wasn’t willing to put up with a little sexism.

As if he could replace her in a heartbeat.

The thought hurt more than expected. She’d worked her ass off aboard the Polar Tang. For five years she’d toiled in the heart of the engine room, maintaining every little piece. She kept the gears turning, the motors humming, and the propellers running. Just from sound and the slightest vibrations through the ship, she knew exactly what was wrong with the engine at any given time.

Ikkaku had never asked for praise or recognition for her hard work—it was just her job. But she was as knowledgeable about the mechanisms of the submarine as Law was of the human body. She had always assumed he’d quietly acknowledged this fact and respected her for it.

Clearly, she’d been wrong.

She nearly screamed all this at him, but before she could open her mouth, the blue light of Law’s Room encased her, and in a blink, she was out in the hall, the cabin door slamming shut in her face.

Knowing better than to try and force her way back into his quarters, Ikkaku instead stormed down the steel hallway, fists clenched and muttering furiously to herself. Maybe she would leave. March right up to Boa Hancock and ask to join the Kuja. That would show them! She didn’t need Law, or the Tang, or men at all! She’d get along just fine without those jerks! Sure, Amazon Lily didn’t have any of the high-tech machinery she was used to, and working for a shichibukai wasn’t exactly something she was thrilled about, but at least they’d appreciate her, right? She had other skills—she was a hell of a tattoo artist, and was a damn fine shot, and could kickbox, and…

Her pace slowed as her heart forced her brain to accept the truth—she didn’t want to leave. She’d go crazy without machines and engines to work on. And sure, she was no slouch in a fight, but the Kuja were warrior women trained from birth. Ikkaku would look like a total weakling next to them.

And no matter how much the crew pissed her off, she wouldn’t trade her nakama for anything. Sure, they could be thoughtless jerks sometimes, but they could also be really sweet. Bepo may not have been much for girl talk, but he was always willing to lend an ear if she needed companionship. Her fellow engineers, Malamute and Skua, were dependable and shared her love of machines. Shachi was always down to help her pull a prank, and when he wasn’t drooling over the Kuja, Penguin could be counted on to talk her through her problems.

As for Law…by this point, he was more like her big brother than her actual brothers had been. They shared a similar devious sense of humor, was discreet about any feminine issues she might have that, as the ship’s doctor, he was forced to deal with, and he’d even played wingman for her a few times at the taverns they’d stopped in.

Had she just ruined all of that? Was Law just angry, or had this been coming for a long time? Law had threatened to fire her plenty of times in the past, usually in response to her back sassing him, but he’d never been serious about it. This time had been different—he’d been legitimately pissed at her. Maybe those teasing threats hadn’t been jokes, but subtle warnings, and her ruining all those papers had simply been the straw to break the camel’s back?

Ikkaku was deep in thought, mentally going over every encounter she’d had with Law with a fine-toothed comb, searching for any clue whether he seriously thought she should leave, when she quite literally bumped into Bepo.

The Mink took in her flushed, angry expression and asked, “Are you ok, Ikkaku?”

Oddly enough, it was that simple, gentle question that shattered her composure like a bullet through a bone, and without even thinking she buried her face in his soft fur and just broke down crying. “He told me to leave, Bepo,” she sobbed, scared and hurt and frustrated. For all the grief her crewmates had given her and all the dangerous positions being a pirate had put her in, Ikkaku loved being a Heart. Where would she go? She’d never find another ship like the Polar Tang. Another crew like the Heart Pirates. Another captain like Trafalgar Law.

Bepo, though shocked that the normally fiery and confident engineer was using his fur as a tissue, didn’t say anything—he just carefully rubbed her back and hoped that letting her treat him like a massive teddy bear would calm her down enough to explain what had happened.

XXX

“Ok, real talk—has anyone noticed anything…different about Ikkaku lately?” Penguin asked as he sat down to lunch.

“You’d have to actually see her to notice something,” Shachi replied, brow furrowing. He glanced over at Uni, raising an eyebrow behind his sunglasses. “You been giving her stealth lessons or something?”

Uni frowned behind his bandana. “No, but she’s definitely avoiding us. It’s been a week since we left Amazon Lily, and I can count the number of times I’ve seen her on one hand.”

“Same,” Ermine said as they finished molding Law’s onigiri into the perfect triangles the captain liked. “I actually thought we left her behind for a minute—nearly asked Jean Bart to turn the ship around to get her.”

Malamute rubbed his chin, mouth twisting in concern. “Nah, she’s here, but she’s mad at us about something—barely leaves the engine room most days, and she basically refuses to talk to me and Skua.”

His fellow engineer nodded. “We thought it might just be her time of the month, but that ended over a week ago according to the calendar.”

“You guys keep track of her menstrual cycles?” Clione asked, weirded out. The rest of the crew wore similar expressions of disbelief and disapproval.

“Out of self-preservation!” Skua shouted defensively. “We’re in a hot, confined space where she has easy access to heavy tools—of course we wanna know when we should have emergency placating chocolate on-hand!”

“We tried the chocolate anyway, though,” Malamute added. “She just…waved it away and kept working.”

The cook’s frown deepened at that bit of information. “Ikkaku never turns down chocolate,” Ermine said, “and she hasn’t shown up to lunch, dinner, or breakfast all week.”

“She’s been eating, though, right?” Penguin asked, concerned. He didn’t care how mad she was; it was no excuse to skip out on meals. It was bad enough Law was an insomniac that got most of his nutrients through coffee and onigiri. It would be a cold day in hell before he would stand for an anorexic engineer.

A large, white paw shyly raised in the air as Bepo interjected, “I’ve been bringing her meals so she doesn’t have to come by the galley. She’s…wanted some time to herself.” He dropped his head gloomily. “Sorry.”

“But she’s talked to you?”

“Ummm, a little bit,” he muttered, twiddling his claws. After she’d stopped crying, Ikkaku had spilled her guts about everything—her issues with the crew, her argument with Law, and why his words had affected her so badly. Though sympathetic, Bepo was certain Law hadn’t meant his thoughtless words—underneath his casual persona, he cared deeply about his crew and would never let any of them go for such a silly reason.

At first, Bepo’d tried to get her to go back and talk to the captain, but she’d shot that down quickly—with the mood Law had been in, it would do nothing but start another argument. The Mink had hoped that, now that they were sailing away from Amazon Lily and Law wouldn’t have to worry about Straw Hat’s injuries anymore, they’d both cool down and the whole thing would blow over.

Unfortunately, the past week had proven otherwise. Ikkaku had taken to hiding deep in the bowels of the ship, and Law had been so focused on redoing all those notes and charts that he hadn’t left his quarters in days. Bepo wasn’t a Mink who liked confrontation, and he certainly didn’t want to choose sides between his oldest friend and his favorite engineer, so he’d relegated himself to supplying food to both parties, hoping one of them would finally get tired of the oppressive silence and breach the topic.

As the crew frantically gathered around him, hoping to finally have an answer to the Mystery of the Missing Engineer, Bepo began to wonder if he should have just locked both humans in an empty room and made them talk it out.

Not that such a plan would have been very effective with Law’s powers, but it was better than nothing.

“Talk, Bepo,” Shachi growled, pulling a flashlight out of his pocket and shining it directly into the bear’s black eyes like he was in an interrogation room. “What’s up with Ikkaku?”

“Why’s she hiding from us?” Clione interjected.

“Why are you the only one she’s talking to?” added Jude.

“Is she pregnant and going through weird mood swings or something?” Skua asked loudly.

Bepo blanched at that last one. “No, she…she’s just kind of upset about…how you all acted on Amazon Lily.”

Exasperated, Ermine rolled their eyes. “What, was she jealous about all the attention we gave Hancock’s crew?”

“No, but…you guys were really insensitive. Like, that presentation—”

“It was a joke!” Shachi defended, though a guilty blush rose to his cheeks.

“And asking her to venture into the jungle to talk to the women for you—”

“Hey, she was the only one who they wouldn’t kill on-sight!” Jude sulked.

“And then she had to bring Law his lunch because you were all too busy staring at the Kuja.”

“Wow. Having to do that one menial task must have been such an inconvenience,” Malamute scoffed.

At the back of the grumbling crowd, Jean Bart awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. He hadn’t been on the crew long, so he didn’t really think it was his place to get involved, but he had the feeling Ikkaku had taken whatever had been said and done a little more personally than they thought. “Look, regardless of how we feel, we should all apologize to her. I mean, I don’t know her great, but does she usually give the silent treatment for this long?”

“Well, no,” Clione stated, looking a bit nervous. “Typically, she yells at us and smacks us around a bit, or maybe pulls some embarrassing prank, but she’s never quiet.”

“So, what’s this mean?”

“It means this is serious.” Penguin frowned at Bepo, who was looking around anxiously as if hoping to escape. “Ok, spill. You’re the only one she’s talked to, and you clearly have a better idea of what’s going on than we do. What’s Ikkaku really upset about?”

The Mink hung his head sorrowfully. “Sorry.”

“Damn it, don’t apologize! Just tell us!”

“It’s just…”

“Are you guys bullying Bepo again?” came a voice from the doorway. The crew turned to find Law strolling into the galley, looking thinner and more exhausted than usual, but he was at least out of his room and among the living.

Still shining his flashlight in Bepo’s face, Shachi yelled, “Captain! You gotta help us—Ikkaku’s basically been AWOL all week and won’t talk to anyone, and Bepo won’t tell us why!”

Law plopped into his chair and grabbed an onigiri, scoffing as he took a large bite. “She bitched at me for a while about how you all were being sexist pigs. Figured she would have gotten over it by now.”

“She complained to you about it?” Jean Bart asked, tilting his head.

“Yeah, and then she managed to spill hot coffee on my crotch and ruin the inventory list for the infirmary that I’d spent hours compiling.”

The crew unanimously gave a sympathy wince.

Taking another large bite of his lunch, Law continued, “We’ll be making port in a few days—she’ll come to her senses once she’s spent some time off the ship.”

“You…you want her to leave the ship?” Bepo asked, voice raising an octave in disbelief.

“Time apart will do us some good,” he replied with a shrug, activating his Room for a moment to remove the flashlight from Shachi’s hand.

“How…how much time?”

“Well, we’re not making port any longer than necessary. If she hasn’t gotten her shit together by then, that’s her problem.”

Bepo’s heart dropped into his stomach. What did Law mean “get her shit together”? Was he talking about packing her things? Was he really kicking her out over a silly argument over spilled coffee and ruined paperwork?

“Law!” the Mink shouted, jerking to his feet so quickly his knees knocked the table. “Please reconsider!”

Dark blue eyebrows rose at the normally soft-spoken navigator’s outburst. “There’s nothing to reconsider. Ikkaku’s a big girl—I agree that the sexism she faced was unacceptable, but she’s never had a problem handling that kind of shit herself.” His face twisted into a scowl. “And considering how I only just finished redoing all the work she destroyed, my tolerance for temper tantrums is at an all-time low.”

“She offered to help you rewrite it!” Bepo argued, slapping his paws down on the table. “Is some soggy paperwork worth losing your best engineer over?” Pausing, he glanced at Malamute and Skua. “Uh, no offense. Sorry.”

“None taken,” the duo said in unison, though their jaws dropped a second later as they registered the Mink’s words. “Wait, what?!”

“What do you mean ‘losing’ Ikkaku?” Penguin snapped, grabbing him by the orange collar of his boiler suit.

Shachi grabbed the flashlight again and climbed onto the table to shine it into Bepo’s face. “Talk, bear! Is Ikkaku quitting or something?”

“Because we won’t let her!” several of the crew shouted.

“Everybody calm down!” Law snapped, his deep voice silencing the rambunctious crew. “You all acted like idiots around the Kuja—I don’t blame her for being annoyed at you. But if your petty acts of sexism could drive her off that easily, she wouldn’t have lasted ten minutes at her old job. You’re blowing everything out of proportion.”

“You’re the one who told her to leave over a spilled cup of coffee!” Bepo angrily stated, only to immediately shrink back when he realized just who he’d yelled at. “Sorry.”

“Whoa, wait, Law, did you fire her?” Penguin asked, genuinely horrified as he numbly released Bepo’s collar. Of all the things that could have been bothering Ikkaku, that hadn’t even made his list. Sure, she could be tempestuous, but that had never bothered Law before—on the contrary, Penguin had always assumed his old friend liked trading snarky barbs with.

“I didn’t—why would I—I was just pissed because she spilled hot coffee all over crotch!” Law defended, even as he inwardly cringed at the way his entire crew had turned to glare at him judgmentally. Shachi had even turned the flashlight’s intense beam on him.

“But was that worth actually firing her over?”

“I didn’t fire her! Yeah, we argued, but I never said she was fired. At most, I told her to get the fuck out of my office.”

“That’s not all you said,” Bepo mumbled, crossing his arms stubbornly.

Flinty gold eyes narrowed at the sulking Mink. It was extremely out of character for Bepo to snap at or sass anyone—least of all Law. His brow furrowed as he thought back to his fight with Ikkaku—the memory was a bit hazy due to the lack of sleep he’d gotten. “Then what exactly did I say to her? What could have possibly been so bad that it could make her think I’m firing her?”

“You said…she told me…” Bepo took a deep breath. He hated scolding his captain, but he hated the idea of Ikkaku leaving even more, especially if this really was just a big misunderstanding. “You said to her ‘if you don’t like it, leave’.”

A sour taste worse than umeboshi filled his mouth as Law realized the full implications of what he’d said and done. He clearly remembered her old boss, a scowling, greasy man who’d shouted at her when she’d argued that she deserved to be respected as the talented engineer she was and not just seen as eye-candy.

If you don’t like it, leave, he’d sneered through crooked teeth as the other mechanics sniggered. Good luck finding anyone else willing to hire an inexperienced chick, though. Law could distinctly remember the hot surge of outrage he’d felt on the woman’s behalf; in less than ten minutes, she’d managed to identify what was wrong with the Tang’s engine and exactly how to fix it. Yet because she was the sole female in the shop—because she was a little bit different—she was overlooked and scorned, with her boss refusing to check for himself.

It had reminded Law a little too much of how quickly he’d been rejected from every hospital Cora-san had taken him to, the so-called “expert” doctors refusing to believe that Amber Lead was not contagious, or even examine the white patches across his skin.

And maybe—just maybe—the way her curly hair fanned out around her shoulders and down her back reminded him just a tiny bit of a certain black, feathered jacket.

Law hadn’t even bothered to consider whether or not the woman might want to become a pirate before he’d activated his Room and cut her boss to pieces. He’d then turned to Ikkaku, whose dark eyes had been wide with shock but not fear, and told her that if she could fix his engine as easily as she claimed, she was welcome to join his crew.

Now he stood to lose her due to his own sleep-deprived stupidity.

“…fuck.”

XXX

Down in the engine room, Ikkaku lay on her back underneath the ship’s engine, tightening the bolts that secured the freshly-cleaned cooling pipes. Since her argument with Law she’d basically spent every waking hour disassembling, repairing, and reassembling every piece she could. She trusted Skua and Malamute to take good care of the sub after she was gone, but the Polar Tang deserved nothing less than a thorough inspection and tune-up as thanks for carrying her so far.

She’d give the crew their own goodbye once they reached port. She hoped they were still too blinded by the hearts in their eyes to notice she’d been avoiding them. It wasn’t out of anger anymore; instead, she was scared she’d start blubbering. Admitting that Law had decided to toss her out on her ass was humiliating and heartbreaking, and she honestly wasn’t sure how the others would react. They could just as easily stage a mutiny as shrug it off as her overreacting.

Perhaps she was freaking out over nothing—Law hadn’t even left his room since their fight. Surely if he really wanted her gone, he could have marooned her back on Amazon Lily. Then again, he was a sadistic bastard; luring her into a false sense of security, then dumping her and her belongings onto the next port they landed on wouldn’t be entirely out of character. Or maybe her years of service had earned her enough mercy that he was willing to wait until they were at an island where Ikkaku could potentially find work instead of stranding her in the Calm Belt.

Whatever it was, she had every intention of confronting him about it after dinner. If this was all just a big misunderstanding, she planned to give him a good smack upside the head. If she was really fired, she wanted at least enough time to pack her things and say her proper goodbyes.

Until then, all she could do was stay busy to pass the time and hope that the knot of anxiety that twisted in her stomach would loosen up by the time she talked to him.

She didn’t want to leave, but if Law decided she was really that expendable, there wasn’t much she could do but try to hold onto at least a shred of dignity.

Reaching over to her tool kit, Ikkaku fished out her screwdriver, silently lamenting over the sad state of her tools. She’d planned on picking up some new ones back on Sabaody, but with all the chaos that had taken place, she’d missed her chance, and she wasn’t sure she could justify the cost now that her job was in jeopardy.

The sharp click clack of heeled boots against the metal floor startled her out of her thoughts. Glancing towards the sound, she immediately knew from the spotted jeans that filled her vision that, for better or for worse, the mystery of her termination was about to be solved.

She watched as Law turned around, and she knew from the barely-audible creek of the pipes that he had chosen to lean against them. Ikkaku had yelled at him for doing that more than a few times in the past, but this time she kept her mouth shut. Most likely he’d done it to provoke such a reaction out of her, but why? To break the viscous tension that filled the room by establishing a sense of normalcy, or so he’d have another cause to fire her?

Whatever his reason, Ikkaku refused to be the first to speak. Whether he wanted to kick her out or extend the olive branch, he’d have to make the first move.

After a few minutes of silence where Law merely stood there and Ikkaku continued to tighten the bolts, he finally sighed. “Penguin tells me that you haven’t been eating dinner with the crew,” Law’s low, nonchalant voice rumbled through the pipes.

If Penguin had to tell you, that says that you haven’t been eating with them, either, she thought sourly, though opted to stay quiet. She didn’t want to turn this into an argument if he intended to apologize. And if he planned to fire her…well, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of riling her up.

Noting her unusual silence, he continued, “I understand their behavior has been…upsetting as of late. They were acting like idiots, but that’s no reason to isolate yourself.”

“Haven’t been isolating myself,” she lied, fiddling with a bolt she’d tightened ten minutes ago. “I’ve just had work to do. The Tang needed some maintenance, so I thought I’d get it done now that we weren’t being chased by Marines.”

“Sure. And the fact that Bepo’s been bringing you your meals this past week?”

“Going to the galley would have wasted time. Eating in here was more efficient, and Bepo offered.”

“Why didn’t you ask Skua and Malamute to help?”

“You doubtin’ my abilities as an engineer, Trafalgar?” she asked in a clipped tone, growing sick of tiptoeing around the point. “Whether you like it or not, I know how this ship works better than anyone. If you don’t trust me, tell them to get their asses in here and do it instead!”

There was a deep sigh from above her, and Ikkaku could easily picture the wrinkle between his eyebrows that formed when he was tired and frustrated. “Bepo told me you’re thinking of leaving.”

Ah. The moment of truth. Heart in her throat, she forced her herself to take a deep breath, ready for whatever judgement he saw fit to pass. “You’re the one who said I should if I didn’t like how I was being treated.”

“Are you?”

“Leaving or enjoying how I’m treated?”

“Leaving.”

“…I don’t want to.”

“Good.” It was subtle, but there was an unspoken “I wouldn’t have let you if you’d tried” in his tone. There was another long moment of silence before he continued, “Engineers as skilled as you are hard to come by—finding a replacement would have been a bitch. Plus, the crew would have been upset; they were practically interrogating poor Bepo about why you were avoiding them.”

“And of course you stepped in and played hero, rescuing the helpless Mink from an angry mob?” she snipped, tightening another screw. It didn’t sound like she was getting fired, so it was a little easier to let her natural sass creep back into her voice.

Law let out a faint tch above her. “I wouldn’t say ‘helpless’ considering how he then yelled at me about allegedly firing you. After that, the mob was on his side.”

A proud grin curled the corner of Ikkaku’s mouth. Who would have thought that Bepo would yell at his best friend for little old her? She’d have to come up with a nice thank you gift for her favorite shipmate. With luck, Law might actually apologize for his behavior if even Bepo was calling him out.

Of course, that might take a while, so it was best to keep busy. Reaching out her hand, Ikkaku felt around blindly for her socket wrench. She jerked slightly in surprise when she felt long fingers wrap around her hand before the tool in question was placed firmly in her palm. She pulled her arm back, only to stare wordlessly at the brand-new wrench that practically gleamed in the light.

Clumsily she slid out from under the pipes, jaw dropping as she found Law crouching beside a new, expensive, top-of-the-line tool kit. “I was saving this for your birthday but given the chance that you wouldn’t be around to receive it…” he trailed off, adjusting his hat so the brim cast a shadow over his face.

The corners of her eyes crinkled as she smiled, immediately recognizing the gift for the chrome apology that it was. Plus, it was hard to stay mad at Law when he was like this—honestly, it was so dang cute how awkward he was when forced to display actual human emotions like caring and guilt. “You bribing me to stay, Boss?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

She laughed, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him in for a hug. “Then I accept, along with a twenty-percent bonus on my next paycheck.”

He grumbled slightly but didn’t refuse, nor did he pull away from her embrace, even if he stubbornly refused to return it. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t technically said “sorry”. Actions spoke a hell of a lot louder than words with him, anyway, and Law was practically groveling for her to stay.

When she finally let him go, Law stood up and cleared his throat before nonchalantly strolling towards the door. “Well then, since you’re not leaving, unless the engine room is actively on fire and no one but you can put it out, you’re eating with the crew tonight. They’ll formally apologize for their behavior, and they’re all going out of their way to show you how much you’re appreciated. Ermine’s preparing your favorite meal. Clione and Shachi have put together a presentation detailing exactly how stupid they’ve been while Penguin has one extolling your virtues. Malamute and Skua have volunteered to take on your cleaning duties for the next two weeks.”

“What are you going to do?” Ikkaku teased, though he could have said “nothing” and she’d be fine—she knew he’d never make the mistake of discarding her again.

Law stopped at the door and threw his trademark cocky smirk over his shoulder. “Isn’t it obvious? I’ll be standing by your side all night to make sure you can’t run off when you realize just how obnoxiously sentimental those idiots can be.”

Ikkaku’s grin fell a bit as she realized he was right—the Hearts were an infamous band of pirates led by a fiendishly dangerous captain, but when it came to their nakama, they could get downright sappy in extreme circumstances. Jude was probably preparing some hippy-dippy song. Cousteau would inevitably name some weird sea creature after her. Seiuchi would probably find a way to scatter confetti all over the galley and she’d be picking it out of her hair for days…

Getting up, she chased after her devious captain. “I don’t suppose there’s still time for me to quit and join the Kuja, is there?”

Gold eyes glinted sadistically at her as Law replied, “Nope. Welcome to Appreciation Hell. Population: you. Don’t try to run, either—I’ll Shambles your ass into the galley if I have to.”

Ikkaku punched his arm in retaliation, though she was careful not to hit him too hard—if she annoyed him too much, he’d go out of his way to rile the guys up even more. God, he’d probably propose they all get tattoos of her face or something just to make her suffer.

“You’re an absolute bastard,” she said, affection creeping into her voice despite her best efforts.

“Yes, but a bastard that appreciates his engineer,” Law replied, and out of the corner of her eye, Ikkaku could have sworn she saw the barest hint of a genuine smile flicker across his face.

Despite the knowledge that she’d be stuck with a crew of idiots and a captain who had the emotional range of a teaspoon and a truly frightening sense of humor, Ikkaku felt happier than she had in weeks as she playfully knocked her shoulder into his. “I guess that’s not so bad, then.”

The End