#like with her eyes doing that shiny thing that my mom calls “demon eyes”

[maxthesillyy]

Max deserves to stand in a doorway to a pitch black room ominously. not in a badass way, but in the same way of one those fnaf vhs tapes.

[alittlepudge-neverhurtnobody]

kinktober #19

Invasive Vines 🌿 / Sweet Shop 🍭

“Candy’s possessed,” David announces, and Ben shakes his head. 

“Always has been.”

“What?” says Kristen, cocking her head, and Ben rolls his eyes. 

“You’ve never seen that meme? You have four meme-age daughters and you’ve never seen the astronaut meme?”

Kristen shrugs. Ben goes to pull it up on his phone.

Father Ignatius fills them in on the case; a candy shop in Brooklyn has reported an unusual increase in gluttony from its customers and employees. Apparently it’s not the only candy shop affected recently, either — just the only one devout enough to call the church.

“How do we know it’s demonic gluttony and not just kids pulling pranks for Halloween?” David asks, and Father Ignatius shrugs.

“How should I know? That’s your job. I know it feels like busy work, but if it really is something demonic, it would be good to get a jump on it before the holiday. I get enough parents asking about razor blades in apples and whether celebrating Halloween is un-Christian without adding demonic candy to the mix.”

“Razor blades in apples has never been a thing,” says Ben. “It’s like the hoax about people giving kids drugs in Halloween candy. No one is wasting their hard-earned drugs on trick-or-treaters.”

Sister Andrea falls in with them as they file out of his office as if she’d been part of the conversation the whole time. “Well, of course it would be candy eventually,” she says. “Why do you think I use marshmallows to catch demons? They’ll eat themselves sick on the stuff if they get the chance.”

“Do you?” asks Kristen with interest. “Use marshmallows?”

Sister Andrea nods. “For the smaller ones, yes.”

“Okay,” says Kristen, because sure, why not. “Please don’t ever tell my girls about that. We’d never get rid of the ants.”

She lets Ben sit shotgun as David drives them out to Brooklyn, her gaze flickering between the Halloween decorations adorning the blur of brownstones outside her window and the open bag of candy corn in the center console between the boys. 

“Where’d that come from?” she asks, leaning forward and crinkling the bag.

David shrugs. “One of the church volunteers leaves little baskets for everyone at the church. She never misses a holiday.”

“Huh,” says Kristen. She’s not much for candy corn, but there’s something irresistibly sweet about watching David and Ben throw back handfuls while they talk about the case and banter about who had the worst Halloween costume back in the day (Ben pulls up a picture of him and Karima as awkward teens, wearing the most half-hearted, ill-fitting generic Star Trek uniforms Kristen has ever seen: “Mom didn’t exactly get the memo on what they were supposed to look like.”)

When they pull up to the candy shop, the place looks worse for the wear. The front window has been smashed and covered over with brown paper scrawled with the words WE’RE OPEN!, and the doorknob looks like it’s been blown off with dynamite and recently replaced with a shiny new one. “Jesus,” says Ben, cradling the new knob in his hand, and David’s brow furrows. 

“Is Halloween that cutthroat these days?”

“Spend an hour at my house after trick-or-treating,” says Kristen over her shoulder. “It’ll make your war journalism career look like Goodnight Moon.”

Ben laughs and follows her in, and David shepherds them from behind. The shop owner explains that they’ve had problems recently with employees stealing sweets from the store in bulk, with customers coming back to demand more than they paid for with the sweaty, aggressive insistence of desperation, with break-ins faster than they can repair the front windows that leave the till and safe untouched, but the candy bins emptied.

“Is there one candy that seems to be more of an incentive than the others?” asks David, and the shop owner shrugs. 

“The frogs have been a target. So has the candy corn, the regular and the pumpkins.”

Kristen mouths The frogs have been a target to Ben over David’s shoulder. The air inside is warm and humid despite the October chill outside, and when she leans over one of the bins and picks up a gummy frog with a marshmallowy underside, it sticks unpleasantly to her fingers. 

“And do they share a manufacturer?” asks Ben, sweeping his gaze around the shop. “Could’ve been some sort of chemical additive accidentally mixed into certain batches that’s reacting with a common medication or something.”

“Sure, lots of them come from Wingate’s in Jersey,” says the shop owner dubiously, “but not all of the varieties from the same manufacturer are causing the problems. The jujubes are made there, too, and nobody’s touching those.”

“That’s because they’re jujubes,” says Ben under his breath. 

“I like jujubes,” Kristen protests in a whisper.

“We’ll look into it,” David overlaps, louder. “Please don’t hesitate to call us if anything further happens.”

“Honestly?” says Ben from the backseat when they’re safely ensconced in the car. “Ignatius is right, this does feel like busy work. It’s probably some local parenting group trying to make a statement about how addicted kids are to sugar these days.”

“Ooh, yeah, probably,” agrees Kristen. “That’d be a pretty savvy approach, actually. Call the church, call it evil, and bam, you’ve got a great excuse to toss your kid’s Halloween candy.”

“Yeah,” says Ben, leaning forward for another handful of candy corn. “Or to eat it all yourself.”

— 

The next day, both of the boys look under the weather. Ben’s brown skin looks a bit grayer than usual, and David’s forehead is beaded with sweat, even though St. Joseph’s Parish is notoriously drafty. They’re waiting for her on a bench in the church hall, Ben slumped lightly against David’s big body, 

“You guys good?” asks Kristen, setting her bag down beside David’s knee. “There a cold or something going around?”

David grimaces. “I’ve got some bad news about that candy corn.”

“Oh no,” says Kristen, her stomach dropping. “From the volunteer?”

Ben nods, pressing an arm to his own stomach. “Yep.”

“So, what?” she says, laying her palm first on David’s forehead, then Ben’s: they’re both a little damp, but not feverish. “Were you both just up snarfing candy corn all night?”

“Yeah, just about,” says David, eyes downcast. In his turtleneck and thick sweater, he looks less like a man of God and more like a New England college student trying to explain away a hangover. “I said Mass this morning, but I had Father Dement take over for me this evening. I feel awful.”

“Do we think it’s related to the case?” Kristen asks, patting both of their knees and squeezing herself in between them. “Like a sabotage attempt?”

“Nah,” says Ben, stifling a burp. “I think we just got caught in the crossfire. Wingate’s probably manufactures candy that’s sold all over the city. It’s gonna be a miserable Halloween for most of New York if we don’t figure this out.”

Kristen looks between them. “Do either of you really think you can survive a drive out to Brooklyn right now?”

David swallows hard. Ben shakes his head.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” she says, resting a hand on each of their knees. “What do you say we go back to my place and regroup there? The girls will be in school for a few more hours, so it’ll be quiet.”

David nods gratefully. “I didn’t realize until today how badly a sugar coma would mix with church incense.”

“Why do I feel like maybe this is your doing?” Ben teases weakly as Kristen helps him to his feet. Beneath his t-shirt, she can see that he’s bloated, his stomach pressing against the thin fabric. David’s sweater is too thick for her to do the same, but now she wants to know. “Like you decided we needed a day to get mommed and slipped us wacky candy corn.”

“Oh, yes,” says Kristen, hauling up David next. He’s heavier, and when she puts a hand on his middle to steady herself, she gets the answer she’s craving: his stomach, too, feels hard and round beneath his clothing. “I’ve been playing the long game, dressing up as a little old lady and dropping off holiday gift baskets for everyone at church for years just to prepare for this moment because I think you guys aren’t getting enough days off.”

“Hmm,” says David, mock-suspicious. “I never said it was a little old lady.”

“They’re volunteers at the Catholic church,” quips Ben from Kristen’s other side. “The population skews heavily toward little old ladies.”

David laughs, then winces, palming at his belly. Kristen covers his hand with her own, and even though she’d never want him or Ben to be uncomfortable, there’s something thrilling about how big he feels, how packed full. She wants desperately to hear the sounds the two of them might make about it.

“So,” she says, hooking arms with them and leading them out to the car. “How long do you think before this candy thing goes viral?”

—

David and Ben are quiet on the drive back to Kristen’s. She keeps the heat off despite the chill, opens the windows to let in the rich, therapeutic wet-leaves-and-rain scent of fall, and she even resists the urge to crank up the radio and sing along when “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” comes on. 

She gets the boys set up on the couch, brings blankets and pillows, and digs up the green ginger tea she only ever pulls out when one of the girls is sick. She finds a half-empty, probably-flat bottle of ginger ale she clearly shoved to the back of the fridge months ago and forgot about and divides it among two glasses with ice, then pulls three mismatched mugs from the cabinet and pours tea. It takes two near disasters before she decides that she cannot cool-girl it up and walk out with all five cups at once.

“Need help?” calls David from the next room.

“Nope, I got it!” she yells back. “Just sit there and relax!”

She takes the ginger ale out first, then the tea. They’ve left room for her between them on the couch, and she slides in easily. “How’s that?” she asks, giving Ben’s stomach a little pat and David’s knee a squeeze. “I can get the heating pack from upstairs, too, if you want it.”

“Maybe later,” says David, wrapping an arm around Kristen as Ben starts on his tea. “I’ll just use your heat for now.”

“Mmm, fine by me.” She tucks her sock feet beneath her on the couch and gently massages his swollen belly. “You feeling any better?”

David catches a burp in his fist. “Not as nauseous. Just achy.”

She applies a bit of pressure with her hand, and David lets out a soft noise that would make her weak if she weren’t already curled on the couch. “Yeah,” she murmurs. “Yeah, there you go, baby. Let it all out.”

“Hey, can I get in on this?” asks Ben, shifting his weight so he’s canted more toward Kristen.

“Of course! I have two hands.” But she turns in his direction and gives him some attention, too, rubbing his belly and helping him push out a few uncomfortable burps. “Yeah, that’s it. Does that feel better?”

Ben sighs. “Yeah. Thanks.”

“I wonder how long it takes to detox from candy corn,” muses David, and then kicks out a laugh. “Another question I never asked myself until we started this job,”

“I feel dumb,” Ben grumbles into his mug. “This happens to people we assess, not to us.”

“That’s the universe putting us in our place,” says Kristen, sipping her own tea. “Just like my favorite Bible verse says: what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”

David rolls his eyes. “Yes, what book is that again?”

Kristen shoots him a winning smile, all bright teeth and fluttering eyelashes. “Uh, I think it’s The Book of I Have Four Daughters Who Love to Push My Buttons.”

“Hey,” says Ben suddenly. “Does candy corn have gelatin in it?”

Kristen raises an eyebrow. “Ew. Does it?”

David fishes his glasses from some heretofore-unseen pocket and perches them on the end of his nose. “Looks like it does,” he says after a moment of googling. “And those frog gummies probably would, too, right? With that marshmallow base?”

“Yeah!” says Kristen, crowding in. “Do you think it’s related to the pork thing? What was the name? Belmonte?”

David scrolls. “Of the company, yeah. Garcia was the guy who ran the farm we visited.”

“Right, with the son who got possessed,” Ben puts in. “Gelatin’s gotta come from somewhere, and Jersey’s close enough that the Garcia farm could be a viable source. And it would explain why only some of the candies were affected. The stuff without gelatin would be totally fine.”

“Score one for the jujubes,” says Kristen, and Ben pokes her gently.

“Hey!” she teases. “I don’t know why you’re picking on my taste when David once told us he genuinely enjoys the Eucharist wafers.”

“You know how I think you could enjoy those?” says Ben, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back. “Drop ’em into hot oil like everyone’s doing with those rice paper circles on VidTap so they puff up and get crunchy. Little salt, little hot sauce …”

“You can’t deep-fry the Body of Christ,” David protests, laughing. “Another group of words I never thought I’d say in that order.”

“But are they the Body of Christ before they’re consecrated, though?” asks Kristen, drawing her knees up to her chin and leaning on David. “I think you can just buy them in bulk online, unblessed.”

“Let’s find out,” says Ben, opening his phone. “Oh, yeah. You can get a thousand for under twenty bucks.”

“Nooo,” moans David, dropping his head into his hands. “I thought we were here to regroup, not blaspheme.”

“We already regrouped,” says Kristen brightly, kissing his cheek. She takes Ben’s free hand and brings it into her lap. “Now it’s time for blaspheming. And if all this talk about communion wafers is making you hungry, I’m sure I can scrounge up something …”

“No!” yelp David and Ben in unison, and Kristen grins. 

“Okay, okay. Just keep me posted. I wouldn’t want either of you going hungry.”

“I don’t think I’ll be hungry again until the weekend,” says David, leaning back on the couch and bringing his ginger ale to his lips.

Ben lets out a burp. “I dunno,” he says with a crooked smile. “I could probably be convinced a little sooner. I don’t have dinner plans tonight.”

“I’ve got chicken soup in the freezer,” says Kristen. “If I take it out now, it’ll have plenty of time to thaw. That all right?”

She ducks back into the kitchen, then gets a fresh kettle going and makes herself a little snack to eat while the water heats. When she goes out to the living room to collect mugs, Ben is bunched against David, a blanket pulled over their legs.

“Nap time?” she guesses, and they both nod. They look irresistibly cozy, and the kettle will wait, so instead she cuddles up to David’s other side and pulls the blanket over her own legs as well. Beneath the fleece, she finds David’s hands, laced over his belly, and then Ben’s, braced on David’s arm. When she dozes off, it’s to the slightly uneven rhythm of their breathing, to the warmth of their heat.

[lillian-nator]

please do more backyard au hcs this sounds lovely

PEOPLE AND AGES - Tommy (5) Kindergarten - Techno (11) 6th grade - wilbur (18) Senior - Tubbo (4) Kindergarten - Schlatt (19) Just Graduated, goes to Community college - SapNap (7) First grade - Punz (13) 7th grade - Dream (12) 8th grade - Gogy (15) Sophomore - Ranboo (6) Kindergarten - Fundy (15) Freshman - Niki (16) junior - Puffy (17) Senior - Purpled (5) Kindergarten - Big Q (14) 8th grade - Karl (13) 7th grade ----------------------- SPECIES AND RELATIONSHIPS (put into friend groups) - Tubbo (Ram, Schlatt's son) - Tommy (Racoon) - Ranboo (enderman, kind of a street kid) - Purpled (Purple Sheep, Dream and Puffy's younger brother) - SapNap (Demon, Bad's son, Punz's baby brother)

- Techno (Piglin) - Dream (Ram, Puffy's younger brother) - Punz (demon) - Gogy  (Mooshroom) - Big Q (Duck) - Karl (Parrot hybrid)

- Wilbur (Blue Jay) - Schlatt (Ram) - Puffy (sheep - Schlatt's cousin) - Niki (fish? mermaid?) - Fundy (Fox) ----------------------- I think that Philza minecraft just slowly keeps finding kids in his backyard, and he slowly grows very attached to all of them Just like every afternoon his backyard is FLOODED with kids And he doesn’t understand why he’s the house everyone goes to, but he’ll feed them He just slowly finds himself being really endeared by each of them ------------------- And before he knows it, Phil’s warning SapNap and Ranboo away from the water, and balancing Purpled and Tommy on his hips And he knows all their allergies And all their favorite foods And he’s keeping track of the high schoolers grades, bringing Dream, punz, and techno to their games  ----------------- CARPOOL SOCCER MOM Mr. Philza Minecraft --------------------- Dream: Basketball Punz: Football Techno: Baseball Puffy: Softball Small children: Baby Soccer -------------------------- - Phil keeps track of all of boys'  games and practices. Because goddamn it, these kids deserve some sort of parental guidance - Dream, purpled, and Puffy don’t have present parents - Puffy had to step up to the plate - Ranboo’s a street kid - No one really knows if he has anyone - Bad just chilling in hell ---------------------------- Schlatt is really working himself thin, but he tries hard, he really does And everyone can see how much he loves Tubbo Sometimes Phil will wake up and see schlatt passed out on their couch. He got off at midnight But as soon as he gets home from work, Tubbo is immediately in his Dad’s arms Schlatt animatedly talking to the boy But you can just see how much love he has for his boy He’s just a bit too young to bare the burden alone ------------------------------ And the thing is, is that all of these kids are so like, independent Like Phil just needs to feed them And tend to the youngest ones every so often ------------------------------- I think it’s like musical chairs To see who’s sleeping at Phil’s house in the morning Like - who’s on the couch? An air mattress? Guest bed? Sharing a room with one of his kids? All of the small children like to pile around SapNap, who is also a small child, cause he’s warm Punz also always has children flocking him ------------------------------- Punz is also that teen who throws the kids in the pool he cant go into the water himself, prefering to lay on the grass and in the sun, but he does love just chucking kids in ------------------------------- Phil drives a beat up mini van. It’s baby blue It's always filled to the brim with passengers very dirty many crumbs has balls just thrown in it all the time Footballs, basketballs, baseballs, soccer balls it fucking smells, we all know it does Phil owns like 4 of those kid car seats despite only having one kid in that age group ---------------------------- Also if you couldn't tell Niki basically lives in the pool she's a fish hybrid so its a salt water pool instead of chlorine because its better for Niki --------------------------- Tommy, Tubbo, purpled, Ranboo, and SapNap play baby soccer its the best part of this au It’s so adorable, and Tommy picks at flowers the entire time Sometimes. Ranboo will come and entertain him for a little. Try and get him back in the game. He gives up when Tommy sits down tho Ranboo will more often then not join Tommy cause mmmm grass Tubbo is insanely competitive as a little kid we been knew though When he gets older Tommy gets really into it But as a baby He just chases bugs Plus he’s a raccoon hybrid, so shiny ------------------------ HE HOARDS SHIT UNDER HIS BED IS A MESS he as in fucking baby racoon Tommy whats the word for baby racoon small baby kit Phil 1000% calls him kit BABY RAMS ARE CALLED BUCKS FUCKING EVERYONE CALLS TUBBO "BUCK" THATS SO CUTE IM LOSING MY SHIT Things go lost? Go check tommys room Bermuda Triangle of a bedroom Very much like - Phil has to have a talk with him about it And he’s like “ I know you feel like you have to take them Kit, but they’re not yours” “If you want it, just ask me and I’m

sure we can figure something out.” Tommy also loses interest as soon as he gains it tho Tommy chitters at them They nod liek they understand and go “Uh huh, sounds mighty interesting Kit,” And then they pick him and let him climb around them -------------------------------- So much rough housing like SO much they're hybrids man Tommy also teethes ok. Chews on shit when his canines grow in so does Techno, and SapNap, and Punz (Punz and Techno's canines already grew in though, but they still chew on shit) The rams Rub their heads against stuff Head Itchy ------------------------------- A lot of Phil’s days off are just spent by the babies, just who are growing in hybrid traits He scratches Tubbo, sapnaps, and Puroled heads They’re all growing in horns Gives Tommy things to chew on Purpled. Never gets full horns. They are always little stubs just barely sticking out of his hair. His ears looks more human than ram too. Just for some reason never really grew into his hybrid traits And purple eyes He gets so upset about it too, when Tubbos horns outgrow his, because he’s older He’s a bit different. But it’s like being brunette in a family of blondes. It’s not unheard of He just is tearing up and Phil is just like “oh Bud, come ‘ere” They're like 8 And Tommy just gives Purpled the biggest hug, because Tommy is a sweetheart as a kid ------------------- I think that even the older kids wrestle Like obviously Dream, Techno and the rest of the middle school gang do Because they’re so fucking competitive Dream is so quick to just. Grab someone and wrestle them to the floor No warning But like, you’ll catch Wilbur and Schlatt jumping at each other Or Wilbur throwing Fundy over his shoulder Or anyone just man handling gogy ------------------- Phil gets to a point where he calls them all his kids And asks where they are when they aren’t At his house ------------------------ Puffy bringing them (Dream and Purpled) over after school. They go outside and play. Puffy sighs and collapses at the dining table. Phil silently hands her a coffee. “I’ll keep em busy” he says “you get some homework done” She looks up, and puts her head in her hand, “Dream has basketball practice in an hour” Phil just pats  her on the back. “I got it.” ----------------- Also let’s talk about how much food Phil needs to buy Like even if it’s just lunch That’s like 15 growing boys He can afford it, He just has to watch out for allergies He buys so many fucking snacks man Whole damn store He goes through like crates of those little chip variety packs Tubbo only likes the crunchy Cheetos Tommy likes barbecue Niki likes salt and vinegar Punz likes Doritos He knows which ones they all like I’m just imagining Phil calling out for the kids And they’re like lining out of the kitchen Oldest to youngest so that Phil can help the little ones They can eat anywhere in the yard, but Ohil has the little ones eat at the picnic table They’re all dripping wet from coming out of the pool, and he needs to make sure they eat their fruit and popsicles, they have tons of popsicles. ------------------ Phil totally takes Dad tax Like a chip from every plate And a tatertot from each breakfast very dad of him to do ------------------- Not not Phil kissing each of their foreheads goodbye And “drive safe” And “have a good day" ------------------ He’ll still pick up Texhno And Dream and Punz, right by the armpits And tucks them into bed ----------------- Tommy when he gets wet He loves swimming but the poor baby: his fur It’s hard to get him in the water but once he’s in it’s hard to get him out Because he feels all heavy and sticky afterwards ------------------ Adventures in the woods TOMMY IN HID NATURAL HABITAT Small boy makes hidey hole You may be asking Does. Does Tommy crunch on the leaves He does Like on ever y single one Carefully -------------------- All of the little kids And even technos group Just bonk heads Because of the goats They all just do it Sometimes softly Sometimes roughly Techno always does it roughly tho Rough houser Dream doesn’t mind Makes it feel like he has a

herd Feeds a primal instinct for ram playmates Feeds a primal instinct for ram playmates - Small boy And puffy has outgrown it But a young piglin brute? Perfect playmate. ------------------------- AND THATS THE AU YOU'RE WELCOME

[aeonchangeling]

“So, Strickler… what’s his deal exactly?” Luz had asked the question once they were out of earshot of the teacher, the mental image of his eyes still fresh in her mind. He had done it back in her home, and Teodora’s words about him not being human had been in the back of her mind ever since that first meeting. “What do you mean?” Jake asked, his claws clicking on the wooden floor. “Just… anything really. How’d he become a teacher? I know he isn’t human, and he’s centuries old but he didn't say anything about being a demon. And he said he’s a shapeshifter but he only has two forms, and I’m dying to get some answers.”

“Yeah, and he does that creepy eye thing,” King shuddered, he had taken to sitting in front of Luz on the dragon’s back, “I know all about demons but that… that wasn’t right.” Jake hissed through his teeth, considered the questions, “Oh, uh… well, it ain’t exactly my place to say on all that stuff, but he’s a’ight. He’s just uh… got a nasty past is all…” “And you clearly know a lot about it,” Hunter spoke up, his ears still pink from Strickler’s accusation and was clearly agitated by it. “Look, all I’ll say is he’s kinda well known in the magical community for the stuff he did and he’s tryin’ to turn over a new leaf. He’s been alive for a real long time and was dragged into something before he ever had a choice in the matter.” “So he was some sort of criminal then?” Jake’s face noticeably twitched… almost like the notion of Stickler being a criminal was funny. “...you have no idea dude.” That did not inspire confidence

“We’re here.” Jake had brought them to a thick wooden door with a window. The words “Dr. Barbara Lake, PhD” were printed on the glass in shiny black ink.

“What exactly is a “doctor” anyway?” King asked upon reading the sign, “You guys keep using the word but nobody’s said what it is.”

“It’s basically this world’s version of a healer,” Luz smiled, “My mom is one for animals, she’s called a veterinarian though.”

“That sounds confusing, why not just call them all the same thing?”

“Medicine is really complicated here King, the medical field is so big it needs specialized experts for each different branch. It’s not the same as drawing a circle in the air and casting a spell.” King would have continued to argue had Jake not knocked on the door, and a voice answered, “Coming!” The door opened, and like Luz had expected, the woman from the painting in Strickler’s office was standing there, looking just as warm and inviting. “Ah, hello Jake,” she smiled, before noticing the others, “You must be our new students. I’m Dr. Lake, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held her hand out, which the girl happily took, “I’m Luz.” “You smell like candy!” King announced, pointing at the doctor. She blinked in surprise before smiling again. “You must be King Clawthorne,” she smiled and held her hand out to him, “Ford gave me the files you filled out when you first met. And yes, I have some treats in my office for patients. Which brings me to my next question: What can I help you with?” “Uh… a goblin scratched me,” Luz answered as King shook the doctor’s hand with both of his. “I see, Jake, can you help me get her onto my exam table please?” “You got it Dr. L,” he smiled, making his way into the office. “Ah, and you must be Hunter,” she had spotted the blonde as he was lingering behind the dragon, “It’s nice to meet you.” Once again she held her hand out, he looked at it for a moment and then slowly shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said stiffly. “Now then,” the doctor turned her attention back to Luz, who was climbing off Jake’s back and onto the table while King merely hopped off, “Where were you scratched?” “My ankle,” she held her leg out, and hissed when she saw how red her shoe had become. It still wasn’t a whole lot of blood, but it stood out like a sore thumb against the white. “Alright, let me take a look.” Dr. Lake pulled on a pair of gloves and carefully examined the injury. The area had become bright red and tender, and she hissed at the gentle touch. “I’ll have to disinfect it before I can bandage it. It’s going to sting, so try not to move while I work, okay?” “Hey, it can’t be any worse than it already is.” The doctor chuckled before reaching into a cabinet to retrieve a bottle, a bag of cotton balls and some gauze. While she waited, Luz took in the surroundings, finding the office to be much more cozy than any doctor’s office she had ever been to before. Sterile beige walls were decorated with photos and drawings that were obviously drawn by little kids, as well as Dr. Lake’s medical license. A lot of the photos showed a black haired boy at various stages in his life, possibly a son? And a few showed her with Strickler, the boy and one obviously candid photo, showing what had to be their proposal. It made the office real a little more homey. “So, how did you wind up involved with a group of goblins so soon?” the woman asked as she unscrewed the cap from the bottle. “That was our fault,” Jake admitted sheepishly, “Me and the boys were hunting some down and we kinda crashed into their tour.” “I see,” she poured some of the disinfectant onto a cotton ball, “I’m going to apply it now. Are you ready?” “Mhm…” Luz nodded, a look of determination on her face. She hissed again when Dr Lake started dabbing the worst of the scratches, it wasn’t as bad as she had expected but still hurt. “How do you like the school so far?” “It’s… different, I guess. I don’t know what I was expecting to be honest. I guess I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that someplace like this actually exists.” “That’s understandable, you went through something incredible, and now you’re overwhelmed after finding out there’s even more amazing things out there. It’s pretty common for our new arrivals.” “Really…?”

“Oh yes, but in general our students come to really enjoy their time here.”

This made Luz smile a little.

“Alright, that should do it. Just have to bandage it up now.”

The girl smiled as Dr Lake wound the gauze around her leg. She finished tending to her in less than two minutes, maybe three tops.

“You’re fast!”

“Hehehe, I was an emergency room doctor before this, compared to that, injuries like this are a walk in the park.”

“Wow…! Thank you doc!”

“Think nothing of it, just take it easy for a few days and try not to strain yourself too much. Now then.”

She walked over to another cabinet and pulled out a large plastic jar that was filled to the brim with candy!

“Here we go, take one.”

Before Luz could even see her potential options, King dove for the jaw, sticking his face inside, excitedly proclaiming, “Candy!”

“King, no!”

Luz grabbed him around his belly and quickly pulled him away, at least half a dozen wrappers were sticking out of his mouth. “Bad King! Bad!” she scolded, “I’m so sorry about him, doctor!” “It’s alright Luz, I’ve dealt with worse,” Dr Lake said, adjusting her glasses, “Help yourself.” She stared at the jar for a second as King chewed away at the mouthful of treats he had stolen. She scanned the jar and chose a cherry Jolly Rancher and tenderly sucked on it. She then watched the woman offer candy to Jake and Hunter as well, which was odd. Didn’t doctors only offer candy to the actual patient? And on that note, Luz was surprised she was offering it to them at all given their age, the doctors she went to back home stopped giving out candy to kids around the time they turned seven or eight. She saw Jake take a piece of chocolate and popped the whole thing into his large jaw. Hunter hesitated however, he’d never had human sweets before, so he was probably unsure of what to take. She could see him scanning the jar and grabbed a random piece, a large grape sucker… For some reason, the sight was amusing to her. “Don’t spoil your appetites, dinner will be served in less than an hour,” Dr Lake smiled at them. The idea of real food was enticing, and Luz hopped off the exam table. “Uh, where is dinner being served? We didn’t get around to that on our tour.” “I can show you guys where it is,” Jake offered. “Thanks,” she smiled as they headed to the door, “And thanks again Dr Lake.” The woman smiled and gave an approving nod. Once they were out of the office, Luz turned to the dragon, her excitement and curiosity threatening to bubble over. “So uh… I have a couple million questions for you about the whole… uh…” She gestured to all of him. “Oh, right, dragon thing, one sec.” Luz’s eyes widened as the dragon form fizzled away, wisps of smoke curling away from his body, and revealing the human boy in its place. “Whoa…! Okay, that is awesome!” Jake smirked, and seemed to be loving the praise. “Ya know it,” he smirked, “So, ask away!” “First, how did you end up becoming a dragon?!” “Become? Girl, I was born a dragon.” “...born… born a dragon? What?!” “Yup, we’ve been in hiding for centuries! Some took on human forms to disguise themselves, others just hid from society, though those guys are pretty rare.” Stars were dancing in Luz’s eyes and a smile that stretched from ear to ear. “Holy Titan…!” “And that ain’t all. Each country has their own guardian dragon who protects the magical creatures of their area, and yours truly is the very first American Dragon!” “Dude… that is amazing!”

“You really didn’t know about any of this Luz? This seems right up your alley,” King looked up at her, still picking candy wrappers out of his teeth. Jake clicked his tongue, “Trust me, if she or any other human somehow found out about magical creatures of any kind, the World Dragon Council would have had their memories erased.” “They can do that?” Hunter spoke up, removing the sucker from his mouth and nose wrinkling in scrutiny. “There’s a World Dragon Council?” Luz’s grin somehow grew wider. “Yes and yes,” he was smirking as he answered the dual questions. “...are our memories going to be erased?” Hunter raised a brow as he spoke, and Luz suddenly looked worried. Jake however smiled, “Nah, the Council would only demand it if they found out, and even then, I wouldn’t do it. The whole school is so far outside of their jurisdiction that I don’t think they could do anything about it without pissing off a lot of other folks in positions of power.” “...so they don’t know about this place?” Luz questioned. “Nope, and I’m not tellin’ ‘em! …at least I don’t think they know about it anyway.” “Why not? Wouldn’t they know about where you are?” Jake paused and took a second before awkwardly answering, “I’m uh… not originally from around here… I’m from New York actually, and comin’ here wasn’t… exactly planned.” “...how do you travel from the east coast to the west coast without planning it?” “...long story.” “Why do I get the feeling we’ll be hearing that a lot around here?” “Lot of us here got a history. Either way, we got some time before dinner, wanna see what a lot of us do to pass the time around here?” Luz and King looked at each other before turning back to Jake and nodded excitedly. “I… guess it wouldn’t be too bad to see what the human realm sees as entertainment,” Hunter rubbed the back of his neck before putting the sucker back in his mouth. “Sweet, c’mon!” Jake led them to the back of the house and came to a stop at a pair of double doors, the muffled sound of cheering filling the air. The young dragon smiled at the newcomers, who had gained looks of concern and confusion, before dramatically pushing the doors open. The first thing Luz noticed was the floor was covered in interlocking foam mats, followed by the smell of sweat. Her gaze raised up and she spotted several fancy bleachers along the walls, the kind with leather seats, and they seemed to only reach about half the height of normal ones. A quick glance around showed that the room wasn’t nearly big enough for regular sized ones, the ceiling was too low, and it seemed the room had been heavily modified. Walls had to have been removed to make it bigger, at least four already large rooms had to have been combined into this singular one, resulting in there being plenty of room for… For…

Was that the tournament ring from Dragon Ball Z?! “What the heck?!” She now realized the bleachers were covered in scattered groups of kids! Kids of all ages, from elementary school age to high school students! They were the ones cheering and shouting, some had phones out and were recording the current fight. Oh yeah, there was a fight in the ring. And… uh… okay that was weird. There was a transparent pink cube over the ring, some sort of protective shield for the audience maybe? And the ones in the ring were an equally odd sight. The first one was an older teenager, probably close to adulthood and he was extremely pale. So much so that even through the transparent shield it was obvious his skin was unsettlingly similar to the color of a sun bleached bone. He had vibrant red hair with a pair of goggles on his forehead, though oddly the lenses seemed to be yellow with red swirls on them. That had to have been Luz’s eyes playing a trick on her, right? He also had a small, odd metal backpack that reminded her of a stylized angry face and the straps crossed over his chest. From this distance she couldn’t be certain, but she swore his eyes were the same shade of red as his hair, and there was a single, black curved tattoo under his left eye… or maybe he was just really good with makeup. Though the oddest thing about him had nothing to do with his appearance, it was the fact he was commanding the same robots that had taken their bags when they first arrived at the school! They followed his every order immediately, flying inside the strange cube and weaving around their opponent. And these ones apparently came equipped with missiles and lasers! “Whoa…!” “Heh, this is nothin’,” Jake smirked, “They’re just gettin’ warmed up.” Luz looked at the person this goth-punk robot boy was fighting. It was another boy, one who seemed to be around the same age, maybe a little older. He was Chinese with spiky hair and a red headband tied around his forehead. He was wearing a yellow jacket with a black and red cartoon monkey face on the back. He also wore a white t-shirt, red pants and black, white sneakers, and in his hand was a vibrant red staff, with engraved golden caps at each end. And he was somehow destroying the robots with unbelievable speed! “...this is how you entertain yourselves in this realm?” Hunter asked in disbelief as a robot exploded. “...this has pieces of several different things we do or watch for fun… but none of it adds up to anything remotely close to normal.” “Ha ha! Yes! Mayhem! Carnage! Fighting!” King cheered in delight, “This is real entertainment!” He ran a few steps to get closer to the ring, only for Luz to scoop him up right away. “No way buddy! You’re not going anywhere near that!” “Psh, don’t worry,” Jake waved a hand dismissively, “Nothing can get through the shield around the ring, trust me. We’ve tried just about everything short of nukes.” There was a pause. “...under normal circumstances, I’d think you’re exaggerating but all things considered, you might be one hundred percent serious.” “...okay maybe a little of column A, lil’ of column B. We have tested some crazy things but we haven’t actually tested high level military grade weapons…” Miniature missiles were fired from some of the robots and lasers blasted… or maybe they were machine guns, Luz wasn’t sure. She also wasn’t sure how robots that small could fit the missiles that big inside of their bodies! “...ANYHOO,” Jake decided it was time to stop putting his foot in his mouth, “Let’s go find a place to sit!” “Who knew humans were so barbaric,” King was shaking in delight, “Duels to the death are proper entertainment for royalty!” “What?! Dude, no, they’re just sparring! We don’t do duels here! Strickler would kill us!” “...you consider that to be sparring?!” Luz getsured to a small explosion. “Heh, trust me, the guy with the staff can take it. Besides, a lot of us went through some really hellish fights, these bots are honestly so weak, they don’t even compare.” “...lasers… and missiles… don’t compare…?” “Well they’re specifically made to be non-lethal! The teachers would lose their shit if they were!” Luz desperately needed to sit down so she could put her face in her hands. She suddenly understood how her mom had felt after the snakes and fireworks book report all those months ago. …she made a mental note to apologize profusely for that. There was one final explosion and a gruff, scratchy voice announced, “AND IT’S OVER!” She looked back to the ring and the Chinese boy was stumbling, clearly dazed before falling over. His goth-punk opponent was doing… some sort of cocky victory dance in celebration. “That’s right baby! Evil boy genius won!” The shield around the ring began to recede upwards, the upper levels dissipating into what looked like ethereal flower petals. The “evil boy genius” as he had called himself, danced right out of the ring, pointing finger guns at the crowd, who either cheered or boo’d. “Alright kids, ya know the deal, collect your bets at the table!” the gruff voice commanded from somewhere nearby. “You bet on these matches?” Hunter questioned, tossing the used up sucker stick into a nearby trash can. “Sometimes, never with real money though. Candy, trading cards, junk food, stuff like that,” Jake explained as he led them to find some seats, “Keeps things from ever getting too boring around here.” “Right…” Luz nodded awkwardly as they found some higher up seats. The announcer for these matches stepped forward, and she had to do a double take when she saw him. “Mr. Pines?!” It certainly looked like Ford, he had an identical build, or at least as close as she could tell, the coat the scientist had worn when they first met made it hard to be certain. His face was certainly similar enough, but his hair was a much lighter shade of gray, and his five o’clock shadow didn’t dapple off around his cheeks. This man was wearing a dark suit and his glasses were just the slightest bit off. “I thought Ford was working in a lab or… something!” Hunter exclaimed, “If he’s been here this whole time while we were dealing with those goblins-!” Jake snorted, “No, no, dude, you got it wrong. That’s Grunkle Stan, he and Ford are twins!” “...I’m sorry, what?” The brunette laughed. “It’s true, Stan’s usually the one who oversees the sparring matches to make sure we don’t go too far.” “Isn’t he just a human though?” “Heh, trust me, the man can take a hit from anything.” Luz looked away from the boys and turned her attention to the ring. The boy who had been defeated was back on his feet and being helped out by a few of the other students, he was rubbing his head but seemed to be alright. He was given an ice pack for his head and seemed to be sitting with some of the little kids. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be going back to that Strickler guy to tell him about the goblins?” King looked at Jake, a brow from the skull he wore somehow raised. “Strick’ll find me before I find him, so I’m not too worried about it. Besides, worst he can do is give me detention.” He was… surprisingly nonchalant about it. “Alright kiddos, settle down,” the announcer, Stan, was speaking into a megaphone, “We have time for one last match before dinner! This last one’s between Dani “with an I” and Chiro! So get your bets ready!” He walked off stage as several kids rushed to a table by the ring, placing candy, bags of junk food and other such things down to bet with. Jake hadn’t been joking about that and some small part of her wondered what the exchange rate worked for each item. She also noticed an odd little green creature that looked like a shaved koala was sitting on the table. It clearly wasn’t a goblin, its limbs were too stubby. It was also apparently far more intelligent, given that it was holding a notepad and seemed to be writing something down. It seemed this little… whatever it was was the one keeping track of the bets.

After a few minutes, Stan returned to the ring, megaphone still in hand.

“Alright kids, hope you’re ready for a light show! Because this time powers will be permitted! You all know ‘em, so let’s give up for our first fighter, Dani Fenton!”

A little girl, no more than twelve, ran into the ring and Luz was stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Danny! Her hair was pulled back into a low ponytail, she wore a faded blue hoodie, sneakers, oversized shorts and beanie all of the same shade of dull poppy red.

“And her sparring partner, Chiro!”

A Japanese boy around Luz’s age entered the ring, he had neatly combed hair that came to three peaks, two at the back and one at the front. It reminded her of Astro Boy in some strange way, though his outfit was a bit… odd. It looked like a school uniform, a brown blazer, a white collar shirt, blue slacks, he even had a necktie! Something about it felt a little out of place amongst all the casual street clothes she had seen everyone else wear.

“Alright you two, you know the rules, don’t go too hard, don’t fight too dirty and watch your mouths! That means you Dani.”

The little girl flipped the old man the bird with both hands… which just made him laugh!

“That’s the spirit kid!” he walked off the stage before commanding, “And transform!” The jaws of the Boiling Isles trio dropped as a white ring formed around the girl’s middle, a perfect match for the one that formed around Danny earlier! It also split into two, one going up and the other down. Her hat disappeared when the upper ring passed over it, revealing her ebony hair had turned white. While Danny’s outfit had more of a biohazard design to it, this girl’s had more of a fashionable lean to it. A form fitting black shirt with a horizontal white patch appeared, with mismatched flared out gloves covering her hands and on her chest was the same stylized D that had been on Danny’s costume. The shirt was a bit too short and showed off her stomach, while her black pants flared out, also with horizontal white markings, ending in white sneakers. “You guys are seeing this right?!” Luz exclaimed. “I see it… but I don’t believe it,” Hunter said, purple eyes wide. “Oooooooooo~” King’s tail was wagging in delight, “Flashy!” The boy’s transformation was thankfully unique to him. He was engulfed in a flash of green light, and for the briefest second, it looked like some sort of… ethereal Gorilla had appeared. When the light faded away, the boy was sparking with green electricity, and his appearance had changed. He was now in a white buttoned up uniform, black boots, large orange gauntlets were on his hands and a matching scarf was around his neck. The upper half of his face had also become white, with orange markings on his cheeks, from this distance though, it was impossible to tell if it was a mask, facepaint or if the pigment of his skin itself had changed! A single lock of black hair had fallen out of place and now rested between his eyes. “Shield up!” Stan ordered, as the ring became engulfed in a transparent pink square that rose from the ground and closed over the two competitors, “Ready! And fight!” Dani took to the air right away, flying over Chiro as he ran across the ring floor. It seemed to be some strange way of keeping the other from getting the upper hand, until the latter summoned a spear made of lightning and threw it, with Dani easily weaving around it. She countered with a beam of green energy from her palm, and it was quickly becoming clear this was a battle of attrition and agility. Whoever got hit first would be the loser. “Aw man, nobody told me Dani would be fighting tonight!” Luz jumped as Danny and Randy faded into existence, clearly doing that weird… thing Danny had done before when he disappeared, just in reverse. They both had seemingly returned to normal, no longer wearing the ninja gear or in that ghost mode they had last seen them in. The latter jumped for a seat immediately, clearly enjoying the match while the former watched with some level of concern. “So uh… dumb question but… is that your sister?” Luz asked, pointing at the girl flying around the ring. “Eh… sister, cousin, the title’s a bit muddled… but specifically… she’s my uh… clone?” “...que?!”

“Okay, to grossly oversimplify, this rich and crazy fruit loop wanted a ghost son and decided I was the perfect choice, but I refused. So he started making clones of me and she was the best one he made, the rest were unstable and uh… kinda melted.” “...I have even more questions than I started with!” Luz exclaimed. That explained them having the exact same name at least.

“And they can wait, I’m gonna be too busy cheering her on!” …she hated to admit it but that was a solid reason to not answer her questions. He physically could but he had his priorities in order and she respected that. She chose to focus on the match instead, even if waiting made it feel like she was going to explode from the inside out! “These two are really goin’ at it guys!” Stan said from the announcer’s seat, “Dani may have the field advantage of flying but she doesn’t have Chiro’s experience! It’s anyone’s match with these kinds of odds!” The cheering grew louder as the boy launched his own green energy attack, but it seemed to be the polar opposite to the ghost duo’s. Where theirs were bright green with white bolts of electricity dancing through it, his was black and had green energy burning along its path, almost like a flame. “Whoa…” “Strange magic,” Hunter mused, his hand going to his chin. “Dude, that ain’t magic,” Jake smirked, “It’s supernatural. For both of ‘em.” “You used that word before, what does it mean?” “...supernatural? Ya don’t have that word where you’re from?” “Not that I’ve heard of.” “This is news to me,” Luz interjected, her own surprise clear on her face. “You know what it is then?” Hunter looked at her, a note of curiosity in his voice and his eyes looking ever so intrigued.

“Well, yeah, but uh… I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s not exactly magic but uh…” “It depends on how much science is involved,” Danny smirked as he joined in the conversation, “Magic and science are on the far ends of the spectrum but aren’t mutually incompatible. Combine the two and you end up with supernatural and paranormal stuff, but each given case can have varying amounts of either. At least, that’s how the school understands it, oh, and paranormal stuff tends to be on the more spooky side of it all, usually involving the undead.” “...thank you!” Luz looked so relieved, “I had no idea how to make that distinction!” “No problem, being able to understand all of that is kind of important around here, at least when comparing everyone’s “war stories”,” he used air quotes, making Jake and Randy snicker. Hunter seemed to be contemplating this new information while Luz began to make another list of questions. “Yo! Chiro’s got Dani pinned!” Jake’s words pulled their attention back to the fight, and they could see the girl in one of the upper corners. She looked around, trying to find a way out, but whenever she made a break for it, he chucked another one of those lighting spears right in front of her path! One got a little too close and she vanished into thin air, leaving the teenager to look around frantically to find her. The crowd went silent, their eyes wildly scanning the ring for the small ghost.

“Boo!”

She reappeared right in front of her opponent, before swinging a powerful right hook to his chest! Chiro didn’t have the time to react and was sent flying into the barrier, which carefully supported him in his semi-dazed state. He took a second to violently shake his head, only for Dani to point a finger right in his face, the tip glowing bright green as she smirked at him. He stared for a moment before smiling and held up his hands.

“Okay, okay, I know when I’m beat.”

“AND IT'S OVER!” Stan’s voice was extra loud and painfully jarring, “DANI WINS BY FORFEIT!”

The little girl held up both fists, cheering her victory with the crowd. The white rings reformed around her, and as they passed over her, she returned to her black haired appearance. Chiro flashed with green energy and also returned to his earlier attire, even that one loose lock of hair returned to its neatly combed position. The crowd cheered wildly as the barrier dissipated once again, allowing Stan to stroll into the ring.

“THAT’S THE LAST MATCH OF THE NIGHT KIDS! NOW GO GET SOMETHIN’ TO EAT BEFORE THE OTHERS COME LOOKIN’ FOR US!”

“AND DON’T FO’GET!” the little green creature had climbed onto the man’s shoulder and spoke into the megaphone with a heavily cockney accent, “COLLECT YOUR EARNIN’S AT THE TABLE! NOT OUR FAULT IF YOU ONLY REMEMBER YOU WON YO’ BET AT HALF PAST MIDNIGHT!!” Stan put his free hand out and the tiny creature slapped it, making it clear they were partners in this betting ring. “Aw man, how’d we miss most of the fights?” Randy whined, “I know those goblins took forever but I didn’t think it was that long!” “Hey, at least we got to see one,” Danny shrugged before getting up, he then waved to the ring, and his little lookalike returned the gesture, waving both arms over her head. He got up and ran down to her, with Jake and Randy trailing behind. The Boiling Isles trio looked at each other before scrambling to catch up to them. They followed the other students out of the… whatever that room was called, and into the hall, letting the crowd lead them to the dining room. It was like something out of a movie, with long dining tables, a fireplace to the left, to the right were several more tables, set up buffet style. A doorway nearby, presumably leading to the kitchen, had signs hanging around it, but it was impossible to read them at a distance. The students swarmed the food before hurrying to the long dining tables, already breaking off into their friend groups. As they did so, the newcomers had a moment to fully realize just how small the group actually was. Coraline hadn’t been joking about it only being about fifty students total, they could easily make out each kid, their face, what they were wearing and other small features that made them distinct from each other. It was the kind of situation where you’d probably be able to put a name to every face as well as a few very basic facts about each of them.

In no time at all, almost all of them were seated, and once the trio had a moment to process, went to get their plates. Luz had to help King with his due to his small size, not even able to see over the table from where he was on the floor, and, soon after, to keep him from launching himself at the desserts. Hunter trailed behind, a bit more apprehensive about the unfamiliar food, and acted like he thought it might be poisoned. She had to reassure him more than once that the food he was looking at was perfectly fine, and no, that red stuff wasn’t a weird pulpy blood, it was marinara sauce. Once they were finished, they looked at the tables and Luz froze. A hundred memories of her experiences with human schools filled her brain, especially when it came to the cafeteria and trying to find a place to sit and make friends. It never worked out well, usually ending with laughter, teasing and mockery, and as the anxiety gripped her chest, she took a moment to consider finding a place outside to eat… wait, would they even be allowed to do that? “Yo, guys! Over here!” She was snapped from her thoughts and she glanced around, spotting Jake, Danny and Randy waving them over from one of the nearby tables. She blinked in surprise. Okay, this was something that only happened at Hexside for her, so the idea of other humans actively inviting her to join them felt… foriegn. Almost overwhelming. By the time she worked through her thoughts, King and Hunter were already walking towards them. Well, Hunter walked, King ran. She hurried to follow the boys and sat down with them. The small demon didn’t even bother with his knife, fork or even his spoon, he just dove into the food, face first. “Yeesh, did you guys skip lunch or something?” Jake questioned as bits of food flew. “We puked it up after Nana drove us here,” King answered, mashed potatoes dripping down his face. The entire group shuddered at the mention of the woman’s driving and the young demon returned to scarfing down his dinner with gusto. “Ugh, barbarian,” Hunter sneered in disgust. Luz noticed he was holding his knife and fork properly. It made sense for an emperor’s right hand man she supposed, but she’d never seen a teenager adhere to it outside of a formal or fancy event. This felt casual enough to not worry about it, guess manners were a hard habit to break. She returned her attention to the adorable furball sitting next to her.

“C’mon King, you know better,” she pried him back.

“Mph, food,” he whined.

She put a spoon in his hand, and while he gave her a side eyed look, began eating again.

“So, I gotta ask,” Randy pointed at Hunter and King, “What are you guys exactly?”

“Excuse me?” Hunter looked at him in confusion, holding a small bowl of berries out to his palisman.

“Randy, dude, rude,” Jake said, leaning over his plate, “I can’t speak for the furball but Hunter’s obviously an elf.”

Luz spat out her juice.

“...I have no idea what an elf is but I’m not one!” Hunter exclaimed, “I’m a witch!”

The boys stared at him, while Luz laid her head in her arms, trying her damned best to suppress her laughter. She failed miserably.

“...aren’t witches supposed to be girls?”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!”

Hunter grabbed Randy by his jacket and glared at him in rage.

“Hunter-Hunter, it-it’s okay,” Luz said, still choking on her laughter, “It’s-It’s a human misconception! Hehehehehe…! Hunter the Elf!”

“...so… guys can be witches in… wherever you came from?” Danny asked.

“Act-Actually, e-everyone o-on the Boiling Isles w-was a witch, th-there’s also demons, like King.”

She had to slam her face down onto the table as she broke down into a high-pitched squeal of laughter… and said something about Hunter in a pointy hat… and shoes with bells on them.

[spnae]

Chapter 26 Punk Love

Spike pushed Buffy to the ground as a deadly looking sword sparked against the brick wall just behind where her head had been. The demon snarled, reared for a second attempt. Spike held off the second strike with a length of pipe, the clang of it echoing through the alley. Buffy recovered quickly and looked around for the ax she had dropped.

“Any time now, Pet!” he grunted, as Buffy scrambled for her weapon..

“Working on it, Honey!” she said, sarcastically as she spied the handle under the dumpster and dived for it. She rolled up holding a compact ax with a long blade curving down over nearly a quarter of its grip. Spike’s eyes widened as he dropped out of the way of Buffy’s strike, ducking as the demon’s head spun off to the left.

“Bloody hell, woman! A little warning next time!”

“Oh please, I wasn’t even close to hitting you. You big baby,” she teased, “I’m liking this new ax. It’s almost like a travel size version of my scythe.”

Spike pulled himself up and dusted off his jacket as he strode over to the now abandoned motorcycle partially blocking the alleyway. “Sort of the point, thought it’d make travel a little easier for us. Although I imagine you’ll want to taper down that handle for vamps. Up to you.” He kicked the tires as he examined the bike. A beautifully restored vintage Triumph, built for two. A grin spread across his face, “What do you think, Love, fancy a spin? Spoils of war and all?”

Buffy stood up from where she had retrieved the sword the demon had dropped and turned to him, “As long as I get to keep this pretty-shiny. Kinda love this.”

“Pretty sure it goes with the bike, there’s a scabbard attached to it and everything.”

“Yours, mine, and ours.”

“Planning on making an honest man out of me Miss Summers?” he grinned wolfishly.

“What? Are you going to ask my father for my hand too?” she laughed.

He swung a leg over the bike, getting a feel for it and looked up at her, “That wanker who couldn’t even be bothered with you and Dawn after your mum died? Not bloody likely. Don’t need his blessing for so much as a sneeze for all I care.”

Buffy wordlessly handed him the hilt of the sword and he took it to secure it on the bike. He rested his hands on the handlebars and looked back up at her, “Sorry, Love, I know he’s your dad and all...”

“Thing is that you’re right. He hasn’t been there for us since… well a long time before mom died.”

“Doesn’t mean you’re alone. I’d ask Giles if I asked anyone, Pet. Didn’t think you’d hold with such an archaic tradition anyway.”

She snorted lightly as she climbed onto the bike with him, “The sentiment is nice but definitely not necessary.”

Spike looked around and spotted the demon’s helmet with its head still in it, “First chance we get, I’m getting you a helmet, don’t need your pretty brain gettin’ scrambled now.”

Buffy’s eyes fell onto the demon’s headless body and then the head, her face screwed up in disgust, “Think we should do something with it?”

“Not doing ‘A Weekend at Bernie’s’ with that sodding thing. He’ll disintegrate once the sun hits it.”

“Seriously? Aww, I love the no-mess ones.”

“Nice and considerate ain’t they?” He answered as he turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life and Spike let out a whoop of glee, “God, I love that sound!”

“So many, many, many, many, many things I could say right now.”

“Say ‘em after you’ve gone for a ride. Make our tour of the city a lot easier. Hold on tight, Love. I’m gonna have some fun with this.”

Buffy wrapped her arms around him tightly and they pulled out into the streets of Edinburgh. It was the second weekend in a row they had spent in the city. Two weeks since Angel had left and things had finally quietened down. He had called a few days after arriving in Rome to let them know that everything seemed fine with Dawn. Although he admitted that he hadn’t really stayed long enough to find out much, because he wanted to get back to his father/son time before heading back to LA. As far as he could tell, they didn’t seem to know each other yet but it was only a matter of time after his visit. Buffy was less than satisfied with that answer but didn’t really know what else she could do at this point. So she just thanked him for his information, called her sister a little more often and proceeded on like everything was business as usual.

She and Spike had spent their first weekend mostly in Mary King’s Close and exploring the underground there. Buffy marveled at the ingenuity and sheer expanse of the Edinburgh Underground, the city under the city. Spike had enjoyed showing Buffy around the demon marketplace. It was really something to see. There were over a hundred demon vendors selling everything from clothing and weapons to spices and charms. Spike had been anxious to get Buffy a meaningful gift ever since she had splurged on his new motorcycle jacket and the MP3 player. It was there in the demon marketplace he had bought her the new ax she used tonight. He was thrilled to see how well it was working for her.

This weekend they had decided to spend their time topside, after visiting a couple of clubs the night before and spending the day curled up together in their hotel room having a different kind of fun. Buffy was feeling more relaxed than she had in years. Not that everything was perfect, life was never perfect, but the past two weeks had been pretty damn close.

She shrugged a shoulder and tightened her grip on Spike, pressing her cheek into the leather of his jacket as they rounded a turn. She eased her hands flat against his chest as they came out of the turn. They drove around for more than an hour and a half taking in the sights. Spike would stop every once in a while to share some tidbit of information before heading off again.

Spike pulled the bike into a club they had talked about going to after patrol. He was getting a bit tired of the endless techno dance stuff most of these places played. They had tried one club in the underground the weekend before, that Spike really enjoyed. It was more like the old dives with a live band he had frequented years ago. Buffy hadn’t cared much for that one but loved seeing him happy so she tolerated it. She suspected tonight would be a similar experience. According to the schedule on a flier they’d seen, tonight’s band was a Punk group and Spike was looking forward to it.

Buffy frowned a little as she looked down at the outfit she had on. They had planned on going back to the hotel before heading out for the club. As it was, she figured the red tank top and black leather pants she had on wouldn’t be completely out of place at a club like this. She shrugged her shoulders and got off the bike making sure that her ax was securely stowed away along with the sword on the bike. Spike was sure to park in the back where hopefully no one would notice a bike with weapons attached to it. He frowned a little, wishing the bike had saddlebags. He’d have to get some.

“Ready for some fun?”

“I could use a drink or three.”

Spike raised one dark eyebrow, “It’s going to be one of those nights is it?”

She rolled her shoulders, “Maybe. I think they call it having a good work/life balance. Chop off a demon’s head and go drinking with a sexy vampire. You know, balance.”

He extended a hand and pulled her to him with a sly grin, “Well let’s go find you a drink.”

Inside the club they sidled up to the bar and ordered drinks. The band playing wasn’t nearly as bad as Buffy had anticipated. They had a little more of an upbeat feel similar to a lot of the songs by The Buzzcocks or the Ramones that Spike had played for her. It could have been a lot worse, she figured.

Spike turned, resting his back and elbows against the bar while Buffy sipped at her vodka and cranberry juice, his attention directed towards the band. She grinned as she watched him. Tomorrow they would be heading back to the castle. It was the Level 4 girls last week. They would be leaving for their new placements after their planned beginning-of-the-month shopping trip in town the following weekend. Which effectively meant this was their last night out for a little while, except for patrolling.

She finished her drink and snaked her arm around Spike’s waist, under his coat. He wrapped one arm around her back as they stood there at the bar. He took a slow sip of his drink.

You made short work of that, Pet. Ready for another? She heard his voice in her head through their link.

She pressed her head to his chest. I think drinks are a ‘good’ tonight. We have to be responsible adults again in less than 24 hours.

Spike shifted, turning towards the bar. He flagged down the bartender, “Can we get another round here, mate?”

Yeah well at these prices I’d rather hit that bottle in our room if you’re really serious about getting the house fixed up.

Buffy pouted a little as she sipped her new drink, One more and I’m cut off.

Spike grinned, Don’t care if you have a few more. I was talking about me. Why waste money on their rotgut when I got a bottle from the Abbey in our room? Don’t have vodka in the room, Pet. You have your fun.

They got their drinks just as the band finished their song. “For some of you bloody nostalgics out there, here’s a couple a old favorites!” The lead singer practically yelled into the microphone as the band started playing Iggy Pop’s ‘The Passenger’. Spike bobbed his head and tapped his hand on Buffy’s back in time to the tambourine while murmuring the words under his breath. Buffy grinned as she watched him totally at ease.

The band started playing, The Buzzcocks’ ‘Love You More’. Spike grinned, and downed his drink, slamming the empty glass on the bar. He took Buffy’s hand, the one not holding her drink, in his leading her to the floor. Buffy laughed. It was ridiculous to think the man in front of her could remember Queen Victoria’s reign, as he pulled her close to him and danced to the music. She swayed with him to the song with her hand resting at the nape of his neck. It didn’t matter if it was the waltz or a punk rock band playing, this was the man she always wanted to dance with. She buried her head in his shoulder. The song ended and Spike yelled his appreciation for the band, his voice rumbled through his chest and made her smile.

She might have to remember this place for his birthday. The thought hit her. It was almost August and she had planned on doing something special for him but didn’t know what exactly that was going to be yet. At least she had until almost the end of the month to figure it out.

The thought left her mind as Spike spun her and pulled her back to him firmly. She laughed and let herself melt into him for a kiss. This was shaping up to be a really good night. Quite possibly the best date ever.

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

The next morning Buffy checked out of their hotel alone. Spike had left a little before dawn in order to take the bike into the underground for safekeeping until he could come back for it. They had agreed to meet at Steve’s Place, the underground pub, before coming back for the car and heading back to the castle that night. The arrangement gave Buffy a little extra time to have a shower and deal with the hangover and serious lack of sleep from the night before. By the time she had checked out she was feeling a lot better. She dropped her bag in the car along with Spike’s and headed towards the entrance to the underground.

When Buffy finally made it to Steve’s Place, it was starting to fill up with demon clientele. Steve gave Buffy a reluctant little nod and she went over to him. “Hey, Steve. Spike around?”

“In the back.”

“Thanks, appreciate it. He’s not getting in trouble is he?”

“Haven’t heard any ruckus since he brought that bloody bike in,” Steve shook his head, “Pretty sure everybody around here knows not to tangle with either of you by now. Can’t say they understand it, but the regulars know.”

“They don’t need to understand anything, Steve. By the way, you got anything for me?”

“All the buzz I’ve heard has been about you. The thing with the Minch. That had the whole neighborhood talkin’ for a bit, but I’ve already told you that of course. Couple of vamps have been trying to cause trouble though. They keep asking about Slayers, trying to figure out how many there are and where they might be located. Been talking about Spike too. Calling him your pet vamp.”

Buffy crossed her arms and pursed her lips, this sort of thing wasn’t wholly unexpected, “Whatcha tell them Steve?”

“Me? No! You got it all wrong. I didn’t tell them anything. You’re scarier than they are. All I said was that you were the only Slayer I’ve seen. Then they started asking about Spike.” He dropped his voice so low, Buffy had to lean in to hear Steve, “I don’t know what you two got going on. I don’t wanna know. I just know that he’s a vampire with a soul and you two come in here somewhat regularly, sometimes even sharing a glass like you’re a couple of kids at a soda shop. You’ve been seen around an awful lot, always together, looking real close. I didn’t say anything, didn’t need to. I swear.”

“Have you told Spike about this?”

“First thing when he came in. He asked if he could stow the bike and I took him out back myself, told him all about it then.”

“Thanks, Steve,” and with that Buffy made her way into the back where she knew the poker game was in session. She heard Spike’s unmistakable voice calling one of the players out on cheating and Buffy stepped in. A rusty looking demon with what looked like porcupine quills for hair, was standing across from Spike who was sitting back looking as relaxed as could be. The other two demons at the table looked about as concerned as Spike did.

A yellowish demon with large pointed ears to Spike’s right looked mildly annoyed, “Sit down, Ronny, we all know you’ve got a problem with palming cards,” he said with a strong Australian accent. The large demon on Spike’s left remained silent but Buffy recognized him as the big drunk from the day Wendy’s crew took the Minch baby.

Spike looked up with a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips, “Well boys, sorry to take your cash and run but my lady’s here. Mustn’t keep her waiting, you know.” The other demons all turned towards Buffy.

The sulfur-yellow demon’s jaw dropped as he looked back at Spike, “That’s your little Sheila?”

“Buffy, actually,” Spike stooped down to grab something from the floor. He pulled up a pair of black saddle bags.

There went that birthday present idea; Buffy thought idolily.

Spike’s head shot up and their eyes locked. His brow furrowed a little and she knew he had heard her thinking. They had been practicing different things trying to develop the bond between them into a more reliable form of communication that didn’t require physical contact. That mainly meant lots of meditation sessions that quickly devolved into very hot sex. So far they had only managed to develop it as far as touching over clothing. Now they were at least ten feet away from each other. Sure they had experienced little insights into each other’s emotions from a short distance like this before but those had been sporadic at best. This was different. This was a new development and they weren’t even trying.

She blinked and took a few steps inside the room, shaking it off for now, “Ready, Honey?”

Spike scooped his winnings into one of the saddlebags and stood up, “Sure, Love. We were about done anyway, right fellas?”

“Game was over for me three hands ago,” the big guy grumbled, adding a surprisingly cordial nod towards Buffy.

The rusty looking demon turned towards her, “Thought it was just a rumor, but he really is the Slayer’s little lap-vamp ain’t he?”

“Oh, he’s a lot more than that,” she said, shifting her weight, “Care for a demonstration?” She shifted her gaze towards Spike, “Do you want to show him some of the moves you’ve taught me, Sweetheart?” Her tone had an edge to it that said, in no uncertain terms, that they were not to be messed with or underestimated.

Ronny the rusty blanched or at least as much as the orangey-red demon could, “He— he teaches you— the Slayer?”

“Oh sure, I’ve learned lots from him. No better teacher for a Slayer than the Slayer of Slayers himself.”

Spike smirked as Ronny looked back over to him, “The Slayer of— what’s he doing shacking up with one then?”

“Our love life is of none of your concern there Rusty.”

“It’s Ronny. No, I want to know, if you’re the supposed Slayer of Slayers, how come we never heard of you, Spike?”

Buffy interjected, “Honey, are you being modest again?”

“What are you doing, Slayer?” Spike asked needlessly, as he lit up a cigarette.

“Just righting a wrong. Don’t you think your new little friends should know who they’re playing with, William?”

Spike raised an eyebrow, “Didn’t think proper introductions were necessary to play cards, Pet,” he exhaled a puff of smoke.

Rusty Ronny looked between the two of them, “What is this? Who—“

“You’ve been playing cards with ‘William the Bloody’, you’ve heard of him right? Used to run with Angelus; The Whirlwind.”

“That– that was a long time ago. Angelus hasn’t been seen in these parts in well over a hundred years, he’s dead. And you, if you’re ‘William the Bloody’ then what are you doing with a Slayer?”

“Angelus– Pfft, haven’t heard of him in over a hundred years because he’s been stateside going by ‘Angel’, and he was here two weeks ago you git. Shows what you know. Had a grand old time we did,” Spike sneered and was over the table before any of them could blink. He held something deadly looking up to Ronny’s throat and Buffy realized that it was a railroad spike. When did he start carrying that around again? Buffy wondered.

“What do you say mate? Want to know how I earned the name ‘Spike’? Other than the fact it’s a bit shorter,” he laughed menacingly, “I don’t mind demonstrating. Rather like teaching as it turns out. Imparting knowledge… is so… rewarding...” he said in his most dangerous tone as he twisted the spike against the demon’s skin. Ronny shook his head stiffly as Spike held him there, “No? Still want to know why I’m with the Slayer, yeah?”

“Y- You- you know, it’s really none of my business. You make a l-lovely c-couple, I’m sure!” He stammered.

Spike threw him back, “That’s right. You don’t mess with a good thing. What goes on between me and the lady is our business,” he added a threatening jab with the railroad spike before dropping it back into his pocket.

Buffy took several steps towards him and placed one small hand on his chest, “Ready to go, Babe?”

“To the ends of the earth, Love,” he gave her a chaste kiss, then turned around righting the table he’d knocked over and snagged the saddlebags and his winnings, “Ready.”

They walked out together, waving to Steve dismissively.

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

Once in the underground street, Spike turned towards her, “Not so sure how that little stunt is going to pan out, Love. Might stop some of the more ridiculous rumors.”

“Pretty clear you’re not just my lap-dog— lap-vamp— I mean seriously— ughh. I think it’s a little more clear we have a seriously mutual thing going on here.“

“Really don’t mind being in your lap,” he smirked.

“Dirty.”

“Yeah… but you like it.”

She smiled, shaking her head, “You’re still an idiot.”

He took her hand, “Come on, Buff. There’s something I’ve been waiting to check out,” they headed towards the place Spike had stowed the bike.

“What’s that?”

“Glasgow.”

“Glasgow. Now? We have to be back to the castle tonight. And sleep. Sleep is needed.”

“We’ll take the bike through the tunnels, should be ventilated enough you’ll be alright, only take an hour or so to get there through the tunnels, no traffic.”

She raised an eyebrow, “You’re serious?”

“Been a while since I’ve been there. Last I saw it, the underground there was mostly just a tunnel system; sort of like Sunnydale but with a train system built in. Don’t get me wrong there’s plenty to see. It’s sort of like Edinburgh Underground only in smaller— eh clumps or neighborhoods I guess, it’s a bit different than this. I’m just talking about a drive up and a drive back something to pass the daylight, that’s all. Something to do, Pet.”

“You mean just go for a Sunday drive?”

Sike laughed, “Do people still do that? Yeah, I guess it is a Sunday drive; what do you say?”

“Sure, let's go.”

“That way you can say you’ve been to Glasgow and by the time we get to the city proper we can just spend our nights above ground. Maybe take in the ballet or something.”

Buffy‘s eyebrows shot up “The ballet?” she questioned.

“Well yeah, since you were into that whole figure skating thing when you were young. Ballet isn’t that far off, thought you might like it. Didn’t you tell me you took ballet when you were a kid? Or was that Dawn?”

“Who are you and what have you done with my railroad-spike-welding boyfriend?”

“So is that a ‘No’ to the ballet?” His expression was one of bemused confusion.

“You just surprised me. I never pictured you as the ballet type, like not ever.”

He shrugged, “Not exactly. I mean I can certainly appreciate the physicality of it all. It’s visual poetry. My Mum always enjoyed it, so did Drusilla, hell, even Angel. Used to be a good way to spend an evening. I just thought you might like it too, but look if it’s not—“

She watched him as he struggled to explain himself. She could tell he was trying to downplay the situation he’d put himself in and placed a hand on his arm, “We can check dates when we get back to the castle.”

“We can do anything you like, there are museums, concerts, the theater and lots of great architecture, even the cemeteries are something to see. We don’t have to go to the ballet—“

“Spike, I get it. We can definitely partake of some of the local culture,” she pulled him down for a kiss, “I love that you’re trying so hard, but you don’t have to—“

“I want to, Love. You see so much ugliness everyday, you deserve to see a few things that are as beautiful as you are.”

“Aww, Spike, that’s— wait— how long have you been working on that line?”

He grinned sheepishly, “Been sittin’ on it for a little while. Doesn’t make it any less true.”

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

When they got back that night, the castle was quiet. All of the Level 4 girls were out on solo patrols and Faith had taken the Level 2 girls out on a training exercise. They had no more than set their bags down when they heard the unmistakable sound of crutches coming towards them from the kitchen.

“Hey Giles, I thought you’d be in bed already,” Buffy said but when she caught sight of his face she grew worried, “What happened?”

“I think we should all have a seat,” he turned back into the kitchen and sat down. Buffy and Spike sat across from him, “I got a call from Sheena’s parents this evening. Her older sister is missing.”

“Oh God.”

“Apparently she had gone out with some friends the other night, she was supposed to come home from University for a visit over the weekend. They thought she had just decided to stay over at a friend's but when she still hadn’t come home and hadn’t called like she usually does, they started calling around. No one has seen her since the night before last. They called here hoping she had come to visit Sheena.”

“Have you told her?”

“Her parents have asked me not to for the moment. They don’t want to worry her and are hoping she will turn up.”

“And what do you think?”

He set his glasses down on the table in front of him, and rubbed his eyes before answering, “I took the liberty of making a few calls of my own. There have been three local reports of bodies with neck trauma within the last few days, Faith took the girls to check them out. I asked her not to mention the missing girl. I was trying to wait up to hear something.”

Buffy nodded, “You should get some rest, we’ll stay up.”

“I’ll stay up, you need some sleep too, Pet.”

“Says the vampire who hasn’t slept since yesterday.”

“Pfft— this is nothing. Sheena’s a good kid.”

“You just like her because she paints your nails,” Buffy teased halfheartedly.

“Or maybe I let her paint my nails because I like her. Kid helps out with the dishes and all that. She also doesn’t treat me like I’m just the help or worse; The bloke shagging her beloved mentor.”

Giles pinched the bridge of his nose again, “Must you say it like that?”

"What, too subtle, Giles? What about screwing? Banging? Getting a leg over? Fu-"

"Yes THANK YOU that's quite enough," Giles held his head in his hands.

“Oh my God, Spike, I think you broke him…” a microscopic smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

“Oh please, like Anya and Xander weren’t infinitely worse. Call it payback for what you did to my blanket Rupert. Or should I say, on it?”

Buffy looked between the two of them, “Giles?”

“Ahh, well I— it was a matter of convenience you see.”

“Convenience? We’ve never done anything more than snog on anything of yours! There you go— couldn’t even wash the thing? Just hung it back up. That’s just uncouth, that is,” he grumbled.

“What are you— Ohh my God I just don’t even want to know— ” Buffy said, exasperated. She pointed sternly at Giles, “You bed, Spike and I will camp out in the living room. I want to know if Faith found anything on Sheena’s sister. Spike, you’re closer to Sheena, has she ever mentioned her sister’s name or given a description of her?”

“Sure, name’s Ruby. Five years older I think. Showed me a picture once, looks like Sheena. Ehh dark, sort of wavy hair. Likes The Clash, trying to get Sheena into ‘em. Can respect that. Sounds like a peach of a girl,” he said, tapping the table irritatedly, “I don’t like this…”

Buffy reached out, taking his hand. On the outside he was cool as could be, but the moment she took his hand she knew better. He was really worried about Ruby and Sheena. Of all of the younger girls, Sheena had been the one Spike had somewhat bonded with. Not that he was particularly close with any of them, but Sheena had helped him with routine jobs around the castle a few times. She was one of the only ones who treated him like just another guy. Not just a teacher or her mentor’s dangerously handsome undead lover. Sheena had treated him almost like a favorite uncle or something. It was a little like his relationship with Dawn, although not as close.

Spike stood up slowly and patted Buffy on the shoulder, “Come on, Pet. The couch awaits.”

“Hummm, cozy boyfriend snuggles and a movie?”

“Sure. I’ll grab some blood and a couple of beers. Want anything, Love?”

“I think there was a bag of gummy worms hidden in the top of the cupboard. Could definitely go for some of those if they haven’t devoured them yet.”

“You got it.”

[cottoncandyjester]

I remember a long time ago you said you wrote about darling meeting the child version of the yan boys, are you going to post that?, pls don't make it sad, I just want to give them some hugs.

Oooh let’s play with this a little bit I have some childhood friend au stuff in my drafts that I might finish that touch on more child versions of the yan boys but for now have this

Decided to do my two favorite families

Warning this contains: sprinkles of sadness

“I will explain the rules one more time, you get to go back to meet them, no one else but them can see you so you’ll be stealing the role as their imaginary friend that way they won’t freak out when they see you~ try not to mess around with things back there too much okay?”

You listened to the demon speaking and a nervous feeling bubbles over you, you were absolutely curious and slightly scared.

“Whose past do you want to visit”

You took a deep breath, closed your eyes and chose…

Hikaru:

You looked around, was this a beach? There wasn’t really anyone else there but you soon heard a loud laughing that made you perk up. “Seashells seashells shiny pretty seashells~” you heard happy singing nod followed it seeing a little child putting seashells in a bucket.

“What are you doing there?” You asked softly as you kneeled down, Hikaru looked up at you with a curious gaze before a bright smile appeared on his face and he went back to looking for seashells.

“I’m looking for seashells cause I’m making a seashell necklace!” He cheered out with a happy little humming. “A seashell necklace? Why?” You asked out making him huff “you’re so silly! It’s so I can lure a mermaid and marry her!” He said proudly.

His statement made you laugh as you reached out and poked his chubby cheek “why do you want a mermaid bride huh? What about me? Do I make a pretty bride?” You asked jokingly. He looked at you with a hum before reading into the bucket and seashells, now taking out a shiny one before handing it to you.

“You would make a pretty bride! But you’re not a mermaid..mama said that mermaids have pretty voices! I wanna sing with one!” He cheered out with a grin.

“Hikaru, come on we’re leaving!” A distant voice called for him making him jolt before he started to run off now hugging the bucket close. He stopped before looking back at you “if I can’t find a mermaid I’ll just marry you so don’t get old and gross!” He called out before waving and rushing away.

Yuuji and Yuuta:

You opened your eyes, now sitting on a bed seeing two kids sitting on the floor…why were they in this room alone?

“Yumi and yachi! You aren’t getting what you want by starving yourselves now open this door!” You heard kenji’s voice now moving to the floor with the two boys. “Why are you two doing this?” You asked out and they looked at you before an expression of familiarity covered their faces.

“Papa is being a meanie and doesn’t wanna call us by our new names” Yuuta hissed out. “We won’t leave til we get what we want!” Yuuji snapped out. “Oh? How long has it been?” You asked curiously.

“Two days..” Yuuta said with a whimper “y-Yuuji, d-do you think mommy misses us?” He asked softly with a pouty expression. Yuuta gulped “o-of course! She has to!” He chimed out, you didn’t realize just how hard the boys had to work to get the acceptance they deserved.

“B-but mommy is having the baby s-soon so what if she replaces us c-cause we are bad kids?!” Yuuta said before starting to cry. Yuuji hugged him close “s-she w-wouldn’t do that! She loves us!” Yuuji said firmly.

You reached out pulling both boys in for a tight hug, a shaky sigh escaping you “your parents must really miss you, maybe you should tell them how you feel” you said softly. 

“We should tell him how we feel!” Yuuji chimed out with a grin

“Papa..?” Yuuta called out, hearing shuffling “yeah?” Kenji said softly with a soft sniffle..was he crying?

“Me and Yuuji don’t wanna be girls anymore, can we be boys instead..please?” He said softly.

There was a few moments of silence before a soft chuckle escaped kenji “Yuuta..Yuuji, please come out and eat, momma and papa misses their boys”

You watched at Yuuji rushed to the door opening it seeing Kenji was sitting on the ground outside the door. The two nearly tackled the male hugging him tightly.

Kenji hugged them tightly peppering kisses all over their faces “god I was so damn worried, don’t worry me like that..I’m getting old yknow don’t scare your papa like that” he said softly.

Seeing this made you really curious..is this why the twins defended and protected their father so much? You had a lot of questions.

Mateo:

The sounds of loud cheering made you flinch, the sight of kids swimming made you focus. You saw mateo, he was winning. Before you could process your mind you found yourself yelling “you got this baby!” You cheered out before realizing the situation you were in. You were so used to cheering for him during his games that it came natural.

You noticed mateo slowed down, the adrenaline stopping for just a moment before he kept going but it was too late, he ended up getting second place. The sight of him being upset as he stared at the medal, tears blurring his vision.

“You shouldn’t cry, you were so amazing” you said softly as you kneeled down looking at the boy. He sniffles and wipes his tears only for more to fall “I-I got tired, I-I forgot to breathe like I’ve been practicing..I-I forgot..I always forget” mateo sobbed out, his wailing growing louder and louder. “Mama and papa couldn’t even show up, I-i t-tried my best a-and-” you pulled him in for a hug, hands shaking lightly. He was so fragile..it made your heart hurt.

“you did the best you could, you always do your best. Didn’t you have fun?” You said softly as you looked at him, mateo glanced down with a sniffle before nodding slowly. “Y-yeah, s-swimming is always fun” he said softly as he messed with the medal around his neck.

“Then, be proud. You were amazing mateo! You went so fast!” You cheered out, your excited tone made him even more excited “r-really?! Hehe! I was like zoom! Super zoom!” He chimed out.

“Teo!” The sound of Dante’s voice made mateo perk up “ah! Dante!” He cheered out, you softly nudged mateo forward “tell him how fast you went” you said softly, watching mateo rush off nearly tipping from utter excitement.

Tiago:

You expected a young tiago to be just like his normal self, gentle and soft maybe even quiet. You definitely weren’t expecting the first sight you saw was a young tiago to be climbing trees and jumping off them. “Wow you’re like Tarzan huh?” You asked out as you watched him with a grin.

“Tarzan got nothing on me!” He cheered out happily, apparently him and his parents were on a cabin vacation to relax his mom before the baby comes. “Oh yeah?” You cooed out with a grin “but Tarzan has a Jane, you don’t have that” you teased making him stop and pause. Tiago sat on a branch and gave a soft hum.

“Okay you’ll be my Jane!” He cheered out before standing ontop of the branch. “That way I’m still better than Tarzan” he chimed out as he held his arms out now walking along the thick branch.

“I dunno if I wanna be Jane.” You said jokingly, Tiago huffs “too late! You’re Jane! I already decided! No take backs!” He said stubbornly. Seeing Tiago like this made you really happy, he is never this carefree and bubbly with you in present time.

“Hmm okay Tarzan, what’s your favorite animal?”

“Ha! That’s easy! Dogs are the best things in the world! They are so loyal and you can sit on their back and use them as horses!” He chimed out, now balancing on one foot as he stood on the branch.

“You shouldn’t actually do that, just ride a horse” you mumbled out making him huff as he looked at you “I never rode a real horse before” he said softly before a cracking noise got your attention. “H-hey you should get down”

“No way! Tarzan would never-” the branch snapped and Tiago came falling down, in a surge of panic you caught him both of you falling down as Tiago sat on your chest now shaking.

��T-that was..so cool! You’re the coolest Jane ever!” He cheered out with a large smile, you on the other hand did not find that cool and glared lightly at tiago..maybe it’s better if he wasn’t this hyper in present times.

“Be careful next time yeah?” You said softly as you sat up now messing with his hair. Tiago looked at you in utter awe before he heard his father calling him.

He got off you before sticking his tongue out at you “blehhh! Bye Jane! Let’s play again okay?” He said happily before running off “papa! papa! I climbed a tree!”

Zeke:

“I don’t think you should be doing this” you said softly to zeke as he placed the Last pot on the ground before grabbing the wooden spoons. “Mama is at work and papa is taking a nap, it’s okay! Plus I wanna play drums” Zeke said before starting to bang the spoon against the pots loudly.

You flinched and winced, the loud noise would definitely get him in huge trouble. You softly grabbed his hands stopping him “how about we do something else instead? You like music yeah? How about we sing?” You said nervously with a smile.

Zeke stared at you before humming and nodding “okay! Let’s sing!” He cheered out happily. You and zeke ended up singing a bunch of different songs before you found yourself humming to zeke as he laid his head in your lap. You ran your fingers through his hair as you started to sing him a lullaby.

“You sound so pretty, like an angel!” Zeke said excitedly before gasping “wait are you an angel?! Can I see your wings?!” He said now sitting up and staring at you. You laughed and glanced away “sorry don’t have wings, if I did you would know” you said softly making him groan as he laid his head back in your lap “boo I wanted to see angel wings, but I guess it’s okay if you aren’t an angel..” he said softly before looking up at you

“Sing me another song!” He cheered out, you simply couldn’t say no to his adorable face so you did just that. You felt his body grow heavier as he slowly fell asleep from you singing.

Dante:

“Why do they say that they are mad? They don’t look angry” dante said as he laid on his stomach reading Alice in wonderland.

“Well mad is another word for crazy” you said softly with a smile, watching him flip the page “why does Alice wanna go home so bad, wonderland is so cool!” He cheered out happily with a smile. “Well she misses her family, wouldn’t you miss your family if you went away somewhere?” You asked him curiously. Dante paused the think before nodding “yeah, I’ll miss Mama and pap and Tiago!” He huffed out as he sat up.

“If i go to wonderland I’ll just take them with me!” He cheered out with a smile, you laughed and sat next to him “I don’t think it works like that” you said softly. He hummed before looking at you “then I’ll bring you! So I won’t be lonely and by myself!” He cheered out with a grin.

He was far too adorable! How was dante this cute as a kid?! “Oh? Okay we’ll go to wonderland one day!” You said excitedly, making the boy stand on his bed “yeah! We’ll drink tea with the mad hatter ooh and paint the roses red!” He exclaimed excitedly, now Jumping on the bed. “It would be like a dream!” He added as he sat back down before a moment of silence came over him.

“If we go to wonderland will you promise not to leave me alone in there, it’s a big biiig place” he said softly as he grabbed your hand giving it a small squeeze. You hugged him with a soft sigh “I promise! We’ll hold hands the entire time so we won’t get lose or separated!”

“Hold hands? Okay!” He cheered out. You spent the rest of the time talking to him about the things he loves like Soccer, fantasy stories and music. He had so much energy and passion that you couldn’t help but sit there and listen to Every word

[tinyboxxtink]

“The Man Of Your Dreams”

Y’all. Y’ALL. 

I was gonna make this a series but then I was like “Aw nah I can wrap it up neatly in one go”.

And that “one go” took 3 and 1/2 hours and 10 pages!!!!!!!! (on GoogleDocs anyway...) 

I went with my “keep dreaming about a man and then you go off to find him” idea.

The dating app one might be for a longer series, idk yet.

But this, this is my baby.

Like I said, I had this dream. Specifically the first and last scene. And ya’ll while I wrote the crescendo, I played Tyler Blackburn’s “Can’t Love Me.” Specifically starting at 2:11. I highly recommend playing it as you read from:

“Until out of nowhere--“Y/N???””

But that’s just me. I replayed that scene with the music about a thousand times in my head, I won’t lie to you.

I hope you love this as much as I do!!

Tag List

@wanniiieeee

@dumauier

@word-scribbless

@objection-argumentative

@chasingeverybreakingwave

------

“Oh no it’s happening again.”

“What?! No not now,”

“Yeah I feel it, the pulling,”

“Dammit! No no no…” He grabbed you on both of your sides and pulled you into his chest as tightly as he could, but you knew it wouldn’t help; You were fading, and the last words you hear were:

“I will find you!!” 

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

Suddenly, you woke up in your bed in a cold sweat. 

“Dammit...not again,” You shook your head. “No, no no no NO!!!!” You let yourself have a moment of breakdown, before immediately grabbing the pencil and giant pad of paper from under your bed. You had to get it down before it faded, again. The face, HIS face. You furiously filled in the lines on his face you had missed before, and you finally got the dimples on his mouth right. However, it was the eyes that drove you most insane.

Half filled in while the rest of his face was taking shape, his eyes were the one thing you could never quite get. Not that you hadn’t seen them enough, you had been having dreams about this man for over a month straight now. Every night, the same man. But it didn’t feel like dreaming, not in the slightest. It felt very much like being awake in this world, everything was so real.

He was so real.

And so, after a week of these “episodes”, you decided to yourself that this couldn’t be a coincidence, that it was NOT a mix of your subconscious making up scenarios in your head, it was real. This man existed somewhere, and you were going to find him. 

However the question of “How” was still very annoyingly present. Sure you and this man had talked about everything, seriously EVERYTHING. Likes, dislikes, career, life stories--- well, at least you were pretty sure you had.

 Some conversations in your dream world were completely crystal clear in your mind-- 

When he was six and all he wanted was a red bike, and come Christmas morning it wasn’t there. He had stormed around his mom’s apartment having a total temper tantrum until his abuelita asked him to check if she had left her keys out in the hall from last minute shopping. He opened the door to reveal a brand new, shiny red 10 speed bike propped against their doorway.

“We lived on the 10th floor, with no elevator. My mom and abuelita carried that thing up 10 flights of stairs just so I’d have a happy Christmas morning,” He had told you with tears in his eyes.

And then others, containing any real information about where to find him, were a blur. Specific details like his name, his job, even where he currently lived-- they sounded like garbled nonsense when you tried to recall them.

The Universe is a sadistic bastard.

But that conversation about the bike-- it was so specific and so detailed that there was no way your mind could have made it up. No way. But all you knew was that at some point in his childhood he lived with his mom and abuela in a 10th story apartment somewhere in New York City. That’s it. 

And one more thing that you couldn’t shake-- his touch. 

There had been a dream where he had asked to kiss you, to which you happily agreed. He had pulled you close into his arms, his hands ran through your hair as he pressed his lips against yours. And every dream since then, you two were always either holding hands or holding each other, or touching in any capacity-- as if you were both trying to memorize what it felt like.

Of course this still being “a dream”, a lot of the times your “dates” with this man were just playing out themselves, and you were blissfully unaware that they were even dreams. So you’d never think of asking “real” questions like where to meet or something. Only those few moments before you would wake would you realize “Oh that’s right, this isn’t real.” And by then it was too late.

But today was the day. You were sure of it. You had finally finished your drawing of your “dream man”, apart from the filled in eyes. Only an eyeline shaped hole rested in the middle of his perfect face. 

“Okay, that is just horrifying” You heard your roommate’s voice behind you.

“What? It’s perfect, Shi!” You defended your drawing. 

Sure you had hesitated telling your best friend of 10 years about your “situation”, but once you decided that you were going to find him, you knew you’d need her help. And so, after a very long conversation over a LOT of drinks, you had convinced her to help you. Well, reluctantly help you. 

“Well it’ll be no problem trying to find a guy with NO EYES,” She giggled.

“Shut up, I just...I can’t get them right,” 

“Can’t get them right? Girl have you or have you not told me that you have studied that man’s face EVERY night for the past 6 weeks?” 

“Yeah but….they’re so...perfect,” You sighed-- the gaping eye hole was mocking you. It was like the Universe saying “Good luck finding him without THESE!!!!” 

But you knew, you just knew in your heart of hearts that if you saw his eyes in real life, you’d know. You’d know instantly. You had this-- look, between you. The way he looked at you, the love and passion in his beautiful green eyes.

You couldn’t draw that on paper.

“Well just how do you expect us to make a “missed connection” flier with a demon looking guy like that?” 

“Look Shiloh, it’s a start ok?” 

“It’s not! You need those eyes, eyes are the most distinguishing trait on a person’s face!” She shook the paper at you.

“I know that!!!” you scoffed.

“Alright well...just, try again tonight yeah?” She put a hand on your shoulder.

“Yeah alright,”

----

The next night you did all the nightly rituals you had read and researched up on how to “lucid dream”. Eating certain foods, meditating before bed, repeating mantras as you fell asleep-- sometimes they helped you take control of the dreams, sometimes not.

But this has never happened.

-----------

You were suddenly “awake”, in a park. Wait, this wasn’t just some generic “Dream” park. You knew this park. You immediately started scanning the sights around you-- kids playing and running around, people talking on a fountain-- The fountain. You knew that fountain. Your eyes darted quicker around the scenic picture for a statute, and there it was.

This was Central Park. And not just Central Park, a very specific part of Central Park that you passed most days on your way to work. Could this just be the “coincidence” normal dream stuff seeping in? Just images of your day being played out in your REM cycle? I mean he wasn’t even--

“Dream girl,” His voice came from behind you. 

You spun to face the fountain and saw him in an off white cream colored suit, with a pink tie. His hair was in a coif, and for the first time maybe ever, you noticed him carrying a briefcase. 

“Hey you,” You smiled, pulling him into a long, deep kiss. 

“So, Central Park today huh? You know you could’ve told me that beforehand I wouldn’t have paid an Uber to drive --- blocks.” You noticed the blurb in his number. Wait, wait this wasn’t happening.

“Wait, what?” You were suddenly “awake” .

“My office? It’s just about ---- blocks that way,” He pointed forward-- South. 

His office was south from Central Park, only a few blocks away. Within walking distance.

“What else?” You grabbed him.

“What else? Baby are you ok…?” He backed up one step in concern.

“Dammit, snap out of it abogado!!!” You snapped at him, leaving you both in shock-- but for two different reasons. 

He was suddenly “awake” in this world too, but you had just called him a name in spanish that you did not know the meaning of.

“Since when do you know spanish?” He asked.

“It’s spanish? QUICK tell me what it means!!!” You shook him.

“Abogado means--” 

-----------

And he was gone. It was gone. You had been pulled suddenly from your dream world, something that had never happened before. It wasn’t even morning yet, the sun was barely peeking out from the skyline. You had never gotten that close to getting details from him, NEVER.

Maybe the Universe was catching on. 

You grabbed your phone from the charger beside you and furiously typed “Abogado” into google translate. And there it was, in black and white:

Lawyer.

This guy was a lawyer, who worked a few blocks south of Central Park. If he was real. You sighed to yourself as you put your phone down and went back to sleep.

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

And you were in the park again. 

“Hey, there you are! Where’d you go?” the “abogado” asked you with his dreamy smile. Wait, was he “asleep” again? And why did you pick up here? He knew you were gone? WAS THIS PLACE REAL?

“ABOGADO,” You shouted at him like a crazy person.

“...You don’t know spanish, why do you know-- Oh my god,” The man was suddenly cognizant of everything.

“Baby! Aw, baby girl I’ve missed you..” He pulled you into a kiss. You let him for a second, then pulled away quickly.

“Look, I don’t know what’s happening but this--” You gestured around the park. “This is near where I live. In reality,” 

His eyes widened as he recognized where you were. “This is a few blocks from my office-- in reality,” 

“Really? Really.” You were becoming frantic.

“I mean, if this is at all real, and you’re real--” He began looking around the park.

“I’M real, are YOU real?” You couldn’t believe he was questioning YOUR existence.

“I think the fact that we’re both questioning each other’s existence, might be either brain death or some kind of reality where we both do indeed exist,” He smirked.

“God you’re smart, why did I not know this before?”

“...I don’t know, we don’t really get into details usually, do we?” 

“No but now-- oh my god, NOW,” You grabbed him again excitedly.

“Now what? Oh, I love that guy’s suit…” He peered over your shoulder.

“Rafael will you FOCUS?” You both stopped and stared at each other as soon as the name left your lips.

“...I-I’m sorry, what?” He was turning pale

“Rafael...w-why did I just call you Rafael?”

“....Rafael’s my name,” He stared at you in disbelief. He actually looked shocked that you knew his name. 

“Y/N,” He finally spoke.

“Y/N is my name!!!!” You squealed. “This is happening, this is happening Rafael!!!!” You grabbed him in a hug but he still stood there in a daze.

“Oh god are you fading?” 

“N-No, I just...you have a name,” 

“...I..yeah?” You scrunch your nose. “Did...do...do you not think I’m real?” 

“No!” He shook his head. “I mean I do think you’re real, I just...this...this hasn’t happened before,” He stroked your cheek with his thumb, staring at it while he did it. Like he was memorizing the feeling of his skin on yours.

“I know, this is the most detailed “episode” we’ve ever had,” You pressed his hand harder against your cheek, memorizing the feeling of his hands over yours. 

“Tomorrow,” He stopped stroking your face and looked at you very seriously. 

“What?” 

“I-I feel it, I’m waking up-- damn early court time,” He grumbled. “But tomorrow-- er, today,” He grabbed both of your hands and squeezed them as hard as he could.

“If we are both real, we’ll meet here at this exact spot at 3:30 today, yeah?” You could see his body slowly disintegrating in front of you like Peter Parker at the end of Infinity War.

All you could do was nod as you felt yourself waking up, but you gave everything you had to grab him in one last kiss….

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

BEEP BEEP BEEEP!!!!!!

Your alarm was yelling at you, but you were already wide awake. Today was the day. Today at 3:30, in Central Park, you were going to meet your dream man.

If he was real. 

-------

The minutes passed by like hours, he would pick the day you have off so you could just sit there and stare at your phone obsessively all day. Of course after you had taken at least 2 hours to make sure you looked absolutely perfect for your man. 

You wanted to look like his dream girl. 

Finally, it was 3:20. Shiloh had come home early to walk with you to the park, there was no way she was missing this. You wanted enough time to make sure you’d be there exactly at 3:30, not a minute after. You held hands with Shi as you entered the park’s gates and just a few yards away was the fountain area you had been in last night. 

“So...this is it,” Shiloh dropped your hands.

“I know....What time is it?” You shuddered with excitement.

“3:29-- you know maybe he’s not a stickler for time like you and needs to be obsessively early everywhere babe,” 

���He’s a lawyer, they’re usually pretty punctual,” You raised an eyebrow. “Plus, if he’s as excited as I am he will be here on time,” You were bouncing on your heels like a little girl.

“Well, it’s 3:30 now…” You both began to look around the area. You had brought the drawing so Shiloh had an idea of who she was looking for, although she still deemed it impossible without his eyes.

“Y’know he said he had court today, maybe it’s further away from here,” You spoke out loud, still scanning every inch of the park. You didn’t know who you were trying to convince more, Shiloh or yourself.

Every second that passed by, your heart broke into teenier tinier pieces. You felt sick to your stomach, you were shaking-- you needed to sit. 

Shiloh came and joined you on the side of the fountain and held you in her arms as the park suddenly began filling very quickly. There was some sort of event happening soon, and people were getting “good seats”.

“Wh-What? No, no you guys can’t be here!” You frantically began circling people. “How is he supposed to find me if you’re all surrounding this damn fountain? HOW?!”

“Y/N….Honey, chill…” Shiloh tried to pull you away, but you jumped onto the fountain to get away from her as the area continued to fill with people, even police began to survey the area-- they stared at you, whispering things into their walkies. They were going to ask you to get down. They were going to ask you to leave. They were going to make you lose your chance forever--- and you couldn’t have that.

“RAFAEL!!!!!!” You started screaming into the crowd. Several members of the crowd began turning and staring at you as you repeated the name over and over again, walking around on top of the fountain as you did. 

“Are you nuts you’re going to get us arrested!!”  Shiloh hissed, pulling on your arm.

“I don’t care--- RAFAEL!!!!!” You knocked her hand away and started screaming again.

“Ma’am, you’re going to need to come with us,” A Park Ranger started for your hand but you evaded it as you continued circling and screaming like an insane person.

“NO!!! I CAN’T!!!!! HE’LL BE HERE!!!! RAFAEL!!!!!!”

-------

“I mean, are you SURE it was this end of the park, Rafa?” Olivia Benson circled the same spot her and Rafael had been walking around for several minutes now. 

“Yeah, I’m sure! There was a statue--”

“There are a LOT of statues in here, Rafa. Did you see anything else in this ‘dream’?” 

“Look Liv, I appreciate you coming with me even though you don’t believe in this at all, but the snarkiness is not helping,” He folded his arms with a scowl.

“I’m sorry, I’ll--” Olivia was cut off mid-sentence by her walkie going off. “Benson.”

“Yeah hi, this is the CP patrol-- We heard you were around here, and I think we’ve got a-- what do you call it, special victim? This girl’s running around crazy yelling for some dude, I think she might be a few circuits short of a circuit board,” 

“Where are you?”

“The South Entrance by Lootney Fountain,” As those words rang out through her walkie, Rafael’s eyes widened. 

“The fountain…” He muttered, beginning to sprint across the park. “I forgot about the fountain!!!!!!”

-------

The CP Patrol had gotten you off the fountain and were trying to calm you down, but you wouldn’t stop yelling Rafael’s name. Until out of nowhere--

“Y/N???”

You’d know that voice anywhere. You jumped out of the cop’s reach and back onto the fountain where you could see over the crowd. Your eyes frantically searched when you saw a man running towards the fountain; from across the park, and then you saw his face.

It was Rafael.

The second you locked eyes, you both just stopped moving entirely. You were pretty sure you had stopped breathing. You could see everything in those big beautiful green eyes you had the hardest time putting down on paper. You saw the same thoughts running through his head as yours:

He was real. You were real.

“Y/N!!!!!!” He finally yelled, making the crowd turn to face him. He disappeared into the sea of people as you jumped down and began tearing through them like mad. 

“RAFAEL!!!!” You screamed, knocking people over left and right. He was sprinting across the lawn, more desperate to get to you than anything in his entire life.

“Y/N!!!!!!” You heard his voice again, and this time it was so much closer. So crisp and clear, just like it was in your dreams-- But this was real. It was really happening. You gave one last push through a group of stragglers to come upon a man huffing and puffing in a cream colored suit, with a pink tie. But he seemed to lose all signs of fatigue as you hurled yourself into his arms-- his real, open arms. He spun you around and kissed you deeper and harder than he ever had in any of your encounters. 

And it was real.

You felt it even more than the most detailed of dreams, his taste, the feel of his touch, his smell. You stood there locked in a kiss for several seconds, while Olivia waved off the coppers and Shiloh had broken through the crowd to see your very real dream man.

Finally, after convincing yourself to pull away from him, you looked into his eyes. His real, green eyes. You stroked his cheek while he kept the tightest grip around your waist, as if you were going to float away if he let up one second. 

“You’re real,” You blinked back tears.

“So are you,” He held back his own tears, stroking yours away from your cheeks. 

“I love you, Rafael,” You whispered, still scared to death you’d wake up at any moment.

“I love you, YN-- my dream girl,” He smiled back, pulling you into another long kiss.

That night you had normal dreams, which you didn’t mind in the slightest; because you slept in the arms of the man of your dreams.

[asmo-ds]

(1) i tried to think of a belphie one so here it is, sorry if it kinda bad👉🏻👈🏻 mc has been begging belphie to go to the human realm for xmas tgt but he isn't very sure about it since he did try to kill mc. since mc knows how much he used to love the human realm and humans he probably also loved xmas, they thought he would be excited to go.

How to Love Christmas Again

Belphegor x gn!MC

Word Count: 4295

Genre: Fluff

Summary: As the holiday season rolls around, MC requests to go back home and spend Christmas at their apartment in the human world. Diavolo agrees on the condition they bring a brother to protect them since they have pact marks yet no knowledge of how to use them. Who better to bring then their sleepy boyfriend, Belphegor, even if it means they have to avoid all other humans the whole week!

“Oh right, I almost forgot that was today,” A young Belphegor reaches under his bed to pull out the gift boxes Lucifer had helped him wrap for his twin and the young girl. Beel runs to his own bed bringing out his own gifts for his siblings.

“Did you wrap these yourself, Lilith?” Beel giggles as he observes the horror show of wrapping paper around his gift from her.

“Did you wrap these yourself, Lilith?” Beel giggles as he observes the horror show of wrapping paper around his gift from her.

“Did you wrap these yourself, Lilith?” Beel giggles as he observes the horror show of wrapping paper around his gift from her.

“Did you wrap these yourself, Lilith?” Beel giggles as he observes the horror show of wrapping paper around his gift from her.

“Well… I tried to but had trouble, so I asked Mammon and Leviathan for help - but then Leviathan got wrapped up in tape and it just turned into a mess,” she giggles with a blinding smile. “Anyways open your gifts!”

Belphegor watches as Beel unwraps the gift from their baby sister, revealing a box of freshly baked cookies she had made that morning. Beelzebub gave her a hug thanking her before he moved to watch Belphegor open his gift from Lilith.

He unwrapped the gift and saw a soft pillow covered in the pattern sported by cows. He smiles wide and wraps his arms around her in a tight embrace. 

“I sewed it myself, I hope it is soft enough,” she smiles at him. 

After they opened their gifts from Beel, a new blanket for Belphegor, and a new dress for Lilith, they moved on to Belphegor’s gifts.

“Don’t call me cheesy, okay?” He blushes as they pull out the shiny golden necklaces. Beelzebub held a necklace with a charm shaped like a sun and Lilith’s sporting a star. Belphie reached down his shirt and pulled out the necklace he had gotten for himself, a moon-shaped charm resting on the chain. 

“Belphie these are beautiful!” Lilith exclaims as Belphegor puts it around her neck.

“Think of these as a promise. A promise that we’ll always protect each other.”

The three sat in the circle agreeing and swearing to protect each other no matter the cost.

The Celestial war was the last time he saw those stars. He watched as the necklace flew off of her chest, blood splatter landing on it as the arrow penetrated her wing. He watched as the chain snapped from the force of Lilith’s body flying backward. He watched as he broke his promise to protect her-

-

Belphie sat straight up, breathing heavily as he woke up from the flashback. He stared straight ahead as he tried to refocus his breathing. Despite the darkness of the attic - he could see the outline of a person next to him. He glanced down at MC as he turned on a lamp. He grabbed their face and checked their pulse, letting out a sigh of relief as they stirred, blinking away the sleep from their tired eyes. 

“Belphie? You ok?” MC reaches up to wipe a tear he hadn’t even realized fell from his violet eyes.

He couldn’t respond, his mouth open as nothing but a choked sob came out. MC sat up and pulled him against their chest, rubbing his back soothingly.

“Another nightmare?” they ask, receiving a shaky nod in return. Belphegor looks at the digital clock that rested beside his bed and reads the numbers.

It was 2:03 AM on December 20th.

-

The next morning, MC and Belphie arrived at breakfast. “MC, the human world holiday season has arrived, Diavolo wants you to be prepared to talk to him this morning about how we can incorporate these human world festivities into our home to make you more comfortable during your stay,” Lucifer announces as MC helps him clean the dishes. 

“Actually… I was wondering if perhaps I could go home. Just for a week or so to see family and be in my own home. Christmas is special for me and I don’t really want to spend it in Hell.” 

Lucifer looks surprised at their request and opens his mouth, most likely to protest the idea saying it would be a hazard to send MC out to the human world, but he is interrupted by another voice, one belonging to the demon prince himself.

“Of course you can go home for the holidays! Though it may be riskier for you seeing as you now have pacts with all seven demon brothers yet have no idea how to use them. So I will allow you to go home but you will have to take a brother with you,” Diavolo states, causing Lucifer to turn around in surprise.

“I will go with them Diavolo I am the only one who can be trusted-”

“No Lucifer, this is a special holiday and I want you to allow MC to choose for themselves for once.”

MC’s mind immediately goes to Belphie. They thank Diavolo with a big hug due to their excitement and run up towards the attic in search of their sleepy boyfriend. 

“Belphie! Belphie!” They jump on the pile of blankets that hid his body beneath them.

“What?” He groans.

“Diavolo said I could go home for a week to celebrate Christmas!” They exclaim and he gives them a half-assed smile.

“Cool. Have fun,” He turns over intending to go back to sleep and not wake up until after the season has passed.

“He said I have to take a brother with me though, so I figured, you used to love the human world so why don’t you join me?” They smile sweetly at him.

He tenses and looks at the ground, avoiding their pleading eyes. “I can’t.”

“But why?!” They whine.

“Because… because I don’t want anybody to get hurt.” He turns to look at MC and they see the fear in his eyes, “what if I get angry again? What if I kill an innocent human while we’re there. MC I can’t go, I don’t want to hurt anybody-”

“Well then we’ll just have to stay inside, no big deal,” they shrug as if they hadn’t a care in the world. “I’ll go food shopping the first day so that we can eat, then we’ll hide out in my apartment all week watching Christmas movies and drinking hot cocoa and all that jazz.”

Belphegor looks at them with hope in his eyes as he contemplates whether or not to join them on their journey. 

“You pinky promise we won’t leave the apartment?” He looks at them with a very serious look, and they lean forward, lightly bonking their forehead against his. 

“I swear on my soul.” They state before leaning their head down to kiss him softly.

-

As they prepared to depart for their trip, Lucifer would not stop nagging Belphegor like a mom sending their kid off to summer camp.

“Don’t talk to any humans you don’t know, do you have mittens?! You can’t go without mittens, Belphegor, demons aren’t built for the cold you have to bundle up or else you’ll-” he is interrupted by Belphegor loudly saying his goodbye as he and MC stepped through the portal, landing in front of the apartment building where MC resided. The portal closed behind them and MC grabbed his hand, leading him into their apartment carrying his luggage.

“MC! Long time no see!” the security guard at the front desk smiles widely at them, “you on break from your exchange program in Sweden- or wherever it was you went- for the holidays?” He stands up and walks around the desk to talk more casually to the human.

“George! Yes I’m back, and this is my boyfriend, Belphie, I met him in the exchange program,” MC wraps themselves around Belphegor’s arm as he looks down shyly, afraid to look at any human other than MC.

“Nice to meet ya, Belphie. I’m George, you’ll probably see me a lot since I'm the head of security in this building,” the man reaches his hand out to shake Belphegor’s. Belphie nervously looks at MC who takes the hint and pipes up.

“Sorry about him! He’s Swedish, so he doesn’t really understand, plus he’s a germaphobe so he doesn’t shake hands,” they smile apologetically at the security guard who lowers his hand and gives a nod. 

“Tell him I said to enjoy his stay,” George says before walking off.

“Hey Belphie, George says to-”

“Yea I heard him, stupid,” he pokes MC’s cheek before they lead him to the elevator.

As MC reaches their front door and turns the keys they can see Belphie fidget, clearly nervous that they have yet to enter the privacy of MC’s home. 

MC uses one hand to push the door open and the other to rub their thumb soothingly over the demon’s knuckles. As soon as they shut the door it feels as if a thousand pounds had been lifted from his shoulders and he lets out a sigh.

“Ok, now that we’re here… do you want a tour?” MC chuckles, grabbing their boyfriend’s hand once more, leading him through the apartment and announcing the rooms as if they were a safari guide.

“Over here you see the bedroom. The natural habitat of an MC. The MC sleeps in this room and nearly never leaves it. This room is where things such as the mating season take place,” MC wiggles their eyebrows suggestively before giving an exaggerated wink, causing Belphegor to snort from how hard he was laughing.

“Your home is very cute, MC,” he compliments.

After picking up their room a bit and placing Belphie’s luggage in the bedroom, MC decides to set up their bed as a nest for them to cuddle in. Belphie and MC lay in the makeshift nest watching horribly hallmark Christmas movies and making fun of their plots before they eventually fall asleep, ending their first day in the human realm.

-

“Hey, be careful you three!” The white haired angel yells at three teens who run through a town decorated for Christmas.

“Woah! Belphie look!” Lilith grabs his shoulder and they look over to see a giant tree, all lit up (i know light bulbs probably didn’t exist in the era before Lilith died BUT we’re gonna pretend it do :D ) and covered in ornaments. 

“Oh, I think they’re gonna put the star on top now,” he, Lilith and Beel all push their way to the front of the crowd, ignoring Mammon calling for them to stay close to him.

“It’s so pretty!” Belphie looks at the young woman and his twin, smiling softly as they stare in awe at the shimmer lights as snow falls all around them in small soft flakes they melt on their skin. 

“I wish Lucifer, Asmo, and Leviathan weren’t so busy today-” Lilith frowns. “I know they really just didn’t want to come stand in the cold but… I really think if we could’ve convinced them to come they would have loved this.” Lilith smiles gently and looks back up at the twinkling lights of the star atop the giant pine tree before them, “I hope one day we can all see these lights together.”

“I doubt you’ll be able to get those guys down ‘ere, but ya guys got me!” Mammon catches up to them and smiles.

“Hey Mammon! Can we take a tree from the human world and decorate it at home?!” Lilith asks with a wide smile.

“Well it's a bit late this year, but next Christmas I pinky promise,” He raised his pinky towards her and they locked pinkies, bringing smiles to their faces.

But next Christmas never arrived for Lilith. It was on this trip that she met the human man who she fell for. It was mere months later that he fell ill and they were all cast down from the heavens. Bringing the death of Lilith and the birth of Satan.

-

Belphie slowly blinked as he winced away from the bright sunlight he wasn’t used to. He raised his nose to the air and smelled something good, so he stood and followed the scent to the kitchen. There he found MC in their pajamas, holding a pan with eggs over a plate that already had bacon and toast on it.

“Belphie!” They place down the pan and run to him, jumping onto him as he catches their thighs, wrapping themself around him as he holds them up, tightly embracing their small form and swinging back and forth playfully.

“Someone seems hyper this morning,” he lets go of MC and they climb down with a laugh.

 “I know you were nervous about coming here so I wanted to thank you for joining me with breakfast in bed… so go back to bed and let me surprise you!” Belphie rolls his eyes and climbs back into the bed, moments later MC enters holding the plate he had previously seen them preparing. “Tada! A traditional human world breakfast!”

They eat their breakfast and watch the news, Belphie accidentally laughing at some tragic events due to his demonic nature.

They spend some time decorating with some supplies MC had hidden away in the deepest depths of their closet. They hang a wreath on the inside of the front door and MC pulls out a fake mistletoe, hanging it on a ceiling lamp Belphie was underneath as he strung some lights around the room.

“What’s that thing?” He tilts his head upwards to look at it more closely.

“It’s a human world tradition, wanna try it out?” MC asks innocently.

“Sure why not, what do I have to do-” he’s interrupted by MC pulling his face down to his for a sweet kiss.

“It’s mistletoe, if you and someone else stand under it you have to kiss!” Belphie smiles and gives them one more kiss before looking back down into the box of decorations and spotting a star.

“Oh, this goes on top of the tree, right?” he asks and MC gives a small smile. 

“Yea but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get a tree up here by myself, so we might have to skip that part-”

“We have to have a tree! That's the best part!” Belphie suddenly bursts out, immediately blushing embarrassed by his sudden enthusiasm. “Lilith used to love the trees.”

“Oh, then I’m sure we can find a way!” MC suddenly whips out their D.D.D, pressing a few buttons before raising it to their ear. “Hey Diavolo! I need a favor-”

-

“Here you two are, have fun decorating,” Diavolo says as they finish screwing a tree he and Lucifer had hauled up to MC’s apartment.

“Honestly, I don’t think you should have called us for this,” Lucifer shakes his head with annoyance.

“Yea you shouldn’t have come to the human world for a Christmas tree, you never could do it for Lilith when she begged-” Belphie scoffs, making Lucifer shoot a glare his way.

“Lucifer and Belphie please behave yourselves, you are representing the Devildom here in MC’s apartment,” Diavolo places a hand on Lucifer’s shoulder.

(from here to the dash mark is a tiny itty bitty bit of Dialuci fluff as a small little bonus)

The three men suddenly hear some snickering as MC looks above Diavolo and Lucifer, causing everyone else to look up in return. They all looked up at the mistletoe that hung above them and MC and Belphie looked at each other with mischief in their eyes.

“Oh yea, Lord Diavolo MC taught me a fun human world tradition, would you two like to give it a try,” Belphie gives an evil smirk.

“Of course, Lucifer you join too!”

As Belphegor explained the tradition Lucifer grew extremely flustered and tried to argue his way out of it, losing in the end as the demon prince was too enthusiastic to participate in human culture and kissed him on the lips with little to no hesitation.

The men left, one beaming with excitement and the other sulking but blushing.

-

MC wrapped the lights around the tree, occasionally tripping over the long tangled wire. Belphie grabbed some tinsel, tossing it around the tree as MC finished the lights.

MC pulled out the normal ornaments first, handing some to Belphie to hang alongside them.

Then they got to the ones with meaning behind them.

“Baby’s first Christmas?” Belphie reads off the ornament shaped like a cradle.

“Oh yea, that’s from my first Christmas! It has my birthstone in there as well, see!”

As they dig through the ornaments and MC tells stories behind them all he can’t help but smile as he gets to know his lover deeper than he had before.

After hours of this, they finish and star at the star that had yet to be placed on top of the tree.

“Do you want put it on, Belphie?” MC smiles up at him.

“Me? Are you sure?”

“Of course this is your first time decorating for Christmas you said so you should get the full experience!” MC hands him the star and he looks at it, a bit nervous before feeling MC’s lips on his cheek, a silent cheer of encouragement.

He climbs the step ladder MC had placed next to the tree and places the star on, plugging it into the wall as it lit up with white lights.

MC runs to turn off the lights so they can see the Christmas light better and Belphie takes a step back, a big smile on his normally sleepy face.

They stand and stare at the tree happily for a few moments before MC excuses themselves to go make dinner. Belphie lays down on the bed and decides to take a power nap while MC cooks. 

-

“Ah, I’m so sorry sir!” Lilith exclaimed as she accidentally bumped into the shoulder of a young man. 

“No worries, having a lady as breath-taking as yourself bump into me must be my Christmas gift,” the man compliments the Angel before introducing himself.

“Lilith!” Belphegor calls after having searched for them for half an hour, he finally spotted them blushing as they chatted with a human man. Her three brothers watched from afar to ensure her safety, but allowed them to hang out together for a few more minutes.

“Lilith, we need to head back home now,” Mammon interrupted the pair, bringing a frown to his baby sister’s face. He walks away to let them say their goodbyes.

“Oh, uh, sir, I would love to see you again sometime, could we perhaps meet here in the center of town in three days time?” She asks with hope in her eyes and rosy cheeks. 

“Of course, I will wait here for you to return.” Belphie overheard their goodbyes and got slight chills, happy that his sister seemed excited, but fearful because he knew that love between Angel and human was something not taken lightly.

When they got home, Belphegor and Beelzebub sat and listened to their sister speak of the man and how they were going to return and see him soon. So every three days, the four of them travelled down to the human world, creating a new tradition. One day Lilith started going by herself, more frequently and sometimes spending days in the human world, staying with her new lover.

Belphegor was so happy to see his sister happy and he thanked Christmas for existing as he knew that if it didn’t she would never have met the person who gave her so much life. But now he couldn’t help but curse the wretched holiday as it caused her to meet the person she would give her life trying to heal.

-

Belphegor woke up the next morning with MC still in bed, sleeping next to him.

He smiled down at the human and thought to himself how hypocritical he was. He had been so mad at Lilith’s lover for her death and claimed loving humans if you were not human was wrong, but here he was staring with pure adoration at a human he was proud to call his.

MC stirred and looked up into sleepy violet eyes before slightly sitting up for a kiss.

They both got ready for the day, brushing their teeth, changing into new clothes and eventually arriving in the kitchen for breakfast.

“Ok, funny story,” MC laughs nervously as they open the cabinets, meeting nothing but air, “we are out of food and I’m going to have to go shopping. So you can either stay here alone or join me. It’s completely up to you.”

Belphegor weighs his options before a small voice in the back of his head tells him to join his significant other in public and protect them from witches or other supernatural creatures that may see the pact marks that adorned their skin.

They unplug the tree to avoid a fire and bundle up to avoid hypothermia. 

MC holds his hand the whole way, soothing any nerves he had. They tried to crack some jokes to make him feel less awkward but they eventually stopped as it didn’t seem to help him. 

As they shopped Belphie’s vice grip on MC’s hand loosened to a casual hold instead of a fearful one. 

“This is actually… kind of nice,” he mumbled as he looked around at the humans shopping, some kids horsing around as their mother tried to reign them in, an old couple slowly making their way down the aisle, a father trying to make his infant laugh at his funny faces.

“See, I told you it wouldn’t be so bad,” MC smiles at him sweetly.

They finished up their shopping and paid for their groceries before leaving. On the way home Belphegor made MC stop so they could look at a snow covered park where parents sat and watched their children and he saw some dogs run after frisbees and snowballs their owners had thrown.

The whole way home Belphie couldn’t stop smiling as he watched humans enjoy their lives despite theirs being so short compared to his own.

Then he saw a young lady bump into a man, apologizing before they struck up a conversation. He saw Lilith and her lover for half a second before blinking and seeing the strangers once more. 

When they arrived home and got settled in, putting away the groceries and getting back into their PJs, they sat in front of the TV, watching some show MC wanted to catch up on while they were home where it aired.

A commercial came on that Belphie had seen the night before. It was a Christmas movie that was apparently a “remake” of a story about some green man in the mountains stealing a holiday. He saw on the screen it was apparently ‘in theaters now’, so he turned to the human beside him.

“Hey MC… do you think maybe we could go see that tonight?” he smiled shyly and MC sat up and gave him a soft kiss.

“Of course! I’m glad to see you finally feel good about going outside.”

“I mean… movie theaters are just dark rooms you sit in watching a giant screen for a bit,” he shrugs, clearly still a bit nervous about being around other humans.

“Ok, it is still a start though!” MC hugs him before going onto their phone and looking for movie times.

-

At the end of the movie MC and Belphie walked out hand in hand, him acting much more natural than when they had first arrived.

They returned to the apartment building and were once again greeted by the security guard, George. 

“MC! MC’s boyfriend! Have a nice date?” he smiles at the pair.

“Yes! We saw a movie!” Belphie tries to put on his best Swedish accent and watches as the security guard looks surprised. 

“Very nice!” George smiles at him, talking very slowly to ensure Belphie could understand him.

Belphie continued to communicate in short and simple sentences in his god awful attempt at an accent. After they left the lobby, MC and Belphie broke into laughter.

“That was awful” MC laughs out, clutching their stomach.

“I only knew how the accent sounded from that show you were watching last night,” he responds, also laughing very hard.

The rest of the night, Belphie and MC make plans for the remainder of their time in the human world. 

The next day they went Ice Skating, Belphie falling over a lot before finally getting the hang of it. Though, by the time he got it, he was exhausted and falling asleep on the ice. MC had to hurry home so he didn’t knock out on the sidewalk.

The day after that was Christmas, and Belphie was grateful he hadn’t had any dreams to upset him the past few days.

He had bought MC a gift before they left the Devildom and MC had left to go get him one yesterday when he fell asleep. They both handed each other gifts and unwrapped them at the same time.

“A blanket that matches my pillow!” Belphie exclaims with a big smile, holding the cow print cloth up to get a better view of it. He wraps it around himself as MC finishes getting the wrapping off of his gift to them.

“Oh wow… Belphie this is beautiful,” they lift the necklace up and place the star shaped charm in their palm.

“I had it custom made,” he pulls his own necklace out from under his shirt, “Beel has one too, the third one, that is shaped like stars too, is on Lilith’s tomb under the house. You came and changed me, MC. I want you to know I don’t see you as Lilith, but you are still a piece of my family, and I promise to protect you forever.”

Belphie was certain he would never see the blood on those stars again, he would protect MC with his life and never let them get hurt by anyone or anything.

[cassiaa]

Metanoia part 2

Warnings posted in the first part.

This part lacks Namjoon and is mostly a filler, but he will be back soon. Deciding on an update schedule and whether or not to tag accounts or not. Until I’m more used to posting this way I won’t be tagging people, thank you for understanding! Roughly edited.

Ava sat, twirling the ring on her left hand.

It had been a week since she had told Namjoon of the baby. He took it well. Simply nodding and smiling softly. He had stood and taken her hand, leading her to what she assumed was his office where he unlocked a desk drawer and pulled out a small black velvet box. And with a 'this wasn't how I had planned to do this....' he had asked her to marry him. Of course she said yes. Then he spent the entire night worshipping her body. The next morning she was beyond exhausted and slept the entire day.

Her parents were less than pleased, though they didn't get a say in it. Ava had told her mother briefly over the phone after Namjoon had left to America to discuss it in person with her father. Her mother didn't say much, she wasn't in a position to, she only said that she would try to come early for the wedding to be with her.

Even with Namjoon being in a different country, most of the work was still done by him personally. A lot of the wedding preparations he had taken responsibility of to make sure they would be perfect, and only left a few specifics and special touches to be done by Ava.

"Gonna sit there all day?"

"Maybe." Ava glances away from the window, grinning at Yoongi, who didn't hesitate to drop on the free couch and throw an arm over his eyes.

"Your mom should be here soon." He offered up after a moment. "You should at least pretend to be busy."

Ava scoffs, "my mom knows I'm lazy. She will see right through it."

"Maybe," he shrugs, "but it will give you an excuse to make a run for it if she starts getting on your nerves."

"Thats what you're for. And why we're not meeting here but at a restaurant." Ava stands and starts placing all the books back into their correct positions on the wall, before collect all the papers with wedding details on them and locking them in a box before setting that next to the fire place to act as decoration.

"That's a stupid hiding spot." Yoongi remarks, still not even looking. "Lazy."

"Doesn't matter." It was Ava's turn to shrug, "I just need two people not to see it, and both of those people are banned from this room anyways."

"You're not including your parents in any of the wedding details?"

"No," Ava scoffs, "why would I? If it weren't for Namjoon they wouldn't have received invitations in the first place."

"Have you sent out the invites yet?" Yoongi asks, sounding half asleep at this point.

"Most of them. But Namjoon is talking to my father in person and I told my mother over the phone. They will still get a card though, probably after Namjoon is on his way back." Ava hums, playing with the flowers in a large vase that she moved from the mantle of the fire place to the window. They were a gift from Namjoon that had been delivered that morning, they weren't the first and she knew they wouldn't be the last.

"Shouldn't you go get ready?" Yoongi finally broke the silence twenty minutes later.

Ava's nose twitched, "do I have to though? I should just go like this." She gestured to her (Namjoon's) sweatpants (that she had raided his closet for despite her closet being filled to the brim with clothes) and white t shirt that was slightly see through depending on how you looked at it. Yoongi gave a very unimpressed look earning a huff from Ava before she stood and dusted herself off.

"Fine. I won't go out looking like trash today." She grumbles, "enjoy your nap."

"I will."

Ava threw one of the couch pillows at him on her way out, receiving a laugh and nothing more as she shut her parlor door behind her.

"Would you like help Miss Smith?" Imo-ssi offered gracefully falling into step just behind her, respectfully. Ava had learned from Yoongi that her name was HaeSoo and since then had taken to calling the woman by it, despite her objections. She did compromise by adding ssi to the end, to not be rude.

"Yes please, HaeSoo-ssi." Ava nods with a smile, "that would be lovely."

It wasn't long before Hae-soo had created a masterpiece of the young woman and was ushering her towards the doors.

"Who is going with us?" Ava asked Yoongi as the man stepped from the shadows against the wall and joined her in her car. It was the same car that Namjoon had gifted her in America, a white and black Range Rover that literally sparkled it was so shiny and new.

"JK's driving and Jimin is already at the restaurant. Hobi picked up your mother from the airport and is bringing her there now. We will be there before her but just barely." Yoongi gave her the run down, glancing from his tablet to the window before speaking in Korean to someone over an ear piece.

Ava nods slowly, the team was divided up, Jin, Taehyung had gone with Namjoon to close off American deals as well as be with Namjoon when he spoke to her father and Yoongi and Jungkook had been left with her for her protection. Yoongi had dragged Hobi and Jimin into the detail when the two had showed up after their latest mission and gala coincidentally at the same time.

"Hey Noona." Jungkook grinned, hopping into the front seat. "Thanks for giving me permission to drive your car."

Ava rolls her eyes, which was seen by him in the mirror. "I didn't, don't put a scratch on it." She warns, half serious. Even if he did mess it up in any way she'd have a new one by morning, maybe even by the time she was done with dinner.

"Let's just get there." Yoongi orders.

"Let's get it!" Jungkook mumbles under his breath, a little too excited compared to the two in the back seats.

Ava and Yoongi exchange glances, Ava biting back her sigh and Yoongi quickly going back to his tablet. It would be a long night.

Finally having separated from her overwhelming mother, Ava curled up on top of the covers, hugging a pillow close to her chest.

"At least get underneath and pretend to sleep." Hobi grins, standing in the doorway and crossing his arms.

"No." Ava murmurs into the pillow. "Don't want to."

"Namjoon's going to be upset that you're not sleeping." Yoongi said closing the balcony doors of the master bedroom and clicking the lock shut.

"Don't care." Ava sighs deeply, shutting her eyes and feigning sleep. "He shouldn't leave me alone for this long then. He knows I don't like sleeping alone."

"Sounds like a you problem." Yoongi smirks, gripping the edge of the bed spread and tossing it over her half way.

"Wanna snuggle?" She grins up at him, pulling the blanket up a little more.

"And get a bullet in the ass?" Yoongi scoffs. "I think not."

Ava looks up towards Hobi, "how about you? You a wuss too?"

"The biggest." His grin widens, pushing off the door frame he flicks a two finger salute as goodbye. "See you tomorrow. Go to sleep."

"Yeah, go to sleep." Yoongi adds with a nod. "Call JK if you need anything he's probably the only one able to get away laying with you if you're man walks in tonight."

Ava's eyes brighten, "is he coming back early?"

Yoongi holds a sigh in, "probably not. But we don't need you getting anyone shot between now and then."

Ava repositions, hiding deeper in the blankets and imagining being anywhere else. Preferably not pregnant to be honest. "Ok. Goodnight."

Yoongi shuts the door behind him, leaving Ava in mostly darkness except for the pale moonlight coming from the glass doors.

It was an odd thing to crave. Wanting nothing more to be alone and nothing more than to not be alone. It was something she had grown accustomed to. Being surrounded by people around the clock but not truly having companions.  She grew up in it. And since meeting Namjoon she had grown accustomed to his overwhelming presence. He drowned out her inner demons and made her feel safe again.

[jokertrap-ran]

(未定事件簿) 莫弈 SR [松雪童话] [Tears of Themis] Mo Yi SR [Snowy Pine Fairytales] Card Story Translations (Part 2)

*Tears of Themis Masterlist / Mo Yi’s Masterlist / Mobile Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Check out Chapter 1 of Mo Yi’s Private Story here!

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / SMS

Demon King: Squeak—

As if answering my doubts, Demon King slowly relaxed again. It even slowly reached its forelimbs out to tentatively touch Mo Yi's fingers.

MC: (Oh… It looks like it really isn't as terrified anymore.)

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

He slowly moved his arm closer to being Demon King closer to him.

Maybe it felt appeased, for its bushy tail started swaying back and forth, as if to express how close it felt to him.

MC: Just like back when I first saw it, Demon King really seems to have taken a liking to you, Dr. Mo.

Mo Yi: Yes. Judging by how it's behaving, it looks like it trusts me quite a bit.

Mo Yi warmly returned the small creature’s gaze, the warmth within his golden eyes akin to the warm rays of the winter sun.

It wasn’t piercing, but warm, and comfortable. The sort of warmth that made me sincerely feel at ease from the bottom of my heart.

MC: (Maybe… Maybe this is why Demon King’s willing to get closer to Dr. Mo.)

Now, both the silver-coated woods and Mo Yi’s own silvery hair reflected a plethora of wonderful colors as the sun’s rays fell upon them. Adding onto the scene was the cute Demon King, forming a picturesque scene full of warmth that made people unwilling to disrupt it.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Demon King gradually got used to its surroundings. It looked at Mo Yi, before turning towards me, who stood beside him.

MC: Now that we’ve found him, we should hurry and bring him back. I’m sure the little guy’s anxiously waiting for its return.

Mo Yi: Yes.

Mo Yi gently gestured to Demon King to enter the pocket of his coat; it cocked its head, as if pondering. Following that, it followed the path down the sleeve of his shirt, eventually jumping snugly into his coat pocket.

Only a furry little head could be seen peeking out from his pocket, alertly surveying its surroundings.

MC: How wonderous… It looks like it understands you...

MC: Unless... Are you also capable of reading the minds of little animals?

Mo Yi laughed, but made no comment.

Mo Yi: It’s nothing all that strange. I think that it has just gotten used to listening to people since it's been living together with humans for so long.

MC: You do have a point there.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

And that was how we brought Demon King back to Snowy Pine Village. It had stayed quietly inside Mo Yi's pocket the entire trip back, never once making another attempt to escape.

It was already getting late by the time we returned to the village.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆

Location: Snowy Pine Village

The boy had long since been waiting for us at the village entrance, exclaiming in joy the moment he saw us.

Little Boy: Yay! You've brought Demon King back!

We had only just stopped in front of him when Demon King leapt onto his hand, affectionately pawing at his face.

Mo Yi took out the whistle and returned it to the boy, who carefully tucked it away.

Little Boy: I just knew that it'd come back as long as you blew that whistle! This is mom's whistle; it really likes mom.

Mo Yi: Keep a close eye on it and don't let it run off again.

Demon King: Squeak squeak sque-squeak!

Little Boy: Demon King says thank you!

The boy didn't sound as guarded as before anymore, and his expression had also softened a tad.

MC: You're welcome, Demon King.

MC: But can you really communicate with it, little buddy?

Little Boy: Yeah! Demon King knows lots of super spells, so of course it understands what I say!

Spells? I immediately asked him the question that had been festering at the bottom of my heart.

MC: About that, could you tell me why you named it Demon King? There must be some special meaning to that, right?

Little Boy: Because Demon Kings are great! The Demon Kings in fairy tales always know everything and they even have spells that can control time!

Little Boy: As long as I have Demon King's spells, mom and dad can come back!

MC: …...

So Demon King's name simply originated from his own innocent fantasies; but I never thought… That it actually had some sort of special meaning.

Speaking of which, I haven't seen this child's parents at all up, and even his guardian never made an appearance up till now. Maybe it's really just like I deduced earlier...

I was just mulling over the thought when I suddenly caught sight of an old grandmother with a walking stick coming towards us from the village.

Grandmother: Little Meng, have you found Demon King yet?

His grandmother had a full head of grey hair and appeared to have some difficulty walking despite being supported by a walking stick.

The boy hurriedly dashed towards her to provide support.

Little Boy: I found him. You're not fit to be out here, Gran. Why did you come back outside?

Grandmother: You didn't come home after such a long time and I was getting worried about you, so I came out to have a look.

As she spoke, she Mo Yi and I standing to the side.

Grandmother: Did you guys help him find Demon King?

Mo Yi: Indeed. It only took little effort.

His grandmother looked kindly at us for a while before waving towards the boy.

Grandmother: Alright, you go off and play first. I want to talk to this brother and sister for a bit.

Little Boy: 'Kay! I'll go bring Demon King home first.

Watching the little boy leave with his squirrel in tow, his grandmother turned to us with an apologetic smile.

Grandmother: Sorry, little Meng must have caused you guys much trouble.

MC: I see, so he's called little Meng?

Grandmother: Yes, little Meng is just the nickname that his mother gave him; he's my grandson.

Grandmother: How do I address the both of you?

MC: I'm (Y/n), and he's Mo Yi. We're here to celebrate Christmas.

Mo Yi: Sorry for not formally giving you an introduction earlier; that was rather rude of me.

Grandmother: You are too humble.

Grandmother: Haa, it's not often that people come by these parts, and young people like you are an even rarer occurrence.

Grandmother: Both of his parents aren't here together with him, you see. So, it's only us, a grandma and her grandchild, living together like this… Thankfully, he still has a squirrel to help ease some of his boredom.

MC: ……

She sighed, speaking to us solemnly.

Grandmother: Young lad and miss, I have something to ask of you, but I don't know if you'll agree to it.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆  

Location: Snowy Pine Village

Grandmother: Young lad and miss, I have something to ask of you, but I don't know if you'll agree to it.

Mo Yi: Your tone has taken a serious turn. I take it that whatever you're going to tell us now has something to do with little Meng?

Mo Yi: Go on. We'll definitely help you out if it's something within our ability to.

Hearing this, little Meng's grandmother looked at Mo Yi in surprise, but was also thankful that he was willing to lend an ear.

Grandmother: Alright then, I'll get straight to the point. It's going to be Christmas very soon, so… Could the both of you celebrate this festival with him?

Grandmother: Like setting up a tree or something or decorating the house with him…

Grandmother: I'm not too familiar with these foreign practices and there are very few youngsters in this village, so he's literally unable to find any playmates.

Grandmother: Oh, you can just celebrate the occasion at my place. There's no one else other than me and that child.

MC: Of course, we can do it! We originally came here to celebrate Christmas anyway!

Grandmother: I'm really thankful to the both of you… His parents would celebrate it with him in the past, but they're no longer here together with him anymore… Haa...

MC: About that... Sorry, but could I ask where his parents went off to?

Mo Yi: Please be assured, we only want to understand little Meng a little better in order to celebrate this festival with him.

Grandmother: Of course, it'd actually not anything worth hiding.

Grandmother: We're a small village and we can't plant anything when it's snowing during winter, so our economic situation hasn't been very good.

Grandmother: The youngsters of this village went out of town to work, so that they could earn a living. His parents were the same.

Grandmother: A few years ago, his parents were still not that busy and could afford to come home for the New Years. It was also then that his mother brought Demon King back.

Grandmother: His mother told him that the squirrel was his "Christmas present", and even made a small red ribbon for it.

Grandmother: The three if them lugged a huge tree back from the forest and hung colorful little things on it. It was shiny and pretty nice-looking.

Grandmother: Foreign festivals like this are much more popular in the city, and that was also when I first learnt about this "Christmas" that they spoke of… Haa...

Grandmother: Not to mention that he was beyond happy. This child, he'd always be so elated whenever his parents came home that he'd giddily go along with whatever without so much as a peep... 

MC: I see, no wonder he...

His grandmother continued speaking, sighing, and shaking her head again as she did.

Grandmother: But his parents have only been getting increasingly busier with their work these past two years. So much that we now saw neither hide nor hair of them, and phone calls only come once in a blue moon…

Grandmother: At the beginning, he'd always pester me, asking me when his parents would return. I'd always tell him soon, but even he stopped believing me after the nth time.

Grandmother: Eventually, he started talking to the squirrel and would disappear along with it in tow time and time again. He even gave it such a weird name according to a book.

Grandmother: Haa… This kid was so cute back then that it's laughable, but now, he doesn't care about anyone but that squirrel of his.

Grandmother: But we can't blame his parents for this either. I mean, who would be willing to work all day every day outside like that? If it wasn't for me and this child...

She had only spoken halfway before breaking out into a fit of violent coughs.

I hurriedly reached forwards to gently pat her on the back. It was only after a while that her coughing fit calmed.

MC: Are you alright!?

Grandmother: ...Cough, cough. I'm fine, it's just one of the woes of sickness that come with getting old, just that it gets worse as time goes on.

Grandmother: I'm afraid I can't celebrate this festival with him even if I wanted to…

She gradually lowered her voice, her eyes filled with an inconsolable sadness.

MC: ...Granny, you...

It was hard for me not to feel a little depressed at the thought of spending a lonely Christmas alone.

Noticing how I was acting unnaturally, Mo Yi gently patted my arm and walked up to the elderly woman.

Mo Yi: ...I understand. You wish for us to spend Christmas with him, to let him revisit the warmth he shared with his parents back then.

Mo Yi: All thought there is no way that we can compare to his actual parents themselves, I'm willing to give it a try for him.

Grandmother: Young lad, young miss; you're both really such kind Samaritans.

After having finished speaking, his grandmother moved to give a shaky bow whilst trembling at the effort. Mo Yi hurriedly went to support her back up.

Mo Yi: Don't worry about it, we're only doing what we can to help.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆  

Location: Country Villa

That day, we had another long talk with his grandmother. The sky was almost completely dark by the time we returned to the Villa.

I stood in front of the window and gazed out at the quiet snowy night in this mountainous village, yet my heart refused to settle no matter how long I stood.

MC: ...I'm sure little Meng is sad, deep down in his heart.

Mo Yi came up from behind, gently placing a blanket over my shoulders. Warmth flowed from my shoulders to the depths of my heart.

Mo Yi: The temperature by the window is lower; don't catch a cold.

MC: ... Thank you, Dr. Mo.

Mo Yi: Still thinking about little Meng?

MC: Yeah… Just like we've seen in the day, they aren't the only ones. This village is filled with lots of elderly and children who are dependent on each other…

I purposely made a point to observe how things were like in Snowy Pine Village ever since we left little Meng's house.

MC: From the looks of things, it really seems like this village is filled with those that have to be left behind.

Mo Yi: Yes; many of the villagers have left to work elsewhere, leaving parents who are getting on in age along with their children, which has caused this phenomenon of a left-behind village.

Mo Yi: Children who grow up with the lack of parental care will be more prone to mental problems, especially the younger ones.

Mo Yi: I will apply for care assistance once we return. I'll also make sure to write up a report about this and send it to the organizer of the Seminar.

Mo Yi: They are currently preparing for a "Plan to care for left-behind children", and I hope this village will be included in it.

MC: That's great then.

Mo Yi: But it'll still be a lot harder on the children since their parents are not with them.

MC: …...

MC: (Come to think of it, I haven't… Seen my parents in a long while too...)

Upon hearing little Meng's experiences in the day, I couldn't help but to imagine how my parents spent every festival together, alone, after I had left. Whether it be the beautiful memories of spending Christmas together with my parents, or whether it be the loneliness that came after from being alone; I had experienced them both.

I tried to hold it back earlier while we were still in front of little Meng's grandmother, so it didn't show; but now, I felt a little taken with my thoughts since the memories had surged back into the forefront of my mind.

Mo Yi: (Y/n), you seem to particularly understand little Meng very well. Did it remind you about your own parents?

I couldn't hide it myself anymore when faced by Mo Yi's eyes that overflowed with warmth.

MC: Nothing really escapes you, Dr. Mo… I don't even remember when I'd mentioned them around you.

Yes, perhaps it had been something that I had just happened to bring up one fine day; but yet, he had remembered it all so clearly.

He was quick to notice fluctuations in my mood, comforting me immediately, just like how he did in the day.

MC: Sorry for making you worry.

He gently held onto my hand, his low voice sounding crystal clear by my ear.

Mo Yi: Not at all. I simply pay more attention to the people and the things I keep close to heart.

Mo Yi: Emotions have to be let out. Not only will it be hard on you if you suppress it, but you might even fall sick from it.

Mo Yi: You don't have to put up facades around me. You can tell me; be it sadness or when you're feeling at a loss.

Mo Yi: There's no need to feel sorry or sheepish that you might be troubling me with it. I'm willing to listen to whatever you may share, regardless of what it may be.

MC: ……

Mo Yi: Alright. It's not early anymore so you should retire early for the day.

Mo Yi: I really look forward to decorating the Christmas Celebration venue; for little Meng, and also for you.

That night, I slept very soundly.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆  

Location: Country Fair

The next day, we went to the nearby fair, just as little Meng's grandmother had told us to, and bought a wide variety of things that included decorations and presents alike.

Looking at the dazzling array of small trinkets, I totally immersed myself in the festive atmosphere as I went on quite the shopping spree.

MC: We've bought everything we need! I think they'll definitely like them!

Mo Yi took the many bags of decorations that I held, big and small ones alike, and handed me a cup of hot drink.

Mo Yi: How about we pick out gifts for each other too, (Y/n)?

MC: Of course; I was just about to ask you what you liked!

Mo Yi: How about this then? We'll split up and go search for our gifts, then we'll keep it secret and take it out together only on Christmas Eve.

Mo Yi: Just think of it as something to surprise the other; how does that sound?

MC: Sure, sounds really interesting!

Mo Yi: You don't have to spend too much effort looking for a gift for me, so just choose anything that you like.

Mo Yi: It's the thought that counts; I'm sure I'll like anything you give me.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆  

I spent the next few days thinking about what present I should get him for Christmas, until the I saw a wood carving of a squirrel set out on an old craftsman's storefront.

A lightbulb lit up in my head and I asked the craftsman to customize a wood carving of a squirrel for me; one that wore Mo Yi's glasses on it.

With his expert craftsmanship skills, the squirrel that wore gold wire-framed glasses turned out looking utterly adorable and intelligent.

When I first saw the finished product, I just couldn't put it down as I stared at it in awe, already a little reluctant to give it away as a gift.

☆⋅⋆…⋅─────────── ⋆⋅✾⋅⋆ ───────────⋅…⋆⋅☆  

Location: Country Villa

MC: It's really cute! I can't wait to see the look on Dr. Mo's face when he sees it.

MC: I wonder what present he prepared though...

───⋅𝕿𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖓𝖊𝖝𝖙 𝖙𝖎𝖒𝖊…⋆⋅☆

[missmitchieg]

Triple Threat And The Fantabulous Redemption of One Carrie Wilson - Ch 1

Carrie woke up on a Monday to her phone’s alarm blaring in her ear and shut it off quickly, running to her bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready for the day. She cleaned up and did her hair and make up to its usual perfection, going to her closet to get dressed for school. She usually wouldn’t be so excited for school, and especially not on a Monday, and it wasn’t really a “special” school day, but she was still excited. Excited to officially execute her redemption. She was going to fix everything today. Well, she was going to try to. She was going to try to fix most of it. She had a lot to fix and a lot to do:

Step 1: Apologize to Julie and Flynn for The Hell Year the three of them just had. Because they both deserved a major apology from her. They both deserved better from her.

Step 2: Apologize to Nick and hope for the best case scenario: Being just friends, because being Nick’s friend was better than him hating her, better than being nothing to him. But she was going to be better to him. He deserved better, too.

Step 3: Apologize to the Dirty Candy girls for being so snappy to them at every rehearsal. They were good, really good, and Carrie was determined to be better about praising them when they got the choreography they’d been struggling with down. Lord knows those girls deserved all the praise in the world for dealing with Carrie’s constant pestering them about... Everything all the time.

Step 4: Figure out what was making her dad act so weird recently, and fix whatever was bothering him. She couldn’t stand the bad-weird way her dad had been acting anymore. She was going to fix it herself, if she could.

Step 5: Be a better person and stay that way. She couldn’t go back to the way it was before. Everything felt so hard, felt almost impossible back then. She had to make a change. She had to be better.

She smiled as she settled on a pink t shirt with shiny gold stars on the front, a matching pink skirt, and a pair of gold strappy heels, matching the stars. She admired her outfit in the mirror for a minute before walking downstairs, finding her dad in the kitchen.

“Morning.“ She said and sat down to eat the eggs, sunny side up just the way she liked them, and buttered toast, only slightly burnt, already waiting for her.

“Morning, baby.“ Trevor mumbled as he poked at his eggs halfheartedly, making Carrie frown as she nibbled into her toast.

“Are you ever going to tell me what’s been bothering you since The Orpheum, daddy?“ She asked and he spluttered and looked up, shaking his head.

“What? Nothing. I’m fine, baby.“ He told her quickly and gave her a little smile, finally taking a bite of his eggs.

Carrie sighed silently at that and looked down, knowing it was a lie but not yet knowing what to do about it. She kept eating in silence, finishing relatively quickly and getting up to leave. “I’ll see you after school, dad.”

“Have a good day, baby.” He said quietly and she smiled and nodded, waving at him before walking out and heading to school.

When she arrived, she walked in with a determined fire in her eyes and caught sight of Kayla waiting at their lockers, walking toward her quickly with a smile. “Hey, Purple!“ She greeted cheerfully, using the cute color nicknames the Dirty Candy girls loved to use for each other.

“Hey, Pink. You’re looking cute, as always.“ Kayla grinned, holding her purse over her shoulder.

“Thanks. You look good, too. I like those shoes.“ Carrie smiled and opened her locker, pulling out the text book and notes for her first class of the day.

“Oh, thanks!“ Kayla looked down, posing in her new favorite black ballet flats with little lavender bows. “And they’re so comfy, too!“

“Ooh, cute and comfy! The best combination.“ Carrie giggled, making Kayla laugh and nod as they headed to class. “So did you do anything fun this weekend?“

“Oh, not much. Dad got a canoe. Dunno what he’s doing with it, but he’s got it. Mom’s on this new exercise tape kick. I found a stray cat in my front yard. The usual. What about you? Anything interesting happen to my girl?” Kayla asked and Carrie perked up and nodded.

“Yeah, my dad made me come with him to see Julie’s hologram band at The Orpheum and he’s been acting really weird ever since. He’s actually been acting kind of weird since before then now that I think about it. I don’t know what’s going on with him-” Carrie stopped in her tracks as she caught Julie and Flynn excitedly chatting at their lockers out of the corner of her eye. Biting her lip, she looked back at Kayla, tucking a perfectly coiled curl behind her ear.

“Hey, I’ll be right back. Just gimme a minute, ok?“ She told her friend and walked away when she nodded, heading toward Julie and Flynn. She stiffened as they stopped and glanced at Carrie oddly, giving each other a look of confusion. “Julie, Flynn, can I talk to you girls for a minute?“ She asked them, her voice soft and nervous. She clutched her purse in her hands as Julie looked at a skeptical Flynn, then looked at Carrie and nodded slowly.

“Sure, Carrie.“ Julie said softly, tilting her head. She bit her lip, hoping she was wrong about what Julie and Flynn were thinking right now. It was all she could do to hope this would end well and not go up in flames in front of her.

“I just wanted to say that-“ She stopped and frowned guiltily as Flynn crossed her arms, letting out a sigh. “Just that I’m so sorry about the way I’ve been treating you, both of you, for the past year.“ She told them. “I was really mean to both of you and I shouldn’t have been. I should’ve realized that you were just hurting.“ Carrie said and looked up from the floor, seeing the shocked look on both of their faces. “I should’ve realized that you didn’t deserve that. I should’ve realized that you needed a friend. I’m so sorry I wasn’t that friend for you, Julie.“

“Carr-“ Carrie shook her head slightly, holding her hand up. She needed to get this out now, before she started to cry too much. She hated crying, especially in front of people.

“Julie, let me finish. Please.“ She added the ‘please‘ softly after a second, waiting until Julie nodded to keep going. “I know that it’s no real excuse to hurt you, but I was hurting, too. You weren’t talking to me anymore. You just wanted to be around Flynn all the time.” She glanced at Flynn for a second, trying to choose her words carefully.

“Nick seemed close to breaking up with me again. And then you started to sing again. You sang after the spirit rally, sang at Eats&Beats, and everyone loved you and your band. And I... Panicked. I felt like, after you stopped singing and playing anything for a year, you only sang again to spite me. To hurt me. To take my fans away from me.“ She admitted shamefully, frowning at the guilt-ridden look on Julie’s face.

“And Nick was upset with me for what I said to you after you sang at school. He said that you were really good, and that just made me panic more. I was scared that Nick might break up with me just so he could be with you.“ Carrie told her, tilting her head at the increasing guilt on Julie’s face. “Julie?“ She asked in an unsure voice, wanting to know what was going on in Julie’s head.

“Nick... Nick did ask me out once, but I said no, because I like someone else.“ She said, surprising Carrie. What? She of all people, had rejected Nick?

“I thought... Everyone thought you had a crush on Nick forever?“ She asked in confusion, furrowing her eyebrows.

“I did. Until I met my-“ Julie blushed, lowering her gaze to the floor shyly at what she was about to admit to her ex friend. “My guitarist. I didn’t want to lead Nick on if I wasn’t a hundred percent into him and liked someone else. I didn’t want to hurt him like that.“ She admitted, making Carrie let out a scandalized gasp and widen her eyes.

“Oh, no way! I knew I saw something there!“ She said with a grin, pointing at Julie. Julie groaned softly, hiding her face in her hands. “I mean, everyone can see the chemistry you have with him.” She pointed out, making Julie blush more and Flynn snort in amusement. She let out a little giggle, but quickly turned serious again, her smile dropping.

“So, then after the dance, Nick broke up with me and... It hurt. A lot. It felt like my entire world was turning upside down and inside out. Like I was losing everything. My two best friends. My boyfriend. My fans.“ Julie nodded quickly in understanding, placing a comforting hand on Carrie’s shoulder when her voice started to crack and she looked like she was about to cry. “It was so hard.“ She sniffled, blinking tears away.

“Look. We both messed up, Carrie. You messed up when you started to be mean, and I messed up when I started to be mean back to you. We both did and said things we shouldn’t have done.“ Julie pointed out, giving her a little smile. “I’m sorry that I ever made you feel like I was just trying to hurt you. You have to know that nothing I did was ever just to hurt you.“ She promised and Carrie gave her a little smile.

Carrie smiled and nodded, wiping away a tear. “I understand that now, Julie. I understand that you were just struggling. And I’m happy that your band of boys brought music back to you after everything that happened.“ She said, placing her hand over Julie’s on her shoulder and giving a squeeze. “You deserve music coming back to you after all of it.” She said before turning to Flynn. “Flynn, I know you took the way I treated you really hard.” She said, biting her lip when Flynn frowned and looked down.

“I said a lot of things about you that I shouldn’t have, Carrie. A lot of things that I really regret now. I’m sorry I called you a demon. Among other things.” Flynn shook her head, taking a step toward Carrie. “But- That’s all in the past now right? Nothing we can do about that but say our apologies and move on.“ She said with a shrug. “Just. I’m sorry, Carrie. Can we forget all of that and be friends again?“ She asked softly.

Carrie smiled and wrapped her arms around Flynn and Julie in a group hug, squeezing them tightly. “Absolutely, girls.“ She almost whispered, her eyes sparkling with new, now happy tears. She giggled as Julie and Flynn smiled and hugged her back just as tightly, pulling back to do the secret handshake they made up when they were younger and somehow still remembered now. She grinned as they finished it with a shout of “Triple Threat!”, looking at both of her best friends before opening her mouth to talk again.

“I watched you perform at The Orpheum, Julie. You were really good. Your band was really good. And your dress was cute, too.“ Carrie praised her, chuckling at the shocked look on her face.

“You were there, Carrie?“ Julie asked with wide eyes and Carrie nodded at the question with a shrug.

“My dad decided that he wanted both of us to go see you perform after he watched the video of you singing at your house. I don’t know why, but since then, he’s been acting so bizarre.“ She shook her head with a roll of her eyes, giggling again. “Dads, am I right?“

Julie and Flynn shared what seemed like a concerned look, recovering quickly and giggling with Carrie. “Yeah, dads are so weird sometimes.“ Julie said quickly. “Wait, you know I had a gig at my house?“ She asked when she realized what Carrie just said and what she implied before, making her stiffen.

“Oh. Right. I, um, might have crashed your house gig, Julie. And watched the video again afterward. I kinda just told myself you forgot to invite me to it.“ She admitted, making Julie smile. “You were really good then, too. I really liked that song. What is it called?��� She asked, leaning her head on Julie’s shoulder.

“I-it’s called Edge Of Great. I wrote that one with Luke. My guitarist.“ Julie clarified when Carrie gave a look to ask who “Luke“ was. Carrie quirked an eyebrow, crossing her arms.

“Oh, you and that guitar boy. You two are pretty cute together.“ She gave her a smirk, making her blush again. “So are you two official or is it just a crush, still?“ She asked curiously, genuinely wanting to know. She liked knowing about her friends love lives so if someone got hurt, she could pummel whoever hurt them to a pulp.

“Oh, um. No, we’re friends. Dating him would, um, complicate things a lot.“ Julie said with a shake of her head and a sigh.

“Oh. What a shame. You clearly like him if you turned Nick down because of him. And he seems to really, really like you. I mean, for the first minute or so of Edge Of Great when you wouldn’t look at him, the poor boy looked so sad.“ Carrie said, imitating what Luke looked like, gazing longingly at Julie. “Until you smiled at him. Then he was really pleased to have your attention.” Julie blushed again at the memory, her head snapping up when Flynn started talking.

“Ohh, you should hear the way she talks about her Luke when she gets really into it. ‘Oh, his voice, Flynn. Oh, his eyes. Oh, his lyrics. Oh, his perfect smile.’ It’s so cute.” Flynn laughed. “She even told me she once called Nick Luke on accident.” Julie’s eyes widened as she heard that, elbowing Flynn’s side.

Carrie snickered at that, hiding it behind her hand. “Well, I hope one day, you two can find a way to be together. Nick was so jealous of him, by the way.“ She said, remembering the way Nick watched Luke and Julie together and imitating his worried look.

“Oh, God. I still remember the day he tried to ask Julie out. He started by asking her for a selfie.“ Flynn snickered, laughing with Julie. “He asked for a selfie, then he asked to be study partners, and then he asked her on a date!“ Carrie scoffed and laughed into Julie’s shoulder, shaking her head fondly at her ex-boyfriend.

“Of course he did. He was always just a little awkward when we were together, too. I always thought it was kind of cute.“ She said, pulling away from them slowly. “Well, I have to get to class. Is it cool if I come over after school, Julie?“ She asked grinning when she nodded quickly. “Great! See you there, Flynn?“

“You know it, girl!“ Flynn confirmed, waving when Carrie waved and walked away, back to Kayla to get to class together.

Step one, accomplished. She thought with a smile, checking it off her mental list of things she needed to do.

“Back. Did I miss anything while I made up with the other two thirds of Triple Threat?“ She asked as she walked with her, contently listening to Kayla babble about the latest school gossip she heard.

“Oh, did you, girl. I just got a text from Aqua that she overheard from someone that the girl on the lacrosse team and a girl in the marching band are together!“ Kayla said excitedly but stayed quiet, talking with her hands while she explained just how long they’d been together.

“Oh, those two were secretly dating the whole time? And they’re ready to be out now?“ She asked as they walked through the door to class and sat down next to each other.

“Yes! Apparently. They didn’t wanna deal with hallway whispers and staring, so they kept it secret for as long as they could.“

“You know, that explains so much about those two.“ She said before they both turned their attention to the front of the class.

Carrie tapped her feet anxiously as she silently sat through class, her mind drifting every so often to her friends, her ex boyfriend, what he might and might not say to her, how badly it could go if she said the wrong thing. She chewed on her lip at the thought, forcing herself to get her focus back on class.

She got up when the bell rang and walked out with Kayla, catching up with the rest of Dirty Candy.

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

@browanchoices Because you asked to be tagged in this!

[pocket-luv101]

Summary: Kuro and Mahiru celebrate their daughter’s birthday. (KuroMahi, Fem Mahiru)

“Happy birthday, Machi!” Tsurugi cheered as he entered the apartment. His call was quickly answered by Machi’s excited squeal and the little girl ran to her uncle. Mahiru followed her to greet Tsurugi in the doorway. He held a large present box and he placed it on the ground so he could hug his niece. “How is my favourite niece?”

“Machi is excited! Mama made a big cake! She said that we had to wait for everyone to come before we can eat. But, Machi’s hungry for cake! It has a bunch of shiny strawberries.” She made wide gestures as she described the cake. Yumikage and Jun entered the house with presents as well. Mahiru couldn’t contain her smile as she watched Machi interact with her uncles.

Machi noticed a fourth person enter the house but she didn’t recognize him. She pointed to him and declared, “Old Man smells like smoke! That’s bad for you!”

“Old man? Didn’t your mother teach you that it’s rude to call people by names like that? Well, it’s your birthday so you can be a little cheeky. Here.” Touma said and held out a bag of treats to Machi. She didn’t take the candy and looked to her mother instead.

“You can take it, Machi.” After her mother nodded to her, Machi accepted the bag and thanked him politely. Mahiru picked her up into her arms and carried her closer to Touma. “This man is your… His name is Touma. You met him when you were very young so you don’t remember him but you can trust him. Can you tell Papa that your uncles are here, Machi?”

“Okay!” The moment she placed her on the ground, Machi took Tsurugi’s hand and dragged her uncle to the party. “Machi will show you the giant cake!”

Mahiru stayed in the doorway so she could speak with Touma. She learned that he was her father when she was a teenager but it was still difficult to see him as a parent. They would only speak with each other a couple times during family events. Sometimes, she would question why her mother would be with a man like Touma. Was she born from love or simply a mistake to her parents?

“The Shirota family has strong genes, don’t they? Machi looks exactly like you and you’re a mirror image of your mother.” Touma commented. He reached into his pocket for a cigarette but he stopped himself when he heard Machi’s laughter in the distance. “There’s not a single resemblance of me in you. No one will think that I’m your father at a glance. I’m surprised that you invited me to your daughter’s birthday party.”

“I’m surprised that you came.” Mahiru retorted. He took out a wrapped box and she saw that Machi’s name was written on the tag. She had assumed that the bag of treats was his birthday gift and she wondered what he bought her since the box was rather light. Did Tsurugi tell him what to buy for Machi’s birthday?

“They’re shoes.” Touma told her. “I don’t know what a kid would want. When Tsurugi was young, I bought him a pair of shoes and he liked them. I thought I should get Machi the same thing. If they don’t fit her, the gift receipt is inside and you can exchange the shoes.”

“Shoes are simple and practical. Machi will like them. Thank you for coming. Machi said she wanted her grandfather to come.” Mahiru carried the present into the living room and placed it on the table with the other gifts. The table was overflowing with colourful boxes and the sight made her happy. She was glad that her daughter was so loved. As a mother, the only thing she wanted was for her daughter to be surrounded with happiness.

She recalled her own birthday when she was four years old. Her mother had died only a few months before that. While her uncle took time off to celebrate her birthday, a young Mahiru couldn’t help but feel lonely. She didn’t want her daughter to ever feel the same way. She invited as many people as she could to Machi’s birthday party.

A strong arm wrapped around her shoulder and she was pulled out of her thoughts. Kuro stood beside her and there was a hint of worry in his red eyes. He was able to read her expression and he knew that there was something on her mind. Without a word, he kissed her temple. They were able to understand each other without speaking.

“Next month is your birthday. I was talking with your uncle and he said that he’s already planning to take time off for your birthday party. Hyde and Licht said the same.” He told her and tenderly rubbed her arms. “I know you would want to be with everyone on your birthday. Can I take you on a private birthday dinner the day before your big party though?”

“I think that’s a great idea.” She nodded to him and a smile spread over her lips. Mahiru couldn’t begin to tell Kuro how much he had changed her life the day they met. He had filled her days with so much happiness and she gained more friends through their adventures. Now, they had their own family.

“Mama! Papa! Look at this trick that Auntie Mikuni taught me just now. I can make thunder!” Machi called their names as she ran to them. She held a balloon over her head and vigorously rubbed it against her hair. After a few minutes, she walked to JeJe standing nearby and touched his hand. He wasn’t facing her so he didn’t expect to feel static electricity shock his hand. He winced and pulled his hand away from her. She only smiled up at him innocently. “Thunder attack.”

Machi waved the balloon in front of her and explained. “Auntie Mikuni told me that the attack is more effective if the person doesn’t expect it. I should aim for Uncle JeJe since he’s easy to pick on.”

“You shouldn’t listen to everything your Auntie tells you, Machi. She likes to play pranks on people sometimes.” Mahiru smiled warily. She knelt in front of her daughter and smoothed her hand over her hair. The balloon had made her hair frizzy and disorganized. Once her hair was fixed, Mahiru kissed her forehead. “That was a cool attack though. Only use it on villains.”

“Okay.” She nodded. Then, she ran back to the party to show others her trick. Mahiru sat on the couch and watched her play with her cousins. “Lucy, let’s fight demons together with this new lightning attack. Auntie Mikuni taught me this attack and I will share it with everyone.”

“Can you blow me a green balloon?” Yuu asked and handed it to Tetsu. “Father’s strong lungs will make a balloon large enough to carry all of us into the sky.”

“Kids have wild imaginations, don’t they?” Toru laughed and sat next to Mahiru. Whenever he looked at Machi, he couldn’t help but remember when Mahiru was her age. He did his best to raise her with his busy job and he came to love her like his own daughter. “You liked to play ‘Superheroes’ too. I don’t know how I was able to keep up with you.”

“You’re talking as if you’re an old man, Uncle.” Kuro sat on Mahiru’s right and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Weren’t you the one who said that you’re a thunder god and you would watch over our family forever?”

“Uncle Toru is a thunder god?” Machi overheard their conversation and stared at her great uncle with awe. “When you attack the villain, you must go like this: Rawr-jin!”

The childish way she mispronounced ‘Raijin’ brought a tear to Toru’s eye. He hugged Mahiru and Machi close. “Mahiru, you’ve raised a wonderful daughter who knows the power of a great pun.”

“Thank you, Uncle Youtarou! This is fluffy just like a cat.” Machi thanked Youtarou as he wrapped the warm scarf around her neck. She played with the fluffy balls that were sewed onto the ends of the scarf. A box was placed next to her and it stood taller than her. “Is this really for me?”

“I have the best gift of the night.” Misono wore a proud grin after she saw Machi’s reaction to the gift. “The subclasses loved this toy when I gave it to them. You’ll have a lot of fun with it too.”

“It’s so tall that I can’t reach the bow on the top.” Machi stretched onto her toes but her fingers barely brushed against the top of the box. She was suddenly lifted into the air but she wasn’t scared. She immediately knew that her father had picked her up. “Thank you, Papa!”

“You should say thank you to Tetsu and Misono since they’re the one who gave you this present.” He told her but she was distracted with the wrapping paper. Kuro held her over the bow so she could tear off the wrapping. He could only imagine what the gift would be. While he was grateful that their friends were generous with gifts for Machi, he didn’t know where they would put the present.

“A cat sized house!” Machi gasped when she saw the glossy image printed onto the box. “It can fit me too. Can we open it and play house right away?”

“Okay.” Mahiru said even as Machi struggled to open the box and take out the playhouse. She helped her pull out the large pieces from the box. “It’ll take us some time to set this up for you. How about you choose everyone’s role while we do that?”

“I wanna be the daughter!” Machi decided quickly. She started to list roles for everyone in her game. She hugged Mahiru’s leg and grinned up at her. “Mama will be the mom. Papa is the dad. Uncle Tsurugi and Uncle Youtarou are my uncles in the game.”

Gear tapped Kuro’s shoulder and then whispered to him. “You have a simpleminded kid, don’t you?”

“Uncle Gear, you will be the family pet!” Machi declared and her innocent smile never faltered. Kuro didn’t try to hold back his laugh. She appeared confused by her father’s reaction so Gear knew that she didn’t hold any malice in her choice. Machi reasoned that they exchanged a joke that she didn’t hear and she laughed along with them.

Mahiru was exhausted by the end of the day. She was grateful that Licht and Hyde stayed to help clean the party before they returned to their hotel. The house was now quiet and she walked down the hall to the bedroom she shared with Kuro. The bathroom door was opened and she could see Kuro help Machi brush her teeth. “You ate a lot of sweets today so make sure to bush extra well, Machi.”

“Okay, all done, Papa.” She said after she spit out another mouthful of water. Machi didn’t climb off the step stool she used to reach the sink and held out her arms to him instead. Kuro knew that she was likely tired after the party and she wanted him to carry her. As he picked her up, he saw Mahiru’s smiling reflection in the mirror.

“I said I would put Machi to bed so you could go to sleep first. You stayed up late to work on the cake last night.” The birthday party was important to both of them and she spent the past week planning it. He walked to the doorway and kissed Mahiru softly. “You still push yourself too much. When you traded our vows, we promised to lean on each other.”

“I’m certain that promise was first made when I became your Eve.” They had kept that vow to each other since that day they met. She was tempted to ask him to carry her to bed but he was already holding Machi. Their daughter was already sleeping soundly against his shoulder and Mahiru hoped that she had fun at the party. “She called Touma an Old Man this morning.”

“Apparently, Gear is a pet to her because of his wolf form.” They both laughed softly. She opened the door to Machi’s room and they quietly placed her on the bed. Mahiru was careful to not wake her as she kissed her brown hair and pulled the blanket to her shoulder. As she stood, she noticed Kuro staring at her. “Machi speaks her mind the way you do.”

Kuro wrapped his arms around her and Mahiru thought he simply wanted to hug her. Instead, he lifted her off the bed and held her against his chest. He brought her out of the room to return to their own bed. He leaned his forehead against hers and said, “Your birthday is next month. Is there anything you want? I know you’re going to say that you already have everything you need but you can be selfish on your birthday.”

“Well, it has been a long time since I’ve seen you in a fancy suit.” Mahiru said and traced her finger over the collar of his shirt. “Formal clothes are ‘troublesome’ but you look great in them.”

[memesiders]

Ghost AU Part 2 :)

(This was the last part I had saved so figured I'd post it :) Will be working on Part 3 soon!)

Hazel eyes stared back at Mel as she studied herself in the bathroom mirror, setting down the eye liner and studying her work. The dark circles under her eyes refused to go away, no matter how much high coverage concealer she packed on. Her normally rich olive skin was so pale she almost looked like a ghost herself. "You look miserable," she sighed to her reflection, smoothing some highlighter onto her cheekbones and up her temple. She reached into her makeup bag and pulled out a dark wine colored liquid lipstick, carefully running it over her lips. Not sure this helps make me look more alive, but oh well, she thought, looking over herself once she was finished. Another loud sigh left her lips and she pushed away from the counter, bundling her vibrant hair into a messy bun, shorter strands escaping the hair tie and framing her face.

The hairs on the back of her neck immediately stood on end, a primal emotion washing over her that made her heart beat faster.

"Fury," she said softly, eyes darting around the small room. Something pink flashed in her peripheral vision and she spun on her heels, grabbing onto the doorway to steady herself. "I... I'm sorry about last night. You didn't even do anything and I yelled at you. But..." She took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping.

"When you get like that around Lawson, I... You can't be like that around my baby brother." The phantom took form then, standing only a few inches away from the girl. Jaw clenched and arms crossed, the woman studied Mel.

"I know not to harm the brat; you know this by now," she replied, but her words fell on deaf ears. "You've made it more than clear he's completely off limits. Besides, I'd like to stay far away from that creature..." Fury uncrossed her arms, reaching out a tentative hand. Her fingers curled around a few of the bright loose stands, wrapping them around her finger before giving them a quick tug. "You're the worst creature of all." Mel smiled at this action and Fury couldn't help but give a small smirk.

She and the child had almost never gotten along, but the mortal had still managed to wiggle herself into Fury's small, cold heart; not that she'd ever admit it.

"Melinoe," her mother called. "Come eat, your bus is almost here!"

"Coming!" Mel shouted back, flipping the bathroom light off. "Alright, let's behave today, agreed?" Fury scoffed, stepping aside as the girl dashed down the hall.

"I'm always behaved, when it matters."

Mel hurried into the kitchen, throwing herself into the empty seat at the table that waited for her. She quickly tore into her breakfast, shoving a giant forkful of egg, cheese, and tomatoes into her mouth. "Easy, killer," her dad chuckled, looking up from the folder spread open in front of him. "Don't want you to choke."

"It's moms Huevos Rancheros; I literally cannot control myself," she shot back, following it up with another big bite from her breakfast. Her father laughed, reaching over and messing with her bun.

"Well try and show at least a little restraint, alright kiddo?"

"No promises!" They both chuckled and continued on with their morning, nearly oblivious to the beings that entered the room.

"Ooh, Huevos Rancheros," Strife groaned, staring at the dish longingly. "I can see it, I can smell it, but damn do I want to taste it; just once!"

"Maybe if we were corporeal," War grumbled. "I'd love to be able to feel my sword sink into the gnarled body of a demon just once more, feel my blade pierce its putrid heart." Strife looked at his brother, cocking his head slightly.

"Riiiiight... I mean, that sounds fun too." War sighed and reached out, grabbing one of the dining chairs. With a gentle tug the chair was sent flying across the kitchen, crashing into the wall. Mel's mother shrieked in surprise, a hand flying over her chest as she attempted to calm herself down. Mel choked on her food and quickly glanced from the broken chair to her mother and back again.

"It's an accident," she rushed out, her pulse jumping slightly. "It's War; he just doesn't know his own strength! I- I'll work on it with him-"

"You shouldn't have to work on anything!" her mom snapped, quickly clamping her lips together. The woman closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. Mel looked down at her half eaten plate of food, picking at the remaining eggs. "I'm sorry, sweetie." Her mother was calmer now, and had regained some of the color she'd lost. "You should probably get ready to meet the bus." Mel nodded quickly and pushed her plate away taking a last gulp of orange juice before standing.

"It wasn't her fault," War grumbled his hands balling into fists. "Why must they treat her this way?" The air in the room swirled, the kitchen cabinets fluttering open and closed. The adults in the room quickly looked at each other with wide eyes, fear palpable in them.

"War," Mel said, spinning on her heels. "Please, stop." The ghost seemed to ignore her, the rattling only getting worse.

"Brother, stop," Strife ordered, his usual cheerful tone now completely stripped of humor. "This won't help her."

"They've upset her!" War exclaimed, one of the cabinets slamming closed. Everyone jumped and Mel gulped, her heart beating faster.

"War, please, stop! We- We have to get to school!"

"You'll only further upset her if you don't cut it out," Strife warned. "Look at her; does she look okay with this?" War glanced over at his human, studying her. The worry etched on her face, her small frame trembling, the shine in her eyes as tears began to build; and just like that, all was calm in the home. War sagged forward, grimacing.

"Thank you," she breathed, a sense of relief washing over her.

"Go," her mother said suddenly. Mel looked at her mom.

"I'm so-"

"Please, just take your brother and go." Her mom turned away from her then, gripping the counter to keep steady. "Have a good day at school." Mel furiously blinked back tears, grabbing her brothers hand and leading him to the door. The two backpacks next to the door levitated off of the ground and Mel swiped them up quickly, noting the faint smell of gunpowder.

"Thanks, Strife." The siblings stepped out into the crisp autumn air, the cold biting into her nose and cheeks.

"Are you okay, Meli?" Lawson asked, looking up at her curiously. Mel dabbed at her eyes and forced a smile, nodding.

"Yeah, I'm fine! It's just my allergies acting up." She tried to sound as cheerful as possible but the look on her little brothers face told her that she wasn't doing a good job of it.

"Is mommy mad at you?"

"No, she's not. She just doesn't want us to miss the bus." As they reached the end of the gravel driveway, a loud engine roar shattered the silence, a large yellow school bus turning down their street. "See? We would've been late!" Law smiled and wrapped his little arms around her side, squeezing tightly. She smiled and smoothed down his messy hair.

She looked up and spotted a familiar black blob sitting on the power lines across the street. The crow had been around for as long as she could remember, seeming to follow wherever she went. She'd offered the bird a few shiny bits and baubles and though it seemed grateful for the gifts, it would never get to close or allow her to pet it.

Death sighed from beside the two humans, staring longingly at the crow across from them. "Dust, you fool. Why do you continue to stick around? There's nothing left for you here." The animal cawed loudly in reply, attempting to tell him off, and the reaper chuckled. He missed the bird, not that he'd ever admit it; missed stroking his midnight feathers, the feeling of his talons sinking into Death's shoulder when the creature was too tired to carry on flying or felt lazy, missed the occasional peck or two; he missed everything.

"That thing's still around," Fury asked, moving to stand next to him. "How long has it been now?"

"Fourteen years since he tracked us down."

"And he still hasn't left; you two must've been great friends." Death hummed in reply, his gaze torn from the bird as the school bus pulled up. The door hissed and opened, the children quickly climbing on. Fury groaned quietly, following the humans onto the bus. Her lip curled immediately as she studied the scene before her, her hands rising to rest on her hips. The children on the bus were loud, wild, and disgusting, nothing unusual; still, it never ceased to amaze her just how annoying human offspring were.

"Just five minutes with these brats and they'd reconsider raising their voices above a whisper," she grumbled.

"You'd also scar them for the rest of their lives," Strife chuckled, popping into the bus. War followed close behind, barely hopping on before the vehicle pulled forward, leaving the house behind them.

"At least they'd be behaved." One particular child shrieked just then and Fury snarled, grabbing one of the girls pigtails and yanking it hard. The girl nearly flew from her seat. "Shut up!"

"Fury," Death warned. The girl pulled herself back up, her eyes wide with fear. She clutched the pigtail to the side of her head and quickly looked around, searching for the culprit.

"What?"

"Can we not go one day without you harming an unsuspecting child?"

"Can I not go one day without the incessant prattling of prepubescent children?"

"Someone get this girl a Snickers," Strife muttered, jokingly elbowing War's side. Fury cut her gaze to him, reaching for her whip, when she remembered it wasn't there. It was with her body at... She frowned to herself; where was her body? She still couldn't remember. None of them remembered how or where they died. The only thing she could remember was waking up tethered to an infant. Her eyes drifted to the teenager in the back, oblivious to the ghost that was watching her. Sixteen long years with no knowledge of how she and her brothers had perished. It irked her every single day, and she would never be able to get answers; not while she was attached to Melinoe.

"Fury," War said cautiously, careful to not provoke his temperamental sister. Fury hissed softly, turning her attention back to her siblings. Without saying anything, she disappeared from view, leaving only a wisp of pink smoke in her wake. The others exchanged glances but said nothing; their sister would calm down eventually. Hopefully she wouldn't cause any harm before then.

[introvertsareimportant]

the types as I know them irl, by an esfj

estj (PB/S(C)):

 -my mom!

-obssessed with things “that work”. I own so many pretty shiny things that have no actual use and are only taking up space, and she has a lot of opinions about that.

-super smart. Not knowledge smart, but you could give her a riddle and she’d ask all the right quesitons and get the correct answer. It’s a superpower.

-loves to guess what happens next in TV shows, is usually always right

-not pushy at all, lets her kids breathe, lets us manage our stuff on our own (where do all these bossy estj stereotypes come from?)

-good at talking

-loves children

isfj (SB/C(P))

-my dad!

-has a Phd in molecular biology

-knows so much about the randomest of topics (sea creatures, history, chinese literature, tech news, recently developed technology)

-”go ask ur mom”

-i like making fun of him lol

-likes building models of anime characters from scratch, like he would cut the pieces himself and spray paint it and polish it it’s fascinating

intp (SC/P(B))

-little brother

-smart but doesn’t do that well academically

- has trouble controlling his emotions, it’s a legitimate problem in his life

-takes jokes too literally

-kind bean but is ruthless when it comes to mario kart

-really similar to my dad in terms of personality

-sometimes we would just sit in the living room together. He’s playing his video games, I’m reading my book, when it gets to the boring part i look up and watch him play and after a while he hands me a controller and beats my ass in the game and i go back to reading and he keeps playing, repeat until mom says its dinnertime.

-we have our own “eye contact language” lol it’s really beautiful

infp:

-best friend!!!!

-not at all antisocial, but acts super cringey and weird when she talks about people (“Everyone-is-out-to-get-me syndrome” that is shared by all IxxPs and ExxJs)

-athletic

-funny as hell

-stressed about the “social norms” (demon Te) and overthinks courtesies and stuff like that when she talks to older people

-where does the stereotype of infps being soft smol beans come from? she’s super tough and has a “don’t fuck with me” attitude going for her 

-likes twilight unironically

infj:

-just kind of... there (she fits the stereotype of intuitives just being in their head all the time. she doesn’t really do anything)

-doesn’t take part in a lot of extreacurricular activities

-likes complaining. a lot.

-when she laughs it’s super funny. you could just say something to her like “i don’t like turtles” and she’d laugh even harder

-no problem insulting people and making fun of them and then turn around and praise them (enfjs are jealous)

esfj:

-we’re not that friendly despite being the same type

-really mature tho, i said something mean to him a while ago and he’s still really eager to at least get along 

-i don’t really want to give in to sterotypes here but he has tons of friends

-likes cringey deep posts he found on pinterest

-super athletic

-loud laugh

-really funny, his joke making skills are better than some entps’

another esfj:

-i think she’s my exact type (esfj BS/C(P))

-super introverted (yeah they exist)

-really awkward with people (it’s a thing with esfjs!!! i think when we’re hyper aware of other people’s reactions to us it makes us act kind of unnatural? kind of like when you’re walking in front of your crush and you want to walk normal but then you end up flailing you arms around and laughing too obnoxiously)

- “i hate people” *goes on and obssess about every one of their most trivial opinions* 

-super defensive about her opinions, takes them really personally even when it’s only for a school essay (i get it as a fellow esfj)

-tries really hard to be funny, ends up being an accidental asshole and insulting everyone

estp

-big science nerd

-chill

-we talk on a daily basis

-sends me posts about hatsune miku

-loves having inside jokes with his friends

-small dick energy but it’s ok

entp

-other best friend

-her laughter is funnier than the joke

-notices a lot of little things

-math god

-shares 1 braincell with my infp friend

-loves kdramas and kpop

-can be a (playful) meanie to you then switch to people pleaser nice mode within ten seconds  it’s really confusing (i think all IxxJs and ExxPs have that superpower)

istj

-has borderline ocd and she knows it

-deadpan delivery of her jokes

-good at archery

-sometimes we’d video call each other and study in silence together cause her attitude really motivates me

-i love sharing silences with her, you don’t have to yak about bullshit to be comfortable

-soft uwu girl

-100 percent made of Queen Material

[jess-the-vampire]

Sky And The Forces Of The Multiverse, Chapter 44

Previous / Next

-

What.

That was all that was running through her head in that moment.

What.

They caught her? How? Why? When?

As sky was sitting here, planning what to do next, they had already caught the culprit?

There was no way, there was just no way they could've done that. Not when it had been so hard before, not when they had done everything in their power to avoid being caught before this point, this all seemed too weird. Judging from the boy's reaction, they were having very similar thoughts. Instead of being joyous over the capture of a tormenter and criminal they were skeptic and confused.

No one moved except for the queen, rushing down the halls and away from the kids towards the prisons.

Sky turned to jude, whose eyes followed the queen before heading off after her, still rather confused but ready for anything nonetheless. Judas wasn't even running but he was walking rather fast, sky and landon rushing to catch up with him as he had been given a head start at this point. Though no one really knew what to expect at all from any of this, or who they expected to find in the prison.

Would it really be someone they knew?

Or was it someone worse then they could imagine?

There were so many questions being raised and they all could feel their heartbeats get faster and faster with every step forward, even though they weren't in any danger right now they still felt as if they were, they were still scared. The small group passing through crowds of people who were also eager to see what was actually going on in the butterfly prisons.

People protestors, royals, guards, you name it.

They were all there, shouting and screaming.

But Kelly and Katrina wouldn't let them in, pushing them all back before star stepped in, pushing them back further with magic, her wife almost running into her on her way out of the room as she stepped in. Janna's presence immediately scared the crowd, who backed up and away from her. Honestly it was rather amusing that janna just standing there was considered way scarier then star's magic to these people.

Though if sky herself had to chose between the two, she'd rather deal with the magic as well.

But at least the crowd backing up allowed room for the kids to squeeze through, janna spotting them in the crowd, and ushering them towards her. Frankly she outta push the kids away and not let them get involved in this right now with all these people, but at the same time this was janna and she tended to not care about most of that kinda stuff like she probably should.

She actually looked way too happy for sky's taste.

Sky stopped in her tracks right in front of her mom with a worried and puzzled expression.

"Mom?"

"Yeah?", judas and landon were also stopped in their tracks next to the princess. The three shared puzzled expressions and janna smirked harder, "Well, we caught someone alright, but not entirely sure if we can call wo we caught and the guy who wrecked us last night the same person. Unless we've all been even dumber then we thought we were, which...i dunno".

Now sky was MORE confused.

"But...w-what?".

That's when Jackie popped her head through, scaring sky half to death.

Wasn't she supposed to be-?

Jackie ushered the kids inside the prison, janna helping keep guard as the kids headed over to the obviously crowded cell just to see what was going on over here. And sure enough, in a musty and dusty old cell was a figure in a dark dress, mask on their lap and chained hands behind their back. Their hood was clearly peeled back to see their face.

And Sky was dumbfounded at seeing light blonde hair and blue eyes.

"L-luna?".

Luna looked dazed, something strange to how she normally was, usually sky would expect Luna to either be sneering at them or sitting patiently as if she hadn't done anything wrong at all. But she looked weakened and tired and everyone around her was constantly asking her questions and exchanging confused glances between them all. No one is sure how to react to this exactly.

Luna was clearly being set up, she had to be.

Sky had seen her in the same place as the figure before, when they attacked angel.

So it couldn't have been her, no way.

Granted, that was the only time and she never knew the extent of luna's abilities but...still, there was no way luna was behind all of this. Just like there was no way she had been mind controlled into doing anything herself, something else had to be going on entirely. Sky walking up to the bars, looking at her dazed sister, it had to have been mind control.

and Judas looked stunned.

His hands suddenly reaching out to his neck all of a sudden without hesitation on his part.

The charm, luna had used it to repel being controlled or cursed and had given it to him when he told her about his dreams, she had only given it to him just the day before and without it they might of never found bernard how they did. Judas had been hesitant for good reason, because who knew what could happen if she gave it up and handed it over to him.

Had they gotten to her?

Landon of course was not happy to see her, considering their encounters before this point had been nothing but unpleasant to deal with, he felt himself sink back against the wall, he did not want to talk to luna, at all. He much rather would stay out of this whole situation if he could, crossing his arms and avoiding luna's gaze as he tried not to get himself worked up.

But they weren't finished, sky was quick to go up to her mother and question her. She had too many questions, questions her mom may or may not have answers to right now but she had to ask someone right now anyway. How long had luna been like this? Been captured? Where had she been captured? Who was the one to bring her in? Jackie? The spy who had been following her?

And wait a second-

But Star quickly tried to quiet her down, clearly in the midst of processing a lot herself right now.

Everyone was talking rapidly between themselves, no one really did seem to believe luna was responsible exactly, but at the same time luna left when they discovered who she was, and how much did they really know about her and what she was doing? With luna leaving the group for all they knew she was working with someone and manipulating everyone behind their backs.

Sky shaking her head, not even wanting to consider that.

Luna wasn't a great person, but she'd never well...go THIS far.

Right?

Judas quickly passed by Sky, pressing up and against the bars, staring at luna in disbelief and worry. Ignoring all the discussion around him about what was going on, the boy looking over luna to make sure she wasn't hurt, or if there were any signs she had been attacked or controlled by anything. His face full of regret in taking her magic charm before shaking his head.

She gave it to him, it helped save bernard, he shouldn't regret that..

But Luna...

His face however, seemed to be the thing that snapped luna out of whatever state she was currently under, the girl shaking her head rather fiercely and waking herself up, realizing just in what state she had been left in. She blinked her shiny blue eyes to get the sleep out, pulling on her bound hands, and she quickly was turning back into the luna everyone knew and tolerated.

"What...what's going on!?".

Her speaking finally got everyone's attention from their arguing to see luna snarling at all of them, confused and angry. She looked like if given enough time, she could break out of her situation with her fists alone, and no one would be shocked if she did. But her scary expression wasn't doing herself any favors and the argument if she was evil and out to get everyone secretly or not.

If anything all of this seemed to make her look so much worse right now.

But judas seemed delighted and relieved, so different from how he saw her the day before, and luna actually seemed almost happy to see him.

So much for her goodbyes of yesterday.

Guess being here was better then most situations she could've gotten herself into. The blonde actually rather sad in her tone as she spoke up properly for the first time since she got here, "Hey judas...sky". For once she seemed actually rather defeated, there was nothing she could do in this situation to make anything any better. Break out and she was screwed, say anything encrypting and well...her other mom was right there, stay here and who knows what would happen to her at this point.

"Luna...what...what happened?", Judas wanted to take this as slowly as possible, get as much out of luna as he could. Though her expression wasn't exactly reassuring, luna responding with more of a shrug and a look of puzzlement, "I...I don't know...I went to sleep last night and...oh...oh no...". She looked right at judas, and the two knew where this was going.

The charm.

"How could...i was trying to be so careful and...judas what happened since i saw you last?". There was a lot to actually say but they were currently in no condition to talk about it with so many people around, all the demon prince could do was try and reassure her. "We're going to figure this out...just hang tight right now and we'll try and get this...sorted out.".

"They took over my brain...didn't they?", the way she asked it gave him chills.

"I...maybe...yeah".

Star was quick to ask for some privacy from some of the adults in the room, Katrina and Jackie leaving to work on the crowd outside and getting them out of the area in general. Obviously whatever Luna wanted to talk about, it was going to have to remain private, lest information got out that no one wanted to get past the castle gates to cause more damage.

But Landon also made his way towards to door, his older brother stopping him, worried. "Landon? Hey, you don't have to leave so soon, don't you want to-", but landon cut him off, "I'm going to tell mom and dad what happened and you can't make it to your arm thing right now, they'll reschedule, I-I don't want to be here...with her". He nodded towards the blonde teenager, "We'll talk alter...you can let me know...what you find out...". And judas could do nothing more as landon headed out after the other adults, judas sighing but letting him go.

Guess he couldn't blame him after how luna acted to him, Celeste was pissed about it just as much.

But they'd have to focus on luna for now and deal with it later, and judas went back to focusing on the princess, who watched landon leave with a face of mixed emotions, whether she may of had regrets, judas couldn't say for now.

"Luna...you first...what happened after i saw you last?".

Luna seemed to be struggling to remember, eyes closing and lip quivering, "I-I...I left and...I made my way back to my camp that night...I-I was keeping an eye out to make sure those after me hadn't caught up and i put charms around my area for protection...and next thing i know...i'm here...oh no, i hope my stuff's ok...I don't want all my evidence stolen..".

"Evidence?", star asked, startled.

"On who was after us...and how to get home", she muttered, "I...I might've found some crucial stuff and...ugh...". She seemed about ready to punch a wall, only for star to try and hush her down, her distress only making everyone more stressed. "We'll find it...the ones tracking you...i'll send them out to your camp and see what they can find...you...still have...it...right?".

Luna scoffed, still not happy her sorta mother was talking to her, it had been so long sky and judas nearly forgot how...tense luna got around star.

"It?", she asked rather rudely.

"Your wand".

The mention of it seemed to freak luna out, struggling to make her hands to desperately feel it.

Breathing a sigh of relief, "Oh...no...it's still safe...they must not have noticed it...".

Thank god.

And thank god for luna knowing how to hide her wand so well, or they'd be in deep trouble. Everyone else seemed to be just as relieved, though their reaction seemed to make luna curious. At the very least the wand was ok, though with luna in a costume no doubt she didn't put herself in there had to have been a reason for it other then looking for a wand.

"Check her for bruises", sky sputtered out randomly, everyone staring at her.

"Sky?".

"The masked figure that attacked us last night, we attacked them...we need to make sure if it was actually them-".

"-Or luna..", judas finished.

Luna looked at them all, rather puzzled before muttering, "Ok, but...get me out of this cell first...we're not checking my body with all of you staring at me in a cold jail cell.". Star opening the door to escort the girl as sky let out another question that she couldn't help but have in the back of her mind throughout this situation. "Mom...hey uh...luna was being followed by a spy wasn't she? Where...are they?", it might've been a weird time to ask, but if jackie was here Katrina's partner had to be as well.

Perhaps they could ask them some questions.

"Oh well...I think they're with eclipsa in the gardens right now".

"Eclipsa...why with her?".

"Well-", star started only for janna to walk in and cut the mood, "Hey star, we kicked all of those people out, so if you wanna move little trouble over here better do it now before they start climbing the walls...oh and uh...maybe put the mask back on...luna might not want people to see her face if they find out she was the one we actually caught".

Luna could agree to that alright.

And in an instant, luna was rushed out in her costume, judas looking back at her as she left, only dragged away by sky, who needed to go find eclipsa. For once she actually wanted to find eclipsa and find out what was going on. Maybe the spy saw something? They were following luna after all, they could figure out how this all happened, when luna got her mind taken over...anything they needed.

It was a better lead then nothing.

Though judas still seemed worried about luna.

Would she end up like how angel did? On trail?

There was no way they could defend her the same way they defended him, angel was only a boy who didn't know what he was getting into and didn't commit the crimes himself, luna on the other hand...if this was what it looked like...she was going to be in way worse trouble. Though at least her kingdom was in another reality and she wouldn't be surrounded by an angry mod anytime soon.

Angel was still dealing with the risk of that last part.

And he barely left the castle.

His mind was so lost in thinking about luna he had to be snapped out of his state by sky to notice they had moved to the outside of eclipsa's tower, everyone had seemed to have left. Angel, nora, sunny, melaine...all of them, off somewhere else. Melaine was home obviously, angel might've went for lunch with nora and then back to see his mom, and sunny...well sunny was probably with lexi if anywhere.

Sky hung out with them so much now she could practically guess what they were up to at any point in time.

Guess everyone had to get back to life as per usual for awhile, besides...outside was a good place to get ambushed.

But she was happy they weren't here, she didn't want them involved in this just in case things got a little...rough, they didn't know what they were in for if they were going to ask the spy some questions and who they would see on the other side obviously. Though it didn't take long for someone to answer, and sky had to take a step back. Because though this was eclipsa's tower and home when she was staying by the castle, she wasn't who was standing in the doorway.

And sky was speechless and...baffled.

She had knocked, trying not to be rude, and before she could back herself out of this whole deal, they had to be inside and hopefully eclipsa wouldn't mind them joining to ask some questions of their own. Though the moment the door had been opened, sky almost felt the color drain from her face, and she and judas had gone stiff as a board as their stomachs turned.

Because instead of a green haired mewman standing at the door.

In front of her was a woman who was much younger, and much less mewman if the horns and tail were any indication. She had striking red eyes but the thing that clearly got the both of their attention was the plain clover cheekmarks on her face. Even though they had never seen this woman in person since the day they were made, they both knew who stood before them.

For the first time in their lives, Meteora stood before them.

The monster who almost destroyed mewni.

The original princess to take the throne before sky.

The monster who got a second chance to live.

The sight of her alone was enough to stop the two in their place unable to say a word to her, just gapping at her and their minds going full blank. They never knew what they'd do if they met meteora in person since they found out she was really well...not dead. Now that they were actually seeing her for the first time they had nothing to say, looking as though they were staring off into space.

Meteora however, seemed to know them rather well.

"The prince of the underworld and princess of mewni...hey".

They still didn't say anything, how much did meteroa know about them? About what was happening? Was she happy to see them or was she just as freaked out as they were?

It took all of his strength for judas to rely like he wasn't freaking out on the inside.

"H-hey".

It was a start.

Of course meteora was the spy following luna, of course.

Why didn't sky think about this before? Who else would go to see eclipsa but her own daughter?

And that meant, Katrina and Meteora were working together all this time, all this time they had been closer to meeting the former princess then they thought they were. It was only an ask away. They must've looked pretty silly gawking at her like that, because meteora was staring back at them as if they had grown a head between the two of them, confused and worried.

"Uh...hi?".

"Meteora, dear...what's going-", Eclipsa paused at seeing the teenagers at her door, but quickly smiled and invited them inside, "C'mon in, have some tea, meteora was just telling me how work has been going". She pulled her daughter aside to let the teens enter, judas and sky recovering from their frozen state, but still having a hard time not looking at meteora as they entered.

Man, now meteora must've thought they were weirdos, looking at her as if she was some sort of ghost.

Great start, they just seemed to have a way with making first meetings really uncomfortable.

And indeed as they were welcomed in and to take a seat the monster girl watched them curiously, reminded them this was again, her first time really meeting them either. She'd probably hear many stories about them from her mom, some probably fun and some sky really hoped would never ever be mentioned ever again if they could help it.

Eclipsa and her might not have had the closest relationship, but that never stopped eclipsa from knowing too much for comfort.

Regardless, now neither sky or judas was sure how to go about this, they barely knew meteora, would she really answer any of the questions they had for her? Or would she not say a work, considering the spy business was purely confidential. Maybe meteora was stingy about that info and they'd have to pry it out of her, good cop and bad cop style?

Actually, no, that'd be stupid.

Truth potion?

Oh right, with what happened yesterday sky basically forgot they lost it to Judas's grandfather.

Well today was full of inconveniences now wasn't it? Leaving Sky more anxious then she probably would've been otherwise.

But she might've been just panicking, she didn't know meteora, and she didn't know for sure she wouldn't easily help them or not. Maybe this would go a lot better then she was thinking it would. Though meteora's looks weren't exactly reassuring her a ton, as the former princess seemed to be trying to read the two royals herself, as any good spy probably would.

Did they look suspicious? Or just weird?

Sky wished she could read meteora's mind, wondering what eclipsa had told her about all of this if

anything.

There was no way meteora didn't at least have some questions considering she was tailing luna, someone she DEFINITELY didn't know.

And if she had ever spotted Luna doing magic….yeah.

Sky just had to pull herself together and maybe if she was lucky this would go rather well and maybe eclipsa would even help her out?

"Any flavor you'd like?" , Eclipsa asked sweetly, sipping her own cup as meteroa drank from her own.

"Oh uh….it doesn't matter…" Sky answered awkwardly. Eclipsa just shrugging and walking to her teapot. Guess she didn't feel as weird since Sky and Judas already knew Meteora was alive, but that wasn't shared among the others.

She really shouldn't be acting so peachy to Sky, especially since she knew how unusual this was for everyone.

But the 3 said nothing between them, just sharing awkward glances at each other as they heard the teapot boil nearby. Eclipsa humming to herself as she did so, acting as if this was all somehow just extremely normal and nothing odd was happening at all right about now.

They couldn't even bring themselves to ask about her thoughts on Luna with Meteora there. It was nothing but dead silence and odd tension that Meteora probably didn't fully understand herself.

Eclipsa handed them their cups before taking a seat next to her daughter. She bumped the monster's shoulder, eyeing the kids, "Meteora, this is Princess Skyler, and Prince Judas. Two of the lovely royals I've told you about".

Meteora coughed into her fist, trying to almost reset the whole meeting as she held out her hand.

"Hello".

They better take it, otherwise enter another awkward staring contest between the three of them.

Judas shook first, meteora and him both seeming to note just how strong the other appeared to be.

Sky felt the grip next, and she was sure her hand had been uncomfortably sweaty throughout the whole thing.

At least meteora didn't seem to be too focused on that last bit, trying to strike up a conversation herself to ease the tension. "So um...you've been...taught by my mom? She keeps raving about how you and this dorky spider prince studied under her for some reason?". Well, this was not really where sky expected this to star but it was something it seemed.

"Oh yeah...angel, he's the prince of the-".

"Arachfords, yeah, i've been to that kingdom...kinda a bit of a dump".

Well that was one way to start a conversation, though sky was sure if angel had heard he wouldn't have disagreed with her. Guess it figured at one point or another meteora would've spied there, probably as part of the investigation into all the strange masked person activity when angel was still working for Her. Perhaps Meteora had been more involved with this conflict then sky thought she had.

"How is it there these days?", the demon prince was quick to ask, curious about how it's been since angel was on trial. Meteora simply shrugging, "Eh...still a dump, though at least people aren't overunning the castle anymore. Should've seen the king, dude couldn't even leave his own castle with all those monsters out there yelling at him for one reason or another...guess it comes with the job".

Fun.

"Oh yes, i told angel earlier, his father is coming over here for a bit while globby takes care in his place. So if you have questions you'll be able to ask him in person rather soon if you'd like...though maybe give him and angel some space, they clearly have some serious catching up to do with how long they haven't seen each other. Downside to him not letting angel have a compact.".

"Yeah...angel probably should have one...", judas gritted his teeth, "Hard to contact him without it...".

"Old fashioned type kingdom?", meteora asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Actually more like they didn't trust angel to just have one".

That actually seemed to make meteora laugh, "Man, dude must have some issues then...must be fun parties".

"Well he was kicked out of most of them...".

Actually out of context it almost sounded like angel was some sort of badboy who got in trouble a lot rather then what actually was going on. But they didn't need to go into that with meteora right now, they had more important matters to get into. Though meteora seemed to find the fact he was kicked out of royal parties to actually be kinda interesting.

However, meteora was quickly onto them, scanning their faces closely, "You're here to ask about the girl i just caught aren't you? Don't try to deny it, i can tell from your body language you both wanted to ask something in particular and were hesitant about it". Judas and Sky immediately felt embarrassed, she caught on quick, that's for sure but she didn't seem to mind.

"Ask away, i don't have an issue...I kinda figured you'd have questions, the news was bound to spread fast...", she sounded actually rather cool about it, ushering them to get out what they wanted to ask while she was still here. Judas and Sky gapping and looking at each other as sky cleared her throat, guess if meteora was really cool with it they better hurry up before she wasn't.

"So uh...were you uh...following..-".

"Was i following the blonde girl with a resting face in the cell? Yeah, mom called me in to follow her since she apparently ran away or something. She spent the whole time trying to shake me off, it was insane. I've never had someone try so hard to make sure they weren't being followed, i'm not exactly sure how she did it...but she had to be an expert on it...and only culprits go out of their way to hide so much".

So meteora didn't know about the magic luna could do then.

But she thought luna was suspicious.

As she would if luna was going so far to keep herself from being tracked, of course that would look suspicious. She didn't know why luna left and why she didn't want to be followed. Luna was kinda a suspicious person even when she was an ally, going off and doing her own thing and keeping secrets from the others, all of this would be even worse coming from someone who never met her.

The kids exchanged glances, meteora still talking, not really paying attention to the kids or her mom, who all seemed to mutually send glances, knowing the truth behind luna's weird actions and unsure what to respond with after that statement. "Honestly i can see why mom wanted me to follow her, she's tricky...no normal guard could handle something like that...did your mom see her already?", she asked sky.

"Uh...yeah...yeah she did.".

"When's the trial then?".

"Oh...uh...", so meteora was also expecting luna to be put on trial after all this too? Did she have any evidence to get her convicted? She had to have right? Though sky'as silence seemed to tell luna enough about the situation, "Alright then, i guess we'll see when she wants to take care of it...y'know i thought she was weird before, but i never expected to find out she was a criminal".

But thankfully, eclipsa chimed in.

"Oh dear, you don't know that, innocent till proven guilty after all, give it some time", meteora didn't seem so sure about that fact but it didn't seem she was deadset on not agreeing with her mom either, false accusations was a sore spot in their family and meteora herself couldn't go around claiming her mom was wrong when that part of their family history was still fresh.

"She's still really suspicious though", she grumbled, leaning on the couch and drinking more of her tea.

They could all agree to that, even when luna was helping them she was suspicious, she tended to have a vibe to her.

"Did you...what was she doing...when you guys got her?", sky asked, trying not to sound suspicious as she brought the topic up, meteora simply shrugging to herself and drinking her tea with a sigh. "She was just...strolling through the woods, pretty unlike her all things considered since she seemed obsessed with trying to stop me from watching her...but there she was...out in the open, might as well have just turned herself in and saved me the trouble".

"Just...walking?".

"Pretty much, tired too by the looks of it".

So luna wasn't caught doing anything that seemed scary or dangerous at least, though meteora seemed to help make it more obvious luna wasn't in control of her own body at the time. Luna would never have put herself out in the open like that, they knew that well enough. She had to have been under control and got caught while being so, honestly it just seemed like they gave up using her when they finished what they needed.

At least luna seemed mostly intact instead of being heavily injured during this whole thing, being out of control of what happens to your own body is scary, luna was lucky nothing worse happened to her when someone else took the steering wheel. Not to mention be attacked by anyone who had really though they had caught the big bad enemy that had terrified all of mewni.

She got lucky this time around, that was for sure.

"But i've caught some real scary folks in my time, usually i hang out in that sweet dig in the underworld to get new jobs, place has great smoothies...and music...as long as those demons don't pick any fights". The royals exchanged looks knowingly, guess for certain they could confirm the cloaked figure fae had seen there, meteora might've seen landon there a few times if she went regularly.

"How long have you been a spy?".

"Eh...maybe about...four years?", she said, still a little unsure, "I mean, if not that then five, but it's not much more then that...katrina started earlier then me, since she ages differently and got a bigger head start...but it is what it is, she's cool though, best partner i could have. She talked about you guys all the time, like your weird big sister...she gave you that pendent thing right?".

She pointed to sky.

"Yeah...she did...".

"Did she tell you you had to wear it on your hat before she did it?".

Sky shook her head, meteora snorted.

"Sounds like her".

Eclipsa smiled into her teacup, "Meteora is wonderful as a spy, sneaky and smart...i tend to get her help a lot when teenagers get a little rough around the castle and they need to be taught them a nice lesson." Meteora also seemed to share a smile about that, leaving their company to wonder just exactly what eclipsa did when they weren't paying attention to her.

"Eh...it works, but it's nice to take a break...come over...where's dad anyway?".

"Busy, he'll come over soon though".

Meteora sagged her shoulders, "He better get here before i have to go back into work, hard to get in contact with him when he's spending his "retirement" cleaning up other people's messes". Her attention went back to the royals, "So yeahh...hopefully that takes care of your little masky problem, and well, that blonde girl in general, hopefully you both stay safe from now on".

"What do you mean by that?".

"I mean...you were nearly killed a few times right?", she said knowingly, "If you die, well lucitor has brothers, but well...in sky's case...who knows where the throne might go without you there to run it. Mewmans are just work in general, their a mess without their queen, you leave them alone for too long and they can barely feed themselves, so better not let anyone stupid get a chance to take over".

Honestly sky only felt more awkward knowing meteora almost had this position herself years ago, would meteora have been a better queen then sky? It's possible, meteora ight also have been just as hated if not more then sky but at the very least she had to be far more powerful then her and maybe more accustomed to dealing with all of this then sky.

Or maybe sky was just doubting herself again.

"Yeah well...i guess we'll just have to see for ourselves about that...things kinda seem to happen to our family a lot", she was joking, but she wasn't wrong, her mom nearly died multiple times, in fact she had claimed to have actually come back from the dead during one of those occasions. Their family seemed to have poor luck in avoiding ending up in serious life-threating peril.

"Hey, all queens deal with it, just blast anyone who tried in the face, works every time".

At least Meteora was enjoying this.

Judas coughed, knowing they needed to get back on topic about luna before they left with little info, there had to be ore they could push on. So far what they asked seemed mostly fine and not that odd, probably because it was stuff meteora had no reason to hide anything about, but there could be more they were missing and would have to go further to get.

Eclipsa seemed to know their next move, continuing the conversation with her daughter as normal, "Well meteora, i really hope staking out wasn't too bad this time around, though i'm sure the girl didn't make it easy for you...it's hard to sleep if you have to keep finding the person over and over...but at least you can rest here if you need to, i kn0ow it's tiring".

"Jeez...no kidding, she had camps, but kept wandering off, only reason i found her again was she went back to her campsites...otherwise i might've lost her".

Guess at least that meant luna did go off and do the hunting for clues she promised, she wasn't fibbing when she told them in her cell, she had stuff at her camp, waiting for her and everyone else to see.

But it also meant she looked more suspicious cause no one but her could claim what she did when she wandered off right now.

Cause for all they had known, luna could've been out doing terrible things when she went out of meteora's view. But they'd have to ask luna herself, only she could really say what went down. And if what she did was bad or not, even judas was up in the air about what she had down since they parted, and he knew luna would not be against doing some shady things.

They needed to talk more about her absence when they could.

"You...you really think it's her?", he said it in such a sad way, he couldn't help her, he really honestly didn't want to doubt luna but he couldn't help but be worried about all of this. How much did he really know about luna? What if she really was just as bad as meteora seemed to think and all of them had been tricked? His mind felt fuzzy just thinking about all of this.

Meteora seemed to take note of his tone, hers immediately shifting. She actually seemed rather

worried that she upset the boy, feeling rather embarrassed all of a sudden. "Oh um...were you and

her...friends or something? I'm sorry I didn't mean to imply-".

"It's fine….", he said, so quickly that it only emphasized how upset he actually was. "I'm sorry….its just….I don't believe luna did this….or at least I hope she didn't ".

His own voice seemed to betray him, because he, to an extent, wasn't sure about luna. He couldn't betray a friend either, and luna was a friend no matter how mixed things currently were right now. Eclipsa seemed to be admiring his loyalty, despite how luna kinda was to everyone around her. She was lucky anyone was standing up for her with how things had been.

"Well, I guess we'll see for ourselves once we do some kind've investigation on her and everything. So Let's just hope for both our sakes this capture isn't a complete waste of our time", the monster girl put down her teacup and took out her compact, "So enough questions for me...time for me to question the two of you". Her compact now aimed at the two teenagers.

"What….?".

"You both are part of this whole deal and I need to hear what you know so I can further do my job.", her words seemed to strike some worry into the kids, how much did meteora know if she knew they "Were part of this whole deal"? Judas quickly trying to relax himself, especially since meteora could read their body language and might get suspicious if they kept freaking out.

The former princess looked them both over and tried to explain more clearly, she then said simply, "So since we're here together I better do it now and hear what you both have to say. Especially since you both know the girl I captured on a personal level".

They both felt their hearts drop, Eclipsa sending them a shrug.

Guess they had no choice but to answer meteora's questions and just hope they didn't say anything that might make them look weird.

"So how do you know this girl?", she pressed record on her compact, keeping eye contact the entire time with the teens, the two struggling just to answer the first question. They couldn't outright say who she ACTUALLY was to Meteora right now, they barely knew her, they'd kinda have to lie….if even a small lie for now. They were just going to have to be careful of their words, though even just thinking what to say too long might make them seem suspicious.

"Uh she wanted to be in our guards".

It was technically the truth so hopefully it worked, though in their minds they both just really hoped that meteroa wasn't an expert lie detector, because if she was they were doomed.

"Is that how you met? She came to you looking to be apart of the guards"

"Well no, we met a bit before b-"

"How long ago did you meet and how close were you? You didn't tell her anything you shouldn't have did you? Was she interested in anything she shouldn't have been?", geez sky hadn't expected meteora to be so….intense. She really seemed to take her job seriously, like VERY seriously. Sky was nervous just trying to answer her first question, much less all the others.

It was overwhelming, they barely could process all the questions she was even asking them, catching them more off-guard.

Sky especially.

"Well I uh-".

"Luna came down wanting to be a guard and we met her in town, so we hung out and asked for her to stay in the castle since she left home to be a knight ", judas to the rescue of course, a significantly better person to handle this then sky. At least he was staying consistent to the story they gave luna as best he could.

"Where's she from?"

"She's from….a very far part of mewni, she traveled through scissors to get here, she didn't wanna say because it was personal information".

This seemed to make meteora suspicious, whether of them or luna they couldn't tell for sure but she didn't seem entirely satisfied with that answer. This only seemed to make the demon more nervous, but meteroa didn't push further on the matter, moving onto the next question she had.

"Why'd you help her become a knight?"

"Because we're...nice people?"

She made a face in response to that one and judas kept his mouth shut once again just to avoid sounding more like an idiot in front of the master spy. But really he didn't have a better answer then that, he wasn't exactly sure what meteora had expected to hear honestly.

"How much do you really know her? She seems to have been vague about all the important things a friend would share normally?".

Eclipsa must've sensed how nervous the teens were trying to figure out their next set of words.

Quickly getting her daughter's attention with a tap on the shoulder, "I've spoken to Luna quite a few times and seen them with her quite a bit since she's been here, I can say for sure luna has quite the relationship with both of them….judas and luna even hung out with me, sky, and angel before ".

Well if meteora didn't know whether to trust the royals for sure, there was at least a decent chance she might trust her own mother's word on the matter. The girl biting at her lip and moving onto the next question she had about the matter. Judas and sky becoming extremely relieved about that one, trying to talk about luna without mentioning her whole deal was...tricky.

"I've already spoken to some of her comrades , she was dangerous….like she had training way before she even came here...can both of you confirm this?".

They nodded.

"So she was well trained before she entered the knights ? I'm gonna guess she never explained why she was so well trained right?".

"She trained herself ", sky said, "she wanted to be the best".

It was the most in character thing luna would do if this was her actual backstory.

They couldn't deny any of luna's skills, that was for sure, nothing about her read as "Incompetent".

They were waiting for meteora to ask anything else but she stopped her recording, "I'll probably get back to you later...but i have others to talk to about this as well...anyways, thanks for helping me with this for the time being". They simply nodded, still anxious about being bombarded with questions they couldn't be entirely truthful about.

At least it was over, they didn't know for how much longer they could've kept that up before they said something more stupid that gave them away. They had enough mixed emotions about meteora, they didn't need her hogging down their backs on top of that, and even now they were still processing the fact they were in her presence. Looking at her now she didn't seem the type to attack an entire kingdom like she did.

She seemed...well normal.

Focused on her work, talking to her mom, hanging out with her friends.

Would she still be like this if her mind hadn't been wiped how it was?

"So...wait...are you going to be part of this whole deal?", sky asked all of a sudden, meteora blinking at her in confusion, "Uh...if you mean am i apart of this whole masked person stuff...i kinda have to be now, my target was caught with the costume on...when she is on trial i'm going to be a witness to everything...also honestly if my mom is investigating...i might as well join in".

She grabbed her things, fixing up her hair and checking on her tail, "I'm going to find Katrina real quick mom, to share some notes...i'll meet up with you and dad later...give you updates, you tell me when you find anything out..." Then she looked to the teens, holding out her hands for them to shake, "And i'll see the two of you...later...don't spend too much time with my mom...the longer you do the more she starts talking about weirder things".

She headed out the door, eclipsa laughing to herself as her daughter left, her attention on her guests.

"So how was-?".

"METEORA IS A SPY?! And you said NOTHING?!"

Sky said it so loud it even scared judas, but she couldn't help it, she had so many thoughts running through her head and she could barely process most of them. But Eclipsa just seemed amused, sipping her tea to herself and nodding, "Sky c'mon, i couldn't tell you anything about that, it's meant to be a secret...and besides, it's not relevant to everything else...meteora's life is her life, nothing to do with you all anymore".

She was right about it, sky didn't need to know what meteora did, but she was still shocked.

"But like...she...and we...", sky couldn't even come up with a defense, she was so defeated, and so was judas too by the looks of it. The dark queen put down her cup, patting their shoulders gently, "Kids...it's ok, honestly you just seem shocked all this time meteora was right nearby and you missed her for so long, it's alright...i'm sure anyone would be just as shocked.".

"Wait...but meteora...she's going to go out there...won't people recognize her?", it suddenly came to sky, meteora might not be who she was but the people of mewni would NEVER forget her, a surge of panic wave through her as eclipsa quickly answered her question without a worry on her face.

"They will".

So she knew just as much, but-

"But she doesn't know what she did...what if-?".

"It's no matter, I told her".

The two sat there, stunned.

"When?".

"Just now, before you showed up, i told her everything...well...everything about her life before...nothing about the whole "Sister from other timelines" thing", she was sitting there, so casually about it too, like this wasn't a big deal. She kept meteora from the throne and erased her mind of destroying mewni, and meteora had no reaction to it? At all?

"I considered it for awhile...and thought it was time...better she learn about it from me...then anyone else.".

"But she didn't...she-".

The queen smiled sadly at them, her eyes facing away and towards the wall, "She's an adult, and i'm sure this is going to be a lot to process for her, but i think she'll be ok...eventually...but of course she wasn't going to freak out, she's rather fine with what she's doing now...never had much interest in ruling, finds the mewmans annoying to try and manage.".

"So when we came in just now and she was talking about me being queen and that without me who knows who it might go to...", sky started, "She...she was aware that it might go to her...". Well, that suddenly made that conversation even more awkward then it needed to me, maybe that was why meteora was so silent after they came in, she was just as uncomfortable as they were.

"Yeah you came at...very awkward timing for her".

Judas suddenly felt very sick, his stomach sinking, "We...we had no idea i'm so sorry about that...it was a big deal and we must've walked in while she was still processing everything and we didn't mean to make everything more weird then it had to be". But she hushed him, relaxing back into her seat, "It's alright, you had no reason to know about any of that, you don't have to say sorry for anything in relation to this...it's between me and meteora.".

That finally seemed to silence the nervous teens, who tried to settle themselves against the couch beneath them, the former queen handing them chocolate bars that had been hidden in her drawer nearby. " Today seems to be a day of confession, so i think it's good to get all of this out of our system...even if it hurts, but it's better let out and consumed inside...", they took the candy and unwrapped it, taking bites.

"Do you think...she hates us?".

"Doubtful, she barely knows you...and it's not your fault".

They fell silent, nearly forgetting why they even came here in the first place, to look for answers and clues. Now back into their guilty modes, getting themselves off track and their minds unfocused. The older woman snapping in front of their faces to get their attention, encouraging them to eat their chocolate before she took it back from both of them, and knowing her, she would.

"You both need to stop blaming yourselves, what happened was in the past...you have a new future ahead to make things right. Meteora has a lot to process on her mind but...i think by how she left is enough to indicate she'd be happy to be friends with you both. Trust me, when meteroa hates something...it sticks...probably why she still flinches instinctively over queen lucitor".

She looked deep into their eyes, "Enough wallowing in sadness, you'll never get things done if you keep feeling sorry about things you shouldn't be sorry for, i made my choice and i'll deal with the consequences. Me and star have made some...well...questionable choices in the past, bit we were the ones to make those choices, not you...you could never have known what we'd do and we could never have guessed how this would affect all of you...including meteora. We can't change our past but we can work on bettering our future, you know as well sky...".

"Huh?".

"You said it yourself, to Angel".

She was right, sky had said something similar to him before.

Told him to stop thinking in the past, and work to the future, for the betterment of everyone.

Guess sometimes she needed to be reminded of her own advice.

"I'm sorry, i didn't meant to get all upset and whatever...sometimes i just feel i don't deserve the throne and i feel bad i might've...stolen it away from someone who deserved it more...", she took another bite of chocolate, "Eclipsa, the wand broke cause it went to me, the girls might not even have been here if i didn't have it...i just feel like...giving it to me only made things worse...".

"Oh hush now, meteora is happy to not have the pressure you do, and you don't have anything to feel sorry for, your mom's broken the wand plenty as well and done her own fair share of stupid things, my grandmother erased gravity once...what you've done is fairly tame in comparison. As far as I'm concerned, you'll be a good queen...but perhaps...instead of hearing it from us...maybe you need to hear it from yourself.".

Sky was about to question what she meant but eclipsa was way ahead of her, "We can only do so much, for you and judas both, we can encourage you, help you, cheer you on...but getting over these fears and doubts you have...we can only do so much on our own, you both need to learn to love yourselves and trust yourselves as well, otherwise you may never fully get over this sinking feeling".

She was right.

They did keep falling into this, because even if everyone else felt one way, they still kept doubting themselves.

If they didn't believe it, they were never going to overcome these issues.

"Do you know how we can try?", judas asked, his shoulders hunched and his eyes mostly staring at his hands rather then eclipsa, "I...want to...i want to get better, i want to fully stop...even if it takes time...i know it's not my fault and i know what i do is to help...but...i want to know how i can prevent myself from falling back into...bad thoughts...if there's a way to do so".

This really seemed to peak eclipsa's attention, caught off guard by judas's sudden question, leaving her in thought for a moment. "Well, it's a step by step process...but...start by recognizing things you like about yourselves...things you're proud of...and start doing nice things for yourself...it'll take some time to get over years of self doubt...but...you need to fully have faith in yourselves if either of you are to get passed this...".

"Angel asked me out..."Sky started noticing eclipsa smile before giving her a face, "As friends...he asked us to hang out to make up a bit for...what happened. Maybe i'll take him up on his offer...soon...in between plans and dealing with the mission. At least...it might be a good start into truly feeling more confident, he's confident in my magic it seems".

"And judas?".

He looked at his arm, clutching it.

"I'm going to learn to control it".

Luna being in prison was quick to spread to everyone in the group, everyone reacting with a similar face of shock and confusion. Though celeste reacted more with "Whatever", probably still mad with luna just like landon was. She didn't exactly have the best time with her yesterday when the blonde pointed her wand at her and nearly got into a fight with her.

The only plus side to this all was because they saw luna yesterday they knew the timeslot they had for luna to have been cursed, making it easier to determine when everything might've went down and if luna was at the lucitor castle or somewhere entirely different. No one seemed to really believe at the end of the day that luna was actually their enemy, as mad as some of them were at her.

It all did make the dinner they were all at very awkward however, as they went in expecting to plan stuff in the morning and now the talk was entirely around luna herself, of course next to queen moon and meteora. Star was already panicking and stuffing her face at just the mention of her mom, having no ability to shun her away this time was driving her nuts and the only reason she wasn't here already was because River was getting into a fight at their retirement cabin with a bear.

Next to Janna, who honestly was actually way too calm about the whole situation, maybe at this point she was numb to every dumb big event that happened seemingly each week. Which of course didn't apply to anyone else, The lucitors were here after all and they were already trying to figure out what happened to luna and coming up with theories of what was actually going on.

Luna of course, was not eating with them, but at least she wasn't in prison either.

Oh no no, they locked her in her room, surrounded by guards, with Jackie watching over her in case she tried to escape. Not that Luna would try it knowing how much worse it would make her look, but it was better to be safe then sorry when it came to luna, she had a knack for being unexpected. It was just unfortunate she couldn't be here to well...defend herself.

But on the plus side, she wasn't here to start arguments over those who were fussing about her right now either.

"But let's say she WAS being used as a distraction, for what purpose? They didn't use the opportunity to do anything, was it just to frame someone?", the Queen of demons was pondering, their partner presenting his own theory to the group, "Maybe they gave up and ditched their clothes, realizing now that we're close to catching them they needed to get out as fast as possible and us catching luna would make a good distraction..".

"Would they really just give up after all this? They've gone this far...even considered murder...".

"Maybe i'm just wishful thinking marco, but i guess that would just mean they'd be someone else's problem".

"Well, i um...i'm not sure what the reason was either", angel's voice was a little quiet, trying to speak over the others who were talking loudly around him, "But they well...it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to just frame her...luna is well...she's kinda the perfect candidate to frame, she wasn't around during the sleepover incident, she's highly skilled...luna would be smart enough to do this kinda stuff...and she's been missing awhile".

"But luna is still an ally to us, she has no reason to run around in a dress and mask to do the things that thief did unless she had ulterior motives we aren't aware of, and even so...eclipsa's been in her mind, she would've seen something if luna had been up to anything outside of helping us, like one of us would've caught on, like this whole framing idea just doesn't work...", judas explained, trying to not eat with his mouth open.

"Well, to us, sure, but to everyone who doesn't know about your little...secret...they wouldn't know that...and we can't admit to any of it in court either.", Marco was rubbing their head, pulling at their hair as tom interjected, "Yeah, whatever they intended or not this is kinda a problem, the only way we can defend luna is by revealing what's happening and well-".

"You know what could happen if we do that".

"But what can we do? We can't let her be frozen either...if we fake evidence that's only going to look worse on our part, and we can't just let luna go free without any explanations either...we'll just look more suspicious...", they were all in a rut, all because of this luna situation. Keeping this a secret was important for many reasons, but how were they to keep it a secret and keep luna innocent at the same time?

They couldn't, they couldn't get themselves out of this one that easily.

"We're just going to have to get risky...", marco admitted, "There's no other way...maybe if we catch the person whose really behind this, we can clear luna's name entirely...and then we might not even have to worry about trying to defend her, at the very least it's a plan that could work...but that's if we use a truth potion and even then that's risky if they well...know who luna is".

"Are you sure about trapping them...at your coronation judas?", his father looked worried, barely touching his food, "It's an important part of your life and well...it's dangerous to do something like this". But judas shook his head, "Sky's right, it's the best thing we have to make into a trap, we can't lure them somewhere they know will be dangerous and we can't do something so out of character they'll know something is up".

"But...they can't hide with that mask on, won't be much of a trap otherwise...".

"Not if...we're all...wearing masks".

This seemed to get everyone's attention, their heads drawing towards the boy.

"Judas?".

"Scrap the original plans...let's make my coronation, a masquerade ball...".

There was silence after the idea left his lips, everyone looking among each other in question as judas explained, "If everyone's wearing a mask, they'll show up in one too, they'll feel safer...it'll help them feel like they're blending in...then we wouldn't have to worry about them bursting in on a rampage, they'd just sneak around...and we could lure them".

"But how-? They won't trust us...especially not to lure them anywhere, they could be anywhere during the party, we might lose them in all of the guests".

"Simple, they want something others don't, they'll be the only ones to take the bait, making it easier for us all to figure out who we're attacking", there was murmurs among the dinner group, it was a good start to a plan, and it might actually work. If they could figure out how to set the trap, and make sure that it would work, they'd be golden, though there were still doubts.

"What if it's not enough?".

They all turned to face none other then the former King Lucitor, the mewman listening in to all their ideas and plans but he didn't seem as confident as some of them were. "You're counting on them to come in for the wand, maybe even something else entirely...but what if they don't, what if this is all for nothing? Then we'd have wasted time and effort into a plan that doesn't work...", he sighed, "I have faith in you kids, but I have to admit, after this break in, after this kidnapping...I don't want us to be fooled again...not in our castle".

"Dad...".

"You know what i mean thomas...", he said, looking over the others, "I've never seen the kingdom so...scared before, they came running out of our castle, if we're to form some kind of plan...i just want it to be something we can be sure will work, because if we don't make this work the first time...we might never fool them the next...this idea needs to be foolproof".

"Then make sure i'm in the lead...", angel spoke up, "If they don't come for the wand, they'll come for me...make a show of it...that i'll reveal who they are or something, they'll have to show up then...they can't miss that kinda opportunity". He seemed unsure of this decision himself and sky and judas were quick to try and protest before he stopped them with his legs.

"I have to face it eventually after what i did, and it'll make sure they show up...i'm...i'll be bait, for this".

"Then i'll guard you...", angel turned to sky, who looked at him fiercely, "With or without my wand, i won't leave your side the entire night, just to make sure no one sneaks up on you". Angel seemed rather touched, though he wasn't sure the adults would agree with this arrangement, considering someone more powerful was probably better to guard him.

But it was sweet anyways.

"Well...we can't stop you if you do so...", marco sighed, "We don't like the idea...but...you're right...it would work...but let's not put it as our first option, i just want to consider other options first...". Angel felt sky touch his shoulder comfortingly, and judas pat his other as he went back to silence. The plans going over and being discussed over and over again.

and that's when Sunny coughed, standing in her seat.

"How about we go out and investigate? If we can't be sure of this then the best thing we should do is gather more information!", and sky knew where this was heading, after all, sunny's costume idea was still an option that could be used. The plan was still viable but if they were to find out more details they were more likely to avoid running into more issues, after all, meteora and eclipsa still were investigating.

And this seemed to be something at least all the adults seemed comfortable with...for the most part, them all sharing nods.

Maybe they were better left with more time to plan then over the span of a single dinner when it comes to the most feared criminal in mewni right now. Otherwise they might as well be going in with no plan at all. Though the lingering problem of luna was still in their minds, and in the minds of landon and celeste, who had avoided most of the discussion about her as best they could.

That's when it hit sky, standing up and almost slamming the table.

"Eclipsa's investigating that lair thing right? No dna evidence to luna means they can't like her directly to the kidnapping or maybe even to her directly...we can use that! That way we can keep luna from being in trouble and we might find out some more evidence to use for our plan!". That wouldn't of course stop false evidence or anything but it was a good start to fixing this whole mess if they could.

"Alright, we'll wait until eclipsa gives us a report and perhaps we'll do a little private investigating on the side then...", Marco said with a sigh, and a rub to their face, "God, nothing can be easy around here...but at least having some idea of what we're doing is better then nothing at all.". They seemed tired, from lack of sleep, and that seemed to go for everyone at the table.

No one could sleep, fearing they'd wake up to see a pale white face in front of them to take them away.

Maybe that was another reason they weren't thinking straight when coming up with plans, they were all almost about to fall asleep into their own meals. Everything had happened so fast and crazy it had been nearly impossible to get any proper rest around here. Especially with all their minds wandering and constantly keeping them awake all the time.

They were all tired, but they didn't want to leave the table either, not when they couldn't be sure of their safety.

"Where should we investigate...", marco mumbled, "I hate to ask...but...do you know anywhere from your own investigations we can look into at the very least?".

And that's when landon finally spoke, arms crossed and clearly knowing what he'd have to do, his eyes still away from everyone but still spilling the beans regardless. "I...have a place...fae went there, it's a good place to catch gossip or whatever...it's at least something you could go to to hear out from other people of mewni for more information...i'm not going to promise anything though".

Was landon really going to give up his safe spot for this mission?

Celeste nor Sunny made him either, Landon spilt it himself, even if he didn't actually originally want to.

"Landon?".

"No...meteora goes there...", Judas added on, "It might be a good place to check, if you went in dressed as well...anyone other then yourself...you might have a decent chance of finding out some important information". If meteora went there to help her out then it had to of been something worth looking into, meteora was on the case after all.

And the adults seemed in mutual agreement.

"Then i think we have a plan".

Everyone had to be escorted to their room, and when they meant room, they meant single room.

New orders meant they were all going to be spending the night in the butterfly's private safe room, like they once did with the lucitors. Their belongings already down there waiting for them and everything set out for them, those who had been living in lucitor castle were mostly staying in the butterfly guest rooms and the safe room was the biggest place they could keep all of the kids and adults of this group under supervision.

The room was nice, it was fancy, it didn't have as much activities as the lucitor one but it was for the sole purpose of sleeping right now, so it didn't matter anyway, fitted with sleeping bags everywhere for everyone, star having enhanced it to the best of her ability. The queen falling on the nearest couch, immediately asleep upon reaching the fluffy cushions under her.

People were spacing out and sky went to find her pjs and change, seeing judas stare at his sleeping bag.

He was clearly thinking about luna, sleeping alone and unsure of her future.

And sky saw angel wandering off, worried what would happen if angel really was to put himself in the line of fire. He looked like he couldn't even believe himself that he had said that, the girl reaching out for him. "Hey...that...was brave of you back there...stupid...but brave", the boy turning to face her and nodding, "Thanks...I'm...I'm sorry to hear about...luna".

"Well, we're not finished yet...at least they didn't burn all the evidence we could use...".

He nodded.

"Hey uh...if you wanna hang out...at some point...let me know...when we can at least...".

He simply send her a small smile before heading off to get ready for bed, making himself comfortable in the safe room.

Everyone set up to try and get some sleep, safe and sound.

Meanwhile in another room, not too far away, a girl laid next to the window, unable to rest, touching her ring carefully, knowing full well she could escape but knowing what would happen if she did. Luna was lost in thought, unable to sleep, debating whether her leaving had been a good idea at all. But there was nothing she could do now, her fate seemed to be out of her hands.

And she could only trust in her friends to get her out of it.

She could only hope that she didn't screw up with them too bad.

Because she was doomed without them,

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Space Orcs “Christmas.”

 wrote this based on a request for fluff, so I have delivered the fluff. There is a certain group of you who will probably be a little bit made at me when you finish :)

But here is the token Christmas episode, and I hope you all like it 

“Alright, try it now.”

“But Commander, I'll have to pull power from the reactor core.”

“I said do it airmen, did it sound like a question?”

“Yes, sir.”

A sudden eruption of lights exploded about the mess hall, and down the hallways of the ship, thousands of tiny twinkling lights. Krill, having been walking to speak with the Commander paused at the entrance to the room and spun around in wonder. Lines upon lines of lights had appeared out of nowhere to be projected around the walls of the room and down the hallways of the ship. They weren’t  bright or anything, instead an almost delicate yellow in color gently twinkling like the light of distant stars.

“Get those overhead lights off,”

With a loud thud, the lights switched off, casting the room into the warm ambient glow of those thousand twinkling lights. He spun in a circle staring up at the ceiling, shocked to find a mosaic of falling snowflakes, which faded and vanished before hitting the floor,

“Give me more fall-off on that snow airman. Tomorrow better be magical or someone is getting their ass fired.”

He turned his head again eyes widening in geater wonder as they fell on the center of the room. The flickering, projected hologram of a massive tree. It was one of those furry looking earth plants that could reach higher than thirty feet tall, though this one only nearly brushed the ceiling. It stood in the middle of the room decorated by hundreds more twinkling lights, yards of red ribbon and shiny glass balls. Atop the tree, there was projected the human caricature of a star glittering with firelight.

Tongues of phantom fire licked against the far wall, under a mantle of stone and brick.

Krill turned in another wide circle as the strange lights flickered around him, reminding him strangely of the space walk he had gone on with the commander so long ago, stepping out into the darkness surrounded by stars, alone in the vastness of space, but where that had been cold and distant, this was a close warmness that filled him up from the inside and made him feel oddly warm.

Soft footsteps behind him and then a  pause.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“What is it?’

“Realistically, more than four thousand years of pagan-christian and corporate tradition.” Krill looked up to find the array of glittering lights reflected against the human’s bright green iris. His voice grew soft, though it stayed warm, “More romanticized…. This is…. Home. This is childhood and imagination, and family wrapped in a box and tied with a bow. This is being warm when its cold and loved when you’re alone. This is comfort on the edges of space when earth is a trillion lightyears away and you may never go back.”

“Feeling a bit poetic today I see?’

The Commander shrugged, “Maybe a little…. Kind of homesick too.” he sighed, “This is the first year I won’t be celebrating Christmas with my family.” 

“Christmas?”

“Yeah, I’m not exactly sure what it meant to other people, but when I was a kid, it was mostly just a day to celebrate our family…. Mom loves Christmas, she goes all out every year, even when things were tight…. She always managed to make things special. One year dad snuck out in the middle of the night and left reindeer tracks in the snow to convince us they had been there.”

“Er, Reindeer?”

“Ah, never mind. I’ll tell you about it later. Important thing is getting everything ready for tonight. If you want to see the real magic.”

Krill stared at the commander as he walked away not entirely sure what the hell that was supposed to mean. He was trailed by a rather grumpy looking Glados. In the past few months the adaptid had grown to the size of a medium sized dog, and the Commander was, more and more, forcing her to walk on her own, Which she didn’t much like.

Krill glanced around at the lights one last time before returning down the hall and towards the medical bay. All across the ship crew members were busy putting up decorations, stringing strange fluffy streamers over the exposed piping. 

One crew-member, in a red and a green hat with a bell on top was hanging strange plants from the tops of doorways. He looked on in confusion before stepping into the medical bay greeted by Dr. Katie, who was wearing a red and white dress with a matching hat and striped leggings. She looked like a peppermint stick...

“Good evening krlll, are you ready for christmas?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Other than it's some sort of human holiday.”

“Yeah, it’s the one day of year where people get together and give each other gifts and stuff. To some people it means different things, simply a family day or to celebrate religious figures. Just sort of depends. Some people don’t celebrate it at all, but the Commander seems pretty big on christmas, so why not.”

“Why are you dressed up like that?”

She winked at him, “Because I’m an elf silly.”

“You know this is almost the first time in half a year in which I have no understood a single word coming out of your mouth. She simply winked and continued on her way whistling happily.” 

Of course the night came, and out of Character Dr. katie curled up on one of the hospital beds and fell asleep leaving Krill alone in the half darkness. He spent the rest of his time on the internet looking up information on the so-called holiday. What he found was a tangled mess of pagan-cristian-and corporate traditions just like the Commander had suggested. A lot to do with saints and demons and more information than he was willing to read all the way through at this moment. He wasn’t a xeno historian after all.

The night wore on, and he sensed a strange stillness in the air around him caused by the ambient light leaking in from the hallway, warm and fiery.

It was close to two in the morning when a knock came on the door to the medical bay. Dr. Katie stirred and sat up adjusting her dress as she ran over motioning Krill after her. Curiously he followed after her, stepping into the hall to find….. More than a strange sight. There was Conn, draped all over in glittering tinsel to add to his flowing ribbons. A couple other humans were dressed in the strange red and green costumes with pointy hats and bells on their shoes. Waffles, the dog, was sitting just before the door wearing a fake pair of antlers, her tongue lolling happily from one side of her mouth. Sitting with her were the three adaptids in similar states of dress glados looking cowed but a little more than miffed to be there. Both of them were covered in bells as well, and all of that strangeness arrayed around the weirdest thing of all,  a very large fat man in a blindingly red suit, and big white beard.

He moved forward ad Dr. Katie hopped over to join the strange party grinning and giggling as she patted waffle’s head. The dog licked her hand, “You make such adorable reindeer.” She reached down to pat Glados next, and the adaptid sulked, but didn’t try to bite her as she might have done with someone else.

“HO HO HO, Merry Christmas!” Said the big fat man, and looking up into his eyes, Krill suddenly grew very suspicious. He had only ever seen a shade of green like that on one human.

“What the hell have you done to yourself.” he demanded.

Adam raised an eyebrow, though most of his face was covered by a beard, “I have no idea what you’re on about.”

Krill was horrified, “Look at you…. How…. how do you gain that much weight in such a short amount of time. Are you mad? Are you ok? Are you going to die of a heart attack in the next fifteen minutes because something tells me this can’t be healthy.” He glared at the human, “When were you going to tell me that humans could just spontaneously gain an enormous amount of weight. Whatever this is, it is an immediate medical emergency. Plus the beard, some serious hormonal dis-regulation I can’t even begin to imagine what sort of-”

“KRILL! Its a suit, a costume, I didn’t just spontaneously gain weight.” The human adjusted his beard voice sounding more normal now that he wasn’t trying to make it deeper, “I’m Santa Claus? 

“And who is that supposed to be?”

“Well, he is the physical embodiment of the spirit of Christmas. Legend says, he lives at the north pole, and works with the elves making toys all year round. He keeps to lists, and on one list appears the name of all the well behaved children, and on the other list appears the names of the naughty children, he will check both lists twice, and there is no point trying to trick him because he sees everything. And then on the night of Christmas, he gathers all the presents into the back of his sleigh, which is pulled by nine magical flying reindeer. Then, he takes all night to to fly all around the world delivering presents to kids. Most of the time he comes down the chimney, if you have one. He will fill stockings (socks) hung over the fireplace with small toys and then put the big presents under the Christmas tree. If you were a bad kid than he wouldn’t leave a present, but a lump of coal instead. Generally it is recommended that one leaves some cookies and a glass of milk out as a thank you, oh, and carrots for the reindeer.”

….

There was silence for a long moment, “What  in the name of beelzebub's balls kind of story is that.”

Even through the beard he could tell that Adam was frowning, “Stop being such a Grinch. It’s a great story, to help kids behave, and keep the magic alive for a little while before you become and old cantankerous adult that doesn’t believe in anyone or anything anymore.”

“And what is a grinch.”

“A grinch is an angry green person who hates to see other people happy….. Arguably they also hate corporate Christmas, but I digress. Scrooge is also someone who doesn't get the point of Christmas, and both are definitely insults, now come on. You are joining me and my elves while we go deliver presents.”

Before he could protest, he was presented with pointy hat with a bell on it, and forced to follow as they wandered silently off down the halls.

Adam pulled out a clipboard, “Alright everyone, our list here says that approximately 85% of the crew celebrates Christmas, but we will still be delivering presents to everyone because we are nice and that is what we do. Nobody is expected to join in tomorrow but everyone is invited because we aren't trash humans.” Glados and Waffles walked at his heels as the rest of the humans followed behind lugging large bags over their shoulders, “Alright Katie, you’re with me in filling the stockings, the rest of you are charged with leaving a trail to the mess hall where the actual presents will be, one for everyone at least, no one is left out. Corporal, you get the people who don’t celebrate Christmas, and just leave the gifts outside their doors. Make sure to leave the notes for them as well so  they know they are invited if they want to come.” 

“Yes s…. Ur Mr. Claus?” 

“Damn Straight.”

“What about the Drev?”

“I am including them in the list of people who celebrate simply because I want them to have the experience once before they decide whether they like it or not. Everyone should get the chance to at least choose.”

It too nearly the next few hours to get things done. Krill Accompanied the Commander, Conn, waffles, and the Adaptids as they jingled quietly up the halls slipping into rooms where crew members had been instructed to leave socks hanging from their bed frames. 

On more than one occasion Krill watched as a very confused human, light sleeper, sat up and watched blearily as they exited the room with a confused look on their faces. Some seeming even amused. The heavier sleepers didn’t notice a thing.

They reached the Drev and Marine quarters at some point towards the end of the night, making it through one relatively quickly, but just as he was about to step into the last room, Glados growled and snapped at his boot. 

Commander…. Santa? Looked down and harrumphed, “Someone here is going on the naughty list.” Katie and Krill leaned forward as a light shined down on the delicate silver trip wire cut across the door.

Katie snorted, “Coal.”

Quietly, he stepped over the line and into the room Glados leaping behind him. “Alright which one of the naughty children is trying to capture St. Nick?”

Krill turned on his thermal vision and could see the vast majority of the marines were not sleeping.”

He turned to look over at Krill and Conn, who motioned in the direction of one of the beds. He walked quietly over leaning next to the ear of the ‘supposedly” Sleeping marine, “I see you when you’re sleeping Ramiez .”

There was an eruption of uncontained giggling around the room, which was rather strange coming from the large, muscular humans.

“Oh…. kinky.” A muffled voice whispered from somewhere.

More giggling.

“Is that you Santa?” 

“Guess who's getting coal for Christmas.” 

He turned towards the door.

“Wait, wait, Santa, wait! I have a question. “ 

He paused in the doorway raising his eyebrows at the marines who were sitting up, “What?”

“How did you get here without reindeer?”

He wagged a finger at them, “Very carefully. You better thank my elves, they had to get degrees in engineering, physics and rocket science to get me here. And what is worse, my Star-sleigh was pulled by a bunch of snarky starborn led by that one.” He pointed towards Conn, “he almost guided us into a black hole, so you better be nice and leave me out some cookies next year.” 

He stepped over the tripwire and back out into the hallway allowing the door to shut closed behind them.

Outside there was a trail of tinsel and strange footprints leading away from the doors and down the halls. He left the bag just outside the door with the rest of the stocking stuffers in it, not ever having intended to leave the marines with just coal.

They took one last jingling run up and down the halls for effect before retreating to the mess hall where they promptly passed out on bean bags by the holographic tree in front of the holographic fire. 

Glados crawled up onto the fake belly and curled up there glowering at anyone who got to close. Waffles and the other adaptids curled up just to the side.

***

Sunny woke up early the next morning thinking how odd it was, that strange tinkling sound in the middle of the night. She sat up looking over at the sock she had been asked to place in her room. She had been forced to borrow it from someone considering she didn’t wear socks, and was surprised to find something sticking out of it.

She wandered over and tipped the contents into her hands surprised to find an earth flower, and some miscellaneous items of use for her work down in engineering.

Curiously, she opened the door into the hallway idly munching on the flower, and found a trail leading from her door and down the hall. The scene surprised her, and she wasn’t entirely sure what to think. It clearly had the intention of being followed, and curious, she followed finishing off the flower as she came around the corner dropping the stem in surprise when she saw the room before her.

Hundreds of holographic lights, a tree, fire, piles of blankets and beanbags and lounging humans half asleep. Conn was floating up near the ceiling trailing tinsel. Krill was hovering beside the tree looking more than a little confused. Dr. Katie was moving wrapped gifts below the tree dressed like a peppermint stick.

Adam….. Well Adam was peeling off a suit that added about two hundred pounds to his frame. It seemed as if there had also been a fake beard and massive coat, as far as she could see. Took him a few seconds to wriggle out of the boots and oversized pants dumping them on a chair close by leaving him in a white shirt and military issue olive green pants.

He looked up from where he had dumped his costume and grinned at her.

She walked closer.

“Merry Christmas.”  

“Erm…. Merry Christmas?.... What’s a Christmas.”

“Apparently it’s a human holiday perpetrated on the idea that a magical fat man in a red suit, flies around the world on a magical sleigh pulled by magical non-flying flying mammal to deliver presents to children who were good…. Oh also he watches you when you sleep.” Sunny stared at Krill  in confusion.

Overhead Conn was mimicking voiceless laughter.

“Don’t mind him, he's being a little grinch as usual. Come on, we’re just waiting to give people time to show up, and then we are gonna open presents.”

“How did you manage to get something for everyone?

“Well I asked for help number one, but number two, what else am I supposed to do with my money. I mean I have a place to live, a place to sleep, entertainment, food, anything a guy could as for, so I just threw a paycheck or two at it. Otherwise its just sitting in my bank account collecting dust until I can find something dumb and nerdy to spend it on…. I thought…. Well I thought this would mean more than getting myself a light-saber or something.”

She stared at him for a long moment, “You are such a…. Sap.”

He smiled, “Maybe a little. I mean it's not much, anyway, but it made me feel good.”

She paused, tilted her head, and then hugged him. He seemed a little surprised one eye peering up at her from a four- arm embrace. He didn’t say anything until she let him go and he stepped back to look at her, “What was that for?”

“You…. well. You… deserve it. And I don’t think you get reminded enough.” 

She thought she saw a little bit of red creeping up his neck and he looked down at his feet, waving it off, “Nah, if you knew what went on inside my head, you wouldn’t say that.”

She decided not to argue with him, humans were horrible with accepting compliments sometimes. Instead she found herself sharing music with him as they lay on one of the beanbags waiting for the others to arrive.

He had his eyes closed appearing as if he was sleeping through she knew he probably wasn't . At some point he adjusted himself so that his head was resting on one of her arms, using her like a pillow. A few more people started to trickle in, including the marines, one of which, Ramirez, was wearing bright red footie pajamas and walked over to claim a bean bag just to the wide.

Adam opened an eye and looked over at him, “What the hell are you wearing.” 

“My footie pajamas.”

“Yeah I got that…..”

“Don’t diss the footies..” 

“ Yeah sure, anyway what would have happened if I stepped on the trip-wire?” Sunny lifted her head at the mention of a trip wire.

Ramirez grinned, “it would have been pretty glorious, that’s what, but guess you will never know.”

“Rude.”

A few of the other marines wandered in blearily, CJ, Davis, and maverick who took a seat cross-legged on the floor her short blond hair sticking up in all directions like the open wings of a bird.

Finally The commander determined it was time and began handing out the presents, first to the more introverted people, who he figured could take their present and head off if they really wanted. A few of the non-Christmas-people showed up just to hang out causing a sort of slow trickle in and out of the room almost constantly. 

Krill and Conn were both presented with gifts, Krill who just happened to get a little cube that was advertised as holding about a million different puzzles of all different types and at varying levels He seemed pleased, though he insisted on his patrol through the room to make sure the humans weren’t doing anything stupid.

Conn was presented with some sort of hand-held gaming system, actually relatively cheap compared to what they used to be. 

He loved it.

ANd based on Commander Vir’s smug expression, he had done it on purpose, probably to keep the starborn out of his head.

Sunny was standing at the back of the room watching the humans rather fondly, as well as the other Drev, who seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the humans. Her brother and Maverick were causing trouble across the room and nearly giving krill a conniption. Watching all of this, she still noticed Adam approaching from the side holding one last box.

He held it up, “One more present left.”

She turned to face him, “For you.”

He held it out, “Well you, obviously….. I sort of waited till last because…. Well you technically got more than everyone else. My Mom sent a few things up, and I just added her gift to mine.”

Sunny took the box and looked up in surprise, “Your mom…. But she…. She hates me.”

A small smile, “I think she's come around. It’s just taken her a while. I think this is supposed to be an apology. It's pretty cute, I think you should wear it.” 

Out of curiosity, she opened the box and looked inside to find a piece of fabric neatly folded on top. With her upper hands she reached to unfold it, whatever it was it was made out of very warm material, “What is it?”

“I guess it's called a cowl. She thought it would be something she could make that wouldn't get in the way of you wearing armor, and, since you guys sometimes wear capes, it would also go with that. Here try it on.” He took it from her hands standing on his tip-toes to pull it over her head and shoulders. Turned out it was pretty much just a hood, unattached to anything and that really only covered the head and shoulders.

She peered out form inside, to see him grinning. 

It was a funny picture, though she could see out, really the only think everyone else saw was the end of her snout/beak peeping out from under the hood. She lifted her head, and the hood fell a little further over her eyes.

He laughed, and helped her pull it back a bit, “She thought since you guys are more… warm weather creatures, that you could probably use one of these on our expeditions.”

“You should tell her thanks, from me.” 

“I will.”

She looked back down inside the box and was surprised to find it was full of different kinds of flowers. She looked back up at him in surprise, “How did you get these out here.”

“Wasn’t easy, tell you that.”

She leaned down snapping one of them up rewarded with a very light fragrant flavor. It was pretty nice, but then she looked back at Adam to see him smiling nearly dropping the box when she realized, “You! Where is your present. Didn’t you get anything?”

He just broke into a smile, “Sunny, I’m friends with like seven different kinds of aliens, I Command an entire FLEET of spaceships, and have like 300+ friends. I got my childhood dream, so what else do I need?”

She paused sure he was right, but also feeling bad.

They stood there together, looking out at the room when Ramirez glided past still in his footie pajamas. As he did his eyes widened a bit and he paused a slow grin spreading over his face. Adam gave him a very confused expression, but Ramirez just shook his head and pointed up before gliding away.

In confusion both Sunny and Adam looked up. 

Sunny tilted her head.

“What is that?”

She turned her head down to look at Adam and found the man’s skin changing color again. “Er….. it’s…. That appears to be…. mistletoe .” 

She lifted her head again to stare at the strange plant, “Oh….. like in that Christmas movie….”

“Yeah…. Like in that…. Christmas movie.” 

“Oh.”

They both looked down at about the same time. The way the Christmas lights interacted with the UV patterns on his skin, turned the usually blue, turquoise pattern on his skin almost electric lightning blue. The green in his eyes was more potent with the way the light refracted in them. Little twinkling lights danced over the polished surface of her bright-blue carapace.

He didn’t look away.

Neither did she.

And then a small brown shape came screaming from nowhere cutting between them. They both stepped back in shock, and Krill roared past grabbing the plant from where it hung, “Reeeeeeeeeeeeeee! NO, NO, NO, NO STUPID IDIOTIC HUMANS HANGING POISONOUS THINGS WHERE ANY OTHER STUPID HUMAN MIGHT EAT THEM! I WILL NOT HAVE IT YOU HEAR ME. I WILL NOT”  and then he went roaring away trailing laughter in his wake. Slowly Sunny and Adam turned to look at each other before doubling over racked with fits of laughter. Adam ended up on the floor leaning against the wall, just below where Sunny propped herself.

Just when they thought they'd stop laughing, they started up again.

“Damn…. Crazy…. Bastard.” Adam  Wheezed crawling to his feet

“Did you hear that sound he made?”

“Yeah, classic Krill….. Anyway.” He paused shuffling his feet, “Wanna go, push Ramirez over or something?”

“Sounds fun, I’m in.”

“Sweet.”

By the end of the hour, Ramirez was upside down in a pile of bean bags everyone laughing at his expense.

All in all, it was a pretty good Christmas