#like you shouldn't mess with me.. the wolf in me will attack

[they-hermes]

i want transformers to access the internet so i can see brawls pinterest boards full of explosions and wolves

[ozzgin]

What if the Yandere school has some sort of event where they interact with students of the darling school and just like how our reader is a darling in the Yandere school they find a student of the darling school is a Yandere

You're an oblivious Darling going to Yandere School, and now you're paired up with...a Yandere hiding among Darlings. The absurdity goes on. Content: gender neutral reader, yandere horde, parody

[Yandere School] | [Yandere School 2] | [More Yandere]

He could immediately tell. You were a sheep among the wolves, and he was a wolf in sheep's clothing. He followed your movements with a predatory gaze, planning his approach.

He'd applied to Darling Academy out of sheer greed, hoping to find his soulmate. He searched, and stalked, and hounded, all in vain. Hell, he even had to repeat a year; it took him an ungodly amount of willpower to pass the damn kidnapping course.

"You're not surprised to discover your captor", the teacher had shouted, exasperated. "Unless you show me genuine shock, I cannot give you a passing grade"

"You can see her from a damn mile", he argued angrily, pointing at his darling classmate. She was supposed to simulate an attack, and he was to play the role of a clueless, helpless victim. Ridiculous.

Who would've thought his one and only was hiding in a Yandere School, of all places? So unforeseen, so unexpected, that he could not believe it to be anything but a fateful encounter. He glanced one final time at the enormous banner hanging against the school building:

"Annual Study Partnership Event: Yandere School x Darling Academy"

"You must be (Y/N). We've been paired together for the week. I'm in your care!", he beams cheerfully.

Despite his annoyance with Darling Academy, it proved to be somewhat useful in the end. Not only did it guide him to you, but it also polished his acting skills to near perfection. The teacher's office was guarded viciously given the previous attempts of the yandere students to cheat the system and have you on their team. Who would ever suspect a Darling? He simply waltzed in, scribbled his name on the event sheet, and left.

"I wouldn't be too excited", you confess, a little dejected. "I'm not...uh...the best yandere out there."

He pretends to sneeze, hiding the grin spreading across his face. Sweet, innocent thing that you are. Oh, don't worry your pretty head. He'll take care of everything.

The annual event consists of a week-long competition. A yandere student is paired with a darling counterpart, and the teams compete against each other for various activities. It's a learning experience for everyone involved, meant to hone the skills of a yandere and prepare the darlings for their future encounters.

First activity: tying up your darling.

Your eyes light up. For once, it's something you're good at. You hurry back to your partner, carrying the box filled with bondage rope, and nod towards the young man.

"Leave this to me", you state solemnly.

The timer starts, and you begin tying the knots. The yandere observes your process, completely infatuated. Your focused expression is downright adorable. Now, he could let you have your moment of victory. On the other hand...can he really waste this chance?

His fingers discreetly mess with some of the rope lying around. A little nudge here, another loop here. You're too absorbed in your work to notice anything.

You hear the bell and huff, exhausted. You wipe your forehead. This is it, the final touch. You hold onto the rope, and pull with all your strength. Suddenly you're dragged forward by an unseen force, and your face slams into your teammate's broad chest. You've tied the two of you together, somehow.

The other yanderes watch the display with a grimace.

(Y/N) is good with rope. This shouldn't have happened, they all think in unison. They glare at the darling pressed against you. Something isn't right. Is that man truly a darling? He feels more like a fellow rival.

"I'm so sorry", you sniff, humiliated.

He strokes your hair affectionately, reassuring you. It happens. The rope must've been faulty. You did your best.

He feels a cold shiver and tilts his head towards the bystanders, then smiles. It seems he isn't the only one who has fallen for you. Though he didn't expect it to be the whole school. Alas, what's life without a little competition?

"Come on, (Y/N). Let's get ready for the next part. I have a feeling we'll win this one", he says, winking at you playfully.

This must be the best week of his life.

[phantombanquet]

Main Story: Diasomnia Book Chapter 8 Episode 7-117: Preparation for Departure! (Translation)

Episode 7-117

⚠️ Major Diasomnia spoilers! Proceed with caution.

translation by: phantombanquet

Idia: MALLEUS-SHI, HUH~~~~! 

THIS GRUDGE… SHOULD I LEAVE IT UNSETTLED~~!! ¹

If that happens, that pretentious inexpressive² guy, who usually keeps up his strong chara moves up in his sleeves…..

I can't help but feel sorry for myself if I don't see his pathetic figure sobbing with a runny nose and begging for forgiveness!

Now, what should I do…… Heh… Ehehehehehe!

Ortho: W-What a malicious scheming face…

This… May have angered someone who shouldn't be angered~

Idia: Heheh…… I'll show you. The ultimate power of a lone wolf³ trained in the gloomy “underworld.”

Just you wait, Malleus Draconia……

I'LL GET REVENGE BY SEIZING YOUR SPECIAL WEAKNESS!!!

Ortho: ……That's all.

From the magical disaster caused by Malleus Draconia until the awakening of Idia Shroud. This concludes the progress report.

Grim: Oohh~~! While we were fightin’ over in Lilia's dream, that's what happened to you guys.

Silver: I see. So Idia-senpai and Ortho are outside of the magical realm. It means that there is support coming from the real world. 

Idia: Y-Yeah, t-that sort of thing…… Well, for now, we'll be playing a dummy video on the surveillance camera for a short while……

I can only do this much.

Sebek: So, even if you have woken up, Malleus-sama will fail to notice and the “darkness” will not attack you.

Ortho: Yes.. And like I said earlier, Malleus-san is currently……

Focused on putting Lilia Vanrouge-san to sleep. 

So, I expect that he has not traced down the whereabouts of Silver-san and the others.

Sebek: Hm. I honestly want to praise your skills, but it is quite complicated when you are outsmarting Malleus-sama……

Idia: Well, that other guy is a battleship-like⁴ cheater so… We're still far off from completely capturing him.

Silver: However… I had no idea that Malleus-sama continued to expand his magical realm beyond the island……

Sebek: Furthermore, if the area is forcibly destroyed from the  outside, there is a possibility that the trapped person's psyche could also become destroyed!?

Grim: Somehow it's a real mess for real.

[Choice 1] Yuu: Can we do something about this?

[Choice 2] Yuu: (If this continues on, Tsunotarou will become the enemy of mankind.) 

Ortho: Yes. That's why we need your power!

Silver: Our… Power?

Ortho: Currently, the S.T.Y.X. staff is working together to assign ID numbers to the dreams of those trapped in the magical realm. 

During that time, we captured your magical reaction as you “moved around on your own” in the dream.

Silver: Could it be that it was my “Meet in a Dream?”

It's my unique magic that allows me to cross between dreams……

Ortho: Yes! That one, that one!

When traces of someone moving from one human dream to another were discovered, the engineers at S.T.Y.X. were in a commotion.

So that was Silver-san's unique magic, after all. Magic is a really mysterious power, huh.

Silver: However, my magic is to reliably travel to the dream of the person I'm targeting after, like you guys. I can't call someone into my dream.

I don’t know what else to say; it's hard to explain… It's a very intuitive kind of magic……

That’s why I was really surprised when Ortho appeared in the Dream Corridor and led us here. 

Ortho: What are you saying?

S.T.Y.X. prides themselves on their super computers and experts in magical engineering and magical analysis. 

They tried their best to analyze magic and they finally found a way to travel from dream to dream. 

Moreover, it is difficult to say that the current method is 100% reproducible so they said: “it's still a beta version.”

The mere fact that you can do it intuitively is astonishing.

Sebek: Hm. So the “power” that you need is Silver's unique magic?

Ortho: That's a part of it, too, but…

Sebek Zigvolt-san, Grim-san, and Yuu-san, your cooperation is essential.

Grim: Hmph! You're just trying to make us do the messy work, aren't ya!

Ortho: Wow♡ Grim-san, you talk too fast. 

[Choice 1] Yuu: This pattern is similar to the headmage……

[Choice 2] Yuu: I don't see any other reason to  be called out……

Sebek: Hmph, I don't like this sluggishness. Get to the point!!

Idia: S-So, uhhh……. While you guys were chattering in Lilia-shi's dream..

I-I was trying to think of a way to escape from my dream world……

Or rather, I've been trying to come up with a strategy to deal with Malleus-shi.

[Choice 1] Yuu: Is your strategy to get him to cry and beg for forgiveness while his nose is runny?

[Choice 2] Yuu: Is it a strategy to take revenge by capturing their special weakness?

Idia: Y-Yeah. That… Hih, hihi.

Anyhow, I made a video to explain that strategy…… W-Would you like to watch it?

Grim, Silver, Sebek: Video?

Idia: Waah~♪ Only good things have been happening lately~ It's so fun every day~ It's just like a dream~♬ Well. It was, in fact, really just a dream. Welcome, all you carefree people who live in the world of empty dreams. I am Idia Shroud. So for today, a cheat trick to create a dream world using magic — — was used by The Most Evil☆Final Boss Mage. Let me explain the strategy used by Malleus-shi. The magical realm that Malleus-shi created is kinda like a server running a huge MMORPG. And each dream of someone sleeping is managed individually. Malleus-shi is using himself and his alter ego to keep an eye on this server. To give you an idea, Malleus-shi is a server admin. And his alter ego is cracking down on users to commit violations in the online game — like a gamemaster. Malleus-shi, with the authority to operate and manage over the entire server, is currently in the state of a demon king who has the world right under his thumb.

Under Malleus-shi's control, we have NO chance of succeeding…… BUT! Because of the super geek hacker group S.T.Y.X. and Ortho's attack, all of the server's source code (construction formulas of the magical realm) has been analyzed and is now completely visible!

So — I'm going to use that data from my dream to develop and build a cheat tool. And then get rid of that damned invulnerable status! It seems like a perfect strategy at first glance, but in fact, there’s actually a flaw in this cheat strategy……. If Malleus-shi (the server admin) discovers this during development— IT'S GAME OVER IN AN INSTANT. But hold your horses! Despite that his alter ego uses autonomous magic, with the total population of Sage Island, monitoring and managing the dreams of about 20,000 people is not an easy task — even for Malleus-shi. If a problem happens here and there in your dream, there's a high chance that you'll have to deal with it by yourself! Therefore — I’ll be developing a cheat tool. I want you guys to catch Malleus-shi's eye and gather party members so we can subdue the demon king.

When everyone wakes up, we'll hand out invite codes that will allow them to travel to my dream.

Then, when all the preparations are ready, Malleus-shi will be lured to my dream and that's when the cheat tool that I developed turns on!! As planned, Malleus-shi's invulnerability will be canceled. And by using the invite codes that were diligently handed out, everyone will gather in my dream! We're going to beat him up with our sheer numbers of forces!

If things go as expected, Malleus-shi will also lift the spell and free us—! How was it!? “A lone wolf magician engineering guy explains how to capture the demon king in three minutes video.” If you think this video was good, leave a like! And this was Idia Shroud.

Grim, Silver, Sebek: ............

Idia: Ummm, e-everyone… Thank you for your attention. ⁵

Th-that’s why……

I ask you guys to go on a journey to gather “the strongest party members who will take on the challenge of defeating the demon king!”

Grim, Silver, Sebek: EHHHHH~~~!?

TO BE CONTINUED...

translator notes:

¹ - 「この怨はらさでおくべきか」 is an old Kansai (Osaka) dialect phrase. This phrase, although it seems like one will forever hold a grudge, actually means something along the lines of: “Shall I leave this grudge unresolved? (No, I actually have to solve this),” due to how the phrase is structured (which would be too deep to delve into but it’s mainly because of the か and べき/べし in the phrase).

² - 「スカしま」 is a Japanese slang usually used as an insult

³ - 「陰キャ」 is yet another Japanese slang used to describe someone with a gloomy or reserved personality or introverts. I used a known English slang instead of translating literally to preserve the meaning of the word.

⁴ - 「弩級 (どきゅう)」 is the Japanese translation of “Dreadnought,” which is a type of battleship in the early 20th century. Idia was just being a nerd again by using game-like terms so I decided to stick with using “battleship” instead of the literal translation.

⁵ - I wanted to note that Idia addressed them as 「皆様」which is a polite way of addressing others due to the inclusion of 様 (sama). Also, the “thank you for your attention” line was written as 「ご清聴アリガトウゴザイマシタ」 in the text instead of the usual 「ご清聴ありがとうございました」 which I think it's just to note Idia's personality www.

personal notes: this wasn't jp proofread so there might be inaccuracies;;; additionally aniplex jp actually posted the "how to subjugate the demon king" video but it's only available in japan.. you can still access it by using a vpn though~

[mosneakers]

Selene: It's not like in the movies. I couldn't run. I couldn't scream. We were blindsided and overpowered by that beast, and having blonde hair and a cleavage-bearing top didn't protect me.

Selene: When Lou lost consciousness, Greg continued to attack me. I knew in my mind that it was entirely possible that Lou was dead, but maybe there was a chance he survived. I was terrified that if I stopped fighting, he'd turn his attention back to Lou and finish the job.

Brick: Listen, Selene... That wolf... [Downs drink in one swig] ain't no normal wolf. I don't know if you knew this about me, but I'm a bit of an athlete- Selene: ... [Quickly glances at biceps] ...I surmised as much.

Brick: Well it's true. And even I didn't stand a chance against him -the first time anyway-, but you... damn shorty, let's be real, you were ready to die for that Lou kid, sounds like you really loved him.

Selene pauses, and takes a trembling breath.

Selene: I never felt anything like the love I felt for him. After the attack, the next thing I remember, I was waking up to his face in a local hospital. I had bandages all over my body, and we were both foaming at the mouth. Brick: Werebies.

Selene: Yep. It was miserable. But recovery was tolerable with Lou by my side. It was a shock to our systems when the doctors of Moonwood Mill explained to us what was happening to our bodies. They explained that usually with enough rest, patients can "sweat it out" and let the illness run its course. But, I guess there's rare circumstances where patients experience a "transformation," and that there were staff and protocols there to help us through that, if that time came.

Selene: They reassured us that we shouldn't worry. But the claw marks on the walls from patients before, and the shackles hidden under the beds were clear-cut signs that pointed to the contrary.

Selene: Personally, I wasn't willing to wait around and accept such a terrifying fate. With the little bit of energy I was able to conserve, I started combing through journals and books from the library; I came across an entry that claimed to cure werebies. I had hope that we could beat it.

Selene: But Lou saw things differently. He saw my efforts as a waste of time, and had no trouble letting me know. He thought he could ride the werebies out; said he had an uncle get it once and made it out just fine.

Selene: But we were running out of time, and I watched the Lou I love slowly change right in front of my eyes. We were both getting more and more irritable and delirious. Communication was getting difficult.

Selene: I'll never forget our last day together. His mom and sister came to say their "goodbyes", essentially. They weren't sure if their little boy would ever be the same again. And they were right.

Selene: We got into a huge fight. Right there in front of his family. Things were said that were not meant, but could never be taken back. He yelled at me and basically told me he didn't want me anymore. Looking back now, I think he was trying to protect me from himself, but the scars he left are far more impactful than anything Greg could ever leave.

Brick: Bro, what? Nah. I've sparred with Lou before and he doesn't even come close to- Oh shit! You mean like, emotionally, huh? Like Greg messed you up physically for life, but Lou... he broke your heart. Am I getting warm, or?

Selene:... No, yeah. You nailed it.

[chartmyfixations]

cris watches dr. who: s01e08 - "Father's Day"

"I did it again. I picked another stupid ape."

Doctor, letting your companion visit the moment her dad died in a tragic accident is asking for trouble, you have got to realize that, rigth? You know how emotions work, if sometimes only laterally

Okay that filter hurts my eyes

The way that hit and run is shot is straight out of a trashy daytime opera. I can forgive the zeroes CGI, but this is just... bad

"Can we try again?" NOOO! Doctor, why would you agree to this. She might be a stupid ape but you're an equally stupid ape for not seeing this coming

Bad Wolf on the Atomic Energy poster! Drink!

Rose's dad is giving me Hey, It's That Guy-vibes, but I keep being wrong. He is not Arthur Weasley, nor is he John Dee (from The Sandman)

"For once you're not the most important man in my life!" That's the kind of angry thing you shout at a husband of ten years, not your tenuous non!boyfriend of a few time adventurous jaunts, Rose

Rose's smile when the Doctor returns after saying he'll leave her - that girl has it baaad

Is there a direct correlation between how messy Rose's hair is and how much of a mess she makes in the episode?

Look, the creatures look a little like The Mist (the bargain bin edition), but they're too badly rendered to be scary. The lost shoes and overturned carts are a lot more haunting - like when Cell attacks that city and leaves only clothes in his wake

The logic in this episode is a little shaky: why does this cause a Time Wound but not, say, Rose's romp with Charles Dickens? Is it because there's two Roses at the same time? But isn't the grandfather clause always in full effect? I know I shouldn't look too hard at the logic of time travel in this show, but this very episode specifically makes a point of it

When Rose tells her dad about what a great dad he is, she knows he's slated to die anyway, doesn't she?

Rose's mom is a menace, but her hair is absolutely fabulous

3 out of 8 Tardes. This episode is the first misstep: it doesn't quite click and either I don't get it, or the time travelling here doesn't quite follow the internal logic of the show

[super-smash-bracket]

ROUND ONE

Alucard

Pit: Oh, Lady Palutena, look! Alucard made it to the fight! Palutena: Oh, you're right! Pit, Alucard's told you as much himself, but as a reminder: Alucard is the son of Count Dracula, but while his father chose one path, his mother taught Alucard to never delight in suffering. As such, Alucard aligned his goals with Richter, who holds similar goals of justice. Viridi: It's so poetic... Pit, you asked him if he had fangs. Pit: Oh, that's right. Hehe, that was kinda insensitive of me, wasn't it? You know, now that I've fought Dracula myself, I can't really see the resemblance. Viridi: It isn't like Lucina, who is so obviously Chrom's daughter it hurts to watch. Palutena: Well, not that's he's no longer here to simply assist, you should keep an eye out for his Wing Crash and Wolf Charge transformations. And be mindful of his Dark Metamorphosis! When he gets like that, his attacks will drain your health to heal his own!

Crono

Viridi: Oh look, another hero type draws near. Palutena: That's Crono! He lives with his mother in the city of Truce. He's also got quite a bit of experience with time travel. Pit: Time travel? How'd he manage that? Palutena: Well, first it was with his friend Lucca's Telepod, and later it's with various other means, such as the Time Gate. He's traveled from Prehistory to the End of Time in order to defeat Lavos. Viridi: Hm... Humans shouldn't mess around with time, but I guess if it's to destroy something that world-ending... Pit: Aw, you're coming around to them! Viridi: I changed my mind. Kill him, Pit. Pit: I'm not killing anyone! Palutena: You should be defeating him, though. Watch out for his Lightning attack! He'll call down waves of lightning bolts on either side of him! Reflecting them won't damage him like it would Pikachu, either, so be careful!

[giggly-squiggily]

today is my first day on my new job in an elementary school and i've spent all morning watching kids do kids stuff so here's a crumb of modern au sanemi:

since no demons and family still alive his trauma is obv not as severe as in canon but due to his dad being awful and him helping his mother raise his siblings he still missed out on a ton of childhood. so some things which are "childish" or are supposed to be "boring" to adults but fun for kids (fountains, rainbows, balloons etc, it's also why he has such a sweet tooth) gets him stupidly excited. it's very rare for him to actually show it so when it happens for the first time everyone is completely taken off guard but also ends up thinking it's so cute

like they're out at night and kanae just hears "holy fuck" and she turns around to sanemi watching some firelights with the biggest smile on his face. tengen and obanai get him a stuffed animal for his birthday as a joke and he literally starts crying. him and akaza bond over getting super hyped for some fireworks when no one else wants to go out in the snow and watch. he'll never ever say it out loud but blowing out candles is his birthday highlight every single year.

Rey! *hugs* First of all: Congrats on the new job!!! I hope the day is full of fun and excitement for you and the kiddos! They're gonna love you! :3

Secondly: KWEJEJKLREKJLRJKLERJKEJJ AHHHHHHH?!?!?! That's so dang CUTE! *sobs* I'm obsessed with this holy-

Sanemi being such a kid over this stuff but then getting all flustered because "I'm an adult I shouldn't act like this" while everyone else is dying from how cute these rare moments are is so akjrjearjej The first time they see fire lights and he's grinning like that Kanae has a mini heart attack and is fighting everything in her being not to squeal and hug him because she doesn't wanna make him feel self conscious but at the same time she wants to take a picture so bad!!! (She might have ala fake selfie- it's her new wallpaper)

AND THE STUFFED ANIMAL!!! It would be something cute too- maybe a wolf? (Or a turtle. I don't know why- Sanemi just looks like a turtle to me akljrjkearjejkrjk) It's not a huge cry but his eyes get all misty and he's hugging it close and Tengen and Obanai are all: "!!!!" like "ah crap we went too far" but then Sanemi' smiling against it and kinda wetly thanks them

Obanai and Tengen are just:

Literally have to walk away a few steps cause it's just too damn CUTE! Tengen might be a bit dramatic cause of course he is and fall to his knees holding his chest while Obanai has to lean on something. Then they go right back to messing with him and goofing around like usual on his birthday kjrjaerjkaekj

The fireworks THE FIREWORKS! Akaza's already running up the hill dragging him like: "Let's go come on, come on! They're about to start!" They're like two little kids and spend all night up there side by side as the fireworks go off. Sanemi loves it cause he never got the chance to enjoy fireworks like this and Akaza loves it cause now he gets to enjoy them with company (Rengoku isn't a fan of them- the popping and explosions make his skin crawl with anxiety) so it's a win win all around!

The candles oh my! He gets all eye-rolly like: "I'm a grown man- I don't need candles." But everyone can see the light in his eyes before he closes them momentarily, making a wish before blowing them out. It's the one thing they don't tease him on; mainly cause they get him for everything else and this is the thing they want to stick around for as long as possible. (okay maybe they tease him alittle- Tengen once coated the cake with 20+ candles for jokes until Rengoku threatened to spray him down with a fire extinguisher. Since then they've stuck to the number candles.)

Thank you for sharing- this was so sweet! TwT

[casspurrjoybell-30]

Howling Love - Chapter 22

*Warning Adult Content*

Amille Laurent

I don't remember much after I passed out, probably from the blood loss, the pain and exhaustion.

I really needed to get back to training, if Alpha Lincoln was there he would've beaten me half to death for making a mess of killing that rogue.

It made me chuckle in my own inner thoughts, yet as the darkness subsided.

I knew I wasn't dead, I was very much alive, warm, comfortable with the sting of too much lemon and lavender sanitizer in my nose but above all, a large hand held my own, it was familiar, it was home.

My eyes fluttered open, the sting of too much light causing me to flinch and close them again until I could flutter them open readjusted to the light.

Machines beeping, slow steady breathing and my own heartbeat hammering away in my chest brought me calm as my eyes found Camryn.

He looked tired, pale and I'm sure it was because he was worried about, having had the feeling back in my body.

I squeezed his hand and he roused awake with a slight gasp.

"Amille, you're awake," he mumbled in relief as his eyes found mine and he cried, enveloped me in his arms and cried and so did I.

I had thought I'd lost him too, before our happy ever after even began.

"I'm so sorry, I should've been looking, I shouldn't have looked away, I should've protected you, forgive me Amille," he begged as tears fell down his cheeks.

I couldn't say anything but I quickly moved to wipe away his tears, when the rogues attacked, he took on the bulk of them alone, he had gone through more than I did and in the end I may have fought a nasty piece of rogue wolf but he had protected me.

He had kept me safe, so I did the one thing to assure him that I did forgive but there was nothing to forgive.

I kissed him, it was slow, until it wasn't when we both registered what was happening and so we kissed, passionately, a reassurance that didn't need words, tenderly until we had to break apart for air.

So he grabbed the jug of water, poured some for me and I drank but my thirst was already quenched by that kiss.

I may have been waking up with a level head but my world was spinning, that kiss, I would always remember.

[You protected me much more than you think, there is nothing to forgive, I'm only sorry that I worried you, so don't beg me to forgive you Camryn, there is nothing to forgive, you did nothing wrong, I'm here, we're here, alive and safe, thanks to you] I told him sincerely as he nodded with a goofy smile and made a move to hug me again.

"I'm so happy you're awake, we've all been worried, your aunt actually drugged your dad so he could rest," he informed me with a snort and that made me realize a lot if things.

I passed out whilst we were hours away from Bridgeton, how was I back, how was my dad okay, how was I even here, what had happened.

"Calm down duck-face. I'll explain everything, or he will," Camryn calmed me instantly as the door to my room swung open and the one person I hadn't expected to see walked through, behind him, all of my family.

"Finally woke your ass up, huh," Carter Defray Lynn stated with a chuckle as my jaw dropped, he was here, how was he here.

"Hello my love," Dad whispered as both he and Carter hugged me and I couldn't help cry, one of my favourite people in the world and my father were hugging me, they were here for me, it felt like a dream yet it wasn't.

"Don't you ever do that to us again," Orlando chided sternly as after Carter and my dad separated from me, he, Teja, Max and Dean all crushed me in their hugs.

When they left my uncle got me all to himself and placed kisses all over me.

"My favourite nephew, you're alright, why would you give me a heart attack."

Dramatic as ever, my aunt was last to hug me then my uncle all over again making everyone chuckle.

"Alright everyone, lets give him some space, I'll give him a quick check up then we can all fill him in on the week he's been unconscious," Carter asserted and everyone listened, well except my mate who Carter just nodded to and did my check up.

"Your vitals seem good, your back and arm wounds are healing rather nicely, I placed that sab we made together, you won't even know there were claws marks there," he explained with a motherly chuckle, it was so warm and loving, that's who Carter was, everyone couldn't resist being around him and Goddess he was beautiful.

[So how long do I need to be in here?] I asked using sign language and he sighed with crooked smile.

"A week give or take. Your leg is healing great with the accelerant but if you had been mated. I wouldn't even be recommending these few days before you're discharged," he slyly replied making me blush as he winked toward my mate.

"Carter," Dad protested earning laughter from everyone and Camryn who just kissed my hand making me melt.

Moon Goddess... I had fallen in love with him.

"What? We all know its true, anyway two days in the hospital, then you can go home, in a cast, your leg should be fully healed in two weeks but you keep applying the accelerant, a week and half but I know you, you'd rather it just heal without," he added and he still knew me so well but with my need to get better, I might just take the accelerant maybe this one time.

So I nodded to his assessment and he clapped happily. 

"Now, everyone lets fill him in but first Camryn, tell your mate what happened, we'll wait outside," Dad exclaimed and I was grateful for the moment of peace before I was bombarded with everything.

"I'm so happy you're okay," Dad whispered, placing a kiss on my forehead then walked out closing the door behind him.

"I don't know where to begin, maybe after I grabbed you and put you in the car, all my first aid training came pouring back into my head, I used the bandages and our clothes to put pressure on your wounds, then reset your broken leg, used a lot of bandages and sticks to make a makeshift cast so it would stay in place, there was so much blood. I was terrified but then when I realized a lot of it wasn't your own. I breathed a sigh of relief but it wasn't enough, you had lost a good amount of blood. I drove back like a maniac. I'm pretty sure I caused more accidents," he chuckled sadly and I squeezed his hand to reassure him.

I was there and I was okay.

"I didn't know what to do, your dad needed help, you needed help, then I remembered you mentioned Carter before we left, so I took your phone, glad I knew the password," he paused, my password was actually his name.

"Searched through your contacts and found Carter's number, when it connected I was an hour away from Bridgeton, I told him everything that had happened and for sure he promised to come right then, two hours after I arrived he was also speeding to the hospital, he took control of the situation, the doctors here had you stabilized but you were fading in and out of consciousness. I had also failed to see that your should was dislocated, but it was an easy fix with Carter, he made the healing solution for you and your dad plus the accelerant, I had never seen any one whip up a healing drug that quickly but he did, and he saved both of you," Camryn concluded and I was at a loss for words.

I was grateful for Carter, healing me and dad wasn't all that grand but being able to drive from where we were to Bridgeton after having fought those rogues.

Camryn had been a true hero, to me and I'm sure dad felt the same.

So I pulled him in and kissed him all over again, my truest thank you.

[Thank you] I signed whilst wiping away my own tears, without him, without his quick thinking my dad wouldn't be awake or happy neither would it be the same for me.

"You're my mate Amille, I would go through any trial to make sure you're alright," he whispered back as a mutual understanding passed between us, one that needed no words.

He finally filled me in on the rest of the week which was uneventful as everyone was baiting their breaths as for when I would wake up.

I was glad to be awake, to have my father awake.

So with more than an hour of me and Camryn bonding, I patted the space next to me so he could rest.

I was here now, I was safe, he could rest easy.

"Hmm, good job making him sleep, he wouldn't move from your side, and we only succeeded once in getting him to fall asleep, he's extremely strong, and with maturity I'm sure he'll be a rival for even Alpha Savage Heathen," Carter stated as he walked in and I smiled, then looked at my mate.

I knew the first time I saw how monstrous his wolf was, he would be a great alpha.

"So how have you been, tell me everything, your calls are never enough and now I know why and what is up with alpha Summer, when I met him with your dad all I could feel was a literal explosion of love," he began just as dad walked in.

Carter was a gifted wolf, an empath, which made his sort of a rarity, so no wonder he could feel alpha Summer's love for my dad.

"We'll talk later. I know you got tea for me," he whispered with a wink my way and I chuckled.

"Up to your mischief already I see," Dad teased as Carter gasped feigning shock.

"Me, never," he argued as dad came over and sat on my side of the bed.

"I'm so proud of you, you risked everything for me," he exclaimed and I hugged him, I would always risk it all for him, he was my dad.

"You're grounded for the next month," he added.

'What?'

[lifetimeshipper]

The Wolf-Con and the Cadet

Chapter 12

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

Strongarm couldn't sleep, her processor kept drifting to Steeljaw. "Windblade, are you awake?" She whispered to the other femme.

"I am now. What's up?"

"I can't sleep. I know I messed up big time but, I don't regret it."

"Are you sure he's not playing you?"

"I know he isn't, he's had several chances to catch me off guard but he never attacked. That has to count for something."

"Yeah, but he could also just be waiting for the right opportunity."

"You're right," she sighed. "I don't know what to do anymore. You don't think he could have been lying, do you?" 

"Maybe he's just trying to get close to you to get you to let down your guard where he could get the information he wants and free his fellow 'Cons. If you ask me this is all a plot."

"But he has an army already. How many more would he need?" Strongarm tries to reason not wanting to believe it, but the damage was already done.

"I'm betting he wants all the 'Cons that are on this planet because then he can't fail."

Windblade had a point, what if he was just using her to get her to let her guard down so he could later strike and free his fellow 'Cons? "I really am an idiot."

"He seems to be a real sweet talker, I've heard stories of him sweet-talking femmes to get what he wants, he makes them believe he actually cares for them but then abandons them after he gets what he was after, many femmes got their sparks broken by him. Would look like he's doing the same to you, he probably made you feel special and made you think that he really wants to be with you but it's all a ploy to get what he wants. I'm sorry if any of this hurts you, I'm not trying to hurt you I'm just speaking the truth."

"I-I need to go for a drive, I'll be back in half an hour." She struggled to keep herself calm as she slowly drove out of the scrapyard.

"Just be careful."

Unknowingly to the two femmes, Steeljaw was right outside the scrapyard and was listening in on their conversation and heard everything, he dug his claws into a tree he was standing next to, seething. "That wretched witch! How dare she tell Strongarm that stuff and get her against me!?" He sees Strongarm driving out of the scrapyard, alone. "I better talk to her and win her back," he ran off through the woods following her.

Strongarm didn't care where she was going at the moment, she just kept thinking about what Windblade had said to her. Was Steeljaw really just toying with her? Did he mean anything that he had told her? Feeling her tire sink for a split second she pulled off to the side of the road, transforming she checked her ankle. She must have hit a pothole but thankfully there was no damage.

Steeljaw caught up to her and watched her from afar first, then he decided to move in and talk to her. "Strongarm."

With a quiet gasp, the cadet looked up to see the Wolf-Con, "What are you doing here, Steeljaw?"

"I was sitting outside the scrapyard, listening to your conversation with the other femme and I heard what she had told you, then I saw you leave and I followed you so I could talk to you. She doesn't know what she's talking about, Strongarm."

"You were listening? What-that was a private conversation Steeljaw, you shouldn't have been listening. You shouldn't have even been there."

"I was there trying to figure out a way to get to you!"

"And I told you I was going to be alright," she countered with a hardened glare on her face. "Did you really mean it?"

"Yes, I did. I meant everything I told you. It is true what she said, I have been sweet-talking a lot of femmes to get what I want and then would abandon them after I got it but that's not the case here, I meant every word I said, I really love you."

Strongarm's optics widened in shock and hurt, it felt like her spark was breaking. "How do I know you really mean that? How do I know you're not just trying to trick me like the first time we met?"

"The first time I was speaking with my mind, going by an agenda to stay free and help my brothers get free. This time I'm speaking with my spark, still going by an agenda but this time my goal is to fully win your spark and trust."

"And what was your goal before?"

"What I told you, to free my brothers. But ever since I fell in love with you my goal has been to win your love."

"And what about taking over the planet, is that not still your plan? And if you wanted to free the other Decepticons, why are they still working for you?"

"Yes, but I've been finding my mind starting to change on that lately. If I'm to lead them into a time for Decepticons they must do as I say, to be free."

"They shouldn't have to do anything that you say! They should be doing what they want, if they are still doing as you say then they aren't really free!" She yelled in anger.

"Yes, you have a good point there, and they will be free they only have to do as I say until we..." He trails off.

"'Until we' what?" Strongarm asked looking at him in suspicion.

"Until we... um..." He gets cut off by the sound of an engine and someone yelling.

"Strongarm!" Then the car transformed and Sideswipe got between Strongarm and Steeljaw. "You get away from her, Steeljaw!" He gets onto his comm to call Bumblebee. :: 'Bee, I found Strongarm with Steeljaw, you better come! ::

:: On my way, Sideswipe. :: Bumblebee responded.

"Sideswipe?! What are you doing here!?" Strongarm yelled in surprise.

Steeljaw growled in anger as he slashed at the red sports car, "Why must you Autobots always get in my way?!"

"We're not gonna allow you to hurt Strongarm!"

"I would never hurt her!" He roared as he struck Sideswipe with his tail. Sideswipe gets knocked back but then comes back for a strike of his own. Steeljaw blocked the young warrior's attack when a thought occurred to him. "So that's how it is," he whispered to himself. Grabbing Sideswipe by the throat he tossed him towards Strongarm.

Sideswipe hits Strongarm knocking them both out. Sideswipe was later woken up by Bumblebee shaking him, "Sideswipe, Sideswipe, wake up!"

He opens his optics and shakes the webs out of his helm, "'Bee?"

Bumblebee asked him a question that made his spark sink, "Where is Strongarm?"

"She's not here?" Sideswipe asked as he looked to the spot where Strongarm should have been only to see her gone. "Steeljaw must have taken her, I tried to get him away from her but he tossed me into her. Darn it! She was right there!" He growled as he punched the ground.

"Let's get back to the scrapyard and we'll think of a rescue," Bumblebee says as he helps Sideswipe off the ground. Sideswipe sighs as he follows Bumblebee back to the scrapyard.

Once they get there Bumblebee wakes everyone up and gathers everyone together. "Bad news everyone, Steeljaw has taken Strongarm. Windblade, you were supposed to be watching over Strongarm. Why did you let her out of your sight?"

"She said she was going to be back in half an hour and I didn't think she was going to go far. I should have gone with her, especially after you warned us about Steeljaw," she replied as the sun started to rise.

"I heard Steeljaw saying something about freeing the other Decepticons but that was when I jumped in. If I had waited a little longer we would know what he was planning," Sideswipe growled, feeling guilty that Strongarm was in this mess because of him.

"Don't beat yourself up, Slick. If anything I think it's my fault, I shouldn't have told her what I heard about Steeljaw. Maybe then she'd still be here."

"Well, Steeljaw now has Strongarm and we need to rescue her."

"But how are we going to find Steeljaw? We don't know where the Decepticon Island is," Grimlock pointed out.

"That's true."

"Poor girl will be stuck on Decepticon Island with no way of escaping," Windblade says with concern for her friend.

"Yes, and if they find her she will be killed," Bumblebee added feeling concerned and worried for his cadet. They all were worried and wondered if they would be able to rescue her and see her again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1

Next Chapter

[ricardian-werewolf]

This is so Jane and Nikolai, I'm sorry lmao. IMO this is my Lantsett (Nikolai Lantsov x Jane Beckett) crowning jewel of a rarepair that shouldn't even exist since Threads's ending was so final and grim. Oh, and if you want what their theme song is to me:

******* Jane was drowning. Spiralling ever deeper into darkness. Her hands reached upwards, gripping vainly for a handhold as the tide of memories became too strong, pulling her down. 

Down, down, down. 

The feeling of cold, windswept air, brushed her cheeks. She felt hay, rotten and stinking, against her back. There was a breath near her ear, a boy’s. Savage, feral. His hands were pinning her wrists, nails piercing flesh, slicing through tissue.

Jane screamed. Water filled her mouth, spiralled down, drowning her in its tide of poisoned, irradiated liquid. The boy’s voice was in her ear again. Garbled, snarling. Like a wolf pup in its first heat. Pinning the female down, the one abandoned by its mother. 

A mother who had died in her own bed, collapsed in a field filled with untenable soil, like so many of the dead who surrounded them. A mother who had never even let Jane call her something like mama. Always Ruth. A mother who had never wanted her, wished her dead. Now she was a mother who haunted her own daughter's mind, poisoning her with her sickly sweet lies. This is how you meet your end, isn’t it, Jane? Drowning with a bullet in your shoulder? Burrows never could stop tracking you down? Jane screamed again, clawing vainly. But her vision was swimming, spiralling. The boy’s voice was rougher, things felt realer. Then, there was a sickly sweet scent that made her want to bash the boy’s head against a rock. Drive his neck into a nail, strike the flesh of his cheeks with her claws. 

She hungered to kill him. But she was weak, so weak. The darkness was soothing, comforting her like a warm blanket. She hung here, between the past of her attack, and the present of her drowning, her lungs filling like ballast with the dirty water of London’s sewers.

No one will miss you, Jane. Not Anne, not Richard, or even Cecily.

Jane’s head felt heavy. Her eyes fluttered closed once more. Then, her fingers gave a twitch. There was a disturbance in the water. The boy’s face loomed once more into vision, gap-teeth grinning at her. He liked this, taking her like this. Breaking her own like she was a glass vase. Shattering her pieces to the four winds, to never be found again. 

Jane screamed, and this time, the water did not fill her lungs. Something warm was pressed over her mouth.

Stupid boy. You’ll die before he reaches the surface.

Jane’s mind, as foggy and cotton-filled as it was, suddenly snapped back into focus. She hungered to cough, to fight, to kick, to survive.

A boy, who?

At last, Jane’s eyes fluttered open, and she almost made the mistake of gasping. Nikolai’s hazel eyes were green in the murky water - which was no longer the murky, oily mess it had been. No, for all around her, the water was bright green. 

Indeed, the water around them glowed green. It was all around her head, brushing against her skin. It was like bone-light, like the greek fire that Richard had been experimenting with. She was covered in its luminescence. 

Suddenly, Jane was reminded of the fact she didn’t know how to swim, had never been taught, and began to panic. Nikolai’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.

Open your mouth, Jane. do what mama tells you.

Tears were spurting down Jane’s cheeks. The boy in her mind was so close, so feral, so full of rightful rage, that all she wanted to do was drown. She hungered sink into the murk and become one with the glowing green all around her. She was too broken to be loved, too shattered and fragile. All teeth and shards was she.

But fighting was something she could do. Fighting was something she was good at. So, she sat up, and punched the boy right between the teeth. His molars went flying, and he tumbled backwards. She felt herself getting to her feet, her fingers seeking out a loose and discarded brick. Blood was pouring from his mouth, staining his shirtfront red. 

How nice it would be to drive it into his skull. Jane raised the brick, and struck. The luminescence around her grew stronger, and she shifted in her sleep, trying vainly to wake. The boy collapsed, gripping his ear. She’d beaten it to a bloody pulp. Another crack and he curled in on himself. Another rained down. Then another, and another. 

Jane’s fingers were twitching, gripping Nikolai’s coat sleeves tighter. The luminescence was so bright that it made Jane look like some sort of horrendous monster. Nikolai hid a smile, tried desperately to fight against the burning ache in him to open his mouth and drown alongside her in the dark. His fingers were still around her lips, feeling the chapped and bloodied skin under his callouses.

The boy howled for mercy, for clemency. Sanctuary. Then, it shifted, and Jane went cold. Instead of the boy, it was Ruth. 

Jane’s mouth opened around Nikolai’s fingers, and he almost screamed, nearly committed himself to the watery deep alongside her. They were so close to the surface.

Not now, no, no, please! He begged her silently, reaching up to touch her cheek. The softness of her skin shocked him. Her hands were scarred, so were her arms. But her face was soft, gentle. She was all teeth and shards, but she was also vengeance and righteousness wrapped up in a brown scarf studded with white fire-flowers.

If a monstrous boy turned king could love a scrap of a girl who answered every call to peace with teeth and fists, then maybe the stories had it all wrong. Nikolai’s head broke the surface at long last, Jane’s with him.

Ruth once more became the boy, and Jane shrieked as he lunged for her, fully healed. She fell, gripping the brick in her fingers. How long would this cycle repeat? How many more times would this be her nightmare? There was no escape.

She was drowning. 

Nikolai hacked, coughed, and forced himself to crawl over to Jane. He opened her mouth, forcing her airways open, and pumped her chest hard enough to break something. Tears were pouring down his face from the strain. 

“Fight, for saint’s sake!” he growled, wiping his eyes.

Jane’s fingers locked around the brick again. Except this time it was a pistol. Perfectly balanced. Like the one she’d been given to her, wrapped in her brown scarf with the flowers. A weapon - protection.

She cocked the hammer back, caught the boy in her sights, and fired. The bullet tore through his heart, then he was Ruth, then her father, then something else. Something made of shadows and teeth, and snarling. It hissed, reached for her. 

A second bullet finished it, and Jane gasped. Her hands reached for anything, and she heard Nikolai yelp.

“That was my eye-” his voice broke off, and Jane shook her head. She wasn’t in that room anymore. She was back in the cavernous sewers under london. The water lapping at her feet had dimmed, returning once more to its murkiness. There was no pistol in her hand.

Her head felt empty. The room was empty, purged of her monsters. Ruth’s voice was gone - silenced with a bullet crafted by Nikolai’s delicate, calloused fingers. A shot to the neck. She’d been given an ultimatum.

Jane coughed, attempting to rid herself of the irradiated water, and felt it settle inside her lungs. She grimaced and looked up to Nikolai, whose hazel eyes were almost ink-black in the dimness. 

“Come on,” he offered her his hand, and for the first time, she took it, gripped tight. His hand not wrapped around hers pulled his service pistol from his pocket, and he flipped it open, checking the chamber.

Thank you. She signed.

“What for, besides saving you?” he grinned, taking the bullets into his palm. Jane’s pulse thrummed at the sight of them. Deliverance and safety all in such a small cylinder. Water dripped from the pistol, and she made a face.

She wanted a brick, or something else.

For giving me a chance to fight my monsters with something beyond my fists. 

“Well.” Nikolai blinked, chuckled. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I didn’t know apparently nearly drowning to save a comrade meant that she could overpower her monsters.” he grinned again, and moved to slide the bullets back into their chambers, then flipped the cylinder shut.

5. God save the queen/The fascist regime!

THAT SOUND FUN!

The walls of the Tower of London were made of stone. 8 centuries old, they had gone through several iterations. But Jane cared not. She dug her burning wrists into the silvered bonds and thrashed wildly, growling like a caged animal to be let out. Let free. 

Behind the bars of her prison, Lord Melbourne conferred quietly with Victoria, who smirked, and mimed something. In her hands was a canister of something, and her hands were gloved. Jane watched through slitted eyelids, feeling the throbbing ache of double black eyes, a bruised jaw and broken collarbone. She’d fought capture as much as a girl familiar with the feeling of being bent over by a man and brought to her knees could be - like some sort of canine beast who didn’t want to die at the end of the hunter’s gun.

I’m going to rip that woman’s neck open, and stick her head on a fucking pike. See how she likes getting her eyes pecked out by crows. Or maybe I should let her live, cast her into the Wastes and give her a hoe, so she can dig her own grave when the cataracts eat through her eyes, and her lungs corrode under the fluid leaching from her cracked lips.

Jane decided that the second option was much more deliciously awful, and settled back into her seat to keep watching her captors discuss something.

“... the gas should - kill her. At least from what I read…”

Jane swallowed, tried to not think about the ventilation in the walls.

“... if it doesn’t, we’ll do what we did with that bastard boy who’s Gloucester’s. Put her in Room 101.”

Jane’s fingers became clawed and she worked to saw through her bonds, but found them to be cutting her own nails. That plan thus abandoned, twisting her head from left to right, she noted the double-strength glass observation wall to her left, the silver bars behind it, and to her right, in front, and behind, the ventilated walls. 

They’d put her in here to die. 

You’ll die, you’ll die, you’ll die. All Nikolai will have to marry is a fucking corpse! Imagine that. You’ll meet your end, Jane. Just like how that fucked up, deformed thing you called your baby looked. As bloodied and ugly as it. Oh, he won’t make you into a bride. With luck, there won’t even be anything left to bury!

Not if I get out.

Since when have you ever got out of anything, Jane? Certainly not much, hmmm?

Shut up, Ruth. SHUT UP!

It’s a shame, you know. You never would’ve made a good mother, anyways. Always too pre-occupied with surviving, and protecting that freak, Augusta. I should’ve left her in that shell hole. And YOU! I should’ve taken my mother’s advice and aborted you while I still could.

Tears poured down Jane’s cheeks as she thrashed in her bonds once more. Hysterics in times of panic were seemingly an inheritable trait of the Becketts. Jane growled, imagining her mother as something very small, fragile, and easy to crush with the sole of her boot. A mouse.

She would kill her mother as soon as she got out of her bonds. Take her in the middle of the night with Nikolai’s knife to her throat, a line of red underlining her name. Dead, and burned in some corpse-pile on the Wastes’s edge. Or perhaps in their heart. Burned and buried in the town that had been the epicenter of an attack that’d made them all this way. Ruth didn’t even deserve a funeral, or much else. How could a woman who’d claimed to love her own daughter side with her rapist when push came to shove, had turned her back on Jane when she’d birthed her monster - her own minotaur who was dead from the moment it came into the world?

But you’ll die here. And good riddance too.

You underestimate me, Ruth.

No, I don’t. You play the fox, but you’ll always be the rabbit, tucked low to the ground, afraid. Any and all conflict has you running for the hills. It’s a miracle you lasted this long, anyways. If we’d ever ended up in that god-forsaken Nazi version of england who nuked us, I’d have turned you over and had them deal with you. Consider this penance for your sins.

Sins you straddled me with, by not helping me! 

Sins you deserve! Now, quiet, I hear a hissing noise.

Jane’s face drained of all color, and she frantically whipped her head from side to side, trying desperately to plug her nostrils, keep her mouth closed. The gas stung her eyes, making black spots dance in the edges of her vision. Screaming would do nothing - her lungs would fill with gas, kill her, and she’d die here, face frozen in some grotesque scream. So she fought vainly to live.

What she didn’t hear over the hissing of this nest of vipers was the sounds of screams,and swords clashing through the Tower’s halls. The ancient stone structure was being laid siege to by none other than some of Richard’s best soldiers. Amongst them was Cecily-Anne, burns and all, desperate to drag Jane out from under Melbourne’s grasp. 

None knew what awaited them underground. 

Jane’s vision began to swim alarmingly, as the black spots blossomed and she lolled back. Her lips parted, and a small gasp escaped her. Then, all faded out. ****

When she came too, Jane blinked twice. She expected to see the wooden beams and stone ceiling of the cell she’d become so intimately knowledgeable of. What faced her now was some sort of gauzy fabric made of cyan and edged in gold leaf and stars. A double-headed eagle glared down at her, flanked by a fox and a stout, and at their feet were White Roses and thorned fire-flowers.

Aware of a resounding pressure on her hand, Jane weakly turned her head to her side and found Nikolai’s eyes watching her, puffy with tears shed and smeared with blood. His knuckles were busted and broken. His fingernails were long, shadowed. He must’ve transformed.

For what?

“You,” he coughed, and Jane blinked again, then spoke, shuddering:

“Me?”

Nikolai nodded, and shushed her as she tried to speak again. “Your lungs are damaged, from the gas. You were nearly-” he bit his lip, and fumbled weakly for a handkerchief as tears splashed down his cheeks. Finding none, he wiped his eyes on his ripped and worn tunic sleeve. “Dead. If I’d been but a minute later…”

Who found me? She signed, coughing.

“Cecily. She has the instincts of a mother fox seeking its cubs when she’s in the right kind of mood. And what we found-” Nikolai choked, and reached with shaking hands for his canteen of water. Taking a sip, he gently helped Jane’s head up and let her drink her fill. 

“You’d destroyed the entire complex. From top to bottom. They’d gotten the gasses mixed up. It wasn’t Zyklon B - just Mustard gas. The Zykon was supposed to have silver flakes in it. The fabrikators are examining it now for disposal-” Nikolai rambled, but stopped at Jane’s widened eyes.

I destroyed it? How?

Nikolai peered at her, and noted her flinch when he reached to touch her fevered cheek. Withdrawing his hand, he gently kissed her knuckles, watching her reaction all the while. This was one of their safe touches. Kissing her hands, knuckles, palm, all were good. Anything else required more time, and for her especially to be in a better mental space. She doubted he’d ever bed her, or that she could ever stand to have a man’s hands on her like that, skirts hiked up.

She squeezed her eyes shut, but the tears still came. Through her blurred vision, she caught Nikolai’s eyes watching her, and fell into his arms with a horrific, almost animalistic noise of fear and surrender. Her fragility felt wrong, felt alien.

Look at you. Going to a man like him. He’ll hurt you. They all do.

Jane’s eyes popped open as she stared past Nikolai’s shoulder, to the stone walls of the Tower’s inner keep. Ruth was wrong - she’d always been wrong. Nothing she’d ever said had been anything but a lie.

I’m done with you. Get out of my head. 

It’ll take more than that, Janie.

Jane closed her eyes again, rested her temple on Nikolai’s shoulder, and felt his fingers trailing over her jail-style chop. It’d grown ratty, needed a barber. She missed her braids something awful. She longed to grow her hair long again, for the intricate dos she’d wanted to do for ages and ages. She missed Cecily’s fingers in her hair, twisting her strands into intricate coils when all they had were bits of twine and ratty ribbons to make her into a princess.

Now, she’d be a queen.

Saints willing.

Where’s Cecily? Jane signed, using the sign for Cecily that was intimate to her - the sign for wolf. Nikolai’s grin returned, and Jane relaxed a smidgen. It was good to see him smile. She’d longed to see it, to see him. Ever since they’d bumped shoulders on accident in the York streets near the Minster, she as Cecily’s lady in waiting, and he as Richard’s son’s bodyguard, there was an almost nuclear level spark between them.

She’d been - days? Weeks? - out of a long tenure in London with Anne Neville, ferried north on the riverways and put into only a mere few inns. She was tired, anxious over Melbourne’s machinations to take Cecily back after she’d escaped Ives’s bloodied teeth and the cold of Fort Spencer. What she hadn’t needed then was a distraction in the form of A “First Army,” infantryman who’d risen through the ranks because he “cared,” for his people and was really a prince and a privateer. 

Now, she stared, hating, at the walls of the White Tower. The Princes weren’t dead - either somewhere between Shene and the border with Scotland, Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel had taken their Gyptian upbringing, and weaponized it. East Anglia was set to recover soon enough. Provided Richard went good on his promises to go into debt with the Americans. Richard had considered writing to the pope, then promptly decided that the papal state would be very interested in why England’s king was so suddenly the afore-named Prince killer, and refuse to recognize england as none other than a heretical state given over to loping monster-dogs and blood-sucking fops. 

Canada and the rest of the empire were off limits. Ravka was well recovered enough to give them loans priced amicably enough that the interest wouldn’t cause the stewards and Richard’s council to have aneurysms en-masse. That would be messy. And bloodsoaked. 

Jane would be the bride-price, a union between House Lantsov and House Beckett. Plantagenet. Jane corrected herself. She raised her head to look Nikolai in the eye and grinned again, showing her crooked and chipped teeth. He ran his hand through her hair and grimaced.

“She’s under our feet. It seems there’s a network of tunnels and cells and torture rooms, and-”

A missile silo, stocked with enough warheads to level America. She signed, watching Nikolai’s face like a hawk.

He swallowed nervously, and stilled his hand. “Prisoners?”

Dead, or some are alive. I know there was a scientist I was airmarking for Richard. Hopefully he wasn’t killed. Had a limp, you see. Sickly. Something in his lungs. He’s very good with something called Hextech.

“No idea what that means, though it sounds like what Fabrikators do.” Nikolai straightened, stretching his legs out to rest on an ottoman, and reached for a glass of tea. “Do you want anything? Tea? Kvas? Brandy?”

What I’d like is a nap. Jane thought, and rubbed at her head. There were bandages encircling her temples like a medical diadem, and she winced as her vision went spotty. Guess I was pretty banged up?

“You were nearly dead,” Nikolai replied, sipping his crystal-cut glass of tea. His eyes studied hers intimately, then cut away to stare at the soldier standing in the entrance to the tent, gripping his cap and wringing it between his hands.

[v-cain]

"Guard Dog"

Fandom: Xmen

Pairings: Charles Xavier x teen!reader, Hank Mccoy x teen!reader, Kurt Wagner x teen!reader, Scott Summers x teen!reader, Jean Grey x teen!reader, Jubilation Lee x teen!reader

Warnings: Bullying

A/N: this came to me months ago and now im cool enough to write it down. go follow my friends @book-place @bringinsexybackk69 (this is set when everyone other than the teachers are teens! ;] )

----

You drag yourself out of bed and lazily put on a hoodie, not even bothering to change out of your pajamas. Scott had convinced you to wake up at lunch time so you could eat with your friends, which would usually get a solid "Fuck no."...but there was a promise of chocolate chip cookies. So fucking up your sleep schedule it was!

Walking down the stairs, you catch a few staring eyes and shoot a glare at them. They immediately scramble away  much to your happiness.

You easily spot your friends under a tree and walk over to them, enjoying the afternoon you rarely get to see. Scott spots you and cheers "Sup Snow White!". You roll your eyes playfully "Oh hardy har har Summers." you sarcastically snark as you plop yourself down beside Kurt.

Everyone launches back into conversation, and you find yourself calmly smiling at the mess of a group you call family friends. Then, the fire nation attacked.

"Hey, freak! Did you force them to sit with you? Or do they just feel bad?" Your attention is turned to some random teen you've seen in passing- he was mocking your wings. Not a pleasant guy. Jean just rolls her eyes at him, while Kurt sits looking uncomfortable. Jubilee and Scott are glaring at him, and you're- well...

"Oi! Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" you holler at him. This garners the attention of some nearby students who are now whispering to each other. The teen scoffs and rolls his eyes, "Oh, is this your little guard dog? How cute!" he mockingly coos. Your mind is racing a mile a minute but you keep yourself under control, and calmly walk over to him. The students are gathering closer now, curious to what's going to happen next.

The teen sizes you up and gets in your face, "You mad, doggy? What're gonna do about it? Bark?" You smile sweetly at him, and then swing you're tail underneath his legs. He immediately falls backwards but you catch to collar of his shirt and bring him close, "If you ever, and I mean ever" you bringing him closer "come near my friends again, I won't be here to catch you. Got it?" He nods vigorously. You smile sweetly and let him stumble backwards. "There's a good doggy." you mock as you turn back to your friends.

Sadly, the universe was not on your side, as Professor McCoy calls for you and the teen to follow him to the headmasters office.

...Well, shit.

----

School sucks, you think as you walk to the office. One moment you're defending your friend against some dickwad and the next you're being escorted to the headmasters office, which is complete bullshit! Sure Jean could handle herself on her own, but she shouldn't have to! Everyone deserves a friend who has their back. And maybe a little bit of your reaction was because you were sick of being treated like an animal, but who could blame you?

Before you realize, Professor McCoy is knocking on the Professors door- you wonder if they had to battle for who got the title of "The Professor"- and he opens it, closing it after the three of you are inside. Professor Xavier looks up blindly before a flash of recognition sparks in his eyes, so he sits up straighter and looks more serious. Glancing beside you, it looks like the teen (who's name you learn to be Doug) is playing the innocent lamb while you get the part of the Big Bad Wolf. Lovely.

"Can anyone care to tell me why you're here?" the Professor asks, looking between you two. Doug responds scarily quickly "Yeah, that asshole attacked me for no fucking reason!" Your eyebrows raise a bit- he couldn't have tried made his story a bit believable? The Professor sharply turns to him "Mr. Carol, I do not appreciate that tome of voice." Doug squirms a bit where he stands as the Professor continues "Now please, could you elaborate?"

Doug starts to tell a story how he was leaning against a tree reading a book, when you walked up to him and got up in his face and pushed him to the ground. Which is complete bullshit, but you wouldn't let that show. The Professor takes this in and the  turns to you, and tells you to recount your side of the story. You glance at Doug and start "Well, I was sitting with my friends, when Doug walked by and called Jean a freak. I got mad at him and shouted at him, so he called me a dog multiple time, so I told him to leave me and my friends alone and went to sit back down- that was when Professor McCoy interfered.

Doug glares at me while the Professor frowns. He exchanged glances with the other professor who come to some sort of silent agreement. "It seems clear who is in the right. Doug, you will attend detention during lunchtime for the next two weeks-" Doug turns red and immediately storms out the office, slamming the door on his way out. Dramatic.

The Professor raises an eyebrow and turns to you "Y/N, you will be in detention after school today. I understand wanting to defend your friends, but that wasn't the way to go about it. You may leave now." You nod and turn for the door, pausing and turning back. "Professor, I'm sorry for acting out. It won't happen again." He smiles and you softly and responds "I know, Y/N. Now go, I can hear your friends thoughts from here." You giggle and walk out the door.

You practically sprint out to your friends, who are still waiting for you to come back. Jubilee grins at you and hugs you tightly "That was freaking awesome!" you blush and meekly smile at her. Everyone starts asking if you're ok, but through all the chaos you catch Jeans eye and give her a smile that she returns.

Yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that, and yeah you're fucking exhausted, but it's worth it to see the smile on their faces.

----

Late at night, you sit up straight on the couch you were lazing on and exclaim to youself "Damn Summers never gave me my fucking cookies!"

[dngrs-untld-hrshps-unnmbrd]

Werewolf Bites and Hot Summer Nights

An AU in which Laura and Max can’t find Hackett Quarry and end up at the Harbinger Motel, before becoming camp counsellors for the summer. Max is moody and secretive and Laura keeps bumping into the grumpiest sheriff with the cutest puppy dog eyes, and when he gives her his number ‘just in case’ a girl can’t help but drunk dial him one night. Cue overprotective and jealous Travis. And shouldn’t the officer get a birthday kiss?

Banter | Enemies to Lovers | Battle Couple | Smut

Start with Chapter One

Chapter Ten

Travis stared down the barrel of his own service revolver at a defiant Laura. With an irritated flick of his wrist, he pulled his loose tie off, looped it around his neck and started knotting it again. “I was distracted. I would have stopped you under normal circumstances, just so you know.”

“What distracted you about these circumstances?” Laura asked without lowering the weapon.

“The pretty girl half undressing me in my own damn station.”

“You think I’m pretty?”

He gave her a scathing look. “You know I think you’re adorable.”

“Flirt. I want a shotgun.”

Travis took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fine. One shotgun. Regular bullets.”

He stood up and headed through to the room he used to store weapons, wondering if he was making a terrible mistake by taking her out there with him.

Laura surveyed the array of shotguns with a determined expression, and Travis knew there was no use arguing with her. Either she was going out there with him, or she was going out there alone.

No way was Laura going out there unprotected when there were werewolves roaming around. 

The only other choice he had was locking Laura up against her will. He imagined pulling her hands behind her back and marching her to one of the cells, but he didn’t have the heart.

You’re soft on this girl, Hackett.

He swallowed hard and pulled a shotgun down for her.

New plan. Keep Laura and the counsellors safe until dawn. As soon as everyone was inside the lodge or safely on the island, he’d head back out by himself. 

Travis stood close to her while he explained how to hold the gun, how to reload, how to store it safely. He was surprised how confident she looked with the weapon.

“Have you done this before?” he asked.

She smiled up at him, the shotgun resting comfortably in her hands. “Why, do I look like I have?”

She looked sexy, that’s all Travis knew. Someone he wouldn’t want to mess with if she was out for his blood. He remembered how she’d looked a moment ago pointing his own gun at him, her expression fearless.

That shouldn't have given him a semi-erection. 

He cleared his throat. “If a werewolf attacks you, fire. It won’t die, but it will back off while we get to safety. Don’t point that gun at anything you wouldn’t fire at. And don’t blow your own toes off.”

“Got it. When this is over, I’ll buy you a beer.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I’ve been hunting this wolf for six years.”

She smiled at him. “That’s because you didn’t have me to help you.”

He had a sudden image of them back to back while werewolves circled around them. One of them was Silas, and they shot him dead. Chris, Kaylee and Caleb came back to him. 

Impossible?

As he gazed down at Laura, he felt a spark of hope.

He held a stern forefinger in her face. “No overconfidence. It’s as dangerous as hell out there. A shotgun will protect you, but only if you’re fast enough to pull the trigger. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sheriff,” she replied, but she was still smiling up at him.

Travis picked up his homemade silver bullets and showed them to her. “These are filled with silver, and they’ll kill a werewolf. We’re only going to use these if we find Silas.” 

“How will we know that it’s him?”

Travis rolled the bullets around in his hand. He’d seen Silas a handful of times before. He was so much bigger than his family when they were turned, and his flesh was pale in the moonlight. “I’ll know. C’mon.”

They went out to his car and climbed inside. Before starting the engine, Travis reached across her into the glove box and pulled out the jar of blood. “This is non-negotiable. Wipe some on your face. It will mask your scent from the werewolves.”

Grimacing, Laura twisted off the lid and did as she was told. “This is so gross and unsanitary.” She flipped down the sun visor and examined her face. “How do I look?”

Like an ancient queen ready to do battle. “It doesn’t matter how you look as long as you’re still alive in the morning. Give it here.”

Travis painted his own face with blood, wiped his hands on his pants and started the engine.

Laura gazed silently out the window as they drove along, the shotgun resting over her lap.

A werewolf.

Max was a werewolf.

She would never have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, which she supposed was why Travis had done things the way they had. The things that Max had said to her as he was changing…it was like he hadn’t been able to control his mind as well as his body.

“You smirked at him,” Laura said, staring straight ahead.

“What?”

Laura knew Travis was only pretending not to understand her. If she hadn’t been looking right at him at that moment, she would have missed it. He’d been so detached, so professional. Max was railing at him, telling him he had no right to call her Laura, yelling so many horrible things at both of them. It must have riled Travis’ temper. It must have riled his jealousy, too.

“You heard me. You smirked at Max.”

Travis’ fingers flexed on the steering wheel. “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

Yes, he did.

“When Max wakes up in the morning, will he remember what happened?”

Travis considered this. “Some of it.”

Laura rubbed her forehead. “Oh, Jesus Christ. I didn’t want him to find out like this.”

“He sounded like he already suspected something was going on between us,” Travis pointed out quietly.

“Suspecting and knowing are two different things. You didn’t have to look so goddamn proud of yourself.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why?”

He glanced at her as he turned off the road into the camp. “Because it’s you.”

Laura felt a fizz of pleasure. If they hadn’t both been covered in blood, she might have leaned across and kissed him. Even though he had smirked. 

They parked in front of the lodge, which was eerily silent. No campers laughing and no cicadas to break up the night. No screaming, either, which was probably a good sign.

Unless everyone is already dead.

Don’t even think it, Kearney.

“What’s the plan, Sheriff?” she asked, forcing herself to sound positive as she got out of the car.

Travis glanced around, checking the road and the woods for signs of movement. “We go into the lodge. We check the cabins. If we can’t account for all the counsellors, we’ll do a sweep of the quarry and get everyone to shelter or onto the island.”

“And if anyone’s bit?”

“We lock them in my car and get them back to the station. And we keep quiet. It’s easier to hide from these things than to escape.”

He pressed the radio on his shoulder. “It’s T. What’s your position?” No reply. He tried again, and then dropped the radio with a muttered, “Ah, shit.”

“Do you think something’s happened to them?”

“They could be out of range or their radios have broken. Or they have their hands full.”

Travis examined her, his brows drawn together. Then he propped his shotgun against the car and reached for her neck. Laura blinked as he picked up the chain of her necklace and moved the clasp to the nape of her neck. His expression was soft and he touched her gently. 

“There,” he murmured, settling the chain into place. “That’s better.”

“Now we’re ready?” she asked with an amused smile. They were both covered in blood, but heaven forbid her necklace clasp was showing. She supposed he’d given into the same impulse that had made him brush the dirt from her face the first night they’d met.

Like he thought she was pretty, and he couldn't resist touching her. 

“Now we’re ready.” He picked up his shotgun, his expression hardening and his eyes growing dark and determined. “Stay close.”

Inside the lodge, all was silent. They went methodically through all the rooms on each of the floors, but they were all empty.

Laura grabbed Travis’ arm as they were on their way out. “Look. Blood.”

She pointed at some drops just inside the door.

Travis’ lips compressed into a thin line and she could tell from his expression and his tight shoulders that he had a grim feeling about what they were doing.

The two of them walked side by side down the dark path to the cabins, each of them scanning the forest, their shotguns at the ready.

“I can’t hear anything,” Travis murmured.

“Neither can I.”

“I don't like it. We should have heard something by now. Gunshots. Yelling. Dad and Bobby on the radio.”

“Maybe everyone’s on the island,” she said hopefully.

Travis didn’t reply. It sure was eerie to be walking through nothing but silent moonlight knowing that nine people and at least two werewolves were nearby.

The back of Laura’s neck prickled. “Do you feel like we’re being hunted?”

Travis paused and glanced around them. Nothing moved. “Just keep that shotgun ready.”

Laura didn’t need reminding.

All but one of the cabins were locked up tight, and the open one was empty.

As they stood by the big tree in the middle of the clearing, the silence was nearly overwhelming.

“I don’t like this,” Travis murmured again.

Laura had to agree that nothing about tonight was good. Not finding dead bodies and werewolves was almost as bad as finding them.

He was still peering into the darkness, but Laura felt Travis reach for her. “I’ve got your back, okay? No matter what happens.”

His fingers brushed hers, and she grabbed hold of them and squeezed. “I’ve got yours, too.”

He turned and gazed down at her in surprise. Then his mouth quirked in a smile. “I hadn’t actually thought this far ahead. My plan was to track down some of the counsellors and have you help them over to the island while I went looking for Silas.”

“You’re not heading off alone without me,” she said quickly.

“I know,” he said simply, glancing at their intertwined fingers.  

He didn’t want to be alone anymore than she did.

“We should check the island," she suggested. "Maybe everyone figured out it’s the safest place to be all on their own.”

“Good idea,” he murmured, and rubbed her knuckles with his thumb before letting go. “Let’s head through the—”

They heard yelling in the distance. Harsh, masculine cries.

“This way.” Laura started running before Travis could react, and he took off after her.

They raced along the path through the darkness. The shouting died away, but up ahead, something was struggling in the trees, high up in the air.

Laura skidded to a halt in surprise as she saw a man hanging from a rope by his ankle. Two figures stood beneath him. A big man in a trucker cap and a skinny man with white hair.

“Jacob?” she called.

Jacob peered at her upside down. “Laura? Why are you covered in blood? Never mind. Just get me the hell down from here before these crazy assholes kill me.”

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Laura assured him, and Mr. Hackett glared at her like he wanted to say otherwise. 

Oh, fun. Travis' family. 

“Goddamn kids,” he growled under his breath. When Travis arrived at Laura’s side, Mr. Hackett gave his son a filthy look.

Bobby suddenly pointed at Laura and exclaimed, “It’s her. It’s that girl from your car, Travis. Ma said you’re not allowed to see her.”

Travis grabbed his arm. “Bobby, keep your damn voice down!”

“I’m telling Ma! Ma said that girl is trouble and you—”

There was a snarling sound from Laura’s left and she instinctively turned toward it and raised her gun. Was it snarling, or was it someone calling out for help?

Shit, what if she shot one of the counsellors just because they were out of breath and panting?

Bobby was still yelling when a dark shape erupted out of the bushes and launched itself at him. Bobby cried out, and suddenly the huge man was plastered across the ground beneath one of those nightmare creatures that had attacked Max.

“Laura,” Travis shouted, and she understood what he wanted. She was closer than he was and had a clear shot.

Laura aimed at the werewolf’s back and pulled the trigger. There was an almighty blast, the gun kicked in her hand, and the creature reared in pain. Then it scampered off into the woods.

In the silence and smoke that followed, Travis stared at her like she was the most beautiful sunrise he’d ever seen.

A moment later he snapped out of it as Bobby moaned in pain.

Mr. Hackett knelt down by his son. “Are you bit?”

“I don’t know,” Bobby whimpered. "It hurts."

“Ah, could one of you cut me down?” called Jacob.

Laura turned her face up to him, her heart pounding wildly. “Are you sure you want to come down here where there are werewolves?”

“Where there are what?”

She found the rope tied to a tree, loosened it, and let Jacob down as slowly as she could. Which wasn’t very slow as he was heavy.

As he stood up and brushed himself off, he said, “We thought it was bears with rabies or something.”

“Has anyone been bitten?”

Jacob nodded. “Nick was scratched. The others went to the lodge to get some bandages.”

“I was just at the lodge. There was no one there.”

“Fuck.”

Laura stared at his bare chest. “Where are your clothes?”

“Huh?” Jacob glanced down at himself. “Oh, I was swimming with Emma. She’s on the island.”

“You need to get to the island, too. It’s the only safe place. Go, and stay there until morning.”

“What about you?”

“I’m staying with Travis. Don’t worry about me. I’ve got this.” She hefted the shotgun in her grip.

Travis was kneeling down by his brother. “Laura, the island is safe. Are you sure you don’t want to…”

He trailed off as he caught her glare, and nodded. They’d already sworn what they were doing tonight.

They had each other’s backs.

As Jacob jogged off toward the island, Travis and Mr. Hackett helped Bobby to his feet.

“Don’t whimper, son,” Mr. Hackett told him. “You’re not bit. You’re just scratched.”

He watched as Travis looped Bobby’s arm around his neck and shouldered the man’s considerable weight.

“You said you got scratched,” Mr. Hackett reminded him.

Travis shook his head. “It’s nothing. Help me get him to the car.”

Laura picked up Travis’ shotgun and followed the men back to the lodge.

At Travis’ car, he threw his dad the keys. “You drive. Laura, get in the front. I’ll keep pressure on Bobby’s wounds in the back.”

It was another awkward drive to the Hackett residence, only this time Bobby was whimpering in the back and telling Travis that his shoulder hurt, with Travis murmuring occasionally, “I know, Bobby, I know.”

At the house, Laura stood back as Mrs. Hackett fussed over Bobby, ordering Travis to lay the man on the sofa and blaming him for Bobby’s injuries.

Laura ground her teeth together and glared at the woman while Mr. Hackett got to work bandaging Bobby up. She’d left Travis’ shotgun in the car but she’d kept hold of her own, not trusting Travis’ parents one bit.

After a few minutes, Mrs. Hackett turned around and noticed her standing by the door.

Her furious glare cut to her eldest son. “What the hell is that girl doing here, Travis?” 

Travis had been rubbing the back of his neck and looked up in surprise. “What? Oh, don’t worry, Ma. Miss Kearney knows about the curse. She saw her boyfriend get bit tonight.”

Laura registered distantly that when he was talking to his Ma, Laura did have a boyfriend, and she was Miss Kearney again. Bobby had claimed that Mrs. Hackett had told Travis to stay away from her. Everyone in this family bent over backwards to keep this horrible woman happy.

Mrs. Hackett started exclaiming at the top of her voice. “Travis, we said no outsiders. How many times do we have to tell you?”

“It’s too late for that now. And be more grateful, Miss Kearney saved Bobby from getting bit.”

“I don’t care if she saved the Queen of goddamn England!”

Mrs. Hackett marched toward Laura, but before she could reach her, Travis stepped in front of Laura and barred his mother’s way.

“Back off, Ma.”

A bony finger was shaken in his face. “Don’t you tell me what to do. You step away from that girl, Travis. You step away right this second.” 

“I won’t. She’s been helping me tonight and I won’t allow anything to happen to her.”

“Oh, you’re protecting her, are you?” Mrs. Hackett asked, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “The sheriff is protecting the pretty, helpless little girl, is he?”

“Laura—Miss Kearny isn’t—”

Mrs. Hackett glared past Travis at Laura. “Harlot. Don’t think I don’t know what’s really going on. A mother always knows. This man has responsibilities to his family. He hasn’t got time to go running around town after you.”

Apparently this mean old woman scared Travis, but she didn’t scare Laura. She shrugged casually. “Maybe he makes time.”

“Laura,” Travis growled over his shoulder.

“You can smirk at Max but I can’t say one word to your mother?” Laura hissed at him under her breath.

Mrs. Hackett’s outrage doubled.  “What did you say young lady?”

“I said Sheriff Hackett makes time for me. But I can say more if you’re so curious about us. Your son’s been the perfect gentleman to me all summer. If I was living in North Kill, I’d make sure he knew I’d say yes if he asked me on a date.”

Travis went very still.

This wasn’t something she was saying to annoy his family. She meant every word.

Going on a date with Travis. What universe did that reality belong to? One without werewolves, probably.

This next part? This was to annoy his family. His mother in particular.  

Laura gave the woman an overly sweet smile. “Of course, my idea of the perfect gentleman might be different to your idea of a perfect gentlemen considering what a harlot I am.” She looked slowly up and down his body, an admiring smile on her lips. “Doesn’t he look handsome in his uniform?”

Travis swallowed hard, and if there wasn’t blood all over his face, Laura was sure she’d see that he was blushing. “Laura, please.”

Please what? Please stop? Probably, but she didn’t want to stop. His family treated him like trash and maybe they’d appreciate him a little more knowing how much he was giving up for them.

"Maybe I'll ask him on a date myself."

 “Setting your cap at my son when you already have a boyfriend? I knew you were a slut.”

“Ma, shut up,” Travis snapped.

Mrs. Hackett threw her hands up in disgust and Travis flinched away from her.

Laura saw the flinch as if in slow motion. There was nothing violent about the way Mrs. Hackett had moved, but Travis had reacted like there was. Like he’d learned to be afraid of her hands.

“You hit him.” The words burst from Laura’s mouth before she understood what she was saying.

Laura had seen Travis flinch when Mrs. Hackett had shouted at him the last time they were here.  

She’d even seen him flinch at a memory when they were drinking together in bar. He was remembering himself as a nine-year-old boy. One who made mistakes and got thrashed by one or both of his parents.

Laura narrowed her eyes at Mrs. Hackett. “You horrible, nasty old woman.”

Everyone turned to stare at her. Mrs. Hackett with cold fury. Mr. Hackett with impatience. Travis with apprehension. Even Bobby raised his head on the sofa.

Laura pushed past Travis so she could stand in front of Mrs. Hackett. “You hit your son? You used to hit him as a child, didn’t you, and you still hit him now he’s a grown man.”

“You mind your own business, young lady.”

“I’m making it my business,” Laura seethed. “Travis is too loyal to say anything to you or to stop you, but I’ll say it. Only a nasty old bitch lays her hands on her children in anger. Leave. Travis. Alone.”

Mrs. Hackett reached out and grabbed the shotgun that Laura was holding. “How dare you? Get the hell out of my house.”

Laura wasn’t going anywhere. The two of them struggled back and forth for the weapon.

“Let go of this shotgun, missy!”

“No, you let go.” Laura was too stubborn and too damn angry. She was also a little bit afraid of what Mrs. Hackett was capable off if she let go of the gun. The next thing she’d know, she’d probably have a stomach full of buckshot.

Mr. Hackett was yelling. Bobby was yelling. Travis was yelling. All the noise made Laura struggle even harder.

The gun went off in her hands.

One moment Mrs. Hackett's face was contorted with rage.

The next moment she didn’t have a face. She was teeth and jaw and eyeballs and a mass of raw flesh.

So that’s what the inside of someone’s face looked like, Laura thought in surprise as Mrs. Hackett crumpled to the ground. She could feel that she was going to be horrified later. That she was going to be appalled by what she’d just done. Guilt-ridden and sickened. 

But for now, there was only blood and shock.

And eyeballs. Mrs. Hackett still had her eyeballs. That was the creepiest thing of all.

There was a howl of rage and grief from the other side of the room.

“I’ll kill you,” Mr. Hackett seethed, pulling out a handgun and aiming it at Laura.

***

*kills Constance every chance I get* for Travis 😌

CHAPTER ELEVEN

[kotlc-deleted-scenes]

Keeper Summer Week #2

Deleted Scene from Exile

This scene used to be part of the aurenflare sequence and was a moment I created to show that something might be wrong with Sophie's abilities. But I realized after I wrote it that it didn't really sell the idea that she was “malfunctioning." If anything, it made her seem even stronger, so I cut it out. And I'd considered including the skill in a later Keeper book, but I decided it was too confusing trying to differentiate it from other things Telepaths could and couldn't do. So I dropped the idea from the series entirely. 

—Shannon

Biana yelped and jumped out of her seat. "Don't do that!" she screamed, flinging a cookie at Fitz's head. 

"Did I miss something?" Sophie asked. 

"Yeah, Biana's afraid of the dark,” Fitz told her. 

"More like my brother loves torturing me with his evil mind games," Biana corrected. 

"Actually, it's a highly developed skill," Fitz explained with a smug grin. "I bet even Sophie can't do it." 

His eyes narrowed and Biana screamed again. Even Keefe jumped though he tried to cover it with a cough. 

Sophie frowned. "I don't get it." 

"You didn't see the giant shadow wolf that just attacked us?" 

Biana asked before screaming again. "There-right there. You really don't see that?" 

She pointed to the fire, but all Sophie saw were the dancing rainbow-colored flames. 

"Okay, you guys are starting to freak me out," Sophie admitted. "What's going on?" 

"He's impelling," Alden explained as he joined them by the fire. "That's what we call it when a Telepath pushes a shadow of a thought into someone else's mind to make them see something that isn't there. It's mostly a novelty—and a bit of a gray area when it comes to the rules of telepathy. But it appears your unique blocking protects you." 

"But that doesn't make any sense," Fitz argued, narrowing his eyes yet again and making everyone except Sophie flinch. "I can transmit to her now-shouldn't I be able to impel?" 

"Impelling reaches a different part of the brain," Alden reminded him. "And your connection to Sophie is limited. You can't even read her thoughts-only make her hear yours." 

Keefe laughed. "Foster loves keeping her sense of mystery." 

Fitz frowned and Biana screamed again, clinging to Alden's arm. 

"Dad-tell him to knock it off!" 

"I think that's enough impelling for one night, son. Though, I wonder..." Alden turned to Sophie. "Would you like to give it a try? 

All you have to do is concentrate on a thought and push it toward us—without opening your mind to ours." 

“I guess," Sophie mumbled, not loving the way everyone was staring at her. 

She felt too frazzled to come up with anything original, so she copied Fitz's idea and imagined a shadow wolf with hackles raised and fangs bared. When she could picture every strand of its bristled fur, she narrowed her eyes and shoved the thought toward her friends. 

"What the—" Keefe shouted, covering his ears as Alden ducked and Biana and Fitz screamed. Sophie cleared the image from her head, and everyone slowly straightened, blinking at her with wide, haunted eyes. 

"Did you open your minds to ours?" Alden asked. 

Sophie shook her head. "Why?" 

"That was no shadow," Keefe mumbled, looking paler than she'd ever seen him. "That was a full-color, twenty-foot monster. I swear I could even smell the dog breath.” 

"Me too," Fitz said quietly. "And I could hear it snarling." 

"It was so real," Biana whispered, hugging her dad and glancing around like she expected the wolf to emerge from the shadows any second. 

"I'm sorry—I didn't mean…" Sophie fumbled for her home crystal. 

"Wait," Alden said as she held her pendant in the firelight. "You don't have to leave-you didn't do anything wrong." 

"I nearly gave you guys a panic attack!" 

"Yeah, you did,” Fitz said, trying to smile but not pulling it off. 

"I almost peed my pants," Keefe added. 

Humiliation burned Sophie's eyes. 

Why did she always mess everything up? 

"Your mind is stronger than we're used to. That's all," Alden assured her. 

"Well, that's still a problem," Sophie replied. 

She didn't know her own strength. 

And if she couldn't understand herself—who could? 

"It's really okay, Sophie," Alden insisted. "Please stay." 

She tried to stand a little taller as she shook her head. "Honestly, I…have a headache now. And I'm sure Edaline's waiting for me. Thank you so much for dinner and the aurenflare. I'll see you guys at the Opening Ceremonies, right?" she asked Fitz, Keefe, and Biana. 

They nodded, and everyone tried to smile as Sophie let the warm light whisk her away. 

But Sophie would never forget the look on their pale faces. Fear. 

Maybe even terror. 

Like she was the monster. 

And Sophie had a horrible feeling that they might be right. 

[grantiskeith]

A dinner with the Shaw Pack

Angel overcoming her fear of vampires. A little angst, a little bit of blood.

The smell of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, Hawaiian salad and all the other classic midwestern American dinner sides filled the kitchen.

Music was coming from somewhere, wolves howled from rooms throughout David's house, people were everywhere. It was a loud mess of people. But it was warm and friendly.

Angel was chopping radishes despite Asher whining in their ear that radishes are gross and should not be allowed in the salad.

What was becoming a welcomed sight was the presence of Darlin and Sam.

Angel, being the mate of the Alpha, felt that every member of the pack should be treated like an equal. And Angel knew this included Sam. This shouldn't have been hard, Sam was polite, friendly, and he made a fantastic green-bean casserole.

Yet there was some voice in the back of Angel's head. An instinct left from before they knew about this magical world, that told them to stay far, far away from vampires.

It wasn't an irrational fear, with all the chaos and fear around that Quinn guy. Angel didn't let it show, at least they tried not to show it.

Angel always smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Sam like with every member of the pack. By they wondered if Sam could hear their heart race when Sam entered their home. Or if he could hear Angel hold their breath when Sam stood too close to a weaker member of the pack. As if Angel was gambling whether today would be the day he finally attacked someone.

There were a lot of days when Angel felt suffocated by the magic world that had suddenly appeared. So much was new and it was too easy to fear it all.

The weight on Angel's chest was made so much heavier with David's position as Alpha. When David asked them to officially become his mate, he didn't mention that made Angel the equivalent of a politician's spouse. Everything they said and did was watched and judged by older members of the pack. Everything Angel did reflected on David and they would have appreciated a warning.

Angel, being in their head, tuning out Asher's complaints about the radishes didn't realize how close their finger tips were to the knife. David, being a safety freak always made sure the kitchen knives were sharp. 'So you don't have to apply a lot of pressure' he would say. So it wasn't a surprise when the knife slipped from the top of the radish down onto the top of their fingers.

"Fuck!" Angel yelled, but not loud enough for the whole party to hear. They turned to throw their hand over the sink but Asher grabbed their wrist to look at it.

Blood oozed out of the tops of their middle and ringer finger onto the floor.

"Stop that give me my hand back" Angel said yanking their hand back to the sink.

"Hey Sam" Asher yelled over the music and the talking, but not loud enough to alert anyone.

"No, no" Angel started, "I'm fine, it's not that bad I'lll just go clean it up, I don't need Sam."

"Don't need Sam for what?" Said a voice too close to Angel for their comfort. Angel was over the sink in the corner of the kitchen, boxed in by Asher and Sam.

"They nearly cut their finger off, you gotta help 'em" Asher insisted.

"That is very much untrue, I'm fine. I'm just going to throw a band aid on it" Angel turned around to face Sam and Asher, holding their hand in a towel. "Please move" Angel said, avoiding eye contact.

"Are ya sure? Ain't no trouble" Sam said. Angel was right, Sam could hear their heart racing and how they were trying to control their breathing but it wasn't working. It didn't escape him that Angel avoided eye contact when it wasn't necessary and he hated it. The last thing wanted to do is bring fear into his wolf's pack. Gaining the trust of the alpha was the easy way of being accepted into the pack but he knew he was scaring the crap out of David's mate. Sam knew he didn't do anything wrong, just the opposite. But his southern hospitality didn't cover the fact that he drank blood and used magic beyond Angel's imagination. Yet here he was, cornering Angel into a wall. He stepped back slowly, giving Angel enough room to squeeze by.

Davis had noticed the commotion by now and intercepted Angel on their way to the bathroom. He lead them into the bathroom, peeling the towel back to reveal their fingers still dripping blood.

David shut the bathroom door and spoke softly, "Angel, a band aid isn't going to fix this."

"Yes it will, it's not that bad" Angel didn't know if they should throw-up or faint because of the blood.

"Just let Sam fix it..."

"No!" Angel was trying to keep their voice at the whisper but failing. Luckily the voices outside were loud.

"It's Sam or the hospital, Angel what's wrong"

Tears were pooling in Angel's eyes, threatening to spill over. David held Angel's towel wrapped hand close to his chest.

Against gritted teeth and built up stress and pressure of being the alpha's mate Angel hissed like a snake "because I'm bleeding and he's a damn vampire you fool and because it hurts and damn it David, I'm scared of him" The knot in their throat made itself even more prominent. Angel's sudden anger made it easier to hold back any impending tears.

David dropped Angel's hand. And turned to open the bathroom door a few inches. "Hey uh Sam, could I get your help for a second"

A few members of the pack questioned why there was a party going on in the bathroom but curiosity disappeared with the cheese dip Asher had brought into the living room.

Angel's jaw dropped to the floor, offended and hurt. They backed themselves into the corner of the bathroom. Sam had to duck to enter the doorway. Tall, impossibly strong, intimating. He pretended to not have the hearing of a vampire. He wished he hadn't heard Angel's harsh words but he couldn't blame them. Especially not with now both a vampire and a werewolf blocking their only exit.

Angel sat down on the edge of the bathtub, powerless. Sam got down on one knee, looking up at Angel.

"Look, Ah won't touch ya without your permission. But if ya let me see it, I can tell ya if you need a healer or not" Sam very slowly tried to reach out for Angel's hand.

The professional in Angel won over the tears. But words wouldn't form over the knot still in their throat. Angel allowed Sam to remove the blood soaked kitchen towel away and tossed it behind them in the tub.

David slipped out of the bathroom to go ask Asher what had happened. Despite David leaving, Sam felt Angel relax just a little bit.

"Y'all keep ya knives sharp uh?" Sam asked trying to break the tension.

Angel nodded, "David keeps the knife sharpeners in business," they looked at Sam and smiled. A forced, pained smile, but a smile.

"Alright, so if you don't disinfect this and get to the emergency room, it's gonna get infected. However, if you're ok with it, I can use healing magic to clear this up and it'll be like it never happened" Sam looked up at Angel for conformation.

"I do appreciate the offer, I see that you're trying to help but I'm not comfortable with that, I don't know how it works or what it does..."

"I can explain it to ya" Sam pressed. This wasn't about the cut. This was about building trust. Angel stared at him.

"Healing magic externalizes the magic that's inside me and transfers it to you so your body can use it to repair itself rapidly. You'll feel a pins and needles feelin' for a moment and then it'll feel back to normal"

"It's not gonna hurt?" Angel asked

"No more than it already does now" Sam tried to make that a joke but he just wished he had just said no.

Angel nodded and with that Sam gently touched very close to the open cut. Angel's whole hand felt warm and then, as promised, felt the pins and needles in their fingers. Seconds later, it was like it never happened.

"Feel better?" Sam asked smiling

Angel examined their fingers in awe, "That's amazing, thank you"

"Anytime"

Sam left the bathroom to give Angel a moment to themselves. He knew it was going to take time to earn their trust, a sad fact of life for a vampire. Angel left the bathroom 5 minutes later knowing they were going to feel guilty about that they said until they could find a way to make Sam feel more welcomed in the pack.

[bellarkeselection]

Kayc and Y/n wolf's bark

Part 17

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The phone goes silent for a few minutes making me think I shouldn't have said anything until I heard his voice reply. "I only love you too, Y/n L/n. Don't worry your cowboys coming back home."

For the next 24 hours everything seemed less dangerous in the world. Like the man who attacked us all was taken care of. Bree and Tate no longer had trauma. All because of one special thing. Kayce Dutton is coming home to me. Driving John's truck back the sun has barely risen over the mountains to see Kayce's truck. Getting out I hear a horse gallop over to me. "How in the world did you get here before me?" I giggled in question watching him dismount his black horse. "I have my ways baby." He grins pulling me in for a hug. Lifting my feet off the ground twirling me around in circles of laughter. "God I've missed you so much." He breathes out sitting me on my feet watching me bend my limping leg still standing firmly on my other leg. "Not as much as I missed you Kayc." He chuckles hearing the nickname I gave him after so long.

The front door of the main house opened making us change our focus towards it. John approaches wearing his tan jacket with orange on the shoulders a black cowboy hat on his head. "It brings a smile to my face finally seeing you two together. Y/n I know I've already told you I like you. But son, I think it's time she officially became a Dutton." He spoke smiling happily. Kayce pulled away slightly bending down on one knee in front of me and his father. "Y/n L/n, will you marry me?" I grin letting him slip his mother's ring on my left hand. I'll chairish your ring Evelyn Dutton.

Yanking my reigns on my horse I round all the cattle with the others of the Bunkhouse. Counting the cattle with the John. Teeter asked for her job back and John didn't know that they wear the brand. Apparently the governor came by to talk with John. Tipping my hat up I heard him say he'll run for govenor so Jamie doesn't get it. Kayce and I have never talked about me wearing the brand like he does. His dad forced him to wear his but I've been loyal to this place.

Kayce and I ride horses with the Indian leader using Tate's dog. Flipping my badge on my belt loop a guy messed up and stole wild horses. So we have to figure out a way to get them back. Horses can't be hurded like cattle can. Rip and Beth are starting to treat Carter better this week. Later that day we came back and the man released the horses from the pen. "Oh this is gonna be fun as hell." I breathed out smirking at Kayce. He clicked his tongue making our horses raced with the Indian ones. The wind blows through my braid down my back with my horse running faster than I ever have rode one and I don't hate to admit it, I love it. Kayce races past me and I yank my reins cashing him and some of the horses until we hurd them into the pen.

The family thanked us as I pull my horse into the trailer. Monica spoke of a girl dying Kayce but he brushes her off when she spoke of love at first sight, talking about me. He gets in the driver's seat looking at me still grinning. "I think that's the first time I've seen your smile in a long time." He chuckled when I playfully push him from my seat. "Same can be said for ya, cowboy." He shakes his head driving us home but when we drive under the Yellowstone sign there's lights strung on the porch with everyone standing at the porch steps, waiting for us.

"What are you all doing?" Kayce gets out of the car first me following behind. Bree and Tate race to our arms and we both pick up each kid. John walks up towards us placing a flower crown on my head grinning. "Instead of waiting any longer for the two of you to get hitched. We thought it needed to be done tonight, right here where it all started." Beth stands beside Rip lightly smiling. "Rip and I are fucking moving into the main house. Time for you to become his wife." Glancing at the love of my life holding his son in his arms I question still smiling. "What do ya say, Kayc?" He blushed Tate and Bree both gag when he answers. "There's nothing I've been more sure of in my life."

My father walked me down the isle wearing one of Beth's dresses that I really liked. Kayce had switched into a clean dress shirt still in Jean's with that dusty black hat on his head. My mother wipes away tears before the ceremony happened. John stands in front of us watching Bree and Tate be ring bears. Brushing hair behind my ear I grin up into those brown eyes I couldn't help stare in the first day we met. "Kayce, I fell in love with you the first day we met right here. When I fell off my horse and gave you your nickname, Kayc. You said that I was the only one allowed to call you that. It was in that moment I knew you were special and was meant for me. We've both made mistakes and become slightly different people over the years. But one thing is for certain. That I'll always love you, it's you and me forever."

"Y/n, today someone asked me if I believed in love at first sight. And the first thought that came to mind was you. You know I thought you would've ran off so far from this place when I left, but you didn't. This ranch became your home reguardless of me being here. You once told me that after the attack on the family changed you, that the girl I fell in love with died on the side of the road. Yet I believe she's still here. That every part of you is still here, because Bree is keeping the light bright." Kayce started talking letting tears squeezing my hands intertwined with his own. "Today I saw the memory of when I fell in love with you too. The day we went riding through the fields for the first time. You acted so wild and free reminding me when I was a child. We're both wolves in love."

John sits his hand ontop of ours picking up the rings with his other. "It is my great joy to announce once they slip their rings on that they'll be husband and wife." I slip Kayce's gold band on his left hand his eyes never leaving mine. "I love you Kayce John Dutton." Kayce holds his mother's up tears in his eyes but a huge grin on his lips. He slowly slides the family ring on my left hand. "I love you Y/n M/n L/n." Leaning up on my tippy toes I crash my lips onto his and his arms wrapped around my waist. My fingers twisted his brown curls hearing everyone cheering. Young Tate and his half sister Bree smiled in their seats next to their grandpa John. "It's about time, huh bro." Bree giggled swinging her legs back and forth. Tate pushed his tan cowboy hat up a little smiling. "You bet your boots it is, sis."

John Dutton is Governor.

Kayce and Y/n are finally married.

Comments welcome 🤗

[yostresswritinggirl]

A String That Binds Him

Within his conscience and subconsciousness, he dangles with the karmic binds that tie him to his bloody deeds. They are black and tight that pulls at his soul towards the dark abyss of madness. Xiao hates those strings, and when another one manifests, he is more than scared.

Pairings -> Xiao x Reader

Word Count -> 1312

Themes -> I dunno either you tell me, short fic

Series -> #Sojourner Specials (600 Followers Event) Exiled's Xiao Manifestation Ritual

Warnings -> It's... not my best, I'm here to manifest

The first manifestation of the signs of a new string happened on the first encounter, when their eyes met his amber ones. Just another mortal lingering by the balcony, he thought to himself, just another mortal. Xiao knew of the human ways in which they desperately cling to divine blessings, to meet the Adepti for a miracle.

But his heart skipped in a painful way and like the wind he was gone within a second.

"Verr, who is that person in the balcony? They're dangerous, why are they allowed here?"

But the agent could only tilt her head at the intonation and he grew ever more frustrated at this mistake. Is the Qixing faulty to let a threat in so easily, more so in his territory? But Verr simply assured that they've done a background check beforehand, that they were no threat at all, just a simple citizen passing by.

But Xiao was restless, and when he looked again, the pain in his chest did not disappear.

Next thing was tantalizing fear enough to paralyze him.

Like a shadow that clings to his form no matter where so long as there is light, such entity lingers behind him unknowingly. When they spoke in which the first he has heard their voice, he froze with his back towards them. The most vulnerable he had been, and a rule he broke in war where one should not turn their back to the opponent.

When they called his name again, Xiao felt the familiar tug of agony before he willed himself to look with a seething glare worthy to vanquish all evil. But they withered under the gaze like a wolf wary of their injured paw when meeting strangers. A sign that they were a lesser being than him and yet the grip around his heart tightens tenfold.

"What are you doing here? Don't you know how dangerous it is around here?"

When they tilt their head to look past his shoulder, he was painfully aware of the massacre of hilichurls behind him, one he had recently vanquished.

"Seems to me that these dangers are taken care of already tho," they offered a smile which looped back down at the edges upon the look of distaste the adepti offered.

Xiao didn't wish to hang around longer than he should, but when they called out to him as he was about to leap off, his body locked again. Unceremoniously he tumbles down forward upon the inertia of his paralyzed leap.

And he knew from behind him that it took the mortal all their willpower not to mock him with the rawest laugh.

After those first two encounters were nothing but restless days of consciousness for the adepti where he longs for the night where such phenomenons would not exist, where he will be alone with his thoughts to ponder over without any other intrusion.

But even then he finds no solace in the voices in his head, even if they were only less painful than the ones he had been experiencing lately.

Their presence created a new binding that straps his soul and it tugs him at directions he cannot seem to predict. His karmic binds wrap around his limbs to fully pull him apart, yet this one wishes to tug him forward against the old binds, and the opposing forces brings him immense pain that gnaws at him 'til dawn.

The next instance of the bind's existence comes in the form of breathlessness. When their light touch found its way to his exposed bicep, the unexpected motion caused his lungs to stutter for a second, the need for air leaving him before he was slammed back by reality.

How he knew it was the mortal without even looking he did not know, as he was too busy scrambling away as if their touch was seering hot. Xiao's glare was unfocused as he willed himself manually to breath in and breath out.

"You were spacing out," he seems to be doing that lately, "I've been calling for you but you wouldn't budge." Did he really not hear them? "A-Are you okay, can you breath properly?"

No.

No, he doesn't know why he's having the trouble in the first place. The Yaksha lays himself vulnerable in front of them as his heart beats loudly and furiously at the loss of oxygen, it was a manifestation of one of the 'attacks' that shouldn't come this early unless provoked.

Before he knows it, they too invaded his being in the form of soft rubs to his back and whispers of increasing numbers. He follows suit in their guidance even with a few hiccups and soon enough his breathing stabilizes, his heart still trying to follow the calmness of it.

Did I scare you?

No.

I'm sorry.

There's no need to be.

The Yaksha's heart rested for a full second but the detail was missed when Xiao saw the pure pity in their eyes.

No, this person was no Adepti, no demon, no God, no other being. Only a mortal, a human with a soul that shall wither away too. The thought seemed to pull that stray string once again.

The third- or was it fourth? Counting didn't matter now that he was too far gone, but the next manifestation felt more worrying than the others as it was a sign he was not at all accustomed to. It made no sense, it was windy that day at the balcony and the sun barely peeked in past the horizon as it starts to sink for the cold night's entrance.

And they were there to obscure the sunlight that tries to reach him. Hovering over the railing that overlooks the marsh, his gaze caught their side profile as strands of hair falls from the fray, little rays passing through the curtain of the hair that frames their face.

It didn't make sense. No sense at all. And yet he was there to be another mess when he felt the burning sensation wash over his thinly clothed form.

There was nothing special about this human, no Vision exists to force such temperal reaction from him but it. still. happened.

And when they turned to look at him, Xiao dared look away pointedly as the trance of warmth messed more with his thoughts, the change in body temperature reaching his head in a faster pace. He is overheating and so he excuses himself as he disappears, the only sign of Xiao's whereabouts was the distant loud splash somewhere by the marsh.

The mortal choked at the image the plunge brought.

Finally one faithful day, Xiao confronted such merciless feelings to the only mortal he trusts the most. And he found Boss Verr grinning lightly, mischievously. Carrying behind it a secret he doesn't know.

"Dear Adepti, what you are feeling are what we humans call infatuation. Love sickness, even." He dons himself an apalled expression and it takes the woman all willpower not to crack up.

This heinous manifestations of agony are akin to that of human affection? Of romantic disease? If this is what humans deal with naturally, why do they commit themselves at such masochistic indulgences?

So warily he asked, how does one remove such emotions? If it were truly humane feelings that he harbours, then humane means can easily vanquish it unlike the binds holding him down. Speaking of, they've been very tame lately-

Under the guidance of Verr's simple advice of 'being honest with your feelings', Xiao diligently awaits for the mortal in the balcony. And when they finally showed up, he blurts out the worries he had to deal with since the moment they came to his life, loudly enough for a floor lower to hear his confession.

"You terrify me."

This was followed by the frantic steps of a sprinting Verr who desperately tries to make damage control.

A lil drabble hehe, first time trying third person pov bruuuuh

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