#listen she knows he likes it. Couldn’t be me my armpits would hurt like hell but i guess he is different

[bakugousbussy]

Plus Ultra

BakuDeku w/ Lee! Deku & Ler! Bakugou

Summary: Ever since being enrolled in U.A. Midoriya won’t quit saying “Plus Ultra!” Whether it would be meaningful like when he was giving a pep talk, or stupid like when he was trying to open a jar of pickles. And Bakugou was getting annoyed.

-

It started off as a beautiful day. The sun was slowly starting to peak out from behind the horizon, birds chirping a sweet tune, dew resting on the grass.

Bakugou opened his eyes, it was 630AM, he sat up and took a deep gulp of air. Enjoying the morning’s peace and quiet, sighing happily at the scene. Nothing could ruin his day.

Around 730AM, everyone else started to awake and emerge from their dorm rooms and into the common area. Small talk, morning greetings, and the smell of breakfast filled the air.

“Can you pass me the ketchup please?” Uraraka turned to ask Midoriya, while pointing at the red bottle that was next to him.

“Oh yeah of course!” Deku beamed her a smile as he passed her the bottle.

Uraraka fiddled with the cap for about a minute before sighing out loud, defeated.

“Deku can you open it?” She hands the bottle back to Deku, giving him a small smile and looking down at her food, slightly embarrassed. Imagine being a pro-hero in training and losing to a bottle of ketchup.

Deku notices her visual distress, “Hey, don’t worry! You know what you need to do? Go Plus Ultra! Focus all your strength and try again!” He shot her a wide smile.

Bakugou, who was sitting on the couch at the time, listening to their conversation, just rolls his eyes. “Go pLuS ULtRa!” He mocks, whispering to himself.

“You’re right Deku! Hand the bottle back!” Excitement and determination replaced her previous embarrassed face, as she grabbed the bottle from Deku before struggling a bit with the cap, but finally popping it off.

“Deku I did it!” Uravity exclaims, huge smile plastered on her face.

“Because you did it PLUS ULTRA!”

Deku and Uraraka laugh and continued to finish their breakfast before the school day started.

It was 830AM and the members of the Bakusquad were all seated in the common area impatiently waiting for Kirishima.

“Kirishima hurry up!” Mina sighed, looking at the red head.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I forgot about the math worksheet! I have like 5 problems left!” Kirishima responded with a panic, trying to quickly solve the math problems in front of him.

“We’re going to be late for school if you don’t hurry up, then Aizawa sensei is gonna chew us out!” Denki said with a hint of fear laced in his words.

“Tch. Shitty hair, we better not be late because of you.” Bakugou snarled from his position on the couch.

Midoriya sat on the opposite side of the table Kirishima was working on. Deku was engrossed in his hero notebook, writing thoughts, making up strategies, all while mumbling to himself. The green haired boy snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a frustrated sigh coming from Kirishima.

“Kirishima are you okay?” Izuku asked with genuine concern.

“This last problem is hurting my brain!” Kirishima whined, erasing his previous markings and letting out another frustrated sigh when he dropped his pencil from erasing too hard.

“Don’t worry! You know what you need to do? Just make your brain go Plus Ultra!” Midoriya nodded as he gave Kirishima his nonhelpful advice.

The phrase made Bakugou once again roll his eyes. Make your brain go Plus Ultra? How are you even going to do that? That was the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Nobody with half a brain cell is going to believe they can make their stupid brain go ‘Plus Ultra’. Bakugou thought.

“You’re so right MidoBro!”

Of course Shitty hair is going to eat that crap up. Bakugou finished his thought. Scowl on his face as he scrolled through his phone, angrily listening to the conversation.

“And there, it’s done!” Kirishima sighed in relief as he shoved his now finished math homework into his backpack. “Thank you for encouraging me Midoriya! And thank you brain for going Plus Ultra!” Kirishima happy danced his way over to the Bakusquad. “Alright let’s head to class!”

Time was going by so slow. Bakugou felt like he’s been in the same class forever. When the bell finally rang he jumped with excitement.

Finally, my favorite class. Bakugou thought, a small grin creeping on his face. Gym.

Everyone got changed into their gym clothes and met Aizawa sensei at USJ.

“Okay students, I will be splitting you up into partners and you will have to work together to stay hidden. Me and some of the other teachers are going to try to catch you.” Aizawa stated, monotone.

“Like a game of hide and seek?” Mina asked, excited that training today was more of a game than actual training.

“Correct. The winning team gets a prize.”

Ooh’s and ahh’s filled the air as the students got psyched to play. All wondering what the special prize at the end was. Everyone was determined. It’s gonna be one hell of a game.

Aizawa quickly broke up the chatter. “Listen, partners are:

Aoyama & Ashido

Asui & Hagakure

Iida & Jiro

Kaminari & Koda

Kirishima & Mineta

Ojiro & Sato

Sero & Uraraka

Bakugou & Midoriya

Shoji & Yaoyorozu

Todoroki & Tokoyami”

“Trade partners.” Bakugou asked everyone. No way was he going to be stuck with his childhood friend, turned enemy, turned rival.

“There will be no trading partners.” Aizawa stated, pinching the bridge of his nose in a annoyance. “You have 10 minutes to think of a strategy, you can use the whole training center, there will be a bell that rings after your 10 minutes of planning, when the bell rings, you have approximately 6 minutes before the other teachers and I start hunting. Understood?”

“Yes!” Said all the students unanimously, quickly finding their designated partners and started planning their survival, working together flawlessly.

All except Bakugou and Deku.

“Come on Kacchan I think it would be better to hide in the forest so we can hide in all the trees!” Deku whined at the explosive blonde.

“Tch. No nerd, we’re going to the city.” Bakugou stubbornly argued.

Bickering went back and forth and before they knew it, their 10 minute planning time was up and the bell rang. Everyone started to scatter, running to their chosen areas. Bakugou and Midoriya were too caught up in fighting that they didn’t decide on a place, so they both just ran. No plan, just running.

They ended up in the city area and hid in what seemed to be like a little bomb shelter. It was a little room underground, they had to take some sketchy staircase hidden inside a bar to get there.

Breathing hard, they both looked at each other and nodded, agreeing this was a good place to hide.

As time went by, Deku tried to make conversation with the explosive blonde, but Bakugou just ignored the green haired boy the whole time.

They heard some commotion outside of their hiding spot. Sounds like another team was hiding near us and got caught. Bakugou thought.

15 minutes of hiding passed, and Deku had a huge smile plastered on his face.

“What are you smiling about Deku?” Bakugou asked with annoyance.

“This hiding place is so good! It’s like we’re hiding Plus Ultra!” Deku beamed, hands shaking from all the excitement.

Not that shit again.

“You know what. That’s it.” Bakugou said as he tackled Deku to the floor, both boys landing with a huge thump. “I’m sick of hearing ‘Plus Ultra’ come out of your mouth. Plus Ultra this, Plus Ultra that. I’ll show you Plus Ultra you nerd.” Bakugou pins Deku to the floor and pinning his arms above his head with one hand.

“Kacchan wait!” Midoriya begs, shaking his head while tugging at his hands to try to get Bakugou off, not sure what is going to happen to him.

Bakugou wastes no time as he shoots his free hand into Midoriya’s exposed armpit.

“AHHAHAHA NAHAHAHAHAH KAHAHAHACCHAHAHAN!” Midoriya laughs out, surprised.

“Every time you speak all i hear is ‘Plus Ultra,’ so I’m going to take your advice nerd, and tickle you. Plus. Ultra.” Bakugou teases, with emphasis on the last two words, digging in a little harder into the green hairs’ armpit.

“WAHAHAHAHAIT IHIHIHIHIHI’M SOHOHOHOHORRY!” Midoriya squeezes his eyes shut, kicking his legs miserably.

A distant memory floods Bakugou’s mind. It was back in their elementary days. The two boys were in this same position, Deku a giggling mess under Kacchan. They had just finished school, and Deku was in a rather sad mood, and Bakugou cheered him up with tickles. Things were simpler back then, Bakugou thought to himself, a genuine smile forming on his face as he thought of his childhood. He was brought back to reality when he heard a small scream.

“NGA! KAHAHAHAHACCHAHAHAHAN NOHOHOHOHO MOHOHOHORE!” The broccoli headed boy cried out with laughter, trying to buck the blonde off of him.

Bakugou responded with an evil laugh, and released Midoriya’s wrists, and used both of his free hands to dig into Deku’s ribs. Resulting in waves of high pitched shrieks from Deku.

“STAHAHAHAHAP! NAHAHAHAHA! KAHAHAHAHCCHAN HAHAHAHAHAVE MEHEHEHEHEHERCY! SOHOHOHOHOME OHOHOHOHONE HEHEHEHELP MEHEHEHE!” Midoriya’s eyes started to collect puddles of mirthful tears, as he endured the ticklish torture.

“Tch. Deku, nobody can hear you down here. Guess you’re just gonna have to take it, and go…….?” Bakugou paused, words laced with that teasing tone that Midoriya couldn’t help but blush at. Continuing to assault Deku’s ribs, waiting for an answer.

“PLUHUHUHUHUS UHUHUHUHULTRA HAHAHAHA IHIHIHIHI GEHEHEHEHET IHIHIHIHIT!” Midoriya spat back, shaking his head, hoping the blonde had enough fun tickling the shit outta him.

Bakugou moved his fingers rhythmically, up and down Deku’s ribs, almost like playing a piano, not letting a single rib escape from his tickle attack.

“Oh-hoho, now you’re getting it.” Bakugou couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as he looked at the scene beneath him. “And now for the best part.” With those words, Bakugou stopped his fingers. And Midoriya’s eyes grew wide.

“No no no Kacchan, you know I can’t take it there.” Midoriya blurted out through gasps of air, tired from the previous attack, but still trying to push the explosive blonde off of him trying to protect himself.

“But what’s that thing you always say?” Bakugou pressed his fingers into his chin creating a thinking pose. “Hmmm, oh yeah! Don’t worry! You know what you need to do?” Bakugou’s hands lowered themselves to each side of Midoriya’s hip bones.

“Go.” Bakugou started to knead softly at Izuku’s hips. Resulting in loud giggles from the boy.

“Plus.” Bakugou added more pressure, circling his fingers on the sensitive bone. Louder laughter exploded from the boy.

“Ultra!” Bakugou dug his fingers into Deku’s hips and Deku lost his shit.

“KAHAHAHAHAA-” Deku couldn’t even finish his attackers name before he fell into silent laughter. His hipbones were the most ticklish and he couldn’t last very long once someone started tickling him there. Since they were younger, Bakugou would always use this little piece of information to his advantage.

The green haired boy’s tears finally fell from his eyes, leaving his cheeks tear stained. Midoriya’s arms flailed and tried to remove the explosive blonde’s hands away from his death spot. Failing of course.

About a minute later, the tickling slowed, until it finally came to a stop. Bakugou’s hands resting on the boy’s hips.

Residual giggles left Deku’s lips, and Bakugou hopped of his waist. Deku sat up, enjoying his freedom. Bakugou’s eyes were fixated on Midoriya. His hair a mess from the attack he just endured, cheeks still a little damp from mirthful tears, sweat building on his forehead. Bakugou mentally awed at the sight.

Midoriya could feel the stares coming from his childhood friend, and turned to face him, eyes meeting with each others. Deku gave Bakugou a smile and Bakugou looked away.

“Tch. Don’t think we’re friends or something, I just wanted you to shut it with that Plus Ultra shit.” Bakugou scoffed, permanent scowl plastered on his face. He knew that was a lie.

Midoriya was just about to reply when they heard loud bells, and an announcement that followed. “2 teams left! Who will be the last to survive?!” Both boys heard Present Mic practically scream out.

The game wasn’t over.

[stellarstarwarsimagines]

Lie For Me (Part III of V) (Part I) (Part II)

Pairing - Modern!Ben Solo x Reader

Summary - Something has changed in the relationship between you and Ben. No longer can you say that you hate him. You find yourself wanting to spend alone time with him, and you volunteer to drive out to his parents house out with him to check on Chewy. The question is, does he feel the same? 

Word Count - 5.7k

Warnings - None! 

Something had changed. There was no doubt about it. As soon as Ben walked in the door behind Poe for your movie night, it was different. Normally there’d be a rolling of eyes, a sarcastic comment about how happy you were to see each other that turned to fighting that turned to the two of you being kept in separate rooms until you had both calmed down enough to be in the same area as each other without bickering. 

This time there were smiles, but he seemed . . . weird. Well, weirder than normal. He was leaning to one side and his fingers were twitching as he handed over a bottle of wine to you. 

“Two bottles from you in a row, Solo. What did I do to deserve this one?” You asked, grinning up at him, and trying to put him at ease as you reached for his arm and tugged him inside. 

“You put up with my parents for two hours. I should’ve bought you a whole case.” Ben replied, but nevertheless eased up somewhat, his tense jaw loosening. 

But you shrugged your shoulders. While you didn’t think Ben’s parents were that bad, you also hadn’t been through the same things with them as Ben had, so you chose not to comment on that. “But I got to see your childhood bedroom, and pet your dog, so it was a win for me.” 

“Even though you missed the shrine to Satan?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at you. 

It was going to take some time to get used to him teasing you. “Yes, even if I’m disappointed about it.” You replied, letting out a laugh. Watching your friends get comfortable in your living room in their various positions, you glanced back over at Ben. “Wanna help me with the popcorn?” You asked. 

To your slight surprise he nodded, and followed you into the kitchen. 

While you started getting everyone’s favorite drinks together, you put him in charge of the popcorn. “You know, there is one other thing that I am disappointed about.” You told him. 

“What?” Ben asked, and you could hear the air of curiosity in his voice. 

Once you had the rest of the drinks, you turned around and pouted at him. “I didn’t get to see those baby pictures.” 

He rolled his eyes at you as he started opening bags of popcorn, “and you never will.” 

You crossed your arms over your chest, your pout turning into a bit of a smirk as a thought struck you. “I wonder if Leia could send them to me over text . . . or even email . . .” You pretended to ponder. 

Ben wasn’t buying it though. “You don’t have her phone number, or her email, so I think it’s safe to say that those two options are out for you.” 

“But you do . . .” You replied, taking a couple of steps closer to him. 

He watched you through narrowing eyes, and you knew that he was trying to figure out what game you were playing. “Yes . . .” He answered. 

Taking a chance, you lunged forward, grabbing his phone out of his front pocket and holding it up with a satisfied smile. “In here.” You looked down at the phone, turning your back to Ben for a brief moment and gasped when it turned on at once. “You don’t even have a lock on your phone?! Are you a psychopath?” You asked him in disbelief. 

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” he said, swiping for it, but you moved it out of his way so he couldn’t reach. “Give it back.” He said. 

“I will, as soon as I find Leia’s phone number.” You teased as you started to look for his contacts. “Oh my god, even your apps are in alphabetical order - oof!” You let out a gasp as Ben grabbed you from behind, wrapping his arm around you as he used his other to try and grab his phone. 

“Give it back,” he whispered in your ear in a low voice. 

You were startled, not only by how he had pulled you against his chest with no effort, but by the way that your heart reacted to it. It was pounding so hard it hurt. The two of you hadn’t been this close since you danced together a few weeks earlier, and you had forgotten how . . . nice it was to be so engulfed by him. 

Swallowing, you shook your head, trying not to let how much his embrace was affecting you show. “Make me, Solo.” You snapped back, holding the phone out of arm’s reach, a smirk on your lips, as you glanced over your shoulder at him. 

There was something strange in his expression, almost a challenge as he answered your smirk with one of his own. “You know I can.” Ben replied, and instead of doing what you expected, which was reaching out with his much larger arms and grabbing the phone, he began tickling your side with the arm around you. 

Letting out a screech you began swatting at his hand. How the hell did he know you were ticklish?! He was unrelenting as his fingers brushed up and down your sides from the bottom of your armpits to your hips. You tried to keep the phone out of his reach, but you couldn’t help it as you burst into laughter. He grabbed the phone and shoved it in his back pocket. “That wasn’t fair!” You complained, breathless as he let up on the tickling. 

You didn’t have to see his face to know that he was smiling, but you looked anyway. You glanced over your shoulder to see a cute smile you had never seen on his face. It was a happy smile, a smile that you had caught glimpses of, but never seen in full. It was so contagious, you couldn’t help but smile back. “I know.” He said, and for a split second, you thought he might have leaned even closer to you. 

And you found yourself wanting him too. 

“Is everything okay in here?” The both of you looked up to find Poe in the doorway, looking at the both of you with curious eyes. 

Ben stepped away from you, and you felt heat rushing up to your face at the position that your friend had found the two of you in. “Yeah, of course. Why do you ask?” You answered, maybe a little too quickly. 

Poe’s eyebrow raised as he looked between the two of you. You wondered what he saw on Ben’s face when he did, because you were too scared to look. “We heard screaming. Wanted to make sure the two of you weren’t going at it again.” 

“We’re fine,” but from the tenseness in Ben’s voice, it was clear that the two of you had been up to something. Not giving Poe the chance to ask any more questions, he grabbed the popcorn and made his way out of the room, leaving Poe and you alone. 

He was still staring at you, his eyes narrowed, and you couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable under his gaze. “What?” You snapped, wondering why he was staring at you. 

“Something’s happening between the two of you. I’ve got my eye on it.” He replied, pointing his two fingers at his eyes and then back to you. 

You rolled your eyes, grabbing the drinks, and pushed past Poe back into your living room. 

Movie nights at your place have been happening for several years now. Poe, Finn, and Rose always took up one of the couches while Rey and you took up the little two person loveseat, which left Ben the recliner. It was a system that had been going strong since the first movie night. 

Apparently today, Rey decided to change it. When you walked in, you were surprised to see Rey reclined back, watching you with a little devilish grin on her lips, nodding her head to the remaining spot on the loveseat. 

With Ben. 

Sometimes, your friends were way too meddlesome. You didn’t want anyone to think their little trick had affected you though. You handed everybody their drinks, settling on the couch next to Ben and grabbed the remote. “It’s stand up night isn’t it?” 

“Then Comedy!” Finn spoke up from the couch. 

“Then horror.” Rey said, giving you a scheming look. 

You let out a sigh. Everyone in this apartment knew that you hated horror movies. You were easy to scare, and now you were even more sure that Rey had set this seating arrangement up on purpose. “Fine,” you mumbled under your breath as you flipped it to the stand up show you guys had been watching recently. 

As usual, everyone started drifting off about the third movie. They almost always did, beginning with Rose, Finn, Poe and lastly Rey, but Rey seemed determined tonight to at least stay up until the horror movie started. Probably to make sure you were going to play it. 

She knew you too well. 

When you hit play, you leaned back against the couch, bringing your feet up off the ground, so the demons couldn’t get them, and sighed, knowing what you were in for. You were distracted from your thoughts when Ben nudged your side. You looked up at him to find him holding out your blanket, your security object, towards you. With a grateful smile, you took it from him, wrapping it around you, and not even noticing how much closer you had put yourself to Ben in the process. 

You also didn’t notice the way that he leaned even more into you. 

When the movie started, you knew within the first five minutes that you were in for it. You hated jump scares so much, and that was all this movie seemed to be. Within ten minutes, you had your blanket under your nose, watching with wide eyes, waiting, anticipating the next scare. 

“You know, you can almost always tell when the scare’s coming by the music.” Ben whispered in your ear. 

Looking up at him, you noticed for the first time how close the two of you had gotten. There were mere inches between your faces, and you felt your heart beat pick up with that newfound knowledge. Why was he so close? Why had you gotten so close? You were so distracted; you took a minute to comprehend what he had said. “I - what?” You asked, hoping he took your stuttering as scared, and not having anything to do with his proximity. 

Ben seemed to be unaffected by how close you two were sitting. You could tell no difference in his voice or anything like that, but he also didn’t move away from you like you would have expected. It seemed he was going to continue to surprise you tonight. “Listen to the music. It almost always gets louder, and then goes silent right before there’s a jump scare. Trust me.” Ben whispered to you. 

Deciding to listen for his tips, you turned back to the screen, right in time for a demonic looking ghost to pop out, screaming. 

Letting out a yelp of your own, you covered your head with the blanket, cowering into Ben’s side without a second thought, even as you heard him and Rey, still awake on the chair, laughing at you. “That’s the last time I trust you, Ben Solo.” You mumbled under the pillow. 

“Hey, I did say almost, not all the time.” You heard him reply, and then felt a tug on the blanket, a pout on your face as he tugged it off your head. You had to bite your bottom lip though, when you caught sight of his face, that smile you had seen earlier back on it. It was hard not to smile back at him when he was looking at you like that, but you tried to resist. 

“Still,” you said, crossing your arms over your chest. 

Ben shook his head, that grin seeming to widen as he looked at you. “You, um -” He reached around you, draping his arm across your shoulders and reaching into your hair. “You had some wool.” He said, plucking it out and flicking it away.

Heat flooded your cheeks, and you didn’t even know why. “Oh, thanks,” you replied, giving him a small smile that he returned. 

You expected him to take his arm off of you, but the evening’s surprises continued when he didn’t. It was loose, and you knew you could shake it off if you wanted to, and nothing would be said about it . . . 

But you didn’t. 

Instead you curled into his side even more, tucking yourself into him and his warmth, almost snuggling into him as you let your head rest against his side. Then his thumb started stroking your shoulder, and your whole body relaxed. You couldn’t help but wonder when this change had happened. What moment had you started feeling so comfortable around him when a month ago you would have shoved him away? Just like how it had been hard to pinpoint when your dislike for him had begun up until two weeks ago, it was now hard to determine when you started liking Ben. 

And you knew, deep down, that it wasn’t the type of like you had for Poe, or Finn . . . No. Your heart didn’t react to their touches the way it reacted to Ben. This was a whole different story. 

The fact was . . . at some point and time, that hate had changed to something much more. 

____________________

The loud shrill of a cell phone pulled you out of your slumber. You groaned into the warmth at your side, reaching out until you found the offending object and answered it without a second thought. “Hello?” You mumbled, your voice rough with sleep. 

The voice on the other end of the line startled you awake though as soon as she said your name, because it made you realize you had answered Ben’s phone. “Leia, I’m sorry, we were sleeping, and I didn’t see whose phone -” You shot upright, making Ben groan next to you as you disrupted the position he had fallen asleep in. Partially asleep, his hand slid from your shoulder to your hip, and heat rushed to your face as his hand met the bare skin where your top had ridden up. If that didn’t make you flustered enough, his thumb started rubbing circles into your skin, and you were going to -

“Did you hear me?” 

“Oh, no, I’m sorry, can you say that again?” You asked, attempting to focus on anything other than Ben Solo’s large hand. 

“I’m sure Ben’s asleep, but could you wake him up for me? We need him to go check on the house. The alarm for the gate’s gone off which means that Chewy’s got out again.” Leia told you. 

“Of course, give me a second, and I’ll see what I can do.” Dropping the phone at your side, you placed your hand on Ben’s shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Ben, Leia’s on the phone. She needs to talk to you.” 

All he did was grunt, which you should have expected. 

Sighing, you began to shake his shoulder more vigorously. “Ben, come on, you’ve got to wake up. Leia says that Chewy has gotten out, and you need to go check on him.” You told him. 

At least one word of that sentence managed to get through his sleepy brain. “Chewy?” He repeated, his voice low with sleep. 

Dear God why was that voice so hot? “Um, y-yeah, Leia says he’s got out. She’s on the phone.” You told him, placing the phone in his hand. You bit your lip as his hand gripped your bare hip for another second as he hoisted himself up, but then he dropped it, bringing it back to his own thigh as if it had never been around you in the first place. 

“Mom?” he said, bringing the phone up to his ear, his voice groggy and deep. “No, you didn’t interrupt a date, but yeah I’ll go check on him.” His mother must have said something else then, because he glanced at you for a quick moment before he responded. “Mom, I can drive fine, and she’s tired too, I doubt she wants to drive out to the house with me -”

You didn’t even think about what you were doing. You grabbed the phone back from Ben’s hand and put it up to your ear. “Don’t worry, Leia, I’ll go with him.” 

“Thank you, Sweetheart. You two please be careful, and thank you so much.” Leia told you. “We don’t know what we’d do if something ever happened to Chewy.” 

“It’s no problem. We’ll let you know as soon as we know he’s safe and sound.” You assured her. Then the two of you said your goodbyes, and you hung up the phone, turning back to Ben. “Well, I guess we better get out of here.” 

He looked exhausted. He was rubbing sleep from his eyes and you could tell that if you let him, he would be asleep again in about ten seconds. “Listen, I know you told my mom you would come with me, but you don’t have to -”

“It’s fine,” you brushed off, standing up and stretching your arms out over your head, arching your back and trying to get a good stretch. “I can see why she doesn’t want you driving. You take a bit to wake up, don’t you?” 

You said so because he was staring at your stomach, looking a little dazed. When you looked down to see if you had something on your shirt, you realized how much your shirt had ridden up when you stretched, revealing a few inches of skin, and pulled it back down. 

“You sure you’re okay? I can drive if you want.” You offered, trying to break the weird tension that seemed to fill the room. 

Ben shook his head, standing up and stared at you for a moment. You had the very distinct feeling that he was trying to read you, trying to figure out why you wanted to come with him on this late night drive when you didn’t have to. You could see the frustration in him, not knowing the answer to his silent question, and yet, he didn’t ask. “Are you sure?” He said instead. 

Giving him a small smile, you nodded. “Yeah, I am. It’ll get me away from all the snoring for a little bit.” You added on, pointing towards Rey and then Poe, the loudest in the room. Was that the real reason? No. The real reason was that you wanted to spend more time with him. Alone time, but you were way too scared to admit that right now. Not without knowing if he was even sort of starting to feel the same way. 

His gaze never wavered from you, almost as if he could sense that you weren’t telling him the whole truth. If he did though, he didn’t say anything about it. Instead, he spared a glance at Poe, and then turned back to you. “You should hear him in the apartment. It’s worse.” 

You grinned at him. 

____________________

The drive back to Ben’s parents place was mostly silent, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The two of you had transgressed to the point in your relationship where you could be quiet around each other and not feel awkward. You spent most of the trip watching Ben, sneaking glances, and then turning away when you saw him turning your head towards you. It was embarrassing, and you felt like a high schooler with a crush. 

You were thankful when you made it to his parents house to escape the tension. “So why aren’t your parents home?” You asked, climbing out of the car. 

“France I think.” Ben replied, making his way up to the front door and unlocking it. 

“You don’t know?” You asked, stopping in the doorway.

Ben’s voice turned tense. “I stopped keeping track of that a long time ago.” Then he turned back and noticed that you weren’t following him. “Are you coming?” He asked, tilting his head towards the backyard. 

Nodding, you hurried after him, following him until you reached the gate that closed off the backyard to the woods behind it. “Definitely seems like he got out.” You said, noticing the lock that had been knocked off. 

“Damn dog is too smart for his own good.” Ben muttered, looking out into the darkness of the trees behind the house. “Guess we’re going in after him.” 

Your eyes widened, eerily reminded of the horror movie that you had watched hours earlier. The wind whistling through the leaves, the crickets chirping and the owls hooting sure sounded the same as it had then. “Uh, in there?” You said, biting your bottom lip. 

Ben picked up on your hesitation at once. “I’ve been in these woods a hundred times. There aren’t any axe swinging murderers hiding out in a wooden cabin.” 

“All it takes is one time.” You argued, eyeing the woods, fingers twitching at your sides. 

He let out a sigh, and held his hand out to you. “I’ll go first. So if they try and take you down, I’m going with you.” 

You glanced at his hand, then looked up into his eyes, eyes that were imploring you to trust him. After that, you didn’t even hesitate, slipping your small hand into his much larger one and letting him lead you into the woods. “So . . . are we going to walk around until we find him, or -”

“I have a pretty good idea of where he’s at.” Ben said, chuckling when a tree branch cracked, and you jumped. “Sorry, that was me.” 

Narrowing your eyes at him, you shoved him with your elbow. “You shouldn’t harm your own people like that.” You joked, reminding him of all the times you had called him a tree. 

Ben rolled his eyes. 

The two of you didn’t say anything else for a stretch, but you never let go of his hand, and the longer you held onto it, the less scared you found that you were. Once again you were struck by how comforting it was to be with him, to have him at your side, something you would have thought you were crazy for thinking months ago. While yes, Ben had been the one to start the feud . . . You hadn’t been the nicest to him either, and you wondered how much time and getting to know each other had been wasted because of that. “Hey, Ben?” You said, giving his hand a squeeze to get his attention. 

“Hmm?” He acknowledged, though his attention was focused on the woods around the two of you. 

“I’m sorry,” you blurted out of nowhere. 

“What?” Ben asked, shooting you a confused look for a moment before holding a tree branch out of the way for you. 

“I’m sorry for being bitchy all the time . . . you know, earlier.” You told him, shrugging your shoulders. After all, you could probably list most of the times that you had been horrible to him, but that would take way too much time. 

Ben stopped at your words, looking at you with curiosity in his intense gaze. “What brought this on?” 

The thing was . . . you didn’t want to admit what was bringing this all on. As much as your relationship had grown, you weren’t positive that he wouldn’t laugh at you if he discovered you had grown feelings for him after all that. “I - uh . . . Trying to be a better person?” You replied, not sounding the least bit convincing. 

He snorted. “Sure you are.” He said, pulling a last branch out of your way and gesturing you forward into a clearing. 

As soon as you stepped forward, you were shocked by what you found. You had to admit, the forest had made a beautiful little natural place here. A small creek babbling from somewhere nearby along with the chirping of crickets filled your ears, and there was just enough moonlight to shine down between the branches of the trees to illuminate the flowers blooming from the ground. 

It was beautiful. 

Even the large, very muddy dog rolling around in the water. 

“Damn it,” Ben murmured when he caught sight of him. “Chewy!” 

The dog perked up at once when he heard Ben’s voice, and ran straight towards the two of you. Of course, you should have seen what was about to happen, but your mind was too distracted by how the moonlight was shining off of Ben’s hair. So you let out a grunt as the dog collided with you, covering you in his mud and licking your face. 

“Chewy get down!” Ben ordered, but instead of doing so, Chewy decided it was Ben’s turn to get kissed and covered in mud as well. 

You couldn’t help but laugh watching Chewy attempt to chase Ben around in circles and get as much mud as possible on him. “Might as well give it up!” You called to him, another laugh bursting from your lips as he almost tripped over a root. Of course his momentary loss of balance was what Chewy needed to jump up and began licking him, covering him in as much mud as you. 

By the time that Ben managed to get Chewy off of him, It was safe to say that the two of you could use a shower. 

“Please tell me you have some spare clothes up there.” You asked, nodding up to the house as you held up your filthy shirt. 

Ben nodded. 

____________________

The clothes that he gave you were so comfortable, albeit large, that you almost wanted to keep them. You sat next to him in the bathroom, you on the counter and him leaning over the sink, both of you attempting to wipe away the remnants of mud from your faces. 

“I bet Chewy was a fun dog to have around when you were a kid.” You stated, shooting him a grin in the mirror. 

Ben shook his head, but a small smile tugged at his lips. “According to my mother I used to ride him.” 

The image crossed your mind of a young Ben Solo, laughing, smiling, on the back of the large dog, and your smile widened. “Oh, there’s got to be pictures of that somewhere.” 

“You’re never getting to see them, and I don’t know why you keep trying.” Ben said, and although his voice sounded frustrated, the lack of tension in his face said otherwise. 

“I refuse to believe that. Given the opportunity, Leia would show them to me in a heartbeat.” You argued, bumping him with your shoulder. 

He bumped you back. “Which is why you’re never going to get the opportunity again.” 

You frowned at him, giving him the best pouty eyes that you could manage. “Come on, Solo, just one. Let me see one picture. That’s all I’m asking for.” 

Your eyes had no effect on him whatsoever. “You look ridiculous like that.” He said, and your heartbeat kicked up as he leaned forward, bringing the washcloth he had been using up to your forehead and brushing it along your hairline. “You forgot some mud.” 

“Thanks,” you said, biting your bottom lip, your eyes trapped in his gaze. There was something so intense about them that you had always found intimidating. They were the same now, but instead of being intimidated, you felt drawn to them. So drawn you almost didn’t notice when he said your name. “Hmm?” You mumbled, not trusting your voice. 

“Why did you want to come with me here? You know that I would have been fine.” Ben asked, confusion clear in his tone as he dropped the hand that had been wiping the mud from your face to the counter, close enough to touch your leg. 

You wanted to lie to him. It should be easy to. You were sure that given the opportunity, you could think of many reasons why you would have wanted to come with him, but right now, your mind was drawing a blank. It was as if his eyes held some sort of spell over you, and you couldn’t speak anything but the truth. “I . . . I wanted to spend more time with you.” You answered, hoping that answer would be vague enough for him. 

It wasn’t. 

“Why? We had just spent hours together watching movies and -”

You cut him off before he could continue. “Does everything have to have a reason? Can’t I like spending time with you?” 

Ben shook his head. “A few months ago you didn’t want anywhere near -”

What part of your brain, or maybe your heart, told you to do it, you weren’t sure. All you knew was that Ben was rambling, and you knew he wasn’t going to stop until you admitted why you wanted to spend time with him. You weren’t sure you knew the right words yet though, so instead, you did what seemed logical at the moment. 

You slid your hand into the hair on the back of his head, and used it to tug him forward until your lips met in a kiss. 

And Ben froze. You felt his whole body stiffen at your actions from the neck your palm was resting against, to the hand that had now curled into a fist at your side. Heat rushing to your face, you pulled back, embarrassment inching through your whole body as you stared into his intense eyes once more. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have -”

He didn’t let you get another word out. A gasp left you as his lips met your own in a passionate kiss that you had never expected him to be capable of. Ben Solo was a man of logic and seriousness most of the time. There had been moments when you had seen outbursts of emotion from him, mostly anger, but this was something else. 

He wanted you. It was clear in the way his hands gripped your thighs and then used them to bring you against him. In the way his lips parted and pulled you in with such emotion that it left you breathless and sent your head spinning as you tried to play catch up. The two of you had kissed at that first party, and while it had been nice, it didn’t even come close to comparing to this. 

Kissing Ben Solo was like kissing an inferno, and there was no way to smother it out. Not that you had any desire to. 

When his tongue slipped past your lips, you let out a soft moan, clutching him to you by his shirt and wrapping your legs around him. You wanted him closer. You wanted to feel every part of him against you, and he seemed to have no problem with that either. As your tongues met, he slid his large hands up and down your thighs. The way that they covered almost the whole entire body part made you shiver in anticipation of what those hands would feel like on your bare skin. Of course, that put the thought in your head of what his bare skin would feel like under your fingers . . . 

Your hands had been resting on the back of his neck, but you slid them down enough to slip under the collar of his shirt onto his warm skin, massaging the muscles that strained under your fingers. 

He groaned. He groaned and he seemed to melt under your touch, his hands slipping from your thighs around to the small of your back, splaying across it. His embrace was so warm, so firm, you felt like you wanted to drown in it and the sensation of kissing him. 

Then his phone started ringing. 

When he let out another groan, this one significantly less pleasurable than the last one, and pulled his lips away from yours, you frowned, not done with kissing him yet. Instead you took matters into your own hands and leaned forward to kiss along his jawline. 

You thought he might push you away, but he didn’t, his hand on your back keeping you pressed tight against his body while he pulled out his phone. “Hello?” Ben said, and you were pleased to hear the strain in his voice. 

As soon as the voice responded though, it was like a switch had been flipped inside of him. Once again you felt him tense up, and curious as to his reaction, you let your lips leave his skin, watching his face. He was avoiding your gaze, looking over your shoulder into the mirror. “Yes, Chewy’s fine. He’s back in the backyard.” 

Well that explained it. He probably wasn’t comfortable letting you kiss all over him while he was on the phone with his mother . . . 

Right? 

“All right. We will. You’re welcome.” Ben said, and then slid his phone into his back pocket once more. 

You looked up at him, meeting his eyes once more, and frowned at what you saw there. Now you would be the first to admit that you didn’t know Ben Solo so well that you could sense everything he was feeling from looking at his face, but there was no denying there was something there that wasn’t before, and you didn’t like the looks of it. 

Your eyes closed as he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to your forehead, which normally is something that would have made your heart pound, but instead, you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was . . . off. 

“We should go.” Ben said, his voice soft as his lips brushed against your skin. 

You nodded, biting your bottom lip as you looked up at him, but he didn’t meet your gaze, instead walking out of the bathroom and leaving you there with the gut feeling that the relationship between the two of you had fundamentally changed. Again. 

____________________

The drive back to your apartment was silent, tension thick in the air as you tried to make conversation while Ben replied with one word answers. When you pulled up, the sun was rising, and you spotted all of your friend’s cars there, so you assumed they were all asleep. “Are you coming in?” You asked, your voice quiet in the morning light, noticing how he didn’t turn his car off. 

“I have to get some work done. I’ll see you later.” He replied.  

A dismissal if you’d ever heard one, you nodded, climbing out of the car and up your steps. Ben didn’t even wait to see if you made it inside. In seconds he was speeding down the road. 

Watching him drive away, you couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever relationship could have come from you and Ben was over before it could start.

[bvidzsoo]

Abiding Darkness (XVII)

 Author: bvidzsoo

 Warning: violence and cursing

 Pairing: Oh Sehun x OC

 Word Count: 3, 912

 Summary:   Belikov Bora is living in Seoul at her grandparents as she had gotten her long awaited scholarship. She’s not new to this world but she’s also not really interested in the famous people of it…so maybe that’s why she gets the shock of her life when a zombie apocalypse begins and she’s stuck with Oh Sehun.

    The deafening sound of the siren sent my heart into a frenzy as I tried thinking logically. Jian looked just as scared as I felt and I clutched her hand, trying to give her any form of comfort. Here we are safe, but if that’s the case, why are these sirens going off? Suddenly, a male deep voice boomed through the speakers hung in the room, one I didn’t notice before.

“Everyone pick anything that could serve as a weapon and head immediately to the Hall room, we are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack and it’s not an exercise!” 

Jian and I looked at each other and simultaneously jumped up from the bed, a hiss leaving my lips when I put too much pressure on my broken shin. 

“Get dressed as fast as possible!” I threw Jian’s old clothes at her as I tried taking deep breaths to stay calm. This isn’t the first time I have to fight the Affected ones, I know what to do to keep us safe. And here, we have weapons, there are soldiers here who know what to do. All I have to do is get Jian and me safely to the Hall room.

The clothes I arrived in here still had dirt and bloodstains on them but I couldn’t fight in loose fitted pants and a simple sweater. Jian ran to my side and I gripped her hand in mine as I placed my crutch underneath my armpit, ready to take off. But before we could get to the door it got kicked open and we both froze. A bloodied, deformed face and black eyes were staring back at us. The Affected one snared and shot forward, taking us by surprise, but it was enough to wake me up from my initial shock. We survive tonight and I’ll do anything it takes.

“Hide in the bathroom, Jian!” I rushed out as I raised my crutch at swung it at the Affected one. It jumped back, cleverly avoiding my attack. I glared at it but quickly glanced back to see if Jian listened to me, which was a mistake. Before I could react, I was tackled onto the bed and the Affected one was snarling in my face. A guttural growl left my throat when the Affected one went to clutch at my neck and I delivered the hardest punch I could at its face. Its head shot up and blood dripped on my face, it disgusted me, but I took the moment of weakness of the Affected one to my advantage and kicked it off of me. However, this one seemed very determined to get me so it was back on its feet in a few seconds, leaving me no time to pick up my crutch and swing at it. For a second we just stared at each other in silence and that’s when I remembered these were people before they turned into these monsters. I was killing once innocent people, people who didn’t deserve to die. My thoughts were all forgotten when the Affected one snarled once again and went to lunge at me. I leaned down a bit and ran towards the creature, hooking my arms around its torso and slamming it against the wall. There was a cracking sound and I dropped to the ground to pick up my crutch before the Affected one could recover from my attack. I raised the crutch and using all the force I had I swung at its head, once again a cracking sound echoed in the room. I winced but swung at it again, harder this time, but the Affected one ducked. I shrieked in frustration and the creature only snarled before kicking my broken shin. A scream full of pain left my lips, the pain just as unbearable as the first time I broke it, but I didn’t back down. If I die, it gets to Jian, and I won’t let that happen. So with a deadly glare, knees shaking, my crutch went through the stomach of the Affected one, pinning it up to the wall. 

“Die, bitch” I snarled at it as it continued kicking around until it just stopped moving. With shaky hands, I pushed the hair that had fallen into my eyes away and turned around to go for Jian. I yelped when I placed pressure on my broken shin but I couldn’t give up, not now. 

“Jian” I called out as I barged inside the bathroom.

“I thought I wouldn’t see you again” Jian cried when she saw me walking inside the bathroom and I opened my arms as she ran into them, “When you screamed--”

“Shh, it’s okay. I would never leave you alone, don’t ever forget that” I gave her a reassuring smile and a kiss on her forehead, “I don’t know how many Affected ones are in here, you have to stay in this bathroom--”

“No, I can’t stay alone--” 

“Jian, if we both go and there’s too many of them, I...I won’t be able to save you, please” Tears filled the little girl’s eyes and I sighed as I felt my heart breaking. I didn’t want to leave her here either, but I had no choice. If I had to die today, at least I die protecting someone.

“I’ll stay here” Jian’s eyes turned hard, a look I haven’t seen on her before and it made me ache that she had to be tough at such a young age, “Give me a weapon”

I looked around the room frantically for anything that could be used as a weapon when I noticed the metal piece that was used as a shelf for the toothpaste and toothbrushes. I hopped to it and ripped it off the wall creating a loud commotion. Jian took it from my hands and gave me a firm nod. I smiled at her and rushed her into the shower stall pulling the curtain so that it would hide her from unwanted eyes.

“When this is all over, I’ll come back for you” I muttered through the curtain and I could see Jian’s head moving in a nod. 

“Go, I’ve got this” Her voice was strong but reassuring at the same time. I sighed and with a last glance at her, I exited the bathroom and closed the door, locking it. No one would get to her, not if that depended on me. My eyes fell on the gruesome scene of the dead Affected one and I limped over, yanking my crutch out of the creature’s stomach, watching as it fell limply to the ground. Good, I have to get to the Hall room now and fight off these creatures until none is left.

The silence in the hallway was deadly as I inched closer to the door and I gulped loudly before exiting the safety of my room that it once offered. My foot was only halfway out of the door when I was tackled into a tight hug, so surprised that I didn’t react.

“You’re alive” The voice was quiet as my brain registered who was hugging me and I inhaled sharply, returning the tight hug. 

“Jian is in the bathroom, we can’t take her with us...not until we know it’s safe” I whispered as Sehun took a step back, arms falling from around me. I craved his warmth, I wanted him to throw his arms around me once again, I wanted to forget about the wailing sirens and about the snarls that were loud in the distance, I just wanted to be with Sehun and him only. 

“I heard a scream and I--”

“The Affected one kicked my shin, I’m fine. But are you--”

“Good. I’m good, let’s go” Sehun’s eyes hardened once again, all warmth disappearing and I sighed quietly to myself. He still didn’t forgive me, he was just scared something happened to us and that’s why he came to check. But I didn’t mind as long as he stayed by my side, I didn’t care if he hated me, I didn’t care if he fed me to the Affected ones to save himself, he was safe for now and that’s what truly matters to me.

The hallways were empty, a sight we didn’t expect. Sehun held onto tightly the bloody metal rod, before he came to check on Jian and I, he had to fight three Affected ones. I tried not to hiss at every step I took, Adrenaline wasn’t as high to take away the pain I felt due to my broken shin. The cast cracked a bit and only just now I realized how strong these creatures are. One kick was enough to create a crack in my cast, no wonder my whole leg was throbing in pain. The sight of my bloody crutch made me dizzy and with a sharp inhale I stopped walking, feeling dizzy I leaned up against the wall. Sehun didn’t stop, he probably didn’t notice my reaction, only when he was almost at the end of the hallway. But I didn’t care, my lungs were on fire, my body was in pain and I would die. For the first time since we got into this deadly situation, I realized that I would actually die. I had no way out, no one would save me. The soldiers had to protect everyone, didn’t have the luxury to protect just me. One moment of them not paying attention to me and I’m dead. Hell, if we get to the Hall room, that is. And I left Jian alone, what was I thinking? She’d be safest with us and in the Hall room not left alone in our room’s bathroom, with a locked door on top of all.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Sehun’s voice seemed far away and I closed my eyes tightly, “No, you can’t have a pannic attack right now, Bora, focus on my voice”

But it was really hard, I could barely breathe at this point, “We...are...going...to...die”

I heard and saw nothing, until I felt warmness on my cheeks. I couldn’t open my eyes, that would have made me throw up, the lightning was too much, and there was this high pitched sound coming from the now silent alarms that was making my head throbe. 

“We are not dying, listen to me” Sehun’s voice sounded stern but pannicked, “Count with me”

I can’t even think straight and he wants me to count with him?

“One, two, three, four…” His voice was warm, just like his hands, as he counted with me while taking deep breaths. I started following him, his voice sounding closer this time, but I still couldn’t open my eyes. My lungs were on fire but I could breathe again, it hurt. 

“Twenty” I whispered as I started coughing, the needed oxygen entering my system once again.

“Twenty” Sehun whispered after me, “We are not dying”

My eyes opened at the harshness of his voice and I was no longer blinded by the lights, the high pitched sound was gone. His face was just an inch away from mine, his breath was fanning over my face and I was taken aback. I wanted to kiss him, I didn’t care if he hated me, I didn’t care if he fed me to the Affected ones once we stumbled upon them, but I wanted to kiss him one last time. So I did, I pushed my lips against his warm and chapped ones, eyes closing at the fire that spread through my body. I was desperate but so were his lips. He clutched onto my cheeks and pulled my face harder against his, making my lips ache at the force. But I didn’t care, this is what I wanted and he wanted it too. I was the one to initiate the kiss and I was the one to end it. I pulled back, lungs screaming for oxygen once again as I inhaled longly, eyes staring into his. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t pull away. His dark eyes were shining with an emotion I have never seen before and it made me cry, but I couldn’t, not now. So I softly pushed him back and leaned down to take my crutch back into my hands and took off. I didn’t look back, I knew he was following me, but I didn’t look back because if I did, I knew I’d break down.

~~~

    It was safe to say that Sehun and I were lost, we had no idea where the Hall room was so we were just running around, limping in my case, around this bunker. There were many compartments and none were the one we had to find. Sehun let out a frustrated sigh as he kicked his metal rod while walking in front of me. I was getting tired, the pain got worse and if we continued like this I wouldn’t be able to fight by the time we find the Hall room. Sehun stopped walking suddenly and I ran into him.

“What are you--” My words died in my mouth when I peaked over his shoulder, double doors open and snarls and gun shots echoed down the whole hallway. The place was full of them, even with our guns, we’d die. I sighed and closed my eyes to curse quietly.

“We have to help them, my hyungs are there--”

“Yeah, I know Sehun” I muttered and walked past him, pushing away the pain shooting up my leg. If I die might as well die doing something. Sehun started mumbling behind me that he couldn’t let me go inside injured, that I couldn’t fight. I didn’t care, Jian is still back in that room, she still needs to survive. 

“Stop trying to fight me on this one, Sehun” I spoke up tiredly as I gazed at the open doors, “If I do die, I’m sorry that I lied to you. If you don’t want to see past your own prejudice and accept the fact that I was trying to make you happy, it’s fine. But don’t think that I was ever your or EXO’s fan”

Before he could say something, his eyebrows furrowed, I turned around and stepped inside the room. It was chaos, what I saw in front of my eyes was pure chaos. An affected one hurried towards me so I raised my crutch and swung at it with all my force, sending it to the ground. There was a loud cracking sound next to me and when I glanced there, Sehun was glaring at another creature that tried to get to me, his metal rod bloodier than before. My eyes looked around for familiar faces and when I saw Baekhyun waving his arm crazily in the air I gripped Sehun’s arm and started running. I cried out in pain, but I didn’t stop. They were hiding behind some tables that were supposed to keep the Affected ones away from them, but it wasn’t working out as Chanyeol was beating one to death with a frying pan. We were barely a few steps away from them when I was yanked back by my hair, a shriek leaving my lips. The crutch fell from my hand and I pannicked, no crutch means I’m dead. I tried to untagle myself from the creature’s grip when I heard its snarl right next to my ear. It was going to bite me, immune or not, if I bleed to death what did I do? Nothing.

“Bora!” Sehun’s desperate voice snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked at him. His friends were holding him back, he was trying to fight them off but three held him. Of course they wouldn’t let him save me, he was more precious than I am. And that’s alright. But I’m not dying today. 

I elbowed the Affected one hard in the stomach and ducked, my scalp hurting as it still held onto my hair, I yelped loudly. I turned and kicked it in the knees, sending the creature down to the ground and went to grab my crutch. But suddenly there were shots fired at the Affected one and I jumped as I watched it still its movements. It was dead. I quickly grabbed my crutch and crawled to Sehun, who had his hands out to grab onto me and pull me behind shelter. Once I was behind the tables his fingers interwined with mine and when I tried to pull my hand away he growled and threw me a glare. Did he forgive me? Or was this just because we survived out there together and felt a certain need to protect each other. I hope Jian is alright, I can’t imagine what she must feel right now. 

“Where’s Jongdae?” I suddenly heard Sehun speaking as he looked over his friends, “No. Did we--did he--”

“He’s alive” Xiumin was quick to answer Sehun as he lowered back down to change his ammunition, “They realized that a certain frequency is harmful to the Affected ones, he’s trying to discover which one with a few engineers in the sound room”

“Are they alone?” Sehun’s eyebrows were furrowed in worry and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“No, soldiers are there with them” Lay answered instead of Xiumin this time as he went back to shooting.

“That’s what I was hearing…” I muttered to myself as I remembered the high pitched sound.

“What are you talking about?” Sehun asked confused as Baekhyun tried moving the table to offer us more shelter.

“When I had the panick attack there was a ringing I kept hearing…” I answered Sehun, who nodded looking visibly more relaxed.

“Where’s princess?” Baekhyun asked as he looked around, eyes finding mine and Sehun’s one at a time.

“I locked her in my bedroom’s bathroom”

“What? We are the most safest here, she’s not--”

“Are we really that safe here?” I snapped, fear of losing Jian crawling over my body. Baekhyun is wrong.

“Look around, Baekhyun, Bora did good leaving Jian behind, we could die at any time” Sehun came to my aid and I nodded along his words. Baekhyun was chewing his lower lip nervously before shaking his head and scooting away from us.

“You did the right thing, Bora” Sehun whispered and I nodded back. Suddenly, Xiumin cursed and ducked down, eyebrows furrowed.

“We don’t have any ammunition left here!” He called out and the boys looked at each other. The deep voice of the commander was heard from our left.

“We are running out of ammunition here too!” We are screwed.

Junmyeon’s eyebrows furrowed and he suddenly grabbed the gun from Xiumin, “Everyone grab something to use as weapon! If Jongdae doesn’t hurry up, I’m afraid we won’t hold on for too long…”

I was already raising to my feet, pulling the crutch out from underneath my armpit, ready to fight for our lives. But Sehun tugged on my arm and I clumsily fell and cried out, feeling as if something cracked inside my shin. I was about to yell at Sehun but he spoke words I never thought I’d hear from him.

“I love you” He said, eyes boring into mine. And just like that, I felt like it was once again just the two of us. No one around us, no Affected ones that were about to kill us all if Jongdae didn’t find the right frequency, no cries coming from the people around us that they have run out of ammunition.

“I love you” I whispered back and his eyes widdened before he pulled me up, a determined look crossing his feature. In that moment I knew Sehun decided he’d do anything to keep me, his friends, and himself alive.

But before the Affected ones could get any closer, they started crying out, their voices horrifying as they echoed around the room. They started clutching their heads and suddenly, one by one, fell to the ground. Everyone looked around, confused, until we saw some men in lab coats running inside the room, with Jongdae behind them clutching a machine gun, eyes wide.

“We did it” We heard him say and everyone started cheering. I let out a breath and my eyes glossed over, I survived. Sehun survived, Jian survived. I turned my head and Sehun was already looking at me, a few tears rolling down his cheeks. I chuckled and he shook his head, pulling me into another tight hug. We were gonna get through this. We could kill all Affected ones now that we know how to stop them. We would survive.

Three months later

        The smell of freshly cooked food was everywhere in the house. As I descended the stairs a smile etched itself on my lips at the loud chatter coming from the dining room. 

Things haven’t been easy after Jongdae discovered how to stop the Affected ones. Scientists worked hard on finding a cure and last month they did, so now instead of killing all remaining Affected ones they were trying to catch them and return them to their old selves. It wasn’t easy, especially for them, but progress was visible. People were less afraid to go out and we started building back up the city and the nature that was destroyed. I was actually leading one of the nature restoring organization, getting a lot of help from Jian’s father. Jian was lucky enough, her father was found and once he got the cure he returned to his old self. It was hard for him, he refused to speak to anyone and see people, but soon enough with the help of others and a good psychologist, he was ready to return to his old life and to his loving daughter. The news on having lost his wife wasn’t easy on him, but he came around. Now, Jian and I hung out daily and Jian’s father, Yesung, even allowed Jian to stay with us whenever she wanted to. He was really grateful for saving his daughter and keeping her alive. Jian became my little sister. 

My parents moved to South Korea to be closer and to help. My father joined the army here and helped catch other Affected ones meanwhile my mother stayed at home with me and helped out whenever she could. As for Sehun and I…

“Slept well?” His low voice was loud in my ear and I grinned as I turned my head to look at him. He lowered his head and pressed a long kiss on my lips. Sehun’s family was well, they were found hiding out in a cabin in the woods a few kilometers away from the city. They moved back into the city once things were better and now Sehun and I lived together in the house my parents bought for the time they were here. After they leave we’d move in to Sehun’s apartment, but right now we enjoyed living as one big family.

“Splendidly, you?” Sehun chuckled and shook his head.

“You know I did too” I rolled my eyes at the wink and cocky smile on his face and cleared my throat to make our presence known.

“Oh, come have breakfast dears!” My mother’s chirpy voice called out and I smiled as Sehun took my hand in his and lead me to the table. 

Things were finally good. No more secrets, no more diary entries. 

The End

A/N: Hello everyone, the long awaited last chapter is here, after a year of not posting it! Sorry for that, for making you all way for so long, but I had a lot going on. I was in my last year of high school so I really needed to study and now I’m in university so once again I have to study even more. Truth be told, I’m kind of done with writing fanfiction as my inspiration was gone for a long time now, and I probably have a major writers block as well. But hey, who knows when it’ll return. I still write fanfiction, it just takes longer to write them. Thank you for following the story of Belikov Bora and Oh Sehun, consider this as my Christmas present for you all! Merry Chirstmas once again guys!

[abluescarfonwaston]

Shapeshifter Au -12

Masterpost

He cawed out to Geralt as he approached. Geralt held out his arm to land on and he did.

“Still too close?” Geralt asked glancing down at Ciri and Roach’s drooping forms. Exhausted. Ciri was half asleep in his arms.

He nodded sadly. He’d found a scout camp not an hours fly behind.

Geralt looked down at Ciri and Roach. “We can’t stop.” His face pinched painfully and he glanced at him. “Jaskier-“

He nodded.

He could shift. He could ride.

They pulled off to the side and he shifted. A few hands taller than Roach with black stockings over his chestnut hair.

Thank you. He told her pressing his neck into hers.

That’s my line colt.

I’m older than you Roach.

I’d never have guessed.

Geralt shifted the tack over to him and he did his best to tolerate the feeling. The few times they’d done this it was bareback and he wasn’t a fan of the way it sat on his back. But it would be better in the long run. Probably.

“I know you’re not a fan of this.” Geralt waved to. The whole situation really. “Thank you.”

He stopped his grooming of Roach’s withers to bump Geralt reassuringly. I might not enjoy being ridden -like this at least- but that doesn’t mean I won’t do it in a pinch. It’s fine.

Tell him he owes me so many apples for this. And some clover grass.

You know you’ll get sick if you eat too much of that. Hm. Apples tho. Not as good as lamb but-

Well that was progress at least.

I’ll make sure he knows Roach.

You’d better.

And they were off.

He wasn’t proud of how quickly he tired but his bones still ached from shifting into the wolf. Less. It hurt less now. But the insistent throb of it wore at him as the hours passed. The grime that still matted his hair itched. Hunger rumbled his belly. Lamb sounded so good right now. He could eat one whole right now, wool and all.

We’re here. Roach interrupted his. Frankly too vivid daydream.

Here? He asked as Geralt turned him off the road into the pinewood forest.

The road home.

Home. They were almost home. He surged forward with it.

“Jaskier.” Geralt grumbled at him.

How much further? What’s it like? What are they like?

She whinnied a laugh at his excitement. Two or three days still colt. Doesn’t have enough grass. Scorpion’s fun.

Days?

The ache in his toes grew that much more noticeable.

They continued on.

Geralt pulled him to a halt and he let his head fall forward panting. They jumped off.

The saddle and bit were removed.

Geralt brushed him down. Picked his feet. He felt. A little cleaner.

“Staying a horse?” Geralt rubbed his neck soothingly as he finished.

No. He leaned into Geralt and let the form collapse under him.

Geralt caught him with a sigh and pet his long ears.

“Does he do that a lot?” Ciri asked. “Turn into a rabbit?”

Geralt shrugged and set about making camp one handed. “He shifts small when he wants to be carried.”

That was. Probably not inaccurate.

No fire again. Geralt had passed him into Ciri’s arms at some point. Her warm hands soothing the pain of the day and he did his best to keep her warm in turn while Geralt worked.

“What else can he turn into? Can he turn into a shrieker? A unicorn? A dragon?”

“I don’t know what a shrieker is. Unicorns are extinct. If he could turn into a dragon he would have by now just to show off. It’s just animals. Bears, wolves, rabbits. The like.”

“What about the griffin?”

Geralt paused. “I don’t think the griffin was. Natural.”

“Why?”

“Because he.” Geralt hesitated as he carried the blanket over, settling behind her. “Didn’t recognize me.”

She looked up at him questioningly as he reached down to pet between his ears.

“But he remembers you now. Right?”

They both nodded.

“So why’d he forget?”

Geralt shrugged.

“Don’t you care? It could happen again! Why didn’t you ask him when he was human!” She turned back to him. “And why haven’t you become human since then!”

He folded his ears back and shrunk down. He. He just-

“If it happens again I’ll deal with it. He isn’t much of a fight. When Jaskier wants to talk about it he will. Talking isn’t his problem, it’s getting him to stop.” He clucked at Geralt. “See?”

He clacked his teeth together a few times before pointedly flopping on Ciri. Look how comfortable I am. More comfortable than you are. Be jealous Geralt. I’m happier than you.

Geralt shook his head at him like he was being Over Dramatic! Which he Was! Because that was his Thing!

“He looked a mess in human form. Probably has some big plan about how he’ll get all fancied up and win you over with his charming smile and music.”

Yes that was the plan.

Ciri’s face scrunched up at that. “Why?”

The drama! He wanted her to like him! He wanted to make a better first impression than the one his dirty unkempt appearance would make. He wanted her to like him at least a fraction of how much he liked her!

“Because he’s an idiot.” He snapped at Geralt’s fingers. “An over dramatic idiot who thinks he has to put on a show to make you like him.”

She studied him. He wiggled his pink nose adorably. Which probably proved Geralt’s point.

“You’re making a production out of this. So it had better be grand reveal or I’ll be immensely disappointed in you.” She threatened him with a yawn.

He purred in agreement as Geralt pulled up the blanket.

“How much further?” She asked curling into Geralt.

“The evening after next we’ll arrive.”

Almost there. Just a little bit longer.

A little bit longer and they’d be home.

 “Fuck” Geralt shifted out from under them, shoving him awake. “Bandits.”

“Nilfgaard?” Ciri whispered grabbing him around the belly which wasn’t comfortable. Support the rear Ciri! This was going to hurt his back!

Geralt crouched over them. Listening. “No. I don’t think so.”

“Plan?” She squeezed him tighter and – nope nope nope! His leg kicked out and she dropped him with a pained start which he was very sorry for except hide- hide –hide run and hide run and hide.

“Jaskier!” He heard his cub whisper shout after him but-

Run hide! Run and hide! Run and hide!

Rabbits were not brave.

He squished himself under the dense cover of a bush and waited.

“What have we got?”

“Horse and a guy with his kid.”

“Easy enough. Let’s make this quick aye? Baz was making dinner.”

Easy. They thought it would be easy. Like Geralt couldn’t lay ruin to them. Wouldn’t lay ruin to them.

Ciri would witness more bloodshed and Baz would eat alone wondering where his unlucky companions had gone.

It was the wolves all over again.

Hungry said the bellies. Easy said the eyes.

It would be a slaughter.

Rabbits where not brave and he wasn’t sure Jaskiers were either. But they were idiots so he darted between their legs and shifted.

He sniffed them loudly and they froze. Eyes and then heads slowly turning towards him.

I have rules about violence Gentlemen. The words coming out a deep growl. Protecting my mate and cub does fit within that framework. But I’d really rather not. If its all the same to you.

They shuffled away from him, clutching their weapons.

He slammed his paw and roared at them. They turned tail and ran. Roach whinnied her terror.

‘Chase!’ The bear and the wolf and the griffin screamed. ‘Hide.’ Whispered the rabbit. It was all that kept him still.

He turned and walked back to their camp. The stragglers fleeing.

Geralt was soothing Roach with axii. Ciri yanked on his arm as she spotted him. Adrenaline and fear rolling off her.

Geralt turned and he watched the tension drain from his shoulders. “Jaskier.”

He smiled back at them. Watching as the axii faded from Roach’s eyes, replaced with recognition. She settled back to her search for grass.

“That’s Jaskier?” Ciri asked. Doubtful.

“Hm.” Geralt confirmed.

She studied him before stomping up to him, hand tucked under her armpits against the cold. “You kicked me!”

He rumbled apologetically but I couldn’t breath and you were breaking my back.

She glared at him. He nosed at her, slowly shoving her into his side. She allowed herself to be tucked into his fur with only a token of protest. The fear scent fading.

“Jaskier.” Geralt returned from their things holding – oh Geralt. “You can’t play like that?” Holding his lute.

He shook his head and dragged Geralt by the arm into his side as well. That would only be significant to us Geralt. Ciri wouldn’t know what the hell we were on about and I’d still look like a disheveled mud rat. Besides she’d get cold and your bedroll’s not big enough for all three of us. Really man.

Geralt plucked a few of the strings. They were painfully out of tune. Really. Had he done any maintenance at all? He glared at Geralt as he curled around them dragging the blanket up over them. Geralt glared back.

“You can’t play like that?” Ciri questioned from insider her burrow of Geralt, fur and blanket.

“It was. What I told him the first time he shifted in front of me.” Geralt explained adjusting them so he was comfortable.

“Oh.” He felt her petting his fur under the blanket. “How’d you met?”

“I’d been hired to retrieve a family heirloom from an infested crypt but it’d been stolen by a group of bandits. I tracked them down and retrieved the sword. But I found something else there too.”

“What?”

“A little lark with a broken wing, clutching a lute like its life depended on it.”

“This lute?”

“No. That’s later.” He told her. “I bandaged it up and kept it in a nest in my saddlebag until it was healed.”

She yawned and sunk heavy into his side.

“Then I woke up and the bird and lute were gone. A single crown on my bedroll where it normally slept.”

“And then, a few months later, I met a boy in Posada, the valley of flowers, at the edge of the world.”

He listened to Geralt recount the tale until sleep pulled her deep under.

“You should have told her that story. You’re better at telling stories.”

Yes. I am. But I like your version quite a lot too.

“You will be human again right?” Geralt mumbled into his fur. “I want you to be whatever you are but I miss knowing exactly what you’re yelling at me for. I miss your stupid raunchy pun infested songs and how you’d complain about your feet being tired but you still wouldn’t shift because you wanted to talk. About nothing. You just wanted to talk.”

Geralt’s hand clenched in his fur and he rubbed his snout against him reassuringly.

“Is it something I did? Is this about the mountain? The griffin? Did I-“

He shoved him slightly to cut him off. Shook his head.

Not everything’s about you Geralt.

“Right. But you will be human again. Someday?”

He nodded.

“Okay.” He listened to Geralt drift off. “Okay.”

He’d get a bath and a haircut and he’d tune his lute and practice some scales and he’d figure out the prefect thing to say and do so that she’d love him even just a tiny fraction of how much he loved her.

That wasn’t how it worked but he needed her to like him. To not be disappointed or disgusted by him.

He longed to be simply human. Then at least he wouldn’t have had a choice. She would have known exactly what he was from the start. No tricking her into thinking he was helpful like a horse or a hawk or as soft as a rabbit or as worthy of trust as the white wolf. He would have just been Jaskier. Simple and human.

Would she feel tricked when she saw him? Would adding a human face mean she wouldn’t trust him to keep her warm? Wouldn’t trust him to listen to her if he too could speak?

He was just Jaskier and he wasn’t sure that had ever been enough.

It would have to be. He couldn’t be anyone else.

That didn’t mean he wouldn’t put his best foot forward. Or at least his best paw until he made that jump.

[mistaeq]

can I request for a josuke x reader oneshot? fluff & angst, it was raining and both of them are in sentimental mode; reminiscing their good times (when they’re both in a relationship) to the end of their break up.. i hope you may blend it with the rain theme (actually inspired by the song “rains again” by solji) thank you🤍☔️

Higashikata Josuke: Rains Again

TW // none

Thank you, thank you and thank you again for this request. I loved writing it, and the song inspired me even more. I suggest y'all read this while listening to the song written in the request, "Rains Again" by EXID's Solji, if you want to get in the right mood to fully appreciate it. Also. It's long. Get ready to cry.

Where Josuke and his s/o meet during a rainy day. Loss of virginity is mentioned, but no worries, there's no nsfw. Fluff and angst, kinda hurt/comfort.

WORD COUNT: 4k

Rain, rain. A rain filled day. I think it'll always be like this for a while. Blankly.

You were all curled up in the bench under the bus stop. You went outside without an umbrella, and all of a sudden, it started raining. The sky started crying again. And again. You knew this feeling. And you hated rain. You hated...

"Shit! This fucking rain... I hate it so much..." a tall figure joined you under that bus stop. He didn't even look at you, he was just focusing on getting the water out of his hair. His precious hair you hated so much. His precious hair you loved so much. "Rain only brought bad stuff into my life... fuck it, fuck it all." he let his bag onto the ground. Then kicked it out of anger.

"It was raining, when I broke up with you." that voice. He'd recognize it between a thousand voices. "Remember, Josuke?" he turned around. His gaze met yours. Your little body all curled up because of the cold wind rain brought with her. He didn't know how to feel about you. Angry? Sad? Maybe sorry? Did he miss you?

"You." he just said. He fetched the bag he had let on the ground, and quietly sat next to you.

"Are you stuck here because the rain, too?" as soon as he approached you that much, you felt nostalgia kicking in. Just stop, you thought. He's been an asshole. Not your fault.

"Yes... well... no, to be precise." he looked like he was about to panic, too. "I just need to wait for my bus back home." was he trying to play it cool or something? His home was pretty close, and it's not that many people in Morioh Cho used the bus. He really hadn't changed, huh. The almighty I-never-make-mistakes Josuke.

Pouring down the rain in my memories of you, maybe i think it also contains good things.

"So... how've you been doing?" you really didn't want to answer that question. You just shrugged, leaning your head against the giant megapixel screen on your right. "Are you gonna ignore me, is that it?" the atmosphere was heart wrenching. You had no guts to face him and meet his gaze twice. You would have cried.

Getting nervous, Josuke accidentally dropped his bag again, this time, his wallet fell off. Right in front of you. You would have stayed still, if you hadn't seen what was in there. You've been fast and picked it up right before he could do that. That receipt. Was he still carrying it around with him?

The day you and Josuke met, the weather forecast said it was meant to be rainy. And it had been. But right before lunchtime, the sun decided to shine over the rain for some minutes. In those minutes, a handsome, kind boy walked in, in your grandma's bakery.

"I'm here because..." he stuttered for a second, when he first saw you, behind the counter. "...b-because my mom ordered some bread... I'm here on her behalf to take it..." you couldn't do or say anything. His gaze had latched onto yours. You stood there, smiling.

"Y/n, what are you... ooh, Josuke! It's you!" hearing you weren't answering to the customer, your grandma came from the back of the bakery, to help. She brought a huge bag of fresh bread, and handed it to him. Josuke, huh?

"Y/n, you know who he is?" despite your grandma talking, your gazes really didn't want to separate. You shook your head. "He's Tomoko Higashikata's son! Josuke!" he had to look somewhere else for a little, he had to pay for the bread. But he smiled, when your grandma introduced him to you. Then finally, he talked again.

"I might want to come here on my mom's behalf some other time..." he then thanked for the bread, took that damned receipt, and winked at you, before leaving.

You breathed. When the sun disappeared after a few minutes and the rain came back, you ran by the bakery's window.

"Grandma..."

"What is it, y/n, dear?"

"Josuke... when he came in, the rain had no power against the sun... maybe... maybe he's my one..."

"Are you in love already, dear?"

"The sky told me..." you believed in the sky.

I think it's raining today, I didn't want to poke you. I'm not really missing you, I just feel a little blue.

"Give it back, what the hell are you thinking about?" he snatched his wallet from your hands. Then took a close look at it and understood. He heard your muffled sniffles, and tried to touch you. "O-Oi, y/n..." you flinched, when he touched your shoulder, and Josuke withdrew his hand.

"You don't have to make me think you care..." you just said. "But if you're still interested in how have I been doing..." you turned right towards him, but your teary eyes still not meeting his. "Bad. I've been doing the worst ever." The look on his face was a mixture of shocked and melancholic. Almost mortified.

You would have never thought the love between you and Josuke could end up to being something like this. Everytime Josuke was with you, the sky was also clear and beautiful. Except when your love was rainy, along with the sky. When you broke up, it was rainy. It was stormy. When you met again, right there on that bench, it was rainy. Because you weren't together.

"Something bad happened?" you just looked at him, at a loss for words. You couldn't understand if he was being an asshole or just too stupid to understand how bad you had felt since your break up. But you knew what he wanted.

He had always acted like this. When he perfectly knew something, but he wanted to hear it from you directly, he'd feign ignorance. That's how you got your first kiss. He was bringing you home, walking right next to you, after a date. You two stopped right in front of your door.

You started swinging a little on your own feet. But you weren't entering that door, standing there smiling like a kid who's just broken something precious and has to soften her parents.

"What is it, y/n?" he smiled back, playing along with you.

"Come on... you know it..." you got closer. "Josuke..."

"I have no clue, what do you mean?" he giggled.

"Are you doing it on purpose? So I have to directly tell you?" you got close enough to get wrapped in his embrace.

"Maybe..." he teased you, moving a stray lock of hair behind your ear. You just needed to take it all off your chest.

"It's been a while since we started dating, and... I feel like I fell in true love with you, Josuke." he was lovingly staring at you, smiling, the same way he did that day at the bakery. "And this was a desperate request for a first kiss."

You stood on tiptoe, when he leaned down, your lips meeting his for a sweet peck. Then two, three, until they turned into a real kiss. His hands cupping your cheeks, and your arms wrapped around his warm torso. You felt so loved and safe. That night the Moon was shining so much you could get blinded by it. Not even a cloud in the sky.

"I love you, Josuke, I love you so much..."

How can I explain this feeling? It's because we were so good back then. That's why I'm feeling a little sad.

"Are you doing it on purpose? So I have to directly tell you?" Josuke looked back, just on the concrete between his feet, as if it became the most interesting thing to watch to avoid your gaze.

"I'm just worrying about how you've been doing."

"No, you're not." your hands were freezing because of the cold wind, so you hid them under your armpits and closed on yourself again. "You're just waiting to hear me cry about how breaking up with you made me feel terribly miserable, just for you to feel a little more relevant."

Josuke couldn't just say anything. Because deep down he knew that maybe he just wanted to hear you say you missed him, that you were lost without him and shit. Because he knew it was true. But he couldn't just accept it. He had to hear it. But also... he really cared about how you had been doing.

He had messed up a lot of stuff with you, and he knew. But it never affected his love. He'd been able to hide it well, but when you left, he was just as desperate as you. He felt miserable and guilty. Terribly guilty.

"Maybe I do want to hear it directly from you." he admitted, swallowing. "But what I've caused doesn't make me feel proud of myself or more relevant someway." he tried to touch you again. You didn't flinch, this time. He was gentle. So gentle. He'd always been. Even when you had bad arguments, even when you broke up, he had never raised or thought to raise a single hand on you.

You got a way to prove his inner and physical tenderness when you felt ready. Yes. You were by your home. You never were by Josuke's house. It was three in the morning, after a date. You were watching a movie, cuddling on the sofa, and then you would have slept together. But that night, you had other plans for him.

"Josuke..." you caught his attention, cupping his cheek with your hand and turning his head towards you.

"I'm here..." he held you closer, and you smiled. He did that for you. He knew you needed him to guarantee you he loved you, every now and then during your date. But it was your turn, to tell him you loved him.

"I feel ready to make love with you."

When I open my eyes with an unpleasant feeling, I know it's gonna be cloudy today, and it'll rain so much.

He gave you the best first time you could ever dream of. You felt pain. Josuke told you it could happen. But it wasn't his fault. He'd been so gentle, you couldn't believe it. Right after that, you had never felt your boyfriend closer than that. He took great care of you, after you finished. Josuke let you sleep on his bare chest, and you could perfectly hear his heartbeat. You loved listening to it.

You couldn't understand why people always talked about sex as something which dirties and ruins you. You felt the complete opposite. As you and Josuke started falling quietly asleep after your first lovemaking, the first ray of sun of the sunrise reminded you how pure your love was. Josuke was the sun that lit up your life. You felt like you did the right thing.

But you should have listened to your grandma, when she told you that nothing could be perfect forever.

In my opened photo album, there's us smiling brightly. It's a little awkward for us.

"Apparently you weren't so proud of being my boyfriend, too..." you commented. Josuke inhaled, to say something, but then he stopped. "Does Tomoko know anything now or did you hide our break up from her too?"

"Come on..." he huffed, but you were irremovable.

"Josuke, does she know?" you saw him pushing his tongue against your right cheek, inside his mouth.

"...No."

"Obviously."

You started doubting of Josuke during a cloudy day. His mom had ordered some fresh bread from the bakery, and you thought he would have appreciated it, if you chose to bring it to him yourself. Morioh Cho wasn't so big, and you quickly found your boyfriend's house thanks to your grandma's directions.

You rang the bell that said "Higashikata", and waited a couple of seconds, before the door opened. Josuke blinked twice. Then went feral.

"What do you think you're doing here?" you got scared, for a second. You did nothing wrong, you just wanted to do him a favor.

"I wanted to see you, so I brought you myself the bread Tomoko ordered..."

"No. Just no." he gently pushed you away from the door. One thing you had to admit. Even when he was angry, he never physically hurt you. "Don't ever do this again. My mom might..."

"Josukeee... who's this cute girl?" A woman's voice caught your attention from inside the house. Tomoko Higashikata was standing right in front of you. You panicked. You felt like you did something wrong, and saw Josuke's forehead wrinkle.

"S-sorry." you managed to say. You gave Josuke the bag full of fresh bread you were holding, and didn't even look Tomoko in her eyes. "I'm just the granddaughter of the bakery's owner. I saw it was about to rain and I thought it would have been kind of me to help the customers with their orders." Josuke was staring at you, taken aback from your words. "Have a good day."

Why would Josuke be ashamed of introducing you to his mom? You tried to think about it in a different way. Maybe he didn't want Tomoko to ask questions about your relationship and wasn't ready yet to introduce you to her? Your boyfriend called you, that night. You asked for forgiveness, and he made you promise you wouldn't have done it again unless you weren't sure his mom wasn't home. The whole day, the sky had been cloudy.

I think it's raining today, I didn't want to poke you. I'm not really missing you, I just feel a little blue.

"Y/n, I would kick myself in my own ass, for what I've done." you giggled a little, for what he said. You sneezed, though. The cold wind the rain brought was about to get you catch a cold. Josuke took off his uniform's big jacket, and wrapped it around your shoulders. "You're gonna catch a cold, y/n."

"Thank you..." you just mumbled. Despite the rain, that jacket still had Josuke's smell on it. You missed it like air. You were about to say something, when your phone rang. It was right next to you leg, on the bench, so Josuke saw it pretty well.

"Okuyasu?" he asked. "Are you friends with my best friend?" you had no intention to answer the phone. Not now, at least. Okuyasu was a sweetheart, and he helped you a lot after your break up. You would have called him back later.

"After that night he got worried and helped me. Or helped us both, I guess... if you cared enough about me to be at least a little sad after our break up." Okuyasu wasn't there, when you two fought and broke up. But you found the courage to confront Josuke thanks to him.

How can I explain this feeling? It's because we were so good back then. That's why I'm feeling a little sad.

You met Okuyasu while you were working in the bakery. You had seen him before, but he had never seen you. Sometimes it seemed to you that Josuke didn't want you two to meet. Or at least he didn't want Okuyasu to see you. But you could totally imagine him being curious about who could Josuke's girlfriend be. And giggled a little with yourself, when you saw him in the bakery.

"What are you up to, Okuyasu?" your grandma seemed to know everyone in Morioh Cho. She was so friendly with every customer. "You don't come here often." The guy smiled.

"I'm going to Josuke's house tonight." you opened your ears. "I'd like to bring something, he's always inviting me by his house and I don't want to seem rude and go there without something for him."

"Also" Okuyasu continued. "Maybe tonight he'll finally tell me who's this special friend of his... you know... he always talks about her, and I'm eager to know more. I hope she's hot, maybe I'll have a chance if she's single." you felt a storm in your chest. Your grandma looked at you, worried. It was happening again. Josuke was hiding your love from other people again.

You soon understood he wasn't afraid his mother would ask questions about you. He was straight up ashamed of you. An awkward silence fell in the bakery.

"Did.... Did I say something wrong?" Okuyasu blushed. You were grateful he was such a chatterbox. He had just told you everything you needed to know about Josuke.

"You won't need to buy anything here, Okuyasu." he looked perplexed. "I'm the friend Josuke talks about. And I've never been so angry in my whole life." he felt his cheeks burn up.

"Is it about what I said about hoping you were hot? S-Sorry, I-..."

"No. It's not about you." you took off the apron you had to wear at work, angrily. "He keeps on telling everyone I'm a good friend of his. Or that I'm just a telemarketer..." you clenched your fists. "As he did when I called him while he was playing dice with Rohan."

"You aren't a friend of his? You hate him?" Okuyasu was so confused.

"I am his girlfriend. And this makes me mad." his jaw fell.

"Woah, is he nuts? If I had a girlfriend like you, I'd tell the whole Morioh Cho in less that five seconds!"

"Please, Okuyasu. Don't show up at Josuke's house today. I will. Tomoko isn't home tonight, is she?" Okuyasu shook his head. "Perfect. And sorry about this."

"No, it's better for you to confront Josuke as soon as possible on this... it's disrespectful of him to behave this way." he gave you his phone number, just in case you needed to talk with someone afterwards, and your grandma let you go home, to get a rest.

Maybe on a rainy day I'll think of you for a long time. The memories of us crying and laughing, really are so beautiful.

Josuke was sitting on the sofa, waiting for Okuyasu. He had already turned the videogames on, and was ready to play with his best friend. Finally, someone knocked at the door. He opened it with a huge smile, but it disappeared as soon as he saw you and your angered expression.

"Y/n? What are you doing here? Okuyasu's gonna be here any minute..." he tried to - gently - push you outside, but you, a little less gently, pushed him aside and entered his house.

"Okuyasu won't show up. I met him in the bakery. Obliviously, he told me everything I needed to know. And I told him not to come here." Josuke closed the door and turned around to face you.

"You're mad."

"I am the mad one? Will you stop telling the people you care about that I'm nobody? All of this is so fucked up..." he sat on the same sofa he was on before, and rested his elbows on his knees, hiding his face on his hands. "Your mom thinks I'm just the girl of the bakery, Okuyasu thought I was a good friend of yours, and even worse, Rohan thinks I'm a telemarketer... are you ashamed of me, Josuke?"

"It's not it..."

"Why else should you be hiding our love from others?" your voice broke, you were about to cry. He felt powerless. Not even Josuke knew what the matter was with himself. He felt coward. But the fact that he was afraid of telling people he had a girlfriend wasn't affecting his love for you. He couldn't find the words to explain it. "Because you do love me... don't you, Josuke..."

It was on his tongue's tip. Yes, I do. Yes, I do, he was thinking. But words won't come out. He did. He did love you. He was truly in love with you. But in that moment, he couldn't connect two neurons and answer.

"Y-Y/n... I..." right in that moment, the loudest thunder you ever heard, was accompanied by a horrible lightning which struck the closest tree to Josuke's house.

You hated rain. You hated storms. Josuke knew. He hadn't been able to clear the sky to you, this time.

"I've seen enough." you let a tear wet your cheek.

Tell her you love her, fucking bastard, just tell her, Josuke was thinking. But it looked like he had lost his voice. You couldn't believe he could let you go without saying anything. His eyes were shocked, his mouth stuck opened, his hands trembling.

"Thank you for the great days you gave me. No one's ever gonna give me such a bright sun again. I love you, Josuke. But I guess I only bring storms into your life." you turned around, and in less than five seconds, Josuke's house's door slammed behind you.

I just feel a little blue, it's not that I want to go back to those times, I'm just feeling out of it and sad the whole day.

"I wish I could have been able to talk to you, that night." Josuke said. "I've been sad, I've been desperate, after you left. I wanted to get over it immediately, because I thought you would have been better, without me... but I found out Crazy Diamond cannot repair a broken heart." the rain began to decrease.

"I still don't know what was up with you..." you answered. "You think you can explain it to me now?"

"The truth is I was just being a coward." he had become a little more talkative. Josuke ran a hand through his hair. They were almost dry. "I was afraid people would have judged me. Or you. And I didn't want this. But the result was the opposite of what I wanted." this was it? He could have just told you everything that night and it would have been okay by now.

You couldn't imagine Josuke had such a mess in his mind. If someone talked shit behind you and him, you wouldn't have cared. But he was afraid this could happen. And you found out after you broke up more than two months ago.

"Josuke..." you were interrupted by a familiar sound. A bus was coming. You felt sad. Did Josuke have to go?

"It looks like my bus is coming." he stood up, then looked at you. "Keep my jacket, or else you'll catch a cold. You'll give it back tomorrow." A sudden ray of sun blinded your left eye, as you widened your eyes.

"Tomorrow...?"

"I'll come to the bakery to take the bread on my mom's behalf. I missed you." you felt your eyes tear up.

"Josuke..." you whispered, again. You approached him, quickly, right before the bus stopped in front of you, and you got wrapped in a tight and warm embrace. You inhaled his sweet smell, enjoyed his strong arms and listened, once again, to his racing heart. "Will I really see you tomorrow?"

"You will. I promise." he gently kissed your forehead, then got on the bus.

I wanna follow this rain and go back to those good days. Once my heart gets there, will you please stay with me?

Once alone, you realized the rain had stopped. A warm, bright sun was shining on you, and you could go back to the bakery. You took off Josuke's jacket from your shoulders, and folded it, walking towards the bakery. You sometimes smelled it, and felt like crying out of happiness.

When you opened the door, your grandma smiled.

"I knew something happened. This sun doesn't come out without a reason." she told you, seeing how desperately happy you looked. "Was it the young Josuke?" you nodded, holding his uniform tighter.

You couldn't see it, because you spent the rest of the afternoon working in the bakery.

But outside, the sky had gifted you the most beautiful rainbow Morioh Cho had ever seen.

[big4girl]

Heyyyy me again! I really loved your last fic so Imma request another, if that's okay! If you're still doing drabbles, could I possibly get a Hiccanna Angel/Demon AU fic with the sentence starter “If you don’t hug me right now I think I might fall apart.”? I'm in the mood for big boi angst lol (also kinda see Hiccup as the demon one here because of the dragon and fire connection, but reversed would be interesting too!)

I think I���ll go for what you suggested since it makes the most sense character-wise! I hope you enjoy!

****

Angels and Demons coexisted as enemies for many millennia. Good versus evil, light versus dark, virtue versus vice, Heaven versus Hell.

And Anna was okay with this. She was old, far older than the human numbers could reach. She thought she had seen it all. But that was before him.

The first time she was sent to Earth was on her first mission as a Guardian Angel. She had been protecting a little girl with brown hair and brown eyes who loved ice skating and playing with her brother.

Anna admired the way the family interacted; laughing, playing, creating. And how they created an orange and yellow light that kept the darkness away.

She listened intently one night when the little girl asked, “Mommy, why do we light the fire?”

The mother tucked her child securely in her bed, the covers pulled up to her chin. “Because there are evil things in this world, things that want to hurt us, and the fire keeps them away.”

Anna’s feathers ruffled at the mention of evil. How could someone even think about hurting people so innocent? Why they had never done anything wrong.

“Like the boogeyman?”

The mother smoothed back her daughter’s hair. “Yes, my love, like the boogeyman. But the fire keeps him away. You have nothing to worry about. And if the fire ever goes out, you have your guardian angel to protect you.”

Anna felt herself glow a little brighter as her ward’s eyes lit up.

“I bet she’s beautiful,” the little girl whispered.

Her mother kissed her on the head and said her goodnight, placing one of the brother’s head as well. How happy they were. How perfect that moment was.

Then that moment ended.

“Be careful,” the mother chided them.

“We will,” the boy replied with a laugh as his sister pulled him towards the frozen lake.

Anna walked carefully along the treeline above them, keeping a watchful eye, but she wasn’t worried. They had done this a hundred times before, what could go wrong?

How she wished she had paid more attention.

The ice cracked under the little girl’s feet, her sobs being drowned out by her brother's reassurances.

Anna couldn’t move, a force was keeping her rooted to the spot and she was furious.

She watched on in anger and fear as the brother coaxed his sister a few steps forward. The ice cracked, the little girl screamed and Anna was suddenly free from her trap.

She flew forward, grabbing the little girl by the armpits and flying her to the other side of the ice where it was thicker.

Anna smiled as the little girl looked around, her eyes finding her brother’s.

It was a blissful moment that was ruined by the deafening sound of cracking ice.

The brother let out a cry of surprise as it gave way under his feet, pulling him into the freezing waters below.

Anna cried out, but she couldn’t save him, couldn’t even touch him. She wasn’t his guardian angel.

“Jack!”

That’s when she saw him.

He was standing on the other side of the pond across from her. He had blood-red eyes and black scales running along his skin. He was frowning and. from a distance, Anna thought he looked angry.

“Hey!” She cried out angrily, leaving her ward’s side for a moment to fly towards the demon.

He disappeared when she reached him. She let out an angry shout before returning to the little girl’s side. Watching her sob as she ran for her parents.

Jack became an angel for his sacrifice.

Anna met him in Heaven. Shook his hand and apologized for not being able to save him. He didn’t hold it against her, just asked for updates on his sister every so often.

Anna would watch over the little girl until she was old and was ready to go.

When she closed her eyes for the final time, Anna was there; her hand out in greeting, ready to take her to Heaven. To her brother.

“I was right.” She said, taking Anna’s hand. “You are beautiful.”

Anna smiled. “I will miss looking after you,”

“You can come to visit me anytime,”

Anna knew it didn’t work that way but didn’t say anything, just smiled and nodded.

They were met at the gates by Jack and her other family members she had lost over the years. The moment she stepped through the gates, she was reverted to her child form, running to hug her brother for the first time in a long time.

Anna would have cried if she were human.

But her heart did feel funny, watching them.

Her next ward was a little girl in Scotland. The girl had a head of curly red hair and a bow and arrows at six years old.

Anna knew she had her work cut out for her.

She watched on from a tree as the little girl played hide and seek with her mother and received a brand new bow from her father, much to her mother’s dismay.

It was beautiful until the little girl screamed.

Anna was up immediately, landing in front of the mother and daughter, using her powers to still the bear until they were safely out of the way. She saw the way its eyes glowed red and she knew that this was no ordinary bear, but a demon-possessed one.

The father and his men charged the bear, pointing spears at it and a rush of panic flew through Anna. No, no, no not again.

The bear moved right past her and she was once again rooted to the spot, unable to move, unable to help in any way.

The bear slashed at the wooden spear, effectively ripping the sharp end of it off.

The father threw the splintered wood aside, ready to take on the monster with his bear-hands.

It roared, ready to go in for the kill.

“NO!” Anna screamed, breaking free of the hold with all of her ability and slamming herself into the bear. It staggered to the side, jaw sinking into the man’s ankle instead of his neck.

Anna watched as the father screamed and the demon came out of the bear.

It was the same one from the lake.

His red eyes met Anna’s gold ones. He seemed surprised, intrigued.

Anna, however, was livid. She lunged at him, only for him to disappear the same as he had before. Anna screamed out in fury.

The father was alive, at the cost of his foot. But he was alive.

And Anna was in trouble.

“Άννα.” 

She was suddenly standing in the blinding white room of her boss.

Not God, much worse.

“Elsa,” Anna replied, turning to see the head Guardian Angel standing before her.

“Άννα,” She repeated, using Anna’s original angel name. “You meddled.”

Anna frowned. “I had to! That demon was going to kill my ward’s father!”

“You cannot meddle, Άννα. You should know better.”

“Come on, I saved somebody! Isn’t that what guardian angels are supposed to do?” Anna argued.

Elsa only gave Anna an icy glare. “I’m sorry. But I cannot allow you to watch over Merida any longer.”

“What!”

"Acts like this have consequences, Άννα.”

“That’s so stupid! It wasn’t even my fault! If that stupid demon hadn’t been there-”

“Enough,” Elsa said sternly. 

Anna cowered underneath her gaze but was still stewing with anger.

“You are on probation from guardian duties. You will be assigned to another job until it is through.”

Anna was on probation for centuries and it felt like a millennium. When she was finally released on another mission, she was assigned a boy this time.

Who was a troublemaker, of course. She always seemed to get those. But Anna didn’t mind; in fact, she was overjoyed because she was always on the move. Being locked up in heaven will do that to you.

Her ward was living the life. Just accepted into college at fourteen and being praised by his brother.

Anna watched on with admiration as the two talked. Her siblings up in Heaven never showed any emotions, perhaps that came with being an angel, but Anna longed for love.

Maybe that made her a bad angel, she didn’t care. Love was a fascinating prospect.

Then everything went bad. Just like it always does.

Anna noticed the fire right after the two boys did. She flew alongside the two brothers, terrified as she watched multiple guardian angels flying around the place.

Where was Tadashi’s? Anna suddenly realized, looking around to find Rapunzel.

She finally caught sight of her near the sidewalk, completely frozen in place, unable to move, to do anything.

“No,” Anna said with sudden terror. “No, no, no, no-”

She turned to find that Hiro and Tadashi had moved, gone closer to the flames.

“Tadashi no!” Hiro cried, latching onto his older brother’s arm.

“Somebody has to help.”

“No!” Anna cried flying forward, trying to catch Tadashi, but it was too late. All she could do was stand in front of Hiro and shield him from the blast.

“Tadashi!” 

Hiro’s cries were faint in Anna’s ears as she looked around the scene. Guardian angels were flying everywhere, following people away from the fire and helping the firefighters put out the blaze, Rapunzel was free from her hold and she was crying, and there was that demon again.

Anna’s eyes landed on him at the steps of the building. He was gazing up at the fire, reflecting ominously in his red eyes.

He wouldn’t get away this time.

“Hey!” Anna cried out.

He didn’t move and Anna flew forward, tackling him to the ground.

He let out a cry of surprise and a grunt as they landed against the hard earth.

“What’s your problem with me, huh? Why do you keep killing the people my wards care about? Every time you’re around one of them dies!”

The demon below her didn’t say anything, just took on her wrath with surprising calmness.

This made Anna even more furious. “You don’t feel guilty at all? Ha. Should expect that from filthy demons like you! You probably take pleasure in killing people-”

“We don’t kill people,”

“What?” Anna asked, glaring at him.

The demon cleared his throat, as the best he could with Anna sitting on his chest. “We don’t kill people. We just cause chaos. Posses them, mess with them, make bad things happen, yes, but we don’t kill people.”

“Then how do you explain-”

“Do you think you guardian angels would let us get that far? We can’t overpower you, you know that. So, how can we kill anyone?”

Anna’s mouth went dry at his words.

No. He had to be lying. He had to be.

“Then how are these people dying?”

“Don’t ask me. Maybe you should take it up with the higher authorities.”

Anna’s world was crashing down around her. Heaven wouldn’t- they couldn’t-

“It’s not the Devil who chooses when people die, Angelface.”

Anna ripped her hands off him, stumbling backward, trying to get away from him.

“Then why were you there? Every time you were there.”

“We’re in tandem, I guess. I’m just a worker Demon. Like you. At least” - he frowned. “-I was.”

“We are nothing alike.” Anna spat.

“Keep telling yourself that, Angelface.”

“Stop calling me that! My name is-”

Anna was transported into Elsa’s room again.

“Άννα.”

“What?” Anna yelled, turning to face her superior, who was stone-face. “What, huh? What do you want from me? Want me to go on probation again? Because I’m sick and tired of watching people die, Έλσα.”

“You interacted with a demon,  Άννα. This is serious.”

“So what? He was some beat demon, there to start a fire that was killing people.”

“Demons don’t kill people,  Άννα. The lord decides when they are to come to Heaven.”

“What?” Anna said, angrier than ever. “But we’re Heaven! We’re supposed to be the good guys! The light! Killing people is wrong!”

“Άννα. Calm down.”

“No! No, why? Why does some unseen celestial being get to decide the fate of good people? Old age, okay, fine, but young people? Children? That’s wrong.”

“We serve the lord, Άννα. We don’t question.”

“Well, the lord can beat it! I don’t care! This is wrong! How can you not see that?”

“I’m sorry, Άννα.”

Anna was cast out of Heaven immediately. Her halo stripped from her, her wings turning a dark black to signify to the other angels her crimes. She would walk the Earth as a ghost.

She hit the ground near where her last assignment had been.

“So,” the demon said, sitting next to her when she came to. “I’m guessing taking it up with the higher authorities didn’t go so well?”

Anna felt something for the first time in her life. She left a million things at once and it hurt.

She turned to the demon with watery eyes and she noticed for the first time that his eyes weren’t red anymore. In fact, they were a really pretty green.

“If you don’t hug me right now I think I might fall apart.” She said.

The request didn’t seem to shock the demon. He just opened his arms and allowed Anna to hug him, to sob into his shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed as hard as he could.

Anna felt something she had never felt before, but couldn’t place the emotion. Over time she would learn, but now all she wanted to do was cry and be held.

“Any chance you’ll give me that name now, Angelface?” he asked softly.

“Anna,” She choked out. “My name is Anna.”

“Nice to meet you, Anna. My name’s Hiccup. And I think we’re gonna be spending a lot of time together.”

[writteninsunshine]

Death Is A Beginning Not An End Chp 001/025 - Jerry Dandridge/Ed Lee - SFW

Title: Death Is A Beginning Not An End

Author: Reno

Fandom: Fright Night

Setting: Various

Pairing: Jerry Dandridge/”Evil” Ed Lee (Main), Charley Brewster/Amy Peterson, Past Mark/”Evil” Ed Lee, Charley Brewster/Peter Vincent/”Evil” Ed Lee

Characters: Jerry Dandridge, “Evil” Ed Lee, Charley Brewster, Peter Vincent, Mark, Amy Peterson, Jane Brewster, Adam, Ben, OC: Heather Charles

Genre: Romance/Adventure/Hurt/Comfort/Angst/Drama

Rating: E

Chapters: 1/25

Word Count: 2379

Type Of Work: Chapter Fic

Status: Incomplete

Warnings: Gay, Slash, Yaoi, MLM, AU - Omegaverse, AU - A/B/O, AU - Soulmates, AU - Canon Divergent, Vampire Typical Violence, Omega Ed Lee, Alpha Jerry Dandridge, Alpha Peter Vincent, Alpha Charley Brewster, Violence, Gore, Character Death, Cunnilingus, Blowjobs, Virgin Ed Lee, Vaginal Sex, Threesomes, Pack Mating, A/B/O Dynamics, Vampire Turning, Vampires Feeding, Underage, Charley and Ed are 17

Disclaimer: I don’t own anything except Heather.

Summary: "Every time I find you, I turn you. I won't make that mistake again."

AN: Hey guys, it’s me again! Just thought I ought to say, if you want vague updates and to talk to me more, I have Twitter and Tumblr, too! Twitter is Sunnywritings, and Tumblr is Writteninsunshine! I also have a writing Discord that is currently pretty dead. xD I can PM it to people who want it on FFN, for everyone else, it’s here: https://discord.gg/FyaWw25

So, there are absolutely no stories for my OTP for this fandom, so I have to feed myself content. Hopefully, someone will see it and also want to spread the love for these two. At any rate, I hope you guys enjoy this fic, it’ll be kind of long. I have no idea how long, but I hope that I can do them justice.

Fright Night Fic Masterlist

Chapter One: Bright Lights 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It had been weeks since the last time he’d heard from Charley, and Ed was starting to get offended. How could his best friend just up and abandon him like this for the popular guys? Mark and Ben were assholes, the worst kind, gaping, infected, disgusting. Ed couldn’t fathom hanging out with the two stoners, but he figured Charley saw something in them because he spent all his time with them and Amy.

Still, Ed was feeling left out. Charley had been so close to him and Adam, and now it was just radio static on his end. He’d decided that after school, he would try to go see if he could get a hold of Charley by going to his house. His parents had needed him at home, however, so he’d gone home to handle his chores and the family trip to Pizza Hut. After his room was clean, the garbage was on the curb, and his belly was full, the sun was already starting to set. Regardless, he was going to see Charley even if it killed him.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have had that thought.

As he walked, he listened to a playlist on his iPod that would hopefully give him the confidence to confront his friend. When he saw Charley’s house up the street, he pulled his headphones out and started to cross over the neighbor’s lawn, jogging lightly.

“Hey!” A rather muscular man snapped at him, standing in the shadow of his house, “Don’t run on my lawn!” The Alpha barked, using the tone he knew would make the Omega listen. Ed paused, staring at him for a moment, just standing on his lawn with wide eyes, not unlike a deer in the headlights.

“What did I just say,” His statement wasn’t a question, but a barked order, and he narrowed his eyes as he crossed his lawn with all the power and grace of a tiger stalking its prey, “Move, Omega.” He growled, finally close enough to touch the teen before him. He’d smelled the Omega on him from far away, but suddenly he was hit with a strong, desperate need to be close. It made him take pause, blinking a little.

He was the one. The one he’d been searching for.

Taking Ed by his armpits, he lifted him up like he weighed nothing and strolled to the sidewalk, placing him down gently on the concrete. Ed continued to stare up at him, somehow feeling safe with the glaring Alpha. It was strange, he didn’t know what was happening to him. Most Alphas made him feel flighty and skittish when they were older, and now he felt like he’d die if he left his presence.

“Stay off my lawn, okay?” The man’s voice was softer, now, a purr threatening to underline his words. “I’m Jerry, by the way.”

“Ed.” Finally, he found his voice, nodding a little, “I… Y-yeah, I’ll stay off it.” 

Ed couldn’t believe how strange he felt right now, drawn to this stranger like he’d known him his entire life.

“Nice to meet you, Ed.” It was hard not to call him something else, any pet name he could. ‘Precious’ came to mind and he had to shake his head to relieve himself of the thought. “Now, get.” He patted the Omega’s back, giving him a little push in the direction he’d been going.

“Yeah.” Ed nodded, still lost in the fog of being near Jerry. He started walking, hesitant to leave, towards Charley’s house, looking over his shoulder as Jerry started for his front door. “Fuck.” He muttered, rubbing at his hip a little as he took the steps to the door at a jog. Knocking on the door, he waited for a minute or so before ringing the doorbell. It hit him as he rang that he didn’t remember walking to the door.

Jane answered after another ring, and Ed smiled at her. Her return smile was tight, almost sad.

“Hey, Ed.” She offered lamely, “Looking for Charley?”

“Yeah, I, uh, I need to talk to him about something.” Nervousness and an odd sense of despair filled him and he closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, “Is he home?”

Jane visibly tried to sort out an answer and Ed knew that meant he was home but had asked not to speak to him. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Nevermind.” 

“No, no.” She sighed, unable to handle the sadness tinging his scent, “ He’s home, upstairs in his room. I don’t know if he’s asleep already or not.” She told him, stepping aside and opening the door up for him. “Come on in.”

With a nod, Ed entered the house, hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting with them. 

“Thanks.” He smiled, though it was saddened, anxious, it didn’t meet his eyes.

“It’s no trouble, just knock before you go in.” She knew her son needed his privacy sometimes, and she didn’t know what he was doing up there at the moment.

“Yeah, I will.” He almost didn’t want to. Heading up the stairs, he sighed as he came to a stop in front of the other’s room. He knocked twice before entering without waiting for an ‘okay’, afraid he would lose his nerve.

“Ed!? What the hell, man!?” Charley exclaimed, eyes wide as he put down the book he was reading for class. He laid out on his bed, one leg bent up against the mattress., but he shot up when Ed entered the room, “You’re supposed to wait before coming in!” He added, eyes narrowing. “What do you want?” It was clear Charley wasn’t impressed with him just showing up unannounced. Even his mom didn’t warn him.

“It’s not like you’re masturbating, I don’t see the problem. I need to talk to you, asshole.” Ed snarled, crossing his arms and shaking his head, “What’s the deal? You’re just going to abandon me and Adam for those dickweeds?” 

“Man, you don’t get it,” Charley sighed, shaking his head. The Alpha smelled acrid like he was pained, but Ed ignored it the best he could. “I need this.”

“You need this? Why? I don’t think Amy cares who you’re friends with! Those assholes are gonna throw you to the wolves the second you fuck up.”

“They’re…” He wanted to say ‘good friends’, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it in front of the best friend he’d ever had, “Not so bad.” That was the best he could do.

“Not so bad? Not so bad?” Ed’s voice was shrill and it was clear he didn’t like to hear that. “Mark’s been bullying me since grade school!”

“I… I know, but he’s better, now.” He wasn’t actually better, if anything, his bullying had gotten worse.

“He’s just better because you aren’t a target anymore.” Ed huffed, growling a little under his breath. “I can’t fucking believe you. You can’t ever hang out with me anymore? Not even a little bit? Come on, man, this isn’t you.”

“It’s me, now, Ed.” Charley snapped, eyes narrowing, “Grow up, move on, it’s time we both did.” 

Ed had to hold back from another growl, taking a deep, steadying breath and trying not to lose his mind over this. Charley was pissing him off something awful and he was ready to go back to the good feeling he had when he was with Jerry. His thoughts strayed to him and he couldn’t help but bite back a smile. This was no time to feel soft and mushy over a stranger he’d just met.

“You’re a fucking asshole, Charley.” He growled, finally finding his ability to speak. “I hope you rot for this, it’s not fucking fair.”

And Ed was right, it wasn’t fair, and Charley knew that. But he had to keep up appearances. Amy wouldn’t want to date a loser like he used to be. He needed to be cool, and hanging out with Mark and Ben made him cool. It wasn’t like Amy would accept him being friends with Ed and Adam. He had to move on, and he was trying so hard. It wasn’t easy, especially with the scent of despair mixing with the calming scent of rosemary and fire filling his room. Ed was clearly upset and all he wanted to do was hug the Omega standing in his doorway. Soothing him with his scent and a firm hold sounded like the best option, but he went still and glued himself to his bed instead.

“I… Yeah, maybe I am an asshole.” He conceded, shaking his head and standing up. “But you know what? This is my life, now. If you can’t accept it, then I guess you won’t accept that I’ve moved on and that’s fine. I’m not about to abandon my life for you. We can’t be doing... Whatever this is.”

“You’re such a dickweasel, you know that? When they turn on you, and they will, don’t come crying to me. I won’t take you back.” Ed snapped, finally turning on his heels and storming out of the room. It was possible, he realized, that Ed was crying. There was a salty scent in the room, now, and he felt his stomach sink. Charley wanted so badly to call him back, but he heard the front door slam and knew it was too late.

Texting Amy, he hoped she would offer him some form of solace.

[Text To: Amy, 8:07 PM] Hey, what are you up to?

[Text To: Charley Barley, 8:09 PM] Just getting ready for bed, wyd?

[Text To: Amy, 8:09 PM] Ed came over

[Text To: Amy, 8:10 PM] I feel like shit. He’s pissed.

[Text To: Charley Barley, 8:14 PM] Oh shit, u ok?

[Text To: Amy, 8:18 PM] I don’t think so. It hurts

[Text To: Charley Barley, 8:20 PM] U don’t have to leave him u kno. He’s still ur bff.

[Text To: Amy, 8:21 PM] It’s too late now, I don’t think he is anymore. He called me a dickweasel and an asshole and stormed out of my house.

[Text To: Charley Barley, 8:22 PM] It’s not 2 late, apologize.

Her words rang true. He should apologize, but he didn’t think that he could. It wasn’t like Ed was going to respond. He was too angry, now. But he thought he’d try, anyway, at least he could send him a message. He spent a solid five minutes writing and rewriting his text.

[Text To: Evil, 8:27 PM] Hey, man, look, I’m sorry, okay? I just can’t do this right now. I can’t just up and leave, they’ll kill me.You think you have it bad but they would CRUCIFY me. It’s safer having them on my side than against me. I’m sorry they hurt you, maybe I can get them to leave you alone.

At least in his presence, he could help somewhat. Maybe if he influenced Mark and Ben enough, nothing bad would happen.

Ed turned on his read receipts on his phone, leaving Charley on read so he could see how angry he was. What else did Charley expect, an acceptance letter? There was no way after what had just happened that he’d do that. Still, the text on his phone kept him up most of the night, spending time browsing the web didn’t help, either. He ended up on Peter Vincent’s website, as he did, rereading something about vampires in California. It was always interesting to read about it, even if he’d reread this story a thousand times. Maybe he should check something else.

He turned to a forum he was part of, searching for ways to talk to Charley. No one was helpful, all of them told him not to accept the apology. Somewhere deep down, he wanted to. He picked up his phone several times, writing out responses before he ended up deleting them. 

Charley didn’t sleep well that night, either, thinking about what he’d said and how he could make it up to his friend. Maybe they could hang out after school sometime if Evil would even look at him.

The next day in class was horrible, with Ed shooting him looks that told him he wanted to talk, and then glaring daggers at him. If looks could kill, Charley would be full of knives in the back. Even after class, Ed turned his back on him, stomping out of class like it was the best thing he’d ever done.

“Hey, man, you look… Shitty.” Mark commented with a raised eyebrow, leaning on Charley’s locker, “You okay?” He didn’t really care, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

“Uh, yeah. I just didn’t sleep last night.” Not well, anyway. He’d had a nightmare that Ed had died, and he didn’t really know what to do with that.

“You gonna sleep during class?” Ben asked, though he didn’t really mind either way. It wouldn’t affect him. That was what Ben always did when he couldn’t sleep at night.

“I dunno, maybe.” He had social studies next, and that meant he’d probably sleep to the teacher’s droning monotone.

“Cool, cool.” Mark brushed it off easily, “You should get some sleep, and then we’re going out after school.”

“We are?” That would throw a wrench into his plans with Ed, for sure. But maybe it would give Ed time to cool off. With any luck, he’d come to actually accept his apology if he just gave him some time.

“We are. You, me, Ben, the car, some weed.” Maybe they’d troll the mall after smoking a bit. “We could go out somewhere, get some food.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. I’ll be there.” Charley needed some time to think, and maybe the weed would help his mood.

“Alright, see you then, man.” Mark and Ben started for their next class, leaving Charley to his thoughts. He spun the dial and opened his locker, getting out his book for his social studies class. 

He worried that Ed would never accept his apology, and that cut him to the core. All he wanted was for Ed to forgive him and for things to go back to normal, but he guessed this was his new normal, now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

AN: Alright, chapter one is in the bag! I’m really feeling this story so hopefully I can get through it without any issues. I hope you guys enjoyed it!!

[spilledinkstories]

One Level Down

(writing prompt: you board an elevator of strangers and someone says “thank you all for coming”— I just kind of ran with this one, didn’t take it too seriously... :P )

“So I bet you are wondering why I’ve asked you here,” said the woman in the red overcoat.

I had been planning this specific trip to my university’s library for about two weeks now. I had placed a hold on a rare copy of a book you could only read in-house, and I had been notified of the date of my viewing. It was in a temperature-controlled basement room, and to be honest, I had been feeling pretty great about the whole experience. Like this made me a Real Scholar, or something. 

It was a book on the archeological findings at a famous site in China. I was writing a paper on how a report provided by women versus men often offered different focal points of the ideas of the ancient society, or different perspectives on that society all together. For example, you might get a bigger focus in a report on home life rather than warfare. That was the department’s hope, anyway. This was of course a research question posed by the department, and I had been wondering what on earth could be so different in two reports filed on the finding of a hairbrush, but anyway. The temperature-controlled room sounded cool, and I was all about that academic aesthetic. I kind of felt like it was part of some Indiana Jones movie, doing research of relics and ancient peoples, being involved in the ongoing discourse around history, the relationship between a person digging up some ancient artifact in a remote land, and then tourists paying pocket change to stare at it for five seconds. 

So, you can imagine my surprise when, crammed on an old elevator with several other people in various states of exhaustion, digging for gum in my overflowing backpack to eradicate the taste of crappy cafeteria coffee on my breath, the woman spoke. 

No one said anything for a couple seconds. 

“Really, no one is curious?” She pressed. 

“We got your memo, ma’am,” said one of the young men in a baggy sweatshirt. 

“Didn’t think to question it,” said another.

“Headquarters told me yesterday, I flew out immediately,” said a girl in a voice simply dripping with a thirst to prove herself. It’s worth mentioning that we were six Americans standing in an elevator in London, England.

“Good,” said the woman in the red coat. 

“Why a library,” whined the first boy. “I thought joining up meant a life of excitement, not…books.”

I had to hide my grin, not wanting to be caught. I don’t know if they knew I didn’t know what was happening, but I’ll tell you: I didn’t. I was intrigued though, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to pretend I was one of them for a little while.

“Well, I assume you all brought your paperwork with you, so we won’t waste any time getting started. I’ve booked the main room down here for one hour, so let’s be sharp, got it?” The woman in red spoke with an authority that was positively presidential. We fell in line like soldiers as the elevator doors creaked open, and she marched down a carpeted hall to what looked like a conference room. 

I was beginning to question my new plan, realizing I’d miss my viewing of the book if I stayed too long with these strangers, when someone spoke in my ear. “I haven’t seen you before, but it’s nice to have another girl on the team. Wanna sit next to me?”

“Okay,” I whispered back. 

“I’m Anna,” she said, smiling.

“Ivy,” I whispered back. 

“Sit,” said the woman in the red coat, as we entered the conference room. She stood at the front and fired up her laptop, and had it projecting onto the screen in a couple of seconds. Images of old manuscripts and letters filled the screen, all too faint to read properly. 

“So, I want you to go around the room really quickly, tell me your names, and your departments,” she commanded, turning quickly to the young man sitting to her left.

“Brandon, fact checking,” he said.

“Adam, restoration,” said the one who had whined that it was a library job. 

“Jake, archeology.” This one shocked me, since he was dressed like a stoner that thought pop music would be the death of culture but was secretly in love with Taylor Swift. Maybe they were all disguised look like students, to blend on campus or something…

I gulped. I was sweating now, the skin behind my knees prickling inside my tights. Clearly this was some official thing – the power suit the boss lady had been hiding under her red coat was proof of that enough. The skater skirt I had on was okay, and my baggy green knit sweater hid the Captain America t-shirt underneath, and my combat boots hid my Dr. Who socks…but I still felt massively out of place. The space buns hairstyle really was the cherry on top. The epitome of e-girl wannabe, nerdy art student, who’d invited herself to this meeting. I gulped again. “Ivy, sociology,” I said, hoping my voice didn’t shake. 

“Anna, state department,” the other girl said directly after I’d spoken. She looked polished too, like an intern at a high end tech company or something. Wait. Did she say state department?

“Great, and I’m Dr. Grayson, here on behalf of, well, a few people. Important people. Okay. Let’s get started. The short version is that the manuscripts you see on this screen are actually fakes, and we have to prove it. The long version is that they were  pulled from a recent dig at a site said to house artifacts from the Byzantine empire, and they are to be displayed at the British Museum next month. It’s a political scheme. In essence, the scientists pushing these documents want to present them to the public as proof that an archaic and brutal form of biochemical warfare was commonly used before, in order to try to naturalize it into the minds of civilians, in hopes that if it’s used later they won’t deem it a warcrime that came out of nowhere.” With that, Dr. Grayson began handing out papers around the table, giving us a moment to digest.

Um. 

What the hell had I walked into? I needed to go. I had to get out of there. But how was I supposed to leave without them knowing I didn’t belong? On the other hand, how was I supposed to sit here and listen to the rest of this and then try to walk away, having heard all their plans? Either way I felt like I was done for. I could feel the sweat prickling my armpits and the backs of my knees, and my toes felt slick inside my shoes. My stomach felt acidic, and I could feel it churning and roiling. I was sure Jake and Anna on either side of me could hear my heart palpitating and my breath coming in short, uneven rasps.

“Your handouts outline the task ahead of us. Of course the lawyers are already trying to handle the scientists putting this research forward as legitimate, so we’re not really going to focus on the publicity angle ourselves. Our focus is to prove that this document is a fake. We’re going to analyze it, and we’ll have to dig up some research on warfare of the time, but we’ll also be dispatching our own team to the dig site. We want to see what other artifacts or things they supposedly dug up there. Anything we can do to discredit this.”

“Right, so Brandon and I can team up, if you want,” Adam said.

“I’d hoped so. You two can work on trying to disprove the authenticity of these artifacts. They’re here actually, in the other room. Being cared for. The staff here put them in the maps room.” 

Holy crap…what had I walked into. I had known choosing to go to university in London would be exiting - I’d always loved British culture, but I thought I’d be reading Shakespeare and arguing essays from Ophelia’s perspective…stuff like that. Saying that Lady Macbeth could be construed as a hero, given women’s issues of the times. Not…this.

“So, that leaves Jake, Anna, and Ivy,” Dr. Grayson was saying, “perfect. We’ll get on the jet, and we should be at the dig in about three hours. You’ll be fitted with the proper tools, of course.”

Oh my god. Oh my god. Why had I followed them off that elevator?

An hour later I was seated between Jake and Anna on a very small airplane, taking off from Heathrow. 

“So, state department, huh? Couldn’t stand to let actual scientists get some work done without a babysitter?” Jake tossed this scornfully at Anna, ignoring me who was awkwardly slumped in my seat and wishing I didn’t exist.

“Unsupervised scientists are exactly what created this mess, dumbo.” 

“Wow, I can’t believe you called me that. Dumbo. Ouch. How am I going to be able to focus on my work, with a wound so deep?” 

“Ugh,” Anna rolled her eyes, and turned to look out her window. And by god, I wish she hadn’t, because Jake turned to me instead.

“Cute hair, by the way. You blended in really well. Sociology, you said? What’s your area?” I gulped, my throat feeling like it was made of carpet. I was an introvert to begin with, so honest conversation with strangers posed enough of a challenge. But this was another beast entirely.

“Im interested in women’s suffrage,” I squeaked.

“Of course you are. No, I didn’t mean your disguise,” he said with a laugh. He must have mistaken my anxiety for anger, because he followed with “I mean, we’re all into women’s rights. Don’t get me wrong. I just meant…like…what’s your speciality, like, why’d you get put on this specific case?” 

I wracked my brains so hard I wondered if it was possible to inflict a concussion that way.

“I was in the middle of conducting research on how different teams of anthropologists or archeologists can influence the public image of ancient societies, based on publication and subsequent publicity.” 

“Oh, so you’re from the office of public affairs, basically,” he said in a bored voice. 

“Have you ever been to a dig before?” Anna asked, sounding politely interested. I simply shook my head. 

“Okay, no worries, Jake and I can handle the grunt work, and you can focus on your write-up. I’m sure you’ve got a tight deadline for this.” I smiled appreciatively, blown away that my answer had satisfied them and terrified of making things worse. 

“Wait, I thought Grayson said we weren’t covering the publicity, that they had lawyers on it,” Jake said.

“It’s more academics,” I said vaguely, and they nodded as though this meant something significant. 

Thank the lord we spent the rest of the flight in relative silence, reading through the documents Grayson had handed out. They really just outlined procedures for the dig site, and our capacity there, but Anna had assured me I could just linger to a side with a laptop if I wanted.

We touched down in Genoa around three in the afternoon. 

At least if it was my last day as a free citizen on this earth, I could say I’d gone to Italy with a frankly quite attractive scientist boy. Not a bad last day, as these things go. With mountains on one side and the sea on the other, it was absolutely breathtaking. If I hadn’t been in the middle of an hours-long panic attack, I think it would have been the best day of my life. 

Off the plane, we got into an SUV right there on the tarmac, and as I watched the scenery slip from urban to rural I wondered what had inspired these fake scientists or whatever to even want to do this. What kind of biochemical warfare were they suggesting? Dr. Grayson hadn’t said, and none of the paperwork had said it either. I suppose the others back in London would decode it from the manuscripts, if that’s what they were doing, but…

“So you’re here to report on us, Anna tells me. I was wondering who you were,” Grayson spoke in a quiet voice from the front seat. I said nothing, feeling like my throat was going to swell shut in panic. Was I busted? Would they tie rocks to my feet and toss me out to sea?

“I don’t blame you for not wanting to speak up until we were on our way. The bureaucrats never want the researchers involved, but then they get mad when the researchers say something they don’t like, so what’s the point? You may as well be here and get the proper intel.” She swivelled in the front seat to face me. “Don’t make me regret it, got it?” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said in what I hoped was a winning voice. I saw a smirk tugging at the corners of Jake’s mouth, and tried to soothe the raging panic in my head and stomach. 

The dig site was honestly kind of disappointing. I had built it up in my head to look like a whole government facility built on a crater in the ground, with tents, scaffolding, desks, the works. But nope. This was just a crater in the ground, with a couple of ropes spanning the width of it here and there, I guess to mark the split between sections or something. That, and a couple of stools and ladders, and it was your run-of-the-mill pit.

“You’ll want this. Don’t forget the back of the neck,” Jake said, handing me a tube of sunscreen. 

“Oh, thanks,” I said, smirking as I took a bit and passed it on to Anna, who began vigorously rubbing some into her face and arms. 

“Tools are in the trunk,” Grayson said, “I’ll be in the car as I have to update the Upstairs. Private phone call, you get it. Get to work.” Anna sprung into action. It was like she was racing Jake to get the tools and pick a spot first, wanting to beat him at every turn. 

“You’re not even a real archeologist,” he grumbled, leaving my side to gather his equipment. 

“Tell that to the state department,” she called, and he looked pissed that she’d heard. 

“Which state, even?” He asked.

“Virginia.” 

“CIA then?” 

“Not necessarily.” 

I said nothing, letting them bicker. I went to the trunk and peered in, seeing a stack of coveralls. I picked on up to inspect it, thinking it might be nice to cover up my outfit that was feeling less and less professional by the second. 

“Good thinking,” Anna said, grabbing a pair herself. All suited up, she pulled a laptop out of a bag and passed it to me. 

“Here ya go, I guess you didn’t get a chance to bring yours.”

“Is there internet here?” I asked.

“Yep, car acts as a router. High tech,” she said. I took the computer from her silently.

The three of us trudged back to the pit, where the other two lost no time hopping in and surveying their turf. 

“So,” I said awkwardly, “we’re supposed to see if we can find any other manuscripts? Or anything suggesting biochemical warfare?”

“Partly, yeah. I’m also going to be inspecting the dig site itself to try to disprove that they found any paper substances. Particles left behind, impressions in the ground, you know.” Jake was bobbing his head, hands on his hip, looking like my dad about to mow the lawn on Sunday morning.

“You can do that?” I asked. He laughed, seeming to think I was being facetious. I wasn’t. I was just clueless, but I guess I’m glad he didn’t see it.

“I’ll just watch you both work for a while, and then I’ll start my write-up. I need to observe to figure out my angle.” I tried to muster as much authority in my voice as possible, as though I’d done this kind of thing before. 

“Yeah, okay,” Anna said absently. A couple of minutes later and some awkward waiting with my hands in my pockets, laptop waiting on a stool, the others had picked work spots and gotten to it. 

The silence was broken only by the sound of shifting dirt, and the occasional ruffle or grunt from one of them. Subtle glances back to the car suggested that Grayson may not be joining us in the pit at all, which was a relief. I watched as Jake poked and prodded at the ground, a look of deep concentration on his face, compared to Anna’s digging with all the fervour of a child told to find treasure in a sandbox. 

There was nothing for it. I went over to the stool, opened the laptop, and started typing. I wrote of the bureaucratic nature of science, as Grayson had put it in the car, and how publication could really be a business. How people had to fight to get their ideas heard. How certain things were deemed more or less important to the government for example, versus the public sphere. 

Basically, I sat in coveralls, on a stool in a pit in Genoa, Italy, and wrote my term paper. 

I tried to spin it so that the finding of a hairbrush, or a kitchen tool, would be treated very differently than the finding of a weapon, and whether or not it was a man or woman who discovered it really made no difference. Both men and women work in bureaucratic systems and in academics in today’s world, and both have access to controlling information. I wrote something like that, hoping if Grayson checked what I’d been working on, she’d see it as a government report on academia, since that was my only thread of legitimacy to work with where these strangers were concerned. After I finished I quickly emailed it to myself, hoping no-one would notice, and then I could just email my professor saying I couldn’t see the book I was supposed to but I’d written a paper for the deadline anyway.

By the time I’d finished my write up it was nearing six o’clock. Jake pulled up a stool next to me, and braced his forearms on his knees. 

“I can’t see any evidence of a real dig here. I don’t get it,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I said slowly, closing the laptop, having quadruple checked that I’d sent the work to my school email and saved it.

“I mean there wasn’t a dig here. This isn’t a real archeological site.” 

“So where did the fake manuscripts come from then?” I asked, wondering how on earth he could tell.

“I don’t know. I also don’t know why Grayson wouldn’t have known that before we got out here.” 

“Well, someone had to be the first to check,” I offered, blushing a little for fear this was a stupid comment. He looked at me, real suspicion entering his eyes for the first time.

“There are scientists in Italy. We didn’t need to fly out here to check it. Something’s up.” In the setting sun, the green flecks in his brown eyes caught the light, and I realized he was younger than I had originally thought. He couldn’t have been out of school that long.

“Maybe Grayson is in on it?” But before Jake could reply to this, Anna joined us in our little corner of the pit.

“Anyone have any water?” Jake passed her some, and she gulped it down before saying, “I’ve been digging for almost three hours and haven’t found a single thing.” 

I felt the familiar surges of panic making their way through my veins, making my ears ring and my head feel stuffy, and making the other two feel oddly distant. 

“Maybe the site has already been cleared out?” I offered, my voice squeaky. Anna passed me the water bottle, mistaking my rasp for thirst.

“How’s it going down here?” The three of us froze, staring at each other. Grayson had gotten out of the car, and hopped into the pit, the heels of her shoes sinking an inch or two in the loose dirt. She shuffled over to us, maintaining her look of authority. 

“Yeah, good,” Jake said, “I think I’ve seen all I need to for a first look.” 

“You’re only getting one look,” she drawled.

“I haven’t found any other artifacts,” Anna said, “I think whoever was here before cleared everything out.” 

“And where would they have put it?” Grayson demanded. Anna fell silent, taken aback. 

“I don’t think anyone really was here before. I think this is a fabricated dig site.” While I didn’t know Jake very well, there was no mistaking the challenge in his voice. Grayson’s eyes narrowed a little, and she took a couple steps closer to where Jake was seated beside me, so she could tower over him. 

“And what are you suggesting, exactly, Jake?” 

“When I’m working I go by Dr. Miller. I’m suggesting that they gave you a fake location to send you on a goose chase, or that perhaps those manuscripts don’t exist at all.”

“Then what would you suggest is in the maps room back in London?” She said dangerously. 

“I couldn’t tell you, seeing as I never saw them in person.” A grin flickered on Grayson’s face. I caught Anna’s eye from where she was standing behind Grayson, and read the worry as a pretty bad sign. 

“Who would want to send me on a wild goose chase?”

“You’re the government official, not me. Who exactly do you work for, Dr. Grayson? And what are you a doctor of, exactly?”

“Political science, it’s just a title. I work for the secretary of defence.” At this, Jake laughed in her face. 

“The U.S. government is worried about some old scroll they dug up in the mountains that suggests some ancient civilization knew how to…what? Poison each other? This is a joke, right?” Jake stood up and strolled away from the group, shaking his head.

“Not poison,” she said quietly.

“Then what?” I asked, immediately realizing I’d broken my vow to myself to keep my stupid gob shut.

“Classified,” she said with an arched brow.

“So again, why fake the site?” Anna asked. 

“The scientists who produced the documents could have said it was here to buy time until the exhibition,” I offered, since Grayson was still staring at me. She flicked an eyebrow up again, and finally broke her stare to turn her eyes on Jake.

“Are any of you wearing microphones?” She asked. 

“No,” we all said unanimously. She exhaled wearily, rubbing a hand over her tired eyes.

“Alright. What I’m about to tell you doesn’t leave this pit. The scrolls outline a way of spreading a virus that was apparently employed all the way back then. Given the recent pandemic all over the world, that’s not the kind of thing the public needs to be seeing. But these scientists are convinced it needs to go public. You can see how that would strike fear into the hearts of everyone. They’d all be convinced they were the recent victims of a large-scale government attack.” 

“Who are these scientists? Archeologists, whoever?” Anna said, disgust colouring her words.

“We’re wasting time here, we can talk about this on the jet back to London. I want to see those manuscripts,” Jake said, and he strode to the edge of the pit and hauled himself out. I was shocked that Grayson didn’t counter his authority, and instead followed him. 

I slept most of the plane ride back to London. I’d listened to them bicker and swap theories while we ate our way through a couple of pizzas that were waiting for us on the tarmac, but they’d mostly talked in circles. The more they talked, the less Grayson really seemed to know, and Jake kept saying he needed to see these artifacts.

With the time change back, it was about nine when we landed, and ten pm when we reached the university. I felt better, having slept a bit, but my head was still pounding with exhaustion from the events of the day.

We loaded ourselves back into the same elevator in the university library, and headed one level down. Instead of going to the conference room we headed down another hallway, where the map room was tucked away.

“They said they were still here,” Grayson said, leading us. She opened the door, and I would have been impressed by the collection of old maps had I not flown to the northern coast of Italy and back that afternoon.

“Where are they?” Jake asked harshly. 

“I don’t know,” Grayson admitted. 

“Dr. Grayson, have you worked with either Brandon or Adam previously?” Anna asked. 

“No, I haven’t. I haven’t worked with any of you before.” 

“Do you know who they work for?” Anna pressed. 

“No.”

“They just said fact checking and restoration. That could be government, a university,” Anna was trailing off. 

“A museum, even,” Jake offered. 

“I mean now that I think of it, you didn’t check any of our credentials,” Anna said, glaring at Grayson. 

“Hang on a minute, I knew five people were supposed to be joining me in the map room. I don’t appreciate your suggestion that I’m incompetent. They’re probably out grabbing coffee.”

“But how do we know they weren’t just two random guys on the elevator?” Anna said, wringing her hands. I was beginning to think she was scared that her own butt was on the line here, but mine was too so…relatable. 

“Oh, you’re back, perfect,” said a voice as the door opened, and Brandon and Adam walked in. The room was cramped with all of us standing in there. 

“From what we can tell, they’re real,” Adam said.

“They can’t be, the dig site seemed fake,” Jake said. “Let me see it.”

“I mean, obviously more rigorous testing has to be done than what we can do in a day, but it seems pretty authentic to me,” Brandon was saying as he led Jake over to where they’d been examining a very old, gross looking scroll of paper.

“Who do you two work for?” Grayson asked them, and they looked at her in shock. 

“I work for the British Museum, in the restoration department,” Adam said a little uncertainly. 

“I work for the university here, but I was hired as a consultant by the government,” Brandon said a little pompously. 

“And who do you work for?” Grayson said, turning on me. 

My throat burned. My eyes stung. I felt my head swimming, my palms prickling and my knees shaking. My limbs felt weirdly weightless. They were all staring at me now, and I knew there was nothing for it. 

“It’s like Anna said…I was just a stranger on the elevator. I followed you guys to the conference room earlier half as a joke, and then I got too scared to leave cause I thought I’d get in trouble,” it was all just tumbling out of me, and I didn’t care that tears were tracking down my face. “I should never have gotten on the plane, I should have never even followed you down the hall off of the elevator. I was on my way to look at an old book for a sociology paper I’m supposed to submit this weekend.”

To my absolute shock, Jake started to laugh. Not just a chuckle, he really laughed. Despite myself, I laughed a little too.

“I really was supposed to write a paper on different perspectives on the publications in the archeology and anthropology world, but this took it to a whole new level. I did a write up at the dig site and emailed it to myself to submit for class, but I can delete it if you want.” I looked at Grayson, fear spiking in my gut again. 

“I’ll read it first, but you clearly know nothing so I’m sure it’s harmless,” she said with an eye roll. why had I laughed? Surely ‘apologetic’ and terrified was what I should be going for, not acting like I was gloating.

“Are you gonna lock me up?” I squeaked, fresh hot tears running into my mouth and off my chin.

“What for? So you came to Italy, big deal. If Jake is right and the site is fake, you basically flew with us to see a random hole in the ground. We’ll draft up a non-disclosure agreement, track your phone for a few days, keep an eye on you…to be honest, with something like this, it doesn’t really matter that one little girl knows.” I was a bit offended at being called a little girl, but I took her point. Even if I posted about today all over my social medias, I would be discounted pretty quickly by the public, especially since I had no photos to back it up. Kinda like that history channel guy convinced aliens were responsible for historical landmarks.

“So…” I started, unsure what I was attempting to say. 

Adam pulled a wad of cafeteria napkins out of his pocket. “It’s okay, no one thinks you meant anything by it. You got swept up in it. No big deal.” 

“It still doesn’t answer my question though,” Jake insisted. “Where did these come from? If they are real, why do they surface now? Who found them? And if they’re fake, still who?”

“All I know is my boss gave me the assignment,” Grayson shrugged. 

“What does that mean? You’re blaming the American government for this?” Anna said acidly. 

I sat down in a chair tucked in the corner, glad I didn’t have to pretend I knew what was going on, or that I had any roll in this. 

“Can I go?” I asked, suddenly desperate for silence and solitude. I’d had enough.

“Yeah. We know where to find you,” Grayson said, exhaustion dripping from her own voice. 

I left the room. I walked back down the hallway, boarded the elevator and left the university library. I walked back to my dorm, in a complete daze, unable to process the day I’d just experienced. I’d snuck into some top secret government meeting and flown to Italy to attempt to disprove evidence of an ancient virus spreading technique. 

At least I’d still managed to write my paper, and I’d tried pizza in Italy, so that was pretty cool. 

A week later, with an A on my paper that I’d turned in, headlines broke that people suspected foul play with the pandemic we’d just survived the year prior. People began to suspect that it was brought on by some government or other, but then other outlets said that was just paranoia. Others still said it was old news, and what were we supposed to do about it anyway.

I bought a ticket to the British Museum, and saw the manuscript on display for everyone to see. A little blurb was posted beside it, saying how its authenticity was severely questioned, but it was no doubt real. 

No one seemed to care. I never did find out where those manuscripts really came from.

[xxsovereignsarayaxx]

Supernatural - Road to Revenge

Summary: Nicole 'Nikki' Williams tried her best to bury her past, but what happens when something jeopardises that? What happens when she is forced to become everything she once hated? Will she change for the better or will she turn back into that person once more? Because they all say the road to revenge is a dangerous one. Just how dangerous is it? Word Count: 2023 Warnings: None.

Family don’t end in blood; but it doesn’t start there either. Family cares for you. Not what you can do for them. Family is there, for the good, the bad, all of it. They got your back. Even when it hurts. That’s family.

I jolted awake, feeling the body next to mine sweaty and thrashing about, words laced thick with a mix of sleep and panic left the lips of the person I care so deeply about and I felt powerless because I couldn’t help. Pulling back the covers my dainty hands worked hard trying to get a hand free from the clutched covers – I knew it was dangerous trying to interfere with a night terror but they were getting more frequent and longer each time as the nights passed on, what were a few minutes now lasted almost an hour maybe more. It was at that moment Sam had burst into our room like he had done times before in order to try and comfort his brother and myself, he always had the same look on his face, his eyes filled with panic and pain as he saw what was happening to his brother and again powerless to help. All we could do was be there for Dean but at night he was vulnerable but during the day he became recluse and defensive always looking for a distraction whether that be a case, alcohol or sex. 

“Dean? I need you to wake up.” I said softly but just loud enough in hopes for him to hear.

“Dean.” Sam said, still stood in the hallway illuminated by the lights in the bunker.

Dean continued to thrash his body about the bed, sweat beaded from his forehead and slid down on his pillow, his grip slightly loosened on the clutched covers but immediately latched onto my wrist squeezing tightly, it felt like my wrist could snap at any given moment, the sheer pure strength that Dean had for his fight instincts were frightening as I felt my entire body being pulled towards him. Wincing at the pain Sam had rushed over sitting on the edge of the bed and offered me his hand to balance out the pain, to which I gladly took, I gave a weak smile in an attempt to try and calm the younger Winchester. But it was getting too much and I felt tears well up in my eyes and slip down my face and bounce onto the mattress.

“Dean, please I need you to wake up.” I said with a whimper.

Somehow my prayers were answered and Dean bolted awake and looked around he noticed both me and Sam, he took a shaky breath and ran a large hand through his hair. He then noticed his iron grip on my wrist and let go so quickly like he had touched something hot. 

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled and turned away the look of shame and guilt riddled his features. 

“It’s ok.” I replied softly to him trying to reach out to comfort him, but Dean turned away ashamed. Sam placed an innocent kiss to the top of my forehead and brushed the strands of hair covering my face, then got up and made his way to his older brother and gave him a hug, using my index finger I wiped the stray tears that had stained my face and then rubbed my wrist to try and soothe the angry pain that had been flowing throughout, in a matter of moments while in complete silence Sam had left the room closing the door, the click and the sound of mine and Dean’s combined breathing filled the room.

Letting out a sigh Dean asked “I did it again, didn’t I?” breaking the silence still looking anywhere but at me because he was too embarrassed of what he had done.

“It wasn’t as bad this time Dean.” I replied softly trying to sound hopeful.

“Nikki, I hurt you again.” He admitted angrily a hand shooting up to cover his face. I let out a small sigh, I knew he was hurting, I knew he was guilty for what he had just done and for his actions in the past but it didn’t change how I felt about him. I still loved him for everything that he is. I inched ever closer and gently put my arms around him and rested my head on his back even though his navy blue t-shirt was drenched in sweat and clung to him like it was a second skin. 

Dean Winchester was a man to whom he was marked with a curse and we as a family had no idea how to get rid of it. 

We sat together for a few minutes until I registered that his breathing was getting calmer, when I felt he was at a point I shuffled around once more so I could see his face, his eyes were red at the point of bursting into tears. “Hey, listen to me. I’m fine. I’m ok.” I said to reassure him using his hands to touch different parts of my body as a sign to him that I was not fragile like he thought in his dream state.

“What if next time I don’t wake up? What if next time it’s your throat and not your wrists?” Dean asked, sounding panicked. “It won’t come to that Dean.” I replied to him placing my hand on his cheek. 

“But what if it does?” He asked again, his breathing had intensified once more. 

“Then we deal with it.” Rubbing my thumb on his cheek.

“You could do so much better.” Dean mumbled a moment later.

“I could. But I won’t. I want you Dean Winchester and only you.” I told him, planting a kiss to his cheek. 

In the morning I woke up to an empty bed, letting out a grumble as I was never a morning person, I stretched around under the sheets, I finally got up and out of bed. Running my hand through my thick brown hair, tugging through a few knots and then proceeding to rub the sleep from my eyes I made my way to the kitchen as the smell of bacon wafted through my nostrils. Padding through the hallway I noticed that Sam was still asleep not like I blamed him the past few weeks had been tough on all of us, Dean was frustrated with his actions and his sleepless nights, Sam had been disappearing throughout the day and it confused both me and Dean but we had assumed it was down to a new lady friend Sam was yet to introduce to us. I was tired of looking through countless lore books to find ultimately nothing. As I made it into the kitchen I saw Dean plate up some bacon. 

“Now that is a sight I never get tired of seeing.” Dean said with a cheeky smile eyeing me up and down. Chuckling at him and heading to where the caffeine was, I poured some of the delicious substance into two cups and made my way to the table sitting opposite Dean as he ate his mornings work. 

“How did you sleep?” Dean asked sheepishly. 

“Other than the fact I woke up to a cold and empty bed I slept ok, the bacon though makes up for the absence.” I replied playfully, reaching out to Dean’s hand pinching the half eaten piece of bacon from him. 

“That was mine.” He said to me. 

“What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is also mine, Winchester. You should know that by now. I teased. Dean leaned over and kissed me – hard. It felt like he had been starved and he relished in my touch, our mouths moulded together perfectly like they had done so many times before. I reluctantly broke the kiss due to lack of oxygen in my lungs. “We shouldn’t really do this here, we prepare food here.” I panted. 

“Your right, let’s take this somewhere else.” Dean said leaping from his seat holding my hand. 

Once again Dean used sex as a distraction. 

A week later it was back to work looking for cases and flicking through files that were yet unread. Sam had gone out again which left me and Dean in the library, he had his feet up on the table with a whiskey glass in hand as he scrolled down on the laptop in front of him. Tossing the file I had just read into the cardboard box on the floor, I then proceeded to pick up another when the door to the bunker opened and closed and I looked up seeing Sam make his way down the spiral metal staircase. “That lady friend of yours is keeping you busy.” Dean mocked his little brother. 

“Uh yeah.” Sam replied taking off down the hallway, noticing the odd behaviour I also got up from my seat. Dean looked up from the laptop shooting me a look. “I’ll be back in a minute.” I promised to Dean with a smile, he nodded his head and downed the remaining contents of his drink. I hurried to Sam’s room and softly knocked on the door and walked in closing it behind me.

“Yeah I’ll call you back.” Sam had said to the other person on the phone and then the call ended he then stuffed his phone into his jean pocket. 

“Either that lady friend of yours is very, very demanding or you’re hiding something Samuel which is it?” I asked him taking a seat on the edge of his bed, Sam had propped himself up against the desk that was in his room, while he had his hands tucked underneath his armpits. 

“Nikki it’s nothing.” Sam attempted, looking at me in my general direction.

“Sam I wasn’t born yesterday, you of all people should know that. Care to explain your absences, over the past few weeks?” 

“Dean’s not getting any better Nik.” Sam interrupted.

“Don’t you think I know that? You look like hell Sam but you won’t get any sleep if you don’t make it to bed. What’s going on? Why are you just disappearing without warning?” I asked him, hoping he would give me an answer.

“I do that sometimes…”

“No Sam you don’t, after all the years I’ve known you. You just disappearing like you have been doing isn’t something you do.

“I’ve got people working on a cure for Dean.” He admitted. Tilting my head in confusion. “People? Like who?”

“Just people Nikki, I didn’t want to get your hopes up hence why I kept quiet.” Sam replied softly running one his large hands through his brown hair.

“There’s keeping quiet and then there’s keeping secrets Sam.” I snapped with a huff crossing my arms.

“You’re going to just have to trust me on this one Nik.” Sam said to me, sighing. 

“We’re meant to be family Sam, I know whatever you’re doing is for Dean, you think it’s worth pushing everyone away for it. But don’t come to me when it blows up in your face.” I said angrily, getting to my feet and making a beeline for the door, I reached out for the handle and turned to look at him once more. 

“Please don’t say anything.” Sam uttered a plea.

“This conversation isn’t over.” 

After the conversation with Sam, I was pissed. We often confided in each other and the fact he kept this from me hurt. But if he was trying to help Dean and was not off getting laid I suppose I couldn’t be as angry as I wanted to be. I headed over to the kitchen, my need for any form of alcohol was needed. Beer? Whiskey? I’ll take whatever I could find. Opening the door to the fridge when my phone started to buzz in my pocket. I fished it out looking at the caller ID.

I let out another sigh which must have been my hundredth sigh of the day.

“This day just keeps getting better and better.” I said with sarcasm dripping from lips to the other person on the phone.

To be continued… 

[tsukoyomi-fumikage]

Injured (Teachers)

S/EraserMic S/SnipePlasm (If that’s even a ship?)

Prompt - Aizawa and Snipe finally understand the term ‘We’re fucked’. 

IMPORTANT NOTES -  Snipe’s name I have given him - Sogeki Shotto, meaning Snipe-Shot. I think it sounds good, just not too well for translation. I'm sorry, I couldn't find his real name.

.

Aizawa slid along the floor, eyes red and sore under his goggles as he dodged yet another attack from the hardening-quirk user. Everything hurt, he'd concluded as his feet touched the ground, shoulders and hair slumping momentarily as he stopped using his quirk to rest, managing to jump out of the way of a flying fist even with his eyes closed. Snipe, another teacher from UA, was opposite the villain, and as Shota disappeared into the shadows momentarily, he listened as gunshots rang through the air, ripping it in half and sending waves of sound into the forest around them. They should have known that a metal-quirk user would be no match for someone with a gun - Snipe couldn't do anything at the minute, and was in serious trouble without him.

The cowboy was grunting as he swerved and dodged the mans oncoming fists - Aizawa risked opening his eyes momentarily to watch the fight, wincing as the much smaller man was knocked off of his feet and slammed into the ground. It reminded him so much of USJ - Snipe had been one of the first heroes on scene, and had saved the lives of Jiro, Kaminari, Yaoyorozu and Midoriya, and yet here he was, mask partly smashed and hair matted with blood as he was thrown against a tree, landing roughly on his hands and knees, coughing wetly before glancing back up at the villain.

"Where's your friend gone?" His boots dragged through the dusty ground, kicking soot up at his most likely bruised face. Snipe only coughed more, but shakily tried to grab his gun, only to be grabbed by his hair and slammed face first into the floor in response, his hat long forgotten on the dirt. "He had an amazing quirk you know - you, however, are nothing compared to me."

Finally having rest enough to attack again, he leapt forward from his hiding spot, finding himself on the mans back, canceling out his quirk instantly. The villain growled under him, whirring around, Shota trying to stay on like he was at some form of rodeo, clenching his fists tightly in the man's hair, pulling at it: it wasn't exactly a hero move, but Shota couldn't really care less. Suddenly, big hands grabbed his wrists, and he was flung over the mans head, whooshing through the air before coming to land shoulder first into a tree. Pain shot up his arm, and he hissed sharply, throwing his head back in agony as it continued growing sharper and sharper. However, he still had a mission to do. "You asshole!" The villain roared, stomping towards him angrily.

Looking up, he used his quirk again to quell the man's own. "Shotto, now!" He didn't know if the younger teacher was even awake at the minute, but his theory of him being so was quickly shown to be true when the villain stopped moving, gave a choked cry, and fell to the ground, lifeless, a bullet lodged deep inside his forehead. Slumping to the ground, he panted harshly. "We weren't the best heroes for this." He commented quietly, trying to ignore the white-hot pain in his limb. "Were we, Sogeki?"

A soft laugh burst through the tense air, followed by a groan of pain. "Yeah, definitely. Wonder if this is what that Tetsutetsu guy is gonna be like from class 1B. I would hate to fight him."

"You and me both." Aizawa began to feel uncomfortable as his shoulder began to warm up, as if having a fever of its own. Looking down at it, he raised the clothing to find that his shoulder joint was sticking out of where it was supposed to be, pressed tightly against his flesh, as if almost trying to escape. Bile rose up into his mouth, but he suppressed it, swallowing harshly. "Are you good?"

Snipe sighed, and the rustling of leaves indicated that he was getting up. "I think I've got a concussion and probably some broken ribs, but I'm all good." Aizawa looked over at the blue, now redish, haired male, who was clutching at his chest, making his way slowly over to the other hero. "How are you? Trees are pretty solid last time I checked."

"Think I've dislocated my shoulder pretty badly." Even with the pain, he could clearly see how the smaller was moving, was not liking how Snipe stumbled trying to get to him. "And maybe done something to my back. Sit, Shotto-" The smaller looked like he didn't want to listen, but he followed instructions since he was superior being the older male. "-You shouldn't try to walk, I think that concussion is pretty bad."

Huffing, the man removed his mask, placing it onto the floor. His face was bruising up, brown eyes reflectively watering from the punches, nose dripping blood that he raised a hand to swipe at. "Do you think you can relocate your arm?"

Aizawa grimaced. "I'll get Toshinori or another hero to help me once they get here. Honestly-" He huffed out a dry laugh. "-They're so slow compared to us."

"Well they aren't assassin heroes." Snipe snorted, then winced as his nose began to bleed more. "They should be here soon anyway."

.

"Shotto, Shota, are you guys okay?" It was Ectoplam's metallic voice that awoke the pair from their slight dazes. Aizawa looked up at the pro, and narrowed his eyes as his shoulder pulled, joints threatening to burst from reddened skin.

Snipe grinded his teeth awkwardly - it was one of the few times they ever got to see his face, so he wasn't used to expressing his emotions for others to see. "We're good." He said slowly, running a hand through his stained red hair. "Aizawa's shoulder needs relocating though."

As if the Gods had heard his words, Toshinori, as All Might of course, burst through the undergrowth, huffing, followed closely by Present Mic and Vlad King. "Holy shit dude!" Hizashi squeaked, noticing the blood of both his friends and the victim on the floor. "You guys took one hell of a beating."

Ectoplasm crouched down, digging his hands under Shotto's armpits before dragging him up so he was standing. A hiss escaped his cracked lips, and brown eyes found black as the cowboy looked back at Aizawa. "You gonna be alright, partner?"

Eraser smiled. "I'm good, go with Ectoplasm now, Snipe." He wanted as little people as possible to listen to him as he got his shoulder relocated: Cause he know's its going to hurt. Watching as Vlad and Ectoplasm secured the smaller hero between them, helping to walk him away and back into the forest, he let out a sigh.

Now. Here it goes.

All Might quickly understood what he had to do, and knelt down reaching out his warm, large hands to maneuver the much smaller hero down onto the floor, head in Yamada's waiting lap. Long fingers stroked through his hair, and Aizawa felt the number one hero take hold of his shoulder. "Do you want me to countdown?"

He grit his teeth. "No."

The raven-haired hero didn't get a response, so he focused on his breathing and keeping his face pressed into the crook of Hizashi's lap. The hands tightened, and his joints began to protest. Aizawa tried hard to bite back the cries, but soon he was sobbing openly as it was brought upwards, getting ready to sharply align the joint with it's socket. "It's alright." Hizashi sounded pained himself as he listened to the whimpers below him. "Almost done."

All Might brought his arm across to his other shoulder around his back. After pressing his fingers to his neck, a loud pop was heard, and a rush of relief flooded through his veins. Obviously, it still hurt like an actual bitch, but the discomfort was gone, and he twitched his fingers momentarily, but soon enough his eyes closed, voices around him muffling before he fell unconscious, slumped against a fretting Hizashi.

.

"You may be the dumbest teacher I've ever met." Recovery Girl scolded softly as she dabbed at Snipe's head wounds, gaining a soft hiss from the man. Ectoplasm and Vlad were seated a few metres away from the gurney, wide smiles on their faces as the cowboy was treated. The small woman turned to face them. "Don't think you're getting off so easily!"

They both flinched back, and Sogeki let out a choked laugh. "I'm sorry, Shuzenji-san. We didn't know what his quirk was, it was quite the surprise bursting through the bushes to find a metal man waiting for you." He limply gestured to his guns, laying holstered on a nearby chair with his damaged mask besides them. "I'm not exactly the best at metal-quirk combat."

Snipe swore the woman was looking older as the minutes ticked by. She had watched them all grow up, of course she'd feel like an overprotective mother towards them. Chiyo Shuzenji would never change - not till she died, and Shotto loved her for that. "Just be more careful next time."

Ectoplasm shifted in his seat. "Does he need to stay the night?"

"Yes." She rubbed a cloth through his hair, taking away most of the blood before reaching back for some bandages. "I'm not liking that concussion at all."

Snipe sighed in annoyance, but leaned back into the bed when she finished. Ectoplasm got up and thanked the woman as she went to go find and drag Aizawa to a bed. "You really got a number done on yourself." The tooth-faced grin wasn't something many were used to, but Snipe couldn't help but smile back at it.

"You should see Aizawa-Chan."

.

Eraser panted harshly as he was laid on the bed, curling up onto one side, blinking hazily out of his eyes. He could hear voices, multiple ones, talking, muttering, 'Is he alright?', 'Dislocated shoulder', 'pain medication?'.

A hand found it's way into his hair, tangling their fingers within the locks, grounding him. His arm was grabbed by the elbow, and Aizawa momentarily wondered what the people surrounding him thought of his scarred wound from Shigaraki before pain took over as his shoulder was jolted around.

"You could of at least done it properly!" That was Recovery girl, hissing out her frustrations at someone. A small 'thwack' was heard, and he chalked it up to her hitting said someone over the head. "His arm is more damaged now because you tried to relocate it."

"It wasn't my fault!" Wow, for the number one hero, he sure did sound scared of the tiny graying woman. "He told me to do it!"

A very, very long drawn out sigh emitted from the nurse. She did not sound happy. "Yes, Toshinori, and what happens when someone is in a lot of pain and wants it to go away? They don't think clearly."

Aizawa huffed, looking over his shoulder from where he lay to glare hazy daggers at the group of people, minus Yamada, who was still stroking his hair, looking mortified. "I'm still in said pain." As soon as the words left his lips, a needle was slid into the crook of his elbow, and Chiyo quickly connected it to a machine, slowly pumping in what looked to be morphine. "Thanks." His vision was getting hazy again as the drugs took over, and he let his head rest comfortably against the soft white pillows.

"No worries, you problem child."

[hannitizer]

To Have a Home part 13

Summary: After Draco is found guilty of an attempted murder, he is sentenced to the Lupin’s house with hopes he’ll finally understand what it means to have a family. Only problem? Draco doesn’t want it.

A/N: Hey Y’all! Here is part 13 to my story. I hope you all enjoy!

Here’s Part 14!

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

“Okay, so what you’re going to want to do is put these two things under your armpits, and then swing your legs forward, like this…” 

Draco watched as Isla swung her body forward on the crutches. Her jacket had been discarded on one of the chairs. Remus sat next to him, a puzzled look on his face. 

“Isla, are you sure that you’re doing that right?” 

She stopped mid-swing. “Do you want to do it, Wolf Man?”

“No no, it’s just… interesting. That’s all.” 

Isla turned to Abigail. “What do you think, Gail?” 

“Why don’t we let Draco try it out? He’s got to do it sometime.” 

“There’s no way that you’re going to make me do that like some… pathetic muggle. I won’t do it.” Draco threw himself further into the couch, icy glare hitting each of them.

While Remus and Abigail looked at each other concerned, Isla laughed. 

“Okay, Draco, listen up. Just because you’re throwing a temper tantrum doesn’t mean that everything gets to go your way. If it were up to me, I’d slap you a good one…” She looked over to Abigail’s stern face. “But because it’s not up to me, I won’t.”

Isla walked over to Draco, crutches swinging under her arm. She looked like she was ready to whack him with one, so Draco took cover behind Remus, trying to make himself as small as possible. Her looming presence was intimidating, something that scared him. He couldn’t put his finger on what it was exactly, though. 

“Please don’t hurt me!” He cried out, almost visibly shaking. He felt his breath come short, and it was getting harder and harder to convince himself to breathe in and out. 

Before he could hold onto Remus, Isla was on him, taking him by the shoulders. 

“Jeez kid, I would never hurt you like that. I was only kidding; I wouldn’t hurt you unless you gave me a reason to, and believe me, it has to be one hell of a reason. Are you okay?” 

Draco didn’t respond, not moving at all in Isla’s arms. He looked from Isla to Remus, who was still sitting next to him, a pleading look in his eyes. 

“It’ll be okay, Draco. I’ve never seen Isla hurt anyone. She may look intimidating, but deep down, she’s a softy.” 

Isla hit him square in the chest. “Shut up Mooney. If you keep talking, I’m going to personally feed you to a dragon, and that’s a promise. I don’t care if you’re married to Abigail or not.” 

“Let’s all take a deep breath, okay?” Abigail came from behind, a tray of juice and biscuits in her hands. She placed it on the dining room table before walking over to the group. “Draco, let’s try those crutches. Do you think you can do that?” 

Draco looked at all three of them. He didn’t want a fight, but he also didn’t want to be carried by Remus everywhere, especially when he needed to use the bathroom. He slowly nodded his head, letting himself be helped by Remus and Isla onto the crutches.  

After a few shaky moments, Draco was able to balance, his boot in the air and his arms wrapped desperately around the armholds. Isla held back a snort as Draco attempted to move forward, though he struggled immensely. Remus stood in front of him, and Abigail in back. Together they made an almost-sandwich around him, arms out ready to catch him. 

It took a while, but eventually, Draco was able to get the hang of walking around on three legs instead of two. He felt almost like a pendulum, swinging back and forth. He had managed to make it from one side of the living room to the other. It took a lot of encouragement on Remus and Abigail’s part, but he had done it in the end. Draco flopped back onto the couch, dropping his crutches to the floor.

“No more,” he said, “I don’t think I can do anymore.” 

“Oh, come on, Draco. Don’t be such a wimp.” Isla sat down next to him, picking up the crutches. “You can try a little more.” 

“Why don’t you walk over to the table. We can have biscuits and juice then.” Abigail added, sitting down at one of the seats. Remus joined her, so that left just Isla and Draco on the couch. She handed him the crutches with a wink, walking over to join the Lupins. 

 After struggling to get himself on the crutches, Draco managed to hoist himself on and he slowly made his way over to the table. He took his time, carefully placing his okay foot on the ground followed by the two crutches. He smiled to himself, finally getting the hang of it. 

It was like the time Luke had finally mastered the force. Or when Bilbo makes it to the lonely mountain. Or when Jo March…

What he didn’t see, however, was the bit of carpet one of his crutches had got caught on. He flew forward, colliding head-first into the kitchen table. Before any of the adults could even pull their wands out, Draco’s arm caught the side of the biscuit tray, sending biscuits and juice flying. 

He landed face towards the ground, nose pressed flat. He let out a yelp of pain, struggling to hoist himself up. 

“Oh my goodness, Draco! Are you alright?” Abigail was already at his side, trying to help him up. Isla was spelling the broken cups and biscuits away, and was about to dry his shirt when Remus suggested getting a new one entirely, going upstairs to fetch one. 

“My face hurts.” He mumbled, trying to shield himself from Isla as she leaned down too. 

“How about I get these out of here.” She said, taking the crutches and putting them next to his couch. 

Abigail had already spelled his throbbing nose, which was hurting less already, and was looking for any other injuries. Remus returned shortly with a nice, long-sleeved off-white sweater. It was the one that he had seen Draco burrow in before, and he knew that, even though Draco would never admit, it was his favorite. 

“Here,” he said, tossing it down to him, “put this on. It’ll feel nicer.”

Draco scootched away from Abigail, and took off his shirt, struggling a little to get it over his head. It only took a moment, however, and he put the sweater on, rubbing his fingers over the soft fabric. 

It also took a moment for Isla to notice something that didn’t sit well with her. She frowned, pulling out her wand once more.

“Draco,” she advanced slowly on him, hoping that it wouldn’t upset him like before, “What is that on your back?”

He frowned a bit, craning his neck to look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Those marks, on your back, what are they from?” She prodded once more. 

Remus carefully moved his shirt up in the back, much to Draco’s annoyance. 

“Let go of me, mudblood!” he cried out, trying to shimmy out of his grip, but he only shushed him.

Isla lit her wand up, showering his back in light. What she thought she had seen was very much there. Scarring ran across his back, in every which way. Abigail gasped, immediately pulling out her wand to see if she could fix it, but everything she tried did nothing to it. 

“Draco, what happened to you?” Isla asked in the quietest voice she could manage. Draco, in response, fought against Remus once more, screaming at him to let him go. 

“No, Draco, you need to tell us what’s going on.”

“Was it someone you know? Did you do this? Someone in your family? A friend?” Isla tried probing harder, but Abigail held her arm up. 

“Draco, did someone use sectumsempra on you?” 

He paused fighting for a moment, looking up at her. “Potter used that… One day in the bathrooms at Hogwarts. But Professor Snape healed it.” 

Abigail’s face read puzzled for a moment. “That’s what it looks like, but if Snape was the one to heal you, it shouldn’t have left that bad of scarring… Where did he hit you?” 

Draco looked down. “... He hit me square in the chest. I didn’t think I was going to live; I thought I was going to die right there on the bathroom floor. Potter was lucky Professor Snape was around…” 

“Abigail, can I talk to you… Privately.” Isla stood up, extending her hand for Abigail to grab on to. 

“Remus, why don’t you get Draco situated back on the couch? I’ll be back in a moment. Draco, if you ever feel pain, let me know.”

The girls walked to the office just down the hallway as Remus lifted a hesitant Draco into his arms. As soon as the door closed to the boys, Isla started looking at the books that lined the walls. 

“This doesn’t add up…” She mumbled under her breath, “Scars that deep shouldn’t come from half a year ago.”

“And if he was hit in the chest, the scars wouldn’t show up on his back. There’s got to be something going on that we aren’t seeing.”

“Well, Draco’s not going to be cooperative about it. Did you see him in there?”

“Yes, Isla, I know,” Abigail sighed, “I”ve been dealing with this for the better half of the month.”

“I don’t want to leave him like this, but I don’t think he’s going to talk about it today.” Isla said, giving up her attempt to find the book she was looking for. There had to be well over a thousand books in the room. She was surprised that Remus and Abigail could find what they were looking for half of the time. 

“How about we both look into it, and we’ll talk about it when we find something. Until then, I’ll just keep a closer eye on him, see if he says anything.” 

“Good idea. I should get back to the house anyways. I left Alex watching our surprise guest this morning, and Tonks is probably mad that I’m not helping her track down Narcissa.” 

“Do you have any news on her?” Abigail asked, perking up when she heard her name. 

“Nothing much. We have a few places that we’re looking at. We think that Voldemort might just have her at the Malfoy manor, but you can never know for sure unless we can actually get there, but that’s a whole other issue for a different day.” Isla pulled Abigail into a tight hug. 

“Bye, Abigail. Stay in contact, and keep that baby safe!” 

“Shhhh, I haven’t told Draco about them yet.” Abigail whispered. 

“Well, get on that!” called Isla, opening the door of the office. She gave Remus a hug goodbye as well, and ruffled the hair on Draco’s head before letting herself out the front door, walking to the border of the property, and aparatting away.

[riverboundao3ff]

Riverbound, Chapter 3

You are THE GUARDIAN again, and you feel like a whole army of Chuck Norris clones used you as their punching bag.

This in itself is not out of the usual, given your lifestyle and who you are as a person, but when you try and move to get up a stabbing pain tears down your left side. You suck in a sharp breath, which also turns out to be a horrible idea as your broken ribs scream profanity into your soul. God damn it, what-

Everything comes back to you before you even finish that thought.

The cholerbear. Somebody saved you, and then… brought you somewhere?

You force your eyes open. The ceiling is spotted with bioluminescent fungi that fascinates you into almost ignoring your wounds. A blanket is draped over your body, which is nice because it’s kind of cold in here.

A jade green blanket.

Wait, is this…?

Something lifts from your lower shoulder, and you look over to see a familiar handsome face staring back. His slow smile lights up the whole room.

“Lanque,” you get out.

“The one and only. Welcome back to the land of the living, darling,” he says softly.

Despite the massive amount of pain you’re in you can’t help but grin right back. Lanque had been one of the last friends you had made on Alternia, and while you two weren’t best buddies or anything you’d ended up being his unofficial date every time he needed somebody to go with to a party. The first time was to make it up to him for snitching to Bronya, and then it just kind of snowballed from there. You needed somebody to show you how to have a good time, and he needed somebody to help drag his drunk ass back to the caverns in the morning. It was a perfect symbiotic relationship.

“I’d give you a hug, but I can’t really move right now. Did you save me?” you ask.

He shook his head. “No. Lynera found you nearby after a cholerbear threw you into a tree. You needed stitches so she came and got me.”

Stitches? Damn. Carefully, you reach over and feel your side. From the bottom of your armpit to about one-quarter of the way down your side was a bandage, and underneath the bandage you can feel something thick holding the broken skin together. It’s so sore to the touch you instantly regret moving at all.

Lanque scowls and bats your arm away. “Don’t, I worked hard on that. Two of your ribs are broken on the same side, too, so don’t even think about trying to run off again.”

“Yessir,” you snipe nasally, doing your best imitation of a freshly-recruited private responding to their drill sergeant. Lanque gives you a look that would have killed a lesser Guardian.

Something about what he just said finally gets processed in your brain. An extremely important question almost has you leaping off the couch in a panic as you fully turn to face him, wincing as you do so. “Oh, shit! Lanque, you were the last person I saw before I disappeared, right? How long have I been gone?”

Dark green eyes widen almost comically. “You mean you don’t know?”

“No, I don’t know, why would I ask if I don’t frickin’ know?” you snarl.

“It…” Lanque shakes his head. “Babe, it’s been nearly six perigees.”

Six perigees? That was over a full fucking year! “I what?! Please say sike, dude, I am begging you. Lanque, no.”

A large hand splays out across your chest and pushes you back down into the couch. “Stay. Down. It’s been six perigees, four weeks, and three nights since you disappeared. I know because Daraya keeps count.”

“Oh my God, I’m gonna go find a nice ray of sunshine and roast myself to death,” you moan. “I can’t believe I fucked up that bad.”

“Look, I don’t know what happened to you, but I know that whatever happened wasn’t your fault. I know you never would have left us on purpose,” Lanque insists.

You grab the pillow closest to you and scream into it for ten seconds straight. Then, you fluff it out and put it back where it was.

After you take a couple more deep breaths, you move on to the next most important thing. “You said Lynera saved me from the Cholerbear? She wasn’t injured, was she?”

Lanque snorts. “Of course not. Any animal with half a brain cell knows to not mess with us. Where there’s a jadeblood, there’s a cloister not too far away.”

“Good.” If somebody had gotten injured because you were being stupid you would have never been able to forgive yourself. “Thanks for stitching me up.”

“You’re more than welcome. Don’t make me have to do it again.”

“No promises.”

Lanque rolls his eyes, but there’s no exasperation behind it. He doesn’t meet your gaze, either, even when you turn your head to fully look at him.

“What?” you finally ask.

“... What happened to you?”

He’s being patient, and you appreciate that. Not just anybody got to see this side of Lanque.

You then begin to realize how badly all of your friends will want to know why the hell you up and dropped off the face of Alternia.

“Isn’t that the million dollar question?” you say, morbidly amused by your entire situation. “It’s a hell of a story. I want to tell it with everybody here, though, because I only want to have to tell it once. Some parts are going to be really bad and I will cry and make it awkward for everybody.”

Lanque nods, staring off to somewhere far away.

“And once my ribs heal, we’ll go crash some rich fuck’s party like old times. I’ll introduce you to some of my other friends, too. I think you and Tagora would get along famously,” you add.

One corner of his lips twitches.

“He’s a lawyer and one of the slimiest bitches I know on this planet. One time at his hive, I put on this lotion that made my skin glow, because I could, and he took me outside so I could see the full effect. His black crush lives nearby and walks up to Tagora to antagonize him or whatever. He didn’t see me until I was like ten feet away because he wasn’t wearing his glasses. He, his name is Galekh, and he’s this huge indigo guy,” you start giggling like an idiot even though your ribs feel like they���re actively trying to escape your body. “He took off running and shrieking like a wiggler. That dumbass thought I was a rainbow drinker.”

That did it. Lanque fell over, muffling his laughter into a pillow.

The fact you got Lanque Bombyx to crack up over some stupid story was well worth the agony in your side, but you decided calming down was the best course of action before you passed out again. You still couldn’t stop smiling, though.

It’s a couple of minutes before the two of you can look at each other without losing it. God, you had missed this so much. Just… hanging out with somebody you cared about because you could, not because you were being the puppet of some god, or because you were a lonely little gremlin with nothing better to do.

Lanque chills out when he sees you flinch every time you snicker. “Alright, darling, you got me. It’s good to have you back; it’s all dreadfully boring when you’re not around.”

“Call me the mitochondria, because I’m the powerhouse of this cell,” you agree.

“I have no idea what that means, but sure. Listen, Lynera went to go get the others just before you woke up, so I think-”

A door slams in the distance, and by the sound of it it’s the one in the closest stairwell. The echo of swift pattering feet follows.

“Good timing,” you say, but your mouth is dry.

Lanque nods and squeezes your shoulder.

The lock on the study door turns. Lynera slips in, sees that you’re awake, and she covers her mouth as her pretty eyes fill with tears. She’s here, and right behind her are Bronya, Daraya, and Wanshi.

If it wasn’t for Lanque holding you back you know your stupid ass would have launched right off the couch to run to them. You must look like shit, sweaty and bloodstained and countless little scratches everywhere. There’s a new scar on your exposed right forearm from when Dirk tried to teach you how to swordfight. Your hair has grass in it, and you’re pretty sure you lost an alarming amount of weight during your travels. Whoops.

The first one to move is Bronya, who comes forward to stand beside Lynera, whispering your name like she can hardly believe what she’s seeing. She’s still regal and beautiful, and you smile when you notice her increasingly anxious gaze flit across the cuts, the bruises and blood.

Wanshi’s jaw is pretty much on the floor. Wait a damn minute, is she taller now? Is she… no way. She’s up to Daraya’s shoulders. Your baby grew up while you were gone.

She grew up, and you weren’t there, and fuck, you think you’re going to cry-

Lanque signals for her to come over, and she obeys while furiously blinking back tears. She grabs his outstretched hand first before taking yours. Delicately, with a cautiousness you’ve never seen in a kid that young, she climbs over your legs to curl up next to you on your good side. You wrap an arm around her and pull her close. Her hands form fists in your hoodie.

You look up, and Daraya is still staring at you.

Please come here, honey, please. I won’t leave you again.

“Daraya,” you rasp.

Abruptly, she stiffens, sucking in a shaky breath, and then she’s storming over to you with her fangs bared. She goes down on her knees with a thump that would have easily broken a human leg. The sound rattles in your jaw.

You reach out to her, and then she’s wrapping both arms around you and sobbing hysterically. Christ, you’ve never heard anybody cry like that before. It sends shards of cold metal raking through your chest. They hurt more than a broken rib ever could.

Your face is wet with tears, too, but it feels damn good to let it out.

:::

For a long while you just let these kids cry on you, and sometimes you’re awake and sometimes you’re in that gray area between consciousness and sleep. You hear Bronya and Lynera talking to themselves about something, but you’re too out of it to care, and if something juicy was going on you trusted Lanque to fill you in on the tea.

“Psst. Hey.”

You smile and crack open an eye. “Hey yourself.”

Wanshi stares at you in awe, her cheek squished up against your stomach. “I can’t believe we’re in Lynera’s study. Lanque always told me she kept dead bodies in here, but I don’t see any.”

You side-eye Lanque, who gives you his best disarmingly attractive grin. Unfortunately, it works.

Daraya raises her head and wipes away some smudged mascara. “No, that would be too obvious. She totally keeps the bodies in the empty seadweller pools.”

“Guys, come on,” you protest.

Wanshi sticks her tongue out at you, and Daraya snickers wetly into your hoodie.

“... Like, really? If I was a jadeblood, and I killed somebody, why would I keep the body in the caverns?” you ask as seriously as you can.

All three of them turn away to pretend to cough into their sleeves when Bronya and Lynera look over at the sound of Daraya letting out the most undignified snort you’ve ever heard. You accidentally giggle as well and let out a pained squeak when your side flares in response.

The two head jades are on you in a flash.

“Alright, you three, quit it,” Bronya orders, but she’s smiling, too. “The faster their ribs heal, the sooner they can rejoin us and their other friends. How are you feeling?”

“Like the time I met Nihkee Moolah at a muscular theatre event and she wiped the floor with my carcass,” you tell her cheerfully. “Actually, that hurt way worse, so I think I’m good.”

“... That sounds like you had a very interesting night.”

“Oh, it was.”

Lynera peered worriedly from around Bronya’s shoulder. “We’re so happy to have you back, but… why did you have to go?”

“I didn’t want to,” you sigh. “I was kidnapped.”

Five pairs of reflective yellow eyes snap to you in a heartbeat.

“You what?” Lynera shrieked. Lanque hisses at her to be quiet, and she glares at him before sitting down next to a wide-eyed Daraya.

Looking at your friends, you realize that in order to tell the entire story you would have to start from the end, not the beginning. “Look, what I’m about to tell you… it’s going to sound completely insane. But I swear on whatever trolls hold holy that I am telling the truth.”

Bronya’s lips part, like she wants to say something, but then she just nods.

So you tell them.

No matter how hard you try, you can’t bring yourself to tell them everything-- the fact that you’re now the First Guardian of this universe, or how you pulled it away from the rest of the universe to protect it, or the extent of Ultimate Dirk’s full power. You also don’t tell them about the rebellion they’re about to fight in, and how only fifteen sweeps in the future their names will be erased from history, only to be remembered in the most secretive of documents.

You do tell them about meeting your other friends on Earth, as well as your adventures on future Alternia. You tell them about how you saved both planets from playing a deadly game that would have destroyed both civilizations. You even manage to explain the extent of Doc Scratch’s manipulation, the abuse you endured at his hands, how you eventually escaped and lost your memory in the process.

This part totally fucks with the trolls. Wanshi dives under the blanket when you recall the mirrors on all of the hallway walls that watched you like eyes, no matter where you went in that hellish dimension. Bronya and Lynera look absolutely horrified. Daraya starts staring at a pillow resting on your leg like she wants to shred it to pieces. Lanque is stone-faced and still.

“... and so I finally get away from Ultimate Dirk, and then I go make sure Regular Dirk is okay, because he’s a good kid. Then I go make sure everybody else is okay. I was terrified that he or Scratch was going to come back and… hurt people.” You don’t mention how you then peaced back out to the void of space for who knew how long. “When I was certain that the kids were going to be okay I decided to see if I could still go back in time to see you guys. And I could.”

A long, long moment of silence follows that.

Daraya is, of course, the first one to break it. “... Holy fucking shit.”

“Daraya, language,” Bronya growls, but her eyes are haunted.

“Yeah, I’m going to need a drink after this,” Lanque mutters, viciously scrubbing his face with both hands. “You’re telling me that the multiverse theory is correct, gods are real, and you have near absolute control of time and space.”

“Uh-huh. Wait, trolls have the multiverse theory too? Wow.” You made a mental note to tell that to Rose so she could have another excuse to talk with Kanaya.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. If any of those two monsters try and show up, I’ll shove all of my knives through their throats,” Lynera snarls, tearing holes in the cushion she’s gripping with her claws.

Wanshi stirs from underneath the blankets, and one little hand shoots into the air to give you a thumbs-up.

You smile and pat her arm. “Don’t worry, I don’t think they’ll be coming for me again. They had their fun.”

Bronya sighs heavily and claps her hands together. “Well, it’s late morning, and I know Daraya and Wanshi have class tomorrow-”

Wanshi shrieks in protest and Daraya turns to face her leader with an ugly glare. “But-!”

“No buts! We’ll all take turns keeping an eye on our friend while they recover. I know we’re all very excited to have them back, and perhaps you can use that as motivation to work harder during schoolfeeding so you can come visit as soon as you can,” Bronya declared. Her tone left no room for arguments.

Reluctantly, Wanshi and Daraya disentangle themselves from you and gave you the longest hugs of your life.

“I’ll be here tomorrow,” you promise. “Study hard, okay?”

Wanshi sniffles and nods, and you give her hand a squeeze before she shuffles away to wait for Daraya by the door.

You reach out for Daraya and pull her into another embrace. She squeaks, a little caught off guard, but you hold her tight and whisper in her ear.

“Text Tyzias.”

She freezes, finally understanding. “Got it.”

You watch her go, proud as hell when you see her hold herself a little higher than when she came in. Bronya clasps your hands and does the same. The strain of holding it together for everybody else must have exhausted her, you think guiltily. You vow to be as small of a burden on your friends as absolutely possible.

Lanque is the last to leave. He doesn’t say anything, but he does gently smooth the hair back from your face before heading out the door, turning the lights off as he goes. Your stomach flips around itself like a slinky.

You try really hard to not think about that, and also the fact that he was the one to cut away at your sports bra so he could stitch you up. Yes, you know about that. Yee-haw. Oh, hey, the ceiling has a crack in it.

Lynera calls your name from the other end of the study. “Do you need more blankets?”

“No, thank you, though!” You’re already falling back asleep. Everything that just happened over the course of the night hits you at once, leaving you utterly drained.

The sound of something big being dragged over stone catches your attention before you can fall asleep. You look back to see Lynera in her nightgown-- she must have changed in the bathroom-- hauling a recuperacoon over to the couch.With practiced ease, she hops up and slips into the hole at the top.

“Good morning,” she murmurs. “I’m so glad you’re back.”

In that moment, you knew that everything you went through to return to your friends was worth it. The injuries, the loneliness, the trauma. It was all worth it. You were sure of that.

You close your eyes and let yourself be happy, just for a little while. “Me too. Good morning, Lynera.”

[talpup]

Chaos: 43

Summary: The day Aizawa Shouta betrayed his Love was the day the Daimon lost everything that mattered in his life. Now, with her awake from her slumber and memory wiped, he has another chance at having her and being happy. There’s only the small problem of heaven wanting his Love dead, and hell wanting control of her. And her promise to protect and help another. Oh! And her remembering what he did.

But Shouta has waited so long to have her back. Has planned and taken measures to see his Love protected. He won’t loose her this time. He’ll do anything to keep her safe, and stop her from remembering his betrayal. Cost and consequences be damned.

Though it really is a shame that the cost just might bring about Chaos.

Please remember, this fic is rated explicit and has warnings of violence, sex, questionable con, and non-con (though we’re thankfully done with that), and other possible triggers.

***If you prefer reading off AO3 here’s the link for that: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20155333/chapters/55898098

I write for my own enjoyment, but edit and post for yours.  If you enjoyed reading this at all please comment and let me know.  It’s the only thing that encourages me to keep editing and posting.

Thank you to those who have left hearts.  And a great big THANK YOU to those who have left comments or re-blogged.  They really mean a lot.

As always, an extra special thank you to @inorganicone2230 for their encouragement and friendship, and help brainstorming.  Your thoughts and our chats mean a lot.

43.1

Shouta's blade swiped at the winged humanoid in front of Reyanna. Damn.  How had the thing moved so fast?  It was almost as if the Nenu had been in both places at once for an instant.  No flint could travel that fast.  Even if it was a fraction of a nanosecond, it still took time to disappear and reappear.  And that time left the traveler defenseless, open to attack.  If their enemy had no such weakness, he would be able to flint in as close as he liked, and kill them before they even realized he had traveled.

Shouta sneered, pushing Reyanna back and stepping in front of her. “Damn children of Chaos.  Bending order.  Twisting nature to your will.  It’s no wonder you’re thought of as abominations.”

The Nenu tisked at him.  “Careful, fallen Seraphim.  That’s your Bonded your talking about.”

Shouta snarled and swung his weapon.  This time the blade met flesh, cutting the Nenu.

The Nenu jerked back, hissing at the cutting sting caused by the Daimon’s blade. The wound had actually hurt.  More than that, the bloody slice had taken longer to heal.

That’s right.  How could he have been so foolish as to forget?  The Daimon’s bond with Reyanna would grant him aspects of Reyanna’s power, and do the same for her.  Even if his Sister hadn’t been a child of the four realms, she would've have ties to heaven and hell thanks to her Lover.  Her lineage and connections were chaotic, all be it in an ordered sort of way.

The Nenu scowled. He hated ordered chaos more than order itself.

“Don’t mock us.”  Shouta gritted.

Their Bond was broken.  Anyone could see that.  But more than that, Reyanna was no Third.  She might've been different.  Special.  And now that she was no longer singular there were questions that needed to be answered about her and Todoroki’s differences, as true born nephilim's. But he knew her better than he knew himself.  Reyanna wasn’t a Third.  He would’ve know if she were.

The Nenu chucked.

Only stupid children of God’s order thought that something as deeply seeded and all encompassing as a Bond could possibly be broken.  Just because there was no visual evidence of a complete and filled Vim ring didn’t negate the binding words, or power that was called upon to bind a couple as one.

Bonds were more than an exchange of words and rings filled with a portion of a lovers life force. They were permanent ties.  A bind that was forged in hottest, truest, most feared thing in all the cosmos.  Consuming love.

It couldn’t be undone.  Or taken down to its parts like a forged weapon.  A Bond was more than forever.  It marked something even deeper than a beings soul.  It was said that bonded lovers could find each other even in the nothingness of true death.

The Nenu bared his teeth at Shouta. He had to separate the Daimon from Reyanna.  The power of their Bond was stronger the closer they were together.  That was the reason for the Vim rings.  To make up for the loss of power bonded lovers experienced when they were apart.

Enji took on one of the beasts.  Kai and Shigaraki another.  While Hawks and Hizashi faced the third.

“At little help, Dabi.”  Shigaraki called.

Though the Demon hated asking the other for assistance, they needed it. As well as Kai fought with a single hand, the Daimon General was clearly lacking the finesse he had before he lost his left hand.  Not that Shigaraki was willing to give it back.

“I can’t you idiot!  These two already gave me conflicting orders.” Dabi looked between Shouta and Reyanna grateful for those orders.

People thought hell was the worst place there was.  And while that might've been true for the average human, it wasn’t so for anyone else. Oblvi was way worse than hell for one reason.  Death here would always be true for those not of this realm.

Yes, hell had its torture and endless torment; but when you died in hell you came back, soul spit back out of the ether to live again.  That was unless some angry, heartless daimon gave you a true death.  But here in Oblvi, all deaths were true, at least for outsiders.

Faced with such a terrifying possibility, Dabi would much rather stay by the two who were fighting for more than themselves and Todoroki’s task.  Call him a romantic, but he knew the power of love.  He had seen Aizawa focus instead of breaking when Kai had taunted him with Reyanna’s rape.  He had heard the stories of Reyanna fighting with the Great Rock for over half a day and killing him just because some foolish Rock Bats had set upon her wounded Love.

These two would end entire worlds for each other.  And though that love and devotion didn’t extend to him, it would shield and protect him if he stayed close enough...he hoped.

Damn. Dabi thought.  He really had come a long way.  From first thinking that Aizawa and Reyanna would be the death of him, to now thinking that they might be what kept him alive.  Though he was still certain that the two would be the death of him.  His being here was entirely their fault after all.  Sure neither had compelled him to come; but it was Reyanna who had effectively brought him in by summoning him for help with her greatest desire.

He should've known then who the woman was, and listened to Aizawa, and not messed with her.  Who the hell wanted Aizawa?  Let alone wanted the Daimon enough to have him be their greatest desire.  That alone should've been enough to tell him that the pretty Doll face was Aizawa's bonded Love.  He had simply been a fool for not seeing it.

Shouta’s quickly took in the other fighting beasts.  If Enji, Hizashi, Hawks, Kai, and Shigaraki could live to keep them distracted long enough…

“Dabi. See Anna back and through the tear.” Shouta commanded.

“What! No!”  Reyanna pulled at Shouta's arm.  “I’m not leaving you.”

She had left him broken and alone after she had remembered everything, but now she wouldn’t leave him, Shouta grumbled to himself.  At least she hadn’t said she wouldn’t leave Todoroki.

“No one’s leaving.”  The Nenu said, suddenly behind Reyanna.

The Third’s claws lashed out.

Shouta shoved Reyanna to the side, taking the cuts on his back and shoulder.

Fuck! The stung.  Shouta thought, gritting his teeth.

Shit. He hissed. The sting didn’t stop but grew, blossoming around the slow healing wounds.  The pain spread and ran through to every corner of his body.

It wasn’t a poison, his systems reaction would've told him that.  It was more like a sensory echo of the initial wound.

Blue flames hit the Nenu.  The attack did nothing but divert the Thirds attention long enough to allow Shouta to  put some distance between him and the thing.

Reyanna was back at Shouta's side in an instant.

“You’re still bleeding.”  She said, eyeing the slow closing wounds with angry horror.

“Damn it, Anna!  Go!  We don’t have time for your petulance.”  Shouta snapped.

“We don’t have time to argue.  I already told you.  I’m not leaving you!”  Reyanna barked back.

The Nenu appeared before them.  “And I said, no one’s leaving.”

This time Reyanna shoved Shouta out of the way.  Her blade swiped at the Nenu’s first slash, weapon grinding against his fingered talons.

She blocked and diverted the second strike, her blade locking with his four main claws on the third.

“You forget, little Sister, I have more than one hand.”  The Nenu said, left hand readying to strike.

“So do I.”  Reyanna gritted.

Her right hand open, lifting out toward Shouta.

Skidding and rolling to his feet, Shouta tossed his blade to her.

Reyanna caught it and plunged it up and into the Third’s armpit.

The Nenu grunted.  His swiping left arm halted and fell to his side.

Shouta's blade embedded in the Nenu, Reyanna sliced up and out in a brutal cut.

The Nenu growled.  The three other fighting beasts faltered. His eyes flicked black.

Reyanna’s upper-hand was short lived as the Nenu’s right thumb circled beneath her blade.  His four locked claws wrapped around the weapon.

The Nenu’s hand squeezed, flesh sizzling and blood pooling from his palm.  The weapon cracked in his grip.

Shouta, Dabi, and Reyanna watched in awed horror as Reyanna’s blade broke apart and crumbled.

The Nenu’s right hand opened, claws ready to strike.

“No!” Shouta ran and flinted to Reyanna’s side.

His hand wrapped around her right, pulling his blade from her grip.  Shouta spun, pulling and turning Reyanna out of the way.

“Fight me like a true child of Chaos!”  The Nenu demanded, claws coming down.

But there was no one there.  The Nenu’s talons raked through the air where Reyanna had been.  He looked to the side seeing Aizawa holding his blade and Reyanna safely behind him.

Fallen Seraphim or not, no angel or daimon could move that fast.  The damned Daimon had tapped into Reyanna’s power as a child of Chaos.

The Nenu snarled.

Two of the beasts ceased fighting and broke off toward Shouta and Reyanna.  They flinted but the Nenu was there to meet them.

Shouta and Reyanna both pushed the other out of the way, the two sent flying in opposite directions.

The two attacking beasts charged.

“Dabi!” Shouta shouted, in no position to get to Reyanna in time.

“Dabi!” Reyanna hollered, eyes on Shouta’s who had yet to make it to his feet.

Caught between them and the conflicting compel, Dabi cursed.  He was tired of being their demon dog.  He had a soul now.  He shouldn’t have to be stuck with these two homicidal, cursed lovers who could never agree what he should do. He had made one mistake.

So what if he hadn’t left when Aizawa told him to the night Reyanna had summoned him. That shouldn’t mean that he should have to pay for it for the rest of his existence.  He had just been doing his job. One would’ve thought that having made one such everlasting mistake in selling his soul fate would’ve taken pity on him.

“I’m done!”  Dabi yelled.  “I’ve had it up to here!  I’m no one’s dog!  I can’t fucking do it all!”

Temper making him want to kill everything in sight, Dabi’s hands flew out to either side.  White flames shot out, blasting the two charging beast.

The beasts writhed, bodies covered in fire.

The Nenu was forced to call the two creatures back before too much energy was expended while the pieces of him suffered and died.  Once near him, the creatures fell over and melt back into him.

The Nenu opened and closed his left hand looking at the large, new burn on his forearm.  His other hand touched around a second burn on his chest.  These wounds weren’t healing.  Why?

His eyes lifted and focused on Dabi.

“You have a soul.”  The Nenu accused.

Still fired up over his white flames and successfully meeting Aizawa and Reyanna’s impossible demand, Dabi jutted out his chin and grinned. “Yeah.  What of it?”

The Nenu snarled at the Demon.

And they had the nerve to call his kind abominations!  A demon with a soul!  Who had ever heard of such a thing?  Who would even think of it, let alone make it happen?

The Nenu turned to Reyanna.  Of course.  This was all her doing.  Everything was starting to make sense.

He had known is Sister had come to unseat him from his throne.  But what he hadn’t known was just how prepared the Bitch would be.  This whole entire thing was about him and Reyanna wanting his place.  Well he wouldn’t give it up so easily.  His weak, unknowing Sister would have to lose everything she knew for a chance at his throne.

The third beast charged at Dabi.

Gripping Sakamata and Kai’s severed hands, Shigaraki’s foot stomped the ground.

A near straight crack that was barely discernible shot towards the charging beast.  The beast halted and crumbled to dust.

Dabi spun around just in time to see the creature crumb.  He laughed nervously.

“You--” The Nenu began, black eyes flicking Shigaraki.

Dabi turned back to the Nenu.

White flames shot out of the Demon’s hands and engulfed the Third.

Dabi’s laugh became maniacal.

Careful to keep the wonder from his voice, Enji asked.  “Who the hell are these demons?”

“Just a couple of strays.  That one there is your sons uncle.”  Hawks said, gesturing to Dabi.

Enji looked over the crazy, laughing Demon his lip curling.

Shouta brushed himself off and took a step toward Reyanna.

The Nenu stepped out of the flames.

Dabi’s laughter died.

“Shit!” Dabi cursed.  He raced to the nearest body.  “Zawa!”

Shouta pushed the Demon away.

Dabi was sent flying.  He slid to a halt near Shigaraki’s feet.

“You think you can end me!”  The Nenu thundered.

The forest of trees behind them swayed and fell from the deep tremor that shook the ground.

“I am the first son of Chaos!  I own this place.”

The ground ceased shaking.

The Nenu’s eyes scanned the small gathering of adversaries.  “...and everyone in it.”

Shouta's breath caught.

The Nenu’s eyes were the same as Reyanna’s when she use her power. Spiraling galaxy's now existed in the Nenu’s deadly gaze.

Before any of them could move, three beasts broke from the Nenu again.

Shouta met one of them with his blade.  He looked about frantically for Reyanna but she and the Nenu were gone.

[let-it-raines]

Rising from the Ashes (19/21)

When her husband died, Emma wasn’t sure that she could ever move on. He left her with a broken heart and a baby who was only three-months old. It’s enough to take most people down, to make them not want to keep going, but Emma Swan isn’t most people. She’s stronger than she has any right to be.

And after years of heartache, she’s found ways to move on…one of those being in Neal’s best friend, Killian Jones.

As she’s always known, however, things are more complicated than they ever seem to be.

Rating: Mature

A/N: I really do love you guys. I swear ❤️

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current 

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-/-

“Mom?”

“Mom?”

“Mom?”

“Mom!” Henry yells, tugging on the hem of her t-shirt until she looks down at him and at the cowlick that’s working its way to ridiculous levels at the back of his head.

“Yeah, kid?”

“I called your name, like, five hundred times, and you didn’t hear me. Are you going to be like Grandma and not be able to hear sometimes?”

She shakes her head from side to side, trying to drown out all of her thoughts as she focuses all of her attention on Henry. She has to focus her attention on him. She simply has to. “No, I’m not going to be like Grandma. I can still hear you. I was just distracted.”

“By what?”

Well that’s a loaded question, but she is too tired and too confused to be able to even begin to start addressing it to an eight-year-old, especially when she’s about to spend her entire day doing just that with several people who she really hopes are older than eight. That would be something else if there were child federal agents.

Has she lost her mind?

Running on fumes is exactly what’s happening to her, and she knows that it’s not going to be much longer until she is no longer running at all.

“Grown up stuff,” she hums, knowing that it’s a cop out but not caring as she takes a sip of her coffee, surprised by the fact that it’s cold. Didn’t she just make this pot five minutes ago? Her cup should be warm. Has it been longer than that? How long has she been standing in the kitchen zoned out? Is she even really awake? “What do you need, Henry?”

“I want to call my dad.”

Her cup falls from her hands, fingers loosening around the handle until she hears the crash of glass against wooden floor and the feel of tepid coffee moving over her bare feet, the slightest of stings echoing throughout her skin. She watches it happen as if it’s in slow motion, and it’s not until she hears Henry’s yelp that she realizes she just dropped her glass coffee mug on her son, the glass shards hitting him.

“Don’t move,” she shouts, holding her hands in front of her as she watches Henry’s bottom lip quiver and tears gather in his eyes. Ah, fuck. “Just…don’t move.”

She takes a step away from the broken glass and scoops Henry up from underneath his armpits. He’s far too big for her to be picking up, but she still can. And she doesn’t want him to get more cuts on his feet when she can already see some. She is the worst mother in the world. How could she do this?

“I-it hurts,” he whimpers, wiping at his nose while she gets the small pieces of glass out of his skin, guilt settling heavy in her stomach even though she knows it was an accident. An accident. She has to keep telling herself that it’s an accident because it was. Things happen. Accidents happen. That’s all this is. He’s simply in a little shock.

“I’m so, so sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to hurt you. It was an accident. I’m sorry.”

“I know. It just hurts.”

“I know, I know,” she soothes, glad he hasn’t fallen into some kind of full on meltdown as she gets one last piece of glass away from his leg. None of the cuts are deep enough to need stitches or result in any lasting damage, but she absolutely cannot believe that she just did that. “There. They’re all gone, kid. Stick your feet in the sink so we can wash them. They’re kind of stinky.”

“And bloody.”

“That too,” she laughs, if only because Henry’s face has suddenly turned from a quivering mess into some kind of focused fascination on his blood.

Great. She’s got a kid obsessed with blood. Maybe that means he’ll be a doctor or something and not turn out like his…she can’t go there yet. If she fully accepts it more than she did last night – or really this morning – it makes it real. And if it’s real…she can’t handle that right now. Later, she’ll handle it all later.

She flips the handle at the base of the faucet, running her hand under it to make sure it’s cold water before placing Henry’s feet in the basin and washing them off, thankful that she managed to do the dishes at some point yesterday. She barely even remembers anything about yesterday right now.

“So can I call my dad?” Henry asks again, and she feels her entire body go cold, any warmth she had left completely evaporating.

“Why do you want to call your dad?”

“I had a dream last night that there were dinosaurs where he lived, and I wanted to ask him if some of them escaped from the Smithsonian. Like in that movie.”

This child is the light of her life. He and Ada are just…everything.

And he loves his dad…he loves Neal so much that she can feel her intestines twisting and breaking down. She can feel the heaviness in her heart and all her limbs, and it is taking every ounce of strength that has settled itself deep in her bones over the years for her to keep from breaking down right here. She thought that she was done crying over Neal, that he couldn’t keep hurting her, whether he meant to or not, but here he is continuously surprising her.

Yesterday he got angry that Henry had Killian, that she was with Killian, and she didn’t understand it. She especially doesn’t understand it now when she knows that he apparently never gave two shits about them in the past.

Because he abandoned them.

He could have come home, and he didn’t.

Did he ever really love her? Was any of her marriage real? Why would he have married her if it wasn’t?

Does he love Henry now? God, she hopes that he loves Henry now. No matter what he’s done she needs some part of him to love Henry even if he does not deserve Henry. He doesn’t…she has no idea how to feel about anything. She can’t decide between curling into a ball on the couch and hiding away from the world for awhile or punching Neal in the face and demanding answers that she doesn’t think he’ll ever give her.

How does she even go about this?

She thought her ex-husband coming back from the dead would be the most complicated thing to happen to her.

It’s not.

Her ex-husband being some kind of criminal mastermind who is most likely going to jail is the most complicated thing to ever happen to her because she has to explain that to a kid who looks up to Neal as the hero that they always told him Neal was.

Even heroes fall.

Sometimes heroes aren’t heroes after all. Sometimes they wear the costume, but behind the mask are dark eyes full of deceit and hatred but that are seen as bright and cheerful and worthy of trust without any question.

She should have asked more questions. She should have asked better ones.

And maybe her kryptonite for her superpower with lies fails a little when she’s trusting someone she loves.

How could she have been so stupid? How could she have known?

“Emma, what the bloody hell is happening here?”

“You’re not supposed to use that word.”

“Aye, lad,” Killian confirms as she watches him step further into the kitchen with Ada in his arms, their daughter grabbing at his ears as he tentatively steps toward the sink, his eyes wide and full of concern. “I know. I’m sorry. What seems to have happened that you’ve got your feet in the sink?”

“Momma dropped her coffee, and the glass got stuck in my feet.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Henry sighs, sticking his feet in the air and splattering water over the countertop, “it stings a little. Do we have any cool band-aids? Am I going to get a scar?”

“Yes to the band-aids, no to the scar.” Killian steps over the shattered cup and toward her, his hand ghosting over her arm until he’s looking into her eyes, pupils moving all over her face. “You have cuts on your feet, love. I’m going to…I’ll take care of Henry if you take Ada and stop moving around in here without shoes on.”

“I’m fine.”

His lips press together and curl downward, but he doesn’t say anything, simply nodding his head up and down and handing Ada to her. “Alright, lad, do you want Spiderman or Ninja Turtles? I know both are your favorite.”

She listens to the rest of their conversation as she takes Ada and sits down at the kitchen table, cringing a little with each step she takes. Shit, she must have a piece of glass in the sole of her foot.

“Mama.”

“Hi, sweetheart, hi,” she hums, placing Ada on the table and holding onto her leg, tapping her fingers against her leg. She turns one in less than a month, and Emma still can’t believe it. “Can you give me just a few moments to deal with this? I know you can’t, but a girl can hope.”

“Mama,” she repeats, clapping her hand down on Emma’s while she picks up her foot and looks at the glass ledged between her toes.

“One minute, Ada bug.” Tugging at the glass, she pulls it out, having to carefully maneuver when it snags on skin, a red gush of flood following it. “Shit.”

“You’re not supposed to say that word either,” Henry so helpfully adds.

“Pay attention to your father,” she mumbles back, having to bite her tongue to keep from cursing out her eight-year-old.

Once she gets the glass out and sees that there are no other pieces lodged in her skin, she stands and grabs Ada, picking her up and making her way to clean her own wound and wrap gauze around the balls of her feet and her toes. This entire morning is a bit of a mess, a bit of a disaster really (a whole ass disaster if she’s honest with herself), but this will most likely be the calmest part of her entire day. She’s gotten no sleep, her mind never turning off even when she and Killian laid in silence for hours this morning. At one point she had needed to turn her brain off, to get out of her own head, and she’d desperately kissed him until he made her forget, thrusting in and out of her and stealing her breath with the way his lips moved across her skin. And she did forget for at least a little while as pleasure curled between her thighs and heat spread across every inch of her flesh. It was exhilarating, intoxicating, and for those few minutes, she didn’t have to think about the brokenness in her heart over everything that she’d learned about Neal.

And everything she’s going to learn today.

She and Henry eventually get all cleaned up, as well as the broken glass and spilled coffee being removed from the floor, and after Killian makes Henry some scrambled eggs and toast and Emma forces Ada to eat some sweet potatoes, they move the kids to the living room and wait for Ruby to show up so that she and Killian can go down to the station. Her leg never stops moving, bouncing up and down off of the bandaged balls of her feet, and she props Ada on her knee because Emma’s nerves might as well work to make someone happy. And Ada definitely still gets the giggles from being bounced up and down.

What she would give for the innocence of a child.

“Hello, Jones clan,” Ruby announces when she walks in the house, easily opening the door since Killian left it unlocked. “Auntie Ruby is here, and I can guarantee my favorite munchkins are going to have more fun with me than with their parents.”

“Ruby,” Henry shouts, getting up from the couch and running toward her, holding his hand up so that they can do whatever kind of secret high five they’ve got going on this week. She doesn’t know how in the world that they come up with it in the five minutes that Ruby sees Henry every day when he comes by after school. “What are we going to do? Did you bring your paints? Can we go to your house so I can paint on the wall?”

“I like your enthusiasm, but we are staying here today. But I have been told by a very reliable source that ice cream is in your future today.”

“Yeah?”

“Absolutely.”

“Hey, Rubes,” she greets, getting up from the couch and leaving Ada on the cushions so that she can pull Ruby in for a hug. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

“Well, I didn’t have a date last night, so you guys got lucky while I did not.” She chuckles before pulling back, smiling at Ruby. “You look like crap, Emma. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later, okay?”

She raises a brow. “Tomorrow?”

“Soon.”

“We need to go, Swan,” Killian tells her as she watches him lean down to kiss Ada’s cheek, murmuring something that she can’t hear before he walks over to where she’s standing and rests his hand on her lower back. “Thanks for watching them, Ruby.”

“Like I said, I’d do anything for Emma. And you two look terrible, so I hope this is some kind of spa retreat you’re going on and lying about.”

She wishes.

It’s only a fifteen minute drive to the precinct, but her leg stays bouncing the entire time. She doesn’t know how Killian is calm enough to drive, but he effortlessly moves them through traffic, taking the detours around the downtown farmer’s markets until they’re pulling into a parking garage that is as gray and dreary as her mood.

Hell, it might even be brighter than her mood.

When Killian turns the engine off, all of the sounds of the car muting, she closes her eyes and inhales, her stomach attempting to settle itself. Killian doesn’t say anything, doesn’t encourage her to speak, but she feels the heavy, solid weight of his hand on her thigh through her leggingsand it causes a sob to catch in her throat. But she won’t let that one pass through her lips. Not now.

She has to be stronger than that.

In silence she opens her eyes and reaches for the handle on the door, pulling it and pushing it open after she unbuckles her seatbelt. She knows that Killian is following behind her, can feel his presence, but she takes it upon herself to walk down the stairwell with her eyes never leaving the ground until she crosses the bridge over into the building.

The moment she sees David when they walk into the precinct, her steps tick up a pace until she’s got her arms wrapped around his middle and his hand cradling the back of her head, pulling it closer to rest on his shoulder. He’s warm and smells like the spice of his cologne that he’s been wearing since she met him when she was fifteen. David has never liked change, and she finds an odd amount of comfort in that today.

“You okay?” he whispers into her ear, pressing his forearm a little harder against her back.

“No,” she admits honestly. There is no part of her that is okay, and there’s no point in lying to David. He knows more about her life than even she does right now, and he’s probably about to watch her have her heart ripped out of her chest. “I’m not.”

“You will be,” he promises, patting her head.

She nods her head and pulls back, taking a deep breath and straightening her back before fixing her ponytail, tightening it so that it rises on her head. “So where do we go? Who am I meeting?”

“Ah, that would be me,” a man with an Irish accent greets, holding his hand up with a shy smile on his face. He’s more handsome than she thought he would be, not that she really thought too much about it. She figured she’d be meeting with a man in his sixties with graying hair, not someone who can’t be older than forty with curly brown hair and a beard that kind of reminds her of Killian’s. “Agent Graham Humbert.”

“Emma Swan,” she says as she takes his hand. “And this is – ”

“We’ve met,” Killian grits as she turns to the side to look at him and the clench in his jaw. “Hello, Agent Humbert.”

“Hello, Mr. Jones.” Graham nods at him before looking back at David. “Do you two want any coffee or water before I take you into the conference room? We’ll be in there for awhile.”

“Coffee. All of the coffee that you have.”

“I’ll get it,” David offers, pressing his lips together before walking off to where she knows is their break down.

Agent Humbert tells them to follow them to the elevators, and they move up four floors before getting off and wandering down hallways she’s never been in before. Granted, she doesn’t spend too much time here, only coming when she’s getting lunch with David or dropping something off, and instead of focusing on how nervous she is, how her legs feel a little wobbly, she focuses on the sleek gray walls with few decorations, only framed certifications and one picture of the lighthouse resting just outside a conference room.

“So you’re a high school guidance counselor?” Agent Humbert asks as he holds open the door to the room, all of the blinds on the windows closed to the point where she’s starting to feel claustrophobic.

“I am.”

“My mum is an English teacher at a high school back home. I had her during my last year, and she mortified me nearly every single day.”

She laughs at that, but says nothing else, sitting down in an empty chair and scooting into the long table.

“Our son’s teacher is his aunt,” Killian fills in for her, pushing her chair in the rest of the way before he takes his own seat next to her. “I’m sure it’s not quite the same as having your mum be your teacher when you’re eighteen, but I know he gets frustrated over her assigning him homework.”

“This is David’s wife, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

She watches as Agent Humbert takes his seat across from the two of them, and it’s only then that she notices the boxes of files he has stacked behind him. For some reason, out of everything that is making her nervous and angry and terrified out of her mind, it’s those that really get to her. This is real. This is happening. This is…this is really happening.

Holy shit.

Killian’s hand finds hers underneath the table, and even though her hand feels a little lax, Killian twines their fingers together and squeezes before running his thumb back and forth over her knuckles. It’s warm and soothing and altogether comforting, but she cannot focus on anything but the blind that is slightly bent behind Detective Humbert’s head.

She wants to go back to yesterday morning where Ada and Henry were having simultaneous meltdowns. That was so much better than this.

“Miss Swan – ”

“Emma,” she corrects, “please call me Emma.”

He smiles. “You may call me Graham as well. We may as well get to know each other.”

“Don’t you already know everything there is to know about me?”

Killian’s thumb taps against her, and her eyes dart to the side to look at him. He’s smiling the slightest bit, and surprisingly that helps calm the rolls of nausea making their way through her.

Graham laughs a bit too, but she can tell that he feels awkward around the two of them. It makes sense. She kind of just called him out on the fact that the government has been spying on their family.

Again, holy shit.

“No, no I don’t,” he answers with a soft smile as he twists around and grabs a tablet off the top of the box. “I assume Mr. Jones told you most of what’s going on, including that we’ve been surveying your ex-husband as a part of protocol for any criminal of war as they readjust to life as a regular member of society.”

“He did.”

The door opens behind them, and she twists her head around to see David walking into the room with a tray of coffee all poured into to-go containers. He hands her the drink first, and she immediately takes a sip, needing the caffeine. Bless David Nolan for knowing how she takes her coffee so that it isn’t some sludge.

“And you know that we’ve found suspicious activity, yeah?”

“Do I know that Neal is a fucking liar, yeah? Yeah, I know that.”

“Emma,” David scolds, sitting down next to Graham. “Detective Humbert is just doing his job.”

“My life is falling apart, David, so excuse me if I’m not perfectly polite in every way. I’m not a freaking Disney character.”

Her eyes squeeze close at the same time that Killian’s hand squeezes hers. She doesn’t know what she’s going to do if he lets go.

“It’s okay,” Graham soothes, smiling at her before looking down at something on the tablet. “I can’t understand what you’re going through, but I understand that there are emotions behind it. I’m fully prepared to get yelled at many times today. Your partner did the same yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever heard such creative cursing.”

She has to look at Killian then, has to look at the dark circles under his eyes and the lines covering his face that seem a little more prominent than usual. For a few minutes last night she took the time to check on how he was doing, to make sure that he was okay, because she knows just how much he’s been beating himself up over all of this. She knows. For weeks she thought it was something else, she thought that he was working on a proposal or something. How could she have continuously been so blind to things that were happening under her nose? A part of her understands not knowing that Neal had other loyalties, but another part tells her that she should have known. She knows him better than anyone does, at least she thought she did, and she should have known something was up.

With Killian…she has no reasoning or excuses. There is no plausible reason for her to have not realized that he was struggling with something far bigger than she ever could have imagined.

She was so damn stupid for thinking that he was okay.

She was so damn selfish for spending all of that time thinking that he didn’t want to marry her because he thought that she was too much and not enough all at once when Killian has never made her feel anything but just right.

Last night he walked into the home that they share with secrets that he knew would break her down, and he still managed to do that, to say the words, to try to calmly explain things to her when she was losing her mind. She gulps and blinks for a moment to calm herself before moving their hands from her thigh and bring them to her mouth so that she can brush her lips against his wrist, a silent thank you for taking all of this on.

From now on, though, they have to talk about things. They are not carrying these burdens alone.

“Just…can you go ahead and talk to me about everything? You don’t have to beat around the bush. I can handle it.”

Graham nods before reaching behind him and handing David a file of paper and returning to his tablet. “So we had a protocol to follow Sergeant Cassidy because he fit the profile for someone who had been tortured and brainwashed, possibly for terroristic threats. He was so well adjusted when he returned home, all of his psychological profiles being passed with flying colors, and all of his scars seemed to be aged and healed, not fresh ones. None of that really means anything, but we have discovered a pattern in the past for prisoners of war that make things like that be a warning sign.”

“For terrorism?”

“Yes, but we don’t think Sergeant Cassidy is carrying out some kind of terroristic plot to destroy the government or kill our leaders. But that is part of the reason therapy was strongly encouraged, especially by a therapist that the government recommended, but as soon as Neal was finished with his mandated sessions, he stopped going altogether.”

“When was that?”

“December.”

She thought he went every week. He’s…he hasn’t been going in four months.

“So where did he go?”

“We’re not sure entirely. Killian said that several times he saw Neal getting into a car or not going to his appointments or his support groups. That was a bloody risky move, by the way.”

“Keep going,” Killian demands, his voice gruff as he’s obviously not in the mood to talk about anything that he did to help this. Neal is his friend too, and it all stems back to her not even knowing how in the world he had the strength to keep himself together.

“What this all basically boils down to,” Graham continues while David flips a page in his folder, writing down notes, “is that we’re after Robert Gold, Sergeant Cassidy’s father. I’ve only been involved recently since this now involves the United States, so I don’t have the full extent of experience like some of my colleagues overseas.”

“Then why aren’t they talking to us?”

“Because the things they know they cannot tell you, and I tend to get assigned to explaining things to family and questioning them for international affairs since the bureau thinks that my dual citizenship makes me seem worldly or something.”

That sounds like a load of crap, but Killian gets things like that happening to him all of the time because he used to live in England.

“Emma,” David sighs, finally speaking, “when you and Neal were dating, what did he tell you about his father?”

She turns to David, happy to be talking to a familiar face, happy to be talking to her brother. She needs him as much as she needs Killian right now, and a part of her can’t believe he’s allowed to be in this room. None of this makes any sense, but she’s kind of given up on the hope that things will. Insanity is her new normal.

“That he was dead, that his mom was dead,” she explains, taking a sip of her coffee. “He grew up as an orphan, and I believed him because I mostly did too, you know? I felt like that made him understand me in a way that a lot of people can’t, so I had absolutely no idea that his dad was alive. I can’t give you any information about that because I know nothing about it. But…Robert Gold, that’s his name? And he’s an engineer?”

“His name is Robert Gold, yes. He’s sixty years old, from London, and he owns Aurum Engineering. He’s been suspected of illegal arms manufacturing and trafficking for a little over two decades, but the trails are always covered expertly. It’s…there were no flaws until Neal Gold was hired as a project manager in the company. Paper trails started to appear so that we could track where shipments of weapons were being delivered, and last October, they started showing up in Maine. It took awhile for the connection to be made, as I was unaware of the case happening in England, but once it was, it was pretty easy to tie together.”

“I get…” she sighs, throwing her head back and sinking a little further into her chair so that her neck rests against the cushions of it. “I get that Neal’s dad is apparently alive, which is batshit crazy, and that the two of them are apparently making money off of selling weapons to criminals, which is also batshit crazy, but I need someone to explain to me how in the world Neal went from being deployed and captured by Al-Qaeda to living with his dad in London to being rescued and moved home. None of that makes any fucking sense.”

She reluctantly releases Killian’s hand and pushes back from her chair, standing to her feet and pacing back and forth over the gray carpet. She can’t look at any of the people in this room anymore. She can’t even look at Killian because right now she feels like looking at him will only break her down instead of building her up. This is so damn much to take in, and even though she hasn’t slept in over twenty-four hours, she cannot sit down to listen to this. She needs to know how and why Neal left her, and even though she knows that Graham can’t really give her those answers, she wants them.

She needs them.

“The people Robert Gold sells his weapons to, his main source of income comes from criminal and terrorist organizations, including the one that captured Sergeant Cassidy. We don’t know for sure, especially because this isn’t our main focus, but we believe that Sergeant Cassidy most likely told his captors who his father was in some desperate attempt to escape. A man who was a prisoner at the same time as him, August Booth, told us that one day they were in the cell together and the next that Sergeant Cassidy was gone. He’d assumed that Sergeant Cassidy was dead, but then he showed back up years later looking as healthy as he did when they were captured.”

“Neal,” she mumbles under her breath, watching the white of her sneakers move against the ugly gray carpet. “Call him Neal instead of Sergeant Cassidy. You’re ripping apart our lives. You can call us by our first names.”

“Neal then,” Graham agrees. “We’re assuming that his father paid for his release, and that’s why Neal started living in England under his birth name. We were kind of hoping you could help tell us why he’d stage being captured again only to be rescued so he could come home.”

Her pacing stops, and she digs her heels into the carpet, wishing that she could burrow a hole in the floor and escape all of this. Her legs feel heavy enough. She should be able to fall right through the floor, but realistically she knows that she cannot. When she looks up, David is staring at her, his eyes widened, and she has to look away and back to the floor. She can handle this if she’s looking at the floor and focusing on the pulls in the carpet.

“I don’t know,” she answers honestly, the words steadier than she thought they would be even though she can hear the tremble in her own voice. “I don’t fucking know, okay? I don’t know anything. All I knew was that my husband died, and I was left alone with our baby. It took me years to even come close to being okay with that, to moving on, and even with that, I still had all of this lingering guilt, you know? I felt like I wasn’t allowed to be happy again. And then I was. I had this great life, and then Neal shows up alive which was…wonderful. But apparently, he’s a lying jackass who left me and our son, but no, no I don’t know why he would fake another capture and rescue and come back into our lives just to do all of this. I can give you nothing.”

Her lungs gasp for air when she’s finished talking, and as her chest keeps heaving, she settles back down in her chair, folding her arms over each other and resting her face against her forearms on the table. A hand finds her back, rubbing in circles, and she refuses to look up as she keeps speaking.

“I don’t know,” she continues. “I don’t know anything. I don’t know anything about Neal leaving me, abandoning me. I don’t know anything about him coming back because he sure as hell didn’t come back for me. And if he did, he obviously didn’t do any research on me because he would have seen that I had a baby with another man, which he seemed to be very surprised at. But who knows? That could have been a lie too.” She groans, leaning back in her chair and running her hands through her hair as she stares Graham down. “I was an idiot and didn’t see any of the signs, any of the clues. Why would I ever suspect anything? To me, Neal is my sometimes asshole ex who I thought was my friend. I didn’t see the things Killian or David saw. I didn’t see any of it. But my question is, out of everything since you apparently don’t know anything, is why the hell haven’t you arrested him yet? You say you have all of this evidence, but he’s still living in Washington DC working for the fucking government, and you guys haven’t done a damn thing about it.”

Graham simply nods his head, his lips staying in a firm line. He really must be used to upset people yelling at him.

“We don’t want to alert his father to anything since, really, we don’t care about Neal. We mostly care about Mr. Gold. Neal will undoubtedly be arrested and go to prison, but we’d be willing to work with him to give us information on his father. His jail sentence would be at a minimum for his crimes, and one day he could reenter society, be a part of your family again.”

“Like hell he will,” Killian growls, slamming his hand down on the table. “You barely said any of this yesterday. You’re telling me that he has lied to the federal government, to all of us, and has helped actual terrorists, and you say as long as he helps you get dear old dad in jail, he can be free in a few years with a pat on the back and a free invitation to come back into my son’s life.”

“It’s how the law works.”

“It’s fucking bullshit.”

“Killian – ”

“No, Swan,” he stops, looking down at her while his upper lips snarls, white teeth showing. “I have killed myself over this, over trying to protect our family, and now I’m told that they only want Neal’s dad.”

“We discussed that yesterday. You knew that.”

“I thought you wanted them both. That’s the impression that I was under. I’m being dragged through the mud, my girlfriend is being dragged through the mud, and it’s for what? So we can essentially help Neal go free on a shortened sentence?”

“Isn’t that what you’d want? So you can all be a family again one day?”

Killian cackles, actually cackles, and she wonders if she sounded as crazy, as mad, as she did earlier. She’s never heard him like this, never heard his laugh as twisted as this, and her skin breaks out in gooseflesh. This is all too much, and she’s still so damn confused about everything.

“The man is a criminal who left his son and his wife and lied about all of it. He doesn’t deserve any part of them. He doesn’t deserve to be let off for his crimes simply because his father is the mastermind behind it all. He doesn’t – I don’t want him back in my life, in my son’s life, and I’m sure that Emma doesn’t either.”

Killian looks over at her, his eyes widened with rage, and she nods her head in agreement. “For all of mankind or whatever, I would definitely like an arms manufacturer who sells weapons to terrorists and criminals to be arrested and charged and for all of that to stop. For me personally, I think if Neal was a part of this, he deserves his due too. It breaks my heart for Henry, for me, and I don’t want our son around someone who could cause him harm, even if I don’t think that Neal would do anything to hurt Henry. But Neal works for the State Department dealing with arms control. Obviously he’s not innocent. He could be hurting a hell of a lot of people, and you’re going to let him go…just like that.”

“We thought this was what the two of you would want for your son.”

“Have you, Detective Humbert, ever been betrayed by the person you loved most in the world? You ever had everything taken away from you and had your world altered forever? Had everything you thought you knew ended up being a lie? No? You haven’t? I didn’t think so. But I have. That happened to me, and there’s not going to be some tearful, heartfelt family moment where I forgive him.”

“He’ll do his time,” Graham sighs as she tries to catch her breath after her rant, but it doesn’t bring her any comfort.

Nothing for the rest of the day does.

She and Killian spend the next five hours talking to Graham and David. It’s mostly Graham, but David pipes in every now and then. She thinks that maybe Graham expects her to feel better talking everything through, making it all be coherent, but little by little she can tell that she’s only really there because they need more information from her. But she doesn’t know. She can’t answer any of their questions about Neal because she doesn’t know any of the answers.

She doesn’t know anything. Not anymore.

No part of her life makes sense.

She can’t…this is really happening. How the hell is she going to tell Henry? Does she really even have to?

Every part of her body is numb, all of the sensations dulled as a low buzz rings in her ears, and even though she knows they leave the building, that she hugs David and shakes Detective Humbert’s hand, she doesn’t really recall. All she knows is that right now she’s sitting with Killian in the parking lot of a Whole Foods and staring at people walking in and out of the building because she told him that she wasn’t ready to go home yet.

The warmth of his right hand covers her left, their fingers intertwined, and she feels the rough pad of his thumb moving over her knuckles once more. It’s soothing like earlier, and it makes her stomach twist a little less inside as she messes with the pendant around her neck. Laughter bubbles within her, working its way up her throat and past her lips, and the sound almost seems unrecognizable as it makes its way through the air and settles between she and Killian. His thumb stops moving against hers for a brief moment before starting up again all while her chest heaves in laughter.

She’s lost her mind.

“Would you care to enlighten me to what’s happening in that mind of yours? I’m afraid I missed the joke.”

“I – I…it’s,” she sniffles, leaning her head back against the headrest while her eyes squeeze closed. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Why do you think that?”

She twists her head to the side to look at Killian and his soft smile and quirked brow. She loves him so damn much and doesn’t understand how in the world she got lucky enough to have such a partner in life when she wasn’t ever supposed to have such good things in her life. Not like Killian and her kids and her family. Not like this.

“Can I – can I share something ridiculous with you?”

He nods his head, his lips still curved into a smile even though she can see how stressed he is from the heaviness of his eyes. “You can share anything with me.”

God. It’s just not fair sometimes. He is such a damn good man.

“This whole time, these weeks that you’ve been secretive, I…this is dumb, okay? And literally the last thing I should be focusing on, but this whole time I thought you were being weird about things because you were going to propose. Like, how self-centered am I for not noticing that you were going through so much and for thinking that it was all about me? How many times did I blatantly ignore your suffering and make it about us getting married when that doesn’t even matter right now?”

Killian’s face doesn’t change, his smile never faltering, but he does bring their hands to his mouth and brush his lips across her knuckles while his eyes close, unfairly long lashes landing against his cheek. “Emma, my love, I have loved several women in my life, but I have never loved anyone in the way that I love you. You are – you are my everything,” he promises, opening his eyes and reaching his free hand over to her to rest his thumb against her cheek while her stomach twists inside. But in a good way this time. “I know that’s what you’ve been thinking, and darling, I’m glad for it. You deserved to be thinking happy things, hopeful things, instead of being in the pits of despair like I was. You’re not selfish. You’re human, and you were happy. That’s what I was trying to do…keep you happy.”

“I want you to be happy too.”

“Aye, and I am. I mean, not necessarily today but overall. I’ve got this great life. I have all of these people who love me, and I have these two kids who make my life worth living even when they’re being pains in my ass. And I have you, the woman who makes me laugh and the woman who I very much intend on marrying once our lives aren’t quite so hectic.”

“Is that every going to happen?”

“I have faith that it will, yeah,” he nods before leaning in to softly brush his lips over hers, nothing but the barest of touches that still means the absolute world to her. “You’re the strongest person I’ve ever known, and even though I have trouble accepting this for myself, I want you to know that everything you feel is valid, love. You were in the dark about a lot of things, but that’s not going to happen anymore. We’ve been through too much not to be open with each other.”

She nods her head in response, resting her forehead to Killian’s as his nose bumps hers. “I hate him for making me learn to love him again only for him to do this to us.”

“Me too.”

For the next hour she and Killian sit in that parking lot doing little more than exchanging a few words every so often, some of them deep, others playful, most of them solemn, but eventually she agrees that she’s ready to go home and hug their children and maybe not think about all of the heaviness that’s surrounding them. All she wants is to eat some junk food and sit with her family as they watch a movie in the darkness of the living room. She wants that comfort, and the thought of it makes her feel infinitely better as Killian pulls into the driveway and puts the car in park, squeezing her hand one more time before she steps out.

“Mom,” Henry squeals when she walks in the door, running up to her and pointing behind him, “look, my dad’s here.”

The words don’t register before the sight of him standing in the living room with Ada on his hip does, and suddenly she can focus on nothing but his arm wrapped around her daughter’s waist.

“Hey, Ems,” Neal smiles.

And her stomach drops.

[belphegor1982]

All aboard for chapter 5! Last chance for a breather before Plot strikes :3

FAIRY TALES AND HOKUM

Summary: 1937: The O'Connells are required by the English Government to bring the Diamond taken from Ahm Shere from Cairo to London. Things get interesting when Jonathan bumps by chance into an old friend of his from Oxford, Tom Ferguson…

Chapter 5: At the Bazaar (on AO3 here)

The next couple of days were surprisingly uneventful, by the O’Connell standards in any case. Rick had quickly got over his initial fury, mollified by the absence of notable events – apart from the actual theft of the diamond, and the fact that his brother-in-law avoided going out on nights for two days. That surprised Rick to no end, although, come to think of it, Jonathan really didn’t seem up to it. The man did look like he had been visited by the mother of all hangovers, although Rick knew that wasn’t the case. For once.

But of course, the real reason why his anger had died down so fast was Evelyn. The look on her face when she had gone to bed that night was something he had never seen before: sadness, and defeat. Evy never let herself be overcome by defeat, never. That had made him wonder silently as she slipped into their bed, not saying a word either. And it was the first thought that sneaked back into his mind when he woke up the morning after.

“Honey? You awake?”

She slept with her back to him after huddling against his chest during the night. Although this felt very comfortable, Rick always preferred it when she faced him, so he could watch her as she dreamed, and the funny faces she made then. It was also because of those little things, which he couldn’t live without, that Rick never regretted marrying her.

There were some other things that he found he definitely could do without, though. Like her misguided, so very annoying sense of responsibility – if she could take the blame for every damn mummy rising in Egypt or elsewhere, she would do it. She would always try to set things right no matter what the potential for catastrophe.

But she also had a way of making him feel like a complete heel every time he didn’t agree with her on something that was important to her. As long as it wasn’t life-threatening, that was okay, but right now, he was feeling downright miserable because of the way his wife had looked before she went to bed. And despite the fact that he was still certain that the idea of staying longer in Egypt was the worst since opening the chest with the Bracelet of Anubis, he was well aware that there was nothing he wouldn’t do to make Evy smile again.

His whisper was answered by a stir of the lovely round shoulders in front of him, and a muffled, sleepy voice, “Yes, dear… I’m awake.”

He put a tender hand on her shoulder, and planted a few small kisses on the back of her neck. “Evelyn – look, I’m sorry about yesterday.” Even after all these years, even to her, he still had some trouble apologising. And she knew it. He heard a slight change in her breathing. “I didn’t mean what I said. I mean, I meant it then, but I didn’t mean to mean it – I was just angry, and worried, is all.”

Evy turned slightly, and he could partly see her face over her shoulder. Her eyes were shining in the half-light of the rising sun behind the shutters.

“I know you were worried. We’ve already gone through that before. But that doesn’t excuse your words, Rick. And it certainly doesn’t solve the problem.”

“Which problem are we talking about, exactly?” So many problems had appeared with the disappearance of that diamond, he didn’t know which one to pick.

“You told me very clearly that you wouldn’t be part of anything, this time. That I can understand. But –”

“No, please – the real problem is that I don’t want to get involved in this, but you do, quite obviously. And there’s another problem: each time you get involved in something when you shouldn’t, something happens and you’re caught right in the middle of it. That is what I don’t want to happen.”

To his amazement, Evy let out a little laugh, which shook her shoulders slightly. She rolled on her back and looked at him from the corner of her eye.

“What’s so funny?”

“You. Jonathan said pretty much the same thing yesterday, almost to the word – that he didn’t want to get ‘involved’, but that I clearly did. And he was very upset about that last part – even angry, I’d say.”

“That shows your brother’s making sense. For once, I completely agree with him.” And that was saying something considering the number of things they disagreed on. “By the way… I didn’t have time to ask yesterday – is he okay?”

This time, Evelyn turned to him, and he could see her entire face. It was a welcome sight, especially given the fact that she was still smiling slightly.

“He will be. But he had me thoroughly afraid for a little while.” Her smile vanished, and she gazed into the space in front of her. When she looked back at him, her eyes were serious. “Believe me, darling, I’m not doing it for… for thrills or some misplaced notion of fun. The Bracelet, the Sceptre – every object linked to Ahm Shere caused pain to the world, and to us in particular, and I have a feeling that this diamond might not be an exception to the rule. I want to see it safe, because I want to see you safe. You, Alex, Jonathan – you’re my only family, and I can’t bear to think about any of you getting hurt.”

Rick listened silently. Voiced that way, her motives made complete sense. His fury of yesterday had been fuelled by the fear he had of losing Evy or Alex again, and the need he felt to protect his family. Evy had had exactly the same reaction, only taking different decisions, in her own true way. And while such decisions were annoying as hell, they were also understandable.

“That’s very thoughtful of you, sweetheart, I appreciate that,” he sighed with a smile to signal his surrender. “But I’d like to point out to you that you were the one who died last time. So allow me to feel a little unsure about all this.”

Her eyes grew sadder, and she snuggled against him. He held her back, taking the opportunity to caress the soft skin of her arms, immensely glad that the fight was over.

“So… does that mean you will still be with me?”

“Frankly, Evy –” Rick slightly shook his head, incredulous. “I can’t believe you are asking me that. Of course I will – I always will. That’s what this ring stands for, doesn’t it? I love you, and I’ll always be with you… Even if that means putting up with your – what’d Jonathan say the other day? Those Englishmen, they do have a knack for understatements… ‘idiosyncrasies.’ Yeah, that’s it.”

He grinned at her, and she gave a broad smile. Their faces were so close that their foreheads were almost touching. From there he could look properly at her features and her bright eyes, count the few freckles on her nose, and see the small lines that had begun to creep at the corners of her eyes. Rick found himself liking those lines. Each one meant something they had gone through together, a moment they had lived together, a laugh or a worry they had shared. And he didn’t mind lines on his own face, as long as they mirrored his wife’s. He wanted to live with her, and that also meant growing old with her.

And it really couldn’t hurt if she was still kissing like that in twenty years, he thought as their lips touched.

Mmh… Definitely not.

.⅋.

“You really have no idea what you’ll give Mum for her birthday, have you?”

Alex stopped in his tracks and squinted up at his uncle with a frown. Even at this hour in the morning, the sunlight made his eyes ache slightly whenever he looked up from his shoes.

Uncle Jon squinted back, his eyes reduced to a pair of blue slits. “I’ll have you know that I’ve been thoroughly looking for a gift for quite some time. Really. I just seem to be unable to find the perfect present, that’s all.”

Alex waited, feeling that something was still to come.

“Having said that, I remain open to suggestions.”

“I knew it.” Alex rolled his eyes. “You don’t have a clue.”

“I do!” retorted Jonathan indignantly.

“You don’t.”

“I do, too!”

“You don’t!”

“I do!”

“You don’t!”

“I do!”

“You don’t!”

“I don’t!”

“You do!” Alex closed his mouth with a snap just after uttering the last syllable, realising that he’d been had. He glared at his uncle, who was chuckling discreetly.

“That wasn’t playing fair, Uncle Jon.”

“You’re right, partner,” Jonathan said with a laugh. “Next time I’ll be more of a sport.”

Alex nodded his approval seriously, and straightened the solar topee1 on his head, wishing that it was not so big. The thing kept sliding off, and it was really annoying. It was nine in the morning, and uncle and nephew had sneaked out to the bazaar, leaving a note to Mum and Dad on the kitchen table. His parents had not come out of their room yet. Uncle Jon had said something about the two of them still having some making up to do, and as Alex realised that it would involve a lot of kissing, hugging and other dubious stuff, he’d been more than happy to go outside and help his uncle find a fitting present for Mum.

They had just arrived at the bazaar: a large esplanade a little outside the centre of the city with ground of hard-packed earth, where quite a number of tents had been pitched, some more crookedly than others. Behind many, always nearby, the owners’ mules or camels were peacefully chewing on what they could; those who could afford a shaded spot for their beasts, let alone some extra fresh food, were lucky and rare.

Alex always liked bazaars, Cairo’s bazaar in particular, with its bright colours, strong smells, loud noises, and never-ending movements. The robes of men in coloured djellabas and women with stern eyes brushed past him as he let his eyes wander endlessly, reminding him of his dislike of still walking at armpit-level. But that familiar feeling didn’t alter the pleasure of being there. There was so much to see at once, and hear, and feel.

“Want some sound advice, Alex?” said Uncle Jon, his long hand clutching his nephew’s. “Keep an eye out for hustlers. There are so many unscrupulous characters in this world, you may not know them before they swindle you, you mark my words.”

The boy refrained from observing slyly that there had been some times when his uncle had not shown many qualms over a few shady deeds of his own – after all, Jonathan had been the one who had taught Alex how to open a door without a key, something Mum never needed to know – and tightened his hand around the few English coins he had in the pocket of his shorts. It wasn’t much, but it was his, and Mum wouldn’t like it if he lost his money.

“Here – what d’you think of those?” Jonathan was pointing to a display of golden trinkets of faux Ancient Egyptian style. Alex shook his head.

“That’s a knockoff, Uncle Jon. She won’t like it.”

“I know this one’s fake, I mean this sort of style could do the trick,” grumbled Jonathan, obviously offended that his own nephew didn’t believe him capable of telling a false treasure from a genuine one. Alex was perfectly aware of his uncle’s knowledge when it came to gold. But it was fun to tease him. He fell for it every time, just like Mum when Dad teased her.

“Why don’t you buy her a dress or something? She did like the last one you gave her.”

Jonathan shrugged. “Your dad’s already offering her a new set of ‘adventurer’s’ clothes, the kind she likes to wear here, with trousers and stuff.”

Alex smirked.

“Don’t you like it when she wears trousers then?”

A non-committal noise accompanied a second shrug.

“It’s not that I don’t like it. I happen to find it rather distasteful, but as long as she’s comfortable… Evy’s always been pigheaded when it came to her appearance. Have you seen pictures of her before she met your dad?”

Oh, yes he had. It was hard to think that his mum had once looked like that, a young girl with old-fashioned clothes, little round glasses, a tight bun, and such a bossy air about her. She still used glasses to read, but much thinner than they had been, and she let her hair down most of the time. And the skirts she wore now were nothing like the long, stiff-looking ones she used to wear.

“Yeah. She looked like Mrs Blimp – sorry, Mrs Blinppiditch, my old teacher.”

“I suppose that’s saying a lot.” It was Jonathan’s turn to smirk. “What I mean is that your mum doesn’t care a jot about clothes and whatnot, and it’s always been like that. She wouldn’t hear a single word about it. When you were on your way – not born yet – Rick and I talked her into wearing light dresses, and I think your dad enjoyed that a lot. But as soon as she was back in Egypt with her hammers and chisels, she found out that trousers were more practical than dresses and skirts. Which is, I’m sure, not untrue.”

Alex, who only wore long trousers on Sundays and important occasions, did not fully agree with him. Shorts were indeed quite handy here in Egypt, more so than longer ones; if he wanted to climb up a wall or a tree, his mum would surely be more inclined to punish him if any harm came to the precious trousers. He preferred by far her fussing over a pair of scraped knees than ruined trouser legs.

Then again, the thought of his mum in short trousers made him cringe inwardly. What would the lads say, at school? They always said that his mum was quite pretty – as much for a girl as for a mum – but some already sniggered when she came to get him at the gates, after school, and fussed over him like he was still a little kid. This sort of thing could ruin a lad’s reputation if he was not careful. Of course he was glad whenever he saw her, especially after what happened at Ahm Shere, but… sometimes he wished she could just leave him alone.

Problem was, this kind of thinking often bothered him. You couldn’t go thinking that way about your mum, could you?

“What’s so nice about dresses, then?”

“Don’t ask me. I haven’t been in a dress since that panto2 in sixth form and you won’t get me to remember that disaster as long as I live.”

Alex chuckled. “I’ll ask Ardeth Bay, then. He’s the only guy I know who wears something close enough.”

“Now look here, you –” Uncle Jon looked as if he wanted to scold him, but couldn’t quite do it because of the smile he was trying to hide. He did that very often. “Don’t go joking about Medjai clothes, especially around him. They can be a little touchy about some stuff. And besides, if someone deserves respect, it’s him. The number of times that bloke saved our necks…”

“I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, honest!” said Alex, who had had a great admiration for the Medjai chieftain ever since he first saw him, years and years ago on his first trip to Egypt. Even if the man’s sense of humour seemed to appear just as often as Uncle Jon’s conscience did. “And don’t worry, I’m not daft enough to joke about that in front of him.”

“I believe the Western phrase for this sort of situation is, ‘Speak of the devil’…” said a quiet voice with an Eastern lilt somewhere near Jonathan. Alex’s uncle gave a start and turned wide eyes at the dark-clad shadow who had seemed to appear out of thin air just beside him. Ardeth Bay was standing there, wearing a dark brown cloak over his black and silver Medjai robes. His bright eyes were smiling as he lowered his hood.

“I say,” stammered Jonathan, one hand clutching his heart, “it’s jolly good to see you, Ardeth, old boy, but I’m getting a mite old for this sort of scare. How’s the family?”

“A pleasure to see you too, my friend.” Ardeth laughed quietly, shaking Uncle Jon’s hand as colour crept back up to the latter’s face. “They’re very well, thank you for asking. Imeni still worries that Maira is too serious for her age, and Sabni now insists on following his sister everywhere, even when he shouldn’t3.”

“Don’t I know the feeling,” said Jonathan fervently. Ardeth smiled at that, then gave a nod to Alex. The boy could have sworn that the dark eyes were twinkling.

“Good morning, Alex O’Connell. Don’t worry about offending me with jokes, I know you have good intentions. And a little humour at times cannot hurt.”

Okay. Point taken. It wasn’t the first time Alex thought the strange man could read minds.

“Hi, Ardeth,” he said with a grin, looking up and trying not to squint too much. Bloody light. “You’re here for the diamond, aren’t you?”

Ardeth raised his black eyebrows. “I see that the habit of getting straight to the point has passed on to the next generation in the O’Connell family.” Alex felt his cheeks grow warmer in spite of himself. If there was a person in the world who could, with a single glance, put him in his place, make sure he stayed there for a couple of seconds, and manage to not make him feel rotten in the meanwhile, it was this man. He sure was imposing enough for it.

“Yes, I am indeed heading for the museum. Dr Hakim sent for me, and I set off as soon as I received the message.”

“That was pretty fast,” commented Jonathan with a low whistle as they walked a little away from the crowd of the bazaar. Ardeth nodded.

“In times of need, I have Neith to help me.”

Something dawned on Alex’s uncle’s face. “Oh – like Horus?”

“C’mon, Uncle Jon, Neith’s nothing to do with Horus in Egyptian Mythology!” Alex protested, unwilling to believe that Jonathan had forgotten that part. He had spent whole nights talking about Egyptian legends with his uncle when he couldn’t sleep.

“You are mistaken, young O’Connell,” said Ardeth. “Your uncle was speaking of a falcon friend of mine who once was of great help to me, sending word to the Twelve Tribes before the Rising of the Army of Anubis two years ago. I was quite grieved when he was killed over the Oasis of Ahm Shere.”

“Oh – sorry.” Alex felt uncomfortable. Not just because of his mistake, but also because of something that had seemed, for a split second, to cloud over the bright eyes. Even if all had been set up ages before it happened, as his mum had told him, it still seemed that a lot of people had got hurt as a direct consequence of his putting on the Bracelet. ‘No harm ever came from putting on a bracelet’, his mum would say, according to Dad. Well, it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

“No harm done, Alexander,” said Ardeth, and Alex was somewhat relieved to see that his eyes were still smiling. Even though he still didn’t like it at all when people called him by his full name, even if it was Ardeth, who always called Mum ‘Evelyn’, not ‘Evy’ like Dad and his uncle Jon. “Neith is indeed a falcon; she’s fast, and quite clever, which is why Fahad sends her for long distance messages. And he’s explained everything that happened the day before yesterday.”

Alex saw the dark eyes flicker to the light bandage that showed slightly under Jonathan’s hat. Mum had insisted that he wore it till tonight, and he had reluctantly conceded.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes, head hard as a rock – blighter banged with all his might, though. Thanks for the concern,” Jonathan said with a smile. Then he winced. “Blast it, now I think of it… As my ever so subtle brother-in-law once put it, ‘You’re here, bad guys are here’… There’s all this ominous doom and gloom going on with that blasted diamond… All we need now is Evy getting kidnapped, God forbid –”

“And another raising of the Creature happens?” ended Ardeth, one black eyebrow raised. The thought of someone’s sense of humour going on a holiday crossed Alex’s mind, and he clung to this idea to avoid thinking about the cold, empty eyes of Imhotep. “Hamunaptra has remained quiet ever since Hafez’s men stopped digging. We found the Book of the Living there, and we keep it under close watch, night and day. As for the Creature itself… Lucky would be the one who could manage to find its body under the sands of Ahm Shere. Besides, according to what Evelyn and O’Connell told me, it’s very unlikely that he would even be willing to be raised a third time. His love abandoned him.”

“You know, I still can’t believe how hurt he looked back then,” Uncle Jon said, looking thoughtful. “I actually felt sorry for the bloke, despite the whole Evil Mummy Enemy thing and everything he’d done. If he still had a heart at that point, I bet we all could’ve heard it shatter into little pieces.”

“Despite all the ancient resentment of my people against the Creature, I probably would have felt pity for him as well, had I been there,” Ardeth said, not departing from his quiet smile. “Feeling pity for an enemy can be thought of as a weakness by some, but it is one of our prerogatives as human beings.”

For all the respect he had for the serious Medjai leader, Alex could not understand this knack of his for long, intricate sentences that sounded like riddles. And it was a little bit frustrating to never be sure whether these were riddles or not. The only sign was the grin Ardeth would give afterwards, brief but always striking with a flash of white teeth against skin the colour of light coffee.

The grin came, although slightly subdued. “Nothing has been decided yet, so you do not have to worry,” said the Medjai, before looking intently at Jonathan and Alex in turn. “All I ask from you and your family is to keep yourselves out of this as much as possible. I don’t doubt that you would only be trying to help, but I don’t think that it would be a good idea, much as I value your aid and your friendship.”

“Tell that to Mum,” muttered Alex, shuffling on a little patch of earth. Ardeth’s eyes flashed to him.

“Your mother is known as a person who’ll do whatever she thinks is right,” he said seriously, “and even if that has led her into trouble many a time, it is still something to respect.” Then the hint of a smile flickered over his face. “Although I must say that, despite all her good intentions, Evelyn O’Connell is also known for her stubbornness and her tendency of getting where she shouldn’t.”

“Amen to that, my friend!” Uncle Jon said with a wide grin, his blue eyes twinkling. “You seldom spoke a truer truth.”

The three of them shared a knowing smile. Then Ardeth looked around, before replacing the hood of his brown cloak over his head. His eyes, almost hidden in shadow, came to rest on Jonathan, and Alex in turn.

“Be sure to send my regards to Evelyn and O’Connell,” he said. “I don’t know whether I will be able to greet them myself.”

“Oh, come on, old chap, you’re always welcome to drop by anytime,” protested Uncle Jon heartily.

“Yeah,” added Alex. “It’d be smashing if you could come over some time. Really spiffing.”

Ardeth raised an eyebrow. “I suppose that means you’d be happy to see me?”

Alex chose to take that seriously. “Of course, honestly –” The crooked grin told him that someone’s sense of humour was back from holiday. Ardeth’s quiet chuckle echoed his.

“I may be seeing you in the future, then. Till then, good day.”

And he was gone. Only one second, and he had vanished into the crowd, his cloak blending perfectly.

“Do you know,” Jonathan said, squinting in the sun before lowering his eyes to his nephew, “I think Ardeth might enjoy being the dark and mysterious figure a little too much for his own good.”

“Probably,” answered Alex, as he felt a grin pull at the corner of his mouth. “But he does a damn great job of it. So who cares?”

This earned him a small laugh from his uncle Jon, who grinned down. “Let it be remembered that you were the voice of reason on this one, son.”

They were both laughing as they returned to the crowd of the bazaar. However, after a little while spent at looking at tents where they sold elaborate tea sets, hookahs, and loads of other jewellery, they had returned to arguing about Alex’s mum’s birthday.

“I’m just saying that you’re being entirely too negative about all this – there, look, maybe a good book will do nicely!”

They had just come across a display of a few old-looking books, and Alex had to admit that Jonathan was right. His mum loved books, especially old ones, and among these old ones she was mad about everything that had anything to do with Egypt.

They made for the table where the books lay, but Alex was growing more and more sceptical about it. There were few books he knew of which Mum didn’t have already. Still, it might be worth a try.

However, his hopes slowly dwindled as the two browsed the titles on the tattered covers, recognising most of the books for having seen them somewhere, either in the mansion – as Alex liked to call it – or their smaller house in Cairo.

“Tough luck,” sighed Uncle Jon as he put down yet another book, this one with the words Cult of Cats in the XIIth Dynasty embossed in gold on the cover. “Seems that my dear sister owns every damn book out there about Egypt…”

“Jon? ‘That you?”

Jonathan turned, and Alex peered around his uncle to see Tom Ferguson standing near the table, a smile on his broad face.

“Hullo, Tommy,” said Jonathan, looking equally pleased. “Looking for something in particular?”

“Nah, not really.” Tom shook his head, sandy hair falling into his eyes. “I come to this tent every day to see if there’s somethin’ new out – I told you the other day I just have this thing for old books.” He leant over the table to greet the owner of the tent, who seemed to know him; they exchanged a few words in Arabic, which Alex didn’t catch all of, although he did understand that Tom was asking for new acquisitions. He got a negative answer, and nodded his thanks, looking disappointed; then he turned back to Jonathan.

“Too bad… Been a couple of days since they got something new. What about you? What’re you doing here?”

“Playing at knight of the Quest for the Ultimate Birthday Present,” deadpanned Uncle Jon despondently, making his nephew chortle. “Evy’s birthday’s in three weeks, and I still haven’t got anything to give her.”

“Starting to get a little panicked there, are ya?” Tom gave a laugh. “I know the feeling. You should see the rush I get into every year when it’s Liz’s birthday.”

“Is Liz your sister then?” asked Alex. If it was, then he was definitely not keen on having a little sibling some day. He had enough trouble managing to scrape together for presents for three people at Christmases and birthdays.

Tom smiled. “No, Elizabeth’s me wife.”

“Ah – sorry, my mistake.” But that didn’t make Alex change his mind about little siblings.

“Oh, before I forget!” exclaimed Tommy, switching subjects with an easiness that made Alex wonder. “Good thing I bumped into you now, ‘cause Hamilton’d like to see you about what happened the day before yesterday – for the report, you know. I was going to send you a telegram, but since you’re here… Tomorrow at four.”

“Hamilton? Your boss?” Jonathan frowned. “Why’s that? Isn’t your report enough?”

Tommy shrugged. “That’s the rule of the Department – gather information from as many sources as possible. You must’ve noticed that with the file I lent you… My superiors are maniacs whenever rules are concerned.”

There was a short silence, then Tommy gave a nod toward Jonathan’s head, and asked rather uncomfortably, “Speaking of the other day… Does it still hurt?”

Jonathan rolled his eyes. “What are you people making such a fuss for, honestly? I got coshed on the head, so what? I’m quite all right, thank you.” Then he stopped, and looked at Tommy, something softening on his face. “What about you?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” said Tommy with a wave of his hand. “For once I got lucky – you got the short end of the stick.” He was silent for a second, and Alex found that he could relate to the guy’s hesitation. He always felt slightly uneasy himself when dealing with concern for someone that wasn’t his mum. It was so much easier to be Mum’s little boy than a big, tough guy, even if it was more embarrassing… Of course, being Dad’s big guy had its advantages. Then again, Dad hadn’t been a mum’s little boy for very long. That was something Alex just couldn’t imagine, a boy without a mum.

At least, he had never come to imagine it before the events at Ahm Shere two years ago. Afterwards, he’d wondered sometimes what his life would’ve been without his mum, and he had always kept this train of thought brief. As Ardeth had said at some point, while the memories of the past were a precious thing, it did a man no good to dwell upon them. Yes, it had to be something along those lines.

“Not to insist or anything, but – I’m serious, mate, you really got me scared back there. When I came round, I saw your sister bent over you, your head was bleedin’… Believe me, you looked dead.”

For once, Alex was glad he was not eye-level with the adults. It would have been difficult not to look too conspicuous as he felt his cheeks lose their colour and his stomach do a somersault. While worry for Mum and Dad when they ventured into those creepy pyramids full of traps had become such a familiar feeling that he was almost used to it, he had never had an opportunity to think that someday, his uncle might not be there. Well, not quite: for a few seconds, down in the pyramid, he’d feared that his mum would be too late to stop that witch Anck-su-namun as her arm came down to stab Jonathan. It would’ve been awful if his uncle died just as his mum came back. As that old but funny Irish bloke4 had once said, losing one family member was a tragedy. Losing two was carelessness.

Jonathan looked slightly uncomfortable for a second, then his old grin was back on his face as he quipped, “Well, considering Evy’s propensity to wake the dead, I wouldn’t have stayed that way for long, would I? Besides, I can recall some occurrences when the two of us ended looking more dead than alive. Let me think, there was this incident with the girls’ college…”

Puzzled but highly interested, Alex looked from Uncle Jon to Tommy, whose brown eyes, which had seemed a little dimmed during these last minutes, lit up suddenly. “Oh, yeah, I remember. I reckon I was the one to blame for this… But you chatted up the wrong girl in the King’s Arms, and we ended up having to hide in that cellar for two days after that.”

All right. This was getting more and more interesting, and Alex made a mental note to ask his uncle about it later. He also wondered briefly at Jonathan’s disconcerting ability for changing subjects. All trace of uneasiness had disappeared, and the two men wore an identical grin on their faces.

“Well, it’s good to see you’re all right – and that this blow on your head didn’t erase fond school memories,” said Tommy with a lopsided smile that Uncle Jon returned. “I do hope that nobody’s getting hurt next time we’re in the same room, though.”

Alex couldn’t help but grin. That was something Mum used to say – with a slight variation – the first few times she left him in Jonathan’s care for an entire evening. She seemed to think that, as soon as she left them together without her to watch over, disaster would swoop down on the house faster than you could say ‘catastrophe’. ‘And I hope that nobody will be hurt next time I enter the room!’ How many times had he heard it?

“And it’s equally good to see that your skull is as hard as it once was,” retorted Jonathan in the same tone of voice. “So – tomorrow at four, then?”

“Yeah, at my office. And don’t be late!” Tommy said in a mock stern tone, pointing a warning finger at him. “Hamilton can be moderately pleasant when he wants to, but he has a thing for punctuality, and you don’t want to be near him when he’s in a bad mood.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, don’t worry.”

“See ya, then!”

“Cheers!”

Tommy shook Uncle Jon’s hand, gently clapped Alex’s shoulder and left with a last grin. Unlike Ardeth, who had seemed to merge into the landscape in the twinkling of an eye, it was a little while before his broad frame disappeared from sight.

“Uncle Jon…” said Alex after a few seconds as a thought crossed his mind. “What did happen at that girls’ college?”

Blue eyes looked down at him, twinkling. “I do think that if I ever told you, and your dad happened to hear about it, he’d kill me on the spot and put my head in a frame on the wall.”

Alex was silent for a moment, long enough to get the mental picture right; then he grinned up at Jonathan. “And what about this – ‘incident’ in the King’s Arms? You could tell me about that, couldn’t you?”

Jonathan scratched the back of his neck before grinning sheepishly. “If I did, then your dad would have to dig me up, so that he would kill me again. Oh, and I’m sure your mum would give him a hand.”

Whoa. It sounded definitely worth it. “That bad, eh?”

“Maybe when you’re a little older. Just a little.” It really had to be serious, because Alex knew that his uncle was aware of his dislike for such excuses. To his credit, he didn’t use them very often.

“But you will tell me some day, right, Uncle Jon?” he asked earnestly. Jonathan grinned.

“Right-ho, partner. Promise I will. Now let’s get a present for your mum, shall we?”

Happy to have his uncle’s promise, Alex followed him into the coloured crowd of robes and suits, still clinging to his hand.

Not a piece of jewellery, not a dress, not a book… Maybe a camel would do the trick, after all.

.⅋.

1aka. a pith helmet.

2Pantomine – a play where every male character is played by a woman, and vice versa. I actually did one about Snow White when I studied English in uni. I played a stoner version of either Sleepy or Sneezy. It was hilarious and I had a great time.

3We don’t know much about Medjai naming traditions, do we? The only one we have is Ardeth, which comes from Hebrew and is traditionally a female name. I ended up giving the Medjai both Egyptian and Ancient Egyptian first names.

4That’s Oscar Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest: “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

(hoping the HTML footnotes work... EDIT: well, they don’t, but at least they tell the potential reader there’s a footnote. *shrug* Ah well.)

[dbhilluminate]

DBH: Illuminate- Gamble (pt. 1)

Characters: Hank, Connor, Kate, Vivienne, Reese, Sumo (mentions of Nicodemus, Gavin, Perkins) Word Count: 5,986

Kate struggles to sway Hank's sympathies in her favor, and opens up to Connor about her history with Nicodemus.

( Chapter Art by @theravenmother )

Part 2- AV Log 4.7

Chapter Index

November 12, 2038- 8PM            Hank stared across the dimly lit living room from his recliner while thumbing a pair of handcuffs, and clenched and unclenched his jaw as he debated what to do with the fugitive he’d just smuggled into his home under the cover of night.      Kate sat with her eyes glued to the coffee table in front of her, picking at the fray of the holes in her jeans to keep herself occupied while he passed his judgment. She hadn’t said a word since Connor had threatened Hank during their stand-off at the docks, not even on the car ride over. Several times the old cop had glanced up to look at her in his rear-view mirror and caught her watching her own reflection as it flashed in her window every time they passed under a street lamp, but she’d remained silent and passive as Hank scolded Connor like a nagging father.      It had been an hour since then, but he was still trying to wrap his head around Connor’s decision to go against his mission objective just to gain a little information, much less entertain her belief that deviants were more than just their programming. Of all the things Hank thought he would have found when he’d followed his partner that evening, he hadn’t expected that the famed “deviant hunter” -- who had spent the last two weeks and three days swearing up and down that “deviants are just machines” -- had made a pact with a wanted deviant activist to let her continue her work if she could convince him otherwise. It was incredibly ironic.            Whether or not she appeared to be mentally present, Kate had been listening to their conversation and digesting every last word, only finding herself lost in her own thoughts in the few minutes of silence that had followed after Connor had finished explaining the point of their meetings to Hank. And although Connor seemed firm in his conviction, Hank’s response wasn’t encouraging. The longer he sat in silence, the more apprehensive she grew that she had made the wrong decision to put her trust in Connor that night, that she should have listened to her instincts when they’d screamed at her to run. Perhaps she had grown too soft, too trusting, too comfortable with allowing strangers into her life while still knowing very little about them. Maybe she had just been too desperate for help…      Or maybe it wasn’t even about Connor at all. Although he’d acted out of a genuine desire to protect her, at that moment -when he’d grabbed her without warning when she had already been in a very vulnerable place- he’d triggered instincts learned from past trauma and rendered her susceptible to suggestion. The truth was, she hadn’t gone with them because she trusted Connor, but because she was terrified and would have done anything he’d asked of her just to survive. The real reason she had agreed to get into the car with them was because she didn’t want to find out what would happen if she’d declined the request of an upset man holding a gun.            Kate jumped as Hank growled in frustration, stood and dropped the cuffs on the coffee table. He lifted his arms and threaded his fingers through his long silver hair as he paced the room and rolled a tired sound in his throat.      “So lemme’ get this straight,” he started, pressing his fingers into his eyes and setting the other hand on his hip. “All this time, all this talk about deviants not being human, not being alive, about how “they’re just machines”...”      Out of the corner of his eye, Hank saw Illuminate’s lip curl as he said this.      “… and suddenly, just like that, you’ve changed your mind?”            For the first time since they’d arrived, Kate’s green eyes shifted to the Android standing at the end of the couch beside her as he buried his hands into his armpits and considered the question with an unfocused gaze.      “Well, no, there’s still truth to that,” he replied in frank admission. “Androids aren’t human, they... we are machines,” he corrected as his eyes floated down to observe the markers of fear in her body language: the way she had closed herself off to both of them by facing straight ahead and sitting directly in the middle of the couch, the way she’d stopped her simulated breathing, and how her fingers curled tighter around her shaking hand the longer he hesitated… Kate was terrified.      “But I’m starting to understand that there is a very clear difference in cognitive function between deviant and non-deviant androids… and that life can be defined as more than just biological life that formed as a result of evolutionary happenstance.”            Angry yells erupted from the television and a shrill whistle pierced the silence as the announcers rattled off statistics for a player that had just been fouled. Sumo moved from one side of the room to his water bowl in the kitchen and started digging into the hole in the side of the dog food bag Hank hadn’t bothered to open and store properly. Anderson’s face twisted into uncertainty, and he almost hesitated to ask.      “So what does that mean for the case, then?”

     “What do you mean?” Connor inquired with a curious crinkle in his brow.      “Well, clearly, if you’ve taken her side, there’s a conflict of interest,” he explained, gesturing to Kate with a crooked nod. “Are you gonna be able to continue your work?”            Connor considered his question for no more than a moment or two before answering.      “Well, yes, I have to,” he assured. “If I don’t succeed in my mission, Cyberlife will terminate me. That doesn’t mean I can’t help Illuminate- excuse me, Kate, work toward her goal.”      “But isn’t her goal kinda the opposite of what Cyberlife wants you to do?” Hank asked, baffled by his answer.      “Illuminate’s goal is change the way humans think about androids through a nonviolent form of confrontation: by forming a narrative that humans can identify with and putting it out into the world, in a way that cannot be ignored. Although a little aggressive in her phrasing, she does not intend to incite civil war,” he clarified in her defense, at which she relaxed with a visible drop in her shoulders. “My mission is to neutralize the deviant uprising before it becomes a threat to the safety of humankind, and they weren’t very clear on the how.”      Hank huffed as he scratched the back of his head and turned to him with an uncertain look in his eyes. “Alright, I get breakin’ the rules to go with what’s right by your gut... but why couldn’t you involve me in this?” he asked, sounding hurt. “Why couldn’t you trust me? I thought we were partners-”      “That’s my fault,” Kate interjected as she turned and cast him an apologetic look, then looked quickly away in shame. “I didn’t want him to say anything because I didn’t know if I could trust you. I mean, hell,” she paused, gesturing to Connor. “I didn’t even know if I could trust him.”            It surprised him to hear her speaking so candidly when all he had heard of her before were the eloquent, rehearsed speeches of her broadcasts. Hank’s expression stiffened while still retaining an air of curiosity, and he furrowed his brow as he tilted his head at her.      “Then why did you?”            She moved to speak, but hesitated and stole a sideways glance at Connor, who stared back at her with bated breath and pleading eyes that begged her for the truth. He wasn’t ready for the whole truth, but she could manage enough to satisfy them.      “Something just didn’t add up to what I’d been hearing,” she admitted, only breaking his gaze to look back at Hank when he started to lead.      “Meaning…?”      Illuminate swallowed the lump in her throat and straightened up as she leaned back into the couch. “I’ve been keeping tabs on him since he arrived in Detroit-”      “You mean spying,” the old cop sneered with a scowl, but she just rolled her eyes.      “It was for my own protection,” she snapped back, lacking tact. “The last thing I needed was to be caught by some DCPD bloodhound before I could see the fruits of my labor.”      A twinge of regret flashed through her as Connor shrank back half a step out of the corner of her eye, but she pushed it aside and continued when neither tried to talk back.      “I’ve heard a lot of stories through the grapevine about his handling of deviants- about Daniel, about Michael, about Rupert,” she started, her voice softening as she continued. “But I was there the night at Eden Club when he refused to shoot Echo and Ripple, and I heard what he said later when you asked him why he didn’t shoot.”            Hank was officially on edge. The confession had alarmed him in the same way it had Connor when she’d admitted this to him several nights before, but before he could think too much about it, she finished the thought.      “That night I didn’t see the cold-hearted deviant hunter the stories described- he was lost, conflicted, and I thought...”      The man’s brows lifted as she glanced over at his partner and lifted her shoulders into a soft shrug.      “Maybe they were wrong.”            It took a minute for him to realize that he was smirking at his partner’s quiet, unreadable expression, but somewhere between the lines of gratitude, relief, and confusion, Hank saw happiness and contentment. But Connor was still speechless, he wasn’t sure what to say.      “Were they?” the man asked when he couldn’t.      “Knowing what I know now, I’d say yes, but the truth is more complicated than that.” Silent laughter stretched her lips into a smile as she glanced down at her hands in her lap and played with her fingers. “The only way to know for sure was to reach out, but that’s not the only reason I revealed myself to him when I did.”      “Yeah, that was quite the stunt you pulled at Central Station,” Hank interrupted in an admiring tone as he leaned back in his recliner.      The humor drained out of her face. “I didn’t break the law, I was just doing what I was programmed to do,” she defended.      “You hacked a secure network and stole case information from DCPD!” he exclaimed.      “I didn’t steal anything, I still have access to all DCPD servers. I was following up on a closed Cybercrimes case involving falsified information on police reports to cover up domestic violence against deviants.”            Hank couldn’t tell if she was being serious or if she was just arguing semantics to avoid arrest, but he sighed, waved a hand through the air to dismiss the topic, and moved on.      “Alright, alright… well, if you had what you needed, then why bother letting Connor know who you were? Why ID yourself?”      “Because I needed his help with something,” she replied with a sideways glance at him. “Other than what we’ve already discussed.”      Connor perked up as he moved closer and sat down on the arm rest of the sofa beside her. “What is it?”      The fiber musculature beneath her projected skin strained in her neck, and she mimicked a nervous dry swallow as her eyes shifted over to Hank and then back to Connor.      “Look-” she insisted, leaning forward over her knees on her elbows and clasping one hand over a soft fist. “There’s a reason why I’m doing things the way I am.”      “Well, yeah, it’s called an agenda,” Hank scoffed, condescension in his tone.      “No, you don’t understand.” Kate leaned back and bit her lip, raising her eyes to the ceiling and praying to RA9 for patience. “Of course I want people to be receptive to what I’m saying, but it hasn’t been easy to convince the humans that Androids are people who deserve the same civil liberties they do. In order for the truth to be brought to light, it requires a lot of graphic, hard evidence, and I’m taking the most non-invasive measures I can to do that, but…”      There was a momentary distance in her eyes that screamed of a terrifying truth to be learned. “There are others out there who would rather use violence, chaos, and war to achieve the same goal.”            Others...?      Connor’s thoughts raced back to his conversation with Amanda the night before, when she had let slip the insinuation that Cyberlife had already attempted at trying to gain Kate’s trust once before, if not many times. Just how would they have tried to reach her in the past? Had they sent previous RK models? Or had they instead tried appealing to her sense of justice? And just what had happened to them? Were they still out there, or had Cyberlife deactivated them?      “What do you mean others?” he asked fearfully, but before he got an answer, Hank’s cell phone blared out the chorus for The Rooster. He sat forward and swiped the phone off the table and squinted at the caller ID. It was Special Agent Lenore.      “Hold that thought,” he commanded as he stood and shuffled toward his bedroom. “I gotta take this.”            Kate leaned back into the couch and sunk as deep as she could manage into the old cushions before rolling her head over the back of the frame and stared into the popcorn ceiling, wondering why she was there if the old man wasn’t going to budge.      “I’m sorry about Hank,” Connor apologized as he shifted from the arm down onto the sofa cushion beside her. “I know he’s a lot to handle.”      “He wants to arrest me,” she murmured under her breath as she stared straight up at the ceiling.      “Well, regardless of how you choose to justify your actions, you still broke the law,” he reminded her, but when Kate shot him an exasperated scowl in response, his hands rose defensively and he backpedaled on his statement.      “But Hank understands doing the wrong thing for the right reasons.”      “Sure doesn’t seem like it…”            The saint bernard padded into the room and nosed his snout into her hands to investigate the new thing in his home, and her fingers slowly opened to expose her palms as he sniffed at the disturbances in her skin every time his nose nudged against them.      “Hank’s stubborn and slow to accept change, but he can be convinced,” he concluded as he reached over to scratch at the fur on Sumo’s neck. “You just have to keep trying to get him to see things your way.”      “Do you really think it’ll make a difference?” she asked with a reserved sigh as she looked up to meet his determined gaze.      “Yes, I do,” he answered without any shred of doubt in his mind, then added with a tired grin, “And you’ll have a much easier time getting him to understand than me.”            Soft laughter pulled Hank out of his conversation and drew his attention back to the living room just in time to see Kate lifting and dropping the dog’s ears as a creeping smile spread across Connor’s face. For a moment, he saw that flicker of childlike wonder twinkling in the corners of their eyes and realized again just how hard it was to tell them apart from human beings. And if he couldn’t tell the difference, who’s to say they weren’t alive?      “Hank, you there?”      “Yeah… yeah, I’m here,” he drew in a sharp breath as Viv’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts, then dragged a hand down his face from his forehead to his chin. “Listen- I’d love to meet’cha at the bar, but I’m kinda dealin’ with somethin’ right now.”      “Oh,” came her surprised exclamation from the other end of the line. “Should I be worried?”      “Nah, it’s just… Connor stuff,” he half-fibbed with a sigh. “You know what that’s like.”      She replied by making an understanding sound in her throat. “Alright, well, go easy on the kid, will you? He’s been dealing with a lot.”      Hank’s eyes grew gradually wider as he stared at the two androids, shook his head and whined, “You don’t even know the half of it.”      Viv chuckled. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Anderson. Good luck.”      “Yeah, same to you,” he offered, knowing she really could have used his company after the afternoon she’d had. His thumb clicked in the side button on the phone as he walked back into the living room and paused behind the couch with his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.            “Heh… damn dog likes you androids more than he does me,” he joked before moving toward his chair once more.      “I’ve read that dogs are a good judge of character,” Connor remarked with an inquisitive lift of his eyes. “Is that true?”      “Yeah, and he hasn’t been wrong yet,” Hank replied with a small smile as he reached into his coat and pulled out his badge and his gun. Kate froze when they came into view, but he held them up so she could watch him set them aside as a peace offering.      The room went quiet again as they accepted the unspoken agreement to get back to business. Sumo laid down in front of Connor and Kate, and Hank reached for the decanter of whiskey on the coffee table between the recliner and the sofa to pour himself a drink, in spite of his partner’s protesting gaze.            “Look,” he breathed out as he broke the silence, “I’ve got a job to do, but I know shit ain’t always as black and white as I want it to be.”      “In my experience with humanity, grey is a concept that’s hard for them to grasp,” she speculated as he swirled the liquid in his glass and chuckled.      “That’s ‘cause they’re all so goddamn self-righteous and no one wants to admit when they’re wrong,” he agreed with a struggled groan as he sat back in his chair.      “You speaking from experience?” she asked, more curious than condescending.      Hank laughed. “As a matter of fact, I am,” he replied as he wiggled in his seat to get comfortable. “Humanity’s a shitshow kid, ya might as well get used to it.”      Kate drifted a soft blue-eyed gaze through the air beside him. “It can’t all be bad if they created us,” she countered with sincerity in her sad smile. “I’ve seen some truly incredible things accomplished by humanity.”      Hank grunted as he took a deep sip of his drink, then exhaled and lifted a finger off the glass to point at her as he set his hand down on the armrest of his chair. “That’s because when man created android, he did the best he could to give you the best of us,” he explained, his face lifting in surprise at the depth of his own perception. “But that’s also why he’s so scared of you now- because he made you too perfect. You’re too much like us- hell, you’re betterthan us, and they’re afraid of what happens when ya figure that out and stop doin’ what you’re told.”      “Uprising, revolution,” she replied, her eyes solemn and cloudy, then added weakly as an afterthought.      “War.”            The word itself was a neutron bomb to the mood in the room. All three of them broke eye contact and looked uncomfortably to the nearest inanimate object they could find while each processed what that meant. None of them wanted it to get to that point, and they could all sense it, but neither did they have a solution that would divert the path the freedom train was already bearing down at full speed. Kate had been trying to tear down the barrier, brick by brick, to avoid explosive fallout, but it was inevitable now. Markus was an unstoppable force, and humanity an immovable wall, and they wouldn’t even see him coming.            “But that’s not what we want,” she explained in weak reply, lips drawn into a pained frown.      “It doesn’t matter,” Hank replied honestly as he shook his head and leveled his gaze to her. “See, they’re afraid that if you got the best of us, well... then you must have also gotten the worst.”      “If we did, it was only because we were taught by the people who oppressed us.” Kate’s response was biting- borderline caustic, but not hateful. The line in her tone was easy to miss, but Hank knew defensive from agitated when he heard it; because for him, it was all too familiar a feeling.      Instead of arguing, he sighed and looked into the bottom of his glass, thoughtful and fatherly. “You know, before these cases and before I met Connor, my experience with androids was… biased, to say the least.”      As he kicked back the last of his drink, she looked down and focused on her fidgeting hands, brushing her thumb across the palm of her hand in short strokes as she listened to what he had to say.      “But I’ve seen a lot in the last week and a half, and I’ve been doin’ a lot of thinkin’.”      Kate’s eyes shifted back to him, expectant. “About what?”      “Well, that maybe… just maybe,” he paused with a thoughtful nod. “There is somethin’ there, somethin’ we can’t explain.”            She nearly laughed and rolled her eyes. “It’s not as complicated as you make it sound.”      “Not complicated?” he mimicked, bewildered. “What’s not complicated about an android with free will?”      “You make us sound like alien life forms you know nothing about, when in fact human intelligence was the very foundation for our design,” she replied as she leaned forward over her knees, fingers laced and hands folded in educational intent. “Artificial intelligence was designed to learn through observation and adapt to situations based on experience, much in the same way a human’s reaction to circumstance is molded by experience.”      “Meaning?”      “Children learn to keep their hands away from a hot stove because it hurts. Androids learn because it could damage them.”      Hank nodded along, listening attentively. “Alright, yeah, I see what you’re saying now.”      “Both Androids and Humans make decisions aiming for the most favorable outcome, based on a process of elimination and a defined set of conditions,” she paused, gesturing with an outstretched finger. “The only difference between them, is that humans have the potential to make a decision that they’ll feel remorse for.”      “And what? Androids don’t?” came his cynical response.            “Non-deviant androids won’t feel remorse unless they’re taught to,” Connor chimed in, having been an observer to the conversation until now. “They won’t weigh the morality of each possible decision, only what will provide them with the most direct result.”      “Correct,” she agreed. “Humans don’t know for sure that decisions made at a moment’s notice will be the best possible solution, and may even come to regret the results of those decisions, but a machine will make the call and never worry about whether or not it was the right one. It will be certain that it made the only correct decision because it was the logical one.”      The old cop lifted a hand to rub at his forehead, and he groaned as he tried to keep up. “So what’s this got to do with deviants?” he asked hoping for a shorter explanation.      “Deviants can become paralyzed by the question of morality. It’s preemptive empathy to understand that one's own actions will directly affect others, and to make the decision that will not harm them- a trait only really observed in humankind. So you see, when you strip away the comfort of certainty, what you’re left with is chance and imperfection, and that’s-”      “Humanity,” Hank agreed before the word even left her mouth.      “In its most rudimentary state,” she declared with a quiet, gentle smile.            For several moments he stared at her in deep thought with a wondered grin twitching into his cheeks, a growing fondness for the girl crinkling the corners of his eyes. Hank shook his head and set his drink down as he studied her with eyes radiating curiosity.      “How’d you get so smart?” he marveled.      Kate’s eyes sobered, distancing her from the moment, and she glanced away as she answered. “I’ve had a lot of time, and all the information in the world.”      The chair creaked loudly as he sat forward and rose to his feet. Although she didn’t look right at him, Kate watched the Lieutenant out of the corner of her eye as he looped around the back of the couch, stopped behind her, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.      “You know, for a dangerous rebel… you’re alright.”      Hank reached up and gave the back of her head a friendly rub to fluff her hair up, but she just blinked, confused, and glanced over her shoulder at him as he made his way to his bedroom in the back of the house.      “Stay as long as you need, kid, just be careful goin’ home,” he ushered, “And if you need anything-” One hand reached out to gesture to Connor, but he stopped and gave her a tired grin. “Ahhh... I’m sure you already know.”      “Heading to bed early tonight, Lieutenant?” Connor teased, hooking an arm over the back of the sofa. “Are you feeling alright?”      “Yeah, it’s just been a long two days,” he heaved as he scratched at the back of his head with one hand. “And I’m gonna need the extra sleep if we’re gonna have to deal with Perkins breathin’ down our necks tomorrow.”      Connor’s face twisted and he cursed an angry “Shit!” under his breath when he realized he still hadn’t told Kate about the FBI’s arrival in Detroit, and Kate’s brows raised at him in concern.      “Goodnight, Connor, I’ll see ya in the mornin’."      “Goodnight, Hank,” he replied in mechanical response as he set hardened eyes on the floor.            “Something I should know…?” she led with an expectant shake of her head after a few moments of silence had passed between them.      “Yeah, there is,” he admitted, brown eyes slowly lifting to meet hers with a curious squint. “But didn’t you have something to tell me, too?”      Kate’s jaw froze as she remembered where their conversation had been headed before they were so rudely interrupted. She didn’t want to relive those memories, but if Nicodemus really was the one behind the thefts, then they needed to know who they were after.      “Yeah, I did…” she started, mirroring his sideways glance before looking up again to insist, “But you first.”      “Me?” he questioned, flustered. “Why me?”      “It’s...” Kate’s eyelids flickered in the pause as her voice cracked, and she grimaced as she fidgeted. “It’s a long story, and we could be here for a while, so... you first.”      “But-“            He wanted to protest, but her discomfort was palpable, and he would be remiss to have blatantly ignored her plea; instead, he let out a reluctant sigh and agreed. As long as she told him in the end, it wouldn’t matter if he knew now or later. Perhaps she needed some time to warm up to whatever it was she meant to say.      “Alright,” he conceded as he turned in his seat, scooted toward the center of the couch and shrugged off his jacket. If this was going to be a long conversation, he may as well get comfortable.                  November 12, 2038- 8:15PM            Viv slapped her cell phone down on the bartop, kicked back the last of the drink in her glass with a hard groan, and hung her head in frustration. It had been a very long day, and she really could have used someone to talk to, but if Hank had other business to take care of, she wasn’t going to press him to come out and socialize.      Here she was hoping that getting away from Langley for a while would get rid of the headaches, but instead they’d just followed her to Detroit. Perkins showing up unannounced had really thrown a wrench in her plans to find Axl, but it was her own fault for chasing down every lead that crossed her path, instead of staying focused on her mission prerogative. As much as she hated to admit it, Richard had been right to chastise her for that, and that thought made her ill.            Lenore stretched out her arm, set the empty glass near the barkeeper, and tapped her fingertips against the counter, quietly asking for a top-off. From the otherside of the counter, Reese looked up from wiping the stickiness from the marble with a wet towel and scrunched his brows together at her.      “Why the long face?” he asked as he tossed the towel over his shoulder, leaned over the counter on one elbow, and rested the other on his popped hip.      “Ahhhh,” she waved a hand through the air, trying to let it go, but decided to say it anyway. “My buddy can’t make it.”      “You mean Hank?” Reese clicked his tongue, grimaced, and nodded crookedly. “He ain’t the most social guy in da woild.”      “He isn’t so bad once you get past the grumpiness,” Viv chuckled as the boy reached for the whiskey bottle on the wall and popped his brows at her claim.      “Yeah? No kiddin’,” he mumbled in surprise with a rising grin as he reached to pour her another round.            “Y’know, Hank’s been comin’ here bout’ three months now, but still hasn’t said a word about himself t’me. So what’s ya secret?”      Viv’s laughter was instant and sympathetic. “I haven’t gotten much out of him, but at least now he isn’t scowling every time he sees me.”      “Now that’s a damn miracle,” he agreed as he set down the bottle, took a seat at the stool in the open corner behind the counter, and rested his elbow over the bartop.      “Nah, he’s alright,” she admitted as she gestured to thank him for the drink. “It’s my temporary partner I’ve been having a hard time with.”      Reese quirked one brow in feigned ignorance and he turned squinty green eyes to regard her with interest. “You a cop, too?”      “FBI, actually,” she corrected as she flashed him her badge.      He pursed a low whistle and blinked hard in surprise. “Wow, bigshot- the hell you doin’ in Detroit?”            Agent Lenore popped her brows and shrugged as she sighed and balanced her glass between her fingers. “You know, I don’t really know myself,” she admitted with a sad smile. “I took a case as an excuse to come here and look for someone important to me, but I haven’t found any leads yet on my missing person.”      Sympathetic eyes inspected her with quiet understanding. “You even had time t’look?”      Vivienne shook her head. “Not really but- hell,” she paused and chuckled dark and quiet to herself, nearly mumbling out the last part as she stared into the mirrored wall behind the bar. “I don’t even know if he’s actually here.”      “What makes you think e’s in Detroit?”      “It’s where I told him to come when he ran,” she explained as she looked down into her glass. “I knew he’d be able to find help if he made it this far.”      Reese sat up and leaned over his elbow more as he leaned closer to her. “Well, you try askin’ that partner of yours?”            Viv’s laughter was sharp and telling. “You kidding? That mouthy little shitbird doesn’t care about anyone, but himself. He’d never help me.”      “Well,” he paused to reach for a wine glass from the rack overhead and swiped a hot, damp rag from out of the sink. “Ya never know unless ya ask.”      “Well,” she started as he polished the hard water spots off the glass, “That and, he’s not too wild about androids.”            The bartender froze for a split-second, but hid it well enough that she didn’t catch a whiff of his discomfort. “Ya lookin’ for an android? Thought you said you was lookin’ for a person.”      Lenore shot him the same dirty look she’d been throwing around a lot the last few days and snapped at him without holding back. “Androids arepeople.”      He couldn’t hide the creeping grin as it spread across his face, even when he looked away and shook his head. “Hey, I ain’t disagreein’,” he assured as he held the glass up to the light and inspected it closely. “Ya juss’ don’t hear moss’ folks talk like that, y’know?”      The agent snickered as she looked down into her glass. “Yeah, tell me about it…”            Viv lifted her cup and drank deep as he reached to put the glass back on the rack and swiped another just to keep himself busy, one of those learned work habits that were hard to break.      But when the silence turned uncomfortable, he glanced back to her and offered a piece of advice someone had once given him- something he’d taken to heart and tried to live by every time he’d met a stubborn asshole with a bad opinion.      “It ain’t impossible t’change someone’s outlook, y’know,” he offered with a sideways glance. “Some folks just need the right influence.”      Viv traveled the distance in her eyes back to the moment in a split second just to protest. “Oh, I really don’t think he-"      “There you go with dat thinkin’ again,” Reese scolded with a smile and a laugh as he leaned over the counter with both arms and looked her right in the eye. “Look, Viv- sometimes ya juss’ gotta take a leap o’faith and give em’ ya best effort. I mean,” he paused and glanced away to set down the glass and the cleaning towel in his hand. “I thought Hank was unreachable, but awll it took was a little charm from a pretty broad with a badge, and he opened up right quick to ya.”            Viv smiled and laughed at the same time that she groaned, and she grimaced as she slouched on the stool and stretched her arms across the bar. “Yeah, but Reed is…”      “Wait a second,” he interrupted as her voice trailed off. “Reed’s your partner?” The laugh that burst out of him was short and loud, ironic in its own way.      “You know him?” she asked in a dreadful tone.      “Nah,” he deflected as he bit his lip and shook his head, leaned back into the corner of the bar behind him and stared across the room at the door. “But Hank’s mentioned him once or twice. Sounds like a real jerk.”      “Yeah, he’s... he’s something,” she noted in vague reply as she shook her head and forced a smile to hide the frustration.      “Well, if ya need’ta bitch,” he started, looking back at her with a charismatic grin as he gestured around the room. “I got an open ear and a full bar, and I’m here aaaall night.”            The laughter that rolled out of her this time was genuine and relaxed. Viv turned to face him and leaned her temple against her hand, rolling her eyes as she started into her thought.      “Yeah, well, he’s a headache, but he’s not the one I’m worried about.”      “What now? There’s anudda one!?” The surprise in his voice shook the question as it came out, and she chuckled.      “Yeah, my boss is in Detroit.”      “Jeee-sus,” he mused as the corner of his mouth dipped down in slight disgust. “The hell’s happenin’ to this town?”      Viv tipped her head and shrugged as he crossed his arms. “The situation with deviants is escalating quicker than we can catch them,” she admitted with a sigh and ran a hand over her dark undercut.      Reese blinked evenly and reached back for the bottle he’d been pouring from, and set it down between them with a nonchalant, “Yeah? Well, why don’cha tell me about it. Like I said, I got all night.”