#longest rant ever but you get my drift

[glitchinginhyperfixis]

i journeyed to reddit...

https://www.reddit.com/r/StrangerThings/comments/v9c4a3/the_double_standards_are_crazy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[theshiningg]

you don’t love me the way you love her

hogwarts au

fluffy, a pinch of angst

draco x slytherin!reader

warnings: none that i could think of

word count: 7.1k (my longest ever lol)

you stare at the obnoxious faces your best friend makes at you as you stare at him across the dance hall. mcgonagall was teaching dance lessons prior to the yule ball and he was currently laughing at ronald weasley and the professor.

it was time to get partners and practice and you stare at draco from afar as he walks toward you. “hey y/n!” he speaks as he stands right in front of you. “care to dance?” draco lifts an eyebrow and you let out a small lighthearted gasp, “draco malfoy asking me, to dance?” you joke around as he wraps his arms around your waist. slightly embarrassed about the actions of your best friend, your ears and cheeks blush a light pink. you’d hate to admit it but, you were in love with your best friend.

later in the day at dinner, your eyes unconsciously drift over to draco, who was also unconsciously staring at a girl at the slytherin table, astoria greengrass. pansy lightly taps you on the shoulder to snap you out of your trance. “hey y/n, can i borrow your notes for potions? i skipped yesterday and now i’m a day behind.” you smile and nod at your friend before taking out your parchment of notes. “just give it back to in the dorm.” glancing at draco one more time, you turn to leave, walking to the lake to finish your book.

falling snowflakes land on your hair as you weave your way through the blankets of snow and under a tree. the crunch of footsteps quietly followed you as you feel a coat on top of your shoulders and turn around to see draco. he sits next to you, not too close but not too far, “can i ask you something?” you let out a hum of acknowledgement, “what do girls like?” taken a bit back, your eyes dart to his grinning face, “well,” you slightly laugh, “we appreciate even the smallest gestures, not too many gifts. for skinship, it honestly depends on the girl.” as you continue to talk, draco stares at you intentively nodding his head every once in a while. he stands up abruptly before extending his hand out to you. grabbing his hand, you stand up and give him a small smile. the both of you walk in silence to the castle until draco stops and stares at you, “y/n,” he pauses as a tiny grin appears on his face, “i think i’m gonna do it.” you lift your eyebrow at him and smile back at him, “do what?” he smiles to himself, “i’m going to confess.” your shoulders shrug down and his coat slips off, hitting the icy floor. his expression changes to a worried expression as he walks over to you, “are you alright?” he places his hand on your shoulder after picking up his coat, “yeah.” you barely whisper as you push his hand off your shoulder, “whoever she is, she’ll be lucky to have you. sorry, i’m a little out of it but i have rounds tonight so, i’ll see you later,” you speak before walking away.

the next day, you sit at breakfast with draco. he stares over at you while you try to teach pansy the lesson she missed the other day. “pansy, you have to grind up the occupy eggshell, not just crack it.” pansy whines at you, “y/n, please, no more,” you shake your head to your best friend, “then you shouldn’t have taken advanced potions,” you taunt. she quiets down and pulls you close to her, “how are you feeling?” your eyes look around the great hall before turning back to pansy, “i’m fine. honestly, plus, last night during my rounds, i caught the weasley twins out of bed after curfew and, they gave me a coupon for anything out of their box of mischief for their freedom.” pansy’s face twists up in disgust, “you’re too easily persuaded.”

you sit in potions, reading the instructions for your next potion to be made, a drought of peace. the classroom was quiet with only you and professor slughorn. “ah miss l/n,” he speaks up enthusiastically before quieting down, “what’s wrong?” you shake your head with a smile, “nothing.” your conversation quickly gets interrupted as draco and the rest of your friends enter the classroom, loudly. draco walks up to you instead of going to seat and drags his hands throughout your hair while standing behind you, “why’re you here so early?” you continue to read your book, “i’m getting ready for class.” he walks over to the front of your desk and stares you, “you’re upset.” you finally look up at him, “i’m not, i just like to be prepared for class.” draco rolls his eyes before leaning closely to your ear, “we’re not done with this conversation,” he trudges back to his seat annoyed.

the class starts with professor slughorn introducing the potion you read about earlier and pansy groans as he releases the class to grab their materials and begin their potion making. you tell pansy to grab the materials while you go grab the cauldron and potion glass. pansy sits in her seat while you stir the potion, “pansy did you bring the porcupine quills?” she shrugs, “well continue to stir while i go get it then,” she nods her head and grabs the rod from you as you go to the ingredients cabinet. unluckily, on the way there, you were a bit distracted so you bump into another student with their unfinished potion in their grasp that spills on your hand during the collision, burning it a little bit in the process. the glass ends up the floor broken and you bend down to pick up the pieces of the glass while the girl freaks out. you get pulled away from the glass by draco, “what’re you doing, y/n?” draco says as he begins to freak out a bit as well, “picking up the glass,” you answer dumbfound at everyone’s concern before looking down at your slightly burnt and bleeding hand. professor slughorn quietly cleans up the mess, “miss l/n, i think its best if you go madam pomfrey to have your hand checked out.” the girl walks up to you, “y/n, i’m so sorry.” she apologizes scared about how you were going to react, “its alright, don’t worry about it,” before walking off to the direction of the hospital wing.

as you arrive, madam pomfrey instructs you to wait on the bed while she gets bandages and medication for your hands. while you get treated, draco walks in the wing with your books and robes which you took off when you started your potion. madam pomfrey treats your arm and you finally leave with draco to dinner. on the walk to the hall, astoria pops out from behind a pillar, surprising you and draco. “draco, i have to tell you something,” she then turns toward you, “sorry about your arm, y/n. i heard what happened.” shaking your head, you reply, “don’t worry about it, it didn’t hurt that much,” before walking a good distance and turning around to give draco a reassuring smile about his confession. you start to walk down the long, lonely hallways, you’re not gonna lie to yourself, but you saw the way they looked at each other, specifically draco. you noticed the way he would smile to himself whenever she walked by at any meal time or the way he always unconsciously mentioned her in his stories when he had parties at his manor. making it to the great hall, you sit next to pansy, quietly. “where’s draco?” you let out a soft sigh, “he’s with astoria.” pansy leans closer to you, “are you okay?” you nod and reply, “yeah, my arm doesn’t hurt that much anymore.” she glances over at you sympathetically, “i don’t mean your arm, y/n.” you turn to face her with sad eyes, “i know.”

before you could continue with your conversation with the rest of your friend’s, you notice draco and astoria entering the hall, hands intertwined. you immediately turn your head back to look down at your palms on your lap before realizing tiny droplets of water were falling. bringing your head back up to look at the ceiling, you realize that the ceiling had been bewitched and turn your head towards the two most mischievous pranksters in the school, the weasley twins. george looks at you before giving you a noticeable wink and running out of the doors to pretend that he had no part in this prank. a smile lights itself up on your face as pansy drags you out of the hall with her, completely soaked. again, after exiting the hall, you match eyes with a weasley twin, this time being fred. he gives you the signal of zipping his lips up and throwing the key, in which you respond with a small smile and the nod of your head. draco and astoria both walk up to your friend group, “what the bloody hell? who would enchant the sky?” you stare at astoria’s wet state and shrug, “what a coincidence?” draco tries hard to look you in the eye, but avoids eye contact when you stare at him.

as you walk back to your dorm with pansy, she begins to complain about astoria, “ugh, she’s so annoying? do you understand what i’m saying?” you nod in confirmation for your friend, “just because she’s dating draco now, doesn’t give her the right to act all powerful and mighty because their families are probably the most powerful and influential in the whole wizarding world!” pansy’s rant goes in through one of your ears and out the other as you just continue to nod and pretend to acknowledge her annoyance. “uh, pansy. i’m have to get something from potions, i left my,” your eyes search the hallway for an item before landing on an owl, “my quill. draco forgot to bring it for me, so i’ll meet you in the room in thirty minutes.” she gives you an okay before continuing her rant with blaise.

your breath unveils itself in the frosty breeze as you walk back to the same tree as the night before. sitting yourself down, you let out a large sigh before getting interrupted by a clearing of a throat. “fred, george. pleasant evening?” they both give you their signature smirks, “indeed.” george sits down first with fred following next, “i suppose you want the coupon back? for the prank, i mean.” they both shake their heads in sync, “of course not,” fred replies, “that one was for free,” george adds on. you slightly chuckle at their response and they stare over at you, “well, we better get going,” george speaks up after several seconds of silence, “a specific blond is looking for you,” fred speaks after his brother as the both of them stand up and walk towards the castle. as they leave, the crunching of incoming footsteps disturb the silence, “y/n, didn’t i tell you to bring a jacket whenever you leave the castle?” a small smile makes its way to your face, “of course, your majesty,” you taunt as a pout appears on his face. “what were you talking about with the weasel twins,” you roll your eyes, “weasley twins,” you enunciate, “and we were just talking about the coincidental raining sky at dinner.” draco takes off one of many layers of coats and drapes it around your shoulders, “can’t have you catching a cold, miss beater.” with the recent events occurring in your life, you totally forgot about the quidditch match you had on saturday. “oh my god, i totally forgot.” draco gives you a deep chuckle, “well don’t forget that we have practice tomorrow, or else flint is going to murder you.” you nod at his caring yet sarcastic sentence, “alright, i’ll see you tomorrow morning, astoria is waiting for me in the hall, didn’t want her getting cold,” he speaks before using his knuckle to rummage up your hair. your head turns toward his receding figure and then back at his coat. you think to yourself, “if you turn around and wave like you always do, i won’t give you up, but if you don’t, i’ll back down.” draco continues on his way until he becomes a tiny figure in the distance and you begin to give up on hope until you hear, “see you tomorrow loser!” followed by a tiny wave from the faraway boy. a tiny smile makes it to your face, “i’m sorry astoria, but i can’t give up right now.”

about two days later, you snuggle closer into your blanket, you get awoken by the abrupt flash of light in the room. your eyes barely open because of its sensitivity of the light. pansy stands by the door in her quidditch gear and stares at you, “you have ten minutes to get ready and be at the pitch, you know how flint is about being late.” after she exits the room, you sit up in bed and let out a yawn while walking over to get changed and refreshed.

by the time you reach the pitch, your teammates are already in the air taking laps while marcus flint stands at the entrance of the pitch. “why’re you late?” he asks with a stone cold expression, waiting for your answer. but before you could even open your mouth, he shouts at you, “ten laps around the pitch, running! go!” annoyed you start to jog. draco flies low to be right beside you, “how’s it going?” he teases with a grin, “buzz off malfoy.” draco brings one hand to chest, acting offended, “using last names now are we?” you give him a glare and start to jog faster, which he follows with flying a bit faster on his broom. you act annoyed but really, feel warm on the inside until a melodic voice interrupts. “draco! over here!” she shouts from a far. it was about six in the morning and all of the team quickly turns their head to the voice of astoria. you raise your eyebrow at draco, “your princess is waiting, go.” he gives you a small smirk and a nudge before flying over to her. as you finish up your final lap, you wipe the cold sweat off your forehead, mind you, its still winter and snowy. you get on your broom and fly up into the air, finally joining the practice.

you enter breakfast with the biggest yawn and frown about the excruciating practice. your thoughts get interrupted as you see your taken seat. the seat you sat in since first year, the seat you’ve eaten in for five years, the seat next to draco malfoy. pansy pats the seat next to her and as you begin to walk towards her, you get pulled towards the gryffindor table before being sat down next to hermione. your face slightly gives off panic before turning towards the people who sat you down, “morning hermione,” you say before turning to harry and ron, giving them a nod of your head, then turning back towards fred and george. “weasleys, did you need something?” you ask them, “am i even allowed to sit here? i obviously stand out.” the dark green of your uniform definitely sticking out in the sea of a vibrant red, “of course buddy-o.” most of the gryffindors at the table now staring at you before hermione rolls her eyes, “everyone mind your own business.” hermione gives you a small, polite smile to look over the fact that you were best friends with their own personal annoyance. “thank you hermione.” you whisper, giving her a small smile. harry glances down at your hand, “is it alright?” he asks as you look up from your plate of breakfast, “yeah, its been healing, minor burns,” you answer, thankful for his attempt to start up conversation.

while keeping a small conversation with the trio, your arm gets grabbed and pulled. “y/n, what are you doing associating with the enemy?” you scoff, “we’re just talking, draco,” he scoffs back at you before releasing your arm, “never thought you could betray your own house.” your eyes widen and narrow down to glare at him, “well maybe if you didn’t give my seat away, i would have room to sit at slytherin.” draco lets out huffs of annoyance, “there were plenty of seats, y/n. just look at anywhere on the table.” you also let out a sigh, “i would’ve had to sit by myself.” the whole hall stares at your confrontation with your best friend, “well y/n, here’s the truth, maybe nobody wants to sit next to you in the first place and-“ he gets cut off from the rest of the sentence by a slap to the face. his grimace softens as he realizes his words, “y/n, you know. i didn’t mean that.” your eyes fill up annoyance as you walk away. pansy stands up quickly and walks off to follow you, but before she fully leaves the hall, she turns towards draco, “you’re a love blinded idiot.”

instead of getting emotional, you just sit in silence, induced by your anger, next to the lake. pansy left you to grab your books from the hall, leaving you in the silence of nature. once again, the crunching of familiar footprints fill the air. “y/n. you know i didn’t mean any of that but i was just jealous, i guess. just seeing you with friends other than our little group made me jealous. just wanted to come and apologize. i am sorry, y/n l/n.” you stay silent for a few seconds before replying, “its fine. thank you for apologizing. i forgive you, i’m just a little embarrassed and hugely annoyed.” you let out a tiny chuckle, “you have to do something for me now, as compensation for your childish behavior,” he continues to stare at you, scared of what you could say, “you have to do my astronomy homework for a month.” you stretch your hand out, in which he responds to by shaking it. you stand up, “come on, we have history of magic to get to.” you finally look at his face, red by the slap mark you left on it, and try not to laugh, “sorry about the slap,” you say after suppressing your laughter, “its fine, i probably deserved it.” you nod your head in agreement, “i’d say so.”

during dinner, you sit next to pansy, giving draco a wink of access for astoria to sit in your seat. you listen to pansy while you platter on whatever was served at dinner on your plate and wait for dumblebore to finish speaking about the daily news. astoria gives draco a smile while using her fork to scatter around the food she didn’t want to eat. when she finishes eating, she glances over at your plate before finding a comment to say. “y/n,” you turn your attention away from pansy, along with draco and blaise, “are you really going to eat all of that?” you put a fake smile on your face and pretend to think, “hm, i think i am going to.” her smile turns into a snide look, “i just didn’t expect a girl of your stature to eat that much.” you widen your eyes at draco asking for help while laughs your encounter with the older girl, “i have a high metabolism?” she laughs softly, “i can see that judging by the fact that you’re not overweight after eating all of that food.” you give her a small smile before turning back to pansy. in all honesty, you couldn’t tell if the girl was being nice or extremely sarcastic.

the next day was saturday, meaning, game day. sitting at the slytherin table, you pick up an apple and bite into it, in replacement for the hefty meal yesterday night. the hall is mostly quiet besides the tiny murmurs of conversation amongst the few students there early, most probably sleeping in until the game. while you eat your apple, you spot the entrance of the weasley twins. george passes you a wink while fred gives you a slight smirk before they start stalking towards you, “morning,” you pass them a small smile, “morning weasleys,” the both of them give you a pat on the back, “this is for when gryffindor beats slytherin in todays match,” your eyes widen and you scoff at their bluntness, “i’ll make sure to return it when slytherin wins.” fred shakes his head while george speaks, “that won’t be necessary,” and before you could give one last remark, the both of them walk away to go eat breakfast. next, you saw astoria enter with her friends and not draco. you turn to pansy and whisper, “wheres draco?” she looks up to see astoria by herself, “maybe he’s sleeping in?” astoria sits down in her usual seat next to her friends and you walk over to her, “where’s draco?” she shrugs and continues her conversation with her friends. you walk back to pansy and grab your coat, “i’m going to go check on draco, maybe he did sleep in.” walking to the dungeons, you begin to worry about the boy.

entering his dark room, you squint your eyes to look for him on his bed, and to your prevail, you find him. you tiptoe into his room and quietly whisper, “draco,” he continues to stir in his sleep. you then slightly open the blinds, letting in a tiny bit of daylight to illuminate the boy’s face. you sit yourself on his bed and feel the warmth from his covered up body. he opens his eyes in alarm at the intruder, but relaxes when he realizes it was just you. you stare down at your best friend, “are you gonna come to breakfast?” he immaturely shakes his head no and buries it within his blanket. draco then grabs your hand and brings it to his forehead, “don’t tell me you’re sick.” he gives you an unamused look, “its all because of you.” your eyes widen and you let a tiny laugh, “me? you’re the one that came out last night when you were wet.” draco lets out a low groan, “fine, i’ll tell flint you can’t make it today and i’ll be back to bring you some food during the meal times. just go back to sleep,” you say and close the blinds, but before you leave, you whisper, “goodnight princess,” in which draco replies to with a low and annoyed, “y/n.”

before your quidditch match starts, you stretch your body after the trouble you got into for draco’s absence. as dean thomas announces the teams, you fly into the field and take a few laps before stopping in front of the twins. “get ready to lose y/n,” fred inserts, “you wish,” cormac mclaggen comes to taunt you further, “where’s your little boyfriend, l/n?” you roll your eyes, “he’s sick, have you got a problem?” he sniggers, “nope.” he replies popping the p. george shakes his head at his teammate, “just ignore him. that’s what we do.” he gives you a wink and goes back to pretend to listen to madam hooch.

halfway through the game, you wipe the sweat off of your forehead and keep your eye on one of the bludgers. successfully knocking the bludger out of angelina johnsons’ arms, you follow closely to it, head to head with george. you block the second bludger from hitting graham montague, your chaser, as he holds one in his arms to score. unfortunately, the bludger gets caught by mclaggen as he montague a small smirk before throwing the ball towards you. not reacting fast enough, it hits you in the gut and you fall backwards off your broom. blinded by the pain in your gut, you don’t notice how far away you are from your broom. luckily, george catches you and slowly carries you to the ground. madam hooch runs up to you in the middle of field after giving cormac a time out, having a hard time breathing. taking in raspy breaths, your eyes water up. you lay on your back as a stretcher takes you to the hospital wing. to ease the pain, madam pomfrey gives you pain relief potion as she examines your abdomen, “nothing broken my dear, just severely bruised.” you nod solemnly at her, “just stay here for overnight and continue to talk this potion to heal.” pansy enters the wing and gives you a smile, “that was awesome.” the both of you break out in laughter until you groan, “the way george caught you in the air, i thought i was going to lose my best friend today.” your conversation with her goes on until you interrupt, “so, draco is sick and i promised to bring him a meal at every meal time but, i can’t now so as my best friend, will you do it for me?” her face turns stone as she stares at you before bursting out into laughter at you facial expression. “of course silly. anyways, back to my story…” she continues.

after leaving you at the hospital, pansy packs a plateful of food before unlocking the door to draco’s bedroom. “wake up dork,” he opens his eyes to see pansy instead of you, “where’s y/n?” draco asks annoyed, “she got injured at today’s quidditch game, mclaggen threw the bludger at her and she’s in the hospital wing but-“ before pansy could finish her sentence, draco runs through the hallways, clad in his pajamas. finally reaching the hospital wing, he bursts through the entrance and spots you, “y/n are you okay? i should’ve gone to the game today.” draco spews out words and you stare at him before cutting him off, “i’m alright draco,” you grab his hand, “thank you for worrying but you’re sick. you shouldn’t be out of bed,” he takes in deep breaths, wiping the sweat off his forehead, “i just needed to see if you were alright.” your thumb rubs against his palm, “i’m good, so go back to your dorm and rest. if you’re not better by tomorrow, i promise i’ll be there.” he nods and reluctantly lets go of the warmth your hand held. you let out a sigh as you watch him walk away until the curtain next to your bed rips open, unveiling two redheaded twins. you slightly jump, “well, well, well. just tell him you love him.” fred starts, “i mean, its sort of obvious.” you shake your head at the boys, “i can’t,” they both let out huffs of annoyance, “why not?” george questions, “he’s with astoria right now. and he seems happy for the first in a while. i don’t want to take that away,” you pause, “anyways, you should go to dinner. i’ll be eating whatever madam pomfrey serves me.” the twins laugh at you before fred leans in close to your ear, “we have tons of pranks up our sleeves so if you want anything to do to mclaggen, we’ll be happy to provide.” you push the boy away with a close lipped smile, “thank you for the offer, but i’m going to have to pass it up for now.” fred lets out an, “understood,” as he and his twin walk out of the wing.

the next day, madam pomfrey releases you to breakfast after giving you one last potion for your bruises. you enter the hallways and a breeze blows through your hair as you start to speed walk to the hall. entering the great hall, all of your friends stare at your incredibly quick recovery. pansy runs up to you and squeezes you tightly, “pansy, a little looser please.” you laugh along with her and greet your other friends before spotting a seated draco with astoria’s arm looped around his own. he gives you an apologetic look and you return a small smile with a shake of your head to reassure him that it was alright. pansy informs you about their incoming trip to hogsmede later and asks if you could go, “yeah, i can go, i have to buy some more ink for my essay.” blaise then turns to draco, “oi malfoy, you coming?” draco sits still before opening his mouth to complain, “its cold and i’m sick. do you really think i’m going to go?” a small smirk appears on blaise’s face, “i heard y/n agreed to come.” draco’s head turns towards you with super sonic speed, “really?” you give him a closed lipped smile and very slow head nod. “then i’ll be there,” draco says, “me too!” astoria adds on. pansy gives her a look of disgust, “uh astoria, this is just for our friend group. we made a rule that there are no plus ones.” astoria then pouts and turns to draco, “draco, i could come right?” pansy rolls her eyes and pretends to gag. draco turns towards you and looks to you for help, “astoria, if you’d like to come, you’re welcome to come,” you say, earning a whine from pansy. “great! we’ll meet you at the exit of hogwarts.” you nod and send an extremely small smile towards her.

while you get ready, pansy waits for you on your bed. “y/n, i have no idea why you invited her, she’s literally the bane of our existence.” you chuckle at your dramatic best friend, “she’s dating draco, so we have to include her or else who knows what draco would do?” browsing through your closet, you pick out a slytherin sweater and a vintage poofy jacket. “y/n, the only reason why draco decided to come was because blaise told him you were coming. doesn’t that scream something to you?” you continue to look at yourself in the mirror, “no, it doesn’t. we’re just best friends pansy, nothing more.” her face droops down and she rolls her eyes, “you, my best friend, are the smartest witch in all of hogwarts but you’re too blinded by draco’s happiness to find your own,” shaking your head, you turn away from the mirror and walk to the door but before you exit, you stop, “i’m happy for him so it’s fine,” you say, sounding more like you’re trying to convince yourself rather than pansy.

your group of friends all meet at the exit of hogwarts and while you wait for draco and astoria to show up, you see the weasley twins. you smile and wave at them until fred waves you over to their location behind the tree. you look over at your occupied friends and walk over to them, “what’s up, weasleys?” they both stand towered over you, “y/n, we might’ve done something we weren’t supposed to do and now we have to go clean it up,” george begins, “mcgonagall’s orders,” fred adds and george continues, “we’ve got the trio but it’s too big of a mess so we’re recruiting people to help us clean.” you let out a sigh but nod your head, “okay, give me a second to tell my friends. wait for me at the entrance of the castle.” they both give you a salute and march over to the entrance as you walk towards your group of friends, now including draco and astoria. “hey,” you say as you see draco, now turning towards all your friends, “i have to go help the weasley twins today so, no hogsmede for me today,” you slightly pout, “y/n, why do you have to help the weasel twins?” you lightly punch him on the arm, “i’ll be going now,” your friends wave to you as you walk away until you hear, “wait y/n!” and you turn around to see draco jogging towards you, “i’m not going to go either,” your eyes widen at the boy while he gives you a smirk, “what about astoria?” his smirk falters as he gives you a genuine smile, “always thinking about others before yourself, i really don’t think slytherin was the right house for you. maybe hufflepuff?” you roll your eyes as you start to walk and his arm lays on your shoulders. “if i was in any other house, i would’ve avoided you at first sight,” he chuckles, “ow, that hurt,” he replies sarcastically.

as you enter the entrance of the castle, you see fred waiting for you and his eyes shift to draco, “you here to help, malfoy?” draco rolls his eyes, “yes weasley.” you pat draco on the back, “good boy,” his ear slightly turn red but the action goes unnoticed as you start a conversation with fred, “what did you even do in the first place?” a mischievous glint grows on fred’s face as he opens the door to an explosion of soap bubbles in mcgonagall’s classroom, leaving your eyes wide along with draco’s. “freddie!” george yells from across the room which attracts the attention of the students helping clean. you turn to draco, looking up at him in equal surprise as him. george comes and hands you a wet rag along with a bucket to help dissolve the bubbles surrounding the room. for the whole time, draco stood next to you and cleaned about two percent of the hundred percent you cleaned. on your way to dump out the bucket in the lavatory, you bump into graham montague. “hey y/n. sorry about the bludger the other day. if i blocked it for you, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt,” you shake your head, setting down the bucket full of bubbles, “no, it wasn’t your fault. if i had paid attention i wouldn’t have gotten hurt. don’t blame yourself.” he tilts his head to look down at you, “what’s the bucket for?” your head then tilts down to look at the bucket, “helping fred and george clean up their most recent prank,” graham nods his head in understanding, “do you need help?’ a tiny chuckle leaves your lips, “if you could help, it would be much appreciated,” he nods and takes the bucket from your grasp as the both of you continue to walk to the lavatory.

upon your return to the classroom with graham, draco looks at you before turning towards graham. he struts up to you and stretches his arm over your shoulder, getting face to face with graham. you sigh at his childish behavior, “thank you for helping graham, we’ll see you at quidditch practice tomorrow.” draco continues to stare graham down, “yeah, see you tomorrow y/n.” you push away from draco’s grasp and go to continue cleaning.

at the end of the weasley’s cleaning fiasco, you walk to dinner with draco in silence. not an awkward silence but a comfortable silence, “so how’s it going with astoria?” you ask out of the blue, “it’s alright but it’s a good thing she’s not as annoying as her younger version, daphne.” he retorts “daphne’s kind.” you retort back, “oh y/n. only seeing the positives in people.” draco stops to fix his dress robe while you continue to walk without him until stopping to turn around and check on him only to notice astoria clinging onto to his arm. draco tries to find you over astoria’s shoulder only to find that you had disappeared. you walk out to the same spot next to the lake. the wind blew through your hair as you stood by the edge of the lake, glancing at the icy water. you hear the noise of rowdy boys behind you before feeling a push in the back, towards the lake. landing with a splash, you hold your breath and try to swim back up to the surface but the weight of your wet clothing dragged you back down, along with the unhealed bruises around your abdomen. floating down peacefully, the cold water engulfs you whole and you let out a final breath of air.

in the meantime, draco stands next to astoria as she smothers him. he firms himself up as he prepares himself to break up with her. “astoria, i think we need to take a-“ but he soon gets cut off as he sees you in the arms of cedric diggory, unconscious. “what the hell did you do to her, diggory?!” he shouts, worried about his best friend. “i saved her from the lake when mclaggen pushed her in, now move out of the way so i can take her to the hospital wing.” in that instant moment, draco realizes that it wasn’t the thought of being with astoria that mad him happy, but the fact that you would be there for him no matter what decision he makes. rage fills draco’s whole body as he moves out of cedric’s way and to find cormac.

when you wake up, you find yourself surrounded by your friends and a bloodied up cormac mclaggen. pansy notices you and mouths a quiet, “are you okay?” to not wake the other boys up and you reply with a nod, unfortunately, actually waking the boys up. draco releases his hold on your hand and goes to hug you. he chuckles in your ear, “you have no idea how relieved i am that you are okay.” you chuckle back at his words, “what, you didn’t think i could swim?” he releases from his hug and then looks at you with a serious face, “i’m sorry i wasn’t there for you. i just got caught up with astoria, but i have something to say,” he pauses as he looks at your reaction, “guys, i hope you still know that we’re all here.” pansy interrupts.

draco turns around to mouth a get out before turning back to you, “y/n, over the past weeks, i realize that i spent less time around and to be honest, it was killing me. it killed me to see you around the weasel twins more,” you interrupt him, “weasley twins, can’t you get it right once-“ he cuts you off by putting his hand over your mouth to silence you, “y/n, i’m trying to be serious. i want to spend more time with you, my best friend. i hope you know that i love you even though i don’t express it everyday.” he jokes while your expression changes from joking to a straight face. “draco, i know you love me because we’re best friends and we have been since we were little but,” you give him a sad smile, “you don’t love me the way you love her. because all i’ll ever be is your best friend but she could be your wife. so maybe save the i love you’s for her.” draco’s face falls at your words, “yeah you’re right, i don’t love you the way i love her because i love you more. hell, i get nervous every time i’m around you alone or when you let me play with your hair when you study or when you come to take care of me when i’m sick. y/n, i love you so much and i want to be more than just best friends.” your eyes widen and tear up slightly, “but we can’t if you think that way.” you let out a big sigh but a large smile erupts on your face. “draco, i’ve loved you since our first year when hermione told me the story of you in the dark forest. but you can’t do to this to astoria,” his face turns a bit guilty, “i forgot to mention that i broke up with her while you were being treated. supposedly she asked mclaggen to push you in. she didn’t take it very well so i would sleep in my room for the time being,” you chuckle at his confession, “will do,” draco quickly shuts you up by pressing his lips against yours. the both of you hear a “finally!” from outside and you feel a smile form on draco’s face. he pulls away and smiles at you, “come on y/n, lets go.” draco says as he grabs your hand but you make no attempt to leave your bed, “oh i actually have to stay here for one more night because i need to more potions, but i’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast.” he lets out a noise of disappointment and kisses you on the forehead before leaving the room.

the next morning, you wake up from your bed in the hospital wing and walk to breakfast by yourself until you meet cedric. “oh cedric, thank you for saving me.” he gives you a relieving smile, “it’s no problem but i almost got killed by malfoy for carrying you while you were unconscious,” he chuckles at you surprised reaction, “i am so sorry about that,” cedric shakes his head, “it’s alright, it’s good to see he cares.”

after waving goodbye to cedric, you walk out to the snowy lake once again, only to see draco already there waiting for you. “draco? why are you here?” his face lights up as he spots you, “i was tired of waiting for you at breakfast and i knew you normally come here so i just decided to wait for you here.” draco opens up his coat as you walk towards him and he wraps his arms around you, engulfing you in his coat’s wings. he leans in closely to whisper in your ear, “i can’t wait till i marry you and we start our own family,” you give him a small laugh at his cheesy words, “calm down mr. malfoy, we only started dating yesterday.” he pulls away from you and stares at your face, “but i feel like we’ve been dating for seven years,” draco leans closely to you and kisses you gently as both of your rosy cheeks illuminate off of each other.

pansy and blaise watch the both of their best friends from a far. “could they be any grosser? like calm down, it’s only eight am on a monday morning.” pansy rolls her eyes, “let them have this moment, i honestly was getting tired of listening to both of them complain about their ‘unrequited’ love for each other.” blaise nods his head in acknowledgment.

draco and you watch as pansy and blaise stuff each other’s face into the fluffy snow, “i love you draco,“ you say as he has your face cupped in his hands, “i love you more y/n. now lets go to breakfast, can’t have you hungry today.” you give a large close lipped smile as draco grabs your hand and stuffs into his pocket while the both of you walk into the castle. as the both of you near the castle, you ask, “did you beat up cormac?” draco continues on his path in silence before answering, “of course. he hurt my girl, and we can’t let him get away with it.” you roll your eyes, “thank you, i guess?” he laughs at you and kisses you on the forehead as the both of you continue your walk to the breakfast hall.

a/n: hi! this is probably one of my longest fics and it took legit 4 business days to write this lol. also, this may be the last fic i post in oct, but please enjoy it along with my other stories!

masterlist

[miniconsinatrenchcoat]

Original post

@justawannabearchaeologist

I wish I could ask from this blog but thanks for the answer! Ngl I wasn’t expecting a whole ass paragraph lmao

I love writing fluff but oh my god the angst and conflict is what I’m good at writing. It’s less often with the canon characters and more with ocs because I can have things exactly how I want it, but with the crossovers I always include at least two canon characters. The only thing is that the fic storylines deviate so much from the original plot of the show towards the end that it gives me a lot more freedom than I normally would have (and one crossover takes place like a decade after rid2015 but that’s not relevant atm) if I was just writing a crossover between the canon universes.

2 oc rants utc

Okay so there’s Sunpoint, Decepticon Seeker turned Autobot post exodus. His story changes up the second half of season three, but honestly starts in season one by keeping Skyquake alive, and Dreadwing by proxy. Knock Out and Breakdown join during season one too because I think having them on the Autobots would be super interesting. Soundwave also joins, but that’s during season three after some things happen that aren’t canon to the tfp series.

I kinda just throw Sunpoint, Knock Out, Wheeljack, and Soundwave into the tfa universe because A) I love continuity crossovers and B) it’s the most mixed up group I’ve put together. There’s gonna be conflict with them and the tfa cast, AND between just the four of them. Smokescreen does get involved a few days before the beginning of season two, since I don’t plan on having them there for too long.

Three of them were Decepticons for the longest time. Wheeljack is still iffy about all of them, even more so with Soundwave.

Sunpoint and Soundwave are fliers, something unheard of in the tfa universe aside from the jettwins. Any Decepticon who defected to the Autobots reformatted to a ground frame (like Drift).

Soundwave is still a Decepticon in tfa.

Knock Out and Sunpoint don’t have known tfa counterparts.

Sunpoint is very VERY anti-caste and anti-corruption, he would absolutely despise the Elite Guard and what they do. He’d honestly be more on board with the tfa Decepticons than the Autobots.

They’re all taller than the tfa crew, only the Decepticons are taller than them, which led to a lot of misunderstandings in the beginning, especially with Soundwave’s colors, Knock Out’s optics, and his and Sunpoint’s sharp fingers. The only one who wouldn’t immediately be mistaken for a Decepticon would be Wheeljack.

I can do a lot with just Sunpoint there, sure, it would be fun to figure out how he would interact with the tfa cast on his own, but throwing others into the mix is a lot more interesting. Not gonna touch much on Wheeljack since you pretty much have him covered lol.

Soundwave is nothing like his tfa counterpart, you already hit on that, but the thought of animated Team Prime seeing him in action fighting WITH them. On one hand, they’d be impressed, but on the other, they’re horrified at the thought of ever having to fight him at any point before he defected.

Knock Out is a medic who does things unconventionally. He makes Ratchet question how the Decepticons had him as a medic (both tfa and aligned).

Sunpoint is a fighter, sure, but he’s jumpy as hell whenever someone comes remotely close to his wings. On top of that, he’s honestly terrified at the thought of going against Megatron, even if this one is less tyrannical than his.

None of them really bat an eye at Starscream’s treachery or Megatron coming back again and again, they’re used to it at this point.

What they are surprised by is the fact that the war is over, there are hardly any Decepticons on Earth, and Team Prime, a space bridge repair crew, has the damn AllSpark at the bottom of Lake Erie.

Also Decepticons flying in root mode. That’s a thing, apparently, and it takes them a little to adjust to that fact, and even longer for them to have to stop clarifying that, no, neither Sunpoint nor Soundwave can fly in root mode.

Things are more of the same, it’s just easier for Team Prime to do things because A) they have another medic now, B) they have fliers, and C) they have a Wrecker, a former gladiator, and a search and rescue worker/Seeker.

Things get slightly more complicated when Smokescreen comes into play. He’s a member of a nonexistent Elite Guard, but when the tfa crew sees the emblem, they assume that the Elite Guard is still active in the tfp universe. He has to explain that, as far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Elite Guard that’s still alive.

When the Elite Guard comes to Earth, Sunpoint immediately hates it. For one, they clocked him as a Decepticon and immediately tried to attack him, Soundwave, and Knock Out, and he already didn’t like his own Sentinel. Tfa Sentinel just took ignorance and pride to a whole other level.

Both Sunpoint and Knock Out were already tense around tfp Ultra Magnus, but they don’t trust tfa Ultra Magnus whatsoever, and rightfully so. Literally none of them except Wheeljack and Smokescreen are trusted by the Elite Guard members (with the exception being Jazz) because they had to explain that, yes, they used to be Decepticons at some point.

This is where it mostly ends, they only stay for one or two more episodes. This one isn’t actually canon to the storyline of the original fic, it’s just a little offshoot I thought would be fun to write. I didn’t put nearly as much thought into this one compared to the next.

The REAL fun comes with Longarm.

—

This story is entirely self indulgent because I wanted the Decepticons to have a human, so if this seems cliché or Mary Sue-like then I’m sorry lol.

The main Decepticons break off from the faction during the first episodes of season 3, creating their own called the Ascenticons (yes I recycled IDW stuff), and are replaced with Swindle (BD and yes, he dies), Flatline (KO), Blitzwing (SS), and Soundblaster (SW). They run with less of a hierarchy - Starscream is in charge of mining operations, Breakdown is in charge of the troops, Knock Out is still CMO, and Soundwave is still the communications and security officer. They function more like a family unit than anything.

Longarm - or Natsuo, I’ll alternate throughout - is a mess and my god he doesn’t take things well at all. On top of taking on the leadership responsibilities of people like Ultra Magnus or Dreadwing at the age of 19 as the Ascenticon’s strategist (because Natsuo doesn’t have the sense to stay out of an alien war), he also has to deal with the fact that an impulse decision on his part ended with him becoming techno-organic. While he does figure out some ways to deal with everything, he has a tendency to get absorbed in anything else as a distraction, and in this case, it’s parallel dimensions, alternate timelines, and possible multi-dimensional travel.

The universe jump is technically purposeful: Longarm built a machine specifically to try and do that. He just didn’t expect it to go off while he, Breakdown, and Knock Out were working on it, and he didn’t know how to undo it either. Good news: no plot intervention in the tfp universe for me to figure out with time differences, this is set 10-15 years after rid2015.

Breakdown and Natsuo are confused as to why they’re on Earth again. Their first thought is that they made a teleporter instead, which, while it did work, wasn’t what they wanted. After the find Knock Out, they realize that they can’t contact anyone they had the information for on Earth, not the humans, and not the Rescue Bots. Knock Out goes into the city and tells them exactly what’s happening, which is where everything starts.

Longarm of course makes the tfa crew panic because they all know who Longarm Prime is in terms of Autobot ranks. Bumblebee and Bulkhead immediately accuse him of being an imposter and “a horrible one at that.” He has to explain what happened and shows them the device before asking them for help with it.

The Bots are obviously on edge, with him sharing a name with a Prime and all.

They do at least trust that he’s not immediately going to hurt them; after all, Longarm Prime wouldn’t ever do that.

Breakdown and Knock Out are fine, Team Prime has a moderate level of trust in them.

None of them are really trusted fully, but they place their full trust in the tfa Team Prime.

Ratchet is iffy about Longarm, because he never answers simple questions directly. Bumblebee once asked how old he was and Longarm’s response was “Old enough.” He has a roundabout way of giving his answers, either keeping them vague or circumventing the question altogether. Even though he doesn’t completely trust Longarm, Ratchet still acknowledges that, yes, he’s smart, both in terms of science and strategy.

Seeing Nanosec was… disturbing for Natsuo. It just reminded him how short human lives were compared to his own current one.

One thing is that Longarm always resonated more with villains in fiction, and it translated over into alternate universes. He’s entirely aware that, yes, the Decepticons are messed up, but he always feels like he has to at least try and know them instead of taking a biased statement for fact.

This leads to a lot of mistrust between him and the team, especially when he starts to find Blitzwing similar to him (in terms of having OSDD and Blitzwing resembling a system). As much as Longarm’s glad to find someone with a disorder similar to his own, he understands that, yeah, he’s still the enemy.

He does stop the others from calling Blitzwing a freak, though.

He tends to keep to himself when he’s not actively involved in a conversation, keeping himself separated from the others.

Optimus sympathizes with Longarm a lot because he can tell that he’s young, even with all the ambiguous answers when asked anything remotely personal. He ends up seeing him as just another team member, but they tend to butt heads at times because of how stubborn Longarm can be. They both try and take responsibility for everyone.

Whenever Natsuo’s around Bumblebee or Bulkhead, he’s either talking just as much as Bumblebee or he’s just silently listening to them or watching what they do. He does occasionally snap at Bumblebee for being too loud, but he always says that he doesn’t mind the talking, just the volume. Bumblebee eventually tries to be quieter whenever he notices. Bulkhead just appreciates Longarm’s company since they both have an interest in art.

He and Prowl don’t talk to each other much. Longarm can never figure out a way to break the silence without making it awkward, so most of their interactions are limited to a few words, and everything else is just sitting near each other in silence. They do eventually get to the point where they don’t exactly need to talk because it’s easy enough for Prowl to pick up on smaller habits of the other and nonverbal communication is something Longarm has a lot of experience with. Outside of that, they hardly know anything about each other.

Now with Breakdown, he sees a smaller, younger version of Bulkhead, someone who he never liked being around, and has to remember that this isn’t the Bulkhead he knows. That fact becomes glaringly obvious after one fight, and he realized that this Bulkhead was only similar in name, appearance, and technically function, too.

Tfa Bumblebee gets on his nerves a lot. He doesn’t stop talking or take social cues, which is something Breakdown is used to, but he’s not normally around someone who seemingly never runs out of things to say. Even Starscream had his quiet moments, but no, not Bumblebee. He generally tries to avoid starting a conversation with him.

He doesn’t mind being around Prowl, but it doesn’t do him any favors because Prowl could be right there and he wouldn’t know. It’s made him wary and slowly brings back his paranoia, although it’s not extreme. The moment Prowl is aware of this, he tries to be mindful about where he stands near Breakdown, taking special care to avoid standing in his blind spots.

With Optimus, he’s more or less indifferent. Breakdown will absolutely go against orders if he thinks it’s right, but as long as it works, he’s down to just follow orders.

Breakdown more or less steers clear of Ratchet. He doesn’t want a wrench flying towards him, even if this Ratchet doesn’t have a seemingly infinite supply of said tool

Knock Out is a whole other case. He never passes up the opportunity to annoy Optimus or Ratchet, and will go out of his way to do so if he thinks he can get away with it. Despite that, he does acknowledge that Optimus is technically superior, even though he never followed the Autobot chain of command. He’ll follow orders, but he’ll challenge every single one he deems ridiculous and refuses to do anything that could mess up his paint.

Bumblebee is the one he gets along with the most. They’re both suckers for human media, and Knock Out loves having someone to race, even if they have to resort to sneaking out just to do that. He does wind up being involved in more than a few illegal street races, but Bumblebee never snitches.

While he’s not the biggest fan of Bulkhead’s innate ability to make a mess or break things, Knock Out does take an interest in his paintings. It’s not that he likes it, but he finds it interesting that tfp Bulkhead is a warrior who doesn’t (in his opinion) think of anything except fighting while tfa Bulkhead is more interested in just doing what he enjoys.

He doesn’t have much to do with Prowl. They mesh like oil and water, so they don’t interact very often. Knock Out is flashy, while Prowl tries to be subtle. They don’t get along very well, but they get along well enough that if they were fighting alone with only each other then they would be fine.

Knock Out doesn’t mesh as well with the Autobots in this story because he’s not one of them. In Sunpoint’s story, he’s a member of tfp Team Prime since late season one. In this story, he’s in a separate faction, and he’s in the enemy faction for two seasons.

This isn’t even going into the mess that is them being involved in the actual plot. They all learn about the Elite Guard, and they hate it. Natsuo tries to stay out of the way but the three of them inevitably get dragged into things.

When Longarm hears about Blackarachnia, he backslides with his coping mechanisms because of how much she reminds him of what he went through (albeit in the reverse order - Cybertronian to techno-organic).

Ratchet is the only one on the tfa team to notice it. He doesn’t tell the others, because he gets what it’s like to not want to bring up events, but he does talk to Knock Out and Breakdown about it.

It was a big surprise for Team Prime when they came back to base and all three of them were sleeping on the couch with their holoforms.

Knock Out is more fascinated than anything, because Longarm is the only techno-organic he knows.

Breakdown and Longarm come with Bulkhead and Prowl to Dinobot Island, and they hang behind slightly and make jokes about “Decepticon Island,” which both confuses the other two and scares them because the few they’ve had to deal with are enough for them, and an island full of Decepticons sounds like a nightmare.

Breakdown immediately recognized the original Dinobot’s names, he knew the Wreckers during the war and was well aware of them.

Longarm only has experience with rid2015 Grimlock, so the tfa Dinobots definitely surprised him. (”What do you mean he’s not green?”)

He eventually learns how to communicate with the Dinobots and sometimes comes over to the island just to hang out with them.

Longarm also meets Meltdown for he first time, another victim of stupid decisions leading to unwanted results. He doesn’t like him, though, because he’s already seen what Meltdown did.

When Prowl starts training Sari, Natsuo takes it upon himself to teach her proper self defense she can actually use against humans if she ever needs it. (Again, he has an inability to stay out of things.)

During the fight with Megatron, Knock Out stays out of the way as much as he can. He’s dealt with a Dark Energon-addled Megatron and doesn’t want to deal with one who’s after the AllSpark instead of Optimus’ life. He ends up having to repair everyone when Ratchet can’t because they don’t have Sari’s key. 

Longarm and Breakdown are holding their own against Blitzwing and Lugnut. Breakdown and Lugnut’s fight is more brute forcing it, while Longarm and Blitzwing are relying more on strategy. 

Natsuo is holding out against Blitzwing because he’s not as strong, but he’s durable and has a more stable system than Blitzwing, which he uses to his advantage. He feels bad about forcing switches, but he knows from his experience in the tfp universe that he can’t fight Blitzwing head on.

When they Elite Guard finally comes to Earth, Longarm is pissed. They took decades to even get here when the Decepticons managed to find them first, and the only reason for that even happening was detecting the AllSpark energy. The Elite Guark KNEW that Team Prime had the AllSpark and could’ve easily detected the energy signature and gotten to Earth first.

Sentinel makes a huge fuss about ‘Decepticon scum’ and ‘organic contamination’ but ultimately can’t go against Ultra Magnus’ orders to let them in, as they’re technically a part of Team Prime. It doesn’t make him any less passive-aggressive. The only thing stopping him from outright declaring them as criminals to be arrested is the fact that Ultra Magnus wants them to get back to their own world, which means they need help.

Ultra Magnus is... both intrigued and annoyed. On one hand, there’s another Longarm who’s apparently capable of inter-dimensional travel, but on the other, it’s clear to him that all three of them were Decepticons before, even if tfa Team Prime never took an issue with it. He doesn’t think for even a second that the Longarm he knows could be a Decepticon, and thinks it’s just one of those things that’s different in the tfp universe.

He does contact Wheeljack about possibly fixing the device Longarm built.

Jazz is more fascinated than anything. He hadn’t ever thought about the possibility of there being an alternate reality before, but now he’s wondering if there’s an alternate version of him. Natsuo doesn’t know tfp/rid2015 Jazz personally, but he tells tfa Jazz that, yeah, there is.

When Sentinel demands proof of any Decepticon presence on Earth other than the Ascenticons, Knock Out decides to speak up and mention that Longarm records every single fight he’s involved in for future reference. Sentinel tries to make him shut up, but Ultra Magnus stops him and asks to see said recordings. 

Longarm is extremely selective about what he shows, because as much as he understands that the Decepticons are a threat, he doesn’t want to reveal everything to the Elite Guard, because if they figure out that they can manipulate Blitzwing, they’ll figure out they can do something similar to him if they ever find out about his disorder.

They’re all too happy when the Elite Guard finally leaves Earth, especially with Sentinel gone.

You had Wheeljack talk to Ratchet about Wreck-Gar, I’m having Knock Out talk to him. 

Knock Out completely understands how Ratchet is feeling with Wreck-Gar having disappeared. He hasn’t exactly dealt with that specific kind of grief before, but he’s dealt with the guilt that came with what happened to Natsuo. 

Around this time, Longarm finally fixes the device, but waits a few days just to make sure nothing will go wrong. They stick around just long enough for a certain blue racer who can beat Knock Out to show up before returning to their own worlds.

When they come back, they clear everything up with their Optimus, and Natsuo returns to Earth for the time being to get help on Griffin Rock, since they have the technology to teleport and time travel there. It takes about two to three years, but Longarm finally comes back to the tfa universe, this time on purpose with Wildbreak and Blurr (because I’m a sucker for the Rescue Bots series).

When he comes back, it’s well after season three, even after (the unfortunately cancelled) season four. After Sari discovers she’s techno-organic, after Shockwave revealed his true colors, after the cube incident, after Ultra Magnus was attacked and almost killed, and after Megatron was finally defeated.

The trust he built with the Autobots on Earth is completely shattered because of Shockwave. The moment he steps into the base, they’re hostile towards him.

Bumblebee accuses him of being a traitor who lied about leaving the Decepticons, and everyone is defensive around him. When they find out he brought Blurr with him, they try to separate them, which leaves Wildbreak standing off to the side deciding what to do because he doesn’t want to get involved, but those are his friends.

Longarm starts arguing with the others, telling Blurr to take Wildbreak and get out because they don’t have to hear this. Bumblebee insists that they stay because they need to know what kind of bot their friend is. It takes a while, but finally Bumblebee snaps at him to stop playing dumb and that they all know he’s Shockwave, and that he hates that he was tricked by Longarm twice.

Natsuo just stared at him with a mix of disbelief and anger. He didn’t think he would ever be accused of being a Decepticon again after the events of rid2015, and the only reason for that was some individual misunderstandings. The fact that they were accusing him of being Shockwave specifically only rubbed salt in the wound. 

Sari and Bulkhead came back at that moment, and Longarm turned to them to ask what was going on with everyone. Bumblebee called him Shockwave again, and he spun back around, spitting curses and a very angry explanation that he DESPISES Shockwave for what he did to him, that he wasn’t planning on almost throwing away his whole life just to end a war that he knows he had no business being involved in when he was barely an adult.

The rest of the team just stood there before Sari finally spoke up, asking what he meant by ‘barely an adult’, because Knock Out had told her that almost all life comes from the Well of AllSparks, which was inactive at the time, and that Cybertronians in their world mature quickly.

Longarm just looks her up and down before kneeling in front of her.

“I’m like you.”

Sari immediately asked how he found out and he clarified that, no, he didn’t mean he found out, he meant that he became techno-organic, like Blackarachnia. That he hadn’t thought Shockwave would make a weapon that could destroy the armor he was using, and he hadn’t expected the cybermatter to keep him alive by repairing the armor and fusing him to it in the process when he tried to reach his Bumblebee.

Optimus stepped forward and asks for clarification, and Blurr butts in to explain that Natsuo was a human before, but he’s been living as a Cybertronian for over a decade.

Longarm stops him and says that he’ll tell them himself, and reintroduces himself, telling them that Natsuo is his real name.

Team Prime is reluctant to listen, but do so anyways. Blurr and Wildbreak are hearing the full story for the very first time. Bringing up what happened aboard the Nemesis wasn’t something Natsuo liked to do, so no one around him asked about it very much.

After he finished, Bumblebee apologized for accusing him right off the bat without bothering to ask him anything, but Longarm brushes it off because it was justified in his eyes.

Bumblebee takes the chance to ask how old Longarm is again. They were all surprised when he answered with 36. Sari works out that he was almost 20 when the battle on the Nemesis happened.

It takes some time to rebuild the trust between all of them. It’s been two years since he, Breakdown, and Knock Out left, and the Autobots who knew about him all thought that he was a traitor. It’s not an opinion that can be changed overnight.

After a weeks, Longarm finally asks about Prowl. He was expecting an answer along the lines of “He’s back on Cybertron”, not to hear that he was gone. He didn’t bring it up again after that.

Blurr and Wildbreak are still adjusting to being in an alternate world. While Blurr is used to not keeping up the ‘robots in disguise’ façade because that was dropped in Griffin Rock ages ago, Wildbreak still tries to keep out of sight of humans. It’s funny to see this almost 20 foot alien notice a human is watching him and transform before speeding away, which drives Fanzone insane, he had to deal with Knock Out racing before and he suspects (correctly) that Wildbreak is going to start racing, too.

Blurr gravitates more towards Bumblebee when compared with the other members of Team Prime, mainly because they have similar tendencies. At some point, Bumblebee makes an off-handed remark mentioning tfa Blurr, and tfrb Blurr begins asking about his counterpart.

He doesn’t have to ask for long because a few (one former) members of the Elite Guard come to Earth, Blurr included.

Jazz, Sentinel, the jettwins, and Blurr show up, and Sentinel immediately accuses Longarm of being a traitor, commanding the jettwins to arrest him before the others intervene and explain that Shockwave is a separate Cybertronian. Jazz fully accepts it, the jettwins are mostly indifferent since they never knew him personally, and Sentinel is reluctant to stand down, but does anyways. They don’t mention he’s techno-organic, Sentinel’s on edge as it is.

Natsuo takes the chance to introduce Blurr and Wildbreak, and tfa Blurr immediately begins talking, asking about tfrb Blurr and how they differ.

No one catches the entire rant, and are surprised when Longarm answers each question or defers to his Blurr for an answer, only asking tfa Blurr for a few clarifications. He leaves the others to interact after answering, not wanting to deal with Sentinel again.

He disappears for a few days, and none of the tfa bots can find him. The only thing they ever get is a quick response that he’s okay before he goes radio silent, and Wildbreak and Blurr explain that it’s a normal ocurrence. They don’t find out anything else until a report comes in about a blue and red motorcycle with an unknown driver participating in races alongside a light blue racecar with white decals and a dark blue sports car with orange accents.

Tfa Blurr shows up at one of the races, and afterwards tracks down Longarm to ask him about how the device worked, but the conversation inevitably turns to Shockwave.

Natsuo asked what exactly happened, and Blurr gives an abridged version of the whole cube incident. The only response he gets is “Shockwave hurting others is a universal constant, I guess.”

It’s Blurr’s turn to ask for clarification. 

Natsuo explains that Shockwave knew that he would be the easiest to take out if he could break through the armor, and that if he did, the Ascenticons would have to rely solely on Starscream for strategizing. Starscream was good at leading, but he panicked if his plans fell apart, and in battle, that was often. He told him how Shockwave had engineered a weapon to break through his armor, and that Blitzwing had shot him with it while he was fighting some vehicons. How the only reason he was still alive was jumping into the cybermatter in an attempt to reach Bumblebee.

It takes a while for them to get to the point of friends, but they bond over their mutual trauma received from Shockwave.

The Elite Guard leaves pretty soon after that, but Longarm gives Jazz the blueprints for the jump device, saying that was part of the reason he made the trip again. He also said he didn’t trust Sentinel enough to give it to him.

Sari and Bumblebee decide to show Blurr and Wildbreak around the city while Longarm is left to his own devices. Blurr is ecstatic to be able to visit a big city without having to pretend to just be a car, and Wildbreak is... less enthused, but still interested.

Wildbreak admits that he’s been in a few races, and Bumblebee insists on racing both him and Blurr to see who’s the fastest. Sari has to remind him that he can’t just race anywhere, but she’ll find a place for them if she can. Blurr is boasting that he’ll win, and Wildbreak says he’ll get back at Blurr for beating him while he was with the Stunticons. 

Optimus and Blurr get along better than the others thought they would, and definitely better than Blurr thought. He assumed that Optimus would be just as strict as Heatwave, but they ended up bonding over the feeling of not belonging with the others that they both had.

Wildbreak gravitated towards Bulkhead since he was one of the calmer ones on the team. It wasn’t that he hated the energy the others had, he just preferred to be around someone quieter after dealing with Drag Strip for so long. Bulkhead liked having someone to bounce ideas off of, but he missed talking to Natsuo about art since talking about different styles was fun.

They both steered clear of Ratchet, but that’s mainly because they tended to annoy him a lot if they were together.

While Longarm was on his own, he ran into Blitzwing. A few Decepticons had decided to stay on Earth after they defeated Megatron, and he happened to be one of them, along with Slipstream, Cyclonus, Starscream, and the Predacons.

Blitzwing was on edge at first, but Longarm explained that he didn’t care about factions so long as everything was peaceful. If the Decepticons left well enough alone, he couldn’t care less.

It did confuse Blitzwing when he introduced himself as Longarm, so he just told Blitzwing to call him Natsuo.

They never had the chance to talk before, but Blitzwing quickly caught onto the fact that Natsuo was never surprised or disgusted when his faces switched. He asked about it, so Natsuo explained that he had something similar, a disorder formed from trauma that ended up with separate alters, although he can’t tell his own apart most of the time. 

He also explained that he was techno-organic, which wasn’t something he had wanted, the same way Blitzwing didn’t want to have multiple faces.

Blitzwing was entirely unaware that dissociative disorders existed, so it was a bit of a comfort to know that it wasn’t only him, even if it was a human disorder.

Natsuo doesn’t stay long after that and leaves, telling Blitzwing to ignore anyone who says he’s a freak or creep.

He eventually manages to find Blackarachnia, who was staying on Dinobot Island with her Predacons, and asks to talk to her.

She didn’t want anything to do with him initially, but the moment he mentions her being techno-organic, she snaps at him to leave. He insists on staying, telling her he just wanted to ask about her experience.

Blackarachnia isn’t very happy with him and gives him a very short version of what happened. 

Natsuo just nods and says he understands why she wouldn’t want to tell him, admitting that he wouldn’t normally talk about it, either. He told her the only reason he came to find her is because of their situations.

When she realizes that he was techno-organic, she asks how it happened, and he told her about Shockwave’s weapon. She was thrown off by the fact that he was human, not Cybertronian, but acknowledged that he seemed well-adjusted around others. It was easier for him to hide the fact that he was techno-organic, after all. They don’t say much else to each other.

When he comes back, Sari asks if they’re going to leave again. He tells her that he already took care of what he came back for, so they’re leaving soon, since Blurr is still a Rescue Bot and can’t be gone for too long.

Bulkhead overhears and asks if he’ll come back, and Longarm replies that he might, but they can always ask Jazz about the device and tells them that he gave him the blueprints to be passed along to Wheeljack.

Wildbreak and Blurr are disappointed to leave, but they promise to try and come back whenever they have the time to do so.

I’m gonna end this here because I could probably go on for ages if I don’t. There’s a lot of things I didn’t add just because of the length lmao. TLDR: Putting former Decepticons and a mentally ill techno-organic in a different universe comes with chaos.

[klaus-is-the-real-number-1]

Where is my mind? (number 5 x reader)

ASK: five is stressed about the apocalypse, and reader notices and decides to play some slow music and asks him to dance. They begin to talk, some fluff, and reader suggest it’s time to stop going apocalypse after apocalypse, just enjoy the time they have left. five gets angry, and they have a huge fight. Lots angst and fluff.

A/N: uh not too angsty sorry :/ i also feel like its kinda a mess? but i am not sure but i hope you enjoy 

Words: 1229

Thunder cracked through the sky like a thousand whips going off simultaneously, accompanied by flashes of white mimicking an old fashioned camera capturing a moment in time. After a dry spell that was tied together with an astronomical heat wave, petrichor seeped through the open windows of the city was a welcome scent. It was the earth breathing as it rehydrates and re-energises, welcoming the soothing drops that were sent from the heavens, some may even say it was the Gods weeping.

Water dripped down into the room from the open window, droplets echoing around the dimly lit room. Disheveled books littered every possible surface, open at random pages that had to meaning to one another. They ranged from stories of untold truths, biographies about people before their own time and long complicated math theories that only the smartest people could wrap their heads around. 

Hunched over his desk, Five furiously scribbled away on scrap paper, writing the first thing that came to his complicated mind. Occasionally sipping from his hours old coffee, he shut himself off from the rest of the room and even the rest of the world, getting so entranced in the wonders of his own thoughts he became detached. Eyebrows furrowed as he read and re-read his work over and over, etching wrinkles into his forehead. His blue eyes were like an ocean that held stories that he would never tell a soul, sat at the bottom of the never endless sea in a shipwreck.

Slowly, you moved behind him and placed your hands on his tense shoulders, massaging with the lightest pressure to try and ease some of the tightly strung knots. As he relaxed into your hands you leant over to look at his writing, numbers and greek letters adorned many sheets that were all lined up neatly revealing the longest equation you had ever seen. It was an improvement from when you came into Fives room, numbers written in chalk covered his walls, overlapping to the point of it being illegible. Slowly, you started to buy him journals and notebooks and started to wean him off writing on his walls to keeping it all organised in one place. “Sometimes, I think you’re too smart for your own good.”

Just like a wave, his shoulders gently rose before crashing down as he sighed, lifting his hands to meet yours, gently running his thumb along your knuckles. Music drifted across the room causing Five to sway in your arms before abruptly standing up and spinning to face you, arms loosely drifting down your back and resting on your hips encouraging you to lift yours around his neck, swaying slowly to the rhythm of the music. His chest pounded like a thousand drummers beating their instrument simultaneously yet it sounded like music to your ears, a soothing melody that you could play on repeat over and over again.

“You know, Five,” You sigh as you sway to the music. “You don’t have to save the world when you don’t even know how it may end.” His body suddenly tensed followed by his grip loosening as he stepped away from you.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” His eyes were clouded with an anger, not being able to wrap his head around how you could even suggest for him to stop. “You won’t ever be able to understand.”

Without being able to get a word in, Five launched into a heated rant, eyes sharpening with every word that came out of his mouth. No stone left unturned as he ripped into the very fiber of your being, almost as he forgot who he was talking too yet it didn’t stop him bringing up your intelligence. What should of been a harmless comment from you to encourage him to relax tipped him over the edge in stress and all you could do is stand there and take the verbal onslaught.

Shakily, you brought your hand to your face to try to wipe away the freshly formed tears. As soon as Five saw your glassy eyes he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes instantly filled with regret as he realised the gravity of his words. “Y/n, I didn’t mean-”

“I should go.” You cut him off, not even wanting to look him in the eyes in fear of tipping over the edge and not being able to keep the tears in any longer. “You just get so carried away, I don’t want you to get so stressed where you get to the point where you crash, Five.”

Before he could respond his door closed shut behind you, speeding down the stairs as fast as you could even if you knew Five could catch up to you in a heartbeat but you didn’t want him to see the tears flowing down your face. The carpeted stairs muffled your steps as you descended, tears now flowing like waterfalls down your face as you gained speed getting closer to the main door, vision blurred from your heartbreak of what Five had said. He had gotten angry before or at least let a mean comment slip through every now and again but nothing like this, it was as if the pressure in him was building like a volcano and only the smallest fracture would cause him to burst, there must be something he hadn’t told you but it didn’t stop your chest from hurting as much as it did.

When you got outside and cold droplets of rain hit your face you sighed, you knew you would have to leave him be just for one night so he can calm down. Luckly, you didn’t live too far from the Academy, at a quick pace you managed to get home in record time yet still didn’t avoid being soaked through to your core, shivering like a scared dog, you get ready for a restless night of hoping Five didn’t do anything he would regret and praying that your chest would stop hurting from his words.

Golden rays shone through the window as the sun slowly rose causing the birds to sing a song for the new day, as your eyes adjusted to the brightness they spotted a familiar dark figure sat at your desk. “Morning.” He spoke, a timidness present in his voice.

“You can’t just appear in my room while I’m sleeping, Five.” Your eyes followed him as he got up to sit on the side of your bed, sighing as he did so.

“I’m sorry about last night,” His eyes locked with yours. “I’ve been really stressed and I just didn’t think, I shouldn’t of taken it out on you.” Ever so carefully he rested his hand on yours and just like the night before he ran his thumb over your knuckles. “You don’t have to forgive me but-”

He never got to finish his sentence as you tightly embraced him, hearing him sigh with relief, raising his arms to mimic your actions before falling down onto your bed. He relaxed and got comfortable, the only sounds to be heard was soft breathing and the songs on many birds, chirping to celebrate the day. “Five?” You heard him hum. “I forgive you.” Without looking at him you knew he had a smile on his face, you just held him tighter as you both drifted back into calming nothingness of sleep.

[oboevallis]

after watching the episode I was thinking if maybe u could write one about Amelink with scout their first days at home and the baby crying all night and not letting anyone sleep thank u

two cakes

thank you so much for the prompt!!! i hope everyone’s staying safe and doing well just realized i didn’t follow the prompt whatsoever i am so sorry!!!

“Meredith’s gonna kick us out isn’t she?” Link nervously asked as he watched his girlfriend paced with their newborn baby.

“She’s not going to kick us out.” Amelia said, stress evident in her voice.

“Of course she’s going to kick us out, her kids aren’t getting any sleep, Maggie’s not getting any sleep, she’s not getting any sleep, and we’re not getting any sleep.” Link uncharacteristically ranted.

“Link, I don’t know if you’ve watched the news recently but Seattle’s just got the country’s first Covid-19 case. Merediths obviously going to be a superhero and is going to be doing research and helping, so someone’s going to have to watch her kids. And that someone is going to be us.”

“Hopefully it’ll be fine, we’re quarantining and taking precautions. This thing will just breeze over.” Link optimistically stated, trying to keep a smile even though he didn’t entirely believe what he was saying.

“We may be doing these things, but other people aren’t.” The tired mother passed the crying baby to her boyfriend. “Here, take him.”

“We’re never going to sleep ever again are we?”

“No.” Amelia sighed as she rubbed her temples. The door then abruptly opened to reveal a disheveled Meredith. “Ugh, Meredith we’re so sorry.” The general surgeon then took the baby from the mans arms and maneuvered him so he was on his tummy leaning against her arm rubbing his back, ceasing his wailing into whimpers.

“I hate you Meredith.” Amelia groaned as she fell back on the bed.

“How’d you do that?” Link asked in disbelief as his son started to drift of to sleep in his aunts arms.

“In surgery if a certain angle doesn’t allow access, you rotate to another position.” Meredith then carefully lowered the baby into his crib.

“Thank you Meredith.” Amelia sighed in relief, as she watched the baby’s chest lower and rise rhythmically. “I really owe you.”

“You don’t owe me. You’ve been watching my kids for the longest time.” Amelia chuckled in agreement, Meredith watched the baby along with Amelia. “It’s so worth it though. For that baby smell, and their fingers, and their little smiles.”

“It really is.”

“How’s he holding up?” Meredith nodded over to Link who was already passed out.

“Ehh, he’s okay. He’s not really used to all the kids, and being locked on the house doesn’t help much.”

“He’s always been so great with the kids though.” Meredith was surprised to hear this.

“It’s different when it’s your kid I guess . I mean, I always knew what Ellis needed when she’d cry, but with Scout I just can’t tell.”

“You’ll figure it out, it just takes time.”

“I know.” Amelia sighed, her sister placing her hand on Amelias calf rubbing it affectionately.

“I have no idea what to do for Baileys birthday.”

“Yeah, can’t really throw a party.”

“And no ones in a partying mood.”

“Maybe just ask him what he wants? We’ll go from there.”

“And I’ll have Maggie make him his favorite lasagna.”

“It’ll be nothing like last years superhero party, but we’ll still make sure he has a great time.”

“Maybe we can get that boyfriend of yours to watch some marvel movies with him, no one else on this house can stand them.” Meredith chuckled as she stood up. “Well I’m going to sleep before that wailer of yours wakes everyone up again.”

“I’m sorry.” Amelia apologized as she pulled the covers over herself.

“Don’t be.” Meredith shook her head as she quietly closed the door.

_______________________________________

Bailey walked into the kitchen and sighed, everyone was sulking around. And he was tired of it, he just wanted to laugh. Hoping the baby could cheer him up he walked into the living room where his uncle was pacing around with the baby.

“Hey uncle Link.”

“Hey, what’s up almost birthday boy.”

“Nothing.” Bailey sighed plopping down in the couch.

“Yeah, it’s kind of boring huh?” The boy nodded in agreement. The boys mother than walked into the room and wrapped her arm around her son.

“What would you like for your birthday?” Meredith asked, wiping a piece of hair from her sons face. The boy contemplated for a minute before he formulated an idea.

“A cake.”

“Well of course there’ll be a cake.” Meredith chuckled.

“No, like just a cake for me.” The boy smiled.

“A whole cake?” The boy nodded vigorously in excitement. “Well alright then.”

“Thanks mommy.” The boy wrapped his arms around his mother’s neck.

“And you’re gonna bake this cake?” Link asked, trying to contain his laugh as he paced around.

“Of course not.” Meredith laughed, the man had obviously not caught onto how the house worked. “I’ll get Maggie to do that.”

“Of course.” Link laughed.

_______________________________________

The downstairs illuminated from the light from the kitchen, Maggie was baking while the two other woman watched. Silence lulled over the room, Bailey had just announced that all doctors living with others should book a hotel room to protect their families.

“I guess we should talk about Baileys email.” Maggie concluded as she stirred the cake batter. Meredith nodded in agreement, Amelia already anticipated what was going to be asked of her and Link.

“I absolutely hate to ask Amelia, especially since you and Link are handling a newborn in a pandemic no less. I just can’t leave my kids with a nanny, they trust you guys.”

“We totally understand. We’ve talked about this a bit.” Amelia nodded, fiddling with her tea bag.

“This is gonna be the last celebration I have with the kids for the foreseeable future.” Meredith sighed, obviously distraught.

“As much as I hate cooking this could be the last time in awhile where I’m actually making food.” Maggie realized, slowing her stirring to contemplate, all of her meals were going to be take out and the dreaded hospital food.

“We just gotta keep smiling.” Amelia didn’t want the last time in Maggie and Meredith could spend time with the kids, for a sad aura in the air. For the kids sake, but also her own.

“Hey, why do you think Bailey wanted his own cake?” Maggie asked as she separated the batter into two pans.

“Bailey hasn’t always been the best sharer.” Meredith smirked think back to all the fights he’d have with his sisters, making her sad that she’d be missing the chance to remediate many fights with her children. “It’s been what? Two weeks since Scout has come home, and Bailey has already hidden all of his dinosaur toys.”

“He hasn’t been as bad as Ellis though.” Maggie reminded to the incident last night where Scout was wailing and Ellis was sobbing, tightly holding onto her aunts legs as she was occupied with her baby.

“She’s not accustomed to not being the baby of the house.”

“Being the baby of the family is overrated.” Amelia said.

“Cant relate.” Meredith and Maggie said in sync, though they were sisters they had experienced their childhoods as only children.

“Hey, Maggie?” Amelia asked, recalling a question she had where she has never followed up. “Remember when we were in the scan room and you said you were to busy sexting it up with Winston? Who is that?”

“Oh.” Maggie giggled, trying to conceal her blush. “Just some guy.”

“You had sex at a conference with a random guy?” Meredith chuckled in disbelief.

“Not random, he was one of my students back at Tufts. We reconnected and had an amazing time, that’s all. I’m in Seattle and he’s in Boston, and there’s a global pandemic so it’s not going anywhere.”

“That’s what I said about Link.” Amelia sang in a song songy way. “And now we have a baby.”

“It really is nothing.” The youngest dismissed as she placed the cake pans into the oven.

“It’s obviously something.” Amelia said as she lowered herself down onto the couch, her sisters following in tow. Between the pandemic and the newborn the sisters hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“I’ve never fallen in love so quickly with someone.”

“Wow, it took you a long time to even admit you liked Jackson.” Meredith pointed out.

“It’s just different.”

“It’s always different when it’s the right one.” Meredith sighed, Amelia nodded in agreement trying to contain her smile.

“Links the one huh?” Maggie asked.

“He definitely is.” The sisters sat in a content silence, no kids were begging for attention and they blocked out the thoughts of a global pandemic. The timer on the oven the beeped loudly and Maggie jumped up before it could wake any of the sleeping children. As Maggie iced the cakes Meredith turned the news on damping the mood again, nighttime was the only time they could find out what was going on in the world because Zola was too smart for her own good and catch on quickly to the severity of the issue.

“It’s going to be okay.” Amelia concluded, trying her best to obtain her boyfriends optimism.

“It’s going to be okay.” Maggie smiled as she looked at the finished product of her cakes, the one for Bailey and the one for everyone else. “I have to say this is one of my favorite cakes I’ve decorated so far.”

“It’s definitely your best.” Meredith whispered in content, basking in the silence as her sister had turned off the TV. Cries then interrupted the peace, causing Amelia to say her good nights and tend to the crying baby.

“It’s going to be okay.” Maggie whispered to herself as Meredith also made her way upstairs. She placed the cakes into the fridge, and hoped tomorrow would be a happy day for Bailey despite the world being in shambles.

[artificialqueens]

You Rewrote My Ending (ABCD Friendship) - Candy Cane

A/N: so glad i finished this today!! i have two other wips im currently working on, and im so thankful for @chaoticnachokitten for beign a cheerleader and beta for this one!!! thank you!!! you can follow me at @sillylittlecandycane if you so please <3 enoy :3 Summary: After a long week, the four bffs finally get a chance to relax.

Adore has had what feels like the absolute longest week ever. She knows Courtney was struggling too, Bianca’s texts sound grumpier than usual, and Darienne hasn’t been texting enough, which basically confirms for Adore that they all need to get together asap.

The youngest of the four sends the absolutely most pathetic text she can think of to the group chat, then boom! Next thing she knows, Darienne’s inviting everyone over to her place, Courtney is making sure Bianca’s bringing rich lady alcohol, and Adore is calling in their pizza order to be delivered to Darienne’s.

As the two musicians rush around the house gathering their things before the Uber arrives, Adore remembers at the last minute to poke her head into Trixie’s bedroom so at least one of their other roommates knows where they’re going.

“Hey Trix?” Adore says before she’s even looking in, the second she does look though…

Katya and Trixie are shoulder to shoulder in the latter’s bed, laughing their asses off over something on the laptop situated on their laps. Adore doesn’t quite know what she’s seeing, it’s definitely not the first time they’ve acted like this, but it is… different.

“What’s up?” Trixie says, still coming off the high of laughter.

“Courm and I are headed to Darienne’s for the night, I dunno when we’ll be back-”

“Cool, have fun!” Trixie cuts her off a bit too quickly.

Adores glances between her roommates, deciding she’d much rather go get cuddles from her favorite shady elephant than psychoanalyze these two psychos.

“Kay, bye!” Adore grins, slinging her backpack over her shoulder to meet Courtney at the front door.

Courtney looks exhausted, even if her makeup is totally perfect, and Adore is really, really worried for her. Her shoulders are a little too slumped, her hair is just a little too messy, her voice just a little too groggy… Adore hates it. She cannot wait for their night of relaxation to start.

Luckily, she doesn’t have to wait much longer. They get the text from their Uber, rush outside and climb in, then after a bumpy, curvy, wild ride from a seemingly normal driver, the roommates tumble out of the car a little worse for wear, but fine.

Courtney is the one to knock on the door of Darienne’s townhouse that lies at the very edge of the city. Bianca is the one to open it for them, holding a large glass of wine and wearing an expression of fondness and exasperation.

“It took you long enough,” the older woman snorts, “Even the fucking pizza guy beat you two.”

“Our Uber driver was probably insane,” Courtney sighs, accepting Bianca’s hug as she walks into the familiar home.

“Yanks!” Adore shouts before practically launching herself into Bianca’s arms, pressing her face into the crook of her friend’s neck, feeling warm and safe in the embrace.

Bianca runs a hand through Adore’s tangled, dyed-red hair, “Missed you too, bitch.”

Adore throws her head back in free, happy laughter, she’s definitely missed her best friend this week, and it feels so good to be with her again. The singer looks up to see Courtney leaning against Darienne, who looks just as tired as the rest of them. Adore is kind of excited to hear about why everyone’s just had a collectively sucky week or day. Those three are hilarious when ranting while drunk, and she could really use a good time.

Adore grabs Bianca’s hand so that they can go and join Courtney and Darienne in a nice, big group hug. They all hold onto each other tight, a firm reminder that their friendship is unshakable, and that one bad week can’t hurt any one of them.

They pull apart after a few minutes, then Adore looks out into the kitchen curiously.

“So… the pizza’s already here?” she asks cheekily.

“Go get your fucking food, you needy bitch, because once you’re done I’m going after your nasty hair,” Bianca says in her typical motherly way, reaching up to ruffle Adore’s hair.

Darienne rolls her eyes, “Hey, don’t take too much of my good wine either! I’m old, I’ve lived long enough to deserve it.”

Adore laughs out a “Yes, mom!” as she heads over to the kitchen, Courtney right behind her. Despite living in the same apartment, Adore doesn’t really get to see Courtney or talk to her as much as she wishes she could. Their schedules rarely line up, and Courtney has been spending more and more time out of town over the last couple months. Adore doesn’t think she would ever be able to say it out loud, but she’s terrified Courtney is going to move out of town with how much she’s been away lately.

And that would suck for so many fucking reasons! One, she’d have to find a fourth roommate, which, gross, talking to new people. Two, Courtney would be moving out. Three, Courtney wouldn’t even be in the same fucking city anymore! Adore doesn’t know what she’d do without being able to crawl into Courtney’s bed for cuddles at four a.m., or Courtney’s way too peppy early morning attitude. It would just suck.

Head spinning with worry, Adore grabs a couple pieces of the veggie pizza, then pours herself more wine then either of her old lady friends would approve of. Courtney follows behind her, the two lean against the kitchen counter, quietly enjoying each other’s company, eating pizza and sipping on wine.

Adore smiles when she hears Bianca and Darienne’s crazy laughing, and then giggles when the two of them tease each other as they storm into the kitchen.

“You two look pathetic,” Bianca says gruffly, arms crossed over her chest as she stares at them from the other side of the counter, “Let’s go watch Real Housewives or something, I wanna make fun of ugly bitches and I’ve already said all I can about everyone in this room.”

“Fine, but if anyone stains my sofas I’m going to lose my damn mind,” Darienne says, even though she’s already taking Adore and Courtney’s hands to lead them to her couches.

“Impossible, you lost your mind ten years ago,” Bianca retorts, sitting down on the end of the couch.

Darienne doesn’t say anything, but she’s laughing along with everyone else, and it’s really, really fucking good. After everyone’s situated on the couches, Adore curls up on the floor against Bianca’s legs, her cheek resting on her friend’s knees. Bianca absent mindedly runs her fingers through Adore’s matted, messy hair while Courtney and Darienne argue over what to watch.

“Ugh, your hair’s a mess, kid,” Bianca complains, “I can hardly put my fingers through it!”

“I’m too tired to brush it though,” Adore whines.

“Well I told you earlier I’d take care of it for you,” Bianca reminds her, trying not to smile at the way the younger perks up.

“Thank you…” Adore mumbles, her face pressed tight against Bianca’s knee.

Bianca smirks, “You gotta let me up though so I can get a hairbrush.”

“Nooooooo!”

“Then I can’t fix your hair, you lazy mermaid.”

“…Courtney?” Adore asks hopefully.

“I’m not getting up,” the Aussie says, snuggling further into the soft cushions of Darienne’s couch, her cheek resting on said friend’s shoulder.

“Count me out too,” Darienne says, her tiredness from the week extra heavy in her voice.

Adore groans and rolls off of Bianca’s legs, her back resting against the couch so that Bianca can get up. Bianca pats the top of Adore’s head before she gets up, and Adore’s eyes drift to the TV, which is playing some over dramatic reality show. It’s perfect for this kind of night.

Before she even has time to miss her Willow too much, Bianca is back and tugging the younger in between her legs so that she has a good angle to take care of the rats’ nest Adore is currently calling her hair. Darienne and Bianca start a back and forth banter over the craziness happening on screen, while Courtney intermittently interjects and Adore laughs along with her friends, immensely enjoying the gentleness of Bianca’s fingers and the methodic, soothing motions of the brush.

No one is sure when, but Adore quickly starts dozing off against Bianca’s legs, and only moves when Bianca tugs her up onto the couch. Adore winds up with her head in Bianca’s lap, and her long legs sprawled across Courtney’s and Darienne’s. They tease her a little at first, loving and good natured, but are quick to give it up once they realize she really is falling asleep in B’s lap.

“Poor kid is just completely worn out,” Bianca mutters as she works on an extra difficult knot.

Darienne sighs, “Yeah, one of those weeks for us all…”  

“This was the first full week I’ve been home in months. I’m really glad to be back, but I think it’s just made me realize how tired I am from travelling,” Courtney admits.

Darienne squeezes her hand sympathetically, “Don’t overwork yourself, that’s how you turn out to be a bitter old bitch like Bianca and I.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Bianca chortles, brushing Adore’s hair gently, “I was two times worse than you are, ya know, and I didn’t really have anyone around me telling me to calm down. So take the advice now, and maybe a vacation while you’re at it.”

Courtney smiles fondly at Bianca, and leans over a conked out Adore to give her a one-armed hug, “You are much more of a sweetheart than you want anyone to know.”  

“You don’t gotta rub it in my face,” Bianca says with an eye roll.

“Oh no, we will be holding this over your head for the rest of time,” Darienne teases.

“You’re one to talk,” Courtney smirks, “And I’d say it’s less of a secret with you.”

Darienne feigns a scandalized expression, reaching up to grasp at her heart, “Courtney! How could you?” Courtney’s shoulders shake with laughter, causing her to accidentally jostle Adore, which in turn makes the youngest of the four groggily protest being woken.

“What the hell…?” Adore whines, her cheek squished against Bianca making her words almost unintelligible. Bianca pets through Adore’s hair to soothe her back to sleep while whispering to her, pointedly ignoring the looks from the other two ladies as she does so.

“She has you wrapped around her little finger,” Courtney says, nothing but awe and amusement in her voice.

“As long as she doesn’t figure it out I’ll be fine,” Bianca jokes, not denying it.

“From that first day at that damn club…” Darienne says, reminiscing already.

“I’m not drunk enough for this,” Bianca complains, wrinkling her nose, still detangling Adore’s hair even though it’s almost perfectly smooth now.

Courtney grins mischievously, “Remember how much you couldn’t stand me? Or Adore? I think Darienne you liked from the start, but that’s because she’s just your type of person.”

The older woman rolls her eyes fondly, “Yeah, I remember. You two were so fucking annoying, and if it hadn’t been for Darienne being the most tolerable bitch in the building I probably would’ve strangled someone.”

“That sounds about right,” Adore mumbles sleepily. The other three chuckle and Bianca brushes back Adore’s hair from her face.

“I remember hating all three of you immediately,” Darienne jokes, the others laughing along with her, “I only like people with good taste in makeup.”

Courtney gasps in faux offence, Adore sniggers into Bianca’s lap, and Bianca continues the banter, “What does it mean now that we’re your best friends?”

“That there’s still hope for you guys yet.”

Courtney nearly falls into Darienne’s lap from laughing so hard. Maybe they’re all over-doing it on the wine, but they’re having too much fun to consider slowing down. Courtney hasn’t felt so relaxed and happy in weeks, and she can’t help but to regret not calling Bianca sooner.

She sighs and curls closer into Darienne, “So what happened with you this week?”

Darienne hums boredly, “Just my boss being shitty, but what’s new? Oh, and that guy I met on Facebook turned out to be completely worthless.”

“It’s not your fault the people around you are awful,” Courtney says sympathetically, “You deserve better than anyone like them.”

“You know what? I do,” Darienne agress confidently.

“I’ll beat them up for you,” Adore offers, lifting her head up just enough to be heard.

“Now that’s a fight I’d like to see,” Bianca grins.

“I’ll send you addresses next week,” Darienne says, patting Adore’s calf, which is still sprawled across her lap.

“I love you, Darienne,” Adore sing-songs loudly.

“Bitch, stop moving so much I’m trying to fix your hair,” Bianca complains.

“I love you, too, Bia!”

Courtney rubs Adore’s back softly, “Awww, what about me?”

Adore quickly sits up, causing Bianca to grumble in surprise, and turns herself so she’s nose to nose with Courtney, “Courm, I love you so fucking much and I don’t know where I’d be without you so please, please don’t move out because I can’t function when you’re not around-”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down,” Courtney frowns, placing her hands on Adore’s shoulders to steady the younger girl, “Move out? What are you talking about?”

Adore’s eyes water, and she swallows hard, “I know you’re planning on moving out because you’re always out of town, and you’ve been getting a lot of mail from this one company, and I just… Please don’t go, Courtney.”

Courtney throws her arms around Adore’s neck and pulls her in for a tight, loving hug, “I’m not going anywhere, Adore. I promise. I’m sorry that it looks like I may be planning on moving out, but I swear I’m not.”

“Thank God,” Adore mumbles, snuggling closer to Courtney.

Bianca rolls her eyes, but they all know she really does find it sweet, “Alright, now that the mushy shit is sorted, Adore can you get your fucking knee off of my appendix?”

Adore rolls herself off the couch and onto the floor with a yelp, “I’m okay!”

Courtney giggles, “Bianca, appendixes are so old-fashioned. If you want I can recommend you a surgeon to get rid of that.”

“Of course you can, you cunt,” Bianca says, playfully slapping Courtney’s arm.

Adore looks up at her three very best friends. She wouldn’t trade them for the whole world, not ever. They’re too perfect, too perfect for someone like her, but somehow they’re still hers. So she’ll take what she can get, and accept it for what it is.

She loves them, and she knows they love her too. 

[inkedstarlight]

Bittersweet: Chapter Nine

Summary: Cassian and Nesta finally meet. Officially, this time. Let the romance commence. Notes: Read it here on AO3! Warnings: very brief/non-explicit mention of sexual assault Bittersweet Masterlist

“Earth to Nesta?”

Nesta snapped from her trance to see Emerie waving a hand in front of her face.

“You’ve been cleaning the same spot for a good ten minutes,” Emerie gestured to where Nesta was scrubbing the counter with a towel. It was squeaky clean.

Nesta let go of the towel and cleared her throat. “My bad.”

Emerie pulled out the chair on the other side of the counter and sat down. It was eleven in the evening on a Monday, and they had just closed. The only other person in Rita’s was Lucien, and he was doing dishes in the back.

“You’ve been acting weird for the past two weeks,” Emerie stated blatantly. Her stare was unwavering. “And you’ve lost at least ten pounds.”

The incidence with Tomas happened two weeks ago. Nesta was doing a pretty good job of moving on with her life all things considered. She felt like shit, but she hadn’t missed a single shift at work. That had to count for something.

But she should’ve known Emerie would notice. She was like a fucking hawk, that girl. She saw everything.

When Nesta didn’t say anything, Emerie shrugged and got up from the stool. “At least try a little harder,” she said, referring to the coworkers’ challenge to get the most tips. She shot Nesta a sad look. “Thesan is beating you. Thesan.”

Nesta mustered a laugh. Thesan wasn’t great with customers, that was common knowledge. Neither Emerie nor Nesta were people persons, but they knew how to turn it on for customers. Thesan, on the other hand, didn’t make much of an effort. It wasn’t that he was intentionally rude, the guy was just quiet in nature. In fact, he was quite a sweetheart.

Which was why it was quite entertaining to watch Thesan and Helion interact. Where Thesan was an introvert, Helion was loud as hell. Not to mention it was clear that Thesan was crushing on him. But unfortunately, Helion flirted with every living, breathing thing and was thus completely oblivious. During Nesta’s first week at Rita’s, Emerie had spilled all the tea about their coworkers. Thesan was head over heels in love with Helion, Helion had never been in a monogamous relationship, and Viviane… well, Viviane had her own little love story. A complicated one at that.

His name was Kallias. They grew up together, from scheming little kids to rebellious teenagers to young adults. Best friends since they could remember.

Because Emerie grew up in the same small town as them, she knew everything. They all went to school together. She knew that Kallias had been in love with Viviane since freshman year of high school. She knew that Viviane felt the same way, but she would never admit it thanks to the hell she was put through during her childhood. Nesta didn’t know the specifics, and she never asked.

It also didn’t help that Viviane was in a relationship with someone else. They’d been together for almost two years. Emerie thought Viviane deserved better, that he wasn’t a very good person.

Anyway, Kallias visited Rita’s nearly every weekend after his shift at the fire station to grab a drink and more importantly, see Viviane.

Nesta thought it was ridiculous. She’d told Emerie as much when she’d brought Nesta up to date on their coworkers’ lives. Why wouldn’t they just admit they loved each other and get on with it already? It was pretty fucking simple; they were just making it complicated for themselves. Emerie wholeheartedly agreed and the pair then went on an hour long rant on the idiocy of romantic relationships.

And if she was being honest, Nesta didn’t care much about these people. Sure, they were respectable but they were a temporary fixture in her life. Once she secured a job in her career field, she was going to leave them all behind.

“We should get a drink sometime. Outside of work,” Emerie clarified with a look of disgust. “I’m sick of it here.”

Nesta knew that was a lie based on the relationship Emerie had with Rita and her wife. But she didn’t say that.

“Maybe,” Nesta responded distractedly, desperate to think of an excuse. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Emerie; no, Nesta liked her coworker. She just couldn’t muster the energy to go out with friends or socialize like that. “I’m pretty busy right now though.”

Emerie narrowed her eyes and scrutinized her.

“Stop analyzing me.”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

Emerie sighed and receded. She hesitated before saying quietly, “Is… is this the part when I ask if you’re okay and we get all deep and explore a new level of our friendship?”

Nesta slowly met her friend’s gaze. They stared at one another for several moments.

Then, they burst out laughing.

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

The next morning, Nesta was brewing her third cup of coffee when Elain padded into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Elain yawned as a greeting. She wore bunny slippers and an oversized hoodie. Elain only had one evening class on Tuesdays, so today was her only day - save for the weekend - to sleep in.

“Hey, kiddo.”

“How long have you been up?”

Nesta glanced at the clock. It was nine-thirty. She’d woken up at six after a sleepless night of tossing and turning.

But she simply shrugged instead. “Not long.”

Nesta poured the coffee into her mug, sitting back down at the counter. She watched as Elain bustled around the kitchen, scrambling eggs and slicing fruit. The morning light spilled through the dusty kitchen sink window, bars of sunshine reflecting off the tiled floors. Iroh basked in the sunspots, his black fur glistening as his chartreuse eyes blinked closed.

Elain and Nesta hadn’t spent much time together in the past couple weeks. It was Nesta’s doing, of course. She was actively avoiding her sister and everyone else. After Elain had tried to talk to Nesta after the whole thing with Tomas, she stopped asking Nesta if she was okay. Nesta assumed that Elain realized she wasn’t going to get an answer, that there wasn't really a point in trying.

But Gods, Nesta fucking missed her. And even though she wanted nothing more than to retreat to her bedroom as she sat there in the kitchen, she didn’t move from the chair.

You need them as much as they need you, her father’s voice echoed in her head.

Guilt stabbed at her chest.

“How’re classes going?” Nesta asked quietly. Elain looked at her over her shoulder with a surprised yet pleasant smile.

“Great! I’m so grateful to be at such a great college, but…” Elain bit her lip, hesitating. “My bio lab is going to be the death of me."

“You know you’re allowed to complain, right?”

Elain just gave her a smile. “Yeah, I know. It's just, considering where I was a year ago, I couldn't be happier to finally be enrolled in such a prestigious program. Even if that means the classes are brutal."

I wish I was like you. I take everything for granted.

“And have you made any friends?”

Elain had started school at Pryth U months ago and yet Nesta had no idea if she even had friends yet.

Selfish bitch.

A fond smile broke out on Elain’s face. “Yes, I have this really great group of friends: Lucien, Ressina, and Varian. It's just the four of us, but we've gotten really close.”

Nesta asked Elain more questions before excusing herself back to her room, claiming she was going to try to write today, to which Elain squealed and wished her luck.

Nesta hadn't written since their dad died. Prior to his death, she would write nearly every day. She'd been working on a novel for years. The plot had came to her in middle school, and it just grew from there. She'd never told anyone about it. Everyone knows how fucking hard it is to get your writing published, much less get high ratings. Nesta wasn't even sure if she was going to finish it. This was the longest she'd gone without writing or editing it. And she had a feeling that she wouldn't ever go back to it.

Dread filled her stomach as she thought of that prospect. What the fuck was she doing with her life?

Nesta’s phone buzzed, and she fished it out of her back pocket.

 Incoming call from Feyre Archeron.

It kept buzzing, Nesta merely stared at her sister's name on her screen. She couldn't think of a single reason why Feyre would be calling. But she pressed "Accept" before it could go to voicemail.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

Silence.

“Uh, what’s up?” Nesta asked. She collapsed onto her unmade bed. Iroh scampered past the door and jumped on the bed with her. He didn't waste a minute curling himself around her head.

"I was calling to see… maybe, I don’t know… uh, would you want to come to dinner tonight?”

I was not expecting that. And Nesta was about 95% sure this was Elain’s doing.

“Why?”

“I want you there," Feyre told her as if it were obvious.

“Why?” Nesta asked again. She hadn't seen Feyre since Thanksgiving despite her sister living just on the outskirts of the city.

That had been weeks ago.

“It's complicated," Feyre responded quietly. She seemed to pause before finding the words. "I've been so worried about Cassian, we all have. He'd never been deployed for that long - five months. It was scary. I guess I took that out on you. I don't know why..."

She drifted off. Nesta held her breath.

"I'm sure Elain told you, but he's home now. I've been more myself since he returned, and I want you to come to dinner. I… miss you.”

She rubbed her temple. “I don’t know, Feyre.”

I don't know if I can pretend to be okay for an entire night. I don't know if you even fucking want me there or if you just feel obligated. I don't know if I can be in the same room as your douchebag boyfriend. I don't know if I can be surrounded by your friends, most of whom seem to dislike me. I don't know if I can behave like a normal fucking person.

I don't know.

“Please?” The plea was soft, quiet. It was like she was almost desperate. But for what?

Nesta looked out the window where a blue jay - their dad's favorite bird - was perched on a bare tree branch. The leaves had long ago fallen, leaving the world naked and vulnerable. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

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

Feyre embraced her with an awkward hug when Nesta and Elain walked into the house. Nesta patted her on the back lightly, uncomfortable with the physical touch. Luckily, no one else seemed incline to embrace her. Rhys actually seemed to make sure he was as far away as possible.

Elain, on the other hand, gave everyone a hug. Mor gave a laugh as she squeezed Elain back, Aurra watching them with a smile. Interestingly enough, when Elain greeted Azriel with a hug, his tanned cheeks glowed red. It was almost imperceptible, but Nesta noticed.

Feyre took a step back to assess her. Nesta could see the judgement in her sister's eyes as she took in Nesta's noticeably thinner body. Luckily, however, she wasn't given the chance to comment on it when Elain piped up, "Where's Cassian? Nesta still hasn't met him yet."

"He's running a bit late," Rhys answered, glancing down at his phone. "Should be here in about ten minutes."

Everyone began to make their way into the dining room and Nesta followed. However, she was quickly tugged to the side when Amren swooped in out of nowhere and basically dragged Nesta into the privacy of the hallway. She stopped, crossed her arms over her chest, and glared at Nesta.

“Where have you been?” Amren demanded.

"What do you mean?" Nesta asked, playing dumb.

She hadn't spoken to Amren in a long time, even though they had each others' numbers. Even though Amren had repeatedly texted her, asking to get coffee or go for a walk or something else of the sorts. All of which went unanswered.

Amren rolled her eyes, and Nesta was convinced they went to the back of her head for a good minute. "Don't play dumb with me, Nesta."

“I don’t know, working?"

"Is that a question?" Amren rose a deadly brow.

Nesta huffed and mirrored Amren's angry stance. "Why are you interrogating me?"

“Because you've been radio silent for weeks. I had to ask Elain if you were still fucking alive," Amren explained. Then, she leaned in close like she didn't want anyone to hear. "I was worried about you, you bitch."

Nesta let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, okay? I've been busy. I do want to hang out, it's just that..." she trailed off.

"What? It's just that what?"

Nesta stared at the floor, unable to form words.

"Nesta, are you okay?" Amren asked, her voice softer.

Just tell her. Fucking tell her.

I was almost raped.

Just the thought was enough to make Nesta want to puke. She couldn't, it was too much and she wouldn't even be able to fucking say it and it's her fault, all her fault.

She breathed in through her nose and looked back up at Amren. She shot her the most fake smile she'd ever given. "I'm good. Seriously, I just got busy. It won't happen again."

Nesta saw the skepticism in Amren's eyes. But she conceded with a small sigh. "Well, don't do it again, okay? I seriously thought you were fucking murdered or some shit."

Nesta just nodded. Amren looked at her once more before gesturing with her chin back to the dining room. Nesta followed her.

When they rounded the corner, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Because sitting next to Feyre was the man who had tried to break into her apartment.

“Nesta!" Feyre exclaimed, calling her over from where she sat. "This is Cassian. Cassian, this is my sister, Nesta.”

Nesta simply stared at him like a deer in headlights and he stared at her, his lips parted in surprise. He was wearing a grey sweater, his long hair hanging down, no longer in a bun like it was the last time. He tucked it behind one ear.

"Are you stalking me or something?" Nesta said incredulously.

"I could ask you the same," Cassian retorted cheekily.

Feyre looked between them, a confused expression written on her face. "Do you guys know each other or something?"

"Something like that," Nesta mumbled.

Everyone's eyes were on them as they waited for an answer.

"Well as everyone knows, I live in the same building as Nesta and Elain," Cassian explained, waving a hand to the two sisters. "The other night, I got stupid drunk with a friend. He drove me back to my place and me, drunk off my fucking ass, tried to get into their apartment thinking it was mine."

The entire room erupted into laughter, Rhys choking on his food and Azriel looking up as if reasoning with the Gods.

"So when Nesta opened the door," Cassian continued, "she nearly beat me to death with a baseball bat."

Another round of laughter.

"Overreact much?"

Everyone's eyes flew to where Nesta sat. They seemed shocked. Nesta was too.

She didn't know why she said it, why she let it bother her. He was just so fucking frustrating, even his mere presence.

Cassian stuck his tongue out at her.

Feyre interrupted, her jaw agape. "You guys are acting like children."

Nesta got quiet after that. The conversation continued, thankfully taking the attention off her. As everyone laughed and conversed, Cassian looked over at her. His smile disappeared when he met Nesta's gaze. She just stared back at him, lips in a thin line. He seemed to try to gauge her reaction carefully, but her face was blank.

And so the night went on. Nesta didn't say another word after what happened. She avoided eye contact with Cassian. Avoided conversation with everyone.

It was half past eight when they all began clearing their dishes. Mor, Aurra, Azriel, and Cassian were all gathered in the kitchen cleaning up. Feyre and Rhys had excused themselves. It was just Nesta and Elain who remained in the dining room.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” Nesta leaned over to whisper to Elain.

Elain nodded. "We'll head out right after, yeah?" She must've noticed the exhaustion in Nesta's face.

Nesta agreed, excusing herself from the table.

She walked down the hallway, peeking through every door to find the bathroom. She was about to push through a door on the left that was slightly cracked open when she heard voices coming from within.

“I’m worried about him. He’s not the same.” It was Feyre.

“He never is when he comes home, Feyre," Rhys said dejectedly. "It’s happened before. Cass just needs time.”

Cass.

Nesta tiptoed closer to the door, just enough for her to listen.

“No, what he needs is to see someone!”

“I’ve tried. He doesn’t want to go.”

“Try harder, Rhys!” Feyre cried, her tone frustrated.

“We can’t just force him to go, okay?”

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Do you even notice how lost your own fucking brother is? Do you even care?!”

Silence.

“Rhysand, I’m sorry. Gods, I’m so sorry. I know you care. More than anyone. I just… I don’t want to lose him.”

She heard them both breathing deeply.

“C’mere,” Rhys murmured. Nesta heard Feyre's footsteps as she presumably walked toward him.

“We’ll figure it out, okay?”

“Together.”

“Always, Feyre darling.”

They got quiet, probably embracing each other. Nesta crept away from their bedroom door and into the bathroom before they could find her.

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

Elain and Nesta had just unlocked their apartment door when Nesta groaned. “Oh, shit, I forgot my wallet in the car." She fished around in her bag to make sure it wasn't in there. "I’ll be right back.”

"I'll leave the door unlocked," Elain called behind her as Nesta made her way to the elevator.

She stepped between the doors, hitting the button for the parking garage. Gods, she just wanted to go to sleep. The night had been exhausting.

After a minute or so, she was approaching her car. She unlocked her door and grabbed her wallet that was in the middle console when a pair of headlights flashed past her, a car pulling into the spot next to her.

Before panic could set in, Nesta recognized who was driver the car through the window.

Cassian.

His car turned off and he emerged from the driver's door just a moment later. He looked over where Nesta was clutching her wallet to her chest staring at him. He gave her a tight-lipped smile before turning away and walking towards the elevator. Nesta had no choice to follow.

She walked just a few feet behind him as they made their way to the elevator.

"I'm sorry," Cassian told her, his voice sincere. He cast a concerned glance her way. "For embarrassing you at dinner. And if I scared you that night."

"You didn't embarrass me," Nesta snapped at him. "You were just being annoying as hell."

His entire body seemed to relax at her insult. Cassian tried to hide his smirk but failed. "I'm glad to see you're still your normal, hotheaded self. You got me worried at dinner with your stoic behavior."

Now she really glared at him. "Don't talk like you know me. You don't."

"Oh, sweetheart," he teased. "I think we're more similar than you think."

She scoffed. "I think that hubris of yours will be your downfall."

"You know, it's quite sexy when you use literary devices to insult me," he joked.

Nesta froze.

Was he coming onto her? Chills ran down her spine when she thought of the last time a man expressed interest in her.

It's not the same, she tried to convince yourself. He's not Tomas.

Cassian must've expected a heated response to his comment because he looked surprised when Nesta simply stared straight ahead. She seemed to be in a world of her own, oblivious to everything around her. Any trace of anger was gone, replaced by a cool indifference.

Cassian's face fell. "Nesta, I didn't mean to - "

He was cut off as the elevator door dinged opened and Nesta swiftly walked out.

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

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[927roses-and-stuff]

Miracles in Gotham Chapter 5: Tales of the Misguided Serpent

I really am sorry it's taking more than five chapters for them to actually get to Gotham, by the way. I know most fics will usually have them there by the first chapter. I just like having a lot of build up for the plot and future subplots, so please bear with me!TW: Explicit minor character death and violence in war. Mentions of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and self-harm. 

Hey guys! Thank you so much for reading this story and (hopefully) enjoying it so far! I realize I don’t say it enough, but I truly appreciate everyone who took the time to read this fic, and knowing that there are people who enjoy it are part of my inspiration to write more. As always, an extra thank you to @ozmav for the AU, and @mystery-5-5 for helping me through the writing process (and dealing with my rants).

There will be mentions and allusions to real life events and locations associated with World War II. I don’t mean any disrespect, and any character mentioned and associated within the story is purely fictional. This is not meant to be an accurate depiction of WWII or war in general, nor is it meant to be a mockery of what actually happened. There will also be brief mentions of PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms and self-harm. These are all based on research from sources that my therapist has given me (i.e. Centre for Clinical Interventions) and my own personal experiences. 

Lastly, Alfred is in his mid-teens here (because he would fake his age to get into the army) and he isn’t the all wise and knowing Alfred Pennyworth we know and love just yet. And we all know how Master Fu loves giving Miraculous to unqualified, unprepared owners XD. 

P.S. Not me making Sass oblivious to human stuff because I don’t know a lot of war stuff. 

If you want to see more, follow: #miraclesingotham or ask to be added to the tag list.

Tag list: : @northernbluetongue @zerotosiki @spicybelladonna @my-name-is-michell @legendaryneckjudgestudent @lokiifriggasonn

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“Tell me everything you know about this Alfred Pennyworth and your time with him, Sass. I need to know if he can help before considering everything.” 

The snake kwami merely nodded. “Of course, my Guardian.”

“Alfred Pennyworth was one of the best snakelets I have ever known, even if in the end, he did not believe so. If given the time, perhaps, he could have mastered the Snake Miraculous in all of its power, despite his young age. I think he would’ve been only a year or two older than yourself...” 

August 1943, Northwest Europe

“Alfred Pennyworth, I am Sass, kwami of the Snake Miraculous, of Intuition. I will grant you the powers of Second Chance, so long as you promise to use your powers for good.” 

The snake kwami held out his hands gracefully as he finished introducing himself to his new owner. The current Guardian had told him of his duties before he was handed to the young man in front of  him. In times of war, a little intuition could go a long way. 

As Alfred continued to remain unresponsive, Sass began to worry. Alfred Pennyworth was a young man with sharp eyebrows and dark, piercing eyes dressed in a camouflage dark-green military uniform complete with the green beret covering his scalp . Sass noticed the tiny tremors of his shoulders and his tightly pressed lips,  although it would be unnoticeable to the untrained eye. They were in a dimly lit room, although it was strangely quiet for times of war, as the Guardian had relayed to him. 

It had been perhaps the strangest experience that Sass had encountered with a human, although he didn’t have that many to rely on. The young man continued to stare at Sass, and in all his infinite patience, Sass floated in place, and entered a meditative pose above the box he had just come out of.  From the little he knew of humans, they were often slow, narrow-minded creatures who needed more patience than most kwamis were willing to give. 

However, despite the strangeness of it all, Sass felt a warm kinship with the still man in front of him. 

Sass was unsure of how long it had taken for Alfred to be shaken out of his stupor, but he soon closed the box carefully and addressed him. 

“Hello. You’re the friend Mr. Fu told me of?” He asked hesitantly. 

“Yesss,” Sass nodded. “Master Fu is the current Guardian of the Miraculous. You must be someone special for him to entrust you with me, and me with you.” 

Alfred nodded slightly. “Yes, he mentioned that you would help me in my times of need.” 

“That is correct.” 

Sass watched as the young man bit his lip in thought and lightly traced over the marks on the box. “Sass, was it?” 

“Yesss.” 

“...I am Alfred Pennyworth.” 

“I am aware.” 

He looked up from the box and lightly cupped Sass in his hands. Alfred’s eyes squinted at him, his eyes roaming over his tiny form suspiciously. Sass stayed still for him, not feeling uncomfortable at the human’s scrutiny. Humans were suspicious of the unknown, Sass decided. They were wary even when there was evidence to say otherwise. 

When Alfred seemed satisfied, he spoke again. “Why would Mr. Fu give me a tiny snake?” 

Sass frowned. “I may be tiny, human, but I am powerful. With the bracelet you hold in that box, you will be able to turn back time for an unlimited amount of times within an allotted 5 minutes after the first reset. With my help, you are able to directly change events around you as they happen, for as much as you wish.” 

The young man’s eyes widened and gulped; Sass was unable to determine if it was out of terror or fascination. 

“Why would he entrust me with such a power?” 

“The Guardian’s mind works in mysterious ways. Perhaps, he wanted to give you a chance to see in yourself, what he saw in you.” 

His breath hitched, and he gulped again. “And what if I don’t like what I see?” 

Sass floated upwards to meet Alfred’s eyes. Yellow eyes met dark brown as he spoke. “That will all depend on you.” 

For the next few months, Sass watched as Alfred Pennyworth trained with his fellow soldiers as part of the Achnacarry in Scotland and eventually recruited to the No. 47 (Royal Marine) Commando based in Dorchester once the new year came. It had been the longest that Sass had interacted with any of his holders. He took to hiding in the pockets of Alfred’s uniform, although he often wished he had another place to hide when Alfred and the other humans were training with ringing, deafening gunshots,  the thundering footsteps of a hundred men caused tremors within the soil, and the hoarse shouts and screams of soldiers in a stimulated battlefield. When the soldiers were off-duty, Sass liked the chatter as Alfred and the others conversed with one another, their different tones whether morose or jovial, since it helped him drift off to sleep in Alfred’s warm pocket. 

In what little downtime that they had, Alfred liked to ask Sass questions about the Miraculous, what they did, their purpose in the world, the limits of his own Miraculous, and always, why he was chosen to bear such a great responsibility. Sass always told him what he could (although being inactive for so long left him little knowledge of other holders), and always repeated what he had told Alfred the first day they met. Sass liked being with Alfred. He was intelligent, curious, logical, and sensitive to information. Despite the grim circumstances that surrounded their partnership, he was glad that Master Fu had chosen Alfred Pennyworth.

It had been nearly a year since Sass and Alfred met when the No. 47 Commando received their first operation on June 6, 1944. Alfred often told him stories at night of his family, his home, and his surroundings. The night before as they were preparing for battle, Alfred had shared his worries with his fellow soldiers and Sass. It would be the first time they would be in a real battle, outside of Achnacarry or Dorchester. As the Commando arrived at the battlefield the day after, all the soldiers were crammed onto a ship. It had only taken a few hours to arrive at the outskirts of where they needed to be. Only a few miles from the shore, and already the sounds of battle rang throughout the ships, and the soldiers prepared to join in. Some would join as soon as the ship hit shore while others would stay behind to make sure that their ship didn’t sink and attack the opposing army from the water. Alfred was one of the soldiers that would be fighting the moment they hit shore, so he made sure to find an empty space to transform. Sass found himself and Alfred cramped near the ship’s engine, where Alfred was already fiddling with the Snake Miraculous. 

“I won’t look like a circus act when I transform, will I, Sass?” 

Sass shook his head. “No. Make sure to imagine yourself as you are, and the Miraculous will conform to your desires. You might find that your clothes will feel scaly as a side effect. Either way, your clothes will protect you from most impacts, although I’m not sure about bullets.” 

Alfred smiled. “I see. Will I be able to talk to you when I’m transformed?” 

“No.”  Alfred’s eyes widened. “Fear not. I will still be with you, as a part of you, but we will not be able to interact as we are now nor will I be conscious when you are transformed.”

Alfred took a shaky breath. “Alright. Thank you, Sass. Anything else I need to know?” 

“Use it wisely. Seeing that many possibilities will take a toll on you. You will most likely witness one moment in time in different ways. Others may not remember the other timelines, but you will. Do not forget that.” 

Alfred gave a curt nod. “This is it, then?” 

“Yessss, I wish you luck, Alfred.” 

“As do I,” he chuckled. “Sass, scales slither.” 

As Alfred called out the last words, Sass faded into unconsciousness. He had faith in Alfred, and hoped he would work well with the Snake. 

______________________________________________________________________________

When Alfred de-transformed, Sass noticed the light in his eyes and the way he clutched tightly onto two soldiers a few years older than him. The battle was over for now, Sass mused, so Alfred must be relieved that he was safe and alive. Later in the safety of his barrack, Alfred recounted the battle in hushed whispers, how many times he went back to save just one more life (“To think, who might’ve remained dead if you were not with me,” he said, rubbing Sass’ head affectionately with his finger), or to take one more shot he missed the first time. Sass asked him the precise number of times that he went back in time during those allotted 5 minutes that he had used “Second Chance.” Sass asked him who he had saved, how, and whose lives were lost in return. Alfred answers both questions enthusiastically with a significant amount of detail, that Sass allowed himself to feel content. Alfred had saved lives, had done his part for his country.

Sass was proud of his snakelet. 

As time went on, battles were waged and the war raged on all over Europe. Sass didn’t understand human battles, but he made sure to stay by Alfred’s side for all of it. 

It was about half a year in that Sass noticed the changes that Alfred is going through. Like every soldier, he is marred with scars, had a more gaunt, more sickly frame that came from eating smaller rations and sleeping less, and dark circles under his eyes that emphasized how haunted he was. Yet, Sass noticed that Alfred was overextending himself. In every offense, Alfred volunteered to be in the frontlines. In every battle, he took the time to transform, which meant Sass was also often exhausted after every battle and struggled to eat the already miniscule portions Alfred spared from his rations. After every battle, Alfred was jumpy, going from soldier to soldier and striking up conversation whenever he could, visiting the infirmary and muttering apologies to the wounded soldiers. It took Sass a while to realize that the former had been people he had saved, and the latter were the people that he couldn’t or those that he almost hadn’t.

Nights were always the worst. In the daytime with the rush and hustle of war battles, there was not a lot of time for Alfred to do anything but act and fight, especially when he transformed with Sass. But at night, when there was a semblance of silence in his own corner of the barracks, Sass comforted Alfred through the tears, the nightmares, the bloodshed, and other horrors he witnessed. When Sass couldn’t comfort him, Alfred retreated to the arms of Leo Dupain, a soldier a few years older who knew of Alfred’s real age, and the person who Alfred recounted saving the most during his resets. He had sandy brown hair, olive green eyes, a square-like jaw with a hooked nose that looked like it had been broken at least once. Sass listened to their hushed promises of returning to the motherland and settling down somewhere in the countryside far away from the influences of war and its politics. Sass watched as both Alfred and Leo drifted to sleep, holding each other like they were each other’s only anchor to the physical realm. Sass watched as Alfred woke a half hour before the crack of dawn to visit the infirmary before beginning his training, never looking back. Each time, Sass noticed that Leo searched for warmth that had previously been there.

Sass knew that witnessing all of Time’s possibilities was a heavy burden for anyone, much less a child. Alfred related to him about comrades who had died from gunshots, from being trampled on, or thrown overboard. If not them, it was the patients in the infirmary, the ones who had fallen trap to insanity or those who had lost a part of their physical bodies forever. Alfred was inconsolable. By December of 1944, Alfred had anxiety, insomnia, and an unhealthy attachment to the Snake Miraculous.

During that time, Sass tried to teach Alfred how to be more responsible with the Snake’s power, how to use each return more efficiently, and especially, how Alfred didn’t need to use the Miraculous for every injury that his comrades endured. Sass had relayed stories of other Miraculous heros: Heracles, Hippolyta, Joan of Arc, others unrecorded in history who had struggled to learn the same lesson: that Alfred was not a god and he couldn’t save everyone. 

But war was brutal and without mercy, especially to those with kind hearts.

Everything came to a head when Alfred failed to save Leo Dupain before he could reset. Sass was thrown onto the ground as the transformation wore off, gunshots blazing in the background as Alfred’s screams pierced his tiny ears. Sass slowly shuffled to Alfred’s side, and climbed into a nearby pocket.

“Leo, Leo!” Alfred cried, grabbing the heavy body of Leo Dupain, whose leg had been blown off by a nearby explosive. Blood spilled forth from the wound, and Leo breathed in shallow gasps, as his body became limp. Alfred was soon covered in his blood and from the dust and dirt around them. Frantically, he tried to find spare cloth but was futile in his efforts. Sass could feel the tremors from Alfred’s body as he held onto Leo Dupain like a lifeline. Other soldiers had heard his cries and clambered to them, grabbing Alfred forcefully out of Leo’s arms and into safety,

“He needs me! Stop! I need to save him!”

“Leg’s been blasted off, can’t do much for ‘im now but fight,” a soldier- Gabriel Ackles- muttered. He had been one of the soldiers Alfred saved a week earlier from a headshot.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Alfred ranted hysterically. “I was supposed to save him; he wasn’t supposed to get hurt. He’s going to die…”

SLAP

Alfred stood stunned as Gabriel stood before him, red-faced and fuming.

“We are in battle, soldier! Get it together! You wanna help Dupain, Pennyworth?!” Gabriel didn’t wait for an answer before shoving a long gun of sorts into Alred’s hands. “You go out there and drag every Nazi motherfucker to hell or die trying! You got it, soldier?!” 

Sass watched as Alfred’s eyes dimmed into a stormy grey and stared at the gun in his hands. A second passed and with trembling hands, Alfred was marching back onto the battlefield, gun ablaze. Sass tried hard as he could to use whatever remaining energy he had to protect Alfred, but the amount of resets during Alfred’s transformation had exhausted him and he fell unconscious to the sounds of war.

When Sass regained consciousness, it was to Master Fu’s face. A chill ran down his spine as he fluttered around frantically searching for Alfred. They were in an empty room that only had a few books, two futons and the Miracle Box. There were two double doors that separated their room from the outside world and another, smaller door that led to the rest of the building. 

Where were they? Why was he here? More importantly, where was Alfred?

“Do not bother, Sass,” Master Fu said in a tone more morose than he had ever heard. “Mr. Pennyworth has returned you to me. It has been several months since you were inactive.”

Sass deflated and floated down to the ground beneath him. “Where is he now, Master?”

“I am unsure.” Master Fu looked out of the large double doors. “I am afraid that I have placed too many expectations on young Alfred. When he helped us escape London, I had given you to him as a token of gratitude and friendship.”

“Master?”

Master Fu sighed and turned back to look at Sass with teary eyes. “I could not have foreseen that I had cursed more than blessed him, Sass. He had refused to give you back at first, and it was only yesterday, a month since I last saw him, that you had returned to us.”

Sass couldn’t speak. He had really liked Alfred Pennyworth. He was a good man- one of the best. But, even he couldn’t deny the madness he had endured during his time as one of his snakelets. If kwami had hearts, Sass knew it would be obliterated by the news.

“I see, Master,” was all Sass said before Master Fu renounced him and his Miraculous.

Present day

“And that was the last I heard of Alfred Pennyworth. The next time I appeared in this realm, it was to Luka Couffaine.”

Marinette wiped away a few tears that had sprung up during Sass’ story.

“Do you think he would have anything to do with the Miraculous after all he’d been through, Sass?”

Sass bowed his head and closed his eyes. “Perhaps. He had many questions I could not answer. I am not sure if his trauma overrode his curiosity. I know he had been planning on studying the Miraculous more before Leo Dupain had died.”

Marinette played with her hands as she mulled over Sass’ response. Something about his story caught her attention.

“Leo Dupain? As in my granduncle, Leo Dupain?” 

Sass blinked, yellow eyes trained on her. “Perhaps.” 

“If they're the same person, then he’s still around,” Marinette mused, thinking of the one-legged elder from her early childhood that made her laugh with his silly jokes and warm cuddles. “I never really kept up with him since my grandfather kept us away from Papa’s side of the family. He was funny, though.”

Marinette entered a silent trance, going over all the new information she had received so far, while the kwamis waited with bated breaths. Alfred Pennyworth had deeper ties with her than she had previously thought. In another world, he would’ve been another distant granduncle. However, would she risk going to him in this world when the Miraculous had already scarred him so deeply? But what if he didn’t know about her granduncle? What if he spurned her away despite that? What if he didn’t? What had Master Fu seen in Alfred Pennyworth that he had practically given away one of the Miraculous to his care? How would she explain everything that had happened since their last argument?

What other choices did Marinette really have?

“Marinette?” Tikki asked, the only kwami comfortable enough to break her train of thought.

She sighed, not liking her decision one bit, but she was desperate, and in some ways, this would be beneficial for both Alfred Pennyworth and her.

“Looks like we’re going to Gotham City.”

______________________________________________________________

I really am sorry it's taking more than five chapters for them to actually get to Gotham, by the way. I know most fics will usually have them there by the first chapter. I just like having a lot of build up for the plot and future subplots, so please bear with me!

[cptn-jtk]

i. first kiss

They had been arguing. Well, not so much arguing but rather Jim ranting at Spock while the Vulcan was sat in his biobed in the medbay. The left half of his face was littered with shallow cuts and a dark green bruise was blooming just under his jaw - his face, which was becoming increasingly infuriating for Jim to look at, had a distinctly amused expression as he listened to his Captain prattle on about his health and safety.

"Do you think this is funny, Spock?" Jim snapped, invading the Vulcan's personal space. "Bones had to regrow half of your rib and reconnect the vertebrae in your spine!"

Spock lowered his eyes, however, the seemingly repentant gesture was betrayed by the slight upturn at the corner of his mouth.

Irritated, Jim stepped closer, determined to give the poor Commander a piece of his mind. He launched in with the familiar "you could have died!" lecture, feeling more and more like McCoy the longer he went on.

" - seriously hurt and - this isn't funny, Spock!" Jim snapped at him. He had been so worried, frantically pacing around the ship while the Vulcan had been in surgery. He had almost given himself carpal tunnel syndrome with how often he had nervously been wringing his hands together while he waited. "Stop smiling you bast- mmph!"

And then Spock had kissed him. His lips were softer than Jim had ever imagined they would be as he melted into the kiss, eyes fluttering closed and one hand loosely gripping Spock's black undershirt. Every thought was swept from his mind as he leaned in closer, careful not to touch his wounds.

When they broke apart, Jim swallowed and let out a shaky breath, eyes still closed and his forehead resting against Spock's. "What was that?"

"You talk a lot." Spock replied simply.

"I was just worried." Jim mumbled quietly, the metaphorical wind taken out of his sails as he lightly stroked his thumb over the material of Spock's shirt.

"I know." Spock replied, just as quietly.

ii. first night at the other's house/place

Jim hadn't actually meant to fall asleep in Spock's room - it just happened. They had been talking about their latest mission. Spock was sat at his desk, diligently working at his terminal while Jim was splayed across his bed, throwing a baseball up in the air and catching it.

It had been weeks since Spock first kissed him and they were still in the early stages of their relationship, still trying to figure things out and nervously escaping the familiar confines of their friendship. This was why Jim had allowed himself to relax on Spock's bed, shoes kicked off to a random corner of the room and lying comfortably in his pyjamas.

When their conversation dwindled down, Jim would take it as his cue to leave and head back to his own room (and vice versa for Spock) but the heat of the room and the constant tapping of Spock's finger on the terminal keyboard was lulling him to sleep. He couldn't bring himself to get up, instead finding himself drifting in between consciousness and snuggling closer into Spock's pillows.

-

When he awoke in the middle of the night he was under the covers and Spock was fast asleep in the bed beside him. Jim glanced at the door and then back at Spock, yawned, and then lay back down beside the Vulcan, shifting closer until he was practically curled up at Spock's side. He allowed himself to drift back into an easy sleep, smiling when he felt Spock shift in his sleep and wrap an arm around him.

iii. first 'i love you'

It had been the last thing that Jim needed. His day had gone from bad to worse and then from worse to just downright god-awful. And now? Now their car had broken down in the middle of nowhere - in torrential rain, no less, and now they had to wait for hours for the engine to restart. One would think that issues like this would have been resolved but evidently not.

This was the reason that Jim was bordering on hysteria in their car - one small little issue triggering a complete meltdown and poor Spock on the recieving end of it all.

"And then I tripped and fell, I don't know how but I ripped my shirt at the same time and -" Jim came to a full stop. Spock was looking at him weirdly. His head was tilted slightly to the side, his eyes soft and his mouth quirked up ever so slightly at the corners. "What?"

Spock was quiet, and Jim's confusion grew. He opened his mouth to ask again. "What are you-"

"I love you."

"Wh-" Jim felt his heart stop in his chest, felt the beat come to a stuttering stop, and he felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.

"I love you, Jim."

Suddenly his heart was beating too fast, pounding against his ribcage and he felt lightheaded. And then he caught sight of himself in the rearview mirror. He was soaked to the bone, his wet hair plastered to his forehead, droplets of water were beading at the tips of his hair before slowly rolling down his blotchy pink cheeks and into the collar of his drenched shirt - his ripped drenched shirt - and he felt the slight sting in his grazed knees and he didn't see what spock saw, didn't see what spock loved - but he saw spock, who was watching him with a look of complete and open adoration, looking at Jim as if he hung the moon, and he saw spock - he saw his familiar bowl cut - now swept to the side and revealing a small scar just above his eyebrow - and the crinkles at the corners of his molten eyes and the beginning of a shadow on his jaw that he carefully shaved everyday and Jim saw him - he saw the man he loved.

"I love you too." Jim breathed out, the words tumbling out of his mouth before he could stop them. But he didn't regret saying them - no, not one bit. He did love him - loved him so much that it terrified him sometimes. He'd never loved anyone in his life the way he did Spock - not his family, not even McCoy, his longest friend. Spock was different - he was special for reasons Jim couldn't quite explained. Somewhere, in the very core of his being, Jim just knew that they were meant to be.

Spock smiled. He actually smiled. It was small and McCoy probably wouldn't even call it a smile but Jim loved it. Loved it so much that he was already climbing over to Spock clumsily just so he could kiss it. And he did, ignoring the impractical position it placed him in (half in Spock's lap and a gear stick digging into the other half). But he ignored it because he was torn between delighted laughter and peppering kisses all over Spock's face

He ignored the pounding of rain against the roof of the car and the loud clap of thunder that follow, focusing on the feel of Spock's hands on his hips carefully arranging him so he's sat comfortably in the Vulcan's lap. And he was still kissing him - his forehead, his nose, his cheek, the corner of his mouth, and finally on his lips. The familiarity almost made him feel dizzy and his grin widened until it was almost painful, "I love you" falling like a mantra from his lips as the rain fell heavier from the sky.

[taetaesbaebaepsae]

@thecozywhaleshark and @lvupmushroom @ddaengbaepsae helped me with this one

Seokjin

You walk in, exhausted, and you're shocked at the mess in the kitchen.

Flour everywhere, empty bottles of wine, and just so many pies and cakes and cobblers, muffins stacked up in a basket, all your favorite things.

He is asleep at the dining room table, flour in his hair, head on the table, and you walk over and touch his shoulder.

He jerks awake and when he sees you he just buries his face in your stomach, arms so tight around your waist and he's crying so hard.

You stroke his hair and start trying to explain. "My phone, I-"

He shakes his head, looking up at you with wet eyes.

"It doesn't matter now. You're home."

You smile at him, fighting back tears of your own.

"What happened to the kitchen?"

He chuckles, sniffling. "I just kept baking all your favorite things. While I was baking I could forget you were gone, could imagine you coming home to eat them..."

His voice breaks and he buries his face in your stomach again.

He holds you so tight in bed your ribs ache the next morning and you wake up when he brushes your hair out of your face.

"I'm so grateful you're home."

Namjoon

He just stares at you for the longest time.

You explain everything but you aren't sure he's heard a word you said because he just keeps staring at you, almost blankly.

He doesn't say a word until you say, "I'm okay, now." and then he's kissing you so deep it makes your head spin.

He's tearing off your clothes, tugging off his shirt between kisses and soon he's buried to the hilt inside you, holding you up against the wall, murmuring in your ear.

"I didn't know if I'd make it without you, baby. It felt like my heart was caving in. I love you so much. I'm so glad you found your way back to me."

You can't even speak for the tears clogging your throat and you feel his tears hot against your throat when he kisses you there.

For days after he doesn't take his eyes off you, as if he's trying to memorize your face.

Sometimes he'll look at you and suddenly his eyes go all soft and wet and when you ask him about it, he just shakes his head.

"I just can't believe you're here, and you're mine. I can't believe how lucky I am."

Yoongi

Yoongi stays drunk the whole time you're gone, locking himself inside and ignoring everything.

When you use your key to get in he's standing at the kitchen counter, pouring another drink.

His eyes are big and glassy and he just looks at you for a long moment.

He's unsteady when he walks over to you and he takes your face in his hands.

"I know you aren't real, but I need you to know I love you so much. I miss you so bad."

"Yoongi...baby, it's me. I'm here." You reach out to touch him and he flinches.

"God, it's so vivid." He says, voice hoarse, eyes wet and searching your face. "I can feel you."

He's stroking your face, eyes so full of love and pain and you start to cry.

"I'm really here. I was lost and I didn't have my phone but..."

He listens to you explain but he just keeps touching you everywhere, hands rubbing your arms, your back.

"I know I'm dreaming but I don't care. I'll take whatever I can get. I hope I never wake up."

It takes you all night to convince him you're real and you're lying in bed and his eyes are drifting shut but he keeps waking himself up.

"Get some rest, baby."

"No." His voice is slurred from the alcohol and exhaustion. "No, if I close my eyes, you'll disappear."

"I'm not going anywhere. Never again." You climb on top of him and rest your head on his chest and finally he falls asleep with his arms tight around you.

You wake up with him crying into your hair.

"You're still here. You're really alive?"

You smile at him. "I kept trying to tell you!"

"I've never been so happy to be wrong."

Hobi

You go to his place but instead you find Namjoon there, checking his mail.

He is shocked to see you, asking all kinds of questions, but you just want to see your boyfriend.

"Where is Hobi?"

"No one knows. He just...ghosted when you went missing. I talk to him maybe once a week. Fuck, I gotta call him."

You wait patiently while he talks on the phone but it turns into an argument.

"I wouldn't lie to you about this!" Namjoon looks at you helplessly and you take the phone.

"This is fucked up, Joon. I know you want me to come home but this is cruel-"

Hobi is ranting so you just cut him off.

"Hi, baby."

The phone goes dead silent for a moment.

"You're at my place?" His voice is low and hoarse.

"Yes."

"Stay there. Don't fucking move a muscle."

He almost sounds angry with you so you're nervous while you wait.

When he shows up Namjoon leaves quietly. You're still standing in the hall.

He looks like he hasn't slept in days, clothes rumpled, hair messy. He's lost weight, jaw sharper than you remember.

His face is dead serious as he walks toward you.

"Do you have any idea what I've been through? Where the fuck have you been?"

You're angry suddenly.

"What do you think, I've been on vacation? I was trying to get back to you-"

He grabs you around the waist and pulls you to him, breathing in your familiar scent, and his shoulders are shaking.

His voice is choked with tears when he's finally able to speak.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you."

Once you're inside, he holds you for hours, looking at you like you're something so rare and precious.

He listens to you explain what happened with tears tracking down his face.

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. You've been through so much. I just...I stopped functioning while you were gone. I left my brothers, I left everything behind because I couldn't face my life without you in it."

"Baby, it's all okay. I'm back now, and you don't have to do any of this alone. Not ever again."

That's when he breaks down, big, chest heaving sobs, face in his hands and you crawl into his lap and his arms go around you and he rocks you back and forth for a while before he can compose himself.

"I love you so much. I'm so grateful to have you in my life."

Jimin

You walk in and it's so dark, all the lights shut off.

He walks into the front room and just stops there, stock still.

You rush into his arms and they go around you slowly at first and then he's holding you so tight you can barely breathe.

He's sobbing so hard you worry he'll make himself sick, you try to pull back to comfort him but he crushes your head against his chest.

When you finally get him to the bedroom he still can't stop crying, kissing you all over your face, choking out "I love you I love you I love you" like a mantra.

He finally dozes off and you sneak to the bathroom.

You're washing your hands when you hear a panicked cry of your name.

You rush out and he's scrambled up on the bed.

"What's wrong?"

He's grabbing at you, desperately, pulling you down onto the bed.

"You can't go. You can't ever go again, please..."

"Baby, I was just in the bathroom..."

But you trail off when he starts crying again, pulling you close and burying his face in your hair.

He's tugging your shirt off and you expect him to kiss you but he doesn't, just pulls you flush against his chest, skin to skin.

He lets out a sigh that almost sounds relieved.

"There. Now you're right where you're supposed to be."

Taehyung

You have to knock on the door because you've lost your keys, you've lost everything but the clothes on your back.

When he swings open the door he doesn't look like you'd expected.

You'd expected his big, boxy smile, but his eyes are almost...empty.

Then realization dawns on his face and fat tears are rolling down his face.

"J-Jagi?" His voice is so low and hoarse you wonder if it hurts his throat to speak.

"It's me, Tae. I'm sorry-"

Your words get muffled by him yanking you inside and crushing you to his chest, arms roaming your back, checking for injuries.

You've got bruises on your inner forearms from the accident and he kisses them soft, almost reverently.

He kisses your mouth, deep and slow, and so sweet it makes your heart ache.

You end up in the bedroom with him taking off your clothes slowly, checking you for injuries and kissing you all over.

He makes love to you so gently, crying the whole time, looking into your eyes and whispering words of love and comfort in his deep, soothing voice.

"You're safe now, yeah? You're home, and nothing will ever take you away from me again."

Jungkook

When he opens the door and you're standing there his eyes widen but he just pulls you inside and asks you what happened.

He's calm and stoic about the whole thing, holding you close and helping you work through your emotions about the accident.

It's almost a week later when things change.

Traffic is awful coming back from work and you've still got your phone on silent from work and you don't think anything of being a half hour later than usual.

Until you almost slam into Jungkook rushing out the door.

"Oh, thank God! Where the fuck have you been I was about to come and look for you?"

You come inside and throw down your keys.

"It was just traffic, Kook, why-"

You look over at him and realize he's trembling all over.

You take his hand and sit down with him on the couch.

"I thought...I thought I lost you again. I can't lose you again, Y/n, it felt like I was drowning, every day..."

His voice cracks and you hold him while he cries, burying his face in your neck.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about how much this must have affected you, too."

He pulls you close.

"Just be careful, okay? I can't lose you."

[aforgottenballad]

Feelings on Sally Face Episode 5

Under a read more for obvious reasons, includes heavy spoilers and potentially triggering subjects. 

Disclaimer: I might miss-remember some parts of the story or have missed a piece of lore that would settle minor complaints. I am however disappointed in the ending as a whole and in some of the very harmful tropes included in it. But I’m also just some dude online with an opinion, and you can stop reading at any time. 

Rant under cut. 

Alright ya’ll. I’ve had a couple days to digest the ending to Sally Face.  While playing, I genuinely enjoyed some elements of the game. The chapter started on a dark but nearly hopeful note. Neil and Ash were still working to bring the cult down. It seemed likely Sal would be resurrected. Todd had apparently escaped the hospital, and that had potential to be either a very very good or very very bad thing. Maple was possessed by whatever fucked up the souls of the other apartment tenants, but hey! At least her and Neil weren’t in on the cult like so many fans predicted. Unfortunately, this series has a way of getting darker and darker as it progresses.  First thing that bugged me was the lore drop about how the cult was founded.  A Native American tribe. Right. Because why wouldn’t Indigenous peoples be in a story without being part of some mystical occult backstory, portrayed as mysterious historical props who worshiped something dark and evil instead of being portrayed as human beings. 

But I continued. I really enjoyed playing as Ashley and getting some insight into her character. I enjoyed the task of planting the C4 in the temple... catacomb... thing. We get to see Travis again! I was excited that a lot of us were right about him being indoctrinated but also working to fight the cult from the inside. We knew he had some good in him after all. 

When Ash tries to resurrect Sal, we get even more insight into her character, and unfortunately a lot of it is “Grieving, distraught, and full of self-blame”. I want to hug her.  Sal’s spirit is apparently revived by those pyramids, and he can dimension warp. We meet Jim, or what’s left of him, and he doesn’t give a fuck about anything anymore but agrees to help Sal anyway. This is, narratively speaking, weird as hell. His entire character arc for four episodes was “Loved his family so much he sacrificed himself to save them”, and suddenly he’s just some glowy dude attached to Magic Spirit Tubes who doesn’t give half a shit. I guess it makes sense as a way to wrap up why he’s been able to drift between worlds but... if he doesn’t care about any of that anymore why help Sal? And what about Rosenberg? Is she like Jim, or do we just have to assume she’s magical because her family helped found the cult? (Explained in an easter egg later on, because this game doesn’t just drop its lore. Not even the CRUCIAL lore. You have to achievement hunt for it.) Sal can enter various doors in the House In The Void to step into alternate realities, and this was my favorite aspect of the game. Each door has a different art style, and I really liked seeing these alternate realities. Steve probably worked the hardest and longest on drawing out and coding these scenes. I genuinely applaud the man for the work put into this endeavor I’m assuming all by himself. 

Meanwhile, Ash tries to unbind Larry’s soul from the tree house he died in, which doesn’t work. Did we ever find out why his body was never found? No? Ok that seems important.

After each puzzle, Sal’s body is restored a little bit at a time, but even after turning on all the pyramids and solving the mysteries behind all three doors, he can’t make it back to the “real” world. So Ashley kills herself. Or tries to. Because apparently that’s the only way to complete the ritual, and also because she feels really bad about not unbinding Larry’s soul and about not fixing Sal. Again, I want to hug her, but I have to watch her hurt herself instead, cause Steve doesn’t let us have nice things.

Okay, so this is a gorey game. We know. But one of the BIGGEST no-nos suicide prevention networks will tell you when consulting them about mental illness and suicide in media is NOT to show a graphic suicide in progress. Steve is aware a lot of his fans are A) Young teens to young adults B) Struggling with mental illness. 

His main character suffers from depression and anxiety and this fact has resonated with hundreds of fans. It’s irresponsible to purposefully include a graphic suicide attempt, but he did it last chapter, showing a gunshot suicide’s aftermath, then he did it again with Ashley. Call me a wiener if you like, point out the graphic scenes from earlier in the game and call me a hypocrite for not being upset by that, but you have to admit the Spongebob-close-up-shot look to those scenes have a totally different feel. Speaking as someone who actually has a pretty thick skin, but is concerned about the fans who might be in a worse place or who could be as young as 12, that was fucked up. 

Anyway, Ash’s attempt doesn’t take, because she’s struck by magic lightning, which infuses Sal’s soul into her. Now her arm is one of those stretchy sticky hands, but with bio luminescence and the ability to kick cultist ass. I actually thought this part was really cool, and was super ready to go on a cultist smacking spree. But again, we can’t have nice things and before we get to do anything badass we have to look at gruesome imagery again. 

You get to see Void Larry, who is now old and a wizard or something, but first...

Surprise! Maple and Neil are dead! Not just dead, but hung up from hooks covered in blood! And naked! 

Hey?? Hey Steve????? You know how they’re both POC?? And that lynching imagery is EXTREMELY NOT GOOD?!!????

“Two white people are hung up with them” YEAH? WELL WE’VE NEVER SEEN THOSE CHARACTERS BEFORE. THEY’RE JUST RANDOM PEOPLE.

I’ve seen people arguing “The white characters go through terrible things too” but it’s still really fucked up that by the end of the game, every. Single. Person of color. In the game. Has died. Gruesomely. It’s a gorey, dark, bleak game, and white characters die as well, gruesomely; but not all of them. None of them that are named are shown strung up, naked. That’s fucked up. That isn’t okay. 

There are also a total of three gay characters in this game. One is Todd, who goes through the standard “bad bad stuff” the game is used to, is the white one, and he survives. One is Neil, one of the aforementioned people of color who died horribly and who only really existed to be Todd’s boyfriend and therefore a source of angst for Todd when he dies. The third is Travis, another man of color, and an abuse victim, who dies to fulfill his character arc as an abuse victim, which is also really shitty to see over and over again as an abuse survivor. 

Look, I know Steve pulled a lot of inspiration from old TV shows and horror series that probably weren’t all “politically correct”. I know it’s always been kind of an edgy and dark game. I know Steve probably didn’t think about the repercussions of all his narrative choices. But I also know he actively ignored some people offering to educate him on issues he has no experience with. I know he worked hard on this game, by himself, but we as fans have paid him and waited for years and it isn’t selfish or ungrateful to be hurt and disappointed. He knows his audience is diverse, he knows a lot of us were attracted to the game because of a gender nonconforming main character, a main character who struggles with mental illness, a cast that isn’t 100% white and conventionally attractive. Of course he didn’t need to change the plot for us! It’s his game, his vision, but the least he could have done is research how to not actively hurt and alienate a good portion of us.  I don’t think anyone is bad or racist for still finding solace in the characters and in what the story was before this, I’m not attacking you personally, whoever is reading this. I, personally, still have loads of Sally Face art in my queue, I still have active role plays going on, my Sal wig is sitting like 8 feet away waiting for the next time my friends want to take cosplay pictures. I still enjoyed playing the game for the most part. Without this game I wouldn’t even know most of my current friends. It’s just really shitty how it ended like this, and a lot of people I talk to daily either feel too sick to even talk about the game anymore after seeing people like them treated like trash by the narrative or try to focus on the good things they got out of just being part of the fandom but don’t feel comfortable supporting the developer anymore. 

Even if there wasn’t all these hurtful tropes packed into the game, and yes, even after unlocking the epilogue, the game just feels cold. It feels rushed, probably because of how much time went into the alternate dimension gimmick. I wish Steve had at least consulted people over the script. It felt like not only did he pour all his work into experimenting with the mixed media, he also just took whatever expectations the fans had and went somewhere completely different just to have his story be “unpredictable”. That isn’t always a good thing. Plot twists, downer endings, dark and scary imagery, all of these things can be done beautifully, but in this case it felt like he just wanted the series to end. The game didn’t subvert expectations, it fed into the harmful stereotypes and tropes all the fans were so hopeful it wouldn’t. 

...On top of not making any sense unless you’re able to 100% all the puzzles. And even when you do, it feels like all the bad stuff happened for no reason. The ending doesn’t conclude anything. Even when you unlock the epilogue, all it tells you is that a third of the world has died and that the main cast haven’t accomplished much besides “Trying to help”. Sal and Todd have powers now, but that isn’t elaborated on much. Larry’s spirit is missing, if he even exists in any plane at all anymore. It doesn’t even mention what’s going on with Ash.  It just feels like nothing mattered. 

[nuttyrabbit]

Sonic Forces Thoughts

The title may seem a bit strange, given that the game is 3 years old already, and I’ve given my thoughts on the story plenty of times before as well as shared those of others, but I wanted to make this post because I decided to actually sit down and play Sonic Forces front to back for the first time since the game was on sale on the Nintendo Switch Eshop for a stupidly cheap price (10 dollars as of the time of this post)

Now that I’ve actually beaten the game and seen pretty much all the game has to offer (outside of Episode Shadow), I might as well give my thoughts on it.

On the whole, the best way to describe Sonic Forces is “mediocre”, because almost everything about it is just mediocre. The story, the  music (which kills me to say), the level design, everything about the game just reeks of unfiltered mediocrity.   It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either, it’s just kinda....there.

Now I could leave it there but I actually want to go into detail, so I’ll break it down into a couple of sections to get my thoughts out in an organized way under the readmore, starting with 

STORY:  As I said at the start of the post, I’ve said my piece about the story many times over and agreed with the thoughts of others on that matter, so I’ll keep this quick. 

The story feels incredibly undercooked and doesn’t even come close to fulfilling its potential, especially when it comes to Infinite. Holy shit I could spend 2 hours ranting about how much wasted potential this fucking character is on a story and gameplay level but at this point it’s beating a dead horse.  

The characters and their characterization is generally fine (except Tails holy shit what did they do to you) but like Infinite, they feel grossly underutilized and feel like they’re there for the sake of it rather than because they contribute anything of meaning. 

I don’t have much else to say other than that the story shares a common problem with the rest of the game in that it is very short. Like, I got Forces yesterday and I beat it in the span of what? 5 or 6 hours? As such, the story feels incredibly rushed because of that.  This segues into my next topic 

Gameplay:  This is a bit of a broad topic but I’ll break it down into something manageable, going from general to specific

Difficulty: Starting with difficulty, Forces is, for the most part, an incredibly easy game. The game defaults to the “hard” difficulty but it should really be called “normal” because nothing in this game will give you too much trouble (at least for reasons of actual difficulty). The boss fights, especially the final one, are pitifully easy and simplistic, especially if you use the Burst Wisp. Seriously, that thing destroys all the Avatar bosses with no issue. As such, the incredibly low difficulty makes the games’ length that much more noticeable, which speaking of

Length: The game, as I’ve said before, is incredibly short. I beat it in 5-6 hours but you could easily beat it in around 3 or 4. There’s 30 stages plus the Episode Shadow stuff and some bonus stages you unlock with Red Rings, but almost all of them are laughably short, the longest of them clocking in at around 4 or 5 minutes and the shortest being barely a minute and a half (the bonus stages are ~45 seconds long).  The only time I spent more than 5 minutes in a level is if I repeatedly died on a certain part, which happened only once or twice and for reasons I will get into.   It somehow feels shorter than Mania, a game that was sold for half the price initially and has less levels.

Controls: Next up is the controls and holy shit this is where the bulk of my complaints lie.  I don’t know how, but Classic and Modern Sonic control noticeably worse than they did in Generations or pretty much any other Classic or Boost game.  

Classic Sonic feels incredibly heavy, making each platforming section feel less I’m controlling Sonic the Hedgehog and more like I’m controlling an immobile brick.  That’s not even getting into how badly they fucked up his physics. The fact that this came out months after Mania is laughable.

Modern Sonic on the other hand, feels way too loose.  Whether it be in 3D or 2D, I feel like I’m barely in control of him when I start to gain speed, and there’s been multiple times where I careened off a cliff despite steering him away from it. It’s made even worse by the fact that for some fucking reason, they took away the drift, something that’s been in I think every 3D boost game since Unleashed.

They also gave Modern a double jump, but the double jump is so worthless and heavy that it’s gotten me killed more times than it’s actually helped me. It feels so stiff and awkward to use and combined with Modern’s loose controls, most of my deaths in this game came from Modern deciding to just randomly plummet into a pit because  I couldn’t correct a jump or he just slid off the edge of a runway for no good reason. Stage 27 is the best example of what I’m talking about because holy shit.

Finally there’ the Avatar, and he probably controls the best of the three, so I don’t have too many complaints on that end other than the fact that his jumps are incredibly slow and floaty.

Level design:  As I said before, most levels are incredibly short, being over pretty much as soon as they begin.  The design in the levels themselves is at best momentarily interesting (The 2nd Modern level for instance), and at worst is absolutely atrocious and terrible (Whoever decided to put an autoscroller in a Sonic level is just awful). and most of the time it just evens out to being incredibly boring and forgettable. This isn’t helped by the fact that most of the levels themselves are either throwbacks to previous games,  generic cityscapes covered in white or on fire, or that ugly, ugly jungle aesthetic.  There’s no levels in this game that really wowed me aesthetically or on a gameplay level. Hell, I can barely remember the names of most of the levels 

Music: The music in this game ranges from forgettable (most of the Modern tracks) to skullfuckingly awful (Every. Single. Classic. Song). Though that being said, I did like a couple of the Avatar themes, and the vocal tracks (Fist Bump, Infinite’s Theme, Light of Hope) were all pretty decent, though not nearly on the same level as prior games.  This is probably the most forgettable soundtrack in all of 3D Sonic. Even Lost World had more memorable and interesting tracks than this. 

Avatar:  I already talked about my grievances and thoughts on Modern and Classic in the control section, but I wanted to give the Avatar his own section because it’s easily the best part of the game.  Getting new gear for your Avatar and customizing them is admittedly really fun,  and I had a good time making my new OC Kick the Dog (do not steal).  The Wispons give a decent amount of variety and replayability to the levels that the other playstyles don’t have (Red Rings do dick in this game other than unlock clothes and EX levels which are so insignificant they ain’t worth it) and their levels are easily the most fleshed out and interesting of the bunch.    If I ever come back to Forces, it’ll probably be to replay Avatar levels

Content:  This game has barebones content, with the most pressing things outside of the main levels being Episode Shadow (which is 3 stages long), the bonus levels (pitifully short), the SOS missions (replay the levels again), and collecting the red rings/ silver moons/ whatever (Only unlocks more clothes and bad bonus levels).  Compared to something like Generations, which was also pretty short but had a lot of side content and unlockables that made it worth coming back to, and something like Mania which is packed to the brim with content and replayability, Forces is just kind of pathetic.  

Graphics:  One thing I’ll give the game is that the pre-rendered cutscenes and even some of the real time cutscenes look really damn good, at least aesthetically. Character animations still leave a lot to be desired though. The in-game graphics look fine. Nothing great but not terrible.  Keep in mind I played it on Switch so that could easily affect things, but generally the game looked....okay.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  As I said before,  Sonic Forces is the definition of “mediocre”. It’s a completely unremarkable game from start to finish, and most of what it does is done better by just about any other competent 2D or 3D Sonic game.  The  Avatar is fun and interesting and I want the playstyle to make a return, but that isn’t enough to save the game from being incredibly mediocre and just plain forgettable.   

If you really want to try Forces out yourself, I’d recommend getting it at a deep, deep discount. I got it at around 10 dollars and I’d say it’s worth between 10 and 20 dollars. Do not pay full price for this game. 

But otherwise, just skip it.

[kitsunebaba]

Just a Little Change

Rei stared down at the body at his feet, the butt end of his dagger still raised from the strike. Ryu stared at him in shock, gaze slowly drifting down to focus on Teepo's unconscious form. He wasn't entirely sure how he'd managed it but his brothers had been so focused on one another and Rei had seen the opening and before he could really think it through, he was moving.

 And now Teepo was out cold on the grass.

"Oh good thinking Rei!" Nina exclaimed, the first one to move. She went straight for the pack on Ryu's back muttering "rope, rope," to herself.

 Everyone else seemed to jump out of their stupors, with Nina breaking the silence: Momo riffling through Teepo's pockets, Garr interjecting the best way to restrain one of the brood. Rei couldn't quite follow the conversation, his ears still ringing from this whole mess of a situation. For years he'd been consumed by nothing but revenge and now to find that not just one, but both of his brothers were...

 Teepo was alive... Teepo was alive!

 A grin was slowly stretching its way across his face and when he looked down at where Ryu was fixing Nina's knots, he saw a smaller but just as bright smile on his face, too.

 Rei wasn't quite stupid enough to think this was going to be easy. Whoever this God was, they'd really done a number on Teepo's outlook. All that nonsense about the brood, his self righteous attitude. Teepo had never been particularly kind, but this just wasn't who he was meant to be.

 Well, whatever he'd thought of this pilgrimage before, it was personal now. No one did something like this to his family and got away with it. No one.

 With Teepo wrapped head to toe in rope, Rei hefted his little brother over his shoulder and on they went. On to meet God.

 ---

 Teepo didn't wake up until after God was dead and they'd escaped to the desert.

 Garr had finally found his peace and they'd lost track of Peco in all the chaos of their escape. Their victory was bittersweet at best but that was just how vengeance tasted, he'd learned. Rei wouldn't kid himself into thinking his own participation was anything but. Ryu was the selfless one in the family.

 There was a gasp to Rei's side, a groan and instantly he was kneeling to turn Teepo over. His brother squinted against the harsh desert sunlight and Rei shifted to shadow his face.

 "That was a dirty trick," Teepo murmured, voice deeper than before but cadence much closer to what Rei remembered. Then Teepo tried to move his arms and froze. Eyes narrowed and flicked intensely to his with so much venom it made Rei's heart jolt.

 "You dare-?" Teepo hissed and his teeth were already extending, his skin turning purple, scaly, face elongating.

 Before Rei could so much as move, Ryu was there, sitting down hard on Teepo's chest. It knocked the wind out of him, the shock enough to stop the transformation. They glared at one another, two obscenely powerful beings vying for dominance.

 Teepo looked away first.

 Huffing, Teepo glared at the sand instead. "So you bested me and removed me from my sanctuary. Does the safety of the world mean nothing to you? Our God Myria has-"

 "We chose freedom," Ryu murmured, interrupting.

 Those words confused Teepo more than anything and he cast his gaze around to the others, as if they had the answers, as if he'd forgotten how to read Ryu and everything he didn't say.

 "He's saying we killed your God," Rei couldn't help but clarify. It was petty and not worth the devastated way Teepo's face fell. His brother's breath caught and, alarmingly, his eyes began to well with tears.

 "Myria is...?" his words were barely sound.

 "Yes, I'm sorry," Nina replied when no one else did.

 Rei couldn't watch the clear grief on Teepo's face but nor could he hide from the sounds, all the more heartbreaking for their restraint. Small sniffles and whispered denial. Each one struck home in Rei's chest until he felt ill. He couldn't regret what he'd done but there was always a price and once again it was Teepo who had to pay it. Yet another way Rei had failed.

 There was no giving up this time, though. Rei had people to fight for again and he wasn't letting them go without one.

 ---

 They almost lost him on their way to the oasis.

 Teepo had refused to eat or drink. Occasionally they could get some water down his throat, with Ryu coaxing or Momo forcing but that hadn't stopped his lips from cracking or his cheeks hollowing out. They couldn't afford to untie him, either. When Teepo wasn't catatonic with grief, he ranted.

 Rei was ashamed to say he left Teepo to Ryu when he got like that. There was something stalwart to Ryu that Rei could never even hope to emulate, so he didn't even try. To Teepo's threats, his fanatical recitation of God's rhetoric, Ryu kept a straight face, silently stoic as he held his brother down and waited it out.

 By the time they reached the oasis, Teepo hadn't woken in at least a day and his breathing had begun to get laboured. They couldn't just leave him with the head man's wife like they had with Nina, either. That first night, they'd all been exhausted. Ryu had taken first watch regardless, making sure no one was hurt in Teepo's lucid moments as he was tended to.

 Eventually, though, even Ryu couldn't keep his eyes open.

 A shout woke them all, then a scream and they all clambered to their feet in alarm. Rei could feel his rabid side start to stir, eager for a fight, but pushed it down. The head woman had scrambled backwards, Ryu trying to hold back a struggling Teepo, free from his bonds.

 Unable to think of anything else, Rei punched Teepo in the face and his brother slumped in Ryu's arms, his form shrinking, changing until he was a tiny, purple dragon. The look of disappointment that Ryu gave him for that made him want to shrivel to the size of a mouse and hide for the rest of eternity.

 They got Teepo back into bed, tied to the posts, and Ryu went to sit back down at his side.

 Rei didn't let him. He finally had to admit to himself that he'd been avoiding this new, heartbreakingly unfamiliar Teepo. Rei had promised himself there was no giving up, yet he'd almost done so to spare himself more hurt. So Rei swept Ryu into his arms and lay him down gently along Teepo's winged side, then took up the chair himself.

 It was one of the longest nights of his life, watching his brothers sleep on that bed, one struggling, again, to hold onto life. When morning came, his eyes itched with tiredness and his muscles screamed from sitting for too long, but Teepo was once again in human form and Ryu smiled at him and that made it all worth it.

 ---

 Teepo started eating again, a few days later. It had taken many, many hours of nagging and begging and pleading (and a few guilt wrenching tears from Ryu) but they'd managed to convince him to continue to live, at the very least. While his brother's ranting had stopped, along with his attempts to escape, he hadn't started speaking normally again, either, or at all.

 Instead, Ryu talked. It was more than Rei thought he'd ever heard him say in his entire life, let alone at one time. He spoke of their journey, their lives, why he'd come to the decision he had. Ryu talked himself hoarse and then some until Rei took up the slack. There was only so much he knew, so much he'd been there for, but he could reminisce on their time together, at least.

 Rei spoke of their lives before Ryu, reminders of the people they'd been, the ways they'd changed after they'd adopted their third family member. That one, near perfect winter and early spring where they'd been accepted, well fed, happy. That one season of bliss before everything had fallen apart.

 And then Rei confessed how he'd gone off the rails in his quest for revenge. How devastated he'd been to lose his brothers to one mistake.

 Teepo listened, at least, even if he never said anything in reply. He listened and Rei hoped he was taking it all in, considering their perspectives instead of clinging to a dead god's dogma.

 ---

 Once they were all well enough to walk, about a week later, they resupplied and made their way north. They didn't need the ropes by this point. Teepo was silent and submissive, following along when asked.

 It was Momo who tried to strike up a conversation this time, as they made their way through the debris of old technology. She asked a stream of questions about Eden and the space station, though the whole thing went over Rei's head. Teepo watched her, wary, but he must have understood because once she was done with her rambling hypothesis he either nodded or shook his head. One time Rei swore he heard a response but it could have been his imagination.

 A few trips by Portal Drive later and they were emerging from the hut hear Mount Levett. Why they'd gone here, he wasn't sure. This whole place left a bad taste in his mouth, memories blurred from spending such long periods transformed but certain moments horrifically vivid.

 "I... um, don't want to go home yet," Nina offered when he asked.

 It was understandable. The prospect of possibly being confined to one place for your whole life... Rei wasn't sure he could do it. Certainly after the trick they'd played on the king and queen, she wouldn't be allowed to leave for a good long while, even if they didn't just lock her in her room.

 There were other reasons she didn't want to go home. Nina still had to work out what she would fight for now. At least Rei didn't have that problem anymore.

 Down the path towards the Yraall Region, they reached the road in good time. Across the bridge and they quickly came to the edge of the farmland that marked the area. A sense of unease passed over Rei the closer they got to the place they used to call home. The girls sensed it, too and the whole party remained subdued as they trekked. It was by far the easiest terrain they'd navigated in months but the tension in the air ruined any relief.

 It was at the junction where the Yraall Road split towards McNeil Village that it happened.

 Nina screamed as Teepo shoved her back and in an explosion of power he transformed. Momo was already aiming her weapon as he spread his wings, taking to the air. Rei jumped forwards to push the bazooka towards the ground and they were both flung backwards as it went off.

 Rei picked himself up with a groan, grumbling a few choice swear words. It took a few moments to get all his senses back in alignment and by the time he had, Ryu had transformed too, staring at him, waiting.

 The dragon tilted his head, indicating his back and Rei didn't have to be told twice. Scrambling to his feet, he didn't even consider what he was about to do until he felt muscles lurch below him and the ground began to lift away. Rei's eyes widened and he wrapped his arms in a vice lock around his brother's neck.

 They shuddered and shook as they climbed altitude and Rei had to wonder how they weren't just dropping out of the sky. At last, though, they evened out. The turbulence stopped. Wind still whipped about his ears, pulling at his clothes and tail, but slowly he pried one eye open to look down at the ground below.

 It was like a patchwork quilt he'd seen some of the women in town making; all greens and browns with the occasional patch of colour. He couldn't see any people, though with the roars he could hear in the distance, it wouldn't be a surprise if they'd all sought shelter.

 With a jolt of surprise Rei found himself able to pick out landmarks. There was the farm near town, the village itself not too far off, McNeil manner. Already they'd travelled what would have taken hours on foot. He watched as it all passed below them, turning into the forests he'd once known like the back of his hand. A glimpse of Bunyan's hut, the mountain close by, then they were descending and Rei had to bury his face in Ryu's neck again or risk being sick.

 When they landed, Ryu shrank back into his human form, collapsing to his knees, breathing rapid. Rei rested a comforting hand on his shoulder for a moment, long enough to know he was okay, then he was moving again.

 Teepo stood at the base of the burned shell of their hut. The smell of ash and smoke had long since been washed away but Rei could still remember them, phantom scents in his nose. He came to a stop three steps behind his brother, staring up at what remained of their home.

 "Sometimes I was half convinced this was just a dream... but then that would mean you had simply abandoned me."

 "What?! I would never-!" Rei cut himself off, nails cutting into his palms with the effort.

 Teepo shook his head, "no. You're petty and self severing like everyone else, but you wouldn't do something like that."

 They were quite for a while, lost in their own memories.

 "You know, Ryu said he looked for you after," Rei gestured vaguely at the burned building. "Me? I just assumed you were dead and went off to get revenge but... He went all the way to Wyndia. Would have gone further, I think, if he hadn't been caught up in all that Brood shyte."

 Teepo frowned. "Wyndia...?" The frown deepened and he crossed his arms. "I... perhaps I reached it? I remember being hungry and stone walls. It wasn't long before Myria saved me, gave me a home, clothes, food, love."

 "If you'll remember, so did I. And I didn't lock you in a damn cage and feed you self hate for ten years," Rei growled.

 "Myria has good reason to think the way she does... did..." Teepo turned his face away, swallowing thickly before he continued. "How many people died for Ryu's cause? Just defeating her you lost two of your number. Can that be justified?"

 Rei snorted, "oh, so when she kills thousands of people, it's for the good of everyone, but when a few people sacrifice their lives willingly, it's not justified? Well don't that just beat all. And here I thought we had numbers on our side."

 "We are dangerous!" Teepo spun, one fist raised threateningly but Ryu was already situating himself between them, a hand on each of their chests to keep them apart. He still looked worn out from carrying someone on his back, using muscles he wasn't used to for so long, but the colour had returned to his cheeks and he wasn't winded any longer.

 "So am I," Rei countered, sounding much calmer than he felt. "Sure I don't hold a candle to you guys but I slaughtered an entire crime syndicate in cold blood. It was easy. Should I be put under lock and key?"

 Teepo scowled, "yes."

 "Okay, so what of God's Guardians then? I know for a fact that Garr alone killed, what was it, Ryu?"

 "Two hundred and ninety nine," Ryu replied softly.

 "Two hundred and ninety nine Brood members during the war. That's way more than a measly crime syndicate, I'd say. And he only did it because he was told to, not because they killed his family or something."

 "That was God's power-"

 "So should God be locked up then? Why is her power okay but yours isn't? What gave her the right to dictate what we can and cannot do? Who lives and who dies? Since when is genocide something the good guys do?!" Rei snarled, breaking away from Ryu's restraining hand to pace, prowling the path.

 Teepo rose to his full height, clearly trying to look regal. "She saved the world."

 "Does it look destroyed to you? Has Ryu gone on some monstrous rampage and killed everyone? Blown up any mountains lately? Because let me tell you, he's had the motives. Half of this crap isn't even what he wanted, he was just dragged along because he was being hunted or someone else wanted to know the truth! He lost us, he lost friends, he lost years of his life and he's never destroyed anything that wasn't asking for it!"

 "And what if I do?!" Teepo screamed. "What if I... I hate everyone. I hate what the world did to us! I hate how petty people are, how self serving, how no one will ever share just because they... No one ever deserved what Myria did for us, not even me!"

 The silence in the clearing could have been cut with a knife.

 "What if I'm the one who destroys the world?"

 "You won't," Ryu said, clear and confident, "because we won't let you." Slowly, like he was touching a wild animal, Ryu lowered his hands to clasp one of Teepo's gently between them. "Just like you won't let me."

 For a long moment it seemed like Teepo would pull away, whole body tense. Then he slumped, head bowed. "Is it that easy? I don't want to be around people. I don't want to go back to a society that would let children, orphans just- just starve. I don't want to-"

 Rei let his hand fall heavily on Teepo's shoulder. "So we live in the woods, away from everyone else. Heck, that's pretty much what we did here before Ryu came along, just without all the stealing. Maybe we try grow our own food or something? We got friends and resources that we didn't have as kids, yeah?"

 Teepo's gaze was unreadable as he looked from Ryu to Rei.  

 "Not here," he said at last, raising his free hand to rest on top of Rei's. "Not here."

 ---

 They met Nina and Momo back in McNeil Village but didn't do more than pass through after joining back up. The frightened rumours of dragons in the sky effected both his brothers negatively and Rei had to suppress the urge to take his rage out on the villagers, too. They'd never wanted help, but they'd been children. Someone should have given it regardless.

 Nina didn't try to pry like Rei had expected. One look from Ryu and she looked more relieved than anything. It was odd, seeing someone else able to read his brother so well but slowly Rei was coming to see Nina as family, too, and well maybe they needed a little sister to balance them out.

 Reluctantly he had to admit that Momo felt like family, too, but that was dysfunctional at best. Not all family could be sunshine and roses, he'd learned. Well, one out of four wasn't so bad.

 Conversation picked up when Rei voiced their intentions some time later. Nina was eager to offer locations and Momo building advice. She'd had to fix her own equipment often enough that she was handy with a hammer or a welding torch. After all, if they built with metal and brick, they couldn't be as easily burned out of the home again.

 The process wasn't as difficult as he thought it might be. The forests surrounding Wyndia were vast, so before they parted ways with Nina and Momo they all ventured into them to find a good spot to build. Officially this would be Nina's vacation cottage, since the forests were technically royal hunting grounds. Hopefully they were deep enough that no one ever noticed they were there in the first place.

 Momo threw herself into the building with as much enthusiasm as she did new machines. Confusingly enough, after the initial distrust, Teepo and Momo ended up getting along well. She was oblivious enough she didn't notice the way he talked down to her and he was knowledgeable enough in machinery that she was endlessly pumping him for details that he was now willing to give.

 Nina, for her part, could only come by extremely occasionally. The king and queen hadn't locked her in her room but she was under strict guard whenever she argued an outing was legitimate. Slowly she was amassing a following of soldiers more loyal to her than her parents, however, and sometimes she could slip away.

 When they were finally done, Momo and Nina had tentative permission to visit on occasion, though Rei could see Teepo only agreed with Nina doing so because Ryu always looked so sad when she left. It probably helped that she was their main source of supplies and Teepo could easily use that as an excuse if anyone ever confronted him on it. He'd always been unwilling to admit how soft he was where his brothers were concerned.

 Rei mused on Nina's situation and how he'd thought he didn't ever want to be confined. Funny, how he didn't feel like he was locked away staying here, even though technically they were. Perhaps it was the self imposed nature of it... though Rei would put more zenny on his brothers having something to do with it.

 They had to be careful with hunting in the area but they had a neat little vegetable garden going by now and a book on pickling to get them through the winter. Nina had even visited bearing some fruit tree saplings yesterday. Rei had left his brothers to plant them while he'd gone to find them some meat to celebrate.

 Coming home, Rei heard them before he could see them.

 "Ryu that's not how you dig a hole. No you have to- No use your- Oh, just give it here!"

 Holding back his mirth, Rei rounded the corner of their house to see Teepo instructing Ryu on the proper technique for digging a hole, complete with demonstration and short, sharp directions.

 Rei caught Ryu's eyes and his youngest brother flushed. Then Rei noticed there were quite a few holes already done, perfectly created, and couldn't quite hide his amused smirk as Ryu once again failed to dig a hole in the most dramatic way possible. Teepo promptly snatched the shovel back again and dug two more holes. They'd have too many at this rate.

 Dropping the rabbits he'd caught by the house, he strode forwards to clap a hand down on top of each of their heads, grinning ear to ear. "I may not be very good at math but even I can see we have eight fruit trees and seven holes." Grabbing the spade himself, he dug the last one quickly, before anything could escalate. It was a little sloppy but deep enough that Teepo only scowled a little at it. He didn't even try to fix it when Rei handed the spade back.

 Ryu moved off to start putting the saplings in the ground and Teepo only looked alarmed for a moment before he realised Ryu was doing this part right, at least.

 Turning back to Rei, he said, "I see you're getting bolder with your kills."

 "Their Royal Pains In The Butts aren't going to notice a few less rabbits in spring, Teepo."

 "Early Spring."

 Rei waved off the concern. "Whatever. I think we got enough tomatoes for a stew, at least. Momo better bring us more spices when she comes next. I got used to fancier food on the road than we ever had as kids. Who knew salt could do so much to a hunk of meat."

 "You're getting careless. If we're-"

 "Relax, Teepo."

 Teepo scowled but they lapsed into silence, watching Ryu move from plant to plant, carefully placing them in the ground. For someone with the power to literally destroy the world if he wanted to, Ryu was the gentlest soul he'd ever met. Even plants were treated tenderly.

 "Do you still think he's dangerous?" Rei asked softly.

 Teepo watched Ryu as he answered with a shake of his head. "I don't think I ever did... not really. The kid that cries at the drop of a hat? With too much empathy for his own good. That's not someone who wants power."

 "But...?"

 Teepo sighed, "but I still don't trust myself. All I've had time to do is think and I know who I am. I don't want to leave, but I don't want to keep him here, either. If he wants to go..."

 "And what if he wants to stay?" Rei murmured.

 Ryu looked up from his work and waved, Rei waved back with Teepo reluctantly doing so too a few seconds later. The grin on their youngest brother's face was heartbreakingly bright.

 "All he ever wanted, was be with his family, and that's us, Teepo. Ain't no way you can change that." He swung an arm around Teepo's shoulder, drawing him in close. "Maybe one day we let him go, yeah? But he's gonna come back. No matter where he goes without us, he'll always wind up back here sooner or later with a new story and some new friends. Probably a few new scars the way trouble finds him."

 "Then maybe we need to go with him to protect him..."

 "If we ever do, I'm sure we can go wherever you want..." Rei replied, giving him a squeeze.

 "...Except Wyndia. We're wanted criminals there."

 "You're what?!" Teepo squawked.

 From where he was planting, Ryu looked up to watch Teepo chase Rei across the clearing and smiled.

[venetum]

Monachopsis - one

read on ao3a peter parker x harley keener fanfic

read on ao3

Peter was in the middle of his weekly Skype calls with Ned when Tony called him. Things had been a little bit difficult for the two boys since they’d gone their separate ways for college, with Peter deciding to stay in New York and go to Columbia in order to continue to be Spider-Man while Ned accepted his offer from MIT. But they’d persevered—setting up a time for at least one Skype call every week and texting back and forth as much as their busy schedules would allow them—and their relationship remained as strong as ever even three years later.

To be completely honest, Peter’s relationships with his friends from high school hadn’t really been affected by their moves to college, nor by the distance. If anything, it was the friend who lived closest to him that Peter had somehow lost. Peter Parker and Harley Keener Stark had been attached at the hip almost as soon as Tony had introduced Peter to his son, a few months after Tony had first approached Peter about Spider-Man. With Harley only a year older than him and enrolled at his school, the boys had gotten along even better than Tony had initially hoped they would. Well, until Harley left for university, that is. He’d chosen to remain in the city, but had vehemently denied Pepper and Tony’s offer for him to continue living at the tower, insisting on living in his own apartment by the university instead. That was when things had started going downhill for the two of them, with Harley absorbed so completely in the attention he was getting at college that he was too busy to even give Peter a second thought.

Not that Peter still cared about him. He’d had plenty of time in the past three years to rid himself of any feelings he’d once harboured for the blue-eyed boy. Platonic or otherwise.

So there Peter sat, fiddling with the latest version of his web-shooters at his desk as Ned rambled on about the project he was currently working on, blissfully unaware of the storm that was about to wreak havoc on his entire life.

And then his phone rang.

“Sorry, Ned, hold on one second,” Peter told his best friend, already reaching out to grab his phone as Tony’s own unique ringtone filled the room.

Ned only nodded, having been around Peter long enough to recognise who was calling.

“Hey, Tony! Everything okay?” Peter answered the call.

“Do I need a reason to call my favourite son?” Tony wondered, sounding mildly offended.

Peter rolled his eyes, laughing. “No, I suppose you don’t. So, how was the meeting with the board? They give you the go-ahead to finally retire, old man?”

“Something like that,” Tony sighed. “That’s actually what I’m calling about. Can you drop by the tower in an hour?”

“Yeah, of course. I’ll see you there.”

“See you, Pete.”

Peter hung up and bit his lip, wondering what exactly the board had done this time to put his mentor in such a strange mood.

“Everything okay?” Ned’s voice filtered through the speakers of Peter’s laptop, drawing his attention back to his best friend.

Peter shook his head, “Yeah, everything’s fine. So tell me more about this code you’re writing.”

_____

Harley blinked blearily up at his parents, wondering idly if he had drunk enough the night before to be currently hallucinating to the extent he was sure he was.

“I’m sorry, you want me to what?”

“Date Peter Parker.” His father—Tony—helpfully supplied.

“Absolutely not.” Harley snapped, folding his arms over his chest in defiance.

He saw his mother’s lips twitch up into a small smile, surely reminiscent of the many tantrums Harley had thrown that had left him sitting in this exact position.

“Harley,” Pepper began gently, taking a seat next to her son. “We need you to listen to us right now. The board does not want you to take over from us once we retire, partially because they think you’re too young and partially because of your reputation in the press. They don’t want to have to deal with a CEO whose messes they’ll constantly have to clean up and honestly? Your father and I agree.”

Harley rolled his eyes, his gaze flickering between his parents.

“I don’t see what any of this has to do with me dating Peter. Besides, Tony did way worse when he was my age.”

“Do not compare yourself to me, Harley.” Tony snapped, “You were meant to be better than that. Better than me. And we both know the board won’t take this shit from you because they took enough of it from me. Peter, on the other hand, doesn’t have anything the board would object to at all. He deserves better than having to be dragged into this mess, but we don’t really have many options so I suggest you get your act together before Peter gets here and listen to us, or you’re going to have to kiss this legacy goodbye!”

Harley’s hands curled into fists at his sides, the blood rising to his face as Tony completed his rant. Of course, he fumed, of course Peter’s pristine reputation will be swooping in to save the day.

“Why don’t you just make Peter your precious CEO then?” Harley retorted, ignoring the dull pain that had begun to throb in his chest at the thought that his parents might actually prefer the younger boy to him. God, he needed a drink.

“He doesn’t want the job, Harley.” Pepper sighed. “You and I both know you’d be perfect for the job if you tried. So, if this is what you want then that’s exactly what we need you to do—try.”

“He despises me,” Harley pointed out in a last-ditch attempt to stop the ridiculous plan his parents had come up with to please the board. “And even if he didn’t, I don’t date.”

“We’re not asking you to fall in love with him, Harley.” Pepper laid a hand on her son’s shoulder. “Just… pretend for a few months, okay? Go on public dates, be seen holding hands by the press, do whatever you need to do to convince the media and the board that you’re turning over a new leaf and maturing enough that they can trust you to lead a company.”

“This is ridiculous.” Harley pointed out once more. But as ridiculous as the plan was, following in his mother’s footsteps and inheriting the company from his parents had been his dream since he was thirteen years old and had moved in with the pair. He would do it, for them. For the dreams he used to have. “Has Peter even agreed to this yet?”

Tony smiled triumphantly, knowing they had worn him down. “He should be here any minute now, we figured it would probably be best to run things by you first and get any drama out of the way before he gets here.”

Harley ran a hand through his hair, the urge to walk over to the bottles on the other end of the room and pour himself a drink intensifying at the thought of having to face Peter Parker again in such a close setting. “Great.”

“So, you’ll do it?” Pepper raised her eyebrows, wanting to get a clear answer out of her son before Peter arrived.

“If he agrees, sure. Why the hell not?” Harley shrugged, trying his best to appear nonchalant. After all, what were the odds that Parker would actually agree to fake-date him, anyway?

Well, it turned out that the answer to Harley’s question was way higher than he’d anticipated.

______

Peter sat silently across from Tony and Pepper as they explained their situation with the board to him, forcing his gaze to remain on the couple instead of allowing it to drift to where it actually wanted to go—to observe the slightly rumpled boy who was the main reason Peter had to be at the tower today.

“Sure,” Peter finally responded, a few moments after the two had stopped talking. “I know how important it is to the two of you to leave S.I. in good hands, and you’ve been planning your retirement for years. I’m down to help in any way I can.”

The boy sat next to him scoffed quietly at his comment, cursing under his breath and shuffling in his seat so that he too was facing his parents. Pepper beamed at Peter, her smile closely mirroring the one plastered on Tony’s face once the pair realised that Peter was, in fact, serious.

“Alright, then. Let’s work out some of the specifics, first.” Pepper pulled her StarkPad over to her and began typing. “We’ll want the two of you to start as soon as possible, of course, so that you have enough time to make the relationship look serious before the break-up.”

Peter simply nodded, his mind still reeling at the fact that this was actually happening. He was going to date Harley. Harley who he hadn’t spoken to properly in three years, Harley who had been the person Peter relied on most in the world, until suddenly, he wasn’t anymore. He wondered idly if maybe he should’ve taken some time to actually think about this decision first.

But, no. He knew Pepper and Tony would only be asking this of him if they had no other options left. This was the right thing to do. He just hoped that his heart would survive the process.

“When exactly will that be? The break-up, I mean.” Harley finally spoke up from next to him, breaking Peter out of his thoughts.

“Around when you graduate, probably. Preferably after the board offers you the job.” Pepper responded, the pace of her keystrokes increasing as she jotted down her thoughts.

“Which gives you approximately nine months to prove to press that you’re madly in love.” Tony provided rather helpfully. “Piece of cake.”

“So you say,” Harley huffed.

Peter resisted the urge to sigh. He could already tell that he was in for the longest three months of his life.

“Alright, so we should probably go over some basic rules while we’re all here. Firstly no one outside of this family can know that the two of you aren’t actually together.” Pepper began. Peter opened his mouth to interject, only to be cut off by Tony.

“Yes, that includes Ned and MJ, Peter.”

“Secondly, we need the two of you to not be involved with anybody else during the course of this relationship because we absolutely cannot risk providing the tabloids with an even bigger scandal.”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Harley exclaimed. “You might as well send me away to be a fucking monk while you’re at it.”

Tony snorted, “Cut the shit, kid. Not fucking around for nine months isn’t going to kill you.”

Peter’s glancer flickered between his mentor and Harley, his enhanced hearing allowing him to notice the increase in Harley’s heartbeat at the comment, his anger and embarrassment coming off of him in waves.

“Is there anything else?” Peter asked Pepper, desperately trying to redirect the conversation before Harley exploded.

“Not that I can think of at the moment. Just make sure to keep your public appearances constant and keep your social media accounts updated. I’ll let you know if we remember anything else.” Peter nodded, rising from his seat on the couch with Harley. The two boys made their way towards the door, Peter wanting desperately to escape before the situation got any more awkward.

“And, Pete?” Tony called to him just as he was leaving. Peter turned back to look at his mentor. “Thank you.”

“Anytime, Tony.” Peter smiled at him, giving him a quick thumbs-up before he left the study.

The two exited the room in silence, making their way to the elevator that would take them down to their respective modes of transport.

“So…” Peter began, shoving his hand through his hair as he tried to figure out what to say. “That was something.”

Harley grunted in response, keeping his eyes trained on the closed elevator doors. Stifling a sigh, Peter cursed the elevators at Stark Tower for taking what felt like eons to come get them when they were usually as prompt as ever.

“Look Parker, we don’t need to act like we like each other when there isn’t anyone else around. I’m doing this for Pepper and Tony, and for the company, and you’re doing this because Tony could ask you to jump off a bridge and you do that blindly.” Harley scoffed, “Let’s just get through these nine months and not kill each other, yeah?”

Peter narrowed his eyes at Harley, his heart aching slightly at how alien the man before him now was compared to the teenager he once knew.

“There was a time when you felt the same way about Tony,” Peter commented idly, breathing a sigh of relief as the elevator doors slid open.

“Don’t ever doubt my loyalty to this family,” Harley snapped at him, practically stomping into the elevator. “Don’t act like you know me, Parker. You don’t. Not anymore.”

Peter took a step back, not quite knowing how to respond. The elevator doors slid shut, sealing Harley inside. Peter sighed. Harley was right, after all. Peter certainly didn’t know the man that Harley had turned into, but he was beginning to doubt whether he’d ever really known Harley at all.

(A/N: Let me know your thoughts on this chapter!! And shoot me a message to be added to the taglist for this fic. I know its been aaages since I posted but I have more time, and I intend to finish this for sure.)

Tags: @livinglife1516​  @philipshaaayyyy​  @maywildflowers​ @carttorchdeatth​  @parkneroses​ @mauverawrites​ 

[littlemisssquiggles]

Any thoughts on the episode 4?

I’m going to be bluntly honest with you here; anon-chan. Chapter 4 is my least favourite episode of RWBY V7 thus far.

Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t an entirely bad episode. On the contrary, it was another solid episode.  It reminded me of last season’s fourth episode—the aftermath of one chapter where a lot of action and excitement took place. Compared to the events of the last three episodes, CH4 felt almost kind of boring in a way. But again, it wasn’t a terrible episode. It left details and reveals that should be noticed like the ending reveal where Watts was shown to known Jacques Schnee personally. 

Watts and Jacques:

That to me was the best part of the episode. I mean I’ve heard other RWBY theorist point out the possibility of Watts and Jacques possibly being related. Like I can recall RWBY Youtuber: Cailayx sharing a theory video about Watts and Jacques secretly being brothers.

Personally I didn’t really buy into that theory although I do get why folks could come to that deduction. And since this episode highlighted that Jacques and Watts know each other, perhaps they are indeed related. If not by actual blood brothers then perhaps—half-brothers.

Perhaps…they’re even cousins? Or perhaps they’re just old acquaintances who helped each other get where they are to this date.

Either way, Watts knowing Jacques got me super interested since it answers my theories shared in this musing post. Watts is going to help Jacques win the elections. More than that, Watts is going to help Jacques overthrow Ironwood’s place on the Atlesian Council. I had a strong feeling this was going to be the case and after seeing the end, I’m excited to see where this all goes.

I’m especially interested to see how this development in going to affect Whitley. It makes me wonder if Whit is going to possibly inform Weiss about what he learnt about Jacques and Watts. 

After all, when James and Jacques were having their disputes in Jacques’ office back in V4, Whitley was the one who told Weiss before she saw  their father. Who’s to say that this isn’t going to happen again? 

Whether or not, Weiss will believe Whitley after what happened the last time the two saw each other—who knows. But this episode dropped some juicy breadcrumbs for the Schnee Family Affairs and the Crimes of the SDC side of the V7 narrative and I’m definitely excited to see where it all goes, especially for Whit.

At least one of my sons got some screen time this episode. Speaking of sons…alright, time for me to address the Mammoth Grimm in the room like I always do.

Oh Where, Oh Where Can My Smol Farm Boy Be?

Like I said, this episode was a solid episode. However, me being me, I couldn’t help notice that  certain freckled little barn prince was absent from this entire episode and words cannot begin to describe how much that seriously bothered me.

If I may rant here for a few paragraphs—You mean to tell me that our heroes—JNR_RWBY all officially got their huntsmen licenses.

As of now, they are no longer students anymore. They are officially certified huntsmen and huntresses qualified to work in the field. It is treated as a big commemorative moment with cake and possibly other refreshments. 

You mean to tell me that we have this awesome celebratory moment with the WHOLE TEAM together to revel in this grandiose achievement after everything they’ve all suffered through these past few seasons since Beacon…andOscar wasn’t present at all for any of it?

Are these Writers SERIOUS right now?    

They couldn’t even be bothered to have Oscar come down from Atlas with Ironwood or Winter or even Penny to join in the festivities and be there to congratulate his friends on the success of their first mission with the Aces and becoming official huntsmen.

What excuse do the Writers have for NOT having him be there? 

I mean @miki-13 mentioned a good possibility of Oscar not being there since he and Ruby are kind of avoiding each other at the moment (perhaps they had a fight during their talk before the mission with the Aces that left things tense between them).  

While that it is a great deduction, I’m not sure if that was the case in the show. As a matter of fact, not only did we not get to see the rest of the Ruby’s conversation with Oscar to know how that concluded but this episode, doesn’t even mention Oscar at all.

His presence was non-existent this episode and after coming off of an episode like CH3 where he was at least mentioned despite not being there with the others, to go from CH3 to this…I’m sorry, I am beyond annoyed by this episode.

As a Pinehead, it’s moments like this that kind of irk me because it makes me feel as if the Writers aren’t serious about giving Oscar any development. I’m not just referring to his own individual growth as a character outside of his story with Oz. I’m also talking about his relationship with the other heroes and his overall presence on the team.

Oscar is supposed to be a part of the hero team too but it’s hard to believe this when you get episodes like today’s. 

Last volume, the Writers had the audacity to have characters like Jaune say things like ‘This team isn’t the same without Oscar’ in that abysmal V6CH9 episode. And now here we are again with a big team moment and he’s not there. 

Everyone is present—Penny’s there. Winter is there. The Ace Ops are there. The gangs all here EXCEPT OSCAR. And what made it worse wasthat he wasn’t even mentioned.  Nor was he even missed.

And what bothered me even more was there was no narrative reason for Oscar to not be there with everyone. You can’t even use the excuse that Oscar was busy training with Ironwood since Ironwood was there too!

Everyone who was present in his office for V7CH2 when the plans for the AmityTower were being discussed was there EXCEPT OSCAR!

Like…how the f*** could you forget him. 

I just…I CANNOT with these Writers anymore. I know it’s just one episode but…not again. Not to sound overdramatic here but, I’m upset. 

And the more I think about it, the more upset I become. Thank you CRWBY Writers for rekindling my disbelief in your ability to keep your word about treating Oscar better for this volume.

Looks like it’s going to be business as usual and I just…*long frustrated groan*

Again, I know they only neglected him for episode but…after V6CH9; I’m not falling for this shit again. This episode left me hella salty and I’m honestly starting to feel less excited for CH5 now because I have a feeling that Oscarmight not be in that episode either. 

I mean, if we’re lucky, CH5 might be Oscar’s training with Ironwood. Now that the mission with the Ace Ops portion is complete and our heroes will probably be off on missions around Mantle and Atlas, I’m hoping next episode will focus a bit Oscar’s own training with Ironwood. He has some catching up to do. The others are certified huntsmen now.Which makes me wonder if Oscar is going to eventually get certified as well?

Unlike the others who chose to become huntsmen, Oscar was roped into it through Oz. So what is going to be Oscar’s goal? Is his goal only to become Ozpin’s replacement? I sincerely hope not. I hope the show takes some time to flesh Oscar out and finally show a bit more on how he’s been handling all of this. But then again, not going to get my hopes up here especially after today.

With our heroes officially certified as huntsmen, it gives me the impression that the heroes will all be busy on missions and it feels like they won’t even be sticking in teams anymore.

Drifting Away?

One point that was highlighted in this episode is our heroes going off and doing their own thing and not necessarily sticking together. It doesn’t seem like friendship plays a role in being a huntsmen. At least not in Atlas? As we saw with the Aces, just because they all work together and get along well in the field, outside of the job, they’re nothing more than colleagues. They’re not even friends which actually saddened me a little bit.

I understand it comes with the job and it’s a reality that Ruby and the others have to deal with, still didn’t make it feel any less bummy to hear especially since we know that a core part of what made our heroes so great is their comradery with one another.

As Weiss rightfully told Jacques (when she put him in his place FINALLY), our heroes aren’t just teammates or even friends. They’re family who have been through alot.together.

So I’m curious to see if being certified huntsmen might change this. After being together for so long, I’m wondering if Atlas will cause everyone to start drifting apart. That’s what I’m wondering.

Summer Rose

Summer was mentioned in this episode. It was done in a nice little moment with Qrow and Ruby. In spite of my annoyance of the lack of Oscar in this episode, I am glad we got to see Ruby and Qrow have this moment together. Especially sine it finally got Ruby to ask about her mom since she rarely ever talks about her…in the series.

It was a pleasant moment and I liked it. 

Overall…

All in all, like I said, today’s episode was a bad episode. I just…didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the last three episodes. It also kind of sucker punched my hopes for Oscar being treated better this season.

Sorry if I’m acting like a drama queen with this matter but…as I’ve said many times before, Oscar is my favourite character in RWBY. His story and development is the one I’m most excited to see fleshed out. And after the way he was handled for the past two seasons, especially in V6,, I was really, REALLY worried for how the Writers were going to treat him for V7.

So far for these last three episodes, they were doing very good with him and I was actually starting to feel hopeful that V7 might just be Oscar’s best season yet. But then this episode came along and I feel like I’m back to my previous skepticism

I’m hoping that this episode is the only episode of V7 where Oscar is omitted. I hope next episode the story focuses on Oscar a litle bit. CH5 is slated to be the longest episode for this season so far at nearly 20 minutes.

So hopefully the little barn prince will be back from his hiatus this episode. I especially want to know what happened between him and Ruby. Something about how they left off their conversation from last week bothers me. There is more to it. I just want to know when we’ll get the rest. I guess we’ll only know moving forward.

Anyways, that’s all I got to say for CH4. Thanks for asking anon-chan.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019) 

[kagehinataboke]

todo... baku... sharing a bed... i will die

wow i’m already dead, okay let’s fucking do this, ble ss

tdbk: [1] sharing a bed

***

It’s rare for a bus to break down. It’s rarer still for said bus to be full of amateur heroes, bone tired from a training camp and absolutely dead on their feet. It’s rare, but it happens—and when it does, overnight accommodations are unsurprisingly difficult to find.

Aizawa’s solution to the lack of rooms is to have everyone share via drawing names, which goes over well with everyone. Well, almost everyone. As expected, one specific person is very against the idea.

“Why the fuck am I stuck with this shitty Icy Hot bastard?!” Bakugou demands, nearly ripping his paper in half. Todoroki frowns, but says nothing in his own defense: saying something would only piss him off more. When Aizawa, too, remains silent, Bakugou whirls on the next closest person: Ojiro. “Tail, switch with me! Oi, don’t you fucking shake your head, Pikachu.”

“Kacchan, everyone has to stick with their assigned rooms—“

“Did I fucking ask you, Deku? Shut the fuck up.”

“Nobody is switching rooms,” Aizawa sighs tiredly, finally intervening. “Bakugou, you’ll room with Todoroki. No more complaints or you’ll sleep outside.” It’s a bit hard to take him seriously when he’s busy unzipping his sleeping bag. “Now everyone go to bed.”

Bakugou surprisingly doesn’t argue, but Todoroki can feel daggers being glared into his back. He’s used to Bakugou’s hatred of him, of course, but it’s still a little hurtful for someone to dislike him enough to find the idea of sharing a room together intolerable. Todoroki has never been directly confrontational to Bakugou, but everything he does seems to be taken as a challenge or insult.

He wants to get along: it’s troublesome always fighting. Unfortunately, the two of them are always in tense situations—like this one, for example.

“Why the fuck is there only one bed?” Bakugou pushes his way past the room’s threshold to gesture angrily at the, indeed, singular bed. “What the hell is this bullshit?!”

Todoroki wisely decides to stay quiet, but Bakugou isn’t done yet. He storms back out into the hall, no doubt to seek out Aizawa and complain again. Of course something else would go wrong: Todoroki can never catch a break where Bakugou is concerned. This will only drive them further apart. Not that they were close to begin with, but still.

“That motherfucker…” Bakugou returns looking none the happier and nails Todoroki with a glare that could curdle milk. “There are no other open rooms, so looks like there’s no other fucking choice.”

“No other choice?” Todoroki repeats warily. “Are we going to…”

“Don’t even finish that fucking sentence.” Bakugou pinches the bridge of his nose with the longest sigh Todoroki has ever heard. “I hate your fucking guts, but I can’t make you sleep on the floor. I’m not a complete asshole.”

There’s room to argue there, but Todoroki is more concerned with the hidden meaning in his words: They’re sharing the bed. Bakugou Katsuki, who notoriously despises him, is willingly going to share a bed with him. As much as he hates to admit it, Todoroki is the tiniest bit pleased.

“Now you’re making an annoying fucking face.” A scowling Bakugou shoves him onto the mattress. “Just lay down so we can go to sleep, damn Canadian-flag-looking bastard.”

Todoroki ignores the insult. Sleeping in the same bed is real progress, no matter how angrily Bakugou approaches it. Not that Todoroki is very excited about sleeping together with a guy whose favorite word is ‘die,’ but it’s still progress. Maybe this marks the end of their famed rivalry. God, the mere idea of no more morning “fuck you”s or “go die”s makes Todoroki want to cry in relief.

Unfortunately, he’s getting ahead of himself: Bakugou isn’t going to make things easy. “Turn around. Don’t fucking look at me, asshole.”

“Sorry.” Todoroki flips around, nearly flying off the bed when Bakugou’s elbow hits him. “Ow. I can’t stay on when you—“

“Shut up, I fucking know. It’s small, okay? Shit. Your knee is hitting me— I told you not to fucking face this way!”

“I can’t face the other way or I’ll fall. Ow, stop elbowing me.”

“Shut the fuck— Stop flailing!” Bakugou grabs both of his arms and tugs him forward, their foreheads nearly colliding.

Todoroki can feel open air at his back: the way-too-close edge of the bed. He expects to get pushed away any second, but Bakugou’s hands have locked on his elbows to keep him from falling. Neither of them are looking at each other, but Todoroki can feel a rapid heartbeat where his ear is pressed against Bakugou’s chest. “I’m… going to fall.”

“Shut up asshole. I’m holding you up, aren’t I?” Bakugou grumbles, tightening his hold. “Don’t move.”

Half of Todoroki wants to say something about how weirdly considerate he’s being, but the other half knows it’ll scare Bakugou off. It doesn’t matter that their hearts are both beating out of their chests, he tells himself. The way Bakugou is holding onto him is definitely progress. It doesn’t feel malicious at all: in fact, it feels almost peaceful.

Todoroki never noticed before, but Bakugou’s skin is warm, and he smells a bit like melting sugar. His hands are rough, but his touch isn’t harsh. It’s far too easy to drift off, even with repeatedly-grumbled warnings not to get too close.

***

“Oh my god, somebody get a picture.”

“Quick, who’s got their phone?”

“Shh, you’ll wake them up!”

Todoroki frowns at the overwhelming sensory information his tired brain is struggling to process. There’s warmth all around, light on his closed eyelids, and quiet giggles nearby. What’s going on? The last thing he remembers is… Oh yeah: he and Bakugou are rooming together. Bakugou most definitely isn’t the one giggling, though.

“What the fuck’s going on?” someone murmurs tiredly: now that sounds like Bakugou. Equally tired Todoroki decides its better to just keep sleeping. It’s too warm to get up yet.

“Get the fuck out!” Bakugou’s voice rises for half a second before he lowers it again. Todoroki realizes the warmth he’s feeling is coming from Bakugou’s arms as soon as they shift.

How strange to think that Bakugou’s actually being considerate—not to mention that he’s hugging Todoroki around the waist. Did he wake up beside a different person? Nope: “Scram before I fucking kill you all!” The giggling and whispers disappear, leaving behind silence broken only by Bakugou’s muttered swearing. “Fucking bastards…”

There’s a long moment of silence before Bakugou shifts again, carefully extracting himself from the bed. He pulls Todoroki forward to keep him from falling, but nothing else. There are several muffled curses and quiet thumps. The door clicks open and closed again. Todoroki opens his eyes to an empty room, and he’s mad for half a second that Bakugou plans to leave him to sleep—and presumably to miss the bus. Then he notices the drawn curtains and the blankets tucked around him. 

Did he really wake up next to a different person? Did Bakugou have a change of heart? Or, least likely of all, has he secretly been considerate all along?

Todoroki tries to puzzle it out while gathering his things, but a conclusion eludes him. Even on the way to the bus, while just ignoring everyone’s giggles and stares, he can’t figure it out. Bakugou hates him. Or, no… Can he even say that anymore? Probably not after last night. Are they still enemies? He needs to get to the bottom of this.

Bakugou is sitting in a spot in the very back of the bus, scowling out the window. When Todoroki approaches, he looks up with his normal icy glare. “The fuck do you want?”

“To sit. With you.” Todoroki silently takes the seat beside him, making sure to keep his eyes downcast. Best not to refreeze the ice they’ve just broken.

“Go fucking sit somewhere else, Half n’ Half. Who the hell said you could—“ Bakugou cuts himself off to glare at their obviously-staring classmates. After they quickly look away, he gives up on his rant with a tense exhale. “Whatever. Do what you want.”

Todoroki doesn’t say anything, settling against his seat to wait for the bus’ departure. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches a red-faced Bakugou glare at the window like it owes him its soul. It’s hard to tell, but he seems calm…ish? Maybe constipated? Todoroki is a bad judge of emotion.

There’s one solid way to tell if Bakugou’s hatred of him has subsided. Todoroki is a little afraid it will get him thrown out the window, but he’d rather know that he’s despised than have no clue where they stand, so he closes his eyes. The process of falling asleep on someone is much harder when you’re doing it on purpose. How do the shoulders sag? How does the head fall? Todoroki is thinking he’s doing a pretty good job when his head hits Bakugou’s shoulder.

There’s an obvious flinch; a loaded inhale; but nothing else. Bakugou relaxes again, as if nothing has happened. Then, a moment later, he adjusts himself ever so slightly to let Todoroki‘s head fall against the crook of his neck. That tiny act of consideration settles it: Bakugou definitely doesn’t hate him.

Maybe it’s because they’ve already spent eight hours crammed in a tiny bed together, but Todoroki feels comfortable when he starts to drift off again. Compared to the uncomfortable seat, Bakugou’s shoulder is soft and inviting. Even with the bumpy road and their nosy classmates, it isn’t hard to fall asleep.