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honeybeezgobzzzzz · 3 months

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Ψ M is for Maraclea: Chapter Five

M is for Maraclea: Following an accident you had over summer break, you find yourself in limbo after being legally dead for several minutes. Now an outcast at boarding school, you end up finding comfort in a strange boy named Nigel. As winter draws near and tragedy strikes, your only reprieve from madness comes from a mind much like your own.

Warnings: A dead bird gets vivisected.

To Note: Nigel Colbie x Fem!Reader, NAMED Reader for Plot Reasons, There Are A Lot of DARK Themes.

Word Count: ~2.2k

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You sit at the piano in the chapel hall, fingers hovering over the keys. The cold metal sends a shiver up your spine, grounding you in the moment. Across the room, Susan stands center stage, her presence commanding. The other cast members circle her, their eyes trained on her every move.

Susan's voice echoes through the chapel, each word deliberate and measured. "So I do," she declares, her gaze sweeping over the boys like a queen addressing her court. "Louis of France loved me. And I dreamed that I loved Louis of France. And I loved Henry of England. And Henry of England dreamed he loved me. But the marriage garland withers, even with the putting on."

Your fingers dance across the keys, pressing down on the notes that bring a haunting melody to her words as she continues to speak. "The bright link rusts at the breath of the first after-marriage kiss. I could laugh at this poor world myself, that it isn't better ordered."

Your fingers still hover over the keys when sudden screaming slices through the chapel. Heads snap toward the room off to the side where all the props and costumes are kept. Jane, Victoria, and Charity burst out, their faces pale, eyes wide with terror.

The teachers and nun monitoring the rehearsal rush over. "What's wrong?" one of them asks, concern lacing their voice.

The girls' words tumble out, incoherent sobs mixed with broken sentences. "Something... dead... in the trunk..."

Curiosity and dread pull you from your seat. You rise, your movements slow and deliberate as you make your way toward the room. The adults' voices buzz around you like static, but your focus narrows on the trunk in question.

A cluster of teachers and a nun stand by it, their expressions grave. One teacher kneels, cautiously lifting the lid. You push forward, slipping through the small crowd until you're at the front.

There, nestled among costumes and props, lies a dead bird. Its feathers are matted with blood, eyes glassy and lifeless. The sight hits you like a punch to the gut, stirring memories of cold water and numbing darkness.

"Who would do such a thing?" someone whispers behind you shortly before hands are on your shoulders and tugging you away from the gory sight.

"Mary, step away," the nun instructs, her voice soft but firm. "You needn't see such a sight."

You're led back into the chapel, your mind swirling with the image of the bird. The teachers huddle in the corner, their voices low and serious as they discuss what to do next. You can still see the lifeless eyes of the bird, its body cut open with delicate precision. Surgical even. The word vivisected echoes in your head.

Susan approaches you, her eyes wide with concern. "Mary, are you alright? That must have been awful."

You barely register her words. The scene replays in your mind: the meticulous cuts, the blood-matted feathers. Your gaze drifts to the back of the chapel where a group of boys linger. Among them, you spot Alex and Nigel.

Nigel's eyes lock onto yours. There's something in his gaze—an unspoken acknowledgment. Your heart flutters as realization sinks in. The precision of those cuts, the choice of victim, the placement in Jane, Victoria, and Charity's trunk—it all points to Nigel.

Your lips twitch into a ghost of a smile. You know he did it for you.

Susan's voice pulls you back. "Mary? Are you sure you're okay?"

You nod absently, letting her words wash over you without really hearing them. Your eyes shift from Nigel to the girls who found the bird. They're still shaken, their faces pale and tear-streaked.

You move back to the piano as if nothing happened. The cool keys welcome your touch, grounding you once more. Your fingers glide over them, coaxing out a soft melody that fills the chapel and drowns out the whispers and murmurs around you.

As you play, you feel Nigel's gaze on you, a silent connection that speaks volumes. The bird was his message—a token of his reverence.

The chapel hall buzzes with hushed conversations, but you shut them out. Your fingers glide over the piano keys, each note a shield against the chaos around you. The haunting melody you play fills the space, and for a moment, it feels like it's just you and the piano. The cold metal of the keys keeps you grounded.

Susan's voice cuts through your concentration. "Mary, seriously, are you okay? You've been acting… odd since this morning. What happened?"

You nod, but don't meet her eyes. The image of the dead bird in the trunk lingers in your mind, mingling with memories of cold water and numbing darkness. A beautiful tribute. You keep playing, letting the music be your answer.

"Alright," Susan says, her voice tinged with worry. "But if you need to talk—"

"I'm fine," you say, your voice steadier than you feel, and lighter than usual. You add a few more notes to the melody, each one more forceful than the last. Susan hesitates but eventually steps back. Her concern is palpable, but you can't focus on that now. Not with the unusual blooming warmth surrounding your numb heart.

You continue to play, each note an anchor to keep your thoughts from drifting too far. The melody soothes you, but the memory of the dead bird claws at the edges of your mind.

Alex approaches, his footsteps soft but purposeful. He stops beside the piano, his presence a solid weight next to you. "That bloody bird has been the most exciting thing around in days."

You pause, fingers hovering above the keys. You look up at Alex, meeting his concerned gaze. His eyes flicker with something unspoken—a mix of disgust and amusement.

"How do you think that bird ended up in the trunk?" Alex's voice is low, his words more for you than anyone else in the room.

You shrug, your expression neutral. "I don't know."

Alex grunts at your lie, then he sighs and shakes his head.

"At least it was them," he mutters, glancing over to where Jane, Victoria, and Charity huddle together. Their faces are still pale, eyes wide with lingering shock. "It's amusing to see them on the short end of the stick for once. Too bad they don't stay there."

Your lips twitch. The sight of them unsettled brings a twisted sense of satisfaction. They’ve tormented you relentlessly since summer ended.

"It is enjoyable," you agree softly, your fingers resuming their dance across the keys. The melody flows once more, carrying over the whimpers of your tormentors.

Alex leans against the piano, his presence a steadying force beside you. "You know they deserve it, right?"

You keep your focus on the keys. "Perhaps."

The weight of what happened hangs in the air between you two, unspoken but understood. The dead bird was a message—one meant for them but somehow feels like it’s also for you. A silent vindication.

"Just be careful," Alex says after a pause, his voice softer now. "I don't want to see you getting caught up in something worse."

You nod without looking at him, letting the music speak for you. Each note echoes through the chapel hall, drowning out the whispers and the unease.

"Mary," Alex begins again, his tone more insistent this time. "you need to tell me if they try anything with you."

You glance up at him, meeting his intense gaze. There's a protectiveness in his eyes that makes your chest tighten. "I'll be fine, Alex."

He doesn't look convinced. His brow furrows, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "You say that, but I know how they are. What if it gets worse?"

You press down harder on the keys, the melody turning sharper, more discordant. "I can handle it."

Alex lets out a frustrated sigh and runs a hand through his hair. "You're so damn stubborn."

A faint smile tugs at your lips. "It runs in the family."

Before Alex can respond, Susan approaches again, her eyes darting between you and Alex. "Hey, rehearsal's over for today. Everyone's pretty shaken up."

You nod, your fingers finally stilling on the keys. The abrupt silence feels jarring after the continuous flow of music.

"Come on, sis," Alex says, straightening up and offering you his hand. "Let's get out of here."

You sit at your desk in the dimly lit dorm room, a textbook open before you. The pages blur as your mind drifts, replaying the day's events. The dead bird's image lingers in your thoughts, an distracting backdrop to the equations you're supposed to be solving.

The whispers of the other girls float through the thin walls. They’re gathered in the common area, their voices hushed but carrying enough for you to catch snippets of their conversation.

"Did you hear about the bird? It was... disgusting."

"Who would do something like that?"

"Probably some psycho. This place is full of weirdos."

You let out a slow breath, focusing on your homework. The numbers and formulas offer a semblance of normalcy, a way to anchor yourself. But the whispers keep seeping in, distracting you.

"I heard it was cut open. Like, really precise."

"Ugh, don't even. It's giving me chills."

You reach for your pencil and scribble down a solution to the problem in front of you. The graphite glides smoothly over the paper, each stroke a small victory against the chaos outside your door.

"Do you think it was meant for us? Like some kind of warning?"

"Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised."

You can't help but smirk at that. They have no idea who they're dealing with—or why. Your hand tightens around the pencil as you force yourself to focus on the task at hand.

"The teachers are freaking out. They're talking about bringing in security."

"Good. Maybe they'll find out who did it and expel them." Doubtful, Nigel is meticulous.

"Hey, do you think Mary knows anything about it? She's been acting so weird lately. At least weirder than normal."

Your grip on the pencil tightens until your knuckles turn white. You knew they would suspect you eventually; they've been looking for any excuse to make your life miserable.

"I don't know. She's always so quiet and creepy."

"Yeah, ever since she came back from... you know."

The memory of cold water and numbing darkness rushes back, but you push it aside. You have more pressing concerns right now. You flip to the next page in your textbook and force yourself to concentrate on the new set of problems. The numbers swim before your eyes, but you stubbornly refuse to let them win.

"Maybe she's cursed or something. Zombie fish girl."

A low murmur of agreement follows that remark, and it takes everything in you not to react. You won't give them the satisfaction.

You finish your homework, the final equation neatly solved on the page. The whispers from the common area have dwindled, leaving a heavy silence in their wake. You stretch your arms, feeling the tension ease from your muscles, and glance over at Susan's bed. It's still neatly made, untouched since morning.

The image of Susan excitedly chattering about her date flashes in your mind. She had been practically glowing, her eyes sparkling as she talked about going out with Alex. Your brother. The idea of them together feels strange, like a puzzle piece forced into the wrong place.

You remember how Susan's voice had bubbled with enthusiasm as she described the date to you earlier. "Alex is so sweet," she had gushed, a dreamy look on her face. "I can't believe he asked me out!"

You had nodded, offering a small smile. Her excitement was infectious, even if it made you feel a bit uneasy. Alex is protective of you, but seeing him through Susan's eyes—charming and attentive—feels like seeing a different side of him.

Now, hours later, you find it odd that Susan hasn't come back from rehearsal to change before her date. She had told you that she refused to go on a date in uniform. The clock on your desk shows it's well past curfew. Usually, she’s back by now, slipping into the room with a bright smile and an eagerness to share every detail of her evening.

You push your chair back and stand, crossing to the window. The campus outside is cloaked in darkness, the lamplight casting long shadows on the ground. You peer into the night, searching for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

Your mind starts to wander, considering where she might be. Did something happen?You step away from the window and glance around the room, your eyes landing on Susan's side once more. Her belongings are neatly arranged on her desk—textbooks stacked in a corner, a notebook open to a page filled with doodles and hearts.

You chew on your lower lip, debating whether to go look for her or wait a bit longer. The dormitory is quiet now; most of the girls have already retreated to their rooms for the night. You shrug your shoulders before readying yourself for bed. Susan can take care of herself, and you didn't particular care what your roommate was up to.

Date Published: 6/16/24

Last Edit: 6/16/24

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#like minds #nigel colbie x reader #nigel colbie #alex forbes

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bombshelllblonde · 1 year

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in honor of my recent disney trip:

rdr2 walt disney world modern au headcanons

(this accidentally got posted to my lesbian sex account so if you saw that…no you didn’t 🤠🥸)

-dutch is mad that the trip got booked in the first place. he is not a large crowd disney guy. he’s a “i need to sit with my back against the wall and plan our escape route” man. he is very angry that weapons are not allowed. it’s too expensive and he’s mad that they used the camp funds to pay for it.

-hosea is the disney dad. backpack full of snacks, sunscreen, cooling rags, the handheld fans that spray water, the batteries to replace the old ones in the handheld fans. you need tylenol? he’s got it. you’re lost and need to find the way to tomorrowland? he’s got the disney magic experience app up and ready for you. he has the itinerary written out perfectly and everyone has a copy. he has all the routes mapped out and he bought one of those “disneys best kept secrets” books. he used dutch’s credit card

-charles only ever wants to be in animal kingdom. he has the best luck with all of the animals; his calm presence always brings out everyone from their hiding spots. he knows all the fun facts about the animals and all the little kids think he works there, so he answers everyone’s questions. some disney parents want to give him a cast member compliment/shout out on the app but he just shrugs and says he doesn’t work there

-arthur is the head counter. he didn’t really want to go because he thought it was silly, but he is the one who is watching out for everyone. he assigned everyone a number in his head and he’s making sure they are all accounted for. when jack gets tired he throws him up onto his shoulders, and always has a cold water bottle available for any of the girls when they get too hot or thirsty

-john is all for the lightening lanes and scouring the app for the best rides. he forgets to add other people until abigail reminds him, but basically he has been booking himself on the big rides like tron, rockin roller coaster, tower of terror, etc. when he mentioned that he got the rides, arthur asked how many people he got them for and john only said he got a lightening lane for himself. abigail took his phone and john wasn’t allowed to use the app anymore

-javier is enamored with the princesses. he sees them all and isn’t creepy about them, but he thinks they’re all beautiful. jack isn’t interested in meeting the princesses at all so javier just sees them from afar and waves. he did walk by jasmine and he spoke spanish to her and made her swoon a little.

-in all the parks they have cooling stations where it’s just a giant machine that blows out cold misty water to cool down children. bill commandeered it. cast members have kicked him out but he manages to sneak back after shift change

-sean has been making sure that he takes jack to meet all the characters. he says he really wanted jack to meet timone from lion king, but in all honestly he and kieran made a bet to see if sean talked enough smack if timone would punch him in the face or not

-trelawny cries every time at the happily ever after fireworks in magic kingdom. he gets so many emotions and feels overwhelming joy at even the small parades (no i’m not projecting my own feelings onto trelawny rn 🙃)

-gaston flirts with ms grimshaw and it actually makes her blush. dutch feels rage and jealously almost immediately

“oh dutch he’s just playing a character!”

“susan, i don’t like the way he is speaking to you!!”

#rdr 2 #red dead redemption 2 #red dead redemption community #red dead redemption 2 edit #red dead redemption imagine #arthur morgan #john marston #dutch van der linde #josiah trelawny #hosea matthews #bill williamson #head canons

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dr-jem-nutcase · 1 year

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MvA h/cs

Cooked up some movie & TV h/cs...cuz I can

Overall

before the timeline of the movie, the monsters had a TV on occasions. This was a rare treat which lasted until the TV set broke on its own and couldn't be repaired or got destroyed

the monsters' rec area was like the hand-me-downs central; anything the staff didn't want or need anymore went to the monsters, from those playing cards to radios to whatever. It usually came from the trash heap for Dr C's meals

the 2000s brought a little variety as a lot of people at the base made the transition to DVDs and threw out their VCR sets and cassette tapes

after the post-freedom upgrade, the base set up on-demand entertainment for the monsters

for every streaming site, every monster has their own accounts. Except for Link & Butterflysaurus (or B) who share accounts

they can all agree on sit-coms and comedies, believe it or not, some film noir or some off-the-wall random movie

depending on the sport, they all like watching a good game

Susan

down for most anything anyone wants to watch

likes period and mid-century romance/dramas like Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, Call The Midwife, Mad Men, and anything based off Jane Austen's books

was a Twilight fan back in her teens and now cringes at those memories of being on Team Edward

chic flicks: Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman, The Notebook, Mamma Mia!, Audrey Hepburn movies. Titanic and Moulin Rouge! are both fully capable of making her cry almost every time. This is a very good reason why she has her own streaming accounts

can make it through most horror movies but doesn't really enjoy them

roots for all sports teams from Cali

the only monster most willing to watch whatever BOB wants to watch

liked watching cooking shows and DIY tutorials when she was small. She'll still watch them sometimes inspite of the fact she can't easily cook or pull off most DIYs

BOB

the kids' page on streaming sites & YouTube Kids all the way!

has the kid's tendency to watch the same thing over and over again and never get sick of it

the other monsters can't watch adult films and shows with him. He'll ask questions like, what's going on during a bedroom scene or "What's a [enter any profanity of your choice here]?". He's also a parrot who will mindlessly repeat a single swear word he only heard once

sometimes you'll find him watching random stuff like a Malaysian talk show or a Julia Child cooking tutorial or some abstract silent film

you know those kids' shows that interact with the audience, like Mr. Rogers, Blues Clues, & Dora the Explorer? Yeah, he REALLY gets into them

had a kids tablet for about two weeks but then accidentally ate it. Monger hasn't had the heart to give him another one

Dr C

his pastimes include lab experiments, reading books and science papers, playing chess (via a computer versus the CPU/another player online because no one at the base wants to play), and other mentally/intellectually stimulating activities, so he'll watch something if he wants and/or needs a mental break

the other monsters tried getting him into Big Bang Theory. To everyone's surprise, he didn't care for it

has BritBox

when he's chilling, he'll watch vintage/vintage-style musical movies, particularly with good dance numbers like Singin' In The Rain. One of his heroes in dance is Gene Kelly; Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers would've been on his list, but he hasn't had a skilled dance partner offhand since his college days

likes videos like Ted Talks and Infographics Show (YouTube). He may be the most brilliant man in the world but he knows there's always more to learn

his YouTube subscriptions include dance groups and science lecturers from around the world

doesn't care much for most sports but he'll gladly watch polo and a lot of the Olympics. Tried to pass the time by reading a book during a football game once, and Link said, "Doc, if you don't put that book down, I'll throw you and that thing in the trash!". Never again

Link

as mentioned in an earlier H/C post of mine, he's a closeted shonen anime fan and he'll watch anything but One Piece

football is his favorite sport to watch. He watches it when he can

NEVER misses Super Bowl Sunday. Or at least to the best of his ability. He was very disappointed when one of his missions happened on Super Bowl Sunday

also likes WWE

martial arts: always and forever, baby!

has watched both Luca and The Shape of Water. He doesn't mind them but he got pretty annoyed when people made comparisons between him and the Amphibian Man or the sea monsters. BOB was like, "Hey, Link! Why don't YOU turn into a human when you leave your tank?"

was into superhero movies and TV series in the 2010s but jumped off the bandwagon when he thought they were being overdone. Though he still likes Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, and anything with Wolverine

thinks Star Wars, Harry Potter, and most other popular sci-fi/fantasy franchises are just for kids and nerds

doesn't care much for romances or most cartoons either

if something scares him or makes him cry, he'll try to hide it

it took him a while to be able to watch anything with Shrek after being mistaken for Shrek in the Halloween special

[a/n: I can also see him being a gamer]

Insecto/B

likes sports no thanks to Link

will watch most anything Link watches

likes some anime, particularly Sailor Moon for whatever reason

likes cartoon shows meant for older kids

doesn't like horror movies, has a hard time settling down or going to sleep after watching one

avoids animal/nature programs as some of them can be quite traumatizing

every now and then she'll be caught watching something with BOB like Bluey

Monger

watches the news every day

knows better than to believe everything he sees

watches a little M*A*S*H before bedtime at least twice a week

every now and then watches stuff like All in the Family just cuz he likes the comedic but logical political tension among the main characters

still has analog cable (antenna and all) at the farm

hates I Love Lucy because his wife had it on TV more than anything else

likes war films and a number of films about World War II. There's a few he won't watch tho because he thinks they're either badly made, too sentimental, or too depressing

likes comedies from the 1950s-60s

The President

likes watching himself on TV and videos online

likes talking smack to opposing politicians when watching videos of them, like, "In your dreams, bucko! Not while I'm large and in charge!"

comedies, comedies, comedies...and game shows

Simpsons fanboy

has an appreciation for daytime TV: long-running soap operas, talk shows hosted by middle-aged women, Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, etc.

considers the family sitting in front of the TV together as quality family time and sit-coms as an American staple

can't watch foreign language films with English subtitles. He eventually gets bored and falls asleep

as mentioned in an earlier H/C post, he doesn't trust biopics one bit. After finding out over half of The Greatest Showman was fictional, he lost faith in any portrayals of history both on screen and stage

Derek

liked watching famous news reporters and weather-folk as role models when he was a kid and as inspiration when he became a weatherman

took Susan and other girls he dated to the movies

if not at the movies, he and Susan would curl up on a sofa and watch something together, going back and forth between what he likes and what she likes

likes most sports, except basketball

Ted Talks, late night talk shows, and popular sit-coms

watches whatever catches his attention on Hulu and Max

had a very hard time watching anything with the monsters. Still does but it's not as hard anymore

Invisible Man

went to a few drive-in theaters with his wife on dates before and after they got married

Andy Griffith and Red Skelton were some of his favorite shows

yet he enjoyed some of the heavier and less lighthearted films, like Streetcar Named Desire. If he cried, he tried to not let anyone know

not much of a cinema-goer but he enjoyed taking his two older kids

liked what little he saw of The Carol Burnett Show while in prison

if he saw Mel Brooks' films, he would've loved them

von Wolfmann (my OC, a German wolfman and past monster, at Area 5X 1960-65)

having lived much of his 70+-year life away from society, he probably had no idea what TV & cinema were, let alone knew they existed

The Cyberian (my OC, a Soviet Russian cyborg and past monster, at Area 5X 1981-85)

TV became a bit of a staple in the Soviet Russian home over time, so there was a handful of shows that she liked throughout her life

she liked going to the movies with her dad/grandparents as a kid and teenager, a special treat

didn't like anything based off books. "Just read the book." She said. "No pictures but they're a lot more interesting than THIS sad piece of work"

thought period pieces were boring. More than once she fell asleep watching them

grew up with black-and-white TV, so she was excited the first time she saw color TV

learned some of her English from what little TV the monsters had and learned a bit about the USA and the world outside the USSR

probably would've been the only monster to have been a big fan of Star Wars and/or Star Trek

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braveclementine · 4 months

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Chapter 9

Warnings: 18+ readers only, mentions of nudity

Copyright: I do not own any Wizarding World characters that J.K. Rowling wrote. I do however own Elizabeth Kane (main character) and Trang Nyguen (best friend). There should be no use of these two names without my permission. I also do not condone any copying of this.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕴 𝖜𝖔𝖐𝖊 𝖚𝖕 on Saturday, the day of the Quidditch match and wondered if it would even be worth it just to go.

"We could stay here all day." I murmured sleepily in his ear.

"You know it's the Slytherins' that'll be playing today." He murmured back, just as tired. Last night had been lovely, but also tiring. I felt extremely sore today as well.

"They're going to lose." I mumbled, rolling over and wrapping a blanket around me. It was cold in his room, despite the fact that it was November, he had not turned the heat on.

He seemed to have read where my thoughts were because he asked, "cold?"

"I don't understand how you can enjoy the coldness like this." I muttered, "I mean you're not even in the dungeons anymore!"

I shivered, burrowing deeper into the bed and he pulled me closer to his chest. "Your lips are a bit blue." he said cheerfully and I shuddered from cold and heat as he pressed his warm lips to my cold ones.

"How are your lips to warm?" I complained, "That's not fair."

He chuckled, "It comes to an advantage of mine now, doesn't it?" he pressed them to mine again. Then when we pulled apart, he rolled over on top of me to reach for his wand and he went ahead and lit a fire in the fireplace. "that should do the trick." he murmured.

"Thanks." I whispered, "When do we have to go down?"

"Mmm?" He asked, his head resting on my chest now, breathing softly.

"Nothing." I whispered, caressing his hair, and closed my own eyes to fall back asleep.

I left Severus' office twenty minutes before the match started so that I could go down without alerting that we were arriving together and also because I was starving. I wondered if they'd have spicy chicken wings for breakfast. Highly doubtful.

I sat down at the Hufflepuff next to Rose and Susan. Ernie and Justin came over to sit down in front of us. "So, now are you going to tell us who's going to win?" Ernie asked impatiently.

"Gryffindor." I said, mournfully spooning grape jelly on a piece of toast.

"Wonderful." Ernie said while Justin moaned. "We took bets with some other students."

I rolled my eyes. "You should've asked me before you made the bets."

"He did." Justin said, disgruntled, "At the three broomsticks before..."

We all looked down the table where Leanne was talking to Megan and some other Hufflepuff girls.

I watched Zacharias walking out of the Great Hall and rolled my eyes. "Zacharias is commentating." I said, "That'll be great."

"Yes." Justin said with a roll of his eyes, "You sound totally enthused about it."

"Let's just say he's going to piss the Gryffindors off." I said lightly. "And they'll want us crushed in the next match." I sighed, "How unfortunate."

"We'll beat them." Susan said confidentially.

"Don't jinx us." I said, standing up from the table and we headed down to the Quidditch pitch. Hermione joined us some time down and everyone greeted her quite cordially. She was seething mad and pulled me to the side.

"Harry put the Felix Felicis in Ron's drink!" She exclaimed angrily. "he could be expelled!"

"No he didn't." I said, starting to walk again, "He only wanted Ron to think he did so that Ron would feel lucky."

"Oh." Hermione said, looking abashed.

I shrugged, "It's better than finding out after the match."

"Was it going to be bad?" Hermione was tentatively.

"Well you did say the only reason that Ron saved the goals was because he had drank the potion but then he hadn't drank the potion and well... you know Ron." I said. "He's sensitive."

"I just... I don't understand why he hates me so much right now!" Hermione said, sounding close to tears.

"Because him and Ginny had a row and she brought you into it." I said.

"Why's that my fault?" Hermione asked as we caught up with the group.

"I don't really know." I said. "Because you kissed Viktor Krum or something like that. I think its jealousy."

Hermione glowered in the Gryffindor locker rooms direction. I heard her mutter "idiot." and then headed off to go sit with the Gryffindors.

Trang caught up with us at that point, wearing Ravenclaw colors.

"Hi!" I said brightly, Rose on my shoulders now. "This'll be your first school Quidditch game!"

"Can't be more impressive than the Quidditch World Cup." Trang said, grinning and I noticed she was wearing her Omnioculars around her neck.

"You'd be surprised." I admitted. "Especially since it's Gryffindor vs. Slytherin that's playing today."

I usually sat with the Gryffindors on their side, near the teacher's podium. Now, I was sitting on the Hufflepuff side (for the first time) which gave a very different view of the stadium: a long view rather than wide.

The Gryffindors cheered as the Gryffindor team walked out onto the field, Harry in the front, his Firebolt across his shoulder. Then the Slytherins cheered as their team walked out onto the field. I noticed that Malfoy wasn't there as the seeker.

The two team captains shook hands and I leaned over to Trang and asked, "You never told me if you made it onto the Ravenclaw team."

"Yes I did." Trang said and then frowned, "Didn't I?"

"What position?" I asked curiously.

"Chaser." She said, sounding extremely satisfied.

"Congratulations." I said sincerely as the two teams flew upward.

"Well, there they go, and I think we're all surprised to see the team that Potter's put together this year." Zacharias started off immediately and I groaned, leaning my head on my hand, "Many thought, given Ronald Weasley's patch performance as Keeper last year, that he might be off the team, but of course, a close personal friendship with the Captain does help..."

And putting a confounding charm on the better Keeper always helped too. "Oh, and here comes Slytherin's first attempt on goal, it's Urquhart streaking down the pitch and Weasley saves it, well, he's bound to get lucky sometimes, I suppose..."

"Wonderful." I muttered under my breath. "Why'd I let him stay on the team?"

Trang giggled and we watched the game progress. Zacharias continued to beat down on Ginny and Ron, wondering if they were only there because Harry liked them. I had the strangest urge to hex Zacharias. Of course, I didn't really like Ron either, what a git, but Ginny was a great person and a wonderful Chaser.

Ginny scored four goals and Ron saved seven goals and Zacharias had to stop berating them. He started on the newest beaters that Harry had on the team now. "Of course, Coote isn't really the usual build for a beater, they've generally got a bit more muscle-"

Harry shouted something at Coote as he passed by, who grinned and whacked a bludger at the new Slytherin Seeker and the bludger hit it's mark.

"I don't know." Trang muttered in my ear, "It's a bit tame."

I smiled a little bit but said nothing. I could see that as the Quidditch Cup was the only match she'd seen, anything else might look a little tame. I supposed it would've been more exciting if Draco had been on the team. Hitting bludgers at random, innocent people in the crowds and grabbing the ends of people's firebolts. But I supposed he had other things to worry about this year. I supposed my unnecessary comment in the robe shop hadn't helped either.

The Slytherin Seeker came around sometime later, colliding into Harry. I booed with the other Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws but Madam Hooch didn't see it and Harry was zooming after the other seeker.

I noticed that the snitch was flying high above the two seekers and I realized that the Slytherin seeker had seen it. Harry on the other hand, had not. Zacharias felt a need to say this out loud, "And I think Harper of Slytherin's seen the Snitch! Yes, he's certainly seen something Potter hasn't."

Lovely. I noticed even from across the field that Severus had a smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes, looking away from him.

Harry was accelerating after Harper and I watched as he opened his mouth and shouted something at Harper. Harper fumbled his grab, the snitch flew through his fingers and Harper continued upwards, past the Snitch, and Harry grabbed it instead.

He hurtled back towards the ground and the Gryffindor side of the pitch cheered. The rest of the Gryffindor team met Harry down on the ground in a group hug except for Ginny. I watched as she flew straight into the commentator's podium and I grinned. The crowd hooted and laughed, including Slytherins. Ginny's voice could be heard by the magical megaphone, "Forgot to brake, Professor, sorry."

I got up with rest of the Hufflepuffs and Trang and left the Quidditch stadium.

"I'm going to go ahead and hang out with Anthony, Terry, and Luna." Trang said brightly, with a wave of her hand, "See you around."

"See ya Trang." I said and went ahead up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. Severus wasn't in yet. I sighed, setting my cloak, gloves, scarf, and boots, putting them near the fireplace and warmed myself by it. I realized I was hungry and I figured I could go down to the kitchen, see Dobby, and get some food.

The door opened and I came face to face with Severus.

"Oh, hello!" I said brightly. "I was just going to get some food, do you want some?"

Severus sighed, closing the door behind him, "Nonsense." He pointed his wand at his desk and a plate of different foods appeared there.

"I thought you couldn't create food?" I asked, frowning and taking a donut and holding it up to the light as though it was a counterfeit bill. "It's in The Five Principal Exceptions to Gamp's Law. Food, Magical Energy, Love, Life, and Knowledge."

"Correct." Severus said. "But I didn't create it, I simply summoned it from somewhere else in the world."

I grinned, "so a bakery will be missing a load of donuts then."

He rolled his eyes. "Dummy, I summoned it from the Hogwarts kitchen."

I pursed my lips. "Jerk."

He muttered something under his breath that I ignored. He sighed then and said, "You were right though."

"About which thing?" I asked lightly before carefully biting into a vanilla frosted donut with star sprinkles. We served these? I'd certainly never seen them on the breakfast table before except for Halloween.

"Ooooh, you've got a big ego." Severus said, opening up the drapes to let in natural light. "About not going to the Quidditch pitch today."

"Because you lost?" I smirked, putting a hand under my mouth to catch crumbs.

"Because we could've just stayed in bed." Severus said in a dangerous voice.

"Oh." I said lightly. "Well yes, of course, that's a good reason as well."

Severus hung his cloak up next to mine and set his boots next to mine as well. He sat down at his desk, moving the food off onto a chair and started to grade homework.

I ate other things like fruit and meat before he cleared the trays away. Then I curled up in a chair next to his and simply sat there while he graded homework and quizzes. He went through them very fast, many of them had bad grades on them with the occasional O or EE. (A was technically a good grade, but not for me, so I didn't count it).

After a few hours, I started dozing and when I awoke, I was on the bed with a blanket over me though he was still at his desk.

"What time is it?" I asked hoarsely, my throat felt horrible.

"A few hours." Severus said slowly, writing something down on a piece of parchment and then checked a clock. "Three and a half."

"I should go down to dinner." I said softly, sliding out of bed.

He looked at me and opened his mouth and then closed it. "Yes, perhaps you should. I'll get this done before you get back, I promise."

I smiled gently and kissed his cheek. "I'll take my time then."

I walked down to dinner and enjoyed spicy chicken wings and a couple glasses of milk. But I wasn't quite ready to go back upstairs. Perhaps it was the heavy feeling I had from all the food or maybe it was the feeling of separation from the other students.

I walked outside for a moment, standing in the snow but I didn't really feel the cold on my bare feet. Actually, the snow under my feet felt almost warm, in a way. A slushy, gritty, thin, fragile feeling. There was water and mud and grass and slush. The air was cold and it smelled like winter.

I shouldn't be out here, I knew, but I needed some alone time. I looked down and noticed my stomach was poking out a little bit in a round shape. I knew before I would've thought it to be all the food I ate and now...

I found that tears were dripping down my face for no reason at all and quickly wiped them away. I headed back inside the castle and realized that my feet were numb from cold and I quickly hurried up to the office where my love was waiting.

"Your lips are blue." He greeted me, looking up from his desk. "Did you go outside?"

"Oh, yeah, just for a few minutes," I admitted, sitting down before the fire. "Maybe five-ten minutes tops."

"Without shoes or a cloak?" He asked in disbelief. There was the sound of him getting up from the chair. "Why?"

"Just needed a few minutes, that's all." I said. There was some silence, I knew he was standing somewhere behind me but I didn't turn around. I stared into the fire, watching the long red-orange-yellow flames dancing. The logs were crisp brown but they didn't really seem to burn and the fire was hot, sending of waves of heat in small rounds, but not so badly that it was uncomfortable. "I don't... I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to hide... hide the bump. It's five months- almost- and I'm starting to show a bit more than before."

"There's concealment spells." Severus said softly. "Dumbledore already has protocol in place. He believes it would be best if we kept it a secret until our child is actually born."

I closed my eyes, letting his words sink in. Our child. It was the first time he had said something like that and I loved it immensely.

He knelt down, putting a hand on my shoulder and said, "Everything's going to be okay you know. We- you're doing everything your supposed to be doing."

"I know." I said softly, reaching up to put a hand over his own. "I know." Then I stood up and asked, "Ready for bed?"

He got to his feet as well and turned off the lights, giving me a small smile. "I'll join you in a moment."

"Okay." I whispered, kissing him lightly on the cheek and climbed into bed. I don't know what he did, but I fell asleep before he got back.

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

𝕾𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖚𝖘 𝖜𝖆𝖘 𝖋𝖗𝖚𝖘𝖙𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖉 the next morning, already sitting at his desk, tapping his fingers against the wood in a pattern.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" I asked, sitting up and stretching.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, I did." Severus said, sounding distracted.

I got out of bed and got dressed, slipping on my robes and shoes. I went over to the window and looked down at the blinding snow. I wondered if the lake was frozen enough to go ice skating on it and highly doubted it.

"I'm going to go get some breakfast." I said, turning away from the window. Green spots appeared in my visions from the glare.

"Okay." Severus said, getting up from his chair and coming over to kiss my cheek. "See you later."

I headed out of the office, down the hallway, turned to the left, headed down some stairs, turned right and then found my way to the Great Hall.

I sat down at the Hufflepuff table and Trang came over immediately, looking exhausted.

"You look tired." I said, reaching for the grape jelly and a stack of toast.

"I stayed up late doing homework." Trang said, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. She reached for a crumpet.

"That makes sense." I said absentmindedly. "What's your favorite class?"

"Ancient Runes." Trang said, "It's a fascinating class. And translating pages! Well, it's just like a puzzle really. I wonder what sorts of jobs I can get with Ancient Runes."

"Um, curse breaking." I said, trying to remember the job brochures from last year. "I don't really remember, I was only looking at healing and auror training."

"I'd like to be an Auror." Trang said thoughtfully.

"Maybe you could become the Muggle Studies Professor here." I said lightly, carefully tearing off the crust around the toast.

Trang rolled her eyes. "If I was going to teach a subject here, I'd teach Ancient Runes."

I shrugged, spreading jelly on the toast.

"What about you?" Trang asked, buttering her crumpet. "What class would you teach, given the choice?"

"Care of Magical Creatures." I answered immediately.

Trang stared at me, a raised eyebrow.

"What?" I asked impatiently.

Trang shrugged, "Just a surprise, you never were an animal person."

I rolled my eyes. "These aren't animals, they're magical creatures. There is a very specific difference."

"Oh?" Trang asked, raising her eyebrow again, "So your scared of dogs, cats, mice, rats, guinea pigs, geese, ducks, birds in general, but not magical creatures that breathe fire and have poisonous bites?"

"Okay look." I said, a bit annoyed, "I don't like dogs because they jump on you with their claws and they bite you. I don't like cats because they will scratch and bite. Mice and rats are a given fear. Guinea pigs also fall under the biting category, just like rabbits. And I don't like birds because of watching The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock 1963 horror film. That's your fault, by the way, you made me watch that."

"Shouldn't you be scared of rabbits too, with that logic?" Trang asked, smirking now. "They have the ability to bite too."

"Well, the more accurate definition is nip. And I did have a fear at first, but Sushi's a perfect little angel. He's never bitten me once." I said satisfied.

"And you were the one who said she liked horror movies." Trang said, still smirking and put her glasses on again. "Not my fault."

I glared at her, rolled my eyes, and continued to eat my toast. "But I like magical creatures." I said after I finished off my slice of toast.

"Oh yes," Trang said with a roll of her eyes, "because magical creatures won't bite or scratch or even kill you."

I sighed. "Magical Creatures are more predictable. There are rules when it comes to magical creatures. For example: hippogriffs. You bow, keep eye contact. The hippogriff doesn't bow back, you back off. If it does bow back, you approach and you make sure not to insult it. The only reason you'd get hurt around a hippogriff is by ignoring the cultural and magical rules."

Trang snorted, "Fair point but there are some creatures that can't be reasoned with!"

"Like?"

"Dragons, Fire-crabs, dragons, basilisks, dragons, acromantulas, and more dragons." Trang said, picking up a donut hole with each creature she named.

"That's a lot of dragons." I smirked.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them named at least 10 different types of dragons." Trang recited.

"Alright then." I consented, amused, "But, if you think logically, I'm not going to bring dragons or basilisks or acromantulas into the classroom. So, therefore, I wouldn't have to interact with them, correct?"

"Fair point." Trang consented, "Do you want to go for a walk?"

"Sure." I said and we got up from the table and went to our respective House common rooms to grab scarfs and hats and met in the entrance hall.

"Lake route or Hagrid route?" Trang asked as we exited the castle doors, meeting a blast of cold wind.

"Lake route." I said. "I'd like to see how frozen the lake is."

"Oh? Is there a fancy way of wizarding ice skating?" Trang asked in an interested voice but the words fell somewhat clumsily from her mouth.

"There's a number of spells that can be done on the feet or skates, if that's what you mean." I replied.

We started our circuit around the large body of water. The wind had died down and was blowing against our backs now, rather than our faces and it was better that way.

We were halfway around the lake when Trang asked a sudden question.

"What do you think about Draco Malfoy?"

I looked at her sparingly. "Like...?"

Trang hesitated and then said, "He's hot."

I choked on my next words and stared at her in amazement. Then I sputtered, "His Dad kidnapped you!"

Trang's flushed and turned her head towards the lake, "Yes, I know. But he's been coming onto me-"

"Of course he is!" I replied angrily. "Haven't you noticed your the person that the Death Eaters take to get to me?"

"So you think he's a Death Eater?" Trang asked, actually sounding disappointed.

"Of course he's a Death Eater." I snorted. "Voldemort made him replace his father."

Trang was silent for another moment and then said, "I wonder what he's doing."

"I don't know." I replied shortly. "Not yet, anyways."

"I wonder when you'll find out." She said.

I already knew, of course, but there was something off about Trang right now. I stopped walking and turned to face her, curiously. She looked at me now, hesitantly and then asked, "Okay, did I upset you? I shouldn't have said anything about how hot he was, should I have?"

I frowned briefly. I knew Draco was having Crabbe and Goyle using the Polyjuice potion a lot, but what about Draco? Was this Draco in front of me or was I turning into Uncle Moody, paranoid about everything? Of course, I thought, I had a good reason to be paranoid.

"No." I said slowly and then started to walk again. I couldn't let this person out of my sight. Trang wouldn't be interested in Draco because she had Oliver. So...

It had definitely been the real Trang at breakfast which meant that when we'd gone to get our winter clothes separately, that must've been when Draco- or another person- had nabbed Trang.

Harry and Ron had stuck Crabbe and Goyle in the broom closet. Where the hell was Trang?

I kept a slow pace outside though, no faster than we had been going and now we were starting around the other side.

"Do you think the lakes cold enough?" Trang asked, sounding curious.

"I don't know." I replied honestly, trying to keep up pretenses. I walked down the slope to the lake, Trang following me. I was self-conscious of the fact that my heart was beating very quickly. If whoever this was, wanted to push me in... if the lake wasn't frozen solid...

Trang pushed ahead, carefully putting one foot on the lake and leaning forward, testing the weight. "It seems solid enough." She said and put both feet on the lake and then jumped. Nothing happened.

She slid out onto the lake and, hesitating, I followed. Okay, maybe I was paranoid. After all, I'd liked multiple boys at the same time... it didn't mean anything at all. I really was becoming just like Uncle Moody.

We ice skated for exactly forty-two minutes which meant, if this wasn't Trang and was someone who had drank Polyjuice Potion, they had five minutes to get back up to the castle. Indeed, Trang was hurrying towards the castle quite fast.

I hurried alongside her and asked, "What's the hurry?"

"I just remembered a homework assignment due tomorrow that is going to take some time to do. Maybe we should go to the library next."

"Sure." I replied nonchalantly. "That sounds like a good idea."

We were now walking up the marble steps. Well, I was walking, she was running. I started to run to and as we reached the door, she said, "We'll go to our common rooms and meet each other in the library?"

She was already moving towards the stairs and I said, "Sure."

I waited for a few seconds as she hurried up the stairs and then, looking around, turned into a cat and hurried after her. She made her way towards what I figured was the Ravenclaw tower and then ducked away into a classroom, I slipped inside, hiding beside a black trash can.

Trang hurried over to a wardrobe and opened it up, bringing out Trang's real body, positioning her at the desk, making it look as though she had fallen asleep there: her arms crossed in front of her, her cheek resting on her arms.

I turned human, the other Trang's back was to me, and I said, "Who are you?"

The fake Trang jumped and turned, holding their hands out cautiously. My wand was pointed at their heart and I had my teeth gritted.

"You weren't supposed to find out." Trang's voice said. "It was just to hang out with you, you weren't going to with the real me."

I wasn't exactly sure who this person was or why I wouldn't have hung out with them. I conjured a patronus and sent it on it's way.

"Where is that going?" Trang's lovely eyes watched the patronus wander out the door.

"No where." I replied, glaring at Trang.

"What gave it away?" Trang asked. When I didn't respond she elaborated, "I mean, how did you know I wasn't the real Trang?"

"When you started to talk about Draco." I replied. "Trang would never have fallen in love with someone like him, no matter how hot he is."

Trang snorted, "Love? You're a bit naïve, don't you think? I never said I was in love, I simply said that he was hot and there is a legitimate difference."

"Elizabeth?" Professor Snape's voice came from behind me, "You sent for me?" And then he took in the scene of the two Trang's and said in a more curt voice, "I see."

He was silent and then strode towards the standing Trang and took her by the arm and led her out of the room.

"But-" I complained, "I want to know-"

He was gone, striding off down the hallway with Trang's arm in his grip. I turned to the sitting Trang and hurried over. "Enervate."

She stirred and I said, "Afternoon Trang."

She looked up at me sleepily and then looked around at the classroom and asked, "How in the world did I get in here?"

"You don't remember?"

Trang frowned, looking around at the classroom and then stood up. "Well... no. I remember breakfast, we were going to go on a walk so I came up to the Ravenclaw Tower and that's the last thing I remember..."

"Yes." I replied coolly. "someone stunned you and became you. Come on."

She followed me down to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. I had a good idea of who had been using the Polyjuice Potion now and wanted to confirm it.

As we neared the office, the door opened and an angry Severus Snape and an abashed Blaise Zabini stepped out of the office.

Blaise flushed, looking at both Trang and me. "Er- I'm sorry."

I shook my head, "I would've hung out with you if you wanted," I started and realized that it was true, "you didn't have to stun my friend and impersonate her."

He gave a curt nod, his cheeks flushed, and then hurried off towards the staircase that led for the dungeons.

"Well." Trang said awkwardly, unable to meet Professor Snape's eyes and looked at me instead. "I'm sure you two have things to umm, talk about you know?" She winked at me and I groaned.

"You're not supposed to know!" I said exasperated, glancing at Severus, who's face was red.

"Oh!" Trang asked, her face red now too, "Sorry!" She hurried away too and I turned to face Severus, who jerked his head towards his office door, marching inside. I followed inside, closing the door behind me.

We went up to his office and he shut the door behind us and went to sit down on the bed. I remained standing, hesitant.

"Come here." Severus sighed and I went, sitting down next to him.

"I should've told you that Trang knew." I muttered, "Sorry about that."

"Does anyone else know?" Severus asked, "Besides Dumbledore and your father."

"Harry." I muttered, "But I think you might've already have known that from Occlumency."

"Right." Severus said.

"Umm, Trang also knows about... about the baby." I said, sucking in my cheeks. "I confide everything with her."

Severus nodded, "she's your best friend, I understand."

"Why did... was it really because Blaise wanted to hang out with me?" I asked skeptically, "It seems like a bit of a stretch, doesn't it?"

"He's a Slytherin, Elizabeth." Severus said, sounding tense and bored at the same time. "How could he possibly hang out with you like a friend? Not when half the students' parents are Death Eaters. Not when he has a reputation to uphold. He can't be friendly with Potter's possible, rumored sister and even if that rumor doesn't turn out to be true, she's still a target of the Dark Lord and the daughter of a werewolf. Those are all big no nos. And yet, he does want to hang out with you and impersonating your best friend is the only way he's going to accomplish that."

"It's stupid!" I exclaimed. "I mean, obviously, I don't like him the way that I like you, but he's a nice boy, I think. I hate Slytherins with a passion but he wouldn't be the worst friend I've ever had."

Severus sighed, "All Slytherins?"

"You were sorted into the wrong house." I said. "You were supposed to be a Gryffindor."

Severus glared at me, "No, I wasn't."

"The Sorting Hat has only made seven sorting mistakes in it's entire career." I explained, "You, are one of them."

"Who are the other six?" Severus asked, looking a bit disturbed from this information.

"Don't know." I replied cheerfully, standing up to take off my cloak, gloves, scarf, and boots. "but I have guesses."

"Who?" He asked again.

"Well, I think Harry because he was supposed to be in Slytherin. Then there was Ron who was supposed to be in Hufflepuff, Hermione who was supposed to be in Ravenclaw, and then I was supposed to be in Gryffindor. But of course, I don't know if I should be counted, considering my position in this world. I would also guess that Peter Pettigrew would have been a sorting mistake- he should've been in Slytherin I think."

Severus was glowering now, "Potter? In Slytherin?"

I shrugged, "Doubt all you want Sev. I always know what I'm talking about. Hell, even Dumbledore thinks we sort to young. People aren't developed at that age, they- we don't know who we are at eleven and neither does the Sorting Hat."

Severus was quiet, pacing the room now.

I frowned, peering at him curiously and then asked, "Are you alright?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine Elizabeth, sorry." Severus said, "But when you believe something your whole life, it's hard to change that perception."

I shrugged, "Well I mean, it's quite alright you know. There are anomalies in every house."

For some reason, Severus was very amused by this comment though he wouldn't tell me why.

I went back out for lunch and stayed in the library till dinner. After dinner, I returned to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. Severus was still working at the desk, his quill flying across the paper, circling and underlining things.

I looked over his shoulder briefly. He tossed his quill into the ink well, turning the chair around to face me, and pulled me onto his lap.

I pressed my lips to his, closing my eyes, a blush creeping up my cheeks. His lips moved in a furious, careful, dangerous, loving way. Familiar and different at the same time. His hand behind my head, fingers tangled in my hair. The other arm wrapped around my hips, tight- protective almost.

We slowly shifted to the bed, the sheets and blankets a crumpled mess as our two bodies moved together fast and slow, rolling over carefully before settling down, our bodies tangled together.

Severus pulled the sheets around me as our breathing slowed. His eyes were shining, his hair was swept back from his face. I reached out, holding a lock of hair in my hand. I never understood the belief that his hair was oily. No, it was silky, soft, beautiful.

I pressed my lips to his chest, biting. His left arm kept me on my side, curled up next to him, my head on his chest. His lips were pressed against the top of my hair.

I lay awake for a long time, after Severus had fallen asleep, thinking. Though I had told Trang that I wanted to come up with a baby name on the spot, I kept turning names over in my head.

There were so many names out there that would fit my child. I wasn't sure if it was a boy or a girl, of course (I'd told Severus it was going to be a surprise) but I couldn't help thinking the names, over and over.

My favorite boy name was Frederick James Snape. Of course, I highly doubted that Severus would be keen to have any of our children have James as a first or middle name. But I liked the sound of it regardless.

Then of course, there was naming the baby boy after Sirius or Uncle Moody or Dad or Severus or even Cedric.

Girl names were a bit easier. Lily kept popping up for one thing but I wasn't sure how much I liked that idea. After all, Severus had originally been in love with my mother and whenever I thought of that, I always had to think of the idea that perhaps Severus only loved me because I was Lily's daughter- because we looked alike. If I named my daughter Lily. . . well, I didn't know.

I liked the name Trang, I really did, but I wasn't sure I wanted to name my daughter that name. Of course, I really liked the name Rebecca and also Naomi.

I snuggled deeper into Severus' chest. I wondered what his mother's name had been. I wondered how pretty it was and if I could incorporate it as a middle name.

I wrapped the blanket tighter around me, feeling a draft coming from under the door, though the fireplace was lit.

I closed my eyes. Cedric was a good name. Yes, yes it was.

⬅️➡️

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lazuli-writes · 1 year

Text

The Vanishing Intro II

a/n: Please forgive me for the excessive use of oc’s and non-canonical name fillers. I do not own Harry Potter and the characters, all rights go to JKR and Warner Bros. Pictures. Only the non-canonical plot was my idea. I also do not agree with any and all prejudiced remarks formulated by JKR in concern of their tr*nsphobia. Remember folks, copying other people’s works is plagiarism and that’s illegal. Don’t be that kind of person. Anyways, hope you all enjoy it :)

©little-lazuli. Do not copy, repost, or translate without permission

Summary: Under the threat of defeat, the supporters of the dark lord cast a curse that banishes half of the Wizarding population of the British Isles. No knows where they had gone or how they vanished. But twenty-one years later, the vanished make their return, and the Wizarding world they once knew is no longer the same.

Listed institutions are referenced with information as of 2019

Part i: Eschaton

timeframe: May 1998 - January 2000

précis: In the aftermath of the Vanishing, Ron is left reeling. A scion of his family and the last of the Golden Trio.

extended summary: Ron struggles to grieve the loss of his family and friends. Daphne fights to save her sister, whilst struggling to deal with her own trauma. Muriel gathers the remains of her family as the war escalates. Draco turns the tides in the face of insurmountable pain. Neville spearheads Dumbledore’s army, while Minerva takes charge of the Order of the Phoenix. The Ministry collapses under the weight of the Impurities. And as the Second Wizarding War comes to a close, Bellatrix unleashes her wrath.

Part ii: Decimation

timeframe: January 2000 - September 2005

précis: Ron comes to terms with his new life as the war with the impurities come to a close. Yet, another brews on the horizon.

extended summary: Ron and Daphne, finally taking the steps to healing have fallen in love along the way. Tracey discovers a conspiracy on her path to become an unspeakable. Mafalda attends a Hogwarts, different from what it was. Theodore is forced to atone for his father’s sins. Neville struggles to be what the world demands of him. Draco refuses to be idle in the sight of a coming war. Luna finally breaks at the seams. The muggle government enters an era of retribution for their lost souls.

Part iii: Treachery

timeframe: October 2009 - June 2017

précis: Ron sits at the precipice of a rising magical Britain, only for it to possibly undo in a matter of seconds.

extended summary: Ron and Daphne holds a secret that leads them down a dangerous road. Susan completes her promise and in the aftermath, madness and stupidity. Theodore and Tracey compete in a race to maintain the safety of magical Britain. All the while, Romilda, Roger and Flora seek to sustain their home in their own ways. Draco’s sudden rise calls his honor into question. Mafalda comes to blows with family and foe as she takes the reigns of her business. Wizarding Britain licks its wounds as Rappaport’s Reign comes to an end.

Part iv: Unvanquished

timeframe: May 2019 - December 2019

précis: When the vanished begin returning in droves, Ron isn’t the same man his family and friends once knew.

extended summary: Ron’s dreams of his family’s return is marred by the demons of his past. Daphne struggles to maintain a grip on order as the Vanished make their return. Draco remains trapped between old enemies. Harry and Hermione struggle to find the friend they once knew. Percy stands at a crossroads. Theodore becomes the scapegoat and the answer to all problems. A brief respite is filled with lost loved ones, but stained with the return of magical Britain’s darkest wizard.

Part v: Vendetta

timeframe: January 2020 - Present

précis: War has returned to Wizarding Britain, and Ron refuses to allow it to take his family from him again.

extended summary: Ron sets aside old feuds in the hopes to save his family. Daphne finds herself at the center of a Trojan Horse. Neville battles snakes in his garden. Harry must finish the war once and for all. Percy struggles to gather a foothold in a warring Conclave. A grain of deception may cost Draco everything. Mafalda tempts fate when she uses her business to redirect a war. Magical Britain stands on a knife edge as Voldemort seeks to smother the realm in his shadow.

•••

Prominent Family Trees

•••

Renowned Businesses & Facilities

Sinestra’s Sanatorium for Magical Maladies:

Sinestra’s Sanatorium for Magical Maladies, commonly referred to as Sinestra’s Hospital or Sinestra’s, is the current wizarding hospital servicing the magical population of the British isles. Former Hogwarts astronomy professor Aurora Sinestra founded the hospital after St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries was destroyed in the Calamity of Diagon Alley. Recognizing the ever growing need for a place of healing, Sinestra turned her own Hogsmeade Estate into a local clinic. Receiving donations and later conclave mandated funds, Sinestra expanded her estate into a full fledge hospital. From its founding in 2002 to the present, Sinestra’s ever growing institution would eventually take precedence as the capital of healing for magical Britain.

Dame’s Wizarding Bank:

Dame’s Wizarding Bank is the current wizarding bank for the magical populace of magical Britain. Following Gringotts’ destruction in the Calamity of Diagon Alley and the Goblin massacres of 1999 & 2002, the goblin species were rendered nearly non-existent in the British isles. Hoping to follow in her relatives’ footsteps—Lord Ronald Weasley & his wife Lady Daphne Greengrass—to fame and fortune, Lady Mafalda Prewett, founded Dame’s Wizarding Bank. Based in Cokesworth, Lady Prewett founded the bank in 2004, whilst attending her fifth year of Hogwarts. With the backing of her legal guardian, Lord Ronald Weasley, she had the Prewett house elves excavate the vaults, mines, tunnels and offices under the ruins of Gringotts. She led the construction of the new Vanishingment halls, which bridged the main bank-hall in Cokesworth to the vaults beneath Diagon Alley. The house of Prewett, along with houses Weasley, Greengrass, Malfoy and Lovegood act as proprietors for Dame’s Wizarding Bank, with Lady Prewett, owning approximately sixty-five percent of the bank herself (as of 2019).

The Quibbler:

A tabloid once recognized for their eccentric stories, tales and theories, the Quibbler currently stands as the largest and most prominent news outlet for magical Britain. Founded by the late Xenophilius Lovegood, the newspaper is currently owned by his daughter, the madam Luna Lovegood. Based out on the Isle of Drear, the Quibbler releases weekly papers, with families paying a subscription fee of seven sickles.

Witch Weekly:

Founded by Tobias Misslethorpe, Witch Weekly is a popular magazine aimed for witches. Reporting on gossip, celebrity news, advice columns and even furniture and apothecary deals. Based out in Hogsmeade, the current owner and editor-in-chief is madam Lavender Brown, who has built a fortune off of her infamous—inanely accurate—articles detailing the love lives of much of the wizarding aristocracy.

Lovegood Magical Sanctuary:

The Lovegood Magical Sanctuary is one of the largest reserves for magical creatures in the world. Founded by madam Luna Lovegood, she built the sanctuary on the once disdained isle of Drear. Initially made unplottable due to the dangerous Quintaped species that inhabited the island, Luna Lovegood fled to the island after being pursued by muggle witch hunters. There she eventually met and became a cherished friend of the tribe of quintapeds. Inspired to obtain such solitude and safety for other species, madam Lovegood took possession of the island. With her monetary reward granted to her by the old British magical ministry, as well as the funds from her newspaper “The Quibbler” madam Lovegood transformed the isle into a safe haven for hundreds of species. Centaurs, bowtruckles, augureys, porlocks, unicorns, thestrals, hippogriffs, dragons, blast ended skrewts, and Aethonan horses were just some of the species protected on the isle.

Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes:

Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, also known as WWW, is a joke shop founded by the vanished twin brothers, Fred and George Weasley. The shop initially started as an owl-service, headed by the twins at the Burrow, then later selling at Hogwarts before the storefront came to be. Once located in Diagon Alley, the shop was initially closed for good in 1999 by its inheritor, Lord Ronald Weasley. The former shop building was destroyed in the Calamity of Diagon Alley. However, following the need to cheer up the growing wizarding population under Rappaport’s Reign, Lord Ronald rebuilt the shop, reopening the business. Now with locations in Ottery St. Catchpole, Godric’s Hollow, Hogsmeade, Cokesworth and Trent Valley.

Wotcher Woods:

The most prominent broom manufacturer in all of wizarding Britain, Wotcher Woods was founded by Hogwarts alumni Oliver Wood. It is currently based in Hogsmeade. The business was founded after the International Congress of Wizards (ICW) sought to punish the British wizarding community for the British Magical Purge—which they considered a result of British witches and wizards breaking the statute of secrecy. Along with halting the trade of magical products including wood; wand and broom production in the isles dropped immensely. This led to many domestic entrepreneurs to form their own businesses through both legal and illegal means to sustain the productivity of magical Britain. Wotcher Woods was one such business.

Catchpole Cinemas:

Catchpole Cinemas is the very first wizarding cinemas. Founded by Lord Ronald Weasley, and located in Ottery St. Catchpole, the cinema was built for the influx of residents and magical refugees from London, after the Calamity of Diagon Alley.

Greengrass Solutions:

The Greengrass family business known as Greengrass Solutions, is a large farm and factory, famed for being the largest domestic producers of apothecary goods. Lady Daphne Greengrass serves as the current proprietor, with her sister Lady Astoria Malfoy née Greengrass working as the general manager. The company rose in fortune after the ICW banned other European wizarding ministries from traveling or trading with Wizarding Britain.

Vane’s Vanities and Oddities:

Owned by madam Romilda Vane, Vane’s Vanities and Oddities was once a simple business focused on magical beauty products. However, during the Purge, madam Romilda had joined in the trend of creating methods to avoid muggles. Her substantial efforts in producing and distributing the advanced vanishing cabinets, two way & later motley way mirrors brought her business into the mainstream.

•••

Prominent Locations

The British Conclave of Magic:

Hidden within the Cheviot Hills of the borderlands, the Conclave was constructed in a similar fashion to the old British Ministry. The Agora, built in an unplottable valley acts as a mini market center. A large platform typically used for speeches stands in the center. The large oak doors into the ministry itself—located at the end of the agora—holds an atrium with numerous elevators and gondola lifts to carry workers to the different sects of the Conclave.

Cokesworth:

Once a mixed magical-muggle community, particularly in the block known as Spinner’s End, Cokesworth became a magical only sanctuary towards the end of the purge; seeing as the muggle residents were expelled to make room for the magical.

Godric’s Hollow:

The village of Godric’s Hollow is a small wizarding village in West Country, England. Home to notable magical figures such as Godric Gryffindor, the Peverell and Potter families.

Hogsmeade:

The largest wizarding and magical settlement in all of the British Isles, Hogsmeade acts as a de facto capital for the wizarding populace. Home to many notable sites such as Sinestra’s Hospital, Witch Weekly, Wotcher Woods and Vane’s Vanities & Oddities, Hogsmeade claims a population of almost a twenty thousand residents—this includes beings, beasts and spirits.

Ottery St. Catchpole:

Another high profile location, this once mixed muggle and magical village is now a complete wizarding village. Treasured as the home of famous wizarding family, the Greengrass-Weasleys, the Ottery is also home to many other popular sites. Including the Warren, the Burrow, the Rookery, Catchpole Cinemas and Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.

Ruins of Diagon Alley:

Following the Calamity of Diagon Alley, the ruins of the once large and popular settlement was remade unplottable. The land serves as a ruined memorial, a scarred land still ruined by the effects of muggle terrorism. The lingering remains of chaotic magic, were left to stew in the ruins.

Trent Valley:

Once the personal swaths of land of the House of Nott, the Trent Valley became a settlement following the Calamity of Diagon Alley. The refugee crisis that came due to the calamity, caused many magical beings to flee Southeastern England as a whole. Lord Theodore Nott opened his lands to form a refugee camp, that eventually evolved into a village. They took the name of Trent due to the nearby river of the same name.

#lazuli writes #hp fanfiction #hp fanfic #fanfic info post #ron weasley fanfiction #ron weasley fanfic #ron weasley #ron weasley angst #daphne greengrass fanfiction #daphne greengrass fanfic #daphne greengrass #harry potter fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #harry potter

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privateeye-cj · 1 year

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Tag Game: First 10 lines

Over the Rainbow dcmk/egscomics crossover WIP

Susan unobtrusively tried to stretch her spine. She had asked Nanase and Ellen out on a walk in the park because she wanted to breach a … delicate topic and just couldn’t imagine talking about it while sitting down.

You’ll always have my back dcmk/NOIR crossover Sentinel/Guide AU WIP (worked a bit on it last month)

Sonoko sees Ran fall and crumble. Her opponent stops in mid-kick and looks at the referee in confusion. He hadn’t touched her? Sonoko jumps up from her seat and runs to her best friend who has curled up into a tight ball and starts to shiver. The referee tries to talk to the karateka but she doesn’t react. A paramedic runs up while the audience starts to talk agitatedly. Sonoko reaches Ran even before the paramedic. As she touches Ran, wraps her arms around her shivering friend, she is suddenly flooded with panic, an incredible feeling of too much, too loud, too many smells, … just too much.

Best-laid Plans Raumpatrouille Orion, Yuletide Madness fic

General Lydia van Dyke woke up from her doze as the shuttle engine’s sound changed. A quick glance out of the window revealed the sun rising above tree-studded mountains. Half a click away, a city’s lights spread out. The Northern Rocky Mountain training grounds near Red Deer Calgary seemed to be their destination. As training grounds went, she rather liked the setup.

But… NOT RIGHT NOW!

A Phantom Thief for Ran dcmk/Cat’s Eye crossover, aged-up character (dcmk), WIP

Chapter 1: Hitomi and Nami sat at the Sunday breakfast table drinking their last tea.

Chapter 19: Kaito studied the photos he made of the temple during his weekend visit. If his measurements where right–and they were–his idea would work. Even if someone managed to deploy helicopters directly above the temple–and he didn’t think the monks would agree–he would be able to sneak in without being noticed, make a sudden appearance, and vanish with the gem.

Cold or Warm dcmk short fic

Kaito found Aoko in the crowd round the Christmas tree in Shinjuku square.

She held her usual “Catch KID!” placard folded under her left arm, a dejected line to her shoulders.

Dreams dcmk, post canon, WIP unpublished

Ran didn’t open her eyes when her alarm clock went off. She couldn’t remember when she last felt his relaxed. She wanted to enjoy the feeling. Lazily she stretched. As she turned to where she expected a warm body next to her, there was none. Confused she blinked, looked around and found herself in her room at the agency, not some love hotel. Love hotel? What in all the world had she been dreaming?

Unnamed dcmk WIP dcmk unpublished

“Oka-san?” Nisa’s voice was quite behind Ran. “Do you have a minute?”

Ran nodded.

Without another word, they took a few dishes and moved to the kitchen. Nisa was 14 now, already starting to be beautiful. She was never flirting, as far as Ran knew, and she sometimes wondered how her daughter would fit into the world if it stayed a topic she wasn’t interested in.

Unnamed JodEri fic dcmk

Success at last! Jodie felt the sounds of the party recede into the background. Vermouth had moved into a dead-end corridor and Jodie was right behind her. Pulling her SIG-Sauer P226 from her swashbuckling belt, she turned the corner at a jump and brough the gun up. “Freeze!”

Unnamed Fragment from Phantom Thief for Ran verse dcmk/Cat’s Eye, unpublished

The unease had been growing since Akako replenished her energies on the full moon. Harvest moon could bring strange things into being. With a shudder, Akako remembered Halloween five years ago, when Aoko discovered that KID and Kaito were the same person.

Slice of Coast – unpublished dcmk WIP

They walked out of the hotel and Ran turned around to look back at the building. It had been dark when they arrived, and she had only vaguely registered 'mansion', too tired to enjoy the artistic lighting of marble columns, statues and window details. Now her steps halted as she took all of it in.

@taliya-writes tagged me with this. First 10 lines of your last 10 fics (I chose the last ten fics I worked on)

Who do I tag?

@beedok, @raventhekittycat, @timetohop

No pressure, just in case you have fun doing this.

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andrewmoocow · 2 years

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Little Homeworld Life chapter 11: From Russia with Hate, Part 2 (originally posted on October 24, 2022)

AN: And we're back, everyone! That ending surely took you in for a loop, huh? Mr. Bond may have faced his fair share of strange adversaries in both novels and cinema, but I'm definitely sure he never went up against the forces of magic before, though that would be real interesting. Anyways, when last we left our band of heroes, Tina has revealed her true colors as the descendant of Rasputin the Mad Monk, and she's out for revenge on the Crystal Gems for their crimes against her forefather! Can they save Little Homeworld and stop von Bowling and The Sickle from starting World War III?! Where does Black Rutile fit into all of this? Is she merely using P.H.A.N.T.O.M for her own nefarious deeds and will abandon them the first chance she gets? Find out now, comrades!

Synopsis: In their battle against The Sickle, the Crystal Gems fight a different kind of foe in the form of Rasputin's descendant.

Cast:

Michaela Dietz as Amethyst

Jennifer Paz as Lapis

Pierce Brosnan as Bane Jones

Estelle as Garnet

Deedee Magno-Hall as Pearl

Shelby Rabara as Peridot

Uzo Aduba as Bismuth

Vladimir Mashkov as The Sickle

Olga Kurlyenko as Rasputina

Christoph Waltz as Francis von Bowling

Noël Wells as Black Rutile

Diedrich Bader as Lennie

Wayne Knight as Milton

Andrey Batt as Konstantin

Edward Furlong as Pavel

Seth Green as Leo

Susan Egan as Rose Quartz

Featuring John Cusack as Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich

Hank Azaria as Prince Felix Yusupov

And Kelsey Grammar as Vladimir Purishkevich

Though the people of Russia hated and feared the Crystal Gems for destroying their ancestral homeland, it wasn't always this way. During the early 20th century, when Rose Quartz still led them, the team maintained a civil working relationship with the family of Tsar Nicholas II before the Romanov family's murder on Red October and thus were acquainted with Grigori Rasputin. However, some were very wary of how Rasputin seemed to influence the Romanov royal family ever since the holy healer had cured Alexei of his hemophilia. To try and stop Rasputin should he turn out to be more than he seemed, the Crystal Gems were enlisted by the grand duke Dmitri Pavlovich and his noble cohorts to investigate the healer. Unfortunately for Pavlovich, not only did the Gems turn up with no evidence, but they were also suspicious of his true motives.

"I am sorry, Sir Pavlovich, but we were unable to find anything insidious about Mr. Rasputin." Rose said to the grand duke and his two associates, Prince Felix Yusupov and Vladimir Purishkevich, as everyone gathered at Moika Palace.

"You must be joking here." Dmitri groaned in disappointment. "You Crystal Gems are legendary warriors of Earth's ancient past, yet one man completely befuddles you?!"

"It's not just that, but I'm unsure if we believe your claims." Pearl agreed with Rose. "Rasputin is such a kind and genial man of the cloth; alcoholism and womanizing aside, how could he possibly be plotting against Tsar Nicholas?"

"That is what he wants you to think!" Prince Yusupov yelled angrily. "He probably seduced you with the cursed magic he gained from selling his soul to the powers of darkness that be! If you are under a spell now, just tell us!"

"Oh, I see what's going on!" Amethyst declared. "I bet you guys are just jealous that Razzy is getting more attention than all three of you combined, and you probably want him dead for it!"

"Since when were you under the impression that we were plotting against Grigori?" Purishkevhich asked while sitting down in a chair with his fingers steepled together. "We are only working together for Russia's best interests."

"Don't get too cocky, boys." Garnet coolly said to the trio of noblemen. "You may think you're doing what's best for the royal family, but this will prove disastrous in the long run."

"Oh, enough of this tomfoolery!" Prince Yusupov yelled in disgust. "Guards, escort these Gems off the premises at once!" Just then, the Yusupov family's royal guards stormed into Moika Palace to drag the Gems away from the prince and his allies, but they refused to back down and give up on Rasputin.

"Please, you have to listen to us!" Rose cried out to the noble trio. "You don't understand; there is more to Rasputin that you haven't learned yet!"

"Ugh, foreign women, am I right? They simply have no clue what I'm suffering from here." Felix scoffed at Rose's claims as the Gems were tossed out of the palace. With the Crystal Gems out of the picture, Felix had another plan. "My friends, it would seem that no matter what, those Gems retain their good image to the Tsar. Might I suggest we change that?"

And change that they did. Rasputin would die shortly after the Crystal Gems' confrontation with Prince Yusupov. Although reports differed on how the assassination was carried out, one rumor they spread like wildfire was that the Gems had sold out Rasputin before fleeing like cowards. The story would be passed down from Rasputin's daughter Maria to her children, to their children, and then to their children, one of whom would include Rasputina.

"So, is that what really happened to him?" Maria's great-great-granddaughter Rasputina said while being bounced on her father's knee.

"No one can truly know for sure, my child." Tina's father said with a gentle stroke of his daughter's hair. "Of course, your great-grandmother also once said that she was psychic, and Nixon's wife met her in a dream, so there's no telling if there is any truth to those claims."

"Where are those scary Gem ladies now, daddy?" Tina asked again.

"No one knows about that, either." Tina's father answered. "Some say they came from space, or maybe they're from another dimension entirely! But one thing is certain: they have betrayed our family and our people." With that last word, he gave his daughter a gentle pat on the head. "Now, up to bed, my dear. Rasputin would want you to have a happy and healthy mind when you wake up tomorrow."

"Okay." Rasputina obeyed as she picked up her stuffed bat Bartok and walked away. "Good night, daddy."

"Good night, my darling." The father said before Tina took off for her bedroom and slept. As her father commanded, Rasputin would've wanted Rasputina to wake up the following day with a happy and healthy mind. And happy and healthy that mind was, but it was also clouded with thoughts of revenge.

As Tina grew older, she began taking a scholarly interest in her family history to prepare for the day she would avenge her great-great-grandfather Grigori and search for ways to practice the mystic arts as he did. By the present day, Rasputina had molded herself into a true successor to Russia's mightiest monk, but one key ingredient was missing to complete her look. Rumor has it that Rasputin kept a mysterious spellbook now hidden somewhere in Russia, and she needed some help locating it. Luckily, she began corresponding with a certain criminal mastermind at that time to assist her.

"So you are telling me you are the descendant of the Mad Monk Rasputin?" The Sickle laughed in disbelief at Tina's claims as the two met one night under a bridge. "Next, you'll tell me he's still making comic books!"

"Laugh all you want, Nikolay, but allow me to demonstrate why you should be helping me." Rasputina scowled at The Sickle before taking her childhood toy Bartok out of her pockets. The stuffed bat had aged quite a bit over the years, but Tina did everything she could to keep it in one piece. With a wave of Tina's finger, a dark aura swallowed the toy, and it suddenly came to life, much to The Sickle's alarm. "I'd like to introduce you to my familiar, and oldest friend, Bartok. He's a little beat up, but very loyal all the same."

Unfortunately for Tina, The Sickle still didn't believe her. "THAT! IS! A! TOOOOOY!" he abruptly screamed. "I can see through your parlor tricks, little girl; he is not alive at all! He is mere child's plaything!"

"You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity." Rasputina rolled her eyes and literally zipped The Sickle's lips shut with a snap of her fingers. "Dosvidanya!" As Tina walked away with her sentient toy perched on her shoulder, The Sickle unzipped his lips and finally caved in.

"Okay, I give, I give!" the Russian crime boss yelled. "You may join me; just name your price, anything!"

"Oh, a price, you say?" Rasputina smirked as she came back to help The Sickle to his feet. "How does the complete and utter annihilation of a shared enemy sound to you?"

"Shared enemy, you say?" The Sickle raised an eyebrow with intrigue. "What kind do you mean?"

"Just a motley crew of strange women calling themselves Earth's defenders." Rasputina explained before conjuring up an image of the Crystal Gems that Nikolay immediately recognized.

"The Crystal Gems?" Nikolay gasped as his eyes widened at the sight of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. "How did you know?"

"I just did a little mind reading, is all." Rasputina replied. "I saw you have some history with these creatures back in your youth."

"Yes, and I never forgave them since." The Sickle grinned before the two of them shook hands. "If you bring me Crystal Gems, I shall find you spellbook. Da?"

"Da." Tina grinned as the alliance between the two was formed that fateful night.

"Mmm, you won't get away this time, Lord Gravy." Amethyst stirred in her sleep as she began hearing a faint but very familiar voice almost right next to her.

"I knew I chose the right man to assist me." Black Rutile chirped as she looked at the imprisoned Crystal Gems before her. "Thank you very much, Mr. Sidorov. Now, please give me everything I need for my portal."

"In due time, Madame Rutile." The Sickle responded as Amethyst slowly woke up. "Ah, it seems one of them is finally waking up. Let us greet them, shall we?"

"Oh, my head hurts." Amethyst said as she woke up in a prison cell and hung upside down by her ankles. "Last thing I remember was some magic lady taking us by surprise before knocking us all out after putting us in some excruciating pain. Oh, wait."

"Rise and shine, insipid Crystal Gems!" Black Rutile laughed triumphantly as she was flanked by Francis von Bowling, The Sickle, and Rasputina. "Surprised to see me, eh?"

"I want to say I am, but then again, figures you'd team up with someone with a beef with us again." Lapis snarked. "What did you want with these guys?"

"It is only a little trade." Francis explained. "She helps us capture you, and we give her what she needs for this portal she's building."

"Wait, a portal? To where?" Pearl wondered as everyone else woke up as well.

"I think I may have heard rumors about one back when I worked for Yellow Diamond." Peridot declared. "The Diamonds wanted to conquer other universes and commissioned Black Rutile, Bloodstone, and Serpentine to build a portal, but too many failed tests caused them to reject the idea."

"Well, it looks like you found out my big, evil plan this time." Black Rutile agreed with Peridot. "Since you can't seem to agree that I'm doing what's best for all Gemkind, I'm going to look for a dimension where you actually do and where evil finally wins!"

"Fat chance!" Peridot yelled from the cell. "We'll stop you!"

"Stop me?" Black Rutile smirked cruelly. "You'll have to speak with whoever I meet on the other side about that. But in the meantime, my dear friends here will show you around. Toodles!"

"Oh, you're gonna love what we have here, Rutty!" Leo said as he led Black Rutile away from the cell.

"So what will happen to us now?" Bane finally asked.

"Oh, not much." Rasputina declared. "We're just going to torture you all into confessing that you're terrorists on live television so we can be justified in destroying your friends!"

"And it shall be glorious doing to them what you did to me so long ago." The Sickle added. "You remember me, don't you, Gems?"

"If we did, we'd rather forget." Garnet defiantly replied.

"Oh, ye of little faith." The Sickle tutted and shook his head. "For someone with three eyes and the power to see the future, you are blind to what's in front of you. Before I became the most powerful criminal in Russia, I was known as Nikolay Sidorov!"

Back in 1950s Russia, when the Soviet Union reigned supreme, there lived a little boy named Nikolay Sidorov whose family and neighborhood in Kazan were frequently endangered by corrupted Gems that infested the Russian wilderness and often would menace nearby cities. Though the Crystal Gems were there to defend the Russians from their mutated brethren all the time, it was not without its casualties.

"Mother, father!" the then-four-year-old Nikolay yelled for his parents as he searched for his family through the rubble left behind by the Gems' latest battle with a corrupted Gem. "Sofia, Igor!" he called out for his older siblings too. "Anyone?!"

Luckily for Nikolay, he was able to find the building that his family called home. Unfortunately, he could only find what was left of it, as it now was a large pile of rubble with a few hands sticking out of it. "No! No, no, no, no!"

"Whoo, how much damage did you think that did?" Amethyst asked, causing Nikolay to hide behind a large piece of rebar as the Crystal Gems strolled throughout the destroyed neighborhood, fresh off saving Kazan from a corrupted Gem.

"I'm going to assume a lot." Rose replied before turning to some of the gathered townsfolk. "We sincerely apologize for any damage caused. We were only saving you all, even if it meant accidentally letting some things get destroyed." This enraged Nikolay like no other. His family had just died, and they were just regarded as mere things instead of formerly living human beings? No, he could simply not allow this to continue any longer. If the Gems were so ignorant of the lives they ruined, then someone should try and return the favor.

For many years afterward, Nikolay spent his years in the slums as a criminal. He started snatching purses to steal the money in them for himself, then selling drugs as a petty fence in the alleyways. Eventually, he finally evolved into a powerful enough crime lord to become a close associate of Francis von Bowling. By then, Nikolay Sidorov was dead, as his friends and family once knew him. Now, there was only The Sickle, the most powerful gang leader in all of Russia.

"So basically, corrupted Gems have been endangering lives in Russia, and you forgot about this one family, which caused him to go evil?" Bismuth asked as soon as The Sickle finished his story. "Geez, and they said I was a little messed up."

"I should've known there was at least someone we forgot." Garnet declared in heartbroken realization. "I just didn't consider it because too many others lost their lives to the corrupted Gems."

"Is this true?" Bane asked Pearl, who looked utterly crestfallen at how it was their fault their captor was the way he was.

"Yes, very true." Pearl proclaimed sadly. "Please, Nikolay, if you still want to be called that, Garnet, Amethyst, and I are so sorry for our carelessness. I know it's been ages since that day, but Steven has taught us that it's never too late to be given a second chance."

"I am sorry Pearl, but Nikolay died ages ago. I am simply too far gone to be helped." The Sickle calmly answered with his back to his prisoners. "Besides, turning over a new leaf would take all the fun out of being one of the most powerful criminal masterminds in the world."

"But in the meantime, let the karma begin." Francis proclaimed. "Lennie, Milton, bring Bane and his companions to my quarters! As for the rest of them, do your thing, Rasputina."

"With pleasure." Tina agreed evilly as Bane, Lapis, and Amethyst were dragged away by Lennie and Milton as some video cameras began rolling. "Greetings, my fellow Russians. I am Rasputina, great-granddaughter of the Mad Monk Grigori Rasputin, here to deliver a message on behalf of the loathsome Crystal Gems."

"You clods won't get away with this!" Peridot yelled as she struggled to break free.

"Quiet, you!" Tina yelled at Peridot before turning back to the camera. "Now, you may believe that I am telling the most outlandish of tall tales regarding my heritage, and you'd be justified. In fact, that's what my associate believed when we first encountered each other."

"It is true." The Sickle agreed while looking into the cameras focused on him.

"Anyways, I am here to finally bring the Crystal Gems to justice as their judge, jury, and executioner." Tina announced. "Once I have tortured them enough, they shall confess to their terrorism wrought upon our people, and we shall react by wiping the rest of their kind off the face of the Earth with these nuclear missiles!"

"But wait, aren't Gems invulnerable?" Konstantin asked off-screen, only to be greeted by a blast of dark magic to the face.

"Now, without further ado, let the torture commence!" Rasputina announced before she read another incantation from her grimoire. "Higitus figitus bibbidi bobbidi boo!" With another wave of her hand, Garnet, Pearl, Peridot, and Bismuth were put through more agonizing pain, just like when she first revealed herself. "If only your friends could see you now!"

Meanwhile, Bane, Lapis, and Amethyst were forced into Francis von Bowling's quarters by Lennie and Milton, where their archnemesis was awaiting them patiently. "Ah, Bane Jones." Francis sneered as he entered the room. "If only you kept away, then maybe all of this would've been water under the bridge, but alas. I figured you'd try to interfere with my plans."

"We won't let you or The Sickle nuke Little Homeworld!" Lapis yelled. "Gems are far stronger than that!"

"You see, that's the thing, we'll destroy everything around them and let the general public sort them out." Von Bowling responded. "You could've been given the world, but you choose to defend it instead. Why is that?"

"Sometimes, the world is not enough." Bane declared defiantly. "Family motto, just FYI."

"We chose to keep the Earth safe because Rose Quartz valued organic life so much." Amethyst said.

"If you valued us men so much, then why did you act so ambivalent towards the lives of one family?" Francis inquired coldly. "Seems awfully hypocritical, don't you think?"

"For crying out loud, it was an honest mistake!" Amethyst cried. "Seriously, we've had enough Gems dragging her name through the mud, and now humans who barely know a thing about her are getting in on it too?!"

"Out of all you three, I think I found you the most obnoxious." Francis declared to Amethyst. "But thankfully, that will no longer be a problem." He then turned to his two lackeys. "Gentlemen?"

"Oh, you guys are gonna love this!" Lennie snickered as he rubbed his ratlike hands together and pulled off a tarp revealing a pair of medieval torture devices, a garrote, and a rack, both modified with Gem technology and reserved for his foes. "Dug these out of some old ruins in England years ago, and we've been using them ever since! Hook them up, Milton!"

"Ooh, you're gonna have so much fun!" Milton said as Bane was forcibly sat down at the garrote while the Gems were hooked up to the rack. "Can I do the chair thingy, can I boss?"

"Yes, you can do the "chair thingy," Milton." Von Bowling chuckled as his massive minion began turning the wheel on the back of the garrote, slowly beginning to crush Bane's neck bones. "And as for you, Lennie, start turning the rack."

"With pleasure!" Lennie laughed evilly as he slowly began pulling Lapis and Amethyst both ways on the rack, eagerly awaiting their oncoming demise. "This is for what you did to us in Los Diego!"

"Do they honestly think they can torture us like this?" Lapis gave Amethyst a wry smirk while forming some vines made of water to help free herself.

"I got a better idea." Amethyst replied while shapeshifting into a mouse and leaping onto Lennie's head before she began pulling at his hair, thus manipulating von Bowling's henchman like a puppet.

"Hey, what's going on?!" Lennie yelled as he struggled to free himself from the mouse's grasp, only to be puppeteered to shove Milton away from the garrote and save Bane from a gruesome death. "Someone stop this filthy rat!"

"That's far enough, Amethyst!" Francis yelled as he pulled a gun on the purple Gem, but Bane quickly smacked it out of the mastermind's hands. "Someone, stop them!"

"We'd love to stay and chat, but we got a world to save." Bane declared as he and his Gem sidekicks raced to save Garnet, Pearl, Bismuth, and Peridot while the alarms began sounding.

"PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED, I REPEAT, PRISONERS HAVE ESCAPED!" the intercoms bellowed throughout the facility while Black Rutile was making a deal with Pavel and Leo. "REMAIN CALM. THE SITUATION WILL BE PROMPTLY DEALT WITH!"

"Well, it seems that our friends have made their grand escape." Black Rutile proclaimed. "No need to worry though, I already got everything I need here, now to leave the rest to you."

"But how, girlie?" Pavel asked the Rutile. "You barely did anything!"

"Anything that you saw." Black Rutile responded. "In case you didn't know, I helped build the nuclear missiles that should be launching right about now. I was going to wait until the Gems confessed after enough agonizing torture, but it seems we have no time to waste now." She then pulled out a remote and pressed a big red button on it, ordering the missiles to start launching.

"Blast, 00014 escaped already?!" The Sickle cursed as he and Konstantin watched Bane, Lapis and Amethyst escape through the security cameras installed around the headquarters. "Forget torturing our prisoners into confessing; let us launch the missiles now and blame them for it!"

"Oh, already?" Rasputina complained as the Gems were about to reach their breaking point. "But I'm having so much fun!"

"All right, Lapis!" Peridot cheered as she yelled in agony. "I knew she could do it!"

"Wait, did she just say missiles?" Pearl asked as the four Gems discovered three large missiles emerging from behind them.

"That is right, fools!" The Sickle declared proudly. "You forced me to watch as my home was reduced to a giant pile of nothing! Now let's see how you like it happening to you!" As the crime lord laughed evilly, a sizeable holographic screen appeared and started depicting the distance between his lair and Little Homeworld. Just then, however, he was suddenly punched out of the way by a giant fist made of water as Lapis raced to save the other Gems while Bane tangled with Rasputina, and Amethyst tried her best to stop the missile launch.

"Come on, how do any of these buttons work?!" Amethyst cried as she started mashing at the console, which somehow caused a pop-up to appear. "To halt missile launch, press any key." She read. "Well, where the heck's the any key?!"

"You can do that later, Amethyst; we must stop him!" Garnet cried as the Gems were freed from Rasputina's torment through her being distracted by fighting Bane.

"You're a traitor to your species, 00014!" Rasputina proclaimed. "You have sold us all out to these infernal mineral maidens, and you will pay for it!"

"And I will not allow such hateful rhetoric towards my friends!" Bane replied before he grabbed Tina's grimoire and tossed it away from her before knocking her out cold with a single punch. "Guess that old black magic couldn't save you this time."

"Hey, Bane, over there!" Bismuth yelled while pointing at The Sickle climbing onto one of the missiles as they began takeoff. "What do we do now?"

"Easy. I can just use my water powers to keep them from flying." Lapis suggested plainly, but Bane had other ideas.

"No Gems, I think this shall be mine to take." Bane declared calmly. "I don't care if it means I perish in the process, just as long as my friends are safe from harm."

"B-Bane, are you serious?" Lapis stuttered as the secret agent made his decision to sacrifice himself for the greater good, but Bane immediately calmed her down with a gentle stroke of her hair.

"It's a shame it had to come to this, but I'm only a man." Bane replied. "You Gems seem to have all the time in the world, and then some. Be well, my friends."

"You are doing a truly noble deed, Mr. Jones." Garnet saluted the spy. "We'd love to make you an honorary Crystal Gem if we could."

"I'd be much obliged." Bane replied to Garnet. "But save the knighting for later." He then turned around and raced to the missile The Sickle was clinging onto as it took off, leaving the Gems behind at the villain's secret base.

"Come on, where is it?" Bane muttered as he tried burning through the missile's exterior with the laser on his watch. "The controls must be here somewhere!"

"Going somewhere, Mr. Jones?" Nikolay asked the agent while looming behind him. "I'm afraid you might be too late to stop this missile, but if you'd like, I'd be happy to beat the living daylights out of you."

"No thank you, Mr. Sidorov." Bane replied coolly. "I think I'll die another day." He then presented the razor-rimmed derby hat given to him by G and tossed it straight at The Sickle's neck with the intent to either slice open his neck or even decapitate him, but instead, the hat bounced off of him before returning to Jones' hands. Jones then threw the hat again, this time aiming for Nikolay's arms. Again, no use.

"Hmph, hats off to you, Mr. Jones." The Sickle smirked before he grabbed the hat in mid-air and tossed it back at Jones, managing to leave a scar on his cheek. "If you are done throwing your wonderful toys at me, then bring it on!"

"With pleasure." Bane scowled as he put up his dukes and engaged in a brutal, no-holds-barred fistfight with The Sickle as the missiles soared through the sky. The two of them seemed to be evenly matched, with Bane's years of spy training up against Nikolay's life on the streets of Kazan and experience in the criminal underworld of Russia. However, every time he got a chance to take a breather, Bane continued searching for a way to disarm the missiles and save Little Homeworld.

"Come on, come on!" Bane yelled as he once again tried cutting through the missile to find its source after briefly knocking The Sickle off his feet. Luckily, he was able to find some wires beneath that he was quickly able to cut, allowing him complete control of the missile he was on. "I knew you'd pull through, G."

"You fool, what have you done?!" The Sickle roared angrily. "You could've been a hero to your species, but instead you betray humankind for those Gems! Why, why do you do this?!"

"Because it's my God-given duty to defend the world!" Bane replied sternly. "And the Gems happen to live on that world too!" With his presumed final act of heroism, Bane's watch immediately took control of the missile. It began steering it off its course, flying it straight at the other two rockets so The Sickle could finally be defeated once and for all, with Bane dragging the crime lord with him kicking and screaming to the great beyond. "Goodbye, my friends."

"NYEEEEEET!" The Sickle screamed in horror as all three missiles collided with each other, causing a fiery explosion that seemingly killed the two men and ending The Sickle's menace once and for all, but at a great cost. However, the shape of a flying car soared away from the explosion immediately afterward.

"NOOOOO!" Amethyst screamed in horror as the Crystal Gems watched Bane Jones seemingly die, sacrificing himself to save them all. "You had so much to live for! You can't just die like that!"

"Just calm down, Amethyst. He did the right thing regardless." Lapis said mournfully as she and Peridot wrapped Amethyst in a comforting hug, unaware that a certain someone had just landed.

"Now, who did the right thing, might I ask?" Bane smirked playfully as he stepped out of his Tormenta, to the Gems' delight at his survival. "Probably not The Sickle. He just had too much of an explosive temper."

"Holy cow, you're alive!" Bismuth cheered. "But how?"

"Rumbakini Tormenta, of course." Bane said while patting his car like a loyal pet. "Had to call it up in case something awful happened."

"Well, we're all glad you made it." Amethyst wiped some tears off her face before hugging the agent's legs. "Come here, big guy!"

"Still, it's a darn shame that The Sickle died before he could try to make amends with us." Pearl said, mourning how they didn't get a chance to change the Russian mastermind and perhaps save him from death. "But then again, I guess that's life. Sometimes you can't always get what you want."

"HOLD EVERYTHING, YOU FOOLS!" a disheveled Francis von Bowling yelled as he stood alongside Rasputina, Lennie, Milton, Konstantin, Pavel, and Leo, all yearning for revenge. "You may think you won after offing The Sickle, but you still forgot about us! Rasputina, ready your spells!"

"With pleasure!" Rasputina agreed before cracking open the grimoire and preparing one final spell. "With this spell declared, let these animals be snared!"

"Oh no you don't!" Bane declared and pulled out the derby hat one last time. This time, however, he successfully managed to get a hit and turn the spell against Rasputina and Francis before transforming them into an owl and a frog. "Someone call animal control. We got a wild pair on the loose."

"Oh man, oh geez!" Lennie yelled while holding the owl that was once his boss in his hands. "Milton, we gotta get the hell outta here! Grab the book and find a spell to save us!"

"But I don't know any magics." Milton replied with a shrug just as the Russian police stormed The Sickle's base and had both groups of henchmen arrested along with their transformed superiors.

"Looks like we're going to prison again, boys." Konstantin glumly proclaimed while the officers slapped handcuffs on the trio of assassins.

"I can't go back to jail; I can't handle any more abuse!" Pavel screamed in terror like a little girl.

"Oh, put a cork in it!" Leo yelled angrily while the head of the Russian Police stepped forward to meet the Gems.

"The Crystal Gems, am I correct?" the head officer said. "Are you the ones that stopped The Sickle?"

"Well, it was really Bane Jones who did it, but we helped. But why do you ask?" Lapis answered.

"I am asking because we wish to honor you after learning what you did." The officer replied. "Let bygones be bygones so we can start fresh!"

"Really, after all the prejudice you heaped onto us, now you want to say sorry?" Bismuth asked. "Listen here, buddy, we appreciate your sincerity, but it's gonna take a long while for everything to be forgotten about."

"We understand, miss." The officer said. "But please understand that not all Russians are against you. We just didn't speak up until now. Anyways, please come to Saint Petersburg with us so we can honor your deeds."

"Well, if you say so." Lapis agreed reluctantly.

"Whoo, party time!" Amethyst celebrated as the group left The Sickle's headquarters behind. However, none of them had a clue that Rasputina's grimoire was left behind in the building, with no one even considering bringing it along as evidence.

A few hours later, as the Crystal Gems were hailed as heroes for stopping World War III and Bane Jones was honored for his heroics, the spellbook was never moved from where it landed on the floor. Suddenly, however, the silhouette of Black Rutile approached the book, and she picked it up to read some of its pages herself.

"Hm, let's see what I can use from this book." Black Rutile purred to herself as she skimmed through the book. "Eye of Agamotto? No. Jewel of Four Souls? No. The Phoenix Gate? Maybe. Planispheric Disk? What good could that do?" Despite all the powerful artifacts that could aid in Black Rutile's cause, there was one in particular that she was very interested in. "Hm, what could this be?"

Black Rutile discovered a page detailing a mysterious amulet that the book dubbed the Seer to the Void, a jet-black stone wrapped in gold that was able to access planes of existence beyond mortal comprehension. "Planes of existence, huh?" With an evil smirk, Black Rutile closed the book and stored it inside her gem before she pulled out a communicator. "Black Rutile to Aquamarine, come in Aquamarine. Pardon my absence; I've just been away for a while. And what I've got for when I come home is sure to excite."

Say goodbye to this two-parter, and hello to our biggest hint towards the future of Little Homeworld Life! That's right, the mysterious jewel that Black Rutile has discovered will be the key to her traveling of other dimensions, but where it is shall remain a mystery for now. But now that the Crystal Gems know what she has planned, how long will it be before they decide to react? Probably a while because next up, we got a pair of holiday specials to end the season. First off, we have a Treehouse of Horror-style Halloween special right on the day of Halloween itself, and as our season finale, we got a big Christmas special too! See you all then!

#steven universe #steven universe future #fanfiction #steven universe alternate future #little homeworld life #lapis lazuli #amethyst #garnet #pearl #peridot #bismuth #bane jones #francis von bowling #the sickle #rasputina #black rutile

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captinsteveharrington · 2 years

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Something I think about a lot.

Steve has nightmares, like probably a lot of them, especially after learning about the Upside Down. But like my boy had trauma before that too, like his parents didn’t parent, he had no real friends. Like that’s not easy for someone.

Eddie must have nightmares too, because of whatever the fuck his dad did, it’s not clear. But I doubt 1970s Indiana is just gonna give a child to a single father for no reason. Like Wayne is the goat, but what Eddie went through before had to have left some scars.

And Max too, like Neil is a piece of shit, and her Susan is a bi- and Vecna happened. So she’s got shit.

(All of stranger things has shit. Not to discredit their trauma)

But like Max, Steve, and Eddie are all alone like they don’t have anyone outside the gang that they can talk to. Like can you imagine for a second:

Max gets out of the hospital post Vecna, she can’t see- not well anyway, and her hips are fucked. The Government has figured out Neil is a POS so they’re being investigated, her brother is dead, like she probably goes and sits on the porch and waits for Eddie to get home so she won’t have to be alone.

(Eddie lives, like El and The Gov for sure get him out. It’s not as bad as it looked, like Dustin was in shock for sure)

Eddie is struggling, he has huge scars on his neck back and stomach, he like Max is having to go to PT to learn how to walk and shit and he’s having memory problems, but not in the way he wants, like he can remember exactly how it felt to be eaten alive. And so sometimes he goes on long drives just to clear his head, he probably spends a lot of time at Skull Rock because it’s like his safe place.

Usually when he gets home he helps Max over to his place, they have dinner and sit in silence because neither of them can sleep and like they don’t know what to say.

Everyone else seems to be moving on, Robin and Nancy start dating and looking at Colleges. Not too far away bc the kids, Steve, Eddie and Joyce and Hop of course. Hop has retired, Joyce doesn’t have to work anymore bc the Gov finally paid her off. Will is adjusting to being back in Hawkins but now he has El, who’s doing really well despite the whole saving the world thing. Mike and Dustin are spending a lot of time together they’ve thrown themselves into studying so they can graduate early and get the hell out of Hawkins. Lucas doesn’t know how to help Max so he’s kind of withdrawing from her and The Party.

Steve, isn’t doing well, he’s not eating and really not sleeping bc his house is so empty and he feels like he can’t talk about any of it with Robin bc she seems so okay. And so he’s just spending more time alone.

Eventually Max loses it, she flips her shit, the party doesn’t know how to help so they call Eddie and Steve who take her out of the house. They end up at The Quarry and finally they talk about it. Eddie tells them he has nightmares about not being saved and being left to bleed out in The Upside Down. And sometimes he forgets where he is bc of the memory shit and he feels like he’s going crazy. Max says she can’t stand needing to be helped with everything and her mom is mad at her and she has really bad nightmares about Vecna and it’s just not great. And finally Steve admits that he can’t handle being alone and he’s even taking to sleeping in the back room of The Family Video so he won’t have to go home. The three of them cry and cry.

After that tho, Eddie and Steve start staying together usually at Eddie’s bc it’s close to max and uncle Wayne is happy Eddie has Steve around to keep him company. More often the not they sit on the porch with max until she’s falling asleep on the steps between them. They take her home and finally make it back to Eddie’s bed.

Months later the government decides Max isn’t safe at The Hargrove home so they move her in with Joyce and Hop. She starts doing well in school again and even gets back together with Lucas, and maybe just maybe El gets a little crush on her.

Robin and Nancy finally convince Steve and Eddie to open up and life feels normal. Somewhere along the way Eddie and Steve start dating and even when they have a hard time sleeping they have each other to keep them company.

#feelings #stranger things #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #headcanon #max and lucas #max mayfield #elmax #jim hopper #joyce byers #nancy wheeler #robin buckley #ronance #will byers #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #also lumax

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randominagines · 3 years

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Pairing: Pevensie + Caspian x neutral reader

Warning: angst, violence, blood, you get hurt

Gifs belong to their creators.

PEVENSIES + CASPIAN REACTING TO YOU GETTING SERIOUSLY HURT DURING A BATTLE:

LUCY

Lucy would immediately run to your chambers: as soon as she knows, she needs to be next to you. "Y/n..." she whispers your name while sitting next to you, her hand grabbing yours. You're sleeping in agitation, tiny drops of sweat on your forhead and your skin pale. Lucy cries in silence but she doesn't leave your side until you wake up.

EDMUND

Edmund would be destroyed: he doesn't always show what he feels, but seeing you collapsing on the battlefield makes him crumble. "Y/n, please, look at me." He begs while holding you in his arms, but you feel your eyelids closing. "I'm sorry, Ed, I love you." You apologise while passing out. He immediately orders to bring you to the healers and he follows you, his hand squeezing yours while he looks at you. "Please, don't leave me..." he begs.

SUSAN:

Susan feels her heart skipping a beat: she misses the soldier for a second, the time she positions the arrow is enough for him to stab you. She gasps, her body freezing while yours collaps. She shoots and runs to you. "Y/n! Y/n!" She calls your name while holding you, tears running down her cheeks because you don't open your eyes. "Guards! Take y/n to the healers!" She shouts, trying to stay calm but panicking inside. "It's okay, you'll be okay." She whispers while the guards lifts you up.

PETER

His whole world crushes around him: he immediately feels the necessity to avenge you. He runs to you and hurts whoever hit you before kneeling next to you and taking you in his arms. "My love, please... I can't do this without you." He begs, tears running down his cheek. You smile at him. "Peter, I lo-'." You try to say but he shakes his head and lifts you. "Don't say it. You'll tell me tomorrow, you're not dying today." He says while taking you to the healers.

BONUS + CASPIAN

Caspian would be so mad. You mean the world to him and no onne can touch you. "You're going to pay for this!" He screams while he grabs you a moment before you fall. He lookd at you with tears in his eyes and caresses your cheek. "Please, just be strong. I'm taking you away from here." He begs while lifting you up to take you to the healers. You rest your head against his chest and try not to think about your pain. "I'm sorry..." you whisper and he shakes his head. "It's my fault, I should have protected you better." He feels so guilty.

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psychdelia · 3 years

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christmas used to be billy’s favorite holiday. he loved setting up the tree every year with his mom, matching big smiles on their faces as she carried him to set the star on top. he would help her cook and bake, dance around the kitchen with her. she always surprised him with more gifts than he anticipated, and he would give her a card with messy handwriting and glitter and a drawing of the two of them with i love you mommy scribbled on the bottom.

and then she left and christmas joy was replaced with pain. his father screaming and presenting him with fists instead of gifts. and then max and susan came along and she was their little angel. spoiled with gifts and love while he received nothing but hurt.

billy hates christmas now. hates the holidays in general, but christmas the most. spends all day sulking, curled up in bed and crying. neil gets on him about it, maybe smacks him around before leaving him even worse than how he started. he lost all hope that maybe she’ll come back as a christmas miracle, scoop him up and take him away from all the hurt.

his plan for the day was to stay in bed. avoid the world. but then neil came barging in, demanding billy get off his ass and take max to the byers’ for a christmas party. he was stupid to think that he could catch a break after being forced to ‘celebrate’ with them yesterday, which essentially meant being forced to help susan in the kitchen and watch max get showered in love and gifts while he received nothing.

so he got up. threw on a dark green sweater, tight jeans and boots, still not nearly warm enough for hawkins winter. he silently drove max to the house, only looking at her when she didn’t get out after a minute of being parked.

“what.” billy spoke flatly, his first word of the day.

“come and hang out with us.” max rushed out, nervously fidgeting with the hem of her sweater.

billy just sighed.

“i’m not really in the mood to hang out with a bunch of snotty little shits, so,” he shrugged. “maybe next year.”

“it’s not just us! nancy and jonathan are there. and mrs. byers and chief hopper! and,” a pause. “robin and steve.” she added on quietly.

“max i don’t really think-“ he was interrupted by a knock on his window. he turned to find a very happy and smiling mrs. byers eagerly waving at them.

“come inside!” she urged as billy rolled his window down.

billy just looked at max and gestured towards the house, ignoring her dramatic defeated groan before she got out.

“you too!” joyce grabbed billy’s shoulder, smile faltering at the way he flinched, her touch unexpected. “max told me you guys already celebrated yesterday. what’s another celebration?”

“i don’t think it’s a good idea mrs. byers.” he replied with a small smile, hoping to charm his way out of this situation.

she sighed. “honey, it’s your second and probably last christmas in hawkins before you go to school back home.” she responded to his shocked expression with a sad smile. “we all figured you’d be applying to schools there. and max might’ve slipped up. don’t be mad at her! she’s just scared to lose you, is all.”

billy frowned and looked down at his hands. he hadn’t even told her he was only applying to schools in california. just trying to graduate and get the hell out of indiana, go back home.

“come on, kiddo. your sister would appreciate it.” a pause. “i’ll spike your eggnog.”

billy sighed, taking a few seconds to contemplate before getting out of the car.

“oh you must be freezing.” joyce rolled her eyes as she tugged at his sweater. “you kids and your fashion. you’re gonna get yourself sick like this. hawkins isn’t california!”

billy snorted. “duh.” he mumbled as she dragged him inside.

billy should’ve expected the stares. the guarded, confused and slightly angry expressions at his presence. he felt small, being glared at by nearly everyone in the room. he wanted to turn around, walk right back out that door. almost did if it weren’t for joyce stopping him in his tracks and holding his arm.

“oh, stop that you brats.” joyce huffed. “it’s christmas. be nice! and if you can’t be nice… no more cookies.” she smirked as they all groaned in protest in unison.

billy didn’t really care about the kids. he apologized to lucas not too long after that night, even agreed to the stupid deal to drive him around town and rev his engine to receive his forgiveness in full. it took him longer to approach steve, though. didn’t have the balls to do it until a couple months before steve graduated. he found him alone in the library, studying to get his gpa high enough to be able to graduate and get his diploma.

“can i sit here?” billy gestured towards the empty chair across from steve, who was glaring at him.

“only if you don’t give me another concussion.”

billy gnawed on his bottom lip as he slid into the seat, staring at the table and avoiding eye contact like a goddamn child.

it took him a minute to finally look up and spit out those two words he’d been meaning to say since that night. but it wasn’t the apologizing he dreaded most, it was the explanation and conversation that followed. he expected steve would ask questions, and shit did he have a lot.

billy kept his answers short, general. didn’t spill too much about all the shit going on in his life and in his head. steve didn’t look satisfied with his answers, but he eventually stopped asking questions. gave billy a stiff nod with a,

“yeah. fine. i accept your apology, i guess. just don’t fuck with me or the kids anymore.”

and that was that. billy kept his distance from them altogether. he occasionally carted lucas and max around for their stupid little dates, teasing them here and there. but it was never malicious.

now he stood right in front of the door in joyce’s house, itching to get out. lucas, max and her friends el and will were the only ones not staring at him apprehensively. the curly haired one was whining, asking why he had to be there, throwing in a few words he was probably too young to be saying. boy wheeler was following suit, making grand gestures and calling him an asshole. nancy looked just as prissy as always, turning her nose up. jonathan avoided eye contact. steve wasn’t quite glaring, but he didn’t look too happy to see him either. just because they were on okay terms didn’t mean they were on great terms. his girl robin didn’t seem too thrilled either.

“i’m just gonna..” billy pointed towards the table filled with drinks and snacks. he walked away as the commotion continued behind him, helping himself to the bowl labeled adult eggnog. he grimaced after the first sip before pouring himself a little more.

it was hard to make himself comfortable. he sat stiff and tense on the edge of the couch, as far away from everyone as he could get. the burn of the rum didn’t do much to heal the hurt in his chest, the pain of abandonment and grief he felt this time every year. he tried to tune everyone out, ignoring the kids yelling as they played video and board games, hopper as he snuck the teenagers more eggnog and beer, joyce as she continued to force feed everyone her christmas appetizers.

he found himself staring at the tree, messily decorated to the brim and a little lopsided. his gaze shifted to the walls, family pictures of just the brothers, then joyce and the brothers, and some including hopper and el. he was unconsciously playing with the chain around his neck, chest getting tighter and tighter. he forced his eyes away from the pictures to find jonathan helping joyce cook and set up dinner in the kitchen, laughing and smiling.

that was his breaking point. he set down his empty cup and sped off to the bathroom, scrubbing at his wet eyes. he shut the door behind him, pacing back and forth, trying to breathe through the lump in his throat. he eventually gave up trying to fight the tears off, a christmas tradition for him at this point. he eventually sat down in and slumped back against the bathtub, closing the curtains and shielding him from the rest of the world. he tuned out the music and chatter from outside, instead hugging his knees to his chest and hiding his face in his hands as he cried.

he knew he shouldn’t have listened to joyce. he shouldn’t have gotten out of his car and stepped foot into this house. he should’ve just gone home and lay in bed all day, much less embarrassing than crying in a goddamn bathtub with people right outside.

but here he was, trying to make up for lost time and bonding and memories with max, to show her that he cares and loves her and isn’t going to abandon her like his mother. and yet he was alone, abandoned and abandoning max in just 5 months. his chest hurt as he cried harder, tears freely slipping down his cheeks and staining his stupid sweater. he was nearly wheezing for air, not getting enough in between his sobs.

he must’ve been too loud because he didn’t hear the door open and shut. didn’t even know he wasn’t alone until steve pulled back the curtain, stunned to find him curled up there and crying.

billy wanted to snarl at him, glare at him with a smartass comment about the bathroom being occupied, but all that came out when he opened his mouth was another choked sob.

“shit, man, you don’t look so good.” steve spoke the obvious. “hargrove, you gotta breathe. don’t want you turning blue on me.”

billy turned away, shielded his face with his arms for god knows what. maybe he was expecting a punch, to be told he was a little bitch for crying like this. but all he received were hesitant hands gently prying his wrists away from his face.

“hey.” steve murmured, now only inches away from him. billy didn’t realize he climbed into the tub with him, kneeling before him in the cramped space.

“fuck off.” billy breathed out, all bark no bite, trying to pull his arms away from steve’s grip. but steve didn’t let up.

“why? so you can suffocate yourself to death in mrs. byers’ bathroom?” steve mused, rubbing circles into billy’s wrists with his thumb. “not gonna happen.”

“i don’t need-“ he choked up, words cracking as more tears unleashed. “i don’t need a fucking babysitter.”

“i know.” steve let go of his wrists, sitting back against the opposite end of the small tub. billy almost whimpered at the loss. was so glad he could will himself against at least one thing.

“what about a friend?” steve took in the way billy’s eyes shifted towards him, expression guarded. “look, man, you’re graduating and leaving next summer,” how many people had max told? “and you’re obviously going through some shit so i don’t see why i can’t at least try to help you through this so we,” he sighed as he gestured between them. “so we can be friends and not on bad terms anymore because i’m tired of having enemies.” he rushed out, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “i know what it feels like to want to leave this shithole, trust me. robin already applied to schools in cali too and i was maybe thinking about going with her and if we end up in the same place then maybe we can all be friends and help each other out.” he rushed out again.

billy just stared at him, bottom lip quivering pathetically. here steve was, offering to be his friend and follow both him and robin all the way to california. he’d be stupid if he didn’t take the offer.

“what? you following your little girlfriend out to cali for her to dump you on your ass like the last one?” billy was never too bright in the friendship industry.

“what? no. robin’s not - we’re not like that. we’re just friends.” steve frowned. “i already applied to some community colleges out there. but this isn’t about that right now.” he waved his hand dismissively. “you gonna tell me what’s up with you now? a secret for a secret?”

billy opened his mouth to try and reject the offer, to tell steve to fuck off again, but another sob wracked his body. he let out a frustrated groan through his tears as he scrubbed uselessly at his eyes.

“fuckin’ hate christmas.” he choked out, grabbing onto the saint necklace. his mother’s. “it-“ a whimper. “it was my favorite. at least until my mom,” he shut his eyes tightly, tears spilling out of the corners. “she just. up and left. left me with no note or explanation and a piece of shit father.” he exhaled shakily. “he beat her. and when she left..” he trailed off, gesturing towards himself. “there were no more fucking homemade pies or trees or gifts. just him. always drunk and angry every christmas, blaming me for her. then max and susan came into the picture and they had their perfect little family. celebrated every year.” the without me went unspoken.

billy hadn’t realized steve was inching closer and closer to him until he looked up from the bathtub and found steve inches away from him again, eyes big and sad as they looked over him.

“what are you-“ billy didn’t get to finish his sentence before he was enveloped in a big hug, the guy squeezing him tightly.

“hugging you.” steve mumbled into his shoulder, forcing billy’s face into the crook of his neck. in no time he was crying yet again, right into steve’s fucking shoulder.

steve was good at hugs. good at comfort. the way he rubbed all along billy’s back, one arm secured around his waist made him feel safe in a way he hadn’t in probably a decade. he let himself go again, freely ugly crying into his expensive and soft christmas sweater, clinging onto the material with weak, shaky fists.

“i didn’t know.” steve finally spoke after a minute. “shit, man, no one knows anything about you. i figured your dad was a hard ass after we talked about the fight but not that bad.” he pulled back just an inch, catching billy’s eyes with his own. “does anyone else know?”

billy shook his head.

“why don’t you tell hopper?” steve frowned. “that’s not normal or okay.”

“no point.” billy shook his head. “i turned 18 in november. can’t do jack shit now but wait until i graduate.”

“then move out.” steve said it like it was easy. like he could afford it, like he had anywhere to go.

billy laughed but it was more sad than humored.

“and where would i go?”

“with me.” steve’s response was immediate, no hesitation. “my dad’s always gone on business trips and my mom’s italian.” he said it like it was self explanatory. billy’s confused expression prompted him to continue. “she can’t stand bad parents and she loves company. you’re another mouth to force feed, too. she makes great pasta.”

billy shook his head. “i can’t just move in with you. what if they say no or-or it doesn’t work.”

“they won’t say no.” steve assured. “come on.” he urged. “it’s just one more semester and then we’re off to the golden coast.” he smiled dumbly. “it’ll work. trust me.”

billy went silent. thought about it for a minute. what it could be like to get out of that house. live and be friends with steve. go back home with him later on.

billy slowly nodded. “okay.” he mumbled. “okay.” he repeated again, louder and solidified.

they’d make it work.

#harringrove #billy hargrove #steve harrington #oof #crybaby billiam rights #hurt/comfort #billy hates christmas #but steve will get him to love it again in no time dw folks #starcourt never happened in this btw #it’s just what s3 should’ve looked like if the writing was… idk… good…#give me billy’s happy ending saying fuck neil #give me robin and steve and billy being gay icons and road tripping to california #give me roommates harringrove who fall in love

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trumpkinhotboy · 3 years

Text

Hanging upside down

Pairing: Edmund Pevensie x Reader

Genre: A tiny bit angsty, a bit of comedy, and a bit fluffy

Warnings: A little mention of blood here and there, but nothing too intense!

Rating: g

Request: Open

A/n: First Edmund fic !! At first, this was supposed to be about mister Peter Pevensie, but then I got the divine inspiration to make it all about our dear Edmund. I had fun with this! I hope you'll like it. I recommend reading it while listening to a Narnia ambiance playlist with forest sounds or something like that! Also, THERE YOU GO @imjustdreamingig I POSTED IT

** gif is not mine !!

*** ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT FACE??? SO HANDSOME OMGGGG

Sometimes, being part of the royal entourage, things just get so intense that you need some time apart, away from all the agitation and emotional banter. Being so included in it, you get deeply hurt and worried when nerve-racking and atrocious situations occur. Then comes in the terrible realization that there is not a thing you can do, that you are completely and utterly helpless. Even if you would like to listen to your sheer instinct, you cannot. There are protocols, political relations, and a whole country that depends on your every action. In those situations, you are stuck with these dark feelings undermining you slowly.

This time it was Edmund; involved again in a bloody affair with the Calormene. For a moment, you all got worried it would end up badly, but he had just gotten back, victorious. You were deeply attached to every member of the Pevensie family, especially the freckled adventurous young man, although that could never be revealed. Alas, with secrets to keep and worry eating your brains out you needed to be alone, take a breath or two and forget a little about the world you lived in.

Hanging upside down, hands and arms swinging down. Hair forming a curtain of various shades around your head. You went into the woods to clear your mind, soak in the freshness of the air. There is this little spot you found with an imposing willow oak and a little river right next to it; maybe you could absorb a bit of the serenity of the woods. Everything is calm and soothing, there is not a sound to be heard.

- “Hey!”

You scream, fall quite hard to the ground, and scene.

- “Aouch.”

Trapped in your hair, you sit down, a little dizzy from falling directly on the head. Rubbing your aching elbow that is going to be badly bruised without a doubt, you hear a bright laugh and see Edmund rolling in the grass.

- “Nobody taught you that it was not ideal to creep on someone while they are hanging upside down on a tree?” you grumble.

He is still trying to catch his breath when he answers you.

- “The… question… would be… why were you hanging upside down a tree without being mindful of your surroundings? Someone with bad intention could have crept up on you!” he tries to defend himself, but you can tell he thinks this is hilarious.

- “Come on, Ed.”

- “Alright, alright, I am sorry, but you must admit it was funny.” He answers while getting up.

- “Yeah, yeah, alright.”

You check your body to see any possible injury; your knees are a little scratched, but nothing too bad, your elbow still hurts, but other than that, you are all in one piece. You try to get up while Edmund is still brushing twigs and clumps of grass off his tunic. You slowly get on your feet, but the world is spinning incredibly fast; you grab the tree beside you for balance, hoping it will calm down the revolving of the world.

- “I cannot wait to tell the oth… Y/n?” he looks up, only to see you looking at the ground, eyes wide open.

- “I don’t feel so well...” You lift your gaze to meet his, seeing triples of him dancing around.

- “You are bleeding!”

- “Mh?”

He takes a step towards you, worries written on his traits. He touches the side of your face, and you cannot help but wince at the sharp pain it triggers in you. He lifts your head, turns it on the side, and examines you quickly before declaring you should get back to the castle and maybe get a stitch or two.

- “Will you be able to walk?”

- “It is just a scratch Ed, I am not deathly injured.” You scoff, taking a shaky step before the world starts spinning again. You reach your arms out, searching for anything that could balance you out, which ends up being his hand. “I just need a little support.”

- “Why, of course.” He smiles affectionately at you.

Together you walk slowly but surely to the grand castle. Luckily, you were not that far out in the woods, so the walk is not that long. From time to time, you feel a spin of dizziness. Especially when you try to look up too fast, but otherwise than that, you are fine.

- “Why were you there alone anyway?”

- “I needed some time to myself.”

You have grown up with him, he has learned to observe you and depict your physical language. Just by the tone of your voice, he knows something is wrong.

- “Something happened?” he asks you after a second of silence.

- “No, yes, I mean no! Nothing actually happened it is just….”

His eyes are piercing right through you; his stare attentively focused on your every move. You look back at him, and all at once, the stress and anxiety you felt while he was away are rushing back into your blood. You can feel your heart tighten in your chest; what if something had happened to him? The thought of losing him, you could not bear it, it physically caused you pain. What if he had been in danger and nobody could have saved him?

- “Y/n?” He interrupts your train of thought, bringing you back to reality.

- “Sorry.”

- “If you do not want to tell me it is okay, you don't have to.”

- “No, it is just that… I was so worried Ed. I hate when you go on your own, I hate when there is no way for us to reach or help you. I hate when you are gone off like that.”

You both stopped walking; you have taken two steps away from him. You cannot hold his gaze as all the terrible scenarios start playing again and again before your own.

- “I cannot help but think about all the things that could go wrong. About the actual panic and unbearable pain, I would feel if something were ever to happen to you. It drives me crazy.” You take a deep breath, trying to block the images assaulting your brain. "I needed to take a step back. This place is where I go when it all gets too much for me.”

A deep silence sets in; you are mad at yourself for telling him about it. Each word that leaves your mouth exposes your feelings a fraction more, and you cannot allow that. You do not want to annoy him with your worries. He is a king; he has many more things to worry about than you and your feelings. It is not like it would ever stop him from doing his royal duties, and you understood that. Your behavior is childish and immature. The more you think about it, shame invades each of your cells; you should have never told him about it.

- “Edmund I…” you spin on your heels to face an Edmund that is much closer than you thought. You do feel pretty dizzy from the sudden movement, but you almost forget about it as you are taken away by the emotion in his brown eyes. Almost. You trip a little, but he is quick to catch you and stabilize you.

- “I am sorry Y/n. I did not know you felt like that.” He looks down on your linked hands. “I must admit I would go crazy too if I knew you were in danger and there was nothing I could do to reach you.” He finally looks up at your surprised face. “Stop looking so surprised. I have feelings too, I am not always the rational and practical person everyone thinks I am.” He adds with a shy smirk. You are even more astonished but dare not to say a word.

He slowly lifts his hand towards your face, his whole attention centralized on your being. Holding your breath; you do not dare to move a millimeter. His hand stops in his track as his gaze slides to the long strike of blood going down your face.

- “We, we should get back to our quarters so that we can take care of you.”

You are frozen in place, not able to grasp what was just about to happen. What would have happened? What was that? You had never noticed such depth of emotions in his eyes, but at that moment, you could have sworn it was infinite.

- “Are you ready?” he slides one hand on your back while the other grasp your hand. You nod, feeling more confused than you have ever been.

Once you get inside and head for the royal quarters you suddenly think about the blood still dripping from your left eyebrow, feeling the warm liquid sliding down your throat. You already hear Susan's reprimands when she will see your ruined dress. You cannot help a smile as you think about the weird face she always makes when she is annoyed with something. Her brows furrows and she twists her mouth in an ungraceful rictus which never fails to make you and the other Pevensies laugh.

- “What are you smiling for?”

- “Susan’s face when she’ll see my ruined dress.” You smirk.

- “What do you mean?”

You lift your head to show him the multiples streaks of blood going down your neck and onto the collar and fabric of your dress.

- “Oh no, I did not think about wiping it up.”

- “No worries, as I said, it will be fun to see Su’s face.”

He lets out a chuckle before opening the door of the room. Inside Lucy is painting by the window while Susan is reading a book near her. The two sisters instantly get on their feet when they see the scenery of Edmund supporting you, blood dripping down your face.

- “What happened?”

- “Lucy, please get some towels and the healer’s pouch. Edmund bring her on the couch.”

- “It’s not that bad Su, it’s barely a scratch, I’m fine.” You try to explain.

- “I will be determining that.” She interrupts sternly.

You sigh, knowing you will not escape this as Lucy returns with the aid kit. She starts looking at you too with concern.

- “I think it will need a stitch or two.”

- “Oh, really, guys I do not…”

The older sister glances at you with an expression that did not need any explanations; you needed to shut it. She starts preparing the supply and is still turning your head from side to side when she finally notices the bloodstains on your dress and sighs.

- “Really Ed? You could not have wiped it off? Now her new dress is totally ruined.” That is when the weird rictus and furrowed brows made their apparition.

You take a look at Edmund who is also trying his best to hold in his laughter but fails miserably when she stands there staring at him, hands on her hips.

- “And you think that is funny? You too Y/n? Lu?” she turns around to look at you and her little sister barely containing your amusement. “Maybe I should not do your stitches and ask Mr.Tumnus to do them.”

You and the two other Pevensies grimace knowing damn well that he hates to do that kind of stuff. It makes him nervous and shaky, hence making the process even more painful for the already injured.

- “Oh, please, Susan.” You shake your head while rolling your eyes which was possibly the worst idea you have ever had. The whole room took a spin and brought back the dizziness.

They all come back to you, concerned that there might be more to this injury than what they initially thought.

- “I think she might have a concussion.” Says Edmund while reaching out to you again to offer you some support.

- “How exactly did you say this happened again?” asked Susan.

- “Well, actually, it is a pretty funny story.”

He is about to tell them about your slightly embarrassing fall when the arrival of his brother in the room interrupts him.

- “What happened ?!”

He walks to you with a confused expression. Edmund is still crouching before you, examining your face. You are not even able to answer Peter’s question as you are staring into his brother’s hypnotizing eyes. All this movement makes you even dizzier but let's be honest, even if you were about to puke, you would not miss the occasion to have Edmund’s warm hands on your face. You savor this moment as best as you can, but even though this feels incredibly good, you cannot ignore the feeling of your mind looping a little and your eyes rolling to the back of your head.

- “Guys, what happened?” asks Peter again.

- “She might have a concussion; I think she fell on her head, and Edmund if you, please, stop holding onto her face, I could finally stitch her up and stop this tragedy.”

- “This tragedy?”

- “The dress Pete..” murmurs Lucy.

The older Pevensie looks at your dress, at his sister, then again at you with a look of disbelief. You lightly shrug your shoulder; he's about to say something but gives up understanding that when it comes to Susan, it is a true tragedy.

All the while, Edmund finally let go of you, his cheek a subtle shade of pink. You keep looking at him with confusion in your eyes. What is going on with this boy?

It takes a minute or two for Susan to stitch you up since the wound is small. The eyebrow arch being a place where there is a lot of blood circulation, it is typical you bled a lot. As for the concussion, there is nothing to do but wait and rest, which you absolutely despise, since everyone looks at you like a minotaur had impaled you.

You now lay on the pillowy sofa in a brand-new outfit; Susan forced you out of the dress to try to wash the blood off. Lucy went back to painting, Peter watching over her, and Edmund is sitting on the end of your couch with a book in hand. As for Susan, she is about to leave the room when she suddenly turns back.

- “You never told us what happened.”

You grin and look at Edmund who's already looking at you with a beaming smile on his face.

- “Come on, tell em.”

He does with much excitement, emphasizing the comedy of your fall, but he looks so proud, and everyone is laughing, even Susan, so you do not mind and let him have his moment.

- “Alright, alright funny guy. You told your story, now leave me alone.”

You nudge him with your foot, acting falsely angry. He swiftly grabs it, adjusting it so that both of your feet lay on his lap. He keeps a smile while going back to reading his book drawing small circles on your ankles. A swarm of butterflies is assaulting your stomach, and once again, the world starts spinning; although this time it is for a totally different reason.

...

A/n: I truly hope you liked this!!💛 Once again, just a word to tell you my requests are open. Feel free to send me anything Narnia related, I would love to make your idea come to life:))

#ilya writes ❤#edmund pevensie #narnia fic #fluff #angsty #a bit of a comedy #narnia #edmund x reader #edmund pevensie x reader #edmund pevensie x you #I hope you will like this !!!#i swear reading this while listening to a narnia ambiance playlist #makes it so much better !!

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ithinkthereforeidread · 3 years

Text

the collected poems of todd anderson

christmas day of 1959.

ao3 link here

He knew this day would come. He’s been dreading it, sure, he’d never really enjoyed Christmas much beforehand, his multiple unopened desk sets epitomised such. At his house, fires weren’t warm, hugs were stiff and silence was punctured by the sounds of laughing children in the house next door. It’d always been this way for the Anderson family. Todd grew to accept it.

But this year was supposed to be different.

He was supposed to spend his Christmas at Welton, with all the Dead Poets.

Usually, the boys would go home to their families for Christmas, but through the efforts of Neil he assembled a complex string of falsities about a gargantuan Latin group project that all the Dead Poets needed to finish.

“Serious business, I care about my education father, why else would have you sent me here?” said Neil over the phone, holding his index finger to his mouth to silence Todd from his chuckling, although all Todd really saw was the wide grin that hid behind it, and the way Neil’s eyes crinkled up all the way, a complete oxymoronic action when Neil was usually on the phone to his father. Todd stifles back laughter and Neil smacks him lightly, only causing him to laugh more.

“Well, that was quicker AND easier than I expected...” Neil states after placing the phone back on it’s cradle and ending the call. “But hey!” Neil squeaks, “We’re all spending Christmas together! The biggest concern was just getting my father to agree, everyone else’s parents seemed fine with it.”

Todd and Neil start to walk, side by side, Neil bumps him playfully. “I’m so glad you told me, Todd.” Neil turns his head and looks towards the shorter boy. “My Christmases at home aren’t that great either, I’ve always wanted to spend them here, but I could never work up the courage to ask my father, ask Charlie, in our first year he almost called up my father himself. It was hilarious, he had to look up at the phone, he was so short.”

“You and Charlie have been friends for ages then?” Todd queries “Oh yeah, we met in our last year of preparatory school, he was a pretty mischievous kid, obviously not much has changed.” Neil laughs, “he was just always so confident and sure of himself… I always wanted to be like that, nothing ever got to him.”

“Has that changed?” Todd’s questions were always short and straight to the point. Startling upfrontness in the most unexpected of moments. It was something Todd was known for.

“Not really… I mean, I try to get him to open up… he just isn’t an emotions type of person, I think?” Neil scratches the back of his head. “During our 9th year he went through something really big and not great, but he didn’t tell me a single word about it. To this day I have no idea wahat happened. I tried asking but it didn’t lead anywhere… all I know is some kid had been expelled but it didn’t look like him and Charlie fought or anything because they spent so much time together ....” Neil trails off.

“You know people stare at us sometimes.” Todd blankly states, an unconscious switch being flicked immediately. “When we’re walking to classes, when we go into our dorm, when we exchange smiles in classes… They bump their friends with their shoulders and snicker under their breaths… Have you noticed that Neil?”

Neil’s walking pace slows slightly, “Uh… no, I-uh I didn’t… Do they think we’re-“ “-Maybe.” Todd interrupts before Neil can say The Word. “Bu-but we aren’t, I mean, you were talking about that girl from-“ “-Yeah! Ginny, from the play, wow, I mean, she’s just great.” “Yeah, I’m sure she is.”

God.

This got awkward.

Nice one Todd.

Did it again.

Ink splatters dried on the paper he cradled so delicately, he stares at the contents once more.

“what wouldn't i give to love myself as feverishly as I love you? what is the opposite of amnesia? that is what you are. sometimes i cant find my way around my memories. i have to take detours… i think you were the best one.

little fragments of joy pepper my vacancy i didn't know that i should want to be hopeful or that being hopeful meant giving up some intrinsic part of me.

last night i had a dream that we were breathing underwater flying high in the sky, arms outstretched, laughing, smiling, hugging, bodies pressed onto one another. it didn’t last long. piece by wretched, fragile piece i throw out every hated qualm of thee your impenetrable stare fixed onto me

i have hoped for love that is beyond you being caught by me or me trying to slip through the cracks. they read me, you, us, with their glacial eyes and think they know but they don't

and it seems neither do we.”

“Wow, Todd. This is so… different. But good! It’s just, I’ve never seen anything like this in our English class, in the poems we’ve studied… I just… wow.” Neil looks up at Todd, eyes so soft, Neil knows how big of a deal this is to Todd. He doesn’t just share his work with anyone.

“I-I’m glad you liked it.” Todd smiles, it’s almost as if he’s had to completely remove himself from himself in order to let Neil observe and compliment this part of him, he takes the page out of Neil’s hands and places it in his book. “What-er, who was it about?” Neil gingerly queries. “I- uh, well.” Todd’s heating up now, he should’ve expected Neil to ask him this question. Dammit. Why was he so stupid for letting him read it. “Well, I-I don’t think you necessarily have to go through something to write a-about it, it-it’s fiction for a reason.”

Neil’s lips downturn slightly, “I guess, but everything that we produce in art- whether that be acting, or poetry writing, painting- whatever… it… subconsciously shows something that you might not necessarily want to show or see, right? Like how Keating got us the other day to choose a poem we liked and recite it… It tells you so much about a person. When Charlie was reading his poem… wasn't all you could think about was how bleak it was?” Neil continues, “The academically and poetically rigorous selection made by Cameron or Knox’s complete devotion and enamoration with the simplest emotion of the human being, love? We hide these parts of ourselves, maybe we view them as flaws and faults of our cognitive machine, but art reveals them all.” Neil delivered a love poem to the class himself. He takes a big breath and lets the words he just spoke sit in the air of their dorm for a while.

“Into the meadows dawn..” Todd clicks his fingers, a vague ritual to jog his memory. “flashes my faun.” Todd recites “O Hunter, snare me his shadow… O Nightingale catch me his strain. Else moonstruck with music and madness, I track him in vain” all they’re doing is staring at each other.

“You- you remembered my poem?” Neil questions. “Yeah- I went to the library after you said it- wanted to see if there was more… Oscar Wilde…” “Yeah.” “I notice them staring now that you mentioned it.” Neil breaks the trajectory of the conversation, “God, they’re all so stupid, it’s as if Judy Garland and President Eisenhower just strutted into the school, arms interlocked!” Todd chuckles. Then more silence.

“Has anything changed, Neil?” “What do you mean?” “Between us. What this is. Our comradely bond, as Keating puts it.” Todd chuckles, “ Our co-dependence, attachment at the hip.”

More silence…

“I-I think…” Neil finally states, “that it was never anything it wasn’t already… perhaps we ignored it, suppressed the feeling… but… it was always there.”

“For me, at least.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

~~~

The wind pierced Todd’s skin in tiny microscopic ways, embedding itself under the protection of his coat and completely evading the rest of his physical form, though perhaps the wind wasn’t the cause of the spine-curdling ache he felt, but simply an additional symptom.

Bells rang, green and red Christmas themed paraphernalia adorned the streets he’d previously been driving through, staring out the window at lights and snow that trickled onto an already naturally bleached layer of the ground. His footprints leave indents and obtain a slippery consistency to the outer sole and toe cap. He treads more carefully.

His hands clutch the leather cover of the journal he is hiding underneath his jacket, minimising any further damage that may soon come its way, finally, through minutes of soul-searching and carefully treading through stones and flowers, he makes his way to Neil.

He looks at him with a certain sense of fragility, his stone head protruding from the ground and covered in snow. Todd wipes some away to see the carvings made into him. His full name. Aged 17. Dutiful son of Tom and Susan Perry.

The newness of it all sends a pang to Todd’s stomach as he looks at the other stones weathered with age and the constant bombardment of the elements. That’ll be Neil one day. Flowers not fresh and carvings unreadable. Forgotten to the world and all its inhabitants, rotting in satin lining and cherry oak wood. Todd stifles back a sob and covers his mouth, forcing himself to get it together for just this moment.

“Merry Christmas Neil.” Todd whispers, the words can barely come out. “You-you’re not here physically but you’re here with me, and Charlie, and-and all the other Dead Poets.” he continues, “though- though Charlie isn’t here technically either. He left. Had to. He’s not graduating, at least he’s not at Welton” Todd looks down, brushes his emerging tears away with his shoulder

“I just wanted to come here and give you your gift, I’ve had it in the making for a while now, you’ve seen some of it already. I wish I could’ve given it to you earlier… if I had known this would happen.” he pulls out the journal, and opens it up.

“Here, I’ll read you some.” Todd, though already cold and miserable, situates himself next to Neil’s cold headstone and leans his head on it, opening the journal's contents to its first page.

“Dear Neil,” Todd’s starts, but adds an offside, “It’s dated on the 7th of a while back, my-my birthday.”

“I hope this book finds you well,” Todd’s breath hitches, “especially considering that I’m probably too anxious to deliver it to you. What you’ll see here is what we spoke about the night we first kissed. About freeing ourselves from any subconscious fear or dichotomous dread of both working with and against the grain or being liked or disliked. The people I look up to the most are inspirationally unpopular. So, here’s a suite of poems by yours truly. Hopefully you’ll find your own meaning and reverence in the words my brain has conjured up, words mostly pertaining to you. Every inch of your being alive has me transfixed and enamoured, and I’m truly gobsmacked on the good deed I must’ve committed to have deserved having you in my life.” Todd’s face is red and stuffy from the cold and his breathing is short and punctured.

“You’re sleeping right near me at this moment, and as a sweaty toothed madman once said. We were together. I forgot the rest. Consider this journal a detachable limb of my own self, something you can always carry around and know that I am with you, always. You can suck the life force, the bone marrow out of the words I have written in here and I would applaud and encourage you to do so. Without you, I have no idea where I’d be right now. I owe you so much Neil, you’ve taught me that sometimes the world can be good. That a person’s smile can brighten an entire room. A performance perfectly acted can be a person’s ultimate achievement and their triumph. You are the word phenomenal incarnate Neil, I hope my words do you some sort of justice.

You deserve the world, Neil. I’m brainstorming ways to give it to you.

With love, Todd.”

——————————————————————————

i hope you guys enjoyed!! its fucking brutal honestly but needed some angst and tragedy in my fictional life to reflect my own.

just a preface that some of the poem todd read's is borrowed from pete wentz old emo livejournal posts because i need to somehow tie my two big interests together and MAN does that man write some gay ass shit. hope your heart doesnt hurt too much <3

creds to @neilscrown on tiktok for posting the headcanon "Todd definitely bought Neil a Christmas present and he never got the chance to give it to him so he would sit in his once shared room and stare at it" it tore my HEART OUT and inspired this rambling

#dead poets society #dead poets #dead poets honour #dead poets fanfiction #anderperry #anderperry fanfic #todd anderson #neil perry #todd and neil

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roiscrying · 4 years

Text

THE WAY I LOVED YOU - draco malfoy x hufflepuff reader

Inspired by/based on Taylor Swift’s the way i loved you

words: 2.1k

warnings: swearing??

Draco sat crossing his chest as he stared at the other boys in the room. For Muggle studies they had gotten to take a trip into the Muggle world and him, being the only Slytherin boy in the class, was paired up with Cedric and a Hufflepuff in his year who he had yet to bother to learn the name of. He understood the logic, as the Hufflepuffs were annoying, but they didn’t get on his nerves as much as the rest of the houses. That was except for Diggory, “You know Y/N is in the room right next to us” the other Hufflepuff spoke up, Draco shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the girl’s name. Her being of course, the reason he so strongly disliked being put in the same room as Diggory. Who really would want to room with the person their ex moved on from them with, especially when it was not just any ex, it was Y/N.

“Yes and”

“Would anyone really find out if we used that new spell to-”

“To listen to their conversation?”

“Exactly,”

“Justin I don’t know if that’s the brightest idea” Draco grunted in agreement,

“You just don’t want to hear Y/N talk about Cedric, Malfoy, someone jealous”

“No,” he responded a bit too quickly, “I just don’t want to get in trouble” the boy, Justin scoffed, “fine, do it, but i’m not taking the blame when you two geniuses get caught” he regretted the words almost as soon as they left his mouth but his pride stopped him from taking them back. With a quick mumble of words a mirror-like object appeared and hovered in the air, giving them access to see and listen to the room next door. you sat along with two other Hufflepuff girls, Susan Bones and Hannah Abott, who also happened to be your two closest friends. Your conversation was uninteresting for the boys for several minutes, discussing trivial topics and cracking inside jokes, so much so that Justin was about to end the spell when Susan piped up,

“Sooooo, what is it like dating Cedric” all three boys started intently listening.

~~~~~~~~~

You let out a soft laugh, a gentle blush reaching your cheeks,

“Well, he is sensible and so incredible-”

“Uhg I’m so Jealous” Susan groaned making you laugh again, a bigger smile spreading across your features,

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wanting nothing more than to just slap the growing grin off of Diggory’s face.

“He says everything I need to hear and it's like I couldn't ask for anything better” the girls in the room squealed and a pillow was thrown from Hannah hitting Susan in the face as she spoke up,

“What was your date like, tell me everythingggg”

“Well, he opened every door, and he kissed my hand and he said, ‘you look beautiful tonight’ and I felt perfectly fine” you paused taking a deep breath and looking tentatively towards the other girls,

The hesitance apparent in your voice and features caused Draco to sit up slightly, sure it was foolish to think she would miss him, but part of him still had hope that you missed him even half as much as he missed you.

“Well?” Hannah spoke up,

“What is it Y/N,”

“Uhg this is going to sound so stupid but if I’m honest, I miss screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain when it's 2 a.m. and I was cursing his name, when I was so so in love that I acted insane, that's the way I loved him” Susan let out a loud gasp which earned her another smack in the face with a pillow by Hannah,

“What was that” you remarked as soon as the girl had entered the common room and could no longer hear the two.

“What was what Y/N”

“You know what I am talking about”

“I don’t believe I do” you sighed incredulously,

“You just told someone that I was obsessed with you and wouldn’t leave you alone?” you scoffed shaking your head, “you are incredible” you spat

“Y/N, you’re being unreasonable, you know why I had to do that”

“Unreasonable Draco?” You laughed bitterly, “Don’t turn this on me Draco,”

“Why are you acting like this Y/N-”

“Why am I acting like this?” you shook your head again, “Do you even realize what you are saying? It’ ‘unreasonable '’ to be mad at my boyfriend for saying that I’m just some girl who is obsessed with you and won't leave you alone? Unbelievable. Actually, very believable. Nothing is ever your fault.”

“Y/N not now-”

“Not now Draco? Am I inconveniencing you?”

“Y/N that’s not what I meant-”

“What did you mean then?” The boy sputtered for answers as you turned on your heel and walked away, you weren't done with the conversation, but you knew he would follow, or at least you hoped he would, some strange part of you wanted to know that he cared enough about you to follow you.

“Y/N wait” you heard the boy running behind you and you picked up your pace until you reached the quad, immediately taking notice of the pouring rain that seemed to always accompany their arguments,

“I’m so sick and tired of this Draco” Y/N yelled as she turned to look at him, pulling your robes tighter over your body as she felt the rain instantly beginning to soak through your clothes.

“Y/N please” the boy begged,

“Draco why can't we be like everyone else, I’m tired of being your little secret”

“Y/N you know why,”

“But I don’t understand! I don’t care what people will say, that doesn’t mean anything!”

“Y/N I know this is new to you, but it's different when-” the words came out harsher than he intended,

“It’s different when what Draco? When you have a reputation to uphold? Draco this is what I mean, if I’m not worth ‘tainting’ your reputation or whatever the hell you think will happen then we shouldn’t be together at all”

“Y/N you don’t mean that”

“But I do. You’re really prioritizing what people think of you over me?” You let out a bitter laugh, “one great boyfriend” you remarked sarcastically, “I’m done with this bullshit, having to act like we’re something we’re not. You need to choose right now, your superficial reputation, or me” your voice had become hoarse from the amount you had been screaming. You felt her heart break as he stayed silent, closing her eyes as you felt tears slip out, “I guess I know your answer then” the sound of the rain was loud enough you didn’t hear him approaching and jumped slightly as you felt him gently take your hands into his,

“If you think for a second that I wouldn’t pick you-” the boy paused, “You are the best thing that's ever happened to me Y/N,”

“Then prove it,” you whispered and in an instant his hands were around her body closing the space between them and pressing his lips against hers. Your eyes stayed shut as you smiled softly returning the kiss only pulling away when your lungs burned and you needed to take a breath, “No more hiding?”

“No baby, all of Hogwarts will know you’re mine baby girl”

Draco let a small smirk appear on his face at your remark, raising an eyebrow at Cedric who had turned to the boy. His face had obviously dropped from it’s previous smirk.

“Shut it Susie-” With that the girls were silent again, now both listening intently to you pour your heart out,

“Uhg I’m so lost because Cedric, he respects my space and never makes me wait and he calls exactly when he says he will. He's close to my mother, and talks business with my father. He's charming and endearing and I'm comfortable”

“Butttt”

“Even breakin' down and coming undone, it was a roller-coaster kinda rush,” you let out another sigh “And I, I never knew I could feel that much, but that's the way I loved him” you jumped up so you were standing on your bed, leaning dramatically against the wall behind you, “It’s not that Cedric isn’t amazing and everything a girl could ever want, but it's just,” you sighed looking down at the girls who had moved to sit on the edge of your bed, “He can't see the smile I'm faking.”

“Oh Y/N,” Hannah spoke up sympathetically,

“But my heart's not breaking 'cause I'm not feeling anything at all. Draco was wild and crazy, just so frustrating,” you groaned flopping back down, your tone more wistful when you spoke up again , “intoxicating, complicated, he got away by some mistake” she trailed off

Over the past few days since the winter break ended Draco had been super distant, constantly avoiding you or making up excuses not to talk to you. It had been a few days by the time you finally were able to catch him alone. He was hunched over with his head in his hands in a corner of the library. You had just sat down when her eyes flicked over his arm and noticed something, you danced around the issue trying to make small talk with him but finally fed up with his short dismissive answers you decided just to address it,

“What is that Draco,” you snapped. You knew very well what it was, but nothing in you wanted to believe it was true.

“I-I,”

“I thought you were different Draco,”

“I-I, I had no choice”

“Bullshit” the words left your mouth before you could stop it, the feeling of betrayal too clear in your mind to let you think straight, “wasn’t it you who told me even in the most dire situations you always have a choice”

“Y/N I didn’t mean this”

“I really believed you Draco, I thought you loved me, you were using me weren’t you,”

“Y/N I was not, I never lied about anything I-”

“Oh really,”

“I never lied about my feelings for you Y/N, you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me”

“You really expect me to believe you Draco? When you have a dark mark on your arm”

“Y/N please” his voice broke. His words were true, he had no choice, and he cared more about you than anyone else in his life, he would do anything for you. But you wouldn’t listen to him,

“I don’t want to hear it Draco, we’re done” you said plainly, trying to ignore everything in your heart telling you to hear him out, to comfort him, to give him the benefit of the doubt.

You made a mistake, you knew it, but then there was Cedric, a sweet boy in your house who was nothing but kind towards you, he was perfect, but that was the problem. He was too perfect, you didn’t have the same fire and chemistry that came so easily with you and Draco, the conversations never flowed as smoothly, the kisses weren’t as passionate, you didn’t want to admit it, but he just was missing something, he wasn’t Draco. You had envisioned a life with Draco, you could see yourself walking down the aisle to him, there was something missing from Cedric where you could never let yourself daydream to that point. He was nice, a good guy but there was something missing.

Draco was broken after you broke up with him, he felt as if a piece of himself was missing, something he hadn’t realized he needed until you were there, and something he realized he hadn’t appreciated enough when you were there.

“And now, I miss our screaming and fighting and kisses in the rain when it's 2 a.m. and I was cursing his name, when I was so so in love that I acted insane, because that's the way I loved him”

“Breakin' down and coming undone,” Hannah spoke up earning a nod from you,

“It's that roller-coaster kinda rush,”

“I never knew I could feel that much, but that's the way I loved him”

“You should tell him,”

“He probably hates me now, I can’t believe I let myself-”

“You were shocked Y/N,”

“I just, Cedric is an amazing guy, he’s everything anyone could ever need, but he’s not what I want, or who.”

Cedric let out a heavy sigh and looked back towards Draco. He sat frozen, eyes showing some sort of disbelief and longing, as much as he hated it, he knew what had to be done.

“I think I’m going to break up with him” your voice spoke freezing everyone in both rooms, “I can’t keep leading him on like this, I don’t want to use him,”

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thepremedthatwrites · 4 years

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hi so i've written this one shot where y/n was dating edmund and he takes her home for a study session and throughout the whole thing she and peter kept flirting, anyways she ended up staying the night in peter's room to be precise (i made it fluff). could you maybe write an alternate smut ending because peter is a naughty boi, i wrote this as if peter was 21 and she was 18 along side edmund, is this idea well written because i can't describe stuff sjdjskd

Our Dirty Little Secret

I have never felt so dirty after writing something lmao but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy writing it. I hope you like it! (also Edmund deserves the world so if you want to read some A+ Edmund imagines/smut I recommend checking out edmundpevensieisbaby on tumblr)

warning: smut below the cut

My fingers were interlocked with his as we walked down the street. The unforgiving sun was beating down on us as we neared his house. “This calculus exam is going to kill me,” I groaned.

“That’s why I’m here,” Edmund chuckled, squeezing my hand. “I’ll teach you all that I know.”

“So we’re actually going to do work this time?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow and causing Edmund to laugh.

“I’ll try my hardest but that skirt you're wearing might make it hard for me to concentrate.” I felt my face warm at his words. The skirt I was wearing reached just the middle of my thigh, a bit shorter than I was used to but it was so hot out that I couldn’t help but wear as little clothing as possible.

“It is only Lucy at the house, right? I don’t want to make a poor first impression with your other siblings.” Ed and I had only been dating for a few months. I didn’t want his family to already disapprove of me.

“Actually, Peter just got home from university. He’s staying for the weekend.”

“You’re joking,” I groaned as we walked up to the front door. The extra car in the driveway supported Edmund’s claim.

“I’m home!” Edmund announced as we entered the house. Lucy was sitting at the kitchen table, eating an apple while scrolling through her phone. She glanced up, giving a smile and a wave before returning to her phone. I heard the sound of footsteps approaching us from the hall to our right. A tall man who seemed to be in his early twenties appeared. I was taken aback by his attractiveness, his blond hair slightly messy as if he had just woken from a nap, his blue eyes still slightly clouded with sleep. He ran his fingers through his hair as his eyes landed on me.

“You didn’t tell me you were bringing home a guest,” the man said.

“Well I didn’t know I had to tell you,” Ed replied, releasing my hand to wrap his arm around my waist. “Pete, this is my girlfriend (y/n). (Y/n), this is my older brother Peter.”

“Nice to meet you,” I smiled, extending my hand for him to shake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well,” Peter said, shaking my hand as his eyes traced my figure, lingering on my skirt for a moment before flickering back to my (e/c) eyes. “Ed didn’t tell me he had a girlfriend.”

“We really only just started dating,” I said quickly, feeling my heart race as Peter’s eyes focused on me.

“If you excuse us, (y/n) and I will be in my room studying,” Ed said as he started to guide me towards his bedroom.

“Are you guys actually going to be studying this time?” Lucy asked from the kitchen table causing me to start blushing. While I had thought we had been quiet, Lucy’s comment suggested otherwise.

“Haha very funny,” Edmund said, sticking his tongue out at his little sister.

“Wow, very mature Ed,” she replied with, rolling her eyes and causing me to chuckle.

“Come on, stop your bickering. I need you to help me pass this calc exam,” I said, pulling him towards his bedroom door. I could feel Peter’s eyes watching me as I walked into Ed’s room. I turned back towards Peter, my eyes catching his causing him to turn away as I closed the door. My heart was still racing as the door replaced my vision of Peter. No, this was wrong. I was with Ed, not Peter. But there was something about Peter that seemed to draw me towards him.

“You okay (y/n)?” Edmund asked, breaking me from my thoughts.

“Yeah, of course,” I lied, making my way to my boyfriend. “Now, please for the love of God explain what an integral is,” I said as I pulled out my notebook from my backpack.

Ed and I had been studying for about an hour. “Does that make sense?” Ed asked as he finished his explanation.

“I think so,” I said, slowly nodding my head.

“Good. I think we should take a break,” he said while bringing his hand towards my thigh.

“What exactly were you thinking we should do during this break?” I questioned, my voice low as I started to lean in towards him.

“I have a few ideas,” he growled, his hand roughly squeezing my thigh causing me to gasp. “And a few of them include taking off that pretty little skirt of yours.” He closed the gap between us that I had already been slowly closing. The kiss was rough, taking the breath out of me as his hands wandered my body. Somewhere during the kiss, I moved so that I was straddling him. I held his face in my hands as I parted my lips, allowing him entrance. His hands squeezed my ass causing me to let out a small moan. The sound of someone clearing their throat caused us to pull away quickly. I looked up to see Peter in the frame of the now opened door.

“Dinner’s ready,” Peter stated through clenched teeth. He seemed stiffer than before as he looked at the scene in front of him. I slowly climbed off of Ed, my face now a light pink from a mixture of the make-out session and being caught. I adjusted my skirt which caught the attention of Peter whose eyes flickered to it. “Will you be joining us for dinner (y/n)?”

“Oh yes,” I replied quickly, hoping the new conversation would help ease the tension in the room. Ed got up, walking to my side.

“She’s actually staying the night since I live much closer to school. That way she can get to school early to study before her exam.” Peter shifted his weight between his feet as he listened to his brother, occasionally glancing at me.

“Alright,” he said before turning around and heading back to the kitchen.

“He isn’t mad, is he?” I asked quietly.

“No,” Ed shook his head. “At least I don’t think so. I’m not sure what his problem is. Maybe he’s just stressed.” He gave a shrug before grabbing my hand and leading me to the kitchen.

“Oh look! The two lovebirds finally decided to grace us with their presence,” Lucy said as we walked into the kitchen. Edmund’s parents chuckled at their daughter’s comment.

“You’re just on a streak today of making fun of me,” Edmund said, shaking his head.

“Isn’t that every day?” Peter questioned causing all of us to laugh. Edmund sat down next to Lucy while I sat across from him next to Peter.

“How’s studying going?” Edmund’s father asked.

“It’s going good. Edmund’s amazing at teaching math,” I said.

“Well, it’s easy when the student is so amazing.” I smiled at Edmund’s words. His parents smiled as well while Lucy made fake gagging sounds. This caused her parents to turn to her and ask her about her day. I half-listened while shoveling food into my mouth, starving after a day of school which included no breaks for lunch.

“Hungry?” Peter questioned, chuckling at his own joke.

“Only a bit,” I replied with, cracking a smile. “I haven’t eaten all day plus it doesn’t hurt that the food is absolutely delicious.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You cooked this?” My eyes widened in surprise. At first glance, you wouldn’t think of Peter as a cook.

“My specialty,” he said, a grin on his face.

“(Y/n),” Edmund’s mother said causing me to turn to her. “We set up the couch for you to sleep on but if it’s too uncomfortable, I’m sure Susan wouldn’t mind you borrowing her bedroom for the night.”

“The couch is fine,” I replied as everyone had started to clean up.

“Great! Edmund, would you clean up your girlfriend’s plate while I show her to the bathroom.” Edmund nodded, grabbing my plate and walking towards the sink where Lucy was waiting. I got up from my seat. As I started to turn to follow Edmund’s mom, I couldn’t help but realize that my ass was level with Peter’s face who was still sitting next to my seat. I straightened my skirt, trying to pull it down a bit lower to cover as much as possible so Peter didn’t see too much. I could feel his eyes watch me as I walked away from my seat and towards the hall where the bathroom was.

I laid on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. It was almost midnight now but I could barely sleep. All I could think about was Peter. “Snap out of it,” I mumbled to myself as I turned to my side. I was with Edmund, not Peter. But why did Peter make my heart flutter and my stomach do somersaults? “This isn’t working,” I said, sitting upright. I ran a hand through my (h/c) locks. Maybe spending some time with Edmund would help me get my mind off of Peter.

I slowly got off of the couch, tiptoeing my way towards Edmund’s door. I paused as I heard what sounded like panting coming from another door. “(Y/n),” I heard a voice gasp through the wooden door. I inhaled sharply as I realized it was Peter’s voice. I slowly opened the door to see Peter laying in bed, his hands wrapped around a very erect cock.

“Peter?” I questioned, causing him to freeze. He rushed to cover himself as he started to mumble something. I felt my heart race as I closed the door behind me, the knot in my stomach becoming more intense with every step I took towards him. “It’s okay,” I said softly as I crawled into his bed. Peter let out something between a sigh and a growl as I felt his hands wander my body.

“Fuck (y/n),” he muttered as I allowed my hands to wander his body. He was completely naked which allowed me to trace over his defined abs and warm skin without any barriers. “You know, you look a lot more mature than eighteen.”

“Really,” I chuckled as my hands wrapped around his cock causing him to inhale deeply. “You know, I was actually on my way to see your brother. I couldn’t get my mind off of you, wondering what it would feel like to have your huge cock stretching out my tight little pussy. I thought maybe Ed could take my mind off of it,” I leaned in so that my mouth was right by his ear. “But maybe acting out my fantasies would be the best way to get over them.” I gently bit down on his earlobe causing him to let out a low moan. I had started to slowly move my hand up and down his cock, watching with interest at how Peter reacted to my actions.

He closed his eyes, letting his head fall back on his pillow as I quickened my pace. He let out a low moan, bucking his hips. After a few minutes, his hand grabbed my wrist, stopping my hand. “If you want me to fuck you, you’ll have to stop jerking me off before I cum,” he said. Although he didn’t say it in any particular way, his words turned me on even more as I rubbed my legs together, wanting any kind of friction. Peter sensed this as he pinned me to the mattress, his face only inches from mine.

His lips crashed with mine, his tongue ripping open my mouth and exploring it while his hands worked on removing my clothes. We separated for a moment to take off my shirt before our lips were back together. I helped take off my shorts and underwear, our kiss being broken up into smaller kisses with gasps of air in between. He pulled away leaving me both breathless and dizzy. I watched as he lined himself with me before pushing in. I let out a loud moan causing him to cover my mouth with his hand. “We don’t want Edmund to walk in on us now do we,” he said, raising an eyebrow. I shook my head no. “That’s a good girl,” he said before slowly rolling his hips.

My back arched in pleasure, my hands gripping the sheets as Peter quickened the pace. The bedsprings groaned underneath us as Peter slammed into me over and over again. He fell onto his forearms, panting into my ear as he quickened his pace even more. I dug my heels into him, pushing him even deeper. “You’re so fucking tight,” he said in a half moan. His lips found my neck causing me to gasp. Peter sucked and bit down along my neck causing my hands to rake down his bare back, the pleasure becoming too much.

“Peter,” I gasped as he bit down on my neck one last time, almost surely leaving a hickey. If my mind hadn’t been clouded with lust, I would have chastised him for leaving a love mark on my body, something Edmund was sure to notice. Instead, it caused me to let out a low moan as my orgasm rippled through me. My eyes were forced closed as my head flew back my body pressed against Peter’s as I held onto him for dear life. The pleasure became almost unbearable as Peter quickened the pace, his thrusts becoming more sloppy and desperate as he chased his own orgasm.

He let out a moan as I felt his warm seed spill into me. “(Y/n),” he moaned as he thrusted into me sporadically as his orgasm started to slow down. He slowly got off of me, falling to my side before turning to face me. He pulled me in for a kiss that was much more gentle than the ones we had shared during our moment of passion. I rested my head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat as I was slowly lulled to sleep. The one thing that I could think of as I was pulled into my dreams was that I had just fucked my boyfriend’s brother.

#peter pevensie #peter pevensie x reader #peter x reader #the chronicles of narnia #narnia #peter pevensie fanfic #peter pevensie preference #fanfic #imagine #preference #peter pevensie imagine #peter pevensie smut #edmund pevensie #narnia fanfiction

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pallasperilous · 4 years

Text

Funny Bone

The other day Supernatural9917 threw out this meme as a cracky Halloween Dean/Cas prompt and I was SO MAD, because I then had to write it:

And so here it is. Goddammit.

Funny Bone

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26761150 Words: 4930 Castiel/Dean Winchester Fluff and Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Skeletons, Bad Pick-Up Lines, No Angels AU, Men of Letters Bunker, Mild Gore Mature (mentions of lewd acts, canon-typical violence, and some truly horrible pickup lines)

It wasn’t even a particularly creepy skeleton; it was in kind of a “just chillin’” pose on the floor. One ankle was still locked up in a heavy iron cuff, at the end of a short chain leading back to the wall. Snoresville, as dead stuff goes; Dean’s seen worse at Disneyland. It was the skeleton’s comment about Dean’s ass that really livened things up.

Discovering the bunker in the first place was a helluva surprise. The whole facility is legitimately batshit; Dead Guys of Letters knew how to live (and, apparently, die. All at once.).

But after plowing through a dozen rooms worth of priceless treasures and crusty boobytraps, even Sam was looking kinda full up on shock and awe.

“We can hit the basement tomorrow,” he said. There was a big smudge of dust across his nose and some cobwebs in his hair.

“Nuh uh,” Dean answered, kicking the door shut with the toe of his boot. “If there’s shit still kicking down there, we gotta clean it out before it cleans us out. It’s that or we’re sleepin’ in the car.”

“Ugh,” Sam said, as if twenty minutes ago he hadn’t been losing his mind over a rare book about werewolf hemorrhoids.

So discovering that the basement included a no-shit actual dungeon felt more like an unanticipated bonus, and stumbling across a skeleton while exploring it barely even registered. Skeletons and dungeons! They go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong.

It wasn’t even a particularly creepy skeleton; it was in kind of a “just chillin’” pose on the floor, inside a big circle of greasy black ash. It looked a little mildewy in in places. One ankle was still locked up in a heavy iron cuff, at the end of a short chain leading back to the wall. Snoresville, as dead stuff goes; Dean’s seen worse at Disneyland.

It was the skeleton’s comment about Dean’s ass that really livened things up.

“Welp,” Dean had said, holstering his gun and wiping his hands on his jeans. “We’re all clear. Let’s head back upstairs, salt the shit out of everything, and then we can pick up some groceries.”

“Do I get to buy a vegetable that doesn’t fit in a bun, or are we still in the refractory period?” Sam snarked from the corridor.

“I don’t see you cookin’, “ Dean started, shuffling back towards the hall, and that’s when the skeleton butted in.

“Are those astronaut pants?” it asked. “Because your ass is outta this world!”

Dean absolutely did not scream, but it’s possible there was a yelp.

He almost unloaded a clip into it – unclear what that would’ve possibly done, but it’s good to start with the simple, available solutions. Next he nabbed the lighter fluid off of Sam and dumped out half a pound of kosher salt as a chaser and set the fucker alight.

This does not have the intended effect.

“Baby, I’d like to put my meat on your grill,” the skeleton says, greenish flames dancing between its ribs, “because you’re hot, and I’m smokin’.” Then it sits up a little, just enough to shoot Dean some finger guns.

“What the fuck,” Dean says.

Sam makes a little evaluatory noise. “Sexually harassed by a skeleton,” he chuckles. “I think that’s a new one. Even for you. Is that a new one? I know a lot of strange shit went down in Purgatory.”

The skeleton perks up even more at that, grungy eye sockets sweeping up and down Dean’s body. “Are you a time traveler?” it asks. (Maybe he asks, because the voice is pretty deep and dude-ish, although possibly just on account of its vocal cords being leather shoelaces.)

“Wh…no, I’m not a time traveler,” Dean fibs. He’s more of a time trafficking victim, anyway. “Oh, wait, god,” he says. “Please don’t tell me you’re asking that because –“

“– I can see you in my future,” the skeleton finishes, eagerly, and Dean really wishes this thing had eyebrows so he could tell if they’re waggling.

“Yeah, okay. That’s enough for today,” Dean groans. “I need a drink.” He starts to back out of the room as a pre-emptive strike against Bones commenting on how he hates to see Dean leave, but loves to watch him go. Dean’s working on stumbling back again Sam’s left shoe when the skeleton pipes up one last time, this time with a husky, anxious edge.

“I realize that Purgatory isn’t accessible through a simple chronological shift,” it says, teeth chattering. “But it does require travel between modalities, and if you’re capable of that, I would very much like to speak with you again.”

Dean and Sam’s heads slowly swivel back towards the skeleton, like two little pizzas on the same Lazy Susan.

An hour later, they’re still in the dungeon, working on dousing the skeleton with every possible anti-bad-stuff solution they’ve got, just in case he’s a vampire skeleton or a ghoul skeleton or a witch skeleton or maybe just a wendigo that’s incredibly bad at its job. In between progress reports, he’s still hitting on Dean.

“Dude, don’t you have an off switch somewhere?” Dean asks him.

“Well, Dean, you certainly make me feel like a light switch,–“

“– because you turn me on,” all three of them say in unison.

The skeleton looks a little embarrassed, which is kind of impressive when you think about it. “You’ve…heard that one before?” he asks.

“I spend a lot of time in bars,” Dean deadpans. “Okay, sage is a no-go.”

Sam strikes a line off on the clipboard he found upstairs. “Is this part of a curse or something?” he asks, glancing up at Bones. “Like on top of being a sentient skeleton, you can only speak in horrible pickup lines?”

The skeleton shakes his head, which produces a sound Dean recognizes from his kneecaps on cold mornings. “No, the spellwork allows me to speak freely on most subjects; except who I am, or how to free me. But it’s helpful to use language modern humans can easily understand.”

“Huh. Well, in a way, it is Dean’s native tongue,” Sam says, smirking.

“You shut your face,” Dean hisses.

“When I first saw you, I lost my tongue. Can I try yours on for size?” Bones asks Dean.

“Buddy, I don’t know where you get your information from, but nobody actually talks that way,” Dean tells him. “Nobody sober, anyway. Who isn’t a virgin.”

The skeleton slumps. “I learned from my last visitor. He tried to release me on several occasions, but he either died or abandoned the project.”

Dean arches a brow. “The project being…you?”

“I would be very valuable under the right circumstances.” The skeleton shrugs and casually holds out an arm for Dean to scrape at with the demon blade. “He gave me lessons in modern vernacular as a way to pass our time together.”

“Sounds like a peach,” Dean says, before he can catch himself. “If you have a peach-related pickup line in there, man, you’d better just sit on it.”

“That’s what-“

“I will smash you with a hammer,” Dean barks.

The skeleton relents, but with obvious reluctance.

They call it quits before Kansas rolls up the sidewalk for the night and leaves them stranded with nothing but two Clif bars and a gross of septuagenarian cans of franks ’n beans. Bones shifts nervously when Dean leaves – “Which is better, pancakes or waffles?” he asks.

“Pancakes,” Dean says, with a sense of grim duty.

“Because I’d like to know what you’re making me for breakfast,” says Bones, his voice trailing off as Dean books it down the stony corridor.

By lunch the next day (bologna sandwiches, so sue him, he’ll make something good later) they’re pretty sure that Bones doesn’t pose any known, immediate threat – other than to Dean’s sanity – so they switch gears to springing him. Maybe he will be worth something, or maybe he’ll crumble into dust and Be Free, or maybe he’ll just stop being chained to the basement wall, in which case he can become their skeleton butler or something.

There are weird runes on the ankle cuff, so Sam snaps some quick photos and heads upstairs to feel up the library. This leaves Dean in the basement with Bones, some good old-fashioned power tools, and Bones’s ex-suitor’s gross sense of humor.

“You know I can understand you just fine when you’re talking normally,” Dean says. “You’re just reciting some prehistoric shit that idiots say to girls to get a pity-laugh, hoping it leads to a pity-fuck.”

“What’s a pity-fuck?” Bones asks, all mildewy innocence. Dean’s pretty sure the grunge in his eyeball sockets is dried eyeball.

“Pretty much what it says on the tin, my guy,” Dean answers, and reaches for the acetylene torch.

“Enochian,” Sam says, when Dean surfaces for another sandwich and possibly a beer. He’s really disappointed about the torch.

“Gesundheit?” Dean replies, around a mouthful of bologna. Like everything else here, the kitchen is pretty schwa, although the inside of the fridge required three exorcisms and half a jug of bleach.

Sam paws around the smelly old book in a way that makes Dean feel sorry for the girls Sam dated in high school. “The symbols on the cuff. I think they’re Enochian. It’s a fake celestial language made up by some sixteenth century con artists.”

Dean coughs up a bit of Wonder Bread. “I respect the hustle, but what’s it doing on an ankle cuff in a dungeon younger than Mickey Mouse?”

Sam frowns. “Well, it could be for show. But just because some nutbars made it up doesn’t mean it’s totally powerless. Maybe it does have some kind of…heavenly mojo.”

“Liwl probbem,” Dean observes, finishing off his sandwich. “Def nuh heggen.”

“Huh?”

Dean takes a swallow of beer. “I said: there’s no heaven.”

Sam shrugs. “We didn’t think there was a Purgatory, either.”

“Okay, but if we find out angels are real,” Dean snorts, “then Bones can fuck me in the ass.”

Sam reports his findings to Bones, who sits placidly on the back of his pelvis, carpals splayed out on his kneecaps. What’s even holding him together? Dean can see what’s left of his ligaments, but they look like petrified gas station jerky.

“Do you know what they mean?” Sam asks him, pointing at the sigils.

Bones’s jaw creaks open a little, then closes again, and then he shakes his skull (something rattles inside.) Finally he makes a little frustrated noise and replies – “Baby, are you a book? Because I’d like to check you out.”

“Hey!” says Dean. “Keep it in your pants, man, I’m right here.”

Sam squints. “I think…Dean, I think he’s trying to tell us something, but the spell on him means he can’t say it directly.”

Bones clenches his fists, releases them, clenches them again.

“Yeah. Keep him talking. Let’s see how close he can get.”

Clack clack clack.

“Uh,” Dean says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Okay. Do I need to, like. Give you some kinda opening?” he asks Bones.

“Sweetheart, I’d like nothing better,” Bones answers, then clacks his knuckles on his brow with exasperation.

“Sorry, Christ. Hit me with your best shot, buddy. Dealer’s choice.”

Bones clears his…ghost throat? and tries: “Tell me, Dean…did it hurt?”

Dean blinks. “When I…fell from heaven?”

Sam claps his hands. “Fucking knew it. It is Enochian, and it does have something to do with this. I think he wants me to check the library for another book. Maybe there’s one misshelved or something that I can actually use to translate. Or I can Google around, maybe there’s a subreddit.”

Dean’s pretty sure Bones has never heard of a Google or a subreddit (for that matter, does Dean actually know what a subreddit is?), but it seems like there’s a glimmer of hope deep in those scum-holes.

Sam gets translations for a few of the words – “obedience” and something he’s fifty percent sure means “millstone” – but the rest is still gobbledygook, and he hasn’t come down with another update in hours. The dungeon is pretty roomy, but it’s not like there’s a foosball table or a cable TV pickup down there, so Dean and Bones wind up lying on the cold-ass ground, staring up into the dark reaches of the ceiling together and, like. Chatting.

Occasionally Bones goes quiet and Dean glances over at him. He really could just be a totally normal, completely dead dungeon skeleton. A good power washing and the right mounting hardware and he’d be ready for a high school biology classroom.

“So if these runes are a celestial thing, does that mean you’re some kinda demonic...thing?” Dean asks. “Cause I gotta say, you’re a much less of a douche than the demons I’ve met.” He snorts. “I know you probably can’t say.”

Bones sighs (how? With what lungs?). “The last person who tried to free me was a demon.” He shifts a little, maybe surprised that he can say this out loud. “It had been so long since somebody had spoken to me…I’m afraid I came close to actually enjoying his company. But he was no better than his kind usually are.”

“Don’t suppose you caught his name? Maybe Sam or me killed him for you already.”

“He called himself—no, I can’t say it.” He makes a sound resembling a harumph.

Then his skull creaks over to look at Dean. “Does your name start with ‘C’?” he says, very deliberately.

Dean is momentarily puzzled, but he works it out by the time Bones wincingly adds “…because I’ve got a D that wants to come behind you.”

There aren’t too many demons under the “C” tab in Dean’s blood-stained mental rolodex, and when he says the name out loud, Bones makes a sound like an entire set of dominos being thrown down a spiral staircase.

Crowley is pretty pissed, which is fun.

It’s nice that the dungeon floor already has a perfect trap on the floor; they don’t even have to hit up Ace Hardware for paint. A damp shop cloth and a little nail polish (Wet ’n Wild in “Red Red,” don’t leave home without it) brings it right up to working order.

“Why does it smell like a nail salon fucked a bloody wine cellar?” Crowley says, after he’s settled down a bit. He manifested right in the creepy torture chair (in the shackles, even! What service!) and he made some escape attempts followed by angry noises about rust stains. Now he’s recovered his dignity and has kicked back a bit, legs crossed, fingers steepled, oozing maximum levels of 2 cool 4 school.

“How do you know what a nail salon smells like?” Dean retorts.

“I get a monthly mani-pedi. There’s no shame in a little self-care, boys.” Crowley’s eyes trickle down to their feet. “Imagine what fungal horrors those work boots must conceal.” Then he squints, and looks up, finally taking in the whole room. “Could swear I’ve been here before. Little upscale for you, isn’t it? Did we splurge for a vacation rental?”

“Crowley, why don’t we roleplay Titanic?” Bones growls from the wall behind him, and Crowley’s face goes slack. “I’ll be the iceberg, and you can go down.”

Crowley swallows and slowly twists back, as far as the shackles let him. “Feathers, is that you? Well, as I live and breathe.”

“You do neither,” says Bones, with so much gravelly contempt that Dean suppresses a little shiver.

“Oh, I still breathe now and then, when the mood takes me. I’m a sentimentalist.” Crowley cranes his neck a little harder and squints into the dim. “Goodness, you’ve dropped some weight since we last spoke, haven’t you. Finally let go of all that pesky soft tissue?”

Bones tilts forward and kind of clatters onto hands and knees, then tipsily begins to rise up to standing. Dean’s a little concerned he’s gonna topple right over and they’re gonna spend the next two hours collecting him in a basket, but when he moves to help out, Bones waves him off. After a couple false starts he makes it up onto his feet bones and then shuffles out to the end of his chain, right under one of the overhead lights. He’s still a good couple feet off from Crowley, but Crowley looks like he wouldn’t mind a few extra acres.

Bones sways a little bit, just enough for Crowley to wince. “You didn’t come back.”

“I got busy.”

Sam shifts impatiently. “What is he?” he snaps, gesturing at Bones.

“Exceedingly dull,” Crowley says. “I should’ve guessed you were friends.”

Dean uncorks a fresh bottle of holy water.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Crowley amends, quickly. “And even if you did, you wouldn’t know what to do with him. It’d be like giving a laptop to a pair of howler monkeys.”

Dean puts his thumb over the mouth of the water bottle and holds it over Crowley’s head. “Try me.”

Crowley scoffs, rolls his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what he is, since he’s useless as long as he’s chained up. And I wouldn’t have left him down here if I had a single clue how to smuggle him out. I haven’t even been in here since the Bay of Pigs; I’d worked a loophole in one of the defense spells here that let me in. When it broke down, I lost my exploit. Wasn’t worth the bother after that.”

Dean slides his thumb a millimeter north of a perfect seal, and a fat drop of water busts its ass open on Crowley’s forehead and sends up a thin line of steam. “Good thing I’ve got a limitless supply of bother,” Dean notes. “Sam, we still got those syringes in the trunk?”

Crowley snarls. “Go ahead and melt me like the cartoon shoe in Roger Rabbit, it’s not going magically make me come up with a solution.”

Bones grunts and rattles his leg chain. “Do you speak Spanish, Crowley? Because you look like the Juan for me.”

“Did I teach you that one? You absolute xylophone.” Crowley glances back at Dean. “Do your worst, Squirrel, I deserve it.”

Sam frowns. “He uses the lines to get around the spell’s speech restrictions. This is something about speaking languages…were you able translate the Enochian symbols on his cuff?”

Crowley blinks. “What symbols?”

After a whole lot of faffing around with mirrors and terrible cellphone photography, they confirm that Crowley can’t see the symbols at all.

“More demon-proofing. Clever little buggers, those Men of Letters,” Crowley sighs. “A real shame they were peeled and eaten like bananas.”

Finally Sam just hunkers down with a pencil and pad to transcribe the entire ankle cuff, and Dean awkwardly holds up Bones’s ankle, like he’s being sized for a glass slipper. When they shove the results in Crowley’s face, Dean watches his eyes dart along the words.

“Well, it’s your lucky day, boys. Along with the usual wankery, there are instructions on how to release the cuff. I can translate it,” he finally says, with an unusually low inflection of bullshit, “but I’ll thank you to release me, first.”

Dean is flummoxed. “What, you’re not gonna haggle for a cut of the profits or anything?”

“Activating the release mechanism will free him completely, and restore his…restore him. I’d rather be at a safe distance.” He glances back at Bones, looming in the shadows. “A continent or three should do the trick.”

“If it doesn’t work–“

“I’d be more worried about what happens if it does,” Crowley sighs. “But feel free to summon me back for tea and sympathy. Here, I’ll even give you my number. But please, no personal photography. I pity you enough as it is.”

Crowley finally smokes out, and Dean has a beer to celebrate while Sam looks over the list of what they need and Bones clatters his fingertips like castanets. The ingredients are (as always) larded with shit that’s exotic and expensive; Sam is looking crestfallen at some of the items. “I’ve heard of all of this, but I’ve only seen maybe half of it for sale anywhere.”

“Baby, are you a yard sale? Because you’ve got some serious junk in that trunk,” Bones monotones. He’s back to lying on the floor.

At least it’s getting easier to translate this shit. “They’ve got all the ingredients here somewhere,” Dean says. Sam looks skeptical. “C’mon, Sam, no way these dudes would use a lock when they didn’t have the key.”

The ensuing scavenger hunt takes a few pints of elbow grease, but at least by the end they’re both familiar with the Bunker’s floor plan, document filing system, and inventory records. They find virtually everything in-house, though they do end up driving to the nearest farm stand for some hen’s eggs and rosemary (and heirloom tomatoes, because they look bomb).

Dean christens – or maybe exorcises – the kitchen range with some red meat, and they fuel up with burgers before taking the plunge. Dean’s still licking the ketchup off his fingers when Bones pipes up one last time. “Can I ask you something?” he says.

Dean and Sam brace for impact.

Bones sighs. “That’s not the start of a pickup line. I genuinely have a question.”

“Shoot.”

“Why are you so intent on freeing me? You could have just left me down here. I’m not a threat this way. You only have Crowley’s word that you might profit - or suffer - from my release.”

Sam gives Dean a look; it’s the look that says I sure hope you have an answer, because I think this entire thing has been dumb as shit and half as necessary. It’s a look Sam uses pretty regularly.

“Uh. It’s the right thing to do? As far as I can tell, you haven’t hurt anybody or done anything else to deserve being down here. We went through all those records upstairs, and there’s no note that says ‘by the way, that skeleton downstairs eats babies for breakfast.’ This place is cool, but the dudes who built it were obviously shady as fuck.”

“I see.” Bones sounds a little disappointed.

Sam fake-coughs into his hand, and Dean sets down his paper napkin. “Also, you seem cool. Like, you’re easy to hang out with. Other than the stinky one-liners, and we’re gonna wean you off of those.”

Bones straightens himself out a little. “Thank you, Dean. You know, on a scale of one to ten, I’d rate you a nine.”

“Okay, okay. Why not a ten?”

Bones sets his chin on his knuckle bones with a tidy little clack. “Because I’m the one you’re missing.”

Dean groans, but he thinks the guy might be smiling, somewhere behind that skeletal grin.

By hour two, Sam’s pretty tuckered out from pulverizing a billion and three mummified dove livers while reciting nonsense syllables, and Dean’s right arm is about to fall off from holding up this giant silver swizzle stick that’s either a really weird short sword or a decorative javelin, but Bones has never looked perkier. He’s lying on a nice white bedsheet and looking fresh as a recently exhumed daisy.

“Okay,” Sam rasps. “Light the candle and we should be good to go. Any last words, Bones?”

“Are either of you religious?” He crosses his arm bones over each other.

“Fuck no,” Dean answers, before Sam gets a chance to launch into it.

Bones shakes his skull fondly. “You should reconsider. Because you’re the answer to my prayers.”

Dean makes a gagging noise and lights the candle.

What happens next (well, after the cuff pops open) is some of the freakiest shit that Dean has ever seen, and his Freaky CV is pretty fucking impressive, thanks. Bones tells them to avert their eyes, “just in case”, but he takes a peek between his fingers anyway, because he’s an idiot.

For a second Bones is just lying there, and Dean has a second of real disappointment that maybe he’s Moved On Past The Veil or something, but then he starts…foaming. It starts out kind of uniform and colorless, but then it really picks up speed and volume and starts to separate into swaths of distinct and horrible colors and textures. He closes his eyes again for a second to give his stomach a chance to reboot, and when he looks again the foam is gone, and instead there’s a whole lot of angry jelly trying to form into organs.

Just as the jelly is really getting its shit together and looking more like lungs and intestines and stuff, the heart-jelly pulses once and sends out a fistful of big squishy vines…veins? and a fat white worm of nerve scrambles down the spinal column and starts putting out franchises. This is followed by some disturbingly tasty-looking red sheets of muscle that swiftly sheathe over all the whole scene, and then the muscles start sweating out fat and cartilage and this is the point where Dean decides that looking away is actually definitely one hundred percent for the best. Even then, the sounds are tough to handle.

Kinda wild: he’s seen people taken apart, but watching one get put back together is somehow gnarlier. Well, if this guy is even a person. It’s a human skeleton, sure, but god knows even Mickey Rourke has one under there.

Finally everything seems to have quieted down.

“How you doin’ over there, Bones?” Dean asks, and dares to take a peek.

Bones is crouched down in front of them, fists balled up in the bedsheets (it’s a relief that the bedsheets didn’t get accidentally sucked into the muscle layer or something, like one of those surgeons who leaves a sponge behind). Dean sees white guy skin and some dark messy hair and gets the gist of a decent build.

The face slowly cranes upwards, and Dean is really truly ready for anything here; tusks, fangs, Klingon forehead ridges, gingivitis. Instead he gets a faceful of hot math teacher. Bones’s eyes are still closed, but he’s frowning like he’s mentally reviewing his strategy to explain the quadratic equation to a roomful of horny teens.

He slowly rises to standing (yikes! Naked! Dean is a Moderately Bad Man, so he glances, but just long enough to register “nice), uncurling slowly and carefully.

Then he’s all the way up. Bones squares his shoulders and straightens the last kink in his spine, and the frown resolves. Dean’s about to say something, when his eyes snap open, and this cold white light absolutely blasts out of them, and fuck, Crowley wasn’t kidding: this guy is definitely A Thing. The whole room flattens and distorts in the light. Shadows race up the walls like they’re looking for a way out, then snap together into the shape of enormous ragged wings, stretching thirty feet higher than the actual ceiling clearance.

Then the light dies down; the wings fade into regular-grade shadows. Instead of a terrifying unearthly avatar of Oh Shit, Dean’s looking at a buck naked thirty-something math teacher. Who happens to be an unearthly avatar of Oh Shit. And has nice eyes.

“My name is Castiel, angel of the Lord, Seraph of the First Shield,” the avatar says, in a piss-shakingly resonant version of Bones’s voice.

Then: “Do you speak English, Dean?”

“Yes?” Dean fumbles.

“So do I,” says Castiel, and smiles.

Then he makes finger-guns.

Castiel sticks around for a grand total of five minutes before he’s suddenly gone again, because angels are (a) real and they can (b) teleport? at (c) any moment because (d) fuck you, then he reappears six hours later (clothed) standing over Dean’s bed, having apparently forgotten that humans like to sleep; this time Dean does shoot him, but luckily he doesn’t seem to take it personally.

“I located Crowley,” Bo- Castiel says. The silver sword-javelin thing is sitting on the kitchen counter in front of him; apparently it’s an Angel Blade and it lives in Castiel’s coat sleeve and can vaporize demons. It doesn’t look like it has any Crowley on it, but maybe it’s self-cleaning.

“Did you kill him?” Dean asks, now that he’s semi-coherent and wrapped around a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

“Not this time,” Cas answers. “He did help, after all.”

“Sure,” says Dean.

“You don’t need to let me fuck you in the ass, either,” Castiel says, and Dean honks some coffee up the back of his nose.

“Oh,” he gasps. “Okay. Cool. Thanks. Didn’t realize you could hear that convo all the way down there.”

“Angels have excellent hearing. Mine wasn’t impacted by the spell.”

Dean can think of at least three very private moments Castiel almost definitely could hear every instant of, and longs for death. Or maybe not, since apparently this guy lives in Heaven and could hear him there, too. “Great. Good to know. Noted.”

“But…” Castiel looks wistful.

“What?” Dean nudges him. Dean Winchester: angel nudger.

Castiel frowns. “If I said…” he stops himself. “This is…what I want to say is very irregular, at least between angels and humans.”

“Jesus christ on a goddamn pogo stick, man. It’s three in the morning, some of us have a circadian rhythm and a limited lifespan. Say whatever it is you gotta say.”

Castiel looks up and drowns Dean in his swimming pool eyes, which Dean has learned belong to a radio ad salesman in Illinois, who Castiel possessed a few years back before jumping several decades into the past to run some errands and getting rope-a-doped by the Men of Letters and then warehoused in their basement; after they all spontaneously bought the farm, he just slowly ran out of the power reserves needed to keep his vessel from turning to mush and hey presto, talking skeleton.

Classic story, really.

“If I said you had a beautiful body, Dean,” Castiel says, solemnly, “Would you hold it against m-“

Dean doesn’t let him finish. {AO3 version}

#spn fanfic #destiel #deancas #profoundnet #prompt fic

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